A70766:172
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…
Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate divines and laity of the Church of England represented in some late immoderate discourses, under the nick-names of Grindalizers and Trimmers / by a lover of moderation, resident upon his cure ; with an appendix, demonstrating that parish-churches are no conventicles ... in answer to a late pamphlet entitled, Parish-churches turned into conventicles, &c.
London: printed for Jonathan Robinson, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Now against this Reserve, we are not afraid to come out with as great an Authority as he argues under; and we think, we have the better, because it is a later, and the fruit of twelve Years Experience. See the King's Declaration of Indulgence of March 15. 1672. And against the Vote of the Commons, of Feb. 15. 1662. we will oppose more than one Vote; even a Bill brought into the House of Lords from the Commons in Favour of Protestant Dissenters: After that his Majesty had cancelled his Declaration of Indulgence, which Bill had certainly passed, but for want of Time; the Parliament being prorogued till October 27. 1673, before it passed the Lords, as it certainly would have done; the Bishops then joining with the Temporal Lords, and were willing to take away the Assent and Consent, and Renunciation of the Covenant.
Now against this Reserve, we are not afraid to come out with as great an Authority as he argues under; and we think, we have the better, because it is a later, and the fruit of twelve Years Experience. See the King's Declaration of Indulgence of March 15. 1672. And against the Vote of the Commons, of Feb. 15. 1662. we will oppose more than one Vote; even a Bill brought into the House of Lords from the Commons in Favour of Protestant Dissenters: After that his Majesty had cancelled his Declaration of Indulgence, which Bill had certainly passed, but for want of Time; the Parliament being prorogued till October 27. 1673, before it passed the Lords, as it certainly would have done; the Bishops then joyning with the Temporal Lords, and were willing to take away the Assent and Consent, and Renunciation of the Covenant.
A Bill in 1673. in favour of Protestant Dissenters is of greater Authority, and we suppose built upon greater Reasons, than a Vote against Indulgence in 1662. We might tell you of a Bill for uniting Protestant Dissenters, read December 21. 1680. and other Votes; but it shall suffice to have overmatched a Vote of that same House of ⟨p. 44⟩Commons in its younger days, 1662. by a Bill of the same House in its riper Age, 1673. And now, if I thought this arguing but in this point, unconvincing Preacher could answer me, I would entreat his Favour to ask him whether the Law-givers of this Act did foresee and provide against a Change of their own Thoughts and Resolutions in reference to this very Case? And then, whether we are to take the sense and meaning of the Law-giver from his first, or from his last and maturest Thoughts and Declaration? But if they had remained unaltered; the Words of the Act, and our Declaration and Subscription, being general, and not limited by any after-Declaration of the same Power, for a rigid Construction, we are inclined to interpret them with the Equity, and Moderation of a known Rule of Law. Benignior Interpretatio semper capienda est.