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be imposed by any Bill or otherwife, upon the "Peers with a Penalty in cafe of refusal to lose their "Places and Votes in Parliament, or liberty of De"bates therein; and that this Order be added to “the standing Orders of this House.

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Secondly, It ought to be repealed, because of its difhonourable Birth and Original; it being the First-born of Oats's Plot, and brought forth on purpose to give Credit and Reputation to the Perjury.

Now I fhould think that when the Villainy of that is fo fully laid open to the World, it should not a little concern the Honour of the Nation, but very much concern the Honour and Wifedom of the House of Peers, to deface fo great a Monument erected by themselves in Honour of fo grofs an Impofture.

It is fhame enough to the present Age to have given any publick Credit to fo enormous a Cheat, and the greatest Kindness it can do it felf is to destroy, as much as may be, all the Records of Acts done by the Government to abet it.

What will Pofterity judge of the present Nobility, to fee fuch an unprefidented Law,not onely enacted upon fo foul an Occafion; but after the discovery of the Cheat, afferted with Heat and Zeal, though to the fubverfion of their own Fundamental Rights and Privileges?

Befides the Roman Catholick Peers have fufferd

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feverely enough already by their own honourable House's giving Credit to fo dull an Imposture: And I think it is the leaft Compensation that they can in Honour make them, only to reftore 'em to their natural Rights.

What will foreign Nations and future Ages think of the Injuftice and Barbarity of the prefent Peerage, to fuffer English Noblemen to be ftript of the greatest Privilege of their Birth-right by fo unheard of a Villainy? And when it is in their Power to fee their injur'd Peers redreffed, that they should not only fuffer 'em to be fo bafely robb'd of their Peerage, but should for ever establish and ratify the Fraud by Authority and force of Law.

This would be an eternal National Reproach, and fuch a blot upon the House of Peers, that no length of time could wear away; nothing but the Universal Conflagration could destroy.

Thirdly, It ought to be repealed, because of the incompetent Authority by which the Law was enacted: it is a Law of an Ecclefiaftical Nature, made without the Authority of the Church, contrary to the Practice of the Chriftian World in all Ages, and indeed to our Saviour's own Commiffion,who fetled all Power of Government,and efpecially the Legislative (which is the highest Act of it) upon the Officers of his own Kingdom; fo that for any other Order of Men, to affume the

the Exercife of any fuch Authority to themfelves, is no less than to depofe him from hisThrone, by difowning, neglecting, and affronting his Commiffion to his Catholick Church.

This Power of making Decrees concerning Divine Verities, is the very Foundation upon. which the whole Fabrick of the Chriftian Church hath hitherto ftood, and is to ftand to the End of the World. For if it be once taken away, as here it is, there is no peculiar Government left to the Church it felf, and without Government there can be no Society, or Band of Union; and without that, there remains nothing but Confufion : So dangerous a Trefpafs is it for the Temporal Powers to entrench upon this facred Prerogative of the Holy Catholick Church.

The Civil Power may restrain the Exercise of it, as they fhall judge meet for the Ends of Peace,and the Interest of the Common-wealth,and punish it too, at their own Discretion, if it shall any way prefume to entrench upon the Power of the State.

But tho' it may prevent or correct Abufes, yet it cannot ufurp the Power it felf without manifeft Sacrilege and Blafphemy; in short, this is fuch a daring Invafion of our Saviour's own Kingdom, that nothing more imports Christian Kings and Governours, than to be wary and cautious how they lay Hands upon it.

Neither can it be pleaded this Law was con

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fented

fented to by the Bishops (to their fhame) in the Houfe of Lords. For First, it being an Ecclefiaftical Law, it ought to have been antecedently enacted by them, without any Lay-Concurrence; and when they had first decreed it by their own proper Authority; Then, and not before then, was it lawfull for the Parliament to take it into their Confideration, and as they judged it fit, to abett it with temporal Penalties.

Which Practice (as I have before mentioned) was ever most religiously observed by all Chriftian Kings and Princes, and never before violated, but by Apoftates and Rebel Parliaments.

But then Secondly, The Bishops fit not in the House of Lords as Bishops, but as Temporal Ba rons, and so act not there by virtue of any power derived from our Blessed Saviour, but from the meer Grace and Favour of the King; And if they themselves should pretend to exercise any Ecclefiaftical Authority in that Place,they would most scandalously betray, and as much as in 'em lies,deftroy the very Being of a Chriftian Church, and profanely pawn the Bishop to the Lord: Befides, that laftly by the Law of England the Ecclefiaftical Power is fetled in Convocation: fo that to enact any thing of that Nature without their Confent, is to betray the Rights of the Church of England as by Law eftablished in particular, as well as of the Church Catholick in General.

Fourthly,

Fourthly, It ought to be repealed because of the uncertainty and Falfhood of the Matters contained in the Declaration it felf; as,

First, That there is no Tranfubftantiation in the Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Blood.

And Secondly, That the Invocation of Saints and the Mother of God is Idolatry: both which Propofitions are by this Law to be folemnly and fincerely in the Presence of God profeffed, teftified, and declared, which in Confcience is the fame thing with a formal Oath, whatever it is in Law.

Now to oblige the whole Nobility of a Nation, to swear to the Truth of fuch abftruse and uncertain Propofitions, which they neither do nor can, nor indeed ought to understand, and this upon Penalty of forfeiting the Privileges of their Birth-right, is fuch a monstrous and inhumane piece of Barbarity as could never have enter'd into the Thoughts of any Man, but the infamous Author of it, neither into his (as malicious as his Nature was) but in his fierce pursuit of Princely Bloud; for that was the onely Design of all his Actions after the starting of the Otefan Villainy (of which this Teft was the firft Sacrament) to purfue and hunt down the Heir of the Crown, which all the World knows,and is now fatisfied, he fought by numberless Perjuries, tho' by nothing more than this Teft, by which he stript his Royal Highness of the Guards of his most faithfull

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