Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A64805
|
Venn and his mermydons, or, The linen=draper capotted being a serious and seasonable advice to the citizens of London, occasioned by the indirect practices used in the late election of sheriffs / written by a citizen of London.
|
Citizen of London.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing V193; ESTC R38482
|
7,600
|
15
|
Instances of Tumultuary Proposals and Applications that fell little short of the old Story of Venn with his Mermydons as his late Majesty was pleased to express it which was onely an Essay of the strength of that Party that cast us formerly into Confusion But they were seasonably checkt both by the authority and good affections of the City to the Confusion of their Hopes and Designs Is not this like Absalom in the Gate Is not this the way to amuse and fright men from their Trade and Business and in effect to cry as of old To your Tents O Israel It is a dangerous thing to affect Popularity and to talk of Papists in Masquerade But unless we had better marks whereby to distinguish those sort of men it can onely serve as an odious term to be fixt upon whom himself and his Party pleases and when time serves expose them to the fury of an untutoured Zeal and to be used as Malignant Delinquent and Popishly affected were of late which had no other effect but sequestring the Estates and ruining the Families of persons so stigmatized though indeed they onely were the true Lovers of the Protestant Religion their King and Country We are not to account a Vote of the House of Commons to have the Authority of a Law as some would have a late Vote to be when as the Parliament being dissolved it signifies just nothing as to the matter of Law though it was an honest and excellent testimony of their Zeal for the preservation of his Majesties person and the Protestant Religion for which the whole Nation is bound to give them thanks but I hope we shall never live to see a Vote no nor an Ordinance neither pass for a Law and I believe this did not speak the sense of the House and as little did the late out-cry speak the sense of the City as appears in this that there are not ten men to be found that will own the action Beside that the Faction was over-born by a majority of honest men I have no purpose to reflect upon any mans person My design is onely to caution my Fellow-Citizens not to have a hand in any action that looks like Faction and Disorder for from little sparks many times are kindled mighty flames and Solomon bids us Shun the appearance of evil Frailty and Imperfection is justly inscribed on all things sublunary Yet if we could suppose a System of Rules and Laws infallible even this could not free the Government from miscarriages it being morally impossible among such a multitude of subordinate Officers of necessity to be used that all should be furnished with Wisdom and Integrity sufficient for discharge of their duty so that there will always be cause of complaint but no man can say that such things will discharge the Subjects from their duty As to the Constitution of our Government it hath been reckoned the best in the World and for the Administration I dare appeal to any man whether there is not more rigour and severity heavier Taxes and Impositions laid upon the People in the most flourishing Christian Kingdom in the World by three parts in four than ever we have yet met with unless in the late Times of Defection Is any thing imposed upon us which to remedy will make amends for Tumult and Disorder or any danger threatned or like to befall us that can equal the mischief and inconvenience of a Civil War Consider this Fellow-Citizens and let not ambitious men purchase their advancement with the price of your Bloud and Treasure They may contrive with their heads till their hearts ake but without help of your hands all their project will fall to the ground I beseech you therefore stand fast in your duty to God allegiance to the King and the Government established by Law To the first you are obliged by Nature and Religion to the second by Religion and Oath to the last by Prudence and Interest It may be said by the Dissenters from the Church of England that they are willing to obey his Majesty and observe the Law in all Civil Matters but in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Episcopacy they will not they cannot yield obedience My business is not to dispute the point but to persuade to peace and to warn you of such men as are like to disturb it Let it be considered that Episcopacy hath received the same Civil Sanction with those Laws that concern Liberty and Property It is adapted into the Constitution of the Government Would they have his Majesty abolish Episcopacy by his own power Surely this would be to exalt Prerogative with a witness and as themselves would say in other cases contrary to Magna Charta If not let them cease their murmurs till some Parliament comes that will pull down that and set up a better if they can tell where to find it I confess if any man purely out of conscience refuseth to Conform and the Laws against it rigorously executed his Circumstances are hard But is that our Case Is not every man suffered to be as good as he will Doth not the clemency of our King admit every man to hear and preach where they please to follow their own Pastors and their own Discipline And after all this do you hear men cry out against the Government the Bishops and the Clergy men of honour and dignity in the Church persons against whom they have no exceptions but their Office and Revenues persecuting them with the most vile and unsavoury Language their malice can invent And is this out of Conscience too Can any man think he that shuns a Surplice but can easily swallow a Lie that exclaims against the Common-Prayer yet is full of Envy and hatred is uncharitable to his Neighbour and constantly replenished with scurrilous and immoral expressions against every one that treads not in his path that this is the effect of a Tender Conscience Fly then the Society of this sort of men for whatsoever their specious pretences may be their thirst is after Domination and Plunder Those that trampled upon the Mitre overthrew the Crown Monarchy and Episcopacy both fell by the same hand therefore it is not amiss to mind you once more of Solomons advice Fear God Honour the King and meddle not with those that are given to change When you reflect upon the Methods taken in the beginning of the late Wars by an ill-spirited sort of men whose delight was in Disorder and aimed at gainful Fishing if they could but once trouble the Waters that their first endeavour was to raise a dislike against the Person and Government of the best of Kings and how the Grand Engineers stirred up the Citizeus and Apprentices to popular Tumults whereby his Majesty was invaded and through fear and force banished from his Palaces Cities his Consort his Royal Children and Family and at last himself most barbarously murthered What contrivance and by whom carried on Broils raised in Scotland the better to distress his Majesty and after all this and much more not to be mentioned without the extreamest horror and detestation How the Actors thereof were unmasked their persons and designs discovered their several Governments under their most politick Establishment shaken to pieces as frequently as formed and at last both the one and the other not by humane prudence but by the meer hand of God destroyed and confounded In all which mutations this City felt most constant pains and afflictions and the whole Nation after all the vast expence of Blood and Treasure had purchased to themselves nothing but Chains and Fetters When I say you reflect upon these things it must needs excite your singular care to preserve your selves from a subjection to the designs of such men as may have hopes to lead us again into the like Defection and Inconvenience and to be afraid of any thing that hath a tendency that way FINIS
among Citizens till for abusing a person of Honour Authority took occasion to chastize his insolence by stopping the Press which particulars as to him had been omitted but that he or such another hath and still doth take upon him to traduce and asperse the Justice of the Nation in unworthy and unseemly terms not caring whether the matter be true or false so it will help to sell the Book It is true the Lord Major hath taken some care about those Pamphlets but still there remains a duty upon every private Citizen that may tend much to suppressing the mischiefs thereby arising for if in stead of reading them with delight and complacency they and their Authors were discountenanced it would contribute much to the quiet and tranquility of the City and Nation Let each man observe this decorum and for want of reward those that write them would soon be compelled to turn their Pens to some honester imployment It is no small trouble to men that are peaceably disposed to see how eagerly the multitude pursue those mischievous vanities which commonly the sharper and more Satyrical they are against those in place and authority find the most ready and approved reception though to speak plain it is a certain indication of a depraved constitution when men are better pleased with things sowre and crude than with what affords wholesom nutriment And the youth of this City with some others who are but Children in Understanding are as it were insensibly tainted with dislike of the Government by receiving those seeds of Sedition which afterwards afford an Harvest too plentiful and upon every occasion and opportunity is ready to break forth into open Rebellion against those whom by the Law of Nature and Religion they are bound to obey esteem and honour For my own part I am as deeply sensible of the late horrid and damnable Plot against the person of his sacred Majesty and the Protestant Religion as any man and am verily persuaded the King himself and those about him are sufficiently satisfied how industriously it hath been carried on contrived and fomented by the Romish Emissaries both at home and abroad But withall I do profess I think it our greatest prudence and duty to leave the prosecution of those villanous Conspirators to his Majesty and those whom he is pleased to authorize for that purpose and not for us to meddle with censuring their proceedings either for Method Place or Time but to rest satisfied with what they shall think fit to do in the matter lest we be found among the number of those who are heady high-minded and speak evil of dignities and that would rob the King of his Diadem For what is it less if we cry out that those who sit at the Helm are either ignorant or abettors or favourers of such horrid designs in the one case we presume our selves fitter to govern than they and in the other we render them so much as in us lies odious to all men We all know the Romanists have been busie ever since the Reformation to make us again taste of their Colocinths and Gourds yet through the goodness of God and the prudence of our Governours their most secret Plots have been discovered their Designs baffled and all their attempts proved the raine of the Contrivers Neither have they been yet so formidable as to offer at any acts of open hostility unless it can be said they made the Presbyterians and Independents their Drudges in the late Times to do their work And if so when ever you see them agaâ—â— labâ—â—ring at the same Oar conclude they are still serving the ends of the same Masters or setting up for themselves And here it will not be amiss to consider how things stand now and what motives were frequently used for introducing the late unnatural War Did not the Factious of those Times seduce the people by making them believe the late King of blessed Memory was inclined to Popery or at least a favourer of it Were not Fears and Jealousies the main Engines used by those bloody Miscreants to serve their turns And is there not strong presumptions that the same things are endeavoured by the same sort of men to be acted over again Is it not daily inculcated what danger we are in from the Papists and many a dreadful Story told of Slavery Popery Tyranny and Arbitrary Government and God knows what Does any man think that the Magistrates are swallowed up in a Supine Negligence Hath his Majesty think you no care of us nor of himself Hath he not always with much fervor protested his adherence to the Protestant Religion Did he not graciously offer the last Parliament to sign any Bill they should frame for security thereof after his decease Is he then so zealous for its preservation after his death and shall we imagine he will not protect us in the profession of it during his happy Reign which God long continue Away then with these Fears and Jealousies which are formented by men of ambitious designs turbulent spirits and aspiring minds Look upon them all as Tricks of the old Trade Did his Majesty ever do any thing that looked like betraying us into Slavery For Gods sake Sirs Consider whither we are going let us not be undone again by the same methods we were before Are there not some at this day that long to be fingering the Crown-Lands and Bishops Revenues Be not ensnared with their wicked Contrivances and specious pretences and let not us deny that to our Soveraign which by the common suffrages of Christ and his Apostles was awarded to Heathen Emperours But it may be said we are yet in danger of being out-witted by the Jesuites and their bloody Crew and the late Plot is not yet over It is true we may yet be subject to some effects of their malice and fury But we use to say when a Distemper is once discovered it is half cured Have not we been hitherto delivered from those Lions and Bears They contrive but God disappoints and if their plotting and designing though it takes no effect shall continually fill us with fears and jealousies how much more should every man be filled with affrightment at the least appearance of that spirit which ruled in the hearts of those Children of Disobedience in the beginning of our late troubles Shall these men still impose upon us such dreadful apprehensions of those whose designs have hitherto been blasted and must we be persuaded that we are out of all danger from those who have so far succeeded in their attempts as to subvert a flourishing Kingdom and overthrow both Religion and property Perhaps if these things were well considered we should not be so easily Cajoled by them whose great Cry is for Liberty when indeed they mean nothing more than Anarchy and Confusion against Popery while they mean Episcopacy that while we are staring at the Romish Wolf we may be surprized by the Northern Bear We have had of late some