Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A47913
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A reply to the second part of The character of a popish successor by Roger L'Estrange.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing L1298; ESTC R7146
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29,660
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38
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that Design and his whole Book has no other aim but to make All our Dangers of Popery and a Popish Successor and all the whole Plot against the King Religion and Government to use his own Phrase P. 69. but a Painted Lion upon a Wall and the Opposers of those Dangers a reall Bed of Vipers Is L'Estrange then so great a Friend to the Fanaticks that he Acquits the Papâ—sts in making them Both Criminals alike Or how will it hang together that under the Notion only of Two sorts of Iesuits and Both equally Dangerous the One shall be but a Painted Lyon and the Other a Reall Bed of Vipers Now over and above this Contradiction imply'd how many Impious Impudent False and Non-sensicall Fellows should I have been if I had dealt but half so disingenuously with the Character-maker as he has done with me Take notice first how he has Impos'd upon me in misapplying the Citation for my Words are these P. 69. It were no Ill Embleme of the Original of our Late Troubles to fancy a man in a fright and Leaping from a Painted Lyon upon a Wâ—ll into a Bed of Vipers From hence does he infer my disbelief of the Plot and pronounces upon me as one that makes it his bâ—siness to turn All the Dangers of Popery and a Popish Succâ—ssor into a meer mockery when yet my Reply upon his first Charâ—cter speaks the clear contrary So far am I from undertaking to dispute the danger of a Popish Successor that I 'le compound the matter with him before-hand and take all his suppositions of Difficulâ—ies and Hazzâ—rds for Granted And then again in the same Page I am as much against the Principles and Practises of the Church of Rome wherein the Church of England hath departed from that Comâ—uniâ—n as any man living that keeps himself within the compass of Christian Charity Humanity and Good Manners and so far I shall heartily joyn with the Compilâ—r of the Character by a Previous Concession of the Inconveniences as I have said already that may arrive by reason of that Religion Is this fair dealing or no But you shall see now how he Rivets it You must allow him says he this Great Fundamental that all the Sticklers against Popery and a Popish Successor are Fanaticks and that all Fanaticks hate both the King and Kingly Government and are Tooth and Nail downright Republicans Vpon this Basis his wholâ— Fabrick stands Ibid. The Authour has put a thing in my Head now I should not â—ave thought of and truly I could find in my heart to give him his asking For I would Distinguish betwixt the Litigious Humour of Stickling against Popery as the Fanaticks do and the Modest Iudicious way of opposing it after the manner of the Church of England a Stickler in this case being only a Waspish kind of Common Barreter in Religion But however he must be a Stickler against the Communion of the English Church as well as against that of the Church of Rome to be a Fanatick in my opinion In which case his Zeal on the One hand does not at all Excuse his Schism on the Other And to Gratifie him yet further in his other Point let him name what sort of Dissenters he pleases and let me try if I cannot shew him Anti-Monarchical Principles and Positions Destructive both of Church and State in the Avow'd Writings of the most Eminent of the Party When he has Handy-dandy'd the Character and L'Estrange Just as Puncinello plays his Puppets and given which of them the better on 't he pleases he sets up a Great Fundamental for me and runs away with it for a matter of a Page and a half calling Heaven and Earth to give Evidence to the truth of a Plot which no Mortal denyes and winds up at last in the Definition of a Fanatick of these Times He that values the Safety of himself and his Posterity he that thinks he has an Estate and Liberty worth Preserving a Country worth Saving a Religion worth defending and indeed a God worth Serving it a FANATICK Pref. P. 3. I shall Appeal to the World now which is the True Fanatick His or Mine He that places the safety of Himself and his Posterity in breaking the Laws both of God and man He that makes his Liberty a Cloak for Maliciousness He that Cryes Give the King no Money when his Country is ready to be Swallow'd up and Triumphs in his Majestys Greatest Wants Char. Part. 1. Pa. 11. when his Glory nay his NEAREST SAFETY Calls for Assistance He that Contends for Schism to the Overthrow of Religion and calls Murthering of Kings and Subverting of Governments doing God good service He is a Fanatick He Proceeds in his Preface to the Invalidating of my Parallel betwixt Forty One and Eighty and upon my saying that the very Sound of Popery did the business against the Last King as well without a Ground as with it What 's all this says he but to tell us because a Bugbear Frighted us once therefore a Real Fiend must not Fright us now Because a Judas once Kiss'd and Betray'd and a Joab Embrac'd and stabb'd therefore no man must ever Kiss and Embrace without a Treacherous and Murtherous Intention And what 's all this say I but to tell us on the Other side that though the Bugbear of Forty One prov'd a Reall Friend to us we are yet to take the same Fiend again in Eighty One for a Bugbear And so for Iudas and Ioab If the Same Iudas kisses again and with the Same Words in his Mouth too why may we not suspect the Same Intentions And likewise if the Same Ioab Embraces again and the Old Ponyard be found about him still the Deposing Maxims of Forty One which is the very Case Have we not Reason then to believe that he has Murder in his Heart And Hear him once again now Because a Knot of Achitophels once Pretended Grievances where none was to accomplish their own Wicked Purposes therefore no Subject shall or may Petition or Vote though in a Legall Parliamentary way for the Redress of the Greatest Grievance in Nature and that in the Plainest and most Imminent Exigence of a Nation c. Pref. Pag. 3. My Answer must be still the same that the very same Achitophells Pretending the very same Grievances and Proceeding by the very same Metâ—ods have probably the very same Wicked Designs and Purposes And now to that which follows Bear me Wittness Good People that I meddle with neither Votes nor Petitions but only with Seditious Libells that carry the name of Petitions as who should say Take notice my Countrymen the King is wholly carry'd away by Iesuitical Councills May it Please your Majesty to Call a Parliament His Majesty will never suffer this Plot to be search'd to the Bottom A Speedy Parliament we Beseech ye Sir The King Employs none but Popish and Disaffected Officers Let us have a Parliament we Beseech your Majesty to sit till
facto dissolv'd in this very Position Those Laws that have made us the Envy of the Christian world and the Glory and Bulwark of the Reformation And again if the People may be Judges in This Case they may upon the same pretense be Judges in any Other and as well exterminate a Prince for any other Reason as for his Religion 'T is but for Mr. Deputy to tell the People that the King himself is not fit to Govern and what has his Majesty to expect but to march after his Brother Grant but this Point that the Multitude who are in effect Hands without Heads shall over-rule the Laws where are we then but in a state of Horrour and Confusion and Effectually in the Possession of One Hell upon Earth as the Earnest of Another without any Religion at all and every ones Knife at the throat of his Brother But am I a Subject to the Kings Religion or his Title Or where shall I find the Rules and Bounds of my Civil Duty In the Law Or in the Character The Law makes my Allegeance Absolute the Character makes it Conditional The Law binds me to be True to his Majesty his Lawfull Heirs and Successors without any regard to This or That Religion the Character discharges me in case any of them should happen to be Papists Magno Iudice se quisque tuetur King Lords and Commons are of One Opinion and Mr. Deputy of Another The Law obliges me upon pain of Life and Estate and the Gospel upon pain of Damnation But then comes the Author of the Character with the Serpents Dispensation in his Mouth and supersedes all Hath God sayd ye shall not eat of every Tree of the Garden And the Woman said unto the Serpent We may eat of the Fruit of the Trees of the Garden but of the Tree which is in the midst of the Garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye Touch it least ye Dy. And the Serpent sayd unto the Woman ye shall not surely Dy for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof Then Your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evill Gen. 3. There 's no great Disproportion either in the Appetite or Temptation There 's the Voice of God in both cases on the One hand and the Voice of the Serpent on the Other I cannot find he says by this Text By Me Kings reign c. But that By Me Subjects possess their Lawfull Inheritance might Claim the same Right P. 32. The Question is not the Kings Dispossessing Subjects of their Lawfull Inheritance but the Subjects Disspossessing a Prince of his Lawfull Birthright And by his Argument Popish Subjects may be Dispossess'd as well as a Popish Successor and Phanatical Subjects too as well as Popish If a point of Occasional or Preventional Prudence shall over-rule a Positive Law And according to his Descant By me Kings are DEPOSED that a House of Commons may Reign is as good Divinity as By me King REIGN though the One is a matter of Divine Institution for the Comfort of mankind in General and the other only a Divine permission for the Punishment of some Particular Princes or People And see now how Extravagant an Instance he has brought in for his support Nor can I perceive says he Ibid. that there lyes so much Stresse in Gods giving the Government of the Earth Man and Beast unto whom it seemed meet unto him as to Nebuchadnezzer in the Text but that a MENE MENE TEKEL VPHARZIN written by the Almighties own hand against his Impious Heir the Sacrilegious Idolatrous Belshazzar was as much the word of God and had as much Divine Institution in it as By me Kings reign His Application here is not only Rude and Impertinent to the Highest Degree but the Argument flyes directly in the face of him unless he can shew such another Hand-writing upon the Wall against his R. Highness as is here produc'd against Balshazzar Beside that the Intervening of an Almighty Power in the Case does as good as tell us that the Disinheriting of Princes is a priviledge Reserved by God Peculiarly to Himself He proceeds P 33. to Invalidate as he pretends the Chief Argument of all my Discourse and the Fundamental Design of my whole Pamphlet viz. The Un-alterable Right of Succession And advances Confounding Extraordinary with Common Cases Now so far am I from laying the Stress of my Discourse upon that Text that I have Industriously Declin'd the Question as the last Article to be handled in this Controversy And then he spoils the Cause with the very eagerness of defending it by drawing Conclusions from God's Unaccountable Actings upon Immediate Revelation or Direction to the Practices of men that are under certain Common and Indispensable Rules and Methods of Obedience and Government So Timely a Care says he p. 34. did the Great Founder of Empires the Divine Omnipotence take to shew that the Dispensations of Majesty for his Peoples good and his own Glory were to be preferr'd before the Soveraignty of Birth that Blinder Gift of Chance This does only prove that God Reserves to himself a Freedom of Dispensing with his own Laws but not the least shaddow of any such Power Delegated to the People to Dispense with Gods Laws and let any man Consider whether is the more Competent Provision for the Glory of God and the Good of his People that men should be Ty'd up though with some Inconvenience under God's Appointment to the Orders of Government where the Publick Peace is preserv'd and the Harmony of Humane Society maintain'd or to leave the Multitude the Judges of those matters which only belong to the Supreme Magistrate and at liberty to change Governments and Governours as often as they please which must Inevitably run into Consequences of Bloud and Confusion And if this be not the thing he would be at what 's the meaning of his recommending the Precedent of the Late King of Portugal to the English as a Practicable Example Have we not had says he Ibid. a Late King of Portugal Depofed as Delirious and Frantick and Consequently renderd by Law Vncapable of Reigning and All this done by HIS OWN SUBJECTS and those of HIS OWN Religion without the least Reflection of Treason or Rebellion or the Aspersion of lifting a hand against the Lords Anointed As who should say what a stir is here made about the Duke of York As if it were such a matter to Exclude a Popish Successor I 'le shew ye a way to get quit of the King himself though a Protestant and in the Legal Exercise of his Authority But then you 'l say there must be Delirium or Frenzy in the case Just so much as was found in the Late King will be enough to do the Business Do but possess the People once that the King is a Papist and that single Charge of Popery Includes all Inabilityes For says our Author Ibid. There must go