going on still to make Laws to afflict and punish and others engaged quietly to suffer whatsoever they should be exposed to for their Consciences Matters being at this pass there was apparent necessity that some Remedy be speedily applied His Majesty considering they are all his Subjects and how much by such Severity the Interest of his Soveraignty is narrowed so great a number of his People rendred unworthy of his Countenance and Protection and upon no other Account or Crime but their being of different Perswasions in some Externals of Religion Persons otherwise for Industry Faithfulness Loyalty and every way qualified to do his Majesty and their Country as much Service as others His Majesty also calling to mind that prudent Caution which his Royal Father left him in these words Take heed saith he that outward Circumstances and Formalities in Religion devour not all or the best Incouragements of Learning and Industry but with an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as you find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them this will be sure to gain you the Hearts of the best and most too It was likewise impossible for his Majesty to imagine that so many thousands in his own Observation who have suffered so greatly with such humble submission should daily thus expose themselves and Families to ruin from no other or better Principles than a Spirit of Obstinacy and Stubbornness great Sufferings and by great Multitudes yet no Tumults no Resisting whereas in the beginning of the Reformation what Armies in the North and in the West upon this Account by those of another Perswasion were raised tho as yet they suffered little His Majesty as a Common Father beareth Affection to all his Subjects but who of them deserves it and who not can never be discovered by this indiscriminating Severity that is who are Dissenters upon Principles of Conscience and who of them so pretending are notwithstanding of a Seditious Spirit These can never be distinguished one from the other when Dissenters and such as Conform not be it upon what ground soever are all of them equally branded with the same Mark of Disloyalty and so represented to his Majesty and all the Nation There is a necessity that this Pretence of Conscience be removed and Seditious Persons discovered and left to condign Punishment and others these Stumbling-blocks being removed may by their peaceable Obedience to all other his Majesty's Laws justify and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Laws that shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation Of these Things his Majesty hath had a clear prospect all along and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in his Proclamation July 16. 1669. and otherwise to indulge Tender Consciences and hath upon the aforementioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to publish this his Gracious Declaration of March the 25th 1671 wherein he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus his Majesty as a Wise and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or turning to refreshing Showers the dark Fogs and Mists here beneath hath by the Light and Liberty shining forth from his Gracious Indulgence refreshed multitudes of his Good Subjects and delivered them from the dark misapprehensions of others Nor is this their great Relief in any thing prejudicial either to the Estates or Liberties of Men otherwise minded nor are such Men abridged in any of their Concerns Spiritual or Temporal hereby his Majesty hath made sufficient Provision for the satisfying their Consciences in a careful continuing those Ceremonies and Forms of Worship they have been accustomed to let it not be grievous or offensive unto them that their Brethren have obtained the like favour from his Majesty in respect to their Consciences The Apostle requires That we neither judg or despise those that differ from us in Matters of the like Nature but to leave a Man without molestation from us to his own Master to whom he standeth or falleth his being in the right or in the wrong upon this account is a Matter of his Master's concern What is it to us What have we to do to discipline another Man's Servant for what his Master is pleased to bear with him SECT 6. QUEST VI. Since these Ecclesiastical Laws of Restraint were enacted by Parliament the King giving his Royal Assent had it not been convenient if his Majesty had so pleased that the dispensing with these Laws had been by Parliament Answ 1. The Kings and Princes of this Realm his Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Things but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties of such Laws A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might though no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least in the Minds of Men a kind of suspicion especially in the Vulgar that such Proceedings of the Supream Majesty by his sole Power to be an assuming an Arbitrary Government 2. The Parliament did still continue in this their former Opinion and Judgment namely That a way of Severity was the only Means to settle Peace and Unity They had newly passed the Act for Uniformity without any abatement of what was Offensive by reason whereof arose that general Discontent which before we have mentioned His Majesty being sensible hereof did by that Declaration of Decemb. 26. move a second time That an Act might be prepared whereby he may be enabled with a more universal acceptation to exercise the Power of Dispensing which is inherent in him not doubting their chearful cooperation with him being a Matter wherein he conceived himself so much engaged both in point of Honour and in what he oweth to the Peace of his Kingdoms which We profess saith he we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the Malicious and Disaffected to inflame the Minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with dispair of ever obtaining any Effect of our Promises for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's dutiful and loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several parts and places of your Kingdom for which we were chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort advisable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and the Religion established for divers Reasons whereof this is one It will in no wise become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Uniformity and at the next Session the Reasons of Uniformity continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of
THE King's Authority In DISPENSING with Ecclesiastical Laws Asserted and Vindicated By the late Reverend PHILIP NYE A Congregational Divine LONDON Printed for H. N. and Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE King's most Excellent Majesty JAMES By the Grace of God Of England Scotland France and Ireland KING Defender of the Faith c. May it please Your Majesty YOUR Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience is such an instance of the tender care You have of each Man that hath the happiness to be Your Subject that it as well exacts the Service of every one in particular as the Universal Applause Great Sir Having no better opportunity to express my Gratitude I lay at Your Royal Feet these Sheets wrote by my deceased Father occasioned by his late Majesty's Declaration May they be instrumental to promote the Designs of Your Princely Clemency May every Individual in Your Kingdoms enjoy their Consciences and Property May your Parliaments serve you in all those healthful Laws which may appease our Differences and secure our Peace so that not only the present Age but likewise Posterity may bless your Reign for introducing so compassionate an Indulgence These Blessings for you and us and that you may live long and happily in the pursuance of these merciful and noble Principles are the Prayers of Your Majesty's most obedient Subject HENRY NYE A DISCOURSE of Ecclesiastical Laws and Supremacy of the Kings of England in Dispensing with the Penalties of such Laws CHAP. I. The Case and State of the Question THE King's Power and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Affairs may fall under a three-fold Consideration as First put forth by himself Secondly by Commission granted to Ecclesiastical Persons and exercised in those Courts we term Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Thirdly Or such Affairs are managed and ordered by him in Parliament and the Authority thereof The Form in which these Ecclesiastical Laws are expressed unto us is this Be it enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same c. Meerly to advise and consent imply no more Authority in the establishment of Ecclesiastical Laws than what was put forth in the Convocation in their Canons but it being added by the Authority of the same this Authority thus mentioned may be construed either relating to the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament a Suffrage more than an Advice or bare Consent for it implieth when Bills are formed read debated and assented to by both Houses they were then stamped with some kind of Parliamentary Authority Or it is to be interpreted relating to King Lords and Commons and which is likely for Consultations of Parliament tho concluded by Vote yet become not formally a Law until his Majesty hath given his Royal Assent And in this sense Ecclesiastical Laws and Orders which are Enacted and Established by Statutes have as formal a Sanction being not only by Authority of the King but by Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament as other Laws wherein our Civil Interests are concerned namely a joint and not the single Power of either This being granted rather than needlesly to dispute those highest Interests and thence also inferred That as these Ecclesiastical Laws have their Rise Vigour and Strength so their Diminution and Abatement from conjunction of both Powers and are more fixed and stable than those Canons and Orders in Ecclesiastical Matters that have their Sanction from the King only To this I say briefly Altho Men may be Tenants in Common yet none can be joint Tenants with the King. These Powers are not equal the King hath the Supremacy and is thereby enabled to such Acts and Orderings about the Penalties of our Laws as are peculiar to the Crown and Dignity of a King as in Mitigating Exempting Dispensing Licensing Pardoning c. and all this more especially in Ecclesiastical Matters as by the following Discourse will appear SECT 1. This Power and Superiority exercised by the Kings of England in relation to the Penalties of such Penal Laws of both sorts shall be spoken to in these two Particulars I. That such an Authority and Supremacy is necessary and ought to be placed in some Hand II. That it is a Dignity which hath always been placed in the Kings and Queens of this Realm I. For the former In all Polities and Forms of Government as there is a Rule which is to be the Measure and Square to and by which all Mens Actions that live under that Polity are ordinarily to be conformed and judged so is there always some provision made for mitigating the Rigour of the Rule in Cases which may fall out and cannot be foreseen by the wisest Legislators and in such cases to exercise Summum jus would be Summa injuria therefore there is here not only a Power to judg as the case stands in the strict Letter of the Law but as there are Courts of Law so are there Chanceries Courts of Equity and Conscience wherein the Law and Rule it self is dispensed with and varied from and the Proceedings there are not according to the strict Terms of Law but secundum equum bonum as the Merit of the Case in it self may require 1. For Laws constituted for a whole Nation universally to be submitted to by Persons of what quality soever and how much soever different in their Conditions must needs in their strict execution bear harder upon some Men than others Parliaments in their Laws going by the Rule of Ad ea quae frequentius accidunt c. and better an inconvenient Mischief than an Inconvenience It is taken for granted that a general Law which hath its Good and Necessity in respect to the Bulk and Body of a People may prove unequal to particular Persons from the Circumstances of their present Condition In a Common Wealth the Ease and Benefit of each particular Person of what Degree or Condition soever is to be consulted but where Laws are executed in their full rigour and no Mercy or Indulgence to particular Persons in special and unusual Cases it will not be so God himself who knoweth every Man's Heart yet some of his Laws that are given in general to all would not prove so equal to each at all times without exemptions in particular Cases Hence we say Affirmative Precepts bind not ad semper to such Laws is that of Mark 2.26 in the Case of Shew-bread to be referred And the Pope who assumes to himself a possibility not to Err yet how doth his Republick abound in Courts for Faculties Dispensations Indulgences c. 2. It 's also to be considered there are no Societies of Men but may err in their Councils Laws made in one Parliament come to a Review and often to an Alteration yea Repeal in the next The Intervals of those great Councils are sometimes
long and if no way of Relief were in the mean time the Subject would without Remedy undergo the penalty of an unequal Law. These and the like Considerations make it necessary that besides the Legislative Power placed in the Parliament that there be some Hand or other also by which upon all emergent Occasions the rigour of a Law as to its Penalty may be abated by the means whereof not only Mens Liberties and Estates but Lives also are sometimes preserved SECT 2. 2. This Ballance hath always been trusted in the Hand and annexed to the Sovereign Majesty of every State for this Interest doth little vary but remaineth in a manner the same in all Republicks in what Form soever they be established In the State of England being an Empire and its Crown in many Acts of Parliament especially relating to these Matters stiled Imperial this Power is inseparably annexed thereunto which needs little proof it being confirmed by the Oath of Supremacy An Oath is the End of a Controversy Our great Lawyers also give in their Suffrage hereunto frequently affirming that the Statutes relating to the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not introductive of New but declarative of the old Law. When an Act say both those two Learned Judges Cooke and Rolls forbiddeth under a Penalty in case it may be inconvenient to divers particular Persons in respect of Circumstances the Law gives Power to the King to dispense therewith And in like Cases or upon other Considerations equal he may Dispense License Pardon c. Yea although those Laws have been passed by his Majesty's Royal Assent formerly and which is more a Clause inserted in the Act that the King's Licence or Dispensation in this or that Case shall be void Yet it will be no Bar to such Prerogatives as are inherent and originally inseparable to his Royal Person but he may give Licence with a Non Obstante thereunto A learned Serjeant in his Nomotechina hath these words The King by a Clause of Non Obstante may dispense with a Statute Law if he recite the Statute though the Statute say such Dispensations shall be merely void And he may License Things forbidden by the Statutes as to coin Mony which is made a Capital Offence by the Statute and was before lawful for that it is but malum prohibitum but malum in se as to leave a Nusance in the High-way he cannot license to do but when it is done he may pardon it but where the Statute saith his License shall be void which the Civilians call Clausula derogativa there it must have a Clause of Non Obstante that is to say this Clause notwithstanding any Statute else it is not good And says the same Author He may in respect of his Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction exempt some from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary and dispense with others in things which the Ecclesiastical Law prohibits upon the same ground that they are not mala in se but prohibita I hold clear saith Judg Hobart that though the Statute says That all Dispensations c. shall be granted in manner and form following and not otherwise that yet the King is not thereby restrained but his Power remains full and perfect as before and he may still grant them as King. The King may remit the Penalty or Punishment of those Laws which he hath no power to dispense with as where what is forbidden by the Law is Malum in se saith the Serjeant in his aformentioned Discourse of Law much more then when what is forbiden is only Malum prohibitum The Statute indeed of the 9th of Edw. 2. Cap. 7. enacts That no Letter shall proceed from the King to discharge an Excommunicated Person but where the King's Liberty is prejudiced But as this Statute it self proves the Law and former Practice so it takes it not away since the King's Liberty of discharging such Persons used before is preserved by the same Statute CHAP. II. Of the Prerogatives and Regal Powers in Relation to Ecclesiastical Laws and Matters of Religion SECT 1. 1. REligion in the moral Parts thereof the Precepts and Commandments of God the Institutions and Ordinances of Christ these are not subject to any Humane Wisdom or Power The Apostles that were of higher Authority in these Affairs than any on Earth went no farther but as 1 Cor. 11.23 What I have received of the Lord that I delivered unto you To make Laws in Spiritual Matters that are such by the Light of Nature that Men may be moved to Duty and act according to their Light we yield to the Civil Magistrate as he is Custos utriusque Tabulae 2. There are Matters of Circumstance also and external Forms in Worship tending to Order and Decency These and the like are made by our Laws to depend upon the Power and Ordering of the Prince This Distinction you have laid down as Law by Judg Hobart his words are these Tho it be de Jure Divino that Christian People be provided of Christian Offices and Duties of Teaching Administration of the Sacraments and the like and of Pastors for that purpose and therefore to debar them wholly of it were expresly against the Law of God yet the Distinction of Parishes and the Form of furnishing every Parish Church with his proper Curat Rector or Pastor by the way of Presentation Institution c. as is used diversly in divers Churches and the State or Title which he hath or is to have in his Church or Benefice is not a positive Law of God in point of Circumstance And we know well that the Primitive Church in its greatest Purity were but voluntary Congregations of Believers submitting themselves to the Apostles and after to other Pastors to whom they did minister of their Temporals as God did move them Government is a Beam of Divine Power and therefore he proceeds saying If a People will refuse all Government it were against the Law of God but if a Popular State will receive a Monarchy it stands well with the Law of God. In the Case of Glover and Colt against the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield From all this the Judg seems to confirm his Distinction by way of Comparison thus As in Humane Affairs Government in the General and Essentials of it that one Man be Subject to another Man in an orderly way is necessary and Jure Divino and not in Man's Liberty or Dispose But for the Modes and Forms of Government and like Circumstances it is left to the wisdom and choice of Men and the conduct thereof So in Matters of Religion what is not Jure Divino such external Forms and Rites tending to a more orderly and decent administration in the Worship and Service of God our Law judgeth the Magistrate hath the ordering hereof in each Nation according to the Manners and Tempers of the People which is Various And in particular the Disposing of Pastors and People for the more convenient and orderly Service and Worship
importance by the King alone with advice of his Council Instances whereof you have many 1. In general The whole System and Body of Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons are published by the Synods of the Clergy from time to time These Laws have no Parliament Sanction or dependance upon Authority thence derived an their Constitution Nor yet have these Canons their Authority from the Synod or Clergy met in Convocation for Canons concluded by the Province of Canterbury only cannot oblige the Clergy of the Province of York having no Representatives or Clerks sitting in that Synod such was the Synod or Convocation met Anno 1584 1597 1603 and yet obliged to Subjection the Arch-Bishop and Clergy of the Province of York as well as those of 1640 where were the Representatives of both Provinces It 's therefore the Regal Authority express'd in the Letters Patents affixed to these Canons that gives them their chief Power and are therefore termed Regiae Leges Ecclesiae And whatsoever Cannons or Laws published by Convocation would have been of the same Force and Efficacy to oblige the Subject if only by the King with the Advice of his Council 2. In particular The several Injunctions Advertisements Declarations and other Edicts and Requirements from Sovereign Power by his Majesties Predecessors you have in the Injunction of Edward 6.1547 and Queen Elizabeth 1559 with Articles of Visitation thereunto adjoyned They license Ministers to preach and suspend also from preaching There were Articles in the Time of Edward 6. for establishing an Agreement in Religion and the rooting out Discords in Opinion 1552 and by Queen Elizabeth 1562. Also Edw. 6. established a Liturgy or publick Form of Prayer to be used throughout the Kingdom 1547 30 Eliz. after there had been an uniform Order of Divine Service and to be used only in the English Tongue established by Parliament as the only Form and no other or otherwise the Queen Anno 1560 by her Sole Authority published a different Form for Funerals with Liberty to say it in the Latin Tongue with a Non obstante in respect to the former Establishment There were also Sermons or Homilies a part of Divine Service required to be read by the Minister which being a matter of Ecclesiastical Cognisance were appointed by Edward 6 and Queen Elizabeth and not by Authority in Parliament 4. King James by his Sole Power without Authority of Parliament giveth out Directions for Preachers under Penalty of Suspension ab officio beneficio wherein many great and necessary Gospel-Truths are forbidden to be preached by any under the Degree of a Bishop or Dean Some Truths may not be preached by way of positive Doctrine but only by way of Use and Application no Sermons in the After-noon throughout the Kingdom to be preached from any Text but what is taken out of the Catechism Lord's Prayer Creed or ten Commandments He gives Faculties and confirms a new Body of Lecturers or Preachers throughout England that be neither Parsons Vicars nor Curats These Instances though not express'd of what these Powers have dispensed with or indulged yet are pertinent upon this Account What Sovereign Power thus put forth in Constitutions Injunctions Directions c. in Ecclesiastical Matters may in like proportion be exerted in Exemptions Dispensations c. As with Parliament and other Councils vested with Authority the Power to repeal Laws and Statutes is as large as that Power by which they enact and establish Laws For example if King James which is our last Instance might by his Prerogative confirm and establish a new Order of the Clergy he may by the same Power dispense with and license such Preachers as now seem and are reputed so to be And it follows also if his Power will extend to indulge such Preachers it will not prove short in respect to Hearers that are as it were new in the way of their Assemblies and indulge such as are not of the ancient Order of the Parochial Congregation of England SECT 2. The like Deductions might be drawn from other of those Instances I shall notwithstanding for further Confirmation add other Instances and such wherein you have this Power put forth in dispensing and exempting from what hath been burdensom to Mens Consciences from Parliamentary or Episcopal Impositions 1. That of Edw. 6. in the fourth Year of his Reign certain Protestants removing themselves and Families out of Popish Countries into England for their Consciences Sake and being not free to submit to the Form of Worship and Discipline established in this Church This good King by his Sole Authority granteth them the Liberty of such a Church-Government and Form of Worship as we shall say more to in its place as should be most suitable to their own Perswasion This being utterly against the Provision and Settlement newly made by Parliament he strengthens his Grant by a Non obstante the Statute and strictly requires all Bishops and Majors c. to suffer them quietly to enjoy their Consciences 2. Another Instance you have of the same good King John Hooper being chosen Bishop of Gloucester and there being certain Rites and Ceremonies established by Act of Parliament to be conformed unto in the Consecration of Bishops offensive to his Conscience Edw. 6. requires Arch-Bishop Cranmer to omit these Ceremonies discharging him of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures he should run into and be in any manner of way by omitting of the same and these our Letters faith the King shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge therefore 3. The Instance you have also in what was done by Queen Elizabeth for relief of tender Consciences namely her Majesty being informed that in certain Places of this Realm sundry of Her Subjects called to the Ministry being induced by sinister Persuasions are scrupled about the Form of an Oath which by an Act of the last Parliament was prescribed to be taken according to the Form expressed in the Act under Penalty of being disenabled to bear any Office in State or Church Her Majesty was graciously pleased to assume by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to give and declare such a Sense and Construction of the Words of this Oath expressed in other Words much different for their Satisfaction with a gracious Declaration That such Persons fit for the Ministry as could not take the Oath in the Parliament-Form should accept it in this Sense and doing so they shall notwithstanding be accepted by her Majesty as good and obedient Subjects and acquits them of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as should refuse to take the same By which means many an able Man had Freedom to exercise his Ministry which otherwise must be laid aside which Indulgence of hers although against an Act of Parliament yet was owned as done by Lawful Authority and recognised by the Parliament 5. Eliz. and her Exposition assented to and enacted 4. This renowned Queen together with King James and King Charles the First confirmed
to both Houses One Thing more I hold my self obliged to recommend unto you at this present which is That you would seriously think on some Course to beget a better Vnion and Composure in the Minds of my Protestant Subjects in Matters of Religion whereby they may be induced to submit quietly to the Government and most faithfully give their Assistance to the support of it His Majesty did not only express his Purposes for the ease of Tender Consciences but from time to time endeavoured it And first of all by a Declaration Octob. 25. 1660. to all his Loving Subjects of England and Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs mentioning that from Breda dispenseth with the use of divers Ceremonies formerly injoined that were offensive March 25. following he gave Commission to certain Learned Divines to meet at the Savoy and take the Service-Book under consideration to the same purpose May 11. 1661. frees from their Imprisonment such as suffered for Conscience The King and his Parliament happily joined in the same pious End Peace and Union yet differenced in their apprehensions of the Means to procure it which was our great unhappiness The Parliament judged the reducing and rooting out Dissenters by severe Penalties to be the means of Unity in the Church as they tell his Majesty in Answer to his Declaration Pressing the asserting of the Laws and Religion established according to the Act of Vniformity as the more probable means to produce a set led Peace and Obedience throughout the Kingdom Supposing and possibly some of them perswaded thereunto from those that never would distinguish betwixt Conformity and Sedition the dissent of Nonconformists from the present Establishment to be rather from a Spirit of Faction and Disloyalty than Tenderness of Conscience proceeded accordingly The Act of Uniformity was renewed and the Service-Book injoined with no alteration of what was formerly offensive in it but some Expressions of greater difficulty to be digested by those that were Tender and nothing done yet in what his Majesty had promised in way of relief to Tender Consciences Hereupon not only multitudes of faithful Preachers of the Gospel in the several Shires of this Kingdom were put from their Imployment but also the Minds of Men much disturbed and filled with hard Thoughts and Jealousies upon this Account Insomuch that his Majesty was inforced to publish that Declaration of Decemb. 26. in which he expresses the Surmises of the People occasioned by this Severity thus That having made use of such solemn Promises from Breda and in several Declarations since of Ease and Liberty to Tender Consciences instead of performing any part of them we have added straiter Fetters than ever and new Rocks of Scandal to the Scrupulous by the Act of Vniformity To this Surmise and Jealousy his Majesty condescends to make Reply thus As concerning the Nonconformance of our Promise We remember well the very words of those from Breda repeating the words and the Confirmations we have made of them since upon several Occasions in Parliament and as all these Things are still fresh in our Memory so are we still firm in the Resolution of performing them to the full But it must not be wondred at since that Parliament to which those Promises were made in Relation to an Act never thought fit to offer us any to that purpose The House of Commons took his Declaration into consideration and represented to his Majesty divers Objections against it and laid it aside so that nothing was effected thereby to his Majesty's Purpose the Parliament being otherwise minded and certainly it is not only their Liberty but Duty to proceed in reforming Abuses by such Means as are in their Perswasion most suitable and likely to be effectual otherwise they could not be faithful in their Trust Greater Severities against Nonconformity are provided in several Acts upon occasion as the Act against private Meetings 16 Car. 2. The expelling Ministers five Miles from Burrough Towns 17 Car. 2. Especially that Act of 22 Car. intituled An Act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles An Act very high and heavy in the Penalties expressed both upon Ministers and People his Majesty notwithstanding condescended to give his Royal Assent to that Bill It being judged this Severity was taken up by them from good Intentions and as the likeliest means of Peace and Union as also if it proved not to be so that they might be yet more fully convinced of the Insufficiency of such a way having had hitherto for some Years experience how little effectual it hath proved Yet this Bill containing nothing for substance but what was proper to his Ecclesiastical Power being an ordering the Externals of the Church and nothing of immediate Concern in Civil Affairs in the whole Act And his Majesty having intentions to take the other Course if this of Severity effected not what was aimed at a Proviso is contained in the Act in these words Provided also that neither this Act nor any thing herein contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesty's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs but that his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may from time to time and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all Powers and Authorities in Ecclesiastical Affairs as fully and amply as himself or any of his Predecessors have or might have done the same any thing in this Act notwithstanding As this Act of 22 Car. 2. was very strict and severe in it self so the execution of it was with much Violence and Rigour in most parts of the Nation there being Provision made in it such as even loose and indigent Persons may intrude themselves in the promoting thereof with encouragement not only of their Lusts gratified in persecuting those they so much hate but their Necessities supplied from large Rewards for the same Having Power given to inform against Justices Mayors Constables and such as are intrusted in the Execution hereof who are under great Fines and Penalties for Omissions limited in this Act and the Informer to have a Moiety hereof himself Insomuch that by the rigorous execution of it thousands of his Majesty's good Subjects were utterly ruined Persons industrious and diligent in their Callings driven from their Habitations their Houses broken open their Goods imbezeled the Materials of their Trades the Tools they wrought with and the Beds they lay upon seized and sold Trade every where decayed Rents of Land fallen Poverty coming on like an Armed Man Persons haled from these Meetings for the Worship of God through the open Streets to Prisons being of the same Faith with us and so peaceable and unblameable in their Conversation as that nothing could be objected against them but in the Matters of their God nor for any thing upon that account but their endeavouring to practise as those Reformed Churches we our selves own for such and hold a Brotherly Communion with as the true Churches of Christ The Nation generally being thus distracted and distressed those in Power