she has it But her Dissenters cannot forget That of his Clemency And as they were both great and admirably distinguish't so by no means are they inconsistent or impracticable And if his Justice will not let him be wanting in the One His wonted greatness of Mind will hardly let him leave the Other behind him in the Storm unpitied and unhelpt Pardon me We have not to do with an insensible Prince but one Toucht with our Infirmities More than any Body fit to judge our Cause by the share he once had in it Who should give Liberty of Conscience like the Prince that has wanted it To suffer for his own was Great but to deliver other mens were Glorious It is a sort of paying the Vows of his Adversity and it cannot therefore be done by any one else with so much Justice and Example Far be it from me to solicite any thing in Deminution of the just Rights of the Church of England Let her rest protected where she is and if in any thing Mistaken let God alone perswade her I hope none will be thought to intend her Injury for refusing to understand the King's Promise to her in a Ruinous sense to all Others For it is morally impossible that a Conscientious Prince can be thought to have ty'd himself to compell others to a Communion that himself cannot tell how to be of or that any thing can oblige him to shake the Firmness of those he has confirmed by his own Royal Example Having then so Illustrous an Instance of Integrity as the hazard of the loss of Three Crowns for Conscience Let it at least excuse our Constancy and provoke the Friends of the Succession to Moderation that we may none of us loose our Birth-Rights for our Perswasion us Dissenters to live Dutifully and so Peacably under our own Vine and under our own Fig-Tree with Glory to God on High to the King Honour and Good Will to all Men. The Publication of the following Discourse is occasioned by an Appeal made by a late Author to all Crowned Heads against Toleration and Liberty of Conscience in his pretended Answer to the Duke of Buckingham I shall not Commend it and I hope it will need no Excuse 'T is writ with Duty to the King and Compassion to many of his peaceable People The usual Objections against the Moderation desired are stated and answered The Whole recommended to the Reader By his Affectionate Friend W. P. A PERSWASIVE TO Moderation c. MODERATION the Subject of this Discourse is in plain English Liberty of Conscience to Dissenters A Cause I have with all Humility undertaken to plead against the Prejudices of the Times That there is such a thing as Conscience and the Liberty of it in reference to Faith and Worship towards God must not be denyed even by those that are most scandal'd at the Ill use some seem to have made of such Pretences But to settle the Terms By Conscience I understand the Apprehension and Perswasion a man has of his Duty to God By Liberty of Conscience I mean A free and open Profession and Exercise of that Duty But I alwayes premise this Conscience to keep within the bounds of Morality and that it be neither Frantick nor Mischievous but a Good Subject a Good Child a Good Servant As exact to yield to Caesar the things that are Caesar's as jealous of with-holding from God the thing that is God's For he that with-holds from Man the thing that God requires him to pay with-holds it from God who has his Tribute out of it They do not reject their Prince Parent or Master but God who enjoyns that Duty to them The difference being only this They deny not God his Due immediately and to his face but they do it too often in the Person of his Deligate Those Pathetick words of Christ will naturally enough reach the case In that ye did it not to them ye did it not to me for Duty to such Relations have a divine Stamp And divine Right runs through more things of the World and Acts of our Lives than we are aware of And Sacriledge may be committed against more than the Church Nor will a Dedication to God of the Robbery from Man expiate the Guilt of Disobedience For though Zeal could turn Gossip to Theft his Altars would renounce the Sacrifice The Conscience then that I state and the Liberty I pray carrying so great a Salvo and Deference to publick and private Relations no ill design can with any Justice be fixt upon the Author or Reflection upon the Subject which by this time I think I may venture to call a Toleration But to this so much craved as well as needed Toleration I meet with two Objections of weight the salving of which will make way for it in this Kingdom And the first is a Disbelief of the Possibility of the thing Toleration of Dissenting Worships from that establish't is not practicable say some without danger to the State with which it is interwoven This is Political The other Objection is That admitting Dissenters to be in the Wrong which is alwayes premised by the National Church such Latitude were the way to keep up the Dis-union and instead of compelling them into a better Way leave them in the possession and persuit of their old Errors This is Religious I think I have given the Objections fairly 't will be my next business to answer them as fully The strength of the first Objection against this Liberty is the Danger suggested to the State the Reason is the National Form being interwoven with the Frame of the Government But this seems to me only said and not only with submission not prov'd but not true For the establisht Religion and Worship are no other ways interwoven with the Government than that the Government makes profession of them and by divers-Laws has made them the Currant Religion and required all the Members of the State to conform to it This is nothing but what may as well be done by the Government for any other Perswasion as that 'T is true 't is not easie to change an establish't Religion nor is that the Question we are upon but State Religions have been chang'd without the change of the States We see this in the Governments of Germany and Denmark upon the Reformation But more clearly and near our selves in the case of Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Elizabeth for the Monarchy stood the Family remained and succeeded under all the Revolutions of State-Religion which could not have been had the Proposition been generally true The change of Religion then does not necessarily change the Government or alter the State and if so a fortiori Indulgence of Church-Dissenters does not necessarily hazard a change of the State where the present state-State-Religion or Church remains the same for That I premise Some may say That it were more facile to change from one National Religion to another than to
maintain the Monarchy and Church against the Ambition and Faction of divers dissenting Parties But this is improbable at least For it were to say That it is an easier thing to change a whole Kingdom than with the Soveraign Power followed with Armies Navies Judges Clergy and all the Conformists of the Kingdom to secure the Government from the Ambition and Faction of Dissenters as differing in their Interests within themselves as in their Perswasions and 〈◊〉 they united have neither Power to awe nor Rewards to allure to their Party They can only be formidable when headed by the Soveraign They may stop a Gap or make by his Accession a Ballance Otherwise till 't is harder to fight broken and divided Troops than an entire Body of an Army it will be always easier to maintain the Government under a Toleration of Dissenters than in a total change of Religion and even then it self it has not fail'd to have been preserved But whether it be more or less easie is not our point if they are many the danger is of exasperating not of making them easie for the force of our Question is Whether such Indulgence be safe to the State And here we have the first and last the best and greatest Evidence for us which is Fact and Experience the Journal and Resolves of Time and Treasure of the Sage For First the Iews that had most to say for their Religion and whose Religion was Twin to their State both being joyn'd and sent with Wonders from Heaven Indulg'd Strangers in their Religious Dissents They requir'd but the belief of the Noachical Principles which were common to the World No Idolator and but a Moral Man and he had his Liberty ay and some Priviledges too for he had an apartment in the Temple and this without danger to the Government Thus Maimonides and others of their own Rabbles and Grotius out of them The Wisdom of the Gentiles was very admireable in this that though they had many Sects of Philosophers among them each dissenting from the other in their Principles as well as Discipline and that not only in Physical things but points Metaphysical in which some of the Fathers were not free the School-men deeply engaged and our present Accademies but too much perplext yet they indulged them and the best Livers with singular Kindness The greatest Statesmen and Captains often becoming Patrons of the Sects they best affected honouring their Readings with their Presence and Applause So far were those Ages which we have made as the original of Wisdom and Politeness from thinking Toleration an Error of State or dangerous to the Government Thus Plutrach Strabo Laertius and others To these Instances I may add the Latitude of old Rome that had almost as many Deities as Houses For Varro tells us of no less than thirty Thousand several Sacra or Religious Rites among her People and yet without a Quarrel Unhappy fate of Christianity the best of Religions and yet her Professors maintain less Charity than Idolators while it should be peculiar to them I fear it shews us to have but little of it at Heart But nearer home and in our own time we see the effects of a discret Indulgence even too Emulation Holland that Bogg of the World neither Sea nor dry Land now the Rival of tallest Monarchs not by Conquests Marriages or accession of Royal Blood the usual wayes to Empire but by her own superlative Clemency and Industry for the one was the effect of the other She cherisht her People whatsoever were their Opinions as the reasonable stock of the Country the Heads and Hands of her Trade and Wealth and making them easie in the main point their Conscience she became great by them This made her fill with People and they fill'd her with Riches and Strength And if it should be said She is upon her Declension for all that I Answer All States must know it nothing is here Immortal Where are the Babylonian Persian and Grecian Empires And are not Lacedemon Athens Rome and Carthage gone before her Kingdoms and Common-Wealths have their Births and Growths their Declensions and Deaths as well as private Families and Persons But 't is owing neither to the Armies of France nor Navies of England but her own Domestick Troubles Seventy Two sticks in her Bones yet The growing Power of the Prince of Orange must in some degree be an Ebb to that States Strength for they are not so unanimous and vigrous in their Interest as formerly But were they secure against the danger of their own Ambition and Jealousie any body might ensure their Glory at five per Cent. But some of their greatest men apprehending they are in their Climacterical Juncture give up the Ghost and care not if they must fall by what hand it is Others chuse a Stranger and think one afar off will give the best Terms and least annoy them whilest a considerable Party have chosen a Domestick Prince a Kin to their early Successes by the fore-Father's side the Gallantry of his Ancestors And that his own greatness and security are wrapt up in theirs and therefore modestly hope to find their Account in his Prosperity But this is a kind of Digresgression only before I leave it I dare venture to add that if the Prince of Orange changes not the Policies of that State he will not change her Fortune and he will mightily add to his own But perhaps I shall be told That no body doubts that Toleration is an agreeable thing to a Common-Wealth where every one thinks he has a share in the Government ay that the one is the consequence of the other and therefore most carefully to be avoided by all Monarchical States This indeed were shrowdly to the purpose in England if it were but true But I don't see how there can be one true Reason advanc'd in favour of this Objection Monarchies as well as Common-Wealths subsisting by the Preservation of the People under them But First if this were true it would follow by the Rule of Contraries that a Republick could not subsist with Vnity and Hierarchy which is Monarchy in the Church but it must from such Monarchy in Church come to Monarchy in State too But Venice Genova Lucca seven of the Cantons of Switzerland and Rome her self for she is an Aristocracy all under the the loftiest Hierarchy in Church and where is no Toleration show in fact that the contrary is true But Secondly this Objection makes a Common-Wealth the better Government of the two and so overthrows the thing it would establish This is effectually done if I know any thing since a Common-Wealth is hereby rendred a more copious powerful and beneficial Government to Mankind and is made better to answer Contingencies and Emergencies of State because this subsists either way but Monarchy not if the Objection be true The one prospers by Vnion in Worship and Discipline and by Toleration of dissenting Churches from the National The other only by
Insecuring that it preserv'd the Tranquility of the Empire Nor till the time of Celestine Bishop of Rome were the Novations disturbed And the Persecution of them and the Assumption of the secular Power began much at the same time But the Novations at Constantinople were not so dealt withal for the Greek Bishops continued to permit them the quiet enjoyment of their dissenting Assemblies as Socrates tells us in his fifth and seventh Book of Ecclesiastical Story I shall descend nearer our own times for notwithstanding no Age has been more furiously moved then that which Jovianus found and therefore the Experiment of Indulgence was never better made yet to speak more in view of this time of day we find our Contemporaries of remoter Judgments in Religion under no manner of difficulty in this point The Grand Signior great Mogul Zars of Mnscovia King of Persia the great Monarchs of the East have long allow'd and prosper'd with a Toleration And who does not know that this gave Great Tamerlan his mighty Victories In these Western Countries we see the same thing Cardinal d'Ossat in his 92d Letter to Villroy Secretary to Hâ—nry the fourth of France gives us Doctrine and Example for the Subject in hand Besides says he that Necessity has no Law be it in what case it will our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us by his Gospel To let the Tares alone lest removing them may endanger the Wheat That other Catholick Princes have allow'd it without Rebuke That particularly the Dake of Savoy who as great a Zâ—â—â—ot as he would be thought for the Catholick Religion Tolerates the Hereticks in three of his Provinces namely Aâ—groyne Luerne and Perose That the King of Poland does as much not only in Sweedland but in Poland itself That all the Princes of the Austrian Family that are celebrated as Pillars of the Catholick Church do the like not only in the Town of the Empire but in their proper Territories as in Austria it self from whence they take the Name of their Honour In Hungary Bohemia Moravia Lusatia Stirria Camiolia and Croatia the like That Charles ' the fifth Father of the King of Spain was the Person that taught the King of France and other Princes how to yield to such Emergencies That his Son the present King of Spain who is esteemed Arch Catholick and that is as the Atlas of the Catholick Church Tolerates notwithstanding at this day in his Kingdomes of Valentia and Granada the Moors themselves in their Mâ—humatisme and has offer'd to those of Zealand Holland and other Hereticks of the Low-Countries the free Exercise of their pretended Religion so that they will but acknowledge and Obey him in Civil Matters It was of those Letters of this extraordinary Man for so he was whether we regard him in his Ecclesiastical Dignity or his greater Christian and Civil Prudence that the great Lord Fulkland said A Minister of State should no more be without Cardinal d' Ossat's Letters than a Parson without his Bible And indeed if we look into France we shall find the Indulgence of those Protestants hath been a flourishing to that Kingdom as their Arms a Succour to their King 'T is true that since they help't the Ministers of his Greatness to Success that haughty Monarch has changed his Measures and resolves their Conformity to his own Religion or their Ruin but no man can give another Reason for it than that he thinks it for his turn to please that part of his own Church which are the present necessary and unwearied Instruments of his absolute Glory But let us see the end of this Conduct it will require more time to approve the Experiment As it was the Royal Saying of Stephen King of Poland That he was a King of Men and not of Conscience a Commander of Bodies and not of Souls So we see a Toleration has been practised in that Country of a long time with no ill Success to the State the Cities of Cracovia Racovia and many other Towns of Note almost wholly dissenting from the common Religion of the Kingdom which is Roman Catholick as the others are Socinian and Calvanist the most opposite to that as well as to themselves The King of Denmark in his large Town of Altona but about a Mile from Hambrough and therefore called so that is All to near is a pregnant proof of our point For though his Seat be so remote from that place and another strong and insinuating State so near yet under his Indulgence of divers Perswasions they enjoy that Peace and he that Security that he is not upon better Terms in any of his more Immediate and Vniform Dominions I leave it to the thinking Reader if it be not much owing to this Freedom and that a contrary course were not the way for him to furnish his Neighbours with means to Depopulate that place or make it uneasie and chargeable to him to keep If we look into other parts of Germany where we find a Stout and War-like People fierce for the thing they opine or believe we shall find the Prince Palatine of the Rhine safe and more potent by his Indulgence 〈◊〉 his Improvements at Mâ—nhine And as believe me 〈◊〉 the Prince to his People in other things so in this to the Empire for he has made bold with the Constitution of it in the Latitude he gives his Subjects in this Affair The Duke of Bradenburg is himself a Calvanist his People mostly Lutherain yet in part of his Dominions the Roman-Catholicks enjoy their Churches quietly The Duke of Newburg and a strict Roman Catholick Brother-in-Law to the present Emperor in his Province of Juliers has not only at Dewsburg Mulheim and other places but in Deuseldorp it self where the Court resides Lutherain and Calvanist as well as Roman Catholick Assemblies The Duke of Saxony by Religion a Lutherain in his City of Budissin has both Lutherains and Roman Catholicks in the same Church parted only by a Grate In Ausburg they have two chief Magistrates as their Duumvirat one must alwayes be a Roman Catholick and the other a Lutherain The Bishop of Osnabrug is himself a Lutherain and in the Town of his Title the Roman Catholicks as well as Lutherains have their Churches and which is more the next Bishop must be a Catholick too for like the Buckets in the Well they take turns one way to be sure so that one be but in the Right From hence we will go to Sultzbach a small Territory but has a great Prince I mean in his own extraordinary Qualities for among other things we shall find him act the Moderator among his People By profession he is a Roman Catholick but has Simultaneum Religionis Exercitium not only Lutherains and Roman Catholicks enjoy their different Worships but alternatively in one and the same place the same day so ballancing his Affection by his Wisdom that there appears neither Partiality in him nor Envy in them though of such opposite Perswasions I
will end these forregin Instances with a Prince and Bishop all in one and he a Roman Catholick too and that is the Bishop of Mentz who admits with a very Peaceable success such Lutherains with his Catholicks to enjoy their Churches as live in his Town of Erford Thus does Practice tells us that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration On the contrary the Laws of the Empire which are the Acts of the Emperor and the Soveraign Princes of it have tolerated these three Religious Perswasions viz. the Roman-Catholick Lutherain and Calvanist and they may as well tolerate three more for the same Reasons and with the same Success For it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in Doctrine or in Worship On the contrary they differ much and by that and other Circumstances are sometimes engaged in great Controversies yet is a Toleration practicable the way of Peace with them And which is closest to our point at home it self we see that a Toleration of the Iews French and Dutch Churches in England both Dissenters from the National Way And the Connivance that has been in Ireland And the down-right Toleration in most of his Majesties Plantations abroad proves the Assertion That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy For Experience tells us where it is in any degree admitted the King's Affairs prosper most People Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact why Toleration is safe to Monarchy Story tells us that worse things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Vnion than in places under divided forms of Worship and so tolerating Countries stand to the Prince more than upon equal terms with conforming ones And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries they have as often come from the Conforming as Non-conforming party and so the Dissenter is upon equal terms to the Prince or State with the Conformist The first is evident in the Iews under the conduct of Moses their Dissention came from the men of their own Tribes such as Corah Dathan and Abiram with their pertakers To say nothing of the Gentiles The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor proves my point who by the greatest Church-men of his time was withstood and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness by them substituted in his room because more officious to their Grandure What power but that of the Church dethron'd Childrek King of France and set Pippin in his place The miseries of the Emperors Henry the fourth and fifth Father and Son from their rebellious Subjects raised and animated by the power of Conformists dethroning both as much as they could are notorious 'T is as plain that Sigismond King of Sweedland was rejected by that Lutherain Country because he was a Roman-Catholick If we come nearer home which is most suitable to the Reasons of the discourse we find the Church-men take part with William Rufus and Henry the first against Robert their elder Brother and after that we see some of the greatest of them make Head against their King namely Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his party as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry Stephen Usurpt the Crown when there was a Church Vnion And King John lived miserable for all that and at last dyed by one of his own Religion too The Dissentions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third and the Barrons War with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General The Deposition and Murther of the second Edward Richard sixth Henry and his Son the Prince The Vsurpation of Richard the third and the Murther of the Sons of Edward the fourth in the Tower of London The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond afterwards our wise Henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion and by the Hands of Conformists In short if we will but look upon the civil War that so long raged in this Kingdom between the Houses of York and Laneaster and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion and both back't with numbers of Church-men too to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland especially the first and third James will find cause to say That Church-Vniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are tolerated we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter The Disorders among the Iews after they were settled in the Land that God had given them came not from those they tolerated but themselves They cast off Samuel and the Government of the Judges 'T was the Children of the National Church that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom and animated the Rebellion against his Father David They were the same that revolted from Solomon's Son and cryed in behalf of Jeroboam To your Tents O Israel Not two Ages ago the Church of France too generally fell in with the Family of Guise against their lawful Soveraign Henry the fourth Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief who stiled it an holy War at that time fearing not without cause the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See In this conjuncture the Dissenters made up the best part of that King's Armies and by their Loyalty and Blood preserved the Blood Royal of France and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince That King was twice assinated and the last time murdered as was Henry the third his Predecessor but they fell one by the hand of a Church-man the other at least by a Conformist 'T is true that the next civil War was between the Catholicks and the Hugenots under the conduct of Cardinal Richlien and the Duke of Roan But as I will not justifie the Action so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the fourth as the reward of their singular Merit being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded they say they did but defend their own and that rather against the Cardinal than the King whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person And there is this Reason to believe them that if it had been otherwise we are sure that King Charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their Quarrel However the Cardinal like himself wisely knew when to stop For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown to moderate their greatness and check their growth yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the fore-going Age he saw ' twaswise to have a Ballance upon occasion But this was more then recompenc'd in their first Adhesion to the Crown of France under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal when their Perswasion had not only Number and many good Officers to value it self upon but
Poor and Hospitality to their Neighbours recommends them to the first favour they have to bestow That Fort is unsafe where a part of the Garrison consists of disguised Enemies for when they take their turns at the Watch the danger is hardly evitable It would then certainly be for the safety of the Fort that such Friends in Masquerade were industrously kept out instead of being whipt in And it was something of this I remember that was made an Argument for the Declaration of Indulgence in the Preamble to wat the greater Safety of the Government from Open and Publick then private dissenting Meetings of worship as indeed the rest bear the like resemblance For these were the Topicks quieting the People encouraging Strangers to come and live among us and Trade by it and lastly preventing the Danger that might arise to the Government by private Meetings Of greater reason then from private men not less discontented but more concealed and secured by the great Drake of Church Conformity It is this will make a Comprehension of the next Dissenters to the Church dangerous tho' it were practicable of which side soever it be For in an Age the present Government shall feel the Art and Industry of the comprehended So that a Toleration is in reason of State to be prefer'd And if the Reasons of the Declaration were ever good they are so still because the Emergencies of State that made them so remain and our Neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our detriment But it will be now said Though the Government should find its account in what has been last alledged this were the way to overthrow the Church and encourage Dissenters to continue in their Errors Which is that second main Objection I proposed at first to answer in its proper place and that I think this is I humbly say if it prove the Interest of the three considerable Church-Interests in this Kingdom a Relaxation at least can hardly fail us The three Church Interests are That of the Church of England That of the Roman-Catholick-Dissenter and That of the Protestant-Dissenter That the Church of England ought in Conscience and Prudence to consent to the Ease desired I pray first that it be considered how great a reflection it will be upon her Honour that from a Persecuted she should turn a Persecuting Church An overthrow none of her Enemies have been able to give to her many excellent Apologies Nor will it be excused by her saying She is in the Right which her Persecutors were not since this is a confidence not wanting in any of them or her Dissenters and the truth is it is but the begging of a Question that will by no means be granted No body ought to know more then Church-men that Conscience cannot be forced That Offerings against Conscience are as odious to God as uneasie to them that make them That God loves a free Sacrifice That Christ forbad Fire though from Heaven it self to punish Dissenters and commanded that the Tares should grow with the Wheat till the Harvest In sine that we should love Enemies themselves And to exclude worldly strife for Religion That his Kingdom is not of this World This was the Doctrine of the Blessed Saviour of the World Saint Paul persues the same course Is glad Christ is Preached be it of Envy the worst ground for Dissent that can be It was he that ask't that hard but just Question Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant To his own Lord he standeth or falleth He allows the Church a Warfare and Weapons to perform it but they are not Carnal but Spiritual Therefore it was so advised that every man in matters of Religion should be fully perswaded in his own mind and if any were short or mistaken God would in his time Inform them better He tells us of Schismaticks and Hereticks too and their punishment which is to the point in hand He directs to a first and second Admonition and if that prevail not reject them That is refuse them Church Fellowship disown their Relation and deny them Communion But in all this there is not a Word of Fines or Imprisonments nor is it an excuse to any Church that the civil Magistrate executes the severity while they are Members of her Communion that make and execute the Laws But if the Church could gain her Point I mean Conformity unless she could gain consent too 't were but Constraint at last A Rape upon the Mind which may encrease her Number not her Devotion On the contrary the rest of her Sons are in danger by their Hypocrisie The most close but watchful and Revengeful thing in the World Besides the Scandal can hardly be removed To over-value Coyn and Rate Brass to Silver Beggers any Country and to own them for Sons she never begat debases and destroyes any Church 'T were better to indulge forreign Coyn of intrinsick Value and let it pass for its Weight 'T is not Number but Quality Two or three sincere Christians that form an Evangelical Church and tho' the Church were less more Charity on the one hand and Piety on the other with exact Church-censure and less civil Coertion would give her credit with Conscience in all Sects without which their Accession it self would be no benefit but disgrace and hazard to her Constitution And to speak prudently in this Affair 't is the Interest of the Church of England not to suffer the Extinction of Dissenters that she may have a Counter Ballance to the Roman Catholicks who though few in Number are great in Quality and greater in their forreign Friendships and Assistance On the other hand it is her Interest to Indulge the Roman-Catholick that by his Accession She may at all times have the Ballance in her own hand against the Protestant Dissenter leaning to either as she finds her Doctrine undermined by the one or her Discipline by the other or lastly her civil Interest endangered from either of them And it is certainly the Interest of both those Extreams of Dissent that She rather than either of them should hold the Scale For as the Protestant-Dissenter cannot hope for any Tenderness exclusive of Roman Catholicks but almost the same Reasons may be advanced against him so on the other hand it would look imprudent as well as unjust in the Roman Catholicks to solicite any Indulgence exclusive of Protestant Dissenters For besides that this keeps up the Animosity which it is their Interest to bury The consequence will be to take the advantage of Time to snatch it from one another when an united Request for Liberty once granted will oblige both Parties in all times for Example sake to have it equally preserved Thus are all Church-Interests of Conformists and Dissenters rendered consistent and safe in their civil Interest one with the other But it will last of all doubtless be objected That though a Toleration were never so desirable in it self and in its consequence beneficial
to the Publick yet the Government cannot allow it without Ruin to the Church England which it is obliged to maintain But I think this 〈◊〉 not affect the Question at all unless by maintaing the Church of England it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of 〈◊〉 Communion or knock them on the Head Let us call to mind that the Religion that is true allows no man to do Wrong that Right may come of it And that nothing has lessen'd the Credit of any Religion more than declining to support it self by its own Charity and Piety and taking Sanctuary in the Arms rather than the Vnderstanding of men Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon The Church of England must be maintain'd Right but can't that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword with this Rebuke He that kills with the Sword with the Sword shall be killed if his Followers are to draw it again He makes killing for Religion Murder and deserving Death Was he then in the right Not to call Legions to his assistance And are not his Followers of these times in the wrong to seek to uphold their Religion by any methods of Force The Church of England must be maintain'd therefore the Dissenters that almost hold the same Doctrine must be ruined A Consequence most unnatural as it is almost impossible For besides that the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate who is the Image of divine Justice and Clemency and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church upon one that destres to be esteemed a True one she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed Kings can no more make Brick without Straw than Slaves The Condition of our Affairs is much chang'd and the Circumstances our Government is under differ mightily from those of our Ancestors They had not the same dissents to deal with nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable and their Prosecution mischievous to the State Nor did this come of the Princes neglect or 〈◊〉 There are other Reasons to be assigned of which the opportunities Domestick Trouble gave to their Increase and Power and the Severities used to suppress them may go for none of the least So that it was as involuntary in the Prince as to the Church Anxious And under this necessity to tye the Magistrate to old measures is to be regardless of Time whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the conduct of wise men in their present Actions Governments as well as Courts change their Fashions The same Clothes will not always serve And Politicks made Obsolete by new Accidents are as unsafe to follow as antiquated Dresses were ridiculous to ware Thus Sea-men know and teach us in their daily practice They humour the Winds though they will lie as near as they can and trim their Sails by their Compass And by patience under these constrained and uneven Courses it is they gain their Port at last This justifies the Governments change of Measures from the change of Things for res nolunt male Administrari And to be free it looks more then Partial to Elect and Reprobate too That the Church of England is prefer'd and has the Fat of the Earth the Authority of the Magistrate and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands which comprehends all the Honours Places Profits and Powers of the Kingdom must not be repined at Let her have it and keep it all and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her But to ruin Dissenters to compleat her Happiness pardon the Allusion is Talvauism in the worst sence for this is that Horrendem Decretum reduc'd to Practice And to pursue that ill-natured Principle Men are civilly Damn'd for that they cannot help since Faith is not in Man's power though it sometimes exposes one to it It is a severe Dilemma that a man must either renounce that of which he makes Conscience in the sight of God or be civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated There was a time when the Church of England her self stood in need of Indulgence and made up a great part of the Non-conformists of this Kingdom and what she then wanted she pleaded for I mean a Toleration and that in a general Stile as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor Bishop of Down entituled Liberty of Prophecy And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England is the Modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes For though perhaps it were indefencible in any Church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true unless she superceeded his Ignorance by Conviction rather than Authority it must doubtless look rude to punish men into Conformity to that of the truth of which the Church her self pretends no certainty Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious then one more confident but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh when they ruin People for not believing that which they have not in themselves the power of believing and which she cannot give them and of which her self is not infallibly assured The Drift of this is Moderation which well becomes us poor Mortals That for every idle Word we speak must give an account at the Day of Judgment if our Saviour's Doctrine have any credit with us It would much mittigate the Severity if the dissent were Sullen or in Contempt But if men can't help or hinder their Belief they are rather Vnhappy than Guilty and more to be pitied than blamed However they are of the reasonable stock of the Country and though they were unworthy of Favour they may not be unfit to live 'T is Capital at Law to destroy Bastards and By-blows are lay'd to the Parish to keep They must maintain them at last And shall not these natural Sons at least be laid at the Door of the Kingdom Unhappy fate of Dissenters to be less heeded and more destitute then any Body If this should ever happen to be the effect of their own Folly with submission it can never be the consequence of the Government 's Engagements Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest If God hath elected some to Salvation it will not follow of course that he hath absolutly rejected all the rest For tho' he was God of the Jews he was God of the Gentiles too and they were his People tho' the Jews were his peculiar People God respects not Persons says St. Peter the good of all Nations are accepted The Difference at last will not be of Opinion but Works Sheep or Goats all of all Judgments will be found and Come well done or Go ye Workers of Iniquity will conclude their Eternal State Let us be careful
therefore of an Opinion-Reprobation of one another We see the God of Nature hath taught us softer Doctrine in his great Books of the World His Sun shines and his Rain falls upon all All the Productions of Nature are by Love and shall it be proper to Religion only to propagate by Force The poor Hen instructs us in Humanity who to defend her feeble Young refuses no danger All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the use of Man are produc'd by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun 'T is Kindness that upholds human Race People don't multiply in spight And if it be by gentle and friendly ways that Nature produces and matures the Creatures of the World certainly Religion should teach us to be Mild and Bearing Let your Moderation be known to all men was the saying of a great Doctor of the Christian Faith and his Reason for that command Cogent For the Lord is at hand As if he had said Have a care what you do be not bitter nor violent for the Judge is at the Door Do as you would be done to lest what you deny to others God should refuse to you And after all this shall the Church of England be less tender of mens Consciences than our common Law is of their Lives which had rather a Thousand Criminals should escape than that One Innocent should perish Give me leave to say that there are many Innocents Conscience excepted now exposed Men honest peaceable and useful free of ill designes that pray for Caesar and pay their Tribute to Caesar If any tell us They have or may ill use their Toleration I say this must be look't to and not Liberty therefore refused for the English Church cannot so much forget her own Maxim to Dissenters That Propter abusum non est Tollendus usus It suffices to our Argument 't is no necessary Consequence and that Fact and Time are for us And if any misuse such Freedom and entitle Conscience to Misbehavour we have other Laws enough to catch and punish the Offendors without treating One Party with the Spoils of Six And when Religion becomes no mans Interest it will hardly ever be any mans Hypocrisie Men will chuse by Conscience which at least preserves Integrity though it were mistaken And if not in the wrong Truth recompences Inquiry and Light makes amends for Dissent And since a plain Method offers it self from the Circumstances of our case I take the freedom to present it for the Model of the entreated Toleration Much has been desired said and prest in reference to the late King 's being Head of a Protestant League which takes in but apart of the Christian World the Roman and Grecian Christians being excluded But I most humbly offer that our wise men would please to think of another Title for our King and that is Head of a Christian League and give the Experiment here at Home in his own Dominions The Christian Religion is admitted of All in the Text and by All acknowledged in the Apostles Creed Here every Party of Christians meet and center as in a General The several Species of Christians that this Genus divideth it self into are those divers Perswasions we have within this Kingdom the Church of England Roman-Catholicks Grecians Lutheraus Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers Socinians These I call so many Orders of Christians that unite in the Text and differ only in the Comment All owning one Deity Saviour and Judge good Works Rewards and Punishments which Bodies once regulated and holding of the Prince as Head of the Government maintaining Charity and pressing Piety will be an Honour to Christianity a Strength to the Prince and a Benefit to the Publick For in lieu of an unattainable at best an unsincere Vniformity we shall have in Civils Vnity and Amity in Faith The Iews before and in the time of Herod were divided into divers Sects There were Pharisees Sadduces Herodians and Essenes They maintained their Dissent without Ruine to the Government And the Magistrates fell under no censure from Christ for that Toleration The Gentiles as already has been observ'd had their divers orders of Philosophers as disagreeing as ever Christians were and that without danger to the Peace of the State The Turks themselves show us that both other Religions and divers Sects of their own are very Tolerable with seourity to their Government The Roman Church is a considerable instance to our point for she is made up of divers Orders of both Sexes of very differing Principle fomented sometimes to great Feuds and Controversies as between Franciscans Dominicans Iesuits and Sorbomists yet without danger to the Political state of the Church On the contrary she therefore cast her self into that Method that she might safely give vent to Novelty and Zeal and suffer both without danger of Schism And these Regulars are by the Popes Graunts privileg'd with an Exemption from Episcopal Visitation and Jurisdiction Changing then the Terms from Church to State the whole contrivance looks very Wise and Imitable For as by this Schisme in their Church so Faction in our State may be prevented And these civil Regulars depending on the civil Power as those Religious ones do upon the Popes will Naturally like them become the Perpetual Votarys of its greatness And thus all Parties hanging like Keys by one Ring at the civil Magistrates Girdle tho' each has its several Lock he that keeps them can open and shut every Door as the Persons deserve and the publick Safety requires To make this more easie a 〈◊〉 and Practice I humbly propose First that every Party do present a voluntary Assurance of their Fidelity to the Government in Terms the most full and pain that may be In which as the King will have an Account of their Number so of their Duty to the Government and Abhorrence of all Faction and Rebellion Secondly That they should give in a List of their Meetings as to Place Time and the Persons properly belonging to them Thirdly that once in every Year the names of Proselytes be delivered into the Clark of the Peace for every County and that all of that Party as well as those new Adherents do renew their Obligation of Obedience by Annual Subscriptions Fourthly Because it is not impossible that some or other may mis-behave themselves and abuse this Liberty or be abused in the use of it That in every County three Persons of most Eminency be Yearly Named to the Magistrates by each Dissenting Interest to stand a kind of Representatives both to inform them what they can upon inquiry of Persons or Things among the People of that Party Which may in the least be thought to affect the Government and to have redress of injuries done to Persons in the sober use of their allowed Liberty These are the Methods that have had most weight with me and the best I know to create a Reciprocal Confidence and Interest between the Prince and his Dissenting People To be