it 2. Upon such a Review whether it be not great Reason that all Persons who Officiate in the Church be not only tied to a constant Use of it in all publick Offices as often as they administer them which they ought in Person frequently to do but to declare at their first entrance upon a Parochial Charge their Approbation of the Use of it after their own Reading of it that so the People may not suspect them to carry on a Factious Design under an outward pretence of Conformity to the Rules of the Church they live in 3. Whether such a solemn Using the Liturgy and Approbation and Promise of the Use of it may not be sufficient instead of the late Form of declaring their Assent and Consent which hath been so much scrupled by our Brethren These are all the things which appear to me reasonable to be allowed in order to an Union and which I suppose may be granted without detriment or dishonour to our Church There are other things very desirable towards the happiness and flourishing of this Church as the exercise of Discipline in Parochial Churches in a due subordination to the Bishop the Reforming the Ecclesiastical Courts as to Excommunication without prejudice to the excellent Profession of the Civil Law the Building of more Churches in great Parishes especially about the City of London the retrenching Pluralities the strictness and solemnity of Ordinations the making a Book of Canons suitable to this Age for the better Regulating the Conversations of the Clergy Such things as these might facilitate our Union and make our Church in spight of all its Enemies become a Praise in the whole Earth But with what Ingenuity were these Concessions received They were thrown back in their faces with a sibi suis let them keep them to themselves froward Children once gotten into a peevish Humour though they crave many things and their indulgent Parent grants them all that they crave yet will they not be quieted with any thing and the longer they have been thus indulged the more pettish they grow and it often comes to pass that such as endeavour to reconcile such Children to their Parents are lookt on as their Enemies which is the common Fate of all Arbitrators who though they be indifferently chosen by the contending Parties and do with their utmost Discretion and Moderation agree in an impartial Determination in hope to please both Parties yet are they sure to displease one if not both yet better it is so to do than to permit them incessantly to vex one another by their unreasonable and perpetual Contentions But I hope that those severe Corrections which we ourselves occasioned to each other have abated this petulant Humour and boaten us into better Manners and taught us more Discretion or at least that the sence which we all lately had and the prospect which we still have before us of being utterly undone and of losing those inestimable Substances of our Religion Laws and Liberties while we contend only about Shadows have reduced all Parties to more peaceable Inclinations and that having agreed to refer the Matters in difference to equal Arbitrators by our own choice who have also agreed on such an Umpire as hath a tender Concern for the Satisfaction and Welfare of us all we will with humble and hearty Submission acquiesce in their Determination Wherefore if it shall please our Legislators by the Methods proposed or any other which to them by the assistance of a Convocation shall seem convenient to give ease to Tender Consciences I am perswaded that the Ministers of the Church would readily and gladly embrace such as shall Conform and give them the right hand of Fellowship And I hope that although some men have formerly when they had Toleration and Indulgences granted them not for their sake so much as for the Destruction of the Church as I hope they now perceive and by the Mediation and for the Advantage of Popery rejected such Proposals with a kind of Scorn yet now at length after all the Hazards that by GOD's great Mercy we have escaped all such persons as have any Moderation and peaceable Principles or any Sence of the Danger wherein the Protestant Cause now stands will heartily joyn in the Communion of the Church to increase her Numbers and strengthen her Hands that so under the Conduct of our Religious and Auspicious Soveraigns she may still stand as an Impregnable Bulwork against all the Attempts of our Implacable Enemies and a Terrour to all that bear evil will to Sion I shall only add the Advice of the Lord Bacon That when many good Laws are made there will need one great one more for the putting of those in Execution The following Treatise was penned some Years since when it was not thought so safe to Print it as it may be seasonable now to inform the Reader of the Moderation of the Church of England and to perswade to a Union with it THE CASE of PERSECUTION Charg'd on the Church of England Consider'd and Discharg'd c. AFTER the many frivolous and false Accusations charged on the Established Church viz. of Superstition and Popery by Fanaticks and of Schism and Heresy by the Papists the opposite Factions did agree to charge her with the horrible Crime of Persecution A Calumny so vehemently imputed that they doubt not but it will fasten on her and make ignorant credulous and prejudiced persons believe that she is as guilty as St. Paul was thought to be when the Viper which arose out of the fire at Melita fastned on his hand which made the Inhabitants conclude that he was a Murtherer Acts 28.3 But if we have the patience to look on a while we shall see it fall off without doing her any harm and we may hope that the impartial Reader will pronounce her not guilty for though many Witnesses joyn in the general Accusation yet if they are particularly and severally examined they will confute each other for if the Protestant Dissenters be asked whether the Church of England hath persecuted the Papists they are ready to answer No but she hath complied with them much more than they themselves would have done And if the Papists be asked whether the Church of England have dealt too severely with the other Dissenting Factions they will answer No but they have been more indulgent to them than any of their Perswasion in the like circumstance with the Church of England would have done And the Church may Appeal to any of her Accusers whether if they had power over her they would not deal more severely with her then ever she dealt with them And evident it is that the Church hath always been on the suffering side the disagreeing Factions still strugling for the Pre eminence over the Church as well as over each other so that the Church hath been still grinded by the two opposite Factions as between two Mill-stones the one being sometime uppermost and sometime the other
Men to run among them and no Persons so indulged be capable of any Publick Office. It not being reasonable that such should be trusted with Government who look upon the Worship Established by Law as Unlawful 6. That no other Penalty be laid on such indulged Persons but that of Twelve Pence a Sunday for their absence from their Parochial Churches which ought to be duly Collected for the Use of the Poor and cannot be complained of as any heavy Burthen considering the Liberty they do enjoy by it 7. That the Bishops as Visitors appointed by Law have an exact Account given to them of the Rule of their Worship and Discipline and of all the Persons belonging to the indulged Congregations with their Qualities and Places of Abode and that none be admitted a Member of any such Congregation without acquainting their Visitor with it that so means may be used to prevent their leaving our Communion by giving satisfaction to their scruples This Power of the Bishops cannot be scrupled by them since herein they are considered as Commissioners appointed by Law. 8. That no indulged Persons presume under severe Penalties to breed up Scholars or to teach Gentlemens Sons University-Learning because this may be justly looked on as a design to propagate Schism to Posterity and to lay a Foundation for the disturbance of future Generations II. As to the Case of the Ejected Ministers I have these things to offer 1. That bare Subscription of the Thirty Six Articles concerning Doctrinal Points be not allowed as sufficient to qualifie any Man for a Living or any Church-preferment for these Reasons First Any Lay-man upon these Terms may not only be capable of a Living but may take upon him to Administer the Sacraments which was never allowed in any well-constituted Church in the Christian World. And such an allowance among us instead of setling and uniting us will immediately bring things into great Confusion and give mighty Advantage to the Papists againstour Church And we have reason to fear a Design of this Nature under a pretence of Union of Protestants tends to the Subversion of this Church and throwing all things into Confusion which at last will end in Popery Secondly This will bring a Faction into the Church which will more endanger it than External Opposition For such Men will come in Triumphantly having beaten down Three of the Thirty Nine Articles and being in Legal Possession of their Places will be ready to defie and contemn those who submitted to the rest and to glory in their Conquests and draw followers after them as the Victorious Confessors against Prelacy and Ceremonies And can they imagine those of the Church of England will see the Reputation of the Church or their own to suffer so much and not appear in their own Vindication Things are not come to that pass nor will they suddenly be that the Friends of the Church of England will be either afraid or ashamed to own her Cause We do heartily and sincerely desire Union with our Brethren if it may be had on just and reasonable Terms but they must not think that we will give up the Cause of the Church for it so as to condemn its Constitution or make the Ceremonies unlawful which have been hitherto observed and practised in it If any Expedient can be found out for the ease of other Mens Consciences without reflecting on our own if they can be taken in without reproach or dishonour to the Reformation of the Church I hope no true Son of the Church of England will oppose it But if the Design be to bring them in as a Faction to bridle and controul the Episcopal Power by setting up Forty Bishops in a Diocess against One if it be for them to trample upon the Church of England and not submit to its Order and Government upon fair and moderate Terms let them not call this a Design of Union but the giving Law to a Party to oppose the Church of England And what the success of this will be let wise Men judge Thirdly If a Subscription to Thirty Six Articles were sufficient by the Statute 13 Eliz. c. 12. I do not understand how by vertue of that Statute a Man is bound publickly to read the Thirty Nine Articles in the Church and the Testimonial of his Subscription on pain of being deprived ipso facto Co. Inst 4. Part 323 324. if he do not For the L. Ch. J. Coke saith That Subscription to the 39 Articles are required by force of the Act of Parliament 13 Eliz. c. 12. And he adds That the Delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto and that a conditional Subscription to them was not sufficient was resolv'd by all the Judges in England But how a Man should be deprived ipso facto for not Subscribing and Reading the 39 Articles as appears by the Cases mentioned in Coke and yet be required only to subscribe to 36 by the same Statute is a thing too hard for me to conceive 2. But notwithstanding this if any temper can be found out as to the manner of Subscription that may give ease to the Scruples of our Brethren and secure the Peace of the Church the desired Union may be attained without that apparent Danger of increasing the Factions among us And this I suppose may be done by an absolute Subscription to all those Articles which concern the Doctrine of the true Christian Faith and the Use of the Sacraments and a solemn Promise under their hand or Subscription of peaceable Submission as to the rest so as not to oppose or contradict them either in Preaching or Writing upon the same Penalty as if they had not subscribed to the 36. Which may be a more probable means to keep the Church in quiet than forcing a more rigorous Subscription upon them or leaving them at their full liberty 3. As to the other Subscription required 1 Jac. to the 3 Articles The first is provided for by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy The third is the same with the Subscription to the 39 Articles And as to the Second about the Book of Common Prayer c. It ought to be considered 1. Whether for the satisfaction of the Scrupulous some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended Whether the New Translation of the Psalms were not fitter to be used at least in Parochial Churches Whether Portions of Canonical Scripture were not better put instead of Apocrypha Lessons Whether the Rubrick about Salvation of Infants might not be restored to its former place in the Office of Confirmation and so the present Exceptions against it be removed Whether those Expressions which suppose the strict Exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at liberty in our present Case Such a Review made by Wise and Peaceable Men not given to Wrath and Disputing may be so far from being a dishonour to this Church that it may add to the Glory of
to say when it is too late but a non Putarum that the instances of the obduration of Pharoah and the Pharisees make you not afraid lest the Wrath of God come upon you to the utmost while you please not God and are contrary to all Men forbidding Christ's Labourers to preach to the Ignorant and Impenitent that they may be saved 1 Thess 2.15 O that God would make them sensible how many thousand persons Damnation is like to be charged upon them for what they have already done these seventeen Years hindring so many Faithful Ministers I must profess if it were the last word I should speak in the World that I had rather be the basest Scavenger yea and suffer many Deaths than be found at the Judgment-Seat of Christ in the Place and Guilt of those of you the best and most moderate Bishops c. who have done what is done against the Gospel and Church of Christ in this Land. In p. 236. the Author opposeth this Question in behalf of the Bishops Why do I write all this to you Bishops and not to his Majesty and the Parliament I answer It is not them nor any of their Laws and Actions which in all this Book I intend to speak against Yet the whole design of the Book was to Justifie the Preaching of Non conformists contrary to Law. And p. 104. he says No Bishops have Silenced us by Spiritual Government that we know of but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which they gave their Votes and he acknowledgeth all did not These Contradictions cannot be reconciled And it was no less then a Spirit of Contradictions that wrought in the hearts of such Men as thus opposed themselves to the Establishment made by the Parliament notwithstanding the many Alterations then made in the Liturgy and Rubricks and the Reasons given for them in the Preface before the Common-Prayer and the Discourse concerning Ceremonies which there follows And because the farther Concessions opposed by that Learned Dr. Stillingfleet may give some satisfaction to the Reader how willing the Church was to propose Terms of Reconciliation I have here set them down that it may appear also how unreasonably they were despised by the Men of that Generation And that this Doctor may not stand alone or be thought to propose his own Sentiments only I shall joyn with him the Reverend Dean of Canterbury in a Sermon preach'd at the York-shire Feast Anno 1679 p. 28. Though it was not for private Persons says he to undertake in matters of publick Concernment yet I have no cause to doubt but the Governours of our Church notwithstanding all the Advantages and Authority too which are on their side were persons of that Piety and Prudence that for Peace sake and in order to a firm Union among Protestants they would be content if that would do it not to insist upon little things but to yield them up whether to the Infirmity or Importunity or perhaps in some very few things to the plausible Exceptions of those who differed from them Dr. Sherlock makes up a Triumvirate after whom I shall not need though I could mention many Auxiliaries in a Sermon preached before the Lord-Mayor Novemb. 1688. We have reason to hope that the Church of England which at the beginning of the Reformation took such prudent care not to offend the Papists in going farther from them than was necessary will whenever it is likely to do good condescend to a great deal farther than it is necessary to Reform to meet the Dissenters for while the External Decency Gravity and Solemnity of Worship is secured no wise and good Man will think much to change a changeable Ceremony when it will heal the Divisions and Breaches of the Church And let us all heartily pray to God that there may be this good and peaceable Disposition of Mind in all Conformists and Non-conformists towards a happy Reunion And all considering Men will think it time to lay aside such little Disputes when it is not meerly the Church of England nor any particular Sect of Protestants whose Ruine is aimed at but the whole Protestant Faith. And to evidence that this was the Sence of the Governours of our Church the Archbishop of Canterbury with his Six Brethren did declare in their Petition to the late King That they did not refuse to distribute and publish his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience for any want of due Tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they were willing to come to such a Temper as should be thought fit when that matter should be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation And in the Articles commended to the Bishops of his Province and their Clergy he Exhorts That they walk in Wisdom towards them that are not of our Communion and if there be in their Parishes any such that they neglect not frequently to confer with them in the Spirit of Meekness seeking by all good ways and means to gain them to our Communion more especially that they have a very tender regard to our Brethren the Protestant Dissenters that upon occasion offered they visit them at their Houses and receive them kindly at their own and treat them fairly where-ever they meet them perswading them if it may be to a full Compliance with our Church or at least that whereunto we have already attained we may all walk by the same Rule and mind the same Thing and in order hereunto that they take all opportunities of assuring and convincing them that the Bishops of this Church are really and sincerely irreconcileable to the Errours Superstitions Idolatries and Tyrannies of the Church of Rome and that they warmly and most affectionately exhort them to joyn with us in daily fervent Prayer to the God of Peace for an universal blessed Union of all the Reformed Churches at home and abroad against our common Enemies and that all they who confess the Holy Name of our Dear Lord and agree in the Truth of his Holy Word may also meet in one Holy Communion and live in perfect Unity and Godly Love. And it is well known that many Ministers in the City and Country were accounted Trimmers and threatned to be Prosecuted themselves because they refused to Present and Prosecute their Dissenting Neighbours So that both the Bishops and others of the Established Clergy have been alway ready to Sacrifice their private Peace and Interest to the publick Walfare The Reverend Dean of St. Paul's Proposals or Terms of Union betwixt the Church of England and the Dissenters Taken out his Preface to the Unreasonableness of Separation p. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94. are as followeth Quest Is there nothing to be done for Dissenting Protestants who agree with us in all Doctrinal Articles of our Church and only scruple the use of a few Ceremonies and some late Impositions Shall these Differences still be continued when they may be so easily removed and so many useful
but both of them conspiring and acting for her Destruction though now they cry out of a Persecution only because they cannot persecute as when they were in power for I doubt not but our Dissenters will acknowledge that when the Papists were in power as in the Marian days their little finger was heavier then the Churches loines And if the Sectaries had been setled the Papists would not have had more gentle Lords and though they agree scarce in any thing else yet as St. Augustine on Psal 36. observes Tunc inter se concordant mali cum in perniciem justi conspirant non quia se invicem amant sed quia eum qui amandus erat mutuo oderent Justly therefore might the Church complain as Erasmus did in an Epistle to the Bishop of Rochester Triplex sustineo certamen c. I undergo a threefold Conflict First against those Pagan Romanists which wretchedly envy me secondly with some Jesuits Priests and Monks who move every stone to destroy me thirdly with such implacable Sectaries as think they can never rise but by my Ruine But through the singular providence of God which hath often and wonderfully appeared for her preservation against many secrert Plots and open Assaults of her Enemies she may say as the Psalmist Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us quick when their wrath was kindled against us And as Psal 129.2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me I shall not now insist on the several Accusations charged on the Church reserving them for a Second Part wherein I shall Historically consider matters of Fact onely take a taste how bitter they are in these Expressions Father Parsons speaking of the Government of Queen Elizabeth saith Where are now the old Tyrants Nero Decius Dioclesian Maxentius and other Persecutors of the Christians Where are Genserik and Hunricus with the Arian Hereticks As if that moderate Queen had been a greater Persecutor than any of them No sooner was Queen Elizabeth come to the Crown saith another and setled the Church of England but she enacted those bloudy Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God. And I defie any man saith another to instance a greater Persecution than that of Protestants against Catholicks Thus the Papists And the other Accusers are not less sharp our Government decried as Popish and Antichristian and our Liturgy as the Mass our Bishops as Wolves and Tyrants Thorns and Thistles and Military Instruments of the Devil our Laws taring Engines the Clergy are represented as a company of lying perjured and persecuting Villains And hence the Land is filled with those loud Celeusmata's which summons all hands to pull down the Church and lay it even with the ground and pitty it is but that Church which is so great a Canibal were so dealt with I shall therefore enquire First What Persecution is And Secondly Whether the Church of England is guilty of Persecution And by the Church I mean in a strict sence the Clergy of England against whom I suppose the Objection is intended and not the whole Body of the Nation First then Persecution is a malicious Vexation and punishing of Men for Righteousness sake for it is only they that live Godly in Christ Jesus that suffer Persecution for as Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum saith Quis nisi malus justitiam persequitur As none but a wicked Man persecutes the Righteous so none but the Righteous do suffer Persecution To this purpose speaks St. Peter Epist 1. ch 4. v. 15. Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil-doer or as a busy-body in other mens matters For if any be justly punished for his Faults it is correction and not persecution it is the cause not the suffering that intitles men to Martyrdom and Persecution For what glory is it saith St. Peter if when ye are buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2.20 By these two qualifications the Complainers may judge of themselves or because every man is apt to be partial in his own case others may judge of them whether they are truly persecuted or not for if they have been punished for disobeying any Law of God or of the King that is not contrary to the Law of God in which case the Law of God obligeth them to obey the King not only for fear of wrath but also for conscience sake this is not to suffer for well doing and therefore cannot be called Persecution Wherefore it hath been well observed that before the Blessing pronounced to those that are persecuted our Saviour doth not only add for Righteousness sake but prefixeth those other qualifications of being poor in spirit of mourning and meekness of hungring and thirsting after righteousness or mercifulness and purity in heart and peace-making and to such only belongs the Blessing Matth. 5.12 Great is your reward in heaven But to suffer as Busy-bodies in other mens matters against Laws well established for Decency and Order according to the Apostles Injunction to draw down and provoke the wrath of our Superiours on our heads for Disobedience to such things as they have authority by the Laws of God and Men to injoyn this is not to suffer for Righteousness And for what cause soever it be that a man suffers he ought by the next qualification no take it patiently i. e. not to murmur or repine not to resist and seek revenge or endeavour by any unlawful means to transfer the Cross from himself to others but as the Primitive Christians receive the sentence even of Death with a Deo gratias blessing God who hath counted them worthy to suffer for his sake and given them Grace not only to believe but also to suffer for the Name of Christ For thus Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin there is the first qualification and the second followeth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.21 c. This is to be made conformable to Christ in his passion and to suffer as a Christian blessing them that curse us doing good to them that hate us praying for them that persecute us which as none but the Christian Religion teacheth so none but such as practice it are truly Christians Matth. 5.44 And thus doth Lactantius observe of the Christians in his days whose Sufferings he describes to be extreamly cruel and sharp yet Ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed deo remittimus ultionem And St. Ambrose Laedentibus non irascimur spoliantibus non resistimus caedentibus non repugnamus Now if we compare either the matter or
manner of the Sufferings of those Primitive Christians with the Afflictions and Patience of our Modern Sects we shall find these to be more like pettish and froward Children who fancy Bugbears to themselves and by groundless fears and crying disquiet themselves and others then like those Heroick Christians that indured the most exquisite Torments with invincible patience praying for their Persecutors The Stoicks behaved themselves with a much more imitable fortitude Tormenta a me abesse velim sed si sustinenda suerint ut me fortiter animose honeste geram optabo And thus Seneca Placebit ei ignis per quem fides collucebit He would rather embrace the Fire than betray his Fidelity Whereas our Complainers do by intolerable provocations draw down punishments on themselves and instead of induring them with a Christian patience seek to avenge themselves on the Inflictors How unreasonable the Complaints of such men are will appear if we consider first what their Sufferings have been as to the matter and causes of them Nulli dictum est nega Deum incende Testamentum Idolis Sacrifica It was never said to any of them Deny your God or dye by the hands of an Executioner burn your Bibles or we will burn you Sacrifice to our Idols or we will Sacrifice you Sola fuerunt ad pacem hortamenta ut Deus Christus ejus in unitate coleretur as St. Augustine speaks of the Donatists They were only exhorted to Worship God and his Son Jesus Christ in a peaceable Communion with their Christian Brethren and to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace wherefore he advised them to consider Prius quid secerint deinde quod patiuntur First what they had done and then what they did suffer So shall I desire those that think themselves grieved to consider by what actions and provocations of theirs the Penal Laws that are now in force were procured for Ex malis moribus bonae leges it was the seditious practices of ungovernable Men that gave birth to those Statutes which as the Preamble to those that were made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth declares were made to retain her Majesty's Subjects in due Obedience That there is a necessity of some Penal Laws for the restraint of Evil-doers is the mature judgment of all Mankind for without such every Government would soon run into confusion and therefore every of the complaining Parties have made such Laws and inforced them with more severe Sanctions than those against whom they complain That the making of such Laws belongs to the Supreme Magistrate according to the National Constitution is also unquestionable and it would be ridiculous and bring Authority to contempt to make them and not execute them upon such as render themselves obnoxious by their disorderly behaviour St. Augustine in his 48th Epistle says That it was once his judgment that there was no need of Coercive Laws in matters of Religion lest we should have dissembling Catholicks instead of open Hereticks And therefore he thought that none should be compelled to the Unity of Christ but on second thoughts he altered his opinion and wrote a Tract de Correctione Donatistarum which is extant among his Retractations l. 2. wherein he asserts the necessity of Penal Laws which he grounds on his own experience instancing in the City of Hippo whereof he was Bishop which notwithstanding all his Learning and Endeavours was over-run by the Donatists which set up separate Congregations but by the execution of some Penal Laws was so reduced to Unity as if there had never been any Schism among them for as he observes they being first awed by fear were afterward convinced by truth which they could not hear from their false Teachers And in his 48th Epistle he appeals to them Quis nostram non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus adversus Pagana Sacrificia illius quippe impietatis Capitale supplicium est i. e. Who of us doth not commend the Imperial Edicts against Heathenish Sacrifices although the punishment be capital And in his 50th Epistle he affirms the Laws of the Emperours against those Donatists were a greater act of Charity to their Souls and Bodies as well as Piety towards God than the Indulgence of Julian which was such an occasion of Impiety and Cruelty as had almost destroyed Christianity by permitting Divisions among them wherefore he desires them to consider Quid potias eligatis utrum correcti vivere in pace an in malitia perseverantes falsi martyris nomine vera supplicia sustinere contra Petil. l. 2. which were most eligible either by correction to live in peace or to persevere in malice and draw just punishments on themselves being deceived with a false opinion of Martyrdom and Persecution For as he truly says Non persequitur phreneticum Medicus sed sphreneticus medicum When men that are diseased grow frantick and so ungovernable that they seek to infect and abuse others they that bind them to a better behaviour do the office of a Physitian not a Persecutor and so the Donatists did rather persecute the Laws than the Laws them Leges puniendo non possunt quod ipsi saeviendo potuerunt Epist 170. Nor can any reason be given why such Laws and Penalties should not extend to such as live in the Communion of the Church or separating from it pretend Conscience for their Disobedience for then all sorts of Wickedness might go unpunished seeing that some men have pleaded Conscience as a pretext for the greatest Villanies Now seeing it pleased the Supreme Authority of the Nation having had long experience of the Loyalty and peaceableness of such as lived in Communion with the Established Church to make the Conformity of the Subjects to the publick Doctrine and Worship a Test of their Obedience and Loyalty to the King and having also observed by many Years experience that such as moved Sedition in the State had first raised Division in or made Separation from the Church it pleased them to enact several Laws and Sanctions for an Uniformity in the Worship of God as a means to preserve the publick peace of the State which Laws being the Senatus consulta the effects of the Supreme Authority in Parliaments wherein every Subject by himself or his Representative is supposed to have this Vote they cannot be accounted the Constitutions of the Church any more than the Plebiscita or the Agreement of the People confirmed by the King on the Advice and Counsel of his Parliament and those Laws which on such solemn deliberation and general consent were established cannot rationally be annulled as long as the causes which made the enacting of them necessary are continued And doubtless as the Papists will acknowledge the necessity of them to suppress Heresies and Schisms seeing there is no Nation where their Religion is established where there are not more severe Laws and Sanctions made to suppress such Mischiefs so all other Dissenters will approve of the execution of
against her but she utterly detests and abhors all such Doctrines and both teacheth and practiseth the contrary The Weapons of her Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual Prayers and Tears Patience and Forbearance Exhortations and Admonitions which are not for Destruction but for Edification There is one sort of Persecution and but one that I know of that the Complainers have cause to accuse her of and that is not of the Sword but the Pen her cogent Reasons and sharp Arguments which have been prest and enforced against her Adversaries by the Sons of the Church in Vindication of their dearest Mother and happy is she for she hath her Quiver so full of them that she is not ashamed to meet her Enemy in the Gates these have done very considerable Execution being so rightly aimed so sharp headed and driven home that they could neither fly from nor resist the force of them but have been beaten from one Refuge to another stript of all the Armour wherein they trusted left naked and so defenceless that all the broken Forces which her Adversaries either Papists or Dissenters can Rally have little left but to complain of a Persecution But as they have not felt so neither have they cause to fear a Persecution from the Church of England if they farther consider how compassionately and charitably they have been always disposed for the Relief and Comfort of such afflicted Protestants abroad which differ from her as much or more than the Protestant Dissenters of our own Nation Witness the great sums of Money that have been Collected in our Assemblies for the distressed Inhabitants of the Palatinate and Hungary of Peidmont and Lucerne and the liberal Contributions for Redemption of Captives without respect of Persons their great Hospitality to such as fled to her Bosom being driven from their own Habitations Naked and Destitute meerly for Conscience sake being otherwise very Loyal and Peaceable Subjects And if the Church Established have not been forgetful to entertain Strangers and relieve the Oppressed abroad who can suppose them forward to persecute their Dissenting Brethren at home who are of the same Houshold of Faith to whom they are especially commanded to do good Gal. 6.10 Again the Penal Laws which are now in force were for the most part enacted by the States of the Nation long before the present Clergy had their Being viz. in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and therefore cannot be justly imputed to the present Generation nor hath any rigorous Execution of them been enforced by the importunity of the Established Clergy That Wind that brought the Storm over the Heads of the Complainers did not blow from Canterbury or York but from Rome or Scotland The loud Clamours of our Dissenters against the Toleration of Papists and the secret Whispers of the Papists against Indulgence to the other Sectaries and the intolerable Misdemeanours of both did awaken those dormant Laws and necessitate the Execution of them to prevent such another Deluge as had overflown the Nation with Confusion for almost twenty years together And it hath been truly observed that such as have been most earnest to revive the Execution of those Laws were no great Friends to the Established Church sometime a prevailing party of Presbyterians exasperating them against the Papists and sometime a powerful party of Papists sharpening them against the Presbyterians and Sectaries to incense both Parties against the Established Church as it hath too truly fallen out the Odium of what hath been procured by the opposite Factions being now by them joyntly thrown upon the Church many of whose Ministers have been reviled for their Moderation by the name of Trimmers Hagar and her Son Ishmael were severely dealt with by Sarah and did suffer much more than what some Men do now call Persecution and yet the Apostle accounts that Ishmael was the Persecutor for his mocking of Isaac who was the Son of a Prince and Heir of the Family And the Apostle tells us That there are cruel Mockngs as well as cruel Stripes and Imprisonments And moreover that there was an Allegory in these Transactions by Sarah and her Son Jerusalem or the Church of Christ is represented and then by Ishmael all those cruel Mockers and Despisers of that Church and its Fathers and Family who scoft at them as Antichristian dumb Dogs or Priests of Baal and would once and again cast them out of the Family of God on Earth and in Heaven too are certainly meant and to be noted for the Persecutors though they first cry out of Persecution as it is usual for those that are most guilty to complain first But if any of the Clergy which had for their Loyalty to the Royal Martyr suffered the loss of all manner of Subsistance for themselves and their Families for almost twenty Years together were willing that some such Laws might be enacted as might prevent the like Mischiefs for the future I only ask If any of the Complainers had been under the like Circumstances would they not have endeavoured the same And if so what cause have they to condemn others for what they would allow in themselves Quod ab aliis vobis provocantibus factum est nobis non debet imputari And I can with some Confidence assert That many Members of the Church of England suffered more for obeying the King and his Laws than the Complainers have for their Disobedience And the Church of England hath suffered more for their Kindness to the Papists than ever the Papists suffered by any unkindess from that Church And many of the Clergy were like to suffer much for their Moderation to the Dissenters But what cause is there of such frightful Complaints of being persecuted for Conscience sake when they themselves may so easily and innocently take off those Penalties by a Conformity to the present Establishment which is submitted to by the French Protestants who are Men of as great Learning and as tender Consciences as any of the Complainers an Establishment which is approved by all sorrs of Protestants abroad even those of Geneva and Holland where the President of the Synod of Dort in Discourse with some of our Divines concerning the Constitution of our Church did wish that they might enjoy the like with a Non licet nobis esse tam felicibus and which is acknowledged and dreaded as the greatest Bull-work against Popery And therefore the prime leaders of the Separation though they did not conform as Ministers yet they by their Examples fully complied with our Liturgy in Prayers and Sacraments as Lay-men attending early on the publick Worship and Communicating frequently in our Sacraments as the most sober of the Ancient Non-conformists did and many of the present do and it is affirmed by some that they who now separate from the present Church may for the same reason separate from almost all other Churches in Christendom and one of their own Preachers delivers it as his own and the Judgment of some others
to forgive his Friends Whereas we ought to love the person of those Enemies whose Vices we hate but to hate any man's Person for his Vertues and the Rewards of them is to hate them the Pharisees hated Christ whose whole Life was spent in going about to do Good. This is the Heir say they come let us kill him and the Inheritance will be ours It is as plain as any demonstration in Euclyde That it is not Truth Religion or Conscience that such men contend for but Reputation Dominion and Interest and it will be no great Comfort or Glory to them if with the Pharisees they have their Reward in this World. 3. It is another aggravation of this Sin of Revenge when if it should obtain the desired effect we cannot expect any benefit to our selves but Pereant amici dummodo unà pereant inimici are content that our Friends and our Foes should perish together and as the envious man would willingly loose one Eye so as our Enemy may loose both The Devil they say is good to his own and no man ever hated his own Flesh it is therefore an over-grown Malice when neither the Plea of Abraham to Lot Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we are Brethren nor that of the Cananites being in the Land that sought their common Ruin can prevail for a Reconciliation but when we have real fears of a venient Romani the Romans will come and take away our Place and our Nation do yet joyn as the Jews and Romans did to crucifie him with whom our Agreement may keep them out this is to love Mischief for Mischiefs sake and desperately to resolve and do as Sampson did to pull down that fabrick in the Ruins whereof we are sure to be buried and if their Damnation be just who do evil that good may come of it how much more just is their Damnation that wilfully commit that one great Evil that will inevitably bring on our selves and others a Deluge of Miseries Socrates was of a better perswasion than such men Qui partem acceptae saepe inter vincla cicut cicutae Accusatori nollet dare who would not have any part of that Poison which he was condemned to drink to be given to his false Accuser but the Christian Religion teacheth us not to avenge our selves when we have Power and Opportunity to do it as St. Ambrose observes concerning our Saviour's Discourse with St. Peter Luke 22.36 Domine cur me gladium emere jubes quem ferire prohibes nisi forte ut sit parata defensio non ultio ut videar potuisse vindicare noluisse It was a reply worthy of Lewes the Twelfth King of France when he was perswaded to avenge himself on some that had endeavoured to prevent his Succession to the Crown It doth not become a King of France to revenge the Injuries done to the Duke of Orleans but it no way becomes those who were once dealt with as Enemies to Church and State how justly I need not say as soon as they have gotten any power to threaten Revenge on such who only did their Duty and still are ready to be reconciled to them which is an Argument that they are not yet recti in curia but though they justifie themselves are still in the number of such Righteous Persons as think they need no Repentance I shall mention but one Aggravation more i. e. when revengeful persons respect only their own private satisfaction and not the Vindication of the Laws of God or Men Let Heresie and Schism Sedition and Rebellion go on and prosper they are as unconcern'd as Gallio was for the imprisoning of St. Paul and the beating of Sosthenes Acts 18.17 but the prosperity of Jerusalem is such an Eye-soar that they cannot see the things belonging to their Peace it is not Zeal for Religion which such revengeful Prosecutions do greatly indanger nor Love to Religion which they on whom they seek to be revenged have been Zealous for but some private Designs of their own which drives them on so furiously for Difficilius in suis quam alienis pericules mitem esse Thus Themistocles opposed the Counsels of Aristides not because they were not for the benefit of the Common-wealth but that he might suppress the Reputation and Interest of his Competitor and a malicious Mind will rather suffer any thing than the Prosperity of his Adversary though it be to the sacrificing of his own or the publick Peace And now let me mind the Complainers of another sort of Persecution i. e. of the Tongue which cuts as a Rasor and is as deadly sometimes as the Poyson of Asps The Heathen were wont to clap the Skins of Bears and Wolves on the backs of Christians and so expose them to be torn of wild Beasts And thus do too many deal with their Adversaries they represent them as cruel tyrannical and persecuting Persons and so expose them to the Rage of the People little do those slanderous and malicious Men think how guilty they are of what they condemn in others for quos gladio nequent voto interficiunt and in the Judgment of God the malicious and hateful Person is a Murtherer as Optatus says That the Donatists slew the Bishops Gladio ovis and the hateful and revengeful Man wants only Power and Opportunity to be a Murtherer Little do the real Separatists who cry out against Persecution suspect saith Mr. Baxter in his Cure of Divisions that the same spirit is in them Whence is Persecution but from thinking ill of others and abhorring or not loving them And do not you do so by those whom you causelesly separate from It is one and the same thing in the Persecutor and Divider which causeth the one to smite their Brethren and the other to excommunicate them the one to cast them into Prison as Schismaticks and the other to cast them out of the Church as Profame the inward Thoughts of both are the same that those whom they smite or separate from are bad and unlovely and unfit for better usage So he We have seen many Revolutions and Changes and how many more may pass over this Generation God only knows But whatever they be whatever party be uppermost we cannot reasonably expect that our Priviledges shall be more or our Penalties less than they are under the present Establishment Let us bless God and learn to be content with such things as we have for we have deserved much worse may the Church never suffer greater Persecution than what she hath acted nor they that hate her ever find harder Task-mastors and if it chance to fall as the Eagle did by a Dart feathered from her own Wing it is no more than what our Saviour did who was betrayed by a Disciple of his own that bore the Bag and as it will be no disgrace to any to suffer as our Saviour did so neither will it be any Glory to do as Judas did The Royal
Martyr than whom there was not a meeker or more merciful Prince on the Earth was barbarously murthered as a Tyrant and Destroyer of his People but as they who fought against and overcame him and then sold him to those who imprisoned and slew him could no more wash their hands from his Bloud than Pilate did for delivering Christ to the Jews and Romans to be crucified so neither shall they be able to excuse themselves though they should plead that things fell out beyond their expectation or that it was a persecuting Church if by their deserting accusing and betraying of it it shall be destroyed and though it hath been accused and should be condemned as a Persecutor yet I doubt not but she will be found a constant Preacher of that Doctrine which our Saviour taught her of rendring unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's In my former Treatise of Persecution p. 3. I promised as a Second Part of an Historical Relation of Matters of Fact which upon some consideration got the start of this being printed Anno 1684 and was Entituled A Compendious History of all the Popish and Fanatical Plots and Conspiracies against the Established Government from the First Tear of Queen Elizabeth to 1684. It remains now that I continue that Relation to the end of the Reign of the late King James the Second In order whereunto I think it necessary to premonish the Reader who were the Actors and who the Sufferers in these later Transactions The Persons concerned on the one-side were the Church of England as by Law Established on the other-side I account the Dissenters of all sorts which acted sometimes severally and at other times by combination to undermine and destroy the Established Church which being in a legal possession of its Rights those who endeavoured either by open Acts of Hostility or secret and subtile Arts of Defamations Tolerations illegal Conventicles Confederacies and Compliances with her professed Enemies were the Aggressors and Persecutors and therefore though their Malice was so impotent that it could never obtain its desired effect yet that will not excuse them from being of a persecuting Spirit nor will their first and loud Clamours of Persecution Goals Fines and Imprisonment make impartial and rational Men believe that they were persecuted at all much less by the Church which as I have shewn had never power to inflict such punishments but only that the Sanctions of just and necessary Laws without which no Church or State can subsist were executed upon Transgressors The Members of the Church have suffered more for their moderation and kindness to Dissenters of all sorts than for any rigorous prosecution of any The Papists reviling them for being too favourable to Protestant Dissenters and these for too great a compliance with Papists These account us Hereticks and Schismaticks for departing so far from them the other hate us as Superstitious and Idolatrous for not going farther insomuch as the bare performance of our Duties to which the Laws of God and the Land do oblige us as well as our personal Oaths and Subscriptions is by our Adversaries of all sorts accounted our Crime and unless we wholly neglect our Duties and so render our selves obnoxious to the Laws we are sure to be reviled as Persecutors which is a Calumny as groundless as if a Man that is legally possessed of an Estate should be condemned as an Usurper for not delivering up the possession to every Outlaw that demands it I know that the Clamors which such Men make as have drawn the legal Penalties on their own heads may move the Mobilie to pity them and entertain hard thoughts of the Laws themselves but Men of more mature and sober Judgments will conclude that such Transgressors do rather persecute the Laws than the Laws them As in the Case of restraining distracted and ungovernable persons Non persequitur medicus phreneticum sed Phreneticus Medicum The first Matter of Fact that I shall mention is the Behaviour of the Bishops in Parliament and the rest of the Clergy in their several stations on the occasion of the Bill of Exclusion which was with great earnestness prosecuted by a Party in the House of Commons and as vigorously opposed by another Party whose Debates and Speeches Pro and Con are Printed at large And although the prospect of a Popish Successor might have prevailed with the House of Lords to admit some more moderate Debates thereupon yet was it no sooner presented than rejected and the blame thereof by the Commons was charged on the Bishops who were thereupon accounted of as a dead weight laying on the Nation and fit to be removed and it was urged against them in that House That they might well be afraid of their Religion if the Fathers of the Church will joyn against the only Means that can save it Nor were the generality of the Clergy defective in declaring their Resolutions to adhere to the Succession being thereto encouraged by the Duke 's solemn Protestation That if ever he came to the Crown he would support the Church in her Rights Which Promise was not so unalterable as to the Duke nor so infallibly believed by the Church who perceived that he had acted contrary to it in procuring Tolerations and Indulgences to the dividing and weakning of the Church But by these manifestations of their Loyalty and Fidelity to the Succession the whole Body of the Clergy contracted more Odium from the disaffected People their Party in the House of Commons having Voted the Bill of Exclusion as an Act for securing the Protestant Religion by Disabling the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging which is to be seen at large p. 83. c. of the Collection of the Debates the Preamble whereunto is as followeth Whereas James Duke of York is notoriously known to be perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and to carry on most devilish and horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of His Majesty's most Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion And also That if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom nothing is more manifest than that a total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue for prevention whereof be it enacted c. To which some in their Speeches added That it was impossible that a Popish Successor should come to the Crown but through a Sea of Blood and such a War as might shake the Monarchy and endanger both him and his Children which notwithstanding they generally declared for the Succession though they were premonisht how dear it would cost them and this is a great Argument that they were not of a revengeful or persecuting Spirit but rather disposed to suffer when God should
call them to it and in the mean time return good for evil Upon Munday being Feb. 2. 1684 Charles II. was seized by a violent Fit supposed to be an Appoplexy whereof he died on the Thursday following and that Afternoon K. James II. was proclaimed who sitting in his Privy Council then assembled declared That since it pleased Almighty God to place him in that Station and that he was now to succeed so good and gracious a King as well as so kind a Brother he thought fit to declare That he would endeavour to follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People That he had been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power though that had not been the only story which had been made of him That he knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves Good and Loyal Subjects and therefore he should always take care to defend and support them And that he likewise knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish and therefore as he should never depart from the just Rights and Priviledges of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property Which Declaration was then ordered in Council to be Published and the same was repeated at the Coronation and then confirmed by his Oath for which Addresses of Thanks were sent the King from all parts of the Nation assuring him of their Loyalty and Resolutions to maintain his Rights and defend his Person with their Lives and Fortunes These Declarations were repeated to the Parliament which met May 22. 1685. That they might be assured that he spake them not by chance and that they might more firmly rely on a Promise so solemnly made But how this Promise was performed may appear by the following Events During the sitting of this Parliament News was brought of the Landing of Argyle in Scotland and shortly after of the Landing of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England whereupon the Parliament readily declared to stand by the King with their Lives and Fortunes for the suppressing of those Rebellions desiring him to take more than ordinary care of his Person And though the Rebellions were suppressed chiefly by the voluntary Assistance of such as were of the Communion of the Church of England among whom the R. R. the Bishop of Winchester was a great Instrument and the Scholars of Oxford cheerfully ingaged themselves And the Militia raised in the West caused Monmouth to turn East-ward in the Mouth of the King's Army Yet in October following the King took occasion to complain how useless the Militia was on such occasions and to tell them That nothing but a good Force of well disciplined Troops in constant pay was sufficient to defend them from such as might disturb them at home or from abroad And here was a Foundation laid for a Standing Army such as the King intended in a due time by a French General and Irish Souldiers to over-awe the Nation and make the Instruments of accomplishing his Designs and there needed but a few more soft steps till the Church be surprized and awakened out of that Security wherein her own Innocence and the King 's frequent and solemn Promises had brought her but first the State of Ireland must be altered the Earl of Clarendon is called home to make way for Tyrconnel Scotland is secured by an Army which was raised for the suppressing of Argyle the Duke of Albemarle that was too popular is sent to Jamaica and whatever or whosoever might be thought able to withstand any violence that should be offered to the Church and the Religion that was Established is removed and the Power put into such hands as the King could confide in for the destruction of the same And because the Protestant Dissenters were a considerable Party and their Eyes began to be so far opened as to perceive that they should perish in the Ruine of the Church which made them more inclinable to a Union with it for prevention of their common destruction the old Stratagem of a Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which Coleman declared to be an effectual means to destroy the Established Church is now made use of This bold and fatal stroke was made immediately at the Root of the Religion and Laws established in Scotland but seconded by the same Arm against the Establishment in England as will evidently appear upon these considerations The Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland dated Feb. 12. 1687. In which consider first the Foundation of it in these words We have thought fit to grant and by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve do hereby grant our Royal Toleration c. Which words do assert a Power in the King to command what he pleaseth and an Obligation in the Subject to obey whatever he commands 2. This Absolute Power is not grounded on any Law lest it should seem to be derived from the People but on a Soveraign Authority inherent in the King's Person Jure Divino which may be exercised on that ground as well in England as Scotland as the event shews it was 3. This Absolute Power is to be obeyed by all the Subjects without reserve i. e. not only by a passive submission to the Power but by an active compliance with it so that when the King shall declare it to be his Will and Pleasure That all his Subjects renounce the Protestant Religion and turn Roman Catholicks to which his Religion binds him and as he hopes for Salvation and under the Penalty of being deposed by the Pope they are bound to be of the King's Religion 4. That the Subjects that will partake of the benefit of this Toleration must swear To the utmost of their power to assist defend and maintain the King and his Successors in the exercise of this Absolute Power against all deadly i. e. all Mortals So that the Subjects were to make a very dear purchase of this intolerable Toleration for which they were to pawn their Souls and submit all they had to an Absolute Power without reserve Let us consider therefore the intrinsick value of this Toleration which says We do give and grant our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named Where the word Royal looks like a stamp on base Metal mixt of Popery and Quakerism expressed in the Proclamation and is so general that as never any Christian Prince granted the like so the King as a Roman Catholick could not grant to any of those mentioned viz. either of the Church of Scotland then established under Episcopacy or to the Presbyterians or Quakers whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereticks But then it is to be considered that this Toleration of the Protestant Subjects is granted under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations
mentioned As first None are to be tolerated but such as accept of the Toleration i. e. acknowledge the Lawfulness of the Absolute Power and swear to maintain it 2. That nothing be said or done in their Meetings that is contrary to the Weal and Peace of our Reign Seditious or Treasonable and that they only exercise in private Houses But what would be interpreted to be Seditious the most cautious Preacher could hardly discern But that all Scotland might know for whose sake the Toleration was granted and who alone would in time reap the benefit of it after a large commendation of the Papists as good Christians and dutiful Subjects it follows We by our Absolute Power suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament made against Roman Catholicks So that they shall be as free in all respects as any of our Protestant Subjects not only as to the exercise of their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them And to this end it follows We do by our Royal Authority aforesaid i.e. the Absolute Power stop disable and dispense with all Laws injoyning any Oaths or Tests c. And whereas the Toleration for Protestants was clogg'd with several Conditions c. this for Papists is amplified in these words We command all our Judges and others concerned to explain this in the most ample sense and meaning c. for their Indemnity I have repeated the heads of this Proclamation more largely that the Reader may see what little reason the Protestants Subjects of Scotland had to return those slavish Addresses which would be too nauseous to repeat It is no great wonder that the Scottish Mobilie should return their Thanks when the Privy Council declared They would assert his Prerogative with the hazard of their Lives and that whoever were employed by him were sufficiently secured by his Authority But that the English Subjects should dance after the Scottish Pipe upon such Winds as blow hot and cold in the same breath is an indelible Reproach of ignorance and of obstinacy against what is their True Interest the support of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties Yet when the like Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated April 4. 1687 came forth for England tho' the pretences were That it ever had been his Majesty's Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that the perfect enjoyment of their Property had never been in any Case invaded by him when it was known that the rigour used against Dissenters was urged by the Court and many Outrages committed by a Standing Army against the Subjects Property And the suspending of Laws did strike at the very Foundation of Government and Destruction of the Subjects by placing Papists who were not qualified by Law into Offices and Places of Trust Civil and Military it is a wonder how any Faction in England could address their Thanks and promise to stand by the King as a Return of Gratitude for such a Toleration as gave liberty to Turks Jews and Athiests but was particularly designed for the establishing of that Religion which should persecute and devour all the rest and yet there wanted not Addresses of Thanks from all parts of the Nation for this Liberty of Conscience as it is called but really of Confusion The Addresses are so many and fulsome that I shall not surcharge the Reader with them only observe that they were offered by a Generation who succeeded those that petitioned for the Death of the Royal Martyr that addressed Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard with the like odious Flatteries but that they should address their Thanks for taking off those Laws that kept out Popery and Slavery is more I suppose that their Forefathers would have done only it is evident that it was done on a design to ruine the Church of England though every ordinary person might perceive it had been in the power of the those Addressers Popery and Slavery would have been entailed on them and their Posterity by a Law. And though the Church of England had better Assurances both by the Laws and by their constant adhering to the Crown than the Promises in that Proclamation yet because they refused to return their Thanks they were charged with the brand of Abhorrers by the opposite Factions who might well conclude that since the King failed so much in his most solemn and deserved Promises to that Church which was by Law Established and was the Body of the Nation those scattered Parties which had not deserved any Favour from the Crown could not expect a performance of those Promises But by this we see what slender opportunities some Men are ready to lay hold on to vent their Malice against the Church thô their own Ruine be involved in it And what was the import of such Addresses but to thank the King for dispensing with those Laws and as much as in him lay abrogating and dissolving them which were made as a Fence to the Protestant Religion and for opening a wide gap for Popery and Slavery to come in and triumph over us In April 1688 the King declares That he was encouraged by the multitude of Addresses received from his Subjects to endeavour to establish Liberty of Conscience on such Foundations as should be unalterable And desires his Subjects to consider that for the Three Years last past he was not such a Prince as he had been represented by his Enemies i. e. an Oppressor but a Father of his People And now the Church of England which had merited so many Solemn Promises for their Protection were to have an experiment how well he would perform them for he makes an Order in Council That his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience should be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom Against the Publishing whereof the Seven Bishops who were then on the spot in behalf of themselves and their absent Brethren and their Clergy humbly presented the following Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty Humbly shewing THat the Great Aversions they find in themselves to the Distributing and Publishing in all their Churches Your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to Your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more then once publickly acknowledged to be so by Your gracious Majesty nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fit when that matter shall be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded on such a Dispensing Power as hath been often declared illegal in Parliament particularly in 1662 and 1672 and in the
beginning of Your Majesty's Reign and is a Matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distributing of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech Your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased not to insist upon the Distributing and Reading Your Majesty's Declaration And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray c. W. Cant. W. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicest Tho. Bath and Wells Tho. Peterborough Jonathan Bristol To which His Majesty answered I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change My Mind you shall hear from Me if not I expect My Command shall be obeyed The Reasons for not Reading the Declaration given by a Clergy-man being worthy to be transmitted to Posterity I have here inserted A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church-doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an obstinate and pievish or factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not lookt upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let mens private Opinions be what they will in the
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves
no means be drawn to give their consent the King was prevailed with to own a Suppositious Child as Heir to his Dominions that he might give a new life to the Popish and Fanatick Interests But this and his sense of the Protestant Cause which was then in a decaying condition stirred up the Spirit of our present King to vindicate the Cause of the English Church and his own and his Consort 's Title to the Crown and the Severity used to the Bishops and the Universities and the Affront done to the English Souldiers by bringing some thousands of Irish Cut-Throats and preferring them above the English did stem the Tide and immediately upon the Arrival of the Prince's Army there followed a great Revolt of the Nobility Souldiery and Gentry of the Land who marching towards London became formidable to the King who coming as far as Salisbury intending to fight the Prince found himself so deserted that he returned in great haste to London and considering into what streights his precipitant Counsels had brought him he sends for such Bishops as were in or near London to have their Advice in that critical Juncture which with all possible humility and integrity they did to this effect 1. That it was necessary for him to restore all things to the state wherein he found them when he came to the Crown by committing all Offices and Places of Government to such of the Nobility and Gentry as were qualified for them according to the Laws and by redressing and removing such Grievances as were generally complained of particularly that his Majesty would dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission and promise to his People never to Erect any such Court for the future 2. That he would not only put an effectual stop to the issuing forth of any Dispensations but would call in and cancel all those which since his coming to the Crown had been obtained from him 3. That he would restore the Universities to their Legal State Statutes and Customs and particularly restore the Master of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge and the ejected President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford to their Properties 4. And that he would not permit any Persons to enjoy any Preferments in either University but such as were qualified by the Statutes and Laws of the Land. 5. That he would suppress the Jesuits Schools opened in London or else-where and grant no more Licenses for such Schools as were against the Laws of the Land and his Majesties true interest 6. That he would send Inhibitions after the Four Romish Bishops who under the Title of Apostolick Vicars did presume to exercise within this Kingdom such Jurisdictions as are by the Laws of the Land invested in the Bishops of the Church of England 7. That he would not suffer any more Quo Warranto's to be sued out against any Corporations but restore to such as had been disturbed their ancient Charters Priviledges and Immunities and condemn all those illegal Regulations that had been made 8. That he would fill up all the vacant Bishopricks in England and Ireland with Persons duly qualified and especially consider the See of York whose want of an Archbishop is very prejudicial to the whole Province 9. That he would act no more nor insist on the Dispensing Power but leave it to be debated and setled by Act of Parliament 10. That on the Restoration of Corporations he would issue Writs for a Free Parliament for redressing of Grievances in Church and State upon just and solid Foundations and to establish due Liberty of Conscience Lastly and above all That his Majesty would permit some of his Bishops to lay such Motives and Arguments before him as might by the Blessing of God bring back his Majesty to the Communion of the Church of England into whose Catholick Faith he had been Baptized in which he had been Educated and to which it was their earnest Prayer to Almighty God that his Majesty might be re-united Had these sober and pious Counsels been accepted then when the Bishop's Petition was rejected as a false malitious and seditious Libel the King might have been still setled on the Throne but he had past the Rubicon and was resolved to fight out his way for the establishing the Popish Religion against all opposition and being deserted by his English Forces hath resolutely cast himself on the French and Irish and what hath been done against the established Church there cannot amount to less than a Persecution And such a one must we have expected had not God's Almighty Arm bafled their Antichristian Designs Now if the Popish Party have been so hasty and violent in persecuting the Church as soon as they got Power into their hands notwithstanding all that kindness and moderation manifested to them to the great regret of the other Dissenters who thought themselves less gently dealt with I know not what more gentle usage the Church could expect from them who have so long and loudly cried out of Persecution and for Forty or Fifty Years together covenanted to root out Episcopacy and Liturgy and perpetuated that Obligation to the present Generation so that the bitter Spirit of the Smectymneunans seem to survive still in the present Dissenters who still maintain the Old Cause and if ever the Power should return to their hands as in the time of the Long Parliament would fly as high and fall on the same Game for a Lyon is no less a Lyon while he is restrained within a Den and loaden with Chains but grows usually more raging when let loose and Maledicus à malefico non distat nisi occasione Those ravenons Beasts that do rent a Man in Effigie do manifest what they would do in Corpore as the Donatists who first slew the Orthodox Gladio Oris did as they had opportunity destroy them Ore Gladii I think it will be a difficult Province for a very good Orator to perswade the Church of England that such Dissenters as have all along struck at the Root will be contented if a few Branches were cut off When the Winds and Storms rage the Husband-men will part with the Branches to preserve the Root I may part with a Coat or a Cloak to an importunate Brother but if he to enrich himself by making me poor continues craving till he strips me to the skin and leaves me naked I am not so much charitable to him as cruel to myself Had the Dissenters in 62 asked less they might have had more granted but when they crave all they deserve nothing if the same Leaven do begin to swell and ferment the Spirits of Men now as then we are commanded to be aware of them We had no sooner past a Fiery Tryal in the Twenty Years Persecution by the Dissenters but were under another Twenty Years Tryal under the Papists though it did not appear so visible and successful till of late And if the Papists should be asked who were the Persecutors in the first Twenty Years they must answer the Dissenters if we should ask the Dissenters whether the Papists or the Church of England were the persecuted Party in the last Twenty Years it must be answered the Papists were for though their frequent Attempts to destroy the Church proved abortive as there may be many traiterous Conspiracies against the Life of a Prince though he survive them all and bring the Conspirators to condign punishment as in the Powder-Plot Cain might have been called a Persecutor of Abel though he had not slain him and Ishmael's cruel mocking of his Brother is called a persecuting of him And if the same bitterness of Spirit do reign in the English as hath shewn itself in the Scottish Presbytery the Episcopal Party may well be jealous of them and few I suppose will be of the Opinion of W. J. That the Removal of our Ceremonies will be an equivalent compensation for the shedding of as much Blood and exhausting as much Treasure as was shed and exhausted in the late inhumane Civil War Where the Royal Martyr the Archbishop many Nobles innumerable Gentry and Commons were sacrificed for a Reformation of Ceremonies but I hope such fury will not possess the hearts of any Dissenters in this Age. To Conclude The Church is still through the wonderful Providence of God in the legal possession of her Rights she is neither Popishly affected nor of a persecuting Spirit or Power she hath learnt by her own Suffering for Conscience-sake how to pity such as are truly conscientious but if any man be contentious and will deny her that liberty which they challenge to themselves I shall only say with the Apostle 〈◊〉 hath been to those French Protestants 〈◊〉 have found 〈◊〉 a Sanctuary and do readily joyn in her Worship and Service and I suppose their Judgments are as solid and their 〈◊〉 as tender as any of our Dissenters who yet look on our Church as a â—eth-haven and a House of Bondage FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS 1. A Resolution of Certain Queries concerning Submission to the Present Government The Queries 1. Concerning the Orginal of Government 2. What is the Constitution of the Government of England 3. What Obligation lies on the King by the Coronation-Oath 4. What Obligation lies on the Subject by the Oaths of Supremacy c. 5. Whether if the King Violate his Oath and actually Destroys the Ends of it the Subjects are freed from their Obligation to him 6. Whether the King hath Renounced or Deserted the Government 7. Whether on such Desertion the People to preserve themselves from Confusion may admit another what Method is to be used in such Admission 8. Whether the Settlement now made is a Lawful Establishment and such as with a good Conscience may be Submitted to 2. A full Answer to all the Popular Objections that have yet appear'd for not taking the Oath of Allegiance to their present Majesties particularly offered to the Consideration of all such of the Divines of the Church of England and others as are yet unsatisfied Shewing both from Scripture and the Laws of the Land the Reasonableness thereof and the Ruining Consequences both to the Nation and Themselves if not complied with 3. The Historian Unmask'd Or Some Reflections on the late History of Passive Obedience Wherein the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance is truly Stated and Asserted By a Divine of the Church of England All Three Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey 1689.
nature of the thing he that Reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I Read yet I consent to teach my People what I read and herein is the evil of it for it may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to myself I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to read the Declaration and consenting to teach the People by the Declaration when reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile distinguishing-Conscience Now if consenting to read the Declaration be a consent to teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn teaching-manner Approves it If this be not so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholic Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instruct our People in all the Points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest Man can to this Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in the his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration itself in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the design and intention of the Command and the Sence of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the People will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the World will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestation contra factum which all People will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind to try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was