Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92405
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Remarques upon the new project of association: In a letter to a friend.
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Paterson, William, 1658-1719.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing R949B; ESTC R182616
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10,538
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17
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Parliaments and part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be Disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence And it being Evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver his Majesty from the Councils and out of the power of the said D. yet his Interest in the Ministry of State and others have been so prevalent That Parliaments have been unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when they have been in the hot pursuit of Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants 4. And that the said D. in order to reduce all into his own Power hath procured the Garrisons the Army and Ammunition and all the power of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these Three Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his Party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the last Parliament In the Third and Fourth Clauses the Kings Guards are pronounc'd to be Contrary to Law The Officers chosen by thc Duke Subservient to his Designs and Dangerous to his Majesties Person c. The King himself Charg'd with following Popish Councels Vnreasonable Prorogations and Dissolutions in favour of Popish Conspirators and Ill Ministers of State their Assistants The Garrisons Army and Ammunition in the hands of the Dukes Party and their Adherents It is not my Work to amplifie upon these Falshoods and Slanders in this place so that I shall proceed 5. And as we considering with Heavy Hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is Wasted and Consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these Wicked destructive Designs and finding the same Councils after exemplary Justice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devilish malice and desire of Revenge Whereby His Majesty is in continual hazard of being Murdered to make way for the said D 's Advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty sad experience in the Case Queen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little Force to keep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince The Fifth Clause Deplores the sad Estate of the King and Nation by reason of the same Councel And after this Remonstrance upon the whole matter We the Knights c. come to a point in that which follows That is to say 6ly The King will not agree to Barr and Exclude the Duke in a Parliamentary way and therefore we 'l enter into a League and Invite the Kings Subjects to Joyn with us in a Vow of Mutual Defence and Assistance in an Vn-Parliamentary way to the Intent of a Declaration in the Form Ensuing 6. We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary way by a Bilifor the purpose to Barr and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being utterly rejected and we left almost in Despair of obtaining any real and effectual security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to Advise and Act for the preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being persuaded in our Consciences that the Dangers aforesaid are so eminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to secure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Union amongst themselves by solemn and sacred promise of Mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion His Majesties Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold it our bounden Duty to joyn ourselves for the same intent in a Declaration of our United Affections and Resolutions in the Form insuing Now put all together and the sum of it in short is this There 's a Plot upon the Kings Life c. The Duke is in 't And preferrs Ministers of State Officers Civil and Military for his purpose Prorogues and Dissolves Parliaments Saves the Popish Lords makes the King a Cypher And therefore since he will not agree to Exclude and Banish his Brother by Act of Parliament We the Knights c. will joyn with all True Protestants in a Sacred promise to destroy him and his Adherents without exception to His Maiesty himself who for Refusing to Exclude his Royal Brother is declared to be one of the Party To what Ends and purposes will be seen in the Association it self THE ASSOCIATION I A. B. Do in the presence of God solemnly Promise Vow and protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and estate the true Protestant Religion against Popery and all popish Superstition Idolatry or Innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the power and priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Usurpation of Arbitrary power whatsoever and endeavour intirely to Disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great Amazement and Terror of all the good people of the Land Moreover I. D. of Y. Having publickly professed and owned the popish Religion and notoriously given Life and Birth to the Damnable and Hellish plotes of the papists against His Majesties person the protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath been a papist or any ways adher'd to the papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful means and by force of Arms if need so require according to my Abilities will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expel and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof And seek by force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall Adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for him or by his Command as publique Enemies of our Laws Religion and Countrey To this end we and every one of us whose hands are here under-written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of us unto the other joyntly and severally in the Bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do promise and vow before God That with our joynt and particular Forces we will oppose and pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Just and Righteous ends of this Association and Maintain Protect Defend all such as shall enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And lest this Just and
REMARQUES Upon the NEW PROJECT OF ASSOCIATION In a Letter to a Friend SIR YOU would have me give you the sence of the Town together with my own Private Thoughts upon the Subject of your Last The Former would be Tedious and Extravagant in a Case where People either through Passion or Interest are so Extremely divided And the Latter with Submission would be as Vnsafe But I shall however Gratifie your Curiosity in as full and as Particular an Answer to the Sum of your Demands as the Quality of the Matter in question and the Compass of a Letter will conveniently bear You are so far in the Right as that the Paper you speak of is said by some to be the project of a Bill for an Association And grounded upon the Precedent of an Association 27. Eliz. It is said further that it is no more then what was mov'd in the last Westminster Parliament and only a short draught or Scheme of an Association for a General Defence against a Popish King But one the other hand it is cry'd out against as the Instrument of a Treasonous Conspiracy against his Majesty and the Government under the Countenance of a Religious Association Thus far Sir you are rightly inform'd as to the Business of Ordinary Conjecture and Discourse but your Intelligence afterwards runs a little too large for the paper was barely found in my Lords Closet And any man may have Papers perhaps in his possession that he does not approve of How far the Members of that Parliament which is the next point will find themselves concern'd in Honour to search farther into this Affair I am not able to Divine It will be both for your Ease and mine to consult and compare the Pieces themselves and to see how far this late Draught of Association agrees with the Ends and Intent of the Former And after that to Examine it's Consistency with it selfe To which purpose I shall in their due place lay both the Associations before you with such Notes upon and concerning them as may serve in some measure to Explain the Matter in hand And therein I shall speak to the several Points of your Letter as they fall in my way The Words of the Former are as follows The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Francis Gwin Esquire One of the Clerks of His Majesties Privy Council and Read November 24. 1681. at the Old-Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer 1. WE the Knights c. Finding to the griefe of our Hearts the Popish Priests Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abetters have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties c. to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery NOTE That the Stile of the First Clause in these Words We the Knights c. Imports an Act of the Commons Exclusive of the Lords and Rege Inconsulto The Dread and Danger of the Popish Plot is made the Inducement to it The Papists Adherents Abettors ranged with the Papists themselves and joyned in the same Design of Murdering the the King c. 2. And it being Notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State In the Second Clause his R. H. falls under the same Accusation and the Government Effectually put into his hands toward the Gaining of his Ends. Now the meaning of Adherents and Abetters is Expounded by the Author of Smith's Quaeries upon the Duke's Bill where he says that the Pleaders for a Popish Successor ought to be Esteem'd no other then Betrayers of their King and Country Renegado's from their Religion if ever Protestants at all and the worst of Papists and so to be dealt with all in City and Country Here 's an Anathema pronounc'd already against all Men under that Qualification and the Invalidating of the Kings Witnesses is One Condition of the Sentence which does most Expresly conclude all the Present Defamers of the Kings Witnesses under the same Condemnation This way of Exposing the Kings Loyal Subjects of the English Communion under the Notion of Papists or in truth beyond them and that not only in Libellous Papers but in some Councils also is too Notorious to need any Instances to confirm it And what 's the drift of these practices but under a General Scandal to Stigmatize that Party that will not Close with the Faction and to set them up as a Mark to the Fury of of the Rabble And this is only a Preparatory toward a greater Work that is to follow and whosoever is not wilfully Blind cannot but see the Design to be all of a Thrid From this Aversion toward a sort of people in general represented under such a Character the next Step is the Naming of particular persons the Discriminating of parties the Computing of Numbers and Intrests and so from Listing to Pass on into Associations and Levies Let not this be taken for a Trivial Speculation upon the Common Methods and Preliminaries to Rebellion for I have heard and I do as firmly believe it as a Man can believe any thing that he never saw that there is Extant a Calculation upon all the Counties of England and Wales Alphabetically Digested Dividing the Men of Interest and Consideration in each Respective County into Two Columns One against another The One under the Title of Worthy Men and the Other of Men Worthy to be Hang'd that is Ranging the Country Party as they call it under the Former and the Court-Party under the Other Which appears as I am assur'd by the Transporting of Names from One to the Other as any Man is found to Change his Side and Opinion By the Benefit of this Roll 't is not above a Week or Ten Days Work to take a Muster of the Nation To Communicate Orders To know whom to Impeach and whom to Trust And they that have Money shall never want Evidence There is a Wonderful Correspondence betwixt the Tendency of this List the paper of Association betwixt the Dictates of the Factious pamphlets and the matter of Fact in Evidence and it were little less then a Miracle if all this should come by chance 3. It appearing also to us That by his Influence Mercenary Forces have been levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazard of His Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the danger had not been timely foreseen by several