Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A25539
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An Answer to a paper intitled, Reflections on the Prince of Orange's declaration
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3331; ESTC R16002
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8,195
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10
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had the Pagan Laws been Executed by which Parallel he would warrant Popery to be the true Christianity and the Protestant the Healthen Persecutors Laws for Idolatry cannot bind therefore Laws against it cannot a very strange inference and I allow that a Lawful Authority by exceeding their just Bounds may act unlawfully but the Legislative power cannot since all over the World the Supream power ever was absolute be it in one or more He says no Man is obliged to maintain a Religion that is not true be it never so Legally Established So that is but saying the Protestant Religion is not true and His Majesty notwithstanding His repeated ingagement is no longer bound to protect it For in the words of our Reflector 't is an absurdity and impiety to do so 6. The sixth thing considerable in our Reflector is his defence of the Dispensing Power and the use His Majesty seduc'd by his Evil Councelors makes of it which is no other than the setting aside of all our Laws made for the security of the Protestant Religion But sure such a Prerogative can never be Legally vested in the Crown which if admitted were the destruction of all Law. Had those Evil Counsellors only prevailed with His Majesty to have Dispensed with the Penalties inflicted on Catholicks and other Dissenters for serving God according to their Particular Consciences tho' perhaps contrary to Law the matter had never been Complained of But to put them into places of Highest trust to make one Lieutenant of Ireland another President of the Council a third Lieutenant General of the Tower a fourth a Judge imploying numbers of them in the Army Court c. is a transgression of the Law which is certainly very dangerous if not immediately yet in its inevitable Consequences to the Protestant Religion and Government and therefore a mischief remote only as an Egg is from a Chicken from the worthy reflectors Malum in se which he acknowledges this Dispensing Power extends not to And the particular Catholicks breaking the Law in these points are without excuse For no Man is obliged in Conscience to be a Judge a Priest a Minister a Privy Councellor a Courtier or a Souldier in time of Peace contrary to the Laws of the Land. Nor do those Laws deprive the King of the service of any of his Subjects absolutely since all men if they please may Capacitate themselves for imployment If the High Commission Court be at an End Magdalem Colledge and the Bishop of London restored we may in all appearance thank the honesty and Caution of some of its worthy Members and the Noise of what our Reflector calls the Prince of Orange's Invasion though some will say a discent upon England made by a Prince of the Blood Married to the Eldest Daughter of the present King upon the invitation of many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and of the considerable Gentry Commonalty of all Counties might here deserved a fairer Name Nor ought any man to complain if his honest Neighbour break violently into his house at a time when his Family cry out Fire or Murther the Common obligation of humanity and a due care of their own preservation exact no less of them But this Paper is not intended for a vindication of the Prince I will therefore return to my Reflector again who undertakes for all good Protestants that they only refus'd to repeal the Test by reason of the security it affords their Religion As if they had cast off all care of their Civil concerns and were only intent upon Religious affairs so as to consent to give his Majesty a Majority of Papists in the House of Lords by which he might have two Negative Voices upon all Laws to be offer'd and an House of Pears ready to repeal the Habeas Corpus Bill and such Statutes as any ways seem to incumber what Papists think his Majesties Prerogative of which they maintain the Dispensing Power to be an Essential part and well they may since it is the very power by which he maintains them in their places and imployments So that by leave of my worthy Reflector the consideration of Religion tho' they are the principal are not the only reasons that have determined all good Protestants to a Non-concurrence with His Majesty in the repeal of the Test 8. In his eighth Reflection he tells us that Chappels are places of Devotion so are the Turks Mosques and the Jews Synagogues yet no good Christian but would be offended to see them multiply'd and encouraged either in his own or his Neighbours Country 9. In his ninth he tells us the King was content the Test should remain I answer these Evil Counsellours were not content the Test should remain but sent their Regulators and other Agents to threaten promise remove and change the Magistrates in all Corporations in order to the procuring Members of Parliament such as were to enter the House under solemn promises and firm resolutions to take off the Penal Laws and Test notwithstanding all the weighty nay convincing Arguments they might meet with there to the contrary A desperate sort of Senators and fitter for Catalines Conspiracies than an English Parliament Nor did these Evil Counsellours cease to sollicit even Knights of the Shire till the general indignation their proposals met with together with the noise of the Prince of Orange's preparations frighted them from a further prosecution of their enormous attempt He ingeniously confesses the seizing of Charters to have been a fault so there is no contest between us on that point but he adds That the Prince of Orange has nothing to do with it now others think him highly concern'd in it for if according to Sir Thomas Moore Rex Potest Juriper Parta mentum potest destrui or according to the Opinion of later times a Parliament may make a Bill of Exclusion a Prince that has so near a Relation to the Crown of England ought not to suffer any foul play in the calling together such an Assembly as may null his Title or preclude him of his Right to the Crown in time to come 'T is true the Council of seizing Charters was given in the last Kings Reign and most of them then seized but no man can deny but some have been condemned and seized in the Reign of his present Majesty and restored not till the universal apprehension of the aforesaid Invasion so that we are promised a Free Parliament only because they cannot put one of their own framing upon us 10. His tenth Paragraph needs no answer 11. In his eleventh he tells us there were but two Papist Judges as if the Laws were not broken unless Judges were all Papists or that Judges sitting contrary to Law could give a Legal Sentence Both these defects he supposes supplyed by the Dispencing Power a power sufficiently baffled by those Gentlemen of the lorg Robe of Councel for the Bishops and not defended by either Judges or Councel on the other side for