Men encouraged and taken into the Constitution Do we value a few Indifferent Ceremonies and some late Declarations and doubtful Expressions beyond the Satisfaction of Mens Consciences and the Peace and Stability of this Church As to this material Question I shall crave leave to deliver my Opinion freely and impartially and that I. With respect to the Case of the People the Terms of whose Union with us is acknowledged by our Brethren to be so much easier than their own But these are of two sorts 1. Some allow the use of the Liturgy but say they cannot joyn in Communion with us because the participation of the Sacraments hath such Rites and Ceremonies annexed to it which they think unlawful and therefore till these be removed or left indifferent they dare not joyn with us in Baptism or the Lord's Supper because in the one the Cross is used and in the other Kneeling is required As to these I answer 1. Upon the most diligent Search I could make into these things I find no good ground for any scruple of Conscience as to the use of these Ceremonies and as little as any as to the Sign of the Cross as it is used in our Church notwithstanding all the noise that hath been made about its being a New Sacrament and I know not what but of this at large in the following Treatise 2. I see no ground for the Peoples Separation from other Acts of Communion on the account of some Rites they suspect to be unlawful And especially when the use of such Rites is none of their own Act as the Cross in Baptism is not and when such an Explication is annexed concerning the intention of Kneeling at the Lord's Supper as is in the Rubrick after the Communion 3. Notwithstanding because the use of Sacraments in a Christian Church ought to be the most free from all Exceptions and they ought to be so Administred as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous Persons from joyning with them I do think it would be a part of Christian Wisdom and Condescention in the Governours of our Church to remove those Bars from a freedom in joyning in full Communion with us Which may be done either by wholly taking away the Sign of the Cross or if that may give offence to others by confining the use of it to the publick Administration of Baptism or by leaving it indifferent as the Parents desire it As to Kneeling at the Lord's Supper since some Posture is necessary and many Devout People scruple any other and the Primitive Church did in Ancient times receive it in the Posture of Adoration there is no reason to take this away even in Parochial Churches provided that those who scruple Kneeling do receive it with the least Offence to others and rather Standing than Sitting because the former is most agreeable to the practice of Antiquity and of our Neighbour-Reformed Churches As to the Surplice in Parochial Churches it is not of that consequence as to bear a Dispute one way or other and as to Cathedral Churches there is no necessity of Alteration But there is another thing which seems to be of late much scrupled in Baptism viz. The use of God fathers and God mothers Excluding the Parents Although I do not question but the Practice of our Church may be justified as I have done it towards the end of the following Treatise yet I see no necessity of adhering so strictly to the Cannon herein but that a little Alteration may prevent these Scruples either by permitting the Parents to joyn with the Sponsors or by the Parents publickly desiring the Sponsors to represent them in offering the Child to Baptism or which seems most agreeable to Reason that the Parents offer the Child to Baptism and then the Sponsors perform the Covenanting part representing the Child and the Charge after Baptism be given in common to the Parents and Sponsors These things being allowed I see no obstruction remaining as to a full Union of the Body of such Dissenters with us in all Acts of Divine Worship and Christian Communion as do not reject all Communion with us unlawful 2. But because there are many of those who are become zealous Protestants and plead much their Communion with us in Faith and Doctrine although they cannot joyn with us in Worship because they deny the Lawfulness of Liturgies and the right Constitution of our Churches Their case deserves some consideration whether and how far they are capable of being made serviceable to the common Interest and to the support of the Protestant Religion among us To their Case I answer First That a general unlimited Toleration to Dissenting Protestants will soon bring Confusion among us and in the end Popery as I have shewed already and a Suspension of all the Penal Laws that relate to Dissenters is the same thing with a boundless Toleration Secondly If any present Favours be granted to such in consideration of our Circumstances and to prevent their Conjunction with the Papists for a general Toleration for if ever the Papists obtain it it must be under their Name If I say such Favours be thought fit to be shewed them it ought to be with such Restrictions and Limitations as may prevent the Mischief which may easily follow upon it For all such Meetings are a perpetual Reproach to our Churches by their declaring That our Churches are no true Churches that our manner of Worship is unlawful and that our Church-Government is Antichristian and that on these accounts they separate from us and Worship God by themselves But if such an Indulgence be thought fit to be granted I humbly offer these things to Consideration 1. That none be permitted to enjoy the priviledge of it who do not declare That they do hold Communion with our Churches to be Unlawful For it seems unreasonable to allow it to others and will give Countenance to endless and causeless Separations 2. That all who enjoy it besides taking the Test against Popery do subscribe the Thirty Six Articles of our Faith because the pretence of this Liberty is joyning with us in Points of Faith and this may more probably prevent Papists getting in amongst them 3. That all such as enjoy it must declare the particular Congregations they are of and enter their Names before such Commissioners as shall be Authorized for that purpose that so this may be no pretence for Idle Loose and Prophane Persons never going to any Church at all 4. That both Preachers and Congregations be liable to severe Penalties if they use any bitter or reproachful words either in Sermons or Writings against the Established Constitution of our Churches because they desire only the freedom of their own Consciences and the using this Liberty will discover it is not Conscience but a turbulent factious Humour which makes them separate from our Communion 5. That all indulged Persons be particularly obliged to pay all legal Duties to the Parochial Churches lest meer Covetousness tempt
THE Case of PERSECUTION Charg'd on the Church of England Consider'd and Discharg'd In order to Her JUSTIFICATION AND A Desired Vnion of Protestant Dissenters The Parliament made good Laws The Papists out of a Pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Execution of them and some Leading Dissenters to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet p. 68. But Wisdom is justified of her Children Matth. xi xix Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey MDCLXXXIX TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JONATHAN Lord Bishop OF EXON May it please your Lordship THIS slender Present comes as a grateful Expression of that great Satisfaction and Joy with which your Clergy were filled when your Lordship was installed our Diocesan Your Lordship's Client according to his mean Abilities hath lately endeavoured after our Saviour's Method to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and now he assays to give unto God and his Church the things that are God's The Offering I confess is little and lean but coming as a Dove with an Olive Branch to that Ark which hath been long tossed with succeeding Waves bringing Tidings of the Abatement of that Deluge which had overflown the Church and Nation and that the frightful Noise of Persecution doth now cease in our Land I hope it may be taken into that Ark by your Lordships Hand The Widows Mite which she cast into the Treasury was graciously accepted by our blessed Saviour and indeed it is only your Lordships Approbation can give a Value to this Mite as the Royal Stamp doth to those Metals which have no Intrinsick value in themselves My endeavour is by a few Arguments to silence those Murmurings Fears and Jealousies that the Church of England will be as they slanderously report it hath been a Persecuting Church and this would be as needless if we had to do with reasonable Men and real Protestants as to prove that the Martyr'd Bishops in Queen Mary's days who also were our first Reformers were Persecutors and destroyers of that Religion which they planted by their Doctrine and watered with their Bloud in every corner of their Kingdom and which hitherto as a fruitful Vine hath brought forth such Fruit as hath honoured GOD and Man. But what need is there to draw a Line Judges 9.11 when we have the Works of Apelles before us The more then Heroick Deeds of your self and those ever memorable Bishops your Colleagues of whom our English World was not worthy have struck dead all such Objectors who as one Man stood up as Phinees did and by Petitioning or as the other Translation hath it by executing of Judgment Psal 106. v. 30. And by laying not only your Dignities and Honours but your Lives and Fortunes in the Gap gave a check and diversion to those Plagues of Popery and Slavery which with so much otherwise Irresistible Violence were breaking in upon us And how can those Bishops be any longer accounted Persecutors or unworthy of the Miter who were such prepared Candidates for a Crown of Martyrdom for themselves and so resolved Assertros of the liberty of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God and our Saviour for their Protestant Brethren But as Suetonius c. 74. says of Julius Caesar That he thought it not enough that his Wife was without a Fault but that she ought to be clear from all Suspicion of a Fault Oportet uxorem Caesaris non solum crimine verum omni Criminis suspicione carere His present Majesty after mature Consideration hath now consummated the Vnion of our Established Church with his Royal Person which he long since espoused by its Proxy and lively Effigies His Royal Consort and which hath hitherto to his good liking behaved her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an unspotted Virgin for thus hath our Royal Sovereign solemnly declared in the most August Assembly of the Nation That he is resolved to support that Church whose Loyalty he doubted not would enable him to Answer their just Expectation and that it should be always his particular Care and as soon as conveniently it might be he would call a Convocation So that now there is as little cause of Suspicion left that the Established Church should be a Persecuting as that it can be a Popish Church or that we shall have meerly a Parliamentary Religion as the Papists say as that we shall have a Popish Religion as some Dissenters fear It is too apparent that the Church was singled out as a Sacrifice and devoted by the Papists to Destruction and for Protection as a Dove Persecuted by the Romish Eagle she hath taken Sanctuary in the Bosom of our present Soveraign and who can think that under the Influence and Conduct of so propitious and benign a Protestant Prince that Dove should be transubstantiated into a Serpent Nor can her greatest Enemy suppose her to be so void of all Reason and Religion as to forget those Vows which she made in that day of her Distress which our Divisions made so Dark and Tempestuous of her ready Inclination to a happy Vnion in which our Strength and Security against our common Adversaries doth consist And the God of Peace who only can do it make us all that dwell in one House to be of one Mind to know and do the things that belong to our Peace before they are hid from our Eyes I beg your Lordships Patience to hear a great Truth which will never shame its Owner We were at first hurried at so great a distance from one another crumbled into so many Sects and Factions and have been for almost Fifty Years together running into irremediable Separations by the Whips and Spurs of those furious Drivers and Riders our common Enemies the Papists whose secret but now sensible Lashes and they must needs go whom the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light doth drive have forced us to run into such Confusion and Corruption as none but he that raiseth the Dead could repair the decayed Careasses of our Church and State. And very Glorious would those Bodies have appeared at that Resurrection were it not for some wrangling Sadduces who would rather maintain an Annihilation than grant a Resurrection for whose Confutation it was necessary for such as were concerned on the behalf of the Church to assert her Doctrine and their own Innocency under the late Revolutions when therefore for the Re-establishment of the Church a Commission was granted to some of different Perswasions to consult thereupon the Spirit of the Covenant did so stir in some Dissenters as to move them to insist upon a necessity of Reformation of Episcopacy and Liturgy of Doctrine and Worship to which the Advocates for the Church could not yield to the Satisfaction of their Adversaries unless they had
That thousands are gone to Hell and ten thousands on their march thither that in all probability would never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for the injoyment of Communion in a Purer Church Mr. Baxter in his Epistle to the Separate Congregations And as to Popery he says in his Defence of the Cure of Divisions That the Interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever will have the hearty Thanks and Concurrence of the Papists And I am perswaded says he that all the Arguments in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the Multitude of Sects among our selves and shall they use our Hands to do their Work Thus he and to this end he adviseth in his Saints Rest p. 518. of the first Edition Do not meet-together in Opposition to the publick Meeting nor at the time of publick Worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism to separate from the Church whereof you are Members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new out of its Ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hopes of reforming it Nor can I think what reason the Complainers can Assign why they may not as well conform to the present Church who could conform with the Apostolical Church in their Primitive Constitution for we read Acts 2. v. 41. That those Christians were baptized and v. 42. They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayers and v. 46. They continued daily with one accord in the Temple They had their Synod which made things in themselves indifferent necessary per hic nunc to be observed for the Peace of the Church they had a Superiority of one Minister above another their Ordinations to that Office their Censures to stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers their Rods and Excommunications against many of which doubtless our Complainers had they lived in that Age would and might as readily have pretended scruples of Conscience as now they do and what marks the Apostles would have set upon such is very obvious Rom. 16.17 Mark them that cause divisions among you and avoid them for such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies So 1 Cor. 3.3 Whereas there are among you envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men And Verse 4. While one saith I am of Paul and another I of Apollo are ye not all carnal St. Jude v. 16. These are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit which the Apostles seems to give as an Answer to their pretences of having the Spirit in an extraordinary manner But I shall not need to use any other Arguments to convince the Complainers of the Insufficiency of this Objection concerning their Consciences than their own practice for when the Complainers have been concerned in getting or keeping any beneficial Offices the concern of profit doth satisfie the Scruples of Conscience and they can generally conform to the Liturgy and Communicate in the Sacrament and seem the most zealous and devout in the Congregation nor will they stick to Educate their Children in such Callings as may fit them for such Imployments wherein they must conform which they could not do if they did in their Consciences believe Conformity to be a Sin. Certainly we owe more to our Spiritual Guides and Fathers than to forsake them and abandon them to the Malice of our Common Enemies which is as great a sin as if Children who have Parents that provide all Necessaries for their well being should desert them for some supposed Inconveniencies such as the restraining them from some things which they know to be hurtful for them or injoyn them some small matters which they conceive fit for them though their Children think otherwise and if they are corrected for their Faults and shall count them Tyrants and Persecutors they are in the sence of the Scriptures not Children but Bastards Heb. 12.8 And I believe none of the Complainers which are Pastors or Parents would approve the behaviour of such Children I desire therefore they would seriously consider who they were that brought us out of a State of Darkness and Bondage who vindicated the Liberty of the Gospel and the due Administration of the Sacraments who have planted the Tree of Life in the midst of us and cultivated it by their Labours and watered it with their Blood and defended it against those that would grub it up by the Roots And shall we not submit to them in a few Ceremonies enjoyned onely for Decency and Order though we think them inconvenient St. Peter may instruct us better who being demanded of our Lord St. John 6.68 Will ye also go away Master saith he whither shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Where all things necessary to Salvation are constantly imparted we may and ought to continue in that Communion and it is acknowledged to be a sin to separate from such a Church wherein we may continue not only without sin but to the saving of our Souls To which I shall add a very considerable Sentence of an Ancient Father Non minor est gloria sustinere Martyrium ne scindatur Ecclesia quam ne idolis sacrificetur 'T is as great a glory to indure Martyrdom for the prevention of Schism as to suffer it for not Sacrificing to Idols seeing by this we secure our private Salvation by the other we preserve the publick Peace and Edification we may innocently bear some Inconveniencies at their hands from whom we receive so much good especially considering that what we conceive to be evil are in their own nature things indifferent and in the Judgment of the Church are not thought any parts of Divine Worship but may be changed or laid aside as occasion shall require as in the instance of the Cross in Baptism at which the Complainers are most scandalized which the Church hath declared may be omitted in private Baptism and yet that Sacrament be effectually Administred And I cannot but think that person highly peccant against the Rules of Christian Charity who declared That the removal of such innocent Ceremonies would countervaile for all the Bloud that had been shed in our late Civil Wars wherein the King and his Loyal Nobles and many Thousands of good Subjects lost their Lives besides the many thousands that dyed in that Rebellion But if any person be yet dissatisfied concerning the reasonableness of what is required in order to a Conformity to the Established Doctrine and Worship let him consult the several Cases lately published by some Judicious Sons of the Church of England and if their prejudices be not removed it
down Fire and Brimstone on them before night Object These are terrible Judgments but where are those false Prophets to whom they belong Answ I know not any party though there be very many among us whose Leaders do not accuse the Guides of the other Parties as false Prophets as either not having a lawful Ordination but run before they are sent or being lawfully Ordained do preach such Doctrines as are not agreeable to the written word which is the only Canon or Rule of Faith and Manners As to the first viz. The lawfulness of Ordination it hath been sufficiently evidenced against the Papists that the Ministers of the Established Church of England are lawfully Ordained and by the Concessions of the most sober Diffenters it is granted who never required any other Ordination of such as went over to the opposite Parties nor doth the Church of England deny the validity of Ordinations in the Church of Rome though it doth deny the same to those separate Factions which heap up Teachers to themselves having itching Ears for the Primitive Church hath never approved of such Ordinations wherein a Bishop did not preside and joyn with his Presbyters But supposing the Ordination to be valid we are to consider the truth of those Doctrines by the correspondency they bare to the Canon of the Holy Scriptures for whoever shall preach any other Doctrine as an Article of Faith necessarily to be received and believed in order to Salvation though it be an Angel from Heaven 't is the Apostles Sentence that he be accursed Gal. 2.8 i. e. we may have no Communion with him by this rule therefore we are to try the Doctrines and Spirits of those false Prophets which are abroad in the World and by these Characters we may discern them if there be any that do deny that Jesus Christ is come into the World or that he is indeed the Son of God of one and the same substance with the Father if any reject the Doctrines taught by him and his Apostles resisting the Truth and Faith once deliver'd to the Saints being ashamed of Christ and his Words if any reject the Institutions of Christ's Ministers and Sacraments or add new Precepts and Commandments requiring the like observance of them as of his Word and Ordinance if any shall publickly preach such Opinions and Practises as are not according to Godliness but tend directly to Profaneness Uncleanness Disorder and Division if any forbid what God Commands or command what God forbids teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men such men will be found false Prophets and whether the Socinians that deny the equality of the Son of God with the Father in one Substance whether they that set up other Mediators between God and Man or command Divine Worship to be given to the Creatures and the work of Mens hands or that to colour this Impiety expunge the second Commandment that add to the number of Sacraments more than Christ Ordained and take from those which he instituted an Essential part such as the Cup in the Lord's Supper with a Non-obstante to Christ's Institution or such as wholly deny the use and efficacy of Baptism that prefer their own Prayers to that of our Saviour and their own Dreams and Delusions to the Revelation of Christ and his Apostles whether they that teach Disobedience to Magistrates and speaking evil of Dignities and stir up Seditions and Divisions from whence come Wars and Confusions and every evil thing whether these have not the Characters of false Prophets the Scriptures and Primitive Councils have determined And if the Established Church teach no other Doctrine than what is consonant to the Holy Scriptures and approved as well by Papists as by Presbyterians and Independents for as for the other Sectaries Anabaptists Quakers c. who reject the Authority of Scriptures we are not much concerned for their Objections if we worship the only true God and own Christ Jesus God and Man to be the only Mediator between God and Man observing all and only the Doctrines of Christ for rendring unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods The Character of a false Prophet cannot justly be imputed to any of her Ministers the great Crime objected to the Church by the Romanists is our separation from their Communion to which it is Answered That we have no otherwise left them than they have deserted the Doctrines and Communion of the Scriptures and the Primitive Church for the first four hundred Years to which if they shall return we are ready to give them the right hand of Fellowship But then it will be objected by some modern Dissenters in the words of Optatus Paces credemus uno sigillo sigillati sumus nec aliter baptizati nec aliter ordinati quam vos testamentum Divinum legimus pariter c. We believe in the same God and Saviour we are Baptized and Ordained as you and read the same Divine Testament but they are answered in the words of the same Father Hoc solo nomine quod a Christi Ecclesia separati estis vitam non habelitis for this only Crime of forsaking the Communion of Christ's Church you may come short of Eternal Life To which agreeth that of St. Augustin Extra Ecclaesiam Omnia possint habere praeter salutem possunt habere honorem possint habere sacramentum possunt cantare Hallelujah possunt respondere Amen possunt Evangelium tenere predicare possunt in nomine patris filii spiritus sancti fidem habere predicare sed nusquam nisi in Ecclesiâ Catholica possunt salutem invenire And therefore we are told That Schism is as studiously to be avoided as Idolatry Non minor est gloria Martyrium sustinere ne seinditur Ecclesia quare ne Idolis sacrificetur By denying the one we consult for our private Salvation by the other for the publick safety of the Church And if indeed we are agreed in the Essentials of Religion what cause can be given why by our Dissention in some Circumstances we should expose our selves and the People to all those Mischiefs which will inevitably follow on our Divisions For on the same grounds that they who agree with us in Doctrinals do deny to hold Communion with us in Worship others that have not so great an agreement with them may forsake their Communion and so our Divisions may be perpetuated and multiplied Inter licet nostrum non licet vestrum nutant animae Christianorum nemo vobis credit nemo nobis omnes contentiosi homines sumus saith Optatus p. 84. The People will not believe we have the same Faith when they see we agree not in the same Worship But if we have indeed the same Faith why do we separate It is doubtless a Sin to separate from that Church in whose Communion we may remain without Sin and it is a real Imputation of somewhat that is sinful in our Communion when we separate
Martyr than whom there was not a meeker or more merciful Prince on the Earth was barbarously murthered as a Tyrant and Destroyer of his People but as they who fought against and overcame him and then sold him to those who imprisoned and slew him could no more wash their hands from his Bloud than Pilate did for delivering Christ to the Jews and Romans to be crucified so neither shall they be able to excuse themselves though they should plead that things fell out beyond their expectation or that it was a persecuting Church if by their deserting accusing and betraying of it it shall be destroyed and though it hath been accused and should be condemned as a Persecutor yet I doubt not but she will be found a constant Preacher of that Doctrine which our Saviour taught her of rendring unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's In my former Treatise of Persecution p. 3. I promised as a Second Part of an Historical Relation of Matters of Fact which upon some consideration got the start of this being printed Anno 1684 and was Entituled A Compendious History of all the Popish and Fanatical Plots and Conspiracies against the Established Government from the First Tear of Queen Elizabeth to 1684. It remains now that I continue that Relation to the end of the Reign of the late King James the Second In order whereunto I think it necessary to premonish the Reader who were the Actors and who the Sufferers in these later Transactions The Persons concerned on the one-side were the Church of England as by Law Established on the other-side I account the Dissenters of all sorts which acted sometimes severally and at other times by combination to undermine and destroy the Established Church which being in a legal possession of its Rights those who endeavoured either by open Acts of Hostility or secret and subtile Arts of Defamations Tolerations illegal Conventicles Confederacies and Compliances with her professed Enemies were the Aggressors and Persecutors and therefore though their Malice was so impotent that it could never obtain its desired effect yet that will not excuse them from being of a persecuting Spirit nor will their first and loud Clamours of Persecution Goals Fines and Imprisonment make impartial and rational Men believe that they were persecuted at all much less by the Church which as I have shewn had never power to inflict such punishments but only that the Sanctions of just and necessary Laws without which no Church or State can subsist were executed upon Transgressors The Members of the Church have suffered more for their moderation and kindness to Dissenters of all sorts than for any rigorous prosecution of any The Papists reviling them for being too favourable to Protestant Dissenters and these for too great a compliance with Papists These account us Hereticks and Schismaticks for departing so far from them the other hate us as Superstitious and Idolatrous for not going farther insomuch as the bare performance of our Duties to which the Laws of God and the Land do oblige us as well as our personal Oaths and Subscriptions is by our Adversaries of all sorts accounted our Crime and unless we wholly neglect our Duties and so render our selves obnoxious to the Laws we are sure to be reviled as Persecutors which is a Calumny as groundless as if a Man that is legally possessed of an Estate should be condemned as an Usurper for not delivering up the possession to every Outlaw that demands it I know that the Clamors which such Men make as have drawn the legal Penalties on their own heads may move the Mobilie to pity them and entertain hard thoughts of the Laws themselves but Men of more mature and sober Judgments will conclude that such Transgressors do rather persecute the Laws than the Laws them As in the Case of restraining distracted and ungovernable persons Non persequitur medicus phreneticum sed Phreneticus Medicum The first Matter of Fact that I shall mention is the Behaviour of the Bishops in Parliament and the rest of the Clergy in their several stations on the occasion of the Bill of Exclusion which was with great earnestness prosecuted by a Party in the House of Commons and as vigorously opposed by another Party whose Debates and Speeches Pro and Con are Printed at large And although the prospect of a Popish Successor might have prevailed with the House of Lords to admit some more moderate Debates thereupon yet was it no sooner presented than rejected and the blame thereof by the Commons was charged on the Bishops who were thereupon accounted of as a dead weight laying on the Nation and fit to be removed and it was urged against them in that House That they might well be afraid of their Religion if the Fathers of the Church will joyn against the only Means that can save it Nor were the generality of the Clergy defective in declaring their Resolutions to adhere to the Succession being thereto encouraged by the Duke 's solemn Protestation That if ever he came to the Crown he would support the Church in her Rights Which Promise was not so unalterable as to the Duke nor so infallibly believed by the Church who perceived that he had acted contrary to it in procuring Tolerations and Indulgences to the dividing and weakning of the Church But by these manifestations of their Loyalty and Fidelity to the Succession the whole Body of the Clergy contracted more Odium from the disaffected People their Party in the House of Commons having Voted the Bill of Exclusion as an Act for securing the Protestant Religion by Disabling the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging which is to be seen at large p. 83. c. of the Collection of the Debates the Preamble whereunto is as followeth Whereas James Duke of York is notoriously known to be perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and to carry on most devilish and horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of His Majesty's most Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion And also That if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom nothing is more manifest than that a total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue for prevention whereof be it enacted c. To which some in their Speeches added That it was impossible that a Popish Successor should come to the Crown but through a Sea of Blood and such a War as might shake the Monarchy and endanger both him and his Children which notwithstanding they generally declared for the Succession though they were premonisht how dear it would cost them and this is a great Argument that they were not of a revengeful or persecuting Spirit but rather disposed to suffer when God should
call them to it and in the mean time return good for evil Upon Munday being Feb. 2. 1684 Charles II. was seized by a violent Fit supposed to be an Appoplexy whereof he died on the Thursday following and that Afternoon K. James II. was proclaimed who sitting in his Privy Council then assembled declared That since it pleased Almighty God to place him in that Station and that he was now to succeed so good and gracious a King as well as so kind a Brother he thought fit to declare That he would endeavour to follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People That he had been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power though that had not been the only story which had been made of him That he knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves Good and Loyal Subjects and therefore he should always take care to defend and support them And that he likewise knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish and therefore as he should never depart from the just Rights and Priviledges of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property Which Declaration was then ordered in Council to be Published and the same was repeated at the Coronation and then confirmed by his Oath for which Addresses of Thanks were sent the King from all parts of the Nation assuring him of their Loyalty and Resolutions to maintain his Rights and defend his Person with their Lives and Fortunes These Declarations were repeated to the Parliament which met May 22. 1685. That they might be assured that he spake them not by chance and that they might more firmly rely on a Promise so solemnly made But how this Promise was performed may appear by the following Events During the sitting of this Parliament News was brought of the Landing of Argyle in Scotland and shortly after of the Landing of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England whereupon the Parliament readily declared to stand by the King with their Lives and Fortunes for the suppressing of those Rebellions desiring him to take more than ordinary care of his Person And though the Rebellions were suppressed chiefly by the voluntary Assistance of such as were of the Communion of the Church of England among whom the R. R. the Bishop of Winchester was a great Instrument and the Scholars of Oxford cheerfully ingaged themselves And the Militia raised in the West caused Monmouth to turn East-ward in the Mouth of the King's Army Yet in October following the King took occasion to complain how useless the Militia was on such occasions and to tell them That nothing but a good Force of well disciplined Troops in constant pay was sufficient to defend them from such as might disturb them at home or from abroad And here was a Foundation laid for a Standing Army such as the King intended in a due time by a French General and Irish Souldiers to over-awe the Nation and make the Instruments of accomplishing his Designs and there needed but a few more soft steps till the Church be surprized and awakened out of that Security wherein her own Innocence and the King 's frequent and solemn Promises had brought her but first the State of Ireland must be altered the Earl of Clarendon is called home to make way for Tyrconnel Scotland is secured by an Army which was raised for the suppressing of Argyle the Duke of Albemarle that was too popular is sent to Jamaica and whatever or whosoever might be thought able to withstand any violence that should be offered to the Church and the Religion that was Established is removed and the Power put into such hands as the King could confide in for the destruction of the same And because the Protestant Dissenters were a considerable Party and their Eyes began to be so far opened as to perceive that they should perish in the Ruine of the Church which made them more inclinable to a Union with it for prevention of their common destruction the old Stratagem of a Toleration and Liberty of Conscience which Coleman declared to be an effectual means to destroy the Established Church is now made use of This bold and fatal stroke was made immediately at the Root of the Religion and Laws established in Scotland but seconded by the same Arm against the Establishment in England as will evidently appear upon these considerations The Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland dated Feb. 12. 1687. In which consider first the Foundation of it in these words We have thought fit to grant and by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all our Subjects are to obey without reserve do hereby grant our Royal Toleration c. Which words do assert a Power in the King to command what he pleaseth and an Obligation in the Subject to obey whatever he commands 2. This Absolute Power is not grounded on any Law lest it should seem to be derived from the People but on a Soveraign Authority inherent in the King's Person Jure Divino which may be exercised on that ground as well in England as Scotland as the event shews it was 3. This Absolute Power is to be obeyed by all the Subjects without reserve i. e. not only by a passive submission to the Power but by an active compliance with it so that when the King shall declare it to be his Will and Pleasure That all his Subjects renounce the Protestant Religion and turn Roman Catholicks to which his Religion binds him and as he hopes for Salvation and under the Penalty of being deposed by the Pope they are bound to be of the King's Religion 4. That the Subjects that will partake of the benefit of this Toleration must swear To the utmost of their power to assist defend and maintain the King and his Successors in the exercise of this Absolute Power against all deadly i. e. all Mortals So that the Subjects were to make a very dear purchase of this intolerable Toleration for which they were to pawn their Souls and submit all they had to an Absolute Power without reserve Let us consider therefore the intrinsick value of this Toleration which says We do give and grant our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named Where the word Royal looks like a stamp on base Metal mixt of Popery and Quakerism expressed in the Proclamation and is so general that as never any Christian Prince granted the like so the King as a Roman Catholick could not grant to any of those mentioned viz. either of the Church of Scotland then established under Episcopacy or to the Presbyterians or Quakers whom the Church of Rome accounts Hereticks But then it is to be considered that this Toleration of the Protestant Subjects is granted under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations
mentioned As first None are to be tolerated but such as accept of the Toleration i. e. acknowledge the Lawfulness of the Absolute Power and swear to maintain it 2. That nothing be said or done in their Meetings that is contrary to the Weal and Peace of our Reign Seditious or Treasonable and that they only exercise in private Houses But what would be interpreted to be Seditious the most cautious Preacher could hardly discern But that all Scotland might know for whose sake the Toleration was granted and who alone would in time reap the benefit of it after a large commendation of the Papists as good Christians and dutiful Subjects it follows We by our Absolute Power suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament made against Roman Catholicks So that they shall be as free in all respects as any of our Protestant Subjects not only as to the exercise of their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them And to this end it follows We do by our Royal Authority aforesaid i.e. the Absolute Power stop disable and dispense with all Laws injoyning any Oaths or Tests c. And whereas the Toleration for Protestants was clogg'd with several Conditions c. this for Papists is amplified in these words We command all our Judges and others concerned to explain this in the most ample sense and meaning c. for their Indemnity I have repeated the heads of this Proclamation more largely that the Reader may see what little reason the Protestants Subjects of Scotland had to return those slavish Addresses which would be too nauseous to repeat It is no great wonder that the Scottish Mobilie should return their Thanks when the Privy Council declared They would assert his Prerogative with the hazard of their Lives and that whoever were employed by him were sufficiently secured by his Authority But that the English Subjects should dance after the Scottish Pipe upon such Winds as blow hot and cold in the same breath is an indelible Reproach of ignorance and of obstinacy against what is their True Interest the support of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties Yet when the like Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated April 4. 1687 came forth for England tho' the pretences were That it ever had been his Majesty's Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that the perfect enjoyment of their Property had never been in any Case invaded by him when it was known that the rigour used against Dissenters was urged by the Court and many Outrages committed by a Standing Army against the Subjects Property And the suspending of Laws did strike at the very Foundation of Government and Destruction of the Subjects by placing Papists who were not qualified by Law into Offices and Places of Trust Civil and Military it is a wonder how any Faction in England could address their Thanks and promise to stand by the King as a Return of Gratitude for such a Toleration as gave liberty to Turks Jews and Athiests but was particularly designed for the establishing of that Religion which should persecute and devour all the rest and yet there wanted not Addresses of Thanks from all parts of the Nation for this Liberty of Conscience as it is called but really of Confusion The Addresses are so many and fulsome that I shall not surcharge the Reader with them only observe that they were offered by a Generation who succeeded those that petitioned for the Death of the Royal Martyr that addressed Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard with the like odious Flatteries but that they should address their Thanks for taking off those Laws that kept out Popery and Slavery is more I suppose that their Forefathers would have done only it is evident that it was done on a design to ruine the Church of England though every ordinary person might perceive it had been in the power of the those Addressers Popery and Slavery would have been entailed on them and their Posterity by a Law. And though the Church of England had better Assurances both by the Laws and by their constant adhering to the Crown than the Promises in that Proclamation yet because they refused to return their Thanks they were charged with the brand of Abhorrers by the opposite Factions who might well conclude that since the King failed so much in his most solemn and deserved Promises to that Church which was by Law Established and was the Body of the Nation those scattered Parties which had not deserved any Favour from the Crown could not expect a performance of those Promises But by this we see what slender opportunities some Men are ready to lay hold on to vent their Malice against the Church thô their own Ruine be involved in it And what was the import of such Addresses but to thank the King for dispensing with those Laws and as much as in him lay abrogating and dissolving them which were made as a Fence to the Protestant Religion and for opening a wide gap for Popery and Slavery to come in and triumph over us In April 1688 the King declares That he was encouraged by the multitude of Addresses received from his Subjects to endeavour to establish Liberty of Conscience on such Foundations as should be unalterable And desires his Subjects to consider that for the Three Years last past he was not such a Prince as he had been represented by his Enemies i. e. an Oppressor but a Father of his People And now the Church of England which had merited so many Solemn Promises for their Protection were to have an experiment how well he would perform them for he makes an Order in Council That his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience should be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom Against the Publishing whereof the Seven Bishops who were then on the spot in behalf of themselves and their absent Brethren and their Clergy humbly presented the following Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty Humbly shewing THat the Great Aversions they find in themselves to the Distributing and Publishing in all their Churches Your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to Your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more then once publickly acknowledged to be so by Your gracious Majesty nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fit when that matter shall be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded on such a Dispensing Power as hath been often declared illegal in Parliament particularly in 1662 and 1672 and in the
beginning of Your Majesty's Reign and is a Matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distributing of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech Your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased not to insist upon the Distributing and Reading Your Majesty's Declaration And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray c. W. Cant. W. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicest Tho. Bath and Wells Tho. Peterborough Jonathan Bristol To which His Majesty answered I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change My Mind you shall hear from Me if not I expect My Command shall be obeyed The Reasons for not Reading the Declaration given by a Clergy-man being worthy to be transmitted to Posterity I have here inserted A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church-doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an obstinate and pievish or factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not lookt upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let mens private Opinions be what they will in the
nature of the thing he that Reads such a Declaration to his People teaches them by it For is not Reading Teaching Suppose then I do not consent to what I Read yet I consent to teach my People what I read and herein is the evil of it for it may be it were no fault to consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to the Declaration but if I consent to teach my People what I do not consent to myself I am sure that is a great one And he who can distinguish between consenting to read the Declaration and consenting to teach the People by the Declaration when reading the Declaration is teaching it has a very subtile distinguishing-Conscience Now if consenting to read the Declaration be a consent to teach it my People then the natural Interpretation of Reading the Declaration is That he who Reads it in such a solemn teaching-manner Approves it If this be not so I desire to know why I may not read an Homily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholic Homilies and commands me to read them And thus we may instruct our People in all the Points of Popery and recommend it to them with all the Sophistry and artificial Insinuations in obedience to the King with a very good Conscience because without our consent If it be said this would be a contradiction to the Doctrine of our Church by Law established so I take the Declaration to be And if we may read the Declaration contrary to Law because it does not imply our consent to it so we may Popish Homilies for the bare reading them will not imply our consent no more than the reading the Declaration does But whether I consent to the Doctrine or no it is certain I consent to teach my People this Doctrine and it is to be considered whether an honest Man can to this Thirdly I suppose no man will doubt but the King intends that our Reading the Declaration should signifie to the Nation our Consent and Approbation of it for the Declaration does not want Publishing for it is sufficiently known already but our Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which the Clergy generally refused though it was only to Thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in the his Declaration which was much more innocent than to publish the Declaration itself in our Churches This would perswade one that the King thinks our reading the Declaration to signifie our Consent and that the People will think it to be so And he that can satisfie Conscience to do an action without consent which the nature of the Thing the design and intention of the Command and the Sence of the People expound to be a Consent may I think as well satisfie himself with Equivocations and mental Reservations There are two things to be answered to this which must be considered I. That the People understand our Minds and see that this is matter of Force upon us and meer Obedience to the King. To which I answer 1. Possibly the People do understand that the matter of the Declaration is against our Principles But is this any excuse that we read that and by reading recommend that to them which is against our own Consciences and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King commands it did we approve of the matter of it but to consent to teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault and People must be very good natured to think this an Excuse 2. It is not likely that all the People will be of a mind in this matter some may excuse it others and those it may be the most the best and the wisest men will condemn us for it and then how shall we justifie our selves against their Censures when the World will be divided in their Opinions the plain way is certainly the best to do what we can justifie our selves and then let men judge as they please No men in England will be pleased with our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great advantage of it against us and against our Church and Religion others will severely condemn us for it and censure us as false to our Religion and as Betrayers both of Church and State and besides that it does not become a Minister of Religion to do any thing which in the opinion of the most charitable men can only be excused for what needs an excuse is either a fault or looks very like one besides this I say I will not trust mens Charity those who have suffered themselves in this Cause will not excuse us for fear of suffering those who are inclined to excuse us now will not do so when they consider the thing better and come to feel the ill consequences of it when our Enemies open their eyes and tell them what our Reading the Declaration signified which they will then tell us we ought to have seen before though they were not bound to see it for we are to guide and instruct them not they us II. Others therefore think that when we read the Declaration we should publickly profess that it is not our own judgment but that we only read it in obedience to the King and then our reading it cannot imply our consent to it Now this is only Protestation contra factum which all People will laugh at and scorn us for for such a solemn reading it in the time of Divine Service when all men ought to be most grave and serious and far from dissembling with God or Men does in the nature of the thing imply our approbation and should we declare the contrary when we read it what shall we say to those who ask us Why then do you read it But let those who have a mind to try this way which for my part I take to be a greater and more unjustifiable provocation of the King than not to read it and I suppose those who do not read it will be thought plainer and honester men and will escape as well as those who read it and protest against it and yet nothing less than an express Protestation will salve this matter for only to say they read it meerly in obedience to the King does not express their dissent it signifies indeed that they would not have read it if the King had not commanded it but these words do not signifie that they disapprove of the Declaration when their reading it though only in obedience to the King signifies their approbation of it as much as actions can signifie a consent let us call to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves