word tending to Schism or Rebellion What if the Person be a loyal Subject These things are out of the Question out of the Deposition But if these Witnesses cannot depose that such a Preacher is a Disloyal Person his Preaching to be to instil Schism or Rebellion or to move to Insurrection then if the Execution be according to the Deposition it is Execution upon Persons not intended by the Law and for preaching not forbidden by the Law for the Law forbids not Preaching but to such an end There is one Catching Circumstance it was above the Legal Number But yet one would think that that should not be a Crime except Rebellion and Insurrection be the intention of the Person and the effect of the Thing For many for five hundred to hear a good Sermon in a peaceable manner is in it self no Crime the Number and the Preaching must be to an ill Design in the intention of the Law For it were impious to forbid Preaching in it self The Evil of it must be in the evil of the Matter and evil of the Design and by Consequence only such Preaching and such Numbers are liable to the Penalty that is of a destructive or offensive Design unless you punish for Preaching which is good separate from the Design as evil This premised my Argument is this It is not good but evil to punish well doing as if it were evil doing and to punish Preachers and Hearers that never preached nor heard Rebellion or Sedition as if they were the highest Criminals in a Kingdom But to issue out Warrants and execute them upon Persons when nothing is proved against them but what is good and not prohibited by the Law as evil in it self but as evil to an evil end viz. Preaching is not good therefore it is not good to punish them c. To punish a Fact that in the intention of the Persons or nature of the Thing hath no tendency to Mischief to be prevented by the Law is not good but evil because the Execution is not directed to the end of the Law and by Consequence it is no legal Execution But to execute the Law for preaching and hearing upon Preachers and Hearers whose preaching and hearing hath no evil tendency to Sedition Rebellion Insurrection or Schism is such an Execution Therefore it is not good but evil The Minor is proved from the Peaceableness of the Nonconformists Piety of their Principles from the many Years Experience and Effects and seditious or rebellious or schismatical matter are not the things sworn against them or can be sworn but preaching to such Numbers and hearing in such Numbers and in a manner different from the Church of England which may be and yet not ill and may not be so for all the Informers know Obj. But the Law forbids such Men to preach as conform not swear not and in such a manner and to such numbers of Persons If the Law be good it is good to execute them Answ The Law forbids such Men as are seducing Sectaries disloyal Persons to such an end as was often named And such Persons and such Religious Acts abused to a wicked end and purpose and none else If the Persons are not such nor the Religious Exercises so abused to such wicked purposes then you must hold that either the Laws can or do forbid those Men that are good to do that which is good and so forbid absolutely that which is good which is to scandalize the Law and them that made it or you must yield the Execution to be ill and illegal except those Persons and Actions be taken relatively to those unlawful Designs which if proved they are Criminals of another nature and if it cannot be proved they ought not so to suffer as if they were what they are not My third Argument is taken from the Consideration of the Persons and of the Facts 1. They are Protestants if you believe me not try them 2. They meet for Religious Exercises and holy Ordinances not for Sedition or Rebellion or to move any Insurrections if the contrary can be proved I 'll grieve and pray but never plead for them But both the one and the other is evident that which is sworn against them is neither Sedition c. but Preaching as was said before Hence I form my Argument It is not good but evil to use Dissenting Protestants worse than ever Papists have been used But to execute those Laws upon Dissenting Protestants neither for Rebellion nor moving Insurrections is to use them worse than ever Papists have been used Therefore it is not good to execute the Laws upon them It is to be more rigorous towards our Brethren and such as agree in one and the same King same Laws same Worship as to the substance of Christ's Ordinances and are willing to unite than you are towards Men that own another Supremacy King and Bishops are idolatrous in their Worship and are for rooting us out and not taking us in without hazard of the Truth of Christ and Hypocrisy and Eternal Life To punish Dissenters for preaching and other Exercises of Religion because to such Numbers and not in such an uniform manner is to punish them for Religion If Religion be the Cloak and Rebellion or Sedition be the Mischiefs to be concealed and conveyed under it then Religion is but a pretence and that cannot excuse them from suffering which doth highly aggravate the Sin But if neither be inferred from their Principles nor infused into their Exercises then there is no danger to the King in his Life Prerogative nor Authority If neither hath been found in any of them it is not justly imputable to them and then if their Preaching and Prayer be the Fact for which they suffer they suffer for that which no Papist ever suffered for alone For the clearing of this and proving of it I will distinguish Punishments into Capital and Pecuniary or Real No Papist whether Priest or Lay-man ever suffered Death in England for Religion but for Treason and their fore-acted Conspiracies and Treasons constrained Queen Elizabeth and King James to make Laws for their own preservation This is proved by King James Vid. Torturam Torti per. Ep. Cicestriensem Bp Andrews p. 145 146 147. and all our Protestant Writers against the Papists I need not quote particulars This is particularly proved in a peculiar Treatise penned by the direction of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh as the learned Publisher of the Collection of several Treatises The Execution of Justice in England not for Religion but for Treason tells us in his Epistle concerning the Reasons and Occasions of the * Reprinted at London 1675. Penal Laws And what is there proved is acknowledged by the Secular Priests 1601 in their Important Considerations But if our Nonconformists should be prosecuted upon the 35th of Eliz. if they will not conform upon their three months Imprisonment they must abjure the Realm and if they go not away or
Execution must hold This that it is better for the King his Kingdoms and the Church to punish the Nonconformists according to Law than to spare them How vain and unreasonable a Proposition and Judgment is this when we do plainly see the King and Kingdom and Church are safe from any Conspiracies or ill Designs or poisonous Infusions from any of them Certainly if any City or Corporation be in danger it is London but to God's Glory be it acknowledged none of their Preachers have proved seditious What a convincing Proof did London give of their Loyalty and Valour in that furious and astonishing Insurrection of Venner in the City Were not the Dissenters then in Arms and were not their Numbers great How easy had it been for them to attempt at least any ill Design but as their Loyalty took up Arms so their Loyalty laid them down And let some say what they can are there any Men more severe than Dissenters in point of Ceremony against Heretical Blasphemers and unruly Sects not only as differing from their Models and particular Humours but as contrary to the Fundamental Principles of Religion and Government The severity of New England and other Places are Proofs beyond denial of this Observation There is not a wise Man but must maintain Government and submit to that he lives under as far as he can without Sin and Distraction is an unfit means to a Reformation Except a Man could certainly foretel who shall conquer it is madness in any Man or Men to move a War and by Sedition to get into the Throne and set up himself and his own way When the Nonconformists are fallen mad let them be used as such but while there is any Wisdom in them or these prevailing Principles of Religion and Obedience their Enemies may bely them and labour to make the malicious swallow as gross things as Transubstantiation things against their senses but they will confute them by their Patience But suppose them to be overstored and set with the Seeds of Rebellion and Sedition what is Sedition but the * Seditio est publicae Pacis Perturbatio Calvin Lexcion Juridicum disturbance of the publick Peace as it is defined by the Lawyers Now either they can command and restrain those ill Inclinations if so they are wise and quiet or they cannot then they are rash and stomachful Is it not therefore better to let them be quiet while they are so than provoke them by Mulcts and Ruine to make Insurrections especially at such a time when we have Enemies in our very Bowels that can take the advantage of a Diversion The State can get nothing by the best effect of troubling of them but Peace and that is had without troubling of them It is better to forbear a needless Trouble than to make it But secondly It may be thought better for the Church to execute the Laws upon them than forbear them and therefore it will be better for the State For the proof of this there is one end proposed by the Law in reference to the Church To prevent or cure the mischief of Schism It is but vain to talk of preventing Schism the Seed of that was scattered before and took Root the thing now to be desired is the Cure of the Distraction or Schism The Method of curing is by an effectual Application of Law and Power of which Application there are but two things to be looked for 1. A gaining of the Dissenters to the Church and that is Union A happy Effect if it can be produced 2. The second Benefit will be a Reduction of them to their stinted Numbers of Four besides the Houshold you can never suppress them by this Execution for the Law hath provided against a total Suppression of them by a tacit allowance of different Worship to such a Number I pass over one Advantage which may be aimed at It will drive some out of Corporations and further from their former Parishes or places of Residence for this is but inconsiderable For first many have taken the Oath and explained their sense they may stay and for them who have not they may exchange with others and you are but where you were except the putting of them to a new and greater Charge which is not merciful except you propose a publick Good Besides Corporations can choose Parliament-Men without their Influence or Direction if that be of any Consideration To the first of these two I observe your Proposition is this It is better to gain and unite the Nonconformist Dissenters to the Church than to permit them to meet as they do That 's granted you in the general but come to the way and means and assume this But the severe Execution of the Laws upon them will bring them in and unite them therefore dictum factum But do you think so in earnest You may as well say that Informers were ordained to convert Souls to reclaim straying Schismaticks and that there is more Power in Law and Justice than in Law and Grace But first How many Anabaptists and Quakers have been converted by Excommunications Imprisonments and Fines 2. You may restrain many from going to Conventicles that 's certain but what 's the Church the better for that They go not to Conventicles but may they not stay at home wander abroad and do as thousands of our miserable Persons do that come to the Font by Baptism but not near the Pulpit and the Communion-Table But suppose these Conventiclers will be better than thousands and come to Church then either they are convinced and change their Judgments or retain their Judgments and still hold Schismatical Opinions How can you expect to change their Judgments or gain their Affections by punishing or threatning The greatest Good you can propose to them is to bring them to Parish-Preachers But what if either want of Preaching or want of good profitable intelligible Preaching was the cause of their going to them they liked better and got spiritual Good by Indeed if you could engage to them that if they forsake their Preachers you will provide holy profitable and painful Preachers in all places which you can never do then you might gain them but if they come to our Churches against their Judgments then you convert the Schismatick into a Hypocrite or Atheist and to serve God because it is the Religion of the Country And what will the Church be the better for such Alas we have more of such already than we know what to do with 3. Is it probable you will ever gain such to an Uniformity that have been many Years settled in their Dissatisfactions and from the first day of their Ejection reckoned what it would cost them and since these Additional Acts have been made are as resolute as ever and that are so convinced it is their Duty to preach and hear and worship God in the way they have chosen that they look for a Reward in Heaven Is it likely that they
His Majesties Declaration from Breda April 14. 1660. We do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no Man shall be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And that We shall be ready to Consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation shall be offered to Vs for the full granting that Indulgence House of Commons Jan. 10. 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom THE Conformist's second Plea FOR THE Nonconformists WHEREIN The Case of the Non-Conformists is further stated and the Suspension of the Penal Laws against them humbly moved with all due submission to the Magistrate By a Charitable and Compassionate Conformist Author of the former PLEA Sed neque Imperiale est Libertatem dicendi denegare neque Sacerdotale quod sentiat non dicere S. Ambros ad Theodos Ep. 29. There hath been left for any thing I find to the contrary in all well-govern'd Polities a kind of latitude more or less and power in the Magistrates even in those Courts that were Strictissimi Juris upon fit occasion to qualify and mitigate something the Rigor of the Laws by the Rules of Equity Bp Sanderson's Sermons 1 Vol. p. 112. Ad Magistratum LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. To all that are entrusted with the Administration of Justice and Conservation of the Peace by what Title soever they are honoured The Charitable and Compassionate Conformist doth most humbly present these Papers Noble and Worshipful NO Cause can come before you wherein you are so nearly concerned as you are sincere Protestants than in this of the Dissenting Protestants because your Religion is touched and concerned in it you cannot hurt that in any sound part of the Professors of it tho in a few things differing from you but very sensibly one of you must be affected with it and what you do to them you do to your selves and your own Religion except you account Life and Soul and Body to be nothing without Formalties As you are Gentlemen of noble Birth and Education and as Persons of Estates and of Hospitality of Wisdom Justice and Experience you are most obliged with all Skill Judgment Tenderness Mercy and Impartiality to give your selves true Information in the state and deserts of this great Matter and so to proceed with them as shewing a Copy of those Characters of Vertue impressed upon your Spirits in your Proceedings with them As Gentlemen by Birth and Blood your Extraction derives to you the most amiable Qualities and purest Endowments of human Nature this Extract of noble Nature sublimated by ingenuous much more by pious and christian Education must needs dispose you to a nobler kind of Behaviour and a greater Benignity than inferiour Persons of a courser and more mixed Metal A truely vertuous Gentleman comes nearest to the true gracious Christian but when the true Gentleman is become a true Christian then even Enemies and Offenders may expect much more than Humanity from him You are not troubled with Parricides Murderers and Robbers not with obstinate Hereticks nor with perjured Persons but such as fear an Oath nor traiterous equivocating Jesuits when the Nonconformists are brought before you but with Men of an ingenuous Education and what they want of a noble Birth they have made up in the better sort of natural Endowments improved by liberal Education advanced by Grace and preferred to be the Ministers of God and therefore in a sort your Equals as in other respects your Inferiors and therefore worthy to be treated with a due respect They may expect from you the highest Civility patient hearing the calmest Arguing Courtesie and Condescension and an extream unwillingness to act nigh to a Rigor You should sooner from a Generosity proper to your Degree give them what they want than take from them the little which they have and be as much troubled to send them to a Prison as to be sent into one your selves He that can easily be severe or cruel hath put off Humanity and doth act with great Negligence and Forgetfulness and is so far unfit to act If a Man be a Prisoner of War at the Mercy of a Gentleman the Gentleman considering what he is himself acts like himself and useth him as a distressed Friend that was but a while before an open Enemy The Nonconformists for whom I plead are your own if you please 〈◊〉 think them so and you may with as much ease and more honour with less troubâ—â— and more safety and comfort make them your own than disown and use them as tho they were your Enemies As Ministers they have chosen a Calling which the Prince of Darkness hates and persecutes they need your Countenance and Succor against the Powers of Darkness their business in the World is rightly to inform to better and save the World they deserve your Assistance and Prayers for success Had they chosen a secular way of Life they might with the same Education and Parts have filled and adorned other Seats as well as the Pulpit had they all turned Physicians Lawyers States-men as some have done or to other Trades and Arts they might have had a greater Plenty without disturbance Dangers Losses or Indignities But shall all these Miseries and Afflictions come upon them First Because they cannot change and desert their Calling Next because they cannot be idle or unprofitable in it Consider and compare them dishonoured and afflicted with your honoured selves Are you Christians so are they are you Scholars so are they are you Gentlemen they come not far behind you are you Protestant Magistrates they are Protestant Ministers The difference between you is you are in Power and they are out of Favour I will not so far dishonour you as to compare you with those infamous broken ravenous vile sort of Men that witness against them If I may not be pardoned those Epithets I will prove that and much more of many of them But noble Sirs how much beneath you is it as Men of Honour to give Countenance to many of such as are not fit to come within your Doors except to receive Justice from you against any that have the unstained repute of honest Men only because they are Preachers of our same common Faith But noble Gentlemen let me compare the Informers and them against whom they witness and for whom I plead the one is a Teacher of the way of Life the other is ignorant or walks in the way of Darkness the one makes Conscience of an Oath and of his Word but the other knows not what an Oath is and fears not to be forsworn I say nothing in this
Opposition Oratorically but truly and upon Proof the one studies knows and performs his Duty to God and his King and to all Men according to his Knowledg the other knows neither and makes no Conscience in appearance of either he is for the King and you but as he is for the Devil for what he can get by his Service he is ungodly and profane a daily Transgressor of the King's Laws as well as God's and more than one have been cut off by the Sword of Justice having first been rejected by all honest Men the one lives a poor contented Life praying for his King and for all orders of Men and praising God fares hard and goes meanly whilst the other runs in debt cheats his Creditors swears and damns and robs on the High-way or breaks open Houses In a word the one walks in the way of Godliness and Honesty and labours to draw others with him the other neither goes in himself nor suffers others to enter that would And behold and be astonished ye Heavens at this the one is in danger of losing all he hath and suffering because he hath no more to lose for labouring to save Souls and the other hopes to be rewarded with a third part of many of his Neighbours Goods A surer way it is to turn Informer than play the Thief or cheat his Creditors but all hath not done their Work the end of many hath been according to their Work All this is spoken of some of them You are Gentlemen of Estates and cannot think that the ruine of thousands of Traders Farmers Tenants yea the impoverishing of many of good Condition can be a Service to the Common-wealth If you do not suffer an immediate Loss yet hundreds will and what is a Loss to so great a part will be an impairing of the whole That great States-man Sir Walter Rawleigh in the Parliament 35th of Elizab. spake these Words Historic Collect. c. of the 4 last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 76. by Mr. Townshend I am afraid there is near 20000 of them the Brownists in England and when they are gone who shall maintain their Wives and Children Had there been but 20000 Dissenters in England they had been rooted out before now if some had prevailed But who shall maintain a far greater number of Wives and Children when their Husbands and Parents are undone by the Penal Laws And who will get by it not the King his third part if come into his Exchequer will not countervail the loss of his Subjects What have the Poor got this many Years or what have they got that could neither keep nor get nor pay their Debts before they took to Informing As many of you as are Gentlemen of Hospitality relieve many poor at your Doors or other-where can you think it a Charity to relieve Beggars and issue Warrants to make many Beggars that either cannot dig or beg or that keep many to their Labours that else would beg that bear their Burdens in the Common-wealth and are no burden to it Your Place and Office requireth Wisdom And I may be bold to say That the Renowned Sir Matthew Hale was as wise as strict as just as able a Lawyer as the ablest of you all that keep the Chair it is no disparagement of the learnedest and gravest of you all to take him for an Example See his Life by Dr. Gilbert Burnet whose Moderation towards Dissenters is a part of his noble Character you have known what hath been the concurring sense of all our Parliaments since 1672. If none of these shall be your Precedents I beseech you be pleased to consider it is your Wisdom to understand the Duty of your Places and the Matters that are brought before you especially in Cases that concern the Liberties Livelihoods and Estates of many thousands in the Land I humbly conceive you cannot with a clear Conscience proceed against the Dissenters except you understand 1. The matters for which they suffer and that you may see in several Writings 2. Attend to the scope and reasons of the Acts upon which you proceed 3. Distinguish between Preacher and Preacher between the sound and the unsound and other Circumstances and choose rather to give up your Commissions than to act against God and your Conscience by punishing Well-doing as if it were Evil doing That Preaching and Praying which tends to Men's Salvation and to no evil end either to the King or his Government cannot be punished safely without being accessary to the evil Intentions of those designing Men who were the Politick Promoters of those Laws nor without great obstruction of true Godliness and of a most desirable Vnion among Protestants 4. You ought not to act like meer Machines or irrational Instruments If so the Weak and the Rash that can but write their Names to a Warrant or a Mittimus might be as fit as you for your Offices but as Men of Vnderstanding Wisdom Conscience and Religion and if the Laws are hard and too severe for meer Nonconformity be Intercessors with the King and Parliament for his Subjects and your fellow Christians As Just Men Try the fitness of the Witnesses whether they are Boni Legales Punish not Religious Assemblies of peaceable Men under the odious names of Routs and Riots and let not the sound profiatble and peaceable Preachers be ruined with a measure of Punishment only due to the turbulent and rebellious And if by many Years Experience you find no Sedition or Disturbance to the Kingdom only to the minds of some that are too controversially disposed to Passion and Contention or if you find it only to be a Schism a Church-matter leave it to the Church-Men to judg it according to their Law If you maintain the Civil Peace you are happy Instruments in the Government and what more is required of you Noble and honoured Gentlemen I do not presume to dedicate this as to Patrons but humbly offer and submit the Reason and Argument to your Consideration and suggest two things 1. If we believe a Catholick Church of the same Faith in different Forms and Modes why shall not our Fellow-Subjects and Natives professing that Faith in a different Form share in your Charity as parts of the Catholick Church To love them as Christians of the Catholick Church and of the same Faith with our National Church in all things and yet punish them that preach Catholick Doctrine and observe all the Ordinances of the Catholick Church is an odd kind of Love and Charity 2. If there be any among us that are holy sanctified Preachers and Hearers they shall be saved in the last day You know the Process of that great day of Judgment for what Causes the unrighteous shall be condemned I was naked and ye cloathed me not in Prison and ye visited me not Mat. 35.43 O how will it agree with this to say I was in Power and I execated the Laws to distress of Goods and Imprisoment to
preach as we do they suffer for those Religious Exercises therefore for Religion and Well-doing but supposing them imperfect for want of the Common-Prayer yet so far as they are religious they are good Obj. But they are looked upon as suspitious Persons because they subscribed not c. to the Act of Uniformity in the Oxford Act. Answ True but two things are considerble 1. Many took off that Suspition by subscribing that Declaration yet that will not excuse them if they preach to above Four 2. Their not subscribing and declaring according to the Act of Uniformity makes the cause of their Suffering doubtful The Law calls them to conform upon such Conditions of subscribing and declaring Their Consciences after the most diligent search into all things required command them upon peril of sinning against God to forbear They may be deceived and why may not fallible Imposers be deceived say they if they suffer for not sinning against God and Conscience If they suffer for performing Religious Exercises according to the general Rules of the Gospel and their own Consciences as well informed as they can inform themselves they suffer for Religion altho they that exact and execute Punishments think they suffer for Omissions and Obstinaces in those Omissions They suffer for Omission of humane Constitutions which they hold not Divine and perform Duties which they hold to be Divine The case is as clear to them to be unlawful as it is clear to them that command them to be lawful therefore the Case hangs in doubt If they that refuse to conform refuse upon peril of temporal Losses they who inflict them do inflict them upon peril of sinning also He that suffers for doing what is confessedly Religious and forbears what is dubious or sinful in appearance is on the safer side than he that punisheth for undoubted religious necessary Duties only for the Omission of unnecessary things Obj. But holding their Meetings to above Four and in publick is seditious in the eye of the Law and they suffer for that and not for their Religion Answ Indeed that seems to be the only criminal Circumstance But why shall this alter the Case which is far better and more satisfactory to Magistrates and the Church than their retiring into allowed private Houses and the stinted Number But this doth not make Religious Exercises to be no Religious Exercises except it infuse poisonous Principles into a Multitude which is not known and cannot be proved it is Religion and not a Riot that is really punished Now granting this to be a forbidden Circumstance compare it with the many Circumstances that make it the more allowable and then shall Religious Exercises necessary to be observed profitable to many be therefore unpardonable because of one Circumstance This I humbly refer to Consideration before the Magistrate strike with the heavy hand of the Law Make the most that can be of the Fact Here 's Religious Service performed without Ceremony and Form there 's the defect here 's a Religious Exercise to a supernumerary Company that 's the excess But to this let us compare the nature of the Exercises unquestionably Divine The Institutor is Christ our Lord the Ordinances are necessary the manner of Performance according to the general Rules of Christ highly beneficial and tending to publick Good and eternal Life yet for the want of a Circumstance or two made necessary by a mutable Law the Observers of them shall be punished as Evil doers Are not Humane Constitutions subject to the Providences of God the Supream Governour whose Dominion is especially to be owned in all Christian Kingdoms Suppose then by the over ruling Providences of God there are Alterations made in the Affairs of the Kingdom which make that which is a Divine Ordinance become a necessary Duty to Men prohibited by temporal Laws whether Governours of Chrstian States should not observe them and make their Laws stoop to the Divine Will The Defenders of the Church argue It is more reasonable the Dissenters should yield to the Bishops than the Bishops to them so say I It is more reasonable and decent that Humane Laws should yield to the Divine Pleasure than the Work of God be stopt by Humane Laws The true State of this as far as I can perceive lies before us thus First The preaching of the Gospel is an indispensible good Duty Secondly They who are fitted called and devoted to God are bound to preach it Thirdly Some that are happily fitted for it become suspicious to some in Power Fourthly By long Experience and Process of time they cannot be charged with such Crimes as are of ill Operation to the State Fifthly These Men are ready to give such security to the State as the Generality of unquestionable Subjects give and to take away all just cause of Jealousy and Mistrust Sixthly They are qualified by Christ and must give an account to him they are called and invited to discharge their Duties as Preachers 1. Their Conscience puts them in mind of their Vows as Persons devoted to Christ to serve him upon his Conditions 2. The cry of Souls calls them that either want or want such as can and will do them good this is the plain case in multitudes of Places 3. God unexpectedly opens a door for them by Fire and Plague and other providences 4. Calm Proceedings of Magistrates and the Inclination of Law givers give them Encouragement 5. Their Zeal for God answers this Call 6. God gives them his Blessing followeth them with success which is a sign of his Approbation which he never gave to Evil-doing And shall this be punished by Christians as Evil-doing This is to act contrary to God to punish them whom God approves There is a Humane Law stands in their way revoked in Voto by them that made it shall the observance of that Law suspend the Administration of Ordinances in themselves good well performed in the general manner where there is great need and to good Ends without dangerous Effects or Consequences to them that once did forbid them Preaching and Praying are good Duties but the Nonconformists Preaching and Praying tho good in Substance is not good because of ill Circumstances say some Now then the Opposition here is not between their Preaching and Praying and ours but between their Circumstances and ours we according to Legal Constitutions they not according to them But as hath been argued there is but one Circumstance that is faulty the want of Common-Prayer and Ceremonies makes not their Preaching faulty for the Law that enjoyned them did not brand their Preaching and Praying without them as Evil-doing the Evil attending their Preaching are the ill Designs and Ends which they never drove at it is good if free from them it is ill it seems because to too many Hearers Here 's one Circumstance or want of one Condition To this one oppose all the Circumstances if you call them so and they are more and greater for them than this
Id. Serm. Apr. 1645. did exhort the Parliament to take care of the just Liberties of God's People not such Licentiousness a sis abus'd for a Cloak of Naughtiness c. to set up Unity in Faith that God's Name be not blasphemed his Day be sanctified his Gospel preached his Worship kept from Idolatry and Superstitions Innovations his Ministry purged planted Serm. Mar. 26 1645. encouraged Sacraments purely celebrated It is more than necessary and would take up too much time and place to examine all That which they were against was a general Toleration of all Religions of Idolatry Heresy Blasphemy and for all Men to do what they pleased They were against Mens publishing by preaching or printing dangerous Opinions such as Poligamy Arbitrary Divorce Mortality of the Soul no Ministery no Churches Mr. Case ' s Sermon May 26th 1647. Serm. Feb. 8th 1646. no Ordinances no Scriptures denying the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost and other Opinions destructive of the Souls of Men. Mr. Newcomen is most full in stating the case of Liberty Which saith he is not to be granted in such things as are injurious to God and destructive of the Souls of Men nor wherein the difference of Judgment will necessarily and unavoidably ex natura rei produce a Rent or Schism If a Liberty of Judgment be lest it is first in such things as are not positively laid down in Scripture therefore not in Fundamentals of Faith and Worship 2. In things of private Practise Care is to be had of keeping those Opinions to our selves not perplexing the Consciences of others with them Private Persons of a differing Judgment if they live quietly frequent the publick Assemblies of Worship and are not discerned to disturb the Peace either of Church or State by any secret underminings are to be tolerated in hope of their Conversion and for publick Peace sake Much hath been yielded yea almost any thing but that one thing that would lay a Foundation of perpetual Division and Disunion in Families Church and Kingdom Thus he And what is there in all this that hath Conviction or any Reason to silence them that they cannot open their Mouths for a Connivance to themselves Yea I humbly conceive there is nothing but what commends the Ministers of the like Perswasion to publick Favour as being Orthodox and sound Men fit for a greater Favour than a bare Permission or Toleration Obj. The Presbyterians were against the Toleration of Independency Letter of Presbyterian Ministers of Lond. to the Assemblies of Divines against Toleration Dec. 18th 1645. therefore it is unreasonable for them to ask and as unfit for the Church to grant the same to them the Consequences of which Concession if made to them will be as prejudicial to the Church and State as Independency would have been to them Answ 1. There hath been no such thing desired since the King's Return that I know of as a Toleration of the Presbyterian Government 2. One great Reason against the Toleration was because the Independents bad not declared what they held nor circumscribed the Persons and the things which they desired 3. How far the Assembly and the Presbyterians condescended and indeed how amicably both Parties debated the Controversy is to be seen in the Papers of Accommodation there was a Committee apppointed for Accommodation November 6th 1645. After the Paper of the Dissenting Brethren in Answer to the Committee of Divines December 23d 1645 It is resolved upon the Question That they which agree in the Substance of the Worship of God in the Directory according to the Presace and agree in the Confession of Faith and with the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches contained in their Confessions and Writings as we do who differ from our Brethren in matters of Discipline Reasons of the Dissenting Brethren c. London 1648. shall have the benefit of this Indulgence P. 42. This I historically relate to shew tho the Presbyterians of Dond. were against a Toleration of they knew not what yet the Assembly took pains by way of Accommodation till they were diverted from all Proceedings And now if they had Power to assign it the Congregational should have a Brotherly Indulgence that are sound in Faith c. Obj. But the Dissenters are under the ill Eye of the Law and no more innocent than the Papists in the Eye of the Law and there is fear of them so the Fol. Pamphlet of Rebellion printed by B. Took Answ I say the Protestant-Dissenters are not under the evil Eye of the Law altho under the ill Opinion of some that wish them executed If they sowed Seditious Principles moved Insurrections or poysoned the King's Subjects they were most deservedly under the angry Brows of just Laws 2. What if they were what then Those over-voting Numbers in that House of Commons are under the ill Opinion of the Land have been noted by that very Parliament and since 3. That very Parliament in 1672 and all our Parliaments since have entertained better Thoughts of them 4. The King hath deserved some more Respect and Reverénce from them that seem to exceed in Loyalty than to have his Desires in his Speech at the passing the Act of Oblivion disregarded as it is and he expressed himself more graciously of them in many Passages of his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs offered Dignities Bishopricks and gave Degrees to some of those very Men that this Gentleman thinks to prejudice by his Paper 5. Till the Act de Heretico Comburendo was taken away this very Writer if he be a resolute Protestant was under the evil eye of the Law and may be under the evil eye of the 35th of Elizabeth if he continue so and the whole Protestant Part of the Kingdom and who were under the Aspect of the Law of the six Articles But I say the Protestant Dissenters are not under the evil eye of the Laws but the Seditious and his many Lines are so many Slanders in many places and impose upon the Reader things which are contrary to our senses I can as soon believe Popery as that Protestant Dissenters are Enemies to the Government But what can be answered to such a Gentleman that says An Angel from Heaven might manage his Argument with greater Skill but not produce more Demonstrative Truth That is to say An Angel from Heaven might write more like an Orator than he but not be a better Logician than he But he seems to be one of that strange sort of People among our selves that as Dr. Burnet says in his late excellent Sermon before the Lord Mayor of London are not ashamed to own a greater Aversion to any sort of Dissenters than to the Church of Rome Thus I have made my way to the Conclusion and as I did begin so I will end with humble Application to the Magistrates But to all this the Magistrates will say they have an Answer ready viz. They do the Duty of their
lest you be found abusing your power against Religion in Zeal to those things which are but Modes and Forms which commend no Man to God Shall I say it had been good for many they had never bin Justices or Magistrates or that some had never been born than be the occasion of great Shame and Reproach great and many Losses and Sufferings to Ministers in their Names Estates Health c. of great Trouble and Affliction to many tender Wives by Frights and Separation from their Husbands yea of Sickness and Death to many of the holy Servants of Christ Many oppressed Families groan under their Losses and Sufferings and pray for them that have persecuted them from one Country to another from one Prison to another and if God hear their Prayers then many of their Afflicters must repent and should repair their Losses for Conscience sake Many very dark and rude Places and People have been inlightned many young and dissolute Persons have been converted by Prayers Preaching and Books of the Nonconformists If you suppress their Teachers if you give order to spoil them of their Goods you starve the Nurse and kill the Souls of many thousands that are nursed and brought up by their Ministry with the sincere Milk of the Word of God That I may not be a lamenting Spectator of a doleful Tragedy I have taken this freedom and used plainness of Speech and convincing Reasons to my power There is a great Chasm and Breach and see how God punisherh us for not healing the first Division General Monk used the word Fanatick in the Parliament when he declared himself more properly than it hath been since applied How did the word take and spread how was it applied and misapplied Others called those Men Fanaticks who were a great wise sober loyal considerable part of the Nation Here a Separation began A great number of holy and able Pastors are cast out to the great grief of more than themselves A Breach is made by a standing Law within the Church and Kingdom some have made a Division of Church-men and moderate of Presbyterian Bishops and rigid of Protestant Bishops c. And since of Petitioners and Abhorrers of Addresses and Non-Addresses and now under scandalous and vile names of Whigg and Tory. Our Church-Divisions eat into the very heart of the Kingdom We seem to be disjoyned in the National-Interest by a prevailing factious private Spirit Friendship and Acquaintance and Trust and Confidence are broken Oh how menacing is this Judgment Popery watcheth its Opportunity to get up triumphant and regnant Persidiousness hath engaged to open to it and Perjury and Persecution are the most conducing means to introduce it Cut off the Nonconformists first beggar and famish and lay them fast next compose a Test in the nature of the Sphinx Augustana or Cassadran Consultation for the Conformists to separate the Moderate from the Genuine and what next The fear of which and compassion to Posterity and zeal for true Religion would make a dumb Man speak and he that cannot write Noble Sirs If you will not hearken to Reason besriend Religion believe your Senses and deny a carnal Interest for an eternal imitate the Clemency of our Gracious King whom God long preserve who is over us as Seneca speaks of the King of Bees He hath no Sting Rex ipse sine aculeo est But if you are resolved or engaged in such a Work Be pleased to do these things 1. Laying aside Prejudice study the Case of the Nonconformists and their Reasons for it you shall find it best and clearest in the Account of the Proceedings in the Savoy London 1661. and Petition for Peace In Mr. Baxter's Pleas for the Nonconformists Apology to the Bishops Defences against Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Hinkley and others And the Questions in Controversy clearely stated by Mr. Giles Fermen I suppose you have read the other side 2. Consider what is and hath been preached and written for Accommodation and do not account them the worst but the best Divines that have been and are for Accommodation and see what was done by those Great Men Lord-Keeper Bridgman Chief-Justice Hale Bp Wilkins c. 3. Oppose not but consider the Reasons of the Long-Parliament 1. in making these Acts 2. Their and succeeding Parliaments Debates and Resolves for Union of Protestants 4. Is this a time to afflict Protestants at home when we entertain persecuted Protestants from abroad 5. Lay aside all private worldly Interest Peace was never preserv'd by Faction it is inconsistent with Justices of the Peace to suppress a Faction by being factious 6. Be clear from all sinister Pre-conceits Passion and Disaffection to Practical Holiness and Piety 7. Be assured you must give account to Jesus Christ of your Administration and this is your time to act and shew your Faith Hope and Love to Christ his Gospel his People your detestation of Impiety and Sin and to be true to your Selves and your eternal Concernments 8. Receive not ill Reports act not by them of them that differ from you 9. Pre-conceive the Effects of your Proceedings whether they will be for God's Glory the King's Service the Kingdom 's Good and for your own Peace and Comfort when you come to dye 10. Pray for a Blessing upon your Proceedings see what Approbation he hath given and whether it be likely to please or displease him If God hath blessed or prospered them that did execute the Laws then it is an Encouragement to you if not forbear Consider what is said by Gamaliel Act. 5.38 39. Refrain from these Men and let them alone for if this Counsel or this Work be of Men it will come to naught But if it be of God you cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God And by our Gracious King in one of his Declarations viz. It being evident by the sad Experience of twelve years that there is little fruit of all those forcible Courses c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 34. reade open P. 4. l. 30. r. Me. P. 6. Marg. r. Persecutione ib. Marg. r. Aenaei P. 27. marg r. ferri p. 30. marg after thankful remembrance c. 13. add Historical Collections in the Address p. 36. l. 2. r. some few p. 41. l. 12. r. of the Law ib. l. 16. r. if you all proceed c. P. 44. l. 27. r. to procure P. 48. l. 1. f. Severity r. Security P. 49. l. 36. r. for not subscribing only P. 51. l. 13. r. such as have p. 57. five last lines must be thus read and why may not fallible Imposers be deceived say they If they suffer for not sinning against God and Conscience if they suffer for performing Religious Exercises they suffer for Religion according c. p. 60. l. 36. f. case r. cant The Reader is entreated to pardon or correct the rest the Author being remote from the Press has not seen all the sheets