Dissent on all sides And to six this â—â—putation upon them are there any of our Laws made all along against Nonconformists but whose Preamble runs upon any less Topick than the Breach of the Peace and the Underniining the very Foundation of the Government and all for deserting the Church of England and meeting in their own Religious Assemblies to offer up their Prayers and Devotions to God according to their Consciences Was there ever a late Conventicle disturb'd with any other Warrant than as Riotously and Routously Assembled and thereupon punish'd with Fines Imprisonments Sequestrations and Banishments sometimes to the Ruine of whole Families Whilst our Laws with the same Masquerade as in the Popish High Treason before charges the meer meeting to Worship God with no less then Sedition and Disloyalty But wherein lay this Sedition and Disloyalty Was it in their so Meeting No sure for as the Intention makes the Guilt the Intention was only a Religious Worship and not a State-Disturbance Was the Sedition then in the Doctrines they Preach'd or Printed If so Why was it not proved against them Their Writings are not only publick enough to stand that Test but also their Meeting house Doors stood open and their Enemies have all along been both Potent and Namerous enough to hear and detect any Seditious Design or Doctrines against the Church or State And the Law was furnish'd both with Rods and Axes to punish any Crime of that kind according to its Demâ—rit before the Penal Laws were so much as thought on Besides to clear them in this Point what Writers are so Voluminous as the Dissenters And to prove our Episcopal Spectacles read no such Seditious Doctrines amongst them How comes it that several of the Dissenters Books as Owen and Caryl's Works c. have been thought worthy to instruct our most Orthodox Clergy when so many of them are to be sound in all their Sudies and Libraries If then they neither publickly Preach nor Print any such Doctrines of that Seditious and Disloyal Stamp do they in Conversation Own or Avow any such Trayterous or Disloyal Principles No sure they have more Wit. If they are so hardy as to do that we have other Laws to noose 'em without the help of those Religious Penal Statâ—tes Do they then commit any open Act of Treason Sedition c. Let them do that if they dare If we once catch them at that Game the Government has 'em fast enough either Popish or Protestant Dissenters by the Heels and the Necks too Nor is any thing of this the Treason or Disloyalty that these Statutes pretend to Arraign Who ever heard of any Overt Act of Treason or Sedition Indicted by the 23d or the 35th of Elizabeth Then if neither Preaching Printing Speaking or Acting of any thing Traytorous or Seditious be the Capital Guilt these Statutes are level'd at certainly thinking of â—reason must be the Crime A Popish or Protestant Recusant is such an Offeader that by the very Affections of his Soul cannot be Loyal to the Crown And to prove this Infallible Accusation true the Protestant Wisdom has by Divine Inspiration formd a Law to Arraign and Condemn the very Thoughts of the Heart of which God only can be Judge And truly to make the Calumny stick the faster they have Establish'd it by a Maxime held almost as Sacred as Gospel No Bishop no King. No though Sedition and Disloyalty was the pretence it pâ—â—cht not there The Dissâ—ters grew too Numerous and the Church of England began to see her Grandâ—ur her Diana Grandure shrink and her Dear Dominion lessen and therefore for Enacting this and indeed all other her Penal Laws her old Arts must be once more her Refuge The Non-conformists must be crusht and supprest and to avoid ad â—mputations of Oppression and Cruelty Sedition and Riots and what not must be the Charge against them and the Law gilded over with that â—air Title to make it swadowable 'T is true indeed the Church Indignation has generally contented it self with omiting the latter part of the Execution viz. Death as a Pelon However it has too often laboriously taken care to make their Purses if not their Veins bleed for it and that too sometimes by so â—otal a Drein that whole Families have been reduced to the condition of Starving which is the very next Door to it And aâ— things considered Liberty next to Life is so dear that whole Years of Noysome Imprisonment have been very little the easier Punishment Take then the whole Penal Laws together the Rubbish so industriously piled up by our Protestant Bulwark-makers for the gaeat Fence of a Church and â—ome to the full Result of all Here 's the Church of England so poorly Prevaâ—icating as to â—ollow those very steps which with all her highest Noise and Exclamations she pretends are her greatest Detestation and Abhorrence And whilst the plainer Râ—manist Enacts Executes his most Capital Laws against Heresie from his Church under the downright Name of Heresie our poorer spirited Law-makers are for punishing Heresie from their Church under Masque and Disguise obtrâ—ding their Penal Laws upon the World under the meanest of Hypocrisie Imposture Besides 〈…〉 sent in 〈…〉 thing is not 〈…〉 would render it how 〈◊〉 the Church of England to treat so many 〈◊〉 Protestant States and Kingdoms with that 〈◊〉 as Brethren Professors of Truth when not one of all those Protestant Kingdoms but is a Dissenter from the Church of England and yet â—o vigourously Persecutes her own 〈◊〉 Subjects for the very same Dissent with all the forementioned stiâ—matizing Braâ—d c. Having given you this pâ—rtrait of our Penal Laws I shall only and some 〈◊〉 Lineaments more and so finish the Pâ—â—ce And to make a further Balâ—ance betwixt ourselves and Rome in that Point how unchristian or unwarrantable soever all such Penal Inflictions for meer Conscience may be the Church of Rome has or at least fancies she has some little pretext for such Laws For under her Famous Tenent of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus and her consinement of Salvation only within her own Boundaries she may have sometimes consented to the practice of cutting off a stray Sheep to terrisie the rest of the Flock from leaping the Fold as imagining to her self in so doing and in Sacrificing some lost Sons of Perdition for such she accounts them and thereby lopping off some corrupt Member already past hope of Redemption she only secures possibly the whole Body as she thinks from Apostacy and Damnation And consequently such examplary Acts though of the greatest Rigour how mistaken soever are only intended as absolutely necessary for that great end Vniversal Salvation But alas our more charitable Church that dares not bound the Grace of God but by a larger Latitude and more extended Operation of the Blood of Christ equally allows Salvation to true Zeal and Piety in both Churches and indeed in all Christian Professions Under all this Concession I say
as wise as himself make a Court of Judicature and Record to convict a Dissenter and that too in no less a Cause then Where his very Loyalty if the Statute tels Truth is concern'd and all this from the Mouth of two Witnessâ—s generally known by the name of Informers Persons that sometimes have mounted Pillories a sort of Men not always of the most substantial unshaken veracity especially considering the Temptation of 〈◊〉 third Snip in the Fineâ— which in Twenty Pounds and Forâ— Pounds at a Fine from the Preacher besides the lesser â—ulcts from all the whole Auditory may with good management rise to a Sun. Take these Penal Laws all together I cannot tell what greater or more glorious Design his Gracious Majesty can undertake then by repairing so deep a Breach wrought through the very Fundamentals of His Peoples Orriginal Freedom and Birthrights nor is thâ—â—e or has been a greater Friend or Patron of the Church of England than His present Majesty who Himself alone tenders her the means and oppertunity to wash off those Stains and Blots which either the Petulance or Remisness of her Protestant Defenders of her Faith through these Penal Statutes have east or left upon her and so to restore and maintain her Whiteness and Innocency Having made this fair inquest into the Penal Laws I shall take a little scearch into the Test and lay down those Reasons that equally oblige us to concur with his Majesty in a Repeal of that too In order to which it behoves us first to sum up all the great and popular Arguments if I may so call 'em thâ— in reality rather the Language of Fears and Jealâ—â—â—es than the Voice of right Reason daily urged for the Preservation of the Test viz. That the whole Defence of the Protestant Religion relyes on that Basis If the Test were once abrogated the Church of England would soon be blown up when all Offices both Ecclesiastical and Civil and all Power and Authority both in Church and State shall be lodged in Roman Catholicks and what not To answer which hideous and formidable Out-cry we 'll begin first with the pretended Dangers threatned the Church of England by Repeal of the Test Not to insist upon his Majesties reiterated Word and Honour his inviolable Engagements to maintain the Church of England as now by Law Establisht in her uninterrupted Rights and Priviledges all her Churches and Church-Livings whatever thereunto belonging c. in it self alone â—o little Security But waving that Plea the Ecclesiastical Government and the Church of England neither are nor can be shaken or touchâ— by the abrogation of the Test the Test being indeed no part of her Defence For first the vâ—ry taking off the Test is no part of the Qualification of any of the Clergy of England nor was ever so much as mentioned or thought upon to be impoted or tendred to the Clergy as such the tnedring the Test to the Bishops relating only to their Peerage as Members of the House of Lords No as Jealous the Founders of that Test were or pretended to be of the danger of Pâ—pery and as Zealous as they could be for the Security of the Protestant Religion they very well knew the Church of â—â—England had two impregnable Bulwarks the two great Acts of Uniformity that themselves alone sufficiently establish'd guarded and preserved the Church of England in all points without any Fortification from the Test nor indeed was the Test wanted in the Ecclesiastick Administration those very Statutes being a greater and stronger Test before For by those Statutes is the whole Liturgy the Administration of the Sacraments and indeed all the Canons and Articles of the Church supported for by the Pence of those Laws first no Romanist can be admitted into the Clergy unless under the most damnable Hypocrisie which no humane Test can discover an Hypocrisie too no waies beneficial to the Romish Cause whilst tied up to the Divine Service as now by Law establisht Secondly No other Divine Service as the Mass or the like can be introduced into our Churches already constituted or assigned for the Divine Service of the Church of England The strength of these two Laws His Majesty very well knows and is so far even from the thought of hurting or infringing the least Particle of either of those Laws or the Security our Church has does or can receive from them by abrogating any Penal Laws or Tests whatsoever that on the contrary there is not undoubtedly that farther Confirmation of those Laws and the Religious Observance of them or any thing conducing thereunto that may or shall be offer'd to His Majesty in Parliament that His Majesty shall not readily assent to and as inviolably maintain And that in all and every Part and Particle of those Laws that relates to the Orthodox Qualâ—fication of our Clergy the Establishment of our Liturgy Rites and Ceremonies and the securing all other the Regalia of our Church as now by Law establisht Her Tormenta and Flagella only excepted And indeed His Majesty has instanced His peculiar Aversion to any Invasion of our Church's Right in that point that He has not so much as taken a Chappel of Ease from them witness the Late establish'd Lord Mayors Chappel lying shâ—t up rather thâ—n invade our Church by the admission of a Dissenter only pro temâ—â—re Iâ— then the Church of England Her Administration and Government as 't is plain stand of themselves alone secure and firm without any borrow'd prop or support from the Test whâ—â—ever the Test therefore is only a Buttrice or at least so intended to the Civil Magistracy as first excluding all Roman Catholicks from all Offices of Trust in the State secondly from all Domestick Services near the Person of the KING and thirdly from all Right to Session in Parliament These three Incapacities are by the Test thrown upon the Romanists and for confuting all suspicions and jealousies let us examine where how far and what part of the Test His Majesty desires to have repealed what Reasons induce him to desire it and lastly what Influence such a Repeal can have over the present Estabisht Church of England In the first place as to the Civil Government What Office in the State can a Roman-Catholick hold any waies impowering him to prejudice the Church of England Suppose even in the Courts of Judicature for if any apparition of any such power 't is there were 〈◊〉 imagine in all those Offices Why 〈◊〉 not a Sir Thomas Moore be as honâ—â— as a Lord Chief Justice Hales and execute his Office with as great Inteâ—rity and Justiceâ— Why not men of equal abilities he of equal uprightness in all Religions Besides the distribution of mâ—um and 〈◊〉 more especially when Liberty of 〈◊〉 shall be past into a perpetual Law and all Penal Inflictions for Matter of 〈◊〉 thrown out of their Jurisdictions will then be the whole business that lies before them And wherein is a Roman-Catholick
then her self more especially in those Professions that found their Dissenting Points of Doctrine upon her own Baâ—s the Scripture To speak a little further to this Point What was our separation from the Romish Communion and consequently our whole Reformation any more then disclaiming the erroneous Doctrines of the Romish Church and retrenching her uselesâ— or â—uperâ—â—itious Ceremonies and as several of the Dissâ—nters intirely concur with us in disclaiming the same erroneous Opinions only diâ—â—ering from us in reforming more of their Ceremonies than our selves I desire to be informed by what Light unless by an infaâ—â—iâ—le Spirit our Church can say Roform thus far and no further The Reformation in this very bound is Holy and Sacred and one step beyond it or varation from it is Offence and Sin. And that a farther Reform may not look altogether so impardenable King Edward the Sixth was pleased to tell the World in his Common Prayer Book That the Reforms then made in the Publick Lâ—turgy were not compleat He having at present no further Reformed the then time then would bear and that a farther Reform was intended to be made by him But since that short Raigned Prince lived not to the performance of the Promise pray have his Protestant Successors made that further Reform for him truly I am afraid none or next to none the Liturgy and what else remaining almost entire if not more exceptionable as He left it Now here will several odd Debates arise as first either that pious Prince and our Original Reformers had they finished that Reform so tender are our Laws even in the least syllable of our present Liturgy must have out gone the due bounds of Reformation and by so hainicous an Error have pulled down upon themselves the scandal of Sâ—stâ—ries or else our present Sectaries so called in endeavoring to follow so Pious and Royal a Leader possibly may not deserve all the hard Names and harder Fates our Penal Laws have bestowed upon them So that upon the Issue not only that Young King and our Primitive Doctors must be in the wrong for intending any such further Reform or our present Reformers in the wrong for so loudly quarreling the least attempt of such a Reform as so guilty and so black an Apostacy I cannot tell what Equity wiser Heads may find out for the Ordination of Penal Laws but truly in my opinion the great Prince of Peace that reprimanded the drawing of that Sword that cut off but the Ear of the High-Priests Servant tho in his own immediate Cause very little intended the raising his Church or the propagation of his Gospel by either Axes or Gibbets or Gaols or Dungeons And He that left us the Standard of Christianity in the Innocency of Doves never commissioned us the Rapine of Vultures and tho we are conceded the Subtilty of Serpents I know no Warrant that He gave us either for the Stings or the Poysâ—â— of them when the Prophesie of the Gospel was That the Church should learn War no more And tho my Zeal for Truth makes me thus plain in detecting the only shame and fraiâ—ty of the Reformed Church I hope she has Goodness enough to forgive the Boldness of a blushing Son who is no otherwise solicitous then for her covering her own Nakedness And that I may truly term it such the Reformation that otherwise may boast her Purity and Principles only founded on Holy Writ and all the rest of her Doctrines and Practices derived from those Sacred Oracles will be only found tripping here and in all her support of Spiritual Records in all other Points I am afraid must have recourse even to the exploded Authority of unwritten Tradition only for her Penal Laws For I shrewdly suspect that Lollards Towers and Inquisition Houses let her mince it as she will will be found the only Precedents for the Estates she has Coâ—iscated the Families she has Beggar'd the Goails she has Filled besides her sometimes loading of Gibbets and ripping up the Bowels even of her own Co-Disciples because dissenting Professors of Christ and all by her Penal Laws Nor will it suffice for an excuse to insinuate that the Establishment of Religion and Conformity of Worship on one side and 〈◊〉 Preservation of Peace and Tranquility of the State on the other side exact the necessity of such rigid Laws tho by the by the Peace of States is rather destroyed then upheld by such Laws for what Civil War in almost all the Christian World that directly or indirectly has not had the Oppression of some Religious Party its greatest back if not only incentive No to gain the first of these great Ends let the Teachers and Professors of our Established Church live up to the height of their Profession and recal the Wanderers and reduce the Strays into the â—old by their own convincing Examples of 〈◊〉 â—iety a much more commendable way of making Proselâ—â—s than the forementioned rigid Acts of Compliance And for the second great End the Governments Security if her Temporal â—ences are not strong enough let her make stronger and iâ— any of her Dissenters are the dâ—â—urbers of her Peace let her single out the Guilty from the Innocent and wreak her jâ—st Vengeance where 't is deserved and not punish whole Parties or the Dissent it self which aâ— being meer matter of Religion is wholly uncapable of such Crime for the sake of any corrupted Members that 〈◊〉 are of or herd under the covert of such or such a Congregation of Christians For to do that Work by the undistinguishing merciless Hand of her Penal Statutes is so little conformable to the Evangelical Precepts that I am afraid the doing such notorious Ills that Good may come of it in Punishing the Innocent with the Nocent whatever Religious Security or Gospel Propagation may be intended by them these Penal Laws I say that can swallow the Estates Fortunes Liberties and â—ives of their weaker Brethren and fellow Christians instead of being either Christian or Just or any ways related to 'em will at last appear much nearer of kin to that Famous Rover that wanders round the World to seek whom he may Devour insomuch that their Ordination will be â—ound little less then borrowing Engines from Hell to help to set up Heaven Now to the Case of the Church of England if these are her Penal Laws for I shall not trouble my self with a tedious recital of the several Statutes of that Nature as being all out Scions from the same Root I would gladly know what Beauties or rather invisible Charms the Church of England can find in these Statutes to be in the least solicitous for their Preservation For alas Maâ—gre all her Volums written upon the Unreasonableness of Separation from her Communion and her Justification of her Zealous Endeavours for Conformity unless the Means and Methods used to obtain it as these Laws were intended for such be equally justifiable her whole Pretentions fall to the ground Nor