Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A47998
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A letter from a gentleman in the city to one in the country concerning the bill for disabling the Duke of York to inherit the imperial crown of this realm
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Gentleman in the city.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L1390; ESTC R14744
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12,544
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26
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A LETTER FROM A Gentleman in the CITY TO One in the COVNTRY Concerning the BILL For Disabling the Duke of York To Inherit the Imperial Crown Of this REALM LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to one in the Country Sir THE Nation being awakened out of that Lethargy which for so many Years had bound up its Senses and deprived it of all feeling and Perception begins at last to discern it's danger and to provide against the ruine and mischiefs which threaten it Accordingly the House of Commons have not only declared nemine contradicente That the Duke of York's being a Papist hath given the greatest countenance to the present Designs and Conspiracies of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion but have brought in a Bill Disabling him to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm Now Sir this being the Affair I design to Write freely to you about I presume in the very entrance to tell you that they could do no less without abandoning themselves and the whole Kingdom to Bondage and Popery And all true English Men as well as Protestants are so fully satisfied of the necessity and Justice of the course which they steer that they not only applaud and commend them in what they have undertaken but are ready to stake their Lives and Fortunes towards the seeing it effected and accomplished Sect. I. Nor in the first place can the Papists themselves Condemn us for taking these due ways and Methods to secure our Religion and preserve our Lives and Properties seeing they are not only agreeable to the Measures but much more modest which they have taken in Forreign Countries to preserve their own Shall it be lawful for the French to endeavour to preclude Henry the 4th from enjoying the Crown of France because he was a Protestant and must it be unjust for the English to debar James Duke of York from attaining the Soveraignty over this Realm that is a Papist Shall the Pope and Church of Rome cherish and justify a Bloody War upon the alone foot of his being of a different Religion from what was received in that Nation And shall not we be allowed to use such legal means as are consistent with and warranted by our Constitution to hinder a Papist from ascending the Regal Throne of this Kingdom Shall it be lawful for those in the Communion of the Papal Church to advise Phillip the 2d of Spain to Murder his Son Charles for speaking only favourably of his Fathers Subjects in the Netherlands who were called Lutherans And shall not we have the liberty humbly to pray and desire our King to desert a Brother who hath Plotted the Ruin of his Majesties Subjects and for no other reason but because they are not Papists And suppose it should be said that these methods were not only unjust but Condemned by some of the very Roman Communion yet the desparity is so great between a Papists arriving at the Government over a Protestant Kingdom and a Protestants being advanced to Reign over a Popish Countrey that it will no ways follow from thence that what the Parliament have undertaken is in the least reprehensible For no Protestant Prince will either enslave his Kingdom or Subjects to a Forreign Jurisdiction nor call his People into question for their Religion provided they be not influenced by the Principles of it to disturb the Government and disquiet the Civil Peace So that Papists instead of receiving prejudice by having a Protestant Prince to rule over them they become possest of many advantages as to safety ease and immunities which their being under a Popish King excludes them from And therefore it is that we find the Papists do no where so fully enjoy the Right and Liberties of mankind as in some Protestant Nations where they have had the Wit and Sobriety not to molest their fellow Subjects or Conspire against the Government under which they live So far as their Religion is found to have an Influence only up-a future Life and meerly to endanger their own happiness they are pitied instead of being Capitally Prosecuted and the worst they are made to suffer is now and then to be rationally accosted by their Neighbours and addressed unto by arguments which may conduce to rectify and instruct their Judgments Whereas through the having a Popish Prince Succeed over a Protestant People they become immediately subjected to the severest Punishments and that upon the alone score of their Christian Profession It is not only lawful for such a Prince to destroy those of his Subjects who disagree from him in Faith and worship but it is an indispensable Duty upon him to do it Nor is he only sure of a Pardon upon the accomplishing so Blessed a work but the merit of the Atchievement entitles him to unspeakable Happiness and a Glorious Crown Sect. 2. And this conducts me to the 2d thing namely that no Papist ever since the Reformation succeeded to Supream Authority over a Protestant Country but he both endeavoured to overthrow the Religion which he found Established and pursued his Subjects with the most outragious Cruelties Nor hath the Loyalty of their People been able to appease or obstruct their indignation but they have been treated as the worst of Criminals because they would not renounce the Faith which they had embrac'd This is so certain and beyond all control as to matter of Fact that there is not one instance upon the whole file of History to the contrary Wheresoever any of the Popish Belief have attained the Soveraignty over a Protestant Nation whether they were Crowned Heads or Princes of a more Inferior Rank they have Universally applyed themselves to Subvert the Protestant Religion which they found legally setled and to destroy those innocent and generous Souls which had the courage to own it And if Sweedland Hungary Bohemia and several Principalities in Germany do not suffice to confirm the truth of this Assertion England can produce Queen Mary in the proof and for the attestation of it And as I challenge any man to assign so much as one opposite Example so it is not to be expressed what Cruelties they have used towards the accomplishing their Design of rooting out Protestancy and re-establishing Popery Not only Laws have been trampled upon but Cities and Kingdoms made swim with Blood in order to the extirpating the Faith of the Gospel and destroying those who profest it And therefore let me say that the portion and Lot which hath befallen other Nations through their folly in admitting persons of a Papal Stamp to Succeed over them should instruct England to prevent and obviate his ascent to the Throne from whom we may justly expect to undergo the same mischiefs Sect. 3. For thirdly no Antecedent Promises made by Popish Princes on their Assumption to Rule over Protestant Countries have been any security to those who relyed on them or any confinement to such as made them The Examples