Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A31527
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The Certain way to save England not only now, but in future ages, by a prudent choice of members to serve in the next ensuing Parliament : in a seasonable address to its free-holders and other electors.
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1681
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Wing C1764; ESTC R8207
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13,402
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The Certain Way TO SAVE ENGLAND Not only NOW but in Future AGES BY A Prudent Choice OF MEMBERS To Serve in the next Ensuing PARLIAMENT In a Seasonable Address to its Free-holders and other Electors 7. H. 4. Multorum Consilia requiruntur in magnis Prov. 11.14 Vbi non sunt prudentia Consilia corruit Populus salus autem est in amplitudine Consiliarii LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin in Ball-Court in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXI THE CERTAIN WAY TO SAVE ENGLAND Not only NOW but in Future AGES BY A PRUDENT CHOICE OF MEMBERS To Serve in PARLIAMENT SInce it hath been openly declared by His Sacred Majesty in several Proclamations acknowledged by him in his Speeches to his Parliaments publickly owned in their Votes by three Parliaments and sufficiently made out to a full Conviction of all Mankind but only interessed Obstinates seered cunning Jesuits and resolute Bigotted Papists That there hath been for these many Years last past contrived and carried on by the Roman Catholicks a Traiterous and execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change and subvert the Ancient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein established and to extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof and for the accomplishing the said wicked pernicious and most damnable Designs that a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees Actors therein did most Hellishly and Traiterously agree conspire and resolve to Imprison Depose and Murder His Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal State Crown and Dignity and by malitious and unadvised Speaking Writing and otherwise declared such their Purposes and Intentions And also to subject this Kingdom to the Pope and to his Tyrannicul Government and to seize and share among themselves the Estates and Inheritances of His Majesty's Protestant Subjects and to remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons and God knows what a number there are of these in this Nation from their Offices Benefices and Preferments and so to overthrow all our Rights Liberties and Properties And the better to compass their Traiterous Designs that these Conspirators have consulted to raise and have procured and raised Men Money Horses Arms and Ammunition and also have made Application to and Treated and Corresponded with the Pope his Cardinals Nuncios and Agents and with other Foreign Ministers and Persons to raise and obtain Supplies of Men Money Arms and Ammunition therewith to make levy and raise War Rebellion and Tumults within this Kingdom and to Invade the same with Foreign Forces and to surprize seize and destroy His Majesty's Navy Forts Magazines and Places of Strength within this Kingdom whereupon the Calamities of War Murders of Innocent Subjects Men Women and Children Burnings Rapines Devastations and other dreadful Miseries and Mischiefs would inevitably ensue to the Ruin and Destruction of this Nation And to encourage themselves in prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the Discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment that these Conspirators their Accomplices and Confederates have used many wicked and Diabolical Practises viz. caused their Priests to administer to them an Oath of Secrecy together with their Sacrament and also caused their Priests upon Confessions to give their Absolutions upon condition that they should conceal the said Conspiracy And of their further Malice that they have wickedly contrived by many false Suggestions to lay the Imputation and Guilt of these horrid and detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so thereby they might escape the Punishments they have justly deserved and expose the Protestants to great Scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Romish Religion is received and prrfessed I say since all this is so fully known and hath been so evidently made to appear by the King's Witnesses before the Judges of this Realm and by the said Judges so often acknowledged as may be seen in their several Speeches they have made upon the Tryals of some of these wicked conspiring Traitors that have been executed What Care and Diligence what Prudent Circumspection ought we to take in these so sad and dangerous times not to suffer any Idle Loose Debauched Atheistical or Mercenary Persons to be elected into any Places of Office or Trust within this Kingdom but to make it our chief study and endeavours to chuse such as we shall really in our Hearts believe will faithfully according to the utmost of their Knowledge and Power perform their Duty to God to the King and to the People in all their respective Relations I need not tell you the necessity for doing this SELF-PRESERVATION Common Interest of King and People pag. 2. the first great Principle of Nature or an inseparable desire of keeping our selves in Being by the obtaining and enjoyment of all those things which contribute towards the Continuance of it or which gives us a Power and Capacity either to escape and avoid or to overcome and remove what we know or but suspect to be dangerous or destructive to us Which is the Foundation of all our Natural and Rational Desires and Aversions I say SELF-PRESERVATION exacts it from us for now is not our All in imminent Hazard Are we not struggling with our Romish Adversaries pro Aris Focis And if ever we think to save and defend our selves from the Merciless Cruelties of these in the plain Literal Sence Men of Blood is not this the time His Majesty's Capital City I make no Question have done their parts like honest and dutiful Subjects in chusing Men into their publick Offices of Trust that make Integrity their Principle Conscience their Guide and the known Laws of the Land their Rule from which nothing shall have the force to divert them I wish to God all the Countries as resolute and industrious to have done the like I know not to the contrary but that they may have been so But if they should have been negligent and careless in this matter there remains now no other way to retrieve themselves but by mending all in their Elections of such Members as are to serve in this New Parliament that will be most likely to stand Firm and Vnshaken in their Pious Resolutions to maintain all the King 's just Honours and Prerogatives and to establish the perpetual happiness of these his Kingdoms by securing to us his Natural Subjects the true Protestant Religion and all our Civil Rights and Privileges and by taking away our great and many I cannot say how well or ill grounded Fears and Jealousies of Arbitrary Government which nothing but the industrious Malice of wicked Counsellors can dare in secret to advise His Majesty to seek to oppress the People with and which they full well know they can never perswade him to unless they do disguise and so deceive him by such their Traiterous Intendments
your Representatives they will cut large thongs out of your Hides to spare their own 'T is a Pleasure to them to become Levellers and to make you as poor as themselves How can they judge what is expedient for the Nation to spare whose only care it is to get a piece of Money to spend Seventhly Minors Be resolved against all Temptations to choose no Minors Can you judge them fit to dispose of your Liberties Lives Estates and Religion who cannot legally dispose of their own Estates or themselves what security can they give you that they will not give away yours and you whose Bond in the Eye of Law will not be taken for Forty Shillings I think I need say no more upon this head your own Experience of what such Young green Persons have been in former Parliaments have I hope learned you sufficient Wisdomes not to choose the like again Eighthly Prodigal Voluptuous Persons Elect no Prodigal or Voluptuous Persons for besides that they are not Regular enough to be Law-makers they are commonly Idle and though possibly they may wish well to your Interest yet they will loose it rather than their Pleasures they will scarce leave one of their Nightly Revellings to give you their Attendance and Service the next day and therefore they are not to be relyed upon So that such Persons are only to be preferred before those that are sober to do Mischief whose Debauchery is that of the Mind Men of unjust mercinary and sinister Principles who the soberer they be to themselves the worse they are to you And therefore Ninthly Mighty Zealots for a Popish Successor Observe those well that are mighty Zealots for a Popish Successor and at lest be afraid of them Certainly such cannot but be in a Conspiracy against the Interest of the Kingdom if I may pretend to know any thing of it and however possibly they may Traduce all other Worthy Men for Fanaticks and the like that would be bold in serving their God their King and their Country with true Loyalty and Faithfulness now in this Critical Juncture of Affaires and Circumstances when it is most necessary may not they themselves properly be said to be Persons most dangerous and isaffected to the Government Have we or can we ever forget the Dreadful Effects of Queen Maries Reign whose large and Golden Promises were sealed with Fire and Faggot or need I bid you call to Remembrance the Spanish Invasion in 1588. and the Gunpowder Treason 1605. How many Hundred Thousand Protestants of all Ages and Sects were Barbarously Massacred in the Netherlands Ireland and Piedmont and amongst the Albigenses then let us humbly and Importunately beseech Almighty God and use all our Honest and Lawful Endeavours that no Papist of such destructive Principles may ever Rule in our Land Be sure chuse not those that play the Protestants in Designe and are indeed Disguised Papists Protestants in designe ready to pull off their Mask when time serves You will know such by their Laughing at the Plot Disgracing the King's Evidence and Discountenancing of them Admiring the Traytors Constancie that were forced to it or their Religion and Party were gone beyond an Excuse or Equivocation The contrary are men that thank God for this Discovery and in their Conversation zealously direct themselves in an Opposition to the Papal Interest which indeed is a combination against good Sence Reason and Conscience and to introduce a blinde Obedience without if not against Conviction And that Principle which introduces implicite Faith and blinde Obedience in Religion will also introduce implicite Faith and blinde Obedience in Government So that it is no more the Law in the one than in the other but the Will and Power of the Superiour that shall be the Rule and Bond of our subjection This is that fatal mischief Popery brings with it to civil Society and for which such Societies ought to beware of it and all those that are Friends and none certainly can be such but who are in this sence Tories and of an Irish Vnderstanding Whoever have been Neutrals in this last grand Contest between the Protestant Religion and Popery Neutrals in this great contest between the Protestant Religion and Popery ought to be more than suspected for the Nations Enemies He that is not with us in Extremity is certainly against us These onely wait the good hour when they may safely shew their Teeth and bite which now in policy they hide And may we not place those in this Rank who by subtile Artifices and finer Sleights The Obstructors of Parliamentary-proceedings have formerly obstructed Parliamentary Proceedings who by unseasonable and unreasonable insisting upon Vnparliamentary Vnpresidented Priviledges did hinder those excellent Bills from Passing into Acts which had been the Bulwarks of the Nation against Popery who by various and secret Methods damm'd up the Current of Justice that it could not reach the Capital Offenders who triumph in their present Immunity and the Hopes of future Indemnity And now having carefully and strictly observed these several things and made right distinctions between the King and Kingdom 's real FRIENDS and ENEMIES what is there remaining for you more to do but earnestly to pray to God for a happy success to your Elections and a blessed Issue upon the unanimous Councels of your Representatives That the King would be pleased to hearken to and rely upon all the wholesome Advice of his Parliament and avoid all such who seek to make themselves Rich by making the King and Kingdom poor Forasmuch as the Parliament are the great Council of the King and Kingdom and by them the King is supplied out of the Purse of the Kingdome FINIS A Postscript SHEWING The Honour and Courage of the English Parliaments in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in defence of Her and the Protestant Religion THe true sence of both Houses of the goodness of God and Prudence of the Queen for the Safety of the Nation Rast Stat. 5. Eliz. c. 27. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons give Thanks for restoring the true Service of God By delivering our Consciences from Tyranny And Invasions of Strangers and preservation of Scotland For reducing of the base and loathsome Coyn to Gold and Silver For undertaking the Defence of the French King fortibly governed by Favourites of the Faction of the Guises and holy Leagures For the blessed fruit of Justice both for Lives Lands Goods and Behaviour without exception of persons The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Anne 8. Eliz. c. 18. Bastal declare their great Satisfaction and Thanks that the Queen would settle the Succession of the Crown with Assent of the Realm in Parliament The Parliament cannot but enter into Consultation of the great Affairs of the Nation Anno 23. Eliz. c. 15. Rastal The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons declare the Bishop of Rome enemy to God the Queen and all the Realm They touch upon the Rebellion in Ireland and a Forrein Invasion And the practices abroad to unite the Queen and her Allies The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons declare the Pope capital Enemy to God Rastal 's Stat. 29. Eliz. c. 8. his restless practice to suppress the Christian Religion Their care for God's honour her Majesty's Safety and their own Surety and Liberty The service of their Bodies naturally due for the defence of the common Mother and Countrey Continual Practices Conspiracies 31 Eliz. c. 15. Rastal and Plots by Enemies at home and abroad for the subversion and ruine of the happy Peace of the Nation who intended to have made a full bloudy Conquest The natural care of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons for their own particular Preservation The Enemies of the Realm intended to have made a bloudy conquest of this Nation 35 Eliz. c. 13. Rastal and to have reduced it under a perpetual and miserable Yoke of forreign Potentates which Capital and dangerous Enemies obstinately pursue The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons declare the Queen the principal Support of all Just and Religious Causes against Usurpers And the Island a Stay and Sanctuary to distressed States and Kingdoms and as a Bulwark against the Tyrannies of Mighty and Usurping Potentates Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons adjudge the Aid the Queen had given to the Hugonots in France and to the Low-Countries to be honourable The Lords and Commons effectual feeling of the spiritual benefit of God's true Religion planted and possessed among them 39 Eliz. c. 27. Rastal The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons declare the Land in her time a Part and a Haven of Refuge for distressed States and Kingdoms The Judgment of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons touching the preservation of the Realm They approve the assisting of the French King against the holy Leaguers and the Hollanders against the King of Spain Circumspection and foresight can onely secure the Nation Nota. 43 Eliz. c. 18. Rastal The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons tell the Queen that all that were either well-affected in Religion towards God Loyalty towards her Majesty or Care of their own Safety and their Posterities ought to consult truely and provide effectually to preserve Her and them from apparent dangers The prudential foresight of the Parliament for the safety of the Kingdom The King and Parliament one Body Politique their Cause the same The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons declare they were fully resolved to leave all even Life it self rather than suffer the Nation to be ruined The King declares he could not permit the growth of Popery without betraying K. Jam. Speech to his first Parl. Mar. 19. 1603. 1. Himself and Conscience 2. England and Scotland 3. Betraying their Liberties and reducing them to a former slavish Yoke FINIS