Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A60885
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A vindication of the proceedings of the late Parliament of England An. Dom. 1689, being the first in the reign of their present Majesties King William and Queen Mary.
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Somers, John Somers, Baron, 1651-1716.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S4645; ESTC R12268
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17,920
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34
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will take all imaginable measures to prevent their own ruine and that of their Religion always dearer to them if they have any Piety at all than their very lives but these very measures how just soever must needs breed stirs in a Nation to the general disturbance of the Natives since the Politick Body no more than the Natural can be a moment in a quiet temper without a free and friendly intercourse and communication between the Head and the Members Secondly If a Popish Prince is obliged in Conscience as I elsewhere intimated he is neither to stand to his Promise nor Word given to protect Hereticks and Heresie how can he sincerely promise to maintain and defend our Church or rather how can we be so silly as to believe he will maintain it since it is not in his Power to do it in case he finds himself in a posture to undertake its ruine But Thirdly to be somewhat more particular the safety of this Nation was inconsistent with the Government of the late King James upon a particular account that I shall here mention XXIV Of all the different Persecutions of the Church of God none can be compared to the late Persecution of France both for its Cruelty and Novelty The Roman Emperors I confess exercised all imaginable Barbarities upon the Bodies of the Primitive Christians but never attempted or pretended any right over their Souls and Consciences they banished them tortured them invented all sorts of Death to destroy them but the art of Dragooning Men into Religion was reserved to be the contrivance of Lewis the Fourteenth though he was engaged by the most solemn Edicts of Nants and Nime and by his Coronation Oath to protect and defend the French Protestants with all their Rights and Privileges Had he declared he would suffer no longer the Hugonots in his Kingdom and ordered them upon that account to depart out of it if they could not change their Religion we had not complained so much of his severity how Anti-Christian soever but not to suffer his Subjects to leave him nor to live with him without turning to his Principle and that not by Argument but by all the Wounds the Dragooning Swoord could inflict that of Death only which in this case was the least excepted is such an example of Cruelty as is not to be parallell'd by the greatest Fury of the Roman Persecutions and which without doubt contributed not a little to our late happy Revolution by determing the English through an absolute necessity to do what they did for their own safety for had they not reason to look to themselves considering the proceedings of the French King contrary to all his Oaths and Promises to maintain defend and protect the Hugonots they could not but know that the late King James was more devoted to the interest of the Church of Rome than Lewis the Fourteenth himself so that they could not in prudence but take the measures they have so successfully taken for their own preservation and that of the Protestant Interest in general In one Word nothing could be more terrible to the English who are so much in love with Liberty and Property than to see themselves threatned to be Dragoon'd out of both by the help of such a powerfull Allie as Lewis the Fourteenth The late Parliament then considering the great progress King James had made in a very short time towards the bringing in of the French Method of converting People to Popery and what impressions such a Precedent as that of France might make upon a Prince that needed no spur to the promoting of his own Religion thought it fit and absolutely necessary for the safety of the Protestant Religion and the Peace of this Kingdom to exclude for ever from the Imperial Throne of England all Popish Princes whereby not England only is secured from such Troubles as always ensue upon any jealousie between the King and the People from different Principles of Religion but likewise all the Protestant Princes abroad are incouraged to stand their ground against Popish Invaders since they may be sure of seasonable succours upon occasion from the Protestant Princes of this powerfull Monarchy Though what has been hitherto said does sufficiently justifie all the proceedings of the King and late Parliament to the satisfaction of all such as are but impartial Men and not disaffected to the present Government yet because some Men seem discontented at two things not done by the late Parliament and which they think ought not to have been omitted as being undoubtedly of no small consequence for the publick Concerns and Peace of the Nation it may not be amiss in this place to clear all their scruples upon these two Heads viz Why the late Parliament neither settled the Militia of the Kingdom nor passed the Act of Indempnity though earnestly pressed to it by the King in order to the quieting of Peoples Minds As to what relates to the settling the Militia of the Kingdom it is to be considered that how necessary soever it may seem to be it was neither perhaps possible as then things stood nor expedient to settle it by reason of the uncertain and unknown disposition of most Men's Minds at first in all great and sudden Revolutions but more especially in such an extraordinary and unprecedented one as ours was for since our greatest strength consists in our Militia can any Man of Sense think or say 't was either fit or secure in the then posture of our Affairs to deliver up the very Bulwark of the Nation into the Hands of such high Officers as the Lieutenants of the Militia are in England till it was better known if those who were fit for such Places were really Men of such a temper as the present Government might trust to and rely upon For extraordinary Revolutions of State being much of the Nature of great Waters tossed to and fro by boisterous Winds do always require some time before they are settled again in such a calm as may encourage both private Men to follow their former measures and likewise those who sit at the Helm to undertake and prosecute the fittest Methods for securing themselves and the People under their Government from new Dangers and Storms always to be feared after a sudden and unexpected Calm as ours was we were under such a dismal Cloud of imminent and threatning dangers a little before the Heavens cleared up from the Dutch coast that we do wonder at this very Day to see our selves escaped such an unavoidable Shipwreck as we thought our selves then exposed to but it is not enough that we are got on Shore and a terra firma to stand upon unless by looking nearer into the matter we consider seriously with our selves how to maintain our ground and settle what we have done upon a sure foundation for as our late happy Revolution was a real one how odd soever and unlooked for so considering how easily Men change their Resolutions and because
A VINDICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Late Parliament A.D. 1689. A VINDICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Late Parliament OF ENGLAND An. Dom. 1689. Being the First in the Reign of Their present Majesties King William and Queen Mary LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King 's Arms in the Poultrey 1690. A VINDICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Late Parliament OF ENGLAND I. THE Proceedings of the late Parliament were so fair so prudent so necessary and so advantageous to the Nation to the Protestant Interest in general and in particular to the Church of England that all true English-Men must needs acknowledge they owe to the then Representatives of the Nation their Privileges their Liberties their Lives their Religion their present and future security from Popery Slavery and Arbitrary Power had they done nothing else but enacted the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and settling the Succession of the Crown So that it is now and perhaps but now that we may call our selves the Free-born Subjects of England as being fully secured for ever by this Act from the heavy and insupportable Yoke of Arbitrary Power the necessary Consequence of a Power of dispensing or suspending of Laws without consent of Parliament II. Their settling the Crown upon the Head of a Protestant Prince who is the very Centre the chief Prop and Pillar of the Protestant Religion secures all Protestants not only at home but likewise in all other parts of Europe insomuch that it is upon him only we ground all our Hopes of seeing e'er long Lewis XIV called to a just account for all his Unjust Arbitrary and Tyrannical Proceedings against his own Subjects as likewise against his injured and weaker Neighbours III. Their not acting in the least after the example of their Neighbours against Prelacy but rather favouring it by such Acts as fit only Episcopal Men for publick Imployments gives all reasonable satisfaction to the Church of England without any just offence either given to the Dissenters who under the present Government enjoy to their own Hearts desire their long wish'd for Liberty without being liable to the lash of the Law for serving God after their own way Notwithstanding all this so hard yea so impossible a thing it is to content all Parties not a few vent their Malice in every Corner yea and in Print too against the King and Parliament though all their Proceedings hitherto tend so directly to the general good of the Nation that we must either want common Understanding not to see it or prove most ungrateful to our Representatives not to acknowledge such an evident truth as this is with our most thankful returns To proceed with some method in this designed Vindication of the late Parliament I shall first take a summary view of the late condition of our Affairs and secondly give a full answer to whatever is maliciously suggested to the unthinking Multitude yea and in Printed Pamphlets likewise to the seducing of the simple and to the great encouragement of the professed Enemies and Disturbers of the present Government IV. If we consider in what condition we were in the two last years of King James's Reign we may remember we were given up for lost by all our Friends in Europe and did think so to our selves it being then impossible for us to imagine from whence our relief should come A Power of dispensing with and suspending of Laws and the execution of Laws was already so fully established that the very humble petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assum'd Power was Crime enough for the Commitment and Prosecution of divers worthy Prelates The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes was a sort of Inquisition or at least a certain Fore-runner of the new way of converting People by the irresistible Eloquence of arm'd Dragoons The levying Money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by the Parliament was nothing else but a preparatory contrivance to try afterwards a French experiment upon the Gold and Silver of the Nation The horrible and illegal Punishments inflicted by corrupt Judges excessive Fines and Bails and several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be levyed and all the other Injustices Grievances and Irregularities of those days were but previous dispositions to the new modelling of the Nation into a Frame the more easily to be wrought upon by the Romish Priests in case their weak Arguments could not prevail as 't was impossible they should have prevailed in a Nation so well provided and stock'd with solid Learning both against Error and Superstition V. If this was our condition within our selves it was made much worse by the dismal prospect of the threatning French Greatness The French King 's known and close Engagements with the late King James the sudden Growth of his Power both by Sea and by Land seem'd to threaten all his Neighbours with the utmost Desolation unless by laying aside the use of their Reason they acted all like Fools and turned Papists which could not secure them neither from Oppression and Slavery since none are greater Slaves nor so unmercifully oppressed as the French Papists themselves This is but a short and summary view of the publick Calamities and Miseries we lay under till our Deliverer came over to free us from them by the best Methods our Representatives could fall upon for our safety in times to come which are certainly such as give full satisfaction to all good Men and Loyal Subjects that are not still in love with Popery and Slavery both of Body and Soul which always attends it So that the present posture of our Affairs is now such that we have all reason to hope if we can but agree among our selves this Kingdom may become again as 't was of old the terrour of France Europe never bid fairer for a level of the French Monarch he being now surrounded on all sides by those he has made his irreconcileable Enemies by his daily breaches of Oaths by his Oppressions and Invasions contrary to all Treaties made with him either of Peace or Truce VI. We cannot then but highly commend the prudent measures of the last Parliament for supplying his Majesty with necessaries towards a vigorous prosecution of this present War the Nation so long wish'd for in vain the French Interest prevailing too much formerly at the Court of England against the Interest of the Protestant Religion and of the English Nation Such then as complain of some present hardships always unavoidable in time of War and would fain work the People into a belief of a happier condition under another change of Affairs seem not to understand their true Interest for must we expose our selves to a certain ruine to the loss of our Lives and Liberties by not contributing liberally to the maintenance of