turn of being uppermost and then will be in a capacity of revenging themselves If you tolerate and give way to Dissenters you contribute to their Growth and with your own hands help the Wheel to turn round and when they are got to the Top they may forget all your former connivances There is no end of pursuing the consequences of things that have such variety of chance and are influenced by every little incident the wisest way surely is for a man to be uniform to himself to do his duty and leave the success to God I cannot tell how seasonable it may be put people in mind at this time of Queen Marys daies Those that can aquiesce in the faith and justice of a King who has been alwaies so faithful a Subject to his own word can no more apprehend the hot doings of those times would return than that the time it self so long pass'd should be recall'd But there are Consciences as full of fears and jealousies of persecution for as they are of scruples in their Religion and condemn themselves never to be satisfy'd This is not very strange for it is natural for every man to hope and fear according as he has deserved I wonder our Author should give himself the trouble to go so far back as Queen Marys Reign to humble the Church Protestants with a prospect of their sufferings he might have found a Revolution no less calamitous to them and of a more fresh and smarting Remembrance I mean the Reign of the Dissenters The Church Protestants are sensible enough that they are mortal and have had their turns of suffering as well as others But it is somewhat an odd way of moving for Indulgence to commemorate the insolence or cruelty which those that pretend to favour have heretofore us'd towards the Church that is establish'd by Law and it sounds like a threat to suggest you know what you have suffered therefore take heed how you prosecute others Who are these others Dissenters Why should the intimation of Queen Marys days make us take such heed of that If those times should return it is not likely that the Prosecution of Dissenters would be laid to our charge as Heresy or Roman Catholicks The Dissenters of all men living have the least reason to reproach us with prosecuting these since they were the constant Instigators of the Magistrate to execute the Laws made against the Papists and upon all occasions exposed the Church-Protestants as Popishly affected because they did not always prosecute that Party with the uttermost rigour But if our danger cannot prevail with us to take heed of prosecuting yet surely our Saviours admonition must With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again If the measure be just and reasonable why should we fear that the same should be returned If the return be not just then it is not the same measure The Judges had need to understand this place better than our Considerer otherwise they would have but a sorry defence to make if the Criminals they had punish'd should come to make reprizals and to judge them by this Text according to the intent of this Consideration Consi 6. Conformists and Non-Conformists do all agree in the substance of Christianity in the same Articles of Faith in the same Rule of Manners in the Apostles Creed and the ten Commandments There is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Flesh one Baptisme As a variety of flowers may grow on one Bank so may Protestants and Papists live in England c. There is much more reason to love one another for the many things wherein we agree than to fall out for those wherein we differ and though we cannot have Communion in the same external Worship we can and have Commuuion in the same internal Adoration of the same Blessed Trinity c. The Wolf shall lye down with the Lamb c. It is an intolerable iniquity to use different and deceitful weights one sort to buy and another to sell by It is the same sort of cheat to represent things of more or less moment not as they are in themselves but only according to the occasion we have to make use of them When Dissenters speak of Toleration then we agree all in the main the differences are only about small matters and why should not we indulge something to lesser mistakes But if you desire them to take this Argument back by the same weight and tell them that since we agree in the main why should they be so unreasonable as to separate from us and to make or continue a perpetual breach for things of little moment then they presently change their note and every difference is of the highest importance i. e. Whatsoever they would have us to grant is but a slight matter But for them to yield any of those little things is as much as to renounce the Faith or to Sacrifice to an Idol Now let us observe the truth and consequence of what is offer'd in this Consideration all do agree as to the substance of Christianity and in the same Articles In what substance In what Articles In all This is too much for we have some difference I think with the Roman Catholicks about the infallibility of their Church the Supremacy of the Pope the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and these they take to be Articles of Faith and of the substance of Religion and we judge to be mistakes very absurd and of long and dangerous consequences But we have the same Apostles Creed So we have the same Scripture yet if they lay yet broader Foundations and build upon it what Faith they please how shall these their Creed or Scripture ever determine any difference about those Additional Articles or what Plea is it for Indulgence that we agree in many points but that we differ in other of great importance as if an Argument concerning the obligation of nine of the Commandments should be a reason to permit the observation of the tenth to discretion and that we should rather consider the many Commandments about which we agreed than one or two perhaps short ones which some tender Consciences might desire to be indulg'd The Socinians and we differ about the Person of Christ and the Merit of his death about the Doctrine of the Trinity and many things more of less moment but these things surely were ever accounted of the substance of Christianity and yet they make a difference between us and the Socinians The Quakers who resolve all their Faith into the Authority of their Spirit and revile the Scripture and deny it to be the Word of God do not agree with us so much as in the Foundation of Religion these two err dangerously concerning the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God and I am afraid our Author did not consider these Sects when he tells us That we can and have Communion in the same Internal Adoration of the same Blessed Trinity I cannot tell
THE Antithelemite OR AN ANSWER To Certain QUAERES By the D. of B. And to the Considerations of an unknown Author CONCERNING TOLERATION This may be Printed June 12. 1685. R.L.S. LONDON Printed for Sam. Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. HIS Majesties Gracious Declaration to maintain the Government in Church and State as by Law Establish'd and the Opinion all good men have of the Affection of this present Parliament to those Laws by which the Protestant Religion is fenc'd on every side may seem to render the Labour of a private hand on their behalf useless and superfluous Yet since some have openly others in disguise invaded these Fences and proceeded to that degree of Confidence as to recommend the Attempt to the Parliament now Assembled it may be expected perhaps that those who enjoy the Protection of those Laws should not leave them all defenceless under the odious Imputation of Injustice and Cruelty to depend merely upon the Authority of their first Establishment and the Favour of the Present Government Our Adversaries would then be thought justly to conclude that we despaired of the merit of our Cause and of approving it by Reason to the Judgment of any Impartial man Therefore I have endeavoured in this Treatise to shew the Vanity of those Cavils for I should be guilty of too much Indulgence should I give them the style of Reason or Argument against the Prosecution of Dissenters according to Law And though there should be no great sin or publick inconvenience in a General Toleration yet the Pleas that recommend it are so mean that they who might not be afraid might yet be asham'd to allow it upon such miserable motives Yet I. must confess that the Advocates for Toleration have one considerable Advantage in this Dispute that they are on the popular part of the Question and the seeming good nature of the Plea without much reasoning is sufficient to recommend it Whereas all Punishment is odious to the People and neither Law nor Reason nor Necessity can perfectly reconcile them to it It is madness then to endeavour to persuade men out of their Humanity that is out of their Nature and he truly deserves the utmost severity that can take delight in it What shall we do then Shall we give up the Cause and Subscribe to a Toleration Nothing less and that because in our Circumstances it is not only contrary to Religion and Civil Prudence but also to Charity and Compassion it is not always Mercy to Indulge nor Cruelty to Inflict Punishment Unless we conclude that a Father who corrects his Child has not so much tenderness for him as a Stranger or a Servant that intercedes for his Pardon But if Clemency must take place why should not the Publick challenge it in the first place and why should they be judged merciful who to humour and indulge one Party would expose a whole Nation to Confusion and Ruin If this be tender Mercy it is that the Scripture brands with the name of Cruelty And besides all this a steddy and discreet Execution of the Laws against Dissenters might happily have been a much more merciful Conduct even in respect of them than the remisness or connivance that tempted them to presumptuous sins The Dissenters have been very industrious to let us know that this is the true state of the Case between the Government and them That this Constitution stands no longer when they have strength and opportunity to destroy it Many of them are under an Oath to endeavour the subversion of this Church under the name of a Reformation and could never be brought to renounce that Conspiracy And therefore what can be expected from those that now maintain the Lawfulness of that Covenant but that they should conceive themselves bound in Conscience to execute their Vow as soon as they could recover those Circumstances in which they took it But the Dissenters you 'l say are divided upon this point It is true they are in that part that concerns their own Establishment but they are unanimous in Vowing our Destruction and it would be but poor comfort to a Town that neglected to make a timely Defence to see the Conquerours that were United in the Assault afterwards to fall out at the dividing of the Plunder Nor can we be suspected to surmise groundless and imaginary dangers from the growth of a Party that has devoted us to Ruin and that besides by an unnatural and fortunate Rebellion by the deliberate and solemn Murder of a most Excellent and Merciful Prince by a heavy and tedious Tyranny of many years by several Conspiracies since the Restauration by Association against the Succession of His Majesty and a formed Project of Rebellion which I am afraid is not yet wholly disconcerted and in short by the Incessant working of a Turbulant Spirit have given us much greater demonstrations of our danger than we could have wished and he that pretends not to be convinced by all this to apprehend danger to the Government from the Toleration of such men must surely be desirous of those Events we apprehend and wish the things which we fear Toleration therefore can serve to no other purpose than to be the Nurse of a Faction that is implacable which as it grows up will more and more despise this Infant Dispensation and contend for mastery Nor can we expect that they should acquiesce here when they have got strength to attempt farther no more than that a gang of sturdy Beggars will compound for a small Alms when they have a fair opportunity to Rob. The Advocates for Toleration reply That it is not Faction but Conscience which they plead for But it is an easier matter to distinguish than it is to separate those two things Experience has found them to be inseparable Companions in the body of our Dissenters The mind of man can make a thousand abstractions that are impracticable in the world and a Philosopher may distinguish between the Leaven and the Mass infected by it and yet be never able to part them But when one Dissenter pleads for Toleration in the behalf of all the rest it is not Conscience but Faction he would recommend for the Dissenters differ as much in matters of Conscience among themselves as they do from us and therefore cannot be judged to recommend those Errours and Practices for Toleration which they themselves judge sinful and dam nable upon the account of Conscience nor did those of them that were in Power think it either lawful or fit to permit all the rest What Spiritual Kindred I pray has a Presbyterian with a Quaker or an Independant with a Muggletonian or an Anabaptist with any of the rest But though they make disserent Sects in Religion yet they make but one Faction This is the Center wherein they all unite At an Election or a Riot they make but one Congregation and never fail to go one way or if you would view them in
if any sort of Men be intolerable they are such who truly deserve that Title Consideration 1. Another Author stirr'd up by the excellent discourse of the D. of B. enlarges upon this Head and shews that the Apostles were only commission'd to Preach and Teach the Christian Doctrine that they were Embassadors to beseech Men to be reconcil'd to God and not to use any forcible means to bring People to conform to his Worship An Author after all his pains may surely be allow'd to give his Book what Title he pleases provided the Reader may have his Freedom to Interpret This Book is made up of several parcels which he calls Considerations and if this first must pass under that Title it cannot be in the literal sense but should be interpreted as Dreams are by contraries For if our Author had considered tho' never so little he must needs have discerned that all this is no more against all forcible means than it is against humane Learning the Apostles used as little of one as of the other in converting of the World let us allow then that the Apostles us'd no forcible means to convert the World but reduced it only by perswasion what then Then no body else ought to think themselves wiser than the Apostles and to endeavour to convert the World by force agreed But what is all this to our present purpose Then no forcible means ought to be us'd to bring Dissenters to Church or to hinder their Meetings Here the consideration is too short and draw it as long as you please will never come to the point unless he can satisfy us in this one thing that there may be no other Methods us'd in the Government of a Church already Establish'd than those that have been us'd in the Conversion of Infidels this whole matter will perhaps be much clearer to him if he please to take notice of these plain and certain Truths 1. That the Apostles had and us'd greater Authority over those they had already converted than over those that were yet to be converted 2. That tho' they were sent onely as Ambassadors to unbelievers to perswade them to be reconcil'd to God yet when they had effected that Reconciliation they were by vertue of the Commission the Rulers and Governours of those new Conquests of the Gospel 3. That tho' their Commission gave them no civil Authority yet were they impower'd to use forcible means in matters of Religion and to reduce those to Conformity that walk'd disorderly and departed from the form of wholesom Doctrine delivered to them For I take Discipline to be somewhat different from persuasion and the Rod that St. Paul speaks of how Metaphorical soever it be to be somewhat more than beseeching In short those that resisted their Authority felt the weight of it Some were delivered to Satan to learn not to Blaspheme because they had made Shipwrack of the Faith They were cast out of the Society of Christians not only from all correspondence in matters of Religion but also from commerce of civil Society and good Neighbourhood and therefore supposing any one whole City or Province then of the Christian Religion the Excommunication of an Apostle would have had the same force with a civil Out-lawry or Banishment and how can you think him not banisht to all effect with whom no Person of his Country will have any communication And what would have become of Cerinthus in a Christian City where St. John had been Bishop if all would have been of the sme mind with the Apostle as probably they had not to come under the same roof with that Blasphemous Heretick 4. The Destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved though I dare not be positive in the explication does without dispute signify something of forcible means and of a different nature from perswasion and the vehement expression of St. Paul concerning the Turbulent people that disturb'd the Churches of Galatia I wish they were cut off that trouble you is of a strein beyond beseeching I shall not insist upon these passages lest I should be thought to plead for the Inquisition and to justify the putting of men to death for Religion which I am as far from approving as I am from a desire that I might be the first sufferer by such a Law for I look upon all Capital punishments not only too severe for the mistakes of the understanding though there might be some wilfulness and perverseness mix'd with them but of all sorts the most improper and absurd since he that takes away the Life of a Heretick commits an invisible cruelty greater than that which is seen by taking from him at the same time all opportunity of returning to a better mind and since all forcible means us'd in matters of Religion ought to be directed to the benefit of those toward whom they are us'd as well as the safety of others nothing can be more contrary to or destructive of that end than the putting of men to death for errors of belief how gross or dangerous soever they may be And this practice is the more inexcusable because there are other means sufficient to prevent the spreading of the disease and may contribute not a little to the cure of the infected 5. Lastly if the Apostles who had no Civil Power did yet punish their Dissenters not only by sharp reproofs but with Civil inconveniences too surely the Christian Magistrate who is endu'd with that power from above may so far make use of it upon the account of Religion as to secure the Peace of the Church and Purity of the Christian Doctrine as to render men of corrupt and turbulent minds uneasy in the outward circumstances of Life and to tye up their hands from dispersing the mischief among the People And lastly to discourage wanton or perverse or designing persons to attempt upon the Faith and Charity by which his Subjects are united Consid 2. To the same Head we may reduce the second Consideration That the using of outward Compulsion in matters of Religion does only serve to make men Hypocrites but works no saving Conversion That compulsion in matters of Religion may make some Hypocrites must be allow'd so do all Encouragements Laws sense of shame and the Opinion of the World and if nothing that may serve to make a Man a Hyprocrite may be us'd we must lay aside not only all Penal Laws but all Charity too But that this Compulsion should serve only to make men Hypocrites dropt I am afraid from our Author without consideration for there may be some that resure to conform to the establish'd Worship because they are asham'd to depart from what they have once profess'd they dread the reproach of their Party and the gaze of a Congregation upon a new Convert There may be others that refuse to conform as much upon the account of Interest as of Conscience for who does not know that the Dissenters are more engag'd by their mutual
Antithesis had been somewhat more bold and more visible This he proves by the Authority of the Puritans from whom these Churches pretend to be descended and precious Mr. Cotton their Apostle who is bold to denounce That if the Magistrates of England would tolerate Transgressours of the Rule of Godliness God would not long tolerate them In England say the Anabaptists the Independants are our Advocates for Toleration in New England they persecute us themselves p. 16. And the Writers of the Church of England lay hold of this occasion to expose their inconsistence with themselves Mather mumbles this Objection but is not able to take it off It is not for their Opinion but for receiving persons excommunicated by the Independant Congregation that they are punished but this fault they are as guilty of in Old England as in New England Then he cannot be perswaded that any Independants would desire indulgence for such Anabaptists as theirs Yet there can be no difference shewn between those that are taken here into protection and those that are persecuted there Whence then can proceed so different an usage of the same sort of men Alas the mystery is not very deep and may be resolved into a Common Rule of Humane Wisdom very well known that it is no matter how liberal a man is at the expence of another but he ought to be more wary when he is to give out of his own stock The Anabaptists complain That it is against the design of the first Planters that left England and went thither for Liberty of Conscience to lay any restraint upon it Animadversions on the N. E. Anabapt p. 4. Willard answers without mincing That their business was not Toleration but to settle and secure Religion to posterity according to that way which they believed was of God p. 11. The Magistrates there were Christians and held it their duty to maintain and strengthen Christian Religion by Civil Laws All Reformers have done so and the Church ever since the Apostles Poor dissenting Conscience where canst thou find Reception if these Colonies of Dissenters shut the doors against thee The Anabaptist cry's it is against their Brethren p. 9. The Independant is not satisfy'd that they are so near of kin and though they were Yet Discipline rightly administred is not against Christian Charity the want of it does rather argue want of Love Lev. 19.17 It is the part of the men of this World to persecute says the Anabap. yet sometimes replies the Independant it proceeds from Godly Zeal against Seducers Gentle means will prevail most according to the Dissenters judgment p. 10. But experience tells the Independant that such a Rough thing as a New England Anabaptist is not to be handled over-tenderly The Spirit which they have alwaies discovered under the greatest disadvantages easily tells us what they would have been if circumstanced as those whom they accuse And Lastly that they might not be misunderstood they declare the proper Subject of their jurisdiction We do not pretend to a Lordship over Conscience yet the outward man is Subject to us Now he that can reconcile these Laws this practice this Doctrine of the Independants to the Consideration for Toleration may make a match between Antipathies and a friendship between contradictions nay may reconcile the Conscience of a Scotch Covenanter to that short prayer for which he holds a singular detestation i. e. God save the King idem jungat vulpes mulgeat Hercos The Anabaptists Quakers Socinians and other Sects because they are not particularly mentioned I cannot tell how far they may be concern'd in this Plea for a general Toleration or whether they will be judg'd tolerable or no and therefore it will not be necessary to say any thing concerning them And since these have not yet had the fortune to be uppermost in any of our Revolutions we cannot conclude with any certainty whether they would continue as zealous for Indulgence as now they are It being difficult now to discern whether their importunity for Toleration proceeds from the Inward Man or only from their outward Circumstances When they had got some power in Cromwels Army they began to be somewhat turbulent and addicted to Levelling which imply'd a very fore imposition upon the Consciences of Rich Men and those that were in Authority But in those Countries where the Anabaptists prevailed upon their first appearing they left such instances of Blood-shed and Devastation as the story of no Christian Sect can parallel For the Quakers how their Spirit would determine concerning Toleration if they were in power is as hard to foretel as it would be to show what course or frolick a mad man would take that were broke loose from his Keeper But if all Bedlam should break loose and make themselves the Masters I believe it would be necessary to have recourse to Davids Stratagems and that a man would be in no little danger that would presume to continue in the Exercise of his own Wits Having shewn what Conscience they that Dissent from us make of Indulging their Dissenters and that none are more vehement against Toleration when they are in place than those that are now so importunate for it we may conclude that notwithstanding all they alledge from Scripture and the nature of Christian Religion to make us believe that we ought in Conscience to indulge Dissenters they are of our side and do not believe any thing of what they say for it is unconceivable how they can reckon that our Duty which would not be so to them plac'd in our circumstances Now if neither Christ nor his Apostles have ever enjoin'd a general Toleration of all Christian Sects and the Dissenters when uppermost declare this to be true The Christian Magistrate is something more at large and has greater liberty and scope to judge of the Reasons and Consequences of allowing or refusing it The second Topick from which the D. of B. and the Considerer argue against all Compulsion in matters of Religion is the absurdity and unreasonableness of the thing Therefore the D. puts the Question 2. Topick Whether there can be any thing more unmanly more barbarous or more ridiculous than to go about to convince a mans judgment by any thing but Reason it is so ridiculous that Boys at School are whipp'd for it who instead of answering an Argument with Reason are Loggerheads enough to go to Cuffs If this reasoning be good the Master that Whips is the veryest Loggerhead of all Has whipping any demonstration in it to convince the judgment of Boys The Master therefore should convince those Blockheads by a grave discourse as a certain Reverend Person of great moderation is said to have done upon the like occasion saying That it was the highest absurdity in Metaphysicks for Intellectual or Rational Entities to fall out Ay this is convincing and as certainly parts a fray as a little dust stops the fury of Bees in the very heat of Battel for Gods
to what purpose our Author brings into this consideration a passage of Scripture about Unity where he pleads for the Establishment of Division There is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism Since several of the Dissenters have neither the same Faith nor Baptism much less the same Body or Spirit The Anabaptists look upon our Baptism as void The Quakers and Socinians for the most part use no Baptism at all Now I would fain understand by what figure of Speech these may be said to have the same Baptism with us Well admit there be some things of moment about which we differ yet the number of those is greatest about which we are agreed therefore there is much more reason to love one another for the many things wherein we agree than for to fall out for those wherein we differ Whether we ought to love one another for those things in which we agree is not the question for it is certain we ought to love one another whether we agree in many things or few but the point in dispute is whether this love obliges us to permit those that differ from us to Confirm themselves in those errors which are the occasion of our difference by having them Preach'd and Argu'd and Maintain'd in their Assemblies Is it an Act of Christian Charity to suffer Quakers to enjoy all opportunities of being confirm'd in their madness and of seducing silly people If we love the Person of a Socinian must we therefore give him leave to propagate his Doctrine and to teach men to deny their Lord that bought them because we have Charity for Anabaptists ought we therefore to Tolerate them to Re-baptize those they have seduc'd to believe themselves no Christians or the Independants because our Faith is not much different from theirs shall they out of pure love be licens'd to gather Select Congregations to draw away as many as they can from the Church to oblige them by a Vow as Solemn as that of Baptism not to return thither nor to forsake their new Fraternity These are the things which we would gladly have the Dissenters forbear and use all lawful means to hinder them not because we have no love for them but out of pure compassion because these things they are so desirous to be indulg'd in would do them and others hurt and this is all the quarrel we have with them this is the falling out with which our Author is offended What shall we say now to the Mahomitan Parable That variety of Flowers may grow on the same Bank It is certainly more agreeable to the Principles of him that spoke it than those of a Christian for the Turks permit Jews and Christians to live among them and to enjoy the Exercise of their Religion because they think both of them may be sav'd by vertue of that Religion they respectively profess But our Church passes a very severe Censure upon those that shall say that every man may be sav'd by that Law or Sect which he professes But what if these Flowers prove Weeds and grow too fast what if they annoy and hurt the rest what if they are like Flowers de Luce ill Neighbours according to the Old Proverb what then They must certainly in prudence be a little discouraged and kept under or by some good Art be brought to change their destructive and unsortable nature In what manner this Prophecy of the Reconciliation of Dissenting Natures The Wolf shall lye down with the Lamb and the Leopard with the Kid is to be accomplish'd I am not well assur'd however I have some reason to suspect that it is not to be done by the way of an universal Toleration because this description shews not only that they shall not hurt one the other but that they shall be of one Fellowship and Communion they shall feed and lye down together whereas Toleration seems to do no more than to shut up these several Creatures in distinct apartments of the same Grate but if you would know when a Presbyterian or Independant or Anabaptist will not hurt I can tell without the Spirit of Prophecy it is then only when they have no power to do hurt Cons 7. The French Protestants who are Dissenters from the Establish'd Government of that Kingdom are kindly receiv'd and succour'd by England and when the French King is highly blam'd by English Protestants and perhaps too by some English Catholicks for Persecuting his peaceable Subjects shall we do the same thing in our Kingdom which we condemn in another Therefore thou art inexcusable O Man that judgest for thou that judgest another doest the same thing I will not enquire what English Protestants do highly blame or condemn the Actions of the French King those of my acquaintance are not very forward to censure and condemn Princes nor can it be concluded that whosoever is kind to a Stranger forc'd out of his Countrey does presently engage himself in the whole Merit of his Cause But as for the French Protestants we conceive our compassion to be the more due to them because they suffer for a Religion which we verily believe to be true which we are not able to say of several of those that plead for Toleration In the next place they were peaceable and had not provok'd their Prince by any Seditious or Turbulent Behaviour in the Minority of this King when the discontents of France were very high and the Authority of the Government low They behav'd themselves so well as to deserve his publick acknowledgment which I believe our Dissenters are too modest to pretend to for if they should yet there is hardly any body so ignorant of their proceedings but can justly reproach them with having laid hold on every advantage of publick distress to weaken first then to destroy the Government They never fail'd to join themselves with every Faction against the Crown and still brought a form'd Faction to every discontented great Man and offer'd themselves ready instruments of his Ambition or Revenge But we have yet farther cause to Commiserate the sufferings of the French Protestants because they tell us and we have no reason to disbelieve them that they were inflicted without Process or Form of Law and directly against particular Rights and Priviledges granted to them by former Kings For their Churches had been long ago taken into the protection of the Government and establish'd by Laws Special Judicatures were erected in their favour where the one half were of their Religion and several other Priviledges granted them to secure their persons and estates from Oppression and the malice of their Enemies and how they have forfeited all I do not know But our Protestant Dissenters were never own'd by our Laws nor mentioned in them but as a factious and seditious â—arty that was by all due means to be suppress'd There never was any agreement or accomodation between the Government and them for while they could hold their arms in their hands they
Toleration As to the second part of the Quere Has not the contrary practice been always successful to those Countries where it has been us'd either in Monarchies or Common Wealths I think it a hard matter to find many Kingdoms or Common Wealths where a general Toleration has been us'd some have endur'd one or perhaps two sorts of Dissenters in Religion but this does not answer the end of those Queres or of the Considerations which is universal Toleration but have not those been most successful that have tolerated most This is not certain for I think in the time of the late Usurpation there was a great variety of Sects permitted to use their several ways but the success God be thanked was such as honest men did wish and pray for they had too great success indeed at first against the King and the Church but then Toleration was scarce begun or design'd there was then but one Rule of Uniformity the Covenant was impos'd upon all And the Independants did for a good while dissemble their Exceptions But afterwards when every Sect demanded the liberty of its own way and Religions were multiply'd beyond Computation the Fruits of Toleration did quickly appear every Sect as it gather'd a little strength from a State of Toleration began to affect Dominion and this did quickly so disunite and rend the Body of those Tyrants that it was impossible for them longer to subsist and so made way to that glorious Revolution whose influence makes us still happy and prosperous and it makes no difference in this case whether a Government be rightful or usurp'd the same method of Indulgence will have the same consequence only Usurpers have more excuse for allowing Toleration because it is more necessary for them than for a Rightful and long Establish'd Dominion and therefore tho' it be a dangerous course they must take it because they have no better to take I know the Example of the United Privinces is often Recommended by our Dissenters and is mentioned by the Authour of the Considerations and indeed it equally serves both their occasions for a Common Wealth and Toleration however I believe this instance is commonly swallow'd down whole without considering the particular reasons or circumstances that may induce them to tolerate some Religions which may render their case very different from ours Some Religions I say because they do not tolerate all or whatever they do at this time they have been in the memory of man so far from allowing an Universal Toleration that they exceeded all their Protestant Neighbours in violence and severity against those that dissented from their Establish'd Religion tho' in matters very obscure and of insuperable difficulty However since this Example of the Dutch is insisted upon by all the Advocates for Toleration as an unanswerable Argument of the benefit of that course I will give a brief account of such circumstances as determined them to Indulgence and the security they take a gainst all the civil consequences of it neither of which are to be found in our Government In the first place their Common Wealth was Originally made up of several Religions or Sects which are as essential parts of their Constitution for they were not only preserv'd by Strangers from England and France and Germany that Fought their Battels but many out of Germany and France fled thither as to a common refuge and were all as it were incorporated into this Common Wealth every one of these Nations had their Churches not only tolerated but Establish'd by Authority and paid by the Governments so every Nation and Sect use their own Forms and Languages only the English are much degenerated partly by their own fault inclining to the Puritan way and accommodating themselves to the manner of the Country partly by the care which the Dutch do and have ever us'd to discourage Episcopal Ministers making great scruple of admitting any one they suspect to have Episcopal Ordination So Toleration was at first the necessity not the choice of that People But after this Establishment the measure of their Toleration being full whoever oppos'd the Religion Establish'd and departed from the Rule of their Church found but very sorry quarter When the Socinians appear'd first in those Countries the States took the Alarm and Banish'd those Hereticks out of all their Dominions Then Arminius his Scholars presum'd to find fault with the Dutch Catechism which was their Establish'd Doctrine of their Church and to divide Communion upon it they were condemned by the Synod of Dort and the Sentence was Executed by the Magistrate with so great severity that all the Neighbouring Countries were fill'd with the complaint of the suffering Remonstrants The most Eminent and Active of whom were forced to fly their Country or to endure close Imprisonment at home so that tho' they had more different Religions in their first Constitution than we yet they endeavour'd we see to keep their first Establishment entire as well as we do ours by forcibly suppressing those that assaulted it nay they us'd greater severities upon this occasion towards their Dissenters than ever we have done to ours Yet during this prosecution of Dissenters they had the best success that ever happened to that Common Wealth before that time they struggl'd for life but now they enlarg'd their Frontiers and their Trade and advanc'd so far in strength and reputation as to become the most powerful Common Wealth in Europe not that their success and prosperity is to be imputed to this Persecution but it seems by this instance that forcible means in matters of Conscience does not always ruin nor is the good success of a People in Trade or War always to be imputed to a general Toleration I do not pretend to justify those proceedings nor do I alledge them upon any other account than to shew that Dutch Toleration has bounds and that they have been prosperous while they prosecuted a very considerable Party both for number and interest upon the account of Religion But besides the difference of their first Constitution and ours there are several other circumstances in their Government that renders Toleration less dangerous to them than it is to us 1. The Dutch Populace have no voice at all in chusing of their Magistrates there are neither Mayors nor Aldermen nor Sheriffs nor Common Council nor Knights and Burgesses for Parliament to be Elected by their Commonalty There are no Juries to Judge of Matter of Fact or of Right by way of Concomitance in any Causes Criminal or Civil So that tho' the number of any Sect may increase yet has it but very little influence upon the Government since it can have no hand in disposing of Publick Offices nor are the Members of it capable of any whereas no Sect can thrive with us but you presently find the evil effect of it in our Parliaments in our Juries and consequently in all the distribution of Justice and especially in the Government and temper
of our Corporations 2. As the People have no part in the choice of their Magistrates so neither can any one be admitted to any part of their Government who is not of the States Religion and this to appear not by any single Test as once coming to Church or Receiving of the Sacrament in order to be qualify'd but by the course of their Life so that if any Person have given any suspition to that Colledge of Magistrates into which he is ambitious to be received that he is not in his Heart of their Religion there is no more hopes of his succeeding than that a Person should be made Pope who is under imputation of Heresie 3. It is said that the Government of their Cities have a more absolute and summary way of Proceeding with Persons suspected of any design or practice to the prejudice of the publick quiet and those oblique and squinting discourses and practices of Sedition that can scarce give matter to an Information with us are there easily suppress'd by an admonition for such Persons to depart the place 4. The temper of the People is something more Phlegmatick and less zealous than ours the several Sects are content with following their Trade all the Week and their Religion on Sunday without troubling their Heads with gaining Proselytes or adding to their numbers whereas with us every Sectary almost is a kind of Apostle and is in season and out of season still Preaching up his own way and practizing upon all those with whom he has to do and railing against what is uppermost Now the Dissenters who magnify beyond measure the happiness of the Dutch in the use of a General Toleration would be very loath to purchase it at the same rate that is by resigning up for that Liberty of Conscience all such Liberties and Priviledges of Englishmen whereby they are made capable of giving disturbance to the Government I am affraid there would be many Dissenters found upon the Tryal very unwilling for a licence to go to Conventicles to forbear going to Elections of Parliament Men and to oblige themselves not to go to the Guild-Hall provided they be excused for not going to Church Yet after all the Dutch Toleration has one possible disadvantage and that a heavy one that seeing there are some Sects now tolerated almost as numerous as that Party of the Establish'd Religion some of these either by Domestick Tumult or Forreign support may establish themselves in the place of those who are now in Authority and by putting out a small number of men now in Government not only make themselves Masters of it but maintain and keep it by the number and strength they have already and which will more and more encrease by the Accession of those whose Religion is gain of which sort that Country has its share Whereas in those Countries where there are indeed several Religions if the Dissenters are so kept under as to bear no proportion to those of the Establishment though they may make a Tumult or get the better for some little time by the advantage of a surprize yet will they never be able to maintain themselves and must give way to the Restauration of the first Establishment The Considerator is very particular upon this Topick and does not only tell us that prosecuting of Dissenters destroys Trade but instances in some Prosecutions of so ill consequence that the King and Council were forc'd to over-rule them or else vast multitudes of Poor People who were not any ways infected with the Opinions of Dissenters must have been undone Cons 8. Prosecuting Dissenters he saies is a great disadvantage to the Trade of the Kingdom they being a chief Part of the Trading People and consequently Liberty of Conscience must be the most effectual means to restore it I have good reason to believe that our Author over-reckons when he makes the Dissenters a chief Part of the Traders For though they consist chiefly of Trades-men and those of the smaller sort yet they are but an inconsiderable Part in respect of the whole And we must note that all are not Dissenters out of Conscience that speak favourably of their Party or favour them in a Vote and it is not unlikely but that an equal Execution of the Laws might discover to us a great secret that the twentieth Part of those who are reputed for Dissenters do not stand in need of a Toleration what our Considerer saies of restering of Trade is to suggest that it is decay'd whereas it is notoriously known that it never was at a greater height in this Kingdom than it is at present But when Dissenters talk of deadness of Trade you must understand that the true meaning is only that they are discontented and would fain make others so low and because they have no reason or dare not tell the true one venture the shame of the World by using a pretence that is notoriously false The Relation that follows of a cloathier that was forc'd to leave his Trade and Habitation and to leave the Poor People he employed upon the Parish and of others of the same Trade that combind to buy no Wool and to abuse the Country to be reveng'd of the Laws I dare not vouch for true But should they be all true which is a very great rarity in the Reports of that Party I know not what to say but who can help it Suppose that cloathier had broke for Dissenters are frail and breakable as other men and the Poor Workmen had gone a begging It is a sad Case you will say so many People should be undone by a scurvy Law that prosecutes men for paying of Debts or suppose the man had dy'd some Remedy must have been found and some other means to maintain these Poor People there might be more of the Trade that would have been glad of the opportunity of succeeding him for the sullen men that abus'd the Country by combining not to buy I think they deserved little favour upon that account and in short upon this whole vapour of Trade as if it were wedded only to Dissenters it has been answered long ago and those that threatn'd to withdraw their stocks were desir'd to make their words good and the King sufficiently assur'd that the General Trade of the Kingdom should not suffer the least diminution though no one Dissenter were concern'd in it However it was then it is very well known now that there is a great deal more money in this Kingdom than can be employ'd in Trade and we are so far from being in a Condition that obliges us to Court men to proceed in trading that the laying down of Trade is like the laying down of an Office men are not only courted to it but brib'd and bought to make room for those who are as it were shut out of the Exchange by the extraordinary throng that is within Consi 9. Our Consideratour transcribes several passages of late his Majesties Declaration from Breda
and some other out of Speeches since his Restauration I will not take upon me too answer them but remit the Reader to those Reasons of the House of Commons which satisfyed the King himself so far as to pass the act of uniformity without any regard had to the Dissenters the Declaration for indulgence set forth some years after upon better Consideration was revok'd by the King but no Council or Parliament were ever able to convince him so fully of the Reason of putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters as the Dissenters themselves who made at last such returns of insolence and sedition for all his indulgence that he was forc'd for the preservation of himself and his Government to call for the assistance of those Laws and to order them to be put in effectual Execution and we owe it wholy to his wisdom and fore-sight that some of the most considerable of them are now in being I mean that of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth which he saved by his Prerogative Law as well as men when it was condemn'd to be abolish'd And if his clemency had saved many who the Laws had justly condemned why should it not save a Law that had done him and his Ancestours no small service and was then doom'd to an undeerv'd Fate Consi 10. The Tenth and last Consideration consists of several Testimonies take some from Ancient Ecclesiastical Writers some from modern Authors he deals here in Gross and is not pleas'd to name his Author from whence he has taken them that the particulars might be examin'd It is not impossible perhaps to Guess but why should any man break in upon ones private reading and intrude in his fecret If our Author had known any other Church History or Collector it is ten to one but he had chosen better as for the first 800 years it is true there could not be many Civil Laws against Dissenters in Christian Religion yet if our Author had heard of the story of Paul of Samesata he might have known that the Civil Power was employ'd in defence of the Catholick Religion against Heresy even before Constantines time He names several Emperours with whom I perceive he is unacquainted for I am apt to beleive if he had known any thing of them he would have left at leastwise Constantius and Vatens out of his Catalogue of Toleratiours and put in Julian who out of pure love and kind ness to Christian Religion granted an universal Toleration to all Sects of dissenting Christians But their larger permission he says was especially towards Jews It may be so for these were indulg'd when several Christian Sects were not nay they have a Toleration in almost all Christian Kingdoms And even in Rome where there is small regard had of the Consciences of Protestant Dissenters and all this not because they prefer Jews to erring Christians but because they conceive the Toleration of them may not have so much danger at that of Christian Sects Yet of these Emperours whom he names Constantine prosecuted the Donatists and the Arnians and sent several Bishops that refus'd to subscribe the Nicene Creed into Banishment Theodosius the Great and his Sons Arcadius and Honorius did restrain many Christian Sects in the Exercise of their Conscience and succeeding Emperours were still more and more severe in requiring compliance with the Religion Establish'd in several Councils Ithacius and Idacius our Author observes were condem'd by the Gallican Bishops for being Authors of bringing the Priscillianists to Execution What Execution I pray Of Death they might be justly condemn'd for making themselves Prosecutors in Cases of Bloud but what is all this to our Laws or Prosecution of Dissenters St. Augustin was against Sanguinary Laws in Cases of Religion so are we several Fathers condemn the use of all force to bring a man to believe the Gospell so do we Religion must be voluntary and cannot be forc'd so say we and yet there may be discipline us'd to reduce the wilful perverse and they may be brought the better to see their mistake by the Inconvenenices it may expose them to The Sects of the Jews were rather in Phylosophy then Religion for there was no Schisme nor Breach between them in regard of the main Congregation which the Law requir'd for they went all into the same Temple to Worship The Joseptins would not suffer the Trachonites to be circumcised by force no more do we either Infidels or their Children to be baptiz'd by force Ethelbert would not compel the Pagan Saxons to be come Christians and Constantine and Licinius's edict allows all the Liberty of their Worship because at that time the Circumstances of Christianity and Heathenism did then require it to be so and yet Constantine afterward ward forbid the Heathen to sacrifice to their Idols and shut up their Temples Bodin had apostatiz'd to Judaisme or perhaps Atheism and it is no great matter what he says nor is it of any great Authority what Barc-lay says in a Romance and the Reflexions of Political Writers when they refine upon any Subject are not always wise in the practice as wise as they are in the Contemplation Sir E. Cook was never against the Execution of our Penal Laws against Dissenters and what Judge Jenkins says is only with respect to the time in which they were spoken when it seem'd Impossible to make any accomodation without a General Toleration but it pleas'd the providence of God to open another way which the wisest men were so far from foreseeing that they durst hardly hope it some years before The words of King Charles the Martyr had respect to the circumstances of this Kingdom when he wrote and as for the preamble of the Statute of Queen Mary it is but necessary that those who cannot be brought to love may be compell'd to fear their Prince extream punishments such as are there intended I believe we have none and the extreamest of ours were forced by the Sedition and not design'd against the Opinions of Dissenters and if those-just Laws that were made without any extream punishment had been duly executed there had in probability been no occasion for other more severe penalties so that if there be any addition of rigor the Dissenters must thank those that favour'd and conniv'd at them for it that incourag'd them to be insolent and enterprizing and forc'd the Government to take greater security of a Party that began to grow ungovernable As to the last ambiguous Citation it is sufficient to reply that the increase of Dissenters did always increase not only the differences between King and People and divided their interests but likewise divided the interest and affections of the People and therefore whatever way contribute most to the growth of a disaffected Party cannot be healing how moderate soever it may be and if the Dissenters thought they would not thrive better under a Toleration which I cannot see any reason why they should desire it And now having return'd