Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abandon_v	church_n	papist_n	20	3	8.1245	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70113	Their highness the Prince & Princess of Orange's opinion about a general liberty of conscience, &c. being a collection of four select papers.; Correspondence. Selections	Fagel, Gaspar, 1634-1688.; Stewart, James, Sir, 1635-1713. Correspondence. Selections.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing F93; Wing B5930; ESTC R3295	28,089	40

may come before the Prince of Wales be of Age to manage an unruly Spirit that I fear will accompany it Humane Nature can hardly digest what it is already necessitated to swallow such provocations even alters mens Judgments I find that men who otherways hate severity begin to be of opinion that Queen Elizabeths Lenity to the R. C's proves now cruelty to the Protestants The whole Body of Protestants in the Nation was lately afraid of a Popish Successor and when they Reflected on Queen Maries Reign thought we had already sufficient Experience of the Spirit of that Religion and took Self-preservation to be a good Argument for preventing a second Tryal But now a handful of Roman Catholicks perhaps reflecting on Queen Elizabeths Reign are not it seems afraid of Protestant Successors But if some Protestants at that time from an Aversion to the Remedy hoped that the Disease was not so dangerous as it proves I am confident at present all Protestants are agreed that henceforward the Nation must be saved not by Faith. And therefore I would advise the R. C's to consider that Protestants are still men that late Experiences at home and the Cruelties of Popish Princes abroad has given us a very terrible Idea of their Religion That opportunity is precious and very slippery and if they let the present occasion pass by they can hardly ever hope that it will be possible for them to recover it That their Fathers and Grandfathers would have thought themselves in Heaven to have had such an offer as this is in any of the four last Reigns and therefore that they had better be contented with Half a Loaf than no Bread. I mean it will be their Wisdom to embrace this Golden Occasion of putting themselves on a level with all other English-men at least as to their private Capacity and to disarm once for all the Severity of those Laws which if ever they should come to be in good earnest Executed by a Protestant Suceessor will make England too hot for them And therefore I should particularly advise those among them who have the Honour to approach His Majesty to use their Credit to prevail with him to make this so necessary a step in favour of the Nation since the Successors have advanc'd two thirds of the way for effecting so good and pious a work Then and not till then the R. C's may think themselves secured and His Majesty may hope to be great by Translating Fear and Anger from the Breasts of His Subjects to the Hearts of His Own and the Nations Enemies But if an Evil Genius which seems to have hovered over us now a long time will have it otherwise if I were a R. C. I would meddle no more but live quiet at home and Caress my Protestant Neighbours and in so doing I should think my self better secured against the Resentments of the Nation than by all the Forces Forts Leagues Garranties and even Men Children that His Majesty may hope to leave behind him As for the Protestant Dissenters I am confident the Body of them will continue to behave themselves like men who to their great Honour have ever preferred the Love of their Country and Religion to all Dangers and Favours whatsoever but there are both Weak and Interested men among all great numbers I would have them consider how much the state of things is altred upon the coming out of this Letter for if hitherto they have been too forward in giving Ear to Proposals on this mistake that they could never have such a favourable Juncture for getting the Laws against them Repealed I hope now they are undeceived since the Successors have pawn'd their Faith and Honour for it which I take to be a better security as matters go at present than the so much talk'd of Magna Charta for Liberty of Conscience would be though got in a legal way for our Judges have declared That Princes can dispence with the Obligation of Laws but they have not yet given their Opinion that they can dispence with the Honour of their Word nor have their Highnesses any Confessor to supply such an Omission However it is not to be charg'd on their Highnesses if such a Magna Charta be not at present given them provided the Test be let alone but I fear the Roman Catholicks Zeal will have all or nothing and the Test too must be Repealed by wheedling the Dissenters to joyn with willing Sheriffs in violating the Rights of Elections which are the Root of the Liberties of England a prudent way of recommending their Religion to all true English-men But if any of the Dissenters be so destitute of Sense and Honesty as to prefer a Magna Charta so obtained Void and Null in it self to their own Honour and Conscience to the Love and Liberties of their Countrey to the present Kindness of all good Men and their Countenance at another time and above all to the Favour and Word of the Successors who have now so generously declared themselves for them We may pronounce that they are men abandoned to a Reprobate sense who will justly deserve Infamy and the Hatred of the Nation at present and its Resentments hereafter Is it possible that any Dissenter who either deserves or loves the Reputation of an Honest Man can be prevailed with by any pretences of Insinuations how plausible soever to make so Odious and pernicious a bargain as that of buying a precarious pretended Liberty of Conscience at the price of the Civil Liberties of the Country and at the price of removing that which under God is the most effectual Bar to keep us from the Dominion of a Religion that wouldas soon as it could force us to abandon our own or reduce us to the Miserable Condition of those of our Neighbours who are glad to forsake all they have in the World that they may have their Souls and Lives for prey As for the Church of England their Clergy have of late oppos'd themselves to Popery with so much Learning Vigour Danger and Success that I think all honest Dissenters will lay down their Resentments against them and look on that Church as the present Bulwark and Honour of the Protestant Religion I wish those high men among them who have so long appropriated to themselves the name and Authority of the Church of England and have been made Instruments to bring about Designs of which their present Behaviour convinces me they were ignorant as I suppose many of the Dissenters are whose turn it is now to be the Tools I say I wish such men would consider to what a pass they have brought Matters by their Violences or rather the Violences of these whose Property they were and at length be wise They cannot but be sensible of the Advantages they receive by this Letter I suppose they apprehend I am sure they ought to do it that the Ruine of their Church is resolv'd on But if the Dissenters upon this Letter withdraw

himself The Sum of the Matter of Fact as it is represented by Mr. Stewart amounts to this That he was so surprised to see in January last the Pensioner's Letter to him in Print that he was inclined to disbelieve his own Eyes considering the remoteness of the Occasion that was given for that Letter That he had never writ to the Pensioner but was expresly cautioned against it but that seeing the Sincerity of the King's Intentions he was desirous to contribute his small Endeavours for the advancing so good a Work and for that end he obtained leave to write to a private Friend who he judged might have Opportunity to represent any thing he could say to the best Advantage But that of the Letters which he writ to his Friend there were only two intended for Communication in which he studied to evince the Equity and Expediency of repealing the Tests and the Penal Laws And that with a peculiar regard to the Prince and Princess Orange's Interest and he desired that this might be imparted to Friends but chiefly to those at the Hague And that this was the Substance of all that he writ on that Occasion But finding that the Prince had already declared himself in those Matters he resolved to insist no further Yet his F●ind insinuating That he had still Hopes to get a more distinct and satisfying Answer from a better Hand tho without naming the Person he attended the Issue and about the beginning of November almost Three Months after his first writing he received the Pensioners Letter though he had not writ to him which is repeated again and again and in it an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts about the Repeal of the Tests and Penal Laws which he had not desired upon which he took some care to prevent the publishing of it Put when he saw it in Print he clearly perceived that it was printed in Holland and so wonders how the Pensioner could say that it was printed in England which he found in his printed Letter to Mr. d' Albeville he knows not upon what Provocation the Pensioner writ that Letter but in it he finds that he writ that he was desired by himself to give him an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange ' s Thoughts and that these pressing Desires were made to him by His Majesties Knowledge and allowance this being so different from the Letters he had writ of which he is sure that the Account he has given is true in every point he was forced to vindicate the the King's Honour and his own Duty He writ not out of any curiosity to know their Highnesses Though 's which were already known they having been signified to the Marquis of Albeville and therefore he had no Orders from the King for writing on that Subject but only a Permission to use his little Endeavours for the advancing of his Service but it was never moved to him to write either in the King's Name or in the Name of any of his Secretaries This is Mr. Stewart's Account in the first Nince Pages of his Letter and is set down In his own Words Now in opposition to all this it will appear from the following Extracts that Mr. Stewart writ to his Friend as the most proper Interpreter for addressing himself to the Pensioner that he repeated his Proposition frequently finding his Friend unwilling to engage in so critical a matter He gives great ●●surances of his Majesty's Resolutions never to al●●r the Succession which is plainly the Language of a Treaty he presses over and over again to know the Prince's Mind whose concurrence in the matter would be the best Guarentee of the●●iberty He by name desires his Letters may be shewed to the Prince and Princess of Orange though he says he only ●rder●d ●hem to be shewed to Friends at the Hague so it seems he has the modesty to reckon them among the number of his Friends but it is a question whether their Highnesses do so or not He says in one Leteer That what he writ was from his Majesty himself and enlarges more fully on this in two other Letters and he desires that the Prince's Answers with his Reasons might be understood which very probably gave the Occasion to all the reasoning part of the Pensioner's Letter And it appears by that Letter that the Return to all this was expected by the King and in almost every Letter he presses for a Return And in conclusion upon his receiving the Pensioner's Letter he expresses likewise a great sense of the Honour done him in it that he had so far complied with his insignificant Endeavours he mentions his acquainting both the King and the Earls of Sunderland and Melfort with it and in another Letter after new Thanks for the Pensioner's Letter he laments that it was so long delay'd But all these things will appear more evident to the Reader from the Passages drawn out of Mr. Stewart's own Letters which follow Mr. Stewart seems not to know upon what Provocation the Pensioner writ to Mr. d' Albeville and yet the Ponsioner had set that forth in the Letter it self for the Pamphlet entituled Parliamentum Pacificum that was Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland contained such Reflections on his Letter to Mr. Stewart either as a Forgery or as a thing done without the Princess of Orange ' s Knowledge that the Pensioner judged himself bound in Honour to do himself right As for Mr. Stewart's criticalness in knowing that the Pensioner's Letter was first Printed in Holland and his Reflection on the Pensioner for insinuating that the Letter was first Printed in England it is very like that Mr. Stewart after so long a Practise in Libels knows how to distinguish between the Prints of the several Nations better than the Pensioner whose course of Life has raised him above all such Practices But it is certain that wheresoever it was first Printed the Pensioner writ sincerely and believed really it was first Printed in England This is all that seemed necessary to be said for an Introduction to the following Extracts July 12. 1687. AND I assure you by all I can find here the establishment of this equal Liberty is his Majesty's utmost Design I wish your people at the Hague do not mistake too far both his Majesty and the Dissenters for as I have already told you his Majesty's utmost Design and have ground to believe That his Majesty will preserve and observe the True Right of Succession as a thing most sacred so I must entreat you to remark That the Offence that some of the Church of England Men take at Addressing seems to me unaccountable and is apprehended by the Dissenters to proceed so certainly from their former and wonted Spirit that they begin to think themselves in large more Hazard from the Church of England's Re-exaltation than all the Papists their Advantages And next that the Prince is thought to be abused by some there to a