THE Mystery of Iniquity Working in the dividing of PROTESTANTS In order to the subverting of Religion and our Laws For almost the space of 30 Years last past plainly laid open With some Advices to Protestedts of all Perswasions in the present Juncture of our Affairs To which is adâ—â—â—… A Specimen a BILL for Unâ—â—…g of Protestants By a Protestant and true English-man Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Mat. 12.25 Dum pugnant singuli universi vincuntur Tacit. Printed in the Year 1689. The Mystery of Iniquity working in the dividing of Protestants c. 'T IS long since the Court of England under the Authority of the late King and his Brother was embark'd in a design of subverting the Protestant Religion and of introducing and establishing Popery For the two Royal Brothers being in the time of their Exile seduced by the Caresses and Importunities of their Mother allured by the Promises and Favours of Popish Princes and being wheedled by the Crafts and Arts of Priests and Jesuits who are cunning to deceive and knew how to prevail upon Persons that were but weakly established in the Doctrine wholly strangers to the Practice and Power of the Religion they were tempted from they not only abjured the Reformed Religion and became reconciled to the Church of Rome but by their Example and the Influence which they had over those that depended upon them both for present Subsistence and future Hopes they drew many that accompanied them in their Banishment to renounce the Doctrine Worship and Communion of the Church of England though in the War between Charles the First and the Parliament they had pretended to fight for them in equal conjunction with the Prerogatives of the Crown So that upon the Restoration in the Year 1660 they were not only moulded prepared themselves for promoting the desires of the Pope and his Emissaries but they were furnished with a stock of Gentlemen out of whom they might have a supply of Instruments both in Parliament and elsewhere to co-operate with and under them in the Methods that should be judged most proper and subservient to the extirpation of Protestancy and the bringing the Naâ—â—on again into a Servitude to the Triple Crown And besâ—des the Obligations that the Principles of the Religion to which they had revolted laid them under for eradicating the established Doctrine and Worship they had bound themselves unto it by all the Promâ—ses and Oaths which Persons are capable of having proscribed unto and exacted of them Nor can any now disbelieve his late Majesty's having lived and died a Papist who hath either heard what he both said and did when under the prospect of approaching Death and past hope of acting a part any longer on the present Stage or who have seen and read the two Papers left in his Closet which have been since published to the World and attested for Authentick by the present King. And had we been so just to our selves as to have examined the whole Course of his Reign both in his Alliances Abroad and his most important Counsels and Actions at Home or had we hearkned to the Reports of those who knew him at Collen and in Flanders we had been long ago convinced of what Religion he was Nor were his many repeated Protestations of his Zeal for Protestancy but in order to delude the Nation till insensibly as to us and with safety to himself he had overturned the Religion which he pretended to own and had introduced that which he inveighed against And while with the highest asseverations he disclaimed the being what he really was and with most sacred and tremendous Oaths professed the being what he was not his Religion might in the mean time have been traced through all the signal Occurrences of his Government and have been discerned written in Capital Letters through all the material Affairs wherein he was engaged from the Day he ascended the Throne till the Hour he left the Work. His entring into two Wars against the Dutch without any provocation on their part or ground on his save their being a Protestant State his being not only conscious unto but interposing his Commands as well as Encouragements for the burning of London His Concurrence in all the parts of the Popish Plot except that which the Jesuits with a few others were involved in against himself his stifling that Conspiracy and deâ—â—â—ering the Roman Catholicks from the Dangers into which it had â—ast them His being the Author of so many forged Plots which he caused to be charged on Protestants His constant Confedeâ—â—cies with France to the disobliging his People the betraying of Europe the neglect of the Reformed in that Kingdom and the encouraging the Design carried on against them for their Extirpation His entatling the Duke of York upon the Nation contrary to the Desires and Endeavours of three several Parliaments and that no out of Love to his Person but Affection to Popery which he knew that Gentleman would introduce and establish All these besides many other things which might be named were sufficient Evidences of the late King's Religion and of the Design he was engaged in for the Subversion of Ours So that it would fill a sober Person with amazement to think that after all this there should be so many sincere Protestants and true English Men who not only believed the late King to be of the Reformed Religion but with an insatiableness thirsted after the Blood of those that durst otherwise represent him And had it not been for his receiving Absolution and Extream Unction from a Popish Priest at his Death and for what he left in writing in the two Papers found in his strong Box he would have still passed for a Prince who had lived and died a cordial and zealous Protestant and whosoever had muttered any thing to the contrary would have been branded for a Villain and an execrable Person But with what a scent and odor must it recommend his Memory to them to consider his having not only lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome in contradiction to all his Publick Speeches solemn Declarations and highest Asseverations to his People in Parliament but his participating from time to time of the Sacrament as administred in the Church of England while in the interim he had abjured our Religion stood reconciled to the Church of Rome and had obliged himself by most sacred Vows and was endeavouring by all the Frauds and Arts imaginable to â—â—â—vert the established Doctrine and Worship and set up Heresy and Idolatry in their room And it must needs give them an abhorrent Idea and Character of Popery and a loathsom representation of those trusted with the Conduct and Guidance of the Consciences of Men in the Roman Communion that they should not only dispense with and indulge such Crimes and Villanies but proclaim them Sanctified and
have been mostly Conformable Divines who have triumphed over it in elaborate Discourses and who have beaten the Romish Scriblers off the Stage Nor can it be thought that they who have so accurately related and vindicated the History and asserted and defended the Doctrine of the Reformation should either tamely relinquish or be wanting in all due and legal Ways to uphold and maintain it And though some few of the Nonconformists have with sufficient strength and applause used their Pens against Arbitrariness in detecting the Designs of the Royal Brothers yet they who have generally and with greatest Honour appeared for our Laws and Legal Government against the Invasions and Usurpations of the Court have been Theologues and Gentlemen of the Church of England Nor in case of further Attempts for altering the Constitution and enslaving the Nation will they shew themselves unworthy the having descended from Ancestors whose Motto in the high Places of the Field was nolumus Leges Angliae mutari They who have so often justified the Arms of the Vnited Netherlands against their Rightful Princes the Kings of Spain and so unanswerably vindicated their casting off Obedience to those Monarchs when they had invaded their Privileges and attempted to establish the Inquisition over them cannot be ignorant what their own Right and Duty is in behalf of the Protestant Religion and English Liberties for the Security whereof we have not only so many Laws but the Coronation Oaths and Stipulations of our Kings And those Gentlemen of the Church of England who appeared so vigorously in three Parliaments for excluding the Duke of York from the Succession to the Crown by reason of a Jealousy of what through being a Papist he would attempt against our Religion and Priviledges in case he were suffered to ascend the Throne cannot be now to seek what becomes them towards him having seen and felt what before they only apprehended and feared For if the Law that entaileth the Succession upon the next of Kin and obligeth the Subjects to admit and receive him not only may but ought to be dispensed with in case the Heir thrô having imbib'd Principles which threaten the Safety and are inconsistent with the Happiness of the People hath made himself incapable to inherit we know by a short Ratiocination how far we stand bound to a Prince on the Throne who by transgressing against the Laws of the Constitution hath abdicated himself from the Government and stands virtually Deposed For whosoever shall offer to rule Arbitrarily does immediately cease to be King de jure seeing by the Fundamental Common and Statute Laws of the Realm we know none for Supream Magistrate and Governor but a limited Prince and one who stands circumscribed and bounded in his Power and Prerogative And should the Dissenters entertain a belief that the Conformists are less concerned and zealous than themselves for the Protestant Religion and Laws of the Kingdom they would not only sin and offend against the Rules of Charity but against the Measures of Justice and daily Evidences from Matters of Fact. For neither they nor we owe out Conversion to God and our practical Holiness to the Opinions about Discipline Forms of Worship and Ceremonies wherein we differ but the Doctrines of Faith and Christian Obedience wherein we agree 'T is not their being for a Liturgy a Surpliss or a Bishop that hath heretofore influenced them to subserve the Court in Designs tending to Absoluteness but they were seduced unto it upon Motives whereof they are now ashamed and the ridiculousness and folly of which they have at last discover'd Nor is the multitude of profligate and scandalous Persons with which the Church of England is crowded any just impeachment of the Purity of her Doctrine in the Vitals and Essentials of Religion or of the Vertue and Piety of many of her Members For as it is her being the only Society established by Law that attracts those Vermin to her Bosom so it Is her being restrained by Law from debarring them that keeps them there to her reproach and to the grief of many of her Ecclesiasticks Neither is it the fault of the Church of England that the Agents and Factors for Popery and Arbitrary Power have chosen to pass under the Name of her Sons but it proceeds partly from their Malice as hoping by that means to disgrace her with all true English-men as well as with Dissenters and partly from their Craft in order thereby the better to conceal their Design and to shrowd themselves from the Censure and Punishment which had it not been for that Mask they would have been exposed unto and have undergone And I dare affirm that besides the Obligations from Religon which the Conformists are equally under with Dissenters for hindring the introduction of Popery there are several Inducements from interest which sway them to prevent its establishment wherein the Dissenters are but little concerned For though Popery would he alike afflictive to the Consciences of Protestants of all Persuasions yet they are Gentlemen and Ministers of the Church of England whole Livings Revenues and Estates have been threatned in case it had come to be established Nor would the most Loyal and obsequious Levites provided they resolve to continue Protestants be willing that their Personages and Incumbencies to which they have no less Right by Law than the King hath to the Excise and Customs should be taken from them and bestowed upon Romish Priests by an Act of Despotical Power and of unlimited Prerogative And for the Gentlemen as I think few of them would hold themselves obliged to part with their Purses to High-way Padders though such should have a Patent from the King to rob whomsoever they met upon the Road so there will not be many inclined to suffer their Manours and Abbey-Lands to which they have so good a Title to be ravished from them either by Monks or Janizaries though authorised thereunto by the Prince's Commission Even they who had formerly suffered themselves to be seduced to prove in a manner Betrayers of the Rights and Religion of their Country will now being undeceived not only in conjunction with others withstand the Court in its prosecution of Popish and Arbitrary Designs but through a generous exasperation for having been deluded and abused will judg themselves obliged in vindication of their Actings before to appear for the Protestant Religion and the Laws of England with a Zeal equal to that wherewith they contributed to the undermining and supplanting of them For they are not only become more sensible than they were of the Mischiefs of Absolute Government so as for the suture to prize and assert the Priviledges reserved unto the People by the Rules of the Constitution and chalk'd out for them in the Laws of the Land but they have such a fresh view of Popery both in its Heresies Blasphemies Superstitions and Idolatries and in the Treachery Sanguinariness Violence and Cruelty which the Papal Principles mould influence and
Eminently fitted for the Work that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently to the Bishop So that if this Fundamental Right of Governing their own Flocks be but acknowledged to Reside in every Presbyter by granting so much to us as this and what hath preceded comes to we shall be unwilling to fall off from Episcopacy upon the points of Ordination and Jurisdiction for such faults as they think not at all worthy of so great a Censure We declare it but a just Thing that every Minister be first satisfyed in the Cause or else be exempted from the Execution of that Charge and that the Bishop or his Court provide some other person that is satisfyed about it to do it And to the intent that a free search after Truth may not be discouraged in the pursuit of Concord and many other Scruples avoided upon that Account We declare that though an Authentick Interpretation be required as to the Substance of all Laws yet in the Articles of the Church which are Theses for Agreement and not Laws and the Homilies a Doctrinal Interpretation shall be held sufficient for an Assent or Subscription to them The Authentick Interpretation of an Article is the meaning of the Major Part of the Convocation A Doctrinal Interpretation is the meaning of any one of the Doctors there present and consequently of any other Learned Expositor who are supposed to have the Liberty to abound in their own Sense so long as they can agree in the Words of the Article Established And this Clause therefore we put in upon Mature Consideration in regard more especially to the Conscientious Latitudinarians which is a Name abused who being some Arminian and some Calvinian cannot otherwise Subscribe the Doctrine of the same Theses as the Reader may see more in such a sort of Book as this called The Healing Paper out of which this Bill for Union is Collected And because the very Superintendency of Bishops and that Subjection to them which is required by the Constitution of the Realm is or may be an hinderance to many sober Ministers and other Protestants of coming into the Church who are ready to consent to the Doctrine but not to the Discipline or Government of it We do declare That so long as any person or party do acknowledge the King's Supremacy as Head of the Church in this Nation and obey their Ordinary or the Bishops in Licitis Honestis upon the Account of his Authority committed to them for the Exercise of that External Regiment Circa Sacra which is granted by all our Divines That is Although there be some that cannot acknowledge our Diocesan Prelates to be Christs Officers distinct from the Elders in scripture yet so long as they can live Peaceable lives in Obedience to them as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under His Majesty for the keeping the several Congregations in their Precincts to that Gospel Order which themselves allow and for super-vising their Constitutions in Things indifferent that nothing be done but in Subordination to the Peace of the Kingdom which is a Notion wherein the Judicious of every Party may acquiesce and expressed by us in these very Words in a Book forenamed it is sufficient unto National Church-Vnion to the Higher Powers in every Nation it is enough for the owning Episcopal Jurisdiction so far as they do own it in the Declaration of Assent and Consent or in any other part of Conformity and shall serve them to all intents and purposes in Law no less than a professed belief and acknowledgment of the immediate Divine Right of it Be it therefore Enacted by this present Parliament That i◠any Person be willing to Conform to the present Establishment of the Church of England and her Service appointed according to these Explanations Alleviations Declarations Lenitives or Cautions he shall be admitted to any Ecclesiastical Preferment and enjoy the use of his Ministry without any molestation All Statutes Canons or Laws to the contrary notwithstanding And for the making this Act of better Signification to the Concerned and the prevention of that Scandal which is raised on the Clergy through the Covetousness of some in heaping up to themselves all the Preferments they can get when others have scarce Subsistance for their Families and the Souls of many people are thereby neglected Be it farther Enacted That no Clergy-man for the Three next years ensuing We propose these Things we confess as if we were in Republica Platonis but we should be glad to see any Fruits of this kind as those who are in Faece Romuli may expect What is Right and Just and ought to be done is one thing and to be sought though what is like to be done or will be done is another be suffered to Enjoy any more than one Living or Cure of Souls and one Dignity or other Ecclesiastical preferment at one Time and that every Man without Exception that hath more than One of Either shall immediately give up the Rest to be distributed among those who shall be brought off from their Non-conformity upon the Terms of this Act into the Established Order Which that they may also be obtained and possessed with a clean Conscience and that grievous Corruption of Simony may be extripate out of the Land Be it Enacted moreover That every Patron that shall henceforward present his Clerk to any Living shall have the Oath called The Simonical Oath imposed on himself no less than on the Incumbent And if he Refuses to take it that then the Bishop shall have immediate Power taking only the same Oath of Presentation in his Room And forasmuch as there are some Ministers of a good Life that cannot according to their Judgments allow of our Parochial Churches nor a Book of Liturgy But do choose to Worship God and Jesus Christ in the way of their gathered or separate Congregations and crave the Protection and Clemency of the King upon their Allegiance as other Subjects Be it finally Enacted for the happiness and quiet of the Realm and the Reduction of these Men by other means than those which have hitherto proved unsuccessful That every Christian Subject throughout the Land that profess the Reformed Religion and be not convict of Popery be pardoned all Faults and Penalties incurred upon the account of any Fore-passed Non-conformity and that they shall not during these Seven Years next ensuing be prosecuted upon any Penal Law for their Consciences in the matter of Religion They carrying themselves innocently and peaceably with submission to the Civil and without disturbance to the Ecclesiastical Government now setled in the Nation All Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding There are two Parts of this Bill One for Concord or Coalition with all such as can joyn in Parochial Communion in the Clauses before The other for Forbearance of those that cannot in this last Clause For what shall we do with such We must not knock them on the Head They must therefore have time If the Parliament will begin with the last first that is a Suspension of the Penal Statutes and then let us treat for a Composition after we consent with all ou◠Hearts and like the Method best Then Abner called unto Joab and said Shall the Swor◠devour for ever Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the end How long shall it be ere thou bid the People return from following of their Brethren * Vntil by a further Act of Parliament or a Convocation those that are fit to be Tolerated and the Intolerable be-distinguished In Short A Repeal of our Laws about Conformity unto the 13th of Elizabeth Or a New Act of Vniformity Or The Kings Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs at His first coming in turned into a Law were Comprehension His latter Declaration to all his Loving Subjects some few things in both yet a little considered made so were Indulgence A Bill for Comprehension with Indulgence both together will do our business An Addition or Clause in it against Pluralities will do it with Supererrogation Deo Gloria