A LETTER FROM A Gentleman in Grayes-Inn TO A Justice of the Peace in the Country: EXPLAINING The Act of UNIFORMITY In that part which doth concern UNLICENSED PREACHERS.  
Printed in the Year, 1662.   

A LETTER FROM A Gentleman in Grayes-Inn TO A Justice of the Peace in the Country. Explaining The Act for UNIFORMITY in that part which doth concern Unlicensed Preachers.  
Honoured Sir,  
YOurs of the 20th. instant, I did receive; I am glad to hear of your welfare, and cannot but be most ready to gratify your desire in any thing within my power; you are pleased to require mine opinion concerning that part of the late Act for Uniformity, which doth empower Justices of the Peace to commit Preachers unto Prison upon the Certificate of a Bishop.  
Sir, my private opinion can be of little weight; yet, your Request is to me a Command, and my Conjectures may point you unto more convincing expositions on the Act.  
This Statute doth assign Imprisonment in two Cases, unlicensed Schoolmasters, and unlicensed Preachers; the last is that concerning which you do inquire, and the branch of the Statute doth run thus:  
And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That if any person by this Act disabled 
Pag. 87.  to Preach any Lecture or Sermon, shall, during the time that he shall continue and remain so disabled, Preach any Lecture or Sermon, That then, for every such offence, the person or persons so offending, shall suffer three months' Imprisonment in the common Gaol, without Bale or Main prize; and that any two justices of the Peace of any County of this Kingdom, and the places aforesaid, and the Mayor or other chief Magistrate of any City or Town Corporate within the same, upon Certificate from the Ordinary of the place, made to him or them 〈◊〉 the offence committed, shall and are hereby required to commit the person or persons so offending to the. Gaol of the same County, City, or Town corporate accordingly.  
I shall not insist on the hardness of the Case, that men should be sent to Prison on a bare and blind Certificate, without any due and fair Conviction, or ever being heard in their own Defence: But on the serious view of this Clause, and consideration of this Act, mine opinion is this:  
The Subject of this penalty, is not every Unlicensed Preacher, but only an unlicensed, and therefore disabled, Lecturer: Men might Preach as Parsons or Vicars, any constant or cursory occasional Sermon, and not be liable to this Penalty; and if any of the Bishops shall make Certificate against any man so Preaching, the Justices have no Authority to commit them, or him, to Prison; but if a Justice of the Peace, or Mayor of any Corporation, shall commit any person on such Certificate, the Prisoner may have his Habeas Corpus, and remedy against the Mayor or Justices.  
Sir, That my opinion may not come to you naked, and without proof, be pleased to observe the reason on which I ground mine opinion.  
The person shall be committed to prison for doing that which he was disabled to do; but the person is only disabled to Preach any Lecture or Sermon, (i. e.) Lecture-Sermon.  
Sir, This Law doth resolve a threefold disablement upon Ministers.  
1. Such who are not Episcopally Ordained, and do not in all things conform, are disabled to hold any Living or 
Pag. 8●.  Ecclesiastical promotion.  
2. The not Episcopally Ordained, consecrating the Lord's Supper, are disabled to be made Priests for one whole 
Paeg. 8●▪  year after.  
3. Lecturers not Licenced, as is directed, are disabled to Preach any Lecture or Sermon; and the doing this after disablement, is that which is punishable with Three months' Imprisonment.  
Now, Sir, that you may see Lecturers, Preaching, fixed, stated Lecturers, are the only persons disabled, and to be punished, observe.  
1. Ministers, in all other Capacities, are compelled to Conformity by other pains; and their non-preaching is provided for by other Remedies: The law prescribeth not two punishments for one offence; but there being a sort of Ministers under the notion of Lecturers, not barred by any prescription to Parsons or Vicars; the Law maketh special provision against them, and this penalty compels them to Conformity, or puts them to Silence.  
2. The persons disabled, and work to which they are disabled, is best discovered by that appellation by which they are discriminated in the Statute, and that is not the name of Minister, Preacher, Parson, or Vicar, who were all provided against in the foregoing part of the Law; but the name of Lecturer, which I observe, is affected, and all along this part of the Statute, is used to predicate the person to be disabled, and on doing what he is disabled, to be imprisoned: It beginneth, No person, shall be, or be received as a Lecturer, or allowed to preach as a Lecturer; It proceedeth, every person licenced, assigned or appointed, or received as a Lecturer; Again, so long as he continueth Lecturer; Again, it shall be sufficient for the said Lecturer; Again, the Lecturer then to Preach, this name doth note his office and work, to which he is disabled (viz.) not simple Preaching, but Lecturing, or Preaching a Lecture.  
3. The Qualifications, for defect of which he is disabled can square to no kind of Preacher, or Preaching, but to Lecturers Preaching Lectures, for he must  
1. Be approved, and thereunto Licenced; Thereunto is a Relative, which hath for its Antecedent, not Person, Vicar, or Preacher, but Lecturer, and Lecture: this is not only plain by the Grammatical Connexion of the words, but also by the express terms subjoined; Every person licenced, assigned, appointed, or received as a Lecturer, to Preach on any day of the week; Now, Sir, he is only disabled to do that whereunto he is not licenced.  
2. This person is required, the first time he preacheth, to read Common-Prayer, and to declare his assent and consent, and upon every first Lecture day of every Month, so long as he continueth Lecturer there, and for not doing the same he is disabled to Preach the said, or any other Lecture, or Sermon; the work to which he is disabled, is a stated Service which hath beginning and continuance in return of time, not a cursory transient and occasional Act.  
3. The Lecturer then to preach must be present at the reading Common-Prayer before he Preach his Sermon or Lecture.  
Now, Sir, if the defect of these Qualifications disable, and so dispose under the penalty, he that shall be thus punished must be a person capable of these Qualifications, and that is none but a stated Lecturer.  
Sir, I do not find the least ground for any Objection against my opinion, save only in this, that the word (Sermon) is used in the Statute: and in this provision of the penalty; and unto this, I answer;  
1. Sermon is never used alone, and by itself, but ever conjunct with Lecture, and enclosed in the same Comma; but when the Printers mistake is visible.  
2. Sermon is joined to Lecture with this discretive (or) not disjunctively, but exegetically, to explain the term Lecture; and hereof there is good Reason; for Lecture properly signifieth a Reading, but hath been in Vulgar accepceptation referred unto, and performed by, Preaching: That therefore the Law might not be evaded by an equivocal term, the vulgar appellation Lecture is explained by the mode of performance, Lecture or Sermon, and that Sermon is thus exegetical, is evident by these Observations.  
1. The Preacher hereby disabled is throughout this part of the Law, praedicate a Lecturer, and not known by any other appellation whatsoever.  
2. The qualifications before noted, do square with no kind of Preaching or Preacher, but Lecturer Preaching a Lecture-Sermon.  
3. 
Pag 85.  Preaching or Reading are expressly mentioned as the specifical Acts, of the Lecturers Lecturing. So in the first Clause which relateth thereunto, None shall be, or be received as a Lecturer, allowed to preach as a Lecturer, or to preach or read any Lecture, or Sermon, (i. e.) any way speak openly any Lecture-Sermon; for Lecture is the Genus, existing in the Species of Reading or Preaching.  
4. 
Pag. 86.  Preaching is often expressed to be the only act of the Lecturer, it may therefore well be called a Sermon: the Statute saith expressly, Every person licenced, assigned, appointed, a Lecturer to Preach, shall the first time he preacheth, so long as he continueth Lecturer or Preacher.  
5. Lecture or Sermon are so conjoined in the Qualifications prescribed, they must be Synonimous, and convertible, and exegetical, cannot be disjunctive, thus; it is menoned, the place appointed for his Lecture or Sermon; the reading Common-Prayer at the time of the day when his Lecture or Sermon is to be preached, and declare his assent and consent before his Lecture or Sermon: Now, Sir, they cannot be disjunctive in the disablement, which are apparently exegetical in the required Qualifications.  
6. Preaching or Reading are expressed to be the different acts of Lecturing in Cathedral, Collegiate, and University Churches or Chapels, though Preaching is retained as the Lecturing Act in common and ordinary Lectures. So that there was great and just cause to connex Sermon to Lecture, in directing a Lecture-Sermon.  
Sir, These things considered, you cannot but see mine opinion is grounded on the plain and clear interpretation of the Law; So, that if any Bishop's Certificate reduce you into the Dilemma, you will hereby direct your course, to commit Preaching Lecturers, but pass by and leave at liberty all other Preachers whatsoever, as those; for Commitment of whom you have no Authority. And so doing, which you cannot but be sure all the Judges will determine against you. I am Sir  
October, 30th 1662. Your Servant to Command F. A.