A PERSWASIVE TO Moderation TO Dissenting Christians In Prudence and Conscience Humbly submitted to the KING AND HIS Great Council By one of the Humblest and most Dutiful of his Dissenting Subjects Let your Moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at Hand Phil. 4. 5. A Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom Rougher Opposition fortifies K. Charles 1. to the late King London Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1685. THE PREFACE IF it was permitted to Antient Christians to Address Pagan Emperours and Infidels to Solicite Christian Caesars for Indulgence with Success 't were Rude in us to doubt the Issue of a Discourse of this Stile and Tendency with our Superiors when the Interest of the Monarch as well as Miseries of some of His Subjects make it necessary For if we consider the great Numbers that are Disabled in their Livelihoods and some that languish to Death by Confinement and the Spoil that is daily made of the Estates of others by Fines and the lavish and excessive way of raising them for pure Dissent in Matters of Worship And on the other hand how Injurious a state of Severity is to the Interest of the Prince by the Discouragement and Poverty of so great a Number of His People and consequently how much a discreet Indulgence would contribute to the Trade Peace and Amity of His Kingdom we shall be forc'd to conclude That in Prudence as well as Conscience Moderation is a desirable thing It were doubtless one of the most agreeable things in the World that Mankind were of One Mind because the occasion that we see is taken at the Differences Men have about Religion that should teach them to agree make them so uneasie and unhappy one to another But the pleasure of that Harmony is a thing to be wisht rather than yet expected 'T is Fact we differ and upon a point wherein Vnity is out of our Power such as we are what shall we do Destroy one another for our Differences or be moderate and try a discreet Liberty Men must thank themselves for their Animosity that suffer their Opinions to destroy their Affections Let us reflect what it was confounded the first Tongue and if Disobedience has not divided Man's Judgment yet we do not war for Mother-Tongue nor ought we for Religion Man's Fault has been to slight the Divine Oracle in his persuit of Truth and he is apt to entitule his own Thoughts to her Reputation Too many things in Religion and those too fine and nice made necessary to be believed have prest so hard upon the Liberty of Mankind that Nature heaves against the Burden We ought in Charity to presume that all men think they chuse the best way to Heaven especially where the choice is against the Stream and draws Loss or Disgrace after it If they are Mistaken they must be Rectified there where the Mistake lies and that is in the Understanding And to do it Successfully there must be Light and Moderation God gives one and it is our Duty and Wisdom to exercise the other Let us then pray to Almighty God That he would enlighten our Vnderstandings And to the end we may obtain our desire let us be sure to use the Light we have and more will be given us Let us with it see if Expedients may not be found to unite our Interests and so our Affections if not our Faiths How to keep the Peace and Indulge Dissenters safely serves the Government And to see clear we must put away the Prejudices of former Heats and not call Wrath Zeal nor Railing Loyalty As things now are what is best to be done I take to be the Wise Man's Question as to consider and answer it will be his Business Moderation is a Christian Duty Let your Moderation be known to all Men And has ever been the Prudent Man's Practice Those Governments that have used it in their Conduct have Succeeded best and the contrary been unhappy I remember it is made in Livy the Wisdom of the Romans that they relaxed their hand to the Privernates for by making their Conditions easie they made them most faithful to their Interest And it prevailed so much with the Petilians that they would endure any Extremity from Hannibal rather than desert their Friendship that had governed them with so much Moderation even then when the Romans discharged their Fidelity and sent them the Dispair of knowing they could not relieve them So did one Act of Humanity overcome the Falisci above Arms Which confirms that noble Saying of Seneca Mitius imperanti Melius paretur the Mildest Conduct is best obeyed A Truth Celebrated by Grotius Campanella Practised doubtless by the bravest Princes For Cyrus exceeded when he built the Jews a Temple and himself no Jew Alexander Astonisht the Princes of his Train with the profound Veneration he paid the High Priest of that People And Augustus was so far from Suppressing the Jewish Worship that he sent Hecatombs to Jerusalem to encrease their Devotion Moderation fill'd the Reigns of the most Renowned Caesars They were Nero's and Caligulas that lov'd Cruelty then But that which in a singular manner makes Moderation the King's Interest is that those penal Laws which vex Dissenters seem in themselves Antimonarchical and it is therefore less to be wonder'd if any of them have been tempted to be so too For whereas the Prerogative is the peculiar Glory of the King That which gives weight and lustre to his Crown it is so shar'd by these Laws to Poor and Informers that the KING can but put in for a third of his own Power A Triumvirat-ship or Three Estates of Prerogative King Poor and Informers For tho' the King would remit and the Circumstances of the Person deserve a Pardon it cannot be without the Consent of the other Two which is a kind of an Exclusion from two thirds of his Power and so a Dissolution of that entire Prerogative that his Ancestors had is his undoubted Right in the like cases And as some of these Laws injure the Prince so they deeply affect the Subject For People are not only tempted to Inform by Rewards to be sure not the cleanest way of Justice but the Oaths of such are made the Evidence to Convict which is Swearing in their own Cause and to their own profit But this is not all Men are Try'd Cast and Fin'd without a Jury An express Contradiction to one of the most celebrated Branches of the Great Charter So that the Interest of Prince and People as they ever should conspire in the Repeal of those Laws that furnish harsh and unkind Folks with the Power of disturbing their Conscientious Neighbours and which disable the Prince to Receive and Redress the Complaints of such of his Suffering Subjects The Example is to both dangerous but to the KING most If the Church of England claims the King's Promise of Protection 't is fit
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
help by private Collections to support him abroad and after the Overthrow of Sir G. Booth's Attempt to almost a Miracle restore him And which is more a great part of that Army too whose Victories rise from the Ruin of the Prince they restored But to give the last Proofs our Age has of the power of Interest against the Notion opposed by this Discourse First the Independants themselves held the greatest Republicans of all Parties were the most Lavish and Superstitous Adorers of Monarchy in Oliver Cromwell because of the regard he had to them allowing him and his Son after him to be Custos Vtriusque Tabule over all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supream Governour And next the Conformists in Parliament reputed the most Loyal and Monarchical men did more than any body question and oppose the late King's Declaration of Indulgence even They themselves would not allow so much Prerogative to the Crown This proves the Power of Interest and that all Perswasions center with it And when they see the Government engaging them with a fix't Liberty of Conscience they must for their own sakes seek the Support of it by which it is maintained This Vnion directed under the Prince's Conduct would awe the greatness of our Neighbours and soon return Europe to its antient Ballance and that into his hand too So that he may be the great Arbiter of the Christian World But if the Policy of the Government places the Security of its Interest in the Distruction of the civil Interest of the Dissenters it is not to be wondered at if they are less found in the praises of its Conduct than others to whom they are offered up a Sacrifice by it I know it will be insinuated That there is danger in builing upon the Vnion of divers Interests and this will be aggravated to the Prince by such as would engross his Bonny and intercept his Grace from a great part of his People But I will only oppose to that meer Suggestion three Examples to the contrary with this Challange That if after rummaging the Records of all Time they find one Instance to contradict me I shall submit the Question to their Authority The First is given by those Christian Emperors who admitted of all sorts of Dissenters into their Armies Courts and Senates This the Ecclesiastical Story of those Times assures us and particularly Socrates Evagrius and Onuphrius The Next Instance is that of Prince William of Orange who by a timely Indulgence united the scattered strength of Holland and all animated by the Clemency as well as Valour of their Captain crown'd his Attempts with an extraordinary Glory and what makes continues Great The last is given us by Livy in his account of Hannibals Army That they consisted of divers Nations Languages Customs Religions That under all their successes of War and Peace for Thirteen Years together they never mutinied against their General nor fell out among themselves What Livy relates for a Wonder the Marquess Virgilio Malvetzy gives the Reason of to wit their Variety and Difference well managed by their General for said he It was impossible for so many Nations Customs and Religions to combine especially when the General 's equal hand gave him more Reverence with them than they had of affection for one another This says he some would wholly impute to Hannibal but however great he was I attribute it to the variety of People in the Army For adds he Rome's Army was ever less given to Mutiny when ballanced with Auxiliary Legions then when intirely Roman Thus much in his Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus And they are neither few nor of the weakest sort of men that have thought the Concord of Discords the firmest Basis for Government to build upon The business is to Tune them well and that must be by the skill of the Misitian In Nature we see all Heat consumes all Cold kills That three Degrees of Cold to two of Heat allays the Heat but introduces the contrary Quality and over-cools by a Degree but two Degrees of Cold to two of Heat makes a Poize in Elements and a Ballance in Nature And in those Families where the evenest Hand is carried the Work is best done and the Master is most reverenced This brings me to another benefit which accrues to the Monarchy by a Toleration and that is a Ballance at home For though it be improbable it may so happen that either the conforming or non-conforming Party may be â—â—…tiful the one is then a Ballance to the other This might have prevented much Mischief to our second and third Henry King John the second Edward and Richard and unhappy Henry the sixth as it undeniably saved the Royal Family of France and secured Holland and kept it from truckling under the Spanish Monarchy While all hold of the Government 't is that which gives the Scale to the most Datiful but still no farther than to show Its Power and awe the disorderly into Obedience not to destroy the Ballance lest It should afterwards want the means of Over-poizing Faction That this is more than Fancy plain it is that the Dissenter must firmly adhear to the Government for his Being while the Church-man is provided for The one subsists by its Mercy the other by its Bounty This is ty'd by Plenty but that by Necessity which being the last of Tyes and strongest of Obligations the Security is greatest from him that it is fancied most unsafe to Tolerate But besides this the Tranquility which it gives at Home will both oblige those that are upon the Wing for Forreign Parts to pitch here again and at a time when our Neighbouring Monarch is wasting his People excite those Sufferers into his Majesties Kingdoms whose Number will encrease that of his Subjects and their Labour and Consumption the Trade and Wealth of his Dominions For what are all Conquests but of People And if the Government may by Indulgence add the Inhabitants of Ten Cities to those of its own it obtains a Victory without charge The Antient Persecution of France and the Low Countries has furnisht us with an invincible Instance for of those that came hither on that account we were instructed in most useful Manufacturies as by courses of the like nature we lost a great part of our Woollen Trade And as men in times of danger draw in their Stock and either transmit it to other Banks or bury their Talent at home for security that being out of sight it may be out of reach too and either is fatal to a Kingdom So this mildness entreated setting every mans Heart at rest every man will be at work and the Stock of the Kingdom employed which like the Blood that hath its due passage will give Life and Vigour to every Member in the publick Body And here give me leave to mention the Experiment made at Home by his late Majesty in his Declaration of Indulgence No matter how well or ill built the act of
to the Publick yet the Government cannot allow it without Ruin to the Church England which it is obliged to maintain But I think this 〈◊〉 not affect the Question at all unless by maintaing the Church of England it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of 〈◊〉 Communion or knock them on the Head Let us call to mind that the Religion that is true allows no man to do Wrong that Right may come of it And that nothing has lessen'd the Credit of any Religion more than declining to support it self by its own Charity and Piety and taking Sanctuary in the Arms rather than the Vnderstanding of men Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon The Church of England must be maintain'd Right but can't that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword with this Rebuke He that kills with the Sword with the Sword shall be killed if his Followers are to draw it again He makes killing for Religion Murder and deserving Death Was he then in the right Not to call Legions to his assistance And are not his Followers of these times in the wrong to seek to uphold their Religion by any methods of Force The Church of England must be maintain'd therefore the Dissenters that almost hold the same Doctrine must be ruined A Consequence most unnatural as it is almost impossible For besides that the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate who is the Image of divine Justice and Clemency and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church upon one that destres to be esteemed a True one she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed Kings can no more make Brick without Straw than Slaves The Condition of our Affairs is much chang'd and the Circumstances our Government is under differ mightily from those of our Ancestors They had not the same dissents to deal with nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable and their Prosecution mischievous to the State Nor did this come of the Princes neglect or 〈◊〉 There are other Reasons to be assigned of which the opportunities Domestick Trouble gave to their Increase and Power and the Severities used to suppress them may go for none of the least So that it was as involuntary in the Prince as to the Church Anxious And under this necessity to tye the Magistrate to old measures is to be regardless of Time whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the conduct of wise men in their present Actions Governments as well as Courts change their Fashions The same Clothes will not always serve And Politicks made Obsolete by new Accidents are as unsafe to follow as antiquated Dresses were ridiculous to ware Thus Sea-men know and teach us in their daily practice They humour the Winds though they will lie as near as they can and trim their Sails by their Compass And by patience under these constrained and uneven Courses it is they gain their Port at last This justifies the Governments change of Measures from the change of Things for res nolunt male Administrari And to be free it looks more then Partial to Elect and Reprobate too That the Church of England is prefer'd and has the Fat of the Earth the Authority of the Magistrate and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands which comprehends all the Honours Places Profits and Powers of the Kingdom must not be repined at Let her have it and keep it all and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her But to ruin Dissenters to compleat her Happiness pardon the Allusion is Talvauism in the worst sence for this is that Horrendem Decretum reduc'd to Practice And to pursue that ill-natured Principle Men are civilly Damn'd for that they cannot help since Faith is not in Man's power though it sometimes exposes one to it It is a severe Dilemma that a man must either renounce that of which he makes Conscience in the sight of God or be civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated There was a time when the Church of England her self stood in need of Indulgence and made up a great part of the Non-conformists of this Kingdom and what she then wanted she pleaded for I mean a Toleration and that in a general Stile as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor Bishop of Down entituled Liberty of Prophecy And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England is the Modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes For though perhaps it were indefencible in any Church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true unless she superceeded his Ignorance by Conviction rather than Authority it must doubtless look rude to punish men into Conformity to that of the truth of which the Church her self pretends no certainty Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious then one more confident but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh when they ruin People for not believing that which they have not in themselves the power of believing and which she cannot give them and of which her self is not infallibly assured The Drift of this is Moderation which well becomes us poor Mortals That for every idle Word we speak must give an account at the Day of Judgment if our Saviour's Doctrine have any credit with us It would much mittigate the Severity if the dissent were Sullen or in Contempt But if men can't help or hinder their Belief they are rather Vnhappy than Guilty and more to be pitied than blamed However they are of the reasonable stock of the Country and though they were unworthy of Favour they may not be unfit to live 'T is Capital at Law to destroy Bastards and By-blows are lay'd to the Parish to keep They must maintain them at last And shall not these natural Sons at least be laid at the Door of the Kingdom Unhappy fate of Dissenters to be less heeded and more destitute then any Body If this should ever happen to be the effect of their own Folly with submission it can never be the consequence of the Government 's Engagements Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest If God hath elected some to Salvation it will not follow of course that he hath absolutly rejected all the rest For tho' he was God of the Jews he was God of the Gentiles too and they were his People tho' the Jews were his peculiar People God respects not Persons says St. Peter the good of all Nations are accepted The Difference at last will not be of Opinion but Works Sheep or Goats all of all Judgments will be found and Come well done or Go ye Workers of Iniquity will conclude their Eternal State Let us be careful
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
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
Poor and Hospitality to their Neighbours recommends them to the first favour they have to bestow That Fort is unsafe where a part of the Garrison consists of disguised Enemies for when they take their turns at the Watch the danger is hardly evitable It would then certainly be for the safety of the Fort that such Friends in Masquerade were industrously kept out instead of being whipt in And it was something of this I remember that was made an Argument for the Declaration of Indulgence in the Preamble to wat the greater Safety of the Government from Open and Publick then private dissenting Meetings of worship as indeed the rest bear the like resemblance For these were the Topicks quieting the People encouraging Strangers to come and live among us and Trade by it and lastly preventing the Danger that might arise to the Government by private Meetings Of greater reason then from private men not less discontented but more concealed and secured by the great Drake of Church Conformity It is this will make a Comprehension of the next Dissenters to the Church dangerous tho' it were practicable of which side soever it be For in an Age the present Government shall feel the Art and Industry of the comprehended So that a Toleration is in reason of State to be prefer'd And if the Reasons of the Declaration were ever good they are so still because the Emergencies of State that made them so remain and our Neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our detriment But it will be now said Though the Government should find its account in what has been last alledged this were the way to overthrow the Church and encourage Dissenters to continue in their Errors Which is that second main Objection I proposed at first to answer in its proper place and that I think this is I humbly say if it prove the Interest of the three considerable Church-Interests in this Kingdom a Relaxation at least can hardly fail us The three Church Interests are That of the Church of England That of the Roman-Catholick-Dissenter and That of the Protestant-Dissenter That the Church of England ought in Conscience and Prudence to consent to the Ease desired I pray first that it be considered how great a reflection it will be upon her Honour that from a Persecuted she should turn a Persecuting Church An overthrow none of her Enemies have been able to give to her many excellent Apologies Nor will it be excused by her saying She is in the Right which her Persecutors were not since this is a confidence not wanting in any of them or her Dissenters and the truth is it is but the begging of a Question that will by no means be granted No body ought to know more then Church-men that Conscience cannot be forced That Offerings against Conscience are as odious to God as uneasie to them that make them That God loves a free Sacrifice That Christ forbad Fire though from Heaven it self to punish Dissenters and commanded that the Tares should grow with the Wheat till the Harvest In sine that we should love Enemies themselves And to exclude worldly strife for Religion That his Kingdom is not of this World This was the Doctrine of the Blessed Saviour of the World Saint Paul persues the same course Is glad Christ is Preached be it of Envy the worst ground for Dissent that can be It was he that ask't that hard but just Question Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant To his own Lord he standeth or falleth He allows the Church a Warfare and Weapons to perform it but they are not Carnal but Spiritual Therefore it was so advised that every man in matters of Religion should be fully perswaded in his own mind and if any were short or mistaken God would in his time Inform them better He tells us of Schismaticks and Hereticks too and their punishment which is to the point in hand He directs to a first and second Admonition and if that prevail not reject them That is refuse them Church Fellowship disown their Relation and deny them Communion But in all this there is not a Word of Fines or Imprisonments nor is it an excuse to any Church that the civil Magistrate executes the severity while they are Members of her Communion that make and execute the Laws But if the Church could gain her Point I mean Conformity unless she could gain consent too 't were but Constraint at last A Rape upon the Mind which may encrease her Number not her Devotion On the contrary the rest of her Sons are in danger by their Hypocrisie The most close but watchful and Revengeful thing in the World Besides the Scandal can hardly be removed To over-value Coyn and Rate Brass to Silver Beggers any Country and to own them for Sons she never begat debases and destroyes any Church 'T were better to indulge forreign Coyn of intrinsick Value and let it pass for its Weight 'T is not Number but Quality Two or three sincere Christians that form an Evangelical Church and tho' the Church were less more Charity on the one hand and Piety on the other with exact Church-censure and less civil Coertion would give her credit with Conscience in all Sects without which their Accession it self would be no benefit but disgrace and hazard to her Constitution And to speak prudently in this Affair 't is the Interest of the Church of England not to suffer the Extinction of Dissenters that she may have a Counter Ballance to the Roman Catholicks who though few in Number are great in Quality and greater in their forreign Friendships and Assistance On the other hand it is her Interest to Indulge the Roman-Catholick that by his Accession She may at all times have the Ballance in her own hand against the Protestant Dissenter leaning to either as she finds her Doctrine undermined by the one or her Discipline by the other or lastly her civil Interest endangered from either of them And it is certainly the Interest of both those Extreams of Dissent that She rather than either of them should hold the Scale For as the Protestant-Dissenter cannot hope for any Tenderness exclusive of Roman Catholicks but almost the same Reasons may be advanced against him so on the other hand it would look imprudent as well as unjust in the Roman Catholicks to solicite any Indulgence exclusive of Protestant Dissenters For besides that this keeps up the Animosity which it is their Interest to bury The consequence will be to take the advantage of Time to snatch it from one another when an united Request for Liberty once granted will oblige both Parties in all times for Example sake to have it equally preserved Thus are all Church-Interests of Conformists and Dissenters rendered consistent and safe in their civil Interest one with the other But it will last of all doubtless be objected That though a Toleration were never so desirable in it self and in its consequence beneficial
sure this Course hath succeeded well elsewhere even in Monarchiacal States And therefore in it self not inconsistent with Monarachy And Lastly Because this Freedom will be best kept and improv'd to the publick Benefit by maintaining a good Understanding between the divers Orders of Christians within themselves 'T were farther requisit That first No Nick-Names were continued and all Terms of Reproach on all hands punishable Secondly That Controversial Points were carefully avoided and Vice declin'd and Holiness prest Without which St. Paul tells us no-man shall see the Lord. God Almighty inspire the KING's Heart and those of his Great Council to be the Instruments of this Blessing to the Kingdom I shall conclude this Perswasive with the Judgment of some Pious Fathers and Renowned Princes QUadratus and Aristides wrote two Apologies to Adrian for the Christian Faith and against the Persecution of it Iustin Martyr an excellent Philosopher and Christian writ two learned Disswasives against Persecution which he dedicated as I take it to Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Melito Bishop of Sardis a good and learned man 〈◊〉 smart Defence for the Christian Religion and a Toleration dedicated to Verus Tertullian in his most sharp and excellent Apology for the Christians fastens Persecution upon the Gentiles as an inseperable Mark of Superstition and Error as he makes the Christian Patience a Sign of Truth In his Discourse to Scapula he sayes 'T is not the property of Religion to Persecute for Religion she should be received for her self not Force Hilliary an early and learned Father against Auxentius saith The Christian Church does not persecute but is persecuted Atticus Bishop of Constantinople would by no means have the Minister of Nice to respect any Opinion or Sect whatsoever in the Distribution of the Money sent by him for the Relief of Christians and by no means to prejudice those that practise a contrary Doctrine and Faith to theirs That he should be sure to relieve those that hunger thirst and have not wherewith to help themselves and make that the rule of his consideration In short he made the Hereticks to have his Wisdom in Admiration in that he would by no means trouble or molest them Proclus another Bishop of Constantinople was of this Opinion That it was far easier by fair means to allure unto the Church than by force to compell He determined to vex no Sect whatever but restored to the Church the renowned Virtue of Meekness required in Christian Ministers If we will next hear the Historians own Judgment upon a Toleration I am of opinion says he that he is a Persecutor that in any kind of way molesteth such men as lead a quiet and peaceable Life Thus Socrates in his third Book In his seventh he tells us That the Bishop of Sinada indeed did banish the Hereticks but neither did he this says he according to the Rule of the Catholick Church which is not 〈◊〉 to persecute l. 7. Lactantius tells the angry men of his time thus If you will with Blood Evil and Torments defend your Worship it shall not thereby be defended but polluted Chrysastom saith expresly That it is nâ—â— the manner of the Children of God to persecute about their Religion but an evident Token of Antichrist Thus the Fathers and Doctors of the first Ages That Emperors and Princes have thus believed let us hear some of greatest note and most pressing to us Ierom a good and learned Father saith That Heresie must be cut off with the Sword of the Spirit Constantinus the Father of Constantine the great laid this down for a Principle That those that were Disloyal to God would never be trusty to their Prince And which is more he liv'd thus and so dy'd as his great Speech to his great Son on his Death-bed amply evidences Constantine the Great in his Speech to the Roman Senate tells them There is this difference between Humane and Divine Homage and Service that the one is compell'd and the other ought to be free Eusebius Pamphili in the Life of Constantine tells us that in his Prayer to God he said Let thy People I beseech thee desire and maintain Peace living free from Sedition to the common good and benefit of all the World and those that are