Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A34731
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Counsel to the true English, or, A word of advice to the Jacobites by a true member of the Church of England, as by law establish'd, in a letter to a friend.
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True member of the Church of England.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing C6516; ESTC R15946
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11,192
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12
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COUNSEL TO THE True English OR A WORD OF ADVICE TO THE JACOBITES By a True Member of the Church of England as by Law Establish'd In a Letter to a Friend Licensed May 22. 1691. LONDON Printed for S. Manship at the Black Bull in Cornhill M DC XCI COUNSEL TO THE True English OR A WORD OF ADVICE TO THE JACOBITES In a Letter to a Friend SIR YOU are pleas'd to desire my Opinion in reference to the Times in answer whereunto I am the freer to impart my sentiments that if true and just they may be improved to the reforming the erroneous Judgments of others and if I should in any circumstance be unhappily mistaken your kind Information may minister to my Conviction In plain terms the Face of England is very Squalid and Uncomfortable and from her frequent Flushings and from the many Contractions therein visible it is easie to guess some strange malignity hath infected the Body and that she is thereby much out of order suddain Startings wild and extravagant Talking panick Fears and Consternations secret Susurrations and Whisperings are infallible symptoms of an evil habit and under these our Dear Mother at this present Juncture sorely laboureth All which are imputed to the late Revolution and as if so suddain a turn had brought upon her a Vertigo many of her Children are giddy some stagger and not a few are fallen from their best Resolutions It is my Opinion That if this great Transaction were well considered and understood what was not prevented might be yet amended it is but common that strange things should raise admiration but where an Extasie or Distraction follows the levity of Mens minds is blameable The way I have thought expedient to raise the lapsed and confirm the unstable is to consider 1. The Occasion requiring 2. The Means introducing 3. The Advantages depending upon this Change The former will shew us our Ruin Misery and Desolation intended In the next we may perceive Providence justly gently and seasonably assisting And in the last if we are wise we may behold our Honour Peace and Happiness restored and setled upon sure and lasting Foundations 1. The Occasion requiring and urging this Revolution It is too unpleasing a subject for the entertainment of any generous mind nor shall my Pen describe the least Scene of our Misery with any such intention to reflect upon the person of a King which all Nations acknowledg as Sacred The Mischances or Errours of Government may with Moderation be considered apart from the Person in whose Reign they hapned and truly at that unhappy time which ought never to be forgotten Religion the one thing needful was fallen below indifferent and it was more commendable to profess none than the true Vast Treasures Mountains of Wealth and Rivers of humane Blood have been sacrific'd in defence of Protestantism which now became an unpardonable Crime to own especially in such as stood Candidates for any Promotion and what by the means of the foregoing vitiousness and looseness together with the prevalency of Interest many did so degenerate that the favour of the Prince weighed down both the Love and Dread of God and his Commission was of more force than Gods Commands yet these were the happy days which some nominal Protestants so heartily wish for again it is no hard matter to guess their Zeal for the Truth from their fond adhering to its Adversary I would willingly ask those Irreligious Loyalists what good what comfort to Mind or Body they could reasonably promise themselves or posterity quatentis Protestants from a Government which had brought it self under the unhappy necessity of introducing Popery a Government which was oblig'd either to suppress the most pleasing hopes of an unlimited Power or else to set up Idotry for its Support This alone would quickly have been fatal to Realm for we cannot be ignorant how Jealous God is of his Honour how severely he punished Israels deviations from the True Worship What Miseries what Plagues what Shame what Captivity did their Spiritual Fornication bring upon them And would not the same Means have produced the same Effects here as in Judea How could any of us have hoped for the longer continuance of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ among us who must having embraced the Romish Superstition detract from and impair his Merits by admitting the Servants into Co-partnership with the Master in the great Work of the Mediation and so deprive the Son of God of great part of his Honour to give it to the Children of Men Have so many Laborious and Learned Wise and Pious Volumes by Gods Blessing and Mens Travail been wrote to defend and justifie our Religion and must these without detection of the least Error be condemned to Flames as False and Erroneous Have those Holy Fathers who offered up their Lives to Fire and Sword rather than comply with the unjust and impious Impositions of Rome been honoured with the glorious name of Martyrs and will their ungrateful Posterity now prophanely Curse that Title and call them Hereticks and Rebels to the Spouse of Christ Yet this we must have come to had Heaven tolerated the former Government longer What has rob'd Truth of its Beauty and put so charming a Vizard on Error that our Arms are open for its Reception Why should Christians become weary of Gods Reigning over them by his Spirit of Grace and of a sudden choose to submit themselves to the wiles lusts and passions of sinful and miserably mistaken men yet this they must do that will call back the late Government Tell me you that are sick of this Revolution with what kind of Arguments do you justifie to your selves the false blasphemous and ungodly Doctrins of Rome What Arts what Devices can you think sufficient to perswade those Souls which know themselves freed by the Blood of Christ to serve him in Righteousness and Holiness to practise such a voluntary Humility as to subject themselves in all their Concerns as well Spiritual as Temporal to the Superstition and Idolatry to the Pride and sinful Traditions of the Man of Sin Have you had your Bibles too long and now grow weary of them and so out of Policy for your ease would let in that Religion which must in its own defence take them from you Are you so angry with Prayers because Common and in your Mother Tongue that you long for such as are strange and in an unknown Tongue such as the Priest alone and sometimes not he neither understands Have two Sacraments been thought too many and burdensome by some of you and will seven be lighter But such of you as have a due Veneration for both how will you approve it when you shall see them Celebrated contrary to their Primitive Institution Instead of being used as Conduits of Grace they are made Instruments of Rebellion Blood and Cruelty You that are now asham'd to acquaint your loving your grave and pious Pastor with the sins which gall and
overthrow and that their Projects were permitted so far to succeed as might discover the malicious Intentions of their Authors and convince us that our Ruin was by them concluded yet were they blasted before they attain'd their desired maturity What could effect this What could snatch a Prey out of the Jaws of Destruction but the powerful hand of Heaven Providence was likewise seen in that wonderful Christian Patience then exercised by the Subjects in general notwithstanding such manifest and important Provocations as when an illegal Army was constantly insulting over them their Charters pull'd and commanded from them when all hopes of Justice were excluded when such Persons were put into all places of Trust whether Sacred Civil and Military as had combin'd to set up a Power and introduce a Religion which must inevitably and speedily confound all As none but God alone could bestow such a wonderful Patience so nothing but this Patience could have preserv'd them for a Revolution for the least Offence given the Hereditary Title had changed to that of Conquest When all had been lost as our Enemies desired and expected this Patience did suppress Choler though not Fear it kept the Tongue from reviling though not the Heart from trembling the Hand quiet tho the Ear was daily alarm'd Such admirable Patience such modest Submission would have turn'd the Heart of any Father to the Children had not the cruel Jesuit prepossessed it and to prevent all opportunities of doing Justice and shewing Mercy successfully advis'd against tolerating Addresses Man's Extremity is usually Heaven's Opportunity and when among us all humane Help failed then did he that sitteth in Heaven and also ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men stand up to help these meek and oppressed Kingdoms It was from God that counsel came seeing the present Possessor inexorable to apply to the next Heir who stood bound in Conscience to appear in Their Assistance who were both Christians and part of his Inheritance nor could he possibly connive at their waste and ruin unless resolv'd upon his own Dishonour and Damage To his R. H. therefore the Nobles and Gentry of each Degree and Quality speed away their Humble Petition such a large Description of so many various and intollerable Sufferings as they were constrained to give set his Heroick Blood on fire His own particular danger was not so much considered as our timely Preservation and he resolutely and generously undertakes the just Defence of the Forlorn and them that had no Helper Who doubts the Hand of the Almighty in this blessed Revolution Who else could incline the Dutch a People naturally jealous of their Liberty and Interest a People highly disoblig'd by Acts of Hostility and open Wars by our unkind deserting them in their necessity to put forth the utmost of their Strength under the Princes Conduct in order for our Relief It was the Righteous God who would not suffer the Debt contracted in the days of Q. Elizabeth to be longer unpaid Farther When these were Landed what became of the Courage of the Standing Army Who fill'd them with that Consternation as to turn back in the day of Battle Did not their Guilty Consciences apprehend these Succours to be as the Armies of the Living God against whom it was in vain to make Resistance What more just Proposals could a Prince so highly concern'd after so great Advantages obtain'd offer Than that all Matters might be accomodated by the great Council of the Nation a Parliament free from all manner of Corruption and Prejudice Father Peters had Christned their cruel bloody and unjust doings by the Name of Doing God good Service But now the Man whose Eyes this unexpected help had opened saw how Religious soever Holy Mother Church might style them yet they were not justifiable and therefore so dreaded the Examination that he judg'd it greater Prudence to Abdicate the Realm than be detected The Flock is in great Danger when the careless Shepherd deserts it but in greater when he angrily devotes it to the Ravenous Wolf And that we were not a Prey the greatest Thanks are due to Heaven for sending us so seasonable a Deliverance As for Moderation What greater could be shewn in every Transaction than what was at this time common Especially if we regard how desperate our Case was neither the Person of the late K. J. nor any of his Attendants suffered the least Violence more than what the present Circumstances of which they knew the Authors made necessary or their own indiscreet stiffness pull'd upon them When a blind Zeal and boundless Ambition shall change the Hearts of Princes so that they have no regard no pity no care or concern for the Safety and Well-being of their People these Transports render them uncapable of continuing their Government This was once the Judgment of Crowned Heads when they were consulted in the Case of Portugal whose King became so frenzical as to kill his Subjects in sport and without due Process of Law What greater Madness can a Prince possibly be guilty of Than to destroy and waste his People to rob them of their Antient and Lawful Priviledges to bear that mortal hatred to their Religion though by Laws established as to Sacrifice the Professors to extinguish the Profession The Government of England is certaily Feodatory and the Solemn Oaths taken by our Kings at their Coronation to Govern according to Law has so much more than a Ceremony that from thence rises the Subjects Homage and Fealty Who knows not that one part of the Covenant being broken all Obligations of keeping the other ceases No Reason to cry out There is Treachery O Ahaziah when he that exclaims is to himself the greatest Traytor This Revolution in the main depended upon the Divine Pity and Commiseration the outward Causes thereunto moving were The Change of Religion Violation of Laws Deserting the Throne repairing to the professed Enemy of the State seeking and employing Foreign Force to enslave a Free People Had not these things been K. J. might have now been at Whitehall and have been Lord of all true English Hearts and Affections But what Heart can truly love or Hand fight for that Governor that they are sure will destroy them We have better Eyes and cannot like Mocks adore that Light which will e're long consume us 3. The Advantages attending this Revolution are both as great and as many as either our Necessities require or our Curiosity can invent In short Religion with which no worldly Consideration is worthy to stand in Competition is by secured to us and our posterity The King that now Reigns is not only flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and so our Natural Liege Lord but of our Religion also and so he ought to be the more dear as we are the more safe Our Laws are once more Sacred our Priviledges allow'd our Rights asserted and could we be so happy as to be reconciled to God by an hearty Repentance and an honest Reformation