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 con­tradictorie 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 wil 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 begins, (in the very first Page) with Fears and Jealousies of Religion, Liberty and Property; and like that too it continues, p. 16. to Mur­mure and Revile the Emperial Root, and not only to stiffen the knees that would bow to a Crown'd Head, but also to arm against it, the hands that should defend it, by exhorting the people (p. 34.) not to be subdu'd like less then English-men, 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 passe all their own Fears, that so they might be indeed (as our Author supposes them) Prophetick. 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 Fathers 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 restlesse and uneasie rolling about our troubled Sea-like Porpoises to forwarn 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 uneasie rolling does not foretel, but is it self 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 out again into that Red Sea of Blood in which so lately thou hast suffer'd Shipwrack; unlesse in the cause of its Image here on Earth, the Majesty of Heaven it self hasts to our assistance; un­less [Page 4]He, (as himself speaks to his Servant Job,) Put a book into the Jaws of these Leviathans, and draw them out; unlesse He exert those Two mighty effects of his Divine Power, which the Psalmist joyns together as the highest proofs of his Omnipotence, viz. Unlesse he stills the rage of the Sea, and the madness of the People.

And amidst this our evident danger, I must needs confesse with our Pamphleteer, that I cannot chuse but account those persons very little our Friends, nay indeed void of Humanity it self, that would lull us asleep in the sight of approaching ruine 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 Frenzie. And indeed such has been the Physick of our State Mountebanks; and since they have possest the People with so desperate a madnesse, and rais'd such dismal apprehensions in the minds of the undiscerning multitude; I thought it the duty both of a Christian and an English man, 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 reckon'd among the grievousest Plagues of the wicked; of whom he says, They were afraid, where no fear was: In order to which, I shal rally against 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 Serpents 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 Vertues are more dangerous in a Prince than their four opposite Vices, should here want the same fool-hardinesse to justifie 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 hath 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 ex­presse, or his Enemies deny; If the Royal Blood, (as often as his King or Countries Honor or Safety have call'd 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 (imploy'd abroad,) have ever been the love and wonder, and when at home (for such to him was once the British Ocean) the Dread and Terrour of the neighbouring World; If his Friendships have ever been as firmly maintain'd, 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 Basenesse of a Coward, as the Implety of a Villain; If his Justice has been acknowledged almost Divine, in this especially, that it has never excluded all those milder Vertues that might adorn a Crown, and make Majestie 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 confesse; I hope I shal 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 Judgments, 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 mans Opinion about some few disputable matters of Faith, and not very material Ceremonies of Divine Worship, should on a sudden ruine and efface all those good Characters of Magnanimity and Justice, of Generosity and Goodnesse, not slightly traced, but deeply ingraven in his breast, so early ingraven by Nature it self, 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 it self that they adorn shal 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 signifie all the great past Actions of [Page 3]a Princes Life? And how little an Impression will all the recorded Glories leave behind them? (p. 2.) No track of 'em it seems is left, all his Virtues are fled; or which is worse, if they still remain, There is stone of 'em that shall not be a particular Instrument of our Destruction. Now in the name of all that is good, what does our Scribler mean; do Virtues themselves turn Vices in a Roman Catholick? 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 it self; the Scripture therefore has a peculiar denunciation of Judgment against the Coiners of such false notions, and loudly cries out, wo unto those that call evil good, and good evil. But to espouse a while the cause of the injur'd 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 Bulwork 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 design'd for the Protection of all the rest; and without which a Prince is as contemptible in himself, as he is uselesse to his People: Can a Nation be more blest than in the security which the matchlesse 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 imploy it when advanced to a Throne, when all those that he protects are his own People; when all the Renown shal be wholly His, when every Subjects▪ Honour that he vindicats shal increase the lustre of his own; and every English-man he saves, add to the largenesse of his Empire.

But because our Author maliciously suggests, that this Virtue may be imploy'd in making him more daring for the Cause of Rome; I would advise him to consider, whether the Vir­tue of Fortitude in his Ethicks, (if he has ever read any,) be not as equally distant from Te­merity and Rashnesse, as from Fear and Cowardice; and then whether the attempts of an impossible thing, (which as yet by his silence, he has allowed the introducing of Popery to be,) don'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 dependance 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 shal 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 owe Pardons, and Acts of Oblivion, This is that which will make him ascend the Throne, though never so much in­jur'd, 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 wil 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 Land-Marks, have lost their whole Possessions; who striving to alter the building of the State to their own Humour, have brought down the whol [...] Fabrick upon their heads, and perished in the ruine of their falling Kingdoms. Thus I thin [...], 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 [Page 4] [...]ndignation 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 scorn'd to insult over the present misfortune of the bravest of Men; had he any Justice, he would not have appear'd so earnest against that Succession which is grounded up­on all the Laws of God and Man; had he any Temperance, he would have spar'd his Mali­cious Invectives; and had he any Prudence, he would have burnt his Book, and saved the Hang-man 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 rail'd 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 Mirry 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 Virtue it self, is the same cause, and that whoever opposes the Justice of his Succession, must forfeit his Morality as well as his Allegiance.

But when the Notion of such a Popish Successor, such a one as shall maintain the Constitu­tion of the present Government, (and in that, the publick 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 unreasonablenesse? Why forsooth, he must suppresse the potent and dangerous Ene­mies that would destroy the Protestant Worship, Peace and Interest: And the Wisdom of several successive Monarchs, and a whole Nations unanimous prudence has declar'd 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 of the Wood can root it up, nor the little Foxes devour it; why do we torment our selves 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 shal be in much greater danger, by rea­son of the multitude of their Roman Emissaries, and those too embolden'd 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 advanta­gious 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 shal think so, as naturally then they will, to be sure no Information, no Conviction of Recusants, no Administration of Tests or Oaths to the least supected shal be wanting, no diligence spar'd which is backt by the Laws of the Land, which then more then ever will be waken'd against them, and which can't be dispens'd withal, must needs be effectual to the ut­ter ruine of the whole party. This our Author himself seems to be sensible of, and to allow; and this is one of his pretty Chimaera's, and mismatched incongruous Ingredients, as he ele­gantly Phrasis 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 gratifie their utmost malice upon the Members of that Church, than to be assured, that a Prince of that very Religion shal 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 Pamphleteer 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 ccurse; and whatever his private Opinion may be, whatever tendernesse he may bear to the very persons he shal punish; yet to remember his obligation to the publick, so far as to give them up to the hands of Justice, with the same constancie of mind, with the same ap­plause of the present, and commendation of all succeeding Ages, that the immortal Brutus de­liver'd up his darling Sons to the Rods and Axes of the Lectors. This, had our Author con­sider'd, [Page 5]he would not have so far betrayed his Morals, as to have stil'd 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 Politicks, as to call governing by Law, sneaking on a Throne. But alas! good man, he has a fit of kindnesse on the suddain come upon him, he is infinitely concern'd 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 Rehtorick, would perswade us, that a Crown to him would be so uneasie 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, sayes 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 Catho­licks 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 convinc'd, 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 hide 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 teasty, or call him Heretick. Well, but considering him to be of such a perswasion, 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 and 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 Suspitions 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, then had been the time to make use of it, and the easie 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 Catholick 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 Perjur'd, because one Ambitious Prin [...]e 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 Zealous 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 inclin'd to Virtue or Vice, let his Faith be what it will, his Morality will be the same; and he that has learnt 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 [Page 8]Gordian knot can be unty'd by every jugling 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 our selves by administring them to Roman Catholicks? Why are the Allegiance and Su­premacy Oaths tendered to them? and why do they refuse them? Why are new Tests devis'd that may be taken as harmlesly 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 it self accused of the Goatham Policy, in building the Hedge to fence in the Cuckow: 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-egge Cuckow Priest, but the Imperial Eagle it self may be kept within the Fence.

I design'd (in pursuance of my first undertaking) to be on the Defensive part only, and not to have at all meddl'd 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 harrangue 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 joyn with him in his railing at that desperate Incendiary of all Nations, Religion: (I hope he means ho­nestly, and understands the pretence and masque of it by that Name) as hearrily as himself; I will bring him in my share of ends of Verse, and sayings of Phylosophers; I'll muster all Lucretius's scraps against it; I can tell you of Tantum Religio, and Religio peperit sceterosa at (que) impia facta; and all this I can make out too; Religion was the Gospel-trumpet that first sounded to Battel, 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 with 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 mu [...]t be ruined, whether St. Ambrose's or Robert wisdom's Te Deum be sung for the Victo­ry, whether the holy to Peean goes to David's, or to Nero's Harp, to the Church Organ, or to 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 villany 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 He­roick: There's Glory in great Atchievements, and Virtue in Success: Come on then! Let us the mighty Nimrods hunt for Noble 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 Lyon down. But how he's out of breath, and his Glasse 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 remov'd this 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 brisknesse and assurance, as if you design'd to have leapt the Ditch; but your heart fail'd, and made the Cowardly Rhodian boggle just upon the brink: But now, since you are forc'd 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 plung'd in the mire, as not to be in any visible liklyhood of getting out. But let us see how the poor sunder'd Jad struggles to work it self out of the Bog. If he's a Papist that says so, he knows he believes 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 noes 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 then, they may ev'n say so, and believe so still for all him: He has nothing to say to the contrary, unlesse they are Papists th [...] say so; and for them, mark how shrewdly he is [Page 9]provided. First, he gives, them the Lie, and justifies it thus; Their whole party believe 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 believ'd by a Papist. Well, I am glad I have found out our Scribler, 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 Catholick, 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 politick 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 forwardnesse, as never since Queen Maries days could be boasted of, carried on with all the Art and Contrivance, all the Sec [...]e [...]y 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 Scence of that Religious Villany displayed to pub­lick view, when the whole Nation is still kept awake with continual Fears, and fresh Al­larms against them, while the very meanest of the people are as diligent in this cause, as the great ones that descend to joyn with 'm 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 discover'd, are for that age defeated; and when so great a design is to be hatcht a new, it ripens as slowely as China does, that must be buried a Age un­der ground before it comes to perfection, and than too is very often as brittle as that, and as easie 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 re-established, 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 shal see as shrewd a piece of contrivance, as the bringing over an Army that shal cross the Narrow Seas dry-foot 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 smal 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 must this be done? Why, Wou'd be shal 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 easie a piece of businesse, that I shal 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 rear'd, 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 imploy, [...] Horse, Arbitrary Government, big with Popery and our utter [Page 10]is too narrow for its reception) and afterwards admit it into the Pallace.

'Tis not in the power of Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, or of Judges, let them be as corruptted, 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 perferment on one hand shal 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 assur'd that our Countrey does not want those Publick-spirited Patriots, who with the Justice and 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 distest to the Representatives of the Nation.

This is indeed indeed an action very unaccountable, but sufficient to make it appear to the World, how much stronger the Peoples 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 it self, which should never fear. If this then 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 shal 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? & does it lie concealed as your tother did at Knights-bridge? 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 travel'd the Rod so much as others, has not been so great a Journey-taker about England, nor made so many Western Progresses, the Inn-keepers will not be so much his Friends as to hide 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 rais'd, and don't lye hid in the place we were talking of, or in the Cel­ler in Worstershire, how shal it be rais'd: You know, you have told the Popish Successor, that he shal have a standing Army, and I'le assure you he will expect you should be as good as your word. Why then, if you would have this Army quietly rais'd, 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 Voluntiers 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 rais'd 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 Arbitrary Power, and Arbitrary Power bring in Popery, and then what becomes of your Suppose? Suppose quoth a? — Mr. Bayes, I beg your pardon for offending you, I am convicn'd, I yeild, 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 cou'd not be avoided in Discourse with this impertinent, grave conceited Politico, this flo­rid Oratorical Buffoon, with his Ragioni de Stato of Sr. Poll, drest up in the Eloquence of Sir Formal. There is none can be so great a Stranger to the Affairs of this Countrey, as not to see how strong the Tide runs against Popery; a Tide so impetuous, so strengthened and swell'd up with the flowing in of almost all Interests against it, that it can never be stem'd by the smal resistance that the most vigorous Prince can make in the head of so ruin'd, so weak and in­considerable a party; 'twere folly to attempt it, and extream madness to hope to effect it. So young as the Reformation was in the Reign of Q. Mary, it might indeed with some ease be pluckt up e're it had taken root, or spread it self over half the Kingdom: The number of Pa­pists in those days being equal at least, if not exceeding that of Protestants, & they (as in all rea­son we must allow) all longing for the restoration of their Religi [...] [...] that this Idolatrous [Page 11]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 publick, and the Laws of the Land. The Romish Church so detested, both for the dangerous Innovations of its Doctrines, and the Idolatry of its Ceremonies, and so odious in the eyes of the people, for its pernitious principles exprest in the Villanous practices of its Professors, in Massacres and plots, all detected, and at last defeated, to their utter confusion that ingaged in them: Things I say, being in this state, it would be a greater Miracle than the most Roman­tick 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 perswade the people all along that Popery is just coming in, yet this false Satyr can blow cold and hot with 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 dispropor­tion'd 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, while he is only Heir apparent; and this he performs with such fine touch­es, and master-stroaks, 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 carreer of Fancie. We may only observe, that in his over-hasty 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, that is that makes the Subjects knee so stiff and so stubborn; this makes them in studying to prevent Tyrrany, 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 Addresse 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, unlesse, by very fresh experience, they knew thatthait was the power­ful charm to bring the people to the ruine 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 rais'd, if they are made apprehensive of the Vessel sinking on the one side, run immediatly with such a violent panick fear to the other, that they over-set the Ship, and quite overwhelm both themselves and it in ruine and destruction.

Come we now to the next Argument, which he sayes a Critick 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 Criticks 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 deny'd to himself. But he goes on, And then if all the grievances of a King­dom lye at his door, 'tis his unhappiness, and not his fault. Very right, if some F [...]ctious 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 sayes 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 Argument 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 chiefly employed in finding out an excuse to put into this Princes mouth for doing so; and you have furnisht him with a notable one; His Answer will be, he cannot [...]ly it. Come, come, speak your Conscience, do you really believe this will be his Answer? Yes; a Prince [Page 12]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. Bayes, that seems to have very little knowledge of any Kings but those of Branford.

Well, but to make us amends, we have him immediatly exercising his Talent in a most Pa­thetick piece of Rhetorick 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 my self extreamly delighted with, especially when handled by our Author, who manages it so dexterously, that all his Invectives against that, fall as heavy upon the turbulent Fanaticks, 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 authorize 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 appositly than in these Lines of Hudibras.

Well, after this short breathing, 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 Criticks 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 rejoyced at our Author's unexpected civility, in allowing this to be the expedient of the wisest Critick 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, nor leave his people in danger of the loss of their dearest and most sacred Birth-rights, their liberty and Religion. But let us hear what our Politician says to this: I answer (sayes 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 impolitick as piece of work to make such other Protestant Laws, that should not be possibly shorten'd or stretch'd by e're a Procustes of 'em all, and then this projection will not deserve to be accus'd of Nonsense. Nay we have your self presently confessing, that a Popish King may be totally re­strain'd 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 unreasonable as to desire any more? Surely Romes Dagon, (as elsewhere you phrase it) will not be so formidable, when like that Aegyptian one of old, both its hands [Page 13]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 ruine 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 ruine 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 meer puppet upon a Wire. For these Laws that bind up a King so stricct­ly, suppose him a popish King, such only being to be restrained; This is not therefore an en­tail'd Effeminacy, but rather a short eclipsing of the full Splendor 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 smalness of his power, that would have him utterly debarr'd the Throne, aed 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 strictness of that reaches none but those that are lawfuly 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 tenour 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, then all their petitions, protestings and Association-Votes will be remembred 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 reign'd, and been so far from remembring to purpose the Traytors that oppos'd 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 tiresom journey through Brakes and Briars, to a splendid pallace, 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 & Briars that bent 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 retriev'd from their due fate of being utterly rooted up, but been admitted into the palace it self, and made to vie with, and indeed almost to over-top the tallest Cedars them­selves, that with unshaken constancy did partake 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 Murther'd, and some Depos'd, the true Heir some­times depriv'd 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 learnt to distinguish between matter of Fact and matter of Right, and know that they are very often opposite one to 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 govern [...]d by Law, and not by History. And as for those Acts of Parliament which we find ordering and disposing of the Succession, we shal 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 Henrie VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, are not made at all to alter the Right of Succession: far from it, my, rather to establish it; for they are only design'd to declare in whom this Right of Succession was, and therefore were in­deed necessary, both in the times of H. VIII. (whose often Marriage and Divorces, and at­tainder of his Wives; might make his Right disputable among his Children) and in Queen Eli­zabath's [Page 14]time, who being without Issue, had several others that pretended to the Right of suc­sceding her. These Acts of Parliament (I say) were absolutely necessary, when the Title of the Crown might be dubious, but for the same reason very ridiculously and weakly urged, when it is clear to the blindest Apprehensions, who is the true Successor.

After this notable bout of Law, and a few Statutes and Acts of Parliament, borrow'd from come Case-splittor or another; for his stile (for all its dulness) is too florid for a Lawyers; He is flusht 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 Heir of a Crown, should loss 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 sayes we are in danger of this; and I say no; and so I find this 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 Rhetorick can do any thing: He has therefore spun out a most fine Ha­rangue, to perswade the Duke to quit (of his own accord) his pretention 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 of 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 duely weighed, surely those men are highly culpable, nay, the greatest Enemies of the publick good that can be imagined; who thus for an uncertainty ruine a Kingdoms Peace and Prosperity, and make us run into those ills which we are sure to suffer, in avoiding that 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 ought we know, do our Nation as much service in the same kind as the other did: He is thus therefore described in blank Heroick Meeter, as the dignity of this Subject required.

Whoever can guess 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 perswade 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 Meeter, yet as true, [Page 15]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 High-Priest Aaron, which was then all their Church and State: Upon this the Earth opened a Prodigious Gulph in the midst of their Tents; but here one single Victim would not satisfie, neither would the mouth of the Earth (that was open­ed) be content with less than the Ring-leaders 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 puhlick Ministers of Justice more concerned to answer than my self; for he who don't know who the Lords anointed is, and who is his Native Soveraign, (p. 31.) in my opinion ought no otherwise to be convinc'd. But because at last he is for summing up all, (p. 34.) Let us see 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 takes 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 his? Or to our purpose, if a Prince be enticed into the Witchcraft of Rome, as our Author elsewhere calls it, will this Authorize the Peoples 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 ad Axes of the Magistrate, the Rod for the Fools back, and the Ax for the Traytors 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 English-men, 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 bloud 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 [...]tremity [...] Madness, which not long since made one of the most Powerful and Happy Kingdoms [...] [...]ld, the pity and con­tempt of all the Nations round about her.

And having made this most humble Address to your Honourab. Assembly, I shall take my leave of my Reader, in an Ode of Horace to this purpose, a very little ascer'd; 'Tis his 7th. Epod to the People of Rome, his Countrey-men, dehorting 'em from engaging in a Civil War twice in one Age, whereby the easiness of the application of it to our present times and Nati­on, we may find that the people of England have learnt somewhat else from Rome besides its Re­ligion, which is at least even as destructive as that.