And wherefore has all this English and British blood been spilt? Wherefore thy nation exhausted; thy trade sunk and interrupted; thy veins opened? Why hast thou struggled thus long, and with so much vigour, as well with French tyranny abroad, as popish factions at home, but to preserve entire the religion and liberties of Europe, and particularly of this nation, and to preserve our posterity from slavery and idolatry? Principles truly noble, worthy a nation's blood to protect, and worthy a nation's treasure to save.
But what has all this been for? And to what intent and purpose was all this zeal, if you will sink under the ruin of the very fabric ye have pulled down? If ye will give up the cause after ye have gained the advantage, and yield yourselves up after you have been delivered; to what purpose then has all this been done? Why all the money expended? Why all this blood spilt? To what end is France said to be reduced, and peace now concluded, if the same popery, the same tyranny, the same arbitrary methods of government shall be received among you again? Sure your posterity will stand amazed to consider how lavish this age has been of their money, and their blood, and to how little purpose; since no age since the creation of the world can show us a time when ever any nation spent so much blood and treasure to end just where they begun: as, if the hearts of our enemies prevail, we are like to do.
Let us reason a little together on these things, and let us inquire a little, why, and for what reason Britain, so lately the glory of Europe; so lately the terror of France, the bulwark of religion, and the destroyer of popery, should be brought to be the gazing-stock of the world? And why is it that her neighbours expect every hour to hear that she is going back to Egypt, and having given up her liberty, has made it her own choice to submit to the stripes of her taskmasters, and make bricks without straw.
We that are Englishmen, and live from home among the protestants of other nations, cannot but be sensible of this alteration, and we bear the reproaches of those who speak freely of the unhappy change which appears in the temper of our countrymen at home. It is astonishing to all the world to hear that the common people of England should be turned from the most rivetted aversions, to a coldness and indifferency in matters of popery and the pretender: that they, who with so unanimous a resolution deposed the late King James, as well for his invasions of their liberty as of their religion; and who with such marks of contempt drove him and his pretended progeny out of the nation, should without any visible alteration of circumstances, be drawn in to favour the return of that race with all the certain additions of popish principles in religion; French principles in government; revenge for family injuries; restoration of abdicated and impoverished votaries; and the certain support of a party at home, whose fortunes and losses must be restored and repaired out of the ruins of their country's liberties.
To what purpose was the revolution? Why did you mock yourselves at so vast an expense? Why did you cry in your oppressions to God and the Prince of Orange to deliver you? Why did you rise as one man against King James and his popish adherents? Why was your fury so great, and your opposition so universal, that although he had a good army of veteran, disciplined troops, and a powerful assistance from France ready to fall in and join him, yet they durst not, when put all together, venture to look you in the face, but fled like darkness before the sun, like guilt before the sword of justice; or as a murderer from the avenger of blood? Was it all, that you might the better weaken yourselves by ages of war, and they might return again, and bind you like Samson, when your strength was departed?
When this was done, why did ye mock God with a thanksgiving,[9] and banter the world with your pretended praises to heaven for your deliverance? Why, when you appeared by your representatives in convention and in parliament, did you make so many fast days,[10] and days of prayer for the success of the arms you took up, and the war you carried on for the finishing and securing this great work, called the pulling down of popery? Was it all, that after having spent twenty years of war, and a sea of blood, ruined trade, exhausted your treasure, and entailed vast debts on your posterity; you should calmly open your doors to the fugitives you had found out, and let in again the popish tyranny you had driven away?
For what reason was it that you presented the crown to your benefactor, called him your deliverer, and made him your king; and having done so, maintained him upon the throne with so much vigour, fought under his banner in so many battles, and with so great animosity, and professed to stand by him against all his enemies at home and abroad? Why is he in so many addresses[11] styled the rescuer of this nation from popery and slavery? Why in so many acts of parliament[12] is he called the great deliver [Transcriber's Note: deliverer] of the nation? Why in so many sermons preached to men, and prayers put up to God, has he the title of "the instrument blessed by heaven to free these nations from popery and arbitrary government?" Was all this done, that your posterity being brought back into the bondage their fathers were delivered from, should with the same alacrity call him an invader, an usurper, a parricide, and their fathers, rebels and revolters?
Why was the crown entailed by so many provisoes, reserves, and limitations? Why the names of every person that should succeed, so expressly and particularly mentioned and set down?[13] Why so many acts of parliament[14] to secure that entail, and punish with death those who should reject or oppose it? Why was the settlement of the crown thought to be of so much consequence to the public good, that the two daughters of King James, the late blessed Queen Mary, and her present royal majesty, thought themselves bound to agree to the same for the safety and peace of their country, though it was in prejudice of the right and possession of their own father? Was it all, that the return of these things might be made upon the people with the greater weight, and that posterity might be prejudiced against the memory of the two royal sisters, as accessary to the ruin of their own father?
Why was King James and his popish posterity entirely excluded for ever from enjoying the imperial crown of these realms?[15] Why were so many acts of parliament made to extinguish the hopes of his race, and of their party, and for farther security of her majesty's person and government? Why was the settlement of the succession in a protestant line made the principal reason of uniting the two kingdoms together? And why was that union so vigorously opposed by all those that adhered to the jacobite interest? Was this to illustrate the return of the abdicated line, and by the greatness of the nation's endeavour for keeping out the pretender, to justify his using them accordingly when he comes in?
Why was the union declared to be unalterable, and, as some say, the power thereby taken out of the hands of the British parliament to change the settlement of the crown, or to name any other persons than those of the illustrious house of Hanover to succeed; and, above all, why was that severest of all oaths, the abjuration, contrived; by which it is rendered impossible for this nation, upon any pretence whatsoever, to receive the pretender but with the black stigma of an abominable perjury? Was this that, with the greater reverence to laws, and the greater regard to the solemnity of a national oath, we might all turn tail upon our principles, and in defiance of God and the laws, bow our knees to an abjured pretender?