Courtesie be so soon forgotten to deny him or his the free Exercise of their own Religion whilst we are so warm in ours under his Gracious Protection and Royal Bounty and Provisions is beyond all Shame and Reason Princes have an happy time of it to serve such Humours as if he reign'd over us by Courtesie and had no more but the Name of a King Does this express our Duty or Gratitude to God or Him We need not debauch the present Generation who are too bad already by teaching them to make spightful and peevish Reflections on our Prince's Actions Shall the Privileges which he and his Royal Predecessors have granted us be us'd as Weapons to fight and rebel against him Shall we deprive him of his Prerogative which the Law of God as well as of the Land has given him Is not the Church of Rome a true Church both in it self and in our Judgment too And why should you deny your own Prince who is a Member of it the same Liberty which you daily see without murmuring granted to the Embassadors of Foreign Princes and their Followers Is it not by his Piety and Juftice that we have the free Exercise of our own Religion as by Law establish'd and the advantages of publick Assemblies and the encouragement of such liberal Maintenance And have not the Ministers of Religion always obey'd the Imperial Laws even when they liked them not not upon prudential Considerations and Necessity but by divine Appointment declaring with the Sixth Council of Toledo That it was impiety to call in question his Power to whom the Government of all things was certainly deputed by the divine Judgment and that as well Bishops as Curates and Ecclesiasticks as Laicks must be subject to them and that the supreme Power may determine whatsoever is left undetermined by God Nay that he can derogate by his Power from an ordinary Right by changing his Will and making the contrary Law that he has the judgment of Discretion and knows best when 't is fittest for him to govern himself by Zeal and when by gentler Counsels Is he not Head of the Church and must his Members teach him how to govern it It is by the Tyes of Religion and not of Power that he is bound to keep the Churches Laws and the very Conâ—â—ssions and Privileges made to them by him and his Royal Predecessors are as revocable as their Duty is alterable for Princes are so far from being oblig'd to perpetuate such Rights that themselves have indulg'd that 't is a rul'd Case among the Greek Fathers That a King may recal his Gift in case the Beneficiary prove ungrateful I wish our Brethren who are now so stubbornly resolv'd not to join with their respective Bishops in an Address of Thanks to his Majesty for his Morgaging of his Honour under the Broad-Seal of England in his late Royal Declaration in the first place To protect and maintain them in the free Exercise of their Religion as by Law established and in the quiet and full enjoyment of all their Possessions without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever would study this Case a little better than they seem to have done and then they would highly approve it as some of our Fathers have done as prudently penn'd and such an acknowledgment of his Majesty's signal Favours to the Church of England and all her Members as our Gratitude and Duty indispensibly oblige us to pay Can you have any better Precedents than those of the Kings of Judah Look throughout the sacred History of the Old Testament and you will every where find that the King's Religion though often Heathenish had the privilege to be publickly us'd and though the High-Priest and Sanhedrim had a Power which Moses called The Judgment of God yet these did not think it either their Duty or Right to suppress the Exercise of Idolatry whilst the King was contented with it though it was so manifestly contrary to God's own Law given them by Moses and when a King who Worshipped according to Moses's Prescriptions succeeded neither the Great Council nor People desired the false Worship to be suppressed till the King himself self commanded it which is an Argument that it proceeded from his High Prerogative which the Kings of Judah laid equal claim to with the Eastern Monarchs as the Israelues desired a King according to the Nations round about them upon which Samuel recites a large rightful Power which would belong to their Sovereign Did not Solomon put Abâ—aâ—her from the Priesthood and put Zadock in his room and though the High-Priesthood came to be put out of its due Channel of Primogeniture establish'd by Moses and was sold in our Saviour's time so that sometimes the High-Priest was but annual yet Christ acknowledged Caiphas to be High-Priest and for the inferior Priests David divided them into Twenty four Orders so that the applying of the priestly Power to such a time was wholly the Act of the civil Government Jehosophat named a President for the Sanhedrim as well for matters of the Lord as for those of the King and both Ezra though not the High-Priest and Nehemiah though not at all a Priest acted by a Commission from Artaxerxes to execute the Laws ' of God and the King by which Authority Nehemiah turned out one of the Priests so that though the priestly Office was a divine Institution yet the applying and suspending that Authority was a part of the civil Power Christian Emperors made also penal Laws with relation to Church-men the pains of which were Suspension or Deprivation of which there are so many instances both in the Old Roman Laws and in the Capitulars that it is needless to insist on the proof of it to justifie his Majesty's late Proceedings by his High Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs against an eminent Prelate of our Church which proves them Lawful without committing Sacrilege or incroaching on the spiritual Power of the Church I need not tell you that it was declared in the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy of this Kingdom which make the representative Body of the Church of England Art 37. Anno Dom. 1562. That whereas they have attributed to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government of all the Estates of this Realm whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases they did not give unto their Princes the ministring of either God's Word or Sacraments but that only Prerogative which was known to have been given always to all Godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is to say That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the civil Sword the Stubborn and Evil-doers Less Power than this as good Subjects could not give unto their Kings so more than this there has not been exercis'd nor I believe ever will be by our Gracious Sovereign Such Power as was vouchsafed by God to the Godly Kings
Strafford there was not one Roman Catholick who suffered Death or Imprisonment or so much as a pecuniary Mulct of Twelve Pence for his Religion upon any penal Statute and yet he was as True a Son of the Church of England and as Wise and the Lord Lieutenant as great a Martyr for his Religion and Loyalty and both of them as sit to be our Guides in this Point as the best Men now living Stay till they have offended and done things worthy of Punishment and then spare them not Men as wise and as good as we thought we might be safe without their king in danger and it seems highly reasonable that their having done amiss and not our Fears and Jealousus of it that they will do so should make them punishable The Laws made against Roman Catholicks are either as Rebels or Papists If as Rebels what need of particular Laws for them more than others Why not the same Law to punish them and others guilty of the same Treason If any Papist be found guilty let that Law act against him which is thought sufficient not only to Punish but to prevent Treason in all Men of Antimonarchical Principles and therefore they cannot be made against them in that sence viz. as Rebels Nor as Papists for then it will follow That he is liable to most severer Punishments who acts according to his Conscience which is the Rule and internal Law which God obliges us to follow and observe under pain of Sin right or wrong if our Conscience after a serious Examination dictates so therefore all huâ— ane Laws which punish a sincere Obedience to this internal Law viz. Conference are hard in case that is of an Invincible Error Besides we must acknowledge them to be a True Church though Infected with some Errors and to have things necessary to Salvation why then such a severe Animadversion upon them Do not Turks and Jews and some Sectaries who are worse than either live quietly among us and why then must our Brethren of Rome be molested And why may not either Church or State alter many things concerning their own Constitutions upon prudent consideration as the Reason and Circumstance of thingâ— very upon new and better Reasons No Law purely Humane can be made perpetual and when it is made it must be interpreted according to the mind of the Lawgiver and when he interprets his own Law he does not take off but suspends the Obligation and he may intervene between the Equity and Strictness for the Intention more than the Letter of the Law is to be ragarded And certainly Mens stiffness in keeping what they have got though not upon such Grounds as themselves now approve of is rather a Point of mistaken Honour than of Conscience a Contention of Spirit rather than a Debate of Truth and Equity And if this be the Case I am sure all wise and good Men will censure your Obstinacy and Frowardness if you persist though the Mobile perhaps may reproach you with Levity and Cowardice if you retreat To change our Minds upon mature Deliberation and better Experience and the evidence of new and better Reason is a great piece of Christian Generosity and such as will speak you honest though not crafty Men. And if the honour of your Religion be of equal value to you with that of your personal Reputation 't were well you studied how much that were concern'd in the peaceable and obedient Temper of such as pretend to have espous'd it as becomes the True Sons of the Church of England Nothing can stain the Reputation of the glorious Religion we profess more than your turbulent stiff and ungovernable Tempers who are the chief Patriots and Professors of it Shall we who have hitherto endeavoured to strengthen the hands of the Magistrate now strive to weaken them Shall we who pretend to inact his Laws in the very Consciences of his Subjects now endeavour to put other Limitations and Conditions upon them than God has done or pretend the Revocation of the Broad-Seal of the King 's civil Authority by the Privy-Signet of Religion Where-ever this is done that Prince or Magistrate had need be a very devout Man indeed who casts a benign aspect upon the profession of that Religion which has so malignant an influence upon his Government And all considering Men will with great Reason doubt whether that Religion be of God which gives such disturbance and trouble to his Vicegerent and whether that will carry Men to Heaven hereafter which makes such Tumults and Confusions as will be an Hell upon Earth I hope 't is no 13 th Article of your Creed or mine That whatsoever a Parliament does is rightly done for that were to bring Rome home to our own doors by giving them that Infallibility which they give the Pope Men are not bound to build their Consciences upon Acts of Parliament I have heard That to dissolve a Parliament in discontent is to pick a quarrel with the whole Nation and I am of Opinion That for them to fly in the Face of the King's Religion would be the ready way to pick a quarrel with him and whether it be a conscientious or prudent thing so to do or that a design to prevent a remote and contingent Inconvenience can atone for a Disobedience at present which may possibly dissolve the frame of Government I leave to you to jâ—dge of There may arise a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and then you may come to be whip'd with your own Rods. These violent Opposers of the regal Prerogative know not what Spirit they are of Do they meet the same Measure they would have meeted to themselves again Is this their brotherly Kindness Meekness or good Manners Does not the Prince of Peace oblige his Disciples If it be possible and as much as in them lies to live peaceably with all Men The Wisdom which is from above is pure and peaceable it consults the publick good and 't is a true Testimony of a religious and generous Mind in his most retired thoughts to look out of himself and be mindful of the Publick Welfare of the whole in all his private Meditations 't was this made the Fabii and Fabricii and other Roman Worthies so renown'd in those times that they were content to expose themselves to the greatest dangers and to venture the losing of the good Opinion of the Mobile for the Prosperity and Safety of the Commonwealth Lord how rare a thing is it in out age to find a private Man who cordially devotes himself to the good of the Community which is of so much the nearer concernment than the privete as it is of larger Extension Consider before it be too late that the Religion you are so justly inamoured with will rather be prejudic'd than promoted by this peevishness of her Professors Hast thou the Faith of the Chruch of England have it to thy self and take the Kingdome of Heaven by an Holy violence but do
of its Legality let the King answer for thatâ— God will never lay it to your Charge God guides all Princes Actions to his own just and wise Ends who can cause the Wrath of Man to turn to his Praise his Providence and Protection and our Prince's Conscience and Honour are as good Security to our Church as any we can desire and she has taught us to reft satisfied with it and told us That Religion never prosper'd by any undue Practices to advance it Meekness Patience anti Humility are those Graces of the Spirit which convince and convert I hope Time and a right Vnderstanding of our Princes exemplary Justice the scredness of his Royal Word and the most obliging Temper of his Person will allay those dangerous Democratical Furies which wheresoever they prevail or enter possess Men with Principles of Vsurpation upon the fundamental Prerogatives of their Sovereign and design to dives him of the loyal and sincere Affections of his Peoples Hearts He has done all that any Prince can possibly do to convince the World of his merciful Inclinations to make his Moderation known unto all Men whom he can safely trust as well as to his Roman Catholick Subjects and how far he is from incroaching upon any Man's Conscience himself or suffering others to do it he has made it his Business Night and Day ever since he sate upon the Throne to allay all Heats and Animosities arising from different Perswasions in Religion and to unite the Hearts and Affections of all his Subjects to God in Religion to his Vicegerent in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Charity he longs to see us â—t Peace with our selves and all the World besides he hates to see us forward to do such Bloody Offices one to another as Turks and Jews would be ashamed of nothing is so displeasing to him as to see fellow Christians and fellow Subjects reviling and libeiling one another as once Constantine did in the Council of Nice killing and treading one another under Foot as in the Council of Ephesus and as in the Schism of Damasus and Vrsicinus as if Christ the Prince of Pâ—â—ce were not yet come into the World or at least not reveal'd in this part of it if there be any Incendiaries amongst us Religion does not inflame them if there be any such Feuds Religion does not kindle them she cannot do that upon Earth which she damns to the Pit of Hell That which makes grievous to our selves or others cannot be Religion she teaches us to love our Brethren as our selves and to dwell together in Vnity and if our Practices be accordingly our Principles will easily defend themselves Now is the time for us of the Church of England to remember our Doctrine of sincere Obedience to the supreme Power a Doctrine pleasing to Almighty God and of good report among all Princes and let us not shew now when we think our selves touch'd that we were only Political and Mercenary in our Loyalty and that as the Devil said of Job's serving God It was not for nought it may be said of our serving the King too becausc we had all along the chief Countenance and Protection of the Laws which he made and as the Phrase there is had a Hedge made about us and about all that we had on every side but in the case under debate if any of our Communion provoke the King to Anger who is not nor will not be angry with us for cleaving to our Religion let him be his own Casuist whether he pays an intire Christian Obedience seeing he would conclude in lessr Instances that the first Provocation begins a Quarrel 't would now be but bantring to endeavour to commend the King out of resentment of a repulse when as indeed setting aside home Reasons he would appear less considerable in Foreign Negotiations for the publick Good when Foreign Princes shall hear by their Ministers how small Influence he can have upon his own Subjects at Home 'T is too well known that in the Reign of our late Gracious Sovereign the like exceptions have been made abroad upon some â—â—â—dutiful Carriages of his People to him at Home to the Dishonour and Damage of these Three Kingdoms I wisâ—â— wâ— did all well consider that all penal Laws imply a Power of Relaxation in the Legislator and that the King's Government conâ—sts in Imperial as well as Political Laws and therefore is not to be restrain'd upon any Pretence whatsoever Constantius setled the Arrian and after him Julian the Pagan Religion by their own Imperial Power and Edicts yet the Christians did not controll them nor have we any more Power to rise up against our King or to disobey him because he is a Catholick than the Romanists had to rebel against Queen Elizabeth besides the Question of her Right of Succession For it is not the Law that makes the King but the King that makes the Law and though both for his own and the publick Interest which are inseparable he ought to act according to those Laws which do the more powerfully oblige him by being his voluntary Establishment and the Effects of his Royal Will yet Justice is not against Charity and both the Interpretation and Execution of those Laws are in him In him is acknowledg'd the sole Power of raising Forces of granting Commissions both by Land and Sea of calling adjourning proroguing ana dissolving Parliaments when and where he judges it most expedient and in his Power it is to remit the Severities of penal Laws whereby he may manifest his Goodness and Clemency as well as his Greatness and Justice by graciously Pardoning both the smaller Breaches of his Laws and the more capital Offences which he might most justly punish From him all Places of highest Trust derive their Authority It is his Commission they act by when they put his Commands and Laws in Execution and without or against his Will and Consent nothing can be legally acted or done His Parliaments Concurrence with his desires is always kind and convenient though not always absolutely necessary And I do with â—â—hmission offer to those of your Illustrious and Loyal Assemby Whether in this Affair of which I am seaking it be not consistent with your Wisdoms to follow a course used in many cases by a Court as politick as any in the World that of Râ—me who when they are advertis'd of something passing by a Prince which formerly came from them do immediately dispatch away the Grant to the same effect to save their pretensions of Right to do it Before King James the First 's time you will hardly find that the Sovereign's Proposaâ— were ever rejected by Parliaments and yet their Petitions have oft with good Reason been denied in Queen Elizabeth's time the publick Bills were drawn by the Privy-Council and underwent afterwards very calm gentle and short Debates in Parliament But that which may stick still with some of you in the present case is Your answering the King's expectation
and Princes in Holy Scripture may serve abundantly to satisfie the unlimited Desires of the greatest Monarch in Christendom and therefore how unpardonable are we to deny our King that Power which is inseparably annext to his Royal Diadem and without which he would be no King but a Royal Slave in Golden Chains for the King 's the Church's and our own if not for the Cause's sake let us not grudge Men of his own Perswasion in Religion the free enjoyment of any Favours which he is graciously pleased to afford them and that especially considering that the occasion upon which such Privileges were formerly denied them viz. the Jealousie the Government had of their Sincerity and Obedience now ceases and this brings me to say something more particularly 5 ly To your self and your fellow Members of this Loyal Parliament whom I find to be concern'd in this Case also 'T would be presumption in me to offer to direct your Votes otherwise than as a Divine by reciting the advice of our Blessed Saviour Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them and be ye wise as Serpents but harmless as Doves and such like general Sentences the particular application of which I must in good Manners leave to your own Christian Discretion nor can they fail of making a good application of them who consider that our Blessed Saviour by these Hicroglyphicks taught his Disciples Innocence as well as Prudence in times of greatest danger that they may be able to say with St. Paul That they are pure from the Blood of all Men and that the Church of England by appointing the former Sentence to be read at the Offertory on the 5th of November and 30th of January does thereby teach us whether we have escaped a Danger or suffered Affliction not to be revengeful but be rather ready to return Good for Evil. That some severe Laws which might have Reason when they were made should by common consent of all any ways interested cease when the Reason does universally cease was I think never denied by good Casuists or good Statesmen Now the chief Reason alledged and the only justifiable one for these severe Laws against Romanists was the Jealousie the Government conceived of their Affections and the Apprehensions that their private Zeal for their Catholick Religion would make them cool in their services to the Publick which their imployments would oft require should be against their Principles and that they relying on an external Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegiance to their natural Sovereign and rightful Monarchs Kings Proclamation 12th of Fevruary 1686 7 But who now can plausibly suspect their Faithfulness to the present King or that they will be backward in his Service And whilst the Case stands thus what need will there be of sanguinary Laws for Imprisonment during Life or Consiscation of Goods Or for those Tests which exclude the Peers of the Romish Religion from sitting in the House of Lords according to their Birth-right Especially seeing these Latter were made upon a mistake of Matur of Fact whereas it has since appeared to all discreet Men of the most unquestionable Loyalty That the Popish Plot was of that perjur'd Villain Oates and other subtiler Heads making to serve their Faction and Revenge against the Government And as it is the noblest Ingenuity to own any sort of mistake so methinks it touches a Man's Reputation but softly to retract what he had formerly believed and acted upon a charitable Perswasion that Men would not be Perjur'd who after were legally convicted for being notoriously such and besides this 't is no safe matter to alter the Foundations of Government and deface the Original of a Right which in the case of all Privileges of Peerage hath been taken to be either Writt or Patent for if these must give place in any one instance no man knows where it will end or whose course to turn or be turned out of that Highest Court of National Justice may next come In the Parliament of 41. when the old Loyal Assurances were laid aside and instead of the former the Presbyterians Tested Men with their Covenant they were not aware that they made a President against themselves for an Ingagement and the Ingagâ—rs did not longè prospicere neither they little thought that they furnished their Masters of the Army with a countenancing Example to break them all in pieces and to vote them all Vseless And therefore 't is a rule of Wisdom as well as of Justice a point of Prudence as well as Consience not to remove the ancient Land-marks and 't is as useful to the State as to the Church what the first general Council decreed Let the old Vsages prevail suitable to which was the establishing Saying of the Peers long ago Nolumnus matare Leges Angliae We will not that the Laws of England be changed and certainly pursuant to this Resolution if by any cross chance or accident a change have surpriz'd the Government a Restitution to the former fettlement should soon be made and that the rather because we may say of those sanguinary Laws as his Majesty in his Royal Proclamation in Scotland does 12th February 1686 7 of the like made in the Minority of his Royal Grandfather That they have been continued of course without any design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only and sure we are that our severest Laws did not proceed from Ill-nature any otherwise than the best do ex malis moribus And 't is obvious to remark that the True Sons of the Church of England have always been better natur'd than to press or countenance the execution of them in cases of meer Religion and they have accordingly blessed be God been very sparingly executed unless when the byt-blows of a powerful Faction and no True Sons of the Church of England or some violent attempt of the Enemies thereof have forc'd it so sparingly have they been executed that 't is an old Proverb of Reproach upon the Legislators that their Laws were only made in Terrorem for Mormoes and Scare-crows And if they will serve for that purpose and to preserve the good Seed or hinder the Enemies of our Church and State from sowing rebellious and treasonable Tares among us whilst we are asleep we desire no more The Holy Church which so passionately desires the saving of Mens Souls never thirsts after the destruction of their Bodies Some Laws indeed there are made since our Reformation from Popery which threaten death to the Romish Clergy who are Natives of it if they be found in this Kingdom But though the Wisdom of the Nation thought fit to enact them at that time for the security of those Protestant Princes to whom the Romish deposing Doctrine is not Propitious yet was it Treason and not Heresie which those Laws made Capital And since there is no question but that a Prince of their Communion dare trust himself in their
than your Duty to withdraw your Services for if you quick-sighted Men who sit higher than your Neighbours spy more Damages and Mischiefs coming on the Country than we can see from those who are newly put into Commission you have the more Reason not to desert your Station There were many Gentlemen in the Rebellious Age before the King's Restauration who acting under the Usurper's Commission told their confiding Friends they indur'd it only in order to the serving the King and the Loyal Party how much rather should Men now serve the King and subalternately those that serve him when they are called to do it by a lawful Authority Let them also consult their Honour as Gentlemen and shew a Courage besitting their Quality like that brave Roman who did not like other mean Spirits sneak out and quit his Post but generously profest he did not despair of the Commonwealth nor would he desert its Service If they to whom this is urg'd say No more do we we acquiesce in the Kin'gs Pleasure but we care not for Acting their laying down thus is an Impeachment of their loyalty for hereby do they raise or increase the groundless Fears and Jealousies of the People who will be over-apt to conclude That if those leading Men in the Country upon whose Conduct they safely relyed Withdraw themselves all is lost Religion and Property are vanish'd whereas you are the only Men who can and should take them off these mistakes by giving them to understand That the current of the Law is as clear as ever and that the King does no more for his own Religion than every Prince in the World does for his nor less for ours than will suffice to make us Happy if we had but Wit enough to know when we were so That as to the mixture of Popish and Protestant Justices Ireland has been long so Govern'd and with good Success and as the greatest number of our present Statute Laws were made by their Ancestors Council and Consent then of the same Religion they now are of so we have no reason to question but they will be as forward to execute as the others were to get them inacted And if after all they confess as all Ingenuous and Considering Men must That they could consent to the repealing and taking off the capital penal and disabling Laws against the Roman Catholicks but they could not answer it to their Counties for which they serve they need not be told who were such apt Scholars in the tender Point of Privileges of Parliament that their Power is more than that of the States General of the United Provinces for they may not only consult but consent without those who sent them and if they dare deny it send a Serjeant at Arms for them as you know they lately did how legally I Dispute not And since those States in the late King's Time concluded with him a Point of mutual Benefit without ever sending to their Principals and were afterward thanked by them for it with more Right and with as good Success may they concur with the King's Motion if it be consider'd That they were not chosen by Men of that Antimonarchical Spirit who generally prevail'd in the Three Elections before this And as to those of the opposite Party who can think their Thoughts are likely to be like Lycurgus his defence of his Laws That though they were not the best they were as good as then could be made and seeing they surmize that some Men endeavour to bring Parliaments into Disesteem as stulborn and intractable and therefore useless in prospect of this and what may probably ensue it will undoubtedly be Prudent to give up many Points formerly contended for with too much Eagerness and too little Justice by which Compliâ—â—ces with the Royal Power and Goodness they may have fresh and larger Assurances of saving the main Staâ—â— Thus have I honestly esiay'd to give you the best Resolâ—uicâ— I can of the Case in Qâ—jâ—ion whether the Thoughts which were to my satisfaction will prove so to your's or others more fearful and jealous in the Communâ—â—â— of our Church I know not but I hope they will and wish they 〈◊〉 not only for the King's Service and Satisfaction but for their own and Peace sake He was a sound Politiciaâ— who told us That for the maintenance of a Religion long in being it is necessary oft times to reduce it to its first Grounds nor do I think it would argue want of Policy or Piety in the Sons of the Church of England to study the Primitive Constitutions of the same and to reâ—ect upon the peaceable Temper of the first Reformers and to conâ—â—der what one of our best Casuists our Church ever bred tests us in the Case of One of our Church Marrying with a Recusant That in Points wherein the Substance of Christianity consists the fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion we both agree And that he who rightly understands those Catholick Truths taught in the Catechisms of both Churches and concerning which all Christendom in a manner are at a present accord and will also suffer himself farther to consider That the Church of England does not impose upon the Judgments and Consciences of her Members any thing to be believ'd or receiv'd as of necessity to Salvation but what is truly Catholick and confessed by her Adversaries so to be and consequently that the Differences between her and the Romish Party is wholly about those Additionals or Superstructures may easily rest satisfied in his Judgment and Conscience That the thing desir'd is not simply evil and â—oâ—ogenere unlawful but expedient and as the exigencies and the conjunction of our present Circumstances and the probability of the good and evil Consequences of it prudently laid together and weigh'd one against another require are little less than necessary And in Truth did we live up to the Rules and Canons of the Church the Differences between them and us would not appear so many and so great but that we might hope under so Gracious a Prince who has a kindness for both to become at last if not Men of one Judgment yet at least of one Heart I will allow such a Casuist as Ferguson to repute the Terms of Union with Rome impossible and absurd for so they must needs be to such an Arch-schismatick and Traytor as he is But if we consider that there are a great many Truths of so little value that a wise and good Man would part with them all for a Grain of Charity and how dangerous it is and damnable to rend the Peace of the Catholick Câ—â—â—â—h we shall not be so stiff and inflexible so tenacious and unyielding even in Matters of so small moment as we too familiarly are to so shameful a degree of Obstinacy that we will not stir an hairs breadth to win a Brother no not to gratifie a Prince Intreat perswade or convince them Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris still