Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A41294
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A Fifth collection of papers relating to the present juncture of affairs in England
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1688
(1688)
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Wing F889; ESTC R12341
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25,667
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34
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be beaten out and a keener Deg must be got in his stead Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth were both Assassinated upon this Account because they were suspected to favour Hereticks And are we not told by the Discoverers (b) Oats 's Nar. p. 4. N. 5 c. of the Popish Plot That after they had dispatch'd the King they would depose his Brother also that was to succeed him if he did not answer their Expectations for rooting out the Protestant Religion But may not Parliaments secure us by Laws and Provisions restraining the Power which endangers us Not possible if once they secure and settle the Throne for Popery For First They can avoid Parliaments as long as they please and a Government that is more Arbitrary and Violent is more agreeable to their Designs and Principles It being apparent that the English Papists have lost the Spirit of their Ancestors who so well asserted the English Liberties being so generally now fix'd for the Pope's Universal Monarchy sacrificing all to that Roman Moloch being much more his Subjects than the King 's and though Natives by Birth yet are Foreigners as to Government Principle Interest Affection and Design and therefore no Friends to Parliaments as our Experience hath told us But Secondly if their Necessity should require a Parliament there is no question but they may get such a one as will serve their turns For so have every of our former Princes in all the Changes of Religion that have been amongst us As Henry the 8th when he was both for and against Popery Edward the 6th when he was wholly Protestant Queen Mary when she was for Burning Alive and Queen Elizabeth when she ran so Counter to her Sister And the Reason is clear that he who has the making of the publick Officers and the Keys of Preferment and Profit influenceth and swayeth Elections and Votes as he pleaseth And by how much the Throne comes to be fix'd in Popery the Protestants must expect to be excluded from both Houses as they have excluded the Papists For as Hereticks and Traitors they as ignominous Persons c. you have heard forfeit all Right either to chuse or be chosen in any Publick Councils And then all Laws which have been made for the Protestants and against the Popish Religion will be null and void as being enacted by an incompetent Authority as being the Acts of Hereticks Kings Lords and Commons who had forfeited all their Rights and Priviledges But Thirdly suppose our Laws were valid as enacted by competent Authority and such good and wholsome Provisions as were those Statutes made by our Popish Ancestors in those Statutes of Provisoes in Edward the I. Edward the III. Time and that of Praemunire in Richard the II. and Henry the IV. for Relief against Papal Incroachments and Oppressions Yet being against the Laws and Canons of Holy Church the Sovereign Authority they will be all superseded For so they determine That when the Canon and the Civil Laws clash one requiring what the other allows not the Church-Law must have the observance and that of the State neglected And Constitutions they say made against the Canons and Decrees of the Roman Bishops are of no moment Their best Authors are positive of it And our own Experience and Histories testify the Truth thereof For how were those good Laws before-mention'd defeated by the Pope's Authority so that there was no effectual Execution thereof till Henry the 8th's Time as Dr. Burnet (c) Hist Ref. p. 110. tells us And how have the good Laws to suppress and prevent Popery been very much obstructed in their Execution by Popish Influence An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled A Short Scheme of the Usurpations of the Crown of England c. THE World may very justly wonder at several Passages in this ill-designed and as ill-writ Pamphlet which the Author has taken the pains to collect from some perty Grubstreet Chronicle Henry II. is call'd an Usurper pag. 4. because he accepted of the Crown of England in his Mothers Life-time tho' by her not opposing his Claim it may very reasonably be concluded that she freely consented to his Promotion as the most essectual means to secure the Crown to her Posterity But we are told That a Crown is no Estate to be made over in Trust If our Author's meaning is that a Crown is an Estate which the Possessor cannot divest himself of by a voluntary Resignation both Reason and a multituide of Examples in several Ages and Nations prove that the Principle our Author has laid down is founded on a gross Mistake Therefore if our Author designs to publish any more Schemes of Usurpation let him first inform us what it is and how far it extends lest the World should accuse him of having as notoriously usurped to himself the Title of a Writer as any of our Princes ever did the Crown of England He would perswade his Readers to believe that God punish'd King Edward III. and King Henry V. for their Usurpations with frequent and unexpected Victories in the acquisition of which tho' there was some English Blood shed as it was impossible it should be otherwise yet the Enemies paid an excessive Price for it after the defeat of their great Armies and the Imprisonment of their King they being forced to buy their Peace upon such Terms as our conquering Usurpers pleased to impose Nor did ever any well-wisher to the English Nation deny that these Two Princes were the Glory of their Age and of our British History If I should reckon up all the evident Mistakes and salfe Inferences in this Libel it would be too tedious since a careless Eye cannot easily overlook them If the Pamphlet finds so undeserved a Reception in the World as to need a Second Impression the Author is desired to add to it this Postscript which being founded on the Principles asserted by him will shew the World that he hath wilfully and perhaps partially forborn to speak of as notorious an Usurper as any that are mentioned in his Scheme Queen Mary the Off-spring of an Incestuous Marriage had no other unquestionable Divine Right to the Crown of England than what was given her by an Act of Parliament made in her Father's Reign and the common Consent of the Nobility and People after the Death of her Brother King Edward VI. whose disposal of the Crown by Letters Patents under the Great Seal being directly contrary to the former Entail of it limited by a higher Authority His Sister the Lady Mary was acknowledge Queen Therefore according to our Author 's abstruse Notions She as well as her Grand-father Henry VII must be reckoned among the Usurpers of the Crown of England Let us now see what success attended her and whether the Nation was happy under her Government As soon as She saw her self fixed in the Throne She imprisoned and deprived several of the Protestant Bishops contrary to the then Establish'd Laws of the Realm
give Evidence against her to outface all ancient Truths to foist in Gibionitish Witnesses of their own forging and leaves nothing unattempted against Heaven and Earth that might advance her Faction and disable her innocent and just Accusers This this is the true figure of Popery through whatever false Opticks your Highness may have view'd it This is that for which you are resolv'd to hazard a Crown of Glory and three temporal Diadems to boot and to which you sacrifice both your own Fortunes and the Tranquillity of many Millions of Souls What then can the World that knows the clear light of your Hignesses Elevated Understanding imagine can be the Cause of your Revolt Will they not be apt to conceive that you have not espoused this block Religion purely for its own sake but for some promised Dowry of an Absolute Monarchy or Arbitrary Power which she might pretend to bring one day with her to your Embraces But as this is far below the Justice and Generosity of your Highness so 't is unworthy the thoughts of any considerate Politician For suppose any Prince to whom the British Sceptre may hereafter devolve intoxicated with the Tinsel Glories of the French Monarch's blustering Grandeur should be so vain as to hope to subjugate the English Liberties and destroy the Constitution of the best Establish'd Government on Earth by assuming to himself the whole Legislative Power raising Money and draining his Subjects at Pleasure without their common Consent in Parliament c. and should be so extravagantly enamour'd on this fatal Project fatal I say because for above Five hundred years it has shipwrack'd all that coasted that way as to be content to shift his Religion and exchange his Faith and turn Papist on a presumption that the same might facilitate and accomplish his Enterprize As King John 't is said resolv'd once to embrace Mahumetism rather than not to be reveng'd of his Barons claiming their just Liberties Suppose I say all this should be and that the present Papists to get their Religion publickly establish'd should comply with his Designs yet still is it not most reasonable to believe That having once gain'd their Point therein they or their Posterity will soon recal to mind their Birth rights and Privileges due to them as English-men and will they not then be perpetually tugging and strugling to regain them whence continual disturbance will ensue and a standing Army must be kept on foot to support this ill acquired Grandeur For those Subjects that contended with King John and King Henry the Third c. tho' they were Papists and of the same Religion with those Princes could not brook it to be Slaves to their Arbitrary Pleasures in their Civil Rights Besides what a waking dream is it for any King that is free from the Roman Yoke to think to make himself more Absolute by involving himself and his Kingdoms in Thraldom to the Church of Rome wherein not only the Pope pretends a Right to domineer over him but every Ecclesiastick esteems himself wholly exempt from his Jurisdiction and all his People will be but half his Subjects viz. in Temporals for in Spirituals and in ordine ad spiritualia a monstrous draw net that may include almost all the Actions of Humane Life they are wholly to be Conducted by his Holiness and his Subordinate Ministers How therefore can your Highness if a Roman Catholick complain of the late successive Houses of Commons for pressing a Bill to exclude you Is it any Disloyalty to endeavour to preserve the Imperial Crown of England from a truckling and shameful Servitude to a Foreign Usurper's Power Or is it any such unheard of thing to debarr a Prince from a Throne that hath obstinately disabled himself Certainly above all Men the Roman Catholicks ought not to murmur at this for did not the Pope issue forth a Bull to exclude your Grandfather King James unless he would turn Papist And did not the Romanists though they acknowledged the Title of your other Grandfather Henry the Great to the French Diadem yet refuse to pay him any Obedience because a Protestant and on that only score fought against him as long as he continued so and thought it no Rebellion Your Highness perhaps will say What though they did so true Protestants and the Church of England do not own such Principles Well then if the Protestant Principles be better than those of the Church of Rome what Madness is it in your Highness to abandon the first and chuse the latter I am a dutiful and hearty Lover of Monarchy and when establish'd on such an Equi-pois'd Basis of Wisdom as ours is shall ever assert it to be the best Form of Government in the World and most agreeable to the Genius of English-men But that lineal descent is so sacred a thing that the Heir presumptive can for no default or crime whatsoever be debarr'd from the Crown by an Act of Parliament or publick Decree of State I do not understand For I am sure the practice in all Ages both at home and abroad in almost every Nation in the Earth hath run contrary And as to Right those that pretend such Succession in all Cases to be Jure Divino would do well to shew in what Texts of Scripture the same is prescribed till then they do but talk not argue and if a Candidate to the Crown for any Reasons whatsoever may without offence to the Law of God or Nature be Excluded by an Act of King Lords and Commons Then the June-divino-ship vanishes and nothing is left to be considered But whether such next Heir have done such Acts or is so qualified that in Prudence it be necessary for the Tranquillity of the Publick to Exclude him Now I believe there are but few of the Church of England but if the Bill had passed the Lords and his Majesty had given his Royal Assent to it would have acquiesc'd therein and consequently they do not believe the Exclusion to be simply unlawful by the Law of God or Nature for against either of them no Humane Ordinances ought to prevail But all true Loyalists do not despair but your Highness may yet prevent all Occasions of such Disputes by opening your eyes or rather that God in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes may irradiate your Royal Understanding and let you see the horrid Blackness of those Men who have endeavour'd to seduce you and of those Principles to which they would have inveigled you on purpose to have made your Highness a Property to their Ambition and Avarice and that under the shadow of your Illustrious Name they might one day Tyrannize at Pleasure over these Three Kingdoms If Heaven shall be pleased to work such an happy Inclination in your Highness you shall presently see the whole British Empire echoing with Praises and Acclamations and instead of murmurs of Seclusion every good Subject shall erect you a Throne in his heart But the grand difficulty will be