pressure laid upon them but to be made uncapable of Office Court or Armes and to pay so much as might bring them at least to a ballance with the Protestants for those chargable Offices they are lyable unto and concluded with this that he desired me seriously to weigh wheâ—her Liberty and Propriety were likely to be maintained long in a Countrey like Ours where Trade is so absolutely necessary to the very being as well as prosperity of it and in this Age of the World if Articles of Faith and Matters of Religion should become the only accessible ways to our Civil Rights Thus Sir You have perhaps a better account of the Declaration then you can receive from any other hand and I could have wisht it a longer continuance and better Reception then it had for the Bishops took so great Offence at it that they gave the Alarum of Popery through the whole Nation and by their Emissaries the Clergy who by the Connexture and Subordination of their Government and their being posted in every Parish have the Advantage of a quick dispersing their Orders and a sudden and universal Insinuation of whatever they please raised such a cry that those good and sober Men who had really long feared the Encrease and continuance of Popery had hitherto received began to believe the Bishops were in earnest their Eyes opened though late and therefore joyned in heartily with them so that at the next meeting of Parliament the Protestants Interest was run so high as an Act came up from the Commons to the H. of Lords in favor of the dissenting Protestants and had passed the Lords but for want of time Besides another excellent Act passed the Royal Assent for the Excluding all Papists from Office in the Opposition of which the L. Treasurer Clifford fell and yet to prevent his ruine this Sessions had the speedier End Notwithstanding the Bishops attain'd their Ends fully the Declaration being Cancelled and the great Seal being broken off from it The Parliament having passed an Act in favor of the Dissenters and yet the sense of both Houses sufficiently declared against all Indulgence but by Act of Parliament Having got this Point they used it at first with seeming Moderation there were no general Directions given for prosecuting the Non-conâ—ormists but here and there some of the most Confiding Justices were made use of to try how they could receive the Old Persecution for as yet the Zeal raised against the Papists was so great that the worthyest and soberest of the Episcopal party thought it necessary to unite with the dissenting Protestants and not to divide their Party when all their Forces were little enough In this posture the Sessions of Parliament that began Oct. 27. 1673. tound Matters which being suddenly broken up did nothing The next Sessions which began Ian 7. following the Bishops continued their Zeal against the Papists and seem'd to carry on in joyning with the Countrey Lords many excellent Voâ—es in order to a Bill as in particular That the Princes of the Blood-Royal should all Marry Protestants and many others but their favor to dissenting Protestants was gone and they attempted a Bargain with the Countrey Lords with whom they then joyned not to promote any thing of that nature except the bill for taking away Assent and Consent and renouncing the Covenant This Session was no sooner ended without doing any thing but the whole Clergy were instructed to declare that there was now no more danger of the Papists The Phanatique for so they call the dissenting Protestant is again become the only dangerous Enemy and the Bishops had found a Scoth Lord and two new Ministers or rather Great Officers of England who were desperate and rash enough to put their Masters business upon so narrow and weak a bottom and that old Covenanter Lauderdale is become the Patron of the Church and has his Coach and table fil'd with Bishops The Keeper and the Treasurer are of a just size to this affair for it is a certain rule with the Church Men to endure as seldom as they can in business Men abler then themselves But his Grace of Scotland was least to be executed of the Three for having fall'n from Presbitery Protestaant Religion and all principles of Publick good and private friendship and become the Slave of Clifford to carry on the Ruine of all that he had professed to support does now also quit even Clifford's generous Principles and betake himself to a soâ—t of Men that never forgive any Man the having once been in the right and such Men who would do the worst of things by the worst of means enslave their country and betray them under the mask of Religion which they have the publick Pay for and charge off so seething the Kid in the Mothers milk Our Statesmen and Bishops being now as well agreed as in Old Land's time on the same principles with the same passion to attain their end they in the first place give orders to the Judges in all their Circuits to quicken the Execution of the Laws against Dissenters a new Declaration is published directly contrary to the former most in words against the Papists but in the Sense and in the close did fully serve against both and in the Execution it was plain who were meant A Commission besides comes down directed to the principal Gentlemen of each country to seize the Estates of both Papists and Phanatiques mentioned in a Liâ—t annexed wherein by great misfortune or skill the Names of the Papists of best quality and fortune and so best known were mistaken and the Commission render'd ineffectual as to them Besides this the great Ministers of State did in their common publick assure the partie that all the places of Profit Command and Trust should only be given to the old Cavalier no Man that had served or been of the contrary Party should be left in any of them And a direction is issued to the Great Ministers before mentioned and Six or seven of the Bishops to meet at Lambeth-House who were like the Lords of the Articles in Scotland to prepare their compleat Modell for the ensuing Session of Parliament And now comes this memorable Session of Aprill 13. 75. then which never any came with more expectation of the Court or dread and apprehension of the People the Officers Court Lords and Bishops were clearly the major Vote in the Lords House and they assured themselves to have the Commons as much at their dispose when they reckoned the number of the Courtiers Officers Pensioners encreased by the addition of the Church and Cavalier party besides the Address they had made to Men of the best quality there by hopes of Honor great employment and such things as would take In a word the French King's Ministers who are the great Chapmen of the World did not out-doe ours at this time and yet the over ruling hand of God has blown upon their Politicks and the Nation is escaped this
without Reordination but no Protestant Minister not Episcopally ordain'd but is required to be reordain'd as much as in us lies unchurching all the forreign Protestants that have not Bishops though the contrary was both allowâ—d and practis'd from the beginning of the Reformation till the time of that Act and several Bishops made of such as were never ordain'd Priests by Bishops Moreover the Vncharitableness of it was so much against the Interest of the Crown and Church of England casting off the dependency of the whole Protestant partie abroad that it would have been bought by the Pope and French King at a vast summ of Money and it is difficult to conceive so great an advantage fell to them meerly by chance and without their help so that he thought to endeavor to alter and restore the Liturgy to what it was in Queen Elizabeths days might consist with his being a very good Protestant As to the Catachisme he really thought it might be mended and durst declare to them it was not well that there was not a better made For the Homilies he thought there might be a better Book made and the 3. Hom. of Repairing and keeping clean of Churches might be omitted What is yet stranger then all this The Canons of our Church are directly the old Popish Canons which are still in force and no other which will appear if you turn to the Stat. 25. Hen. 8. cap. 19 confirmed and received by 1. Eliz. where all those Canons are establish'd untill an alteration should be made by the King in pursuance of that Act which thing was attempted by Edward the 6th but not perfected and let alone ever since for what reasons the Lords the Bishops could best tell and it was very hard to be obliged by Oath not to endeavour to alter either the English Common-Prayer book or the Canon of the Mass. But if they meant the latter That the Protestant Religion is contein'd in all those but that every part of those is not the Protestant Religion then â—e apprehended it might be in the Bishops Power to declare ex post facto what is the Protestant Religion or not or else they must leave it to every man to judge for himself what parts of those books are or are not and then their Oath had been much better let alone Much of this nature was said by that Lord and Others and the great Officers and Bishops were so hard put to it that they seemed willing and convinced to admit of an Expedient The Lord Wharton and Old and Expert Parliament Man of eminent Piety and Abilities beside a great Friend to the Protestant Religion and Interest of England offer'd as a cure to the whole Oath and what might make it pass in all the 3 parts of it without any farther debate the addition of these words at the latter end of the Oath Viz. as the same is or shall be establish'd by Act of Parliament but this was not endured at all when the Lord Grey of Rollston a worthy and true English Lord offered another Expedient which was the addition of words by force or fraud to the beginning of the Oath and then it would run thus I do swear not to endeavor by force or fraud to alter this was also a cure that would have passed the whole Oath and seemed as if it would have carried the whole House The Duke of York and Bishop of Rochester both secondâ—ng it but the Lord Treaâ—urer who had privately before consented to it speaking against it gave the word and sign to that party and it being put to the question the major Vote answered all arguments and the L. Grey's Proposition was laid aside Having thus carried the question relying upon their strength of Votes taking advantage that those expedients that had been offered extended to the whole Oath though but one of the 3 Clauses in the Oath had been debated the other two not mentioned at all they attempted strongly at nine of the Clock at night to have the whole Oath put to the question and though it was resolutely opposed by the Lord Mohun a Lord of great courage and resolution in the Publick Interest and one whose own personal merits as well as his Fathers gave him a just title to the best favors of the Court yet they were not diverted but by as great a disorder as ever was seen in that House proceeding from the rage those unreasonable proceedings had caused in the Country Lords they standing up in a clump together and crying out with so loud a conâ—inued Voice Adjourn that when silence was obtain'd Fear did what Reason could not do cause the question to be put only upon the first Clause concerning Protestant Religion to which the Bishops desired might be added as it is now established and one of the eminentest of those were for the Bill added the words by Law so that as it was passed it ran I A. B. do swear that I will not endeavor to alter the Protestant Religion now by Law established in the Church of England And here observe the words by Law do directly take in the Canons though the Bishops had never mentioned them And now comes the consideration of the latter part of the Oath which comprehends these 2 Clauses viz. nor the Goverment either in Church or State wherein the Church came first to be considerd And it was objected by the Lords against the Bill that it was not agreeable to the King's Crown and Dignity to have His Subjects sworn to the Government of the Church equally as to Himself That for the Kings of England to swear to maintain the Church was a diffeâ—ent thing from enjoyning all His Officers and both His Houses of Parliament to swear to them It would be well understood before the Bill passed what the Government of the Church we are to swear to is and what the Boundaries of it whether it derives no Power nor Authority nor the exercise of any Power Authority or Function but from the King as head of the Church and from God as through him as all his other Officers do For no Church or Religion can justify it self to the Government but the State Religion that ownes an entire dependency on and is but a branch of it or the independent Congregations whilest they claim no other power but the exclusion of their own members from their particular Communion and endeavor not to set up a Kingdom of Christ to their own use in this World whilest our Saviour hath told us that His Kingdom is not of it for otherwise there would be Imperium in imperio and two distinct Supream Powers inconsistent with each other in the same place and over the same persons The Bishops alâ—eadged that Priesthood and the Power thereof and the Authorities belonging thereunto were derived immediately from Christ but that the license of exercising that Authority and Power in any Country is derived from the civil Magistrate To which was replied that it was a
sooner proposed but the E. of Shattsbury a Man as daring but more Able though of principles and interest Diametrically opposite to the other presently closed with it and perhaps the opportunity I have had by my conversation with them both who were Men of diversion and of free and open Discourses where they had a confidence may give you more light into both their Designs and so by consequence the aimes of their Parties then you will have from any other hand My L. Clifford did in express Terms tell me one day in private Discourse That the King if He would be firm to Himself might settle what Religion He pleased and carry the Government to what height He would for if Men were assured in the Liberty of their Conscienceâ— and undisturbed in their Properties able and upright Iudges made in Westminster-Hall to judg the Causes of Meum and Tuum and if on the Other hand the Fort of Tilbury was finished to bridle the City the Fort of Plymouth to secure the West and Armes for 2â—000 in each of these and in Hull for the Northern parts with some addition which might be easily and undiscernedly made to the Forces now on foot there were none that would have either Will Opportunity or Power to resist But he added withall he was so sincere in the maintenance of Propriety and Liberty of Conscience that if he had his Will though he should introduce a Bishop of Durham which was the Instance he then made that See being then vacant of another Religion yet he would not disturb any of the Church beside but suffer them to dye away and not let his change how hasty soever he was in it overthrow either of those principles and therefore desired he might be thought an honest Man as to his part of the Declaration for he meant it really The L. Shaftsbury with whom I had more freedom I with great assurance asked what he meant by the Declaration for it seemed to me as I then told him that it assumed a Power to repeal and suspend all our Laws to destroy the Church to overthrow the Protestant Religion and to tolerate Popery He replyed half angry That he wondered at my Objection there being not one of these in the Case For the King assumed no power of repealing Laws or suspending them contrary to the will of his Parliament or People and not to argue with me at that time the power of the King's Supremacy which was of anoâ—her nature then that he had in Civills and had been exercised without exception in this very case by His Father Grand Father and Queen Elizabeth under the Great Seal to Forreign Protestants become subjects of England nor to instance in the suspending the Execution of the two Acts of Navigation and Trade during both this and the last Dutch War in the same words and upon the same necessity and as yet without Clamour that ever we heard But to pass by all that this is certain a Government could not be supposed whether Monarchical or other of any sort without a standing Supream Executive power fully enabled to Mitigate or wholly to suspend the Execution of any penal Law in the Intervalls of the Legislative power which when assembled there was no doubt but wherever there lies a Negative in passing of a Law there the address or sense known of either of them to the contrary as for instance of either of our two Houses of Parliament in England ought to determine that Indulgence and restore the Law to its full execution For without this the Laws were to no purpose made if the Prince could annull them at pleasure and so on the other hand without a Power always in being of dispensing upon occasion was to suppose a constitution extreamly imperfect and unpracticable and to cure those with a Legislative power always in being is when considered no other then a perfect Tyranny As to the Church he conceived the Declaration was extreamly their Interest for the narrow bottom they had placed themselves upon and the Measures they had proceeded by so contrary to the Properties and Liberties of the Nation must needs in short time prove fatall to them whereas this led them into another way to live peaceably with the dissenting and differing Protestants both at home and abroad and so by necessary and unavoidable Consequences to become the Head of them all For that place is due to the Church of England being in favor and of neerest approach to the Most powerful Prince of that Religion and so always had it in their hands to be the Intercessors and Procurers of the greatest Good and Protection that partie throughout all Christendom can receive And thus the A. Bishop of Canterbury might become not only Alterius Orbis but Alterius Religionis Papa and all this addition of Honor and Power attaind without the least loss or diminution of the Church It not being intended that one living Dignity or Preferment should be given to Any but those that were strictly Conformable As to the Protestant Religion he told me plainly It was for the preserving of That and that only that he heartily joyned in the Declaration for besides that he thought it his Duty to have care in his Place and Station of those he was convinced were the People of God and feared Him though of different persuasions he also knew nothing else but Liberty and Indulgence that could possibly as our case stood secure the Protestant Religion in England and he beg'd me to consider if the Church of England should attain to a rigid blind and undistputed Conformity and that power of our Church should come into the hands of a Popish Prince which was not a thing so impossible or remote as not to be apprehended whether in such a case would not all the Armes and Artillery of the Government of the Church be turned against the prâ—sent Religion of it and should not all good Protestants tremble to think what Bishops such a Prince was like to make And whom those Bishops would condemn for Hereticks and that Prince might burn Whereas if this which is now but a Declaration might ever by the Experience of it gain the Advantage of becoming an Established Law the true Protestant Religion would still be kept up amongst the Cities Towns and Trading places and the Worthyest and Soberest if not the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry and People As for the toleration of Popery he said It was a pleasant Objection since he could confidently say that the Papists had no advantage in the least by this Declaration that they did not as fully enjoy and with less noise by the favor of all the Bishops before It was the Vavity of the L. Keeper that they were named at all for the whole advantage was to the dissenting Protestants which were the only Men disturb'd before and yet he confest to me that it was his opinion and always had been that the Papists ought to have no other
House untill they â—ad gone through with the Bill and so report all the Amendments together This they thought a way of more Dispach and which did prevent all Protestations untill it came to the House for the Votes of a Committe though of the whole House are not thought of that weight as that there should be allowed the entering a Dissent of them or Protestation against them The Bill being read over at the Committee the Lord Keeper objected against the form of it and desired that he might put it in another Method which was easily allowed him that being not the Dispute But it was observeable the Hand of God was upon them in this whole Affair their Chariot-wheels were taken off they drew heavily A Bill so long design'd prepared and of that Moment to all their Affairs had hardly a sensible Composure The first part of the Bill that was fallen upon was whether there should be an Oath at all in the Bill and this was the only part the Court-Partie defended with Reason for the whole Bill being to enjoyn an Oath the House migâ—t reject it but the Committee was not to destroy it Yet the Lord Hallifax did with that quickness Learning and Elegance which are inseparable from all his Discourses make appear that as there really was no Security to any State by Oaths so also no private Person much less States-Man would ever order his Affairs as relying on it no Man would ever sleep with open Doors or unlockt up Treasure or Plate should all the Town be sworn not to Rob So that the use of multiplying Oaths had been most commonly to Exclude or disturb some honest Consciencious Men who would never have prejudiced the Government It was also insisted on by that Lord and others that the Oath imposed by the Bill contained Three Clauses the two former Assertory and the last Promissory and that it was worthy the Consideration of the Bishops Whether Assertory Oaths which were properly appointed to give testimony of a matter of Fact whereof a Man is capable to be fully assured by the evidence of his Senses be lawfully to be made use of to Confirm or Invalidate Doctrinal Propositions and whether that Legislative power which imposes such an Oath doth not necessarily assume to it self an Infallibility And as for Promâ—ssory Oaths It was desired that those Learned Prelates would consider the Opinion of Grotius de jure Bellj pacis lib. 2. cap. XIII who seems to make it plain that those kind of Oaths are forbidden by our Saviour Christ Mat. 5. 34 37. and whether it would not become the Fathers of the Church when they have well weighed that and other places of the New Testament to be more tender in multiplying Oaths then hitherto the great Men of the Church have been But the Bishops carried the Point and an Oath was ordered by the major Vote The next thing in Consideration was about the Persons that should be enjoyned to take this Oath and those were to be all such as enjoyed any beneficial Office or Employment Ecclesiastical Civil or Military and no farther went the Debate for some hours until at last the Lord Keeper rises up and with an eloquent Oration desires to add Privy Counsellors Iustices of the Peace and Members of both Houses The two former particularly mentioned only to usher in the latter which was so directly against the two Previous Votes the first of which was enroll'd amongst the standing Orders of the House that it wanted a Man of no less assurance in his Eloquence to propose it and he was driven hard when he was forced to tell the House that they were Masters of their own Orders and Interpretation of them The next consideration at the Committee was the Oath it self and it was desired by the Countrey Lords that it might be clearly known whether it were meant all for an Oath or some of it a Declaration and some an Oath If the latter then it was desired it might be distinctly parted and that the Declaratory part should be subscribed by it self and not sworn There was no small pains taken by the Lord Keeper and the Bishops to prove that it was brought in the two first parts were only a Declaration and not an Oath and though it was replyed that to declare upon ones Oath or to abhorr upon ones Oath is the same thing with I do Swear yet there was some difficulty to obtain the dividing of them and that the Declaratory part should be only Subscribed and the rest Sworn to The Persons being determin'd and this division agreed to the next thing was the parts of the Declaration wherein the first was J A. B. do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Armes against the King This was lyable to great Objections for it was said it might introduce a great change of the Government to oblige all the Men in great Trust in England to declare that exact Boundary and Extent of the Oath of Allegiance and inforce some things to be Stated that are much better involv'd in Generals and peradventure are not capable of another way of expression without great wrong on the one side or the other There is a Law of 25 Edw. 3. that Armes shall not be taken up against the King and that it is Treason to do so and it is a very just and reasonable Law but it is an idle question at best to ask whether Armes in any case can be taken up against a lawful Prince because it necessarily brings in the debate in every Man's mind how there can be a distinction then left between Absolute and Bounded Monarchys if Monarchs have only the fear of God and no fear of humane Resistance to restrain them And it was farther urged that if the chanâ—e of humane Affairs in future Ages should give the French King a just Title and Investiture in the Crown of England and he should avowedly own a design by force to change the Religion and make his Government here as Absolute as in France by the extirpation of the Nobility Gentry and principal Citizens of the Protestant Party whether in such or like Cases this Declaration will be a Service to the Government as it is now establisht Nay and it was farther said that they overthrow the Government that suppose to place any part of it above the fear of Man For in our English Government and all bounded Monarchys where the Prince is not absolute there every individual Subject is under the fear of the King and His People either for breaking the Peace or disturbing the common Interest that every Man hath in it or if he invades the Person or Right of his Prince he invades his whole People who have bound up in him and derive from Him all their Liberty Property and Safety As also the Prince himself is under the fear of breaking that Golden Chain and Connexture between Him and his People by making his interest contrary to