Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A40526
|
The Fugitive statesman, in requital for The perplex'd prince
|
|
1683
(1683)
|
Wing F2259; ESTC R112
|
33,587
|
158
|
THE FUGITIVE STATESMAN IN REQUITAL FOR THE Perplex'd Prince LONDON Printed by A. Grover 1683. TO THE READER THE Faction amongst the many Instances they have so frequently given of their Spleen and Hatned to the Government hardly ever shewed their Malice more in any one particular than in the Business of the Black Box which furnish'd a Pretext to a Libel call'd The Perplex'd Prince which tho' but poorly writ yet the malignity of the Design being to poyson Peoples Minds with an Opinion of some Probability and Truth in that Matter It was thought fit in Return to shew the World one of their Principal Heroes in his true Colours How well soever his Picture may have been drawn by others yet some Features Lines perhaps may have escaped their Pencills which are coucht here in the Landskip of that Arch Ttaytor's Life A Mirrour of him cannot be too often looked into that one may avoid falling into the Snare of those wicked wretched Partizans he has left behind him who never cease undermining the Foundations of the Government and are perpetually brewing Sedition with the highest Ingratitude after all the Indulgence and repeated Pardons of their Gracious Prince and Sovereign Tho' they can have now no Hopes no Prospect of ever bringing about their tug'd for Anarchy yet we still daily see fresh Instances of their restless Endeavors to that End so that one would think they do not yet despair of effecting their Purposes notwithstanding they have lost their Patron But it is to be hoped their good Intentions will be Crown'd with the same Fate with that of the wicked Achitophel and that they now too will be thinking of setting their Houses in Order It 's high time for they are now become so much the Detestation of all Mankind that they can expect but little Comfort in this World and I am afraid unless they give other Testimonies than they have yet done of their good Nature and Repentance they are not to expect much Happiness and Felicity in that to come How pernicious soever they have proved both to Church and State they would be glad to see they had a due Sence of their former practises and could they be but prevailed with to ask Forgiveness they would undoubtedly obtain their Pardon But it is so much their Nature and they seem so obstinately bent upon doing Mischief that there is no probability of their ever being perswaded to forsake their evil ways And since no Counsels do avail for the reducing them to their duty nor to court them from destruction we must e'en abandon them to their Fate which undoubtedly at length will do them Justice and reward them according to their Merits THE Fugitive Statesman THE Land of Judah had never attained to that refinedness in Gallantry as under the Reign of David that Prince having overcome all his Enemies both Forreign and Domestick and established himself by his just and gentle Government as well in the Hearts of his People as upon the Throne of Israel gave up those hours which are so necessary for Refreshment to amorous Designs and was herein so universally imitated by all his Subjects that there was none of what Age and Condition soever but had some Intrigue insomuch that by this general Practice there was no manner of Artifice Contrivance or Stratagem for the well managing an Amour but what was brought to the highest Perfection during the time of his swaying the Scepter During the Wars that were between David and Ishbosheâ—h for the Crown of Israel Abner finding not only the Justice of David's Cause but that it would be likewise impossible for the Hsurper's Son to withstand the Power and good Fortune of the King of Judah did privily underhand make Offers of Submission unto his Rightful Prince with the Forces under his Command which David accepted of upon Condition of bringing him again Michal his Wife whom Saul heâ— Father had given to Phalti Thiâ— Treaty was managed by Achitophel and that with so much Art and Cunning as procured all manner of Success to David and proved finally destructive to his Enemies Jezabel Michal's youngest Sister having staid with her during the late Troubles was now willing to accompany her to Court and in the several Conversations that Achitophel had with Jezabel upon that Occasion he was so captivated with the Wit and Beauty of that Princess as made him think the highest Felicity consisted in the possession of a Heart adorned with so many Charms and as her Excellencies inspired him with Amorous Thoughts so they inflamed him with the Ambition to attempt the insinuating himself into her Favour and Affections This he did not dispair of effecting he knew his own Talents he knew none more fit than himself for close Designs and crooked Counsels he was a Man sagacious and bold had not only all the Arts of a Minister of State but was as dexterous in the well managing an Amorous Intrigue he knew that Jezabel was Ambitious and had had formerly some Kindness for David which was now turned into a violent Resentment upon his having preferred Bathsheba before her All these Circumstances concurring to the flattering his Hopes he resolved to embark in this Design notwithstanding he had not all the Advantages of Body as concur to the making a compleat and an agreeable Gallant He was not long without finding an Occasion to make known to her his Passion which he declared in such Terms as were most capable of Persuasion and fittest for Insinuation But notwithstanding the Figure he made in the State and the considerable Interest he had both in Court and elsewhere he met with more Severity than he expected and was treated with some sort of Scorn and Disdain she having that Opinion of her Charms as to think all Homages unworthy of her Allowance that were not made by Crowned Heads Nevertheless Achitophel's Flames were too raging to be stifled by this Resistance and as it was one branch of his Character to undertake difficult Attempts and to persevere until he had brought to pass his Designs this Opposition did but the more whet his Desires and make him set the greater Value upon the Object he adored Thus he resolved never to desist until he had accomplished his Aim and for that purpose he besieged her with continual Assiduities informed her constantly of all the Occurrences in the Cabinet Councils at Court and secret Cabals in the City and by these means soothing her intrigueing and asspiring Temper and so by degrees insinuating himself into her Breast he became in a short time a very extraordinary Favourite He had now changed his Conduct in the management of this Intrigue He forbore speaking to her of Love expressing no Passion but for her Service and her interest telling her that no Princess upon the Earth would so well become a Throne as she that undoubtedly Providence would one day do her and it self the Justice as to give her the Crown of all Asia And when that any great
Domineering again over their Fellow Subjects They had not forgotten the Sweets they enjoyed in the Sequestrations of the Loyalists Estates and such as remained faithful to David in his late Troubles This was sport they itch'd to be at again and therefore all Persons and things that opposed their destructive Designs and tended to the preservation and safety of the People and Government these Traytors traduced as Enemies to the Kingdom and exclaim'd against them as Arbitrary Tooles Yet these very People were the only Persons who aimed and exercised Arbitrary Power In the several late Sessions of the Sanhedrim the Seditionaries having got by Surprize and Illegal Elections several of their Faction to be chosen Members all their Resolves savoured of and tended to Tyranny they sent for up into Custody from all the parts of the Land of Judah such Persons as upon occasion testified their Zeal for the Crown imprisoned them without any Cause given And then they voted That the next Heir being a Jebufite and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion Thus they voted the next Heir a Jebusite which was more than any Man living could tell but himself but in case he were the Wisemen of the Jews were of Opinion that the most Prudent and most Pious course would have been to have employed all imaginable Care and Art for the reducing him to the True Church whereas this way of proceeding of theirs could but the more enrage and irritate him against the Professors and Doctrine of the True Religion Besides that Branch of the Vote that affirms That the next Heirs being a Jebusite was what gave the greatest Countenance to those Designs that were then on foot against the King the Government and the Jewish Religion was contrary to what Corah had laid down in his Depositions who said that the Jebusites had declared their Apprehensions that he would not allow of their Designs and therefore after the Blow was given they must have been forced to have constrain'd him to give his consent to the Assassination of the King his Father Massacre of his true Jewish Subjects firing of his Towns c. by pardoning of the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then he also be poysoned and destroyed after they for some time had abused his Name and Title to strengthen in their Plot. All which and several other Passages in Corah's and other of the Evidences Narratives of the Plots do shew they had no Reliance on the next Heir but that on the contrary his Affection and Tenderness towards the King would render all their Designs abortive Yet upon groundless Surmises they proceeded to bring in a Bill of Exclusion notwithstanding that they well knew that the Crown of Judah was an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which devolved upon the next Heirs of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise than by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them and as undoubtedly their Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first so it was afterwards upheld and maintain'd by the Providence of God from which we cannot but infer this Conclusion That whoever shall attempt to alter such a right of Succession without a manifest Revelation is a notorious Usurper upon the Right of the Person who is to succeed be the pretence for it what it will and a Rebel against that Providence which gave him that Right Nor could the former Rebellious Ufurpations and Disorders be Presidents to justifie those who should begin them again So that no Humane Power can bar and prevent the next Heir his Succession but by encroaching upon his Right and by rebelling against the Divine Providence that gave it him So that be the Inconveniencies that shall follow upon such a Succession what they will or can be the Jews were obliged to submit to them upon pain of Rebellion both against God and his anointed And then let any Man be Judge if it be not better to fall into the Hands of a Jebusitish Prince than into the Hands of an angry God who is a consuming Fire and who is not bound by any Act of a Sanhedrim from afflicting a sinful and rebellious People Not but that the Loyal Jews and even those that were stigmatized with the Name of Jebusites did acknowledge that it would be a great Affliction for them to fall into the Hands of a Jebusitish Prince because of the great and implacable Malice which the Jebusites their whole Sect and Tribe have ever born to the Jews and their Religion which was more easily defended against them than any other Religion whatsoever as being founded upon greater Antiquity derived immediately from God himself and more conformable to the Doctrines of the Prophes Wherefore Baal and the Jebusites had left no Stone unturned to re-establish in Jerusalem their Suerstitions and root out the Jews and the true Religion and sticking neither at Perjury Treason nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that end And when God by his Gracious Providence had defeated all their damnable Projects they transformed themselves into the Shapes of the Dissenting Jews and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of the Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction But tho David at his Return re-settled the Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets and Libels written in the Stile of the Dissenting Jews and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed the intestine Divisions and a Multitude of such other Frauds they did in twenty Years time so shake the Foundations of the Jewish Church again that David with all his Prudence and Piety could hardly preserve and uphold her against the Jebusitish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should have fallen into the hands of a Prince of their Communion she was to have expected whatever the most enraged Malice armed with his Authority could inflict upon her and she had all the reason in the World to expect the Dissenters would joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Baalism but out of an implacable hatred they both have conceived against her So that the Ark had all the reason in the World to dread that day that should put her into such Hands But still with this Limitation notwithstanding that by avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her self into a greater that is by flying Persecution from Men to fall into a Rebellion against her God by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so ordered disposed and governed as he in his Divine and Holy Wisdom saw most expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater Encrease