Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	normandy_n	7,734	5	11.5949	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39119	A vindication of the letter out of the north concerning Bishop Lake's declaration of his dying in the belief of the doctrine of passive obedience, &c. : in answer to a late pamphlet, called, The defence of the profession, &c. of the said Bishop : as far as it concerns the person of quality.	Eyre, William, 1612 or 13-1670.	1690 (1690)	Wing E3946; ESTC R6258	27,474	36

the Safety of my own Country ought to be dearer to me than all the World besides and I have more Reason to defend the Rights and Priviledges of that than all the Princes Titles in the World But if our Author should not allow all the Inferences I have made from his Concessions yet I have a great deal of Reason to thank him for them because they will not only be of use to me hereafter but do at present in great measure supercede what I should else have said to his History For 't is perfectly indifferent to me whether Queen Elizabeth did assist the French and Scotish Protestants or no since by his first Position he grants She might have serv'd her self of the Treachery and Revolt of other Princes Subjects For 't was the lawfulness of the Action and not the Fact it self that was the great point in question and since he allows she might have assisted them though they had been Rebels we will never quarrel about it whether they were so or no. For truly the Person of Quality is very well pleased that he has so learned an Author of his side that proves all he desires should be asserted in the point For since he will allow the French Protestants were not Rebels because they had the Law of their side Nor were the Netherlands guilty of Rebellion against the King of Spain because he first acted contrary to the Laetus Introitus and disengaged them from their Obedience when he had broke the Condition of it If he will but please to be as gracious to his own Country-men and allow them the benefit of their own Laws and suffer the Oaths of Princes to be as binding in England as it seems they then were in Spain I know no body that will desire any more of him Nay I will go farther than this for if he can name any one Person that was a Rebel to King James after the Allowances above are granted him rather than he should go unpunish'd I think I should be his Executioner for I hate those that rebel against and break the Laws as much as the Author can do And since Rebellion is so horrid a Sin I would not have England to have the Enclosure of it but only desire that we may be allowed to fight for our Laws and Liberties as other Nations do without being thought Rebels for so doing But if our Author will not allow us the same Priviledges he gives to all the World beside there would be some reason to suspect that he designs us the Monopoly of that he so exclaims against and is so particularly kind to his own Country as sometimes to lay them under the unhappy necessity of being either Rebels or Slaves And I have something the more Reason to fear this because I find he is not so sollicitous to clear the Scots from the imputation of Rebels as he is the French and Dutch But let them be what they will you see 't is evident Queen Elizabeth did not assist them she only furnish'd them with Men Money and Ammunition And when the Queen of Scots came and flung her self into her Protection and implored her Aid for restoring her to her Crown she then asserted her Cause with a witness For had that unhappy Princess trusted to the Mercy of her Subjects as great Rebels as they were I am sure they could not have treated her worse than she was used by that Queen who our Author tells us always declared against any Protection of Subjects in their Resistance which she always called Rebellion But I suppose Princes are no more obliged to speak Truth than they are tied to do Justice for which our Author gave them a Dispensation before But I think it now time to proceed to the 2d thing he undertook to prove which is That it was the Doctrine of the Church of England at that time that it is unlawful for Subjects to resist and that therefore our Divines justified the French and Dutch no otherwise than upon Principles which are consistent with this Doctrine And truly if our Author hold in the same mind he was when he promised the two Positions before enlarged on and acquitted the French from Rebellion because they had the Law of their Side and the Dutch because their King had forfeited his Right to their Obedience by breaking his part of the Pact and Stipulation between them I do not see but he and I shall agree in this as well as the Divines of this Age do with those in Queen Elizabeth's Days For I suppose the Convocation at that time did approve of Bishop Bilson his Sentiments as to that matter for the Author tells us the Book was perused and allowed by publick Authority and also dedicated to the Queen so that it seems to be that which they were all willing to stand by And I heartily wish that all our Bishops would do so too and make that very Passage he cites out of Bishop Bilson the Judg of the Controversy for then I think it would be pretty soon decided and therefore I shall transcribe the Place in the very same words he has done page 33. In France the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde might lawfully defend themselves from Injustice and Violence and be aided by other Princes their Neighbours If the King as too mighty for them sought to oppress them to whom they owe not simple Subjection but respective Homage as Scotland did to England and Normandy to France when the Kings notwithstanding had bitter Wars each with other The rest of the Nobles that did assist them if it were the King's Act that did oppress them and not the Guises except the Laws do permit them means to save the State from open Tyranny I will not excuse and yet the Circumstances must be fully known before the Fact can be rightly discerned with which I confess I am not so exactly acquainted Now in this Passage here are three several things observable First He absolutely acquits the King of Navar and Prince of Conde but their Associates only upon Supposition that the Law permitted them to oppose the King's Tyranny but the Guises Oppression they might without Law But although the Bishop says he will not excuse those that resist the King without Law yet it is pretty remarkable that he seems to suppose that even in such a Case there may be Circumstances which may render them excusable and which ought to be fully known before the Fact can be discerned and therefore he does forbear passing his Judgment on them because he is not thorowly acquainted with the Circumstances And now were all our Divines of this good Bishop's Faith in this Point or at least had they but his Charity and would not condemn their Brethren before they understood the Cause they would certainly understand one another a little better than they do or however there would be no Divisions nor Schismes about it which God grant they do not now make in the