that His Majesty has Declared I shall repeat that Point upon which many others Depend as a necessary Consequence as that to which I think you take the greatest Exception The KING declares that It hath been His constant Sense and Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People Forced in Matters of meer Religion Now its incumbent on you to shew wherein you think this Point is contrary to the Laws of GOD and that you do it is but a reasonable Request for else you perform not your Function to your people but will lye under the suspition of Teaching for Doctrines the Commands of Men which you know our Lord sharply Reproves in those that exercise the Function of Teachers Till you have done this and made it plain you have no Reason to Carp at any Thing that is naturally subsequent as the suspending such Penalties by which many of His Subjects are co-erced to Worship contrary to their Consciences or pardoning Offences against such Laws For this is a natural Exercise of His Prerogative as God's Vicegerent in Acts of Goodness and Clemency It can be no Offence to GOD that the Execution of such Laws be neglected by the King's Ministers or Suspended by Himself till they can be Repealed by Parliament which ought never to have been made and could never be obeyed without Transgressing the Law of GOD The King 's lawful proper and necessary Prerogative is to provide for all Exigents wherein there is no provision made by a particular Law and to suspend such particular Statutes as were from the Beginning or in process of time prove useless or burthensom to a multitude of His Subjects and Wherein no particular Subject is injured as to any Right or Priviledge which he can claim by Law so that till you have performed your Task and shewed that this Doctrine which the Declaration Teacheth is against the Law of God and what Branch of the Divine Law it is against that the Penalties whereby Men are compelled to Worship contrary to their Consciences should be suspended No more need to be said to this taking it singly as it is a Matter of pure Conscience supposed by you to be an Offence against the Law of God. But I consider how you state it with a double Aspect having an Eye both to the Laws of God and to the Laws of the Land and that not conjunctively but disjunctively It is an Aggravated Fault with you to Consent to Teach your People such Doctrines as you think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land that so you may have a double string to your Bow If you cannot prove the Doctrine of the Kings Declaration to be contrary to the Laws of God yet you cannot consent to Teach it your People because you think it is contrary to the Laws of the Land nevertheless taking your Reasoning to be consistent with it self having before shewed you did not Approve of the Matter of the Declaration I cannot suppose you made mention of the Laws of God superfluously or vainly and therefore it remains as a Charge upon you to declare plainly Whether you think it contrary to the Laws of God or not And having Repeated this that you may take the more Notice of it I 'le pass to the next Branch and that is for you to shew wherein it is contrary to the Law of the Land the Reasons for this I shall give you in my Remarks upon your next Paragraph Eleventhly Say you It is to Teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 1672. declared Illegal and which has been Condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to Teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my Free Leave as they have the Kings to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to Teach the Dispensing Power which Alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not Do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it Let us consider what part of the King's Declaration may be supposed by you to do the Things here Alledged and whether what you are required to do be as to the Matter of it of any other Nature than what has heretofore been Approved by Authority of Parliament His Majesty after the suspention of all Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical for not coming to Church or not Receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established or for or by reason of the Exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever is pleased to Declare upon what Terms and in what Manner All His Loving Subjects have Free leave to Meet and Serve God after their own Way and Manner Now I must pray you to Interpret what you mean by an Unlimited and Universal Toleration for you are still in Generals Is it such an Unlimited and Universal Toleration as gives all Men Liberty to Meet in such manner and to do and say as they please There seems to me many Restrictions in the Declaration the Meeting must be For the Exercise of Religion and not Irreligion and though All may Meet and Serve in their Own Way yet It is to Serve God and not an Idol For my part if I had no Fear of God before me yet I should very much fear severe Corporal punishment from the Hands of the Civil Power if I should Meet and openly preach Blasphemy Idolatry or any other Doctrine of immortality against the Light and Law of Nature given to and inscribed on the Heart of every Man For tho' the King is pleased to say I shall not be compelled to perform any Act of Worship contrary to my Conscience I am nevertheless Accomptable for all Things that I openly and voluntarily without any compulsion do or say which fall under the Cognizance of the Civil Magistrate as all things do which are against the Reason of Mankind and common Light and Law of Nature and tho' there should be no Statute Law in the Case The Comman Law of the Land is grounded upon the Law of Nature and no way suspended by the King's Declaration and by this open Scandals against the Light of Nature are Punishable by the Civil Judges But you say an unlimited and universall Toleration the Parliament in 1672 declared Illegall It may be so but I doe not know it I have seen no Copy of any Law or Ordinance of Parliament applicable to the point in hand If you Intend to prove the Kings present Declaration was declared to be Illegall by the Parliament in 1672 you must mend your Common Fault of Dealing in General For it is all one and no more a Proof of any thing being Declared Illegal in a Parliament to Quote onely the year without repeating the Words of the Law and applying the matter of the Declaration to it then if you had said it of your Own Head or mention'd for a proof of your Assertion a Vote of the
been at least your tacite Plea for not stirring up or troubling your Consciences to make a Disâ—retive Judgment whether the Act of your Superiour which you are commanded to Publish were Lawful or Unlawful by the Law either of God or of the Land and to tell you the truth I do not think you are in the Eye of the Law such Criminals as on this particular occasion you would render your selves to be in case you should Read the Kings Declaration in Obedience to his Command though you did not approve the matter of it in your private Judgment it not being your Province positively to determine concerning it in point of Law You might with better pretence of Conscience if pressed to it in your own mind as an Act necessary to avoid a Sin against God after the Reading of the Declaration have taken your Exceptions to it in your particular Station then to have followed the course you have taken as it were by common consent one in the name of all the Rest thus openly to Declaim against it for that had been an Exercising of such an Act of Judgment and Reason if the cause Required it as a Minister of the Gospel might have done in reference to God whatever had been the consequence of it in respect to Men And the Prospect you had of this as you afterwards manifest does not excuse but rather condemn you for seeing better things and following the worse VII You say Our Law supposes that what we do in Obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it This is the onely Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that Commandt it becomes our own Act and we are Responsible for it If you State this as a general Case of every Subject I suppose you mistake the Law for I cannot conceive how a Clerk in Parliament Privy Council Court of Justice or Convocation who Writes and afterwards Reads openly what his Superiours have Dictated and Commanded him to Read should be supposed in the Eye of the Law to be his own Act If you mean by your Laws you being Ministers are Responsible for what you do in any other Manner then the rest of the Kings Subjects or Ministerial Officers are you should have done well to have shewed it for till that be done I know not how to Distinguish of your Case as Different from other Ministerial Clerks The onely Reason you alledge why you must not obey a Prince against the Law of the Land or the Laws of God is both Complicated and Equivocal For if you willingly walk after any Command which is contrary to the Law of God let the Authority be as you say what it will that Commands it whether of a Prince singly or a Prince in conjunction with a Parliament I grant that it becomes your own Act for which you are responsible to God But it is not so in many Cases where a Prince may Command to Do or forbear what a particular Statute forbids or appoints Because He may therein Exercise His Prerogative according to the Common Law. Besides if you being a Minister should obey the Kings and your Lawful Superiours Order and Read his Declaration by which some Penal Laws are suspended and this Act of Prerogative should afterwards come to be Questioned in Parliament to whom are you Responsible Surely not to the King nor to your Ordnary whom you have Obeyed you cannot mean thaâ— not to any ordinary Court of Justice for no Information or Indiâ—â—ment will lye against you there at the Kings Suit you must be then Arraign'd for it in Parliament or no where And if you come to be Responsible for it there I think your Rubrick established by Law and our Ignorance of any other Law will be a Sufficient Plea to excuse you For it will be a President of the First Impression I know not of any Parish Minister has ever heretofore been Question'd and Condemn'd in Parliament for obeying an Order in this Kind of His Prince or Lawful Superiour VIII Ministers are bound to take care that what they Publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor the good of the Church Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too though they do no more then read it For is not Reading Teaching It may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to my self I am sure that is a great one I take it for granted that you have sufficiently demonstrated to all Men that Reading and not Preaching off Book is Teaching for that has been your ordinary Practice for many Years and it is true by Reading you Teach your People to understand what you Read but when that is done your People are at liberty to judge and you also in this Present Case being ordered to read what the King hath declared are at liberty to Pen a Sermon that may be a Paraphrase upon what you read before and read that in your Pulpit afterwards so as therein you do not transgress the Law of God or of the Land and by that your People may understand whether you consent to or dissent from what you have read and if your are commanded by Law to read what you do not consent to in your own Conscience and for the discharge of a good Conscience towards God let your People know so much I think you therein discharge both the Office of a Minister to Man and Duty of a Teacher to God and in such a Case tho you should afterwards be judged by Mans Law yet you may with a quiet Mind therein commend your Cause to God who judgeth righteously Be it so That Ministers are not look'd upon as common Cryers yet give me leave to say you being Ministers are look'd upon as publick Preachers or Heralds to publish the Orders of your Superiors and are no more accountable to any Man for the matter which you so publish then a Herald who Publishes the Kings Proclamation to his Subjects conâ—â—der the Consequence if the Judgment of what iâ— agreeable or contrary to the Laws of the land the Good or Hurt of the Church be left to the private Determination of every Parish Minister What will become of the Authority of their Superiours Of what usâ— is the Rubrick to which they have Subscribed which directs them to read what the King or their Ordnary enjoyns For in this Case 't is all one as I said before whether you are enjoyned to Read by an â— of State or an Act of Parliament for I think you will grant me this That the â— of an Eternal 〈…〉 t 〈…〉 t of Parliament then 〈…〉 So that in 〈…〉 〈…〉 no 〈…〉 fâ—r in your Sâ—tion to 〈…〉 it himself of Evil a 〈…〉
Prosecution of Dissenters was a weakning of the Protestant Interest you Promoted it with greater Vehemence than ever before If the King at any time dispense with Penal Laws you Cry out The Dispensation is Illegal As oft as any Bill of Comprehension has been brought into Parliament to touch any thing of your Constitution so as to enlarge it beyond its present Streightness it hath met with Opposition from your Ordinaries So that the Dullest Dissenters in England have been sensibly taught by you That there has been no Opportunity wherein you could without Danger shew them any kindness for Twenty Eight Years past and if any Dissenters should be so Catch'd in the Snare of your Insinuations that at some time or other hereafter there may happen an Opportunity wherein you may be kind toward them as to let go the present Season wherein His Majesty Proposes a Legal and Perpetual Establishment both of your Church State and their Freedom from Temporal Penalties for Nonconformity to it I shall not take such Dissenters to be in this Case either Wise or Considerate 13. Say you Reading the Declaration is to Recommend to Our People the choice of such Persons to Sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgment against Our Reading will Discourage Provoke or Misguide all the Friends the Church of England has Have we not Reason to Expect That the Nobility and Gentry who have already Suffer'd in this Cause when they hear themselves Condemned for it in all the Churches of England Will think it time to mend such a Fault and Reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this Way is there any Reason to expect that it should Ever Rise again These Consequences are almost as Evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will Destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Intrest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of Doing it as of Doing the most Immorall Action in Nature If We must compare Consequences To Dis-oblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading the Declaration is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters By Your Mistaking and Misrepresenting the Sentiments of the Dissenters You have given me Cause to Suspect You may be Mistaken in some things which you have Asserted concerning the Nobility and Gentry particularly in that you make no distinction between the Repeal of the Penal Laws and that of tie Fest which diverse of the Nobility and Gentry in their ordinary Discourses on this Subject have Done and this seems to me the more Remarkable because you make it Equally as Necessary for the preserving your Constitutions to keep the Penal Laws on Foot as the Test Secondly You lay in my Opinion too great a Stress upon your Reading Do you suppose None of your Friends to have any better Discerning then to be Misguided in their Judgments by the bare Reading the Declaration No more Resolution then to be Discouraged by it No more Charity then to be Provoked to be your Enemies by it I cannot see any Reason you have to Expect that your Reading the Declaration should lay any of the Nobility or Gentry under any Conviction of a Fault or that they would reckon themselves Condemned if it had been or should be read in all the Churches of England for any thing which they have Done or Suffer'd in that you call this Cause His Majesty has been pleased to Declare the Reason of the Changes He has made in Civil and Military Officers not thinking any ought to be Employed in His Service who will not Contribute towards the Establishing the Peace and Greatness of their Countrey If a Question be put to any Noble Man or Gentleman Whether he will give his Consent to Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests Where such a Question meets an Inward Setled Principle that no man ought to be Debarr'd of his Civil Rights or Privilidge for the sake of his Religious Opinions and that no man ought to be Compelled by Temporal Penalties to perform an Act of Religious Worship against his Conscience Such a Person is always prepared to give a Ready Answer l'ts fit that all such Laws as tend to do either of these should be Repealed because they Tend to Alter such Fundamental Maxims as should ever be preserved Inviolable the One in reference to Civil Rights the other in reference to the Christian Religion But where the Question meets not with any such Setled Principle but either the Contrary Opinion or that present Policies of State may Govern in deciding it In this latter Case Honour and Prudence both may be pleaded against a Pre-engagement until they Arrive to a Satisfaction therein by Debates on this Subject in Parliament Who sees not that there 's a vast difference between a previous Obligation to a positive Vote in Parliament and your Refusal to perform Such a Ministerial Act in Obedience to the King's Order which you have never Scrupled to do in Obedience to any Order of your Ordinary or his Officials without any regard had to the matter published But I perceive You are now upon your Politicks and you would therefore have it That these Noblemen and Gentlemen are already Engagâ—d in the same Cause with your Selves or if they be not you do your Best that they may be so and not be Reconciled to their Prince For then you Suppose your Church would Fall and not only So but that if it Fall this Way You have no Reason to Expect It should Ever-Rise again And these Consequences you would have to pass for Demonstrations from your Foresight of the Event make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Destroying the Protestant Religion and Interest together with the Church of England I will not give my Self the Liberty for your Churches Sake to Dilate upon the Surmises I take them to be the Effect only of a Sudden Vertigo raised by an Imagination that You are upon the Top of a Precipice in imminent Danger of a Destructive Fall When in Truth though you are in the ASCENT above any of your Fellow Subjects yet you have there a broad Space to Walk upon as long as you please and a safe Descent into the Plain to others of your Companions when you please and are in no Danger at all of Falling Down from any other Cause but the Swimming Conceipt of your Own Head. If it were not so You would never have taken the Method you have done to draw your Conclusion from such Comparison of Consequences as you have made to Disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters Would you have it Conceited That you have Engaged the Nobility and Gentry by a Positive Promise upon no Terms to part with the Penal Laws or give the Dissenters any Ease till you
your selves down and pu 〈…〉 down the Dissenters also to verisie your subsequent Prognostications III. You say We fall a little sooner for not Reading the Declaration If our Gracious Prince resent this as an Act of an Obstinate Peevish or Factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to Him we shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall Vnpitied and Despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more I do not Reckon my self to be among the Number of your Enemies and therefore though you are somewhat Peevish I would not that you should be represented to the King as Obstinate For my Hopes are that upon better Consideration you will shew your selves Obedient to his Commands But if it should prove otherwise as your Enemies will not so your Friends cannot Excuse you as being altogether Free from Faction But how comes it to pass that you being a Minister of the Gospel should fix your Eye so steadity upon the Dishonour being Unpitied and Despised as inseparable Concomitants of a Certain Fall not long after you have read the Kings Declaration if you Comply to Read it A settled Apprehension that you shall certainly Fall whether you Read or not Read is sufficient to Disturb your Fancy so as to Interrupt the making of a Solid Judgment in reference to your Duty and Discharge of a good Conscience towards God There is as little need as there is Just Occasion for you to Surmize as you do that your Complyance will Ruin the Nation and procure their Curses for I cannot see any such moral certainty attending your reading as Ruining the Nation Those other Incredients might have been pâ—â—termitted if you have no Disposition by discovering your seeming Fears to stir up a real fear in the minds of others I think it more nearly concerns you setting aside all thoughts of Honour and Dishonour good Report or bad Report to see to it that you have the Law of God on your side to excuse your Disobedience to the King for otherwise the ill Consequences of contending with Soveraign Power and inticing others to do the like after your example will lye heavy upon you For tho you Mention onely your own Fall yet you intimate plainly enough that you are not to Fall alone and never to Rise more but that this will be the Fate of all the Protestant Chruches also and therefore you proceed after that Manner IV. May I Suffer all that can be Suffer'd in this World rather than to contribute to the final Ruin of the best Church in the World. So that it seemes if you Fall the best Church in the World must Fall also and that not partially or for a season but Totally and Finally Do you not Attribute too much to your self in this Are you the only Pillar upon which the best Church in the World is Built And are Penal Laws the onely strength by which you Support the Church If those you will have in this point to be accounted your Adversaries should prevail as once you know they did do for Twenty Years together to Divest you of your Coercive Power your Experience may Dictate to you that a Protestant Church here as well as else where has subsisted and may Subsist through Divine Assistance when that coercive Power is taken out of your Hands However I acknowledg no Man can justifie himself for contributing to the Ruin of any true Church but in this you are not singular as you would make your selves to be the Dissenter may claim Equally with your selves a share in such a resolution as this and say as you do may I Suffer still as I have Suffered all that you have Inflicted upon me or what else the Providence of God Allots for my Portion rather then that I should contribute to the Ruin of the best or any Church of Christ in the World. V. You say I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration and reading the Declaration in our Churches will be with great Reason interpreted a Consent You might have taken caution from your own Postscript to your Reasons concerning Henry Care not to have made your Supposition so Universally Comprehensive of every Minister of the Church of England in regard you say Reading is Teaching and signifies Consent to the matter Read and you Instance in Four or Five which did Read and I think I may more probably suppose that if any precise Disquisition should happen to be made many of your Ministers who did not Read may chuse to excuse themselves rather by their not receiving Directions from their Ordnary to Read then to alledge as you do that â—hey did refuse to do it because they could not consent to the matter of the Declaration VI. You say By our Law all Ministerial Officers are Accountable for their Actions which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of the Church to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the will of Superiours without Exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves Apply this to your usual Practice of publishing all such Declarations in your Churches as have been commended to you by your Ordnary or his Official Tell me in what case you have charged your Conscience so much as to make a private Judgment which you ought always to have done whether all the sentences of Excommunication and Ecclesiastical Censures and Orders which you have published Censures of Church-Wardens for refusing the Oath prescribed by your Cannons Censures for not paying your Apparitors and Officers the Fees they Demanded Excommunications purposely contrived and improved to prevent many of their Votes at Elections Interdicting any Divine Service to be performed in a Church for Burying of persons Excommunicated for Non-conformity in Consecrated ground till the Church-Wardens caused the Dead Corpâ— to be Dug up again and removed Publishing whole Sheets full of Orders of S 〈…〉 on s wherein such Dissenters as conformed so far as to come to Church have been reproached as doing iâ— to save their Money and therefore giving a charge to mark all such 〈…〉 not Kneel at their Prayers and stand up at the Gloria Patri Orders that none should be relieved that fell under Poverty if they came not to Church and Conformed to your Ceremonies if they were able of Body so to do and many others of like nature Have all these in your private Judgment been warranted by the Law of God Do you Esteem it a light thing to Cast or Publish any Mans being cast out of all Christian Society and delivered over to Sathan for such matters as are no crimes against any Divine Law I take it for ought that ever I saw manifested to the contrary that a Subjection to the command of your Superiours as being onely in such things Ministerial Offices has
Matter of it But to Consent to Teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but Aggravate the Fault Consenting to Teach your People such Doctrine as you think contrary to the Laws of God is a Fault may be a great Fault Tho' the Doctrine you Teach may in it self be true Doctrine because Conscience though Erroneous obliges not to Act against it But what it is that does not lessen but aggravate the Fault you mention I cannot discern For you Grant That reading the Declaration when the King commands it if you Approved the Matter of it would be no Fault at all You say It is possible the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against your Principles I Answer T is possible they understand neither the Declaration nor your Principles for by the Reports I hear frequently â—ut of the Countrys there may be Thousands that never Read themselves nor heard the Kings Declaration read to them but take the Matter of it to be as you represent it which to be sure is Bad enough and thus they are kept in ignorance and Affrighted with the conceit of it Most certainly if the Kings Heart were not well Assured of the Justice and Clemency towards all His Subjects in what He has Declared It would be the most Impolitick Action imaginable for Him to command that it should be Published and Communicated to all of them in the most solemn manner when they are Discharged from all Secular Diversions and have their Minds most Free and Intent upon the Matter that is read to them His Majesty Declares the Reason why He would have it thus Published Viz. That they may Vnderstand and Reap the Benefit of that General Good which He designs for the whole Kingdom That His chief Aim has been not to be the Oppressor but the Father of His People That they may lay aside all Animosities and groundless Jealousies and Choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to Finish what He has Begun for the Advantage of the Monarchy over which Almighty God hath placed Him. Now if the Matter of the Declaration would not bear the most exact Scrutiny and Recommend it self to the Consciences and Understanding of all His Subjects Can any Man rationally think that this was a probable way for His Majesty to Effect the End He proposed therein But since you put me upon Possibilities I think it may possibly be and very probably also as I Gather from your Reasonings that you do what lyes in you to Conceal from your People the Matter of the Declaration least your People would Approve it and Consent to Promote it But though you are thus Industrious to Conceal the Declaration Why do you not tell us what your Principles are for in this you are as Dark as in all the rest I must profess if I had no other means of knowing what the Declaration contains nor what your Principles are than by what you have said in your Discourse concerning them you deal so much in Generals that I should never be Able to Understand either of them nor wherein the One is against the Other But now let us come to the main Point for in comparison of that All the Rest is of little value You say For you to Consent to Teach your People such Doctrines as you think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault You have in your Letter made mention of an old Maxim The King can do no Wrong And therefore if any Wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Ministers who does it Nor is any Minister who does an Illegal Action allowed to pretend the Kings Commission and Authority for it You cannot Forget who They were that before you Insisted upon this sort of Argument nor how severely you of all Men have in your Pulpits and Prints handled them for it But now you think it may serve your Turn you Revive it again Since therefore you make it no scruple of Conscience in this Case to Approve such Things now as you Condemned heretofore Why should you not do it in some other Cases also The Dissenters as oft as they were Summoned into your Courts or elsewhere for their Nonconformity to your Modes of Worship or for Assembling to Worship in other manner Pleaded simply They could not Do the One nor Forbear the Other because in doing the first or forbearing the last They should Sin against their Conscience and Transgress the Law of their Lord whatever your Laws or the Laws of the Land commanded or prohibited This Plea was usually Termed a meer pretence and their Assemblies Censured by their Secular Judges as Riots Routs Seditious or Vnlawful Assemblies and by your Judges they were Condemned as Obstinate and Contumacious and upon these Scores they suffered the Penalties inflicted Now though you did Publish and cause to be Executed such Sentences heretofore against the Dissenters who made use of this Plea as a Pure matter of Conscience with respect to God's Law this may be no Bar as appears by your former instance but that you may take up the same simple Honest Plea at this time if you are as they were sincere therein and make it for your selves now as they did then And by this way you may without Intangling your selves by determining positively Doubtful Points of Law which is not your Province come to a fair Issue in that which is the proper Charge of your Function as Ministers for the Dissenters agree with you in this Principle that For any Man to Consent to Teach others such Doctrines as he thinks contrary to the Laws of God is a great Fault Let the Matter of the Declaration therefore be fairly Discussed between you and us with that Modesty which becomes Subjests Many Dissenters differ from you in their Thoughts in this point They think The King's Declaration is not contrary to the law of God and that therefore it may lawfully be Read If any of them question any part of it It is that wherein the King promises to Protect and Maintain the Arch-Bishops and Bishops as Lord Bishops of which they find no Footsteps in the Holy Scriptures but if they will consider that the Dignity of Barons is only an Addition to that of a Bishop and does neither Alter Enlarge or Abrogate the Spiritual Office but is an Honour conferr'd upon them by the Civil Sovereign Power There is no Reason for any Dissenter or any other of the King's Subjects to make this a scruple of Conscience in regard it proceeds from a Civil Constitution and is a Law of Mans Creation to which among others of like nature every Christian is to submit for the Lord's sake And that you and I may as well Agree in our Thoughts about the Subject in hand as in the Principle I have mention'd It s necessary that we consider what it is