REMARKS On the Several SANGUINARY AND Penal Laws MADE IN PARLIAMENT AGAINST Roman Catholics. With some REASONS humbly offered in order to obtain a REPEAL of those Laws, for the better Advancement of His Majesty's Service, and the Ease of many of His most Loyal Subjects. Published with Allowance. LONDON, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, for His household and chapel; And are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in blackfriars. 1687. REMARKS ON THE Sanguinary, and Penal Laws Made in PARLIAMENT against Roman Catholics. IN England, where, ever since the Reformation, nothing has been more pretended to, than the Purity of Religion,( tho' as little appearing in the Reformation and Purity of Life, as in other parts of Europe) two things have been of late years much asserted, viz. The Liberty and Freedom of Conscience in matters of Faith; and Magna Charta, which has established the Liberty and Freedom of our Persons and Estates. The Violation of Conscience has been the great scandal and Common-place of all our Invectives against the Church of Rome: Fox's Martyrology is full of dismal stories of Persecutions against Protestants on the account of Conscience; and 'tis the very samething that represents the proceedings of the French King, in relation to his Protestant Subjects, so odious at this day; that brings so many poor People out of France into England and Holland, and opens so many Purses in Charity to maintain them. As to Magna Charta, it hath been now for above 460 years the Darling Law of our English Nation, the Sacred Touch-stone of Liberty, and the Great Diana of the Commons. And, as Sir Edward cook observes, Co. 1. Inst. p. 81. it has been confirmed above thirty times. It is the Fountain of all the Fundamental Laws of this Realm; and not only all Judgments given against any Chapter of Magna Charta are voided, by the Statute 25 E. 1. ch. 2. but also by the Stat. 42 E. 3. ch. 1. it is Enacted, That if any Statute be made contrary to Magna Charta, it shall be holden for none. I shall therefore here observe, 1. How great an Imposition and Constraint the Penal Laws are upon the Conscience; and 2. How repugnant they are to Magna Charta. The Penal Laws against Roman Catholics are these: 1 Eliz. ch. 1. 5 Eliz. ch. 1. 13 Eliz. ch. 2. 23 Eliz. ch. 1. 27 Eliz. ch. 2. 29 Eliz. ch. 6. 35 Eliz. ch. 2. 1 Jac. ch. 4. 3 Jac. ch. 4. 3 Jac. ch. 5. 7 Jac. ch. 6. 3 Car. 1. ch. 2. 25 Car. 2. ch. 2. and 30 Car. 2. First then, as to the Stat. 1 Eliz. ch. 1. By this Statute, and by the Oath of Supremacy hereby enjoined, every Papist in Office is subjected to severe Penalties, unless he renounces and abjures all Foreign Jurisdictions, Powers, Superiorities, and Authorities in Ecclesiastical matters. By which words he does not only deny the Primacy of Rule in matters of Religion, which his Forefathers taught him to be in the Pope or Bishop of Rome; but also he does cast off all Authority of any General Council held beyond Seas, and all its Decrees or Decisions in matters of Faith and Christian doctrine, tho' such General Council be held by the common consent of all Christendom; yet if such Council be held beyond Seas, it is repugnant to this Statute, and the words of this Oath, and of no force here, tho' his Conscience tells him otherwise. Neither, by this Statute can any Roman Catholic hold, affirm, or defend in discourse, any such Foreign Authority in matters of Religion, without forfeiting all his Goods and Chattels for the first Offence, incurring a Praemunire for the second, and High-Treason for the third. And note, that the Foreign Jurisdiction and Authority which by this Statute he is forced to abjure, against his Conscience, relates only to Ecclesiastical and Spiritual matters. For, as to any Encroachment in Temporal Affairs, and Matters of Secular Government, by the Pope or Court of Rome, there have been several Staute-Laws made to restrain that( if at any time attempted) by divers Catholic Kings of this Kingdom, 25 E. 3. 27 E. 3. 1. 38 F. 3. 16 R. 2. 5. 2 H. 4. 3. 3 H. 5. St. 2. ●. 4, &c. who lived and died in the Religion of the Church of Rome: And there is no Roman Catholic in England, who will make the least scruple to oppose the Pope's Authority in such matters. Stat. 5 Eliz. ch. 1. This Statute makes the said Oath and Abjuration more generally to be taken, and the Refusers subject to greater Penalties than by the former. It enjoins it also to all Members of the House of Commons in Parliament: So that hereby a Gentleman bread up from his Infancy in the Religion of the Church of Rome, cannot possibly with a safe Conscience vote among the Representatives of the Nation, nor serve his country in Parliament, tho' formerly the Members of the said House of Commons were of no other Religion, from the first Original of that House down to the last Century. Stat. 13 Eliz. ch. 2. This is a bloody Statute; for by this it is made High-Treason for any person or persons within this Realm,( in which words are included not only Protestants, but professed Atheists, Jews, Socinians, or any other sort of people bread up in heresy and Error) to be absolved or reconciled to the Church of Rome, tho' in their Conscience they may be never so fully convinced of the Truth of that Religion; yet they must not become Members of that Church, under the Penalty of being hanged and quartered, and of forfeiting all their Lands and Estate Real and Personal from their Innocent Children. Also to bring into this Realm any Agnus Dei, across, Picture, or Beads, from the Bishop or See of Rome, or for any person to receive or wear the same; tho' these are not by the Statute itself represented as any criminal matter, but only called Vain and Superstitious things; yet this is made a Praemunire. Paragraph 7. Stat. 23 Eliz. ch. 1. This Statute is to the same purpose, making it High-Treason to return, or be reconciled to the Religion of the Church of Rome. Also for any person to hear Mass,( tho' he be bread up in the Catholic Religion, and never knew any other, and in his Conscience is fully convinced that this is the most Sacred part of God's Worship;) yet for so doing he is by this Statute( contrary to the constant practise of former Times) to forfeit 100 Marks, and suffer a years Imprisonment. Stat. 27 Eliz. ch. 2. By this Statute all Priests of the Church of Rome, coming into, or remaining in this Realm, their Aiders and abettors, are made guilty of High-Treason. And( Parag. 13.) for any one to know of a Jesuit or Priest remaining within this Realm, tho' this be purely for the Exercise of his Religion privately, without the least Offence or Scandal; yet if such person, tho' using such Priest in matters of God's Worship, and that Religion which his Conscience tells him is not only Good, but Necessary, does not discover him within twelve days, in order to have him hanged and quartered, this is grievously punishable, by Fine, and Imprisonment during pleasure. And, by Parag. 6. he incurs a Praemunire who sends or returns any Relief or Charity to a Priest or other person remaining in a College beyond Seas; tho'such Priest is not suffered by this Statute to remain here; tho' such Priest or other person cannot exercise his Religion in England without Persecution: tho' such Priest or other person be our nearest Relation, Father, Brother, or Son; and tho' the Precepts of Christianity oblige us to Charity, and the Relief of the Destitute, without distinction of Religions. Stat. 35 Eliz. ch. 2. A Roman Catholic, convicted of not coming to Church to hear Common-Prayer and Divine Service there, must by this Statute, within forty days after such Conviction, repair to his own home, not remove above five miles from thence, and within three months comform in coming to Church, and make a formal Submission; which if he refuses to do, he shall abjure the Realm for ever, or suffer as a fellow without benefit of Clergy: In which Submission he is to confess and aclowledge, That he hath grievously offended God by absenting himself from Church, and from hearing Divine Service; when his Conscience possibly at the same time tells him that he should offend God in going to a Church or Congregation of people, who in his judgement are Schismatical, and have separated themselves from the Catholic Church; or at least, that he hath Not offended God in absenting himself, and not going thither, so long as he has gone to, and served God in, his own Church, which his Conscience tells him is Catholic and Orthodox, tho' suppressed by force. Stat. 1 Jac. ch. 4. This Statute confirms those formerly made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; and besides the Forfeitures and Penalties of those Laws inflicted for not coming to Church, it Enacts,( Parag. 6.) That every Child or other person sent beyond Seas into any College to be instructed in the Romish Religion, shall be incapable to inherit to any Estate, or to enjoy any Grant or Legacy. Stat. 3 Jac. ch. 4. By this Statute( and by that of 29 Eliz. ch. 6.) Roman Catholics are bound to pay into the Exchequer yearly 20 l. a Month,( that is 240 l. per Annum) for not coming to Church, unless the King please rather to take two third parts of their Lands. Par. 8. 11. This Act enjoins the Oath of Allegiance, commonly so called; which, as it is a promissary Oath, of Faith, Allegiance, and Loyalty to the King, no Roman Catholic of His Majesty's Dominions can, or will, scruple to take, were it not that some nice words were put in on purpose to ensnare their Consciences. And therefore the old short Oath of Allegiance taken by our Ancestors, and still used in Leets, and which in effect contains as much as this long Oath, never was, or is at this day, in the least scrupled to be taken by any Roman Catholic. Which short Oath being the Sum and Abstract of complete Loyalty, is in these words: you shall swear, That from this day forward you shall be True and Faithful to our Sovereign Lord King JAMES and his Heirs, and Truth and Faith shall bear of Life and Member, and Terrene Honor; and you shall neither know nor hear of any Ill or Damage intended unto Him, that you shall not defend; So help you Almighty God. Stat. 3 Jac. ch. 5. By this Law all Roman Catholics convicted of not coming to Church( commonly called Recusants convict) are secluded( for their Conscience sake, or their Opinion in Religion) from practising the Common and Civil Laws, or Physic; from enjoying any Office in any Court of Justice, or in the Army or Navy; and, in short, from any public Office; and that they shall be reputed as Excommunicated persons.( Parag. 8, 9, 11.) Par. 14. A Roman Catholic who causes not his Child to be baptized by a Protestant Minister within a Month after its Birth, forfeits 100 l. Is not this to disallow the Baptism of the Church of Rome, in which all our Christian Ancestors were baptized, and with which St. Augustin the Monk above 1100 years ago converted the English Nation to Jesus Christ? Stat. 7 Jac. ch. 6. By this Statute a Feme-Covert convicted of not coming to Church, and still persisting so to do, shall be committed to Prison, there to remain till she conforms and receives the Sacrament, unless her Husband pay 10 l. a month, or the third part of his Lands during her Recusancy. Here a Protestant Husband is secluded from the Society of his Wife, or else compelled to a grievous Penalty for her Conscience or judgement in Religion. Stat. 3 Car. 1. ch. 2. By this Law that of the 1 Jac. ch. 4. is reinforced; and it is made still more Penal for any to go, or sand another, beyond Seas, to any Roman Catholic Family, School, or Society, to be instructed in Religion, tho'his Conscience be never so fully convinced of its necessity to his Salvation. Thus far we see how well these Statutes agree with that Christian Liberty which all those of the Reformed Religion pretend to. Let us now see whether they be less repugnant to Magna Charta. By the first Chapter of Magna Charta it is Enacted, That the Church of England shall be free, and shall have all her Rights and Liberties inviolable;( Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit, & habeat omnia Jura sua integra & Libertates suas illaesas.) The Reader must note here,( for it cannot be denied) That the Church of England, Ecclesia Anglicana, was at the time of the making this Statute of the Great Charter, the very same in doctrine and Discipline, tenants and practise, for the Mass, and other Rites, with that which is now called the Church of Rome. By the Statute 27 Eliz. ch. 2. it is High-Treason for any Priest of the Church of Rome to come into, or remain in this Realm. The Statute 23 Eliz. ch. 1. makes it the forfeiture of 200 Marks, and a years Imprisonment, to say Mass. And by 13 Eliz. ch. 2. and other Statutes, it is made High-Treason to be reconciled to that Church, which in Magna Charta is called Ecclesia Anglicana; and to hear Mass, as was then practised, the forfeiture of 100 Marks, by 23 Eliz. 1. By the seventh Chapter of Magna Charta it is Enacted, That a Widow, after the Death of her Husband, incontinent, and without any Difficulty, shall have her Marriage and her Inheritance, and shall give nothing for her Dower; and the third part of her Husband's Lands shall be assigned for her Dower. By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. ch. 5. A Widow of the Roman Catholic Religion shall not enjoy two third parts of her Dower, unless she will change her Religion, and come to Church. Par. 10. And if she was married by a Priest of the Church of Rome, and not by a Minister, according to the Common-Prayer-book, she shall not have any Dower at all. Par. 13. By the last Chapter of Magna Charta it is Enacted, That all persons, as well Spiritual as Temporal, shall enjoy all their free Liberties and free Customs, which they have had in Time past. By the Statute 3 Jac. 1. ch. 5. a Roman Catholic shall not be admitted to present to his Advowson. Par. 18. He shall not be capable of enjoying Lands by Inheritance or Grant. Par. 16, 17. Nor to be an Executor, Administrator, or Guardian. Par. 22. Nor shall he enjoy any Copy-hold, or Customary Estate for Life, by the Stat. 35 Eliz. ch. 2. Parag. 5. Besides many other particulars, contrary to the free Customs and Liberties of former times. Thus much of the Penal Laws made against Roman Catholics in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles I. As for the Statute 35 Eliz. ch. 1. I look upon that to be solely intended against another sort of Recusants, viz. Protestant Sectaries, and such as frequent Conventicles. There remain two more Statutes made against Papists, in the Reign of His late Majesty King Charles II. namely the 25 and 30 of his Reign; which being something different from those I have already mentioned, I will treat of them apart by themselves. On the whole, I desire the discreet Reader seriously to consider but these two things: 1. What rigid Laws have been made for the Extirpation of the Roman Catholic Religion and its Professors from the face of the English Earth; That nothing has been omitted to this purpose which the Wit of Man could invent, even to the depriving them of all Books of Devotion in that Religion,( Stat. 3 Jac. 1. ch. 5. Par. 25.) That these Laws have been( at some times more especially) severely executed against their Lives, Estates, and Reputations: Yet all this, for the space of above 120 years, has not been able to extinguish that Religion in England, but that it has subsisted, nay even increased, when under the greatest Persecutions and Scandals. He that considers this, cannot easily forbear concluding, that the hand of God is in it; and that they preach no absurd or unreasonable doctrine, who affirm, that This is that Church which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against, and which our Blessed saviour has promised to be with( as well by his Assistance and Support, as Direction) to the end of the World. 2. Consider the Effect and Consequence of these Penal and Sanguinary Laws in matters of Religion. If their Justice and Reasonableness arises only from their being Enacted by Parliament, then was the Statute of the Six Articles, made 31 H. 8. and the Statute against Lollards, made 2 H. 5. as Just and Reasonable: Then, if in future times any suchlike other Laws should be made by any future Parliament,( for what has been may be) they will be of as great and unquestionable Authority, and the Persecution Enacted by them as Legal and Just: In short then, the Religion set up by Parliament, be it what it will, must always be best and truest. But if, on the other hand, the Goodness and Reasonableness of the Protestant Religion does not consist in the force of an Act of Parliament; nor the Illegality and Badness of the Religion of the Church of Rome to be concluded from the positive Laws made of late years in England against it: why then should we not desire and hope, That these Sanguinary and Penal Laws may be Repealed, and that Religion may be left to stand or fall according to its innate Merit, without the Compulsion of a Legal Force, which may make a Hypocrite, but never can a Pious Christian? REASONS humbly offered Against the TEST, Act of 25 Car. 2. ch. 2. Made to disable all Papists to hold any Office of Trust or Profit, unless they take the Sacrament in a Parish-Church, and renounce Transubstantiation. 1. THe pretended Occasion of making this Statute is expressed in the Title and Preamble to be For preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants; or, as the commonly-received meaning is more expressly worded in the subsequent Stat. of 30 Car. 2. For the Safety of His Majesty's Royal Person and Government. Now supposing( tho' it is most false, yet I say, supposing) for Argumentation sake, that the Papists were dangerous to the Person and Government of His late Majesty, who lived a Protestant, and for some time suffered the rigor of the Law to run loose against them; yet who can suppose'em to be dangerous to this King's Person and Government, He being of their own Religion, and, under God, their chief Friend and Protector, whose Life and Prosperity is as near and as dear to them as their own hearts Blood? 2. It hath been the unhappy occasion of Scandal to Christianity in general, and, 'tis too much to be feared, the Damnation of many Souls; For when the World sees persons enjoined by a Statute to take the Sacrament under severe Penalties, and nothing of Preparation, or other previous Circumstance, required or advised by that Statute, but only that they do it in a Parish-Church, in presence of two Witnesses, and that they produce a Certificate of it under the Minister and a Church-wardens hands: what can men presume, but that this is done to serve a Secular turn, and not out of Devotion, people being thereby pushed headlong on to eat and drink their own Damnation, not discerning the Lord's Body? What else can be concluded, when, de facto, we have seen some men of debauched Lives and Atheistical Principles come to the Communion, only to comply with this Statute, and capacitate themselves for such or such a beneficial Office, with as little sense of Religion before, as sign of Reformation after their Receiving? 3. It is a sort of Persecution for Religion. And God knows whether this Statute has not been a President to that Persecution in France. 'Tis true, That in France is general, to All that dissent from the Religion of that kingdom, whether they be in or out of Office: This, only to those in Office. That( as reported) uses many ways of Affliction to the Hugonots: This, only the depriving the Papists of their livelihood, and reducing them to beggary, by stripping them of employment, which in effect concludes all in one. Allowing this difference, the Character which Dr. Burnet, in his late Letters, gives of the French-Protestants Persecution, may serve, in relation to this Statute, for the Papists in England. He tells his Reader, in the fifth Letter, dated from Nimmeguen, That the Protestants in France are forced to sign an Abjuration, which all the world must needs see is done against their Consciences; and that they are prevailed on by the many lingering Deaths, of which they see no end, to make shipwrec of their Faith. 4. It hath vilified the Character of the Church of England, whose Bishops were formerly esteemed the living Oracles, Representatives, and Heads of that Church; yet since this Statute they are all, even the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, tho' the very first Ecclesiastic of England, subjected in some sort to a mere Parish-Priest, and Church-warden, perhaps the poorest as well for Parts as Preferment, being obliged by this Act to go to the next Parish-Church, and receive of the person or Vicar there, in order to obtain a Certificate of the same, subscribed by the said person and one Church-warden, like a Lay-Elder; it not being sufficient by this Statute for a Bishop himself to receive in his own Cathedral before the Dean and all the Prebends; nor is a Certificate of such Receiving valid, tho' attested by them all, under the public Seal of their Church, in a full Chapter. 5. It hath been a Disquiet and Stumbling block, not only to those of the Church of Rome, but to divers grave Members of the Church of England also; which Church hath never flourished so much since the making of th●s Statute, as it did before. I have known several of the Gravest and most Learned of the Protestant Divines, and Beneficed men in the Church of England, who never performed this Test: 1. Because, tho' they constantly and devoutly frequented the Communion at the usual times in their own Churches, yet they thought the Sacrament( which is the most Sacred and Venerable part of the Christian Religion) to be profaned, when made subservient to a worldly Interest. 2. Tho' they did not believe Transubstantiation, yet they are taught in the Legal Church of England to believe the Real Presence in the Sacrament; and as they cannot and will not take upon them to define the Quomodo, or manner how that Real Presence is, so they think it an Imposition on their judgement to be forced to affirm how it is not, viz. that it is not by Transubstantiation; especially since the greatest Wits, and most able Divines of Europe, have for Five hundred years disputed the Question, with( at least) Colour and Probability on both sides. It is one thing not to believe a tenant in Divinity or Philosophy, and another thing to believe the contrary. For instance; I do not believe positively that there is a World in the Moon: yet I cannot say I believe positively there is not a World in the Moon, having red the ingenious Book writ on that subject, and ascribed to Bishop Wilkins. It seems therefore as unreasonable, for any man to be compelled to believe, or subscribe to, a Negative in School-Divinity, as it is absurd and unpracticable for a man to be put to prove a Negative in Law, or Logic. 6. In fine, this Statute seems to have been, at the time of its making, intended chiefly against the then Duke of York; and, as appears by subsequent endeavours, was the first step towards the Bill of Exclusion; for by this Statute he lost his great Office of Lord High-Admiral, and suffered many Troubles. Which most Illustrious Prince being now, by the Glorious Providence of God, become our King, His Majesty's Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament( with due Submission and Reverence I speak it) seem obliged in Honor to Repeal that Law, which in the very making was levelled against their now Sovereign, and designed principally to wound His Interest. REASONS humbly offered Against the TEST, Act of 30 Car. 2. Stat. 2. Made to disable Papists, whether Lords or Commons, to sit in either House of Parliament, to serve the King or Queen, or to come into their Presence without licence of the Privy-Council, unless they first renounce Transubstantiation, &c. 1. THat this Statute was made in November, 1678. on the surprising frights and belief of those Plots and Treasons which Oales then suggested and swore; and was, as I may say, contrived and passed in hot blood, to prevent the then suggested Dangers; and, as the Title and Preamble expresses, for the Safety of His Majesty's Person and Government. But it having since appeared, that those frightful Dangers and pretended Plots were without other Circumstances of Truth than the bare Oaths of a perjured and infamous Man; who has since been, in due form, and according to the course of the Common-Laws of England, convicted of Wilful Perjury in that matter, and his Testimony rendered incredible to all future Ages; it having appeared also by subsequent Revolutions, that the most vehement asserters and Prosecutors of Oates's pretended Plot, were at that very time( under the Umbrage of that Plot) conspiring and managing another most Hellish and Bloody Conjuration against His late Majesty and our now Gracious Sovereign, which Conspiracy being afterwards discovered, and the principal Heads of it Attainted and Executed, and the late Duke of Monmouth, their great Idol, taken in actual Rebellion, Attainted in Parliament, and Beheaded; the Papists all this while not so much as making one false step, but appearing always steady in their Loyalty; and in this last Rebellion, as well as in that against King Charles I. fighting for their King and the Established Government: What colour of Reason then can be produced to continue the severity of this Law against those Roman Catholics, whom His Sacred Majesty affirms to be his Friends and Loyal Subjects, under the false Notion of Enemies and Traytors? 2. It seems not only against the Birthright and Privilege of the Peerage of England, but against that Lex & Consuetudo Parliamenti, which Sir Edward cook in all his Writings makes so Sacred; for every Temporal Lord, being of full age, ought to have a Writ of Summons ex debito Justitiae: Co. 4. Inst. p. 1. And being summoned and commanded by the King's Writ( as he is) to come and sit in Parliament, and there give his advice; if afterwards he is not suffered to sit, unless he will renounce his Religion, or at least some of i●s principal tenants, the King's Writ of Summons is hereby defeated, the King deprived of the Advice of so many of his Great Counsellors, who are thus not suffered to sit, and the House of Peers( which is the most August and Highest Court of Justice in this Kingdom) deprived and mutilated of so many Members. So also for the Commons, the King's Writ for their Election directs it to be made liberè & indifferenter: But after such Election made and return'd, and the Parties come up, if they must not be admitted to sit, unless upon the terms abovementioned, which perhaps they cann●t in conscience perform, to what purpose is such free and indifferent Election? The House of Commons petition the King for freedom of speech in their House, and he grants it,( tho' sometimes they have used that Liberty very undecently against the Giver.) Why then should they themselves be against a freedom of Speakers to sit in their House, when duly elected? In the 6 H. 4. a Parliament sate at Coventry, excluding all Lawyers, for which reason it not only got the opprobrious name of Parliamentum indoctum, but, as Sir Edw. cook says, 4 Inst. p 48. it was fruitless, and made never a good Law. We easily remember the year 1659. when the unanimous voice of this Nation( then beginning to recover from her former Convulsions) cried aloud for a Free Parliament without constraint and distinguishing of Parties, and with such a Parliament began our Happiness in the Glorious Rest●uration of His late Majesty and Royal Brothers. 3. It enjoins the making and subscribing a Declaration which is tantamount to an Oath; for the words are, I do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare: In this Declaration the party is not only forced to say he believes there is not any Transubstantiation, &c. but that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are Superstitious and Idolatrous. Which last part is not only point-blank against the Conscience of any Roman Catholic to say, but also against the judgement of several of the most Learned among the Protestant Divines of the Church of England. It would be tedious to city all their Names; let it sussice that That great Protestant Divine, and Prebend of Westminster, Mr. Thorndyke, says positively, That they that separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters, are thereby Schismatics before God. Just Weights and Measures, pag. 7, 8. where he proves it in a large Discourse. Note also, That in this Declaration there is not one word relating to the Peace of the Government, or the Safety of the King's Person, or to oblige the Subscriber to be a True and Loyal Subject, but only Notional Matters of Divinity, and tenants of Religion. 4. It deprives the King of the Service of his Subjects, if Papists, or such who cannot in their Conscience make the Renunciation in the Act specified, tho' they be never so capable and proper for his Service, tho' they be never so Faithful and true to their Prince, tho' they be the most Learned and Expert, or greatest Artists of their time; nay, tho' they are already sworn his Servants in Ordinary, and have taken the usual Oath of their Office, to serve him truly and faithfully, and give their due attendance in such or such a place; yet they must by this Statute( if Papists as abovesaid) either be forsworn, and not serve and attend in their Office, and not dare to come into, or remain in the King's presence, or else incur the grievous Penalties and Forfeitures in this Statute mentioned. For a Sovereign Prince to be thus divested of that Prerogative which God and his Birth-right have given him in the Service of his Subjects, and for those Subjects, being at Liberty, unblemished with any Crime, and able and desirous to serve him according to their Duty and Allegiance, to be by a new and Arbitrary Law forbid, and rendered uncapable of performing such Service, is highly against Reason. 5. It seems in one respect to allow more Power to Six jailers, than to the King himself; for it allows to any person disabled by this Act, to come into the King or Queens presence, if licenced so to do by Warrant under the Hands and Seals of Six jailers, by Order of His Majesty's ●●ivy-Council. Yet do not the words of this Act allow to the King himself such power of licencing, tho' it be by Warrant under his own Royal Hand and Signet. This may suit with the Character of a Duke of Venice, but whether it agrees as well with the Majesty of a Sovereign Prince and Hereditary Monarch, I think is no hard matter to answer. 6. Lastly, it cannot but be observed, That this Statute was the second and penultimate step to the Bill of Exclusion. Who cannot remember, that from the date of this Act the disaffected Party to His now Majesty, when Duke of York, cast off their Vizard; and did openly and with a bare face endeavour all his Troubles, by Voting and Addressing against him, and not ceasing till they had seen him in a second Exile; nor then neither, but some of his base and inhuman Enemies continuing to express their malice to his very Picture; which is something more than even the Rebels under cronwell did in the time of his First. The memory of these Actions is scandalous to our Nation, the very thought of them is uneasy to a Loyal English Heart. If this Statute therefore was the Fore-runner( not to say the Foundation) of all these Disgraces, have we not reason to hope the Loyal Parliament( when His Majesty shall please to Assemble that most High and honourable Court) will reform the blemishes of their Predecessors, by repealing this Law, which has not only appeared so incommodious to His Majesty already, but still is so to his Service, and to the Ease of His Loyal Subjects? CONCLUSION. AFter all, it may possibly be objected, That the Penal Laws having been Enacted by the Royal Signature in Parliament, ought not to be thought unreasonable, or not fit to be continued, altho' in some things contradictory to Magna Charta, because established by the Supremest Authority in this Nation, th●redge● same Fountain from which Magna Charta it se●redge● flowed. To such an Objection I Answer, That this is the very case of the Star-Chamber; That Court was established by several * 3 H. 7. c. 1. 21 H. 8. c. 20. Acts of Parliament, and its Authority and Power corroborated and affirmed by divers subsequent Laws: Yet afterwards by Act of Parliament in the 16th year of King Charles I. ch. 10. All those Statute-Laws( so far as they concerned the said Court) were Repealed; and that Court( tho' of long continuance in this Nation) abolished and utterly suppressed. The Reasons for so doing as alleged in the said Statute, are very observable 〈◇〉 First it is set forth in the Preamble, That it was repugnant to the Great Charter; and afterwards follow these very words: And forasmuch as the Reasons and Motives inducing the Erection and Continuance of that Court do now cease, and the Proceeding, Censures, and Decrees of that Court have by experience been found to be an intolerable burden to the Subject.— Can any thing more exactly parallel the present case of the Test and Penal Laws, whether it be in relation to their Opposition to the Great Charter, the●redge● ceasing of the Motives that first occasioned them, or their intolerable burden to the Subject? FINIS.