Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67872
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Fourteen papers
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B5794; ESTC R23746
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134,299
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83
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Parliament Declared to be utterly Inconsistent Now the Coronation-Oath is a Fundamental Law of this Kingdom for it is antecedent to the Oath of Allegiance Accordingly if you look upon the Coronation-Oath in the Parliament-Roll 1 H. 4. you shall there find that in the third Branch of it the King Grants and Promises upon his Oath That the Laws shall be kept and protected by him secundum Vires suas to the utmost of his Power and therefore he has no Power lest him to Dispense withal By which it appears that those men are the wretched Enemies both of the King and Kingdom who would fain perswade the King that he has this Dispensing-Power because therein they endeavour to perswade him that Perjury is his Prerogative Heretofore in Trisilian's time some of the Oracles of the Law were consulted Whether it could stand with the Law of the Kingdom that the King might Obviatt and Withstand the Ordinances concerning the King and the Kingdom which were made in the last Parliament by the Peers and Commons of the Realm with the King's Assent though as the Courtiers said forced in that behalf And they made Answer That the King might Annul such Ordinances and Change them at his pleasure into a better fashion because he was above the Laws Knyghton Col. 2693. Now this was very False Law as those Judges found afterwards to their Cost and it was grounded on the worst Reason that could be For they must needs know from all their Books and from the Mirror in particular p. 282. That the first and Sovereign Abusion of the Law that is the chief Contrariety and Repugnency of it is for the King to be Above the Law whereas he ought to be Subject to it as is contained in his Oath Neither could they be ignorant of that Argument which the Peers used to shew the Absurdity of such a Supposition it is recorded in the Annals of Rurton set forth as I take it by Mr. Obadiah Walker Si Rex est supra Legem tunc est extra Legem Num Rex Angliae est Exlex If the King be above the Law then he is without the Law. What! is the King of England an Outlaw And as for the words of Bracton they were too plain either to need a Comment or Translation Rex habet Superiorem Deum item Legem per quam sactus est Rex item Curiam suam seil Comites Baronts As likewise those other words of his Ubi Voluntas Imperat non Lex ibi non est Rex Where he makes it the very Essence of our King to Govern according to Law. Having therefore shewn that the Laws are always in full Force till they are Revoked by the same Authority which made them and that all Persons whatsoever bound to the Laws and that the Laws themselves were never in Bondage to any Man we know from thence what we are to conclude concerning those Papists who pretend to be in Office in Desiance to the Laws We had once a mischievous Distinction of Sheriffs de Jure and Sheriffs de Facto But those who pretend to be in Office without taking the TEST are no Officers either in Right or in Fact for the 25 Car. 2. says That their Offices are ipso facto void and then those Officers are ipso facto no Officers and can do us no more hurt than if they were under Ground and therefore we need not trouble our Heads about them though they may in all likelihood fall under the Care and Consideration of a Parliament After all some persons may possibly be so far deluded as to think there is somewhat of Equity in the Toleration of Papists and that it is the Christian Rule Of doing as one would be done by Now for any Papist to plead this Rule of Equity himself or any body else in his behalf is just as if a High-way Man should thus urge it upon his Judge My Lord if you hang me you break the Golden Rule for I am sure you are not willing to be so served yourself nor to hang with me Now the Equity of the Judge in this case does not lye either in forbearing to punish the Offender or in Hanging with him for Company but in being content to submit to the same Law if he himself should commit the same Crime And so are we willing to lye under all the Penal Laws whenever we turn Papists And therefore no body can tax us with want of Equity because we do no otherways to the Papists than we are willing to be done by in the same case But it may be said that our Conscience does not serve us to be Papists though theirs does Neither does the Judge's Conscience serve him to rob though it seems the High-way Man 's did and therefore take heed of Liberty of Conscience Still it may be further replied That this is properly a Judicial Cause because Robbery is a breach of the Peace and of Property and therefore ought to be Punished whereas the worship and Service of God according to a Man's Conscience though it be amiss yet it ought not to be punished by Hamane Laws but is to be reserved to the Judgment of God alone who is Lord of Conscience Now this is the New Doctrine which I shall prove to be False by positive and express Scripture For Job says Chap. 31. Ver. 28. That is his Heart had been secretly perswaded and he had thereupon kissed his Hand to the Sun or Moon This were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge because he had therein Lyed against the God above So that though a Man's Heart and Conscience lead him to Idolatry yet Job tells us this is inditable it is Avon Pelili a Judicial Crime and as Punishable by Humane Laws as Adultry with another Man's Wise is as you have it in the same Phrase in the 11th Verse of the same Chapter The Second Instance of a Punishable Conscience in the Service of God is that which our Saviour gives us John 16. 2. Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service Now I would sain know whether such a Conscience as this ought not to be Restrained and Punished And whether it be Sacriledge for Humane Laws to controul Conscience I mean such a one as Kills and Murders for God's sake And I ask again Whether there be no Consciences of this Stamp now in the World And whether there has not been an Holy Inquisition Religious Crusadoes and Meritorious Massacres to extirpate Hereticks and abundance of this Divine Service in the Church of Rome Whether they have not offered up whole Hecatombs of these Sacrifices in most Countries And whether a Neighbouring Prince has not been highly extolled and had all his most Christian Titles double Gilt with the Flatteries of his Clergy for the late Merit of his Religious Service in this kind And therefore if men will do things in order let them first send for a breed of Irish Wolves and
to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument if reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the Action in the intention of the Command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have subscribed and thefore am bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to Teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. Declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal-Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their judgment against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Titus 2. 15. That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardise or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruine of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not Reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foreseee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral Action in Nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it if you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those great men who deny it and if the same questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a Persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more