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<DATE>2010-10-06</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B100912.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<VID>151683</VID>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A LETTER From an Anti-Hierarchical DIVINE In the Countrey, To a Member of the Hou&s;e of COMMONS. Concerning the BISHOPS Being re&s;tored to their Votes in PARLIAMENT.</P>
<P><HI>LONDON.</HI> Printed in the Year, 1661.</P>
<P><ADD><ABBR>Will</ABBR> Boothby</ADD></P>
</DIV1>
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<DIV1 TYPE="letter">
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<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD><FIGURE>
<FIGDESC>header containing a Tudor rose, a French fleur-de-lis, and a Scottish thistle</FIGDESC>
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<HEAD>A Letter from an Anti-Hierarchical Divine in the Countrey, to a Member of the Hou&s;e of Commons, concerning the Bi&s;hops be|ing re&s;tored to their Votes in Parliament.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Sir,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_IT mu&s;t needs &s;eem &s;trange to you at the fir&s;t &s;ight, to receive any thing from me in the behalf of tho&s;e Per&s;ons, whom I have to bloud con&s;tantly oppo|&s;ed; and whom I yet think for all their unexpe|cted, and as they &s;ay, miraculous Re&s;titution, to be neither <HI>Jure Divino,</HI> nor <HI>Jure Apo&s;tolico.</HI> Yet, con&s;idering that his Maje&s;ty, in order to the &s;upport and keeping up his own Intere&s;t in the State, as &s;ome conceive, hath intro|duced Bi&s;hops again into the Church, to our no &s;mall grief; who though at pre&s;ent they cannot exerci&s;e that arbitrary and unlimit|ed Power, by vertue of the High Commi&s;&s;ion, as formerly, yet have Authority &s;ufficient, by the a&s;&s;i&s;tance of the pe|nal Laws, yet unrepealed, in all places, and by their large Royalties and ample Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions in many places, to re-inforce (that, which all godly men ju&s;tly enough decried formerly, as a &s;oul-grieving Innovation, and little better than Popery it &s;elf) a conformity to the (as we yet &s;ay) empty, and un&s;ignificant
<PB N="2" REF="3">Ceremonies of their pretended Church: The very Thought of which (was it not for His Maje&s;ties Gracious Declaration, and the Connivance of many hone&s;t and di&s;creet Ju&s;tices of the Peace, that are yet left in the Countrey) were &s;ufficient to make us de|&s;pond of the comfortable enjoying of our neare&s;t and deare&s;t Re|lations. But then her's the Mi&s;ery, the King, as many &s;ay, can pardon, but for what concerns him&s;elf, according to that receiv|ed Maxim, <HI>The Legi&s;later hath Authority to dispen&s;e with his own Laws for any Cau&s;e, provided, that no di&s;tinct Intere&s;t be prejudiced or injured;</HI> &amp; therefore he can reach no further in relation to the Non-reading the Book of Com. Prayer (a thing that we can never with any Credit or Reputation conform to) than the fir&s;t time; for upon the &s;econd Conviction, <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Vid. Stat.</HI> be|fore the Com. Prayer.</NOTE> the Patron may pre&s;ent, as if the Incumbent were already dead, and in that ca&s;e it may ea&s;ily be gue&s;&s;ed, what mo&s;t of us may expect; Neither can we hope for the Connivance of the Benchers long; for, as a little Leaven lea|vens the whole Ma&s;&s;e, &s;o one peevi&s;h per&s;on upon the Bench, is able to do us more hurt, than the whole number can do us good, &amp; of this, there are &s;ome experiences near us. It mu&s;t therefore, <HI>Sir,</HI> from hence of nece&s;&s;ity follow, that either we mu&s;t be brought to a carnal Complyance, which will be a Spirit troubling of many precious Saints among&s;t us, or el&s;e, as the le&s;&s;er evil, leave our Native Courtrey, and go to tho&s;e Protestant Churches, beyond the Seas, where we may have the free exerci&s;e of Religion in its Primitive and Virgin-Purity. Now <HI>Sir,</HI> the face of things, as you know, being thus, I &s;hall humbly propo&s;e to your wi&s;er &s;elf, a thing that may enable us to a more comfortable &s;upport in a tran&s;marine condition, if Providence &s;hould &s;o order it, or el&s;e to at home. You &s;ee then that Bi&s;hops are re&s;tored to a power, (which I will not be po&s;itive in to determine they will exerci&s;e) to do hurt, it would not be ami&s;&s;e therefore, if the power whereby they may do good, <HI>viz</HI> their Pretences to a Third E&s;tate, and &s;o con&s;equently to a Vote in Parliament, were taken into &s;e&s;ona|ble and mature Con&s;ideration. It's true, at the beginning of the War, the King was confidently cried up by us to be the Third E&s;tate, which &s;ome of them undi&s;creetly granted, thereby to make the King a co-ordinate Power, by which, to put the better,
<PB N="3" REF="3">Glo&s;&s;e upon our Arming, for the a&s;&s;erting of the Authority of the two Hou&s;es again&s;t His; and indeed much might yet be &s;aid, in ju&s;tification of the Late War, had the King been &s;o. But now, <HI>Sir,</HI> upon &s;econd thoughts, that Opinion appears to be very in|congruous to the Fundamentals: For not only my Lord <HI>Cook</HI> &s;aith, which is enough to confute any &s;ingle Authority, that the Bi&s;hops are a third E&s;tate, but the expre&s;s words of many Statutes are, that the three E&s;tates of the Realm, are the Lords Spiritual, well be denied, but that the Bi&s;hops are a Third E&s;tate, and accor|ingly they have acted &s;ince <HI>Magna Charta,</HI> and in the <HI>Saxon</HI> times too, as many &s;ay: But the Stories of tho&s;e times being uncertain, as filled up with Monki&s;h Tales, much re&s;embling the <HI>Theomachi,</HI> of the Giants before the <HI>Theban</HI> War, among&s;t the <HI>Grecians,</HI> I &s;hall wave, as not much material to the purpo&s;e. Well then, the Bi&s;hops being an E&s;tate, and likewi&s;e the A&s;&s;ent of all being as nece&s;&s;ary too, as the <HI>Veult le Roy,</HI> to the compleating of an Act that &s;hall be binding, again&s;t what may happen to Futurity, it mu&s;t then follow, that it's requi&s;ite for us, in order to our &s;ure and certain Peace, that they, as well as the other Lords, &s;hould be re&s;tored to that which hath &s;o long been their R<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ghts; other|wi&s;e the Pre&s;ident, may, in time to come, be of d<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ngerous Con|&s;equence; for by the &s;ame Rule, that the Lords Temporal and Commons, by the Royal A&s;&s;ent, excluded the Bi&s;hops; may the Lords exclude the Commons; nay, more ju&s;tly may the King ex|clued all, and after the manner of the <HI>Turki&s;h</HI> and <HI>Ru&s;&s;ian</HI> Empe|rors, reduce our bravely Con&s;tituted <HI>M<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">narchical,</HI> into a <HI>Despo|tical</HI> Government. Mi&s;take me not all this while, for what I &s;ay, is not out of any re&s;pect to them, but to our &s;elves: For we &s;hall have as much, if not more advantage than any by their Re&s;titution. For to &s;ay the Truth, at the beginning of the War, we were, you know, &s;o tran&s;ported with Zeal, of doing our Duty to God, as &s;ome holy men then thought, that we quite forgot our Allegiance to the Prince, and therefore we &s;tand as much in need of a firm Act of Oblivion, in relation to the &s;ecure Enjoyment of the things of this Life, as of Gods Mercy, in order to the Fruition of a better. It will be therefore very un&s;afe for us, to have that Charter, under which we claim all that we have, or may pretend to, &s;o ill forti|fied,
<PB N="4" REF="4">as by an Act that may be liable to a ju&s;t Exception, as eve|ry Act mu&s;t be, that is not ratified according to the Fundamental Con&s;titutions of this Land: And who do you think can be well &s;atisfied with &s;o contingent a &s;ecurity, as you &s;ee all &s;ecurity is, without the Bi&s;hops A&s;&s;ent? I know in An&s;wer to this, it may be Objected, that there hath been &s;everal Acts of Parliament pa&s;t, the Bi&s;hops being ab&s;ent, the Authority of which was never yet di&s;puted, as, 24 <HI>Ed.</HI> 1.11. R. 2. and divers others, but then the Bi&s;hops neither by force, nor any pretended Act or Order from the other E&s;tates, were kept out: But they being then in &s;ubjection to the Scarlet Whore, were kept out by a Canon or Command from the See of <HI>Rome,</HI> or el&s;e were ab&s;ent upon Choyce, and therefore none of tho&s;e Examples can in rea&s;on be alledged, to vindicate the forcible exclu&s;ion of them. Be&s;ides, it may de&s;erve &s;ome Con&s;ideration, that the Act made 2 <HI>H.</HI> 4. <HI>Contra Haereticos, &amp; ex a&s;&s;en&s;u Magnatum &amp; aliorum Procerum,</HI> the Commons ei|ther Ab&s;ent, or excluded, was for that very rea&s;on long after, 25 <HI>H.</HI> 8. C. 14. repealed, as <HI>Bag&s;haw</HI> &s;ayes in his Reading, whither I refer you. By this, you may &s;ee, <HI>Sir,</HI> that there is &s;ome po&s;&s;ibi|lity of hazard, though many years after, in relying upon any Act that's not made by the con&s;ent of the three E&s;tates. All this con&s;idered, I &s;hall propo&s;e this following, as the mo&s;t convenient Expedient: Before you confirm the Act of Oblivion, let the Bi|&s;hops be called in, that &s;o there may be no ju&s;t occa&s;ion of Cavil for the future: otherwi&s;e tho&s;e men that will not bow the knee to <HI>Baal,</HI> that cannot conform to vain Habits and impertinent Ce|remonies, cannot make a convenient Sale of their Lands, to ena|ble to a Livelihood, among&s;t the <HI>French</HI> or <HI>Helvetian</HI> Churches: To which, if they do not for&s;ake their fir&s;t Love, and make &s;hip|wrack of their Faith, they mu&s;t in rea&s;on be forc'd. For it's plain, if hereafter, the Act, for want of due Form be made null, all E&s;tates that now are, or for many years ago were in our hands, will by the Letter of the Law be forfeited to the King, and we are not &s;ure always to have good Kings; but we are pretty &s;ure, that there will alwaies be &s;uch Per&s;ons about the Court, as will be willing enough for their own Concerns, to find a Flaw in that Act, or any el&s;e. Be&s;ides, the Lawyers tell us, that no Obliga|tion can be binding, that's entred into <HI>per dureo&s;e</HI> or <HI>Minas:</HI> Well
<PB N="5" REF="4">then if at any time hereafter, a Prince &s;hould happen among us, that hath a mind to quarrel with all Acts made &s;ince the exclu&s;ion of the Bi&s;hops, and alledge, that his Predece&s;&s;or <HI>Charles</HI> the Fir&s;t was threatned and forced to a&s;&s;ent to that Act; and therefore the Act null: we have rea&s;on to think, that there will be Law|yers enough found, to ju&s;tifie any Authority, in a more unrea&s;o|nable thing, and &s;o our Po&s;terity may hereafter be forced to buy their Lands at the King Price, if they have them: But lea&s;t I ex|ceed the length of a Letter, I &s;hall conclude in this, that the total Abolition of the Hierarchy is not &s;o nece&s;&s;ary, in order to a through Reformation in point of Di&s;cipline, as the re&s;titution of the Bi&s;hops to their Votes in the Upper Hou&s;e, and their Con|&s;ent to the Act of Amne&s;ty, is to the freeing of us from tho&s;e Jealou&s;ies and Fears that otherwi&s;e may ju&s;tly ari&s;e in relation to our Lives and E&s;tates. Pardon me <HI>Sir,</HI> I am Yours,</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>P S.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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