I think in that of the Popes Nuncio or chappels of Embassadours Those Protestants which have heard them can universally testifie That the Text mostly is out of the Epistle or Gospel of the day and the scope of the Discourse is generally incitements to the duty of Holy Living disswasives from all kind of sin and true motives to penitence for them When they commemorate any Saint in celebrating the Festival the application is to imitate their Sanctity and praise God for the Grace conferred on them and affording such Examples of Devotion and holy living Which Heads when they are most powerfully treated upon may be effectual to make a Man a good Christian but avails not much to make him a Roman Catholic It is well known to most that hear them that if it were not for the habit the Ave Maria the want of Notes the devision of the Discourse and some small difference in the way of delivery they could not distinguish their Sermons from those in Protestant Churches So that they gain only by that a little mitigation of peoples Censures who have had them represented either as ridiculous or absurd Since therefore the Preachers of both Churches agree in the points of Moral Piety and the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity It may prevail with Lay Auditors to judge those are the necessary things knowable and that the skill in nice and subtil Controversies are nothing so needful to salvation as the decrying and shunning Vice and Debauchery When therefore we consider the advantage the Ministers of the Church of England have over the Fathers we surely must yield That they may much more easily keep their own Flock from straying than the other can win them over to the Romish Faith. For First the Ministers are infinitely more numerous and settled in their several Parishes as so many Shepherds to secure their charge Secondly They have willing and unprejudiced Auditors to hear them whereas most Protestants that go to hear the Fathers generally do it out of curiosity or to censure them Thirdly The Ministers of England have a good Art of Address to enforce their Doctrines and having been longer used to preaching than the Fathers and using a different method from them to which people have been more accustomed I see no reason to fear that they can so prevail as to commit a rape upon their Auditors Affections and Judgments whereby they should be converted by thousands as those were at S. Peters Sermons and without such Miracles I think by preaching the Protestants will not be changed As to their Writings 2 Nor by their Writings the scope of those seem to be primarily to explain those Articles of Faith wherein Protestants most differ from them in such a manner as may conciliate a better understanding between the two Churches and by a sweetening and favourable representation of the Catholic Doctrine endeavour to remove the Prejudices Protestants have entertained against it as irroconcileable to Scripture and the exposition of the Primitive Fathers This seems the most Christian and Charitable method they have or possibly can take to render their Religion intelligible to us or at least incline us to less censoriousness of theirs which province the Bishop of Meaux hath undertaken with greatest applause and it hath been followed by some of our Country Yet when we consider how little hither to hath been gained by this expedient we need neithe be waspish and angry or abandon our selves to such sinking sears as if the Church of England would be overset by so smooth a Sea. The Church of England hath in it many learned and dextrous men who have good Libraries and are well skilled in History and the Antient Fathers and are well pleased they have the opportunity of shewing their Talents and are confident they can manage their cause more advantagiously than the Catholics and think this way of their Adversaries Writings effects not what is aimed at but on the contrary confirms the people That they have been taught by their Pastors the more antient and true Doctrine as it was believed in the Ages nearest the Apostles times So when the Pope yielded to the Bohemians the use of the Wine in the Sacrament It being received by them as a confirmation That the Eucharist ought to be administred in both species and that it was as reasonable that other Points in difference should be allowed them the Pope recalled the Tolleration When we further consider That the dubious expressions of the Fathers afford subtil men on both sides sufficient matter for arguing pro and con and that the Writers in both Churches agree not upon a Judg betwixt them It is not easie to conceive how by this way a National Conversion can be effected For though the number of Writers were never so much multiplied Yet since the Arguments are the same and neither part can put the principal differences to Umpirage or fix upon an Umpire they may both write till Dooms-day 3 Nor by their freedom of conversation and endeavours to proselite the people ere they accord As to Conversation It must be owned that in this as well as the foregoing particulars the R. Catholick Church-Men have that advantage now that they never had since the Reformation both publickly to preach and publish their Books of Controversie and be as industrious as they please to prevail with people in their conversation which is like a single combate betwixt a Man skilled at his Weapon and a Novice It must be granted also That several persons may be reconciled to the Church of Rome especially such as are curious after Novelties and not well grounded in the Protestant Religion or such as fall into solicitous thoughts about the state of their Salvation and come to think the failures they have committed have been occasioned by their want of due Instruction Or once conceive that Salvation is not to be had out of the most Catholic Church or that a perfect absolution upon Confession and Contrition is to be had no where out of the Church of Rome and some may be won by an affectation of the modishness of being of the Religion of their Prince or in hopes of the more propitious royal Smiles and such in my judgment as change their Religion for this sole end neither deserve the countenance of their Prince nor of any worthy Man for such will vary with the next Wind and neither God nor Man will find stability in them But we experimentally find that the progress of these kinds of conversion is very slow and it must be a work of many Ages to effect any great matter this way where so thick-set prejudices and prepossessions of a different perswasion are so firmly retained that to change a Religion this way is but like the demolishing a Fabrick of immense firmness and size by picking out here and there a single Stone even while others are as diligent and industrious to secure it If lastly any be won over to the Church
none of those Acts of bounty or choice he can do if he cannot dispense with penal Laws Yet for all this gracious and just Favour to Catholics I do not see that by any the remotest consequences either the King doth design or that it is his Interest by them to extirpate the Protestant Religion but rather to conciliate a better Union betwixt them by conversation and mutual Service that in as much as in him lies by the experience now of that good Accord betwixt them in the Civil and Military management of Affairs a better understanding may be betwixt them even under a Protestant Prince Though it is to be doubted that however now we grudge that a few Catholics are in Commission and are peevish because any are imployed besides Protestants yet who ever lives to see a Protestant Successor will not find the same reciprocal Favours to Catholics SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion THe Reason that presseth me much to believe that the King neither Designs nor thinks it his Interest to introduce the Catholic Religion so as to extrude the Church of England is the moral impossibility that so wise and generous a Prince and so great a lover of his Country however his wishes may be in his Judgment thinking it conducibâ—e to the Salvation of their Souls will undertake a Business that requires a long long Age to effect and must render those days he hath to live which I wish many and many full of disquiet and anxiety if not of Blood and Carnage For it is a Princes paramont Interest to consult the safety of his Government and where he governs Subjects as his are circumstantiated so to manage Affairs as he may not weaken his Kingdoms defence against his watchful Neighbours by giving the Power into a few hands against the hundred times more numerous and consequently more able to serve him in his Defence or give opportunity to such as we may be sure are not true to the Principles of the Church of England of non-resistance to raise some formidable disturbance which the Catholics singly will not be able to quell It is very evident that the Doctrine professed by the Church of England is unconditioned Loyalty and the Members of it that understand best the Doctrine and their Duty think in this particular they carry the Prize from all other Church-Societies But they are not all to be reputed Members of the Church of England who go by that Name there are some can be very loyal to a Protestant King but can be factious seditious Male-contents and sowers of jealousies and fears under a Catholic and think it no sin to be regardless of his Honour or Success And if any Rebellion should happen which God avert they would think it their Duty to sit still and others who fight for pay only of which it may be presumed there are many of the Common Sort if upon any Revolt they had a prospect of Money and the better securing of the Religion they value would swiftly run over to that side where they might hope for both Besides which the indefatigable Commonwealths-men Male-contents Non-conformists and several of the Zealous true Protestants Associaters and Exclusionists would combine in opposition to barefac'd Popery for they are all threaded on one String the same Iron Sinue runing through them all so that if by any Wars abroad or Intestine Discontents at home any Calamity should happen which may fall out under the prudentest and wisest Prince It is to be suspected by the mere terrible Engine the fear of losing their Religion the Body of the People would consider their strength only and make their Loyalty give place to their great Concernment and neither regard the Kings Sovereignty or the Loyal Principles of the Church of England but forget all Duty and Reverence to secure that which they would make us believe is dearer to them than their Lives and Fortunes and then the Catholics and true Sons of the Church of England would be only left to abide the shock of all the rest And though such a Prince as ours is not to be affrighted out of his Methods yet we may rationally Judge that he considers all this and must compute what Hearts and Hands he is sure of and will not embarras and imbroil himself in Matters so difficult to accomplish and make his Reign uneasie to himself by imposing a Religion upon his Subjects they are so much Strangers unto and have such an aversion from and to no other end but to force his people at the best to become Hypocrites Having thus I hope cleared that Point that the Protestant Religion is in no such danger as timerous or designing Persons would have us believe I come now to speak more particularly to the Test which is looked upon as the very Barrier Rampire and Citadel that is only left to defend us against the over-powering Attacks of Popery which some Men would make us believe if it once be yeilded up to the Kings demolishing no visible hold is left to prevent the whole Nation 's being subdued to the Catholic Religion SECT XIII Concerning the Test I Shall first therefore endeavour to shew the Nature of the Test and the occasion of the making of it and the several Reasons why it may be prudence to revoke it and other penal Laws And lastly the inconveniences of denying to repeal it and so draw to a Conclusion The Motives that occasioned the making of the Test It must be owned that it hath been the Care of most Protestant Parliaments especially since the late Kings Restauration to secure the Militia and the Kings Guards and standing Forces in the hands of Protestants only Therefore in the Act for Setling the Militia Anno 1661 the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were injoyned and when it was known that our King had left the Communion of the Church of England the Houses began to be more intent upon finding out ways to secure the Protestant Religion and then those who afterwards pushed forward with such violence the Bill of Seclusion having gained so specious opportunity to lay all the stress of their Contrivances upon the necessary endeavours to secure the Protestant Religion under the notion of protecting the Person and Government of our late King and preventing a Popish Successor from Arming Catholics to the hazard of the Protestant Religion They prevailed upon the King to give his Assent to the Bills I shall now give you a Breviate of it in the words of the Act and give some short Notes upon them and then proceed The First Act. Stat. 2â— Car. 2. c. 2. The Title of the Act is For preventing dangers which may happen from popish Recusants And the preamble adds For quieting the minds of his Majesties good Subjects It is enacted That all and every person or persons as well Peers as Commoners that shall bear any Office or Offices Civil or Military or
that whatsoever Latitude other Church-men might take to obey Princes only so far as they were Nursing Fathers to their Church yet the Principles and Doctrine of the Church of England contained in its Homilies obliged all the Subjects to be dutiful bear Faith and Allegiance to their Sovereign and support his Crown and Dignity though he were of a different Religion and it taught absolute and unconditionate Obedience for Conscience sake When some thought to touch you more closely in your Private Col. B. Concerns as knowing you had some Church Lands and shewed you the Colonels Speech who said He took it for granted that we have nothing of our own if Popery come in not only the Church Lands but all the Lands we have will be little enough for them for they will never want an Holy Sanctified Religious pretence to take them from us To this you answered That the unpractitableness of restoring Church Lands is apparent in the possession of those in Germany got into by Hostilities and established by Treaties and seeing that in Queen Mary's days when the Romish Government and the Popes Supremacy was re-established and the individual Parcels disseiz'd from the Church easily known in the Reign of a Princess so zealous to remove the Guilt of Sacriledge that she actually restored what was in her Possession and proceeded to the Rebuilding of some Religious Houses seeing you said that she thus earnest upon the Work and who had the Interest of the Pope and the Zeal of a much vaster number of Catholicks then are now to assist her was yet so far from being able to obtain an Act of Parliament for that purpose that the Pope himself by Bull confirmed them Certainly if this then was unpracticable when Protestantism was at so low an Ebb what could be expected after almost 150 years quiet possession So that if there were no other obstacle but the inextricable confusion it would be impossible that any Court of Claims could adjust the Title of any Religious to them by any colour of Law or Equity and no Catholick Prince whatsoever would disquiet and disoblige the whole Body almost of his Subjects both Catholicks and Protestants for the advantage of three or four of his English Subjects in every Monastery for if he should recall all the Religious of his Subjects out of all the Foreign Convents they would not supply them to a greater number S. H. C. When you read another Splenetick Gentlemans Harangue That Misery and Slavery were the Concomitants of Popery And when in answer to a Gentleman that urged against the Bill That it would lay the foundation of a miserable Civil War The aforesaid zealous Knight reply'd That the Barbarousness exercised in Queen Mary 's Reign by Fire and Fagot might be put in the Ballance with all the inconveniences that ever happened by any Exclusion-Act I remember you pitied the Contlemans short Memory or want of perusing our Histories where he might have found in many of the Skirmishes besides the sixteen pitch'd Battels fought betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster upon the Usurpation of King Henry the Fourth against Richard the Second that more were slain in one day and more Families ruined in one year than in the whole Reign of Queen Mary And however the matter should fall out as we had no shadow of Reason to suspect it were better to die as Sufferers guilty of no other Crime than the Adhearing to our Religion then to die by the Sword Bullet Ax or Halter for Rebellion You farther said That we ought to consider the difference betwixt a lawful Hereditary Prince and an Usuper The one being obliged by Interest so to govern that he may have a peaceable and comfortable Reign and have willing and wealthy Subjects Whereas the other having the establishing his Usurpation his sole scope enslaves all he can studying only to aw all into Obedience by force and strong hand But it would be otherwise in the Succession here where the Princesses his R. H. only Daughters who or their Issues were in the course of Nature if he had no Son to succeed him were married to Protestants so that he would have as great regard to their peaceable Possession as his own And let the Motives be what they could he would content himself with the Publick Exercise of his own Religion and affording Liberty Countenance and Protection to all Catholicks and imploying some of them and suspending the execution of such Laws as were heavy upon them And if this were not opposed you doubted not but his Reign would much increase the Wealth Glory and Military Discipline of the Nation How scrupulous now Yet after all this since you have lived to see so much of the Prognosticks verified of late you have expressed apprehensions of the danger of your Religion and the concern for that hath made you hearken to the suggestions of some Church-men and others who really believe all which the Seclusionists then without crediting a Tittle of it most artificially spread abroad I think my self therefore bound to offer you my Reason why you ought not to fear this and in the first place think fit to remind you how the Clergy of England that surely considered consequences behaved themselves then and after shall answer the best Arguments I have met with to the contrary SECT III. How the Bishops and Clergy behaved themselves in those times THe Deportment of the Bishops and the Loyal Clergy may be best known by their adhearing to the Crown-side and the endeavours that were used to render them less credited by the People It is very well known how strenuously they opposed the Bill of Seclusion both in the City and Country and how few if any of the Bishops in the House of Peers countenanced that Bill which occasioned such bitter and biting Speeches or such sly insinuating Girds against them as if they were ready to enroll themselves under the Banner of St. Peter and betray the Protestant Interest rather than be deprived of the warming Beams of the Rising Sun. Sr. F. W. Hence one of the Active Members said They might be assur'd of their Religion if the Fathers of the Church joyn in being against the only means to preserve it and he desired the Church might not be scandaliz'd for they did not disinherit the Prince for his Religion but to save their own And further said That he thought it a kindness to the Church above all other Acts whatsoever And lest in this he might not be understood aright he added that he meant the Protestant Church which shewed that these men considered the conformable Clergy of England as a different Body from the Protestants at large And so the kindness of that Act would operate to them though not to the present Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England who defired no such indirect proceedings to secure them W. H. Another said He was unwilling to detract from the Merits of Church-men for whom
glorious an Enterprise it will be rowsing his slow and unresolved Thoughts with the Consideration what a perpetual renown it ever will be to King Henry the VII that he united the Houses of York and Lancaster and how glorious the memory of King James the I. ever must be who united the Kingdoms And how transcendent a Jubile it would cause over all the Roman World That his Grandson should reunite his Subjects to the Roman Catholick Church which will be so irresistable a Charm they say that it cannot be in his power to escape the Enchantment Nor could he want the Charity to wish it or neglect the essaying all means to effect it being prepossessed with a firm Perswasion that the undertaking of it would be an acceptable Service to God Almighty It is not my design to write any thing that may lessen the esteem and due regard Men have for the Church of England of which I own my self an unworty Member Neither shall I meddle with any Points in controversie but only offer my Reasons why I cannot conceive by the Proceedings of the King hitherto nor the consequences flowing from those steps he makes That the Protestant Religion is either in danger or designed to be rooted out or so eclipsed as we are invited to believe SECT VI. That the Church of England hath been in a disturbed condition under Protestant Princes BEfore I consider the present State of the Church of England which I think in many respects is as flourishing as it hath been since the Reformation I must shew its former condition During the Reign of Q. Elizabeth and the three succeeding Kings it hath been continually disquieted with Dissenters Fanaticks and other Sects who never gave over their Clamours for a more refined Reformation from Rome Every Year almost producing some bitter Invective or other grudging murmuring and calumniating the English Hierarchy to the great disquiet of the Secular Government Hence the necessity of severe Laws against Non-conformists ever and anon being made or reinforced Those that lived in the beginning of the late Wars cannot forget what Tumults were in some places about placing the Communion Table Altar-wise How many were scandalized at the Bishop's dignifyed Clergy and Priests Habit at the kneeling at the Sacrament at the use of the Cross in Baptism about bowing to the Altar and the Name of Jesus And tho' in Cathedrals a Solemn Order was observed yet it was much murmured at and was branded both in the manner of the Celebration of Divine Offices and the use of the Choristers and Organs with the name of down-right Popery and Superstition Who hath a mind to know the particulars of the disquieting of the Church of England by her Protestant Adversaries may peruse Bishop Bancroft's Dangerous Positions and Dr. Heylin's History of Presbyterianism Mr. Fowlis History of the Plots Conspiracies c. and such as relate the Church History of those times and they will find sufficient to convince them what Jars Conflicts Heart-burnings and Disquiets were amongst Protestants How the Clergy and the Liturgy were despised which grew every Year worse and worse till it was judged requisite by a strict execution of the Laws to master the Nonconformists and bend or break them to a complyance or silence But the success answered not the design for on the contrary the peoples minds grew strongly alienated from the Discipline of the Church and as soon as they had chosen a House of Commons to their mind the use of the Common Prayer Book Surplices and Habits of the Clergy and all things in use formerly and established by Law were voted down and the Souldiery and Rabble were encouraged to tear the Service-Book and Surplices to transplace the Communion-Table level the Steps pull up Fonts break down all the painted Glass-Windows especially where any representation of our Saviour or any Saints or Bishops or other in Religious Habits were The Copes Vestments and Chalices were all swept out of the Church by Order of Committies or the Rapine of Parishioners or Soldiers The Monuments and monumental Inscriptions were most of them defaced especially where a Religious Habit was represented an Ora pro Animâ annexed or the worth of the Brass tempted the Sacriledge none of the zealous Observers of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church were permitted to enjoy any Benefice or teach a School Bishops and Deans and Chapters Lands were sold and they were about resolving which of the Cathedrals should be demolished So that in conclusion there was no publick appearance of the Discipline of the Church of England tho' all the Pulpits were supplyed with Preachers who conformed to their new Directory and new Ordination by Presbyters This might indeed be called a Protestant Church but I am sure it was very different from the Church of England as established by Law which was so far from then being a flourishing Church that it had neither Vola nor Vestigium of one but such as was under as dismal a Persecution as a Church well could be It is true after the late King of immortal memory's Restauration It was restored again to a competency of Power and Order Yet the Dissenters Meeting-places were as much frequented as the Churches Everywhere Non-conformable Ministers had their Conventicles till a new Act of Uniformity was made yet the number of Dissenters then were so many that the King who loved ease and to have his Subjects minds composed that he might more freely have the Service of their Bodies and Purses was willing to grant them Indulgence till that was disliked by the Parliament and the Bishops and zealous Members of the Church of England whereby the King was prevailed with to revoke it Thus was the Church of England harrassed under Protestant Princes SECT VII That it is in a more flourishing condition now LET us now take a view of its present State and make a just paralel and we shall I think find it in no worse but in a better state than before Now our Clergy-men go publickly in their decent Habits are reverenced and respected no affronts put upon them All the Ceremonies appointed by the Canons and Rubricks are more exactly observed and more universally confirmed too than in any Age before we hear little of their Conventicles the greater number of former Dissenters flocking to our Churches conforming in all things answering to the Responses standing up at the Creed bowing at the Name of Jesus kneeling at the Prayers and with great attention and zeal hearing the learned Sermons delivered almost from every Pulpit the Ministers redoubling their pains in emulation to the Catholick Fathers that they may retain their Flocks firm to the Protestant Religion and we may judge by the crowding of the Churches That for one Dissenter that was won to the Church of England in the late Kings Reign there are now ten which is one of the Miracles the King has done to unite these at so great odds formerly So that to me it is a
plain proof that some people believe the Promise of protecting the Church of England Which makes them shelter themselves under it but I suppose it will be no longer than the Storm is impending In fine unless it be that we want his Majesties presence at the Royal Chappel we find no alteration from what was in King Charles the Second's time and the generality of the people finding the Clergy so boldly to stand to the Protestant Religion respect and reverence them more than ever So that if the flourishing state of a Church be to be known by the number of Communicants by the populous Auditories conformableness to the Ecclesiastical Doctrine and Discipline If by the decency of the Churches the full free and solemn Exercise of the Rites of our Religion by the eloquent learned and painful preaching of the Ministers by the full and free enjoyment of their Revenues the uninterrupted Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Laws and Discipline The present state of the Church of England is as flourishing as we can desire and may so continue if we can be content to yield Roman Catholics a favour next to a Tolleration SECT VIII The Self-denial of the King in the Exercise of his own Religion SINCE I am discoursing of the paralel of the flourishing state of the Church of England formerly and now I think we ought seriously to reflect how gracious our King is to us and how little a share of liberty to his Catholics he is content with None sure could have counted it injustice if our Sovereign had chosen his own Royal Chappel in his own Palace to have performed his Devotions in whereas he quits that to the Prince and Princess to the Archbishops great Ministers of State the Nobility Bishops and Protestants of all ranks and contents himself with the Queens Chappel at St. James's hath only one Bishop his Confessarius and a small number of Chaplains and circumscribes his Processions within the Cloyster of that small Convent And at Windsor his Summer-Palace leaves the Collegiate Church to Protestants and only keeps to himself the small new Chappel adjoyning to St. Georges Hall which if he had not taken though some unquiet Spirits made such a noise at it he must have had no place there for his Devotion The King graciously allows us the Cathedrals Parish-Churches and Chappels and the free and unrestrained exercise of our Religion have we reason then to grudge him two or three small Chappels and the Subjects of his Faith their Private Oratories We have had a further Instance of his Majesties tenderness in protecting the Church of England in the Letter sent to the two Arch-bishops at such time when it was generally bruited abroad we may judge by whose Artifice and Malice that the King intended to prohibite preaching of Controversies betwixt the Church of Rome and us and to take away Lectures and Afternoon Preaching whereas we find by the Instructions annexed to the Letter That it was no more than had been done in King James's and in King Charles the First 's time and was verbatim what had been published by King Charles the Second And in stead of restraining our Ministers from preaching in defence of the Church of England it is allowed yea appointed them so it be done according to the Instructions Let us therefore receive these largesses of Princely Favours with dutiful and thankful Hearts and by no petulancy or unnecessary eagerness for more indanger the loss of what we enjoy And I doubt not but Roman Catholics will allow something to a people devoted to their Religion and distinguish betwixt those that are and ever will be truly Loyal even under Sufferings and a party that seek all opportunities to repine SECT IX The difficulty of effecting a Change of Religion First from the Peoples general Prejudice against it TO proceed more particularly to the further Reasons why I think the Protestant Religion is in no such danger as some labour with all their Arts to make us believe I shall desire it may be considered How averse the body of the People are to it Protestantism here has taken deep Root and the prejudice against and even abhorrence of Popery hath been instilled into us with our first Rudiments So that the generality may as well be prevailed upon to embrace Turcism or Heathenism as the Religion which hath been represented to them as Idolatrous and so contrary to Scripture Education and a long Series of contrary Usage are great Impediments in the minds of all Men to admit of any change in Customs much more in Religion The great Obstacle that hinder the common people from complying with the Roman Catholic Religion are That the Publick Service is celebrated in an Unknown Tongue in which they know not how to joyn as they do in our Liturgies and the multitude of mysterious Ceremonies do no less amaze them who will be rather contented to be accounted thick-skulls than they will be at the pains to learn them The Clergy and those who are able to consider the matters in dispute betwixt the two Churches cannot after that vast number of Books that have been writ on both sides satisfie themselves in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints worship of Images Purgatory Merit and several other matters in which difference they unite with other Reformed Churches And there is something peculiar which will be a constant Remora to the Clergy especially viz. That First the Reformation was here more regular than in any other Country Secondly That Episcopal Government is maintained in good order and such a Liturgy and Ceremonies used as come nearest to the Primitive usage as they think themselves very able to maintain Thirdly They are unwilling to yield the Roman Catholic Church to be the Judge of Controversies betwixt them And as to the Supremacy of the Pope The English Clergy will most unwillingly yield it after so long a renouncing it Lastly The Indispensible Celebacy of the Catholic Clergy is an insuparable hinderance of English Ministers submission to that Religion since the married here will be incapable of preferment and on the contrary must suffer degradation and beggery Who seriously considers those things will not only judge it an attempt unseazable especially when the prospect of a Protestant Successor is an Ensuring-Office to our Religion but may satisfie any of the groundlesness of those Fears some people are too prone to suggest more I think out of design than that they believe it themselves That the Protestant Religion is designed to be overthrown There are but four ways by which this can be effected Either First by the freedom of preaching of the Fathers Secondly Their Writings Thirdly Their Conversation Or Fourthly by Force which I shall now consider As to their Preaching 1 That it will not be effected by the preaching of the Fathers First It is observeable That it is a most rare thing to hear any discourse of Controversies in the King 's or either Queen's Chappels or
of Rome by any of these or any other method of more force the act being personal seeing every Mans Salvation toucheth himself most why should any so much be concerned about it seeing it is their own voluntary act and no injury is done to the willing yielder and it would be a strange obstinacy in any not to yield to conviction Having shewn the groundlesness of those peoples fears that dread the overthrow of the Church of England by any of the three forementioned ways I come now to the last that is Force It was a Master-piece in the Seclusionists 4 That it is morally impossible to effect it by force to represent Popery and Slavery as Twin-Monsters and inseparable Fiends which they described in the most terrible shape with Jaws of Lions Talons of Vultures and Harpyes Eyes of Basilisks and fierceness of Tygers surrounding them with Fire and Brimstone horrible Flame and the equipage of Chains Racks and Wheels and all the Torments of the Ten Persecutions or what ever else inventive Mischief hath since found out Yet we now live to see them all but terrible Bugbears and the Affrightments of Hypocondriac Dreams By a natural instinct we English of what perswasion soever are very careful to preserve our properties which in all times have been dear to us and those most antient Laws that secure them were made before the name of Protestant was known in the World. We must also consider that with what ever daring courage religious zeal may inspire Men yet common policy and interest will certainly discourage all Catholics from attempting any change of Religion by force and enslaving lest they or their posterity in the next Age might undergo a Retaliation as heavy upon them when it would be more easie to extirpate the whole Roman Religion here than now it would be to change that of one City When therefore the founding of Religion will be the ruine of Estates and the Story of Perrillus's Bull is not worn out of Mens Memories or Men are like to be the Sacrifices upon the Altars they too precipitately raise we are not to expect such venterous Heroes as will have the hardiness of Sampson especially since if they had they would want the Power and force to effect it SECT X. Two Objections answered I Know it is urged That we had a sad Experiment of the change made by a standing Army here which was able to overthrow the Monarchy And the French Kings late proceedings against the Hugonots prove That by force great alterations otherwise looked upon as next to impossible may be effected But the Cases are very different from ours 1 That the case of the Usurpers over throwing the monarchy and episcopacy is very different from ours for in our late Civil Wars the people were only wrought up to the height of power to dispose of the fate of Monarchy by the belief the Designers impressed upon them That Popery and arbitrary Government were making great approaches and fully designed to be introduced by the King and Bishops And a Parliament was by a fatal oversight perpetuated which was of the same perswasion and had the Hearts Purses and Heads of infinite multitudes to assist them in the work of Reformation in the Church and redressing of Grievances as they were called in the State Which being such specious pretensions and having a Parliament to patronize it and the Scotch Nation to abett them it was the less to be wondred at that such a Revolution was made especially when we consider the Churches alteration was nothing so great as it would be betwixt the exchange of Protestant Episcopacy for R. Catholic Hierarchy and the Popes Supremacy which is here so much antiquated Then the Doctrine of the Church was little altered except in that they rejected the Order of Bishops for the Service being in the known Language without any Ceremonies only consisting of Prayers reading of Scriptures Preaching and Administring the Sacraments according to the use of Scotland Geneva Holland and the Hugonots of France the transition was more easie after the Army was victorious Yet we have seen how short liv'd even that Usurpation was In our present case a Religion is to be brought in against the most earnest endeavours the firmest perswasions and Resolutions and the utmost detestation and abhorrence of the people So that while we see only a mixture of Catholic Officers with a far greater number of Protestants and a Body almost intire of Protestant Soldiers We may as well have credited That Oliver Cromwel's Army could have pulled the Pope out of his Palace and introduced Protestantism in all Catholic Countries as I have heard some of the Officers and Chaplains of that Army confidently enough hope as that we can expect an extirpation of our Religion here by so small a number of R. Catholics as are in the Court Camp or Country As to the instance of the French Kings proceeding 2 That the proceedings of the French King ought nor to affright us surely they that urge it never give themselves liberty to reflect upon the discrepancy of the case In France the King and the whole Body of his Kingdom are R. Catholics and the Religion is established by Law and it is easie to obtain further Laws for the support of it and the destroying of all others by a King so victorious and reverenced since how numerous soever Protestants were there yet comparatively to the Catholics they were very inconsiderable If indeed the King of France were an Hugonot and with the assistance of his Protestant Subjects had been able to have brought all Catholics to his Religion then there might have been some ground for such an instance If the advancers of this affrightment would have been so candid as to have subjoyned how our gracious King hath granted not only the French Exiles a safe retreat into his Kingdom but hath likewise promised them a Protection in the exercise of Religion conformable to the practice of the Church of England And to all such hath granted his Gragracious Letters Patents for the collecting the Charity of his Subjects for their Relief which is accordingly with a superlative Liberality afforded them They would rather have made it as an Argument of the Kings inviolable observing his Gracious promise in protecting the Church of England than have produced it as an incitement to our fears of the contrary But these kind of men know how to boil up Sugar to the bitterness of Aloes and extract Poison out of Cordials SECT XI That the King 's dispensing with the Test is no Argument of his Design to extirpate the Protestant Religion I Know it is urged that if his Majesty did not design some alteration in Religion what need is there of his so great solicitude and earnest endeavours for the taking away of the Test and how comes it to pass that the Law against it is dispensed with and so many Catholics are Commissioned in the Army and may be in
other Offices This being the continual Toll by which some would make us believe the Protestant Religion was about giving up the Ghost I think it most necessary to enlarge the more upon it in shewing how just it is in the King to imploy Catholics and how much Reason he hath to dispense with the Test and that the refusing the Abolishing of it will be attended with much greater Inconveniences than the continuance of it It is equitable that the King imploy Catholics Before I enter upon this Subject more directly I think it requisite in the first place to shew the Equitableness and Reasonableness of the Kings imploying R. Catholics In order to which First we must consider with what steadiness and equanimity of Mind peculiar to himself our Illustrious King stemmed the Torrent of Antimonarchical and Associating Insolence and how undauntedly he weathered out the Storm raised against him upon the account of Religion before his access to the Crown So that we cannot think that he withdrew himself from the Communion of the Church of England for any Secular Interest and being not only so peaceably at first seated on his Throne but by a Miraculous success against a Rebellion that was within a cast of Victory so firmly establisht in his Right It cannot be thought but that he makes some reflections on the justness of his Cause and the favour of Heaven to his Religion so that after we have seen him Triumph over the spightful and impotent Confederaces against him and know him to be a Prince of those rigid Principles of Honour and Conscience as in no time to make use of the coverture of dissimulation we must conclude that the World would judge him hypocritical in his Religion if he should not publickly practise it himself and countenance the Profession of it in his Catholic Subjects and shew as favourable a regard to them Caeteris paribus as to Protestants Secondly 2 That the King hath reason to favour his Catholic Subjects It is most natural for every person to cherish and confide in those most who are of the same Perswasion with themselves in point of Religion who are to be supposed will most cordially and concernedly adhere to their Interest as knowing that their common Fortunes are interwoven While therefore Protestants since the Reformation have been the sole usu-fructuaries of all the places of Honour and Profit in Church and State and all who have been bred Catholics have been since the begining almost of Queen Elizabeth's time or at least from the middle of it under more or less continual pressure And a great many suffered most deeply for their Loyalty to King Charles the First And during the credence given to the late Plot have been harrassed from Session to Session proceeded against as Traytors Imprisoned and forced into Exile or undergon the severe penalties of the Laws It is but reasonable that they or their Posterities should with some more than common emotion of Joy and Contentment entertain the liberty of the exercise of their Religion they have so long been restrained from Nor is it to be wondred or repined at that they are very desirous to receive the Warmth and Sunshine of a Kings Favour they have so long been deprived of and of discovering their Joy and Satisfaction that they may be capacitated to render him Service and be united in that dutiful Bond of Loyalty with Protestants though they cannot accord with them in Matters of Religion Thirdly 3 It is unreasonable the King should be abridged of it It is a very unreasonable Matter that any Sovereign Prince should be abridged of the liberty of placing his Favours at his pleasure either in Compensation of his Subjects Sufferings or as a reward for their serviceable Loyalty or for the support of some meritorious Person or such as by their Pen do him Joynt-service with his Arms the one awing and the other arguing the Ill-dispos'd Subjects into their Duty And it no ways becomes Subjects to Murmur much less to repine upbraid or offer at catechizing the Prince for it Fourthly 4 It is an usual practice among Princes It is a well known usage amongst all Princes to entertain in their Service Great as well as Inferiour Commanders that are useful to them without having respect to their Religion For the Liberty that any Great Prince gives to a brave Man to Exercise his Devotions in the way he has chosen makes him so much the more at ease to be solicitous about nothing worldly but the true serving his Prince which made the late King not ill served by some of his greatest Sea Commanders and Captains who had learnt their Experience under the Usurpers and were Non-Conformists to the Church of England It is well known how long Marshal Turene served the French King before he returned to the Bosom of the Church of Rome and how Cardinal Richilieu and he though they offered their Prayers at several Altars yet petitioned joyntly for success to their Common Master And how long after the same King entertained Mounsieur Schomberg and other Protestants Surely the German Emperour doth not reject the Service of the Lutheran Princes and their Forces against the Otoman Empire and it is well known that Forreigners are imployed in the Councils or Armies of most Princes Fifthly 5 It is but like imploying Subjects of different Kingdome or Countries Neither can I see any greater difference in the Kings imploying of some Catholics together with Protestants than there is in his making his Subjects of both his Kingdoms participants with us English in Offices and Ministeries of State Which to repine at were very great Injustice seeing it is what has been ever practised Sixthly I may add further 6 It would be an injustice not to do it that it were a great oversight in Politics and an Injustice if his Majesty did not imploy Catholics for it is most fit in all his great and small Services he should intermix those he might most intirely confide in by the Unity of their Interest by which a commendable emulation would be betwixt them who should serve him best or at least his Wisdom or Umpirage would be best known by chusing what Council to follow when they proposed different Mediums and it would keep either party in that Golden Mediocrity which is most useful to Princes As to Injustice which Epithet whoever would fasten upon a Prince robs him of one of the noblest Flowers of his Crown can it be other in a Prince not to bestow Rewards Honours and Offices that are solely dispensable by himself to his serviceable Subjects or such as have suffered for their adherence to him or his Family and persevere in it and none can deny but some Catholics are such And all Catholic Princes would judge our King a very unequal Distributer of his Favours and to have no great Zeal for his Religion if he should not countenance and prefer some of his Catholic Subjects Yet
doubtful whether the Kings dispensing Power will be allowed or not I say if there were no other Reasons the King hath from hence sufficient cause to insist earnestly upon the repealing these Laws and the Test and it is probable almost to a demonstration that if this had been frankly granted it would have satisfied the King and have composed the minds of Roman Catholics who being placed in a condition of safety would have continued that esteem they had for the Church of England ever since the late Civil Wars when they were the only fellow-sufferers SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test HAving premised this I come to treat of the Inconveniencies the denial of the repeal of these Laws brings with it viz. First That it raiseth in his Majesties Royal Breast a prejudice against our Church and Religion and the effects of the unkindness it may beget appears to me of a much more dangerous consequence than the taking off the sanguinary and penal Laws can produce so that in stead of acting for the preservation of our Religion we expose it to more imminent and apparent danger and inconsiderately run upon the Rock we would avoid since such unaccountable obstinacy hath not only in all probability occasioned the enquiry into the Kings Power in dispensing with the penal Laws the displacing of Ministers of State and Officers in the Army and Commissionating a greater number of Catholics than otherwise would have been admitted the taking Catholic Lords into the Council and granting the Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs but may oblige the King to make still greater Changes amongst his Officers Ministers and Judges than otherwise he intends All those holding their places only during his Royal Pleasure so that without violating any Law he may at one stroke remove most Protestant Officers from the Administration of Affairs of State under him And we know not what Changes and Alterations this wayward and unseasonable stiffness may induce his Majesty to make in the external Government and Polity of the Church by the Power of his Supremacy and Prerogatives And surely the extruding of Protestants from Power and Authority either in Church or State under the King is likely to be a vaster prejudice to our Religion than the repealing the Test can be Let us therefore think how much we are bound even in Christian prudence for the sake of our Religion not to provoke the King to withdraw his Indulgence to us in the Exercise of that Religion which he graciously offers to protect and which Grace we ought not to requite by urging the keeping up those severities against those of his Religion which most Protestants would decline to execute if they could and which we cannot if we would until we first renounce obedience to Gods Command and Submission to our Sovereign by refusing if not overthrowing his Sacred Authority and Power Whereas we are tyed by our Principles and Religion not to resist it being a chief and Essential Position and Doctrine of the Church of England to render Active and when we cannot do that Passive Obedience to our Sovereign and what ever we suffer it will not excuse us from the Guilt and Crime of indamaging and indangering our Religion by this unnecessary giving occasion to it when we might have saved not only our Reputations of being most dutiful Subjects but won so far upon the heart of our Royal Master that it would have been in the power of none to have estranged his Affections from us The Spirit of moderation becometh Christians and Calmness and Discretion becometh Subjects in all dealing with their Sovereign and we may be assured that the greater invitation we give our King by these Virtues the greater assurances we have of his Protection of our Religion and the preservation of the present Peace and Tranquility which we enjoy Let us not therefore by denying what we cannot hinder lose the greatest Blessings and Happinesses we may retain that King and People may live in that happy and good understanding which may continue and Crown the sweetness and easiness of his Royal Government over us and of our Tranquility Prosperity and Happiness under his Shadow The second Inconvenience Secondly Till these Laws be taken off it will continue those most dangerous of Evils that can befal the King and People when there is no good correspondence betwixt the King and the two Houses of Parliament On the Kings part first we may call to mind the miserable times of King John and King Henry the third and those more fresh and never to be forgot under King Charles the First Secondly However prudent and wise a Prince may be yet the watchful envy or designs of some Neighbour Potent Prince or State may necessitate our King to defend his Merchants or Plantations to succour his Allies or to secure his People from Damage or Hostilities whereby he may be forced to have recourse to his Parliament for Aid which while a good correspondence is wanting may render them slow to grant or upon unequal Conditions Thirdly This will give an opportunity to all sorts of Male-Contents and Enemies to the Monarchy to bestir themselves to embroil and ferment the People into some dangerous Defection Sedition or Rebellion On the Peoples side the mischiefs that will befall us by this want of a good understanding betwixt the King and his two Houses will be first that since our King by a mature Age and a great Experience of all affairs relating to Arms and Government is fitted and enabled more than most of his Royal Predecessors to aggrandize himself and give renown to his Subjects by buoying up whatever hath been sunk in the reputation of the World And is able to increase the Traffick of his people and inlarge their Commerce and his Empire and make as great a Figure in the World as any Crowned Head. All the Blessing we and our Neighbours might expect from so qualified a Prince will be utterly lost so that in stead of transporting his Cares Counsels and Arms into foreign parts he shall be necessitated to confine them within the Circle of his own Dominions only to keep them from Sedition or any worse mischief So that the hopeful opportunities which the World knows our King might have to hold again the Ballance of Europe and make us as flourishing a people as ever will be totally lost To the great satisfaction no doubt of some of his Neighbours and the general and irreparable loss to us and our Posterity who with sad reflections may lament the occasion of this dispute Secondly Such a want of good Correspondence betwixt the King and his two Houses will hinder us from obtaining such advantageous Laws for the benefit of the Subjects as this Remora being removed might rationally be expected among which most probably one or more might be a Corroboration of the Kings Gracious Promise of protecting the Church of England and whatever else
the principal place of his residence not to name other Towns Lutherans and Calvinists have their Churches as well as Roman Catholics and I suppose he allows the like liberty in the Palatinate as the Count Palatine did to whom he lately succeeded as his heir male The Duke of Brandenburg is himself a Calvinist yet his Subjects are for the most part Lutherans and in some parts of his Dominions Roman Catholics freely enjoy their Religion The Bishop of Mentz tho a Roman Catholic admits the Lutherans in his City of Erford to exercise their way of worship So the Duke of Saxony a Lutheran hath establisht such an accord in his City of Budifin that the Roman Catholics and Lutherans celebrate their Divine Offices in the very same Church separated only by a Grate The Bishop of Osnaburgh of the House of Zell is himself a Lutheran yet in his Town from whence he hath his Title both Roman Catholics and Lutherans have their Churches and the next Bishop must be a Catholic and so Alternately And the Lutheran Canons say their Offices with the Catholics in the Cathedral In the City of Ausburgh they have two chief Magistrates whereof one must always be a Roman Catholic and the other a Lutheran The Prince of Sulzback is a Roman Catholic by profession yet in some parts of his Territories not only Roman Catholics and Lutherans enjoy their different worship but interchangeably the same day in the same place The Roman Catholics using a portable Altar which they place upon the Lutheran Altar when they officiate The Abbot of Curvey is a Prince of the Empire and a Roman Catholic and hath seventeen Villages in his Jurisdiction whereof sixteen are Roman Catholics only Ansted hath Lutheran Inhabitants who enjoy their Religion and in their Annual Procession not only those Lutherans but the Envoys from the Lutheran Princes of Brunswick Lunenburgh and Hannover attend it some carrying the Abbot's Mitre others the Crosier c. At Lambspring under the Rule of the Bishop of Hildershem the Abbot and Convent are principal Lords yet they permit the Lutherans to have a Church Thus the Germans live in neighbourly Love and Amity and busie not themselves in conspiring one anothers ruin There is one great instance in this part of Germany that comes home to our Case The late Duke of Hannover being converted to the Roman Faith during his Father the Duke of Zell's Life lived out of his Country and was a Canon at Paris and tho he lived in a low Station with few Servants yet he kept such a correspondence with persons of Quality in his Fathers Jurisdiction that tho his Father designed to disinherit him yet upon the news of his last Sickness he posted into the Confines and upon notice of his Death at Hannover where his Elder Brother was he posted to Zell and was so well received there that he was soon in the Head of a considerable Army and by mediation betwixt the two Brothers he made an exchange of Zell the nobler Dukedom for that of Hannover the richer where being setled he governed his Country very peaceably for fourteen years and contented himself with a Chappel for his own Devotion and a Convent of Capuchins near it and promiscuously employed Roman Catholics and Lutherans in his Military and Civil Imployments giving to his Roman Catholic Subjects free liberty of the Exercise of their Religion and wrought so good an accord among his Subjects of both Perswasions that there were no animosities among them none repining at anothers preferment but in point of Duty and Allegiance they all respected honoured and served him and lived happily under his Government and he was in as good esteem among his Lutheran Subjects as any Prince had been long before He dying without Issue Hannover fell to his younger Brother the Bishop of Osnabourgh who is a Temporal Prince not in holy Orders but married and hath several Princes and Princesses his Children and is himself a Lutheran Upon his entrance to his Principality he did not prosecute the Roman Catholics only the Capuchins who lived upon Alms could not stay as in a Convent tho he profered them protection for their persons and Roman Catholics enjoy the liberty I have before mentioned as others do in several Principalities in Germany Whether this Harmony happen by reason the people are not such Zealots in Religion as in other places to be cutting of Throats for it I cannot tell but I am sure it is a great ease to Prince and People By this Example I hope it will appear how practicable it is that Roman Catholics and Protestants may live under the protection of Magistrates of either Belief without swallowing up one another and if it were not for the violent prejudices which some have there is no need of endeavours to extirpate Roman Catholics who being few in number yet are considerable in quality and interest Nor of oversetting the Church of England whose true Members ever have been Loyal and in the worst of times have joyned with Roman Catholics for the support of the Crown and have been fellow-sufferers Surely we cannot forget the time when so great a Credit was given to a Plot which even as it was published in Narratives was as dark and confused as the Chaos as monstrous as any Figment of the Poets or in the Alcharon full of impossibilities and contradictions So that it is now our wonder and astonishment how greedily it was swallowed Yet this served the turn to exasperate the people yea the Parliament it self to that degree that not only the Catholics were branded as the most trayterous barbarous cruel bloody-minded Men in the World but they suffered the severities of the Laws And much innocent blood was shed upon the Testimony of a few perjur'd Villans who got the Character of the Kings Evidence yet we cannot but remember who They were that while they were fixing our Eyes so intently upon the defence of the Kings Person and the Church of England against the Plots of Papists were in the mean time providing their Blunderbusses and designing a most horrid Regicide I recal this to mind only to evince that we are not to look upon Papists through the perspectives have been hitherto afforded us but to believe our own Eyes and other Organs of Sence and consider whether a Popish Successor be such a Creature yea a Fiend as he was represented SECT XVII The Character of his Majesty IF I were able to furnish my self with as much Celestial Illumination and Spirit from above as the Author of that Character fetched from the Mines of Fire and Brimstone below I should not be able to describe as I ought any tolerable similitude of our great Sovereign whose Portraicture the pannick fears luxurious spite and hellish designs of some then exposed Yet with humble Submission and Reverence due to the Majesty of so great a King I think it necessary to give some faint touches of those out-lines which ought to strike
us all with Admiration and Joy. It will I doubt not be readily owned that his Majesty is indowed with as large a portion of those Royal and Princely Virtues which signalize great Monarchs and render them conspicuous as any Prince that hath governed these Realms for many years And without flattery we cannot but admire his Courage Resolution and Promptness of Mind Activeness delight in Business thorough inspection into his Affairs with such a peculiar sweetness and benignity of temper as singly are of great value in Crowned Heads much more when to such a degree and lustre they are mingled with Justice Honour Fortitude Temperance and other Heroick Virtues in a Constellation so that even those who most passionately wish him the Delight and Darling as well as Glory of his People can superadd nothing to their wishes but that he were of their Religion But in the Judgment of Roman Catholics he finds not only an esteem due to the accumulation of his illustrious Virtues but is inriched with a Ray more by the profession of his Religion Those who are blessed Auditors of his familiar Discourses admire the serenity of his Humor few Mortals being less clouded or shaken with any storm of passion Those are witnesses how he imploys his dressing time in enquiries after what is remarkable in remotest Countries whether they relate to Government Peace or War Situation and Fortifications of places correspondencies one with another Customs and Usages Disposition of the people and their Commodities and of Traffick or the personal Virtues and Accomplishments of great Men The Inventers of useful Arts especially such as respect Military Discipline Navigation and Traffick mingling his own choice Observations which render all his Discourses pleasing yea sometimes surprising and always profitable and instructive Never was any Princes Court freer from debauchery and more orderly in the â—â—â—posal of all Officers in it from whence the Sovereign Master's solid Rules and exemplariness are notably discover'd The Diligent Virtuous Sober Ingenious and Loyal are received without censure of their Religion The Sloathful Turbulent Factious Debauched and Irreligious are as much discouraged as is most manifest by bis severe charges against Swearing and Drunkenness c. Pass we thence to his Chappel we cannot but observe with some astonishment how his public Devotions are performed with a serious Attention and a Fervour and Zeal equal to those that officiate at the Altar When we consider the management of his Revenues by his own peculiar Wisdom and Direction we cannot but be amazed at that vast Capacity which those bred to the Imployment cannot equal no more than they can that inspection into all the Officies of his great Empire the Uses and Abuses of which are as well known to him as any Nobleman knows his Surveys Rentals and Offices what a Fatigue would this give to the ablest of his Subjects to order some few particulars of these Matters much more to superintend the whole as he doth Did we survey the wonderful increase of stores he hath made for all sorts of Munitions both for Land and Sea we should think he imployed his Care and a great part of his Revenues in nothing else But when we attend him to his Camp and Navies we find a new Charge a new Care. His Majesties extraordinary Diligence and Skill in disciplining his Army and the perfection he hath brought it to in one year will be as incredible to after Ages as it is the wonder of this It is the observation of some that have seen other Princes Troops that considering their number they exceed all others not only in the richness of the Clothes of the Officers and the Guards the neatness of the Common Soldiers the goodness of their Arms the sightliness of the Men and Horses the order of the Camp but in the Skill in all their Exercises their readiness to observe Orders and the Civility and Morals of them being free from those Debaucheries which effeminate and unfit Soldiers for Valor and Vigilance And no Prince can take more effectual ways by due and constant pay and provision of all things necessary to oblige his Troops to Fidelity and Courage Skill and Resolution than his Majesty doth so that his Camp is not only accomplished in Military Matters but is a nursery of good Education It being his Majesties special Command that the Soldiers so behave themselves in the Country that they may not only be regarded as his Servants wearing his Livery but as their Guard and the security of their peace and quiet So that none can justly repine at their numbers but such as would be glad to see him destitute of any force that might hinder their Contrivances against his Government We have already seen his Majesties Troops and we now find with how great eare and diligence he is equipping his Fleet which we may be sure will be answerable to the service he intends them for and proportionable to that Method and Order of his Land Forces and then no doubt it will exceed what former Ages have known when they are fitted by so great and magnanimous a Prince that hath so long been Lord High Admiral himself These things have millions of Witnesses But who can divine the Royal Solicitude and Care and those wise Contrivances for the good of his people which are the effects of his retired hours in his Closet There where he revolves in his Great Mind how to order all the Instruments of his Power to set all the Wheels of this great Machin on work to consider who are fitted for every distinct undertaking how to allott the thinking grave and wise the contriving part And the bold and obedient the executive part of his Affairs There he ruminates of his Councellors Wisdom and Address and what is fit to be communicated to them Here he consults the safety preservation and wealth of his Subjects how to make all of Loyal Principles tho of different perswasions in Religion live at ease and freedom Here he studies to obviate the designs of the Factious and Seditious which give greatest disquiet to the otherwise flourishing Reigns of Princes To reward advance and honour those who do him the acceptablest Services Here he bears the Burthen of his Kingdoms alone revolves the fate of other Empires and resoves the Model of his own May the Divine Wisdom inspire his Royal Breast here and in all places to follow such Methods as may make his People truly Reverence Love and dutifully Obey him whereby not only his Reign may be prosperous and peaceable but our Posterity may find the good effects of his Government Were his Majesties Character as well known through all his Dominions as it is to those nearest to him however imperfectly I have described it I should not think it possible that any could entertain such Umbrages of fear of his Conduct since we may be assured so wise and extraordinarily qualified a Prince will attentively consider how his own ease and felicity is involved in
in Religion these readily divided their adherence either to the Crown or to the Seditious or Rebels But whoever got by such commotions I am sure the generality of the Subjects were sufferers and whenever God Almighty punished them in this kind yet we find in the upshot the Government was again setled more firm as we may learn even by our latest examples at the Restauration of King Charles the second And whoever consider the benefits that accrue to a people that live quietly under Government and the sad mischiefs that Faction and Sedition cause will chuse the one rather than the other and will find that all the stricter impositions on the Subject have been occasioned by the peoples disobedience and the displacing of Officers have been for the security of the Government Hence the Act of purgeing Corporations and the late Quowarranto's and some Acts of State of later date Distrust of a Princes good Intentions for his People and diffidence in his gracious promises above all things are to be avoided in Subjects It is that hinders them from yeilding to his reasonable desires Our gracious King hath multiplied his Assurances of his protection of our Religion and it is our Duty and Interest to be confident in and truly thankful for them and neither by insolency mistrust or peevishness to forfeit his Royal Favour Those who are well acquainted with the gracious and generous temper of his Majesty know that a diffidence in his Sacred Promises is so much the more disobliging as it is the questioning his veracity which is one of the chief and most valuable of his Royal Virtues This distrust touching so vital a part as the Justice and Reputation of any private person raiseth a deep resentment how much more must it be ill indured in so great a Person who hath that peculiar temper of Spirit suitable to his Birth and Dignity not to suffer his Methods to be thwarted or disputed especially where the constructions put upon them tend to the diminution of the Love and Honour his Subjects owe him and will occasion seditious withdrawing of the Subjects from their Duty and Allegiance which as they are most important mischiefs and hazard the Peace of the Government so they have in all humane probability been the rrue and only Motives that have induced his Majesty to withdraw his wonted kindness from some persons that I am confident out of mere inadvertency of these consequences and out of desire to serve him in other Methods have fallen under his displeasure Upon this consideration it is that our Loyal Divines should have a special regard that neither openly or covertly they increase their Auditories suspition or distrust of his Majesties kindness to our Church but rather inforce a free passage of the contrary to our very heart and souls so as first to be truly thankful for his grace and then to be confident of it They have liberty from the King to confirm their Auditors with the best Reasons they can without misrepresentations in their Religion But withal I think it likewise necessary they be taught not to harbour those doubts and apprehensions of any Intendment of the King by any power to inforce us to abandon it but rather incourage them in a firm and thankful belief that the King will make good his gracious Promise Some such Cordials would preserve our Religion better than all the bewailings of the afflicted State of the Church which will not secure us one Article of our Religion I can foresee no danger to the Church of England by this way of proceeding but am most assured it would incline his Majesty more chearfully to continue his protection of it in finding such grateful returns of his Favours Only it might produce one effect that some probably are not desireous to experience that it would again bring us to that Criterion and perfect distinction of those who are true Members of the Church of England from others that now wear the Badge and Livery only which they can as soon undress themselves of when they should judge it for their Interest We should then find them at their old Calumnies that the Clergy were going over to or meeting half-way the Church of Rome and even those who are so much applauded and followed would in a little time be accused of selling the Reversion of our Religion as in the late times they were scandalized with the Incumbering and Mortgaging of it Upon the whole let us seriously consider that where Loyalty obtains no people can be miserable let us trust God and the King. And tho there are differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Roman Catholics and us Yet as we agree in Morals and in several indisputable Points of Christanity in the Creeds and several Articles of Faith as well as in some external Ceremonies rejected by other Protestants there is no reason we should keep up such inveterate Animosities be at perpetual strife not de finibus regundis but of exterminating one another But rather study how by an amicable accord in our common Duty of Christianity and Allegiance we may mutually and Cordially endeavour the defence and preservation of the King and his Government which ought to be every Loyal mans design and is the sole intendment of this my present writing to you FINIS