Part 2
By the said abdication, and carrying away his said pretended son into the hands of the French to be educated in popery, &c., he gave the parliament of England and Scotland abundant reason for ever to exclude the said King James and his said pretended son from the government of these realms, or from the succession to the same, and made it absolutely necessary for them to do so, if they would secure the protestant religion to themselves and their posterity; and this without any regard to the doubt whether he was the lawful son of King James or no, since it is inconsistent with the constitution of this protestant nation to be governed by a popish prince.
So that there is now no more room to examine whether the said pretender be the lawful son of King James, or whether he is, or will turn to be a protestant, the examination of the legitimacy by parliament which was offered by the Prince of Orange in his declaration, having been declined by his father, and himself having been delivered up into the hands of the sworn enemies both of our religion, constitution, and nation.
If King James would have expected he should be received as his son, and succeed to his crowns, he should have suffered his birth to have been legally determined by the English and Scotch parliament at that time, and have left him in good protestant hands to have been educated in the protestant religion, and in the knowledge of the laws and constitutions of his country; in which case it was more than probable, had his birth appeared clear, and his hereditary right just, the parliament might have set the crown upon his head, and declared him king under the protection of their deliverer, the Prince of Orange: but to talk of it now, when his birth has never been examined or cleared up, and while he has been bred up to man's estate in popery, and that the worst sort, viz., French popery; and after the parliament of the respective kingdoms uniting in one, have by an unalterable, indissolvable union, settled and entailed the crown upon another head, viz., the present queen, and entailed it after her majesty in the most illustrious house of Hanover, the next of blood in a protestant line: to talk now of proving the birth of the pretender, and of his abjuring his errors and turning protestant, this is a fraud so absurd and ridiculous, that we hope the people of Great Britain can never be blinded with it.
Especially considering the party who talk of these things to us: and this ought to move the good people of Britain to receive the proposals of the pretender with indignation; for who are they, dear fellow-protestants! that persuade you to these things? Are they not the friends of France and Rome? Do not all the papists join with them? Do not all those who hated the revolution, and who long to restore arbitrary government, join with them?
Why, if he will abjure the Romish errors and turn protestant, why, I say, do the papists speak in his favour? Do any sect of religion love apostates! Those who forsake them and abjure them as heretical and erroneous! If they were not well assured that whatever appearing change he may make, he will still retain a secret affection to popery, they could not be rationally supposed to speak in his behalf.
But if that is not sufficient, what do they say to you as to his love of the liberty of his country? Has he been bred up in a tyrannical absolute court for nothing? Can he have any notion of government there but what is cruel, oppressive, absolute, and despotic? What principles of government will he come over with? and as he has sucked in tyranny with his milk, and knows no government but that of the most absolute monarch in the world, is this the man they would bring in to preserve the liberties and constitution of Britain?
When set upon the British throne, who are his allies and confederates? Will he be so ungrateful as not to be always at the devotion and command of the French king? a prince that took his father in a fugitive, an abdicated and ruined prince, when his fortunes were overthrown, and his crown taken from him; that made so many efforts to restore him, and hazarded his whole kingdom for it: if he forgets the kindness shown to his father, can he be so ungenerous, so unthankful, as to forget how the king of France nourished him from a child; how, after his father's death, he hazarded a second war to proclaim him king of Great Britain, and what expense he has been at to put him in possession of it? Should he forget all these obligations, he must be unfit to be called a Christian, much less a prince.
If he can act so barbarously to the French king, his benefactor, what must you Britons expect from him, who have done nothing to oblige him, but have for twenty-four years kept him and his father in exile, and treated them both with unsufferable indignity? If he can be ungrateful to the king of France, who has done so much for him, what must he be to you, who have done so much against him?
Again: if gratitude and honour have any influence upon him, if he has any sense of his obligation to the French king, will he not for ever be his most hearty, obedient, humble servant? Will he not always be in his interest, nay, ought he not to be so? Is he not tied by the laws of friendship and gratitude to be so?
Think, then, dear Britons! what a king this pretender must be; a papist by inclination; a tyrant by education; a Frenchman by honour and obligation: and how long will your liberties last you in this condition? And when your liberties are gone, how long will your religion remain? When your hands are tied; when armies bind you; when power oppresses you; when a tyrant disarms you; when a popish French tyrant reigns over you; by what means or methods can you pretend to maintain your protestant religion?
How shall the Church of England stand, when in subjection to the Church of Rome? You are now mixed with dissenters, and some are uneasy enough with them too; but our church will then be but a dissenting church; popery will be the establishment; the mass will succeed our common prayer, and fire and fagot instead of toleration, as you know was our case before; for it is not the first time the papists have been tried.
Nor did Queen Mary promise, nay, swear less than is now promised for the pretender; for she swore to the Gospellers of Suffolk to make no alteration in religion; and they, like the blinded protestants of this age, brought her in, for which they were the first that felt the fury and rage of the popish party, and so we have great cause to believe it would be again.
THE CONCLUSION.
Consider, then, honest countrymen and protestants, what you are doing; look on your families; consider your innocent children, who you are going to give up to be bred in abominable superstition and idolatry; look on your dear country, which you are preparing to make the seat of war, blood, and confusion; look on your neighbours, who, while they are resisting this inundation, for you may be assured honest men will resist it to the last, you are to fight with, whose throats you must cut, and in whose blood you must dip your hands; and, lastly, consider yourselves; how free, how quiet, how in peace, plenty, and in protestant liberty you now live, but are with your own hands pulling down upon you, so far as you entertain thoughts of the pretender, the walls of your own security, viz., the constitution, and making way for your French popish enemies to enter; to whom your religion, your liberties, your estates, your families, and your posterity, shall be made a sacrifice, and this flourishing nation be entirely ruined.
In the last place, all that have any concern left for the good of their country, and for the preserving the protestant religion, will remember how much it is in the power of the people of Britain for ever to discourage all the attempts to be made in favour of these popish enemies, and to overthrow them in the execution; and it is on this foundation that this paper is made public. The late letter from Douay, written by some of that side, who very well understood the pretender's true interest, acknowledges this, and that if the people of England could not be wheedled and deluded into the design, it was never to be done by force.
And is this your case, Britons! Will you be ruined by a people whom you ought to despise? Have they not been twenty years trying your strength, till they find it impossible for them to master you? And are they brought to such a condition as to use all their arts and shifts to bring on a peace; and will you be brought now in cool thoughts, and after so long a struggle, to do that yourselves which you would never let them do; and which, without your most stupid negligence of yourselves, they could never do.
For this reason, I say, these lines are written, and this makes them just, and the argument rational. If I were to move you to what was not in your power, I should easily be answered, by being told, you could not do it; that you were not able, and the like; but is it not evident that the unanimous appearance of the people of Great Britain against the pretender would at once render all the party desperate, and make them look upon the design as utterly impracticable. As their only hope is in the breaches they are making in your resolutions, so if they should see they gain no ground there, they would despair, and give it over.
It would not be worth notice to inquire who are, and who are not for the pretender; the invidious search into the conduct of great men, ministers of state and government, would be labour lost: no ministry will ever be for the pretender, if they once may but be convinced that the people are steady; that he gets no ground in the country; that the aversions of the common people to his person and his government are not to be overcome: but if you, the good people of England, slacken your hands; if you give up the cause; if you abate your zeal for your own liberties, and for the protestant religion; if you fall in with popery and a French pretender; if you forget the revolution, and King William, what can you expect? who can stand by you then? Who can save them that will destroy themselves?
The work is before you; your deliverance, your safety is in your own hands, and therefore these things are now written: none can give you up; none can betray you but yourselves; none can bring in popery upon you but yourselves; and if you could see your own happiness, it is entirely in your power, by unanimous, steady adhering to your old principles, to secure your peace for ever. O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
END OF A SEASONABLE WARNING AND CAUTION.