withstanding by those Laws this invincible perswasion without any other Crime is interpreted High Treason and punished as such and Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Rochester and others suffered death upon that account In others of them not only Priests for receiving Orders according to the Rites of the Church of Rome and coming over to Exercise the Office of their Function but such as were converted to the Romish Faith or Reconciled were involved in the Crime of Felony or Treason without lifting an hand uttering a Word or imagining the least disloyal thought against the peace of the Nation where they were Subjects First consideration how the grounds of those severities now cease Therefore first it must be considered that since some of these Laws were made in the tender Age of the Reformation when our Princes were very careful that it might not be overlaid in its Swathing Cloaths but now it is at a manly and masterly growth and back-set with so numerous a Progeny and powerful Abettors that it can plead a prescription and possession sufficient to maintain it self by Argument and Vote Therefore we cannot now judge such severe Laws so necessary there being no such danger of the Popes exercising any other Supremacy here than what is purely spiritual over those of that Communion in the Divine Offices of their Religion without having any power to dispose of any Benefices endow Religious Houses or establish any Religious Polity over the Protestant Subjects And as to any Temporal Jurisdiction it is impossible he should receive any thing of that which hath been so strenuously opposed even while the whole Nation in Spirituals submitted to the Doctrine and Discipline of that Church and I think all may be well satisfied that our King is no ways disposed to quit any of his Royal Prerogatives or subject his Crown to any other Potentate upon Earth The second Reason Secondly It ought to be remembred that in Queen Elizabeth's time there grew a strong Faction in the State by reason of the doubtful legitimacy of that Queen as being by the Pope and all Roman Catholics looked upon as born out of lawful Wedlock her Fathers Wife Queen Catherine being then alive and her Mother married to the King before a legal Divorce according to the Ecclesiastical Laws then in force which occasioned the Roman Catholics here to be great Favourers and Abetters of Mary Queen of Scots so that there was a political necessity in Queen Elizabeth and those that adhered to her and upon that account were desirous to preserve the Protestant Religion she embraced with all the Art and Industry they could by the severest Laws to secure the one and the other and by reason of several Attempts Insurrections and Forreign oppositions the unfortunate Queen of Scots was put to death for the safety of that Queen which the Politicians of that Age thought could never be as long as her Ryval lived Therefore we must look upon those Laws as made mostly for the security of the Sovereignty against Roman Catholics who as such were adjudged the greatest Enemies to it So that if we consider the times when and the persons upon whom the bloodiest Laws were executed we shall find that they were principally if not only when the State was either in real or imaginary danger from such Whence it was that the great States-man the Lord Burleigh published that Discourse That Papists were not put to death here for their Religion but for their Treasons Tho whoever considers how the security of the State and of the Religion was interwoven will find it requires a subtil head to separate them The grounds of them now cease However the Case is now wholly altered the Succession of our King is not in the least disputable by Roman Catholics or Protestants so that there can be no ground to keep up those in force for any other end than the securing the Protestant Religion only So that we must invalidate all my Lord Burleighs Arguments and bottom all our reasoning upon Religion if we plead for those Laws which cannot fully be justified but by avowing of that position so much exploded by the Church of England that Dominion is founded in Grace which dangerous Doctrine if it were once yielded no Prince could be safe from those that would alledge and were powerful enough to prove it that a Prince was not as holy as they or of their Society and where punishments of the severer kinds are inflicted for different modes of Worship where neither Immorality Sedition or Treason deserve it or it is not done with due reference to the peace and tranquility of the State we must ground them on the same Principle that because such and such are not Believers of the true Faith which the present Rulers would infer they only had must be cut off or punished as Malefactors Whereas it seems much more agreeable to Christian Moderation and the Rules of true Policy that where any Church is legally settled the care of preventing mischiefs should be left to the Government which no doubt would provide redress by suppressing Sedition whereby none but such as were Factious Turbulent and endanger the peace of the Government might be under any pressure or forced to withdraw their effects and forsake their Country or to live in obscurity and reservedness as people under the hatches all which do manifestly impoverish a Country However in our case it seems an unbecoming distrust of the intrinsick goodness of our Religion or the strength of our Arguments for it when it must be defended by Club-law And since we are out of all danger of Roman Priests Trafficking for Forreign Invasions as when the severe Laws were made the State was apprehensive of or of plotting and contriving against the King and Government It is too great an Argument that the refusing to take off the penal Laws and that we do not acquiesce and yield to the moderate desire of so gracious a King is more out of an inclination to gratifie Humor and Contention than for any other Cause It being sufficient that if ever such a time should occurr wherein the State should be indangered by Roman Catholics the severities might be reinforced When therefore we consider that the sanguinary and penal Laws now in being are severe to the utmost extremity When a Turk or a Jew not to mention other professions more turbulent in a State are not under any such impending Lash And consider what an after reckoning they may undergo so that the Laws standing not only Priests and new Converts but most of the old hereditary Roman Catholics must be forced to flee or abscond themselves And as to the Test however the King may for his time dispence with the taking of it and grant Pardons to and Indempnifie the not-takers of it toties quoties yet who ever shall act after the very last Pardon may be informed against under the next Protestant Successor and then it may be
other Offices This being the continual Toll by which some would make us believe the Protestant Religion was about giving up the Ghost I think it most necessary to enlarge the more upon it in shewing how just it is in the King to imploy Catholics and how much Reason he hath to dispense with the Test and that the refusing the Abolishing of it will be attended with much greater Inconveniences than the continuance of it It is equitable that the King imploy Catholics Before I enter upon this Subject more directly I think it requisite in the first place to shew the Equitableness and Reasonableness of the Kings imploying R. Catholics In order to which First we must consider with what steadiness and equanimity of Mind peculiar to himself our Illustrious King stemmed the Torrent of Antimonarchical and Associating Insolence and how undauntedly he weathered out the Storm raised against him upon the account of Religion before his access to the Crown So that we cannot think that he withdrew himself from the Communion of the Church of England for any Secular Interest and being not only so peaceably at first seated on his Throne but by a Miraculous success against a Rebellion that was within a cast of Victory so firmly establisht in his Right It cannot be thought but that he makes some reflections on the justness of his Cause and the favour of Heaven to his Religion so that after we have seen him Triumph over the spightful and impotent Confederaces against him and know him to be a Prince of those rigid Principles of Honour and Conscience as in no time to make use of the coverture of dissimulation we must conclude that the World would judge him hypocritical in his Religion if he should not publickly practise it himself and countenance the Profession of it in his Catholic Subjects and shew as favourable a regard to them Caeteris paribus as to Protestants Secondly 2 That the King hath reason to favour his Catholic Subjects It is most natural for every person to cherish and confide in those most who are of the same Perswasion with themselves in point of Religion who are to be supposed will most cordially and concernedly adhere to their Interest as knowing that their common Fortunes are interwoven While therefore Protestants since the Reformation have been the sole usu-fructuaries of all the places of Honour and Profit in Church and State and all who have been bred Catholics have been since the begining almost of Queen Elizabeth's time or at least from the middle of it under more or less continual pressure And a great many suffered most deeply for their Loyalty to King Charles the First And during the credence given to the late Plot have been harrassed from Session to Session proceeded against as Traytors Imprisoned and forced into Exile or undergon the severe penalties of the Laws It is but reasonable that they or their Posterities should with some more than common emotion of Joy and Contentment entertain the liberty of the exercise of their Religion they have so long been restrained from Nor is it to be wondred or repined at that they are very desirous to receive the Warmth and Sunshine of a Kings Favour they have so long been deprived of and of discovering their Joy and Satisfaction that they may be capacitated to render him Service and be united in that dutiful Bond of Loyalty with Protestants though they cannot accord with them in Matters of Religion Thirdly 3 It is unreasonable the King should be abridged of it It is a very unreasonable Matter that any Sovereign Prince should be abridged of the liberty of placing his Favours at his pleasure either in Compensation of his Subjects Sufferings or as a reward for their serviceable Loyalty or for the support of some meritorious Person or such as by their Pen do him Joynt-service with his Arms the one awing and the other arguing the Ill-dispos'd Subjects into their Duty And it no ways becomes Subjects to Murmur much less to repine upbraid or offer at catechizing the Prince for it Fourthly 4 It is an usual practice among Princes It is a well known usage amongst all Princes to entertain in their Service Great as well as Inferiour Commanders that are useful to them without having respect to their Religion For the Liberty that any Great Prince gives to a brave Man to Exercise his Devotions in the way he has chosen makes him so much the more at ease to be solicitous about nothing worldly but the true serving his Prince which made the late King not ill served by some of his greatest Sea Commanders and Captains who had learnt their Experience under the Usurpers and were Non-Conformists to the Church of England It is well known how long Marshal Turene served the French King before he returned to the Bosom of the Church of Rome and how Cardinal Richilieu and he though they offered their Prayers at several Altars yet petitioned joyntly for success to their Common Master And how long after the same King entertained Mounsieur Schomberg and other Protestants Surely the German Emperour doth not reject the Service of the Lutheran Princes and their Forces against the Otoman Empire and it is well known that Forreigners are imployed in the Councils or Armies of most Princes Fifthly 5 It is but like imploying Subjects of different Kingdome or Countries Neither can I see any greater difference in the Kings imploying of some Catholics together with Protestants than there is in his making his Subjects of both his Kingdoms participants with us English in Offices and Ministeries of State Which to repine at were very great Injustice seeing it is what has been ever practised Sixthly I may add further 6 It would be an injustice not to do it that it were a great oversight in Politics and an Injustice if his Majesty did not imploy Catholics for it is most fit in all his great and small Services he should intermix those he might most intirely confide in by the Unity of their Interest by which a commendable emulation would be betwixt them who should serve him best or at least his Wisdom or Umpirage would be best known by chusing what Council to follow when they proposed different Mediums and it would keep either party in that Golden Mediocrity which is most useful to Princes As to Injustice which Epithet whoever would fasten upon a Prince robs him of one of the noblest Flowers of his Crown can it be other in a Prince not to bestow Rewards Honours and Offices that are solely dispensable by himself to his serviceable Subjects or such as have suffered for their adherence to him or his Family and persevere in it and none can deny but some Catholics are such And all Catholic Princes would judge our King a very unequal Distributer of his Favours and to have no great Zeal for his Religion if he should not countenance and prefer some of his Catholic Subjects Yet
reputed such c. and every one of them to have hold and possess seat place and voice in our Parliaments Publick Conventions and Councils and of those of our Heirs and Successors within our Kingdom of England amongst other Barons and Barons of our Parliaments publick Conventions and Councils This having been the long used form of the Patents granted by our Protestant Princes it is not only an abatement of what the Sovereign intended for their well-deserving Subjects and a violating of that peculiar Right which was designed to be transmitted to their Posterities and thereby a degrading of Roman Catholic Peers of so importent a priviledge but it wrests out of the Kings hands a Royal Prerogative he hath Jure Coronae to make and create the Members of that most Honourable House which is his Supreme Court of Judicature The ill Consequences that may follow such Retrenchment being well worth serious Reflections and of the Kings Prerogative I having occasion hereafter to treat more largely shall add no more here but only hint to you the Resentments of some Parliaments when they have wanted their Members and close this Head with some short Reflections which with all due deference to better Judgments and those whom it may most immediatly concern I shall only offer to be considered Mat. Paris p. 885. Anno 1255. The Earls and Barons absolutely refused the King any assistance or answer at all to what he demanded because all the Barons were not at that time called according to the Tenure of Magna Charta Stat. 1â— 114 So the Acts of the Parliament of the 21th of Rich. 2. and all the proceedings therein were totally repealed and nulled by the first Parliament of King Henry the Fourth because the Lords who adhered to the King were summoned by him to the Parliament and some of the opposite party imprisoned impeached and unsummoned Pryns plea for Lords Stat. 24. When King Charles the First sitting the Parliament confined but one Member the Earl of Arundel the whole House of Lords Remonstrated and petitioned the King to take off the restraint and to admit him to sit and serve the King and Common-wealth in the great Affairs of that Parliament So the Lord Digby Earl of Bristol being not summoned the Lords ordered his Admission to Sit as his Birth-right 4 Justit p. 2. from which he might not be debarred for want of summons which ought to have been sent him ex debito Justitiae as Sir Edward Coke affirms Pryn ut supra p. 145 146. When the same King Charles demanded the Five Members the Two Houses grew exceedingly disquieted at it and would meddle in no other Business but adjourned themselves to Guild-Hall London till the King should give them satisfaction in discovering the Authors of that Counsel The stress of whose Argument in their Messages to the King Nov. 2. 1642 was That by that means under false pretences of Crimes and Accusations such and so many Members of both or either House of Parliament may be taken at any time by any person to serve a turn and to make a Major part of whereby the freedom of Parliament would be destroyed which they say dependeth in a great part on this priviledge because without it the whole Body of Parliaments may be dissolved by depriving them of their Members by degrees some at one time and others at another Plea for Lords p. 414. The same mischiefs which they urged might happen to the Being and Constitution of Parliaments by the Kings depriving the House of five Members may happen upon the Houses excluding their Members by Vote against which Mr. Prynn makes so great an Out-cry and from this unparallell'd president except in the long Parliament of expelling Members for their opinion in Religion Some Reflections upon the whole All Lovers of the so excellently composed Constitution of the Two Houses may do well to consider what an Inlet it will make to the Imitation of the likely designing Men when they shall have any Intrigue in hand to expel Members of other Qualifications Qualifications and Recognitions during the Usurpation Surely we ought not to forget how much it prolong'd our miserable slavery under the Usurpers when no Members how duly soever chosen by the Freeholders were admitted to sit unless they were so and so qualified and made a Recognition to own the Usurped Government and to Act nothing contrary to the Model of it I think it no great Commendation in us to be in Love with such a Copy of the same tho drawn in Oyl-Colours and made more lasting and obliging by the Legality of it When Queen Elizabeth was in greatest danger from Roman Catholics even while her Rival lived she could not be induced to deprive the Roman Catholic Lords of their places in Parliament The ill consequences of Secluding the Bishops I think we ought to remember what dismal effects followed the Seclusion of the Bishops out of the House of Lords and that upon the Kings Restauration none appeared more forward and zealous to have them brought into the House of Lords again than the Roman Catholic Peers did which Action none I think will interpret to have proceeded from their Love to their Religion but solely to the tender regard they had to Justice and the true Constitution of Parliaments and if the Bishops and Protestant Lords had thought fit to have been as careful of the Birth-rights of those few Catholic Lords that were Members of their House in all probability our Religion had been in as little danger by their stay as it hath been better'd by their expulsion for they neither were then or are like to be so numerous in that House as to carry any Vote to overthrow or weaken the Exercise of the Protestant Religion What sort of Acts of Parliament least dureable It must be owned that Acts of Parliament are to be looked upon as Laws the Subjects ought to yield all Obedience to But it is likewise to be considered that such Temporary Acts which upon Emergencies and to serve a juncture have altered any Ancient or Fundamental Constitution of the Government robbed the King of any useful Prerogative or the Subjects of their Birth-rights as likewise all such as by Revolution of Time have the Causes for which they were made ceasing have been rarely found conducible to Publick Good or of any long continuance It is true our present Sovereign was personally excepted from the severity of these Acts but it is well known that some great Members of the Houses designed to have him presented by the Grand-Jury as a Recusant in order to his Conviction as a Roman Catholic and the Judges for discharging the Jury too soon as the designers alledged whereby an Indictment could not be brought in were severely censured by the House of Commons This was not all for the hottest Zealots were for proceeding upon the Statute against being Converted or Reconciled to the Church of Rome upon
which they would have grounded an Indictment of Treason And whoever considers all the Arguments of the Exclusionists will find they were bottom'd upon the severe Laws against Papists So that if his Royal Brother had been wrought upon to have consented it had been easie by the force of the penal Laws against Roman Catholics not only to have deprived our Sovereign of his Right of Succession but of his life also Since therefore it is so evident that the penal Laws against Roman Catholics as they now stand in force are not only destructive to the Subjects property but endanger as much the Rights of Hereditary Princes In my Judgment the King hath sufficient reason to require their repeal and all Lovers of our Monarchy reflecting upon the hazard his Majesty was in from them have reason to use their utmost endeavours to have such abrogated Surely we cannot but reflect how things were pushed on after the credit given to that perjur'd Man's Plot. How a traiterous party designed the late Kings Murther the overthrow of the Monarchy or at least the utter secluding of our Gracious Sovereign and never rested till they had formed the Rebellion in England and Scotland So that when we consider how these Laws were obtained in a time when the Affrights Heats and Ferments of the Nation were so great and the drift of the Enemies to Monarchy and the Kings person were not sufficiently discovered and when we consider that those so fair-blown Blossoms so delicately striped with the beautiful Colours of Religion and Property and Priviledges were succeeded by the most poisonous Fruits And that those men who pretended so much care of the Protestant Religion manifestly designed the Eclipsing at least if not the overthrow of the Church of England by their Bill of Comprehension whoever I say considers these things deliberately cannot think the King hath any reason to be in Love with these Acts which were made so Diametrically opposite to his Regality and which would so manacle his hands that he might have no power to bestow Places or Offices upon his Catholic Subjects Having premised these things in Gross I shall now proceed to give you some of the many reasons why I think the King hath just cause to insist upon the Repeal of these Acts and all other Sanguinary Laws Reasons why the Test ought to be repeal'd 1. That it chargeth the King and all Catholics with the detestable sin of Idolatry First If there were no other reason why he should earnestly endeavour the abolishing of them This one thing seems to me sufficient in that all his Subjects who are capacitated to serve Him must solemnly declare the King or the Church he is in Communion with Idolaters than which sin I think no Christian can be guilty of a greater except that of the so inexplicable sin against the Holy Ghost If I were a Military man I should be very diffident of success or that God would prosper my Arms while I fought a Princes quarrel whom I judged an Idolater And if I did not believe it as their whole Church so solemnly denying any properly Divine Worship to be given by them to any but God methinks should hinder me and yet were obliged so solemnly to declare it I should think I scandalized my Prince in the highest degree mocked God and gave a lye to my Conscience So that however useful it might be to deter persons of the Roman Faith from taking it and so to incapacitate them yet I cannot see how a Catholic Prince can countenance or need it And how either the King himself or his Catholic Subjects can digest such publick avowing them Idolaters I leave to any rational man to judge And especially the King being I doubt not throughly convinced in his own Conscience that he is no Idolater for I think gestures only without some kind of intention of paying Divine Honour to something that is not God will not make a person guilty of that damnable sin It cannot but concern him in Conscience to prevent as much as in him lies his Subjects averring so scandalous an untruth in his Majesties own belief at least and which assertion carries with it another ill consequence that every one is not aware of For the Ordination of our Bishops coming from the Church of Rome if that be Idolatrous it is no more a Church of Christ but a Synagogue of Satan And if it be no Damage I am sure it is no Credit to derive a succession from it Secondly 2 That one great end of the Test now ceaseth Another reason against the Test may be that now there is no use of the direct intendment of the Act because the end for which in great part it was made is now obsolete and totally ceaseth which I hope will be clear to them that consider that the power of the Militia and the disposing either directly or indirectly of all the places of Service and Trust are in the King So that though it was but rational that those persons to whom Protestant Kings committed Arms and Offices should be assured of them in fidelity which the being of the same Religion induceth a Prince to confide more in lest their Persons or Government might be in danger from any armed with power that were Catholics So that it was but consentaneous to the Sovereign Power in disposal of the Militia and Offices that a Protestant Prince might refuse to be served by Catholics and lest any such might get into Imployments he might be willing to consent to the most effectual discriminating Test that could be invented to debar them But now the King is secure from any apprehensions of the least danger to his Person and Government from Catholics and can have no more doubt of the Allegiance of Catholics without such Oaths or Declarations than a Protestant Prince could have of his Protestant Subjects under the engagement of those Oaths Here we may en passant observe a considerable difference betwixt the method of our King and those of former times Now we repine and are greatly alarum'd as if all were lost because here and there a Catholic Officer is Commissionated whereas the King imploys treble the number yea some say Ten Officers that are Protestants for one Catholic and the Soldiers are generally Protestants whereas before not one Known Catholic was capable of any Imployment We might have indeed some reason to murmur and repine if the King should commissionate none but Catholics yet that would be but Lex Talionis turning the Tables Therefore since he hath the power of dispencing with that Law as appears by the Sentence in the King's Bench we have reason to be thankful to the King for the distribution of his favours so liberally to Protestants which hath been so long denied to Unfortunate Catholics who if their Religion did not incapacitate them as Englishmen Fellow-Subjects and Gentlemen are as fit for all sorts of Imployment as Protestants And I doubt not but now that
Crown It is a known maxim in Law saith the learned q Coke Report 7 p. 7. ex Stat. 11. H. 7. c. 1. 2 Eliz c. 2 Judge that every Subject is bound to defend the King and to go with the King and to serve in his Wars as well without as within the Realm The Liegeance to the Prince saith a singularly well read r Majestas Intemerata Lawyer is immutable and absolute in all places It obligeth in all ubi's and the liege man ought in duty of this faith to perform to his Lord the Offices of a Subject when ever he shall need his assistance against all who mori possunt aut vivere can die or live This is clear by Law and Reason In the 48 Å¿ Claus 48. H. 3. M. 3. Tam militiâ—e quam liberi homines omnes alii ad defensionem Regis tenentur H. 3. the words of the Law are That the Knights and Free-tenants and all others were obliged to the defence of the King And so 12 E. 3. All and every single person are bound to defend the King. Thence it was that a t 4 Instit 7. In â—â—riâ—â—lo Hestium suorum Parliament judged it High Treason in Nicholas Segrave that he withdrew himself from the Kings Hoste leaving the King in danger of his Enemies The ground of all which is what u Lib. 2. c. 1. Bracton so long since hath noted that to receive Justice and Protection are the greatest benefits of this Life and there can be no use of w Com. 3.5 Rulers without these Attributes for if the Sovereign be abridged x Roll. Eritt 234. of the Prerogative to exact Obedience and Liegiance from his Subjects he hath but a small portion of the Sovereignty indeed his Kingship must be precarious as depending only on the good Nature of his Subjects Thence the Attorney y Pusw Col cer 〈◊〉 552 General in the Argument of Ship-money saith The King as Head of the Politic Body is furnished with intire Power and Jurisdiction not only to minister Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal unto his People but likewise for defence both of the one and of the other Whence the Clause inserted in the Register Ad providendam Salvationem Regis Bracton z 2 Lib. 1. fol. 6. saith The Life and Members of every Subject are in the Power of the King And a a Pasch 19 E. 1. Rol. 36. North. Record saith Vita membra sunt in manu Regis both which are understood that the King hath sole Power to command their Service in his Wars or otherwise as he hath occasion The Lord Chief b Instit 149. West 2.39 1 R. 3. p. 2. c. 15. Rol. Brit. 85. Justice saith That if any Privy Councellor or other cause one to enter into an obligation to serve the King it is void every man being bound to serve him without it and such Writings are declared dishonourable being every man is bound to defend the King and his Realm and to do the service that appertaineth to him as his Liege Lord. The King c Com. pl. 316. is stiled the Sovereign and Chief Captain of Arms all Power is his no man may use Arms so much as in Turnament Tilt c. without the Kings License The d Rol. Parl. 5 H. 4. N o 24. Statute of Array is full in this tho' not printed This is further illustrated in that if a Sheriff return that he is resisted in serving the Kings Writ it is declared not to be good because it redounds to the Kings dishonour being presumed the King can command every one to obey and the Sheriff hath Authority from him to raise the Posse Commitatus In former Ages the Kings absolute Power in disposing the Militia was never disputed It was the black or bloody Parliament only that assumed to themselves coordinate Power and challenged the Power of ordering the Militia for preserving the Kingdom without and against the Kings consent which occasioned the first Parliament of King Charles the Second to declare in the preamble of the Act e 13 Car. 2. c. 6. 14 Car. 2. c. 3. That it is and ever was the Kings Prerogative alone to dispose of the Militia of the Nation to make War and Peace League and Truce to grant safe Conduct without the Parliament and that he may Issue out Commissions of Lieutenancy impowering them to form into Regiments and imploy them as well within their own as other Countries as the King shall direct Since the taking away Tenures it is true the Method of raising Men hath been something altered but before the imposing of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and now this Test we find no qualifications of the persons required but that they should be habiles Corporis of able Bodies sit to serve the King and Country And tho this Test doth not totally deprive the King of the service of his Subjects yet it diminisheth his Authority and takes away the corporal Service of a considerable number of his Liege people Thirdly Hew careful our Ancestors have been to preserve the Prerogatives I now pass to the third particular in which I shall in some few instances shew how careful the Houses of Parliament have been in preserving inviolable the Prerogative of the Crown or when by any pressing emergency they have been invaded that the Judges have determined that the Kings of England might by a special non obstante dispence with the penalty of them This Question about the Test being wholly new and such a weakening of the Prerogative as hath not been known in our Ancestors days you cannot expect any clear discission of it in the Books of the Law. All one can do in such a case is only to produce some Maxims Presidents or parallel Cases that may affect it most which without the help of any ones Collections as having never perused any of the Arguments in Sir Edward Hales Case I shall out of my own small reading offer these following to your consideration The Attorney f Rushworth's Collect 578. General affirms That an Act of Parliament doth not extend to take away the Common Right of the Crown and saith That hath been the exposition of the Judges of Acts of Parliament that have done so He instanceth in the Magna Charta of King Johns 17º Regni where it is said That no Scutage or Aid should be without assent of Parliament So that in this there was no exception of an Aid to Knight the Kings Eldest Son or marry his Eldest Daughter yet it was resolved in this case that by that Charter those Aids were not abolished they being due by the Law of the Land and so it was declared 25 E. 1. cap. 1. We find an Antient Statute in King g Westons c. 50. 2 Instit 263. Edward the First 's time wherein the King speaks thus That he bad done this for the Honour of God the Honour of
doubtful whether the Kings dispensing Power will be allowed or not I say if there were no other Reasons the King hath from hence sufficient cause to insist earnestly upon the repealing these Laws and the Test and it is probable almost to a demonstration that if this had been frankly granted it would have satisfied the King and have composed the minds of Roman Catholics who being placed in a condition of safety would have continued that esteem they had for the Church of England ever since the late Civil Wars when they were the only fellow-sufferers SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test HAving premised this I come to treat of the Inconveniencies the denial of the repeal of these Laws brings with it viz. First That it raiseth in his Majesties Royal Breast a prejudice against our Church and Religion and the effects of the unkindness it may beget appears to me of a much more dangerous consequence than the taking off the sanguinary and penal Laws can produce so that in stead of acting for the preservation of our Religion we expose it to more imminent and apparent danger and inconsiderately run upon the Rock we would avoid since such unaccountable obstinacy hath not only in all probability occasioned the enquiry into the Kings Power in dispensing with the penal Laws the displacing of Ministers of State and Officers in the Army and Commissionating a greater number of Catholics than otherwise would have been admitted the taking Catholic Lords into the Council and granting the Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs but may oblige the King to make still greater Changes amongst his Officers Ministers and Judges than otherwise he intends All those holding their places only during his Royal Pleasure so that without violating any Law he may at one stroke remove most Protestant Officers from the Administration of Affairs of State under him And we know not what Changes and Alterations this wayward and unseasonable stiffness may induce his Majesty to make in the external Government and Polity of the Church by the Power of his Supremacy and Prerogatives And surely the extruding of Protestants from Power and Authority either in Church or State under the King is likely to be a vaster prejudice to our Religion than the repealing the Test can be Let us therefore think how much we are bound even in Christian prudence for the sake of our Religion not to provoke the King to withdraw his Indulgence to us in the Exercise of that Religion which he graciously offers to protect and which Grace we ought not to requite by urging the keeping up those severities against those of his Religion which most Protestants would decline to execute if they could and which we cannot if we would until we first renounce obedience to Gods Command and Submission to our Sovereign by refusing if not overthrowing his Sacred Authority and Power Whereas we are tyed by our Principles and Religion not to resist it being a chief and Essential Position and Doctrine of the Church of England to render Active and when we cannot do that Passive Obedience to our Sovereign and what ever we suffer it will not excuse us from the Guilt and Crime of indamaging and indangering our Religion by this unnecessary giving occasion to it when we might have saved not only our Reputations of being most dutiful Subjects but won so far upon the heart of our Royal Master that it would have been in the power of none to have estranged his Affections from us The Spirit of moderation becometh Christians and Calmness and Discretion becometh Subjects in all dealing with their Sovereign and we may be assured that the greater invitation we give our King by these Virtues the greater assurances we have of his Protection of our Religion and the preservation of the present Peace and Tranquility which we enjoy Let us not therefore by denying what we cannot hinder lose the greatest Blessings and Happinesses we may retain that King and People may live in that happy and good understanding which may continue and Crown the sweetness and easiness of his Royal Government over us and of our Tranquility Prosperity and Happiness under his Shadow The second Inconvenience Secondly Till these Laws be taken off it will continue those most dangerous of Evils that can befal the King and People when there is no good correspondence betwixt the King and the two Houses of Parliament On the Kings part first we may call to mind the miserable times of King John and King Henry the third and those more fresh and never to be forgot under King Charles the First Secondly However prudent and wise a Prince may be yet the watchful envy or designs of some Neighbour Potent Prince or State may necessitate our King to defend his Merchants or Plantations to succour his Allies or to secure his People from Damage or Hostilities whereby he may be forced to have recourse to his Parliament for Aid which while a good correspondence is wanting may render them slow to grant or upon unequal Conditions Thirdly This will give an opportunity to all sorts of Male-Contents and Enemies to the Monarchy to bestir themselves to embroil and ferment the People into some dangerous Defection Sedition or Rebellion On the Peoples side the mischiefs that will befall us by this want of a good understanding betwixt the King and his two Houses will be first that since our King by a mature Age and a great Experience of all affairs relating to Arms and Government is fitted and enabled more than most of his Royal Predecessors to aggrandize himself and give renown to his Subjects by buoying up whatever hath been sunk in the reputation of the World And is able to increase the Traffick of his people and inlarge their Commerce and his Empire and make as great a Figure in the World as any Crowned Head. All the Blessing we and our Neighbours might expect from so qualified a Prince will be utterly lost so that in stead of transporting his Cares Counsels and Arms into foreign parts he shall be necessitated to confine them within the Circle of his own Dominions only to keep them from Sedition or any worse mischief So that the hopeful opportunities which the World knows our King might have to hold again the Ballance of Europe and make us as flourishing a people as ever will be totally lost To the great satisfaction no doubt of some of his Neighbours and the general and irreparable loss to us and our Posterity who with sad reflections may lament the occasion of this dispute Secondly Such a want of good Correspondence betwixt the King and his two Houses will hinder us from obtaining such advantageous Laws for the benefit of the Subjects as this Remora being removed might rationally be expected among which most probably one or more might be a Corroboration of the Kings Gracious Promise of protecting the Church of England and whatever else
in Religion these readily divided their adherence either to the Crown or to the Seditious or Rebels But whoever got by such commotions I am sure the generality of the Subjects were sufferers and whenever God Almighty punished them in this kind yet we find in the upshot the Government was again setled more firm as we may learn even by our latest examples at the Restauration of King Charles the second And whoever consider the benefits that accrue to a people that live quietly under Government and the sad mischiefs that Faction and Sedition cause will chuse the one rather than the other and will find that all the stricter impositions on the Subject have been occasioned by the peoples disobedience and the displacing of Officers have been for the security of the Government Hence the Act of purgeing Corporations and the late Quowarranto's and some Acts of State of later date Distrust of a Princes good Intentions for his People and diffidence in his gracious promises above all things are to be avoided in Subjects It is that hinders them from yeilding to his reasonable desires Our gracious King hath multiplied his Assurances of his protection of our Religion and it is our Duty and Interest to be confident in and truly thankful for them and neither by insolency mistrust or peevishness to forfeit his Royal Favour Those who are well acquainted with the gracious and generous temper of his Majesty know that a diffidence in his Sacred Promises is so much the more disobliging as it is the questioning his veracity which is one of the chief and most valuable of his Royal Virtues This distrust touching so vital a part as the Justice and Reputation of any private person raiseth a deep resentment how much more must it be ill indured in so great a Person who hath that peculiar temper of Spirit suitable to his Birth and Dignity not to suffer his Methods to be thwarted or disputed especially where the constructions put upon them tend to the diminution of the Love and Honour his Subjects owe him and will occasion seditious withdrawing of the Subjects from their Duty and Allegiance which as they are most important mischiefs and hazard the Peace of the Government so they have in all humane probability been the rrue and only Motives that have induced his Majesty to withdraw his wonted kindness from some persons that I am confident out of mere inadvertency of these consequences and out of desire to serve him in other Methods have fallen under his displeasure Upon this consideration it is that our Loyal Divines should have a special regard that neither openly or covertly they increase their Auditories suspition or distrust of his Majesties kindness to our Church but rather inforce a free passage of the contrary to our very heart and souls so as first to be truly thankful for his grace and then to be confident of it They have liberty from the King to confirm their Auditors with the best Reasons they can without misrepresentations in their Religion But withal I think it likewise necessary they be taught not to harbour those doubts and apprehensions of any Intendment of the King by any power to inforce us to abandon it but rather incourage them in a firm and thankful belief that the King will make good his gracious Promise Some such Cordials would preserve our Religion better than all the bewailings of the afflicted State of the Church which will not secure us one Article of our Religion I can foresee no danger to the Church of England by this way of proceeding but am most assured it would incline his Majesty more chearfully to continue his protection of it in finding such grateful returns of his Favours Only it might produce one effect that some probably are not desireous to experience that it would again bring us to that Criterion and perfect distinction of those who are true Members of the Church of England from others that now wear the Badge and Livery only which they can as soon undress themselves of when they should judge it for their Interest We should then find them at their old Calumnies that the Clergy were going over to or meeting half-way the Church of Rome and even those who are so much applauded and followed would in a little time be accused of selling the Reversion of our Religion as in the late times they were scandalized with the Incumbering and Mortgaging of it Upon the whole let us seriously consider that where Loyalty obtains no people can be miserable let us trust God and the King. And tho there are differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Roman Catholics and us Yet as we agree in Morals and in several indisputable Points of Christanity in the Creeds and several Articles of Faith as well as in some external Ceremonies rejected by other Protestants there is no reason we should keep up such inveterate Animosities be at perpetual strife not de finibus regundis but of exterminating one another But rather study how by an amicable accord in our common Duty of Christianity and Allegiance we may mutually and Cordially endeavour the defence and preservation of the King and his Government which ought to be every Loyal mans design and is the sole intendment of this my present writing to you FINIS