them March 25th Seventy Two made good his Promises to All by a General Indulgence and a Protection of the Church of England SECT V. The Wayes that are Taken Now to Hinder the Having such Another HAving Discours't of the Past we come home now to our Selves and the Present Time and to Consider the Fifth Point The Wayes that are Taken now to Hinder the having such Another Healing Parliament And truly they are not much Honester Attempts than were us'd to prevent the Meeting of the First and that is the Old Antiquated pretence of Jealousies and Fears only there is another Knave turn'd Trumps now tho' 't is the same thing to the Government whether 't is trick't upon by that of Clubs or Diamonds 'T is strange That those that made so lately the Folly of other Mens Fears so Ridiculous should make themselves now to those very Men the most fearful Fools That those who still asserted the Assurance and Security of their Religion from the Promise of their KING should now without the least Breach of it give him the Ly and tell him to his Face You are worse than your * Vid. Letter Word That those who ran up the Prerogative to the Height of it's Power should dispute now the Power of their KING 's Dispensing What is this but a Confessing to their Foes whom they still followed with Fine and Confiscation that their Divines were Dunces their Books were Libels and the Fam'd Filmer the greatest Fool It is a saying so common and so natural that the most ignorant both know it and make use of it too To Look before they Leap and would any Considerate Men make use of the same Arguments and take the same Measures for which they have so much Exposed and Reproached others But it fares with them here in their Civil Matters as the Late KING's Papers almost unanswerably observe of their Concerns in Ecclesiasticals That part of the Nation which looks most like a Church cannot bring Her Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turn'd against Her self But only here they make the Inversion much worse Here She takes the Old Arguments of Dissenters on Her Side only to make Her Own fly in Her Face so that an Honest and Unbyast Asserter of the Government has nothing else to do to Answer the Clamors of the Present time but to Declaim against the Cavils of the Past and both those are Reducible to these Three Celebrated and Contested Points I. Arbitrary Power II. Freedome of Parliaments III. Protestant Religion For the First and for them all in their Order though the present KING's Promises are as Currant with them as his Fathers Coin and both bear the same Image and Superscription Though the Leges Angl ' libertas Parliament Religio Protestant have been the continual Subject of all this KING 's gracious Declarations and particularly in that of His Indulgence when to put it in his * Vid. this King 's Two Proclamations to Scotland his Declaration of Indulgence here Own Words Property Liberty and the Protestant Religion are all assur'd to them on the Word of a KING Yet still the Matter by some or other must be still so manag'd as to make the People to distrust and doubt of all Such is the hard Fate of PRINCES as if a Crown could not be contriv'd to sit soft on a Royal Head as if destin'd to be a Burthen by Decree both Extreams shall conspire to make it uneasy Monarchs for the most part are Endanger'd for their not believing any Danger to be near 'T is hard they should suffer by not being Believ'd too when they tell their Subject there is None Mark but the Goodness of your PRINCE and then see whether he deserves to be treated so Ill. A numerous part of his People being uneasy as certainly those must be that suffer for Conscience sake and when the Iron Enter their very Souls had made the Government a long time so too To silence their Clamours and Complaints the King would take away the occasion of their Calamities the severities of the Laws and that raises now as mighty murmurings among those that were only for surpressing of Malecontents before as if his Throne were more dreadful when he makes it even the Mercy-seat How shall the most gracious Prince please such a divided People where discontent only shifts Parties and Loyalty seems no longer entail'd love at least and affection then as the King continues his favour or it seems only now so long as he confines it to themselves alone sure gratitude and friendship must not be limited like Marriage Vows or those of Devotion to one Object neither is a King to be considerd in his politick capacity like a natural body Whose Love is then the most Generous when 't is most extensive and his power best absolute when he Reigns in the Hearts of all to make himself this Vniversal Monarch seems only the design of his present Majesty and to make him more Fear'd than Lov'd are the devices of some Ureasonable men But the result of these Inconsistencies with themselves they will say does arise and is occasion'd by some deeper insight of theirs into the designs of State and our plausible Varnish may serve to set it off but will never hinder them from seeing through it 't is strang that these politick Spectacles should be so suddenly put on this must make the Dissenters value their opticks proud of a better foresight and more acurate intuition and tell the Church-men we told you of this and then where were your eyes but could the Dissenters have foreseen too his Majesties merciful Inclination Popery and Slavery might never have been their Monimental Motto or themselves seduc'd to follow some more desperate Malecontents to their death and destruction was it Sedition in them to doubt was it Treason almost to think and is it a Loyal Act now to declare in writing the danger of the Protestant Religion and that at a time when the free Exercise of it is permitted to All certainly such unwonted Surmises from Persons that have declar'd their abhorrence of them as Seditious are as surprising as the new Friendship 's and shew that the Tide is turn'd the Wind tackt about against their Interests and what can Dissenters say but that they see through all this and as they told the Dissenters that the Liberty they labour'd for was only a License to do what they List so their Popery that is now coming in is nothing else but their Persecuting Power that 's going out What will they not say when they see those that exalted the seising of Franchises as an undoubted Prerogative Printed and Publisht the forfeiture of all Charters Priveledges and Immunities and that before they were granted with such Restrictions and Reservations as more impower his Majesty than when these People made them all thus dependant on the Crown 'T is strange that even those should murmur at his Majesties power of Dispensing
Church as bold upbraidings as they be to the Crown are but bad Encouragement to continue their KING's Kindness and as Lame excuses for their Ingratitude for sure the Countenance of a Prince would be somwhat of a preservative too and not indanger their Security from the Law whatever Oath he took to Protect their Religion he did not Swear too to put out his Declaration of Assurance also and tho' he be oblidg'd to Govern by Law I don't know what Law oblidges him to tell them so often that He Will In this sure his Majesty has done More than he was bound to do and then those that are deficient in their dutiful Return can never have done so much no Silly Sophistry no Foolish Fear will wipe away the Scandal of such a reasonable reproach and it will sound a little harsh tho' the danger were such indeed when some of Her Enemies shall observe that for keeping out some Popish Secluded Members the Loyal Church of England is now the Non-addressers But to do Her Justice too some of her Bishops upon more serious Consultations did atone for a more General defect and Oblidg'd their Communion by a Prudential Act that fain would have been so improvidently Wise as to Disoblige her self I could superadd here that other silly Suggestion of the Restitution of Abby-Lands were not the Panick Fear of it Superseded by a Learned Treatise and the Confirmation of them from the Pope even in the time of Queen Mary the common Intrest of Papists to Oppose it and that his Majesty might as well set up a Court of Wards and Liverys and so make All Lands ly at his Mercy and that He himself has Assur'd them Expresly to the Scots in his Proclamation SECT VI. The Means that may be us'd to Prevent the Malice and Insinuation of Such as would Obstruct It. AND now at length we are arriv'd to put a Period to these Points and having considered the Methods that have been us'd to Hinder this Healing Parliament we are come to the Sixth and last Section to Consider the Sixth Point The means how to Prevent the Designs and Insinuations of such as would Obstruct It. And for that reflect but a little on these following Considerations if they have but little Weight with them you are not burdned much if they have not a little 't is your Interest to bear with them Consider That notwithstanding the specious pretences of some spiteful and malicious men these dreadful apprehensions that are put into your heads may be none at all at least not such as they are represented that the Authors of them may be men that oppose his Majestys Gracious intention more out of malice to him than kindness to themselves and their Church I speak to Church-men for Dissenters can't be suppos'd dissatisfy'd with that mercy that makes them happy beyond their expectation but they are Members I believe of this Establisht Church for all the many Letters to the other Congregations that from the present Constitution of our Government I fancy must for the most part be concern'd that can best Second the Clemency of their KING and confirm to them an establisht Toleration by a Law and such an one as will repeal All those by which they have a long time so unreasonably suffer'd I. 'T is Reasonable to be done II. 'T is Fittest for them to do it III. 'T is Their Interest so to do And first let them tell me their best pretenders to Reason whether the suffering for Conscience sake can without the greatest reluctance of Conscience it self be defended or whether it's advocates are not toucht with an inward aversion at the same time they write for it especially should they reflect it may be their turn to suffer whether a body ought to suffer for the sentiments and suggestion of the Soul that informs it when it consists only in the Worshiping of the same God in which all Christian Churches agree sure these men are not so fond of the Fire and Faggot they so much fear as to Justifie for it the persecution of the Primitive Christians and make their Martyrdoms but so many Judicial Processes for their Nonconformity when of the old Heathen Emperors few were of Opinion in this Point to Punish people into Compliance the Christian Religion I think is now so well settl'd and the Seed of the Church so well sown that there is no great need of the Sanguis Martyrum to water it neither is the representation of it in this manner so improper or the comparison so absurd for tho there may be a better Warranty to force people of the same Faith in Christ to the worshipping their God in an Establisht Way than the Pagans could pretend to for the forcing us to be Infidels yet this would justify them still who thought their Irreligion and Idolatry the best of Devotion and had the Decrees of their Emperors to Authorise it which were with them the Statutes and Laws of the Land and I am sorry that I can add that such severities amongst our selves seem much worse when we agree in one common Faith in one Creed in one Christ Iesus neither is the comparison of the Punishment and sort of Suffering so absurd for tho we do not exercise by our Laws the Long Sheet in Foxes Martyrology and are left as we see the Heathens were there to study Torment tho' the Flames that he has made to rage so strongly through his vast Volumms are happily quencht all Burnings forbidden and Religion no more to suffer with a Writ de' Haeretico it will be as little credit to it still that 't is now no Fire and Faggot that can force a Conscience but only an Hangman and an Halter 'T is true that whatever has been the severity of the Laws such cruelties have seldom been put in Execution but to say they never were is as certainly false Several in Queen Eliz. Reign suffer'd meerly for professing of their Faith and my self remember three that dy'd for it and that only for being Priests in the late Perjurious time of Arbitrary Oaths and pack't Evidence besides another that was condemn'd and banisht whom I have met with since in his Exile But whatever be the Mercy of the King the Cruelty of the Laws can never be the more defended and they are never the more Merciful because of the Clemency of the Prince that remits them In the mean time such bloody sanctions are certainly blots to that Religion that keeps them upon Record and if we commend those that are for retaining them we must at the same time blame those that but so lately repeal'd the Writ de Comburendo So much for the Reason of them and but this little for Fact they cannot tell us of any Country that is Protestant nor of any Catholick but where the Inquisition is Establisht where it is made Capital to profess a particular Faith even in France whose Cruelty is decry'd so much tho' the fugitives are driven to
piece of Tyranny and Persecution tho it affected them only in their politick capacity and no person was afflicted by it with any Pecuniary mulct or Corporal punishment This their own Authors say they thought hard to suffer only for their Fidelity to their Sovereign and will these most unreasonable men most injuriously suppose it Justice and Reason that others are expos'd to be incapacitated for Trust excluded from Office debar'd of birth-right to be banisht fin'd imprison'd and fairly hang'd and that only for their Faith to their God Gentlemen These are great Truths unless our Annals Ly. Nothing of florid insinuations but a sober and modest representation of matter of fact which we shall further apply to the Circumstances of our present time And pray what benefit and ty after all had those Spiritual Bonds and Coercives of the Conscience and Soul save only to ensnare people into Perjury or punish them for not being Perjur'd i. e. ruining their estates in this world because they would not compound for their inheritance in the next What effect had that formidable Declaration Test of the Two Houses against the Members of the ensuing Parliament that was to Sit why our History tells us these their hard Exclusions were as little heeded by their Electors the recover'd Nation began to revive its drooping spirits it saw dismal oppression and fearful Tyranny like a cloudy shade flying from the Land when the refreshing Sun breaks forth with his ray and equally dispenses his benefits to all below Liberty was then too the long'd for blessing and the Universal cry peace of conscience freedom of fouls and a free Parliament were heard in the Land where nought had been but complaining in the streets the freemen and freeholders began to think themselves truly free that even in their Choice of Representatives their Nations birth-right and native Inheritance and that notwithstanding those Negative Oaths and Tests of Exclusion and their being banish't both Houses with an I. A. B. Neither will the Common Notion of Oaths impos'd by an unlawful Authority being utterly void satisfy all People we have seen it would not in the Case of the Covenant in some several persons that have been good casuists too it being an invocation of the same just God tho' administer'd with injustice by men and which perhaps in matters of Faith the most Legal Government as many think cannot well impose It was at That time the people began to think of chusing such Representatives as should rescue them from unreasonable Laws and a bondage more than that of the body no persons then pretended Loyalty to a Party all were Dissenters but those in Arms all the Nation big with Expectation of this blessed and reconciling Parliament nay most of the very Army it self signing an engagement to submit to all it's consultations none were disturb'd with apprehensions of its approach none cast down but some in high places and such as were likely to fall from a power of doing mischief That let Lambert out of the Tower and led him into the field fear of Vnion and a fear of Peace That Publisht Papers too to create Jealousies of that ensuing Parliament and the boldest of them too was a Letter not to a Dissenter but as sent from Brussels the Church of England-Loyalists then were full of Addresses Declarations subscrib'd by Nobility Gentry Clergy full of condescention to all tender Consciences with these very soft terms expressions of * Vid. Declarations Publique Liberty Publique Peace National Interest laying aside all mention of Parties and Factions and burying all Rancours and Animosities and had before agreed in a reconciling Association of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independant and all but Papist Church-government and certainly it will not recommend much the demeanor of this Establisht Church when it shall be said with Truth that she was then only meek when humbled and then alone merciful when she could not hurt I wish I could not put an end to this Section with another observation that seems to have some affinity to the juncture of affairs afoot As it was the Plot of that Parliament that had created all our troubles at their expiration to put a test to the Loyalty of the next that was to succeed or rather a tryal of their affection to their Treason and Usurpation So also there was a contrivance upon the Assembling of that Healing Parliament to have Ejected most of the Members after they were met by Vertue of those very Votes and Tests of their opinion of the War and of the Ministry and Magistracy being only from God. I mention this as apposite too because 't is more than probable that the Contrivances of the late Tests being to debar people of their Birth-right their Peerage and sitting in Parliament they may move again Now to have all Members excluded for their Opinions and that they cannot take the Oaths as if the belief of Transubstantiation would turn the Elements of the man too and unqualify a person for the affairs of his Country as if a Coventicle was impossible to afford a Burgher that understood the Constitution of his own Corporation But certainly there may be some means found out for obviating such an inconvenience and sure the KING who by the resolution of the Laws and the greatest Judges of it can dispense with those Oaths to be taken in any Court of Judicature can by an argument a Majori extend his dispensation to such as cannot take it in an House of Commons which is none unless it should so fall out too as an officer upon the passing those former Tests told General Monk while he was talking of a new Parliament and those qualifications they themselves being to be Judges of themselves it may so happen that the Major part may be of such as are not themselves Qualify'd And I may add to the present case of such as may not be willing or care that others should so Qualify themselves for the service of their King and Country as in their opinions must make them renounce their Heaven and deny their GOD. But we must not leave this Subject yet without answering two Objections wherewith the partial concern'd will be sure to attack us in the rear and therefore 't is fit to face about to confute them First Then that the power which opprest the Church of England was an absolute usurpation and terminated in a Tyranny not to be indur'd the product of a devilish Rebellion and the remains of a raging War. Secondly That those which suffer'd under her Reign have had this assurance and benefit too that it shall always be by the known Laws of the Land and Statutes of the Realm whereas all those Oaths and Engagements Votes and Ordinances we so insignificantly mention were just no Laws at all so that they suffer'd by nothing as well as for it To this it may be as readily replyed that all sufferings if against all sense and reason to the ruining men
have a mind to be Seditious is just the same what His present Majesty was pleas'd to signify to be His Sense too in his late Declaration for Indulgence The Ld. Chancellor further declar'd That the marks of a true Church were Charity to one another He tells them That this Disquisition had Cost his Majesty many a Sigh many a Sad Hour That he had taken pains to Compose them with Learned and Pious men of different Perswasions which they should shortly see by a Declaration he would Publish on that occasion by which they should see his great Indulgence to those who can have a Protection from their Conscience to differ from their brethren Exhorting them all to be but pleas'd themselves and perswade others to be so Thus ended that Session and was Adjourn'd to the Sixth of November following Hitherto you see there was no Penal Statutes made no Force to be put upon Peoples Conscience and the Protestant Religion still to be safe without making of Dissenters suffer Pursuant to these Gracious Sentiments of the Prince and prudent Resolutions of the Parliament The KING before their Meeting again Publish't a Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs full of gracious Concessions to Reconcile all different Opinions in Religion And such was the Peaceable Result of that Royal Indulgence for it was really no other that all Subjects seem'd to be satisfy'd all Differences reconcil'd and the Parliament it self afterward giving the KING publick Thanks for his Pious Inclination to Peace and Concord To pursue it further The Lord Chancellor had Liberty to offer Bishopricks and Deanaries to those that Labour'd for this Reconciliation some accepted others refused a Commission was issued out for an Agreement upon some Alterations in the Liturgy as were requisite to satisfy some Tender Consciences And the Ministers met upon it afterward at Sion Colledge and wou'd have agreed on a Model of Episcopacy Here was an Agreement between KING Parliament and People but it was too great an Happiness to last long those that had more cruel Inclinations and aspir'd to be so far powerful as to punish for Non-conformity foresaw that this Parliament would never put them in a Capacity to do it and so prevail'd that on the Twenty Ninth of December following was Dissolv'd this Reconciling Parliament though with the foremention'd Elogys of that Famous PRINCE who as he was beyond all Character best understood how to give One which he did here to this Effect That it should be Call'd to all Posterity The Blessed and the Healing Parliament So also he broke out into this more Exalted Encomium and Emphatical Interrogatory That it should be a Rule to his Actions and Councils to Consider what is such a Parliament like to think of this Council of Mine or this Action And in this Opinion of his Parliament though nothing can add more to it's Fame after such a Panegyrick from it's PRINCE was he seconded by all Historians that Describe it who tell us Never did KING and Parliament better Agree never was a Parliament begun with greater Expectation and onely Ended with less satisfaction in lasting no longer Others call it the Happy Parliament that assur'd the Foundations rais'd the Structure of our Antient English Monarchy And Mr. Cowley the sweetest of our Bards sufficiently sings it's Praises in his Ode on the Restoration But it happen'd here as it always does where the Countenance and Power of the PRINCE makes the Clergy Plenipotentiaries when they began to find their Strength they assoon began to use it and the moderate Men being baffl'd in their Elections and the more Inconsiderate sacrificing their Interest to their Ambition which upon Consideration now they call Revenge settled their Liturgy A Parliament was Assembled in 62. Confirm'd an Absolute Act of Vniformity the KING's Promises Declarations Commissions all Dy or had no Life and about 2000 of Conscientious Ministers most Unconscionably silenc'd for their Opposition * Vid. Letter to Dissent The Gentlemen Confess their Errour and so we need not prove it SECT IV. The wholesome Effects that follow'd it's Sober Consultations IF any one should Ask us now to the Fourth Point What were the good Effects that follow from this Assemblies sober Debates and Consultations Why The Answer is easy and short Peace a National and Universal Peace a Peace in Church a Peace in State so Calm and Serene even to the satisfying of a Conscience and a Soul as if the Spirit of GOD had moved again upon the Face of the Waters after a confus'd Deluge and a Sea of Blood as if the holy Dove it self had brought the Peaceful Branch to our Isle as from the Deluge to an Ark The Good Effects of it cannot better be guest than from the Bad Ones that followed it's being Dissolv'd and that they were no greater can only be imputed to the suddenness of it's Dissolution which was only worthy to have been Endless and what both it 's Preceding and following one were truly Perpetual and Long. And to confirm with the most forcible Argument from matter of Fact the good Effects that follow'd it there was nothing of a Plot heard of all the the Time of it's Sitting and what could be the Reason of such a General Calmness and Serenity certainly nothing else but the Liberty every one enjoy'd to Worship his GOD in his own Way and what was generally expected should have been settled by Law and which had certainly been done too had they sate longer and 't is shrewdly to be suspected that the Interest some People had who affected power and fear'd to lose the Liberty which they better lik't to punish other Religions by the Laws of their Church hinder'd Toleration from being made an Act of the State. And what follow'd pray presently upon it's Dissolution but the Insurrection of Venner and his Fifth Monarchy-men fighting for JESVS CHRIST for fear now of what follow'd that their Reign was like to be but short When the Oaths of Supremacy began to be tender'd to all and the Test of Abjuration that some thought a Temptation to a seeming Perjury was indiscriminately put a thing that Pryn himself that had writ For the KING 's Comming in tho' against all things before could oppose as contrary to Magna Charta when Encroachments in Ecclesiasticals began to creep on were there not then too Designs and Conspiracies set afoot and Barebone Salmon Wildman Ireton and Others seiz'd and Committed to safe Custody When that dreadful St. Bartholomew as they call'd it began to dawn upon the Dissenters by which day they were oblig'd to read Divine Service according to the Act of Uniformity wear the Vestments of the Church or forsake their Pulpits after all their Endeavours to prevail with a Parliament were in vain and their Application to KING and Council as Fruitless when the Bishops were ready and had provided men for to fill the places of such as would not take the Test and near two Thousand were turn'd out upon it the
Conformists reserving too much the bitter Tast of their rough Vsage notwithstanding the General Amnesty so much prest by the KING one would think might have been most Religiously observ'd by Prelates Did not then first Fears and Jealousies begin to Invade the State and even make the Government it self afraid So Conscious is Oppression of Consequences that are Fatal that power it self can distrust it 's own Weakness and for this reason presently upon it being sensible of the provocations given in Matters of Religion Walls were order'd to be pulled down several Cities and Towns to be dismantl'd at the same time that the severities of the Laws were to be put in Execution and what ensu'd but the suspected Plot of Danvers Ludlow c. for which Phillips Toung Gibbs and Others were Executed Upon the Neck of that broke out another in the North and while they were Labouring by Rigor to suppress the Divisions in the Church what did they Raise but open Rebellions in the State Several of the Conspirators were Taken and a Commission sent to York to Try them fifteen were found Guilty the Chief of them one Capt. Oates some were Executed at York some at Leeds some in Adjacent Places and so universal was the Discontent upon this encroachment of the Liberty of Worship that the same Conspiracy had spread it self to London and was first to have broke forth in Ireland In the Sickness time when the KING left London and went to Oxford which though not Visited the Dissenters say they found there their Plague too the Five-Mile Act to prevent as they call'd it the spreading their Infection whereby indeed they were Banish't Corporations and Towns as if they were Tainted with the Malignancy that Reign'd and onely fit for a Pest-house and that too with another Test to the purpose why What ensu'd presently upon it Before the Pestilence was hardly ceas'd and the KING well return'd to London but another Discovery for the Alteration of the Government of which Conspiracy one Alexander was the Chief the City to be Fir'd on the Third of September the same time that it was indeed Vid. Gazet. and for which the Romanists were so unreasonably Reproach't for which several were Try'd at the Old-Baily and Executed at Tyburn The first Commotion that began in Scotland was also upon the same Account when the Ryot that was made upon one of their Justices as was Confest by both sides was only for too rigorously Executing the Laws against them in matters of Religion which Ryot tho' rais'd by a small Number of Inconsiderable Sufferers yet soon ran up so high as an Army and which was Marching with all hast to Edenburgh And the last Rebellion at Bothwell-Bridge tho' begun by some desperate Villains to defend themselves from the Justice they had deservd for the Murdering of the Archbishop had never come to that height had not the Covenanters thinking themselves Opprest by the Penal Laws clos'd in with them and increas'd their Army to such a Number as to make them formidable And Lastly I much doubt whether ever Monmouth himself would have made so much work in the West had not the Severities of the Laws then Zealously set afoot sent him many a Souldier into the field that did not dare to stay a home for fear of fine and confiscation and had his Majesty assoon as he Ascended his Throne been Permitted by the Reasons of State or not oppos'd by the importunities of some people to have declar'd his Resolutions of Indulgence perhaps it might have sav'd a great deal of Protestant Blood and Dissenters never have fought for that Liberty of Conscience which it seems to them too was Dearer then their Lives God forbid That ever Rebellion should be really Justify'd by Religious Pretences but since Matter of Fact makes it Plain that they are so of Pretended as is manifest here from the Disturbance that was given to the State constantly upon every Usurpation and Penalty Tryal and Test that was put upon Peoples Souls as is apparent from the foregoing Particulars can any man in his wits not close with a Provident PRINCE to remove the very Pretences too of it To quarrel at such a Prudential Act is to tell His Majesty they are never Easy but when Hee 's Embroyl'd never Secure but when there 's an Insurrection against their KING These sort of Men are more dangerous in their Sentiments than some Country Ideots in their Suppositions some of them wont believe Monmouth to be Dead and these by their own Maxims must wish him Alive 'T is as Certain as Truth it self if Fact can make a thing appear True that Sufferers for Religion and perhaps we may except no Perswasions will endeavour to lay hold on any Alteration of State to Rescue themselves from the severity of such Oppressions 't is as natural as to sinking Men to catch at a Plank And I could prove this from History for above this Hundred and Fifty Years from our Hen. th' Eighth to those instances I make use of in the last Reign To this Provocation do the Hollanders owe their Revolt their Being and their Common-wealth To this do the Hugonots of France Ascribe their Entry into the League and what that Cost that Kingdom let Ours Judge To this do discontented Courtiers and desperate Villains owe all that which to a Government makes them Formidable for such Creatures as could never Hope upon their own Interest to Muster an hundred Men where a general Indulgence is Establish't shall under a Pressure of Conscience raise you a Million and with this Advantage too that the Cause whatever are the Fellows that engage in it will still carry the better Face and Quallify Villains of no Religion to Head those that really Fight for it and to tell you that they are The Armies of the Living GOD the GOD of HOSTS and that they Fight the Battles of the LORD So certain it is that those who are not permitted to assemble in their own Church will alwayes be Restless and Uneasy in the State Passive Obedience in such Cases we see sooner Preach't than Practis'd and such as are deny'd in their own Way to Worship their GOD will assoon be deficient in their Duty to their KING and may the Fear of it never make some sort Vnautiful that Profess they 'l never be Provok't tho' by Suffering for it So much was it the sense of His Late Majesty as partly appears before that in pursuance of his Promises at Breda and his Intimations to his First Parliament that was so Healing To which he prest a Liberty of Conscience that he also in his Declaration of December Sixty Two makes a Confirmation of it and says That he was Firm in his Resolutions of Performing it to the Full And this even against the Sense of his New Parliament that was more for Penalty and Persecution Of this he Exprest his Sense in his Parliament July 16th Sixty Nine And then in spite of
as modest as this man is in Questioning it there are as bold Asserters in Print that affirm with Confidence with dint of Satyr that these Royal Dispensations are so many Breaches of Oaths Irregular and Extrajudicial Proceedings The late Letter to a Dissenter that has rais'd such a Dust very slyly Laughs it out of doors as if it might be Extended to dispense with their Belief of the Church of Rome's Idolatry A very pretty Jest to spoil a Latinism and Play with his Soveraign that is Sacred as well as the Religion but he is in earnest too and tells them their acceptance of it has Retain'd them as Counsel for the Prerogative against Magna Charta and that Parliaments may Pay them for it The Tryal of the New Test with Dr. B's Tune another to the same are such severe Satyrs on the same Subject such as the Government never suffer'd I am sure in the most seditious Times so that I do these Gentlemen no Wrong if we may believe our Ears and our Eyes and Sense with such cannot be deny'd an infallible Judge when we lay at some of their doors the designs of animating the People with the Old Din of Arbitrary Power as the Indians do their Elephants with a red Cloath and bloody Colours The other old Out-cry that is set afoot is the popular Clamour about Parliament and must that too be taken up by those that made such a Noise to Cry it down But here these Gentlemen are more Pettish and Peevish and harder to be pleas'd than ever were the Fanaticks they for their implacable spirit Condemn'd They would have a Parliament they would have none so 't is impossible to gratify those that contradict themselves but wee 'l suppose them only some clashing contrarieties and so may be seemingly Reconcil'd They would have a Redressing Parliament and not a Parliament of Addressers and truly for that they now labour with all Artifice and Zeal as if they intended to make every County an Associated One but sure this way of working may put the Nation in a ferment and we can say with sad Experience it never yet procur'd the peoples Peace Wise men will consider tho' they are satisfy'd of the goodness of their Cause never to use bad means to bring it about And I wish we were all so wise and would do so too but such is the Seditious industry of some to Create those dangers truly out of nothing when there are none to Invade them that are really near And for this the Country shall be frighten'd with a Parliament of Courtiers and the Protestants in General that it may be made up of Roman-Catholicks both those the most Panick Fears and next to impossibilities the Court never yet afforded us Members enough to make up a full Committee and there are not Catholicks enough of great Estates in England to serve two in a County if Improbabilities won't be swallow'd danger it self like a black Pill must be Gilded to go down the better and work with the People and they must be told of his Majesties interposition that a Burgess must be made like a Bishop with a Congee d'eslire that he is resolv'd to have a * Vid. Letter and the Tryal of the Test Burnets Papers Parliament for his purpose and sure in desires that are reasonable why should he not and such an one certainly is the design of settling a quiet both of Body and Soul to all his Subjects We are told from all the late Libells that like Plague-Bills or those of the Pox are put into your hands that Returns must serve instead of an Election that the one will never be permitted to be Fair and the other must sure be Foul. But these foolish insinuations any one may see are on purpose to create Faction and Fears and tho' his Majesties desire are as Earnest as they are Reasonable for relieving the distresses of his Subjects and the giving ease and equal priviledg to all yet he aims at no other end than the bringing it about by Law Interest sure will never ly and 't is that obliges those that would have Laws Repeal'd that the Authority be Lawful that Repeals them and it would only afford another Parliament an Argument to Void and Disanul what ever was Done were the Constitution of the Body not qualify'd to do it But perhaps they may find that by Law too that of their own making his Majesty may meet with good Returns from most Corporations since they won't question sure the Power of Regulating which themselves have given by which many of them too not long since were glad to be brought into the House of Commons especially by better Law now since in all those new Charters there are express Provisoes for his Majesties changing any Part or altering the Whole But is this now such a new thing to have the mind of the Prince set upon compassing by the interest he has with the People any point of State that he judges convenient for the Welfare of Himself and Subjects Those that think so are but little acquainted with Books or History and not to revolve Old things have forgot transactions that are very New. I need not mind them that there is hardly an account of any Reign that does not afford us an Instance But tell them that they gave us one themselves and that in the very last With what Vigor the Succession was Invaded they can Boast to their own Honour it seems and others Shame and had not his Late Majesty Interpos'd with his utmost Power taking the Forfeiture of Franchises and Regulating Corporations they can Glory to some peoples Reproach that the Tide had never been Turn'd and will these men Tugg now against the same Stream they sail'd down in so merrily If their measures were so Fair then how come the same Practises so Foul now especially when by president and restrictions made more Warrantable too for as they did Well to Defend the Right of Succession so the same Successor with as many of their fellow Subjects think that Liberty of Conscience can be as well Defended But I can tell them of greater Liberties that have been taken by the Kings of England tho' nothing like it has been here attempted now and that is if I mistake not in this very Point of interposition to Returns and Elections Richard. the 2d called all the Justices and Sherifs to Nottingham says our History intimating that he was to call a Parliament and that they should use the matter so that no Knight or Burgess should be chosen but such as the King and Council should name 't is true their answer was peremptory they could not do it but he that reads the History will assoon the Reason The Lords were in Arms and a Rebellion in the Realm and tho' this were not Justifyable by Law it may serve to shew what great attempts have long since been made upon Liberty when it was resolv'd too in his Reign That
full Value as little as it terrify'd the bright Spirits of Oxford may Perchance be found the smallest part of the Prerogative and tho such a Canon could not Frighten them so far as to comply with their Diocesan if matters are to be manag'd meerly by the Laws that are made I fear there may be some found that empower the Prince to deprive them of a Bishop Secondly they will do wonderous well I will not say wiser if they do it themselves if only for fear lest others should do it for them I much doubt if Dissenters should once come to be the Prevailing part in a Parliament whether they would make so good terms for this Establisht Church as she might do if she pleas'd for her self The King has given her very good words for it and I wish she may not forgo the Benefit of them He has promis'd to Protect and doubtless will not deny her any reasonable means for her Preservation if he has a mind to do her Good how can she be angry if he 'll only keep her from doing ill the persecutors of Daniel could find no Occasion against him but in the Case of his God but yet we saw the King labour'd to deliver him 'T is not to be doubted if she comply with his Majesties request he will refuse Hers and why may she not be as safe with an Act of Jac. 2d for Establishing her the National Religion tho she part with the 13 Eliz. for hanging up all that differ from her It will never be the worse Church because it cannot do more ill And the Notion that some sort of people have got in their Noddles of the Necessity of such Laws in a Church for the Support of what is the Religion of the State is false both in Reason and Fact for certainly that may be supported without surpressing all other Opinions and there is no need that a Jesuit must be Gibbeted and other Dissenters Banish't and Hang'd too if they return and that Sanoumary Laws must be subservient to an Act of Vniformity T is no more then if a man should tell you Look you Sir most People are of our mind and we can get a Patent to make you think so too and if you wont believe what you cant believe or believe all that we can believe you must even suffer what coms on 't be it Fine Imprisonment Banishment or Death why a moral Heathen would be divided in his passions at the nonsense of such severity and Democritus himself in a doubt whether he should laugh or cry and such partial Christians must Blush too when they blame the Proceedings of the most Christian King and whom they make for it too in their fam'd Antiphrasis even Antichrist himself But one would think that doubt should be out of doors of a Church Establisht by Law not to be able to subsist without it reserve a Power by Law to punish all others when the Present practise of so many Forreign States proves the Consistency and we have the promise and experiment of two KINGS Reigns that it shall and can be so in ours at home 'T is to no purpose to Tattle us out of the Integrity of a good Action with the tale of a Tub or fool away a prudential Act with an Aesop's Fable * Vid. Tryal of the New Test c. p. 5. To tell us of the Conditions of Peace that were made upon the surrendring of the Dogs and that the Sheep afterward were worried by the Wolves Setting aside the malice of the Application it is most foolish and impertinent when the contrary is more true and these sanguinary Laws are to be laid aside and that only for their sucking of blood and sure 't is not the first time too we have known Dogs to worry Sheep And Lastly Common gratitude to so good a King should Perswade this Church to Comply with his reasonable requests has he discountenanc'd any of them but such as have incurr'd it by this Obstinacy perhaps more imprudent than safe And had the Parliament dissolv'd but a little condescended I fancy there would not have been so much work cut out for this Has not the King whose Royal dispensations qualify all prefer'd them Equally both in Court and Camp making every mans merit his promotion without examining of his Faith Has there a single man been prefer'd to any Benefice or Cure but such as have been qualify'd by Law tho some perhaps have been dispens'd with to keep them that for altering their Religion they might not starve * In Edw. the Sixths Reign even from the confession of Doctor Burnet most of the Bishops only for being true to their old perswasions were troubl'd were turn'd out Illegally were imprison'd several years till Queen Marys Reign Vid. the continuance of his Reflection on Mr. Varilas pag. 63. And sure our present Bishop of Londons Case was never yet so hard tho so highly resented Where is this mighty progress for the introducing of Popery The KING now is going into his fourth year and the Church stands still it as was four years agon and the Mighty Din of the measures and faggot of Queen Mary is as much to the Purpose as if they told us of the fire Ordeal of Queen Emm She remov'd all the Bishops in no more than one year and I think Queen Eliz. did it all in one Month and here since Appropriating of Loyalty is so much in fashion we cannot but say this for the Papist too whose Fidelity to the Crown is too much question'd this Protestant Queen was by their own Confession and as it plainly appears from our own Annals advanc'd to the Throne by a Popish Parliament then sitting and no one can tell had they been sitting at KING Charles the Seconds Death of what temper they would have been the Legitimacy of Queen Eliz. was then in dispute amongst all Catholicks the Succession of his present Majesty was indisputable by his blood and yet Heath the Popish Metropolitan and then Lord Chancellor without any discontent says their own * Vid. Heylins Reformation Page 101. Historian declares her Title to the Crown to both Houses of Parliament and so was she receiv'd without the least opposition which certainly does savour somwhat of an Vnquestionable Loyalty And if that wont serve the same Author says more That many in the House of Commons that had a great zeal for their Popish interest yet Preferred their Allegiance page 107. to their Natural Prince before their concernments for the Church of Rome And this is sure more Loyalty then was shewn by the Protestant Reformers to her Predecessor against whom they set an Usurper in the Throne contriv'd a Will and rais'd an Army tho so much must be said for the Suffolk-Gospellers of the Country that they were better Subjects then the mighty Liturgy men at Court and assisted Queen Mary with Men and Arms when the other kept from her the Capital and the Crown Queen Eliz.
held more Bishopricks in her hand for many years many more then this KING since his coming to the Crown has dispos'd of their Churches their Chappels are all at their own Devotion and that within his Royal Pallaces and his own Walls Upon Application of these very People has he confirm'd to them several Freedoms and Immunities where he might have interpos'd with his Power and Prerogative These undistinguisht favours to all alike one would think should oblige some persons not to deny that Peace to their Soveraign which he labours to give to all his Subjects A Peace of Mind A Peace in the midst of Arms but such only as are employ'd for their defence the credit of their Nation and the Terror of their neighbours tho even that must be made their * Dr. Burnets Papers Grievance too which by the Goodness and Grandeur of their Prince is their greatest glory But there are many things besides to be consider'd consider but the reason of Enacting these Laws especially against Popish Recusants upon whom they are most severe and that they are now become the most unreasonable because the very occasions that call'd for them and to some people seem'd to make them necessary are now just none at all the Preambles to those very Statutes seem but so many Contradictions to the body of the Law. It would be hard for a Judge or Justice to tell the King of his dangers from Popish Recusants when he 's sure he can put his greatest faith and confidence in them and has so often try'd them in dangers too but it seems they and the Statutes being the better Judges of it are not bound to believe the KING but to Prosecute his friends for High Treason whom trusting and trying he finds to be guilty of no Treason at all And had not our Protestant officers of the * What can even the Church suffer from the Repeal that it is not expos'd to from the Kings dispensation And the malice of their Dr. Burnet makes them the same Reflections on Declaration Peace better repeal those Laws that are become but a dead letter thenly under a seeming sort of Perjury for not putting them in Execution Consider if in the time of the late KING by some Antecedent †Vid. Q. Eliz K. I. K. Ch. before Cited Law all the Conformists had been banisht the Court or from Access to the Kings Person if they had been made Malefactors Felons and Traytors of whose Loyalty he had so much proof in their adhering to the Crown would not his Majesty have been bound to get them repeat'd and themselves have thought it the most reasonable thing in the world that the Roman Catholicks in England have for a long time lain under severity not only of Opinion and Censure but Punishment and the Law even Protestants may allow without falling from their Faith or favouring their Religion for such a modest confession in their favour is no Vindication of the Doctrine of their Church and their Case to be consider'd here respects only their affairs in relation to the State and the matters being meerly Political must be determin'd by the Maxims of our States-men and so no Subject to be decided by the School-men and Divines And since those Persons suffer from the Constitution of Past-times partial to themselves since Papists that were once deny'd access to the person of their KING are now the Support of his Crown and Dignity since such put in but for a freedom from Penalty and an Immunity only from their being punisht as Malefactors it would be as great a want of honesty to call them Knaves for it as it is of Wit to think them fools But the Absurdity of such unreasonable Laws is somwhat more Considerable when they seem not a little to touch what is expressly forbidden The Lords Anointed Let them tell me where there is another such absurd inconsistency of State where the Statutes and Laws serve only to pollute their very Fountain the KING and make a Criminal of the Prince to that very Government in which he Presides where the Worship of his GOD must be said to be an Offering to Idols and his Conversion to a Faith High Treason against himself And then again since Papists as 't is now apparent have prov'd themselves No such Criminals to the State No such Pests of Society as they have been represented since they have Suffered the Severities of the Nations Iustice and seal'd their Innocency in their sufferings and Blood since they were sacrific'd to the Perjury of Recorded Villains and for a Conspiracy that can now only be Believ'd by Fools upon Record 't is time sure after this Iustice of the Nation has been satisfy'd so much even to the * vid. Oat's Tryal Arraigning of it self to let them find a little Mercy too and the more one would think for their Misfortunes Consider who they are that Furnish you with such distrustful Apprehensions of the Promises of your PRINCE and would frighten you into Dangers and Despair One of them a discontented Malecontent an Exile out of your Country a Criminal by Process in his Own and whose * Tho'by the Dr's leave the Lawyers say Abjuration will not Transfer it vid. Cok. 7. Rept p. 9. Dyer sol 300. Allegiance if we believe him is tranferr'd to another abroad and shall the severest Satyrs that Sedition can afford or Rage and Malice invent pass with us for pure Politicks and Impartial Truth There are ‖ Vid. Dr. B 's Papers Letter Tryal of the Test Others we have touch't upon that are no less Notorious and Applauded whose best of Praise is in not being Known that affect us like Vipers with their sting while at the same time they can hide their Heads Never Credit those that endeavour to Discredit their KING for such as will take that Liberty forfeit their Honesty and by the very Fact are not to be believ'd Pray what Attempt has he made to make the National Religion the Roman Catholick Which perhaps were it design'd is as little feasible that will alway preserve it self the National Religion which is most generally Receiv'd and untill they can prove to us That the Revealing the Laws will make more Papists in England than Protestants they may make many Words but no Arguments Has it not all the appearance in the world that it is the Principle of His MAJESTY's Soul and not any Designs of State that makes Him desire to have all the Souls of His Subjects at ease too to succour and relieve the Oppressed and let the Prisoner go free if not pray what then Oblig'd Him to that tender Compassion to the French-Protestants They are as much Hereticks to the Church of Rome and cannot pretend to a greater share of Friendship from the Agreeableness of their Doctrine or Faith They could not Plead Priviledges Immunities and Magna Charta and tell the KING He was bound by His Coronation Oath to Protect them yet'tis
Judgment was always fallible and very apt to make false conjectures some People could not think His Majesty would prove a Prince so Gracious Merciful and Indulgent for that were uneasy and who would have thought that some men that insisted so much on Passive Obedience to the Successor shou'd be now Impatient and almost Disobedient under his Reign To Distinguish themselves out of their Loyalty may shew their Logick or their Law but never will their Love and Allegiance I am asham'd to see men labour to make * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 2. Law and Loyalty the same as if People when they have got a Capricious Interpretation in their Head have Authority to spoil the Common acceptation of a Word We all know forsooth as well as the Criticks that Loy signifies Law but was ever Loyalty taken yet in common discourse for Lawfulness too we are bound to do all that 's Lawful Right to one another by Law are we therefore one anothers Loyal and Liege Subjects but to take it in their Perverted Sense or that of Coke Littleton to Defend this Kings Power of Dispensing is the most Loyal Act you can do since by those very * 2d Inst p. 496. Lawyers the Kings Prerogative is maintain'd to be the Best and Chiefest Part of the Law. But I am sorry to see Church-men now assume this very Notion for * Liegeance is the Proper Loyalty and that implys an obligation of obedience from the Subject to the Soveraign by Birth by Nature who is call'd their Natural Lord without respect to Municipal Laws Vid. to this purpose 2 Inst 128 7 Report p. 4. and many Acts of Parliament a reserve to their Love and Allegiance when to my knowledg this very quibling on the Word was us'd not long since by those they call'd Wiggs and Phanaticks and was by the Prerogative-Lawyers of those times laught at and refuted 't is the Fate always when men begin to grow Factious to contradict themselves as if what was Loyalty under one Prince was not so under another and one King cannot dispense with what the other Can. Faction and Malicious Accusation can never carry the cause against Loyalty and the King consider in the Common Case of Felons and Malefactors the credit of their Accusers is in nothing more Invalidated then by proving any manner of Malice in their Prosecutors and pray then let the King when He 's arraign'd for the sake of his Prerogative have but as much Priviledge as a Prisoner at the Bar when his Accuser too appears the most Malicious and what is more by Process upon Record the greatest Malefactor the Law in many Cases Implys a Malice but here it is most plain beyond Implication if you Consider the Libells the learned Doctor has lay'd at your doors are penn'd by a Person that wanted more preferment here and who for his misdeameanors was turn'd out of the little he had By one that * Vid. First Letter to Ld. Midd. left England and I believe him with his Maiesties Approbation and by his commands was forbid to return By one that ly's * Vid. His Process and Citation charg'd with no less than High Treason and who confesses in the Second Address that he sent to the Secretary that such proceedings shall provoke him Whatever is the veracity of the most moderate Man he must not be believ'd when he rages most Immoderately no more than a Bear is to be trusted when you have baited him only because before he was quiet and tame and mens Passions too in spite of our boasted Reasoning even by being too much exalted can debase themselves so far as to become brutal and then the deliberate mischiefs they do are the more dangerous from the sagacity of that seduc'd reason that then truly sells it self to do wickedly and what more Ingenious Revenge could an enrag'd and * Vid. Second Letter provok't bassal take against his Liege Lord then such a pretty expedient for the renouncing his Allegiance And that he means by it more than a * Vid. Third Temporary Revolt to a forraign Jurisdiction will appear from some passages in his own Papers when he suggests to our Peaceful Subjects here the * Vid. Six Papers pag. 22. Principle of Mr. Hobbs his State of War and the Scurvy Paragraph of self Preservation when he insinuates also that his Faith to his Prince may be Temporary too at home and to last no longer than the King will Countenance or Protect What more Malicious Construction can be made from the plain meaning of Express words The King Declares no one shall suffer for meer Religion And what says the Dr Why then when Religion and Policy are interwoven they can claim * Vid. Ibid page 23. no benefit by the Declaration Would the Doctor oblige the King from his Liberty of Conscience to Tolerate Robbers and Murderers for it is the Policy and Publick safety of the State that punishes them still or is it possible that people when they suffer for any other offence that by Law is truly Criminal can be said to suffer for meer Religion when by Law too that is made no Crime at all Or would the Doctor have had the KING's mercy to have Anticipated the Justice of future times and extended to the Crimes which hereafter on the Pretence of Religion they may possibly Commit and yet this with prejudic'd persons must pass for Reason that has nothing in it of Common Consequence and that the Doctor may not want contradiction too for malice will make wise men commit absurdities tho I am sorry to see so Celebrated a Reasoner run himself into such misfortune only for the defaming of his own KING at the same time he would refute for it the French-man for too much Praising of His. In one * Vid. Continuation of Reflection on Mr. Varil p. 5. Page of his Reflections he makes our Queen Mary to get the better of the Monarch of France to be more fiery in her persecution and to have Animated the bloodiest of her Bishops Bonner he makes her as much a Monster as his own malice or that of the other Sex can make a Woman well to be or be well imagin'd and what 's the meaning of all this Why Here 't is very fit for his purpose so to do and the Doctors Satyr must come in here only in opposition to the Monsieur 's Panegyrick but then in another * Ibid. pag. 150. Page this same Q. Mary was a Woman so far from delighting in seenes of blood that her Clemency was much magnify'd and the mildness of that Princesses Reign gave no Cause to complain of the Rigor of her Proceedings and what 's the matter now Why the KING the Council the then Chief Justice are all to be Libell'd and the Clemency to Wiat's Crew set against the Doctors Cruelty in the West and I warrant you we should have heard nothing of Queen
the House of Lords and by that let the reasons of such Laws to stand or fall that Honourable Assembly when ever it Sits will find sufficient Reasonings and as much Matter of Fact for the removing all such Tests preserv'd for them within their own Walls and their own Books shew them the best of Presidents and a President where the Case has been contested is worth an hundred when there has been no contest And being here come home to that which touches the only tender Part of the Government The two * Vid. Letter of Pens F. to Mr. St. Tests of Car. 2. against the Catholiques I cannot but take notice of the New Paper of the Dutch Pensioner that is so diligently spread for the diffusion of an industrious mischief and creating the most dangerous Difference that can arise from the debates of a Divided House I cannot do better than close our last Animadversions on their latest effort that is so freshly set afoot for our disturbance The Reasons that it brings up in the Reer are less to be regarded than the Royal Characters that it carries in the Front and we could forgive mijn Heer F. his Arguments if we did not refute them when we cannot so soon Pardon the Presumption for prefixing to a Pamphlet Surreptitious and unauthoriz'd the rever'd name of the Princess of O. the sweetness of whose temper and gentle disposition as it cannot be suppos'd to delight in severity and Persecution so certainly is as little pleas'd to promote any thing to the disturbance of a State to which She still seems so neerly related as her obliging nature does sufficiently secure us she 'l favour an Indulgence so does that dutiful affection as morally perswade she cannot Patronize the opposers of her Parent But the names of such Princes to their pretended piece they were well assur'd would make it Popular the weakest side is the wisest too when it makes the strongest party it was their last expedient that made them trespass upon good manners and presume to make Theirs Her Highnesses opinion It is offer'd it seems in the first place that the Papists throughout all our three Kingdoms should be suffer'd to continue in their Vid. Letter of Pens Religion I confess the kindness is somewhat extraordinary considering the Present season when the greatest Persecution in the Past could not prevail with them to renounce it but if it shall be as the Paper promises with as much Liberty as is allow'd by the States in those Provinces Then I humbly conceive that from their own Concessions both these Two Tests must be taken away for by them both both Peers and Commons of that perswasion are Incapacitated for Military Employment which the Letter it self says by the Laws of that Country even there they cannot do not exclude them from and sure then it will ly harder upon them here to be hinder'd from serving their KING in his Camp when a natural Liegeance requires it * Vid. Coke 7. Rept page 4. express Statutes command it and a Prince of their own Religion receives it Shall the Dutch trust them for their defence that are of a different faith * 1◠H. 7. And cannot the KING of England confide in them because they agree in the same And yet by both these Tests they so contend for the Catholicks are excluded from serving His Majesty tho' they take up Arms only for his preservation So that this Letter-maker must certainly fall into the necessity of this Dilemma that the Papists must not be permitted here the Liberty they are allow'd in Holland or these Tests must be taken away for their more free Admission into Military affairs and without any medium he must renounce his own Position or admit ours The Author of this Paper that must pass for the Pensioner is certainly the worst in the world to write for the Tests when he gives it under his hand that he has never read them and for that reason may be a Forreigner to our Laws as well as Land when he says that thereby Roman Catholicks receive no other Prejudice than their being excluded from Parliaments or publick Employments when by the latter of those Recusants Convict are banish't the Court so much as seeing or coming into the presence of their King or Queen or places where they reside upon pains of incurring all the fearful Penalties and forfeitures that follow the †30 Car. 2d violation of that Act I hope the bare ‖ Even the Ld. Digby a Proselited Papist that contended for Passing the 1st Test us'd this as an Argument because it did Not Banish them the Court which the 2d does most effectually seeing of their Royal Soveraigns can't be call'd a Sitting in Parliament an Office or publick Employment and the coming into their Presence or Place of abode be presently interpreted a promotion to a Place too of high Preferment since 't is seldom deny'd the poorest Plebeian that never expects perhaps the turning of the spit in the Kings Kitchin. I confess this clause is so far for keeping them out of Publick Employment that it almost excludes them human society Herds them among Beasts debases them below Brutes too for if we believe our old English Proverbs even A Cat may look upon a King. But I must tell these Politicians too who so finely extenuate the severities of these Tests into a meer Metaphysical Entity A Negative sort of Punishment that only denies Papists to be preferr'd that to any impartial person these disabling Laws will appear a positive Persecution and that only for the sake of Pure Religion The Abjurations that they force upon the people in France are only more Vniversal and with this disparity they that there will not renounce their Religion must resolve to suffer as Patiently as they can the insolency spoil rapine and outrages of all the Souldiers they send them which reduces several Families to misery and want and for refusing the same renuntiation here many persons that have had their sole dependance upon some office or place have meerly for that been dispossest and remov'd to their utter Ruin and destruction all the difference lying in this between being devour'd by dragoons or beggar'd by being turn'd out discarded or putting the case more favourably we 'l look upon Vid. Letter of Pens F. these Oaths only as they respect in the sense of this Letter the keeping Papists out of Employment what comfort can this be to the poor Catholiques or what mitigation of a Protestant Persecution when they are deny'd the common Advantages that may make them rich It must be certainly the same misfortune as to be turn'd out of their possessions that they may be sure to become poor I cannot see with what Conscience this late Celebrated Vid. Letter of F. Letter can assert that neither from these Tests nor the Other Laws Roman Catholicks are made to suffer upon account of their Consciences This is too gross to be put
upon the Dutch themselves for certainly were these Penal Laws so favourable as only to incapacitate them for Office and Trust yet even that is a severity which they are necessitated to suffer and that for Conscience sake it is but a poor extenuation of an uncharitable temper when he tells us that for some Political ends these Laws for Religion must remain unrepeal'd as if the Sacraments themselves were only made to be subservient to some Civil Institutions and the God of Heaven but an instrument to work out the inventions of man if meerly for secular ends so sacred a being as the Drity it self must be so solemnly invok't which the best Advocates for the cause do seem to confess I am afraid such an Invocation may be worse than that to Saints and be at least very profane if not Idolatrous neither can it be answer'd us that then all Declarations all Oaths must be laid aside for the Consequence fails them too for the Common reason of Imposing them is only or only should be for the detecting of Justice and Equity the discovering of truth from falsehood whereas these Protestations call'd Tests are by their own Confession kept a foot only to be Injurious to their fellow-Subjects that are Equitably born to the Common Priviledges of their Country and are so far from a discovery of what is true or false that they are made about matters so profoundly divine and mysterious that it is morally impossible for human understanding to discover or find it out unless the swearing to an Article of Faith be found a sufficient proof of the soundness of the Doctrine and the books of Scripture Antient Fathers modern Criticks can be all Confuted or be better Expounded by the Votes of an house of Commons This States-man makes it so Incomprehensible for any that profess Vid. Letter themselves Christians to go to disturb the quiet of a state and over-turn Constitutions only that they may be admitted to employments And pray must not others then think it as Vnchristian to have the professors of the same faith and their fellow-Subjects excluded from such employs which as their Religion cannot really debar them from so their very Native Birth-right demands it it is false in fact tho they take it for granted that it is the Roman-Catholicks alone that do so disturb and disquiet the State of the Kingdom it is only these Laws that create all this disturbance to them and the state these establisht-men would have been loath under the Oppression of Oliver to have merited the Name of disturbers of the Nation and 't is shewn before that suffering from a power Legal or Vsurpt is still the same where the Laws are oppressive and if the Overturning of old Constitutions be a thing of that consideration tho hardly a Parliament passes in which there are not new ones made if that I say be such a considerable argument as to make it absolutely necessary for our English Catholiques to acquiesce to continue Out-Laws more incapacitated them some Protestant Aliens how destructive must this be to the Protestant Interest should the Romanists take an opportunity to return upon us an old Law of the Romans that of Talionis and exclude all the Reform'd from Trust with a Test of Retaliation why we must submit we must not endeavour for our Restitution we must not disturb the state overturn establishment or repeal Laws And must not we look very silly too when by our own Arguments we have silenc'd our selves What a formidable blow will this give to the Reformation in England which was carried on as some say by the overturning of all that was Antient and Establisht Sacred and Civil both in Church and State and afford them a Scurvy Argument That they may overturn with a better warrant than they were turn'd out that their alterations will be only a restoring of an old establishment whereas we overturn'd that to set up new Constitutiens In short if they bring no better Reasons for our Religion than its being so much Establisht it will certainly resolve it self into the Power and Pleasure of the Prince and really be what they so scornfully reject truly * Vid. Oxford Reasons Precarious for surely they must see that assoon as they had a Protestant King they presently had their Protestant Religion And that in spite of far more Antient Constitutions and Establishments to the contrary I 'le grant him that every constituted body or Assembly whatsoever will be willing to make Laws for its own safety and Preservation But whatever be the Policy of the State it must be still agreeable to the Rules of Reason and Equity otherwise it proves no more than that all things are Lawful that are Expedient and that a Common-wealth to use his own terms as well as their own Constitution tho the result of an absolute rebellion revolt and defection from their Prince may make what Laws they please to prevent any Casual return to there natural Allegiance or that an Assembl'd or tumultuous People may pull in pieces even a Pensioner to provide against attempts thaet may disturb their peace and granting too that in Political bodies like to those that are truly natural there will be alway somwhat of innate tenderness to their own Preservation that genuin Principle only respects all opposing of a forreign force and no way determines it to domestick oppression no more than if the lazy man that is said alway to see the Lyon in the way should cut off one of his legs that he might the better run away with the rest of his carkass I am sorry I can say that this dismembring of our selves for the difference of Communion at home does no less expose us to Invasions from abroad but I am sure the saying is as certainly True prov'd by Experience Fact unavoidable from these Statutes and the Laws for should the best Seaman the best Souldier by his birth or Conversion be a Papist Convict he is totally incapacitated utterly impossible to do the least service to the Kingdom or the Crown and why should these Dutch people put that upon us the inconvenience of which they see in themselves and take all the care to avoid unless they would Vid. Letter have the more of the Kings Subjects unqualify'd to fight for him only that they might the sooner invade him Before the making of our first Test * 1673. when Papists Participated of Employments had their Places in Parliament I cannot remember that they did Impeach our Peace I am sure some of them did us signal service in the Dutch Wars his foes felt too much of the force of the Admiral and so may well fear the Preferment of his friends What the Reform'd Religion suffers from the Roman-Catholicks in France is no reason at all against the repealing of Vid. Letter these Laws in England unless they can prove the disposition of the Princes and the Politicks of the Two States to be
entirely the same which as precariously as it is beg'd for an unquestionable Truth if but duly consider'd is as positively false for the Principle of our King will not permit him to Persecute by the Constitution of our state against Protestants in general it cannot be done for sure such a mighty Majority must secure them from being supprest tho perhaps it cannot from oppressing all others and they may as well tell us that the Hugonots in France are able to Frighten the Papists and subdue them since the Reform'd there have been always much more formidable both by number and force than ever the Papists can be suppos'd here and yet even there notwithstanding these insinuations till these late revolutions in the Policy of that State the Protestants were admitted to Offices and Trust in Court and in Camp by Sea and by Land the truth of which is so plain that to name the Persons would be needless and impertinent It is more Dogmatically laid down than Judiciously asserted when he says that it is Impossible for Roman-Catholiques and Protestants to live Peaceably together when both are put into places of Trust as if Religion and Divine Illumination must only divest us of Humanity enlighten us only so far as to see the better how to fall out among our selves First 't is plain that it is very Unchristian that it should be so Secondly The contrary appears by practise in several of the neighbouring states to Holland and in some Towns that even they still call their own where both Civil and Military matters are manag'd by both as before we have prov'd and that without these suggested consequences of Suspicions and Animosities Thirdly We our selves perceive none of this bad Correspondence from these mixt preferments that His Majesty bestows but on the contrary a better understanding it would be hard indeed if the Examination of his Faith must only qualify the man as to his merit and desert shall it be therefore hard for Papists in Holland to be shut out of Military Employment because in the first formation of their state they joyned in the defence of their publick Vid. Letter Liberty that is as I conceive in English in maintaining that revolt they had made from their Lawful Prince And shall it not be as Injurious a piece of Hardship or the greatest injustice to exclude them here from the same Employments when they joyn'd with all their Loyal Fellow-Subjects in the defence of their Soveraign and in some cases were more eminently and solely concern'd in his preservation And whereas he insinuates their being mixt so together in Offices of Trust must so necessarily cause this contention and Animosity nothing is more true than the Contrary when all our Jealousies and Envy Emulation and Division have been occasion'd by this ingrossing of Office and Preferment from the partiality of the Laws and men must needs be more apt to malign those that only will allow themselves to govern than such as will more modestly admit any other to share in the Government Whatever has been the sense of some Church-men they need not be asham'd to retract their opinion when the Recantation too will only make them better Christians and add the more Credit to their restor'd Charity as many among them never approv'd of the making men suffer for the Religion of their * Vid. Protestant Reconciler c. Church so several of them unprejudic'd thought it as hard they should utterly be disabl'd for all Administrations in the * Vid. Protest of the Lords a-against the Tests State. To tell us because we were once of an opinion we must never change it is a better Rule in Religion and if observ'd would have prevented all Schism if not hinderd a Reformation but is still a bad Maxim in the Politicks of a Common-wealth for the changes and wonderful revolutions that happen in those aggregated bodies as well as in our Personal and individuals which many times in less than seven years are mouldred all into new matter make some Constitutions and Establishments Rules and Reasons not only ridiculous but Impracticable and we cannot find in Scripture too unless interpreted by the whimseys of such as set up for Christs Kingdom that our Saviour has assur'd us he 'll be with the Government as well as the Church to the end of the world To this Point I can only tell the Pensioner further that Catholiques here are not made uneasy under their perferments unless it be by these Laws that make them such Criminals only for being prefer'd and Protestants may maintain with them a good Correspondence unless such whose Ambition would alone share the Administration of the State or the favour of the Crown and make of the very Government it self A Monopoly That learned Dilemma does not pinch and press the Argument so close as the Paper Pretends viz. That if the Papists are so Few the Laws have the Less reason to be Repeal'd for them and if their Numbers are much Greater Protestants have more reason to be affraid This sort of syllogising as sound as it is is as soon answer'd with another to the same and that out of his Own Concessions If their Numbers are so Few as he sayes they are in Polland 't is hard to hinder them from Publick Employments when the Publick Safety can no ways be endanger'd by them and if they are so Numerous as he would make them in Ireland then we have no reason to be affraid since where so many of them and we 'll imagin them if he will the Major Part People the Country Inhabit the Towns are Intrusted with Offices Civil and Military the Protestant Religion remains as firm and unviolated and the Constitution of the Government as much Vnshaken and to bring it Homer to our selves in England in a farther Answer to these fearful apprehensions that are sent us from Holland That when the Restraints of the Laws are Repeal'd then we shall see them brought into the Government and Protestants find no more the support of the Laws from such Magistrates I hope he does not think too we shall have no Protestant Lords left and that the Peerage it self shall be displac'd but this Gentleman is too much an Alien to our Commonwealth to be admitted either as a Iudg or Iuror being utterly unacquainted both with Law and Fact. For first the Establishment of the Protestant Religion does not solely depend upon those Statutes that are Penal and those are only desired to be Repeal'd In the next place he has forgot or is not yet inform'd that our KINGS from the Constitution of our Laws have a power to Dispense with them too which a Vid. Six Papers page 25. Dr. of Ours and a Favourite of these Dutch has made as dangerous as a Repeal indeed the very same He knows not that his Majesty has Actually exercised this Power Offices of all sorts of Trusts are already in their hands Civil Military as Souldiers and