Eternal temperance and moderation most certainly each Party in their then present Circumstances would have answered in the Negative That it was not lawful They would not have fallen into the debate to consider what Religion their Persecutors were of whether of the Popish or Protestant to the end to have fixt the Cruelty and Injustice of Persecuting for a matter of meer Religion upon that Party as a Principle of their Religion which their Fancies should have perswaded them to have been the Religion of their Persecutors The Papists would not have then stood formalizing that because the first Persecution was occasioned upon the denyal of the King's Headship over the Church of England which was a Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the Pope's Headship which was the Popish Doctrine therefore the Protestants were the Aggressors in the Persecution and therefore the Principle of Persecution was a Protestant Principle and the Persecution of the Protestants afterwards was no other than a just Judgment of God drawn upon the Protestants by themselves as a Consequence of that Principle of Persecution which gave them the first occasion of introducing their Religion nationally into England Nor would the Protestants by way of Recrimination have charged the Papists then that because that King and the then Government were of the Popish Religion in every point save only in the Article touching the Supremacy therefore the Principle of Persecution must necessarily be a Popish Principle No they would most certainly each Party have disclaimed the Principle as unwarranted by the Principles of true Christianity which each of them claimed to be theirs and each of them would have agreed that it was their common Principle To do unto others as they desired others should do unto them Here we see the Principle of Christianity in England when divided The Persecutions before mentioned being quieted by the Death of K. Henry the Eighth and the Crown descending unto K. Edward the Sixth an Infant of such tender Years as made him uncapable of Exercising the Government in his own Person not being come to the use of right Reason the Duke of Somerset took upon him the Administration of all things under the Title of Protector and with him the Protestant Party had their sole Interest Several Penal Laws were made in this King's Reign for the Inflicting Pains and Penalties for matters of meer Religion which gave occasion to the Papists to charge upon Protestants the Principle of Persecution for matters of meer Religion as their Principle It is true the Papists were at that time Sufferers and were actually Persecuted by the then Government for matters of meer Religion But true Charity might easily have found other Reasons unto which those Persecutions might warrantably have been Assigned and there was certainly no necessity of Assigning them to any Principle of the Protestants The first Law which was made relating to these matters was 1. Edw. 6. C. 1. touching the Lord's Supper Entituled The Penalties for speaking against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ or against the receiving thereof in both kinds This seems to have no other tendency than barely to keep both Parties from falling together by the Ears and the Protestants were more likely to fall under the Punishment of this Law than the Papists None could say That it was the effect of Intemperate Spirits for though it directed Communion in both kinds to such as defired to Communicate yet it compelled not any person to communicate And it had a Clause of great Temperance in the very close of it in these words Not condemning hereby the usage of any Church out of the King's Majesties Dominions The next Law of this Nature was made in the same Parliament viz. 1. Edw. 6. C. 12. it is Entituled thus viz. Statutes concerning Treasons c. repealed and this cannot be denyed to be sharp against the Papists It makes it highly Penal to affirm That the King is not or ought not to be Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland or any of them immediately under God or that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person or Persons other than the King of England for the time being is or ought to be by the Laws of God Supream Head of the same Churches or any of them But there is no necessity or reason of ascribing this neither to any Protestant Principle though it is supposed to be made in affirmance of a Protestant Principle Another penal Law was made 1. and 3. Edw. 6. Entituled The Penalty for not using Vniformity of Service and Administration of Sacraments And in 3. and 4. Edw. 6. C. 10. was made an Act For the abolishing and putting away of divers Books and Images Both which were severe against the Papists in matters of meer Religion yet do I not find any necessity why the Persecutions which these Statutes occasioned should be imputed to any Protestant Principle During the whole Reign of this Infant King it is clear that the Papists in some degree suffered Persecution from the Hands of the Protestants for matters of meer Religion And without doubt had it been then demanded of the Papists Whether such Persecutions and such Laws Enacting such Persecutions were lawful and agreeable with the Principles of true Christianity which they pretended to maintain their Answer would have been in the Negative And they would then with one accord have readily agreed That Persecution for matters of meer Religion was no more consistent with the Rule of Christ requiring us To do unto others as we would that others should do unto us than Murder and Robbery But the Persecutions Inflicted upon the Papists by the Law made in the time of King Edward the Sixth did not last long they ended with his Life and by the descending of the Crown to Queen Mary the Papists were rescued from all their Sufferings All the Laws made against them in the Times of Hen. 8. and Edw. 6. were Repealed But the case was altered with the poor Protestants whose Sufferings were so great and are so sharply and justly reflected on even to this day that I who love not to aggravate any thing especially that carries its own aggravation with it will say no more of them but beg of our good God to fill us with mercy in place of revenge and to forgive them as we would be forgiven Sure I am had any Protestant been asked his Judgment in that Age touching the Principle of Persecuting for matters of meer Religion he would have disclaimed it as absolutely contrary to the Principles of his Religion which is the point that I am labouring to Evince And after all this shall any one take it ill if upon a Principle of Charity I shall profess that I could never as yet see any thing offered which in my poor apprehension did necessarily Evince That Persecution for meer Religion was even an avowed Principle of either side The Bloody Fury of Persecution under which the Protestants
suffered so miserably in Q. Maries time did end with her Reign which was but short And after that the Protestants never suffered more from the Papists But upon the death of Q. Mary the Crown coming to Q. Elizabeth and she thereupon declaring her self a firm a zealous and to all intents religiously a Protestant the Edge was turned against the Papists before any differences were discerned to be among the Protestants Several of the Popish Clergy suffered Persecution some even unto Death in several parts of the Kingdom And new Laws were from time to time framed and multiplyed for those purposes And if now we ask the Opinion of the Papists as to Penal Laws either Sanguinary or others and Persecutions for meer matter of Religion they will tell you and they continue in that protestation even unto this day That all such Laws and Persecutions are unlawful and against the Principles of the Gospel And though the Protestants under several changes have been in the possession of those Laws and have at times more or less Executed them yet so far as I can find they do not own Persecution for matters meerly of Religion to be their Principle or so much as lawful After the Papists had some time continued the alone-Persecuted Party for Matters of Religion several Differences in Matters meerly of Religion happened to divide the Protestants into distinct and separate Parties during some part of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and also during the several and successive Reigns of King James and King Charles the First And about the beginning of the Reign of King James some few desperate Male-contents professedly of the Popish Religion being found Guilty of a wicked Plot whereby they had designed the Destruction both of that King and of his Parliament by Gun-Powder for which they were deservedly Executed several new and more severe Laws were then and at several times after made against the Papists in general by which several Punishments were Inflicted on them for Matters of meer Religion and several Penal Laws were also made by which the then Governing Protestant Party then and still distinguished by the Name of the Church of England or the Episcopal Party persecuted Them. The Dissenting Protestants of all sorts were Prosecuted under the general Name of Non-conformists who cryed aloud for Liberty of Conscience and declared it absolutely Unlawful to Punish any for Matters of meer Religion The refusal of which bred bad Blood in the Kingdom and we all know what followed During the continuance of the War and after King Charles the First was not able to make Head against the Non-conformists the Non-conformists Retaliated the Church of England and not a little crusht the Popish Party both having engaged on t'other side and being of other Religions esteemed themselves Persecuted for matter of Religion That War being ended with the Death of King Charles the First and the expelling of our late King out of his Dominions and the Ruine of Episcopacy and the Suppression of the Papists and the total Change of the Government the Non-conformists under the several Forms took upon them and kept the Government until the late King was by the Divine Hand of Providence restored to his Crown During all which time the Episcopal Party and the Papists Suffered more or less for matters at least in their Apprehension meerly of Religion But these two Parties were not alone in their Sufferings for during those Bloody contests there appeared another Party which from its very first rise in this Kingdom hath been severely Persecuted and that only for Matters of Religion This Party was the People called Quakers They did at their first shewing themselves in the World go under the name of the Children of Light because they assert as their main and first Principle That Christ is the True Light that Enlightens every Man and Woman with a measure of saving Light which all oughâ— to obey on pain of Damnaâ—ion but by one Bennit an Officer in 1650. were nick named Quakers They Professed themselves to adhere to the plain Principles of the first Christians and particularly to hold it as their Principle That all Persecution whatsoever against any Party People or Person whatsoever for matters meerly of Religion is absolutely Vnlawful Vnrighteous and against the Spirit and Will of God and Doctrine of true Christianity And to give them their due they have been true Contenders for their Principle both by their frequent Apologies and Remonstrances on the one hand and Invincible Patience in Suffering on the other hand Upon the Restauration of the King the Episcopal Party was also Restored The Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists expected a general Toleration in matters of Religion according to some of the King 's Gracious Letters as a Reward for their helping or not opposing His Restauration The Papists also expected the same thing as a reward for their Loyalty in adhering to the Crown The Quakers now a great People grew confident of the like Freedom because of their Inoffensiveness to Government But instead of this expected Liberty all the former Penal Laws made in the time of Q. Elizabeth K. James and K Charles the First were Revived and ordered to be put in Execution as well against all Non-conformists who were Protestants as against the Papists And new and more severe Laws were made against them all And by these respective Practices we see what all these Parties have done when they had Power I think such as understand the Transactions of our Country will clear me from having made any mistake as to matters of Fact in any thing that I have here said touching past Persecutions though I believe there will not want some who will either think me mistaken in the point of Charity when I profess to believe that I do not think there is any one Party now in England who holds it as a Principle of their Religion That it is Lawful to Persecute or to make or Execute Laws for the Inflicting of Pains or Penalties for any matters of meer Religion Or else they will supect I do not in Truth believe what I here profess to believe in this point since even what I have said as to matters of Fact before urged by my self it plainly appears that there is not one Party now in England the People called Quakers only excepted who profess themselves Christians but have been notoriously Guilty more or less of the very Fact or at least of a publick allowing if not abetting of it And every Party will be apt to censure me of Singularity at least since each Party thinks that they have Arguments drawn from Facts sufficient to six this ugly Doctrine as a Principle upon that Religion which they hate most O that the Man could prevail against the Beast and that we would permit our Passions to give way to our Reason to consider things nakedly and as they truly are Si satis est accusasse Quis erit Innocens If to accuse be a sufficient
to admit the Charge of the Papists here to be a sufficient proof against the Protestants in so great a matter yet let us not deceive our selves so far as to suppose that in Popish Countries the Charge of Papists against Protestants would not be taken to be at the least as valid as the Charge of Protestants will be taken to be against Papists here Shall we go another way and say that in regard every Party takes it self to be the only good and true Christian and in regard we see every Party when in Power practising this thing and persecuting the other when in their Power for matters of meer Religion that therefore every Party agrees in this That it is Lawful for those who are the true Christians to Make and Execute Penal Laws against such as are Erroneous Christians and to Inflict Pains and Penalties upon them for matters of meer Religion that is for Errors held by them as Doctrines of Religion But neither will this be reasonable or convenient for this will also give Title to those who have the Actual Power and are in the possession of each respective Government in the Christian World to put to Death and destroy all within their respective Jurisdictions whom they judge to be Erroneous Christians And this will be also to Entitle the Civil Magistrate in every Christian Country to the absolute and uncontroulable right of judging between Truth and Error so as to have no appeal from his definitive Judgment and to entail against common Sense an Infallibility in the Civil Magistrate of every Country of determining in matters of Faith and Religion I say against common Sense for Christianity teacheth us that there can be but one true Faith and if this Power of judging should be allow'd to the Civil Magistrate there would be as many Faiths as there are Governments amongst Christians That would be true Faith in one Country and the denyal of it punishable with Death which in another Country would be an Error and a False Faith and the affirming of it punishable with Death It would also be to justify not only what the Papists in England but what both the Papists and Protestants in all other parts cast as a Charge upon our Nation That the only Rule of Faith in England is the Parliament of England that nothing is true Christian Doctrine in England nor any Translation or Sense or Interpretation of Scripture a true Translation or Sense or Interpretation of Scripture in England but what is judg'd so to be by the Parliament of England Whereas though in the Statute made 2 3 Edw. 6. c. 1 Entituled An Act for the Vniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm It was affirm'd by that Parliament That the Book of Common-Prayer enjoyn'd by that Statute to be us'd was made by the Aid of the Holy Ghost Yet that very Book was by that very Parliament alter'd and amended as appears by Statute 5 Edw. 6. C. 1. And it hath received several Reformations and Amendments since and was in and by a Parliament in Q. Marys days judged to be Heretical As to my own Judgment in this particular Affair it leads me to another way of reasoning and discoursing I do and I think I am bound in Charity to believe that every Person and Party who professeth Christianity do at least intend to be what they profess and that they do all in their Hearts fully give consent unto all those common Doctrines of Christianity which as standing Principles of that pure Religion were never question'd or deny'd by any sort of Christians such as are those which I have before observ'd Of doing unto others as we would have others do unto us and of not doing Evil that Good may come of it and those others of Loving our Neighbours as our selves yea and of Loving our very Enemies and doing good to them that who hate us and use us despightfully All which when soberly consider'd without Passion or Humane Interest are expresly against all Persecutions for matters of meer Religion and do not only tye up Protestants from destroying of Protestants but even from Persecuting of any sort for any matters of meer Religion as those Commands Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not commit Adultery and against and tye up all Christians from shedding of Blood Unlawfully and Malitiously and against Rapine and Vncleanness And such do also in their Hearts believe that whatever Counsel or work is of man will fall of it self and that what is of God will stand Maugre all the Persecutions and Oppositions of man and that there is none of them do intend to fight against God or would willingly be found so doing All this being taken by me in my own Thoughts to be most certainly true when ever I come to enquire How then can these things be How can all these Parties among which there are great numbers of Good Sober Judicious and Sincere persons offend against these common Principles of the common Faith of all Christians by making and Executing Penal Laws for matters of meer Religion Immediately adjoyning to this another Question which is And how can so many persons professing to be Christians take revenge by Blood usurp the Goods of their Neighours and commit the Sin of Vncleanness Yet all these were once done by that great and good King and Prophet who was a Man after God's own Heart That which to me Answers this latter Question seems clearly to solve the former That the Beast gets the better of the Man The Passions commit a force upon Reason And Humane Frailty being too weak brings the best of men sometimes though but for a time and careless men oftentimes to contradict their Faith by their Practice until by Afflictions they gain understanding and come to Repentance for the Saving of their Souls This to me seems so evident a Truth that until something more evident shall convince me of my being mistaken in this I should think it as great a Sin against Charity for me to charge it as a Principle of the Religion of any Party professing to be Christians That Persecution for meer Religion is Lawful because I see it practis'd by those who have Power amongst that Party as to charge the same Party to hold it as a Principle of their Religion that Murther Theft and Adultery are Lawful because great numbers of that Party are too often guilty of the practice of those Sins If this way of considering things be not found unreasonable but upon due reflection shall appear to be conformable to the true Principles of Christianity and the Holy Rules and Doctrines of Christ I hope those who are publick persons will forgive me when I wish they would lay it to their Hearts and think well whether it would not be of use to preserve this poor Nation from the further guilt of those additional Injustices and Cruelties which the contrary way of rash Judging must involve and
daily do involve us in Is it not more calm Judgment to say That the Disordinate Passions of K. Henry the VIII hurried him into those Cruelties which he committed than to impute them to the Principles of any Religion which he profess'd Is it not more becoming us to say that an over-zealous Passion of Fears which our first Reformers had in the time of K. Edw. the sixth made them apprehend that they could not put Popery out of its Possession otherwise than by force and consequently led them unwarily into practices which were contrary to their True Faith then to admit the Charge laid on them by the then Persecuted Papists That Persecution for meer Religion was the first Protestant Principle upon which Protestancy laid its first Politick Foundation in England Were it not more Ingenious to attribute the Cruelties which were inflicted in Q. Mary's time to the Passion of Fear in that Queen and of Fear and Covetousness in her Bishops that nothing could secure her against New Rebellions from the Protestants nor fix the Bishops in their re-gain'd Possessions but Examples of the utmost rigour then to labour to fix those Barbarous Cruelties as a Principle upon the Religion of the Queen Is it not more Charitable to assign all the harsh Laws made and executed in the times of Queen Elizabeth King James and in the several succeeding times since by the Government avowedly Protestant to the Fear Ambition Revenge or other frail Passions cover'd generally under the specious Titles of Reason of State then to give the World a just Ground to charge those Crueltie upon a Principle of Protestancy This we must do or which is as much to our Dishonour we must give a just Ground to the most Civiliz'd Nations of the World to charge those past Barbarities exercis'd so long in England upon the People of our Nation to the Cruelties of our English Natures For what other thing can Forreign Nations impute it unto when they shall observe the same Persecution continued for near one hundred and forty years under all the various Forms of Religion which we have had each Party renouncing the Cruelties to proceed from any Principle of the Religion own'd by that Party yet exercising in Fact what they renounce to be their Faith. But my Charity doth not rest here it compels me to make yet one step further and since it is not to the Dishonour of our Nation I hope none will be displeas'd with it As I am verily perswaded that all those Penal Laws which have been made in this our Nation for the inflicting of Pains and Penalties for matters of meer Religion have not had their Original from any Principle of any of those Religions which have been profess'd by any of those Powers or Governments by which they were made but ought to be imputed to the Passions of those who made and caus'd them to be put in Execution And that a false Reason of State or zeal in Church-men gave those Passions leave to work even against the Religion which every Party Persecuting Profess'd so do I most confidently believe that the True Principles of the common Christianity which every Party own'd and true Reason of State grounded upon those true and commonly own'd Principles restrain'd all and every the respective Parties by whom those Laws were made from all Intentions of having all or any of those Laws rigidly Executed so that those who had from time to time and who still have the Executive and Interpretative Power of those Laws vested in them have always understood and do still continue to understand those Laws not to have been intended by the Legislative Power to be strictly and rigidly or constantly executed My Reason is that had this been otherwise All of All Parties except one who at some time had been in Power must have been e're this totally Butcher'd or destroy'd and our poor Country so far Depopulated as to have become a Prey to some of our Potent Neighbours For even in Queen Mary's times thousandes escaped that never sled and had private Meetings but the most Eminent were Cruelly used I know some there are who have imputed the remiss Execution of these unkind Laws to the Generous Good Nature which is found in the generality of our Nation which abhors Cruelty and hath always a compassion for those who are under Persecution and which well appears to any who reflect upon the tenderness of our Courts of Justice and of the generality both of our Magistrates and our Juries in all the Countries in England and how they have comported themselves under the several Circumstances of past Times when they have been call'd upon and Provok'd yea Threatn'd and endeavour'd to have been forc'd into a Spirit of Persecuting Others there are who have taken the great unwillingness in all sorts of persons to be active in the Execution of these Laws to proceed from the innate zeal that is in every English man to preserve the Liberties and Properties of their Fellow Subjects as well as their own and that they have observ'd that Liberty and Property were never any way so much Entrench'd upon violated and destroyed as by these Cruel Laws of Persecution for meer Religion So that every man considering when he sees his Neighbour though differing in Judgement from himself Persecuted and destroyed for what ought to be call'd rather his mistake then his Fault for no man can believe against his Judgement or take an Oath against his Conscience without sin that though this be his Neighbours turn this year it may be his own turn the next year or next Reign and no mans Life Liberty or Property can be secure in case such Laws be Executed but only such men who have a Conscience fitted for all Changes of Government and for every Religion that is uppermost and who for that reason are as unfit to be Trusted by their Neighbours as by the Government But though I take it to be very true that this natural inclination to Mercy and pity and this real zeal which all men have for the preserving of Liberty and Property may have been great helps to keep off or mitigate the severe Execution of these Laws of Persecution for meer Religion yet when I well consider the great power and Influences which the Supreme Authority always hath upon the Subjects and particularly upon all the Magistrates in general who are always persons nominated and appointed by the Supreme Authority and must be therefore suppos'd to be such in whom the Supreme Authority always Confides as to the due Execution of what the Supreme Authority intends to have Executed I think it will Naturally follow that a forbearance of the rigid Execution of these Laws ought to be chiefly imputed to the Religion and true Christian policy of the Supreme Authority and we ought to believe that though a false Reason of State did sometimes permit Humane Frailty to make such Laws as were contradictory to the true Laws and Principles of
A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN in the CITY TO A GENTLEMAN in the COUNTRY ABOUT THE Odiousness of Persecution WHEREIN The Rise and End of the Penal Laws for Religion in this Kingdom are consider'd Occasioned by the late Rigorous Proceedings against Sober Dissenters by certain Angry Justices IN THE COUNTRY It is the Part of the Christian-Religion to Suffer and not to make People Suffer for Religion Tertul. Apol. Printed in the YEAR 1687. THE LETTER SIR THE News of a Persecution meerly for a matter of Religion at this time a day when the whole Nation appears professedly to dislike it and the giving countenance to Informers who are the Pest of every Nation and the common Enemies of Property to the Prejudice of Peaceable and Trading People makes your Friends who have had notice of your late Troubles suspect that there is something in your case more than ordinary Had this fallen out in some remote Country where no Informer had ever yet appeared we might have conceived that through Ignorance that sort of Devil might have been mistaken for an Angel of Light and that upon his bare Averrment some well-meaning Persons even against their own Experience might have been induced to mistake their Peaceable Neighbours for Dangerous Incendiaries and unworthy to enjoy their own proper Goods But to see that sort of Creature concerned a Country so near London and Westminster as not to be capable of knowing what Informers are how detestable their Trade how inconsiderable their Power how generally indigent and dissolute how mean their Skill how little they know more than to subborn Witnesses to commit Perjuries which are discovered to their Confusion is that which raised Wonder in some of your Friends to so great an height that they generally request from your own hand the true state of your Case in all its Circumstances to the end they may know whether there be any thing which can differ it from the common Cases of Persecution meerly for Religion from which the generality of the Country-Gentlemen of England and particularly those of the Country where you live do commonly profess to have as great an abhorrency as they have from Depopulating of Countries which is the Effect that such Persecutions must of necessity produce In the mean time do not I pray take me to be one who think it strange to hear of Troubles what hath been formerly may happen again without Astonishment and you are too well known to be thought to be surprized or afraid Well did that Person consider the Creature Man who distinguished him into two parts viz. the Man and the Beast But it were happy for Mankind if the Beast were less imperious and cruel In truth it is rare to find where the Man is allowed to have any power in Acting every thing seems too much to be governed by the Beast and by the Tyranny of its inordinate Passions and Senses And yet where shall one find a single Person in the World who calls himself a Christian or that Party of Men who desire to be esteemed Christians but he and they will readily grant that Principle Mat. 7. 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets and that other Principle Rom. 3. 8. Let us not do Evil that Good may come to be Gospel-Principles and obliging to all Mankind There is not a Politician or States-man nor a Government any where that owns Christianity to be the true Religion but confesseth That in the Council of the Jews which was assembled in order to the Persecuting of the Apostles for matters of meer Religion Gamaliel advised prudently and according to the Principles of true Religion Acts 5. Let them alone for if this Counsel or this work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God we cannot overthrow it least happily we be found even to Fight against God. They will all confess readily when pressed with these charitable and peaceable Principles that the Spirit of Persecuting for meer Religion is a Spirit of Injustice as not doing to others as our selves would be done unto and a Spirit of Diffidence and Incredulity refusing to trust God and his Providence with the Defence and Justification of what is Professed to be of God And yet it is hard to find that single Person and much more to name thaâ— Community or Government amongst Christians now in being whose practice when they have opportunity and power are not contrary to their Principles And not only so but they will take upon them to justifie such practices to be consistent with nay even duties unto which they are obliged by that pure Religion which they take upon them to profess to the whole World. But to the end I may not be esteemed presumptuous or uncharitable in what I here assert and in regard it is impossible to produce evident proofs for what I say as touching single Persons let us a little examine the matter as to Parties and Governments taking this for granted that every particular Party calls it self a true Church or the true Church of Christ If what is here urged of differing Churches shall be proved true the presumption will stand very strong as to single Persons there being no single Person who would be esteemed a Christian but he is in communion or fellowship with some Church which he owns to be the true Church of Christ and by whose Judgment he is willing to be concluded as being a professed Member of it and as taking it for his Principle that every Member of the true Church of Christ ought to be of her Judgment because the Scripture says She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And though some boggle at this yet nothing is truer than that every Christian Society daily practiseth it Now the better to prepare the way for this intended Tryal we will crave the Liberty first to consider Christianity in the World in general in its first Ages when it was under Persecution for meer matter of Religion and before it gained any civil Power and Dominion From them we shall know what the true Christianity did teach We will then consider Christianity in England when divided only into two distinct Parties viz. The Protestants and the Papists And in the last place We will consider Christianity in England when the Protestants were sub-divided into several Parties viz. The Episcopal or Church of England Protestants the Presbyterians the Independants the Anabaptists and the Quakers and when the Papists were become so small that they were upon the matter inconsiderable and I suppose from these differing times we may hope for a reasonable Information First then Suppose the question put to the Christians of the first and Primitive Times in those first and greatest Persecutions under which Christianity then suffered Is it lawful to Persecute and to make and Execute Laws for the Inflicting of Pains and Penalties upon quiet and peaceable People
that very Religion which those persons professed by whom those Laws were made yet true Religion and true reason of state always kept those persons from intending to have those Laws rigidly and severely Executed I will confirm this by one single Instance of the highest Nature and that not in the best of times The last Popish Priest that was put to Death in England for being a Priest of the Romish Church was put to Death in the time of Cromwel I suppose we are not to doubt of the Passionate heat which inflam'd those who were then in Authority against the Papists and Popery they look'd on the Papists as mortal Enemies to their Government and as fast Friends and devoted Servants to the Crown and Royal Family Notwithstanding which when the said Priest came upon his Tryal at the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily in London and upon his Arraignment Pleaded that he was not Guilty of Treason but acknowledg'd himself to be a Priest of the Roman Church It clearly appear'd that those who were his Judges did their utmost to preserve his Life and to prevent the Execution against him of those Laws upon which he stood Indicted For they did for many hours suspend the Recording of his Confession making it their endeavour to prevail with him to Plead not Gluilty to the Indictment They pressed him to this in the publick Court assuring him that if he would so Plead his Life should be safe and that they had no Evidence which could prove him to be a Priest And when the Old Man Aged about seventy two years would not be drawn to deny himself to be a Priest taking it to be a denying of his Religion and that the Court was compell'd to give Judgment against him the Magistrate who gave the Sentence was so drown'd in Tears upon that sad occasion that it was long before he could pronounce the Sentence which the Law compell'd as he profess'd to give Now I ask can it be presum'd that in those severe times against Popery those who then sate upon the Seat of Justice would or durst have proceeded thus in a publick out and made it their business so openly so avowedly to have sav'd the Life of a Priest of that Party if they had not well consider'd that the Makers of those Laws and even Cromwel who had then taken upon him the Government of these Nations did not in Truth intend a rigid and severe Execution of those Laws which were for Inflicting Pains and Penalties for matter of meer Religion But I think I need give no further Instances for the proof of this my Opinion Whosoever shall reflect upon the present Genius of our whole Nation and consider in what detestation all men have the Execution of Persecuting Laws of matters of meer Religion how publickly Informers are Abhorr'd and Discountenanced when they labour to Persecute any upon any such Law will easily see that the whole Nation in general is Convinc'd that those Laws were never any of them made with intention to have them rigidly Executed I have been told and it seems to be grounded upon Reason that it is a Principle of our Laws That even an Act of Parliament which is against the Law of God or against Reason is void in it self If this be true as methinks it ought to be I think we are very near the time wherein all our present Laws of this Nature by which any are subject to be in any measure Persecuted for matters of meer Religion will be Repealed by the general Voice of the whole Nation and that when the particular Persons of which the great Body of this Nation is compos'd shall have considered something more deliberately than their Passions have yet permitted all to do that every Law of this Nature is against the Liberty and Property of the Subjects of England Unjust and Cruel in punishing men for not proceeding against their Consciences Expresly against the very Principles and Rules of the Gospel of Christ and Principles of that true Religion which every one of us pretends to own Destructive to the Trade and Well-being of our Nation by Oppressing and driving away the most Industrious Working Hands of our Nation and Depopulating and thereby Impoverishing our Country which is capable of imploying three times the number of People which we now have Contradictory to the Rule of Justice grounded upon common Reason as well as Religion which requires That no man should do unto another what he would not have done unto himself And consequently void in it self by the Rule of the Laws of our Country There will not be found a Magistrate nay a common Subject in England who will not as positively renounce the putting in execution or being accessary to the executing of any Law of this Nature as he will renounce the becoming guilty of those detestable Sins of Murder or Theft But until Men are a little further convinc'd of these Truths you Sir ought not to be angry with but rather pity those Magistrates from whose Hands you have lately suffer'd for a Matter meerly of Religion Peradventure they did not fully consider that the Matter with which you were charged was a thing of meer Religion but took your Meeting in an Assembly meerly for the Worship of God to be an unlawful Assembly because prohibited by a present Law as the poor Magistrates in the Apostles times took their Meetings in their Assemblies meerly for the Worship of God to be unlawful Assemblies and Breaches of the Peace because they were prohibited by their Laws Or perhaps their fear that they should themselves be subject to a Forfeiture in case they should have deny'd their Warrant to the Informer made them fall under that Humane Frailty for securing of themselves However it was I suppose you have no just Ground to believe the thing to be any effect of Malice against you or your Friends and if it be not then the same Magistrates now their fear is over may yet be instrumental to do you and themselves Right It is Odds but upon a strict Reflection upon what the Informer hath sworn the Devil may have prevailed with him to swear something which may be proved untrue for Informers are not squeamish in swearing for their own profit as it hath appear'd in London and Middlesex and one point of Perjury proved will invalidate all his Testimony and reverse all that is done At which I am very confident no Man besides the Informer will be displeased And this is in plain Truth the great Reason why your Friends here desire to know all the Circumstances of your Case the certifying of which may be an Advantage to your self and your Friends there and will be particularly very welcome unto Sir Your Old True Friend And Humble Servant A. N. Postscript I Have here-omitted many of those great Arguments both which others have used and which may yet be advanced from the Nature of this Subject partly because there are so many Discourses extant and