Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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B01385
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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.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3275A; ESTC R224289
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11,692
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18
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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 Thâft 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of a King of one of these Branches in Fact dispens'd with by his Successor of the other Branch till they came to be Repealed in Parliament Were the Oathes of Fidelity and Obedience made to the Line Interrupted required to be taken by all Judges Justices Sheriffs and other Officers Commissionated by the other Line which succeeded until they were Repealed in Parliament In the various changes of the National Religion between the Reigns of King Henry the the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth were all Penalties imposed by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 Vaughââ ãâã pag. 353 Now I would gladly hear whââ cause my pretended Brother Bapââ has to Quarrel at his present Majeâââ gracious Dispensing with Laws inâââing Temporal Penalties for Ecclesiatical Matters and rendring then useâ less for the present in that respeââ only till they can be Repealed Parliament And wherein the exceed of this Dispensing Power has exceââed what has been in Fact done by ãâã Royal Predecessors and admitted may be lawfully done by our greatest Lawyers But to proceed Shall your New Charter have a Peââty inserted to be inflicted on the Infringeâ or Breakers of it or no If not Wââ will your New Charter signifie Nââ three skips of a Lowse And if it ãâã a Penalty Cannot any King by his Prerogative and Authority Royal Dispence ãâã the Penalty And what will it signâââ then This pretended Baptist's Resolution of the first of these Questions is ãâã Weak as it is Idle and both that anâ the others may receive a satisfactory Answer Such a New Charta as is desired iâ no Penalty be annex'd may be very significant in many respects 1 ãâã may be materially good and obligââ to Obedience by its innate Vertue oââ pain of Condemnation by the Divinââ Law and in that respect of greater signification and much more desirable then such Laws as are materially ââd and cannot be obeyed without Breaââ of a Law of God. 2 This Neââââââter may without annexing any ââlties Repeal all those Penalties ãâã which Persons are compelled to âârm Acts of Divine Worship ââary to their Understanding ãâã and a Good Conscience and put ãâã of the Power of any Dispensaââââo revive those Laws or to imââ Penalties of the like kind 3 ãâã a New Law may without any Peââs by its simple Declarations put ââe to that which is now unreaâly made the ground of all our âests and confirm to us all those ãâã by which our Liberties and âârties are preserved ãâã presuming it may also have Peââ inserted to be inflicted on the ââgers or Breakers of it These ââe so qualified as not to be Disââ with if under the colour âââf evil minded Men do not pracââon the Soveraign Power For ãâã a case if the Soveraign Power ãâã Dispence with the Penalty of a ãâã Laws it may be divested of such ãâã as are necessary for its own Preââon but in any ordinary case if âârson or Body Corporate receive ââlar Damage by the breach of New Law He or They may if the ââtors please be Intitled to a ââlar Action by the same Law and recover Damages against the Breakers of it ãâã Rep. ãâã 342. at the Kings Suit by ââent or Presentment or by a ãâã Action with which the King ãâã Dispence ãâã Instance you give to put us âf Doubt in Mr Langhornes ãâã 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 ãâã have Consider'd but I cannot tell âther you suppose all Dissenters are ãâã Brethren or that all are your ââhren who dissent from you If first It seems probable to me you have been either Educated in âange Soyl or have forgotten ãâã Brothers Dialect so that I canââ discern that you are any otherââ a Baptist then only in Masquerade therefore am shy of owning the ââtion But if all that dissent ãâã you must therefore be reckon'd ãâã Brethren then I am in that ââber and because I think Mr Penn not have so much leisure as my at present to attend upon your ââes 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 ãâã stablished by Law and provides ãâã such a Christian Liberty as may sâ Ease and Secure the Consciences Pââsons and Properties of all that ãâã Live Soberly Righteously and God in this present Age whether they ãâã Conformists or Non-conformists ãâã the National Religion And a Gâââ remains valid tho a Penalty may ãâã dispensed with But what if the New Law ãâã have no more Validity or Secâââ then these Old Ones that are Dâââsed with The Dissenters will ãâã be in so much a better Case by a New Law as that they will then be Seâââ by Law whereas till that be done ãâã are always subject to be Ruin'd ãâã colour of Law. But why are you Querulous at the Dispensing Poââ in this particular case wherein it Exercised The King declares his Opinion That Conscience ought not ãâã constrained nor People forced in mâââ of meer Religion This Principle the ground of his Dispensation Hââ you not lately observed Tâât dââ Gentlemen who being in Commâââ would not Execute these âârâ Lâââ and were therefore for a sâasââ ãâã aside are now returned again ãâã their former Stations with Râââon and the Love of their âââbours Have you not Reââ the Apââlogy for the Church of England ãâã relation to the Spirit of Persââââ for which she is accused How ãâã former Errors are extâââed by ãâã stances pag. 4. That âho tââ ãâã Parliament of the Church of ãâã did not perform what ãâ¦ã mised by some Leading Mâââ ââters in procuring them a Bill of yet there was little or nothing against them for about Nine ãâã but they had their Meetings alââ as publickly as regularly as the âââh of England had their Churches ââou not remember a Vote of the ãâã of Commons in 1680. whereby it Resolved That the Prosecution of ââstant Dissenters upon the Penal ãâã was at that time Grievous to the âââct ââall the Justices that did not Exeâââ these Laws gain Esteem by it the Church of England excuse her from the charge of Severity by not Executing these Laws for ãâã Years together Shall the Comâââ in Parliament Vote the Execution ââem a Grievance And may not King extend his Compassion toââds 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 ââghly Disingenuous and discovers âââry froward and perverse Dispoâân But let us consider your next ãâã of Questions Have we or can we have any higher ââer here in England then King ââds and Commons in Parliament Asââled The Laws that are now Dispenâââ with and rendred useless were they made by that Power Can your New âârter be made by any higher or other ââer Do you think there is any Tempoââ Spiritual Power here in England aâââ the Dispensing Power And can you ãâã it appear to us To these Questiâââ 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