the lawful Inheritance of all Commoners That all Statute-Laws or Judgments whatsoever made in Opposition thereunto should be null and void That all the Ministers of State and Officers of the Realm should constantly be sworn to the Observation thereof and so deeply did after-Parliaments reverence it and so care ful were they to preserve it that they both confirm'd it by 32. several Acts and enacted Copies to be taken and lodg'd in each Cathedral of the Realm to be read four times a Year publickly before the People as if they would have them more oblig'd to their Ancestors for redeeming and transmitting those Priviledges then for begetting them And that Twice every Year the Bishops apparel'd in their Pontificials with Tapers burning and other Solemnities should pronounce the greater Excommunication against the Infringers of the Great Charter though it were but in Word or Counsel for so saith the Statute I shall for further Satisfaction repeat the Excommunication or Curse pronounced both in the Dayes of Henry the Third and Edward the First The Sentence of the Curse given by the Bishops with the King's Consent against the Breakers of the Great Charter IN the year of our Lord 1253. the third day of May in the great Hall of the King at Westminster in the Presence and by the Consent of the Lord Henry by the Grace of God King of England and the Lord Richard Earl of Cornwall his Brother Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk Marshal of England Humphry Earl of Hereford Henry Earl of Oxford John Earl Warren and other Estates of the Realm of England We Boniface by the Mercy of God Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of England F. of London H. of Ely S. of Worcester E. of Lincoln W. of Norwich P. of Hereford W. of Salisbury W. of Durham R. of Excester M. of Carlile W. of Bath E. of Rochester T. of St. Davids Bishop apparell'd in Pontificials with Tapers burning against the Breakers of the Churches Liberties and of the Liberties and other Customes of this Realm of England and namely these which are contained in the Charter of the Common Liberties of England and Charter of the Forrest have denounced Sentence of Excommunication in this Form By the Authority of Almighty God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost c. of the blessed Apostle Peter and Paul and of all Apostles and of all Martyrs of blessed Edw. King of England and of all the Saints of Heaven We Excommunicate and Accurse and from the Benefit of our Holy Mother the Church we sequester all those that hereafter willingly and maliciously deprive or spoil the Church of her Right and all those that by any Craft or Willingness do violate break diminish or change the Churches Liberties and free Customs contained in the Charters of the Common Liberties of the Forrest granted by our Lord the King to Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Prelates of England and likewise to the Earls Barons Knights and other Free-holders of the Realm and all that secretly and openly by Deed Word or Counsel do make Statutes or observe them being made and that bring in Customs to keep them when they be brought in against the said Liberties or any of them all those that shall presume to judge against them and all and every such Person before-mention'd that wittingly shall commit any Thing of the Premises let them well know that they incur the aforesaid Sentence ipso facto The Sentence of the Clergy against the Breakers of the Articles above-mentioned IN the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Amen Whereas our Soveraign Lord the King to the Honour of God and of holy Church and for the common Profit of the Realm hath granted for him and his Heirs for ever these Articles above-xwriten Robert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England admonished all his Province once twice and thrice because that Shortness will not suffer so much delay as to give knowledge to all the People of England of these Presents in writing We therefore enjoyn all Persons of what Estate soever they be that they and every of them as much as in them is shall uphold and maintain these Articles granted by our Soveraign Lord the King in all Points And all those that in any Point do resist or break or in any manner hereafter Procure Counsel or in any wise Assent to Testifie or Break those Ordinances or go about it by Word or Deed openly or privily by any manner of Pretence or Colour we the aforesaid Arch-Bishop by our Authority in this Writing expressed do Excommunicate and Accurse and from the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ and from all the Company of Heaven and from all the Sacraments of Holy Church do sequester and exclude We may here see that in the obscurest Time of Popery they were not left without a Sence of Justice and the Papists whom many think no Friends to Liberty and Property under dreadful Penalties injoyn an inviolable Observance of this great Charter by which they are confirm'd And though I am no Roman Catholick and as little value their other Curses pronounc'd upon Religious Dissents yet I declare ingenuously I would not for the World incur this Curse as every Man deservedly doth that offers Violence to the Fundamental Freedoms thereby repeated and confirmed And that any Church or Church Officers in our Age should have so little Reverence to Law Excommunication or Curse as to be the Men that either vote or countenance such Severities as bid Defiance to the Curse and rend this memorable Charter in pieces by disseizing Free-men of England of their Freeholds Libâ—â—ties Properties meerly for the Inoffensive Exercise of their Coâ—science to God in Matters of Worship is a Civil sort of Sacriledge I know it is usually objected That a great Part of the Charter is spent on the Behalf of the Roman Church and other Things now abolisht and if one Part of the great Charter may be repeal'd or invalidated why not the other To which I answer This renders nothing that is Fundamental in the Charter the less valuable for they do not stand upon the Legs of that Act though it was made in Honour of them but the Ancient and primitive Institution of the Kingdom If the Petition of Right were repeal'd the great Charter were never the less in Force it being not the Original Establishment but a Declaration and Confirmation of that Establishment But those Things that are abrogable or abrogated in the great Charter were never a Part of Fundamentals but hedg'd in then for present Emergency or Conveniency Besides that which I have hitherto maintained to be the Common and Fundamental Law of the Land is so reputed and further ratified by the Petition of Right 3 Car. 1. which was long since the Church of Rome lost her Share in the Great Charter Nor did it relate to Matters of Faith and Worship but-Temporalities only the Civil Interest or Propriety of the Church But with what
Interest so inconsistent with Peace and Unity as that which dare not solely rely upon the Power of Perswasion but affects Superiority and impatiently seeks after an Earthly Crown This is not to act the Christian but the Caesar not to promote Property but Party and make a Nation Drudges to a Sect. Be it known to such Narrow Spirits we are a Free People by the Creation of God the Redemption of Christ and careful Provision of our never to be forgotten honourable Ancestors So that our Claim to these English Priviledges rising higher then the Date of Protestancy can never justly be invalidated for any Non-conformity to it This were to loose by the Reformation which God forbid I am sure ' twas-to enjoy Property with Conscience that promoted it Nor is there any better Definition of Protestancy then protesting against Spoiling Property for Conscience I must therefore take Leave to say that I know not how to reconcile what a Great Man lately deliver'd in his Eloquent Harangue to the House of Lords His Words are these For when we consider Religion in Parliament we are supposed to consider it as a Parliament should do and as Parliaments in all Ages have done that is as it is a Part of our Laws a Part and a necessary Part of our Government For as it works upon the Conscience as it is an INWARD PRINCIPLE of the DIVINE LIFE by which good Men do govern all their Actions the State hath nothing to do with it it is a Thing which belongs to another kind of Commission then that by which we sit here I acquiesce in the latter Part of this Distinction taking it to be a venerable Truth and would to God Mankind would believe it and live it but how to agree it with the former I profess Ignorance for if the Government hath nothing to do with the Principle it self what more can she pretend over the Actions of those Men that live that good Life Certainly if Religion be this Principle of Divine Life exerting it self by Holy Living and that as such it belongs not to the Commission of our Superiours I do with Submission conceive that there is very little else of Religion lest for them to have to do with the rest merits not the Name of Religion and less doth such a Formality deserve Persecution I hope such Circumstances are no necessary Part of English Government that can't reasonably be reputed a necessary part of Religion and I dare believe that he is too great a Lawyer upon second Thoughts to repute that a Part of our Laws a Part a necessary Part of our Government that is such a Part of Religion as is neither the Divine Principle nor yet the Actions immediately flowing from it since the Government was most compleat and prosperous many Ages without it and hath never known more perplext Contests and troublesom Interruptions then since it hath been receiv'd and valu'd as a Part of the English Government and God I hope will forbid it in the Hearts of our Superiours that English Men should be deprived of their Civil Inheritance for their Non-conformity to Church-Formality For no Property out of the Church the plain English of publick Severity is a Maxim that belongs not to the holy Law of God nor Common Law of the Land 4. If Liberty and Property must be the Forfeit of Conscience for Non conformity to the Princes Religion the Prince and his Religion shall only be lov'd as the next best Accession to other Mens Estates and the Prince perpetually provoakt to expose many of his Inoffensive People to Beggary 5. It is our Superiours Interest that Property be preserved because it is their own Case None have more Property then themselves But if Property be exposed for Religion the Civil Magistrate exposes both his Conscience and his Property to the Church and disarms himself of all Defence upon any Alteration of Judgment This is for the Prince to fall down at the Prelate's Fâ—â—t and the State to suffer it self to be rid by the Church 6. It obstructs all Improvement of Land and Trade for who will labour that hath no Propriety or hath it exposed to an unreasonable Sort of Men for the bare Exercise of his Conscience to God and a poor Country can never make a Rich and Powerful Prince Heaven is therefore Heaven to Good and Wise Men because they have an Eternal Propriety therein 7thly This Sort of Procedure hitherto oppugn'd to the behalf of Property puts the whole Nation upon miserable Uncertainties that are follow'd with great Disquiets and Distractions which certainly it is the Interest of all Governments to prevent The Reigns of Henry 8. Edw. 6. Q. Mary and Q. Eliz. both with relation to the Marriages of the first and the Religious Revolutions of the rest are a plain Proof in the Case King Henry voids the Pope's Supremacy and assumes it himself Q. Mary his Daughter by his first Wife Katharine repeals all those Acts made since the 12th of Henry 8. in Disfavour of the Pope Oaths taken on both sides to maintain those Laws Edw. 6. enacts Protestancy with an Oath to maintain it 1 Q. Mary c. 1. This is abrogated Popery solemnly restored and an Oath inforc'd to defend it Comes Q. Elizabeth and repeals that Law calls back Protestancy ordains a new Oath to un-Oaâ—h Q. Mary's Oath and all this under the Penalty of loosing Estate Liberty and sometimes Life it self which Thousands to avoid lamentably perjur'd themselves four or five times over within the space of 20. Years in which Sin the Clergy transcended not an Hundred for every Thousand but left their Principles for their Parâ—shâ—s Thus hath Conscience been debaucht by Force and Property toss'd up down by the impetuous Blasts of ignorant Zeal or sinister Design 8. Where Liberty Property are violated there must alwayes be a State of Force And though I pray God that we never need those Cruel Remedies whose Calamitous Effects we have too lately felt yet certainly SELF-Preservation is of all Things dearest to Men insomuch that being conscious to themselves of not having done an ill thing to defend their unforfeited Priviledges they cheerfully hazard all they have in this World so strangely vindictive are the Sons of Men in Maintenance of their Rights And such are the Cares Fears Doubts and Insecurities of that Administration as render Empire a Slavery and Dominion the worst Sort of Bondage on the contrary nothing can give greater Cheerfulness Confidence Security and Honour to any Prince then ruling by Law for it is both a Conjunction of Title with Power and attracts Love as well as it requires Duty Give me Leave without any Offence for I have God's Evidence in my own Conscience I intend nothing but a respectful Caution to my Superiours to confirm this Reason with the Judgment and Example of other Times The Governours of the Eleans held a strict Hand over the People they being in Despair call'd in the Spartans for
is no so ready Course to encrease their Number as the severe Prosecution of Dissenters so that though they immediately Suffer the Kingdom in the End must be the Looser For besides a Decay of Trade c. this driving away of Flocks of Sheep and Herds of Cattel seizing of Barns full of Corn breaking open of Doors and Chists taking away the best Goods those Instruments of Cruelty can find sometimes All even to a Bed a Blanket wearing Apparel and the very Tools of Trade by which People honestly labour to get their Bread till they leave Men Women and Children destitute of Subsistence will necessitate an extreme Advance of the Poors Rate in every Parish of England or they must be Starv'd Oh that it would please them that are in Authority to put a Stop to this Inhuman Usage lest the Vengeance of the Just God break forth further against this poor Land Safety another Requisite to an happy Government must needs be at an End where the Course oppugn'd is followed And it is but some prudent Forreigners proclaiming Liberty of Conscience within their Territories and a Door is opened for a Million of People to pass out of their Native Soil which is not so extremely improved that it should not want two or three hundred thousand Families more then it hath to advance it especially at this Time of Day when our Forreign Islands yearly take off so many necessary Inhabitants from us And as of Contraries there is the same Reason so let the Government of England but give that prudent Invitation to Forreigners and she maketh her self Mistress of the Arts and Manufactures of Europe Nothing else hath hindred Holland from truckling under the Spanish Monarchy and being ruin'd above therescore Years ago and given her that Rise to Wealth and Glory Seaventhly Nor is this Severity only Injurious to the Affairs of England but the whole Protestant World For besides that it calls the Sincerity of their Procedings against the Papists into Question it furnisheth them with this sort of unanswerable Interrogatory The Protestants exclame against us for Persecutors and are they now the very men themselves Was Severity an Instance of Weakness in our Religion and is it become a valid Argument in theirs Are not our Actions once void of all Excuse with them now defended by their own Practice But if men must be restrained upon prudential Considerations from the Exercise of their Consciences in England why not the same in France and Germany where matters of State may equally be pleaded Certainly whatever Shifts Protestants may use to palliate these Procedings they are thus far condemnable upon the Foot of Prudence Eightly Such Procedure is a great Reflection upon the Justice of the Government in that it enacts Penalties inadequate to the Fault committed viz. That I should loose my Liberty and Property Natural Endowments and confirmed Civil Priviledges for some Error in Judgment about Matters of Religion as if I must not be a Man because I am not such a sort of religious Man as the Government would have me but must loose my Claim to all Natural Benefits though I harmonize with them in Civil Affairs because I fall not in with the Judgment of the Government in some Points of a supernatural Import though no real Part of the ancient Government Perhaps instead of going to the Left Hand I go to the Right and whereas I am commanded to hear A. B. I rather chuse to hear C. D. my Reason for it being the more Religious Influence the latter hath over me then the former and that I find by Experience I am better affected and more Religiously edified to Good Living What Blemish is this to the Government What Insecurity to the Civil Magistrate Why-may not this Man Sell Buy Plow pay his Rent be as good a Subject and as true an English-man as any Conformist in the Kingdom Howbeit Fines and Goals are very ill Arguments to convince sober Mens Understandings and disswade them from the Continuance of so harmless a Practice Lastly But there is yet another Inconveniency that will attend this Sort of Severity that so naturally follows upon our Superiors making Conformity to the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England the sine qua non or Inlet to all Property and Ground of Claim to all English Civil Priviledges to wit that they make a Rod for ought they know to whip their own Posterity with since it is Impossible for them to secure their Children to the English Church and if it happen that any of them are never so conscientiously of another Perswasion they are lyable to all the Miseries that may attend the Execution of those Laws Such a King must not be King such Lords and Commons must not sit in Parliament nay they must not administer any Office be it never so inferiour within the Realm and they never so virtuous and capable their very Patrimony becomes a Prey to a Pack of lewd Informers and their Persons exposed to the Abuse of Men Poor or Malicious But there are three Objections that some make against what I have urged not unfit to be consider'd The first is this If the Liberty desired be granted what know we but Dissenters may employ their Meetings to insinuate against the Government inslame People into a Dislike of their Superiours and thereby prepare them for Mischief Answ This Objection may have some Force so long as our Superiours continue Severity because it doth not only sharpen and excite Dissenters but it runs many of them into such Holes and Corners that if they were disposed to any such Conspiracies they have the securest Places and Opportunities to effect their Design But what Dissenter can be so destitute of Reason and Love to common Safety as to expose himself and Family by plotting against a Government that is kind to him and gives him the Liberty he desires and could only be supposed in common sense to plot for To be sure Liberty to Worship God according to their several Professions will be as the Peoples Satisfaction so the Governments greatest Security For if men enjoy their Property and their Conscience which is the noblest part of it without Molestation what should they object against and plot for Mad Men only burn their own Houses kill their own Children murder themselves Doth Kindness or Cruelty most take with men that are but themselves H. Grotius with Campanella well observ'd that a fierce and rugged Hand was very improper for Northern Countries English men are gain'd with Mildness but inflamed by Severity And many that do not suffer are as apt to compassionate them that do And if it will please our Superiours to make Tryal of such an Indulgence doubtless they will find Peace and Plenty to ensue The Practice of other Nations and the Trade Tranquillity Power and Opulency that have attended it is a Demonstration in the Case and ought not to be slighted by them that aim at as high and honourable