Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A77890
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An apology. for the Church of England, with relation to the spirit of persecution; for which she is accused
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing B5762B; ESTC R230169
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10,972
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9
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ever God in his Providence brings us again into a setled State out of the storm into which our passions and folly as well as the treachery of others has brought us it cannot be imagined that the Bishops will go off from those moderate Resolutions which they have now declared and they continuing firm to them the weak and Indiscreet passions of any of the Inferiour Clergy must needs vanish when they are under the conduct of wise and worthy Leaders And I will boldly say this that if the Ch of England after she has got out of this storm will return to hearken to the peevishness of some sour men she will be abandoned both of God and man and will set both Heaven and Earth against her The Nation sees too Visibly how dear the dispute a bout Conformity has cost us to stand any more upon such Punctilios and THOSE in whom our deliverance is wrapt up understand this matter too well and judge too right of it to imagin that ever they will be Priestridden in this point So that all considerations concur to make us conclude that there is no danger of our splitting a second time upon the same rock and indeed if any Argument were wanting to compleat the certainty of this point the wise and Generous behaviour of the main body of the Dissenters in this present Juncture has given them so just a Title to our friendship that we must resolve to set all the world against us if we can ever forget it and if we do not make them all the returns of ease and favour when it is in our power to do it X. It is to be hoped that when this is laid together it will have that effect on all sober and true Protestants as to make them forget the little angry Heats that have been among us and even to forget the Injuries that have been done us all that we do now one against another is to shorten the work of our Enemies by destroying one another which must in Conclusion turn to all our Ruin. It is a madmans revenge to destroy our Friends that we may do a pleasure to our Enemies upon their giving us some good words and if the Dissenters can trust to Papists after the usage that the Church of England has met with at their hands all the comfort that they can promise themselves when Popery begins to act its natural part among us and to set Smithfield again in a fire is that which befell some Quakers at Rome who were first put in the Inquisition but were afterwards removed to Bedlam so tho those false Brethren among the Dissenters who deceive them at present are certainly no Changlings but know well what they are doing yet those who can be cheated by them may well claim the Priviledge of a Bedlam when their Folly has left them no other retreat XI I will not digress too far from my present purpose nor enter into a discussion of the Dispensing power which was so effectually overthrown the other day at the Kings Bench Bar that I am sure all the Authority of the Bench it self is no more able to Support it yet some late Papers in favour of it give me occasion to add a little relating to that point It is true the Assertor of the Dispensing power who as lately appeared with allowance pretends that it can only be applied to the Test for publick Imployments for he owns that the Test for both Houses of Parliament is left entire as not within the compass of this extent of the Prerogative but another Writer whom by his fence we must conclude an Irish man by his brow a Jesuit and by the bare designation in the title page of James Stewarts letter a Quaker goes a strain higher and thinks the King is so absolutely the Soveraign as to the Legislative part of our Government that he may dissolve even the Parliament Test so nimbly has he leapt from being a Secretary to a Rebellion to be an Advocate for Tyranny He fancies that because no Parliament can bind up another therefore they cannot limit the Preliminarys to a subsequent Parliament But upon what is it then that Countyes have but two Knights and Burroughs as many that men below such a value have no vote that Sheriffs only receive Writs and return Elections besides many more necessary requisites to the making a legal Parliament In short if Laws do not regulate the Election and Constitution of a Parliament all these things may be overthrown and the King may cast the whole Government in a new Mould as well as dissolve the obligation that is on the Members of Parliament for taking the Test It is true that as soon as a Parliament is legally met and constituted it is tyed by no Laws so far as not to repeal them but the Preliminaries to a Parliament are still sacred as long as the Law stands that setled them for the Members are still in the quality of ordinary Subjects and not entred upon their share in the Legislative power till they are constituted in a Parliament legally chosen and Lawfully assembled that is having observed all the Requisites of the Law. But I leave that Impudent Letter to return to the most modest Apology that has been yet writ for the Dispensing power It yeilds that the King cannot abrogate lawes and pretends only that he can dispense with them and the distinction it puts between abrogation and Dispensation is that the one is a total repeal of the Law and that the other is only a slackning of its obligatory force with Relation to a particular man or to any body of men so that according to him a simple Abrogation or a total Repeal is beyond the compass of the Prerogative I desire then that this Doctrine may be applied to the following words of the Declaration from which the Reader may Infer whether these do Import a Simple Abrogation or not and by Consequence if the Declaration is not illegal We do hereby further Declare that it is our Royal will and pleasure that the Oaths commonly called the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance and also the several Tests and Declarations shall not at any time hereafter be required to be taken Declared or subscribed by any person or persons whatsoever who is or shall be Imployed in any Office or Place of Trust either Civil or Military under us or in our Government This is plain English and needs no Commentary That paper offers likewise an Expedient for securing Liberty of Conscience by which it will be set beyond even the Dispensing power and that is that by Act of Parliament all Persecution may be declared to be a thing evil in it self and then the Prerogative cannot reach it But unless this Author fancies that a Parliament is that which those of the Church of Rome believe a General Council to be I mean Infallible I do not see that such an Act would signify any thing at all An Act of Parliament cannot change the nature of things which are sullen and will not alter because a hard word is clapt on them in an Act of Parliament nor can that make that which is not evil of it self become evil of it self for can any Act of Parliament make the Clipping of Money or the not Burying in Woollen evil of it self Such an Act were indeed null of it self and would sink with its own weight even without the burden of the Prerogative to press it down and yet upon such a sandy foundation would these men have us build all our Hopes and our Securities Another topick like this is that we ought to trust to the truth of our Religion and the Providence and Protection of God and not lean so much to Laws and Tests All this were very pertinent if God had not already given us human Assurances against the Rage of our Enemies which we are now desired to abandon that so we may fall an easy and cheap Sacrifice to those who wait for the favourable moment to destroy us by the same reason they may persuade us to take off all our Doors or at least all our Locksand Bolts and to sleep in this exposed condition trusting to Gods Protection The simily may appear a little too high tho it is really short of the matter for we had better trust our selves to all the Thieves and Robbers of the town who would be perhaps contented with a part of our Goods then to those whose designs are equally against both Soul and Body and all that is dear to us XII I will only add another Reflection upon the renewing of the Declaration this year which has occasioned the present storm upon the Clergy It is repeated to us that so we may see that the King continues firm to the Promises he made last year Yet when men of honour have once given their word they take it ill if any do not trust to that but must needs have it repeated to them in the ordinary commerce of the world the repeating of promises over and over again is rather a ground of Suspition than of Confidence and if we judge of the accomplishment of all the other parts of the Declaration from that one which relates to the maintaining of the Church of England as by Law established the proceedings against the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge gives us no reason to conclude that this will be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians which alter not all the talk of the New Magna Charta cannot lay us asleep when we see so little regard had to the Old one As for the security which is offered us in this repeating of the Kings promises we must crave leave to remember that the King of France even after he had resolved to break the Edict of Nantes yet repeated in above an hundred Edicts that were reall and visible violations of that Edict a clause confirmatory of the Edict of Nantes declaring that he would never Violate it and in that we may see what account is to be had of all promises made to Hereticks in matters of Religion by any Prince of the Roman Communion but more particularly by a Prince who has put the conduct of his Conscience in the hands of a Jesuite FINIS