THE CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor, AND WHAT ENGLAND MAY EXPECT From Such a One.  
Humbly offered to the Consideration of BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, Appointed to meet at OXFORD, On the One and twentieth of March, 1680/1.  
LONDON, Printed for T. Davies. MDCLXXXI.   

THE CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor, AND What England may expect from such a One.  
IT has been my Fortune to be a Subject and a Native of that part of the World, where almost three years' last passed I have scarce heard any thing, but the continual Noise of Popery and Plots, with all the clamorous Fears of a jealous Kingdom, about my Ears. And truly, I must plainly confess, I am not so ill a Commonwealths-man, but that I am glad to see my Countrymen disturbed in a Cause, where Religion, Liberty, and Property are at stake. If their Jealousies are just, and their Fears prophetic, in God's Name let them talk. Every good man ought to be so far from silencing any reasonable Murmurs, that 'tis rather his Duty to bear a Part in a Choir so Universal. And if we see the Great and Wise Men of our Nation, like true English Patriots, struggling and toiling to prevent our threatening Calamities, let us take delight to behold them restless and uneasy, rolling about our troubled Sea, like Porpoises against a Tempest, to forewarn us of an approaching Destruction.  
But amidst our evident Danger, we see another sort of People daily slattering and deluding us into a false and fatal Security. And sure none are so little our Friends, or indeed so void even of Humanity itself, as those who would lull us asleep when Ruin is in view. But since Zeal and Hypocrisy, naked Truth and artificial Falsehood, have oftentimes alike Faces, I cannot but think it the Duty both of a Christian and an Englishman, to unravel the Treachery of those false Arguments which they raise to destroy us.  
As first, they say, Why should we stand in fear of Popery, when in the present Temper of England 'tis impossible for any Successor whatever to introduce it?  
And next, amidst our groundless Fears, (say they) Let us consider what that Prince is that appears so dreadful a Gorgon to England. A Prince that on all accounts has so signally ventured his Life for his King and Country: A Hero of that faithful and matchless Courage and Loyalty: A Prince of that unshaken Honour and Resolution, that his Word has ever been known to be his Oracle, and his Friendship a Bulwark wherever he vouchsafes to place it; with such an infinite Mass of all the Bravery and Gallantry that can adorn a Prince. Why, must the change of his Religion destroy his Humanity, or the advance to a Crown render his Word or Honour less Sacred, or make him a Tyrant to that very People whom he has so often and so cheerfully defended? Why, may there not be a Popish King with all these Accomplishments, that whatever his own private Devotions shall be, yet shall publicly maintain the Protestant Worship, with all the present Constitution of Government, unalter'd?  
Yes, now I say something! If this Rara avis in terris can be found, than England were in a happy condition. But, alas! what signify all the great past Actions of a Prince's Life, when Popery at last has got the Ascendant? All Virtues must truckle to Religion; and how little an Impression will all his recorded Glories leave behind them, when Rome has once stamped him her Proselyte?  
But since unlikely things may come to pass, let us seriously examine how far the Notion of such a Popish Successor consists with Reason, or indeed has the least shadow of possibility.  
If to maintain and defend our Religion be any more than a Name, it is impossible for any Man to act the true Defensive Part, without the Offensive too: And he that would effectually uphold the Protestant Worship, Peace, and Interest, is bound to suppress all those potent and dangerous Enemies that would destroy'em; for all other Defence is but Disguise and Counterfeit.  
If then the Wisdom of several Successive Monarches, with a whole Nations unanimous Prudence, and indefatigable Care for the Protestant Preservation, has determined, That those Popish Priests who have sworn Fealty to the See of Rome, and taken Orders in Foreign Seminaries, are the greatest Seducers of the King's Liege-People, and the most notorious Incendiaries and Subverters of the Protestant Christianity and Loyalty; and for that Cause their several Laws declare them Traitors; by consequence these are the potent and dangerous Enemies which, in defence of the Protestant Cause, this Popish King is obliged to suppress and punish, and these the very Laws he is bound to execute.  
And though, perhaps, till the Discovery of the late Plot, for several Ages we have not seen that Severity inflicted on Popish Priests, as the Laws against them require; and why? because the flourishing Tranquillity of the English Church under this King and his Father's Reign, rendered them so inconsiderable an Adversary, that the natural tenderness of the Protestant People of England, not delighting in Blood, did not think it worth their while either to detect or prosecute 'em, and therefore has not made 'em the common Mark of Justice.  
But under the Reign of an English Papist, when the Fraternity of their Religion shall encourage the Pope to make his working Emissaries ten times more numerous; when, if not the hope of Public Patronage, yet at least their confidence of Private Indulgence, Connivance, and Mercy, emboldens the Missive Obedience of his Jesuitical Instruments, whilst the very Name of a Popish Monarch has the Influence of the Sun in Egypt, and daily warms our Mud into Monsters, till they are become our most threatening and most formidable Enemies. And if ever the Protestant Religion wanted a Defender, 'tis then. If the Word, Honour, or Coronation Oath of a King be more than a Name, 'tis then or never he is obliged to uphold the Protestant Interest, and actually suppress its most apparent and most notorious Enemies.  
Well then, for Arguments sake, by the virtue of a strong Faith (a Faith so strong as may remove Mountains) let us suppose we may have such a Roman Catholic King, as shall discountenance Pope and Popery, cherish Protestantism, and effectually deter and punish all those that shall endeavour to undermine and supplant it: and then let us examine what this King, thus qualified, must do.  
First then, in continuing the Ecclesiastic Jurisdiction, Honours, and Preferments in the Hands of the Protestant Clergy, he must confer his Favours and Smiles on those very Men, whom (by the Fundamentals of his own uncharitable Persuasion, which dooms all that die out of the Bosom of the Romish Church to a certain state of Damnation) he cordially believes do preach and teach, and lead his Subjects in the direct way to Hell: And next, at the same time he must not only punish and persecute, but perhaps imprison and hang those very only Righteous Men, whom from the bottom of his Soul he believes can only open them the Gates of Paradise: whilst in so doing he cannot but accuse himself of copying the old Jewish Cruelty. Nay, in one respect he outgoes their Crime; for he acts that knowingly, which they committed ignorantly. For, by the Dictates of his Religion he must be convinced, that in effect he does little less than save a Barrabas, and crucify a Jesus.  
A very pretty Chimaera! Which is as much as to make this Popish King the greatest Barbarian in the Creation; a Barbarian that shall cherish and maintain the Dissenters from Truth, and punish and condemn the Pillars of Christianity, and Proselytes of Heaven: Which is no other than to speak him the basest of Men, and little less than a Monster. Besides, at the same time that we suppose that King that dares not uphold nor encourage his own Religion, we render him the most deplorable of Cowards; a Coward so abject, that he dares not be a Champion even for his God. And how consistent this is with the Glory of a Crowned Head, and what hope England has of such a Successor, I leave all Men of Sense to judge.  
Besides, What mismatched incongruous Ingredients must go to make up this Composition of a King! His Hand and Heart must be of no Kin to one another: He must be so inhuman to those very darling Jesuits, that like Mahomet's Pigeon infused and whispered all his Heavenly Dreams into his Ears, that he must not only clip their Wings, but fairly Cage 'em too▪ even for the charming Oracles they breathed him: And at the same minute he must leave the wide and open Air to those very Ravens that daily croak Abhorrence and Confusion to them, and all their holy Dreams, and their false Oracles. Thus whilst he acts quite contrary to all his Inclinations, against the whole bent of his Soul, what does he but publicly put in force those Laws for the Protestant Service, till in fine, for his Nation's Peace, he ruins his own, and is a whole Scene of War within himself? Whilst his Conscience accusing his Sloth on one side, the Pope on the other, Rome's continual Bulls bellowing against him, as an undutiful unactive Son of Holy Mother Church, a Scandal to her Glory, a Traitor to her Interest, and a Deserter of her Cause; one day accusing the Lukewarmness of his Religion, another the Pusilanimity of his Nature; all Roman Catholic Princes deriding the feebleness of his Spirit, and the tameness of his Arm: till at long run, to spare a Faggot in Smithfield, he does little less than walk on hot Irons himself. Thus all the Pleasure he relishes on a Throne, is but a kind of Good-Fryday Entertainment. In stead of a Royal Festival, his rioting in all the Luxury of his Heart, to see Rome's Dagon worshipped, Rome's Altars smoke, Rome's Standard set up, Rome's Enemies defeated, and his victorious Mother Church triumphant; his abject and poor-spirited Submission denies himself the only thing he thirsts for: And whilst the Principles he sucks from Rome do in effect in the Prophet's words bid him, Rise, slay and eat, his Fear, his unkingly, nay unmanly Fear, makes him fast and starve.  
However, if there be such a King in Nature, as will not defend his own Religion, because he dares not; but sneaks upon a Throne, and in obedience to his Fear shrinks from the Dictates of his Conscience, and the Service of his God: If, like Jupiter's Log, such a King can be, and Fate has ordained us for a Popish Prince, pray Heaven shroud the Imperial Lion in this innocent Lambskin. But I am afraid we shall scarce be so happy; and I shrewdly suspect, that all those cunning Catholic Trumpeters who in all Companies found the Innocence of a Popish Successor, and flatter us with such a hopeful, harmless, peaceful Prince in a Papist, have a little of the Romish Mental Reservation in the Promises they make us, and no small Jesuitical Equivocation in the Airy Castles they build us.  
But I have heard some say, Why, may there not be a zealous Prince of any Religion, who still out of the mere Principles of Morality, shall have that tenderness and sense of his People's Peace, as to trouble himself about Religion no farther than concerns his own Salvation; and therefore continue the Administration of Laws and Devotion in the same Channel he found them?  
And all this his mere Morality shall do! Alas! alas! If he's a Bigot in Religion, all his Morals are Slaves to his Zeal. Nay, grant him to be the most absolute Master of all the Cardinal Virtues, there's not one of them that shall not be a particular Instrument for our Destruction. As for Example, allow him Fortitude, suppose him a Prince of matchless Courage: So much the 2worse; what does that but make him the more daring, and more adventurous, in pushing on the Cause of Rome, and with a more undaunted and manly patience bear all the Oppositions he meets in the way. If he be a Man of Justice, that still makes for Rome: for whilst he believes the Pope to be Christ's Lawful Vicar, and that that Office includes the Ecclesiastical Supremacy, no doubt but he'll think it as much the Duty of his Cstristianity to give the Pope his Right, as to take his own: And in Christ's own Words, that give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's, and unto God those things that are God's, he'll certainly judge the Pope's Restoration as great a piece of Justice, as his own Coronation. Then if he be a Master of Temperance, in the properest sense of this Moral Virtue, viz. a Man that can govern his Passions, that's still as bad: For he that has the most bridled Passions, has always the firmest and steadiest Resolutions. Who so renowned for Constancy, so fixed in his Resolves, and so unalterable in his determined Purposes, as that Philip of Spain, who was never heard to rage, or scarce seen to frown? Nay, History gives this Character of him, That after the discovery of his Queen's Adultery with his own Son, at the same minute that he ordered her a Bowl of Poison, he did not so much as change his Look, or Voice, either to his treacherous Son, or his incestuous Wife. And what so fit a Pillar for Popery, as such Constancy in a King?  
But if we take Temperance in its larger signification, viz. the self-denial of a Man's Worldly Appetites; still worse and worse: For a Riotous Luxurious Monarch bounds his Ambition wholly in the Pleasures of a Crown, resigns his Reins to his Charioteers, and leaves the Toil of Power to his Subordinate Magistrates, like the Work of Fate to Second Causes; whilst his Intemperance so slackens his Zeal, that it unbends those very Nerves, which otherwise might be more strenuously wound up for our Destruction.  
And lastly, If he has Prudence, that's worst of all. That's his only winning Card; the only leading Virtue that manages his Policies and Conduct with that Care and Art, till he effects the Business of Rome, and ripens that mighty Work to a perfection, which otherwise an overforward foolhardy Zeal, by ill management, might destroy.  
Thus his very Cardinal Virtues are the absolute Hinges that open the Gates to Rome. Alas! where Superstition rules the day, all Moral Virtues are but those lesser Lights that take their Illumination from that greater Orb above 'em. And thus, what boots it in a Popish Heir, to say he's the truest Friend, the greatest of Heroes, the best of Masters, the justest Judge, or the honestest of Men? All mere treacherous Quicksands for a People to repose the least glimpse of Safety in, or build the least Hopes upon.  
But I have heard a great many say, It cannot enter into their thoughts, that a Popish Successor will ever take such an inhuman and so unnatual a Course to establish Popery, it being so absolutely against the English Constitution, that it can never be introduced with less than a Deluge of Blood. Surely his very Glory should withhold him from so much Cruelty, considering how much more it would be for his Immortal Honour, to have the universal Prayers than the Curses of a Nation. And one would think a King would so much more endeavour to win the Hearts, than the Hatred of his People, that certainly in all probability this eccentric Motion, this disjointing the whole Harmony of a World, should be so ungrateful to him, that no Religion whatever should put such a thought into his Head.  
And all this his Glory shall do? His Glory! The Glory of a Papist! A pretty Airy Notion. How shall we ever expect that Glory shall steer the Actions of a Popish Successor, when there is not that thing so abject that he shall refuse to do, or that Shape or Hypocrisy so scandalous he shall not assume, when Rome or Rome's Interest shall command; nay, when his own petulant Stubbornness shall but sway him? As for example; For one fit he shall come to the Protestant Church, and be a Member of their Communion, notwithstanding at the same time his Face belies his Heart, and in his Soul he is a Romanist. Nay, he shall vary his Disguises as often as an Algerine his Colours, and change his Flag to conceal the Pirate. As for instance; Another fit, for whole Years together, he shall come neither to one Church nor th'other, and participate of neither Communion, till ignobly he plays the unprincely, nay the unmanly Hypocrite, so long, that he shelters himself under the Face of an Atheist, to shroud a Papist. A Vizor more fit for a Bandito, than a Prince. And this methinks is so wretched and so despicable a Disguise, that it looks like being ashamed of his God.  
Besides, If Glory could have any Ascendant over a Popish Successor, one would think the Word of a King, and the Solemn Protestations of Majesty, aught to be Sacred and Inviolable. But how many Precedents have we in Popish Princes to convince us, their strongest Engagements and Promises are lighter than the very Breath that utters 'em. As for Examples sake; How did their Saint Mary of England promise the Norfolk and Suffolk Inhabitants the unmolested continuation of the Protestant Worship, calling her God (that God that saw the falseness of her Heart) to witness, That though her own Persuasion was of the Romish Faith, yet she would content herself with the private Exercise of her own Devotion, and preserve the than Protestant Government, with all her Subjects Rights and Privileges, uninjured. Upon which those poor, credulous, honest, deluded Believers, on the security of such prevalent Conjurations, led by the mistaken Reverence they paid to a protesting Majesty, laid their Lives at her Feet, and were the very Men that in that Contest of the Succession placed her on a Throne: But immediately, when her Sovereign Power was securely established, and his pious Holiness had bid her safely pull the Vizor off, no sooner did Smithfield glow with Piles of blazing Heretics, but Chronicles more particularly observe, that no People in her whole Kingdom felt so signal Marks of her Vengeance, as those very Men that raised her to a Throne. Her Princely Gratitude for their Crowning her with a Diadem, Crowned them with their Martyrdoms.  
But since we have mentioned her Princely Gratitude, 'twill not be amiss to recollect one Instance more of so exemplary a Virtue. In the Dispute betwixt hers, and the Lady Jane Gray's Title to the Crown, it was remarkable, that all the Judges of England gave their unanimous Opinions for the Lady Janes Succession, except one of them only, that asserted the right of Mary: But it so fell out, that this Man proving a Protestant, (notwithstanding of all the whole Scarlet Robe he had been her only Champion) was so barbarously persecuted by her, that being first degraded, then imprisoned and tortured for his Religion, the cruelty of his Tormentors was so savage, that with his own hand he made himself away to escape 'em. And well might the violence of his Despair sufficiently testify his Sufferings were intolerable, when he fled to so sad a Refuge as Self-murder for a Deliverance.  
But here says another Objection, Suppose that the Conservation of a Nations Peace, the Dictates of a Prince's Glory, and all the Bonds of Morality, cannot have any influence over a Popish Successor; yet why may there not be that Prince, who in veneration of his Coronation Oath, shall defend the Protestant Religion, notwithstanding all his private regret, and inclinations to the contrary? When rather than incur the infamous brand of Perjury, he shall tie himself to the performance of that, which not the force of Religion itself shall violate? And then, how can there be that Infidel of a Subject, after so solemn an Oath, that shall not believe him?  
Why, truly, I am afraid there are a great many of those Infidels, and some that will give smart Reasons for their Infidelity: For, if he keeps his Oath, we must allow, that the only Motive that prompts him to keep it, is some Obligation that he believes is in an Oath. But considering he is of a Religion that can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to an Heretical Excommunicated Prince, nay depose him, and take his very Crown away; why may it not much more release a King from his Faith to an Excommunicated Heretical People, by so much as the Ties of Vassals to Monarches, are greater than those of Monarches to Vassals?  
But 'twill not be amiss, for strengthening this Argument, to give the World an Instance of the power of an Oath with a Roman Catholic King.  
There is a famous Gentleman on the other side the Water, whom we all very well know, (pray Heaven we live not to be better acquainted with him than we desire) that once took the strongest of Oaths, the Sacrament, That he would never invade nor make war upon Flanders. But whether or no his Confessor found some Jesuitical Loophole from that Sacrament, or that the Body and Blood of Christ could not hold him, we see that Flanders of late years has not lived so merrily, nor so peaceably, as so Royal a Voucher (one would have thought) might have assured them they should.  
And now let us a little balance the difference between the Breach of his Oath, and that of a Popish Princes in England. All the Motives that could provoke him to the breach of his Oath, was only his Ambition, a Lust of being Great: And at the same time that he is an Invader of his Neighbouring Princes, his Conscience must tell him his Conquests are at best but so many glorious Robberies, and all his Trophies but shining Rapines. Was it not the sense of this that made Charles the Fifth, who may be also called Great, after all his Victories, retire from a Throne into a Cloister, out of mere remorse for all the Streams of Blood he had shed, to make the last part of his Life an Atonement for the Faults of the first?  
And then if a Roman Catholic can break an Oath only for the pleasure of Conquering, which he knows is doing ill; shall not a Popish Prince in England have ten times more inclination to break an Oath for the propagation of his own Faith, which his Conscience tells him is Meritorious? For, besides the specious flattery, That Kings can do no ill, and That all Crimes are canceled in a Crown, he has Religion to drive the Royal Jehu on; Religion, that from the beginning of the World, through all Ages, has set all Nations in a Flame, yet never confesses itself in the wrong. Besides, how can a Popish Prince, in attempting to establish his own Religion, believe he does his Subjects an Injustice in that very thing in which he does God Justice; or think he injures ●hem, when he does their Souls right? Alas! no: When Rome by her insinuating Witchcrafts has lifted the full Bowl of her Enchantments to his Lips, what will his holy enthusiastic Rage do less than the hot-brained drunken Alexander? All his best Friends, and every honest Clitus that dares but thwart his Frenzy, is presently his Frenzies Sacrifice: only with this difference; the frantic Alexander, after his drunken Fit was over, in his milder and more sensible Intervals, with all the compunctions of penitence, could mourn and groan for what his blinder Rage had murdered: But Religious Frenzy leaves that eternal Intoxication behind it, that where it commits all the Cruelties in the World, 'tis never sober after to be sorry for't. Thus whilst a Popish King sets his whole Kingdom in a combustion, how little does he think he plays a second Nero? Good conscientious Man, not he: Alas! he does not tune his Joys to the Tyrannic Nero's Harp, but to David's milder and more sacred Lyre; whilst in the height of his pious Ecstasy he sings Te Deum at the Conflagration. Thus with an Arbitrary unbounded Power, what does his licentious holy thirst of Blood do less, than make his Kingdom a larger Slaughter-house, and his Smithfield an Original Shambles? Thus the old Moloch once again revives, to feast and riot on his dear Humane Sacrifice: And whilst his fiery Iron Hands crush the poor burning Victim dead, the propagation of Religion, and the Glory of God, as he calls it, are the very Trumpets that deafen all the feeble Cries of Blood, and drown the dying Groans of what he murders.  
Thus whilst the Bonds of Faith, Vows, Oaths, and Sacraments can't hold a Popish Successor, what is that in an Imperial Head, but what in a private Man we punish with a Gaol and Pillory; whilst the perjured Wretch stands the universal Mark of Infamy, and then is driven from all Conversation, and like a Monster hooted from Light and Day. But the Pope and a Royal Hand may do any thing; there's a Crown in the case to gild the Deeds his Royal Engines act. 
— Et quod  
Turpe est Cerdoni, Volesos Brutosque, decebit.  They are still that adorable Sovereign Greatness we must kneel to, and obey. What if a little perjured Villain has sworn a poor Neighbour out of a Cow or a Cottage! hang him, inconsiderable Rogue, his Ears deserve a Pillory. But to Vow and Covenant, and forswear three Kingdoms out of their Liberties and Lives, that's Illustrious and Heroic. There's Glory in great Achievements, and Virtue into Success. Alas! a vast Imperial Nimrod hunts for Nobler Spoils, flies at a whole Nations Property and Inheritance. A Game worthy a Son of Rome, and Heir of Paradise. And to lay the mighty Scene of Ruin secure, he makes his Coronation Oath, and all his Royal Protestations, (those splendid Baits of premeditated Perjury) the Cover and Skreen to the hidden fatal Toil laid to ensnare a Nation.  
But now to their main Objection: Some People will tell us, That 'tis wholly impossible for any Popish Successor, by all his Arts or Endeavours whatever, to introduce Popery into England.  
To this I answer, 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. For did not the late Secretary St. Coleman's Records tell us, That the pestilent Northern Heresy was to be rooted out, and that now they had as much hopes of accomplishing that Sacred Work of Rome, as they had in Queen mary days? Could any thing be plainer, than that the subtle Jesuits had form a Design to effect it? For it is contrary to Reason, and even Nature itself, (as bloody as their Principles are) to think they aimed at the Life of their King, and would play the Regicides only to commit the blackest of Murders, for merely Murders sake. No: They had the assurance under a presumptive Popish Heir, of making a National Conversion; and how little privy soever he might possibly be to their principal and hellish Blow, yet they had that perfect insight into the very Soul of a Papist, that they were satisfied that under that Notion it was impossible for him to be otherwise than a Man of Rome's right stamp, and their Hearts own liking. And if under such a Successor, their hopes of a Nations Conversion were equal to those in Queen mary time, no doubt the converting Means must have been as Bloody or Bloodier than hers. For if after the short Infancy of seven years' Reformation, under the Protestant Edward the Sixth's Reign, there wanted Fire and Faggot to restore the Pope; how much more will he want them for his Restoration, after an Exclusion of almost Seven-score years together, with all the necessary Difficulties of regaining his Empire, where his Throne has been so long demolished? Nay, in Edward's Days the only detestation of the Fopperies, Idolatries, and Superstitions of Rome, was all that went to make a Protestant Reformation. Alas! the Beast was then but young: But his Horns are since grown stronger, and his Teeth and Talons sharper? For, since that, we have had the notorious Paris and Irish Massacres, when at one riotous Festival above 100000 bleeding Protestant Hearts were all gorged by the devouring Monster in a Night. Add to these, the successive Villainies of Gunpowder-Treasons, Fired Cities, with Plots against Kings and Kingdoms, which serve to heighten the Protestant Abhorrency. And if after all this we must still be converted, most certainly his Holiness must follow Nebuchadnezzar's Example, and heat his Fiery Furnace seven times hotter than formerly.  
Thus far we are convinced that the Jesuits believed it possible; and they are too cunning and politic a sort of People, to be deceived with Shadows, or make Mountains of Molehills. And that it may not be objected, That their Zeal has blinded their Reason, let us but rightly consider, how far the first Foundations of Popery, (viz. Arbitrary Power) may be laid in England. First, then, if a Papist Reign, we very well understand that the Judges, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and all the Judiciary Officers, are of the King's Creation: And as such, how far may the Influence of Preferment on base Constitutions, culled out for his purpose, prevail even to deprave the very Throne of Justice herself, and make our Judges use even our Protestant Laws themselves to open the first Gate to Slavery? Alas! the Laws, in corrupted Judges hands, have been too often used as barbarously as the Guests of Procrustes, who had a Bed for all Travellers; but then he either cut them shorter, or stretched them longer, to fit them to it. Well, but if the Public Ministers of Justice betray the Liberty of the Subject, the Subject may petition for a Parliament to punish 'em for't. But what if he will neither hear one, nor call the other? who shall compel him? The entailed Revenues of the Crown are much larger than his Popish Predecessors e'er enjoyed, notwithstanding all the Branches of it that terminate with the Life of this present King. Besides, if this will not do, there's no doubt but he'll find sufficient Assistance from the Pope, English Papists, and Foreign Princes: And then having but a prudent Eye, and a tenacious Hand, to manage his Exchequer, we shall find he'll never call that People he shall never have need of. And then where are our Parliaments, and a Redress for all the Grievances and Oppressions in the World? But all this while the Pope is not Absolute, there wants a Standing Army to crown the Work. And he shall have it; for who shall hinder him? Nay, all his Commanders shall be qualified, even by our present Protestant Test, for the Employment. He shall have enough Men of the Blade out of one half of the Gaming-houses in Town, to Officer twice as many Forces as he shall want. 'Tis true, they shall be Men of no Estates nor Principles; but they shall fight as well as those that have both: For People are ever as valiant that have their Fortunes to raise, as those that have them to defend: nay, of the two they shall be more faithful to him; for they have no Property to be concerned for, and will more zealously serve him, by reason their whole Interests and Estates lie in him. And that this Army may be more quietly raised, how many Honourable Pretences may be found? Perhaps the greatest and most importunate Preservation of his Kingdom shall call for it; and then, upon second thoughts, in stead of defeating some Foreign Enemy, they are opportunely ready to cut our Throats at home, if we do not submit, and give all that this King shall ask. And then I hope none will deny, but his Revenue may be as great as he and his Popish Counsellors shall think fit to make it.  
Thus far we have given the Pourtraicture of a Popish King: And now let us take a Draught of his Features in his Minority; that is, whilst he is only a Popish Heir Apparent.  
Imagine then a long and prosperous Reign of a Protestant Prince, a Prince so excellently qualified, that true Original of Clemency, Goodness, Honour, all the most dazzling Beams of Majesty: That with all his Sacred Princely Endowments he renders himself so true a Vicegerent of Heaven in his Three Kingdoms, so near an Image of God in the moderation of his Temper, and the dispensation of his Laws, that even the nearness of his affinity to Heaven should entitle him to the dearest Care of it. And to prove him the dearest Care of Heaven, imagine likewise that Heaven has given him a People of those loyal and grateful Principles, looking up with that thankful Allegiance, and kneeling with that humble Veneration to the best of Kings, the Author of their Prosperity, and the Founder of his Kingdom's Glory, that they have made it the greatest study of their Obedience to deserve so good a King. Witness in all Exigences their cordial tendering their Lives to serve him, and so far endeavouring to strengthen his Sceptre and his Sword, till perhaps they have added those Gems to his Crown, that all his Princely Ancestors could never boast of: Being so truly strenuous in rendering their Purses and Fortunes his absolute Votaries, till they have made his Revenue more than trebbly exceed all his Royal Predecessors: And not stopping here, but upon all occasions continuing their generous and unwearied Bounty: Nay, that too, not always where his People's Safety, and his Kingdom's Glory, but where his private Satisfaction called for it; as if they were resolved to yield their Hands and Hearts so entire a Sacrifice to Majesty, that they would gratify even his softest Wishes, studying to sweeten his Fatigue of Empire with all the Pleasures of a Throne.  
Now let us suppose, after a long Tranquillity of this matchless Monarch's Reign, That the immediate Heir to his Crown, and a part of his Blood, by the Sorceries of Rome is cankered into a Papist. And to pursue this Landscape, we see this once happy flourishing Kingdom so far (as in all Duty and Reason bound) concerned for themselves, their Heirs, and their whole Country's safety, till with an honest, cautious, prudent Fear they begin to inspect a Kingdoms universal Health; till weighing all the Symptoms of its State, they plainly descry those Pestilential Vapours fermenting, that may one day infect their Air, and sicken their World; and see that rising Eastern Storm engendering, that will once bring in those more than Egyptian Locusts, that will not only fill their Houses, and their Temples, but devour their Labours, their Harvests, and their Vintages. Thus they so long survey their threatened Country's Danger, till with a more than Prophetic horror, they manifestly discover all the inseparable Concomitants of a Popish Successor; and, like true Patriots, anticipate their Woes, with a present sense of the future Miseries they foresee.  
With these just Resentments of their dangerous State, 'tis easy to conclude what follows. What is this Popish Heir in the Eye of England, but perhaps the greatest and only Grievance of the Nation, the universal Object of their Hate and Fear, and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses? at whose Door lie their Discontents and Murmurs; But 'tis Murmurs so violent, that they thrust in amongst their very Prayers, and become almost a part of their Devotions: Murmurs so bold, that they dare approach the very Palace, nay Throne and Ear of Majesty. And whenever the People of England reflect on this Heir as their King in Reversion, they have reason to look upon him as no better than Jupiter's Stork amongst the Frogs. Yes, notwithstanding all his former Glories and Conquests, his whole Stock of Fame is so lost and buried in his Apostasy from the Religion, and consequently the Interest of these Protestant Kingdoms, that all his Services are cancelled, and his whole Mass of Glory corrupted.  
Suppose likewise this Popish Heir for many happy years so blest in the Tenderness and Friendship of the best of Kings, that there is not that Favour or Honour within the reach or wish of Majesty, that he has not made it the Study of his whole Reign to confer upon him; whilst his Greatness and Lustre have been so much his dearest darling Care, as if the promoting his Interest had been the Support of his own; till in short he has had so large a share in the Bosom of this Royal Pylades, this kindest and most gracious of Princes, as if one Soul had animated them both.  
On this Foundation, as great Affections are not easily removed, and Sympathy is that Bond which Humane Power can ne'er dissolve, suppose moreover, that this inseparable Tie continues so long, notwithstanding all the Changes of Principles and Religion, a Bias so heavy that it almost overturns a Kingdom: Yet still the force of Nature and Friendship surmounts them all, and stands that zealous unshaken Bulwark, for the protection and safety of this dearest part of himself; till at length he does little less than act so overfond a Pelican, that he exhausts even his own Vitals to cherish him.  
Thus whilst the long and lawful Fears of a drooping Nation have fully and justly satisfied them, that the kindest and most favourable Aspect of Majesty that smiles on England, through the defence and Interest of a Popish Heir, shines but like the Sun through a Burning-glass, whose gentlest morning Vernal Beams, through that fatal Medium, do but burn and consume what otherwise they would warm and cherish; what can the Consequence of this unhappy Friendship be, but that the very Souls and Loyalties of almost a whole Kingdom are staggered at this fatal Conjunction; till I am afraid there are too many, who in detestation of that one gangrened Branch of Royalty, can scarce forbear (how undutifully soever) to murmur and revile even at that Imperial Root that cherishes it? Insomuch that those very Knees that but now would have bowed into their very Graves to serve him, grow daily and hourly so far from bending (as they ought) to a Crowned Head, till they are almost as stubborn as their Petitions and Prayers have been ineffectual.  
Thus whilst a Popish Heir's extravagant Zeal for Rome makes him shake the very Throne that upholds him, by working and encroaching on the Affections of Majesty for that Protection and Indulgence that gives Birth and Life to the Heart-burnings of a Nation; what does he otherwise, than in a manner stab his King, his Patron, and his Friend, in his tenderest part, his Loyal Subjects Hearts? Which certainly is little less than to play the more linger sort of Parricide; a part so strangely unnatural, that even Savages would blush at; yet this Religion, incorrigible remorseless Religion, never shrinks at.  
Thus whilst the Universal Nerves of a whole struggling Nation bend their united force against the Invasion of Pope and Popery, in studying to prevent Tyranny, they grow jealous of Monarchy. And fearing lest their Loyal Aid to the Father of their Country should unhappily contribute to the strengthening of the Subverters of their Peace and Liberty, instead of that Tributary gold which once they so cheerfully showered at their dread Sovereign's feet, now on the contrary the protection of a Popish Successor makes them so far from supplying the real and most pressing Necessities of Majesty, that they are rather well-pleased and triumph in his greatest wants, and that perhaps when his Glory, nay possibly when his nearest Safety calls for their Assistance.  
Thus what does this Popish Heir in tying up the hands of a whole Nation from their just devotion to their King, but only this, In return for the accumulated Honours heaped upon him, he most inhumanely starves the very hand that fed him. An Ingratitude that even an Infidel would be ashamed of! But this Religion, incorrigible remorseless Religion, never blushes at.  
Besides, if there can be a Son of that Royal Martyr Charles the First, a Prince so truly pious, that his very Enemies dare not asperse his Memory or Life with the least blemish of Irreligion; a Prince that sealed the Protestant Faith with his blood; who in his deplorable Fate and ignominious Death, bore so near a resemblance to that of the Saviour's of the World, that his Sufferings can do no less than seat him at the right hand of Heaven. If, I say, there can be a Son of that Royal Protestant, of that uncharitable Popish Faith, who by the very Tenets of his Religion dooms all that die without the bosom of their Church irreparably damned; then consequently he must barbarously tear up his Father's sacred Monument, brand his blessed memory with the name of Heretic; and to complete the horrid Anathema, he most impiously execrates the very Majesty that gave him being.  
Then in fine, provided and granted that we have an Heir to the Imperial Crown of England perverted to the Romish Faith, and consequently of that depraved constitution and principles, that he has neither charity for the Stock from whence he sprang, concern or care for the safety, peace, glory, or prosperity of the best of Patrons, Friends, and Kings; nor lastly, any remorse for all the Groans of an afflicted Kingdom: What promises can we give ourselves of his future Reign, when we have all these fatal Prognostics beforehand? Ex pede Hercules. Or is it likely he will have greater care and tenderness for a Nations peace, when he shall be seated on a Throne, and have more power to take it from them?  
But says a Critic to all this, Suppose this Popish Heir undoubtedly believes (as a Papist must do) that there's no way to Heaven but his own; should he so far comply with the glory or interest of his King, though a Father or a Brother, on the one side, and the quiet and safety of a Nation on the other, as to renounce his principles of Christianity, and conform to theirs? What were that, but to purchase their peace with his own damnation, and to sacrifice his own Soul for their worldly interests? And certainly neither Duty, nor Allegiance, nor any Tie whatever, aught to extort that from him. And then, if all the grievances of a Kingdom lie at his door, alas, the worst can be said of him is, That if he be any occasion of it, 'tis his unhappiness, and not his fault. More especially, provided he is only passive, and that we plainly see, that during his being this Popish Heir, he acts nothing that may encourage or favour Popery in the least.  
Pray, by the way, How must it follow, that if we do not plainly see him act, that therefore he must not act? Does no man act, but he that publicly treads the Stage? Does no man sit at the Helm, but he that visibly holds the Rudder? Does no wind stir the troubled Sea into a Tempest, but what the poor Mariners both hear and feel? no Storm, but that which lightens in their Eyes, and thunders in their Ears, to warn 'em 'tis a coming? Alas, alas, the greatest Hurricanes are only made by subterranean Winds. A secret, silent, underground-working Mine of Ruin, which never bursts out till it destroys, and which no man hears or sees till he is lost.  
But to return to the Objection, The grievance of a Nation may be his unhappiness, and not his fault, etc. That is, in short, he cannot help it. Very right. And so when this Popish Heir comes to the Crown, and promotes the Romish Interest with all the Severity, Injustice, and Tyranny, that Religious Cruelty can invent; his answer will be, he cannot help it, or at lest cannot withstand those irresistible motives that prompt him to their execution; which is the same thing. The injunctions of his Conscience make him as active now in the ruining a Kingdom's peace, as he was passive in it before. For who can be so void of common sense, as not to know, that the same impulse of Conscience that makes a man a Roman Catholic, will make him act like one when opportunity serves? And what greater opportunity to establish Popery, than for a Papist to wear a Crown? And tho' perhaps the stubborn English Genius will not easily bend to the Superstition of Rome, yet since his Almighty Friend the Pope, the undisputed Keeper of the Keys of Paradise, will no doubt assign him no common Diadem in Heaven for so glorious a Task as a Nations Conversion, who then will not make that sacred Work the study of years, which cannot be accomplished in a day, for such a Reward? Especially when he has these two infallible Arguments to spur him on in so godly a Cause: First then, he is of a Religion that makes humane Merit the path to Salvation. Merit, the Roman Catholic Exchequer, Rome's bottomless Golden Mine. Merit, that makes the frighted dying sinner starve his own Blood, and pawn his Estate, to redeem his Soul. Merit, that drains the Wealth of Nations into the priestly Coffers, and makes the Luxury of a World the pampered riotous Churchman's Inheritance. Merit, that can make a Loretto-Chappel vie with a Venetian Arsenal; and Rome's Altars, Cloisters, and Covents, rise so high, so rich, so numerous, and so magnificent, tho' the impoverished Widows groans, and the naked Orphan's cries, do little less towards the building than a second Amphion. Nay, Merit, that can consecrate Daggers, and kill Kings. Thus whilst he has the Wonder-working Merit for his Tutor, what greater and more meritorious act to canonize him a Saint of the first magnitude, than the converting of an Apostatised Heretical Kingdom?  
And then next, he is of a Religion that does not go altogether in the old-fashion Apostolical way of preaching and praying, and teaching all Nations, etc. but scourging, and wracking, and broiling 'em into the fear of God. A Religion that for its own propagation will at any time authorise its Champions to divest themselves of their humanity, and act worse than Devils, to be Saints. And thus whilst neither the cries of Blood can deter him on the one side, and so no Tyranny come amiss to him; and next, that he has the undeniable assurance of the greatest blessings of Eternity to encourage him on the other; with these advantages, who would not be as active as a second Romulus, and with all his utmost vigour and pride, build up his Rome's new Walls, tho' he made his nearest, nay the Nations dearest blood their Cement?  
And thus what is a Popish Heir, but the most terrible and the most dangerous of England's Enemies, and of all our Foes, has the most inflexible invincible Enmity. Nay, the very outrages of Thefts, Murders, Adulteries, and Rebellions, are nothing to the pious Barbarities of a Popish King. The Murderer and Adulterer may in time be reclaimed by the precepts of Morality, and the terrors of Conscience. The Thief, by the dread of a Gallows may become honest. Nay, the greatest Traitor, either by the fear of Death, or the apprehensions of Hell, may at last repent. But a Papist on a Throne has an unconfutable vindication for all his proceedings, challenges a Commission even from Heaven for all his Cruelty dares act. And when the enchantments of Rome have touched his Tongue with a Coal from her Altars, what do his Enthusiasms make him believe, but that the most savage and most hellish Dooms his blinded zeal can pronounce, are the immediate Oracles of God? and all the Apology a poor Nation can expect from him, is, He cannot help it.  
ay, 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?  
To this I answer; To endeavour to set up Popery by Law, even with the Laws that we have already against it, is impossible; and therefore the very supposition of the Projection that way is nonsense. And on the other side, to conclude he'll endeavour to do it against Law, and so to make new Laws on purpose for him to break them with their fellows, is worse nonsense than tother. Besides, Who shall call this King to question for breaking these Laws, if he has the power and will to do it? I fancy that the only nearest illustration I can make upon this point, in creating new Laws against Popery in case of a Popish Successor, is as politic a piece of work in the kind, as building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckoo. 'Tis true, I will not deny, but a Popish King may be totally restrained from all power of introducing Popery, by the force of such Laws that may be made to tie up his hands; but then they must be such as must ruin his Prerogative, and put the executive power of the Laws into the hands of the People. If a King of England were no more than a Stadt-holder in Holland, or a Duke of Venice, no doubt Popery would have little hopes of creeping into England; which is in short, he that is no King, can be no Tyrant. But what Monarch will be so unnatural to his own Blood, so ill a Defender, and so weak a Champion for the Royal Dignity he wears, as to sign and ratify such Laws as shall entail that effemenacy and that servility on a Crown, as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a Pageant, a mere Puppet upon a Wire? If then no King will assent to make Laws to do it this way, and no Laws can do it t'other, all Laws against Popery, in case of a Popish Successor, are, as I told you before, but building the Hedge, etc. For indeed, how can the force of Laws made by a Protestant Predecessor, and a Protestant Parliament, in any sort bind a Popish Successor, when the very first advance of the Pope's Supremacy introduces that higher power, those Canonic Ecclesiastic Laws, which no Secular, or any Temporal Court can or may control? Laws that shall declare, not only all the Statutes and Acts of Parliament made against the dignity of Mother Church, void and null, but the very Lawmakers themselves as Heretics, wholly uncapable of ever having any right of making such Laws. No doubt then, but that fire that burns those Heretic Lawmakers, shall give their Laws the same Martyrdom.  
With this certain prospect, both of the Ruin of their Estates, Lives, and Liberties, where lies the sin in the Commons of England to stand upon their guard against a Popish Successor? Ay, a God's name let 'em stand upon their guards, and use all expedients to keep out Popery and Tyranny, provided still that we preserve the sacred Succession in its right Line; for that we are told both King and people are obliged in Conscience to defend and uphold.  
I think I need not insist further in multiplying Arguments to prove how far 'tis impossible to do one without the other; but on the other side, let us examine how the defending and establishing a Popish Successor, is an obligation on our Duties or Consciences.  
First then, let us fancy we see this Popish Heir on his Throne, and by all the most illegal and arbitrary means, contrary to the whole frame and hinges of the English Government, introducing Popery with that zeal and vigour, till his infatuated Conscience has perverted the King into a Tyrant. And not to stop here, If the Constitution of the English Majesty makes a King supreme Moderator and Governor both Ecclesiastic and Civil: What does this Popish King by admitting the Pope's Church-supremacy, but divest himself of half his Royalty, whilst like the junior King of Brainford in the Play, he resigns and alienates the right and power of Majesty to an Invader and an Usurper? And whilst we are thus enslaved by a Medley-Government betwixt Tyranny and Usurpation, by establishing a Papist on a Throne, we are so far from preserving the Crown, that is, the Imperial Dignity, in a right Line of Succession, that we do not preserve it at all, but on the contrary extirpate and destroy it, whilst by enthroning a Papist we totally subvert and depose the very Monarchy itself. And can it be the duty of either Englishmen or Christians, to have that zeal for a corrupted leprous Branch of Royalty, that we must ruin both Religion, Government, and Majesty itself, to support him? How much more consistent would it be with the honest, prudent, and lawful means of a Nations preservation, to take out one link out of the whole Chain of Succession, than by preserving that, to break the whole to pieces? Next let us see, who 'tis the Commons of England would render uncapable of inheriting the Imperial Crown; a Prince of the Royal Blood, nursed and bred up in the Protestant Allegiance and Faith, and afterwards seduced and perverted to the Romish principles and Superstition. And what's that, but a Prince whom the unanimous Voice both of King and People, (for such are the Laws of England) have declared guilty of High-Treason, as we find it in the first Statute in the 23 d of Elizabeth.  

STATUTE.  
Be it declared and enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, That all persons whatever, which have, or shall have, or pretend to have power, or shall by any way or means put in practice to Absolve, Persuade, or Withdraw any the Queen's Majesty's Subjects, or any within her Highness' Realms and Dominions, from their natural Obedience to her Majesty; or withdraw 'em for that intent from the Religion now by her Highness' Authority established within her Highness' Dominions, to the Romish Religion; or to make them, or any of them, to promise any Obedience to any pretended Authority of the See of Rome, or any other Prince, State, or Potentate, to be had or used within her Dominions; or shall do any Overt-Act to that intent or purpose; and every of them, shall be to all intents Adjudged to be Traitors; and being thereof Lawfully Convicted shall have Judgement to suffer and forfeit as in case of High-Treason.  
And if any person shall, after the end of this Sessions of Parliament, by any means be willingly Absolved, or withdrawn as aforesaid, or willingly Reconciled, or shall promise any such Obedience to any such pretended Authority, Prince, State, or Potentate, as is aforesaid; then every such person, their Procurers and Councillors thereunto, being thereof lawfully Convicted, shall be Tried and Judged, and shall Suffer and Forfeit as in cases of High-Treason.   
Nor was this Act any more than a Confirmation and Explanation of an Act made before, in the 13 th' year of her Reign; Where 'tis likewise declared, That if any person, or persons, shall willingly receive or take any Absolutions, or Reconciliations from the See of Rome, that they and their Seducers shall be equally guilty of High-Treason. Nay, we have an Act even in Henry the 8th's Reign, in which is declared, That any man that shall refuse the Oath of Henry 's Supremacy in renunciation of the Pope, shall be guilty of High-Treason.  
If then we have a Popish Heir presumptive, of the same brand that these Laws have marked him out, I would ask, what Crime 'tis in the People of England to endeavour to disable a Tyrant from wearing a Crown? Besides, they consider they are under a regulated and bounded Government, a Government where no man stands or falls but by his own act and decree; whilst the whole dispensation of Meum and Tuum are made by every man's self, or his Representatives. Since then the People of England, as the Lawmakers, are an essential part of the Government; and are fully assured in the Reign of a Papist, that Right will be destroyed, Why should not they be as active and vigorous for their own Royal Inheritance, and Sacred Succession of Power, as a King for his? Nay they ought to be the more vigorous of the two. For the King in defending a Popish Heir, protects but that Successor, whose Tyranny he shall never live to see (since it commences but from his Grave); but the People of England, in Asserting their Rights and Liberties, and defending themselves and their Heirs, do oppose that Tyranny which they may both live to see and feel. And that they may assure themselves they shall feel it, if ever a Papist mounts this Throne, than all their Murmurs, their Petitions, Protesting, and Association-Votes will be remembered to the purpose. He that has gone a long and tiresome Journey through Brakes and Briars to a splendid Palace, when once in possession, will send out to Root up all those Thorns, and Weed those Thistles that gored him in the way. Alas! too sure he'll make good that old Promise of God to the Seed of the Woman, He'll crush their Heads, that bruised his Heels. And would it not be hard, that the Folly and Fall of one Man should renew our old Adam's Misfortune, and entail a Curse on our whole English Generation? If the policy of Rome, like the old Serpent's subtlety, has puffed him up into an ambition and lust of being equal to Gods; may he have Adam's success too, whilst the Protestant hearts and hands of England, stand like the Angels Flaming Sword to expel him from that once Hereditary Paradise, which now his Apostasy has justly forfeited and lost.  
Besides, that the Disinheriting of an Heir to the Crown of England may not appear a thing so illegal, or indeed so monstrous as some people would make it, I would only refer those vehement assertors of the inviolable right of Succession, to our own Chronicles for their confutation. For they'll find not only the Succession was scarce ever kept for Three Kings Reigns together, in a direct line of descent, since the Conquest; but that the Crown and Succession were frequently disposed and settled by Acts of Parliament. I shall need instance but in some few particulars. In the 25. of Henry the 8 th', we find the Parliament ordering the Succession, and enacting, That the Imperial Crown of this Realm shall be to King Henry the 8th, and to the Heirs of his body lawfully begotten on Queen Anne, and the heirs of the bodies of such several sons respectively, according to the course of inheritance; and for default of such Issue, then to the sons of his body in like manner; and upon failure of such issue, then to the Lady Elizabeth, etc. By the same Statute is every subject at full age obliged by an Oath to defend the contents of this, and the refusal made misprision of Treason. In the 28 th' year of his Reign, was that Act repealed, and the Parliament entailed the Crown on the Heirs of his Body by Queen Jane, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth being both declared illegitimate, the first as the Daughter of Katherine, formerly his Brother's Wife, and divorced; and the last as the Daughter of Anne Boleign, attainted of High Treason. And in case he died without issue, than the Parliament empowered him by the same Act to dispose of the Succession by his own Letters patents, or his last Will. In the 35th year of his Reign the Parliament granted the Succession to Edward, and for want of Heirs of his Body, to the Lady Mary, and the Heirs of her Body; and for want of such Heirs, to the Lady Elizabeth; but both subject to such conditions as the King should limit by his Letters patents, or by his last Will signed by his Hand; and if the King left no such Conditions by his Will, or under his Letters Patents, then either of them should enjoy the Imperial Crown, with the limitations only made in that Act. By these Acts we may plainly see, that the Succession of the English Crown was wholly subjected to the disposal, determinations, and limitations of Parliament. And that we may be well assured that that right lay in them, Henry the 8th was a Prince of that Wisdom and Prudence, and so far from submitting to Parliaments, that we may be very well assured, that he would never have complimented them with a power that was not their due. If he had thought in the least that he could have disposed of the Succession himself, no doubt but he would have challenged the Prerogative, had he had it to challenge. And as in every one of these three Acts they declared that their zeal for settling the Succession was for prevention of those mischiefs, and that bloodshed that might possibly be occasioned by future disputes; Here 'tis observed, that whilst they thus bandied the Succession so many various ways, by three several Acts in one King's Reign, they did not so much respect the preservation of the Right Heir, as the Kingdom's safety. For had they been so passionately tender for the next of blood in that Age, as some would have us be in this, they would never have excluded the Lady Mary and Elizabeth from the Crown in one Act, or never have readmitted them again in another. Besides, one thing is remarkable in these Acts of Parliament, viz. The last Act of Parliament gives the Succession to those very Ladies whom the King and Parliament had before declared and recorded Illegitimate. Nay, they had proceeded so far, as to make it Treason for any man by Writing or Printing to say or declare that either the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth were legitimate; and yet afterwards these were no impediments to debar them from a Throne. And England was never more blest, than under the long and glorious Reign of that excellent Princess Elizabeth, how Illegitimate soever she had been rendered. I shall only cite one Act more, and that is the 13 of Elizabeth, where 'tis made Treason to affirm the Right of Succession of the Crown to be in any other than the Queen; or to affirm that the Laws and Statutes made in Parliament, do not bind the Right of the Crown, and the descent, limitation, inheritance, and governance thereof. If after so plain and evident proofs of the undeniable power of Parliaments, we meet so many snarlers against the proceedings of the last, I know no excuse they can make for themselves, but by owning their Ignorance to be as great as their Impudence.  
If then (which no man in his right wits can deny) our Religion, Lives, and Liberties are only held by a Protestant Tenure, and the Majesty of England not only by the force of his Coronation-Oath, but by all the ties whatever ought to be the pillar and bulwark of the Protestant Faith, and at the same time granting that we have a Popish Prince to inherit the Imperial Crown of England, he ought certainly in all Justice as little to ascend this Throne, as Nabuchadnezzar ought to have kept his when the immediate blast of Heaven had made him so uncapable of ruling as a King, that he was only a companion fit for brutes and savages. And if he had no injustice done him when he was thrust out into his proper Element, to feed and herd with the Beasts of the field; a Papist Heir of England, with that persuasion and principles so destructive to the British State, has as little wrong done him in being debarred from the Succession, as a fitter Guest for a Cloister than a Throne. I remember Story tells us, That the Mother of Paris, the Son of King Priam, dreaming before his birth she had brought forth a Firebrand, that should one day set their Troy in flames; immediately upon this, the afflicted King, as a true Father of his Country, notwithstanding all the compunctions of Nature, and ties of Blood, was so far from cherishing even his own Race, and a Branch of himself, that he ordered the Infant to be brought up amongst Swains, as the Son of a Shepherd; where divested of all his Princely Fortunes, and ignorant of his own high Blood, he should end his days in ignoble obscurity. And all this out of the prophetic horror but of a dream, that seemed to threaten the peace and safety of his Kingdom. And how much more reason has the present power of England, for effectually opposing Popery, by disinheriting a Popish Successor, when under a Popish Monarch, our Troynovant has the undeniable assurance of being put into a flame; when Priam's fear was but a Dream? How fabulous soever this Story may appear, yet I am certain we have too much reason to esteem the Moral of it Oraculous. And surely our present greatest Sticklers for an unbroken Succession of the Crown, must of all Mankind set but a very little price upon their Country, and conclude our England the most inconsiderable part of Christendom, when the interest of one man shall outweigh that of Three Kingdoms, with the whole safety of Religion itself, and the Glory of God to fill up the Balance. But indeed they are resolved to be positive; and be the next of Blood a Papist or a Mahometan, yet if he be born to it, let him Govern us. And truly I cannot forbear to repeat one of their commonest Arguments, and as they think strongest; which is, If the Son of a private Gentleman, though 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?  
Though this Argument, as Argumentum à Fortiori, has mighty sound in't; yet how feeble will it appear, when the Analogy shall be examined!  
The Papist Gentleman that's born to an Estate, may peaceably inherit it; yes, and with some reason for it: For he's a Subject of a Protestant Kingdom, and as such, has Protestant Laws to rule him. He can neither force his Neighbour or his Tenant to Mass, or imprison or burn 'em for Heretics, nor seize their Estates as forfeited to Rome, whilst he is a Papist. His Religion is only to himself, and if he takes any violent or unlawful course to propagate his own Persuasion, he's not so big but he may be brought into Westminster-hall to answer for it. Nay, possibly the Papist Subject under a Protestant Government, may sometimes behave himself as a more harmless and quiet Commonwealths-man, than a Protestant himself, if for no other than his own preservation, as not daring to awaken that Justice that may inflict the penal Statutes against him for his Recusancy.  
But how directly contrary to all this is the influence of a Romish Heir, when there is not one of all these destructive qualities (of which a private man can ne'er be guilty) that he on the other side shall not vigorously and undoubtedly put in execution, when once the acquisition of a Crown has Enabled him for it, as we have at large discoursed before? And if the Princely Popish Heir be disinherited, when a private Gentleman escapes, 'tis not for his Religion, for that may be alike in both; but for his uncontrollable power of establishing that Religion, which a Royal station will inevitably give him.  
Alas, the Protestant strength is above the fear of any little Popish Beasts of prey: It only behoves their safety, to hunt the Imperial Lion down.  
If then the English Blood boils so high, and the access of a Papist to a Throne must necessarily meet a passage so difficult, with all these solid Bars between; if his Religion were as Honourable as 'tis invincible, what deathless Fame, and what eternal Trophies might a Popish Heir achieve, if the welfare of a King and Kingdoms could so far influence him, as freely of himself to make the union of King and people a work of his own creation, by slacking the fatal strength of a too generous Brothers overviolent Friendship; and so rendering our universal peace his inclination, and not necessity?  
I remember in the old Roman History, when a long Plague had reigned in Rome, and an Earthquake had opened a prodigious Gulf in the middle of the Forum, their Consulteo Oracle told 'em, that neither the Plague should be stopped, nor the breach closed, till the most noble Victim in Rome had appeased their angry Deity. When Curtius, a Noble Youth of Rome, of the best and highest Roman quality, most princely adorned, and most gallantly mounted on Horseback, with a look so gay and so cheerful, more like that of a Bridegroom than a Sacrifice, amidst a thousand wondering tender eyes around him, road headlong into the yawning pit. Thus falling, unterrified at so dreadful a precipice for his Country's deliverance, he extorted the promise of the Oracle; for the Pestilence ceased, and the closing Earth sealed up his Grave.  
The voluntary resignation of a Popish Heir, would be no less a signal National service in the present exigence of England, than that of Curtius in Rome; only 'tis attended with milder circumstances. Our State, as dangerous as it is, does not require any Sanguinary Sacrifice: The Cure he might make to all our plagues, would be only the easier oblation of quitting the doubtful prospect of a remote and Craggy Throne; and that too, to refix a shaking Crown, to regain the hearts of a whole Nation, and build himself that Pyramid of Honour, which would outshine the wearing a Diadem.  
Besides, let Plotting but once end, and the Pendant Sword, which like that of Damocles, hangs but by a Hair o'er our Sovereign's Head, be safely sheathed, and give Nature fair play, the little disparity of their years considered, the resigning of a Crown in all humane probability, would not appear at so much distance, and such uncertainty, altogether so extravagant an offering, especially when 'tis made for a King and Brother's safety and glory, a Kingdom's peace and prosperity; nay indeed, the whole repose of Christendom, when the concordance of the King and Parliament is the greatest means for strengthening those Foreign Alliances, that may give check to the fatal growth of France.  
Nay, above all this, what Immortal Glory would it bring even to the Romish Religion itself, when a Prince so immediately Allied to a Crown, shall voluntary lay aside the hopes and pretensions to a Temporal Diadem, for an Immortal one? And how many more, at least more Hearty Converts would so transcendent an example of piety make, beyond the utmost severer influence of a Throne? Nay, I may even without flattery say, the deed would make him so adorable, that for losing a Crown, he would almost raise himself an Altar.  
But Rome (Heaven knows) has other work in hand; she'll have no proselytes of that kind of Creation; her road of Conversion, I assure you, lies quite another way: Besides, her Champions are not made of so pure and so refined an Oar, their Minerals are more course, and more allayed. Her Saints, in spite of all their Heavenly Contemplations, have still so much of Earth about them, that like the feet of daniel's Image, they are a mixture between Iron and Day.  
But to sum up all; If no reason must or shall prevail, and that right or wrong a Papist must succeed, when all the inseparable Cruelties of Pope and Popery shall surround us; suppose the worst that may be, that the dreadful approach of certain slavery, so opposite to the free born genius of England, has exasperated them into a spirit of Rebellion; what is it but the pestilential Air of reigning Popery, that bloats and swells them into that Contagion? And if the Popish King summons all his Thunder to punish 'em for't, what can the greatest favourer of Rome make more on't, than that he warps them crooked, and then breaks 'em to pieces because they are not strait? And what's the whole sum of a revolting Nation under a Popish Tyrant, but using a violent cure to expel an universal poison?  
But here will some pretended pious Objectors say, How shall we dare to Revolt? Remember we are Christians, and we must obey, or at least yield a passive obedience to our King; be his Religion, Principles, or Government never so Tyrannic, he is still the Lords Anointed, and our native Sovereign.  
I would ask what this Lords Anointed is? and who 'tis is our Native Sovereign, when instead of being free Subjects, Pope and Tyranny shall rule over us, and we are made Slaves and Papists? We are bound indeed by our Oaths of Allegiance, to a constant Loyalty to the King and his lawful Successors. Very right; by that Oath we are bound to be his lawful Successors Loyal Subjects; but why his Loyal Slaves? Or how is an Arbitrary absolute Popish Tyrant, any longer a lawful Successor to a Protestant established and bounded Government, when lawfully succeeding to this limited Monarchy, he afterwards violently, unlawfully, and tyrannically overruns the due bounds of power, dissolves the whole Royal constitution of the Three Free States of England, and the Subjects Petition of Right? Whilst wholly abandoning those Reins of Government which were his lawful birthright, and making new ones of his own illegal creation, he makes us neither those Freeborn Subjects we were when we took that Oath, nor himself that King we swore to be Loyal to. But alas! that Bugbear passive obedience is a notion crept into the world, and most zealously, and perhaps as ignorantly defended. There never wanted the authority even of Holy Writ itself on all occasions to vindicate every thing; and there's scarce a precedent in the oldest Historick part of the Bible, that shall not by an extorted Application, be appropriated even to the duty and necessity of all ages, places, and constitutions of the world. For example, They'll tell you that the Prophet Samuel makes this answer to the Jews that desired a King, That he would make their Sons and Daughters Slaves, and give their Fields, their Vineyards, and their Olive-yards, etc. to his Servants, and all this and much more they must expect from a King, etc. And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your King that you have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Which was as much, as if the Prophet had said, If a King shall, as he may do this, you have no redress but to your Prayers for his conversion, and they perhaps too shall not be heard. He does not tell them they might revolt or rebel to redress themselves; no, Heaven forbid he should. For what was the King they desired, but like those of the Nations about them? And what were those Kings but Absolute? In their own breath lay the voice of the Laws, and Sic volo sic Jubeo was a Decree or Statute; and if they voluntarily submitted, and vowed Allegiance to a King so absolute, and so Arbitrary, as such they ought to obey him. And as they freely would run all risks of whatever might follow, it was their own choice, and Volenti non fit Injuria. Here indeed a passive obedience was due; but what's this to a King of England? 'Tis not here, Sic volo sic Jubeo, here 'tis first sic vult populus, and then comes sic jubet Rex. Here all our Laws and Decrees by which we are governed, are of the people's choice; first made by the Subject, and then confirmed by the King. Here a King cannot take our Sons and Daughters, or our Fields and Vineyards away, unless we please to give him them.  
If the Three States of England, which we suppose the whole Body of England lawfully convened in Parliament, shall submit to such an Arbitrary Majesty, to have their Magna Charta abolished, their Religion and Liberties destroyed, and to have Popery and Arbitrary power set up, and yield to have the Right of Lords and Commons extirpated, and all devolve into the King, so that like the old Kings of Israel, he may set up Idols and molten Calves, and make us bow down and worship 'em; if they will do all this, than indeed we are his lawful Slaves, and as such, 'tis our duty to pay him an entire, undisputed obedience.  
I would only beg the world seriously to consider how Monarchy itself is acquired and founded, and then the duty of Subjects will be more easily discerned.  

Monarchy can be acquired but Two ways.  
First, by the choice of the People, who frequently in the beginning of the World, out of the natural desire of Safety, for the securing a peaceful Community and Conversation, chose a Single Person to be their Head, as a proper Supreme Moderator in all differences that might arise to disquiet that Community. Thus were Kings made for the people, and not the people for the King.  
The other acquisition of Monarchy, was by Conquest. The glory and pleasure of Reigning grew so tempting, that (especially in later Ages) they spurred on Ambitious Minds to obtain that by Force, which in the Infancy of Time, and the first Original of Nations, appears to be generally the People's Choice, and not Compulsion.  
However, whether Choice or Compulsion, yet after possession, and the People's Submission, the Right of Kings is Sacred.   

Now Conquest is Twofold.  
The first sort is, where the Conqueror wholly overruns a Nation, or People, and like those that take Towns by Storm, destroys and depopulates, kills or enslaves; and then establishes Religion, Rights and Laws, solely at the will of the Conqueror.  
The other kind is, when the vanquished come to Capitulate before they yield, and only Surrender upon terms.  
Such was our last Norman Conquest, when the Inhabitants of Kent, and the Bishops of London upon a Parley, prevailed with him (as our Records attest) to confirm their Customs and Rights, established and granted them by Edward the Confessor; whilst the Lenity of the Conqueror, contenting himself with no larger a Prerogative than their last Saxon King had possessed before him, submitted to make their own Native Common Laws of England the Standard of his Justice, and the continuation of their Ancient Privileges the Cement of their new Allegiance.  
In this mild Channel ran the English Monarchy, till in the Reign of Henry the Third, the Magna Charta was Confirmed; which indeed was but a Monumental Register of the Liberties and Immunities of Englishmen, enjoyed before (tho' not so fixed) in their pious Edward's Reign. In this state has the Majesty of England, the Dignity of Parliaments, and the Liberty of the People (bating their former Servility to Rome) continued ever since. And if now at last Popery must and shall come in, (as by Law it cannot) and consequently must be restored by Arbitrary Power: If a new Monarchy, than a new Conquest; and if a Conquest, Heaven forbid we should be subdued like less than Englishmen; or debarred the Common Right of all Nations, which is, to resist and repel an Invader if we can.  
But to sum up all this, I must say, the most vehement Disputants against the People's Right of defending themselves, must at least acknowledge thus much, that whenever a Popish King shall by Tyranny establish the Pope's Jurisdiction in England, undoubtedly in the Eye of God he is guilty of a greater Sin, than that people can be, that with open Arms oppose that Tyranny. For by introducing Popery by Tyranny, by one unjust Power he establishes another as unjust; and by one ill, defends a worse: Whereas the People of England, in taking Arms against that Tyranny, defend a just Right, viz. their Religion, Lives and Liberties.  
Thus when a Popish Monarch shall subvert all Right, and violate all Laws, till oppressing a wretched Nation, more like a Lupus Agri than Pater Patriae, he so wholly perverts the Duty of his great Office, and defaces in himself the nearest Image of a Deity, by so falsely representing his Vicegerent: Imagine on the other side, a persecuted deplorable People, even abandoned by God, and so exasperated by Injustice, till they struggle against the Yoke, and the Horror of this Gorgon in spite of all their Native Duty, has hardened 'em into disobedience, and then what can a poor Nation expect but Vengeance and Destruction? If this be our Rod of Iron, this the King ordained to Rule over us, What signifies all our long pother about a Plot? Give the Papists that point, and allow them all they dare ask, that there neither is nor has been any Popish Plot: That the Evidence are perjured, and that Coleman's Letters, Godfrey's Murder, and Bedlow's dying Attestations, etc. are nothing to the purpose: Grant this and twice as much more, yet allowing at the same time, that Providence has decreed us a Papist and a Bigot for a King; no matter then for Plotters, Jesuits, or Russians: The very essence of a Popish Successor is the greatest Plot upon England since the Creation. A Plot of God himself to scourge a Nation, and make three Kingdoms miserable. As for the other Plot, what was it but a secret Confederacy between a handful of feeble Villains, the Limbs of the Roman Hydra? But, alas! With all their Designs they were but Men, and as such we have seen them both detected and defeated▪ But if we are predestined for a Romish Government, that's a Plot indeed, a Design formed by the irresistible Decrees of Heaven, either for our Sins, or what cause to itself best known, to lay a groaning Country in ruin. Nay the Ruin is so universal, we must give it no bounds. For upon the Supposition of a Popish Heir, we must not conclude that 'tis only the poor distressed Protestants that shall feel the smart, and stand the mark of Slavery and Martyrdom. A Popish King has that pestilential Influence, that he blasts even the very party he smiles upon, and entails a Curse upon his dearest darling Favourites. As for Instance, if after this King's Reign, steps up a Protestant Prince (for surely the whole Royal Blood must not all follow his Apostasy, and degenerate in secula seculorum) than what becomes of the Popish Interest in the next Generation, and all that flourishing party, whom either the Witchcrafts of Rome, or the Contagion of Regis ad exemplum has nursed up for mine? 'Tis the greatest toil of the next King's Reign, to make those severer Statutes for future Ages, to suppress the Insolences and Follies of the past; whilst those very Idols, that were Saints but yesterday, are now crushed and dashed to pieces.  
Thus a Popish King undoes at once the Heretic party in his own Reign, and the Roman Catholic in the next: And than who is it, that he either does or can make happy? Why nothing but an Atheist, he that believes there is no God, and so makes the name of the most fashionable Religion, the Bawd to his Pleasures and Preferments; or at best that Latitudinarian Believer, that can kneel to a Crucifix to day, and burn it to morrow. This and this only Principle, can be safe under a Papist; and these are the only men that in their right wits ought to be unconcerned at the danger of a Popish Successor.   
FINIS.