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	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47485	A true history of the several designs and conspiracies against His Majesties sacred person and government as they were continually carry'd on from 1688 till 1697 containing matters extracted from original papers, depositions of the witnesses, and authentick records, as appears by the references to the appendix, wherein they are digested : published with no other design then to acquaint the English nation that notwithstanding the present posture of affairs our enemies are still so many, restless and designing, that all imaginable care ought to be taken for the defense and safety of His Majesty and his three kingdoms / by R.K.	Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?	1698 (1698)	Wing K615; ESTC R3193	131,782	328

the late King James and all his Adherents And in case His Majesty come to any Violent or Untimely Death which God forbid We do hereby further freely and unanimously oblige our selves to Unite Associate and Stand by each other in revenging the same upon his Enemies and their Adherents and in supporting and defending the Succession of the Crown according to an Act made in the first Year of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary Intituled an Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown His Majesty receiv'd it very Graciously and express'd his Sence of their Extraordinary Zeal and Fidelity in the Words following Gentlemen I Take this as a most convincing and most acceptable Evidence of your Affection And as you have freely Associated your selves for our common Safety I do heartily enter into the same Association and will be always ready with you and the rest of my Good Subjects to venture my Life against all who shall endeavour to subvert the Religion Laws and Liberties of England The House of Lords also presented their Association not long after which being almost the same for Brevity sake is here omitted The House of Commons then proceeded to make Laws for the Security of His Majesties Person and Government containing these Heads First That such as shall refuse to take the Oaths of Fidelity to His Majesty shall be subject to the Forfeitures and Penalties of Popish Recusants Convict Secondly To inflict Penalties on all that by Writing or otherwise Declare that King William is not Lawful and Rightful King of these Realms Thirdly To ratify and confirm the Association Fourthly That no Person shall be capable of any Office of Profit or Trust Civil or Military that shall not sign the Association Fifthly That whenever it shall please God to afflict these Nations by the Death of his Present Majesty that the Parliament then in being shall not be dissolv'd thereby but shall continue till the next Heir to the Crown in Succession dissolve them Whilst the Parliament were thus providing Good Laws for the Preservation of His Majesty and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom three of the Assassins viz. Robert Charnock Edward King and Thomas Keys were on the 11th of March 1695 try'd and upon full Evidence being all found guilty of high Treason receiv'd Sentence of Death accordingly at the Sessions-House in the Old-Baily And upon March the 18th 1695 were all executed at Tyburn Before their Execution the Malefactors severally deliver'd each his Paper to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex in which Papers they all confest themselves Guilty of the Crimes they were accused of and then about to suffer for Mr. Charnock in these Words as concerning an Invasion intended by King James upon England and that there was certain Intelligence of it from abroad I presume every Body was satisfi'd and to the facilitating of which I own that my self and some others did agree upon the Undertaking to attack the Prince of Orange and his Guards for which I am now to suffer Mr. King in these Words I am now within a few Moments of Eternity brought to this Place by the just Hand of God in Punishment of all my Crimes but particularly of that of which I have been lately Arraigned and for which I stand here Condemned Mr. Keyes in these Words God is just in all his Judgments and I accept of this Death as the Punishment of my Iniquities Sir John Friend also own'd himself guilty of the Treason he dy'd for in endeavouring to justify it in these Words To assist King James in the Recovery of his Right is Justifiable and our Duty Sir William Perkins confessed at his Execution that he was privy to the Design upon the Prince meaning King William that he was intirely in the Interest of King James and looked upon it as his Duty to assist him in the Recovery of his Throne Now that these two contrary to the Example of Charnock justified their Treasons must be attributed to the blind Zeal and Rebellious Principles of those Clergy Men who administred Absolution without any Precedent Confession in direct Opposition to the Laws of that Church whereof they would be thought Members but those Proceedings being Sentenc'd by fourteen * See the Declaration of the Sence of the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Reverend Bishops all that were then in London and consented to by the rest that were absent I refer the Reader to their Lordships printed Paper for further Satisfaction and shall only add 't is the Leaders of these People that cause them to err Sir John Fenwick who was attainted by Parliament and beheaded on Tower-Hill January 28 1696 was the last that suffered for these treasonable Practices against the King and Government At the place of Execution he delivered a Paper to the Sheriff which can be called his for no other reason but because he owned it to be so for the Paper is so closely couch'd to avoid the danger of unwary Digressions so cautiously writ to prevent Reflections and so artificially adapted to humour the Party and not irritate the Government that if compared with what was truly his own no Man can think Sr. John was the Author of it who without Complement had no such extraordinary Talent in speaking or writing Let us take a transient View of it If Sir John Fenwick was of the Communion of the Church of England this Paper does not truly represent him for it is a Scandal to the Purity of her Doctrin and wholly inconsistent with the Simplicity Fidelity and Candour which that Church requires in her dying Members The Author of Sir John's dying Paper would fain excuse him from the guilt of Treason because he was for the lineal Descent but if by lineal Descent he means the next in Blood he is as great a Stranger to our Histories as to our Laws for the lineal Descent was broken as early as Edward the Confessor both in his taking and leaving the Crown at his Death besides many other Presidents of it's Interruption since * By Will 2d By Hen. 1st By K. Stephen By King John and King Ed. 2d and Rich. 2d both deposed by Parliament c. and in this I find he had a bad Tutor for our Laws and not our Religion does determine our Loyalty and in the Matter of Succession are the indubitable Guides of English-Men He thinks the Deposing King James was Illegal but that 's a grand Mistake for what can be more criminal and dangerous to the Being of any Polity than to restrain and disable the Legislative Authority from providing a Remedy against the greatest Mischief that can happen to a Community Since no Government can support it self without an unlimited Power to correct Abuses and provide for the Happiness of the People nor no civil Establishment in the World be of any Duration in Safety unless it be controulable and alterable to the Publick Good All human

A TRUE HISTORY Of the Several Designs and Conspiracies AGAINST HIS Majesties Sacred Person and Government As they were continually Carry'd on From 1688 till 1697. Containing Matters Extracted from Original Papers Depositions of the Witnesses and Authentick Records as appears by the References to the Appendix wherein they are Digested PUBLISH'D With no other Design then to acquaint the ENGLISH NATION that notwithstanding the Present Posture of Affairs our ENEMIES are still so Many Restless and Designing that all imaginable Care ought to be taken for the Defence and Safety of His MAJESTY and his THREE KINGDOMS By R. K. Pax erit haec nobis Hosti dum vita manebit Cum Pecore infirmo quae solet esse Lupis Ovid. LONDON Printed for the Author and sold by Abel Roper at the 〈◊〉 Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1608. THE PREFACE TO THE READER ONE of the Principal Reasons that induc'd the Author to publish the following Account was to raise his Fellow-Subjects into a Belief That besides our false Friends our Enemies are still so many restless and designing That we ought not all of a sudden to grow so secure as voluntarily to drop the Sword out of our Hands till we see more weighty Reasons for disarming our selves than those which contributed to our first Equipping Least we thereby make too dangerous an Experiment of our Enemies Virtue by putting it too much in their Power to annoy us England is yet but in the Dawning of a PEACE and being a desireable Land it can never expect Security from any Thing but an equal Force with our Neighbours for if we cannot resist them by our Arms 't is in vain to dream of any other Means of our PRESERVATION His next Design is to vindicate the Government from the vile Aspersions cast upon it by the avow'd Enemies of our Religion and Liberties I mean the Adherents to the late King for as all their Writers have had the Insolence and Vanity to charge our Government with inventing Sham-Plots and think under those ungrateful Calumnies to skreen themselves from the Imputation and Guilt of their Barbarous Conspiracies so I thought my self oblig'd to lay open the Falshood of these Suggestions and to set every thing in its proper LIGHT that the abus'd Multitude may see Things as they really are or have been and not as the Enemies of our QUIET have falsly represented them In this Undertaking I may confidently affirm That neither the Desire of expressing my Gratitude to the best of Kings and the most regular Establishment in the World the Hopes of a future Reward nor the Advantage of revenging former Piques the common Objections against all that write for the Government hath influenc'd me in the least to deviate from what I ever accounted the Soul and Life of History TRUTH And to convince the World that this is not precariously asserted I have after the Example of some of the most Celebrated Historians of this and the last Age cited my Authorities all along in the Margin which are Printed at large in the Appendix and those the Reader may consult at Leisure for his farther Satisfaction So that all the Business I had to do was but to digest these Materials into a proper Method according to the Series of Time when the most remarkable Incidents happen'd and to collect out of them what I thought most convenient to be inserted into the Narration For As the Author lay under no Necessity to disguise or perplex the TRUTH much less to sacrifice it to any private Resentment so he has all along taken Care to express himself in such a plain familiar Stile as is the Language of Business and lies within the Reach of the meanest Capacity Father Maimbourg Varillas and several other French Historians who have been dabling in our English Affairs and whose Business it was not so much to instruct the Readers Understanding as to prevail upon his Passions have indeed observ'd another Conduct Their Periods are very Harmonious and the Turn of their Language exceeding beautiful but still a Snake lies under their Rhetorical Flowers for as it was not their Design as I intimated before to confine themselves to the Severity of TRUTH which does not require any such Artifices to recommend it so they fondly thought to conceal and supply the Defect of it by the Elegance of their Expressions The Reflections I have taken the Liberty sometimes to incorporate with the Narration are just and obvious and such as properly arise from the Matter of Fact and upon this Head I cannot forbear to acquaint my Reader that it was not without some Regret that I found my self oblig'd to the necessity of making them For as my Zeal to my Native Country forc'd me to display the Unnatural Betrayers of it in their proper Colours so I could heartily wish for the HONOUR of it that it had never produc'd such a Sort of detestable Animals Indeed 't is no Wonder at all That Papists should endeavour the Re-establishment of a PRINCE who had given the World such convincing Proofs of his Biggotry to their Church Nor was I surpriz'd to find Men of broken Fortunes to Herd with them and Declare for them for these might naturally flatter themselves to make a better Figure in the World upon another REVOLUTION at least they could not find themselves in worse Circumstances than what they labour under at present but that Protestants and Men of Reputation and Quality should embark in the nefarious Design of entailing an execrable Servitude upon themselves and their Posterity or that any who call themselves Members of the Church of England should interest themselves in a Monarch's Quarrel who in the little time he reign'd over us so ill requited them for their Fidelity and Zeal is a Prodigy for ought I know not to be match'd in History and Livy who is tedious to a Fault in recounting unnatural Phaenomenas has nothing to equal it I am of Opinion That he who saves a Profess'd Enemy against his Will and puts him into a Capacity of Destroying his Benefactor has a greater Measure of Charity than Discretion and may be reckon'd among the Number of those we call Felo's de se Invitum qui servat idem facit occidenti Now the late King had given us such Notorious Indications of his Aversion to our Religion and that he never design'd to live under a limited Constitution as ours is by trampling our Laws and Liberties under his Feet by violating the most Sacred Oaths and assuming an Arbitrary Despotical Power that I wonder we should have so many weak headed Men amongst us that would hazard their Lives to restore him to Three Crowns that he voluntarily threw away gayeté de Ceur 'T is true The Israelites when they were reduced to the last Extremities in the Wilderness longed for the Onyons and Plenty of Egypt but 't is no where intimated that they were fond of Returning to the Vassalage of Making Bricks under

John Edwards George Wilson Law Brandon Robert Bradly John Wilson Anne Elliot Eliz. Hearst Edw. Browne Margin And now having so stock'd that County with Irish and other Souldiers that it became the public Discourse and Conversation of the whole Country a fresh Discovery is transmitted to the Government of the Lancashire Plot in a Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl now his Grace the Duke of Shrewsbury His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State Dated from the Quarter Sessions of the Peace holden by Adjournment at Manchester the 18th of October 1689. Right Honourable WE account it our humble Duty to make his Majesty by the Favour of your Lordship's Relation acquainted that many of our Roman Catholic younger Gentry some of good Quality have for some Months absconded tho' we are sure they remain in our County We have had divers Discoveries by Information that there has been some Modelling of Officers and Men preparatory to their Hopes of an Insurrection and after several too plain Proofs tho' not affecting us yet to that Degree as to think it material enough to trouble your good Lordship with yet the Continuance of them and the Observation that spreads and becomes a Public Remark puts us upon it to present your Honour with the Account that to some of the Gentlemen now absconded there hath been sent from London Boxes with Scarlet Cloaks and Pistols and Swords directed for safer Conveyance to Protestants who knew nothing of them and by neglect of the Correspondents unintentionally delivered as directed and so came to be discovered That there hath been War Saddles bespoke and privatly conveyed to disaffected-Persons five or six Months ago and tho our Goals are full of Irish Papists yet we have frequent Accounts of many others at Popish Houses and that which gives the occasion of this is that the last day but one six new War Saddles were sent for in the night by a Popish Gentlewoman one Mrs. Culchith a Widow who hath three Brothers now absconded and we have five Persons in Prison about them all Papists and the Remour so possesses the inragêd Rabble that we are more solicitous to appease that then affraid of what the Male-contented restless Gentlemen can do for we are sufficiently able and vigilant to free our Country from danger There are some Constables and others deserve Rewards for their extraordinary Care what we shall do with these Offenders with these Saddles or with other upon the like Occasions your Lordships Appointment according to his Majesties good Pleasure will with the greatest Humility and Faithfulness be comply'd with and obey'd by Your Lordships most humble and obedient Servants H. Willoughby Ralph Ashton Ja. Holte Tho. Lever Joseph Yates Nic. Starkie Hen. Farringdon Jos Horton This Letter next to finding the Commissions in the Ship and the Depositions of Mr. Cawson and the five Seamen is the first Discovery I meet with of the Lancashire Plot. And truly it 's so full plain particular and convincing and stands upon such unquestionable Authority and Truth The Subscribers being Persons of known Honour and Integrity that 't were a Boldness exceeding all Hopes of Pardon or Belief to raise an Objection against it Having thus acquainted and I hope convinc'd my Reader that there was a dangerous Plot forming against the Government in 1688 and 1689. That they were then modelling of Officers and Souldiers to assist an Invasion and raise a Rebellion And were providing themselves with Scarlet Cloaks War-Saddles Swords Pistols and other Requisits for that bloody Enterprise my next Affairs is to acquaint you by what Persons and Methods it was transacted as well as the several Disappointments that attended it till it was more fully discovered in 1694. The Tools they wrought with were first Papists in general * See Mr. Kelly 's Mr. Dodsworth 's Robinson's Depositions who thought themselves oblig'd to restore that Prince who had sacrific'd his Crown to advance their Religion and Interests The Second were those whose Safety depended upon the subversion of the Laws and fishing in troubled Waters And the last were disbanded Irish Souldiers who look'd upon our Happiness with Envy and could no longer endure to be Subjects to those they once hop'd to Enslave And truly such Men as these were the fittest to be employ'd in a Conspiracy of this Nature And in all Probability would have prov'd if success had accompanied their Endeavours the most effectual Instruments for the Destruction of our King Religion and Country Mr. Lunt having as is before recited sent many Souldiers into Lancashire was returning thither in Company of Mr. Abbot then and now Steward to the Lord Molyneux to give an Account to his Masters of his Negotiations in London but in Coventry they were both seiz'd and imprison'd as Enemies to the Government August 1689. A while after Lunt's and Abbot's Confinement in Coventry Providence so order'd it that Charles Cawson Master of the Vessel that brought Lunt and Thrillfall out of Ireland being apprehended in Lancashire was carrying up to London a Prisoner for that Fact And lodging at Coventry was told as a piece of News that two of his Country-Men were committed to that Goal as Enemies to the King and Government Cawson desires to see them the Kings Messenger that had Cawson in Custody consents to it and walking together into the Prison Cawson knows Lunt at first sight charges him with being one of the Persons he brought out of Ireland in June last and who brought over the Commissions Declarations and other Papers which were left in his Ship and for which Cawson was now in Trouble and being examin'd in London by the Council acquaints the Government with the whole Relation of Thrillfall's going into Ireland and his and Lunt's coming back landing at Cockram leaving the Papers behind them and that Thrillfall was kill'd and Lunt in Coventry Goal Which being heard and attested by the Kings Messenger Cawson was bound over to give Evidence against Lunt and for the present discharg'd And if this and the foregoing Testimonies do not prove that Lunt was an Agent for the Lancashire Papists and his bringing over Commissions from the late King I know not what can Matters appearing so plainly against Lunt he and Abbot Steward to the Lord Molyneux were removed from Coventry to London examin'd by the Privy Council and both committed to Newgate for Treasonable Practices November 1689. Where I shall leave them and proceed to prove the Lancashire Conspiracy by other Testimonies and let the World see what little Credit is to be given to that hardy Man that with so much Confidence deny'd the whole Plot and call'd it a sham Contrivance of some little Ministers to ruin those that were accused without Cause And having already prov'd the bringing over Commissions and the delivery of them I proceed to acquaint my Reader with the Use the Papists made of those Commissions and that will appear by the Depositions of Mr. Kelly taken in November 1689. before