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A57101 A Review of the reflections on the Prince of Orange's declaration 1688 (1688) Wing R1199; ESTC R232287 9,666 4

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A REVIEW of the REFLECTIONS ON THE Prince of Orange's Declaration 1. THE Prince's unwillingness to charge the Government with any thing but what was Evident and Undeniable affords the Reflection with which this Paper begins That all the noise of a secret League with France has been only a feigned danger and a false fear since it is not so much as mentioned in the Prince's Declaration It is certain that the French Ambassadour asserted it in a publick Audience and in a Memorial given in to the States General at the Hague and all the World has clearly seen thro' the grimmace that the Court of England made upon it to Mr. Skelton for it is not to be supposed that the Court of France would have published this Alliance unless it had been made or that they would have made it unless they had seen full powers for it in Mr. Skelton's hands But after all as the Articles of it are secret ●o the Court of England having disown'd it the Princes exactness in not mentioning a doubtful thing deserved rather a Reflection in his favour 2. The Reflector is offended at the Prince's using the Stile of We and Us for it seems thou and thee are so dear to him that he cannot hear any thing out of that Cant. But tho' by the Connivance of our Court France has robbed the Prince of his Principality yet the Rights and Dignity of a Soveraign Prince remain still with him which will justify his speaking in the plural number And the other terms of Authority that are in his Declaration being the usual Stile of all that Command Armies his using them imports no more than that he is resolved to use force for the Restoring of our Liberty and if the Stile is a little high it is their fault who would not hearken to softer and humbler representations and that had made it a Crime so much as to Petition 3. There is nothing works more on weak people than the fastning an ill name even on the best actions and therefore Invasion being a term that naturally gives horrour the Reflector fastens that upon the Prince's Attempt to save the Nation but things appear now too broad to be disguised and therefore the wise and worthy part of the Nation esteems that to be a Deliverance which is here called an Invasion It is true the Prince promises to send back his Forces which imports that he intends to stay behind for he having engaged to see a Free Parliament Called and Assembled must stay after his Army is sent away since no Parliament can be chosen with freedom while the Nation is over-awed by a Military Power but when that is laid down of all hands then the Prince will be obliged to see the promise that he has made to the Nation for a Free Parliament executed So that all the malicious insinuations of his Aspiring to be King which return so often in the Reflections are thrown out only to create an unjust jealousie of His Highnesses Intentions 4. The security which the Reflector promises to the Nation and the Religion by the Concurrence of Protestants to save the Court is now a little too late the same Cheat will hardly pass twice This had once a great effect in bringing the Nation off from the design of the Exclusion and Men in the simplicity of their heart believed it But the Court has taken so much pains to convince them of their errour and has succeeded so effectually in it that it is too great an imposing upon us to fancy that we can be so soon deluded again in the same manner We know now by sad experience what all the Promises and Oaths that a Papist can make to Protestants do signifie and we see how little is to be built even on the honour of a Prince when a Jesuit has the keeping of his Conscience Nor can it be any Reproach on our Religion if the Nation comes under the Protection of a Prince that has so near an interest in the Succession to the Crown to preserve it self and the Establish'd Religion from the Conspiracies of those who intend to destroy both and had made a great way in it and would have probably brought their designs to a full ripeness this Winter if the Prince's coming had not checkt them The Reflector thinks the Prince ought to have turned his Arms rather on France and allows that he has a just right to do it But England had a greater Title to his Protection and ought to have been first taken care of by him and when that is once done the proposition here made with relation to France may be more seasonable 5. Great exceptions are taken because the Prince founds the Invasions that are made on the Protestant Religion on this that it is the Religion Establish'd by Law since our Reflecter tells us that it is the Truth and not the Legality of a Religion that is its warrant and that otherwise Paganism and Judaism had been still the Establisht Religion But the Reflector confounds things of different Natures If we consider Religion as it gives us a Title to the favour of God and to Eternal happiness we ought to have no regard but to the truth of it But when Religion is considered as the first of all Civil Rights then the Legal Establishment is the foundation of its Title And if Legislators had not changed Laws Paganism had been still the Legal Religion notwithstanding its falsehood and tho the Truth of the Christian Religion is the only ground upon which we believe it yet it must become Legal as well as it is true before we can claim the Protection of the Law and the Government that has secured it to us so that to fight against Popery where that is the Establisht Religion 〈◊〉 as certainly a Sin as it is a debt that we owe our Religion and Country to fight for the Protestant Religion when the Law is for it and illegal violence is imployed to pull it down 6 The Reflector's Common-place-stuff with relation to the Dispencing Power has been so oft exposed that it scarce deserves a review The Obligation of all Laws depends on the force of the Penalties against Transgressours so that the Dispensing with Penal Laws carries in it the Dispensing with all Laws whatsoever and by this Doctrine the whole frame and security of our Government is at the King's discretion Nor will that distinction of malum in se and malum prohibitum save the matter unless all the World were agreed upon the point what things are evil of themselves and what not In the sense of a Papist all the Laws against their Religion are so far from being Obligatory of their own Nature that they are impious attempts upon that Authority which they think Infallible Therefore all the distinction that is offered to save us from the exorbitancy of this Dispensing Power as if it could not reach to things that are evil of themselves is of no force unless a