AN ANSWER To a PAPER importing a PETITION OF THE Archbishop of CANTERBURY AND Six other BISHOPS TO His Majesty Touching their not Distributing and Publishing THE LATE DECLARATION FOR Liberty of Conscience Vide utrum Tunica filii tui sit an non Quam cum cognovisset pater ait Tunica filii mei est fera pessima comedit eum Gen. xxxvii Ver. 32 33. With Allowance London Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Friers 1688. AN ANSWER TO A Paper importing a Petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Six other Bishops to His Majesty c. NOT to amuse my Reader with any Reasons or Excuse for this Undertaking let this suffice for both That several Copies of this Paper instead of distributing His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience having been privately dispers'd thro' most Counties of England I thought it every man's Duty and among the rest mine to undeceive them who have not the same Brains but more Honesty and Loyalty than those that sent it and bestow some Ink upon the Tetter that it spread no further In order to which and that every man may at once see the Whole before him and thereby come to the truer Conclusion I shall take my Rise from the Occasion of this Paper and thence proceed to the Matter of it Now the Occasion was thus His Majesty finding it had been the frequent endeavors of the four last Reigns to reduce this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion and how little the Success had answer'd the Design but rather destroy'd Trade depopulated the Country and discourag'd Strangers and being resolv'd to establish His Government on such a Foundation as might make His Subjects happy and unite them to Him by Inclination as well as Duty on the 4th of April 1687. issued His most Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience thereby declaring 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 and full Enjoyment of their Possessions and Properties as now Established by Law without any Molestation c. That all Execution of Penal Laws for matters Ecclesiastical as Nonconformity c. shall be and are thereby suspended That all His Subjects have leave to Meet and Worship God in their own way without disturbance And forasmuch as the benefit of the Service of His Subjects is by the Law of Nature inseparably annex'd to and inherent in His Royal Person and that no one for the future may be under any Discouragement or Disability by reason of some Oaths or Tests usually administred That no such Oaths or Tests shall be hereafter required of them And that He would dispense with them c. And because several Endeavors had been made to abuse the easiness of the People as if He might be persuaded out of what He had so solemnly declared His Majesty as well to stop the mouth of Gainsayers as to shew his Intentions were not changed since the said 4th of April by a second Declaration of the 27th of April last past enforces and confirms the said former Declaration conjures His loving Subjects to lay aside all private Animosities and groundless Jealousies and to choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to finish what he has begun for the Advantage of the Monarchy over which God hath plac'd Him as being resolv'd to call a Parliament that shall meet in November next at furthest This Declaration was forthwith printed and by Order of Council required to be distributed published and read in the respective Churches thro' the Kingdom And in that it was not enjoyn'd to be read in any the Congregations thereby permitted what greater Evidence can there be of His Majesty's real Intentions to the Church of England when however He suffer'd others He own'd not yet any Establish'd National Church but the Church of England Upon this the ensuing Paper was on the 18th of May following between the hours of Nine and Ten at night presented to His Majesty by the Six Bishops the Subscribers To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and of divers of the Suffragan Bishops of the Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Dioceses Humbly sheweth THat their great Averseness they find in themselves to the Distribution and Publication in all their Churches of your Majesties late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceedeth neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and constant Practices unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honor been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Majesty nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters In relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be Consider'd and Setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because the Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declar'd Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the Years 1662 1672 and in the beginning of your Majesties Reign and is a Matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that your Petitioners cannot in Prudence 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 your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be Graciously pleas'd not to insist upon the Distribution and Reading your Majesties Declaration Canterbury St. Asaph Bath and Wells Chichester Peterborough Ely. Bristol And here also for Methods sake and before I come to the Matter of it I hold it requisite that I speak somewhat to the Persons the Subscribers and the Time of their Presenting it As to the First the Holy Scripture styles Bishops The Angels of their Churches And by the Common Law of England the Archibishop of Canterbury is Primus Par Angl. The Bishops Lords Ecclesiastical Secular and Sit in Parliament Jure Episcopatus which they hold per Baroniam The Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm That of Queen Elizabeth One of the greatest States of the Realm They have Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Causes and are not bound to obey any Mandate but the King's And by reason of all this presum'd to have a more than ordinary Influence upon the People Our Saviour calls his Disciples The Salt and Light of the World. And why But that they should season others with their Doctrin and
time that he could not do it for it was to be read the Day after And what can be rationally interpreted from it but that they had been all that while numbring the People to see whither the Party were strong enough And I am the rather inclin'd to it for that since the time of the first Declaration the Doctrin of Non-Resistance has not been so much in Vogue as it was formerly it would keep cold for another time and to have pressed it now who knows but the People might have believ'd it In short Nathan Zadoc c. had some pretence for opposing Adoniah Me thy Servant and Zadoc the Priest he hath not called So Core Dathan and Abiram were Ecclesiastical Princes and thought they might have as much right to Govern as Moses But when the Church of England founded on the Law of England acknowledges the King Supreme in all Causes Themselves infra aetatem in custodia Domini Regis when the King by his Declaration has secur'd them in their Religion Possessons and Properties and by vertue of his Royal Prerogative and for the Quiet of the Nation only indulg'd it to others yet making no doubt of the Parliaments concurrence in it is it just that Their Eye be evil because the King 's is good or must the Kingdom of Heaven be confin'd to a Party I never heard that Disobedience was any Qualification for it and therefore if they will not enter themselves why do they shut it against others that would enter But perhaps the Petition if yet there can be any reason for the breach of a Duty may give us the reason of it The Title says In behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Dioceses Which makes good what I before hinted that instead of Distributing and Publishing His Majesty's Declaration to be read in their respective Dioceses as in bounden Duty to their Supreme Ordinary the King they ought to have done and the Clergy in respect of their Canonical Obedience to them must have obey'd under the pain of Suspension and in case of Contumacy of Deprivation they had been feeling the Pulse of their Clergy and finding little return from them but speak Lord for thy Servant heareth they concluded the Flock would follow the Shepherd and consequently if the Party were not strong enough the Multitude of the Offenders might make it dispunishable whereas it has been seen that a Ferry-boat's taking in too many Passengers to increase the Fare has been often the occasion of sinking all together And if the Loyalty of the Church of England receive any blemish by it what can she say but that she was wounded in the House of her Friends For by the same Reason that a Metropolitan refuses the Injunctions of his Supreme Ordinary the King by the same Reason may a Diocesan refuse his Metropolitan and every inferior Clergy man his Diocesan and when the Chain is once broken you may dispose the Links as you please But the Petition says It was neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to His Majesty No Then why was it not comply'd with Shew me thy Faith by thy Works saith St. James nor will it be possible to clear that Son of Disobedience that said I go but went not A Bishop as before is not bound to obey any Mandate but the King 's which Exception proves the Rule and that he is inexcusably oblig'd to obey the King's For all Bishops are subject to the Imperial Power who is to be obey'd against the will of the Bishop Mauritius the Emperor says Bishop Taylor commanded St. Gregory to hand an unlawful Edict to the Churches the Bishop advis'd the Prince that what he went about was a sin did what he could to have hinder'd it and yet obey'd It was the Case of Saul and Samuel The King desires Samuel to joyn with him in the Service of the Lord He with the liberty of a Prophet refus'd at first but afterwards joyn'd with him Whereupon the said Bishop in the same place further says That even the Vnlawful Edicts of a Lawful Prince may be published by the Clergy How much more then those that are Lawful And that this Declaration is such I shall shew presently when I come to speak to their word Illegal In short the Archbishop of Canterbury is Ordinary of the Court and a Bishop's private Opinion may be warrant enough for him to speak when he is requir'd but not to reprove a Prince upon pretence of Duty Our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and constant Practises unquestionably Loyal Nor have they hitherto appear'd other and if not Religion moral Gratitude must have oblig'd them to it All the Bishoprics of England but Sodor in Man which was instituted by Pope Gregory the Fourth are of the Foundation of the Kings of England and those in Wales of the Prince of Wales Nor is it less than reason that they look up to the hand that fed them Or to whom more justly ought they have paid the Tribute of Obedience than to Him that took them from the Flock and sate them among Princes In a word the late War was Bellum Episcopale and if King Charles the First would have confirm'd the Sale of Church Lands he had sav'd Himself And why then do they reproach the King His Son with their Loyalty when they instance the contrary in so small a trial of that Obedience especially when were the matter doubtful the Presumption were for Obedience and even unjust Commands may be justly obey'd For as we fear the thing is unjust so have we reason to fear the evil of Disobedience for we are sure that is evil and therefore we are to change the Speculative Doubt into a Practical Resolution and of two Doubts take the surest part and that is to obey because in such Cases Reumfacit Superiorem iniquitas Imperandi innocentem Subditum ordo serviendi The Evil if there be any is imputed to him that Commands not him that Obeys who is not his Prince's Judge but Servant and they that are under Authority are to Obey not Dispute nor shall any thing done by vertue thereof be said to be contra pacem David commanded Joab to put Vriah in the Head of the Battle to the end that he might fall by the Enemy Joab obeys Vriah is kill'd and yet not Joab who might have prevented it but David who commanded it is charg'd with the Murther In a word to pretend Loyalty for a common Principle and yet make Disputing and Disobedience the Practice of it what is it but a drawing near with the Mouth when the Heart is farthest from it The Voice perhaps may be the Voice of Jacob but the Hands are the Hands of Esau And having to her great Honor been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Majesty And do's his Majesty less than acknowledge it in
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
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
guide them by their Example into the way of Peace His Name is The Prince of Peace His Sermon on the Mount was The Gospel of Peace The Blessings in it are to The Poor in Spirit The Meek The Merciful The Peace-makers c. His Life was one continued Practise of it And his last Legacy to his Disciples was Peace He gave to Caesar the things that were Caesars and that Tribute which yet was the product of an Absolute Power he not only paid it without disputing the Authority but commanded it to others And tho' the Imperial Power after his Death was of the same Absoluteness yet St. Paul says not the Senate had declar'd it Illegal but calls it The Ordinance of God and enjoyns Subjection to it What the Apostles in their time were the same ever and now challenge the Governors of all Churches next and under Kings they are in the stead of God to the People and where they make a false Step what wonder if the unthinking People forget the Precept and take after the Example They see nothing but sub imagine lusca by twilight and conceive according to the colour of those Rods are cast before them They hear a noise but know not whence it cometh or whether it goeth and run away the Cry without so much as laying a Nose to the Ground for 't What made the People set up Adoniah against David's disposition of the Crown to Solomon Abiathar the High Priest was in the Head of them What made the Nobles break the Yoak The Prophets had Prophesi'd falsly the Priests applauded it with their Hands and a foolish People lov'd to have it so Or what made the Jews who had so often acknowledg'd our Savior turn head against him and crucifie him The Chief Priests the Scribes and Elders had possess'd the People that the Romans would come and take away their City Thus we see what Influence Great Men have upon the heedless Multitude and therefore how wary ought they to be how they give them the least Example of Disobedience for it is seldom seen but where the one Disputes the other Cavils and where their Leaders make but a Shrug at the Government the People think it high time to be Mending it Our own Histories are as one Example of it or if they run narrow Tacitus may be believ'd of his Erant in Officio qui mallent mandata Imperantium interpretari quam exequi There were saith he some in Power that were more for Commenting than Executing the Emperor's Directions Nor are Disputes or Excuses of less danger for it is a kind of shaking off the Yoke and an Essay of Disobedience especially if in those Disputings they which are for the Direction speak fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it audaciously And if by such means a Fire break out in the State 't will want no Fuel when 't is kindled from the Altar And for the Time of their Presenting it I shall consider it as it may respect the present Circumstances of the Kingdom or that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses As to the former the glut of Reformers in Edward the Sixth's time was great and the Qualifications so indifferent that the Church of England has ever since labor'd under it and the same Elements that compounded her half destroy'd her For as the Laws not the Doctrin brought them first together they no sooner found themselves streightned in the One than they made it up with the Other and Themselves somewhat in the Broils that were otherwise nothing in the Peace of the State. These Humors during Her and King James's Reign lay fermenting in the Body but in his Son 's broke out into a Pestilence The Crown sell the Church follow'd it and the most diligent Enquirer might have sought England in her self yet miss'd her till at last it pleas'd Him whose only it is to still the raging of the Sea to say to the Madness of the People Huc usque nee ultra His late Majesty King Charles the Second was Restor'd and so little averse were the Catholic Lords to the Church of England that their Votes which otherwise might have kept them out brought them once more into the House of Peers nor were they scarce warm in their Seats before the Act of Uniformity was pass'd and driven with that Violence that it had like to have overturn'd all agen The Dissenters were not fit for Employ they had Mony in their Purses and the World was wide enough The Catholic Lords were less to be trusted they cumber'd the Ground and 't was but fit they were down There remain'd nothing but to cast out the Heir and then the Inheritance would be the easier divided And here also it pleas'd God to appear in the Mount He pluck'd him out of the deep Waters and set him on the Throne of his Ancestors And as he came to the Crown thro' the greatest of Difficulties he has been preserv'd in it by no less a Providence He stifl'd two Serpents in the Cradle of his Empire and in a three-years Government conquer'd all Example in His own And now when our troubl'd Waters had begun to settle again what need of whistling up the Winds for another Storm When the Wounds of the Kingdom were almost clos'd what Charity was it to unbind them too soon or under pretence of easing the Patient to set them bleeding afresh In a word when the Brands of our late Rebellions lay smother'd in their almost forgotten Embers what prudence was it to rake them into another Flame I see little of the Dove in it and am loth to say too much of the Serpent And for that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses it seems here also that the Spirit of Direction like Baal in the Kings was some way or other out of the way The Declaration was no new thing it had been published the 4th of April 1687 and his Majesty had receiv'd the general Acknowledgments of the Kingdom for it which argu'd their Satisfaction in it The Corn was in the Ground and now if ever was the time to sow Tares and therefore to prevent their choaking it His Majesty the 27th of April 1688 which was one full year and three weeks after enforces his first Declaration and commands it to be read in all Churches within Ten miles of London on the 20th and 27th of May and in all other the Churches thro' the Country on the 3d and 10th of June following time enough one would think to have consider'd the Matter so as to have given the King some time to have advis'd Whereas on the contrary they make no scruple of it till the 18th of May about 10 at Night and then the 19th being a Day appointed for Hunting they present the Paper before mention'd as well knowing that if his Majesty had an Inclination of Countermanding his Declaration he was so straitned in
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