Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/194

176 that the forfeitures for clipping and alloy are gone too: and the honest proprietor may add to the quantity, or alter the figure as he thinks fit. I confess had the Church excepted against the imposition of hands in absolution: had she condemned the ceremony thus applied, and laid a general prohibition upon it: her members ought to govern themselves accordingly, and not to use it, so much as in private: but since the Church prescribes this rite in her rubric, and takes notice of it only by way of practice and approbation: when matters stand thus, I say, her non-prohibition implies allowance in private ministrations, and in cases no way determined by herself. For pray what is liberty, but the absence of command, the silence of authority, and leaving things in their natural indifferency? Thus the point was understood and practised by the famous Bishop Sanderson, upon one of the most solemn occasions, and in which himself was most nearly concerned. This eminent casuist about a day before his death, desired his Chaplain Mr. Pullin, to give him absolution: and at his performing that office he pulled of his cap, that Mr. Pullin might lay his hand upon his bare head."

This is a curious, and by no means an uninteresting question: and whatever we may think of Collier's prudence in using the ceremony of imposition of hands, we certainly cannot allege that he was guilty of any crime. It was unwise on the part of the government to prosecute him for such an act, and on the part of the Archbishops and Bishops to publish a Document with so much solemnity. The thing was magnified into a matter of importance by the proceed-