recommend to all ingenious Gentlemen that would be rightly instructed and informed neither deceive others nor would be deceived themselves as they love truth and virtue wisdom and sober thoughts to dispise this sort of wit in others and repress it in themselves And never allow it to be used but in the hours of mirth in the Relaxations of their minds from serious Contemplations and matters grave and weighty where this prophane thing wit ought always to be shut out with care Enough hath been said for rectifying the mistakes of any true Protestant especially any Clergy-man of the Church of England which you have objected against them about Government or Parliament dissenters from the Church of England and Popery Especially when it is made apparent that these mistakes are made serviceable to the Popish Plot and the means which that party prosecute to compass and bring about the ruine of our Church But that nothing may be wanting that lyes in my poor power for pulling their Foot out of the Snare I shall more distinctly consider them First I shall desire them to consider what our Government is and where the true knowledge of it is to be found And where can it be found but in our Statute Books the Commentaries of our Law the Histories of our Government and of the Kingdom Search them if you be at leisure if you are not consult those that have read them and whose business and employment it is to understand them and you cannot fail to be informed That the King hath no power to make Laws that both Houses of Parliament must joyn with the King in making a Law It can with no more reason be concluded that the King hath the Legislative power because his Assent makes the Bills in Parliament Laws than it can because the third Unit added to two makes a Triad that the other two do not go to the making of that number when a matter 's moved from the King in Parliament to pass into a Law the Commons consent last The Letters Patents of Ed. Sir E. Cook 8 R. 3. for making the Eldest Son of a King in Succession Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall was confirmed as there must have been otherwise they would have been void by the House of Commons And yet we will not say that the House of Commons can make a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cornwall And yet upon no better reason than this some men will talk as if they believed themselves that the Legislative power is in the King when no King of England yet ever pretended to it but by their process of Law have punished such officious and mischievous Knaves They will tell you that the Laws are the measures of our Allegiance and the Kings Prerogative and declare the terms of Obedience and Government That a Legislative authority is necessary to every Government and therefore we ought not to want it and therefore Parliaments in which our Government hath placed the making of Laws cannot be long discontinued nor their Conventions rendred illusory and in vain which is all one as to want them That to Govern by Laws implieth that great fundamental Law that new Laws shall be made upon new emergencies and for avoiding unsufferable mischiefs to the State By the Statutes of 4 Ed. 3. c. 14.36 Ed. 3. c. 10. it is provided that Parliaments be holden once every year The Statute of this King required a Parliament every three years which being an affirmatory Law doth not derogate from those of Ed. the 3. But if the King doth not call a Parliament once in a year He neglects these Laws and if he delays calling a Parliament three years he neglects the other Law of his own time to And for that he is by the Law intrusted with the calling of Parliaments He is at liberty to call them within the times appointed And that Laws ought to be made for Redress of mischiefs that may ensue appears by the Statute of provisors 25. E. 3. cap. 23. In which we have these words Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Soveraign Lord the King that sith the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs Dammage which happeneth to this Realm he ought and is bound of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the mischief and dammage which whereof cometh which that King agreed to by his Royal Assent thereto given I dare be bold to say that never any Bill in Parliament was lost and wanted the Royal Assent that was promoted by the general desires of the people If Popery therefore which is the greatest mischief to us that ever threatned this Kingdom can be kept out by a Law we ought to have such a Law and nothing can hinder such a Law to be past for that purpose but want of an universal desire to have it I desire these Gentlemen to consider how they will answer it to their Saviour at the last day if they suffer his true Religion and the professors of it to be destroyed and persecuted when nothing but their desires of a thing lawful to be had and of right due was requisite to prevent it Their sufferings will be just and righteous from God if their sin occasioneth it and very uncomfortable to themselves The extent of the Legislative authority is no where to be understood but by our Acts of Parliament in which it hath been exercised and used and by such Acts that declare the extent of its power by the 13. Eliz. cap. 1. it is made Treason during that Queens Life and forfeiture of Goods and Chattels afterwards To hold maintain and affirm that the Queen by the Authority of the Parliament of England is not able to make Laws and Statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the Crown of this Realm and the descent limitation inheritance and Government thereof And this authority was exercised by Entailing the Crown in Parliaments in the times of Richard the 2d Henry the 4th Henry the 6th Edward the 4th Richard the 3d. Henry the 7th thrice in the time of Henry the 8th and upon the Marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain both the Crowns of England and Spain were Entailed whereby it was provided that of the several Children to be begotten upon the Queen one was to have the Crown of England another Spain another the Low-Countries The Articles of Marriage to this purpose were confirmed by Act of Parliament Those that are truly Loyal to our present Sovereign have reason to recognize with high satisfaction that such a power of altering and limiting the descent of the Crown is duly lodged in the King and States of the Realm For under the authority of an Act of Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland we derive our selves to the happiness of his Government and and He his title to the Crown of Scotland which drew to
not pass the Limits of our own Arguments otherwise we had much to say against the Authority of that Sory as it is by the Octavo mentioned But to this day neither in Record or History have we heard of any the least pretence of any special abatement made of any service due by the Tenures by Barony to any Bishops or other Spiritual Baron by the Conquerour at the time of the creating those Tenures neither did the Bishops when they would fain have been excused from judging in Blood ever pretend to it or make any such excuse that their Tenures did not oblige them thereto They have ever been esteemed to have power of Judgment in Capital Causes in Parliament and in a long tract of time it hath been several ways used and acknowledged Their Right is so far from being fore-judged that it never till of late was brought in question They have pretended sometimes that they ought not to use that Right in observation of the Canon Law and have made their protestation according whether of necessity or choice shall be considered They were upon the score of the Canon Law indulged in the Satute of Clarendon from being present and assisting in giving the Judgment of Death and mutilation of Limb yet their Right was not by that Statute destroyed or hurt it put them only at liberty to use it or not but put no obligation or legal restraint upon them not to use it That Law was in favour of their Liberty not a Restraint upon their Right The words of that Law that concern this question we shall here set down Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae Regni qui de Rege tenent in capite habeant possessiones suas de Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondeant Justiciariis ministris Regis sequantur faciant omnes consuetudines regias sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse judiciis Curiae quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Whether these words are words of Liberty or Restraint of prohibition or indulgence and favour as also how far this favour Liberty or Indulgence did extend will appear clearly by the occasion of the Law and the History of those times for whose sake it was made and upon what inducements and how far they did use their Liberty afterwards It is notorious that the design and endeavour of some Bishops of that age and before from the days of Gregory the seventh was to establish an Ecclesiastical Monarchy in the Pope to make themselves the Grandees of another Kingdom they endeavoured to exempt themselves from all Civil subjection as also from being any part of the Civil Government over which their Church Empire was to rule and domineer They looked upon their Baronies to be marks of Slavery and inconsistent with their designed Church-empire by which they were kept in subjection to the Government and made a part of it which was designed by the Conquerour but most sharply complained of as may be seen in Mat. Paris Rex Willielmus pessimo usus consilio Episcopatus sub servitute statuit militari rotulas hujus Ecclesiasticae servitutis ponens in Thesauris multos viros Ecclesiasticos huic constitutioni pessimae reluctantes à Regno fugavit If the Bishops then had been ambitious and desirous that they might be as the rest of the Barons were Judges in the Kings Court then it is true that the word quousque must be a word of Exclusion and that their pretence of judging was fore-closed to all matters under the quousque For if I ask a thing which is not my right that which is not granted is denyed and by such denyall in case of a Law declared the more unlawful But this cannot possibly be for they were already Barons and Judges as other Barons This they reckon'd a servitude and was matter of grievance and complaint But the Assise of Clarendon did proceed from the King for the asserting his Soveraign Power to resist the design of the Papal Monarchy and to oblige the Bishops to continue part of the Government and to tye them to the duty of their Tenures Gervasius tells us Col. 1386. that the Bishops did not know what the Consuetudines Ecclesiasticae in the Assise of Clarendon were but they imagined them to be evil because the King did so much insist upon them Nesciebant saith he speaking of the Bishops hujusque quae essent illae consuetudines sed pravas esse suspicabantur eo quod tantâ instantiâ peterentur But the King commanded as followeth sapientiâ provectiores ite disquirite Avi mei consuetudines ut in scriptum redactae deducantur in medium publice recenseantur quas cum seorsum veteres actus pravitates so he calls the Statutes of Clarendon in scripta reduxissent haec tandem scripta modo Chirographi protulerunt which the Arch-Bishop was required to seal as the custom then was in passing of Laws It is likewise evident in the very Assise of Clarendon that the Bishops were then Barons and ought to do the office of a Baron and were by being Barons Judges and ought interesse sicut caeteri Barones Judiciis Curiae Domini Regis But how far they should by that Statute be bound hereafter this Law was to determine In consequence the Quousque is but a Clause of Liberty at most and the matter under it left to choice A priviledge indeed the Bishops might hereby obtain to judge or not to judge in Causes of blood which they used in all after-times as they pleased as they did more or less regard the Canons as either they did or were thought to intend No right was hereby fore-closed of judging but establisht for the words are debent interesse Quousque is a Clause of exception and leaves them in that matter at large and savours not at all of a prohibition But though the Bishops might have such a Liberty by the Letter of the Assise of Clarendon to judge or not to judge at all in capital Causes which doth not at all impair their Right but that notwithstanding they may use their rightful authority when they please Yet the Bishops did not intend themselves further priviledged by this Law than that they should not be obliged to be present at the pronouncing of the sentence which appears by the Canons that have been made about this matter in England which we shall mention hereafter which would have been most peremptory in their prohibitions and very severe in their denouncing Curses in a matter of this nature as far as they had the Laws on their side As also by the Practice of the Bishops in those times which appears by Peter Blesensis whose words are Principes sacerdotum seniores populi by which he means the Bishops who from the dignity and worthiness of their Order are called Seniores a note of dignity in all Countries in all Ages which I observe because some are so ignorant as not to know it and think the
Jus Paritatis pray mark it what then did they in effect depart from nothing They provided only that they might do nothing indecent or rather against their good liking and at the same time consulted likewise the safety of their Estate and Order and preservation of all their Rights But had they no care of the Authority of the Parliament in their absence yes for they very well knew that it was a probable opinion that nothing acted in their absence and during a recess of their whole Order could be rate and valid and therefore they provide propter hujusmodi absentiam non intendimus nec volumus nec eorum aliquis intendit vel vult quod processus habiti habendi in praesenti Parliamento super materiis auditis quantum ad nos eorum quemlibet attinet futuris temporibus quomodolibet impugnentur infirmentur seu etiam revocentur Let the Impartial Reader Judge whether this be not a famous recognition of the Bishops Right of sitting what a solemn leave they had to be absent what provisions made that the proceedings in that Parliament should not be avoided and made null by their absence which implies a great probability that that time allowed to the opinion of their being necessary in all proceedings in Parliament Was there ever such a protestation entred on the behalf of the Absentees of Temporal Barons This leave given them to be absent is an allowance of Right to sit The proceedings they liked not and the Canon was pretended Admitting this protestation to be an Act of Parliament It is an Act of Parliament to give the Bishops leave to be absent pro hac vice and to make Laws good that should pass in their absence I appeal to the world whether there can be a more Solemn and Authentick Recognition of their Right than this protestation imports CHAP. VIII IT does appear by the whole tenor of this their protestation that the Canons of the Church which they pretend had not passed into Laws if they had what need of such a warm protestation only for the sake of decency and the honesty of their order to be rid of a troublesome business what means the saving of their right if by Law it had been discharged what means their further protestation that the validity of the proceedings in those Causes in which they withdrew should not be impeach't by their absence if their Right did not remain entire notwithstanding the Canon besides that they do not alledge the Law but the Canons of the Church for their excuse They well knew the nature of Canons the force and obligation of them and also that they were not under any obligation to the Canon Law that it was only a Law in the Popes Temporal principality and had no Controul upon the Laws of this Kingdom For the clearing this question it will not be unnecessary here to speak to the nature of Canons what they effect and how oblige Canons therefore are no more Laws than the authority of the Church is Empire no not in matters that are proper for their Canons But most certainly they can neither make nor annul a Civil Right nor do they pretend to alter or change Governments they exceed their proper bounds when they intermeddle in any matters of this nature But when they do extend themselves beyond their bounds and order and appoint in any matter of a Civil Government they intend only to counsel and direct the man how he shall behave himself in the use of his Right which every man may observe if he please Their Subjects are Populus voluntarius the Ecclesiastical Courts are Courts of audience in matters that belong to their cognisance and the Church's word is He that will hear let him hear The Canons of foreign Councils tho' General tho' we send thither our Delegates and Proxies authorized by publick Instruments and by consent of Parliament as has been sometimes done have not the consideration of Canons except received here and allowed by the same Authority that makes the Canons of our Church Canons here must have the Royal assent at least to make them Canons but with the Kings assent they are void if they alter or meddle with any Civil Right or Constitution If any man is proceeded against in the Ecclesiastical Courts for being contrary in any thing to such a Canon our Courts will grant him a prohibition if Excommunicate thereupon award Writs to assoil him to the Bishop and seise his Temporalties if he do not conform Nothing can alter Civil Rights or Civil Constitutions but Law and such never were any Canons or so reputed except the Decrees of Councils confirmed by the Imperial Rescripts of the Roman Emperors who by their Rescripts made Laws by the Authority of the Lex regia by which the people devolved their Right of Legislation to the Emperors but when such Canons were confirmed by the Emperor they remained but Canons still the Canons were to be exacted by the measures of the Church and by the Church-men the matters of such Canons did not employ the Forum no alteration was made in any Civil Right but the Church had Authority to require observance of them under the Censures of the Church About the 11th Century the Pope meditating the increase of his new Ecclesiastical Empire the Roman Empire being now extinct did design to give Laws to the World and to that purpose in imitation of the Imperial Roman Law Gratian was appointed to compile a body of Laws accomodated to that design out of the General Councils the sayings of the Fathers and some decrees of former Popes which made that part of the Canon Law which they call the Decreta to answer to the Digest which was made up of the Senatus consulta Responsa prudentum and the Edicta Praetorum to which another Book was added of Decretals and Clementines made up of the Popes Decretal Epistles which answered to the Codes and Novels which was made up of the Edicts Epistles and Decrees of the Emperors For by the Constitution of the Senate of Rome called Lex Regia by which they gave the power of making Laws to Augustus it was established that quicquid per Epistolam statuit cognoscens decrevit aut per edictum propalavit lex esto And now there was such a thing as a body of Canon Law The Pope had Power indeed to make these Decreta and Decretalia Laws in the Domains of the Church and the patrimony of St. Peter in which he was a Temporal Prince but it was further endeavoured by him to make them the Laws of the Christian World and thereby to advance his pretended Oecumencial Empire and he did so far prevail and advance in his design that it was thought that Rome had again recovered the Empire of the World and it was said with too much truth of her upon the growth of the Papal power Quicquid non possidet armis Religione tenet But tho' the Pontificial as well as the Justinian
Law was publickly professed in England before the end of the 12th Century for Mat. Paris tells us of a Monk of Evesham Anno Dom. 1196. that suo tempore eorum quos Decretistas Legistas appellant peritissimus habebatur earum etiam facultatum auditores quamplurimos instituerat and from that time the study of the Caesarean and Pontificial Law did flourish amongst us until the beginning of E. 3. But in all that time saith Mr. Selden in his Fleta gens ipsa Anglicana ac qui in judiciis praeerant morum patriorum viz. Juris Communis Angliae per intervallum illud tenacissimi fuere A remarkable instance we have of this Nations steady aversion from admitting here either the Civil or Canon Law in the Parliament of Merton which rejected a Bill for Legitimation of Children born before marriage in Concubinate in these Terms Nolumus leges Angliae mutari meaning that they would not make Laws conformable to the Civil or Canon Law The great Policy that the Popes used to effect their Ambitious design of making themselves Monarchs of the Christian World were The assuming to themselves the entire rule and Government of Religion and endeavouring to make every where the Bishops and the whole Clergy together with the Regulars dependant upon them by pretending them to be exempt from all Civil Authority and Jurisdiction and by interdicting to them the exercise of any Civil Authority and shutting them out from all intromissions into the Civil Government and from any interest or dependance thereupon So far as he prevailed in these designs he acquired an Imperium in Imperio and if besides these he could have fixt a Spiritual handle to the Temporal Sword and have got the Government of secular affairs in ordine ad spiritualia his design had been compleated and he had arrived to a more absolute and extensive Empire than that of the Roman Caesars To these purposes the Canon Law provided that the Ecclesiasticks were neither to exercise nor be subject to any Civil Authority But this policy of the Pope had no success in England the endeavours of the Papalins herein met with constant opposition and at last they were made desperate by the Assise of Clarendon where it was declared and enacted accordingly agreeable to the Avitae Consuetudines Regni that the Bishops should be retained and continue to be a part of the Government and exercise Jurisdiction in all Causes in the Kings Court as other Barons as is before observed and that the Clergy should stand submitted to the Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts For this purpose it was also in that Parliament enacted as followeth Si controversia emerserit inter Laicos vel Laicos Clericos in Curia Domini Regis tractetur determinetur and also quod clerici rectati accusati de quacunque re summoniti à Justitia Regis venient in Curiam Domini Regis responsuri ibidem c. And so far were the Bishops and Clergy from observing that part of the Canon Law that was to detrude them from all secular Authority and Jurisdiction that they were from time to time Chancellors Treasurers Keepers of the Privy Seal and Judges and while that Ancient Office continued of Capitalis Justiciarius Angliae to whom was committed the Justice of the Kingdom who were called Custodes Regni Vice-Domini Angliae and sometimes the abstract Justitia He did preside in the Curia Regis which Office was afterwards divided for there were Justitiarii Angliae Boreales Justitiarii Angliae Australes this Office was often executed by Bishops as you may see in Sir Hen. Spelmans Glossary in the word Justitiarius Bishops and Church-men administred the greatest Offices of State and Justice this was matter of Envy to the Temporal Lords and they complain'd in Parliament 45 E. 3. as is before observed That the Government of the Kingdom had been a long time in the hand of the Clergy Mr. Selden in his Fleta tells us that in the times before and after the Assise of Clarendon Mos fuit Judices Regios ex genere hieratico veluti Episcopis Abbatibus Decanis id genus aliis constituendi And it is provided by 28 E. 1. Cap. 3. That if a Clergy-man was a Judge of Assise another should be joyned in Commission with him to deliver the Goals which was to the end that the Ecclesiastical Judge might use that liberty which was indulged to him by the Assise of Clarendon of not pronouncing the Sentence for it must be observed that by that Statute a Clergy-man might be a Judge in a Goal-delivery for that a Laick was by the provision of that Statute to be join'd to him in Commission and Pleas of the Crown are to be found purporting them to be held before two Judges whereof one a Clerk after this Law which could not possibly have been if the Clerk had not been in Commission Besides for after Ages it is well known that all the great Officers and Ministers of State and Justice have been always intrusted with the conservancy of the peace are in Commissions of the peace and Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer for judging capital Causes so that the constant practice in all times as well as the express declaration of the Assise of Clarendon doth assure us that the Canon Law that prohibits Clergy-men being Judges in capital Causes was never received here or became the common Law of England Besides what regard our Clergy had of the Canon Law what opinion they had of the Right in question and how far the Laws did intend to prohibit the exercise of it And that such right was used and exercised will appear by the Canon of Toledo Concil Toletan 11. Cap. 6. fo 553. and the Canon of Lanfrank Spelmans Concil 2 vol. fol. 11. these were made before the Assise of Clarendon That of Toledo is this His à quibus Domini Sacramenta tractanda sunt judicium sanguinis agitare non licet ideo magnopere talium excessibus prohibendum est ne qui praesumptionis motibus agitati aut quod morte plectendum est sententia propria judicandi mant aut truncationes quaslibet membrorum quibuslibet personis aut per se inferant aut inferendas precipiant This being a Foreign Council this Canon carries not with it the Authority of a Canon with us only we may observe whatever the Opinion of that Council was that it was not convenient for licet can have no ocher sence here for Clergy-men agitare judicium Sanguinis Yet this Canon prohibits only the pronouncing the Sentence by themselves or others I am sure that by a positive Law as this Canon must be so far as it participates of the nature of a Law nothing becomes unlawful but what is forbidden whatever the reason be of that Prohibition That of Lanfrank follows thus Vt nullus Episcopus vel Abbas seu quilibet ex Clero hominem occidendum vel membris truncandam judicet vel judicantibus suae authoritatis favorem
Earls did then as now make the Parliament Besides the Barones majores and minores there was at this time a distinction between the Barones Regis and Barones Regni which I will here explain to prevent any mistake that may grow thereupon The Barones Regni were Barons by Tenure and made part of the Government by the Constitution of the first William and so in process of time called Barones Regni because they had by continuance of that Constitution acquired a fixed right to that Honour But because of the frequent Wars between the Barons and the Kings at that time they did omit to summon some who were Barons by Tenure and now duly called Barones Regni to Parliament and called others to Parliament that had no right to be called ratione tenurae and these they called Barones Regis This was ill taken by the Lords and was one of the occasions of their War with King John upon which they did obtain his Charter for remedy as followeth Barones majores Regni sigillatim summoniri faceret The truth of this as to the fact will appear by the Histories of those times and that this is the reason of that distinction of Barones Regis and Barones Regni doth appear by the recited Charter of King John where the majores Barones are called Barones Regni for the Barons were more concerned for the losing of their Honours than they were at the communication of the like Honours to others and with reason though all Honours are lessened by the numbers of those participate of them The inconveniences and mischiefs of this Constitution were very great and very sensible by making the Government consist of one Order there was no third to moderate and hold the balance The Honour of the great Nobility was lessened by an Equality of Suffrage in the great Council of the Kingdom yielded to the Tenents in capite and were not so concerned to support the Dignity of the Crown for the maintaining their own which in that Constitution could not be great It had the faults of either House and the virtues of neither they pressed hard upon the King and were uneasie and oppressive to the People they were not reverent of the Crown nor tender of common right The great Charter provides against the Oppressions of great men as it doth for bounding the Prerogative Our mixt Monarchy was out of tune by the Aristocratical Power of the Baronage now become too excessive by the policy of the Conquerour by advancing too great numbers to that Dignity too great to depend upon the Crown or to be govern'd by it unassisted That which the first William intended and designed for the establishment of his Conquest and of the Peace of the Kingdom made it very easie to afflict bad Princes But by several steps we recovered being taught and instructed to it by our Experience and the sufferance of great Calamities such a Representative that might most certainly effect what in all Ages was intended and designed that nothing should be Law or civilly just but what the People assent to by which their Persons and Rights are secured and defended which is the sole end of Government But evident it is that this more equal clear representative which we now enjoy in our House of Commons grew upon the reducement of the excessive number of Barons so great that it made them a Tumult rather than an Assembly and for the reducement of the power of the greater Barons for in the Parliament of 49 H. 3. when but 25 Lay Barons were summoned tho' in the 41 year of his Reign he numbered 250 great Baronies in England we find Writs for electing to a Parliament at London two Knights Citizens and Burgesses and Barons for the Cinque-Ports before that time none were found nor any Foot-steps of Right for the Counties sending Knights to Parliament though there is a clear Right appears for the Burroughs to send Burgesses which we shall speak to afterwards It will not be impertinent here to add that the Government of Scotland which runs parallel almost to our English Government found it inconvenient that all the Tenants in Capite should resort to their Parliaments and therefore they were reduc'd in this manner viz. their Barones Minores or Tenants in Capite in every County choose two of ther own number to Parliaments which at this day they call the Barons for Counties whereas all our Free-holders choose their Knights of the Shire and our Elections are not restrained to Tenants in Capite And this made it more reasonable for our Representatives of Shires together with the Burgesses to become in process of time a distinct Lower House whereas their Barons of Shires set together with the Lords and vote in Common with them The Knights of the Shire which made the principal part of the Representative of the Commons having no Relation to the House of Peers or the Baronage of England because chosen by all the Feee-holders indifferently though not Tenants in Capite But to return to our History that deduceth the Change of our Government That some great matters for publick Good and Establishment of the peace of the King and Kingdom was treated of in this Parliament they did to be sure establish this new Form of a Parliament will appear by a Form of a Writ of Summons to the Bishop of Durham to that Parliament which I will here transcribe Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae venerabili in Christo patri R. Episcopo Dunelmensi salutem Cum post gravia turbationum discriminia dudum habita in Regno Nostro Charissimus filius Edwardus primogenitus noster pro pace in regno nostro assecuranda firmanda obses traditus extitisset jam sedata benedictus Deus turbatione praedicta super deliberatione ejusdem salubriter providenda plena securitate tranquillitate pacis ad honorem Dei utilitate totius Regni nostri firmanda totaliter complenda ac super quibusdam aliis Regni nostri negotiis quae sine Consilio vestro aliorum Praelatorum magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum eisdem tractatum habere nos oportet vobis mandamus Rogantes in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini quod omni occasione postposita negotiis aliis praetermissis sitis ad nos Londiniis in octabis Sancti Hilarii proximo futuris nobiscum cum praedictis Prelatis magnatibus nostris quos ibidem vocari secimus super praemissis tractaturis consilium impensuris hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum vestrum necnon communem Regni nostri tranquillitatem diligitis nullatenus omittatis Dors Claus 49 H. 3. M. 11. in Scedulae I strongly incline to believe That this King did call in the Commons by their representatives the Barones Minores being discharged to moderate between him and his Barons which became after to be sure however it was before the standing Representative of the people Something
him out of the Government and he had no more Christian Graces than Faith Hope and Charity which he attributes to this Ternary of States of his own making But if he had four of those Graces there had been four States if six of those Graces to have match'd them in number he would have found three States in the House of Commons viz. Knights Citizens and Burgesses and have made six States It seems too King James made a Speech in Parliament wherein he was pleased to use his Logick and liked it seems the Ramistical way of Dichotomies The truth is he had more Logick than a wise King could tell how to bestow For in that Speech he saith The Parliament is composed of a Head and a Body himself and the Parliament This Body is sub-divided into two parts the upper House and the lower House The upper House into two Lords Spiritual and Temporal the lower House into two Knights and Burgesses The Citizens were left out for the sake of his Dithotomy His Method was to proceed by the way of two's and therefore 't was impossible we should here in this Speech of any three whatsoever yet this Speech too is produced against three States distinct from the King Besides they tell us that in one of the late King's Declarations drawn by then a young Gentleman but of great hopes and afterwards a very great Man the King is called one of the three States This Gentleman was very probably misled into that Mistake by a Book called Nomotechnia wherein it is said that the King Lords and Commons are the three States a Book of Institutions for young Students which was never yet allowed for Authority in the Law nor ever had the Honor to be cited in our Courts of Westminster These Mistakes or whatever you will call them with the Authority of the Octavo Author are united together to form an Opinion that the King is but the Bishops are not one of the three States which will be a very dishonorable Error For that it will lead us into a Mistake of our Government and which is much worse for that it hath a tendency to subvert it that is to depress the King and to suppress the Bishops It is an Indign thing and not to be suffer'd that we should lose our Government by Surreption and be made a Babel by dividing and confounding our Language To prevent this mischief we have declared our Government from the very Reason and Nature of the Structure thereof to consist of three States that is three different Orders which make the Great Council of the Kingdom whose End and Business is to administer Council and Auxiliaries to the King who is intrusted with the executive Power of the Government and Laws And besides now we will produce great Authorities to put this Mistake out of Countenance and to prevent its gaining any farther Authority with the People For Errors of this nature in process of time turn into Truth and things prove to be so at last as the Error and Mistake first bespake them and this our Lawyers know well enough with whom 't is a Maxime it belongs only to them and matters within their Province Communis Error facit Jus. And first for this purpose we will mention the Stile that the Parliament used which was convened by the Authority of Richard the Second he being then about to relinquish the Crown to H. 4. This Parliament in transacting so weighty an Office had reason to consider and know who they themselves were They without doubt in all their Proceedings in this High Matter used their true as well as biggest Stile which was that of States Walsingham tells us Sede Regali tunc vacua Procurators Regis Richardi Archiepiscop Eborac Hereford Renunciationem dicti Regis cessionem omnibus statibus Regni tunc adunatis ibi publice declararunt And again Quoniam videbatur cunctis Regni statibus super dictis Articulis singulatim ac etiam communiter interrogatis And again Ordinati sunt Comissarii ex parte statuum Communitatis ejusdem Regni Observe here that the King is none of these States that they are called all the States which signifies more than two that there is mention of States besides Community and therefore it was then understood that there were two States in the Lords House But afterwards he recites us the Form of a most important Instrument which follows In Dei nomine Amen Nos I. Episc Assavensis I. Abbas Glasconiensis Thomas Comes Glocestriae Thomas Dominus de Berkley Tho. de Epingham Tho. Gray Miles Willielmus Thirning Justiciarius per Pares Proceres Regni Angliae Spirituales Temporales ejusdem Regni Communitates omnes status ejusdem Regni Representantes Commissarii ad infra scripta specialiter deputati c. By which it is most clear that the Government was then understood to consist of three States of which the King was none as he cannot be with any Congruity 1 R. 3. Rot. Parl. apud Westm die Veneris 23 Jan. it appears that a Bill was exhibited coram Dom. Rege in Parl. Wherein is contained That several Articles on the behalf and in the name of the three States of the Realm viz. Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons were delivered to the King And farther that the said three Estates were not assembled in form of Parliaments therefore be it ordained by this present Parliament that the Tenor of the said Articles delivered as aforesaid on the behalf of the said three Estates out of Parliament c. Now by the three Estates assembled in this present Parliament be the same ratified and approved Ac idem Dominus Rex de assensu dictorumtrium statuum Regni Authoritate praedicta omnia singula praemissa in billa praedicta contenta concedit ea pro vero indubio pronunciat decernit ac declarat This was in like manner an Act of Parliament for declaring the Right of the Crown to be in Rich. 3. In the Statute made 2 H. 4. the Word State is used plurally and for more than two of which the King was none to signifie the Parliament as appears cap 15. And so it is also in 4 Hen. 4. cap. 4. in which these words are Sith it is the desire of all the States of the Realm that nothing shall be so demanded of our Sovereign the King He will that all those who make any Demand c. So that hereby it is evident that in the Understanding of that time there were three States besides the King But to spare the Reader the trouble of the mentioning the Records at large that testifie the Parliament to consist of the King and the three Estates viz. Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Commons I will refer them that doubt to the Collection made in Mr. Pryn's Index to Sir Robert Cotton's Abridgment under that Title who himself was of this Opinion which nothing but the Evidence of the truth of the thing could have
to Persons or Territories by the Civil Authority Their Convocations are convened by the King 's Writ they debate nothing without his Leave Their Results become Canons and receive Sanction by the Royal Authority and do not pretend to infringe any Temporal or Civil Right or Law And besides their Convocations are always to be held sittting Parliaments and no longer not at any other times And whatever they debate or resolve is under the Observation of Parliament Nequid detrimenti capiat Respublica The Bishops make no Laws about Religion apart by themselves neither have they any Negative against any that are propounded and therefore are not answerable for any that are made or not made They have not the definition of Heresie but the Law hath declared it since the Reformation And the Writ De Heretico comburendo is since abrogated by the Christian Temper of a Parliament principally consisting of such Members that were conformable to the Institutions of the Church of England that is the legal Establishments of this our Christian Commonwealth The Church of England is no more her own present Establishments than the present thoughts of any man is the man himself as the thoughts of a man are more refined and unreprovable as the man grows wiser so do the Laws and Constitutions the Orders and Rules of a Church or Christian Republick alter amend and improve as the Wisdom and Virtue Religion and Devotion of the Government and the principal parts thereof in Church or State increaseth or advanceth Our Bishops have had and that with the greatest reason greater apprehensions of Schism and Separation than of Errors in Opinion which occasioned it as of worse importance to the Christian Faith than the Errors themselves Besides that a man cannot help being mistaken in many things but it is in every mans power to be modest and peaceable and wise to sobriety and hold the unity of the faith in the bond of peace and charity and not to revile and deprave that which hath the publick approbation though he cannot thereto fully assent It is great iniquity and unrighteousness to pretend to Liberty of Conscience as their right and in the mean time not to tolerate the publick appointments and what is authoritatively allowed and approved If Controvertible Opinions are allowed a Warrant for making a Sect and separate Communion and Churches are denominated and distinguished by them and consequently such Opinions are advanced unduly unto the same necessity of belief as Articles of Faith what will become of the Christian Verity where will it be recognized and purely professed how distinguished how understood how ascertained amidst the number of Opinions contended for by the several dogmatizing Sectaries with more zele than the undoubted and uncontrovertible Articles of Faith Nay I will adventure to say further on their behalf that Schismatical Separations would not offend them so little do they affect to be Magisterial but for that if this Disease should grow Epidemical there would be no such thing as a Christian Church and the Christian Religion would perish from the earth without a miracle It is onely designed by our Church that those whose Subscriptions are required should thereby onely signifie their allowance of the Liturgy and Articles as fit to be used and allowable What Plea then can our Separatists have for a Toleration for themselves who by their Separation seem unwilling to tolerate the publick Establishment either from our Governours Civil or Ecclesiastical or from one another in their divided ways To reform or change to these mens pleasures is impossible for that they cannot they positively differing from each other be all pleased in any one possible Establishment Besides that untill we cease to be Schismaticks and to be of separate and divided Communions upon the score of any dislike or but probable exception to what is publickly received or allowed the altering any thing for our satisfaction will be but applying the Cure to the Symptoms a cutting off one head of the Hydra By this way to effect an union is as impossible as it would be to empty the Ocean without stopping the cur-of the Rivers The Bishops are as all men by how much they are better learned are of the greatest Moderation in Opinions and can tell how duely to rate and value them according to the Prejudice or Advantage they do to the Ends of our Religon those several Opinions that have been contended with furious and rending Zeal in the several Ages of the Church to the Scandal of that peaceable Institution They can have a better Opinion of that man who hath unhappily entertained the less probable side of the Questions controverted if he opines with Modesty than they have of him that holds the most probable part thereof with a Sectary-Zeal Seperation from Contempt and Disdain of those of a different persuasion Their Moderation is known unto all men of it their Opposers have had very sensible Experience the several Dissenters cannot disown it but must confess that they have had severally kinder Usage from the Episcopal Men than their several Parties have from one another By their Learning Wisdom and Moderation which is most eminently known and observed in many of them and hath recommended them to the highest Esteem they must be allowed their Enemies being Judges to be the fittest Arbiters of the Controversies and the most likely and probable Procurers of the Peace of Christendome All the Dissenting Parties have reason to look upon them as their Common Sanctuary and Defence against the Outrages of each other But in this they must be pardoned if they being under a Law or Rule of their Superiors made as they think in a matter lawful act accordingly and do not disobey for their sake who think otherwise though in the mean time they pity their Scruples Indeed the Terms of the Nonconforming Ministers have been made hard upon them But that hath been from Reasons of State which the late unhappy Wars occasioned and they were ejected out of their Livings by Statute-Law And on the other side it is true that many men not to fit for that Holy Function have enjoyed Church Benefices but neither this can the Bishops help For they cannot reject a Clerk presented to a Benefice or eject him but as the Law will so sacred is the Right of Patronage and so fixed by the Law are Ministers in their Livings which is not Nice in the manners of Clerks and the Bishops cannot be severer than the Laws So that if some men not of the most unblamable conversations have kept their Livings and some of very unexceptionable Lives have been ejected The unhappy Nonconformists are directed where to make their Complaint But as there is little Cause of complaint on this part of the Episcopal Authority and function viz. Their Superintendency over the Pastors of their Dioceses So we shall observe how they have behaved themselves in the Exercise of the Power of the Keys For what is done therein by their Chancellors
will not assist to bring on the Popish Plot by disbelieving it and put us in fear of the Fanaticks by taking all the courses imaginable to provoke and exasperate them and upon their discontents which they maliciously heighten and by falshood and forgeries misrepresent To graft thereupon a Pretens of a Protestant Plot for a pretext to extirpate Protestanism and introduce Popery which they impudently pretend to be of a more firm Allegiance to the Government than the Reformed Religion I pray let it be considered that that which is tolerated is put under disgrace even for that it is tolerated and that which tolerates even for that it tolerats hath the Governing Authority and in so much as it indulgeth it obligeth to modesty and reason and. if that indulgence should be abused it may and will be retracted It was never intended by the House of Commons that the Church of England should be altered or modelled to an agreeableness to any form or sect of the separation or prescrib'd to by any of the Dissenters or that she should be made subject to any of their rules or opinions or her Liturgy laid aside for directories or which is worse undervalued to the profane way of extemporizing For as generally used and exercised it deserves no milder a stile That the Church should always govern by her own Wisdom in her own Province and in those things that appertain to her can never be deny'd her No man hath reason to say tho he hath great cause to dislike the separation and to have a bad opinion of the Dissenters that he had rather submit to Popery than to any form of the Separation for he need do neither except he pleaseth No man that thus expresseth himself but will be suspected to seek an occasion and pretens to become a Papist and to make a defection from the Church of England But if these Gentlemen have such a displeasure against Schism and Separation which certainly is the worst disease any Church can labor under and at this time threatens the destruction as well of the Protestant Religion it self as it doth to the Professors of all denominations let this sharpen their zeal against Popery which by its unhallowed arts hath occasioned and exasperated our Schism and put them upon the use of all means to reconcile if possible the Schism that the Papists have already made and by all means endeavor to continue and take away if possible the occasion of it for the time to come And thus defeat the Arts of the Priests and Jesuits for supplanting our Church It is a most deplorable thing that our Church should be kept rent and divided in danger of being lost between Rituality and scrupulosity Though the Scruples of the Nonconformists which I always thought and do still think groundless and unreasonable have often moved me into some passion against them yet upon consideration I think this their Scrupulosity may be of God and that some Men are by him framed to it That he hath provided it as a bare and obstacle in the Natures and Complexions of some devout Men against any Innovations whatsoever that dangerous ones may not steal upon the Church for the better maintaining the simplicity and purity of the Christian Religion and Worship But in saying this I have said nothing that is apt to give them a conceit of themselves but rather to humble them For the best Men are not govern'd by their Temper and Constitution but correct them by their reason and determine themselves by a clear and firm Judgement What affrightment all this while either to Church or State from this weak and pittyable Scrupulosity Where lyes the Treason or Sacriledge nay or so much as contumacy against our Ecclesiastical Governors which is so much upbraided to them The Christian Religion may be prejudiced by addition to as well as substraction from her rule The Church of Rome by her additions hath almost evacuated the Christian faith Besides there may be a fineness in the outward mode of religious Worship in its self very justifiable which may be not congenial to men of a course make The Worship of God will always savor of the manners of the People Men of dull capacity can scarce admit of any Ceremonys without danger of falling into superstition or being vext with endless and incurable scruple until for ease of their minds they throw them off But the wisdom of the best Law-makers hath considered in giving Laws what the People would bare and not what is best to be enjoyned and many things have been tolerated by them which they did not approve ne majoribus mal is detur occasio aut etiam ne vilescant sine moribus leges There is nothing more exposeth the Authority of Government to contempt then a publick and an open neglect of its Injunctions But where obedience to Laws is exacted under severe penalties where it doth not greatly import the common good to have them observed that Government is unequal and useth its Authority unjustifiable Leges cupiunt ut jure regantur The consideration of the sad effects the Schism in our Church hath occasioned the contempt that it hath brought upon our Ecclesiastical Governors That Religion it self is thereby made the scorn of Atheists That the Papists are thereby furnished with matter of objection reproach and scandal to the Reformation That every Age since it begun hath heightned the malignity of the Schism that it seems now to despise the Cure of the greatest Cassanders These considerations make it infinitely desirable to have it utterly extinguished There seems to be now left but one way of accommodating our Divisions and that is that we do not hereafter make those things wherein we differ matter and reason of Division That the Children of the Light and Reformation be at length as wise in this matter as the Church of Rome which is at unity with itself under more and greater differences then those that have troubled the peace of our Church which is sufficiently known to all Learned men Had it not been happy that this Schism had been prevented by the use of the power of the Church in Ecclesiastical dispensations If no Law had been made touching the matters that gave the first occasion to the Schism it had been in the Power of the Church to have prevented it No good Bishop but would have relaxed the Canons that enjoyned these Ceremonies about whose lawfulness there hath been so much Zeal mispent and unwarrantable heat and contention raised for the sake of peace and preservation of the Unity of the Church to men peaceable and otherwise obedient to her injunctions So dangerous it is to make Laws in matters of Religion which takes the conduct of Religion in so much from the guides of the Church The beginning of contention is like the breaking out of waters saith the wise man and they are assoon as begun more easily ended Before the Contenders have exasperated one another with mutual severities
the Church of Rome the source whence all our divisions spring To which we owe the first separations that were made in our Chutch which appears by undenyable Records published by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book called the Unreasonableness of Separation How they have propagated multiplyed exasperated and promoted our divisions to tell you would make a Volume besides no Protestant is now to know it I have only this further to observe that the Church of Rome at first only design'd by the Arts of dividing us and breaking us into several Communions to disgrace the Reformation to make our Spiritual Governors Pastors and Teachers lose their Authority with the People To deprave our Religion with licentious opiniastre and absurd dogmatizing to load our departure from that Church with the mischief of innumerable Schismes and to make us reconcileable to the Tyranny and impostures of that Church from the vain opinions and licentiousness of the Sectaries who have been seduced managed inflamed and made wild by their imposturous Arts and Deceits This I believe was only at first designed by the Priests but now they apparently design by the Dissenters to destroy the Church or by the Church to destroy the Dissenters that they more easily come to rights with her They imagine the Dissenters are very numerous and that the Nation is fallen into two great parts that the Dissenters numbers are vast But God be thanked they neither make our grand Jury men nor the common Halls of the City of London for choosing the Lord Majors or Sheriffs And I challeng any man to give me a List of all the Names of Dissenters that were of the House of Commons in our two last Parliaments I am sure they will not make an Number but they reckon the Numbers of Dissenters by the care they have taken to encrease it They used great art to continue the Separation when His Majesty was restored Since Laws have been made to raise the Animosities of Dissenters but scarce ever executed for repressing them If for any reason of state the Laws here and there and for a spurt have been exacted secret comforts and supports have been given to their Preachers of greatest Authority with them And when they have seem'd to preach with the courage and zeal of confessors to their Auditors they have been assured not only of indemnity but have received rewards How prosperously did the work of separation go on by these Councils of our Achtlophels by these means they concluded it would be heightned that it would admit of no terms of an accommodation How insolent were their Harangues more taking with their deluded Auditors while they apprehended them acted with an invincible zeal of Religion What Animations did their People receive to defy the Church and her Authority when their Preachers despised Fines and Imprisonment to their seeming out of pure zeal against her Order It is well known several of them were in Pension and no men have been better received by the D. than J. J. J. O. E. B. and W. P. c. Ringleaders of the Separation Besides that Popish Priests have been taken and executed for preaching in Field meetings in Scotland They have raised there a sort of Euthusiasts more wild and mischievous than any we had amongst us in the times of licentiousness They have had notwithstanding great Lords that have patronis'd them who were always well received in their applications in their favor at St. James's and several of their Preachers who were not Priests have received exhibitions and pensions for their Encouragement It was necessary that the Fanaticism planted in Scotland should be very loathsome to make that Nation abate any of their zeal for the Protestant Religion or to neglect their fears and apprehensions of Popery or to make the least step towards it Awake you drowsie Sleepers open your Eyes the Sun is risen there is light enough to fill your sight if you would look up and were wiling to see Could any thing be conceiv'd more apt to bring the Church of England into contempt and scorn with those of the separation then to have Laws made in her favor penal Laws which are thought to be of her procurement and not executed Vain and Ineffective anger is always returned with contumely scorn and hatred Cupide conculcatur nimis ante metitum And so it hath succeeded in this case nothing hath been more passable than the basest Scurrility upon the Church the Bishops and the Clergy The Atheist the impious and profane have listed themselves Fanaticks that they might have the greater Liberty of reviling Religion it self with impunity Consider how the Church of England is used which is truly the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion About ten years since they designed to slight her works and demolish her by a general indulgence and toleration And now they intend to destroy her Garrison those that can and will defend her against Popery By one of their Pamphleteers the separation is called an usurpation upon the Government and all the Dissenters as such only Rebels and Traitors to the King The same Gentleman would perswade the World that the ready way to extirpate Popery is by rooting out of Fanaticism whither saith he the Fanaticks bring on the Jesuits plot or the Jesuits the Fanaticks is not a farthing matter But in the mean time that the Papists have a plot on foot needs no proof That any sort of Protestants are engaged in a plot cannot be proved But all honest Protestants of the Church of England think it more righteous to punish the Deceivers and pitty the Deceived and wish them only cut off that make divisions It is one way of curing or rather of extinguishing the disease to Kill the Patient But no Prince did ever yet provide Cut-Throats for his People in epidemical diseases instead of Physitians But if the Papists could arm other Protestants against Dissenters there would be the less work for Papists to do And they will be sure to requite them for this favor with Polyphemus his curtesie For to give the Devil his due they are not themselves so fond of Massacres and destruction of Hereticks as to envy that employment to any other that will undertake it They had rather any other party of Men should do the Drudgery for them Besides what one sort of Protestants shall execute upon another will give them better pretence and more hardiness if they wanted either Pretence or Resolution to destroy such as they call Hereticks to execute the like destruction upon the Church Protestants who certainly differ more from the Papists then the Separatists do from our Church Sure there is good Reason they should be more sharply treated by the Papists than they treated the Dissenters And if they are in such sort us'd they must lay their hands upon their mouths and be silent before their Persecutors and acknowledg the righteous judgment of God in bringing such tribulation upon them from their Enemies wherewith they troubled their own Brethren
But there are better ways of putting an end to the Popish Plot then by putting it in Execution for them That is to say by suppressing that contumacy that is grown so rife in the Dissenters against the Church of England by putting the Revilers of her Establishment and Order under the severest Penalties By the Church her condescentions and indulgences to those that are weak and scrupulous the peaceable Dissenters such condescentions will not abate but magnifie her Authority The Church of England will not be by this means lost but her Governance preserved especially if the Relaxation that shall be made proceeds from her ex mero motu and is not imposed upon her by any secular Authority Nay she will become by this means more ample and venerable What Glories will shine upon the Heads of the Bishops We shall all rise up call them blessed They will attain an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and receive divine Honors while they live Their Order will be recover'd into the highest Veneration and it will never be after a question in the English Church whither the Order of Bishops be Apostolical The Parliament will make all Laws yield and comply to such happy peaceable and gratious Intendments All the People will honor them as their common Saviors that shall thus snatch us from the very Brink of Ruine and render the Designs of the implacable Enemies of the Church ready to take effect to the destruction of our Religion and the Nation utterly defeated But what punishments can we think too severe upon any that shall be guilty of such insolent Iniquity as not to allow that liberty to the Church which they seek as a favor from her to themselves that will not let the Church escape their Censures when she gratiously exempts them from her Censures and pittys their Errors and Follies What Fines and Imprisonments Pillories and Scourgings do they deserve that persecute the Church with Revilings when they themselves are tolerated Their condemnation must be just what ever their doom be themselves being Juges They will suffer as Evil doers and disturbers of the peace not for their Religion but for a most extravagant and intolerable unrighteousness They who will not tolerate others are themselves for that reason most intolerable Against these our Laws are to be sharpen'd and their iniquities to be punished by a Judge But the Statute of 35 Eliz. which punisheth dissatisfactions and peaceable withdrawings from the publick worship with exile and death declares how odly the business of the Separation hath been managed and with what disadvantages to the Church as it doth also the impracticableness of Laws that make perhaps invincible prejudices and modest and peaceable dissatisfactions capitally criminal The execution of this Law is scarce possible It is by no means agreeable either to the Christian temper of our Church or His Majesties great Clemency of which he hath assured us in the general course of his Reign And especially for that that Law hath been very rarely proceeded upon A Gentleman that lay in Cambridge Goal under the Judgment of that Law was reprieved by His Majesty with a great dislike expressed by him against that and such like severities What ever extravagances of a few wild Fanaticks of that Age occasion'd that Law the State of the Separation and of the Nation being quite alter'd from what it was then the execution of this Law now would be something like a Sheriffs serving a Writ out of Date in another County which can have no effect but mischief to himself While our Dissenters are thus reasonably indulged and strictly obliged to their peaceable behavior they can give no apprehensions to the Government either in Church or State This is all that is designed and all that they ought to have and this certainly would be readily yielded them in this present juncture especially if the Evils of the late unhappy times did not stand upon their score But I perswade my self that this course if it had been heretofore taken would have prevented one great cause of our late Troubles so it will in such measure prevent them from returning as the separation can be accounted the cause of them As for the Sacriledge and Spoil which was then made upon our Church it could never have happen'd but upon the dissolution of the Government nor can it ever happen again That War would have been impossible if the Church-men had not maintained the doctrine that Monarchy was Jure Divino in such a sense that made the King absolute and they and the Church in consequence perished by it But God be thanked we see the Church again restored to her endowments grown wiser than to desire to hold that precariously and at pleasure she doth enjoy by an unmovable legal Right Of the three Estates of this Kingdom for to suspect any such thing of the King would be unpardonable blasphemy there can be no reasonable Suspition Though of the House of Commons it is be come now lawful to suspect and say any thing that is evil But no man but the Villains that design by dishonoring them to change the Government hath reason to entertain such a thought The Members of the Commons in our latest Parliaments were all upon the matter entirely conformable to the Church of England They were persons of the best Estates Reputation and Honor in their Countries And they or such as they are like to make our succeeding Parliaments I have leave to put them under the imprecation of the severest Curse if ever they do sacrilegiously impair the Church her Revenues And I desire it may be assisted with the hearty and passionate desires of all good Christians that so the curse I now pronounce may operate upon them who shall incur it He that designs contrives or consents to spoil the Church of any of her Endowments may a secret curse wast his substance Let his Children be Vagabonds and beg their bread in desolate places Besides I know it is meditated and design'd by many and the best Men that use to be sent to Parliaments to redeem in part that infamous Sacriledge that was committed in the times of H. 8. When the Appropriations of Rectories made to religious Houses which had the cure of the Parish and ought at the dissolution of the Monasteries to be presented to were vested in the Crown whereby not only the Church was rob'd but the People cheated of their Tythes which were theirs to give tho not to retain and their praemium for the Priests Ministrations which are now often most slenderly and sometimes scandalously performed As also to disencumber her Revenue of the Charges and impositions of First-fruits and Tythes which were imposed and exacted by the Pope upon his pretence of being the oecumenical Pastor and High Priest of the Christian Church and at that time confer'd upon the Crown and are as unreasonably continued as any thing can be that hath a Law for a pretext But for this a