locked, barred, or bolted, during any time of such meeting together, all and every person or persons that shall come to and be at such meeting shall not receive any benefit from this law, but be liable to all the pains and penalties of all the aforesaid laws recited in this act for such their meeting, notwithstanding his taking the oaths, and his making and subscribing the declaration aforesaid.

saved.

VI. Provided always, that nothing herein contained Tithes shall be construed to exempt any of the persons aforesaid from paying the tithes or other parochial duties, or any other duties to the church or minister, nor from any prosecution in any Ecclesiastical court, or elsewhere, for the same.

VII. And be it further enacted, by the authority Officers scrupling aforesaid, that if any person dissenting from the oaths, &c., church of England, as aforesaid, shall hereafter be allowed to act by depuchosen, or otherwise appointed to bear the office of ty. high constable, or petit constable, churchwarden, overseer of the poor, or any other parochial or ward office, and such person shall scruple to take upon him any of the said offices in regard of the oaths, or any other matter or thing required by the law to be taken or done in respect of such office, every such person shall and may execute such office, or employment, by a sufficient deputy, by him to be provided, that shall comply with the laws on this behalf. Provided always the said deputy be allowed and approved by such person or persons, in such manner as such officer or officers respectively should by law have been allowed and approved.

from.

13 Eliz. 12.

c.

Persons in VIII. And be it further enacted, by the authority orders, how exempted aforesaid, that no person dissenting from the church of England, in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, nor any preacher or teacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants, that shall make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and take the said oaths at the general or quarter sessions of the peace to be held for the county, town, parts, or division, where such person lives, which court is hereby empowered to administer the same; and shall also declare his approbation of, and subscribe the articles of religion mentioned in the statute made in the thirteenth year of the reign of the late queen Elizabeth, except the thirty-fourth, thirtyfifth, and thirty-sixth, and these words of the twentieth article, viz. (the Church hath Power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and Authority in Controversies of Faith, and yet) shall be liable to any of the pains or penalties mentioned in an act made in the seventeenth 17 Car. 2. year of the reign of king Charles the second, intituled, An Act for restraining Non-conformists from inha biting in Corporations; nor the penalties mentioned 22 Car. 2, in the aforesaid act made in the two-and-twentieth c. 1. year of his said late Majesty's reign, for or by reason of such persons preaching at any meeting for the exercise of religion; nor to the penalty of one hundred pounds mentioned in an act, made in the thirteenth and fourteenth of king Charles the second, Car. 2, c. 4. intituled, An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies; and for establishing

c. 2.

13 & 14

the form of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, in the Church of England, for officiating in any congregation for the exercise of religion permitted and allowed by this act. [See 19 Geo. III. c. 44].

oaths, &c., to be regis

IX. Provided always, that the making and sub- Taking the scribing the said declaration, and the taking the said oaths, and making the declaration of approbation, and tered. subscription to the said articles, in manner as aforesaid, by every respective person or persons hereinbefore-mentioned, at such general or quarter sessions of the peace, as aforesaid, shall be then and there entered of record in the said court, for which six-pence shall be paid to the clerk of the peace, and no more. Provided that such Meeting door to be person shall not at any time preach in any place, "unlocked. but with the doors not locked, barred, or bolted, as aforesaid.

X. And whereas some Dissenting Protestants Baptists. scruple the baptizing of infants, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every person in pretended holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, or preacher or teacher, that shall subscribe the aforesaid articles of religion, except as before excepted, and also except part of the seven-and-twentieth article touching infant baptism, and shall take the said oaths, and make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, in manner aforesaid, every such person shall enjoy all the privileges, benefits, and advantages, which any other Dissenting minister, as aforesaid, might have or enjoy by virtue of this act.

Justices of

tender the

Teachers XI. And be it further enacted, by the authority exempt from offices. aforesaid, that every teacher or preacher in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, that is a minister, preacher, or teacher of a congregation, that shall take the oaths herein required, and make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and also subscribe such of the aforesaid articles of the church of England, as are required by this act, in manner aforesaid, shall be thenceforth exempted from serving upon any jury, or from being chosen or appointed to bear the office of churchwarden, overseer of the poor,or any other parochial or ward office, or other office in any hundred of any shire, city, town, parish, division or wapentake. XII. And be it further enacted, by the authority peace may aforesaid, that every justice of the peace, may at any oaths, &c. time hereafter, require any person that goes to any meeting for exercise of religion, to make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and also to take the said oaths or declaration of fidelity herein-after mentioned, in case such person scruples the taking of Penalty for an oath; and upon refusal thereof, such justice of the refusing. peace is hereby required to commit such person to prison without bail or mainprize, and to certify the name of such person to the next general or quarter sessions of the peace to be held for that county, city, town, part, or division, where such person then resides, and if such person so committed, shall upon a second tender at the general or quarter sessions, refuse to make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, such person refusing shall be then and there recorded, and he shall be taken thenceforth, to all intents and

Second tender

refused;

penalty.

purposes, for a Popish recusant convict, and suffer accordingly, and incur all the penalties and forfeitures of all the aforesaid laws.

Quakers,

how ex

XIII. And whereas there are certain other persons, Dissenters from the church of England, who scruple empted. the taking of any oath:' Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every such person shall make and subscribe the aforesaid declaration, and also this declaration of fidelity following, viz.

'I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare Declaration 'before God and the world, that I will be true and 'faithful to king William and queen Mary. And I

⚫ do solemnly profess and declare, that I do from my 'heart abhor, detest, and renounce, as impious and 'heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that 'Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects, or any other whatsoever; and I do declare that no foreign prince, 'person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought 'to have, any power, jurisdiction, superiority, preeminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual 'within this realm.'

And shall subscribe a profession of their Christian belief in these words:

'I, A. B., profess faith in God the Father, and in Profession. 'Jesus Christ his eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, One God blessed for evermore: and 'do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old ' and New Testament, to be given by divine inspira'tion.'

M