Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A40420
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Free thoughts of the penal laws, tests, and some late printed papers touching both in a letter from a person of quality.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing F2123; ESTC R33793
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11,219
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18
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they are reckoned having Faces looking different ways c. as before Being thus condemned let them be left to the Secular Judgment to be punished with due severity c. as before But if any of the aforementioned Heretics after they are convicted will not return to perform condign Penance let them be kept in perpetual imprisonment And as to them who adhere to their Errors we adjudge them alike Heretics The next Chapter is short but Substantial Let them know that they are absolved Cap. Absolutos se noverint from all Debt of Fidelity Dominion or Obedience whosoever were bound by any Compact howsoever strong to any Persons fallen into Heresie More of like nature might be easily collected out of the body of the Canon-Law Now that by Heretics those Laws do not understand meerly Manichees Valentinians Arrians or some such gross People but universally all such who submit not to the Roman Faith or even to the Supremacy of the Roman Bishop is besides what was above-noted plain from another Text of the said Canon Law. He that is Christ alone hath founded this the Roman Church upon a Rock who committed to blessed Peter the Keeper Distinct XXII Omnes of the Keys of Eternal Life the Rights both of the Earthly and Heavenly Empire So that whosoever endeavours to take away from the Roman Church the Privilege given her by the Supreme Head of all Churches such Person without doubt is fallen into Heresie and whereas others who violate the Privileges of other Churches are to be called unjust such Person is to be stiled an Heretic As to matter of fact how these Laws have been Executed and in some Countries how they still are is disagreeable to my Design of publick accord to insist only because we are considering of terms of accord I must not wave that point of matter of fact that all Protestants are excommunicated afresh by the Pope every Maundy Thursday Bulla Caenae and that every Prelate which is consecrated at his Consecration amongst other things severe enough against us swears in these words Hereticos Schismaticos Rebelles Vide Pontisical Roman eidem Domino nostro vel Successoribus pr aedictis pro posse persequar impugnabo That is I will according to my power persecute and impugn all Hereticks Schismaticks or those who rebel against our Lord the Pope and his Successors aforesaid I will not here meddle with the Doctrine of many Casuists who tell us ordinarily that all Heretics being de jure Excommunicate any Catholic may safely kill them Nor that in all Catholic Kingdoms de Consuetudins Burning alive is the proper Legal Death for Heretics for which last it were to be wisht there were not yet Statute-Laws in force in some of his Majesty's Dominions I rub not I say on these Sores but content my self to have mentioned the general Penal Laws above recited which are sufficient to prove the Romanists have such Laws And these being the Laws and such the present obligation generally to all Catholics in power whether Ecclesiastical or Secular to observe them it is reasonable that before Fenal Laws against all men of this Religion be Repealed they of the Religion obtain from his Holiness some Repeal of these and the like Laws at least a Bull exempting all the Protestants of England Scotland and Ireland from being comprehended in the number of such Heretics who are thus to suffer and together absolving all Persons who have taken Oaths for Exterminating Heretics from any obligation to perform those Oaths as to the Protestants of these Countries For till then we have just so much Reason to hope for security from such Catholics as we have assurance that they will ever forswear themselves or all their days live in wilful Perjury There is another Law amongst the Roman Catholics which tho not Penal to us it is to be feared may be one day most dreadfully Penal to as many of them as observe it and which seems to oblige them to persecute us I will call it the Law of uncharitableness the revoking of which also it seems fit should be made a condition of Repealing our Penal Laws The Law I mean is that whereby every one who will be of that Church is required to swear to the Tridentine Creed in the close of which Oath he avows No one can be saved out of the belief of that the present Roman Catholic Faith. By this they plainly damn four fifth parts of all Christendom I know there are some Gentlemen of that Communion who are more merciful to us and the better Catholicks are they for it God bless them and encrease the number of them But I as well know there are others so stifly hold to this that they frequently and even in their ordinary conversation as well as in their writings use it as an Argument to perswade men of our Church to come over to their Religion As to these I crave leave to say only this one thing That men can repose very little confidence in their kindness who prejudging to God's judgment have already damn'd them before-hand Wherefore I conceive they who would have any kind offices pass between us and our Roman Catholic Countreymen or intend we should live together as Christians ought to abandon this rigour and if possible to procure from the Head of their Church an abatement of it as to the Protestants of these Countries at leastwise This will appear yet the more reasonable if we consider of what Communion they were that first introduced into these parts of the World Penal or Sanguinary Laws in cause of Religion The Protestants in this matter can only be blamed for following an ill Example which also they have industriously not come up to They found Sanguinary Laws and the severest of them in England they have repealed If any other than those Penal-Laws were made as it is not to be denied there were it was rather upon the score of the State than of Religion A Sanguinary Law made particularly against any sort of our Non-Conformists I never yet knew any Nor against those of Rome purely for Conscience sake But the Laws above mentioned out of the Roman Canon-Law are Purely upon the score of Conscience and even where they extend not to Blood they are as we see much severer than any of our Laws or Tests against them In a word all persons who will be just must allow to others the Liberty and Security that they desire should be granted to themselves which is the Heighth of this our first demand I prae sequar Let those who were first in the guilt first amend certainly Protestants will meet them in kindness Secondly Inasmuch as they of the Establisht Church do not in the least suspect the truth of their Religion all the Writings of their Roman Adversaries discovering their Roman Faith where differing from the Protestants instead of a Rock to be built only on Air and inasmuch as it cannot be justly expected that meerly
to gratify our Adversaries we should at once betray both our Religion and our Interest it is but just that together with such Statute as shall take away the Penal Laws in Contest there pass another for security of the National Religion that it shall not be altered and of the regular conformable Clergy and their Successors that their Rights shall not be invaded It is told us indeed we have His Majesties Royal word many times repeated I humbly return that I know no true Church-of-England Man who does not rely upon His Majesties Word during his Reign which God long continue for the security of our Church But Succession is a long Train and Laws if standing may keep posterity in peace when Promises with their Authors are faln asleep He is not just to the present Age who is not to his power just to Posterity however remote It is therefore reasonable fit and necessary that such a Statute as is desired pass As to what you conclude with That the Clergy of the Church of England are very ungrateful to His Majesty for his repeated Promises of Protection and together uncivil to him in not fully acquiescing in his Royal word so often given for the security of their Religion Rights and Privileges and not offering to concur according to his desire in the Repeal of the Penal Laws I take the liberty to aver that I know not one Clergy-man of that Church who has not solemnly under his hand given His Majesty thanks for those Promises All the Addresses we made in the year of His Majesties accession to the Crown were so many humble Testimonies of our Gratitude and Zealous Vows of our Loyalty and if Addresses of meer Thanks and Vows of Loyalty would be accepted there is not an English Bishop Priest or Parish in the Three Kingdoms I believe but would present them most gladly But who sees not the Declaration for which 't is expected we return Thanks consists of more parts than that private Subjects can justify their approbation of the whole And as to the sacred Veneration we have for His Majesties word I have spoken already Give me leave for a Conclusion to tell you a new and very true Story A Friend and Neighbour of mine being very intimate with an eminent person of a certain Religious Order and knowing well the Principles of that Order asked him in a good hour what they meant by this furious driving on an Universal and Unlimited Toleration The answer he received was that they were now Scaffolding My Friend understanding him not desired he would explain himself but could get no more out of him than this that they were yet but Scaffolding After further importunity for a more explicit resolution the good Religious person answered he would not tell him more but bid him go to such a person a Master-Bricklayer or Mason be-like and ask him what Scaffolding was He went to the Man assigned and received this Answer Scaffolding is setting up Poles and Boards and such rough stuff which serve us to build and when we have built we throw them aside The Story I avow to be true and leave the application of it to all those parties whom it concerns very well remembring that Scaffolds are ordinarily made for more uses than one However according to the Interpretation given the Toleration now promoted seems not by its Agitators designed to stand long But to make an end On what terms I conceive the Penal-Laws in question may be Repealed with justice to the present and succeeding Ages you may easily collect out of this long and hasty scribble and so you have my Free Thoughts in this so hotly agitated Question God preserve the King and grant we may live to see the days wherein all Laws Penal to Peaceable Conscientious men and together all uncharitable Laws on all sides may be for ever abrogated I am your Humble Servant Printed in the Year 1688.