Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A52597
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The king's authority in dispensing with ecclesiastical laws, asserted and vindicated by the late Reverend Philip Nye ...; Lawfulnes of the oath of supremacy and power of the King in ecclesiastical affairs
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Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing N1495; ESTC R17198
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36,268
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70
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going on still to make Laws to afflict and punish and others engaged quietly to suffer whatsoever they should be exposed to for their Consciences Matters being at this pass there was apparent necessity that some Remedy be speedily applied His Majesty considering they are all his Subjects and how much by such Severity the Interest of his Soveraignty is narrowed so great a number of his People rendred unworthy of his Countenance and Protection and upon no other Account or Crime but their being of different Perswasions in some Externals of Religion Persons otherwise for Industry Faithfulness Loyalty and every way qualified to do his Majesty and their Country as much Service as others His Majesty also calling to mind that prudent Caution which his Royal Father left him in these words Take heed saith he that outward Circumstances and Formalities in Religion devour not all or the best Incouragements of Learning and Industry but with an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as you find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them this will be sure to gain you the Hearts of the best and most too It was likewise impossible for his Majesty to imagine that so many thousands in his own Observation who have suffered so greatly with such humble submission should daily thus expose themselves and Families to ruin from no other or better Principles than a Spirit of Obstinacy and Stubbornness great Sufferings and by great Multitudes yet no Tumults no Resisting whereas in the beginning of the Reformation what Armies in the North and in the West upon this Account by those of another Perswasion were raised tho as yet they suffered little His Majesty as a Common Father beareth Affection to all his Subjects but who of them deserves it and who not can never be discovered by this indiscriminating Severity that is who are Dissenters upon Principles of Conscience and who of them so pretending are notwithstanding of a Seditious Spirit These can never be distinguished one from the other when Dissenters and such as Conform not be it upon what ground soever are all of them equally branded with the same Mark of Disloyalty and so represented to his Majesty and all the Nation There is a necessity that this Pretence of Conscience be removed and Seditious Persons discovered and left to condign Punishment and others these Stumbling-blocks being removed may by their peaceable Obedience to all other his Majesty's Laws justify and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Laws that shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation Of these Things his Majesty hath had a clear prospect all along and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in his Proclamation July 16. 1669. and otherwise to indulge Tender Consciences and hath upon the aforementioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to publish this his Gracious Declaration of March the 25th 1671 wherein he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus his Majesty as a Wise and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or turning to refreshing Showers the dark Fogs and Mists here beneath hath by the Light and Liberty shining forth from his Gracious Indulgence refreshed multitudes of his Good Subjects and delivered them from the dark misapprehensions of others Nor is this their great Relief in any thing prejudicial either to the Estates or Liberties of Men otherwise minded nor are such Men abridged in any of their Concerns Spiritual or Temporal hereby his Majesty hath made sufficient Provision for the satisfying their Consciences in a careful continuing those Ceremonies and Forms of Worship they have been accustomed to let it not be grievous or offensive unto them that their Brethren have obtained the like favour from his Majesty in respect to their Consciences The Apostle requires That we neither judg or despise those that differ from us in Matters of the like Nature but to leave a Man without molestation from us to his own Master to whom he standeth or falleth his being in the right or in the wrong upon this account is a Matter of his Master's concern What is it to us What have we to do to discipline another Man's Servant for what his Master is pleased to bear with him SECT 6. QUEST VI. Since these Ecclesiastical Laws of Restraint were enacted by Parliament the King giving his Royal Assent had it not been convenient if his Majesty had so pleased that the dispensing with these Laws had been by Parliament Answ 1. The Kings and Princes of this Realm his Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Things but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties of such Laws A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might though no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least in the Minds of Men a kind of suspicion especially in the Vulgar that such Proceedings of the Supream Majesty by his sole Power to be an assuming an Arbitrary Government 2. The Parliament did still continue in this their former Opinion and Judgment namely That a way of Severity was the only Means to settle Peace and Unity They had newly passed the Act for Uniformity without any abatement of what was Offensive by reason whereof arose that general Discontent which before we have mentioned His Majesty being sensible hereof did by that Declaration of Decemb. 26. move a second time That an Act might be prepared whereby he may be enabled with a more universal acceptation to exercise the Power of Dispensing which is inherent in him not doubting their chearful cooperation with him being a Matter wherein he conceived himself so much engaged both in point of Honour and in what he oweth to the Peace of his Kingdoms which We profess saith he we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the Malicious and Disaffected to inflame the Minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with dispair of ever obtaining any Effect of our Promises for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's dutiful and loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several parts and places of your Kingdom for which we were chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort advisable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and the Religion established for divers Reasons whereof this is one It will in no wise become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Uniformity and at the next Session the Reasons of Uniformity continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of
the Indulgence and Dispensation granted by Edw. 6. to Strangers yea though it was a Gravamen to the Bishop making an evident Breach upon the Pale of Uniformity for not only the Parents but the Children and Childrens Children which were natural Subjects to his Realm Persons of great Estate and Purchasers of Lands and interessed in the Soil The Number also of these Congregations increasing and scituated in the eminent and chief Towns and Cities in the Kingdom there to live and profess as separated and divided Bodies in Discipline and Worship from the Church of England was not intended by the first Grant so Bishop Laud complains there being only that one in London when the first Grant was made such things were frequently suggested against them yet these Princes were graciously disposed notwithstanding the Act for Uniformity from time to time to confirm the Grant of Edw. 6. by several Orders past some of them formed as having special respect to such Objections which will not be amiss for the Reader 's confirmation here to insert some of them at least The Form in which Queen Elizabeth confirmed their Liberties Non Ignoramus variis Ecclesiis varias diversas jam ab initio Christianae Religionis semper fuisse Ritus Ceremonias non contemnimus vestras neque nos ad nostras cogimus King James Octob. 17. 10 Jac. to the Dutch at Colchester His Majesty granted their Orders Liberties c. in as large and ample manner to all Intents and Purposes as heretofore they have been used tolerated and allowed unto them any Provision or Jurisdiction to the contrary thereto in any wise notwithstanding An Order of King James under his Signet Jan. 13. 1616 on their behalf These are therefore to Will and Command all our Courts of Justice and other our loving Subjects to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children c. The Order of the Council for the Walloons of Norwich Octob. 10. 1621. Those of Norwich though born in the Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Congregation and subject to such Discipline as hath been by all the time of fifty five Years practised by them The Order of King Charles the First Novemb. 13. 1631. We Will and Command our Judges c. to permit and suffer the said Strangers and their Children quietly to enjoy all and singular c. without any Troubles Arrests or Proceedings by way of Information or otherwise An Order of the Council for the Dutch of Norwich Jan. 7. 1630. That all those that now or hereafter shall be Members of the Dutch Congregation although born within this Kingdom shall continue to be of the said Church so long as his Majesty shall be pleased c. These and divers the like Instances might be produced which sufficiently evince it as granted on all sides and constantly supposed to be according to the Constitution of this Realm that our Kings and Princes have Power in and from themselves as an inherent and inseparable Prerogative not only to injoin and give Laws to their Subjects in Ecclesiastical Matters such as are left to the ordering of any Civil Power as also to dispense and exempt from Laws of that kind though established by them in conjunction with the Authority of Parliament Nor do we find that Parliaments at any time have taken into Consideration what was ordered or done by those Kings and Princes in Ecclesiastical Affairs being their known Prerogative no not in those of King James who assumed the most in such managements nor by any Petitions or Addresses to any of those Princes which is usual in the Concerns of Civil Rights for limiting or enlarging the Exercise of their Power in these Ecclesiastical Matters but rather recognizing and confirming what hath been ordered by them as in 5 Eliz. and Car. 2. in the Act of Uniformity and other Instances many may be produced CHAP. IV. Of the Objections made against this Power and the executing thereof with Answer thereunto SECT 1. THere are Reasonings possibly tending another way in stating this Case The Objections obvious I shall now mention having divers material Considerations pertinent to a more full and clear stating this Case which might have been produced in the Body of this Discourse but are reserved rather to this place partly because we find this vulgar way of Dialogue le ts in Knowledg with less difficulty and what is required by way of a Question engageth him that proposeth with greater attention to observe what is said in the Answer QUEST I. If such a Prerogative be in the King what need Ecclesiastical Laws be transacted and established by Parliament Answ 1. That hinders not but that his Majesty's Power is sufficient of it self to do many things relating to such Laws without them take it in his Majesty's own words Declarat of 26 Decemb. 1662. To concur with us in making some such Act as may enable us to exercise with a more universal Satisfaction that Power of Dispensing which we conceive to be inherent in Vs As also it is by the afore-named learned Judg Hubbard expressed That these Statutes and the like were made to put things in ordinary Form and to ease the Soveraign of Labour but not to derogate from his Power 2. Powers sufficient in themselves may join and in such conjunction remain intire as Powers Cumulative and not Privative as it is evident from what is said in the Statute of 31 Hen. 8. cap. 10. The King 's most excellent Majesty though it appertained to his Prerogative Royal to give Honour as it shall seem to his Wisdom he is nevertheless pleased and contented for an Order to be had c. by this High Court of Parliament that it shall be enacted by the Authority of the same c. 3. The King is a kind of Corporation in himself distinct from that Capacity wherein he stands in conjunction with his Subjects as their Head And in that respect being in an higher Region above and in a greater distance from those Interests upon the account whereof his Subjects are many times much divided and publick Edicts are formed according to the Prevalency of a greater Party to the prejudice of others that are his Loyal Subjects also by his Wisdom and Prudence there is a Ballance by which the Tranquillity of a Nation is happily preserved and one Party is not overborn by the other having this Power to mitigate and dispense in the Matters under our consideration as in his Wisdom with Advice of Council shall seem equal SECT 2. QUEST II. But hath not the King's Prerogative Limits in our Laws And are there not some Things which he cannot dispense with no not with a Non Obstante Answ I grant it and in several Cases 1. He may by special Words in the Statute bind up himself from making any use of his Prerogative 2. In what is Malum in se in respect of Impiety or Unrighteousness 3. When such Dispensations are destructive to the great Ends of