Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A52689
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The blatant beast muzzl'd, or, Reflexions on a late libel entituled, The secret history of the reigns of K. Charles II and K. James II
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N. N.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing N28; ESTC R9694
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56,873
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186
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them Yet this babbling Libeller can see no reason in the World for a War with Holland how long soever it had been intermitted but meerly the introducing of Popery and Slavery upon no other account says he p. 42. but because they shelter'd and protected those whom K. Ch. and the French King persecuted for their Religion He has forgot that the long Parliament made War with them upon the score of Interest without any design sure of introducing Popery by that means He has forgot too that the Persecution of the French Hugunots and their running hither for shelter was long after that War which he makes to be the Cause of it He has forgot how many of them shelter'd themselves lately here in England even under K. Iames the Second who not only afforded them Refuge but also recommended the Relieving them and to that degree that it invited Swarms of them to follow till they grew fat and rich and far'd better than ever they did in their own Country to the great impoverishment of our English Tradesmen and ruin of innumerable poor Families by intercepting their Gain and under working them Lastly He has quite forgot what kind of Christians they were whom chiefly K. Ch. the Second persecuted that is permitted Q Elizabeth's Laws against them to be executed viz. The most violent-humour'd Fanaticks who were ever and anon raising Disturbance both in Church and State the rest of the more quiet Dissenters suffer'd for their sakes it being impracticable to separate them The reason then of that War with Holland is obvious to every Eye but Blatant's and that it was held then the true Interest of England Nor would any King in the World tho' he had been of the same Religion with them disaccept the Assistance of another King if offer'd let him be of what Religion he will for then the Work would both be the easier and the burthen of it lye more light upon England But let our Blatant take the business in hand with his special Gift of drawing Consequences the whole Action and every Step that was taken in it shall clearly demonstrate an arrant Design of introducing Slavery and Popery however remote and impertinent the Premisses are from the Conclusion and no more hang together than the building of Tenterdon's Steeple does with the stopping of Goodwin's Sands But alas This is one of his stoutest and most Achillean Arguments K. Ch. the Second could not keep a Miss for his Pleasure but have-at him with a Consequence cries Blatant p. 26. ergo it was a meer Plot of his to debauch the Nation and so to introduce Popery and Slavery The then D. of York took an innocent Nap at Sea A clear Case says our man of Consequences p. 160. that it was a meer treacherous Plot to let the Dutch beat the English and make 'em destroy one another to bring in Slavery and Popery Our all-seeing Blatant could peep into his Fancy though the Windows of his Senses were shut up and craftily spy out his very Dreams and there read plainly that he was still plotting Slavery and Popery even in his Sleep Nay more he makes him to be a man of such a Chimerical Composition p. 161. that he both procur'd the firing the Dutch Ships in their Harbours and also procur'd the firing of our Ships at Chatham and to mend the Jest our implacable Blatant whose ambi-sinistrous Humour nothing can please is very angry with him for doing both the one and the other Most Unhappy they that offend this man or come under his Clutches for let them do things quite contradictory to one another they shall still be sure to do wrong Yet to do the Libeller Right he has once in his life drawn a very clear Consequence if we will out of kindness grant his Principle which is the sure Basis of his whole Book viz. That Whatever K. Ch. the Second or K. Iames the Second either did or can be said or pretended to do must needs be Wicked Bloody Treacherous c. because it is done or said to be done by Them or as Hudibras has it Tho' there were nothing to forbid it 'T is Impious yet because They did it His skewing and screw'd Deductions of this kind are innumerable which shew our Libeller to give him his due no mean Artist to clutter so many of them together in so little a room and to tack them to one another to make his Tale tell smoothly with such a dexterous Confidence for it requires no small Skill to make a Rope of Sand which is Blatant's Master piece Yet upon my word he crowns the Work and fortifies his Redoubts beyond all possibility of Attack p. 28. by assuring the Reader and who dares disbelieve him that his pretended Proofs are Geometrical Demonstrations Is not this a pleasant Fellow to expose himself thus to the Scorn and Laughter of Learned men by venting such Stuff as this for Demonstration Indeed in one sence his Discourse may be call'd Geometrical for abating his own numberless Fictions which give a loose kind of Contexture to the whole the Thrums-ends of his Tittle-tattle hang together by Geometry as will more amply appear hereafter This then is the Success of his Consequences which were to apologize for the Truth of his Libel The other thing he alledges in his Preface to bear Testimony to the Truth of what he writes is The Events But these can do him no Service at all for no such Events as he fear'd have happen'd nor have either Popery or Slavery been introduc'd much less forc'd upon England Kings may possibly in some particulars be misled by flattering Judges or other ill Counsel to extend their Prerogative and Subjects may take Shadow at some Actions of theirs and giving way to groundless Jealousies be as much mistaken in cramping and retrenching their Just Power and yet neither the former have the least Intention tyrannically to enslave the People nor the later have any thought of being Traytors to their King Both are Men and so both may err in such cases without pushing every thing to such lewd Extremities as this Incendiary does K. Ch. the Second might endeavour to get the Roman Catholicks some Ease and Security for the Private Exercise of their Religion or perhaps now and then put some person whom he held to be faithful to him and fit for the Place into an Office without incurring a just imputation of a Design of introducing Popery To let some men say their Prayers after their own way is not to bid or force others to join with them or become of their Perswasion nay he was in some sort bound to be thus Civil to them both in Equity and Conscience For how ungrateful had it been in him when he was restor'd to his Crown to have by a publick Act indemnified all his Enemies and at the same time to have persecuted those who were and had ever been his constant and faithful Friends Many of them had assisted towards his
Maintenance when he was beyond Sea had forfeited their Estates and lost their Lives for him and his Father in England Could any Good man then do less in Honour than protect such Loyal Persons such faithful Friends and such kind Benefactors King Iames the Second besides the former Motives took himself to be yet more particularly oblig'd in Honour and Conscience to do the same having publickly profest himself to be of that Perswasion Nor would any Prince living in his case do other nor indeed could he do less without declaring himself at the same time to be an Hypocrite as not valuing the Religion he profest or thinking it ought to be protected whereas yet the Sincerity of his Conscience was manifest to the whole World by his going so plainly against his Interest as to hazard the loss of Three Kingdoms rather than quit the Perswasion he had embraced And for the same reason it was but decent for a Prince of that Communion to send an Ambassador to Rome tho' Blatant after his usual manner belies his Errand to receive a Nuntio thence and to make some Ecclesiastical Superiours here to preserve Disciplin and Good Life amongst Roman Catholicks But that either of these two Princes though they might intend that Party a kind of Freedom and some Favours could aim at the introducing Popery or forcing it upon their English Subjects or by means of that Party Slavery is as wild a Conceit as ever enter'd into a raving Head The Papists 't is well known are but an handful to all England but a Breakfast should all the rest rise up to devour them Add That an Army of which seven parts of eight were Protestants and the Militia of England were all of them the same was the most unlikely Means in the World to compass such an End or rather it was such a Remora as made it impossible to be ever compassed Nor wants it weight that a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience to all so displeasing of late p. 202. to our angry Blatant who is resolv'd that nothing shall pacifie his Indignation was most solemnly promis'd and even too zealously endeavour'd to be put in execution and to be made a firm and unalterable Law of the Land Which as it was the best Expedient imaginable to secure the Consciences of all the English Subjects by making it the Common Interest of the whole Nation and engaging all Parties to stand up as one man against the Papists had they ever attempted to violate such a Sanction so it is no less an irrefragable Evidence of that King 's sincere Intention never to use any Force or Coercion upon any man's Conscience and a perfect Confutation of that ridiculous Sham which is made to pass upon the Vulgar that we must in that case have all turned Papists This is the true state of that Affair testified by Common Reason and abetted by as many Pregnant Evidences and known Matters of Fact as a thing of such a nature can possibly bear which yet our Libeller paints in the most hideous monstrous form that his disorder'd Passion could invent or his squinting Fancy could delineate Yet I will not make my self so great a Politician as to contend but there might have been some Miscarriages and in what Government in the World are there not some the Sense of which being improv'd by disgusted men and nois'd abroad till they reach'd the Generality the Nature as it were of England conceiv'd it self aggriev'd and Nature as all Histories testifie will at length work out its way by one means or other to compass its Real or Imaginary Satisfaction tho' perhaps the Remedy resolv'd upon in an hurry sometimes haps to be worse than the Disease Particularly to shew how far I am from justifying any Action which is indeed Blameable I must confess That the shutting up of the Exchequer by K. Ch. the Second was a very ill business Blatant charges it in the foulest Language p. 62. yet he might have been so just to that Prince as to let his Reader know That this was done by the advice of the Earl of Shaftsbury to render that King odious and that K. Ch. was so sensible of that Injury done to his Subjects that he settled by Patent under the Great Seal of England the Interest of that Money at 6 per Cent. to be paid out of the Hereditary Excise till the Principal could be discharg'd which Settlement all the great Lawyers in England did agree to be a Legal and Good Security So that it was far from being such a notorious Robbery as our Blatant represents it Indeed the not paying the Interest afterwards though so legally due was a very high Injustice But as he charges it not so 't is not my Office or pertinent to my Business in hand to determine where the Fault lay only I must say That the Complaints of Thousands who are undone by the detaining it cry aloud to Heaven till that Oppression be redrest and Satisfaction be made for their Sufferings He might have told us too for it is true That K. Iames the Second then D. of York did with his own Hands bring a Bill into the House of Lords to have that Settlement confirm'd by Act of Parliament and never desisted till it had past that House in the year 78. But that Parliament being prorogued that business though well intended fail'd of success His other Arts are to give an ill turn to every Transaction and lay hold of it by the wrong Handle A method by which 't is easie for any babbling fellow endow'd with a pretty Tantum of Wit to travesty all the most Sacred Actions and traduce the Intentions of the most Innocent Persons in the World He builds much upon little tattling Court-Stories gossip'd amongst the Ladies which never wanted in any Reign nor do they at present Yet till our Blatant for want of better Stuff thought fit to make use of them no wise man ever held them worth the bringing upon the Tapis or indeed worth heeding much less judg'd them to be a competent Ground to bear such heavy Charges against Kings and Princes He picks up all the abominable Fictions invented and spread in the Plot-time by the factious Sticklers though every one of them that was of moment was a confuted Lye either prov'd by plain Experience or by Legal Evidences sworn openly in Court or at least branded for Untruths by the Recorded Perjury of the Testimony on which solely they were built And then lest those Prejudices against his Stories should be of any weight he arraigns all the Judges and Juries as Popishly affected though they were all of them to a man Protestants If any of his own Party do but hold up his Hand at the Bar 't is made a flat Condemnation of the whole Court and a Geometrical Demonstration with him that they were all of them most abominable Papists His Topicks of this sort make up near one Third of his Libel He traduces even the