the same Church differing from it self upon further discoveries A Synod a Parliament may judge such and such things that they who are to submit may sincerely scruple and stick at as Sin. If Churches and Men heavenly enlightned are thus exposed to vary in their apprehensions we cannot be confident of any Councel or Assembly made up of the most Wise and Prudent Men. Parliaments are chosen by the votes of the promiscuous multitudes in respect we would hope to their sufficiency in managing our Civil and Temporal concernments but as to their Skill and Ability to discern and judge of such matters appertaining to Order in the Service and Worship of God all men have not this Knowledge this is little or not at all attended by those that Elect them by reason whereof Matters wherein mens Consciences are concerned are not at all times carried by those who are most Conscientious in that Assembly who are not alwayes the Major part yet notwithstanding are required in their Consciences to assent and consent to such Determinations being made although possibly near one half in number dissented in the passing of them and it is unavoidable in all and the best Assemblies that are chosen by the general suffrage of a Nation Again These matters of Ceremony and external Order are sometimes managed in part with respect to a Party different in their apprehensions and who thereupon form these Lawes with respect to Prudence as well as Conscience In our first Reformation it was said such Superstitions are taken away aâ—time would serve quietly to do it and many things were left remaining in our Liturgy which otherwise would have been removed in compliance with that form of divine Service used-before by the Papists that they may not be provoked but rather won thereby to our Religion Womens Baptizing was continued in our Liturgy saith the Bishop of Winchester else the Book would not have passed the House Conf. at Hampton-Court King James was once willing that some Ceremonies giving offence should be removed But the Parliament then sitting thought it not Prudence and our present Sovereign would have done a great matter for the Ease of Tender Consciences as appears by some of the Declarations herein after mentioned but it stood not with the Prudence of this House as they expressed in their Answer without whose concurrence His Majesty thought not fit then to do it 3. From mistaken Principles as that there can be no Vnity without Vniformity that there can be no Discipline in a Church without some Ceremonies of humane Institution that things in Worship indifferent become necessary being imposed by Authority That things in matters of Order that are once established and some time continued in the Church may not with safety be altered These things I offer not to derogate from Parliaments in their manage of such Affairs but upon this serious account only To shew that as our Civil Lawes have made provision that the Church shall not in their Lawes and Canons order any thing against the Prerogative of the King or the Lawes and Statutes of the Realm in general and that such Canons shall not be in force that do 25 Hen. 8.19 So likewise Lawes and Statutes in Ecclesiastical Affairs established by the Civil Power if they be found to derogate from the Prerogative of Christ Jesus or the Lawes and Statutes of his Kingdom ought not to be in force upon mens Consciences As Church-men being supposed not to be so well understood in secular Lawes but may transgress so may secular Persons likewise in their orderings about Church Affairs therefore there is a like necessity of a Power to review Judge and dispense with such Lawes as shall be found to disturb the Consciences of peaceable Subjects as occasion may urge thereunto Hen. 8. by Commission which was continued by Edw. 6. appointed 32 Persons 8 of each Profession to peruse the Canons of the Clergy then in force to the end those might be removed that were any ways against the Crown and State. These Kings might have done the like in respect to those Canons and Ecclesiastical Lawes enacted in Parliament if they were found to derogate from Christ's Commands or his Institutes or if justly offensive to the peaceably Godly that Dispensations might be granted for the present till further Reformation be obtained 3. The Municipal Lawes of a Nation are from and conformed to the Principles of right Reason and common Justice only and we have submitted to the Resolutions of those Wise and Prudent Senators we our selves have made choice of to enact and establish such Lawes for us and therefore may acquiesce in their Determinations without further enquiry having given a kind of absolute pre-consent to such Lawes as shall be enacted by them but it is not so in Ecclesiastical Lawes intrusted with the same Persons for they are to be formed according to God's Word which every man is to take as his immediate Rule and not to do or submit to any thing in his Practice about the Notion of Religion but what is conformable thereunto he is to LIVE and act by his own Faith. To Lawes Ecclesiastical therefore made in Parliament we give only a Conditional Consent viz. So far as they are agreeable to God's Word and concur with Gospel-rules nor is it in the liberty of any man's Conscience or reason to yield more nor is there any more by us intrusted with the Representative the Parliament If a man doth scruple the reasonableness or equity of a Law established concerning Civil right or what is required from such a Statute he may notwithstanding yield Obedience without Sin and ought so to do rather than to offend by any appearance of disobedience as Christ himself did Matth. 17.26 27. But in Matters of Religion even Circumstances Ceremonies or Matters of Order or the least thing wherein the Lord hath concerned his Word if there be a doubt or scruple whether it be lawful and conformable to Scripture tho it be from Ignorance or weakness yet I sin if I submit in practice thereof Rom. 14.21 compared with 2 3. The consequence of Transgression in this kind is more than the loss of Estate Liberties yea of Life it self If Lawes from Superiors concerning Civil right be unjust in themselves or prove unequal from the Circumstances of this or that man's Case who cannot be relieved by any indulgence he may submit without Sin and without transgressing any Law of God nay it is virtue and pleasing to God to shew our patience in such suffering 1 Pet. 2.13 compared with 18 19. 1 Cor. 6 7. but not so in the Matters of Religion for we have it from Christ to the contrary that is not to submit Coloss 2.20 and God blames his People by his Prophets for willingly walking after the Commandments and keeping the Statutes of Omri Hosea 5.12 Micah 6.16 the Lord is a jealous God. 4. If there be not a Power to Judge and Dispense intrusted in some hand the People are in
Power dispense with and license such Preachers which now seem and are reputed so to be And it follows also if his Power will extend to indulge such persons it will not prove short in respect to hearers which are as it were new in the way of their Assemblies and indulge such as are not in the Ancient order of the Parochial Congregations of England 2. The like Deductions might be drawn from other of those Instances I shall notwithstanding for further confirmation add other instances and such wherein you have this Power put forth in dispensing and exempting from what hath been burthensom to mens Consciences by Episcocal Impositions 1. That of Edw. 6. In the 4th year of his reign Certain Protestants removing themselves and Families out of Popish Countries into England for the sake of Conscience and being not free to submit to the forms of Worship and Discipline established in this Church this good King by his SOLE Authority granteth them the Liberty of such a Church Government and form of worship whereof we shall say more in its place as should be most suitable to their own Perswasion This being utterly against the Provision and Settlement NEWLY made by Parliament He strengthens his Grant by a NON OBSTANTE to the Statute and strictly requires all Bishops and Mayors to suffer them to enjoy this Liberty of Conscience 2. Another instance you have of the same good King in Hooper being chosen Bishop of Gloucester and there being certain Rites and Ceremonies established by Act of Parliament to be Conformed unto in the Consecration of Bishops offensive to his Conscience Edw. 6. requires Arch-Bishop Cranmer to omit these Ceremonies discharging him of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures he should be in danger of and run into in any manner of way by omitting of the same and these our Letters saith the King shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge therefore 3. The instance you have also of what was done by Queen Eliz. for relieving Tender Consciences namely Her Majesty being informed that in certain places in this Realm sundry of her Subjects called to the Ministry being induced by sinister Perswasions are scrupled about the Form of the Oath which by an Act of the late Parliament was prescribed to be taken according to the Form expressed in the Act under the Penalty of being disabled to bear any Office in State or Church Her Majesty was graciously pleased by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to give and declare such a sense and construction of the words of this Oath expressed in other words much different for their satisfaction with a Gracious Declaration that such Persons fit for the Ministry as could not take the Oath in the Parliaments Form should be accepted to do it in this sense and doing so they should notwithstanding be accepted of her Majesty as good and obedient Subjects and be acquitted of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as should refuse the same By which means many an able man had freedom to exercise his Ministry which otherwise must be laid aside which Indulgence of hers altho against an ACT of Parliament yet was owned as done by lawful Authority and recognized by the Parliament 5 Eliz. and her Execution assented to and enacted 4. This renowned Queen together with King James and King Charles the First confirmed the Indulgence and Dispensation granted by Edw. 6. to Strangers yea although it was a Gravamen to the Bishops as making an evident breach upon the Lawes of Vniformity for that 't was granted not only to the Parents but to the Children and Childrens Children which were Natural Subjects to the Realm Persons of great Estates and Purchasers of Lands and interessed in the Soil the number also of these Congregations increasing and situated in the eminent and chief Towns and Cities in the Kingdom there to live and Profess as separated and divided Bodies a Discipline and Worship differing from the Church of England which was not at first intended as Bishop Laud complains there being onely that one in London when the first Grant was made and such things were frequently suggested against them Yet these Princes were graciously disposed notwithstanding the Act for Vniformity from time to time to Confirm the Grant of Edward 6th by several Orders past some of them formed as having special respect to such Objections And it will not be amiss for the Reader 's Information here to insert some of them at least The Form in which Queen Elizabeth confirmed their Liberties Non ignoramus variis Ecclesiis varios diversos jam ab initio fuisse ritus ceremonias non contemnimus vestras neque vos ad nostras cogimus King James Oct. 17. About the Dutch at Colchester His Majesty granted their Orders Liberties c. in as large and ample manner to all intents and purposes as heretofore they have been used tolerated and allowed unto them any Provision or Jurisdiction to the Contrary thereunto in any wise notwithstanding An Order of King James under his Signet Jan. 13. 1616. on their behalf These are therefore to Will and Command all our Courts of Justice and other our loving Subjects to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children c. The Order of the Councel for the Walloons of Norwich Oct. 10.1621 Those of Norwich tho born in the Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Congregation and subject to such Discipline as hath been by all the time of 55 years practised by them The Order of King Charles the First Nov. 13. 1631. We Will and Command our Judges to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children quietly to enjoy all and singular c. without any Trouble Arrests or Proceedings by way of information or otherwise An Order of Councel for the Dutch of Norwich Jan. 7. 1630. That all those that now or hereafter shall be Members of the Dutch Congregation altho born within this Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Church so long as his Majesty shall be pleased These and diverse the like instances might be produced which sufficiently evince it as granted on all sides and constantly supposed to be according to the constitution of this Realm that our Kings and Princes have Power in and from themselves as an inherent inseparable Prerogative not only to enjoyn and give Lawes to their Subjects in Matters Ecclesiastical such as are left to the ordering of any Civil Power but also to dispense and exempt from Lawes of that kind tho established by them in conjunction with the Authority of Parliament Nor do we find that Parliaments at any time have taken into Consideration what was ordered and done by these Kings and Princes in Ecclesiastical Affairs as being their known Prerogative no not in the time of King James who assumed the most in such managements nor by any Petitions or Addresses to any of those Princes which is usual in the concerns of Civil Rights for
A DISCOURSE OF Ecclesiastical LAWES And SUPREMACY of the KINGS OF ENGLAND In DISPENSING with the PENALTIES thereof By Mr. PHILIP NYE LONDON Printed for W. Cross MDCLXXXVII A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Laws and Supremacy of the Kings of ENGLAND in dispensing with the Penalties thereof CHAP. I. The CASE and STATE of the QVESTION THE Kings Power and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Affairs may fall under a threefold Consideration as 1. Put forth by himself 2. By Commission granted to Ecclesiastical Persons and exercised in those Courts we term Spiritual or Ecclesiastical 3. As such Affairs are managed and ordered by him in Parliament and by the Authority thereof The form in which these Ecclesiastical Lawes are expressed to us is this Be it enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same c. Merely to advise and consent implys no more Authority in Establishment of Ecclesiastical Lawes than what was put forth by the Convocation in their Canons but it being added by the Authority thus mentioned may be construed either relating to the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament which is a suffrage and more than our advice or bare consent For it implyeth when Bills are formed read debated and assented to by both Houses they were then stamped with some kind of Parliamentary authority Or it is to be interpreted as relating to King Lords and Commons which is likely for Consultations of Parliament altho concluded by Vote yet become not formally a Law until His Majesty hath given his Royal assent And in this sense Ecclesiastical Lawes and Orders which are enacted and established by Statutes have as formal a Sanction being not only by the Authority of the King but by Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament as other Lawes wherein our Civil interests are concerned namely by a joint and not the single Power of either This being granted some may say 't is then needless to dispute those higher interests and thence also inferred That as these Ecclesiastical Lawes have their rise vigour and strength so their diminution and abatement from conjunction of both Powers and are more fixed and stable than those Canons and Orders in Ecclesiastical Matters that have their sanction from the King only But to this I say briefly these Powers are not so equal but the King hath the Supremacy and is enabled thereby to such Acts and Orderings about the Penalties of our Lawes as are peculiar to the Crown and Dignity of a King as in mitigating exempting dispensing licensing pardoning c. and all this more especially in Matters Ecclesiastical as by the following will appear This Power and Superiority exercised by the Kings of England with respect to the Penalties of our Lawes both Ecclesiastical and Civil shall be spoken to in these two particulars First That such an Authority and Supremacy is necessary and ought to be placed in some hand Secondly That it is a Dignity which hath been always in the Kings and Queens of this Realm 1. For the former In all Polities and Forms of Government as there is a rule the which is to be the measure to and by which all mens actions that live under that Polity are ordinarily to be Conformed and Judged so is there always some provision made for mitigating the rigour of the rule in Cases which may fall out and cannot be foreseen by the wisest Legislators And in such cases to exercise summum jus would be summa injuria Therefore there is here not only a Power to Judge as the Case stands in the strict Letter of the Law but as there are Courts of Law so are there Chanceries Courts of Equity and Conscience wherein the Law and Rule it self is dispensed with and varied from The Proceedings there are not according to the strict terms of the Law but secundum aequum bonum according as the merits of the Case require 1. For Lawes constituted for a whole Nation universally to be submitted unto by Persons of what quality soever and how much soever different in their Conditions must needs in their strict execution bear harder upon some men than upon others Parliaments in their Lawes going by the rule of ad ea quae frequentius accidunt c. better a mischief than always an inconvenience It is taken for granted that a general Law which hath its good and necessity in respect to the bulk and body of a People may prove unequal to particular Persons from the Circumstances of their Condition In the Common-wealth the ease and benefit of each particular person of what degree or condition soever is to be consulted but where Lawes are executed in their full rigour and no particular Mercy or Indulgence in special and unusual Cases it will not be So God himself who knows every man's heart yet some of his Lawes which are given in the general to all would not prove so equal to each at all times without exemptions in particular Cases Hence we say affirmative Precepts bind not AD SEMPER To such Lawes is that of Mark C. 2 to be referred in the Case of the Shew-bread And the Pope who assumes to himself a possibility not to Erre yet how doth his Republic abound in Courts for Faculties Dispensation Indulgences 2. It is also to be Considered there are no Societies of men but may erre in their counsels Lawes made in one Parliament come to a review and often to an alteration yea to a repeal in the next The intervals of those great Councels are some time long and if no way of relief were in the mean time the Subject would without remedy undergo the Penalty of an unequal Law. These and the like Considerations make it necessary that besides the Legislative Power placed in the Parliament there be some hand or other also by which upon all emergent occasions the rigour of a Law as to its Penalty may be abated by the means whereof not only mens Liberties and Estates but lives also are sometimes preserved 2. For the other This balance hath always been trusted in the hand of and annexed to the Sovereign Majesty of every State. For this interest doth little vary but remaineth in a manner the same in all States in what form soever they be established In the State of England being an Empire and its Crown in many Acts of Parliament especially relating to these Matters styled Imperial this Power is inseparably annexed thereunto which needs little proof it being confirmed by the OATH of SUPREMACY Our great Lawyers also give in their suffrage hereunto frequently affirming that the Statutes relating to the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not introductive of new but declarative of the old Lawes When an Act say these two learned Judges Coke and Rolls forbiddeth under a Penalty in case it may be inconvenient unto diverse particular persons in respect to Circumstances
a worse condition on these accounts then in their civil interest and that upon a threefold account 1. The Secular Lawes and Statutes made in behalf of the Subject are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of inconvenience altered and repealed whereby the Subject hath ease It is ordinarily seen in our Civil concerns that some ACTS of Parliament that partly for their severity or upon some other account passed as doubtful whether fit to remain as standing Lawes are therefore limited to a certain Time and after which to expire and cease The severe Act of 35 Eliz. which in the Process of it reached mens lives when first passed was to remain a Law but to the end of the next Session of Parliament which in regard of some doubt it seems whether in force or not is declared by this present Parliament to be so and that it ought to be put in due execution And now at this time there is a Minister of the Gospel under the Sentence of that Act and for transgressing that Law had lost his life had not His Majesty interposed by his Prerogative A wise Statesman once advised and expressed himself thus I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored with good and wholsom Lawes made in every 30 or 40 years in Parliament providing Remedies as fast as time breedeth Mischiefs and comrariwise the Ecclesiastical State should still continue upon the dreggs of time and receive no alteration Now for these many years we have heard of no offers of Bills in Parliament is it because there is nothing amiss Sir Fr. Bacon 2. In that all Proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts are ever to the utmost rigour and letter of their Canons and Orders There is no Chancery or Court of Equity to appeal to for redress but in some few Cases as in causes Testamentary Matrimony Divorces c. specified 24 H. 8. Matters wherein our Estates are touched but in matters of Conformity and such Cases wherein our Consciences are concerned we are left destitute 3. Men are upon this peculiar disadvantage in these spiritual Courts who are impeached for Non-Conformity to their Canons and Orders in that their Adversaries and those that are Parties for the most part are their Judges This Sir Fr. Bacon in his Considerations condemneth as a great Injustice So that it is evident considering the Nature of Ecclesiastical Constitutions and how managed with us in this Nation how necessary it is that some Power be placed somewhere by which we may be relieved when exposed more than others to such extremity of rigour For otherwise as Conscientious men are more disposed to doubts and scruples in the way of duty in this kind so to less Mercy and Indulgence from our Superiors CHAP. III. That our relief is from the Jurisdiction and Power in His Majesty to Dispense and Exempt for in his hand this balance is placed which is that we shall insist upon in the next place 1. THis Prerogative and Power to exempt from Ecclesiastical Lawes is in the Soveraign for the confirming whereof not to insist upon what was acknowledged by Eleutherius touching Lucius our first Christian King that he was Vicarius Dei in regno suo in reference to matters to be reformed or what is mentioned concerning the Lawes and Practice of King Edgar and Edw. the Confessor namely of the first meae solicitudinis quieti eorum consulere de quorum moribus spectat ad nos examen and of the other from whom it 's said much of our Lawes is derived in describing the King's office he saith Rex ad hoc est constitutus ut regnum terrenum Populum Dei Ecclesiam regat ab injuriis defendat maleficos ab ea evellat destruat penitùs disperdat and much of the like nature that might be urged from Antiquity but to come nearer home I bring the Testimony of the Clergy in Convocation or the representative Church of England who make it so great a Duty to acknowledge this as they have expressed their severity thus Whosoever shall affirm the King's Majesty hath not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical as the pious Princes of the Jews and the Christian Emperors obtained let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not to be absolved but by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Canons of the Convocation 1603. I shall joyn with this Testimony that of another Councel namely that met in the Star-Chamber 2 Jac. made up of all the Judges and Persons learned in the Law summoned by King James for resolution in some Ecclesiastical Cases whereof this of His Majesty's Prerogative was one their resolution you have in these words The King without the Parliament may make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and punish those that disobey and refuse to submit and this their resolution was ordered to to be registred and Recorded in the several Courts of Justice 3. And from time to time the Kings and Queens of England have assumed and exercised this Power 1. In general the whole body and systeme of Ecelesiastical Lawes and Canons are published by the Synod of the Clergy from time to time without any particular Parliamentary Sanction And yet have not these Canons their Authority from the Synod or Clergy met in Convocation For Canons concluded by the Province of Canterbury only cannot as such oblige the Clergy of the Province of York who had no Representatives or Clerks sitting in that Synod or Convocation that met Anno 1584. 1597. and 1603. and yet its Canons obliged to subjection the Archbishop and Clergy of York as well as those of 1640. where were the Representatives of both Provinces It is therefore the ROYAL authority expressed in the Letters Patents affixed to these Canons that gives them Power and they are therefore termed Regiae leges Ecclesiasticae 2. Instances may be produced of several Injunctions Advertisements Declarations and other Edicts and Requirements from Sovereign Power by His Majesty's Predecessors You have the Injunctions of Edw. 6. 1547. and Queen Eliz. 1559. with Articles of Visitation thereunto adjoyned They license Ministers to Preach suspend also from Preaching Edw. 6. also established a Liturgy or publick form of Prayer to be used throughout the Kingdom King James likewise gives faculties confirms a new body of Lecturers throughout England Preachers that were neither Vicars Parsons nor Curates These Instances altho not express of what these Powers have dispensed with or indulged yet are pertinent upon this account What Sovereign Power is thus put forth in Constitutions Injunctions and Directions c. in Ecclesiastical Matters may in like Proportions be exemplify'd in Exemptions Dispensations c. as with Parliaments and other Councels vested with Authority the Power to repeal Lawes and Statutes is as large as that Power by which they Enact and Establish them For Example King James might by his Prerogative confirm and establish a new order of the Clergy which was our last instance he might by the same
Conduct and Government yet the Premises last mentioned being considered there can be no great prejudice to the Commonwealth or Civil Affairs thereby Distinctly we shall weigh both of them 1. For the Former If the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing as was mentioned before and of such a nature as altho at first of godly intent and purpose devised yet at length turned to Vanity and Superstition and burdening mens Consciences without cause c. as we our selves acknowledge See Preface to the Common-Prayer Book and of the same condition are most of those Impositions which have proved burthensom to the Nation a long time I say if so the not imposing of these things cannot be prejudicial to Church or State. Not to the Church If these directions for Gospel-worship in the external Circumstances of it were not reduced into Canons and Injunctions but left where they are to be taken up in practice according to the light of the Age as are Gospel-Duties of greater consequence Those Scriptures by which States profess themselves to be guided in forming these Ecclesiastical Lawes are intrusted also in the hands of the Gospel-Ministers for their conduct and direction in ordering Gospel Affairs who have gifts and assistances from it in such a measure and degree as cannot be expected in the ablest Statesman as such And the Ecclesiastical Lawes are never so well ordered by Civil Powers as when they consult with and take advice and directions from the Ministers of the Gospel about them To advise new Rites and Ceremonies saith Bishop Bilson is not the Princes Vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures commend and as the Bishops and Pastors of the place shall advise of Suprem p. 226 2. If there were no such severe Injunctions about the Forms and Modes of Gospel-Worship I speak not of such Duties of Religion in which mens natures are principled 1. The Nation would not hereby suffer in respect of its Civil concerns but the Wealth and Trade would be much more prosperous the things being small in themselves and do become great only upon the account of their being injoyned and the greatness of Penalties annexed being of great Concernment to the State that is to the great prejudice thereof as hath been apparent in many years sad Experience What is it of moment to the Common-wealth for the quickening of Trade keeping up of Rents c. or any particular man's concern as Civil that men kneel or not at the Sacrament Crossing or not Crossing in Baptism 2. For the other as dispensing with all Penalties annexed to Ecclesiastical Lawes where these Penalties are removed yet these Lawes remain as Councels and Advertisements and being consulted by the learned Clergy in their Synods and commended are useful in the Administration of Worship This is as much as ever was done by the Apostles when Churches were in their greatest Purity who endeavoured not so much to establish an external Uniformity as to preserve Christian Liberty If it be said they had then no Christian Magistrates We say the Kingdom of Christ must come into a Nation before it be Christian and if it be so defective in its first address for want of such Magistrate and of the means we put so great an esteem upon for the reducing a People how will the People ever become Christian And on the other side if the Gospel hath a sufficiency in it self without borrowing to subdue a Pagan Nation to Christianity much easier it is being such to preserve them orderly and regular Christians Paul having instructed and councelled left his People free and to act by the Perswasion of their own hearts Rom. 14.5 One man esteemeth one day above another another man esteemeth every day alike let every man be perswaded in his own mind That was but a Councel or Advertisement in the Act for Conformity in 18 Eliz. given to the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they would endeavour to perform their Duties in execution of the Act it was indeed very solemn coming from the Queens Majesty The Lords Temporal and all the Commons in the Present Parliament and in God's Name and as they will answer before God for such Evils and Plagues as may be Punishments for the neglect hereof There hath been no want of obedience hereunto by the Bishops being fully perswaded in their hearts thereof as their Duty of which if they had not been so perswaded the severest Penalties would or ought to have been in vain King James orders throughout the Kingdom that the Afternoons Exercise each Lord's-Day be spent in examining Children in their Catechism instead of Preaching this is only commended as the most convenient and laudable way in teaching of the Church of England and that such Preachers be most encouraged and approved of and how readily was this immediately practised throughout the Nation and is continued in many places unto this day In the Establishment of Vniformity 2º Edw. 6. a Liberty was left in respect to Ceremonies to practise or omit them according as men were perswaded in their hearts By the Synod held 1640. some Rites and Ceremonies there mentioned were heartily commended by them to the serious Consideration of all good People as an ancient and laudable Custome of the Primitive Church in the purest times and notwithstanding all this extolling those Rites which indeed was as much as can be said for any of our Ceremonies the Cannon concludes thus in the practice or omission of this Rite we desire that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is that they who use the Liberty despise not them which use it not and they who use it not condemn not those that use it Canon 7. 1640. And this their Councel and Commending hath not been in vain but received and submitted unto throughout by those who were so perswaded of these Rites as they have commended them And so would it have been in respect of other the Rites of our Church And the free submission in practise of a Rite tho but from a fewer number of Grave and Pious Persons would have advanced the esteem of such Ceremonies in the Opinions of others much more than the forced submission of greater multitudes 2. As a further Answer let us consider the Nature of the Crime with respect to the Penalties the Crime as expressed in our Lawes is a wilful and obstinate or contemptuous omission as in 19 Eliz. c. 2o. in the Act for Vniformity where these words wilful and obstinate I would think are not descriptive and to be understood reduplicative as an aggravation and as if all omissions must of necessity proceed from wilfulness and obstinacy but distinctive and to be understood Specificative some omissions being from wilfulness and contempt but there may be omissions that are not so and being not so full under the Penalties as killing a man and wilful Murther c. That the words of that Act 1º