them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them, be according to the Mind of God.

4. It is the duty of People to Pray for Magistrates, to honour their Persons, to obey their lawful Commands, and to be subject to their Authority, for Conscience sake: Infidelity or difference in Religion, doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority, nor free the people from their due Obedience to him; from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted: much less hath the Pope any power or Jurisdiction over them, in their Dominions, or over any of their people, and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives, if he shall judge them to be Hereticks, or upon any pretence whatsoever.

And in all which Mr. Attorney has offered concerning the Queens Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs, I cannot learn one argument, or one word, from all the quoted Statutes, that Preaching a Sermon, is the least contempt, or overthrow of the Supremacy. And I hope it is not now unknown to any, that the Oath of Supremacy, has been abolished by a Law, ever since the Rovolution, and consequently the Subject must be delivered from some obligation thereby and how far this will be constructed to extend, I leave to the Judges to determine.

And as to my Preaching without Licence first obtained from Lord Cornbury, which is asserted to be against Law; I cannot hear from any Law yet produced, that Ld. Cornbury has any power or directions to grant a Licence to any Dissenters, or that any of them are under any obligation, to take Licence from his Lordship, before they Preach, or after. Mr. Attorney pretends no Law, unless he concludes the Queens Instructions to be a Law, or have the force of a Law: That they have no force of a Law, has been abundantly proved already; neither am I any way culpable even from the Queens Instructions, which are produced in Court; for they consisting of two parts, or rather two distinct Instructions, not relating at all to the same persons: In the first, his Excellency is required to permit a Liberty of Conscience to all persons except Papists. And this is the Liberty is allowed to Dissenters and which we claim, by virtue of this Instruction: and here is no Licence mentioned and required; for permission is a negative act, and implies no more but this; you shall so allow it, as not to hinder, molest or disquiet them, but rather protect them in it: And Papists being particularly expressed, it cannot be applied to the Church of England; therefore Dissenters are intended by

this Instruction, and no other; and if this permission is granted us, according to the express words thereof, we desire no more. And it cannot be esteemed by any, that imprisoning and punishing of us at such a rate, for Preaching one Sermon, is a permitting us Liberty of Conscience. The other distinct Paragraph, or rather, the other Instruction, which tho' joined together in this Copy, are at a considerable distance from one another in the Original; as we really found it so, in a Copy of Instructions to a former Governour: And as the former concerns Dissenters, so this is intended for the Clergy of the Church of England; for the words of the Instruction, as you have it above, are these: You are not to permit any Minister coming from England, to Preach in your Government, without a Certificate from the Right Reverend, the Bishop of London, nor any other Minister coming from any other part or place, without first obtaining leave of you, our Governour. Here is another Instruction, which should not be produced or improved against Dissenters; for all mankind, and those of the meanest capacity must conclude and determine, that this concerns only the Clergy of the Church of England, who by their Constitution, are under strict obligations to take Licence, or Certificate from their Ordinary, and such as come to the Plantations, acknowledge the Bishop of London as such; and no Dissenter, either in England, or any where else in the Queens Dominion, ever took, or ever was under any obligation to take any Licence from the Queens or Kings of England, or any other Person or Persons whatsoever; until a method & practice has of late been erected, and forced into practice at New-York: For if our Liberty either depended on a Licence or Certificate from the Bishops of England, or the Governours of America, we should soon be deprived of our Liberty of Conscience, secured to us by Law, and repeated Resolutions of our present Soveraign, and Gracious Queen, inviolably to maintain the Toleration which She is pleased to signifie in Her Royal Instructions to all Her Governours abroad; which we are the more assured of, from the Instructions produced in this Court. So that as the first clause of this latter Instruction, cannot be applied to any other Ministers, but of the Church of England; so the latter clause can be understood of no other but the same sort, or species, as those who came from England with Certificate from the Bishop of London: And it is well known, there are Ministers of the Church of England, who may come, and do come not directly from England, but from some other place, as from sundry Plantations of America; as Mr. Sharp now Chaplain at Fort-Anne,

came

came not directly from England, but from Maryland: And I must confess, he being a Minister of the Church of England, and enjoyes a considerable Benefice thereby, was obliged to comply with the Constitution of his own Church, and take a Licence from Ld. Cornbury, if none could be produced from the Bishop of London. But all this is foreign to us, and not at all required of any Dissenter in Europe or America.

And if there had been any thing in these Instructions requiring Dissenters to take any Licence, or empowering Governours of the Plantations to grant them, which we do not find; Preaching a Sermon before such Licence, cannot be judged a Crime, deserving such a Confinement and Prosecution as we have met with; for it has been already made appear, that those Instructions cannot have the force of a Law, to bind the Subject to Obedience, or render him culpable for Disobedience, seeing Promulgation, which is the Life of the Law, and renders all persons inexcusable, never as yet have accompanied these Instructions: So if this be Mr. Attorneys Law we have broke, by not obtaining Licence before Preaching, I hope, you Gentlemen of the Jury cannot but find, we are no way culpable hereby, being neither inconsistent with the Queens Instructions, and not against any Law.

And as to the last part of the Indictment, concerning the Pænal Laws, or the sundry Statutes against Conventicles, they never were designed, nor intended by our English Legislators for America, or any of the Plantations thereof; for they are limited & local Acts, all of them restricted to England, Wales, and Berwick upon Tweed, as is manifest from the express words of said Law; neither have been ever put in execution in any of the Plantations, until now; yea, have not been executed, even in England, Wales or Berwick upon Tweed, for which they were Calculated, and made, these twenty years past: And when they were put in the most strict and rigorous Execution in England, which was about the last of the Reign of K. Ch. 2. The Dissenters of America lived very quiet, and even in such Plantations where the Church of England has a full and formal Establishment. But which is more, even Roman Catholicks, who are excluded from all benefit of the Act of Toleration in England; yet cannot be touched in America, by these Pænal Laws; for it is matter of fact known to all, and I appeal to Mr. Reignere if Papists have not liberty, and the exercise of their Religion, without molestation from Pænal Laws, and even in Maryland, where the Church of England has a formal establishment

establishment by Laws made there: And it is manifestly known, the Assembly of Maryland made a late Act against Roman Catholicks; and tho' it was never executed, not being approved of by the Queen, yet it is a plain demonstration, if the Pænal Laws of England originally and principally designed against Popish Recusants had extended to the Plantations, there would have been no need for such an Act of Assembly to be made against them in Maryland.

It is a further argument the Pænal Laws never did extend to the Plantations, because it was a penalty in some of them, that persons after sundry and so many convictions, are to be banished or transported to the American Plantations, as places removed beyond, and free from the lash of Pænal Laws; for to what purpose would their banishment be, if after a removal from their Native Land, they should be lashed, or ruined afresh by the same Pænal Laws.

And if the Pænal Laws of England do not extend to these Plantations, where the Church of England has a legal and formal Establishment, it cannot be imagined, they can take place where there is no particular Perswasion established by Law; and consequently all Perswasions there are upon an equal bottom of Liberty, as I find to be the Case with New-York, where there is not one Act of Assembly, wherein the name or manner of Worship as it is in the Church of England is so much as expressed: And where there is no legal Establishment or any penalties or restrictions on the Liberty of any Dissenters, there is no room for, or need of any Toleration; for where no penalty, what must we be tolerated from; but pure nullities, or nothings, which seems inconsistent with the thing it self: Therefore in New-York Government all Perswasions there are upon an equal level, and bottom of liberty; and this confirmed to all Dissenters, except Papists, and allowed by an Act of Assembly, already read in open Court. And if Jews, who openly blaspheme the Lord Jesus, Quakers and Lutherans, and all other or most perswasions are allowed even in this Government; it is matter of wonder, and I can know no reason, why we only should not be allowed of, but put to molestation as we now are, by my present prosecution: Is it because we are Protestants? Is it because we are likest the Established Church of England of any Dissenters? Is it because we are the most considerable Body of Protestants in the Queens Dominions? Is it because we have now since the Union, a National Establishment in Great Britain, as nighly related and annexed unto the Crown of England, as the Church of England themselves? Sure

such

such Proceedings, when known, will and must be a prodigy to England.

Mr. Attorney replied, it was impossible for any man to answer all which was offered, there was so much delivered, and by so many.

The Defendant told Mr. Attorney, he verily believed it was impossible for Mr. Attorney to answer what was said, and that it was a great truth Mr. Attorney asserted.

Mr. Attorney proceeds to answer, and says: These Gentlemen on the other side assert all the Pænal Laws of England are local & limited to England, Wales, and Berwick upon Tweed; but I shall produce one that is not so, but extends to all the Queens Dominions; and that is the Act of Uniformity, made the first of Elizabeth, which is demonstrated from the very words of said Law, or other place within this Realm of England, Wales, and the Marches of the same, and other the QUEENS Dominions: And flies to the Instructions again, and endeavours to assert and vindicate the Supremacy, and says, the Kings and Queens of England, Enjoin and Command their Governours to grant Licences; and it has always been customary, and an universal practice to take Licences from Governours: And those Ministers who come from other places, must be the same that my Ld. is to allow Liberty of Conscience unto.

The Defendant begged leave to answer the Attorney as to his last Argument, as to the first of Elizabeth, which is the Act of Uniformity; we acknowledge it was extensive to the Queens Dominions in general, and not limited to England, and Wales only; yet I hope to make it appear, this Act does no way affect the Plantations, and far less affect Dissenters; therefore is altogether foreign to our present purpose. For 1. That Act of Parliament was made in the first year of the Reign of Elizabeth, and consequently before any Plantation had a being, or was thought of, and so could have no relation to them at all, they being pure non-entities at that time. 2. All over the Act, and in sundry places thereof, it is directed to Ministers, Parsons or Vicars in Cathedrals, Parish-Churches, Private Chappels, or Oratories; and not a word in the whole Act of Dissenters or Conventicles. For 3. At that time, when this Act was made, there were not strictly and properly speaking, any number of Dissenters in England, who held Separate Meetings from the Publick and Established Worship; for tho' there were those in the Church of England, who always from the beginning of the Reformation scrupled the use of all the Common Prayer, and omitted