HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of ENGLAND Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLIC KING With reference to the TEST and PENAL LAWS In a Letter to a Friend by a Member of the same Church LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687. THE TITLES OF THE SECTIONS SECT I. THe Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England Page 1. SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion Page 4. SECT III. How the Bishops and Clergy behaved themselves in those times Page 14. SECT IV. The Calumnies against the Loyal Members of the Church of England in the foregoing times Page 18. SECT V. The Affrightments and Arts now used to make Subjects believe that the Protestant Religion is to be extirpated here Page 22. SECT VI. That the Church of England hath been in a disturbed condition under Protestant Princes Page 27. SECT VII That it is in a more flourishing condition now Page 33. SECT VIII The self-denial of the King in the Exercise of his own Religion Page 36. SECT IX The difficulty of effecting a change of Religion Page 40. SECT X. Two Objections answered Page 56. SECT XI That the Kings dispensing with the Test is no Argument of his design to Extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 62. SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 72. SECT XIII Concerning the Test Page 78. SECT XIV Concerning Sanguinary and Penal Laws against Roman Catholics Page 143. SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not Repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test Page 165. SECT XVI The Practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living under one Secular Government Page 180. SECT XVII The Character of his Majesty Page 191. SECT XVIII The Conclusion Page 205. ERRATA PAge 15. Line 7. for assured read afraid P. 22. the last line but one for These r. There P. 31. l. 17. for confirmed too r. conformed to P. 40. The Title of the Section should have ended at the word Religion and the rest be placed in the Margent P. 79. l. ult for it r. them P. 94. l. 7. for naturally r. natural P. 113. l. 12. for But r. yet P. 117. l. 1. after we put in may P. 178. l. 7. for preached r. practised P. 182. l. 3. for attemps r. attempts P. 183. l. 11. for Budifir r. Budifin P. 185. l. 7. for Abby r. Abbot HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of England Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLICK KING In a Letter to a Friend SECT I. The Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England SIR SINCE our first acquaintance we have seen the Revolution of almost fifty years In all which time your unshaken Loyalty and steady Adherence to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England have been most conspicuous You equally hated the Flatterer who by stretching the Length of the Scepter made it unweildy and the Factious who by continual filing made it too slender and of no more force than a Reed or so shortned it that from a Sovereign Battoon it scarce equalled a Serjeants Mace. You valued him most who paid a just Deference to the Regal Prerogative and was infinitely thankful for all the gracious Enfranchisements of the Subject You knew too well the Injustice and Illegality of taking Arms against King Charles the First setled your Judgment so firmly then that none of the Designers Arts to cajole the Multitude made any impression on you And however great your Sufferings were then and thereby by your Disability to aid the Banished Prince yet you were as forward as any to assist him in all things serviceable to his Interest not only in confirming your Neighbours and Acquaintance in their Allegiance when their Enemies success made them dispond but in making Converts of those who had been deluded by the specious pretence of Liberty and Reformation So that you helped much to prepare Mens minds earnestly to wish and effectually to promote the late Merciful King's Restauration and when in his later time he was so Embarrassed with some of his Parliaments you were an eminent Abhorrer and as strenuous an Opposer of the Bill of Seclusion and though you were branded with the name of Papist in Masquerade and a Janizary for Arbitrary Power yet you kept your Post and assured those that conversed with you that Loyalty which you had been taught in the Church of England was so firm a Basis to you that the attacks of Slander and Obloquy should never remove you one hair's breadth from your Duty It was the very Polar Star to which you directed all your Actions without trepidation the Axis on which you designed to move SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion GIVE me leave to remind you of some of those Answers you used to make to those Speeches were sent you from one of the Clerks of the Commons House when the debate was hottest about the Bill of Seclusion for it was at that critical Time the truest Sons of the English Church were discriminated from the Latitudinarian Protestants Non-Conformists and Common-wealth's Men. S. W. J. Collection of Speeches When that overgrown Lawyer said He took it for granted that it was impossible that a Papist should come to the Possession and quiet enjoyment of the Crown without wading through a Sea of Blood and without occasioning such a War as for ought he knew might shake the Monarchical Government You then reply'd This was more like the Bellowing of a Bull than a Responce from an Oracle of the Laws and that who ever lived to see the Duke Succeed as in course of Nature it was likely would find the True Sons of the Church of England so far from listing up an hand against him that if his Right were opposed they would with as much Zeal and Concern as any fight under his Royal Standard and if any such Bouteseu's as he raised a Rebellion they would only afford Trophies to his Victorious Sword and fall as Sacrifices to the Justice of his Cause When that bitter mans Speech was urged That a Popish Head on a Protestant Body would be such a Monster in Nature as would neither be fit to preserve or be preserved and it as naturally followed as the Night did Day that the Head would Change the Body or the Body the Head You answered That we ought to consider the Royal Headship abstractedly from the Subject-Body as we do the sublimed Animal and vital Spirits from the gross Blood and the grosser composition of the Body The Sovereignty being as a Presiding Coelestial Power fitted to govern Members of various Temperaments and Constitutions and that it was as easie to conceive how a Popish King might benignly govern his Protestant Subjects as it was for a Father to govern with Paternal Care and Indulgence his Children of different Humors and Inclinations and
glorious an Enterprise it will be rowsing his slow and unresolved Thoughts with the Consideration what a perpetual renown it ever will be to King Henry the VII that he united the Houses of York and Lancaster and how glorious the memory of King James the I. ever must be who united the Kingdoms And how transcendent a Jubile it would cause over all the Roman World That his Grandson should reunite his Subjects to the Roman Catholick Church which will be so irresistable a Charm they say that it cannot be in his power to escape the Enchantment Nor could he want the Charity to wish it or neglect the essaying all means to effect it being prepossessed with a firm Perswasion that the undertaking of it would be an acceptable Service to God Almighty It is not my design to write any thing that may lessen the esteem and due regard Men have for the Church of England of which I own my self an unworty Member Neither shall I meddle with any Points in controversie but only offer my Reasons why I cannot conceive by the Proceedings of the King hitherto nor the consequences flowing from those steps he makes That the Protestant Religion is either in danger or designed to be rooted out or so eclipsed as we are invited to believe SECT VI. That the Church of England hath been in a disturbed condition under Protestant Princes BEfore I consider the present State of the Church of England which I think in many respects is as flourishing as it hath been since the Reformation I must shew its former condition During the Reign of Q. Elizabeth and the three succeeding Kings it hath been continually disquieted with Dissenters Fanaticks and other Sects who never gave over their Clamours for a more refined Reformation from Rome Every Year almost producing some bitter Invective or other grudging murmuring and calumniating the English Hierarchy to the great disquiet of the Secular Government Hence the necessity of severe Laws against Non-conformists ever and anon being made or reinforced Those that lived in the beginning of the late Wars cannot forget what Tumults were in some places about placing the Communion Table Altar-wise How many were scandalized at the Bishop's dignifyed Clergy and Priests Habit at the kneeling at the Sacrament at the use of the Cross in Baptism about bowing to the Altar and the Name of Jesus And tho' in Cathedrals a Solemn Order was observed yet it was much murmured at and was branded both in the manner of the Celebration of Divine Offices and the use of the Choristers and Organs with the name of down-right Popery and Superstition Who hath a mind to know the particulars of the disquieting of the Church of England by her Protestant Adversaries may peruse Bishop Bancroft's Dangerous Positions and Dr. Heylin's History of Presbyterianism Mr. Fowlis History of the Plots Conspiracies c. and such as relate the Church History of those times and they will find sufficient to convince them what Jars Conflicts Heart-burnings and Disquiets were amongst Protestants How the Clergy and the Liturgy were despised which grew every Year worse and worse till it was judged requisite by a strict execution of the Laws to master the Nonconformists and bend or break them to a complyance or silence But the success answered not the design for on the contrary the peoples minds grew strongly alienated from the Discipline of the Church and as soon as they had chosen a House of Commons to their mind the use of the Common Prayer Book Surplices and Habits of the Clergy and all things in use formerly and established by Law were voted down and the Souldiery and Rabble were encouraged to tear the Service-Book and Surplices to transplace the Communion-Table level the Steps pull up Fonts break down all the painted Glass-Windows especially where any representation of our Saviour or any Saints or Bishops or other in Religious Habits were The Copes Vestments and Chalices were all swept out of the Church by Order of Committies or the Rapine of Parishioners or Soldiers The Monuments and monumental Inscriptions were most of them defaced especially where a Religious Habit was represented an Ora pro Animâ annexed or the worth of the Brass tempted the Sacriledge none of the zealous Observers of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church were permitted to enjoy any Benefice or teach a School Bishops and Deans and Chapters Lands were sold and they were about resolving which of the Cathedrals should be demolished So that in conclusion there was no publick appearance of the Discipline of the Church of England tho' all the Pulpits were supplyed with Preachers who conformed to their new Directory and new Ordination by Presbyters This might indeed be called a Protestant Church but I am sure it was very different from the Church of England as established by Law which was so far from then being a flourishing Church that it had neither Vola nor Vestigium of one but such as was under as dismal a Persecution as a Church well could be It is true after the late King of immortal memory's Restauration It was restored again to a competency of Power and Order Yet the Dissenters Meeting-places were as much frequented as the Churches Everywhere Non-conformable Ministers had their Conventicles till a new Act of Uniformity was made yet the number of Dissenters then were so many that the King who loved ease and to have his Subjects minds composed that he might more freely have the Service of their Bodies and Purses was willing to grant them Indulgence till that was disliked by the Parliament and the Bishops and zealous Members of the Church of England whereby the King was prevailed with to revoke it Thus was the Church of England harrassed under Protestant Princes SECT VII That it is in a more flourishing condition now LET us now take a view of its present State and make a just paralel and we shall I think find it in no worse but in a better state than before Now our Clergy-men go publickly in their decent Habits are reverenced and respected no affronts put upon them All the Ceremonies appointed by the Canons and Rubricks are more exactly observed and more universally confirmed too than in any Age before we hear little of their Conventicles the greater number of former Dissenters flocking to our Churches conforming in all things answering to the Responses standing up at the Creed bowing at the Name of Jesus kneeling at the Prayers and with great attention and zeal hearing the learned Sermons delivered almost from every Pulpit the Ministers redoubling their pains in emulation to the Catholick Fathers that they may retain their Flocks firm to the Protestant Religion and we may judge by the crowding of the Churches That for one Dissenter that was won to the Church of England in the late Kings Reign there are now ten which is one of the Miracles the King has done to unite these at so great odds formerly So that to me it is a
I think in that of the Popes Nuncio or chappels of Embassadours Those Protestants which have heard them can universally testifie That the Text mostly is out of the Epistle or Gospel of the day and the scope of the Discourse is generally incitements to the duty of Holy Living disswasives from all kind of sin and true motives to penitence for them When they commemorate any Saint in celebrating the Festival the application is to imitate their Sanctity and praise God for the Grace conferred on them and affording such Examples of Devotion and holy living Which Heads when they are most powerfully treated upon may be effectual to make a Man a good Christian but avails not much to make him a Roman Catholic It is well known to most that hear them that if it were not for the habit the Ave Maria the want of Notes the devision of the Discourse and some small difference in the way of delivery they could not distinguish their Sermons from those in Protestant Churches So that they gain only by that a little mitigation of peoples Censures who have had them represented either as ridiculous or absurd Since therefore the Preachers of both Churches agree in the points of Moral Piety and the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity It may prevail with Lay Auditors to judge those are the necessary things knowable and that the skill in nice and subtil Controversies are nothing so needful to salvation as the decrying and shunning Vice and Debauchery When therefore we consider the advantage the Ministers of the Church of England have over the Fathers we surely must yield That they may much more easily keep their own Flock from straying than the other can win them over to the Romish Faith. For First the Ministers are infinitely more numerous and settled in their several Parishes as so many Shepherds to secure their charge Secondly They have willing and unprejudiced Auditors to hear them whereas most Protestants that go to hear the Fathers generally do it out of curiosity or to censure them Thirdly The Ministers of England have a good Art of Address to enforce their Doctrines and having been longer used to preaching than the Fathers and using a different method from them to which people have been more accustomed I see no reason to fear that they can so prevail as to commit a rape upon their Auditors Affections and Judgments whereby they should be converted by thousands as those were at S. Peters Sermons and without such Miracles I think by preaching the Protestants will not be changed As to their Writings 2 Nor by their Writings the scope of those seem to be primarily to explain those Articles of Faith wherein Protestants most differ from them in such a manner as may conciliate a better understanding between the two Churches and by a sweetening and favourable representation of the Catholic Doctrine endeavour to remove the Prejudices Protestants have entertained against it as irroconcileable to Scripture and the exposition of the Primitive Fathers This seems the most Christian and Charitable method they have or possibly can take to render their Religion intelligible to us or at least incline us to less censoriousness of theirs which province the Bishop of Meaux hath undertaken with greatest applause and it hath been followed by some of our Country Yet when we consider how little hither to hath been gained by this expedient we need neithe be waspish and angry or abandon our selves to such sinking sears as if the Church of England would be overset by so smooth a Sea. The Church of England hath in it many learned and dextrous men who have good Libraries and are well skilled in History and the Antient Fathers and are well pleased they have the opportunity of shewing their Talents and are confident they can manage their cause more advantagiously than the Catholics and think this way of their Adversaries Writings effects not what is aimed at but on the contrary confirms the people That they have been taught by their Pastors the more antient and true Doctrine as it was believed in the Ages nearest the Apostles times So when the Pope yielded to the Bohemians the use of the Wine in the Sacrament It being received by them as a confirmation That the Eucharist ought to be administred in both species and that it was as reasonable that other Points in difference should be allowed them the Pope recalled the Tolleration When we further consider That the dubious expressions of the Fathers afford subtil men on both sides sufficient matter for arguing pro and con and that the Writers in both Churches agree not upon a Judg betwixt them It is not easie to conceive how by this way a National Conversion can be effected For though the number of Writers were never so much multiplied Yet since the Arguments are the same and neither part can put the principal differences to Umpirage or fix upon an Umpire they may both write till Dooms-day 3 Nor by their freedom of conversation and endeavours to proselite the people ere they accord As to Conversation It must be owned that in this as well as the foregoing particulars the R. Catholick Church-Men have that advantage now that they never had since the Reformation both publickly to preach and publish their Books of Controversie and be as industrious as they please to prevail with people in their conversation which is like a single combate betwixt a Man skilled at his Weapon and a Novice It must be granted also That several persons may be reconciled to the Church of Rome especially such as are curious after Novelties and not well grounded in the Protestant Religion or such as fall into solicitous thoughts about the state of their Salvation and come to think the failures they have committed have been occasioned by their want of due Instruction Or once conceive that Salvation is not to be had out of the most Catholic Church or that a perfect absolution upon Confession and Contrition is to be had no where out of the Church of Rome and some may be won by an affectation of the modishness of being of the Religion of their Prince or in hopes of the more propitious royal Smiles and such in my judgment as change their Religion for this sole end neither deserve the countenance of their Prince nor of any worthy Man for such will vary with the next Wind and neither God nor Man will find stability in them But we experimentally find that the progress of these kinds of conversion is very slow and it must be a work of many Ages to effect any great matter this way where so thick-set prejudices and prepossessions of a different perswasion are so firmly retained that to change a Religion this way is but like the demolishing a Fabrick of immense firmness and size by picking out here and there a single Stone even while others are as diligent and industrious to secure it If lastly any be won over to the Church
the two Houses might find useful for the public good Lastly This Non-correspondence must gratifie and incourage all the Enemies to Monarchy and all those who were for the Bill of Seclusion this Discord being the only pleasing Harmony to them who never hug themselves with so full an Ohe of content and satisfaction as when they find the Crown in any straits or can foment if not conjure up a Spirit of Jealousie betwixt the King and his Parliament and when they have stolen the Peoples Hearts from the King they are upon the Tiptoes of hope that they may strike in for the prize If we have not a feeling sense of the miserable state that Sedition and Rebellion It's most savage Elder Brother will bring us all to let us consult our bloody Annals and our Ancestors deplorable experience and then ponder well whether it be Tanti to move Heaven and Earth harras our Country and embrue it with the blood of so many of our Country-men and nearest Relations and at last fight our selves into a much worse condition than we are ever like to be in by granting this Repeal which in this juncture is most reasonable if not for our Kings sake and the Roman Catholics yet at least for our own peace and tranquility and the establishing our hopes of his Majesties kindness to our Church The last Inconvenience The last Reason I shall urge is that the refusing to Vacate these Acts may necessitate the King to grant a Toleration which of all things the Church of England hath hitherto most dreadded and to which we may believe the King is well enough inclined out of a principle of clemency to his people in general as well as Indulgence to his Catholic Subjects which altho his Royal Brother after an essay at the earnest solicitation of his Parliament was Graciously pleased to recal to gratifie the Church of England yet we cannot expect that our King not having those motives and being courted by so many to grant it and finding the extension of his Supremacy will think it his Interest to revoke it if he once establish it The difference betwixt Roman Catholics and other Dissenters from the Church of England Here it will not be a miss to consider the great difference there is betwixt Roman Catholics and other Dissenters while the Laws are in force The Non-conformists may meet to the number of Five besides the Family and have their Pastor or Teacher with them and the disagreeableness betwixt them and the Church of England is not so great but that those who have Estates or desire to obtain Offices of honour or profit even to do the Crown a disservice as we found in those that were to capacitate themselves to be Sheriffs in the late times could readily Conform Whereas Roman Catholics are in extream peril from the very harbouring their Priests so that in this the Roman Catholics are in a sadder state than any Christians are For to exercise their Religion without Priests for performing the Office of Baptizing Administring the Blessed Sacrament burying the Dead c. Is in that Church and ought to be in all others impossible and to have them for celebrating these and other Divine Offices as the Laws now are renders them obnoxious to the punishments inflicted on Felons and Traytors and there is no possibility of the Roman Catholics as such conforming even so much as in going once a month to Church without putting themselves out of the Communion of their Church which with them is to be avoided more than the utmost sufferings When therefore we consider the Unchristianness of such severe Laws under our circumstances and reflect that tho the greatest part of the disquiets from the Tenth Year at least of Queen Elizabeth have arisen from the pretences of keeping out Popery and the Advantages the Long Parliament had against King Charles the First was from that source and the troubles of our late merciful King were bottomed on the same apprehensions and yet now that we see it 's actually practised we find no such dreadful events but that the Vizard was portraied much more terrible than now when it appears with open face and now when we see the publick exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion we only find it gazed at as a Novelty but no affrightments attending it and we find what we understand in Sermons and Catechizing is Christian and profitable and what we understand not in Ceremonies we see full of Pomp and Magnificence and further we see not I say when we consider all this and that it is in our choice whether we will allow the sanguinary and penal Laws to be abolished with a security in the exercising the Protestant Religion or on the contrary the Inconveniencies before recited and a Tolleration to boot methinks it should be no difficult matter to determine which were more advantagious Having thus shewn some of the disadvantages to Us and our Religion by the refusal of a Repeal I might propose the advantages which will accrue by yielding up those Laws the King hath such an obligation in Honour and Justice at least in his own Royal Apprehension to insist upon but that the removal of the one puts the other in their place SECT XVI The practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living under one Secular Government THerefore I shall chuse rather to shew the practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living in the full enjoyment of their respective Religions under Princes of either Religion And first shall observe that the Church of Rome and the Church of England are the two Churches in Europe at least that are the most conspicuous and of most renown Both plead for the Antiquity of their Doctrine The Roman Catholics are of one Communion and so is the Church of England but Protestantism at large takes in a greater variety of subdivisions and those separate from the Church of England as much as that doth from the Roman Secondly It hath been the endeavour of many learned and pious men to accommodate the points in difference betwixt Roman Catholics and Protestants But by reason of secular interests no expedient could be found to adjust them till at last in Germany from whence our Saxon Ancestors came after about twenty years war wherein the Country was the very Theatre on which the most Tragical Effusion of Blood and the most depopulating waste by Fire and Rapine were acted to the highest degree of humane cruelty and revenge and all this principally upon the account of the difference between Roman Catholies and Protestants upon account of their Religion and being at last throughly wearied with the unsuccessful attempts upon one another in the year 1624. they came to the following settlements which I believe they hitherto reap the fruit of being confirmed Anno 1648. at the Treaty of Munster whereby it was made an Imperial Law. The Duke of Newburgh is a strict Roman Catholic yet in his Country of Juliers even at Deuseldorp
shall receive any Sallary Fee or Wages by reason of any Patent or Grant from his Majesty or shall have command or place of Trust from and under his Majesty or from any of his Majesties Predecessors or by His or Their Authority or by Authority derived from Him or them within the Realm c. or in his Majesties Navy I slands c or shall be of the Houshold or in the Service or Imployment of his Majesty or of his Royal Highness the Duke of York c. shall personally in the Court of Chancery or Kings-Bench take the several Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the usage of the Church of England and the like for all Officers to be admitted to any Office for the future within a time limitted The Neglecters or Refusers to be adjudged incapable of any other Office or to Sue use any Action Bill Plaint or Information in Courts of Law or prosecute any Suit in any Court of Equity or to be a Guardian to any Child or Executor or Administrator of any Person or be capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gist or to have any Office and shall forfeit 500 l. The persons obliged to take the Oaths shall at the same time make and subscribe the Declaration following under the same penalties and forfeitures as by the Act appointed The Declaration is in these words I A. B. do declare that I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever There is a Provision that this Act shall not hurt or prejudice the Peerage of any Peer of this Realm either in time of Parliament or otherwise But this was in the next Act fully vacated The Second Act. 30. Car. 2. The second Act is Intiuled An Act for the more effectual preserving the Kings Person and Government by disabling Papists from sitting in either House and the Preamble adds That for as much as divers good Laws have been made for preventing the increase and danger of Popery in this Kingdom which have not had the desired effect by reason of the Liberty which of late some of the Recusants have had and taken to sit and vote in Parliament Therefore it was Enacted That no Peers of the Realm and Members of the House of Peers should Vote or make their Proxy in the House of Peers nor any sit there during any debate in the said House Nor should any Members of the House of Commons Vote or sit there during any debate after the Speaker was chosen until they respectively take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and make and subscribe and audibly repeat the Declaration following I A. B. Do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God Profess Testifie and Declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever and that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous Likewise no Peer of England Scotland or Ireland being twenty years old nor any Convict Recusant that takes not the same Oaths and make and subscribes the Declaration may advisedly come into or remain in the presence of the King or Queens Majesty or come into the Court or House where They or any of Them reside Every Peer or Member thus offending shall be deemed and judged a Popish Recusant and suffer as such be disabled to hold or execute any Office or place of Profit or Trust Civil or Military in any of His Majesties Dominions c and shall not Sit or Vote in either House or make a proxy in the house of Peers or have any benefit of the Law as in the foregoing Act and shall forfeit 500 l. Also every sworn Servant of the King not having performed all things in the former Act required shall do what this Act enjoyns or shall be disabled to hold any place as sworn Servant to the King and suffer all the Pains and Penalties aforesaid The Proviso's are That Nine of the Queens Men-servants natural born-subjects of Portugal and as many Women-servants such as shall be nominated by the Queen under her Hand and Seal are exempt from the taking these Oaths c. Secondly That none be restrained from coming or residing in the King or Queens presence c. that shall first obtain warrant so to do under the Hands and Seals of six or more Privy Councillors by order from his Majesties Privy Council upon some urgent occasion therein to be expressed so that such Licence exceed not the space of ten days at one time nor thirty days in one year and such Licence to be recorded in the Petty-bag-Office Lastly That nothing in this Act shall extend to his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK Some Reflectione upon these Acts. Whoever peruseth these Acts in the circumstance we now are in will easily I think yield that whatever temporary uses there could be formerly of them yet they could never be put in practice by a Roman Catholick King or that he could suffer the execution of them as I shall more at large shew in the following Discourse In this place I shall only touch upon some few Heads As The Sererity First Concerning the severity in General upon those who could not renounce the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints these being purely Metaphysical Points of Religion setled by Pecrees of Councils in the Roman Catholic Church oblige those of that Communion to believe them under the penalty of an Anathema yet I think it is not easie to prove that these Doctrines have any Natural Tendency to induce the Believers and Practisers of them either to endanger the Person of the King or the Government which is declared to be the principal end why the Acts were made and as to the increase of Popery these very Doctrines are so far from working upon Protestants that they are the very chief impediments which hinder the people in General from embracing that Religion Therefore it must appear very severe that all persons who by a spiritual obligation cannot renounce these Doctrines and Practices should be obnoxious to those penalties which as convict Papists they are liable to and which however vexatious and chargeable to them redound mostly to the profit of Informers Bayliffs Clerks and such persons as bear no proportion of Merit or Interest in the Government to those suffering Roman Catholic Lords and Gentlemen and by such Payments Fines c. the Kings Revenue is very little encreased The Reasons why made Although some may think some of the branches were then necessary to prevent all Roman Catholics from enjoying publick
which they would have grounded an Indictment of Treason And whoever considers all the Arguments of the Exclusionists will find they were bottom'd upon the severe Laws against Papists So that if his Royal Brother had been wrought upon to have consented it had been easie by the force of the penal Laws against Roman Catholics not only to have deprived our Sovereign of his Right of Succession but of his life also Since therefore it is so evident that the penal Laws against Roman Catholics as they now stand in force are not only destructive to the Subjects property but endanger as much the Rights of Hereditary Princes In my Judgment the King hath sufficient reason to require their repeal and all Lovers of our Monarchy reflecting upon the hazard his Majesty was in from them have reason to use their utmost endeavours to have such abrogated Surely we cannot but reflect how things were pushed on after the credit given to that perjur'd Man's Plot. How a traiterous party designed the late Kings Murther the overthrow of the Monarchy or at least the utter secluding of our Gracious Sovereign and never rested till they had formed the Rebellion in England and Scotland So that when we consider how these Laws were obtained in a time when the Affrights Heats and Ferments of the Nation were so great and the drift of the Enemies to Monarchy and the Kings person were not sufficiently discovered and when we consider that those so fair-blown Blossoms so delicately striped with the beautiful Colours of Religion and Property and Priviledges were succeeded by the most poisonous Fruits And that those men who pretended so much care of the Protestant Religion manifestly designed the Eclipsing at least if not the overthrow of the Church of England by their Bill of Comprehension whoever I say considers these things deliberately cannot think the King hath any reason to be in Love with these Acts which were made so Diametrically opposite to his Regality and which would so manacle his hands that he might have no power to bestow Places or Offices upon his Catholic Subjects Having premised these things in Gross I shall now proceed to give you some of the many reasons why I think the King hath just cause to insist upon the Repeal of these Acts and all other Sanguinary Laws Reasons why the Test ought to be repeal'd 1. That it chargeth the King and all Catholics with the detestable sin of Idolatry First If there were no other reason why he should earnestly endeavour the abolishing of them This one thing seems to me sufficient in that all his Subjects who are capacitated to serve Him must solemnly declare the King or the Church he is in Communion with Idolaters than which sin I think no Christian can be guilty of a greater except that of the so inexplicable sin against the Holy Ghost If I were a Military man I should be very diffident of success or that God would prosper my Arms while I fought a Princes quarrel whom I judged an Idolater And if I did not believe it as their whole Church so solemnly denying any properly Divine Worship to be given by them to any but God methinks should hinder me and yet were obliged so solemnly to declare it I should think I scandalized my Prince in the highest degree mocked God and gave a lye to my Conscience So that however useful it might be to deter persons of the Roman Faith from taking it and so to incapacitate them yet I cannot see how a Catholic Prince can countenance or need it And how either the King himself or his Catholic Subjects can digest such publick avowing them Idolaters I leave to any rational man to judge And especially the King being I doubt not throughly convinced in his own Conscience that he is no Idolater for I think gestures only without some kind of intention of paying Divine Honour to something that is not God will not make a person guilty of that damnable sin It cannot but concern him in Conscience to prevent as much as in him lies his Subjects averring so scandalous an untruth in his Majesties own belief at least and which assertion carries with it another ill consequence that every one is not aware of For the Ordination of our Bishops coming from the Church of Rome if that be Idolatrous it is no more a Church of Christ but a Synagogue of Satan And if it be no Damage I am sure it is no Credit to derive a succession from it Secondly 2 That one great end of the Test now ceaseth Another reason against the Test may be that now there is no use of the direct intendment of the Act because the end for which in great part it was made is now obsolete and totally ceaseth which I hope will be clear to them that consider that the power of the Militia and the disposing either directly or indirectly of all the places of Service and Trust are in the King So that though it was but rational that those persons to whom Protestant Kings committed Arms and Offices should be assured of them in fidelity which the being of the same Religion induceth a Prince to confide more in lest their Persons or Government might be in danger from any armed with power that were Catholics So that it was but consentaneous to the Sovereign Power in disposal of the Militia and Offices that a Protestant Prince might refuse to be served by Catholics and lest any such might get into Imployments he might be willing to consent to the most effectual discriminating Test that could be invented to debar them But now the King is secure from any apprehensions of the least danger to his Person and Government from Catholics and can have no more doubt of the Allegiance of Catholics without such Oaths or Declarations than a Protestant Prince could have of his Protestant Subjects under the engagement of those Oaths Here we may en passant observe a considerable difference betwixt the method of our King and those of former times Now we repine and are greatly alarum'd as if all were lost because here and there a Catholic Officer is Commissionated whereas the King imploys treble the number yea some say Ten Officers that are Protestants for one Catholic and the Soldiers are generally Protestants whereas before not one Known Catholic was capable of any Imployment We might have indeed some reason to murmur and repine if the King should commissionate none but Catholics yet that would be but Lex Talionis turning the Tables Therefore since he hath the power of dispencing with that Law as appears by the Sentence in the King's Bench we have reason to be thankful to the King for the distribution of his favours so liberally to Protestants which hath been so long denied to Unfortunate Catholics who if their Religion did not incapacitate them as Englishmen Fellow-Subjects and Gentlemen are as fit for all sorts of Imployment as Protestants And I doubt not but now that
they are imployed will as Bravely Honourably and Circumspectly discover their abilities and I hope will keep so good a correspondence with Loyal Protestants that are their Fellow-Servants to so great a Master that the King may at least have that satisfaction that he can unite them in a Camp which he cannot do in a Church and shew his great wisdom in Government that he can be faithfully and effectually served by all his Subjects of different Religious Interests And though the endeavours of several to explicate the Roman Catholic Religion more approachingly to the sentiments of Protestants have not as yet had that effect they wished yet it may be useful to let us see that in affairs of State and Government such an intercourse and mixture may be as former Ages have not known and by the Conduct of our Gracious and Wise King may be laid a foundation for better accord in future times that we may not be at such feuds among our selves It is true that under a Protestant King there might be some reason to maintain the Protestant Church so as it might neither be indangered by the Roman Catholics or Protestant Dissenters and by Sanguinary Laws tho rarely put in use people might be deterred from being of any other Communion yet we cannot think that the same measures can be taken now such circumstances varying the methods of proceeding and in Government and Politicks new Emergencies may yea must render old Axioms obsolete Hence we take notice how imprudent these Informers are who in our King's Reign more out of pretence and impotent zeal than for any good concern to the Church of England tempt the Justices and instigate them to prosecute Catholics by binding them to Sessions and Assizes for what can be expected from this but it will exasperate the King and discover how desirous these are to persecute them tho they know he will pardon the Transgression in as much as it relates to himself Thirdly 3 It is against the Kings Prerogative Having thus far treated of the Natural and Religious Grounds the King hath to demand to have the Act repealed I come now to the politic and more necessary part as it relates to the legal constitution of the Government which by this Act of the Test suffers a great alteration in the abridging the King of an undoubted Prerogative of the Crown For the illustrating of which I shall first give you the opinion of the most Celebrated Writers of the English Laws of what nature the Kings Prerogative in general is Secondly That the Leigance of the Subject to his Sovereign is judged among the principal Prerogatives of the King. Thirdly How tender our English Ancestors have been of the Royal Prerogative Fourthly That the Test deprives the King of the Leigance and of that Fundamental Prerogative of having the service of his Subjects And Lastly Conclude with some Inferences from these Considerations The nature of the Kings Prerogative As to the first a L. 1. Instit 90. Sr. Edward Coke saith the Prerogative extends to all Power Preheminence and Priviledge which the Law giveth to the Crown b Lib. 1. Bracton calls it in one place the Liberty in another the Priviledge of the King. c Fol. 47. Bretton following the d Weston 1. c. 50. Statute calls it Droyt le Roy and the e 61. Register stiles it the Kings Right and the Royal Right of the Crown My Lord f 2 Instit 84. Coke saith the Prerogative of the King is given him by the Common Law and is part of the Law of the Realm g Prerog c. 1. Stanford saith the Prerogative hath its Being from the Common Law and the Statutes are but declarative Properly speaking the Prerogatives of the Crown are such powers as the Kings of England have reserved to themselves as most necessary for the support of their Dignity and the Government Therefore h Rusâ—w Collect. 555. Sr. John Banks in his argument about Ship-mony affirms that the Jura Summae Majestatis which are the Prerogatives are given to the person of the King by the Common Law and the Supreme Dominion is inherent in his Person Another judicious i Mr. White Majestas Intemerata p. 30. Lawyer out of the Authorities he there cites saith The Prerogative is inseparable from his Person not grantable over it is always stuck upon the King or Crown and being inherent to the Majesty of a King and part of the matter of that Majesty is no more grantable than the Majesty it self or a Royal member of the Imperial Stile These are the Characters given to the Kings Prerogative in general â— The Subjects 〈…〉 the Crown Let us now in the second place consider that among the Prerogatives of the Crown It hath been always accounted one of the eminentest principal and fundamental ones that the King and none but he may at his own pleasure command the service of all and every his Subjects in his Wars and other Ministerial Offices which they are bound to by their Natural Allegiance Hence k 2 Instit. 128. Sr. Edward Coke stiles Leigeance the highest and greatest obligation of Duty and Obedience that can be and defines it The true and faithful obedience of a Liege man to his Liege Lord or Sovereign and so calls it * Vinculum Fidei Leges essentia The Ligement or bond of Faith and the essence of the Law and in l 7 Rep. p. 9. amittit Regnum sed non Regem amittit Patriam sed non Patrem Patrie another place he affirms That it is not in the power of any Subject to dissolve this Obligation saying That he that abjures the Realm may loose the Kingdom but not the King may loose his Country but not the Father of his Country agreeable to what another eminent m Dyer fol. 300. Lawyer asserts That none can divest himself of his Country in which he is born nor abjure his due Allegiance nemo patriam qua natus est exuere nec ligeanciam debitam ejurare potest In Calvin's Case the famous n 7 Rep. p. 4. Chief Justice saith That Liegeance and Obedience is an Incident inseparable to every Subject For as soon as he is born he oweth by Birthright Liegiance and Obedience to his Sovereign therefore in several Acts of o 14 H. 8.61 43 H. 8. c. 3. Parliament the King is called The liege and natural liege Lord of his Subjects and his people natural liege Subjects So that the liegiance is due to the natural person of the King by the Law of Nature which is immutable is part of the Law of England and was before judicial and municipal Laws as the same great Author affirms Long before him p Lib. 1. Stanford Plea 54. Bracton saith That things which are annexed to justice and peace belong to none but the Crown and dignity Royal nor can they be separated from the Crown for they make the
shall it be in any to withdraw himself from the Allegiance and Duty to his Sovereign to serve him personally when he commands it This leads me to the Second viz. the Subjects part for this puts the Subject in a state and condition either of disability or denying to serve his Sovereign at his pleasure for those who are Roman Catholics cannot while such take the Oaths and make the Declaration they being so penned that none of that Faith can own them without renouncing their Church the Act containing nothing in its own Nature essential to Obedience but only controverted points of Faith. So many others who are not willing to serve the King in Military and Civil Imployments by pretext that they cannot with a safe Conscience take the Oaths c. Instantly obtain a Dispensation from their Allegiance which ought to be absolute and unconditionate and whatever may be the case of some few may be of many and consequently a Prince may be deprived of the necessary Aid of his Subjects even when any Rebellion or Invasion should happen for tho the King be willing to dispence with their not taking those Oaths c. Yet they may insist upon the penalty which they may pretend they cannot be secured from Here I must answer an Objection that I foresee will be urged that Contra Hostem publicum quilibet homo est miles against a public Enemy every man ought to be a Soldier and so it cannot be the intent of the Law that the King should be deprived of his Right to arm whom he pleaseth and can confide in in such a Conjuncture but only it was designed to hinder Catholics from being Commissionated and Imployed in times of Peace But who ever peruseth the Act will find no such Exception or Limitation which is a very rational plea against the equity of the Act that taking away so great a Prerogative makes no provision for the safety of the Crown even in such cases I remember my Lord Coke speaking of the statute 11 H. 7. saith It hath a flattering preamble pretending to avoid many mischiefs yet it was found that by colour of it Empson and Dudley did many enormous things therefore he observes that When any Maxim or Fundamental Law of the Realm is altered it is incredible to foresee what dangerous mischiefs follow It becomes therefore all Lovers of the Monarchy of England to be very careful to consider the dangerous consequences of taking out or undermining any Corner Stone of that Royal Fabrick and in this particular case to deliberate well of the dangerous sequels of such Laws as limit the Sovereign to use only persons so and so qualified For by the same president we cannot tell if a Prince should succeed that shall be a Calvinist or of any other perswasion opposite to the Church of England and obtaine a Parliament to his purpose but that he may make renouncing of the Episcopal Government or the Church of England a condition absolutely necessary to capacitate any to serve in any public Imployment and then we should find too late how cautious our Ancestors ought to have been to consider consequences of things We have a fresh instance of this in the Kings Supremacy which Act being purposely designed to abridge the Popes power here in matters Ecclesiastical hath heightned so much the Kings Power above what the Pope or any other Ecclesiastical Court ever had that now the Church of England finds how much they are at the Kings pleasure and must necessarily rely more upon the Kings clemency than upon any security they are in by that Act So that if some men had considered the extent of this it is probable they would have acted with more caution and observance SECT XIV Concerning the Sanguinary and Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks BEfore I proceed further I think it necessary to speak something to the Sanguinary and Penal Laws against Roman Catholics made upon the rejecting the Pope's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and for securing the Sovereigns that were Protestants and the Religion established since the Reformation For the clear illustrating of which I shall 1st Shew what the Principal of those Laws were 2ly The grounds and reasons why they were made And 3ly Shew that as to the security of the Civil Government the ends for which they were made now cease and then proceed to lay down the Inconveniences that will attend the not repealing of them An Abridgement of the Penal Laws As to the first In the 35 H. 8. c. 1. A Statute was made wherein it is declared Treason in any who refuse to take the Oath commonly called of the Supremacy of H. 8. to distinguish it from that of Queen Elizabeth The persons there appointed to take it are to swear that Neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any foreign Potestate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power or Authority within the Realm c. 1 Eliz. That of Queen Elizabeth appoints all to swear that No foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Prehemenency or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within the Realm And in the 5th of the Queen the refusers to take it are guilty of a Premunire And in the former Statute No man shall by Writing Printing Teaching Preaching c. maintain or defend the Authority Preheminency Power or Jurisdiction Spiritual or Ecclesiastical of any foreign Prince Prelate Person State or Potentate which was heretofore claimed c. within this Realm for the third offence shall suffer as a Traytor Anno 13 Eliz. cap. 2. It was Enacted That if any person use or put in use any Bull Writing or Instrument Written or Printed of Absolution or Reconciliation or if any shall take upon them by colour of any such Bull Writing c. to Absolve or Reconcile any Person or Persons or promise such Absolution or Reconciliation it shall be judged High Treason So bringing of Agnus Dei's Crosses Pictures Beads or such like vain and superstitious things from the Bishop or See of Rome or any authorized or claiming Authority from the Bishop or See of Rome to Consecrate or Hallow the same shall be guilty of a Premunire 27 Eliz. c. 2. All Jesuits Seminary Priests or other such Priests Deacons or Religious or Ecclesiastical Persons whatsoever born within the Queens Dominions made ordained or professed by any Authority or Jurisdicton derived challenged or pretended from the See of Rome unless upon some occasions allowed by the Act that shall be known to come into or remain in the Realm or Dominions shall suffer lose and forfeit as in case of Treason Also all such as shall willingly and wilfully receive relieve comfort aid or maintain any such being at liberty and out of Prison shall be adjudged Fellons Likewise to give or contribute any money or other relief to such out of the Dominion or for maintenance of any Colledge of Jesuits or Seminary Priests shall
incur the penalty of Premunire I need not mention the severe Laws of that Queen against convict Lay Recusants As confining them within five miles of their Habitation and the poorer sort that had none to Prisons or other Restraints and to the end that the Realm be not pestred and overcharged with the multitude of such seditious and dangerous people they must abjure the Realm King James the 1st 1º Reg. c. 4. Confirms all the Laws of Queen Elizabeth against Jesuits Seminary Priests c. and enjoyns the taking of the Oath of Obedience commonly called Allegiance which was more directly to oblige to Fidelity than in point of Faith and only enjoyned to repair to Church and continue there during the time of Divine Service and not to send any to Seminaries beyond Seas Cap. 4. But in the third of his Reign when the Gun-powder Treason was discovered the Laws were made more severe that If any shall put in practice to absolve perswade or withdraw any of the subjects of the King or of his Heirs from their Natural Obedience to his Majesty his Heirs or Successors or to reconcile them to the Pope or See of Rome it shall be High Treason and those that are willingly absolved or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly reconciled shall be adjudged Traitors ◠5. At the same Parliament it was enacted that Recusants should not come to the Court that they should depart from London be confined within five miles of their Habitations Convict Recusants should be as Excommunicate Persons made incapable of most Offices Civil or Military of practising Law Physick c. Which no doubt gave rise to the Test and which in its full extent was never put in use and hath been connived at or dispensed with under Protestant Princes ever since Likewise under several penalties they were to Marry Baptise and Bury according to the Laws of the Realm The grounds of these Laws Now if we enquire into the grounds of all these Laws we shall find them expressed in the several Acts as in that of the 35º of H. 8. it is said to be made in Corroboration of that made in the 28th of the same King To exclude the long usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome That of the first of Queen Elizabeth is to the intent That all usurped and foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. In the 5th of the same Queens Reign the grounds are expressed For the avoiding both of such hurts perils dishonours and inconveniences as have before time befallen as well to the Queens Majesties Noble Progenitors Kings of this Realm as for the whole estate thereof by means of the Jurisdiction and Power of the See of Rome unjustly claimed and usurped within this Realm as also of the dangers by the fautors of the said usurped Power at this time grown to marvelous outrage and licentious boldness and now requiring more sharp restraint and correction of Laws c. 〈…〉 The Reasons for the passing the Act of the 13th of the same Queen is more full viz. That divers seditious and very evil disposed people minding not only to bring the Realm and the Imperial Crown thereof being indeed of it self most free into the Thraldom and Subjection of that Foreign Vsurped and Vnlawful Jurisdiction Preheminency and Authority claimed by the See of Rome but also to estrange and alienate the minds and hearts of sundry her Majesties Subjects from their dutiful Obedience and to raise and stir Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm and so mentions the Pope's Bull to absolve and reconcile all those that will be contented to forsake their due obedience whereby hath grown great disobedience and boldness in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from all Divine Service now most Godly set forth and used in this Realm but also have thought themselves discharged of and from all obedience duty and allegiance to her Majesty whereby most wicked and unnatural Rebellion hath insued and to the further danger of this Realm for hereafter very like to be renewed if the ungodly and wicked attempts in that behalf be not by severity of Laws restrained and bridled Cap. 2. The 27th of the same Queen lays no stress upon Religion but only on the security of the State altho it was the first Act that prohibited Jesuits Priests to come over and stay here under penalty of Treason without whose Offices the Roman Catholics could no ways exercise their Religion The grounds in that Act are expressed That of late Jesuits Priests c. have come and been sent into the Realm c. of purpose not only to withdraw her Highness Subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Rebellion and open Hostility within the same c. Cap. 2. The Act of the 35º of that Queen expresseth that For the better discovery and avoiding of such traiterous and most dangerous conspiracies and attempts as are daily devised and practised against the Queen by sundry wicked and seditious persons who terming themselves Catholics and being indeed Spies and Intelligencers c. hiding their Detestable and Devilish Purposes under a false pretext of Religion and Conscience c. Cap. 4. In the Act of the first of King James the first the grounds are For the better and more due execution of the Statutes heretofore made against Jesuits Seminary Priests and other such like Priests as also against all manner of Recusants be it ordained c. The third of the same King expresseth the Reasons thus For as much as it is found by daily experience that many his Majesties Subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence by the wicked and devilish counsels of Jesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are sō far perverted in their Loyalties and due Allegiance unto the Kings Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any treasonable conspiracies and practices as evidently appears by that more than barbarous and horrible attempt to have blown up with Gun-powder the King c. Having thus given a short draught of the severe Laws against Roman Catholics and the Reasons and Grounds of them It is obvious that those for the Supremacy were enacted principally to exclude the Popes Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical which opposed King Henry the Eighth's Divorce and the Reformation of the Religion begun So that a Subject in point of Conscience and mere Matter of Faith that could not be induced to believe a King and Prince capable of being Head of the Church but shall be invincibly perswaded how erronious soever that the Pope is St. Peter's Successor and Christs unquestioned Vicar upon Earth and cannot without hazard of his Soul consent to acknowledge otherwise yet not
doubtful whether the Kings dispensing Power will be allowed or not I say if there were no other Reasons the King hath from hence sufficient cause to insist earnestly upon the repealing these Laws and the Test and it is probable almost to a demonstration that if this had been frankly granted it would have satisfied the King and have composed the minds of Roman Catholics who being placed in a condition of safety would have continued that esteem they had for the Church of England ever since the late Civil Wars when they were the only fellow-sufferers SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test HAving premised this I come to treat of the Inconveniencies the denial of the repeal of these Laws brings with it viz. First That it raiseth in his Majesties Royal Breast a prejudice against our Church and Religion and the effects of the unkindness it may beget appears to me of a much more dangerous consequence than the taking off the sanguinary and penal Laws can produce so that in stead of acting for the preservation of our Religion we expose it to more imminent and apparent danger and inconsiderately run upon the Rock we would avoid since such unaccountable obstinacy hath not only in all probability occasioned the enquiry into the Kings Power in dispensing with the penal Laws the displacing of Ministers of State and Officers in the Army and Commissionating a greater number of Catholics than otherwise would have been admitted the taking Catholic Lords into the Council and granting the Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs but may oblige the King to make still greater Changes amongst his Officers Ministers and Judges than otherwise he intends All those holding their places only during his Royal Pleasure so that without violating any Law he may at one stroke remove most Protestant Officers from the Administration of Affairs of State under him And we know not what Changes and Alterations this wayward and unseasonable stiffness may induce his Majesty to make in the external Government and Polity of the Church by the Power of his Supremacy and Prerogatives And surely the extruding of Protestants from Power and Authority either in Church or State under the King is likely to be a vaster prejudice to our Religion than the repealing the Test can be Let us therefore think how much we are bound even in Christian prudence for the sake of our Religion not to provoke the King to withdraw his Indulgence to us in the Exercise of that Religion which he graciously offers to protect and which Grace we ought not to requite by urging the keeping up those severities against those of his Religion which most Protestants would decline to execute if they could and which we cannot if we would until we first renounce obedience to Gods Command and Submission to our Sovereign by refusing if not overthrowing his Sacred Authority and Power Whereas we are tyed by our Principles and Religion not to resist it being a chief and Essential Position and Doctrine of the Church of England to render Active and when we cannot do that Passive Obedience to our Sovereign and what ever we suffer it will not excuse us from the Guilt and Crime of indamaging and indangering our Religion by this unnecessary giving occasion to it when we might have saved not only our Reputations of being most dutiful Subjects but won so far upon the heart of our Royal Master that it would have been in the power of none to have estranged his Affections from us The Spirit of moderation becometh Christians and Calmness and Discretion becometh Subjects in all dealing with their Sovereign and we may be assured that the greater invitation we give our King by these Virtues the greater assurances we have of his Protection of our Religion and the preservation of the present Peace and Tranquility which we enjoy Let us not therefore by denying what we cannot hinder lose the greatest Blessings and Happinesses we may retain that King and People may live in that happy and good understanding which may continue and Crown the sweetness and easiness of his Royal Government over us and of our Tranquility Prosperity and Happiness under his Shadow The second Inconvenience Secondly Till these Laws be taken off it will continue those most dangerous of Evils that can befal the King and People when there is no good correspondence betwixt the King and the two Houses of Parliament On the Kings part first we may call to mind the miserable times of King John and King Henry the third and those more fresh and never to be forgot under King Charles the First Secondly However prudent and wise a Prince may be yet the watchful envy or designs of some Neighbour Potent Prince or State may necessitate our King to defend his Merchants or Plantations to succour his Allies or to secure his People from Damage or Hostilities whereby he may be forced to have recourse to his Parliament for Aid which while a good correspondence is wanting may render them slow to grant or upon unequal Conditions Thirdly This will give an opportunity to all sorts of Male-Contents and Enemies to the Monarchy to bestir themselves to embroil and ferment the People into some dangerous Defection Sedition or Rebellion On the Peoples side the mischiefs that will befall us by this want of a good understanding betwixt the King and his two Houses will be first that since our King by a mature Age and a great Experience of all affairs relating to Arms and Government is fitted and enabled more than most of his Royal Predecessors to aggrandize himself and give renown to his Subjects by buoying up whatever hath been sunk in the reputation of the World And is able to increase the Traffick of his people and inlarge their Commerce and his Empire and make as great a Figure in the World as any Crowned Head. All the Blessing we and our Neighbours might expect from so qualified a Prince will be utterly lost so that in stead of transporting his Cares Counsels and Arms into foreign parts he shall be necessitated to confine them within the Circle of his own Dominions only to keep them from Sedition or any worse mischief So that the hopeful opportunities which the World knows our King might have to hold again the Ballance of Europe and make us as flourishing a people as ever will be totally lost To the great satisfaction no doubt of some of his Neighbours and the general and irreparable loss to us and our Posterity who with sad reflections may lament the occasion of this dispute Secondly Such a want of good Correspondence betwixt the King and his two Houses will hinder us from obtaining such advantageous Laws for the benefit of the Subjects as this Remora being removed might rationally be expected among which most probably one or more might be a Corroboration of the Kings Gracious Promise of protecting the Church of England and whatever else