Strength and Glory through an enlargement of the Terms of her Communion and what would have been to the Praise of her Moderation and Charity through her being perswaded to bear with such as differ from her in little things and could not prevail with themselves to partake with her in all Ordinances Upon the whole it is both the prudence and safety of Dissenters as they would escape Extirpation themselves and have Religion conveyed down to Posterity to unite their Strength and Endeavours to those of the Church of England for the upholding her against the assaults of Popish Enemies who pursue her Subversion As matters have been circumstanced and stated in England there hath not been an Affront or Injury offered or done unto her by the Court which did not at the same time reach and wound the Dissenters 'T is not her being for Episcopacy Ceremonies and imposed set-Forms of Worship the Things about which she and the Nonconformists differ that she hath been not long since maligned and struck at by the Men in Power and his Popish Juncto but it is for being Protestant Reformed and Orthodox Crimes under the Guilt whereof Dissenters were equally concerned and involved Being therefore in opposition to the common Cause of Religion that the late Court of Inquisition was erected over her Ecclesiasticks all Protestants jointly resented the Wrongs which she sustain'd and not only to sympathize with those dignified and lower Clergy which were called to suffer but to espouse her Quarrel with the same warmth that we would our own And as we are to look upon those of the Episcopal Communion to be the great Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and Reformed Interest in England so it was farther incumbent on Dissenters towards them and a Duty which they owe to God the Nation and themselves not to be accessary to any thing through which the legal Establishment of the Church of England might have been by any Act of pretended Regal Prerogative weakned and supplanted I never counsel the Dissenters to renounce their Principles nor to participate with the Prelatical Church in all Ordinances on the Terms to which they have straitned and narrowed their Communion For while they remain unsatisfied of the lawfulness of those Terms and Conditions they cannot do it without offending God and contracting Guilt upon their Souls nor will they of the Church of England in Charity Justice and Honesty expect it from them For whatsoever any Man believeth to be Sin it is so to him and will by God be imputed as such till he be otherwise enlightned and convinced nor are the Dissenters to be false and cruel to themselves in order to be kind and friendly to them But that which I would advise them unto is that after the maintaining the highest measure of Love to the conformable Congregations as Churches of Christ and the esteeming their Members as Christian Protestant Brethren notwithstanding the several things wherein they judg them to err and to be mistaken that they would not by any Act and Transaction of theirs betray them into a Despotical Power nor directly nor indirectly acknowledg any Authority paramount unto and superceding the Laws by which the Church of England is established in its present Form Order and Mode of Jurisdiction Discipline and External Worship Whatsoever Ease arrived to the Dissenters through the King 's suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws without their Address and Application they might receive it with Joy and Humility in themselves and with Thankfulness to God nor was there hereby any prejudice offered on their part to the Authority of the Law or Offence or Injury given or done to the conformable Clergy Nor is it without grief and regret that the Church-Men have been forced to behold the harassing spoiling and imprisonment of the Nonconformists while in the mean time the Papists were suffered to assemble to the Celebration of their Idolatrous Worship without Censure and Controul And had it been in their power to remedy it and give Relief to their Protestant Brethren they wouâ—d with delight and readiness have embrac'd the occasion and opportunity of doing it But alas instead of having an advantage put into their hand of contributing to the Relief of the Dissenters which I dare say many of them ardently wish and desire they were compelled contrary to their Inclination as well as their Interest to become instrumental in persecuting and oppressing them Nor does the late King covet a better and a more legal advantage against the Conformists than that they would refuse to pursue Dissenters and decline molesting them with Ecclesiastical Censures and civil Punishments So that their conditition was to be pitied and bewailed in that they were hindred from acting against the Papists though both enjoyned by Law and influenced thereunto by Motives of self-Preservation as well as by ties of Conscience while in the mean time they were forced to prosecute their fellow-Protestants or else to be suspended and deposed and put out of their Offices and Employs And tho I believe that they would at last have more Peace in themselves and be better accepted with God in the great Day of their Account should they have refused to disturb and prosecute their Protestant Brethren and soorn to be any longer Court-Tools for weakning and undermining the Reformed Cause and Interest yet I could not but leave them to act in this as they should be perswaded in themselves and as they judged most agreeable to Principles of Wisdom and Conscience In the interim the Dissenters have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Proceedings of the Clergy and Members of the Church of England against them were not the Results of their Election and Choice but the Effects of moral Compulsion and Necessity Nor will any Dissenter that is prudent and discreet blame them for a matter which they cannot help but bear his Misfortune and Lot with Patience in himself and with Compassion and Charity towards them and have his Indignation raised only against that Court which forced them to be instrumental in their Oppression and Trouble The Protestant Dissenters could not be so far void of sense as to think that the Person lately in the Throne bore them any good-Will but his drift was to scrue himself into a Supremacy and Absoluteness over the Law and to get such an Authority confessed to be vested in him as when he pleased he might subvert the Established Religion and set up Popery For the same Power that he can dispense with the Penal Statutes against the Nonconformists he may also dispense with those against the Roman Catholicks And whosoever owneth that he hath a Right to do the first doth in effect own that he hath a Right to do the last For if he be allowed a Power for the superceding some Laws made in reference to Matters of Religion he may challenge the like Power for the superceding others of the same kind And then by the same Authority that he
can suspend the Laws against Popery he may also suspend those for Protestancy And by the same Power that he can in defiance of Law indulge the Papists the Exercise of their Religion in Houses he may establish them in the publick Celebration of their Idolatry in Churches and Cathedrals Yea whereas the Laws that relate to Religion are enacted by no less Authority than those that are made for the Preservation of our Civil Rights should the King be admitted to have an Arbitrary Power over the one it is very like that by the Logick of White-hall he might have challeng'd the same Absoluteness over the other Nor do I doubt but that the eleven Judges who gratified him with a Despoticalness over the former would when required grant him the same over the latter I know the Dissenters have been under no small Temptations both by reason of being hindred from enjoying the Ordinances of the Gospel and because of many grievous Calamities which they suffer for their Nonconformity of making Applications to the King for some Relief by his suspending the Execution of the Laws but they must give me leave to add that they ought not for the obtaining of a little Ease to have betrayed the Kingdom and sacrifice the legal Constitution of the Government to the Lust and Pleasure of a Popish Prince whom nothing less would serve than being Absolute and Despotical And had he once been in the quiet Possession of an Authority to dispense with the Penal Laws the Dissenters would not long have enjoyed the benefit of it Nor could they have denied him a Power of reviving the Execution of the Law which is part of the Trust deposited with him as Supream Magistrate who have granted him a Power of suspending the Laws which the Rules of the Government precluded him from And as he might whensoever he pleased cause the Laws to which they were obnoxious to be executed upon them so by virtue of having an Authority acknowledged in him of superceding the Laws he might deprive them of the liberty of meeting together to the number of five a Grace which the Parliament thought fit to allow them under all the other Severities to which they were subjected Nor needs there any further Evidence that the Princes challenging such a Power was an Usurpation and that the Subjects making any Application by which it seem'd allowed to him was a betraying of the ancient legal Government of the Kingdom whereas the most obsequious and servile Parliament to the Court that ever England knew not only deny'd this Prerogative to the late King Charles but made him renounce it by revoking his Declaration of Indulgence which he had emitted Anno 1672. And as it will be to the perpetual Honour of some of the Dissenters to have chosen rather to suffer the Severities which the Laws make them liable unto than by any Act and Transaction of theirs to undermine and weaken either the Church or the State so it will be a means both of endearing them we hope not only to the Prince of Orange now by a miraculous Providence brought in amongst us but to future Parliaments and of bringing them and the Conformists into an union of Counsels and Endeavours against Popery and Tyranny for ever which is at this season a thing so indispensably necessary for their common preservation Especially when though a new and more threatning Alliance and Confederacy with France than that in 72 the King had not only engaged to act by and observe the same Measures towards Protestants in England which that Monarch hath vouchsafed the World a Pattern and Copy of in his carriage towards those of the Reformed Religion in France but had promised to disturb the Peace and Repose of his Neighbours and to commence a War in conjunction with that Prince against Foreign Protestants For as the King 's giving Liberty and Protection to the Algerines to frequent his Havens and sell the Prizes which they take from the Dutch is both a most infamous Action for a Prince pretending to be a Christian and a direct violation of his Alliance with the States General so nothing can be more evident than that he thereby sought to render them the weaker for him to assault and that he was resolved if some unforeseen and extraordinary Providence had not interposed and prevented to declare War against them the next Summer in order whereunto great Remises of Mony were already ordered him from the French Court. So that the Indulgence which he pretends to be inclinable to afford the Dissenters was not an effect of Kindness and Good-will but an Artifice whereby to oblige their Assistance in destroying those Abroad of the same Religion with themselves Which if he could once compass it were easy to foresee what Fate both the Dissenters and they of the Communion of the Church of England were to expect Who as they would not then have known whither to retreat for shelter so they would have been destitute of Comfort in themselves and deprived of Pity from others not only for having through their Divisions made themselves a Prey to the Papists at Home but for having been accessary to the Ruin of the Reformed State Abroad and which was the Asilum and Sanctuary of all those that were elsewhere oppressed and persecuted for Religion Gloria Deo Optimo Maximo Honos Principi nostri celcissimo pientissimo A Specimen of a Bill For UNITING PROTESTANTS BEING A rough Draught of such Terms as seem equal For the Conformist to grant and the Non-conformist to yield to for Peace sake Provided a good while and Published on purpose only for the farther better and more easy Consideration of the Parliament WHereas there are many Jealousies risen about Popery which makes it even necessary to the peace of the Nation that the Protestant Interest be united and strengthened by all Good and Lawful Means And to this end there being this one proper Expedient to wit The removing the Occasion of Divisions which several persons do find to themselves in those late Injunctions which yet were intended to the same purpose of Concord in the Nation Be it Enacted That an Explanation of these Impositions and such Allevations be allowed to the tenderly Considerate and peaceably Scrupulous as follow In the Act of Vniformity By the Declaration of Assent and Consent to all things and every Thing contained in and prescribed by the two Books of Common-Prayer and of Ordering Priests and Deacons we understand These Materials were provided during the Sitting of that Parliament which passed the Act of Uniformity and other the like Rigorous Acts and are therefore drawn up in the form of an Explanatory Bill because it was supposed they were not like to Repeal their own Acts though they might be got to Interpret them But now we have a New Parliament and that after another also Dissolved we may expect quicker Work Yet will the Proposing these Things still to view have their use both for suppressing
such as have said The Nonconformists know not what they would have setting some Measure to our own desires and the Parliam Condescentions about the same not that these Books are in every Minute particular infallible or free from that Defect which is incident to all Human Composure But that they are in the main Contents to be sincerely approved and used And we do therefore allow this Declaration to be sufficient if it be made to the use of the Book in the Ordinary Constant Lords-Day-Service notwithstanding any Exceptions some may have against some Things in the By-Offices and Occasional Service the Rubrick and otherwise And for the Ceremonies which are made and have been always and on all hands held to be only indifferent Things we think sit that they be left to the Consciences and prudence of Ministers and People every where excepting the Cathedrals to use them or forbear them as they judge it most meet for their own and others Edification provided that if any person will have his Child Baptised with the Sign of the Cross or stands upon any thing else hitherto required by the Service-Book if the Minister himself scruple the performance he shall permit another to do it In the same Act By those Words in the Subscription that It is not lawful to take Arms against the King upon any Pretence whatsoever we intend no new or strange Thing but the Rightful Maintenance only of the King's Authority against Rebellion That we have our Reason for these Interpretations any one may see that please in those Arguments against the Oxford Oath and this Subscription which are offered in a little Book Entituled The Peaceable Design so that we can by no means submit thereto without them There is moreover this Clause And I will conform to the Liturgy of the Church as it is by Law Established we desire may be spared because upon our Declaration before of Assent and Consent which must be the Bounds of our Sense thereof it is needless altogether and can serve but for a Snare only to Mens Consciences according to the common determination of Learned Writers in the Case of Subjection to Princes By the Words I abhor the Position of taking Arms by the Authority of the King against any Commissionated by Him we never thought of Advancing the Arbitrary Commissions of the King above Law but by those Commissionated by Him we understand such as are Legally Commissionated and in the Legal pursuit of such Commission By the Clause which follows that requires a Renunciation of all Endeavour of any Alteration of Government in the Church or State we never meant to deny any Free-born Subject his Right of Choosing Parliament-Men or Acting in his place for the Common Good any way according to Law but that he shall Renounce all such Endeavour as is Seditious or not warranted by the Constitution of the Nation and particularly such an Endeavour as was Assumed in the late Times without and against the Consent of the King And for the rest of the Subscription which is enjoyned but to the Year 1682. Be it Enacted that it cease presently and be no longer enjoyned And forasmuch as there is an Oath prescribed and required of all Non-conformists Preachers that reside in any Corporate-Town by a certain Act of the former Parliament made at Oxford in the 17th Year of His now Majesties Reign Entituled An Act for restraining Nonconformists from inhabiting Corporations This Oath is of the same Contents with the Subscription before and to impose both is nothing else but the multiplying Wrath and laying Lead on the already Laden We do further declare That it shall suffice any Man for the Enjoyment of his Free-born Liberty of Inhabiting where he thinks best and serve him also instead of the fore-mentioned Subscription to take that Oath in this form of Words following I. A. B. do swear That I hold it unlawful upon any pretence to take Arms against the King His Government or Laws And that I disclaim that dangerous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against His Person or any Legally Commissionated by him in the Legal pursuit of such Commissions And that I will not endeavour any Alteration of Government in the Church or State in any way or manner not warranted by the Constitution of the Kingdom or any otherwise than by Act of Parliament And as soon as any Man hath taken the Oath thus he shall be discharged of all penalty for his omission before We do declare moreover That whereas it is required also in the Act of Vniformity that every Minister who injoys any Living or Ecclesiastical preferment shall be Ordained by a Bishop and there are several persons of late who in case of Necessity for want of Bishops took Presbyterian-Orders Our meaning is not in any wise to disgust the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and make it necessary for such to be Re-ordained to the Office but that they receive this Second imposition of Hands to the Exercise of their Office in the new charge There is Reordinatio ad Officium which we say is generally decryed by Divines Re-ordinatio ad Exercitium particulate which may be irrefragably proved from Acts 13.2 3. with Acts 14.26 amd consequently allow'd to serve this Occasion unto which they are or shall be called and that the Bishop shall frame his Words accordingly And whereas there is a Subscription also in the Canons and the Canonical-Oath of Obedience imposed on most Ministers by the Bishops that have given some of the greatest Occasion to Non-conformity heretofore which yet never passed into Law by any Act of Parliament We do further declare If the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance be taken and the Articles of the Church subscribed and the Declaration before to the Common Prayer made we see no need of boyling over these three Things again for us in the Canons That nothing more of that kind shall be required of Ministers henceforward then was made and held necessary by the Act of the thirteenth of Elizabeth And in regard there hath been great Offence taken by Conscientious Ministers at the Bishops or their Courts commanding them to read the Sentence of Excommunication against some or other of their Parish Neither shall any Minister be punishable for the withholding his own Act in delivery of either Sacrament to any who in his Conscience he judges unworthy or uncapable of it As we think there is no Elder in the New Testament who is not a Pastor and that there is no Lay Pastor so do we account that there is no Pastor or Presbyter but such as have the power both to Rule and Teach committed to them by Christ Yet do we for all that apprehend it not only Lawful but Expedient for the ordinary Ministers of our Parochial Congregations when the Church is National to commit part of their charge to wit that of Ruling in Actu Secundo to some few among them who are more