if dispersed to be sure they have not strength for such an Attempt But if they are not sufficient there is a Potent Prince not far off can help the Design who is not angry with Protestancy at home only Suppose this is there not as Potent Naval Powers to assist the Constitution of the Kingdom from such Invasions yes and Land ones too And as the Protestant Governments have more Ships then the other so an equal Land Force when by such attempts to make Popery universal they are awaken'd to the use of them But certainly we must be very silly to think the King should suffer so great a shake to his own Interest as admitting an Army of Forraigners to enter his Kingdom on any pretence must necessarily occasion These Bull-Beggers and Raw-Heads and Bloody-Bones are the Malice of some and Weakness of others But time that Informs Children will tell the World the meaning of the Fright The third Proof of my second Reason is the Intestine Division among themselves That Division weakens a great Body and renders a small one harmless all will agree Now that there is such a thing as Division among them is town talk The Seculars Regulars have ever been two Interests all the Roman Church over and they are not only so here but the Regulars differ among themselves There is not a Coffee-House in Town that does not freely tell us that the Jesuites and Benedictines are at variance that Count Da Da the Popes Nuncio and Bishop Lyborn Dissent mightily from the Politicks of the first Nay t'other Day the Story was that they had prevail'd Entirely over them The Lords and Gentlemen of her Communion have as warmly contested about the lengths they ought to go Moderation seems to be the conclusion Together they are little and can do little and divided they are Contemptible instead of Terrible Lastly the Roman Church ought to be discreet and think of nothing further then the entreated general Ease because it would be an extream that must beget another in the succeeding Raign For as I can never think her so weak as well as base that after all her Arguments for the Jus divinum of Succession she should in the Face of the World attempt to violate it in the wrong of One of another Perswasion for that were an eternal loss of her with Mankind So if she does not and yet is Extravagant she only rises higher to fall lower then all others in another Raign This were provoking their own Ruin. And to say true either way would as the second Letter has it discredit her for ever and make true Prophets of those they had taken such pains to prove false Witnesses And supposing her to reckon upon the just Succession nothing can recommend her or continue her happiness in a Raign of another Judgment but this Liberty equally maintained that other Perswasions more numerous for that reason as well as for their own sakes are obliged to insure her Here the Foundation is broad and strong and what is built upon it has the looks of long Life The Indenture will at least be quint-pertite and Parties are not so mortal as Men. And as this joyns so it preserves Interest intire which amounts to a Religious Amity and a Civil Vnity at the worst Upon the whole matter I advise the Members of the Roman Communion in this Kingdom to be moderate 't is their Duty and it belongs to all Men to see it and feel it from them and it behoves them mightily they would for the first part of this Discourse belongs to their Hopes as well as to the Church of Englands Fears viz. the Duty and Spirit of Christianity Next let them do good Offices between the King and his excellent Children for as that will be well taken by so affectionate a Father so it gives the lie to their Enemies Suggestions and recommends them to the Grace and Favour of the Successors And having said this I have said all that belongs to them in particular There is left only my Address to the Protestant Dissenters and a general Conclusion to finish this Discourse Your Case that are called Protestant Dissenters differs mightily from that of the Church of England and Rome For the first have the Laws for her the last the Prince Those Laws are against you and she is not willing they should be Repeal'd The Prince offers to be kind to you if you please Your Interest in this Conjuncture is the Question I think none ought to be made that it is the Liberty of Conscience desired because you have much more need of it having neither Laws nor Prince of your side nor a Successor of any of your Perswasions The Fears of Popery I know reach you but it is to be remembered also that if the Laws are not Repeal'd there wants no new ones to Destroy you of the Papists making so that every fear you are taught to have of their Repeal is against your selves Suppose your Apprehensions well grounded you can but be Destroy'd Which is most comfortable for you to suffer by Law or without it The Church of England by her Penal Laws and the Doctrine of Headship has Armed that Religion as it falls out to Destroy you Nay has made it a Duty in the King to do it from which says she nothing but an Act of Parliament can absolve him that she is not willing to allow And is it not as reasonable that you should seek their Repeal that if you suffer from the Papists It may be without human Law as well as against Christs Law as for the Church of England to keep them in force because if she suffers it shall be against the Laws made to uphold her For not repealing them brings you an inevitable mischief and her at most but an uncertain safety tho 't is certain she at the same time will Sacrifice you to it And yet if I were in her case it would please me better to remove Laws that might reproach me and stop my Mouth when turn'd against me and be content that if I Suffer for my Religion it is against the Law of God Christianity and the Fundamentals of the old and true Civil Government of my Country before such Laws helpt to spoil it In short you must either go to Church or Meet or let fall your Worshipping of God in the way you believe If the first you are Hypocrites and give away the Cause and reproach your dead Brethrens Sincerity and gratifie the old accusation of Schism Ambition c. and finally loose the Hope and Reward of all your Sufferings If the second viz. that you Meet against Law you run into the Mouth of the Government whose Teeth are to meet in you and Destroy you as by Law established If the last you deny your Faith over-throw your own Arguments fall away from the Apostolical Doctrine of assembling together and so must fall into the Hands of God and under the troubles of your own
managed it civilly for a while but Ambition in some and Covetousness in others on the one hand and Discretion giving way to Resentment on the other they first ply the Queen and her Ministers and when that ended in favour of the Men of Ceremony the others arraigned them before the first Reformers abroad at Geneva Bazil Zurich c. The leading Prelates by their Letters as Doctor Burnet lately tells us in his Printed Relation of his Travels clear themselves to those first Doctors of any such Imputation and lay all upon the Queen who for Reasons of State would not be brough to so Inceremonious a way of Worship as that of the Calvanists At this time there were Papists Protestants Evangelists Praecisians Vbiquitists Familists or Enthusiasts and Anabaptists in England when the very first Year of her Reign a Law for Vniformity in Worship and Discipline was enacted and more followed of the severest Nature and sometimes executed Thus then we see that there never was such a thing as a Church of England since the Days of Popery that is a Church of Communion containing all the People of the Kingdom and so cannot be said to be so much as a Twin of the Reformation nevertheless she got the Blessing of the Civil Magistrate She made him great to be great by him If She might be the Church He should be the Head. Much good may the Bargain do her Now is the time for her to stand to her Principle I never knew any body exceed their Bounds that were not met with at last If we could escape Men God we cannot his Providence will overtake us and find us out By all this then it appearing that the Church of England was not the Nation the Case is plain that the Penal Laws were a Make-bate for they Sacrificed every sort of People whose Consciences differed from the Church of England which first put the Romanist upon flattering Prerogative and courting its Shelter from the wrath of those Laws The Address could not be unpleasant to Princes and we see it was not for King James that came in with Invectives against Popery entring the List with the Learn'd of that Church and charging her with all the Marks the Revelation gives to that of Antichrist grew at last so tame and easy towards the Romanists that our own Story tells us of the Fears of the encrease of Popery in the latter Parliament of his Reign In King Charles the First 's time no body can doubt of the Complaint because that was in great measure the drift of every Parliament and at last one Reason of the War. On the other hand the Severity of the Bishops against Men of their own Principles and in the main of their own Communion either because they were more zealous in Preaching more followed of the People or could not wear some odd Garment and less lead the Dance on a Lords Day at a Maypole the Relique of Flora the Roman Strumpet or perhaps for rubbing upon the Ambition Covetousness and Laziness of the Dignified and Ignorance and Loosness of the ordinary Clergy of the Church of which I could produce Five hundred gross Instances I say these things breed bad Blood and in part gave beginnings to those Animosities that at last broke forth with some other Pretences into áll those National Troubles that agitated this poor Kingdom for Ten Years together in which the Church of England became the greatest Looser Her Clergy turn'd out her Nobility and Gentry Sequestred Decimated Imprisoned c. And whatever she is pleased to think nothing is truer then that her Penal Laws and Conduct in the Star-Chamber and high Commission Court in matters of Religion was her overthrow 'T is as evident the same Humour since the Restoration of the late King has had almost the same Effect For nothing was grown so little and contemptible as the Church of England in this Kingdom she now intitles her self the Church of Witness the Elections of the last three Parliaments before this I know it may be said the Persons chosen were Church goers I confess it for the Law would have them so But no body were more avers to the Politicks of the Clergy insomuch that the Parson and the Parish almost every where divided upon the question of their Election In truth it has been the Favour and Countenence of the Crown and not her intrinsick Interest or Value that has kept her up to this Day else her Penal Laws the Bulwork of the Church of England by the same figure than she is one against Popery had sunk her long since I hope I may by this time conclude without offence that the Penal Laws have been a Make-bate in the great Family of the Kingdom setting the Father against his Children and Brethren against Brethren not only giving the Empire to one but endeavouring to extinguish the rest and that for this the Church of England has once paid a severe Reckoning I apply it thus Is it not her Interest to be careful she does it not a second time she has a fair Opportunity to prevent it and keep her self where she is that is the Publick Religion of the Country with the real Maintenance of it which is a plain preference to all the rest If she hopes by her Aversion to a general Ease to set up for a Bulwork against Popery one Year will show the trick and mightily deceive her and the Oppertunity will be lost and another Bargain driven I dare assure her mightily to her Disadvantage Violence and Tyranny are no natural Consequences of Popery for then they would follow every where and in all places and times alike But we see in twenty Governments in Germany there is none for Religion nor was not for an Age in France and in Poland the Popish Cantons of Switzerland Venice Lucca Colonia c. where that Religion is Dominant the People enjoy their Ancient and Civil Rights a little more steadily than they have of late time done in some Protestant Countries nearer home almost ever since the Reformation Is this against Protestancy No but very much against Protestants For had they been true to their Principles we had been upon better Terms So that the Reformation was not the Fault but not keeping to it better than some have done For whereas they were Papists that both obtain'd the Great Charter and Charter of Forests and in the successive Reigns of the Kings of their Religion Industriously laboured the Confirmation of them as the great Text of their Liberties and Properties by above thirty other Laws we find almost an equal Number to Destroy them and but one made in their Favour since the Reformation and that shrowdly against the will of the high Church-men too I mean the Petition of Right in the third Year of Charles the first In short They desire a legal Security with us and we are afraid of it least it should insecure us when nothing can do it so certainly as their
make a perpetual civil Peace with her and that she refuses Would the Martyrs have done this surely no. Let her remember the first Argument honest old Fox advances against that Church is the Church of Englands present Darling viz. Penal Laws for Religion as she may see at the beginning of his first Volumn Doubtless he was much in the right which makes her extreamly in the wrong Nothing says the Prophet must harm in Gods holy Mountain and that 's the Church sayes Fox and therefore he says Christ's Church never Persecutes Leave then God with his own Work and Christ with his own Kingdom As it is not of the World let not the World touch it no not to uphold it tho they that bear it should trip by the way Remember Vzza he would needs support the Ark when the Oxen Stumbled but was struck Dead for his Pains The Presumption is more than Parralel Christ promis'd to be present with his Church to the end of the World. He bid them fear not and told them that sufficient was the Day for the Evil thereof How with Penal Laws no such matter but his Divine Persence Therefore it was He call'd not for Legions to fight for him because his Work needed it not They that want them have an other sort of Work to do And 't is too plain that Empire and not Religion has been too much the Business But O let it not be so any more To be a True Church is better then to be a National One especially as so uphold Press Vertue Punish Vice Dispence with Opinion Perswade but don't Impose Are there Tares in Opinion let them alone you heard they are to grow with the Wheat till Harvest that is the end of the World. Should they not be pluckt up before no and 't is Angles Work at last too Christ that knew all Men saw no Hand on Earth fit for that Business Let us not then usurp their Office Besides we are to Love Enemies this is the great Law of our Religion by what Law then are we to Persecute them and if not Enemies not Friends and Neighbours certainly The Apostle rejoyced that Christ was Preached out of Envy If so I am sure we ought not to envy Christians the enjoyment of the Liberty of their Consciences Christianity should be propagated by the Spirit of Christianity and not by Violence or Persecution for that 's the Spirit of Antichristianity Nor for fear of it should we of Christians become Antichristians Where is Faith in God where is trust in Providence let us do our Duty and leave the rest with Him and not do Evil that Good may come of it for that shows a Distrust in God and a Confidence in our own Inventions for security No reason of State can excuse our Disobedience to his Rule and we desert the Principles of our heavenly Master when we decline it The Question is about Conscience about this we can none of us be too tender nor exemplary 'T is in right doing that Christians can hope for Success and for true Victory only through Faith and Patience But if to avoid what we fear we contradict our Principles we may justly apprehend that God will desert us in an unlawful way of maintaining them Perhaps this may be Gods time of trying all Parties what we will do whether we well rely upon him or our own feeble Provisions whether we will allow what we our selves in our turn have all of us desired if not may we not expect to suffer the thing we would inflict for our Penal Laws cannot secure us from the turns of Providence and less support us under them Let us consider the true ground of the difficulty that is made if it be not partial and light in Gods Scale for to that tryal all things must come and his Judgment is inevitable as well as infallible Besides if we have not tryed all other methods we are inexcusable in being so tenacious for this I do therefore in all humility beseech all sorts of Professors of Christianity in these Kingdoms to abstract themselves from those Jealousies which worldly motives are apt to kindle in their Minds and with an even and undisturbed Soul pursue their Christian Duty in this great Conjuncture Considering the Race is not to the Swife nor the Battle to the Strong and that for all our Watchmen 't is God alone at last that keeps the City Not that I would decline a fitting but an unchristian Provision For though the Foundation were never so true yet if our Superstructure be Hay and Stuble our own narrow Devices the Fire will consume it and our Labour will be worse then in vain Let us not therefore Sow what we would not Reap because we must Reap what we Sow And remember who told us what we measure to others shall be meeted to us again Let us therefore do unto all Parties of men as we would be done unto by them in their tuâ—n of Power Least our fear of their undutifulness should tempt us out of our Duty and so draw upon our selves the mischiefs we are afraid of Sacred Writ is full of this in the Doctrine of both Testaments and as we profess to believe it we are inexcusable if we do not practice it Let the Spirit then of Christian Religion prevail Let our Policies give way to our Duty and our Fears will be overcome of our Hopes which will not make us asham'd at the last and great Judgment where O God! let us all appear with Comfort I could yet Enlarge upon this Subject for nothing can be more fruitful I could say that a Church that Denies Infallibility cannot force because she cannot be certain and so Penal Laws tho it were possible that they could be lawful in others in her would be Vnjust That Scripture leaves Men to Conviction and Perswasion That the true Chruch-Weapons are Light and Grace and her punishments Censure and Excommunication That Goals and Gibbets are Inadiquated Methods for Conversion and that they never succeeded That this forbids all further light to come into the World and so limits the Holy One which in Scripture is made a great Sin. And lastly that such ensnare their own Posterity that may be of an other mind and forfit by it the estates they have so carefully transmitted to them Thus far against Imposition And against Compliance I could say that it s to betray Gods Soveraignty over Conscience To deify Men Gratifie presumption foil and extinguish truth in the mind obey blindfold make over the Soul without Security turn Hipocrite and abundance more each of which heads might well merit an whole chapter But this having been well and seasonably consider'd elsewhere I shall now proceed to the second part of this discourse in which I will be as brief and yet as full as I can PART II. That 't is the Principle of Men of Note of all Parties BUT what need is there of this may some say when all Parties profess to
so free and excellent a Principle is come to make execute and uphold Penal Laws for Religion against her Conscientious Neighbours but it is to be hoped that like Nebuchadnezzar's Image whose Feet was a mixture of Iron and Clay and therefore could not stand for ever Persecution will not be able to mix so with the Seed of Men but that Humanity will overcome it and Mankind one day be delivered from that Iron hard and fierce Nature I have done with my Church of Englands Evidences against Persecution And for the Judgment of all sorts of Dissenters in that Point let their Practice have been what it will nothing is clearer than that they disallow of Persecution of which their daily Addresses of Thanks to the King for his General Ease by his Excellent Declaration are an undoubted Proof Thus then we see it is evident that it is not only the Duty of all Parties as they would be thought Christians to Repeal Penal Laws for Religion but upon a fair enquiry we see it is the avowed Principle of every Party at one time or other that Conscience ought not to be compel'd nor Religion impos'd upon worldly Penalties And so I come to the third and last part of this Discourse PART III. It is the Interest of all Parties and especially the Church of England AS I take all Men to be unwillingly separated from their Interests and consequently ought only to be sought and discours'd in them so it must be granted me on all hands that Interests change as well as Times and 't is the Wisdom of a Man to observe the Courses and humor the Motions of his Interest as the best way to preserve it And least any ill-natur'd or mistaken Person should call it temporizing I make this early Provision That I mean no immorral or corrupt complyance A Temporizing deservedly base with Men of Vertue and which in all times my Practice as well as Judgment hath shown the last Aversion to For upon the Principle I now go and which I lay down as common and granted in Reason and Fact with all Parties concern'd in this Discourse that Man does not change that morrally follows his Interest under all its Revolutions because to be true to his Interest is his first civil Principle I premise this to introduce what I have to offer with respect to the Interests to be now treated upon And first I say I take it to be the Interest of the Church of England to abolish the Penal Laws because it never was her Interest to make them My reasons for that Opinion are these First they have been an Argument to invalidate the Sufferings of the Reformers because if it be unlawful to disobey Government about matters of Religion they were in the wrong And if they say O but they were in Error that punish'd their Non-conformity I answer how can she prove that she is Infallibly in the Right And if this cannot be done she compels to an uncertainty upon the same terms Secondly She has overthrown the Principles upon which she separated from Rome For if it be unlawful to plead Scripture and Conscience to vindicate Dissent from her Communion it was unlawful for her upon the same Plea to dissent from the Church of Rome unless she will say again that she was in the Right but the other in the Wrong and she knows this is no Answer but a begging of the Question for they that separate from her think themselves as Serious Devout and as much in the Right as she could do If then Conscience and Scripture interpreted with the best Light she had were the ground of her Reformation she must allow the Liberty she takes or she eats her Words and subverts her Foundation then which nothing can be more destructive to the Interest of any Beeing Civil or Ecclesiastical Thirdly The Penal Laws have been the great Make-bate in the Kingdom from the beginning For if I should grant that she had once been truly the Church of England I mean consisting of all the People of England which she was not for there were divers Parties dissenting from the first of her establishment yet since it afterwards appear'd she was but one Party tho the biggest she ought not to have made her Power more National than her Faith nor her Faith so by the Force of her Temporal Authority 'T is true she got the Magistrate of her side but she engaged him too far For she knew Christ did not leave Caesar Executor to his last Will and Testament and that that should be the reason why she did so was none of the best Ornamentâ— to her Reformation That she was but a Party tho the biggest by the Advantages that temporal Power brought her I shall easily prove but I will introduce it with a short Account of our State-Reformation here in England Henry the Eighth was a kind of Hermophredite in Religion or in the Language of the times a Trimmer being a meddly of Papist and Protestant and that part he acted to the Life or to the Death rather Sacrificing on the same Day Men of both Religions because one was not Protestant enough and t'other Papist enough for him In this time were some Anabaptists for the distinction of Church of England and Calvanist was not then known Edward the Sixth succeeded a Prince that promised Vertues that might more than ballance the Excesses of his Father and yet by Arch-Bishop Cranmer was compelled to sign a Warrant to Burn poor Joan of Kent a famous Woman but counted an Enthusiast But to prove what I said of him 't was not without frequent Denials and Tears and the Bishop taking upon him to answer for it at Gods Judgment of which I hope his Soul was discharged tho his Body by the same Law suffered the same Punishment in the succeeding Reign Thus even the Protestants begun with Blood for meer Religion and taught the Romanists in succeeding times how to deal with them At this time the Controversie grew warm between the Church of England and the Calvanists that were the Abler Preachers and the Better Livers The Bishops being mostly men of State and some of them looking rather backward then forward Witness the Difficulty the King had to get Hooper Consecrated Bishop without Conformity to the reserved Ceremonies Queen Mary came in and ended the Quarrel at the Stake Now Ridly and Hooper hug and are the dearest Brethren and best Friends in the World. Hooper keeps his Ground and Ridly stoops with his Ceremonies to t'others further Reformation But this Light and Union flow'd from their Persecution For those abroad at Frankford and other places were not upon so good Terms Their Fewds grew so great that the one refused Communion with the other many endeavours were used to quench the Fire but they were ineffectual at best it lay under the Ashes of their Affliction for another time for no sooner was Queen Elizabeth upon her Throne then they returned and their Difference with them They
any Designs that may warp or byass things to their Advancement And that which ought to induce the Church of England not a little to hasten as well as do the thing is this she is now a sort of National Church by Power she will then be the Publick Church by Concurrence of all Parties Instead of Enemies to invade or undermine her they that should do it are made the Friends of her safety by the happiness they enjoy through her complacency And if any should be so unnatural or ungrateful to her the Interest of the rest will oblige them to be her Spys and Security against the Ambition of any such Party I do heartily pray to God that he would enlighten the Eyes of her Leaders and give them good Hearts too that Faction may not prevail against Charity in the name of Religion And above all that she would not be proud of her Numbers or stand off upon that Reflection for that alone will quickly lessen them in a Nation loving Freedom as much as this we live in And what appears in the Town is an ill Glass to take a prospect of the Country by There are Parishes that have Fifteen Thousand Souls in them and if two come to Church it is matter of Brag tho half the rest be sown among the several dissenting Congregations of their Judgment I would not have her mistaken tho Popery be an Unpopular thing 't is as certain she of a long time has not been Popular and on that Principle never can be And if she should Plow with that Heifer now and gain a little by the Aversion to Popery when it is discern'd that Popery does return to the civil Interest of the Kingdom they will quickly be Friends For besides that we are the easiest and best natur'd People in the World to be appeas'd there are those charms in Liberty and Property to English Nature that no endeavours can resist or disapoint And can we reasonably think the Romanists will be wanting in that when they see it is their own and perhaps their only Interest to do so These are the Arguments which I confess have prevailed with me to importune the Church of England to yeild to the Repeal of all the Penal Statutes and I should be glad to see them either well refuted or submitted to I shall now Address my self to those of the Roman Church and hope to make it appear it is their Interest to sit down thankfully with the Liberty of Conscience herein desired and that a Toleration and no more is that which all Romanists ought to be satisfied with My Reasons are these First The Opposition that Popery every where finds For in nothing is the Kingdom so much of a mind as in this Aversion 'T is no news and so may be the better said and taken I say then this Vnity this Vniversality and this Visibility against Popery make the attempt for more then Liberty of Conscience too great and Dangerous I believe there may be some poor silly Biggots that hope bigger and talk further but who can help that there are weak People of all sides and they will be making a Pudder But what 's the language of their true Interest the Infallible guide of the wiser Men Safety certainly and that in succeeding Raigns to chuse And if so their Steps must be modest for they are Watcht and Number'd And tho their Prudence should submit to their Zeal both must yeild to Necessity whether they like it or no. What they convert upon the Square Perswasion I mean is their own and much good may it do them But the fear is not of this and for compelling the avers Genius of the Kingdom they have not the means what ever they would do if they had them Which is my second Reason I say they have not the Power and that is what we apprehend most There are three things that prove this in my Opinion First their want of Hands next want of Time and lastly their Intestine Division which whatever we think is not inconsiderable They are few we must all agree to the Kingdom upon the best Computation that could be made Out of eight Millions of People they are not Thirty thousand and those but thinly sown up and down the Nation by which it appears that the Disproportion of the natural strength is not less than two hundred and seventy Persons to one So that Popery in England is like a Spirit without a Body or a General without an Army It can hurt no more than Bullets without Powder or a Sword and no Hand to use it I dare say there is not of that Communion enough at once to make all the Coal Fires in London and yet we are apprehensive they are able to consume the whole Kingdom I am still more afraid of her Fears than of them for tho they seem high she thinks their Religion in no Reign has appeared much lower O but they have the King of their Side and he has the Executive Power in his Hands True and this I call the Artificial Strength of the Kingdom But I say first we have his Word to bind him And tho some may think our Kings cannot be tyed by their People certainly they may be tyed by themselves What if I don't look upon the Act of both Houses to oblige the King his own Concession must and that may be given in an Act of State I take the King to be as well obliged in Honour and Conscience to what he promises his People in another Method as if it had been by his Royal Assent in Parliament for an honest mans Word is good every where and why a Kings should not I can't tell 'T is true the Place differs and the Voice comes with greater Solemnity but why it should with greater Truth I know not And if the Church of England will but be advised to give him the opportunity of keeping his repeated Word with her and not deprive her self of that advantage by Jealousies and Distances that make her suspected and may force him into another Conduct I cannot help believing that the King will not to a tittle let her feel the assurance and benefit of his Promises But next we have his Age for our Security which is the second Proof of the second Reason why the Papists should look no farther then a Toleration This is the want of time I mention'd They have but one Life in the Lease and 't is out of their power to renew and this Life has liv'd fast too and is got within seven of threescore A greater Age then most of his Ancestors ever attain'd Well but he has an Army and many Officers of his own Religion And if it be so what can it do It may suppress an Insurrection but upon the attemps we foolishly fear they were hardly a Breakfast to the Quarters they live in For if they were together all the confines or remote parts of the Nation would Rise like Grass upon them and