Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A55468
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Popish treaties not to be rely'd on in a letter / from a gentleman at York, to his friend in the Prince of Orange's camp ; addressed to all members of the next Parliament.
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Gentleman at York.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing P2960; ESTC R988
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7,556
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4
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Butcher'd at the Toll of a Bell in their Beds when they dream'd they slept securely The Irish Massacre of above 200000 Protestants was no less Treacherous it was a Copy of the Spanish Cruelty in the West Indies to whom the Irish are compar'd by Historians for their Idleness and Inhumanity tho' not for their Wit. The Persecutions of the Protestants in the Valleys of Piedmont are another instance of Popish Immanity and baseness they were under the common shelter of publick Pactions and Treaties and had been solemnly own'd by the Dukes of Savoy to be the most Loyal and the most Couragious of their Subjects The present Duke who undertook this last Persecution was not content to destroy them with his own Troops but call'd in the French to assist at the Comedy to shoot them off the Rocks to hunt them over the Alps and to sell the strongest of them to the Gallies that the very Turkish Slaves themselves might deride and insult over them Catholicks who have not Power or Opportunity to execute the same things seem to condemn the Conduct in Publick but sing te Deum in Private and as soon as ever they have got a sufficient Force commit the like Barbarities so essential to their Religion that all the instinct of Nature cannot separate them The Holy Father at Rome tho' he sets up for a moderate and merciful Pontificate order'd te Deum to be Sung up and down for the extirpation of Heresy out of France and Piedmont and our English Catholicks have given us as their Army and Interest encreas'd several proofs how well they can juggle and disguise themselves setting up Courts of Inquisition turning Protestants out of all Employs and even out of their Freeholds dispensing with Laws Ravishing Charters packing Corporations c. and all under a notion of Liberty or a Divine Right they with their Accomplices defended illegal Declarations and set up an Authority above all our Laws under the Cloak of a sham Liberty of Conscience racking at the very same time the Consciences of the Church of England Men and undermining the Foundation of our State If Mr. Pen and his Disciples had condemn'd the unlawfulness of the Declarations and the Dispensing Power when they wrote so fast for Liberty of Conscience they had then shew'd a generous zeal for a just Freedome in Matters of Religion and at the same time a due veneration to the Legislative Power Kings Lords and Commons but the secret of the Machine was to Maintain and Erect a Prerogative above all Acts of Parliament and consequently to introduce upon that bottom Tyranny and Popery yet notwithstanding all this uncontroulable Power and shew of Grandeur an Easterly Wind and a Fleet of Fly-Boats would cancel and undo all again Our Monkish Historians relate of King Iohn that being in some distress he sent Sir Tho. Hardington and Sir Ralph Fitz-Nichols Ambassadours to Mirammumalim the great Emperour of Morocco with offers of his Kingdom to him upon Condition he would come and aid him and that if he prevail'd he would himself turn Mahometan and renounce Popery I will not insist upon the violations of Laws and Treaties in the Low Countries or the Spanish Tyranny over them because the Spaniards have got so much by that Persecution and Cruelty that they might be tempted to practise the like again for by forcing the Netherlanders to take up Arms for their defence and by necessitating Queen Elizabeth to assist and preserve them they have set up a Free and Glorious State as they themselves have call'd them in some Treaties that hath preserv'd the languishing Monarchy of Spain and the Liberty of Christendome The Base and Cowardly Massacre of that great Hero William Prince of Orange of the Renowned Admiral Coligny and the Prince of Conde the many Bloody Conspiracies for the Extirpation of the whole Race of the House of Orange the Murders of Henry the 3 d and Henry the 4 th are all Records and everlasting Monuments of Popish Barbarity what incredible Effusions of Blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent revolts of the Popes against the Emperours by the Image-Worship and the Holy Wars What Treachery in the Bohemian Transactions and Treaties What Inhumanity in burning Ierome of Prague and Iohn Hus when they had the Emperours Pass and all other publick securities from the Council it self that put to Death those two Good Men. The Reign of Queen Mary is another Scene of the Infidelity and Treachery of the Church of Rome what Oaths did she take what Promises and Protestations did she make to the Suffolk Men who had set the Crown upon her Head and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of a Persecution from Her. Read her History in Fox's Martyrs and Doctor Burnet's History of the Reformation The many Conspiracies to destroy Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the Gunpowder-Plot the Counsels carried on in Popish Countries to take off King Charles the First and the many late Popish Plots are a continued Series and Thred carried on by the Church of Rome to break thro all Laws both of God and Man to erect an Universal Monarchy of Priest-Craft and to bring the whole World under their Yoke The Sweeds have taken an effectual and commendable way to keep Popish Priests and Iesuits those Boutefeus and disturbers of Societies the declared Enemies to the Welfare of Mankind out of their Countries by Gelding them and consequently rendring them incapable of Sacerdotal Functions tho the Priests have found out a Salvo and will say Mass and Confess if they can procure their Testicles again and carry them in their Pockets either preserv'd or in Powder In Aethiopia China and Iapan the Roman Priests have been so intollerably turbulent and such extravagant Incendiaries that they have been often Banished and put to Death so that now they disguise themselves all over the Eastern Nations under the Names and Characters of Mathematicians Mechanics Physitians c. and dare not own their Mission to propagate a Faith which is grown ridiculous all over Asia The long and dreadful Civil Wars of France the many Massacres and Persecutions and lastly the Siege of Rochel are living Instances how far we may rely upon Engagements and Laws both as to the taking of that Bulwark and the promised relief from hence The Protestant Defenders of it refusing to rely any longer upon Paper Edicts and the word of a Most Christian King had this City granted them as a cautionary Town for their Security for before they had alwaies been deluded out of their Advantages by fair Promises insignificant Treaties and the word of a King yet Lewis the 13. following the vitious Examples of Treacherous Princes fell upon this Glorious City which upon the account of their Laws and Priviledges made a resistance and brave defence having never heard of Passive Obedience amongst their Pastors thinking it more lawful to defend their Rights than it was for Lewis to invade them As for the late and
present Reign here in England they are too nice and tender things for me to touch whether the Transactions of them are consistant with the Coronation Oaths the many Declarations Protestations publick and solemn Promises I am no fit Judge they are more proper for the Gravity of an Historian or the Authority of a Parliament to handle than for a private Gentleman in a Letter to his Friend The Bishops Papers and the P. of Orange's Declarations are the best Memoirs of them but they only begin where the two parts of the History of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government left off and how far we may trust to Catholick Stipulations Oaths and Treaties the facts of past and the present Age are the best Criterions and Rules to guide and determine us for what happens every day will in all probability happen to morrow the same Causes alwaies produce the same Effects and the Church of Rome is still the same Church it was a hundred years ago that is a Mass of Treachery Barbarity Perjury and the highest Superstition a Machine without any principle or setled Law of Motion not to be mov'd or stopt with the weights of any private or publick Obligations a Monster that destroys all that is sacred both in Heaven and Earth so Ravenous that it is never content unless it gets the whole World into its Claws and tears all to pieces in order to Salvation a Proteus that turns it self into all shapes a Chameleon that puts on all Colours according to its present circumstances this day an Angel of Light to morrow a Belzebub Amongst all the Courts of Christendome where I have Conversed that of Holland is the freest from Tricks and Falsehood and tho' I am naturally jealous and suspitious of the Conduct of Princes yet I could never discover the least Knavery within those Walls it appear'd to me another Athens of Philosophers and the only Seat of Iustice and Vertue now left in the World as for the Character of the Prince of Orange it is so faithfully drawn by Sir Will. Temple Doctor Burnet and in a half sheet lately Printed that I who am so averse from Flattery that I can scarce speak a good word of any Body or think one good thought of my self will not write any further Panegyrick upon his Highness only that he is a very Honest Man a Great Souldier and a Wise Prince upon whose Word the World may safely rely A late Pamphleteer reviles the Prince with breaking his Oath when he took the Statholder's Office upon him not considering that the Oath was impos'd upon his Highness in his Minority by a French Faction then jealous of the aspiring and true Grandeur of his Young Soul that the States themselves to whom the Obligation was made freed his Highness from the Bond and that the necessity of Affairs and the Importunities of the People forced that Dignity upon him which his Ancestors had enjoy'd and he so well deserv'd that he sav'd the sinking Commonwealth their Provinces being almost all Surpriz'd and Enslav'd by the French compared to the gasping State of Rome after the loss at Cannae His Highness was no more puft up with this Success than he had been daunted with Hardships and Misfortunes alwaies the same Hero Just Serene and Unchang'd under all Events an Argument of the vastness of his Mind whereas on the contrary Mutability sometimes Tyrant sometimes Father of a Country sometimes Huffing other times Sneaking is oftentime a Symptome of a Mean and Cowardly Soul vile and dissolute born for Rapine and Destruction As for the Princess she may without any flattery be stiled the Honour and Glory of her Sex the most Knowing the most Virtuous the Fairest and yet the best Natur'd Princess in the World Belov'd and Admir'd by her Enemies never seen in any Passion always under a peculiar Sweetness of Temper extremely moderate in her Pleasures taking delight in Working and in Study Humble and Affable in her Conversation very pertinent in all Questions Charitable to all Protestants and frequenting their Churches The Prince is often seen with her at the Prayers of the Church of England and she with the Prince at the Devotion of his Church she dispenses with the use of the Surplice Bowing to the Altar and the Name of Iesus out of Compliance to a Country that adores her being more intent upon the Intrinsick and Substantial Parts of Religion Prayer and Good Works She speaks several Languages even to Perfection is entirely Obedient to the Prince and he extremely dear to her in a word She is a Princess of many extraordinary Virtues and Excellencies without any appearance of Vanity or the least mixture of Vice and upon whose Promise the World may safely depend As for the many Plots and Conspiracies against this Royal Couple a short time may bring them all to light and faithful Historians publish them to the World. Lastly We may observe that whereas it hath been the Maxim of several Kings both at home and abroad of late years to contend and ourvie each other in Preying upon and Destroying not only their Neighbours but their own Protestant Subjects by all methods of Perfidiousness and Cruelty the only way to establish Tyranny and to enslave the natural Freedom of Mankind being to introduce a general Ignorance Superstition and Idolatry for if once People can be perswaded that Statues and Idols are Divinities and adorable and that a Wafer is the Infinite God after two or three Ridiculous Words utter'd by a vile Impostor and Impudent Cheat then they may easily be brought to submit their necks to all the Yokes that a Tyrant and a Priest can invent and put upon them for if once they part with their Reason their Liberty will soon follow as we behold every day in the miserable enslav'd Countries where Popery domineers On the contrary it hath always been the steddy and immutable Principle of the House of Orange to rescue Europe from its Oppressours and to resettle Governments upon the Primitive and Immortal Foundation of Liberty and Property a Glorious Maxim taken from the Old Roman Commonwealth that Fought and Conquer'd so many Nations only to set them Free to Restore them wholsome Laws their Natural and Civil Liberties a Design so Generous and every way Great that the East groaning under the Fetters and Oppressions of their Tyrants flew in to the Roman Eagles for Shelter and Protection under whose Wings the several Nations liv'd Free Safe and Happy till Traitours and Usurpers began to break in upon the Sacred Laws of that vertuous Constitution and to keep up Armies to defend that by Blood and Rapine which Iustice would have thrown in their Face and Punished them as they deserved the Preservation and Welfare of the People being in all Ages call'd the Supreme Law to which all the rest ought to tend From the foregoing Relation of matter of Fact it appears most plain that the Roman Catholicks are not to be ty'd by Laws Treaties Promises Oaths or any other bonds of Humane Society the sad experience of this and other Kingdoms declares to all Mankind the invalidity and insignificancy of all Contracts and Agreements with the Papists who notwithstanding all their Solemn Covenants with Hereticks do watch for all Advantages and Opportunities to destroy them being commanded thereunto by their Councils and the principles of their Church and instigated by their Priests The History of the several Wars of the Barons of England in the Reigns of King Iohn Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second in Defence of their Liberties and for redressing the many Grievances under which the Kingdome groan'd is a full representation of the Infidelity and Treachery of those Kings and of the Invalidity of Treaties with them how many Grants Amendments and fair Promises had they from those Princes and yet afterwards how many Ambuscades and Snares were laid to destroy those glorious Patriots of Liberty what Violations of Compacts and Agreements and what havock was made upon all Advantages and Opportunities that those false Kings could take Read their Histories in our several Chronicles FINIS