Insecuring that it preserv'd the Tranquility of the Empire Nor till the time of Celestine Bishop of Rome were the Novations disturbed And the Persecution of them and the Assumption of the secular Power began much at the same time But the Novations at Constantinople were not so dealt withal for the Greek Bishops continued to permit them the quiet enjoyment of their dissenting Assemblies as Socrates tells us in his fifth and seventh Book of Ecclesiastical Story I shall descend nearer our own times for notwithstanding no Age has been more furiously moved then that which Jovianus found and therefore the Experiment of Indulgence was never better made yet to speak more in view of this time of day we find our Contemporaries of remoter Judgments in Religion under no manner of difficulty in this point The Grand Signior great Mogul Zars of Mnscovia King of Persia the great Monarchs of the East have long allow'd and prosper'd with a Toleration And who does not know that this gave Great Tamerlan his mighty Victories In these Western Countries we see the same thing Cardinal d'Ossat in his 92d Letter to Villroy Secretary to Hâ—nry the fourth of France gives us Doctrine and Example for the Subject in hand Besides says he that Necessity has no Law be it in what case it will our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us by his Gospel To let the Tares alone lest removing them may endanger the Wheat That other Catholick Princes have allow'd it without Rebuke That particularly the Dake of Savoy who as great a Zâ—â—â—ot as he would be thought for the Catholick Religion Tolerates the Hereticks in three of his Provinces namely Aâ—groyne Luerne and Perose That the King of Poland does as much not only in Sweedland but in Poland itself That all the Princes of the Austrian Family that are celebrated as Pillars of the Catholick Church do the like not only in the Town of the Empire but in their proper Territories as in Austria it self from whence they take the Name of their Honour In Hungary Bohemia Moravia Lusatia Stirria Camiolia and Croatia the like That Charles ' the fifth Father of the King of Spain was the Person that taught the King of France and other Princes how to yield to such Emergencies That his Son the present King of Spain who is esteemed Arch Catholick and that is as the Atlas of the Catholick Church Tolerates notwithstanding at this day in his Kingdomes of Valentia and Granada the Moors themselves in their Mâ—humatisme and has offer'd to those of Zealand Holland and other Hereticks of the Low-Countries the free Exercise of their pretended Religion so that they will but acknowledge and Obey him in Civil Matters It was of those Letters of this extraordinary Man for so he was whether we regard him in his Ecclesiastical Dignity or his greater Christian and Civil Prudence that the great Lord Fulkland said A Minister of State should no more be without Cardinal d' Ossat's Letters than a Parson without his Bible And indeed if we look into France we shall find the Indulgence of those Protestants hath been a flourishing to that Kingdom as their Arms a Succour to their King 'T is true that since they help't the Ministers of his Greatness to Success that haughty Monarch has changed his Measures and resolves their Conformity to his own Religion or their Ruin but no man can give another Reason for it than that he thinks it for his turn to please that part of his own Church which are the present necessary and unwearied Instruments of his absolute Glory But let us see the end of this Conduct it will require more time to approve the Experiment As it was the Royal Saying of Stephen King of Poland That he was a King of Men and not of Conscience a Commander of Bodies and not of Souls So we see a Toleration has been practised in that Country of a long time with no ill Success to the State the Cities of Cracovia Racovia and many other Towns of Note almost wholly dissenting from the common Religion of the Kingdom which is Roman Catholick as the others are Socinian and Calvanist the most opposite to that as well as to themselves The King of Denmark in his large Town of Altona but about a Mile from Hambrough and therefore called so that is All to near is a pregnant proof of our point For though his Seat be so remote from that place and another strong and insinuating State so near yet under his Indulgence of divers Perswasions they enjoy that Peace and he that Security that he is not upon better Terms in any of his more Immediate and Vniform Dominions I leave it to the thinking Reader if it be not much owing to this Freedom and that a contrary course were not the way for him to furnish his Neighbours with means to Depopulate that place or make it uneasie and chargeable to him to keep If we look into other parts of Germany where we find a Stout and War-like People fierce for the thing they opine or believe we shall find the Prince Palatine of the Rhine safe and more potent by his Indulgence 〈◊〉 his Improvements at Mâ—nhine And as believe me 〈◊〉 the Prince to his People in other things so in this to the Empire for he has made bold with the Constitution of it in the Latitude he gives his Subjects in this Affair The Duke of Bradenburg is himself a Calvanist his People mostly Lutherain yet in part of his Dominions the Roman-Catholicks enjoy their Churches quietly The Duke of Newburg and a strict Roman Catholick Brother-in-Law to the present Emperor in his Province of Juliers has not only at Dewsburg Mulheim and other places but in Deuseldorp it self where the Court resides Lutherain and Calvanist as well as Roman Catholick Assemblies The Duke of Saxony by Religion a Lutherain in his City of Budissin has both Lutherains and Roman Catholicks in the same Church parted only by a Grate In Ausburg they have two chief Magistrates as their Duumvirat one must alwayes be a Roman Catholick and the other a Lutherain The Bishop of Osnabrug is himself a Lutherain and in the Town of his Title the Roman Catholicks as well as Lutherains have their Churches and which is more the next Bishop must be a Catholick too for like the Buckets in the Well they take turns one way to be sure so that one be but in the Right From hence we will go to Sultzbach a small Territory but has a great Prince I mean in his own extraordinary Qualities for among other things we shall find him act the Moderator among his People By profession he is a Roman Catholick but has Simultaneum Religionis Exercitium not only Lutherains and Roman Catholicks enjoy their different Worships but alternatively in one and the same place the same day so ballancing his Affection by his Wisdom that there appears neither Partiality in him nor Envy in them though of such opposite Perswasions I
will end these forregin Instances with a Prince and Bishop all in one and he a Roman Catholick too and that is the Bishop of Mentz who admits with a very Peaceable success such Lutherains with his Catholicks to enjoy their Churches as live in his Town of Erford Thus does Practice tells us that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration On the contrary the Laws of the Empire which are the Acts of the Emperor and the Soveraign Princes of it have tolerated these three Religious Perswasions viz. the Roman-Catholick Lutherain and Calvanist and they may as well tolerate three more for the same Reasons and with the same Success For it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in Doctrine or in Worship On the contrary they differ much and by that and other Circumstances are sometimes engaged in great Controversies yet is a Toleration practicable the way of Peace with them And which is closest to our point at home it self we see that a Toleration of the Iews French and Dutch Churches in England both Dissenters from the National Way And the Connivance that has been in Ireland And the down-right Toleration in most of his Majesties Plantations abroad proves the Assertion That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy For Experience tells us where it is in any degree admitted the King's Affairs prosper most People Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact why Toleration is safe to Monarchy Story tells us that worse things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Vnion than in places under divided forms of Worship and so tolerating Countries stand to the Prince more than upon equal terms with conforming ones And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries they have as often come from the Conforming as Non-conforming party and so the Dissenter is upon equal terms to the Prince or State with the Conformist The first is evident in the Iews under the conduct of Moses their Dissention came from the men of their own Tribes such as Corah Dathan and Abiram with their pertakers To say nothing of the Gentiles The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor proves my point who by the greatest Church-men of his time was withstood and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness by them substituted in his room because more officious to their Grandure What power but that of the Church dethron'd Childrek King of France and set Pippin in his place The miseries of the Emperors Henry the fourth and fifth Father and Son from their rebellious Subjects raised and animated by the power of Conformists dethroning both as much as they could are notorious 'T is as plain that Sigismond King of Sweedland was rejected by that Lutherain Country because he was a Roman-Catholick If we come nearer home which is most suitable to the Reasons of the discourse we find the Church-men take part with William Rufus and Henry the first against Robert their elder Brother and after that we see some of the greatest of them make Head against their King namely Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his party as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry Stephen Usurpt the Crown when there was a Church Vnion And King John lived miserable for all that and at last dyed by one of his own Religion too The Dissentions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third and the Barrons War with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General The Deposition and Murther of the second Edward Richard sixth Henry and his Son the Prince The Vsurpation of Richard the third and the Murther of the Sons of Edward the fourth in the Tower of London The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond afterwards our wise Henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion and by the Hands of Conformists In short if we will but look upon the civil War that so long raged in this Kingdom between the Houses of York and Laneaster and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion and both back't with numbers of Church-men too to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland especially the first and third James will find cause to say That Church-Vniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are tolerated we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter The Disorders among the Iews after they were settled in the Land that God had given them came not from those they tolerated but themselves They cast off Samuel and the Government of the Judges 'T was the Children of the National Church that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom and animated the Rebellion against his Father David They were the same that revolted from Solomon's Son and cryed in behalf of Jeroboam To your Tents O Israel Not two Ages ago the Church of France too generally fell in with the Family of Guise against their lawful Soveraign Henry the fourth Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief who stiled it an holy War at that time fearing not without cause the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See In this conjuncture the Dissenters made up the best part of that King's Armies and by their Loyalty and Blood preserved the Blood Royal of France and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince That King was twice assinated and the last time murdered as was Henry the third his Predecessor but they fell one by the hand of a Church-man the other at least by a Conformist 'T is true that the next civil War was between the Catholicks and the Hugenots under the conduct of Cardinal Richlien and the Duke of Roan But as I will not justifie the Action so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the fourth as the reward of their singular Merit being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded they say they did but defend their own and that rather against the Cardinal than the King whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person And there is this Reason to believe them that if it had been otherwise we are sure that King Charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their Quarrel However the Cardinal like himself wisely knew when to stop For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown to moderate their greatness and check their growth yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the fore-going Age he saw ' twaswise to have a Ballance upon occasion But this was more then recompenc'd in their first Adhesion to the Crown of France under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal when their Perswasion had not only Number and many good Officers to value it self upon but
case of the meanest Person in a Kingdom Nor is this all the benefit that attends the Crown by the preservation of Civil Rights for the Power of the Monarchy is kept more entire by it The King has the benefit of his Whole People and the Reason of their Safety is owing to their Civil and not Ecclesiastical Obedience Their Loyalty to Caesar and not Conformity to the Church Whereas the other Opinion would have it that no Conformity to the Church no Property in the State Which is to clog and narrow the civil Power for at this rate No Church-Man No English-man and no Conformist no Subject A way to Alien the King's People and practise an Ecclusion upon him from it may be a fourth part of his Dominions Thus it may happen that the ablest State-man the bravest Captain and the best Citizen may be disabled and the Prince forbid their Imployment to his Service Some Instances of this we have had since his late Majesties Restoration For upon the first Dutch-War Sir William Penn being commanded to give in a List of the ablest Sea-Officers in the Kindom to serve in that Expedition I do very well remember he presented our present King with a Catalogue of the knowingest and bravest Officers the Age had bred with this subscrib'd These men if his Majesty will please to admit of their Perswasions I will answer for their Skill Courage and Integrity He pickt them by their Ability not their Opinions and he was in the right for that was the best way of doing the King's business And of my own knowledge Conformity robb'd the King at that time of Ten men whose greater Knowledge and Valour than some one ten of that Fleet had in their room been able to have saved a Battel or perfected a Victory I will name three of them The first was Old Vice-Admiral Goodson than whom no body was more Stout or a Sea-man The second Captain Hill that in the Saphire beat Admiral Everson hand to hand that came to the Relief of old Trump The third was Captain Potter that in the constant Warwick took Captain Beach after eight hours smart Dispute And as evident it is that if a War had proceeded between this Kingom and France seven years ago the business of Conformity had deprived the King of many Land-Officers whose share in the late Wars of Europe had made knowing and able But which is worst of all such are not safe with their dissent under their own extraordinary Prince For though a man were a great Honourer of his Prince a Lover of his Country an Admirer of the Government In the course of his Life sober wise industrous and useful if a Dissenter from the establish't Form of Worship in that condition there is no Liberty for his Person nor Security to his Estate As Vseless to the Publick so Ruin'd in himself For this Net catches the best Men true to their Conscience and who indulged are most like to be so to their Prince whilst the rest are left to Cousen him by their change for that is the unhappy end of forced Conformity in the poor spirited Compliers And this must always be the consequence of necessitating the Prince to put more and other Tests upon his People than are requisit to secure him of their Loyalty And when we shall be so happy in our measures as to consider this Mischief to the Monarchy it is to be hop'd it will be thought expedient to dis-intangle Property from Opinion and cut the untoward Knot some men have tyed that hath so long hamper'd and gaul'd the Prince as well as People It will be then when civil Punishments shall no more follow Church faults that the civil Tenure will be recover'd to the Government and the Natures of Acts Rewards and Punishments so distinguish't as Loyalty shall be the safety of Dissent and the whole People made useful to the Government It will perhaps be objected That Dissenters can hardly I obliged to be true to the Crown and so the Crown unsafe in their very Services for they may easily turn the Power given them to serve it against it to greaten themselves I am willing to obviate every thing that may with any pretence be offer'd against our entreated Indulgence I say No and appeal to the King himself against whom the Prejudices of our late Times ran highest and therefore has most reason to resent If he was ever better lov'd or serv'd than by the Old Roundheaded Sea-men the Earl of Sandwich Sir William Penn Sir J. Lawson Sir G. Ascue Sir R. Stainer Sir Jer. Smith Sir J. Jordan Sir J. Harmon Sir Chris. Minns Captain Sansum Cuttins Clark Robinson Molton Wager Tern Parker Haward Hubbard Fen Langhorn Daws Earl White to say nothing of many yet living of real Merit and many inferior Officers expert and brave And to do our Prince Justice he deserv'd it from them by his Humility Plainness and Courage and the care and affection that he always shew'd to them If any say That most of these men were Conformists I presume to tell them I know as well as any man they serv'd the King never the better for that on the contrary 't was all the strife that some of them had in themselves in the doing that service that they must not serve him without it and if in that they could have been Indulged they had perform'd it with the greatest Alacrity Interest will not lye Where People find their Reckoning they are sure to be True For 't is want of Wit that makes any man false to himself 'T was he that knew all mens Hearts that said Where the Treasure is there the Heart will be also Let men be easie safe and upon their preferment with the prince and they will be Dutiful Loyal and most Affectionate Mankind by nature fears Power and melts at Goodness Pardon my Zeal I would not be thought to plead for Dissenters Preferment 't is enough they keep what they have and may live at their own Charges Only I am for having the Prince have Room for his choice and not be crampe and stinted by Opinion but imploy those who are best able to serve him And I think out of six Parties 't is better picking than out of one of them and therefore the Prince's interest is to be head of all of them which a Toleration effects in a moment since those six divided Interests within themselves having but 〈◊〉 civil Head become one intire civil Body to the Prince And I am sure I have Monarchy on my side if Solomon and his Wisdom may stand for it who tells us That the Glory of a King is in the Multitude of his People Nor is this all for the Consequences of such an Universal Content would be of infinite moment to the security of the Monarchy both at Home and Abroad At Home for it would behead the factions without Blood and Banish the Ring-leaders without going abroad When the great bodies of Dissenters see
State was 't is no part of the business in hand but what effect the Liberty of it had upon the Peace and Wealth of the Kingdom may have instruction in it to our present Condition 'T was evident that all men Laboured cheerfully and Traded boldly when they had the Royal Word to keep what they got and the King himself became the universal Jusurer of Dissenters Estates White-Hall then and St. James's were as much visited and courted by their respective Agents as if they had been of the Family For that which eclipsed the Royal Goodness being by his own Hand thus removed his benigne Influences drew the returns of Sweetness and Duty from that part of his Subjects that the want of those Influences had made barren before Then it was that we look't like the Members of one Family and Children of one Parent Nor did we envy our eldest Brother Episcopacy his Inheritance so that we had but a Child's Portion For not only Discontents vanish't but no matter was left for ill Spirits forreign or domestick to brood upon or hatch to Mischief Which was a plain proof that it is the Vnion of Interests and not of Opinions that gives Peace to Kingdoms And with all Deference to Authority I would speak it the Liberty of the Declaration seems to be our English Amomum at least the Soveraign Remedy to our English Constitution And to say true we shifted Luck as soon as we had lost it like those that loose their Royal Gold their Evil returns For all Dissenters seem'd then united in their affection to the Government and follow'd their Affairs without fear or distraction Projects then were stale and unmerchantable and no body cared for them because no body wanted them That gentle Opiate at the Prince's hand laid the most busie and Turbulent to sleep But when the loss of that Indulgence made them uncertain and that uneasie their Persons and Estates being again exposed to pay the Reckoning of their Dissent no doubt but every Party shifted then as they could Most grew selfish at least jealous fearing one should make Bargains apart or exclusive of the other This was the fatal part Dissenters acted to their common Ruin And I take this Partiality to have had too great a share in our late Animosities which by fresh Accidents falling in have swell'd to a mighty Deluge such an one as hath overwhelmed the former civil Concord and Serenity of the Kingdom And pardon me if I say I cannot see that those Waters are like to asswage till this Olive Branch of Indulgence be some way or other restored The Waves will still cover our Earth and a spot of Ground will hardly be found in this glorious Isle for a great Number of useful People to set a quiet foot upon And to persue the Allegory what was that Ark it self but the most apt and lively Emblem of Toleration A kind of natural Temple of Indulgence In which we find two of every living Creature dwelling together of both Sexes too that they might propagate and that as well of the unclean as clean kind So that the baser and less useful sort were saved Creatures never like to change their Nature and so far from being whip't and punish't to the Altar that they were expresly forbid These were Saved these were Fed and Restored to their Antient Pastures Shall we be so mannerly as to complement the Conformists with the stile of Clean and so humble as to take the Vnclean kind to our selves who are the less Noble and more Clownish sort of People I think verily we may do it if we may but be saved too by the Commander of our English Ark. And this the Peaceable and Virtuous Dissenter has the less reason to fear since Sacred Text tells us 'T was Vice and not Opinion that brought the Deluge upon the rest And here to drop our Allegory I must take leave to hope that thought the Declaration be gone if the reason of it remain I mean the Interest of the Monarchy the King and His Great Council will graciously please to think a Toleration no Dangerous nor Obsolete thing But as Toleration has many Arguments for it that are drawn from the Advantages that have would come to the Publick by it so there are divers Mischiefs that must unavoidably follow the Persecution of Dissenters that may reasonably disswade from such Severity For they must either be Ruin'd Fly or Conform and perhaps the last is not the Safest If they are Ruin'd in their Estates and their Persons Imprison'd modestly computing a fourth of the Trade and Manufactury of the Kingdom sinks and those that have help't to maintain the Poor must come upon the Poors Book for Maintenance This seems to be an Impoverishing of the Publick But if to avoid this they Transport themselves with their Estates into other Governments nay though it were to any of his Majesties Plantations the Number were far too great to be spar'd from Home So much Principal Stock wanting to turn the yearly Traffick and so many People too to consume our yearly Growth must issue fatally to the Trade one way and on the Lands and Rents of the Kingdom the other way And Lastly If they should resolve neither to suffer nor fly but conform to prevent both It is to be enquired if this Cure of Church-Division be safe to the State or not rather a raking up Coals under Ashes for a future Mischief He whom Fear or Policy hath made Treacherous to his own Conscience ought not to be held True to any thing but his own Safety and Revenge His Conformity gives him the first and his Resentment of the Force that compels it will on no occasion let him want the last So that Conformity couzens no body but the Government For the State Phanatick which is the unsafe thing to the State being christen'd by Conformity he is Elegible every where with Persons the most devoted to the Prince And all men will hold themselves protected in their Votes by it A Receipt to make Faction keep and preserve Disloyalty against all Weathers For whereas the nature of Tests is to discover this is the way to conceal the Inclinations of men from the Government Plain Dissent is the Prince with a Candle in His hand He sees the Where and What of Persons and Things He discriminates and makes that a rule of conduct but forc'd Conformity is the Prince in the dark It blows out his Candle and leaves him without Distinction Such Subjects are like Figures in Sand when Water is flap't upon them they run together and are indiscernable Or written Sedition made illegible by writing the Oaths Canons upon it The safest way of blotting out Danger And I know not how to forbear saying that this necessary Conformity makes the Church dangerous to the State For even the Hypocrisie that follows makes the Church both conceal and protect the Hypocrites which together with their Liberality to the Parson Charity to the
therefore of an Opinion-Reprobation of one another We see the God of Nature hath taught us softer Doctrine in his great Books of the World His Sun shines and his Rain falls upon all All the Productions of Nature are by Love and shall it be proper to Religion only to propagate by Force The poor Hen instructs us in Humanity who to defend her feeble Young refuses no danger All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the use of Man are produc'd by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun 'T is Kindness that upholds human Race People don't multiply in spight And if it be by gentle and friendly ways that Nature produces and matures the Creatures of the World certainly Religion should teach us to be Mild and Bearing Let your Moderation be known to all men was the saying of a great Doctor of the Christian Faith and his Reason for that command Cogent For the Lord is at hand As if he had said Have a care what you do be not bitter nor violent for the Judge is at the Door Do as you would be done to lest what you deny to others God should refuse to you And after all this shall the Church of England be less tender of mens Consciences than our common Law is of their Lives which had rather a Thousand Criminals should escape than that One Innocent should perish Give me leave to say that there are many Innocents Conscience excepted now exposed Men honest peaceable and useful free of ill designes that pray for Caesar and pay their Tribute to Caesar If any tell us They have or may ill use their Toleration I say this must be look't to and not Liberty therefore refused for the English Church cannot so much forget her own Maxim to Dissenters That Propter abusum non est Tollendus usus It suffices to our Argument 't is no necessary Consequence and that Fact and Time are for us And if any misuse such Freedom and entitle Conscience to Misbehavour we have other Laws enough to catch and punish the Offendors without treating One Party with the Spoils of Six And when Religion becomes no mans Interest it will hardly ever be any mans Hypocrisie Men will chuse by Conscience which at least preserves Integrity though it were mistaken And if not in the wrong Truth recompences Inquiry and Light makes amends for Dissent And since a plain Method offers it self from the Circumstances of our case I take the freedom to present it for the Model of the entreated Toleration Much has been desired said and prest in reference to the late King 's being Head of a Protestant League which takes in but apart of the Christian World the Roman and Grecian Christians being excluded But I most humbly offer that our wise men would please to think of another Title for our King and that is Head of a Christian League and give the Experiment here at Home in his own Dominions The Christian Religion is admitted of All in the Text and by All acknowledged in the Apostles Creed Here every Party of Christians meet and center as in a General The several Species of Christians that this Genus divideth it self into are those divers Perswasions we have within this Kingdom the Church of England Roman-Catholicks Grecians Lutheraus Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers Socinians These I call so many Orders of Christians that unite in the Text and differ only in the Comment All owning one Deity Saviour and Judge good Works Rewards and Punishments which Bodies once regulated and holding of the Prince as Head of the Government maintaining Charity and pressing Piety will be an Honour to Christianity a Strength to the Prince and a Benefit to the Publick For in lieu of an unattainable at best an unsincere Vniformity we shall have in Civils Vnity and Amity in Faith The Iews before and in the time of Herod were divided into divers Sects There were Pharisees Sadduces Herodians and Essenes They maintained their Dissent without Ruine to the Government And the Magistrates fell under no censure from Christ for that Toleration The Gentiles as already has been observ'd had their divers orders of Philosophers as disagreeing as ever Christians were and that without danger to the Peace of the State The Turks themselves show us that both other Religions and divers Sects of their own are very Tolerable with seourity to their Government The Roman Church is a considerable instance to our point for she is made up of divers Orders of both Sexes of very differing Principle fomented sometimes to great Feuds and Controversies as between Franciscans Dominicans Iesuits and Sorbomists yet without danger to the Political state of the Church On the contrary she therefore cast her self into that Method that she might safely give vent to Novelty and Zeal and suffer both without danger of Schism And these Regulars are by the Popes Graunts privileg'd with an Exemption from Episcopal Visitation and Jurisdiction Changing then the Terms from Church to State the whole contrivance looks very Wise and Imitable For as by this Schisme in their Church so Faction in our State may be prevented And these civil Regulars depending on the civil Power as those Religious ones do upon the Popes will Naturally like them become the Perpetual Votarys of its greatness And thus all Parties hanging like Keys by one Ring at the civil Magistrates Girdle tho' each has its several Lock he that keeps them can open and shut every Door as the Persons deserve and the publick Safety requires To make this more easie a 〈◊〉 and Practice I humbly propose First that every Party do present a voluntary Assurance of their Fidelity to the Government in Terms the most full and pain that may be In which as the King will have an Account of their Number so of their Duty to the Government and Abhorrence of all Faction and Rebellion Secondly That they should give in a List of their Meetings as to Place Time and the Persons properly belonging to them Thirdly that once in every Year the names of Proselytes be delivered into the Clark of the Peace for every County and that all of that Party as well as those new Adherents do renew their Obligation of Obedience by Annual Subscriptions Fourthly Because it is not impossible that some or other may mis-behave themselves and abuse this Liberty or be abused in the use of it That in every County three Persons of most Eminency be Yearly Named to the Magistrates by each Dissenting Interest to stand a kind of Representatives both to inform them what they can upon inquiry of Persons or Things among the People of that Party Which may in the least be thought to affect the Government and to have redress of injuries done to Persons in the sober use of their allowed Liberty These are the Methods that have had most weight with me and the best I know to create a Reciprocal Confidence and Interest between the Prince and his Dissenting People To be