A Modest CENSURE OF THE Immodest Letter TO A DISSENTER Upon occasion of His Majesty's late Gracious DECLARATION FOR Liberty of Conscience By T. N. a true Member of the Church of England Published with Allowance LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor 1687. A Modest Censure of the Immodest Letter to a Dissenter c. SIR THE Letter to a Dissenter by T.W. which you sent me the last Week I have perused and find it very spitefully endeavoring to persuade the Dissenters 1. To suspect the Kindness of His Majesties late Gracious Declaration And 2. To use their Interest against the Establishment of that Liberty by Law which he therein Graciously Indulges to all His Subjects The Letter it self is like a Pleasure-Boat richer in the Trimming than in the Lading The Language of it I confess is very smooth and Gentile but his Suggestions are too sowre and severe and his Style too sharp when it touches upon the Government nor could any Man speak so Evil of Dignities as he do's without Scandal even tho' it could be said with truth The Character T. W. gives of himself in the first Page is That he is a Protestant at large who will not let his thoughts for the Public be so ty'd or confin'd to any Subdivision of them as to stifle his Charity which is become so necessary at this time for their mutual Preservation and yet one would think by his Letter that his tender Conscience had catch'd the Cramp with his too much stretching and that he was insensible of what dropt from his Pen for after he had charg'd the King with the worst of Crimes One that would not only falsifie his Word with them at first but give them no Quarter at last and drawn his Picture like one of the Squint-ey'd Italian Pieces which present us with a Saint on the one side and a Monster on the other and the Church of England with haughtiness and the rigidness of her Prelates towards Dissenters and the Spirit of Persecution he would make us believe pag. 4. that no sharpness was in his Style nor any Gaul mingled with his Ink because Healing was the only thing he intended and that he would not expose any particular Men how strong soever the Temptation might be and how clear the Proofs to make it out whereas in truth for what appears to me by his Lower his Skill seems Chiefly to lie in a quick Hand for Lancing and Cutting and pag. 3. he is the worst at Healing of any Writer that ever pretended to it Never any State-Mountebank offer'd more improper Plaisters for Tender Consciences and should he ever set up his Protestant Bills I should rather send the Dissenters to his Friend Burnet or Ferguson than to him for a Cure of their Distempers neither of which ever Preach'd up more Vengeance against the Church of England pag. 5. than he has done at which he must forgive me if I am both surpris'd and provok'd and startled to have an Eye upon him for when a Man comes so quick from the one Extreme to the other in such an unnatural Motion he has taught me how much it concerns me to be upon my guard pag. 3. I can as little guess at the Author's Religion as at his Name he seems to me to be some degraded Courtier who having been outed of his Employment begins to Harangue upon what he has lost and to satisfie not his Reason but his Revenge resolves to plume his towring Fancy over the King 's and Churches Interest and doubts not but to make a Prey of both in the end if by his Seditious Methods he can hinder a good Correspodence between the King and his two Houses of Parliament when he shall think sit to call them or at least to make himself more considerable than now is he by being troublesom whatsoever he be I dare say he is no legitimate Son of the Church of England nor will she ever give him her Blessing till he beg the King's and her Pardon for the Disloyalty of this Letter Now tho' I am not at all accountable for the Dissenters whose Separation from the Church of England I have always lamented and condemned yet my just zeal for that Church makes me impatient to find one who pretends to be of her Communion by his sly Insinuations Libelling both the Government and Her too The Father's danger makes Craesus's dumb Son to speak and on what better occasion can I hitherto a silent Spectator begin to speak than for the Vindication of the Father of my Country and my dear Mother which will I hope Apologize for all my other Weaknesses whilst I represent to you how ill it becomes a Member of the Church of England to persuade any Subjects into an ill Opinion of their Prince and to represent Her as an Enemy to his Clemency to any of his Subjects of what Persuasions soever in Religion I begin with the First Design of this Letter which is to persuade the Dissenters into a suspicion of his Majesties Kindness This is the first thing he offers to their Consideration pag. 2. What reason they have to suspect their new Friends Now by the sequel of the Discourse it is manifest that by their new Friends he means those whom the Declaration represents for their Friends and that being the King's Declaration it 's the King and his Council whom he must needs mean by their New Friends and consequently it is the King's Expression of Kindness to them in his Declaration that he would have them to suspect But how ill such a Design becomes a Member of the Church of England is very apparent For she hath always taught her Children not only not to Resist but to Honor the King and consequently never allows them to speak evil of much less upon weak Surmises to charge him with the basest Disingenuity viz. a Design to cheat all that trust him At his Majesties first approach to the Throne we all unanimously concluded it our Duty to believe and trust to his Royal Promise and seem'd with a becoming Zeal to suspect the Loyalty of all such as distrusted in the least the sincerity thereof And what reason can we have to be weary of well doing There was a time when we thought any the least diffidence in the King 's repeated Promises to be the most disobliging thing in the World and such as would be resented accordingly we had then Courage and Conscience enough to stick to our Principles and shall we now be so easily frighted out of our Wits and Loyalty as some Neuter-passive-Royalists are whom we see driven from their old Principles as some silly Birds are from their Food by Men of Clouts an empty windy Noise or a sensless Scare-crow dress'd up by any Pamphleter who envies their Happiness O foolish Galatians you did run well at first who has hindred you of late from holding on in the same good old way of Duty to God and the King who has been
he has set to his Good Breeding and to throw away their present Advantages and to stay for the Liberty of the public Exercise of their Religion till the Parliament allow it them and to satisfie themselves with those imaginary Advantages of which they can hardly fail in the next probable Revolution if by an unseasonable Activity they lose not the Influence of their good Star which promises them every thing that is prosperous for that all things seem to conspire to their Ease and Satisfaction if by too much haste to anticipate their good Fortune they do not destroy it Such a prevailing Eloquence as this would speak him an Orator beyond compare and would give us cause to conclude by the Effect it had upon them that the Dissenters had not yet been so long restrain'd from their Liberty as to have any strong Appetite to enjoy it again but the Indians I believe may as soon catch Monkies with a Mousetrap as he can draw in the Dissenters with such a dull Device as this to destroy themselves by using their Interest against the Establishment of that Happiness by a Law which his Majesties Clemency hath already Indulg'd them For this purpose pag. 8. he insinuates the Irregularity of the Declaration in point of Law which whether it be so or no is certainly not so fit to be determin'd in a Pamphlet as in Westminster-Hall which already hath given its Opinion in favor of the Prerogative And after that it is methinks no small Presumption to Censure the King's Actions as irregularly done which proceed upon such special Verdict for their Legality As the King do's not need the Dissenters Thanks to justifie his Declaration in point of Law so neither do the Papists doubt of the Legality of his Power of Dispensing with them for his Time but they desire to have the Royal Favor made more lasting to them by a Law. Besides is it not very strange that Men should generally acknowledge the King a Right to Dispense with Penal Laws against Theft and Murder which are founded upon a Divine Sanction yet question his Right to Dispense with those against a Conventicle which can make no such Pretences Or that this should lay a Foundation for the breach of all Laws so saith this Writer pag. 9. and that should not Or that Dissenters should look like Council Retain'd against Magna Charta for thankfully receiving the Benefit of this and Felons never be so Censur'd for that But if as he presumes to affirm the Declaration be irregular it 's not a little difficult to comprehend how this becomes an Argument against Endeavoring to have the Liberty granted by it Confirm'd by a Law since the Invalidity of their present Grant should in all reason make them more sollicitous for such a Confirmation as may preserve the Liberty they are so desirous to enjoy His Arguments to me seem very weak against this mighty Power of Dispensing which needs not the Justification of a Parliament tho' the Penal Laws and Test want their Repeal which I hope they may have in good time without endangering or destroying our Religion or Properties But our Author thinks this a proper time to put the Prerogative in Pickle for some other Generation that can better digest it than the present and in pursuance of his Designs he makes the Laws spurn against their Maker which is not the way to secure our Religion but to make our Church the more odious by practising that which she professes to abhor She has taught her Sons to believe that no Power on Earth can give Licence for the doing of that which is Malum in se an Offence in its own nature and so declar'd by the Divine Law but that Malum prohibitum which in its own nature is indifferent and becomes an Offence only because some Law of the Land makes it so she thinks may be dispensed with according to the King's Discretion whom she allows to be the proper Judge of Public Necessity 'T is impossible for Human Law-makers who have no pretence to Infallibility or a perpetual Divine Assistance to foresee all particular Accidents Mischiefs and Inconveniences which may happen in particular Circumstances by or from the making of any particular Law And therefore there must be some Power always visible and in being to Suspend or Dispense with such Laws as the Public Good and Safety of the People or an emergent Necessity requires which is by Law in the King who is the Head of the Public Good and the Fountain of Justice and Mercy which Power is so united to his Royal Person that he cannot transfer give away or separate the same from himself as all the Judges of England resolv'd Lord Coke lib. 7. fol. 36. nor can he bar himself from that which is so inherent in him and inseparably annex'd to his Royal Person no not by an Act of Parliament for by so doing he would cease to be King Coke lib. 7. pag. 14. the most he can do is only to agree that he will not use that Right but in extraordinary Cases and Occasions when in his Princely Wisdom he shall find it necessary for the Public Good Nor is his reassuming to Exercise such a Right any Breach of his Promise or Oath at his Coronation but a making use of that Condition imply'd in his Agreement as to such particular Cases and such present Circumstances The King cannot Repeal and totally make void the Law by his own single Power without a Parliament but Relax Suspend and Control it for a time with respect to the Advantages or Necessities of his People he may which is a temporary Repeal or the laying the Law down to sleep for a time in a legal way which is a sufficient Discharge to them who are Commission'd under him and by his Authority to put them in Execution Our Author knows that the strict keeping of Lent is enforced by great Penalties in our Laws viz. 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 19. 6 Ed. 6. cap. 33. 5 Eliz. 5. and yet that the King was never question'd the Power of Dispensing with them all either by Judges Bishops or Parliament but his Power in these Points has had an universal Admittance with a Nemine contradicente and why then should it be arraign'd only in Dispensing with those Penal Laws relating to Religion against Conventicles or Recusants In his next Attempt he seems to imitate the last and desperate Shift of the King of Moab when he took his eldest Son that should have Reign'd in his stead and offer'd him a Burnt-offering upon the Wall to move the Israelites by that Instance of his Misery and Desperation to pity him 2 Kings 3.27 For to move the Dissenters Compassion he sacrifices the Reputation of his own Mother the Church of England confessing pag. 10. that she out of revenge for the rough usage she met with from the Dissenters in the time of their Reign upon the late King's Restauration made the Penal Laws against them
Displeasure Our Gracious Sovereign hath already done more for our Church than the most sanguine of her Sons ever look'd for which gives us reason to believe that he will never be sorry for doing what we desir'd Liberty of Conscience is more than pretended to be given by him and yet there is no Freedom or Property to be sacrific'd for it neither as far as yet appears or we believe is ever like to do The King intends not to unhinge the Establishment of the Church of England for that he can no more do than he can be unfaithful He only desires Safety and the Protection of the Laws for those of his own Communion and other Dissenters too which however peevish Men may be at the first motion will appear so reasonable upon second and more sedate Thoughts that however p. 17. the odds be Two hundred to one in the number of us and them yet there will be no such odds in the Votes for and against their Indulgence I am as loth as he is that we should throw away all Human Means of preserving our Religion p. 17. and I doubt not but that the Wisdom of the Nation may find Human Expedients to secure it to us without Infringing the natural Liberty of Subjects by severe Tests or tyrannizing over their Consciences by Penal Laws Sure I am a peevish provocation of a Prince whose Spirit and Power are equally great is no Human Means of its Preservation Our Author 's great fear is that the Thankers of the King will be Repealers of the Test in the next Parliament which would bring them under such a Scandal as would make them odious to all Mankind from which that he may the better deter them he tells them that by rescuing themselves from the severity of one Law they will necessarily give a blow to all the rest and that the Price of their Liberty will be no less than the giving up their Right in all the Laws which were a losing Bargain indeed to draw such a Mischief as this upon themselves But whether those Methods which he proposes to them will not more infallibly destroy them I hope the Dissenters and the Church of England men will consider well before they follow them It concerns us all to take heed that in acting for the preservation of our Religion we do not expose it to more imminent and apparent danger Tanti non est ut placeam Tibi perire Martial If nothing will gratifie our Author but what will displease and disserve the King let his Pretexts be never so specious he shall not intice us into a sinful Compliance we will follow the Golden Rule to do to others as we would have them do to us in like Circumstances Arma tenenti omnia dat qui justa negat Our obstinate and unseasonable stiffness hath made some Alterations already in Public Affairs and Administrations and may provoke his Majesty to do those things in his Displeasure which may be more prejudicial to our Religion than the Repealing of the Test can be the making whereof she abhorr'd and oppos'd as much as she could and cannot remember the Author or Occasion of it without Detestation And I hope the King 's Old Friends will not put the King to such shameful Shifts as to fly to his New for any Justice they can do him in this or any other kind If they should fail of their Duty in this kind their Mother Church will not bless them nor be displeas'd to see the Father of the Country correct such ill-nurtur'd Children as are too big for her Discipline I question not but that the next Parliament will do what the King and all good Subjects expect from them The King is assur'd of the Affections of his People in gross they have already Presented him with their Lives and Fortunes in their repeated weekly Addresses and therefore he will be sure to find it by their Loyal Representatives who will never sail to give him that Satisfaction in a Parliamentary way which they have already done in a Popular one for they would wrong us as well as him if they should not give him that Satisfaction in Formalities of Law which our Devotion hath already design'd and dedicated to him All true Sons of the Church of England rejoyce and are pleas'd in his Majesties Government and doubt not but a good Correspondence between him and his two next Houses of Parliament will put the Ballance of Europe into his Hands but if once a Spirit of Jealousie should be rais'd between him and us to fright us from the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws what Disadvantages may accrue to our Nation or our Religion I tremble to think We had need do something more than ordinary to atone for the innocent Blood that has been shed upon the Testimony of a few perjur'd Villains Thus Sir I have given you my Opinion of the Pamphlet you sent me which was certainly writ with a very ill Design against the King no good Intention for the Church of England whom it represents as it would persuade her to be obstinately engag'd not only against the Religion but against the Interest of her Prince too attempting to draw Men to suspect his Mercy for Treachery and inviting Dissenters to Combine against his Gracious Designs for the Ease of all his Subjects which I am persuaded the Church of England by her Compliances without obstinacy as far as without deserting her Religion she may will in the Event demonstrate to be black-mouth'd Calumnies FINIS
and lest they should imitate her Faults he cautions them against seeking to be reveng'd by attempting the Repeal of them Whether this Instance of his Desperation will be as successful as the King of Moab's and prevail with his Adversaries to quit their Advantage I know not but if it do they are certainly very good-natur'd Adversaries in both the Acceptations of the Phrase whether it denote the excess of their Kindness or the defect of their Understandings Some Men are so Spiderspirited as to suck Poyson out of the sweetest Flowers For my part I cannot think so ill of those Great Men who suffer'd with so much Christian Patience for their Loyalty as that they came from under the Rod breathing nothing but Revenge against their Persecutors It is a more just Account and suitable to the Character of their Piety and Loyalty that what they then did in Severity against the Dissenters was not from private Revenge but from the Necessities of the Kingly Government to which the Dissenters had been very pernicious and which they thought could not be safe at that time without the suppressing of them But if his Suggestion were true that the Penal Laws against Dissenters were made out of Revenge what Argument is this against their endeavoring the Repeal of them Unless it were Criminal to seek for a Release from the Injuries that Revenge hath laid upon them or a Sin to flee from the Avenger of Blood into the City of Refuge To Retaliate Injuries is a Crime but to seek for Protection and Ease from them is not And I see not but that the Dissenters if they be according to his Character of them pag. 10. Men of good Morality and Understanding may thus argue The Church of England after the late King's Restauration sacrific'd its Interest to Revenge in making the Penal Laws against us and therefore we may lawfully for our own Ease endeavor the Repeal of them and not lose the present Opportunity to rescue our selves out of her avenging Hand But to mend the matter he tells us pag. 10. that the Common Danger had now so laid open the Mistake that all former Haughtiness of the Church of England toward them is for ever extinguish'd and hath turn'd the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescention A fit Argument to infer this Conclusion Therefore the Dissenters ought not to endeavor their own Ease Whereas this seems the more natural Inference That therefore the Church of England will now joyn her Endeavors with them for the Repealing of those Laws the Enacting and Execution of which he imputes to a Spirit of Persecution But to do the Church of England right against these malicious Suggestions I am sure her Principles are against Persecution or any thing of Violence and Cruelty toward any for Religion And whatever may have been the Practices of some rigid and violent Persons of her Communion the most Wise Pious and Learned of them have still declar'd it unlawful to make any Sufferers for their Conscience unless where it interferes with the Peace and Safety of the State They would have no Man's invincible Persuasion in Religion be made High Treason as it was in Sir Tho. More 's and the Bishop of Rochester's Cases The Opinions in Religion that are inauspicious to the Government they think ought to be punish'd not because they are Errors in Religion but because they are Seditious and dangerous to the Government Now when they are and when they are not so as the change of Circumstances in the State may alter their Prospect on it the Government is more proper to judge than the Church and when that thinks its Safety not endanger'd by the toleration of them she is not for punishing them According to which Principle by the same Reason that she was for making the Penal Laws formerly she may now be for their Repeal because the Government thinks it self safe without them And this I think is almost the only thing wherein T. W. doth not Misrepresent her That now she is really for the Ease of Tender Consciences not as he brings in her Enemies suggesting p. 12. because she wants Power to Oppress but because the change of Circumstances in the Government makes the Opinions of Dissenters whether Protestant or Popish not so dangerous to the Peace of the State or the Authority of the Civil Powers as formerly they have been And this she may modestly conclude because the King and his Council have thought fit to Indulge them whose Interest obliges them to be most Impartial and whose Experience in State Affairs makes them most able to judge of such things The State was then in such real or imaginary Dangers as it is not now The Succession of the King to the Crown is not now in Dispute nor is Dominion believ'd to be founded in Grace if such Times should come again the old Severities might be soon reinforced Whilst we are in no danger of them let us put them into a Condition of Ease and Safety frankly that they may have no just Prejudice against us or our Religion and that the King who is intitled to the Service of every Subject of his of what Persuasion soever by the Law of Nature and the Common Law of the Land of which no Act or Parliament can or ought to bar him may make use of their Persons and Services according to his own Discretion Why should not his Catholic Subjects be equally capacitated to render him Service and be united with us in the same Bonds of Duty and Allegiance tho' they cannot accord with us in Matters of Religion Why should we shew so much Violence in those Points of Faith of which perhaps we can shew no certain Evidence The decrepit World in the twilight of its declining Age may be easily mistaken in the Colours of Good and Evil true or false Their Merits have been great of the Crown and their Sufferings more than Ours and why then should we repine to see the long deserv'd deferr'd Rewards of their Loyalty conferr'd upon them at last Let our onely Emulation be who shall serve him best Princes are not to be Catechis'd in bestowing their Honors or Offices nor could we think he had any true Zeal for his Religion if he should not countenance and preserve them at least caeteris paribus with others if not before them Suppose our repining should provoke him to turn the Tables upon us and to employ no Officers or Servants about him but Roman-Catholics whom could we reasonably blame but our selves Let the King unite them and us in one Camp and Court in God's Name and let there always be a Religious Correspondence between them and us in the Service of so great and so good a Master To dispute his Power in this Case were to deny him the choice of his Servants which we should think a Wrong to the meanest of us to be depriv'd of and also to rob him of the Militia of the
Nation to diminish his Regal Authority and to deprive him of the Services of a great part of his Subjects from which no Act of Parliament can restrain him because the Law of Nature gives it him As to the Men of Taunton and Tiverton who were formerly Stigmatiz'd for their Rebellion they are now the more eminent for returning to their Loyalty from which they made so notorious a Defection and should be embrac'd by us accordingly with great joy as returning Prodigals And some of the Quakers who were formerly known to be accomplish'd Men of good Parts and Breeding are with a Non obstante to their Religion taken into his Majesties Protection for which they give him Thanks with a Grace that very well becomes them which as new a thing as it is and as much as our Author is surpris'd at it is not a thing utterly incredible It is far from a Miracle to see so Gracious a Prince as King James the Second is to cherish and reward the Loyalty of his Subjects Hearts in spite of their Hats or their more shameful Mistakes in Matters of Religion The Princes Power is not limited to his morose Humor He can as oft as he is so dispos'd be Gracious to them who have been undutiful to him Reprieve and Pardon whom he has justly Condemn'd without acquainting him or the Confessor with the Reasons of so sudden effectual a Change he may alter his own Mind without altering the Nature of other Things If a Man repent of his Crimes and the King Pardon him and he amend his Life in order to obtain God's Pardon too our envious Author laments his entire Resignation and looks upon his Endeavors now he is Converted himself to strengthen his Brethren as an unwelcom Task and looks upon them as squeez'd out of him by the weight of his being so obnoxious by which he squints at a Person who has Honor and Courage enough to call him to an account for it if he knew where his humble Servant T.W. were to be found whom he believes to be better at his Pen than any other Weapon What he saith of the Church of Englands Provocations p. 12. may be subscrib'd to by all as an Instance of her excellent Temper if his Letter which is an Exception against it do not hinder if yet there be any reason to blame her for the Rashness and Indiscretion of one of her Members when the rest bare the Reproches of so many malicious Pamphlets without quarrelling eithere the Government or the Dissenters These Provocations like a Storm of Hail upon a strong House cause more Noise than Prejudice She is ready he saith pag. 13. rather to suffer than to receive all the Advantages that can be gain'd by a criminal Compliance And if she refuse only criminal Compliances I am persuaded she will never suffer under this merciful Prince who requires no Man to play the Hypocrite or act against his Conscience The Reflection pag. 13. savors much of T. W's Spirit who cannot forbear Libelling the Government for what ground hath he but his own Fancy to insinuate that the next Parliament will not be Elected freely but by Conge d'Eslire and the Men Return'd whom the King nominates whether Elected or no And that when Return'd they will not be allow'd the liberty to Debate freely in Parliament but oblig'd without Examination to do whatever they are desir'd For doth not he in his very next Paragraph contradict himself wherein he saith that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of the Declaration and therefore are so very earnest to get it Establish'd by Law. For they are not so blind but that they can see there will be no more Security in a Law made by a Parliament illegally chosen and under restraint in their Votes than in a bare Declaration and that the next Turn of Government would regard that less than this So that if it be their Interest to have a Parliament to secure their Liberty by Law it is equally their Interest to have one freely chosen and free in their Votes And what reason is there to suspect Men will act contrary to what they know to be their Interest Our Author knows who they were who were Return'd out of every Burrough by virtue of the Letters Missive from the Faction in the City and instead of Election were satisfi'd if they could get but a double Return when the Power of the Committees of Election was more significant and to worse Purposes than the King's Conge d'Eslire And whereas he farther suggests that our Methods of Enacting Laws in England will be reduc'd to those of Scotland and that the Papists shall be made Lords of the Articles over us and yet endeavors to wheadle the Dissenters into a fond Persuasion that the Parliament will offer them an Indulgence without including the Papists To give him a Cooler for his Conceit they have told him already that this Way of his will catch none but Woodcocks and that they can see and break thro' it at pleasure and so his Road is quite spoil'd And for our parts the Church of England has taught us to value the Merit of Obedience above the Liberty of Debate which such Men as he would turn into Licenciousness and Liberty of Aspersing if not Altering the Government What he insinuates pag. 15. of the danger lest if the King and those of his Communion be gratifi'd by the legal Establishment of their Liberty they will at the next Step attempt theirs that helped them and after the Dissenters squeaziness in starting at a Surplice force them to swallow Transubstantiation is another of those malicious Suggestions which have been sufficiently Answer'd at the beginning of this Discourse it looks like a Plot to pelt out the Protestant Religion with Sugar-plums so ridiculous is it and unreasonable The sum of all is that T.W. pretends to be an Ambassador from the Church of England to invite the Dissenters to joyn with her in a League against the Roman-Catholics promising every one Liberty when the Parliament meets except only the King and those of his Religion which makes me to question his Credentials and suspect him for a Cheat since all the genuine Sons of the Church of England have their Good Breeding better bounded than to be civil and obliging to all Men but their Prince He is like a Man in a Trance rapt into the Religious Cause of the Church of England none knows how he blames her Sons for going too far in compliance with the Romanists and yet complains that they are not only deserted but prosecuted but when and how he leaves us to guess nor do we know what Weight of Power it is they lie under to avoid the Burden of being Criminal which whilst he maliciously suggests he speaks like Council Retain'd by his old Friends the Republicans in Forty Eight against the Prerogative which has done nothing yet in this King's Reign or his Predecessor's to fall thus under his
his Clemency that with safety to our Temporal Interest we may be Ungrateful I have heard indeed that as many Bishops as were then in London did meet together upon the sense of their Duty to draw up an Address of Thanks to the King which having done they sent down Copies of it to some of their Brethren one of which and he as good a Casuist and as far from the Court as any of his Bench having seriously perus'd and consider'd it gave this Judgment of it That he highly approv'd it as prudently Penn'd and such an Acknowledgment of his Majesties Signal Favors to the Church of England and all her Members as their Gratitude and Duty indispensably oblig'd them to pay And he not only Subscrib'd it chearfully himself but us'd his best Diligence to procure Subscriptions of the Clergy to it in his Diocese and having receiv'd some nameless Letters like this of T. W. to dissuade him from Addreses and among the rest those call'd the Oxon. Reasons he answer'd them all to the satisfaction of all thinking Men who saw them and concluded That he saw nothing in them that look'd like a Reason against it only some groundless Fears and insignificant Jealousies and that if the Clergy at this time and in these Circumstances we now are should generall and obstinately deny in an humble Address to give his Majesty Thanks for so Gracious a Promise of preserving that ALTAR from being overthrown at which yet he did not worship he fear'd it would give him too much cause to say That he had little Reason to protect them who so peremptorily refus'd as the Motion of their own Bishop to Thank him for it And others wish'd that the niceness of particular Men where in truth no need was did not at last hazard the whole and so indeed it must have done had not his Majesty in imitation of HIM whom he Represents among us of his great and undeserv'd Mercy been Kind to the Vnthankful and according to his accustom'd Goodness spar'd the Church for the sake of the smaller visible number that were in it so great Grace may if they are not past cure heal their Infidelity and Revolt from their Duty especially when they are thus invited to believe and adhere to a Prince of whom we have had sufficient Experience that he will no more recede from his Promise than he would fly from his Enemy in the Day of Battel If the nature of Thanks be so unavoidable a Consequence of being pleas'd or oblig'd as our Author confesses and they will presently shew themselves in Looks Speeches Writing and Actions then they from whom Thanks do not naturally flow upon so just and great an Occasion are to be reckon'd among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unholy and unthankful Men whom the Apostle foretells us will arise in the latter days who not only will give no Thanks but have none to give If our Obligations were less and our Sense of the Religion of Gratitude as little as our Authors yet I wonder he should be offended at such an innocent and usual piece of Good Manners He would make us suspect him for one of the Members of Forty Eight who Voted no more Addresses to be made to the King for he is so mightily netled at these weekly Addresses of Loyal Men from all Parts of the Kingdom that he would make us believe if we consulted the Bills of Mortality we should find some numbers murder'd by them He tells us that the Priests who are not proper Secretaries for the Protestant Religion made the first Draughts of them A Scotchman would take the liberty to tell him that he were very good Company and an Englishman would wonder how he came to be so privy to this Secret unless he were at their Elbows when the Priests Indited them These extravagant Acknowledgments as he calls them extravagantly enough which he pretends all the Post-horses are tir'd with carrying Circular Letters to solicit give us a Copy of his Countenance And that where Persuasions cannot delude Threatnings are employ'd to fright Men into a Compliance but where or by whom he knows not And that the manner of getting them did extremely lessen their value And that the Thanks which fill'd the Gazetts were either Trifles or Snares which either signifi'd nothing or a great deal more than was intended by them who gave them By all which he proves himself a greater Master of his Pen than his Passions that his Wit is more than his Manners and that his Republican Zeal has like a Cormorant devour'd his Charity to his Fellow Subjects and his Loyalty to his Prince Do not his Objections to his Majesties Belief now hinder him from seeing his Vertues whilst he instigates others to discredit and disobey him One would think he himself who pretends to be a Son of the Church of England made but a Jest of the Doctrin of Non-resistance whilst he is so fearful of the Submission of his Fellow Subjects to the King 's so just and reasonable Expectation from them Is not our Peace at Home and our Prince's Reputation abroad of more value than to be hazarded for want of a Complement as he calls it If I did not think it a Task too hard for me to persuade a Man so bewitch'd with a turbulent Spirit as he is to grow more peaceable and thought he were not so far gone in his new Passion but that he would hear still I would not be discourag'd from dissuading him to relie on a Death-bed Repentance If he have not engag'd himself in the Ways of Faction in an Association beyond Retreat and be not hurry'd on by his first Heat I would request him to look back upon what he has written before it be too late and not sacrifice the true public Interest of the Nation to his private Revenge which will speak him a Man of good Morality and Understanding as well as a great Wit But I fear that as he has betray'd too much Weakness in entertaining and propagating these groundless Fears and Jealousies by which he speaks his Spleen and not his Conscience so he will shew too much Obstinacy to forsake and recant them being none of those who thinks himself oblig'd to obey for Conscience sake And now I leave T. W. to review his own Reasons and consider whether they be not too weak to acquit him from Uncharity and Disloyalty in charging his Sovereign with Treachery in the Declaration of his Mercy to Dissenters or which is much the same in persuading Dissenters to suspect him And the worst I wish him is that the sense of his Guilt may make him a true Penitent I proceed to the Second Part of his Design which is To excite the Dissenters to use their Interest against the Establishment of that Liberty by Law which his Majesties Clemency hath Indulged to them If he can persuade the Dissenters to throw the King's Declaration of Indulgence at his Head which is within the Bounds