Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A36092
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A discourse for taking off the tests and penal laws about religion
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1687
(1687)
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Wing D1593; ESTC R3313
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36,709
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48
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Universal Liberty of Conscience in Repealing all the Penal Statutes about Religion being their Interest in common with other Dissenters and Interest being a thing that will not lie they may be trusted in this Matter But it is added by the Objector That the Popish Religion consisting in the Decrees of General Councils confirm'd by the Pope and the Council of Lateran having decreed the Extermination of all Heretics we shall soon after the Taking off the Tests have a Popish Parliament trumpt up who to escape Damnation in the next World will be necessitated to destroy all Heretics within their Compass in this And here lieth the strength of the Objection which I shall endeavor with all the clearness I can to enervate and to this end must beseech the Reader in the first place to observe the great Difference there is between the English Papist and those of other Countries for the English would never pay that Respect unto Foreign Councils nor that Homage to the Roman Pontiffs which other Nations have done and consequently that our Country-men of the Romish Communion are not under the like Obligations of submitting unto the Decrees of General Councils which other Papists are Our Histories and Law-Books do furnish us with Instances innumerable that our Forefathers of the Romish Communion boldly asserted the Kingdom of England to be an Absolute Empire and Monarchy consisting of one Head which is the King and of a Body Politic Compact and Compounded of almost Infinite several yet well agreeing Members viz. the Clergy and Laity both of them next and immediately under God Subject and Obedient to the King their Head. And amongst the Laws of St. Edward the Confessor Spelman Conc. p. 622. Rex autem qui Vicaâ—â—us summi Regis st it is declar'd That the King who is the Vicar of the highest King not of the Pope is ordain'd to this End that he should Govern and Rule the Kingdom and People of the Land and above all things the Holy Church And when the Pope would have William the Conquerer recognize his Supremacy the King's Reply was That he could not find that any of his Predecessors did ever part with that Jewel of the Crown and he was therefore resolv'd to keep it And William Rufus his Son and Successor in this Kingdom declar'd That he would rather part with half his Kingdom than with the Supremacy Nor would Henry the First as William Warlestwast elect Bishop of Exeter told the Pope lose the Authority of Investing his Prelates for the Crown of the Realm King Stephen had the Courage to seize into his Hands the Bishop of Salisbury's Castles and Goods and altho' a Synod was call'd by the Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legat and Complaint made to the Synod yet the Clergy were at last compell'd to a Submission to the King. Henry the Third would by no means yield that his Clergy were so much under the Pope's Conduct as not to be Prosecuted by the Secular Powers for Matters Criminal King John also till forsaken by his Nobles was a valiant opposer of the Pope's Power And the several succeeding Princes maintain'd their Supremacy with a like Courage especially Edward the Third and Richard the Second And what is worthy of Observation the severest Laws against Suing unto the Court of Rome without the King's leave were Enacted in the time of Rich. the Second even the Statute of Provisors and Praemunire And that the Statutes made in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth were not Introductory of any New Law but Declaratory of the Ancient Law of the Land viz. That this Kingdom is Imperial is too plain to admit of the least doubt And as our Kings were ever tender in the point of the Supremacy and would never part with it nor pay that regard to Foreign Laws that other Nations have done in like manner it has been adjudged by a Popish Parliament 25 Hen. 8. cap. 23. That no Laws of any Foreign Powers are of force in this Realm unless they have been devised and obtained within it or unless by sufferance of our Kings the People have taken them up at their free liberty and by their own consent let them be used amongst them The words of the Statute run thus Whereas these your Grace's Realms recognizing no Superior under God but only your Grace have been and are free from Subjection to any man's Laws but only to such as have been devised and obtained within this Realm for the Wealth of the same or to such others as by sufferance of your Grace and your Progenitors the People of this your Realm have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used amongst them and have bound themselves by long Use and Custom to the Observance of the same not as to the Observance of the Laws of any Foreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as to the Customed and Ancient Laws of this Realm originally established as Laws of the same by the said Sufferance Consents and Custom and none otherwise So far the Statute declaring the Judgment of Roman Catholics in Henry VIII's days whence I thus argue That no Decrees of any Foreign Powers whether those of a General Council or of the Pope are of force here antecedently to our receiving them And that the saying this is a Decree of Rome or of any General Council confirmed by the Pope is not sufficient to oblige us to conclude that therefore an English Papist must submit unto and act in pursuance of it for until that Canon or Decree be by the Authority of the Land placed amongst our Laws it doth not oblige the Roman Catholic of this Kingdom And that this has been the sense of the English Roman Catholic before Henry VIII is easily evinced out of Sir Edward Coke Part 5. Cawdrey ' s Case who in his Reports declares That by the ancient Canons and Decrees of the Church of Rome the Issue born before the Solemnization of Marriage is as lawfully inheritable Marriage following as the Issue born after Marriage But this was never allowed or appointed in England and therefore was never of any force here And this appeareth by the Statute of Merton made in the 20th year of King Henry III. where all the Earls and Barons with one voice declare That they will not change the Laws of England which hitherto have been used and approved Besides it 's further to be observed that in Henry VIII's time it was by the King the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled who were all of the Roman Catholic Religion declared That the Body Spiritual namely the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Officers resiant within this Kingdom and called the English Church hath always been reputed and also found of that sort that both for Knowledge Integrity and sufficiency of Number it hath been always thought and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of it self without the
Soul for what People under the Cope of Heaven are more tender of Liberty and Property than the English And I am sure that the other day a great Lawyer express'd himself very freely touching the Subjects Rights affirming That as Kings have their Prerogatives too great for an Act of Parliament to bound or limit and as the next Heir to the Crown has so firm a Right to the Succession that no Consideration of Religion no nor that of Treason it self can be made a Bar to exclude him for Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt So Subjects have their various and different Rights either by Inheritance Creation or Election answerable to their several Qualities which no Act of Parliament can divest them of insomuch that if a Statute be de facto made contrary to a Fundamental Right of the Subject it 's void and null and if any one in pursuance of such a Statute ravish from the Subject his Liberty and Property in one King's Reign he may as it has been heretofore suffer for it in the Reign of another I insist not nevertheless at this time on this Great Man's Opinion any farther than to offer it to the Consideration of the Learned in the Law that if possibly I may do it they may be provok'd to an Enquiry and to give the People some farther Satisfaction than he did when he only told me it was so plain that instead of confirming it by Authorities he must defere to the known Rule viz. In rebus manifestis errat qui authoritates Legum allegat quia perspicuè vera non sunt probanda For let this Opinion be clear'd 't will contribute extreamly towards the ending the present Controversie especially if the other thing he mention'd also which indeed concludes our whole Argument be made out viz. That amongst the Inalienable Rights of the Subjects we must reckon this That no Free-Man may be depriv'd of his Liberty or Property or any other Civil Right or Privilege for the sake of his Religion so long as his Religion has no influence on the Government Let this I say be made good 't will unavoidably follow that all the Penal Laws for meer Religion and the Securing the Tests must appear to be ab initio void and null and a Great Charter Declaratory of so much will put a stop to Persecution for evermore for Conscience sake and answer all the Objections that can be brought against the Taking away the Tests But to return It 's my part to enquire more particularly Whether the Damning or Establishing the Tests be most agreeable to what I have declared the Ancient Constitution of our Government to be And the Solution is easie for from the Contexture of the foregoing Discourse we must conclude for the Taking them off because they twist the Religion of one part of the People so closely with the Government as to deprive the Body of the Nation of their Civil Rights Liberty and Property for the sake of an Opinion that hurts no Body but its Owner There are three or four Tests which do twist Religion and the Civil Government so unluckily together that whoever scruples the Religious part of the Test is immediately esteem'd an Enemy to the Government The First requires that they who take it do declare that they 'll never endeavor any Alteration of Government in the Church The Second obliges all in Office to Receive the Lord's Supper according to the Church of England and declare in these Words I A. B. do declare 25 Car. 2. cap. 2. That I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever The Last imposed both on the Nobility and Commons chosen to Sit in Parliament runs thus I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the Presence of God profess testifie and declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now us'd in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous These being the several Tests impos'd on the Subjects of this Realm there are these several Arguments which occur to my Thoughts against their continu'd Establishment I. It 's contrary to the Liberty of the Subject who without just cause is hereby depriv'd of his Rights as an Englishman It is the Right of a Freeholder in the County My Lord Chief-Justice Coke positively affirms That the Barons ought to have a Writ of Summons ex debito Justitiae to Sit in Parliament and it s most manifest that their Summons must be either of Grace or ex debito If the former it lies in the Breast of the King to call whom of the Lords he will and so never want an House of Lords for his Purpose If the latter then my Argument abides in its strength and it 's the Barons Right to be Call'd and Sit in Parliament and of a Free-man of any City or Town Corporate to choose his Representative in Parliament and the Right of those freely chosen if good Subjects which they may be tho' of a Religion different from that of the State to Sit in Parliament and it 's the Birthright of our Ancient Nobility and the most undoubted Right of every Peer of the Land tho created a Peer but yesterday to Sit in the Higher House of Parliament and Advise and Consent to the Enacting Laws And it 's a known Case that tho' a Man be Excommunicate yet he is not thereby divested of his Right to choose his Representative and why but because a Man may remain a good Subject and a good English-man altho' thrown out of the Church and therefore ought to enjoy the Privilege of an English-man And why shall not the Persons chosen and the Nobility so long as they sufficiently demonstrate to the World that they are true English-men and good Subjects enjoy their undoubted Rights and Privileges What belongs to a good Subject as such belongs to every good Subject and it 's a Wrong to rob him of it Let there then be such a Test impos'd I mean a CIVIL TEST which Characterizes a good Subject and which a good Subject cannot refuse to take and let that be all for that surely may be made sufficient and unscrupulous to secure the just Prerogatives of the King and the Liberty and Property of the Subject which is the whole Concern in it that a true Englishman as such is bound to look after II. The Imposition of a Religious Test on the Subject excluding the Refusers from having any Advancement in Places of Trust is a Branch of that Doctrin on which all Penal Laws for Religion