Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66129	The declaration of His Highnes William Henry, by the grace of God Prince of Orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him, to appear in armes in the kingdome of England, for preserving of the Protestant religion, and for restoring the lawes and liberties of England, Scotland and Ireland Here unto are added the letters of the aforesaid his illustrious Highnesse to the sea and land forces of England, together with the prayer for the present expedition.; Declaration of his Highness William Henry, by the grace of God, Prince of Orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the Protestant religion and for restoring the laws and liberties of England, Scotland and Ireland.	William III, King of England, 1650-1702.; William III, King of England, 1650-1702. Declaration of His Highness William Henry by the grace of God Prince of Orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the Protestant religion, and for restoring the laws and liberties of the ancient kingdom of Scotland. aut; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Fagel, Gaspar, 1634-1688, attributed name.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2328C; ESTC R221019	18,386	19

DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES WILLIAM HENRY By the Grace of God PRINCE OF ORANGE c. Of the reasons inducing him To Appear in Armes for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of the ancient Kingdome of Scotland IT is both certain and evident to all men that the publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customes established by the lawfull authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled more especially where the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced upon which those who are most immediatly concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion and worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectuall care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights VVhich is so much the more necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that Wee cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret Wee see that those Councellours who have now the chiefe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner And indeed the lamentable effects of an Arbitrary Power and of Evill Counsells are so Manifest in the deplorable State of the Kingdome of Scotland that both our reason and conscience doe prompt us to an abhorrence of them For when wee consider the sad condition that Nation though always affectionate to the Royall Family and governed for many Ages by Laws made by the authority of their Kings and of the Estates of Parliament and by Common customes is reduced to by endeavours that have been used to change the constitution of the Monarchy regulate by Laws into a Despotick or Arbitrary Power which doth evidently appear not only by the actings of Evill Councellours in power but by the deliberate and expresse publick Declarations bearing that the King is an Absolute Monarch to whom obedience ought to be given in all things without reserve thereby to make way to introduce what Religion they please without so much as the necessity of the consent of the Nation by their Estates in Parliament Whilest wee consider and ponder these things as wee cannot but be touched with a tender sense of those miseries so the giving such a remedy to them as may be proper and may answer the expectation of all good men and true Protestants is the great thing which wee propose to our selves in this undertaking the Equity where of will be justified to the world if what hath been acted at the instigation of those Evill Councellours be further impartially weighed It is well known that the Laws Priviledges and Rights of the Kingdome have been overturned to the great prejudice of King and people whilest thus all foundation of confidence and trust is removed And it is no less known what have been the Arbitrary procedures of an encroaching Privy Councell for although by the Laws enacted by the authority of King and Parliament it is expressly prohibited that the Popish Religion should be professed or Seminary Priests suffered within the Kingdom or that the children of any Noblemen or Gentlemen should be sent abroad to be educated in Popish Colledges yet have these Evill Councellours ordered or suffered young Noblemen to be taken from their relations and to be sent abroad to be instructed in Jesuites Colledges and have likewayes caused Schools to be erected under the conduct of Popish Priests and that in the Capitall City of the Kingdom In an open contempt also of the known Laws of the Kingdom Papists are put into places of Highest Trust both Civil and Military and entrusted with all the Forts and Magazins The rights and Priviledges of the Royall Burrows the Third Estate of Parliament having as many Deputies in it as all the Shires in the Kingdom are taken away and they hindred in the free election of their Magistrats and Town-Councells to the manifest violation of their Charters established by Law and Immemoriall possession And all this is done by meer Arbitrary power without any Citation Triall or Sentence And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall Justice upon which mens Lives aud Liberties their Honours and Estates depend yet those Evill Councellours have subjected these to an Arbitrary and Despotick power having turned out Judges who by Law ought to continue during their Life or their good behaviour becase they would not conform themselves to their Intentions and put others in their Places who they believe would be more complyant and that without any regard to their abilities by which it evidently appears that those Evill Councellours design to render themselves the Absolute Masters of the Lives Honours and Estates of the subjects without being restrained by any rule or Law. By the inflence of the same Evill Counsellours hath a most exorbitant power been exercised in imposing Bonds and Oaths upon whole Shires without any Law or Act of Parliament in permitting Free quarters to the souldiers although they had a sufficient Establisment for their pay whereby the Kingdom was doubly burdened without any redres in imprisoning Gentlemen without any so much as alledged Reason for ceing many to accuse and witness against themselves imposing arbitrary fines frighting and harassing many parts of the Countrey with Intercommoning and Justice-Aires making some incurre forfeiture of life fortune for the most generall and harmless converse even with their nearest relations outlawed And thus bringing a consternation upon a great part of the Kingdom which when Outlawries and Intercommonings went out against multitudes upon the slenderest pretexts was involved so universally in that danger that those Councellours themselves were so obnoxious as to find it necessary to have Pardons and Indemnities whilest the poor people were left to mercy impowering Officers and Souldiers to Act upon the subjects living in quiet and full peace the greatest Barbarities in destroying them by hanging shooting and drouwning them without any forme of Law or respect to Age or Sexe not giving some of them time to pray to God for mercy And this for no other reason but because they would not answer or satisfy them in such questions as they proposed to them without any warrant of Law and against the Common Interest of Mankind which frees all men from being obliged to discover their

THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES WILLIAM HENRY By the Grace of God PRINCE OF ORANGE c. Of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND Here unto are added the Letters of the aforesaid his Illustrious Highnesse to the Sea and Land forces of England together with the Prayer for the present Expedition IE MAINTIENDRAY PROT. RELIGION AND LIBERTY Printed at the Hague by ARNOLD LEERS Bookseller at the Signe of Plutarch By speciall order of his Highnesse 1688. With Priviledge of the Great and Mighty the States of Holland and Westfriesland THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES WILLIAM HENRY By the Grace of God PRINCE OF ORANGE c. Of the reasons inducing him To Appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England IT is both certain and evident to all men that the publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customes established by the lawfull authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled more especially where the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced upon which those who are most immediatly concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion and worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectuall care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights VVhich is so much the more necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that Wee cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret Wee see that those Councellours who have now the chiefe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evill Councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing power by vertue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Lawes that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happines of the Subject and so have rendered those Lawes of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain then that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise lawes so enacted which secure-the Publike peace and safety of the Nation and the lives and liberties of every subject in it can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority For tho the King may pardon the punishment that a Transgressour has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of Treason or Felony yet it can not be with any colour of reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the execution of those Lawes relating to Treason or Felony unlesse it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good will and pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the Kings having a power to suspend the execution of the Lawes and to dispence with them Those Evill Councellours in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispencing power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Lawes Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expressly contrary to Lawes enacted for the security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evill Councellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concurre in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open profession of the Popish Religion tho those are by Law rendred incapable all such Employments It is also manifest and notorious that as his Majestie was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least opposition tho he made then open profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation that he would maintain his subjects in the free enjoyment of their Lawes Rights and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at diverse and sundry times severall Lawes enacted for the preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted that all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiasticall Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Imployment Civill or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegange and Supreamacy and the Test yet these Evill Councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those Lawes both with relation to Ecclesiasticall and Civill Employments In order to Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most expresse Lawes to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of persons to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all Ecclesiasticall matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of His Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publike profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had beleeved that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifesty Illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their

and securing of all such who will live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament wee will also referre the Enquiry into the birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And Wee for our part will concurre in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happines of the Nation which a Free and Lawfull Parliament shall determine since wee have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of all their Lawes Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legall Government This is the designe that wee have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Armes in the Conduct of which Wee will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictnes of Martiall Discipline and take a speciall Care that the People of the Countries thro which Wee must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the state of the Nation will admit of it Wee promise that Wee will send back all those Forreigne Forces that Wee have brought along with us Wee doe therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But VVee chiefly rely on the blessing of God for the successe of this our undertaking in which Wee place our whole and only Confidence Wee doe in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realme both Spirituall and Temporall all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentleman Citisens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Designe against all such as shall Endeavour to Oppose us that so VVee may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery and that all the Violences and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGALL PARLIAMENT And Wee doe likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quier Wee will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdome and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Setlement that the people may live easy and happy and for putting an end to all the Injust Violences that have been in a course of so many years Committed there Wee will also study to bring the Kingdome of Ireland to such a state that the Setlement there may be Religiously observed and that the Protestant and Brittish Interest there may be secured And VVee will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an establishment in all the three Kingdomes that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happines of those Nations may be established upon Lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses speciall command C HUYGENS. His Highnesses Additionall Declaration AFter wee had prepared and printed this our Declaration wee have understood that the subverters of the Religion and Lawes of those Kingdomes hearing of our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Jnjust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their force have induced them to offer the City of London some seeming releefe from their Great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Secure Reestablishment of their Religion and Lawes under the shelter of our Armes They doe also give out that wee Intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation And therefore it is that wee have thought fit to adde a few words to our Declaration Wee are Confident that no persons can have such hard thought of us as to Imagine that wee have any other Designe in this Undertaking then to procure a setlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the subjects upon so sure a foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter And as the forces that wee have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked designe of Conquering the Nation if wee were Capable of Intending it so the Great Numbers of the Principall Nobility and Gentry that are men of Eminent Quality and Estates and persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their Constant fidelity to the Crown who doe both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to assist us can joyne in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawfull Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests Wee are also Confident that all men see how litle weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagments that can be now made since there has been so litle regard had in time past to the most solemne Pormises And as that Imperfeit redresse that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that wee have set forth So the Defectivenes of it is no lesse Apparent for they lay doune nothing which they may not take up at Pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their claimes and pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick power which has been the root of all their Oppression and of the totall subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no redresse nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any Pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their affairs has driven them Therefore it is that wee have thought fit to declare that wee will referre all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawfull Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the 24. day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses speciall Command C HUYGENS. THE

secret thoughts Besides a great many other Violences and Oppressions to which that poor Nation hath been exposed without any hope of having an end put to them or to have Relief from them And that the Arbitrary and Illegall proceedings of those Evill Councellours might be justified and supported such a Declaration hath been procured by them as strikes at the root of the Government and overturns the most sacred Rights of it in making all Parliaments unnecessary and taking away all defences of Religion Liberty and Property by an assumed and asserted Absolute Power to which Obedience is required without Reserve which every good Christian is perswaded to be due to God Almighty alone all whose Commandements are always Just and Good. These Evill Councellours have used their utmost endeavours to abolish Penall Laws excluding all who are not Protestants from publick Trust which give too great a check to their designes For the accomplishing of this a Liberty hath been granted to Dissenters but such a●one as that the continuance thereof is plainly insinuated to depend upon their hearty concurrence for Abolishing the abovementioned Penall Laws the only legall defence of their Religion Although the Dissenters have just cause of distrust when they call to mind how some hundreds of their Ministers were driven out of their Churches without either accusation or citation the filling of many of whose places with Ignorant and Scandalous persons hath been one great occasion of all those Miseries which that Countrey for a long time hath Groaned under And Dissenters have but small ground to rest on any present ease founded upon a Proclamation which may be recalled every hour and which in the first and second Editions of it gave no relief to them especially considering that not many monts before the greatest of the forementioned severities and barbarities had been exercised upon them But to crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to beleeve that those Evill Councellours in order to the carrying on of their ill designes and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the Effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all Good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended Bignes and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible grounds of suspicion that not only Wee our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdomes doe vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens Bignes and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse and likewise Wee our selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the world knows to the succession of these Kingdomes which those Men have attempted to violate for preventing of all redress of miseries by the lawfull Successors of the Crown educated by the good providence of God in the true Profession of the Protestant Religion Wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing the true interest of these Nations in matters of such high Consequence and from contributing all that lies in us for the defence of the Laws and Liberties thereof the maintaining of the Protestant Religion in them and the securing of the People in the enjoyment of all their just Rights But that our Intentions may be so manifest that no person may doubt or pretend to doubt thereof to excuse themselves from concurringh with us in this just Design for the Universall good of the Nation Wee do Declare that the freeing that Kingdom from all hazard of Popery and Arbitrary power for the future and the delivering it from what at the present doth expose it to both the setling of it by Parliament upon such a solid Basis as to its Religions and Civill concerns as may most effectually redress all the above mentioned Grievances are the true reasons of our present undertaking as to that Nation And therefore Wee persuade our selves that our Endeavours to give the best assistance wee can for the Relief of so distressed a Kingdome shall not only not be misconstrued but shall also be accompanied with a chearfull and universall Concurrence of the whole Nation that even those who have been Instruments for the enslaving of it will now show their Dislike of what they have done by their timeous and reasonable Diligence for its Rescue and that if any shall not give us that Assistance which their Conscience to God and their Respect to their Countrey oblige them to they shall be justly charged with all the Evills that may be the effects of such a want of their duty And as wee our selves desire to trust to the Almighty God alone for the success of our Arms so wee expect of all good men that they will apply themselves most earnestly to Him for his Blessing upon our Endeavours that so they may rend to the Glory of his Great Name to the Establishment of the Reformed Churches and to the Peace and Happiness of that Kingdome Given under our hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the tenth of October in the Year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses speciall command C HUYGENS. To all Commanders of Ships and all Seamen that are now imployed in the English Fleet. GENTLEMEN AND FRIENDS OUr Right Trusty and Well beloved Admirall Herbert is fully Instructed by Us And therefore Wee expect that you will give an Entire credit to every thing that he shall say to you in our Name Wee have prepared a Declaration containing the Reasons that induce Us to undertake the Present Expedition in which Wee have no other designe but the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the restoring of the Lawes and Liberties of England The totall ruine of your Religion being as much designed by the Papists in England as it is already accomplished in France and it will as certainly be effected if they are able to prevail at this time Wee can not beleeve but that you must be already sensible that you are only made use of as Instruments to bring both your selves and your Countrey under Popery and Slavery by the means both of the Irish and the Forreigners who are preparing to compleat your Destruction And therefore Wee hope that God will put it in your hearts at this time to Redeem your selves your Countrey and your Religion from all those Miseries This in all humane appearance can onely be done by your coming now to assist Us who are labouring for your Deliverance And Wee doe assure you that Wee will be ever mindfull of the services that youw shall now doe Us And Wee promise to you that Wee will place particular marks of our Favour on all