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A81730 Draught of an Act for Toleration with a few short remarks thereupon 1695 (1695) Wing D2141B; ESTC N7570 4,581 4

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Draught of an ACT FOR TOLERATION WITH A few short REMARKS thereupon THe Queen's Majesty taking to Her serious Consideration That a great and considerable part of Her Subjects in this Her ancient Kingdom have been Baptised and Educated in the Communion of the Episcopal Church and are of the Episcopal Principles and Perswasion and averse from the joining with the Presbyterian Government according to the present Establishment and the Exercise of it And Her Majesty being desireous to give just and due Ease to all Her Subjects doth therefore with the Advice and Consent of the Estates of Parliament Statute Enact and ordain that from henceforth it shall be Lawful for all Her Majesty's Subjects of the Episcopal Perswasion to hold Meetings for Divine Worship with and to hear God's Word and receive the Holy Sacraments from Ministers of the Episcopal Perswasion in all Towns and Parishes of this Kingdom without any Lett or Impediment whatsomever As also That it shall be lawful for such Parishes as are now or hereafter shall be vacant where in the plurality of the Heretors Liferenters and Tenents having standing Tacks are of the Episcopal Perswasion to call Episcopal Ministers for to Preach the Gospel to Administer the Sacraments and to Exercise Church-discipline in their respective Parishes and Stations to which they shall be called As also to have full Right and Title to their respective Manses and Gliebs and to the legally settled Stipends Maintenances and Benefices appointed and settled by Law upon such Ministers as serve in the said Parishes according to Law and Custom certifying all such as presume to Interrupt or Disturb such Ministers either in Meeting-houses or Parish Churches in the exercise of their Function that they shall be punished conform to the good and wholesome Laws made by Her Majesty's Religious Predecessors for the Protection of the Ministers of the Gospel and appoints all Her Majesty's Judges to decern accordingly And in case any such Episcopal Ministers shall be found to Preach any Seditious Doctrines tending to Disloyalty or to the Disturbance of the publick Peace and Government or contrary to the Protestant Religion that they shall only be convented before the Privy Council or such as shall be appointed by them and punished according to the demerit of their Crime and Offences And it is hereby Statute Enacted and Ordained That the foresaid Indulgence and Toleration shall have full Force and Effect from the Day and Date of these presents and that notwithstanding of any former Acts of Parliament which from henceforth shall make no Derogation from the Force of this present Indulgence and Toleration Finally It is hereby Enacted and Appointed That the Lords of Privy Council and Lords of Session Sheriffs and all others Her Majesty's Judges shall interpret this present Act of Indulgence and Toleration in the most Benign and Favourable Sense in behalf of the said Indulged Ministers and see it put to vigorous Execution in all points REMARKS upon the foregoing Draught THis being the Second Embrio or Specimen handed about by the Promoters of the Toleration-Project we may take it as the Result of their Riper Thoughts and be allowed briefly to consider it 1. Among the many Arguments given against any Toleration to Prelatical Dissenters in our present Circumstances this is one never yet Answered That as it is the Civil Interest of every Nation to have but one established National Church-Government Disciplin and Worship so also that every Person within the Nation should conform themselves thereto And that never yet did any Wise People grant a legal Toleration to Dissenters where the Dissent was not sounded either upon doubtful and scrupled Terms of Communion or upon the Hardships of external Force But neither of these can be alledged in the present Case and therefore all Toleration must tend to cherish a Pernicious Party and soment a Wicked Design of overturning the present Quiet and Happy Establishment 2. This Toleration being only for Episcopalians doth most directly set them up in competition with and in some respects preserably to Presbytry to try their skill and strength in overthrowing the legal Church 3. The Ministers Indulg'd or Tolerated are by this Draught to give no Evidence either of their Loyalty or Orthodoxy so that their Principles both contrary to the Confession of Faith and against Her Majesty's Succession and Government as declared by the Meeting of Estates are reserved and secured and they are at liberty tho' not ●o Preach yet to Traffique and Practise for the Pretender at St. Germains according to their known Inclinations By the Former Draught they were to swear the Allegiance and to sign the Consession contained in the Test and enacted in the Reign of K. Ja. 6. Which Condition tho' derogatory to the Act of Parliament 1690 ratifying the Westminster Consession and in so far a Retrograde step to the Rudiments of our Reformation and consequently backwards to Popery yet it was better than nothing at all But it seems tho' some have Latitude enough for Swearing and Signing in subserviency to Designs of greater Service yet it is found upon after-Thoughts that even that Consession is of too hard Digestion to others as containing some Principles of Liberty and against Arbitrary Courses and such like Tenets as are not for their purpose 4. This Draught founds the Dissent from Communion upon being Baptised and Educated in the Communion of the Episcopal Church That their Education hinders not their peaceable joining with the National Worship is plain from the Experience of several Years since the Revolution till within these few Moneths that some have been practised inro a contrary Byass And it is no less plain that their Educators the Ministers can never have the Brow to pretend the least Pinch or Qualm of Conscience in this Matter Since their own Addresses to King William and to his High Commissioner the Earl of Tullibardine as likewise those to the General Assembly 1692 upon the Formula sent from Court are standing Witnesses against them But that their being Baptised in the Episcopal Communion should be mentioned as a Ground of their Dissent is altogether surprizing As if the Episcopal Baptism were not that one Baptism of the Catholick Church which the Presbyterians hold their Baptism to be For whatever Grounds Presbyterians give for separating from Prelatical Communion yet they never gave their Baptism for one But it seems by this Scheme that the Episcopal People are taught to reckon themselves Baptised unto Prelacy and not unto Christ And unto what then are their Children Baptised since the Revolution Or unto what were the Conformists of the late times Baptised before Prelacy came in This is an Insinuation of the last Disgrace among Protestants and only fit for the Dragoon-Conversions of France where it a Popish Surgeon or Midwife Baptised a Child that Child was ever after to be held as a Roman Catholick 5. What makes any of the People of this Nation averse from joining with Presbyterian Government and