a Common-Wealth Common Justice the Proprieties of Men c. 1. To the first His Majesty or any of his Predecessors hath not at any time in any Statute or Law that concerns these Ecclesiastical Matters by any such special Words bound up himself but rather the contrary as in those two Acts wherein more especially our Affair lieth That for Uniformity where the dispensing with that Statute granted to Strangers by sole Prerogative-Authority is justified And the Act of 22 Car. 2. by the Proviso there inserted the Parliament seems to induce his Majesty's Assent in the recognizing of his Prerogative so expresly in that Act as if they spoke thus Though this Act be very Severe yet if it be found prejudicial or not to attain the End for which we judg such Severity to be requisite it is an Ecclesiastical Affair and your Majesty may when you please dispense and exempt Persons from it 2. There is nothing transacted in these Ecclesiastical Affairs by the Civil Magistrate and as depending on his Authority but such Matters as in the sense of our Law are things materially indifferent and therefore not Malum in se they do not bind the Conscience of the Subject in the nature of them considered in themselves Q. Eliz. Advertisements 1569 Preface the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking a common Order c. So that these Precepts concerning Ecclesiastical Matters oblige not in their own Nature as what is either Bonum or Malum in se but as prohibited or commanded 3. Civil Rights and Claims and in Temporal Things only are of the immediate and intrinsick Concern and Interest of all Republicks Dominium non fundatur in Gratiâ if the just claim of a Prince may not be interrupted upon the account he is of this or that Religion or Perswasion nor may a Subject be justly Banished Imprisoned Confiscated or Ruined upon the meer account of Religion or because his Conscience is not cast into the same Mould with the Prince or present Establishment SECT 3. QUEST III. Religion and the Worship and Service of God being the great Concernments of a Nation Is it not then to dispence with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Laws too great a Trust to be reposed in any one Hand Answ 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Civil Republick 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. The Moment or Weight of a Matter in our deliberation hath its proportion either as under an absolute or respective Consideration Wisdom is better than Riches in it self but not in relation to the support of present Life the Knowledg of God and Divine Things is better than to know the Virtue of Drugs and Plants but not so in respect to the study of Physick so Religion and the Worship of God is the chiefest and better part in it self considered but in its respective Consideration as to the faculty of a particular Person to a Community of Men for the advance of Civil Affairs There are other Qualifications and Inducements of greater consequence and more directly and immediatly tending to the being or well-being thereof That there be no Mistake in this great Concernment I further distinguish There cometh under the Notion of Religion the Holiness and Righteousness that is of the Moral Law Principles whereof are in all Mens Natures and attend in their Actings by a natural Conscience 2. Gospel-Duties directed and ordered by a Supernatural Light no Foot-steps or Principles hereof are found in us For the former Religion in that sence as the Knowledg of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our Dealings c. are such Things wherein the Well-being of Common-Wealths is much concerned But Religion as it stands in the exerting Supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commandments of Christ as the other the Commandments of God John 15. as Faith Repentance Sacraments Discipline and the like Gospel-Ordinances In the Duties under these Heads considered and as distinct from Moral Duties there is little or nothing directly and immediately contributed by them to Mens Civil Interests further than where these Supernatural Vertues are planted in Mens Minds the Moral Duties of Piety and Honesty do more plentifully abound and are in exercise As those Morals do more immediatly concern the Republick so the Laws thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-Table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Laws under Penalties and Incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State may conduce most to the Welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries it 's otherwise for as they contribute little to us in our Civil Government otherwise than as before mentioned so is there little contributed by the Wisdom or Authority of any State advantagious to the Gospel but Protection or being a Defence upon this Glory Learned Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Christ the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commandeth which is all the Power we give to Princes Of Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before thus By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers and Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first ordained and appointed But to return If Adam had stood all Common-Wealths would have been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith nor Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised And since the Fall you have had well-governed Common-Wealths of Turks and Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular Persons in converse another Man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any Civil Concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by my omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a Man I deal with be unjust lie steal c. my worldly Interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this exercise Faith on Christ for Forgiveness and humble himself I am neither a gainer nor loser hereby in the sense we speak of Now it is Gospel-Worship we profess in this Nation Gospel-Religion If the Duties themselves performed are of no greater consequence in respect to Persons with whom we converse or the Civil State where we live the Modes Forms and Ceremonies of such Worship cannot be of such moment or trust in the manage of them And let me add much less can there be any such special advantage to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external Form of Worship or Government that it should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention which evidently appears in this how prosperous and flourishing hath this Nation been in their Civil Concerns under Episcopacy set Liturgies Ceremonies c. and as great prosperity in other Christian Republicks where these have been altogether disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it
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 that 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 SECT 2. 2. This Ballance hath always been trusted in the Hand and annexed to the Sovereign Majesty of every State for this Interest doth little vary but remaineth in a manner the same in all Republicks 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 stiled Imperial this Power is inseparably annexed thereunto which needs little proof it being confirmed by the Oath of Supremacy An Oath is the End of a Controversy 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 Law. When an Act say both those two Learned Judges Cooke and Rolls forbiddeth under a Penalty in case it may be inconvenient to divers particular Persons in respect of Circumstances the Law gives Power to the King to dispense therewith And in like Cases or upon other Considerations equal he may Dispense License Pardon c. Yea although those Laws have been passed by his Majesty's Royal Assent formerly and which is more a Clause inserted in the Act that the King's Licence or Dispensation in this or that Case shall be void Yet it will be no Bar to such Prerogatives as are inherent and originally inseparable to his Royal Person but he may give Licence with a Non Obstante thereunto A learned Serjeant in his Nomotechina hath these words The King by a Clause of Non Obstante may dispense with a Statute Law if he recite the Statute though the Statute say such Dispensations shall be merely void And he may License Things forbidden by the Statutes as to coin Mony which is made a Capital Offence by the Statute and was before lawful for that it is but malum prohibitum but malum in se as to leave a Nusance in the High-way he cannot license to do but when it is done he may pardon it but where the Statute saith his License shall be void which the Civilians call Clausula derogativa there it must have a Clause of Non Obstante that is to say this Clause notwithstanding any Statute else it is not good And says the same Author He may in respect of his Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction exempt some from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary and dispense with others in things which the Ecclesiastical Law prohibits upon the same ground that they are not mala in se but prohibita I hold clear saith Judg Hobart that though the Statute says That all Dispensations c. shall be granted in manner and form following and not otherwise that yet the King is not thereby restrained but his Power remains full and perfect as before and he may still grant them as King. The King may remit the Penalty or Punishment of those Laws which he hath no power to dispense with as where what is forbidden by the Law is Malum in se saith the Serjeant in his aformentioned Discourse of Law much more then when what is forbiden is only Malum prohibitum The Statute indeed of the 9th of Edw. 2. Cap. 7. enacts That no Letter shall proceed from the King to discharge an Excommunicated Person but where the King's Liberty is prejudiced But as this Statute it self proves the Law and former Practice so it takes it not away since the King's Liberty of discharging such Persons used before is preserved by the same Statute CHAP. II. Of the Prerogatives and Regal Powers in Relation to Ecclesiastical Laws and Matters of Religion SECT 1. 1. REligion in the moral Parts thereof the Precepts and Commandments of God the Institutions and Ordinances of Christ these are not subject to any Humane Wisdom or Power The Apostles that were of higher Authority in these Affairs than any on Earth went no farther but as 1 Cor. 11.23 What I have received of the Lord that I delivered unto you To make Laws in Spiritual Matters that are such by the Light of Nature that Men may be moved to Duty and act according to their Light we yield to the Civil Magistrate as he is Custos utriusque Tabulae 2. There are Matters of Circumstance also and external Forms in Worship tending to Order and Decency These and the like are made by our Laws to depend upon the Power and Ordering of the Prince This Distinction you have laid down as Law by Judg Hobart his words are these Tho it be de Jure Divino that Christian People be provided of Christian Offices and Duties of Teaching Administration of the Sacraments and the like and of Pastors for that purpose and therefore to debar them wholly of it were expresly against the Law of God yet the Distinction of Parishes and the Form of furnishing every Parish Church with his proper Curat Rector or Pastor by the way of Presentation Institution c. as is used diversly in divers Churches and the State or Title which he hath or is to have in his Church or Benefice is not a positive Law of God in point of Circumstance And we know well that the Primitive Church in its greatest Purity were but voluntary Congregations of Believers submitting themselves to the Apostles and after to other Pastors to whom they did minister of their Temporals as God did move them Government is a Beam of Divine Power and therefore he proceeds saying If a People will refuse all Government it were against the Law of God but if a Popular State will receive a Monarchy it stands well with the Law of God. In the Case of Glover and Colt against the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield From all this the Judg seems to confirm his Distinction by way of Comparison thus As in Humane Affairs Government in the General and Essentials of it that one Man be Subject to another Man in an orderly way is necessary and Jure Divino and not in Man's Liberty or Dispose But for the Modes and Forms of Government and like Circumstances it is left to the wisdom and choice of Men and the conduct thereof So in Matters of Religion what is not Jure Divino such external Forms and Rites tending to a more orderly and decent administration in the Worship and Service of God our Law judgeth the Magistrate hath the ordering hereof in each Nation according to the Manners and Tempers of the People which is Various And in particular the Disposing of Pastors and People for the more convenient and orderly Service and Worship
the Indulgence and Dispensation granted by Edw. 6. to Strangers yea though it was a Gravamen to the Bishop making an evident Breach upon the Pale of Uniformity for not only the Parents but the Children and Childrens Children which were natural Subjects to his Realm Persons of great Estate and Purchasers of Lands and interessed in the Soil The Number also of these Congregations increasing and scituated in the eminent and chief Towns and Cities in the Kingdom there to live and profess as separated and divided Bodies in Discipline and Worship from the Church of England was not intended by the first Grant so Bishop Laud complains there being only that one in London when the first Grant was made such things were frequently suggested against them yet these Princes were graciously disposed notwithstanding the Act for Uniformity from time to time to confirm the Grant of Edw. 6. by several Orders past some of them formed as having special respect to such Objections which will not be amiss for the Reader 's confirmation here to insert some of them at least The Form in which Queen Elizabeth confirmed their Liberties Non Ignoramus variis Ecclesiis varias diversas jam ab initio Christianae Religionis semper fuisse Ritus Ceremonias non contemnimus vestras neque nos ad nostras cogimus King James Octob. 17. 10 Jac. to 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 thereto 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 Council for the Walloons of Norwich Octob. 10. 1621. Those of Norwich though 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 fifty five Years practised by them The Order of King Charles the First Novemb. 13. 1631. We Will and Command our Judges c. to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children quietly to enjoy all and singular c. without any Troubles Arrests or Proceedings by way of Information or otherwise An Order of the Council for the Dutch of Norwich Jan. 7. 1630. That all those that now or hereafter shall be Members of the Dutch Congregation although born within this Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Church so long as his Majesty shall be pleased c. These and divers 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 and inseparable Prerogative not only to injoin and give Laws to their Subjects in Ecclesiastical Matters such as are left to the ordering of any Civil Power as also to dispense and exempt from Laws of that kind though 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 or done by those Kings and Princes in Ecclesiastical Affairs being their known Prerogative no not in those 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 limiting or enlarging the Exercise of their Power in these Ecclesiastical Matters but rather recognizing and confirming what hath been ordered by them as in 5 Eliz. and Car. 2. in the Act of Uniformity and other Instances many may be produced CHAP. IV. Of the Objections made against this Power and the executing thereof with Answer thereunto SECT 1. THere are Reasonings possibly tending another way in stating this Case The Objections obvious I shall now mention having divers material Considerations pertinent to a more full and clear stating this Case which might have been produced in the Body of this Discourse but are reserved rather to this place partly because we find this vulgar way of Dialogue le ts in Knowledg with less difficulty and what is required by way of a Question engageth him that proposeth with greater attention to observe what is said in the Answer QUEST I. If such a Prerogative be in the King what need Ecclesiastical Laws be transacted and established by Parliament Answ 1. That hinders not but that his Majesty's Power is sufficient of it self to do many things relating to such Laws without them take it in his Majesty's own words Declarat of 26 Decemb. 1662. To concur with us in making some such Act as may enable us to exercise with a more universal Satisfaction that Power of Dispensing which we conceive to be inherent in Vs As also it is by the afore-named learned Judg Hubbard expressed That these Statutes and the like were made to put things in ordinary Form and to ease the Soveraign of Labour but not to derogate from his Power 2. Powers sufficient in themselves may join and in such conjunction remain intire as Powers Cumulative and not Privative as it is evident from what is said in the Statute of 31 Hen. 8. cap. 10. The King 's most excellent Majesty though it appertained to his Prerogative Royal to give Honour as it shall seem to his Wisdom he is nevertheless pleased and contented for an Order to be had c. by this High Court of Parliament that it shall be enacted by the Authority of the same c. 3. The King is a kind of Corporation in himself distinct from that Capacity wherein he stands in conjunction with his Subjects as their Head And in that respect being in an higher Region above and in a greater distance from those Interests upon the account whereof his Subjects are many times much divided and publick Edicts are formed according to the Prevalency of a greater Party to the prejudice of others that are his Loyal Subjects also by his Wisdom and Prudence there is a Ballance by which the Tranquillity of a Nation is happily preserved and one Party is not overborn by the other having this Power to mitigate and dispense in the Matters under our consideration as in his Wisdom with Advice of Council shall seem equal SECT 2. QUEST II. But hath not the King's Prerogative Limits in our Laws And are there not some Things which he cannot dispense with no not with a Non Obstante Answ I grant it and in several Cases 1. He may by special Words in the Statute bind up himself from making any use of his Prerogative 2. In what is Malum in se in respect of Impiety or Unrighteousness 3. When such Dispensations are destructive to the great Ends of
was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Offices that they contribute no more to the setling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no Edg to cut off Mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Laws and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for Substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Laws in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel-Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the Trust whereof may be placed in the Hand of a wise and prudent Prince Again There is liberty of an after-Judgment to be made by him that is to practise in what-ever is of the Concerns of Religion commanded by Men. Thence such Laws require not such simple and peremptory Obedience if conformable to those Rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect to God as well as Man if otherwise that choice ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostle claimed Acts 5.29 Although Matters of Religion and the Concerns of it be great Things considered in themselves and accordingly is the Trust yet what of it falleth under the Hand of a Civil Power considered in it self is not so Because the greatness of this Trust sticks generally in Mens Minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the Will of one Man. To remove this or the like Stumbling-block we will suppose failings in the management of the Trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refuse either by Himself or Parliament to enjoin any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Ceremonies and Externals the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to their Liberty in the observance of them the Premisses last mentioned being considered there can be no great prejudice to the Common-Wealth or Civil Affairs thereby Distinctly we shall weigh each of these 1. For the former If the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing as we mentioned before and of such a nature as although at first 't were of Godly Intent and purposely devised yet at length turned to Vanity and Superstition and burdened Mens Consciences without cause c. as we our selves acknowledg See Preface to Common-Prayer Book And of the same condition are most of those Impositions which have proved burthensom to the Nation a long time and 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 great Consequence Those Scriptures by which States profess themselves to be guided in the forming of these Ecclesiastical Laws are intrusted also in the Hands of his Gospel-Ministers for their conduct and direction in ordering Gospel-Affairs who have Gifts and Assistances from Christ in such a measure and degree as cannot be expected in the ablest Statesman as such And the Ecclesiastical Laws are never so well ordered by Civil Powers as when they consult with and take advice and direction from the Ministers of the Gospel about them To advise new Rites and Ceremonies saith Bishop Bilson is not the Prince's 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 could not hereby suffer in respect of its Civil Concerns but the Wealth and Trade c. much more prosperous The Things being small in themselves and become great only upon the account of their being injoined and the greatness of Penalties annexed become 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 Common-Wealths for the quickning of Trade keeping up of Rents c. or any particular Man's Civil Concern that Men kneel or not at the Sacrament crossing or not crossing in Baptisin c. 2. For the other A dispensing with all Penalties annexed to Ecclesiastical Laws where these Penalties are removed yet these Laws remain as Counsels and Advertisements and being consulted by the Learned Clergy in their Synod and commended as 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 1. 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 a Magistrate and of the Means we put so great an Esteem upon for reducing a People how will the People ever become Christians 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 counselled left his People free and to the perswasion in their own hearts Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another Man esteemeth every day alike let every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind That was but a Counsel or Advertisement In the Act for Conformity in 1. Eliz. given to the Arch-Bishop Bishops and other Ordinaries that they would endeavour to perform their Duties in the Execution of that Act it was indeed very solemn that is from the Queen's 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 thereof There hath been no want of Obedience hereunto by the Bishops being fully perswaded in their Hearts hereof 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 Afternoon's 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 of teaching in the Church of England and that such Preachers be most encouraged and approved of And how readily was this immediatly practised throughout the Nation and is continued in many places to this day In the Establishment of Uniformity 2 Edw. 6. a Liberty was left in
going on still to make Laws to afflict and punish and others engaged quietly to suffer whatsoever they should be exposed to for their Consciences Matters being at this pass there was apparent necessity that some Remedy be speedily applied His Majesty considering they are all his Subjects and how much by such Severity the Interest of his Soveraignty is narrowed so great a number of his People rendred unworthy of his Countenance and Protection and upon no other Account or Crime but their being of different Perswasions in some Externals of Religion Persons otherwise for Industry Faithfulness Loyalty and every way qualified to do his Majesty and their Country as much Service as others His Majesty also calling to mind that prudent Caution which his Royal Father left him in these words Take heed saith he that outward Circumstances and Formalities in Religion devour not all or the best Incouragements of Learning and Industry but with an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as you find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them this will be sure to gain you the Hearts of the best and most too It was likewise impossible for his Majesty to imagine that so many thousands in his own Observation who have suffered so greatly with such humble submission should daily thus expose themselves and Families to ruin from no other or better Principles than a Spirit of Obstinacy and Stubbornness great Sufferings and by great Multitudes yet no Tumults no Resisting whereas in the beginning of the Reformation what Armies in the North and in the West upon this Account by those of another Perswasion were raised tho as yet they suffered little His Majesty as a Common Father beareth Affection to all his Subjects but who of them deserves it and who not can never 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 Laws justify and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Laws that shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation Of these Things his Majesty hath had a clear prospect all along and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in his Proclamation July 16. 1669. and otherwise to indulge Tender Consciences and hath upon the aforementioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to publish this his Gracious Declaration of March the 25th 1671 wherein he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus his Majesty as a Wise and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or turning to refreshing Showers the dark Fogs 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 unto them that their Brethren have obtained the like favour from his Majesty in respect to their Consciences The Apostle requires That we neither judg or despise those that differ from us in Matters of the like Nature but to leave a Man without molestation from us to his own Master to whom he standeth or falleth his being in the right or in the wrong upon this account is a Matter of his Master's concern What is it to us What have we to do to discipline another Man's Servant for what his Master is pleased to bear with him SECT 6. QUEST VI. Since these Ecclesiastical Laws 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 Laws had been by Parliament Answ 1. The Kings and Princes of this Realm his Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Things but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties of such Laws A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might though no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least in 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 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 whereby he may be enabled with a more universal acceptation to exercise the Power of Dispensing which is inherent in him not doubting their chearful cooperation 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 Malicious and Disaffected to inflame the Minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with dispair of ever obtaining any Effect of our Promises for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's dutiful and 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 advisable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and the Religion established for divers Reasons whereof this is one It will in no wise become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Uniformity and at the next Session the Reasons of Uniformity continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of