Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	justice_n	lord_n	thomas_n	3,038	5	8.3600	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26400	An address to the Church of England: evidencing her obligations both of interest and conscience, to concurr with his gracious Majesty in the repeal of the penal laws and tests Allowed to be published this 1st of September, 1688.		1688 (1688)	Wing A564B; ESTC R213112	25,350	25

as wise as himself make a Court of Judicature and Record to convict a Dissenter and that too in no less a Cause then Where his very Loyalty if the Statute tels Truth is concern'd and all this from the Mouth of two Witness●s generally known by the name of Informers Persons that sometimes have mounted Pillories a sort of Men not always of the most substantial unshaken veracity especially considering the Temptation of 〈◊〉 third Snip in the Fine● which in Twenty Pounds and For● Pounds at a Fine from the Preacher besides the lesser ●ulcts from all the whole Auditory may with good management rise to a Sun. Take these Penal Laws all together I cannot tell what greater or more glorious Design his Gracious Majesty can undertake then by repairing so deep a Breach wrought through the very Fundamentals of His Peoples Orriginal Freedom and Birthrights nor is th●●e or has been a greater Friend or Patron of the Church of England than His present Majesty who Himself alone tenders her the means and oppertunity to wash off those Stains and Blots which either the Petulance or Remisness of her Protestant Defenders of her Faith through these Penal Statutes have east or left upon her and so to restore and maintain her Whiteness and Innocency Having made this fair inquest into the Penal Laws I shall take a little scearch into the Test and lay down those Reasons that equally oblige us to concur with his Majesty in a Repeal of that too In order to which it behoves us first to sum up all the great and popular Arguments if I may so call 'em th● in reality rather the Language of Fears and Jeal●●●es than the Voice of right Reason daily urged for the Preservation of the Test viz. That the whole Defence of the Protestant Religion relyes on that Basis If the Test were once abrogated the Church of England would soon be blown up when all Offices both Ecclesiastical and Civil and all Power and Authority both in Church and State shall be lodged in Roman Catholicks and what not To answer which hideous and formidable Out-cry we 'll begin first with the pretended Dangers threatned the Church of England by Repeal of the Test Not to insist upon his Majesties reiterated Word and Honour his inviolable Engagements to maintain the Church of England as now by Law Establisht in her uninterrupted Rights and Priviledges all her Churches and Church-Livings whatever thereunto belonging c. in it self alone ●o little Security But waving that Plea the Ecclesiastical Government and the Church of England neither are nor can be shaken or touch● by the abrogation of the Test the Test being indeed no part of her Defence For first the v●ry taking off the Test is no part of the Qualification of any of the Clergy of England nor was ever so much as mentioned or thought upon to be impoted or tendred to the Clergy as such the tnedring the Test to the Bishops relating only to their Peerage as Members of the House of Lords No as Jealous the Founders of that Test were or pretended to be of the danger of P●pery and as Zealous as they could be for the Security of the Protestant Religion they very well knew the Church of ●England had two impregnable Bulwarks the two great Acts of Uniformity that themselves alone sufficiently establish'd guarded and preserved the Church of England in all points without any Fortification from the Test nor indeed was the Test wanted in the Ecclesiastick Administration those very Statutes being a greater and stronger Test before For by those Statutes is the whole Liturgy the Administration of the Sacraments and indeed all the Canons and Articles of the Church supported for by the Pence of those Laws first no Romanist can be admitted into the Clergy unless under the most damnable Hypocrisie which no humane Test can discover an Hypocrisie too no waies beneficial to the Romish Cause whilst tied up to the Divine Service as now by Law establisht Secondly No other Divine Service as the Mass or the like can be introduced into our Churches already constituted or assigned for the Divine Service of the Church of England The strength of these two Laws His Majesty very well knows and is so far even from the thought of hurting or infringing the least Particle of either of those Laws or the Security our Church has does or can receive from them by abrogating any Penal Laws or Tests whatsoever that on the contrary there is not undoubtedly that farther Confirmation of those Laws and the Religious Observance of them or any thing conducing thereunto that may or shall be offer'd to His Majesty in Parliament that His Majesty shall not readily assent to and as inviolably maintain And that in all and every Part and Particle of those Laws that relates to the Orthodox Qual●fication of our Clergy the Establishment of our Liturgy Rites and Ceremonies and the securing all other the Regalia of our Church as now by Law establisht Her Tormenta and Flagella only excepted And indeed His Majesty has instanced His peculiar Aversion to any Invasion of our Church's Right in that point that He has not so much as taken a Chappel of Ease from them witness the Late establish'd Lord Mayors Chappel lying sh●t up rather th●n invade our Church by the admission of a Dissenter only pro tem●●re I● then the Church of England Her Administration and Government as 't is plain stand of themselves alone secure and firm without any borrow'd prop or support from the Test wh●●ever the Test therefore is only a Buttrice or at least so intended to the Civil Magistracy as first excluding all Roman Catholicks from all Offices of Trust in the State secondly from all Domestick Services near the Person of the KING and thirdly from all Right to Session in Parliament These three Incapacities are by the Test thrown upon the Romanists and for confuting all suspicions and jealousies let us examine where how far and what part of the Test His Majesty desires to have repealed what Reasons induce him to desire it and lastly what Influence such a Repeal can have over the present Estabisht Church of England In the first place as to the Civil Government What Office in the State can a Roman-Catholick hold any waies impowering him to prejudice the Church of England Suppose even in the Courts of Judicature for if any apparition of any such power 't is there were 〈◊〉 imagine in all those Offices Why 〈◊〉 not a Sir Thomas Moore be as hon●● as a Lord Chief Justice Hales and execute his Office with as great Inte●rity and Justice● Why not men of equal abilities he of equal uprightness in all Religions Besides the distribution of m●um and 〈◊〉 more especially when Liberty of 〈◊〉 shall be past into a perpetual Law and all Penal Inflictions for Matter of 〈◊〉 thrown out of their Jurisdictions will then be the whole business that lies before them And wherein is a Roman-Catholick

Treason In one Clause of it the Queen is pleased to tell us She is so sufficiently assured of the Faith and Loyalty of Her ●emporal Lords that this Act nor any thing contained in it shall not Extend to Her Barons nor the Oath be Imposed upon them What Contradictious and Cob-webb-Laws are here A Commoner belike for his Incapacity of taking that Oath is guilty of High Treason but a Baron so Incapacitated is a Faithful and Loyal Gentlem●n as if they were not equally Subjects to the Crown and equally Criminal in any Transgression against it 'T is true had the particular Favour and Indulgence of the Government resolved to Exempt the Peer from the Penalty only of this Law it had been something but to discharge him Eo Nomine from the Guil● too makes the whole Statute such an Arbitrary Declaration of Treason that both the Compilers of such Laws and the Defenders of them ought to blush at Now as this is the Tr●atment that the Romish Recusancy meets from our Penal Laws let us 〈◊〉 what better fare the Protestant Dissenters had amongst them To begin therefore with the very first Penal Vengeance that was armed against them let us examine the 35th of Elizabeth Eliz. 35. Chap. 1. For preventing such great Inconveniences and Perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal Persons it is Enacted That if any Person above sixteen years of Age shall forbear coming to Church for one month or shall either move or perswade any other Person to abstain from hearing of Divine Service or receiving the Communion according to Law or come to any Unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings every such Person shall be imprisoned without Bail till he Conform and do in some Church make this open submission following The Form of Submission I A. B. Do humbly confess and acknowledge That I have grievously offended God in contemning His Majestys Godly and Lawful Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing Divine Service contrary to the Godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting Disordered and Unlawful Conventicles and Assemblies under pretence and colour of Religion and I am heartily sorry for the same c. And so on till he promises future Conformity You see what hard meat they are tied to Conform or lie in Goal without Bail or 〈…〉 very remarkable 〈…〉 Poor Criminal either really 〈…〉 ●ighted into 〈…〉 of this Law 〈…〉 obey he 's 〈…〉 a Form of 〈…〉 Declare in open 〈…〉 of God and his own 〈…〉 what he knows to be a Notor● 〈…〉 For how zealously how peaceably or how devoutly soever himself and his other Dissenting Brethren frequented the fore-mentioned Forbidden Assemblies 't will not suffice to say his and their Devotion and Zeal were misled and erronious and that he is willing for the future to be better instructed by the Pastors of the Church of England to whom he returns but he must charge all his former Religious Worship with a Dissimulation-Masque as only a Pretence and Colour of Religion and so brand Himself and his Neighbours with the basest and falsest of Hypocrisie For no less expiatory Penitence will serve his turn Is it not highly to be suspected that the Compilers of these Statutes valued the Reputation of their Laws above the Souls of their Converts For considering they are pleased to charge Disorder and Disloyalty upon the Dissenting Assemblies the Penitent must confess the Impeachments true or the Walls of a Goal like the Old fashioned Eloquence of Racks shall pinch him till he does it But to return to our Statute If the Party do not Conform and make his Submission within three Months after Conviction then being required by any Justice of Peace He or She shall in open Court at the Assizes or Sessions Abjure the Realm of England and all other the King 's Dominions within such Time as the Court shall Assign And by such Abjuration shall lose and forfeit all Goods and Chattels for ever and Lands and Tenements during Life A very Extraordinary sort of Banishment when by losing all a Man has into the Bargain the Law not only provides to send him packing perhaps to none of the most Hospitable Shores but at the same time very industriously takes care to see him starve there too But if such Party either Resuse to forswear the Land or do any Time after such Abjuration return to England or any of His Majesty's Dominions then he shall Die as a Felon without Benefit of Clergy c. You see here 's the very same Impeachment against the Nonconformist too The same Taint runs through the Protestant Dissent as did before through the Romish Recusancy And without any of the forementioned Capital Popish Guilt of owning a Forreign Jurisdiction for there wants no such unnecessary Treason to heap up th●ir Sum they are nevertheless both alike Twinn-Brothers in Iniqu●ty and Sedition and Disloyalty the equal charge ag●inst them And though 't is true the Dudgeon of these Laws gives not Death at the first Blow however it ends in the Old Noose a Halter only under a new Name of Felony You have here the Insant Vengeance the very Primitive Scorpions of our Church in 〈◊〉 of Konconsormity I shall not so much Instance the 〈…〉 of our Church to keep up this 〈◊〉 Statute in Force Witness the 26th of Car. 2. on that Occasion Nor the particular Applause a late Auther of our Church gave His late Majesty for the Exercise of His Royal Prerogative as he terms it in preserving that Law which was doom'd to an undeserved Fate that is when the Bill for the Repeal of that Statute had past both Houses and lay ready for His Majesty's Signing His Majesty by His Royal Pr●rogative a very unpresidented one and therefore the worthier that Authors Commend●tion Connived at the Cl●rk in Parliament that so carefully performed His Commission in losing it The Church of Englands great Tenderness for this Statute is not so much her Trophy as the Numerous Ossenders Impeach'd by this Law Witness the la●e many Thousands at one time Indicted upon this very Statute a great part whereof lay in Goals and all of them expecting their approaching Abjuration Banishment c. Had not a special Be●m from Heaven in His Majesty's most sig●●l Clemency like the Angel of Peter set ●pen their Prison Doors an Act of so much more than Royal Mercy that possibly together with the Numerous Prayers sent up to Heaven for Him in return for such Unparalel'd Grace may not have a little contributed to obtain from the Almighty Thron● our late truly Royal Deodat so special a Blessing of his Age and Hope of His Kingdom possibl● given him as the Meed and Reward of such Transcendent Compassion and Clemen●y Well then Both Conv●nticles and Mass-Houses must lye under the same Dilemma and share the some 〈◊〉 whils● Treason and S●dition lyes at the bottom of the