Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A33738
|
Animadversions on a late paper entituled, A letter to a dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence by H.C.
|
Care, Henry, 1646-1688.
|
1687
(1687)
|
Wing C505; ESTC R224285
|
24,327
|
42
|
always adjudged to be Part of the Royal Prerogative For example the Law dooms every Person convicted of Burghlary or picking a Pocket to die Our Kings have frequently in all times remitted the Execution Was this ever thought to be a Repeal of those Laws or any Infringment of all the rest And if it be so in Civil Cases wherein the Subject is concerned in the Injury and where the Matter to be restrained by the Laws is not only Malum prohibitum but Malum in se not meerly evil because forbidden but forbidden because intrinsecally evil Then a fortiori much more strongly it follows that his Majesty may suspend the Execution of the Penalties which by these Laws relating to Ecclesiastical Affairs are inflicted on Actions or Defaults so far from being in themselves Criminal That a very great part of them are undoubtedly allow'd by the Laws of God Nature and Reason And so much the rather may his Majesty exert this Right since these Penal Statutes generally in their Preambles which are Claves Legum the Keys that open to us the Occasion and consequently the main Scope and End of Enacting them affirm that they were made for the Security of the Princes Person and to prevent Treason Insurrections and Sedition so that his Majesty is principally and immediately concern'd therein and since He must be allowed the best Judg of his own Security if he shall find that there is no need of putting such Statutes in Execution to that End but rather that the Non-Execution thereof will more conduce to his Safety and the publick Repose and therefore thinks fit to supersede or forbear the exacting the Penalties Where is the Wrong To whom the Injury So that hitherto neither was the King's Declaration an Irregular Act nor the Dissenters thanking him for it any such desperate Business as to make them forfeit their Right in all other Laws of their Country but most true it is that whilst these Church-driving Laws stand in Force if the Execution of them happen into some Hands we know by Experience that there are a thousand very small Matters of which any one by the dexterous Management of the Gentlemen of Doctors Commons is enough not only to strip any Man of his Interest in the Laws but send his Body to the Gaol and in their aprehension his Soul to the Devil to boot And who can but Blush to hear some People upbraid the Romanists with that Tenet That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks which yet they with the highest Asseverations disclaim whilst at the same time Themselves would have so many Laws kept on Foot that give opportunity to every Villain to cheat any honest Man by taking Advantage of his Conscientious Dissent in Matters of Religion from the Establish'd Mode Witness the pleading of Excommunication in Bar of a just Action And the Disablement oâ— so many to maintain any Suit at Law or in Equity unless they first both receive the Sacrament according to the Usage of the Church of England and take the Tests But Parcius ista viris The Gentleman owns That the Church of England preserving too long the bitter Taste of that Vsage They had received in the times of our former Confusions sacrific'd their Interest to their Revenge A great Truth I had almost said the only one in his Paper But now quoth he they are sensible of their Mistake all their former Haughtiness is for ever extinguish'd Therefore you may securely trust them That in the next Parliament If you Dissenters will be Quiet and suffer them to carry Elections as they please They will do you Reason Ay and you shall have Liberty and the Papists never a Bit. Is there any Body that deserves not to wear a Muckender but must needs see through all this What better Hopes can Dissenters conceive of another Parliament of Bigotted Church-Men than of the Last who were generally stanch that way To go about to wheadle us with Promises of Liberty to Protestants but exclusive of Romanists is at this time of day such a palpable Banter as only shews the contemptible Opinion they have of the Dissenters Intellectuals Can it be imagined That the King can ever pass it Would it not be extravagant Rudeness to offer it Nay have not They themselves already by their Proxies made Overtures to the direct contrary To pretend now That They were only the Instruments not the Authors of the late Violences towards Dissenters as it exposes their Prudence and Honesty in the Fact so it manifests their Insincerity in the Excuse did they not by Concert throughout the Nation both in Pulpits Prints and Practices instigate and warrantize those Outrages Have we not seen them in Person animating Informers and with their own hands in some places pulling down Meeting-Houses Nay so high had the inveterate Venom swell'd that even distressed Foreign Protestants felt part of its Fury For by some of their good Wills none of the poor Ruinated Hugenots should have had any share of that Noble Charity which Royal Mercy had allow'd to be Collected and true English Bounty plentifully Contributed for their Relief But they must notwithstanding starve unless they would first conform to certain Rituals which either they did not understand or else could not be supposed according to their Education able in Conscience to comply with and so in flying one Rape upon their Souls were dangerously exposed to another Yet notwithstanding all these too common and unwarrantable Transports it must be acknowledged there were divers of the Establish'd Clergy who kept themselves free from that Epidemical Infection of the persecuting Spirit who did Christianly interpose and venture far in their Endeavours to stem the impetuous Torrent The Author of the several Conformists Pleas for the Nonconformists The Reverend Protestant Reconciler honest Mr. B lds and probably more than I have met with did publickly appear in Print And others in their Sermons and Practices declared their more healing and pacifick Principles May their Names be never mentioned without Respect and Honour May they never stand in need of that Compassion which they so bravely vouchsafed to others under Persecution May their Memories be had in perpetual Renown and especially let their Moderation for ever be imitated But as to the Generality of those that pride themselves with the Title of Churchmen it cannot be denied That as they reproach'd such their moderate Brethren with the odious Nick-Name of Trimmers so themselves went on Jehu's Pace nothing but a strict and severe Execution of all the most rigorous Laws would content them They daily both irritated Magistrates and the Skum of the People to the Holy Work At Guild-Hall-Chappel we have heard such enflaming Rhetorick as this speaking of the Dissenters Let them not call it Persecution 't is a just and necessary Prosecution and the most they can suffer is the least they deserve In pursuance of such Pulpit-Maxims Laws tho too harsh in themselves were wyre-drawn abundantly further than
thereof drawn by any Person or Persons other than some of those that subscribed the same respectively ever sent shewn or proposed to any of the Subscribers That then the Person or Persons making such Discovery shall upon his or their Application to the Bookseller whose Name and Habitation is hereunto prefix'd receive Directions where and of whom He or They and every of them making such Discovery may and shall besides most hearty thanks have and be honestly and Bonâ Fide paid a Reward of Fifty Pounds of Lawful Money of England The rest of his Supposals are of the same Leaven both for Truth and Charity Who are those Dissenters and on what part of the Globe do they dwell For sure they must be Antipodes to Ours that preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England That are under a Contract which obliges them upon a Forfeiture to make use of Inflaming Eloquence That apprehend their Wages would be retrench'd if they should be moderate Quite contrary they have with a most Christian Moderation so far overcome the Resentments of their past hard Usage or present Provocations that they treat that Church with all Friendliness and Respect But think they mean her no Harm when they wish those dangerous Weapons out of her hands which she has so long indiscreetly made use of only to ruine other innocent People and stab her own Reputation Does this Sir Politick T. W. or W. T. for some Criticks think that the truer Reading imagine Liberty of Conscience or Freedom to worship our Creator in such manner as we are convinc'd to be most agreeable to his Will without being jailed or undone for the same and without being scarr'd by sever Temporal Penalties to joyn externally and Hypocritically in a Religious Worship which our Consciences tell us is sinful does he I say conceit this noble Priviledg so cheap and vile a thing that none will appear for it but such as are either suborned with Money or have deserved to be hang'd Is it not a pretty Notion and much becoming a Statesman that those who chiefly to assert Liberty of Conscience though in a very bad and irregular way incurr'd the Want of a Pardon must after such Pardon obtained needs act against their Consciences if they offer to perswade any to endeavour the settling such Liberty regularly in a Legal Course Nor is his next politick Squint less impertinent as if one Prince might not for Reasons of State continue Friendship with another whose Conduct in some Particulars he highly disapproves nor know I how in that case he can more effectually declare such dislike than by steering a direct contrary Course himself His Noise of solliciting Addresses the Tyring Post-Horses with Circular Letters and threatning where Perswasions would not serve to procure them is all but the Product of a very bold Imagination And he has been sufficiently challenged to give but one single Instance Sure the Gentleman is Master of no great Stock of Gratitude at home that he can think the whole Nation so wondrous barren of it on one of the most glorious Occasions that ever were given for that good-natured Vertue to display it self Rather than faâ—â— of advancing Jealousies he seems willing to contradict himself as well as Truth and both complains of the Dissenters for their Forwardness and yet would have the World believe they were very backward in Addressing But still wherein I pray lies the harm of the thing it self that either there should need such Variety of Artifices to draw in the unwilling Or that can render them criminal that did with all ready Zeal make those grateful Acknowledgments This he undertakes to tell us pag. 8. 9. for I follow the first Edition and the Sum of his Discourse amounts to neither more nor less than this That the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was an IRREGVLAR ACT Very dutifully spoken therefore the Dissenters ought not to have taken any notice of it but to have forborn the Publick Exercise of their Religion till a Parliament had allowed it which if he and his Associates can help it shall never be But since they did not only receive the Benefit granted but publickly return his Majesty Thanks for it they thereby give a Blow to all the Laws by which their Religion and Liberty are to be protected and fall foul upon Magna Charta Which Chapter of it I beseech you Sir gave up their Right in the Laws for after giving Thanks for the Breach of one Law they lose the Right of complaining of the Breach of all the rest This is sed News but as good Luck would have it there is not one Article of it true for the Kings's Declaration was in it self not only a very pious prudent and gracious but according to the antient Constitution of this Realm a most Legal Act. The Dissenters had been the most inexcusably peevish People in the World if they had not accepted of it the most ungrateful if they had not thankfully acknowledged it and will be the most stupid Neglecters of their own Interest both Religious and Civil if they do not exret all their Endeavours towards having it established for Posterity by a Law Upon this occasion it may be expected that I should enter into a long Discourse in Affirmance of his Majesties Right to dispense with Coercive Laws in Matters of Religion But since that is already done by a far better Hand in a Just Treatise which may possibly er'e long see the Light I shall not actum agere or inlay my Copper with that Noble Author's Gold but content my self to say in general 1. That as it was the Right of our English Kings by the Common Law so it has been confirmed to themby several Statutes and they have accordingly exerted it time out of mind and particularly 't is reserved to the Crown by the Statute of 22 Car. 2 cap. 1. for preventing and suppressing seditious Conventicles in these Words Provided That neither this Act nor any thing therein contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs But that his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may from time to time and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all Powers and Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs as fully and as amply as himself or any of his Predecessors have or might have done the same Any thing in this Act notwithstanding 2. As to what is alledged touching all other Laws being by this Precedent shaken and that such as give Thanks for the Breach of One Law preclude themselves from complaining of the Breach of all the rest because on the like Ground the King may Repeal any other Statutes without Common Consent in Parliament It may readily be answered besides what has been already pointed at in the foregoing graph That there is a great difference between Repealing a Law and relaxing or dispensing with the Penalty The first can only be done in Parliament the latter has been