Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A37470
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The Lord Delamere's letter to his tenants at Warrington, in Lancashire, answered by one of his lordship's tenants.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing D879; ESTC R12848
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9,544
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4
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The Lord Delamere's LETTER to his Tenants at Warrington in Lancashire Answered By one of his Lordship's Tenants Haec adeo ex illo mihi jam speranda fuerunt Tempore cum ferro Calestia Corpora demens Appetii Virg. Aeneid I. 11. To my very good Friends and Tenants Letter THE occasion of this is to give you my thoughts on the present juncture which concerns not only you but every Protestant and Free-born Man of England I am confident that wishes well to the Protestant Religion and his Country And I also am perswaded that every Man of you think both in danger and now to lie at stake I also am perswaded that every man of you will rejoyce to see Religion and Property settled if then I am not mistaken in my conjectures concerning you Answer My Lord As I am one of your Tenants so I hope I have not hitherto given your Lordship any just reason to complain that I have neglected my Duty in that capacity And seeing your Lordship is now pleased to treat me as a friend so as to let me know what you are a doing I presume to take a little more than usual freedom but shall be careful to say nothing unworthy of that character i. e. I intend to be very plain and not to flatter nor provoke I confess then that I am a Protestant not only as that signifies at large no Papist but a Member of the Reformed Church of England as established by Law. And that I am a Free-born Man of England as that signifies one born a Subject to the King of England I acknowledge that I wish well to the Protestant Religion and my Country and that I think both at this Time in danger both the Established Religion and the Kingdom of England and that I should rejoyce to see this Relegion and Property settled i. e. so well fixed upon the old Foundation of our Laws that they might if possible be for ever out of danger of being shaken So that one would think your Lordship not mistaken in your conjectures concerning me And when your Lordship asks Let. Can you ever hope for a better occasion to root out Popery and Slavery than by joyning with the Prince of Orange whose Proposals contain and speak the desires of every Man that loves his Religion and Liberty Answ If the P. of O. came only to make Proposals for rooting out of Popery and Slavery and those such as your Lordship says I do own that I should be like enough to join with him therein for I am a hearty lover of my Religion and Liberty would with all my heart put my hand to Proposals or a Petition of that nature if legally managed and in any measure likely to take Effect But because I have not seen those Proposals I must guess at the Methods proposed for the rooting out of Popery c. by your Lordship's Letter And when I there read of Fighting that the Nation is to be deliver'd by Force and you hope this is the time for it If the King prevail if he gets the better on the contrary if we prevail and I am willing to lose my Life in the Cause c. This makes it plain That your Lordship at least would have Popery at this very time rooted out by Force of Arms That when you would have me join with the Prince of O. you would have me fight against the King and you would now have Horses Men and Mony for that purpose But if I should thus Equip my self and one of my Neighbours should ask me By what Authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this Authority What could I say to him Would not every body laugh at me if I thought a Letter of my Lord D 's to me not as his Tenant but as his Friend were a good Commission for me to fight against my King And they must of course if permitted urge your Lordship with the same Questions or however conclude because 't is not to be imagined you should have a Commission from the King to raise Men against himself That you have one from the Prince of O. Now though I do not call in question his Authority in his own Country nor so much condemn the Dutch-men that come with him and fight by his Commission Yet should any of us join with him in a War against our own most rightful King this were never to be justified Certainly this would be as ill a sign that we are true English-men as Disobedience to our Parents that we are Legitimate Though we are English-men and Free-born we are yet Free-born Subjects and being born and bred in the Dominions under the Government of the Kings of England we do from our birth owe Duty and Allegiance to them for which reason Rebellion as being against the Dictates and Obligations of Nature is rightly called Vn-natural and 't will deserve a worse name too as being a violation of our Religion and our Oaths For Has not your Lordship more than once Testified and Declared in your Conscience That the King's Majesty is the only Supream Governor of this Realm and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power and Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil within this Realm Did you not then swear from your heart That you would bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them Defend to the uttermost of your Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever made against His or Their Persons Crown and Dignity Did you not then Declare That no Person whatsoever hath power to absolve you from these Oaths That you made this acknowledgment without Equivocation c. sincerely upon the Faith of a Christian So help you God c. O my Lord will you now be pleased to lay your hand upon your heart and consider whether you can join with the P. of O. against the King without a manifest breach of these Oaths without incurring the guilt of Perjury and forfeiting all the Help and Blessing you might otherwise expect from God Allmighty Will you be pleased to consider Eccles 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the King's Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God and Dr. Patrick's excellent Paraphrase and Annotations thereupon For my part I look upon Equivocations in and Absolutions from Oaths and a belief That a good Intention will justifie evil Actions as Jesuitical Principles and Practices And therefore cannot do what your Lordship now desires me though it were to root out Popery and Slavery because I may not do evil that good may come and of them that do so the Apostle says Rom. 3.8 Their damnation is just And whereas your Lordship says Let. I will invite you to nothing but what I will do my self and I will not desire any of you to go any further than I move my self neither will I put you upon any danger where I will not take my share in it
Ay said he That would be very fine but I had rather a great deal go thither my self And should not I be worse than an Ideot if I should venture my life and Soul too upon the uncertain hopes that when I fall another I know not who shall come into my room Let. The thing then which I desire and your Country does expect from you is this That every Man that has a tolerable Horse or can procure one will meet me on Bowden Downs to morrow where I Rendesvouse but if any of you is render'd unable by reason of Age or any other just excuse then that he will mount a fitter person and put 5 l. in his pocket Those that have not nor cannot procure Horses let them stay at home and assist with their puâ—ser and send it to me with a particular of every Man's contribution Ans My Lord I should as I said before be ready to assist your Lordship upon any good and warrantable occasion with my person and my purse tho' by the bye I assure your Lordship that a Horse and 5 l. will come to a great deal more than the Kings souldiers cost me or than his Majesty has had of me any otherways of some years but I have said enough I hope to have you pardon me in this thing And because your Rendesvouse and March was to be so soon after your Letter came that I had not time to write so long an answer I 'll take care that this be left with a Friend who I hope will send it to your Lordship and have me excus'd Let. I impose upon no Man but let him lay his hand on his heart and consider what he is willing to give to recover his Religion and Liberty and to such I promise and to all that go along with me that if We prevail I will be as industrious to have him recompens'd for his charge and hazard as I will be to seek it for my self Ans Here we have but a bare promise and not one jot of Honour to support it indeed That was wisely enough left out when the thing is so extreamly mean and ungenerous when the personated Hero declares himself a Souldier of Fortune and the famed Patriot becomes a profess'd Self-seeker One would have thought so glorious an expedition for the Deliverance of our Nation for the recovery of Religion and Liberty would have pretended at least to so much of vertue as to be its own reward but to talk of further Recompence and be industrious to seek it is a shrewd intimation that the publick good is to be resolv'd at last into private interest that this undertaking is nothing else but the Carolina-Affair revers'd A conspiracy for the sake of Trade And when a few Interlopers have gotten it into their own hands experience may make us fear what rates they will set The Cry is like to be the same still What will you give for Religion and Liberty And who can tell what will satisfie the Daughters of the Horse Leach to be sure they that buy dear will never sell cheap He that heretofore by this very Artifice took up so much mony and Plate till it came to Thimbles and Bodkins on the credit of the publick Faith did certainly for all that impose upon his customers and is there not as great a hazard when we have but a Single promise whether Let them assist with their purses and send me every Mans contribution when said by a Lord to his Tenants be not a kind of Imposition I leave the Criticks to determine But because you say so gravely Let him lay his hand on his heart and consider Let me mind your Lordship of a Remark of Arch-Bishop Vsher on 1. Sam. 10.26 Power of the Prince c. p. 126. Surely if they who went with their King had their hearts touched by God such as bend their endeavours another way should do well to lay their hand upon their heart and consider with fear and trembling whether they find not there some Touch of that Spirit which worketh in the Children of Disobedience Let. This Advice I give to all that stay behind that when you hear the Papists have commited any Outrage or are Rising That you will get together for t is better to meet your danger than expect it Ans What 's the meaning of the Papists committing any Outrage and others getting together thereupon I dare not say because your Lordship does not but to advise common people thus does look very like bidding them be ready for Riots and Insurrections and that upon any flying story and however false report Let. I have no more to say but that I am willing to lose my life in the Cause if God see good for I never was unwilling to dye for my Religion and Country So I rest your Loving Friend DELAMERE Ans I pray God your Lordship may not die in this cause lest then you perish in the gainsaying of Core for I am fully persuaded The cause tho' it be Old is not good enough to make a Martyr I pray that you may live to repent of your engaging in it and return to your duty to the King and to the Church of England That you may consult and promote the Credit and true interest of the establish'd Religion and your Country I pray God to forgive all our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their hearts And from Battle and Murder and sudden Death from all Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion from all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism from hardness of heart and contempt of thy word and Commandments Good Lord deliver us My Lord if I have any where been more bold than becomes a Tenant I hope the Friend will answer for it and that upon the whole matter I have said nothing unbecoming a Genuine Son of the Church of England and your Lordship's most humble Servant c. Warrington Nov. 20. 1688.