Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A70628
|
A Most serious expostulation with several of my fellow-citizens in reference to their standing so high for the D.Y.'s interest at this juncture of time
|
|
1680
(1680)
|
Wing M2919A; ESTC R14647
|
5,553
|
6
|
to make one who is a Papist Head of the Church of England you labour thereby to make our Church a great Monster for if our Head reckon as he then must us his Body Hereticks rotten and damned where 's our Body Where will be our Church What Agreement between the Head and Body Will it not inevitably run into Confusion shall we have a Father of our Church who by his own Faith is obliged as much as he can to destroy her and is bound by the Romish Principles to deal with her as a Harlot therefore if you set up his Interest farwell Church of England farwel Protestant Religion in England there 's no Medium in the World considering the Power when in his hand and the implacable Restlesness of the Jesuits Therefore seriously consider of it you see plainly that so far as you are for this Interest you are against the Church of England Is it possible you can forget Queen Maries dayes the number of Martyrs that then suffered enough to shew you the sad Effects of a Popish Successor's coming to the Crown and will you desire to send your Selves Wives Children Fathers and Mothers to the Stake to be burn'd for Hereticks Read the Book of Martyrs if these things so easily slip your mind Oh! never forget her fine Wheedles to the Suffolk men to assist her coming to the Crown the fair promises she made them not to alter the least point in their Religion yet assoon as she thereby obtained her End she burn'd more of them than of any County in England else Remember how many she martyred in the space of four or five years consider what havock she would have made with the Church of England had she Reigned forty or fifty years undoubtedly she would not by her good will have left one Protestant alive all over England I say consider would you have it so again will you endeavour to put the Protestant Religion in as great hazard of the same Persecution once more Oh! let your Tongues rather cleave to your Mouthes or your right hands perish Use your utmost Endeavours to prevent it whilst in some measure it is in your Power least in a little time the Papists with their tricks put it out of your power and when too late you may relent with anguish of Soul and without Remedy Secondly If you are for the Succession of the D. are you not for the French Interest so consequently against the Interest of England your Native Countrey That this is so I beg you consider how the D. is linked with the French K. that cruel blood-thirsty * How the D. hath all along espoused the French Interest appears by the Letters brought to light in the Tryal of Coleman the D's chief creature there was no doubt about those Letters no not so much as denied I pray do but call to mind some of those Expressions in reference to the D. viz. page 45. Knowing the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my more immediate Master the DUKE and his most Christian Majesty to be so inseparably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all His Majesty the French King was pleased to give order to signifie to his R. H. my Master that His Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good Intentions towards him and that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both to be look'd upon as very unuseful to their Interests Page 46. Father Ferrier begged his R. H. to propose to his most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religion and his Majesty would certainly do all he could to advance both or either of them I communicated it to his R. H. to which his R. H. commanded me to Answer as I did on the twenty ninth of the same Month That his R. H. was very sensible of his most Christian Majesties Friendship and that he would labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing for his Majesty the French King that he was fully convinced their Interests were BOTH ONE that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not onely Unuseful but very DANGEROUS both to England and France that therefore it was necessary they should do all they could to dissolve it page 53. I did communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Ravigney who agreed with me that it would be the greatest Advantage imaginable to his Master to have the D's Power and Credit so far advanced page 54. If we can advance the Duke's Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the reach of Chance for ever Then would Catholicks be at rest and his Most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England mark that beyond all Apprehensions whatsoever Our prevailing in these things would give the greatest BLOW to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received from its birth Page 55. If the D. should once get above them after the tricks they have play'd with him they are not sure he will totally forget the Vsage he has had at their hands For my part sayes he I can scarce believe my self awake or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of our poor Kingdom which hath been a long time oppressed and miserably harassed with Heresie and Schism c. See the whole Letter in the D's own name in page 66. and 67. it being too long here to recite but in short the D. gives therein all Assurances imaginable to the French King's Confessor Above all that passage in another Letter page 69. ought never to be forgotten viz. We have here a Mighty Work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdomes and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a pestilent Heresie which hath domineered over great part of the Northern World a long time there were never such hopes of Success since the Death of our Queen Mary as now in our dayes when God has given us a Prince who is become may I say a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work that which we rely upon most next to God Almighty's Providence and the Favour of my Master the Duke is the mighty mind of his most Christian Majesty I must confess I think his Christian Majestie 's Temporal Interest is so much attracted to that of his R. H. which can never be considerable but upon the Growth and Advancement of the Catholick Religion that his Ministers cannot give him better Advice c. I think Gentlemen here 's enough and too much God knows to convince any wise man in England Possibly we might have had enough to have filled a Volume had not Coleman had time after he was questioned to burn so many of his Papers these Letters aforesaid he onely left as inconsiderable and not worth his destroying Thirdly If you are for the D. so consequently for a Popish Successor are you not for Arbitrary Government and against all Parliaments is it not too notoriously known that the D. hates our Parliaments with an implacable hatred none ever set himself against our Parliaments more than he therefore if he Succeed adieu to all Parliaments must you not expect to be Ruled by Force if you submit not to that will he not call in Force enough from France with whom he hath had such a strict League and who would be glad of such an opportunity to Assist him so that you must expect nothing but a French Slavery at the best Besides it 's not unknown that the D. is a Wilful Person and naturally most obstinate if you put the Power in his hands he will not easily forget what our Parliaments have done but would be glad to put an End to them and then you must lye wholly at the mercy of ambitious Courtiers and merciless Souldiers Sirs Be not so weak as to let any of those specious Discourses spread abroad by the Jesuits under the Notion of the Church of England-men as Coleman's Declaration was to advance the D's Interest or a Popish Successor deceive you be not deluded beguiled and lulled asleep but be Watchful Sober and Considerate look before you and take care of your approaching Election of your Parliament-men chuse such as you have had experience of already to be Couragious and Faithful in this time of Danger to this our City and the Protestant Religion for if that once goes our Liberty goes with it Remember Popery and Slavery are linked together from which Good Lord for ever prevent and defend us FINIS