serve at her Altar unless perhaps they coin a Distinction to Salve it And that the Church may be of one Opinion and the Church-men of another And then in Conscience their Obligation was higher for besides what I said before that the People are apter to follow Example than Precept every Man and even their Lordships with the rest is Party and privy to an Act of Parliament and bound in Conscience to the observance of it Nor is there either Bishop or Clergy-man in the Church of England who has not subscrib'd to the lawfulness of this Declaration's being read in the Church during the time of Divine Service As thus Every Clergy-man at the time of his Institution subscribes in a a Book kept for that purpose That the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm And that the Book of Common-Prayer containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God. Now the Book of Common-Prayer as it is now used in and thro' the Church of England is Enacted by Authority of Parliament to be read in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the said Book And the Rubrick i. e. the Order and Form how those Prayers shall be read is to all intents and purposes as much Enacted as the Book its self And in that Rubrick next after the Nicene Creed in the Communion Service follow these words Then shall the Curate declare â—nto the People what Holy-days or Fasting-days are in the Week following to be observed c. And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church during the time of Divine Service but by the Minister Nor by him anything but what is prescribed by the Rules of this Book Or enjoyned by the King or by the Ordinary of the Place Now when all Clergy-men have subscribed That the Book of Common-Prayer containeth nothing in it contrary to the Word of God and that the King has enjoyned That his Declaration be read in all Churches during the time of Divine Service these Subscriptions of theirs besides the Authority of King and Parliament conclude themselves from offering any thing against the Lawfulness of reading it as it had been enjoyn'd to them and the Rubrick requir'd of them And being so what Excuse can there be why they did not read it Or suppose that Clause Or enjoyned by the King had not been in the Rubrick as it was first inserted in this Act of Uniformity and every Man that was of the Convocation of 1661 knows by whom were none of the King's Declarations ever read in Churches and that during the time of Divine Service before that time I think there were and amongst many others that of the Declaration for Sports for one Or that the Ordinary of the Place had enjoyn'd the contrary ought not the King the Supreme Ordinary and as their Subscriptions farther acknowledge The Supreme Governor of this Realm under God to have been first obey'd I think he ought for the Authority of the Greater Supersedes the Lesser nor is there any Power in his Dominions but what is deriv'd from him And whatever Station the King has given them in the Church it is not to be presum'd he thereby lock'd out himself Nor must a Remark of the said Bishop of Chester in his Sermon before mention'd be forgotten here The Jews saith he say That the Keys of the Temple were not hung at the High Priest's Girdle but laid every night under Solomon ' s Pillow as belonging to his Charge The Moral of it holds true for when a Prince shall have little Authority in the Church it is not to be expected he should have much better in the State. And Lastly for their Lordships so far making themselves Parties to it as the Distribution and Reading of it c. must amount to in common and reasonable Construction A Clergy-man's meerly Reading the Common Prayer in his Church is no giving his Assent to it unless after his so Reading it he shall publickly and openly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the said Book Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer c. which necessarily implies that neither the Distributing nor Reading it c. can in common and reasonable Construction amount to the making the Publisher or Reader of it a Party to it The Apostle says Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And upon this the Bishop of Hereford grounds his Judgment for the Reading this Declaration The King saith he expresly commanding it to be read in all Churches without requiring him that reads it to declare either his Consent Assent Allowing or Liking it I would gladly know how this is contrary to the Word of God Shew it me Or if as it is said this Dispensing Power be contrary to the Laws of the Land as is declared in the Parliament 1662 and 1672 is it contrary to the Law of God Shew it me pag. 5 6. Or that to read any thing in the House of God is declaring my Consent to it pag. 8. No certainly pag. 9. for in the reading this Declaration there is no Doctrin taught only matter of Fact declared and perchance to try my Obedience pag. 10. And done out of pure Obedience to my King upon God's Command and to so good an End as the preserving Truth and Peace among us Which if we lose on this Occasion they will have much to answer for who are the Authors of it pag. 13. Besides whom there are several other Bishops of the Church of England who have obey'd his Majesty's Commands in it albeit they may not have so publickly declar'd it And having said so much to the Matter of the Paper I think I may well pass the Prayer of it That his Majesty will be Graciously pleas'd not to insist upon the Distribution and Reading that Declaration And therefore upon the whole If this Declaration had not been thought fit to have been distributed as enjoyn'd less ought the said Paper to have been dispersed privately and by such previous disposition stoll'n the Form of the Design into the Matter it was to work on And considering the Evils we had pass'd and that the Kingdom wanted a Lenitive not a Corrosive least of all ought The People on the wall to have been har'd with new Jealousies The People I say who need more a Ballance than a Fly somewhat to moderate not multiply their Motion In short Trust is the Sinew of Society which is the right Object of true Policy and Distrust a disbanding of it The King as he has more than once acknowledg'd the Church of England ' s Loyalty has as often declar'd that He will Protect and Maintain His Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of the Church of England in the free Exercise of their Religion as by Law Established And in the quiet and full Enjoyment of all their Possessions without any Molestation or Disturbance whatsoever The King has said it and shall he not perform it He has pledg'd his Royal Word and shall we doubt the Truth of it It is not with God that he should lye nor with his Vicegerent that he should be chang'd And therefore let us as his Majesty by this his Declaration Conjures us lay aside all private Animosities and groundless Jealousies Let us Fear God and Honor the King and not discover the falsness of our own Hearts by distrusting our Prince's In a word Let every Man in his Station contribute his Mite to the Peace and Greatness of his Country Let him shew his Love to God in his Obedience to his Prince And let no Man by setting up Conscience against Duty run the hazard of dashing the First Table against the Second FINIS 4 Inst 5. Idem 362. 25 E. 3. c. 24. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1. Inst 134. Lord Bacon's Essay of Subjection Glan l. 7. c. 1. Tract l. 5. 427. Ductor dub fol. 606. Heylin's Life of A. B. Laud. 209. Id. Ductor Dub. 608. 4 Inst 285. 1 Inst 94 97. Id. Duct Dub. f. 136 531. 9 Coke 68. 10 Coke 70. 22 E. 3. 3. Stan. Pl. Cor. 162. 1 Inst 97. Epist 12. 4 Inst 11. Crook Jac. 37. Moore 755. 4 Inst 322. 25 H. 8. c. 19. Serj. Rolle's Abridg. 2 part Ti ' Prerog 180. Id. Tit. Prerog Trin. 2. Jac. 2. in B. R. His Coronation Sermon pag. 27. His Sermon on that occasion p. 13 14. Ecclesiastical Canons 16â—â— Art. 36. Pag. 15. Vid. Act of Uniformity before every Common-Prayer-Book Par. 3 4. His late Discourse on this occasion
deriv'd from the People but the ancient Right of the Crown innate in the King and unalterable by them And that this has been the ancient Judgment of the Judges from time to time I shall meet with the occasion of shewing it in the next Paragraph And is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State. And so indubitably is it that nothing can be more For the best of Laws being but good Intentions if a Prince should be ty'd up to such unalterable Decrees as in no case whatever he might vary from them it might so happen that what at one time was intended for the Good of Church and State may at another prove the Destruction of both if not as timely prevented The present Case is a pregnant Instance of it One would have thought that the frequent Endeavors of the four last Reigns for the reducing this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion might have answerd the Design but if His Majesty in his Declaration had not told us His thoughts of it our own Experience might have taught us the Effects thereof have in a manner brought the Kingdom to nothing And what should the King have done in this Case sate still and expected a Miracle or interpos'd his Royal Authority for the saving it The Question answers it self And if the Power of Dispensing with Penal Laws were not inseparably and unalterably in Him how could he have done it What elder Parliaments have declar'd in it I have already shewn and that the Judges successively have gone with it is or may be obvious to every man. Such was the Resolution of all the Justices in the Exchequer-Chamber 2 R. 3. 12. And that the King might grant License against a Penal Statute And what is that but a dispensing with it In like manner by all the Justices in the same place 2 H. 7. 6. That the King may grant a Non obstante to a Penal Statute tho' the Statute say such Non obstante shall be meerly void and such was the Case there The 13 H. 7. 8. to the same purpose Allow'd for good Law. Plowd Com. 502. Confirm'd by Sir Edward Coke 7 Coke 36. and 12 Coke 18 19. And lastly by a Judgment in His now Majesty's Reign of which before And if so necessary a part of the Government so solemnly determin'd by Parliaments and Judges is fit to be slighted or not obey'd which amounts to the same I leave it to every man. That Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honor and Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and reading it even in God's House and in the time of His Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction And on the other hand I conceive that both in Prudence Honor and Conscience they were highly oblig'd to it For what is Prudence but the active Faculty of the Mind directing Actions morally good to their immediate Ends That this Declaration is morally good appears by the purport of it and that is His Majesty's desire of Establishing His Government on such a Foundation as may make His Subjects happy and unite them to Him by Inclination as well as Duty And what greater Prudence could there have been than by their Lordships distributing that Declaration as enjoyn'd to them and by their Pastoral Authority requiring it to be read in all Churches c. to have directed it to its immediate Ends which were the Establishing the Government and making the Subjects happy Or if Wisdom must come in for a share the Offices of That are Election and Ordination the choice of right means for and ordering them aright to their End. The right means of quieting the Nation was before them and I think it no question whether their Lordship 's not distributing it has order'd it aright to the end The King had enjoyn'd it to be publish'd and Wisdom in this Case like Scripture is not of private Interpretation but lies in Him that has the Power of commanding not in him whom Conscience binds to obey In a word if Obedience in Subjects is the Prince's Strength and their own Security what Prudence or Wisdom could it be by weakning the Power of Commanding to lessen their own Security Then for Honor and Conscience tho' in this place they seem to mean the same thing and may be both resolv'd into Nil conscire sibi yet I 'll take them severally And how stands it with the Honor of the Church of England both in Principles and constant Practises unquestionably Loyal and to her great Honor more than once so acknowledg'd by His Majesty to start aside in this Day of her trial Both the last Armagh's Usher and Bramhal Bishop Sanderson Bishop Morley c. have all along by their Doctrin and Practices beat down that other of Resisting Princes in that the Church of England held no such Custom nor have the most eminent of her Clergy Dr. Sherlock Dr. Scott and others until this last uncomplying Compliance taken any other Measures And ought not their Practise now to have made good their Principles Or that Advice of the present Bishop of Ely to the Church of England to have been consider'd and follow'd Let her be thankful saith he to God for the Blessings she hath and unto the King under whom they will be continu'd to her And take heed of overturning or undermining the Fabrick because she cannot have the Room that she would choose in it And what greater Assay to it can there be than Disobedience inasmuch as he that thinks his Prince ought not to be obey'd will from one thing to another come at last to think him not fit to be King. Nor must the Anniversary of the now Bishop of Chester be past in silence Tho' the King saith he should not please or humor us tho' he rend off the Mantle from our Bodies as Saul did from Samuel nay tho' he should Sentence us to death of which blessed be God and the King there is no danger yet if we are living Members of the Church of England we must neither open our Mouths or lift our Hands against him but honor him before the Elders and People of Israel And having instanc'd in the Examples of The Prophets our Saviour his Disciples and Christian Bishops under Heathen Persecutors and demanded whether ever the Sanhedrim question'd their Kings Nor must we saith he ask our Prince why he Governs us otherwise than we please to be Govern'd our selves We must neither call him to account for his Religion nor question his Policy in Civil Matters for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only Declarative In a word this and the like has been the Doctrin of the Church of England and when on that ground his Majesty has more than once acknowledg'd her Loyalty who in Honor more oblig'd to make it good than those that
this Declaration He has in the Word of a King secur'd to them their Religion Possessions and Properties And why but to assure them He repented not the Character And it was their Interest if not Duty to keep it up nay the Honor of their Church depended on it inasmuch as Men value things according to the present Good or Evil they do in the World and what Advantage can that Religion give us to another Life when it shall be found mischievous or destructive to this They have I said the Word of a King for their Security but if they force him in his own defence to secure against it whom can they blame but themselves who first made the Challenge Abiathar's Service to David was acknowledg'd by Solomon but when he once began to boggle he forgave but remov'd him And our Bishop Bonner tho' he got his Bishoprick by thwarting the Pope yet he lost it agen by opposing the King. In a word The Holy Spirit in the Apocalyps acknowledges the good works of the Seven Churches of Asia but bids some of them remember whence they had fall'n and repent and do the first works or he would remove their Candlestick Nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters No Why then have those Penal Laws been executed with so much rigor against them Or why are they so averse from having them eas'd at present What brought them into this Kingdom I have touch'd before and what turn'd them out again and our Trade with them is demonstrable enough in the late Protestants of France I will not say but they might have been kept out at first but being settl'd and embodied into a People it may seem ill Policy to remove any Greater Number to gratifie a Lesser It is not the Nobility or the Gentry that are the Traders nor is it the Gown that enriches more than particular persons but the Trade of the Merchant and the Industry of the Middle sort that enriches a Nation and without which Vena porta let a Kingdom have never so good Limbs it will have but empty Veins It was Trade gave England its first Credit abroad and the Manufacture at home found mater to it the One drein'd other Kingdoms to water our own and the Other brought a Ballance to it in making the Export come up to the Import and both together secur'd the Dominion of the Sea and made the Wealth of either Indie a kind of Accessary to it and all this carry'd on by the Middle-sort of People Take our Sea-Ports and the Sea-Man is but here and there a true Church-of England man The Merchant that employs him not much better at Heart The Artisan thro' the Kingdom has more than a Spice of the Disease and the Body of the People not least infected with it However let them be quiet within themselves and they dispute no Authority but when they are uneasie and mew'd up at home what wonder if they change it for a freer Air What makes us complain of the want of Trade That our Neighbors have gotten into our Manufacture That our Ships are not so well Mann'd as formerly And the Rents of Lands fallen The Reason is obvious Our selves have cut off our own Hands The Merchant sits down with what he has or turns Builder The Work-man carries his Art with him The Sea-man will have his Opinion as well as his Pay And the Lump of the People their Consciences or Good-night Landlord Whereas since his Majesties late Indulgence Trade is visibly encreased Building stops of it self the Kingdom begins to People agen and the numerous Addresses on this occasion speak so general a Satisfaction that if such be the Dawn what may there not be expected from its full Day And is there no Equity that the Catholic also come in for a share tho' the word Dissenter seems not in proper Speech to comprehend him for neither the Law of England or themselves ever knew him by that Name However that some tenderness might be due to them may be gather'd from the English Litany The Church of England knows the King professes the Faith of Rome And therefore when they beseech God That it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshiping of thee in righteousness and holiness of Life they Servant James our most gracious King and Governor what do they mean by it if after the way which some of them call Idolatry so worships he the God of his Fathers and they beseech God to keep and strengthen him in the true worshiping of him they imply that Worship to be a true Worship and if they do not believe it and yet use the words how will they avoid a Sin for whatever is not of Faith is Sin. In a word The King has made a General Indulgence to all his Subjects The Catholics fall under no particular Exception in it And therefore the Law of Reason as well as the Law of the Land gives them the benefit of it In relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be Consider'd and Setled in Parliament and Convocation What the Temper hitherto has been is but too sensible already and what it is like to be for the future may be guess'd by what 's past The King who by the Law of England is Supremus in Ecclesiasticis has Thought fit Consider'd and Setled the Matter and were a Parliament now Sitting the King is sole Judge all the rest but Advisers The Royal Prerogative is a part of that Law of the Land and by that Authority the King has Setled it and therefore it becomes no Man to be wiser than the Law. Nor is the Advice of Ignatius to his Clergy forreign to it Nolite Principes irritare ut acerbentur ne ansam detis iis qui illam contra vos quaerunt Provoke not Princes saith he to become bitter lest ye hand an Occasion to those that seek one against ye But supposing it a matter only cognisable in Parliament why could not they have held till then and in the mean time obey'd especially when the King had by the same Declaration declar'd his Resolution of calling a Parliament in November next at farthest and our Law says Extra Parliamentum nulla petitio est grata licet necessaria No Petition how necessary soever is grateful out of Parliament Or how then could the Convocation be concern'd in it for besides that the Matter is meerly Political and singly respects the Quiet of the Kingdom if the King who is Supreme Ordinary of all England may by the ancient Laws of this Realm and without Parliament make Ordinances and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and deprive them for Non-obedience thereunto as has been more than once resolv'd He may what have the Convocation to be consulted in it Especially when they have so often in Henry the Third Edward the Second and Edward the