be discovered by this indiscriminating Severity that is who are Dissenters upon Principles of Conscience and who of them so pretending are notwithstanding of a Seditious Spirit These can never be distinguished one from the other when Dissenters and such as conform not be it upon what ground soever are all of them equally branded with the same mark of disloyalty and so represented to His Majesty and all the Nation There is a necessity that this Pretence of Conscience be removed and Seditious Persons discovered and left to condign Punishment and others these stumbling-blocks being removed may by their peaceable Obedience to all other His Majesty's Lawes justifie and vindicate their Integrity which can no ways be done while the Righteous are thus condemned with the Wicked and no relaxing those Lawes which shut up all both Guilty and Innocent under the same Condemnation His Majesty who hath had a clear prospect all along of these things and thence publickly declared his avowed readiness in that Proclamation of 10 July 1669. and otherwise to indulge tender Consciences hath upon these afore-mentioned and the like weighty Considerations been necessitated to Publish this his Gracious DECLARATION of March 15. 1672. where he hath fully performed his Promise made at Breda and so often repeated Thus His Majesty as a Wife and Prudent Prince whose Station is fixed in an higher Orb like the Sun exhaling and consuming or serving to refresh and to shew the dark Foggs and Mists here beneath hath by the Light and Liberty shining forth from his gracious Indulgence refreshed multitudes of his good Subjects and delivered them from the dark misapprehensions of others Nor is this their great relief in any thing prejudicial either to the Estates or Liberties of men otherwise minded nor are such men abridged in any of their concerns Spiritual or Temporal hereby His Majesty hath made sufficient Provision for the satisfying their Consciences in a careful continuing those Ceremonies and Forms of Worship they have been accustomed to Let it not be grievous or offensive to them that their Brethren have obtained from His Majesty in respect to their Consciences the like favour Quest Since these Ecclesiastical Lawes of Restraint were Enacted by Parliament the King giving his Royal Assent had it not been convenient if His Majesty had so pleased that the dispensing with these Lawes had been by Parliament Answ 1 The King and Princes of this Realm His Majesty's Predecessors did Establish many Things and Orders by Parliament relating to Ecclesiastical Matters but did yet nevertheless often exercise their own Power in dispensing with the Penalties at least of such Lawes A constant acting with others in the exerting hereof might tho no Prescription against the King yet introduce at least into the Minds of Men a kind of Suspicion especially in the Vulgar that such Proceedings of the Supream Majesty by his sole Power to be an assuming an Arbitrary Government 2. The Parliament did still continue in this their former Opinion and first Judgment namely That a way of Severity was the only means to settle Peace and Unity They had newly passed the Act for Uniformity without any abatement of what was offensive by reason whereof arose that general Discontent which before we have mentioned His Majesty being sensible hereof did by that Declaration of Decemb. 26. move a second time That an Act might be prepared c. not doubting their chearful co-operation with him being a Matter wherein he conceived himself so much engaged both in Point of Honour and in what he oweth to the Peace of his Kingdoms which we profess saith he we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the malitious and disaffectionate to inflame the minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with despair of ever obtaining any effect of our Promise for their Ease The House returns this Answer We your Majesty's Loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several Parts and Places of your Kingdom for which we were chosen do humbly offer to your Majesty's great Wisdom That it is in no sort adviseable that there be any Indulgence to such Persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Vniformity and the Religion Established for these Reasons c. whereof this is one It will in no wise become the graver Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Vniformity and at the next Session the reason of Vniformity continuing still the same to Pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the Execution of the former So that now His Majesty had no other Remedy but either 1. To retreat 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 Thanks to him and Blessed the Name of the Lord who put such reconciling thoughts into the heart of the King. And he himself likewise owned an especial Blessing from God upon his Affairs after he had expressed that intention 2. Of 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 consent to the breach of that solemn Promise 3. Or leave the Nation under greater Distractions and Sufferings about Religion then he found it And that upon 12 years Experience of other means which extended rather to increase the Distempers 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 withal tho 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 July 8. 1661. yet nothing at any time was done to his Satisfaction in Liberty of Conscience by the Houses being obliged in their Judgments to proceed in the other way CHAP. V. Of former Examples for Indulgences HIS Majesty's Gracious Declaration contains not a greater Indulgence altho 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 an uniform order of Church Government and Divine Service to which not only His majesty's Subjects but all the Inhabitants in His Majesty's Dominions were to conform and no man to absent himself And were enjoyned not to hear or be present at any other Forms of Prayers and Administration of Sacraments then what is in that Book prescribed under Penalties of Ecclesiastical Censures Fines to the King Poor of the Parish c. 2. The Dispensation and Exemption was by the SOLE Authority of the Sovereign and stands thus A Liberty to
the same Church differing from it self upon further discoveries A Synod a Parliament may judge such and such things that they who are to submit may sincerely scruple and stick at as Sin. If Churches and Men heavenly enlightned are thus exposed to vary in their apprehensions we cannot be confident of any Councel or Assembly made up of the most Wise and Prudent Men. Parliaments are chosen by the votes of the promiscuous multitudes in respect we would hope to their sufficiency in managing our Civil and Temporal concernments but as to their Skill and Ability to discern and judge of such matters appertaining to Order in the Service and Worship of God all men have not this Knowledge this is little or not at all attended by those that Elect them by reason whereof Matters wherein mens Consciences are concerned are not at all times carried by those who are most Conscientious in that Assembly who are not alwayes the Major part yet notwithstanding are required in their Consciences to assent and consent to such Determinations being made although possibly near one half in number dissented in the passing of them and it is unavoidable in all and the best Assemblies that are chosen by the general suffrage of a Nation Again These matters of Ceremony and external Order are sometimes managed in part with respect to a Party different in their apprehensions and who thereupon form these Lawes with respect to Prudence as well as Conscience In our first Reformation it was said such Superstitions are taken away aâ—time would serve quietly to do it and many things were left remaining in our Liturgy which otherwise would have been removed in compliance with that form of divine Service used-before by the Papists that they may not be provoked but rather won thereby to our Religion Womens Baptizing was continued in our Liturgy saith the Bishop of Winchester else the Book would not have passed the House Conf. at Hampton-Court King James was once willing that some Ceremonies giving offence should be removed But the Parliament then sitting thought it not Prudence and our present Sovereign would have done a great matter for the Ease of Tender Consciences as appears by some of the Declarations herein after mentioned but it stood not with the Prudence of this House as they expressed in their Answer without whose concurrence His Majesty thought not fit then to do it 3. From mistaken Principles as that there can be no Vnity without Vniformity that there can be no Discipline in a Church without some Ceremonies of humane Institution that things in Worship indifferent become necessary being imposed by Authority That things in matters of Order that are once established and some time continued in the Church may not with safety be altered These things I offer not to derogate from Parliaments in their manage of such Affairs but upon this serious account only To shew that as our Civil Lawes have made provision that the Church shall not in their Lawes and Canons order any thing against the Prerogative of the King or the Lawes and Statutes of the Realm in general and that such Canons shall not be in force that do 25 Hen. 8.19 So likewise Lawes and Statutes in Ecclesiastical Affairs established by the Civil Power if they be found to derogate from the Prerogative of Christ Jesus or the Lawes and Statutes of his Kingdom ought not to be in force upon mens Consciences As Church-men being supposed not to be so well understood in secular Lawes but may transgress so may secular Persons likewise in their orderings about Church Affairs therefore there is a like necessity of a Power to review Judge and dispense with such Lawes as shall be found to disturb the Consciences of peaceable Subjects as occasion may urge thereunto Hen. 8. by Commission which was continued by Edw. 6. appointed 32 Persons 8 of each Profession to peruse the Canons of the Clergy then in force to the end those might be removed that were any ways against the Crown and State. These Kings might have done the like in respect to those Canons and Ecclesiastical Lawes enacted in Parliament if they were found to derogate from Christ's Commands or his Institutes or if justly offensive to the peaceably Godly that Dispensations might be granted for the present till further Reformation be obtained 3. The Municipal Lawes of a Nation are from and conformed to the Principles of right Reason and common Justice only and we have submitted to the Resolutions of those Wise and Prudent Senators we our selves have made choice of to enact and establish such Lawes for us and therefore may acquiesce in their Determinations without further enquiry having given a kind of absolute pre-consent to such Lawes as shall be enacted by them but it is not so in Ecclesiastical Lawes intrusted with the same Persons for they are to be formed according to God's Word which every man is to take as his immediate Rule and not to do or submit to any thing in his Practice about the Notion of Religion but what is conformable thereunto he is to LIVE and act by his own Faith. To Lawes Ecclesiastical therefore made in Parliament we give only a Conditional Consent viz. So far as they are agreeable to God's Word and concur with Gospel-rules nor is it in the liberty of any man's Conscience or reason to yield more nor is there any more by us intrusted with the Representative the Parliament If a man doth scruple the reasonableness or equity of a Law established concerning Civil right or what is required from such a Statute he may notwithstanding yield Obedience without Sin and ought so to do rather than to offend by any appearance of disobedience as Christ himself did Matth. 17.26 27. But in Matters of Religion even Circumstances Ceremonies or Matters of Order or the least thing wherein the Lord hath concerned his Word if there be a doubt or scruple whether it be lawful and conformable to Scripture tho it be from Ignorance or weakness yet I sin if I submit in practice thereof Rom. 14.21 compared with 2 3. The consequence of Transgression in this kind is more than the loss of Estate Liberties yea of Life it self If Lawes from Superiors concerning Civil right 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 and without transgressing any Law of God nay it is virtue and pleasing to God to shew our patience in such suffering 1 Pet. 2.13 compared with 18 19. 1 Cor. 6 7. but not so in the Matters of Religion for we have it from Christ to the contrary that is not to submit Coloss 2.20 and God blames his People by his Prophets for willingly walking after the Commandments and keeping the Statutes of Omri Hosea 5.12 Micah 6.16 the Lord is a jealous God. 4. If there be not a Power to Judge and Dispense intrusted in some hand the People are in
Declaration When was it known that a Bishop Dean or double beneficed Parson left his Promotion and became Nonconformist and that others that have been bred up to literature at great charge having Gifts and Parts would be so peevish as to refuse them and being thereupon forced to divert from the way of a more free Education to some mean Employment to get a Livelyhood or live upon the Charity of others It is the condition of hundreds this day in England I say can we imagine any men having such Encouragements in their eye and the more desireable from sense of their present indigency would keep off but from integrity of heart His Majesty as a Common Father hath the same Affections for all his good Subjects and never more Prudence and Tenderness manifested by any Prince than he hath done by this gracious Declaration One Party such as conform enjoy their Consciences with special advantages in Temporal things The other they also enjoy their Consciences with freedom from those severe Proceedings and those are satisfied also And now let not any mans eye be evil because His Majesty hath been so good to their Brethren Let me say again that His Majesty hath in tenderness and Prudence done a great work and that which hath lain undone to the disturbance of his good Subjects more or less ever since the Reformation That is in satisfying or laying a sufficient ground for satisfaction to the two great Parties which divided the Kingdom in Matters appertaining to Religion that is in the Forms and Ceremonies of Worship In the Profession of Faith and Articles of Religion according to the Establishment 13º Eliz. there is an Vnion in the acknowledgment of both Parties And this without the least detriment or just prejudice of either Party those that conform enjoy their Consciences imploy their Talents and reap the Encouragements of the established Government without any loss or detriment to those that conform not and this Party enjoy their Consciences freedom from Suffering and a liberty to follow their Callings without the least damage to the Conformist Quest Is there any necessity His Majesty should exert a sole Power in Affairs of Religion when the Peace and Vnity of the Nation was herein undertaken by his Parliament and many things endeavoured that way by them and purposes its likely of a further progress therein Answ For answer it will be necessary to insert here briefly a Narrative of some passages of his Majesty and his Parliament in these Proceedings His Majesty observing how Affairs stood here in this Kingdom and the Distractions that were upon mens Minds about Religion and Forms of Worship and considering there are but two ways supposed ordinarily to reduce a People again to Peace and Unity in Religion 1. Either by Severity to discourage or extirpate Or 2. By Lenity and Indulgence to bear with Dissenters His Majesty considering those forms and ways of Worship to which Conformity is now required have not only been much scrupled and contended against by Learned and Sober men from the beginning ever since the first Reformation but of late utterly disfavoured by a Representative of the Nation and a Synod of Learned Men And that different practices in the Service and Worship of God had been formerly Patroniz'd and incouraged and such that were no other but what were received and observed in the best reformed Churches abroad and by the Dutch and French Churches here at home upon these and the like Considerations His Majesty chose upon great Deliberation the way of Indulgence it being also most suitable to his Conscience and sweetness of his nature This his Resolution he professed to all the World and engaged himself by Promise to his People he would endeavour the effecting thereof which is more than evident in the many Declarations he made hereof and repeated again upon all occasions He was pleased in a Declaration from Breda to assure a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And in his Speech July 17. 1660. He professeth that he owes his being here to God's Blessing upon the Intentions and Resolutions he had and expressed in that Declaration This Declaration His Majesty afterwards terms a Promise solemnly made This solemn Declaration or Promise is so much upon his Royal heart that he tells both Houses July 8. 1661. That so oft as he comes to them he mentions his Declaration from Breda that himself as well as they might mind it In His Majesty's Declaration of Decemb. 26 1662. He tells us That he remembred the very words of the Promises made at Breda concerning Liberty of Conscience and the Confirmations he hath made of them since upon several occasions and as all these things are fresh in his Memory so he is still firm in the resolution of performing them to the full Feb. 10. 1661. In a Speech to both Houses One thing more I hold my self obliged to recommend unto you at this present which is that you would seriously think on some course to beget a better Vnion and Composure in the Minds of my Protestant Subjects in Matters of Religion whereby they may be induced to submit quietly to the Government and most faithfully give their assistance to the support of it His Majesty did not only express his purposes for the Ease of tender Consciences but from time to time endeavoured it And first of all By a Declaration of the 25 Octob. 1660. To all his Loving Subjects of England and Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs which mentioning that from Breda DISPENSETH with the use of divers Ceremonies formerly enjoyned that were offensive March 25. following he gave Commission to certain learned Divines to meet at the Savoy and take the Service-Book under Consideration to the same purpose May 11. 1661. he frees from their Imprisonment such as suffered for Conscience The King and His Parliament happily joyned in the same Pious End Peace and Union yet differed in their apprehensions of the means to procure it which was our great unhappiness The Parliament judged the reducing or rooting out differences by severe Penalties to be the means of Vnity in the Church as they tell His Majesty in answer to his Declaration pressing the asserting of the Lawes and Religion established according to the Act of Vniformity as the more probable means to produce a setled Peace and Obedience throughout the Kingdom The Parliament supposing and possibly some of them perswaded thereof from those who never would distinguish between Non-conformity and Sedition the dissent of Nonconformists from the present Establishment to be rather from a Spirit of Faction and Disloyalty than tenderness of Conscience proceeded accordingly The Act of Vniformity was renewed and the Service-Book enjoyned with no alteration of what was formerly offensive in it but some Expressions of greater difficulty to be digested by those that were tender and nothing
is not then to dispense with the Penalties in Ecclesiastical Lawes too great a trust to be reposed in any one hand In Answer I shall endeavour something to unfold 1. In what sense Religion is the Concern of a Nation 2. The Nature of this Trust 1. How much Religion c. The moment and 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 absolutely but not in respect to the support of present life The knowledge 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 Considerations as to the faculty of a particular Person to Community of men for the advance of Civil Affairs there are other qualifications and inducements of greater Consequence and more directly and immediately 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 attended in their actings by a natural Conscience 2. Gospel Duties directed and ordered by a supernatural light no footsteps or Principles whereof are found in us For the former Religion in that first sense as the Knowledge of God Conscience of an Oath Justice and Righteousness in our dealings c. are such things wherein the well-being of Kingdoms and Commonwealth is much concerned But Religion as it stands in exerting supernatural Principles and in Duties termed the Commands of Christ as the other the Commands of God Jo. 15. such 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 then 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 immediately concern the Commonwealth so the Lawes thereof are principally drawn forth out of them especially Second-table Duties forming and moulding them into municipal Lawes under Penalties and incouragements greater or less as in the Wisdom of a State is judged most conducing to the welfare thereof For these Gospel-Mysteries 't is otherwise for as they contribute not 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 the Glory Bishop Bilson states it well Princes saith he command that which Chaist the Sovereign Lord and Head of the Church commands which is all the Power we give to Princes Supremacy pag. 227. And in the Page before By Governors in Ecclesiastical Matters we do not mean Moderators Prescribers c. but 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 had been prosperous and flourishing and yet no Christ no Faith Repentance nor any Gospel-Worship known or practised and since the fall you have had well-governed Kingdoms and States among Turks Heathens that never received Christ or Gospel-Worship It is with States as it is with particular persons in Commerce another man's Estate or Trade or Credit or any other Civil concern with whom I have to do is not prejudiced or bettered by omission or practice of what is a meer Gospel-Duty If a man I deal with be unjust ly steal c. my worldly interest is prejudiced hereby but whether he repent for this or exercise Faith on Christ for forgiveness and humble himself I am neither gainer nor loser in my Civil concern Now it is Gospel-Worship and Gospel-Religion we profess in this Nation If then the Duties themselves performed are of no greater onsequence 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 or detriment to our State-Concernments in this or that particular external form of Worship or Government that one should be retained by us with so much Zeal and Contention and from an alteration whereof we should be so much deterred 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 States where these have altogether been disallowed Nor is this any dishonour to the Gospel more than to the Kingdom of Christ when it was said not to be of this World or to his Person or Officers that they contribute no more to the settling of Civil Rights and Interests Luke 12.13 or to Gospel-Weapons which being Spiritual and not Carnal have no edge to cut off mens Liberties Estates or Lives 2. The Nature of this Trust The Lawes and Institutes by which these Ecclesiastical Matters are to be managed are appointed and established for substance by the Wisdom and Authority of that one Law-giver Christ Jesus The Application of these Lawes in respect of Circumstances for the well and comfortable enjoying Gospel Ordinances is all that any Humane Wisdom hath to do in them the trust whereof may be placed in the hand of a Wife and Prudent Prince Again there is Liberty of an after-Judgement to be made by him that is to practise in whatever is in the concerns of Religion commanded by men Thence such Lawes require not such simple and peremptory obedience if conformable to those rules required in the Word Obedience thereunto is with respect unto God as well as Man if otherwise that then ought to be left to the Subject which the Apostles claimed Acts 5.29 Now altho Matters of Religion and the Concernment of it be great things considered in it self and accordingly is the trust yet what of it falleth under the hand of a Civil Power is neither in it self nor in its trust so great Because the greatness of this trust sticks generally in mens minds especially when in the disposal thereof it depends upon the will of one man to remove this or the like stumbling block we will suppose failings in the management of the trust as great as rationally can be imagined 1. Suppose his Majesty should refufe either by himself or Parliament to enjoyn any thing of Ceremony or Circumstance about these Externals in the Worship and Service of God. Or 2. Suppose he should dispense with all Injunctions and leave the People of God to a full Liberty in the observance of them and call these high defects and failings in