the same in Matters of Religion as well while that of our Princes and their Subjects was Pagan as afterwards when it became Christian Let us see then the Transition from the one Religion to the other in the Reigns of Lucius the First British and Ethelbert the First Christian King of the Saxons We find that in both our Kings acted without any controul of Laws as well in the relinquishing the long-established Pagan as in the reception of the Christian Religion And as our Kings were free so they kept their Subjects free from the Coaction of Laws in that Matter Particularly Venerable Beda relates of Ethelbert That having embraced the Christian Religion he could not but cast some more benign Aspect on such as were Converts with himself Yet so Bed. Histor Eccles ex Versione Abrahami Wheelock Vt nullum cogeret ad Christianisimum That there should be no Force upon the Consciences of his Subjects Didicerat enim à doctoribus auctoribusque suae salutis servitium Christi voluntarium non coactitium debere esse For that he had been taught of those who were the Authors of his Salvation That the Service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not of compulsion The Antient Jurisdiction of this Crown you may see by this was at that time free and whatever Laws were before established in favour of the Pagan Superstition and Persecution of Christians these Princes dispensed with them of their own Supreme Power next and immediately under God and so became Instruments of introducing the Blessed Means of Salvation and transmitting them to us their Posterity Which otherwise perhaps had not been so easily effected by a National or Parliamentary Concurrence at present But this Subject has been laboured by many great and learned in the Laws of this Realm to whom it especially belongs and to whom I refer those who desire further satisfaction This Antient Jurisdiction of the Crown the Second Canon measures by that which was claimed and exercised of the godly Kings of Judah and Christian Emperors of the Primitive Church How uncontrouled of any they exercised that Power who were Kings of Judah let their History in the Holy Scriptures teach you As for the Ancient Christian Emperors that they issued out Laws Ecclesisiastical by their Imperial Edicts and made Revocation of those Edicts as they pleased I think no Body will deny I know there was all the way of the Primitive Christianity another Spiritual Jurisdiction over Souls and even over the Emperors themselves as they were Sons of the Church for their Edification but no way intrenching on the Temporal Power even in Causes Ecclesiastical proper to such a Power When ever it made any attempt that way it was always checked by Christian Princes And is it to be believed that this Canon which was made with all the singular Laws and Statutes there mentioned for the abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to the same would not have been as sharp upon any upstart Power at Home and of His Majesties own Subjects repugnant to the same if they had been aware of any the least tendency then to such an Insolence Take an Instance in one of the most famous and first Emperor of the Christian Church Constantine the Great and let us see what kind of Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical the Canons of our Church give to our Kings in parallel to what was exercised by the Christian Emperors of the Primitive Church Thrice I think according to some Historians twice I am sure according to Valesius in the Appendix to his Latin Version of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History Constantine did dispense with the Imperial Laws by Indulgence and Toleration of the Donatists in Africa And for that purpose caused his Declaration of Indulgence to be published directed Vniversis Episcopis per Africam to all the Bishops throughout Africa as it is found extant among the Writings of Optatus and almost in the like words and for the like Reasons on which His Majesty issued out this His present Declaration of Liberty Some part of it I will therefore repeat Quod fides debuit quantum prudentia valuit prout puritas potuit tentasse me per omnia optimè scitis ut juxta Magisteria Legis nostrae Pax stabilita per omnem concordiam teneretâ— Sed quia vim illam scelâ—ris infusi intentionis nostrae ratio non potuit edoâ—nare expectandum nobis est dum totum hoc Omnipotentis Dei misericordia witigetur Verum dum Coelestis Medicina procedat hactenus sunt cencilia nostra Moderanda ut patientiam percolamus quidquid insolentia ilierum pro consuetudine intemperantiae tentat aut facit id omne tranquillitatis virtute toleremus nihil ex reciproco reponatur injuriae This Declaration of Indulgence had likewise the ill fortune of His present Majesties to be regrated by some of the Churchmen and the severity of the established Laws against the Donatists som what unwillingly restrained and Constantine by some of them particularly by Caecilianus Bishop of Carthage solicited to revoke his Letters of Indulgence whereupon says the Historian in the year 321. The Bishops on the part of Donatus put up their Petition also to the Emperor Poscentes ut libere ipsos agere sineret nec invitos adCommunionem Caeciliani cogere vellet Adding further that they never should either by Promises or Threats be induced to it and that they would rather dye a thousand deaths than to hold Communion with that Knave as they rudely styled the Bishop against their Consciences And here as the Historian goes on did most of all appear the Clemency of the Emperor that when he ought to have punished this impudence and insolence of the Donatists in calling their Archbishop Knave whose Innocency was well known and approved by Constantine himself Nihilominus ipsis quaecunque poscebant solita benignitate indulsit Nevertheless of his wonted Benignity he Granted what Indulgence they desired issuing out to Verinus his Vicarius Vicar-General in Africa a Rescript signifying his pleasure that the Donatists should be recalled from Banishment Monensque ut proprio eos dâ—mittat arbitrio ac furorem eorum Deo vindici reservet c. All this Constantine did by the Virtue of that Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical which the Godly Kings had among the Jews and the Christian Emperors of the Primitive Church and which says the Canon further is the Regal Supremacy of this Crown and by the Laws of this Realm therein established Now if the Church of England be the same it was then you see by what measures we are to Govern ourselves in the present Affair Dr. Taylor late Bishop of Downe and Connor I think was a Man who understood how far a Church of England Loyalty ought to extend as any Man this day of it He says plainly in his Ductor Dubitantium Vol. 2. lib. 3. p. 148. That the Supreme Power is above the Laws that he can dispense with Laws he can interpret them and he can
easily seen whither you would drive us If you are as you pretend your self a Son of that Church an unspotted Loyalty has hitherto been accounted Her indeleble Character I am sorry to find so little of it in your Letter you have by it outdone the subtilty and cruelty of all Her Enemies Never was so deadly a stroke given nor so natural and effectual to Her Ruine as that which you commend to us for the only method of saving Her. I am charitably minded you have done this nevertheless of a good Intent crowded along with the zealous Hurry of a Popular Mistake And the rather because I see your Letter makes a better ending than a beginning and that notwithstanding your positiveness all the way you are not so satisfied in your own Reasonings but you relent at last into that good Nature and Temper which for your Honour I will Remark in your own Words thus This Sir is our Case in short the difficulties are great on both Sides and therefore now if ever we ought to Besiege Heaven with our Prayers for Wisdom Counsel and Courage c. To clear then the difficulties which you acknowledge in this Case I shall apply my self touching upon the most material parts of your Letter Our Enemies you say who have given our Gracious King this Council against us have taken the most effectual way not only to Ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude we have undone our Selves and fall like Fools By our Enemies I conceive you can mean no other than the Kings Friends whom I believe no further our Enemies than what amounts to a bare Se Defendendo Where they meet us in opposition to what necessarily conduces to the preservation of Themselves their Lives their Fortunes you must not blame them but the common instinct of Nature that they are so far our Enemies In all other Cases they are our Friends beyond our Expectations Enemics short I am sure of our Fears and of what was heretofore in publick Print our own Character and Prospect of a Popish Successor As for the Free and Undisturbed Exercise of our Religion our Churches our Revenues our Dignities we enjoy them all And we have further the Kings Gracious Offer of whatsoever other Assurances we can excogitate against our Fears and Jealousies lest they should not continue I know no cause of this great Out-cry against the King and His Friends on account that they are our Enemies nor where we are hurt unless by the holding our Hands from flying at one anothers Throats We are enabled by these Laws so soon as we may to let loose our too prurient Rage one upon the other but especially upon the Kings Friends whom we I think therefore call our Enemies We can hardly forbear already and aloud to foretell what must become of them afterwards what Gibbets and Axes and Confiscations are provided for them for His Majesties Commissioners Judges Military Officers Papists in Mascarade and out of Mascarade and whoever else have not dared to deny their Obedience to His Majesties Moral Commands or to leave him Solitary and Destitute of Servants to Guard and Attend him What else means this our so tenacious sticking to these Undoing and Sanguinary Laws And how pitifully are the Claws hid of such as pretend them to be the only possible expedient of their own Security Now to repress the violent and blind Zeal of such Men for the Established Laws without abatement or allowance of any thing to the Vicissitude which the Providence of God has made among us from a Protestant to a Prince of the Catholick Communion is I assure my self all His Majesty designs by His Endeavor to get our good Will toward the remove of the Test and Penal Laws And if I thought any Clergy of the Church of England or other of that Communion compliant with the King in this his charitable undertaking should suffer in the least Hair of his Head or lose by it any the least Liberty becoming a Christian to own in such a Juncture I should not have opened my Mouth to have been an Advocate in this Cause And whosoever thinks otherwise if he consider he will find he cannot do it without Reflection of most vile ill Names upon his Majesties Honour and Blaspheming the Sacredness of his Royal Promise So that Sir I think you might have spared His Majesties Friends and His Council and have allowed them a milder Character than our Enemies and such as seek our Ruine by that Name exposing them in the very Head of your Letter to the Rage and Odium of the People who are so far from being Enemies to us that themselves are the Persons in distress and danger from us And having now a time to Speak do request of us without any injury to our selves that we will please to remove no other but those Laws to which not only their Fortunes but their Lives lay every Hour Obnoxious and only for serving God according to their Consciences and their King at his Command according to their natural Allegiance But these Enemies of ours since you will have them so you note further and to our greater misfortune to be of that base and ignoble kind as having us in their Claws they must divert themselves a little in Play with us as the Cat does with the Mouse before they devour us our Gracious King the while looking on and so comes in the business of the Declaration The Reading of which in our Churches and Chapels you intimate to be contrived as it were for nothing in the World but to make our Enemies Sport For the main work of our Undoing you account is over and the trick of this Declaration no other Than while themselves are the Authors to make us appear nevertheless the Instruments of our own Ruine In good earnest Sir and is this the likeliest reason you could Excogitate Had you but a little of what St. Paul tells us thinketh no evil that would have suggested to you some more charitable account of His Majesties together with his Councils proceeds in this Affair If you had not been so hasty as to take what lay uppermost in a Mind possest with Passion and Prejudice you might have thought of that His Majesty Himself publishes in the front of His Declaration in these words Our Conduct has been such in all times as ought to have perswaded the World that We are firm and constant to Our Resolutions Yet that easie People may not be abused by the Malice of crafty wicked Men We think fit to declare That Our Intentions are not changed since the Fourth of April 1687. when We issued out Our Declaration for Liberty of Conscience How the easie People have been wrought upon since that time to lessen their Opinion of His Majesties Sincerity in that Declaration is too notorious And what Insinuations of the daily progress
Consent nor Read. Nevertheless the Basis or Ground-work on which you Rear the whole Superstructure of your Letter is a supposition That no Minister of the Church of England can give his Consent to the Declaration What! Not to a thing in which if there be any Fault it is of his own making Is our thinking some one way some the other enough to turn the Scale so as what were otherwise no fault at all becomes presently contrary to the Laws of God and Laws of the Land as you say afterward Point to that matter of the Declaration which cannot be approved by a Minister of the Church of England on account of its being contrary to or prohibited by the Laws of God. This indeed would make it matter of Conscience which to render it the more odious you here and there slily suggest without offering at the least mannâ—â— of Proof for you know well enough there is none His Majesty by this 〈◊〉 Declaration requires us to signifie to His People a method which in this juncture he Judges most expedient to be taken for the securing the Crown and the Persons of our Kings from those apparent Dangers to which they have been frequently exposed by our Dissentions in matters of Religion and for the common Peace and Good of all His Subjects Some approve it and some do not according as their Humour their Interest or their Parts serve and as ordinarily Mens Censures pass on other Affairs of State. But so to Reprobate it as a Mulum in se as a Pest to the Publick as an Abomination and Prophanation of our Churches and not fit to be heard by Christian Ears is such a hard straining of the case as brings along with iâ— the very dregs of Passion and Party We cannot approve of the matter of it you say it may be so Men doâ—câ— always disapprove or deny their Consent to what is proposed because it is evil but because they have no mind to it and so the consequence will be applying it to the matter in Hand That the Authority of His Majesty over a Minister of the Church of England does not to extend so far as to injoyn him to Read the Declaration when he has no mind to it For I doubt there is with a great many more of Stomach in the refusal than Conscience but this not to appear above board One thing though I perceive you have a great mind to which is that we would grant you your supposition before you prove it namely That no Minister of the Church of England can give Consent to the Declaration and then let you alone to make good your Inference that he cannot Read it Now Sir I do not think you have us so much upon the Hanck as you imagine should I grant your Supposition But I see you care not whither we do or no for you presently fall hot upon the Work to prove the Conclusion Ergo He cannot Read for that is interpretative Consent Now for my part I confess to you I turn over the Leaf knowing how many soever your Arguments be to prove it they would not satisfie me nor I think any reasonable Man till he see first how well bottom'd your Hypothesis be from which you borrow your Inference I would fain see your Reasons first Why a Minister of the Church of England cannot Consent before I grant what you are so hasty to suppose Why that I shall by and by but you will prove first That Reading is Consenting Reading is Teaching which is as odd an Hysteron Proteron as Hanging and Trying afterwards Let Reading be Consenting or not Consenting without troubling your self till I hear whether I may Consent or Not. Wherefore I must beg your Favour to let me depart from your method and turn over two or three Pages further to examine your Reasons wherefore we cannot Consent 1. Your first is That it is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound to teach nothing contrary to it so long as this Obligation lasts The Constitution of the Church of England as it is now a Protestant Church distinct from what it was before consists in various Acts of Parliament made especially in the beginning of the Reformation But I know of no Subscriptions required of the Clergy to such Acts of Parliament There is a Book intituled Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical Treated upon by the Bishop of London c. Anno Domini 1603. Which Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical are in Number CXLI These I think you must mean by your saying to which you have subscribed But you have not pleased to tell us against which of them it is we offend by Reading the Kings Declaration So that this Argument does nothing but lead us into a Wood and there leave us to be lost Is there any Constitution or Canon Ecclesiastical which bars the King from extending Clemency even to His Dissenting Subjects where He sees a reasonable and honourable Occasion for it Much less where the Necessity of His Affairs drive Him to it His Honour His Conscience the Preservation of Himself and His Friends and the common Peace of all I dare trust King JAMES the First for that without troubling my self to look over all the Hundred and Forty One Canons He had more King-craft than to part with such a Jewel out of the Crown to adorn the Crosier of the Church of England The Constitution you mention here is to what you have subscribed you say By the 36 Canon Subscription is required not to the whole Book but only to three Articles in that Canon mentioned By the first We acknowledge the Kings Supremacy By the second The lawful use of the Common-Prayer By the third An Allowance is made of the 39 Articles Upon any of which I cannot imagine how you ground your Reason wherefore we cannot consent to the Declaration unless you had told us If you were to prove the contrary from these Constitutions there seems to be something accommodate for your purpose in the first and second Canons All Archbishops Bishops c. are obliged by the first to keep and observe all and singular the Laws made for restoring to the Crown of this Kingdom the Antient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical Which Antient Jurisdiction in the Second Canon is resembled to the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical which the godly Kings had among the Jews and Christian Emperors of the Primitive Church Now if the Parallel run so high as to the Antient Jurisdiction of this Crown how Antient does it mean Certainly before any pretence of the Invasion of it by the Bishop of Rome Wherefore that being a Work too big for a Letter I will give but one or two Instances and those so far back as to be out of suspicion of any such Foreign Invasion The Government or Jurisdiction of this Crown if inherent in it was and of right ought to be
Persons yet still left standing within the Verge of the King's Command and the Subjects Obedience For by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and by a natural Allegiance to our Sovereign and Union to him as Members to our Politique Head we are bound to obey the King not only in all instances Legal but in all matters not Illegal Of which nature are all things neither forbidden by God nor by such Persons as have the sufficient and plenary Authority to do the same according to the Fundamental Laws and Constitution of this Monarchy And of that nature is the Dispensing Power which the Kings of England have always claimed to have over the Laws of their own or of their Predecessors Enacting in all such Emergencies as with the change of Times and Circumstances they become destructive and noxious as first and principally to the Head so to the other parts which make up together with Himself the whole Body Politique It is ordinary for some discontented Persons discountenanced at Court displaced from Office defeated in their Expectations c. to draw a Parry along with them or to sute themselves to one formed to their hands and by these especially in Parliaments to shew their resentments by their perverseness and crossness to the King's Affairs which nevertheless may be and are for the most part frustrated without any considerable detriment to the Publick through the wise Constitution of this Kingdom which soon leaves these weak and spiteful Efforts to turn to nothing but froth and bubble wanting the Support and Authority of the Royal Assent But how disingenious and disagreeing to Men especially of our Order is it to rake into the ashes of such long since departed Feuds and Factions and to raise up again what Time and Oblivion had buried to serve us in this Cause against the King. If we measure and form our Obedience by such Precedents and make such Votes of Parliament serve instead of Laws when our Interest wants them What hints will others be apt to take from our examples and perhaps when they want a better Reason for their Disobedience to remember the King of that Vote of Parliament which Declared The Legality of excluding Him from the Inheritance and Succession to the Crown Or that which Declared All those to be reputed and taken as Enemies to Parliaments who should lend the King any Money And yet suchas this is the best Authority you produce for us to depend upon and to justifie our present manage against His Majesty before God and the World. Well what is it then the Parliament as you call it in 72. Declared illegal Why an Vniversal and Vnlimited Toleration you say was that all The extent and latitude of the Indulgence then Granted against which they excepted I believe it was rather the Authority on which it was founded if an Universal and Unlimited Toleration be all against which you except From whom or what part of the Dissenters would you have His Majesty withdraw his Indulgence to make it ever the more Legal on your Principle to the rest I doubt your Parliament of 72. would not have thanked you for this But let that pass among your other Inconsistencies with yourself into which I perceive you often unwarily fall Whatever was done then here I am sure His Majesty by express words in the Declaration is so far from excluding His Parliament from their share either in the Authority of passing it into a Law or of the Wisdom and Council to be used within what Latitude or Limits to bound it as he refers all to the Concurrence of His two Houses in Parliament As for the Universality and Unlimitedness of the Toleration if that so much offend you and that you and your Parliament of 72. place all your Illegality of the King's Indulgence there I hope you will have content with a little patience there shall be no Toleration of Vice of Blasphemy and Immorality and Profanation of the Lords day as I hear some complain there is none I am sure intended now However the Toleration at present is to be accounted on that score but in the nature of an Interim or Suspension as the State of things will permit till such a meeting of the King with his Parliament for a further Regulation But this Reason is not done with yet for such a Toleration is not only declared Illegal by the Parliament of 72 but condemned by the Church in all Ages I wonder Sir how you come so Heterogenously here to yoke together the Parliament of 72 and the Christian Church of all Ages I should have thought that would have sorted better with a part of it self the Church of England Sir do you know of any unkindness between them that having in your first Reason so fair an occasion to have brought them in and have set them down by our own Church as both agreeing in the same Sentiment You have rather chose to place them in the Parliament of 72 as if they were Members of that but that I could forgive you if you had not proceeded with Representing them Falsly to have condemned such a Toleration in all Ages as the King has Granted by His present Declaration If you did but use your self a little more to Think before you Write it would have been obvious to you from the account the Scriptures give of the First Age that you had stumbled at the Threshold Our Saviour himself the Head of the Church gave an early check to that manner of Spirit As for the descending Ages of the Church I have given you under the Head of your first Reason some account how matters stood in the Age of Constantine with respect to Toleration and refer you further to other Pens who have industriously treated on this Subject and have sufficiently shewed your Error If you mean that the Christian Church in all Ages did never so Tolerate Dissenters from Her declared Doctrines as not to note and discover them and expose them to her Anathema's I grant you all this In Gods Name let not the Church spare Her Censures The Declaration pretends not to take from them any thing of their own I mean their Spiritual Power but only to Suspend such Temporal Penalties as belong to him only to inflict Which is a thing so far from being condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages that the first three Ages were merely Passive themselves and as in no disposition so in no condition to inflict Temporal Penalties upon others In the three following Ages indeed when the Emperors themselves became Christians they had not only the favour and protection of the Laws for themselves but the Civil Sword also sometimes turned upon their Adversaries but this was precarious only and of special Grace and Favour for which they were Thankful and not pretended a standing and unalterable Law by which Princes were bound to it whether they would or no and with whatsoever hazard of their Persons disturbance of their Governments or regret to
Parliament put into a Remonstrance and Presented to Charles the First was Frequent Dissolution of Parliaments Raising of Ship-money Suspensions Excommunications and Degradations of divers Painful Learned Pious Ministers c. There comes in at last a Complaint of His Chaplains and other Ministers of the Church of England Preaching before the King against the Liberty and Property of the Subject and for the Prerogative of the King above the Law. What will the World say of us while they see us blow hot and cold out at the same Mouth For my part I beleive the scratch is now where it don't itch Prerogative is not the thing does so much aggreive us If it happened to be on our side as we apprehend it now against us we should like Prerogative well enough If we had liv'd in those days what should we have though of such a Prerogative-Indulgence from Queen Mary in the behalf of Her Protestant Subjects from the Penal and Sanguinary Laws then established by Parliament Would we not have dared to own it to publish it in our Churches and Chapels till we had Authority of Parliament for it Would we have deserted and opposed so gracious a Queen and stroke into a Confederacy with the concurring Opinions of the Nobility and Gentry That to take away-the Penal Laws at that time would be but one step from the introducing of Protestancy I do not find the Clergy at all aggrieved at the Dispensing Power when at any time serving for the Interest of the Protestant Religion For instance When King Edward the Sixth by his mere Prerogative disposed of the Crown for that Reason to the Lady Jane most expresly contrary to a late establish'd Law passed in Parliament whereby the Crown was entailed on the Children of Henry the Eighth of which Mary and Elizabeth were both surviving it was so far from a daring not to do it till we had Authority of Parliament for it and from scrupling the Teaching of that which alters what has been formerly Thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom That Doctor Ridley Bishop of London by Order of the Council Preached a Sermon on purpose at Pauls-Cross to set forth the Title of the Lady Jane and to justifie the proceedings of the King and Council in that Affair Doctor Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury was one of the Principal in the Council and most of the rest of the Bishops and Clergy complied with and approved of it and commended it to their People Nor were the Nobility and Gentry averse from it After Queen Elizabeth by the same Established Laws the Succession of the Crown was to pass to Mary Queen of Scots but she being a professed Catholick what intrigues were driven to exclude Her in favour of the Protestant Religion and also Her Son James the First of England yet in his Infancy and probably enough supposed to bring with him His Mothers Religion Did not the Parliament offer to the Queen I cannot tell but it passed to an Act to enable Her to nominate Her Successor to the Crown Was not this to alter what had been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom Did not Charles the First the Protestant Martyr authorise the Canons of the Convocation 1640 by His Prerogative-Royal the Bishops and Clergy rightly asserting and espousing His Authority and Power in that matter nevertheless for the Parliaments declaring at the same time the Illegality of the thing and That it was against the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom So that it is not so much the Parliament of 72 nor the Constitution of the Church and Kingdom but somthing else in the Wind which makes us so off the Hooks with Prerogative and Dispensing Power at this time something we fear which I am confident upon the Integrity of His Majesties promise we have no cause to Fear But since you have so rudely jogg'd Prerogative for nothing in the World that I can see but happening to stand in your way at this time I will try a little of my skill as well as I can to defend it Treating first of the King 's Dispensing Power in general And Secondly of the exercise of it in this particular Instance which is the matter of the Declaration 1. In General That such a Power of dispensing with the Laws at least in the interim of Parliaments be lodged somewhere is grounded upon the same reason as of making Laws which is for the common good Salus populi est Suprema Lex Laws abstract from the Sanctions whereby they are injoyn'd are nothing else but Provisions made as at the first so on every arising occasion of promoting the common Good and consequently of averting any prospect of evil But for Parliaments in which so great a number of Men are employed and at so great a charge as that must be to the Nation to Sit continually watching and waiting upon such contingent occasions were almost as intolerable as any other evil the Laws would prevent Somtimes Laws Salutary and fitting to the juncture wherein they were made with some unexpected Providence Vicissitude or other un-thought Emergency change their nature and become noxious Besides that many Evils even pernicious and destructive to Common-wealths are somtimes so sudden and impendent as the Remedy would come too late in that way Somtimes of that nature that as nothing but dispatch so nothing but Secresie can avert them Somtimes so fixed in a popular mistake and misunderstanding as nothing but Time and Reasoning can make the discovery and generally enough dispose the Nation to consent to a Remedy And what must the Publick suffer perhaps an intolerable Evil or an irrepairable Ruin for want of applying an extraordinary Remedy in such Emergent cases That it is not expedient only but necessary for the publique Good that a Trust be reposed somwhere to make provision for the security of the whole Poplitique Body in such grand Emergencies and to judge of the matter and of the means proper for averting the Evil I think is by no body denied Whether it be so in our written Laws it makes no matter I am sure he that runs may read it in the original Prototype of all Laws which is right Reason even in the Fundamental Laws and Constitution of this Kingdom and all other Human Societies The Parliament of 41. could see a dispensing Power thus far thô they could not or which is blinder would not see to set the Saddle on the right Horse It is resolved say they by both Houses that in this case of extreme danger and of His Majesties refusal the Ordinance agreed upon by both Houses for the Militia doth oblige the People by the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom It being so then that by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom written or unwritten such a Dispensing Power with the present establish'd Laws is necessary at some times to be interposed I know not nor do I believe that any one else can tell me where it
Parliament will find some Temper that no restraint or oppression shall for the future be laid upon the Consciences of our Kings by our Laws their Consciences as I said being much more concerned and aggreived in the Execution of such Penal Laws and Tests by their Authority then ours can be who pretend that for the cause wherefore we cannot comply with His Majesties Proposals for the taking them off This I have said to justifie His Majesty in the present use of his Prerogative as the necessary Salvo for His Conscience in this Conjuncture With His Conscience I further intimated a care to be taken for the preserving his Honour and that by his Prerogative dispensing with such Laws as by any new emergency contrary to their Primary intention do interpose and cast a cloud upon it Honour in Noble much more in Royal Personages is by our Laws ratable at the value of Conscience what therefore they declare upon their Honour is Equivalent to what Persons of a less Honourable degree declare upon their Oath But above all the Honour of our Kings is a most inestimable Jewel of their Crowns and Standard of their Government it is upon the account of that that their Subjects are disposed to revere and obey them to love them to confide in them to repose in them the trust of all they are and have and with their Lives and Fortunes to serve them Upon which account it is having so great an interest in the Government and well being of Mankind in their respective Societies and so great an Influence upon Subjects to ingage them to a quiet and tractable compliance with the wise consults of their Subjects hence I say it is that God himself is concerned for their Honour commanding in His Holy Scriptures that as we Fear God so we should Honour the King. Let me note to you further that our Laws are for these great Reasons so tender of the Honour of Kings as they will endure no attainder upon them but so soon as from Subjects they become Kings whatever attainder was before upon them from the Laws it falls of it self because otherwise the Laws lose their main end laying a blot upon his Honour and lessening his esteem with his People from which does naturally arise many intolerable Evils to the Government And for the same reason whatever Person is Convict of an attempt to Alienate from our Kings the Affections of their Liege People are looked on as Traitors and reputed such as do therein subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and if we follow the reason of the thing for doubtless upon that the Law is Grounded as any Person so any matter or thing which tends to Alienate from the King the Affections of his Liege People is by parity of Reason to be removed In short that which we call the Test however agreeable it might be to the present Circumstances in which it was made yet now as Circumstances are by the Divine Providence changed the continuing of it does reflect such Dishonour upon His Majesty as does evidently tend to alienate from Him the Affections of His Liege People and that two ways 1. As insinuating Him to be a Conspirator against the Life and Crown of His late Majesty in that which was called the Damnable Hellish and Popish Plot. And 2. As implying Him an Idolater against God the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth First That the Test was made against the Roman Catholicks on presumption that they were generally ingaged in or one way or other Abettors of that then reputed Horrid Plot I think is too plain to be fairly denied If you object That His Sacred Majesty then Duke of York was Himself exempted from that Test and so it could not reflect upon him I answer Never the less for that Nothing more served their Purposes of that Conjuncture than that subtle-seeming Tenderness of the Duke For they knew His Majesties Love and Confidence in His Royal Brother was not yet shaken enough and that to have but named Him among the other Roman Catholicks at that time had certainly obviated the Kings Royal Assent to that Act. The Game was then but to extort from the King by force or gain by surprize what they might easily convert to the Dukes Disadvantage afterward For the Test being put upon all bearing Office throughout the Kingdom for the discovery of the Professors of that Religion on suspicion and suggestion to the People that they were all in that Conspiracy and the Duke being known to be of that Religion every one knew how to draw the Conclusion though the Duke were excepted to please the good King but especially when Matters were afterward intrigued to that pass that they dared openly to bring against Him a Bill of Exclusion in the High Court of Parliament and infaming Him at the same time all over the Kingdom with Libels of the most black and horrid import that Craft and Malice together could suggest Whatever was in the Design it is manifest enough in the Event that the first imposing of this Test and diffusing it through the whole Kingdom did universally ferment a disgust and prejudice against Him and cast a Dishonour upon Him and was a Method and Disposition to the Exclusion-Bill which followed while He was yet Duke But now He is by the Grace of God King of England c. the continuing of the same and the frequent occasion of using and renewing it must necessarily continue renew and fasten in His Subjects Minds the same preconceived prejudice which cannot be without Alienation of the Affections of His Liege-People from Him and consequently not only incumber and make His Government unwieldable in His Hand but also shrewdly hazard a Dissolution of it and be a continual Spring of many Evils against all which the keeping up of this Test still and putting that alone into the Ballance I think must appear to any thinking Man lighter than Vanity And yet much more when this malicious Suggestion against the King and others of His Religion is by the same Votaries to this Test for the most part acknowledged to be nothing but Sham and Illusion Cheat and Villany It were to be supposed in generous Equity that all those who had on that account suffered in their Fortunes and their Honour their Innocency being cleared should be also now cleared of the Laws respecting them on that account and that some other expedient might be excogitated so to secure us and our Religion as might not expose innocent Persons to Dishonor and Ruine How should we expect God should bless it to us and make us safe by such an unjust security Unjust I say and especially to so Great and Sacred a Person as our Prince Why do we suffer any thing to remain which may intimate and insinuate to His Liege People such a false Suggestion and dishonourable Imputation and still further impress upon their Minds so odious a Character as in this Test if not by design yet by
with this Power That it is no where wiser and safer lodg'd than in the King. That therefore we must acquiesce in His judgment when it is seasonable to use it That nevertheless for our satisfaction the Reasons which His Majesty has given in that Declaration of His which we refuse to Read are very clear and cogent for the putting in practice His Prerogative at this time But you say further We cannot Consent nor Read. For that is to recommend to out People the choice of such Persons as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry have Declared their Judgment against This is an Argument not from the force of Reason but Example which may be right or wrong as it happens and we have no way to assure us when it is and when it is not but by putting it to the touchstone of Reason which being done already till I see those Reasons answer'd I have no more to say but Magis amica Veritas Passing this over therefore as nothing new but only a scrape to the Nobility and Gentry you say next rather than nothing almost the same over again viz. That it is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the world to them next a good Conscience that is The Favour of their Prince and a great many Honourable and Profitable imployments with it rather than consent to the Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing If the same Proposal had been made to us as to the Worthy Patriots that is Whether we would give our Votes in Parliament for taking off the Test and Penal Laws then you had rightly taken an Argument a simili for our suffering like them rather than consenting which is the thing you pretend to do but very inconsiderately for our Case is not like theirs Nor will the Great and Worthy Patriots Thank you for bringing them to parallel and patronize your Disobedience to His Majesties plain Command when the Consent they were asked to give was only to a Proposal and so can imply no Disobedience if they did not consent If His Majesty had asked no more of them than he does of us which is to publish His Declaration they would never have forfeited His Majesties Favour for that nor their Honourable and profitable Imployments For how I pray came His Majesties Declaration the first time published I suppose it must be communicated to others so as to pass all over the Nation through many Hands of Officers of the Gentry and of the Nobility too for any thing you know and of such as nevertheless did stop perhaps at the Proposal of taking off the Test and Penal Laws and so are you left free to do if you please for all your Reading and as free are all those that hear you You proceed next to the evil consequences which may follow your Reading It would make our Ministry contemptible you say which must by no means be admitted right or wrong for ought I see A Minister must look to please and humour the Mobile or all his Counsels Exhortations Preachings Writings are nothing worth For St. Paul has said Tit. 2.15 Let no man despise thee That is well enough argued against Authority in a matter where we see the People as hot and as forward as ourselves But now if we were to Teach the People as you call it by Reading the Act of Vniformity the Book of Homilies or the Book of Common Prayer or any thing else not so relishing or by which we are like to get the Ill-will and Contempt of the People Why it is but putting on our Nose of Wax again with a bent on the other side then by honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as deceivers and yet true 2 Cor. 6.8 Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the Truth If your business were only ad captandum populum this might serve but whereas you wish us so to behave ourselves that no Man despise us It will concern us who are Clergy-men and Scholars not to appear to all Men of Sense such silly and despicable Animals as you seem to take us for by thinking to impose upon us with such pitiful Sophistry as this For Sir Is the thing evil or is it not If it be as somtimes you are in the mind contrary to the Laws both of God and Man do but prove this as soundly to us as you have said it temerariously and we are as much at a point for not recommending it to our People as you though they should despise us for it never so much But if it be not evil in itself as forgetting your Theme in another place you had almost slipped out in these words It may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration If I say there be perhaps no fault but only a popular misprision in it to make some Men despise us by the same reason we should not read the Book of Canons as we are bound every year nor an Homily nor the Book of Common-Prayer itself Your next Reason is that it will effectually tend to the ruine of the Church of England And why Because it will provoke or misguide all the friends it has What the Reading it and nothing else A Man had as good be a keeper of Bears as of such Friends who will be so easily provoked As for the King no body cares how much he be provoked though he be most able by His Power and obliged by His Sacred Promise to Protect us from ruine And if we once disoblige Him from that I fear we shall find it beyond the Power of the Nobility and Gentry to protect and maintain us so far as he has ingag'd Himself in this so provoking Declaration supposing His Majesty false and treacherous to His Royal Word and Promise you have said somthing on this Argument and truly he who should be over solicitous in answering it would but seem to be so too Wherefore you may run for me to the end of your Rope with the rest of your harangue on this reason It is all set on a false bottom which is Answer enough Your Objection comes next of some who should say These are Consequences but conjectural and not absolutely necessary It may be the Reading of it will not so effectually tend to the Churches ruine To which you Answer They are not indeed such effects in respect of certainty as arise from natural Causes but they are as morally certain as any thing can be Good Sir then do us the Favour but to hear them made out almost as evident Demonstrations as you have promised us let us see this Moral Certainty Moral Effects must have Moral Causes Is not the Kings a Moral Promise and may not a
A LETTER FROM A Clergy-Man in the Country TO The Clergy-Man in the City Author of a late Letter to his Friend in the Country SHEWING The Insufficiency of his Reasons therein contained for Not Reading the DECLARATION By a Minister of the Church of England LICENSED Aug. 15. 1688. In the Savoy Printed by Edw. Jones and Published by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1688. TO My Brethren of the Clergy IN THE COUNTRY SIRS WHat I here present you is written with an hearty desire to serve you How you will accept it I know not I have been by some suspected and by others called Papist for nothing but now and then talking what is contained in this Book which when you read you will find just so impertinently as you all of the Loyal Clergy were called so heretofore when you offered to speak but a word in Vindication of the Rights and Prerogative of CHARLES the Second against the Popular Misprisions of those Days It is not the Religion but the Kings late Declaration is the Subject of this Discourse When the Order came first out and was read in the Gazettes I was frequently in the Company of divers Clergy-Men and once with a great concourse of them happening just about that time to be met together on a Publick Occasion The thing was talked but no Man that I heard made any scruple of Reading it as we were commanded But soon after we were attacked with a Letter from a Clergy-Man of the City which of a sudden enlightned our Vnderstandings and let us see how dull our Country Apprehensions were Alas till then we could espy nothing in it against our Consciences against our Oaths against the Laws both of God and Man and to the utter and unavoidable Ruine of our Church I was somewhat ashamed for my self and the rest of my Country-Brethren that we should all Balk this same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the City-Divine This made me cast my Eye over the Declaration again with a survey also of his Letter The result of my Thoughts on both is contained in these following Sheets That Loyalty towards my King which from my Childhood I sucked in and from the Breasts of our Mother the Church of England and which I think can never be eradicated in me has made me wonder at this which seems to me Lâ—vity of so many of the Clergy in this Matter Our first Thoughts were very sudden Let us stay a little and consider with our second Thoughts If I have herein done any thing which may be serviceable to you for that purpose I think I have served God and my King withal and am Your Loving Brother A LETTER FROM A Clergy-Man in the Country TO The Clergy-Man in the City Author of a late Letter to his Friend in the Country SHEWING The Insufficiency of his Reasons therein contained for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Shall as freely and as friendly communicate my Thoughts to you concerning the Matter and Attempt of your Letter as you have professed to do the same to your Friend in the beginning of it and for the same Reason you add namely That this is not a time to be reserved Though with respect to His Majesty and His Affairs of State perhaps there never was more Reason and Prudence of our being reserved in this Juncture Yet with respect to this Attempt in which you would engage the whole Clergy with your unhappy Self and communicate your Contagion in the City to us of the Country it is otherwise Like the dumb Son of Croesus this would make a Son of the Church of England now speak who never spake before to see that fatal Stab which by this Letter and Discourses of this kind is aim'd at the very Heart of his Mother and that Doctrine by which she would signalize Her self among other Christian Churches owning Her King next and immediately under God in all Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Her Supreme Head and Governor You have Sir in this your Letter as an unnatural Member risen up against your Head charged your Dread Sovereign with the breach of the Laws both of God and Man You have rendred Him a Person not fit to be trusted a Person deceitful and designing the Ruine at the same time of those He has promised to protect and maintain You have kicked against His Sacred Authority and Power to which God has commanded every Soul on pain of Damnation to be subject and you have attempted to draw the whole Clergy into the same Disobedience and Damnation with your self and that in an Instance so trifling as makes us at once the Wonder and Derision of such Foreign Ambassadors as are now resident in the English Court whose report to their Masters of such an unprecedented Insolence in us will alarm all other Princes to a watchful Jealousie over Men of our Order throughout the Christian World. As for the most Reverend the Archbishop and the Right Reverend the Bishops concerned with him in this Matter The fear and doubt the haste and surprize the Industry and Vigilancy of a Party discontented and subtile to step in and for their Interest to blow the Coals of this Contest then the Clamours and Threats of a Popular Faction the false Friends the incessant Sollicitations giving them rest neither Day nor Night the crafty laying hold of a new Matter aliene from the first viz. The Defence of their Peerage c. may excuse à tanto our Reverend Fathers who unhappily fell under these Temptations And much more the recoil which I have heard is since upon the Consciences of some of them for what has fallen out on this occasion contrary to their Expectations But as for you and the rest of us to whom you direct your Letter being under no such Temptations and having more Time and Repose and none of those Impediments of advising better with our selves and our Friends and the after Wisdom also of reflecting upon the Evils which have already ensued and the many others like to spring out of this Root I think our more prudent charitable and Christian Course should now have been and I am credibly informed it is the advice of the Bishops themselves in stead of further inflaming to cast Water upon this Fire which is so unhappily kindled between us and our Gracious King. None of them have yet published in Print any thing of their Manage and Conduct of this Business against the King and I hope never will how much soever they are sollicited to do it They had rather as it seems not have been necessitated to own what was produced in Court as their Address or Petition to His Majesty in this Matter and I believe do give their Blessings rather to those Sons who cover than expose their Fathers Nakedness Wherefore I have some cause to think you are no Advocate of their imploying you are of too hot a Head and too much on the Lash to be theirs or our Charioter at this time It is