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
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
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