Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	13,648	5	4.7769	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54796	A vindication of The character of a popish successor, in a reply to two pretended ansvvers to it by the author of the character.	Settle, Elkanah, 1648-1724.; Phillips, John, 1631-1706.	1681 (1681)	Wing P2114; ESTC R6364	14,481	18

A VINDICATION OF THE CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor IN A REPLY TO Two Pretended ANSVVERS to it By the Author of the CHARACTER LONDON Printed for R. Dew 1681. A VINDICATION OF THE CHARACTER OF A Popish Successor In a REPLY to two pretended ANSWERS c. A Reply to the first Answer printed by N. Thompson THERE has lately as the Author has most truly exprest a very slight Reply been made to a Pamphlet call'd A Character of a Popish Successor in which he arraigns the Pamphleteer as he calls him of contradictory discourse and reasoning but says his principles are not so To prove which he allows you to fancy a picture of the late Rebellion for like that it begins with fears and jealousies of Religion Liberty and Property and continues in murmur and revile at the Imperial Root and to stiffen the knees that would bow to a crowned head The last two parts of this Inditement has been so far from being justified by the Author that where he found them they were own'd as the evil effects of a worse cause but by advising us not to be subdued like less than English men not to submit our necks like slaves to the Roman yoke he does infer we must repel a King under the name of an Invader Truly when tho' by the permission or aid of any English King Popery Superstition Idolatry and Cruelty are entring our Gates and are ready to butcher our Protestant Ministers at their Divine Worship make Human Smithfield Sacrifice of us our Wives and Children we justly may resist the Invading Tyrannick Power of Rome In the next place our Answering Pamphleteer would have you believe notwithstanding your own sense and reason to the contrary there is no just fear of Popery nor any danger in any of their Plots but from his own wise suppositions drawn from 41 and 48. has found or made a Plot and as prudently laid it at the Presbyterians door a Plot so subtil that they have outdone the very Jesuits themselves in the contrivance and laid it with so much art and cunning that no heart could have imagined it nor no eye discerned it but his And now let us take notice who this honest Gentleman under the sinily of his Leviathans means that sport and take their pastimes in our troubled deep whose restless and uneasie rolling does not foretell but is it self the storm But I think with our wise Authors leave this had been better proved before so positively asserted considering 't is no less than three whole successive Parliaments his Leviathans that have been restless to find out a Plot and vigorous to prevent our ruin all which he has drawn in as the greatest nay only principals of our destruction and as his Text goes are themselves the storm or Plot he musters up a thundering accusation against them that they foment the people into rebellion distract them with dreadful apprehensions casting them into a raving frenzy and as the greatest plague of the wicked makes them afraid where no fear is And this honest well principled man is all this while a man of the Church of England And to prove the correspondence of this truth with that of his Pamphlet we may easily remember that all the Parliaments were not all Presbyters the first Parliament were all men chose at His Majesties blessed Restoration when there was not the least favour for that Party and those Loyal Wise and Honest Patriots of their Countrey gave the first blow to the Plot first Allarmed the people made Tests and removed the DUKE out of his places and seat in Parliament yet these are the men and this the storm which is ready to shatter our Royal Vessel the Brittish Kingdom into pieces But since he is a zealous Protestant they have no reason to be angry at his making bold with his own Party But why should we stand in fear of Popery Ay why indeed says he He has no fear at all they will not hurt him for his Religion then why should we fear But alas all are not such Protestants as he Heaven knows such Champions for their Cause and Interest and therefore we may have reason to fear notwithstanding all his brotherly advice to the contrary In the next place let us see what small difference he makes between the principles of the Church of Rome and those of the Church of England only a few disputable matters of faith and not very material Ceremonies of Divine Worship as what harm is it to pray to Saints to worship Images or what great matter to believe the Infallibility of the Pope or the Transubstantiation in the Sacrament or to allow the Doctrine of the Roman Church without error when it shall depose and murder Kings command Massacres make Plots Fire Cities Canonize the principal Actors of their Revenge and barbarous Cruelties and consecrate the Instruments of death Is it not hard says our honest Protestant that these frivolous divisions on a sudden should ruine and efface all those good characters of Magnanimity and Iustice of Generosity and Goodness in this our Popish Prince which even his greatest enemies nay the most detestable Character it self allows him Indeed Mr. Scribler I remember no such allowance but as your self remarkt suppose and suppose But if the encouraging of Plots and Popery holding correspondence with his Holiness and other Forreign Princes contrary to the Laws of this Nation be Virtues those and more perhaps of such a nature may be allowed him In the next place he takes a great deal of pains to let you know what the Virtues are which though the Characterizer does not understand he does especially when Cardinal and to shew you he is a man of truth and can keep his word sometimes he has there made so slight a Reply as I have not thought it worth the answering but will refer the ingenious Reader to compare that part of the Character with his Answer and now I will skip over this page as he has done several which he could not with all his stock of Impudence defend Well now says he since we have Laws to suppress Popery what remains then for a Popish King but to put those Laws in execution and for us but to sit down under the shadow of this Fence Yes I think a greater assurance that he will execute them than our Answerer can give His next Argument or rather Opinion is so far from thinking that the Reign of a Popish King can be any ways advantageous to the Iesuitical Instruments that he rather believes it will be their destruction and why because there is Laws of foree against them and the power of executing those Laws he himself has already given to the people and which he has concluded they will more vigorously do under such a King But hold this Sham wont pass we know the people may convict them but none can punish them but their Prince But if the people by the authority of our Scribler do what will he have

him too since by his handling both these Arguments with so much convincing art and cunning he has proved good Wits are incident to ill memories But now he says 'T is plain tho' the Triple Mitre be struck at the three Crowns is their aim nor would they be so violent against Popery which they have no reason to fear but that they know 't is the charm to bring in the people to the ruine of Monarchy knowing the multitude to be not unlike Beasts or Cattel in a Ship which in any storm that is raised if they are made apprehensive of the Vessels sinking on the one side run immediately with such a violent panick fear to the other that they overset the Ship and quite overwhelm themselves and it in ruin And all this lyes again at the Parliaments door because they have endeavoured for the good of the Kingdom to disinherit a Popish Successor and have not supplied the King with moneys tho' at the same time they have declared if his Majesty will be graciously pleased to join with them and bar all the pretence of Papists to this English Diadem secure their fears by passing that one Bill against that Prince whose succession is the terror and distraction of this Nation an Act in which consists the peace the safety and the glory of three Kingdoms let him but be removed from all pretensions to this Crown which justly may be done by King and Parliament and they will open their purses so wide to Him give Him that Mass of Wealth as will make Him both fear'd abroad and beloved at home So vast a Treasure will they make Him as none of all His Royal Ancestors nor He Himself was ever Master of But should they have done 't without it would have betrayed the Nation ruin'd their own Priviledges and left all Grievances as unredressable as unredrest and then they might thank themselves for what would follow And next our Scribler thinks it very unreasonable that the Prince alone should not have the benefit of Liberty of Conscience which every subject in his dominions takes very ill to have denied to himself Truly 't is hard indeed but the circumstances of this Nation considered not at all to be wondred at for I believe all men of sense as well as Sir Poll as he calls him will take it for granted that if this Popish Heir comes to the Crown he will by the dictates of that Religion in spight of Vows and Covenants promote the Romish Interest with all the severity injustice and tyranny that most religious Cruelty can invent But whether or no he will condescend to make the least excuse for it as the Characterizer has supposed he might I cannot tell but our Answerer that laughs at the supposition 't is probable knows more of his mind than to think he will be guilty of so much curtesy as to make us an excuse for any thing he does against us If says a Critick in the Character these be the dangers of a Popish King why have we not such strong such potent Laws made before this Popish Heir comes to the Crown that it shall be impossible for him ever to set up Popery tho' he shou'd never so much endeavour it The Character answers To endeavour to do it by Law even with those Laws we have already against it is impossible But it is likewise as impossible for any man of sence to believe that he being a Papist and Vassal to the Pope either will or can put those Laws in execution But then a little after 't is confest he may be totally restrain'd from all power of introducing Popery by the force of such Laws as may be made to tye up his hands and put the execution of those Laws into the hands of the People and consequently those Laws must be such as must ruin his prerogative Well but granting thus much says our Answerer what you infer from this is doubly ridiculous first that no Monarch would thus intail such an effeminacy on a Crown as shall render the Imperial Majesty of England but a pageant a meer puppet upon a wire And what can you make more of a King that has no power no not so much as the meanest subject in his Dominions can have after these Laws are made to tye up his hands he cannot put an Officer in any place throughout his Kingdoms for fear he should be a Papist nor take one servant of that perswasion into his Court they being all liable then to the conviction and persecution of the people and when it is so far from him to defend them that 't is not in his power to favour in any case the dearest of his own party for may not his subjects or rather his Masters inspect into his actions and call him to account for every thing they think a misdemeanor having the Law in their own hands and when his prerogative is thus ruined is not this Prince more like a Pageant born upon mens shoulders than a King which when they are weary of they may throw him down and dash him all to pieces But these Laws says he that bind up a King so strictly suppose him to be a Popish King such only to be restrained this is not therefore an intailed effeminacy but a short eclipsing of the full splendor of a Crown which in the next Protestant Successor is to shine forth with greater luster But how will you assure us that the people after they have been once possest of such a glorious Power will ever give it back again Indeed I doubt it for we have not seen the English men so willing to part with any of their Magna Charta or the least of their Priviledges No I am rather afraid it will rather give them the itch of taking the Name as well as Power upon them and I believe 't is the only expedient to subvert this glorious Monarchy into a Commonwealth But to give us hopes that we may have a very good and merciful Popish King that will neither remember Petitions Protestings nor Association Votes he refers us to the consideration of his Royal Brothers Clemency which indeed has been so great that ingratitude it self cannot but acknowledg it but all this while he was a Protestant Prince and therefore that can be no Argument to make us think a Papist King will be as gracious for were his Nature an Original of Mercy he could not be the man he would be without the forfeiture both of his Conscience Religion and his Kingdoms for if an Emperor or a King says Parsons shows any favour to an Heretick for that he loseth his Kingdom Philopat p. 109. Becanus another of their Authors says If that Kings and Princes are negligent in rooting out of Hereticks they are to be excommunicated and deposed by the Pope Controv. Anglican p. 131. 132. And when the Papists tell us how many Virtues he is Master of and amongst the rest how noble and how strong his friendship is