making his Interpretation of the Law to be a rule in all Cases as in divers late Proclamations he hath done And if you will look on His Majesty's Answer to the Declaration of bâ—…th Houses of Parliament of July 1. 1642. you will find there very many Profound Observations and Presidents and Authorities of Law and wherein he several times refers to the happy times of that good Queen Elizabeth as well as to ancient Times and he thence taking his measures saith in p. 15. The King caus'd Proclamations to be made for in such Cases Proclamations declaratory were not conceiv'd in those times to be illegal c. And you may easily imagine this Power of authentick Interpretation very well Consistent with the just Power of the House of Lords in declaring the Law in a particular Case of which I occasionally mention'd to you the late Earl of Anglesy's opinion But how not only the Lords but the House of Commons did often during the late Rebellion encroach on the Regal Power of declaring and by Ordinances without and against the King's consent I shall some other time shew you at large A. Can you readily now at this time give any instance of the House of Commons thâ—…n doing any thing of that Nature B. Yes and I can refer â—…ou for the fact of it to The Declaration of King Charles the First of August 12. 1642. to all his lâ—…ving Subjects and who there mentionâ—… That after several in imations of Treasons PLOTS and Conspiracies 〈◊〉 the Papists of great Provisions of Arms by them and training Men under-ground and many other false Reports created spread and countenanced by themselves upon some general Apprehensions of Designs against them a Protestation is made in the House of Commons for Union and Consent among themselves to perform those Duties which if they had meant no more then they had express'd had been sufficiently provided for by the Oaths they had already taken and which their former Duties obliged them to Hereupon a Protestation is framed and being put into such words as no honest man could believe himself obliged by it to any unlawful Action was voluntarily taken by all the Members of the House of Commons and presently recommended to the House of Lords where it receiv'd the same Countenance that is was look'd upon as containing nothing in it self unlawful tho some Members of that House refused to take it as being voluntary and not imposed by any lawful Authority Then 't is recommended to the City of London and over all the Kingdom by Order from the House of Commons a strange and unheard of Usurpation to be taken by all Persons But within very few days upon Conference among themselves and among those Clergymen who daily sollicite their unlawful and unwarrantable Designs with the People they find they were by this Protestation so far from having drawn People into their Combination that in truth all men conceiv'd that they were even engaged by it against their main Design by promising to defend the true Reform'd Protestant Religion express'd in the Doctrine of the Church of England And thereupon some Persons of that Faction prevail'd that after the Members of the Houses had taken it a Declaration was set forth by the House of Commons that by those words The Doctrine of the Church of England was intended only so far as it was opposite to Popery and Popish innovations and that the words were not to be extended to the maintenance of the Discipline and Government c. and so under this Explication and Declaration publish'd only by the House of Commons and never assented to by the House of Peers this Protestation was directed to be generally taken throughout England And to that purpose a Bill is drawn passed the House of Commons and sent up to the House of Lords who at the second Reading finding many particulars in it unfit to be so severely imposed upon the Subjects absolutely rejected You see here again an Instance of the Prudence of the great Consiliarii Naâ—…i His Majesty's great Councel in not aiding the Faction against Prerogative in that Point For tho on the account of His Majesty's tacit Dispensation by way of Connivence presumed in that Conjuncture many of the Loyal of the Church of England did take that Protestation and concur in the recommendation His Majesty not having Prohibited the taking of it as he did aâ—…terward by a Proclamation forbid the taking of the Covenant â—…et when it was visible that such an Interpretation so encroaching on the Church of England and on Prerogative was design'd without and against His Majesty's Approbation to be imposed on the People it is not to be wonder'd that the Lords as things then were rejected a Bill of that Nature But it follows then in His Majesty's Declaration Yet of this we took no notice but pressed still the Disbanding of the Armies c. so that the ferment about the Protestation and the trouble it gave the Kingdom by the Super-induced Interpretation were in a short time over A. You having from the occasion given you by Queen Elizabeth's Power of interpreting and by her dispensing with disability in all who took the Oath of Supremacy according to the sense notify'd in The Admonition referr'd my thoughts often to the Regal Power of interpreting and having in the beginning of our Discourse this meeting left it to me tâ—… consider how much the Power of Dispensing with any Law may be thought â—…o-incident with interpreting and promised me that you would some other time shew me at large that the Dispensing with Laws is in effect the equitable interpreting that in such and such Cases and Circumstances they were not intended and ought not to bind but ought to be relax'd I shall be glad if before we part you would do it B. I had rather do it at our next meeting And if in the mean time you please to entertain your self with Bishop Taylor 's Ductor Dubitantium you will there find much learnedly writ of this subject And he there in l. 3. c. 6. particularly tells us that the Interpretation of Laws made by Iudges is matter of Fidelity and nothing of Empire and Power and it is a good probable warranty of Conscience â—…ut no final Determination in case any doubt happen to oppose it No man is to ask favour of the Iudge but of the Prince he may And he had before said That when the Power that made the Law doth interpret it the Interpretation is authentical and â—…bligeth Conscience as much as the Law and can release the Bond of Conscience as far forth as the Interpretation extends as if the Law were abrogated and that whether it be by declaring the meaning of the Law or by abating the rigour or by dispensing in the Case or enlarging the Favour or restraining the Severity it is all one as to the event of the Obligation of Conscience A. But it seems then that he makes the declaring or interpreting the meaning
thing of that nature but in such a fair and legal way as should satisfie all his loving Subjects The Duplys of the Divines of Aberdene p. 54. and p. 130 131. Whereupon Mr. Ley thus goes on viz. Wherein Wise men who judge of Consultations and Acts by their probable Effects and not unexpected Events cannot but highly commend His Majesty's Mildness and Clemency which we doubt not would condescend to your Requests for a removal of this great aggrievance if you would please to interpose your Mediations to so acceptable a purpose and upon our humble sute which in all submissive manner we tender to your Lordship and by you to the rest of your Reverend Order we hope you will do so since we have it upon his word His Royal Majesty's word which neither in Duty nor Discretion we may distrust that the Prelates were their greatest Friends i. e. of his Scottish Subjects their Councels were always Councels of Peace and their Solicitations vehement and earnest for granting those unexpected Favours which we were pleas'd to bestow upon our People The King 's large Declaration p. 420 Thus then the Royal Dispensation with the five Articles of Perth was at the Intercession of the Bishops tho' they knew the same Establish'd by Act of Parliament graciously afforded to his Scotish Subjects Those Articles of Perth related to various Religionary Matters viz The introducing of Private Baptism Communicating of the Sick Episcopal Confirmation Kneeling at the Communion and the observing such ancient Festivals as belong'd immediately to Christ and of which Doctor Heylin in his History of the Presbyterians having spoken saith That the King 's indulging the Scots in Dispensing with the Penal Laws about them was an Invitation to the Irish Papists to endeavour by armed force to Compass the King's Dispensation But how tenderly the Consciences of the Roman Catholics in Ireland were in the Reign of the Royal Martyr THEN Protected under the Wing of the Dispensative Power contrary to what the Dr. observ'd any one may see who will Consult my Lord Primate Bramhal's Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon where he saith That the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland did commit much to my hands the Political Regiment of that Church for the space of Eight years In all that time let him name but one Roman Catholic that suffer'd either Death or Imprisonment or so much as a pecuniary Mulct of Twelve Pence for his Religion upon any Penal Statute if he can as I am sure he cannot c. And such was the acquiescence of the Populace and of the three Estates in the Penal Lawes there against the Roman Catholics being thus dead or asleep that in the Printed Articles of Impeachment against the then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and that Lord Primate thâ—…n Bishop of Derry and others of His Majesty's Publick Ministers of State exhibited by the Commons to the Lords in the year 1640. there is not a syllable of Complaint against those Lawes being so dispens'd with by Connivence Nor yet in the Printed Schedule of Grievances of that Kingdom voted in the House of Lords there to be transmitted to the Committee of the same House then attending in England to pursue Redresses for the same is there any representation of such Indulgence being any Gravamen nor yet of the great Figure the Irish Papists then made in the Government the Majority of the Parliament and of the Iudges and Lawyers then being such And pursuant to that Prince's Indulgence offer'd to the tender Consciences of his Subjects in the year 41. he was graciously pleas'd in the Treaty at Uxbridgâ—… to order his Commissioners who were such renown'd Confessors of the Church of England to make the first Royal offer there that freedom be left to all Persons of what Opinion soever in Matters of Ceremony and that all the Penalties of LAWS and Customs be SUSPENDED And the truth is since the Christian Religion did in its first settlement so rationally provide for its Propagation in the World and its bespeaking the favour of Princes by its enjoyning Subjection and Obedience to their Lawes not only for Wrath but Conscience sake and since that Principle of humane Lawes binding the Conscience which was so often and so publickly avow'd by that Prince and Arch-bishop Laud and Bishop Sanderson and the Divines of the Church of England in General is the surest guard to Princes Thrones and their Tribunals and that therefore 't is the Interest of the Prince and People to be more watchful in preserving that Principle then all the Iewels of the Crown or Walls of the Kingdom that Prince did therefore necessarily take Care to preserve and to perpetuate in some of his tender-Conscienced Subjects a continued Tenderness for his Lawes by his lawful Dispensative Power as particularly in the Case of his Scottish Subjects in taking off the Obligation of Obedience and of Conforming themselves to the Establish'd Lawes for such Dispensation intrinsecally notes the taking off such Obligation from the Persons dispens'd with And it is indeed a Solecism for any one to ask Indulgence from a Prince who owns the Law of the Land binding him in Conscience if he doth not think such Prince perswaded that his Power of granting it is a part of that LAW He was not ignorant of his Father's Aversion against the Penal Lawes in general and on which Account my Lord Bacon celebrating him saith As for Penal Lawes which lie as snares upon the Subjects and which were as a Nemo scit to King Henry 7. it yields a Revenue which will scarce pay for the Parchment of the King's Records at Westminster And religionary Penal Lawes requiring the greatest tenderness as he found when he came to the Government that the two most famous Puritan Divines Mr. Hildersham and Mr. Dod Men of great Probity and Learning had often been in his Father's time Pursuant to the Act for Uniformity disabled from Preaching and been re-inabled to it by particular Indulgence and as likewise Fuller tells us in his Church History that Bishop Williams when he was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England procured a Licence from King Iames under the Great Seal for Mr. Cotton the famous Independent to Preach notwithstanding his Non-Conformity so he in the same manner that his Royal Father did held the Reins of the Law loose in his hands as to those two other Non-Conformists beforemention'd The History of Mr. Hildersham's Life mentions that he was silenced in Iune A 1590 and restored again in Ianuary A. 1591. Again he was deprived and silenced April 24 A. 1605. for refusal of Subscription and Conformity and after some time again restored and was again Silenced in November A. 1611. by the King 's particular Command and on April 23. A. 1613. he was judicially admonished by the High Commission that saving the Catechizing of his own Family only he should not afterward Preach Catechize or use any of the Offices or Function of a Minister
materialiter Si quis verum dicit putans esse falsum mentitur formaliter And he having before in l. 4 c. 4 viz Of Heresy made pertinacy a requisite to a man's being formally an Heretick and said that Pertinax est qui non est paratus Captivare intellectum rationem suam omnem Sacrae Scripturae adds Haereticus igitur potest esse quis materialiter dum assensum praebet erroâ—…i pernicioso vel ex simplici facilitate out temeritate haereticis or dendi qui sub honestâ aliquâ specie fallunt vel ex ignorantiâ qui â—…ormaliter non est haereticus cum pertinacia obstinatio animi deest atque adeo pro simpliciter haereticâ—… non est babendus Concordant with these measures of Ames have I observ'd those of some ingenuous Roman-Catholick Writers who have declared that they will not pronounce all Protestants to be Hereticks formaliter And it is therefore no wonder that such their Judgment of Charity hath been retaliated by some of the most Renowned Divines of the Church of England viz. the Lord Primate Bramhal Bishop Taylor Dr. Hammond and others who have deny'd to pronounce the worshipping the Host to be formal Idolatry that is to say to be not so at all in reality since we know that according to the trite Rule forma dat esse And thus that Primate in his Schism Guarded saith very well for that purpose p. 57. Every one who is involved materially in a Schism is not a formal Schismatick more then she that Marries after long expectation believing and having reason to believe that hâ—…r former Husband was dead is a formal Adulteress or then he who is drawn to give Divine Worship to a Creature by some misapprehension yet addressing his Devotions to the true God is a formal Idolater And having there cited S. Austin of Heresy He who did not run into his error out of his own over-weening Presumption nor defends it pertinaciously but receiv'd it from his seduced Parents and is careful to search out the truth and ready to be Corrected if he find it cut he is not to be reputed among Hereticks he saith it is much more true of Schism that he who is involv'd in Schism through the error of his Parents or Predecessors who carefully seeketh after truth and is prepared in his mind to embrace it whensoever he finds it he is not to be reputed a Schismatick I know Azorius de Iuramento gives his Judgment well in thesi That when a Law is changed to which a man is bound by Oath tho he is thereby materially discharged yet formally he is bound in respect of his will for if ever he actually assents to the alteration he is really perjured And so leaving it to such who were Men of great Knowledge and Consideration and had took the Oaths and were ready to promo'e a new Law for altering the hereditary Monarchy to think of the danger they incurred of the formal guilt of that Crime I have more Charity then to conclude all the rash and the incogitant and the weak and the seduced by the fantastick Interpretation of the Oath to have been perjured But as about the year 1164. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury was at a Council held at Northampton accused by the King of Perjury and Condemned as guilty of it because he had not observ'd those English Customs that he was sworn to as I find Francisc. Long. de Concil p. 806. Col. 1. cited for it so if you have taken the Oath of Supremacy and Sworn to defend all the Privileges and Preheminences granted or belonging to the King his Heirs and Successors and united to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and are of opinion that one of the Privileges of those Heirs and Successors is to succéed to that Crown as it comes to their turn according to Proximity of Blood and by their inherent Birth-right and as the Hereditary Succession juâ—…e Coronae is setled by the Common Law of England I shall tell you that the Pious and profoundâ—…ly Learned Divine Dr. Hicks who hath study'd this Point as much as any man hath in his Writings told you that having taken this Oath you could not honestly consent to a Bill of Exclusion which would have deprived the next Heir and in him virtually the whole royal Family of the chief Privilege and Preheminence that belong'd to him by the Common Law of this Realm c. Your Curiosity I believe hath led you to read over his learned Iovian and to observe what he there saith in his Preface that some Men did pervert the meaning of the word Heirs in the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy from its common and usual acceptation to another more special on purpose to elude the force and Obligation which otherwise they must have had on the Consciences of the Excluders themselves But it is not only the Authority of this single great Divine that I can lay before your thoughts for the rendring the Attempt of the Exclusion contrary to our Oath but I can direct you to the censure of the three Estates of a Loyal Nation and of His late Majâ—…sty in the case For the Oaths in Scotland binding the takers both to the King and his Heirs and Successors as ours do here I can tell you that in the Third Parliament of King Charles the Second Aug. 13. 1681. you will find the Act in these words viz. The Estates of Parliament considering that the Kings of this Realm deriving their Royal Power from God Almighty alone do succeed lineally thereto according to the known degrees of Proximity in Blood which cannot be interrupted suspended or diverted by any Act or Statute whatsoever and that none can attempt to alter or divert the said Succession without involving the Subjects of this Kingdom in Perjury and Rebellion c. I know that during the late turbid interval of the Nation some Loyal men of the Church of England were so much misguided as to think that because de facto Parliaments have heretofore directed and limited the succession of the Crown in other manner then in course it would otherwise have gone as the words in the Printed Exclusion-Bill were they might therefore of right do so again notwithstanding they knew that after the Parliament of King Iames to prevent the Right of Succession from fluctuating any more had justly recognized and declared That the Imperial Crown of this Realm and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to him as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm it did afterward by a New Oath of Obedience or Allegiance oblige mens Consciences both to the Crown and the hereditary lineal Succession and notwithstanding they knew that that Parliament had took care of continuing the Obligation of the Oath of Supremacy for the bearing Faith and true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and to assist
and State resented it in the Conjuncture of A. 1640. I mean Archbishop Williams who in his famous Speech in Parliament that year against the Bill that afterward passed into a Law to Disable Persons in Holy Orders from exercising any Temporal Jurisdiction doth thereupon represent it that under a CAIN ' s mark an eternal kind of disability or incapacity is laid on them from enjoying hereafter any of those Rights Favours or Charters of former Princes and which is the heaviest Point of all without killing of Abel or any Crime laid to their charge more then that in the beginning of the Bill 't is said roundly and in the style of Lacedaemon that they ought not to intermeddle c. And what his thoughts were of the Injustice of such incapacity put on the Clergy and of the odiousness of that Punishment of incapacity appears by what he afterward saith viz. I come to the 4th part of this Bill which is the manner of the inhibition every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the incapacity In the weighing the Penalty will you consider the small wyers that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy load that hangs upon these wyers It is thus If a Natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Councel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then is he presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his Means and Livelyhood c. This Peradventure may move others most but it doth not me It is not the Penalty but the Incapacity aâ—…d as the Philosophers would call it the Natural impotency imposed by this Bill on men in holy Orders to SERVE the KING or the STATE in this kind be they otherwise never so able or never so willing or never so vertuous which makes me draw a kind of Timanthe ' s veil over this Point and leave it without any amplification at all to your Lordships wise and inward Thoughts and Considerations But if with so much thunder of Passion as well as lightning of reason that learned Speech from the Bishops Bench did so much resent the punishing the Clergy with disability to execute secular Offices and to have the honour of serving their Prince and Country therein and for the imposing of which disability that known place of Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 4. No man that wars entangles himself with the Affairs of this life was alledged in the House as thus disabling them by the Law Divine and as to which the Bishop in his Speech gives a learned Answer we may well imagine how Lay-men of good Births and Educations and whose Diligence employ'd in Courts and Cities and Camps abroad may have qualify'd them here to stand before Kings must necessarily aggravate in their thoughts the dishonour of incapacity to serve their Prince in secular Employments A. Was that Speech of the Archbishop ever printed B. You will find it in the Apology for the Bishops to sit and Vote in Parliament printed in London A. 1661. And he hath in that Speech some other Expressions which corroborate that obvious natural notion of the King and Kingdom being disabled by disabling of Clergy-men from secular Employments For having reflected on the Bill for disabling them from sitting in the Star-chamber and at the Council-table sitting in Commissions of the Peace and other Commâ—…ssions of secular Affairs he afterward saith But my noble Lords this is the Case Our King hath by the Statute restored to him the Headship of the Church of England And by the word of God he is custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this ecclesiastical Head no ecclesiastical Senses No Ecclesiastical Persons to be censulted with at all No not in any Circumstances of time and place If Cramner had been thus dealt with in the Minority of our young Jâ—…sias King Edward the 6th what had become of that great work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England A. The truth is it being a kind of a Rule that all Men of Parts who have been liberally educated and even those excelling in mechanical professions do naturally desire to serve the King and standing before Kings having been annext in Scripture as a reward to diligence in ones calling a Mark of disability put on Lay-men to serve their Prince cannot but tempt them to passion on that account more then it ought to have troubled the Bishop when he call'd it a Caiâ—…'s Mark in regard you have mention'd it that Clergy-men to some did seem by the Law-Divine disabled from secular Employments B. According to the Opinion of Iudge Vaughan in his Reports who in Hill and Good 's Case there makes a lawful Canon to be the Law of the Kingdom as well as an Act of Parliament and whatever is the Law is as much the Law as any thing else that is so for what is Law doth not suscipere magis aut minus they were by the Canon Law disabled from intermedling in secular Affairs And according to his description of malum prohibitum in Thomas Sorreâ—…'s case p. 358. you may say they were by the Statute so disabled from intermedling For he there saith malum prohibitum is that which is prohibited per le statute Per le statute is not intended only an Act of Parliament but any obliging Law or Constitution as appears by the Case for it is said the King may dispense with a Bastard to take Holy Orders or with a Clerk to have two Benefices with Cure which were mala prohibita by the Canon-Law and by the Council of Lateran not by Act of Parliament The Lateran Council his Lordship there means is that held under Alexander the 3d A. 1180 and which Council hath it in these words viz. neque servi neque spurii sunt ordinandi And uni plura ecclesiastica beneficia non sunt committenda And therefore the Bishop in that Speech saith That this Doctrine of debarring Persons in Holy Orders from secular Employments is the Doctrine of the Popish Church and first brought into this Kingdom by the Popâ—…s of Rome and Lanfrank Anselm Stephen Langthon and Othobone and with an intent to withdraw the Clergy from tâ—…eir receiving Obligations from either King or Lords and make them wholly dependants on the Popacy But Bishop Iewel tells us in his Apology p. 122. that Veteres Canones Apostolorum illum Episcopum qui simul Civilem magistratum ecclesiasticam functionem obire velit jubent ab officio summoveri A. Yet notwithstanding their being disabled by the antient Canons and the Nemo militans c. 2 Tim. 2. as often alledged against them by the Canons and Canonists I think they were frequently employ'd by our Princes in the greatest Offices of the State. B. They were so and the
Now you know how much Simplicity becomes an Oath and how requisite it is that it should be conceiv'd in plain and liquid terms and taken in the Imposer's sense and without mental reservations and that you should Swear therein to no dogmatical Assertion and as to which Mr. Nye saith well in his Observations on that Oath to swear positively to any dogmatical Assertion is not required It would be a taking the Name of God in vain for if it be a certain and undoubted truth in it self and to others as are Principles of Reason and Articles of Faith an Oath is vain for it ends no strife If doubtful and a question whether true or not tho such an Oath puts it out of question that I believe so yet not that it is a truth My belief tho never so much evidenced and confirm'd doth not make a doubtful matter in it self more credible nor is one man's believing an Assertion just ground for another man to believe the same Such an Oath therefore is in vain and not a fit Medium to end such a Controversy Now how far your declaring in your Oath that no foreign Prelaâ—…e hath nor ought to have any Iurisdiction Spiritual within this Realm and the Interpretation of it pursuant to the 37th Article delivering the Plain words The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction c. may bring you within the Verge of swearing what is dogmatical I leave you to judge but shall take the liberty to tell you that when I see some of our Laws and particularly this about our Oath girdled with so many Interpretations like new tender-sided Ships I shall be apt to take little pleasure in embarquing my Conscience in such an Oath and am apt to call to mind the Censure which Mr. Milton's Character of the Long Parliament of 40. fulminates against his Countrymen and by which he so much disables our understandings as to Political Government and saith that the Sun which we want ripens Wits as well as Fruits and as Wine and Oyl are imported to us from abroad so must ripe understanding c. B. But however tho our Wine and Oyl are imported to us from abroad our Dispensations are not and we have no Occasion to send Gold to Rome for Lead And I assure you he who shall consider that the English Virtuosi were the last that did receive the yokes of the old Imperial and later Papal Power of Rome and the first that threw them off will tho we are Crasso sub aëre nati have no cause to vilifie our understandings but rather to envy their triumphs over Infallibility so call'd And perhaps when I shall have told you of another passage of the Bishop P. 59. in his Schism guarded you will think the Eyes of our Ancestors understandings did look out sharp when the two Statutes of the 25th of H. 8. and 1 o Eliz. were made and there he saith Suppose any of our Reformers have run into any Excesses or Extremes either in their Expressions or perhaps in their Actions it is a difficult thing in great changes to observe a just mean it may be out of Humane Frailty as Lycurgus out of hatred to Drunkenness cut down all the Vines about Sparta or it may be out of Policy as men use to bend a Crooked rod as much the contrary way or as expert Masters of Musick do sometimes draw up their Scholars a Note too high to bring them to a just tone what is that to us as long as we practice the Mean and maintain the Mean and guide our selves by the certain line and level of Apostolical and Primitive Tradition There is no doubt but in the framing of the Statute of 1 o Eliz. and the Oath therein regard was had to the Oath in the 35th of H. 8. c. 1. viz. I having now the veil of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Iurisdiction of the See and Bishops of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any foreign Potentate hath nor ought to have any Iurisdiction Power or Authority within this Realm neither by God's Law nor any other just Law or means c. and that I shall never consent nor agree that the aforesaid See or Bishop of Rome or their Successors shall exercise or have any manner of Authority Iurisdiction or Power within this Realm c. And this Oath remain'd the same all the rest of his Reign and all Edward the 6th's time and as to which Queen Elizabeth changed the Expression of Supreme Head and both Harry the 8th and She having their Eyes on the effect of Papal Excommunications and concern'd to have the nullity of them believed by their Subjects might seem according to the Primate's Expression to bend the crooked rod of the Papal Iurisdiction overmuch the contrary way in their Oaths that so it might come to that just straitness referr'd to according to the Primate's measures of it But after all I shall tell you that I think no Political respects can justifie the putting doubtful Expressions into an Oath or the taking of one with mental reservations of a sense different from the Common one of the words and I do therefore joyn issue with you in the Point that the Clause in the Oath That no foreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction c. being the very same in the 37th Article and in the Interpretation of which Article King Iames his Canons have as you said made you a sharer with the Clergy you and all others who take the Oath may be thankful for the benefit of that King having further exercised the Dispensative Power of his interpreting the whole intent of that Oath And that Interpretation of it which hath made the Coast of the Oath clear to you in this Point you will find agreeing to what he hath in our Language Publish'd to the World and dedicated to eternity For he having in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs mention'd how he caus'd the House of Commons to Reform a Clause they had put into the Oath of Allegiance derogatory to the Pope's spiritual Power viz. That the Pope had no Power to Excommunicate him and that he was ready to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have the first Seat and be Patriarch of the West and be Primus Episcopus inter omnes Episcopos princeps Episcoporum so it be no otherwise but as Peter was Princeps Apostolorum takes occasion in his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance to let the World know his Royal judgment of the intent of the OATH of SUPREMACT and there in Confutation of the Pope's Breves and Bellarmine's Letter he saith in p. 108. that the rendring Christian Kings within their own Dominions Governors of their Church as well as of the rest of their People in being Custodes utriusque tabulae not by making new Articles of Faith c. but by
Superstition in the World then the Quakers so much restraining to their epitomes of speech in Commerce the interpretation of those words in S. Matthew But let your Communication be Yea yea Nay nay c. which were pursuant to the Proverbial Saying among the Jews Iustorum etiam est etiam non est non And as King Athelstan's Charter to his Tenants the Inhabitants of Rippon I have elsewhere mention'd viz. Quod homines sui Riponienses sint credendi per suum Ya per suâ—…m Nay in omnibus quâ—…lis curiis c. hath been by none that I have heard of look'd on with an evil eye so neither by me should the like Dispensation granted by our Prince to any others he repined at A. Your having as it were diverted me by the thought of that Superstition of the Quakers brings to my mind the pleasant Entertainment you once gave me by lending me a Book writ long ago call'd A brief Treatise of Oaths exacted by Ordinaries and Ecclesiastical Iudges to answer generally to all such Articles or Interrogarories as pleaseth them to propound and of their forced and Constrained Oaths ex officio wherein is proved that the same are unlawful And I remember much of the matter in that Author being dull I came to somewhat at last recited by him that had in it some Sales or what I may call some drops of Spirit of Vitriol and which were but necessary to give a grateful acidity to his Apozeme when he toward the end of that Book of Oaths in p. 56. and 57. thus brings in a RATIONALE of the Ceremonious manner of giving an Oath and of the Manufacture of it as some men do fidem facere by it viz. For in this matter of an Oath they have devised according to their toying fantasie a certain foolish figurative Ceremony in the ministring thereof For the Deponent for sooth must lay his three middle Fingers stretch'd outright upon the Book in signification of the Holy Trinity and Catholick Faith and his Thumb and little Finger he must put downward under the Book in token of Damnation both of Body and Soul if he say not the truth The Thumb belike as the greater representing the heavy mass of the Body and the little Finger the light and incorpoâ—…eal substance of the Soul. How superstitious also they were concerning this Ceremony of the Book little regarding the true use and end of an Oath as appears by the Allegorical Exposition curiously set forth by one of their Personate and Counterfeit Prelates who saith that the Circumstances in the Act of an Oath are very great and weighty inasmuch as he that Sweareth by a Book doth three things First as tho he should say Let that which is written in the Book never do me good neither the new nor the old Law if I lye in this mine Oath Secondly he puts his Hand on the Book as tho he should say Nor the good work which I have done profit me ought before the face of Christ except I say the truth which is founded in Christ. Thirdly he kisseth the Book as tho he should say Let never the Prayers and Petitions which by my mouth I have utter'd avail me any thing to my Soul's health if I say not truly in this mine Oath Yet you must take this as meant only by this Reverend Father where Lay men or the baser sort of the Clergy take an Oath For that blessed Bonner not long since hath taught us this trick of his Law that a Bishop may Swear such is his Privilege inspectis Evangeliis non tactis bare sight of the Book without touch or kiss will well enough serve his Lordship's turn B. Well Sir throwing out of our thoughts the minutioe of all formal trifling let us not at the same time try to make men laugh and weep by imposing Oaths on them And let the Consideration of this namely that the Noble Morals enjoyn'd by the Christian Doctrine have not prevailed all this while to secure Christians against one another without the Garranty of Oaths or by the Christianus sum not being still judged oequi-ponderous with an Oath impress a solemn grief on our Minds And considering that both the Verbum Regium and the verbum Sacerdotis have been so much allow'd equal to Oaths and that all Christians ought to value themselves on being A Royal Priesthood and on their great Chief having made them Kings and Priests to God and his Father let us bemoan the present State of Christianity and Christians having as it were Decreed it that they cannot take one anothers words And let the thought likewise of the insufficiency of the Security of Oaths themselves to keep up Governments work in us such a serious Mortification and Profound sense of the degeneracy of Mankind and such an inclination to place our chief Confidence in somewhat above the words or Oaths of men as becomes us But I shall give you an instance of this at home too pregnant with horror Our thoughts have had a long melancholy walk in the Peristyllium of the many Interpretations that supported our Great Oath of Supremacy and as to which Oath it being probable that a vulgar Error having prevailed among many of the Faction for some time before the year 1640. namely that the Oath of Supremacy was intended to bind only in opposition to Popery occasion was thereby given to the Fathers of our Church to procure the last Authentick Interpretation of the Assertory part of the Oath in the Canons of 1640. and cautioning us there in the first Canon against any Independent Coactive Power whether Papal or Popular But after our view of the orderly and necessary placing of all these polish'd and strong Pillars of Interpretation erected between the time of Primo Elizabethoe and the year 1640 and after Providence so ordering it at last that the Consciences of the Loyal who were then reserv'd as Lyons to guard the Throne had then a clear Oath to guard their Loyalty and after their having then cause to say Tantoe molis erat to render the Oath both acceptable to Conscience and adequate to its first reasonable intention the Land was punish'd with a dreadful Rebellion and the sacred Obligations of the Oath and all its Interpretations could no more quench the raging Flames of the Civil War then the sprinkling of a little Holy Water could save a Town on fire You may therefore here again more particularly take it into your thoughts that there is somewhat beside or beyond Oaths necessary to incline Heaven to Preserve States and Kingdoms and Ecclesiastical Polities therein namely the trusting in God and offering to him what the 51. Psalm calls the Sacrifices of God and without which the thought of the tantoe molis and the endeavour'd piling Interpretation upon Interpretation or Oath upon Oath as high as Heaven and thereby designing to keep men together embody'd and united in the external Profession of any State-Religion will prove as