Third's time been commanded by the King 's Writ That as they love their Baronies which they hold of the King That they intermeddle with nothing that concern'd the King's Laws of the Land his Crown and Dignity his Person or his State or the State of his Council or Kingdom Scituri pro certo quod si fecerint Rex inde se capiet ad Baronias suas willing them to know for certain That if they did the King would seize their Baronies And by the Statute of Henry the Eighth it is provided That no Canons or Constitutions should be made or put in Execution by their Authority which were contrariant or repugnant to the King's Prerogative the Laws Customs or Statutes of the Realm In a word the King has commanded they have disobey'd and by their ill Example perverted others and are yet very uncondescending for so the People word it themselves And what would Henry the Eighth have done in such a Case made use of his last Argument or thrown up the Game for a few cross Cards But among many other Considerations from this especially because the Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament And what were those Considerations If a Man should put an ill Construction upon them it may be said their Lordships never intended it and if they intended not to amuse the People why did they not speak plain English and specifie those Considerations inasmuch as all Petitions ought to contain Certainty and Particularity so as a direct Answer may be given to them which could not be here For whatever the King's Answer might have been somewhat more also might have been hook'd in from the words And Alexander would have given it a short Answer Aut Ligna inferte aut Thus. Either made it a Chimney or an Altar But it seems it mov'd in sundry places tho' the best Scripture for this pretended Illegality be a Declaration in Parliament Their Lordships instance nothing beyond their own time but I conceive it not impossible to bring them those of elder times that have been so far from doubting the King's Dispensing Power that they held it unquestionable The Stat. 1. H. 4. cap. 6. says The King is contented to be concluded by the Wise Men of his Realm touching the Estate of Him and his Realm saving always the King's Liberty i. e. His Prerogative of varying from that Law as he should see cause In the Parliament-Roll 1 H. 5. N. 22. the Statutes against Provisors are confirm'd and that the King shall not give any Protection or Grant against the Execution of them Saving to the King his Prerogative And what was meant by that may appear by a prior Roll of the same year N. 15. where the Commons ' pray That the Statutes for the putting Aliens out of the Kingdom may be held and executed The King consents saving his Prerogative and that he dispense with such as he shall please Upon which the Commons answer That their intention was no other and by the help of God never shall be Queen Elizabeth had dispens'd with the ancient Form and Manner of Investing and Consecrating of Bishops and the Parliament of the 8th of her Reign cap. 1. declares it Lawful as being done by her Inherent Prerogative And when by the same Prerogative or Privilege and Royal Authority for so it is worded she dispens'd with the Universities c. so Popish a thing as Latin Prayers and which their Lordships the Bishops still use in Convocations though it be directly contrary to the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 1. for using the Common-Prayer in the Vulgar Tongue only what is meant by it but that the Queen might lawfully dispense with that Statute for if otherwise there is no Ecclesiastical Person in the Kingdom but would have found the Temporal Censures too heavy for him when it had been too late to have ask'd a Parliamentary Consideration whether Legal or not And in particular in the years 1662 and 1672 and in the beginning of Your Majesty's Reign As to the first of which matter of Fact stands thus King Charles the Second by his Declaration from Breda had declar'd Liberty for tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted for difference in Opinion in matters of Religion which did not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And in his Declaration of the 26th of December following stood firm to it but that no such Bill had been yet offer'd him While it thus lay an Act of Indempnity and one other of Uniformity were pass'd The first regenerated Themselves and the second with the old Ingredient The Growth of Popery was a probable way to exclude Others The 25th and 26th of February the Commons come to some Resolves against That and Dissenters which with the Reasons of them wherein yet they declare not the Declaration Illegal they present His Majesty on the 28th in the Banquetting House The King complies and it was too soon after a Rebellion to have done otherwise However if they had declar'd it Illegal it was but the single Opinion of the Commons wherein the Lords made no concurrence And therefore to say This Dispensing Power was in the Parliament of 1662 declar'd Illegal when in common and reasonable Construction a Declaration in Parliament is intended of both Houses of Parliament why may it not be as well urg'd That those other Votes and Resolves of the Commons touching the Bill of Exclusion were a Legal Declaration in Parliament when yet the Lords swept their House of it Then for that other of 1672 the King in the Interval of Parliament was engag'd in a War with the Dutch and to secure Peace at home while he had War abroad had put forth a Declaration for Indulgence to Dissenters The Parliament meet grant a Supply of Twelve hundred thirty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty thousand Pounds and without charging the Declaration with Illegality pray His Majesty to recall it The Argument prevail'd and the King did it Which shews that it was in the King's Option not to have done it or done it And lastly for that other in the beginning of His Majesty's Reign That also without declaring it Illegal was but some Heats of the Commons There were at that time two open Rebellions the King who is sole Judge of the danger of the Kingdom and how to avoid it had granted Commissions to certain persons not qualified according to the Statute 25 Car. 2. The Commons offer to bring in a Bill for the Indempnifying those persons The King knew his own Authority and ended the Dispute And if any man doubts the Legality of the King 's dispensing with that Statute a subsequent Judgment in the Case of Sir Edward Hayles has determin'd the Point And that the Power of dispensing with Penal Laws upon Necessity or urgent Occasions of which the King is sole Judge is an inseparable Prerogative in the King not given Him in Trust or
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
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
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