Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A46475
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His Majesties gracious letter to the Parliament of Scotland with the speeches of the Lord High Commissioner and the Lord High Chancellor : together with the Parliaments answer to His Majesties letter.
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England and Wales. Sovereign (1685-1688 : James II); James II, King of England, 1633-1701.; Scotland. Parliament.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing J195; ESTC R30362
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8,450
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10
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Concerns of the Regular Clergy into his special Care and Protection And in order thereunto I am to give the Royal Assent to such Laws and Acts as can be reasonably proposed I am likewise to let you know That His Majesty will concernedly maintain your just Rights and Properties according to the Established Laws of this Kingdom and will not allow of oppressive Arbitrary Proceedings in Souldiers or others And further His Majesty being sensible of the great decay of our Trade has warranted me in His Royal Name to consent to such Laws as can reasonably be proposed for recovery and improvement thereof And my Lords to conclude what I am to say on this Subject His Majesty is so concerned in the Encouragement Welfare and Prosperity of this his Ancient Kingdom as He will not only do what can justly be desired or expected for these ends but even in Business of the Excise and Militia his immediat concerns I am warranted to go the greatest lengths for your ease and conveniency that the nature of these things can bear and His Majesties Service and your own Security will allow And my Lords His Majesty having in all things so evidently discovered his gracious inclinations for the good of this Kingdom and given us the fullest assurances of his Favour and Protection that our hearts can desire what suitable Returns and Acknowledgments can we make to so excellent and imcomparable a Prince who in all things relating to our quiet and prosperity prevents our very desires So if during his Reign which I pray God to make long and glorious we be not the happiest people in the World we have only our selves to blame And now the King having so fully done his part it concerns you in the next place to mind yours And in order thereunto I make no doubt but you will assert the Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown and establish the Revenue as amply upon His Majesty and his Lawful Successors as it was enjoyed by the late King or any of his Royal Predecessors since you cannot in the least doubt but his Royal care for your repose and security will rather exceed than fall short of any of his Ancestors But to use any further Arguments to incite you to what is so much your Duty and Interest were at the same time to question your Loyalty and Zeal for His Majesties Service and your concern for the interest and honour of your Native Country whose Representatives you are so I shall not injure you nor lessen your thanks by saying more upon this Subject My Lords His Majesty certainly expects from the Prudence and Loyalty of this Parliament that effectual ways will be fallen upon for destroying that desperate Phanatical and irreclaimable Party who have brought us to the brink of Ruine and Disgrace and are no more Rebels against the King than Enemies of Mankind Wretches of such Monstrous Principles and Practices as past Ages never heard nor those to come will hardly believe What Indemnities and Acts of Grace and Clemency have they not Contemned And all the use they made of them has still been to harden and confirm them in their execrable Villanies and how inconsiderable soever they appear assure your selves they ought not absolutely to be contemned for if they had not support and correspondence not yet discovered it is not to be supposed they could have so long escaped the care and vigilance of the Government It therefore concerns you both in Honor and Prudence no longer to dally with them but that the utmost severities be most effectually applied and all wayes taken both to find out their Favourers and retired and secret Haunts My Lords I doubt not but all of you sufficiently know that some of our Nation are deeply involved in the late Horrid Conspiracy who and some others for other Treasonable Crimes and Practices are to be proceeded against before this Parliament The Evidence of their Guilt I shall leave to its proper Place and Time and do not doubt but His Majesties Advocate will manage that weighty matter with suitable care and faithfulness So all I shall further say upon this Subject at present is that if Almighty God who watches over the security of Princes had not Miraculously Discovered and disappointed those the most Hellish and Barbarous Designs that were ever contrived in Place of that Peace Happiness and Tranquillity which we now Enjoy these Kingdoms had certainly been at this day a Sea of Blood and in all imaginable Misery and Desolation which being evident beyond denial will certainly provoke your and all good Mens Indignation and Resentment against those who can be reached not only as Advisers and Contrivers of such Villanies but Concealers of them And since our Honour and Security every way seems absolutely bound up in the Life of His Sacred Majesty ought we not most cheerfully to grant what the Exigencies of His mild and gentle Government requires Especially seeing what we give is still bestowed upon our selves and for maintaining us in our just Rights and Possessions against the most cruel and Barbarous Designs of His and our Enemes And now my Lords and Gentlemen in the last place touching my self I shall not say much my unfitness for this Eminent station is possibly more obvious to me than to any of you however since His Majesty has been Graciously pleased to place me in it I am resolved to serve him boldly and firmly and thereby labour to make up my other great defects And as this has still been my Practice in the other great Trusts I have the Honour to carry under His Majesty so I know His Goodness will always accept the sincere endeavors of His Servants in place of greater Performances The Lord High Chancellor's Speech My Lords and Gentlemen AFter what my Lord Commissioner hath so well represented to you it will be very little necessary for me to say much I shall only take the liberty to put you in mind of what I believe you are very sensible already of the many obligations this Nation lies under to be grateful to our great Monarch When by the Command of the late King His Majesty who now Reigns came first hither what Disorders Divisions and Animosities found He amongst us To bring the state of things into your prospect as it was then could not be very grateful to you nor pleasing to me but we all remember with joy how well He left us and by what easie gentle ways He brought about the Establishment of that Unity which we were beginning to despair of Since that time how much we have been in His particular care during the Happy Reign of that Excellent Prince His Brother of ever Blessed and Glorious Memory is known to all the World But of all the instances of His Majesties Care for us his Favour towards us and his good Opinion of us this of His calling us together in the very beginning of his Reign which God grant may be long and prosperous that we