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 is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Paliament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said Act and every word matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from benceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said All to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect 5.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
Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2 Nor to Abridge or Diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly Confirmed Allowed or Enacted by Parliament or by the Established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17. of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law. Secondly That the occasion of making it was not from any doubt that did arise Whether the High-Commission Court were taken away or Whether the Crown had power to Erect any such-like Court for the future but from a doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceedings in Causes Ecclesiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delagating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the words of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High-Commission Court or the new erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch should stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2. 12. or any other But there may arise an Objection from the words in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs Whence some Men would gather That the same Power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the honour of the Legislators King Lords and Commons Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine Whether they can so construct the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering violence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely Repealed the Branch of 1. Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. â—… ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. â—… but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. â—… ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON â—… and therefore have sufficient Reason to â—… That the same would never have been set on â—… by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath â—… upon his Royal Word That he will invade â—… Mans Property had he not been Advised there unto by them who are better versed in the Canon of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER of several French Ministers Fled into Germany upon the account of the PERSECUTION in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the Kings Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original in French. ALtho' in our present Dispersion most dear and honoured Brethren it has pleased the Providence of God to conduct us into places very distant from one another Yet that Union which ought always to continue betwixt us obliges us to declare our sense to one another with a Christian and Brotherly Freedom upon all occasions that may present themselves to us so to â—… 'T is this makes us hope that you will not take â—… amiss of us if at this time we deliver our Opinion to you touching the Affairs of England in matter of Religion and with reference to that Conduct which you have observed therein We ought not to conceal it from you â—… greatest part of the Protestants of Europe have been extreamly scandalized to understand that certain among you after the example of many of the Dissenters have Addressed to the King of England upon the account of his Declaration by which he â—… granted Liberty of Conscience to the No-nconformists And that some others who had already ranked themselves under the Episcopal Communion nevertheless published the said Declaration in their Churches and this at a time when almost all the Bishops themselves with so much Firmness â—… Courage refused to do it If we may be permitted to tell you freely what â—… Opinion is concerning the conduct of the Bishops and of the Dissenters in this conjuncture we shall make no difficulty to pronounce in favour of the former We look upon it that they have exceedingly well answered the Duty of their Charge whilst despising their own private Interest they have so worthily supported that of the Protestant Religion Whereas the others for want of considering these things as they ought to have done have given up the interest of their Religion to their own particular advantages It is not out of any complement to the Bishops which less out of any enmity to the Dissenters that we make such different judgments concerning them We know well enough how to commend â—… blame what seems to us to deserve our Praise â—… our Censure both in the one and in the other We do not at all approve the conduct of the Bishops towards the Dissenters under the last Reign And altho' we do not any more
Late King being so true a Judge of Wit could not but be much taken with the best Satyr of our Time saw that Bays's Wit when measured with anothers was of a piece with his Virtues and therefore judged in favour of the Rebearsal Transpros'd this went deep and though it gave occasion to the single piece of Modesty with which he can be charged of withdrawing from the Town and not importuning the Press more for some years since even a Face of Brass must grow red when it is so burnt as his was then yet his Malice against the Elder Brother was never extinguished but with his Life But now a strange Conjuncture has brought him again on the Stage and Bays will be Bays still He begins his Prologue with the only soft word in the whole piece I humbly Conceive but he quickly repents him of that Debonarity and so makes Thunder and Lightning speak the rest as if his Designs were to Insult over the two Houses and not to convince them He who is one of the Punies of his Order and is certainly one of its justest Reproaches tells us pag. 8. That to the Shame of the Bishops this Law was consented to by them in the House of Lords But what Shame is due to him who has treated that Venerable Bench and in particular his Metropolitan in so scurrilous a manner The Order has much more cause to be ashamed of such a Member though if there are two or three such as he is among the twenty Six they may Comfort themselves with this that a dozen of much better Men had one among them that I confess was not much worse if it was not for this that he let the Price of his Treachery fall much lower than Sa. Oxon does who is still true to his old Maxim that he delivered in Answer to one who asked him What was the best Body of Divinity which was That that which could help a man to keep a Coach and Six Horses was certainly the best But now I come to Examine his Reasons for abrogating the Test. The first is That it is contrary to the Natural Rights of Peerage and turns the Birth-Right of the English Nobility into a Precarious Title which is at the mercy of every Faction and Passion in Parliament and that therefore how useful soever the TEST might have been in its Season it some time must prove a very ill President against the Right of Peerage and upon this he tells a Story of a Protestation made in the House of Lords against the TEST that was brought in in 1675. together with the Resolution of the House against that Penalty upon the Peers of losing their Votes in case of a Refusal be represents this as a Test or Oath of Loyalty against the Lamfulness of taking Arms upon any pretence whatsoever against the King. But in Answer to all this one would gladly know what are the Natural Rights of Peerage and in what Chapter of the Law of Nature they are to be found for if those Rights have no other Warrant but the Constitution of this Government then they are still subject to the Legislative Authority and may be regulated by it The Right of Peerage is still in the Family only as the exercise of it is limited by the Law to such an Age so it may be suspended as ost as the Publick Safety comes to require it even the indelible Character it self may be brought under a total Suspension of which our Author may perhaps afford an instance at some time or other 2. Votes in either House of Parliament are never to be put in Ballance with Establish'd Laws These are the Opinions of one House and are changeable 3. But if the TEST might have been useful in its Season one would gladly see how it should be so soon out of Season for its chief Use being to secure the Protestant Religion in 1678. it does not appear That now in 1688. the Dangers are so quite dissipated that there is no more need of securing it In one sence we are in a safer Condition than we were then for some false Brethren have shewed themselves and have lost that little Credit which some unhappy Accidents had procured them 4. It was not the Loyalty in the TEST of the Year 1675 that raised the greatest Opposition to it but another part of it That they should never Endeavour any Alteration in the Government either in the Church or State. Now it seemed to be an unreasonable Limitation on the Legislative Body to have the yenbers engaged to make no Alteration And it is that which would not have much pleased those For whose satisfaction this Book is published The second Reason was already hinted at of its dishonourable Birth and Original p. 10. which according to the decency of his stile he calls the first Sacrament of the Otesian Villany p 9. This he aggravates as such a Monstrous and Inhuman piece of Barbarity as could never have entred into the thoughts of any Man but the infamous Author of it This piece of Elegance though it belongs to this Reason comes in again in his Fourth Reason page 6. and to let the House of Lords see their Fate if they will not yield to his Reasons he tells them that this will be not only an Eternal National Reproach but such a blot upon the Peers that no length of time could wear away nothing but the Universal Constagration could destroy which are the aprest Expressions that I know to mark how deeply the many blots with which he is stigmatized are rooted in his Nature The wanton man in his Drawcansir humour thinks that Parliaments and a House of Peers are to be treated by Him with as much Seorn as is justly due to himself But to set this matter in its true Light it is to be remembred that in 1678. there were besides the Evidences of the Witnesses a great many other Discoveries made of Letters and Negotiations in Forreign Pares chiefly in the Courts of France and Rome for Extirpating the Protestant Religion upon which the Party that was most united to the Court set on this Law for the Test as that which was both in itself a just and necessary Security for the Establish'd Religion and that would probably lay the fermentation which was then in the Nation and the Act was so little acceptable to him whom he calls its Author that he spake of it then with Contempt as a Trick of the Court to lay the Nation too soon asleep The Negotiations beyond Sea were too evidently proved to be denied and which is not yet generally known Mr. Coleman when Examined by the Committe of the House of Commons said plain enough to them that the Late King was concerned in them but the Committee would not look into that Matter and so Mr. Sacheverill that was their Chairman did not report it yet the thing was not so secret but that one to whom it was trusted gave the Late King an
two more of these Volumes The History of the Reformation sells still so well that I do not believe Mr. Chiswell the Printer of it has made any Present to this Reasoner to raise its Price for to attack it with so much Malice and yet not to offer one Reason to lessen its Credit is as effectual a Recommendation as this Author can give it He pretends that Dr. Burnet's Design was to make Cranmer appear a meer Sacramentarian as to Doctrine as he had made him appear an Erastian as to Discipline and he thinks the vain Man was flattered into all the Pains he took that he might give Reputation to the Errors of his Patrons and that those two grand Forgeries are the grand Singularities of his History and the main things that gave it Popular Vogue and Reputation with his Party So that were these two blind Stories and the Reasons depending upon them retrenched it would be like the Shaving off Sampson's hair and destroy all the Strength peculiar to the History But to all this Stuff I shall only say 1. That the Charge of Forgery falls back on the Reasoner since as to Cranmer's Opinion of the Sacrament his own Books and his Dispute at Oxford are such plain Evidences that none but Bays could have questioned it and for his being an Erastian Dr. Burnet had clearly proved that he had changed his Opinion in that point so that though he shewed that he had been indeed once engaged in those Opinions yet he proved that he had forsaken them Let the Reader judge to whom the charge of Forgery belongs 2. Dr. Burnet has indeed some Temptations to Vanity now since he is ill used by Bays and put in such Company but I dare say if he goes to give him his Character he will never mention so slight a one as Vanity in which how excessive soever he may be yet it is the smallest of all his Faults 3. These two Particulars here mentioned bear so inconsiderable a share in that History and have been so little minded that I dare say of an hundred that are pleased with that Work there is not one that will assign these as their Motives He censures Dr. Burnet for saying he had often head it said that the Articles of our Church were framed by Cranmer and Ridly as if it were the meanest Trade of an Historian to stoop to bear-say p. 55. But the best of all the Roman Historians Salust in bello Katil does it and in this Dr. Burnet maintains the Character of a sincere Historian to say nothing that was not well grounded and since it has been often said by many Writers that these two Bishops prepared our Articles he finding no particular Evidence of that delivers it with its own doubtfulness It is very like Sa. Oxan would have been more positive upon half the Grounds that Dr. Burnet had but the other chose to write exactly yet he adds That it is probable that they penned them and if either the Dignity of their Sees or of their Persons be considered the thing will appear reasonable enough But I do not wonder to see any thing that looks like a modesty of Stile offend our Author he is next so kind to Dr. Burnet as to offer him some Counsel p. 50. That he would be well advised to imploy his Pain in writing Lampoons upon the present Princes of Christendom especially his own which he delights in most because it is the worst thing that himself can do then collecting the Records of former times for the first will require Time and Postage to pursue his Malice but the second is easily traced in the Chimney corner One would think that this period was Writ by Mr. Louth it is so obscure and ill expressed that nothing is plain but the malice of it but he of all men should be the furthest from reproaching any for Writing Lampoons who has now given so rude a one on the Late King and the Lords and Commons if bold Railing without either Wit or Decency deserves that Name I will only say this further that if one had the ill Nature to write a Lampoon on the Government one of the severest Articles in it would be That it seems Writers are hard to be found when such a Baboon is made use of It is Lampoon enough upon the Age that he is a Bishop but it is downright Reproach that he is made the Champion of a Cause which if it is bad of it self must suffer extreamly by being in such hands And thus I think enough is said in answer to his impertinent digression upon Transubstantiation let him renounce the Article of our Church and all that he possesses in Consequence to his having signed it and then we will argue all the rest with him upon the square but as long as he owns that he is bound likewise to own the first Branch of the Test which is the renouncing of Transubstantiation In this Discourse he makes his old Hatred to Calvin and the Calvinists return so often that it appears very Conspicuously I believe it is stronger now than ever and that for a particular reason When the Prince and Princess of Orange were Married he was perhaps the only Man in England that expressed his Uneasiness at that happy Conjunction in so clownish a manner that when their Highnesses past through Canterbury he would not go with the rest of that Body to which he was so long a Blemish to pay his Duty to them and when he was asked the Reason he said He could have no regard to a Calvinist Prince Now this Calvinist Prince has declared his mind so openly and fully against the Repeal of the Test that no doubt this has encreased Bays's Distemper and heightned his Choler against the whole Party The second Branch of the Test is the Declaration made of the Idolatry committed in the Roman Church upon which he tells us p. 71 72. That Idolatry is a Stabbing and Cut-throat Word and that it is an Inviting and Warranting the Rabble whenever Opportunity favours to destroy the Roman Catholicks and here Bays will out do himself since this was a Master-piece of Service therefore he makes the taxing the Church of Rome with Idolatry a piece of Inhumanity that outdoes the Savages of the Canibals themselves and damns at once both Body and Soul. He charges Dr. Stillingfleet as the great Founder of this and all other Anti-catholick and Anti-christian and Uncharitable Principles among us and that the Test is the Swearing to the Truth of his unlearned and Phanatick Notion of Idolatry p. 130. 135. and the result of all is That Idolatry made the Plot and then the Plot made Idolatry and that the same persons made both He has also troubled the Reader with a second Impertinence to shew his second-hand Reading again upon the Notion of Idolatry But all this falls off with a very short answer if he is of the Church of England and believes that the Homilies contain a
means attain it than to open themselves a Gite to Popery and to concur with it to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion You will it may be tell us that it looks ill in us who so much complain That we have been deprived of Liberty of Concience in France to sind fault with the King of England for granting it to his Subjects And that it is the least that can be allowed to a Soveraign to allow him the Right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his own Kingdoms and to make use of the Service of such of his Subjects as himself shall think sit by putting them into Charges and Employs You will add That his Majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the ancient Laws nor to make new ones All he does being only to dispence with the Observation of certain Laws in such of his Subjects as he thinks fit and for as long time as he pleases and that the right of dispensing with and suspending of Laws is a Right insepably tied to his Person That for the rest the Protestant Religion does not run the least Risque There are Laws to shut the Papists out of Parliament and these Laws can neither be dispensed with nor suspended So that the Parliament partaking with the King in the Legislative Power and continuing still Protestant there is no cause to fear that any thing should be done contrary to the Protestant Religion Besides What probability is there that a King who appears so great an Enemy to Oppression in matters of Conscience and Religion should ever have a thought tho' he had the Power himself to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his Subjects and take from them that Liberty of Conscience which he now grants to them and which he promises so â—… to observe for the time to come These are all the Objections that can with â—… appearance of Reason be made against what we have before said They may all be reduced â—… five which we shall examine in their order And we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear that they are all but meer Illusions 1. We do justly complain That they had taken from us our Liberty of Conscience in France because it was done contrary to the Laws And one may as justly complain that the K. of England does labour to re-estalish Popery in his Country because he cannot do it but contrary to the Laws Our Liberties in France were founded us on solemn Laws upon perpetual irrevocable and sacred Edicts and which could not be â—… without violating at once the Publick Faith the Royal Word and the Sacredness of an Oath And Popery has been banished out of England by Laws made by King and Parliament and which cannot be repealed but by the author of King and Parliament together so that the therefore there is just cause to complain that the King should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his Declaration 2. It is not true that a Soveraign has always the right to permit the Exercise of his own Religion in his Dominions and to make use of the â—… of such of his Subjects as he himself shall that fit that is to say by putting of them into â—… and Employs And in particular he has this right when the Laws of his Country contrary thereunto as they are in the â—… before us Every King is obliged to observe the fundamental Laws of his Kingdom And the King of England as well as his Subjects ought to observe the Laws which have been established by King and Parliament together 3. For the third the distinction between abrogation of a Law and the dispensing â—… and suspending of it cannot here be of use whether the King abrogates the Laws which have been made against Popery or whether without saying expressly that he does abrogate them he overthrows them by his Declarations under pretence of dispensing with suspending of them it is still in effect same thing And to what purpose is it the Laws are not abrogated if in the â—… time all sorts of Charges are given to Papists and Popery it self be re-established contrary to the tenor of the Laws The truth is if the King has such a power as this if this be â—… Right necessarily tied to his Person 't is in vain â—… the Parliament does partake with him in the Legislature This Authority of the Parliament is but a meer Name a Shadow a Phan â—… a Chimera and no more The King is still the absolute Master because he can alone and without his Parliament render useless by his Declarations the Laws which the Parliament shall have the most solemnly established together with him We confess the King has right of dispensing in certain Cases as if the concern be what belongs to his private Interest he may without doubt whenever he pleases depart from his own Rights 't is a Liberty which no body will pretend to contest with him But he has not the power to dispense to the Prejudice of the Rights of the people â—… by consequence put the Property the Liberty and the Lives of his Protestant Subjects into the hands of Papists 4. What we have now said in Answer to the third Objection will be more clear from the Answer we are to give to the fourth They should perswade the Protestants that their Religion is in safety because on the one side the King cannot make Laws without the Parliament and that on the other there being Laws which exclude Papists out of the two Houses it must necessarily follow That the Parliament shall continue to be Protestant But if the King has the power to break through the Laws under the pretence of dispensing with and suspending of them what Security shall the Protestants have that he will not dispense with the Papists the Observation of those Laws which do exclude them out of the Parliament as well as â—… has dispensed with those that should have kept them out of Charges and Imployments â—… Security shall they have that he will â—… at any time hereafter suspend the Execution of the former as he has already suspended the Execution of the latter Which being â—… what should hinder us from seeing in a little â—… a Popish Parliament who together with the King shall pass Laws contrary to the Protestant Religion What difference can be shewn between the one and the other of these Laws â—… the one should be liable to be dispensed with and suspended and the other not Were they not both established by the King and Parliament Were not both the one and the other made for the Security of the Protestant Religion and of those who profess it Are not the Rights of the people concerned in the one as well as in the other And whosoever suffers and approves the King in the violation of these Rights in some things does he not thereby authorize him to violate them in all If the King has power to put the Liberty and