Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A38384
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Englands concern in the case of His R.H.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing E2953; ESTC R4819
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21,170
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27
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day continue the veriest Slaves in Nature And I pray why must we run all this hazard to secure Religion If that be the thing it may certainly be done by binding up the hands of a Popish Successor by such Laws as will make it Felony or Treason for a Papist to appear at Court or bear any Office and put it out of the Princes power to pardon such Offences or Offenders For my own part I see no cause to apprehend a Popish Successor especially the Duke would or could alter our Laws or Religion To attempt it would be for a Crown of Flowers to forfeit one of Gold and Jewels Has he ever offer'd to persuade any of his Children or his Servants to change their Opinions And why should we think a Man who has never broken his Word or Promise and ever professed nothing more than a Liberty of Conscience so restrain'd as might be consistent with Publick Peace should with his Fortune alter his Judgment contrary to Prudence and contrary to his Interest Kings are not now adays Priest-ridden and the King of England cannot be supposed to destroy his Subjects at their desires more than the Monarchs of France and Germany and other Princes of that Religion where Non-Papists or Protestants live under the Protection of Laws and enjoy their Liberties and their Fortunes Besides to offer by force to reduce all to the Church of Rome would be Folly and Madness Neither the Constitution of England nor Christianity will admit of propagating Religion by the Sword The next King not to mention that his Subjects in the Three Kingdoms will be above Two hundred Protestants for One Papist will not have the Fourth part of the present King's Revenue which being insufficient for the necessary Expences of the Crown will necessitate him to have recourse to and compliance with his People in Parliament But now consider the Issue If it please God after this Bill pass'd in some short time to take the King to himself the Princess of Orange perhaps in complement to her Father and to prevent a War may refuse and her Husband cannot come to the Throne if she decline it others being before him What then the next after cannot come in must the Duke then No that 's against Law Here will then be no King consequently Anarchy and Confusion But if the Princess do assume the Crown and after that the Duke have a Son and he bred up in the Protestant Religion what will then follow Still a War The Princess will be unwilling to resign and yet the other is most certainly King But if this young Prince should during his Fathers Life or his Sisters be kept out he or his Issue after contending with that of the Princess will entail a War upon the Nations So that upon the whole if the Duke out-live the King I see nothing but Misery and Desolation like to ensue upon his Disinherison And therefore I say 't is fitter to wave the Act wholly or endeavour by proving him guilty of the Plot by sufficient Testimonies to take away his Life For if we cannot be safe if he succeed I am sure we cannot if he out-live our present Sovereign a Bill of Attainder will be of no force the best Lawyers will tell you the Descent of the Crown washes that Stain away A Project of Divorce whisper'd between the King and Queen will not be sufficient Security for if that should take which is not probable because Christianity forbids it yet it 's possible the King may have no Issue by a new Consort or if he have that the most will look on them but as Illegitimate and so as a questionable Divorce once brought us from the Church of Rome in Henry the Eighth's days another may return us thither during or soon after the Reign of CHARLES the Second And here I would have it remembred That the Nature of Parliaments requires their intermedling onely with what the King shall propound or approve He calls them to advise and deliberate as Counsellors not to impose upon him in any Particular Let therefore the Spirit of Moderation govern and direct their Counsels put an end to the Plot by trying the Accused It has lost England in its Trade already Six Millions as has been lately computed by knowing Persons encreased our Jealousies and Fears at home made us a Scorn and Reproach abroad and exposed us to be a Prey to the Designs of Forreigners Let not the Ambition Malice or Revenge of any of our Fellow-Subjects prevail to the enslaving our selves and our Posterities If the Power of the Commons grow exorbitant the Lords are with the King to counterpoise it to prevent the otherwise not avoidable Ruine of the Commonwealth To the Lords then this Address is humbly submitted praying they would betimes consider all the fatal Consequences of the Bill of Exclusion The love of Truth and Justice Courage and the practice of those Vertues in this great Affair are the onely Preservatives of Englands present Peace and future Happiness Faelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Remember what 's past and then I shall not need to add more than this Verbum sapienti As for others guided or misled by Ignorance Malice or Interest I can onely say with the Poet Quid cum illis agas qui neque jus neque bonum atque aequum sciunt Melius pejus prosit obsit nihil vident nisi quod lubet And therefore I leave them to Time for a better Temper to the Conduct of their own Reason and God's Providence for the Cure of their Folly and for a better Understanding Since I finish'd this Discourse the following Letter came to my hands and believing it as advantageous to the Publick as it is Ingenious I have resolved to add it that those who might repent the Charge of the former may be recompenced by the latter SIR I am griev'd at my very Soul and infinitely asham'd to find by your last that any make the Supposition of the D's being a Papist and consequently unfit to Govern the pretence of running so high against the Monarchy and that so many are drawn into this violent Course and Faction upon the surmise of his being if once offended irreconcileable I shall in few words return you my Opinion on these two Points I cannot indeed but look on both as meer Artifices of ambitious Men who missing a share in the present Constitution contrive another Government I wish I had not too much cause to say It will at last end in a Commonwealth For if nothing were in their Heads but securing the Establish'd Religion they would not oppose Popery alone but Presbytery equally with the other destructive of That for which they do not onely open a gap but for the Opinions of all other Sectaries And we cannot here but observe with astonishment and with Resolutions which have put us upon Preparations of sticking by our Sovereign against all manner of insolent and rebellious Practices whatsoever
appears not onely in that it could be of no use to him but that several Kings have exercised a full Regal Authority enacted Laws c. before their Coronations And since this Inauguration is but a Formality let it be well weigh'd That unless the Monarchy be made purely Elective and that part of the Common Law and the several Statutes that have declared it Hereditary be repealed in express Words and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy changed and the Successor mentioned by Name the Act against the Duke falls to the ground of it self in the moment in which he happens to out-live the King for thereby becoming our lawful Sovereign none can fight against or oppose his Right to the Crown without Perjury and Rebellion we having sworn to defend against all Pretenders whatsoever Forreign or Domestick the King's Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Rights Privileges and Preheminences to them belonging and annâ—xed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm And is not the Descent of the Crown upon the next of Blood one of these Rights c. acknowledged by the Common Law and in the Statutes 1 M. Eliz. Jac. The Maxim in our Laws The King never dies confirming as much And was not the Duke then at the taking of these Oaths the next Heir And what Power on Earth can absolve from the Obligation of Promissory Oaths without the Parties own Consent to whom the Promise is made Let us not rail against the Pope for deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and yet allow the Parliament the same Authority The Bill against the Duke is not onely of an extraordinary but of two natures one expresses a present Punishment Exile which as a Subject did the Crime deserve it none will deny may be inflicted the other refers to the future and is at present no Punishment nor can be hereafter for if he out-live his Brother his being King in that moment puts upon him a new Person a Politick Capacity over which not before in being no former Authority could have power nor any after because himself is become Supreme and as such by our own and the Laws of God subject to no Earthly Tribunal Bracton and all our old honest Lawyers tell us with one consent The King can do no wrong i. e. can be accountable to his Subjects for none of his Actions Nemo quidem de factis ejus praesumat disputare multo minus contra factum ejus ire Locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet quod quidem si non fecerit sufficit ei ad poenam quod dominum Deum expectet ultorem Now he that says The Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy reach no further than to the King in being says not amiss if he takes the King in his Publick Capacity for in that he never dies But if he means no more than the Person of the now reigning Monarch he cancels with his Death the Obligation of those Oaths and makes Rebellion against the Successor no Crime against Conscience though it may be otherwise against Prudence This is to elude the Oath and rob it of the energy designed For 't is plain by the Words Heirs and Successors that the Takers Obligation continues during their own Lives let the Persons of never so many Princes be alter'd and as certain that in an Hereditary Monarchy the Duty is owing to the next of Blood And that a Parliament or any Power may dispence or absolve from the Obligations especially of Promissory Oaths between Party and Party without mutual consent is a Doctrine inconsistent with the nature of Promises where the Promiser gives the other a Right and makes himself his Debtor with the Rules of Christianity of Humane Society and all Governments 'T is no less dangerous to assert That Promissory Oaths or Oaths de futuro are not Obligatory Such a Principle cancels all the Duties and Bonds of Obedience between Prince and Subject of which therefore not onely the Divines and my Lords the Bishops but the State is to be very tender and careful Upon this Foundation 't is evident that if the Duke outlives his Brother and the Monarchy of England as it is be Hereditary and Coronation but Formality we become upon the death of the one the Subjects of the other And though there may be some that will not think of this Truth or notwithstanding will not mind it yet I am assur'd all that are truly Christians and all that are of the Church of England and wise will lay it to heart for Christianity teaches be the Prince of any or no Religion we must be obedient and submit our selves not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake In the late Times of Usurpation they were so sensible of this that they made the People Covenant against the King and renounce their former by after Oaths yet they durst not depend on that Artifice without the assistance of an Army Thus then we see the Duke cannot want a Party in England whose Strength must over-power any other when to it is united that of Scotland and Ireland And here let none be mistaken as if Scotland were govern'd or influenc'd by Presbyterian Domine's the Nobility there do wholly sway and hate refin'd Presbytery and a Plebeian Commonwealth Neither will the Scots be more forward to assist the Duke than the Irish in hopes they may thereby find an opportunity to extirpate the English and regain their ancient Possessions free themselves from any Dependence or at least change their present from that of England to France which on many scores seems to be the true Interest of that Kingdom politickly consider'd either as Popish or Protestant without respect to Religion 'T is a ready In-let to France who will not be wanting to assist the Duke in this Quarrel the onely way he can hope by gaining England on his side to win the Universal Dominion Now to resist the Duke an Army must be maintain'd the General of that Army may turn Papist or Tyrant or both and either way we may be enslav'd by the Duke if he gains the Victory or if he loses it by our own General Thus we may by shunning one Rock split upon another The Romans designing to free themselves from the seeming Tyranny of Julius Caesar who studied by Clemency and Obligations upon every body to secure himself as must needs be his R. H's Interest as it is his Temper and Inclination made way for the real and perpetual one in the Persons of Augustus Tiberius and their Successors And the Graecians repining against their lawful Emperors and deeming their just and wholesom Commands tyrannical and oppressive were so refractory and so obstinate that through spite to their Sovereign they would contribute nothing towards the necessary Defence of the Empire when invaded by the Turk until at last through the just Judgment of the Almighty a fitting Punishment for their Folly they became a Prey to that Tyrant and to this