Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A25451
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Animadversions upon Mijn Heer Fagels letter concerning our penal laws and tests with remarks upon that subject, occasioned by the publishing of that letter.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3204; ESTC R37289
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44,038
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32
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OF ALL HIS LOVING SUBJECTS The other granted by their Highnesses THAT NO CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE ILL USED BECAUSE HE DIFFERS FROM THE PULICK AND ESTABLISHED RELIGION There is one thing more occurs which I shall offer to consideration which seems to me taken singly if there were no more to be alledged in this case a good reason why these Penal Laws which require the taking of the Sacrament Oaths and Tests should be either in express terms repealed or which is tantamount by some new Law so explained and limitted as that the Penalties and Disabilites may not be inevitable but some way or other by and consistent with the discharge of a good Conscience towards God and the King be avoided For as the case now stands His Majesty being pleased to Nominate Authorize and Appoint many Persons who are Dissenters from the Established Religion and in that regard cannot with a good Conscience take Sacraments Oaths and Tests in the manner they are enjoyned to execute several publick Offices and some such Persons may also be Called or Elected to serve in Parliament If any of them do refuse to serve in any of these publick Offices or Places of Trust they are by our Laws liable to be very ill used by Fines and Imprisonments and that justly too as is presumed because they refuse to Execute such Offices and Places of Trust as are not only Lawful but Necessary and must be Executed by them or some others No Man can by our present Laws excuse himself when he is not legally priviledged or exempted from any Service to which he is lawfully called by his own Default that is by his not qualifying himself according to the Directions of Law for the Execution of those Places and if he do accept and serve in those Places without such a Qualfication to which he cannot in Conscience submit he is obnoxious to as ill usage for Serving and Acting in those Offices and Places of Trust as if he refused so that until the Law be otherwise declared or some suiteable Provision in this case made by some other Law. Such as are most consciencious and desirous to discharge that respective Duty which they ow to God their King and their Country in our present Circumstances are more liable then any others to be very ill used and if this be well considered that the King who has the sole Nomination and Power to Authorize such Persons as he pleases to serve in places of highest Judicature and Trust And Electors if they may have their free Choice as by Law they ought to have will probably in many places chuse such as are Dissenters to serve in Parliament when his Majesty shall please to send out his Writs for that purpose It ought to be shewn That as the Laws now are the King has no Power to Appoint or Command and the Electors no Power to chuse such Persons to serve in Offices or Places of Trust or otherwise it is requisit that these present Laws be Repealed or so far altered and limitted that such as are Dissenters may be secured in their Consciences Civil Liberties and Properties either for serving without taking the Sacrament Oaths and Tests or for refusing to serve because they cannot take them and whosoever shall well weigh the apparent Inconveniences and ill Consequences that are likely to follow on the one Hand by any Person being permitted to excuse himself from a hazardous or chargeable Office or Place of Trust upon pretence of Conscience and the difficulty of contriving any such Law as shall limit the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects Election so as that the King shall not command any of his Subjects to attend his Person serve in Parliament or execute any publick Office or Imployment Civil or Military but such only as voluntarily have or will take the Sacrament Oaths and Tests and so as the Penalty incurred shall fall upon the Persons who Elect any Man to serve in Parliament or to any such Office in case the Person Elected will not Voluntary take them in manner as by Law prescribed And if it be consider'd on the other Hand how justifiable and equal it is and how we may be by other ways secured against all Hazards if these Penal Laws and Tests be Repealed It may appear more easie and safe to Repeal these Laws and Tests then to contrive any New Law consistent with the continuance of those Laws in force which shall be effectual to remedy the aforementioned and now unavoidable Inconveniences What his Lordship says pag. 4 5. That there is a great difference to be observed in the Conduct of those of the Reformed Religion where they have the Government towards Roman Catholick's and of the Conduct of the Roman Catholick's where they have the Government towards such as are of the Reformed Religion connot be denyed and this may be a caution why no Protestant Governors of a Protestant Nation should voluntarily invite any Roman Catholick's to take a share with them in their Government who cannot claim any right in it but this does not reach our Case at all We are providentially brought under the Government of a Sovereign Prince who is of the Roman Catholick Religion And he hath many Subjects of the same Religion who by the Laws of Nature claim according to their Quality and Numbers an equal share with others in the enjoyment of Civil Rights and Priviledges and under our present Circumstances it is equally as unjust unsafe to press for the execution of such Penal Laws against them for their Religions sake as it would be to press for the observance of Rules made in a common Case when we fall under such Emergenies as require the supersion of them Besides as we have a Prince of the Roman Catholick Religion so we have also a Soveraign who in this respect differs from and excels all others of that Religion in that His desires are to settle all things on such a Foundation as may be a lasting security to all his Subjects so far as Soveraign Power the wisdom of a Parliament subjects consent and common interest of the whole can provide that none of them may suffer any dammage in their civil Rights for the sake of their Religion and that all civil Interests notwithstanding their different opinions in Religion may be united in the common defence and Security of his Majesties Kingdoms a thing most desirable in its self and most conducible to the Safety Welfare and Honour of the Nation Other Neighbouring Kings and States may well be jealous of and underhand indeavour what they can to prevent such a Settlement but in contemplation that their Highnesses are in a possibility of suceeding in the Throne I see no reason why it should not be esteemed their Interest to promote the settlement of his Majesties Three Kingdomes on suth a Foundation of Peace and Union as is designed by his Royal and Gracious Declaration And if none of these things which I have written can prevail with his Lordship to move their Highnesses to give their Consent and Assistance upon such due terms of caution as are offered by his Majesty to the repeal of these Penal Laws and Tests which stand in the way of such a peaceable and lasting Settlement as is proposed and desired yet I hope it may prevail with him so to represent to their Highnesses such of the Dissenters as in their respective Stations indeavour the accomplishment thereof as that their Highnesses may not be offended thereat Because what they have done and shall do herein IS OUT OF GRATITUDE AND DUTY TO HIS MAJESTY OBEDIENCE TO THE GENERAL LAWS BOTH OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION AND LOVE TO THE PRINCIPLES AND PROSPERITY OF THE REFORMED RELIGION Which forbids every Man to do that to another which he would not have done to himself and commands every Man to do his present duty to God in the first place and to his present Soveraign in the next place leaving the success and future events of their so doing to the Wise and Gracious disposal of God who judgeth amongst the Gods sitteth upon the Floods as King for ever does Rule and Will over-Rule all things as for his own Glory so also for the good of them that sear him and knows how to deliver the Godly out of Tamptations Into whose Hands it is better to commit the keeping of our Souls in well-doing with such hazards as attend the outward Man then for the preservation of the outward Man to strain any Religious Opinion in reference to civil Concerns in any such manner or measure as is inconsistent with the general Laws of Religion and Nature for whoever makes use of any such method to preserve his civil Concerns or defend or propagate his Religion it may be suspected he is either wrong in his Opinion or takes a wrong course to maintain it FINIS
as to Military Employments in his Lordships Country as he has exprest it and also with an Exception as to our Kingdom which as Sr. Edward Coke Chief Justice has well Observ'd is divided not only by the Seas but by its own Laws from all the rest of the World for that they have no dependance upon any Forreign Law whatsoever no not upon the Civil Law but are in such a manner Appropriated to it self as that no forreign Precedents are to be objected against it And with this special Exception in the very Act of Parliament for the taking the Parliamentary-Test in Relation to the the King's Majesty that now is being then Duke of York and Heir Presumptive to the Crown which in Right of Succession to His Royal Brother He now Enjoys there is a Proviso made in these words Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend to His Royal Highness the Duke of York Provided had been sufficient and I presume always will be construed only as Redundant But as there is no express Saving so neither is there any express limitation of the King's Prerogative in that Act. I also conceive That His Lordships Assertion ought to be taken with an Explanation or farther Exception of such Governments as by their Laws and Constitutions admit of the Publick Exercise of both Religions Roman Catholick and Reformed and also of all such Imperial Dyets in Germany and Poland as are Constituted of of Princes and Palatinates as well of one as of the other Religion And tho I have no other Exceptions to add in matter of Fact as it is limited to Christian States yet among such as are of the Reformed Religion who acknowledge the Authority and Verity of the Holy Scripture It may be alledged that Ab Origine it was no General Rule Law or Reason of State in Relation to Civil Government That all who were admitted to Publick Employment should be of one and the same Religion I omit to instance those mean Examples which may be given from thence to the Contrary I shall mention only that of the Babylonian and Persian Kings Nebuchadnezzar gave directions to the Master of his Eunuchs to bring the Choicest of the Isralites for Wisdom and Knowledge to stand in the Kings Pallace Daniel and his Brethren were brought and stood before the King tho they neither were of nor would take any care to secure the Kings Religion or the Publick Worship of the Countrey And these and others of their Nation were promoted by him And the Succeeding Persian Monarchs in Places of Trust and Publick Employments and obtained great Priviledges in relation to their own Religion Nation Countrey and Principal City But it is to be observed That tho Liberty-of-Conscience was rarely Interdicted by any of the Great Monarchs before or till the Age after our Saviours manifestation in the Flesh so that to dissent from any Established Religion was no impediment to a Secular Employment yet an Antichristian Spirit ever and anon discovered it self in such as had a form of Godliness in their Disturbing and Opposing the true Servants of God in the Peaceable Enjoyment of their Civil and Religious Liberties upon the account of their dissent from such Forms of Worship as by Custom or Tradition were commonly used Reformation according to the Revealed Will of God has often been maligned whereof we have also divers instances in Scripture one I shall mention because tho it be a digression it seems apt to our present purpose The Laws of the Medes and Persian were as by a stated Maxime esteemed unalterable Cyrus their King as also his Successors having experience of the Wisdom and Fidelity of some of the Jews in their Captivity not only placed them in Publick Employments but granted them as a special Favour the Rebuilding of their City and the Temple of God and Restitution of His Worship at Jerusalem according to the Divine Law. The Kings great Officers and the Nations inhabiting in the Countries Adjacent tho they pretended to seek and do Sacrifice to the same God yet being Adversaries to the Jews Restitution and Reformation of Divine Worship obtained countermands to this Persian Kings decree and even in the Reign of Cyrus hired Councellors to frustrate the Jews purposes and by Royal Orders obtained contrary to the first Decree Interrupted the Progress full Accomplishment thereof for many years after And tho these King had Experience of the Fidelity of the Persons to whom these Favours were granted yet on Pretensions that the Grants would be to the Kings damage and that the Jews in general were as some of them at certain seasons had shew'd themselves to be a Seditious People They were prevented for a long time of the full Enjoyment of the Priviledges Granted In like manner so far as the parallel in a due construction will bear If the States of the United Netherlands had made such a Judgment Universally of all that were of the Communion of the Church of Rome That they were and would be persidious to their Civil Governours of another Religion And had for that Reason in the first formation of their State rejected those Roman Catholicks who joyned with them in defending their Publick Liberty They never could have had that Experience of their Fidelity and Eminent Service for which his Lordship now applauds them It is not my part to speak any thing more concerning the English Roman Catholicks upon this ccasion then only to refer to such of our Laws as in Ages past were made by them to Vindicate and Guard the Kings Prerogative and the Rights of his Subjects against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and Clergy of that Communion But I conceive his Lordship by observing the different conduct of those of the Reformed Religion where they have the Government toward the Roman Catholicks from what the Roman Catholicks is where they have the Power and reckon themselves safe towards those of the Reformed Religion hath administred a fair occasion to His Majesties Subjects of that Communion to manisest how far it consists with their Religion and Resolution whether admitted into or debarr'd from places of Trust and Publick Employments indispensably to persist in their Obdience to the Soveraign Majesty of this Kingdom and Amicable and Peaceable Behaviour towards all their fellow Subjects of the Reformed Religion And whether they will contribute their assistance in their respective Capacities for establishing and preserving Liberty of Conscience on such a Foundation as may secure all sorts of Dissenters now and herereafter from all Penalties and Coercion For if by any such Declaration it should appear we have English Roman Catholickt like unto those of the Netherlands This might perhaps make way for some distinctions to be made in future provisions by Law as heretofore has been done between some Roman Catholicks and others so as to avoid the general condemnation of all who are of their Communion as other parties have been to the injury of many Thousands