which the practise of the Prerogative and the Laws of the Land did ever Allow I do not design to enter here upon the old distinction of Malum in se Prohibitum For that Evil which was prohibited when by reasons of State it comes to be dispens'd withall is no longer so but really good so it would be oppression in a Prince to demolish the dwellings of his Subjects but no one will say 't is so in a Siege when he burns down the Subburbs But this being not only to be defended by Reason but the Laws was repin'd at as * Arbitrary the King upbraided with Vid. Letter and Answer to the Test of Church of Englands Loyalty Vid. All Burnets Papers his Coronation Oath to keep all the Laws the Judges Libell'd and Satyris'd for their sense and opinions and with a Non Obstante posted up in an house of Office The rumour ran of nothing else but all the Laws to be lay'd aside though only some Penal ones were suspended and when they might as well have made their Satyr and Animadversion upon every Session at the Old Baily where the King was never deny'd the pardoning of a Felon or remitting a Fine tho' the one were for the highest misdemeanour and the other even for murder it self and sure to infer from an argument a fortiori if the Law will justifie the Kings Mercy to a Malefactor for the shedding of blood it will sure extend to forgive the forfeiture of an Office or Place and yet too by the leave of the mighty Dr. and his most malitious * Dr. Burnet's Reflections on Declaration for Liberty c. construction this shall not amount to the repeal of the Law and be but a bare suspension of the Penalty For as it appear'd in the late Case of Hales it was in the power of any man to Prosecute tho it was at last left in the King to Pardon And if the Dr. will make hast before the Parliament may make some Alteration he shall bring what information he pleases against any Papist for their forfeitures where he may shew his malice and do no mischief So that all his Scotch Droll about Cass and Null and Absolute Power apply'd to the Cases in England are nothing to the purpose But it was not Dr. B. alone that was thus bold we heard nothing about that time in private discourse but threatning of Publick impeachments that Parliaments had questioned Wolsey Bristol and others for advising such dispensations and that Judges had been with the old story of Tresilian hang'd for such resolutions Gentlemen it could not be the Dissenters now that were guilty of these sort of Observations unless they were angry at the Clemency and Mercy that reliev'd them But that we have no reason to make this a piece of Arbitrary Power consider but some Presidents of Prerogative and that in the former Reigns King Edw. 3d. repeal'd an Act of Parliament as impos'd by necessity and that by his Royal Prerogative the Parliament in Rich. 2d time by several Judicial Acts had proceeded against the Ld. Chancellor the Duke of Ireland and Arch Bishop of York to which the King had given his assent but assoon as he dissolv'd that Assembly all was dissolv'd too that had been done against them And that the Resolution of our Judges may not be lookt on as so Extrajudicial and Extravagant I 'le refer them to what was resolv'd by the Judges in the same Kings Reign I. That the Statute of Commission made in the last Parliament was Void because against the Prerogative and that the Advisers to it deserved Death II. That the King could cause the Parliament to proceed upon Articles by him limited before they meddled with any other III. That the Judgment against Pool in Parliament was Revocable by the King. So that it is no new thing for the Judges in the highest manner to assert the Prerogative and what ever Miracles were performed afterward by that Parliament of wonders that does not make it less the duty of those sages to assert the right of the Crown tho' some of them were afterward by the rebellious Barons and the designing Duke of Glocester brought to suffer for the service to their King and by the same People too that afterward depos'd their Prince I need no more then mention the Dispensation to the Justices against 37. of Hen. 6. and that common Case of the Sherifs dispensed with by the 2d of Hen. 7. or the Case of Coinage in his 11. when Hen. 8 rejected the Popes Supremicy in Ecclesiasticals 't is as well known he reserv'd it as Entirely to himself settl'd upon him so by Act of Parliament so that if the Pope ever had a Dispensing power with a non Obstante both Hen. 8 and Edw. 6. had it too and I think both of them made use of it with a witness * Vid. Heylin's Hist Reform as also Acts Monuments you 'l see what Waste what Work was made with Altars Images tho' such irreligious Violence was by the Council of Illiberis forbidden to be shewn even the Pagan Idols the Sanctuary it self was not safe against their Dispensations that were extended even to Sacriledge too and the Altar it self was offer'd up for a Burnt-Offering to some Orders of the Council-Board The management of Religious matters will ever depend on the Civil Magistrate and is a saying never the less certain or more false for being the sense too of Mr. Hobbs The power that these assum'd in Ecclesiasticals as some think too much as it was deriv'd to all their successors since so none of them have exercis'd it so little as to lose it by disuse but in all their Dispensations to Forreigners that came to settle to their Families when encreas'd and to several of their native subjects at home sufficiently manifested that this Power was in the Crown that it was often made use of and that it is very unlikely any Prince will be willing to part with it Who ever run the Royal Authority in Sacreds higher than the Church that disputes it now so much So that the Kings power is with them what they please when it only countenances their Establishment and just none at all when it will Favour any Other I must confess I cou'd never find but that Argument Law was ever Relatively Good or Ill according to the disposition of the Party that was to Gain or Lose by it and every man will ever be a Knave or a Fool to those that are not of his Opinion but yet certainly there must be somewhat of Intrinsick Equity and Eternal Reason however confounded according to the diversity of Partyes and partiality of the People and by such an Vnprejudic'd Judgment I dare venture to try not only the Power of Dispensing but of the very Repealing of the Laws I would ask these men whether Queen Elizabeth did not take as great a Liberty in * Vid. Heylin's Reformation
as modest as this man is in Questioning it there are as bold Asserters in Print that affirm with Confidence with dint of Satyr that these Royal Dispensations are so many Breaches of Oaths Irregular and Extrajudicial Proceedings The late Letter to a Dissenter that has rais'd such a Dust very slyly Laughs it out of doors as if it might be Extended to dispense with their Belief of the Church of Rome's Idolatry A very pretty Jest to spoil a Latinism and Play with his Soveraign that is Sacred as well as the Religion but he is in earnest too and tells them their acceptance of it has Retain'd them as Counsel for the Prerogative against Magna Charta and that Parliaments may Pay them for it The Tryal of the New Test with Dr. B's Tune another to the same are such severe Satyrs on the same Subject such as the Government never suffer'd I am sure in the most seditious Times so that I do these Gentlemen no Wrong if we may believe our Ears and our Eyes and Sense with such cannot be deny'd an infallible Judge when we lay at some of their doors the designs of animating the People with the Old Din of Arbitrary Power as the Indians do their Elephants with a red Cloath and bloody Colours The other old Out-cry that is set afoot is the popular Clamour about Parliament and must that too be taken up by those that made such a Noise to Cry it down But here these Gentlemen are more Pettish and Peevish and harder to be pleas'd than ever were the Fanaticks they for their implacable spirit Condemn'd They would have a Parliament they would have none so 't is impossible to gratify those that contradict themselves but wee 'l suppose them only some clashing contrarieties and so may be seemingly Reconcil'd They would have a Redressing Parliament and not a Parliament of Addressers and truly for that they now labour with all Artifice and Zeal as if they intended to make every County an Associated One but sure this way of working may put the Nation in a ferment and we can say with sad Experience it never yet procur'd the peoples Peace Wise men will consider tho' they are satisfy'd of the goodness of their Cause never to use bad means to bring it about And I wish we were all so wise and would do so too but such is the Seditious industry of some to Create those dangers truly out of nothing when there are none to Invade them that are really near And for this the Country shall be frighten'd with a Parliament of Courtiers and the Protestants in General that it may be made up of Roman-Catholicks both those the most Panick Fears and next to impossibilities the Court never yet afforded us Members enough to make up a full Committee and there are not Catholicks enough of great Estates in England to serve two in a County if Improbabilities won't be swallow'd danger it self like a black Pill must be Gilded to go down the better and work with the People and they must be told of his Majesties interposition that a Burgess must be made like a Bishop with a Congee d'eslire that he is resolv'd to have a * Vid. Letter and the Tryal of the Test Burnets Papers Parliament for his purpose and sure in desires that are reasonable why should he not and such an one certainly is the design of settling a quiet both of Body and Soul to all his Subjects We are told from all the late Libells that like Plague-Bills or those of the Pox are put into your hands that Returns must serve instead of an Election that the one will never be permitted to be Fair and the other must sure be Foul. But these foolish insinuations any one may see are on purpose to create Faction and Fears and tho' his Majesties desire are as Earnest as they are Reasonable for relieving the distresses of his Subjects and the giving ease and equal priviledg to all yet he aims at no other end than the bringing it about by Law Interest sure will never ly and 't is that obliges those that would have Laws Repeal'd that the Authority be Lawful that Repeals them and it would only afford another Parliament an Argument to Void and Disanul what ever was Done were the Constitution of the Body not qualify'd to do it But perhaps they may find that by Law too that of their own making his Majesty may meet with good Returns from most Corporations since they won't question sure the Power of Regulating which themselves have given by which many of them too not long since were glad to be brought into the House of Commons especially by better Law now since in all those new Charters there are express Provisoes for his Majesties changing any Part or altering the Whole But is this now such a new thing to have the mind of the Prince set upon compassing by the interest he has with the People any point of State that he judges convenient for the Welfare of Himself and Subjects Those that think so are but little acquainted with Books or History and not to revolve Old things have forgot transactions that are very New. I need not mind them that there is hardly an account of any Reign that does not afford us an Instance But tell them that they gave us one themselves and that in the very last With what Vigor the Succession was Invaded they can Boast to their own Honour it seems and others Shame and had not his Late Majesty Interpos'd with his utmost Power taking the Forfeiture of Franchises and Regulating Corporations they can Glory to some peoples Reproach that the Tide had never been Turn'd and will these men Tugg now against the same Stream they sail'd down in so merrily If their measures were so Fair then how come the same Practises so Foul now especially when by president and restrictions made more Warrantable too for as they did Well to Defend the Right of Succession so the same Successor with as many of their fellow Subjects think that Liberty of Conscience can be as well Defended But I can tell them of greater Liberties that have been taken by the Kings of England tho' nothing like it has been here attempted now and that is if I mistake not in this very Point of interposition to Returns and Elections Richard. the 2d called all the Justices and Sherifs to Nottingham says our History intimating that he was to call a Parliament and that they should use the matter so that no Knight or Burgess should be chosen but such as the King and Council should name 't is true their answer was peremptory they could not do it but he that reads the History will assoon the Reason The Lords were in Arms and a Rebellion in the Realm and tho' this were not Justifyable by Law it may serve to shew what great attempts have long since been made upon Liberty when it was resolv'd too in his Reign That
Parliamentum Pacificum OR THE Happy Union OF KING People IN AN Healing Parliament Heartily Wish't for and Humbly Recommended By a True Protestant and no Dissenter London Printed and are to be Sold by M. Turner At the Lamb in Holborn 1688. White-Hall February 15. 1687 / 8. Let this be Printed SUNDERLAND P. Parliamentum Pacificum c. THE design of this ensuing Discourse you will soon see is not only directed to the Plainer Sort for then it would supersede all sort of Explanation but may serve to satisfy some Persons of a finer Mould and who to be sure in the business of the State will make a better Figure I am sure the Good that it designs is so Vniversal that it onely Labours to make but One Interest of KING and People to prove that disagreeing Parliaments can never Procure the Kingdoms Peace that the reasonable Desires of the Prince though unreasonably represented are really consistent with the Service of the Country and that 't is possible for a Courtier or a Papist to make a good Patriot and for this purpose as we direct our Discourse to those that are to Choose our Senators so we shall as humbly submit it to the Consideration of such as are Chosen that both tender Scruples and learned Objections may be so far satisfi'd and reconcil'd as to consent and conspire in Unanimous Endeavours for the setling of a Nation an Healing Parliament and Universal Peace Tho' I do not here prefix a fine Frontispiece with as foolish an Explanation of it yet I think fit to let the Reader know that the Title Page will be best explain'd by those that follow it when I shall shew Him 1. That We once had a Parliament that was call'd the Healing One. 2. When I shall shew the Manner How it was made to be so 3. The Maxims and Methods that it Took 4. The wholesome Effects that follow'd from it's sober Consultations 5. The Ways that are taken now to hinder the having such another 6. The Means that may be us'd to prevent the Malice and Insinuations of such as would Obstruct it SECT I. That We had a Parliament call'd the Healing One. THe Parliament then that was call'd this Healing One and that by the best of Authorities the KING 's by the most merciful Monarch His Late Majesty that Prince of pious Memory giving in express terms of his own this Character at their dissolution That to all Posterity it should be Call'd the Blessed and the Healing Parliament This Parliament I say that had so good a Name and that from so good a KING tho' another is Fam'd for Working Wonders brought about I think the Best of Miracles the Restoration of their KING and in that the Succession of the Present and was the same that succeeded the Pack't Assembly which upon the admission of the Secluded Members dissolv'd it self on the seventeenth of March 1659. and with their expiring breath summon'd that which is the subject we insist on to succeed them on the Twenty fifth of April next ensuing That which had so glorious a Character of so great a KING and whose wholesome Constitutions for the Healing our Breaches and Curing our Divisions I would willingly recommend not only to the Nation for the next Great Example but in the Words of this Royal Character for a Pattern to all Posterity and such an One will only be able to pursue the gracious Designs of our Present Soveraign as well as merit the glorious Elogy of the Past settle such a Lasting Liberty and Peace as may not only secure it to his desiring Subjects for his own Life but in his own Words too to Posterity to make it a Magna Charta that those that come after may never be able to Alter it SECT II. The Manner How it was made to be so I Wish I had no such pertinent Proof for Application to tell the Church of England that has hitherto been fam'd not only for a Loyalty boasted of but approv'd that this Healing Parliament of those times was brought about not only against their Expectation but also against the very Provisions of two direct Tests to prevent it which seems to intimate that divine Providence in its designs for Vniversal Peace can never be baffl'd by Mens Politicks and that the Measures of humane Wisdom for their own preservation may be much the same with Ill Men as well as with those that are really Good and that the same sort of Oaths Abjurations which the Present Establish't Church has fram'd for it's support or as some say Insupportable Dominion were also contriv'd against the Meeting of this Parliament of Peace by those very Villains that had rais'd the Warr Ab Hoste doceri is a good Maxim in a Camp Martial but an ill Lesson to be Learnt by a Church even tho' She were Militant too I do not say but that good Men may take the same measures for maintaining their legal Power that have been us'd by the Bad for a bare support of Usurpation but then they ought to take great heed too especially in Cases of Conscience lest any force of Compulsion betray the Weakness of their Cause 'T is known then upon Record and may be Read in the Journals of the Commons that the Seditious Assembly of Forty One whom the Laws of the Land have declar'd to be so and that Treasonable too and sure then the Church so Signaliz'd for Loyalty will never look on their Proceedings as good Presidents 't is certain I say that those fram'd all the Tests and Oaths imaginable for the Excluding all the rest of the Nation from all Offices in the State and Government in the Church and well they might for well they knew had their Cause been better it would have born it self out against the Worst of Men but it being so bad they might fear to trust the Best of Subjects for this then they fram'd their Negative Oaths Engagements Covenant Solemn Oath Oath of Abjuration and in their dying Votes and expiring breath contriv'd these Tests against the Concord and Peace of the Parliament that was expected First J. A. B. do acknowledge and 〈◊〉 are that the War undertaken by both houses of Parliament against the forces rais'd by the King was just and lawful 2d That Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God. So here they had found out a Test too and that for Church and State and ordered that those who would not acknowledge this were never to be admitted into any Office of Trust * Vid. the words of 25 Car. 2. Civil or Military and made uncapable to be Elected to serve as members in the next Parliament that was suddenly to sit The Church-Royalists and Clergy then as the Narratives of those times tell us who had suffer'd so much in the service of their Sovereign when it was their turn to suffer by such a Test look't upon it as too severe a Tryal nay Preacht and Pray'd it down too as a
for crimes they cannot but commit are certainly the same to the sufferers in the Penalties and Pains they are to undergo whatever be the Lawfulness of the Authority that inflicts them 'T is as small advantage to a man that has all his goods confiscated for the Twenty pounds a Month to think he was ruin'd by an Act of Queen Elizabeth as if he had been plunder'd by an Army of Olivers and as little comfort for the poor Priest that must be Hang'd for his Habit to say he dyes Legally as if he had been Knockt on the Head for taking the Wall. Justice and Equity will be still the same whatever are the various Revolutions of a Politick State and founded upon Eternal Reason as some Maxims in the Schools upon the same Truth Thirdly They must be soon satisfy'd too and with as much Reverence to those Mighty Powers that no Power on Earth no Humane Constitution can make Statutes against the Decrees of Heaven or resist an Omnipotency that is Divine their Dictates they say are Spirit that influences the Will And will any man say Flesh and Blood shall oppose it Souls may be said to have a Property too that cannot be violated by the Sanctions of an Humane Assembly nor Persons made to suffer for obeying the Divine dictates of their Devoutest thought or following the Natural Principles of their Religious Education The one of which even a Moral Turk will tell you must not cannot be oppos'd and any honest Heathen in Philosophy teach us the difficulty to Proselyte * Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret Horat Nature or pervert it and that certainly in lesser concerns than the Salvation of a Soul. Dissenters represent their sufferings in all their addresses and Complaints as Tyrannical too they are sure the best Judges of their miseries that groan under them and there may be Tyranny too in the Laws tho the Legislators had a Lawful Power to make them but these very Laws too have been strain'd by * Ryots made and Routs of Meetings Construction and so they Sympathiz'd with those under Usurpation and suffer'd by none at all Lastly To close this Section with the similitude of the Circumstances of affairs to Crown all the KING himself then like his other self now his only and Lawful Successor intimated his designs against the opening of the first Session of that Free Parliament That he intended a freedom from all Penalties and suffering for Religion promis'd it to General Monk and in his Declarations represented his readiness to Consent to any Act of Parliament for the full granting that Indulgence Upon these Motives was that Miraculous Restoration facilitated upon these foundations was fixt that firm and what perhaps might have been a more lasting Peace too had not the powerful importunities of a prevailing Church interrupted the felicity to the disturbance of the State. Gentlemen the Case of the Church of England was once in Common with some Dissenters and no less hard than theirs is now they suffer'd you see together once from a prevailing Party and Liberty of Conscience was certainly then as dear to them as this Religion Establisht by Law and that from their own mouths if his Majesty may take their words for it was alway dearer to them than their lives It was as great a Crime to them then to have a Common Prayer as to a Dissenter now to make use of the Directory Her book of Liturgy was lookt on then as bad as that of the Mass and all her Canon and Rubrick no more to be receiv'd than a Calendar of Red Letters or the Rituals of Rome Alas What a mighty Metamorphosis the felicity of some peoples affairs can produce to the forgetting of their misfortunes all their fellow-sufferers and even the Sentiments of their own Souls The Dissenters desire to come just to the Circumstances they were in at the late KING's Restoration And why for Godsake must this Establisht Church turn truly Militant not only against all others but it self And like that of Ephesus Leave her first Love and as some say her first Faith too to forget that compassion she had for such Sufferers and her own sense and opinion that such sufferings were most severe What judgment can seriously be made by Sober Persons to what will impartial people impute this her hot Zeal against Dissenters that in the dawning of her Restitution was hardly Luke-warm Will it not give occasion to say that she must answer for her self like the Laodicean too Because says she I am rich now and increased with goods and have need of nothing And if it be so that the Dissenters were promis'd then an Exemption from Penalties for matters of meer Religion and the KING Parliament and Church thought it meet as matter of fact will make it appear then certainly all this cry will sound very harsh and unreasonable against this present Prince that has greater reasons for it when he only performs the promises of his Pious Predecessor gratifies the desires of his Restoring Parliament and answers the very first Petitions of his People SECT III. The Maxims and Methods that it took ANd now by the Division of this Discourse we are come to the Third Point The Maxims and Methods that were taken by this Healing Parliament It met upon the Twenty Fifth of April and who knows but about that time our next may meet and may that Epoche of their Commencement prove as great an Omen of their good Agreement it found the Kingdom most unhappily confus'd with Diversities of Opinions in the ways of worshipping their God it found the severe Laws of Q. Eliz. KING James and Car. 1. very ineffectual for the suppressing of what was call'd Schism and Dissention For this reason they took care in the first place in their Act for Confirming of Ministers That none should be Ejected for their past Non-conformity from 42 to 60 unless such as had in the time of Usurpation Ejected others This was agreeable to what the KING had first propos'd to them both before privately and afterward at the publick opening of the Parliament for this the Lord Chancellor in their first Adjournment was order'd to tell them from the KING in these Terms That no sort of Piety and Godliness should be turn'd into Vid. Lord Chancellors Speech on that Occasion terms of slander and reproach or distinguish between the Court the City or the Country He was order'd further to tell them That by that favourable Act for confirming of Ministers his Majesty was sensible he had gratify'd many worthy and Pious Men and such as should alway receive fresh evidence of his Majesties favor and Kindness In that Parliament he had this Direction to tell them Of the sad consideration that the differences in Religion should be the ground of Animosities Malice and Revenge Passions which the Divine Nature exceedingly abhor'd That the Bloody Wars proceeded from those Contentions And that however descanted on by men that
have a mind to be Seditious is just the same what His present Majesty was pleas'd to signify to be His Sense too in his late Declaration for Indulgence The Ld. Chancellor further declar'd That the marks of a true Church were Charity to one another He tells them That this Disquisition had Cost his Majesty many a Sigh many a Sad Hour That he had taken pains to Compose them with Learned and Pious men of different Perswasions which they should shortly see by a Declaration he would Publish on that occasion by which they should see his great Indulgence to those who can have a Protection from their Conscience to differ from their brethren Exhorting them all to be but pleas'd themselves and perswade others to be so Thus ended that Session and was Adjourn'd to the Sixth of November following Hitherto you see there was no Penal Statutes made no Force to be put upon Peoples Conscience and the Protestant Religion still to be safe without making of Dissenters suffer Pursuant to these Gracious Sentiments of the Prince and prudent Resolutions of the Parliament The KING before their Meeting again Publish't a Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs full of gracious Concessions to Reconcile all different Opinions in Religion And such was the Peaceable Result of that Royal Indulgence for it was really no other that all Subjects seem'd to be satisfy'd all Differences reconcil'd and the Parliament it self afterward giving the KING publick Thanks for his Pious Inclination to Peace and Concord To pursue it further The Lord Chancellor had Liberty to offer Bishopricks and Deanaries to those that Labour'd for this Reconciliation some accepted others refused a Commission was issued out for an Agreement upon some Alterations in the Liturgy as were requisite to satisfy some Tender Consciences And the Ministers met upon it afterward at Sion Colledge and wou'd have agreed on a Model of Episcopacy Here was an Agreement between KING Parliament and People but it was too great an Happiness to last long those that had more cruel Inclinations and aspir'd to be so far powerful as to punish for Non-conformity foresaw that this Parliament would never put them in a Capacity to do it and so prevail'd that on the Twenty Ninth of December following was Dissolv'd this Reconciling Parliament though with the foremention'd Elogys of that Famous PRINCE who as he was beyond all Character best understood how to give One which he did here to this Effect That it should be Call'd to all Posterity The Blessed and the Healing Parliament So also he broke out into this more Exalted Encomium and Emphatical Interrogatory That it should be a Rule to his Actions and Councils to Consider what is such a Parliament like to think of this Council of Mine or this Action And in this Opinion of his Parliament though nothing can add more to it's Fame after such a Panegyrick from it's PRINCE was he seconded by all Historians that Describe it who tell us Never did KING and Parliament better Agree never was a Parliament begun with greater Expectation and onely Ended with less satisfaction in lasting no longer Others call it the Happy Parliament that assur'd the Foundations rais'd the Structure of our Antient English Monarchy And Mr. Cowley the sweetest of our Bards sufficiently sings it's Praises in his Ode on the Restoration But it happen'd here as it always does where the Countenance and Power of the PRINCE makes the Clergy Plenipotentiaries when they began to find their Strength they assoon began to use it and the moderate Men being baffl'd in their Elections and the more Inconsiderate sacrificing their Interest to their Ambition which upon Consideration now they call Revenge settled their Liturgy A Parliament was Assembled in 62. Confirm'd an Absolute Act of Vniformity the KING's Promises Declarations Commissions all Dy or had no Life and about 2000 of Conscientious Ministers most Unconscionably silenc'd for their Opposition * Vid. Letter to Dissent The Gentlemen Confess their Errour and so we need not prove it SECT IV. The wholesome Effects that follow'd it's Sober Consultations IF any one should Ask us now to the Fourth Point What were the good Effects that follow from this Assemblies sober Debates and Consultations Why The Answer is easy and short Peace a National and Universal Peace a Peace in Church a Peace in State so Calm and Serene even to the satisfying of a Conscience and a Soul as if the Spirit of GOD had moved again upon the Face of the Waters after a confus'd Deluge and a Sea of Blood as if the holy Dove it self had brought the Peaceful Branch to our Isle as from the Deluge to an Ark The Good Effects of it cannot better be guest than from the Bad Ones that followed it's being Dissolv'd and that they were no greater can only be imputed to the suddenness of it's Dissolution which was only worthy to have been Endless and what both it 's Preceding and following one were truly Perpetual and Long. And to confirm with the most forcible Argument from matter of Fact the good Effects that follow'd it there was nothing of a Plot heard of all the the Time of it's Sitting and what could be the Reason of such a General Calmness and Serenity certainly nothing else but the Liberty every one enjoy'd to Worship his GOD in his own Way and what was generally expected should have been settled by Law and which had certainly been done too had they sate longer and 't is shrewdly to be suspected that the Interest some People had who affected power and fear'd to lose the Liberty which they better lik't to punish other Religions by the Laws of their Church hinder'd Toleration from being made an Act of the State. And what follow'd pray presently upon it's Dissolution but the Insurrection of Venner and his Fifth Monarchy-men fighting for JESVS CHRIST for fear now of what follow'd that their Reign was like to be but short When the Oaths of Supremacy began to be tender'd to all and the Test of Abjuration that some thought a Temptation to a seeming Perjury was indiscriminately put a thing that Pryn himself that had writ For the KING 's Comming in tho' against all things before could oppose as contrary to Magna Charta when Encroachments in Ecclesiasticals began to creep on were there not then too Designs and Conspiracies set afoot and Barebone Salmon Wildman Ireton and Others seiz'd and Committed to safe Custody When that dreadful St. Bartholomew as they call'd it began to dawn upon the Dissenters by which day they were oblig'd to read Divine Service according to the Act of Uniformity wear the Vestments of the Church or forsake their Pulpits after all their Endeavours to prevail with a Parliament were in vain and their Application to KING and Council as Fruitless when the Bishops were ready and had provided men for to fill the places of such as would not take the Test and near two Thousand were turn'd out upon it the
Conformists reserving too much the bitter Tast of their rough Vsage notwithstanding the General Amnesty so much prest by the KING one would think might have been most Religiously observ'd by Prelates Did not then first Fears and Jealousies begin to Invade the State and even make the Government it self afraid So Conscious is Oppression of Consequences that are Fatal that power it self can distrust it 's own Weakness and for this reason presently upon it being sensible of the provocations given in Matters of Religion Walls were order'd to be pulled down several Cities and Towns to be dismantl'd at the same time that the severities of the Laws were to be put in Execution and what ensu'd but the suspected Plot of Danvers Ludlow c. for which Phillips Toung Gibbs and Others were Executed Upon the Neck of that broke out another in the North and while they were Labouring by Rigor to suppress the Divisions in the Church what did they Raise but open Rebellions in the State Several of the Conspirators were Taken and a Commission sent to York to Try them fifteen were found Guilty the Chief of them one Capt. Oates some were Executed at York some at Leeds some in Adjacent Places and so universal was the Discontent upon this encroachment of the Liberty of Worship that the same Conspiracy had spread it self to London and was first to have broke forth in Ireland In the Sickness time when the KING left London and went to Oxford which though not Visited the Dissenters say they found there their Plague too the Five-Mile Act to prevent as they call'd it the spreading their Infection whereby indeed they were Banish't Corporations and Towns as if they were Tainted with the Malignancy that Reign'd and onely fit for a Pest-house and that too with another Test to the purpose why What ensu'd presently upon it Before the Pestilence was hardly ceas'd and the KING well return'd to London but another Discovery for the Alteration of the Government of which Conspiracy one Alexander was the Chief the City to be Fir'd on the Third of September the same time that it was indeed Vid. Gazet. and for which the Romanists were so unreasonably Reproach't for which several were Try'd at the Old-Baily and Executed at Tyburn The first Commotion that began in Scotland was also upon the same Account when the Ryot that was made upon one of their Justices as was Confest by both sides was only for too rigorously Executing the Laws against them in matters of Religion which Ryot tho' rais'd by a small Number of Inconsiderable Sufferers yet soon ran up so high as an Army and which was Marching with all hast to Edenburgh And the last Rebellion at Bothwell-Bridge tho' begun by some desperate Villains to defend themselves from the Justice they had deservd for the Murdering of the Archbishop had never come to that height had not the Covenanters thinking themselves Opprest by the Penal Laws clos'd in with them and increas'd their Army to such a Number as to make them formidable And Lastly I much doubt whether ever Monmouth himself would have made so much work in the West had not the Severities of the Laws then Zealously set afoot sent him many a Souldier into the field that did not dare to stay a home for fear of fine and confiscation and had his Majesty assoon as he Ascended his Throne been Permitted by the Reasons of State or not oppos'd by the importunities of some people to have declar'd his Resolutions of Indulgence perhaps it might have sav'd a great deal of Protestant Blood and Dissenters never have fought for that Liberty of Conscience which it seems to them too was Dearer then their Lives God forbid That ever Rebellion should be really Justify'd by Religious Pretences but since Matter of Fact makes it Plain that they are so of Pretended as is manifest here from the Disturbance that was given to the State constantly upon every Usurpation and Penalty Tryal and Test that was put upon Peoples Souls as is apparent from the foregoing Particulars can any man in his wits not close with a Provident PRINCE to remove the very Pretences too of it To quarrel at such a Prudential Act is to tell His Majesty they are never Easy but when Hee 's Embroyl'd never Secure but when there 's an Insurrection against their KING These sort of Men are more dangerous in their Sentiments than some Country Ideots in their Suppositions some of them wont believe Monmouth to be Dead and these by their own Maxims must wish him Alive 'T is as Certain as Truth it self if Fact can make a thing appear True that Sufferers for Religion and perhaps we may except no Perswasions will endeavour to lay hold on any Alteration of State to Rescue themselves from the severity of such Oppressions 't is as natural as to sinking Men to catch at a Plank And I could prove this from History for above this Hundred and Fifty Years from our Hen. th' Eighth to those instances I make use of in the last Reign To this Provocation do the Hollanders owe their Revolt their Being and their Common-wealth To this do the Hugonots of France Ascribe their Entry into the League and what that Cost that Kingdom let Ours Judge To this do discontented Courtiers and desperate Villains owe all that which to a Government makes them Formidable for such Creatures as could never Hope upon their own Interest to Muster an hundred Men where a general Indulgence is Establish't shall under a Pressure of Conscience raise you a Million and with this Advantage too that the Cause whatever are the Fellows that engage in it will still carry the better Face and Quallify Villains of no Religion to Head those that really Fight for it and to tell you that they are The Armies of the Living GOD the GOD of HOSTS and that they Fight the Battles of the LORD So certain it is that those who are not permitted to assemble in their own Church will alwayes be Restless and Uneasy in the State Passive Obedience in such Cases we see sooner Preach't than Practis'd and such as are deny'd in their own Way to Worship their GOD will assoon be deficient in their Duty to their KING and may the Fear of it never make some sort Vnautiful that Profess they 'l never be Provok't tho' by Suffering for it So much was it the sense of His Late Majesty as partly appears before that in pursuance of his Promises at Breda and his Intimations to his First Parliament that was so Healing To which he prest a Liberty of Conscience that he also in his Declaration of December Sixty Two makes a Confirmation of it and says That he was Firm in his Resolutions of Performing it to the Full And this even against the Sense of his New Parliament that was more for Penalty and Persecution Of this he Exprest his Sense in his Parliament July 16th Sixty Nine And then in spite of
them March 25th Seventy Two made good his Promises to All by a General Indulgence and a Protection of the Church of England SECT V. The Wayes that are Taken Now to Hinder the Having such Another HAving Discours't of the Past we come home now to our Selves and the Present Time and to Consider the Fifth Point The Wayes that are Taken now to Hinder the having such Another Healing Parliament And truly they are not much Honester Attempts than were us'd to prevent the Meeting of the First and that is the Old Antiquated pretence of Jealousies and Fears only there is another Knave turn'd Trumps now tho' 't is the same thing to the Government whether 't is trick't upon by that of Clubs or Diamonds 'T is strange That those that made so lately the Folly of other Mens Fears so Ridiculous should make themselves now to those very Men the most fearful Fools That those who still asserted the Assurance and Security of their Religion from the Promise of their KING should now without the least Breach of it give him the Ly and tell him to his Face You are worse than your * Vid. Letter Word That those who ran up the Prerogative to the Height of it's Power should dispute now the Power of their KING 's Dispensing What is this but a Confessing to their Foes whom they still followed with Fine and Confiscation that their Divines were Dunces their Books were Libels and the Fam'd Filmer the greatest Fool It is a saying so common and so natural that the most ignorant both know it and make use of it too To Look before they Leap and would any Considerate Men make use of the same Arguments and take the same Measures for which they have so much Exposed and Reproached others But it fares with them here in their Civil Matters as the Late KING's Papers almost unanswerably observe of their Concerns in Ecclesiasticals That part of the Nation which looks most like a Church cannot bring Her Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turn'd against Her self But only here they make the Inversion much worse Here She takes the Old Arguments of Dissenters on Her Side only to make Her Own fly in Her Face so that an Honest and Unbyast Asserter of the Government has nothing else to do to Answer the Clamors of the Present time but to Declaim against the Cavils of the Past and both those are Reducible to these Three Celebrated and Contested Points I. Arbitrary Power II. Freedome of Parliaments III. Protestant Religion For the First and for them all in their Order though the present KING's Promises are as Currant with them as his Fathers Coin and both bear the same Image and Superscription Though the Leges Angl ' libertas Parliament Religio Protestant have been the continual Subject of all this KING 's gracious Declarations and particularly in that of His Indulgence when to put it in his * Vid. this King 's Two Proclamations to Scotland his Declaration of Indulgence here Own Words Property Liberty and the Protestant Religion are all assur'd to them on the Word of a KING Yet still the Matter by some or other must be still so manag'd as to make the People to distrust and doubt of all Such is the hard Fate of PRINCES as if a Crown could not be contriv'd to sit soft on a Royal Head as if destin'd to be a Burthen by Decree both Extreams shall conspire to make it uneasy Monarchs for the most part are Endanger'd for their not believing any Danger to be near 'T is hard they should suffer by not being Believ'd too when they tell their Subject there is None Mark but the Goodness of your PRINCE and then see whether he deserves to be treated so Ill. A numerous part of his People being uneasy as certainly those must be that suffer for Conscience sake and when the Iron Enter their very Souls had made the Government a long time so too To silence their Clamours and Complaints the King would take away the occasion of their Calamities the severities of the Laws and that raises now as mighty murmurings among those that were only for surpressing of Malecontents before as if his Throne were more dreadful when he makes it even the Mercy-seat How shall the most gracious Prince please such a divided People where discontent only shifts Parties and Loyalty seems no longer entail'd love at least and affection then as the King continues his favour or it seems only now so long as he confines it to themselves alone sure gratitude and friendship must not be limited like Marriage Vows or those of Devotion to one Object neither is a King to be considerd in his politick capacity like a natural body Whose Love is then the most Generous when 't is most extensive and his power best absolute when he Reigns in the Hearts of all to make himself this Vniversal Monarch seems only the design of his present Majesty and to make him more Fear'd than Lov'd are the devices of some Ureasonable men But the result of these Inconsistencies with themselves they will say does arise and is occasion'd by some deeper insight of theirs into the designs of State and our plausible Varnish may serve to set it off but will never hinder them from seeing through it 't is strang that these politick Spectacles should be so suddenly put on this must make the Dissenters value their opticks proud of a better foresight and more acurate intuition and tell the Church-men we told you of this and then where were your eyes but could the Dissenters have foreseen too his Majesties merciful Inclination Popery and Slavery might never have been their Monimental Motto or themselves seduc'd to follow some more desperate Malecontents to their death and destruction was it Sedition in them to doubt was it Treason almost to think and is it a Loyal Act now to declare in writing the danger of the Protestant Religion and that at a time when the free Exercise of it is permitted to All certainly such unwonted Surmises from Persons that have declar'd their abhorrence of them as Seditious are as surprising as the new Friendship 's and shew that the Tide is turn'd the Wind tackt about against their Interests and what can Dissenters say but that they see through all this and as they told the Dissenters that the Liberty they labour'd for was only a License to do what they List so their Popery that is now coming in is nothing else but their Persecuting Power that 's going out What will they not say when they see those that exalted the seising of Franchises as an undoubted Prerogative Printed and Publisht the forfeiture of all Charters Priveledges and Immunities and that before they were granted with such Restrictions and Reservations as more impower his Majesty than when these People made them all thus dependant on the Crown 'T is strange that even those should murmur at his Majesties power of Dispensing
the King could cause the Parliament to proceed upon Articles by him Limited I think this might have spoil'd the Letter-Makers Jest upon the Elections of Congee d'eslire when it would have chang'd his Liberty of Debate too into a Merit of Obedience and yet these were the resolutions long since of Judges and Lawyers But this I know they 'l say was only offer'd at by an Arbitrary King. I am sure an unfortunate one and whom his Subjects us'd as ungratefully But then wee 'l turn the Tables and tell them of a Popular one whom they Complimented into the Throne and that is his immediate Successor in the 6 of Hen. 4. he call'd a Parliament at Coventry and some say in his process to the Sherifs and Writ of Summons my Ld. Coke will only allow to be in his Letters he Commands that no Lawyer shall be return'd a Knight or Burgess And so by his Royall Authority it succeeded too T is true in the next Year and the next Parliament they Petition'd for the Liberty of freer Elections and had it granted them however this still proves that such Royal Interpositions are not altogether new and that in former Reigns the Prerogative ran higher in this point So much for the second Section of the same old Clamors rais'd and reviv'd and that the Third may be the same too some Churchmen have taken too much Pains and I wish I could say to little purpose No sooner was the Prince by Providence placed in his Throne and whom their Sermons of Nonresistance they say solely set upon it tho' his fortunate Arms in the West did somewhat secure it too but some of the very same men manag'd the matter so as if The Protestant Princes of Germany provided against such reflections on the Emperors Religion at the Dyet at Ratisbone they had a mind to Preach him out again Arbitrary power Popery Protestant Religion was more the Theam of the Pulpit than before it had been of the Fanaticks Papers and Pamphlets and that at the same time that his Majesty had commanded the Priests of his own perswasion to meddle with nothing that was controversial * and which was as Religiously observ'd by them too This was a Great indecency at least if not a little disobedience especially when after the Kings injunctions had satisfy'd them He lookt upon it as tending to Sedition Controversies never yet edify'd much out of a Pulpit and it may be well wisht there were less of it in the Press What party was the first aggressor will not so soon be found tho' that which first desists may be found the Wisest Arguments may now be better worded * Some say the Protestant Side began first in their Sermons Vid. Preface to the further Desence of the Bishop of Condom as all Arts are by length of time improv'd but the best of our Virtuosâ—es in Divinity have with all their late Experiments hardly made any new Discoveries and little has been said after they have labour'd so much on both sides but what has been brought on the Stage before People enter only the List now to shew their Courage and make a Spectacle and like Gladiaters seem to draw by consent and assign the Places of their Combate and sure never was that sacred Science so truly Polemical whereas after all the Mysteries of Religion must either be left to God that gave it to the Church that he has Establisht or to every Individual Breast If to the first we must leave off all disputes and leave the Issue to God and the Last day if to a Church then without doubt to a Universal and Catholick one to which if we submit to be guided by we must think it Infallible whatever it be for sure 't is best to trust most our Salvation where there is the least Error and madness to swear Absolutely to the truth of a thing that may possibly be false And if the Bible and the Books of Scripture as well Interpreted must be the guide who shall be Judg of its being done so well and I cannot see how a National Church or Establisht one that will not pretend to this infallibility can command with Punishment Pains Death and Anathema to believe as she does interpret unless we acknowleg'd that Church to be always in the right that has the Power for if she punishes People for not believing her to Interpret well it will be hard for her to avoid an impossibility of interpreting amiss that will amount almost to somewhat of a Judg that cannot Err so that unavoidably we fall into the last part of the Dilemma of letting every one adhere to the Expositions and Principles of that particular Church which agree best with his Reason and are most satisfactory to his Soul. I confess these Considerations weigh'd with me so much as to think an Establish't Toleration unavoidable both from the Circumstances of the State and the Doctrine of the Church for as Infallibility is hard to be believ'd so sure 't is more hard to think a Church can force you to Believe Her that does not pretend to it and if an Alliance between that and Liberty be such a Contradiction what an Absurdity must Persecution be from those that will not presume to be Infallible and that an Absolute or Implicit Subscription to all her Articles has been alway requir'd I need not prove since Dissenters 't is certain have often Offer'd Conditional Ones and were not so much as suffer'd this modest Interposition of subscribing to her Laws * So Adjudg'd 33 34. of Eliz. were Rejected on the same Account in the 13 14. Car. 2. as far as they were agreeable with those of GOD and the Land which I wish may not lay too much of the Schism at their door that think it only to be supprest with Severities and Executions but while we muster up these Arguments about Religion we raise but the Legion of Spirits we would lay and is only so far from an Impertinence and Digression as it terminates to prove the necessity of a Tolleration and the design of the Discourse I do no Injury to them or the Truth when I tell them thus That the Din of Protestant Religion has founded too much of late the alarum from the Pulpits as if the Watch-man had been plac't upon the Top of the Tower and seen the whole Host of the Assyrians to come up and besiege the * A City that was of Old At unity with it self City of Jerusalem Martyrdom Persecution Sufferings have been the Subject of some Sermons not as Passive Exhortations but rather to create dreadful Apprehensions which can't be so well Justify'd by such as are fond for the retaining the Power of Forcing and were it not so intended the Preachers up of such Suggestions would see themselves impertinent when they take their Texts from all the miseries of the afflicted as if they were already in Torment when they make the Church of England another
them that they do whatever they do or say to the contrary nay tho' some have disallow'd even that and will no practise to the contrary please them does not the King of Spain the most Catholick King alive live as free from Rebellions I am asham'd to say more then the King of England is not the King of France as absolute as our own at Home as ready to quarrel with Rome upon the least diminution of his Right and to come homer to our selves have not our own Laws justl'd out this Jealousy with the Popes Pretentions in several †Vid. Stat. of Carlile of Provisoes c. Statutes under our Catholick Kings But besides their Principles as to their particular Practise and Behaviour have they not given England Proof enough they can live in it like good Subjects and if we put the Test of their Loyalty against That made to prevent Dangers from Popish Recusants I am afraid it will spoil all the Praeamble Gentlemen Matter of Fact confirms it and 't is in vain to dispute They Fought with You for CHARLES the FIRST in the Field and They alone Preserv'd the SECOND in the Royal Oak forsook their Fortune at Home and follow'd Him in his Exile Abroad The Best of Protestants could do no more tho' some might fare better that did not so much and their being among the Rebels is but a Libel of * This their Celebrated Dr. has made K. James 1. to curse his Posterity K. Charles 1. to betray his Friends Char. 2d to deceive his People James 2d to Oppress his Subjects as if He had laboured to ly under the Glorious Infamy of Libelling four Kings in one piece of Paper as if his Quarrel were too meanly commenc'd if it did not terminate in the lasting Reproach of our whole Scottish Line and he had better Authority to do it because himself a Scot and his Soveraign Lords were all at last to Suffer because his Master by him was at first Betray'd Vid. Paper page 12 36 23. 1. Burnet's both on the †How can this Establisht Church if it has any Veneration to the Dust of their Late Protestant Prince Deceas'd applaud approve of the Writings of such an Injurious Impostor that would have his Name Buried too and that tells them The greatest Kindness that can he done to His Memory is to Forget Him. page 23. KING's Declaration and them which is sufficiently Baffl'd by the well-known Story of Coll. Ashton who when refus'd by his KING was Courted into Commission by the Parliament which assoon as Receiv'd he Laid himself and That at His Majesties Feet This is as certain as that some Protestant Subjects were in Rebellion which if such a thing must Reflect on a Church I am afraid that will very much suffer and to say the National and Establish't Church did disown all such Proceedings will not much mend the Matter when so many of her Members were so mainly concern'd for tho' the Sectaries at last prevail'd for the subverting of the State the Commons of Forty-One that Commenc'd the Quarrel were generally Church-men and 't is not impossible for such to be Zealous and Discontented too neither is the Communion bound to answer for the faults of those members she Condemns the Lord Lieutenants that this Parliament chose were for the most part Conforming men and Essex's Army had many such Officers too some can tell us this for a truth that liv'd then and their Catalogue for the Militia makes it no ly 'T is too much to remember and too soon to forget that most of the Excluding Members were of that Communion as well as all the most Eminent Conspirators in the last Plot and Rebellion and even her Passive Obedience was Burlesque by one that publickly profest himself her son I speak it not for a disparagement to the Church that was then beyond dispute both in Principal and Practise faithful to the Crown but to satisfy such men that it is both imprudent and irrational for them to fling out such arguments as will fly in their face and as unjust to censure a whole Perswasion only for the fault of some of it's Professors for King-killing and deposing to condemn a Catholick Communion and from the writings of a Jesuit to upbraid the Church of Rome and that in Terms too bitter for a Prayer to make their Religion to be Rebellion and their Faith Faction And so much for the Reason of a Legal Toleration and General Comprehension Now to shew too that the Members of the Church Establisht ought to be willing to get it Done And that 2d It is fittest for Them to do it And first they must remember that by themselves these Laws were made and as a learned Lawyer lets us know that he is the best Judg of a Law that has the Power to make it so we may say those that make it when it happens to become unreasonable are the Fittest to get it Repeal'd if the Prelates are become less riged if the Spirit of Persecution is turn'd into a Spirit of Peace if they make no matter of Conscience to give Indulgence what greater proof can they give of all this then by their own voluntary Cancelling those severe Laws which themselves must own for some considerations of State were only made This would be a much better evidence of their more mercifull disposition then all the Promises of T. W. It will be no such scandal tho' it be true when all that can be said is You were overseen Length of time and revolution of affairs tell People at last their long errors tho commonly too late and then for the most part make men wise when they cannot make amends for their folly But Fortune seems to favour you now and puts it in your Power to mend all that was amiss she seems to Court your Inclinations and tempt you to Credit your selves Gratify your KING and Pleasure all In the next Place I hope it will be as plain That 3d It is their Interest so to do First because 't is they themselves that have asserted the Kings Power in Eclesiasticals to be such that it may be much to their detriment to Provoke such a Prince whom they by Law have made so Powerful neither is it such a Childish reason that it must be dally'd with or laught out of doors as an Author does it with * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 6. a Legal Establishment even whilst it remains so legally subverted It may be done Sir without such a deal of Contradiction when People make Laws that Contradict themselves if Popish Recusants are so dangerous that they must not be Tolerated in England by a Law and we have such Laws that set the King as Supream to do whatsoever the Pope could have done Papists may well expect to be Protected from such a Catholick King and perhaps Protestants owe to His Promises most of their Security the Review of their first-Fruits to the
full Value as little as it terrify'd the bright Spirits of Oxford may Perchance be found the smallest part of the Prerogative and tho such a Canon could not Frighten them so far as to comply with their Diocesan if matters are to be manag'd meerly by the Laws that are made I fear there may be some found that empower the Prince to deprive them of a Bishop Secondly they will do wonderous well I will not say wiser if they do it themselves if only for fear lest others should do it for them I much doubt if Dissenters should once come to be the Prevailing part in a Parliament whether they would make so good terms for this Establisht Church as she might do if she pleas'd for her self The King has given her very good words for it and I wish she may not forgo the Benefit of them He has promis'd to Protect and doubtless will not deny her any reasonable means for her Preservation if he has a mind to do her Good how can she be angry if he 'll only keep her from doing ill the persecutors of Daniel could find no Occasion against him but in the Case of his God but yet we saw the King labour'd to deliver him 'T is not to be doubted if she comply with his Majesties request he will refuse Hers and why may she not be as safe with an Act of Jac. 2d for Establishing her the National Religion tho she part with the 13 Eliz. for hanging up all that differ from her It will never be the worse Church because it cannot do more ill And the Notion that some sort of people have got in their Noddles of the Necessity of such Laws in a Church for the Support of what is the Religion of the State is false both in Reason and Fact for certainly that may be supported without surpressing all other Opinions and there is no need that a Jesuit must be Gibbeted and other Dissenters Banish't and Hang'd too if they return and that Sanoumary Laws must be subservient to an Act of Vniformity T is no more then if a man should tell you Look you Sir most People are of our mind and we can get a Patent to make you think so too and if you wont believe what you cant believe or believe all that we can believe you must even suffer what coms on 't be it Fine Imprisonment Banishment or Death why a moral Heathen would be divided in his passions at the nonsense of such severity and Democritus himself in a doubt whether he should laugh or cry and such partial Christians must Blush too when they blame the Proceedings of the most Christian King and whom they make for it too in their fam'd Antiphrasis even Antichrist himself But one would think that doubt should be out of doors of a Church Establisht by Law not to be able to subsist without it reserve a Power by Law to punish all others when the Present practise of so many Forreign States proves the Consistency and we have the promise and experiment of two KINGS Reigns that it shall and can be so in ours at home 'T is to no purpose to Tattle us out of the Integrity of a good Action with the tale of a Tub or fool away a prudential Act with an Aesop's Fable * Vid. Tryal of the New Test c. p. 5. To tell us of the Conditions of Peace that were made upon the surrendring of the Dogs and that the Sheep afterward were worried by the Wolves Setting aside the malice of the Application it is most foolish and impertinent when the contrary is more true and these sanguinary Laws are to be laid aside and that only for their sucking of blood and sure 't is not the first time too we have known Dogs to worry Sheep And Lastly Common gratitude to so good a King should Perswade this Church to Comply with his reasonable requests has he discountenanc'd any of them but such as have incurr'd it by this Obstinacy perhaps more imprudent than safe And had the Parliament dissolv'd but a little condescended I fancy there would not have been so much work cut out for this Has not the King whose Royal dispensations qualify all prefer'd them Equally both in Court and Camp making every mans merit his promotion without examining of his Faith Has there a single man been prefer'd to any Benefice or Cure but such as have been qualify'd by Law tho some perhaps have been dispens'd with to keep them that for altering their Religion they might not starve * In Edw. the Sixths Reign even from the confession of Doctor Burnet most of the Bishops only for being true to their old perswasions were troubl'd were turn'd out Illegally were imprison'd several years till Queen Marys Reign Vid. the continuance of his Reflection on Mr. Varilas pag. 63. And sure our present Bishop of Londons Case was never yet so hard tho so highly resented Where is this mighty progress for the introducing of Popery The KING now is going into his fourth year and the Church stands still it as was four years agon and the Mighty Din of the measures and faggot of Queen Mary is as much to the Purpose as if they told us of the fire Ordeal of Queen Emm She remov'd all the Bishops in no more than one year and I think Queen Eliz. did it all in one Month and here since Appropriating of Loyalty is so much in fashion we cannot but say this for the Papist too whose Fidelity to the Crown is too much question'd this Protestant Queen was by their own Confession and as it plainly appears from our own Annals advanc'd to the Throne by a Popish Parliament then sitting and no one can tell had they been sitting at KING Charles the Seconds Death of what temper they would have been the Legitimacy of Queen Eliz. was then in dispute amongst all Catholicks the Succession of his present Majesty was indisputable by his blood and yet Heath the Popish Metropolitan and then Lord Chancellor without any discontent says their own * Vid. Heylins Reformation Page 101. Historian declares her Title to the Crown to both Houses of Parliament and so was she receiv'd without the least opposition which certainly does savour somwhat of an Vnquestionable Loyalty And if that wont serve the same Author says more That many in the House of Commons that had a great zeal for their Popish interest yet Preferred their Allegiance page 107. to their Natural Prince before their concernments for the Church of Rome And this is sure more Loyalty then was shewn by the Protestant Reformers to her Predecessor against whom they set an Usurper in the Throne contriv'd a Will and rais'd an Army tho so much must be said for the Suffolk-Gospellers of the Country that they were better Subjects then the mighty Liturgy men at Court and assisted Queen Mary with Men and Arms when the other kept from her the Capital and the Crown Queen Eliz.
Judgment was always fallible and very apt to make false conjectures some People could not think His Majesty would prove a Prince so Gracious Merciful and Indulgent for that were uneasy and who would have thought that some men that insisted so much on Passive Obedience to the Successor shou'd be now Impatient and almost Disobedient under his Reign To Distinguish themselves out of their Loyalty may shew their Logick or their Law but never will their Love and Allegiance I am asham'd to see men labour to make * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 2. Law and Loyalty the same as if People when they have got a Capricious Interpretation in their Head have Authority to spoil the Common acceptation of a Word We all know forsooth as well as the Criticks that Loy signifies Law but was ever Loyalty taken yet in common discourse for Lawfulness too we are bound to do all that 's Lawful Right to one another by Law are we therefore one anothers Loyal and Liege Subjects but to take it in their Perverted Sense or that of Coke Littleton to Defend this Kings Power of Dispensing is the most Loyal Act you can do since by those very * 2d Inst p. 496. Lawyers the Kings Prerogative is maintain'd to be the Best and Chiefest Part of the Law. But I am sorry to see Church-men now assume this very Notion for * Liegeance is the Proper Loyalty and that implys an obligation of obedience from the Subject to the Soveraign by Birth by Nature who is call'd their Natural Lord without respect to Municipal Laws Vid. to this purpose 2 Inst 128 7 Report p. 4. and many Acts of Parliament a reserve to their Love and Allegiance when to my knowledg this very quibling on the Word was us'd not long since by those they call'd Wiggs and Phanaticks and was by the Prerogative-Lawyers of those times laught at and refuted 't is the Fate always when men begin to grow Factious to contradict themselves as if what was Loyalty under one Prince was not so under another and one King cannot dispense with what the other Can. Faction and Malicious Accusation can never carry the cause against Loyalty and the King consider in the Common Case of Felons and Malefactors the credit of their Accusers is in nothing more Invalidated then by proving any manner of Malice in their Prosecutors and pray then let the King when He 's arraign'd for the sake of his Prerogative have but as much Priviledge as a Prisoner at the Bar when his Accuser too appears the most Malicious and what is more by Process upon Record the greatest Malefactor the Law in many Cases Implys a Malice but here it is most plain beyond Implication if you Consider the Libells the learned Doctor has lay'd at your doors are penn'd by a Person that wanted more preferment here and who for his misdeameanors was turn'd out of the little he had By one that * Vid. First Letter to Ld. Midd. left England and I believe him with his Maiesties Approbation and by his commands was forbid to return By one that ly's * Vid. His Process and Citation charg'd with no less than High Treason and who confesses in the Second Address that he sent to the Secretary that such proceedings shall provoke him Whatever is the veracity of the most moderate Man he must not be believ'd when he rages most Immoderately no more than a Bear is to be trusted when you have baited him only because before he was quiet and tame and mens Passions too in spite of our boasted Reasoning even by being too much exalted can debase themselves so far as to become brutal and then the deliberate mischiefs they do are the more dangerous from the sagacity of that seduc'd reason that then truly sells it self to do wickedly and what more Ingenious Revenge could an enrag'd and * Vid. Second Letter provok't bassal take against his Liege Lord then such a pretty expedient for the renouncing his Allegiance And that he means by it more than a * Vid. Third Temporary Revolt to a forraign Jurisdiction will appear from some passages in his own Papers when he suggests to our Peaceful Subjects here the * Vid. Six Papers pag. 22. Principle of Mr. Hobbs his State of War and the Scurvy Paragraph of self Preservation when he insinuates also that his Faith to his Prince may be Temporary too at home and to last no longer than the King will Countenance or Protect What more Malicious Construction can be made from the plain meaning of Express words The King Declares no one shall suffer for meer Religion And what says the Dr Why then when Religion and Policy are interwoven they can claim * Vid. Ibid page 23. no benefit by the Declaration Would the Doctor oblige the King from his Liberty of Conscience to Tolerate Robbers and Murderers for it is the Policy and Publick safety of the State that punishes them still or is it possible that people when they suffer for any other offence that by Law is truly Criminal can be said to suffer for meer Religion when by Law too that is made no Crime at all Or would the Doctor have had the KING's mercy to have Anticipated the Justice of future times and extended to the Crimes which hereafter on the Pretence of Religion they may possibly Commit and yet this with prejudic'd persons must pass for Reason that has nothing in it of Common Consequence and that the Doctor may not want contradiction too for malice will make wise men commit absurdities tho I am sorry to see so Celebrated a Reasoner run himself into such misfortune only for the defaming of his own KING at the same time he would refute for it the French-man for too much Praising of His. In one * Vid. Continuation of Reflection on Mr. Varil p. 5. Page of his Reflections he makes our Queen Mary to get the better of the Monarch of France to be more fiery in her persecution and to have Animated the bloodiest of her Bishops Bonner he makes her as much a Monster as his own malice or that of the other Sex can make a Woman well to be or be well imagin'd and what 's the meaning of all this Why Here 't is very fit for his purpose so to do and the Doctors Satyr must come in here only in opposition to the Monsieur 's Panegyrick but then in another * Ibid. pag. 150. Page this same Q. Mary was a Woman so far from delighting in seenes of blood that her Clemency was much magnify'd and the mildness of that Princesses Reign gave no Cause to complain of the Rigor of her Proceedings and what 's the matter now Why the KING the Council the then Chief Justice are all to be Libell'd and the Clemency to Wiat's Crew set against the Doctors Cruelty in the West and I warrant you we should have heard nothing of Queen
is out of doors where such Protection is provided against by the Articles of Peace All Impartial People I hope will Pardon me for dealing a Little freely with the Dr. that has been certainly more bold with His MAJESTY and taken the liberty to Libel no less than the whole Line and for the Pertinency of such Animadversion I appeal to all his Papers put out on purpose to Oppose any Happy Union and all good agreement between King and People and for the reflections I 've return'd I can safely say I have but Mildly toucht upon and that Promiscuously the most Provoking Sedition from one that with the severest Satyr has pointed at his KING Such rude Recriminations on the Crown he knew would Interrupt the Peace that is expected from an Approaching Parliament and so to clear it from such Scandals and refute such Seditious Argument must fall under our Duty as well as Design But whatever are his hopes from it's Approach and the differences he expects in its Debates who it seems is now so much a Naturaliz'd Dutchman as to promise himself good Fishing from troubl'd Waters and the Mudd I am Morally perswaded they will hardly espouse his Quarrel much less return him another Thanks of the House and what ever are the fond expectancies of some vain People will be so far from Invading the Rights of the Crown as to Confirm this so question'd Prerogative of their King against which the follies of some inconsiderate Persons do so promise an Appeal and will more likely draw up a Resolve to suppress such Libels than any Remonstrance for Grievances to be Redrest The late Ld. Shaftsbury was once against All Tests especially for Religion made a Notable Speech in the House of Lords against that of the * April 65. Oxford Act being more Vniversally impos'd but some Years after when he had a mind to put tricks upon the Papists then Transubstantiation Praying to Saints Sacrifice of the Mass must be all confuted and confounded with a Test when they might as well have Enacted the Trinity to be Nonsense as positively to define what possibly may be None Superstition and Idolatry The Notions of Divinity I think were never before without a General Council so Dogmatically declar'd with an Order'd and Resolv'd and most part of the Christian World Transubstantiated into Pagan with an Act of Parliament If the belief of Catholicks is so Captivated as to consent to the Corporeal and Elemental change into the Substance of a God for Godsake Would they not be worse then Idolators if they did not Adore And must they now be Voted such only because they do not think as others do I must confess I alway thought it would have been a wiser definition of this Establisht Church to have made Her Sacrament more Figurative or the Sacrifice of the Mass less Idolatrous for Really Present and the body and blood to be verily and indeed Taken are Terms that must put us to our Metaphysicks and which I have not yet seen so well Explicated as not to touch upon an Elemental transmutation Luther lik't it so little that rather than like Mahomet's Tomb to hang between two Elements the Heaven and the Earth he made up his more absurd composition of both And then for that other Idolatry of Images and Invocation from their plain words and in Charity to them I am apt to think has really no other Existence than in the Letter of our Laws and the resolution of our Act of Parliament for my self have put it as a Question to several Papists abroad as well as to some of our own at home even to the most ignorant Votary's and if any can be blind Adorers the poorest Plebeians to what they Exalted and in what they Terminated their extreams of Worship when addrest to an Image or a Saint Why the Answer was still to this Purpose To the True GOD alone looking upon those Material Objects but as so many Representations to move and elevate their Devotions to their Saviour and excite them to have recourse to Him by such Intercessors so that if we believe their own words and men may be allow'd to know their own minds their Church cannot be guilty of the only Idolatry that can with any Charity be charg'd upon it A Consequential and even that is but a forc't unkind unintelligible extension of it a Term that has as much of malice in it as of Metaphysicks and certainly can no more make their Doctrine Idolatrous than that would the Church of England if her nine and thirty Articles by a mad-man or a fool should be taken for the Alcoran Ignorance may be the Mother of Superstition or even a Criminal Devotion in the Members of a Communion when it would be madness to make the whole body of Christians suffer for it too as so many Turks and Mahometans I 'le tell you now the substance of some of the Arguments of that Noble Peer against the first Test * An. 1665. Oxf. Act. and you shall see whether they will not serve against all the rest Ay says he It will be a great step to the overthrowing of the Act of Oblivion and reviving distinctions among Parties That all such former Oaths were steps to to the same end that we should rather think of repealing than enjoyning them to be taken by all the Officers of the Nation and Members of both Houses That Oaths ought to be simple and plain whereas that about Religion was intricate and dark and only a snare to the Consciences of well-meaning men That such Oaths were against the Property of the Subject That it is directly against the Kings Crown and Dignity that Subjects should be sworn to matters of the Church That it was the highest invasion of the Supremacy and the greatest attempt that has been made against it since the Reformation These His Arguments cannot but take with Dissenters since it was a Speech he made in their own favor and defence and sure Conformists cannot condemn the reasonings of such a Noble Peer who introduc'd both the Tests against the Roman Catholicks And so Efficacious was his Oratory then that the Lords Iaid aside all further considerations of any Vniversal Imposition of such unreasonable Oaths and so concern'd were they for offering the Imposing it that they drew up * So also in 73. Protestations against it as the Invasion of their Peerage and the Freedom of Parliaments And sure if any of these Protesting Peers are yet Living as I am sure some are their Honor their Interest their Birth-Right their Peerage the very Judgment of their Souls their Hands Hearts are all pawn'd for the repealing of such Laws when against the Passing them they enter'd such a notable Protest a Repeal which Shaftsbury himself would be asham'd were he now alive to oppose This is no flourish but Argument upon the Case that is kept upon Record and that in the highest Court and 't is but consulting the Journal of
upon the Dutch themselves for certainly were these Penal Laws so favourable as only to incapacitate them for Office and Trust yet even that is a severity which they are necessitated to suffer and that for Conscience sake it is but a poor extenuation of an uncharitable temper when he tells us that for some Political ends these Laws for Religion must remain unrepeal'd as if the Sacraments themselves were only made to be subservient to some Civil Institutions and the God of Heaven but an instrument to work out the inventions of man if meerly for secular ends so sacred a being as the Drity it self must be so solemnly invok't which the best Advocates for the cause do seem to confess I am afraid such an Invocation may be worse than that to Saints and be at least very profane if not Idolatrous neither can it be answer'd us that then all Declarations all Oaths must be laid aside for the Consequence fails them too for the Common reason of Imposing them is only or only should be for the detecting of Justice and Equity the discovering of truth from falsehood whereas these Protestations call'd Tests are by their own Confession kept a foot only to be Injurious to their fellow-Subjects that are Equitably born to the Common Priviledges of their Country and are so far from a discovery of what is true or false that they are made about matters so profoundly divine and mysterious that it is morally impossible for human understanding to discover or find it out unless the swearing to an Article of Faith be found a sufficient proof of the soundness of the Doctrine and the books of Scripture Antient Fathers modern Criticks can be all Confuted or be better Expounded by the Votes of an house of Commons This States-man makes it so Incomprehensible for any that profess Vid. Letter themselves Christians to go to disturb the quiet of a state and over-turn Constitutions only that they may be admitted to employments And pray must not others then think it as Vnchristian to have the professors of the same faith and their fellow-Subjects excluded from such employs which as their Religion cannot really debar them from so their very Native Birth-right demands it it is false in fact tho they take it for granted that it is the Roman-Catholicks alone that do so disturb and disquiet the State of the Kingdom it is only these Laws that create all this disturbance to them and the state these establisht-men would have been loath under the Oppression of Oliver to have merited the Name of disturbers of the Nation and 't is shewn before that suffering from a power Legal or Vsurpt is still the same where the Laws are oppressive and if the Overturning of old Constitutions be a thing of that consideration tho hardly a Parliament passes in which there are not new ones made if that I say be such a considerable argument as to make it absolutely necessary for our English Catholiques to acquiesce to continue Out-Laws more incapacitated them some Protestant Aliens how destructive must this be to the Protestant Interest should the Romanists take an opportunity to return upon us an old Law of the Romans that of Talionis and exclude all the Reform'd from Trust with a Test of Retaliation why we must submit we must not endeavour for our Restitution we must not disturb the state overturn establishment or repeal Laws And must not we look very silly too when by our own Arguments we have silenc'd our selves What a formidable blow will this give to the Reformation in England which was carried on as some say by the overturning of all that was Antient and Establisht Sacred and Civil both in Church and State and afford them a Scurvy Argument That they may overturn with a better warrant than they were turn'd out that their alterations will be only a restoring of an old establishment whereas we overturn'd that to set up new Constitutiens In short if they bring no better Reasons for our Religion than its being so much Establisht it will certainly resolve it self into the Power and Pleasure of the Prince and really be what they so scornfully reject truly * Vid. Oxford Reasons Precarious for surely they must see that assoon as they had a Protestant King they presently had their Protestant Religion And that in spite of far more Antient Constitutions and Establishments to the contrary I 'le grant him that every constituted body or Assembly whatsoever will be willing to make Laws for its own safety and Preservation But whatever be the Policy of the State it must be still agreeable to the Rules of Reason and Equity otherwise it proves no more than that all things are Lawful that are Expedient and that a Common-wealth to use his own terms as well as their own Constitution tho the result of an absolute rebellion revolt and defection from their Prince may make what Laws they please to prevent any Casual return to there natural Allegiance or that an Assembl'd or tumultuous People may pull in pieces even a Pensioner to provide against attempts thaet may disturb their peace and granting too that in Political bodies like to those that are truly natural there will be alway somwhat of innate tenderness to their own Preservation that genuin Principle only respects all opposing of a forreign force and no way determines it to domestick oppression no more than if the lazy man that is said alway to see the Lyon in the way should cut off one of his legs that he might the better run away with the rest of his carkass I am sorry I can say that this dismembring of our selves for the difference of Communion at home does no less expose us to Invasions from abroad but I am sure the saying is as certainly True prov'd by Experience Fact unavoidable from these Statutes and the Laws for should the best Seaman the best Souldier by his birth or Conversion be a Papist Convict he is totally incapacitated utterly impossible to do the least service to the Kingdom or the Crown and why should these Dutch people put that upon us the inconvenience of which they see in themselves and take all the care to avoid unless they would Vid. Letter have the more of the Kings Subjects unqualify'd to fight for him only that they might the sooner invade him Before the making of our first Test * 1673. when Papists Participated of Employments had their Places in Parliament I cannot remember that they did Impeach our Peace I am sure some of them did us signal service in the Dutch Wars his foes felt too much of the force of the Admiral and so may well fear the Preferment of his friends What the Reform'd Religion suffers from the Roman-Catholicks in France is no reason at all against the repealing of Vid. Letter these Laws in England unless they can prove the disposition of the Princes and the Politicks of the Two States to be
of King Charles the Second when sent us from such hands must needs have as much Malice and Reputation as the Court of King James the first and the Confutation of both has been best adjudg'd to be the Province of the Common Executioner and if threatned men live long as the Dr. himself observes 't is in that sense alone he makes his Monarch Immortal 'T is time now to Apply our selves to an approaching Parliament since the Party that opposes its Agreement has form'd it's Faction and been so forward as to be before us in their Application for men that have but a bad cause to carry on commonly make diligence to supply the defect of the Goodness of their Case and therefore the late Letter to a Dissenter only in a new dress is now directed to a * Vid Letter to a Person of Quality c. Person of Quality whom the Author forgetting his former reflections has already Return'd a Member of the House before his Majesty not to mention the leave to Debate has granted them so much as Liberty of Election I need not revy upon the Reflecter on the late Letter of the Pensioner who has only put out a Panegyrick in the name of an Animadversion he 'le find himself refuted beforehand in our Observations upon that Original and there is nothing more in his * Vid. Reflections on F's Letter Copy besides the Malice that is extended even to the making of their Primitive Hero a Pusillanimous deserter that would keep himself at a distance from their deeper designs and sure 't is but a bad cause that shall make a Subjects deference to his Prince the very Occasion of his Crime His inference from mijn heer F's Wit and Parts is no more an Argument that he made the Letter than it is a stronger one a Majori that the same Person made both that and the Reflection and we know what Author it is so much fam'd for his mischief that is as notoriously vain for the commendation of himself I Shall therefore close with two Exhortations to those that are to chuse our Representatives and offer one consideration to those that are Chosen When ever the KING sends you his Summons let your Elections be carried with Moderation and your Choice of such men as are either concern'd to Repeal these Laws for their own sakes or inclin'd to do it for the Reasons that require it Let your Returns be made as fairly as possible for that which is a sound Parliament will the sooner be an Healing One. And may that Peaceful Assembly when it Sits consider how to Pacify the Nation and grant too His Majestys Propositions for Peace Let them consider that their present Prince tho as powerful as any of his Predecessors or more absolute neighbours does only desire a Repeal by Law does allow them all that Liberty of Debate which even our Hen. the Eighth did indeed make but a Merit of Obedience and the Kings of France in the True Sense their Le Roy Vult I never saw a Parliament end well when it began at Cross Purposes with their King. I remember the time when it was thought a Pretty play to Triffle with the Crown when It was Ask't A Supply It was Answer'd Popery It was Ask't to Consider the Navy It was Answer'd Arbitrary Power Such Sessions we saw end in Remonstrances but never in any real good to the Kingdom or the Crown And may we all say to his Majesty as it was unanimously said to General Monk against the sitting of that Healing Assembly We will all submit to the Determinations of the next Parliament And may that Session prove as Auspicious for the settling of an Vnion and Vniversal Peace may it answer the intention of Our Present Soveraign and merit the glorious Character of the Past that its fame may be as lasting as the Liberty that it gives and that both may be transmitted and continued to Posterity FINIS