L

to churches and abbeys will in all probability be refumed: all public fecurities too will be cancell'd, as being given by a government that will then be deemed a lawless ufurpation: they likewife who have obtained any royal grants, or purchased any of the forfeited eftates will be forc'd to restore them to the former proprietors: all which things will beget infinite diforder and confufion; and as they will be a great blow to fome even of the nobleft families, fo they muft intirely ruin thousands of others who have no other means of subsistence. And all who have distinguish'd themselves in the service of their country and by their attachment to the prefent royal family will be fure to pay dearly for it, and will not be permitted to buy their peace but at an extravagant price. Nay the whole nation will lie at the mercy of the conqueror, and may be confidered as a nation of re

bels,

1

bels, and be drained and exhausted accordingly. And indeed otherwise how can he be able to recompense that starving and hungry crew, the followers of his fortunes? As their merits will be great if they fucceed in placing him upon the throne of these kingdoms, fo their rewards must be great in proportion; nor indeed is it a little thing that will fatisfy the cravings of indigence and ambition, but like Pharaoh's lean kine they will eat up all the plump and well-favor'd ones. And immenfe debts will likewife be owing to foreign courts for fo many years fubfiftence, and for the wars which they will charge as enter'd into upon his account, and for the aids and affistances which they have afforded him in this prefent expedition, so that we must not only endure the curse of being inslav'd, but must alfo be obliged to pay them for inflaving us.

And

And our trade and commerce will be in as precarious and wretched a condition as our property. For as our king will be the creature of France and Spain, and owe both his crown and the continuance of it to their aid and affiftance, he must make ample conceffions to them in return, and either out of gratitude or out of neceffity facrifice every thing to them that they shall require. And confequently those most valuable acquifitions, which we have made in this t and former wars, will be tamely given up into their hands; the fovereignty of the feas will be loft; our commerce will be limited and reftrain'd, their's will be inlarg'd and indulg'd; and as faft as foreign commodities flow in, the little wealth remaining in the nation will be drawn out, till in time we shall become like Tyre, the rexxvi. 17. nowned city which was strong in the fea, fhe and her inhabitants, which

Ezek.

caused

caufed their terror to be on all that baunt it, but at laft was made like the top of a rock, a place to Spread Ezek. nets upon, the habitation only of poor fishermen.

And to the lofs of our pure religion, the loss of our property, the loss of our trade, will yet be added, to complete our mifery, the lofs of our excellent conftitution and English liberty. For the Pretender to his Majefty's crown can never fucceed here but by conqueft, or under the notion of divine hereditary indefeasible right. We fuppofe that he would choose the latter, but divine hereditary indefeafible right infers the most abfolute uncontrollable dominion in the prince, and the moft unconditional paffive obedience in the people. For if he has an unalienable and indefeasible right to govern, his right will be ftill the fame, whether he govern like a king or like a tyrant; and what reafon

xxvi. 14.

have

have we to think that he will not govern like a tyrant, and the worst of tyrants? We might as well fet a wolf to guard the fold, as an Italian papift to protect the liberties of Englifh proteftants. The princes, from whom he pretends to derive his claim, were no fuch friends to liberty, as to make us fond of feeing their race upon the throne again; they were bred up with high notions of their divine right, and during their reigns there was a continual ftruggle between the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the people: And can this man have learned jufter notions of government in Italy? or is religion to be fetched from Rome, or liberty from France or Spain? It must be by war and violence, and with much effufion of blood, that he muft afcend the throne, for God forbid that we fhould ever fubmit tamely to his government; and as he muft attain to power by

force,