Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
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A33745
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An answer to a paper importing a petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and six other bishops, to His Majesty, touching their not distributing and publishing the late declaration for liberty of conscience
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Care, Henry, 1646-1688.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing C506; ESTC R5331
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17,718
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34
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Third's time been commanded by the King 's Writ That as they love their Baronies which they hold of the King That they intermeddle with nothing that concern'd the King's Laws of the Land his Crown and Dignity his Person or his State or the State of his Council or Kingdom Scituri pro certo quod si fecerint Rex inde se capiet ad Baronias suas willing them to know for certain That if they did the King would seize their Baronies And by the Statute of Henry the Eighth it is provided That no Canons or Constitutions should be made or put in Execution by their Authority which were contrariant or repugnant to the King's Prerogative the Laws Customs or Statutes of the Realm In a word the King has commanded they have disobey'd and by their ill Example perverted others and are yet very uncondescending for so the People word it themselves And what would Henry the Eighth have done in such a Case made use of his last Argument or thrown up the Game for a few cross Cards But among many other Considerations from this especially because the Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declared Illegal in Parliament And what were those Considerations If a Man should put an ill Construction upon them it may be said their Lordships never intended it and if they intended not to amuse the People why did they not speak plain English and specifie those Considerations inasmuch as all Petitions ought to contain Certainty and Particularity so as a direct Answer may be given to them which could not be here For whatever the King's Answer might have been somewhat more also might have been hook'd in from the words And Alexander would have given it a short Answer Aut Ligna inferte aut Thus. Either made it a Chimney or an Altar But it seems it mov'd in sundry places tho' the best Scripture for this pretended Illegality be a Declaration in Parliament Their Lordships instance nothing beyond their own time but I conceive it not impossible to bring them those of elder times that have been so far from doubting the King's Dispensing Power that they held it unquestionable The Stat. 1. H. 4. cap. 6. says The King is contented to be concluded by the Wise Men of his Realm touching the Estate of Him and his Realm saving always the King's Liberty i. e. His Prerogative of varying from that Law as he should see cause In the Parliament-Roll 1 H. 5. N. 22. the Statutes against Provisors are confirm'd and that the King shall not give any Protection or Grant against the Execution of them Saving to the King his Prerogative And what was meant by that may appear by a prior Roll of the same year N. 15. where the Commons ' pray That the Statutes for the putting Aliens out of the Kingdom may be held and executed The King consents saving his Prerogative and that he dispense with such as he shall please Upon which the Commons answer That their intention was no other and by the help of God never shall be Queen Elizabeth had dispens'd with the ancient Form and Manner of Investing and Consecrating of Bishops and the Parliament of the 8th of her Reign cap. 1. declares it Lawful as being done by her Inherent Prerogative And when by the same Prerogative or Privilege and Royal Authority for so it is worded she dispens'd with the Universities c. so Popish a thing as Latin Prayers and which their Lordships the Bishops still use in Convocations though it be directly contrary to the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 1. for using the Common-Prayer in the Vulgar Tongue only what is meant by it but that the Queen might lawfully dispense with that Statute for if otherwise there is no Ecclesiastical Person in the Kingdom but would have found the Temporal Censures too heavy for him when it had been too late to have ask'd a Parliamentary Consideration whether Legal or not And in particular in the years 1662 and 1672 and in the beginning of Your Majesty's Reign As to the first of which matter of Fact stands thus King Charles the Second by his Declaration from Breda had declar'd Liberty for tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted for difference in Opinion in matters of Religion which did not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And in his Declaration of the 26th of December following stood firm to it but that no such Bill had been yet offer'd him While it thus lay an Act of Indempnity and one other of Uniformity were pass'd The first regenerated Themselves and the second with the old Ingredient The Growth of Popery was a probable way to exclude Others The 25th and 26th of February the Commons come to some Resolves against That and Dissenters which with the Reasons of them wherein yet they declare not the Declaration Illegal they present His Majesty on the 28th in the Banquetting House The King complies and it was too soon after a Rebellion to have done otherwise However if they had declar'd it Illegal it was but the single Opinion of the Commons wherein the Lords made no concurrence And therefore to say This Dispensing Power was in the Parliament of 1662 declar'd Illegal when in common and reasonable Construction a Declaration in Parliament is intended of both Houses of Parliament why may it not be as well urg'd That those other Votes and Resolves of the Commons touching the Bill of Exclusion were a Legal Declaration in Parliament when yet the Lords swept their House of it Then for that other of 1672 the King in the Interval of Parliament was engag'd in a War with the Dutch and to secure Peace at home while he had War abroad had put forth a Declaration for Indulgence to Dissenters The Parliament meet grant a Supply of Twelve hundred thirty eight thousand seven hundred and fifty thousand Pounds and without charging the Declaration with Illegality pray His Majesty to recall it The Argument prevail'd and the King did it Which shews that it was in the King's Option not to have done it or done it And lastly for that other in the beginning of His Majesty's Reign That also without declaring it Illegal was but some Heats of the Commons There were at that time two open Rebellions the King who is sole Judge of the danger of the Kingdom and how to avoid it had granted Commissions to certain persons not qualified according to the Statute 25 Car. 2. The Commons offer to bring in a Bill for the Indempnifying those persons The King knew his own Authority and ended the Dispute And if any man doubts the Legality of the King 's dispensing with that Statute a subsequent Judgment in the Case of Sir Edward Hayles has determin'd the Point And that the Power of dispensing with Penal Laws upon Necessity or urgent Occasions of which the King is sole Judge is an inseparable Prerogative in the King not given Him in Trust or
deriv'd from the People but the ancient Right of the Crown innate in the King and unalterable by them And that this has been the ancient Judgment of the Judges from time to time I shall meet with the occasion of shewing it in the next Paragraph And is a matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State. And so indubitably is it that nothing can be more For the best of Laws being but good Intentions if a Prince should be ty'd up to such unalterable Decrees as in no case whatever he might vary from them it might so happen that what at one time was intended for the Good of Church and State may at another prove the Destruction of both if not as timely prevented The present Case is a pregnant Instance of it One would have thought that the frequent Endeavors of the four last Reigns for the reducing this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion might have answerd the Design but if His Majesty in his Declaration had not told us His thoughts of it our own Experience might have taught us the Effects thereof have in a manner brought the Kingdom to nothing And what should the King have done in this Case sate still and expected a Miracle or interpos'd his Royal Authority for the saving it The Question answers it self And if the Power of Dispensing with Penal Laws were not inseparably and unalterably in Him how could he have done it What elder Parliaments have declar'd in it I have already shewn and that the Judges successively have gone with it is or may be obvious to every man. Such was the Resolution of all the Justices in the Exchequer-Chamber 2 R. 3. 12. And that the King might grant License against a Penal Statute And what is that but a dispensing with it In like manner by all the Justices in the same place 2 H. 7. 6. That the King may grant a Non obstante to a Penal Statute tho' the Statute say such Non obstante shall be meerly void and such was the Case there The 13 H. 7. 8. to the same purpose Allow'd for good Law. Plowd Com. 502. Confirm'd by Sir Edward Coke 7 Coke 36. and 12 Coke 18 19. And lastly by a Judgment in His now Majesty's Reign of which before And if so necessary a part of the Government so solemnly determin'd by Parliaments and Judges is fit to be slighted or not obey'd which amounts to the same I leave it to every man. That Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honor and Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Nation and reading it even in God's House and in the time of His Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction And on the other hand I conceive that both in Prudence Honor and Conscience they were highly oblig'd to it For what is Prudence but the active Faculty of the Mind directing Actions morally good to their immediate Ends That this Declaration is morally good appears by the purport of it and that is His Majesty's desire of Establishing His Government on such a Foundation as may make His Subjects happy and unite them to Him by Inclination as well as Duty And what greater Prudence could there have been than by their Lordships distributing that Declaration as enjoyn'd to them and by their Pastoral Authority requiring it to be read in all Churches c. to have directed it to its immediate Ends which were the Establishing the Government and making the Subjects happy Or if Wisdom must come in for a share the Offices of That are Election and Ordination the choice of right means for and ordering them aright to their End. The right means of quieting the Nation was before them and I think it no question whether their Lordship 's not distributing it has order'd it aright to the end The King had enjoyn'd it to be publish'd and Wisdom in this Case like Scripture is not of private Interpretation but lies in Him that has the Power of commanding not in him whom Conscience binds to obey In a word if Obedience in Subjects is the Prince's Strength and their own Security what Prudence or Wisdom could it be by weakning the Power of Commanding to lessen their own Security Then for Honor and Conscience tho' in this place they seem to mean the same thing and may be both resolv'd into Nil conscire sibi yet I 'll take them severally And how stands it with the Honor of the Church of England both in Principles and constant Practises unquestionably Loyal and to her great Honor more than once so acknowledg'd by His Majesty to start aside in this Day of her trial Both the last Armagh's Usher and Bramhal Bishop Sanderson Bishop Morley c. have all along by their Doctrin and Practices beat down that other of Resisting Princes in that the Church of England held no such Custom nor have the most eminent of her Clergy Dr. Sherlock Dr. Scott and others until this last uncomplying Compliance taken any other Measures And ought not their Practise now to have made good their Principles Or that Advice of the present Bishop of Ely to the Church of England to have been consider'd and follow'd Let her be thankful saith he to God for the Blessings she hath and unto the King under whom they will be continu'd to her And take heed of overturning or undermining the Fabrick because she cannot have the Room that she would choose in it And what greater Assay to it can there be than Disobedience inasmuch as he that thinks his Prince ought not to be obey'd will from one thing to another come at last to think him not fit to be King. Nor must the Anniversary of the now Bishop of Chester be past in silence Tho' the King saith he should not please or humor us tho' he rend off the Mantle from our Bodies as Saul did from Samuel nay tho' he should Sentence us to death of which blessed be God and the King there is no danger yet if we are living Members of the Church of England we must neither open our Mouths or lift our Hands against him but honor him before the Elders and People of Israel And having instanc'd in the Examples of The Prophets our Saviour his Disciples and Christian Bishops under Heathen Persecutors and demanded whether ever the Sanhedrim question'd their Kings Nor must we saith he ask our Prince why he Governs us otherwise than we please to be Govern'd our selves We must neither call him to account for his Religion nor question his Policy in Civil Matters for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only Declarative In a word this and the like has been the Doctrin of the Church of England and when on that ground his Majesty has more than once acknowledg'd her Loyalty who in Honor more oblig'd to make it good than those that