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cause_n	great_a	king_n	power_n	3,921	5	4.7466	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48123	A letter of several French ministers fled into Germany upon the account of the persecution in France to such of their brethren in England as approved the Kings declaration touching liberty of conscience : translated from the original in French.	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.; Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1688 (1688)	Wing L1575; ESTC R9560	9,926	8

Protestants These are without doubt the Natural Consequences of what the King at this time aims at These are the Fruits which one ought to expect from it if instead of Approving as some have done his Enterprises against the Laws they do not on the contrary with all imaginable Vigor oppose them Reflect a little on what we have here said and you will consess that we have reason to commend the Conduct of the Bishops who refused to publish the Declaration and to condemn those Dissenters who have made their Addresses of Thanks for it It is true that the Dissenters are to be pitied and that they have been treated hardly enough and we do not think it at all strange that they so earnestly sigh after Liberty of Conscience It is natural for Men under Oppression to seek for Relief And Liberty of Conscience considered only in it self is it may be the Thing of all the World the most precious and most desirable Would to God we were able to procure it for them by any lawful means and without such ill Consequences tho' it were at the peril of our Lives But we Conjure them to consider how pernicious that Liberty of Conscience is which is offer'd to them as we have just now shewn On the one side It is inseparably linked with the Establishment of Popery and on the other it cannot be accepted without approving a terrible Breach which his Majesty thereby makes upon the Laws and which would be the ruine of the Reformation in his Kingdoms were not some Remedy brought to it And where is the Protestant who would buy Liberty of Conscience at so dear a rate and not rather choose to continue deprived of it all his Life Should the private interest of our Brethren the Dissenters blind them in such a manner that they have no regard to the general Interest of the Church Should they for enjoying a Liberty of Conscience so ill assured shut their Eyes to all other Considerations How much better would it be for them to re-unite themselves to the Bishops with whom they differ only in some points of Discipline but especially at this time when their Conduct ought to have entirely defaced those unjust Suspicions which they had conceived against them But if they could not so readily dispose themselves to such a Re-union would it not be better for them to resolve still to continue without Liberty of Conscience and expect some more favourable time when they may by lawful means attain it than to open themselves a gate to Popery and to concur with it to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion You will it may be tell us that it looks ill in us who so much complain That we have been deprived of Liberty of Conscience in France to find fault with the King of England for granting it to his Subjects And that it is the least that can be allowed to a Sovereign to allow him the Right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his own Kingdoms and to make use of the service of such of his Subjects as himself shall think fit by putting them into Charges and Employs You will add That his Majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the antient Laws nor to make new ones All he does being only to dispense with the Observation of certain Laws in such of his Subjects as he thinks fit and for as long time as he pleases and that the right of dispensing with and suspending of Laws is a right inseparably ty'd to his Person That for the rest the Protestant Religion does not run the least Risque There are Laws to shut the Papists out of Parliament and these Laws can neither be dispensed with nor suspended So that the Parliament partaking with the King in the Legislative Power and continuing still Protestant there is no cause to fear that any thing should be done contrary to the Protestant Religion Besides What probability is there that a King who appears so great an Enemy to oppression in matters of Conscience and Religion should ever have a thought tho he had the power himself to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his Subjects and take from them that Liberty of Conscience which he now grants to them and which he promises so inviolably to observe for the time to come These are all the Objections that can with any appearance of reason be made against what we have before said They may all be reduced to five which we shall examine in their order And we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear that they are all but meer illusions 1. We do justly complain That they have taken from us our Liberty of Conscience in France because it was done contrary to the Laws And one may as justly complain that the K of England does labour to re-establish Popery in his Country because he cannot do it but contrary to the Laws Our Liberties in France were founded upon solemn Laws upon perpetual irrevocable and sacred Edicts and which could not be recalled without violating at once the Public Faith the Royal Word and the Sacredness of an Oath And Popery has been banished out of England by Laws made by King and Parliament and which cannot be repealed but by the Authority of King and Parliament together so that therefore there is just cause to complain that the King should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his Declaration 2. It is not true that a Sovereign has always the right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his Dominions and to make use of the service of such of his Subjects as he himself shall think fit that is to say by putting of them into Charges and Employs And in particular he has not this right when the Laws of his Country are contrary thereunto as they are in the case before us Every King is obliged to observe the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom And the King of England as well as his Subjects ought to observe the Laws which have been established by King and Parliament together 3. For the third the distinction between the Abrogation of a Law and the Dispensing with and Suspending of it cannot here be of any use whether the King abrogates the Laws which have been made against Popery or whether without saying expresly that he does abrogate them he overthrows them by his Declarations under pretence of dispensing with or suspending of them It is still in effect the same thing And to what purpose is it that the Laws are not abrogated if in the mean time all sorts of Charges are given to Papists and Popery it self be Re-established contrary to the tenor of the Laws The truth is If the King has such a power as this if this be a Right necessarily tied to his Person 't is in vain that the Parliament does partake with him in the Legislature This Authority of the Parliament is but a meer Name a Shadow a Phantome a Chimera and