if the Apostle had meant that a simple erroneous Person was to be avoided he would have contradicted himself since as it has been already proved he requires such a One to be born with 5. But it 's said We are bid Rom. 16. 17. to mark and avoid those that cause Divisions and Offences To which I answer That bare differences of Opinions do not cause them for what two Men even of the same Communion agree in all Points of Divinity No it 's Imposition that has been the unhappy Occasion of all the Offences Schisms Divisions and Heresies that have confounded the Church Besides it 's plain the Apostle does not speak here of the meerly Erroneous because he says they are those that serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and Philip. 3. where he renews the same Discourse he describes them as Enemies of the Cross of Christ Whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly who mind earthly Things A Character which generally agrees but too well with those that are for Imposition who thereby cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine the Apostle taught them If Schism be as it 's pretended so great a Crime that every one that is guilty of it is out of the ordinary way of Salvation what can be more Uncharitable and Impious than to make so many things even of an indifferent Nature necessary to Church-Communion as tho it were on purpose to make Schismaticks 6. In a word To be shunned and avoided by every one as some Pest or Plague can be no small Punishment to so sociable a Creature as Man and therefore none ought to be so punished for an Error of the Understanding an involuntary thing and no Fault at all when also that Punishment does not tend to convince him of his Error but to make him act against his Conscience and to cause Uncharitableness and most of those other pernicious Consequences tho not in so high a degree that Force does In a word none can forfeit his Right to the civil Converse and Familiarity of his Fellow Creatures so that they shall combine together to avoid him but by his being a Man of no Conscience or of such Principles as engage him to break those common Rules which tend to their mutual Happiness and thereby is become their common Enemy And if Christians would not act against the Light of Nature in doing as they would not be done unto they ought to give to all Men how different soever their Religion may be the same Freedom of Judging and Acting according to their Judgment as they would desire from them and impose no more on them than they would be willing to suffer themselves were they in their Power and require no more of their own People who have the same Rule of Faith than to endeavour to find out the true meaning of it and to live up to it and of their Clergy than their best Diligence to discover the true Sense of it and their Sincerity in instructing others in it 7. Without this Freedom it 's morally impossible but that the Clergy must be the chief Promoters not only of Schisms and Heresies but of Uncharitableness Envy Strife Fewds and Factions since not only their Interest but the Method of their Education enclines them thereto For Men that are bred in the World as they every Day meet with variety of Opinions so they can with ease see others differ from them and freely give them the same Liberty they take themselves On the contrary they that are educated as the Clergy are in Cloisters or Colleges where they come not to examine the Truth of such Opinions as are established by Law but to profess them as a Trade they are to get their Living by and consequently are all as to those Matters of the same Opinion when they come into the World and set up for Teachers they cannot bear so unusual a thing as the least opposition whereas were they left to themselves to examine things in their own Minds and after this to profess what they judg to be Truth this would teach them Patience Modesty and Humility by showing how subject not only themselves but even the most Celebrated are to be mistaken and that nothing discovers Truth like a free and sincere examination and consequently they must abhor any Restraint to the freedom of judging That this different way of Education has as different Effects on the Minds of Men is so very evident that you will scarce find a thinking Man but abhors all Imposition and every thing that tends to hinder Freedom and Liberty of judging On the contrary you shall scarce meet with one who has had a different Method of Education whose Reason generally lieth in Authority and his Brains in his Common-place Book that can bear with any Opposition but is for imposing upon others by Force and Violence And this proud imperious persecuting Spirit betrays it self in all their Writings where without respect to Christianity or good Manners they stick at no Expressions tho never so scurrilous and abusive that will but serve to expose and vilify their Adversaries And which not a little adds to this sort of Temper is the Arbitrary and Despotical Government in the places of their Education for there is none so insolent and assuming so apt to insult and domineer when he has an Opportunity as he that has been bred in an absolute Obedience and a slavish Compliance and Experience shows that the longer People have lived in such Places the readier they are to fly into Extravagance when they come abroad into the World and if they happen to influence the Counsels of the Magistrate they seldom fail to press him on to illegal Arbitrary Practices or to practise the same themselves in those Places of Power they are advanced to And the chief Reason that makes the Regular Clergy amongst the Papists so much more for Persecution and Cruelty than the Secular is because the Government in their Cloisters is more Tyrannical and Arbitrary than the others therefore it behoves all Government to take special Care that those Places where the Youth receive their Learning should be what they are usually called Places of free and ingenious Education But to return Can it be expected from Men thus educated that they should by their Precepts and Examples perswade those of their own Party to any Charity and Benignity for any other Sect that looks on them as all Sects do on each other either as Schismaticks or Hereticks and endeavours to perswade all People to do the same which strikes not only at the Power and Jurisdiction but even the Maintenance the People bestow on these Priests It 's no wonder that in this Case they possess the People with Hatred and Animosities against all Dissenters and are continually urging the Magistrate to persecute them But it would be as absurd for him to be governed by them as it would have been in the Town-Clerk of Ephesus to have
say retorted the Arguments for Compulsion upon pretence of advancing the true Religion I shall next examine what is said for it upon a Civil Account but before I do that I must beg leave to show since it 's for Protestants this Discourse is chiefly designed First That this Doctrine of Compulsion is inconsistent with the very Foundation of the Protestant Religion And Secondly To lay down the true Method consonant to Protestant Principles of destroying maugre all the Differences of Opinions not only Schisms and Heresies but all Hatred and Uncharitableness and bringing People to true Christian Love and Friendship which will in a manner prevent all that can be urged for Compulsion upon a Civil Account CHAP. V. That all Force upon the Account of meer Religion is inconsistent with the Principles of the Protestant Religion 1. AS it was Persecution that advanced Popery so it was Freedom and Toleration that ruined it and established Protestantism the Essence of which consists in every one's having an impartial Right to judg for himself and which is the necessary Consequence of it acting according to that Judgment And therefore as a very worthy Person saith A Persecutor is no where at Home but at Rome The Papists in persecuting act consistent with their own Principles But Protestants whilst they persecute any condemn themselves The former pretend there are Doubts and Difficulties in all even the most important Points of Religion and therefore there must be say they some ultimate and external Judg to appeal to by whose decisive Judgment all Persons must be concluded otherwise so many Men so many Minds and the Church will be filled with Controversy and Confusion The Protestants on the contrary say That God has appointed no such Judg but that every one is to judg for himself and to act according to that Judgment And therefore since they judged the Terms of Communion with the Church of Rome unlawful they acted according to their Duty in separating from it and in forming Religious Assemblies of their own and endeavouring to make as many Converts as they could And that they were obliged to do this when the Government was against them as well as when it was for them in Q. Mary's Days as well as Q. Elizabeth's according to the practice of the Primitive Christians who held their Religious Assemblies contrary to the Commands of the Heathen Government Grant me these Principles or by any other justify the Reformation if you can and shew me then how any Man or Body of Men can pretend to judg for others and by Force endeavour to make them profess their Sentiments Nay can the persecuting Protestants any otherwise justify themselves against the Church of Rome but by the very same Arguments their Brethren who desire but the same Liberty from them that they claim from the Papists make their Defence with against whom they can alledg no other Reasons than the Papists use against all of them than which there can be nothing more disingenuous And what is it but mocking both God and Man first to bid Men use their Reason in Matters of Religion then punish them if they will not act contrary to it To tell them they must judg for themselves and act according to that Judgment and yet excommunicate imprison and fine them for so doing is a most fulsome Contradiction With what Face can the Clergy tell their Hearers that they ought not to take things on trust but impartially examine the Reasons on all sides and yet make it their Business to hinder the preaching or printing of any thing but what makes for their own Side The Author of the Perswasive to an ingenuous Trial of Opinions in Religion saith Pag. 28. They that have a good Cause need no disingenuous Arts they will not fright Men from considering what their Adversaries say by denouncing Damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them to do so that they may see the Difference between Truth and Error between Reason and Sophistry with their own Eyes This is the Effect of a well-grounded Confidence in Truth and there is this Sign of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their Friends and Enemies they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us And whatsoever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more carefully by how much they are more unwilling to have them examined It 's bad Sign when Men are loth to have their Opinions seen in the Day but love Darkness rather than Light Whether this last does not agree to that Church which endeavours to hinder any thing from being preached or printed that is not of their own Side as well as to the Church of Rome or with what Conscience he could make such a Panegyrick on that Church whose Persecution in that very Book he attempts to justify let the Reader judg And it would be very diverting were it not on such a Subject to observe the miserable Shifts the Clergy make to condemn the Practice of the Popish Church and at the same time to justify their own which as well as the Papists claims a Legislative and Coercive Power in Matters of meer Religion 2. But they say The Papists sorbid the People from reading the Scripture and thereby hinder them from judging for themselves To which I answer Which is worse to give Men leave by reading the Scripture to judg for themselves and then use Force to make them act contrary to their Judgments or to make them follow their Guides with a blind implicit Faith The one tends to make Men ignorant and superstitious the other down-right Hypocrites and Villains if Men were above Force they would neither blindly follow their pretended Guides nor act against their Consciences But however both Papists and Protestants use the Means that naturally tend to effect these wicked Ends. Besides I ask these Protestant Persecutors whether they think the reading of the Scripture alone without hearing or reading some learned Men of their Party sufficient to make them understand the controverted Points If they own they ought to hear them why not the opposite Side If they were to hear neither they would be more likely to form a true Judgment than to hear the studied and elaborate Arguments on one Side only If the People are not to be trusted to hear all that can be said on all Sides for fear of taking a different Opinion from the licensed Guides why shall they be more trusted with reading the Scriptures which they may apprehend in a Sense different from that of their Guides except you say that as long as these alone have the interpreting of it and have the Force of the Magistrate on their Side they may impose what Opinion they please on the People In short did the Priests of any Protestant
Party act consistent with their own Principles and had a mind that the People should not blindly follow them they would be so far from hindering them by restraining the Liberty of the Press and Pulpit from examining the Reasonableness of those Opinions that are contrary to theirs that they would make it their Business to perswade them to it and obtain an entire Liberty for their Adversaries to preach and print what they think good 3. It was the Protestant Priests acting most apparently and most shamefully inconsistent with themselves that put a sudden stop to the Reformation which at first like a mighty Torrent overturned all that opposed it And here it is that the Church of Rome insults and saith That the Principles of the Protestants by which they endeavour to justify their Separation from her are so absurd that themselves are obliged to act contrary to them and do the very same things they condemn in her Thus the Persecution of the Popish Church has been kept in Countenance by the Protestants following her Example which otherwise would have appeared so odious that all must have abhorred her for it or else obliged her to grant that Liberty which would infallibly ruin her 4. As Persecution was the chief Cause of hindering the further spreading of the Reformation so to that we must impute that this was not more perfect and compleat For tho the first Reformers deserve very great Commendation for what they did yet it cannot be imagined that being bred up in Popish Darkness and Superstition they should be able to discern much less remove all those Corruptions that had been so long a gathering that could only be the Work of Time or Men inspired and therefore it 's no wonder there were so many different Opinions amongst them at first But had those that succeeded them instead of paying a blind implicit Submission to their Decrees and getting them established by Penal Laws taken the same Liberty in examining their Opinions as the Reformers did their Predecessors all Differences at least of any moment would in some Time have been composed which became impossible by the Clergy being obliged as they valued their subsistence to assert such Opinions right or wrong as were established by Law and by Persecution causing such Animosities and Prejudices amongst the different Sects that instead of examining one anothers Opinions sincerely and impartially they ran daily further into Ignorance Superstition Narrowness and Uncharitableness CHAP. VI. Of the Method to destroy not only Schisms and Heresies but Hatred and Uncharitableness amongst Christians notwithstanding their different Opinions BUT suppose few or none of the different Opinions that are amongst Protestants had been composed by their acting consistent with their own Principles yet there could not well be any Divisions or Schisms amongst them which do wholly arise from that Antiprotestant and impious Practice in imposing on others our own uncertain and dubious Comments as necessary Terms of Communion and requiring People to profess them on pain of Temporal or Eternal Punishment which is nothing less than making our own Opinions of Divine Authority and as necessary to Salvation as the express words of the Scripture which if Men did only make use of in any controverted Point in the publick Forms of Worship they might be of the same Communion for all their variety of Opinions And indeed nothing seems more absurd than that instead of the Expressions the infinite Wisdom of God thought fit to make use of Men should be so zealous for imposing on their Brethren their own Conceits especially of things they confess to be inconceivable and their own Explications of what they acknowledg to be inexplicable and their own Reason of what they own is above their Reason and their own meaning of what they confess their Words cannot reach the meaning But it 's no wonder that they that make themselves wiser than God in contriving Methods even opposite to those he requires to make Men embrace the Faith should think themselves better able to express that Faith than God himself and therefore condemn those as Hereticks who declare their Belief in the Terms of Truth except also they will admit their Expressions and Terms from which it 's by no means lawful to vary which shows that they put a greater value on them than on the Divine Word 2. To this they say they oblige People to use their Expressions in order to discover Hereticks But if God requires no more of a Christian than that he believes the Scripture and endeavours to find out the true Sense of it and to live according to it he that does this can be in no fault but is to all intents and purposes as safe in respect to his Eternal Happiness as if he were infallible and consequently is far from being a Schismatick or Heretick Tho the Imposers are not only Schismaticks by causing a needless Separation but Hereticks by their own definition of Heresy which is erring in Fundamentals and erring obstinately against Knowledg because when they have determined the Holy Scriptures to be the only foundation of Faith nevertheless they lay down certain Propositions as Fundamental that are not in the Scripture which is declaring against their own Principles and destroying the very Foundation they have laid so that instead of finding out others to be Hereticks they make themselves such by requiring a Divine Faith to their own imagined Deductions which how clear soever they seem to themselves to be drawn from Scripture appear quite contrary to others If a King going a far Journey should give certain Injunctions to his Subjects and appoint no Judg to determine any Dispute that should happen about interpreting them but that every one according to the best of his Skill should judg for himself and not act until he was fully perswaded in his own Mind Would not they that do this how much soever they were mistaken in interpreting his Injunctions have done all that he required And would not he be justly enraged at his return to see them for doing this beaten and abused by their Fellow-Subjects And what Reason therefore can there be urged why Christ should deal otherwise at his return to Judgment with your persecuting Heretick Starters and reward those Good and Faithful Servants the supposed Hereticks for following his Directions in judging of his Will according to the best of their Abilities 3. If the Predestinarians and Antipredestinarians who condemn one anothers Tenets as most impious may and ought notwithstanding their different Sentiments to continue in the same Church or if the Orthodox can so infinitely differ in Matters of Faith that one Party of them shall worship but one Infinite Almighty Being or Spirit and another three such and yet be of the same Communion and agree in the same Terms of Human Invention Why may not all since it 's scarce possible any should differ more widely join together in the same Communion if nothing be mentioned in those Matters wherein they
make use of such an Argument for Persecution which will make that criminal and subjects its Professors to Persecution And if those wide and many Differences that distinguish the Christian from all other Religions will not cause any Commotion in Heathen Countries why should these fewer and minuter Differences that are among Christians themselves produce them in Christian Countries Mens different Opinions in meer Religious things are no more apt to create those Effects than different Opinions in Philosophical Matters which certainly would equally cause Disturbances did Men persecute one another about them and we see different Opinions in Religious Matters do not when Men for all their different Sentiments are permitted to continue in the same Church It 's said 't is not barely different Opinions but the Schism and separate Meetings caused by those Opinions that create Disturbances If Schisms have such Effects they are in the fault that by Imposition cause those Schisms Yet there 's no Reason why Mens meeting at different Places with different Forms and Ways of Worship should sooner cause Commotions or Wars than their meeting at different Places with the same Forms and Ways of Worship did not Temporal Disadvantages attend one and Advantages the other In a word there are no Reasons upon the account of any Danger to the State which forbid Religious Meetings that are open and free to all and where Men are so far from Caballing that they do not discourse together but do more strongly hold against all Meetings of any other sort It 's said those Meetings are composed of Persons of the same Opinions but being of the same Opinions except they are such as are prejudicial to the Government and those I do not defend cannot be of any ill consequence to the Government But this or any other Argument that is drawn from what is common to all Religious Assemblies will make the Magistrates own Church as dangerous as any other and it can be nothing but the different Usage that one is caressed and the other persecuted that makes one dangerous and the other not In a word there can be no Reason drawn from the safety of the Society for the different Sects of Christians to condemn the Religious Assemblies of each other if they teach nothing that 's destructive to the Civil Society as seditious Conventicles and Nurseries of Rebellion but what would have justified the Heathen for treating all Christian Congregations as such And if the differences in Opinion and number of Sects amongst the Heathens were far greater than those amongst the Christians and yet there was no Commotion upon the Account of Religion there can be no Reason but that the Christians did they allow the same Liberty would be as free from any such Mischief because as long as each Sect thinks it their Duty to tolerate others no Quarrel can possibly happen upon the Account of a Toleration It 's not therefore Error as the Bishop of Sarum observes or Mens following the Dictates of their Understandings that has caused Disturbances and broke the Peace and Order of their Civil Government and of the Church but the Spirit of Imposing so commonly found in prevailing Parties the Erroneous as the stronger side think they may call them would have been quiet if they had not been made to apprehend Inquisitions or other Miseries or ill Usage upon the Account of their Opinions but when they have cause given them to fear bad Treatment for a bare dissent in an Article of Faith the natural and most just Principle of Self-preservation obligeth them to combine together for their necessary Defence And from hence have risen all those Convulsions that have so violently shaken Churches and Kingdoms 2. Seeing this is evidently so what can be more disingenuous as well as wicked than to ill use and oppress People and thereby render them justly disaffected and then make use of that as a Pretence for the punishing them If Men in such cases are disaffected take away the Cause of it by forbearing to use them ill which is a very easy and natural Remedy and you take away all pretension of Dissatisfaction It destroys all assurance of Human Affairs to suppose Men will run the risque of losing their Lives or being ruined by a Civil War upon the Account of Religion when they have all the Freedom in Religious Matters they are capable of For which unusual Obligation they will be ever studious to show a grateful Fidelity and endeavour by all Services imaginable to lay up a stock of Merit to secure their future Quiet and the different Sects as so many Guardians of the Publick Peace will be very watchful over one another and do their utmost to discover and prevent the Designs of any Party whatever that would be innovating or changing the Form of Government because by such Alteration they are likely to be losers and they can hope for nothing better than what they already enjoy so that the more numerous the Sects are the safer the Government is like to be 3. But on the contrary where they want this Liberty the Publick Peace will never be secure for common Interest will oblige the persecuted Sects tho never so contrary in their Principles to combine together against their Common Enemy and Men when they fight for their Religious as well as Civil Liberties do it with more than ordinary Resolution and there 's scarce any Party so inconsiderable but what upon some Emergency or other may endanger a Government Therefore it 's evident 't is the Magistrates Security as well as Duty to grant an impartial inviolable Liberty of Conscience The Truth of what has been said sufficiently appears by the different Conduct of the Dissenters who tho widely differing from one another did in the time of Persecution combine together for their just and necessary Defence against their Persecutors yet since they enjoy Liberty of Conscience are most entirely Loyal Hearty and Zealous for the Government that grants it And it 's visible to all that are not wilfully blind that the quiet and peaceable Behaviour of the Sectaries since each Party worships God according as they think best without endeavouring to molest or disturb their Neighbours for doing the same destroys all the Arguments against Toleration upon the Account of Discord and Disturbances and the longer the Toleration endures the more Peaceable and Inoffensive will the different Sects be to one another because by degrees all those remains of Animosities and Hatred that Persecution did produce will wear off I believe there can be no Instance where ever a general and impartial Toleration did produce any Disturbances and Commotions much less that there ever was any Government overturned by an Indifferency and Impartiality to different Sects but when that has happened it has always been by a professed Partiality for one side against the others For the People will never be so wholly void of all Humanity and Pity as to be pleased to see their Relations Neighbours and
only to make it the more creditable by laying it at their Door who pretend to know the King best and to be most in his Interest and to make them as well as his Majesty be thought Men of no Religion for not only once or twice but in all Companies admiring and celebrating a Prince of no Religion as the best of Governours but to make the King discharge his Friends from any Trust about him when he hears they suppose such dishonourable Things of him and to imploy his Enemies Men of our Author's Principles So that Fenwick it seems is not the only Person the Party has put on this hellish Contrivance of aspersing those that are most in the King's Interest knowing they have no way of doing their Business like creating in his Majesty a Jealousy of his true Friends And our Author that he might not be thought to speak without Book endeavours to make the King guilty not only of a Breach of his Declaration but of his Coronation-Oath in not causing the Convocation to sit and act as frequently as he has done the Parliament It 's true after this he saith with his usual way of Hypocrisy P. 63. We are sure his sacred Majesty did never oppose their Sitting and Acting But how could he oppose it otherwise than by not calling them to sit and act which our Author says by his Coronation-Oath he is bound to do Which brings me to his Law-part in which as I shall shew in a few words he is as much mistaken as in his Divinity 12. He asserts First That the Convocation is the highest Court of Judicature having Jurisdiction in Crimes Ecclesiastical Secondly That a Convocation is not only to meet as often as the Parliament but has the same Right to debate as freely of Ecclesiastical Matters as the Parliament has about Temporals Thirdly That a Convocation is as necessary and essential to the Church and Constitution and does bind all People in Ecclesiasticals as a Parliament does in Civils As to the first If a Convocation be a Court of Judicature they must have Cognizance of Original Causes or of Appeals If they had to do with any Causes in the first Instance they would have a greater Power than either House of Parliament claims and our Author dares not assert that a Convocation has greater Power belonging to it than a Parliament Besides by 23 H. 8. none is to be cited out of his own Diocess except in some few Cases whereof Heresy is one for which the Arch-Bishop of the Province and he only can summon a Man out of his own Diocess by whom 24 H. 8. Causes were finally to be determined except Causes touching the King his Heirs and Successors for which there was an Appeal to the Prelats Abbots and Priors of the Upper House and this excepted Case confirms the Law in the non-excepted And by a Statute made the next Year C. 19. All manner of Appeals of what Nature Condition or Quality soever they be of or what Cause or Matter soever they shall concern shall be made according to 21 H. 8. with this further Proviso That there lieth an Appeal from the Arch-Bishop's Courts to the King in Chancery from whence no further Appeal is to be had or made Which cuts off all Pretences from the Convocation of having any Jurisdiction now whatever they had in the Popish Times 13. As to the second Whether a Convocation is to be summoned as often as a Parliament tho he has offered nothing that looks like a Proof of it yet that I shall not dispute with him at present but I shall whether they have a Right to confer about making any Canons without a special Licence from the King Which tho he asserts he cannot bring one Lawyer of his Opinion they being all against him as is the constant Practice of the Clergy as zealous as they are to maintain their Privileges who never since 25 H. 8. attempted the making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained under the Broad-Seal of England which our Author supposes to be but a meer Compliment and a bare Mark of Respect And he affirms To say otherwise is to wound the Liberties of a Parliament through those of a Convocation But is there no difference between the Commons desiring by the Mouth of their Speaker Liberty of Speech that is that the King would not be displeased with their Freedom in speaking of those things they have a Right to debate and a solemn Licence under the Broad-Seal of England to enable the Convocation to confer about such or such particular Points It 's ridiculous to suppose the Broad-Seal is used with so much Formality for the sake of mere Compliments to convey nothing but a Right the Convocation had without it The Broad-Seal is so necessary to enable the Clergy to make Canons that all that is done without it is null and void and so would it be in respect of Parliaments themselves if they were to have such a Licence to debate of any particular Point in order to make it a Law As for Instance by an Act made 10 H. 7. call'd Poining's Act it 's provided That all such Bills as shall be offered to the Parliament in Ireland shall be first transcribed hither under the Great Seal of that Kingdom and having received Approbation shall be put under the Broad-Seal bere and so offered to that Parliament And if a Parliament be held contrary to this Form it shall be deemed null and void And in Scotland the Parliament until this Revolution could debate of nothing but what the Lords of the Articles had first agreed should be debated The Act of 25 H. 8. which we say forbids the Clergy to confer about making any Canons without the King's Licence first obtained was made at the Petition of the Clergy and in the very words of that Petition And certainly they were good Judges of the Sense of their own Petition and how far they meant to restrain themselves And we find that the Clergy being assembled in Convocation not many Years after 1 Ed. 6. therefore several of them the same Persons at whose Petition the Act was made do most humbly desire that the King's Licence for them may be obtained according to the Effect of the said Statutes 25 and 27 authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised that is of being fined and imprisoned during the King 's Will. And now we come to the Act it self which recites in the Preamble the Petition and Submission of the Clergy wherein they promise in verbo Sacerdotii That they never from henceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim enact c. any new Canons Constitutions c. unless the King's Licence may be to them had to make c. the same and his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf And be it enacted