Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A34079
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The Protestant mask taken off from the Jesuited Englishman being an answer to a book entituled Great Britain's just complaint.
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Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing C5484; ESTC R22733
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44,472
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73
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and they know K. James mortally hates them and never can forgive them His Fancy that Sweden should wish for an English King and his Heir both of that odious Religion which they have banished out of their Country with their lawful Queen who had embraced it is as peculiar and ridiculous as that Denmark which lends us Forces should hate King William for bringing one of their Blood Royal to so near a Possibility of the English Crown And England knows it is her Interest to have a King that will protect them from the fatal Ambition of France so that all his Politicks fail him and he must suppose us all as he did Pag. 2. to be Ideots and Madmen to be enticed into a Civil War with such Paltry Reasonings as these His last Exploit is to despise his Adversary and charge him again with Impudence and Emptiness for wondring any Man should be so weak as to believe that K. James's Restauration is the way to secure the Protestant Religion and here with his usual Confidence he undertakes to prove and answer all things but of his Performance let the Reader judge First Pag. 41. he will prove our Religion was in no danger of being over-turned by King James's Practices And here again all that Prince's open trampling on Law and Right all his Zeal by Promises and Threats to make Converts his Swarms of Priests his standing Army to protect them his Rage and Rigour against all that oppose his illegal Methods to bring Popery to be the established Religion are by this Jesuit in Disguise smoothed over or past by as nothing extraordinary nothing but a desire natural to Mankind to procure some ease to them of their own Perswasion c. But if this were all why did he not accept of that Liberty which his Loyal Protestant Parliament offered to grant that is Indulgence as to their Worship to all Papists and Liberty to preferr a certain number of others This he rejected with Rage and dissolved that Parliament only because this would not answer his design of putting all Power into Popish Hands And as to Liberty of Conscience the thing needs none of his Commendation The Roman Faith indeed needs severity without which no Nation under Heaven would endure it But our most Holy Faith can subsist without Compulsion and therefore this Nation was not against it if a further design had not been discovered We were sure K. James could not love Liberty of Conscience for its own sake first because Popery absolutely damns all other Religions And can a devout Papist give whole Nations leave to go to Hell Secondly because it neither is nor ever was allowed in any Popish Country where that Church had Power to persecute Thirdly because he used all means but open Force which he durst not practise to urge Men not half convinc'd to declare themselves Papists against their Conscience as divers of them now declare Wherefore Liberty of Conscience was known to be inconsistent with the Principles and Practices of his Church and contrary to his French Master's Copy as well as to his own Judgment and all this makes it plain he only pretended to love Liberty of Conscience to break the Church of England divide Protestants and set up Popery at the last So that the thing it self was as dangerous in his Hands as the Methods were unjustifiable The Counsel was given by Contzen the Jesuit long since That to divide Protestants by seemingly favouring all Parties was the ready way to bring in as our Author kindly calls it the Roman Religion At last it seems it is with him but a bare Supposition that some did intend by Liberty of Conscience Pag 42. to preferr Catholicks and propagate that Religion yet he thinks K. James understood the World and England so well that he would never attempt it It s now his Cue to make K. James very wise even in a Point where his zeal blinded him whereas just before he was the weakest Man alive and foresaw nothing and tho' he used the means this self contradicting Creature will not allow he wished for the End I am sure no body was in so much Grace with him as these Priests and new Converts whose warm Brain and enterprizing Faith intirely guided him And it is no thanks to K. James his or their good Intentions that these Projects did not succeed but to the early discovery of the Plot and the Nation 's brave opposing him in bringing it to effect But Truth will out and therefore finally he grants that which all England knows to have been plain Matter of Fact that K. James did every thing to advance Popery and suppress the Protestant Religion and then he guards himself with the little Progress that was made Which is false for in less than two years time after he pulled off his Mask there were many in the Court the Camp the Vniversities Inns of Court in all Cities and in the Country who really or feignedly turned Thousands more complyed and were ready to shake Hands with their Religion as soon as their Interest told them they might do it safely And what might have been the Consequence of our Passive Obedience as some expound it in a year or two longer is easy to judge But he would recall his grant again and says If the late King had by real Discoveries evidenced his Intentions to ruine the established Religion nothing but an universal Defection could have followed Oportet Mendacem esse Memorem He said Pag. 6th That the Army was quite Poysoned and that there was nothing sound and untainted in the whole Kingdom and Pag. 11th There was an universal Defection of his Children Servants Souldiers and Subjects Therefore by his own Rule K. James had made real publick and undoubted Discoveries of his Intention to ruine the established Religion Well but he urges That the Catholicks were but few However they daily encreased and had a Biggotted King to protect them from fear of Laws an Army after the designed Regulation ready to defend them the Sectaries generally on their side and wanted nothing but a pre-engaged Parliament to make them uppermost As to the Laws upon which he makes so large an Encomium as if they were a sufficient security to our Religion I grant they would have been so Pag. 43. if our King knowing this had not resolved to break through all these Fences and pick'd out Judges for his purpose who expounded the Laws as the King directed and set up his Dispensing Power at one blow to null them all Laws are 't is true as the Philosopher saith the Soul of a City but the Magistrate is the Soul of the Laws which are a dead Rule a meer Shadow when the Prince and his Judges conspire not to execute them and no Man dare claim the Benefit or need fear the Penalty of them What good did the Laws do any Protestant cited before the High-Commission-Court What hurt did they do to any illegal Officers Magistrates or
THE Protestant Mask Taken off from the Jesuited Englishman BEING AN ANSWER To a Book Entituled GREAT-BRITAIN's Just Complaint Imprimatur Decemb. 12. 1692. EDMUND BOHUN LONDON Printed by William Wilde for Robert Clavel at the Peacock at the West-end of St. Paul's 1692 3. THE Protestant Mask Taken off from the Jesuited English-man OR c. THere are no sort of Men who can so dexterously put on all Shapes as the refined Followers of Ignatius and none so apt to be imposed upon at this time by these Masqueraders as King James's Protestant Friends The last Revolution gave as great a Blow to Popery as another would do to the Reformed Religion so that they who wish well to the Roman and ill to the English Church must rail at the past Revolution and advise us to another they must cover the late King 's real Faults and brand the present with feigned Crimes they must strain their Wits to represent King James as one who never did any Evil and King William as if he never did any Good This with a few Harangues of Loyalty and some shew of Concern for the Protestant Religion the disguised Author hopes will suffice to make those Church-of England-men who are not satisfied with the Present Government venture into Arms to restore King James wherein should they prosper it can serve the Interest of none but Papists and if they be unfortunate it must end in the Ruine of the deluded Vndertakers In pure Charity to them therefore and tender Compassion to my Country I will examine the late Pamphlet stiled Great Britain's Just Complaint c. and briefly shew the Sophistry and Weakness of his Arguments the Falshood of his pretented History and the Malice as well as Danger of his Design To which purpose I must pass by his Flowers of Rhetorick his innumerable and needless Repetitions and Tautologies which make up one half of the Book and reply only to that which seems material He stumbles on a Contradiction very ominously at his first Step Page 1. affirming that our last Revolution never had a Parallel in antient or modern History yet immediately grants there are Instances in every Country of Subjects who have been forced by Arms to defend their Religion and Liberties against such violent Acts of their Princes as visibly endangered the Frame of the Government and that many Princes have lost their Crowns by their Cruelty and being obstinately deaf to their Subjects Petitions and Complaints Which Instances are all Parallels to our Revolution excepting only that most of them have been more bloody and violent upon less Occasions and in few places where a free People were so long and highly provoked did the Criminals come off so easily The next Exploit of this bold Writer is to arraign the whole Nation Page 2. and the wisest Men in it for Fools and Mad-men as being imposed on by the Prince of Orange's Ambition and refusing all Offers of Accommodation and Expedients for Redress Whereas our greatest Statesmen did examine these Offers and Expedients and in the midst of their Deliberations the late King went away privately for France and so broke off the Treaty With equal Truth and Modesty he affirms that all the Reasons of this Revolution are baffled and the Actors in it ashamed of the Grounds they went upon Yet still there remain it seems two famous Pamphlets which have put him to all his shifts to answer one is called The Pretences of the French Invasion Examined the other A Letter to a Friend concerning the French Invasion And not to take notice of his blind Guesses at and rude Censures of the Authors and the Papers themselves we will try how well he hath confuted them After all the Reproaches of Folly and Fallacy cast upon the first Author Page 3. he grants the Points he hath treated upon are very weighty and our profound Politician humbly follows the Steps of his contemptible Adversary And to prepare Men to revolt from this Government and join with a French Invasion he undertakes to shew they ought to venture their Necks for another Revolution 1. To repair the Injury done to King James 2. To settle the Government upon its old Basts 3. To deliver our selves from the present Sufferings we lie under 4. To secure the Protestant Religion 1. To make out the Injury done to King James he takes leave of the Papers he was answering and runs back near 20 Years to make up a most ridiculous and improbable Invective against the Prince of Orange hoping to hide the just real and honourable Causes of his Descent which were his Love to us and to our Religion and Laws then in extreme Danger by K. James's Administration by a false and groundless Charge of his ambitious aiming at our Crown before he could well write Man and by accusing him of all the Troubles of K. Charles the 2d's Reign which he aggravates by that Uncle's Tenderness for him Which last Insinuation shews the Truth of the rest for Sir W. Temple who best knew observes that K. Charles the 2d was so deep in the Interests of France that he shamefully neglected his brave Nephew when his Life and the Safety of Christendom lay at stake But why doth this nameless Libeller dig so deep for hidden Causes of the Troubles of that Reign Page 4. The Growth of Arbitrary Power and Popery the Duke's declaring himself Papist the Breach of the Triple League the Dutch War the Intrigues with France and the Popish Plot were open and known Causes of these Troubles And a few of them were sufficient to make a People so tender of their Liberties and Religion as the English are to be uneasy Besides how came it to pass that K. Charles who was so very sagacious never discovered this but to the great Satisfaction not of his People but of his own Mind as he declared in Parliament married this Prince to his Niece who was then generally supposed likely to succeed to the English Crown And to shew this Match was no Force upon that King the Noble Peer who advised the Match was most dear to his then Master and had a better Post in his Reign than that he now enjoys The Duke perhaps might be averse to this Match as being likely to spoil his Designs of converting us which would be difficult in the prospect of a Protestant Heir The Bill of Exclusion and the refusing K. Charles's Concessions are next imputed to the P. of O. and his Friends but very falsly for the Popish Plot gave the pretence to that Bill and the Zealots for it inclined to set up Monmouth or a Commonwealth As to the Concessions of a Fence against a Popish Successor if the P. of O. really had any Friends in that Parliament and any such Prospect as is pretended there would not have been a fairer Opportunity to put him then into the greatest Trust and Power but the Truth is the Duke's Creatures in the House who knew he had