leaving Aliens or Foreigners of the Reform'd Churches that were then allow'd or tolerated by the King's Majesty or that should be allow'd by him his Heirs and Successors to be secured under the Wing of Prerogative from all the Penalties in that Act was a greater President of a Parliament's deference to the Dispensative Power But here it falls in my way to ask you if the Parliament in that Act interpreting and expounding the Sulscription to the 36th Article as you before mention'd did not shew some want of tenderness to the Regal Power of interpreting B. Not in the least The King thought fit in his Legislative Capacity and with the Concurrence of the three Estates to issue forth such interpretation to the end it might be perpetuated But you will find that they were so tender of that branch of Prerogative namely of the Regal Power of interpreting out of Parliament that having referr'd to the King's Declaration of the 25th of October 1660. i. e. that concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs we spoke of before and mention'd that according to that he had granted his Commission to several Bishops and other Divines to review the Book of Common Prayer and to prepare such Alterations and Additions as they thought fit to offer and that afterwards the Convocations of both the Provinces of Canterbury and York being by His Majesty called c. His Majesty hath been pleas'd to Authorize the Presidents of the said Convocation and other the Bishops and Clergy of the same to review the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of the form and manner of the making and consecrating of Bishops Priests c. and that they should make such Additions and Alterations in the said Books as to them should seem meet and should present the same to His Majesty for his further Allowance or Confirmation and then setting forth that the same was accordingly done and that some alterations were inserted into those Books by the Convocations and by them Presented to His Majesty and all which His Majesty having consider'd hath fully approved it then follows that His Majesty hath recommended to this present Parliament that the Books of Common Prayer c. with the Alterations and Additions which have been so made and presented to His Majesty by the said Convocations be the Book which shall be appointed to be used c. in all Parish Churches and Chapels c. And it is upon the foundation of what His Majesty did as before-mention'd that the following enacting Clauses with their Sanctions and Penalties are built And you may if you will take notice of a Proviso toward the end of the Act being very tender of not hurting what King Iames by his Prerogative did in Uniting the Prebendship to the Professor of Law in Oxon for the time being and whereby that King dispens'd with the incapacity of Lay-men as to the enjoyment of such Prebendship but the Act and the Proviso takes care to perpetuate the King's Professor's enjoying the same and leaves the Prerogative at liberty to dispense with such disability in the Case In short you see how tender that Parliament was of Prerogative and tho they thought it not fit to give such loud Applauses to his late Majesty's Declaration of October the 25th A. 1660. before-mention'd wherein so much of the Dispensative Power was exerted yet you find they refer to it with respect A. I have almost forgot the particulars of the Dispensative Power therein exerted B. I shall tell you that the King having there mention'd and what the Act takes notice of his saying that he would appoint some Divines to review the Common Prayer Book and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary c. it then saith Out Will and Pleasure is that none be punish'd or troubled for not using it until it be review'd and effectually reform'd He there speaks several times of Dispensing with Ceremonies that were by Law establish'd It is there likewise said Because some men otherwise Pious and Learned say They cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canon nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience we are Content and it is Out Will and Pleasure so they take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive ordination institution and induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience c. A. I see here is King Iames the First 's incapacitating Canon dispens'd with and indeed suspended B. The Declaration goeth on with taking care that None be Iudged to forfeit his Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it upon the Statute of the 13th of Elizabeth c. 12. so he read and declare his Assent to all the Articles of Religion which only contain the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments comprised in the Book of Articles in the said Statute mentioned And this Declaration had before express'd His Majesty's mindfulness of his Declaration from Bredagh and his saying We publish'd in our Declaration from Bredagh a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or call'd in Question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offer'd us for the full granting that Indulgence Here was a Liberty of Conscience granted and publish'd and Heterodoxy about the very Articles of Religion tolerated and a throwing off of Penal Laws and for which Declaration I should have told you that Baker's History p. 703. mentions that the House of Lords order'd Thanks to be given to the Messenger who brought that gracious Declaration A. And yet you say the Declaration October 25. 1660 thus dispensing with disability incurr'd by the Canon and the 13th of Eliz and by Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity was both approved and applauded by the former Parliament I have not heard of the like in the kind of it B. No doubt but the Author there referr'd to the Declaration of Octob. 25. A. 1660. for which the House of Commons so express'd their thanks however by the supposed carelessness of the Printer the Publication is said to be October 8th 1660. For the words by him cited as said by his Majesty viz. Our present Consideration and work is to gratify c. are in that Declaration p. 15. and 16. But if it were not for cloying you with other like Instances I could tell you of the like in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames the First A. I pray speak not of cloying My Patience may be soon surfeited with two or three such things as some call Presidents But this thing call'd Iudgment of Parliament carries with it so much weight as well as Veneration that you can no way more oblige me then by going on to entertain me with Instances of that
kind B. Why then I can tell you if you will at any time turn to your Collection of Proclamations in the time of King Iames the First you will find that in his Proclamation of March the 5th the first year of his Reign he intimates that with the Consent of the Bishops present in the Hampton-Court Conference he thought meet that some small things might rather be explain'd then changed in the Book of Common Prayer and for that end gave forth his Commission under the Great Seal of England according to the Form which the Laws of this Realm in like Case prescribed to be used to make the said Explanation and to cause the whole Book of Common Prayer with the same Explanation to be newly Printed which being done and establish'd anew after so serious a Deliberation c. we have thought it necessary to make known by Proclamation our authorizing of the same and to require and enjoyn all men as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal to Conform themselves to it as the only publick Form of serving God establish'd and allow'd to be in this Realm And the rather for that all the Learned Men who were there present as well of the Bishops as others promised their Conformity in the practice of it only making sute to us that some few might be born with for a time Wherefore we require all Archbishops Bishops and all other publick Ministers as well Ecclesiastical as Civil to do their Duties in causing the same to be obey'd and in punishing the Offenders according to the Laws of the Realm heretofore establish'd for the Authorizing the said Book of Common Prayer You see there that all the Bishops and the great Parade of the literati present at that famous Conference did implore the King for the exercise of his Dispensative Power for a while to some few But what is more considerable is that the King here doth make a general relaxation of the Bond of Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity in some things and instead of inserting an express Clause of discharging from the Penalties of that Act all that use the Common Prayer Book with the King's Alterations or Explanations as Queen Elizabeth's Admonition did in relation to those who took the Oath of Supremacy in the sense of her Interpretation a thing indeed not necessary for either of them to have done when they had loosen'd the bond of the Observance of the Law he enjoyns the uniform usage of the Book of Common Prayer as by him interpreted or explain'd the title of the Proclamation being A Proclamation for the authorizing an Uniformity of the Book of Common Prayer to be used throughout the Realm under the disabling Punishments of Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity the Bishops all this while being ministerial to the King in his Power of thus interpreting and explaining an Act of Parliament and the loosening of its Obligation both as to themselves and others I am to tell you that in that Proclamation of March the fifth the King refers to a Proclamation he had before Publish'd on the 24th of October then last past wherein he gave the Puritan Divines an intimation of the Conference he intended to have and in which he reflects on the heat of their Spirits as tending rather to Combustion then Reformation which saith he if there be Cause to make is more in our hearts then theirs c. and afterwards saith we are not ignorant that time may have brought in some Corruptions which may deserve a review and amendment which if by the Assembly intended by us we shall find to be so indeed we will therein procéed according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm by Advice of our Councel or in our High Court of Parliament or by Convocation of our Clergy as we shall find reason to lead us not doubting but that in such an orderly proceeding we shall have the Prelates others of our Clergy no less willing and far more able to afford us their Duty and Service then any other whose zeal doth go so fast before their discretion And the Proclamation in March following shew'd you how the King's reason lead him in his Proceeding in the Affair according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm and how loyally his Bishops and Clergy acquiesced therein A. I remember I have read both these Proclamations and I doubt not but that Hampton-Court Conference made a great ferment in the Body of the People tho none in the Orthodox Clergy But I should be glad to know whether it made any fermentation in the Body of the People Representative and what was the Result of it Did the Parliament acquiesce in what the King had done as aforesaid For if so they had done as Queen Elizabeth's Parliament in publickly approving what she by her own Ecclesiastical Supremacy did in discharging the disabling Penalties in her first Act of Parliament and in relaxing by her interpretation the vinculum for its observance in that sense that many had before put on it B. King Iames his Parliament did in effect the very self-same thing And I shall give you the account of it out of his Proclamation of the 16th of Iuly A. 1604. in the Second year of his Reign for there having spoke of that Conference and of his having Publish'd by Proclamation what was the issue of it and his hoping that when the same should be made known all reasonable Men would have rested satisfy'd with that which had been done and not have moved further trouble of Speech of Matters whereof so solemn and advised deliberation had been made His Majesty's following words are Notwithstanding at the late Assembly of our Parliament there wanted not many who renew'd with no little earnestness the Questions before determin'd and many more as well about the Book of Common Prayer as other Matters of Church Government and importuned us for our assent to many Alterations therein but yet with such Success as when they heard both our own Speeches made to them at sundry times shewing the Reasons of our former Proceedings in those Matters and likewise had had Conference with some Bishops and other Lords of the Upper House about the same they desisted from further Prosecution thereof finding that of all things that might any way tend to the furtherance of Religion and of Establishment of a Ministry fit for the same we had before with the Advice of our Councel had such Consideration as the present state of things would bear and taken order how the same should be prosecuted by such means as might be used without any publick disturbance or innovation And in how vigorous a State the Dispensative Power as to the Nonconformists afterward continued in the Reign of that Prince appears by what I have before cited of an Application made to him by the House of Commons for the exercise of the same to the Non-conformists in the 10th year of his Reign Moreover how by Tacit Dispensation he dispens'd with the Disabilities that
containing all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering c. It is Enacted c. that all Subscriptions hereafter to be had or made to the said Articles by any Deacon Priest c. or other person whatsoever who by this Act or any OTHER LAW now in force is required to subscribe unto the said Articles shall be construed and taken to extend and shall be applyed for and touching the said 36th Article to the Book containing the form and manner of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops Priests c. in this Act mentioned in such sort and manner as the same did heretofore extend to the Book set forth in the time of King Edward the 6th mention'd in the said 36th Article any thing in the said Article or in any Statute Act or Canon heretofore had or made to the Contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding It is clear that the Parliament had then their Eye on the Act of 13. Eliz. and on that Canon of King Iames and which you may take as referr'd to by the words or any other Law now in force for so they then knew it to be and as it still is tho with the interpretation extended by the Act to it and afterward by the word Canon But one may guess that by the Authority of some of the Lords the Bishops there was before the making of this Canon of King Iames and after the Act of 13. Eliz. in her Reign some Subscription under disabling Penalties required of Ministers beyond what that Statute required by what the Author of Certain Considerations tending to promote Peace mentions in p. 4. viz. That in the 30th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the House of Commons presented to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal a Petition containing divers particulars for the redress whereof they desire that no Oath or Subscription might be tender'd to any at their entrance into the Ministry but such as is expresly prescribed by the Statutes of the Realm except the Oath against Corrupt entring that they may not be troubled for the omission of some Rites or Portions prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer that such as had been suspended for no other Offence but only for not subscribing might be restored A. It seems those Bishops then did as your Expression was Dispensare in lege and were as I may say Non-conformists to it by going beyond it For they were obliged sapere ad Regulam and all Conformity is respectu regulae and he who doth over-shoot or who over-does what is enjoyn'd is a Non-conformist B. You here put me in mind how some of our Bishops and Clergy have been thus Non-conformists in over-shooting their mark at the same time that they have with undistinguishing severity executed the rigour of the Laws against all who did shoot short The Royal Martyr in his Declaration to all his Loving Subjects Publish'd with the Advice of his Privy Councel A. 1641. refers to some Ceremonies in our Church which have been used without any legal Warrant or Injunction and which already are or speedily may be abolish'd A. But I a little wonder that a House of Commons should Petition for the Dispensing with some legal Rites and required both by Injunctions and Canons and by Acts of Parliament B. I do not wonder at it at all For Conjunctures having happen'd when some Non-conformists having been tender of the Peace of the Government you need not wonder at any tenderness in it for them For as in the Conjuncture of the Resteration of King Charles the Second very many of the Presbyterians and of other Sects then shewing their Loyalty the Author I lately cited taking notice thus of the Declaration A. 1660. viz. in which his Majesty saith Our present Consideration and work is to gratifie the private Cosciences of those who are grieved with some Ceremonies by indulging to and dispensing with the omitting of those Ceremonies A Member of the House of Commons in an Epistle to His Majesty useth these words viz. which Indulgent Declaration so ravished the hearts of all your Loving Subjects that your whole House of Commons their Representatives then assembled in Parliament immediately after the Publication October 8th 1660 repair'd in a Body to White-hall and there by their Speaker's Oration in the Banquetting-House express'd their extraordinary great Ioy and presented their general Thanks to your Majesty for this your Majesty's most gracious Declaration and Dispensation with their Consciences in Matters not being of the substance or essence of Religion which gave abundant satisfaction to all peaceable sob rminded Men and such as are truly Religious in which return of their Thanks they were all unanimous Nemine Contradicente then Ordering a Bill in Pursuance of your Majesty's Declaration Note that this was that House of Commons which together with the House of Lords brought His Majesty to the Throne so long before namely in the first year of King Charles the First and A. 1625. both Houses presented a Petition to the King wherein they desire that His Majesty would please to advise the Bishops by fatherly entreaty and tender usâ—…ge to reduce to the peaceable and orderly Service of the Church such able Ministers as have been formerly SILENCED c. and which is in effect all one such able Ministers as have been formerly disabled A. I am highly pleas'd with your further bringing any thing to me like Iudgment of Parliament that may strengthen the Regal Power of interpreting or of dispensing with disability We have discours'd of the Subject a pretty while together at this Meeting and I must acknowledge you have entertain'd me with an account of many Statutes that have propp'd up the Regal Power of dispensing with disability and that too tho you observ'd it not to me not only in their Preambles but in their enacting parts the which I account more momentous Nor can I forbear observing it to you that in the late Printed Books of some who asserted this dispensative Power nothing like Iudgment of Parliament hath been cited in the case for it but that out of Rot. Parl. 1. H. 5. 11. 22. out of Rolle Tit. Prerogative le Roy fol. 180. viz. The Commons prayed that the Statutes for voiding of Aliens out of the Kingdom might be executed to which the Kiâ—…g agreed saving his Prerogative that he might dispense with such as he pleas'd And upon this the Commons answer'd that their intention was no other nor ever should be by the help of God. But this was only the judgment of a House of Commons and that is short of the Authority of a House of Lords concurring with them tho but in a Petitionary manner that the Regal Dispensative Power might be exerted and which latter is far short of the Authority of an Act of Parliament And among the many Parliamentary Recognitions of the Dispensative Power you have mentionâ—…d to me that which you told me at our first meeting of the Act of Uniformity 16 o Car. 2.
Superstition in the World then the Quakers so much restraining to their epitomes of speech in Commerce the interpretation of those words in S. Matthew But let your Communication be Yea yea Nay nay c. which were pursuant to the Proverbial Saying among the Jews Iustorum etiam est etiam non est non And as King Athelstan's Charter to his Tenants the Inhabitants of Rippon I have elsewhere mention'd viz. Quod homines sui Riponienses sint credendi per suum Ya per suâ—…m Nay in omnibus quâ—…lis curiis c. hath been by none that I have heard of look'd on with an evil eye so neither by me should the like Dispensation granted by our Prince to any others he repined at A. Your having as it were diverted me by the thought of that Superstition of the Quakers brings to my mind the pleasant Entertainment you once gave me by lending me a Book writ long ago call'd A brief Treatise of Oaths exacted by Ordinaries and Ecclesiastical Iudges to answer generally to all such Articles or Interrogarories as pleaseth them to propound and of their forced and Constrained Oaths ex officio wherein is proved that the same are unlawful And I remember much of the matter in that Author being dull I came to somewhat at last recited by him that had in it some Sales or what I may call some drops of Spirit of Vitriol and which were but necessary to give a grateful acidity to his Apozeme when he toward the end of that Book of Oaths in p. 56. and 57. thus brings in a RATIONALE of the Ceremonious manner of giving an Oath and of the Manufacture of it as some men do fidem facere by it viz. For in this matter of an Oath they have devised according to their toying fantasie a certain foolish figurative Ceremony in the ministring thereof For the Deponent for sooth must lay his three middle Fingers stretch'd outright upon the Book in signification of the Holy Trinity and Catholick Faith and his Thumb and little Finger he must put downward under the Book in token of Damnation both of Body and Soul if he say not the truth The Thumb belike as the greater representing the heavy mass of the Body and the little Finger the light and incorpoâ—…eal substance of the Soul. How superstitious also they were concerning this Ceremony of the Book little regarding the true use and end of an Oath as appears by the Allegorical Exposition curiously set forth by one of their Personate and Counterfeit Prelates who saith that the Circumstances in the Act of an Oath are very great and weighty inasmuch as he that Sweareth by a Book doth three things First as tho he should say Let that which is written in the Book never do me good neither the new nor the old Law if I lye in this mine Oath Secondly he puts his Hand on the Book as tho he should say Nor the good work which I have done profit me ought before the face of Christ except I say the truth which is founded in Christ. Thirdly he kisseth the Book as tho he should say Let never the Prayers and Petitions which by my mouth I have utter'd avail me any thing to my Soul's health if I say not truly in this mine Oath Yet you must take this as meant only by this Reverend Father where Lay men or the baser sort of the Clergy take an Oath For that blessed Bonner not long since hath taught us this trick of his Law that a Bishop may Swear such is his Privilege inspectis Evangeliis non tactis bare sight of the Book without touch or kiss will well enough serve his Lordship's turn B. Well Sir throwing out of our thoughts the minutioe of all formal trifling let us not at the same time try to make men laugh and weep by imposing Oaths on them And let the Consideration of this namely that the Noble Morals enjoyn'd by the Christian Doctrine have not prevailed all this while to secure Christians against one another without the Garranty of Oaths or by the Christianus sum not being still judged oequi-ponderous with an Oath impress a solemn grief on our Minds And considering that both the Verbum Regium and the verbum Sacerdotis have been so much allow'd equal to Oaths and that all Christians ought to value themselves on being A Royal Priesthood and on their great Chief having made them Kings and Priests to God and his Father let us bemoan the present State of Christianity and Christians having as it were Decreed it that they cannot take one anothers words And let the thought likewise of the insufficiency of the Security of Oaths themselves to keep up Governments work in us such a serious Mortification and Profound sense of the degeneracy of Mankind and such an inclination to place our chief Confidence in somewhat above the words or Oaths of men as becomes us But I shall give you an instance of this at home too pregnant with horror Our thoughts have had a long melancholy walk in the Peristyllium of the many Interpretations that supported our Great Oath of Supremacy and as to which Oath it being probable that a vulgar Error having prevailed among many of the Faction for some time before the year 1640. namely that the Oath of Supremacy was intended to bind only in opposition to Popery occasion was thereby given to the Fathers of our Church to procure the last Authentick Interpretation of the Assertory part of the Oath in the Canons of 1640. and cautioning us there in the first Canon against any Independent Coactive Power whether Papal or Popular But after our view of the orderly and necessary placing of all these polish'd and strong Pillars of Interpretation erected between the time of Primo Elizabethoe and the year 1640 and after Providence so ordering it at last that the Consciences of the Loyal who were then reserv'd as Lyons to guard the Throne had then a clear Oath to guard their Loyalty and after their having then cause to say Tantoe molis erat to render the Oath both acceptable to Conscience and adequate to its first reasonable intention the Land was punish'd with a dreadful Rebellion and the sacred Obligations of the Oath and all its Interpretations could no more quench the raging Flames of the Civil War then the sprinkling of a little Holy Water could save a Town on fire You may therefore here again more particularly take it into your thoughts that there is somewhat beside or beyond Oaths necessary to incline Heaven to Preserve States and Kingdoms and Ecclesiastical Polities therein namely the trusting in God and offering to him what the 51. Psalm calls the Sacrifices of God and without which the thought of the tantoe molis and the endeavour'd piling Interpretation upon Interpretation or Oath upon Oath as high as Heaven and thereby designing to keep men together embody'd and united in the external Profession of any State-Religion will prove as
Peace and Quietness of the People might be disturb'd by the Annual Calling of Parliaments according to the tenour of those Laws our Princes as Supreme Governors of the Realm did often dispense with their observance The Author of the Book call'd The Long Parliament Dissolv'd Printed in the year 1676. refers to the Laws of 4 o E. 3. c. 10. and 36. E. 3. c. 14. 5. E. 3. N o. 141. 5. E. 2. N o. 1. R. 2. N o. 95. as positively appointing the Meeting of a Parliament once within a year And the People saith he have silently waited and born the Omission of our Princes in not so Calling Parliaments And he further mentions how Queen Elizabeth Prorogued a Parliament for three days more then a year and he presumes to complain of His late Majesty's Proroguing his long Parliament to above a years time as illegal and he argues for that Parliaments being disabled from Sitting and acting afterward as a Parliament by reason of such Prorogation as contrary to the aforesaid Laws and which he saith were declared to be in force when the triennial Act was made in 16. Caroli 1 mi. and so likewise in the Statute for repealing that triennial Act in 16. Car. 2 o. in these words And because by the Ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm made in the Reign of King Edward the Third Parliaments are to be held very often c. And how the Iudgment of the House of Lords was assertive of the legality of that Parliaments not being disabled from sitting after such His late Majesty's Prorogation is fresh in memory But to return from whence I digress'd I may here take notice to you how our Princes as Supreme Governors of the Realm and as having the Rule of all Persons committed to them by God and to whom they stand accountable for the same have held themselves obliged further to dispense with disability incurr'd by Acts of Parliament upon a Religionary account and which they have done to the general satisfaction of their Subjects of all Religions A What do you here intend to refer to B. I do here intend to refer to the Statute of 3 o Iacobi c. 5. by one Clause in which Act Convict Recusants are DISABLED from practising Physick or bearing any Office or Charge Military and by which Clause every Person offending is to forfeit for every such Offence 100 l. and the one Moyety thereof to be to the King and the other Moyety to him that will sue for the same c. But notwithstanding the Zeal of that Prince against Popery he out of a tender regard to the Bodies and Healths of his People and the ennabling many learned Roman-Catholick Physicians to preserve them did by Connivence sufficientâ—…y dispense with that Law insomuch that it may be said that that severe disabling Law came on the Stage but as Cato into the Theatre only to go off again And I have elsewhere mention'd it that a Book afterward Printed in his Reign call'd The Foot out of the Snare sets down the Names of about Twenty five famous Roman-Catholick Physicians then Practising in London and the places of their abodes and whom yet I believe no Informer ever molested And notwithstanding the disability incurr'd by that Act of Parliament I account that an eminent Roman-Catholick Physician not long since dead was not by any among our various Sects of Protestants in the Plot-times envy'd the liberty of being in our Metropolis the greatest Practicioner of that noble Science By the same Clause Roman-Catholick Lawyers are likewise disabled from Practice and under the same Penalty but who likewise enjoy'd the same Dispensation by Connivence with those of the other Profession accordingly as Mr. Nye in his Book call'd Beams of former Light observes p. 146. viz. The Law Physick Merchandize c. may be practised by a Turk or Iew or Papist here among us c. How severe the Laws in being are against Roman-Catholicks of the other great Profession namely of Theology and of the Clerical orâ—…er officiating here you know But you likewise know my opinion I discours'd to you of in the Conjuncture of the Plot and Panick fears namely that by virtue of the Contents of the Assertory part of the Oath we are upon even our Protestant Kings as Supreme Governors of the Realm both in Matters Ecclesiastical and Civil and as having the Rule of all Persons committed to them by God were morally bound to see our Roman-Catholick Countreymen while living among us here provided with a Competent Priesthood as Physicians for their Souls and to administer the Sacraments to them A. Yes I remember you Discourse of that matter then and how you mention'd it that if any Turks or Iews or any Heterodox Religionaries desired to live here without a Priesthood the Prince as Guardian of both Tables was obliged by his Coercive Power to make them put their own Principles in practice by their having a Competent Priesthood and which all the Sects of the Mahumetan Pagaâ—… Iewish and Christian Religion own it as their Principle to have and that as Religion was necessary to the State to make men good Subjects and ready to serve their Prince and just Dealers a Priesthood was necessary to Religion B. You are not therefore to wonder at the Dispensation by Connivence so many Roman-Catholick Priests enjoy'd here in the Reigâ—…s of former Princes And I shall some other time tell you how our Laws that DISABLE Papists from bearing Arms were in the time of the Rebellion after A. 1640. necessarily dispens'd with by the Royal Martyr as Supreme Governor of the Realm and that none of the Church of England did look with an evil eye in the least on such disability being then dispens'd with by Prerogative A. I suppose you may have heard it objected that by the Statute of 25. C. 2. which has lately employ'd your thoughts the Prerogative of the King is not touch'd for that the King may grant the Offices to any of his Subjects and that the Act is only a Direction to the Subject to qualifie himself accordingly for the King's Service and that if he be uncapable to serve the King 't is through his own default and he is punishable for the same as happen'd in the Case of one who was made Sheriff and neglected to take the Oaths and that there was an Opinion given in the Case that no Subject could put himself out of a Capacity to serve the King but for so doing he is punishable B. But the more you think of this Matter you will find the unreasonableness of the Objection recurring upon your thoughts with greater force For it is not in mens Power to qualifie themselves to serve the King by believing what doctrinal Propositions they will and tho you have heard of a Faith that will remove Mountains yet you may consider that 't is as easie to remove them as your Faith it self about Matters of reveal'd truth and that considering the Circumstances
Case or to the quite contrary in More 542. Armiger's Case I shall most consult the ease of your thoughts by directing them to what interpretation my Lord Coke in Cawdrys Case gives as to the words of the Statute of 1 o Eliz. and where he saith that that Act doth not annex any Iurisdiction to the Crown but what was of right or ought to be by the Ancient Laws of this Realm parcel of the King's Iurisdiction c. and which lawfully had been or might be exercised within the Realm The end of which Iurisdiction and of all the Proceedings thereupon that all things might be done in Causes Ecclesiastical to the Pleasure of Almighty God encrease of Vertue and the Conservation of the Peace and Unity of the Realm as by divers places of the Act appears And therefore by this Act no pretended Iurisdiction exercised within this Realm being ungodly or repugnant to the ancient Law of the Crown was or could be restored to the Crown according to the ancient Right and Law of the same And here I may tell you that as the Pope did often dispense with incapacity incurr'd by his Positive Laws and that even in the use of the Power of the Keys as by his delegating the Power of Excommunication to Lay-men and to Abbesses as aforesaid so our Kings d d anciently by their Letters Patents and Charters grant Power to those who were no Bishops Ordinaries or Ecclesiastical Iudges or Officers to inflict Ecclesiastical Censures of the greater Excommunication on Offenders and that for Causes not merely Spiritual or Ecclesiastical with Power to Certify them into Chancery and thereupon to obtain Writs de Excommunicato Capiendo as Mr. Prynne tells us in his Animadversions on the Fourth part of the Institutes and there cites the President of Edward the Third thus empow'ring the Chancellor of the University of Oxford tho a Lay-man so to do and so to Punish Breakers of the Peace Offenders against the Statutes Privileges and Customs of the University and all Forestallers and Regraters and Sellers of corrupt Meat and Wine and to Excommunicate such who refused to cleanse the Streets from filth and to Pave them before their Doors and this he saith was confirm'd by sundry succeeding Statutes of our Princes In what particulars it is by this Statute of the 25. of H. the 8th warranted that the King his Heirs and Successors may dispense with Persons and in Causes that the Papacy was never accustomed to dispense in I shall not trouble you or my self to enquire but shall tell you that Mr. Nye in his Book call'd Two Acts of Parliament and wherein are contain'd his Observations on the Oath of Supremacy doth in p. 164. cite this Statute of 25. H. 8. c. 21. and thereupon say the King's Majesty may dispense with any of those Canons or Ecclesiastical Laws meaning the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws indulge the Omission of what is enjoyn'd by them make void the Crime and remove the Penalty incurred by breach of them yea and give faculty to do and practice otherwise any Synodal Establishment or long usage to the Contrary notwithstanding in what offends not the Holy Scripture and Laws of GOD. And therefore when our Soveraign in the course of his Ecclesiastical Supremacy doth only dispense with incapacity we are sure he goes not to the height of the Dispensative Power justify'd in him by that Statute nothing having been more customary to the Papacy then rehabilitation It was upon the Revival of this Statute of Harry the 8th by that first of Queen Eliz. c. 1. that she according to the Papal custom of dispensing with the Commutation of Penance did in her Articles in the Synod began at London A. D. 1548. establish one De moderandâ solennis Poenitentioe Commutatione whereby she orders that such Commutation shall be but seldom and for weighty Causes and when it shall appear to the Bishop that that way is the safer to reform the guilty Person and that the Commutation-Money be employ'd to Pious uses And then follows the Title De Moderandis quibusdam Indulgentus pro Celebratione Matrimonii absque trinundinâ denunciatione quam bannos vocant Matrimoniales where you will find she makes Faculties and Indulgences all one And as I have shew'd you how she thought it necessary for the safety of her Subjects Consciences to exercise her Dispensative Power of interpreting and of relaxing disabilities occasion'd by the very first Statute of her Reign and how soon she put the Dispensative Power of those kinds in practice which by that Statute were restored and united to her Imperial Crown so I may observe to you that shortly after the making of the Second Statute in her Reign viz. That for Uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments which punisheth with Premunire Sequestration and Deprivation and Excommunication which while it is depending is so variously inclusive of disability the not using the Book of common-Common-Prayer as Publish'd in English she by her Letters Patents dated the 6th of April in the Second year of her Reign and A. 1560. alloweth the use of Latine Prayers to the Colleges of both Universities and to Eaton and Winchester Colleges with a particular Non-obstante to that Statute a Copy of which Letters Patents may be seen in Bishop Sparrow's Collection of Articles c. And I have before acquainted you in general how in her Letters Patents for the Consecrating new Bishops she expresly dispens'd with incapacity But what may perhaps seem to you as a new Indication of her being the better able to dispense with it is an Instance I shall give you of her making incapacity by her Supreme Ecclesiastical Power The instance of her thus making incapacity is a thing that Mr. Nye in his Beams of former Light reflects on as strange for he there in p. 201. referring to Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions A. 1559. Injunct 29. viz. It is thought very necessary that no manner of Priest or Deacon shall hereafter take to his Wife any manner of Woman without the Advice and Allowance first had by the Bishop of the Diocese and two Iustices of the Peace next to the place of her abode c. and if any shall do otherwise they shall not be permitted to Preach the Word or give Sacraments nor be Capable of any Ecclesiastical Benefice saith then Doth this seem strange now It seem'd very necessary in the judgment of our Governors then A. I must acknowledge that you have spoke that which is very much for my Satisfaction concerning the Dispensative Power and the Oath thus supporting one another But I wonder that I have not in any of our celebrated Writers of the Church of England read that the Contents of the Assertory and Promissory parts of this Oath and our abjuring foreign Iurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities in the Oath i. e. those of the Papacy were intended in order to the statuminating our Prince's Dispensative Power pursuant to the Statutes of 25. H. 8th and 1
confirm being firmum facere i. e. what was not so before you are not to think that the Parliament in 13 o Eliz. did so They Enacted what was by the Queen before authorized and as the words there are about the Articles viz. Put forth by the Queen's Authority And you may too for this purpose Consult the style of the Act 23 o Eliz. c. 1. Entituled An Act for retaining the Queen's Subjects in their due Obedience and where 't is made Treason for any to withdraw any Subjects from their Natural Obedience to her Majesty or to withdraw them for that intent from the Religion now by her Highness Authority establishâ—…d within her Dominions Thus too as to the Queen's disabling several of the Roman-Catholick Bishops and Deans by her Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the beginning of her Reign pursuant to the Act of 1 o Eliz. c. 1. for restoring to the Crown the Ancient Iurisdiction the Act of Parliament 35 o Eliz. c. 8. entituled Every Deprivation of any Bishop or Dean made in the beginning of the Queen's Reign shall be good and Archbishops Bishops and Deans made by the Queen shall be adjudged lawful begins with acknowledging that the former were justly deprived and it is therefore Declared and Enacted by Authority of this Parliament that all and every Deprivation c. and all and every Sentence of Deprivation c. had pronounced and given c. shall be adjudged deem'd and taken good and sufficient in Law c. and as to the latter viz. That all such Archbishops Bishops and Deans as were ordain'd or made by the Authority or Licence of the Queen's Majesty c. shall be taken and adjudged to be lawful c. Thâ—…y confirmed not what the Queen did in disabling the former and enabling the latter but only declared and enacted the validity of what the Queen had done And here you have again the Judgment of Parliament for approving the Queen's Power of Enabling and Disabling And here too by the way I am to tell you that you have another judgment of Parliament suitable to that in 8 o Eliz. and for the adjudging and taking to be Lawful the making and ordaining of the Archbishops and Bishops by the Authority or Licence of the Queen's Majesty c. any ambiguity or question in that behalf heretofore made to the contrary notwithstanding and which QUESTION before made in the Case I have before shew'd to be disability A. But I suppose you have read of that TWO-FOLD Subscription my Lord Coke speaks of represented as a Gravamen by some B. I have so and the last Book I read that so represents it is the Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet ' s Sermon by some Non-Conformists c. Printed A. 1680. and where in p. 29. they thus express their desires viz. That all New devised Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations together with the Canonical Oath and the Subscription in the Canons be suspended for the time to come If that be too much we shall consent our selves with a modester motion that whatsoever these Declarations be that are required to be made subscribed or sworn they may be imposed only as to the matter and end leaving the takers but free to the use of their own Expressions And this expedient we gather from the Lord Coke who hath providently as it were against such a Season laid in this Observation The form of the Subscription set down in the Canons ratify'd by King Iames was not express'd in the Act of the 13th of Eliz. 4. Inst. c. 74. And consequently if the Clergy enjoy'd this freedom till then in reference to the particulars therein contain'd what binders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It was the second Article enjoyn'd by that Canon to be subscribed viz. That the Book of common-Common-Prayer c. containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God and that it may lawfully be used c. at which they took so much offence and to which the Act of Parliament required not their Subscription A. I perceive then my Lord Coke doth not reflect on the form of Subscription as enjoyn'd by the 36th Canon of King Iames and by his Regal Authority out of Parliament as illegal notwithstanding what had been enacted in the 13th of Queen Elizabeth B. He doth not And he there further faith By the Statute of 13. Eliz. the Delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto but the Delinquent against the Canon of King James is to be proceeded withall by the Censures of the Church And I heard Wray Chief Iustice in the King's Bench Pasch. 23. El. report That where one Smith subscribed to the said 39 Articles of Religion with this addition so far forth as the same were agreeable to the Word oâ—… God that it was resolv'd by him and aâ—…l the Iudges of England that this Subscription was not according to the Statute of 13. Eliz. because this Statute required an absolute Subscription c. Besides this Subscription when any Clerk is admitted and instituted to any Benefice he is sworn to Canonical Obedience to his Diâ—…cesan But as to his saying that the Delinquent against this Canon is to be proceeded withall by the Censures of the Church I shall observe that the beginning of the Canon doth incapacitate any to be receiv'd into the Ministry who doth not subscribe the three Articles in it and that the Canon doth afterward put some temporary Disabilities on Bishops who shall Ordain Admit or License any one except he first have subscribed in manner and form there appointed and it is the Universities if offending that the Canon leaves to the Danger of the Law and His Majesty's Censure Here then you see King Iames the First did out of Parliament add a new Subscription to what was required by the Act of Parliament and did likewise out of Parliament make incapacity to be the Punishment of refusing such new Subscription And I need not tell you that that Power so exercised by that Prince out of Parliament hath been approved not only by all the Bishops of the Church of England as putting the Form of Subscription required by that Canon in execution ever since and to this day in lieu of the form required by the 13th of Eliz. but as I may say virtually and tacitly by all our Kings and Parliaments ever since who have acquiesced in the same But what if I should tell you that the Authority of the King in thus making that Canon about Subscription hath been since expresly approved in Parliament A. I should be most ready to hear it B. You may therefore please to consult the Act for Uniformity 16 o Car. 2. and in the latter end of it you will see that in a Proviso referring to the 39 Articles as agreed on by the Archbishops c. A. 1562. and particularly to the 36th therein about the Book of Consecration of Archbishops c. set forth in the time of Edward the 6th as
Interpretation as good as Queen Elizabeth's so you may account that in the Canons of King Charles the First as good as that in those of King Iames for that tho it is said by some that the Canons of King Charles the First were damned by the Act of 13 o Car. 2. c. 12. yet the truth is that that Act leaves them in statu quo and the last Proviso in it doth only express those Canons not being confirm'd by it Nor in my judgment did they need any Confirmation from it for that according to my Lord Chief Justice Vaughan's Opinion that I have cited to you a lawful Canon is the Law of the Kingdom as well as an Act of Parliament and the Consideration of this may shew you that as Queen Elizabeth's Interpretation in The Admonition was perpetuated by the Ensuing Parliamentary Approbation thereof so the interpretations of those Princes in those their Canons confirm'd for them their Heirs and Successors are now binding to you and I pray God to incline you to keep this your Solemn Oath according to these interpretations of it A. I thank you for this your serious and Christian wish and do give you my hearty thanks for what you have discours'd to me of the many Interpretations relating to the Oath and the rendring them so consistent with it and by means whereof I am sensible that the Oath hath become more then res unius oetatis and that without them it would not have been so much and by which both the credit of the Oath and the quiet of the Consciences of the Takers of it have been preserv'd And I am glad that the task of enumerating them all hath happen'd thus to fall into your hands and that therein you have not as they say of young Conjurers raising Spirits that they cannot lay occasion'd any doubts in me about the Oath but what you have fairly â—… and fully satisfy'd And indeed you have laid some doubts that the Two Roman-Catholick Writers raising them happen'd not to lay Throwing therefore by any Thoughts and Expressions of mine of that nature which you censured as airy and as to which I submit to your reproof I shall prepare my mind with a decent temper both of delight and Pious dread to contemplate my Oath as now set before me and as containing in it that clearness and that Majesty that may excite both those Passions in me and the real view of which I may some way compare to that in vision Ezekiel's terrible crystal B. Long may you live in this temper I remember I have somewhere read it that the Oath by which the Cardinals are bound to the maintenance of the Church-Privileges is drawn in such clear and powerful words that Baronius calls it terribile Iuramentum and saith that the only remembring of it inflicts a horror upon his Mind and a trembling upon 〈◊〉 Body And I doubt not but when I shall at our next meeting discourse with you about our obligation from the Promissory part of the Oath that relates to the assistance and defence of the Regal Rights and Privileges you will think that every Taker of it ought to have some such sense of his remembring it as Baronius had about his terrible Oath A. But to go on according to the freedom you gave me I remember you told me that you would not trouble me with any Notions or Moot Points about the Power of Interpreting Acts of Parliament and about which you cited Sir Christopher Hatton's Book Of Acts of Parliament and their Exposition but I remember you have Sparsim variously spoke of it and you mention'd to me what King Charles the First told both Houses shortly after the granting the Petition of Right that to the Iudges only under him the Interpretation of the Laws belong'd and that none of the Houses of Parliament joint or separate either could make or declare a Law without his Consent I suppose you intend here to lodge no Snake in the grass of this Regal Power of interpretation whereby we may be interpreted out of our Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and out of our Religion or Property B. Your Supposal doth but right to my intentions I have referr'd you only to Facts and leave you to make a due use of them and shall when we meet again shew you further why I have thus referr'd you to these Facts of the Regal interpretation And in the mean time you may take notice that as to what I have mentioned as a Notion out of the Lord Chancellor Hatton of which the intent and substance was That if all the Parliament were voluntarily assembled again and not by Writ Eorum non esset interpretari dubium Statutum as the words are in the Table of his Book Chap. 4 and with which the Chapter agrees I told you I would not trouble you with it and you may give it its transeat as a kind of curious impossible Case Nor need you amuse your self about any Consequences by me meant in what I told you of King Charles the First telling the three Estates as they were feasting themselves with the noble Concessions of the Petition of Right I know nothing asserted by my Lord Coke in Inst. 4 Chap. 1. Of the High and Honourable Court of Parliament but wherein I own my agreeing with him and particularly as to what he speaks of Iudicature And I doubt not but every one accounts that what he said Inst. 3. c. 73. was very Orthodox viz. NOTE Proclamations are of great force which are grounded upon the Laws of the Realm Nor considering the exuberance of that great thing call'd bona fides that is to be expected from Princes need any man fear that there will be an Exposition of abrogamus for statuimus in any of the Declaratory Proclamations that ours shall make But because you have named Magna Charta and the Petition of Right I shall take occasion to cite to you a very popular Authority to shew you that any Proclamations our English Monarchs shall make for the Dispensing with Penal Religionary Laws will be but Declaratory of Magna Charta and of the Petition of Right You know we have often spoke of the Arguments in the Parliament of 40. made by Mr. Bagshaw who was Pars magna of the Faction then regnant and by which those Arguments of his were much celebrated You may find some account of his Character in Heylin's History of Archbishop Laud who mentions his being chosen Reader for the Lent Vacation by the Middle-Temple in the year 1639. And he in his First Argument viz. Concerning the Canons p. 11. saith Liberty of Religion and Conscience are as I take it within the words of MAGNA CHARTA granted to me as mine Inheritance Cap. 29. Nullus liber homo imprisonetur â—…ut disseisetur de libertatibus vel liberis Consuetudinibus suis. And Liberty of Conscience is the gâ—…test Liberty It is by a necessary Consequence and deduction within the words imprisonetur