and so continued to be in a great measure in Henry III's time and so would in all likelihood have continued had not the wise Edward I. opposed the Pope's Usurpation and made â—… Statute of Mortmain But that which chiefly â—… the Neck of this was That after the Pope and Clergy had endeavoured in Ed. II's time and the beginning of Ed. III. to usurp again Ed. 3. â—… resist the Usurpation and made the Statutes of Provisors 25 Ed. 3. and 27 Ed. 3. And Richard II. â—… those Acts with 16 Rich. 2. ca. 5. and kept â—… Power in the Crown by them Laws which being interrupted by Queen Mary a bloody Bigot the Church of Rome during her Reign there was an Act made in 1 Eliz. ca. 1. which is intituled An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing foreign Powers repugnant to the same From which Title I collect three things 1st That the â—… had anciently a Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual 2ly That that Jurisdiction had for some time been at least suspended and the Crown had not exercised it 3ly That â—… Law did not introduce a new Jurisdiction but restored the Old but with restoring the old Jurisdiction to the Crown gave a Power of Delegating the Exercise of it And as a Consequence from the whole that all Jurisdiction that is lodged the Crown is subject nevertheless to the Legislative Power in the Kingdom I shall now consider what Power this Act of 1 â—… 1. declares to have been anciently in the â—… and that appears from Sect. 16 17 18. of the same Act. Section 16. Abolisheth all Foreign Authority in â—… Spiritual and Temporal in these words And the intent that all the Usurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries 2. May it please Your Highness that it may be further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate â—… or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any â—… after the last day of this Session of Parliament â—… enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from â—… the same shall be clearly Abolished out of this â—… and all other Your Highness's Dominions for â—… any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions â—… any other matter or cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And after the said Act hath abolished all Foreign Authority in the very next Section Sect 17. It annexeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown in these words And that also it may likewise please Your Highness That it may be Established and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm From these words That such Jurisdiction c. as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had then-to-fore been exercised or used were annexed to the Crown I observe That the Four things aforesaid wherein the Pope had incroached were all restored to the Crown and likewise all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that had been exercised or used in this Kingdom and did thereby become absolutely vested in the Crown Then Section 18. gives a Power to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in these words And that Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall please Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being natural horn Subjects to Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors as Your Majesty Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within these Your Realms of England and Ireland or any other Your Highness's Dominions and Countries 2. and to Visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or may lawfully be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained or Amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Vertue and the conservation of the Peace and Unity of this Realm 3 And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorised and appointed by your Highness your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under your Highness your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to Exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Eliz. and a High Commission Court was by her Erected which late and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Eliz. King James the first and King Charles the first till the 17 year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some words in the aforesaid branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are Authorized to execute their Commission acording to the tenor and effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Art and divers
other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensuid to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the executions thereof Therefore for thr repressirg and preventing of the aforesaid abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 E. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Paliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every word matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from benceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said All to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the First of August in the said â—… mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these words And be it further Enacted Toat â—… and after the said First day of August no new Court should be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or â—… have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as to said High Commission Court now bath or pretendeth â—… have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by â—… Majesty his Heirs or Successors and all Powers and Authorities Granted or pretended or mentioned â—… be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by vertue or colour thereof shall â—… utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provided no such power shall ever for the future be Delagated by the Crown to any Person or Person whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. hath Restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored â—… the said Act or any Clause in it and to make that evident I shall first set down the whole Act â—… then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the â—… King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the â—… King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Statute primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical it is amongst other things Enacted That no Arch-bishop bishop nor Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor â—… of any Arch-bishop Bishop or Vicar-General â—… any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other person or persons whatsoever â—… Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the King Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power â—… Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord â—… One thousand six hundred forty one Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging â—… Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2 Whereupon some doubt hath been made that all ordinary power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes acclesiastical were taken away whereby the ordinary cause of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-bishops Bishops or any other person or persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may Proceed Determine Sentence Execute and Exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Cenfures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging â—… Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this â—… in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo â—… Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High-Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like court by Commission shall be and is thereby Repealed to all intents and purposes whatsoever any thing cause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary not withstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted that neither this Act nor any thing herein contained shall extend or be construed to revive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act of Parliament made on the said Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth shall stand and be Repealed â—… such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided also and it is hereby further Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any person whatsoever the Oath usually called the Oath Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendered or Administred may be charged or compelled to Confess or Accuse or to purge him or her self of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Usage hertofore to the contrary hereof in any wife notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch-bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or determine any Ecclesiastical
Parliament Declared to be utterly Inconsistent Now the Coronation-Oath is a Fundamental Law of this Kingdom for it is antecedent to the Oath of Allegiance Accordingly if you look upon the Coronation-Oath in the Parliament-Roll 1 H. 4. you shall there find that in the third Branch of it the King Grants and Promises upon his Oath That the Laws shall be kept and protected by him secundum Vires suas to the utmost of his Power and therefore he has no Power lest him to Dispense withal By which it appears that those men are the wretched Enemies both of the King and Kingdom who would fain perswade the King that he has this Dispensing-Power because therein they endeavour to perswade him that Perjury is his Prerogative Heretofore in Trisilian's time some of the Oracles of the Law were consulted Whether it could stand with the Law of the Kingdom that the King might Obviatt and Withstand the Ordinances concerning the King and the Kingdom which were made in the last Parliament by the Peers and Commons of the Realm with the King's Assent though as the Courtiers said forced in that behalf And they made Answer That the King might Annul such Ordinances and Change them at his pleasure into a better fashion because he was above the Laws Knyghton Col. 2693. Now this was very False Law as those Judges found afterwards to their Cost and it was grounded on the worst Reason that could be For they must needs know from all their Books and from the Mirror in particular p. 282. That the first and Sovereign Abusion of the Law that is the chief Contrariety and Repugnency of it is for the King to be Above the Law whereas he ought to be Subject to it as is contained in his Oath Neither could they be ignorant of that Argument which the Peers used to shew the Absurdity of such a Supposition it is recorded in the Annals of Rurton set forth as I take it by Mr. Obadiah Walker Si Rex est supra Legem tunc est extra Legem Num Rex Angliae est Exlex If the King be above the Law then he is without the Law. What! is the King of England an Outlaw And as for the words of Bracton they were too plain either to need a Comment or Translation Rex habet Superiorem Deum item Legem per quam sactus est Rex item Curiam suam seil Comites Baronts As likewise those other words of his Ubi Voluntas Imperat non Lex ibi non est Rex Where he makes it the very Essence of our King to Govern according to Law. Having therefore shewn that the Laws are always in full Force till they are Revoked by the same Authority which made them and that all Persons whatsoever bound to the Laws and that the Laws themselves were never in Bondage to any Man we know from thence what we are to conclude concerning those Papists who pretend to be in Office in Desiance to the Laws We had once a mischievous Distinction of Sheriffs de Jure and Sheriffs de Facto But those who pretend to be in Office without taking the TEST are no Officers either in Right or in Fact for the 25 Car. 2. says That their Offices are ipso facto void and then those Officers are ipso facto no Officers and can do us no more hurt than if they were under Ground and therefore we need not trouble our Heads about them though they may in all likelihood fall under the Care and Consideration of a Parliament After all some persons may possibly be so far deluded as to think there is somewhat of Equity in the Toleration of Papists and that it is the Christian Rule Of doing as one would be done by Now for any Papist to plead this Rule of Equity himself or any body else in his behalf is just as if a High-way Man should thus urge it upon his Judge My Lord if you hang me you break the Golden Rule for I am sure you are not willing to be so served yourself nor to hang with me Now the Equity of the Judge in this case does not lye either in forbearing to punish the Offender or in Hanging with him for Company but in being content to submit to the same Law if he himself should commit the same Crime And so are we willing to lye under all the Penal Laws whenever we turn Papists And therefore no body can tax us with want of Equity because we do no otherways to the Papists than we are willing to be done by in the same case But it may be said that our Conscience does not serve us to be Papists though theirs does Neither does the Judge's Conscience serve him to rob though it seems the High-way Man 's did and therefore take heed of Liberty of Conscience Still it may be further replied That this is properly a Judicial Cause because Robbery is a breach of the Peace and of Property and therefore ought to be Punished whereas the worship and Service of God according to a Man's Conscience though it be amiss yet it ought not to be punished by Hamane Laws but is to be reserved to the Judgment of God alone who is Lord of Conscience Now this is the New Doctrine which I shall prove to be False by positive and express Scripture For Job says Chap. 31. Ver. 28. That is his Heart had been secretly perswaded and he had thereupon kissed his Hand to the Sun or Moon This were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge because he had therein Lyed against the God above So that though a Man's Heart and Conscience lead him to Idolatry yet Job tells us this is inditable it is Avon Pelili a Judicial Crime and as Punishable by Humane Laws as Adultry with another Man's Wise is as you have it in the same Phrase in the 11th Verse of the same Chapter The Second Instance of a Punishable Conscience in the Service of God is that which our Saviour gives us John 16. 2. Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service Now I would sain know whether such a Conscience as this ought not to be Restrained and Punished And whether it be Sacriledge for Humane Laws to controul Conscience I mean such a one as Kills and Murders for God's sake And I ask again Whether there be no Consciences of this Stamp now in the World And whether there has not been an Holy Inquisition Religious Crusadoes and Meritorious Massacres to extirpate Hereticks and abundance of this Divine Service in the Church of Rome Whether they have not offered up whole Hecatombs of these Sacrifices in most Countries And whether a Neighbouring Prince has not been highly extolled and had all his most Christian Titles double Gilt with the Flatteries of his Clergy for the late Merit of his Religious Service in this kind And therefore if men will do things in order let them first send for a breed of Irish Wolves and
happen to them not to see their Interest for want of Understanding or not to leap over it by excess of Zeal Above all Princes are most liable to Mistake not out of any defect in their Nature which might put them under such an unfortunate distinction quite contrary the blood they derive from wise and great Ancestors does rather distinguish them on the better side besides that their great Character and Office of Governing giveth a noble Exercise to their Reason which can very hardly fail to raise and improve it But there is one Circumstance annexed to their Glorious Calling which in this respect is sufficient to outweigh all those advantages it is that Mankind divided in most things else agree in this to conspire in their endeavours to deceive and mislead them which maketh it above the power of human understanding to be so exactly guarded as never to admit a surprize and the highest applause that could ever yet be given to the greatest Men that ever wore a Crown is that they were no oftner deceived Thus I have ventur'd to lay down my thoughts of the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short word Where Distrusting may be the cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the cause of bringing Ruin the Choice is too easie to need the being explained A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City To his Friend in the Country Containing his REASONS for not Reading the DECLARATION SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruin us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine Comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to prosess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any Pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an Obstinate and peevish or sactious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed be fore it must imply our own consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of Mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and
be overstrained And yet it is such a Complement as they need not For we see they are qualified by the Dispensing Power without the Repeal of the Test which hath made me often wonder why they are so zealous to have it repealed Do they still question the Kings Dispensing Power And desire some better security Let them say so then and give up that point and then we 'll talk with them about repealing the Test but there is no need of repealing this Law since the King it seems hath power to dispense with it in his Reign and they are very sanguine men if they hope to have any occasion for it in another And if after all their boasts of a Dispensing Power the Law still keeps them in awe can it be the interest of Protestants to take off these restraints Are they not insolent enough already while these threatning Laws hang over their heads Or do we hope that their modesty and good Nature will increase with their Power For my part I desire that all men whom I fear may lie under a legal incapacity for though their Force and Power may be the same yet there is some difference in point of Authority and Self-defence II. There are many things which would make a wise man suspect that there is some farther Design than Liberty of Conscience in all this zeal for repealing the Penal Laws and Test. For it would be very surprising to find a Roman Catholick Prince whose Conscience is directed by a Jesuit to be really zealous for Liberty of Conscience to see so many Popish Pens imploy'd in pleading for Liberty of Conscience and declaiming against Sanguinary Laws when all the World knows what Opinion the Church of Rome has about Liberty of Conscience what great friends the Jesuits are to it how they abhor persecuting men for their Religion witness the mild and gentle usage of the French Protestants by a King whose Conscience is directed by a tender-hearted Jesuit And if a Princes zeal for his Religion be much greater than for Liberty of Conscience it would make one suspect that his chief design is to serve his Religion by it and this is no new invention but as old as the days of the Apostate Julian when the same method was taken to reinforce Paganism by Liberty of Conscience This was the last effort of dying Paganism may it be so of Popery too We know there was no talk of Liberty of Conscience till the Nobility and Gentry of the Church of England refused to take off the Test and then there was no other way left but to buy off the Penal Laws and Test with Liberty of Conscience which demonstrates that Liberty of Conscience is not the last End but only a Means in order to some further End and the Means is seldom valued when the End is obtained Men who can offer so much violence to their own Nature and the Principles of their Religion as to grant Liberty of Conscience which of all things they hate to procure a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws when that is done can easily find some occasion to pretend a forfeiture of this Liberty and to salve their Conscience and Honour together Penal Laws to keep men from damning themselves will be thought more merciful than Liberty of Conscience and the softness and tenderness of Nature must give place to a Bigottry in Religion and then we shall in vain wish for our old Penal Laws and Test again when we feel the more terrible smart of new ones Though it be told us that it hath always been his Majesties Persuasion that Conscience ought not to be forced I think that is no security because though this has always been his Principle yet it hath not always operated We know whose hand was most concern'd both in making and executing Penal Laws in the last Reign and if our Dissenters suffer'd so much then as they now complain of they know what they may suffer again notwithstanding these Principles for Liberty of Conscience for the same Principles obtain'd then as do now Upon the last withdrawing into Scotland notwithstanding those Principles the poor Scotch felt the severity of those Penal Laws with a witness and methinks it is not safe trusiing to such Principles as so often act by way of Antiparistasis and produce Effects quite contrary to their own Natures and however the Church of Rome may indulge such Principles now they are convenient to serve a present turn if the Scene ever alter this private Conscience will be thought as great Heresie as a private Judgment and whosoever now may own it must then be guided by the publick Conscience of the Church as well as by their Faith. There are so many surprising Circumstances in this whole matter as cannot but amaze a thinking Man that so fierce a Zeal should be now kindled for a Liberty of Conscience that a Liberty of Judgment will not be allowed but who ever will not concur in this Opinion must undergo the high displeasure whereas there can be no Liberty of Conscience without Liberty of Judgment And to be mortally angry with every man who is not of my Opinion is no good Preface to granting every Man a Liberty to think and act as he pleases If a Potentate should be so Zealous for Liberty of Conscience as to change all his old Antipathies and Friendships to receive his profess'd Enemies and Rebels into his bosom and cast off his tryed and Experienced Friends that he should forget all injuries and all kindnesses together this would be such an effect of a great passion for Liberty of Conscience as was never known before and when Causes do not work naturally we suspect some preternatural ingredients mixed with them That a Zeal against the Test and Penal Laws should be made a Test to the whole Nation and that not without severe Penalties too viz. The forfeiture of our Princes favour of all Places of Trust and Honour and incapacity to serve in Parliaments if they can prevent it or to be Members of any little Corporation That for the sake of Liberty of Conscience the whole Clergy must be forced to publish the Declaration though they declare it to be against their Consciences That the Archbishop and six of his Suffragans must be sent to the Tower for Petitioning for their own Liberty of Conscience and whither they must have gone next God knows unless they had been rescu'd by an Honest Jury That all those who did not read the Declaration are still threatned with Suspensions and Deprivatious Archdeacons and Chancellors commanded to turn Informers though almost all of them must inform against themselves for not reading or not sending the Declaration and all this while the Laws are on their side It is like to be a very terrible Liberty of Conscience when it is grown up into the Maturity and strength of a Law which like another Hercules can strangle all Laws and Liberties in its Cradle These things make me
Consciences of the Church of England Men and â—… the Foundation of our State If Mr. Pen â—… his Disciples had condemn'd the unlawfulness the Declarations and the Dispensing Power â—… they wrote so fast for Liberty of Conscience they had then shew'd a generous zeal for a just freedom in Matters of Religion and at the same â—… a due veneration to the Legislative Power Kings Lords and Commons but the secret of the â—… was to maintain and Erect a Prerogative â—… all Acts of Parliament and consequently to produce upon that bottom Tyranny and Popery yet â—… all this uncontroulable Power and â—… of Grandeur an Easterly Wind and a Fleet Fly-Boats would cancel and undo all again Our â—… Historians relate of King John that being some distress he sent Sir Tho. Hardington and â—… Sir Ralph Fitz-Nichols Ambassadours to â—… the great Emperour of Morocco with â—… of his Kingdom to him upon Condition he should come and aid him and that if he prevail'd â—… would himself turn Mahometan and renounce â—… I will not insist upon the violations of Laws and Treaties in the Low Countries or the Spanish â—… over them because the Spaniards have got so much by that Persecution and Cruelty that they might be tempted to practise the like again for forcing the Netherlanders to take up Arms for their defence and by necessitating Queen Elizabeth â—… and preserve them they have set up a â—… and Glorious State as they themselves have call'd them in some Treaties that hath preserv'd â—… languishing Monarchy of Spain and the Liberty of Christendim The base and cowardly Massacre of that great â—… William Prince of Orange of the Renowned â—… Coligny and the Prince of Conde the many bloody Conspiracies for the Extirpation of the whole Race of the House of Orange The Murders â—… Henry the 2d and Henry the 4th are all Rewards and everlasting Monuments of Popish Barbarity What incredible Effusion of Blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent revolts of the Popes against the Emperours by he Image-Worship and the Holy Wars What Treachery in the Bohemian Transactions and Treaties What Inhumanity burning Jerome of Prague and John Hus when they had the Emperours Pass and all other â—… securities from the Council it self that put to â—… those two Good Men. The Reign of Queen Mary is another Scene of the Infidelity and Treachery of the Church of Rome what Oaths did she take what Promises and Protestations did she make to the Suffolk Men who had set the Crown upon her head and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of a Persecution from Her. Read her History in Fox's Martyrs and Doctor Burnet's History of the Reformation The many Conspiracies to destroy Queen Elizabeth and King James the Gunpowder Plot the Counsels carried on in Popish Countries to take off King Charles the First and the many late Popish Plots are a continued Series and Thred carried on by the Church of Rome to break thro' all Laws both of God and Man to erect an Universal Monarchy of Priest-Crast and to bring the whole World under their Yoke The Sweeds have taken an effectual and commendable way to keep Popish Priests and Jesuits those â—… and disturbers of Societies the declared Enemies to the Welfare of Mankind out of their â—… by Gelding them and consequently rendring them incapable of Sacerdotal Functions tho' the Priests have found out a Salvo and will say Mass and Consess if they can procure their Testicles again and carry them in their Pockets either preserv'd or in Powder In aethiopia China and Japan the Roman Priests have been so intolerably turbulent and such extravagant Incendiaries that they have been often Banished and put to Death so that now they disguise themselves all over the Eastern Nations under the Names and Characters of Mathematicians Mechanicks Physicians c. and dare not own their Mission to propagate a Faith which is grown ridiculous all over Asia The long and dreadful Civil Wars of France the many Massacres and Persecutions and lastly the Siege of Rochel are living Instances how far we may rely upon Engagements and Laws both as to the taking of that Bulwark and the promised relief from hence The Protestant Defenders of it refusing to rely any longer upon Paper Edicts and the Word of a Most Christian King had this City granted them as a Cautionary Town for their Security for before they had always been deluded out of their Advantages by fair promises insignificant Treaties and the word of a King yet Lewis the 13. following the vitious Examples of Treacherous Princes fell upon this Glorious City which upon the account of their Laws and Priviledges made a resistance and brave defence having never heard of Passive Obedience amongst their Pastors thinking it more lawful to defend their Rights than it was for Lewis to invade them As for the late and present Reign here in England they are too nice and tender things for me to touch whether the Transactions of them are consistent with the Coronation-Oaths the many Declarations Protestations publick and solemn Promises I am no fit Judge they are more proper for the Gravity of an Historian or the Authority of a Parliament to handle than for a private Gentleman in a Letter to his Friend The Bishops Papers and the P. of Orange's Declarations are the best Memoirs of them but they only begin where the two parts of the History of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government left off and how far we may trust to Catholick Stipulations Oaths and Treaties the facts of past and the present Age are the best Criterions and Rules to guide and determine us for what happens every day will in all probability happen to morrow the same Causes always produce the same Effects and the Church of Rome is still the same Church it was a hundred years ago that is a Mass of Treachery Barbarity Perjury and the highest Superstition a Machine without any principle or setled Law of Motion not to be mov'd or stopt with the weights of any private or publick Obligations a Monster that destroys all that is sacred both in Heaven and Earth so Ravenous that it is never content unless it gets the whole World into its Claws and tears all to pieces in order to Salvation a Preteus that turns it self into all shapes a Chamelion that puts on all Colours according to its present circumstances this day an Angel of Light to morrow a Beelzehub Amongst all the Courts of Christendom where I have conversed that of Holland is the freest from Tricks and Falshood and tho' I am naturally jealous and suspitious of the Conduct of Princes yet I could never discover the least Knavery within those Walls it appear'd to me another Athens of Philosophers and the only Seat of Justice and Vertue now left in the World as for the Character of the Prince of Orange it is so faithfully drawn by Sir Will. Temple Doctor Burnet and in a half sheet