Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	end_n	good_a	king_n	2,121	5	3.5446	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54203	The reasonableness of toleration, and the unreasonableness of penal laws and tests wherein is prov'd by Scripture, reason and antiquity, that liberty of conscience is the undoubted right of every man, and tends to the flourishing of kingdoms and commonwealths, and that persecution for meer religion is unwarrantable, unjust, and destructive to humane society, with examples of both kinds.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing P1352; ESTC R23116	25,930	41

Morals the beginning is the end of the Operations and so the Ultimate end is the first Principle of such Actions but the Common Good or Felicity of a City or Kingdom is the Ultimate end of it in its Government therefore it ought to be the first beginning of the Law and therefore the Law ought to be for the Common Good. Now it is apparent that the Penal Laws were made only for the particular good and felicity of the Church of England men all others being by them excluded from the benefit of their native Priviledges that could not in Conscience conform to the Ceremonies of their Worship to the Ruin and Vexation of many thousands which was positively against the Common Good and Felicity of the Nation and general Community of the People divided only in some points of Religion but in an equal poise of Obedience and Loyalty to the Supream Magistrate and therefore justly deserving equal share of provision by the Laws for their Security and Protection And therefore unless it can be prov'd that it is for the Common Good and Benefit of the whole Nation that men should be persecuted to uphold the Hierarchy of the Church of England the Penal Laws are unduly made and therefore as of no force to be repeal'd and annul'd Therefore the Intention of the Divine Laws might have taught the Promoters of these Penal Statutes better and more Christian Learning for therefore are Prelates call'd Pastors because they ought to lay down their Lives for the good of the Sheep not the Sheep to lay down their Lives for the good of them they are call'd Dispensers and not Lords Ministers of God not Primary Causes and therefore they ought to be conformable to the Divine Intention in the Exercise of their Power God principally intends the Common Good of men and therefore his Ministers are bound to do the same They are Tyrants not Governours in the Church while they seek their own Support and not the Common Benefit As to the Injustice of the Penal Laws experte Materiae in commanding those things which ought not to be observed this Axiom from thence arises That no unjust Law can be a Law and then there lies no obligation to accept it or to observe it if accepted for that the Subjects are not only not bound to accept it but have it not in their power when the command is clearly and manifestly unjust as when men are commanded not to meet above such a number under such a penalty for the Exercise of their Religion according to their Consciences This is an Evil Command because it debars men from the free Worship of God for unless it could be prov'd that the Religion of the Church of England is the only True Religion in the World and they the only Infallible Ministers upon Earth it is unjust in any Law to constrain others to believe that which may be as Erroneous in them as what the other professes For tho I may believe the Liturgy of the Church of England to be the purest form of Supplication under Heaven yet another may not believe so neither is it a Crime in him to believe otherwise We have said that the Penal Laws are defective in point of Honesty which is another reason why they are invalid and therefore to be annull'd For the Immorality of the Precept is contrary to God himself because it includes a Crime and a Transgression against God and therefore ought not to be observ'd as no way obligatory seeing that it behoves us to obey God rather then Man which is the reason these Laws ought not to be observed as contradicting our Obedience to God and subjecting us to the Compulsions of Men. In the last place no Law can be valid beyond the Intention of the Legislators Now it is not rational to think that those Persons who made the Penal Laws upon a presumption of danger from Factious and Turbulent Spirits ever intended those Laws sor the punishment of those that liv'd peaceably and obediently toward the Government in all the Passive Duties of good Loyal Subjects for that had been to make Laws for the punishment of good men which was never the design of any just and vertuous Legislator in this World. Now then the Presumption of the danger being remov'd by his Majesties most Gracious Indulgence the Foundation of the Penal Laws are remov'd and consequently the Obligation to them for it is not to be imagin'd that the Framers of these Laws ever meditated to Establish the Dominion of a Spiritual Oligarchy upon the Ruin of so many Families of Pious and Religious People and therefore the suspitions which were the grounds of these Laws being vanish'd the Laws themselves are to be laid aside as altogether vain and frivolous and such as have only serv'd to gratify the Revenge and Animosity of their promoters for we never hear'd of Traytors or Factious Persons that were ever try'd upon those Laws there being others of greater force to take hold of such Criminals As for the Test it appears to be an Oath continued to prevent the sitting of any Commoner or Peer in either of the Houses of Parliament from coming into his Majesties Presence or Court and from bearing any Office or Imployment Military or Civil in any of his Majesties Realmes of England or Ireland c. And they that are to take this Oath are thereby to abjure the belief of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass c. The Learned are of Opinion That to make an Oath binding it is requisite that it refers to things Lawful for that if the thing promised upon Oath be forbidden either by the Law of Nature or by the Divine Laws or Interdicted by the Laws of Men it has no power to oblige the Swearer Now the Q●●●●●●n will be whether this Oath does not positively 〈…〉 Laws of the Land by enforcing a Peer of the Realm or any other free-born English-man of lower Degree to ac●use himself with so strong and dangerous a Temptation to Perjury where the Choice is only this Either to forswear their Religion or lose their Native Priviledges and Preferments and all possibility of advancing their Fortunes A piece of severity that constrains the inward Belief of the Mind which God the searcher of all Hearts has resorv'd to himself That this is an Act contrary to the known Laws of the Land is undoubtedly true as is apparent from the great Charter and several Statutes of the Realm therefore the Test has no power to oblige the Swearer and consequently to be repeal'd as Useless That it is against the Law of God is apparent from hence for that there is nothing more strongly prohibited in Scripture then to ground a Penal Prosecution upon the enforc'd Oath of the Party without Witness or Accuser In the next place it seems a hard case to oblige the Papist to Swear away his Religion before he has another provided for him by those that

Massacre then which there never was a more Inhumane piece of Barbarity known among the Heathens themselves But what was the Advantage of their Butchery What the Issue of it to the King after he had emptyed his Kingdom of ten thousand of his Subjects among which five hundred all Persons of Quality In the first place upon too late a Consideration a deep Repentance for having given his Consent and a Resolution had he liv'd to have Punished his Advisors then every Night his Slumbers interrupted with nocturnal Terrors till having linger'd under most grievous and tedious Pains and long perceiv'd his death approach before he dy'd he ended his days a young Youth in the 24th Year of his Age. To omit the loss of the Low-Countries by reason of the cruelty of the Inquisition we find the People in all places the most devoted and accustomed to Ecclesiastical Rigour mutinying even to Blood-shed against the Torments of that Tribunal In Naples Peter of Toledo the Viceroy in Obedience to the Pope would fain have brought it in but when he began to put it in Execution it caus'd such an Uproar among the People that it came to be almost a petty VVar between the Commonalty and the Garrison wherein many were slain on both sides so that the Viceroy was forc'd to desist in his design neither has any offer been made to obtrude any such kind of Office upon that Kingdom ever since Even in Rome it self the People detested the Cruelties of the Inquisition to that degree that the Breath was no sooner out of the Body of Paul the IV. but that they went with great furie to the new Prison of the Inquisition brake down the Doors and let out all the Prisoners therein detained could hardly be restrained from setting on fire the Church of the Dominicans as being the Persons entrusted with the Execution of that rigid Employment More then that in detestation of the Inquisition all enrag'd they forc'd their way into the Palace and meeting the Popes Statue all of Parian Marble and a noble piece of Workmanship they cut off the Head and the right Hand and for three days together kickt them about the streets and made them the sport of the whole City Nor has England it self felt the least share of the Inconveniencies of Spiritual Persecution where Acts of Parliament have been made use of only as Traps and Snares to dis-People the Nation What false Crimes were laid to the Primitive Christians by the flatterers of the Emperour Sep. Severus to Incense him to the first Persecution the same Accusations were lately thrown upon the Dissenters of being Homicides Turbulent Sacrilegious Traytors against Caesar and in a word meer Canibals And by vertue of which pretended Calumnies and meditated Slanders the Civil Magistrate out of the good Opinion he has of those that make the clamour not presently discerns the Trapan which is put upon them to make Laws for the punishment of those Persons over whom they have indeed no jurisdiction till at length the ill use of those Laws better informs their judgement and that they were imposed upon to frame Persecuting Statutes and authorize Prosecutions not to prevent disturbances in Government but to gratifie the Pride and Ambition of their hot-headed Advisers hence under pretence of disaffection to the Civil Power continual Plots and Treasons are discovered and the discovery so well managed that some are Hanged others Fin'd others condemned to long Imprisonment Which Accusations because they reach not many therefore all the rest as being Birds of the same feather must suffer for their sakes and the same pretences being still kept on foot for a Covert they let fly the Arrows of their Indignation against the whole Body and chastize the pretence where they could not find any fact committed to punish And indeed the grounds of the pretence are the only crimes committed against them all that will not conform to their Ceremonies are supposed to be seditious Persons none that go to Meetings and Conventicles can be Good and Loyal Subjects and therefore all that will not Conform or Refrain from going to Meetings must be scourged with the scorpions of Ecclesiastical Censure and Excommunication must be amerc'd at pleasure Imprison'd till Submission many to their utter Impoverishment or till they pine away in Jayle and they that would live peaceably and quietly under the Government can have no rest in their own Families Upon this thousands take their flight beyond Sea and draw off their Estates by which means the Kingdom is depopulated the Manufacture of the Nation carryed into forraign Countries and the Prince loses the Assistance of the Wealth and Persons of so many of his Subjects to the ruine of the Kingdom and scandal of the Government A sort of Christian Politicks which the Church of England could only learn from the uncharitable bigotrie of that same Prince who cryed out That he would rather choose to be King of a Countrey without People then of a Kingdome Peopled with Heriticks Contrary to the saying of Adrian one of the wisest among the Roman Emperours That he wished his Empire strengthed rather by the encrease of People and Inhabitants then excess of Treasure But this was neither the Policy of the Antient Heathens nor of the more prudent Common wealths and Governments of latter Ages Among all the Heathen Nations that we meet with in History the Egyptions were the first from whom all the world beside the Jews excepted deriv'd that same Dark Knowledge which the other had of the Gods and Divine Worship Their early Superstition had set up no less then twelve Divinities to begin withal who were all worship'd in various Shapes with various Rites and Ceremonies all which with their several Portraitures and Sacred Mysteries for so they call'd the Rites of Adoration belonging to every Idol the Grecians afterwards translated into their own Countrey and for a while exactly observed the Precepts and Methods of their first Instructors Here was a great number of Divinities with every one a particular form of worship attending him and yet we do not find that the Grecians were afraid to transport them all into their several Cities for fear least the variety of Superstitions should set their People together by the Ears while one Priest cry'd up his Divinity another extoll'd his and shatter'd the Vulgar into Factions and Contentions which was the best No the Priests were still contented with what followers they had and every man was left to his freedom to worship what Divinity he pleas'd as his Affection and Devotion govern'd him A strange misfortune to Christian Religion that the Heathens should be so conformable in the midst of so much varietie of feign'd Divinities and we not be able to adjust those few Ceremonies in dispute relating to the worship of the true and one God when we have his own inspir'd Scripture for our Guide In Athens there were as many Sects and Opinions dayly taught as there were almost

Impose the Oath For certainly Transubstantiation is no point of State nor does the Doctrine of good Works make a man a good Subject and it is possible for a Papist to be Loyal to the Supream Authority and yet believe there is a Purgatory All these are no Fundamental points of Christian Faith clearly set down in Scripture but infer'd from passages and glances of the Text to which the Answers are believ'd as probable by the Papists as the Objections against them by us and therefore there is no reason they should be so cruelly Tested for Doctrines that are but either obscurely reveal'd or not necessarily enjoyn'd As little reason is there to enforce this Test upon the Papists when we know that many of our own perswasions would Scruple to take it and some so nice as absolutely to refuse it At least it is very severe to compel such as are young and unlearned for all are not Casuists that enter the Parliament House or have Preferment in the Kingdom to Swear that such an Opinion or Doctrine is not true which they have been always bred up to from their Infancy especially to come bluntly upon them without any preceding Instructions or endeavours to convince their Understandings only Swear or else depart the Kings Presence and quit your Imployment But all this is done they say to prevent the growth of Popery and secure the Publick Peace as if the taking the Test would avail to make a man either a better Neighbour or a better Subject For Experience tells us That they who impose this Test conside never the more in those whom they have frighted to take it and tho by taking it they may preserve what places they have yet is it not in it self any step to Preferment Rather indeed is there less reason to conside in those that are unwillingly drawn to an outward Complyance then in those that Obstinately refuse to be obliged since there can be no greater cause of Hatred and Resentment then the remembrance of their being compell'd publickly to Swear against their Consciences unless their Judgments are really chang'd and then all Penalties to enforce them are superfluous Whence it must be concluded that the Tests and all Oaths of that nature are always either absolutely pernicious or altogether unnecessary if against the inward Judgment damnable as being the highest degree of Perjury and Spiritual Murder of the Soul if according to the Internal Sentiments useless More then this it was the Opinion of Isidore That a man ought to make no scruple to break an Oath that would bind him to a dishonest and unjust Action for that the promise must needs be wicked that cannot be fulfill'd but by making a man wicked And what can make a man more wicked then to renounce his Religion for private Gain So that if the Test as it is an Oath that would bind a man to such an unjust Action as the Renouncing his Religion for Worldly Honour or Preferment may be so easily broken to what purpose is it kept on foot Since it has not power enough to bind the Person that takes it And indeed if the power of an unjust Oath were so great as some would make us believe how deeply are they Perjur'd that took the Covenant and Engagement yet after that were so Instrumental in Restoring of his late Majesty of Blessed Memory whose Right and Title to the Crown they had so solemnly abjur'd But they have their Absolution from St. Ambrose who tells us That some Promises cannot be perform'd nor some others kept without the Violation of our Duties both to God and Man. Upon these considerations we have just reason to believe it was that our Supream Legislator and Soveraign Prince set forth his most Gracious Act of Indulgence thereby to free from Spiritual Bondage the Enflav'd Consciences of his Suffering Subjects Groaning under the Tyranny of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Therein truly resembling the Divine Majesty whose Vicegerent upon Earth he is while he sheds down down upon all in general the Rayes of his Christian Compassion and spreads the Cherubim Wings of his Mercy over multitudes so latety tormented with the Unsanctified Vexation He has publicly declar'd it to be his Aim to fix his Government on such a Foundation as may make his Subjects happy in the Enjoyment of their Religion with freedom of Exercise and their Property without Invasion Under the Reign of such a Prince whom God preserve what Cause or Grounds can there be for Fears or Jealousies 'T is an ill sign of Obedience in Subjects when they distrust the Solemn Declarations of their Prince And on the other side to deny him so small a Recompence for his Excess of Benignity in his Royal Toleration as the Repeal of Cruelty and Injustice Cruelty in the Penal Laws and Injustice in the Test is the highest Ingratitude in the World. Certainly it cannot be thought but that a Monarch so tender of the Liberties and Consciences of his Subjects must be ill at ease till he has removed those Scourges of Imposition that hang over their Heads in such a Threatning posture And therefore since Soveraign Consideration thinks it meet to have them taken away 't is a very rude piece of Obstinacy to be Froward and Peevish in Opposition to Soveraign Reason FINIS This was finished before the Translation of Lactantius and therefore as not being borrowed from him I thought fit to let it pass with this Advertisement

Vexations for the supposed Transgressions of the Mind and Will Laws that pretended to dive into the Breasts of Men and to discover Evil in their Thoughts as if enacted to torment the Souls of Mankind before their time In a word Laws that were abolish'd by Reason as soon as made for if Laws are grounded upon Reason and these Laws are contrary to Reason as it is plain they were for that Laws are made to redress not to increase the grievances of the People then were they null as soon as form'd For if Laws do not arise out of Natural Reason but are only made to avoid some greater mischief pretended to be foreseen we are not rashly to admit of such an Interpretation as to make that Sinful or Criminal which is otherwise Lawful Thus to seperate from the Church of England is a thing no way in it's self Unlawful and therefore cannot be made Criminal by a Law there being no natural Equity to make it so and consequently not Punishable by the Law. Nor can their Meeting in Conventicles be a Crime for that the Doctrine of men that teach those things which are Just and Honest can never be fear'd especially when they are exact in their Obedience to the Magistrate nor should their private Assemblies be envied or suspected as being Just and Innocent Men till they are convicted of being otherwise And therefore they that Persecute such People ought rather to be Prosecuted themselves for that by them the Law of Nature is brok'n in doing injustice to them that never offended and it is but natural equity to punish those that wrong their Neighbours without a cause Which Cause can never be found in a Law made contrary to Reason in a Law made to gratify the Ambition and Interest of a Single Party to the disturbance of the Greater part of the Nation which is contrary to the Common Good and consequently the End of Law. Moreover There is no Humane Law that can command or prohibit an Act purely directly and Secundum se internal And this is grounded upon the common Axiome Cogitationis Paena nemo meretur no man incurs the Punishment of Thought for the Law has nothing to do with Internal Acts and therefore because it cannot naturally and of it self punish those Acts therefere neither can it either command or prohibit them for the Legislative Power is Compulsive and if it cannot be Compulsive as to the inward Act neither can it make a Law in reference to it The reason of this Assertion is for that the Legislative Power among men is only ordain'd for preservation of the outward Peace and honesty of Humane Community to which those Acts have no Relation which are conceived in the Mind Then again this Power springs immediately from Humane Community it self by the means of Natural Reason Now there is no Humane Community that can grant a Power immediately and of it self over Actions meerly Internal as being altogether without the Limits of its Knowledge and without the Bounds of its Jurisdiction for no man is naturally subject to another in his Soul but in his Body Therefore said a Learned Schoolman He is in an Error who believes that Servitude lays hold of the whole Man the better part is excepted Our Bodies are lyable to our Superiours and Governours but the Mind is its own Lord and Master Then again The conditions of Humane Laws are That the Law must be Honest Just Possible convenient to Time and Place and conformable to Religion and Reason The Penal Laws are not Honest because they would enforce men to abandon the worship of God which in their Cons●●ences they have made choice of as believing it to be the most ●●●…e and conformable to Scripture and to submit themselves 〈◊〉 Ceremonies which they as firmly believe to be no way necessa●● for their Salvation but rather contrary to those Sentiments ●hich they have of the Truth of Sacred Adoration They are not just because they would bereave men of that Christian Liberty which all men have a priviledge to claim and which the most zealous promoters of the Penal Laws would take most heavily to be themselves depriv'd of In the Second place They ought to command those things which may be justly observed but these Laws would enforce men to Sin against the Dictates of their Consciences the Consequence is easy to any Thirdly The Penal Laws are not agreeable to Religion for they prohibit what the Laws of God allow which is Liberty of Conscience and uphold what the Laws of God prohibit which is Spiritual Tyranny and Dominion in matters of Religion Fourthly The Penal Laws are contrary to Reason and the common benefit of Civil Society for it is not rational that People should be Imprison'd Fin'd and Banished and common security of Liberty and Property be infring'd even to the loss of men lives and the depopulation of a Kingdom for pretences over which the Civil Magistrates pretends not to have any Jurisdiction Add to this That to rendering Laws effectual there are required all the three parts or sorts of Justice First Justitia Legalis whose Office is to aim at the Common Good and consequently to preserve the due priviledges of all the Subjects in general Secondly Justitia Commutativa which requires that the Legislator command no more then lies in his power Thirdly Distributive Justice which takes care that the private good of a few be not respected more then the public good of the whole Body In all which parts of Justice the Penal Laws being defective it follows that they were not duly made consequently invalid and no way obliging And this is the Opinion of all the Famous Casuists Aquinas Sctus Medina Caster Tolinus Panormitanus and others conformable to that of St. Austin himself l. 19. de Civit. Dei. c 21. The perverse Constitutions of Men are neither to be accounted nor to be said to be Laws when that is only to be accounted right and just which flows from the Fountain of Justice Now that it is the intrinsic end of all Laws duly made to aim at the Common Good is plain from the Laws of God themselves which are such that tho ordain'd by God himself to his own Glory yet he seeks therein not his own advantage but the good and benefit of men In like manner as all Humane Laws are imposed upon a Community of People so ought they to be made for the general good of that Community otherwise they are irregular for it is against all Justice to reduce the Common Good to Private Interest or to subject the whole to the part for the parts sake Another reason may be deduc'd from the end it self for the end must be proportionate to the Act its beginning and efficacy Now the Law is the common Rule of Moral Operations therefore the first Principle of Moral Operations ought to be the first Principle of the Law but the end or happiness is the first Principle of Moral Operations for in