Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	chief_a	lord_n	treasurer_n	2,704	5	10.8093	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49109	The case of persecution, charg'd on the Church of England, consider'd and discharg'd, in order to her justification, and a desired union of Protestant dissenters	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.	1689 (1689)	Wing L2961; ESTC R6944	61,317	83

and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazard of Church and State I am sure that tho' we were never so desirous that they might have their Liberty and when there is opportunity of shewing our inclinations without danger they may find that we are not such Persecutors as we are represented yet we cannot consent that they should have it this way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was granted This Sir is our Case in short the Difficulties are great on both sides and therefore now if ever we ought to besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom and Counsel and Courage that God would protect his Church and Reformed Christianity against all the devices of their Enemies Which is the daily and hearty Prayer of May 22. 1688. SIR Your Friend and Brother Though this Petition was presented with all humble Submission and how reasonable soever the Refusing to publish the Declaration was it was so aggravated by Father Petre and others of the Romish Perswasion that the Bishops were sent for to the Council and there charged with publishing a false malicious and seditious Libel and by a Warrant of the Council committed to the Tower on which there followed at least in the hopes and expectations of the Papists such a Scene of Persecution as never was seen under Queen Mary The Seven Bishops were by Habias Corpus brought to the King's-Bench Bar where was the Chief Justice and an Ignoramus Papist Allebone whom one of his Brethren openly exposed for his false Quotations Justice Holloway and Justice Powel after all the pleadings of Councel on each side the Chief Justice gave this direction to the Jury That if they believed the Petition presented by the Bishops to the King was the same that was produced in Court then the Publication was sufficiently proved if not the Bishops were not guilty of the Publication And secondly That any thing tending to disturb the Government was Libellus Famosus and therefore he judged it to be a Libel Justice Holloway said That the intention of an action ought to be considered that the Bishops delivered the Petition with all humility and decency imaginable and were not Men of evil lives and it being the Right of every Subject to Petition such a delivery could be no fault especially it being done to save themselves harmless by shewing their Reasons of not obeying the King's Command Justice Powel declared plainly That he saw nothing of Sedition or other Crime fixed on the Bishops nothing being offered by the King's Counsel to make the Petition false or malicious and desired the Jury to consider That the Bishops apprehended the Declaration to be illegal being founded on a Dispensing Power and he did never remember in any Case that there was such a Power in the King which if true the Petition could be no Libel And lastly That such a Power would amount to an abrogation of all the Laws and so there would be no need of Parliaments but the whole Legislative Power would be in the King which said he to the Jury is worth your consideration The Jury accordingly considered the Case all Night and in the Morning gave their Verdict for the Bishops Not Guilty which caused such Acclamations in the Court as were ecchoed through the Nation And this Deliverance of the Bishops was esteemed the Freedom of the whole Nation from Popery and Slavery and on it the Revolution of our Affairs began This Scene of Persecution being so happily broken we may have leisure to take a view of that other of the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs which was such an Engine as Archimedes fancied he had contrived that if he had found a place whereon to fix it it would have unhinged the Globe of the Earth but as it happened there was no such place to be found But this was so contrived as to make the Church a Felo de se and to fall by its own hands for the Commissioners first named were some of those that were intended to fall by it the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Durham and Rochester the Lord Treasurer and Sunderland and the Lord Chief Justice Herbert and the Lord Chancellor who was the Dominus Factotum in conjunction with whom any Two might act and such Three might take Cognisance of any Case that was under the Ecclesiastical Laws they might Visit both the Universities the Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches Parish-Churches Schools and Hospitals they might abrogate Old and make New Laws with a Non Obstante to any Right or ancient Constitution and all their Acts were to be confirmed by a New Seal having this Inscription Sigillum Regiae Majestatis ad Causas Ecclesiasticas But the Commission was so unwarrantable and ill designed that the most considerable Men refused to act by it in whose room other confiding Men are named viz. the Bishop of Chester the Lord Chief Justice Wright and Baron Jenner so that the Chancellor could never want Two of his own Distemper to act with him The R. R. the Bishop of London was a Person of such extraordinary merit that he was pitcht on as the first that was fit to suffer by this new sort of Ostracisme but finding no pretence for an Accusation in him from any act of his own he must suffer for another's sin imputed to him or rather for a wicked invention of their own for thus it was Dr. Sharp of the Diocess of London a Divine of known Integrity and Loyalty as well as of Parts and Prudence was represented to the King as one that had preached Seditiously and endeavoured to alienate the Affections of His Majesty's Subjects from him whereof the Doctor being advised endeavours by all means to clear himself and by good Advice draws up a Petition to His Majesty declaring How faithfully he had served Him and his Brother and had studiously endeavoured to suppress all Doctrines and Practices tending to Sedition c. But the Doctor could never find opportunity to present his Petition for the Scene was otherwise laid and thus it opened A Letter was procured from the King to the Bishop of London importing That his Majesty being fully satisfied that Dr. John Sharp Rector of St. Giles's had reflected on his Majesty and on his Government he commanded the Bishop forthwith right or wrong to suspend him The Bishop returned an Answer to the Earl of Sunderland to this effect That his Majesty's Command could not be complied with being contrary to Law because no Judges as he was could condemn any Man before he was heard what he could say for himself So that he was to suffer for what in Justice he could not do On the Fourth of August he appears before the Commissioners and the Chancellor asks him the Reason Why he suspended not Dr. Sharp according to the King's Order The Bishop answered That he had received such an Order and if he had done contrary to his Duty it was his ignorance