Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A88691
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A letter farther and more fully evidencing the Kings stedfastnesse in the Protestant religion, written by Mounsier de l'Angle minister of the Protestant church at Roven in France to a friend of his in London,
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L'Angle, Samuel de.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing L403; Thomason E1027_2; ESTC R202710
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14,957
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30
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present at the divertisements of these two great Princes and in familiar conversations one may best discover a man and know his waies I know again with what indignation he receiv'd the Earle of Bristol not long after his revolt This Lord is a person of a great wit and high courage but I leave it to himself to decide if his conscience hath walk'd in as gracefull a posture as the other two faculties whether he finde it very tender in matters of Religion I will think the best I may and will not despair but God may recal him and grant him mercy but I should make a very sinister Judgement if he were such as he is character'd for I have been told he is a man can change Religion as his clothes not alwaies for the better but the more necessary and convenient Howsoever it is I understood when he went hence he address'd himself to the King after his usual manner but was much amaz'd when the King sharply reprehended him for the scandal he had given and gave him to understand he was not pleas'd to see him in his traine or family since he was not a domestick of the Faith I had almost forgotten one passage that may assure you the King is sensible of this Article of Religion and that he is not satisfied to believe to righteousnesse in his heart but he will have the world to know him for what he is and that he will make Confession with the mouth to Salvation You are not unacquainted with la Milletiere and the vanities of that person some yeares since he had the boldnesse to addresse one of his works to the King of England wherein he discours'd with this Prince as if there had been some great intelligence betwixt them and as if he had been upon the point to revolt But the King in indignation shew'd him the boldnesse of his enterprize the vanity of his hopes and the impertinency of his reasons by a learned Treatise he caused the Bishop of London-Derry to compose since translated into French by one of ours But Sir after the History of the Duke of Gloucester I suppose there can remain no suspicion of this Prince his Religion it may be you know the particulars as well as I but truely I had the relation from the mouth of Monsieur Durel who had it from the Governour of that little Prince Here then I shall deliver what I know The Jesuits had a designe to gain this Prince for which purpose they sound a way to have his Governour discharged In pursuance whereof they made many assaults upon his Religion they shew'd him a thousand glorious hopes they promised him the most important dignities of the Church should court him assured him the Abbey of S. Dennis the Archbishoprick of Rheims and a Cardinal's cap. Briefly these Gentlemen assured him he should be so rich he should be able to restore the King his brother to his throne but God assisted this Prince in an extraordinary manner and for the reproach of Christ whom he took for his portion he generously despis'd the treasures of Egypt Wherefore the Jesuits carried him from place to place as the Devil heretofore did our Lord to tempt him First to Pontoise to a seminary of Jesuites where God gave him grace to withstand strong assaults and by the strength of his spirit wherewith he ever assisted this excellent Prince who was not then above ten or twelve years of age he remained victorious over his potent enemies who now resolv'd to bring him back to Paris like Balaam that view'd the people of God on all sides to finde a prize for his charmes But all this succeeded not God every where protected this illustrious Infant and God gave him that wisdom from above which the World cannot resist and God that permits not his to be tempted beyond their strength delivered him from temptation for the King of England understanding by the banished Governour his brothers condition sent Marquiss Ormond speedily to his relief who took him out of this dangerous way by the Queens orders who had the goodness to give way to the pleasure of the King of England her son and caused the Duke of Glocester to be remitted into the hands of the Marquiss who brought him back to the King since which time he hath taken care for his education and confirm'd him in the knowledge of the truth Can there Sir be any thing more strong and evident to assure you the King is not only a Protestant by profession but that he professes it with zeale and that he beleeveth it the only way to salvation since he was so tenderly touch'd when he was inform'd they would pervert his brother And if the Religion of the King of England had been no more then formality and countenance the advantage he might have hop'd for in his brothers change might have brought him to consent since he might have pretended he had no hand in it and have say'd that being so many leagues distant though Kings have long armes he could not if he would stretch his so far to hinder his brothers fall But we are to make answer to what his enemies alleadg to prove the King of England of the Roman Religion 1. He was say they brought up with Charles the late King his father who gave him the first seasoning 2. While he was at Paris he never came to a Sermon at Charenton 3. He was seen in the Jesuits house at Antwerp At Paris and in other places he was seen at Vespers 4. Then they make a great noise of this that they of the Roman Church conceive great hopes in the reestablishment of this Prince and that the Jesuites and Monkes boast alowd they shall see the Popes authority flourish again and Masse in more credit in England then ever But Sir I suppose you beleive that none but the weak and malicious will give credit to such feeble reasons whereof some are altogether false and blasphemous others conclude nothing they undertake and the rest conclude contrary to the intention of the alleadgers The first of these wicked Arguments which is the education of this Prince in the Roman Religion by the late King his father is the most notorious calumny that ever was which to falshood couples Blasphemy against the Powers St. Jude and to falshood and blasphemy barbarousnesse and cruelty beyond example For was there ever greater cruelty then not to be satisfy'd to have made King Charles the most unfortunate Prince the earth ever bore having taken from him by wayes unheard of and such as good people cannot think on without trembling and horrour his Crown and life but more to traduce him as the most deprav'd and artificiall hypocrite that ever liv'd For they make him wear a vizard all his life to the houre of this death inclusively which is notwithstanding an hour when conscience makes the man speak truth in spight of himself nor is there paint which melts not when conscience approaches
regard the evil they had done him that so the King by the example of the sonne of God by whom he shall raigne God assisting may make grace abound where sinne abounds and in observance of the King his Fathers sage and Christian advice brought him by some that attended at his death which were to pardon his people and with a general Oblivion prevent their cries and lamentations But the other Obstacle stands yet and is of more importance that is the Calumny taken upon trust from hand to hand that the King is of the Roman Religion and will soon make it appear when he gets the raines of the Realme in his hands Sir Upon this point I must tell you that some yeares since this slander sprung from Hell I have made it my work to know the truth have us'd all sorts of means to discover what his heart was as towards God and if he were such as he was represented to me For this cause I followed him with a vigilant eye all the time he stayed in France after the battel he lost against Cromwell and again after he retired to Bruxells And that which drew me to this curiosity was not the tenents of those who hold that if the King prove not of the Protestant Religion we are not onely to abandon his Interests but with our power to oppose his return to the Crown for I have not so learned Christ nor can I be perswaded that because a man is not of our opinion in matter of Religion it is a sufficient title to deprive him of his Right and I willingly leave those deformed opinions that overturn the foundations of States and render Chhristian Religion incompatable with all the Polices of the Universe to such extravagant brains as hold the earth belongs properly to the Saints such as they take themselves to be and that the portion which every one who is not of the fraternity of these fanatick spirits enjoys is detain'd by injustice and absolute usurpation And by Consequence I cannot imagine the people of England were well principalled to cast their naturall Prince out of his Kingdom under colour that he was of a religion contrary to theirs For I know amongst the people of God there was never any such practice And that under all the legall dispensation since the state of the Jewes was devolv'd into the hands of Kings the people never rose against their Prince for his Idolatry but when oblig'd by expresse command from God As that given to Jehu And since Jesus Christ came upon earth the Christians that first embrac'd his Doctrine never esteem'd Idolatry wherewith their Soveraigns were infected sufficient to discharge them from their obedience The example of Julian the Apostate is in this decisive who revolting from Christianisme and becoming an Apostate and plunng'd in Pagan Idolatries and by this means had return'd the Empire which by a singular providence of God was fallen into the hands of Christians to the enemies of Christ an Religion yet receiv'd still homage from the Christians of those times who bore their yoke with humility because 't was God that laid it on them And it clearly appear'd this submission of the Church was acceptable to God by his timely releasing them from the persecution of this powerfull and malicious enemy for this change was but like a storm that soon is over and as a cloud as an Ancient calls it which for a time ecclips'd the glory of the Christian Church but by the good providence of God was dispersed in the turning of a hand and the Empire restor'd to Christian Princes who set the Church in her luster again 'T is true that in our age that unfortunate faction call'd the League stirred up by that spirit well known to all insolently publish'd that pernicious heresy that a Prince no sooner with Rome but he loses his Rights to his Crown and that the greater part of France poyson'd with this pernicious beleif us'd their utmost endeavours to have hinder'd Henry the great from ascending the Throne which he and his Posterity have since so gloriously enjoy'd But this doctrine went against the haire with all the good people of those times both of the one and the other Religion and numbers of honest men set their tongues their pens and their swords to work to maintain the Justice of that glorious Monarch and beat back this dangerous Maxime down to Hell where doubtlesse 't was first contriv'd 'T was not then Sir for that I had the least thought the Re-establishment of the King of England in his Paternall inheritance ought to depend on his Religion and that if I found he were imbu'd with the errours of the Roman Church I should have judg'd him incapable of that high dignity but for satisfaction of my self and all good people to the end that if according to the forejudgment I had allready in favour of his Religion which he deriv'd by tradition from his father of blessed memory to the constant profession whereof he exhorted him at his death I found him according to my hopes my joy might be accomplisht and I might spread the rumour every way where I thought the welcom news might conduce to the procuring Justice for the best cause on earth and that if amongst his subjects that differ in this poynt from the common sense of our Churches which allmost unanimously will have us give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar to Caesar I say as to Caesar only and not for that he is a Protestant Caesar they may learn that their King is doubly the Annoynted of the Lord and persectly of the quality they wish him and so there is nothing why they should not joyn with all other good subjects in the designe they appear to have of rein-throning him since not only there is no reason to oppose it but more there is not any pretence for it with the least colour of Justice To proceed I learn for certain he adher'd in his heart to the Protestant Religion for as much as man can judge of the profundity of that part I had it from such as have the honour to be near his person I am assur'd of it by the testimony of Mr. Long who had a share in the weighty affayres of the late Charles the first and of this likewise and who was one of those attended him in his voyage to Scotland A gentleman of an Excellent spirit not easily to be tax'd with any thing but a person of great integrity and who for those many yeares he liv'd amongst us was an exceeding help to our Church by his constant frequenting of Sermons and all acts of Piety can be required of a man fearing God and who for my particular highly oblig'd me not thinking me unworthy of his conversation nor the honour of his friendship He in the privacy of our most intimate communications hath a hundred times protested to me that the King of England in the bottom of his heart is of our Religion