other ill then that for Non-conformity in Matters of Religion they bear Indignities patiently To be short If all the Interruptions Informations Fines Imprisonments Exiles and Blood the great Enemy of Nature as well as Grace hath excited man in all Ages to about Matters of Worship from Cain and Abel's time to ours could furnish us with sufficient Presidents that the Design proposed by the Inflictors of so much Severity was ever answered that they have smother'd Opinions and not Inflamed but Extinguisht Contest it might perhaps at least prudentially give Check to our Expectations and allay my just Confidence in this Address But since such Attempts have ever been found Improsperous as well as that they are too Costly and that they have procured the Judgments of God the Hatred of Men to the Sufferers Misery to their Countries Decay of People and Trade and to their own Consciences an infinite Guilt I fall to the Question and then the Solution of it in which as I declare I intend nothing that should in the least abate of that Love Honour and Service that are due to you so I beseech you do me that Justice as to make the fairest Interpretation of my Expressions for the whole of my Plain and Honest Design is to offer my Mite for the Increase of your True Honour and my dear Country's Felicity The QUESTION WHat is most Fit Easie and Safe at this Juncture of Affairs to be done for Composing at least Quieting Differences for Allaying the Heat of Contrary Interests and making them Subservient to the Interest of the Government and Consistent with the Prosperity of the Kingdom The ANSWER I. An Inviolable and Impartial Maintenance of English Rights II. Our Superiours governing themselves upon a Ballance as near as may be towards the several Religious Interests III. A sincere Promotion of General and Practical Religion I shall briefly discourse upon these Three Things and endeavour to prove them a sufficient if not the only best Answer that can be given to the Question propounded Of ENGLISH-RIGHT THere is no Government in the World but it musteither stand upon Will and Power or Condition and Contract The one rules by Men the other by Laws And above all Kingdoms under Heaven it is England's Felicity to have her Constitution so impartially Just and Free as there cannot well be any thing more remote from Arbitrariness and jealous of preserving her Laws by which all Right is maintain'd These Laws are either Fundamental and so immutable or more Superficial and Temporary and consequently alterable By Superficial Laws we understand such Acts Laws or Statutes as are suited to present Occurrences and Emergencies of State and which may as well be abrogated as they were first made for the Good of the Kingdom For Instance Those Statutes that relate to Victuals Cloaths Times and Places of Trade c. which have ever stood whilst the Reason of them was in Force but when that Benefit which once redounded fell by fresh Accidents they ended according to that old Maxim Cessante ratione legis cessat lâ—x By Fundamental Laws I do not only understand such as immediately spring from Synteresis that Eternal Principle of Truth and Sapience more orless disseminated through Mankind which are as the Corner Stones of Humane Structure the Basis of reasonable Societies without which all would run into Heaps and Confusion namely Honeste vivers alterum non loedere jus suum cuique tribuere that is To live Honestly not to Hurt another and to give every one their Right Excellent Principles and common to all Nations Though that it self were sufficient to our present purpose But those Rights and Priviledges which I call English and which are the proper Birth right of English men may be reduced to these Three First An Ownership and Undisturbed Possession That what they have is rightly theirs and no Body's else 2dly A Voting of every Law that is made whereby that Ownership or Propriety may be maintained 3dly An Influence upon and a real Share in that Judicatory Power that must apply every such Law which is the Ancient Necessary and Landable Use of Juries if not found among the Brittains to be sure practised by the Saxons and continued through the Normans to this very day That these have been the Ancient and Undoubted Rights of English men as three great Roots under whose spacious Branches the English People have been wont to shelter themselves against the Storms of Arbitrary Government I shall endeavour to prove 1. An Ownership and Undisturbed Possession This relates both to Title and Security of Estate and Liberty of Person from the Violence of Arbitrary Power 'T is true the Foot Steps of the Brittish Government are very much over-grown by Time There is scarcely any thing remarkable left us but what we are beholden to Strangers for either their own Unskilfulness in Letters or their Depopulations and Conquests by Invaders have deprived the World of a particular Story of their Laws and Customs in Peace or War However Caesar Tacitus and especially Dion say enough to prove their Nature and their Government to be as far from Slavish as their Breeding and Manners were remote from the Education and greater Skill of the Romans Beda and M. West minster say as much The Law of Property they observed and made those Laws that concern'd the Preservation of it The Saxons brought no Alteration to these two Fundamentals of our English Government for they were a Free People govern'd by Laws of which they themselves were the Makers that is There was no Law made without the Consent of the People de majoribus omnes as Tacitus observeth of the Germans in general They lost nothing by transporting of themselves hither and doubtless found a greater Consistency between their Laws then their Ambition For the Learned Collector of the Brittish Councils tells us That Ethelston the Saxon King pleading with the People told them Seeing I according to your Law allow what is yours do ye so with me Whence Three Things are observable 1st That something was theirs that no Body else could dispose of 2dly That they have Property by their own Law therefore they had a Share in making their own Laws 3dly That the Law was Umpier between King and People neither of them ought to infringe the Law limited them This Ina the Great Saxon King confirms There is no Great Man saith he nor any other in the whole Kingdom that may abolish written Laws It was also a great part of the Saxon Oath administred to the Kings at their Entrance upon the Government to Maintain and Rule according to the Laws of the Nation Their Parliament they called Micklemote or Wittangemote it consisted of King Lords and People before the Clergy interwove themselves with the Civil Government And Andrew Horn in his Miror of Justice tells us That the Grand Assembly of the Kingdom in the Saxon time was to confer of the Government of
God's People how they might be kept from Sin in quiet and have Right done them according to the Customs and Laws Nor did this Law end with the Saxon Race William the Conqueror as he is usually called quitting all claim by Conquest gladly stoopt to the Laws observed by the Saxon Kings and so became a King by Leave valuing a Title by Election before that which is founded in Power only He therefore at his Coronation made a solemn Covenant to maintain the good approv'd and ancient Laws of the Kingdom and to inhibit all Spoil and unjust Judgment And this Henry the first his third Son amongst others his Titles mentioned in his Charter to make Ely a Bishoprick calls himself Son of William the Great who by Hereditary Right succeeded King Edward call'd the Confessor in this Kingdom An ancient Chronicle of Leichfield speaks of a Council of Lords that advised William of Normandy To call together all the Nobles and Wise Men throughout their Counties of England that they might set down their own Laws and Customs which was about the fourth year of his Reign Which implies that they had Fundamental Laws and that he intended their Confirmation as followeth And one of the first Laws made by this King which as a notable Author saith may be called the first Magna Charta in the Norman Times by which he reserved to himself nothing of the Free-men of this Kingdom but their Free Service in the Conclusion of it saith that The Lands of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom were granted to them in Inheritance of the King and by the Common Council of the whole Kingdom which Law doth also provide That they shall hold their Lands and Tenements well or quietly and in Peace from all unjust Tax and Tillage which is further expounded in the Laws of Henry the first ch 4. That no Tribute or Tax should be taken but what was due in Edward the Confessor's Time So that the Norman Kings claim no other Right in the Lands and Possessions of any of their Subjects then according to English Law and Right And so tender were they of Property in those times that when Justice it self became importunate in a Case no Distress could issue without publick Warrant obtained nor that neither but upon Three Complaints first made Nay when Rape and Plunder was rife and men seem'd to have no more Right to their own then they had Power to maintain even then was this law sufficient Sanctuary to all Oppressed by being publickly pleaded at the Bar against all Usurpations though it were under the Pretence of their Conqueror's Right it self as by the Case of Edwin of Sharnbourn appears The like Obligation to maintain this Fundamental Law of Property with the appendent Rights of the People was taken by Rufus Henry the 1st Stephen Henry the 2d Richard the 1st John and Henry the 3d which brings me to that Famous Law called Magna Charta or The Great Charter of England of which more anon it being my Design to shew That nothing of the Essential Rights of English men was thereby de novo granted as in Civility to King Henry the third it is termed but that they are therein only repeated and confirmed Wherefore I shall return to antecedent Times tofetch down the remaining Rights The second part of this first Fundamental is Liberty of Person The Saxons were so tender in the point of Imprisonment that there was little or no use made of it nor would they so punish their Bond-men vinculis coercere rarum est In case of Debt or Dammage the Recovery thereof was either by a Delivery of the just Value in Goods or upon the Sheriffs Sale of the Goods in Money and if that satisfied not the Land was extended and when all was gone they were accustomed to make their last Seizure upon the Party's Arms and then he was reputed an Undone Man and cast upon the Charity of his Friends for Subsistence but his Person never imprison'd for the Dâ—bt no not in the King's Case And to the Honour of King Alfred be it spoaken He imprison'd one of his Judges for Imprisoning a Man in that Case And we find among his Laws this Passage Qui immerentem Paganum vinâ—ulâ—s 〈◊〉 striâ—xerâ—t decâ—m solidis noxam sarcito That if a Man should imprison a Pagan or Heathen unjustly his Purgation of that Offence should be no less then the Payment of Ten Shillings a Sum very considerable in those dayes Nor did the Revolution from Saxon to Norman drop this Priviledge for besides the general Confirmation of former Rights by William surnamed the Conqueror his Son Henry the first particularly took such Care of continuing this part of Property inviolable that in his Time no Person was to be imprison'd for committing of Mortal Crime it self unless he were first attainted by the Verdict of Twelve Men. Thus much for-the first of my Three Fundamentals Right of Estate and Liberty of Person that is to say I am no man's Bond-man and what I possess is inviolably mine own 2. A Voting of every Law that is made whereby that Ownership or Propriety may be maintained That the second Fundamental of our English Government was no Incroachment upon the Kings of more modern Ages but extant long before the great Charter made in the Reign of Hen. 3. even as early as the Brittains themselves and that it continued to the time of Hen. 3. I shall prove by several Instances Caesar in his Commentaries tells us That it was the Custom of the British Cities to Elect their General and if in War why not in Peace Dion assures us in the Life of Severus the Emperor That in Brittain the People held a Share in Power and Government which is the modestest Construction his words will bear And Tacitus saith They had a Common Council and that one great Reason of their Overthrow by the Romans was their not Consulting with and Relying upon their Common Council Again Both ad and Mat Westminster tell us That the Brittains summon'd a Synod chose their Moderator and expell'd the Pelagian Creed All which supposes popular assemblies with Power to order National Affairs And indeed the learned Author of the Brittish Councils gives some Hints to this Purpose That they had a Common Council and call'd it KYFR-Y-THEN The Saxons were not inferiour to the Brittains in this Point and Story furnisheth us with more and plainer Proofs They brought this Liberty along with them and it was not likely they should loose it by transporting themselves into a Country where they also found it Tacitus reports it to have been generally the German Liberty like unto the Concie of the Athenians and Lacedemonians They call their Free-men Frilingi and these had Votes in the Making and Executing the general Laws of the Kingdom In Ethelbert's time after Austin's Insinuations had made his Followers a Part of the Government the Commune Concilium was
its Creator so can there be No Representative without a People nor that People free which all along is intended as inherent to and inseparable from the English People without Freedom nor can there be any Freedom without something be Fundamental In short I would fain know of any Man how the Branches can cut up the Root of the Tree that bears them How any Representative that is not only a meer Trust to preserve Fundamentals the Peoples Inheritance but that is a Representative that makes Laws by Virtue of this Fundamental Law that the People hath a Power in Legislation the 2d Principle prov'd by me can have Power to remove or destroy that Fundamental The Fundamental makes the People free this free People make a Representative Can this Creature unqualifie its Creator What Spring ever rose higher then its Head The Representative is at best but a true Copy an Exemplification the free People are the Original not cancellable by a Transcript And if that Fundamental that gives to the People a Power of Legislation be not annullable by that Representative because it makes it what it is much less can that Representative disseize Men of their Liberty and Property the first Great Fundamental that is the Parent of this other which intitles to a Share in making Laws for the Preservation of the first inviolably Nor is the third other then the necessary Production of the two first to intercept Arbitrary Designs and make Power legal for where the People have not a Share in Judgment that is in the Application as well as making of the Law the other two are imperfect open to daily Invasion should it be our Infelicity to have a violent Prince for as Property is every day expos'd where those that have it are destitute of Power to hedge it about by Law-making so those that have both if they have not the Application of the Law but the Creatures of another Part of the Government how easily is that Hedge broken down And indeed as it is a most just and necessary as well as ancient and honourable Custom so it is the Princes Interest for still the People are concern'd in the Inconveniencies with him and he is freed from the Temptation of doing arbitrary Things and their Importunities that might else have some Pretence for such Adresses as well as from the Mischiefs that might ensue such Actions It might be enough to say that here are above 50 Statutes now in Print beside its venerable Antiquity that warrant and confirm this Legale judicium parium suorum or the Tryal of English Men by their Equals But I shall hint at a few Instances The first is The Earl of Lancaster in the 14th of Edw. 2. adjudged to dye without Lawful Tryal of his Peers and afterwards Henry Earl of Lancaster his Brother was restored the Reasons given were two 1. Because the said Thomas was not arraign'd and put to Answer 2. That he was put to Death without Answer or Lawful Judgment of his Peers The like Proceedings were in the Case of John of Gaunt p. 39. coram Rege And in the Earl of Arundel's Case Rot. Parl. 4 Edw. 3. n. 13. And in Sr. John Alce's Case 4 Edw. 3. n. 2. Such was the Destruction committed on the â—d Hastings in the Tower of London by Richard the 3d. But above all that Attainder of Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex who was attainted of high Treason as appears Rot. Parl 32. Hen. 8. of which saith Chief Justice Cook as I remember Let Oblivion take away the Memory of so foul a Fact if it can if not however let Silence cover it 'T is true there was a Statute obtained in the 11th of Henry the 7th in Defiance of the Great Charter which authoriz'd several Exactions contrary to the free Customs of this Realm particularly in the Case of Juries both sessing and punishing by Justices of Assize and of the Peace without the fining and Presentment of 12 Free-men Empson and Dudley were the great Actors of those Oppressions but they were hang'd for their Pains and that illegal Statute repealed in the 1st of Henry the 8th c. 6. The Consequence is plain That Fundamentals give Rule to Acts of Parliament else why was the Statute of the 8th Edw. 4. c. 2. of Liveries and Information by the Discretion of the Judges to stand as an Original and this of the 11th of Henry the 7th repealed as illegal for therefore any Thing is unlawful because it transgresseth a Law But what Law can an Act of Parliament transgress but that which is Fundamental Therefore Tryal by Juries or Lawful Judgment of Equals is by Acts of Parliament confest to be a Fundamental Part of our Government And because Chief Justice Cook is generally esteem'd a great Oracle of Law I shall in its proper Place present you with his Judgment upon the whole Matter 5. These Fundamentals are unalterable by a Representative which were the Result and Agreement of English Free-men individually the ancienter Times not being acquainted with Representatives for then the Free-men met in their own Persons In all the Saxons Story we find no Mention of any such Thing for it was the King Lords and Free-men the Elders and People and at the Counsel of Winton in 855. is reported to have been present the Great Men of the Kingdom and an INFINIT MULTITUDE of other faithful People Also that of King Ina the common Council of the Elders PEOPLE of the WHOLE Kingdom It is not to be doubted but this continued after the Norman Times and that at Running Mead by Staâ—â—s the Freemen of England were personally present at the Confirmation of that great Charter in the Reign of King John But as the Ages grew more human with respect to Villains and Retainers and the Number of Free-men encreased there was a Necessity for a Representative especially since Fundamentals were long ago agreed upon and those Capital Priviledges put out of the Reach and Power of any litle Number of Men to endanger And so careful were their Representatives in the time of Edward the Third of suffering their Liberties and free Customs to be infring'd that in Matters of extraordinary Weight they would not determin till they had first return'd and conferr'd with their several Counties or Burroughs that delegated them Several Authorities in Confirmation of the Reasons So indubitably are these Fundamentals the Peoples Right and so necessary to be preserved that Kings have successively known no other safe or legal Passage to their Crown Dignity then their solemn Obligation inviolably to maintain them So sacred were they reputed in the Dayes of Henry the 3d that not to continue or confirm them were to affront God and damn the Souls of his Progenitors and Successors to Depress the Church and Deprave the Realm That the Great Charter comprehensive of them should be allow'd as the common Law of the Land by all Officers of Justice that is
Pretence to Mercy or Justice can the Protestant Church null the Romish that she may retain the English Part without conforming to Rome and yet now cancel the English Part it self to every free-born English Man that will not conform to Her But no more of this at this Time only give me leave to remind a Sort of active Men in our Times that the cruel Infringers of the Peoples Liberties and Violaters of these Noble Laws did not escape with bare Excommunications and Gurses for such was the venerable Esteem our Ancestors had for these great Priviledges and deep Sollicitude to preserve them from the Defacings of Time or Usurpation of Power that King Alfred executed 40 Judges for warping from the ancient Laws of the Realm Hubert de Burgo Chief Justice of England in the Time of Edw. 1. was sentenced by his Peers in open Parliament for advising the King against the Great Charter Thus Spencers both Father and Son for their Arbitrary Rule and Evil Counsel to Edw. 2. were exiled the Realm No better Success had the Actions of Tresilian Belknap And as for Empson and Dudley though Persons of some Quality in the Time of King Henry the 7th the most ignominious Death of our Country such as belongs to Theft and Murder was scarce Satisfaction enough to the Kingdom for their Illegal Courses I shall chuse to deliver it in the Words of Chief Justice Cook a Man whose Learning in Law hath not without Reason obtained a venerable Character of our English Nation There was saith he an Act of Parliament made in the 11th Year of King Hen. 7. which had a fair flattering Preamble pretending to avoid divers Mischiefs which were 1st To the high Dispicasurs of Almighty God 2dly The great Let of the Common Law And 3dly The great Let of the Wealth of this Land And the Purven of that Act tended in the Execution contrary EX DIAMETRO viz. To the high Displeasure of Almighty God and the great Let nay the utter Subversion of the Common Law and the great Let of the Wealth of this Land as hereafter shall appear the Substance of which Act follows in these Words THat from thenceforth as well Justices of Assizs as Justices of the Peace in every County upon Information for the King before them made without any Finding or Presentment by Twelve Men shall have full Power and Authority by their Discretion and to hear and determine all Offences as Riots unlawful Assemblies c. committed and done against any Act or Statute made and not repeal'd c. By Pretext of this Law Empson and Dudley did commit upon the Subjects insufferable Pressure and Oppressions and therefore this Statute was justly soon after the Decease of Hen. 7. repealed at the next Parliament by the Statute of 1 Hen. the 8. chap. 6. A good Caveat to Parliaments to leave all Causes to be measur'd by the Golden and strait Metwand of the Law and not to the incertain and crooked Cord of Discretion It is almost incredible to foresee when any Maxim or Fundamental Law of this Realm is altered as elsewhere hath been observed what dangerous Inconveniencies do follow which most expresly appears by this MOST UNJUST and strange Act of the 11th of Hen. 7. For hereby not only Empson and Dudley themselves but such Justices of Peace corrupt Men as they caused to be authorised committed most grievous and heavy Oppressions Exactions grinding the Faces of the poor Subjects by penal Laws be they never so obsolete or unfit for the Time by Information only without any Presentment or Tryal by Jery being the ANCIENT BIRTH RIGHT of the Subject but to hear and determine the same by their Discretions inflicting such Penalty as the Statute not repealed imposed These and other like Oppressions and Exactions by the Means of Empson and Dudley and their Instruments brought infinite Treasure to the King's Coffers whereof the King himself at the End with GREAT GRIEF and COMPUNCTION REPENTED as in another Place we have observ'd This Statute of the 11th of Hen. 7. we have recited and shewed the just Inconveniencies thereof to the End that the like should NEVER hereafter be attempted in any Court of Parliament and that others might avoid the FEARFUL END of those two Time-Servers Empson and Dudley Qui eorum vâ—â—â—igiis insistant exitus perhorrescant I am sure there is nothing I have offer'd in Defence of English-Law Doctrine that riseth higher then the Judgment and Language of this great Man the Preservation and Publication of whose Endeavours became the Care of a great Parliament And it is said of no inconsiderable Lawyer that he should thus express himself in our Occasion viz. The Laws of England were never the Dictates of any Conqueror's Sword or the Placita of any King of this Nation or saith he to speak impartially and freely the Results of any Parliament that ever sate in this Land Thus much of the Nature of English Rights and the Reason and Justice of their inviolable Maintenance I shall now offer some more general Considerations for the Preservation of Property and hint at some of those Mischiefs that follow spoiling it for Conscience sake both to Prince and People 1. The Reason of the alteration of any Law ought to be the Discommodity of Continuing it but there can never be so much as the least Inconveniency in continuing of Liberty and Property therefore there can be no just Ground for infringing much less abrogating the Law that gives and secures them 2. No Man in these Parts is born Slave to another neither hath one Right to inherit the Sweat of the others Brow or reap the Benefit of the others Labour but by Consent therefore no Man should be deprived of Property unless he injure another Man's 3. But certainly nothing is more unreasonable then to sacrifice the Liberty and Property of any Man being his Natural and Civil Rights for Religion where he is not found breaking any Law relating to Natural Civil Things Religion under any Modification is no Part of the old English Government Honeste vivere alterum non ladere jus suum cuique tribeure are enough to entitle every Native to English Priviledges A Man may be a very good English Man and yet a very indifferent Church-man Nigh 300 Years before Austine set his Foot on English Ground had the Inhabitants of this Island a free Government It is Want of distinguishing between It and the Modes of Religion which fills every Clamorous Mouth with such impertinent Cryes as this Why do not you submit to the Government as if the English Civil Government came in with Luther or were to go out with Calvin What Prejudice is it for a Popish Landlord to have a Protestant Tennant or a Presbyterian Tennant to have a Protestant Landlord Certainly the Civil Affairs of all Governments in the World may be peaceably transacted under the different Trims of Religion where Civil Rights are inviolably observ'd Nor is there any
no prudent Ground assure himself of their Fidelity whom he hath taught to be Treacherous to their own Convictions Wise Men rarely confide in those whom they have debaucht from Trust to serve themselves At best it resembleth but forc'd Marriages that seldom prove happy to the Parties In short Force makes Hypocrites 't is Perswasion only that makes Converts Fifthly This Partiality of sacrificing the Liberty and Property of all Dissenters to the Promotion of a single Party as it is the lively Representation of J. Calvin's Horrendum Decretum of Predestination so the Consequences of the one belong unto the other it being but that Ill-natured Principle practised Men are put upon the same desperate Courses either to have no Conscience at all or to be Hang'd for having a Conscience not fashionable for let them be Virtuous let them be Vitious if they fall not in with that Mode of Religion they must be reprobated to all Civil and Ecclesiastical Intents and Purposes Strange that men must either Deny their Faith and Reason or be destroyed for acting according to them be they otherwise never so Peaceable What Power is this But that men are to be protected upon Favour not Right or Merit and that no Merit out of the English Church-Dress should find Acceptance is severe That Father we justly blame that narrows his Paternal Love to some one of his Children though the rest be not one jot less Virtuous then the Favouriter Such Injustice can never flow from a Soul acted by Reason but a Mind govern'd by Fancy and enslaved to Passions Sixthly consider Peace Plenty and Safety the three grand Inducements to any Country to honour the Prince and love the Government and the best Allurements to Forreigners to trade with it and transport themselves to it are utterly lost by such Intestine Jars for instead of Peace Love and good Neighbourhood behold Animosity and Contest One Neighbour watcheth another and makes him an Offender for his Conscience this divides them their Families and Acquaintance Perhaps with them the Towns and Villages where they live most commonly the Sufferer hath the Pitty and the Persecutor the Odium of the Multitude and when People see Cruelty practised upon their Inoffensive Neighbours by a Troublesom Sort of Men and those countenanced by a Law it breedeth Ill Blood against the Government Certainly haling People to Goals breaking open their Houses seizing of their Estates and that without all Proportion leaving Wives without their Husbands and Children without their Fathers their Families Relations Friends and Neighbours under Amaze and Trouble is almost as far from the Peace of a well-govern'd Kingdom as it is from the Meekness of Christianity Plenty will be hereby exchanged for Poverty by the Destruction of many Thousand Families within this Realm who are greatly Instrumental for the carrying on of the most Substantial Commerce therein Men of Virtue good Contrivance great Industry whose Labours not only keep the Parishes from the Trouble Charge of maintaining them and theirs but help to maintain the Poor and are great Contributors to the Kings Revenue by their Traffick I his very Severity will make more Bankrupts in the Kingdom of England in 7 Years then have been in it upon all other Accounts in 7 Ages which Consequence how far it may consist with the Credit Interest of the Government I leave to better Judgments This Sort of great Severity that hath been lately and still is used amongst us is like to prove a great Check to that Readiness which otherwise we find in Forreigners to trade with the Inhabitants of this Kingdom for if Men cannot call any Thing their own under a different Exercise of Conscience from the National Way of Religion may their Correspondents prudently say We will not further concern our selves with Men that stand upon such tickling Terms what know we but such Persons are ruin'd in their Estates by Reason of their Non-Conformity before such Time as we are reimburst for Money paid or Goods delivered Nay we know not how soon those who are Conformists may be Non-Conformists or what Revolution of Councils may happen since the Fundamental Laws so jealous of the Peoples Property are so little set by with some of their own Magistrates for though we are told of very worthy and excellent Laws for the Security of the Peoples Rights yet we are also told that they all hang at the Churches Ear and no Church-Conformity no Property which is no Church-Man no English-Man so that in Effect the Rights of their Country depend upon the Rights of their Church and those Churches are so numerous and have taken their Turns so often that a Body knows not how to mannage one's self securely to one 's own Affairs in a Correspondence with any of them For in King Henry the eight's Dayes Popery was the only Orthodox Religion and Luther Melanchton Oecolampadius Calvin c. were great Hereticks In Edward the sixth's Time they were Saints and Popery Idolatry A few Years after Q Mary makes the Papists Holy Church and Protestancy Heresie About six Years complcats her Time and Q. Elizabeth enters her Reign in which Protestants are good Christians and the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon In her Reign and King James ' s and Charles the first 's sprung the Puritans who divided themselves into Presbyterians and Independents the Bishops exclaimed against them for Schismaticks and they against the Bishops for Papistical and Anti christian In the long Parliament's Time the Presbyterian drives out the Bishop O. Cromwel defeating them and sending the Presbyterian to keep Company with the Bishop confers it mostly upon the Independent and Anabaptist who kept it through the other Fractions of Government till the Presbyter and Bishop got it from them and the Bishop now from the Presbyter but how long it will rest there who knows Nor is my Supposition idle or improbable unless Moderation take Place of Severity and Property the room of Punishment of Opinion for that must be the lasting Security as well as that it is the Fundamental Right of English People There is also a further Consideration and that is the rendering just and very good Debts desperate both at home and abroad by giving Opportunity to the Debtors of Dissenters to detain their Dues Indeed it seems a natural Consequence with all but Men of Mercy and Integrity What should we pay them for may they say that are not in a Capacity to demand or receive it at least to compel us Nay they may plead a sort of Kindness to their Creditors and say We had as good keep it for if we pay it them they will soon loose it 't is better to remain with us then that they should be pillag'd of it by Informers though Beggary and Want should in the mean time overtake the right Owners and their Families Nor is it unworthy of the most deliberate Thoughts of our Superiours that the Land already swarms with Beggars and that there