remarkable that that bloody Commission is founded on the King 's Absolute Power and his Zeal for Religion This is the only Edict that I know in which a King has pretended to Absolute Power before the two Declarations for Scotland in the year 1687. so whether they who penned them took their pattern from this I cannot determin it I could carry this view of History much further to shew in many more Instances how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Roman Catholicks and that their condition is so much the worse the more pious that their Princes are As for what may be objected to all this from the present State of some Principalities or Towns in Germany or of the Switsirs and Grisons it is to be considered that in some of these want of Power in the Roman Catholioks to do mischief and the other Circumstances of their affairs are visibly the only Securities of the Protestants and whensoever this Nation departs from that and gives up the Laws it is no hard thing to guess how short-lived the Liberty of Conscience even though seiled into a Magna Charta would be V. All that our Author says upon the General Subject of Liberty of Conscience is only a severe Libel upon that Church whose Principles and Practices are so contrary to it But the proposition lately made has put an end to all this dispute since by an Offer of Repealing the Penal Laws reserving only those of the Test and such others as secure the Protestant Religion the question is now no more which Religion must be tolerated but which Religion must Reign and prevail All that is here offered in opposition to that is that by this means such a number of persons must be ruined pag. 64. which is as severe a way of forcing People to change their Religion as the way of Dragoons I will not examine the particulars of this matter but must express my joy to find that all the difficulty which is in our way to a happy quiet is the supplying such a number of men with the means of their subsistence which by the execution of the Law for the Test must be taken from them This by all that I can learn will not come to near an hundred thousand pound a year and indeed the supplying of those of the King's Religion that want it is a piece of Charity and Bounty so worthy of him that I do not know a man that would envy them the double of this in Pensions and if such a Sum would a little charge the King's Revenue I dare say when the settlement of the Nation is brought to that single point there would not be one Negative found in either House of Parliament for the Reimbursing the King. So far are we from desiring either the Destruction or even the Poverty of these that perhaps wait only for all occasion to burn us I will add one bold thing further That though I will be no Undertaker for what a Parliament may do yet I am confident that all Men are so far from any desire of Revenge but most of all that the Heroical Minds of the next Successors are above it that if an Indemnity for that bold Violation of the Law that hath been of late both Practised and Authorised amongst us would procure a full settlement even this could be obtained Though an impunity after such Transgressions is perhaps too great an Encouragement to offend for the future But since it is the Preservation of the Nation and not the Ruine of any Party in it that is aimed at the hardiness of this Proposition will I hope be forgiven me It is urg'd pag. 63. That according to the Dutch Pattern at least the Roman Catholicks may have a share in Military Employments but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear since some Roman Catholick Officers where the Government is wholly in the hands of the Protestants cannot be of such dangerous consequence as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that perswasion but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us VI. It is true our Author would perswade that the King 's Dispensing Power hath already put an end to this Dispute and that therefore it is a seeming sort of Perjury see pag. 48. to keep the Justices of Peace still under an Oath of executing those Laws which they must consider no more Some Precedents are brought from former times p. 22 23 24. of our King 's using the Dispensing Power in Edward 3d Richard 2d Henry 7th Henry 8th Edward 6th and Queen Elizabeth's time It is very true that the Laws have been of late broke through amongst us with a very high hand but it is a little too dangerous to upbraid the Justices of Peace with their Oaths lest this oblige them to reflect on so Sacred an Engagement For the worthy Members of Magdalen Colledge are not the only Persons in England who will make Conscience of observing their Oaths So that if others are brought to reflect too much upon what they do our Author's officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of Service I will not examine all his Precedents we are to be govern'd by Law and not by some of the Excesses of Government nor is the latter end of Edward the Third a time to be much imitated and of all the parts of the English History Richard the Second's Reign should be least mentioned since those Excesses of his produced so Tragical a Conclusion as the loss of his Crown and Life Henry the Sixth's seeble and embroyled Reign will scarce support an Argument And if there were some Excesses in Henry the Eighth's time which is ordinary in all great Revolutions he got all these to be either warranted or afterwards to be confirmed in Parliament And Queen Elizabeth's power in Ecclesiastical Matters was founded on a special Act of Parliament which was in a great measure Repealed in 1641 and that Repeal was again ratified by another Act in the late King's time We are often told of the late King's Acts concerning Carts and Waggons but all Lawyers know some Laws are understood to be abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible inconvenience inforces it such as appeared in that mistaken Act concerning Waggons So the King in that Case only declared the inconvenience which made that Law to be of itself null because it was impracticable It is true the Parliament never question'd this A Man would not be offended if another pulled up a Flower in his Garden that yet would take it iil if he broke his Hedge And in Holland to which our Author's Pen leads him often when a River changes its course any Man may break the Dyke that was made to resist yet that will be no Warrant to go and break the Dyke that resists the Current of the same River So if a Dispensing Power well applyed to smaller Offences has been past
the City of God. But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some Passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot Read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off T. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own Inclinations as well as against their Rule And can we imagine that they can have no force at all upon the common people therefore we cannot in Conscience pronounce these words in the Ears of the People whose Souls are committed to our Charge For we should hereby lay a snare before them and become their Tempters instead of being their Instructers and in very fair and reasonable construction we shall be understood to sollicite them to Apostacy to leave the Truth of the Gospel for Fables and the mistakes of men a reasonable and decent Worship for Superstition and Idolatry a true Christian Liberty for the most intolerable Bondage both of soul and body If any will forsake our Doctrine and Fellowship which yet is not ours but Christs at their own peril be it But as for us We are resolv'd by the grace of God to lay no stumbling block in their way nor to be accessary to their ruine that we may be able to declare our integrity with S. Paul That we are pure from the blood of all men III. In the next place We are to declare in the King's name That from henceforth the Execution of all and all manner of Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion established or for or by reason of the exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever be immediately Suspended and the sarther Execution of the said Penal Laws and every of them is hereby Suspended What! All and all manner of Laws in matters Ecclesiastical What the Laws against Fornication Adultery Incest For these are in Ecclesiastical matters What! All Laws against Blasphemy Prophaneness open Derision of Christian Religion Yet these crimes are punishable by no other Laws here than such as have been made in favour of the Established Religion How shall the Lord's day be observ'd What shall hinder covetous men to Plow and Cart and follow their several Trades upon that day since all the Laws that secure this observance and outward countenance of respect to the Christian Religion are by this general expression lade aside Besides these words for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established cannot in Conscience be read by us in our Churches because they may be a temptation to young unguided people to neglest all manner of Religious Worship and give them occasion of deptiving themselves of such opportunities of grace and salvation as these Penal Laws did often oblige them to use For being discharg'd attendance on our Service they are lest at liberty to be of any Religion or none at all Nay Christian Religion is by these general terms left at discretion as well as the Church of England For men may forsake us to become Jews or Mahometans or Pagan Idolaters as well as to be Papists or Dissenters for any care taken in this Declaratoin to prevent it And even of such as pretend to be Christians there either are or may be such Blasphemous Sects so dishonourable to our Common Lord and Master as are incapable of all publick encouragement and allowance for that would involve the Government in the Imputation of those Blasphemies and the whole Nation in that curse and vengeance of God which such provocations may extort Wherefore it is not out of any unreasonable opinion of our selves nor disaffection to Protestant Dissenters that we resuse to publish this Indulgence but out of a tender care of the Souls committed to us especially those of the weaker sort to whom we dare not propose an Invitation to Popery and much less any thing that may give countenance or encouragement to Irreligion It is said indeed that we are not required to approve but to read it To this Sir you have very well answer'd that Reading was Teaching it or if it be not so absolutely in the nature of the thing yet in common Construction I am affraid it would have been so understood But we do not stand in need of this Excuse for if there be any passages in it that are plain temptations to Popery or Licentiousness it cannot consist with our duty either to God or the Church to read them before our People As for the Dispensing Power and the Oaths and Tests required to qualifie men for Offices Military and Civil I must leave them to the Consideration of those who are nearer concern'd and therefore reasonably presum'd to understand them better Nor do I envy his Majesty the use of his Popish Subjects though I do not know what service they may be capable of doing more than other men This Nation has for some time made hard shift to subsist without much of their Aid and against the wills of several of them but now they are become the only necessary men and seem to want nothing but Number to fill all places Military and Civil in the Kingdom in the mean time the Odiousness of their Persons and the Insolence of their Behaviour with their way of menacing strange things makes some abatement of the merit of their service Lastly The respect which we have for His Majesties Service will not permit us to Read the Appendix to the Declaration Where the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom are something hardly reflected on as Persons that will not contribute to the peace and honour of the Nation Because they would consent to the taking away the Laws against Papists that they be put into a Condition to give us Laws The Persons here reflected on We know to be the chief for Ability and Interest and Inclination to serve the King and therefore cannot do His Majesty that disservice as to be Publishers of their disgrace make our selves the Instruments of alienating from his Majesty the Affections of his best Subjects Nay we find in our selves a strange difficulty to believe that this could
them this way is fit to be debated The other is the probability of his getting the Statute for benefit of Clergy in favour of Cow-Stealers and House-Robbers Repealed and where by the way there is a severe Rebuke given to our English Priests for their ill-placed Mercy to Irish Offenders A fault I hope they will be no more guilty of Whether these Advantages be so considerable as to move His Majesty to continue a Man for other more weighty Reasons absolutely destructive to this Kingdom or whether some of them might not be performed by an English Governour His Majesty is the only Judge Only this I am sure of The King if he were under any Obligations to His Minister has fully discharged them all and has showed himself to be the best of Masters in giving so great and honourable an Employment to his Creature and continuing him in it so long notwithstanding the decrease of his own Revenue and the other visible bad effects of his Management the Impoverishment of that Kingdom amounting to at least two Millions of Money And His Majesty may be now at liberty without the least imputation of Breach of Promise to his Servant to restore us to our former flourishing condition by sending some English Nobleman among us whose contrary Methods will no doubt produce different effects To conclude methinks the comparison between His Majesty and Phillip of Mactdon when he was drunk is a little too familiar not to say unmannerly and that between Antipater and my Lord Tyrconnel is as great a Complement to the latter But provided my Lord be commended which was our Author's chief design he cares not tho' the comparison does not hold good in all points 't is enough that we know we are Govern'd by such a Prince that neither practises such Debauches himself nor allows of them in his Servants But we are not beholding to the Author for the knowledge of this should a Forreigner read his Pamphlet or get it interpreted to him he would be apt and with reason to conclude that His Majesty as much resembled Phillip in a Debauch as my Lord Tyrconnel does sober Antipater I have now done with all that seems of any weight in our Author's Pamphlet and can see nothing in his Postscript that deserves an Answer All that I will say is That his Recipes bear no proportion to our desperate Disease and he will prove not to be a Physitian but a pretending Quack who by ill applied Medicines will leave us in a worse Condition then he found us I shall conclude with telling you That your Letter which enclosed the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dublin 1688. SIR Your most humble Servant A LETTER from a Freeholder to the rest of the Freeholders of ENGLAND and all Others who have Votes in the Choice of Parliament-Men THE Power of Parliaments when they are duly Elected and rightly Convened is so very Great that every Man who has any share in the Choice of them has the weight of his whole Country lying upon him For it is possible for my single Vote to determine the Election of that Parliament-Man whose single Vote in the Parliament-House may either save or sink the Nation And therefore it belioves Men who thus dispose both of themselves and their Posterity and of their whole Country at once to see that they put all these into safe hands and to be as well advis'd as much in earnest when they chuse Persons to serve in Parliament as they usually are when they make their Last Will and Testament And if this is to be done at all times certainly a much greater proportion of Care is to be taken at this time when endeavours have been used not only to sorestal the Freedom of Elections but even the Freedom of Voting in the Parliament House and when the Counties of England have been practised upon to be made Repealers both within doors and without They have been Catechised whether if they were Parliament-Men they would Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests or if they were not chosen themselves whether they would chuse such as would And as for the Boroughs they have been all of them Sifted to the very Bran Nay some Persons have been wrought upon to enter into Engagements beforehand in their Addresses But I suppose those that have been so very forward to promise themselves to serve a Turn will never be thought worthy to serve in Parliament And at the same time others have made it their business to render these Laws very odious to the People and to hoot them out of the World they have been Arraign'd and Condemn'd as Draconicks as Bloudy and Canibal Laws as Ungodly Laws and contrary to the Divine Principle of Liberty of Conscience without the common Justice of ever being heard For the preambles of these Laws which shew the Justice and Equity of them and the reasonableness both of their Birth and Continuance have been industriously suppressed This indeed has been a very bold Adventure for I am apt to think there is much Truth in my Lord Chief Justice Coke's Observation That never any Subject â—… a Fall with the Laws of England but they always broke his Neck And therefore according to the Courtesie of England I shall wish Friend Will. Pen and his Fellow-Gamesters a good Deliverance But while they have taken the liberty to say their Pleasure of these Laws which are now in as full Force as the day they were made I shall take leave according to the Duty of a Loyal Subject with whom the Laws of the Land are a Principle and who must always own the Majesty and Authority of them till such time as they are Repealed to offer a few words in their behalf which shall be dictated by nothing but Law Truth and Iustice and if every word that I say do not appear to be such I â—… content to have this whole Paper go for nothing and be as if it had never been Written And to proceed the more clearly and distinctly I shall first consider the Penal Laws as they are called against the Papists and the two Tests And secondly the Penal Laws against the Dissenters In the Statute 3 Iacobi c. 1. which is Read â—… very Fifth of November in our Churches the Law made against the Papists in Queen Elizabeth's time and the Confirmation of them 1 Iacobi â—… which the great Outcry is now made and for the sake of which they then attempted to blow â—… both the King and Parliament are called Necessary and Religious Laws And it I prove them to be undoubtedly such I hope the good People of England will look upon them an hundred times before they part with them once First The Laws against the Papists are Religious Laws they are Laws made for the high Honour of God as well as for the common Profit of the Realm which is the old
making of Laws which shall Authorize the Deisying a bit of Bread the Worshipping of it for a God the Praying to it Idolatry Blasphemy any thing in the World for them that like it Now is not this a very fair Speech and does it not well become the mouths of Protestants I would fain press this home upon the Consciences both of those Dissenters who are hired and of those who are not hired to labour the Repeal of our Laws Do you fear the Informers more than God Will you for the sake of your little Conventicles do the greatest Evils which you know to be such You know in your very Hearts that the Worship of Images Crosses and of a Wafer is abominable Idolatry that the Half-Communion is Sacriledge and that many other Points of Popery are blasphemous Fables And will you set up this for one of your Religions as by Law Established Will you do all that hands can do to entail Idolatry upon the Nation not only Removendo prohibens as Divines distinguish by pulling down the Laws which hinder it but also Promovendo adjuvans by making a perpetual Magna Charta for it The Laws and Constitution of a Country do denominate that Country if Atheism were Authorized by Law this would be an Athiestical Nation and if Idolatry be set up by Law it is an Idolatrous Nation and all that have any hand in it make it the Sin of the Nation as well as their own Think therefore of these things in time before you have involved both your selves and your Country in a miserable Estate and remember poor Francis Spira who went against Light. But Secondly There is just as much Prudence as Conscience in these Proceedings for by Repealing the Laws against Popery you Reverse the Outlawry and take of those legal Disabilities which the Papists now lie under and which have hitherto tied their Hands from destroying Hereticks When Papists shall be right Justices and Sheriffs and not Counterseits when they shall be Probi legales homines and pass Muster in Law when they shall be both our legal Judges and our lawful Juries and when Protestants shall come to be Tryed by their Country that is to say by their Twelve Popish Godfathers they may easily know what sort of Blessing they are to expect The Papists want nothing but these Advantages to make a fair riddance of all Protestants for we see by several of their late Pamphlets that if any thing be said against Popery they have a great dexterity in laying it Treason Now this is a civil way of answering Arguments for which we are bound to thank them because it so plainly discovers what they would be at if it were in their Power But how comes it to be Treason to speak against a Religion which is itself High-Treason and is Proscribed by so many Laws Why their Medium is this That Popery is the King's Religion and therefore by an Inuendo what is said against that is meant against him But is there any Law of England that Popery shall be the King's Religion Or is it declared by any Law that Popery either is or can be his Religion On the other hand we are enabled by an Act in this very Reign to pronounce Popery to be a False Religion and to assert the Religion which is now professed in the Church of England and Established by the Laws of this Realm to be the True Christian Religion Act for building St. Ann's Church p. 133. But these Gentlemen it seems are for Hanging Men without Law or against Law or any how and therefore we thank them again for being thus plain with us before hand Now if they be thus insolent when they are so very abnoxious themselves and have Halters about their own Necks with what a Rod of Iron will they Rule us when they are our Masters What havock will they then make of the Nation when we already see Magdalen Colledge which was lately a flourishing Society of Protestants now made a Den of Jesuits and that done to in such a way as shakes all the Property in England Or who can be safe after our Laws are Repealed when Endeavours have been lately used to extract Sedition even out of Prayers and Tears and the Bishops Humble Petition was threatned to be made a Treasonable Libel But here the Dissenters have a plausible excuse for themselves for say they We have now an opportunity of getting the Laws which are against us Repealed which is clear gain and as for our refusing to Repeal the Laws against Popery there is nothing gotten by that either to us or to any body else for they are already as good as Repealed by the Dispensing Power and therefore such Discourse as this only advises us to stand in our own light without doing any good to the Nation at all for there will be Popish Justices Sheriffs Judges and Juries whether we will or no for whatsoever we refuse to do the Dispensing Power will supply To which I answer Do you keep your hands off from Repealing the Laws let who will contravene or Transgress them for then you are free from the Blood of all Men you have no share in the guilt of those Mischiefs which befal your Country which would sooner or later be a heavy burden and a dead weight upon the Conscience of any Protestant But besides let the Laws alone and they will defend both themselves and us too for if the Law says That a Papist shall not nor cannot have an Office then he shall not nor cannot for who can speak Louder than the Laws As for a Dispensing-Power inherent in the King which can set aside as many of the Laws of the Land as he pleases and Suspend the Force and Obligation of them which has been lately held forth by many False and Unlawful Pamphlets the Dissenters know very well that there is no such thing but that no body may pretend Ignorance I shall here prove in very few words That by the Established Laws of the Land the King cannot have such a Dispensing-Power unless Dispensing with the Laws and Executing the Laws be the same thing and unless both keeping the Laws himself and causing them to be kept by all others be the English of Dispensing with them For in the Statute of Provisors 25 Eaw 3. c. 25. we have this laid down for Law That the King is bound to Execute those Statutes which are Unrepealed and to cause them to be kept as the Law of this Realm The words are these speaking of a Statute made in the time of Edward the First Which Statute holdeth always his Force and was never Defeated or Annull'd in any point And by somuch our Sovereign Lord the King is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm although by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary So that the Coronation Oath and the Dispensing-Power are here by King Edward the Third and his
over as an Excess of Government that might be excusable though not justifiable this will by no means prove that Laws made to Secure us against that which we esteem the greatest of Evils may be suspended because Twelve Men in Scarlet have been tried or practised on to say so The Power of Pardoning is also unreasonably urged for justifying the Dispensing Power the one is a Grace to a particular Person for a Crime committed and the other is a Warrant to commit Crimes In short the one is a Power to save Men the other is a Power to destroy the Government But though they swagger it now with a Dispensing Power yet Rede Caper Vitem c. may come to be again in Season and a time may come in which the whole Party may have reason to wish that some hair-brain'd Jesuits had never been born who will not only expose them to the Resentments but even to the Justice of another Season in which as little regard will be had to the Dispensing Power as they have to the Laws at present VII Our Author's kindness to the States of Holland is very particular and returns often upon him and it is no wonder that a State settled upon two such hinges as the Protestant Religion and the Publick Liberty should be no small Eye-sore to those who intend to destroy both So that the slackning the Laws concerning Religion and the moderating that State by invading it seem to be terms that must always go together In the first War began the first slackning of them and after the Triple Alliance had laid the Dutch asleep when the Second War was resolved on it was begun with that Heroical Attempt on the Smyrna Fleet for our Author will not have the late King's Actions to be forgotten at the same time the famous Declaration for Suspending the Laws in 1672 came out And now again with another Declaration to the same purpose we see a return of the same good inclinations for the Dutch though none before our Author has ever ventur'd as in a Book Licensed by my Lord President of the Council to call their Constitution pag. 68 a Revolt that they made from their Lawful Prince and to raise his stile to a more sublime strain he says pag. 66. that their Common-wealth is nothing else but the result of an absolute Rebellion Revolt and Defection from their Prince and that the Laws that they have made were to prevent any casual return to their natural Allegiance and speaking of their obligation to Protect a Naturalized Subject he bestows this honour on them as to say p. 57. 58. Those that never yet dealt so fairly with Princes may be suspected for such a superfluous Faith to one that puts himself upon them for a Vassal Time will shew how far the States will resent these Injuries only it seems our Author thinks that a Soveraign's Faith to protect the Subject is a superfluous thing A Faith to Hereticks is another superfluous thing So that two Superfluities one upon another must be all that we are like to trust to But I must take Notice of the variety of Methods that these Gentlemen use in their Writings here in England we are always upbraided with a Revolt of the Dutch as a scandalous imputation on the Protestant Religion And yet in a late Paper Entituled An Answer to Pensionary Fagel's Letter the Services that the Roman Catholicks did in the beginning of the Common-wealth are highly extolled as Signal and Meritorious upon which the Writer makes great Complaints that the Pacification of Gaunt and the Union of Utrecht by which the free Exercise of Religion was to be continued to them was not observed in most of the Provinces But if he had but taken pains to examine the History of the States he would have found that soon after the Union made with Utrecht the Treaty of Collen was set on foot between the King of Spain and the States by the Emperour's Mediation in which the Spaniards studied to divide the Roman Catholicks in those Provinces from the Protestants by offering a Confirmation of all other Priviledges of those Provinces excepting only the Point of Religion which had so great an effect that the Party of the Male-contents was formed upon it and these did quickly Capitulate in the Walloon Provinces and after that not only Brabant and Flanders Capitulated but Reenenburg that was Governour of Groening declared for the King of Spain and by some places that he took both in Friesland and Over-Issel he put those Provinces under Contribution Not long after that both Daventer and Zutphen were betrayed by Popish Governours and the War was thus brought within the Seven Provinces that had been before kept at a greater distance from them Thus it did appear almost every where that the Hatred with which the Priests were inspiring the Roman Catholicks against the Protestants disposed them to Betray all again to the Spanish Tyranny The New War that Reenenburgh's Treachery had brought into these Provinces chang'd so the State of Affairs that no wonder if this produced a Change likewise with relation to the Religion since it appeared that these Revolts were catried on and justified upon the principles of the Church and the general Hatred under which these Revolts brought the Roman Catholicks in those Out-Provinces made the greater part of them to withdraw so that there were not left such numbers of them as to pretend to the Free-Exercise of their Religion But the War not having got into Holland and Utrecht and none of that Religion having Revolted in these Provinces Roman Catholicks continued still in the Countrey and though the ill inclinations that they shewed made it necessary for publick Safety to put them out of the Government yet they have still enjoyed the common Rights of the Countrey with the free Exercise of their Religion But it is plain that some men are only waiting an Opportunity to renew the Old Delenda est Carthago and that they think it to be no small step to it to possess all the World with the odious impressions of the Dutch as a Rebellious and a Persidious State and if it were possible they would make their own Roman Catholick Subjects fancy that they are persecuted by them But though men may be brought to believe Transubstantiation in spight of the Evidence of Sence to the contrary Yet those that feel themselves at Ease will hardly be brought to think that they are persecuted because that they are told so in an ill-writ Pamphlet And for their Rebellion the Prince that is only concerned in that sinds them now to be his best Allies and chief support as his Predecessors acknowledged them a Free State almost an Age ago And it being Consest by Historians on all sides That there was an Express Proviso in the Constitution of their Government That if their Prince broke such and such Limits they were no more bound to Obey him but might Resist him And it being no less certain
Inference nor Application but leave that part intirely to the Reader according as his own Thoughts shall direct and dispose him III. I will first take notice that this Word by the Application which hath been made of it in some modern instances lieth under some Disadvantage not to say some Scandal It is transmitted hither from France and if as in most other things that we take from them we carry them beyond the Pattern it should prove so in this we should get into a more partial Stile than the Principles of English Justice will I hope ever allow us to be guilty of The French King's Equivalents in Flanders are very extraordinary Bargains his manner of proposing and obtaining them is very differing from the usual methods of equal dealing In a later Instance Denmark by the encouragement as well as by the example of France hath propos'd things to the Duke of Holstein which are called Equivalents but that they are so the World is not yet sufficiently convinc'd and probably the Parties concern'd do not think them to be so and consequently do not appear to be at all disposed to accept them Princes enjoyn and prescribe such things when they have Strength and Power to supply the want of Arguments and according to practice in these Cases the weaker are never thought to have an ill Bargain if they have any thing left them So that the first Qualification of an Equivalent must be that the Appraisers be indifferent else it is only a Sound there can be nothing real in it For where the same party that proposeth a Bargain claimeth a Right to set the Value or which is worse hath power too to make it good the other may be forced to submit to the Conditions but he can by no means ever be persuaded to treat upon them IV. The next thing to be consider'd is that to make an Equivalent in reality an equal thing in the Proposer it must be a better thing than that which is required by him just as good is subject to the hazard of not being quite so good It is not easie to have such an even hand as to make the Value exactly equal besides according to the Maxim in Law Melior coriditio pessidentis the Offer is not fair except the thing offered is better in value than the thing demanded There must be allowance for removing what is fixed and there must be something that may be a justification for changing The value of things very often dependeth more upon other circumstances than upon what is meerly intrinsick to them therefore the calculation must be made upon that soot perhaps in most cases and particularly the want which one of the parties may have of the thing he requireth maketh it more valuable to him than it is in it self If the party proposing doth not want the thing he would have in Exchange his requiring it is impertinent If he doth his want of it must go into the apprasement and by consequence every Proposer of an Equivalent must offer a better thing or else he must not take it unkindly to be refused except the other party hath an equal want of the same thing which is very improbable since naturally he that wanteth most will speak first V. Another thing necessary to the making a fair Bargain is that let the parties who trear be they never so unequal in themselves yet as to the particular thing proposed there must be an exact-aquality as far as it relateth to the full Liberty of taking or refusing concurring or objecting without any consequence of Revenge or so much as Dissatisfaction for it is impossible to treat where it is an Affront to differ in that case there is no mean between the two extreams either an open Quarrel or an intire Submission the way of Bargaining must be equal else the Bargain it self cannot be so For example the Proposer is not only to use equal terms as to the matter but fair ones in the manner too There must be no intimations of Anger in case of refusal much less any open Threatning Such a Stile is so ill suited to the usual way of Treating that it looketh more like a Breach of the Peace than the making a Bargain It would be yet more improper and less agreeing with the nature of an Equivalent if whilst two men are chassering about the Price one of them should actually take the thing in question at his own rate and afterwards desire to have his possession confirmed by a formal Agreement such a proceeding would not only destroy that particular contract but make it impossible to have any other with the party that could be guilty of such a practice VI. Violence preceding destroyeth all Contract and even tho the party that offereth it should have a right to the thing he so taketh yet it is to be obtained by legal means else it may be forfeited by his irregularity in the pursuit of it The Law is such an Enemy to Violence and so little to be reconciled to it that in the case of a Rape the Punishment is not taken off tho the party injured afterwards consenteth The Justice of the Law hath its eye upon the first act and the Maxim of Volenti non fit injuria doth not in this case help the Offender it being a plea subsequent to the Crime which maketh it to be rejected as a thing wrong dated and out of time In taking away Goods or Money it is the same thing The party robbed by giving them afterwards to the taker does not exempt him from the Punishment of the Violence Quite contrary the Man from whom they were taken is punishable if he doth not prosecute If the case should be that a Man thus taking away a thing without price claimeth a right to take it then whether it is well or ill founded is not the Question but sure the party from whom it is so taken whilst he is treating to Sell or Exchange it can never make a Bargain with so arbitrary a Chapman there being no room left after that to talk of the Value VII To make an equal Bargain there must be a liberty of differing not only in every thing that is really essential but in every thing that is thought so by either party and most especially by him who is in possession of the thing demanded His Opinion must be a Rule to him and even his Mistake in the Value tho it may not convince the Man he hath to deal with yet he will be justified for not accepting what is offered till that Mistake is fairly rectified and over-ruled When a Security is desired to be changed that side which desireth it must not pretend to impose upon the other so as to dictate to them and tell them without debate that they are safe in what is proposed since of that the Counsel on the other side must certainly be the most competent Judges The hand it cometh from is a great Circumstance either to invite or
apt to suspect that the best way to preserve Liberty of Conscience is to keep the Test and Penal Laws III. For Thirdly If there be any reasou to suspect any other design than Liberty of Conscience as suppose to promote Popery and by degrees to make it the Established Religion of the Nation which certainly is the Design unless you can imagine that Priests and Jesuits and one who hath given up his Understanding and Conscience to them can ever be without this Design You will easily be convinced that there is infinite hazzard in repealing the Test and the Penal Laws This sets Papists upon an equal level with Protestants and then the Favour of the Prince will set them above them and when the whole power of the Nation and the whole administration of Justice is in Popish hands there will need no Penal Laws to persecute Protestants If you say this is done in a great many instances now before such a Repeal I answer then you may certainly guess what will be done when those incapacitating Laws are repealed And yet the difference is very great For while they are under such a legal Incapacity the distrust of their power will make them more modest which is the only thing that can plead excuse hereafter but when they have legal authority they will shew their Nature without restraint Men who have any thing to lose will act cautiously in prospect of an After-reckoning or while these legal incapacities continue will be afraid to act but when the Legal Authority and Power is in their hands Protestant Subjects will quickly find what a Popish liberty of Conscience means While these Laws continue some professed Professed Protestants whose Consciences are govern'd by their Interest are afraid to declare and by these means Popery wants hands and numbers to do its work But when these Laws are removed hopes of preferment will prevail on some and fear on others and when this frozen Adder begins to grow warm and recover its blood and spirits it will find its sting too This would certainly overthrow the Constitution of the Church of England which is the most effectual way to let in Popery For when all Incapacities are removed Papists are as well qualified for Church-Preferments as Protestants and it will be an easie matter to find pretences to remove the best Men to make way for them We have four Catholick Bishops as they vainly call themselves already prepared to fill vacant Sees and if such Men have the impudence to publish their Pastoral Letter and make their publick Visitations while all the Laws against them are in force judge what they will do when they are repealed Thus our Parishes may be filled with Roman Priests and they indeed are the fittest to serve under Roman Bishops And if one Colledge be already seized into Popish hands and the Protestant possessors turned out of their Freehold when those Laws are Repealed we may quickly see more follow them and judge whether this be not a fair and easie step to Popery Nay I have heard some good Lawyers say that when the Penal Laws are repealed Popery is the Established Religion of the Nation That when a repealing Law is repealed the repealed Law revives I am not so good a Lawyer as to judge of this but I think it is worth your Considering But who knows when all the Ecclesiastical Laws are Repealed what the King's Supremacy and his Ecclesiastical Commission may do There have been great and big words said of it of late and I believe You had better keep your Penal Laws than fall under the lash of a Popish Supremacy I know there hath been a great talk of an Equivalent but I would gladly know what that Equivalent should be Shall it incapacitate all Papists for any Office either in Church or State That must not be for fear of depriving the King of the natural right he has to the service of his Subjects and then I am sure there can be no Equivalent for the repeal of the incapacitating Laws But you say there shall be a New Charter for the Church of England the Protestant Religion and Liberty of Conscience Now shall this be with a Penalty or without one If with a penalty then you do not repeal but only exchange your Penal Laws and if Penal Laws are not such Unchristian things but they may be allowed we cannot have better for the security of our Religion than we have and therefore we had best keep these Is there any other fault in our Penal Laws especially when they are not executed but that they are too great a security to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest And if this be a reason for Protestants at this time to repeal them I have done But if this new Establishment be without a penalty what is it good for When these Penal Laws are removed Papists are qualified to sit in both Houses of Parliament and who knows whether Closetting and Reforming of Corporations and such other Arts may not quickly make a Popish Parliament And then Good Night to your New Establishment and Liberty of Conscience These things I hope Sir You will consider in your Choice of Members for Parliament and not be cheated with the Popular cry of Liberty of Conscience into the vilest and most despicable Slavery both of Soul and Body I am SIR Your very Cordial Friend and faithful Monitor A Plain Account of the PERSECUTION laid to the Charge of the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE desire of Liberty to serve God in that way and manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extremely provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the conceit withall which most men have that their way of serving God is the only acceptable way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all means to constrain all others to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same mind but have different inclinations in one state from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short view of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complain'd got their liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and Sequestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the Reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not
conform to the Presbyterial Government And when these Dissenting Brethren commonly known by the name of Independants had got a Party strong enough which carried all before them they would not allow the use of the Common Prayer in any Parish no not to the King himself in his own Chappel not grant to one of the old Clergy so much liberty as to teach a School c. Which things I do not mention God knows to reproach those who were guilty of them but only to put them in mind of their own Failings that they may be humbled for them and not insult over the Church of England nor severely upbraid them with that which when time was they acted with a higher hand themselves If I should report all that the Presbyterians did here and in Scotland and all that the Independants did here and in New-England it would not be thought that I exceed the Truth when I say they have been more guilty of this fault than those whom they now charge with it Which doth not excuse the Church of England it must be confessed but doth in some measure mitigate her fault For the Conformable Clergy having met with such very hard usage in that dismal time wherein many of them were oppressed above measure no wonder if the smart of it then fresh in their minds something imbittered their Spirits when God was pleased by a wonderful Revolution to put them into Power again III. Then a stricter Act of Uniformity was made and several Laws pursuant to it for the enforcing that Uniformity by severe Penalties But let it be remembred that none were by those Laws constrained to come to Church but had Liberty left them to serve God at home and some Company with them in their own way And let it be farther remembred that the reason why they were denied their liberty of meeting in greater Assemblies was because such Assemblies were represented as greatly endangering the publick Pecce and Safety as the words are in the very first Act of this nature against Quakers in the Year 1662. Let any one read the Oxford Act as it is commonly called made in the Year 1665. and that at Westminster in the Year 1670. and he will find them intended against Seditious Conventicles That is they who made them were perswaded by the Jesuit interest at first to look upon such Meetings as Nurseries of Sedition where bad Principles were infused into mens minds destructive to the Civil Government If it had not been for this it doth not appear that the Contrivers of these Laws were inclined to such Severities as were thereby enacted but the Nonconformists might have enjoyed a larger liberty in Religion It was not Religion alone which was considered and pretended but the publick peace and seulement with respect to which they were tyed up so straitly in the exercise of their Religion Which to deal clearly I do not believe would have taught Rebellion but this was constantly insinuated by the Court Agents and it is no wonder if the Parliament who remembred how the Ministers of that Persuasion though indeed from the then appearance of Popery had been the principal Incouragers of that Defensive War against the King were easily made to believe that they still retained the same Principles and would propagate them if they were suffered among the People Certain it is also that the Court made it their care to have those Acts passed though at the same time they hindred their execution that they might keep up both Parties in the height of their Animosities and especially that they might make the Church of England be both hated and despised by the Dissenters IV. Thus things continued for some time till wise men began to see into the Secret and think of a Reconciliation But is was alway hindred by the Court who never thought of giving Liberty by a Law but only by the Prerogative which could as easily take it away There was a time for instance when a Comprehension c. was projected by several Great Men both in Church and State for the taking as many as was possible into Union with us and providing Ease for the rest Which so netled the late King that meeting with the then Archbishop of Canterbury he said to him as I perfectly remember What my Lord you are for a Comprehension To which he making such a reply as signified he heard some were about it No said the King I will keep the Church of England pure and unmixed that is never suffer a Reconciliation with the Dissenters And when the Lords and Commons also had not many years ago passed a Bill for the repealing of the most heavy of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters viz. the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. which by the Parliament is made against the Wicked and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries and â—… persons his late Majesty so dealt with the Clerk of the Parliament that it was shuffled away and could not be sound when it was to have been presented to him among other Bills for his Royal Consent unto it A notable token of the abhorrence the Court then had of all Penal Laws and of their great kindness to Dissenters V. Who may remember if they please that as once there was a time when the Court turned out or chid those Justices who were forward in the Execution of the Laws against Nonconformists because they were then in so low a Condition that the Court was afraid the Church of England might indeed be established in its Uniformity So when the Nonconformists were by some liberty grown stronger and set themselves against the Court interest in the Election of Sheriffs and such like things then all those Justices were turned out who hung back and would not execute the Laws against them and Justices pickt out for the purpose who would do it severely Nay the Clergy were called upon and had Orders sent them to return the Names of all Nonconformists in their several Parishes that they might be proceeded against in the Courts Ecclesiastical And here I cannot forget the Order made by the Middlesex Justices at the Sessions at Hickses-Hall Jan. 13. 1681. Where they urge the Execution of the Act of 22 C. 2. against Conventicles because in all probability they will destroy both Church and State. This was the reason which moved them to call upon Constables and all other Officers to do their duty in this matter Nay to call upon the B. of London himself that he would use his utmost endeavours within his Jurisdiction that all such Persons may be Excommunicate This was a bold stroke proceeding from an unusual degree of Zeal which plainly enough signifies that the Bishops were not so forward as the Justices in the prosecuting of Dissenters Who may do well to remember that the House of Commons a little before this had been so kind to them that those Justices would not have dared to have been so severe as they were at Hickses-Hall if they had
lately printed that I who am so averse from Flattery that I can scarce speak a good word of any Body or think one good thought of my self will not write any further Panegyrick upon his Highness only that he is a very Honest Man a great Souldier and a Wise Prince upon whose Word the World may safely rely A late Pamphleteer reviles the Prince with breaking his Oath when he took the Statholder's Office upon him not considering that the Oath was impos'd upon his Highness in his Minority by a French Faction then jealous of the aspiring and true Grandeur â—… his Young Soul that the States themselves â—… whom the Obligation was made freed his Highness from the Bond and that the necessity of Affairs and the Importunities of the People forced that Dignity upon him which his Ancestors had enjoy'd and he so well deserv'd that he sav'd the sinking Common-wealth their Provinces being almost all surpriz'd and enslav'd by the French compared to the gasping State of Rome after the loss of Canne His Highness was no more pust up with this Success than he had been daunted with Hardships and Misfortunes always the same â—… Just Serene and Unchang'd under all Events and Argument of the vastness of his Mind whereas on the contrary Mutability sometimes Tyrant sometimes Father of a Country sometimes â—… other times Sneaking is oftentime a â—… of a Mean and Cowardly Soul vile and â—… born for Rapine and Destruction As for the Princess she may without any flattery be stiled the Honour and Glory of her Sex the most Knowing the most Virtuous the Fairest and yet the best Natur'd Princess in the World â—… and Admir'd by her Enemies never seen in any Passion always under a peculiar Sweetness of Temper extremely moderate in her Pleasures taking delight in Working and in Study Humble and Affable in her Conversation very percinent in â—… Questions Charitable to all Protestants and frequenting their Churches The Prince is often see with her at the Prayers of the Church of England and she with the Prince at the Devotion of â—… Church she dispenses with the use of the Surplice Bowing to the Altar and the Name of Jesus out â—… Compliance to a Country that adores her being more intent upon the Intrinsick and Substantial Parts of Religion Prayer and Good Works â—… speaks several Languages even to Perfection is entirely Obedient to the Prince and he extremely â—… to her in a word She is a Princess of many extraordinary Virtues and Excellencies without any appearance of vanity or the least mixture of â—… and upon whose promise the World may safely depend As for the many Plots and Conspiracies against this Royal Couple a short time may bring the all to light and faithful Historians publish them in the World Lastly We may observe that whereas it hath been the Maxim of several Kings both at home and abroad of late years to contend and outvie each other in preying upon and destroying not only their Neighbours but their own Protestant Subjects â—… all methods of Persidiousness and Cruelty the only way to establish Tyranny and to enslave the natural Freedom of Mankind being to introduce a general Ignorance Superstition and Idolatry For if once people can be perswaded that Statues and Idols are Divinities and adorable and that a Wafer is the infinite God after two or three ridiculous Words utter'd by a vile Impostor and Impudent Cheat then they may easily be brought to submit their necks to all the Yokes that a Tyrant and a Priest can invent and put upon them for if once they part with their Reason their Liberty will soon follow as we behold every day in the miserable enslav'd Countries where Popery domineers On the contrary it hath always been the steddy and immutable principle of the House of Orange to rescue Europe from its Oppressors and to resettle Governments upon the primitive and immortal Foundation of Liberty and Property a glorious Maxim taken from the old Roman Common-wealth that fought and conquer'd so many Nations only to set them free to restore them wholsome Laws their natural and civil Liberties a Design so generous and every way great that the East groaning under the Fetters and Oppressions of their Tyrants flew in to the Roman Eagles for Shelter and protection under whose Wings the several Nations liv'd free safe and happy till Traitors and Usurpers began to break in upon the Sacred Laws of that vertuous Constitution and to keep up Armies to defend that by Blood and Rapine which Justice would have thrown in their Face and punished them as they deserved the preservation and welfare of the People being in all Ages call'd the Supreme Law to which all the rest ought to tend From the foregoing Relation of matter of Fact it appears most plain that the Roman Catholicks are not to be ty'd by Laws Treaties Promises Oaths or any other bonds of Humane Society the sad experience of this and other Kingdoms declares to all Mankind the invalidity and insignificancy of all Contracts and Agreements with the Papists who notwithstanding all their Solemn Covenants with Hereticks do watch for all Advantages and Opportunities to destroy them being commanded thereunto by their Councils and the Principles of their Church and instigated by their Priests The History of the several Wars of the Barons of England in the Reigns of King John Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second in Defence of their Liberties and for redressing the many Grievances under which the Kingdom groan'd is a full representation of the Infidelity and Treachery of those Kings and of the Invalidity of Treaties with them how many Grants Amendments and fair Promises had they from those Princes and yet afterwards how many Ambuscades and Snares were laid to destroy those glorious Patricts of Liberty what Violations of Compacts and Agreements and what havock was made upon all Advantages and Opportunities that those false Kings could take Read their Histories in our several Chronicles FINIS â—…â—…