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A46343 The judgment and doctrine of the Church of England concerning one special branch of the King's prerogative, viz. in dispencing with the penall laws / asserted by the most reverend father in God, the lords Arch-Bishops Bancroft, Laud and Usher, the right reverend fathers in God, the lords Bishops Sanderson and Cartwright, the reverend doctors, Sir Thomas Ridley L.L.D., Dr. Hevlin, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Sherlock master of the temple, Dr. Hicks, Dr. Nalson and Dr. Puller ; and by the anonymus, author of The harmony of divinity and law : together with the concurring resolutions of our reverend judges, as most consonant and agreeable thereunto ; in a letter from a gentleman of Oxford, to his friend at London. Gentleman of Oxford. 1687 (1687) Wing J1172; ESTC R1415 16,661 48

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may see what his Opinion is in this matter But before I give you his Words let me beg your favour to hear what the Modest and Holy Writer of his Life Dr Isaac Walton says of that Book from whence I produce them How much the Learned World stands obliged to Him for his Lectures de Conscientia I shall not attempt to declare as being very sensible that the Best Pens must needs fall short in the commendation of them So that I shall only add that they continue unto this day and will do for ever as a Compleat Standard for the Resolution of the most material doubts in Casuistical Divinity And now Sir pray observe what the Bishop says Vpon a Doubt how may that be understood which so commonly is spoken Salus Populi est Suprema Lex the safety of the People is the Supream Law he among other things thus declares There is no sober man will deny that the Safety of the People that is of the whole Commonalty as that word comprehends the King together with the Subjects is the Supream Law but that the Safety of the People that is of the Subjects the King being excluded is the Supream Law there is no man will affirm it unless he be a Fool or an Imposter a Fool if he doth believe what he himself saith and an Imposter if he doth not believe it But if any man will seriously look into the Original of this Aphorism I do believe he will more easily grant that it ought more precisely to be understood of the Safety of the Prince than of the Safety of the Subjects This Saying so tossed up and down in the Mouthes of all Men came to us from the Romans and was then used by them when their Republick did flourish most of all under a Popular State And there is no great Reason that any man should wonder that the People's Safety was the Supream Law with them with whom the People themselves were the Supream Power In the Judgment therefore of those wise Antients who were the first Authors of this Aphorism the Safety of the Supream Power was the Supream Law of the People indeed in a Democracy but of a King in Monarchy But I say it being admitted but not granted that this Aphorism is properly understood of the Safety of the People that is of the Subjects it is nevertheless perversly wrested to the Prejudice of Regal Dignity which even so doth render its Power more Ample and Illustrious in this sence A King that gives Laws and Statutes to his People will not be so bound up by his Laws that it shall not be lawful for him the safety of the Common-wealth being in an apparent danger to provide for the safety of Kingdom and People committed to him by God even against the words of the Law not that it is lawful for Subjects under the pretence of the defence of their Liberty to break all the bonds of Laws and Fidelity and by an intollerable presumption to trample on the Authority of their King but that it is lawful for the Prince in the Preservation of his own and his Subjects Safety to lay aside for a while all strict observance of the Laws and to make use a little of an Arbitrary Right least by too unseasonable and superstitious Reverence of the Laws he may suffer both his own Person and his People that are subject to him and even the Laws themselves to fall into the Power of his Enemies I will close up this Christian Doctrine of our Bishops with one Authority more and that is of our Present Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Bishop of Chester in his Sermon on the 6th of Feb. 1685 6 in the Collegiate Church of Rippon where you will find him thus to inform you and all other good Subjects So that the King may it seems make use of his Prerogative as God does of his Omnipotence upon some extraordinary occasions For as my Lord Hobart well observes The Statute Laws are made to ease him of his Labour not to deprive him of his Power and that he may make a Grant with a Non-obstante to them And indeed the Power of dispensing with particular Laws in some Emergencies is such a Lex Coronae such a Prerogative without which no Kingdom can be well governed but Justice will be turned into Wormwood For there never was yet nor ever will be any human Law framed with such exact Skill and Policy that it might not on some occasion or other be burthensome to the Subject and obstructive to the publick good of the Common-wealth There being particular Cases and Exigencies so infinitely various that 't is impossible for the wit of man to foresee or prevent them And therefore in all Government there must be a Power Paramount to the written Law and we have good reason to bless God that this is lodged but in One and in him whom he hath set over us to be his Vice-gerent by whose Authority they who break the Letter of the Law in pure Zeal and Loyalty to serve the ends of Government and to uphold the Crown on the Right Head that does and ought to wear it may be relieved and pardoned and rewarded too Thus Sir have I given you in short the Sence and Judgment of our Spiritual Guides the Great Fathers of the Church of England in the Point in Question between us I will now discend to men of less degree in the Church but they shall be men of great and eminent Learning sober Understandings and of examplary Piety and Gravity and you shall hear how they All concur in the same Judgment as concerning this Point of Regal Soveraignty The First shall be the Reverend Dr Peter Heylin whose knowledge was extensive as the Earth and who had a parfect familiarity with the present State of all the Countries in the World as the Ingenious Author of his Life informs us and one who is honoured by all true Sons of the Church of England with a due veneration for his Learned and Elabourate Works And He speaks thus He viz. the King hath Authority by his Prerogative Royal to dispence with the Rigor of the Laws and sometimes to pass by a Statute with a Non-obstante The Learned and Judicious Dr Isaac Barrow late Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in his Treatise concerning the Popes Supremacy affirms thus It is indeed a proper Indowment of an absolute Soveraignty immediately and immutably constituted by God with no Terms or Rules limitting it that its will declared in way of Precept Proclamations concerning the Sanction of Laws the Abrogation of them the Dispensation with them should be observed And says he a few Leaves futher The Power of enacting and dispencing with Ecclesiastical Laws touching exteriour Discipline did of old belong to the Emperor And it was reasonable that it should because old Lawss might not conveniently sute with the Present State of things and the publick welfare because new Laws