Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A48228
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A letter to the authors of the answers to The case of allegiance due to sovereign princes, stated and resolved, by Dr. William Sherlock by a gentleman of the communion of the Church of England.
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Gentleman of the communion of the Church of England.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing L1728A; ESTC R36369
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6,849
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9
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Non-resistance and Passive Obedience the Title of King James both before and after his Desertion and all the Merits of your Church of England Loyalty in standing by the Crown of England in the worst of times and then we shall Unite Your humble Servant Gentlemen Will nothing less do Are these terms to be imposed by a tolerated Party on that which blessed be God is yet by Law Established I hope we may Unite upon much easier terms than these if we may not some body is to blame and in due time will wish they had been wiser For my part I believe our now most Gracious Sovereigns King William and Queen Mary are both de jure and de facto as Lawful King and Queen of England by an Hereditary Right which commenced from the time the late King James left the Throne tho' it was not declared till the Twelfth of February following as ever sate upon the Throne But then I neither can nor ever will renounce the Doctrine of Passive Obedience or Non-resistance rightly understood nor can I yield that King James did forfeit his Crown or that I was absolved from my Allegiance before he wilfully threw it up and deserted the Nation but I believe I am not equally bound to stand by a Prince that Governed at the rate he did as I should have been to stand by one that Governed according to his Laws and his Coronation Oath So that no Man in the Nation is or possibly can be better satisfied in Their Majesties Title and Government than I am no Man was sooner satisfied than I was no Man has more Heartily served them than I have done nor more disinteressedly for I have got nothing by the change but I have lost much But then after all my Principles are the same they were my Allegiance has descended in the same manner to King William and Queen Mary as it did to Charles the Second and James the Second not altered in the least in the degree or reason of it They were in their times the Ministers of God and the lawful and undoubted Sovereigns of the English Nation and so are these The same God that set up Charles the Second and James the Second when so great a part of the Nation did what they could to have the first of them Abjured and the second Excluded the same God I say has by his Providence set King William and Queen Mary upon the Throne and by his Grace I will bear the same Faith and Allegiance to them as I did to the former and for the same cause Now if some Men are not so well satisfied as I am but think they are still bound to persist in their Allegiance to the late King because he is not dead nor has yet made a formal surrender of his Crown to Their now Majesties what is this to me must I renounce my Principles because others that have imbraced the same Principles are not of the same Mind that I am Or shall we of the Church of England that have heartily and sincerely sworn Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary and defended them with our Lives and Fortunes shall we I say be Rejected Traduced Libelled in Print only because we persisted in our Allegiance to King James not only as long as he used us well but as long as he would stay Surely they that gave such Testimony of their Loyalty to one Prince will deserve a little Regard and Protection from another who succeeds in the same Right Their now Majesties are of our own Religion they were our Deliverers out of a most uncomfortable state the hopes we had that they should one day be so was our greatest Comfort in all our Distresses and they have accordingly delivered us sooner than we did expect or perhaps durst wish And now after all this what reason is there that any body should suspect that we that were ever Loyal to all their Predecessors should after all the Assurances that one Man can possibly give another be still false dissembling Hypocrites and Traytors to God and them And in the mean time others that have been Disloyal to all their Predecessors that have been Plotting and Contriving the Ruine of the English Monarchy for above Fifty Years together should engross all the Loyalty from us Gentlemen If you are offended with this plain dealing you can thank no body but your selves you have endeavoured to satisfie your Party by your Arguments such as they are and altho' I could not approve of them yet I never set Pen to Paper against them because they seemed to be well meant for Their Majesties Service and if they did not satisfie me yet they might please some others and provided Men were brought over to Their Majesties Service I was contented But on the other side when I produced my Arguments I had presently a parcel of your snarling Vermin at my Heels which I despised And when the learned Dr. Sherlock came forth upon the same Charitable Design you treated him ten times worse than you did me and because I perceive he has not thought fit to give you any Answer I have sent this short Letter to let you know that if the Coast is clear and I may have the liberty of the Press as well as you I will one after another send every one of you my Remarks and Objections against what you have written against that great good Man And in the mean time I am Your c. LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691.
But so soon as ever the Work was done and the late King was shipp'd for France all this Courtship was out of Doors these Church of England Men these Conformists were the Men of Arbitrary Principles the Men that had endangered the Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion by their Doctrine of Passive Obedience or Non-resistance and all that they had said before was now forgot and tho' the Papists were pardon'd and the old Parliament Rebels rewarded there was no quarter to be allowed to the Surrenders of Charters the Opposers of the Bill of Exclusion the Defeaters of the Monmouth Invasion In Scotland the Episcopal Party sate still and would have no hand in the Revolution and we see what followed and tho' they have since made dreadful Complaints and expressed a great resentment of their Folly in suffering this Blessing to be stollen from them yet they have not yet been able to obtain a place for Repentance tho' they have sought it with Tears In England it was otherwise we were in expectation of a Parliament before the Revolution began and the Members in all places were fixed and it was not possible of a sudden to change them and this case would admit of no delay so that most of the Members were Church of England Men and there was no helping it This was a great Obstacle to the Designs of these Men and have embittered all their Joys and made them so uneasie and dissatisfied that they can hardly relish what they have got because they had not all they expected They were very zealous to have got the Act for taking the Oaths to Their Majesties limitted to a very short time that Men having but a little time to bethink them might more generally have refused them as they did in Scotland but the six Months that was allowed much against their wills was so well imployed that the Number of the Non-swearers was very small in comparison and if these very Men had not made it their business to traduce all that took the Oaths as Apostates time-servers and perjured Men perhaps it would have been much less than it was And whereas the great Objection against taking the Oaths was raised from the Doctrine of Passive Obedience or Non resistance whoever endeavoured the Reconciling the taking of the Oaths with that Doctrine was sure to have all these zealous Williamites as they called themselves on his Neck as well as the Non-swearers and there was nothing in the World they desired so much as to have it thought that whoever took the Oath to their Majesties did ipso facto renounce that Doctrine as Impious and Heretical There were some few that did not take the Oaths till the six Months were almost expired others did not take them till the next six Months were almost out and some few have taken them since as they were able to satisfie themselves Now all these have been affronted to the utmost degree by all the Party and every Man that takes the Oath raiseth a new Clamour so that it is apparent to all the World some Men fear nothing more than that there should be no Non-swearers That is they are afraid that all the Nation should unite in Their Majesties Interest There were some few that took the Oaths before they were satisfied to keep their Places and have since scandalously disputed against the rest as far as they durst and this they took up as another opportunity to defame all the rest And if any Man appeared against them presently he was a swearing Jacobite nay we are made believe all the Church of England Men that have taken the Oaths are in their Hearts Jacobites which is now the scoulding term for the title of Papist in Masquerade is now superanuated and grown out of Fashion The Atheist the Hobbists the Commonwealth-men are all joyned in one cry against the Innocent Doctrine of Non-resistance for very different ends I confess but with equal noise and boldness and Men value themselves very much if they have had the good fortune never to have been tainted with this dangerous Doctrine especially if they were such as have ever lived in the Communion of the Church of England Nay he that was a Trimmer in the times of Charles the Second concerned in the Whig Plot or the Monmouth Invasion the Act of Exclusion or the 41 Rebellion thinks it is a matter of great Reputation or good Qualification to recommend him to the esteem of all sober Men whilst he that was true to the Princes that have Reigned over us durst not once mention his Loyalty upon pain of being thought unworthy of all Trust or Regard Now what is the meaning of all this why all this pains to run down a Doctrine that never did nor can do any harm but when it is abused by ill Men to ill purposes And yet it never did them any service neither that most pretended to use it to our damage Are they afraid our present King or Queen will make use of it to the Ruine of those Liberties they have so lately Established by Act of Parliament No this is certainly none of their fears but these Men have something else in Prospect The Monarchy the Government both in Church and State are not yet in the condition and state they would bring them they well foresee that if Their Majesties should be once settled in the same degree of Power and Majesty with their Predecessors and that be backed by the whole Church of England supported and confirmed by the old Loyal Doctrine and bound upon the Consciences of Men as it was before when ever they shall have occasion to repeat their old Contrivances for the Undermining or Unsettling it here will be a powerful and a numerous Party ready formed to oppose them and therefore now whilst the Crown is ingaged in a Dangerous and Expensive War they are to make use of the opportunity at home to make a strong Party to deal with it so soon as the times will permit them I suppose there is no Man that is in his right Wits but must see that it is Their Majesties Interest that all their Protestant Subjects should Unite as one Man in their Interest and Service This was made the great reason of the Tolerating the Dissenters and this has ever been the Aim and Design of all wise Princes and States and our Enemies have shewn us how much they fear it by their restless endeavours to Divide and Disunite us at home which they seem to depend more upon than upon any Forces they can send against us and the Prospect of this was the thing that finally prevailed upon James the Second to leave the Nation viz. that we might fall into Confusion so that upon the matter all the World has declared that Disunion and Division at home is beneficial to our Enemies and destructive to us Well then if it be so necessary we should Unite upon what terms shall we do it Renounce the Doctrine of