After he has rail’d at the Church and State, he pretends that he has ask’d Forgiveness for himself, and comes to forgive others; and first, those who under the Notion of Friendship persuaded him to plead guilty. ’Tis common, we see, for those who are false themselves, to call others False Brethren; yet ’tis evident by the Clemency shew’d to others who pleaded guilty, that those who advis’d him to do so, were his best Friends: but since there were such Aggravations in his Case and Character, as made him unworthy of the like Favour, his Blood lies on his own Head.
His way of forgiving others is very extraordinary, when he calls them with his dying Breath his most inveterate Enemies; and among those, he points out the King, under the Title of Elector of Hannover, and my Lord Townshend. This smells of so much Rancour, that it is not reconcilable with the Spirit of Christianity, and at the same time it shews the height of Prevarication with God and Man; since in his Applications for Mercy he gave the King his Royal Titles (which he now denies him) and him whom he call’d his King at the Gallows, he thought fit to call a Pretender in his Petitions. His pointing at my Lord Townshend in such a particular manner, is to mark out that Noble Lord to the Fury of the Jacobite Mobs; a piece of Revenge that is abominable in any Man, but execrable in a dying Minister, who knew that my Lord Townshend could not in Faithfulness to the King behave himself any otherwise than he did, or become an Intercessor for a Man of so vile a Character, as Mr. Paul appears to have been, to all that know him. But the Spirit of Rage and Malice, by which the Parson was acted to the last, will further appear by the following Paragraph, and the Reflections upon it.
The SPEECH.
The next thing I have to do, Christian Friends, is to exhort you all to return to your Duty. Remember that King James the Third is your only Rightful Sovereign, by the Laws of the Land, and the Constitution of the Kingdom. And therefore if you would perform the Duty of Justice to him, which is due to all Mankind, you are oblig’d in Conscience to do all you can to restore him to his Crown: For it is his Right, and no Man in the World besides himself can lawfully claim a Title to it. And as it is your Duty to serve him, so it is your Interest; for till he is restor’d, the Nation can never be happy. You see what Miseries and Calamities have befallen these Kingdoms by the Revolution; and I believe you are now convinc’d, by woful Experience, that swerving from God’s Laws, and thereby putting your selves out of his Protection, is not the way to secure you from those Evils and Misfortunes which you are afraid of in this World. Before the Revolution, you thought your Religion, Liberties, and Properties in Danger; and I pray you to consider how you have preserv’d them by Rebelling. Are they not ten times more precarious than ever? Who can say he is certain of his Life or Estate, when he considers the Proceedings of the present Administration? And as for your Religion, is it not evident that the Revolution, instead of keeping out Popery, has let in Atheism? Do not Heresies abound every day; and are not the Teachers of false Doctrines patroniz’d by the Great Men in the Government? This shews the Kindness and Affection they have for the Church. And to give you another Instance of their Respect and Reverence for it, you are now going to see a Priest of the Church of England murder’d for doing his Duty. For it is not me they strike at so particularly, but it is thro me that they would wound the Priesthood, bring a Disgrace upon the Gown, and a Scandal upon my Sacred Function. But they would do well to remember, that he who despises Christ’s Priests, despises Christ; and he who despises him, despises him that sent him.
REMARKS.
After profaning the Name of our Saviour, by seeming to pray that he would forgive those who had been instrumental in promoting Mr. Paul’s Death; the Speech-maker gives himself the lye, by exciting his Auditors to a new Rebellion: and the Motives he uses for it are only a parcel of vulgar Topicks and bold Assertions, suited to the Taste of the Jacobite Mob, without one word of Argument to support his Propositions; for he knew the Credulity of the High-Church Faction, and that if he cou’d prevail upon them to exert themselves for the Pretender, they wou’d not fail in their usual brutish manner to attempt a Revenge on those, whom he points out as his own and the Pretender’s Enemies.
’Tis remarkable however, that he does not offer one Law or Text to justify the Pretender’s Claim, which he so positively asserts, but goes on with a pitiful Declamation, to persuade them to a new Rebellion, from the Topicks of Interest. And he insists upon the Calamities that have befallen these Kingdoms by the Revolution, without giving one Instance of those Calamities. We may see the Hand of the Jesuit in this way of Reasoning; for crafty and knavish Men always betake themselves to Generals. In this he follows the Example of the Holborn Doctor, who did what he cou’d to blacken the Revolution, and the Methods made use of to effect it, by general Slanders, without offering at one particular Instance to justify what he says.
Nothing can more demonstrate the Infatuation of Mr. Paul, or those who made his Speech, than his telling the People that before the Revolution they thought their Religion, Liberties, and Properties in danger; and that instead of preserving them by Rebellion, they are now become ten times more precarious than ever. Had Satan appear’d in a visible Form, he cou’d not have utter’d any thing more deceitful and false. By this Instance ’tis plain, that the great Accuser of the Brethren triumphs in the Weakness, as well as the Wickedness of those he has deluded: For even the late Archbishop Sancroft, and other Patrons of the Nonjurant Party, give Mr. Paul the lye, as to the first part of his Proposition, and common Sense falsifies the latter. To prove this, we need only to observe, that Sancroft and the rest of the Bishops, who refus’d to read K. James II’s Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, alledg’d that it was an Invasion upon our Civil and Religious Liberties. And because they set forth this in their Petition to that Prince, they were committed to the Tower, and brought to a Tryal as traitorous Criminals: but to their good fortune, the Law, which they had formerly too much run down, prevail’d against that Arbitrary Power of the Prince, which they had so long preach’d up; and the Arguments which were made use of by the late Lord Chief Justice Pollexfen, Lord Sommers, and other Whigs, in behalf of the Constitution, prevail’d so far, that they were honourably acquitted. Upon which, Dr. Sancroft and his Brethren did so much resent these Tyrannical Proceedings of King James II. that they concur’d with others in the Happy Revolution: and Archbishop Sancroft himself, tho afterwards the Head of the Nonjuring Party, did take the Keys of the Tower from Skelton, K. James’s Lieutenant, and join’d, with other Bishops afterwards Nonjurors, in a Declaration for applying to the Prince of Orange, on the 11th of December 1688, after King James had run away, to obtain a Parliament for securing our Laws, Liberties, Properties, and the Church of England in particular.
This is enough to shew, that the Heads of the Nonjurant Party were then convinc’d that our Religion, Liberties, and Properties were in Danger; which sufficiently confutes Mr. Paul’s Insinuation, that they were not.
And as to the other part of his bold Assertion, that they are ten times more precarious now than ever, common Sense and Experience give him the Lye; for Thanks to God, we have now a Protestant, whereas we then had a Popish King on the Throne: and Malice itself can’t say, that profess’d Papists are contrary to Law made Members of the Privy Council, Commanders in the Army, and obtruded upon our Universities, instead of Protestants illegally turn’d out, as was the Case in those days.