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A48212 A letter to an honourable member of the House of Commons, in the vindication of the Protestant Reformed Church, as established by law, in opposition to the superstitious and idolatrous Church of Rome 1679 (1679) Wing L1699; ESTC R5726 7,854 16

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A LETTER TO AN HONOURABLE MEMBER Of the HOUSE of COMMONS In the Vindication of The Protestant Reformed Church as Established by Law in Opposition to the Superstitious and Idolatrous CHVRCH of ROME Licensed March 1. 1679. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by the Booksellers 1679. A Letter to an Honourable Member of the House of Commons c. SIR IN Obedience to your Commands I take the boldness to present you with this Paper giving you a small rough draught of the Nature and several Models of Government in a general Notion and more particularly of the most Excellent Constitution of Parliaments in which after some sort all Governments are Comprised And how at this Juncture of time this Parliament may be managed with the greatest Advantage to the Nation by the unanimous Concurrence of both Houses in order to Enact such good Laws for the Glory of God and the Preservation of our Church of England as Established by Law and of His Majesties Royal Person and Government and Kingdoms craving your pardon for my great freedom in presenting you as my worthy Trustee with my meaner Sentiments not any way presuming to speak my Dictates but my most humble Addresses which I submit to your more mature Judgment All Government consisting in the due Administration of Justice and the Subordination and Obedience of Inferiour Persons to Superiour till we come to a Supreme Authority accountable to no body but God himself is of Divine Institution as derived from God himself the Fountain of all Power and Authority Commanding Reverence and Obedience to the Sanctions and Persons of Governours who are more or less God's Vice-gerents as they are intrusted with more or less Power Whereupon they being in some sort particles of the Divine Nature are styled Gods in Holy Writ in reference to their Royal Functions of their Remunerative and Vindicative Justice And it were to be heartily wished and prayed for that all Governours and especially the Supreme in all Nations may truly so participate of the Divine Nature that they may be like God in those most Excellent Characters of Sanctity and Power to Influence as well the Souls with vertuous and pious Inclinations as to Command the Bodies of others by Coereive Laws The Supreme Power hath divers Qualifications and is Founded in one in Monarchy in the best in Aristocracy and in the People in Democracy which is the worst of Governments as it is most near to Anarchy and Confusion and therefore Monarchy is judged the best as it hath most of Unity in it because all Subjects unite in one King as all Members in one Head or as Lines in one common Centre and Aristocracy is of a middle nature more degenerate than Monarchy in that it consisteth of many Governours and more exalted than Democracy because it is framed of the Best And these being premised I beg the favour to speak mine own Sense which as I conceive is that of our Nation That Parliamentary Government is the best Constitution of all because in it all these are Comprised in the King and the two Houses of Parliament as his Great Council First the Government is constituted in the King as Supreme and so it is Monarchical Secondly in the Lords as his greatest Ministers and so in some degree the Government may be styled Aristocratical Thirdly it is in the House of Commons as the Representatives of the People and so the Parliamentary Government in some manner may be called Democratical Whereupon this kind of Government being united in the King as the Head and Fountain of it is most excellent and satisfactory because all Interests having a share in Government as they are concerned in the Legislative Power can give such an account of and make such an Inspection into the general Grievances of the Nation and recrisie them by making such sober Debates and by deliberate Councils in the matter of wholesome Laws which being stated are made first Bills by the Approbation of both Houses and are afterwards recommended to his Majesty for his Royal Assent as the Essence of the Law The Bills of the Lords and Commons being only preparatory as giving the rough Draught of Laws which are afterwards finished as receiving their Form Birth and Life from the Kings Royal Signature Wherefore it is most just and equitable for the Lords and Commons to pay their Duty and Reverence to the King in their humble Addresses to his Majesty as their Supreme And I verily believe that the King will again condescend out of his Royal Inclination to do good to his people to speak his Returns in his Gracious Concessions to gratifie the just Desires of his Lords and Commons who I hope by all means possible will endeavour to approve themselves true Sons of the Protestant Church in bring Pious to God Loyal to the King and Just to their Trust reposed in them in the Maintenance of the truly ancient reformed Religion of the Church of England as the most excellent for Purity of Doctrine according to Holy Writ and for Uniformity of Discipline as now established by Law according to the Practice of the Primitive Church under which the Church of England hath been rendred most happy even to the Admiration if not the Envy of other reformed Churches in the Reign of Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the first of Blessed Memory and I hope it will yet continue for many years under the Gracious Protection of our now Sovereign Lord the King as assisted with the Wise peaceable and healing Councils of the Lords and Commons now assembled in this Parliament which I shall pray may be made effectual as so many wholesome Applications to heal this distracted and bleeding Church and Kingdom which must be now bound up by skilful and tender hands lest the Wounds grow wider by their roughness and by unexperiensed Medicines which if improperly applied will prove destructive to the ancient and well approved Constitutions of the Church and Kingdom At this juncture of time it is humbly conceived to be very dangerous to raise Disputes concerning the Secular and Ecclesiastical Polity which is the same or at least the nearest to that immediately succeeding the Holy Apostles And I deem it also very unreasonable and of ill Consequence to charge the humane frailties of the Governour upon the Government it self if this Argument were good a Subversion which God forbid might be attempted upon the most excellent Constitutions of Monarchy and Episcopacy the Pillars by which the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom are supported in the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government Nay if it were lawful to take away the Use for the Abuse of things Christianity it self and its most holy Ordinances instituted by our most Blessed Saviour may be established if the great Immorality and Impiety of the prophane atheistical Professors should be imputed to that most Holy and Divine Profession Wherefore it is desired by all I converse withal that the King 's Great Council