Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41261
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Fiat justitia & ruat cœlum, or, Somewhat offer'd in defence of the imperial crown of England and its successor in answer to a speech pretended to be spoken in the honourable House of Commons, upon the reading the bill against the D. / by a true Englishman.
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True Englishman.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing F845; ESTC R35675
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8,199
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6
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World your Proselytes Now to perform this mighty task thus I begin First I grant that there is a great evil that will ensue upon it but not half so great as the good that may come by it and therefore as long as 't is no otherwise it will be allowed by the whole Nation and they 'll easily forget a trifling ill of taking the Sight of a private Prince from him or so when they see it is a so far greater good that is consequent thereupon And that it is so is very plain for we shall secure our Estates and that by onely taking away the Duke's i.e. killing him for to take away his Estate according to this Gentleman is to kill him and worse admitting that he is an English-man But it may be this Demonstrator fancies him no English-man since he went into Flanders but that he has alter'd his Nature with his Religion Truly that would be an excellent Demonstration if he could make it But I find he is a very young Demonstrator for if you observe his Demonstration goes off in a bare opinion and does not at all compel our assent But if he cannot demonstrate so well yet he can put Cases like Littleton Thus if the King be a Lunatick in an Elective Monarchy and cannot do the Kingdom any good the Subjects may choose another as in the case of Portugal therefore by parity of reason if a King's Heir be so mad as o be of any Perswasion different from the People in an Hereditary Government as in England the People may choose another Heir to serve the Kingdom for that is the main reason why he must be turn'd out to wit because he cannot serve the Nation A Very fine expression for one that speaks for the King and like a Lawyer too Now as to the point of Law it seems very strange that it should be Rebellion to rise up against the King and yet no offence to dis-inherit him It was indeed Enacted in the 13th of the Queen That whosoever should affirm that the Laws and Statutes did not bind the Right of the Crown and the Descent Limitation Inheritance or Governance thereof should be guilty of High Treason and not onely of a Praemunire as this Rhetorical Lawyer in his merciful Ignorance lessens the guilt But the Act is expired and no other since made that I hear of if there were I know of no man that would be so sottishly mad as to offend against it for it is not the question now whether the King and Parliament can politically but whether they can Morally do what this Gentleman proposes without any violence to Justice and Religion The 35th of H. 8. limits the Crown to Edward Mary Elizabeth and their Lawful Heirs because they were of Inheritable Blood and for lack of such Issue that then the King H. 8. might dispose of it by Will or Letters Patents for the avoiding I humbly conceive of strife that might arise among those that should afterwards pretend any Right but it was never designed by him or any other that a Lawful Heir should be excluded from succeeding nor is there any reason in it let who will go about to demonstrate opine or say it That Heathen I am sure would have made a better Christian as he was a better Lawyer than our Orator who more agreeably to the intent of all Laws said Fiat justitia ruat Coelum A SPEECH in the House of COMMONS Upon Reading the Bill against the D. WE have now the weightiest matter under our Consideration that ever came before us therefore we ought with the highest Zeal to speak our minds boldly for the King and Kingdom for as the matter is of no less importance than to secure our Religion to Posterity so much the rather should we apply our selves to manifest that we will not be discouraged by any séeming opposition whatsoever But as the Lord Chancellor lately told us This is the Time so I must repeat it That it is indeed the Time that is to say the Moment which if we should suffer to slip from us it may never be in our power to regain and then our Children may be bound to Curse us for I must tell you That it will be utterly impossible ever to secure the Protestant Religion under a Popish Successor unless you do totally disable him to inherit these Protestant Countries and the Tyranny of the Sée of Rome will infallibly steal upon us For to think to restrain a King under the power of a Penal Law thereby to secure Religion is no more than to bind Sampson with Cords who as soon as 't is said The Philistins are upon thee will break them all in pieces and carry the Gates away with him and leave you open to the invasion of the Enemy nothing therefore can be able to secure us but to clip his Locks For if the Papists do at this time design to subbert our Religion under a Protestant Prince how much more will they design against us under a Popish Successor What will not the Priests and Iesuits undertake to procure our Destruction when they shall have the favour of the Prince and are secured that the Laws and Statutes made against them shall not be put in Execution for 't is Coleman's Maxim That if the Popish Religion stood upon an equal foot with the Protestant the Popish Religion would get the better as they would manage it and then our Estates could never be secure no nor our very Lives and Protestants would be discouraged and hardly dare to speak their minds and Massacres may be as frequent and as great here as they were formerly at Paris So that 't is clear we can never restrain him The Lord Chancellor in his Spéech tells you That when His Majesty shall happen to dye we shall have a convenient time to settle Religion and the Nation Let me ask you Must we act with the Successor or without him if we act with him he will never consent to any thing we shall do against him if without him we act as a Commonwealth and that he will never suffer but perhaps will send his Guards and turn us out of Doors and what will become of us then One Reason laid down to us likewise is That it is impossible for a Successor to raise Money but by Consent of Parliament that point may be easily answered by us There are many small Burroughs and Towns who choose us where there are but few Voices how easie is it to purchase those Votes by Money if he should lay out Ten or Twenty thousand pound for the purchase they would soon give it him again and then the whole Nation will be ruin'd without Redemption The Spéech of the Lord Chancellor is only a Fig-leaf to cover our Nakedness or rather Leaf-Gold to flatter us or like a Mother who having a froward Child and upon necessity must do something to pacifie it she gives it any thing she hath but lets it kéep it no longer than she pleases Now I have shewn you the necessity of this Bill let us next consider that the good which will come by it is far greater than the evil that can ensue upon it which I will thus demonstrate If we give way to a Popish Successor we give away Religion and have Popish Tyranny for a recompence And then consequently our Estates will be taken away and for an English man to lose his Estate is worse than to lose his Life since he must continue in perpetual Bondage and be worse than a Captive slave and shall be Priest-ridden every day therefore in my opinion it is far better for us to resolve to maintain our Religion and to secure our selves by opposing any violence that shall be offered to us from abroad than to be in danger of having our Throats cut every moment by those that shall be amongst us Now let us consider whether this may be effected by Law or out of necessity I will put the Case That if a Prince be born to a Kingdom who is either Lunatick or otherwise disabled to do the Kingdom any good shall not the Subjects in this Case procéed to choose another who may preserve the Kingdom when otherwise i◠must of necessity perish as lately in the Case of Portugal they chose another to succéed because of the disability of the former And shall not we then disable the Duke who cannot possibly do the Nation any service his Principles being so contrary and destructive to the Laws Statutes and Constitutions of this Government as nothing but ruine can ensue thereby Now as to the Point of Law I must say that as for a private person to rise against his Prince is Rebellion so on the contrary when there is an Act of Parliament to disable him and that upon such good grounds and reasons as we have heard read against him this day we shall be justified by all the World in opposing his Claim and we have had Presidents of this kind heretofore And it was enacted in Quéen Elizabeths time That those who durst any way dispute that the King and Parliament could not appoint a Successor should be guilty of a Praemunire FINIS
Fiat Justitia Ruat Coelum Or Somewhat offer'd in Desence of the Imperial Crown of England And its SUCCESSOR In Answer to a SPEECH pretended to be spoken in the Honourable House of Commons upon Reading the BILL against the D. By a true Englishman IT is not long ago since a mighty Orator Lawyer Logician and what not most strenuously undertook for weighty Considerations to overthrow all Law and Logick and by tacking of inconsequent words as he us'd to do Bills together to shew the World how zealously and boldly he could speak No sence This same Sir Formal Trifle who in his Exordium very gravely tells his Auditory there is a necessity of speaking their minds in a Grand Affair that concerns the King and Kingdom would fain make them believe that he is a going to say somewhat for the King as he expresses it and so to prove himself an extraordinary Loyalist makes a Speech for the King in opposition to the Royal Will He knows very well the King has often declar'd That he would never do any thing that might hinder the Succession to the Crown in the right Line yet still he must try his faculty in Rhetorick and say somewhat for the King Now either this kind Gentleman imagines he can be a greater Friend to the King than the King to himself or else his Wit and Eloquence have spoil'd his Memory in the Law for there he may find the King is no Minor but that he has always years enough to speak for himself But 't is no matter what he means let it be what it will he must needs be a good States-man that utters himself like a Spout for the King and Kingdom especially in a business of such importance as the securing of Religion And indeed this Theologico-Political Orator of ours takes the true way to secure Religion for he will not let any body enjoy so much as his Birth-right if it be possible that such a thing may be dangerous to Religion Now truly here we may take occasion to consider in this weighty Matter what manner of Religion this good Gentleman would secure Is it the Creed of Knipperdolling truly I am not certain he does not mean so Is it the truly modern Institutions of Genevesian John it may be so either for ought I know but that it is not the Protestant Religion of the Church of England I dare boldly and with the highest zeal affirm I cannot tell what he supposes or what the Spirit within him dictates but if his Policy have not o'recome his Religion he must confess that neither the avow'd Doctrine of this Church nor any just and rational Interpretation of Scripture can induce him to think that Religion is to be secur'd by perverting the universal principle of all Nations and acting contrary to the express Word of God But indeed so zealous is this passionate Advocate for his Religion i. e. his Estate for so he afterwards explains himself that to secure his own Right he will not be discouraged by the seeming opposition of any that another has no though his own King's Successor whose Orator he has lately made himself My Lord Chancellor he tells us lately told them that This was the Time and he very wisely thinks that he may make use of this Saying upon all occurrences like Teage in the Committee so he has but a Letter he cares not who it 's written to And then besides that he presumes to be as good a Politician as my Lord how arrogantly the World may judge and to apply those words which his Lordship maturely brought forth to the crude Notions of his own raw Brains he goes on and comments upon what my Lord said and makes his Lordship's Time long enough for deliberation and profound Thoughts to shrink and dwindle into an inconsiderable inconsiderate Moment But truly a Moment is of a duration sufficient to speak all his Reason in and if divisible would lie at least one half upon our hands ready to be imploy'd in any other kind of Jargon And now he has found the Critical Minute of action he as judiciously advises not to let it slip but with a dispatch as quick as Thought immediately resolve upon his Counsel For if you do not you are under a great hazard that your Children may curse you nay be bound to curse you that 's more A strange obligation this upon Children that they should be bound to curse their Forefathers for doing Justice even to an Heathen For surely this Gentleman's Children especially if they are not truly his may easily come to know that Right and Wrong were never restrain'd to this or that sort of men but common and diffus'd to all Mankind No they 'l certainly consider that there 's no reason they should curse their Fathers for not making a Law to dis-inherit an Heir for it will be naturally suggested to them that it might have been their own case Oh! but the great good that follows upon this however unnatural Injury is no less than the securing of Religion So then we may do ill that good may come on 't I protest but that this Gentleman is a Member of the Honourable House I should have taken him for a Jesuit that had onely disguis'd himself under a pretence for Protestant Religion For I appeal to the whole House if this be not a Jesuitical practice to cut off a King or which is worse dethrone him and yet more barbarously let him live meerly because he is an Heretick to their Principles He that relies upon such Maximes makes it utterly impossible ever to establish any much less the Protestant Religion I admire what wonders this worthy Patriot thinks the D. can do when he comes to the Crown can he make Laws or alter the Constitution of the Government without the consent of a Parliament He does not think so I am sure Why then certainly he must believe the whole Nation is inclined to Popery or otherwise he could never imagine a Popish Successor to be so formidable a Gyant as he makes him But let him live where he will in the City or Countrey I don't doubt but he hears arguments enough to perswade any reasonable Creature that 't is a difficulty to bring Popery into England next to that of translating Rome to London Can he think that the King 's being a Papist will be a just reason why the People must be so too when so many and the same Laws continue in force against that kind of men If we for fear of the Tyranny of the See of Rome stealing upon us would take way the Kings Succession what kind of Elective Monarchy would this be that for so many Ages has ran down in a continu'd stream of Inheritable Blood without any interruption At that rate when ever the Speech-makers in the House of Commons could make the rest fear any remote possibility of danger from the King's Successors perswasion be it what it would be the Crown must be straight-way