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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design of Establishing his own Religion He had therefore a design to destroy all others and consequently to ruin the English Church the Presbyterians and the Independants for it is known by the whole World that the Popish Religion never looks upon her self to be Established till once she has made her Way through the Ruins of all other Religions Secondly This Author endeavours to prove that the Prince only fought a pretence against his Father-in-Law Because saith he he reproaches him for having suspended then Penal Laws in Favour of the Roman Catholics and has not considered him as having also suspended them in behalf of the Presbyterians and other Sectaries as if it were possible for him to have transgressed the Limits of his Power with respect to the one and not to the other He calls this an unreasonable distinction c. All this is nothing else but a piece of affected malice and ignorance This mighty Lawyer ought to know that the Penal Laws were only enacted against the Papists The Oaths if there were nothing else do sufficiently attest this They were made against those who believe the Pope to be the Head of the Church that there is another Jurisdiction within the Realm then that of the King that there is such a thing as Transubstantiation and that the Invocation of Saints is no Idolatry There are no Protestants who believe there things It is not against them that the Penal Laws and the Oaths were made but if the Penal Laws some few Years ago were extended to the Presbyterians that was done by evil designs of James Duke of York who did sow Divisions betwixt the two Parties and therefore the Prince ought to have taken it in good part that he did relax then as to the Presbyterians because that is consonant to the purport and true meaning of the Penal Laws and he ought to have taken it in ill part that the same Favour was allowed to the Roman Catholics because that is contrary to the express Decisions of the Law All the Penal Laws were made to serve as a Bulwark not only for the English Church but for all Protestants in general and therefore all Protestants of all sides set themselves against the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience in general because they saw very well whither that did tend Besides the Addresses by which this Author would prove that the Presbyterians â—â—ok'd upon the suspension of the Penal Laws as an obligation that they owed to the King were nothing else but cunning Artifices and Suppositions for the most part or made by three or four Quakers Independants or Papists who presented those Addresses without the consent of their Respective Bodies in whose name they yet pretended to speak This we know by good hands and we have derived the Account we have had hereof from the very Fountain and it appeared sufficiently by the Unanimous concurrence of those Communities on whom the said Addresses were Fathered with the Prince of Orange The Author concludes this Reflection with two confiderations The first is a mighty Elogy on the Roman Religion which he commends by reason of its Antiquity and Extent by it's Sanctity and the Saints it has given to England The other consideration is of the Power that the Church of England allows the King in Spiritual Causes whence he concludes that the Church of England would be very unreasonable if it were of the Opinion that that Power could be restrained without Cause in respect of that which is of all things most grateful to the World which is to Allow the Free Exercise of their Religion to those of his Subjects who with himself are of the most Antient Religion of all that maintain the Adoration of Jesus Christ. That is to say in a Word that if the King has Power to dispense with the Penal Laws with respect to New Sects he ought in all reason to have the same Power with respect to the Antient Religion that is professed by himself This Consequence is denied If the King of England has Power in Spiritual Causes it iâ— not an Arbitrary Power is bounded by the Laws but the Laws do not forbid a Toleration of the Presbyterians but they forbid a Toleration of the Popish Religion because that so Antient a Religion and which is so far spread through the World and is so holy is a common Enemy of all other Religions whether true or false Those other Religions which give may also receive Toleration but who is obliged to grant a Toleration to the Popish Religion which Tolerates none which destines all those to the Fire and Sword who do not submit themselves to it The Author puts an end to this part of his Defence of King James touching his Religion by taking a review of the Church of England he turns it on every side and finds it safe and sound without so much as Spot or Wrinkle She was the same under the Catholick King that she was under the Protestant Kings She had her Bishops her Cathedral Churches her Parochial Churches her Ecclesiastical Revenues The King built very near twenty Chappels at his own Charge And this is that for which he makes all this Cry Thus our Gentleman concludes that it is an imposition upon the World and a manifest token of want of sense to call that a Subversion of the Religion that was established by Law Certainly the People of England were very far in the wrong that they had not patience till King James brought their Religion to the same Issue as Lewis did the reformed in France It is true that King James established the Popish Service in all the Cities and Burroughs within the Realm where there were Papists It is true that the Jesuits were so bold as to open Schools up and down It is true that by this time London was provided with Monks of all Orders It is true that the Jesuits remained in the Court and that Father Peters was the Head of the English Church by vertue of the entire Influence that he had on the King and the precedency that he had at the Council Board It is true that the principal Offices of State were taken out of the Hands of Protestants and given either to Papists or to those who had no Religion at all It is true that the Earls of Clarenden and Rochester the King's Brothers-in-Law lost their Places of Trust for refusing to change their Religion It is true that the most part of the Judges of the King's Bench were Papists It is true that the Justices of the Peace in the Country were not a few of them Roman Catholicks It is true that the Papists were possessed of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford It is true that the Archbishoprick of York being vacant was designed for a Jesuit or some Priest It is true that the Offices in the Militia the Government of Counties and the Lieutenant ship of Ireland the Town and Fort of Portsmouth and all the places of strength on the Sea-coasts were
ANGLIAE 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 LONDON Printed and Sold by Richard Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1691. ANGLIAE Decus Tutamen OR THE GLORY and SAFETY OF THIS NATION Under our Present King Queen c. THE Physicians have a very bad Opinion of that Disease that begins with most violent Agitations with Tremblings that shake the very Bones out of Joynt and extreamly debilitate the Nerves with dreadful Convulsions with frantic and extatical Indispositions of the Brain that over-run the whole Oeconomy They are never deceived in their Judgment when they pronounce such Distempers mortal It is the same thing in States their Diseases which begin with violent internal Agitations are commonly Presages of great Revolutions France is in this Condition the Preparations that are made against her by all Europe in a joynt Conspiracy threaten her with great Mischiefs and there is nothing more effectual for fortifying the Hopes of the Confederate Princes and States than the convulsive Motions that are observed not only in her Bowels but in all her Actions if we consider her Arms nothing ever appeared so strange France although it be as yet entire and has not incurr'd the loss of either Men or Provinces is subject to all those Agitations to which she can be exposed which would be infallibly improved into the last and fatal Paroxism if there were an Enemy in the midst of the Kingdom She obliges all her Inhabitants to take Arms she exhausts her Treasures to the bottom Ruin and Desolation are the Blessings she leaves in those Places which she cannot keep she is notoriously guilty of the most inhuman Excesses for all the Palatinate and almost all the Countries upon the Rhine with their Towns and Castles that are levelled with the Ground burnt and reduced to Ashes are in such a Motion as cannot be imputed to any thing else but a Fit of a violent Phrensie that is so prodigious that we cannot but see therein the Characters of an internal Agitation that is attended with the most dreadful Violence of all has been as yet observed Every Knight of the Post brings us an Account of Symptoms of this cruel Disease which does expose her to such fearful Agitations and threatens her with the most violent Death and there is something that is singular in the Violence of these Motions and it is this that the Revolution that has lately happened in England by the wise Conduct of William III. King of England does irritate them to so great an Elevation of Fury If his present Majesty had poured his Forces into France and obliged that King to leave his Throne the Rage would have been raised to such a pitch as to admit of no Accession The Piety Clemency and Justice of King William who now strikes Lewis with so great a Terror is the August Subject of this Discourse These glorious Qualities made manifest in his said Majesty's late Expedition into England in Opposition to the French Designs there are the Subject matter of this small Treatise Neither the late King James nor the Irish and English Papists his Friends were so hot in their Resentments as the French There is something extraordinary in it and this boundless Wrath of the French King against William King of England was possibly not so much kindled by the consideration of what he has done as by the fearful prospect of what he can do Yet the most powerful measures they can take for the overthrow of their own Interest is to provoke an Enemy who is so potent at this day It is possible that he is not altogether irreconcileable they ought to be more careful to observe those just and decent Methods by which he is to be treated The Designs of France afforded a necessary occasion for an Expedition the whole Course of which runs parallel with the Rules of Piety which inspire King William's Royal Breast Since the King was of the Years of Knowledge there never passed one year wherein he did not publicly receive the Sacrament several times there passed not one Sunday on which he was not present at the public Service and Devotions he never heard a Sermon which touched him which he obliged not himself to recollect and upon which he made not pious Reflections he never heard a Sermon but with such Attention and Devotion that made Private Persons ashamed He never went out in the Morning without secret Prayer and devout Reading And they who enter'd into his Closet observed his Table to be adorned with Books of Devotion that were fit to nourish Souls His generous way of interessing himself in all the Miseries that those suffered who were Persecuted for the sake of their Religion was a visible Testimony to all the World of the Sentiments of his Heart concerning them We may say that the Qualities of a Hero and of a great Man are chiefly due to himself and to his Blood And God who took care for his Welfare and of his Soul besides other means of Princely Education provided him an Excellent Master in the things of Religion And therefore from his Infancy he received the Seeds of Piety which have sprung up to so great Maturity as we see at this day He affords Matter of Edification to all Protestants who know him He foresaw very well all that the Rage of the contrary Party could say against his Enterprise which obliged him to deliberate on it for a considerable time for he not only loved Vertue it self but cherished the outward appearances of it He had never overcome the scruples that presented themselves if the Security of Religion and of the State had not determined Him As for the Queen it is generally agreed that there was never one more Devout nor more exact in the Practice of her Duties towards God Her Piety is not accompanied with the vain shew of Hypocrisy She is great without being Proud She has a Natural Air she appears in all her Actions without Affectation She is tender and full of Compassion and incapable of forgetting the Obligations of Nature As for his Majesties Expedition into England First It is requisite that we shew that the Possessions and Affairs belonging to the Public are not governed as the Possessions of Private Persons and that we are not to judge of them by the same Rules Princes Kings and in general Sovereigns have Men and reasonable Souls for their Possessions and Private Men for their Possessions have only Houses Lands Oxen Sheep and Horses c. That if a Private Person is of a bad Conduct and does mismanage those Possessions which Providence has put into his hands there will no other inconvenience ensue thereupon but only the disposition of some Lands or Moveables which in respect of the Public will be