they have all had the effect of it, except such who, upon examination and inquiry, appeared not worthy of it; and such who, though they are pardoned, cannot yet think themselves worthy to be preferred. His majesty well knows that, by this Act, he hath gratified and obliged many worthy and pious men, who have contributed much to his Restoration, and who shall always receive fresh evidence of his majesty's favour and kindness; but he is not sure that he may not likewise have gratified some, who did neither contribute to his coming in, nor are yet glad that he is in: how comes it else to pass, that he reSermons in the city and in the country, in which all industry is used to alienate the affections of the people, and to infuse jealousies into them of the king and his government. They talk of introducing Popery, of evil coun pardon, the poor man was so elated with the triumph he was going unto, with the Glory of Martyrdom, that he refused to be reconciled unto him; upon which he was disappointed of his end, and for this uncharitableness the spirit of God immediately forsook him, and he apostatized from the faith.-Let all those who are too proud of having been, as they think, less faulty than other men, and so are unwilling to be reconciled to those who have offended them, take heed of the apostacy of Nicephorus, and that those fumes of envy and uncharitableness, and murmuring, do not so far transport and intoxicate them, that they fall into those very crimes they value them-ceives such frequent information of seditious selves for having hitherto declined.--But, my lords and gentlemen, whilst we conspire together to execute faithfully this part of the Bill, to put all old names and terms of distinction into utter Oblivion, let us not find new names and terms to keep up the same, or a worse dis-sellors, and such other old calumnies as are tinction. If the old reproaches of Cavalier, and Round-Head, and Malignant, be committed to the grave, let us not find more significant and better words, to signify worse things; let not piety and godliness grow into terms of reproach, and distinguish between the court, and the city, and the country; and let not piety and godliness be measured by a morosity in manners, an affectation of gesture, a new mode and tone of speaking; at least, let not our constitutions and complexions make us be thought of a contrary party; and because we have not an affected austerity in our looks, that we have not piety in our hearts. Very merry men have been very godly men; and if a good conscience be a continual feast, there is no reason but men may be very merry at it. You, Mr. Speaker, have this day made a noble present to the king. Do you think that if you and your worthy companions had brought it up with folded arms, down-cast looks, with sighs and other instances of desperation, it would not have been a very melancholic present? Have not your frank and dutiful expressions, that chearfulness and vivacity in your looks, rendered it much more acceptable, much more valuable? No prince in christendom loves a chearful giver so well as God Almighty does; and he, of all gifts, a chearful heart. And therefore. I pray, let not a cloudy and disconsolate face be the only or the best sign of piety and devotion in the heart.-I For their riches were more than that they must ask your pardon for misplacing much of might dwell together, and the land wherein this discourse, which I should have mentioned they were could not bear them, because of when I came to speak of the Ministers Bill; their cattle.' We have been ourselves very they, I hope, will endeavour to remove these near this pinnacle of happiness, and the hope new marks of distinction and reproaches, and contemplation that we may be so again, disand keep their auditories from being imposes the king to be very solicitous for the posed upon by such characters and descriptions. The king hath passed this Act very willingly, and hath done much to the end of this act before; yet hath willingly admitted you to be sharers and partners with him in the obligation. I may say, confidently, his majesty hath never denied his confirmation to any man in possession who hath asked it; and pardoned by this Act of Indemnity.-His majesty told you when he was last here, what rigour and severity he will hereafter use, how contrary soever it is to his nature, in these cases, and conjured you, my lords and gentlemen, to concur with him in this just and necessary severity: which I am sure you will do with your utmost vigilance, and that you will believe that too much ill cannot befall those who do the best they can to corrupt his majesty's nature, and to extinguish his mercy.-My Lords and Gentlemen; I told you I was to acquaint you with some things his majesty intends to do during this recess, that you may see be will give no intermission to his own thoughts for the public good, though for a time he dispenses with your assistance. He doth consider the infinite importance the improvement of Trade must be to this kingdom, and therefore his majesty intends, forthwith, to establish a Council for Trade, consisting of some principal merchants of the several Companies, to which he will add some gentlemen of quality and experience; and, for their greater honour and encouragement, some of my lords of his own privy council.-In the next place, his majesty hopes that, by a well-settled Peace, and God's great blessing upon him and you, this nation will in a short time flourish to that degree, that the land of Canaan did, when Esau found it necessary to part from his brother. 6 improvement and prosperity of his Plantations abroad, where there is such large room for the industry and reception of such who shall desire to go thither. And therefore his majesty likewise intends to erect and establish a Council for those Plantations, in which persons, well qualified, shall be wholly intent upon the good and advancement of those plantations.-There are two other particulars which I am commanded to mention, which were both mentioned and recommended to you by his majesty, in his Declaration from Breda: the one for the Confirmation of Sales, or other recompence for Purchasers; the other, for the composing those differences and distempers in Religion, which have too much disturbed the peace of the kingdom. Two very weighty particulars, in which his majesty knows you have spent much time, and concerning which he should have heard from you before this time, if you had not met with great difficulties in the disquisition of either.-For the first; his majesty hath not been without much thought upon the argument, and hath done much towards the accommodation of many particular persons; and you shall not be at your journey's end, before his majesty will put that business, concerning Sales, into such a way of dispatch, that he doubts not you will find a good progress made in it before your coming together again; and I believe the persons concerned will be very much to blame, if they receive not good satisfaction. And some of you who stay in town shall be advised and consulted with in that settlement.-The other, of Religion, is a sad argument indeed. It is a consideration that must make every religious heart to bleed, to see Religion, which should be the strongest obligation and cement of affection, and brotherly-kindness and compassion, made now, by the perverse wranglings of passionate and froward men, the ground of all animosity, hatred, malice, and revenge. And this unruly and unmanly passion (which no question the divine nature exceedingly abhors) sometimes, and I fear too frequently, transports those who are in the right, as well as those who are in the wrong, and leaves the latter more excusable than the former, when men, who find their manners and dispositions very conformable in all the necessary obligations of human nature, avoid one another's conversation, and grow first unsociable, and then uncharitable to each other, because one cannot think as the other doth. And from this separation we intitle God to the patronage "During the recess of parliament, the of, and concernment in, our fancies and dis-object, which chiefly interested the public, was tinction, and purely for his sake hate one another heartily. It was not so of old, when one of the most antient Fathers of the church tells us, That love and charity was so signal and eminent in the Primitive Christians, that it even drew admiration and envy from their adversaries. Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligunt! Their adversaries in that in which they most agreed, in their very prosecution of them, had their passions and animosities amongst themselves: they were only Christians that loved, and cherished, and comforted, and were ready to die for one another; quid nunc illi dicerent Christiani, si nostra viderent tempora? says the incomparable Grotius. How would they look upon our sharp and virulent contentions in the debates of Christian Religion, and the bloody wars that have pro ceeded from those contentions, whilst every one pretended to all the marks which are to attend upon the true Church, except only that which is inseparable from it, charity to one another.-My Lords and Gentlemen, This disquisition hath cost the king many a sigh, many a sad hour, when he hath considered the almost irreparable reproach the Protestant Religion hath undergone, from the divisions and distractions which have been so notorious within this kingdom. What pains he hath taken to compose them, after several discourses with learned and pious men of different persuasions, you will shortly see by a Declaration he will publish upon that occasion; by which you will see his great indulgence to those who can have any protection from conscience to differ with their brethren. And I hope God will so bless the candour of his majesty in the condescensions he makes, that the Church, as well as the State, will return to that unity and unanimity which will make both king and people as happy as they can hope to be in this world.-My Lords and Gentlemen, I shall conclude with the king's hearty thanks to you not only for what you have done towards him, which hath been very signal; but for what you have done towards each other; for the excellent correspondence you have maintained; for the very seasonable deference and condescension you have had for each other, which will restore parliaments to the veneration they ought to have. And since his majesty knows that you all desire to please him, you have given him ample evidence that you do so; he hath appointed me to give you a sure receipt to attain that good end; it is a receipt of his own prescribing, and therefore is not like to fail: be but pleased yourselves, and persuade others to be so; contrive all the ways imaginable for your own happiness, and you will make him the best pleased, and the most happy prince in the world." VOL. IV. The Lord Chancellor having concluded his Speech, both houses adjourned to the 6th of November.* the trial and condemnation of the Regicides. The general indignation attending the enormous crime of which these men had been guilty, made their sufferings the subject of joy to the people: but in the peculiar circumstances of that action, in the prejudices of the times, as well as in the behaviour of the criminals, a mind, seasoned with humanity, will find a plentiful source of compassion and indulgence. Can any one, without concern for human blindness and ignorance, consider the demeanor of general Harrison, who was first brought to trial? With great courage and elevation of sentiment, he told the court, that the pretended crime, of which he stood accused, was not a deed performed in a corner: the sound of it had gone forth to most nations; and in the singular and marvellous conduct of it had chiefly K ration: "His Majesty's DECLARATION to all his loving Subjects of his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs. The King's Declaration concerning Ecclesi- | pose somewhat for the propagation of it, that astical Affairs.] During the recess of parlia- will satisfy the world, that we have always ment, the king issued the following Decla- made it both our care and our study, and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it. And, the truth is, we do think ourself the more competent to propose, and, with God's assistance, to determine, many things now in difference, from the time we have spent, and the experience we have had, in most of the Reformed Churches abroad, in France, in the Low Countries, and in Ger nany; where we have had frequent conferences with the most learned men, who have unanimously lamented the great reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the distempers and too notorious schisms in matters of Religion in England: and as the most learned amongst them have always, with great submis sion and reverence, acknowledged and magni "C. R. How much the peace of the State is concerned in the peace of the Church, and how difficult a thing it is to preserve order and government in Civil, whilst there is no order or government in Ecclesiastical affairs, is evident to the world; and this little part of the world, our own dominions, bath had so late experience of it, that we may very well acquiesce in the conclusion, without enlarging ourself in discourse upon it, it being a subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon, and to lament abroad, as well as at home.--fied the established government of the Church In our Letter to the Speaker of the house of commons from Breda (p. 17), we declared how much we desired the advancement and propagation of the Protestant Religion: that neither the unkindness of those of the same faith towards us, nor the civilities and obligations from those of a contrary profession (of both which we have had abundant evidence) could, in the least degree, startle us, or make us swerve from it; and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our zeal and affection for it, to which we will not readily consent and we said then, That we did hope, in due time, ourself to pro | of England, and the great countenance and shelter the Protestant Religion received from it, before these unhappy times; so many of them have, with great ingenuity and sorrow, confessed, that they were too easily misled by misinformation and prejudice, into some disesteem of it, as if it had too much complied with the church of Rome; whereas, they now acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the world and we are persuaded they do, with great zeal, wish it restored to its old dignity and veneration. When we were in Holland, we were He supported the same spirit upon his trial.- appeared the sovereign power of heaven. That he himself, agitated by doubts, had often, with passionate tears, offered up his addresses to saving to our Lord Jesus Christ his right to the divine majesty, and earnestly sought for the government of these kingdoms.' Some light and conviction: he had still received as- scrupled to say, according to form, that they surance of a heavenly sanction, and returned would be tried by God and their country; be from these devout supplications with more se- cause God was not visibly present to judge rene tranquillity and satisfaction. That all the them. Others said, that they would be tried nations of the earth were, in the eyes of their by the word of God.—No more than six of the Creator, less than a drop of water in the late king's judges, Harrison, Scot, Carew, Clebucket; nor were their erroneous judgments ment, Jones, and Scrope, were executed: aught but darkness, compared with divine il- Scrope alone, of all those who came in upon luminations. That these frequent illapses of the king's proclamation. He was a gentleman the divine spirit he could not suspect to he in- of good family and of a decent character: but terested illusions; since he was conscious, that it was proved, that he had a little before, in for no temporal advantage, would he offer in- conversation, expressed himself as if he were jury to the poorest man or woman that trod no-wise convinced of any guilt in condemning upon the earth. That all the allurements of the king. Axtel, who had guarded the high ambition, all the terrors of imprisonment, had court of justice, Hacker, who commanded on not been able, during the usurpation of Crom-the day of the king's execution, Coke, the sowell, to shake his steady resolution, or bend him to a compliance with that deceitful tyrant. And that when invited by him to sit on the right hand of the throne, when offered riches and splendour and dominion, he had disdainedly rejected all temptations; aud neglecting the tears of his friends and family, had still, through every danger, held fast his principles and his integrity. Scot, who was more a republican than a fanatic, had said a little before the Restoration, that he desired no other epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb-stone than this; Here lies Tho. Scot, who adjudged the king to death.'. | licitor for the people of England, and Hugh Peters, the fanatical preacher, who inflamed the army and impelled them to regicide: all these were tried, and condemned, and suffered with the king's judges. No saint or confessor ever went to martyrdom with more assured confidence of heaven than was expressed hy those criminals, even when the terrors of immediate death, joined to many indignities, were set before them. The rest of the king's judges, by an unexampled lenity, were reprieved; and they were dispersed into several prisons." Hume. attended by many grave and learned ministers from hence, who were looked upon as the most able and principal asserters of the Presbyterian opinions, with whom we had as much conference, as the multitude of affairs, which were then upon us, would permit us to have; and, to our great satisfaction and comfort, found them persons full of affection to us, of zeal for the peace of the Church and State, and neither enemies (as they have been given out to be) to Episcopacy or Liturgy; but modestly to desire such alterations in either, as, without shaking foundations, night best allay the present distempers, which the indisposition of the time, and the tenderness of some men's consciences, had contracted: for the better doing whereof, we did intend, upon our first arrival in this kingdom, to call a Synod of Divines, as the most proper expedient to provide a proper remedy for all those differences and dissatisfactions which had, or should arise in matters of Religion; and, in the mean time, we published, in our Declaration from Breda, a liberty to tender consciences; and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matter 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 offered to us for the full granting of that indulgence. Whilst we continued in this temper of mind and resolution, and have so far complied with the persuasion of particular persons, and the distemper of the times, as to be contented with the exercise of our religion in our own chapel, according to the constant practice and laws established, without enjoining that practice, and the observation of those laws, in the churches of the kingdom, in which we have undergone the censure of many, as if we were without that zeal for the church which we ought to have, and which by God's grace, we shall always retain, we have found ourself not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved; and that there are unquiet and restless spirits, who, without abating any of their own distemper, in recompence of the moderation they find in us, continue their bitterness against the church, and endeavour to raise jealousies of us, and to lessen our reputation by their reproaches, as if we were not true to the professions we have made. And, in order thereunto, they have very unscasonably caused to be printed, published, and dispersed throughout the kingdom, a Declaration heretofore printed in our name, during the time of our being in Scotland, of which we shall say no more than that the circumstances, by which we were enforced to sign that Declaration, are enough known to the world; and that the worthiest and greatest part of that nation did even then detest and abhor the ill usage of us in that particular, when the same tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill men, which, at that time, had spread itself over this kingdom; and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should, at this season, when we are doing all we can to wipe out the memory of all that hath been done amiss by other men, and, we thank God, have wiped it out of our own remembrance, have been ourself assaulted with those reproaches, which we will likewise forget.-Since the printing this Declaration, several seditious Pamphlets and Queries have been published and scattered abroad, to infuse dislike and jealousies into the hearts of the people, and of the army; and some, who ought rather to have repented the former mischief they have wrought, than to have endeavoured to improve it, have had the hardiness to publish, That the doctrine of the Church, against which no man with whom we have conferred hath excepted, ought to be reformed as well as the discipline. This over-passionate and turbulent way of proceeding, and the impatience we find in many for some speedy determination in these matters, whereby the minds of men may be composed, and the peace of the Church established, hath prevailed with us to invert the method we had proposed to ourself, and even, in order to the better calling and composing of a Synod (which the present jealousies will hardly agree upon) by the assistance of God's blessed spirit, which we daily invoke and supplicate, to give some determination ourself to the matters in difference, until such a Synod may be called as may, without passion or prejudice, give us such farther assistance towards a perfect union of affections, as well as subinission to authority, as is necessary and we are the rather induced to take this upon us, by finding, upon the full conference we have bad with the learned men of several persuasions, that the mischiefs, under which both the Church and State do at present suffer, do not result from any formed doctrine or conclusion which either party maintains or avows; but from the passion, appetite, and interest of particular persous, who contract greater prejudice to each other from those affections, than would naturally rise from their opinions; and those distempers must be in some degree allayed, before the meeting in a Synod can be attended with better success than their meeting in other places, and their discourses in pulpits have hitherto been; and till all thoughts of victory are laid aside, the humble and necessary thoughts for the vindication of truth cannot be enough entertained.— We must, for the honour of all those of either persuasion with whom we have conferred, declare, That the professions and desires of all, for the advancement of piety and true godliness, are the same; their professions of zeal for the peace of the church, the same; of affection and duty to us, the same: they all approve Episcopacy; they all approve a set Form of Liturgy; and they all disapprove and dislike the sin of sacrilege, and the alienation of the revenue of the Church. And if upon these excellent foundations, in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections, any superstructures should be raised, to the shaking those foundations, and to the contract ing and lessening the blessed gift of charity, which is a vital part of Christian religion, we shall think ourself very unfortunate, and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of government with which God hath entrusted us. We need not profess the high affection and esteem we have for the Church of England, as it is established by law, the reverence to which hath supported us, with God's blessing, against many temptations; nor do we think that reverence in the least degree diminished by our condescensions, not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony; which, however introduced by the piety, devotion, and order of former times, may not be so agreeable to the present; but may even lessen that piety and devotion, for the improvement whereof they might haply be first introduced, and consequently may well be dispensed with and we hope this charitable compliance of ours will dispose the minds of all men to a chearful submission to that authority, the preservation whereof is so necessary for the unity and peace of the Church, and that they will acknowledge the support of the Episcopal authority to be the best support of Religion, by being the best means to contain the minds of men within the rules of government. And they who would restrain the exercise of that holy function within the rules which were observed in the primitive times, must remember and consider, that the ecclesiastical power, being in those blessed times always subordinate and subject to the civil, it was likewise proportioned to such an extent of jurisdiction as was most agreeable to that. And as the sanctity, simplicity, and resignation of that age, did then refer many things to the Bishops, which the policy of succeeding ages would not admit, at least did otherwise provide for; so it can be no reproach to primitive Episcopacy, if, where there have been great alterations in the civil government from what was then, there have been likewise some difference and alteration in the ecclesiastical, the essence and foundation being still preserved. And upon this ground, without taking upon us to censure the government of the church in other countries, where the government of the state is different from what it is here, or enlarging ourself upon the reasons why, whilst there was an imagination of erecting a democratical government here in the state, they should be willing to continue an aristocratical government in the church; it shall suffice to say, that since, by the wonderful blessing of God, the hearts of this whole nation are returned to an obedience to monarchial government in the state, it must be very reasonable to support that government in the church which is established by law, and with which the monarchy hath flourished through so many ages, and which is in truth as antient in this island as the Christian monarchy thereof; and which hath always, in some respects or degrees, been enlarged or restrained, as hath been thought most conducing to the peace and hap piness of the kingdom: and therefore we have not the least doubt but that the present Bishops will think the present concessions, now made by us to allay the present distempers, very just and reasonable, and will very chearfully conform themselves thereunto.-1. We do in the first place declare our purpose and resolution is, and shall be, to promote the power of godliness, to encourage the exercises of Religion both public and private, and to take care that the Lord's Day be applied to holy exercises, without unnecessary divertisements; and that insufficient, negligent, and scandalous ministers, be not permitted in the Church. And that as the present Bishops are known to be men of great and exemplary piety in their lives, which they have manifested in their notorious and unexampled sufferings during these late distempers, and of great and known sufficiency of learning; so we shall take special care, by the assistance of God, to prefer no men to that office and charge, but men of learning, virtue, and piety, who may be themselves the best examples to those who are to be governed by them; and we shall expect, and provide the best we can, that the Bishops be frequent preachers, and that they do very often preach themselves in some church of their diocese, except they be hindered by sickness or other bodily infirmities, or some other justifiable occasion; which shall not be thought justifiable if it be frequent.-2. Because the Dioceses, especially some of them, are thought to be of too large extent, we will appoint such a number of Suffragan Bishops in every diocese, as shall be sufficient for the due performance of their work.-3. No Bishop shall ordain, or exercise any part of jurisdiction, which appertains to the censures of the Church, without the advice and assistance of the presbyters; and no chancellor, commissary, or official, as such, shall exercise any act of spiritual jurisdiction in these cases, viz. excommunication, absolution, or wherein any of the ministry are concerned, with reference to their pastoral charge. However, our intent and meaning is, to uphold and maintain the profession of the civil law, so far, and in such matters, as it hath been of use and practice within our kingdoms and dominions: albeit, as to excommunication, our will and pleasure is, That no chancellor, commissary, or official, shall decree any sentence of excommunication or absolution, or be judges in those things wherein any of the ministry are concerned, as is aforesaid. Nor shall the archdeacon exercise any jurisdiction without the advice and assistance of six ministers of his archdeaconry, whereof 3 to be nominated by the bishop, and 3 by the election of the major part of the presbyters within the archdeaconry.-4. To the end that the Deans and Chapters may be the better fitted to afford counsel and assistance to the bishops, both in ordination and the other offices mentioned before, we will take care that those preferments be given to the most learned and pious presbyters of the diocese; |