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book_n	according_a	judge_v	see_v	1,816	5	3.3060	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31183	The Case of the sheriffs for the year 1682, or, The third years paper in regard to the act for corporations being the case also of the dissenting ministers in regard to the act of Oxford : in a second and third sheet, together with the first revised, strengthened and reprinted ...		1682 (1682)	Wing C1164; ESTC R18154	25,181	37

may think only to serve an Occasion having been really the fruit of several years digested Thoughts and also because we may not be ashamed if we should confess that we had used that Book and made this Collection to serve so honest an End For if our Conscientious and Substantial Citizens be put off Publick Offices and the Ministers be discharged their Congregations upon the account of these Impositions Either the Snare must be broken by a general Reception of such a plain clear open Interpretation of them as is here presented to all Men or they will hold us to these Grindstones and we shall both in regard to Soul and Body to Religion and Property first or last be all undone Now when Mattathias and his Friends understood hereof they mourned for them right sore And one of them said to another If we all do as our Brethren have done they will quickly root us out of the Earth THE POST-SCRIPT HAving Printed the First of These Papers or Sheets Two years and now Reprinted it the Third year with Amendment of some things in the leaving out what I judged insufficient and supplying what I have thought needful to confirm that which is sufficient I have added two new Sheets or Papers to the same in regard to the urgency of the present Season with the same Heart and to the same Purpose as at the beginning We all know by our own Experience how necessary it is for the same Nations to be presented in a various Application according to the Doubts and Objections which are raised in Mens Minds for the giving Satisfaction to those whose Consciences are really tender and who dissent from others meerly out of the fear of Heaven and not out of HUmour I think I have chose the Charitable Side and that to write thus as I do at this Season is not onely one of the acts of Spiritual Almes or Mercy but a peculiar serving my Generation I cannot tell why but I find my Spirit is cheerished toward God in this little Service more than it uses If it were onely present heat upon a new thing I should not take this notice of it But when this Subject is as it were cool and no more affecting than the inward Testimony it brings with it as to my hopes it will do good I cannot tell but such Impressions may abode something I wish it be not this that these Impositions will be continued and pressed upon us yet with more Regiour so that many good Men shall have Occasion for this Paper that after no Man perhaps may be found that dares to attempt the like I know that as the Errata of a Book can have no Amendment when the Book it self can so cannot I my self see my own weaknesses or Failings when the Reader of these Sheets that sees more than I may discover them But so far as I can judge according to the Tenuity of my understanding there is more said in these few Sheets to the very Purpose to which they are writ than hath been said by others or any where unless by the same Paper and I hope that which is said is full and satisfactory The proud Man that would be praised in what he does does ordinarily dispraise himself that others may commend him But I speak of my own Paper as I would of Anothers It is a great many thoughts I am sure even the thoughts of many years is digested into these few Sheets and I do not offer my Brethren that which cost me nothing As for my writing under a Plural Name the Reader must know that though it be One is the Compiler or Author of these Sheets altogether it is more than One consented and consent to the Publication The first Sheet after it was done at first was shew to a Great Person particularly whose Vnderstanding and Faithfulness the Cry generally can trust in such Matters for it was thought good by one of the Sheriffs chose for that year I should do so and he advised that the Paper should come out thus and not in the Name of a Single Person He had it a Day or two to Read and changed nothing otherwise but gave this judgment of it frankly It was well done My Brethren to whom I shewed it besides were not like to contradict what he advised but thought it very prudent and it came out accordingly I must give notice now that P. 9. l. 20. the word it which is fallen out at the Press must be carefully preserved lest you mistake the Sense Note also That in the Marginal Note p. 5 there to the Nominative Case wanting to the Verb Condemn Read therefore and the imposers of this Oath condemn c. Note moreover that there needs some farther Explication in the place For suppose a Man to be satisfied in all other Scruples but this One that he apprehends in the late Times the Parliaments Cause was the right and not the King 's and he cannot therefore take the Oath because he thinks he shall thereby Condemn that Cause The plain Answer to this Man is that though he cannot but believe that the Major Part of the Houses that passed this Oath were of a contrary judgment to his yet is he not to think it was their intent that every one who takes this Oath should meddle with that Matter and Judge of that Cause so as to condemn one side and justify another but that he should onely judge think believe and declare that to raise another War or do now as they did then as we speak is unlawful and he that does not Judge so or cannot discern this must forbear to take the Oath out of Question The Summa Potestas in this Land lies in the King and his Two Houses as one Conporation we have intimated and when they were divided a Man may judge the Constitution Dissolved and the People at Liberty and consequently that they might then do that in that peculiar Case which can never be done out of it without resisting the Ordinance of God which to do we know is Sin This is the Answer to that Scruple being more darkly there expressed There remains only that I supply here the Fifth Reason according to the First Paper for Printing these Sheets that for want of Room was left out in the Epistle It pleased Providence to call some Persons to the Office who have been the better inabled to speak modestly to Hold the same upon the satisfaction which is couched in this Paper and if it be of great Concern at this time that such Men do Hold Sheriffs who are willing to deny their own Advantage not seek it for the sake of the Publick It is yet of greater concern that by the publishing our grounds for their satisfaction many in distress about the Oxford Act may be relieve and a Way opened for many of the like substantial Citizens of known Piety Loyalty and Ability to be brought into Corporations throughout the Nation to the great service of the King and Kingdom FINIS ERRATA Page 9 line 20. read Sware it p. 24. l. 9. for expressed 1. so pressed

such Matters must be excepted But as for any Matters Established by Law that belong only to the Administration there is no Exception to be apprehended when the Words are so general without any Limitation If any other Law or Statute be pleaded for putting in such Exception it must be answer'd by the Distinction offer'd There are no Matters we must say excepted by any other Statute or rather can with reason be excepted unless they belong only to the Constitution and not the Administration The Other Question is Whether the taking away any of the Authority of the Bishops and Arch-Deacons Courts their Officers Canons and the like is such an Alteration as belongs to the Administration of the Government in England that is Whether it comes within the Cognizance of a Parliament or is in their Power to do it We know that such a thing as the Changing of our Monarchy into another sort of Government were not to be proposed to Parliament being out of their Cognizance if the King and the Houses were willing to have it But do the Bishops and their Courts stand upon the same Foundation 'T is true that Magna Charta may be pleaded but Magna Charta it self is but a Law for the Administration It is beyond all doubt in the Power of the King and His Houses i. e. the Parliament to regulate the whole External Polity of the Church and so take away Diocesan Episcopacy it self if they pleased And can any one indeed question whether the taking away some Power from their Courts or some Officer belonging to them or the like which yet were to Alter the present Government fo the Church is not within their Cognizance or that this Matter is not contained in those Matters Established by Law that in general may be Altered and in case of Grievance be Petitioned for to be Altered And if this be still permitted the People according to the Statutes made in the Reign of this King then could it not be the Intent or Meaning of this Parliament that All Endeavour to Alttr the Government when any thing is grievous in the Church should be Vnlawful and when we are brought to distinguish of such an Endeavour of Alteration which is Warrantable by Law and that which is Vnwarrantable then are we come to the right Understanding of the Lawgiver's Meaning viz. That the Endeavour which they require us to abjure in the Oath is the One and not the Other This is what we say all along and stand upon it Reader lay thy Hand upon thy Heart and as thou believest this Interpretation or believest it not either Take or Forbear the Oath in the Name of God And what think we after some pause upon this of those Sheriffs and Ministers who are Conformists Are there not many of them which is before hinted Men of Reason and Conscience judicious and that fear God And in what sense judge we have the One subscribed according to the Act of Vniformity the same words which the Other swears according to the Act for Corporations It is strange the Nonconformist should make such a stand at that Sense of the Oath and Subscription proposed in this Paper as singular and doubtful which the Conformist receives as the undoubted and common Sense of the Kingdom with all the Judges and Lawyers of the Realm If they received not this Sense they would refuse them no less than we and if we received it as freely as they we should submit to them as they do In like manner for renouncing the Covenant What is it also they intend by it Is it nor this that the Covenant was an unlawful Oath and therefore binds no body But let us ask again do they think that the Covenanting to maintain the King which indeed helpt to bring him in again and the Protestant Religion and to Reform our Lives or the like things is unlawful and that therefore no Man is bound thereunto Certainly they cannot think so but the Covenanting to Change the Government or extirpate Prelacy and that without and against the Will of the King which is consequently in a way Unparliamentary this is it they judge unlawful and that such an Oath can oblige no body And is there any Nonconformist that understands himself who does herein disagree with them In the name of God then let us come to a right understanding on both sides of the Oath and of the Declaration Let the meaning of the Oath be no more than this that it is unlawful to take Armes against the King or his Authority any where exerted according to Law and that we will never go about to make any Change either in Church or State Affairs but by King and Parliament And let the meaning of the Declaration also be no more than this as in the First Sheet That there lies no Obligation upon any from the Covenant to do as they Swear it It was unlawful in its self to do so and the imposition of it was illegal And when we come to an Agreement in the sense what should hinder us but we may come also to agree in practise and do as one another If any Man indeed remains yet unsatisfied in his Conscience to do as the Conformist does it may be only because he does it we charge him notwithstanding all this which we have said to forbear But if indeed he be satisfied as to the Sense and pretends dissatisfaction in his Conscience and fear of loosing his Soul for the saving onely of his Purse we must in this Case or in this Cause rather at this season lay upon him this Charge also that in refusing his Compliance with the Law he must give an account to God for the refusing his Duty with it both to him and to his Country For our selves if our Arguments satisfy any Man and so he complies we edify that Man and not scandalize him If they do not and he forbears we do him no hurt It is a Man 's own Conscience is the Discerner to him of his Duty and he is not to regard another Mans any further than to avoid active Scandal which upon such a warning that no man follow his Example unless he be satisfied with his Reasons he does prevent as much as he can in this business We have done after one Acknowledgment That the Materials of these Sheets are borrowed very much from a Book that one of us does think he may make bold with whose design is greatly to offer such a kind of Resolution to the Conscience touching our present Impositions that both they that Conform to them and they that cannot may see reason to retain a fair Opinion of one another and to hope that neither of them do wilfully depart from is in what they do The Book was written many years but Printed onely about three since and is quoted in the Margine of the First Sheet We have reason to tell this both because that which is here offer'd may not appear to be written as some