Remedies be not applied And as the Church of England is that Constitution which is the best able to stand upon its own bottom and to give Protection to the Parties dissenting from it so is it also that Establishment whether we consider its Doctrine or its Government its inward Sentiments or its outward Polity which is the truest Friend and Supporter of the Crown it is that without which the Monarchy can no more subsist than a Candle can burn without Flame than a Lamp can be maintain'd without Oil or a Fire subsist without Heat so that every Dissenter who envys at the Hierarchy or endeavors to level the Ecclesiastical State into a new Model of his own or his Teacher's making does by robbing the Crown of its best and most powerful Friends its most faithful steady and affectionate Champions and Defenders leave it to the mercy of Republican Designs and expose it to the Rage and Fury of the worst of Men every Dissenter is either an Enemy to Monarchy or he does not understand his own Principles if he be not and this I believe to be the Case of very great numbers amongst them for his Principles and Models of Government in the Church will as certainly destroy and overthrow Monarchy in the State as Fire will melt Wax or Water extinguish Fire So that I take a Dissenter and a Commonwealthsman to be in a manner convertible terms and that no considering Man can pretend with a safe Conscience that Episcopacy is unlawful but he must own with the same breath that Monarchy is so too for these two things will always have such a Connexion that it will be impossible to separate the one of them from the other neither can any Man who is a Friend to his Prince be an Enemy to the Grandure of the Ecclesiastical State though it were indeed much greater and more invidious than it is There is no one Party of the Separation that will pretend to vie Strength or Interest with the Church of England but being all united in confederacy together and in favorable Junctures to wicked Designs and Men when the People are discontented the State is troubled and Animosities are grown high and in a manner incurable betwixt the King and his two Houses they may and they have actually destroy'd and overthrown it as it happened in the late times in the troublesome and distemper'd Reign of King Charles I. but when that work is done they cannot all Rule together and they have no one Party that is fit to govern the rest the Presbyterians who are perhaps the fittest to govern of all the Dissenting Parties were the first that leap'd into the empty Saddle but they wanted an Academy to teach them to ride for they could not sit long there but were dismounted with Contempt and Scorn by the growing Interest of the Independent Party the rigor of their Discipline would not be endured the Meanness of their Persons was despised and their whole Management was so distastful that it hath made them odious to the best and wisest part of the Nation ever since they wanted the two things without which it will be always impossible to govern Sirength on the one side and Reverence on the other to make amends for which defect and to reconcile the People to the new Model by making them Parts of the Building and Sharers in the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs the Lay-Elders were called in and they as is usual for Men of Mechanick and frequently even sor did Education when they are gotten into power were the most insolent intolerable and insupportable People in the World 〈◊〉 Presbytery either emergeth out of the state of Parity which is a State of Force and Rigor that hath no Reverence for its own Authority and is uneasie under its own Bonds into the noble and only natural state of an Episcopal Subordination for Government and Subordination the several degrees of the one and of the other and the Perfection of them both are indeed but the same things under several and distinct Names or else it drops downwards into Independency that is distinct and separate Assemblies without any common appeal amongst them all which is the last and most imperfect state of human Society whether in Sacred or in Civil Bodies and is the next step to Confusion if it be not Confusion it self out of which as from a Chaos weary of it self and of its own dark distracted and disordered Nature a new World of Beauty and of Order doth naturally arise and from the Inconveniences the endless Troubles the wild Enthusiasms the mad and extravagant Perplexities and Tormoils of such a State at length it comes to pass that the Spirit of God begins to move upon the face of the Waters and Light to flutter with uncertain motions and with a gloomy and imperfect Beam till Monarchy and Prelacy the two great Lights the Sun to Rule the Passions and Appetites of the Day the Moon to dispel the Ignorance and Darkness of the Night begin to rouse their drooping and disconsolate Heads as they did at the end of our late unhappy Confusions and like the Phenix burnt in its own spicy Nest to revive those Odors and retrieve◠themselves into a new vigorous and fragrant Life gaining new Strength and Youth and Beauty from their Ruins for this is and will always be the standing nature of things that as order degenerates through carelessness or through design into Confusion so Confusion must either end in absolute Destruction or retrieve it self back again into necessary Order and there being but two ways to keep Mankind in Obedience that is either by Force or Persuasion Force is an uncertain and capricious thing and where it conquers most its conquest is imperfect because it hath no empire over the Will in the Obedience of which alone it is that any Empire or Government is secure and Persuasion without Force will scarce do so much as Force without Persuasion amongst so many obstinate and perverse Wills as every Government is to work upon for its own Peace and Safety but it is a willing Fear a Fear mixt with Reverence and blended with Love it is wholesom Laws enforced by a comely and subordinate dependence of all the parts of a Government upon each other and recommended by the greatness and dignity of the Persons with whom the Execution of them whether in Sacred or in Civil Matters is intrusted it is a certain mixture by wise and just Proportions of these two Principles together so as to render Disobedience not only unsafe but also unreasonable and inexcusable too and to enforce Obedience by the Beauty and Majesty and wise Contexture of that Government to which it is pay'd that when all is done is the only true Elixir of Life and the best Expedient to make any Body or Community of Men both firm and happy to secure it the most effectually from intestine Maladies and external Dangers and make it pleased and contented within
Right and in Contempt of the Reasons which he vouchsases to assign for which he did it this certainly is so insufferable so insupportable so full of the utmost Indignity and Affront in Subjects to their Prime that nothing can be more Disaffection to a Government or Disobedience to it are very good Reasons why a King should visit wherever he hath a legal Power of Visitation because the King is the Head of the Body Politick and these are the greatest political Offences that can possibly be committed and he must be the Judge who are disaffected and who not so far as concerns all Places of trust and profit in his disposal wherein the present Occupants or Incumbents have only an Arbitrary not a legal Tenure otherwise he can never visit at all upon any such account unless those to whom he must be supposed to be accountable in this Case shall concur with him in Judgment that he hath good cause so to do so that it is but the Court of Aldermen's first demanding his Reasons and then pretending to be dissatisfied with them and he hath effectually lost his power of Visitation It cannot be denied that all that were ejected in the late Visitation of King Charles II. were Dissenters or at least so great Favorites of that Interest and Party notwithstanding their Conformity in their own Persons that they were rather more dangerous to the Government than the other A Dissenter as such is one that separates from the Establish'd Worship and Communion for Conscience sake which Conscience of his is either real or pretended if it be only a pretended Conscience this Man in plainer terms is what we call an Hypocrite and a Knave he plays a Game of Interest either to be reveng'd of an whole Party for the sake of some against whom he hath conceiv'd an implacable Displeasure or because he is of Opinion and he may be extremely in the right so far that it is for his advantage in point of Trade and Commerce to herd himself among the tender Consciences and the Men of Scruples though he inwardly despise and laugh at them all this while or else he designs to furnish and enrich himself with the Spoils and Ornaments of Temples and of Altars and with the Revenues of a Church which are the first and last of his Objections and afford his covetous and ambitious Humor the best and the only Argument against it or lastly he is one that being deprest by the present posture of Affairs and having a Mind too great for the meanness of his Fortune will needs be shuffling the political Cards to try what new Game Confusion will produce And it is all one to him whether he raise himself upon the Ruins of the Government as it is by Law Establish'd both in Church and State or upon terms of Honor and Advancement from it by making himself necessary to its Preservation These are four sorts of Hypocritical Dissenters to which we might also add a fifth that of a cross-grain'd and new-fangl'd Tribe whose Humor leads them naturally to Contradiction and Strife and who for that Reason are always against all things that have the publick Sanction on their Side but that though there be nothing of Conscience and Tenderness in such an Humor as this yet there seems to be a sort of Sincerity in a peevish Temper which is inconsistent with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation But there is also the weak Brother the real and conscientious Separatist from the Church of England who is sincerely of opinion that his Salvation lies at stake and that he cannot comply with the Establish'd Worship and Service without a wilful hazarding his everlasting Happiness in the World to come and a perpetual pain and disquiet to his Conscience in this the Peace of which though he may be under a speculative Mistake is that which he ought certainly to prefer before any worldly advantage whatsoever and the pains of it contracted by a wilful Resistance of its inward motions though his Vnderstanding all this while may be misled and corrupted by Prejudice and Mistake are far more exquisite and sensibly tormenting than the utmost Punishments that Law makers can invent or Laws denounce or Wit and Cruelty in confederacy together can inflict upon him This sort of Dissenter therefore as such I believe there are many to be found is a very proper Object of 〈◊〉 Pity and Compassion from us as the other whenever he is openly detected is of our scorn and hatred but still we ought to be very charitable and cautious in our Censures as to particular Persons notwithstanding some failings or wilful misearriages altogether inconsistent with the Professions which they make which they may have afterwards repented of and we are to judge the best without notorious Evidence to the contrary for the Peace of the World which is embroil'd and endanger'd by a censorious and reproachful Spirit and for the quiet of our own Minds which is strangely disturbed by angry and uncharitable Opinions of other Men only this in general we may say of all the Parties among us even those of the Establish'd Communion not excepted that while the belief and hope of another World is every where pretended it is the Enjoyment of this and the Gratification of the Desires and Appetites belonging to it that is every where chiefly sought after But of all Men there are none that may be more justly or more safely censur'd than those that look one way while they row another that pretend to be strict Members of the National Communion and yet make it their study under that disguise to do it all the mischief they can and to encourage and abet the separating Parties in their Designs against it for nothing is more plain than that this Man hath added Malice to Hypocrisie the most exquisite Hatred to the most profound and criminal Dissimulation that he lies in wait to deceive that he may the more securely destroy without giving warning of the Blow before it comes or owning so much as a sincere Enmity or a frank and fair Intention of Revenge Now this is common to all the several Parties of Dissenters from our Church and of those that favor and abet them in disguise that they all aim at an Ecclesiastical and a Civil Commonwealth and their Principles even among those that are most honest and conscientious in them do naturally aim at the Subversion both of Church and State as to the present Establish'd Constitution of them for Church and State tho they be two things yet they both consist and are made up of the same Persons and the nature of Government is the same in both and it is an Agreement between the Modes and Forms of Government in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Administration that makes each of these most firm strong and lasting in it self and also most useful and serviceable to the other It is certain that he that in his Scruples is really Conscientious he that hath all that tenderness
but this though it was not then granted yet if it had it would not have served the turn as appeared by this that to get into Employments and Publick Trusts in the Kingdom their Casuists had started a new sort of Divinity among them and made it lawful to serve the Interests and Designs of their Party which can be nothing else when their Scruples are indulged but the getting of the Government into their own hands by telling them as to Oaths which it was presumed by the Authority that enjoin'd them such Persons would not take that they were to be taken not in the sense of the Imposers but of the takers themselves and so every Oath was either altogether uncertain that is vain and of no force at all or it had as many Meanings as there could be private Interpretations made or it was taken with the Proviso's and Limitations of the Casuists of the Party who would be sure so to order the matter as not to be excluded out of any Office or Employment by any Oath or Test that could be put upon them and as for Oaths so also for the Sacrament they could not digest it upon every ordinary occasion according to the usage and practice of the Church of England but when the Receiving after that manner was made a Qualification for every publick Employment then they distinguish'd very nicely betwixt the Religious Act and the Civil or Political Qualification they look'd upon it only as a civil Thing a political Formality a pre-requisite Agendum enjoin'd by the Laws of their Country in order to qualifie and prepare them for their respective Offices and Employments the better to serve their own Party and to do mischief to the Government in them without any regard to the Religious Mysteries comprehended under that awful and blessed Institution And as some did by occasional Communion so others did by constant and were great Zealots for the Establish'd Church constant frequenters of the Divine Service and Sacraments only to let them into Opportunities as appeared by the Event For the tree is known by its fruits disturb and overturn it by favoring and abetting as much as in them lay all the Designs and Practices of the Separating Parties This being therefore an extraordinary Disease to which no ordinary Remedies could be apply'd with success for what can bind or tie up the hands of such Men whom neither Oaths nor Sacraments are able to oblige It was judged by those that were then at the Helm of Affairs that some extraordinary and unusual Course must be taken to hinder these profligate and wicked Principles so destitute of the fear of God and so destructive of all Faith and Society among Men from having those mischievous Effects upon the Publick for which they were designed and this at length ended in the seizure of so many Charters into the King's hands and in his new modelling all Corporations at Discretion displacing all such at his pleasure as he had any proof of Disaffection or any ground of Jealousie against and placing others in their stead in whom he might better confide I shall not go about to defend the Legality of such a Course as this if the necessity of it will not defend it nothing will for that there was a necessity of something extraordinary at that time to be done is apparent and what was done had really this good Effect that the Government was generally speaking put into better hands the Republican Faction were every where discouraged and the Monarchy and Church were set upon a firmer bottom than they had stood upon for many Years before so that if this turn of State were in it self illegal yet it cannot be deny'd but it had wholsom Effects and what with this and the legal Penalties which were then revived and the many excellent Discourses published by our Clergy to satisfie the Scruples and rectifie the Mistakes and Misapprehensions of the Dissenters things were now arrived to a very great degree of composure and the Schism was now in a very fair probability of moldering into nothing This present Parliament however dissatisfied with such Proceedings as supported barely by the King's Prerogative without any consent of theirs and being look'd upon perhaps as I am persuaded it was as a design among other things to model Parliaments at the pleasure of the Court and for that Reason such a general Disfranchisement of the Corporations must needs in its Example and Consequence at least be a thing very dangerous to the liberty of the Subject as it proved afterwards in the late King's Reign when the Corporations were put into the hands of Dissenters and Papists yet notwithstanding considering what sort of Men they were that were at that time put into publick Trusts and how well the Corporations as obnoxious to and dependent upon the Crown as they were did afterwards acquit themselves in the beginning of the late King's Reign by sending such Representatives to Parliament as approved themselves upon the severest tryals to be so true to the Establish'd Protestant Religion and to the liberties of the People by refusing to revoke the Test and Penal Laws and by a bold and generous disowning of the Dispensing Power for which they were not only dissolved as unfit and unserviceable for the present turn but also put out of all places of trust honor profit and power through the Nation I say for these Reasons and out of a just respect to the Eternal Merit of so much Virtue Integrity and Courage in a critical and dangerous Juncture the Parliament were so well satisfied and pleas'd with them that they would not suffer them to be call'd in question and much less would they be persuaded to render them incapable of any future Service for so many Years together as would have put the whole Power of the Nation effectually into such hands as in all likelihood would have alter'd the Government both in Church and State and secured a perpetual Republick to themselves It is our Saviour's own Rule that a Kingdom or an House divided against it self cannot stand not but that in this Kingdom or this House there may be divers Opinions and yet the Peace of them both may be maintain'd either by Charity on the one hand or by putting the whole Power of this Kingdom or this House into the hands of one sort who want not sufficient means to defend themselves and to keep the rest from doing them or one another any considerable harm on the other but where not only Opinions but also Powers are divided where they that separate in Opinion from the rest are sharers in the Civil Power together with them there being no use of Power but for Defence or Annoyance it is impossible but a divided Power must be proportionably weakened but that Powers mixt that are imploy'd upon different Designs must produce a dangerous Ferment and that Powers divided and bent against each other must break and shatter one another's Strength the Consequence of
it self That Form of Government is certainly the best whether in Church or State which gives the greatest Encouragement to Virtue and to Merit and propounds the fairest hopes to great Minds to animate and inspire them with an impatient Constancy in the pursuit of Praise through all the Fatigues and Difficulties that attend it and this without question is the subordinate Form as well in Church as State wherein a Scale of Honor is propounded and every new step as it is a Reward of past Endeavors so is it a strong Incitement for the future to go on in the same Courses with new and daily Improvements of Wisdom and of Virtue to our lives end this gives Authority and Reputation to a Church and makes its Laws more easie by the Reverence which is paid to those with whom the Ecclesiastical Discipline is intrusted it refines and sublimates by the Example and Doctrine of its Teachers the Genius of a Nation whose true Pride and Ornament consists in the Exaltation of those Faculties and in the Exercise of those Moral Virtues by which we are Men and by which we differ from the Beasts that perish That cannot be a true and perfect Constitution where Learning and Philosophy for want of sufficient Encouragement in the Prosecution of them are first of mere Necessity disregarded Mens Minds being sunk into a proportionable degree of Poverty with their Fortunes and their Hopes and then by way of plea for Ignorance decry'd nor that where the unnatural Rigors of Discipline are such that they destroy the true Freedoms and innocent Divertisements of human Conversation Nor lastly that which by Hypocrisie or something very like it by uncouth Formalities and uneasie Affectations renders it self nauseous to the best and wisest part of Mankind to Men of the best Principles and to the most candid and ingenuous Tempers belonging to a Nation to the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom in particular and to all the Men of frank and liberal Education who will never endure that intolerable Yoak of Pharisaick Righteousness and Saucy Rigor that turns Men either into Hypocrites or Fools and makes them look as if they were bewitch'd or enchanted to sit upon their Necks but will be sure to shake it off and free themselves from under its insupportable pressures with all the Indignation and Scorn which it deserves To conclude this matter therefore the Church of England among all the several Parties and Distinctions that are amongst us is singly and alone that Body of Men to which the Government of the rest is due whether we consider the greatness of its numbers the extent and wideness of its Interest and Power the Wisdom and Moderation of its Principles and Doctrines the Candor and more than usual Humanity and Ingenuity of its Members the learning and universally acknowledged Merit and Dignity of its Pastors the Strength and Beauty of its subordinate Constitution its agreeableness to Monarchy and to the Genius and Temper of the best and wisest part of the Nation among all Ranks and Qualities whatsoever all other Parties may be shaded and protected by this and kept from annoying it or one another supposing all Offices of publick Trust and all things that belong to the Exercise of Power be put into its hands but without it it is impossible they should all be safe and scarce any one of them would be able to subsist which thing if all the honest part of the Dissenters would seriously consider they would be content with the liberty of their Consciences which without Necessity ought not to be denied them that is with all that liberty of Action and Profession in Religous Matters which they do not abuse to the prejudice of their Neighbor or the Publick without pretending to any share in the Government which in a Monarchy cannot subsist upon their terms but is greatly endangered though but by a mixture of such or their notorious Abetters in it and if nothing but the Government will serve their turn notwithstanding all the other Blessings and Privileges of Subjects whether they be of a Temporal or a Spiritual Nature which they are allowed to enjoy they cannot in reason expect in this case to be treated as Men of tender Consciences but of seditious Tempers and as Disturbers of the publick Peace which by such turbulent and ambitious Practices they go about to undermine and to confirm us in an Opinion which for my part I have always entertained concerning the Men of the best Parts and Abilities among them that a Dissenter and a Commonwealths-man hardly differ so much as the two Amphytruoes or the two Sosiaes in Plautus for they though they were very like yet they were not the same neither in all this have I said any more than what the Wisdom and Authority of this present Parliament will justifie me in for they though they have granted an universal Indulgence to all the Protestant Denominations among us yet they have not taken off those Tests which will effectually secure all that are not openly false and treacherous to their own avowed Principles among them from having any share in any Publick Trust or in any matter of Policy or State I have insisted the more largely upon this weighty Subject concerning the necessity of there being one Governing Party in a Nation where there are several differing and disagreeing with each other as to their Sentiments in Religion or as to their Notions of Government whether by a Monarchy or a Commonwealth that I might represent in as clear a Light as my Meanness would permit the Reasons of State that moved that discerning Prince K. Charles II. to take so extraordinary and unusual Measures in the regulating and new modelling the Corporations of England which being now confessed on all hands to have been very Vnwarrantable Arbitrary and Illegal it hath derived no small Prejudice upon some other Affairs which though legal in themselves were yet not only consequent upon it in point of Time and Order but perhaps if it had not been for the aforesaid Regulation had never been transacted and such the Visitation of the Hospitals seems to have been For my own part my Lord I am very clearly of Opinion that the Seizure and Avoidance of the Charters and the almost forceable Surrenders that were made however it might be done for Reasons of Publick Good so far as the present Turn was concerned yet in the way of doing it by the sole Authority and Prerogative of the Prince through almost all Corporations almost at the same time it was altogether Arbitrary and Illegal and that in its Consequences as appeared sufficiently in the next Reign it was pernicious and destructive to that very Design for which it was first made use of when by the very same Power added to that other of dispensing with Tests and Penal Laws the Corporations were so regulated that Papists and Dissenters were almost the only Men that were trusted or employed and the Government of all Places was
Governors will always abuse their Trust in favor of that Interest and party to which they belong and they will think themselves bound to contravene and disappoint this Provision of King Edward even for Conscience sake to propagate and encourage that which they esteem the only true Profession of the Gospel and to discourage that Formality and Superstition of ours which they so loudly and so passionately and in their own Thoughts so deservedly complain of nay if we add Experience to Reason and conjecture we know by long Experience that they have always acted according to these measures Fourthly They dispense with the qualifying Act of the 25 Car. 2. as I have proved sufficiently in the following Papers it is Sir Edward Hales his Case the Bishop of Oxford's Case the Charter House Case and the whole Magdalen College Case as exactly as any thing can be only with this Aggravation which makes it so much the worse that it is a Power exercised by Subjects not by Kings by Subjects in contempt of the just Power and Prerogative of their Prince by Subjects in derogation to the standing Laws of the Realm and in defiance both of King and Parliament together Fifthly and lastly They dispense with the late Act for reversing the Judgment in a quo Warranto c. for by that Act or I am much mistaken after having very seriously considered it the present Lord Mayor commonly so call'd and several of his Collegues and Assessors upon the Bench are declared not to be and never to have been legal and rightful Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City so that the Governors and Officers pretending to be restored holding by no other Authority but theirs and there not being a Majority in that Court without them There is nothing more certain than that they hold by nothing which is hardly so good as a drowning Man by a Reed and yet he must drown for all that For my part I must be frank and clear with your Lordship and the World that it seems to me a great Scandal to the Government it casts a Blemish of Dishonor and Reproach of Weakness and Infirmity upon the Supreme Power◠when its Enemies such as are at least virtually and consequentally if not actually so shall be suffered to swagger and domineer with the blustring Title of Governors to which they have no Title though they behave themselves of all Men the most imperiously and proudly under the lofty Imaginations that it puts into their weak Heads in a place where the King hath a legal and rightful Visitation and it is a further dishonor in this Case where they can make out no Title to so proud a Word that his Friends and Servants shall be affronted and curb'd after having had the Improvements of a polite and liberal Education by every little thing that hath neither Parts nor Breeding merely because it presumes to call it self a Governor though it knows not how to govern it self and is hardly qualified to be Governor of Jack Strawe's Castle but yet is 〈◊〉 as full and as big swell'd with the title as if it were indeed the Governor of some mighty Fortress that had a powerful Garison at its Devotion and the Country for twenty or thirty Miles round under Military Contribution and if the King of the Country by whose only Power and Authority he acts should pretend to visit or call him to an account he could immediately set him and his Army under Water and so farewell to Pharaoh and his Host for all are Aegyptians to the Dissenters and Commonwealths-men but themselves they are the only true Israelites when all is done and they make no bones of stealing this Crown Jewel of a Prerogative to visit from an Aegyptian King or indeed any King whatsoever for no King comes amiss they love them all and their Prerogative so well My Lord I do humbly propose it to your Lordship's Consideration that it is not only a dishonor to their Majesties that any of their Charities should be wholly managed by Men of a Republican Principle and Party but that the Peace of this Housecan never be secured unless we be all of a Mind as well the Governors as the Officers and Servants true and hearty Communicants of the Establish'd Church and such as have given such proofs of Conformity and Steadiness to the Government both in Church and State as the Law requires then and not before it is that we may expect to see happy Days if it be possible in a miserable Place and in the midst of Sickness and Diseases not till then it is that the Affairs of this House disturbed by mutual Animosities and intestine Broils will go on with an even and successful Pace to the Credit of the Government and to the utmost Advantage of the Sick and Wounded My Lord I humbly beg your Lordship's Pardon for this very long this unexpectedly long preliminary Address I shall add but two things more and that very briefly and so conclude My Lord What are these Gentlemen that will needs make themselves Parties and will needs be Defendants in this Cause against us The Plaintiffs certainly know best who it is by whom they are aggrieved and they complain of none but of Sir T. P. the pretended Lord Mayor and those of his Brethren that have concurred with him for the displacing of those whom K. Charles II. by an undoubted Prerogative inherent in the Crown sent hither and for the restoring of those whom he by the same Right hath ejected I have nothing to say to Hughes as to the Money that hath been paid him but I must expect my Satisfaction from those by whose Order it was done and they if any are the Defendants in this Cause And here there are two Points to be insisted upon first Whether the Court of Aldermen at the passing of those Orders were a legal Court or Whether it be so or no to this very day till it be purged of those that have nothing to do to sit there and till the Number be filled up by those that are better qualified to take the Stile and Dignity of Aldermen upon them Secondly The King's Power of Visitation being acknowledged as we are ready to prove it undeniably if it be disputed whether even a legal Court of Aldermen can rescind the legal Act of the King in an Affair that lies so plainly and so properly within his Royal Cognizance and Visitation But as for these Gentlemen that call themselves Governors and will by all means be Parties under that Name and Notion who are they Are they not all or the much greatest part of them the very same Men that were ejected by K. Charles II. so that their Title to the Stile and Office of Governors of this House is a thing every whit as much disputed and for the same Reason as that of any of the Officers pretending to be restored How then comes it to pass that they so confidently presume to act as the Delegates or
mischiefs then certainly a mixture of such in Places of Trust and Profit of Honor or of Power in the State must have its proportionable Inconveniences attending it and for this reason it is that in Holland where the greatest liberty of Religion is allowed yet none are paid none are trusted in any publick Employment by the States but such as are of the Establish'd Religion this is largely represented by Sir William Temple in his excellent Discourse of the United Provinces and the Reasons of it with very great Judgment and Wisdom are assigned by the Heer Fagell late Pantionary of Holland in his famous Letter to Mr. James Stewart giving an Account of the Sentiments of their present Majesties concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws so much talk'd of and endeavor'd in the late King's time My Lord I wish with all my Heart for the sake of our very Adversaries themselves that nothing else could be alledged against them or any of them as the Causes of King Charles II. his Visitation and their Ejectment consequent upon it but that they were not legally qualified for this is indeed a thing highly to be commended though a Man may labor under a mistaken Conscience that he will not however Sacrifice that Conscience to any temporal Gain or Advantage but there were also other things that lay heavy upon them we can prove one of them by unquestionable Testimony to have been then and still to be a Person zealously disaffected to the Government both in Church and State a personal and profest Enemy to the four last Kings by Name a great Magnifier of the Commonwealth Form of Government and a Publick Slanderer even at this time of the greatest and most useful Personages of this Kingdom And I desire it may be considered that he that would now so sain supplant and eject me was himself ejected for no other Reason but because in a Printed Sermon he had publickly owned asserted and defended the Horrid Murder of King Charles the Martyr For it is certain after his Ejectment that by the great Application of his Friends in his behalf he had been restored again had it not been for this one thing but this Sermon being shewn not by me who knew nothing of it at that time but by others to Mr. Secretary Jenkins and by him communicated to the King himself this was the true and the only Reason why he was not restored he having conformed to the Church of England for some time before Now my Lord it is true that the Act of Oblivion had forgiven him this Fault but yet this hinders not but it might be a very good Reason why the King would not retain him in his particular Service And I do not see how he can be restored not only without disowning the King's Power of Visitation but also without a very favorable Aspect upon that execrable Fault for which he so far incurred his Majesties displeasure as to be ejected out of his Place Indeed if the Man were in any extreme Necessity there might be some Pity due to his Relief and if he could prove any legal Property in such a Place as this God forbid but every Man should enjoy his Right but he can prove no Title unless he first prove that the King hath no Right or Power of Visitation and he is so far from being by his Ejectment in a worse Condition than he was before that he got very considerably by it for he had a Living which is a Freehold in Law bestowed upon him of twice the yearly value and a Living at such a distance that the Canons of the Church would not suffer him to enjoy both together if the Hospital were a Cure of Souls as in Law I must confess it is not but it is sufficient that it is in Conscience and he for that Reason if he had any Conscience might be ashamed to pretend to both of these Places together If the Hospital had been a Cure of Souls he would have lost his Title to it immediately upon his Institution and Induction into the other and it is strange that so little regard should be had to the Reason of that Law which was the impossibility of a Man's taking sufficient care of two Places at so great a distance as that he should be thought a fit Person to be restored after having been so fairly and so legally ejected by him that had an unquestionable Right to do it and for a Reason in which all the Royal Family is so sensibly concerned that he must have very little Respect for the Memory of our past Kings or for the Persons of our present most Gracious most Happy and Auspicious King and Queen notwithstanding that Crime still bleeding like the Blood of the Martyr which never yet was stanched for which he was ejected that will pretend to restore and reinstate him again in such Circumstances as these And if to all this we add his gross neglect of his Duty while he officiated in our House his not burying the Dead not visiting the Sick not residing upon or near the Place his slubbering over even after his Conformity the Prayers of our Church after an unseemly and ungainly manner and after all his getting little or nothing by his being restored for he must find a Curate in one place but only the Satisfaction and Gratification of a causeless Malice against one that contributed nothing to his Ejectment it will appear as I do humbly hope to your Lordship that I have not only all the Law but all the Equity and Fairness in the World on my side and how much more unconscionable must it then needs be thought when there are so many things to be said in my behalf and when I have supplied both for above this year and half that I should not receive one penny all this while upon the Hospital Account But that this Man should receive the Money I have earned and which neither he nor any of his Friends dare ever yet pretend to be his due My Lord I have but two things more to add and I have done I beg your Lordship's Pardon for detaining you so long and will be very brief in what remains My Lord that excellent Person Mr. Serjeant Pemberton in his Opinion given under his Hand upon this very Case of ours hath these very words which follow I conceive that the Court of Aldermen being the Persons who authorised the Governors of this Hospital by their Order when the Corporation of the City of London was dissolved by the Judgment in the quo Warranto the Authority of those Governors of the Hospital ceased and they cannot act again without a new Order or Appointment of the Court of Aldermen and I conceive the King's that is King Jame's Proclamation in October 1688 doth not give any Authority to the former Governers of the Hospital to act by the former Authority to them given by the former Order of the Court of Aldermen but they
these are all Places within the meaning of the Act and that there was very good Reason for ejecting those Officers who had not qualified themselves according as that Act required Furthermore my Lord they do not only receive Wages and Salaries from the King but there is a Trust and a Command committed to them a Trust as to the Administration of their respective Employments and an Authority for the Execution of that Trust for in vain is a Trust committed to any Man whatsoever who is destitute of Power to see to its Execution they are the very words of the Act Or shall have Command or place of Trust from his Majesty or from any of his Majesties Predecessors c. Which words Command and Trust according to their true import and meaning must be understood in their utmost Latitude and Extent of Signification unless there were some other passages in the Act it self that laid a particular Restraint and Circumscription upon them It is but a very small Command and place of Trust which an Inferior Officer in the Excise or Customs is possessed of suppose a Gauger in the Excise or a Land or Tide-waiter in the Customs and even Offices inferior to these and yet these being all of them in the King's Pay have been interpreted to come within the meaning of this Act and we know what Artifice and what Force was used in a late unfortunate Reign to make them renounce their Obligation to the Test and promise to concur to its repeal and yet these have no Patent or Grant from the King only they depend upon his verbal appointment or they are chosen without the King 's immediate privity or knowledge by their Superior Officer and by him or them without any further to do upon any real or pretended Misdemeanor they are discarded but they receive the King's Pay for their respective Employments and from this it is that the Obligation to the Test ariseth and this if it do not equally or rather more concern all those that act in the Hospital of St. Thomas Southwark under the Grant or Letters Patent of King Edward VI. and are paid by an Authority derived from them Then I must confess to your Lordship and the World that I have considered of these things a great while and with a great deal of Seriousness and with an earnest Desire to find out and discover the Truth to no purpose The Act speaks not only of Places of Advantage with Salary or Perquisites or both belonging to them but in general of all Trusts reposed by the King that no Person ought to be admitted into such but those that will perform the Conditions by this Act required and this concerns the Governors as well as the Officers and Servants of the House for they are trusted though they are not paid I presume it will be granted on all hands that a known and open Papist ought not to be a Governor in such an House as this and why then should a concealed one be allowed who is certainly much the more dangerous of the two and how shall we know what any Man is in this Case unless he perform those Conditions and undergo those Tests without which the Law is not satisfied but he is a Popish Recusant It appears therefore as evident as Demonstration it self can make it that though the King might have ejected either Officers or Governors without giving a Reason or without being accountable to any for what he did in this Case yet that what he did was founded upon Reasons the most agreeable to Law and Justice and the most conducible to the Publick Good of any that could have been thought of or suggested It is likewise provided by a Clause in the same Act of Parliament That any Person who by neglect or refusal to do as the Act requires shall lose or forfeit any Office and shall afterwards qualifie himself by conforming to the Law yet he shall not be restored to the Prejudice of any Person who upon the Lapse or Forfeiture came into the Possession of his Vacant Place having qualified himself within the time prefix'd as the Law requires so that what firmer Tenure there can be than ours is I cannot imagine It cannot be thought an Injury or a piece of Persecution when a Man enjoys the liberty of his Conscience his Person his Estate when he is allowed all the just and convenient freedoms of Conversation together with an undisturbed License of Traffick and Commerce for him to be shut out of Places of Profit or Trust in the disposal of the State in which he is like to be troublesom to the Religion Establish'd and to the Peace of his Country it being seen by Experience that all Men in power do naturally use it and for the most part with an inexcusable warmth and heat for the Interest of that particular Persuasion which they themselves have espoused The particular Inconvenience of it in this House appeared in that when the Dissenting Party had the ascendent in it they chose no Officers but such as were like themselves and the Chappel it self which is the King's Chappel and immediately subject to his Royal Visitation was made an illegal Conventicle for three Years together to his great dishonor and to the Reproach and Scandal of the Government it self and for the merit of this among other things that do highly recommend him to that sort of Men it is that my Competitor contrary to all Law and Justice is abetted in his unrighteous and unreasonable Pretensions against me My Lord I am not for any Man 's being molested or troubled for his Conscience sake in Matters of mere Opinion it is not only against my Judgment but my Temper too and indeed unless the necessity of the Publick may excuse it it is a Cruelty that can never be excused and for that reason ought never to be practised I am very well pleased and satisfied with the Toleration which the Parliament have granted always provided That the Tolerated Parties be kept out of all Places and Trusts that are of a publick nature and in the gift and disposal of the State The Church of England is that Party of Men which all Parties will acknowledge they can live most happily under unless they be the Regnant Party themselves and we have seen so much of the inhuman Cruelties and more than Dragooning Barbarities of a Dissenting Zeal and such unspeakable Confusions consequent upon it that the best and wisest of the Dissenters themselves though upon a Religious account they could not submit themselves to the Episcopal Government or comply with the Liturgy and Ceremonies of our Church yet upon political Reasons they have always declared for supporting the Establishment as the only means to preserve the Peace and Tranquillity of their Country and to make us as happy and as great a People as in our divided Circumstances we can be But if the Reign of those that are Dissenters from our Church be attended with so many