Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A37363
|
A Seasonable advice to all true Protestants in England, in this present posture of affairs discovering the present designs of the papists : with other remarkable things, tending to the peace of the church, and the security of the Protestant relion [sic] / by a sincere lover of his King and countrey.
|
M. D.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing D63; ESTC R18433
|
50,826
|
67
|
in the Low-Countries and with the Massacre of his Eldest Son and Heir Don Carlos a young Prince who discovered his dislike of the Bloody Designs of the Papists of his days But since the States of Europe have laboured to cut the Spaniards Short and to bring down their haughty pretensions they have scarce been able to keep their own without their Neighbours Charitable Assistance much less to invade the other Kingdoms and Territories of Europe in gratification of the Court of Rome But the French Monarch esteemed the richest Prince of all Europe raised to a Powerful and Large Kingdom was become dreadful to all his Neighbors whiles he stood still He seemed therefore to be the fittest Instrument to carry on the Popish Designs in Europe and in England and able to suppress the Protestant Religion every where This was the French aim in the last Dutch War as may appear by the words of their Embassadors to all Popish Princes chiefly in Germany and Spain And in consideration of this War the Pope was willing to gratifie the French King in all his demands in making those men Cardinals whom he had recommended to him And likewise to shew his readiness to crush the Protestant Party the French King to please the Pope hath pulled down several hundred Churches and oppressed the Protestants of his Dominions contrary to his former Grants and Promises I could instance several known proofs of this Agreement between the Pope the Jesuits and the French King to govern the World between them and to assist one another in the subduing Europe and in Ruling it by this Triumvirat The Pope was to have the Souls and command the Consciences of men to furnish him and his minions with what moneys they would have The French King was to Govern the Bodies and command their Estates And the Jesuits by a compliance with them both were to have a large share in the Conquered Countreys and a great part in the Government of the World The Dutch a sturdy generation and powerful by Sea stood in their way these must be oppressed by a Nation no less valiant and strong it was no difficult matter to blow up the Coals and kindle a War The uncivility of the former furnishing daily causes of discontent to the latter but when the growing greatness of the French discovered to us our own danger and that our Prince became the Moderator of Peace and War stopping this furious Champion in his full Career it is not to be imagin'd what displeasure the Popish Party conceived against our King and Nation what threatning speeches what furious expressions dropt from their mouths The Emperor only and the Spaniard no Friend of the French Greatness would have been willing to assist the Pope if only Religion had been concerned but when they had an inkling of the Triumvirat and saw to what all these proceedings would abutt they chose rather to aid the Hereticks against their Pope than to suffer them to incrcase their Enemies Power and Greatness But seeing that Protestant England would not suffer the Pope and the French to triumph over all their Neighbours but give a check to their proceedings a Peace must be concluded with the Dutch Hereticks that they might have more leasure to work mischief to and overthrow this strongest Bulwark of the Protestant Religion Open War was dangerous against a Nation so Couragious therefore private Plots and secret Conspiracies must do They had no other way but to cast us into a confusion by a sudden attempt and the Massacre of our Prince and of his Subjects and to animate us one against another The Father must be stirred up against the Son the Children must rise against their Parents Relations and Affinity Consanguinity and the ties of Friendship and Blood must be all set aside to promote the Interest of this Catholick Religion and Holy Cause sanctified by the Popes Benediction The burning of the City of London could not destroy that Nest of Hereticks they must there be all Massacred therefore in their famous City that is so soon risen out of its Ashes to the wonder of the World No pitty nor compassion must be had of innocent babes who might one day revenge the murder of their Parents but they must all the Mother and the Child feel the stroaks and sharp swords of these zealous followers of Jesus of these Roman Catholicks and Jesuits But how far did their fury intend to run God knows Once the name of a Protestant must not be left alive in all England Blood and Rivers of Blood must be spilt to make way for a Religious Generation of Jesuits Franciscans Jacobins and other Fryers to plant in this Land and secure it for the Pope their Sovereign Kings and Princes Nobles and Clergy Gentry and Commonalty must all be witnesses of their impartial zeal the whole Nation must be destroyed O Inhumanity O Hellish Fury O unheard of Cruelty Blessed be thy Holy Name O Lord our God for the discovery of their malice and rage against us continue thy Protection to our gracious Prince guard him by thine Almighty Power secure his person against all present and future Conspiracies preserve thy People and this Church and send us all to be truly thankful and to reunite again in the sincere worship of thee the only true God for Jesus Christ his sake Amen This Plot hath been working many years and preparations were making in all the Convents upon the Sea-Coasts of Spain and France chiefly of the Jesuits But that which is the end of all this Discourse is that if we had not been divided in Religion the Papists would not have made this attempt and we should be infallibly secure from all future mischiefs which they will yet endeavour to work amongst us if we could be perswaded to set aside all Partiality and Prejudice and joyn together all unanimously in the profession of one Religion and in the same manner This I shall prove in the next Chapter CHAP. II. The danger of Division in a Nation about matters of Religion and what pernicious consequences it hath had in foreign Countries and in this THE chief intent of all Societies of men is Union and the Publick Security against all invasion and disorder foreign and domestick For that purpose we gather together in one Body and under one Head we bind our selves together with Laws and Relations we entertain a mutual correspondency amongst our selves and pretend all to promote the general good of the politick Body Nations are to be looked upon as large Families where the Universal Father and all the rest are members of the Family highly concerned in one anothers good and preservation All the individuals are united in one publick interest in the happiness of the whole or division therefore discord is an apparent enemy to the Society because it opposes the very intent of it and lays open a Nation to these following mischiefs and to their dismal consequences I. It weakens the Society and People
buzing in the ears of the simpler sort the danger of unity the corruption in the Church the glory of Constancy in Religion and their ingagements for the Covenant and by upbraiding the more knowing party with the Peoples discourses of the Ministers bad Lives unfaithfulness unconstancy and the danger their Souls were in if by their too hasty compliance to that which their former Interest obliged them to exclaim against they gave them a slender Opinion and an Atheistical impression of Religion it self To these they represented Conformity as the most intolerable burthen and the heaviest yoke could be imposed upon them by Authority and our Religion of the Church of England the nearest in affinity to Popery full of Superstition if not of Idolatry They accused all our zealous endeavours to bring the People to Unity to be Persecutions of the good Servants of God and every step that we made was slandered and discredited by these men who had a design to advantage themselves by our Divisions To the Governours in the Church and State they would exclaim against the wickedness and danger of Conventicles and Non-Conformity They represented all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas as incouragers of our dissensions by their Examples and Government without Bishops Calvin and all his Calvinists were Traitors Schismaticks Hereticks Enemies of the Publick Peace promoters of Rebellion insufferable in a Common-Wealth dangerous Conspirators against the Kings Person and Government and what not With these and such like Notions they infected the minds of many of our Clergy with an unjust prejudice against all the Religious Churches of God beyond the Seas and had not a very worthy Divine Dr. Durel cleared their innocency by representing to the publick their disallowance of our frivolous discords and their acknowledgment of us for their Brethren and our Liturgy and Government to be altogether agreeable with Gods Word and Will we should have proceeded to a publick Excommunication However these impressions given to the Rulers in Church and State cast oyl into the fire angred the minds of our zealous Governours and drew from them those severe resolutions which have increased our discords and caused many to imagin more in Non-Conformity than really there is for as some sort of Wounds putrifie and increase the more they are handled so the Divisions of our Church about quid dities Indifferencies Trifles and Vanities would have vanished by degrees the less we had minded them But as we had our Enemies on both sides acquainted with our temper and interests they would not suffer the one to conform nor the others to admit them upon more moderate terms than a strict compliance with all the inconsiderable punctilio's which the Publick Peace and Gods Glory might easily dispense with as well as Religion Government and Conformity it self In all the publick Disputations too much Gall proceeded from the Jesuits hatred of us both and their apprehension of our sensibleness of our own Interest and of an union between those that differed for the most part but in shadows However they laboured to raise such a mist between us and our Brethren that we could not see to joyn together in one body and worship All this while they advanced some of their own disguised fellows into Offices and Places of Trust and when they saw any person able to serve their turn they would befriend him with their assistance in his promotion and discourage all other persons When I lived near London a Jesuit an ingenious and a good Linguist knowing my Skill in that and other sorts of Learning and how much I had been neglected in the Church though I had done good Service both at home and abroad was sent purposely to search into the Principles of my Religion whether I would favour Popery could I have dissembled with him I might have had a considerable preferment by the Jesuits means but I chose rather to abide in a mean condition and to be confined to the remotest wilderness of the Land to a small Vicarage of about sixty pounds per annum there to bury my Talents than to employ them in the Service of the Devil and the Pope But all these indeavours at home tended to the promotion encouragement and increase of the Popish Religion but amongst a few and such as dared not to discover what they were And though it had got so much credit that many ingenious and good Protestants could not endure to hear the Pope or Papists spoken against or blamed for superstition or any of their practices This could not bring to pass the grand Design without a more powerful endeavour and stronger assistances for that purpose as soon as the Court of Rome was perfectly reconciled with the French King and that he had consented to gratifie them to have the Monument of their Disgrace taken away and all remembrances of his Ambassadors affront and their weaknesses pulled down in Rome they resolved to make use of his Assistance and to govern all Europe if not all the World by a Triumvirat I shall not trouble my Reader with any part of this Plot relating to Foreign Affairs only as it looks upon us and concerns us here in England It is sufficiently known that the Court of Rome pretends to an Universal Monarchy and to hold by the Power of the Keys what the same City governed heretofore by the Sword The Jesuits likewise have the same aim but with a pretended subordination to the Pope and his Authority a meer pretence covered over with the Oath of blind Obedience for this crafty and devilish Society if it once get a Head will as easily forget their Allegiance to the Pope as they do now that to their most lawful Princes under God But neither the Jesuits nor the Pope of Rome now that all their Cheats have been discovered to the World in these latter Ages through the Preaching of the Gospel can carry on or compass so great a Design without other assistance therefore they resolved together to employ the old Policy of the antient Romans in Conquering Kingdoms which was to subdue them with their Weapons and by the Courage of their own Inhabitants Of all the Monarchs subject to the Roman See in the end of Alexander's Papacy none seemed so powerful in men and money as the French A young Prince Lord of a flourishing Kingdom and of a great Continent but of an Aspiring mind that would readily entertain the first proposals of larger Dominions and other Empires Therefore the Jesuits and the Pope agreed to tempt him with the Glories of the World and to make him the Universal Monarch if he would encourage the Popish Religion and declare himself an Enemy to the Protestant Profession in and out of his Kingdom This same Proposal had been made to Philip the Second of Spain when that Kingdom was in its Grandeur and in order to its accomplishment he gratified the Pope with the Expulsion and Banishment of the Moors out of his Kingdom with a Bloody War