Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47854
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The free-born subject, or, The Englishmans birthright asserted against all tyrannical vsurpations either in church or state
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing L1248; ESTC R16045
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23,037
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38
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was the Juggle of the Covenant and the very Condition of the Scots coming in the second time was our Owning of their Kirk for the best Reformed and declaring for a Reformation of the English Church according to the Scottish Model The Reformation doubtless was a Glorious Work but there have been very Ill Things done under that Pretext and in the way to it And it is no New Thing for God to be in the End and the Devil in the Mans. Beside that the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England is so pure and Apostolical already that there is no need of Double Refining it His Third Quaery is a Frank Proposal without any more ado of taking all the Church Lands into the Crown and very Courteously he offers the Poor Cavaliers a Snip in the Booty Does he consider that after This Violence an Englishman hath nothing left him that is sure and sacred And that as much as in him lies he destroys us in our Liberties Consciences and Estates all at a Blow The Patrimony of the Church is First a Gift to God and appropriated to his Service and therefore not to be touched They have Robbed me saith God in the Prophet Malachy Or if it may no man is sure of the Estate he possesses by the same Reason For there is no better Title in Nature then a Deed of Gift Secondly it is setled and Confirmed by Magna Charta which says that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable for ever Thirdly the King binds himself by his Coronation Oath to preserve unto the Bishops and to the Churches committed to their charge all Cononical Privileges and due Law and Iustice and to protect and defend them as every good King ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and Churches under his Government So that here is Sacrilege Common Right and Perjury in the Case His Fourth Quaery is Whether in those Kingdoms and States where Prelacy is extirpated and a Presbytery onely retained there be not as Godly Able Orthodox Preachers c. and as good Subjects as where Bishops are retained His Last Quary is onely a Political Prospect upon the Power of France and nothing to the point in Question To which I answer First That I know no such Kingdoms as he speaks of Secondly What if under a Presbyterial Government any Subject of That State should move vise versâ for an Episcopal There as he does Here for a Presbyterial How would it be taken If there may be as good Preachers and Subjects on the One side as on the Other why should we change the Government to be onely where we were Fourthly If Two Archbishops and 24 Bishops Diocesan be so great an Oppression what would become of us in a Presbytery when we should have 9285 Popes in stead of them One in Every Parish Fifthly The Presbyterial Principles are purely Iesuitical and that would be but the setling of Popery under another Name Sixthly we have it upon Experiment that the People will never indure Them nor They the Government To come now to That Libel which bears the Title of my Lord Lucas's Speech The Name of that Noble Lord is onely made use of for a Cover to those Scandals upon the King which to have saved the last drop of bloud in his Veins he would not have been guilty of It is true that Offence was taken to the Liberty of the Speech it self and a Censure passed upon it but it is not presently for every Mutinous Incendiary to Arraign a Proceeding of Parliament and to call it Barbarous Vsage with other rude and very unmannerly Expressions in the Preface to the Reader He says that God hath taken him from an Ungrateful Generation And he says right in that for undoubtedly there never was the fellow of it upon the face of the Earth The Kings Friends who are the onely People Oppressed they sit still in Hope and Patience while his Enemies that enjoy both the Advantage of the others Losses and the Reward of their Services Those are the people that Complain This Faction to whom the King hath forgiven his Fathers Bloud and his Own His Own I say for they that shot at him and mist are as Guilty as if they had struck him to the heart and they that advised it as those that did the Execution These are the people that in requital for their forfeited Lives Liberties and Fortunes which his Majesty frankly gave them are now laying the same Train for This King by which They ruined the Last The Bold Indignities of this Pamphlet are such as a Loyal Subject cannot Honestly so much as recite It is neither better nor worse then a Formal Charge upon the King in Five and Twenty Articles dispersed with all the Malice and Industry imaginable The Scope of it is to possess the people with an Opinion that the King designs the bringing in of Popery and an Arbitrary Power with an Application of several particulars to those Ends. Now if these Affronts pass without either Punishment or Reply who can blame the simple multitude that know nothing more then what they read in a Pamphlet for giving credit to them And when they are once tainted with that deadly Iealousie who can blame them again for doing Ill Things that know no better The Time is almost come when honest men shall be put to death and the very Murtherers think that they do God good Service This was the mistaken Zeal of the late Times and we are even ready for it once again The Two Calumnies whereupon these people lay the greatest stress are First a Pretended Apprehension of an Arbitrary Power and Secondly of an Inclination to favour Popery The Imputation of any Disposition or Design in his Majesty that now is in favour of either Tyranny or Popery is so groundless and incredible to any man that hath but his Eyes in his head that it would not be worth a Page of Paper to shew the Error of it were it not that we are delivered up to the Delusion of believing things impossible and discerning things Invisible and yet as Blind as Moles to matters of clear and evident Demonstration With what Face can any man pretend an Apprehension of Tyranny from This Prince whose very Mercy and Bounty by the Extreme abuse of it hath created his Misfortune Nay the most spiteful of his Enemies cannot but acknowledge that there doth not live any man that hath less of Gall and Rancour in his Nature Beside the Experiment his greatest Adversaries have had of his Goodness in Common with the rest of his Subjects upon the Crists of his Restauration For when he might have made himself as absolute as he would when he had his Foes under his Feet and some reasons of State perhaps to lay a firmer Foundation of his Future Security his Tenderness of Nature did yet so far prevail upon him above all other Considerations that