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 |
|
A25661
|
An Antidote against the present fears and jealousies of the nation by an impartial hand.
|
Impartial hand.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing A3496; ESTC R23120
|
22,145
|
28
|
Prince have been pardoned suffered to enjoy their Estates in peace protected by his Laws and many of ability preferr'd and imployed Though these kindnesses have been done to private Persons and Families and they have chiefly reap'd the benefit of his Majesties gracious Disposition the whole Kingdom is thereby obliged to his Majesty because in the forgiveness of such Offenders he hath had an Eye to the Publick good peace and satisfaction of all his Subjects rather than to his just Resentment Moses was a Meek Man yet how many hundreds and thousands were made Examples of his Justice and Gods Wrath for their Rebellions few or none pardoned Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour's Name is sacred in the memories of men he forgave his Enemies advanced Religion incouraged Piety yet he imbrued his Fatherly hands in the blood of his own Son and Heir Crispus upon the suspition of a Rebellion Theodosius the Emperour was a brave and an excellent Prince yet the Inhabitants of Antioch complain of the promiscuous killing of their Citizens in the Emperours rage Justinian the Law-giver of the World could not give Laws to his own passions nor save Bellisanius and Narses his two great Generals from the cruel hands of his Empress Theodora I might run over all the Histories of former times from the beginning of the World to this day and mention to you the noblest the rarest and most merciful Princes in forreign Nations and in this yet I dare affirm and do offer my self to prove from a certain knowledge of the Histories of the World that I may say I have perus'd that there was never any King or Soveraign Prince neither in England nor elsewhere who hath been so gracious so compassionate and merciful to his People as our King Charles neither hath any Reign been more free from shedding of blood never any Government more mild and happy never any Prince less ruled by violence and interest nor more govern'd than himself by that Sacred Maxim of his Royal Father The setled Laws of these Kingdoms are the most excellent Rules a King can govern by Where are the Widows and Orphans amongst us that can complain of the unjust murder of their Relations Where is the Family ruined by the Confiscation of its Estate and Patrimony Where can we meet with any particular instance of his Majesties over-ruling the ordinary course of Law and Justice Henry the VIII and our former Kings would sometimes give place to wrath anger and revenge and their Wills sometimes took the place of Laws But where can we meet with any such Example in our days Where is there a person either Condemned or Executed or deprived of an Estate by our Princes Command alone Many have received their Lives and Estates from him which had been forfeited by Law but to this very day none ever lost either Lives or Fortunes to gratifie his Majesties will and pleasure even in this late wicked Plot against his Royal Person he hath not punish'd any man but by course of Law Is not this a happiness for all the English Subjects for Poor and Rich to live under such a reasonable Government and gracious a Governour and where Law and Equity Justice and Conscience sway the Scepter where Power and the Regal Authority are never used but in vindication and for the execution of righteous Laws though the Papists never intended to observe any measures of Reason Conscience or Humanity with his Majesties Person and People but in a secret and private way intended to fill the Land with Assassinations and Murders nevertheless he observes a Legal Method and proceeds against them by such means as are justifiable before God and Man His Majesty delivers them over to a Court of Judicature to have a fair Tryal for their Lives he suffers them to answer for themselves and leaves them to an impartial Judge and Jury In forreign Nations such Enemies of the Publick Safety would have been pull'd in pieces as the De Witts cut down and mangled by the rude Rabble as Sejanus at Rome and the Assassins of the Prince of Orange and of Henry the III. of France and many others They would not have had the patience to see them alive who had resolved upon so cruel a design as to murder the King and his People without cause But the World sees the moderation of our English Natures the Excellency of the Principles of our Religion and the Justice of our King who is willing to make his most desperate Enemies sensible of it in their own persons without any passion which hath never carried him to act against them but in a regular way And though some of them had forfeited their Estates by Law and it had been but a piece of Justice to reduce their Posterity to poverty who intended to make so many poor Families in this Land yet to the Eternal praise of his Majesty be it spoken he hath not attempted to take ought of their Estates but hath restored since his Restauration to the Children of many Rebels Traytors and Regicides the Patrimonies belonging to their Fore-fathers it is therefore a most unreasonable Aspersion and a wicked Slander proceeding from the Shop of Ignatius and his bloody Jesuits to report any thing amiss of his Majesties most Excellent Government As Mr. Oats hath very well taken notice it hath been the design of those Troublers of Peace to make us stand in fear of an Arbitrary Government and to fasten upon his Majesty and his proceedings the most abusive Lyes but let any man run over the passages of his good Reign he shall have no cause to suspect what there is not the least colour to believe The suspitions and jealousies in relation to Religion are as plainly scandalous and unlikely it is sufficiently known how zealous his Majesty hath always been in the profession of the true Protestant Religion from his Infancy It was the Advice of his Royal Father Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well grounded and setled in your Religion the best Profession of which I have ever esteem'd that of the Church of England In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive Examples for Government According to this direction our King hath behaved himself so that neither fear favour nor interest could ever draw him from this Religion In his Banishment his Majesty alone knows the greatness of his Tryals and we and all the World the constancy of his mind Here the whole World might have seen the Religion of King Charles the II. Neither the love nor glory of a Crown nor the honours of the World nor the advantages of Life could prevail upon him to waver in the least from that excellent Religion and Faith for which the King his Father spilt his blood and which Christ and his Apostles have recommended to us or to accept of the Popish Superstitions And since his Majesties return to his Honour
hatred of the English People anger'd the Governours of the Church and State and obliged them to enact Laws against them to restrain them from that Liberty which a great part of them never knew how to use with moderation and discretion in this Land Their Proceedings and Attempts are not only disconsonant with the peaceable temper and blessed Rules of Christs Religion but so barbarous and inhuman that we may justly wonder what spirit of madness possesseth their Souls what cruel Devil prompts them to such Actions and makes them forget all sense of Humanity The settlement of their Religion which is their ordinary pretence to excuse their Tragedies may blind the Consciences of Fools but Men of any reason may perceive a Human not a Divine End of their Villanies The Pope and Court of Rome whose Agents the Jesuits are care as little for the Salvation of English Souls as it seems they do for their Bodies Were this Island a barren and a fruitless place they would never take the pains to seek to subdue this Nation but they are longing to finger again the Peter-pence the Annates the First fruits the Revenues and dispose of the sat Benefices of this Land This is their aim and end To come to it they set all Engines a work and dread not to spil Rivers of innocent Blood But did but the English Subjects that are Papists and so forward and zealous to promote their Catholick Cause know the weight and unsufferable burden of the Pope's Keys did they but call to mind the Tyranny and baseness of the former Popes in England and the Groans of our English Nation when Popery had the Command they would never be such Fools to sacrifice their lives to bring their Native Country to so great a Bondage which our Forefathers could never bear Is it not a madness for them that have a good King of their own and a lawful Authority appointed by God over them to strive to murder him and all his Generation and set up a Pope an Italian a Stranger who never intends to Reign amongst us in Person but to govern us by his Cardinals and proud Legats and who will give to them the least share of their Country when in his hands Is it not a strange madness for Natives of England to seek to inthrall their Country to a Forreign Power and the pleasure of an Enemy Have they no other way to exercise their undaunted Courages but by massacring their Brethren and Kinsfolks for the Lust and benefit of Imperious Italians or Frenchmen Must Religion be the Cloak for this Villany and Madness God whose Power and Providence have preserv'd this Church and our Princes from barbarous designs of Roman Murderers will I hope defend the Person and Life of our Pious Gracious Merciful and Christian King from all Popish Conspiracies I pray God to awaken all Christian Princes into a sense of the Popish Usurpations that they may shake off all the Fetters of this Italian Thraldom the Bolts and Chains of the Popes Bondage There is an old Prophecy amongst the Papists which I have heard from some of their Doctors in the Schools That an English-man shall take the City of Rome dissolve the Roman Church and put a period to the Papacy It is certain from the 17th and 18th Chapters of the Revelations that there is a time when God will bring that proud City to ruine and treat her in the same manner as she hath treated other Nations who knows but God may raise up some brave Soul that may endeavour to free the World and all Nations from so great a Plague and set at liberty so many Christian Princes that scarce dare think of delivering themselves for fear of a Ravailack a Stab or a Cup of Poyson who knows but that Providence may pitch upon and Commission a Native of this Land to punish Rome for her Murders Burnings and Villanies committed by her Emissaries in our Cities more than in any under the Sun I am certain this agrees with the methods of Gods proceedings in the World as well as with his holy Word for in former Ages the overthrow of Empires have been commonly brought to pass by those Nations who have been most afflicted and distressed by them in the times of their prosperity In the mean while as our good King hath been and is yet vigilant and careful to protect us our Religion and Country from ruine and destruction and he neglects no labour spares no cost declines no trouble nor pains for the general good of his People for their safety honour and interest I think we are obliged by all the reason of the World to make him some Returns to assist him in so pious a work as the Establishment of Religion and the security of the English Nation and to demean our selves as thankful and dutiful Subjects I shall not here mind you of the Commands of God nor heap together passages of Scripture that tell us that we must be subject to the Powers because there is no Power but of God that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation that we must obey for Conscience sake that we must love honour and respect him as Gods Vicegerent c. I shall only mind my Reader what the present posture of Affairs in relation to our own good and his Majesties vigilancy and care in providing for our safety require from us and what present Obligations we lye under to perform those things which both our Interest and Duty demand from us This Hellish Conspiracy of the Papists that hath now at last awaken'd us into a sense of our great danger hath been many years contriving and designing as the Design was privately and subtilly laid it was to be carried on with vigour and would handly have wanted the assistance of forreign Princes and Armies If the first Train had taken fire this Church and State had been infallibly blown up and cast into a Civil War God hath been merciful to us in the discovery and prevention of it But the Persons chiefly concerned and the vast Treasures heap'd together for the carrying on of the Popish Designs are not like to sit and remain idle after this disappointment our proceedings and the Execution of the Instruments will in all probability oblige them to take other measures to carry on their wicked purposes with more secresie than before our Divisions and unreconcileableness give them no small advantage and incouragement to make fresh Attempts which God of his Mercy frustrate However our Nation is not yet out of danger by the death of a few Malefactors we have Enemies both at home and abroad that watch for and endeavour our destruction His Majesty you see hath imployed his utmost endeavour for our safety security and happiness and is yet resolved to imploy all his power to defend and protect us and our Religion from all Popish Designs It concerns us not to be idle but in our several places to contribute to our own happiness and