Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	party_n	peace_n	surety_n	4,376	5	11.9728	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39570	The bishop busied beside the business, or, That eminent overseer, Dr. John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, A discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the Quakers ... / by Samuel Fisher ...	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.	1662 (1662)	Wing F1051; ESTC R37345	155,556	170

to his Iudgement and forborn to have urged so much against it But if it were against the Conviction of his Conscience that it should passe till such a time he hath the more inexcusably before the time of using softer Courses so easily and earnestly consented against his Conscience to the passing of it and must go Condemned in himself of such unfaithfulness as is a shame that it should be found in one of his Profession For as Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera aequumlicet statuerit hand Aequus fuerit he must needs passe sentence against himself as unequal in his ways who though the thing determined should be an equal thing determines it before he hath had a fair and full hearing of all Parties much more may such a one as assents to the Acting of that severity against which but just before himself very Eagerly argued say with shame enough of himself Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see the best way but chuse the worst and whether this Bishop may not say of himself the same as to the Case in hand we appeal to the Light of God in his own and all mens Consciences since he confesseth that fo●… many reasons we ought to have had respite for a time as to the Execution of the Penalties of the Act upon us and yet confesseth his consent to the Act for our Suppression before we had it Object But the Bishop sayes pag. 2. He might consent to the passing of the Bill out of the Iustice and Charity which he owes to the Publick Peace to which all private Parties Interests and Charities must submit Ans. If that be Iustice and Charity to the Publick Peace for any to suppresse all Interests and Private Parties but their own we are yet to learn what Iustice and Charity is For the Iustice and Charity which we who are called Quakers do even owe and exercise towards the Publick Peace is as to the point of Liberty of Conscience to plead the Civil Interest of all Private Parties they behaving themselves Peaceably in their Respective Religions in the same Equality with our own Though the Bishops we see might they be their own Carvers would prove such Impropriators as to Engross all Publick Countenance and Encouragements by the Injunction and Protection of the Law all Favour of Princes all Publick Maintenance and Honour and use of Publick Oratories Publick Offices and Employments of Authority forreign and Domestique yea all advantages of what sort soever as their proper Honoraries appropriated to one Interest that is their own yea to it and it only as Bishop Gauden expresseth it in pag. 5. of his Epistle yet as Universalia nec existant nec apparent nisi in singularibus suis he cannot appear to be a well wisher to the Publick Peace and welfare who denies it to any Particular much more to all Particular Parties and Interests but his own so if all Private Parties Charities and Interests must submit to the Publick Peace and welfare we shall then believe the Bishops to have that Iustice and Charity they owe to the Publick Peace and welfare when we see them submit theirs so at least as to let others live quietly in the Land besides them but not before That being whatever largeness of Love and Liberality it may pretend to a Private Narrow Selfish Pinching Churlish Spirit and not that truly Charitable Publick Peaceable Universal Liberal Soul that deviseth Liberal things and by Liberal things shall stand that cannot bear all other Professions of the same Religion with it self to stand quietly and live Peaceably by it self in the same Land or Nation Nor are they any more true seekers of the Publick Peace who to preserve it destroy the Private Peace of those many thousands that seek it more seriously then themselves and with no small denyal of their own then those are true seekers of the Publick safety of the whole Ship who would fain sink all other mens Cabbins dreaming by so doing to save their own In this respect in that after the softer applications and Rational and Religious Courses used for our Information about Oathes it s taken for granted by him that it is no less then obstinancy in us if we be not Ipso facto brought into a Chearful Obedience in that particular and that we are left without excuse before God and man and both the Truth of the Law justified against our Error and the severity of it onely imputable to our obstinancy so that after some small respite in Case of non-conviction concerning the Lawfulness of that Swearing they impose or in Case of our non-submission even against Conviction which Conviction is the Work of God and not of man and never likely to be effected whilst the World stands so clearly are many thousands from God himself convinced to the contrary by all that slender Evidence this Bishop can for Swearing hold forth from Scripture then the Vengeance decreed is to fall without Remedy without Mercy Pitty or Commiseration with a heavier stroke upon the Quakers then before not now as offenders onely but as obstinate offenders as wilful refusers and resecters of the Truth and of the Patience exercised and Mercy tendered and all this without any Colour of excuse or ground of Plea for themselves under all their Tribulations in the sight of God as well as men Thus such as are not unwilling to see it may easily see that though the Bishops book viewed only by some running Reader that eyes it not very wa●…ily may seem by some passages of it to have the fair face of nothing else but Charity and of nothing less then such a thing as Cruelty nevertheless being well viewed in other passages of it and in that most Ultimate End which it most strenuously ayms at which is primus in intentione though ultimus in Executione first in his intention though last in Execution then it may appear very easily to any one that lat●…t anguis in herba it carries the sting of Severity in the Tayle of it at least not so much Zeal Charity and Pitty by far as it pretends to Though then the Bishop would fain seem to be very slow and backward to have rigidity used towards the poor silly harmless unwary Quakers as he calls them whom he much Puties as a People possibly of no Evil minds and such like yet his desire of forbearance towards them mainly is that they for all the leaden heels he moves on with might at last be the more Cruelly handled with Iron hands let them alone for a while let them be vo●…chsafed so much honour and favour in order to their reducement as to have some Rational and Religious Course exercised to them by those that are so high above them as the Bishops and Fathers of the Church and then for not seeing with their eyes alias not believing as they do at Rome as the Church believes whose Spiritual Fathers are the Representatives of it be

in this matter And further whereas the Bishop supposes such a sutableness to be between the Quakers Rude and confident way as he calls it and the humour of the meaner sort of people If by meaner sort he means such of the Ruder and Baser sort as made insurrection against Paul at Ephesus by the Instigation of the Silver-Smiths who by that craft of making Shrines for Diana's Temple got their Wealth he egregiously mistakes himself and it s not for want of Ignorance in the Bishop both of the Quakers and their Way that he is so jealous and suspitious of them for verily our way as confident as it is yea and more then confident for we are infallibly assured it is the Truth and are able in the Power of God as infallibly to make it good so to be to such as do not wink against the Light is so far from any real Rudeness and so from all agreeableness to the Humours of the Rude ones that however those who are meanly accounted of and dis●…ain'd by the supercilious Shool-men because they are Poor and Illiterate as to secular Sciences though of honest hearts embrace and own it yet such is the guise and humour of the rude and ignorant Rabble aforesaid of the baser Sort that if their mouths be not held with Bit and Bridle yea and though they are bridled by those Laws that are extant as a Curb to Routs and Riots they tumultuously fall upon us with Stones and Brick-bats Swords and Staves in so much that as there is no hast to hang true Men nor need to bid Mad-folks run so there 's little need by penal Laws to subject us more to their Wrath and Malice who could never yet with Patience wait for the Word of Command nor tarry for a Law whereby with leave to vent and execute it How much more may we now expect but that God is able to stop the Lions Mouths to be spoyled by them Seeing that as the Christians of old were cloathed with wild Beasts Skins and covered with Draff and then thrown to Doggs and Hoggs to be Baited and Devoured So we are now stigmatized with those as false as foul and ignominious Terms of a People defective in Reason Learning Education Religion Loyalty and Civillity in all which the Quakers will at last upon a serious reveiw and true account be found far beyond their Accusers and then also left by Law to the Lusts of lawlesse lewd liv'd Ones to be made a Prey of Bish. Nothing but truly Christian and Evangellical Principles which are in the good old Way do secure Kings or bind Subjects to their good behaviour Answ. As the Bishop hath commended the Quakers in some respects So we shall freely justifie him so far as he confesses to the Truth and that he doth plainly and sufficiently enough in this place but that as elsewhere where Tollite is his Tone af●…er Tolerate he starts aside again from his own Position and stands not stedfastly to it when he has done for if he did the Quakers should hear no more from him such Words concerning them as he uses in the same page a little before pag. 6. viz. Never trust the most innocent Smiles and harmless Simplicities of Innovators Dissenrers Novellizing Humourists though at first like Serpents in Winter they seem very tame and meek as to their Principles and Practices But whatever he means for the Truths sake we shall take him here however at his Word for in very deed no other but those truly Christian and Evangelical Principles which are in the good old Way can either secure Kings o●… bind Subjects to their good behaviour nevertheless that either that furious way which some Priests would perswade their Princes to drive on in Iehu-like or the practice of such Iustices as before the Quakers have any way mis-behaved themselves demand Sureties of them for their good behavour or else send them to Prison is that good old Way or the Principles of such as perswade or practise Persecution are these truly Christian and Evangelical Principles whereby either Kings are best secured or Subjects best bound to their good behaviour this we altogether do deny affirming first that good old Way which in worth and time was before all other wayes is that of the Spirit and Light of Christ within men which we in as much clearness and plainness bear our Testimony unto as its dark Opponents do in their ignorant plainness appear against it in one Taunting Term or other in which our more beloved than in this point believed friend Bishop Gauden himself is not found wanting who pag. 5. derides it as a presumed Spirit and Light within them new Powers new Lights pretended Inspirations or inward Lights of which they vapour As if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is to be known of God were not though Paul saith it is in the very Heathens Rom. 1. 19. manifest in them As if there were no Spirit of God in man that giveth Wisdom and no Inspiration of the Almighty though Iob sayes there is Job 32. 7 8 9. that giveth understanding As if God did not now speak to man himself at all though it 's said he doth once yea twice Job 33. 14 because man in whom he speaks perceiveth him not As if there were no such Light come into the whole World as Christ sayes there is John 3. which is in it self sufficient to save those that perish because the world mostly loves the Darkness more than that Light that Lusts against it in their Hearts and so resists it to their Condemnation And as if because every Individual takes not heed to the workings and shinings of it therefore there were no true Power nor true Light as it 's said there is that enlightens every man that comes into the World but only some certain fictitious new Power and new Light promoted by the Quakers some non-entity which is as the Bishop sancies it to be nothing else but some mee●… new nothing But this we say what ere he thinks is that goold old Way yea that truly Christian and Evangelical inward Principle from which all truly Christian Doctrine Gospel Principles and Practices do proceed This is that internal good Princiciple by which as by Ministers without to many ad extra so ad intra the Gospel of Love and Pitty Peace and Mercy Gentleness and Innocency Truth and Equity Purity and Piety is as Paul saith Col. 1. 23. Preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Creature under Heaven This is that new and novel way as the Bishop counts it which if we prove it not to be of All wayes as well the Antientest as the Truest when ever called to it by the Bishops as we never yet were we shall be as ready to recant it as retain it This Light was that way from the beginning in which Ab●…l Enoch and Noah walked with God and were found perfect which was 2000. years before the Letter which came from it had its being

very Rough Barbarous Unwelcome Unchristian Way disallowed by all wise Men of all Perswasions that mear Plagiary Counsels and Punitive Courses are never likely to obtain c. That he is against heavy Mulcts Rigorous Exactions c. And that such Severity possibly now in England would be not onely destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and his Kingdomes to the Trade and Commerce of the Nation and much more on this Part to the Same Tune Yet contrariwise here to go round again he intimates it to be no lesse then Folly and Injustice necessarily injurious to the Community utterly Inconsistent with the safety and happinesse of it for any King not to use such like Severities but to Exercise the same Lenity to any Party of his Dissenting Subjects Moreover as if he were wedded to his Wonted way of Walking the Rounds whereas before he gave us to understand that Actions though inconform to the Lawes Establisht may be innocent Actions Yet here he gives us to understand the clean Contrary viz. that Non-conformity of all Parties to the same Laws about Religion cannot possibly be Innocent or in a Community consistent without injury thus Diruit aedisicat mutat quadrata Rotundis what he calls Innocency in one place that he calls injury in another and what he holds out to be Wisdome and Iustice in one Page that he holds out to be Irreligion Unreasonablenesse Folly and Unrighteousnesse in another To conclude whereas he sayes the Laws must be the Rules and Measures of all Mens Publick Actions if by Lawes he means those that men in their own wills and wisdomes make as touching Religion we deny his Assertion for these Reasons First because the Light of the Spirit of God according to the Scriptures of Truth is and ought to be the onely Rule and Measure of all Mens Publick Actions in all Spiritual and Religious Matters Secondly Because by dayly experience it appears that the Lawes of men are liable to Mutations Alteratio●…s and Repea●…s according to the prevalency and constitution Respectively of those that make them and yet though such may lawfully be the Rules and Measures of mens Manners in meer Outward Mutable and Civil Matters when altered not for the worse but for the better But that which is to be the Standard and Measure in matters meerly Spiritual as Faith and Worship are must be something that is ●…xt ●…irm immutable as no outward Letter Writing or Scripture is without liablenesse to mis-interpretation not subject to be Rep●…aled by man For the Foundation of God stands sure and all his requirings must and ought to be answered notwithstanding any of mans Lawes and Edicts to the Contrary By this time it is sufficiently apparent how the Bishops Rabbinicab rigidity to the Quakers as well as others to whom he would be thought a greater Friend and far more favourable then to other Dissenters hath bewrayed it self and so much the more shamefully First by how much he slyly betrayes them before-hand by his Consent to the Act into a tasting of the same Cup of Excommunication from the comfortable Enjoyment of their Native Countries and from the Commerce with the Community of English subjects From Participating of that Native Gentlenesse and Royal Clemency which the King hath seemed alwayes ready to Expresse to all of what Prosession of Religion soever that live Peaceably in his Dominions as the Quakers do save onely that they cannot sin against their Consciences and so against God for which the Bishop praises them And Secondly by how much he would shrowd all his doings and sayings under that shelterlesse Shrub of such Empty Expressions and Non-enticall Notions as his Charitable endeavours Humanity Facility Gentlenesse Lenity Paternal Compassion c. For all the courses he consents at least and sometimes incites to of Fines Prisons Banishment like those of the King of Castile which himself calls Barbarous and Unchristian which yet himself Diminishes when he is found Inciting to them and will admit to be stiled by no harsher or stricter Name being as blind at home as Eagle-ey'd abroad then those Severities which the Kings Native Gentlenesse may be Compelled to use at last and it may be too late and which not the Kings benignity but Publick necessity doth require of a Wise and Iust King whose Lenity to any Non-conforming Party of his Subjects will soon be injury to the safety and happinesse of the Community Pag. 3 4. We say all this his Unchristian Cruelty comes Marching in under a Mask of Christian Charity to which his Native Temper and Candor which abhors after the genius of Primitive Christians all severity or rigors onely upon the sco●…e of Religion doth incline him And Thirdly By how much he deems he hath deserved so well from that People as that saving onely their Morosness in respect of which he does not he might very justly expect thanks from them for his pains as appears by his words that follow Bish. Nor do I expect any thanks for my pains from any of that faction while they continue in their morose opinions in their surly rude and uncourteous manners I do not hear that they are generally a people of so soft and ingenious tempers as to take any thing kindly or thankfully from those that are not of their own Perswasion many of them seem to affect a reserved and Rustical way of Clownish yea of Scornful Demeanour prone to censure despise and reproach not onely their betters but even their Benefactors and Instructors Answ. This course of thanking Clergy-men for their pains that won●…ed Gratulation they have long had from the Great Ones when they have done any thing that is counted by themselves a piece of Service to God or men in which if they did all that they ought to do and that 's more too then they believe in this World they shall be ever inabled to do they ought of right rather to say we are but unprofitable servants we have done what we ought that it is now become a matter wel-nigh of custome among such of them as love the praise of men more then the praise of God to expect yea to exact it as their Right and that so ridgidly that it s counted a surly rude uncourteous rusticall way of Clownish yea scornful Demeanour not to use it Yea with such a strictnesse as in the Case of Tythes and other of their Priviledges and proper Honoraries which being once of Old given and received on no other account then as the Almes to all the Churches Poor out of which the poor Priests and Curates had their Part that gratuity and benevolence of the People is now laid claime to with such eagernesse and earnestnesse as their own not onely jure humano but divino that they condemn it as no lesse then Injustice in People that deny to pay it as that which is as due to them as any mans estate is due to him and as not onely allowed but ordained of