Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	5,039	5	6.1083	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70104	The late proceedings and votes of the Parliament of Scotland contained in an address delivered to the King / signed by the plurality of the members thereof, stated and vindicated.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1689 (1689)	Wing F746; Wing F747; ESTC R36438	41,628	61

by Acting in the Incroachments mentioned in the Articles of the Claim of Right which are declared to be contrary to Law or who have shewed Disaffection to the happy Change by the Blessing of God now brought about by acting in Opposition thereunto since the time that the King and Queen now Reigning were Proclaimed or who hath been a Retarder or Obstructer of the good Designs of the said Estates viz. The securing the Protestant Religion the setling the Crown the establishing the Rights of the Leiges and the redressing their Grievances by Acting contrary to these good Designs since the time that they became publick by Votes and Acts of the Meeting be allowed to possess or be admitted into any Publick Trust Place or Imployment under Their Majesties in this Kingdom I suppose the Reader by this time surprized at the unreasonableness of the Age we live in that there should be Men found so void of Sense and Understanding as to spy out any thing here that deserves to be clamour'd against or which is worthy to be complain'd of Every Line breathes of that Lenity and Moderation that it savours rather of a defect of Justice than of any excess of it and the utmost hereby designed is only a disabling a few wicked Men from ruining us for the future and not a punishing of them for what they have done for as there are none excepted as to Life so the few designed to be debarred from Offices are described and charactered after such a manner that the very employing them will Dishonour His Majesty and Disgrace his Government There is no abridging His Majesties Mercy only an endeavour to maintain the Justice of his Undertaking in coming to Deliver us For having charged the late King 's Evil Counsellors and them only with the Crimes upon which he grounded both the Righteousness and the Necessity of his Expedition Whosoever is so villanous as to advise him to use them can design no less than deriving an Aspersion upon his Wisdom Justice and Sincerity And if the Nations be not delivered from those against whom he declared how shall we be able to answer his Enemies who accuse his coming hither to have been upon another Motive For what his Friends affirm to have been bestowed upon him as the Reward only of his Expedition and of the Deliverance he wrought out for us his Adversaries will be encouraged both to believe and say was the Principal if not sole end of it Nor is it meerly needful in order to the Vindication of His Majesties glorious Undertataking in coming into Brittain That they who were the Instruments of our Slavery and Oppression under the former Government should be precluded from all share of the Administration under this but it is also necessary for the reconciling the Love and Obedience of the People to His Majesties Person and Authority Courtiers may fancy that if one be able he is qualified without other Ingredients to be a Minister of State But the most part of Mankind do always look for some degrees of Honesty in those advanced into the chief Offices in the Government Nor will People easily believe that they who betrayed their Laws Rights and Priviledges under one Reign will ever Administer Justice equally or defend them in their Properties under another Men may have present ease but they will be always in fear whilst they remain in the hands of their old Oppressors It is impossible to keep up in the minds of the Vulgar honourable Thoughts of King William's Government if he will chuse to work with King James's Tools Whosoever Counsels His Majesty to employ those that were the Instruments of the former Tyranny must intend to bring him under a Suspicion both of approving that and of designing the like No man envieth his Majesties pardoning the worst of his and the Kingdoms Enemies but we cannot avoid pitying him and bewailing our selves that he is persuaded to use them yea the Royal forgiveness ought to confine it self to limits and much more should a Prince set Bounds to himself in the Honours and Preferments which he is pleased to bestow Now having mentioned his Majesties Grace I 'll venture to say That after all the Mercy he hath exercised towards his own and his Peoples Enemies there is not one either Converted to his Interest by it or that reckons himself obliged to him for it But instead of attributing their impunity to His Majesties Grace they ascribe it to the Pusillanimity of the Government and in the room of being brought over to serve him they are emboldened to go on in their Conspiracies against His Person and Dignity Nor will they ever account themselves indebted to his Mercy till he hath made some of them the Objects of his Justice But to return to what I am upon should not such an easy Animadversion be inflicted upon those who have oppressed us as the being shut out from Trusts and Imploys in the Government We should both tempt them and others to repeat the same Crimes upon the first opportunity that is offer'd unto them Yea if instead of falling under such a gentle Mortification they should be preferred to the chief places of Honour and Profit in the Kingdom Villainy will be committed in order to Merit and Men of brutal and Profligate Principles will seek to exceed in Unjustice and Treachery that they may be thought to excel in Desert And though through the Moderation Goodness Wisdom and Justice of Their Majesties we may escape the Consequences of such a Method during Their Reign which I pray God may be long yet Posterity will lose most of the benefit of this Revolution for want of adjudging those to punishment that have been Traytors to Societies and Cannibals to Mankind in this Age whereby to deter others from being such in the next The Counsel given to Princes by the Supream Sovereign by whom they Reign is That they should punish exorbitant Offenders to instruct others to fear and forbear doing wickedly But the Advice thrust upon His Majesty by some ill Men about him is That he should cherish and advance them without regard to the effects that may attend it What a strange Idea will it give the World of our Government if the rewards of Vertue be made the recompences of Crimes And how shall we lift up our Faces to God or Men if the Malefactors under the last Reign not only escape under this without Chastisements but inherit the Preferments and Emoluments of it If what I have said be not sufficient to justifie both the expediency and equity of the forementioned Vote I hope the Experience the King hath had of that sort of People since he received them into his particular Favour and Principal Service will reconcile him unto a better Opinion of it and shew him the necessity of turning those out of Office whom his Parliament would have prevented his taking in Both the Nations are sensible of His Majesties being betray'd both in his Councils and in

to His MAJESTY at Hampton-Court the 15 th day of October 1689. TO THE KING'S Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Representation of the Lords and Commissioners of Shires and Burroughs of the Kingdom of SCOTLAND Under subscribers and Members of this Current Parliament now Adjourned till the Eight of October next NOthing save the great and general Surprize of this long distressed and at present unsettled Kingdom upon the late Adjournment of Your most Loyal Parliament for so long a time and in so critical a season with the deep Concern of Your Royal Interest therein could possibly have induced us to this so necessary a Petition But the visible Consternation and Discouragement of thousands of Your good Subjects delayed in the Relief and Comfort which at this time they assuredly expected with the Advantages that We apprehend Your Majesties Enemies both within and without the Kingdom may think to reap by such an Interruption being our only Motives We cannot We dare not be silent And therefore to prevent these evil Consequences We in the first place most solemnly Protest and Declare in the Presence of God and Men Our constant and inviolable Fidelity and Adherence to Your Majesties Royal Title Right and Interest so frankly and chearfully recognosced by Us in this Current Parliament wishing and praying for nothing more under the Sun than Your long and prosperous Reign as that wherein the Security of all our Lives and Liberties and also of our Holy Religion more dear to Us than both is infallibly included It was the Perswasion we had of the Justice as well as the Necessity of Your Majesty's Heroic Undertaking for the Delivery of these Kingdoms with the Conviction of the Divine Confirmation that appeared in its Glorious Success that moved most if not all of Us to endeavour and concur most heartily in the late Meeting of Estates for the Advancement and Establishment of Your Majesty upon the Throne when some discovered their Disaffection and were too open Retarders and Obstructers of that good Design And it is from the same true Affection and Zeal that we do now most heartily make the above-mentioned Protestation to obviate all the Misconstructions Your Enemies may make in this Juncture Nor are we less assured of Your Majesties most sincere and gracious Intentions to perform for us to the utmost all that the Estates of the Kingdom have either demanded or represented as necessary and expedient for securing the Protestant Religion restoring their Laws and Liberties and redressing of their Grievances according to Your Majesties Declaration for this Kingdom Neither can it be imagined that so wise and just a King as Your Majesty will ever be perswaded that so Loyal a Parliament as this can be induced either to wish or design any Prejudice to or Diminution of Your true Interest and Prerogative but such as have slavishly served and flattered Arbitrary Power and Tyranny will be always studying for their own sinister Ends to state a separate Interest betwixt King and People a Practice which we are confident Your Majesty abhors But that we may clear our selves upon this present occasion to Your Majesty's full satisfaction and refuting of all Misrepresentations we can incur on any hand we shall briefly rehearse to Your Majesty the Votes pass'd in this present Parliament to which the Royal assent is not given with such short Reflections as we hope may tend to the better Vindication of all concern'd The First Act upon which the Vote of Parliament has pass'd is That declaring the Priviledge of the Estates of Parliament to Nominate and Appoint Committees as they shall think fit and excluding therefrom the Officers of State unless they be chosen And omitting what the Parliament hath already represented to Your Majesty as reasons of their Vote it is humbly conceived that this Act is exactly framed to the extent of that Grievance which together with the rest is desired in the Instrument of Government to be redressed unto us in Parliament The Second was an Act Abrogating the Act of Parliament 1669 asserting the Kings Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and this Act is so exactly conform to the Second Article of the abovementioned Grievances and the foresaid Act of Supremacy in it self is so dangerous to the Protestant Religion as well as inconsistent with the Establishment of any Church-Government that we doubt not Your Majesty will ever approve all that voted to it The Third is an Act anent Persons not to employed in publick Trusts and all the Ruins and Distresses of this Kingdom have so certainly flowed from the Persons therein noted especially such as by their contriving of and concurring in the Dispensing Power have thereby eminently indangered our Religion and overturned all the Fences of our Liberties and Properties which we have good Ground to believe the Parliament would have extended but to few Persons And your Majesty in Your Declaration hath so justly charged the same upon evil and wicked Counsellors the only Persons pointed at in this Act that we are perswaded that You will find it absolutely necessary for attaining all the Ends of Your Majesty's glorious Undertaking for our Relief The Fourth is an Act concerning the Nomination of the ordinary Lords of Session and the Election of the President To wit that in a total Vacation they be tryed and admitted or rejected by Parliament and in a particular Vacation they be tryed and admitted or rejected by the other Lords And that the President be chosen by the Lords themselves conform to our old Practique and express Statute And this Act is so agreeable to Practique Laws and Acts of Parliament and so necessair for the true and equal Administration of Justice the great security of all Kingdoms that Your Majesty will unquestionably approve it The Fifth and last is an Act Ordaining the Presbyterian Ministers yet alive who were thrust out since the First of January 1661 for not Conforming to Prelacy and not complying with the Courses of the Time to be restored And this Act is in it self so just and so consequential from the Claim of Right and agreeable to Your Majesties Declaration that less in common Equity could not be done And here Your Majesty may be pleased to consider That tho' Prelacy be now by Law abolished yet these few Ministers not exceeding Sixty tho' restored as they are not for want of the Royal Assent to the foresaid Act would be all the Presbyterian Ministers legally established and provided for in Scotland It is not unknown to Your Majesty what have been the sad Confusions and Disorders of this distressed Country under Prelacy and for want of its ancient Presbyterian Government and now the whole West and many other Parts of Scotland are at present desolate and destitute having only Ministers called by the People upon the late Liberty without any Benefice or Living or convenient Place to Preach in It is also certain that there are many Hundreds of forefaulted and sined Persons who are yet waiting to be restored and refounded according to the Claim of Right and Your Majesties Gracious Instructions thereanent It is true the last Thing proposed by Your Majesties Commissioner in Parliament was a Supply of Money for Maintenance of the Forces so necessary for our present Defence and We should have proven our selves ungrateful to Your Majesty and false to our own Interest and Security if We had absolutely refused it But there being a sufficient and certain Fund to maintain all the Forces and support all other incident Charges of the Government for some Months all that we demanded was That some things visibly necessair for Satisfaction of the Country and the better enabling and disposing them to pay the said Supply might be first expeded We are confident that the Vote of Parliament which was only for a short Delay will not give Your Majesty the least ground of Offence And now having presumed to lay these Things before Your Majesty with all humble Submission purely out of Duty for preventing the evil Constructions of Your Majesties Enemies and for our own just Vindication We most humbly beseech Your Sacred Majesty Graciously to Consider what is here represented and in Prosecution of Your Majesties Acceptance of the Claim of Right and Your Declaration emitted for this Kingdom to take such Courses as You in Your Royal Wisdom shall think fit for Passing the foresaid Acts of Parliament and Redressing all our other Grievances And We Your Majesties most humble Petitioners and faithful Subjects shall as in Duty bound every Pray for Your long and prosperous Reign over Us. FINIS