Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A47798
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An answer to a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence / by Sir Roger L'Estrange.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing L1195; ESTC R24430
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50,153
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54
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Fancy that has taken People in the Head upon this Occasion First That no Church of England man will Answer This Letter 2ly L'Estrange of All Others that has ever been so Bitter and so Violent against Liberty of Conscience is the Unfittest Man in Nature to take upon him to Defend it In Contradiction to his Toleration Discuss'd his Observators and Twenty Pamphlets more upon This Subject Generals prove Nothing Beside that they are commonly the Refuge of Shufflers and Cheats But I am content however to put the Matter to This Issue Let but any man that Charges Mee with such Contradictions submit to pass for a Fool if he does not particularly Prove them and let me Wear the Reputation of a Knave if in a Fair and Reasonable Equity of Construction he makes his Accusation Good. I have now but One Point more to speak to And That 's the Subject of the King's Power 'T is no more then what the Letter Requires and what I have Promised to do And in Conclusion a Right that I Owe both to the Cause and to my Word The Author of the Letter to a Dissenter has several Dangerous Doctrines and Passages p 5 6 8 a. upon the Argument of the King's Prerogative and the Duty of a Subject He Questions the Kings Late Declaration in point of Law p. 5. And lays down for a Maxim that No Trespass against the Laws in Being is to be Defended Though Vniversal Practice and Opinion are agreed upon 't that the Obligation of All Humane Laws is in some sort Conditional He makes Addressing of Thanks upon That Declaration to be the Giving up of a Right in the Law p. 6. He supposes the King himself Doubtful of his own Power p. 9. He Reasons all he can against the Dispensing Power and Repealing the Test p. 8. And he calls Submission to That Declaration the Setting up of a Power to HELP the People that will DESTROY them p. 6. These Positions are Communicated in at Least Twenty Thousand Copies perhaps to his Majesties Subjects in All Quarters of the Kingdom and the Doctrine For t'd with the most Artificial Colours that the Matter will bear Upon the whole Business there 's Nothing to be done in such a Case as This but by Encountring Industry with Industry and Opposing Truth to Error There will be No Need of a Distinct and a Particular Answer to This and That Clause or Period but rather to speak to the Whole Question at Once in a Clear and an Effectual Reply TO begin at the Root of the Controversie The King puts out a Declaration of Indulgence The Author of the Letter to a Dissenter Denyes his Dispensing Power makes the very Acceptance of it Criminal in the Subject and a Giving up of their Rights and Positively Pronounces the Law to be so Sacred that No Trespass against it is to be Defended It rests now to Prove that This Doctrine and Practice is not only Erroneous and Pernicious with a Respect to our Present Case and Constitution but Utterly Destructive of Humane Society and of the very Foundations of Government it self To say nothing how Artificially the Writer of That Letter has shamm'd upon the People his Maiesties Act of Grace in favour of the Dissenters for a Matter Concerted betwixt Them and the Papists without which Pretence the Incidians Part of the Pamphlet falls to the Ground Now for the Clearing of This Question He that would take the Just Measures of the Prerogatives of Power should properly look back into the Original of Government and from thence Trace the Wisdom and the Providence of Almighty God through the Means to the End and through the Causes to their Effects There are 't is true Certain Prerogatives Peculiar to This or That Frame of State and Differing in One Place from what they are in Another But These are of a Humane Make and may be Laid down as they were Taken up at pleasure They are Local Temporary Personal Conditional Occasional Privileges perhaps and not of the Number of Those Sacred Vnchangeable and Incommunicable Essentials that we are here speking of It was the Work of an Omnipotent Power to make the World out of Nothing As Order was the Work of the Divine Wisdom and Government consequently of a Divine Institution and Appointment This Government was Ordained for the Regulation of Men in Society And That Ordinance would have been utterly Vain and of No Effect without a Competency of Powers and Faculties for securing of All the Ends of it Now if Government it self was immediately from God Those Eminences of Privilege and Authority without which That Primary Power Cannot Work must needs be of Divine Right too And Kings are so less Answerable to their Principal for the Maintenance of the Power with which they are Entrusted then they are for the Exercise of it So that if Rulers cannot Depart from These Fundamentals of Government without Breach of Faith If Humane Laws shall be found Insufficient to Answer all the Emergencies and Variations of Humane Affairs And if the Reserve of a Power to Dispense with those Humane Laws in case of such and such Exigencies shall be likewise found of Absolute Necessity for the Support of Government the Sum of the Question will be brought into a Narrow Compass and no more then This Shall a Prince in favour of an Imperfect Humane Law Dispense with an Vndispensable Duty to a Law Divine And in so doing Dispense with God's Law rather then Dispense with his Own It is a Thing past Dispute that many Laws have been Nullities in the very Creation of them And it is Impossible to make Any Positive Law of Man so Extensive as to Answer All Circumstances of Time Place Condition Change or Occasion The Force and the Frequency of Over-ruling Necessities is Granted on All Hands and that where-ever the Government is there is the Judgment If the People may Judge they may Censure If Censure Punish If Punish they Govern And the Yielding of One Point to a Popular Vsurpation does in Effect Tacitly Entitle them to the Rest. Neither is there Any other Limit set to this Power then the Honour the Conscience and the Justice of the Governer For the Bare Admittance of a Check or Controll Implies a Superiour Power Men are Corrupt Frail Short-sighted and their Works Imperfect Bills may be Carry'd by Passion Interest Power and there may be likewise Inadvertency or Sinister Consideration in the Passing of them but the Laws of Nature and of Equity are Sacred and Certain for That which Nature does God does This is Chiefly intended of Laws that were Well enough or perhaps Excellent Provisions at the First making of them but in Tract of Time upon some Vnexpected Revolution or in such or such a Case perchance may be found Inconvenient These I say may be Suspended but then there are Laws of Another Sort that are Void ab Initio and upon No Terms to be either Defended or Executed As I have Instanced formerly somewhat to this Purpose in the Case of the Proceedings under Charles the First against the Papists That Excellent Prince according to all Reasonable and Humane Presumption lost his Crown and his Life in Complement to a Void Act of his Own in pretending to Bar himself the Vse and Service of his Subjects As if an Act of State could Supersede a Fundamental of God and Nature I have the Authority of Great Man Bishop Sanderson to Back me in the Casuistical Stress of This Instance God says he hath given to his Vicegerents here on Earth a RIGHT In and a POWER Over the Persons of ALL their Subjects within their several Respective Dominions even to the spending of their Lives in their Countries Service WHENSOEVER they shall be by Their Authority called thereunto Five Cases p. 71. Now if they have These Privileges of RIGHT and POWER from GOD and Extending to ALL and WHENSOEVER without Exception either to Time Number or Distinction of Persons What Earthly Power shall dare to Controll This Commission And I have One Word more to Offer now that I have formerly spoken to which comes a little Closer yet to the Point The Precept of Honour thy Father and thy Mother is undoubtedly of Divine Authority and a Command of an Immutable and Indispensable Obligation And it has Catholique Assent to 't that it Extends as well to our Civil and Political as to our Natural Parents By This Law All Subjects are Bound in Conscience to Attend the Call and the Service of their Prince for the Precept is Positive without Any Qualification Limitation or Condition whatsoever The Question will be Shortly This now Whether Any King can by any Act of Civil Authority Divest himself of This Right over the Persons of his Subjects I do not say but he may Chuse whether he will Command them or Not but he Cannot Discharge his People of their Duty of Obedience in case he Requires their Service That is to say In any case which is not Contrary to the Will and Word of God. No Humane Law Can Absolve them from That Office of Allegeance So that in the Conclusion either Those Subjects are Clear before God that serve their Prince when by him thereunto required notwithstanding any Law of Man to the Contrary Or the Ten Commandments may be turn'd to Waste Paper If the Law of the Land shall Forbid upon a Penalty That which the Law of God Commands upon a Penalty This is enough for my Present Purpose and if it be not so for Common Satisfaction My Third Volume of Observators has Fifty Times as much upon this Subject FINIS Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer