Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47798
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An answer to a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence / by Sir Roger L'Estrange.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing L1195; ESTC R24430
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50,153
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54
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Because the King's Commissioners would not agree That the Enjoying of Things Lawful by Lawful Authority if they may by Accident be the Occasion of Sin is Sinful His Majesty for the Purpose bids the Asserter of that Doctrine Light him a Candle No says he if it should happen to be Blown out and give Offence some bodies Throat may come to be Cut upon 't This is it now that our Author calls The Church of England's Sacrificing their Interest to their Revenge because they would not Agree to a Principle Absolutely Destructive of Human Society Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that Reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them So that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially then will be supposed of Men of your Morality and Vnderstanding p. 7. This Method of Reasoning is just as if a Man should Raise a Building upon a Foundation of Blown Bladders where there 's nothing but Wind and Blast to Support the Fabrick He runs away with the Fact for Granted Dilemma's upon it and so leaves the Matter in the Hands of Men of Morality and Vnderstanding If you had now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff and inexorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so land open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescension shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England And are you so in love with separation as not to be moved by this Example It ought to be followed were there no other Reason then that it is a Virtue but when besides that it is become necessary to your Preservation it is impossible to fail the having its Effect upon you This Party-per-Pale-Humour runs to the Tune of the Old Song And no body else shall Plunder but I For the Quarrel does not lye to the Dissenters so much for any Animosity of Theirs toward the Church of England but for breaking in upon our Author's Patent of Sole Privilege for the Abusing of them Himself There was a Time 't is True when Prelates says he were Rigid Vncharitable Vnreasonable Stiff and Inexorable Haughty and under the Power of the Spirit of Persecution c. But All is turn'd now it seems into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescension Quere if it should not have been Comprehension As witness the Pacifick Genius and Tenderness of the Author here and his Paper Is the Church of England so Reform'd the Letter's Church of England that is and will none of You my Masters come in to take your Parts in the Blessing Are you so in love with Separation that when Wee come down to You you 'l be running away from Vs For That 's the Meaning on 't 'T is your Interest as well as your Virtue to Associate And what 's All This now but the Down-right Project of Uniting into a Republique If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being believed when she pretendeth to it The Answer is First it would be an Vncharitable Objection and very much miss-timed An Vnseasonable Triumph not only Vngenerous but Vnsafe So that in These Respects it cannot be Vrged without Scandal even though it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a false foundation for whatever may be told you at this very Hour and in the Heat and Glare of your present Sunshine the Church of England can in a Moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads Blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a Smile or a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Compliance would throw you back into the State of Suffering and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the time of this Kindness to you and yet the Church of England with all her Faults will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means but chooseth to bear the Weight of Power rather then lye under the Burden of being Criminal p. 7 8. VVE have here as Lewd a Charactor given betwixt Hawk and Buzzard of the True Church of England from the Pen of a Pretended Church-of-England-Man as the Concurring Wit and Spite of the Greatest Enemy she has upon the Face of the Earth could put together Her Humility is made the Effect of her Impotence and therefore there 's No Believing of her says the Comment But then says the Author Handy Dandy That 's a little Vncharitable and Miss-timed and it is neither Generous nor Safe So that at This Season it could hardly be said without Scandal tho among Friends no more perhaps then Truth But then he Rubs up the Dissenters again with a Politick Flint that the Church of England Meaning â—his Church of England still is not so Low yet neither as People Imagine and that she Could in the next Moment Command Clouds and Thunder Turn Heaven and Earth Topsy-Turvj with but a Smile or a Kind Word But Our Author's Church of England scorns to be Rescued by such Vnjustifiable Means as giving the King Thanks and will rather beare the Weight of Power then the Burthen of being Criminal which is all one as to say Let the King do what he will he shall never make us Crouch either to his Authority or his Power like a Company of Sneaking Sniveling Loyal Thankful Rogues But have His Church-of-England-Men a Power to do All This as he says Why then they have the Power to make the King Break his Word and to Stop the Sun in his Course In fine his Majesties Faith Honour and Government at the rate of these Hussing Challenges lye all at Mercy It cannot be said that she is Vnprovoked Books and Letters come out every Day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the Style one would swear they were Vndertakers and had made a Contract to fall at with the Church of England There are â—â—…shes in every Address Challenges to 〈◊〉 the Pen in every Pamphlet In short the fairest Occasions in the Wâ—â—ld 〈…〉 Quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters 〈…〉 will suppose to Act as they do with no ill Intent and these small 〈…〉 and sent out to Picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the Entortainment as well as the Advantage of the Church of Rome p. 8. THat there are Provoking Books and Letters that Call for and that Answer is a Point
it seems for being so UNREASONABLY Thank full The King Grants them an Indulgence They Thank him for 't and That Vnreasonable Thankfullness says our Author will be their Ruine I hope he does not mean the King by that Destroying Power though I do not see any way in the World to keep his Majesty Clear of That Innuendo And Briefly the Edge Strikes the Same Way thorough the Whole Course of the Paper If you think for your excuse to expound your Thanks so as to restrain them to this particular case others for their ends will extend them further and in these differing Interpretations that which is back'd by Authority will be the most likely to prevail especially when by the advantage you have given them they have in truth the better of the Argument and that the Inferences from your own Concessions are very strong and express against you This is so far from being a groundless Supposition that there was a late instance of it in the last Session of Parliament in the House of Lords where the first Thanks though things of course were interpreted to be the Approbation of the King 's whole Speech and a Restraint from the further examination of any part of it though never so much disliked and it was with difficulty obtained not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dispensing meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good Manners by which no such thing could possibly be intended p. 6. I Find little more in This Paragraph or in This Page I might have said then a Rhetorical Reading upon the Virtue of INGRATITUDE and how Mortal a Sin it is under the Highest Obligations to a Prince for Subjects to be THANKFULL The Great Danger and Inconvenience that appears in This Section is the hazzard of Misconstruction for fear a man that gives Thanks for Chalk should be thought to give Thanks for Cheese Now it was my Opinion that a man might be as Explicit in his Thanks as upon Any Other Subject and if This Banter passes I am Absolutely for keeping my Hands in my Pocket and my Tongue betwixt my Teeth in my Own Defence for if a body either Speaks or Writes and Authority should make Treason on 't it might be as much as a man's Life's Worth. His Instance of a Case last Session of Parliament in the House of Lords is a Point too Hot for Mee to Meddle with But I may venture yet without the Risque I hope of a Scandalum Magnatum to take Notice of the Author's saying that the King's Speech was DISLIK'D A Term that I presume he had no Commission for And then for his Irony upon the MIGHTY Prerogative of Dispensing 't is a Flower not to be Pass'd over without an Emphasis In One Word more it is a Wonderful Thing that our Author's Head should run so much upon the Differing Interpretations that would be Pass'd upon his UNREASONABLE Thankfullness in such a Case as This and never so much as Dream of the Constructions that would be made on the Other Hand â—or certainly a more Vnreasonable Vnthankfullness This sheweth that some bounds are to be put to your good Breeding and that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a Complement Now that for some time you have enjoyed the benefit of the End it is time for you to look into the Danger of the Means The same Reason that made you desirous to get Liberty must make you solicitous to preserve it so that the next thought will naturally be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with the Principles of all Religions as not to rely upon a Death bed Repentance p. 6. THis Paragraph does in some Measure make good the Suggestion of the Next before concerning the Danger of Differing Interpretations for I cannot fully make out the Secret of the Author 's Meaning about the Principles of All Religions and a Death-bed Repentance unless he intends by it so Comprehensional a Charity that All Christians in what Latitude soever may go to Heaven Hand in Hand in the way of a Holy Common-Wealth He would not have the Constitution of England according to his Popular Vnderstanding of it Complemented away out of Good Breeding Neither would I have That Constitution according to the Legal and Monarchical Frame of it Coursly dealt withall Calumniated and Disparag'd out of Ill-Breeding He gives Advice about the Benefit of the End and the Danger of the Means and so Conveys a Title over to the People of Entring into a kind of Joynt Commission with his Majesty for the Managing of Publique Affairs and for Obviating the Political Consequences of Things Take him in short quite thorough and he shews himself Directly an Advocate for a Popular Liberty without so much as One Salvo for the Rights of the Crown There are certain Periods of time which being once past make all Cautions ineffectual and all Remedies desperate Our Vnderstandings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the Case of your Anger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge p. 6. 7. HEre 's a kind of a Predestinarian Foundation with Certain Philosophical Political and Historical Meditations and Reflexions upon it The Time Presses and when 't is too Late 't is too Late which is a Pithy way of Speaking a Great deal in a Little. His Councell to the Dissenters of Moderation toward the Church of England is Good and Seasonable but least the Church of England should grow Proud of being so much in our Author 's Good Graces he gives her a Box o' th' Ear at the very Next Word that makes her Stagger again and in the Same Period makes as Arrant a Jilt of his Beloved Clyent as ever he did of the Whore of Babylon Take Warning says he by the Church-of-England's Mistake And what was that Mistake in his Opinion at last but an Impotent Folly and a Diabolical Revenge So that to the Scandal of our Author's Profession he has set up Two Churches of England The One of them a Desperate Hair-Brain'd Vindictive Wretch as He would Represent Her The Other a Good Peace-making Gentlewoman Whereof He Himself takes upon him to be a Son and a Member And now to shew that he is all of a piece and as Faithful an Historian as a Canonical Church-of-England-Man Nothing can ever so Effectually Terminate THis Dispute as the Issue of the Conference at the Savoy soon after his Majesties late Return toward a General Accommodation I forget Names But they Brake upon This Point