call them to it and in the mean time return good for evil Upon Munday being Feb. 2. 1684 Charles II. was seized by a violent Fit supposed to be an Appoplexy whereof he died on the Thursday following and that Afternoon K. James II. was proclaimed who sitting in his Privy Council then assembled declared That since it pleased Almighty God to place him in that Station and that he was now to succeed so good and gracious a King as well as so kind a Brother he thought fit to declare That he would endeavour to follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People That he had been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power though that had not been the only story which had been made of him That he knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves Good and Loyal Subjects and therefore he should always take care to defend and support them And that he likewise knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish and therefore as he should never depart from the just Rights and Priviledges of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property Which Declaration was then ordered in Council to be Published and the same was repeated at the Coronation and then confirmed by his Oath for which Addresses of Thanks were sent the King from all parts of the Nation assuring him of their Loyalty and Resolutions to maintain his Rights and defend his Person with their Lives and Fortunes These Declarations were repeated to the Parliament which met May 22. 1685. That they might be assured that he spake them not by chance and that they might more firmly rely on a Promise so solemnly made But how this Promise was performed may appear by the following Events During the sitting of this Parliament News was brought of the Landing of Argyle in Scotland and shortly after of the Landing of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England whereupon the Parliament readily declared to stand by the King with their Lives and Fortunes for the suppressing of those Rebellions desiring him to take more than ordinary care of his Person And though the Rebellions were suppressed chiefly by the voluntary Assistance of such as were of the Communion of the Church of England among whom the R. R. the Bishop of Winchester was a great Instrument and the Scholars of Oxford cheerfully ingaged themselves And the Militia raised in the West caused Monmouth to turn East-ward in the Mouth of the King's Army Yet in October following the King took occasion to complain how useless the Militia was on such occasions and to tell them That nothing but a good Force of well disciplined Troops in constant pay was sufficient to defend them from such as might disturb them at home or from abroad And here was a Foundation laid for a Standing Army such as the King intended in a due time by a French General and Irish Souldiers to over-awe the Nation and make the Instruments of accomplishing his Designs and there needed but a few more soft steps till the Church be surprized and awakened out of that Security wherein her own Innocence and the King 's frequent and solemn Promises had brought her but first the State of Ireland must be altered the Earl of Clarendon is called home to make way for Tyrconnel Scotland is secured by an Army which was raised for the suppressing of Argyle the Duke of Albemarle that was too popular is sent to Jamaica and whatever or whosoever might be thought able to withstand any violence that should be offered to the Church and the Religion that was Established is removed and the Power put into such hands as the King could confide in for the destruction of the same And because the Protestant Dissenters were a considerable Party and their Eyes began to be so far opened as to perceive that they should perish in the Ruine of the Church which made them more inclinable to a Union with it for prevention of their common destruction the old Stratagem of a Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which Coleman declared to be an effectual means to destroy the Established Church is now made use of This bold and fatal stroke was made immediately at the Root of the Religion and Laws established in Scotland but seconded by the same Arm against the Establishment in England as will evidently appear upon these considerations The Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland dated Feb. 12. 1687. In which consider first the Foundation of it in these words We have thought fit to grant and by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve do hereby grant our Royal Toleration c. Which words do assert a Power in the King to command what he pleaseth and an Obligation in the Subject to obey whatever he commands 2. This Absolute Power is not grounded on any Law lest it should seem to be derived from the People but on a Soveraign Authority inherent in the King's Person Jure Divino which may be exercised on that ground as well in England as Scotland as the event shews it was 3. This Absolute Power is to be obeyed by all the Subjects without reserve i. e. not only by a passive submission to the Power but by an active compliance with it so that when the King shall declare it to be his Will and Pleasure That all his Subjects renounce the Protestant Religion and turn Roman Catholicks to which his Religion binds him and as he hopes for Salvation and under the Penalty of being deposed by the Pope they are bound to be of the King's Religion 4. That the Subjects that will partake of the benefit of this Toleration must swear To the utmost of their power to assist defend and maintain the King and his Successors in the exercise of this Absolute Power against all deadly i. e. all Mortals So that the Subjects were to make a very dear purchase of this intolerable Toleration for which they were to pawn their Souls and submit all they had to an Absolute Power without reserve Let us consider therefore the intrinsick value of this Toleration which says We do give and grant our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named Where the word Royal looks like a stamp on base Metal mixt of Popery and Quakerism expressed in the Proclamation and is so general that as never any Christian Prince granted the like so the King as a Roman Catholick could not grant to any of those mentioned viz. either of the Church of Scotland then established under Episcopacy or to the Presbyterians or Quakers whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereticks But then it is to be considered that this Toleration of the Protestant Subjects is granted under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations
mentioned As first None are to be tolerated but such as accept of the Toleration i. e. acknowledge the Lawfulness of the Absolute Power and swear to maintain it 2. That nothing be said or done in their Meetings that is contrary to the Weal and Peace of our Reign Seditious or Treasonable and that they only exercise in private Houses But what would be interpreted to be Seditious the most cautious Preacher could hardly discern But that all Scotland might know for whose sake the Toleration was granted and who alone would in time reap the benefit of it after a large commendation of the Papists as good Christians and dutiful Subjects it follows We by our Absolute Power suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament made against Roman Catholicks So that they shall be as free in all respects as any of our Protestant Subjects not only as to the exercise of their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them And to this end it follows We do by our Royal Authority aforesaid i.e. the Absolute Power stop disable and dispense with all Laws injoyning any Oaths or Tests c. And whereas the Toleration for Protestants was clogg'd with several Conditions c. this for Papists is amplified in these words We command all our Judges and others concerned to explain this in the most ample sense and meaning c. for their Indemnity I have repeated the heads of this Proclamation more largely that the Reader may see what little reason the Protestants Subjects of Scotland had to return those slavish Addresses which would be too nauseous to repeat It is no great wonder that the Scottish Mobilie should return their Thanks when the Privy Council declared They would assert his Prerogative with the hazard of their Lives and that whoever were employed by him were sufficiently secured by his Authority But that the English Subjects should dance after the Scottish Pipe upon such Winds as blow hot and cold in the same breath is an indelible Reproach of ignorance and of obstinacy against what is their True Interest the support of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties Yet when the like Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated April 4. 1687 came forth for England tho' the pretences were That it ever had been his Majesty's Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that the perfect enjoyment of their Property had never been in any Case invaded by him when it was known that the rigour used against Dissenters was urged by the Court and many Outrages committed by a Standing Army against the Subjects Property And the suspending of Laws did strike at the very Foundation of Government and Destruction of the Subjects by placing Papists who were not qualified by Law into Offices and Places of Trust Civil and Military it is a wonder how any Faction in England could address their Thanks and promise to stand by the King as a Return of Gratitude for such a Toleration as gave liberty to Turks Jews and Athiests but was particularly designed for the establishing of that Religion which should persecute and devour all the rest and yet there wanted not Addresses of Thanks from all parts of the Nation for this Liberty of Conscience as it is called but really of Confusion The Addresses are so many and fulsome that I shall not surcharge the Reader with them only observe that they were offered by a Generation who succeeded those that petitioned for the Death of the Royal Martyr that addressed Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard with the like odious Flatteries but that they should address their Thanks for taking off those Laws that kept out Popery and Slavery is more I suppose that their Forefathers would have done only it is evident that it was done on a design to ruine the Church of England though every ordinary person might perceive it had been in the power of the those Addressers Popery and Slavery would have been entailed on them and their Posterity by a Law. And though the Church of England had better Assurances both by the Laws and by their constant adhering to the Crown than the Promises in that Proclamation yet because they refused to return their Thanks they were charged with the brand of Abhorrers by the opposite Factions who might well conclude that since the King failed so much in his most solemn and deserved Promises to that Church which was by Law Established and was the Body of the Nation those scattered Parties which had not deserved any Favour from the Crown could not expect a performance of those Promises But by this we see what slender opportunities some Men are ready to lay hold on to vent their Malice against the Church thô their own Ruine be involved in it And what was the import of such Addresses but to thank the King for dispensing with those Laws and as much as in him lay abrogating and dissolving them which were made as a Fence to the Protestant Religion and for opening a wide gap for Popery and Slavery to come in and triumph over us In April 1688 the King declares That he was encouraged by the multitude of Addresses received from his Subjects to endeavour to establish Liberty of Conscience on such Foundations as should be unalterable And desires his Subjects to consider that for the Three Years last past he was not such a Prince as he had been represented by his Enemies i. e. an Oppressor but a Father of his People And now the Church of England which had merited so many Solemn Promises for their Protection were to have an experiment how well he would perform them for he makes an Order in Council That his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience should be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom Against the Publishing whereof the Seven Bishops who were then on the spot in behalf of themselves and their absent Brethren and their Clergy humbly presented the following Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty Humbly shewing THat the Great Aversions they find in themselves to the Distributing and Publishing in all their Churches Your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to Your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more then once publickly acknowledged to be so by Your gracious 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 considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded on such a Dispensing Power as hath been often declared illegal in Parliament particularly in 1662 and 1672 and in the
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves
of England and such Rulers as Defend and Support it are all of them Lying Perjured and Intolerable Persecutors As for his Colleague Mr. Hickringle I shall need to say no more than this That the Design of his Book against Ceremony-Mongers is sufficiently shewn by his other Book against the TEST and Penal Laws as if the Injunction of them were a Persecution for the removal of which Groundless Scandal the following Treatise is now Published The Preface SINCE it hath pleased Almighty GOD in his tender Compassion to a Sinful Nation to set over us a King and Queen who do naturally take Care for us and as industriously seek to Unite and Preserve as the late King did to Divide and Destroy us We should no longer think of shewing our Zeal for Christ as James and John did by calling for Fire from Heaven to consume all such as follow not us and our Opinion but as useful Members under such an able Head Unite into one Body that we may withstand the furious Attempts of our Common Adversaries who incessantly seek to improve the Seeds of Discord which they have sown amongst us for our utter Extirpation And that I may remove and prevent the Prejudices which such as have hitherto Separated from the Established Worship have conceived against the Governours of the Church under Regal Authority I shall here desire them to consider what Condescentions and Concessions they have been always ready to make for the Ease of all Tender Consciences and to which they are ready to Agree when-ever the Supreme Power shall commit the Consideration of those things to the Parliament and Convocation His Majesty Charles the Second in a Declaration from Breda promised a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no Man should be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which did not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that he should be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation should be offered to him for granting such an Indulgence After which he sets forth his Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Dated at White-hall the 25th of October 1660 which certainly was sufficient to satisfie all sober Protestants He grants a Commission to some Persons of the Presbyterian as well as of the Episcopal Perswasion but what little Effect all these things wrought towards a Reconciliation and by whose Fault will thus appear In his Majesty's Declaration he desired the Dissenters to Read as much of the Common-Prayers as they had no just Exceptions against yet though some had declared they could Use the greatest part of it I never heard that any of them did comply with so reasonable a Desire of his Majesty but instead thereof they Petition for a Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline and that Commissioners might be appointed to Compile a New Form or Reform the Old. And though the King denied the making of a New having expressed his esteem of the Old in his Declaration Octob. 25. yet Mr. B. or some others drew up another Liturgy in eight Days time which they confessed had many Imperfections yet they call it their more Correct Nepenthe and Protest before God and Men against the Dose of Opium i.e. the Liturgy recommended by the King and Parliament as that which tended to the Cure of their Disease by Extinguishing of Life and to Unite them in a Dead Religion and tell the Bishops If these be all the Amendments and Abatements you will admit you sell your Innocency and the Churches Peace for nothing And in the due Account and Petition they reflect as severely upon his Majesty saying We must needs believe that when his Majesty took our Consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you i. e. your Majesty meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable Alterations And in the close of the second Paper they tell the King If they should lose the opportunity of their desired Reconciliation it astonisheth them to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce As Basil said to Valens so they p. 117. of their Reply If you will receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when he refused he said The Will of God be done with thy Son So we say too if you will put on Charity and promote the Churches Peace God will Honour you but if you will do contrary the Will of the Lord be done with your Honours And as to the Laws in a Prognostication set out 1661 p. 12 13. they talk of new Impositions Subscriptions and Oaths Words and Actions which they believe to be against the Word of God this reflects on the Legislators Dr. Stillingfleet observed of the first Plea for Peace That it lookt as if it had been designed on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of Notorious Lying and Perjured Villains And that Author in his Answer to the Doctor 's Sermon p. 73. chargeth him with pleading for Presumption Prophanation Usurpation Uncharitableness and Schism And in the Preface of the Second Defence That the Doctor 's Book is made up of 1. Untrue Accusations 2. Untrue Historical Citations 3. Fallatious Reasonings That Learned Doctor had propounded several Concessions to be made for the Ease of Dissenters not without the Consent and Direction of his Superiours as I have been informed all which Mr. B. rejects saying That the Benefit would redound sibi suis not reaching our Necessities p. 21. of the Second Defence I cannot omit what an ingenious Person writes in his Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet which may serve to retort this Reflection p. 68. I will tell Mr. B. a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papists out of pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Excution of them and some Leading Fanaticks to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers In the Year 1681 was printed an Apology for the Non-conformist Ministers to justifie their Preaching contrary to Law the Book is directed to the Right Reverend Bishops of London Lincoln Hereford Carlile St. David's and Peterborough and others of their Moderation which he calls our best Bishops But with what Reverence and Moderation doth the Author Treat them P. 233. We Humbly lay these Petitions at your Feet and beseech you for the Souls of many Hundred Thousands that you who call yourselves Fathers and Pastors of the Church will not deny them the Bread of Life We beseech you to come out of your Palaces and be familiar with the People and dwell in some Country Village as we have done that you may not see many Hundred Thousands Damned by your means and you have nothing
nature of the thing he that Reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I Read yet I consent to teach my People what I read and herein is the evil of it for it may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to myself I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to read the Declaration and consenting to teach the People by the Declaration when reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile distinguishing-Conscience Now if consenting to read the Declaration be a consent to teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn teaching-manner Approves it If this be not so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholic Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instruct our People in all the Points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest Man can to this Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in the his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration itself in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the design and intention of the Command and the Sence of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the People will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the World will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestation contra factum which all People will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind to try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was