Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A28308
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Some remarks upon government, and particularly upon the establishment of the English monarchy relating to this present juncture in two letters / written by and to a member of the great convention, holden at Westminster the 22nd of January, 1689.
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A. B.; N. T.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B31; ESTC R2761
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23,032
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29
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Some REMARKS upon GOVERNMENT And particularly upon the ESTABLISHMENT Of the English MONARCHY Relating to this present Juncture In Two LETTERS Written by and to a Member of the Great CONVENTION holden at Westminster the 22d of January 1688 / 9. SIR YOU have been highly Obliging in the frequent Accounts you sent me of Affairs in this Great and Extraordinary Revolution I was once very diffident and could scarcely conceive that the States of Holland or Prince of Orange could have attempted so Expensive and so Hazardous an Undertaking out of pure Generosity meerly for our Sakes and for the Re-establishment of our Laws and Religion which did both equally Labour under the Pressures of an Ill Administration and seem'd to draw towards their last Periods I knew the States had the Character of preferring their own before any other Interest whatsoever and the Prince had the Reputation of setting a duo Value upon That which creates and proportions the Value of all things else The Enterprize I lookt upon as very Expensive in its Methods and Uncertain in its Accomplishment which made me proue to believe that something more lay coucht in this Vast Undertaking than was exprest in the Prince's Declaration But since His arrival and coming to London I perceive He has upon all Occasions carry'd Himself with that wonderful Modesty with such an unparallel'd Care and Tenderness of our Laws Liberties and Religion and adheres so Resolutely to every Particular in His Declaration that I cannot but esteem these to be His Noblest Trophies And that which crowns those Successes which have crown'd His Generous and Pious Undertakings His persisting to referr all to the Impartial Decisions of a Free Parliament to Do and Establish such Matters either in His their Own or the Kings behalf as they shall think fit even then when Honor and Power spread their Perswasives before Him to do otherwise is so great a Thing that it exceeds all His other Glories and strikes the Beholders with nothing less than Amazement I do more rejoyce than wonder at the Unanimous Concurrence which has hitherto been maintain'd between the Lords and Commons Assembled in Councel and indeed in the Wishes Desires of all the People in General It is what this Juncture does highly require and what the Prince's Conduct does Oblige We are very busie here in the Countrey in Electing Members for the Great Convention which is to sit in January and I think the Lot will fall on me to serve for my Neighbouring Borough You know I was never fond of Business or Trouble and truly Age seems now to have sign'd my Writ of Ease I also always cherisht some Cynical Notions which made me very much slight and disregard the Honours and Flatulencies of a giddy World But the thoughts of being one of the Great Planters of a Government which shall last for Ages and perhaps till Time has run out its last Minutes is no Ordinary thing This thought alone has envigorated my Age and baffled my Philosophy so that you may expect to see me in London about the 22d of January next and in the mean time if you will favour me with your Thoughts and Opinion of Affairs and what Understanding Men do think will or ought to be the Issue and Consequence of this great Revolution you will very considerably add to the many Kindnesse conferred upon SIR Your assured Friend and humble Servant A. B. The Answer YOurs thô it bore and early Date yet came not to my hands till last Friday I am very glad that my slender Services have prov'd upon any account acceptable to you I never thought my self qualified to pry into the Recesses of Government or the privacies of a King What I acquainted you with was little more than what was publickly discours'd of in Coffee-Houses But indeed such was the Management of Affairs during our late King's Supremacy That his most private Councels prov'd generally the next days Table-talk for as they were shallow so was the bottom of them discoverable to every common Eye The Prince has perhaps with more Courage than Caution and a great Zeal for the Protestant Interest then Care of His own particular Concerns undertaken mighty Things for us and run such Risques in the Accomplishing of them which Story can scarcely parallel But what the sequel of this will be I must leave to Astrology 'T is true the people seem to be Unanimous to a wonder and yet there are a Sett of Men in this Nation whom nothing will satisfie but to Lord it over their Brethren These do still labour under some Discomposures and although in no respect disoblig'd yet fearing they may receive a Crush in this great Turn do by their Sourness and Discontent rather assist and further their fate than anticipate and prevent it The Protestant Dissenters are not esteem'd by Computations which have been formerly made to amount to more than a 25th part of the Nation the Church of England receiving all the rest This I do believe to be true if the Church of England be taken in the most large and comprehensive Sense by including all such as frequent the publick Service But if we might suppose them in the same Circumstances that Dissenters were in at the time of this Computation made under the Frowns of the Court and the power of the Laws which like so many Billows beat in against them if thus we might be admitted to view them in Reverse I do believe their Numbers would not exceed or Scarcely equal those of the Dissenting party There are but very few in the Nation would undergo Fines and Imprisonment for the sake of the Surplice or Common-Prayer The prevailing Opinion now in England is Latitudinarian Most Men are so far improv'd in their Judgments as to believe that Heaven is not entail'd upon any particular Opinion and that either an Episcopal or Presbyterial way of Worship together with a due observation of the Rules of Morality may serve well enough to carry them to Heaven the only Byass which enclines them to the one side or the other being the Laws Be subject to the Higher Powers not for Wrath but Conscience sways the Scale and gives the casting Vote in such Things as are thought indifferent This is it which crowds the Church otherwise the Sarsnet Hood and Lawn Sleeves might be as destitute of Votaries as the Long Cloak and Collar Band. Which may the succeeding Government will lean I dare not determine but it is more than probable That Episcopacy in that strictness in which it has of late Years excercis'd ow'd its Continuance as well as Originally its Being to the King His power and His purse has been liberally imploy'd in favour of the Church and they as plentifully requited His Kindness by their Doctrines of Jure Divino-ship and Passive Obedience So long as the King continued thus their Servant He was in all Causes Civil and Ecclesiastical their Supreme Head and Governour But when the King became of another
Interest and they themselves were likely to be squeez'd by the pressures of their own Weighty Doctrines then the Case Was immediately alter'd and Plowdens Hogs could be no longer Trespassers They instantly chang'd their Note and rang their Bells backward for they were all on fire and likely to be reduc'd to their original Dust in a moment Fears of Popery was first the pretence of their dissatisfactions This way very plausible and seem'd once to give them an interest in the people But surely now these Dangers are Remov'd the Protestant Interest is likely to settle upon firm Foundations and the Prince seems well affected to their way of Worship and signalizes His Approbations by Communicating with them according to the Rights and Ceremonies of the Church and yet they seem dissatisfied and are still apprehensive of Danger What then can be the reason that this bright Hemisphere should thus be wrapt up in Clouds and Darkness It must needs be this That they have lost or are likely to lose the King and Courts good Service employ'd in all or most of the former Parliaments so freely in their behalf This in truth was the chief Pillar of their Church That which first built and afterwards supported it Thô the Prince does sufficiently approved of this Establishment in His own Judgment yet He is resolved to call a Free Parliament being the purport of His Declaration backt with many subsequent Promises and Assurances in which the People shall have freedom to Elect such Persons as are for the True Interest of the Nation and not for the upholding a particular Interest or Faction There shall be no Elections either forc'd by Power or brib'd by Treats No false Returns no Committee of Affections to determine according to the Court or Ch. of England Interest No Parliamentary Pensions nor Treats with Guinea's laid under their Plates to seduce them from their honest Principles and the Interest of their Country The Prince abhors such irregularities He desires such an Assembly may meet as may truly represent the People to Enact and Establish such Laws and such a Government as may secure their Religion Liberties and Properties with the best advantage and security to the Nation that can be proposed And although the Church of England is hereby left destitute of that unfair and irregular advantage it firmly had from the King's power and assistance yet I doubt not but this and succeeding Parliaments will Enact such an Establishment in the Church as may very well agree with the honest desires of the more moderate and pious Church-men What the Civil Government will be is more difficult to guess at but I can tell you what it has been and wherein it seems defective and requires some touches of your Legislative Skill to help it â—ut This I am confident of That if the Consultations of this great Councel does but produce what the Necessities of the People and the Conveniencies which a well-setled State does require the Alterations will be very considerable 'T is true there is a Notion generally receiv'd by the Nobility and Gentry of Eng. that a Mixt Monarchy just such a one as ours is and no other must needs be the best of Governments and that amongst all others none could boast of those advantages as that of England This fancy is so rivetted in the minds of the People spread abroad and preacht up only to keep the people in peace and from endeavouring an Alteration which could not be effected without the Inconveniencies of the Sword that I do believe All things will again settle upon its old Basis and the Government be rebuilt with all its irregularies However because I understand you are in election to be one of Those from whom succeeding Ages must derive their Happiness or Misery I will make use of the Liberty you have given me to express my Sentiments in this mighty Affair in order to which I will in the first place acquaint you with my Notions of Government in general and afterwards will descend to Particulars And to our present Case as it now lies Government is a Power whereby a Community of Men are kept in Order disposed to act conformably to their Natures and to the common advantage of the whole Body Politick This Power is sometimes plac'd in one single Person and then it is Monarchy Sometimes in a select number of the Chiefs when it assumes the name of Aristocracy And sometimes in the whole Body of the People which is called Democracy But of these three Primatives there are several Derivatives Compounds and Variations The first Magestracy I do allow to be grounded in Nature and the first Magistrate to be a Genarcha or Patriarch who rul'd over Families of his own Extraction and Citties of his natural Generation It was in this sense that the Fifth Commandment was given and it was from hence that Men grew up into Citties Kingdoms and Empires and therefore the Laws to regulate them ought to be such as are apt and fit to govern Families for the preservation of their Peace Libertys and Properties not to bind them to perpetual Slavery and Vassalage So also the Submissions due from the People to the Supream Power are in their nature filial not servile as proceeding rather from Love and Gratitude for protection given than for fear of the Rod hanging over their Backs which ought to be exercised only to prevent a common Inconveniency But this Patriarchal Government continues no longer than the Patriarch holds a power over his Family to punish such offences in particular persons as might otherwise if allowed of obstruct the common Interest and to protect the whole Body and every individual in their natural and acquir'd Rights both from Domestick and Forreign Invaders For when the natural power of one or more in Conjunction shall exceed that of the Patriarch or Father of the Family this for of Government is so far dissolved that if they please and find it convenient they may reassume their natural Freedom or again engagâ— in the same Family by Pact or promise or else leave it and hâ—â— compact with others submit to what Laws or Measures of Livinâ— together in a Comunity they think fit He that will make tâ—â— natural Magistrate more Sacred than this may at last commit Idolâ—try and fall down to worship But this is not the State of any Nation or People now under Heaven We are all shufled and blended together so that we stand not Oriâ—â—nally associated to any Magistrate out of natural Duty but out 〈◊〉 mutual fear of each other which to avoid produc'd these civil Coâ—pacts by which the World is now Governed Thus being separated from our Families each Man has a right by nature to defend himself which supposes his primary Allegeance now due to himself He has farther an equal right with all others to all things necessary for sustentation an absolute right in his own person having thus a mutuum jus in both he is fitted for mutual