long and if no way of Relief were in the mean time the Subject would without Remedy undergo the penalty of an unequal Law. These and the like Considerations make it necessary that besides the Legislative Power placed in the Parliament that there be some Hand or other also by which upon all emergent Occasions the rigour of a Law as to its Penalty may be abated by the means whereof not only Mens Liberties and Estates but Lives also are sometimes preserved SECT 2. 2. This Ballance hath always been trusted in the Hand and annexed to the Sovereign Majesty of every State for this Interest doth little vary but remaineth in a manner the same in all Republicks in what Form soever they be established In the State of England being an Empire and its Crown in many Acts of Parliament especially relating to these Matters stiled Imperial this Power is inseparably annexed thereunto which needs little proof it being confirmed by the Oath of Supremacy An Oath is the End of a Controversy Our great Lawyers also give in their Suffrage hereunto frequently affirming that the Statutes relating to the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not introductive of New but declarative of the old Law. When an Act say both those two Learned Judges Cooke and Rolls forbiddeth under a Penalty in case it may be inconvenient to divers particular Persons in respect of Circumstances the Law gives Power to the King to dispense therewith And in like Cases or upon other Considerations equal he may Dispense License Pardon c. Yea although those Laws have been passed by his Majesty's Royal Assent formerly and which is more a Clause inserted in the Act that the King's Licence or Dispensation in this or that Case shall be void Yet it will be no Bar to such Prerogatives as are inherent and originally inseparable to his Royal Person but he may give Licence with a Non Obstante thereunto A learned Serjeant in his Nomotechina hath these words The King by a Clause of Non Obstante may dispense with a Statute Law if he recite the Statute though the Statute say such Dispensations shall be merely void And he may License Things forbidden by the Statutes as to coin Mony which is made a Capital Offence by the Statute and was before lawful for that it is but malum prohibitum but malum in se as to leave a Nusance in the High-way he cannot license to do but when it is done he may pardon it but where the Statute saith his License shall be void which the Civilians call Clausula derogativa there it must have a Clause of Non Obstante that is to say this Clause notwithstanding any Statute else it is not good And says the same Author He may in respect of his Supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction exempt some from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary and dispense with others in things which the Ecclesiastical Law prohibits upon the same ground that they are not mala in se but prohibita I hold clear saith Judg Hobart that though the Statute says That all Dispensations c. shall be granted in manner and form following and not otherwise that yet the King is not thereby restrained but his Power remains full and perfect as before and he may still grant them as King. The King may remit the Penalty or Punishment of those Laws which he hath no power to dispense with as where what is forbidden by the Law is Malum in se saith the Serjeant in his aformentioned Discourse of Law much more then when what is forbiden is only Malum prohibitum The Statute indeed of the 9th of Edw. 2. Cap. 7. enacts That no Letter shall proceed from the King to discharge an Excommunicated Person but where the King's Liberty is prejudiced But as this Statute it self proves the Law and former Practice so it takes it not away since the King's Liberty of discharging such Persons used before is preserved by the same Statute CHAP. II. Of the Prerogatives and Regal Powers in Relation to Ecclesiastical Laws and Matters of Religion SECT 1. 1. REligion in the moral Parts thereof the Precepts and Commandments of God the Institutions and Ordinances of Christ these are not subject to any Humane Wisdom or Power The Apostles that were of higher Authority in these Affairs than any on Earth went no farther but as 1 Cor. 11.23 What I have received of the Lord that I delivered unto you To make Laws in Spiritual Matters that are such by the Light of Nature that Men may be moved to Duty and act according to their Light we yield to the Civil Magistrate as he is Custos utriusque Tabulae 2. There are Matters of Circumstance also and external Forms in Worship tending to Order and Decency These and the like are made by our Laws to depend upon the Power and Ordering of the Prince This Distinction you have laid down as Law by Judg Hobart his words are these Tho it be de Jure Divino that Christian People be provided of Christian Offices and Duties of Teaching Administration of the Sacraments and the like and of Pastors for that purpose and therefore to debar them wholly of it were expresly against the Law of God yet the Distinction of Parishes and the Form of furnishing every Parish Church with his proper Curat Rector or Pastor by the way of Presentation Institution c. as is used diversly in divers Churches and the State or Title which he hath or is to have in his Church or Benefice is not a positive Law of God in point of Circumstance And we know well that the Primitive Church in its greatest Purity were but voluntary Congregations of Believers submitting themselves to the Apostles and after to other Pastors to whom they did minister of their Temporals as God did move them Government is a Beam of Divine Power and therefore he proceeds saying If a People will refuse all Government it were against the Law of God but if a Popular State will receive a Monarchy it stands well with the Law of God. In the Case of Glover and Colt against the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield From all this the Judg seems to confirm his Distinction by way of Comparison thus As in Humane Affairs Government in the General and Essentials of it that one Man be Subject to another Man in an orderly way is necessary and Jure Divino and not in Man's Liberty or Dispose But for the Modes and Forms of Government and like Circumstances it is left to the wisdom and choice of Men and the conduct thereof So in Matters of Religion what is not Jure Divino such external Forms and Rites tending to a more orderly and decent administration in the Worship and Service of God our Law judgeth the Magistrate hath the ordering hereof in each Nation according to the Manners and Tempers of the People which is Various And in particular the Disposing of Pastors and People for the more convenient and orderly Service and Worship
of God to be only Jure Humano and may be otherwise and was so in the Primitive Church in her greatest purity Pastors and People were not then as now engaged in this Relation and one to another by a Parochial Bond or Tye but injoyed a Christian Liberty voluntarily to dispose of themselves under such or such a Ministry as they should make choise of to themselves The Church is said in this State to be in greatest purity The Congregational-way therefore is not a way in this learned Judg's Opinion of Disorder and Confusion as is frequently suggested 2. And that it is in the Power of Supream Majesty to dispense with a Parishioner as well as with a Pastor or Rector in such a Case that is to remove from his Parish to another for more suitable Enjoyments as for a Rector upon his Majesty's Dispensation to be a Non-resident and take another Rectory the division of Parishes being Jure Humano What those Things and Matters of Religion are in the Judgment of our State that comes under the Manage of humane Wisdom and Power are well expressed in Queen Elizabeth's Advertisement These Orders and Rules ensuing have been meet and convenient to be used and followed yet not prescribing these Rules as Laws equivalent with the Eternal Word of God and as of necessity to bind the Consciences of our Subjects in the nature of them considered in themselves Or as they should add any Efficacy or more Holiness to the Vertue of Publick Prayer and to the Sacraments but as temporal Orders meerly Ecclesiastical without any vain Superstition and as Rules in some part of Discipline concerning Decencies Distinction and Order for the time And in the Articles of 1562 It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all Places one or utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries and Mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word It is granted that even these Ecclesiastical Laws ought to be conformable to the Word of God and to those General Rules laid down in the Scriptures for ordering the Worship and Service of God in the Churches as Let all things be done decently and to Edification Give no offence to Jew or Gentile and the like and not to be the meer inventions of Men. That distinction some would make of things against or contrary and what is according to the Word of God the one they apply to Matters of Faith the other to Matters of Order It is a Distinction without a Difference there is more Wit than Truth in that Interpretation of Christ's Words He that is not with me is against me and in another place he that is not against me is with me applying the one to Matters of Faith the other to Matters of Order There is no such distinction to be made but Rites Ceremonies and Matters of Order ought to be according to God's Word as well as Matters of Faith. Magistrates are to judg Circa Res Ecclesias de iis si Fidei sint dogmata Vel ritus et Ceremoniae earumque Veritatem et Equitatem juxta Verbi Divini normam Mocket de pol. Eccl. Angl. cap. 3. And the Power of the King stands not in forming new Articles of Faith or Forms of Religion such as were Jeroboam's Calves but in defending and propagating that Faith and Religion of which God in the Scriptures is the undoubted Author saith Mason of Bishops lib. 3. cap. 5. It is evident those Holy Men our first Reformers made no such distinction but that all should be done according to God's Word laying before them these general Rules in Scripture even in retaining what hath been so offensive For of the retaining Ceremonies there is this account by them given Because they appertain to Edification whereunto all things done in the Church as the Apostle teacheth ought to be referred And of our Liturgy thus There is nothing to be read but the very pure Word of God and the Holy Scriptures or that which is evidently grounded upon the same Preface to the Common-Prayer Book God be thanked saith good King Edward the 6th we know both what by his Word is meet to be reformed and have amended c. It is convenient thus distinctly to have insisted upon what we term Religion or Matters Ecclesiastical according to that sense in which the Civil Magistrate assumes to himself the ordering thereof And what influence the Scriptures and Authority of God hath or ought to have in these Rites of the Church and Matters of Order as well as in Matters of Faith for hereby it appears whence it is Mens Consciences are more concerned in these Laws than in other Municipal Laws of the Nation And that the not being free to submit to these Ecclesiastical Laws when not formed according to God's Word is no Evidence of that Seditious Spirit that kicks against all Laws SECT 2. There is a necessity and that of much greater importance Provisions be made of Dispensations c. as occasion shall be in respect to Laws Ecclesiastical than in Civil In Matters of Religion and the Worship of God 1. Multitudes there are of loose and profane Persons in respect to such neither are the Laws in themselves nor in the execution of them severe enough 2. Against Popish Recusants the Laws have been severe enough yet in the execution great moderation 3. There are those and blessed be God great Multitudes who are not only Orthodox in Faith but of unblamable Life in the greater Things of Law and Gospel These are fallen under most severe Laws and of late with greatest severity put in execution and utterly ruin'd if there be no means of relaxation It is in behalf of these I argue this Necessity and that from these and the like Considerations 1. There is a greater proneness in Conscientious Men to scruple and to be doubtful in their Obedience to the Ecclesiastical than to the Civil Laws of a Nation as before 2. Great Difficulty in forming Laws wherein Mens Consciences are immediately concern'd so as not to dissatisfy some if not many 3. If those Laws be not according to Scripture in the apprehensions of those that are to obey whatsoever they are in themselves it is our Sin if we obey it is not so in Civil Commands 4. It is not of so ill Consequence for us to yield Obedience to a Civil as to an Ecclesiastical Law if ill constituted by the State. 5. From what is found in a manner peculiar in these our Ecclesiastical Laws and the Administration of them many ways prejudicial to the Subject there is a necessity some such provision of this kind be found on our behalf 1. The real Scruples and Doubts about our Obedience in these Ecclesiastical Matters cannot but be more and greater than in other Laws The knowingest Man in these Things knoweth but in part and the most Men have but a parcel in this part It is true the
doth scruple the Reasonableness or Equity of a Law concerning Civil Rights or what 's required from it he may notwithstanding yield Obedience without Sin and ought so to do rather than to offend by an appearance of Disobedience as Christ himself did Matth. 17.26 27. But in Matters of Religion even as Circumstances Ceremonies or the least thing wherein the Lord hath concerned his Word if there be a Doubt or Scruple whether lawful and conformable to the Scriptures tho it be from Ignorance or Weakness yet I sin if I submit Rom. 14.1 compared with 23. The Consequence of Transgression in this kind is more than loss of Estates Liberties yea or of Life it self If the Laws of Superiors concerning Civil Rights be unjust in themselves or prove unequal from the Circumstances of this or that Man's Case who cannot be relieved by any Indulgence he may submit without Sin without transgressing any Law of God nay it is Vertue and pleasing to the Lord our patience in such suffering 1 Pet. 2.13 with verses 18 19. 1 Cor. 6.7 but not so in the Matters of Religion for we have from Christ to the contrary that is not to subject Col. 2.20 And God blames his People by his Prophets for wittingly walking after the Commandments Hos 5.12 and for keeping the Statutes of Omri Micah 6.16 the Lord is a jealous God. SECT 4. If there be not a Power to Judg and Dispense intrusted in some Hands the People of God are in a worse condition on these Accounts than in their Civil Interest and that upon a three-fold account 1. The Secular Laws and Statutes made in the behalf of the Subjects are often upon further Deliberation and Experience of Inconveniencies altered and repealed whereby the Subjects have ease But Acts of Parliament wherein Ecclesiastical Affairs and Mens Consciences are concern'd are seldom or never revised or altered much less repealed no not for the space of an hundred Years can we give an Instance hereof So far are we from repealing Acts made in Ecclesiastical Affairs as is ordinarily in our Civil Matters that some Acts passed partly for their Severity or upon some other Account doubtful whether fit to remain as standing Laws therefore are limited to a certain Time after which to expire and cease the severe Act of 35 Eliz. that in the Process of it reached Mens Lives when first passed was to remain a Law but to the end of the next Session of Parliament which in regard of some Doubt it seems made whether in Force or not is declared by the present Parliament to be in Force and ought to be put in due execution And now at this time there is a Minister of the Gospel under the Sentence of that Act and for transgressing that Law had lost his Life had not his Majesty interposed by his Prerogative A wise Statesman once advised and expressed himself thus I ask why the Civil State should be purged and restored with good and wholsom Laws made in every three or four Years in Parliament providing Remedies as fast as time breedeth Mischiefs and contrariwise the Ecclesiastical State should still continue upon the Dregs of Time and receive no Alteration now for these many Years We have heard of no offer of Bills in Parliament is it because there is nothing amiss Sir. Fr. Bacon 2. In that all Proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts are ever to the utmost rigour of the Letter of their Canons and Orders there is no Chancery or Court of Equity among them to appeal unto for Redress but in some few Cases as in Causes Testimentary of Matrimony Divorses Tythes c. specified 24 H. 8.12 Matters wherein our Estates are touched But in Matters of Conformity and such Cases wherein our Consciences are most concerned we are left destitute 3. Again Men are upon this peculiar disadvantage in these Spiritual Courts who are impeached for Non-conformity to their Canons and Orders in that their Adversaries and those that are Parties for the most part are their Judge this Sir Fra. Bacon in his Considerations condemned as a great Injustice So that it is evident considering the Nature of Ecclesiastical Constitutions and how managed with us in this Nation how necessary it is that some Power be placed somewhere by which we may not be exposed more than others to such extremity of Rigour for otherwise as Consciencious Men are more disposed to Scruples and Doubts in the way of Duty in this kind so to less Mercy and Indulgence from our Superiors CHAP. III. That our Relief is from the Jurisdiction and Power in his Majesty to Dispense and Exempt for in his Hand this Ballance is placed which is that we shall insist upon in the next place SECT 1. THIS Prerogative or Power to Dispense and Exempt from Ecclesiastical Laws is in the Soveraign for the Confirmation whereof not to insist on what was acknowledged by Pope Eleutherius touching Lucius our first Christian King that he was Vicarius Dei in Regno suo in reference to Matters to be reformed or is mentioned touching the Laws and Practice of King Edgar and Edward the Confessor named the First Meae solicitudinis est quieti eorum consulare de quorum moribus spectat ad nos examen And of the other from whom it is said much of our Law is derived that describing the King's Office he saith Rex ad hoc est constitutus ut Regnum terrenum Populum Dei Ecclesiam regat ab injuriis defendat maleficos ab eâ evallat destruat penitus desperdat and much of like nature that might be urg'd from Antiquity But to come nearer Home The Testimonies of the Clergy in Convocation the Representative Church of England who make it so great a Duty to acknowledg it as they have expressed their Severity thus Whosoevor shall affirm the King's Majesty hath not the same Authority in Cause Ecclesiastical as the pious Princes of the Jews and the Christian Emperors obtained c. let him be Excommunicated ipso facto and not to be absolved but by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Canons of the Convocation 1603. 2. I shall join with this Testimony that of another Synod or Council namely that met in the Star Chamber a. Jac. made up of all the Judges and Persons learned in the Law summoned by King James for Resolution in some Ecclesiastical Causes whereof this of his Majesty's Prerogative was one their Resolution you have in these words The King may without the Parliament make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and punish those that disobey or refuse to submit And this with other Resolutions in Ecclesiastical Matters were ordered to be registred and recorded in the several Courts of Justice 3. And from time to time the Kings and Queens of England have assumed and exercised this Power and there hath been no matter or thing so Sacred and of such Concernment in these Affairs ordered by Parliament but the like and of as great
a Common-Wealth Common Justice the Proprieties of Men c. 1. To the first His Majesty or any of his Predecessors hath not at any time in any Statute or Law that concerns these Ecclesiastical Matters by any such special Words bound up himself but rather the contrary as in those two Acts wherein more especially our Affair lieth That for Uniformity where the dispensing with that Statute granted to Strangers by sole Prerogative-Authority is justified And the Act of 22 Car. 2. by the Proviso there inserted the Parliament seems to induce his Majesty's Assent in the recognizing of his Prerogative so expresly in that Act as if they spoke thus Though this Act be very Severe yet if it be found prejudicial or not to attain the End for which we judg such Severity to be requisite it is an Ecclesiastical Affair and your Majesty may when you please dispense and exempt Persons from it 2. There is nothing transacted in these Ecclesiastical Affairs by the Civil Magistrate and as depending on his Authority but such Matters as in the sense of our Law are things materially indifferent and therefore not Malum in se they do not bind the Conscience of the Subject in the nature of them considered in themselves Q. Eliz. Advertisements 1569 Preface the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking a common Order c. So that these Precepts concerning Ecclesiastical Matters oblige not in their own Nature as what is either Bonum or Malum in se but as prohibited or commanded 3. Civil Rights and Claims and in Temporal Things only are of the immediate and intrinsick Concern and Interest of all Republicks Dominium non fundatur in Gratiâ if the just claim of a Prince may not be interrupted upon the account he is of this or that Religion or Perswasion nor may a Subject be justly Banished Imprisoned Confiscated or Ruined upon the meer account of Religion or because his Conscience is not cast into the same Mould with the Prince or present Establishment SECT 3. QUEST III. Religion and the Worship and Service of God being the great Concernments of a Nation Is it not then to dispence with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Laws too great a Trust to be reposed in any one Hand Answ 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Civil Republick 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. The Moment or Weight of a Matter in our deliberation hath its proportion either as under an absolute or respective Consideration Wisdom is better than Riches in it self but not in relation to the support of present Life the Knowledg of God and Divine Things is better than to know the Virtue of Drugs and Plants but not so in respect to the study of Physick so Religion and the Worship of God is the chiefest and better part in it self considered but in its respective Consideration as to the faculty of a particular Person to a Community of Men for the advance of Civil Affairs There are other Qualifications and Inducements of greater consequence and more directly and immediatly tending to the being or well-being thereof That there be no Mistake in this great Concernment I further distinguish There cometh under the Notion of Religion the Holiness and Righteousness that is of the Moral Law Principles whereof are in all Mens Natures and attend in their Actings by a natural Conscience 2. Gospel-Duties directed and ordered by a Supernatural Light no Foot-steps or Principles hereof are found in us For the former Religion in that sence as the Knowledg of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our Dealings c. are such Things wherein the Well-being of Common-Wealths is much concerned But Religion as it stands in the exerting Supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commandments of Christ as the other the Commandments of God John 15. as Faith Repentance Sacraments Discipline and the like Gospel-Ordinances In the Duties under these Heads considered and as distinct from Moral Duties there is little or nothing directly and immediately contributed by them to Mens Civil Interests further than where these Supernatural Vertues are planted in Mens Minds the Moral Duties of Piety and Honesty do more plentifully abound and are in exercise As those Morals do more immediatly concern the Republick so the Laws thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-Table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Laws under Penalties and Incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State may conduce most to the Welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries it 's otherwise for as they contribute little to us in our Civil Government otherwise than as before mentioned so is there little contributed by the Wisdom or Authority of any State advantagious to the Gospel but Protection or being a Defence upon this Glory Learned Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Christ the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commandeth which is all the Power we give to Princes Of Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before thus By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers and Magistrates bearing the Sword to permit and defend that which Christ himself first ordained and appointed But to return If Adam had stood all Common-Wealths would have been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith nor Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised And since the Fall you have had well-governed Common-Wealths of Turks and Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular Persons in converse another Man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any Civil Concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by my omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a Man I deal with be unjust lie steal c. my worldly Interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this exercise Faith on Christ for Forgiveness and humble himself I am neither a gainer nor loser hereby in the sense we speak of Now it is Gospel-Worship we profess in this Nation Gospel-Religion If the Duties themselves performed are of no greater consequence in respect to Persons with whom we converse or the Civil State where we live the Modes Forms and Ceremonies of such Worship cannot be of such moment or trust in the manage of them And let me add much less can there be any such special advantage to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external Form of Worship or Government that it should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention which evidently appears in this how prosperous and flourishing hath this Nation been in their Civil Concerns under Episcopacy set Liturgies Ceremonies c. and as great prosperity in other Christian Republicks where these have been altogether disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it
it So that now his Majesty had no other Remedy but either 1. To retract from that pious and seasonable Resolution for Liberty of Conscience expressed in Letters to the Parliament then sitting from Breda a Resolution so acceptable to them as the whole House Nemine contradicente by Letters returned him Thanks and bless the Name of the Lord who put such reconciling thoughts into the Heart of the King and he himself likewise owns an especial Blessing from God upon his Affairs after he had expressed that Intention 2. Or break that Promise he solemnly made assuring this Liberty and had professed to the World upon this Occasion in his Speech May 8. 1661. that he valued himself much upon keeping his Word and whatsoever he promised to his Subjects and that no Man can be his Friend and wish him well who would perswade him to the consent of the breach of that solemn Promise 3. Or leave the Nation under greater Distractions and Sufferings about Religion than he found it in and upon twelve Years experience of other means used which tended rather to increase the Distemper These dishonourable Things I say his Majesty must have suffered and undergone or make use of that Power God and the Nation have intrusted him with though not with concurrence of Parliament so much and so often desired by him even so oft as He came to them as he tells them in his Speech of July 8. 1661. Yet nothing at any time was done by the Houses in respect to Liberty of Conscience being obliged in their Judgments to proceed in the other way CHAP. V. Of former Examples for Indulgence SECT 1. HIS Majesty's Gracious Declaration contains not a greater Indulgence tho it be extended to a greater number of Persons than what was granted by his Majesty's Predecessors which before we have mentioned to the French and Dutch Congregations 1. There was a Uniform Order in Church-Government and Divine Service to which not only his Majesty's Subjects but all the Inhabitants of his Majesty's Dominions were to conform and no Man to absent himself And not to hear or be present at any other Forms of Prayers and administration of Sacraments than what is in that Book prescribed under Penalties of Ecclesiastical Censures Fines to the King to the Poor of the Parish c. 2. The Dispensation and Exemption was by the sole Authority of the Soveraign and stands thus A Liberty to separate and absent themselves from the Parish Assemblies where they had their Habitations and to gather themselves into distinct particular Churches or Congregations to chuse and ordain their own Ministers also to establish such a Church-Government or Discipline and Form of Worship and Divine Service as they amongst themselves judged to be most conformable to the Scriptures established by his Majesty's Patent as a Corporation within it self and independent upon any Superior Jurisdiction Spiritual but his Majesty's And all Bishops Mayors Sheriffs c. to protect them and suffer them quietly to enjoy and exercise these Liberties with a Non Obstante c. 3. The Grounds and Considerations upon which such Liberty and Exemptions were granted were these 1. The Care of Religion that ought to be in all Christian Princes and to be shewed forth especially in this the Relief and Incouragement of those that are of the same Religion in their Sufferings for Conscience of their Duty towards God. 2. Persons of the same Religion with us and Sacraments administred by them according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostles ought to be tolerated in their way of worshipping God though they differ from us in Ceremonies and Discipline 3. The Kindness we found in other Protestant Countries when we were forced to leave our Native Soil for preserving our Consciences 4. There were also great Advantages in Matter of Trade for their skill and industry to the great benefit of this Nation and prejudice of their own L. Herbert's History of Hen. 8. The Premises considered we further say 1. His Majesty's Protestant Subjects here spoken for to whom this Gracious Indulgence is extended are of the same Religion with others of his Subjects and the present Establishment in respect to Matters of Faith and Worship in external Forms also they are not more differing from the Church of England than those Congregations to whom the same Indulgence hath been granted by his Majesty and Predecessors and is still enjoyed And when those Strangers had removed their Families and come among us had not this gracious Indulgence been granted and continued to them their Consciences would have engaged them to depart hence and seek Habitations where the like Liberty might be obtained And this also is our Condition many hundreds of his Majesty's Subjects with their Families have left their Native Country and dispose themselves into other parts of the World upon the same account 2. If it be so grateful a Charity and deserving so solemn an Acknowledgment the kind Entertainment our Subjects have found in other Parts when not suffered to live in their own Land upon the account of Conscience doubtless it is a greater Charity to be so indulgent to our own as not by Severity to enforce them for Conscience to become Strangers in other Countries 3. And for Matter of Trade Advantages have been great by encouraging those Strangers but the Disadvantages in the same kind far greater by the late Severity by which our own Subjects have been so greatly discouraged not only those Hands hang down that were most industrious in holding up the staple Trade of the Nation but by reason of Artificers removing into other Parts for their Consciences the Mysteries of our chiefest Manufactures have been made common and others therein become equal if not exceed us A great sense hereof his Majesty hath expressed in his Gracious Declaration Object If it be said These be Strangers Objects of Charity being driven out of their own Country understood not our Language they were Educated and accustomed to other Forms of Discipline and Worship Answ 1. It 's true the first Grant of this Liberty was to such but in process of Time these Churches were increased and spread throughout the Nation and this Grant being confirmed by Q. Eliz. K. James and K. Charles I. to their Children English born and born Subjects of this Realm they had the same Liberty granted them as formerly was mentioned insomuch as the Persons now enjoying this Liberty are his Majesty's Native Subjects Answ 2. The greatest number of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects that have benefit by his Gracious Indulgence since they have had understanding have been trained up in and been acquainted with no other Forms of Discipline and Worship than what was found amongst us at his Majesty's return the other formerly establish'd having been for many Years totally disused King James himself being educated under other Forms when he came into England scrupled many Things in our Liturgy and Rubricks Conference at Hampt Court. Finally It is now more than a Century of Years wherein these Churches have enjoyed this Indulgence there hath been much peace and quiet among themselves following their Callings without disturbance neighbourly and friendly Converse with those that are of different Perswasions in Matters of Religion No Disputings or Reasonings about it no Judging or Despising experience hereof we have beyond denial in London Norwich Canterbury c. where diversity of practices in the Forms of Discipline and Worship are constantly held forth in the view of all Men for so many Years And why should not we expect the like peaceable and inoffensive Converse mutually between those that now enjoy the like Liberty from this Gracious Declaration and others of our Brethren whose practice is otherwise The Lord who hath put this into the Heart of the King may put it also into the Hearts of our Senators to be like-minded with him And as his Majesty hath condescended to them in their way for the space of these twelve Years as he tells them so it is to be desired that they if it may stand with their great Prudence would concur with him but half so long in the way himself hath chosen for the Peace and Union of his Subjects in Matters of Religious Worship or at least until there be the like evident Experiments of the Ineffectualness of it FINIS The same Author hath published a Book intituled The Lawfulness of the Oath of Supremacy and the Power of the King in Ecclesiastical Affairs c. With a Vindication of Dissenters proving That their particular Congregations are not inconsistent with the King's Supremacy With some account of the Nature Constitution and Power of the Ecclesiastical Courts Sold by Jo. Robinson and Sam. Crouch