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Statutes made in behalf of the Subject are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of inconvenience altered and repealed whereby the Subject hath ease It is ordinarily seen in our Civil concerns that some ACTS of Parliament that partly for their severity or upon some other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
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
be discovered by this indiscriminating Severity that is who are Dissenters upon Principles of Conscience and who of them so pretending are notwithstanding of a Seditious Spirit These can never be distinguished one from the other when Dissenters and such as conform not be it upon what ground soever are all of them equally branded with the same mark of disloyalty and so represented to His Majesty and all the Nation There is a necessity that this Pretence of Conscience be removed and Seditious Persons discovered and left to condign Punishment and others these stumbling-blocks being removed may by their peaceable Obedience to all other His Majesty's Lawes justifie and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Lawes which shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation His Majesty who hath had a clear prospect all along of these things and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in that Proclamation of 10 July 1669. and otherwise to indulge tender Consciences hath upon these afore-mentioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to Publish this his Gracious DECLARATION of March 15. 1672. where he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus His Majesty as a Wife and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or serving to refresh and to shew the dark Foggs and Mists here beneath hath by the Light and Liberty shining forth from his gracious Indulgence refreshed multitudes of his good Subjects and delivered them from the dark misapprehensions of others Nor is this their great relief in any thing prejudicial either to the Estates or Liberties of men otherwise minded nor are such men abridged in any of their concerns Spiritual or Temporal hereby His Majesty hath made sufficient Provision for the satisfying their Consciences in a careful continuing those Ceremonies and Forms of Worship they have been accustomed to Let it not be grievous or offensive to them that their Brethren have obtained from His Majesty in respect to their Consciences the like favour Quest Since these Ecclesiastical Lawes of Restraint were Enacted by Parliament the King giving his Royal Assent had it not been convenient if His Majesty had so pleased that the dispensing with these Lawes had been by Parliament Answ 1 The King and Princes of this Realm His Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Matters but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties at least of such Lawes A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might tho no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least into the Minds of Men a kind of Suspicion especially in the Vulgar that such Proceedings of the Supream Majesty by his sole Power to be an assuming an Arbitrary Government 2. The Parliament did still continue in this their former Opinion and first Judgment namely That a way of Severity was the only means to settle Peace and Unity They had newly passed the Act for Uniformity without any abatement of what was offensive by reason whereof arose that general Discontent which before we have mentioned His Majesty being sensible hereof did by that Declaration of Decemb. 26. move a second time That an Act might be prepared c. not doubting their chearful co-operation with him being a Matter wherein he conceived himself so much engaged both in Point of Honour and in what he oweth to the Peace of his Kingdoms which we profess saith he we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the malitious and disaffectionate to inflame the minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with despair of ever obtaining any effect of our Promise for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's Loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several Parts and Places of your Kingdom for which we were chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort adviseable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Vniformity and the Religion Established for these Reasons c. whereof this is one It will in no wise become the graver Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Vniformity and at the next Session the reason of Vniformity continuing still the same to Pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of the former So that now His Majesty had no other Remedy but either 1. To retreat from that Pious and Seasonable Resolution for Liberty of Conscience expressed in Letters to the Parliament then sitting from Breda a Resolution so acceptable to them as the whole House Nemine Contradicente by Letters returned Thanks to him and Blessed the Name of the Lord who put such reconciling thoughts into the heart of the King. And he himself likewise owned an especial Blessing from God upon his Affairs after he had expressed that intention 2. Of break that Promise he solemnly made assuring this Liberty and had professed to the world upon this occasion in his Speech May 8. 1661. That he valued himself much upon keeping his Word and whatsoever he promised to his Subjects and that no man can be his Friend and wish him well who would perswade him to consent to the breach of that solemn Promise 3. Or leave the Nation under greater Distractions and Sufferings about Religion then he found it And that upon 12 years Experience of other means which extended rather to increase the Distempers These dishonourable things I say His Majesty must have suffered and undergone or make use of that Power GOD and the NATION have intrusted him withal tho not with Concurrence of Parliament so much and so often desired by him even so oft as he came to them as he tells them in his Speech July 8. 1661. yet nothing at any time was done to his Satisfaction in Liberty of Conscience by the Houses being obliged in their Judgments to proceed in the other way CHAP. V. Of former Examples for Indulgences HIS Majesty's Gracious Declaration contains not a greater Indulgence altho it be extended to a greater number of Persons than what was granted by His Majesty's Predecessors which before we have mentioned to the French and Dutch Congregations 1. There was an uniform order of Church Government and Divine Service to which not only His majesty's Subjects but all the Inhabitants in His Majesty's Dominions were to conform and no man to absent himself And were enjoyned not to hear or be present at any other Forms of Prayers and Administration of Sacraments then what is in that Book prescribed under Penalties of Ecclesiastical Censures Fines to the King Poor of the Parish c. 2. The Dispensation and Exemption was by the SOLE Authority of the Sovereign and stands thus A Liberty to