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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59475 A letter from a person of quality to his friend in the country Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683.; Locke, John, 1632-1704. 1675 (1675) Wing S2897; ESTC R3320 30,815 37

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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 allow●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 ●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 second●ng it but the Lord Trea●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 con●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 diffe●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 al●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