Church as bold upbraidings as they be to the Crown are but bad Encouragement to continue their KING's Kindness and as Lame excuses for their Ingratitude for sure the Countenance of a Prince would be somwhat of a preservative too and not indanger their Security from the Law whatever Oath he took to Protect their Religion he did not Swear too to put out his Declaration of Assurance also and tho' he be oblidg'd to Govern by Law I don't know what Law oblidges him to tell them so often that He Will In this sure his Majesty has done More than he was bound to do and then those that are deficient in their dutiful Return can never have done so much no Silly Sophistry no Foolish Fear will wipe away the Scandal of such a reasonable reproach and it will sound a little harsh tho' the danger were such indeed when some of Her Enemies shall observe that for keeping out some Popish Secluded Members the Loyal Church of England is now the Non-addressers But to do Her Justice too some of her Bishops upon more serious Consultations did atone for a more General defect and Oblidg'd their Communion by a Prudential Act that fain would have been so improvidently Wise as to Disoblige her self I could superadd here that other silly Suggestion of the Restitution of Abby-Lands were not the Panick Fear of it Superseded by a Learned Treatise and the Confirmation of them from the Pope even in the time of Queen Mary the common Intrest of Papists to Oppose it and that his Majesty might as well set up a Court of Wards and Liverys and so make All Lands ly at his Mercy and that He himself has Assur'd them Expresly to the Scots in his Proclamation SECT VI. The Means that may be us'd to Prevent the Malice and Insinuation of Such as would Obstruct It. AND now at length we are arriv'd to put a Period to these Points and having considered the Methods that have been us'd to Hinder this Healing Parliament we are come to the Sixth and last Section to Consider the Sixth Point The means how to Prevent the Designs and Insinuations of such as would Obstruct It. And for that reflect but a little on these following Considerations if they have but little Weight with them you are not burdned much if they have not a little 't is your Interest to bear with them Consider That notwithstanding the specious pretences of some spiteful and malicious men these dreadful apprehensions that are put into your heads may be none at all at least not such as they are represented that the Authors of them may be men that oppose his Majestys Gracious intention more out of malice to him than kindness to themselves and their Church I speak to Church-men for Dissenters can't be suppos'd dissatisfy'd with that mercy that makes them happy beyond their expectation but they are Members I believe of this Establisht Church for all the many Letters to the other Congregations that from the present Constitution of our Government I fancy must for the most part be concern'd that can best Second the Clemency of their KING and confirm to them an establisht Toleration by a Law and such an one as will repeal All those by which they have a long time so unreasonably suffer'd I. 'T is Reasonable to be done II. 'T is Fittest for them to do it III. 'T is Their Interest so to do And first let them tell me their best pretenders to Reason whether the suffering for Conscience sake can without the greatest reluctance of Conscience it self be defended or whether it's advocates are not toucht with an inward aversion at the same time they write for it especially should they reflect it may be their turn to suffer whether a body ought to suffer for the sentiments and suggestion of the Soul that informs it when it consists only in the Worshiping of the same God in which all Christian Churches agree sure these men are not so fond of the Fire and Faggot they so much fear as to Justifie for it the persecution of the Primitive Christians and make their Martyrdoms but so many Judicial Processes for their Nonconformity when of the old Heathen Emperors few were of Opinion in this Point to Punish people into Compliance the Christian Religion I think is now so well settl'd and the Seed of the Church so well sown that there is no great need of the Sanguis Martyrum to water it neither is the representation of it in this manner so improper or the comparison so absurd for tho there may be a better Warranty to force people of the same Faith in Christ to the worshipping their God in an Establisht Way than the Pagans could pretend to for the forcing us to be Infidels yet this would justify them still who thought their Irreligion and Idolatry the best of Devotion and had the Decrees of their Emperors to Authorise it which were with them the Statutes and Laws of the Land and I am sorry that I can add that such severities amongst our selves seem much worse when we agree in one common Faith in one Creed in one Christ Iesus neither is the comparison of the Punishment and sort of Suffering so absurd for tho we do not exercise by our Laws the Long Sheet in Foxes Martyrology and are left as we see the Heathens were there to study Torment tho' the Flames that he has made to rage so strongly through his vast Volumms are happily quencht all Burnings forbidden and Religion no more to suffer with a Writ de' Haeretico it will be as little credit to it still that 't is now no Fire and Faggot that can force a Conscience but only an Hangman and an Halter 'T is true that whatever has been the severity of the Laws such cruelties have seldom been put in Execution but to say they never were is as certainly false Several in Queen Eliz. Reign suffer'd meerly for professing of their Faith and my self remember three that dy'd for it and that only for being Priests in the late Perjurious time of Arbitrary Oaths and pack't Evidence besides another that was condemn'd and banisht whom I have met with since in his Exile But whatever be the Mercy of the King the Cruelty of the Laws can never be the more defended and they are never the more Merciful because of the Clemency of the Prince that remits them In the mean time such bloody sanctions are certainly blots to that Religion that keeps them upon Record and if we commend those that are for retaining them we must at the same time blame those that but so lately repeal'd the Writ de Comburendo So much for the Reason of them and but this little for Fact they cannot tell us of any Country that is Protestant nor of any Catholick but where the Inquisition is Establisht where it is made Capital to profess a particular Faith even in France whose Cruelty is decry'd so much tho' the fugitives are driven to
them that they do whatever they do or say to the contrary nay tho' some have disallow'd even that and will no practise to the contrary please them does not the King of Spain the most Catholick King alive live as free from Rebellions I am asham'd to say more then the King of England is not the King of France as absolute as our own at Home as ready to quarrel with Rome upon the least diminution of his Right and to come homer to our selves have not our own Laws justl'd out this Jealousy with the Popes Pretentions in several †Vid. Stat. of Carlile of Provisoes c. Statutes under our Catholick Kings But besides their Principles as to their particular Practise and Behaviour have they not given England Proof enough they can live in it like good Subjects and if we put the Test of their Loyalty against That made to prevent Dangers from Popish Recusants I am afraid it will spoil all the Praeamble Gentlemen Matter of Fact confirms it and 't is in vain to dispute They Fought with You for CHARLES the FIRST in the Field and They alone Preserv'd the SECOND in the Royal Oak forsook their Fortune at Home and follow'd Him in his Exile Abroad The Best of Protestants could do no more tho' some might fare better that did not so much and their being among the Rebels is but a Libel of * This their Celebrated Dr. has made K. James 1. to curse his Posterity K. Charles 1. to betray his Friends Char. 2d to deceive his People James 2d to Oppress his Subjects as if He had laboured to ly under the Glorious Infamy of Libelling four Kings in one piece of Paper as if his Quarrel were too meanly commenc'd if it did not terminate in the lasting Reproach of our whole Scottish Line and he had better Authority to do it because himself a Scot and his Soveraign Lords were all at last to Suffer because his Master by him was at first Betray'd Vid. Paper page 12 36 23. 1. Burnet's both on the †How can this Establisht Church if it has any Veneration to the Dust of their Late Protestant Prince Deceas'd applaud approve of the Writings of such an Injurious Impostor that would have his Name Buried too and that tells them The greatest Kindness that can he done to His Memory is to Forget Him. page 23. KING's Declaration and them which is sufficiently Baffl'd by the well-known Story of Coll. Ashton who when refus'd by his KING was Courted into Commission by the Parliament which assoon as Receiv'd he Laid himself and That at His Majesties Feet This is as certain as that some Protestant Subjects were in Rebellion which if such a thing must Reflect on a Church I am afraid that will very much suffer and to say the National and Establish't Church did disown all such Proceedings will not much mend the Matter when so many of her Members were so mainly concern'd for tho' the Sectaries at last prevail'd for the subverting of the State the Commons of Forty-One that Commenc'd the Quarrel were generally Church-men and 't is not impossible for such to be Zealous and Discontented too neither is the Communion bound to answer for the faults of those members she Condemns the Lord Lieutenants that this Parliament chose were for the most part Conforming men and Essex's Army had many such Officers too some can tell us this for a truth that liv'd then and their Catalogue for the Militia makes it no ly 'T is too much to remember and too soon to forget that most of the Excluding Members were of that Communion as well as all the most Eminent Conspirators in the last Plot and Rebellion and even her Passive Obedience was Burlesque by one that publickly profest himself her son I speak it not for a disparagement to the Church that was then beyond dispute both in Principal and Practise faithful to the Crown but to satisfy such men that it is both imprudent and irrational for them to fling out such arguments as will fly in their face and as unjust to censure a whole Perswasion only for the fault of some of it's Professors for King-killing and deposing to condemn a Catholick Communion and from the writings of a Jesuit to upbraid the Church of Rome and that in Terms too bitter for a Prayer to make their Religion to be Rebellion and their Faith Faction And so much for the Reason of a Legal Toleration and General Comprehension Now to shew too that the Members of the Church Establisht ought to be willing to get it Done And that 2d It is fittest for Them to do it And first they must remember that by themselves these Laws were made and as a learned Lawyer lets us know that he is the best Judg of a Law that has the Power to make it so we may say those that make it when it happens to become unreasonable are the Fittest to get it Repeal'd if the Prelates are become less riged if the Spirit of Persecution is turn'd into a Spirit of Peace if they make no matter of Conscience to give Indulgence what greater proof can they give of all this then by their own voluntary Cancelling those severe Laws which themselves must own for some considerations of State were only made This would be a much better evidence of their more mercifull disposition then all the Promises of T. W. It will be no such scandal tho' it be true when all that can be said is You were overseen Length of time and revolution of affairs tell People at last their long errors tho commonly too late and then for the most part make men wise when they cannot make amends for their folly But Fortune seems to favour you now and puts it in your Power to mend all that was amiss she seems to Court your Inclinations and tempt you to Credit your selves Gratify your KING and Pleasure all In the next Place I hope it will be as plain That 3d It is their Interest so to do First because 't is they themselves that have asserted the Kings Power in Eclesiasticals to be such that it may be much to their detriment to Provoke such a Prince whom they by Law have made so Powerful neither is it such a Childish reason that it must be dally'd with or laught out of doors as an Author does it with * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 6. a Legal Establishment even whilst it remains so legally subverted It may be done Sir without such a deal of Contradiction when People make Laws that Contradict themselves if Popish Recusants are so dangerous that they must not be Tolerated in England by a Law and we have such Laws that set the King as Supream to do whatsoever the Pope could have done Papists may well expect to be Protected from such a Catholick King and perhaps Protestants owe to His Promises most of their Security the Review of their first-Fruits to the
the Galleys they are not gon so far yet as for professing to make it Death How quietly do those peaceable Countries Flourish where at this time for Conscience there is no Oppression at all The celebrated Dr. ought to have Magnify'd that too as well as the Misery of those places where any Persecution reigns The Protestant and Popish Churches I 've seen stand very Quietly together in most of the * Mastrich Breda c. frontier Towns of Holland and in the Dominions of several PRINCES of Germany and the Magistracy by * Heidelberg Ausburg nd Duseldorp By the Treaty at Munster Osnabrugh turns Executed by the two different Perswasions without any Laws for Hanging or Burning one another and 't is sure no Bad President if we only take Example by our Protestant Neighbours But as some of our Laws are sanguinary for Matters of meer Religion so there are others that are less severe tho' as inconsistent with the Charity of a Church or the Quiet of a State such as Fines Confiscations and Imprisonments and what Inconveniences they have brought upon the Nation in general as well as the poor Sufferers in particular we have touch't upon before and now as needless to relate The Discovery of those vast Summs of which the KING is defrauded may hereafter make appear what was Extorted from the Subject to the Enriching of some Knaves and the Ruine of more Honest Families But the pressing the Reasonableness of it so much seems almost unnecessary when the most invisible Commissioner from the Church that is so Concern'd comes up so far as to countenance with his Celebrated Reasonings the Vnreasonableness of these severe Sanctions by seeming so willing to Suspend them for the sake of some Dissenters not others shall this be taken for Reason too sure the Universities will teach him better Logick I know the Aphorisms of their Schools in some Sence say That of Contraries there is the same Reason but sure they won't make it out in Contradictories too Is then Tolleration is the Repealing of the Laws Reasonable for the sake of some Dissenters and not others I don't know what they fear of Arbitrary Power I am sure this is Arbitrary Reasoning and but little better than none at all The Letter might have been a little more Contracted to say much in a little and all the solidity of his mighty Argument made up into one syllogism i. e. It is but Iust that all the Penal Laws for Religion should be Repeal'd but that all Penal Laws for Religion should be Repeal'd is not Iust Ergô The Laws against the Roman Catholicks c. If there be any Contradiction in the Terms and Premises who can help it for certainly suffering for Religion must be the same to All whatever are the Professors of it and if we once grant it unreasonable to some then presently to all unprejudic'd Reason untainted with Interest and Art it must conclude Vniversally and extend to All and I know these Barbarcus Logicians know so too and include in it both Turk and Jew and any thing that 's Pagan unless it be Mr. Johnsons the * Vid. His Popery Paganism Papist Are then the Roman Catholicks no Dissenters or are they Dissenters with you worse than Infidels for it seems for the Christian Protestant Dissenters the Circumcis'd Dissenters the Mahometan Dissenters and the Pagan Dissenters these Persecuting Laws are too Cruel and Severe May * By 1 Eliz. 3 Jac. 25 Car. 2d 30. They are deny'd Office. they are debar'd from Sitting in Parliament to which they are Born. Birthright * By 35 Eliz. 3 Jac. They are forbid the Court Company Towns City Humanity * By 31. Eliz 13 Jac. 3. Car. 1. Their Assurances Wills. Legacies Trusts Voided Goods confiscated Estates forfeited and Property be concern'd in the Case and made Motives to the removing of what is * By 1 Eliz. 3 Jac. 25 Car. 2d 30. They are deny'd Office. they are debar'd from Sitting in Parliament to which they are Born. Injurious * By 35 Eliz. 3 Jac. They are forbid the Court Company Towns City Scandalous or * By 31. Eliz 13 Jac. 3. Car. 1. Their Assurances Wills. Legacies Trusts Voided Goods confiscated Estates forfeited Prejudicial to them and cannot Roman Catholicks come in for a share by * By 1 Eliz. 3 Jac. 25 Car. 2d 30. They are deny'd Office. they are debar'd from Sitting in Parliament to which they are Born. Birth by * By 35 Eliz. 3 Jac. They are forbid the Court Company Towns City Nature or * By 31. Eliz 13 Jac. 3. Car. 1. Their Assurances Wills. Legacies Trusts Voided Goods confiscated Estates forfeited common Equity or are Papists not Born to the * By 1 Eliz. 3 Jac. 25 Car. 2d 30. They are deny'd Office. they are debar'd from Sitting in Parliament to which they are Born. Priviledges of Society are they all * By 35 Eliz. 3 Jac. They are forbid the Court Company Towns City Beasts or all * By 31. Eliz 13 Jac. 3. Car. 1. Their Assurances Wills. Legacies Trusts Voided Goods confiscated Estates forfeited Beggars and truly if we may trust some descriptions not long since applauded they have set them out but little better Sure this is not the way for continuing the Fame of that Church for being alway on the * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 1. Charitable side toward Papists this will instead of having her Charity mistaken shew that she mistakes her Charity It would be a more Charitable Act for this Church by way of an expedient to get one Statute to pass for making the Papists Perfect Out-Laws i. e. as my Ld. Coke expounds it to be hunted like Woolfes then to keep Twenty-four in Force for their Confusion Death and Destruction How can it be answer'd either to God or Man when by so publick an Act as a National Repeal you declare that to make men suffer for Religion is Barbarous and Inhuman and at the same time you leave upon Record the severest of those sufferings in their fullest force this is filing up such a lasting reproach to your selves that you would seem to take care lest time should take it off and the Infamy fail to be transmitted to posterity But as by Nature and Charity they must come in for a Common Share so I see no reason of State no Civil Concern that Obliges you to keep them out 't is but a bad argument of the Clergy as often as 't is us'd when from the Popes Supremacy they make all Papists such mortal Enemies to all Monarchs they might as well prove that by their own swearing to obey their Metropolitan they part with their Allegiance to the King of England and so set Lambeth too against Whitehall 'T is profest by them All they acknowledg no other Power of the Pope but in Spirituals and Protestants will tell
held more Bishopricks in her hand for many years many more then this KING since his coming to the Crown has dispos'd of their Churches their Chappels are all at their own Devotion and that within his Royal Pallaces and his own Walls Upon Application of these very People has he confirm'd to them several Freedoms and Immunities where he might have interpos'd with his Power and Prerogative These undistinguisht favours to all alike one would think should oblige some persons not to deny that Peace to their Soveraign which he labours to give to all his Subjects A Peace of Mind A Peace in the midst of Arms but such only as are employ'd for their defence the credit of their Nation and the Terror of their neighbours tho even that must be made their * Dr. Burnets Papers Grievance too which by the Goodness and Grandeur of their Prince is their greatest glory But there are many things besides to be consider'd consider but the reason of Enacting these Laws especially against Popish Recusants upon whom they are most severe and that they are now become the most unreasonable because the very occasions that call'd for them and to some people seem'd to make them necessary are now just none at all the Preambles to those very Statutes seem but so many Contradictions to the body of the Law. It would be hard for a Judge or Justice to tell the King of his dangers from Popish Recusants when he 's sure he can put his greatest faith and confidence in them and has so often try'd them in dangers too but it seems they and the Statutes being the better Judges of it are not bound to believe the KING but to Prosecute his friends for High Treason whom trusting and trying he finds to be guilty of no Treason at all And had not our Protestant officers of the * What can even the Church suffer from the Repeal that it is not expos'd to from the Kings dispensation And the malice of their Dr. Burnet makes them the same Reflections on Declaration Peace better repeal those Laws that are become but a dead letter thenly under a seeming sort of Perjury for not putting them in Execution Consider if in the time of the late KING by some Antecedent †Vid. Q. Eliz K. I. K. Ch. before Cited Law all the Conformists had been banisht the Court or from Access to the Kings Person if they had been made Malefactors Felons and Traytors of whose Loyalty he had so much proof in their adhering to the Crown would not his Majesty have been bound to get them repeat'd and themselves have thought it the most reasonable thing in the world that the Roman Catholicks in England have for a long time lain under severity not only of Opinion and Censure but Punishment and the Law even Protestants may allow without falling from their Faith or favouring their Religion for such a modest confession in their favour is no Vindication of the Doctrine of their Church and their Case to be consider'd here respects only their affairs in relation to the State and the matters being meerly Political must be determin'd by the Maxims of our States-men and so no Subject to be decided by the School-men and Divines And since those Persons suffer from the Constitution of Past-times partial to themselves since Papists that were once deny'd access to the person of their KING are now the Support of his Crown and Dignity since such put in but for a freedom from Penalty and an Immunity only from their being punisht as Malefactors it would be as great a want of honesty to call them Knaves for it as it is of Wit to think them fools But the Absurdity of such unreasonable Laws is somwhat more Considerable when they seem not a little to touch what is expressly forbidden The Lords Anointed Let them tell me where there is another such absurd inconsistency of State where the Statutes and Laws serve only to pollute their very Fountain the KING and make a Criminal of the Prince to that very Government in which he Presides where the Worship of his GOD must be said to be an Offering to Idols and his Conversion to a Faith High Treason against himself And then again since Papists as 't is now apparent have prov'd themselves No such Criminals to the State No such Pests of Society as they have been represented since they have Suffered the Severities of the Nations Iustice and seal'd their Innocency in their sufferings and Blood since they were sacrific'd to the Perjury of Recorded Villains and for a Conspiracy that can now only be Believ'd by Fools upon Record 't is time sure after this Iustice of the Nation has been satisfy'd so much even to the * vid. Oat's Tryal Arraigning of it self to let them find a little Mercy too and the more one would think for their Misfortunes Consider who they are that Furnish you with such distrustful Apprehensions of the Promises of your PRINCE and would frighten you into Dangers and Despair One of them a discontented Malecontent an Exile out of your Country a Criminal by Process in his Own and whose * Tho'by the Dr's leave the Lawyers say Abjuration will not Transfer it vid. Cok. 7. Rept p. 9. Dyer sol 300. Allegiance if we believe him is tranferr'd to another abroad and shall the severest Satyrs that Sedition can afford or Rage and Malice invent pass with us for pure Politicks and Impartial Truth There are ‖ Vid. Dr. B 's Papers Letter Tryal of the Test Others we have touch't upon that are no less Notorious and Applauded whose best of Praise is in not being Known that affect us like Vipers with their sting while at the same time they can hide their Heads Never Credit those that endeavour to Discredit their KING for such as will take that Liberty forfeit their Honesty and by the very Fact are not to be believ'd Pray what Attempt has he made to make the National Religion the Roman Catholick Which perhaps were it design'd is as little feasible that will alway preserve it self the National Religion which is most generally Receiv'd and untill they can prove to us That the Revealing the Laws will make more Papists in England than Protestants they may make many Words but no Arguments Has it not all the appearance in the world that it is the Principle of His MAJESTY's Soul and not any Designs of State that makes Him desire to have all the Souls of His Subjects at ease too to succour and relieve the Oppressed and let the Prisoner go free if not pray what then Oblig'd Him to that tender Compassion to the French-Protestants They are as much Hereticks to the Church of Rome and cannot pretend to a greater share of Friendship from the Agreeableness of their Doctrine or Faith They could not Plead Priviledges Immunities and Magna Charta and tell the KING He was bound by His Coronation Oath to Protect them yet'tis
upon the Dutch themselves for certainly were these Penal Laws so favourable as only to incapacitate them for Office and Trust yet even that is a severity which they are necessitated to suffer and that for Conscience sake it is but a poor extenuation of an uncharitable temper when he tells us that for some Political ends these Laws for Religion must remain unrepeal'd as if the Sacraments themselves were only made to be subservient to some Civil Institutions and the God of Heaven but an instrument to work out the inventions of man if meerly for secular ends so sacred a being as the Drity it self must be so solemnly invok't which the best Advocates for the cause do seem to confess I am afraid such an Invocation may be worse than that to Saints and be at least very profane if not Idolatrous neither can it be answer'd us that then all Declarations all Oaths must be laid aside for the Consequence fails them too for the Common reason of Imposing them is only or only should be for the detecting of Justice and Equity the discovering of truth from falsehood whereas these Protestations call'd Tests are by their own Confession kept a foot only to be Injurious to their fellow-Subjects that are Equitably born to the Common Priviledges of their Country and are so far from a discovery of what is true or false that they are made about matters so profoundly divine and mysterious that it is morally impossible for human understanding to discover or find it out unless the swearing to an Article of Faith be found a sufficient proof of the soundness of the Doctrine and the books of Scripture Antient Fathers modern Criticks can be all Confuted or be better Expounded by the Votes of an house of Commons This States-man makes it so Incomprehensible for any that profess Vid. Letter themselves Christians to go to disturb the quiet of a state and over-turn Constitutions only that they may be admitted to employments And pray must not others then think it as Vnchristian to have the professors of the same faith and their fellow-Subjects excluded from such employs which as their Religion cannot really debar them from so their very Native Birth-right demands it it is false in fact tho they take it for granted that it is the Roman-Catholicks alone that do so disturb and disquiet the State of the Kingdom it is only these Laws that create all this disturbance to them and the state these establisht-men would have been loath under the Oppression of Oliver to have merited the Name of disturbers of the Nation and 't is shewn before that suffering from a power Legal or Vsurpt is still the same where the Laws are oppressive and if the Overturning of old Constitutions be a thing of that consideration tho hardly a Parliament passes in which there are not new ones made if that I say be such a considerable argument as to make it absolutely necessary for our English Catholiques to acquiesce to continue Out-Laws more incapacitated them some Protestant Aliens how destructive must this be to the Protestant Interest should the Romanists take an opportunity to return upon us an old Law of the Romans that of Talionis and exclude all the Reform'd from Trust with a Test of Retaliation why we must submit we must not endeavour for our Restitution we must not disturb the state overturn establishment or repeal Laws And must not we look very silly too when by our own Arguments we have silenc'd our selves What a formidable blow will this give to the Reformation in England which was carried on as some say by the overturning of all that was Antient and Establisht Sacred and Civil both in Church and State and afford them a Scurvy Argument That they may overturn with a better warrant than they were turn'd out that their alterations will be only a restoring of an old establishment whereas we overturn'd that to set up new Constitutiens In short if they bring no better Reasons for our Religion than its being so much Establisht it will certainly resolve it self into the Power and Pleasure of the Prince and really be what they so scornfully reject truly * Vid. Oxford Reasons Precarious for surely they must see that assoon as they had a Protestant King they presently had their Protestant Religion And that in spite of far more Antient Constitutions and Establishments to the contrary I 'le grant him that every constituted body or Assembly whatsoever will be willing to make Laws for its own safety and Preservation But whatever be the Policy of the State it must be still agreeable to the Rules of Reason and Equity otherwise it proves no more than that all things are Lawful that are Expedient and that a Common-wealth to use his own terms as well as their own Constitution tho the result of an absolute rebellion revolt and defection from their Prince may make what Laws they please to prevent any Casual return to there natural Allegiance or that an Assembl'd or tumultuous People may pull in pieces even a Pensioner to provide against attempts thaet may disturb their peace and granting too that in Political bodies like to those that are truly natural there will be alway somwhat of innate tenderness to their own Preservation that genuin Principle only respects all opposing of a forreign force and no way determines it to domestick oppression no more than if the lazy man that is said alway to see the Lyon in the way should cut off one of his legs that he might the better run away with the rest of his carkass I am sorry I can say that this dismembring of our selves for the difference of Communion at home does no less expose us to Invasions from abroad but I am sure the saying is as certainly True prov'd by Experience Fact unavoidable from these Statutes and the Laws for should the best Seaman the best Souldier by his birth or Conversion be a Papist Convict he is totally incapacitated utterly impossible to do the least service to the Kingdom or the Crown and why should these Dutch people put that upon us the inconvenience of which they see in themselves and take all the care to avoid unless they would Vid. Letter have the more of the Kings Subjects unqualify'd to fight for him only that they might the sooner invade him Before the making of our first Test * 1673. when Papists Participated of Employments had their Places in Parliament I cannot remember that they did Impeach our Peace I am sure some of them did us signal service in the Dutch Wars his foes felt too much of the force of the Admiral and so may well fear the Preferment of his friends What the Reform'd Religion suffers from the Roman-Catholicks in France is no reason at all against the repealing of Vid. Letter these Laws in England unless they can prove the disposition of the Princes and the Politicks of the Two States to be