Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A61028
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A speech made by a member of the Convention of the States in Scotland
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Member of the Convention of the States in Scotland.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing S4853; ESTC P2646
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4,337
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2
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A SPEECH MADE BY A Member of the Convention of the States IN SCOTLAND Numb 1 WE are now called together by his Highness the Prince of Orange to Consult and Deliberate what Methods will be most proper to secure Our Religion Laws and Liberties in order to which the first thing that will fall under our Consideration is the setling the Sovereign Power I take for granted that you are fully convinced that King James the 7th by his many Violations of the Fundamental Laws by his endeavouring to establish a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and introduce Popery tho he himself had confirmed all the Laws that were enacted in Favour of the Protestant Religion has thereby subverted the Constitution and that our Miseries might have no Redress from him has left us in a time when we needed his Protection most The Eyes of all Europe are upon us and it is in our Power to make our Selves and our Posterity either Happy or Miserable by making a choice either to call back the same King James and hazard once more all that Men account Dear to his Mercy or to settle the Government on some other under whom we may live Quiet and Peaceable Lives without the perpetual Terror of being swallowed up by Popery and Arbitrary Government which all good Men hoped were now banished and yet behold a new Off-spring is sprung up which plead eagerly for both tho under the mistaken Names of Duty and Allegiance It 's strange that any Man can so far Degenerate as to prefer Slavery to Liberty and that they should be so much in Love with Chains that when they were fairly shaken off they should run furiously to be Fettered again as if the Ottoman and French Government were so charming in our Country that we cannot live without it tho we have so lately groaned under the dismal Burden of it And it might have been supposed that even these who had been Instrumental in Enslaving their Fellow Brethren and were grown Fat with Sucking the Nations Blood would have taken another Method to Reconcile themselves than by persuading us to purchase their Safety at so vast an Expence as the Ruin of more than three Parts of the Nation will necessarily amount to If we do but a little Reflect on the Motives which these Men blinded by Self-interest make use of to Delude the Nation into a Security that wanted very little of proving Fatal to it and compare them with the strong Reasons we have to disswade us from being so imposed on they will be found so Weak and Impertinent that we must Judg it next to Impossibility to suffer our selves to be twice Deceived But if the Experience of our former Miseries so lately hanging over our heads the very thoughts of renewing which make all good Men to tremble has not made us Wiser and be not of Efficacy enough to deter us from venturing another Shipwrack and exposing all again to the Discretion of Roman Catholicks It 's more than probable that GOD has abandoned us and given us up to believe strong Delusions First They will endeavour to perswade us that Kings are Eximed from Punishments here on Earth and nothing they do can be Quarrelled by their Subjects which indeed might with some Reason be urged among the Turks who reserve nothing from the Power of their Sultans and where it 's Death to Dispute his Commands tho never so Arbitrary and Tyrrannical But with what Impudence can such Stuff be imposed on us who never admit our Kings to the Government till they Swear to Rule us according to Law and no other ways The Laws are the only Security we have for our Lives and Properties which if our Sovereign subvert Subjects cannot be blamed for making use of the ordinary means to preserve them and since that cannot be done without withdrawing Obedience from such a Magistrate as goes about to destroy them such an Act cannot properly be said to punish him because we take nothing from him to which he has a just Claim but do only shun the occasion of making our selves miserable The Speculative Doctrine of Passive Obedience has done too much mischief among us and what has befallen the King may be justy imputed to it for the believing that without Opposition he might do what he pleased encouraged him to take such measures as have drawn all these misfortunes on him Secondly Others are so Fond as to believe that we may be Secure in calling the King back provided they so Limit him that it will not be in his power to hurt us These men do not consider how small a Complement this is to a man of the Kings Temper from an Absolute Prince as he was pleased to fancy himself to content himself with the bare Title of a King and how insupportable the Change must be if from being Master of all he must force himself to comply with a thousand Masters and see his Throne become his Prison But how airy is it to fancy that any Restrictions of our Contrivance can bind the King For 1st It 's most certain they can never be Voluntary and what is constrained and done by Force is by Law declared to be Void and Null to whose Assistance the Popes Dispensing Power being joined would quickly blow off these Sampson Cords and the Royal Power would again revive with all its Vigour and Lustre Thirdly The King is of a Religion that has in a famous Council decreed That no Faith is to be kept with H reticks much less with Subjects whom he looks upon as so many Rebels and will not miss to treat them as such whenever they give him the Opportunity of doing it for his greatest Admirers do not run to that height of Idolatry to imagine him so much Angel as not to take all methods to revenge so great an Affront and secure himself at our Cost from such a Treatment for the future the apprehensions of which resentment will strike such terror in mens minds that nothing will be capable to divert them from offering up All for an Atonement and Popery and Slavery will be thought a good Bargain if they can but save their Lives Then we may lament our Miseries but it will not be in our power to help them for a Prince of Orange is not always ready to rescue us with such vast Expence and so great hazard to his Person and if our Madness hurry us so far we deserve rather his pity than his resentment Fourthly What Arguments has the King given since he left us to persuade us he will be more faithful in observing his Words and Oaths than hitherto he has been Does he not in a Letter lately printed here expresly say he has ruled so as to give no occasion of complaint to any of his Subjects Is not the same Letter signed by one who sacrificed both Conscience and Honour to Interest whose pernicious and headstrong Counsels has posted him to his Ruine tho' all that has been done cannot make Him
sensible of it Sure the reducing Hereticks to the See of Rome is not less Meritorious than before nor King James the Seventh by breathing the French Air become less Bigot It were a Dream to fancy it For so long as the Vatican thunders Excommunications against all such as do not use their utmost endeavours to extirpate Heresie a Roman Catholick must have no Religion at all if they be not terrible to him The fourth Argument they made use of to persuade such as are and shall be chosen Members of the Convention That it 's their Interest to call back the King is That the Peace and Happiness of the Nation cannot be otherwise secured nor Factions or Divisions extinguished But what Factions do you observe but such as they themselves do foment on purpose to disturb our Harmony all which would immediately die if the Government were once setled on those who deserved it best for then if these Fops continued still fond of Popery and Tyranny they would be chastised as Disturbers of the Publick Peace The Argument may very justly be retorted for if the King return we will burst out into a flame and England which has already declared will quickly be on our Top an Enemy too Potent and too Numerous for us tho' we were all united besides the Danger to which such a Procedure will expose us we cut off all hopes of an Union with that Nation and thereby deprive our selves of an unspeakable Advantage which would redound to all sorts of People and would be the only means to support an impoverish'd and sinking Nation Neither is this the only Inconveniency tho' it be a very Great One for if we state our selves in opposition to England by Restoring the King whom they Rejected it is not to be doubted but he will use his utmost endeavour to recover that Kingdom the loss of which is so considerable Now seeing it were vain to suppose that the Scots alone were able to second his desires he must needs have recourse to the French and Irish whose Religion will procure a more intire Confidence than His Majesty can repose in any others These therefore must be received into our Bosom and because Scotland is the most proper place for Invading England it must be the Scence of all the Blood and Confusion that this melancholly thought gives us a Prospect of And what treatment can such Sham-Protestants expect from these who otherwise would have become their Friends and Allies And what Figure will they pretend to make when they set up for a separate Interest from all the Confederate Protestants in the World besides The happy Success the PRINCE His Enterprize has met with has made a considerable Alteration in the Affairs of Europe for that great Enemy of the Protestants and even of Christianity it self who had propos'd nothing less to himself than an Universal Monarchy whom the Strictest Leagues and Contracts cannot bind but without regard to GOD or Man threatens all his Neighbours with utter Destruction by the Scene 's being changed among us is so far humbled that from a Proud and Insulting Enemy he is become a Supplicant for Peace well foreseeing that if Britain join with those other Princes whom his Insolence Cruelty and Avarice has so justly Armed against him his Ruine is Inevitable 〈◊〉 that if we have not Soul enough to enjoy this great Blessing and can easily part with the Glory of being once more the Arbiters of Europe let us at least have have so much Christian Love and Charity for the Neighbouring Nations of our own Perswasion as not to expose them to a necessary Participation of these Plagues which our Common Enemies are preparing for us and which will certainly Terminate in all our Destructions Lastly I beseech you to consider what Persons they are who would Instill this Poyson in you and you will find them of three kinds First those who Postponing the Common Good of the Nation are wholly acted by Self-Interest considering that in a Government where Justice and Mercy equally Flourish Virtue and Merit not Villany will be rewarded Secondly They who are ignorant of the Nature of Government and were never at the pains to inform themselves what Measures the Law of Nature and Nations have set to mens Obedience but are angry at every thing that thwarts their wild Notions and will admit of nothing tho never so reasonable and convincing if their dull Capacities cannot reach it The third sort are such as have been instrumental in the enslaving their Country and are afraid if they be called to an Account they may be brought to suffer Condign Punishment if such cannot succeed in their Design they at least hope to be overlookt in a General Confusion so they have nothing unessayed that may tend to their own safety and if Heaven fail them they summon Hell to their Aid not that Love to their Prince but meer Ambition and Interest drives these Criminals to such Attempts neither are they much to blame if they are at such pains to sow Divisions among us But no Person of Wit and Judgment nor any Good Man that is truly Protestant and minds the good of his Country will suffer himself to be so grosly imposed on by such Firebrands who would build their Future Imaginary Greatness on the Ruine of Our Religion Laws and Country LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens head-Alley in Pater-Noster-Row MDCLXXXIX