THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the OATH of SUPREMACY To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power BELONGING To the KING his Heirs and Successors In the asserting of that Power various Historical Passages occurring in the Usurpation after the Year 1641. are occasionally mentioned And an Account is given at large of the Progress of the Power of Dispensing as to Acts of Parliament about Religion since the Reformation and of divers Judgments of Parliaments declaring their Approbation of the Exercise of such Power and particularly in what concerns the Punishment of Disability or Incapacity Princes are Supreme over Persons not over Things This is the Supreme Power of Princes which we teach that they be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the Sword and freely to permit and publickly to Defend that which God commandeth in Faith and good Manners c. Princes may Command the Bodies of all their Subjects in time both of War and Peace c. Out of all Question where Princes may by God's Law Command all Men must obey them c. The Prince may discharge the Servant but no Man can discharge the Subject The Word of God teacheth you to obey Princes the words of men cannot loose you BISHOP BILSON of the SUPREMACY LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Harrow at Chancery-Lane End in Fleetstreet William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar and William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1687. To the Right Honorable JOHN Earl of MELFORT Viscount of Forth Lord Drummond of Rickartone c. His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Kingdom of Scotland and one of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council in both Kingdoms of England and Scotland c. MY LORD AS the Historian hath told us of Ireland that long ago while the Arts and Sciences were generally banish'd from the Christian World they were enthroned in Ireland and that Men were sent thither from other Parts of Christendom to be improved in Learning so I have elsewhere observ'd that in some late Conjunctures and particularly during the turbid Interval of the Exclusion men might well be sent to Scotland to learn Loyalty And I having taken occasion in the first Part of this Discourse to shew my self a just honourer of that Country and as I may say somewhat like a Benefactor to it by sending thither the notices of some pass'd great Transactions that might possibly there give more light and life to the Moral Offices of Natural Allegiance or Obedience did hold my self obliged in Common Justice to address this Part of my Work to your Lordship For as your Station here qualifies you beyond other Subjects to receive what Tribute is offer'd to your Country so your handing it thither will necessarily make it there the more acceptable And when I consider with what an incomparable Tenderness for the Monarchy and its Rights so many of the Statutes of Scotland since the Year 1660. have been adorn'd I am apt to think that any matter of Presidents or Records by me recover'd out of the Sea of time where they lay so long useless and neglected and now happening to be serviceable to those Moral Offices before-mention'd would by the so many in that Kingdom devoted to consummate Obedience and Loyalty be more valued then if I could have imported into that Realm another such Treasure as that which lay so long buried in the Ocean near the Bahama Islands and that whoever Contributed to your Loyal Country any Substantial Notions that might enrich it in the discharge of the Duties of the born and sworn Allegiance would be esteem'd there as some way sharing in the honour of Arauna in giving like a King to a King. Long may your great Master live happy in the Enjoyment of the faithful Services of so vigilant a Minister as your Lordship who by the universality of your Knowledge accompany'd with universal Charity for all Mankind have appear'd to be born as I may say for the time of his most glorious Reign the time chosen by Heaven for Mercies Triumph on Earth Nothing vulgar was to be expected from a Person of your Lordship's extraordinary intellectual and moral Endowments and in whom the Loyalty and other Virtues of your many noble Ancestors have as it were lived extraduce And the World would be unjust to you if it acknowledged not its great Expectation answer'd by your greater Performances and particularly by your having been so eminently Ministerial in the Easing both the Cares of your Prince and of all his Subjects too by the Figure you have made in promoting the Ease of his People's Consciences and in further ennobling and endearing the Name of DRUMMOND by your Lordship's Prosecuting that by the Bravery of Action which the HISTORIAN of that your Name did by Words when he transmitted to Posterity the most Christian and Statesman-like Speech of Liberty of Conscience I know extant and as spoke by a Roman-Catholick Councellor in Scotland to King Iames the Fifth I most humbly kiss your Lordship's Hands and am My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant P. P. THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the Oath of Supremacy To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power Belonging to the KING his Heirs and Successors c. PART I A. IN this Kingdom of England so naturally of old addicted to Religion and vehemence in it as to give a Bishop of Rome cause to complain he had more trouble given him by Applications from England about it then from all the World beside and afterward to make Geneva wonder at the Sabbatarians here exceeding the Iewish strictness and to cause Barclay in his Euphoâ—…mio to say of the English Nec quicqúam in numinis cultu modicum possunt and that our several Sects thought unos se Coelestium rerum participes exortes coeteros omnes esse did you ever observe hear or read of the style of Tenderness of Conscience so much used as in the year 41. and sometime afterward B. I have not From the Date of King Charles the First 's Declaration to all His loving Subjects about that time wherein he speaks of his Care for Exemption of Tender Consciences till the Date of King Charles the Second's Declaration from Breda wherein the Liberty of Tender Consciences is Provided for the clause of easing Tender Consciences ran through the Messages Addresses and Answers that passed between King and Parliament almost as much as the Clause of proponentibus legatis did run through the Councel of Trent A. But were not their Consciences extremely erroneous who thought themselves bound then to advance Religion by War B. Aâ—… and by a Civil War as you might have added against a Prince of the tenderest Conscience imaginable for that Character he had from an Arch-bishop in his Speech in the Parliament of 40 who said Our Sovereign is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew
to perform the Conditions and that the King his Father should do the like Secondly That the Promises of Marriage should be presently made c. but that the Consummation of the Marriage should not at all be executed till the Month of May in the following year 1624. to the end that they might experimentâ—…lly see if the aforesaid Conditions required by his Holiness should be faithfully accomplish'd c. As to the first the Prince of Wales took an Oath to His Majesty to observe the foresaid Conditions and sign'd them with his Hand and he likewise swore and sign'd this by way of Over-plus to permit at all times that Any should freely propose to him the Arguments of the Catholick-Religion without giving any impediment and that he would never directly nor indirectly permit any to speak to the Infanta against the same But I shall here en passant observe to you out of the general Articles namely that in the 16th Article notwithstanding my Lord Coke's Opinion before-mention'd that a new Oath cannot be introduced nor an old one alter'd but by Act of Parliament there is a new Oath of fealty agreed to by the King to be tender'd both to Foreigners and Subjects of England who were to serve the Infanta and care taken that no Clause or word therein shall contradict the Roman Religion or Consciences of the Roman-Catholicks and that by the 24th Article for the Security that every thing that was agreed to should be fulfill'd the King and Prince were to be bound by Oath that all the Privy Councellors should sign the Agreement And I need not tell you that their being sworn to the private Articles was a new Oath A. Was nothing of the King's mind about the Suspending ALL the Penal Laws both the disabling ones and others against the Papists notify'd to his Privy Councel before the year 1623 B. Mr. Prynne there in p. 30. saith that for the hastening the Pope's Dispensation for the Match King James as the French Mercure Tom. 9. records it and as he had CREDIBLY been inform'd of from others assembling his Privy Councel together Febr. 25. 1622. made a long Oration to them which he recites at large the sum whereof was this That the Roman-Catholicks in England had sustain'd great and intolerable surcharges imposed on their Goods Bodies Consciences during Queen Elizabeth's Reign of which they hoped to be relieved in his c. That now he had maturely consider'd the Penury and Calamities of the Roman-Catholicks who were in the number of his faithful Subjects and was resolv'd to relieve them and therefore did from thenceforth take all his Roman-Catholick Subjects into his Protection permitting them the Liberty and entire Exercise of their Religion c. without any Inquisition Process or Molestation from that day forward and likewise will and ordain that they shall be restored to all their Estates Lands Fees and Seignories and re-establish'd in them Commanding all his Magistrates Iustices and other Officers whatsoever in this behalf to hold their hands and for what Cause soever it be not to attempt hereafter to grieve or molest the said Catholicks neither in publick nor private in the liberty of the exercise of their Religion upon pain of being reputed Guilty of High Treason and Disturbers of the Kingdoms peace and repose this being his will and definitive Sentence A. But still I cannot forbear wondring about what Considerations made our Divines and our Great Champions of the Church of England-Protestancy in the State as well as Church afterward thus inclinable to act their Parts about Toleration as Mr. Prynne hath mention'd B. They had cause enough to apprehend that the Hierarchy of England could not be supported without the Monarchy and that by reason of the various growth of the Potency of foreign Princes and States and of intestine Factions the Monarchy could not be then sufficiently secure without a foreign Alliance by inter-marriage and that where such Alliance was to be with the Familiâ—…s of Roman-Catholick Princes there could be no expectation of the Pope's relaxing his Laws by dispensing without our Princes doing something of that kind as to theirs I might here observe to you that we are told in The Regal Apology that the Oxford Antiquities mention'd to have been writ by Dr. Bate that A particular Toleration had a former President even in Queen Elizabeth in those Articles of Marriage which were consented to with the Duke of Anjou and if it were true that an Universal Toleration was agreed on by King James it was intuitu majoris boni The Palatinate was to be restored again and the Protestants of Germany to be re-enstated in their Possessions on that Condition But to punish being a kind of Punishment and it being irreligious to punish Men for Religion and the highest tide of Anger being naturally succeeded by the lowest ebbe of it and the thoughts of rigorous Severity in Princes toward their Subjects being like such in the Head toward the Members of the same Body and King Iames having found that the general abhorrence of the Gun-Powder-Treason had blown up the credit of those fiery Doctrines that produced it and he being then within Prospect of his end and being unwilling that the Sun of his Life should go down in his wrath and finding as appears by his long Proclamation of four sheets of Paper declaring his Pleasure concerning the Dissolving of the Parliament A. 16â—…1 that they were not the Papists who made his later breath so uneasie to him and he being of opinion that the reason of the severe Laws was much abated it may abate of our wonder that in that Conjuncture he put a Period to their Execution Mr. Prynne for this purpose in p. 14. of that Book Prints a Letter of the Lord Keeper Williams to the Iâ—…dges in the year following to acquaint them that His Majesty having resolv'd out of deep Reasons of State and in expectation of like Correspondence from foreign Princes to the Professors of our Religion to grant some Grace and Conveniency to the imprison'd Papists of this Kingdom had Commanded him to pass some Writs under the Broad Seal for that purpose and that he had accordingly done so and tells them that 't is His Majesty's Pleasure that they shall make no niceness or difficulty to extend that his Princely favour to all Papists imprison'd for any Church Recusancy whatsoever or refusing the Oath of Supremacy or hearing of Mass or any other point of Recusancy which doth touch or concern Religion only and not matters of State which shall appear to you to be totally Civil and Political A. You lately mentâ—…on'd to me that the Earl of Bristol hinted it that there was afterward somewhat of Compliance with the Pope in the Match with France of that nature as was in the Spanish Wâ—…at account doth Mr. Prynne give of that B. He tells you there p. 69. that the French Maâ—…ch was soon Concluded in the life of King James the Articles concerning
shall further But I conceive it here necessary for me to acquaint your Lordship that I have been often put to it as speaking cum vulgo grosso modo and for brevity's sake to use the aforesaid Expression of Dispensing with Disability and with Disability incurr'd by Act of Parliament that is with what is generally enacted to be incurr'd and SEEMS to be alike incurr'd by all Persons who perform not what the Act enjoins and which Dispensing with Disability is frequently used in popular discourse for the pardoning it and for the liberatio à poenâ and as the Lord Chief Iustice Vaughan's Report by me so much cited mentions dispensing to have been defined by some of the Iudges But to a judgment so vastly comprehensive and profoundly penetrating as your Lordships the dispensing with Disability must easily appear to be properly meant of the preventing it and the dispensing with what might Cause it according to the style of Queen Elizabeth's Letters Patents or effect the actual incurring of what will reverâ be incurr'd by the Persons not exempted by Dispensation from the doing what the Law enjoins and which will be made to appear obvious to every man's understanding in one of the following Parts and wherein I shall have occasion to speak less cum vulgo and more closely and accurately of the Nature of Dispensing and of its effects in either forum then yet I have had And now having Named that Great Queen I shall not doubt but since the Members of the Church of England do now under our most puissant and most just Monarch find themselves as secure in the Profession of the Religion by Law establish'd as they did in her great and glorious Reign it will upon recollection of thought appear as natural to them to hold themselves obliged to shew the same tenderness for every branch of Prerogative and particularly for that of the Dispensative Power that was then so remarkable in Parliament and throughout the Realm My Lord Your Lordship 's most Obedient Servant P. P. PART II. B. I again bid you welcome and am ready to go on where we last left off and do not in the least doubt of your welcoming any thing I can say to you that may import you to know in order to your sworn assistance and defence of every Privilege belonging to the Crown And I shall frankly tell you that you and other Protestants who in a late Conjuncture did shew a more then ordinary zeal against Popery or Papal Usurpations ought to consider that you have thereby put your selves under an especial Obligation of tenderness â—…for all the rights of your Prince and of hating all popular Usurpations or diminutions thereof with an exemplary and most perfect hatred and of thereby avoiding the being judged hypocrites and factious A. I do herein most fully agree with you and that the late zeal of the same Persons against papal Usurpations and for popular ones was a scandal to the Age. I remember you once observ'd to me how tender the Protestants in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the first were of every Right and Privilege of the Crown with the most perfect tenderness while the Attaques from the Court of Rome against those Princes had made the highest Ferment in the minds of the Populace But I think there never was any Conjuncture of time here when so many of the declaimers against Popery and so many of the fautors of Plot-witnesses were so much at the same time for a Plot and no Plot and for a King and no King that is to say did so much make a stalking-horse of Popery whereby to strike at Prerogative B. But you know that the talk of Plots and Popery was before apply'd to that use You know Archbishop Laud in his Star-chamber Speech A 1637. mentions it p. 11. as the scope of the Libellers of the Faction to kindle a jealousy in Mens minds that there were some great Plots in hand to change the Religion established and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition And the history of those times sheweth you how the Men that cry'd up Plots then did decry Prerogative And in the Conjuncture of 41. the famous Protestation of May the 5th that year begins with Out-cries of Designs of Popish Priests and Iesuits and other Papists and their PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES and the Preface of the Covenant runs on in the style of â—…loody Plots and Conspiracies But you likewise know the dismal state of Prerogative in those times then occasion'd by raising of those false Alarms of Plots And I may account it as a beneficial Providence to the Age that shortly after our last Plot-Epoche M r. Hobbs his History of the Civil-Wars coming first out in print through the License of the Press and having been reserved to the detecting then the artifices of the Demagogues that produced the Usurpations between the Years 1640. and 1660. the Book notwithstanding all the prejudice against the Author whether just or unjust being writ with so much strength and beauty of Wit as to make it fly like lightning round the Kingdom in so many Impressions did then prove to many ingenious and thinking Men an effectual Antidote against the poysons of those old Artifices then again scatter'din the Press being so destructive to Loyalty as heretofore Sir Iohn Davis in his Report of the Case of praemunire Hil. 4. Iacobi doth but right to the loyalty of Roman Catholicks and to the genius of the People of England when he saith there That the Commons of England may be an example to all other Subjects in the World in this that they have ever been TENDER and sensible of the wrongs and dishonours offer'd to their Kings and have ever contended to upheld and maintain their Honour and Soveraignty And their Faith and Loyalty hath been generally such tho every Age hath brought forth some particular Mâ—…nsters of disloyalâ—…y as no pretence of Zeal of Religion could ever withdraw the greater part of the Subjects of submit themselves to a foreign yoke no not when Popery was in its height and exaltation It is therefore no marvel that toward the latter end of the Reign of the late King the very Mobile who had been so zealous against papal usurpations and so fiery in charging ALL Papists with disloyalty did upon their discovery of the artifices of republican deluders to put an inglorious domestic yoke on the Monarchy then think themselves obliged by the universality of their loyal addresses to shew the more extraordinary zeal against any Popular Usurpations And so I account it but natural to you who are made è meliore luto to be ready to shew your most consummate zeal for every Privilege of the Crown A. It is not possible for any Man to wish me more sensible of my obligation in this point then I really am and the rather for that I find so many mens loyalty to be but a kind of loud noisy nothing or a
Roman Catholick Physicians and Lawyers had incurr'd by his Acts of Parliament I have told you But what if I should now tell you how afterwards he did take care as it were unâ liturâ to delete the Execution of â—…ll the Penal Laws disabling ones and others against the Roman Catholicks and that as to what he did therein the most zealous Protestants among his Bishops and the Lords Temporal and others of his Privy Council did concur with him in so doing A. I think you would tell me of that which was very strange B. As in the Happy future State of England it was with an intent to detect the Degeneracy and Vanity of the Politick and Protestant-would-be's of the Age who pretended to Advance Religion by Excluding the next Heir in p. 219. shewn that one of the general and publick Articles sent by King James the First to his Embassador in Spain in Order to the Match with the Infanta was that the Children of this Marriage shall no way be compell'd or constrain'd in point of Conscience or Religion wherefore there is no doubt that their title shall be prejudiced in case it should please God that they turn'd Catholicks and that it was afterward sent as an additional Article offer'd from England that the King of Great Britain and Prince of Wales should bind themselves by Oath for the Observance of the Articles and that the Privy Council should sign the same under their Hands and that accordingly the Articles were sign'd by Archbishop Abbot John Bishop of Lincoln Keeper of the Great Seal Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord high Treasurer of England Henry Viscount Mandevile Lord President of the Council Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Privy Seal Lewis Duke of Richmond and Lennox Lord high Steward of the Houshold James Marquess of Hamilton James Earl of Carlisle Lancelot Bishop of Winchester Oliver Viscount Grandison Arthur Baron Chichester of Belfast Lord Treasurer of Ireland Sir Thomas Edmonds Knight Treasurer of the Houshold Sir John Suckling Comptroller of the Houshold Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway Principal Secretaries of State Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Julius Caesar Mr. of the Rolls and for the truth of which Facts reference is there made to Mr. Prynne's Introduction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Trial p. 43 so you may there read it in p. 44. that some private Articles were agreed on and probably were Sworn to by the same Persons that the other general ones were and of which private ones the first was in short That none of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks should at any time hereafter be put in Execution But you may thus see it at large viz. That particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Subjects of our Realms are not comprehended and to whose Observation all generally are not obliged as likewise general Laws under which all are equally Comprised if so be they are such as are repugnant to the Romish Religion shall not at any time hereafter by any means or chance whatsoever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in Execution against the said Roman-Catholicks And we will cause that our Councel shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the Execution which by the hands of them and their Ministers is to be exercised The 2d was That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within Private Houses throughout all our Realms and Dominions which we will have to be understood as well of our Kingdom of Scotland and Ireland as in England c. And the 4th was That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks c. And the Conclusion there is viz. That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit â—…s to the Roman-Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman-Catholick Religion and that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament should ever at any time Enact or Write any other new Laws against Roman-Catholicks We accounting all and singular the preceding Articles ratified and accepted out of certain Knowledge as far as they concern us our Heirs or Successors approve ratifie applaud and promise bonâ—… fide and in the word of a King by these Presents inviolably firmly well and faithfully to keep observe and fulfill the same and to cause them to be kept observed and fulfilled without any Exception or Contradiction and do confirm the same by Oath upon the holy Evangelists notwithstanding any Opinions Sentences or Laws whatsoever to the contrary In the presence of the most Illustrious Don John de Mendoza Marquess of Inojosa and Don Charles Coloma Extraordinary Ambassadors of the Catholick King of George Calvert Knight one of our Chief Secretaries of Edward Conway Knight another of our Chief Secretaries of Francis Cottington Baronet of the Privy Councel to our Son the Prince of Francis de Corondelet Apostolical or the Pope's Prothonotary and Arch-Deacon of Cambray Dated at our Palace at Westminster the 20 day of July 1623. in the English style Jacobus Rex A Compared and true Copy George Calvert Chief Secretary The Form of the Oath which the Lords of the Councel took to the former Articles is this which followeth found among the Lord Cottington's Papers Formula Juramenti à Consiliariis Praestandi Ego N. Iuro me debitè plenéque observaturum quantum ad me spectat omnes singulos Articulos qui in tractatu Matrimonii inter Serenissimum Carolum Walliae Principem Serenissimam Dominam Doâ—…nam Mariam Hispaniarum Iâ—…fantem continentur IURO ETIAM Quod neque per me nec per Ministrum aliquem inferiorem mihi inservientem legem ullam contra quemcunque Catholicum Romanum conscriptum executioni mandabo aut mandari faciam Poenamve ullam ab earum aliqua irrogatam exigam Sed in omnibus quae ad me pertinent Ordines à Majestate sua ex ea parte constitutos fideliter observabo Thus far Mr. Prynne who verifies the Facts above-mention'd not only from my Lord Cottington's Papers but from the Mercure Francois Tom. 9. A.
Religion being the same almost Verbatim with those formerly agreed on in the Spanish Treaty And he there refers to Rot. Tractationis Ratificationis Matrimonâ—… inter Dom. Carolum Regem Dom. Henret Mariam Sororem Regis Franc. 1 o Cat. in the Rolls and then in p. 71. saith Besides these general Articles of the Match these particular ones were concluded and agreed on in favour of the Roman-Catholicks the same in Substance with those of Spain and where he saith the Second is to this effect that the English Catholicks should be no more searched after or molested for their Religion But Mr. Prynne there particularly sets down only three short Articles and those comprised in about six lines and the words or molâ—…ted in the second Article are Printed in a different Character from the others as if he thereby intended them as his own Explication of the word searched A. You just now mention'd King Iames his having in the year 1622. order'd all the Popish Recusants who were in Prison on the account of their Religion to be set at liberty and you told me how he tacitly dispens'd with the Disability that Popish Physicians and Lawyers had incurr'd by Act of Parliament Was that all the favour he shew'd Roman-Catholicks B. No He allow'd them to make a very Considerable figure in the Government as you may find if you consult the Iournals of Parliament as referr'd to by Mr. Prynne p. 66. Seq of that Book For he there mentions that in the year 1624. The Commons sent a Petition to the Lords desiring their Concurrence with them in presenting it to His Majesty for removing Popish Recusants and those whose Wives were Papists from Offices of Trust which by Law they were DISABLED to execute which the Lords took into their Consideration and which Mr. Prynne saith was enter'd in their Iournal in this manner Die Jovis viz. Vicessimo die Maii 1624. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury reported that at the meeting this Day with the Commons they Presented an humble Petition to the King desiring this House to joyn therein with them The which Petition was read in haec verba c. In short the Commons in their Petition take notice of the Growth of the Number of Popish Recusants in this Kingdom and of their insolency in all the Parts thereof and that many of them contrary to the Laws were gâ—…t into Offices and Places of Government and Authority under the King And the Prayer of the Petition is That the Lords and Gentlemen there undernamed may be removed from all His Majesty's Commissions of great Charge and Trust Commissions of Lieutenancy Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace and from all other Offices and Places of Trust. And they in their first Schedâ—…le there name 11 Lords and 18 Knights And in their second they name many Persons of Quality who were in Places of Charge and Trust in their several Counties and had marry'd Popish Wives and whose Children and Servants were bred up to Popery A. Doth any Act of Parliament disable a man from bearing Office because his Wife is a Papist or because his Children or Servants are bred up to be Papists B. Yes the Act of the Third of King Iames the First cap. 5. doth it as you will see if you consult it for 't is there Enacted That no Popish Recusant Convict nor any having a Wife being a Popish Recusant Convict shall at any time after this Session of Parliament or any Popish Recusant hereafter to be Convict or having a Wife which hereafter shall be a Recusant Convict at any time after his or her Conviction shall exercise any publick Office or Charge in the Common-wealth but shall be utterly DISABLED to exercise the same by himself or his Deputy except such Husband himself and his Children which shall be above the age of Nine years abiding with him and his Servants in Houshold shall once every Month in the least repair to some Church usual for Divine Service and there hear Divine Service and the said Husband and such his Children and Servants as are of meet Age receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and do bring up his said Children in true Religion A. Now have you set me a longing to know what the House of Lords did in the Case of that Petition about removing those disabled Persons from serving the King in those great Stations And since the Judgment of Parliament was always had in such great veneration I think if the result of the desire of the House of Commons was that the Lords had joyn'd with them in the Petition and had urged that the King could not dispense with that Act of Parliament and Pardon Disability it may make a notable President in the Case we have been discussing B. You will find that the Commons urged nothing to the prejudice of Prerogative in the Prayer of their Petition Their style there was We humbly beseech your Majesty graciously to vouchsafe that the said Lords and Gentlemen here under-named for this important Reason and for the greater Safety of your Majesty and of your Realm may be removed from all your Majesty's Commissions of great Charge and Trust Commissions of Lieutenancy c. And the important reason did refer to the great Countenance hereby given to Popery the great grief and offence to all his best affected and true loving Subjects by putting the Power of Arms into such mens hands as by former Acts of His Majesty's Councel are adjudged Persons justly to be suspected c. But to let you see what the House of Lords did hereupon Mr. Prynne tells you p. 69. That this Petition being read the House did defer the Debate thereof at this time for that the day was far spent And answer was given to the Commons who attended for the same in the Painted Chamber that the Lords will send them an Answer of this Petition hereafter when they are resolv'd thereof Whereupon Mr. Prynne concludes his account of this Transaction thus Whether any of these were displaced upon this Petition I find not in any Memorials it being certain some of them were not but continued still in these Offices of Trust. A. How have you here disappointed my Curiosity in making that ferment then in the Government about the Disability of the Papists being dispens'd with thus silently to go off through the House of Lords forbearing to joyn with the House of Commons in their Petition B. I shall here afford your Curiosity a recompence by observing it to you with allusion to some of the words of the Royal Martyr in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That the ancient equal happy well poysed and never enough commended Constitution of the Government of this Kingdom having made this Nation so famous and happy to a great degree of Envy c. and the Lords being trusted with a Iudicatory Power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and the People to assist each against any Encroachment of
taken to the Oath tender'd to him as Sheriff on the account of several Additions alledged by him to be in the Oath that were not in the Ancient Oath in the Register and afterward Confirm'd and Appointed by the Statute of 18 Edw. the Third and all the Iudges being Consulted as to the allowance of the same tho they allow'd of his first exception namely as to his suppressing all Errors and Heresies commonly call'd LOLLARIES and being assistant to Commissaries and Ordinaries in Church-matters c. and that that Clause was fit to be omitted out of the Oath because it is appointed by Statutes that are repeal'd and was intended against the Religion now Establish'd yet as to his second Addition complain'd of the greater part of the Iudges were of opinion that an Oath in this Point may be well enjoyn'd by the King and Order of State without Parliament and that it may well be imposed on the Sheriff to take being for the publick Benefit and Execution of the Laws And as to his Fourth Addition complain'd of namely That he should Cause the Statute of Winton and the Statutes against Rogues and Vagabonds to be put in execution whereunto he excepted because the Statute of Winton was alter'd and the Statutes against Rogues and Vagabonds are appointed to be executed by the Iustices of the Peace and not by the Sheriff to this the Judges said that this Fourth Addition rests on the former reason that this Oath being appointed and continued divers years by direction of the State altho without the express Authority of any Statute Law yet may he well be continued for the publick benefit in repressing such Persons c. A. What a terrible thing was it that that Clause about suppressing Lollaries c. should continue in the Oath so long after the Reformation and that Sir Edward Coke should be the first Protestant Sheriff we have heard of whose Conscience was so delicate as to refuse to swallow that poisonous Clause B. You may too as justly say what a terrible thing is it that so many Protestants who have formerly by the frequent swallowing the Poison of Contradictory Oaths habituated themselves to the quiet concocting of all Oaths as the King of Pontus brought himself at last to digest all Poisons will yet be so ready to endeavour to compel the Consciences of others to swallow such Oaths that they believe or suspect to be poisonous a thing that hath probably tended to make so many among us to Nauseate the use of all Oaths as unlawful A. Whom do you mean by those B. The Quakers And here I shall freely tell you that Providence having permitted so numerous a Sect as that of the Quakers among us to bear their Testimony against the lawfulness of Oaths in general I shall be well content if the event of the bending the Crooked stick the contrary way as my Lord Primate's Expression was may be an universal tenderness as to Oaths as I just now described it and the want of which hath as I shew'd you at our last meeting been so scandalous to our Country and brought an opprobrium both on Protestancy and Christianity it self Alexander ab Alexandro l. 5. tells us that there was no use of Oaths among the Phrygians And tho Grotius saith in his De jure Belli Pacis that jure gentium testi injurato non creditur yet it was by Polybius observ'd that in the better and simpler Ages of the World Oaths were seldom used in Iudicatures The Athenians would not suffer Xenocrates a Person of known Probity to take his Oath at the Altar as a thing below his reputation Gellius l. 10. c. 15. saith Verba Proetoris ex edicto perpetuo de Flamine Diâ—…li de Sacerdote Vestoe adscripsi Sacerdotem Vestalem Plaminem Dialâ—…m in omni meâ jurisdictione jurare non cogam And Livy hath it that among the Romans the Flamen Dialis was not in any case allow'd to swear least at any time he should forswear which in him was held as the most hainous thing I have too somewhere read Plutarch cited for justifying to this purpose the reasonableness of their not swearing for that an Oath was a kind of torture to a free man and that it was absurd not to credit their words and for that an Oath draws after it an Imprecation or Curse in Case they should be forsworn which seems to be a detestable omination toward the Priests of God. Iosephus relates it that the Essenes Word was as sure as an Oath So great likewise was the reputation of the Christians in the Ancient times for truth in Matters asserted or promised by them that the Saying of Christianus sum did frequently pass currant for the Cautio Iuratoria And I shall always with reverence think of Bellarmine's Tutissimum and of S. Austin's Nullum Iuramentum tutum A late ingenious Writer apply'd to the Clergy's obtaining Canons for their not Marrying the Observation that they always knew what was good for themselves but I shall think it more applicable to what I read of in the Book of Mr. Ley beforementioned p. 112. that as S. Basil was very zealous in behalf of Bishops that they might not be put to swear in respect of the Peril of an Oath so he prevail'd so far as to free them from that Peril and that the Council of Challons Can. 18. was thus favorable to Presbyters and that the Triburiensian Council favour'd them with this Constitution that a Presbyter should not be compell'd to swear but instead of an Oath he should be question'd upon his Holy Consecration in verbo sacerdotis because as the reason is there rendred Our Lord forbad his Disciples to Swear And I shall tell you that if you will allow Lawyers to know what is good for themselves you will find them of all sorts of men to have the greatest aversion against being Witnesses The Iesuites too who are by all reputed wise in their Generation are by Dr. Donne in his Pseudo-Martyr p. 350. referred to as having so extraordinary an aversion against Oaths that he cites the Spongia pro Iesuit p. 79. for their out-doing the Essenes in hyperbolical Detestations of Oaths I account it for the honour of the Age that any one doth fall under the Character of bipedum nequissimus who being sued by a Quaker at Common-Law for a just Debt would obstruct such Debt by an Injunction out of Chancery till the Quaker hath there answer'd a Shamming Bill upon his Oath And as by the Clemency of His Majesty's Government Quakers there making Answer upon their Oath to Captious Bills hath been to the general Satisfaction of the compassionate Just as it were tacitly dispens'd with and as likewise their Promissory Oaths of Allegiance have been I doubt not but his express or tacit dispensing with other Loyal and Conscientious particular Persons doubting of the lawfulness or expedience of some Promissory Oaths will be as generally grateful I wish there were no greater
or heard of a man of most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some Actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow and he might have added a Prince the real Tenderness of whoâ—…e Conscience had so often favour'd the nominal tenderness of others who instead of being Tender-hearted Christians were Stiff-necked Iews and who might justly apprehend that it was only duritia cordis instead of Tenderness of Conscience he dispens'd with and as when God dispens'd with the Iews in Polygamy For since Tenderness of Conscience doth necessarily render a man abstemious from things lawful and to be of a gentle submissive temper not only to his Equals but Inferiors and to be merciful even to brute Creatures and not only averse from suing any one about Penal Lawes but ready to remit somewhat of his Right rather then to go to Law with a Stranger and much less with ones Father the Pater Patrioe seeing any men outraging the Lawes and the quiet of the whole Realm by that wilde brutish thing call'd War for ferinum quiddam bellum est might well judge them utterly devoid of all Tenderness of Conscience I shall therefore frankly tell you that no doubt but their Consciences were extremely erroneous or rather seaâ—…ed Our great Writer of Conscience Bishop Sanderson in his Sermon on Rom. 14. 13. discussing the Causes from which mens doubtfulness of mind may spring and saying that sometimes it proceeds from Tenderness of Conscience which yet is indeed a very blessed and a gracious thing doth very well add but yet as tender things may sooner miscarry very obnoxious through Satan's diligence and subtlety to be wrought upon to dangerous inconveniences And if we Consider that a Civil War cannot be lawful on both Sides however a foreign one may we may well account that any deluded melancholy People who were tempted to raise a Civil War out of a blind Zeal for Religion and to assault the Thirteenth of the Romans out of the Apocalypse had hard Spleens instead of tender Consciences and that they have soft Heads instead of tender Hearts who try to make Religion a gainer by War. But indeed the Project of planting Religion and Propagating the Church by War that is described to be Status humanoe Societatis dissolutoe and that so presently opens to all mens view the horrid Scene of Contempta Religio Rapta profana Sacra profanata is so vain that the old Proverbial Impiety of such who did castra sequi how victorious soever hath naturally help'd to make Conquering Nations embrace the very Religion of the Conquered a thing exemplify'd in the Conquests of the Danes and Saâ—…ns in England of the Gothes in Italy and France and Spain and of the Moors in Spain and in the Turks having overcome the Saracens embracing the Saracens Religion And the Vanity of Reforming the World by War that Profound and Conscientious Statesman Cardinal D'Ossat in his Third Book 86th Letter and to Villeroy A. 1597. hath well taught us and where he mentions how he urged to the Pope the reasonableness of Harry the 4th's so religiously observing the great Edict of Pacification and that the many Wars made again and again by Hereticks serv'd for nothing but in many places to abolish the Catholick Religion and in a manner all Ecclesiastical Discipline Iustice and Order and to introduce Atheism with the Sequel of all sorts of Sacrileges Parricides Rapes Treasons and Cruelties and other sorts of wickedness c. and afterward that on the making War all the Malecontents all People indebted and neâ—…ssitous all Debauchees and Vagabonds all Thieves and other Criminals whose Lives were become forfeited to the Law of what Religion or Opinion soever they were were wont to joyn with the Hugonots and did more harm to the Church and Religion and good manners in one day of War then they could in a hundred days of Peace Thus â—…e who â—…its in the Heavens had them here in derision while they in effect thus presumed to transprose Scripture and to say Glory to God in the highest and on Earth War and ill will towards men and while according to that Saying in Arch-bishop Lâ—…d's famous Star-Chamber-Speech viz. No Nation hath ever appear'd more jealous of Religion then the People of England have ever been they were under such Transports of misguided Zeal as to adore that their jealousie and to offer Sacrifices to it with as much Contempt of Heaven and Cruelty to Mankind as ever were offer'd to the image of Iealousie referr'd to by Ezekiel and to which the tenderest of their Relations were not thought too costly Victims and to which their truly Tender-Conscienced King who like Moses with Tenderness carried them in his Bosome as a Nursing-Father beareth the sucking Child and who sometimes out of Tenderness to several of his Complaining Children Sacrificed the rigour of his Penal Lawes and to whom they should have been subject for that Tender thing Conscience sake was himself at last Sacrificed How did that Pious Prince sometimes in relation to his Heterodox Protestant Subjects imitate the Father of the Prodigal who when his Son was yet afar off ran to meet him fell on his neck and kiss'd him a thing acknowledg'd by an Eminent learned Divine Mr. Iohn Ley in his Book call'd Defensive Doubts Hopes and Reasons Printed in the year 1641. and where in p. 123. urging the Bishops to procure the Revocation of a late Canon of the Church and having said wherein if they appear and prevail they need not fear any disparagement to their Prudence by withdrawing that they have decreed since the wisest Statesmen and greatest Governors have used many times to comply so far with popular Dispositions as to vary their own Acts with relation to their liking as the Pilot doth his Soils to comply with the wind he addeth And you cannot have a more authentic Example both to induce you to this and to defend you in it from all Imputations then that of our Sacred Sovereign who rather then he would give any Colour of Complaint for aggrievances to his People was pleas'd to DISPENSE with the five Articles of PERTH's Assembly and to discharge all Persons from urging the Practice thereof upon any either Laick or Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever and to free all his Subjects from all Censures and Pains whether Ecclesiastical or Secular for not urging practising and obeying any of them tho they were esâ—…ablish'd both by a General Assembly and by Act of Parliament King Charles his large Declaration of the â—…umults in Scotland p 370. p. 389. And for his OWN Acts for these Articles of Perth were propounded and ratify'd in the Reign of his Royal Father he imposed the Service Book the Book of Canons and high Commission upon his Subjects in Scotland and upon their humble Supplication was content graciously to grant a Discharge from them passing his Princely Promise that he would neither then nor afterwards press the Practice of them nor any
thing of that nature but in such a fair and legal way as should satisfie all his loving Subjects The Duplys of the Divines of Aberdene p. 54. and p. 130 131. Whereupon Mr. Ley thus goes on viz. Wherein Wise men who judge of Consultations and Acts by their probable Effects and not unexpected Events cannot but highly commend His Majesty's Mildness and Clemency which we doubt not would condescend to your Requests for a removal of this great aggrievance if you would please to interpose your Mediations to so acceptable a purpose and upon our humble sute which in all submissive manner we tender to your Lordship and by you to the rest of your Reverend Order we hope you will do so since we have it upon his word His Royal Majesty's word which neither in Duty nor Discretion we may distrust that the Prelates were their greatest Friends i. e. of his Scottish Subjects their Councels were always Councels of Peace and their Solicitations vehement and earnest for granting those unexpected Favours which we were pleas'd to bestow upon our People The King 's large Declaration p. 420 Thus then the Royal Dispensation with the five Articles of Perth was at the Intercession of the Bishops tho' they knew the same Establish'd by Act of Parliament graciously afforded to his Scotish Subjects Those Articles of Perth related to various Religionary Matters viz The introducing of Private Baptism Communicating of the Sick Episcopal Confirmation Kneeling at the Communion and the observing such ancient Festivals as belong'd immediately to Christ and of which Doctor Heylin in his History of the Presbyterians having spoken saith That the King 's indulging the Scots in Dispensing with the Penal Laws about them was an Invitation to the Irish Papists to endeavour by armed force to Compass the King's Dispensation But how tenderly the Consciences of the Roman Catholics in Ireland were in the Reign of the Royal Martyr THEN Protected under the Wing of the Dispensative Power contrary to what the Dr. observ'd any one may see who will Consult my Lord Primate Bramhal's Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon where he saith That the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland did commit much to my hands the Political Regiment of that Church for the space of Eight years In all that time let him name but one Roman Catholic that suffer'd either Death or Imprisonment or so much as a pecuniary Mulct of Twelve Pence for his Religion upon any Penal Statute if he can as I am sure he cannot c. And such was the acquiescence of the Populace and of the three Estates in the Penal Lawes there against the Roman Catholics being thus dead or asleep that in the Printed Articles of Impeachment against the then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and that Lord Primate thâ—…n Bishop of Derry and others of His Majesty's Publick Ministers of State exhibited by the Commons to the Lords in the year 1640. there is not a syllable of Complaint against those Lawes being so dispens'd with by Connivence Nor yet in the Printed Schedule of Grievances of that Kingdom voted in the House of Lords there to be transmitted to the Committee of the same House then attending in England to pursue Redresses for the same is there any representation of such Indulgence being any Gravamen nor yet of the great Figure the Irish Papists then made in the Government the Majority of the Parliament and of the Iudges and Lawyers then being such And pursuant to that Prince's Indulgence offer'd to the tender Consciences of his Subjects in the year 41. he was graciously pleas'd in the Treaty at Uxbridgâ—… to order his Commissioners who were such renown'd Confessors of the Church of England to make the first Royal offer there that freedom be left to all Persons of what Opinion soever in Matters of Ceremony and that all the Penalties of LAWS and Customs be SUSPENDED And the truth is since the Christian Religion did in its first settlement so rationally provide for its Propagation in the World and its bespeaking the favour of Princes by its enjoyning Subjection and Obedience to their Lawes not only for Wrath but Conscience sake and since that Principle of humane Lawes binding the Conscience which was so often and so publickly avow'd by that Prince and Arch-bishop Laud and Bishop Sanderson and the Divines of the Church of England in General is the surest guard to Princes Thrones and their Tribunals and that therefore 't is the Interest of the Prince and People to be more watchful in preserving that Principle then all the Iewels of the Crown or Walls of the Kingdom that Prince did therefore necessarily take Care to preserve and to perpetuate in some of his tender-Conscienced Subjects a continued Tenderness for his Lawes by his lawful Dispensative Power as particularly in the Case of his Scottish Subjects in taking off the Obligation of Obedience and of Conforming themselves to the Establish'd Lawes for such Dispensation intrinsecally notes the taking off such Obligation from the Persons dispens'd with And it is indeed a Solecism for any one to ask Indulgence from a Prince who owns the Law of the Land binding him in Conscience if he doth not think such Prince perswaded that his Power of granting it is a part of that LAW He was not ignorant of his Father's Aversion against the Penal Lawes in general and on which Account my Lord Bacon celebrating him saith As for Penal Lawes which lie as snares upon the Subjects and which were as a Nemo scit to King Henry 7. it yields a Revenue which will scarce pay for the Parchment of the King's Records at Westminster And religionary Penal Lawes requiring the greatest tenderness as he found when he came to the Government that the two most famous Puritan Divines Mr. Hildersham and Mr. Dod Men of great Probity and Learning had often been in his Father's time Pursuant to the Act for Uniformity disabled from Preaching and been re-inabled to it by particular Indulgence and as likewise Fuller tells us in his Church History that Bishop Williams when he was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England procured a Licence from King Iames under the Great Seal for Mr. Cotton the famous Independent to Preach notwithstanding his Non-Conformity so he in the same manner that his Royal Father did held the Reins of the Law loose in his hands as to those two other Non-Conformists beforemention'd The History of Mr. Hildersham's Life mentions that he was silenced in Iune A 1590 and restored again in Ianuary A. 1591. Again he was deprived and silenced April 24 A. 1605. for refusal of Subscription and Conformity and after some time again restored and was again Silenced in November A. 1611. by the King 's particular Command and on April 23. A. 1613. he was judicially admonished by the High Commission that saving the Catechizing of his own Family only he should not afterward Preach Catechize or use any of the Offices or Function of a Minister
Majesty his Heirs and Successors in England and which were granted to them with non-obstante's to all Acts of Parliament B. And the Act 22 o Car. 2. entitled Seditious Conventicles prevented and suppressed passing in the Parliament of England in the same Year that the Act against Conventicles did in Scotland and concluding with a Proviso That nothing therein contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs but that his Majesty and his heirs and Successors may from time to time c. exercise and enjoy all Power and Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs c. any thing in this Act notwithstanding shewed such a Concordant Sympathy between the two Realms in tenderness for the prerogative of dispensing with the Penal Laws Ecclesiastical as is between the Strings of two distant Lutes on the touching the String but of one of them But I must tell you that tho by this Proviso the benefit of the Dispensative Power hath been sufficiently secured to the Churches of Forreigners here and the King 's Ecclesiastical Supremacy justify'd in its power of indulging the Conventicles of all sorts of Recusants yet as in the Scotch Act the Crown 's dispensing with Conventicles hath been more express then in the English Act so hath the administration of Prerogative in that kind been more tenderly and signally exercised in Scotland then I have observ'd it to be in England For I find in a Look call'd A Compendious History of the mâ—…st remarkable Passages of the last 14 Years c. printed An. 1680. that in p. 205. the Author referring to the Month of Iuly 1677. saith that upon a Rebellion in that Kingdom being nipt in the Bud his Majesty was pleas'd to publish a Proclamation Commanding the Iudges and all Magistrates to apprehend and punish all such as frequented any Field-Conventicles c. according to the Prescript of the Law as also to prosecute with all Legal Rigour the execrable Murtherers of the late Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews declaring withal that his Majesty being desirous to reclaim all such as had been mis-lead through Ignorance or blind zeal had according to the Power reserved to his Majesty by the 5th Act in the 2d Session of the 2d Parliament suspended the execution of all Laws and Acts against such as frequent house-Conventicles on the south-side of the River Tay excepting the Town of Edenburgh and two Miles round the same c. And the truth is it must likewise be to the honour of that Nation acknowledged that in the worst of Times they after their Covenant did not Contract any such guilt of Perjury by a superfetation of enterfering Oaths as great Numbers of our Land did and that they were exemplary to England in Loyalty and in propping up the hereditary Monarchy while so many here in the Plott-Conjuncture were infatuated with the Project of the EXCLUSION as to give me occasion by a fresher instance and but of yesterdays occurrence to invite you to behold a Spectacle of the divine Iustice in abandoning such Men here to the guilt of Superstition who used unjust means to extirpate it Such among us who had not took notice of that English and Scotch SAINTE LIGUE and its being so generally exploded and who in the late Ferment about Popery would have fortify'd an Exclusion with an Association and again set up Association as of Divine-Off-spring you see how being wild with excessive Fears and Iealousies of the growth of Popery they were guilty of the Superstition of founding Dominion in Grace A. Considering how Men here have laughed at the Obligation of their lawful Oaths and that for unlawful Oaths a Land mourns methinks 't is an adventurous thing for a Prince to take possession of his Inheritance of the Empire of such a Land so encumbred with the guilt of Swearing and Forswearing O when may we see that antient general tenderness in point of Oaths here that flourished among us in the days of our first Reformation nay even in some times of our Roman Catholick Ancestors B. I believe never till after all the living here being resolved to dust and a new Race of Mankind enriching themselves and their Country by the Culture of the Earth and Manufactures men shall be above Temptations from necessity to take God's Name in vain and when the very use of Oaths Assertory or Promissory will be dispens'd with by Nature I am sure the Spectacle of mangled and slaughter'd Bodies covering a Field immediately after a Battle hath not more horror in it then the sight of the Consciences mai'md and wounded by the inobservance of publick Oaths hath been since the Aera of 41. And as our Chronicles mention that they who were born in England the Year after the great Mortality An. 1349. wanted some of their cheek Teeth I may say that generally they who have been born here the Years after 41. wherein the Plague of Perjury by the outraging those Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy was so epidemical have seem'd able only to swallow those Oaths but not to â—…hew upon them in serious and considerate thoughts no not at the very frequent times of their taking them And still tho in speculative Points in England Consulitur de Religione yet conclamatum est as to a general tender regard to the Religion of those Oaths There was I think a want of tenderness in some as to their sworn assisting and defending all the Priviledges and Preheminences belonging to the Crown during the late Ferment about my Lord Danby's Pardon and I may more sadly reflect on the same Mens want of recollecting their Oath obliging them to the King his Heirs and Successors at the time of the Ferment about the Exclusion A. I think that many who by repentance have been cured of the Epidemical Plague of Perjury that reged here in 41. and of such a Plague and another of Fears and Iealousies since 81 have yet sustain'd more damage thereby then they who were born the Year after 1349 did in wanting some of their Cheek Teeth and that their case is like that of those who were recover'd of the great Plague at Athens that Thucydides hath described and who tells us that after their recovery their Souls had lost the faculty of Memory and were dozed with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about what themselves had done or what had passed in the World during the horror of that very Plague or before or since But after all this said I am to ask you if you will make all those perjured who having took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy promoted the exclusion B. By no means I have more Humanity and Christian Charity then to do so I shall here observe to you that Divines in their measures of Mens sinful Actions do often make use of the distinction of materialiter and formaliter Thus for example Ames in his Cases of Conscience l. 5. c. 53. Si quis falsum dicit putans esse verum mentitur tantum
doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to her Majesty the Chief Government by which Title we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in the Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with death for hâ—…inous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars Now after the Oath of Supremacy had been enjoyn'd in the first year of her Reign and the Admonition annexed to her Injunctions was then likewise publish'd viz. A. D. 1559. and after the Parliament had by proviso 〈◊〉 the interpretation of the Oath which Parliament began the 12th of Ianuary in the 5th year of her reign and from which day all things dâ—…ne in that Session are to bear date the Articles of Religion agreed on by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the 5th year of her reign and A. D. 1562. were by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces subscribed the 29th of Ianuary in that year and by the Clergy of the lower House of Convocation on the 5th of February following and to all which the Queen gave her Royal Assent And in the Articles there was by the Queens Royal Prerogative an additional Interpretation probably at the instance of the Clergy given to the interpretation in the Admonition and in the Parliaments Proviso and the which additional interpretation had in it no respect to nor mention of what being in several places of the former one might amuse the Clergy with some Fears and Iealousies namely the Duty Allegiance and Bond that were acknowledged due to Harry the 8th and Edward the 6th and the Authority that was challenged and lately used by those Princes however yet that latter Clause is qualify'd in the Admonition But for the 37th Article before-mentioned allowing the measures of the Royal Supremacy from the Prerogatives given by God in Scripture to holy Princes whereby our Clergy might seem to have brought the Prerogative into its own proper Element and theirs too the knowledge of the Scriptures being their profession our Clergy no doubt were always thankful to the Crowns Dispensative power and so exercised out of Parliament and whereby they were secured from penal disabilities either by suspension or deprivation for not taking the Oath in the sense of the Admonition Thus as things in their proper place are at rest the Queens Dispensative power and the Consciences of the Clergy by this interpretation of the Oath were so much at rest that about eight or nine years afterward the same 39 Articles that had been by the Archbishops and Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces agreed on in the year 1562. were by the said Archbishops Bishops and Clergy again agreed upon and again ratify'd by the Queen in the year 1571. the 13th year of her reign and when care was taken by the Government that that interpretation being incorporated in the body of the 39 Articles should be deem'd good in Parliament by the Statute of 13 o Eliz. c. 12. as the other interpretation in the Admonition had been by the proviso in the Act of the 5th of that Queen and probably for the same reason and as her dispensing with disability expresly in the 8th year of her reign was In the Act of the 13th of Eliz. reference was made to those Articles as agreed on by the Archbishops and Clergy and set forth by the Queens authority Anno 1562. and the Act is entituled Reformation of Disorders in the Ministers of the Church and in which it was enacted That all such as were to be ordained or permitted to preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with cure of Souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles which shews if you mind it that tho the Parliament did well allow and approve of the said Articles yet the said Book oweth neither Confâ—…rmation nor Authority to the Act of Parliament And that Act concerning only Clergy-men tho the interpretation in the 37th Article is left to oblige the Clergy yet that in the Admonition might concern you to stick to if nothing had since happen'd whereby the dispensative power inherent in the Crown may have given your Conscience the benefit of the interpretation thus afforded to the Clergy But therefore I shall here tell you that the Canons of King Iames the â—…st Anno 1603 being confirmed for him and his Heirs and Successors are binding now however it hath been objected as the unhappiness of Queen Elizabeths Canonâ—… viz. A. 1571. A. 1584. A. 1597. wanting those formal words of Heirs and Successors to expire with her And as those words are in King Iames's Canons so are the words of enjoyning their being observ'd fuâ—…fill'd and kept not only by the Clergy but by all other Persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being Members of the Church it may concern them and tho in the first Canon there entituled The King's Supremacy over the Church of England in Causes Ecclesiastical to be maintain'd 't is order'd That all Ecclesiastical Persons shall keep and observe and as much as in them lyeth all and singular Laws and Statutes made for the restoring to the Crown of this Kingdom its ancient Iurisdiction over the state Ecclâ—…siastical yet in the next Canon entitled Impugners of the King's Supremacy censurâ—…d the measures of the King 's ecclesiastical Authority being taken from the Godly Kings among the Iews according to the 37th of the 39 Articles was an extending to the Layety the ben fit of the Interpretation obtain'd by the Clergy the which was in effect a judgment of the Convocations that the pursuance of that Interpretation of the King 's Ecclesiastical Power and the avoiding of the punishment of Disability by the use of that Power was not agaâ—…st the Law of the Land but the 5th Canon viz. Impugners of the Artiâ—…les of Religion establish'd in the Church of England censured and in which the establishment of the 39 Articles is solely referr'd to them as agreed on in Convocation in the year 1562. without any notice of the Parliament of the 13th of Eliz. having done any thing about them doth more clearly secure to you the benefit of the Interpretation the Clergy had A. You have mention'd so many things to me relating to the interpretation
them had been by those Clergymen and Laymen prepared for his Royal Consideration and been by him establish'd he there declares his Power of so doing to be pursuant to his Supreme Headship of the Church of England recogniz'd quemadmodum divini atque humani juris tatio postulat and mentions the Power granted to him and his Ancestors ipso jure divino as recognized and applies to himself the words Sapientioe cap. 7. Audite Reges intelligite quoniam data est a Domino potestas vobis c. and founding his Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws on that jus Divinum he saith En vobis authoritate nostra editas leges damus c. And here I shall tell you that as my Lord Coke in Cawdry's Case calls the Act of the 24th of H. 8. beforemention'd An Act declaratory of the Ancient Law so he likewise doth the Act of the 25th of his Reign c. 21. that so much props up the Dispensative Power And I assure you that they look but at a few things in general and in that Statute in particular who think that the Dispensative Power inherent in the King lost any ground thereby and he who takes the Statute altogether will find that that Power if it seem'd in any words to go back from it self was but by such retreat to leap the further forward For if you will take a glancing view of the intent of that Statute to that end you will see that instead of that Law making it self to be the Fountain of the Dispensative Power it makes the Dispensative Power to be the very Fountain of a great part of the Common Law it self for its style gives you the figure of our Laws as either devised made and obtain'd within this Realm for the wealth of the same or such as by SUFFERANCE of your Grace and your Progenitors which is a Dispensation by way of Permission or Connivence the People of this your Realm have taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long use and Custom to the observance of the same c. And the King in his Legislative Capacity having with the consent of the three Estates superseded the Pope's Dispensative Power that had so long Usurp'd on the King's Laws and having provided that the Money that should be paid as Fees for Dispensations should be rais'd and moderated by their Consent obtain'd from them a Clause in the Act containing so great a deference to the Dispensative Power of the Crown as that after the Act had authorized the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Successors to grant such Dispensations Licences and Faculties as were accustomed to be had from the See of Rome and not grant any others till the King his Heirs and Successors or their Councel were first advertised thereof and determined whether they should pass It Provided that if it were thought and determin'd by the King his Heirs and Successors or their Councel that Dispensations Faculties Licences or other Writings in any such Case UNWONT shall pass that then the said Archbishop or his Commissary having Licence of His Majesty his Heirs and Successors for the same shall dispense with them accordingly and in Case of his refusing to dispense that any other two Bishops the King his Heirs and Successors should nominate should be appointed to dispense in such Cases And this Act with all the Clauses in it you find reviv'd by the 1st of Elizabeth c. 1. The Pope's rehabilitations did customarily extend to Lay-men as well as Clergy-men and that particularly in case of Heterodoxy in Religion then call'd Heresy which both by ancient usage and Acts of Parliament loaded men with various incapacities And his relaxing the incapacities that relate to Clergy-men any one may see by the Taxa Cameroe and the Fees thereby payable viz. in the Age of those who were to take Orders and were defective in some of their Members and in the Case of Clergy-mens incapacity incurr'd by irregularity But after this Act of the 25. of H. the 8th had shew'd the World the Authority the King had to rehabilitate and dispense here in his own Country both as to matters customarily dispens'd with at Rome and such as were not so and how small the Fees were for the same the bringing rehabilitations and Perinde valere's from Rome to England was like carrying Coals to New-Castle A. I was not satisfy'd with your extending the King's Power of Dispensing here as far as the Pope's reach'd and it seems you extend it further I hope you intend not to bring in here the Tax of the Apostolical Chancery and which Mr. Crashaw translating into English in the year 1625. call'd it The Rates of the Pope's Custom-house and wherein are contain'd Indulgences for Sins past present and to come and such a kind of Pardoning Power as in The historical Narration of the first Fourteen years of King James appear'd to that King so scandalous in the Case of the Draught of the Earl of Somerset's Pardon and in which Sir Robert Cotton having been desired by the Earl to find out the largest Pardon that former Presidents could shew brought him one that was made by the Pope to Cardinal Wolsey and by a fac simile after which the Draught of the Earls ran for Pardoning all manner of Felonies and Treasons committed and to be committed B. Premising to you that the Christian offices do more call on you to mind what Sins you dispense with in your self then what the Pope dispenseth with in others and that this present Pope hath spoil'd the Trade of raillery about Indulgences by spoiling the Trade of them and damning so great a number of them and that in his vast Supplies of Money toward the taking of Buda the Souls in Purgatory contributed nothing and that Sir Paul Ricaut in the Life of this Pope having done right to his Vertue in mentioning his having suppress'd an Office of the Virgin Mary and a multitude of Indulgences hath further judiciously observ'd That Wisemen at the Councel of Trent finding that the Doctrine of Indulgences was not solid did but slightly touch it and tho yet it was the CHIEF matter for which that Councel was assembled nothing was determin'd therein but only that Indulgences be used with such Moderation as was approved by the Ancient Custom of the Church that is not at all I say premising all this I shall mind you that I have said enough already to let you see that it is only the ancient Dispensative Iurisdiction of the Crown that I direct you to prop up and more particularly with respect to the Case before you While we are considering the Obligation of an Oath it were pity that the thoughts of either of us should be embarras'd with Moot-points and so without troubling you with a reference to More f. 463. where all the Power of the Pope is not given to the King by the 25th of H. the 8th but is extinct Hallywel ' s
leaving Aliens or Foreigners of the Reform'd Churches that were then allow'd or tolerated by the King's Majesty or that should be allow'd by him his Heirs and Successors to be secured under the Wing of Prerogative from all the Penalties in that Act was a greater President of a Parliament's deference to the Dispensative Power But here it falls in my way to ask you if the Parliament in that Act interpreting and expounding the Sulscription to the 36th Article as you before mention'd did not shew some want of tenderness to the Regal Power of interpreting B. Not in the least The King thought fit in his Legislative Capacity and with the Concurrence of the three Estates to issue forth such interpretation to the end it might be perpetuated But you will find that they were so tender of that branch of Prerogative namely of the Regal Power of interpreting out of Parliament that having referr'd to the King's Declaration of the 25th of October 1660. i. e. that concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs we spoke of before and mention'd that according to that he had granted his Commission to several Bishops and other Divines to review the Book of Common Prayer and to prepare such Alterations and Additions as they thought fit to offer and that afterwards the Convocations of both the Provinces of Canterbury and York being by His Majesty called c. His Majesty hath been pleas'd to Authorize the Presidents of the said Convocation and other the Bishops and Clergy of the same to review the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of the form and manner of the making and consecrating of Bishops Priests c. and that they should make such Additions and Alterations in the said Books as to them should seem meet and should present the same to His Majesty for his further Allowance or Confirmation and then setting forth that the same was accordingly done and that some alterations were inserted into those Books by the Convocations and by them Presented to His Majesty and all which His Majesty having consider'd hath fully approved it then follows that His Majesty hath recommended to this present Parliament that the Books of Common Prayer c. with the Alterations and Additions which have been so made and presented to His Majesty by the said Convocations be the Book which shall be appointed to be used c. in all Parish Churches and Chapels c. And it is upon the foundation of what His Majesty did as before-mention'd that the following enacting Clauses with their Sanctions and Penalties are built And you may if you will take notice of a Proviso toward the end of the Act being very tender of not hurting what King Iames by his Prerogative did in Uniting the Prebendship to the Professor of Law in Oxon for the time being and whereby that King dispens'd with the incapacity of Lay-men as to the enjoyment of such Prebendship but the Act and the Proviso takes care to perpetuate the King's Professor's enjoying the same and leaves the Prerogative at liberty to dispense with such disability in the Case In short you see how tender that Parliament was of Prerogative and tho they thought it not fit to give such loud Applauses to his late Majesty's Declaration of October the 25th A. 1660. before-mention'd wherein so much of the Dispensative Power was exerted yet you find they refer to it with respect A. I have almost forgot the particulars of the Dispensative Power therein exerted B. I shall tell you that the King having there mention'd and what the Act takes notice of his saying that he would appoint some Divines to review the Common Prayer Book and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary c. it then saith Out Will and Pleasure is that none be punish'd or troubled for not using it until it be review'd and effectually reform'd He there speaks several times of Dispensing with Ceremonies that were by Law establish'd It is there likewise said Because some men otherwise Pious and Learned say They cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canon nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience we are Content and it is Out Will and Pleasure so they take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive ordination institution and induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience c. A. I see here is King Iames the First 's incapacitating Canon dispens'd with and indeed suspended B. The Declaration goeth on with taking care that None be Iudged to forfeit his Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it upon the Statute of the 13th of Elizabeth c. 12. so he read and declare his Assent to all the Articles of Religion which only contain the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments comprised in the Book of Articles in the said Statute mentioned And this Declaration had before express'd His Majesty's mindfulness of his Declaration from Bredagh and his saying We publish'd in our Declaration from Bredagh a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or call'd in Question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offer'd us for the full granting that Indulgence Here was a Liberty of Conscience granted and publish'd and Heterodoxy about the very Articles of Religion tolerated and a throwing off of Penal Laws and for which Declaration I should have told you that Baker's History p. 703. mentions that the House of Lords order'd Thanks to be given to the Messenger who brought that gracious Declaration A. And yet you say the Declaration October 25. 1660 thus dispensing with disability incurr'd by the Canon and the 13th of Eliz and by Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity was both approved and applauded by the former Parliament I have not heard of the like in the kind of it B. No doubt but the Author there referr'd to the Declaration of Octob. 25. A. 1660. for which the House of Commons so express'd their thanks however by the supposed carelessness of the Printer the Publication is said to be October 8th 1660. For the words by him cited as said by his Majesty viz. Our present Consideration and work is to gratify c. are in that Declaration p. 15. and 16. But if it were not for cloying you with other like Instances I could tell you of the like in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames the First A. I pray speak not of cloying My Patience may be soon surfeited with two or three such things as some call Presidents But this thing call'd Iudgment of Parliament carries with it so much weight as well as Veneration that you can no way more oblige me then by going on to entertain me with Instances of that
insignificant as did the old Politicks I shall refer you to in the Sacred Story and when the whole Earth was of one Language and of one Speech and the Vogue was Let us build a City and Tower whose top may reach to Heaven and let us make us a Name least we be scatter'd abroad on the face of the whole Earth But Heaven confounded their Language and their City was call'd Babel and their feared Dissipation was their Punishment They were so diffident of the Divine Promise whose garranty they had that they were resolv'd by their own hands to provide against all Dangers of a future Deluge and having built their Tower with Brick they thought 't would defend them from the Power of Fire concerning which they had heard the Tradition that a general Destruction of the World should proceed from the fury of that Element and they vainly endeavour'd to secure themselves against the anger of Heaven rather by a lofty Pile then by lowly Minds A. That wretched vulgar Error you referr'd to did shew that the line of Confusion was stretch'd forth on Men's understandings as well as on the Realm in that Conjuncture and I have observ'd that that vulgar Error did last to the very time of the ferment about the Exclusion and long before which time as well as then some have talk'd and writ at this rate viz. That the Oath of Supremacy was expresly made as the title of it shews to shut out the Usurpation of foreign Powers and Potentates and was not meant to provide against any popular Usurpations or Diminutions of the King 's Supreme Authority B. O God! But to speak or write at that rate to Conscience is Chicanerie And I have elsewhere mention'd what one whom I cannot too often mention to be as fair a dealer with Conscience as any the Age hath had told us in his sixth Lecture of Oaths about the Oath of Supremacy binding in this Case You know I mean Bishop Sanderson who there shews that tho Popes Usurpations or arrogating to themselves the Supreme Iurisdiction in spiritualibus throughout this Kingdom was the Cause of the Oath of Supremacy yet the Oath is obligatory according to the express words in the Utmost Latitude the reason is that the intention of a Law is general to provide against all future inconveniences of the like kind or nature Moreover the words in Queen Elizabeth's Admonition referring to the Persons call'd to Ecclesiastical Ministry in the Church as the doubters and the tenour of all the subsequent Interpretations as speaking them principally occasion'd by the doubters in the Church of England do further shew the Vanity of that Objection And if you will more particularly think of the Queen 's Authentick Interpretation of that Oath and approved in Parliament you will find the Oath of Supremacy to be an Oath of Allegiance and that it may be so-likewise properly termed For in the beginning of the Admonition you will thus find it viz. The Queen's Majesty being inform'd that in certain places of this Realm sundry of her native Subjects being call'd to Ministry in the Church be by sinister Perswasion and perverse Construction induced to find some scruple in the form of an Oath which by an Act of the last Parliament is prescribed to be required of divers Persons for the recognition of their ALLEGIANCE to her Majesty c. A. As one may perceive by what the Queen's Interpretation in the Admonition refers to that there was a great ferment in the Kingdom about the sense of the Oath so suitably to what you mention'd of the Prudence of our Ancestors that caus'd various ferments to go off so insensibly the next Parliament in approving her Interpretation without troubling themselves to question the Authentickness of it doth corroborate your observation of the Excellence of the English understandings B. It doth so The fermentation in the minds of the People you speak of had been Epidemical And tho one might fancy by the Proem of the Admonition that the Interpretation as well as the Dispensing with Disability had an eye but on an inconsiderable number of People there referr'd to in the foremention'd words of sundry of her Majesty's Native Subjects in certain places of this Realm c. yet any one who knoweth the History of those times will find the Interpretation and Dispensation as I may say Calculated for the Meridian of all England and the Interpretation having an eye on all Christendom There was then in the Morning of that Queen's Reign and of the restoration of the Reform'd Religion such a thick mist of causeless Fears and Iealousies that had generally o'erspread the minds of Protestants and Papists shortly after the Birth of the Statute of 1 o Eliz. c. 1 o. that nothing but the Supremacy both of Power and Reason that shone in her authentick Interpretation of that Statute could disperse and that too not suddenly For as Mr. Nye in his Book of Two Acts of Parliament or Observations on that Oath tells us It is mention'd in the Admonition that the Queen 's Ecclesiastical Power is the same that was challenged and used by Henry the 8th c. which is supposed by some to be the same that was in the Pope the Person only and not the Power changed so that our Princes are but secular Popes This Objection was strengthen'd by the subtlety of Gardiner abroad and at home by a Sermon Preach'd at Paul's Cross in the year 1588. by Dr. Bancroft who calls Q. Eliz. a Petty Pope and tells us her Ecclesiastical Authority is the same which the Pope's was formerly and in the Margin opposite to what he had said of the subtlety of Gardiner strengthening the Objection abroad hath these words viz. Whom Calvin terms Imposterille And Mr. Nye afterward goes on to shew how the 37th Article did remove the Objection sufficiently The Author of The true Grounds of Ecclesiastical Regiment Printed in London A. 1641. doth in p. 53. mention some mens objecting it against the Ecclesiastical Supremacy of our Monarchs that it may descend to Infants under Age as it did to King Edward the 6th or to Women as to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and that whatsoever we may allow to men such as Henry the 8th yet it seems unreasonable to allow it Women and Children The Papists think this Objection of great moment and therefore Bellarmine in great disdain casts it out that in England they had a certain Woman for their Bishop meaning Queen Elizabeth and she knowing what an odium that word would draw on her both among Papists and many Protestants also Consults her Bishops about it and by their advice sets forth a Declaration certifying the World thereby that she claim'd no other Headship in the Church but such as might exclude all dependency on foreign Headships and secure her from all danger of being deposed c. The Bishops in this did as warily provide for their own Claim as the Queen 's And the Roman-Catholick Author
For put the Case that the Clergy make Canons to which I never assented and I break these Canons whereupon I am Excommunicated and upon a Significavit by the Bishop my Body is taken and imprison'd by a Writ de excommunicato Capiendo now shall I lie in Prison all the days of my life and shall never be deliver'd by a Cautione admittenda unless I will come in and parere mandatis Ecclesiae which are point blank against my Conscience And he had before said A Comparatis by an Argument à minori ad majus if Property of Goods cannot be taken from me without my assent in Parliament which is the fundamental Law of the Land and so declared in the Petition of Right why then Property and Liberty of Conscience which is much greater as much as bona animi are above bona fortunae cannot be taken from me without my assent This it seems pass'd as Currant Coin for Iudgment of Parliament in behalf of Liberty of Conscience in the Conjuncture of 41 the year in which his Book was Printed and if it were so then allowable you may well think that a Prince's owning the Religion that flourish'd here in the time of Magna charta and which inspired the Virtue that produced Magna Charta and indulging some others of the same Religion to profess it without Punishment is not likely to occasion any durable ferment And what I have here referr'd to concerning the Petition of Right minds me of the great effort of Pious zeal in our famous Bishop Hall and his laudably making use of the Popularity he had among the Protestants in sending a Letter to the House of Commons April the 28th 1628. during the great ferment about that Petition and in which he gives so much fatherly and Prudent advice to the great Agonists for Property that they should consider when they were at the end of their race and then to sit down and rest He hath in it these tender Expressions Gentlemen For God's sake be wise in your well-meant zeal and our Liberties and Proprieties are sufficiently declared to be sure and legal c. let us not in suspicion of Evils that may be cast our selves into present confusion If you love your selves and your Country remit something of your own terms And since the Substance is yielded by your noble Patriots stand not too rigorously upon Points of Circumstance Pear not to trust a good King who after the strict Laws made must be trusted with the Execution c. relent or farewel welfare You may hence easily imagine how passionately that good Bishop would have been concerned if he had then seen among the Patriots any unquenchable heats about the not trusting the King with the Executive Power of Penal Laws and Laws in terrorem and such Laws as Mr. Glanvil in the ' Month after the Date of the Bishop's Letter said in a full Committee of both Houses That the Commons must and ever will acknowledge that it is in His Majesty's ABSOLUTE and undoubted Power to grant Dispensations in as I told you In God's Name often think of that great Patriotly saying of Tully so often with just Applause cited by Sir E. Coke Major haereditas venit unicuique nostrum à jure legibus quam à parentibus and you may account him a Prophane Person who despiseth his Birth-right given him by the Law. And pity any one who speaking of his Property doth not know this to be the meaning of it namely that it is the highest Right he hath or can have to any thing and which is no way depending upon another man's Courtâ—…e And consider that as you have a Property in your Chattels and Hereditaments so you have in your Religion Think often with honour of our Ancestors who by so many Acts of Parliament and lawful Canons and Constitutions since the Refoâ—…mation provided for the securing your Property in your Religion and remember how binding the very declarative Laws about it are Cast your Eye with Pleasure about the Realm and see if you can find any one who fears that any one will ever move in Parliament for leave to bring in any Bill to take away the least part of your Property in your Religion But then consider how Savage a thing it is in any to take excessive delight in the Execution of Penal Laws Ferus est qui fruitur paenâ and remember too that your Prince hath a Property in the Executive part of the Law and in distributive Justice and in shewing Mercy And when you hear any one telling you of a Snake in the grass of the Prince's dispensing with Penal Laws and that therefore there may be danger of your Prince's dispensing in Laws that are leneficial you may tell him of the notorious Non-sequitur and that you have a Property in not being punish'd and in having the benefit of the Rule as to favourable Statutes being made more so by interpretation Favores sunt â—…mpliandi and on the contrary as to Penal ones that odiosa restringi convenit And so to any such impertinent Objecter you may say that the voice or sound of his Snake and the Goose are all one But consider that since you have so much cause to depend on the glorious and consummate justice inherent in the nature of our great Monarch for his defending you in the security of all the Declaratory Acts of Parliament that maintain your very Property in your Religion both Iustice and Common Ingenuity call upon you to own his Power of Dispensing and even with disability for which I have shewn you so many clear and incontestable declarative Iudgments of Parliament and shall direct you to more when we meet again And let me tell you that you ought to have the greater tenderness for this Prerogative of our Prince for that in his Administration of it he hath in some Points shewn a greater tenderness to his Laws and People then our Princes since the Reformation have done You may remember I shew'd you how Queen Elizabeth and King Iames did by their Authority out of Parliament MAKE things Penal by Disability that were not so by any Law in being and therefore you may the less wonder when you see your Prince dispensing with it and thereby preventing the Punishment of it and sometimes and in some Cases pardoning it A. I shall carefully take notice of all these Matters wherein you have caution'd me but am here occasionally on the account of some things you said about the Interpretation and the Acquittal from Penalties in the Queen's Admonition being perpetuated by their being declared good in Parliament to ask you if you do not account that Dispensations or such Interpretations of the Prince by his own single Authority may be made to continue good in following Reigns B. I do not in the least doubt but they may and I shall hereafter evince the thing to you but shall at present out of a Manuscript Report I have of the great Case of
Thomas and Sorrell tell you that by one of the great Councel who argued in it it was asserted with great Learning That the Non-obstante in that Case remain'd good after the King's death That tho Acts the King doth in his Natural Capacity determine by his death as making of Iudges c. for those referr to his Natural Will yet things done in his Royal Capacity as King do not determine by his death as a License to alien in Mortmâ—…in in one King's time serves in anothers and the Reason is when the Subject is once exempt out of the Restraint of the Act he is ever exempt unless the Exemption be limited Coke 1. Inst. 52. 6. If the Lessor licence his Lessee that is restrain'd by Condition not to Alien tho the Lessor die the licence shall serve the Lessee to alien and is not determin'd by the Lessor's death And in this Point he cited Trin. 2. Jac. C. B. Rot. 2835. Wright versùs Radcliffe and Trin. 2. Jac. Norris v. Mason C. B. as Cases adjudged in this point And I shall then shew you how the same thing was then by others asserted but you may now for this purpose remember how the instances I have given you of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments approving and declaring to be good what she did of this kind and the instances of what others of our Princes did by their own Authority and out of Parliament being valid and being afterward approved in Parliament have supported the extent of the Regal Authority of this kind as to point of time But because according to the Rule of Unumquodque dissolvitur eo modo quo colligatur many Indulgences and Injunctions and Dispensations being revocable by Kings themselves and by their Successors and because declaratory Acts of Parliament cannot be repeal'd but by other Acts common Prudence doth suggest it to all to endeavour the perpetuating to themselves by the Legislative Power what they account beneficial And if you will you may use the term of having it confirm'd by that Power that is if you will allow it to have been firm before you may call it confirm'd by the Prince and the three Estates afterward enacting it and making its firmness perpetual And this is the thing I aim'd at in what you might take for a Criticism when I said that the 39 Articles owed no Confirmation nor Authority to the Act of the 13th of Eliz. A. I know the reason of your cautious speaking here about a tender Point You accounting even every Declaratory Judgment of Parliament for our Religion to be a Treasure and having often said that you would allow some Roman-Catholicks to mock on in calling our Religion a Parliamentary Religion did I judge design to do honour to our Religion as well as to our Prince's in shewing that it was here orderly establish'd by God's Vicegerents before it was by the Deputies of the People or the Magnates Regni B. You guess right at my meaning in this way to salve Phaenomena And if you will look on a Book Printed in Oxford A. 1645. entituled Parliaments Power in Laws for Religion or an Answer to that old and groundless Calumny of the Papists nick-naming the Religion of the Church of England by the name of a Parliamentary Religion c. you will find the Fact in this Point clearly deduced through the course of our Laws and Constitutions in a long series temporum from the Reign of Harry the 8th downward and for the honour of our Kings and of the Church and the Reformation and the measures I have taken in our discourse have been suitable to those of the judicious and learned Author of that Book A. Well Sir we have had a great deal of frank Discourse and I will now take the freedom to put one Question more to you You have entertain'd me with the several Interpretations of our Oath and have shew'd me how the obligatoriness of them all hath been perpetuated and you have likewise salved the Phaenomena in the Iustice of the Government as to the Laws in terrorem But you know the Story of one who being Lord of a place did leave a Pit long open too near the High-way and who at Night erected Lights about it to prevent its being mischievous and he afterward hearing that sometimes poor Blind men who were Travellers fell into it and that at other times by various accidents the Lights were not helpful to other Passengers as being took away or going out too soon and he therefore at last very fairly removed both his Nuisance and Lights together And now may it hot be wish'd that the Prince and the three Estates would remove the Laws about our Oaths and the Interpretations too and so likewise all the Laws in terrorem among which I suppose you reckon the Test-Acts at which so many have taken offence B. You may easily guess that till we have both of us at another meeting discours'd of the Obligation resulting from the Promissory part of the Oath I will not engage your thoughts in any matter of Controverfie that may in the least perplex them But as soon as we have fully discours'd that I shall frankly give you my thoughts at large relating to the question about Repealing of the Test-Acts in a Parliamentary manner but do at present wholly forbear to mention what I think thereof And I have before told you my judgment of the likelihood of the continuance of our great Oath as a great luminary that may perhaps enlighten our English World in the measures of Loyalty to the end of time and as I have told you the Oath giveth no offence to the Considerate so I will hope none will be taken at it But I must here tell you that I have a greater veneration for the Oath because I look on the serious Consideration of the assertory part of it as likely to be very Instrumental in allaying the ferment we have been speaking of A. God grant it may be so B. You remember what I hinted to you about the Clause whereby you testify'd and declared that the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal and from whence it follow'd by way of natural Consequence that no foreign Prince c. hath any Iurisdiction within this Realm being the Corner-stone on which the great And therefore I mean your forsaking foreign Iurisdiction was built And I assure you that the same first Declaration doth bind you to the like AND THEREFORE to renounce the belief of any Power on Earth being able to dissolve your King 's right of Commanding your Obedience and your Obligation to obey him And indeed if I had produced to you no Iudgment of Parliament for the purpose I have done but that which is contain'd in the assertory part of the Oath and which is unanimously interpreted by Divines and Lawyers as expressive of the King 's right jure naturae to Command the Obedience of