The King enjoining the ministers to read his Declaration for giving liberty of conscience (as it was styled) in all churches of England, this evening, six Bishops, Bath and Wells,65 Peterborough,66 Ely,67 Chichester,68 St. Asaph,69 and Bristol,70 in the name of all the rest of the Bishops, came to his Majesty to petition him, that he would not impose the reading of it to the several congregations within their dioceses; not that they were averse to the publishing it for want of due tenderness toward dissenters, in relation to whom they should be willing to come to such a temper as should be thought fit, when that matter might be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation; but that, the Declaration being founded on such a dispensing power as might at pleasure set aside all laws ecclesiastical and civil, it appeared to them illegal, as it had done to the Parliament in 1661 and 1672, and that it was a point of such consequence, that they could not so far make themselves[Pg 272] parties to it, as the reading of it in church in time of divine service amounted to.
The King was so far incensed at this address, that he with threatening expressions commanded them to obey him in reading it at their perils, and so dismissed them.