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A50269 Certain material and useful considerations about the laws positive and laws of necessity relating to the unhappy distractions of the present times Mathew, John.; Philalethes. 1680 (1680) Wing M1288A; ESTC R36494 10,378 18

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Certain MATERIAL and USEFUL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT The Laws Positive AND Laws of Necessity RELATING To the unhappy DISTRACTIONS of the present TIMES 2 COR. XIII Vers 8. We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth 1 THES V. Vers 21 22. Prove all things hold fast that which is good abstain from all appearance of Evil. JAM III. Vers 17 18. The Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Printed at LONDON in the Year 1680. TO HIS REVEREND FRIEND THEODIDACTUS HAving been much troubled even to restlesness in my Thoughts about the tender and dangerous Distractions of these Times I have often and earnestly besought Almighty God in my Prayers that he would assist me with his Spirit that I might honestly set my self to seek the Truth so seeking that I might find it and finding it may chearfully embrace it and constantly cleave unto it in what Case or Danger soever I should find it To this end I tasked my self to the saddest and severest Meditations my weak Body and Intellectuals could undergo which being I trust by the guidance of God resolved into these ensuing Hypotheses I commit to your judicious and most impartial Censure being not so fond of mine own fancies but that I can indure to see them stript stark naked and if they prove not the Issues of Truth to disinherit them from ever having farther possession of my Thought I see not many things and hear not all living so remote from any Town where the Tide of Books and Reports flows in some Pamphlets there are walking about with as much confidence and finding as good entertainment as Truth it self needeth and with a great deal of less Modesty than it useth to do Pleas Appeals Reasons c. which beg the Question I look they should prove left me more unsatisfied rather than they found me I have hitherto perhaps through fondness more contentment from these Conceptions of mine own which I intreat you to examin with all Faithfulness and Severity as knowing you cannot do your self or me greater injury than to flatter me in falshood who am come praised be God so far towards Wisdom as heartily to thank him who rebukes me in Love and lovingly to thank him who refutes me with Reason PHILALETHES 1. ALthough the King and Parliament assembled together are the most Honourable and Supreme Court of the Kingdom from whom there is no humane appeal yet they are still to be look'd upon as a Company of Men subject to Infirmities Passions and Errors as other men are and therefore may even were they concur determin things Evil in themselves Or else we must grant that no Parliament Acts were ever Evil in themselves and so needed no Abrogation but only inconvenient for Time and Occasions and so needed but suspensions 'till fit Seasons reinforceing them might return and if the whole may err in their Determinations much more may the parts severally and alone 2. In so great a Number it is probable there still will be as it is certain now there are some of green Years slender Parts and small Experience little or no Learning either in Arts or Law and I may add from the Censures of some part of that Court upon the other of at least suspected Integrity who as they are Chosen by popular Voices wherein sinister references oftentimes bear no small sway so are they probably led in Voting by popular Arguments tending most to Liberty being incompetent Judges of the Methods and Mysteries of State-Government Whence it will follow that where the number of Voices and not the depth of Argument carries it the fittest and justest Propositions may oft be overborn by Number which cannot be confuted by Reason 3. As it is true that no Evil ought to be imagined of the Parliament so it is as true that none ought to be imagined of the King and yet it is not untrue that where there is none the greatest Evil may be suspected and the greatest may be where none is imagined 4. Though no Evil ought to be imagined in the Parliament conjunctim and in the Lump viz. That what the King and both Houses shall fairly and freely conclude and Enact will prejudice no man yet in regard of the particular Members when I know Evil by them I may suspect Evil from them Else why doth one part of the Parliament not only suspect but say so much and so great Evil of the other whilst they mutually repute each other Enemies of the State which of all civil Evils is the greatest 5. Where there is a noise of Extream danger which all men fear and as earnest an undertaking for prevention which all men desire it is easie to conceive how ready men will assent without a due Examination either of the imminency of the danger or lawfulness of the prevention especially men of the weaker sort not able so well to judge of either 6. When it is possible that no one in either House of Parliament may be Learned in the Law since Noblemen Knights Gentlemen Citizens and Townsmen of which they consist are not necessary to be so nor one more than another I see not how the judgment of the Law can fully and properly reside in them especially when the King consents not And so much seems implyed by the setting of the Judges in the Lords House who for ought I hear have no other Office there but to advise or advertise in point of Law 7. When it is said the Judgment of the major part of both Houses is the judgment of the whole Parliament and consequently of the Kingdom I conceive it is not rightly affirmed for besides that the Judgment of the Clergy is not so much as in a shadow there represented who are a considerable part of the Kingdom and should be presumed to have as good judgment and be as good men as others I resign not my Judgment but promise Obedience to the Parliament not barely to the Burgesses of my own Town whom perhaps I think very unfit and who were chosen against my will but to the Result and Determination of both Houses and not to them only neither but as all are allowed confirmed and perfected by the King's assent For I am represented in the Commons but as subordinate to the King and to joyn with the King and with the Lords not with or against both or either of them to make Laws for the good of the Kingdom So that when the Act is made by the concurrence of all the three Requisit Consents then as I suppose and not till then it becomes Obligatory and as a peaceable Subject I must obey it if it be lawful before God though my judgment be still free at home and I do think it inexpedient as the Negative part of the Votes do for it is