please. No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration, but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us, and against our Church and Religion: others will severely condemn us for it, and censure us as false to our Religion, and as Betrayers both of Church and State: and besides that, it does not become a Minister of Religion, to do any thing, which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused; for what needs an excuse, is either a fault or looks very like one; be∣sides this, I say, I will not trust mens Cha∣rity; those who have suffered themselves in this Cause, will not excuse us for sear of suffering; those who are inclined to excuse us now, will not do so when they consider the thing better, and come to feel the ill consequences of it: when our Enemies open their eyes, and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified, which they will then tell us we cught to have seen before, though they were not bound to see it; for we are to guide and instruct them, not they us.
II. Others therefore think, that when we read the Declaration, we should publickly pro∣fess, that it is not our own Judgment, but that we only Read it in obedience to the King, and then our Reading it cannot imply our Con∣sent to it: Now this is only Protestatio contra factum, which all people will laugh at, and scorn us for: for such a solemn Reading it in the time of Divine Service, when all men ought to be most Grave and Serious, and far from dissembling with God or Men, does in the nature of the thing imply our Approba∣tion; and should we declare the contrary, when we read it, what shall we say to those who ask us, why then do you read it? But let those who have a mind try this way, which, for my part, I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King, than not to read it; and, I suppose those who do not read it, will be thought plainer and honester men, and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it: and yet nothing less than an express Pro∣testation against it will salve this matter; for only to say, they read it meerly in obedi∣ence to the King, does not express their dis∣sent: it signifies indeed, that they would not have read it, if the King had not commanded it; but these words do not signifie, that they disapprove of the Declaration, when their reading it, though only in Obedience to the King, signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent: let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First's Reign, who read the Book of Sports, as it was called, and then preached against it.
To return then to our Argument; if read∣ing the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the Action, in the intention of the Command, in the opinion of the People, an interpretative consent to it, I think my self bound in conscience not to read it, be∣cause I am bound in conscience not to ap∣prove it:
It is against the Constitution of the Church of England, which is Established by Law, and to which I have subscribed, and thefore am bound in Conscience to Teach nothing con∣trary to it, while this Obligation lasts.
It is to Teach an unlimited and universal Toleration, which the Parliament in 72. Declared illegal, and which has been con∣demned by the Christian Church in all Ages:
It is to teach my People, that they need never come to Church more, but have my free leave, as they have the King's, to go to a Conventicle, or to Mass:
It is to teach the dispensing Power, which alters, what has been formerly thought, the whole Constitution of this Church and King∣dom: which we dare not do, till we have the Authority of Parliament for it.
It is to recommend to our People, the choice of such persons to sit in Parliament, as shall take away the Test and Penal-Laws, which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their judgment a∣gainst:
It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country, who for∣feited the dearest thing in the World to them, next a good Conscience, viz. The Fa∣vour of their Prince, and a great many ho∣nourable and profitable Employments with it, rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws, which they ap∣prehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion; and he who can in Conscience do all this, I think need scruple nothing.