Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A49353
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The loyal martyr vindicated
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Fowler, Edward, Bishop of Gloucester, 1632-1714.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing L3353A; ESTC R41032
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60,614
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53
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making the said Earl a Prisoner against the Practice and Law of Nations The sending his own Guards at Eleven at Night to take Possession of the Posts at White-hall without Advertising Me in the least manner of it The sending to Me at One a Clock after Midnight when I was in Bed a kind of an Order by Three Lords to be gone out of My own Pallace before Twelve the next Morning After all this How could I hope to be Safe so long as I was in the Power of one who had not only done this to Me and Invaded My Kingdoms without any just occasion given him for it but that did by his First Declaration lay the greatest Aspersion on Me that Malice could invent in that Clause of it which concerns My Son I appeal to all that know Me nay even to himself that in their Consciences neither he nor they can believe Me in the least capable of so Vnnatural a Villany nor of so little common Sense to be imposed upon in a Thing of such a nature as that What had I then to expect from one who by all Arts hath taken such pains to make Me appear as black as Hell to My own People as well as to all the World besides What Effect that had at Home all Mankind have seen by so general a Defection in My Army as well as in the Nation amongst all sorts of People I was born Free and desire to continue so and though I have ventured My Life very frankly on several occasions for the Good and Honor of My Countrey and am as free to do it again and which I hope I shall yet do as Old as I am to redeem it from the Slavery it is like to fall under yet I think it not convenient to expose My Self to be Secured as not to be at Liberty to effect it and for that Reason do withdraw but so as to be within Call whensoever the Nations Eyes shall be opened so as to see how they have been Abused and Imposed upon by the specious Pretence of Religion and Property I hope it will please God to touch their Hearts out of his infinite Mercy and to make them sensible of the ill Condition they are in and bring them to such a Temper That a legal Parliament may be called and that amongst other Things which may be necessary to be done they will agree to Liberty of Conscience for all Protestant Dissenters and that those of My own Persuasion may be so far considered and have such a share of it as they may live Peaceably and Quietly as English-men and Christians ought to do and not to be obliged to transplant themselves which would be very grievous especially to such as love their own Countrey And I appeal to all Men who are Considering Men and have had Experience Whether any thing can make this Nation so Great and Flourishing as Liberty of Conscience Some of Our Neighbours dread it I could add much more to confirm all I have said but now is not the proper time Rochester Decemb. 22d 1688. But finding this Letter not to be taken to be Ours by some and that the Prince of Orange and his Adherents did Maliciously Suppress the same We Writ to several of Our Privy-Council and directed Copies thereof to divers of You the Peers of the Realm believing that none durst take upon them to intercept or open any of Your Letters But of all these We have no Account But We wonder not that all Arts are used to hinder You from knowing Our Sentiments since the Prince of Orange rather chose against all Law to imprison the Earl of Feversham and by Force to drive Vs away from Our own Palace than receive Our Invitation of coming to Us or hearing what We had to propose to him well knowing that what We had to offer would content all Honest and Reasonable Men and was what he durst not trust You with the Knowledge of Those False and Wicked Reflections on Vs relating to the French-League and to Our Son the Prince of Wales We require You to examine into and thereby satisfie Your Selves and all other Our Subjects where the Imposture lies We hope God will not permit You to deprive Your Selves of a lawful Prince whose Education shall be such as may give a Prospect of Happiness to all Our Kingdoms hereafter We are Resolved nothing shall be omitted on Our part whenever We can with Safety return that can contribute towards the redâ—ess of all former Errors or present Disorders or add to the Securing the Protestant Religion or the Property of every individual Subject intending to refer the whole to a Parliament Legally Called Freely Elected and held without Constraint wherein We shall not only have a particular Regard to the Support and Security of the Church of England as by Law Established but also give such an Indulgence to Dissenters as Our People shall have no Reason to be jealous of not expecting for the future any other Favour to those of Our own Persuasion than the exercise of their Religion in their own private Families And because many of Our well-meaning Subjects whose unnecessary Fears for the Protestant Religion and the unhappy Mistakes of the Prince of Orange's Ambitious Designs which they did not sufficiently see into time enough have been Fatally led beyond what they first intended viz. the Preservation of their Religion c. to the Breach of all Laws and even to the total Dissolution of the Anâ—ient Government it self and knowing themselves thereby to be Obnoxious may despair of Our Mercy We do therefore declare on the Word of a King That Our Free Pardon shall not only be extended to them but to all Our Subjects to the worst even those that Betrayed Us some few Excepted Resolving in that Parliament by an Act of Oblivion to cover all Faults heal all Divisions and restore Peace and Happiness to all Our Subjects which can never be effectually done by any other Methods or Power Having thus firmly Resolved on Our part whatsoever Crimes are omitted whose Posterity shall come to suffer for these Crimes We shall look upon Our Selves as Justified in the sight both of God and Man and therefore leave it with You expecting You will seriously and speedily consider hereof and so we bid You heartily Farewell Given at St. Germains en Laye the Third of February 1688. And of Our Reign the Fourth Year The Letter to the Commons was Verbatim the same To the Officers and Souldiers of the Army JAMES R. THe Regard We have for you as Gentlemen and Souldiers obliges Us to endeavour to restore you to that Reputation for Courage Loyalty c. which has till now been inseparable from English men which by your late fatal Defection from Us your lawful Prince whose particular Care you ever were is now become Contemptible even to those you joyned with against Us nor can any thing restore you to your former Character but a sudden and hearty return to
may have Learning enough to use those Four ordinary Words none of them being artificial Law Terms but such honest English as every Gentleman that converses with Persons above the lowest Rank is capable of understanding and using But this candid Gentleman seeing his Cause could not be maintained but by Tricks for this whole turn of Government was nothing but a Trick of Policy disjoyns by his Discourse illiterate from unskill'd in the Law and refers the Four cramp Words to the former and his passing a peremptory Iudgment about our Laws to the latter and when he has done he tells us very sadly one may justly wonder at it and indeed it is very wonderful For to play so many jugling Tricks in so little room wresting almost every Word 'till he has made it crooked and then gracing every Flam he gives us with such a demure Hypocrisie is altogether Monstrous He tells us p. 9. That the Loyal Martyr design'd two Things To assert his Principles and to testifie his Innocency and he sets himself to prove that he did neither As for the former he grants that by the Faith of the Church of England Mr. Ashton meant the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and then confutes him most learnedly by telling us That he suffered not for Passive Obedience but for want of it and that had he regulated his Life by this Principle he had preserved it Did ever any Man's Reason turn tail so aukwardly The constant Doctrine of the Church of England was Passive Obedience to a lawful King and he is the lawful King according to the Constitution of our Government who has Title to it by immediate Succession Now comes this acute Gentleman and pretends without Shame or Wit that the Doctrine of the Church of England is not Passive Obedience to the legal King whom all the World did ever acknowledge for such in their clear unbâ—ass'd and 〈◊〉 in us Thoughts but to anoâ—her who has dispossest this legal King of his Kingdom and whose Title is quite annulled by our English Laws nor own'd by any but some of those who got their Advantages in doing so or who dare not do otherwise And then after he had prevaâ—icated thus eg egiously he teâ—ls us very gravely That certainly there must be some gâ—eaâ— mistakes about the Doctrines and Principles of our Church Whereas if there be any 't is manifestly on his side but to say the plain Truth there is no mistake at all even on his side but an open Prevarication and a wilful shuffling and shifting the whole Subject of the Church of England's Tenet making our Passiâ—e Obedience regard not only a wrong but an opposite Object which is to make the Principles of our Church face abâ—ut with the Times and point as a Weather-cock does to the Wind to a Dispossessour of the true Prince so he gets but Power enough to make himself a strong Party and keep under or Murther by his new Laws and new Judges those who dare be Loyal He pretends that The Doctrines and Principles of our Church are to be found in the Articles and Constitutions of it If he means that only some of them are found there it reaches not home to his purpose But if he means that All the Doctrines of Faith which our Church holds are found there he shews himself to be very weak Sure he cannot forget that God's written Word and it only is our intire and adequate Rule of Faith and that the best Interpreter of it for us to follow is the most unanimous Exposition of it avow'd by the Doctrine of our Church-men and the agreeable and constant Practice of our Church If then he would prove that our Church does not hold Passive Obedience and Indispensable Allegiance to our lawful King upon our Rule of Faith that is does not hold it part of her Faith he should have produced such and so many genuine grave and eminent Members of one Church as are beyond Exception who have unanimously declared themselves to understand the Scripture in an opposite Sense and upon that ground held the contrary I except always from that Number Dr. Sherlock who is so flexible a Complier with every side that I fear he is of no side and ready to be of any as God-Mâ—mmon shall inspire him by proposing a good fat Deanry or some such irresistible Temptation As for the Practice of our Church giving us light to know her Faith it cannot be possibly manifested better than by her Carriage towards King Charles II. in the Protector 's days who had Abdicated twiâ—e if the leaving England to avoid danger to his Person might be called Abdicating and there was another actual supreme Governor who had got all the Power into his Hands and so was Providentially Settled in Dr. Sherlock's Sense yet none of the genuine Sons of our Church flincht from their Allegiance to their King in those happy days when honest Principles as yet unantiquated made our Church shine gloriously even in the midst of Persecution but all adher'd to their legal King though all of them suffered in their Estates and many lost their Lives rather than forego their Duty But as our Author told us formerly that Mr. Ashton died for want of that Passive Obedience which the Church of England holds so he tells us here that he might have believed himself obliged by his Religion to look upon his rightful lawful Prince whatever his Principles were or his Practices might be as God's Vicegerent and accountable to God only from whom he received his Power All this says he he might have done and have been alive still because as he contends King William was his rightful lawful Prince So that it seâ—ms let King William be of what Principles he will even though he were as zealous a Papist as King Iames or let his Practices be what they will even to the Subverting all our Liberties Properties nay the most Fundamental Laws of the Land still we are to believe our selves obliged by our Religion to look upon him as on God's Vicegerent accountable to God only and consequently to obey him as such Which ridiculous Partiality overthrows a good part of his Book and makes all the Deserters and fiâ—st Adherers to the Prince of Orange and the whole Parliament that set him up for their King and the Consent of the Nation he talks of to be Irreligious and Wicked For since King Iames was confessedly at that time their rightful lawful King nor can he be pretended to have worse Principles and Practices than those mentioned which comes within the compass of his whatever his Principles are or his Practices might be and this Man confesses that notwithstanding all this they were obliged by their Religion to submit to him as God's Vicegerent it follows unavoidably that we are to believe they violated the Principles of Religion in the highest Degree who deserted him opposed him turned him out and set up a Stranger in his stead Yet this Action of theirs confest