Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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A48026
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A letter from a person of quality, to a principal peer of the realm, now sitting in Parliament occasioned by the present debate upon the penal lawes.
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Person of quality.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing L1426; ESTC R9893
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11,272
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16
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repeal'd by him or any new Decree under his Grace and the Gospel Was there ever any Nation that had a Worship of a Deity and acknowledg'd a God without their Priest By the Wisdome of former Ages we find that Religion and Priesthood were ever taken to be like Hippocrates Twins born and bred laughing and weeping beginning and ending together c. And must this sacred Function now that is acknowledged and reverenced over all the world by our Laws that are unknown to all the World besides be made a peice of Treason here It is no wonder indeed if such new made Treasons as has been afore cited out of Tacitus did presage a fall or diminution of that Power which made them to be so and it is to be conceiv'd that the Auspicious repealing of such will forespeak aswell the growing up of a most flourishing Empire Over and above all this it hâ—s been ever held against the Wisdome and Policy of this Nation to fetter themselves with too many shackles of Treason and therefore as 25. Edw. 3. at the petition of the Subjects the King did declare and determine what should be taken and judged for Treason by the Common Laws of the Realm so 1. Hen. 4. c. 10. it was confirm'd and established that nothing hereafter should be judg'd Treason otherwise than was express'd by that of Edw. 3. and though divers Actions were strain'd up to Treason for a time which indeed were not so nor within the list of the 15. of Edw. 3. as that of Hen. 6. the taking and surprizing of persons and goods in Wales so to stand for the spae of seven yeras only and 8. of H. 6. burning of houses and 22. of Hen. 8. poysoning c. which of their own nature and simply were not Treason and therefore had a limitation of time annexed to them Yet prudently all such former Acts were repealed and made voyd 1. Edw. 6. for a more merciful and indifferent proceeding with Subjects that the Remedy might not prove more dangerous than the Disease And now must an eternal Treason be branded upon the sacred'st of Functions and no less than the most infamous and dismal word invented like a Medusa's face to terrifie poor Christians from their Consciences Faith and Profession Sed satius est pertransire Calamitatem publicam And yet the great and Christian magnmimity that all the noble persons of this perswasion have always express'd especially in these late most calamitous times of fiery tryal indeed is not a little remarkable when no day presented them less then most dismal horrors destructions of themselves wives children and families and on every side most terrible images of death yet they always stood stedfast to and unmovable from their Principles of Religion a very inconsiderable number of them starting aside like a broken bow in lieu of every one of whom too they got into their Church then in the midst of all their miseries more than a thousand so mightily does the barbarous and inhumane persecution of any one party encrease its number Nor was their integrity to God and loyalty to Religion more observable than their fidelity to His Majesty amidst all the artifices as well as menaces of the most subtil and mischievous Tyrants that ever the earth bore And why then should not these most honorable Persons receive some Acts of Grace and favour now and with as much reason as those penalties were exercis'd upon them then in those times or impos'd upon them at first For it is plain that there was nothing but fears and jelousies that were the occasions of their first infliction Queen Elizabeth having been declared by three Popes successively and our own Acts of Parliament to be illegitimate and that great and most incomparable person His Majesties great Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots and Dowager of France standing at that time in competition with her in the eye of the world as the just Heir of the Crown who by the way was entirely a Roman Catholick and so all that party then in England fell into suspicion of an adherence too much to her interest which to avoyd was the grand reason why this persecution of Roman Catholicks here in England was first invented and the suppression of the whole party endevoured by the Cecilian policy of those times and yet we never find that the Roman Catholicks did then or since knit themselves upon any account of disturbance here but on the contrary we know that they have been always ready to assert His Majesties Interest not only against Rebels and Traitors at home though to the support of those Laws as aforesaid which have hitherto prov'd their particular ruin but all enemies whatsoever abroad even against the Pope himself or King of Spain when His Majesty shall so please to command them and so much Loyalty they have been always ready to swear to likewise and still are and that the Pope himself shall never be able to withdraw them from their Allegiance to His sacred Majesty Now seeing that by His Majesties and the Parliaments great care and prudence there is a debate admitted for the regulation of those scandalous Laws and since it is manifestly necessary that as Sails so Laws are to be turn'd and as occasion time circumstance and reason of State shall direct either to be altered or revoked and forasmuch as it is plain that upon worldly respects those Acts have pass'd in former Parliaments to try what operation and cure they would work in the State and if they prove fruitlesse Medicines or as most emperical purgations too violent and fitter to kill then to cure then to be repealed for as they were made for the fears and jealousies of those times so by the grace and mercy of these times when they are both prov'd to have been causelesse they may with honour be cancell'd if His Majesty and the Parliament shall so please to whose gracious consideration I most humbly beseech Your Lordship to offer these few Lines and as Petitions rather then reasons nor so much to arrogate justice as to implore mercy and seeing also that the Case of Q. Eliz. and His Majesty that now is is far different your Lordship would be pleased to Petition His Majesty for these poor trouble Souls and procure a grace for them that was never denyed by any Christian Kings or States to their Subjects for occasions of State and to stop that unnatural issue of blood flowing from those cruel Laws and stay a little those passionate humors and malicious oppositions of such as are adversaries to that Grace and the Lord Almighty who hath raised you to enable you for so great a work Your Lordship and the Parliament cannot but out of your great Wisdomes have observ'd that too severe a persecution makes men desperate non coercet sed provocat Violentia and too heavy a hand upon those whom the Law casts down shews a will rather to oppresse the offender then to cure the offence It is
against those that are so precisely scrupulous Nec hic metuo eorum reprehensionem qui putant non nisi unam Religionem tolerandam Nor fear I at all their displeasure who will think that there ought to be but one Religion tolerated for conscience cannot be compell'd it may be perswaded But that I may not be tedious I shall conclude all my Instances with the fair and flourishing Kingdom of France How often and how mercifully did the French Kings grant their Edicts of Pacification and to what conditions were they contented to descend only to preserve Life and avoid Bloodshed of their people Witnesse the old Articles of Peace granted for the Liberty of conscience La Val. l. 3. fol. 141. Pig l. 6. c. 7. Poploneir l. 18. set down by La Vall and divers others wherein they have a general freedome to preach in all parts of France c. and yet these were Huguenots men of the Consistorian Religion Factious Boutefeus and in truth the very shame of Protestant Religion Yet would the poor Roman Catholicks of England be right glad to participate a share of such Graces as they enjoy there though there is no wise man sure but must think that they deserve them much better They poor Souls with prayers and tears do supplicate daily to His Majesty and the Parliament for such a Liberty Those in France were always striving to wrest it by Force and the bloody violence of a Presbyterian Spirit They again had a Rochel a Montanban or a Montpelier for their refuge these in England had no other retreat but the Gatehouse the Fleet or Newgate For these in England all Princes and States have long interceded and do still They in France had never any other Intercessour but their own Arms for them Now to conclude all seeing the great Turk permitteth Christians to live freely in his Dominions seeing the President and Example of the greatest Princes and States in Europe doth set it forward the poor Roman Catholicks in England hope they shall not far the worse for their patience and obedience which deserveth more Their only ambition is to be accounted good Servants to God and Loyal Subjects to His Majesty and their only humble Suit to His Majesty now is Hanc animam concede mihi tua caetera sunto Give them their Souls great Sir take you the rest Thus far under your Lordships favour I have been bold to proceed in the behalf of the tender Consciences of those who have suffered most in that kind of any Christians in the World but now two Objections seem to obstruct all that has been hitherto spoken in the argument And methinks at this Instant I hear a wellmouth'd Presbyterian to open against the Romish and Spanish Inquisition where only this liberty is denyed and why should they have Liberty themselves who will give none to others To this I shall be bold to obviate that there are but two sorts of good Policy in order to Religion The one is to keep firm and fast to one Religion where there is but one nor ever has been more and with all care to keep out all others be they good or bad this I say in order to the Civil State is a most necessary peice of Policy For nothing embroyles a Kingdome or State sooner than the Diversities of Religions especially if some particular ones be forbidden For the Prohibition of some creates faction in the hearts of the supprest unlesse hindered by very extraordinary grace and faction ever pretends zeal of Spirit which if it become Conqueror shews no mercy if subdued no patience however mutinous and a boutefeu which join'd with the other two called curiosity and singularity are the three furyes that torment the World at this instant that Triceps Cerberus that sets open Hell gates to fill the World with Impostors Seducers and Calumniation Now to Faction and her adherents Sedition is an unseparable Companion which streightways marryes it self to Schism and thereupon it is that all Magistrates and Laws are resisted and that with violence for there is no War so passionate as the War of Conscience The Inquisition therefore is politickly to be commended for keeping strict Watch and Ward yea with fire and Sword to keep out all other Religions from thence where there never was any other then what they still professe The second good Policy in relation to Religion is where by the negligence of Governours or some other unhappiness several Religions have got footing to give an equal liberty to all as at present in the Low Countries France Germany c. Now this equality of liberty takes away all heart-burning which otherwise would burst forth into faction and that into sedition to the publick disturbance So it is plain that it is the prohibition and persecution of some one or two Religions not the persecution of all but one or a universal Toleration of all indifferently that can offend a Kingdome and such a Policy of a general liberty were to be wished here amongst us since we cannot have the other For in very deed it is altogether as impossible to root out any one Religion by a persecution as to put out a fire by blowing of it The next and greatest objection that I must be bold under your Lordships Conduct to encounter looks very big upon me indeed that it is not for their Religion that Priests and their Entertainers die but plain matter of Treason I must here beseech the Objectors to let us know how it comes to pass that it should be Treason to be a Priest or Capital for a Gentleman to entertain such a one in his house to serve the necessities of his Conscience or who made it ever to be so either in this or any other Countrey in the world before the time of Queen Elizabeth Whereby it is apparent that it is not malum in se but quia prohibitum it must be so And then to the amazement of the whole world that Vocation must be made Treason which was only wont here in England to sit in the Chair of Government and by whose Oracles and Decrees the people of this Land were onely wont to be directed both in Chancery Rolls and all Ecclesiastical Courts It would be thought I am confident a very strange thing that any Parliament should make it to be Treason for any man to wear a Barre-gown or to be known to be a Graduate in that Profession Will it not be a more incredible thing to posterity that so wise a Nation as this should run counter to themselves all Law and Reason upon such a suddain as to make that Treason by Act of Parliament which so generally so perpetually and so anciently hath been honour'd and approved by all Laws Was not Priesthood us'd and exercised by the Patriarchs under the Law of Nature Establish'd by Moyses and the Law of God Continued yet in Christ who was himself a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek and never apparently