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
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-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
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
HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of ENGLAND Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLIC KING With reference to the TEST and PENAL LAWS In a Letter to a Friend by a Member of the same Church LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687. THE TITLES OF THE SECTIONS SECT I. THe Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England Page 1. SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion Page 4. SECT III. How the Bishops and Clergy behaved themselves in those times Page 14. SECT IV. The Calumnies against the Loyal Members of the Church of England in the foregoing times Page 18. SECT V. The Affrightments and Arts now used to make Subjects believe that the Protestant Religion is to be extirpated here Page 22. SECT VI. That the Church of England hath been in a disturbed condition under Protestant Princes Page 27. SECT VII That it is in a more flourishing condition now Page 33. SECT VIII The self-denial of the King in the Exercise of his own Religion Page 36. SECT IX The difficulty of effecting a change of Religion Page 40. SECT X. Two Objections answered Page 56. SECT XI That the Kings dispensing with the Test is no Argument of his design to Extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 62. SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 72. SECT XIII Concerning the Test Page 78. SECT XIV Concerning Sanguinary and Penal Laws against Roman Catholics Page 143. SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not Repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test Page 165. SECT XVI The Practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living under one Secular Government Page 180. SECT XVII The Character of his Majesty Page 191. SECT XVIII The Conclusion Page 205. ERRATA PAge 15. Line 7. for assured read afraid P. 22. the last line but one for These r. There P. 31. l. 17. for confirmed too r. conformed to P. 40. The Title of the Section should have ended at the word Religion and the rest be placed in the Margent P. 79. l. ult for it r. them P. 94. l. 7. for naturally r. natural P. 113. l. 12. for But r. yet P. 117. l. 1. after we put in may P. 178. l. 7. for preached r. practised P. 182. l. 3. for attemps r. attempts P. 183. l. 11. for Budifir r. Budifin P. 185. l. 7. for Abby r. Abbot HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of England Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLICK KING In a Letter to a Friend SECT I. The Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England SIR SINCE our first acquaintance we have seen the Revolution of almost fifty years In all which time your unshaken Loyalty and steady Adherence to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England have been most conspicuous You equally hated the Flatterer who by stretching the Length of the Scepter made it unweildy and the Factious who by continual filing made it too slender and of no more force than a Reed or so shortned it that from a Sovereign Battoon it scarce equalled a Serjeants Mace. You valued him most who paid a just Deference to the Regal Prerogative and was infinitely thankful for all the gracious Enfranchisements of the Subject You knew too well the Injustice and Illegality of taking Arms against King Charles the First setled your Judgment so firmly then that none of the Designers Arts to cajole the Multitude made any impression on you And however great your Sufferings were then and thereby by your Disability to aid the Banished Prince yet you were as forward as any to assist him in all things serviceable to his Interest not only in confirming your Neighbours and Acquaintance in their Allegiance when their Enemies success made them dispond but in making Converts of those who had been deluded by the specious pretence of Liberty and Reformation So that you helped much to prepare Mens minds earnestly to wish and effectually to promote the late Merciful King's Restauration and when in his later time he was so Embarrassed with some of his Parliaments you were an eminent Abhorrer and as strenuous an Opposer of the Bill of Seclusion and though you were branded with the name of Papist in Masquerade and a Janizary for Arbitrary Power yet you kept your Post and assured those that conversed with you that Loyalty which you had been taught in the Church of England was so firm a Basis to you that the attacks of Slander and Obloquy should never remove you one hair's breadth from your Duty It was the very Polar Star to which you directed all your Actions without trepidation the Axis on which you designed to move SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion GIVE me leave to remind you of some of those Answers you used to make to those Speeches were sent you from one of the Clerks of the Commons House when the debate was hottest about the Bill of Seclusion for it was at that critical Time the truest Sons of the English Church were discriminated from the Latitudinarian Protestants Non-Conformists and Common-wealth's Men. S. W. J. Collection of Speeches When that overgrown Lawyer said He took it for granted that it was impossible that a Papist should come to the Possession and quiet enjoyment of the Crown without wading through a Sea of Blood and without occasioning such a War as for ought he knew might shake the Monarchical Government You then reply'd This was more like the Bellowing of a Bull than a Responce from an Oracle of the Laws and that who ever lived to see the Duke Succeed as in course of Nature it was likely would find the True Sons of the Church of England so far from listing up an hand against him that if his Right were opposed they would with as much Zeal and Concern as any fight under his Royal Standard and if any such Bouteseu's as he raised a Rebellion they would only afford Trophies to his Victorious Sword and fall as Sacrifices to the Justice of his Cause When that bitter mans Speech was urged That a Popish Head on a Protestant Body would be such a Monster in Nature as would neither be fit to preserve or be preserved and it as naturally followed as the Night did Day that the Head would Change the Body or the Body the Head You answered That we ought to consider the Royal Headship abstractedly from the Subject-Body as we do the sublimed Animal and vital Spirits from the gross Blood and the grosser composition of the Body The Sovereignty being as a Presiding Coelestial Power fitted to govern Members of various Temperaments and Constitutions and that it was as easie to conceive how a Popish King might benignly govern his Protestant Subjects as it was for a Father to govern with Paternal Care and Indulgence his Children of different Humors and Inclinations and
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
they are imployed will as Bravely Honourably and Circumspectly discover their abilities and I hope will keep so good a correspondence with Loyal Protestants that are their Fellow-Servants to so great a Master that the King may at least have that satisfaction that he can unite them in a Camp which he cannot do in a Church and shew his great wisdom in Government that he can be faithfully and effectually served by all his Subjects of different Religious Interests And though the endeavours of several to explicate the Roman Catholic Religion more approachingly to the sentiments of Protestants have not as yet had that effect they wished yet it may be useful to let us see that in affairs of State and Government such an intercourse and mixture may be as former Ages have not known and by the Conduct of our Gracious and Wise King may be laid a foundation for better accord in future times that we may not be at such feuds among our selves It is true that under a Protestant King there might be some reason to maintain the Protestant Church so as it might neither be indangered by the Roman Catholics or Protestant Dissenters and by Sanguinary Laws tho rarely put in use people might be deterred from being of any other Communion yet we cannot think that the same measures can be taken now such circumstances varying the methods of proceeding and in Government and Politicks new Emergencies may yea must render old Axioms obsolete Hence we take notice how imprudent these Informers are who in our King's Reign more out of pretence and impotent zeal than for any good concern to the Church of England tempt the Justices and instigate them to prosecute Catholics by binding them to Sessions and Assizes for what can be expected from this but it will exasperate the King and discover how desirous these are to persecute them tho they know he will pardon the Transgression in as much as it relates to himself Thirdly 3 It is against the Kings Prerogative Having thus far treated of the Natural and Religious Grounds the King hath to demand to have the Act repealed I come now to the politic and more necessary part as it relates to the legal constitution of the Government which by this Act of the Test suffers a great alteration in the abridging the King of an undoubted Prerogative of the Crown For the illustrating of which I shall first give you the opinion of the most Celebrated Writers of the English Laws of what nature the Kings Prerogative in general is Secondly That the Leigance of the Subject to his Sovereign is judged among the principal Prerogatives of the King. Thirdly How tender our English Ancestors have been of the Royal Prerogative Fourthly That the Test deprives the King of the Leigance and of that Fundamental Prerogative of having the service of his Subjects And Lastly Conclude with some Inferences from these Considerations The nature of the Kings Prerogative As to the first a L. 1. Instit 90. Sr. Edward Coke saith the Prerogative extends to all Power Preheminence and Priviledge which the Law giveth to the Crown b Lib. 1. Bracton calls it in one place the Liberty in another the Priviledge of the King. c Fol. 47. Bretton following the d Weston 1. c. 50. Statute calls it Droyt le Roy and the e 61. Register stiles it the Kings Right and the Royal Right of the Crown My Lord f 2 Instit 84. Coke saith the Prerogative of the King is given him by the Common Law and is part of the Law of the Realm g Prerog c. 1. Stanford saith the Prerogative hath its Being from the Common Law and the Statutes are but declarative Properly speaking the Prerogatives of the Crown are such powers as the Kings of England have reserved to themselves as most necessary for the support of their Dignity and the Government Therefore h Rusâ—w Collect. 555. Sr. John Banks in his argument about Ship-mony affirms that the Jura Summae Majestatis which are the Prerogatives are given to the person of the King by the Common Law and the Supreme Dominion is inherent in his Person Another judicious i Mr. White Majestas Intemerata p. 30. Lawyer out of the Authorities he there cites saith The Prerogative is inseparable from his Person not grantable over it is always stuck upon the King or Crown and being inherent to the Majesty of a King and part of the matter of that Majesty is no more grantable than the Majesty it self or a Royal member of the Imperial Stile These are the Characters given to the Kings Prerogative in general â— The Subjects 〈…〉 the Crown Let us now in the second place consider that among the Prerogatives of the Crown It hath been always accounted one of the eminentest principal and fundamental ones that the King and none but he may at his own pleasure command the service of all and every his Subjects in his Wars and other Ministerial Offices which they are bound to by their Natural Allegiance Hence k 2 Instit. 128. Sr. Edward Coke stiles Leigeance the highest and greatest obligation of Duty and Obedience that can be and defines it The true and faithful obedience of a Liege man to his Liege Lord or Sovereign and so calls it * Vinculum Fidei Leges essentia The Ligement or bond of Faith and the essence of the Law and in l 7 Rep. p. 9. amittit Regnum sed non Regem amittit Patriam sed non Patrem Patrie another place he affirms That it is not in the power of any Subject to dissolve this Obligation saying That he that abjures the Realm may loose the Kingdom but not the King may loose his Country but not the Father of his Country agreeable to what another eminent m Dyer fol. 300. Lawyer asserts That none can divest himself of his Country in which he is born nor abjure his due Allegiance nemo patriam qua natus est exuere nec ligeanciam debitam ejurare potest In Calvin's Case the famous n 7 Rep. p. 4. Chief Justice saith That Liegeance and Obedience is an Incident inseparable to every Subject For as soon as he is born he oweth by Birthright Liegiance and Obedience to his Sovereign therefore in several Acts of o 14 H. 8.61 43 H. 8. c. 3. Parliament the King is called The liege and natural liege Lord of his Subjects and his people natural liege Subjects So that the liegiance is due to the natural person of the King by the Law of Nature which is immutable is part of the Law of England and was before judicial and municipal Laws as the same great Author affirms Long before him p Lib. 1. Stanford Plea 54. Bracton saith That things which are annexed to justice and peace belong to none but the Crown and dignity Royal nor can they be separated from the Crown for they make the
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
that of his Subjects Were he a Prince less Vigorous and Active in his person which his Princely exercises and temperance contribute so much to were he less experienced in a long Tract of Obervations less knowing of men and of their by-past and present innate and forced dispositions and of a less piercing Judgment and vivacity of Spirit Had he not so many times adventured his Life for the Honour and Safety of these Kingdoms were he a Prince that did not so seriously discountenance prophaneness and vice or gave not such signal tokens of his piety were he a Prince that devolved his Cares on others whereby he might enjoy a pompous and easie life were he not constant to his purposes or were less exemplary in all provident managery or sparing in the expence of Provisions for the Honour and Safety of his Dominions Were he subject to any transport of Passion or easily imposed upon by slie and cunning Achitophels we might suspect his concern for his people and think him negligent or not understanding of his Interest But a Prince endowed with so extraordinary qualifications can never be wanting in the great concern of his Royal Office both in conserving his Dominions in peace and being indulgent to all that unworthily distrust not his Gracious Intentions and make not false constructions comments and glosses upon them and by an unworthy waywardness court cloudy weather or storms when they might enjoy sun-shine and a clear sky SECT XVIII The Conclusion TO draw now towards a Conclusion I shall only offer you some considerations which I desire you will seriously think upon First you cannot but have observed that there are a set of men who although they be at as great a distance from knowing his Majesties Resolves as they are from the Moon yet will pretend to have Telescopes in Politicks whereby they can discover all the Hills and Valleys Seas and Rolling Sands the Precipices and Plains the Desarts and Fertil Champaigns of our little world and by engraffing Microscopes upon them can magnifie to what prodigious bulk they please Molehills and the minutest Insects Yea they pretend to discover the secret Springs and Movements of all Counsels and that which is their greatest dexterity by a Charm they have they can make every one they get to use these to believe the reality of what they represent These men considering the Kings Personal Resolution Courage and Conduct and the Noble Designs he declared at his first entrance on his Government that by the blessing of God he would adventure his person as far as any man in his Dominions for the good of his people and endeavour to raise the renown and repute of his people as high as any of his Predecessors and withall considering the success that had attended all his undertakings knew that they could no ways foreslow the progress of his affairs but by depriving him of the Cordial Affections of his Protestant Subjects Therefore finding that his Majesty would be bound in Honour and Justice to shew favour to Catholicks in imploying them and endeavouring a repeal of penal Laws and knowing how much it would stand them in hand to lay hold of this opportunity fell presently to sigh out their extream fears that the Church of England was to be trod under foot if not totally extirpated They knew full well that as a Nipping Frost suddenly dispoyleth fresh Flowers of their richest paint and beauty and makes their erectest leaves soften and flag and singes the tallest Oaks as well as the lower Thickets and Copices even so from this chilling apprehension the briskest and most active Loyalty of some would be palsied benummed or cramped a Cloudy Jealousie would seize others and it would slacken the sails and becalm and make those Vessels Hull and float in a dead Sea that had formerly made so fair a progress towards the Port of Loyalty They knew likewise that if they could get the Kings desires opposed in Parliament it would effectually hinder the former good Correspondence had been betwixt the King and them and so it was their Interests like cunning Ambo-dexters to animate and incourage the Kings Zeal for it and at the same time to set all other tools at work to get it opposed This was the master-piece of some peoples policy which possibly was not all home-bred and it hath most powerfully effected the business and no doubt but it was easie to have been prognosticated However the matter hath been managed it is too late to call back yesterday The King hath the same motives to insist upon the taking off the penal Laws and since I have laid down so fully the reasons and inconveniencies of denying his desire It will be very becoming the wisdom of the Parliament as Loyal as a Prince can wish and of all the true members of the Church of England and of all that desire we and our posterity may be happy to study such expedients as there may not be eternal heart-burning persecutions jars and feuds betwixt the Members of the two so Famous Churches and that they will not only impartially consider what I write to you but that they will call in the aids of their Christianity reason and duty to govern their Actions that we may not endanger our Religion or be misled by false fires and trained into those denns where destruction and slavery keep their residence and where the pretended qualm at the apprehension of their dying Religion is but to get a dose of that Volatile Salt of Vipers that they hope would raise to life again their good Old Cause I know it is one of the difficultest cures to bring Hypocondriac people to abandon or forget their complaints If they get a notion by the fore-top they swing it about as boys do fire-sticks till it appears a whole Circle of Fire whereas six drops of water will quench it Sometimes such are cured with Hellibore but oftner by calm reasoning diverting their thoughts by representing the ill consequences of such groundless phancies and then cordial refreshings of their spirits bring them to composure I have made choice only of the last and desire all Lovers of their Country yea and of their Religion also to consider what the designs of some men are by their Libels wherein they endeavour to possess the Souldiery with strange apprehensions and would poyson them in their principles of Allegiance Surely it can be to no other end but that they hope thereby to disarm them of their Loyalty and so to find from them little resistance when they could be able by setting up the Standard of Protestantism to assemble their power against the Government Have you not seen other Libels for setting up Stipulatory Conditional Monarchy There was never an Insurrection or any Intestine Trouble but it was occasioned by a prepossession of the people with an ill opinion of the Princes Conduct and by debauching of the people in their duty and when there was either a faction in the State or diversity
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
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
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
employments whereby the Managery of the Government might solely be in the hands of Protestants yet what necessity was there for the outlawing of them in putting them out of the protection of the King and his Laws or of receiving any benefit by them so that they could not recover their just debts defend themselves from any injury done to their Persons or Estates nor have equity done them which is the priviledge all Subjects claim from their Sovereigns Justice As they must suffer all hardships so the Acts provide that no Protestant or other should be beneficial to them being deprived of all the usual ways whereby advantages accrue to any either by the Living or the Dead in that they might not be Guardians Executors Administrators or receive any Legacy or Deed of Gift Whoever considers these things with a sedate and composed mind undisturbed with Bigotry Suspition or Envy must think this punishment intended to keep the Roman Catholics in perpetual poverty and vassallage which no Roman Catholic Prince can take pleasure to see or endure Of the prohibiting Rom. Cathol to be in the Kings Court or Presence As to the prohibiting all Roman Catholics or any other resusers of the Oaths and Declarations advisedly to come into the Kings Presence or Courts there might be some colour for such a prohibition during the time that a Protestant Prince was thought to be in personal danger from Roman Catholics but surely at any other time it appears a strange ungentileness to retrench a Sovereigns attendance and shews a very unbecoming diffidence in the Wisdom of a Prince and his Privy Council as if they knew not whom and when to prohibit Access to their Royal Persons and Court which by direction to the Lord Chamberlain or by Proclamation might be done upon Emergencies It looks like a suspition that the hinderance of the Access of Roman Catholics was rather that they might not represent their sufferings explain their Religion more favourably make Proselytes or interceed for some accused which though not expressed in the Act fully yet may well enough be interpreted from the words preventing the increase of Popery I know there is a provision upon obtaining of licence but that could extend to very few who either could be at the expence or obtain the favour of an Order of Council for that purpose and so all indigent Catholics who for their sufferings for Kings Charles the Martyr might merit the late merciful Kings regard and benignity were utterly excluded Not fit now to continue But if we suppose these Acts as necessary and equitable as the greatest Sticklers for them could evince while the Plot was believed I think no person endowed with common civility will think it fit they should be imposed upon our present Sovereign nor will they think it equitable and just that any Roman Catholic King should deal in the same manner with his Protestant Subjects And I presume the Golden Rule to do to others as we would be done by our selves should influence publick as well as private affairs Concerning the King and Queens sworn Servants As to the Kings sworn Servants It must be very severe upon several of them whose fortunes were bottomed upon it and it was a very unbecoming restraint that a Sovereign should dismiss his Domesticks though never so experienced and faithful for that which it may be few Members of the Houses would discard a Trusty Menial Servant for As to the Queens Servants it had been contrary to the Law of Nations to have imposed such Oaths and Declarations upon such as were naturaly born Subjects of Portugal yet in that they were limited to so small a number as nine whereas her Majesty entertains near thrice the number of Religious it shewed but little consideration of the number of Servants in the Family of so great a Princess But I need not trouble you with the consideration of these as moving in a lower Sphere for what ever will induce the two Houses to reinstate the great Orbs in their places and capacitate them to exert their due Powers will prevail to restore the Satellites of the great Luminaries Therefore I shall now pass to the ejecting the Roman Catholic Lords out of their House and depriving them of their Birth-rights Concerning the Catholic Lords being excluded the House By the Kings Royal Prerogative the Power of Creating a Baron and Peer of the Realm is only in the King as the Original Donor of all Honours from whom all Dignities flow as from a Fountain to all his Subjects Conciliarii nati This Honour consists not only in obtaining a swelling Title and Degree of precedencie as special Marks to them and their Families of Princely Favours but likewise hath for many hundreds of years had annexed to it a right of being a Member of the House of Peers sitting and voting there and thence they are stiled frequently Hereditary Councellors who constitute the Kings Supreme Court of Judicature In the Saxon times and long after the Conquest we find none but Bishops Abbots Priors and these stiled Magnates or Proceres to constitute the General Councils which we now call Parliaments tho it seems by what we can collect from the Ancientest Authors the King summoned which of these he pleased and did not tye himself to continue it to their Posterities Mat. Paris 227. But in the Great Charter of King John we find he granted that he would by special Letters summon to these Great Councils in Assessing all Aids and Scutage the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Earls and great Barons of the Realm Cap. 2.12.19.37.38 So in the Great Charter of Henry the Third those are first provided for and a severe Excommunication was wont to be pronounced by all the Bishops in presence of all the Lords and Commons against the Infringers thereof And it is obvious to all who know any thing of our Laws how Sacred an Esteem the Great Charter hath had being stiled The Charter of the Subjects Liberties and looked upon as the Standard of the Subjects Priviledges so that some are of opinion that even Acts of Parliament contrary to Magna Charta are void Et ut Barones tractentur teneantur reputentur c. eorum quilibet habeat teneat possideat sedem locuus vocem in Parliamentis publicis Comitiis et consillis nostris haeredum successorum nostrorum infra Regnum nostrum Angliae inter alios Barones Barones Parliamentorum publicorum Comitiorum Conciliorum T it 〈◊〉 Part. 2. cap. 5. This Right of Barons sitting and voting in Parliament is specially provided for in their Patents of Creation which may be seen at large in Mr. Selden And as to what relates to our purpose is contained in these Words after the Recital of the Words of Erecting and Creating them and their Heirs-males to the Name State Degree Stile Dignity Title and Honour of a Baron c. That they shall be treated held and