AFter a long debate with my Self, and many weary Mi­nutes spent in hearing the Argument under Considera­tion, banded Pro & Contra: I came to this Result, To Examine and Enquire (with all the possible Candor and Inge­nuity I could) into the nature and me­rit of the Cause (so much noised in the World) lately depending between the King and Seven of His Bishops; Delibe­rating upon which, I easily perceived, That thro the Sophistical Insinuations of some Designing men, the Inadver­tency of Others, and the Blind Zeal of an Unreasonable Rabble (that neither can, not desire to distinguish between Truth and Error, in matters Sacred or Civil) many a well-meaning man might be Imposed upon; for which Reason. I conceived it a Duty to Represent to you and the World, an Impartial State of the Case, both Respecting matter of Fact on the one side, and the Right of Pow­er Invested in the Prince, on the other; An Abstract of which, take with all the [Page 2]brevity that so Important a Considera­tion will Admit of: The King appre­hensive that multitudes of His Loving Subjects might be Ignorant of His Royal Inclination to the Establishment of an Universal Liberty of Conscience (in matters meerly Religious) Not­withstanding His Declaration to that purpose had been Published Twelve Months before, thought fit to Re­peat the same, with New and Further Assurances of His Resolutions to Ad­here thereunto; and signified His Royal Pleasure to the Bishops, that they should Order the Reading thereof, by the Clergy of their Respective Diocesses, at the time of Divine Service; to the end, the whole Kingdom might un­derstand His Majesty's Care of, and Clemency to His People in general; Being a design so Heroick, and found­ed upon Principles so Primitively Christian, that (perhaps) no Age can parallel in any Prince, since Christiani­ty hath flourished in the World: How­ever, a Juncto of Seven Bishops, Petion­ed (or rather Remonstrated) to the King, that the Declaration was Illegal, and founded upon such a Dispensing Power as might at Pleasure set aside all Laws: (a heavy Charge) and that it was a point of so great a Consequence they could not make themselves so much Parties to it, as the Reading of it in Churches amounted to: A bitter Pill to be digested, tho an evident and last­ing instance of their implacable Enmity to Liberty of Conscience; how fairly so­ever guilded with plausible and specious Pretences.

The King's Soveraignty thus Ar­raigned, a Pamphlet to that purpose Printed (which some of the Clergy shewed no small disposition to read in the room of the Declaration) the Mobile [...]eadfully possessed with the Popery of Liberty of Conscience, It seemed high time for the King to Vindicate Himself; and therefore the Bishops were Sum­moned to Appear before him in Council, which they did accordingly, and in Con­clusion, owned and stood by the Paper presented to the King; and being Re­quired to enter into a Recognizance to Appear and Answer it at Law; they refused, and were therefore from the Council-Board, Committed to the Tower of London; which it seems they were not a little Ambitious of; for as they pas­sed along, they Proclaimed to the People to stand fast to the Protestant Religion, as if they had been going to Martyrdom for that Cause; an Ingenious way of courting the Rabble to abet their design of promoting the Ruine of two parts in three of all the Protestants in En­gland; by blowing Liberty of Conscience off the Stage at one blast: As much as if they had said, Now good People look to it, Popery is going to be imposed on you; Oppose it even to the Death: An infallible way to deceive the un­thinking Crowd; for in the Language of the Ingenious Hudibras—

A Notion so naturally Swallowed by the hot-headed Herd, that they never consider the Event; till the violent Op­peration (like a dose of Aqua-fortis) rages in their miserable Bowels, to their unexpected Destruction. On the 15th day of June, being the First day of the Term, they were brought to the King's Bench-Bar, by a Hab [...]as Corpus; where after the Councils debare on both Sides, they Entered into a Recognizance, to take their Tryals on the 29th day of the same Month, which accordingly they did; the matter they were Charged with, [Page 3]was, for making and Publishing a False and Seditious Libel: Twelve Gentle­men being Sworn to Try the Issue; after a Long Tryal, they were on Saturday the 30th of June aforesaid, brought in Not Guilty; and the Rude Multitude as well at the Tryal, as Afterwards, were not a little Uncivil, by Hissing, Hooping, & Hollowing; but whether it proceeded from the Church-of-England-Principle of Non-Resistance, I am not able to determine.

One thing I may not Omit, That before the Tryal, it was an undoubt­ed Truth among the Loyal Church-Par­ty, That the Jury were pack'd, made up of Dissenters, and Persons disaffected to the Bishops; and such as if it lay in their way, would hang them, if it were for nothing but their Laun Sleeves: But when they brought them in Not Guilty, they were all Good Men and True, and as clean from Sin, as the Syrian from his Leprosie, after he had been dipt seven times in Jordan.

Having given you a brief Recital of matter of Fact, I will add a few words respecting the Kings Soveraignty; whence it shall be manifest, That He is not only the Civil Head of the State, but the Ecclesiastical Head of the Spirituali­ty, according to the Constitution of the Church-of-England, and de jure Metropo­litan of all England, Scotland, and Ire­land, and may at pleasure, by vertue of his Sacred Function, be concern'd Circa Sacra, about Sacred Affairs; for when the Popes Supremacy and Headship was Beheaded by Henry the Eighth, to the end he might be Divorced from Queen Ka­tharin [...], he obtained a Statute for the cut­ting off all Apeals from Rome; and to enable the Kings Courts Spiritual and Temporal to determine the same, any Forreign Inhibitions, Appeals, Senten­ces, Summons, &c. from the See of Rome, to be no Let or Impediment not­withstanding. 24 Hen. 8.12. That this King Annexed all the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Imperial Crown of this Realm, and the Pope never had greater Authority over the Church, then our Kings are Invested with, by Sundry Acts of Parliament; that which of Old was Papa, is no other now, then our Kings being Pater Patriae.

But doth it not further appear, That at the Coronation of our Kings, they have the Ordination of Clergy-men, as well as the Oath of a King; otherwise what means those significant words used by the Bishop, with Unction, Anthems, Prayers, and Imposition of hands, and the same at the Coronation of the Prince, as at the Ordination of the Prelate, Come Holy Ghost, Eternal God, &c? And among other things, the Bishop says these Words, Let him obtain Favour of the People, (though the Clergy has shew'd him but little of late) Like Aaron in the Tabernacle, Elisha in the Waters, Za­charias in the Temple; Give him Peter's Key of Discipline, and Paul's Doctrine. And in Anointing, the Bishop further saith, Let those Hands be Anointed with Holy Oyl, as Kings and Prophets have been Anointed, and as Samuel. The Arch-Bishop and Dean of Westminster, putting the Coife on the King's Head, and on His Body the Surplice; using this Pray­er, O Lord, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, &c. Yet for all this, His Su­premacy will be no longer allowed, than it runs on all fours, to the utter Extir­pation of all that dissent from our Church; and he must by no means countenance a Toleration, upon Pain of His Soveraignty being called in Questi­on: And if His Majesty insist upon Obe­dience to His Royal Authority, though in a matter, presumed on all hands to be innocent and just in the Sight of God, and good Men: Yet to colour the de­sign of obstructing Liberty of Conscience, it shall bear the ignominious name [Page 4] of Popery and Arbitrary Power; and then our Work is done. And though we stile the King, God's Vice-Gerent, and say, Next unto Thee and Thy Christ, Su­pream Moderator and Governour: If he dispute our pretended Prelatical Prero­gative, the Church Rabble, in spight of passive Obedience, shall be Animated with the dreadful Apprehensions of Fire and Faggot, to commit all sorts of Out­rages; as is evident by the late Ryots, upon Discharge of the Bishops: Aut Cae­sar, aut nihil. The Prelates are resol­ved to be Os & Oraculum, Regis & Rei­publicae; and the Voice of the pretended Loyal Party, is, that the King's dispen▪sing Power is clipp'd, and Liberty of Conscience has received a mortal Wound, and is Breathing its last.

Well, Gentlemen; whilst there is Life there is Hope; the King is still Head both of Church and State; Your own Concessions allow'd him so once; 'tis not Three-pence Difference, if upon change of Circumstances you have chang'd your Opinions; the better part of his Subjects believe it still; and as long as he is invested with a Power to Command, all good men will be ready to obey his Lawful Injunctions; and (perhaps) to your Shame, and the Confusion of all your Intrigues. 'Tis not to be doubted, but he is sensible of the Indignity done to His Person and Government: How­ever, that ought to be left to His own Princely Conduct.

Thus much I presumed would not be unacceptable, of the Transactions of the time, and the Sentiments of