Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	repeal_v	4,000	5	12.1621	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B01385	An answer by an Anabaptist to the three considerations proposed to Mr. William Penn, by a pretended Baptists, concerning a magna charta for liberty of conscience.		1688 (1688)	Wing A3275A; ESTC R224289	11,692	18

their Nature so invariable That as our Lawyers tell us Acts of Parliament made against them are void in themselves And if this Opinion be true these Fundamental Maximes of Law whether in Spirituals or Temporals tho they may be for a season by a particular Act of Parliament interrupted they are not thereby vacated but still retained and will at one time or other again discover their Vigor Acts not contradictory to these Fundamental Laws may be useful for a season but not having that innate Stability as Fundamental Maximes have may afterwards become useless improper and grievous to be put in Execution hence those common distinctions between Malum in se malum prohibitum And subsequent thereto in many cases a power or no power of Dispensing That which is unlawful in it self to be done as Murther Th●ft Trespass and the like cannot be made lawful by any Law or Dispensation whatsoever That which is lawful in it self but becomes unlawful because prohibited by a particular Statute may be Dispensed with so as no particular Person be Damnified by that Dispensation and not otherwise Among the many Vicissitudes of Succession to the Crown between the two Houses of York and Lancaster Do you think there were no Laws in being made in the Raign of a King of one of these Branches in Fact dispens'd with by his Successor of the other Branch till they came to be Repealed in Parliament Were the Oathes of Fidelity and Obedience made to the Line Interrupted required to be taken by all Judges Justices Sheriffs and other Officers Commissionated by the other Line which succeeded until they were Repealed in Parliament In the various changes of the National Religion between the Reigns of King Henry the the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth were all Penalties imposed by Laws respecting Religion exacted without any Relax or Suspension till those Laws were Abrogated in Parliament In the first Year of King Henry the Fourth a whole Parliament held in the Twenty first of Richard the Second was Repealed In one of which Laws then made divers Pains of Treason were ordained whereby as the Act of Repeal says No Man did know how he ought to behave himself to Do Speak or Say for doubt of such Pain and if that Law had been Religiously observed till the moment of its Repeal It could never have been repealed In the Second Year of Richard the Third a Statute made in the First of the said King was Dispensed with by Proclamation Vaugh●● 〈◊〉 pag. 353 Now I would gladly hear wh●● cause my pretended Brother Bap●● has to Quarrel at his present Maje●●● gracious Dispensing with Laws in●●●ing Temporal Penalties for Ecclesiatical Matters and rendring then use● less for the present in that respe●● only till they can be Repealed Parliament And wherein the exceed of this Dispensing Power has exce●●ed what has been in Fact done by 〈◊〉 Royal Predecessors and admitted may be lawfully done by our greatest Lawyers But to proceed Shall your New Charter have a Pe●●ty inserted to be inflicted on the Infringe● or Breakers of it or no If not W●● will your New Charter signifie N●● three skips of a Lowse And if it 〈◊〉 a Penalty Cannot any King by his Prerogative and Authority Royal Dispence 〈◊〉 the Penalty And what will it sign●●● then This pretended Baptist's Resolution of the first of these Questions is 〈◊〉 Weak as it is Idle and both that an● the others may receive a satisfactory Answer Such a New Charta as is desired i● no Penalty be annex'd may be very significant in many respects 1 〈◊〉 may be materially good and oblig●● to Obedience by its innate Vertue o●● pain of Condemnation by the Divin●● Law and in that respect of greater signification and much more desirable then such Laws as are materially ●●d and cannot be obeyed without Brea●● of a Law of God. 2 This Ne●●●●●●ter may without annexing any ●●lties Repeal all those Penalties 〈◊〉 which Persons are compelled to ●●rm Acts of Divine Worship ●●ary to their Understanding 〈◊〉 and a Good Conscience and put 〈◊〉 of the Power of any Dispensa●●●●o revive those Laws or to im●● Penalties of the like kind 3 〈◊〉 a New Law may without any Pe●●s by its simple Declarations put ●●e to that which is now unrea●ly made the ground of all our ●ests and confirm to us all those 〈◊〉 by which our Liberties and ●●rties are preserved 〈◊〉 presuming it may also have Pe●● inserted to be inflicted on the ●●gers or Breakers of it These ●●e so qualified as not to be Dis●● with if under the colour ●●●f evil minded Men do not prac●●on the Soveraign Power For 〈◊〉 a case if the Soveraign Power 〈◊〉 Dispence with the Penalty of a 〈◊〉 Laws it may be divested of such 〈◊〉 as are necessary for its own Pre●●on but in any ordinary case if ●●rson or Body Corporate receive ●●lar Damage by the breach of New Law He or They may if the ●●tors please be Intitled to a ●●lar Action by the same Law and recover Damages against the Breakers of it 〈◊〉 Rep. 〈◊〉 342. at the Kings Suit by ●●ent or Presentment or by a 〈◊〉 Action with which the King 〈◊〉 Dispence 〈◊〉 Instance you give to put us ●f Doubt in Mr Langhornes 〈◊〉 touching the Kings Right in Dispensing with Penal Laws I shall not Repeat but only observe That the Opinion you cite however you may do it in scorn carries such an Evidence in it for a Dispensing Power not in ordinary Cases as that Author has well observed but upon extraordinary Occasions when the King in his Wisdom shall find it necessary as calls for more Cunning then I yet perceive in you to raise any material Objection against it Qu. Now where is the assurance then of Mr Penn's New Charter Ans Our Assurance will lie not only in the Authority of the Legislators equal to any other Law but also in the Authority of the Matter which will command an Assent in every Mans Conscience assoon as he reads it Not to do that to another which he would not have done to himself Our Assurance will be in our Love and Affection One towards Another as Neighbours concern'd to promote the common Interest of the Realm In the Watchfulness of all Parties against any one particular Faction if any such should rise up and attempt to in thrall the Consciences of all the rest in our thankful and dutiful Behaviour towards our Soveraign for breaking off those intolerable Yoaks we could not bear and setting us upon such a lasting Foundation both for our Civil and Religious Liberties as with a discreet Care and Managemant of them may remain firm to Perpetuity Qu. But who can tell what King we may have after our present Soveraign whether so mercifull or so just Or what SheriffS the next King may chose and what Returns of Parliament Men they may make For you know the Forfeiture on the Sheriffs making a false Return is no great matter

An Answer BY AN ANABAPTIST TO THE Three Considerations Proposed to Mr William Penn By a pretended BAPTIST CONCERNING A MAGNA CHARTA FOR Liberty of Conscience Allowed to be Published this 10th Day of September 1688. LONDON Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Three Keys in Nags-Head-Court in Grace-Church-Street over-against the Conduit 1688. An Answer BY AN ANABAPTIST TO THE Three Considerations c. YOU desire All your Dissenting Brethren to Consider and then Answer 〈◊〉 have Consider'd but I cannot tell ●ther you suppose all Dissenters are 〈◊〉 Brethren or that all are your ●●hren who dissent from you If first It seems probable to me you have been either Educated in ●ange Soyl or have forgotten 〈◊〉 Brothers Dialect so that I can●● discern that you are any other●● a Baptist then only in Masquerade therefore am shy of owning the ●●tion But if all that dissent 〈◊〉 you must therefore be reckon'd 〈◊〉 Brethren then I am in that ●●ber and because I think Mr Penn not have so much leisure as my at present to attend upon your ●●es I intend to be in the first Rank your Respondents I consider also that though you have proposed but Three Considerations yet you have bolted out a Mulitude of Questions which administer an occasion for as many more to be retorted To your first Question Then What Validity or Security can any pretended or designed future New Law or Charter have when we see so many of the present Laws we already have may be and are by the Dispensing Power Dispensed with So many of the present Laws The Grievance then with you may lie rather in the Number than in the Dispensing Power His Majesty might with your leave perhaps have dispensed with some Persons and some Penalties too but not with so many altogether One would think by that you would not have Quarrel'd at the Dispensing Fower tho the Act for levying Twelve Pence a Week had never been Prosecuted so as the Twenty Pound a Month had been Levied nor if the Conventicle Act had been Dispensed with so as the Thirty fifth of Queen Elizabeth had been rigorously Executed I cannot tell how many but all the Laws that are Dispensed with are Penal Laws of a like nature for matters Ecclesiastical Uniformity Sacraments Oaths and Tests are the Subject of them all If this be your Grief you must be either a Conforming Baptist or such a strange sort of a Baptist as in my Forty Years Conversation among them I have never met with But to come more close to your Question What Validity can a New Law have seeing so many of these we have already are Dispensed with I Answer with a like Interrogation I grant that the King may do what his Royal Pleasure is with his own Does it thereupon follow that He may do so likewise with what is mine If I acckowledge and thankfully accept His Dispensing with a Penalty to which I am Obnoxious because I take a Liberty in matters of meer Religion which I am not allowed by Statute Laws Is it of necessry consequence that I therein acknowledge He may also impose a Fine upon me for lawfully using a Liberty when granted to me by Law It s hoped the designed New Charter for Repeal of such Penal Laws as are inconsistant with the Doctrines of Christianity will according to His Majesties Declaration both maintain the National Religion as it is now 〈◊〉 stablished by Law and provides 〈◊〉 such a Christian Liberty as may s● Ease and Secure the Consciences P●●sons and Properties of all that 〈◊〉 Live Soberly Righteously and God in this present Age whether they 〈◊〉 Conformists or Non-conformists 〈◊〉 the National Religion And a G●●● remains valid tho a Penalty may 〈◊〉 dispensed with But what if the New Law 〈◊〉 have no more Validity or Sec●●● then these Old Ones that are D●●●sed with The Dissenters will 〈◊〉 be in so much a better Case by a New Law as that they will then be Se●●● by Law whereas till that be done 〈◊〉 are always subject to be Ruin'd 〈◊〉 colour of Law. But why are you Querulous at the Dispensing Po●● in this particular case wherein it Exercised The King declares his Opinion That Conscience ought not 〈◊〉 constrained nor People forced in m●●● of meer Religion This Principle the ground of his Dispensation H●● you not lately observed T●●t d●● Gentlemen who being in Comm●●● would not Execute these ●●r● L●●● and were therefore for a s●as●● 〈◊〉 aside are now returned again 〈◊〉 their former Stations with R●●●on and the Love of their ●●●bours Have you not Re●● the Ap●●logy for the Church of England 〈◊〉 relation to the Spirit of Pers●●●● for which she is accused How 〈◊〉 former Errors are ext●●●ed by 〈◊〉 stances pag. 4. That ●ho t●● 〈◊〉 Parliament of the Church of 〈◊〉 did not perform what 〈…〉 mised by some Leading M●●● ●●ters in procuring them a Bill of yet there was little or nothing against them for about Nine 〈◊〉 but they had their Meetings al●● as publickly as regularly as the ●●●h of England had their Churches ●●ou not remember a Vote of the 〈◊〉 of Commons in 1680. whereby it Resolved That the Prosecution of ●●stant Dissenters upon the Penal 〈◊〉 was at that time Grievous to the ●●●ct ●●all the Justices that did not Exe●●● these Laws gain Esteem by it the Church of England excuse her from the charge of Severity by not Executing these Laws for 〈◊〉 Years together Shall the Com●●● in Parliament Vote the Execution ●●em a Grievance And may not King extend his Compassion to●●ds his Dissenting Subjects and say shall not be Executed To make a signal Act of Grace the ground groundless Jealousie and cause Contention to say no worse of it ●●ghly Disingenuous and discovers ●●●ry froward and perverse Dispo●●n But let us consider your next 〈◊〉 of Questions Have we or can we have any higher ●●er here in England then King ●●ds and Commons in Parliament As●●led The Laws that are now Dispen●●● with and rendred useless were they made by that Power Can your New ●●rter be made by any higher or other ●●er Do you think there is any Tempo●● Spiritual Power here in England a●●● the Dispensing Power And can you 〈◊〉 it appear to us To these Questi●●● you desire Mr Penn would let his Brethren and you know his Mind honestly In his stead I Answer We have no Law Makers but King Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled but yet we are in England as well as in other parts of the World under a Law to God and thereby each Man is obliged to preserve within his own Breast the Answer of a good Conscience from which no Law of King Lords and Commons can absolve him and hence it is that we have many Fundamental Maximes of Law grounded upon the Law of God and common Reason of Mankind as well respecting the Soveraigns Prerogative as the Right of the Subject not written in Acts of Parliament but in