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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A88839 The Jacobite principles vindicated in answer to a letter sent to the author. Dedicated to the Queen of England. Lawton, Charlwood, 1660-1721. 1693 (1693) Wing L739C; ESTC R215013 27,077 30

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forbear mentioning it There was not an ill thing done in King James's Reign that I did not call so then and all that know me know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths be they never so bold or bitter whilst they are for Instruction I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults nor for any Faults tho' I would be charitable and good-natured forgiving and forgetting towards all Mens Persons Methinks the State of things require this measure I scarce believe there ever was a Period of Time wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite a forgetfulness as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper If the Ministers of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs as doubtless they did we have doubtless exceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person and besides those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns and therefore methinks it is very hard if we cannot forgive those that have undergone Banishment which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Punishment or such as have hazarded Prisons or the Gallows every day Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us or that are with the King tho' they may have had Faults when we desire or I am sure ought to desire that the whole Land should be forgiven All Parties and almost all Men have some way or other been to blame and therefore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges I avoid saying there is any infatuation in keeping them up tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils to revive or continue our Piques For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes or ventur●d their Necks for Him and cons quently it is not perh●ps advisable to make those that transact in his Affairs tho' they have been peccant believe they can have no Quarter no Share in him unless he return with a High Hand They will have some Opportunities to put ill Constructions upon good Advices I have read of but few of those Heroic Spirits in any Age who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Country I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds and therefore I think it the likeliest way to m●ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country to shew them that they shall find their own Account in being so I hope I have expressed my self in as modest and inoffensive words as any in which I could conceive my Thoughts and I hope I shall not be so mis-understood as if I would justifie any thing that was by any body done amiss for I will not justifie a false step even in the King but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships and much more all Enmities that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms After all I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance I fear this Moderation and forgiving of Enemies will be thought a hard Lesson but I bless God I have practised it and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality but an admirable Rule in Civil Prudence especially in our Case for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivided within it self to pull down an Usurpation as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression and therefore must omit many other particulars upon which I would explain my self and the Sense of many other Jacobites and I can assure you I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that offends well-meaning Men but I wish for their own sakes my Country-men would not take a Standard either of the King's Inclinations or the rest of his Friends from their indiscreet Tattle There are in His Interest those that know that to talk too loftily and dogmatically to dispute as they do in the Schools concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy to stand nicely upon Punctilio's to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth Sir Thomas More 's Utop a Harrington's Oceana c. There are Men of his sid that think as the great Lawgiver Solon did that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed and that he is the best Subject as well as Politician that adapts all his Notions to our Tempers that considers Men as well as peruses Books when he is to draw a Scheme and I believe as you say that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest and farther that they sometimes mislead the King Nevertheless there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words nor startled at Nicknames that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People and that is when he governs by the Measures of Commonweal These Men know a good Commonwealths-man was not a Character of Reproach in our Legislation and Politicks till all our Glory dwindled and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true Interest of King or Kingdom till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People and till they began to call a Mix'd Monarchy an errant Bull and would Reform our State by Metaphysical and Court Distinctions whereas if our Histories and statute-Statute-Books were consulted they are every where full of Explanations Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties and ancient British Laws I will prove them farther That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so abused that it may be fit to take away the One and to desire that the Other may never be again so used and that our former Kings have thought so But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses and they may find that in Henry the Seventh's Time Empson and Dudley harassed the People by obsolete unrepealed Laws nay it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescentions to their People And as haughty as King Henry VIII was my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign tells you That in his first Parliament he Repealed Explained or Limited those Statutes by which his Father had taken Advantage