by whole sale and if it should ever hereafter happen upon proof That any of our English Roman Catholicks should do Eminent Service in defence of the Public Peace and Liberty I make no doubt but the consequence would extend farther with respect unto such individual Persons then it did with the Papists in the Netherlands For greater Fidelity to the Publick Interest could not be shewn then to hazard their Lives and Persevere in their Constancy with the Reformed Protestants in defence of their Civil Liberties against Armies of their own Religion when any Act of Treachery as the Princes of the Philistians said to the King of Gath concerning King David might have Reconciled them to those of their own Communion 1 Sam. 27.4 5. perhaps with a secular Advantage to themselves and Hazard if not certain Ruine of the Lives and Liberties of the Reformed Protestants Certainly those Individual Persons if the Conditions of their Service were not before hand expresly limited to a Military Station might think they were hardly used to be excluded by Name for the sake of their Religion from all share in the Government and other publick Imployments which they had been instrumental with others to recover and defend There is one passage more in his Lordship's Letter which will lead me to what I have farther to add upon this occasion His Lordship says He would gladly see one single good Reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been Enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament which have no other Tendency but to the Security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it These Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only Exclude the Roman Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to Encrease their Party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great Prejudice I have before declared I have been long reckoned among dissenting Protestants and do acknowledge it is my Duty above all earthly things to Fear GOD and to be concerned for my Religion But I must beg his Lordships patience and permission to enquire into the true meaning of this Passage before I attempt to satisfy his Lordships desire 1. Because I cannot find any such Law as is effectual our present State considered to keep Reman Catholicks and no others out of Imployments or that do not either directly or of necessary consequence tend to the inflicting of Fines and Punishments on them or any other Dissenters if they resuse or without the qualifications required accept the execution of those imployments 2. I premise there may be an Explaining Qualisying or Repealing any Laws in part without a general or absolute Repeal of the whole Law an instance of this kind we have in the Reign of King James the First in the Third year of His Reign a Law was made for some persons taking and subscribing the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance in the form prescribed In the Seventh year of the same King another Law was made wherein notice is taken of a just desence of the said Oath against false and unsound Arguments undertaken and performed by the Kings Majesty to the great contentment of all his loving Subjects notwithstanding the gain-saying of contentious adversaries and in this last Act it is said That the form of the Oath tends only to the Declaration of such duty as every true and well-affected subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the command of Almighty GOD ought to bare to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors And Enacts That every person above the age of Eighteen years therein mentioned and intended shall Make Take and Receive a Corporal Oath upon the Evangelists according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Oath set forth in the first mentioned Statute before such persons as are in that Act expressed In the Kings Epistle to all Christian Monarchs Free-Princes and States Prefixt to his Apology his Majesty declares That his Intent in that Oath was only to meddle with that due temporal obedience which his Subjects owed to him and not to intrap nor inthrall their Consciences And in Answer to the Popes Second Breve That such as had taken this Oath had sworn to no more than their Natural Allegience The Kings Intent being thus declared His Apology approved by Parliament and the Oath Explained satisfied many so as to take the said Oath which otherwise would have scrupled it Another instance we have in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in the First year of her Majesties Reign that Statute which prescribes and enjoyns the taking of the Oath called the Oath of Supremacy by all the Clergy and Temporal Officers whereby they obliged themselves to assist and desend the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors in all Jurisdictions united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm does also among other things unite and annex to the Crown all Jurisdictions Spiritual and Ecclesiastical which had before or might Lawfully be exercised for Reformation of all manner of Errors Heresies and Schisms This Act and Oath occasioned many seruples in the minds of her Majesties Subjects for which cause soon after the dissolution of this Parliament and about four years before the Calling of the next her Majesty besides the dispensations which she gave to particular Persons upon special reasons published a Book commonly called the Queens Injunctions wherein she was graciously pleased by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to declare such a construction and sense of the words of this Oath exprest in other words much different as gave Her Subjects in general relief therein and acquitted such of them as should in the sense she declared take the said Oath from all manner of Penalties which were very great against such as should refuse to take the same In the next succeeding Parliament which was held in the Fifth year of her Majesties Reign this Oath of Supremacy was enjoyned to be taken not only by all such persons as were mentioned in the former Act but also by every Member of the Commons House of Parliament and it was Enacted That such as should enter into the Parliament House without taking the said Oath should be deemed no Member thereof and should suffer such pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same whithout Election Return or Authority But it was also therein provided That the said Oath should be taken and expounded in such form as was set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Injunctions published in the First year of her Majesties Reign which was exprest in the Act and refer'd to the said Injunctions by which it more plainly appeared and in the Eighth
OF ALL HIS LOVING SUBJECTS The other granted by their Highnesses THAT NO CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE ILL USED BECAUSE HE DIFFERS FROM THE PULICK AND ESTABLISHED RELIGION There is one thing more occurs which I shall offer to consideration which seems to me taken singly if there were no more to be alledged in this case a good reason why these Penal Laws which require the taking of the Sacrament Oaths and Tests should be either in express terms repealed or which is tantamount by some new Law so explained and limitted as that the Penalties and Disabilites may not be inevitable but some way or other by and consistent with the discharge of a good Conscience towards God and the King be avoided For as the case now stands His Majesty being pleased to Nominate Authorize and Appoint many Persons who are Dissenters from the Established Religion and in that regard cannot with a good Conscience take Sacraments Oaths and Tests in the manner they are enjoyned to execute several publick Offices and some such Persons may also be Called or Elected to serve in Parliament If any of them do refuse to serve in any of these publick Offices or Places of Trust they are by our Laws liable to be very ill used by Fines and Imprisonments and that justly too as is presumed because they refuse to Execute such Offices and Places of Trust as are not only Lawful but Necessary and must be Executed by them or some others No Man can by our present Laws excuse himself when he is not legally priviledged or exempted from any Service to which he is lawfully called by his own Default that is by his not qualifying himself according to the Directions of Law for the Execution of those Places and if he do accept and serve in those Places without such a Qualfication to which he cannot in Conscience submit he is obnoxious to as ill usage for Serving and Acting in those Offices and Places of Trust as if he refused so that until the Law be otherwise declared or some suiteable Provision in this case made by some other Law. Such as are most consciencious and desirous to discharge that respective Duty which they ow to God their King and their Country in our present Circumstances are more liable then any others to be very ill used and if this be well considered that the King who has the sole Nomination and Power to Authorize such Persons as he pleases to serve in places of highest Judicature and Trust And Electors if they may have their free Choice as by Law they ought to have will probably in many places chuse such as are Dissenters to serve in Parliament when his Majesty shall please to send out his Writs for that purpose It ought to be shewn That as the Laws now are the King has no Power to Appoint or Command and the Electors no Power to chuse such Persons to serve in Offices or Places of Trust or otherwise it is requisit that these present Laws be Repealed or so far altered and limitted that such as are Dissenters may be secured in their Consciences Civil Liberties and Properties either for serving without taking the Sacrament Oaths and Tests or for refusing to serve because they cannot take them and whosoever shall well weigh the apparent Inconveniences and ill Consequences that are likely to follow on the one Hand by any Person being permitted to excuse himself from a hazardous or chargeable Office or Place of Trust upon pretence of Conscience and the difficulty of contriving any such Law as shall limit the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects Election so as that the King shall not command any of his Subjects to attend his Person serve in Parliament or execute any publick Office or Imployment Civil or Military but such only as voluntarily have or will take the Sacrament Oaths and Tests and so as the Penalty incurred shall fall upon the Persons who Elect any Man to serve in Parliament or to any such Office in case the Person Elected will not Voluntary take them in manner as by Law prescribed And if it be consider'd on the other Hand how justifiable and equal it is and how we may be by other ways secured against all Hazards if these Penal Laws and Tests be Repealed It may appear more easie and safe to Repeal these Laws and Tests then to contrive any New Law consistent with the continuance of those Laws in force which shall be effectual to remedy the aforementioned and now unavoidable Inconveniences What his Lordship says pag. 4 5. That there is a great difference to be observed in the Conduct of those of the Reformed Religion where they have the Government towards Roman Catholick's and of the Conduct of the Roman Catholick's where they have the Government towards such as are of the Reformed Religion connot be denyed and this may be a caution why no Protestant Governors of a Protestant Nation should voluntarily invite any Roman Catholick's to take a share with them in their Government who cannot claim any right in it but this does not reach our Case at all We are providentially brought under the Government of a Sovereign Prince who is of the Roman Catholick Religion And he hath many Subjects of the same Religion who by the Laws of Nature claim according to their Quality and Numbers an equal share with others in the enjoyment of Civil Rights and Priviledges and under our present Circumstances it is equally as unjust unsafe to press for the execution of such Penal Laws against them for their Religions sake as it would be to press for the observance of Rules made in a common Case when we fall under such Emergenies as require the supersion of them Besides as we have a Prince of the Roman Catholick Religion so we have also a Soveraign who in this respect differs from and excels all others of that Religion in that His desires are to settle all things on such a Foundation as may be a lasting security to all his Subjects so far as Soveraign Power the wisdom of a Parliament subjects consent and common interest of the whole can provide that none of them may suffer any dammage in their civil Rights for the sake of their Religion and that all civil Interests notwithstanding their different opinions in Religion may be united in the common defence and Security of his Majesties Kingdoms a thing most desirable in its self and most conducible to the Safety Welfare and Honour of the Nation Other Neighbouring Kings and States may well be jealous of and underhand indeavour what they can to prevent such a Settlement but in contemplation that their Highnesses are in a possibility of suceeding in the Throne I see no reason why it should not be esteemed their Interest to promote the settlement of his Majesties Three Kingdomes on suth a Foundation of Peace and Union as is designed by his Royal and Gracious Declaration And if none of these things which I have written can prevail with his Lordship to move their Highnesses to give their Consent and Assistance upon such due terms of caution as are offered by his Majesty to the repeal of these Penal Laws and Tests which stand in the way of such a peaceable and lasting Settlement as is proposed and desired yet I hope it may prevail with him so to represent to their Highnesses such of the Dissenters as in their respective Stations indeavour the accomplishment thereof as that their Highnesses may not be offended thereat Because what they have done and shall do herein IS OUT OF GRATITUDE AND DUTY TO HIS MAJESTY OBEDIENCE TO THE GENERAL LAWS BOTH OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION AND LOVE TO THE PRINCIPLES AND PROSPERITY OF THE REFORMED RELIGION Which forbids every Man to do that to another which he would not have done to himself and commands every Man to do his present duty to God in the first place and to his present Soveraign in the next place leaving the success and future events of their so doing to the Wise and Gracious disposal of God who judgeth amongst the Gods sitteth upon the Floods as King for ever does Rule and Will over-Rule all things as for his own Glory so also for the good of them that sear him and knows how to deliver the Godly out of Tamptations Into whose Hands it is better to commit the keeping of our Souls in well-doing with such hazards as attend the outward Man then for the preservation of the outward Man to strain any Religious Opinion in reference to civil Concerns in any such manner or measure as is inconsistent with the general Laws of Religion and Nature for whoever makes use of any such method to preserve his civil Concerns or defend or propagate his Religion it may be suspected he is either wrong in his Opinion or takes a wrong course to maintain it FINIS
Partakers with them in the Blood of the Prophets even in the interim are stupidly regardless of the temper of their own Minds then bent upon and in the next Opportunity actually Persecuting the Righteous so as to fill up the Measure of their Fathers and bring upon themselves the Blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the Foundation of the World. My Inducement to touch upon these Points is the Hopes I have conceived that by His Majesty's Royal Countenance and Authority the destructive Instruments of this Inhumane Persecuting Spirit may be taken out of the Way so as that although the Malignity of it be as inourable as that of Babylon mentioned by the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 51.7 8 9. Mic. 3.3 4.5 yet its Rage shall be so fettered as no more to take away Peace from the Earth whereto the setling and bounding of Religious and Civil Interests upon and within their distinct proper Foundations and Limits will greatly Contribute I cannot say as it is reported you have sometimes said That if you thought what you advised and perswaded to were not the safest way you would reckon your selves concerned to Act another Part But I can freely say If I were not of that Mind I would have chosen to be silent and Acted no Part at all But being perswaded that the modest Handling throughly Penetrating and free Debating these Points may produce such a Settlement amongst us as is most just and equal and in that Respect if it be once well laid most likely to remain unshaken to Perpetuity I have therefore written with an Intent that what I write should be throughly Scann'd with a Preparation of mind to bear the Censures of such as have a better discerning and will discover wherein I have Erred And in the first Place submit the whole to your Correction and Disposal as you think fit Wishing that both you and my self may so persevere in our mutual Endeavours to do well that in all our Greetings and Parting 's we may without Transgressing our Lord's Rule bid each other Heartily Farewel ANIMADVERSIONS UPON Mijn Heer Fagels Letter CONCERNING OUR PENAL LAWS AND TESTS I Have at the Instance of my worthy Friend for the Truth 's sake set some Hours apart seriously to Consider the substance of the Letter Written by Mijn Heer Fagel to Mr. James Stuart concerning our Penal Laws for Religious Matters and Tests And taking this Honourable Pensioner to be an Authentick Testimony of their Highnesses of Orange Declared Opinion THAT NO CHRISTIAN OVGHT TO BE PERSECVTED FOR HIS CONSCIENCE OR TO BE ILL VSED BECAVSE HE DIFFERS FROM THE PVBLICK AND ESTASTABLISHED RELIGION I cannot but acknowledge a great Satisfaction of Mind to see such a concurrent Evidence born by their Highnesses to their Royal Father's Gracious Declavation in a Point which next to the Blessed Gospel of Our LORD I take to be of the highest Concern to the Peace of Mankind as tending to Introduce and Establish Concord and Amicable Conversations in Families Neighbourhoods Cities Common-Wealths and Kingdoms where-ever it is Embraced and Candidly Pursued For although it may be subject to different Apprehensions as all other Opinions are in the Interpretation Limitation or Extent of it yet it s natural Tendency is to Abate and as Experience of its Usefulness does increase its Esteem to Eradicate that Antichristian and Inhumane Temper of Mind which under a pretence of Zeal for Religion has provoked Men to be at Variance Implacable and Unmerciful one towards another and instead thereof to instil such Christian-like Dispositions as will encline to a Peaceable Behaviour such as is becoming those who have the Name of Christ who is the Prince of Peace called upon them This Fundamental Maxim of their Highnesses though it be venerable for its Antiquity as well as its Intrinsick Vertue for it s as old as Christianity it self has not as our Sences Testify for a long time been Practised or admitted amongst us as a Plea to prevent the Persecution or ill-usage of such Christians as differ from the National Established Religion and in that Respect is but newly upon its Reviving And therefore it highly concerns all who need or expect the Benefit of it to take care that they themselves be not Instrumental to stifle it in its New-Birth for it requires a gentle and prudent handling and cannot be Introduced as it has been thrust out by Force or violent Passions but must be meekly dropp'd and instill'd by such Methods and suitable Demeanours as may Commend it to and Rivet it in the Minds and Understandings of those that have but lately Embraced it You see by the Sequel of this Lord's Letter That neither their Highnesses nor this Noble Person although Grounded and Principled in this peaceable Opinion do conceive it any ill Usage for Dissenters from the publick Establish'd Religion to be kept out of Government and all publick Employment and Trust And therefore if such who in all other Respects receive the Benefit thereof are denied that share of Power Trust or Profit in publick Stations which they think they ought also to enjoy in common with others as any of them are qualified for it upon a civil Account without any Religious Test imposed yet Christian Prudence will teach him that values Liberty of Conscience and the free and peaceable Exercise of his Religion by that Esteem he ought to have of it not to hazzard the loss of it again by an Over-valuation of any Worldly Honour Power or Profit but to bear with Contentation of Mind and manifest Chearfulness A Character if imposed by the Civil Government of a Person not Capacitated for publick Employment because of his Opinion in Religion different from the Forms of Worship Establish'd in the Nation It is a high Favour and Obligation to Gratitude That on the Dissenters behalf their Highnesses Declare They do not only consent as for the Papists in His Majesty's Dominions having as much Liberty as is allowed them by the States in their Provinces scilicet a full Liberty of Conscience but heartily approve of the Dissentexs having an entire Liberty for the full Exercise of their Religion without any Trouble or Hinderance so that none may be able to give them tho loast Disturbance on that Account This Grace strictly binds the Dissenters to manifest their real Thankfulness to their Highnesses by a suitable Deportment SO FAR AS IS CONSISTENT WITH THEIR DVTY TO GOD AND THEIR KING and with so much the greater Circumspection because their Highnesses Page 21. do also Declare They cannot agree to the Repeal of the Tests or any of those Penal Laws by which the Roman Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military And this Noble Person afterwards adds his own Opinion to the same Purpose Page 3. And yet HE EVER WAS AND STILL IS VERY MVCH AGAINST ALL THOSE WHO WOVLD PERSECVTE ANY CHRISTIAN BECAVSE HE DIFFERS FROM THE PVBLICK AND
ESTABLISHED RELIGION AND HOPES BY THE GRACE OF GOD TO CONTINVE STILL IN THE SAME MIND And asks Who would go about to perswade him or any Man else to endeavour to move their Highnesses whom God hath Honoured so far as to make them the Protectors of His Church so approve of or to consent to things so hurtful both to the Reformed Religion and to the Publick Safety His Majesty's Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and those Passages foregoing with others of the like Nature in His Lordships Letter being compared and duly weighed will plainly Demonstrate where the stress lies in Reference to Dissenters and how greatly it concerns them that this Matter be clearly Stated to the Satisfaction both of His Majesty and their Highnesses THE KING OF HIS PRINCELY CARE AND AFFECTION VNTO ALL HIS LOVING SVBJECTS THAT THEY MAY LIVE AT EASE AND QVIET AND FOR THE ENCREASE OF TRADE AND ENCOVRAGEMENT OF STRANGERS THOVGHT FIT BY VERTVE OF HIS ROYAL PREROGATIVE TO ISSVE FORTH HIS DECLARATION OF INDVLGENCE MAKING NO DOVBT OF THE CONCVRRENCE OF HIS TWO HOVSES OF PARLIAMENT WHEN HE SHOVLD THINK IT CONVENIENT FOR THEM TO MEET This Indulgence consists of two principal Parts The one Relating to Ecclesiastical Matters and the Exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever And the other to Civil and Military Employments In the former Case His Majesty having first Declared That He would Protect and Maintain all His Subjects of the Church of England in the free Exercise of their Religion as by Law Established as shall be herein after in the Words of His Royal Declaration express'd afterwards declares His Royal Will and Pleasure That from henceforth the Execution of all and all manner of Penal Laws in MATTERS ECCLESIASTICAL for not coming to Church or not Receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established or for or by Reason of the Exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever be immediately Suspended And the further Execution of the said Penal Laws And every of them is thereby Suspended In the latter Case Forasmuch as he was desirous to have the Benefit of the Service of all His Loving Subjects which by the Law of Nature is inseparably Annexed to and inherent in His Royal Person And that none of His Subjects might for the future be under any Discouragement or Disability who are otherwise well inclined and fit to serve His Majesty by Reason of some Oaths or Tests that have been usually Administred on such Occasions His Majesty did thereby further Declare That it was His Royal Will and Pleasure That the Oaths commonly called the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance And also the several Tests and Declarations mentioned in the Acts of Parliament made in the 25th and 30th Years of the Reign of His late Royal Brother King Charles the Second should not at any Time thereafter be Required to be Taken Declared or Subscrired by any Person or Persons whatsoever who was or should be employed in any Office or place of Trust either Civil or Military under His Majesty or in His Government And further That it was His Pleasure and Intention from Time to Time thereafter to grant His Royal Dispensations under His great Seal to all His Loving Subjects so to be employed who should not take the said Oaths or Subscribe or Declare the said Tests or Declarations in the above-mentioned Acts. and every of them My Lord Fagel tells us That their Highnesses of Orange if His Majesty shall think fit further to desire their Concurrence in the Repealing the Penal Laws they are ready to give it Provided always that those Laws remain still in their full Vigour by which the Roman Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and all Publick Employments as has been before-mentioned But to the Repeal of those Tests and those other Penal Laws last mentioned that tend to the Security of the Protestant Religion for the Reasons exprest in the Letter they cannot agree Some of the Dissenters upon their first sensible Experience of that great and unexpected change of their Condition effected by His Majesty's Gracious Declaration of Indulgence Enlarged from Imprisonment during Life without Conformity discharged from Fines and Forfeitures which they cou'd never have satisfied At Liberty not only to follow and attend upon their private Callings but to Exercise their Religion according to their Consciences without any Restraint or Disturbance so as they took special Care that nothing was Preach'd or Taught amongst them which might any Ways tend to Alienate the Hearts of His Majesty's Subjects from Him or His Government and that their Meetings and Assemblies were Peaceably Openly and Publickly Held and all Persons freely admitted to them Reckoned themselves obliged in Duty to God in the first place for His Merciful Providence To the King in the next place for His Gracious Pardon and Indulgence to pay their Humble and Thankful Acknowledgments And this they did in their Publick Assemblies and also in their Solemn Addresses to His Majesty Soon after under an Umbrage of Kindness in a Printed Letter Entituled A Letter to a Dissenter they were rebuked as guilty of Unreasonable Thankfulness and Pre-cautioned of the Hazzards to which they Exposed themselves by taking Liberty to Assemble publickly the only Condition upon which they were permitted to Assemble at all before it was Granted or Confirmed by Parliament But this Rebuke and Pre-caution notwithstanding the Generality of Dissenters and many others in Conjunction with them pursued the same Method in Addressing to the King and many of them therein assuring His Majesty of their best Endeavours for Choosing such Members for the next Parliament as would consent that the Indulgence granted by His Majesty's Gracious Declaration should be Confirmed by a Statute-Law If the Dissenters had not made these Acknowledgments or should not pursue what they have promised His Majesty would have just Cause to be highly offended But because they have been driven to this Necessity by the Church of England and those in her Communion by whom they have been always branded with the Marks of Disloyalty as if they were Universally Seditious Riotous Rebellious and all this because some of them Regularly others of them Irregularly in Conjunction with many more than themselves of the Church of England strove to Defend and Vindicate their own and others Liberties and Priviledges as Subjects Christians of which the generality of the Church of England in Opposition to these Dissenters and the rest of their own Communion would make a Surrender and as the Author of the Letter to a Dissenter terms it a Sacrifice to their Revenge If the Dissenters had no other Plea but this inevitable Necessity to which they were Reduced that they must starve at present to avoid a Forfeiture of their Subsistance in the next Generation It is to be hoped that what they have done and promised to do in their Addresses to His Majesty being duly weighed by my Lord Fagel will be
so Represented as that it may not be any Offence to their Highnesses Dissenters though in such things as relate indifferently to them all they may all agree yet in other things they dissent one from another as much as from those who are no Dissenters so called in Reference to the Establish'd Religion and in that Coercion of Conscience Subjection to Fines Imprisonments and Universal Ruine to which by Statute-Laws as they now stand they were all Exposed They are equally concerned in an Orderly and such a Way as is attainable with His Majesty's Approbation and Royal Assent to endeavour that all those Laws may be either Totally or in part Repealed and the rest so Explained as that none of them may be Exposed to the Severity of them for Conscience sake But although the Pressures under which the Dissenters were laid are a sufficient necessious Excuse for what they have done and further obliged themselves to do in their Humble Thankful Addresses to the King Yet for His Lordships more entire Satisfaction that their Necessities have not driven them to do any more than what is agreeable with their Principles in Relation to Civil Government and such Laws as are requisite for its Support Dignity and Safety so far as I am capable of understanding their Reasons for so doing by a general Conversation amongst most sorts of them for many Years past I am desirous they should be Communicated for a general Satisfaction and more particularly and especially that his Lordship may know them if he will vouchsafe to read my Sentiments therein who am an old Dissenter from the Discipline Service and Statute Law Worship and some Canons but no Adversary to the Doctrines in general or Constitution of the Church of England His Lordship is pleased to say Page 4. That it is certain that there is no Kingdom Commonwealth Constituted Body or Assembly whatsoever in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that Provide against all Attempts whatsoever that disturb their Peace and that prescribe the Conditions and Qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear Employments in that Kingdom State or Corporation And no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to Employments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities Required And afterwards page 7. Our Laws are Express Excluding Roman Catholicks by Name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of our Countrey It is true I do not know of any express Law that shuts them out of Military Employments That had indeed been hard since in the first Formation of our State they joined with us in defending our Publick Liberty and did us Eminent Service during the Wars therefore they were not shut out from these Military Employments for the publick Safety was no ways endangered by this both because their Numbers that served in our Troops were not great and because the States could easily prevent any Inconvenience that might arise out of that which could not have been done so easily if the Roman Catholicks had been admitted to a share in the Government and in the Policy and Justice of our State. And further page 8. Since the matter that is now in Hand Relates not to the making of New Laws but to the Total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament Their Highnesses do not see how it can be expected of them that they should Consent to such a Repeal to which they have so just an Aversion as being a thing that is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who receive none to a share in the Government or publick Employments but those who Profess the Publick and Establish'd Religion and take Care to secure it against all Attempts whatsoever And a little before Their Highnesses are Convinced in their Consciences that both the Protestant Religion and the Safety of the Nation would be Exposed to most certain Dangers if either the Tests or those other Penal Laws of which I have made frequent mention should be Repeal'd To several of these things it is my intent humbly to offer my Dissent But I desire to do it with all Deference to his Lordship and humble Submission to the Judgment and Determination of my Superiours on whose Shoulders the weight of Government whether Legislative or Executive lies and in whose Hands respectively are both the Right and Power of Disposing all publick Employments Civil Government is Ordained of God for the good of Mankind Dominion is founded in Nature and so of Consequence is Subjection to Superiours The Dissenters who acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God Revealed from Heaven and to contain the standing general Rules of Faith Worship and Conversation are therein taught and readily admit that every Soul ought to be subject to the Higher Powers and to every Ordinance of Humane Creation not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and the Lord's sake Every Independent Government being Supream over its own Subjects is vested with a Power to make and Execute such Laws as are necessary proper and adequate for its own Support and Safety and may justly require not only a Subjective Passive but an Active Obedience to be given by each particular Subject in all Lawful Things as he is thereto Capacitated and by Authority Commanded No matter or thing whatsoever openly Transacted is Exempted from the Cognizance or Judgment of such as are supream Governours within their Respective Dominions And it is certain as my Lord Fagel says There is no sort of Government in which there are not Laws made for the Safety thereof and that Provide against all Attempts that disturb their Peace And de Facto Prescribe Conditions and Qualities as they judge necessary for all that shall be employed therein But that all Conditions and Qualities are alike necessary equal and just or such as naturally tend to the Peace and Safety of the Government and that no man can pretend that there is any Injury done him that he is not admitted to publick Employments when he doth not satisfie the Conditions and Qualities required These things fall under farther Consideration If his Lordship had not declared the special Reasons why their Highnesses and himself cannot consent to a Repeal of the Tests and some Penal Laws or not mentioned the Laws of his own Country nor declared that the matter now in Hand relates not to the making of New Laws but to the total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament There had been no Occasion given for such Remarks as I shall now make upon these Branches of His Letter His Loadship very well knows that as Governments are divers in their Forms and Constitutions one from another so also are their Laws and Customs Mr. Stuart's Mistake gave Occasion to his Lordship to inform him aright concerning the Laws of his Countrey and if his
Lordship be mistaken concerning the Laws and Constitutions of Our Kingdom there is the like Occasion for a Right Information therein to be given to his Lordship and all others who concern themselves therein And as he subjoyns the Reasons why the Roman Catholick's are not shut out of Military Employments but are Excluded by Name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of their Country so I may humbly offer to His Lordships further Consideration such Reasons as I think to be cogent why no Dissenter Roman Catholick nor Protestant if Commanded and Authorized by the King and in all other Respects not touching his Religion duly qualified according to Law to Execute any Employment Civil or Military should be Excluded from thence purely because his Religion or manner of Worship is different from that which by Statute-Law is Establish'd to be the publick Worship of the Nation I doubt not but that forementioned Maxim which tends to and is necessary for the Maintenance of publick Peace and equal Justice and which is before declared to be the Opinion of their Highnesses is built upon the same Foundation which his Lordship declares to be the ground why he is very much against all those who would Page 3. Persecute any Christian because he differs from the Publick Establish'd Religion Scil. Because that Light with which Religion Illuminates Our Minds is purely an Effect of God's Mercy to us and inclines to Pity and Pray for those who Err That God would bring them into the Way of Truth and to use all Gentle and Friendly Methods for Reducing them to it And his Lordship may very well say That He could never Comprehend for I think it is not to be Comprehended by any man how any that Profess themselves Christians and that may Enjoy their Religion freely and without any Disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to Overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be Admitted into Employments And let me add to this from the like Reasons of State and Obligation of Religion I can as little apprehend how any that are of the National Religion and may enjoy both that and all the publick Benefits of it freely and without any Disturbance can go about to disturb the Quiet of this Kingdom and to make not only Religious but our Civil Constitutions so to jarr and justle one against another as to threaten the over turning of the whole That so under the Umbrage of Statute Laws in some Respects incoherent if not with the Fundamental Law yet with the present State and Management of Publick Affairs they themselves may be the only Persons capable of Employments Exclusive of those many Myriads in the Nation who upon a Civil Account may justly desire that such Statute Laws may in an orderly Method be either in part or in whole Repealed or so Limited or Explained as that they may not for the future be any more than others of His Majesty's Subjects entangled in or subjected to a loss of their Civil Rights for a good Conscience towards God or Obedience to the Commands of their King in such things as are in their own Nature not only lawful but necessary to be done It may be his Lordship has not taken such strict notice of the Nature of the Government Constitutions and different Qualities of the Respective kinds of the Laws of England as he has done of those of his own Countrey all which are necessary to be known and well pondred before any Solid Judgment can be made in Respect of such Proceedings as have been and are like to be amongst us in the disposal and calling of Persons to Offices Places of Trust and Publick Employments His Lordship is pleased frequently in his Letter to put a great Emphasis upon such Laws as he would not have Repealed in that they are made both by King and Parliament whereas setting aside the subject matter there is nothing more in this then what is requisite to every Statute that passes into a Law some of which have never been observed at all but openly broken every day and no man ever Prosecuted for the breach of it Others Prohibiting some sorts of Trades and Merchandizes which have been Evaded Neglected or Counived at or Dispensed withal upon divers Occasions not needful to be mentioned Nothing is more frequent amongst us then to have Statute Laws made in one Parliament to be Repealed in part or in whole by the next Succeeding and sometimes in the same Parliament if of any Long Continuance But on the other hand the Sages of our Law have in their Law Books delivered certain Fundamental Maxims from which we can never recede as that If a Statute Law should be made contrary to Common Right and the General Law of Nature Reason or Scripture such a Law would be void of it self And when Actions have been grounded upon a particular Statute which in the ordinary construction of words did seem to Intrench upon any Fundamental Maxims Our Judges have given another Interpretation of such Statutes then the words in common construction would bear rather then give Judgment in any special case against such General and Fundamental Maxims The King's Prerogative is part of the Common Law of England and as this is expresly saved in several Statutes so it hath been frequently Interpreted by the Sages of our Law to extend to the Dispensing with Suspending or Pardoning of any Penalty incurred by a Statute-Law whereby no Subject can derive a particular damage to himself and wherein the Kings Power is not expresly limited And where the nature of the Offence is such as may be dispensed with the King is not confined to Number Place or Time for That the Law leaves indefinitely to His Pleasure that the Remedy may be proportionable to the Occasion And tho every Penal Statute is intended in some sense Pro Bono Publico yet it may not be Pro Bono Singulorum Populi And in such cases the Offence is understood to be only to the King's damage in His Publick Capacity of Supream Governour and therefore wronging none but Himself His Prerogative may be Exercised as oft and as largly as he is Gratiously Pleased it shall be in Acts of Mercy Kindness and Goodness to any of His Subjects who are Obnoxious to Penalties by breach of Penal Laws so as no other of His Subjects be injur'd thereby in their particular Rights And in many cases with a Non-obstante in His Grant to a Non-obstante in an Act of Parliament therein Recited His Lordship is pleased to say That it is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who recieve none to a share in the Government or to Publick Employments but those who profess the Publick and Established Religion and that take care to secure it against all Attempts whatsoever But this must be taken with an Exception
hand and all Calumny and Equivocations under the Name of the Church of England on the other hand so as to beget a right Understanding and perfect Reconciling of the Church of England and Protestant-Dissenters The only visible way is to have such to represent them in Parliament as will join in their humble supplications to the King That the National Church by Law Established with all its Rights may be Confirmed by a New Law removing Temporal Penalties for the Cause of Religion which have been and will be the occasions of Discord out of the way on such Terms as are propos'd in His Majesties Declaration and as may please the King in Parliament to grant it Fourth For the same reason that His Lordship would rot have such Poenal Laws and Tests repealed as tend to secure the Resormed Religion and keep Roman Catholicks out of publick imployments which they have not done nor can do It follows where there are Laws and Tests which tend to keep many Persons out of publick imployments who are every other way qualified for it and if they could be admitted would by their Behaviour as well in their publick Stations as by their general Conversation not only secure but greatly promote the Reformed Religion that there should be a Repeal in part or such other qualifying those Laws and Tests as that such Persons may not for their Consciencious Non-conformity to such Circumstances of Religion as are thereby required be excluded from publick Stations and tho' their Highnesses Concessions be very large on behalf of such Persons yet this may extend to such Laws as his Lordship might not have in his Thoughts when he writ his Letter viz. one made in the Thirteenth and another in the Fourteenth Year of the Reign of His Late Majesty King CHARLES the Second the First for Regnlating of Corporations respecting Civil Offices the Second for Uniformity of publick Prayers Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies relating to the Clergy Masters and Fellows of Colleges and School-Masters By one of these Laws great Change of Hands was made in Civil Imployments throughout all the Cities and Corporations in England and by the other of them at least 1500 Ministers were deprived of their Benefices many of which were sam'd abroad by their Works and at home for their profound Learning and exemplary Piety And how much these Alterations and Deprivations have tended to the Security of the Reformed Religion and left any sort of men out of a capacity to hurt it such as have liv'd and been of age and sobriety of Mind to discern in what degree the Conversation of Multitudes have in Twenty five Years past varied from what they were Twenty five Years before are best able to give a true Relation Fifth Because of that doleful experience which this Island has had of the ill consequence of all sorts of Religious Laws and Tests with Temporal Penalties annext By which for these 50 years past at divers Seasons each different party of Protestants alternately as they have had power in their hands or countenance of Authority have impos'd upon such as differ'd from them in forms of publick Worship principally upon this point to thrust and keep each other out of places of Trust and publick Imployment which has visibly and sensibly done more hurt to the Reformed Religion than all the attempts of their Adversaries could otherwise have effected This manifestly calls upon them all to surcease from all such riged courses which none of them can now either in Conscience or Prudence defend and by a joynt concurrence to endeavour a removal of all such occasions of offence out of the way that it may not be in the power of any who wait for opportunities under colour of Law to set Protestants at variance amongst themselves that they may bite devour and be devoured by one another and let not any apprehension that such a course at this Season will let in Papist amongst them into Civil or Military imployments cause them to neglect the present opportunity for seeing the continuance of these Religious Laws and Tests with temporal Penalties annext neither does nor can keep them out it is certainly more safe if there were no natural equity or right in the case and much more since there is so to let them in under due cautions by a Stated Law than to tempt them to get all the power they can into their own hands by Arbitrary means because they cannot be secur'd by Law in the enjoyment of Civil Priviledges equally and in common with others Sixth Because of that necessity we are under of making one more experiment whether those of the Communion of the Church of England Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholicks cannot live peaceably together and maintain a good correspondence in places of publick trust and imployments notwithstanding their different Sentiments in Religion For his Majesty has actually mingled and placed together some of each sort in many Commissions for publick trusts and imployments And if it be so as my Lord Fagell asserts That plain Reason as well as Experience of all Ages Pag. 6. That Present as well as the Past shews That it will be impossible for Roman Catholicks and Protestants when they are mixed together in places of trust and publick imployments to live together peaceably or to maintain a good correspondence together they will be certainly alwaies jealous one of another for the principles and maximes of both Religions are so opposite to one another that in his opinion he does not see how it will be in the power of any Prince or King whatsoever to keep down those suspitions and animosities which will be apt to arise upon all occasions This certainly calls for such a necessary and timely provision to be made by a new Law for prevention of such Suspition and Animosities as cannot be expected from our present Religious poenal Laws and Tests In order thereto His Majesty by his gracious and prudent Conduct in the Exercise of His Prerogative has laid the Foundation And that it may be perpetuated doubts not of the concurrence of His Two Houses of Parliament to establish and confirm it by a Law And herein His Majesty proposes a Variation from the Laws and Customs of all such other States as my Lord Fagell mentioned who receive none into a share in the Government or to publick Imployments but those who profess the publick and established Religion It is not material to enquire how the experience of all Ages has manifested that to be impossible which no State would ever admit to be tryed but it is to our purpose to take notice That where any considerable Party of Men have been born hard upon by the Laws and Government in their Civil Rights for their Religions sake their uneasiness therein has inclined them to lay hold of any occasion to free themselves from such Pressures and as they apprehended it did arise from the Religious Principles of such as opprest them