Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A47998
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A letter from a gentleman in the city to one in the country concerning the bill for disabling the Duke of York to inherit the imperial crown of this realm
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Gentleman in the city.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L1390; ESTC R14744
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12,544
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26
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of the violation of all Faith are as numerous as the Persons who have been admitted to Sovereignty upon such Stipulations Every own knoweth that it was the Emperor's Transgressing against the promises which he had made to the Bohemian's concerning the liberty of their Religion which occasioned that long bloody and fatal War And as thereby all Europe came less or more to be concerned and entangled So by the ill conduct of some and Treachery of others the Protestant Religion after the shedding of an Ocean of Blood is at last extirpated that Kingdom Yea the present differences in Hungary between the Emperour and that People are wholly to be resolved into a departure from the Promises which Ferdinando made to them for their preservation in the enjoyment of their Religion when in Anno 1618. he was chosen to be their King And notwithstanding the Hungarians have been at all times ready to submit to his Imperial Majesty providing their Religion and Legal Rights might according to the first Contracts and Stipulations be secured unto them yet in the midst of all his necessities he hath chosen rather to venture the ruine both of the Empire and his own Hereditary Countries by the French than fulfil the Promise of his Ancestors or comply with so just Requests Which plainly shews us that it must be a strange implacableness which Papists bear to our Religion that neither regard to Covenants nor interest of State can induce them to moderation towards such as profess and maintain it But what need we to consult Forreign Examples seeing our own Queen Mary affords us a remarkable instance as to breach of Faith in this matter Who as she was the only Papist who hath weilded the English Scepter since the Reformation so she hath left us abundant warning how we admit others of that Impression and Stamp to ascend the Throne be their Promises before hand what they will For neither the finding the Protestant Religion legally established nor the having pledged her own Faith for the Preservation of it according to the Establishment were of any significancy to keep out Popery or to secure Protestants from Fire and Faggot when once she was possessed of the Crown Sect 4. And therefore fourthly Some Neighbouring Nations Professing the Protestant Religion having found that by submitting to suffer a Papist to Reign over them they had betrayed themselves to lose all that was dear unto them took not only care to relieve themselves from the Violence and Treacherous Attempts of their Regnant Papish King but made Provision to debar all of Roman Principles from being capable for the future of pretending to the Throne The case in brief stood thus Sigismond the Sweed who had been before chosen King of Poland was as next Heir to the Deceased King of Sweedland admitted to the Throne of that Kingdom but upon previous conditions that he should not infringe their Liberty as to Religion nor introduce Popery which they had Banished out of their Dominion Now this Prince having contrary to all Stipulations endeavoured both to overthrow their Religion and to break in upon their Civil Rights The Sweeds like a generous People that would expose themselves to all hazards rather than give up their legal Rights and Sacrifice their Consciences to the Will and Lust of their Prince commenced a War against him under the Conduct of his Uncle Charles whom they chose to be their Protector In which War being at last Conquerours they not only Deposed him but made a Law that no Papist should at any time after be trusted with the Scepter And how conduceable that Law hath been to their Preservation all the World hath observed upon Queen Christina's resigning the Kingdom having entertained a purpose of Renouncing her Religion For as she knew that she could not declare her self a Papist and at the same time remain their Queen so they had too sadly experienced what it was to have Popery and Soveraignty meet in one Person to suffer her to continue their Soveraign if she once abjured their Religion Now I would gladly be informed why the Parliament of England may not as well exclude a Papist from all capacity of mounting the Throne to destroy this Nation and the Resormed Religion here as the States and People of Sweedland have done there Surely it is much better to be instructed by the Prudence of others after the foretast of manifold mischiefs which they had undergone than when we have made our selves through folly and Credulity Subjects and Examples of misery to think to provide for our own safety and Interest and these of our Posterity by the hopes of an aftergaim Sect. 5. Fifthly supposing it were possible at an other juncture to preserve our Religion under a Popiâ—h Prince and that therefore it were not altogether unreasonable to admit one yet at this Season when the whole Papal Party in Europe have Conspired to extirpate Protestancy in all the Schem's and Branches of it it were no less than madness to think we could secure our Religion were the Soveraign Authority over these Nations once lodged in a Papal hand He must be very ignorant in the present State of things who doth not know that there is a Design laid and carried on for the enslaving all Europe again to the Tripple Crown And he must be also a very great stranger in the Affair's of the World that doth not understand how far this Projection hath already succeeded and that there is very little wanting to the full accomplishing of it I am sure separate but once England from a hearty espousal of the Protestant Interest and it must necessarily sink and without a Miracle be supplanted in all other places And as we cannot imagine that should we have a Popish Prince in England he would prevent the ruine of a Religion elsewhere which himself hath renounced so we can as little think that he would support a Religion at home that is both opposite to his own and which had lost it's footing every where else So that as matters stand we should by admitting a Popish Prince to Succeed his Majesty not only lose the Protestant Religion from our selves and our posterity but through abandoning of that profession abroad we should be a means of making all the World Vassals again to the Romish Yoke And hence it is that the Eyes and Hopes of all protestants are upon the present parliament and from the Councels of this great Assembly they are ready to date their Happiness or Misery How much they judge their whole interest and concernments to be wrapt up in our Consultations and Resolves is evident from this that since the meeting of this Assembly they have in several Protestant Countries and Provinces abroad observed Selemn days of Fasting and Prayer to beg a blessing from the Lord upon it and that there may be a happy correspondence between the King and his Parliament Sect. 6. Sixthly should it be allowed as a thing at least credible that there
A LETTER FROM A Gentleman in the CITY TO One in the COVNTRY Concerning the BILL For Disabling the Duke of York To Inherit the Imperial Crown Of this REALM LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to one in the Country Sir THE Nation being awakened out of that Lethargy which for so many Years had bound up its Senses and deprived it of all feeling and Perception begins at last to discern it's danger and to provide against the ruine and mischiefs which threaten it Accordingly the House of Commons have not only declared nemine contradicente That the Duke of York's being a Papist hath given the greatest countenance to the present Designs and Conspiracies of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion but have brought in a Bill Disabling him to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm Now Sir this being the Affair I design to Write freely to you about I presume in the very entrance to tell you that they could do no less without abandoning themselves and the whole Kingdom to Bondage and Popery And all true English Men as well as Protestants are so fully satisfied of the necessity and Justice of the course which they steer that they not only applaud and commend them in what they have undertaken but are ready to stake their Lives and Fortunes towards the seeing it effected and accomplished Sect. I. Nor in the first place can the Papists themselves Condemn us for taking these due ways and Methods to secure our Religion and preserve our Lives and Properties seeing they are not only agreeable to the Measures but much more modest which they have taken in Forreign Countries to preserve their own Shall it be lawful for the French to endeavour to preclude Henry the 4th from enjoying the Crown of France because he was a Protestant and must it be unjust for the English to debar James Duke of York from attaining the Soveraignty over this Realm that is a Papist Shall the Pope and Church of Rome cherish and justify a Bloody War upon the alone foot of his being of a different Religion from what was received in that Nation And shall not we be allowed to use such legal means as are consistent with and warranted by our Constitution to hinder a Papist from ascending the Regal Throne of this Kingdom Shall it be lawful for those in the Communion of the Papal Church to advise Phillip the 2d of Spain to Murder his Son Charles for speaking only favourably of his Fathers Subjects in the Netherlands who were called Lutherans And shall not we have the liberty humbly to pray and desire our King to desert a Brother who hath Plotted the Ruin of his Majesties Subjects and for no other reason but because they are not Papists And suppose it should be said that these methods were not only unjust but Condemned by some of the very Roman Communion yet the desparity is so great between a Papists arriving at the Government over a Protestant Kingdom and a Protestants being advanced to Reign over a Popish Countrey that it will no ways follow from thence that what the Parliament have undertaken is in the least reprehensible For no Protestant Prince will either enslave his Kingdom or Subjects to a Forreign Jurisdiction nor call his People into question for their Religion provided they be not influenced by the Principles of it to disturb the Government and disquiet the Civil Peace So that Papists instead of receiving prejudice by having a Protestant Prince to rule over them they become possest of many advantages as to safety ease and immunities which their being under a Popish King excludes them from And therefore it is that we find the Papists do no where so fully enjoy the Right and Liberties of mankind as in some Protestant Nations where they have had the Wit and Sobriety not to molest their fellow Subjects or Conspire against the Government under which they live So far as their Religion is found to have an Influence only up-a future Life and meerly to endanger their own happiness they are pitied instead of being Capitally Prosecuted and the worst they are made to suffer is now and then to be rationally accosted by their Neighbours and addressed unto by arguments which may conduce to rectify and instruct their Judgments Whereas through the having a Popish Prince Succeed over a Protestant People they become immediately subjected to the severest Punishments and that upon the alone score of their Christian Profession It is not only lawful for such a Prince to destroy those of his Subjects who disagree from him in Faith and worship but it is an indispensable Duty upon him to do it Nor is he only sure of a Pardon upon the accomplishing so Blessed a work but the merit of the Atchievement entitles him to unspeakable Happiness and a Glorious Crown Sect. 2. And this conducts me to the 2d thing namely that no Papist ever since the Reformation succeeded to Supream Authority over a Protestant Country but he both endeavoured to overthrow the Religion which he found Established and pursued his Subjects with the most outragious Cruelties Nor hath the Loyalty of their People been able to appease or obstruct their indignation but they have been treated as the worst of Criminals because they would not renounce the Faith which they had embrac'd This is so certain and beyond all control as to matter of Fact that there is not one instance upon the whole file of History to the contrary Wheresoever any of the Popish Belief have attained the Soveraignty over a Protestant Nation whether they were Crowned Heads or Princes of a more Inferior Rank they have Universally applyed themselves to Subvert the Protestant Religion which they found legally setled and to destroy those innocent and generous Souls which had the courage to own it And if Sweedland Hungary Bohemia and several Principalities in Germany do not suffice to confirm the truth of this Assertion England can produce Queen Mary in the proof and for the attestation of it And as I challenge any man to assign so much as one opposite Example so it is not to be expressed what Cruelties they have used towards the accomplishing their Design of rooting out Protestancy and re-establishing Popery Not only Laws have been trampled upon but Cities and Kingdoms made swim with Blood in order to the extirpating the Faith of the Gospel and destroying those who profest it And therefore let me say that the portion and Lot which hath befallen other Nations through their folly in admitting persons of a Papal Stamp to Succeed over them should instruct England to prevent and obviate his ascent to the Throne from whom we may justly expect to undergo the same mischiefs Sect. 3. For thirdly no Antecedent Promises made by Popish Princes on their Assumption to Rule over Protestant Countries have been any security to those who relyed on them or any confinement to such as made them The Examples