Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A26677
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Allegiance and prerogative considered in a letter from a gentleman in the country to his friend, upon his being chosen a member of the meeting of states in Scotland.
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Gentleman in the country.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing A955; ESTC R11003
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11,569
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18
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Beneplacito For when Men hold these places at pleasure it is certainly a great temptation to them who are not of a very firm Honesty to comply with any Designs of the Court and humours of the present chief Favourites And when an honest Man stands his ground and refuses such a Servile Complyance against his Honour and Conscience Then as we have seen he is presently to be turned out and some plyable Tool that will receive any Impressions from these hands put in his place and so our Judicatures filled with Men who will give themselves up to a blind Obedience to the Dictates from Court. And what Justice can the Nation expect from such Judges I do not say the abolishing Commissions Durante Beneplacito will ascertain us of Just Judges But to be sure it will free them whom we shall have from many Temptations to be unjust and secure to us more firmly these that are just and honest So it is well worth the while There is one thing I cannot pass about our Judges tho it be not hujus loci I think it would be much our interest to have Crimen Ambitus in force amongst us as to Session and Justiciarie especially Many wise People have thought that a Man's sueing and Soliciting for such Offices was a just Ground to make him Suspected as unworthy of the Trust This is certain if such Methods were strictly discharged and every one at his admission to these Offices oblidged to purge himself of them we might justly expect they should go more by Merit then they can do while men are allowed to Brigue and Intrigue for them For commonly Cunning and False Men are most Assiduous and Dexterous at Insinuating into a Court. 6. I think the Kings Ecclesiastick Supremacy as it stands now Asserted by Acts of Parliament ought to be Abrogated I will not enter on the debate what power is allowable to a Christian Magistrate in or about Ecclâ—siastical Matters but leaving this as unnecessary to be discussed here I shall prove the Assertion from these two considerations first if there is any such Supremacy allowable in a Christian Nation to any Civil persons or Judicature it cannot with safety be trusted but where the Legislative power is Lodged 2dly It appears uncharitable and unchristian to enact or leave in Force any Laws Declaratorie of such a Supremacy First Then consider that by this Supremacy the King has Power to turn off any Churchman Summary without any Process of this we have seen several instances he hath also Power thereby at pleasure to Crush any set of Clergy or Church Government he thinks uneasie to him and advance any Party or Model he hopes to be better served by He has by this Supremacy likewise Power if not in express terms yet by very natural Consequence to Suppress all Assemblies Convocations of the Clergy Synods Presbyteries Sessions or any other meetings of Churchmen necessary or convenient for preserving Order in the Church From consideration of these things it is evident and clear as Sun shine That if such a Supremacie be allowed to our Kings then they shall have Power to introduce Corruptions in our Religion by a Corrupt Clergy to raise constant Schisms in our Church to nourish and Foment a Spirit of Animositie and Persecution by one party of Clergy against another to the great reproach of our Religion and danger of our State as past experience may teach us finally they shall have power to dissolve and unhing our Church by depriving Her of all means necessary for establishing and preserving of Order and Discipline without which no Society can subsist And surely these things cannot happen in a Christian Nation without bringing deadly Convulsions upon the Civil State. Now I am confident that after very little reflection on the whole you and every Rational Man will Anticipate me in the Inference and conclude that such a Supremacy is of the last Importance both to the Religion and Civil Interest of the whole Nation and not to be trusted to any but reserved to King and Parliament if it is allowable to any Civil Power Secondly That it is Vncharitable to enact any Laws Declaratorie of such a Supremacie will evidently appear from this that it gives great scandal to good Protestants and pâ—aceable Subjects and is no wayes necessary Surely then it is very unbecoming Christian Charity and Moderation to give great Offence and lay a stumbling block before such Officiously and Needlesly Now all the World knows this Supremacy has been a stâ—ne of stumbling both to Jew and Gentile if I may so speak for not only the Presbyterians have still declaimed against it as an Antichristian inchroachment upon Christs prerogative but many Episcopal have judged it an Invasion and Diminution of the intrinsick power consigned by CHRIST to his Church whereupon severall minent amongst that Clergy resused our Test Thus as the Offensive Nature of such Laws is evident So every considering Man must acknowledge That they are useless because all Laws about Church Government should only be founded on these Grounds That What is thereby injoyned is agreeable to the Word of GOD most consonant to the practise of the purest Churches and most proper and conducing for the Advancement of Truth Piety and good Order in this Church Now on these Reasons onely let every thing in Relation to the Pâ—licy of the Church be Enacted in Parliament without pretending or Declaring by any Act what power they have in such Matters Thus I am sute King and Parliament may do their Duty in this Matter from time to time and a great Deal if not All the Offense would be removed For it cannot be denyed That the Legislative power being in them what Form of Government they apply their civil Sanction to it becomes the Legal Government of the Nation Which is all needs be claimed and their medling in such Matters cannot be quarrelled since all Protestants do not only approve the Parliaments Ratifying of our very Confession of Faith but ordinarly plead that thereby we have greater priviledges and right for defence of it than any principle of Religion it self gives us The only hazard is that they may Err in their choice but I know no Remedy for this unless we go to Rome for Infallibility and I fear we should loose our Labour except That no such Laws be imposed Rigorously to be owned by all but a reasonable Toleration allowed to peaceable Dissenters Seeing then there is no use for such Declaratory Laws of an Ecelesiastick Supremacy Were it not very uncharitable to keep them on foot for a snare and for ginn to so many of our Christian Brethren of the same Religion I may add further it were very Dangerous to the publick peace for certainly from this Fountain many of Our intestine commotions have sprung and these streams are not yet dryed up 7. And Lastly Having already far exceeded the due bounds of a Letter and the brevitie I designed I shall Croud all that
ALLEGIANCE AND PREROGATIVE Considered in a Letter from a GENTLEMAN In the Country to his FRIEND Upon his being Chosen a MEMBER of the Meeting of STATES IN SCOTLAND Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX ALLEGIANCE AND PREROGATIVE Considered in a Letter from a GENTLEMAN In the Country to his FRIEND Upon his being Chosen a MEMBER of the Meeting of STATES IN SCOTLAND SIR I Received Yours wherein you tell me you are chosen a Meâ—ber of the Ensueing Meeting of the States of this Kingdoâ— You desire my Opinion What should be their behaviour towards K. James the 7th how far we are now tyed by our Allegiance what Limits ought to beset to the Prerogative c. Which you say are at present the great Subjects of Discourse I doubt not since these things are so much talk't of by every Body and the Itch of Writing is so Universal but you will see several things on these Heads from much Abler Pens And from such who not only are better qualified for the undertaking but also by hearing and perhaps being personally present by seeing the practices and methods of England in the same case are better furnished with helps for the performance So that any thing I can say to you will be superfluous Yet in obedience to your desire and to testify my sincere and unbiassed Affection to the good of my Country and withall to convince you that it is not from any fond Principle of Bigotted Loyalty nor from a stupid unconcern'dness in the great Concerns of the Nation that I decline coming to Town at this time when as you say it is expected that the greatest part of the Gentry will be present during this Assembly of the States I shall freely give you my rude thoughts of what appears to me to be the proper Work and necessary duty of this Meeting in the present extraordinary Conjuncture and leave it to you to make what use thereof you shall think fit As to the first point you mention tho you know I am neither Divine nor Casuist yet I must say that I think 't is very evident to any thinking man That Heaven it self has very fully loos'd the Nation from their Allegiance and by remarkable providences granted a clear Dispensation from their Oaths to K. James the 7th We need not dispute what was the genuine sense of these Oaths whether they allow'd this implicite Reservation That if the King should subvert the Foundations of our Government Our Laws Religion Liberties and Properties The People should in that case be free to assert and assume their Native Rights Neither need we enter upon the Invidious task of Examining how farr the King advanced in these unjust Practices and Designs Heaven it self I say seems most convincingly to have superseeded all such Debates and Enquiries and to have laid it upon this Meeting of the States to settle and establish just and solid Foundations for the Government of the Nation in all time coming 'T is acknowledged by all Christians that no Oath can bind when either their Superveens a Physical Impossibility of performing it Or when the performance becomes morally unlawful And every considering Man must acknowledge that Providence hath cast both these Impediments in the way of this Assembly to divert them from their Allegiance to K. James For now England has Dethron'd him and their Action is applauded as proceeding upon just and valid grounds most of which are common to us with them by the greatest part of this Nation So that it is obvious to every one that it would be Impossible for this Assembly of our States to maintain and support him in the exercise of his Royal Dignity here against the unquestionable Attempts that we must expect Englands Jealousies of such an irritated Neighbour would provoke them to set about for his overthrow And these Attempts could not miss of Success having as unquestionably a great If not the far greatest part of this Nation for their Abettors Thus what a Scene of Blood War and Confusion should these Nations become And what a feeble distracted Government might we expect in such Circumstances But if any shall plead that there 's no Physical Impossibility in the case and that the Histories of past Ages teach us that this Nation when unanimous in their Allegiance may maintain their King against all the Efforts of England Especially since we may now expect more Assistance then ever from our old Allies the French. Yet this at least I am sure every Protestant must consess is moralâ—y unlawfull for him to concur in Since such a Conjunction were utterly inconsistent with his indispensible Moral Duty of preserving or at least doing nothing that evidently tends to the ruine of the true Reformed Religion Now any man that is capable of the least serious Reflection upon the present state of Affairs must plainly see that the Interest of His present Majesty of England and his party are so intervoven with that of the Reformed Religion that the one cannot suffer loss or overthrow without the notable dammage or apparent ruine of the other not only in this Island but all Christendom over He must also see no less clearly that it were a meer dream to imagine it possible to support and preserve K. James in his power here without wronging the K. of England and his Interest For to be sure either of them would imploy his whole Art and might for the others ruine Such different Interests beside the particular quarrels of the late Revolution being now altogether incompatible in this Island Neither is it to be thought that K. James would value this Crown further then that he might thereby be enabled to recover that of England Thus 't is plain that we can never fancy to preferve K. James's power here without resolving to assist and second him in his attempts to the great prejudice if not the Total Ruine so far as men are able of the Reformed Religion over all Europe But I am perswaded no Protestant of Common Sense can ever think his Allegiance will warrant or in the least Justify him in any such practice For whatever has been said to Evince that Allegiance did bind Subjects to Passive Obedience tho secrued to the highest pitch Yet none was ever so impudent as to assert that it oblidg'd them to an Active concurrence with their King in methods directly tending to the Suppression or Extirpation of the true Religion Here Christians of all Perswasions will own That it is better to obey God then Man. Wherefore it being thus Irrefragably evident that God in his wise Over Ruling Providence has ordered things so that it is both Impossible for this Meeting of the States to preserve the Crown to K. James or at least not to be undertaken without exposing this Nation to all the lamentable evils that a weak unlettled Government constant Warrs and confusions can bring upon it And that it is also unlawful for us Protestants to aim at it since he cannot now be Re