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A25451
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Animadversions upon Mijn Heer Fagels letter concerning our penal laws and tests with remarks upon that subject, occasioned by the publishing of that letter.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A3204; ESTC R37289
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44,038
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32
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year of her Majesties Reign in an Act then made it is recited That the Queens Highness in Her Letters Patent to any Archbishop Bishop or others for Confirming Investing and Consecrating of any Person elected to the Office or Dignity of any Archbishop or Bishop had not only used such Words and Sentences as were accustomed to be used by King Henry and King Edward her Majesties Father and Brother in their like Letters Patents made for such Causes But also had used and put in her Maiesties said Letters Patent divers other general VVords and Sentences whereby her Highness by her Supream Power and Authority had dispensed with all causes or doubts of any imperfection or disability that could or might in any wise be objected against the same And the same Statute declares That all Acts and Things done by any Person or Persons by vertue of her Majesties Letters Patents or Commission about any Consecration Confirmation or Investing of any Person or Persons elected to the Office or Dignity of any Archbishop or Bishop within this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions since the beginning of Her Reign should be judged and deemed by Authority of that Parliament at and from every of the several times of the doing thereof good and perfect to all respects and purposes any matter or thing that could or might be objected to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding and provides that all tenders of the Oath of Supremacy before that Sessions by vertue of any Act made in the first Session of that Parliament which was about three years before and all refusals of the Oath so tendered by any Archbishop or Bishop should be void and of none effect or validity in the Law and that no person or persons should at any time afterwards be impeached or molested in Body Lands Livings or Goods by occasion or mean of any such Certificate touching or concerning the refusal of the said Oath and in the preamble of this Act it is declared That the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm it was thought convenient thereby to touch such Authorities as did allow and approve the making and consecrating of the Archbishops and Bishops to be duly and orderly done according to Law. By which proceedings it may appear That the extent of the Oath of Supremacy as it might have been taken to be by the first Statute was by the Queens Admonitions explained limited and restrained Any deficiences which were or might be construed to be in the second Act or in such words and sentences as were used by her Predecessors for Confirming Investing or Consecrating Archbishops or Bishops being one of the great States of this Realm were by general words and sentences in the Queens Letters Patent and Commissions supplyed All causes and doubts of any imperfection or disability were by the Queens Highness Supream Power and Authority removed out of the way and all that was done pursuant thereunto declared to be good and perfect at and from the time of the doing thereof In the King's Apology before mentioned his Majesty reflects upon the Pope for having in his Breve dealt both indiscreetly with his Majesty and injuriously with his own Catholicks With his Majesty in not refuting particularly what special words he quarrell'd in that Oath which if he had done It might have been that for the fatherly care the King had not to put any of his subjects to a needless extremity he might have been contented in some sort to have reformed or interpreted those words With his own Catholicks for either if the King had so done they had been thereby fully eased in that business or at least if he would not have condescended to have altered any thing in the said Oath yet would thereby some appearance or shadow of excuse have been left unto them for refusing the same not as seeming thereby to swerve from their Obedience and Allegiance unto him but only being staid from taking the same upon the scrupulous tenderness of their Consciences in regard of those particular words Herein if the King does not assert his Prerogative to extend to reforming the words of an Oath Established by Law for the ease of the Consciences of some of his Subjects yet his Majesty plainly intimates some regard is to be had to those who did not swerve from their obedience but were only staid from taking this Oath through scruples of Conscience In the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth King James the First King Charles the First King Charles the Second divers Grants were made or confirmed and Toleration given to Strangers for exercise of Religion in the Principal Cities and Towns of England as London Norwich Canterbury and Southampton in Forms different from the Act of Uniformity of worship with a Non obstante to that Act And Charters in like manner in the Reign of all or some of the three last Kings to divers of their own Subjects for exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in Forreign parts within their Majesties Dominions with a dispensation as to Laws in force relating to Religion and requiring Oaths of Obedience in the form prescribed by such Laws and though some of these Dissenters who obtained these Grants have contrary to the common rules of Justice and Equity inflicted temporal penalties upon such of their brethren as have dissented from the forms of Worship established by their own municipal Laws and have therein usurped a power over Conscience which they desired and obtained by Grant from the King might not be exercised in reference to themselves yet those Regal Grants made to secure them from the penalties which otherwise they might have incurred by their Nonconformity to the General Laws in being respecting Religion Sacrament and Oaths which reacht not only throughout the Realm of England but all other their Majesties Dominions have been continued and renewed without ever being taken notice of in Parliament as an extention of the Kings Prerogative beyond the due bounds of Law. By all which instances it seems to me evident that his present Majesty has not by his Gracious Declaration of Indulgence exercised his Prerogative in any Case or upon any other Grounds than has been done before by his Royal Predecessors respecting the nature of the things but only in the degree as it is a more general extensive and comprehensive Act of Grace than any of those special Grants which have been made by his Progenitors grounded upon the most universal and evident Maximes of Religion and Civil Government viz. That his Majesty may have the benefit of the service of all his Loving Subjects which by the law of nature is inseparably annext to and inherent in his Royal Person without imposing upon any of them such Religious Tests or Oaths as they cannot in Conscience to God submit to The present Laws which require taking of the Sacrament Oaths or Tests in order to a residing in the Kings Courts or presence or
hand and all Calumny and Equivocations under the Name of the Church of England on the other hand so as to beget a right Understanding and perfect Reconciling of the Church of England and Protestant-Dissenters The only visible way is to have such to represent them in Parliament as will join in their humble supplications to the King That the National Church by Law Established with all its Rights may be Confirmed by a New Law removing Temporal Penalties for the Cause of Religion which have been and will be the occasions of Discord out of the way on such Terms as are propos'd in His Majesties Declaration and as may please the King in Parliament to grant it Fourth For the same reason that His Lordship would rot have such Poenal Laws and Tests repealed as tend to secure the Resormed Religion and keep Roman Catholicks out of publick imployments which they have not done nor can do It follows where there are Laws and Tests which tend to keep many Persons out of publick imployments who are every other way qualified for it and if they could be admitted would by their Behaviour as well in their publick Stations as by their general Conversation not only secure but greatly promote the Reformed Religion that there should be a Repeal in part or such other qualifying those Laws and Tests as that such Persons may not for their Consciencious Non-conformity to such Circumstances of Religion as are thereby required be excluded from publick Stations and tho' their Highnesses Concessions be very large on behalf of such Persons yet this may extend to such Laws as his Lordship might not have in his Thoughts when he writ his Letter viz. one made in the Thirteenth and another in the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of His Late Majesty King CHARLES the Second the First for Regnlating of Corporations respecting Civil Offices the Second for Uniformity of publick Prayers Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies relating to the Clergy Masters and Fellows of Colleges and School-Masters By one of these Laws great Change of Hands was made in Civil Imployments throughout all the Cities and Corporations in England and by the other of them at least 1500 Ministers were deprived of their Benefices many of which were sam'd abroad by their Works and at home for their profound Learning and exemplary Piety And how much these Alterations and Deprivations have tended to the Security of the Reformed Religion and left any sort of men out of a capacity to hurt it such as have liv'd and been of age and sobriety of Mind to discern in what degree the Conversation of Multitudes have in Twenty five Years past varied from what they were Twenty five Years before are best able to give a true Relation Fifth Because of that doleful experience which this Island has had of the ill consequence of all sorts of Religious Laws and Tests with Temporal Penalties annext By which for these 50 years past at divers Seasons each different party of Protestants alternately as they have had power in their hands or countenance of Authority have impos'd upon such as differ'd from them in forms of publick Worship principally upon this point to thrust and keep each other out of places of Trust and publick Imployment which has visibly and sensibly done more hurt to the Reformed Religion than all the attempts of their Adversaries could otherwise have effected This manifestly calls upon them all to surcease from all such riged courses which none of them can now either in Conscience or Prudence defend and by a joynt concurrence to endeavour a removal of all such occasions of offence out of the way that it may not be in the power of any who wait for opportunities under colour of Law to set Protestants at variance amongst themselves that they may bite devour and be devoured by one another and let not any apprehension that such a course at this Season will let in Papist amongst them into Civil or Military imployments cause them to neglect the present opportunity for seeing the continuance of these Religious Laws and Tests with temporal Penalties annext neither does nor can keep them out it is certainly more safe if there were no natural equity or right in the case and much more since there is so to let them in under due cautions by a Stated Law than to tempt them to get all the power they can into their own hands by Arbitrary means because they cannot be secur'd by Law in the enjoyment of Civil Priviledges equally and in common with others Sixth Because of that necessity we are under of making one more experiment whether those of the Communion of the Church of England Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholicks cannot live peaceably together and maintain a good correspondence in places of publick trust and imployments notwithstanding their different Sentiments in Religion For his Majesty has actually mingled and placed together some of each sort in many Commissions for publick trusts and imployments And if it be so as my Lord Fagell asserts That plain Reason as well as Experience of all Ages Pag. 6. That Present as well as the Past shews That it will be impossible for Roman Catholicks and Protestants when they are mixed together in places of trust and publick imployments to live together peaceably or to maintain a good correspondence together they will be certainly alwaies jealous one of another for the principles and maximes of both Religions are so opposite to one another that in his opinion he does not see how it will be in the power of any Prince or King whatsoever to keep down those suspitions and animosities which will be apt to arise upon all occasions This certainly calls for such a necessary and timely provision to be made by a new Law for prevention of such Suspition and Animosities as cannot be expected from our present Religious poenal Laws and Tests In order thereto His Majesty by his gracious and prudent Conduct in the Exercise of His Prerogative has laid the Foundation And that it may be perpetuated doubts not of the concurrence of His Two Houses of Parliament to establish and confirm it by a Law And herein His Majesty proposes a Variation from the Laws and Customs of all such other States as my Lord Fagell mentioned who receive none into a share in the Government or to publick Imployments but those who profess the publick and established Religion It is not material to enquire how the experience of all Ages has manifested that to be impossible which no State would ever admit to be tryed but it is to our purpose to take notice That where any considerable Party of Men have been born hard upon by the Laws and Government in their Civil Rights for their Religions sake their uneasiness therein has inclined them to lay hold of any occasion to free themselves from such Pressures and as they apprehended it did arise from the Religious Principles of such as opprest them