but both of them conspiring and acting for her Destruction though now they cry out of a Persecution only because they cannot persecute as when they were in power for I doubt not but our Dissenters will acknowledge that when the Papists were in power as in the Marian days their little finger was heavier then the Churches loines And if the Sectaries had been setled the Papists would not have had more gentle Lords and though they agree scarce in any thing else yet as St. Augustine on Psal 36. observes Tunc inter se concordant mali cum in perniciem justi conspirant non quia se invicem amant sed quia eum qui amandus erat mutuo oderent Justly therefore might the Church complain as Erasmus did in an Epistle to the Bishop of Rochester Triplex sustineo certamen c. I undergo a threefold Conflict First against those Pagan Romanists which wretchedly envy me secondly with some Jesuits Priests and Monks who move every stone to destroy me thirdly with such implacable Sectaries as think they can never rise but by my Ruine But through the singular providence of God which hath often and wonderfully appeared for her preservation against many secrert Plots and open Assaults of her Enemies she may say as the Psalmist Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us quick when their wrath was kindled against us And as Psal 129.2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me I shall not now insist on the several Accusations charged on the Church reserving them for a Second Part wherein I shall Historically consider matters of Fact onely take a taste how bitter they are in these Expressions Father Parsons speaking of the Government of Queen Elizabeth saith Where are now the old Tyrants Nero Decius Dioclesian Maxentius and other Persecutors of the Christians Where are Genserik and Hunricus with the Arian Hereticks As if that moderate Queen had been a greater Persecutor than any of them No sooner was Queen Elizabeth come to the Crown saith another and setled the Church of England but she enacted those bloudy Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God. And I defie any man saith another to instance a greater Persecution than that of Protestants against Catholicks Thus the Papists And the other Accusers are not less sharp our Government decried as Popish and Antichristian and our Liturgy as the Mass our Bishops as Wolves and Tyrants Thorns and Thistles and Military Instruments of the Devil our Laws taring Engines the Clergy are represented as a company of lying perjured and persecuting Villains And hence the Land is filled with those loud Celeusmata's which summons all hands to pull down the Church and lay it even with the ground and pitty it is but that Church which is so great a Canibal were so dealt with I shall therefore enquire First What Persecution is And Secondly Whether the Church of England is guilty of Persecution And by the Church I mean in a strict sence the Clergy of England against whom I suppose the Objection is intended and not the whole Body of the Nation First then Persecution is a malicious Vexation and punishing of Men for Righteousness sake for it is only they that live Godly in Christ Jesus that suffer Persecution for as Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum saith Quis nisi malus justitiam persequitur As none but a wicked Man persecutes the Righteous so none but the Righteous do suffer Persecution To this purpose speaks St. Peter Epist 1. ch 4. v. 15. Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil-doer or as a busy-body in other mens matters For if any be justly punished for his Faults it is correction and not persecution it is the cause not the suffering that intitles men to Martyrdom and Persecution For what glory is it saith St. Peter if when ye are buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2.20 By these two qualifications the Complainers may judge of themselves or because every man is apt to be partial in his own case others may judge of them whether they are truly persecuted or not for if they have been punished for disobeying any Law of God or of the King that is not contrary to the Law of God in which case the Law of God obligeth them to obey the King not only for fear of wrath but also for conscience sake this is not to suffer for well doing and therefore cannot be called Persecution Wherefore it hath been well observed that before the Blessing pronounced to those that are persecuted our Saviour doth not only add for Righteousness sake but prefixeth those other qualifications of being poor in spirit of mourning and meekness of hungring and thirsting after righteousness or mercifulness and purity in heart and peace-making and to such only belongs the Blessing Matth. 5.12 Great is your reward in heaven But to suffer as Busy-bodies in other mens matters against Laws well established for Decency and Order according to the Apostles Injunction to draw down and provoke the wrath of our Superiours on our heads for Disobedience to such things as they have authority by the Laws of God and Men to injoyn this is not to suffer for Righteousness And for what cause soever it be that a man suffers he ought by the next qualification no take it patiently i. e. not to murmur or repine not to resist and seek revenge or endeavour by any unlawful means to transfer the Cross from himself to others but as the Primitive Christians receive the sentence even of Death with a Deo gratias blessing God who hath counted them worthy to suffer for his sake and given them Grace not only to believe but also to suffer for the Name of Christ For thus Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin there is the first qualification and the second followeth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.21 c. This is to be made conformable to Christ in his passion and to suffer as a Christian blessing them that curse us doing good to them that hate us praying for them that persecute us which as none but the Christian Religion teacheth so none but such as practice it are truly Christians Matth. 5.44 And thus doth Lactantius observe of the Christians in his days whose Sufferings he describes to be extreamly cruel and sharp yet Ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed deo remittimus ultionem And St. Ambrose Laedentibus non irascimur spoliantibus non resistimus caedentibus non repugnamus Now if we compare either the matter or
call them to it and in the mean time return good for evil Upon Munday being Feb. 2. 1684 Charles II. was seized by a violent Fit supposed to be an Appoplexy whereof he died on the Thursday following and that Afternoon K. James II. was proclaimed who sitting in his Privy Council then assembled declared That since it pleased Almighty God to place him in that Station and that he was now to succeed so good and gracious a King as well as so kind a Brother he thought fit to declare That he would endeavour to follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People That he had been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power though that had not been the only story which had been made of him That he knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves Good and Loyal Subjects and therefore he should always take care to defend and support them And that he likewise knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish and therefore as he should never depart from the just Rights and Priviledges of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property Which Declaration was then ordered in Council to be Published and the same was repeated at the Coronation and then confirmed by his Oath for which Addresses of Thanks were sent the King from all parts of the Nation assuring him of their Loyalty and Resolutions to maintain his Rights and defend his Person with their Lives and Fortunes These Declarations were repeated to the Parliament which met May 22. 1685. That they might be assured that he spake them not by chance and that they might more firmly rely on a Promise so solemnly made But how this Promise was performed may appear by the following Events During the sitting of this Parliament News was brought of the Landing of Argyle in Scotland and shortly after of the Landing of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England whereupon the Parliament readily declared to stand by the King with their Lives and Fortunes for the suppressing of those Rebellions desiring him to take more than ordinary care of his Person And though the Rebellions were suppressed chiefly by the voluntary Assistance of such as were of the Communion of the Church of England among whom the R. R. the Bishop of Winchester was a great Instrument and the Scholars of Oxford cheerfully ingaged themselves And the Militia raised in the West caused Monmouth to turn East-ward in the Mouth of the King's Army Yet in October following the King took occasion to complain how useless the Militia was on such occasions and to tell them That nothing but a good Force of well disciplined Troops in constant pay was sufficient to defend them from such as might disturb them at home or from abroad And here was a Foundation laid for a Standing Army such as the King intended in a due time by a French General and Irish Souldiers to over-awe the Nation and make the Instruments of accomplishing his Designs and there needed but a few more soft steps till the Church be surprized and awakened out of that Security wherein her own Innocence and the King 's frequent and solemn Promises had brought her but first the State of Ireland must be altered the Earl of Clarendon is called home to make way for Tyrconnel Scotland is secured by an Army which was raised for the suppressing of Argyle the Duke of Albemarle that was too popular is sent to Jamaica and whatever or whosoever might be thought able to withstand any violence that should be offered to the Church and the Religion that was Established is removed and the Power put into such hands as the King could confide in for the destruction of the same And because the Protestant Dissenters were a considerable Party and their Eyes began to be so far opened as to perceive that they should perish in the Ruine of the Church which made them more inclinable to a Union with it for prevention of their common destruction the old Stratagem of a Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which Coleman declared to be an effectual means to destroy the Established Church is now made use of This bold and fatal stroke was made immediately at the Root of the Religion and Laws established in Scotland but seconded by the same Arm against the Establishment in England as will evidently appear upon these considerations The Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland dated Feb. 12. 1687. In which consider first the Foundation of it in these words We have thought fit to grant and by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve do hereby grant our Royal Toleration c. Which words do assert a Power in the King to command what he pleaseth and an Obligation in the Subject to obey whatever he commands 2. This Absolute Power is not grounded on any Law lest it should seem to be derived from the People but on a Soveraign Authority inherent in the King's Person Jure Divino which may be exercised on that ground as well in England as Scotland as the event shews it was 3. This Absolute Power is to be obeyed by all the Subjects without reserve i. e. not only by a passive submission to the Power but by an active compliance with it so that when the King shall declare it to be his Will and Pleasure That all his Subjects renounce the Protestant Religion and turn Roman Catholicks to which his Religion binds him and as he hopes for Salvation and under the Penalty of being deposed by the Pope they are bound to be of the King's Religion 4. That the Subjects that will partake of the benefit of this Toleration must swear To the utmost of their power to assist defend and maintain the King and his Successors in the exercise of this Absolute Power against all deadly i. e. all Mortals So that the Subjects were to make a very dear purchase of this intolerable Toleration for which they were to pawn their Souls and submit all they had to an Absolute Power without reserve Let us consider therefore the intrinsick value of this Toleration which says We do give and grant our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named Where the word Royal looks like a stamp on base Metal mixt of Popery and Quakerism expressed in the Proclamation and is so general that as never any Christian Prince granted the like so the King as a Roman Catholick could not grant to any of those mentioned viz. either of the Church of Scotland then established under Episcopacy or to the Presbyterians or Quakers whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereticks But then it is to be considered that this Toleration of the Protestant Subjects is granted under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations
beginning of Your Majesty's Reign and is a Matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distributing of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech Your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased not to insist upon the Distributing and Reading Your Majesty's Declaration And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray c. W. Cant. W. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicest Tho. Bath and Wells Tho. Peterborough Jonathan Bristol To which His Majesty answered I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change My Mind you shall hear from Me if not I expect My Command shall be obeyed The Reasons for not Reading the Declaration given by a Clergy-man being worthy to be transmitted to Posterity I have here inserted A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church-doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an obstinate and pievish 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 unpitied 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 And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only 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 commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not lookt upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let mens private Opinions be what they will in the
them if they are constant to their own principles for the keeping out of Popery and it will be an indelible Reproach to them all who have professed a greater detestation of Popery and the Church of England which they have slandered and opposed as if they had too far complied with the Papists if they should at last confederate with them to take off those Laws which they unanimously consented to as a means to keep out Popery especially it being evident to all considering persons that when these Laws are abrogated those Laws by which Popery was formerly established will be in force and so they who consent to the taking away the one do consent to the establishing of the other and set up Popery by a Law. See the first and second of Queen Mary But to return to the Vindication of the Church of England from the Imputation of Persecution let the Reader consider that the Established Church hath neither any Power nor any Principle that may incline her to it 1. It hath never had any Power the Church being always in its Minority and the King being her Guardian she cannot enact any thing for her self her Courts are the King's Courts her Convocations are called by the King's Writs they cannot consult of any other Matters but what are proposed by the King nor make any Canons but what are proposed by the King nor make any Canons but what are ratified by his Authority nor execute them but by his Warrant and that under these Proviso's that they be not against the King's Prerogative nor against the Common or Statute Laws And there lieth an Appeal to the Court of Chancery and the Common Law which may grant Prohibitions against their Proceedings and hinder the Execution of their Sentences so that neither any Corporal Punishment can be inflicted nor any Fine leavied but by the Civil Magistrate by whom all Penal Laws are executed so that if there be any cause of Complaint it is to be charged on those Members of Parliament which themselves chose to Vote for them Nor ought they to complain of what was acted by their own Choice And whosoever will duly consider the Rise of those Laws by which the Complainers have suffered the greatest Penalties will find that they were enacted or procured by the Complainers themselves for those Laws by vertue whereof the greatest Execution hath been done since the Reformation were contrived by the Papists I mean the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which though some are pleased to call Protestant Oaths yet were they in being before the Reformation That of Supremacy was enacted in a full Parliament under King Henry the Eighth and was only a Vindication of the ancient Rights of the Crown from foreign Usurpations it was defended by divers Learned Men of the Romish Perswasion particularly by Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winchester And some great Men lost their Lives for defaming or refusing to take that Oath viz. The Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore and if others have suffered on the same account since the Church of England cannot justly be accused of what was so solemnly recognized by the Papists Nec lex est justior ulla And as to the Oath of Allegiance though it were brought into a form by King James as a Test to discover such persons as had often conspired to take away his Life yet as to the matter of it it was to be administred in all Courts-Leet to the Subjects of the Crown and was so framed as to turn the Edge of it against the Papists 2. The Church of England hath no principles that may incline any of her Communion to Persecuting Practices for she makes the holy Scriptures the Rule of her Faith and Practice and Light is not more contrary to Darkness than the Spirit of the Gospel is to that of Persecution When James and John moved our Saviour to call for fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans Luke 9.54 Our Saviour rebuked them saying Ye know not what spirit ye are of for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Of what spirit then are they of who will call for Fire from Hell if they cannot obtain it from Heaven it concerns others to consider As many as walk by the Rule of the Gospel are for Peace and Acts of Mercy And it 's well known that the Church of England strictly injoyns that nothing be preached by her Ministers but what is plainly declared in the Scriptures or may be clearly ded uced from it The Church teacheth all of her Communion to pray for all Men even their Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and frequently useth our Lord's Prayer which obligeth them to forgive Men their Trespasses as they hope to be forgiven of their heavenly Father And St. Paul assures us That all our gifts and graces without charity are nothing worth that charity which suffereth long and is kind which is not puffed up is not easily provoked thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. by which Rule all Christians ought to walk Here the Counsel of Optatus is seasonable Si vestros videri Martyres vultis probate amasse pacem in qua prima sunt Martyris fundamenta aut dilexisse deo placidam unitatem aut habuisse cum fratribus charitatem sine qua maxima imperiosa virtus caret effectu p. 72. If our Church did lay claim to an infallible Spirit and enforce her new Decrees on the Consciences of Men under the pain of an Anathema on all that should not receive them with the like submission as they do to the Oracles of God Did she exact a blind Obedience and an implicite Faith to her Ordinances with a Non-obstante to the Institutions of Christ or if she did pronounce all Hereticks that refuse to hold Communion with her and teach that no Faith is to be kept with such Hereticks Did she account Men Hereticks for keeping and reading their Bibles and Books of Piety and Devotion or set up an Inquisition to Imprison Torment and put to Death Men and Women for their dissent from it in such Opinions Did it punish Men because they believe their Senses and will not fall down and Worship a piece of Bread and give Divine Honour to the Works of Mens hands and Worship the Creature more or besides the Creator Rom. 1.25 Did it approve or allow the deposing Doctrine and approve of Rebellion and Resistance and Massacring thousands of innocent persons for its Advantage and Grandure which some of the Complainers of both Perties have contended for and practised Or did it teach that Dominion is founded in Grace that wicked Men have no Right to what they enjoy but it belongs to the Saints to possess the Earth and to bind Kings in Chains c Did it erect Imperium in imperio an Ernpire independent and paramount to that of the Prince in whose Dominions they live as too many of the Cornplainers do affirm Then might the charge of Persecution be justly pleaded
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 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 King 's 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 It 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 Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered 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 itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves
and not a wilful neglect The Chancellor replies That his Lordship ought to have known the Law and however that the King ought to be obeyed To which the Bishop replied That if a Prince required a Judge to execute a Command not agreeable to Law it was his Duty Rescribere reclamare principi which he did by the Lord President and that he had done in effect what the King commanded advising the Doctor to forbear Preaching in his Diocess After this with some difficulty his Councel were admitted to plead who justified the Bishop's Answer and then the Bishop offered That if through mistake he had erred in any Circumstance he was ready to beg his Majesty's Pardon and to make any reparation he was able But in short at his next appearing he had his Sentence read viz. That Henry Lord Bishop of London being conven'd before the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs for his Disobedience and other Contempts and being fully heard was by them declared deemed and pronounced Suspended from the Function and Execution of his Episcopal Office. In this one Noble Bishop the whole Hierarchy of England were struck at and his Sentence but a Prologue to the Tragedy intended the next Scene of which was this On the Ninth of February Dr. Peachel Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge receiv'd a Mandate under the King's Signet Manual to admit one Father Francis a Benedictine Monk Master of Arts without taking the usual Oaths which the Vice-Chancellor by the unanimous Consent of the University refused perceiving their Priviledges and Properties to be in danger and upon their offering the Oaths to Father Francis and his refusing to take them they denied him that Degree whereupon the Vice-Chancellor was summoned by a Messenger to appear before the Commissioners in person and the Senate by their Deputies Upon their appearance the Vice-Chancellor was asked Why he had not obeyed the King's Command in admitting Father Francis To which they gave their Answer in Writing Shewing That by several Acts of Parliament viz. 1º 5º Eliz. by which it was ordained No Man should be promoted to any Degree without taking an Oath to acknowledge the King's Supremacy c. And 3º 9º Jacobi primi it was enacted That the Oath of Allegiance should be taken and administred by the Vice-Chancellor and all the Principals of Houses and by every Person that should be promoted to any Degree for the preservation of the Doctrine of the Church of England and the King's Prerogative which Oaths the said Francis refused And they pleaded also That the admission to a Degree was not of Ecclesiastical but Temporal Cognizance And that by a Statute 16 Charles II. No Court should be erected having like Power Jurisdiction and Authority as the High Commission Court had but should be utterly void After some Debate the Chancellor pronounced the Vice-Chancellor deprived of his Office and suspended ab Officio Beneficio of his Headship of Magdalen Colledge and forbid him to meddle with any publick business in the University This is another instance of the King 's good will to the Church of England and his unalterable observing his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience And now the other Sister the University of Oxford must partake of the same favour where Dr. Walker a professed Papist is made Head of University Colledge and one Massey a Popish Proselite Dean of Christ-Church and Dr. Clerk President of Magdalen Colledge being dead one Mr. Farmer procured the King's Mandate to succeed him against whom they petitioned his Majesty as being a scandalous person and not qualified as their Statutes required and they proceeded in a regular way to Elect Dr. Hough their President who being presented to their Visitor was sworn and admitted but being told of the King's displeasure they complained of their Unhappiness to the Duke of Ormond their Chancellor and the Bishop of Winchester their Visitor that they were reduced to a necessity either of disobeying the King or wronging their Consciences And that after his Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience but Gallio cared for none of these things the Commissioners cite the Fellows or their Delegates to appear before them Their Delegates were Dr. Aldworth Dr. Fairfax Dr. Smith Mr. Hammond Mr. Dobson and Mr. Fairer who gave in their Plea to this effect That they were bound by their Oaths not to admit any to that Office but such as were Fellows of that or New-Colledge which Mr. Farmer was not That they were not to admit any but such did first swear to observe the Statutes of the Colledge That they were sworn not to admit any Dispensations by any Authority whatsoever and that they had Elected Dr. Hough who was qualified as the Statutes required Mr. Farmer on proofs of his Incapacity was laid aside and another Mandate sent for admission of the Bishop of Oxford And shortly after the King coming to Oxford ordered the Fellows to attend him at Christ-Church and then told them He had known them to be a stubborn and turbulent Colledge for Twenty Six Years taxed them with their Church of England Loyalty and bid them go home and know that he was their King and would be obeyed and such as refused to admit the Bishop of Oxford should feel the weight of his Displeasure But without dread of these Menaces and the intended Persecution they persisted to refuse the Bishop of Oxon against whom they had the like Objections as against Mr. Farmer the Bishop having Judas-like betrayed his Master that had preferred him to that Honour which he resolv'd to rise to viz. a Coach and Six Horses which was the Religion he resolv'd to adhere to but for these causes they were all expelled and made uncapable of any Preferment and all to make way for a Seminary of Papists For these breaches being made in the Walls and Towers of our Sion and there being an Army of Locusts in the Land which waited an opportunity to storm kill and take possession there being at the same time a Nuntio from Rome who was publickly feasted at the Guild-Hall London and an Ambassador at Rome a numerous Spawn of Jesuits and Fryars who were seen in their several Habits Schools Publick Houses appointed for them and Four Bishops appointed to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Ireland being secured in the hands of Papists Scotland over-awed by an Army and the Fleet and Tower of London in confiding hands the Popish Lords being the Cabinet Council and Peters the Jesuit chief Minister of State. What could be expected but a total overthrow of the Church and that the King's Age and Infirmities being considered that they should with all violence push on for our Destruction But God infatuated the Counsels of all these Achitophels and what they designed for our Ruine was by his gracious and wise Providence turned to our preservation For whereas the King to secure the Popish Interest and to establish his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience to which the Prince and Princess of Orange could by