Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A54123
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Considerations moving to a toleration and liberty of conscience with arguments inducing to a cessation of the penal statues against all dissenters whatever, upon the account of religion : occasioned by an excellent discourse upon that subject publish'd by His Grace the Duke of Buckingham / humbly offered to the Parliament at their next sitting at Westminster.
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Penn, William, 1644-1718.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing P1269; ESTC R32175
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9,608
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22
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kind of Preaching the Gospel says Gregory to exact Belief as the Egyptians their Bricks with Stripes Decere arbitramur says Theodosius and Valentinian nostrum imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere They chose not to say imperare but commonefacere signifying thereby that Religion ought not to be forced Nihil enim says Lactantius tà m voluntarium quà m Religio in qua si animus est Sacrificantis aversus jam sublata jam nulla est Religio imperari says Cassidoce non potest And suadenda est says St. Bernard non imperanda Praecepit Sancta Synodus says the Toletan Council de Judaeis nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre And the New Law says Tertullian does not vindicate it self Ultore gladio The Jewes took no such course as Pestilent as their Doctrine was with the Sadduces nor Christ with the Samaritanes See Luke 9. 35. Matth. 13. 28 29. John 18. 36. John 6. 67. And will ye also go away says Christ to the Twelve Which are words removing all force and necessity from Man in the choice of his Religion So Chrysostome Athanasius Cyprian I may also add Augustine and Salvian We may read in the Life of Josephus when some of the Traohonites came in for Rescue to the Jews where himself was Governour and the Jews would thereupon constrain them to be Circumcized or else not let them abide with them he would not permit that injurious Zeal alledging That every Man ought according to his own Mind and not by Mans compulsion to serve God In our English Story to fuit this by Bede when Ethelbert the first Prince that received Christianity of the Saxon Heptarchy was converted by Austin sent hither by Gregory and many thereupon came into the Church it is said He especially embraced those that came in but compelled none for he half learned that the Faith and Service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not of constraint It helpeth much says the Imperial Edict of Constantine and Lirinus to establish the publick Tranquillity for every Man to have Liberty to use and choose what kind of Worshipping himself pleases and for that intent is this done of us to have no man enforced to one Religion more than to another A Prince who would draw his Subjects divided into Sects and Factions to his Religion should not in my Opinion use Force says Bodin which he Enhances more particularly from the example of Theodosius toward the Aâ—rians John Barclay not William that Wrote Adversus Monarchomachos hath a Discourse on purpose to this effect about the Calvinists as it is thought under the Name of the Hyperephanians in one chapter of his Argenis And Camerartus in his Historical Meditations hath a chapter as Learned Full and Grave as need to be on this Subject lib. 3. cap. 18. It was observed by the Popes Council says Guicciardine that the Prosecution of Luther since it was not accompanied with their own Reformation did encrease his Reputation and that it had been a less Evil to dissemble the knowledge of such a matter which would perhaps have dissolv'd of it self than by blowing at the Brand to make the Fiâ—e burn the more There may be some Notes conferred with this out of Davilah upon the deliberations of the Politick Ka 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regent of France about the Pacification in her Son Henry the Thirds time I will rest in one after Henry the Fourth succeeded That great Prince thought fit to declare himself Catholick but gets that same Edict for Liberty to the Hugonots to be renewed and passed the Parliament of Parâ— By which means endeavouring to remove Suspicion from their minds and confirming them by good Usage together with some Gifts and Promises to the chief Heads he insensibly took away says the Historian the pulse and strength of that Party so that those that are versed in the Kingdom believe that a few years of such sweet Poyson if he had not been disabled in this course through want of Money would have extinguished that Faction which so many years of desperate Wars had not with the Effusion of so much Blood been able to weaken Violent courses says my Lord Cooke are like hot Waters that may do good in an Extremity but the use of them doth spoil the Stomach and it will require them stronger and stronger and by little and little they will lâ—ssen the Operation They that have this Common-wealth says Judge Jenkins will use means together with the Restitution of the King to procure an Act of Oblivion and tender Consciences a just and reasonable satisfaction else we must all Perish first or last I will Crown these Testimonies with the experienced advice of CHARLES the First to our late Soveraign Beware of Exasperating any Faction by the crosness and asperity of some mens Passions Humours for private Opinions employed by you grounded onely on the differences in lesser matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom a rougher opposition fortifies and puts their despised and oppressed Party into such Combinations as may most enable them to get a full Revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar Commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion There are two Rules in the Preamble of the Statute Primo Mariae the one is That the State of a King standeth more assured by the love of his Subjects than in the dread and fear of Laws The other is That Laws justly made without extream Punishment are more often and for the moct part better obeyed than those that are made with that extremity Unto which my once before named Lord chief Justice Cook Subjoyns this Sentence Mâ—tius imperanti melius Paretur I will close up all with the end of a Speech of Sir Orlando Bridgeman to the Parliament when he was Lord Keeper If any just grievances shall have happened his Majesty will be as willing and ready to redress them as you to have them Presented to him and his Majesty doubts not but you will give Healing and Moderate Counsels and Imprint that known Truth in the Hearts of his Subjects that there is no distinct Interest between the King and his People but the good of one is the good of both Now this is the Copy of the Letter which Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the Priest I make a Decree that all they of the People of Israel and of his Priests and Levites in my Realm which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem go with thee And Gamaliel stood up in the Council and said Ye Men of Israel take beed to your selves refrain from these Men and let them alone for if this Counsel or this Work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot Overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to Fight against God FINIS
have been distressed by hot doings heretofore in the Reign of Queen Mary when they were accounted Criminals for not conforming to that Worship which was then the Established worship of the Kingdom And they should have taken heed before now of what they did and of what Spirit they be still of in Prosecuting others seeing they know not how soon that part of the Wheel which hath been or is on the Ground may come to be at Top and fall the heavier on them upon this Account For with the same measure Men meet withal it shall be meeted to them again CONSIDERATION VI. THe Conforming and Nonconforming Protestants and the Protestants and Papists all do agree as to the substance of Christianity in the same Articles of Faith and the same Rule of Manners in the Apostles Creed and the sen Commandements There is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptisme As a variety of Flowers may grow on the same Bank so may Protestants and Papists live in England Union in Affection is not inconsistent with disagreement of Opinion There is much more Reason to love one another for the many things wherein we agree then to fall out for those wherein we differ and though we cannot have Communion in the same External worship we can and have Communion in the same Internal Adoration of the same Blessed Trinity and in the one hope of our Calling unto Life Eternal through Jesus Christ We cannot come together in the same Church but may live together in the same Land and as we are under the same Gracious King he may Protect both and suffer no Party to Persecute one another The Woolf shall lie down with the Lamb the Leopard with the Kid they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain CONSIDERATION VII THe French Protestants who are the Dissenters from the Established Worship of that Kingdome are kindly received and succoured by England And when the French King is highly blamed by English Protestants and perhaps too by some English Catholicks for Persecuting his peaceable Subjects shall we do the same things in our Kingdome which we condemn in another Therefore art thou inexcusable Man whosoever thou art for thou that Judgest another dost the same things CONSIDERATION VIII THe Prosecuting Dissenters and Recusants for matters of Conscience is of great disadvantage to the Trade of the Kingdom the Dissenters being a chief part of the Trading People of the Nation considered as Merchants Shop-keepers Clothiers Farmers c. by which many Thousands of the Kings poor Subjects are maintained and consequently Liberty of Conscience must be a most effectual means for the restoring of it I will mention a Story or two which may be easily attested if they be called into Question One Thomas Peard about 16 Years since of West Dean near Barnstable who kept many Poor People at work in the Cloathing Trade was Prosecuted upon the Act for Twenty Pound a Month so many Months for not coming to Church that he was forced to quit his Habitation and Imployment Upon this the Poor People of many Parishes go a Begging and the numbers presently were so great that the Justices were fain to meet and consulting together conclude upon it to get the Mans Fines to be discharged This being done Peard returns to his business takes the Poor off their hands and finds them again the same Living In like manner about 14 Years since the Bishop of Sarum sends forth Instructions into all the Parishes of his Diocess for bringing them to Church or citing them to his Coutt There were Eighty Clothiers Nonconformists of several Judgments in the County of Wilts who being Alarum'd by this Summons think of withdrawing their Trade the time for Provision of their Wool favouring such a suspention but considering what a Number of Poor depended on them some Imploying 500 some a 1000 People under them who were capable of getting no other maintenance Besides that the Farmer was no less concerned than the Spinner and the Carder who could have no Money for his Wool fearing also that if they should give over on a suddain there might so much Clamour ensue as might turn into some uproar they agree upon sending up eight or ten of their sufficient Men to represent their Case to the King and Council Orders are taken hereupon that the Arch-Bishop Writes to the Bishop to desist and assurance is given by both the Secretaries to the Clothiers for their safety in keeping on their Imployment What those Justices and what the Council at that time saw convenient for that Shire and those Towns will be discerned I doubt not by the considerate to be of the like Emolument throughout the Nation And this brings to my remembrance a certain Prophesie that is now much in Mens Mouths and hath been going for Scores of Years That after Eighty Five England shall Thrive which though I have hitherto regarded I must confess when I have heard the words but as Rhime only yet if it shall please the King at his coming now to the Throne to give Liberty of Conscience to his People according to the design of this Paper I shall not doubt but to see the matter really accomplished The Riches of a Nation are the Bodies of Men for the greatness of a Kingdom certainly consists not in a vast continent of Ground but in the Multitude of its Inhabitants and the Thriving of the People lyes in the encrease of Trade Manufacture and Commerce as is intimated An Act for Universal Toleration Stated rightly that is of all so far as they are Tolerable whereof the Wisdome of a Parliament is the fittest Judge would produce both these It would bring People that are Persecuted in our Neighbour Nations about their Religion to England as it does or hath done to Holland and they must bring their Hands and Business with them Besides the Infinite Incouragement it would give to many who now keep in their Monys by Reason of their Obnoxiousness to the Law which they would bring forth most Industriously into Imployment as soon as they could see themselves safe and their Consciences out of danger And when Issachar saw that Rest was good and the Land that it was Pleasant he bowed his Shoulder to Bear and became a Servant unto Tribute CONSIDERATION IX IT hath pleased our most Gracious Soveraign King JAMES the Second whom God Bless with a gentle Mind and good days to declare to his Council and then to the Nation that he will follow his Deceased Brother in his Example of Clemency which we may hope for in this point of Indulgence We have his Royal Word for thus much and his Word we all hear may be Presumed upon so far as the meaning may be Presumed I do not therefore here Presume upon his meaning but the Clemency of the late King and Tenderness to his Subjects in his Gracious Purposes to indulge them in the point of Liberty of Conscience does appear sufficiently to all Men