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Title:  The happy future state of England, or, A discourse by way of a letter to the late Earl of Anglesey vindicating him from the reflections of an affidavit published by the House of Commons, ao. 1680, by occasion whereof observations are made concerning infamous witnesses : the said discourse likewise contains various political remarks and calculations referring to many parts of Christendom, with observations of the number of the people of England, and of its growth in populousness and trade, the vanity of the late fears and jealousies being shewn, the author doth on the grounds of nature predict the happy future state of the realm : at the end of the discourse there is a casuistical discussion of the obligation to the king, his heirs and successors, wherein many of the moral offices of absolution and unconditional loyalty are asserted : before the discourse is a large preface, giving an account of the whole work, with an index of the principal matters : also, The obligation resulting from the Oath of supremacy to assist and defend the preheminence or prerogative of the dispensative power belonging to the king ...
Author: Pett, Peter, Sir, 1630-1699.
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And if it shall therefore appear to the Magistrates that they are thus Conference-proof and (as I may say) Reason-proof by vertue of their Co∣venant, it will then be found that no one Mmber of a gathered Church can turn to ours, without the whole Hyena-like turning, and perhaps some of the Lords the Bishops may think it hereupon proper humbly to advise his Majesty to null by a Declaration the Obligation of this Cove∣nant as his Royal Father did that of the Presbyterian Covenant.In the mean time the Consideration of the Principles of Independecy thus seeming to have cramp'd the Consciences of its followers with a Cove∣nant (that is at least unnecessary, and must naturally be a troublesom impo∣sition to men of thought and generous Education who love to perform Moral Offices without entring into Covenant or giving Bond so to do) may serve to let men see how the Pastorage of the Church of England treats them like Gentlemen, and may serve to awaken their Compassion for their deluded Country-men whom they see frghtened by their Teach∣ers into a fancy of the unlawfulness of a Ceremony, and yet embolden'd by them into the belief and practice of a Covenant without the King's Consent, and from which Persons we should perhaps quickly receive Alarms of Persecution, if the Government should impose any Covenant or Test on them in order to Loyalty, tho never so necessary for the pub∣lick Peace.But the World is aweary of the umbrage Sedition hath found among denominations of Churches, and of judging of Trees by their Shadows, or otherwise than by their Fruit, that is by their Principles: and for the hap∣piness of the present State of England, after we have by many Religion-Traders been troubled with almost as many Marks of true and false Churches as there are of Merchants Goods, Nature seems to have direct∣ed the People to agree in this indeleble Character and Mark of a false Church, namely, one whose Principles are Disloyal.The Genius of England is so bent upon Loyalty in this Conjuncture, that a disloyal Principle doth jar in the Ears of ordinary thinking men like a false string in the Ears of a Critical Lutenist, and the which he knows that Art or Nature can never tune: and upon any Churches va∣luing themselves on the intrinsic worth or the weight of their Princi∣ples as most opposite to Falshood, men generally now take into their hands the Touch-stone and the Scales of Loyalty, and do presently suspect any Church that refuseth to bring its Principles to be touch'd and weigh'd, and they will not now allow the Reputation of a visible Church to any body of Men, whose Principles relating to Loyalty, shall not first be made visible.Nor can it be otherwise thought by the impartial, than that Mens Consciousness of somewhat of the Turpitude of some of their Principles, restrains them from bringing them to appear in publick View, and accor∣ding as Cicero in his de fin. bon. & mal. answers Epicurus (who said that he would not publish his Opinion lest the people might perhaps take of∣fence at it,) viz. Aut tu eadem ista dic in judicio, aut si coronam times, dic in senatu. Nunquam facies. Cur; nisi quod turpis est Oratio.I who thus urge the Reasonableness and Necessity of mens being Con∣fessors of their Principles of Loyalty, have frankly exposed one of mine own in p. 131. and which I say there that I account the great fundamental one for the quiet of the World as well as of a Man's own Conscience, viz. That no man is warranted by any Intention of advancing Religion, to invade the right of the Sovereign Power that is inherent in Princes by the munici∣pal 0