Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A41183
|
A letter to a person of honour, concerning the kings disavovving the having been married to the D. of M's mother
|
Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
|
1680
(1680)
|
Wing F750; ESTC R13882
|
16,478
|
24
|
free so in plain English the generality of the People and those of the best sense hold themselves no wise affected or prescribed unto by these Declarations For we who knew the tenour of them when they lay concealed in the Councel Books and yet thought our selves at liberty to believe as our Judgments conducted us are not likely to have our mindes altered by the bare Printing of them But how far the Conscience of the king is concern'd or defiled I leave to those of the Theologick Faculty to resolve only I judge that the same Casuistical Divinity whereby they salved the Conscience and vindicated the honor of the king in case the of the Covenant and with all discharged him from the Obligation which it was supposed to have put upon him may whensoever he thinks meet stand him in good stead and affoord him the same relief in the case of the late Declarations Eightly There is one thing further that must not be omitted because it gives us amazement and yet affords us pleasant diversion namely the motive they have brought his Majesty to alledge for his making and publishing this Declaration I confess I could not read it without surprise and wonderful emotion And I dare say when you think seriously of it you will find pitty stir in your heart to your abused Prince and your bood swell in your Veins through indignation at some about him For after the care they have suffered him to take for preserving our Religion Lives and Liberties from the designs of the Papists by dissolving two Parliaments and so often Proroguing a third they bring him now to publish this Declaration to relieve the minds of his loving Subjects from their fears and to prevent the ill consequences which a belief of his having been Married to the D. of M's Mother may have in future times upon the Peace of these kingdoms A most proper way to extinguish our fears by doing all that he can to subject us hereafter to one who is the professed Enemy of our established Religion and Legal Government But that your Lordship may the better comprehend how highly we are obliged to his majesty for his love and tenderness to his People in all that they judge dear and valluable by designing so hopeful a Successor over them I shall recount some of those many particulars from which we esteem our selves capable of judging what a gracious and desirable Prince this dear and beloved Brother is like to prove 1. He is a Gentleman that hath renounced the Religion wherein he was not only educated and which these Nations profess but which he had consigned unto him sealed with the Blood of his father and entailed upon him and the whole Line by no less then his Grandfathers Curse in case any of old Jame's off-spring should depart from it 2. He hath made it his business to seduce his Majesties Subjects to the papal Faith and to enslave them to a forraign Jurisdiction And by his addresses solicitations and preferments wherewith he is able to reward such mercinary soules as are ready to make sale of their Religion he hath made more converts to the Church of Rome than all the English Missionaries have been able to do 3. Through the power which he hath obtained over the King he hath procured the chiefest places of strength in the Nation and some of the greatest Trusts as well Civil and Religious as Military to be conferred upon known Papists and sworn enemies to the Protestant Cause and English Liberties 4. He hath been the principal promoter of Arbitrary Government and of making the Kings interest both distinct from and opposite to that of his People And this he hath done in pursuance of Papal advice and in subserviency to the Romish interest For where the Monarch is absolute and the Lives and Fortunes of whole Nations are enslaved to the will and pleasurâ— of one person the meer wheedling of a lustfull weak or inconsiderate Prince will go a great length in the gaining vast multitudes to adore the Triple Crown And for such as shall provâ— stubborn and refractory it is but meritoriously to kill them and then convert their Lands to the use of the holy Sea 5. It was this darling and beloved One that Authorised thâ— burning of London and not only made his own palace a Sanctuary to the Villan's who were suspected as instruments of that dreadful conflagration but rescu'd and discharged diverse who were apprehended in the very Fact And this he did partly in revenge for as much as London had been both the Magazine of Strenth and Treasure during the War with the late King and partly to gratify his Popish friends by destroying the bulwark of the Protestant Religion and the chief Receptacle of the Hereticks 6. It was this presumptive Heir that all along obliged his Majesty to neglect the concerning himselfe in favour of the Protestants abroad and did so order it through his power over the King that never any forrain Alliance was made but what was abused to the betraying of them And here let me call over a story and perhaps a more Tragical one and accompainied with baser Treachâ—ry then any History is able to acquaint you with One Monseiur Rohux a French Gentleman coming into England to treat with the King concerning an Alliance between his Majesty and Forrain Protestants meerly for the preservation of their Religion and having acquainted the Duke of York with his errand after he had in a private conference or two transacted with the King about iâ— This Royal Prince out of his wonted kindness to the Protestants and the reformed religion caused Rouveny Lieger Ambassador from France at this Court to stand behind the hangings at St James while he made this innocent Gentleman discourse over the whole business Upon which Mons. Rouveny being obâ—iged to acquant his master with it Mons. Rohux who upon some â—ntimation that the Duke had betrayed him had withdrawn â—ence to Switzerland was there seized by a party of French Horse and brought to the Bastile whence after some times imprisonement he was carried to the place of Excution and broken â—pon the Wheel 7. It was through the Duke of Yorks means that both the first â—nd second Wars were commenced against the Dutch and that â—n order not only to weaken the Protestants by their mutual deâ—troying of each other but in hope to have turned the victorious Arms of the King upon the Hereticks at home and the patrons of English liberty 8. It was this zealous Prince for the honour and safety of Brittain that adviced the breaking the Tripple-League which was the wisest conjunction and most for the glory of the Kings Reign and the preservation of his Dominions that ever he entered into And this he did not only to gratify France whose Pensioner as well as whose confederate he hath been but to leave the Protestants here naked to the attempts of the papists For he knew that while that League continued firm