Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A25435
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Angliæ decus & tutamen, or, The glory and safety of this nation under our present King and Queen plainly demonstrating, that it is not only the duty, but the interest of all Jacobites and disaffected persons to act for, and submit to, this government.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing A3181; ESTC R9554
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40,230
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66
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Practices It is false that the Prince had given a Suspition of any Intention to make himself the Supreme Governour of the Vnited Provinces On the contrary he generally rejected all the occasions that were offered him to accept of that Dignity The King of France made him an Offer of Holland with full Sovereign Power and he refused it Anno. 1672. During the Consternation that these Countries were in by reason of the French Army the City of Amsterdam more then ordinary jealous of her Liberty consented to bestow on the Prince both the Rights and Title of Earl of Holland The Prince would by no means accept of it The States of Geldre having signified their Intentions to make him Duke of that Province he refused the offer and referred himself to the Opinion of the other Provinces The Low Countries have great reason sure to complain of the Prince's Government since the Year 1671. He found a Common-wealth oppressed under the Yoak of a Foreign Power having it's Bowels torn to pieces destitute of Arms destitute of Forts without Friends and without Allies and he accomplished his design by the most wise Conduct imaginable taking Possession of their Hearts beating back the Common Enemy by his Courage engaging all Europe in a Joynt Alliance which crushed all the French Designs Engaging the English Interest and causing the Treaty of Peace to be concluded at Breda He defended his Nation against all the pernicious Intrigues of the French Counsels he by his wise Conduct restored Trade to it's former Splendor and made it again to flourish It is now in the highest Esteem that ever any Common-wealth was in He was Umpire of the most Important Peace that has been concluded these hundred Years past which was made betwixt the two Crowns These are the great disorders that the Prince of Orange committed in the Republic and the truth is they are very great disorders in respect of France whose purpose is to reduce all her Neighbours into Confusion and Servitude for her own ends Now it is worth the knowing who this Famous Author is He is one whom France hath kept in Holland as a Spy and as an Incendiary He has not been idle during his Abode there he has not so much as omitted the most impertinent Occurrences that never passed the Frontiers of the State before and which were only the talk of the Mobile Such is the application of the Words of the Prophet Esay to the Birth of the Prince of Wales Before she was in pain she brought forth before she Travelled she was delivered of a Man Child See what he imputes to the Prince as a Crime and calls it a profanation of Holy Scripture to uphold his Pretences against the Prince of Wales He also justifies King James from the Accusation that is brought against him in the Prince's Declaration for having had a Design to suppress the Religion and overthrow the Laws of the Land He thinks in a moment to possess the Minds of Men with a Prejudice against the Prince as if his Expediâ—â—â—n could not have been undertaken for the Preservation of Religion as not being of the English perswasion but a Presbyterian He is obliged saith he according to the Calvinstical Doctrine to believe that all Ministers have equal Authority that Episcopacy is an unlucky Pillar of Papal and Antichristian Tyranny The Presbyterians destroyed the English Church banished the Prelates and abolished the Liturgy during the Common-wealth and behold a Presbyterian and an Army of Calvinists who pass into England to deliver the English Church which they have always look'd upon as Professing a false Religion Upon this Subject the Author shews what an able Man and great Divine he is he multiplies Words and idle Reflections We answer him in a Word that the English Church never Condemned the Presbyterians on this side of the Sea and never beheld their Religion as false She has only remonstrated the Extravagancies of the English Presbyterians and possibly iâ— that she is not much in the wrong The Presbyterians on this side the Sea in like manner never Condemn Episcopacy as an Appurtenance of Antichristianism The difference in Point of Government never hindred the English Protestants and those in these Parts from being ready to afford one another mutual Assistance as being of the same Religion Queen Elizabeth helped the Dutch and French Protestants King James did the same and which is more he sent his Divines and Bishops to the Synod of Dort which was otherwise all composed of Presbyterians that action alone is an undoubted proof of the Communion that the Bishops and Presbyterians maintained amongst themselves If the English Bishops have Assisted the Presbyterians on this side the Sea as their Brethren when they were like to be oppressed why may not the Presbyterians here with very good reason go and assist the English Church which they have always look'd upon to be a true Protestant Church Again this Author endeavours to prove first that the Late King of England in his suspending the Penal Laws had no other end but the Establishment of a perfect Tranquillity in his Kingdom taking from his Subjects all occasion of Persecuting one another upon the account of Religion This is the Old Song but all those who speak so are not in hopes to perswade others nor are they themselves perswaded of the Truth of this allegation They know very well and all the World is sensible of it that King James did extreamly hate the Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists looking upon them as the Authors of his Father's death and as his own Enemies It is very well known that during all the time that he was Duke of York he did cruelly Persecute them to do the English Church a Pleasure thinking to be so much a gainer thereby as to do afterwards whatever he pleased It was not then in Favour of the Non Conformists his Sworn Enemies that he intended to repeal the Penal Laws it is notoriously known that it was never in his thoughts to take them away but for the sake of the Roman Catholics and that he included other Dissenters for no other end but to palliate his designs It is beyond all dispute King James II. of England was a great Enemy of Persecution He made his inclinations manifest whilst he was as yet Duke of York possibly it cannot be denied but that that King had a very great Zeal for his own Religion for this Author does him that great Honour as to avouch it He had consequently a passionate desire to Establish it in England Can this be denied if he acknowledge it for he must be destitute both of common sence and honour to deny it he must also own that all his Actions tended to that end if all his Actions tended to that end with better reason so important a one did such as was the suspension of the Penal Laws Can he deny it or can any Person do it for him It is therefore plain that he had a
that Purpose The Supream Law does always interpret all other Laws and make exceptions therein And that Law is The Safety and Preservation of the People according to which Law we ought to explain or limit that Law which says The Parliament can do nothing without the King's consent When the King and the People are opposite the Parliament is Judge But a Judge does not stand in need of the Consent of either of the Parties to give force to the Sentence that is pronounced When the Parliament and the King are agreed for the Preservation of Religion and of the Society in that Case alone it is that one can do nothing without the other To make this Truth manifest we need only invert the Position and say the King can do nothing without the Parliament does it therefore follow that if a Parliament is so head-strong as to render all the Laws of no effect and to ruine the Nation a King of England may not lawfully oppose them and bring the Parliament within its due limits He may do it without all doubt in like manner a Parliament may lawfully provide for the Security of the Nation contrary to the King's Pleasure My Author goes back to the Prince's Declaration alledging it to be filled with sanguinary Orders And what are those sanguinary Orders They are such Clauses of the Prince's Declaration which appeared to him to carry the greatest force in them In one place he calls those who have betrayed their Religion and subverted the Laws of their Country Execrable Offenders who have justly deserved Death In another place He declares that all Papists who shall be found with Arms in their Hands or concealed in their Houses about their Persons or otherwise or who shall be in any Civil or Military Employment under any Pretence whatsoever shall receive no Quarter from his Army but be treated as High-way Men and Banditti by his Souldiers In a third place the Prince does say That they who shall take Arms under any Popish Officer and march under his Command shall be considered as Complices in their Crimes and Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And lastly William of Nassaw saith elsewhere That those Magistrates and other Persons who shall refuse to assist him and in Obedience to the Laws to perform strictly whatever he does require of them c. shall be looked upon as the Greatest Offenders and the most infamous of all Men as Traytors to their Religion to their Laws and to their Country and that he will not fail to treat them accordingly The Truth is we cannot tell if this Man is yet in his right Wits or rather if he is not one of those Bedlams who are tied to prevent the Effects of their Rage Miserable Soul Are these the Marks by which the Cruelty or Clemency of Princes is to be judged Are they not rather Innocent Stratagems by which they strike Terror that no ill may ensue Is not preventing of Resistance a proper means to hinder the Effusion of Blood Is there any Necessity that all such Threatnings should be accomplished How many Commanders and Generals have threatned the Cities which they besieged that they would abandon them to the Fury of the Souldiers if they would not surrender to which nevertheless they afterwards proposed favourable Conditions for a Treaty Let us trace the Footsteps of this Prince Are they marked with Blood What Persons has he put to death Is there any Man who has lost so much as a Nail of his Finger We know that the Papists that are in London and particularly the French talk with an unparallell'd Insolence The Parliament knows it the King is informed of it and hinders the Severities of Justice from taking hold of the Offenders The Ambassadors of the Emperor and of the King of Spain see it they acknowledge it they declare to His Majesty the grateful Sense they have of his Clemency and they inform their Masters of it But it may be said the Prince ought not to have denounced those terrible Menaces If it were so that he ought not to have uttered those Threats it would not have been the Effect of his Cruelty It is in Actions and not in Words that Men look for Blood and Cruelty Besides that the Prince had good reason to speak as he did if he had just cause to do what he did If he was in the wrong upon the matter he was to be blamed in every Circumstance but if he was justifiable in the main he was justifiable in the whole Affair For these are the ordinary Measures taken by Conquerors and Generals in just Wars They utter Threats they impress Fear and strike with Terror they likewise chastise those who yield not themselves upon such Manifesto's Those Traytors who in favor to the King had betrayed their Country Religion and Laws deserved to be called Execrable by the Prince and deserved all the Evils with which he threatned them yet without any design of their Accomplishment as it appeared by the Event He commanded the Papists upon Pain of Death to lay down their Arms. That had been good if after he had declared War against Popery upon his entring the Kingdom he had suffered the Papists to meet together and form a Body against him He declares that it was neither strictly the Persons of Papists nay nor their Religion that he had in his view but that he was resolved to oppose their Attempts by which they endeavoured to destroy the Religion established by Law Must he not then have been permitted to deprive them of their Arms at least seeing he left them their Life Property and Liberty of Conscience The Man complains loudly that the Prince in his Declaration sounds his Order for the Papists laying down their Arms upon their Meeting about London and Westminster with a barbarous Design of making some attempt upon the said Cities either by Fire or a Massacre or by both together He must certainly be very much in the wrong who suspects Papists and Popery of such Attempts they are very little acquainted with them St. Bartholomew's Massacre and many others committed in France The Murders a hundred times attempted upon the person of Queen Elizabeth and committed upon those of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth The Assassination of William Prince of Orange The Gunpowder Plot for blowing up the Two Houses of Parliament in the beginning of the Reign of James the First The Burning of London The Assassination of Justice Godfrey The Death of the Earl of Essex by a Rasour And that of King Charles the Second by Poyson with a Hundred other Enterprizes of this nature make it appear that we commit an outragious violence against Popery if we believe that she is capable of inspiring the blackest Designs Now by this time the Man who has opposed the current of this present Narrative thus far begins to vomit torrents of Choler and accumulates Injuries upon Outrages The Wretch is a Monstrous Exception out of every Rule and particularly out of this One That Men without Judgment are ordinarily endowed with a good Memory He talks like a Mad-man without Judgment and also without Memory He has forgot where and the person for whom he speaks He speaks in France and he speaks for James the Second It is a mark of great judgment to look for Cruelty out of France and to accuse a Foreign Prince thereof whil'st he lives under the most cruel Government that has been in Europe for these many Ages A Government under which a Thousand Cruelties have been committed upon the Protestants to make them abjure their Religion They abandoned them their Honor and their Life to the Insolence of the Soldiers They tormented them by night and day they burnt they rack'd they tortured them The resolutions of many were shaken by the cruel torments that were used They massacred and burnt and tore many in pieces alive They left infinite numbers of People to perish in frightful Prisons and in unspeakable Miseries They snatch'd the Children from their Mothers the Husbands from their Wives the Wives from their Husbands Friends from Friends to send them away to perish in the American Islands in a direful Exile and horrible Miseries When King William shall have done so much against the English Catholicks we will agree that they abdicate the Notion of his Royal Clemency A Government moreover of whose Cruelty Foreign Nations have been sensible which has not spared either the Honor the Possessions or the Lives of their Allies and Neighbours which has reduced into Ashes the most Beautiful Cities of Flanders and Italy and which carries Horror and Desolation whithersoever she carries her Arms. These are the Men who accuse our Princes of Severity Get you gone then you Infamous Man Go and read Lectures of Clemency to your own Masters before you charge ours with Cruelty Take notice also for whom it is that you speak You speak for a Prince who alone has spilt more Blood by the hand of the Executioner than Twenty of his Ancestors have done together After the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth he sent a Monster of Injustice and Cruelty into the West of England He caused to Hang and Quarter more than two thousand persons in those Counties An Example of horrible Cruelty and which possibly cannot be parallel'd in History In the most Criminal Rebellions the Heads are punished and the Multitude is pardoned But he was for cutting off both Leaders and People and burying them under the same ruins You speak for a Prince who is suspected to have his hands stained with his Brother's Blood and to have dipt them in that of the Earl of Essex You ought to have let these Ideas of Horror sleep and engage those who wish him well not to awaken them and expose them to the view of England This Infamous Libeller acts the Prophet too and has found by an Astrological Scheme of his own that the Prosperity of His Majesty of King William will not last long but the Event without doubt will give this Prophet the Lie God by the continuance of his Favours and Blessings will justifie the Conduct of His Anointed and of His Servant and make Him Victorious in spite of all the Efforts of Calumny and the Machinations of his Enemies FINIS