The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• To the Earl of S———-, &c. &c.
• Preface.
• The Independent Whig.
• Number I.: A View of the Romish Church, In Her Heads, Theology, Canons, Miracles, and Saints; Taken Chiefly From Her Own Writers and Champions.
• Number II.: An Idea of the French Government. the Spirit of Popery, How Terrible to Protestants.
• Number III.: Further Observations Upon the French Government. the Excellence of Our Own, Confess’d By French Writers.
• Number IV.: Persecution and Cruelty, Marks of Apostasy From Christianity. the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, How Impious and Impossible. the Inconsistency, Impotence, and Absurdity of All Popish Miracles.
• Number V.: The Natural and Dreadful Consequences Attending the Success of the Rebellion.
• Number VI.: The Views of the Pretender Not to Be Disguised. His Defence an Insult.
• Number VII.: The Norman Invasion, How Sanguinary and Fatal to England. the Invader How Faithless and Barbarous to Englishmen.
• Number VIII.: The Curious Speech of a Fugitive Protestant - Popish - Jacobite Priest to Lewis the Well-beloved.
• Number IX.: The Loyalty of Papists Never to Be Trusted By Protestants. Religion and Liberty Inevitable Sacrifices to a Popish Revolution.
• Number X.: Remarks Upon the Appeal of the Pretender (young Or Old) to the People.
• Number XI.: Popery Tried By Christianity and Reason, and Proved an Enemy to Both.
• Number XII.: Warning to Britons, Upon the Present Rebellion Supported By France.
• Number XIII.: The Shocking Antipathy of Popery to Common Sense and Christian Charity.
• Number XIV.: Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XV.: Continuation of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVI.: Continuation of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVII.: Remainder of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVIII.: King James II. His Disgraceful Reign. His Impotence and Cruelty. He Exposes and Deposes Himself.
• Number XIX.: How Boldly the Popish Clergy Abuse Their Followers, By Teaching Them to Deny With a Curse, the Most Obvious Impieties of Their Church.
• Number XX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Number XXI.: The Following Quotation Is Taken From One of the Political Discourses Upon Sallust the Roman Historian: It Is the Fourth Section of the Discourse, of the Mutability of Government. the Passage Is Extremely Curious, And, I Think, Seasona
• Number XXII.: The Quaker’ S Advice to the Young Pretender.
• Number XXIII.: The Intimate Resemblance Between the Popish Clergy, and Those of Modern Paganism In the East.
• Number XXIV.: Of the Many Good Sermons Preached and Published Against the Rebellion. a Sermon of Singular Tendency, By an Eminent Hand: the Strange Doctrines Advanced, and the Observable Omissions, In It.
• Number XXV.: Our National Sins No Wise Analogous to Those of the Jews, Nor Meriting Equal Punishment. the Rashness and Danger of Ascertaining and Applying Divine Judgments.
• Number XXVI.: The Free Use of Reason the Best Cure For Bigotry, and the Violence of Enthusiasm.
• Number XXVII.: To What I Have Said Above Upon the Excesses and Unchristian Spirit of the Clergy In the Reign of King Charles I. I Shall Add the Following Observations Upon Their Incredible Canon, Injoining an Oath to an Et Cætera.
• Number XXVIII.: Considerations Upon the Mischievous Tendency of Libels; Chiefly Public Libels.
• Number XXIX.: The Subject of Libels Continued.
• Number XXX.: The Subject of Libels Continued and Concluded.
• Number XXXI.: The Absurdity of Jacobitism, the Impiety of Popery, and the Enthusiasm of Party.
• Number XXXII.: The Letter of Monsieur D’argenson to Mynheer Van Hoey, and That of the Mynheer to the Duke of Newcastle, Paraphrased.

Number XXII.

The Quaker’s Advice to the young Pretender.

Young Man,

THY venturing thyself into Britain hath produced a Discovery, which ought to wound thee with sore Remorse; namely, that however sorry and wretched the Friends whom thou hast picked up in Scotland are, even barbarous Highlanders, Strangers to Humanity and our Language, Enemies to our Religion and Laws; yet thou hast no better Friends in England, none who are blessed either with Religion, or with Property, or with Sense. Neither canst thou wonder at it. Thou art an Outlaw, and canst hope no sincere Assistance but from such as are as desperate as thyself. Whoever joins with thee, or stands up for thee, by doing so forfeits all he hath, whether thou dost miscarry or succeed. If thou failest, he is forfeited and hanged: If thou carriest thy Point, all that he hath is thine, or at thy Mercy. For whether thou becomest Master by Force, or by Claim of Inheritance, it will be equally treasonable to contend with thee, when thou art Master. Thou needest only sanctify thy Usurpation with the profane Colour of Divine Right, and then all thy Violence is Law.

All the Laws in being are against thee. Canst thou give us any satisfying Reason, why all our Laws, and with them our Conscience, our Bible and our Property, should be sacrificed to thy Will? What is it to us that thou callest thy Name Stuart? A Name that will gain thee no Man that was not bewitched to thee before, by desperate Superstition, or desperate Ambition, or a desperate Fortune.

Under thy pretended Grandfather (to go no further back) we had a Struggle for our All; and by God’s Blessing and the Assistance of William the Valiant Prince of Orange, our Struggle was successful; as we trust, in God, our present Struggle will be. God hath blessed us with another William; we trust another Deliverer, a Hero and a Protestant, like his renowned Namesake; a Youth inured to Dangers and Battles, and ennobled by them; the Champion of Freemen, the Scourge of Rebels, the Terror of France, and thy Terror. Thou flyest before him, thou and the desperate Host: We firmly hope that thy Flight will soon be final. We have now, as we had then, the zealous Concurrence of all Ranks of Protestants, Churchmen and Dissenters. Nor do we fear the Power and Malice of the Papists, thy only unchangeable Friends, and our unchangeable Enemies. Thou hast no Argument to offer but thy Will, and thy Sword: And this was thy pretended Grandfather’s best Argument. The Defence of our Religion and our Laws (the only Glory of a King and his only Support) was so far from his Heart, that though he promised and swore to preserve both inviolably, he openly strove to extirpate one and to abolish the other.

What canst thou promise that he did not swear? And what were his Oaths and all his Engagements to his Protestant Subjects, but Snares laid to lull them fast asleep, and then to destroy them before they were thoroughly awake? His mad and ungodly Zeal hurried him too fast. He would not allow his People sufficient Time to be well deceived. His sacred Oaths were violated almost as soon as made. Verily, he broke some Parts of his Oath before he took it, by seizing the Revenues to be settled by Parliament before the Parliament had granted them; and then asked the Parliament to grant him what he had seized. His blind Bigotry to Popery (as Bigotry is always without Bounds in a narrow Genius) made the Protestant Faith, as well as the English Councils, odious to him. He was blindly led by the Jesuits, and other Emissaries from Rome, particularly by an idolatrous Woman of that Communion, his Italian Wife. His whole Conduct was such, so perfidious, so precipitate and arbitrary, that whoever is not for ever warned by it against Popery in their Princes, and against a Popish Prince on the English Throne, will never take any Warning, never be a real Englishman.

Thou canst not deceive us with thy Promises; we shall not trust thee even upon thy Oath. We know how Papists reason, and how easily Popish Priests can absolve Popish Princes. No Oath must be kept that mars the Catholic Faith, and Catholic Tyranny. Neither canst thou convince any reasonable Man, that ever Popery prevailed without Tyranny, or that any Tyranny was complete without Popery in any State called Christian: Nor canst thou prove, that ever any Popish Prince kept Faith with a Protestant People.

But thou hast indeed in Fact dispensed with thyself from imposing upon us, by any artful faithless Engagements in form, to maintain our Rights; whether from thy own Modesty, that thou wilt not profess what thou art far from intending; or that thy Priests do not think it good Policy to seek by fair Means, what they hope, and perhaps make thee hope, to gain for thee and themselves by a strong Hand. Thou didst therefore mock the People of Glasgow, with notable Bitterness, when in Defence of the Demands of thy wild Mountain-men, sent to rob them of a great Sum, thou toldest them, “Thou wouldest maintain them in all their Rights;” when, in Fact, thou wast convincing them, that they hadNone. The good People of Scotland may say the same Thing to Thee, and yet drive thee out of their Country the Day after. Had not the Men of Glasgow a Right to their own Money? Pray, what Right hadst thou to it, besides the great Swords of thy half-naked Highlanders, who make no Distinction between Robbery and Right, and are therefore proper Defenders of thine?

Thy Mockery of poor Men in Distress was still more bitter, when thou didst acquaint the forlorn Inhabitants of that City (trembling with the Daggers of Savages at their Throats) with what great Success thou hadst had, and “how it became them to be glad, that thou hadst had so much.” As thou wast stripping them with an unfeeling Heart (for Heretics deserve no Pity) couldst thou thus banter them too with an unmoved Countenance? Whatever thou didst mean, or howsoever thou didst look, thy whole Conduct, and thy Words, on this Occasion, furnish an instructive Lesson to every Briton, and will, I hope, make as deep and proper Impressions upon all Britons, as they did, and do, and still shall upon me.

Young Man, I pray thee, who sent for thee, and what didst thou come for? That thou comest in the Name of thy Father may be a Plea in the Mouth of a Child; but instead of an Argument for thee, rather excites an Alarm against thee. Thy Father is a Name of Contempt and Aversion to Protestants and Englishmen; and none but the Ungodly, the Unenlightened Dwellers upon the Mountains, have invited thee or stood by thee; Sons of Belial and of Blood, chosen to support thy Reign by committing universal Plunder, and cutting Throats. Or if France and Spain and Rome espouse thy Cause, can it be any other than the Cause of Babylon and of Antichrist? Canst thou conceive a Cause more odious, more execrable and alarming to the Ears of Englishmen and Protestants?

What comest thou for? Is it to restore thy Father to what he never had, a Crown? Thy Father is debarred from the Crown; and common Fame says, is as much unqualified as disqualified for it. And how well qualified thou art, let the Laws declare, together with thy lawless Intrusion, and the barbarian Rule exercised by thee and thy Savages in Scotland. We know of no Restoring in England but what we dread to see restored, Popery and Slavery. Is it because thy pretended Grandfather attempted to establish both, that thy Father pretends to succeed him? Thy true Errand is to abolish our dear and sacred Birthright, the matchless Blessings of Liberty, with all the Laws that secure these heavenly Blessings, as also the illustrious Protestant King, who secures all these Laws. The Laws are the Rule of his Reign; as Veracity and Magnanimity are the Rules of his Life. He never, in one Instance, deceived his Subjects; never wronged, never defrauded, much less oppressed, one single Subject. His Heart is too manly to be false. He abhors Popery, as it promotes Contradiction and Falsehood, and inspires Cruelty and Deceit, with Perjury and Tyranny, the true Marks of the Beast and her Followers!

What thinkest thou of thy pretended Grandfather? What thinkest thou of thy Father and thyself, and of what thou art now doing and pursuing? Was the Reign of King James any more like the Reign of King George, than insolent and merciless Oppression is like fatherly Protection; than mean Deceit (very mean in a King) is like princely Sincerity and the open Spirit of a Man; or than diabolical Perjury is like the pious and heroic Adherence of our Great King to Faith and Oaths?

How dost thou like this Explanation and true Comparison? What is in thy Father to recommend him to Englishmen and Protestants? Is it the Blood of thy presended Grandfather? This is a Distinction that would do him or thee but little good: None but Enthusiasts regard it: We true Protestants and Englishmen disown it. I doubt many despise it. Dost thou hope to bring it into Esteem, and with it thy Popery and thy murdering Robbers, half-clad Highlanders, in sported Blankets?

Whatever Name thou dost assume, thou art an Usurper: Whatever Title thou dost claim, thou hast in reality none but Violence. Thy Success must be our Destruction.———With what Face canst thou desire a Free People to be Slaves to an Outlaw and an Exile? The Laws, the Laws of God and Man, are on our Side: By these Laws thou art a Criminal condemned. Thou art indeed a desperate Adventurer. All thy Way is paved with Guilt and Danger. Dost thou set up thyself, or the Phantom thy Father, both Strangers, both Outlaws, against the Peace and Felicity of Three great Kingdoms? Must He or Thou reign, though They perish; as surely they must, if either of you do? This argues a desperate Spirit. It is bidding Defiance to the Living God: It is denouncing Perdition to his Creatures.

Whenever this Nation hath wanted a King, they have chosen a King. William the Third; the late King George; and this King George, came all to the Throne by the Invitation and Authority of Parliament. These Kings we know; but, What art thou? Surely not a King, but a very strange Character, a Wanderer and a Robber, attempting to seize a Kingdom. Thy Abettors and Followers suit thy Person and Fortune. Any one of them though unable to read thy assumed Title, might, with equal Pretences, produce a longer Genealogy for himself than thine, and as sounding. For, according to thy Example and Demand, every Man that can, may rob and master human Society.

I bless God, we want not a King: If we did, we should never chuse nor admit thee. I bless God, we have a good and a gracious King, a just and a brave King. Is it likely, that we shall change him for one descended from thy pretended Grandfather? So thou mayest depart. God bless King George; God bless and multiply his Race; God protect his Family and these Nations, and blast the Hopes of all Pretenders with the Devices of all Papists, at home and abroad.

O young Man! this is the warm and devout Prayer (however thou mayst dislike it) of thy upright Monitor,

A True Englishman, and
A Plain Christian, stiled

A Quaker.