A DISCOURSE OF Ecclesiastical LAWES And SUPREMACY of the KINGS OF ENGLAND In DISPENSING with the PENALTIES thereof By Mr. PHILIP NYE LONDON Printed for W. Cross MDCLXXXVII A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Laws and Supremacy of the Kings of ENGLAND in dispensing with the Penalties thereof CHAP. I. The CASE and STATE of the QVESTION THE Kings Power and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Affairs may fall under a threefold Consideration as 1. Put forth by himself 2. By Commission granted to Ecclesiastical Persons and exercised in those Courts we term Spiritual or Ecclesiastical 3. As such Affairs are managed and ordered by him in Parliament and by the Authority thereof The form in which these Ecclesiastical Lawes are expressed to us is this Be it enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same c. Merely to advise and consent implys no more Authority in Establishment of Ecclesiastical Lawes than what was put forth by the Convocation in their Canons but it being added by the Authority thus mentioned may be construed either relating to the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament which is a suffrage and more than our advice or bare consent For it implyeth when Bills are formed read debated and assented to by both Houses they were then stamped with some kind of Parliamentary authority Or it is to be interpreted as relating to King Lords and Commons which is likely for Consultations of Parliament altho concluded by Vote yet become not formally a Law until His Majesty hath given his Royal assent And in this sense Ecclesiastical Lawes and Orders which are enacted and established by Statutes have as formal a Sanction being not only by the Authority of the King but by Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament as other Lawes wherein our Civil interests are concerned namely by a joint and not the single Power of either This being granted some may say 't is then needless to dispute those higher interests and thence also inferred That as these Ecclesiastical Lawes have their rise vigour and strength so their diminution and abatement from conjunction of both Powers and are more fixed and stable than those Canons and Orders in Ecclesiastical Matters that have their sanction from the King only But to this I say briefly these Powers are not so equal but the King hath the Supremacy and is enabled thereby to such Acts and Orderings about the Penalties of our Lawes as are peculiar to the Crown and Dignity of a King as in mitigating exempting dispensing licensing pardoning c. and all this more especially in Matters Ecclesiastical as by the following will appear This Power and Superiority exercised by the Kings of England with respect to the Penalties of our Lawes both Ecclesiastical and Civil shall be spoken to in these two particulars First That such an Authority and Supremacy is necessary and ought to be placed in some hand Secondly That it is a Dignity which hath been always in the Kings and Queens of this Realm 1. For the former In all Polities and Forms of Government as there is a rule the which is to be the measure to and by which all mens actions that live under that Polity are ordinarily to be Conformed and Judged so is there always some provision made for mitigating the rigour of the rule in Cases which may fall out and cannot be foreseen by the wisest Legislators And in such cases to exercise summum jus would be summa injuria Therefore there is here not only a Power to Judge as the Case stands in the strict Letter of the Law but as there are Courts of Law so are there Chanceries Courts of Equity and Conscience wherein the Law and Rule it self is dispensed with and varied from The Proceedings there are not according to the strict terms of the Law but secundum aequum bonum according as the merits of the Case require 1. For Lawes constituted for a whole Nation universally to be submitted unto by Persons of what quality soever and how much soever different in their Conditions must needs in their strict execution bear harder upon some men than upon others Parliaments in their Lawes going by the rule of ad ea quae frequentius accidunt c. better a mischief than always an inconvenience It is taken for granted that a general Law which hath its good and necessity in respect to the bulk and body of a People may prove unequal to particular Persons from the Circumstances of their Condition In the Common-wealth the ease and benefit of each particular person of what degree or condition soever is to be consulted but where Lawes are executed in their full rigour and no particular Mercy or Indulgence in special and unusual Cases it will not be So God himself who knows every man's heart yet some of his Lawes which are given in the general to all would not prove so equal to each at all times without exemptions in particular Cases Hence we say affirmative Precepts bind not AD SEMPER To such Lawes is that of Mark C. 2 to be referred in the Case of the Shew-bread And the Pope who assumes to himself a possibility not to Erre yet how doth his Republic abound in Courts for Faculties Dispensation Indulgences 2. It is also to be Considered there are no Societies of men but may erre in their counsels Lawes made in one Parliament come to a review and often to an alteration yea to a repeal in the next The intervals of those great Councels are some time long and if no way of relief were in the mean time the Subject would without remedy undergo the Penalty of an unequal Law. These and the like Considerations make it necessary that besides the Legislative Power placed in the Parliament there be some hand or other also by which upon all emergent occasions the rigour of a Law as to its Penalty may be abated by the means whereof not only mens Liberties and Estates but lives also are sometimes preserved 2. For the other This balance hath always been trusted in the hand of and annexed to the Sovereign Majesty of every State. For this interest doth little vary but remaineth in a manner the same in all States in what form soever they be established In the State of England being an Empire and its Crown in many Acts of Parliament especially relating to these Matters styled Imperial this Power is inseparably annexed thereunto which needs little proof it being confirmed by the OATH of SUPREMACY Our great Lawyers also give in their suffrage hereunto frequently affirming that the Statutes relating to the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not introductive of new but declarative of the old Lawes When an Act say these two learned Judges Coke and Rolls forbiddeth under a Penalty in case it may be inconvenient unto diverse particular persons in respect to Circumstances
a worse condition on these accounts then in their civil interest and that upon a threefold account 1. The Secular Lawes and Statutes made in behalf of the Subject are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of inconvenience altered and repealed whereby the Subject hath ease It is ordinarily seen in our Civil concerns that some ACTS of Parliament that partly for their severity or upon some other account passed as doubtful whether fit to remain as standing Lawes are therefore limited to a certain Time and after which to expire and cease The severe Act of 35 Eliz. which in the Process of it reached mens lives when first passed was to remain a Law but to the end of the next Session of Parliament which in regard of some doubt it seems whether in force or not is declared by this present Parliament to be so and that it ought to be put in due execution And now at this time there is a Minister of the Gospel under the Sentence of that Act and for transgressing that Law had lost his life had not His Majesty interposed by his Prerogative A wise Statesman once advised and expressed himself thus I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored with good and wholsom Lawes made in every 30 or 40 years in Parliament providing Remedies as fast as time breedeth Mischiefs and comrariwise the Ecclesiastical State should still continue upon the dreggs of time and receive no alteration Now for these many years we have heard of no offers of Bills in Parliament is it because there is nothing amiss Sir Fr. Bacon 2. In that all Proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts are ever to the utmost rigour and letter of their Canons and Orders There is no Chancery or Court of Equity to appeal to for redress but in some few Cases as in causes Testamentary Matrimony Divorces c. specified 24 H. 8. Matters wherein our Estates are touched but in matters of Conformity and such Cases wherein our Consciences are concerned we are left destitute 3. Men are upon this peculiar disadvantage in these spiritual Courts who are impeached for Non-Conformity to their Canons and Orders in that their Adversaries and those that are Parties for the most part are their Judges This Sir Fr. Bacon in his Considerations condemneth as a great Injustice So that it is evident considering the Nature of Ecclesiastical Constitutions and how managed with us in this Nation how necessary it is that some Power be placed somewhere by which we may be relieved when exposed more than others to such extremity of rigour For otherwise as Conscientious men are more disposed to doubts and scruples in the way of duty in this kind so to less Mercy and Indulgence from our Superiors CHAP. III. That our relief is from the Jurisdiction and Power in His Majesty to Dispense and Exempt for in his hand this balance is placed which is that we shall insist upon in the next place 1. THis Prerogative and Power to exempt from Ecclesiastical Lawes is in the Soveraign for the confirming whereof not to insist upon what was acknowledged by Eleutherius touching Lucius our first Christian King that he was Vicarius Dei in regno suo in reference to matters to be reformed or what is mentioned concerning the Lawes and Practice of King Edgar and Edw. the Confessor namely of the first meae solicitudinis quieti eorum consulere de quorum moribus spectat ad nos examen and of the other from whom it 's said much of our Lawes is derived in describing the King's office he saith Rex ad hoc est constitutus ut regnum terrenum Populum Dei Ecclesiam regat ab injuriis defendat maleficos ab ea evellat destruat penitùs disperdat and much of the like nature that might be urged from Antiquity but to come nearer home I bring the Testimony of the Clergy in Convocation or the representative Church of England who make it so great a Duty to acknowledge this as they have expressed their severity thus Whosoever shall affirm the King's Majesty hath not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical as the pious Princes of the Jews and the Christian Emperors obtained let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not to be absolved but by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Canons of the Convocation 1603. I shall joyn with this Testimony that of another Councel namely that met in the Star-Chamber 2 Jac. made up of all the Judges and Persons learned in the Law summoned by King James for resolution in some Ecclesiastical Cases whereof this of His Majesty's Prerogative was one their resolution you have in these words The King without the Parliament may make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and punish those that disobey and refuse to submit and this their resolution was ordered to to be registred and Recorded in the several Courts of Justice 3. And from time to time the Kings and Queens of England have assumed and exercised this Power 1. In general the whole body and systeme of Ecelesiastical Lawes and Canons are published by the Synod of the Clergy from time to time without any particular Parliamentary Sanction And yet have not these Canons their Authority from the Synod or Clergy met in Convocation For Canons concluded by the Province of Canterbury only cannot as such oblige the Clergy of the Province of York who had no Representatives or Clerks sitting in that Synod or Convocation that met Anno 1584. 1597. and 1603. and yet its Canons obliged to subjection the Archbishop and Clergy of York as well as those of 1640. where were the Representatives of both Provinces It is therefore the ROYAL authority expressed in the Letters Patents affixed to these Canons that gives them Power and they are therefore termed Regiae leges Ecclesiasticae 2. Instances may be produced of several Injunctions Advertisements Declarations and other Edicts and Requirements from Sovereign Power by His Majesty's Predecessors You have the Injunctions of Edw. 6. 1547. and Queen Eliz. 1559. with Articles of Visitation thereunto adjoyned They license Ministers to Preach suspend also from Preaching Edw. 6. also established a Liturgy or publick form of Prayer to be used throughout the Kingdom King James likewise gives faculties confirms a new body of Lecturers throughout England Preachers that were neither Vicars Parsons nor Curates These Instances altho not express of what these Powers have dispensed with or indulged yet are pertinent upon this account What Sovereign Power is thus put forth in Constitutions Injunctions and Directions c. in Ecclesiastical Matters may in like Proportions be exemplify'd in Exemptions Dispensations c. as with Parliaments and other Councels vested with Authority the Power to repeal Lawes and Statutes is as large as that Power by which they Enact and Establish them For Example King James might by his Prerogative confirm and establish a new order of the Clergy which was our last instance he might by the same
is not then to dispense with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Lawes too great a trust to be reposed in any one hand In Answer I shall endeavour something to unfold 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Nation 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. How much Religion c. The moment and weight of a Matter in our Deliberation hath its proportion either as under an absolute or respective Consideration Wisdom is better than Riches in it self absolutely but not in respect to the support of present life The knowledge of God and Divine things is better than to know the virtue of Drugs and Plants but not so in respect to the study of Physick So Religion and the Worship of God is the chiefest and better part in it self considered but in its respective Considerations as to the faculty of a particular Person to Community of men for the advance of Civil Affairs there are other qualifications and inducements of greater Consequence and more directly and immediately tending to the being or well-being thereof That there be no mistake in this great Concernment I further distinguish There cometh under the Notion of Religion the Holiness and Righteousness that is of the Moral Law Principles whereof are in all mens natures and attended in their actings by a natural Conscience 2. Gospel Duties directed and ordered by a supernatural light no footsteps or Principles whereof are found in us For the former Religion in that first sense as the Knowledge of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our dealings c. are such things wherein the well-being of Kingdoms and Commonwealth is much concerned But Religion as it stands in exerting supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commands of Christ as the other the Commands of God Jo. 15. such as Faith Repentance Sacraments Discipline and the like Gospel-Ordinances In the Duties under these Heads considered and as distinct from Moral Duties there is little or nothing directly and immediately contributed by them to mens Civil interests further then where these supernatural Vertues are planted in mens Minds the Moral Duties of Piety and Honesty do more plentifully abound and are in exercise As those Morals do more immediately concern the Commonwealth so the Lawes thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Lawes under Penalties and incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State is judged most conducing to the welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries 't is otherwise for as they contribute not to us in our Civil Government otherwise than as before-mentioned so is there little contributed by the Wisdom or Authority of any State advantagious to the Gospel but Protection or being a defence upon the Glory Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Chaist the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commands which is all the Power we give to Princes Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers c. but Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first ordained and appointed but to return If Adam had stood all Common-wealths had been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised and since the fall you have had well-governed Kingdoms and States among Turks Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular persons in Commerce another man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any other Civil concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a man I deal with be unjust ly steal c. my worldly interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this or exercise Faith on Christ for forgiveness and humble himself I am neither gainer nor loser in my Civil concern Now it is Gospel-Worship and Gospel-Religion we profess in this Nation If then the Duties themselves performed are of no greater onsequence in respect to Persons with whom we converse or the Civil State where we live the Modes Forms and Ceremonies of such Worship cannot be of such moment or trust in the manage of them And let me add much less can there be any such special advantage or detriment to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external form of Worship or Government that one should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention and from an alteration whereof we should be so much deterred which evidently appears in this how prosperous and flourishing hath this Nation been in their Civil concerns under Episcopacy Set Liturgies Ceremonies c. and as great Prosperity in other Christian States where these have altogether been disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Officers that they contribute no more to the settling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no edge to cut off mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Lawes and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Lawes in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the trust whereof may be placed in the hand of a Wife and Prudent Prince Again there is Liberty of an after-Judgement to be made by him that is to practise in whatever is in the concerns of Religion commanded by men Thence such Lawes require not such simple and peremptory obedience if conformable to those rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect unto God as well as Man if otherwise that then ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostles claimed Acts 5.29 Now altho Matters of Religion and the Concernment of it be great things considered in it self and accordingly is the trust yet what of it falleth under the hand of a Civil Power is neither in it self nor in its trust so great Because the greatness of this trust sticks generally in mens minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the will of one man to remove this or the like stumbling block we will suppose failings in the management of the trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refufe either by himself or Parliament to enjoyn any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Externals in the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. Suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to a full Liberty in the observance of them and call these high defects and failings in
Power dispense with and license such Preachers which now seem and are reputed so to be And it follows also if his Power will extend to indulge such persons it will not prove short in respect to hearers which are as it were new in the way of their Assemblies and indulge such as are not in the Ancient order of the Parochial Congregations of England 2. The like Deductions might be drawn from other of those Instances I shall notwithstanding for further confirmation add other instances and such wherein you have this Power put forth in dispensing and exempting from what hath been burthensom to mens Consciences by Episcocal Impositions 1. That of Edw. 6. In the 4th year of his reign Certain Protestants removing themselves and Families out of Popish Countries into England for the sake of Conscience and being not free to submit to the forms of Worship and Discipline established in this Church this good King by his SOLE Authority granteth them the Liberty of such a Church Government and form of worship whereof we shall say more in its place as should be most suitable to their own Perswasion This being utterly against the Provision and Settlement NEWLY made by Parliament He strengthens his Grant by a NON OBSTANTE to the Statute and strictly requires all Bishops and Mayors to suffer them to enjoy this Liberty of Conscience 2. Another instance you have of the same good King in Hooper being chosen Bishop of Gloucester and there being certain Rites and Ceremonies established by Act of Parliament to be Conformed unto in the Consecration of Bishops offensive to his Conscience Edw. 6. requires Arch-Bishop Cranmer to omit these Ceremonies discharging him of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures he should be in danger of and run into in any manner of way by omitting of the same and these our Letters saith the King shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge therefore 3. The instance you have also of what was done by Queen Eliz. for relieving Tender Consciences namely Her Majesty being informed that in certain places in this Realm sundry of her Subjects called to the Ministry being induced by sinister Perswasions are scrupled about the Form of the Oath which by an Act of the late Parliament was prescribed to be taken according to the Form expressed in the Act under the Penalty of being disabled to bear any Office in State or Church Her Majesty was graciously pleased by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to give and declare such a sense and construction of the words of this Oath expressed in other words much different for their satisfaction with a Gracious Declaration that such Persons fit for the Ministry as could not take the Oath in the Parliaments Form should be accepted to do it in this sense and doing so they should notwithstanding be accepted of her Majesty as good and obedient Subjects and be acquitted of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as should refuse the same By which means many an able man had freedom to exercise his Ministry which otherwise must be laid aside which Indulgence of hers altho against an ACT of Parliament yet was owned as done by lawful Authority and recognized by the Parliament 5 Eliz. and her Execution assented to and enacted 4. This renowned Queen together with King James and King Charles the First confirmed the Indulgence and Dispensation granted by Edw. 6. to Strangers yea although it was a Gravamen to the Bishops as making an evident breach upon the Lawes of Vniformity for that 't was granted not only to the Parents but to the Children and Childrens Children which were Natural Subjects to the Realm Persons of great Estates and Purchasers of Lands and interessed in the Soil the number also of these Congregations increasing and situated in the eminent and chief Towns and Cities in the Kingdom there to live and Profess as separated and divided Bodies a Discipline and Worship differing from the Church of England which was not at first intended as Bishop Laud complains there being onely that one in London when the first Grant was made and such things were frequently suggested against them Yet these Princes were graciously disposed notwithstanding the Act for Vniformity from time to time to Confirm the Grant of Edward 6th by several Orders past some of them formed as having special respect to such Objections And it will not be amiss for the Reader 's Information here to insert some of them at least The Form in which Queen Elizabeth confirmed their Liberties Non ignoramus variis Ecclesiis varios diversos jam ab initio fuisse ritus ceremonias non contemnimus vestras neque vos ad nostras cogimus King James Oct. 17. About the Dutch at Colchester His Majesty granted their Orders Liberties c. in as large and ample manner to all intents and purposes as heretofore they have been used tolerated and allowed unto them any Provision or Jurisdiction to the Contrary thereunto in any wise notwithstanding An Order of King James under his Signet Jan. 13. 1616. on their behalf These are therefore to Will and Command all our Courts of Justice and other our loving Subjects to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children c. The Order of the Councel for the Walloons of Norwich Oct. 10.1621 Those of Norwich tho born in the Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Congregation and subject to such Discipline as hath been by all the time of 55 years practised by them The Order of King Charles the First Nov. 13. 1631. We Will and Command our Judges to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children quietly to enjoy all and singular c. without any Trouble Arrests or Proceedings by way of information or otherwise An Order of Councel for the Dutch of Norwich Jan. 7. 1630. That all those that now or hereafter shall be Members of the Dutch Congregation altho born within this Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Church so long as his Majesty shall be pleased These and diverse the like instances might be produced which sufficiently evince it as granted on all sides and constantly supposed to be according to the constitution of this Realm that our Kings and Princes have Power in and from themselves as an inherent inseparable Prerogative not only to enjoyn and give Lawes to their Subjects in Matters Ecclesiastical such as are left to the ordering of any Civil Power but also to dispense and exempt from Lawes of that kind tho established by them in conjunction with the Authority of Parliament Nor do we find that Parliaments at any time have taken into Consideration what was ordered and done by these Kings and Princes in Ecclesiastical Affairs as being their known Prerogative no not in the time of King James who assumed the most in such managements nor by any Petitions or Addresses to any of those Princes which is usual in the concerns of Civil Rights for
limiting or enlarging the exercise of their Power in these Matters Ecclesiastical but rather recognizing and confirming what hath been ordered by them as in 5 Eliz. and in Car. 2. in the Act of Vniformity and many other instances might be tendered CHAP. IV. Of Objections against this Power and the exerting thereof with Answer thereunto THere are Reasonings possibly tending another way the Objections obvious I shall now mention having diverse material Considerations pertinent to a more full and clear stating this Case which might have been produced in the body of this Discourse but are reserved rather to this place partly because we find this vulgar way of DIALOGVE lets in Knowledge with less difficulty and what is required by way of a Question engageth him that proposeth with greater attention to observe what is said in the Answer Quest If such a Power be in the King may it not be thence inferred that be hath Power over the Consciences of Men Answ 1 There is nothing in this Power or the execution of it but only taking off Restraints as to the outward Duties which the Law requireth and the pressing such things upon it as are contrary to its light and dictates And the Power which Protects Conscience in its external actions and takes off all fear and Impositions from it is so far from being a Power over the Consciences of men that it is a necessary requisite for acting of its own Power in obedience unto God. Neither 2. doth it follow that if the King may suspend the Execution of Ecclesiastical Lawes that in the like cases he may make such Lawes for the Suspension of Lawes belongs to the executive but the making of them to the Legislative Power which are distinct and in the making of Lawes with Penalties annexed the Liberties Estates and Lives of the Subject are concerned but in the suspension of those Lawes no man is damaged in what is secured to him Quest If such a Prerogative be in the King what need Ecclesiastical Lawes be transacted and established by Parliament Answ 1 That if His Majesty is pleased in these Affairs at any time to take in the Advice and Assent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament it doth not alwayes evidence His Majesty's Power as insufficient of it self for such actings Such a favour may proceed from a Condescention upon the account of a more popular Acceptance that our hands may be fastened more firmly in obedience to those Lawes and Commands in the forming whereof they have been assistant Take it answered in His Majesty's own words Declar. of 26. Dec. 1662. to concur with us in making some such Act as may enable us to exercise with a more universal satisfaction that Power of DISPENSING which we conceive to be INHERENT in us or as also it is by the above-named Learned Judge Hobart expressed These Statutes and the like were made saith he to put things in ordinary form and to ease the Sovereign of labour but not to derogate from his Power Answ 2 Powers sufficient in themselves may joyn and in such conjunction remain entire as Powers Cumulative and not Privative as is evident from what is said in the Statute of 31º H. 8. cap. 10. The King 's most Excellent Majesty tho it appertained to his Prerogative Royal to give Honour as shall seem to his Wisdom he is nevertheless pleased and contented for an Order to be had c. by this High Court of Parliament that it shall be enacted by the Authority of the same self-distinct from that capacity wherein he stands in conjunction with his Subjects as their Head in that respect being in a higher Region above and in a greater distance from those Interests upon the account whereof his Subjects are many times divided and Publick Edicts become formed according to the prevalency of a greater Party to the prejudice of others which are his Loyal Subjects Also by Wisdom and Prudence there is a ballance by which the Tranquillity of a Nation is happily preserved and one Party not over-born by the other having this Power to Mitigate and Dispense as hath been discoursed with what in his Wisdom with Advice of his Council shall seem equal Quest 3 But hath not the King's Prerogative been limitted in our Lawes are there not some things which he cannot dispense with no not with a non obstante Answ I grant it and in several Cases 1. He may by special words in the Statute bind up himself from making any use of his Prerogative 2. In what is malum in se in respect of Impiety or Vnrighteousness 3. When such Dispensations are destructive to the great ends of a Common-wealth common Justice the Proprieties of men c. 1. To the first His Majesty or any of his Predecessors hath not at any time in any Statute or Law that concerns these Ecclesiastical Matters by any such special words bound up himself but rather the contrary as in those two Acts wherein more especially our affair lyeth that of Vniformity where that Dispensation with that Statute granted to Strangers by sole Prerogative-Authority is justify'd In the Act. 22º Car. 2. by the Proviso there inserted the Parliament seems to induce His Majesty's assent in the recognizing his Prerogative so expresly in that Act as if they spoke thus Tho this Act be very severe yet if it be found prejudicial or not to attain the end for which we judge such severity to be requisite It is an Ecclesiastical Affair and your Majesty may when you please disperse or exempt Persons from it for we intend not to abridge your Royal Prerogative 2. There is nothing transacted in these Affairs by the Civil Magistrate and as depending on his Authority but such Matters as in the sense of our Law are things materially indifferent and therefore not mala in se they do not bind the Conscience of the Subject in the nature of them considered in themselves Queen Eliz. Advertisements 1569. Preface The keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking a Common Order c. of Ceremonies why some are c. So that these Precepts concerning Ecclesiastical Matters oblige not in their own Nature as what is either bonum or malum but as Prohibited or Commanded 3. Civil Rights and Claims and Temporal things only are the immediate and intrinsick concern and interest of all Commonwealths Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ If the just Claim of a Prince may not be interrupted upon the account he is of this or that Religion and Perswasion nor may a Subject be justly Banished Imprisoned Confiscated or ruined upon the meer account of Religion or because his Conscience is not cast into the same mould with the Prince or present Establishment It is Popery to deny Allegiance to Prince or Protection to a Subject upon the account of any such difference Quest Religion and the Worship of God being the great Concern of a Nation
be discovered by this indiscriminating Severity that is who are Dissenters upon Principles of Conscience and who of them so pretending are notwithstanding of a Seditious Spirit These can never be distinguished one from the other when Dissenters and such as conform not be it upon what ground soever are all of them equally branded with the same mark of disloyalty and so represented to His Majesty and all the Nation There is a necessity that this Pretence of Conscience be removed and Seditious Persons discovered and left to condign Punishment and others these stumbling-blocks being removed may by their peaceable Obedience to all other His Majesty's Lawes justifie and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Lawes which shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation His Majesty who hath had a clear prospect all along of these things and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in that Proclamation of 10 July 1669. and otherwise to indulge tender Consciences hath upon these afore-mentioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to Publish this his Gracious DECLARATION of March 15. 1672. where he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus His Majesty as a Wife and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or serving to refresh and to shew the dark Foggs and Mists here beneath hath by the Light and Liberty shining forth from his gracious Indulgence refreshed multitudes of his good Subjects and delivered them from the dark misapprehensions of others Nor is this their great relief in any thing prejudicial either to the Estates or Liberties of men otherwise minded nor are such men abridged in any of their concerns Spiritual or Temporal hereby His Majesty hath made sufficient Provision for the satisfying their Consciences in a careful continuing those Ceremonies and Forms of Worship they have been accustomed to Let it not be grievous or offensive to them that their Brethren have obtained from His Majesty in respect to their Consciences the like favour Quest Since these Ecclesiastical Lawes of Restraint were Enacted by Parliament the King giving his Royal Assent had it not been convenient if His Majesty had so pleased that the dispensing with these Lawes had been by Parliament Answ 1 The King and Princes of this Realm His Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Matters but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties at least of such Lawes A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might tho no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least into the Minds of Men a kind of Suspicion especially in the Vulgar that such Proceedings of the Supream Majesty by his sole Power to be an assuming an Arbitrary Government 2. The Parliament did still continue in this their former Opinion and first Judgment namely That a way of Severity was the only means to settle Peace and Unity They had newly passed the Act for Uniformity without any abatement of what was offensive by reason whereof arose that general Discontent which before we have mentioned His Majesty being sensible hereof did by that Declaration of Decemb. 26. move a second time That an Act might be prepared c. not doubting their chearful co-operation with him being a Matter wherein he conceived himself so much engaged both in Point of Honour and in what he oweth to the Peace of his Kingdoms which we profess saith he we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the malitious and disaffectionate to inflame the minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with despair of ever obtaining any effect of our Promise for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's Loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several Parts and Places of your Kingdom for which we were chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort adviseable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Vniformity and the Religion Established for these Reasons c. whereof this is one It will in no wise become the graver Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Vniformity and at the next Session the reason of Vniformity continuing still the same to Pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of the former So that now His Majesty had no other Remedy but either 1. To retreat from that Pious and Seasonable Resolution for Liberty of Conscience expressed in Letters to the Parliament then sitting from Breda a Resolution so acceptable to them as the whole House Nemine Contradicente by Letters returned Thanks to him and Blessed the Name of the Lord who put such reconciling thoughts into the heart of the King. And he himself likewise owned an especial Blessing from God upon his Affairs after he had expressed that intention 2. Of break that Promise he solemnly made assuring this Liberty and had professed to the world upon this occasion in his Speech May 8. 1661. That he valued himself much upon keeping his Word and whatsoever he promised to his Subjects and that no man can be his Friend and wish him well who would perswade him to consent to the breach of that solemn Promise 3. Or leave the Nation under greater Distractions and Sufferings about Religion then he found it And that upon 12 years Experience of other means which extended rather to increase the Distempers These dishonourable things I say His Majesty must have suffered and undergone or make use of that Power GOD and the NATION have intrusted him withal tho not with Concurrence of Parliament so much and so often desired by him even so oft as he came to them as he tells them in his Speech July 8. 1661. yet nothing at any time was done to his Satisfaction in Liberty of Conscience by the Houses being obliged in their Judgments to proceed in the other way CHAP. V. Of former Examples for Indulgences HIS Majesty's Gracious Declaration contains not a greater Indulgence altho it be extended to a greater number of Persons than what was granted by His Majesty's Predecessors which before we have mentioned to the French and Dutch Congregations 1. There was an uniform order of Church Government and Divine Service to which not only His majesty's Subjects but all the Inhabitants in His Majesty's Dominions were to conform and no man to absent himself And were enjoyned not to hear or be present at any other Forms of Prayers and Administration of Sacraments then what is in that Book prescribed under Penalties of Ecclesiastical Censures Fines to the King Poor of the Parish c. 2. The Dispensation and Exemption was by the SOLE Authority of the Sovereign and stands thus A Liberty to