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A60816
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Some observations upon the tickling querie (viz.) whether the admitting of a popish successor be the best way to preserve the Protestant religion, with other passages touching the history of the succession and other pamphlets / by a gentleman in the countrey to his friend in London.
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Gentleman in the countrey.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S4542; ESTC R17822
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8,836
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10
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Religion hath any influence upon his being admitted Then another Querie may be Whether the admitting a Presbyterian Successor be the best way of preserving the Protestant Religion And so an Independent Anabaptist or Quaking Successor Then I am to Ask What you mean by Protestant Religion whether that Established by Law or some other or all other but that For if we may judge by the Querents we know there is nothing less in their thoughts than being over solicitous to preserve that Religion which they brand with these ridiculous Terms of Torism Tantivism Masqueradism and such like ingenious Titles For which Reasons the Querie might be Whether Popery or Presbytery is the readier way to destroy the Protestant Religion And indeed this is a Querie too hard for me to determine I know the Papists have Will enough but the Presbyter hath constantly had the better of them as having better advantage being a seeming Friend and so less suspected And indeed the Papists despair of doing any great mischief but through their sides and by their assistance And I do extremely wonder that Men of Parts as some of the Faction certainly are should be so gull'd with malicious Zeal against the Religion Established by Law that they are content once more to be the Papists Journey-Men and Tools as they in their Prints confess they were when they would Divert the Odium of the Late Rebellion and Murdering the Late King of Ever-blessed Memory from themselves upon the Papists who they acknowledge insinuated themselves into their Councils to their Armies their Pulpits and what not I was going to say their very Beds So that whilst the innocent Presbyter had no other Ends but advancing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and making the King a Glorious King according to the Covenant The Jesuitical Independents snatched the King out of their hands who was their King by one Title more than any other Party could pretend as having bought him of the Scots and that at a great Rate and some of them knew for what End too and God knows much against their will Cut off his Head while on the other side the more ingenious Villains of the two the Independents own the Fact but tell them they could never have done it had not they held him by the Hair Thus the King was once Murdered and the Religion Destroy'd by the Zeal of the Presbyter under the Conduct of the subtle Jesuit And now we see Since the great Plot against the King and the Church of England hath failed having been so happily and fully Discovered by that never-to-be-forgotten Doctor Oats and the rest of the concurring Evidence the sly Jesuit hath betaken himself to his old slights of Plowing with the zealous Dissenters as the said Doctor Oats so Prophetically Swore and Foretold in his first Discovery assigning the very places and stages on which they were to Act as he said such and such going for Scotland and mingling themselves with the discontented party there who no doubt play'd their parts so well as to stir up some Zealots to Murther the Late Bishop of St. Andrews others to the Late Rebellion there which was so happily Suppressed by the Courage and Conduct of his Grace the Duke of Monmouth But that which is most strange is that it seems that the very Blood which was there drawn from the Rebels hath by some energetick influence infected some of those that drew it who have ever since been suspected at least very much to favour the Party and abett the Principles of those they chastised Mysterious Victory where on one side their Bodies on the other their Minds were interchangeably led Captive Nay more That Victory of the Dukes was so ill resented by that Party here that have a secret compassion for all insuccessful Rebels and probably the Jesuits the Doctor mentioned and these were all of a complexion that some had like to have lost their Interest for pushing that Service farther than was intended they should have done and destroying so many of those daring and precious Souls they might hereafter have occasion to make use of But to return to our Tickling Querie and the little ones in the belly of it though indeed it is the most disingenuous thing in the World to make Queries and lay some stress upon them which they themselves know have no foundation in reason or practice For if it be as clear as the Sun that in such a Kingdom as we are in viz. an Hereditary Kingdom where the Succession hath been continued down for so many Ages saving some interruptions by Usurpers which never lasted long and cost the Nation so dear as was before hinted we are no more concerned in the Qualifications of a Legitimate Successor than we are in the Frosty weather in May or the no Rain in April But if God in his Wisdom shall think fit by sending us a Popish Successor as they call him for to revenge and punish a sinful and peevish Nation or for the Tryal of the Faith and Courage of those that call themselves Protestants what have we to do but receive him as we should do all other Chastisements with all Veneration and Submission and beg of him to give us Grace to make the right use of those Afflictions that is to amend our Lives and be so much the better by how much the Times are the worse As for the Writer of the Character he hath taken indeed a great deal of pains to represent his Popish Successor in all the dismal and frightful appearances that wit or malice could handsomely invent on purpose to scare unwary people out of their wits first and then out of their Loyalty and Allegiance as well towards the Possessor as the Successor for to speak the plain Truth the Arguments as well as the Design is clearly against both at least they know there is no plausible way to prevent the Successor but by using the Possessor so ill that he may be forc'd at last to yield to their importunities and pass such Laws as may either totally Exclude or so modifie and shackle the Successor that it shall not be in his power to do half the harm the Character threatens us with And here naturally falls in a Question Whether a King in possession with the Advice and Consent of his three Estates Assembled in Parliament the Mint and Fountain of all our Laws can Legally do the one or the other that is either Exclude or Modifie And though it be a dangerous thing to question what a King so fortified may or may not do yet we see every day several undertaking and determining the Question on either side and that positively So that we are left in aequilibrio which side to take as our Affections and Interest most incline us And though I will not be positive on either side I shall only put this Querie Whether if it were clear or granted That they could not Exclude whether then they could not Modifie I know that the
Current of Opinions is That all Modifications are ineffectual and delusory nothing but a total Exclusion will serve the Turn Now if they would be ingenuous and would Confess that they are of Opinion That nothing but an Exclusion will serve their Turns I should be a little of their minds for being conscious to themselves how far they have provok'd him they judging by their own Charity conclude themselves unpardonable and therefore for their own Security must endeavour to wheedle the whole Nation into the same degree of Guilt to save them harmless But we hope the Nation is not so mad yet to involve themselves in so great Sin and Danger only to gratifie or secure a few discontented Republican Desperado's Therefore to leave that Question to them of those Principles give me leave to put you a Case that on this subject was urged by one of our Company and he a very honest man too as we take him at least I would willingly be satisfied saith he why the King in Possession with the Advice and Consent aforesaid foreseeing that by a Popish Successor at any time it is more than probable not only the Religion Established but the very Laws and Government will be in danger of suffering such convulsions as may hazard the Ruin and Downfall of Monarchy and Religion both whether saith he they may not make such Laws and Provisions as may in humane probability prevent or alleviate such dismal consequences As for instance without reflecting upon the D. Y. whether he be a Papist or not nor if he were so whether he be the worse as the Character asserts for being one of the most Accomplished Persons in Europe We are only to enquire says he whether if the Religion Established by Law in England be a Religion worth our care and that certainly by all lawful means we may endeavour its Preservation and continuance among us and its consignation to our Costerity And that the Religion in England is so implicated and involved with the Laws and Government that one cannot be invaded but the other must be in danger and if it be necessary to preserve either or both and that it is not consistent with Reason to expect this from a Popish Successor at any time Then whether it be not in the Lawful Power I will not add saith he the Duty and Obligation of the King in Possession with the Advice and Consent aforesaid to make and pass a General Law by Act of Parliament That no Papist whatsoever shall at any time hereafter be capable of Inheriting the Crown with such other circumstances as shall be thought necessary for such an Act. And first saith he here is no wrong done to any man for the D. Y. is not yet convict of being so for if the Modes and Qualifications be lawfully laid then 't is not the Law but you that exclude your self and the Subjects are excused by a Law as great as that which requires them to take the Oath of Allegiance from submitting to such an unqualified Person Now though it is urged by some continues he That in Hereditary Successions no Limitations can be laid by any Power upon Earth to bar the Inheritance being founded by a Law paramount to all humane and positive Laws viz. The Law of God and Nature Yet give me leave says he to ask these Gentlemen whether the Laws of God and Nature have more force here in England than in any other part of the World We know very well that by the Laws they speak of Proximity of Blood is only to be regarded without any other consideration either of Religion Manners Sex or Age even to Ideots and Madmen How then comes it to pass that in France an Hereditary Monarchy of the first Magnitude the Crown is Limited to the Heirs Males for whether the Salique Law be as old as Pharamond as they pretend it is or whether it were only made to serve a Turn to exclude our Edward from his Natural Right to that Crown in Right of his Mother it will not be worth the while to enquire at this time a-day de Facto it is so and hath been to the Exclusion of all Females and their Issue to this very time And though some would seem to justifie the practice with a Dispensation from Heaven because there is such a passage in the Scripture Lilia nec nent nec laborant yet that will scarce pass with any but such as interpret Scripture A la mode de France So in Portugal where they admit of Females to Inherit the Crown yet they are Limited to such as Marry within that Kingdom and this upon pretence of the Law of Lamego a fresh instance of which is now upon the Stage in the Infanta of Portugal who being to Marry with the Duke of Savoy in order to make their Issue capable of Inheriting the Crown of Portugal The States of the Nation were Convened and their Consent required for dispensing with that Law for this time and in that Case And by vertue of that Law the late Duke of Braganza Father to the present King and Prince Regent of Portugal was declared King having Marryed Catherine a younger Daughter yet Marryed within the Kingdom whilst the Issue of Mary though elder Daughter Marryed to the Duke of Parma were Excluded according to that Law of Lamego In Poland though it be yet an Elective Kingdom yet their very Elections are Confin'd and Limited to one that is a Roman Catholick And so in several Parts of Germany their Chief Magistrate must be alternatively a Romanist and a Lutheran Now if all this be well done in these Countries notwithstanding the Divine Natural Right of Succession by proximity of Blood And if every Nation is bound by the highest Law to take care Ne quid detrimenti Respublica capiat And we see other Countries do and have made Laws which they judge most convenient for the good of those respective Countries even to the Limiting the Succession How comes it to pass that we in England are deprived of this Liberty that other Countries take in preserving themselves and their Government entire and unshaken Another Question of this nature and probably as important as the former was urg'd by another Friend viz. In Case the Wisdom of a King in Possession by the Advice and Consent aforesaid should make such a Law to Deprive all Papists from Inheriting the Crown and should Declare That such and such Overt Acts should be a sufficient conviction in Law to affect such Persons of being so and then Entayling the Crown upon the next Protestant Heir in Succession How then should good Subjects behave themselves in such a juncture And several other Queries incident hereunto we had which I shall not trouble you with at this time but intreat you to give us your thoughts of these I have mentioned as freely as we have imparted ours And though these sort of Questions seem a little to confirm or favour the Tickling Querie I mentioned at