The loyal speech of George Plaxtone, M.A., minister of Sheriff-Hales in Shropshire spoken at Shifnal in the same county upon the proclamation of His Sacred Majesty, King James the Second, &c. Plaxton, George, 1647 or 8-1720. 1685 Approx. 8 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A55017 Wing P2416 ESTC R8312 13732725 ocm 13732725 101609 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A55017) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 101609) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 846:33) The loyal speech of George Plaxtone, M.A., minister of Sheriff-Hales in Shropshire spoken at Shifnal in the same county upon the proclamation of His Sacred Majesty, King James the Second, &c. Plaxton, George, 1647 or 8-1720. 1 sheet (2 p.) Printed by J. Leake for Richard Grosvenor, bookseller, ... and are to be sold by A. Jones ..., London : 16[85?] Caption title. Imprint from colophon, where the date of publication appears only as "16"; date from Wing. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng James -- II, -- King of England, 1633-1701. Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1660-1688. Great Britain -- Kings and rulers -- Succession. Broadsides -- England -- London -- 17th century 2008-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-05 John Pas Sampled and proofread 2008-05 John Pas Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE LOYAL SPEECH OF GEORGE PLAXTONE , M. A. Minister of Sheriff-Hales in Shropshire ; Spoken at Shifnal , in the same County , upon the Proclamation of his Sacred Majesty , King JAMES the Second , &c. Gentlemen ! YOU have laid the greatest Task upon me , that I ever under-went in all my Days : You have obliged me to speak of the most important Matters of our Nation , and allowed me scarce one Minute for Thought or Premeditation : But may that Almighty Power , by whom Kings reign , instruct me ! and may an Heart and Soul full of Loyalty , furnish my Tongue with Argument and Elocution ! My Undertaking is great and difficult : Who can speak of Kings , without Awe and Reverence ? Or , Who can be an Orator , when those Two contrary Passions of Grief and Joy , at once struggle in his Breast ? I cannot look back to the Peaceful Days of Charles the Second ; I cannot remember the lasting Happinesses of his Reign , but I must drop a Tear upon his Hearse : Nor can I look forwards , towards the present Glories of James the Second , but I am overwhelm'd with Joy , and a Loyal Transport seizes me . We have lost One of the Best of Princes , which ever sway'd these British Scepters , Charles the Gracious ; a Prince , who was the Care of Heaven , the Darling of his Subjects ; whose Life was a Miracle , and his whole Reign one continued Blessing : Mercy and Justice were the Supporters of his Throne ; and Peace and Good Wishes the Legacy he has left us . I cannot relate the last Words of that Incomparable Prince , without a Sigh ; I dare not name them , without Tears for our general Loss : Thus he remembred us in his dying Words , if such a Prince may be said to die : Brother ! I am now going to resign up my Self to God , and my Crown and Government to You ; Grant me these few Requests . I. In all Your Vndertakings , set the Fear of God before Your Eyes , and let that direct you . II. Remember to maintain the Church of England , as now by Law Established . III. Govern Your Subjects with Mercy , Ease and Peace . IV. Be good to my Queen , and Children . This was the Royal Legacy which he left us ; a Legacy , truly becoming such a Prince as Charles the Second . But this is not all , though a great deal more than we deserved , the greatest Blessing is still behind ; He has Jest us his Royal Brother , JAMES the Second , to Succeed him in his Throne , and Vertues : This must wipe away all our Griefs , this must make our Joys Perfect , and Crown our Lives with a lasting Happiness . The Sun is set with us ; but no Night follows : Charles the Gracious , is only exchang'd for JAMES the Just : And though our King be dead , yet the Monarch lives . We are blest again with a Gracious Prince ; A Prince , whose Vertues need no Panegyrick ; and to Praise him according to his most Excellent Greatness , is above the feeble Power of Oratory and Eloquence . What Vertues can we wish for in a Prince , which our present Soveraign brings not to his Throne ? What Joyes are wanting to make us Happy , which he will not bestow ? Would we have our Religion secured ? We have the Laws on our side , and the Royal Word of a King for 't : The King has declared , That he will maintain our Religion , as now by Law Established ; and do what in him lies , to make the Church of England flourish . Gentlemen ! Where the Word of a King is , there is Power : And what the King hath declared , he will make good ; for no Prince is juster to his Word , than he is . Would we have our Rights and Liberties preserved ? We have a Prince of the greatest Justice upon Earth . Whil'st he was a Subject , he was the most Faithful Friend , and the Best of Masters to his Servants ; and , I hope , a good Master will never make an ill King. But more ; We have his Royal Promise , That he will walk in the Steps of his dearest Brother . Would we have the Glories of our Kingdom maintain'd ; would we see the Old English Bravery once again Flourish ! We have now the most Victorious and Warlike Prince in Christendom ; a King , who dares attempt any thing , but an ill Act ; a King , who has been a Souldier almost from his Cradle . I need not tell you , how he signalized his Valour under the Protestant Mareschal Turenne in France : I need not speak of his Magnanimity under Don Juan of Austria , against the French King then in League with the English Rebels : I need not remember you of the Extraordinary Hazards of his Royal Person , in the Dutch Engagements , fighting for the Rights and Honour of our Nation , and exposing himself in a Shower of Fire and Bullets ; Bullets , which distinguish not the greatest Prince from the meanest Souldier . Gentlemen ! He was then the Joy and Treasure of our Nation ; and our Representatives in Parliament , did not only gratefully acknowledge his Services ; but did almost Loyally chide him , for hazarding his Royal Person in War , in whom all our Hopes and Expectations were center'd . He is still the same JAMES the Just , the Valiant , and the Brave ; though we ( I wish I were not to name it , for the Honour of my Nation ) ingratefully revolted from him . Away then with all Phanatick Fears and Jealousies ! Can the Grand-Child of James the Peaceful , can the Son of Charles the Martyr , can the Brother of Charles the Gracious , can the Victorious and Just James Duke of York and Albany prove an ill King ? It cannot be . Can he , who has been an Obedient Subject for Fifty two Years together ; can the justest Master , and the firmest Friend , and the most Faithful Brother , prove an ill King ? It cannot be ; and God forbid , that any one should think it . Gentlemen ! Let us remember our Duties , and endeavour all we can to be Loyal ; and then we need not doubt , but God will bless us with a Merciful and a Gracious King. Our Submission to his Rule , our Content and Chearful Obedience under his Government , will return to us in Showers of Mercy , Kindness and Justice . Good Subjects do generally make good Kings ; and if our King should prove otherwise , it will be our own Faults . What shall I say more ? Charles the Gracious still lives in JAMES the Just . We have only chang'd the Name , not alter'd the Sovereign . Away then with those odious Names of Whigg and Tory ; let 'em be forgotten and buried : Let us remember , that we are Christians , and English-Men ; the former will teach us Loyalty and Allegiance to our King ; Love , Unity , and Good Wishes towards one another : the latter will engage us to maintain the Glories and Peace of our Church and Nation ; and to preserve the Best of Kings , and the Happiest of Governments . Let us all , with one Heart and Mind , Bless God for these Mercies ; and say , God save King JAMES the Second . LONDON , Printed by J. Leake , for Richard Grosvenor , Bookseller in Wolverhampton , and are to be sold by A. Jones , at the Flying-Horse in Fleet-street , 16