Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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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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readilly agreed upon on My Part and our Author will I hope upon Second Thoughts admit This letter of his to be One of the Number Nay and the Writers and the Managers of some of those Pamphlets look like 〈◊〉 or Sharpers that make it their Trade to start Quarrels and then Scoure away with a Hat or a Cloak in the Interim I have seen several Addresses too that seem to Extend Liberty of Worship to Liberty of Reproche and that think they Cannâ—â— Bless God sufficiently on the One hand without Treading upon their Neighbours 〈◊〉 on the Other There 's no Denying of This and what 's the Issue at last but that the True Church of England Suffers for the Faults of our Authors Church of England Falsly so Called This Conduct is so good that it will be scandalous not to applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing Ill and not commend them when they do Well p. 8. SVbmission Patience and Resignation are Virtues Undoubtedly that Deserve Applause and the Impartial Distribution of Reward or Punishment for Well or Evil-doing is but Writing after the Copy of the Divine Justice But then we must not call Evil Good nor Good Evil. Let us have no Stealing of Crowns in Canorica Habits No doing of Ill Things under False Names No Writing of Letters to Disturb Government to Dishonour a Nation as well as to Reproche any Religions Profession And after All These Contradictions to the Doctrine and Practices of the Apostolical Church of England let 's have No Casting a Canonical Role over the Shoulders of an Impostor and leave the Taylor to Answer for the Character To hate them because they persecuted and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer rather then receive all the Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal Compliance is a Principle no sort of Christians can Own since it would give an Objection to them not to be Answered p. 8. THe Author sets up here for a Sufferer What would the World think of him now if his Name should come to be found among the Persecutors Not among the Persecutors of the Dissenters which he most Vn son-like Reflects upon in This Clause but among the Persecutors even of Those pretended Persecutors Themselves I Charge him with Nothing for I do not know him but he takes a kind of a Wrigling Biass in this Letter as if he were Creeping into his Mother's Bells again The Criminal Compliance is only the Conscientious Duty of Acknowledging His Majesties Authority which is a Characteristical Diserimination betwixt the Ligitimate and the Illegitimate Sons of the Church of England Think a little who they were that promoted your former Perseuetions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of your Sufferings TO put this into English now the Papists were the Promoters and the Protestants the Instruments of the Dissenters Former Persecutions And will you now make a League says he with the Authors of your Sufferings This is only a Paraphrase upon Otes's Epistle before his Narrative and a Story so quite out of date that a Man would as soon put Pen to Paper in Answer to a Canterbury Tale. 1. Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Vertue of a Conge d'essire and instead of Election be satisfy'd if you are returned p. 8. 2. Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its Consequences and repeal the Test by which you will make way for the Repeal of All the Laws that were made to perserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall Destroy it 3. Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles 4. Are you so linked with your New Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it p. 8. TO take these Four Heads as they lye The First Implies a Direct Practice and Confederacy both In and With the Sheriffs The Second Anticipates the Question and Precludes the Freedom of a Parliamentary Debate It makes the Common People Judges of State-Consequences and subjects the Wisdom and Justice of the Government to the Censure of the Multitude Neither is the Test so Sacred as not to be lyable to the Common Conditions and Limitations that are Annexed to All Other Laws 3ly What is This Contemptuous Insinuation but an Enflaming Bitterness Mockery and Scorn to the Highest Degree while the Kings Declaration is made the Ground of the Calumny and the Incentive to 't 4ly This is as who should say Leave it to the Parliament to set you at Liberty but be sure you have nothing to do with the Kings Declaration nor with Any Indulgence that shall include the Papists for Company Consider that the implyed Conditions of your new Treaty are no less then that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only upon Bayl the first Act of Non Compliance sendeth you to Jayl again p. 8 9. HEre 's an Extravagance of Figure and Hyperbole without the force of any Image of Reason or Truth but the Author Bethinks himself what would be the most Provoking Thing in Nature to be Said or Done under our Circumstances and then Throws it out to the Mobile as the Resolution and Design of the King and his Ministers You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since they being so very earnest to get it established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain it is a clear Evidence that they do not think that the single Power of the Crown is in this Case a good Foundation especially when this is done under a Prince so very tender of all the Rights of Sovereignty that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it THis Section is a piece of Art that only Differs from the Former Strokes of the same Pen in that it Lashes the Government with somewhat a Better Grace The Pretext is Popular but bring it to the Touch and it vanishes like a Mist before the Sun. The King Suspends by his Prerogative but a Total Repeal must be the Work of his Majesty in Parliament which does not yet hinder the Temporary Virtue of a Temporary Suspension But to give the Author