say right The King may thus according to his Lordship's Opinion suspend all Penal Disabilities as well as other Penalties incurr'd by Acts of Parliament and particularly by the Test-Act of 25 o Car. 2. and hereby to the Great figure he made in the framing of that Act any who are displeas'd with the Act may apply the Una eademque manus c. A. But I suppose his Lordship there has nothing that may favour the repealing of the Test or any of the Penal Laws against the Papists B. None would expect from him anything to be moved for the repealing of the Test however he allow'd Prerogative to suspend it But at that time that all People of narrow Souls and ignoble Thoughts were with so much clamour hunting down all Roman-Catholicks without distinction and when the most devout among them by being as it were ad bestias damnati and devoured by Informers appear'd as a spectacle of delight to many inhumane Protestants his Lordship's humanity was so great as to incline him in p. 6. there to give them somewhat like a Quietus from all Pecuniary Laws And the truth is when I consider how little Wool the fleecing of Roman Catholicks and Quakers or any Heterodox Religionaries at home or abroad hath brought to the Exchequer of any Prince or State and only to Informers and that the Consciences of peaceable Men have been burden'd by Men of no Conscience and by the turba gravis paci who are indeed burthens of the Earth I tremble to think what occasion may have been taken by Male-contents to say in their Hearts as to any such Prince or State according to those words of the Psalmist Thou sellest thy People for nought and dost not encrease thy Wealth by their Price or and takest no Money for them I shall at some other time of our meeting give you some account cut of the Records of the Exchequer of the inconsiderable Sums of Money that have for several years been brought to it by the severe Prosecutions of Roman-Catholicks and Quakers But there is another thing very well worth your reading in that Book and which is the more proper for our Consideration as suiting some great Points we have been discoursing that concern our Oath and that is this Hâ—…s â—…ate Majesty's Ministers in that year 1675. having brought in a Bill in Parliament for a TEST extending to Protestants and which as the Book saith was call'd by one of His Majesty's Ministers A moderate Security to the Church and Crown you will there in p. 15. see it mentioned how as to the Assertory Parts of the Oath in that Test It was worthy the Consideration of the Bishops whether Assertory Oaths which were properly appointed to give Testimony of a Matter of Fact wâ—…ereof a man is capable to be fully assured by the evidence of his Senses be lawfully to be made use of to confirm or invalidate Docâ—…inal Propositions and whether that Legislative Power which imposeth such an Oath doth not necessarily assume to it seif an Infallibility And as for promissory Oaths it was desired that those learned Prelates would consider the Opinion of Grotius De Jure Belli Pacis l. 2. c. 13. who seems to make it plain that those kind of Oaths are forbidden by our Saviour Christ Matth. 5. 34 37. and whether it would not become the Fathers of the Church when they have well weiâ—…h'd that and other places of the New Testament to be more tender in multiplying Oaths then hitherto the great Men of the Church have been It is there toward the end of the page mentioned how some of the Lords dâ—…sired that it might be clearly known whether it were meant all for an Oath or some of it a Declaration and some an Oath If the latter then it was desired it might be distinctly parted and that the declaratory part should be subscribed by it self and not sworn There was no small pains taken by the Lord Keeper and the Bishops to prove that it was brought in the two first Parts were only a Declaration and not an Oath and tho it was reply'd that to declare upon ones Oath or to abhor upon ones Oath is the same thing with I do Swear yet there was some difficulty to obtain the dividing of them and that the declaratory part should be only Subscribed and the reâ—…t sworn to A. But have you mention'd these things as if you would incline me to concur in opinion with that Lord as to the King's Power of suspending the Penalties incurr'd by Acts of Parliament and to agree with the Measures of some other Lords then about Oaths assertory and promissory as referr'd to B. If I were of the same opinion about the King's Power in that Matter as that Lord and Sir William Ellis were I would however forbear troubling you with it at this time while we are considering the Obligation of our Oath of Supremacy in order to our assistance and defence of the Preheminence of the Dispensative Power And therefore I shall not in the least endeavour to incline you now to imbibe the perswasion of any nice Controverted point of Law or Theology and wherein there seems probab lis causa litigandi And if when we are parted you on your recollection of our Discourse at this or our first meeting should have the least trouble by calling to mind any thing I have occasionally mention'd that is matter of Controversie you may with all my heart put it off with a temporary transeat from your thoughts But one of my aims in referring to that Opinion of his Lordship was That knowing you to be much concern'd for the ease and quiet of your Prince and Country I might Console you with an Instance of a great ferment about the Regal Power suddenly going off and as that Book too shew'd you that another did in the Government that was occasion'd by the new Test-Bill then introduced And I must tell you that another of my aims in my pointing you to his Lordship's Observation of the Suspensions of the Penal Statutes in the late Reigns was occasionally to direct you to a tenderness for the Regal Rights in general and for the undoubted Right of the Dispensative Power in Particular The same thing likewise hath been my aim in the several Presidents I have given you of the Ecclesiastical Power by Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charles the First exercised in suspending Penal Laws The expression of tenderness for the Rights of our Princes hath been much used by the loyal Patriot'y Writers in the late Reigns And here I shall à propos apply it as the Resuscitatio Part. 1. p. 37. mentions it as used by my Lord Bacon in a Speech in the House of Commons in the Reign of King Iames the First to the Question now before us in the Reign of King Iames the Second His Lordships words are Since therefore we have a Prince of so excellent Wisdom and Moderation of whose Authority we ought to
publickly or privately 〈◊〉 he should be lawfully restored and releas'd of his said Suspension But shortly after the beginning of the Reign of the Royal Martyr he was again restored and was afterward again silenced and so continued till August 2. A. 1631. and then he was again restored And Mr. Dod's Life represents his Case as parallel with this before-mention'd He was in King Iames his time suspended and restored and again by the King 's particular Command disabled from Preaching and was by King Charles the First re-ennabled or restored Thus as fortis fortem amat one tender Conscienced man too loves another such and the Executive Power of the Law in re-ennabling after temporary Disability was tenderly administred by these our Princes to these Conscientious Men with respect to their real Capacity of Favour to be shew'd them A. You have here given me a taste en passant of part of the Dispensative Power as exercised in the three Realms during some Conjunctures in the Reign of King Charles the First and for which I thank you and particularly for what you told me of the Act of Parliament dispens'd with in Scotland of which I never heard before and am apt to suppose a thing of that Nature was never done before in that Realm B. I can assure you to those who know the Publick Transactions of that Kingdom the thing will not in the least seem new I can tell you that on the 26th of November A. 1593. King Iames the 6th of Scotland made an Act of State in favour of three Roman-Catholick Earls Huntly Arroll and Angus by which Act he allow'd them several Priviledges contrary to Acts of Parliament made against Roman-Catholicks And His Majesty in his Act of State expresly dispenseth with those Acts of Parliament and which Dispensation tho Queen Elizabeth importuned him to revoke and for that purpose sent the Lord Zouch as her Embassador to him he still adhered to the Act of State he had made and continued his Dispensation A. Have you this Matter of Fact out of any of the Records in England or Scotland B. I have it out of the Original Papers under the hand of Queen Elizabeth and her great Minister Burghly and the Original Instructions of the Lord Zouch when sent by her to expostulate with the King about it that were lately in my Custody and by me sent to our gracious Sovereign and I shall some other time give you a more particular account of that Dispensation A. But I beseech you did not the Protestant Divines of the Church of Scotland then cry out of the unlawfulness or inexpedience of that Dispensation B. I have read it in a learned Book of Dr. Maxwell a Scotch-man Printed A. 1644. and who was then Bishop of Killally in Ireland and had formerly been Bishop of Rosse that Mr. Robert Bruce one of the Ministers of Edenburgh and who had a great sway in the Church of Scotland was pleas'd with the King 's extending his Favour to Angus and Arroll but out of a factious Complyance with the Earl of Arguile was displeas'd at its being shewn to Huntly But that Loyal Bishop there acquiesceth in the reason of State that inclined the King to Pardon the three Earls and his thereby hindering the growth of Faction in Scotland and providing for his more easie and secure access to the Throne of England on the Death of Queen Elizabeth And so you may easily guess what sort of men in Scotland look'd with an evil eye on that Act of the Royal goodness and who did not The Bishop there had applauded the great depth of the King's Wisdom and his transcendent Goodness in the Pardoning the three Earls and mention'd that there was nothing of Religion in the Case of Bruce's Aversion against the Pardon of Huntly for that Angus and Arroll were as bigot Papists if not more then Huntly I can likewise direct you to my Lord Primate Bramhal's celebrated Book call'd A Fair warning to take heed of the Scotish Discipline where in Chap. 6. thus entituled viz. That it robs the Magistrate of his Dispensative Power he saith by way of instance When the Popish Earls of Angus Huntly and Arroll were excommunicated by the Church and forfeited for Treasonable Practices against the King it is admirable to read with what Wisdom Charity and Sweetness his Majesty did seek from time to time to reclaim them from their Errors c. and on the other side to see with what bitterness and radicated Malice they were prosecuted by the Presbyteries and their Commissioners c. sometimes threatning that they were resolv'd to pursue them to the uttermost tho it should be with the loss of all their Lives in one day c. sometimes pressing to have their Estates confiscated c. He refers there in his Margin to Ass. Edinb 1594. But any one who shall consult D'Ossat's Letters and there in the Second Book carefully read over the 37th Letter that was writ to Villeroy in the year 1596 and three years after the Date of King Iames his Act of State and observe what that great Sagacious Cardinal there refers to concerning the Circumstances of those three Earls and how all the Prudence that could be shewn by man was but little enough for the Conduct of that King in that Conjuncture in order to his removing what Impediments either from Rome or Spain or his Native Country might obstruct his Succession to the Crown of England will not wonder at his having dispens'd and continued his Dispensation as aforesaid A. I have not yet ask'd you whether the Divines of the Church of England did not lift up their voices like a Trumpet against the Dispensative Power thus exercised by their Prince as you have mention'd B. They discharged their Duties in Preaching occasionally against all growing Errors but they wanted none to mind them of the Saying Impium esse qui Regi dixerit Inique agis The Pious and Learned Author of Certain Considerations tending to Peace c. mentions how the Bishop of St. Davids in King Iames's Reign A. 1604. did in a set Speech in Convocation shew that Ministers were not in the late Archbishop's time disabled from their Ministry on the Account of Non-conformity to the Ceremonies by Law enjoyn'd and concluded his Speech with the motion of Petitioning the King That if the removal of some of the Ceremonies enjoyn'd could not be obtain'd nor yet a Coleration for them of more stay'd and temperate Carriage yet at least there might be procured a mitigation of the Penalty c. And as the Suspension or Disabling of Hildersham and Dod from their Ministerial Functions so the Restoring of them to the same without all such things done by them as the strictness of the Lawes required was in both those Princes Reigns executed by the Bishops Nor do I remember to have read of any Divine of the Church of England to have in the least look'd with an evil eye on the goodness of the
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
or heard of a man of most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some Actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow and he might have added a Prince the real Tenderness of whoâ—…e Conscience had so often favour'd the nominal tenderness of others who instead of being Tender-hearted Christians were Stiff-necked Iews and who might justly apprehend that it was only duritia cordis instead of Tenderness of Conscience he dispens'd with and as when God dispens'd with the Iews in Polygamy For since Tenderness of Conscience doth necessarily render a man abstemious from things lawful and to be of a gentle submissive temper not only to his Equals but Inferiors and to be merciful even to brute Creatures and not only averse from suing any one about Penal Lawes but ready to remit somewhat of his Right rather then to go to Law with a Stranger and much less with ones Father the Pater Patrioe seeing any men outraging the Lawes and the quiet of the whole Realm by that wilde brutish thing call'd War for ferinum quiddam bellum est might well judge them utterly devoid of all Tenderness of Conscience I shall therefore frankly tell you that no doubt but their Consciences were extremely erroneous or rather seaâ—…ed Our great Writer of Conscience Bishop Sanderson in his Sermon on Rom. 14. 13. discussing the Causes from which mens doubtfulness of mind may spring and saying that sometimes it proceeds from Tenderness of Conscience which yet is indeed a very blessed and a gracious thing doth very well add but yet as tender things may sooner miscarry very obnoxious through Satan's diligence and subtlety to be wrought upon to dangerous inconveniences And if we Consider that a Civil War cannot be lawful on both Sides however a foreign one may we may well account that any deluded melancholy People who were tempted to raise a Civil War out of a blind Zeal for Religion and to assault the Thirteenth of the Romans out of the Apocalypse had hard Spleens instead of tender Consciences and that they have soft Heads instead of tender Hearts who try to make Religion a gainer by War. But indeed the Project of planting Religion and Propagating the Church by War that is described to be Status humanoe Societatis dissolutoe and that so presently opens to all mens view the horrid Scene of Contempta Religio Rapta profana Sacra profanata is so vain that the old Proverbial Impiety of such who did castra sequi how victorious soever hath naturally help'd to make Conquering Nations embrace the very Religion of the Conquered a thing exemplify'd in the Conquests of the Danes and Saâ—…ns in England of the Gothes in Italy and France and Spain and of the Moors in Spain and in the Turks having overcome the Saracens embracing the Saracens Religion And the Vanity of Reforming the World by War that Profound and Conscientious Statesman Cardinal D'Ossat in his Third Book 86th Letter and to Villeroy A. 1597. hath well taught us and where he mentions how he urged to the Pope the reasonableness of Harry the 4th's so religiously observing the great Edict of Pacification and that the many Wars made again and again by Hereticks serv'd for nothing but in many places to abolish the Catholick Religion and in a manner all Ecclesiastical Discipline Iustice and Order and to introduce Atheism with the Sequel of all sorts of Sacrileges Parricides Rapes Treasons and Cruelties and other sorts of wickedness c. and afterward that on the making War all the Malecontents all People indebted and neâ—…ssitous all Debauchees and Vagabonds all Thieves and other Criminals whose Lives were become forfeited to the Law of what Religion or Opinion soever they were were wont to joyn with the Hugonots and did more harm to the Church and Religion and good manners in one day of War then they could in a hundred days of Peace Thus â—…e who â—…its in the Heavens had them here in derision while they in effect thus presumed to transprose Scripture and to say Glory to God in the highest and on Earth War and ill will towards men and while according to that Saying in Arch-bishop Lâ—…d's famous Star-Chamber-Speech viz. No Nation hath ever appear'd more jealous of Religion then the People of England have ever been they were under such Transports of misguided Zeal as to adore that their jealousie and to offer Sacrifices to it with as much Contempt of Heaven and Cruelty to Mankind as ever were offer'd to the image of Iealousie referr'd to by Ezekiel and to which the tenderest of their Relations were not thought too costly Victims and to which their truly Tender-Conscienced King who like Moses with Tenderness carried them in his Bosome as a Nursing-Father beareth the sucking Child and who sometimes out of Tenderness to several of his Complaining Children Sacrificed the rigour of his Penal Lawes and to whom they should have been subject for that Tender thing Conscience sake was himself at last Sacrificed How did that Pious Prince sometimes in relation to his Heterodox Protestant Subjects imitate the Father of the Prodigal who when his Son was yet afar off ran to meet him fell on his neck and kiss'd him a thing acknowledg'd by an Eminent learned Divine Mr. Iohn Ley in his Book call'd Defensive Doubts Hopes and Reasons Printed in the year 1641. and where in p. 123. urging the Bishops to procure the Revocation of a late Canon of the Church and having said wherein if they appear and prevail they need not fear any disparagement to their Prudence by withdrawing that they have decreed since the wisest Statesmen and greatest Governors have used many times to comply so far with popular Dispositions as to vary their own Acts with relation to their liking as the Pilot doth his Soils to comply with the wind he addeth And you cannot have a more authentic Example both to induce you to this and to defend you in it from all Imputations then that of our Sacred Sovereign who rather then he would give any Colour of Complaint for aggrievances to his People was pleas'd to DISPENSE with the five Articles of PERTH's Assembly and to discharge all Persons from urging the Practice thereof upon any either Laick or Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever and to free all his Subjects from all Censures and Pains whether Ecclesiastical or Secular for not urging practising and obeying any of them tho they were esâ—…ablish'd both by a General Assembly and by Act of Parliament King Charles his large Declaration of the â—…umults in Scotland p 370. p. 389. And for his OWN Acts for these Articles of Perth were propounded and ratify'd in the Reign of his Royal Father he imposed the Service Book the Book of Canons and high Commission upon his Subjects in Scotland and upon their humble Supplication was content graciously to grant a Discharge from them passing his Princely Promise that he would neither then nor afterwards press the Practice of them nor any
Harvey who open'd such great Springs of real Learning as refresh'd that noble thirst so it seems before the Date of His late Majesty's Declaration of Indulgence in the 24th year of his Reign and of the Act about the Test in the 25th year of it and both which were likely to produce among the Learned so many Inquiries into the Legality of the Dispensative Power inherent in the Crown and even among the unlearned an Epidemical Disease of talking about the same it came to pass in the course of Providence that by as Learned Iudges as ever sate on the English Bench and as Learned Councel as ever appear'd at its Bar the Learning about the Dispensative Power was ventilated and discuss'd in a Series of several years in the Case of Thomas and Sorrell For the Cause began in the King's Bench 18. Car. 2. and was there argued by some of the Great Councel of the Kingdom and there again argued on both sides by other Councel in Michaelmas-Term in the 19th year of his Reign And in Hilary-Term in 25. and 26. Car. 2. this Cause for the weight and difficulty of it was adjourn'd out of the King's-Bench into the Exchequer Chamber and there argued by others of the Greatest Councel of the Kingdom and many Law-Books quoted And the Case was afterward argued by all the Iudges of England at six several Days in Easter Trinity Michaelmas and Hilary Terms viz. by two Iudges each day and the Iudges differ'd in several Points and even about the definition or meaning of Dispensation For so that learned Chief Iustice tells you and saith That some of his Brothers defined it to be liberatio à poenâ and others to be Provida relaxatio Juris which saith he is defining an ignotum per ignotius and liberare à poenâ is the effect of a Pardon not of a Dispensation c. Thus as I may say there was a Circumvallation by the Learning which concern'd Dispensing that encompass'd some time preceding that Declaration of Indulgence in the 24th year of his Reign and some time following both it and the Act of the Test. I shall some other time perhaps entertain you with the Learned Manuscript Report of the whole Case but shall now tell you that during that Series of years there was no angry motion in the Sea of the Populace occasion'd by any thing said in any of the Arguments that propp'd up the Dispensative Power no not by that mention'd in Keeble's Reports about Thomas and Sorrell's Case to have been said in the Exchequer Chamber by Ellis the King's Serjeant and whose Opinion was as Currant for Sterling-Law as any Man 's of the long Robe Viz. That the King may SUSPEND an Act of Parliament till next Session And now since it hath thus appear'd out of that Chief Iustice his Report that at least a sixth part of the Sworn Iudges of the Realm as he thought were unacquainted with the meaning of Dispensing I think it may pass for a Miracle if any great number of the mobile did understand it But without their troubling their heads with Law-Books if they would but mind their English Bibles and there consult the 12th of S. Mathew they would soon forbear calling the lawful Dispensing with the Laws establish'd a Contradiction Our learned Ames on the Priests in the Temple Prophaning the Sabbath and being blameless observes very well in his Cases of Conscience 1. 3. c. 17. That Praecepta Deiex suâ naturâ nunquam ita Concurrent at necesse sit alterum eorum propriè violare per peccatum Quum enim praeceptum aliquod minus negligendum est ut majus observetur minus illud cessat pro illo tempore obligare that is to say is dispens'd with ita ut qui ex tali occasione illud negligunt sint planè inculpabiles id est non peccent Matth. 12. 5 7. And as to that in the Chapter of David's entring into the House of God and eating the Shew-bread which was not lawful for him to eat c. the Lord Bishop of London in his Second Letter to his Clergy Printed A. 1680. in the Paragraph about The half Communion occasionally thus observes with great Judgment That a positive Command of God cannot be disobey'd without guilt unless on some one or more of these grounds either 1. That God dispenses with it as he did with Circumcision in the Wilderness Or 2. That some Evil greater then the Consequence of the Non-Performance of it will certainly follow as when David ate the Shew-bread and they that were with him which depends on that rule of our Saviour which tho apply'd to the Sabbath yet extends to all other positive Commands that man was not made for them but they for man Or lastly in case of incapacity as the Children of Israels not going up to Ierusalem in the time of Captivity And there are other words in a foregoing Chapter of S. Matthew that are still applicable to the Pharisaical ignorance of such as reproach DISPENSING as unlawful Go and learn what that means I will have mercy and not sacrifice But according to the Example of our Blessed Lord in Having Compassion on the multitude I think you have taken a just occasion for the pitying so many of your Countrymen who in the present Conjuncture presume to exercise themselves in great Matters or in things too high for them relating to Law and State and who without enquiring about the modus of Dispensing with the Laws establish'd wherein Lawyers differ cry down the thing it self wholly and absolutely as a Contradiction to the lex terrae and in which not being so all Lawyers agree My Lord Primate Bramhal in his Book of A fair Warning to take heed of the Scottish Discipline shewing in Chap. 6. that I have before referred to That it robs the King of his Dispensative Power doth wish any one averse to that Power no greater Censure then that the Penal Laws might be duly executed on him till he recant his error And how Penal a thing by the Laws of Nations it is to alienate the hearts of People from the Prince's Government all the great Writers of those Laws and of the Iura Majestatis have enough shewn Moreover how Criminal a thing of that Nature is in the Court of Conscience our two great Writers of it Ames and Sanderson have enough taught us The Moral offices of Subjects toward their Princes are well set forth in Ames his Cases of Conscience 1. 5. c. 25. and where he saith Debent ex singulari reverentiâ cavere ne temerarium judicium ferant de ipsorum administrationes Exod. 21. 28. Eccles. 10. 20. 2 Pet. 2. 10. Jud. 8. Fundamentum hujus cautionis est 1. Candor ille qui cum erga omnes debet adhiberi tum singulariter erga Superiores 2. Difficultas explorandi fontes causas negotiorum Publicorum 3. Moderatio illa quâ leves infirmitates offensiones tolerare debemus communi tranquillitati
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
lâ—…vis and that the King and his Realm cannot suffer much by the disabling a small party of men from publick employments But it is otherwise And let any one who hath observ'd but two or three of the late great transactions of the age here as for instance the late King's Restoration the throwing out of the Exclusion-Bill the turning of the current of Faction in our Metropolis and consider how much in each depended on the Talents of ONE man he will not wonder at him who shall affirm that the incapacitating of but one Man may be very fatal to the Common-weal I suppose you cannot have forgot the Verse you repeated to me out of the famed Poem of Absolon and Achitophel viz. So much the weight of one brave Man can do And Providence made use of his weight for the Publick good by the figure he made in his Prince's Councils notwithstanding the Address of the Commons to have him thence removed as likewise of the weight of another of those noble Persons heroical loyalty in the administration of the Government notwithstanding an Address from the Commons to his Prince to remove him from it I doubt not but you have read it in Cromerus his History of Poland l. 7th that the King of Poland being dead the Kingdom was offer'd to Lescus a Nephew of Casimire's on condition he would banish Govoritius and that Lescus refused the Crown rather then he would banish so faithful a Councellor And you cannot be ignorant of the weight of one man in the Nicene Councel I mean Pophnutiuâ—… who by citing those words of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Marriage is honourable in all c. turn'd the stream of the whole Councel when they were going to give a Decree against the marriage of Priests You know of how much weight one Man would have proved in that place in Scripture Ezek. 22. 30. And I sought for a Man among them that should make up the Hedg and stand in the Gap c. And that the wise man hath told us that it was by the wisdom of ONE poor Man that a City was deliver'd You cannot but have observ'd that almost all the great and noble inventions in nature owe their births to a single Person and that particularly one poor Man by his Wisdom discover'd the American World. I need not mind you of the introduction of Laws by one Man in several of the old Graecian Polities and of the great Ocean of the Civil-Law yet encompassing the World having so narrow a Spring-head as the head of a single Person 's introducing the Laws at Athens You have read of the unus homo nobis cunctaâ—…do c. and of the tantum potuit unius Viri fortuna virtus You know how Queen Elizabeth express'd her value of the weight of one Man I mean our great Navigator Sir Francis Drake by her refusing to commissionate competent Judges to try him for putting to death Dourishius in America and after an Appeal brought about it by the next of Kinn to him and how afterward King Iames the first shew'd his value of the Talents and usefulness of Sir Walter Raleigh by employing him in his Service with Power of the Life and Death of others whilst he lay under the highest disability by being attainted of High-Treason It would be somewhat like pedantry to digress too far into such a Common Place and wherein almost infinite instances will be tumultuarily crowding into any Mans thoughts But I shall here further tell you that from the notion of ludit in humanis c. and of him who sitteth in the Heavens having some Disablers in derisien who imagined a vain thing and from Heavens often choosing to make that Stone that the Builders rejected and disabled the Head of the Corner and from the severe threatning in St. Matthew against him who shall offend ONE of these little ones who believe in Christ and from the caution there of despising not ONE of these little ones you may occasionally call to mind your moral Offices of honouring all Men and of adoring the Divine Providence when it makes such Persons its instruments in the preserving of Nations who by any systemes of Politics or Laws were disabled from being such A. I thank you for the occasion you have given me to meditate about this and do think that Man having the style of vain apply'd to him in Iob. c. 11. v. 12. Vain Man WOULD be WISE tho Man be born like a wild Asses colt and there made a politic-would-be and not only resembled to a Brute but made to be born like one and of Brutes like to the Ass and of Asses to the wild one and even of such to the wild Asses Colt and being thus under an incurable complication of natural Incapacities ought to be very careful how he goes about by any artificial incapacities to afflict or reproach any of his Race that are born to too many and much more to limit the Wisdom of Providence in the choice of its instruments and to take the work of the cicuration of the untamed World out of God's hand And here I shall afford you some amends for the pleasant historical hints I just now had from you by observing to you in short what partly makes for your purpose that tho as Palaeotus in his learned Tâ—…actate de Nothis spuriisque filiis hath mention'd such were tam Mosaicâ quam Pontificiâ ac Civili lege omnino detestabiles and as infamous disabled particularly by the Canon Law from ecclesiastical Dignities yet to shew how these out-casts of the Law were by Heaven rendered instrumental in the Government of the World he there saith Notantque hi qui historias ab origine Mundi sunt exorsi artes ownes scientias ab hujvsmodi sobole à filiis scilicet Lamech fuisse inventas ab eis subtiliora omnia utiliora excogitata and he concludes his Book by instancing in the Names of many Europaean Kings and Princes and Roman Emperors and particularly of Constantine the great and likewise of Popes of Rome who were of the base-born Class of Mankind Both God Almighty and our Princes can make Vessels of Honour of what Clay they please and place them where they will. B. You find it DECLARED in the Statute of the 31th of H. 8. c. 10. that It appertaineth to the King's Prerogative Royal to give such Honour Reputation and Placing to his Councellors AND OTHER his Subjects as shall be seeming to his most excellent Wisdom and so when King Iames gave Sir Walter Raleigh tho dead in Law and labouring under the highest disability beforemention'd the Power and Honour of commanding the lives of others he did but what appertain'd to his Prerogative And thus when King Harry the 8th by his Prerogative like the Sun both raising and gilding a poor Vapour made Cromwel who was the Son of a Black-smith Lord Privy-Seal and likewise enabled him tho a Lay-man to to be his
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.
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
other Penalties incurr'd by Popish Recusants pursuant to any Statutes as for example those of Queen Elizabeth or King Iames and even that of 3 o Iac. c. 5. whereby Convicted Recusants are disabled from Military Offices and Offices in the Navy and in the Law and fâ—…m the Practice of Physick and any publick Office and Charge in the Commonwealth or the Test-Act 25 o Car. 2. No question is to be made of the King 's absolute and undoubted Power of dispensing with particular persons in such a Case And during the ferment about the Laws and Statutes whereon the Petition of Right was founded and which were of another Nature as Mr. Glanvile's words are you will not forget that there was a tenderness for Prerogative avow'd by both Houses while you remember those words of the Royal Martyr in his Speech at the Prorogation of the Parliament the 20th of October A. 1628. viz. That the Profession of both Houses at the time of hammering the Pâ—…tition of Right was no way to entrench upon his Prerâ—…gative and their saying that they had neither intention noâ—… power to hurt it c. You may too call to mind that as during the fâ—…rment that the suspending the Penal Laws by His late Majesty's Declaration of Indulgence his Power of Dispensing in them came not in question so the heat about his Preregative to SUSPEND them was soon over The Opinion of that loyal Patriot and learned and upright Iustitiary Sir William Ellis deliver'd in his Argument about Thomas and Sorrells Case I told you of namely that the King may SUSPEND an Act of Parliament till next Session which was a flâ—…ght beyond what was moved for or adjudged in the late Case of Gâ—…dden and Hales did never meet with any angry reflection that I have heard of from any Person either of the People diffusive or representative tho yet that Argument of his containing such Opinion was both after the Votes of the House of Commons about the illegality of the suspending of Penal Laws in Matters Eccleâ—…iastical otherwise then by Act of Parliament and after the Act for the Test. And how near the Prerogative of Dispensing as allow'd by my Lord Chief Justice Vaughan in his Argument in Thomas and Sorrell's Case and who argued after Sir W. Ellis came up to SUSPENDING you may see there by what he saith p. 347 Where the King can dispense with particular Persons he is not confined to number or place but may Liceâ—…s as many and in such Places as he thinks fit But further to shew you to how quiet and temperate a State that ferment of the Prince's suspending all the Religionary Penal Laws without an Act of Parliament was grown I shall let you see that several years after the late King's Declaration of Indulgence and the Act for the Test the late Earl of Sâ—…aftsbury appear'd in Print as owning the legality of the King's Prerâ—…gative in that kind and without his Lordship's being in the least censured for it by any of that numâ—…rous Party he was then the Head of And here I am to tell you that in a Book call'd A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country Printed in the year 1675. the Earl of Shaftsbury is by Mr. Marvell the supposed Author of the Book introduced as owning that the Power of the King's Supremacy meaning in Matters Ecclesiastical was of another Nature then that he had in Civils and had been exercised without exception in this very Case i. e. as in the Declaration of Indulgence by his Father Grandfather and Queen Elizabeth under the Great Seal to foreign Protestants become Subjects of England c. A. Did the Earl of Shaftsbury then in the year 1675. own the Prerogative of suspending Penal Laws in Matters Ecclesiastical when the King had long before quitted it and when his Lordship was Embarqued with those Men to whom nothing could once seem more unpopular then the owning of any such Prerogative B. I refer you to the Book it self and where you will see that that Great Statesman did then assert the extent of Prerogative in that Point with as much strength of Wit and Reason as if he had been then fitting at the Helm of State and where he further shews the Necessity of a standing Supreme executive Power to mitigate or wholy to SUSPEND the execution of any Penal Laws c. But I shall best entertain you with his Lordship 's own words as so great a Narrator as Mr. Marvell relates them and who as he saith telling his Lordship that the Declaration of Indulgence assumed a Power to repeal and SUSPEND all our Laws his Lordship â—…eplyed that he wonder'd at his Objection there being not one of these in the Case For the King assumed no Power of repealing Laws or suspending them contrary to the will of his Parliament or People and not to argue with me at that time the Power of the King's Supremacy which was of another Nature then that he had in Civils and had been exercised without exception in this very Case by his Father Grandfather and Queen Elizabeth under the Great Seal to foreign Protestants become Subjects of England nor to instance in the SUSPENDING the execution of the two Acts of Navigation and Trade during both this and the last Dutch War in the same words and upon the same necessity and as yet without clamour that ever we heard But to pass by all that this is certain a Government could not be supposed whether Monarchical or other of any sort without a standing Supreme executive Power fully enabled to mitigate or WHOLT to SUSPEND the execution of any Penal Law in the intervals of the Legislative Power which when assembled there was no doubt but wherever there lies a Negative in passing of a Law there the Address or sense known of either of them to the Contrary as for instance of either of our two Houses of Parliament in England ought to determine that Indulgence and restore the Law to its full execution For without this the Laws were to no purpose made if the Prince could annul them at pleasure and so on the other hand without a Power always in being of dispensing on occasion was to suppose a Constitution extremely imperfect and impracticable and to Cure those with a Legislative Power always in being is when consider'd no other then a perfect Tyranny A. I find that his Lordship doth not in the least distinguish between the Right of Prerogative in suspending the Disabling or incapacitating Penal Laws and others And he by giving the Power of suspending all the Penal Laws to the Prince during the Intervals of Parliament and till an Address should be thence made to the Prince to revoke such suspension hath given his Prince this Power in effect during life For 't is obvious to consider by how many accidents a suspension of Penal Laws revocable on an Address from the Parliament may happen to be not so revoked B. You
way of Painting to have come But as I have now represented Iustice and Mercy to you to be the same thing so at some other meeting I shall shew you that Dispensation and Mercy are the same And in the mean while I shall tell you that there was a time namely throughout the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in part of the Reign of King Iames the First when the Learning about Dispensations was not in England Dark learning but generally understood and that not only by the Writers of the Church of England but by the Puritan Writers and I shall shew you when this learning went to sleep and which I account not to have been again awaken'd till in the Conjuncture of Thomas and Sorrel's Case But when I come to entertain you with the learned Notions about it out of some of our Church of England Writers I believe you will not in the least startle at the thoughts of your Prince's dispensing with disability One of those Writers writ of the Subject before Suarez and whose Book I suppose that our Excellent Bishop Taylor happen'd not to have read because I met with no references to it in his Ductor dubitantium and where probably there had been many had the Bishop read it The Book speaks the Author to have been profoundly knowing in the Civil and Canon Law and not unacquainted with the Lex terrae and one who I think made a great figure in the Administration of the Discipline of the Church of England and whose great talents might probably cause our great Church-men then to engage him for their Champion against some of the Puritan Writers who look'd with an evil eye on the Regal dispensing with disability or incapacity in many of our Clergy-men And as when of old some of the English-understandings were employ'd in the writing of School-Divinity they penetrated as far into the Subtleties of it as those of any Nation so I may tell you that in my poor opinion that Author hath writ of the Learning of Dispensations both with all the subtlety and solidity requisite and more substantially then Suarez I shall lay the Book before you at our next meeting but shall now tell you that as to some Points we have been discoursing he observes that There is a Dispensation call'd of Iustice as it were an Interpretation or Declaration of the true meaning of the Law juxta aequum bonum and he cites the Canon Law to prove that Dispensation is a due for that the Precept of Mercy is common to all And I may tell you here that if you will look on your Durand's Speculum in his first Volume where he writes so copiously of Dispensing his style is Dispensatio sive misericordia A. You have taken care enough to make my entertainment in this meeting end with an appetite for another and the rather for that nothing is more pleasant to me then to find an Historical account of the Progress of any Controverted Point of any learning that hath made a ferment in Church or State. And tho as the course of Providence hath made the knowledge of this learning to be the opus diei and so the Ignorance of some and Malice of others hath made it look'd on as angry work and as frightful as a Comet and as odious as if it were to bring us under a torrid Zone yet I think your having surrounded the Nature of Dispensation with such mild and gentle Rays as to represent it to be of the nature of the Sol justitiae with healing in its wings must needs engage the knowing to bid it welcom with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make all their animosities and ferments about it to be soon over B. Truly I do not suppose that any knowing man can have an aversion against it and that this Learning non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem And that you may continue in your judgment of any ferment about the Dispensative Power being soon over I can refer you to another Iudgment of Parliament wherein a great tenderness for this branch of Prerogative is shewn namely in the Statute of Octavo Elizabethae c. 6. and to which that Excellent and Learned Person and great Ornament of the Law Sir Robert Atkins as you will find it in Keble Vol. 3. referring in his Argument in Chomas and Sortell's Case saith 8. Eliz. cap. 6. takes notice of Licence to dispense with such Laws as were pro bono publico yet doth not forbid it but rather compounds the matter It hath been the luck of Dispensation to meet with an ill name from some of our famous Writers who tell us that there were no such things as Dispensation or Non-obstante heard of till they came from Rome here in the year of our Lord 1240. and that afterward Kings learn'd from Popes to dispense with their Laws whereas before they caus'd their Laws to be observ'd like those of the Medes and Persians as the Irish Reports tell you in the Case of Commendams and whereupon Mr. Prynne on the Fourth Part of the Institutes c. 22. treating largely of Non-obstantes calls them Papal Engines And our old Monkish Writers have been quoted for bestowing the terms of legum vulnera infames nuncii and repagalum c. on Dispensations and Non-obstantes But I shall at our meeting again shew you that the practice of Dispensing may easily be traced to the Imperial Laws and this you may soon find if you will look on Dr. Donne's Pseudo-Martyr that you have by you and where you may guess at the age of Dispensations by his referring you in p. 40. to the Divinae Indulgentiae in the Digests and his telling you out of the Code that Theodosius and Valentinian making a Law with a Non-obstante did praeclude all Dispensations which the Emperors themselves might grant in these words Si coeleste proferatur oraculum aut divina pragmatica Sanctio And if you will look on Gothofred's Notes on the L. Iubemus C. De Sacrosanctis Ecclefiis de rebus Privilegiis earum cited by the Doctor there you will thus find it in those Notes Caeleste oraculum quid est Principis dispensatio There is another thing I have not had time now to Discourse with you about and that is of the Nature of Laws in terrorem as I intended and which suitably to the Wisdom of a Father in menacing a Child with cutting off his Head if he doth this or that thing are by the Pater Patriae and the Estates of the Realm sometimes lawfully made to intimidate men grown childish and vain by Sanctions of Punishments not intended to be executed according to the general tenour of such Laws But as what may make for my purpose of shewing you how worthy it is of the Majesty of Princes to incorporate Mercy with Iustice in dispensing with many particular Persons and even to the freeing them from the terror of those Laws in some angry Conjunctures when others were to be affrighted with them
Thomas and Sorrell tell you that by one of the great Councel who argued in it it was asserted with great Learning That the Non-obstante in that Case remain'd good after the King's death That tho Acts the King doth in his Natural Capacity determine by his death as making of Iudges c. for those referr to his Natural Will yet things done in his Royal Capacity as King do not determine by his death as a License to alien in Mortmâ—…in in one King's time serves in anothers and the Reason is when the Subject is once exempt out of the Restraint of the Act he is ever exempt unless the Exemption be limited Coke 1. Inst. 52. 6. If the Lessor licence his Lessee that is restrain'd by Condition not to Alien tho the Lessor die the licence shall serve the Lessee to alien and is not determin'd by the Lessor's death And in this Point he cited Trin. 2. Jac. C. B. Rot. 2835. Wright versùs Radcliffe and Trin. 2. Jac. Norris v. Mason C. B. as Cases adjudged in this point And I shall then shew you how the same thing was then by others asserted but you may now for this purpose remember how the instances I have given you of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments approving and declaring to be good what she did of this kind and the instances of what others of our Princes did by their own Authority and out of Parliament being valid and being afterward approved in Parliament have supported the extent of the Regal Authority of this kind as to point of time But because according to the Rule of Unumquodque dissolvitur eo modo quo colligatur many Indulgences and Injunctions and Dispensations being revocable by Kings themselves and by their Successors and because declaratory Acts of Parliament cannot be repeal'd but by other Acts common Prudence doth suggest it to all to endeavour the perpetuating to themselves by the Legislative Power what they account beneficial And if you will you may use the term of having it confirm'd by that Power that is if you will allow it to have been firm before you may call it confirm'd by the Prince and the three Estates afterward enacting it and making its firmness perpetual And this is the thing I aim'd at in what you might take for a Criticism when I said that the 39 Articles owed no Confirmation nor Authority to the Act of the 13th of Eliz. A. I know the reason of your cautious speaking here about a tender Point You accounting even every Declaratory Judgment of Parliament for our Religion to be a Treasure and having often said that you would allow some Roman-Catholicks to mock on in calling our Religion a Parliamentary Religion did I judge design to do honour to our Religion as well as to our Prince's in shewing that it was here orderly establish'd by God's Vicegerents before it was by the Deputies of the People or the Magnates Regni B. You guess right at my meaning in this way to salve Phaenomena And if you will look on a Book Printed in Oxford A. 1645. entituled Parliaments Power in Laws for Religion or an Answer to that old and groundless Calumny of the Papists nick-naming the Religion of the Church of England by the name of a Parliamentary Religion c. you will find the Fact in this Point clearly deduced through the course of our Laws and Constitutions in a long series temporum from the Reign of Harry the 8th downward and for the honour of our Kings and of the Church and the Reformation and the measures I have taken in our discourse have been suitable to those of the judicious and learned Author of that Book A. Well Sir we have had a great deal of frank Discourse and I will now take the freedom to put one Question more to you You have entertain'd me with the several Interpretations of our Oath and have shew'd me how the obligatoriness of them all hath been perpetuated and you have likewise salved the Phaenomena in the Iustice of the Government as to the Laws in terrorem But you know the Story of one who being Lord of a place did leave a Pit long open too near the High-way and who at Night erected Lights about it to prevent its being mischievous and he afterward hearing that sometimes poor Blind men who were Travellers fell into it and that at other times by various accidents the Lights were not helpful to other Passengers as being took away or going out too soon and he therefore at last very fairly removed both his Nuisance and Lights together And now may it hot be wish'd that the Prince and the three Estates would remove the Laws about our Oaths and the Interpretations too and so likewise all the Laws in terrorem among which I suppose you reckon the Test-Acts at which so many have taken offence B. You may easily guess that till we have both of us at another meeting discours'd of the Obligation resulting from the Promissory part of the Oath I will not engage your thoughts in any matter of Controverfie that may in the least perplex them But as soon as we have fully discours'd that I shall frankly give you my thoughts at large relating to the question about Repealing of the Test-Acts in a Parliamentary manner but do at present wholly forbear to mention what I think thereof And I have before told you my judgment of the likelihood of the continuance of our great Oath as a great luminary that may perhaps enlighten our English World in the measures of Loyalty to the end of time and as I have told you the Oath giveth no offence to the Considerate so I will hope none will be taken at it But I must here tell you that I have a greater veneration for the Oath because I look on the serious Consideration of the assertory part of it as likely to be very Instrumental in allaying the ferment we have been speaking of A. God grant it may be so B. You remember what I hinted to you about the Clause whereby you testify'd and declared that the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal and from whence it follow'd by way of natural Consequence that no foreign Prince c. hath any Iurisdiction within this Realm being the Corner-stone on which the great And therefore I mean your forsaking foreign Iurisdiction was built And I assure you that the same first Declaration doth bind you to the like AND THEREFORE to renounce the belief of any Power on Earth being able to dissolve your King 's right of Commanding your Obedience and your Obligation to obey him And indeed if I had produced to you no Iudgment of Parliament for the purpose I have done but that which is contain'd in the assertory part of the Oath and which is unanimously interpreted by Divines and Lawyers as expressive of the King 's right jure naturae to Command the Obedience of
Dispensative Power in the Reign of King Charles the First being extended to particular Persons but the hated Sibthorpe who in his Sermon of Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it doth speak of Mens being bound to observe the Lawes of the Land where they live except they will suffer as busie bodies or except they will have that inconvenience granted that the general Lawes or Government of a Nation must be dispens's withal according to the particular Conceit and Apprehension of every private Person whereout what Coleration of Heresy what Connivence at Errors what danger of Schisms in the Church and Factions in the State must necessarily follow c. and having mentioned the Liberty of a few erroneous Consciences bringing the Bondage of many regulated Commands he saith We must prefer the general before the particular and not let every one be loose to their List and Affection but all must be kept within the Lists of their Duty and Subjection And I but just now told you of that Prince's avowing that the Bishops advised him to the tenderness he shewed in dispensing with his Lawes to gratifie the pretended tenderness of the Consciences of some of his Scotish Subjects in that Conjunctâ—… â—…eand by which Dispensing one would have thought they might have been sufficiently antidoted against the strong Delusions of entring into War for Religion Oh that such thoughts had been then impress'd on their Minds as are contain'd in the General Demands of the Ministers and Professors of Aberdene p. 29. as I find them cited in the Book of Mr. Ley before-mention'd viz. There be other means more effectual for holding out of Popery and so of any unlawful innovation in which we ought to Confide more then in all the Vowes and Promises of Men yea also more then in all the United Forces of all the Subjects of this Land to wit diligent Preaching and Teaching of the Word frequent Prayer to God humbling of our selves before him and Amendment of our Lives and Conversations and Arming our selves against our Adversaries by diligent searching of the Scriptures whereby we may encrease in the knowledge of the Truth and in ability to defend it against the Enemies of it Oh that the Demagogues of those times had caus'd such words then to have been writ in our Churches or I might rather wish that those Heads of Parties had had themselves then hearts of flesh and that such tender words had been like a Law written there But the Urgentia imperii fata were upon us and that delicate use of Conscience that is in 2. Cor. 13. 5. call'd examen vel probatio nostrum ipsorum and whereby it resembled the best property of a beam in Scales namely its tenderness and turning with the least part of a grain was among the great Actors in that Rebellion quite laid aside and all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the weightier Matters of the Law did not stir their Consciences and the great Obligation of their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy signify'd no more then the dust of the balance Tho they pretended to so nice a Tenderness about any thing that look'd like an Oath in familiar discourse and was not one as at the Saying in faith or in troth and so would seem to come under Solomon's Character of him that feareth an Oath but as to which words of in faith or by my faith our Judicious Sanderson de Iuramento makes them amount to no more then a meer Asseveration or at the most an Obtestation and saith that the genuine interpretation of the words by my faith whether in an assertory or promissory matter is this I speak from my heart I pawn my faith to you that the thing is so yet they at the same time would ridicule or seize on any one who had told them of what they were Sworn to in the Oath of Allegiance and of the recognition they made there as the words of that Oath are heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian. A. There was a Solemn League and Covenant afterward took by those who had so apparently outraged the Oath of Allegiance and it was taken generally by all the Layety and Clergy of the Parliaments Party and was there not a general Tenderness of Conscience express'd then in the observance of that Covenant B. In the course of my Observation of Men and Things some things have more particularly occurred to me to shew you that the great Takers and imposers of that Covenant did as plainly and without any seeming remorfe outrage their Oath in that Covenant as they did their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy For after they had first sworn to endeavour to preserve the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and then sworn to endeavour to reform Religion in these Kingdoms of England and Ireland in all Points according to the Examples of the best Reformed Churches and so were bound to reform us according to the Pattern of Scotland for that Church must necessarily pass for the best Reform'd Church that stands in need of no Resormation being to be preserv'd by them in the State it was the Parliament instead of setling in England the Presbyterian Government which then in Scotland had within its Verge four Judicatories and all pretended to be founded on Divine Right 1. A Parochial Session 2. A Presbyterian Consistory 3. A Provincial Synod 4. A General Assembly as they were bound to did in effect settle ERASTIANISM a Tenet or hypothesis of Church-Government that the Scotch and English Presbyterian Divines avowed as great an hatred of as of Popery it self Erastianism giving the Supreme Power in Ecclesiasticals to the Civil Magistrate and in their Printed Votes and Orders reproved the Presbyterian Divines for challenging an Arbitrary Power and which they would not grant nor set up ten Thousand Iudicatories within the Kingdom as the Parliaments words were referring to the Scots Parechial Session where a competent number of Lay-Elders whom they call Presbyteri non docentes and Deacons proportionable to the Precinct and Extent of the Parish are conjoyn'd and which associate Body thus compacted is the Spiritual Parochial Sanhedrim But this very first Point of that Church-Government the Parliament hinder'd Presbytery from gaining here and opposed its moving in that lowest Sphere of the Parochial Session of setling so many Thousand Ecclesiastical Courts of Pye-Powder in England and whereby it could never hope to climb up to the Primum mobile of a General Assembly which in reality was the Sphere the Parliament it self moved in Mr. Prynne who was one of the greatest Champions for that Covenant was yet an Eminent profess'd Erastian and Mr. Coleman a Member of the Assembly of Divines another of those Champions for the Covenant was likewise a declared Erastian and a great Favourite of the Parliaments and whose frequent Sermons before them for Erastianism were Printed by their Order and which Sermons of his and likewise his Books
writ for it were with great heat impugned in Print by Mr. Gillespy a Divine of Scotland and one of the Commissioners in England for that Kingdom and who in a Printed Sermon of his Preach'd before the House of Lords doth call Erastus the great Adversary and in one of his Pamphlets against Mr. Coleman call'd Nihil Respondes mentions how the Presbyterians and Independents were both equally interessed against the Erastian Principles And as to the greatness of the number of the Covenanters out of Parliament that rejected the Iure-divinity of the Scots ruling Elders Mr. Coleman gives us his Judgment in p. 12. of his Reply to Nihil Respondes viz. that 9 10 of the Assembly and 900 1000 of the Kingdom denyed a Ruling Elder to be an instituted Officer jure divino But Heylin having told us in his History of Presbytery That Presbytery did never setle its Lay-Eldership in any one Parish in England we may easily thence suppose the National Violation of that National Covenant without any apparent regret of Conscience on that account How all the Independent Clergy and Layety who had took the Covenant did in a manner simul semel most notoriously violate it in setting up the model of their Church-Government is not unknown But indeed as the very sagacious Author of the Book call'd The main Points of Church-Government c. Printed in London A. 1649. hath observ'd The known sense of the Scotish Nation which framed the Covenant and for whose Satisfaction the Covenant was here taken doth include Independency under the name of Schism or at least under those words contrary to sound Doctrine and our Independent Divines could not but know this to be their sense of it and yet we know of none that did protest against it or explain themselves otherwise at the first taking of the Covenant if they have done it since And I might further tell you that after the Engagement was set up of being true and faithful to the Common-wealth of England as it is now Establish'd without a King or House of Lords tho several of the Presbyterian Divines out of a sense of their Oaths and Allegiance and their Covenant were so Loyal as to refuse it I have not heard of any of those Independent ones who did But such was the Inundation of Practical Atheism in the Kingdom that our Civil Wars had caus'd that when the Engagement was set up almost the whole Body of the Lawyers in England took it rather then they would lose their Practice These men knew the meaning of the Acts of Parliament containing the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and yet were abandon'd by a disloyal Sophistical Principle of the want of Power in a lawful Sovereign to protect them absolving them from their Obedience to cancel their Oaths in the Court of Conscience And in a word further to shew you how the tender Regard of publick Promises was here grown one of Pancirol's lost things I shall tell you that tho in the Parliament of Richard Cromwell none was allowed to sit but he who had first took a Recognition of engaging to be true and faithful to the Lord Protector c. and not to propose or give any Consent to alter the Government as 't is setled in one single Person and a Parliament yet the Republicans in that Parliament were not in the least diverted by that Recognition from endeavouring there to alter the Government and it was there avowed by them that a Promise or Oath took without Doors did not bind within And at last to bring up the Rear of mens Perjury after all the Oaths legal and illegal had been so much confounded when the late King's Restauration was almost in sight on the then General Monk with his Army coming to London a new Oath of Abjuration of the Royal Line was at that time set on foot in Councel and which some there would have had imposed on the General himself A. Good God! What a Concatenation of Perjuries was our Land so long enslaved with you have referr'd to the Solemn League and Covenant for extirpating Popery and Superstition and while a General Assembly and Parliaments were planting here the Doctrine of the Council of Lateran namely the Absolving Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance B. And while they were planting a Discipline that Archbishop Whitgift in his Reply to T. C. p. 299. 559. and Bishop Hall in his Book of Episcopacy Part 3. p. 34. and Bishop Downham in his Defence of his Sermon l. 1. c. 8. p. 139. And Archbishop Bramhal in his Fair warning to take heed of the Scotish Discipline almost throughout do charge with POPERY and where the last Archbishop doth represent the Covenant with the terms of Baal Baal berith and Baalims and saith It were worth the enquiring whether the marks of Anti-Christ do not agree as eminently to the Assembly general of Scotland as either to the Pope or to the Turk This we see plainly that they spring out of the Ruines of the Civil Magistrate they sit upon the Temple of God and they advance themselves above those whom the Scripture calls Gods. A. That Archbishop's saying It were worth the enquiring thus concerning that general Assembly as then used is the only thing wherein I differ from him for I think there is no doubt in the case B. To this you may add the thoughts of their being associated against Superstition while they were planting the grossest Superstition that any Age hath known if we may take our measures of Superstition from that definition of it in the Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum viz. Superstitio cultus est ad Deum relatus immenso quodam proficiscens humano Studio vel animi certâ propensione quam vulgò bonam intentionem vocant c. Let any one consider how after the beginning of the Parliament of Forty they had obtain'd in the very Act that took away the Ship-money that all the Particulars prayed or desired in the Petition of Right should be enacted one whereof was That no Oath should be imposed on the Subjects that was not establish'd by Act of Parliament and how in despite of that Law they without any such Act out of a blind Zeal for Religion imposed this dreadful Oath on the People Let any one but read over The Covenant with a Narrative and the Speeches of Mr. Nye and Mr. Hendersham at the time of the Solemn Reading Swearing and Subscribing of the Covenant by the House of Commons and Assembly of Divines in St. Margaret's Church and observe in Mr. Nye's Speech his Saying that ASSOCIATION is of Divine offspring and his resembling of this Covenant to the Covenant of Grace and the matter of it there represented by him as worthy to be sworn by all the Kingdoms of the World as a giving up of all those Kingdoms to Christ and where it followeth yea we find this very thing in the utmost accomplishment of it to have been the Oath of the greatest Angel that