what has been done this way before and universally approved of without being any wise called in question may I 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 of without offence to any That which I aim at in this is only to note how when something of the same nature was passed by the late King Charles the Second dispensing by his Proclamation with two distinct particulars enjoyned by Act of Parliament as firmly as any of our Penal Laws about Religion can be not a word was ever objected against it as that it could not be done without a Parliament The one was for prohibiting of Spices from being brought into England otherwise than in English Bottoms and the place of their growth The other about the form of Cart and Waggon Carriages for the preservation of the Roads in both which Statures his late Majesty made a suspention and yet was never questioned in any Session of that or future Parliaments or by any of the Judges or Lawyers of the Kingdom which to this day continues still without any mans making the least noise about it Though no Parliament ever since gave that proceeding any confirmation as being Judged to have been done firm enough by the power that made the alteration This quarrel therefore is very unhandsome as it denies this King that Power in matters of Religion which they allowed the former King in things civil and is so much the worse in this Case as it questions His Majesties Prerogative in Ecclesiastical affairs which the Laws of the Kingdom have ever acknowleged to him in a peculiar manner In that very Act which was last made against Conventicles A Clause was put in as a special proviso c. That nothing in that Act shall make void his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical affairs but His Majesty his Heirs c. shall injoy the same amply as himself or any of his predecessors have done nevertheless the said Act. Undoubtedly when this proviso was made the Parliament did acknowledg that the King was not bound up by that Act so as that he could not grant any Liberty against its injuctions or suspend the Execution of the Law it self when it was wholly made upon an Ecclesiastical Account It must certainly be so also with the Vniformity Act for his Prerogative is not less in that because the like proviso is not made there no nor to the Test about Capacitating Men for holding of publick Offices since the matter of it relates chiefly to propositions that concern matters of Religion Of all Men in the World a Man would think our Clergy Men should forbear so much as to have the least thought of Questioning His Majesties Power touching what he has done by His Declaration when as Praying for him in their Pulpits they constantly present him to God as being over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supream Governor and Moderator For them therefore upon this small and first instance of his Moderatorship to call in question this his Supremacy either by preaching or speaking against what he hath done must give the People very strange Suggestions for while they do so what will the giving these Titles to Him be looked upon otherwise but as Hypocrisie towards God or a kind of Mock-Complement to the Kings Supremacy let them therefore either acknowledg the Power he hath exercised or else I know not how they will be able sincerely to say Amen to their own Prayers There are divers other things I had thought to have added to these Discourses but I fear what is writen already is more than many Mens leisure will allow them to read therefore I shall now forbear going any further and rather because it is like I may meet with some answerers or at least some better opportunity than I have at present which may draw them forth until which time I shall bid my Reader heartily Farewel FINIS
to His Majesty as far as Honest and Dutiful Words can express assuring him of their Loyalty and Prayers for his long and prosperous Reign They humbly tell Him also that to his Three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland he hath now established to himself a fourth Kingdom in the Hearts of those his formerly oppressed Subjects which as I believe to be true so was it modestly spoken inasmuch as the Dissenters are known to be far exceeding the quantity of a fourth part of the People of the three Kingdoms Several others testify their joy in that so good an opportunity is given them to express the truth of their Loyalty which the Church of England had hitherto presumed to have been entailed wholly on themselves A great many engage to Live and Die with him to the utmost of their lives and fortunes But passing by all others I would especially mark those who in the Capacity of a Grand Jury thank the King for his Declaration as it has prevented honest Neighbours from indicting one another in the things of Religion which to many Consciencious Men was a very great burthen and to the whole Kingdom a greater vexation then I can now stand to speak of begiting ill will and irreconsitable differences between one and the other of his Majesties Subjects which being by this means now taken away it is hoped their old Correspondency will be henceforth renewed in a true love of each Man to his Neighbour In the midst of this happy Union between His Majesty and his Dissenting Protestant Subjects the Church of England like the Churlish Elder Brother mentioned by our Saviour in the Parable of the Prodigal stand at a distance and Grumble They will neither thank their Princely Parent for the Favour He vouchsafeth to themselves nor will they come in to rejoyce with their Younger Brethren upon their Dutiful return and the Kings kind reception of them a thing so much the more culpable since none of the fatted Calfs I mean the Church Revenues are in the least killed for them but are as they were before wholly in the Church of Englands own Possession 'T is almost beyond rehearsals the dislike they shew of this Vnion as if they delighted to keep up the same or raise other and worse Confusions during his present Majesties Reign as they begot in the time of his four last Predecessors The bond of this Vnion which I may say is His Majesties Gracious Declaration many of them can scarce hear named but they are ready to fly back like Men that had trod on a Serpent One shakes the Head another bites the Lip a third Scouls and Frowns with as many other Evidences of their dislike as Bodily Gestures can shew And it would have been well could they have contented themselves within the Bounds of those tacite Intimations of their displeasure but this they could not do they must also break into Words and open Censures such as I have named before I do not charge all with this but I must say I daily find and meet with an abundance too many that are so doing insomuch as I think it highly necessary for every Man in his place to put a Stop as far as he can to the further progress of it For my self I know no better way that I can take then to mind them of the Inconsistency of such deportment with their boasted of Loyalty a thing of which they have seemed to be as tender as of the Aple of their Eye And if they are still so serious therein as they would be esteemed they should as I conceive judge themselves not a little concerned in a Question I have here to propose to them and the rather because I undertake to maintain the Negative The question is plainly this viz. Whether it be Consistent with that high degree of Loyalty so much boasted of by the Church of England for their Preachers in the manner they have done to Preach against their Kings Religion and both them and their Church Members to speak as they too frequently do against His Proceeding by his late Declaration This question is the bottom of all my following Expostulations wherein that I may proceed with the more perspecuity I shall do no more then make inquiry into two things First I shall examine wherein the highest degree of Loyalty according to the sence of the Scriptures may be said to consist Secondly I shall inquire how the present Behaviour of many of the Church of England both Clergy and Layety agrees with that Loyalty which I shall discribe In the first I am guided by two Texts of Scripture from whence I may argue as much as I shall need to my purpose the one is that of Rom. 13 1 2. Let every Soul be Subject to the higher Power where Subjection is required to be given for Conscience sake which makes it become a Religious Act. To give Subjection only because we cannot avoid it or because we are compelled is the Subjection of an Infidel or a Turk rather than a Christian The opposite to this is Resistance which is twofold First That which is by open Violence to the Person of him that is our Soveraign or to his Subordinate Ministers The second is when we Disobey or Speak against His Precepts Edicts or the Declaration of His Will which be sends forth in the Execution of His Government for not to Submit or to Speak against what he Directs is to resist So Luke 21.15 To gain-say and resist are made the same thing a Man may make resistance as well by his Tongue as his Sword from whence I infer that one part of the highest degree of Loyalty is a cheerful and willing compliance with the declared will of the King in all things without gain-saying not contrary to the Law of God The other Passage is that of St. Peter where we are bid to Honour the King This is a degree much higher than a bare forbaring of Resistance or disputing his Commands for a Man may give Obedience and be outwardly Silent towards Him who in his Heart he Slighteth To Honour the King contains in it many Acts both Internal and External our Internal Honouring Him lyeth chiefly in that reverential Esteem we have of His Person as he hath the stamp of Gods Authority on him the valuation we give to His Vertues The Faith we have in his Words and Promises the Acquiessence of out Minds in the Administrations of His Government and judging the Best of His Actions the contrary to these are Jealousies Prejudices all bad wishes and evil surmisings and judging of His Actions in the worst sence The External way of Honouring Him consists likewise of several parts as when we are in his Presence to use those bodily Gestures as may best and most decently express our inward reverence and sence of his Dignity the giving him his Honourable Titles To speak Reverently of him in the hearing and presence of others and prevent what we can all others
from doing the contrary that thereby those we Converse with may Honour Him as we our selves do And to come more closs to the present Circumstances of the times I must say that I judge one great part of our Honouring the King to consist in Addressing our selves to him in waies of publick and greatful acknowledgment of what special savours we receive from him for I cannot believe otherwise but that our Honouring the King must bear a great similitude to our Honouring of God and if so then I am sure Addressing when we would Honor Him must not be left out as often as he gives occasion For Men to talk of Loyalty where these things are wanting is but to abuse the King and themselves too These things I shall illustrate further by two Examples When King Saul delired Samuel to Honor him wherein did he place that Honor was it not by something the Prophet should do that was to support his Credit among the People 1 Sam. 15.30 Honor me now I pray thee before the Elders of my People Saul was to be laid aside and put out of the Government and he knew as much but it is like he thought it not convenient to his present Condition that the People should know it which they might have done in all likely hood had Samuel denyed his Request But what doth Samuel in the case Doth he not readily and openly shew his complyance So Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul Worshipped the Lord for that was the thing requested of Samuel viz. that he would go with the King to Worship God before the Elders of the People I hope no body Imagins that I extend this example so far as to oblige all Subjects to Worship as their King doth what Religion soever he professeth it proves my Argument better another way viz. As it is an instance of the Obligation that lyeth upon Men in sacred Office as Samuel was to maintain the Kings Honor in as publick a manner as their Place and Station give them Oppertunity and forbiding them doing any thing that may render him mean in the eyes of the People though they be not satisfied in all the King doth Samuel thus honoured the King when he knew that God had rejected him in the Government how then ought we to act towards a King who we all know God by most remarkable Deliverances hath set upon the Throne The like we have in the instance of King Ahasuerus mentioned in the Book of Esther who when he asked Haman what should be done to the Man the King delighteth to Honor was thus directed viz. Let there be put on him the Royal Apparel and bring him on Horseback through the streets of the City and proclaim before him Thus shall it be done to the Man whom the King delighteth to Honor. Wherein tho Haman mistook the Person at whom the King aimed as thinking it had been himself he did yet hit right in the Notion of the thing how that honor the King intended was to be effected and what other thing was it that he directed but such an act as should render that Person to be great and worthy in the eyes of the Peopl This being the true Notion of Loyalty as it may be considered in its highest degree The question will now come more easie to a resolution I see no need of explaining any of its Terms those upon which the whole stress of it depends are only concerning the manner of many of their Ministers Preaching and of their and the Peoples Speaking for I am not going about to tie-up either the People or any sort of Preachers from asserting the Religion they profess but when it so falls out that there is any difference between theirs and their Kings Religion I would not have it done in any way not consistent with their Loyalty Now what that manner and method is which divers of the Church of England have taken up in these things both by their Ministers in Preaching and by their People in Speaking about the Kings Declaration and his late proceedings in those affairs which I conceive to be very inconsiestnt with those high degrees of Loyalty they pretend to and these Texts lay before us I shall mention in the particulars following and first of the Preaching 1. When there is more Preaching this way than there seems to be need for or the supposed danger of the People requires which seems to be much our present case For I can no waies understand what necessity there is or hath been for all the Preaching we have had of late against the Catholick Doctrines Surely our Preachers must think the People to be in great Danger of their Faith but then how comes it about to be so Have they so much neglected them all the time before as that now when a R. Catholick King comes to the Crown they must be all new taught Or what is the Ground of all this fear For certainly some most Lamentable Apprehensions must have struck even to their very Souls or else they who have stood so mightily upon their Loyalty would not run upon such Methods as now to make it be called in Question I confess Men in a Panick fear may do strange things but then I must still be asking them What is it they Fear or what is that which thus excites them unto this Preaching Do they fear the People will all on a sudden become R. Catholicks By many Mens Sermons indeed some are apt to think so and that these Methods of the Pulpit are taken up as the only means to prevent it Well! but then I would know again of whom it is and of what rank of People are they most afraid For to speak my own thoughts Freely this seems to me to be a needless fear and more imaginary than real and could I suppose that the imparting such Observations as I have made of these things would in any wise obviate our Church-Mens Fears in this matter I would then particularize the Case as to the People and say The Protestant Dissenters I think need not be Doubted for they are a People so Anti-ceremonial in their Worship and so much against any kind of Liturgies or imposed Prayers as that they upon that reason are many of them withdrawn from the Church of England and therefore very unlikely to go to any Mass And among those that go to the Parish Churches there are divers Serious People who so approve of the Dissenters Worship as that they steal oftner to it than their Ministers are aware of and these may be supposed upon the same reason to be in as little danger as the other There being then no great ground of fear for these it must follow that those they are most afraid of are such as are of their own Church and here the Dissenters cannot refrain Smiling to see that after the Church of England hath so fairly Coppied out Her Liturgy Ceremonies and Hierarchie from the Church of Rome they should now
The conclusion then is this not to believe him is to censure him and to censure him is to do evil against him and every evil thing done against him is against our Loyalty Now this consuring must be so much the worse in as much as while Men follow the consequences of their own Reasonings they can see no grounds to believe that the Protestant Religion can receive any prejudice by any thing that can arise by the Declaration without offering a kind of violence to their own reason There are some persons who have given very great Reasons against the likely-hood of the Catholicks Religion overthrowing or suppressing Protestantism none of which I shall repeat I shall only take notice of two other things which I perceive to be much overlookt which to me seem of very great force in giving Protestants a full assurance as to this Case The first is in that the Declaration indulgeth those of the Protestant Religion which are at the remotest distance from his Majesties own Way for so I must repute the Protestant Dissenters in England to be as using no kind of Liturgy or Ceremonies in their Worship nor so much as acknowledging the office of a Protestant Diocessan Bishop which is indeed the great Protestancy of Christendom whereas the Church of England rigidly imposing the one and stilly maintaining the other together with their Symbolizing in both these respects with the R. Catholick Church and Worship Yea and in many Doctrines too of late which the first Reformation opposed have been thought to have been so near them as the effecting of an union to the extirpation of the Dissenters was the only thing feared and this not without ground while those Dissenters saw the Church of England upon the Death of his late Majesty to renew their prosecutions somewhat sharper than before But these fears are now abundantly removed which truly I must say could hardly have been done by any other means than that which his Majesty hath taken by his Declaration which must be to all Men of understanding an evidence on his behalf that he can have no designs against the Protestant interest nevertheless the Church of England judging otherwise 2. The Admission of the French Protestants in such Multitudes as are come over hither doth also confirm me in the same belief They are a kind of Presbiterians who because they would not become Papists are fled hither where they have not only the Exercise of their Religion but also very large Relief raised for their Necessities and that too by his Majesties own order What greater Testimonies than these can be given of his readiness to support Protestanisme And that He Acts in the highest degree of Sincerity to that Principle upon which he Grounds his Declaration viz. that Conscience is not to be forced from which we that are Protestants cannot but repute our selves exceeding safe and may conclude the Exercise of our Religion to be constantly continued to us and that because the Protestant Interest from all these things is more and more strengthened and allowed to make its utmost advantage to maintain it self in his Majesties Kingdoms all which may be so pleaded against the Censoriousness I here condemn as to make it appear to be every whit as irrational as it is disloyalty The utmost that can be said as to the benefit designed to the Catholicks by the Declaration is only that his Majesty would have those of his own Religion enjoy the same Liberty of Worship he hath given to the Protestant Dissenters and that they may be capable of serving him in Publique Employments as Protestants do which as it is all that is allowed them so as far as I perceive it is as much as they desire To the First I would ask how can the King well do otherwise according to that Divine Principle upon which he proceeds and how can Protestants deny it that hold the same Principle with him which I find none of them oppose when the case is put home and they have been pinch'd upon the point for even our Church of England Divines themselves choose rather to plead the obligation men are under to obey the Laws of the Land whereby their Liturgy and Ceremonies are setled than to insist upon the denying this principle and most generally justifie all their compulsions and penal inflictions from the Authority of our humane Laws telling the people that the Dissenters were not punished for their disobeying the Law a fine way indeed to turn the odium of those things upon the Parliament which themselves are ashamed to own and yet procured and so much struggle to have continued To the Second I would ask also how we shall object against it when we consider that His Majesty must needs in Equity have the same right to the service of all his Subjects as any Parents have to the Service of all their Children or any men have to that which they call their Property Tell me I pray why we should insist upon holding our own property and deny the King His I would be glad to see our Doctors who lately preach'd up Morality so much in the Socinian way as if they would make the whole Institution of Christianity and of Christ's coming into the World to be only a subservient thing to the Establishment of the Primitive Moral Religion to shew upon what principles of Moral right a King shall be denied the choice of those that shall Serve him more than a Noble Man the choice of his Steward or the Master of a Family his own Servants As yet I would never understand that human Laws could supercede any Moral Right fixt in the Original Divine Constitution of things I am no States Man but judging naturally according to the ancient usages of the Kingdom the King is not to be imposed upon in this particular when a King dyeth all publick Commissions formerly granted to his respective Officers become void Nay which is more if a Parliament be then in being his Death dissolves them the reason whereof I could never hear to be Grounded upon any other bottom but that a King was not to be imposed upon or bound up as to his Publick Ministers and Officers by any Act of his Predecessors There is 〈◊〉 thing more I would take notice of at this time which I have not 〈◊〉 so much 〈…〉 to which I would say something here if I knew how to 〈◊〉 it in and this only what I observe from many of the Church of England who when they have little to 〈◊〉 against that excellent Principle his Majesty proceeds upon in granting 〈◊〉 for Gods free worship nor the Moral Justice we owe him in choosing his own Officers they would fain pick a Quarrel with his Power and 〈◊〉 these things should 〈◊〉 come to us in a Parliamentary way I must confess the Power of a King is a thing so sacred and so strongly Lodged and Seated in himself as I have not 〈…〉 the least to peep into it Only