and Men were so fully perswaded Nor are the Archives of our Senate destitute of Examples which being nearer ally'd to our Case are beyond Exception Among these that I may omit the dispensation which was lately afforded to the Quakers we have a proper instance in the Reign of the last King Charles when notwithstanding all the Tests Oaths and declaratory Provisions which were in true Prudence enjoyn'd in order to our Security against the encroachments of the Court of Rome and the design of her busie Emissaries Mr. John Huddleston for one approved act of Loyalty was excused the Obligation and discharg'd the Penalties of the Statute And therefore since in this World there is no exact perfection in the greatest Councils the most important Affairs of State being sometimes perform'd in such Rapid and Critical haste that 't is impossible to consult every particular Circumstance we readily acknowledge that if the Convention had among their many other serious and mature Performances copyed out any thing in favour to the Bishops as they would have introduced no new Custom so had we not been at the Labour of an Address I could add more but I choose rather to take up with the Rule prescribed by a great Casuist another learned Prelate of the Church * Bishop Taylors Rule and Exercise of holy Living Ch. p. 3.5.10 who tells us That we must not be too easie in examining the Prudence and Unreasonableness of human Laws for althô we are not bound to believe them all to be the wisest yet if by enquiring into the lawfulness of them or by any other Instrument we find them to fail of that Wisdom with which some others are ordained yet we must never make use of it to disparage the Persons of the Law-giver or to countenance any Mans disobedience I am sure our Holy Fathers the Bishops are of the same Opinion I shall therefore endeavour to apply our Proceedings and our Address to the same Topick The Address in few words was no other then the return of our Thanks to His Majesty for his repeated Assurances to maintain our Religion as by Law Established and for his Gracious Resolution to Grant to all his Subjects except such as in his Princely Wisdom he should distinguish from the rest his Gracious Pardon And we humbly prayed that the like favour might be extended to our Pious Bishops particularly our Diocesan that the incapacity they were then under by not taking the Oaths might no longer disable them from serving Their Majesties in their several Provinces It contain'd great deference to the Kings Royal Person Charity to the distressed Malice against none much less can it be arraign'd as a breach of the Law or deserve the Character that some hot Spirits have fix'd upon it as the product of a Papistical and factious Zeal In the discovery of this Truth I do appeal from the lofty Tribunal of our rash Criticks and bespeak the sober Judgment of the honest and impartial Reader We therefore in the first place own that we gave the public testimony of our Thanks to the King for his support of that Religion in the defence of which Cranmer and the other mitred Martyrs spent their precious Blood to which a Virgin Queen was solemnly espoused and of which our Suffering Bishops have made a good Confession Sure I am the Church of Rome hath the only cause to be sensibly touch'd and tormented at this Reflection nor can I judge but that the moderate Dissenters do in some measure congratulate with us For though many of our home-bred Pharisees did stifly presume that after the Ruine of our Establishment they should flourish under the Popes Influence and gain strange Advantages to the Protestant Faith from their new Patron yet their golden Hopes had put a notorious Cheat upon them Those Temporizers would have obtained no better Lot than what befel the crooked Camel in the Fable who being Heavens Favorite petitioned the Gods for Horns but Jupiter deriding his Pretence croped his Ears and made him ever after bare the Mark of his Presumption in a sanctified Dress The Moral is obvious and needs no Explanation We thought it also not unbecoming the Exercise of our Duty to thank his Majesty for a Pardon he design'd his Subjects yea we did not exclude the trimming Latitudinarians of the last Reign for we suppose their Consciences have sufficiently chastised their evil Extravagance Neither did we except against the other violent and brutish Addressors from whom King James received the like Homage which was paid to Mercury by the Heathen Sleepers viz. a Sacrifice of the Tongues of Beasts We insulted no Faction but calmly considered the Favor of our Prince and since an Amnesty was so seasonably tender'd by him we conceiv'd it would not have been construed in a vile Sense to desire his Majesty to include our Diocesan in the same Grace and to render some of the best Men in the World capable of his Service But in the Progress I now take I must be so just as to satisfie the most plausible Objection that thwarts our Proceeding Our Adversaries contend that for as much as our Case was already concluded by a positive Law a Statute having past a legal Disability and Suspension upon the Bishops the King must not be perswaded to break through the Obligation of an Act of Parliament the Consequence of which would be destructive of our Liberties and again exalt the exploded Idol of Arbitrary Power To this specious Offer we answer in the following Terms First We do observe that our Address was penned in the Session of Parliament and therefore it cannot with reason be supposed we would incur the Displeasure of that August Body In the next Place it is apparent that we design'd to thank his Majesty for no other Pardon than what he himself intended and prepared And was it not proposed by him to the two Houses with an Assurance they would pass it and that it should derive a just Solemnity from their Consent On this Account our Address was the irreprovable Witness of our Sincerity for after the King had discovered his gracious Intentions to them we paid our Tribute of Gratitude to the Royal Favor and desired him to extend the common Priviledge of his Mercy to our pious though suffering Bishops Certainly if this be Criminal or destructive either of Gods Honor or the Liberties of Human Society there is neither Justice on Earth nor Truth in Heaven for Vertue and Vice have lost their Names If our Adversaries are not yet satisfied but in the Burthen of their irreconcileable Animosity against our Prelates still say as I have often heard them maintain that it would have been more agreeable to the Usage of Parliament if one or both the Houses had first prepar'd and passed a Bill in Favor of the Bishops than that such an important Repeal should begin with his Majesty and descend to their Consideration as from the Authority and Force of his Will and
that therefore our Address ought rather to have been dedicated either to the Lords or Commons than to the King I must take the Liberty to assure the Managers of this bold but impertinent Cavil that they fail not of their usual Levity discovering as their gross Ignorance in the Customs of our Nation which entitle the King to be the Fountain of all Acts of Grace so likewise their profound Respects to his Majesty for by the Consequence of their Words they declare that the Duty and Intercourse between the Prince and People ought not to be reciprocal I need not tell them that neither of those honorable Houses had at that time given us the Cause I speak with respect to the first Dispatch and Draught of the general Pardon to return them those peculiar Thanks which made up the principal Frame of our Application to the King and that for this Reason they could not be the sutable and adequate Object of our Address but I answer that we addressed his Majesty in Parliament because he there challenges a supereminent Power and therefore if during the Session it is permitted to any private Person to petition either the Lords or Commons for a particular Redress shall it be accounted heynous that the Grand-jury who represented the Body of the County and faithfully delivered the true Sense and Desire of their Vicinage should make their humble Approaches to the King who is the Sovereign Head and supream Intendant of our Parliament This is in effect to declare that his Majesty hath a Chair of State placed in the House on no other account than that he may be curtail'd in Stature and appear less considerable than his many Servants who attend him Should any Dyet or Parliament in Christendom pursue the Latitude of this Doctrine and therefore refuse to attend a most Religious and Solemn Enterprize because the Prince doth first propose it to them they would be justly censured very positive and supercilious in their Determinations Examples of that Nature are very rare in well-disciplin'd Common-wealths and I know but one that doth exactly square to the Proceeding and this is related by * Euseb Histor Eccles. l. 2. c. 2. Eusebius out of an ancient Father of the Church and was a strange Violence against the standing Law of Moderation in great Councils the Story in short is to this effect After our Saviours Manifestation among the Sons of Men to whom by the exemplary Conduct of his triumphant Resurrection from the Dead he gave the most undeniable Proofs of his Divinity Tiberius in whose Time the Christian Name made its entry into the World communicated to the Senate an Account he had received out of Syria Palestine of this great Affair and having given his own Suffrage to Christ's Divinity he desired them to enact it into a Decree and to register him in the Catalogue of the Gods But the lofty Senate disdaining to be instructed in a Business which concerned the Exercise of their own Power rejected Caesar's Motion and would not place our Saviour in their Festival Calendar because they had not first approv'd the Matter before the Emperor perswaded them to it This you may say was a brisk Maintenance of Priviledge against the Torrent of Prerogative and I must I confess admit it but in a Sense that takes away the Authority not only from the Person but from the Doctrine of our Saviour and seems to render unto the People the things which are Caesar's and unto Sathan the things which are Gods and I hope the Example will have no tolerable Sway in the Christian World It is our Comfort that the English Parliament though they have a just Pretence to a great Power in conjunction with their Prince do not affect such an unseasonable Grandeur which would disappoint the Success of his Majesties Piety So that what Monsieur Talôn speaks in Flattery of the aspiring Lewis we may conclude most true of King William that to our August Monarch nothing is impossible especially when he endeavors the Intersts of Heaven I am sure his Favor to the Bishops will not lead him out of the way thither The Kings of England and this the express Words of their Coronation Oath contain are invested with a Power to execute Justice in Mercy and as they carry an High Court of Chancery in their Breasts so may they by their indulgent Grace and especial Favor abate some rigorous Extremities of the Law This has ever been one of the Flowers of their Prerogative to which no others can pretend and it is as truly annext to their Crown as the Royal Dignity to their Persons This Power hath been often exerted by them in a various manner when the Necessities of State or their own Royal Pleasure required it but it is then render'd more conspicuous when it is published for the common Benefit and Security of the Nation and does in order to the quieting the Minds of the Subjects dispense with the Frailties Errors and Miscarriages of the People Such an important Grant of Clemency is capable of a twofold Management for when the Prince doth design a general Amnesty he sometimes issues forth his gracious Declaration of Free Pardon or if he Judges it more necessary and expedient or more agreeable to some weighty Circumstances he recommends the Affair to the Consideration of his Parliament which in most submissive Terms doth either propose a Bill to his Royal Assent or else receives a Draught of Pardon from him with such Ceremony as is expressive of their Gratitude This latter Method hath been used by his present Majesty and by the whole Proceeding our Adversaries may be soon convinced what an Authority the Sovereign bears in the two Houses For when some Lords who were excepted in the Act of Grace did move in Parliament that they might be heard by their Council in order to give their Reasons why they should partake of the Benefit of the Act their Motion was not approv'd nor was their Request allow'd them I must not presume to render the Reasons which prevailed with the Honorable House to dismiss their Petition having not had the Oportunity to examine the Records but I suppose from the Information I have casually received from judicious Persons that those Noble Peers did not petition in the regular direct and customary Order for his Majesty who best understood his own Resolutions sent down his Pardon to the Lords House not to be alter'd or enlarged but to be passed into a Law so that the Petitioners ought in that case to have addressed the King who as he is the Life of Justice so is he the Fountain of Mercy I cannot therefore but pity the extream Weakness of their Judgments who pretend to maintain that our Grand jury did not pursue a right Course when they made their Application to the King in the Behalf of the Bishops for by this Assertion they seem to bare no Regard to the Authority of Presidents but speak against the Voice of
them serviceable to His Majesty and useful in their Generations Sure I am this was the true Design of our Grand-Jury's Petition and this was the plain and naked Sense of the dangerous Paper that has been so violently proclaim'd against by some Men who love to be thought great at Court where they would mis-represent all the rest of Mankind and themselves also did not the eloven Foot discover their deformity And now having briefly vindicated the Title of our Address and the Errand upon which we dispatch'd it I shall drop some words and those but a few in answer to that other immodest Calumny which stiled us a factious Party And here as I am not permitted to be a compotent Judge in the Case so neither will I allow the Testimony of our Opponents to the Truth of what they maintain but we will appeal to an Authentic Umpirage and be determin'd by it Tertullian a most learn'd Civilian in the Opinion of the best Masters hath left these words to Meditation * Tertul. Apol advers Gentes cap. 39. Illis nomen Factionis accommodatum est qui in odium bonorum proborum conspirant qui adversus sanguinem innocentium conclamant They merit says he the name of a Faction who conspire in Malice against good and just Men and with loud outcrys demand their Blood Which description is very apt and significant and to it agrees the Grammatical Interpretation which Scaliger gives us of the same word who writes that a Faction is busied circa inimica studia By these settled and approved Rules we may salvo jure conjecture that much wickedness conceived in the Cabanet of the Cabal and as profest Iniquity in the Actions of their Party afford fit Ingredients to make up the Character Corah and his Company Achitophel and his Convention Caiaphas with his Sanhedrim were in this Sense Factious and Turbulent Men otherwise Moses David and the Holy Jesus would be robbed of the Authority that is due to their Innocence If our Adversaries then will declare us liable to the same Imputation they must first prove that our appearance in the Bishops Cause was a design'd Conspiracy against Righteousness and Peace and if they dare confront us with this Libellous Assertion I will say they have hardned not only their Consciences but also their Tongues against the Impressions of Truth Certainly these busie Criticks ought in good Manners to pay a better Respect if not to our Persons yet to the Quality of our Office for we held no Club distinct from the appointments of Custom but we met together to consult the Peace of our Country and to prepare Matters for the solemn Proceedings of Justice and for the regular Execution of the Laws And if we are accounted a Faction for freely speaking the Sense of our Neighbours and for doing our other Duty in the Kings Service the Authority of the Government is called in question and we may esteem the honourable Judge to have been the Ringleader of our Sect. If the Clamarous Gentlemen are not yet satisfied in the present Notion with which I endeavour to correct the bitterness of their Judgments or if they desire to be more fully inform'd what the Nature and Tyranny of a Faction is I will for their further Improvement direct them to an exact and perfect Mirror in which perhaps they may see their own faces I suppose they remember the days of old when the pretended Saints holding their solemn Councils at * This Expression is borrowed from Mr. Milton who lost his Eyes in his Zeal for those times Pandaemonium the High Capitol of the Usurper and his Peers studied the Ruine of the best of Kings and plotted the dismal and black Tragedy which was acted in our Church These were inimica studia in odium bonorum proborum innocentium Then was the Use and Exercise of the Miter suspended the Bonnet was advanc'd over the Crown and Scepters was subjected to the Flail The Liberaries of the Holy Vsher and other Learned Men were ransackt by base Plagiaries and our most celebrated Scholars were reduc'd to such Streights that they lived according to Dr. Prideaux's Language upon their Books and their Hangings being necessitated to expose them to an uncomfortable huxstry for their Support Our Bishops were Imprison'd Sequestred Banish'd and the name Malignant that as one observes is attributed but once in the whole Bible to the Devil was affix'd by accursed Hypocrites on the suffering Party In their Mint were our present and past Calamities coyned they stamped Wrinckles on our Brow and tryed us like Gold in the Furnace of Affliction Those precious Sons of Sion for in that Name they gloryed perfected a Reformation according to Mr. Sedgwick's Scheme who in a fast Sermon before the Commons assured them that they ought in the performance to expect * Zion's delive Anno 1642. p. 11. Earth-quakes Church-quakes and Kingdom-quakes To conclude thô the furious Priests perswaded the People against Organs in the Church yet they had their own peculiar Music even of that Hellish Composure which * Habet mundus Organasua sed quae infernè reddunt sonitum inamabilem Quid enim loquitur ira fides ulciscere spolia ejice occide Quid sonet Ambitionis nervus dilata ditionem nec Juris jurandi aut pietatis sit ratio quoties agitur de imperio Quid erepit Auaritiae chorda vides nemini bene esse nisi qui plurimum possides per fas nefasque congere rape serva c. Haec nimirum est mundi Musica Sic pessomam barn oriam reddit Livoris Obtrectationis Chorda c. his modis aebrii lymphatique sic belligeramur tumultuamur ambimus rapimus irascimur mordemus invicem ac mordemur Erasm Epist ad Adrian Pontif. Praefix Arnob. Comment in Psalm Erasmus on a like sorrowful occasion describes to us that entertain'd the Age with the dire infernal Sound of War Rapine Ambition Avarice Perjury Tumult and Blood This was a Faction in terrible earnest and I hope the Spawn of that Party will no longer torment us with their own Title lest we spare neither Paint nor Labour to describe them more fully to the World FINIS