Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A87481
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His Majesties letter from St. Germans to the convention in order to settle these kingdoms: that was refused to be open'd.
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James II, King of England, 1633-1701.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing J199; ESTC R225332
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4,586
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4
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they Meet and Sit and from whose Royal Assent all their Acts receive their Life and Sanction is under actual Confinement The hurring of Us under a Guard from Our City of London whose returning Loyalty We could no longer Trust and the other Indignities We suffered in the Person of the Earl of Feversham when sent to him by Us and in that Barbarous Confinement of Our Own Person We shall not here repeat because they are We doubt not by this time very well known and may We hope if enough considered and reflected upon together with his other Violations and Breaches of the Laws and Liberties of England which by this Invasion he pretended to restore be sufficient to open the eyes of all Our Subjects and let them plainly see what every one of them may expect and what Treatment they shall find from him if at any time it may serve his purpose from whose hands a Sovereign Prince an Uncle and a Father could meet with no better Entertainment However the sense of these Indignities and the just apprehension of further Attempts against Our Person by them who already endeavoured to murder Our Reputation by Infamous Calumnies as if We had been capable of supposing a Prince of Wales which was incomparably more Injurous than the Destroying of our Person It Self together with a Serious Reflection on a Saying of Our Royal Father of Blessed Memory when He was in the like Circumstances That there is little distance between the Prisons and the Graves of Princes which afterwards proved too true in His Case could not but persuade Us to make use of that which the Law of Nature gives to the meanest of Our Subjects of freeing Our Selves by all means possible from that unjust Confinement and Restraint And this We did not more for the Security of Our Own Person than that thereby We might be in a better Capacity of transacting and providing for every thing that may contribute to the Peace and Settlement of Our Kingdoms For as on the one hand no change of Fortune shall make Us forget Our Selves so far as to Condescend to any thing unbecoming that High and Royal Station in which God Almighty by Right of Succession has placed Us So on the other hand neither the Provocation or Ingratitude of Our Own Subjects nor any other Consideration whatsoever shall ever prevail with Us to make the least step contrary to the True Interest of the English Nation which we ever did and ever must look upon as Our Own. OUR WILL and Pleasure therefore is That you of Our Privy Councel take the most effectual Care to make these our Gracious Intentions known to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster to the Lord Mayor and Commons of Our City fo London and to all Our Subjects in general And to assure them that We desire nothing more than to return and hold a Free Parliament wherein We may have the best opportunity of undeceiving Our People and shewing the Sincerity of those Protestations We have often made of the preserving the Liberties and Properties of Our Subjects and the Protestant Religion more especially the Church of England as by Law Established with such Indulgence for those that Dissent from Her as We have always thought Our Selves in Justice and Care of the general Welfare of Our People bound to procure for them And in the mean time You of Our Privy Councel who can Judge better by being upon the place are to send Us your Advice what is fit to be done by Us towards Our Returning and the Accomplishing those Good Ends. And We do require you in Our Name and by Our Authority to endeavour so to Suppress all Tumults and Disorders that the Nation in general and every one of Our Subjects in particular may not receive the least prejudice from the present Distractions that is possible So not doubting of your Dutiful Obedience to these Our Royal Commands VVe bid you Heartily Farewel Given at St. Germans en Laye the 4 / 14 January 1688 / 9. And of Our Reign the Fourth Year Directed thus to the Lords and Others of Our Privy Councel of Our Kingdom of England ALl which We sent with a Servant of Our own to be delivered as it was Directed but as yet We have no Account of it We likewise Directed Copies to several of you the Peers of Our Realm believing that none Durst take upon them to Intercept or open your Letters but of these likewise We have no Account But We cannot wonder that all Arts are used to hinder you from knowing Our Sentiments since the Prince of Orange rather chose against all Law to Imprison the Earl of Feversham and to drive Us away from Our Palace than to receive Our Invitation of coming to Us or Hearing what We had to propose to Him well knowing that what We had to offer Would Content all Reasonable Men and was what he Durst not Trust you with the Knowledge of We think fit now to let you know that whatever Crimes shall be Committed or whose Posterity soever shall come to Suffer for those Crimes We are resolved to be Innocent And therefore do Declare to you that We are Ready to Return when Safely We can and to Redress all the Disorders in Our Kingdoms in a Free Parliament Called according to Law and held without Constraint More particularly To Secure the Church of England as by Law Established and by the Advice of that Parliament give such Indulgence to Dissenters as Our People may have no Reason to be Jealous of We will likewise by the Advice of that Parliament Heal all the Divisions Cover with Oblivion all the Faults and Restore the Happiness of Our People which never can be Effectually done by any other Power and which We expect you will seriously and speedily Consider And so We bid you heartily Farewel Given at St. Germans en Laye the 3d. of February 1689. And of Our Raign the fourth The Letter to the Commons was of the same Tenure