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 Vide utrum Tunica filii tui sit an non Quam cum cognovisset pater ait Tunica filii mei est fera pessima comedit eum Gen. xxxvii Ver. 32 33. With Allowance London Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Friers 1688. AN ANSWER TO A Paper importing a Petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Six other Bishops to His Majesty c. NOT to amuse my Reader with any Reasons or Excuse for this Undertaking let this suffice for both That several Copies of this Paper instead of distributing His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience having been privately dispers'd thro' most Counties of England I thought it every man's Duty and among the rest mine to undeceive them who have not the same Brains but more Honesty and Loyalty than those that sent it and bestow some Ink upon the Tetter that it spread no further In order to which and that every man may at once see the Whole before him and thereby come to the truer Conclusion I shall take my Rise from the Occasion of this Paper and thence proceed to the Matter of it Now the Occasion was thus His Majesty finding it had been the frequent endeavors of the four last Reigns to reduce this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion and how little the Success had answer'd the Design but rather destroy'd Trade depopulated the Country and discourag'd Strangers and being resolv'd to establish His Government on such a Foundation as might make His Subjects happy and unite them to Him by Inclination as well as Duty on the 4th of April 1687. issued His most Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience thereby declaring That He will Protect and Maintain His Archbishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of the Church of England in the free Exercise of their Religion and full Enjoyment of their Possessions and Properties as now Established by Law without any Molestation c. That all Execution of Penal Laws for matters Ecclesiastical as Nonconformity c. shall be and are thereby suspended That all His Subjects have leave to Meet and Worship God in their own way without disturbance And forasmuch as the benefit of the Service of His Subjects is by the Law of Nature inseparably annex'd to and inherent in His Royal Person and that no one for the future may be under any Discouragement or Disability by reason of some Oaths or Tests usually administred That no such Oaths or Tests shall be hereafter required of them And that He would dispense with them c. And because several Endeavors had been made to abuse the easiness of the People as if He might be persuaded out of what He had so solemnly declared His Majesty as well to stop the mouth of Gainsayers as to shew his Intentions were not changed since the said 4th of April by a second Declaration of the 27th of April last past enforces and confirms the said former Declaration conjures His loving Subjects to lay aside all private Animosities and groundless Jealousies and to choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to finish what he has begun for the Advantage of the Monarchy over which God hath plac'd Him as being resolv'd to call a Parliament that shall meet in November next at furthest This Declaration was forthwith printed and by Order of Council required to be distributed published and read in the respective Churches thro' the Kingdom And in that it was not enjoyn'd to be read in any the Congregations thereby permitted what greater Evidence can there be of His Majesty's real Intentions to the Church of England when however He suffer'd others He own'd not yet any Establish'd National Church but the Church of England Upon this the ensuing Paper was on the 18th of May following between the hours of Nine and Ten at night presented to His Majesty by the Six Bishops the Subscribers To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and of divers of the Suffragan Bishops of the Province now present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Dioceses Humbly sheweth THat their great Averseness they find in themselves to the Distribution and Publication in all their Churches of your Majesties late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceedeth neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and constant Practices unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honor been more than once publickly acknowledg'd to be so by your Majesty nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters In relation to whom they are willing to come to such a Temper as shall be thought fit when that Matter shall be Consider'd and Setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other Considerations from this especially because the Declaration is founded upon such a Dispensing Power as has been often declar'd Illegal in Parliament and particularly in the Years 1662 1672 and in the beginning of your Majesties Reign and is a Matter of so great Moment and Consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State 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 your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech your Majesty that you will be Graciously pleas'd not to insist upon the Distribution and Reading your Majesties Declaration Canterbury St. Asaph Bath and Wells Chichester Peterborough Ely. Bristol And here also for Methods sake and before I come to the Matter of it I hold it requisite that I speak somewhat to the Persons the Subscribers and the Time of their Presenting it As to the First the Holy Scripture styles Bishops The Angels of their Churches And by the Common Law of England the Archibishop of Canterbury is Primus Par Angl. The Bishops Lords Ecclesiastical Secular and Sit in Parliament Jure Episcopatus which they hold per Baroniam The Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm That of Queen Elizabeth One of the greatest States of the Realm They have Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Causes and are not bound to obey any Mandate but the King's And by reason of all this presum'd to have a more than ordinary Influence upon the People Our Saviour calls his Disciples The Salt and Light of the World. And why But that they should season others with their Doctrin and
guide them by their Example into the way of Peace His Name is The Prince of Peace His Sermon on the Mount was The Gospel of Peace The Blessings in it are to The Poor in Spirit The Meek The Merciful The Peace-makers c. His Life was one continued Practise of it And his last Legacy to his Disciples was Peace He gave to Caesar the things that were Caesars and that Tribute which yet was the product of an Absolute Power he not only paid it without disputing the Authority but commanded it to others And tho' the Imperial Power after his Death was of the same Absoluteness yet St. Paul says not the Senate had declar'd it Illegal but calls it The Ordinance of God and enjoyns Subjection to it What the Apostles in their time were the same ever and now challenge the Governors of all Churches next and under Kings they are in the stead of God to the People and where they make a false Step what wonder if the unthinking People forget the Precept and take after the Example They see nothing but sub imagine lusca by twilight and conceive according to the colour of those Rods are cast before them They hear a noise but know not whence it cometh or whether it goeth and run away the Cry without so much as laying a Nose to the Ground for 't What made the People set up Adoniah against David's disposition of the Crown to Solomon Abiathar the High Priest was in the Head of them What made the Nobles break the Yoak The Prophets had Prophesi'd falsly the Priests applauded it with their Hands and a foolish People lov'd to have it so Or what made the Jews who had so often acknowledg'd our Savior turn head against him and crucifie him The Chief Priests the Scribes and Elders had possess'd the People that the Romans would come and take away their City Thus we see what Influence Great Men have upon the heedless Multitude and therefore how wary ought they to be how they give them the least Example of Disobedience for it is seldom seen but where the one Disputes the other Cavils and where their Leaders make but a Shrug at the Government the People think it high time to be Mending it Our own Histories are as one Example of it or if they run narrow Tacitus may be believ'd of his Erant in Officio qui mallent mandata Imperantium interpretari quam exequi There were saith he some in Power that were more for Commenting than Executing the Emperor's Directions Nor are Disputes or Excuses of less danger for it is a kind of shaking off the Yoke and an Essay of Disobedience especially if in those Disputings they which are for the Direction speak fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it audaciously And if by such means a Fire break out in the State 't will want no Fuel when 't is kindled from the Altar And for the Time of their Presenting it I shall consider it as it may respect the present Circumstances of the Kingdom or that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses As to the former the glut of Reformers in Edward the Sixth's time was great and the Qualifications so indifferent that the Church of England has ever since labor'd under it and the same Elements that compounded her half destroy'd her For as the Laws not the Doctrin brought them first together they no sooner found themselves streightned in the One than they made it up with the Other and Themselves somewhat in the Broils that were otherwise nothing in the Peace of the State. These Humors during Her and King James's Reign lay fermenting in the Body but in his Son 's broke out into a Pestilence The Crown sell the Church follow'd it and the most diligent Enquirer might have sought England in her self yet miss'd her till at last it pleas'd Him whose only it is to still the raging of the Sea to say to the Madness of the People Huc usque nee ultra His late Majesty King Charles the Second was Restor'd and so little averse were the Catholic Lords to the Church of England that their Votes which otherwise might have kept them out brought them once more into the House of Peers nor were they scarce warm in their Seats before the Act of Uniformity was pass'd and driven with that Violence that it had like to have overturn'd all agen The Dissenters were not fit for Employ they had Mony in their Purses and the World was wide enough The Catholic Lords were less to be trusted they cumber'd the Ground and 't was but fit they were down There remain'd nothing but to cast out the Heir and then the Inheritance would be the easier divided And here also it pleas'd God to appear in the Mount He pluck'd him out of the deep Waters and set him on the Throne of his Ancestors And as he came to the Crown thro' the greatest of Difficulties he has been preserv'd in it by no less a Providence He stifl'd two Serpents in the Cradle of his Empire and in a three-years Government conquer'd all Example in His own And now when our troubl'd Waters had begun to settle again what need of whistling up the Winds for another Storm When the Wounds of the Kingdom were almost clos'd what Charity was it to unbind them too soon or under pretence of easing the Patient to set them bleeding afresh In a word when the Brands of our late Rebellions lay smother'd in their almost forgotten Embers what prudence was it to rake them into another Flame I see little of the Dove in it and am loth to say too much of the Serpent And for that half scantling of time they gave his Majesty to consider of their Excuses it seems here also that the Spirit of Direction like Baal in the Kings was some way or other out of the way The Declaration was no new thing it had been published the 4th of April 1687 and his Majesty had receiv'd the general Acknowledgments of the Kingdom for it which argu'd their Satisfaction in it The Corn was in the Ground and now if ever was the time to sow Tares and therefore to prevent their choaking it His Majesty the 27th of April 1688 which was one full year and three weeks after enforces his first Declaration and commands it to be read in all Churches within Ten miles of London on the 20th and 27th of May and in all other the Churches thro' the Country on the 3d and 10th of June following time enough one would think to have consider'd the Matter so as to have given the King some time to have advis'd Whereas on the contrary they make no scruple of it till the 18th of May about 10 at Night and then the 19th being a Day appointed for Hunting they present the Paper before mention'd as well knowing that if his Majesty had an Inclination of Countermanding his Declaration he was so straitned in
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