Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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A81730
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Draught of an Act for Toleration with a few short remarks thereupon
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1695
(1695)
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Wing D2141B; ESTC N7570
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4,581
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4
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Draught of an ACT FOR TOLERATION WITH A few short REMARKS thereupon THe Queen's Majesty taking to Her serious Consideration That a great and considerable part of Her Subjects in this Her ancient Kingdom have been Baptised and Educated in the Communion of the Episcopal Church and are of the Episcopal Principles and Perswasion and averse from the joining with the Presbyterian Government according to the present Establishment and the Exercise of it And Her Majesty being desireous to give just and due Ease to all Her Subjects doth therefore with the Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament Statute Enact and ordain that from henceforth it shall be Lawful for all Her Majesty's Subjects of the Episcopal Perswasion to hold Meetings for Divine Worship with and to hear God's Word and receive the Holy Sacraments from Ministers of the Episcopal Perswasion in all Towns and Parishes of this Kingdom without any Lett or Impediment whatsomever As also That it shall be lawful for such Parishes as are now or hereafter shall be vacant where in the plurality of the Heretors Liferenters and Tenents having standing Tacks are of the Episcopal Perswasion to call Episcopal Ministers for to Preach the Gospel to Administer the Sacraments and to Exercise Church-discipline in their respective Parishes and Stations to which they shall be called As also to have full Right and Title to their respective Manses and Gliebs and to the legally settled Stipends Maintenances and Benefices appointed and settled by Law upon such Ministers as serve in the said Parishes according to Law and Custom certifying all such as presume to Interrupt or Disturb such Ministers either in Meeting-houses or Parish Churches in the exercise of their Function that they shall be punished conform to the good and wholesome Laws made by Her Majesty's Religious Predecessors for the Protection of the Ministers of the Gospel and appoints all Her Majesty's Judges to decern accordingly And in case any such Episcopal Ministers shall be found to Preach any Seditious Doctrines tending to Disloyalty or to the Disturbance of the publick Peace and Government or contrary to the Protestant Religion that they shall only be convented before the Privy Council or such as shall be appointed by them and punished according to the demerit of their Crime and Offences And it is hereby Statute Enacted and Ordained That the foresaid Indulgence and Toleration shall have full Force and Effect from the Day and Date of these presents and that notwithstanding of any former Acts of Parliament which from henceforth shall make no Derogation from the Force of this present Indulgence and Toleration Finally It is hereby Enacted and Appointed That the Lords of Privy Council and Lords of Session Sheriffs and all others Her Majesty's Judges shall interpret this present Act of Indulgence and Toleration in the most Benign and Favourable Sense in behalf of the said Indulged Ministers and see it put to vigorous Execution in all points REMARKS upon the foregoing Draught THis being the Second Embrio or Specimen handed about by the Promoters of the Toleration-Project we may take it as the Result of their Riper Thoughts and be allowed briefly to consider it 1. Among the many Arguments given against any Toleration to Prelatical Dissenters in our present Circumstances this is one never yet Answered That as it is the Civil Interest of every Nation to have but one established National Church-Government Disciplin and Worship so also that every Person within the Nation should conform themselves thereto And that never yet did any Wise People grant a legal Toleration to Dissenters where the Dissent was not sounded either upon doubtful and scrupled Terms of Communion or upon the Hardships of external Force But neither of these can be alledged in the present Case and therefore all Toleration must tend to cherish a Pernicious Party and soment a Wicked Design of overturning the present Quiet and Happy Establishment 2. This Toleration being only for Episcopalians doth most directly set them up in competition with and in some respects preserably to Presbytry to try their skill and strength in overthrowing the legal Church 3. The Ministers Indulg'd or Tolerated are by this Draught to give no Evidence either of their Loyalty or Orthodoxy so that their Principles both contrary to the Confession of Faith and against Her Majesty's Succession and Government as declared by the Meeting of Estates are reserved and secured and they are at liberty tho' not â—o Preach yet to Traffique and Practise for the Pretender at St. Germains according to their known Inclinations By the Former Draught they were to swear the Allegiance and to sign the Consession contained in the Test and enacted in the Reign of K. Ja. 6. Which Condition tho' derogatory to the Act of Parliament 1690 ratifying the Westminster Consession and in so far a Retrograde step to the Rudiments of our Reformation and consequently backwards to Popery yet it was better than nothing at all But it seems tho' some have Latitude enough for Swearing and Signing in subserviency to Designs of greater Service yet it is found upon after-Thoughts that even that Consession is of too hard Digestion to others as containing some Principles of Liberty and against Arbitrary Courses and such like Tenets as are not for their purpose 4. This Draught founds the Dissent from Communion upon being Baptised and Educated in the Communion of the Episcopal Church That their Education hinders not their peaceable joining with the National Worship is plain from the Experience of several Years since the Revolution till within these few Moneths that some have been practised inro a contrary Byass And it is no less plain that their Educators the Ministers can never have the Brow to pretend the least Pinch or Qualm of Conscience in this Matter Since their own Addresses to King William and to his High Commissioner the Earl of Tullibardine as likewise those to the General Assembly 1692 upon the Formula sent from Court are standing Witnesses against them But that their being Baptised in the Episcopal Communion should be mentioned as a Ground of their Dissent is altogether surprizing As if the Episcopal Baptism were not that one Baptism of the Catholick Church which the Presbyterians hold their Baptism to be For whatever Grounds Presbyterians give for separating from Prelatical Communion yet they never gave their Baptism for one But it seems by this Scheme that the Episcopal People are taught to reckon themselves Baptised unto Prelacy and not unto Christ And unto what then are their Children Baptised since the Revolution Or unto what were the Conformists of the late times Baptised before Prelacy came in This is an Insinuation of the last Disgrace among Protestants and only fit for the Dragoon-Conversions of France where it a Popish Surgeon or Midwife Baptised a Child that Child was ever after to be held as a Roman Catholick 5. What makes any of the People of this Nation averse from joining with Presbyterian Government and
Worship but either 1. Downright Threatning and Violence us'd by some Masters unto those over whom they have Influence and Power of which there are divers Instances Or 2. That Mens Vices are galled by Presbyterian Discipline and their Libertine and Popish Designs obstructed And 3. That they have of late got great Encouragement to expect a Change We challenge the Wit of our Adversaries to assign any other Reason of this pretended Aversion which was not heard of nor known among any of the People till of late some have taken vast pains viis modis to procure it The Nation was in Peace and Quiet and well dispos'd to comply with the Establishment till some who delight in Contention threw their Fire balls and told People that they should be gratified in their unreasonable Demands and now that they have rais'd the Flame they must have Oyl instead of Water to quench it 6. The Draught sets forth That the Design is To give just and due Ease to all the Subjects That is indeed flat Licentiousness without controle For this is an Ease which no Body needs and the granting whereof by a Law wou'd prove the greatest Disquiet and Disâ—ease to Her Majesty's best Subjects For 1. It conâ—ains a Toleration in every Parish without exception contrary to the Laws against Intruding into planted Congregations and which in many places as appears already by the Example of the Tumults in Gâ—asgow can never be attempted without Blood and the most fatal Discontents and Disorders 2. It contains a Comprehension which carries both the Overturning of the Laws of our Settlement and most horrid Confusion in the bosom of it the Nullifying of Disciplin the Impunity of Immoral Practices the Exercise both of Erastianism and Independency a restoring of Prelatical Jurisdiction and Power and a transmitting at best of incurable Schism to Posterity Beside a most grievous Hardship upon such as Own and Adhere to the National Worship where in any Parish they happen to be the lesser or weaker part For it were hard enough that they should be obliged out of their own Purses to Maintain a Presbyterian Minister or else to want the Ordinances of the Gospel yet even for this there is no Provision of Toleration made by this Draught for them 3. It opens a Door to pâ—â—secure Presbyterians for insisting upon their legal Priviledges and testifying the least Dis-satisfaction with the Intrusions of Prelatisâ—s for they must be punished according to the good and wholesom Laws made by Her Majesty's Religious Predecessors viz Charles 2. and James 7. for the Protection of the Ministers of the Gospel By which Title these whom the Country call Curats are plainly understood So that this is evidently to Revive the Caroline and Jacobite Persecution against Presbyterians upon every pretext that may be interpreted an Interruption or Disturbance of the Prelatists tho' acting never so much against Law And indeed Prelacy can never be Tolerated far less Supported in this Land without Blood and a standing Army 4. For Sedition Disloyalty and Heresy they are only to be convented before the Privy Council or such as shall be appointed by them One would think in all Reason that the Council before whom they are to be convented should be very Presbyterian and Orthodox as well as Loyal otherwise there can be no Security from the Tolerated Party nor can the Delinquents be under any Fear or Restraint in appearing before Judges of their own Principles and Perswasion 5. That the Indulgence and Toleration shall have full Force and Effect from the Day and Date of the Act notwithstanding former Acts of Parliament is in effect a dispensing with these Acts for the time past and an Indemnity for the Transgressions already made And this carries in it a plain and short Answer to all the Complaints and Grievances given in to the Council by the General Assembly and their Commission of Encroachments and disorderly Practices already committed contrary to Law of which no Redress is henceforward to be expected 6. The Appointment of Interpreting this Act in the most benign and favourable Sense in behalf of the Ministers indulged and of seeing it put to vigorous Execution is in other Words as Matters are now stared a full abolishing of Presbytry and an establishing of Prelacy by Law These things are so plain and the Legislative at this time we hope entrusted into so honest Hands that as he must be a bold Man who dares present such an Act to a Scots Parliament after the late happy Revolution so let the Tolerators vary their Projest as they will we cannot doubt but that it shall prove abortive To conclude Pamphlets being at present much in fashion it may not perhaps be amiss to subjoin a Citation or two out of one The Interest of England considered Pag. 25. Places must be filled with these who never Qualified themselves by Civil Tests till Honour or Advantage or deeper Designs engag'd them who were against the Abdication of the late King James the Association to support King William and the Abjuration of the pretended Prince of Wales in order to maintain Her Majesty's unquestionable Right to the Throne and the Succession in the Protestant Line Pag. 29. The Whigs have been a firm Rampart to the Liberties of the People against â—ll the Assaults of Arbitrary Power and have so heartily oppos'd the Designs of ill Reigns as to get the Names of Common-Wealths Men But who to shew they were thorow Friends to our Constitution and for defending 〈◊〉 Prerogative vested in a good Prince who they knew would use it to their Advantage and who deseâ—v'd the Marks of their Gratitude have gone so far on the obliging side in the late Reign as to be term'd Countiers in Reproach Pag. 38. The Protestant Interest is attacqu'd by the Devil heading an Army of Libertines and Practical Atheists at Home and a Confederacy of Papists Abroad and when they have dar'd to make such Progress in a time of Action and Business Abroad what Attempts are we not to look for from them when they come to enjoy a Peaceful Leasure for perfecting their Designs Pag. 74. The depriving the Protestants in France of their Offices and Places of Trust which had been confirm'd to them by the Edict of Nantes was one of the first Steps taken to repeal that Edict and extirpat the Reformation Christi inferre Lupos qui vult in ovile voraces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simulans cudere cudit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉