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 |
|
B21136
|
The advantages of the present settlement, and the great danger of a relapse
|
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.
|
1689
(1689)
|
Wing D827B
|
28,552
|
40
|
since they would never be suffered to do us good and in all probability could not fail in doing us much harm The Case is quite altered now as is obvious at first sight our Religion hath the greatest Security our Bishops and Clergy the greatest Protection our Vacant Bishopricks are filled with the most wise and learned of the Clergy Colledges are restored to their proper Owners the Idolatry of Popery dare not shew it self any where the Wind hath blown these Locusts of Priests Jesuits c. beyond the Seas to their former Lurking-Places every one sits safe under his own Vine enjoying securely the Liberty of an Englishman the Property he is possest of our Councils Navies Armies Magistrates are Protestants and a Security to our Religion dearer to us than our Lives our Judges are as at the first and our Counsellors as at the beginning Pray Gentlemen recount with your Selves What was our greatest Hope our only Comfort on Earth in those Days of our Dustress What was it that sustained our Spirits and delivered us from utter Dispair What did we discourse of every-where to one another as the sole Foundation of our Hopes of Freedom and Relief Was it not that the King was a Mortal Man and after him we had a Reserve of the Prince and Princess of Orange for our Security How often then did we cast our Eyes and Hearts upon the Belgick Shore trusting that at last the Providence of God would whaft over that blessed Pair to the lasting Joy of this British Island The Papists knew this very well and could never think themselves safe till these Princes Interests were defeated and thereby as they thought all our Hopes frustrate But God that brings Good out of the greatest Evil by his infinite Wisdom and Power converted that Project by which they intended to perpetuate the Slavery of these Nations to an accelerating or hastening our Deliverance sooner than ever we hoped for it for never was there a juster Cause given any Prince to quarrel with a Possessor than was given the Prince of Orange when he saw not only all our Laws violated and the People of England enslaved but likewise his just Interest in the Crown in Right of his Princess the immediate Heir so violently invaded without any Satisfaction given usual in such Cases of the Sincerity of that Affair of the pretended Prince of Wales in which not only this whole Nation was violently suspicious upon very great Grounds but likewise the intended Fraud was the Discourse of Europe This Matter hath been sufficiently written of and for my part if there were no more to create a Diffidence in me not possible of receiving any Satisfaction this would be more than sufficient that I never heard of any Satisfaction given to the Great and Vertuous Lady the Princess Ann of Denmark in this whole Affair and yet it was highly just she should have received it in respect of her Proximity to the Crown and likewise in regard of that Fruitful Womb God hath been pleased to bless her Highness with whose Children have a very fair Prospect to the Royal Inheritance it had been likewise very easy to have done it because her Highness was perpetually upon the very place where the Scene was acting just till the time of its finishing and then it was most necessary she should have been there and it 's impossible to imagine had it been a real Thing care would have been taken that she should have been present but on the other Hand if it was not real then it was altogether necessary that of all Persons she should be out of the way and such care was accordingly taken And as her Satisfaction was both just and easy so it would have been of mighty advantage to the convincing of the Nation of the Truth of it her Highnesse's Evidence would have been of more weight than all those at Council-Board in respect none will bear witness against their own Interest especially in a matter of so great Moment unless it be very true All the answer ever I could hear to this most material ground of Suspicion is either that there was no Obligation to give any such Satisfaction or that the Princess did not desire it and was not curious of being satisfied To which this is only fit to be said by way of Reply that the first is a desperate and the second a senseless Answer Is it not then a great Favour of God to us that the Deliverance we so earnestly wished and the Persons on whom our Eyes were fixed are thus come to our Deliverance our very Enemies hastening it sooner than ever we looked for it Is it not the Joy of all good Men who love the Prosperity of our Sion and pray for her Peace to see a Protestant King and Queen in England a Happiness Britain hath not been favoured with since the Death of Queen Ann the Wife of King James the First We have no Dalilah in the Bosom of our Sampson to allure him to betray his own and the Nations Strength that we may be the easier Prey to the Philistines The Marriage of our Kings to Ladies of the Popish Persuasion hath been so plain a Cause of the Nations Misery that we have great cause to rejoice in so happy a sight as both King and Queen to be of the same Religion and that which is the professed and established Religion of their Kingdoms and it s greatly to be hoped the Wisdom of our Parliament will make it no small part of their Care to prevent the Mischiefs that have so constantly attended our Kings being so unequally yoked Our King and Queen draw not now several Ways their Principles are the same as they are in Bed and at Board one so it 's our great Comfort to see them repair to the same Churches exercised in the same Devotions addressing to the same Altar in a word of the same Faith and Religion to the great encouragement of their Subjects to follow so pious so great an Example So that there are no hopes now of the Philistines plowing with Sampson's Heifer The Royal Interest is now absolutely the same with that of the People for their Majesties and their People are more surely tyed together by the Bonds of that Religion for which both have an equal Zeal than by any Political Obligations whatsoever so that now both rejoice in the mutual Prosperity of each other their Majesties rejoicing in their Peoples Security and they again in the Royal Protection as in all Things so chiefly in that which is the best of all Things Religion Neither are we to neglect the Consideration of that which deservedly makes his present Majesty the Darling of these three Kingdoms nay like another Titus the Delight of Mankind viz. that the King the Prince of Orange had no such great matters to look for as to his own Interest to move him to encounter so great Dangers to undergo so much Trouble He was considerably great in the Low-Countries