Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A25565
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An answer to Pereat Papa, or, A reply by way of letter from a gentlewoman to a person of quality commending to her consideration a paper entituled Pereat Papa, or, Reasons why popery should not inherit the crown.
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Gentlewoman.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing A3372; ESTC R18359
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7,015
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4
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their Church to gain a Crown with what a Tragical end did they reward him ANS Would not this President give me just cause to believe That the Gentleman was burlesqueing his Cause for who could think a man so ill verst in History should pretend to quote Presidents from it They rejected says he the King of Navarr for Henry the Fourth and why could he not have said They rejected again Henry the Fourth for the King of Navarr and so it had been a noble President to such as did not know that Henry the 4th and the King of Navarr were one and the same Person But why should I concern my self with so impertinent a Paper for indeed all his Presidents are as much to the purpose as the reply to ones demand Why the Devil was generally painted with Horns how says the other did you never read in Scripture that the Devil goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour Therefore not much to combate a Nothing I will only observe the Gentleman strangely forgot one President proper indeed to his Principals and Morals that is the Deposal and Murther of Charles the First on pretence amongst other Falshoods that he favoured Popery This truly as to his design is worth a thousand such as he hath quoted Reas 2. Can it be thought but that he that succeeds in the Crown should not succeed Concurrentibus his qui in jure requiserunt as the Civil Law expresses it That in all the concerns thereof which are the Laws principally those that relate to Religion and not for one man led away with a purblind perverseness renouncing the Religion he knows not why and so wilfully attainting himself to inthrall the Nation in Superstition and Tyranny for regularly in all parts where Popish Lords are in the Church there Tyranny of course rages in the State ANS Can this be thought to look to any reasonable man like Reason for except a scrap of Latine whereby the Gentleman pretends to the Civil Law of which he understands as much as of the Common or History there is not one word to the purpose for what can purblind perverseness or wilfully attainting himself mean more than mallice as the whole Sentence indeed is intended for concluding with a positive falseness since it is well known we owe our thanks for Magna Charta and other Franchises to Popish Princes Reas 3. 'T is a Maxime amongst Lawyers that Lex facit Regem and Maxims must not be denyed if so then to speak out after the true intendment of the Law he that comes not to the Crown satiatim as the Law notifies and prescribes 't is no lawful Succession but down-right usurpation and without scruple it is in the Devoir of every good Christian to withstand an Usurper it being undoubtedly more pleasing to God to put one man by who thus wilfully disables himself and withall most shamefully usurps than expose Millions of Souls to Damnation and the Streets to flow with Blood by suffering that Religion to creep in whose Reformation at the milder rate will certainly prove Fire and Faggot For this very cause Mecha was removed from being Queen by her Son King Asa for making an Idol in a Grove incited thereunto by the Prophet Azariah ANS I will believe it is a Maxime and by it is only meant That by the Law the next of blood is made King for as to his inference 't is malicious Trayterous and Ridiculous setting up in every pretended good Christian a power to depose any Prince he pleases to call an Usurper for his Fire and Faggots they are meerly Wildfire in his own Brains as his Example of King Asa is who only took from his Mother the dignity of a Queen for the Regal Power was before in himself and sure he had reason to suppress in his first Subject so great an Example of Idolatry Reas 4. The succession of the Crown and a common descent much differ for if an Heir that 's a subject prove loose and debauch'd it little damnifies the Publick more deserving persons may haply step into his Possession and be more serviceable to the Publick the dammage is still but private to his own Family But in case of the Crown there is none so senseless but must needs conceive the dammage most fatal because universal the whole Nation must inevitably suffer Religion be subverted and Property destroyed and the whole people in danger of their lives 'T is well known in the private case the Heir is usually thrown off and dis-inherited if an Entail it may be destroyed and the Law justifies it The like in the publick of the Throne the Grand Inquisitors of State and Conservators of the Liberties of England the Parliament may for weighty Causes refuse the Heir presumptive and for the safety of the Nation settle it where they in honour and prudence conceive most proper ANS What shall I say more to all this New-Nothing but that 't is not fit he or I should limit the power of the King in his Parliament but 't is to be supposed that they will know best how to obey new Laws who are not factious against the Old as your Author most impudently appears to be notwithstanding his Golden Rule Reas 5. We read in Scripture which is the Golden Rule we must walk by That Libnah revolted from Jehoram because he had forsaken the God of his Fathers and so we had better forsake man and adhere to God in keeping our Religion than trust to man and lose God to be unavoidably destroyed here and hereafter irrecoverably damned in serving Baal and parting with the Divinity now establisht ANS This might have past as well for a President as a Reason but that he infers from it a necessity to revolt from the worship of Baall for the Divinity establisht which priviledge by my consent no body shall deny him since he has already made a revolt from Common-sense and Humanity by so many vain and Chymerical suppositions as are put together in this and his next Reason Reas 6. When Rehoboam had prepared a huge Army to reduce the Israelites he was forbidden by the Prophet Thus saith the Lord ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren for this is for me mark he calls them Brethren not Rebels Passive Obedience therefore is simple and fit for tame Owls that know no better now God has discover'd the Snare and the Pit of Ruins that the Pope and the Devil has prepar'd for us if we do not timely countermine it by cautionary Laws to suppress those that dig'd it we may in a short space be thrown into it head-long and no one pity us But the Right Line with some shallow pated talkers is a Noli me tangere so sacred forsooth that we must venture Body and Soul in subjecting our selves to all the curses imaginable that Hell it self can inflict on us rather than in the least alter or controul it a very frivolous Caveat and not to
be heeded humane examples as I shewed before have voted against it and the Scripture warrants it Samuel foretold in the Case of Saul that he would be rejected for his disobedience though not his Person degraded or Deposed yet that the Kingdom should both be remov'd from his Line and Tribe which was done accordingly and transferred on David This proves very fully that Heirs or next in Succession are not so immoveably placed but that they may lawfully on just Cause be displaced if not legally Quallified and others put up for Gods glory in their Rooms God raised Jehu to purge Idolatry against the House of Ahab all the Sons of Ahab were beheaded and in a manner his whole Line cut off for his good Service he had a Promise of a special Blessing for his Issue to continue the Throne to the fourth generation several other instances I could give but this may suffice In brief there is no Reformed Church from the first Waldenses of Lyons and Languedock to this very day but have held it lawful ANS Through all the railing and no Reason of this long Reason I will only pick out these Observations First That the Author is no true Son of the Church of England who has always taught her Children Passive Obedience at least for which they are by our mannerly Statists branded with the Titles of Tame Owls and shallow pated Talkers Secondly That he has cast an Aspersion on all the Reformed Churches from the first Waldenses c. to this day for holding his Wild Principles and bloody Examples lawful Thirdly What greater advantage he could have given the Jesuits falsly charged with such Principles to retort them on the Reformers I cannot tell but this am sure if it be true it is a fair Caveat to all Princes not subject to such Doctines to be careful of their spreading in their Dominions for at worst 't is less dangerous to have one Mad Deposer called the Pope at a distance then to have every Town in ones Dominions crouded with such Soveraign Judges whose Sentences may be executed according to this Divinity by every desperate hand Reas 7. 'T is conceited by half-witted States-men that Restrictive Laws may prevent all mischief and secure the Protestants A very vain Opinion and most fallacious for Laws will never bind but more enrage shackle him as you will and load him with ne're so many Laws when King he and his Party will be restless till they have set themselves at liberty and to have the Protestants under when King he is not Impeachable and the posse Regni will then be at his disposal When the Wolf is Shepherd the Flock is very safe indeed and like to be well look't to after all denounceable at will for if his Party now commit such outrages that no Age can parallel what will they do then now no man safe in his Bed then none safe at all they will adventure to murder people covertly and in their houses for they hold it no more sin than to kill a Dog ANS The Gent. might have been more mannerly in his Character if it be considered what States-man has lately in Council or rather to the Parliament declared his Opinion for the Restrictive Laws under a right Succession whose Declaration ought to have made that matter A noli me tangere at least to any private person But he that dare speak evil of Dignities and brand Superiours with the Title of half-witted States-men would had he but half the courage that he has malice commit greater outrages than Fancy can make the others guilty of Reas 8. In fine be sure he and his Party which will daily encrease and the Protestants decline will soon get an opportunity either by Stratagem or open force to avoid all Laws though they are ne're so strong and wary and so impossible to be safe without a Protestant Successor ANS This Prophetical Reason in fine is at best but one Doctors Opinion and I doubt me but a meer Mountebank at the Pulse of a Kingdom of which I will assure you Sir I perceive by his Paper he knows so little that a better Discourse often comes ex tempore from a good Woman at a Gossiping upon the same Subject For the whole 't is an unconnext Rapsody of meer words interlaced with scraps of Latine brought in to as little purpose as his Presidents so that if he be your Acquaintance for Friend he cannot be to so worthy a Person perswade him to keep his Ignorance out of Paper hereafter and his Impudence to treat of Subjects so much above his comprehension will pass off well enough in Coffee-Houses where to rail sufficiently against Popery is policy to the purpose To which Crouds of unthinking Praters I freely bequeath him as I do my self to be for ever Yours SIR SInce my Answer to yours in slight observations on Pereat Papa I find the Author so fond of his folly as to put it in print though with a little alteration I suppose by direction from the Printer for he has chang'd his first President not into better sense nor a jot more to his purpose but into something that shews he has been told by some body that Henry the Fourth of France was the rejected King of Navar but his Historian it seems could not inform him that the Crown was setled on his Head and that he had a long glorious and prosperous Reign till assassinated by a desperate barbarous and irreligious Villain upon a private revenge as was ever believed and has been since confest by Ravillacks Brother on his Death-bed in Germany The Printer too had the manners I suppose against the Authors will to leave out the witty Epithet of tame Owls given to the passive obedience in his sixth Reason other material change there is none and you must pardon this being printed since 'T is pity the World should see the Coxcomb uncorrected and that by the hand of a Woman the provocation whereof I suppose made him appeal to the more Judicious in print and has forced me to do the same with this addition to my first Sentence Bray a Fool in a Mortar and he will not return from his folly