Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A23722
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The absolute necessity of standing by the present government, or, A view of what both church men and dissenters must expect if by their unhappy divisions popery and tyranny should return again
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1689
(1689)
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Wing A112; ESTC R9768
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37,630
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52
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Cruelties which he commanded and encouraged his Minion of equal Piety and Humility S. Dominic to the utter desolation of a Populous Country and extirpation of the Inhabitants of whom the small remainder that escaped the Slaughter were constrained to fly for Refuge into Bohemia And the succeeding Slaughter of the Valdenses in the City of Merindoll and Villages adjoyning under the reign of Paul III and carry'd on by the Cardinal of Tournon and the Bishop of Cavaellon the Pope's Vice-Legate with that fury that not contented with the bloody Executions of the naked and harmless Inhabitants they said their very Habitations in Ashes and levelled them with the Earth And therefore so much the more is the Power of Rome to be fear'd and prevented in a Nation that values it's own welfare and security by how much it appears the most Cruel and Destructive Religion in the World as not deeming any People worthy to live upon the Earth but the Slaves of Papal Jurisdiction and for that Reason not content with petty Cruelties but still clearing her way to Absolute Dominion by General Massacres entire Desolations and utter Extirpations And therefore tho' it argue Folly and a womanish Fear to be scar'd with Rabble-Reports on purpose rais'd to amuse the Minds of the Vulgar Herd yet it is but common Prudence to have a watchful Eye over those that we see so frequently guilty of Impieties of the same nature and to be wary of being surpriz'd by such as are easily induced to act what has bin by their Predecessors so dreadfully committed already For that it still runs in their Blood and that they are the same People still unalterable in their Sanguinary Principles there is no need of going any farther then to begin with Queen Mary's Reign At what time England was become such a Theatre of Fire and Faggot as if Rome had design'd to have chang'd her imaginary into a real Purgatory over all this Land for the refining the Bodies of the Protestants a very uncharitable piece of Charity tho with this difference That the Sufferers could neither by Prayers nor Money obtain deliverance from this as her Adherents could both Pray and buy themselves out of their own So soon as Edward VI was dead the Lady Jane Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk whose Mother then alive was Daughter to Mary second Sister of Henry VIII was proclaim'd Queen of England and the Lady Mary King Henry's eldest Daughter put by the Succession the Nobility who then sat at the Helm being not a little apprehensive that she might entangle the Crown by marrying with a Stranger and more certainly assur'd well knowing her obstinate Bigottrie to the Romish Tenents in the time of her Brother's reign that she would alter the Religion which had bin us'd as well during the Life of her Father King Henry as in the Days of her Brother King Edward and so bring in the Pope again to the utter destruction of the Realm Upon this Mary retires into the Quarters of Norfolk and Suffolk and with such of the Commons as she could get together kept her self close for a while in Framingham Castle thither the Suffolk Men resorted to her and promised her their utmost Assistance provided she would not attempt the alteration of the Religion which her Brother King Edward had establish'd by Laws and Orders publicly enacted and received by consent of the whole Realm To which Condition she readily agreed with Promises so solemnly made That there should be no change of the setled Religion that no Man then could well have misdoubted her Thus gull'd by her feign'd Assurances the Suffolk Men stood by her and that so faithfully that with little or no Resistance she obtained the Crown But no sooner was she in Possession of the Sovereign Power but forgetting all her Promises and joyning Ingratitude to Treachery she forgat the Covenants made in Hebron and displacing the Orthodox and Learned Bishops which her Brother had advanc'd preferr'd in their rooms her own Popish Creatures and above all the rest those two Blood-suckers and mortal Enemies of the Reformed Religion Gardner and Bonner forbid Preaching and reading of the Scripture And when the Suffolk Men afterwards petition'd her to perform her Promise she returned them for Answer That seeing they who were but only Members sought to rule their Head they should one day know that she would make the Members obey the Head and to strike the more Terror into others pillory'd a Norfolk Gentleman for presuming in most humble manner to put her in mind of her Promise With no less Ingratitude did she prosecute Sir James Hales one of the Justices of the Common Pleas who had ventured his Life in her Cause as being the only Judge that had refused to set his Hand for her being disinherited by the Kings Will yet because he gave a Charge at the Quarter-Sessions conformable to the Statutes in Henry VIII's time against the Supremacy of the Pope and concerning Religion she imprisoned him in the Counter Marshalsea and Fleet where by the continual Discourses of the Warden of the Torments that were preparing for Heretics he was driven to that Despair as at last to lay violent Hands upon himself Queen Mary besides that she had bin bred up from her Infancy in the Maxims and Tenents of the Romish Church was naturally of a morose and sowre Disposition and being so bigotted as he was to the Church of Rome there was little Ground for the Protestants to expect any Favour but what they might hope for upon her Promises made to the Men of Suffolk But when she had broken those Promises and withal had advanced to the highest degrees of her Favour Gardner and Bonner then too late they were too well assured of what they had to trust to Gardner was a Man of a haughty and imperious Spirit crafty and subtle to his Superiors flattering and fair spoken to his Inferiors fierce and disdainful and against his Equals sturdy and envious so that his Emulation of Cromwel's Greatness especially for favouring Bonner for whom Gardner had no kindness at that time made him an utter enemy both of him and his Religion from which after the fall of Somerset he became so averse finding which way the Tide was like to turn that he continued a cruel Persecutor of it to his dying day For as for Divinity he had no more then to serve his turn as having alway addicted himself to those Arts and Studies that fitted him rather to be Great then Good. So that finding himself now at the highest Pinnacle of Authority to which his Ambition could aspire he abandon'd himself to those Maxims of Cruelty which he thought most proper to secure his Grandeur And therefore finding he must stand or fall by Popery he resolved to gratifie that Profession which had raised him No wonder then he were so severely Cruel for Cruelty and Popery are inseparable Nay there seems to be that deep Infection in Popery that the more
Spaniards plunder'd their Houses The next day the bloody Don Frederic caus'd Three hundred Walloons to be Hang'd and Beheaded and the next day Captain Riperdon and his Lieutenant together with one Stemback a Minister were hang'd and Two hundred forty seven Soldiers drown'd in the Sea of Harlem The next day a great number were executed and the next day Three hundred more Soldiers and Burghers lost their Heads together with one Simon Simonson another Minister Presently after three of the principal Magistrates lost their Heads and to fill up this Sea of Blood all the Sick and Wounded were beheaded before the Hospital-Gate Not long before the Town of Valenciennes in Hainault having the free Exercise of the Reformed Religion among them was surrendred to the Lord of Noircarmes upon good Conditions Nevertheless the said Noircarmes being entred kept the City-Gates shut for divers days and most perfidiously and barbarously hang'd up all the French Soldiers with all the Ministers and Protestant Merchants So little safety is there to be expected from the Treachery and Perfidy of Roman Catholics whom no Considerations of Conscience or Honour are sufficient to oblige to keep Faith with Heretics At the same time the bloody Inquisition was no less active in the Spanish Netherlands where multitudes of People were murthered without any Pity or Compassion and their dead Bodies thrown into the public High-ways to be gaz'd upon by all that past by Numbers of Believers both Men and Women were thrown into Prison where they languish'd and dy'd the greatest part of them for want of Food John de Boscane was apprehended at Antwerp and for his Constancy in his Religion condemn'd to Death but because the Magistrates durst not put him to death publicly they resolv'd to drown him secretly in the Prison For which purpose a Tub of Water was provided and an Executioner sent to drown him but the Water was so shallow and the Prisoner so tall that the Executioner seeing he could not dispatch him that way gave him several wounds and stabs with his Dagger and so did his work And thus go where you will you shall find Fire and Faggots Massacres Racks and Gibbets the only method by which the Romanists support their Cause and propagate their Faith. And indeed the Popish Priests and Friers had a fine time of it to exercise their Cruelties in Flanders being under a Popish King so bigotted to the Pope and such an Upholder of the Inquisition that by their Advice he poyson'd his own Son for which he was applauded by Pius V. And if the Head be so barbarous no wonder the Members are so blood-thirsty With these Inquisitors it was that Philip the Second consulted what he should do with his Heretic Subjects as he call'd them in the Netherlands who answer'd That all the People of the Belgic Netherlands and all the States of those Countries except such as were otherwise noted in their Probation-Books were Sectaries Apostates and Rebels and not only those who were openly revolted from God and the holy Church but also those who dissembling themselves to be Papists had bin neglecting to suppress the Sectaries and Heretics at the beginning As also That all those Noblemen and others who had preferr'd and publish'd Petitions against the holy Inquisition and so had under-hand encourag'd the Sectaries and Heretics to Sedition were all guilty of high Treason both against God and Man. Upon these Instigations it was that Philip the Second sent his Orders to Alva by which he was commanded according to the Decree of the Inquisition to rack and torture all Revolters and Sectaries according to that rigorous method which was prescrib'd him For which reason Articles were propounded in his Council commonly call'd the Council of Blood according to which the Judges were commanded to determin and settle the Punishments that there might be no difference among them in the variation of Sentences which comprehending altogether Nocent and Innocent left no hole for any Man to creep out of and exempt himself from the Sanction of the general Decree Heavens what an inhuman thing it was to see the Country People harras'd with the Demoniacal Decrees of the Inquisitors and the Cities fill'd with Butcheries and Exilements of those that tarry and with the Sequestrations and Plunderings of those that were fled In one day no less then eighteen Persons of chiefest Remark and Quality were publicly put to death at Brussels by Alva and his Council of Blood. The next day three more of great Note together with a Minister of extraordinary Worth and Learning were executed in the said City where also soon after Count Horn and Count Egmond lost their Heads being brought with a strong Guard from Brussels And all these Murthers did Alva together with his Bloody Council bring to pass out of a mortal hatred of all that favour'd or abetted the Reformed Religion With no less fury and despite did Philip the Second pursue the Prince of Orange himself whom because he could not get into his hands by fair and open hostility he endeavour'd to destroy by the treacherous hands of unsanctify'd Desperado's For William of Nassaw being General of the United Provinces after they had shaken off the Popish Yoke presently the King of Spain proscrib'd him and in his Proscription promis'd a large Sum of Mony and large Preferments to any one that should bring him into Spain alive or dead Which soon encourag'd several to make the attempt Among the rest one Javeregny was pitch'd upon by a knot of Confederate Papists to do the Fact of which they intended to share the Profit For which purpose he was directed to charge a Pistol with two Bullets and to shoot the Prince behind in the Head. And the Eighteenth of March was the day appointed for the Execution Upon which day the Prince was to be at a great Feast at the Duke of Anjon's Court. But the Press being too great there the Assassin rather chose to do it at the Prince of Orange's own House as he sate at Dinner The Villain thus desperately resolv'd a Jacobin Frier came to him and Confess'd him gave him the Popish Communion and fortify'd him in his Resolution with many sweet words persuading him that he should go invisible to which end he gave him certain Characters in Paper and little Frogs Bones with other petty pieces of Conjuration After this he drank a draught of strong Wine and so accompany'd with his ghostly Father he went to the Prince's Court where at the Stair-foot the Fryer gave him his Blessig a hopeful Blessing and so left him Nor did the Villain faint in his design for he shot the Prince but neither the Fryer's Blessing nor his Conjuration prov'd effectual as was intended For neither did the Wound prove Mortal nor the Assassin escape with his Life being immediately run through by the Prince's Followers And the Jugling Fryer was also apprehended and executed The Papists having mist their blow but still believing they had no greater