and the King wanted Money then a new severe Law against the Dissenters was offered to the angry men of the Church-party as the price of it and this seldom sail'd to have its effect so that they were like the Jewels of the Crown pawned when the King needed Money but redeem'd at the next Prorogation A Reflection then that arises naturally out of the Proceedings in the Year 1660. is That if a Parliament should come that would copy after that pattern and repeal Laws and Tests The King's Offers of Liberty of Conscience as may indeed be supposed will bind him till after a short Session or two such a meritorious Parliament should be dissolved according to the precedent in the Year 1660. and that a new one were brought together by the same Methods of changing Charters and making Returns and then the Old Laws de Heretico Comburtedo might be again revived and it would be said that the Kings Inclinations are for keeping his Promise and Granting still a Liberty of Conscience yet he can deny nothing to a Loyal and Catholick Parliament III. We pay all possible respect to the King and have witnessed how much we depended on his promises in so signal a manner that after such real Evidence all words are superfluous But since the King has shewed so much zeal not only for his Religion in general but in particular for that Society which of all the other Bodies in it we know is animated the most against us we must crave leave to speak a little freely and not suffer our selves to be destroyed by a Complement The Extirpation of Hereticks and the Breach of Faith to them have been Decreed by two of their General Councils and by a Tradition of several Ages the Pope is possessed of a power of dissolving all Promises Contracts and Oaths not to mention the prviate Doctrines of that Society that is so much in favour of doing Ill that Good may come of it of using Equivocations and Reservations and of ordering the Intention Now these Opinions as they have never been renounced by the Body of that Church so indeed they cannot be unless they renounce their Infallibility which is their Basis at the same time Therefore though a Prince of that Communion may very sincerely resolve to maintain Liberty of Conscience and to keep his Word yet the blind Subjection into which he is brought by his Religion to his Church must force him to break through all that as soon as the Doctrine of his Church is opened to him and that Absolution is denied him or higher Threatnings are made him if he continues firm to his merciful Incliations So that supposing His Majesties Piety to be as great as the Jesuits Sermon on the Thirtieth of January lately printed carries it to the uttermost possibility of Flesh and Blood then our Fears must still grow upon us who know what are the Decrees of that Church and by consequence we may infer to what his Piety must needs carry him as soon as those things are fully opened to him which in respect to him we are bound to believe are now hid from him IV. It will further appear that these are not injust Inferences if we consider a little what has been the Observation of all the Promises made for Liberty of Conscience to Hereticks by Roman Catholick Princes ever since the Reformation The first was the Edict of Passaw in Germany procured chiefly by Ferdinand's means and maintained indeed religiously by his Son Maximilian the Second whose Inclinations to the Protestant Religion made him be suspected for one himself but the Jesuits insinuated themselves so far into his Younger Brother's Court that was Archduke of Grats that this was not only broken by that Family in their Share but though Rodolph and Mathias were Princes of great Gentleness and the latter of these was the Prorector of the States in the beginning of their War with K. Philip the Second yet the violence with which the House of Grats was possessed overturned all that so that the breaking off the Pacificatory Edicts was begun in Rodolph's time and was so far carried on in Mathias's time that they set both Bahemia and Hungary in a Flame and so begun that long War of Germany 2. The next Promise for Liberty of Conscience was made by Queen Mary of England but we know well enough how it was observed The Promises made by the Queen Regent of Scotland were observed with the same Fidelity after these came the Pacificatory Edicts in France which were scarce made when the Triumvirat was formed to break them The famous Massacre of Paris was an instance never to be forgot of the Religious Observance of a Treaty made on purpost to lay the Party asleep and to bring the whole Heads of it into the Net This was a much more dreadful St. Partholomew than that on which our Author beflows that Epithere pag. 15. and when all seemed setled by the famous Edict of Nantes we have seen how restless that Party and in particular the Society were till it was broken by a Prince that for thirty years together had shewed as great an aversion to the Shedding of Blood in his Government at home as any of his Neighbours can pretend to and who has done nothing in the whole Tragedy that he has acted but what is exactly conform to the Doctrine and Decrees of his Church so that it is not himself but his Religion that we must blame for all that has fallen out in that Kingdom I cannot leave this without taking notice of our Author's Sincerity who page 18. tells us of the Protestants entring into their League in France when it is well known that it was a League of Papists against a Protestant Successor which was afterwards applied to a Popish King only because he was not zealous enough against Hereticks But to end this List of Instances at a Countrey to which our Author bears so particular a kindness when the Dutchess of Parma granted the Edict of Pacification by which all that was past was buried and the Exercise of the Protestant Religion was to be connived at for the future King Philip the Second did not only ratifie this but expressed himself so fully upon it to the Count of Egmont who had been sunt over to him that the easie Count returned to Flanders so assured of the King's Sincerity that he endeavoured to perswade all others to rely as much on his Word as he himself did It is well known how fatal this Confidence was to him and see Mettren lib. 3. that two years after this that King sent over the Duke of Alva with that severe Commission which has been often Printed in which without any regard had to the former Pacification or Promises the King declared That the Provinces had forfeited all their Liberties and that every man in it had forfeited his Life and therefore he authorised that numerciful man to proceed with all possible rigor against them It is also
be overstrained And yet it is such a Complement as they need not For we see they are qualified by the Dispensing Power without the Repeal of the Test which hath made me often wonder why they are so zealous to have it repealed Do they still question the Kings Dispensing Power And desire some better security Let them say so then and give up that point and then we 'll talk with them about repealing the Test but there is no need of repealing this Law since the King it seems hath power to dispense with it in his Reign and they are very sanguine men if they hope to have any occasion for it in another And if after all their boasts of a Dispensing Power the Law still keeps them in awe can it be the interest of Protestants to take off these restraints Are they not insolent enough already while these threatning Laws hang over their heads Or do we hope that their modesty and good Nature will increase with their Power For my part I desire that all men whom I fear may lie under a legal incapacity for though their Force and Power may be the same yet there is some difference in point of Authority and Self-defence II. There are many things which would make a wise man suspect that there is some farther Design than Liberty of Conscience in all this zeal for repealing the Penal Laws and Test. For it would be very surprising to find a Roman Catholick Prince whose Conscience is directed by a Jesuit to be really zealous for Liberty of Conscience to see so many Popish Pens imploy'd in pleading for Liberty of Conscience and declaiming against Sanguinary Laws when all the World knows what Opinion the Church of Rome has about Liberty of Conscience what great friends the Jesuits are to it how they abhor persecuting men for their Religion witness the mild and gentle usage of the French Protestants by a King whose Conscience is directed by a tender-hearted Jesuit And if a Princes zeal for his Religion be much greater than for Liberty of Conscience it would make one suspect that his chief design is to serve his Religion by it and this is no new invention but as old as the days of the Apostate Julian when the same method was taken to reinforce Paganism by Liberty of Conscience This was the last effort of dying Paganism may it be so of Popery too We know there was no talk of Liberty of Conscience till the Nobility and Gentry of the Church of England refused to take off the Test and then there was no other way left but to buy off the Penal Laws and Test with Liberty of Conscience which demonstrates that Liberty of Conscience is not the last End but only a Means in order to some further End and the Means is seldom valued when the End is obtained Men who can offer so much violence to their own Nature and the Principles of their Religion as to grant Liberty of Conscience which of all things they hate to procure a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws when that is done can easily find some occasion to pretend a forfeiture of this Liberty and to salve their Conscience and Honour together Penal Laws to keep men from damning themselves will be thought more merciful than Liberty of Conscience and the softness and tenderness of Nature must give place to a Bigottry in Religion and then we shall in vain wish for our old Penal Laws and Test again when we feel the more terrible smart of new ones Though it be told us that it hath always been his Majesties Persuasion that Conscience ought not to be forced I think that is no security because though this has always been his Principle yet it hath not always operated We know whose hand was most concern'd both in making and executing Penal Laws in the last Reign and if our Dissenters suffer'd so much then as they now complain of they know what they may suffer again notwithstanding these Principles for Liberty of Conscience for the same Principles obtain'd then as do now Upon the last withdrawing into Scotland notwithstanding those Principles the poor Scotch felt the severity of those Penal Laws with a witness and methinks it is not safe trusiing to such Principles as so often act by way of Antiparistasis and produce Effects quite contrary to their own Natures and however the Church of Rome may indulge such Principles now they are convenient to serve a present turn if the Scene ever alter this private Conscience will be thought as great Heresie as a private Judgment and whosoever now may own it must then be guided by the publick Conscience of the Church as well as by their Faith. There are so many surprising Circumstances in this whole matter as cannot but amaze a thinking Man that so fierce a Zeal should be now kindled for a Liberty of Conscience that a Liberty of Judgment will not be allowed but who ever will not concur in this Opinion must undergo the high displeasure whereas there can be no Liberty of Conscience without Liberty of Judgment And to be mortally angry with every man who is not of my Opinion is no good Preface to granting every Man a Liberty to think and act as he pleases If a Potentate should be so Zealous for Liberty of Conscience as to change all his old Antipathies and Friendships to receive his profess'd Enemies and Rebels into his bosom and cast off his tryed and Experienced Friends that he should forget all injuries and all kindnesses together this would be such an effect of a great passion for Liberty of Conscience as was never known before and when Causes do not work naturally we suspect some preternatural ingredients mixed with them That a Zeal against the Test and Penal Laws should be made a Test to the whole Nation and that not without severe Penalties too viz. The forfeiture of our Princes favour of all Places of Trust and Honour and incapacity to serve in Parliaments if they can prevent it or to be Members of any little Corporation That for the sake of Liberty of Conscience the whole Clergy must be forced to publish the Declaration though they declare it to be against their Consciences That the Archbishop and six of his Suffragans must be sent to the Tower for Petitioning for their own Liberty of Conscience and whither they must have gone next God knows unless they had been rescu'd by an Honest Jury That all those who did not read the Declaration are still threatned with Suspensions and Deprivatious Archdeacons and Chancellors commanded to turn Informers though almost all of them must inform against themselves for not reading or not sending the Declaration and all this while the Laws are on their side It is like to be a very terrible Liberty of Conscience when it is grown up into the Maturity and strength of a Law which like another Hercules can strangle all Laws and Liberties in its Cradle These things make me
apt to suspect that the best way to preserve Liberty of Conscience is to keep the Test and Penal Laws III. For Thirdly If there be any reasou to suspect any other design than Liberty of Conscience as suppose to promote Popery and by degrees to make it the Established Religion of the Nation which certainly is the Design unless you can imagine that Priests and Jesuits and one who hath given up his Understanding and Conscience to them can ever be without this Design You will easily be convinced that there is infinite hazzard in repealing the Test and the Penal Laws This sets Papists upon an equal level with Protestants and then the Favour of the Prince will set them above them and when the whole power of the Nation and the whole administration of Justice is in Popish hands there will need no Penal Laws to persecute Protestants If you say this is done in a great many instances now before such a Repeal I answer then you may certainly guess what will be done when those incapacitating Laws are repealed And yet the difference is very great For while they are under such a legal Incapacity the distrust of their power will make them more modest which is the only thing that can plead excuse hereafter but when they have legal authority they will shew their Nature without restraint Men who have any thing to lose will act cautiously in prospect of an After-reckoning or while these legal incapacities continue will be afraid to act but when the Legal Authority and Power is in their hands Protestant Subjects will quickly find what a Popish liberty of Conscience means While these Laws continue some professed Professed Protestants whose Consciences are govern'd by their Interest are afraid to declare and by these means Popery wants hands and numbers to do its work But when these Laws are removed hopes of preferment will prevail on some and fear on others and when this frozen Adder begins to grow warm and recover its blood and spirits it will find its sting too This would certainly overthrow the Constitution of the Church of England which is the most effectual way to let in Popery For when all Incapacities are removed Papists are as well qualified for Church-Preferments as Protestants and it will be an easie matter to find pretences to remove the best Men to make way for them We have four Catholick Bishops as they vainly call themselves already prepared to fill vacant Sees and if such Men have the impudence to publish their Pastoral Letter and make their publick Visitations while all the Laws against them are in force judge what they will do when they are repealed Thus our Parishes may be filled with Roman Priests and they indeed are the fittest to serve under Roman Bishops And if one Colledge be already seized into Popish hands and the Protestant possessors turned out of their Freehold when those Laws are Repealed we may quickly see more follow them and judge whether this be not a fair and easie step to Popery Nay I have heard some good Lawyers say that when the Penal Laws are repealed Popery is the Established Religion of the Nation That when a repealing Law is repealed the repealed Law revives I am not so good a Lawyer as to judge of this but I think it is worth your Considering But who knows when all the Ecclesiastical Laws are Repealed what the King's Supremacy and his Ecclesiastical Commission may do There have been great and big words said of it of late and I believe You had better keep your Penal Laws than fall under the lash of a Popish Supremacy I know there hath been a great talk of an Equivalent but I would gladly know what that Equivalent should be Shall it incapacitate all Papists for any Office either in Church or State That must not be for fear of depriving the King of the natural right he has to the service of his Subjects and then I am sure there can be no Equivalent for the repeal of the incapacitating Laws But you say there shall be a New Charter for the Church of England the Protestant Religion and Liberty of Conscience Now shall this be with a Penalty or without one If with a penalty then you do not repeal but only exchange your Penal Laws and if Penal Laws are not such Unchristian things but they may be allowed we cannot have better for the security of our Religion than we have and therefore we had best keep these Is there any other fault in our Penal Laws especially when they are not executed but that they are too great a security to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest And if this be a reason for Protestants at this time to repeal them I have done But if this new Establishment be without a penalty what is it good for When these Penal Laws are removed Papists are qualified to sit in both Houses of Parliament and who knows whether Closetting and Reforming of Corporations and such other Arts may not quickly make a Popish Parliament And then Good Night to your New Establishment and Liberty of Conscience These things I hope Sir You will consider in your Choice of Members for Parliament and not be cheated with the Popular cry of Liberty of Conscience into the vilest and most despicable Slavery both of Soul and Body I am SIR Your very Cordial Friend and faithful Monitor A Plain Account of the PERSECUTION laid to the Charge of the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE desire of Liberty to serve God in that way and manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extremely provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the conceit withall which most men have that their way of serving God is the only acceptable way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all means to constrain all others to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same mind but have different inclinations in one state from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short view of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complain'd got their liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and Sequestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the Reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not
those who possess any Church-Lands or Goods who are still left under the sentence of Excommunication Toleti Instr. Sacord and his Explicatio casuum in Bulla canae Dni reserva From which considerations it's evident that it never was the design of the Pope to confirm the English Church Lands to the Lay-possessors but that he always urg'd the necessity of restoring of them to religious uses in order to which the Papists prevailed to have the statute of Mertmaln repealed for 20 Years In Queen Elizabeths Reign the factious Party that was manag'd wholy by Romish Amiffaries demanded to have Abbies and such religious Houses restored for their Use and A. D. 1585 in their Petition to the Parliament they set it down as a resolute Doctrine that things once dedicated to Sacred Uses ought so to remain by the Word of God for ever and ought not to be converted to any private use Bishop Bancrofts Sermon at p. c. A. D. 1588. p. 25. And that the Church of Rome is still gaping after these Lands is evident from many of their late Books as the Religion of M. Luther lately printed at Oxford p. 15. The Monks wrote Anathema upon the Registers and Donaticns belonging to Monasteries the weight and effect of which Curses are both felt and dreaded to this day To this end the Monasticon Anglicanum is so diligently preserved in the Vatican and other Libraries in Popish Countries and especially this appears from the obstlnate refusal of this present Pope to confirm these Alienations tho it be a matter so much controverted and which would be of that vast Use towards promoting their Religion in this Kingdom If therefore the Bishops of Rome did never confirm these Alienations of Church Lands but earnestly and strictly required their Restitution if they have declared in their Authentick Canons that they have no power to do it and both they and the last general Council pronounce an heavy Curse and Anathema against all such as detain them Then let every one that possesseth these Lands and yet owns either of these foreign Jurisdictions consider that here is nothing left to excuse him from Sacriledge and therefore with his Estate he must derive a curse to his Posterity There is scarcely any Papist but that is forward to accuse King Henry the 8th of Sacriledge and yet never reflects upon himself who quietly possesseth the Fruits of it without Restitution either set them not accuse him or else restore themselves Now whatever opinions the Papists may have of these things in the time of health yet I must desire to remember what the Jesuits proposed to Cardinal Pool in Doctor Pary's Days viz. That if he would encourage them in England they did not doubt but that by dealing with the Consciences of those who were dying they should soon recover the greatest part of the Goods of the Church Dr. Burnet's Hist. Vol. 2. p. 328. Not to mention that whensoever the Regulars shall grow numerous in England and by consequence butthensome to the few Nobility and Gentry of that Perswasion they will find it necessary for them to consent to a Restitution of their Lands that they may share the burthen among others For so vast are the Burthens and Payments that that Religion brings with it that it will be found at length an advantagious Bargain to part with all the Church Lands to indemnifie the rest And I am confident that the Gentry of England that are Papists have found greater Burthens and Payments since their Religion hath been allow'd than ever they did for the many years it was forbid and this charge must daily encrease so long as their Clergy daily grows more numerous and their few Converts are most of them of the meanest Rank and such as want to be provided for And that 's no easie matter to force Converts may appear from that excellent Observation of the great Emperor Charles the Fifth who told Queen Mary That by indeavouring to compel others to his own Religion i. e had tired and spent himself in vain and purchas'd nothing by it but his own dishonour Card. Pool in Heylins Hist. Ref. p. 217. And to conclude this Discourse had the Act of Pope Julius the Third by his Legate Cardinal Pool in confirming of the Alienation of Church Lands in England been as vallid as is by some pretended yet what shall secure us from an Act of Resumption That very Pope after that pretended Grant to Cardinal Pool published a Bull in which he excommunicated all that kept Abby Lands or Church Lands Burnets Hist. Vol. 2. p. 309. by which all former Grants had there been any were cancell'd His Successor Pope Paul the Fourth retrieved all the Goods and Ecclesiastical Revenues that had been alienated from the Church since the time of Julius the Second and the chief Reasons that are given why the Popes may not still proceed to an Act of Resumption of these Lands in England amount only to this That they may stay for a fair opportunity when it may be done without disturbing the Peace of the Kingdom From all which it 's evident that the detaining of Abby Lands and other Church Lands from the Monks and Friars is altogether inconsistent with the Doctrine and Principles of the Romish Religion The King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated HIS present Majesty having erected an High-Commission Court to enquire of and make redress in Ecclesiastical Matters c. Q. Whether such a Commission as the Law now stands be good or not And I hold that the Commission is not good And to maintain my Opinion herein I shall in the first place briefly consider what Power the Crown of England had in Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Matters for I take them to be synonymous Terms before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And 2ly I shall particularly consider that Act of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And 3ly I shall consider 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. And by that time I have fully considered these three Acts of Parliament it will plainly appear That the Crown of England hath now no Power to erect such a Court. I must confess and do agree That by the common Law all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was lodged in the Crown and the Bishops and all Spiritual Persons derived their Jurisdiction from thence And I cannot find that there were any attempts by the Clergy to divest the Crown of it till William the First 's time in whose time and his Successors down to King John the Pope obtained four Points of Jurisdiction 1st Sending of Legates into England 2ly Drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome 3ly Donation of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices And 4ly Exemption of Clerks from the secular Power Which four Points were gained within the space of an hundred and odd years but with all the opposition imaginable of the Kings and their People and the Kingdom never came to be absolutely inslaved to the Church of Rome till King John's time and then both King and People were
approve that of the Dissenters in separating from their Communion â—… we do confess they had some reason in the bottom for it and that the Ceremonies which they have refused to submit to are the Remains of Popery which we could rather wish might have been entirely abolished In this unhappy Schism which has so long time rent the Church of England we look upon it that both Parties have been equally defective in their Charity On the one side the Dissenters ought by no means to have separated themselves for the Form of Ecclesiastical Government nor for Ceremonies which do not at all concern the Fundamentals of Religion On the other side The Bishops should have had a greater Condescension to the Weakness of their Brethren And without doubt they would have â—… in a manner more agreeable to the Spirit of the Gospel if instead of treating them with so much rigour as they did they had left them the Liberty of serving God according to their Conscience till it should have pleased him to re-unite All under the same Discipline However the Conformity of Opinion between the Dissenters and Us ought to have prejudiced Us in their favour had we been capable of Partiality on this occasion There is also another thing which might have disposed us to judge less favourably of the Bishops than of them and that is the Yoke which they have imposed upon the French Ministers by óbliging them to receive a second Ordination before they could be permitted to Exercise their Ministry in the Church of England as if the Ordination they had received in France had not been sufficient But we must do Justice to all the World and bear Witness to the Truth We have already said and we must again repeat it It seems to us that on this last Occasion the Bishops have discharged their Duty and are most worthy of Praise whereas the Dissenters on the contrary are extreamly to be blamed And we will presently offer our Reasons wherefore we judge so of the one and of the other In the mean time most dear Brethren give us leave freely to tell you That if our Brethren the Dissenters of England who have Addressed to the King are to be blamed as we verily believe they are you certainly are much more to be condemned The Hardships under which they had lived for many years without Churches without Pastors without Assemblies made them think the Liberty of Conscience which was offered to them a great Ease Their Spirits soured and prejudiced by the ill Treatments they had received from the Church of England had not freedom enough to let them see that the Present which was made them was Empoison'd And therefore upon the sudden they received it with joy and thought themselves obliged to testifie their Acknowledgment of it But for you who never had any part in the Divisions of the Church of England and who by consequence were in a state to judge more soundly of things How is it that you should not have perceived the Poison that was hid under the Liberty of Conscience offered to them Or if you did not perceive it of your selves how is it that the Generous Refusal of the Bishops tho' at the peril of their Liberty and Estates to publish the Declaration in their Diocesses should not at least have open'd your eyes How have those Venerable Prelates now highly justified themselves from the Reproach that was laid upon them of being Popishly affected and of persecuting the Dissenters only but of a secret Hatred to the Reformation How well have they made it appear that these were only Calumnies invented by their Enemies to render them odious to the Protestants and that their hearts were truly fixed to the Reformed Religion and animated with a Zeal worthy Primitive Bishops Could you see those faithful Servants of God disobey the Order of their Soveraign expose themselves thereby to his Disgrace suffer Imprisonment and prepare themselves to suffer any thing rather than betray their Consciences and their Religion without admiring their Constancy and being touched with their Examples But above all could you resolve by your Conduct to condemn that of those generous Confessors Is this the Acknowledgment which you ought to have made to them for that Charity with which they had received and comforted you in your Exile Is this to Answer the Glorious Quality of Confessors of which you so much vaunt your selves Is this the Act of Faithful Ministers of Christ Give us leave to tell you most dear Brethren your Proceedings in this Affair appear so very strange to us that we cannot imagine how you were capable of so doing It seems to us to have even effaced all the Glory you had attained by your Sufferings to Reproach your Ministry and to be unworthy of True and Reformed Christians This is no rash judgment which we pass and to convince you that it is not we beseech you only to examine these things with us without Prejudice and Interest The Declaration of which we speak is designed for two purposes The one the re-establishment of Popery The other the extinction of the Reformed Religion in England The former of these designs appears openly in it The second is more concealed 't is a Mystery of Iniquity covered over with a specious appearance and of which the trace must be concealed till the time of manifestation comes We will say nothing of a third Design which is Of the Oppression of the Liberties of England for the Establishment of an absolute Authority but shall leave it to the Politicians to make their Reflexions upon it As for us if we sometimes touch upon it it shall be only with reference to Religion We will apply our selves chiefly to the two other Designs which they proposed to themselves who made that Declaration It cannot be deny'd but that by this Declaration there is a Liberty of Conscience granted differently to the Papists and to the Dissenters â—… comprehends both the one and the other under the Name of Nonconformists And we may with confidence affirm That they were the Papists especially whom the King had in his eye when he gave this Declaration And howsoever he may pretend to have been touched with the Oppressions which the Dissenters had suffered yet that his principal design was to re-establish Popery Behold here already a very great evil and such as all true Protestants are obliged with their â—… most power to oppose What shall we see Popery that abominable Religion that prodigioâ—â— heap of Filthiness and Impurity re-establish itself with all it honours in Kingdoms from which the Reformation had happily banished it And shall there be found in those Kingdoms Protestant who not only stand still without making any opposition to it but e'en favour its re-establishment and openly give it their Approbation Who could have thought that the Dissenters of England â—… who have always testified so great an aversion to the Roman Religion and who have no other pretence to separate
means attain it than to open themselves a Gite to Popery and to concur with it to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion You will it may be tell us that it looks ill in us who so much complain That we have been deprived of Liberty of Concience in France to sind fault with the King of England for granting it to his Subjects And that it is the least that can be allowed to a Soveraign to allow him the Right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his own Kingdoms and to make use of the Service of such of his Subjects as himself shall think sit by putting them into Charges and Employs You will add That his Majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the ancient Laws nor to make new ones All he does being only to dispence with the Observation of certain Laws in such of his Subjects as he thinks fit and for as long time as he pleases and that the right of dispensing with and suspending of Laws is a Right insepably tied to his Person That for the rest the Protestant Religion does not run the least Risque There are Laws to shut the Papists out of Parliament and these Laws can neither be dispensed with nor suspended So that the Parliament partaking with the King in the Legislative Power and continuing still Protestant there is no cause to fear that any thing should be done contrary to the Protestant Religion Besides What probability is there that a King who appears so great an Enemy to Oppression in matters of Conscience and Religion should ever have a thought tho' he had the Power himself to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his Subjects and take from them that Liberty of Conscience which he now grants to them and which he promises so â—… to observe for the time to come These are all the Objections that can with â—… appearance of Reason be made against what we have before said They may all be reduced â—… five which we shall examine in their order And we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear that they are all but meer Illusions 1. We do justly complain That they had taken from us our Liberty of Conscience in France because it was done contrary to the Laws And one may as justly complain that the K. of England does labour to re-estalish Popery in his Country because he cannot do it but contrary to the Laws Our Liberties in France were founded us on solemn Laws upon perpetual irrevocable and sacred Edicts and which could not be â—… without violating at once the Publick Faith the Royal Word and the Sacredness of an Oath And Popery has been banished out of England by Laws made by King and Parliament and which cannot be repealed but by the author of King and Parliament together so that the therefore there is just cause to complain that the King should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his Declaration 2. It is not true that a Soveraign has always the right to permit the Exercise of his own Religion in his Dominions and to make use of the â—… of such of his Subjects as he himself shall that fit that is to say by putting of them into â—… and Employs And in particular he has this right when the Laws of his Country contrary thereunto as they are in the â—… before us Every King is obliged to observe the fundamental Laws of his Kingdom And the King of England as well as his Subjects ought to observe the Laws which have been established by King and Parliament together 3. For the third the distinction between abrogation of a Law and the dispensing â—… and suspending of it cannot here be of use whether the King abrogates the Laws which have been made against Popery or whether without saying expressly that he does abrogate them he overthrows them by his Declarations under pretence of dispensing with suspending of them it is still in effect same thing And to what purpose is it the Laws are not abrogated if in the â—… time all sorts of Charges are given to Papists and Popery it self be re-established contrary to the tenor of the Laws The truth is if the King has such a power as this if this be â—… Right necessarily tied to his Person 't is in vain â—… the Parliament does partake with him in the Legislature This Authority of the Parliament is but a meer Name a Shadow a Phan â—… a Chimera and no more The King is still the absolute Master because he can alone and without his Parliament render useless by his Declarations the Laws which the Parliament shall have the most solemnly established together with him We confess the King has right of dispensing in certain Cases as if the concern be what belongs to his private Interest he may without doubt whenever he pleases depart from his own Rights 't is a Liberty which no body will pretend to contest with him But he has not the power to dispense to the Prejudice of the Rights of the people â—… by consequence put the Property the Liberty and the Lives of his Protestant Subjects into the hands of Papists 4. What we have now said in Answer to the third Objection will be more clear from the Answer we are to give to the fourth They should perswade the Protestants that their Religion is in safety because on the one side the King cannot make Laws without the Parliament and that on the other there being Laws which exclude Papists out of the two Houses it must necessarily follow That the Parliament shall continue to be Protestant But if the King has the power to break through the Laws under the pretence of dispensing with and suspending of them what Security shall the Protestants have that he will not dispense with the Papists the Observation of those Laws which do exclude them out of the Parliament as well as â—… has dispensed with those that should have kept them out of Charges and Imployments â—… Security shall they have that he will â—… at any time hereafter suspend the Execution of the former as he has already suspended the Execution of the latter Which being â—… what should hinder us from seeing in a little â—… a Popish Parliament who together with the King shall pass Laws contrary to the Protestant Religion What difference can be shewn between the one and the other of these Laws â—… the one should be liable to be dispensed with and suspended and the other not Were they not both established by the King and Parliament Were not both the one and the other made for the Security of the Protestant Religion and of those who profess it Are not the Rights of the people concerned in the one as well as in the other And whosoever suffers and approves the King in the violation of these Rights in some things does he not thereby authorize him to violate them in all If the King has power to put the Liberty and
and better Rule to steer mankind than the empty Motions of the Schools â—… only to perplex and confound our â—… lest it should discover the naked Truth of things The present Letter will confine it self only to Publick Promises Oaths and Solemn Contracts scandalonsly violated by the Roman Catholicks nor with Heathens and Hereticks only but amongst themselues We will begin with the more remote Countries The Spaniards and Portugueses have acted so treacherously with the Africans and the Natives of both Indies that the Cruelty of the History would be incredible if it was not related by their own Historians their Leagues and Treaties the most sacred Bonds under Heaven were soon neglected and the Spirit of their Religion broke all before it how many Millions of those innocent Creatures were murder'd in cold Blood and for Pastime sake with all the variety of Torments that the Devil could inspite into them how soon were the vast Regions of Mexico New Spain Peru Hispaniola Brasel c. depopulated above twenty Millions of the poor harmless Inhabitants being put to death in full Peace and they the best natur'd People in the World and very Ingenious tho' they may seem Savages to a sort of Men who think all Barbarians that differ from them in Habits Manners Customs Diet Religion Language c. not considering that all-wise Nature hath contriv'd a different Scene of things for various Climates Nay such is the Inhumanity of these Catholick Nations here at home that they will frequently bring Strangers settled amongst them by the Laws of Commerce and their own fellow Subjects into the Inquisition especially if they are Rich upon a pretence of some Heretical opinion tho' they themselves at first protect and license the Opinion is in the case of Molino whose Book had receiv'd an Imprimatur from most of the Inquisitors of Spain and Italy and even from the Infallible Head of the Church yet afterwards it was burnt and he himself together with many of his Followers miserably tortur'd the Pope scarce escaping the Punishment The Generous Marshal Schombergh driven out of France for his great Services who had won many Battels for the Portugueses and sav'd their Country could not be suffer'd to end his Old Age amongst them but was forc'd in the midst of Winter to commit himself to the Sea and fly to an Inhospitable Shoar The present French King renounced all his Pretences on Flanders concluded the Pyrenean Treaty and swore at the Altar not to meddle with that Country but how well he observ'd that Sacred Covenant Baron D'Isola will best inform you in his â—…â—… for which he was thought to be poison'd neither hath the French Monarch been contented to break all Faith and Measures with the Spaniard but he hath gone about to deceive and ruine the Pope Emperour all the Princes and Electours of the Empire the Prince of Orange Duke of Lorrain the Swizzes the Dutch and the English and not only these his Neighbours and Allies but his own Protestant Subjects who had all the Security that Solemn Edicts Oaths and Promises could afford then besides many other obligations upon the Crown for bringing the King to the Throne yet all of a sudden they found themselves oppress'd and destroy'd by his Apostolical Dragoons their Temples razed their Wives and Children taken away their Goods and Estates confiscated themselves cast into Prisons sent to the Gallies and often shot at like Birds His seising of Lorrain Franch Compte Alsact Strasburgh Luxembergh the Principality of Orange the County of Avignon Philipsburg the whole Palatinate the Electorates of Mentz Trevis and Cologn his building of Citadels in the Empire and in Italy c. are so contradictory to National Agreements and Publick Treatles that scarce a Jesuit or a Frenchman can have Impudence enough to defend them a Banditto a Pyrate or a Pick-pocket would be asham'd of such Actions and an ordinary Man would be hang'd for a Crime a Million times less His seising upon Hudson's Bay and leading the English into Slavery the French Treachery in the Engagement at Sea between us and the Dutch their frequent seizing of our Ships are light things not worthy our Resentment being under the Conduct of a Monsicur whom the World so justly vilifies and despises The Emperour can have no good Pretence to condemn the King of France or any other Catohlick Prince for breach of Common Faith and Honesty since he himself hath plald the same Game with his Protestant Subjects inviting some of the â—… of the Hungarian Nobility to Vienna under the colour of Treaty and Friendship and then cutting of their Heads seizing their Estates and Properties destroying their Pastors and Churches and extirpating the whole Reform'd Religion after he had promis'd and stipulated to protect and give them the liberty of their Consciences The Parisian Massacres were carried on and executed under a Mass of Friendship all the Principal Protestants of France being invited to the healing Marriage to Revel and Caress were Barbarously Butcher'd at the Toll of a Bell in their Beds when they dream'd they â—… securely The Irish Massacre of above 200000 Protestants was no less Treacherous it was a Copy of the Spanish Cruelty in the West Indies to whom the Irish are compar'd by Historians for their Idleness and Inhumanity tho'not for their Wit. The Persecutions of the Protestants in the Valley of Piedmont are another instance of Popish Immunity and baseness they were under the common shelter of publick Pactions and Treatles and â—… been solemnly own'd by the Dukes of Savoy to â—… the most Loyal and the most Couragious of the Subjects The present Duke who undertook the last Persecution was not content to destroy the with his own Troops but call'd in the French assist at the Comedy to shoot them off the Rock to hunt them over the Alps and to sell the stronger of them to the Gallies that the very Turkish Slave themselves might deride and insult over â—… Catholicks who have not Power or Opportunity execute the same things seem to condemn the Conduct in Publick but sing Te Deum in Private and soon as ever they have got a sufficient Force commit the like Barbarities so essential to their Religion that all the instinct of Nature cannot separate them The Holy Father at Rome tho' he sets for a moderate and merciful Pontificate order'd Deum to be Sung up and down for the extirpation of Heresie out of France and Pidemont and â—… English Catholicks have given us as their Army â—… Interest encreas'd several proofs how well â—… can juggle and disguise themselves setting up â—… of Inquisition turning Protestants out of all â—… and even out of their Freeholds dispensing â—… Laws Ravishing Charters packing Corporations â—… and all under a notion of Liberty or a Divine â—… they with their Accomplices defended illegal Declarations and set up an Authority above all our â—… under the Cloak of a sham Liberty of Conscience racking at the very same time the
December 21. 1688. Licensed Fourteen Papers VIZ. I. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon occasion of a Pamphlet Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel II. A Letter from a Freeholder to the rest of the Freeholders of England and all Others who have Votes in the Choice of Parliament-Men III. An Enquiry into the Reasons for Abrogating the Test imposed on all Members of Parliament Offered by Sa. Oxon. IV. Reflections on a Late Pamphlet Entituled Parliamentum Pacificum Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and Printed at London in March 1688. V. A Letter to a Dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence VI. The Anatomy of an Equivalent VII A Letter from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country Containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration VIII An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Country Friend IX A Letter to a Dissenter from his Friend at the Hague concerning the Penal Laws and the Test shewing that the Popular Plea for Liberty of Conscience is not concerned in that Question X. A Plain Account of the Persecution said to the Charge of the Church of England XI Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion XII The King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated XIII A Letter of several French Ministers fled into Germany upon the Account of the Persecution in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the Kings Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original in French. XIV Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Gentleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of Orange's Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin ' near the BlackBull in the Old-Bailey 1689. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon occasion of a Pamphlet Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel SIR AS soon as the Letter Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland c. came to my hands I set upon Answering it with the same expedition and plainness of Style as uses to accompany naked Truth which needs not the cloathing of sophistical Arguments or florid Expressions to recommend it to the unprejudic'd part of Mankind And indeed upon the very first reading of every Paragraph of it the slightness of the Arguing or the notorious Falshood of the Matter of Fact did so evidently appear that a man of ordinary capacity needs not put his Natural Talent on the Rack to resute them The very first Position of the Paper viz. That Ireland is in a better Way of Thriving under the Government of a Native than an Englishman by which I suppose you mean one not barely so by Birth but by Inclination Interest Education Religion c. is so false that it contradicts the Experience and Reason of Mankind and disgusts one so much in the front of the Letter that I was tempted to fling it away unread judging it not worth the loss of so much time if the rest should prove of the same kind as indeed I found it upon perusal but having ventured through it I looked upon myself obliged to say something by way of Answer since in the opinion of some sort of Men the not Answering though even the most trifling Pamphlet is given out to be the Inability of the Party to reply to the weight of such Arguments as are contained in it I will not insist much upon the constant Practice of all the Predecessours of our English Kings and their Counsellors ever since the Conquest of Ireland who made it an establisht Maxim in relation to that Kingdom That none but an Englishman should be Chief Governour insomuch that till within these two Years that Practice gave occasion to the common erronious opinion That a man born in Ireland however otherwise qualified was thereby incapacitated from being Lord Deputy It is certain that long before the Reformation when Matters of Religion made no distinction between the Natives of each Country this was the setled and unalter'd Rule Have we any reason then to alter it now that Religion is put into the Scale and become the additional weight which never fails giving the advantage to the side it espouses and adheres to or rashly to condemn the wise Proceedings of the Ancestours of our Kings and contrary to the Opinion of the World judge our Author's Irish Understanding better than all the English ones that have been heretofore Our Author will certainly allow Ireland to be a conquer'd Country and consequently that the Conquerours have right to establish Laws with such restrictions and limitations as shall seem fitting and convenient towards the keeping it in their hands and the welfare of the Inhabitants which are of two sorts the British Planters and the Natives I shall prove that it has been and still is the Advantage of both these that Ireland should be Govern'd by an Englishman By the way I would have it understood that I do not pretend to put these two Interests into any ballance I know the British Interest does so far outweigh the other that it were a wrong done it to bring them into any competition more than two parts of three of the Lands of Ireland being by the several Rebellions of the Irish in British hands and for the Quality Temper Industry c. there is no comparison besides that if one of two Parties is to be pleased tho' by the detriment of the other 't is but just that the Conquerours who have right to give Law should be indulg'd how much more when it is consistent with the welfare of the Irish themselves if they understood their own good I am convinc'd that whatever has been done in favour of the Natives is pure Grace and cannot be claimed as a just Debt any otherwise than since it has been confirmed by Our Laws and Acts of Parliament He that reflects on 1641 will readily assent to this which makes me admire at the pertness of our Author in Capitulating as if we stood upon even ground with them but 't is plain he considers the Interest but of one Party in that Kingdom and tho' he names Ireland often he means the Native Irish Papist only But I proceed To prove that it is the Interest of the British that Ireland should be Governed by an Englishman I need say no more than that they all ardently desire it and People are the best Judge of their own Necessities The common Maxim That Interest will not lye Holds good here to some purpose The ill effects the contrary method has had on their Persons and Estates is but too visible Whoever had seen Ireland four Years ago and
making of Laws which shall Authorize the Deisying a bit of Bread the Worshipping of it for a God the Praying to it Idolatry Blasphemy any thing in the World for them that like it Now is not this a very fair Speech and does it not well become the mouths of Protestants I would fain press this home upon the Consciences both of those Dissenters who are hired and of those who are not hired to labour the Repeal of our Laws Do you fear the Informers more than God Will you for the sake of your little Conventicles do the greatest Evils which you know to be such You know in your very Hearts that the Worship of Images Crosses and of a Wafer is abominable Idolatry that the Half-Communion is Sacriledge and that many other Points of Popery are blasphemous Fables And will you set up this for one of your Religions as by Law Established Will you do all that hands can do to entail Idolatry upon the Nation not only Removendo prohibens as Divines distinguish by pulling down the Laws which hinder it but also Promovendo adjuvans by making a perpetual Magna Charta for it The Laws and Constitution of a Country do denominate that Country if Atheism were Authorized by Law this would be an Athiestical Nation and if Idolatry be set up by Law it is an Idolatrous Nation and all that have any hand in it make it the Sin of the Nation as well as their own Think therefore of these things in time before you have involved both your selves and your Country in a miserable Estate and remember poor Francis Spira who went against Light. But Secondly There is just as much Prudence as Conscience in these Proceedings for by Repealing the Laws against Popery you Reverse the Outlawry and take of those legal Disabilities which the Papists now lie under and which have hitherto tied their Hands from destroying Hereticks When Papists shall be right Justices and Sheriffs and not Counterseits when they shall be Probi legales homines and pass Muster in Law when they shall be both our legal Judges and our lawful Juries and when Protestants shall come to be Tryed by their Country that is to say by their Twelve Popish Godfathers they may easily know what sort of Blessing they are to expect The Papists want nothing but these Advantages to make a fair riddance of all Protestants for we see by several of their late Pamphlets that if any thing be said against Popery they have a great dexterity in laying it Treason Now this is a civil way of answering Arguments for which we are bound to thank them because it so plainly discovers what they would be at if it were in their Power But how comes it to be Treason to speak against a Religion which is itself High-Treason and is Proscribed by so many Laws Why their Medium is this That Popery is the King's Religion and therefore by an Inuendo what is said against that is meant against him But is there any Law of England that Popery shall be the King's Religion Or is it declared by any Law that Popery either is or can be his Religion On the other hand we are enabled by an Act in this very Reign to pronounce Popery to be a False Religion and to assert the Religion which is now professed in the Church of England and Established by the Laws of this Realm to be the True Christian Religion Act for building St. Ann's Church p. 133. But these Gentlemen it seems are for Hanging Men without Law or against Law or any how and therefore we thank them again for being thus plain with us before hand Now if they be thus insolent when they are so very abnoxious themselves and have Halters about their own Necks with what a Rod of Iron will they Rule us when they are our Masters What havock will they then make of the Nation when we already see Magdalen Colledge which was lately a flourishing Society of Protestants now made a Den of Jesuits and that done to in such a way as shakes all the Property in England Or who can be safe after our Laws are Repealed when Endeavours have been lately used to extract Sedition even out of Prayers and Tears and the Bishops Humble Petition was threatned to be made a Treasonable Libel But here the Dissenters have a plausible excuse for themselves for say they We have now an opportunity of getting the Laws which are against us Repealed which is clear gain and as for our refusing to Repeal the Laws against Popery there is nothing gotten by that either to us or to any body else for they are already as good as Repealed by the Dispensing Power and therefore such Discourse as this only advises us to stand in our own light without doing any good to the Nation at all for there will be Popish Justices Sheriffs Judges and Juries whether we will or no for whatsoever we refuse to do the Dispensing Power will supply To which I answer Do you keep your hands off from Repealing the Laws let who will contravene or Transgress them for then you are free from the Blood of all Men you have no share in the guilt of those Mischiefs which befal your Country which would sooner or later be a heavy burden and a dead weight upon the Conscience of any Protestant But besides let the Laws alone and they will defend both themselves and us too for if the Law says That a Papist shall not nor cannot have an Office then he shall not nor cannot for who can speak Louder than the Laws As for a Dispensing-Power inherent in the King which can set aside as many of the Laws of the Land as he pleases and Suspend the Force and Obligation of them which has been lately held forth by many False and Unlawful Pamphlets the Dissenters know very well that there is no such thing but that no body may pretend Ignorance I shall here prove in very few words That by the Established Laws of the Land the King cannot have such a Dispensing-Power unless Dispensing with the Laws and Executing the Laws be the same thing and unless both keeping the Laws himself and causing them to be kept by all others be the English of Dispensing with them For in the Statute of Provisors 25 Eaw 3. c. 25. we have this laid down for Law That the King is bound to Execute those Statutes which are Unrepealed and to cause them to be kept as the Law of this Realm The words are these speaking of a Statute made in the time of Edward the First Which Statute holdeth always his Force and was never Defeated or Annull'd in any point And by somuch our Sovereign Lord the King is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm although by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary So that the Coronation Oath and the Dispensing-Power are here by King Edward the Third and his
Rules of Honour and the Laws of their Country the Practice of Martial Discipline and the Examples of Great Men informer Ages and by them to square their Actions in their respective Stations And the like But sure the Bishop is here without his Fiocco yet at least for Decencies sake he should have named Religion and Vertue among the proper Studies of the Gentry and if he dares not trust them with the Reading the Scriptures yet at least they might read the Articles of our Church and hearken to the Homilies for though it has been long one of the first Maxims that he has infused into all the Clergy that come near him That the People ought to be brought into an Ignorance in matters of Religion that Preaching ought to be laid aside for a Preaching Church could not stand that in Sermons no Points of Doctrine ought to be explained and that only the Rules of Human Life ought to be told the People yet after all they may read the short Articles and though they were as blindly implicite as he would wish them to be yet they would without more enquiry find Transubstantiation to be condemned in them Next he triumphs over the renouncing of it pag 11. As too bold and too prophane an Affront to Almighty God when Men abjure a thing which it is morally impossible for them to understand And he appeals to the Members of both Houses whom in a fit of Respect he calls Honourable after he had reproach'd them all he could If they have any distinct Idea or Notion in their minds of the thing they here so solemnly renounce I do verily believe none of them have any distinct Notion of Transubstantiation and that it is not only Morally but Physically impossible for them to understand it But one would think that this is enough for declaring that they do not believe it since the TEST contains no declaration concerning Transubstantiation itself whether it is a true or a false Doctrine but only concerning the belief of him that takes it And if one can have no distinct Notions of it so that it is morally impossible for him to understand it he may very well declare That he does not believe it After a Farce of a slight Story he concludes That there seems to be nothing but a Prophane Levity in the whole matter and a shameless abuse put upon God and Religion to carry on the Wicked Designs of a Rebel-Faction For he cannot for his heart abate an ace of his Insolence even when he makes the King Lords and Commons the subject of his scorn Certainly whatever his Character is it ought not to be expected that a Man who attacks all that is Sacred under God and Christ should not be treated as he deserves it were a seeble weakness to have so great a regard to a Character that is so prostituted by him He tells us pag. 47. That all Parties agree in the thing and that they differ only in the word and manner and here he makes a long excursion to shew his Learning in tacking a great many things together which passes with ignorant Readers as a mark of his great Reading whereas in this as well as in all his other Books in which any shews of Learning appear those who have searched into the Fountains see that he does nothing but gather from the Collection of others only he spoils them with the Levities of his Buffoon-Stile and which is worse with his Dis-ingenuity I leave all thse matters to be Examined by those who have leisure for it and that think him worth their Pains But as for Transubstantiation the Words that I have cited from one of our Articles shew plainly that it is rejected in our Church so that he is bound either to renounce it or to renounce our Church therefore all that shew he makes with our History comes to nothing since whatever he may say with relation to Edward the Sixth's Reign it cannot be denied but they were Enacted by the Convocation in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and they have been ever since the Doctrine of our Church so that without going further ' this is now our Doctrine and since Sa. Oxon carries the Authority of the Convocation so high he will find the Original Record of these Articles in Corpus-Christi Colledge in Cambridge subscribed by the Members of both Houses in which there is a much more positive Decision then is in the Prints not only against Transubstantiation but against any Corporeal or Real Presence of the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Sacrament And if he will give himself scope to rail at those who suppressed this I leave him to his Liberty But here is the formal decision of this Church and the pretending that there was no Evidence of Cranmer's Opinion but in an unknown Manuscript or a famous Invisible Manuscript p. 46. 47. when there are two Books writ on this matter by Cranmer himself and when all the Disputes in Queen Mary's Time besides those that were both in Oxford and Cambridge in King Edwards time shew so clearly that this was his Doctrine is a strain becoming his Sincerity that gives this among many other Essays of the Trust that is due to him But it seems he thought that Dr. Tillotson Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Burnet besides some others whom he does not Name had not Reputation enough in the World and therefore he intended to raise it by using them ill which is all the Effect that his Malice can have He had set on one of his poor under-work-men some years ago to decry the Manuscript which Dr. Stillingfleet had in his keeping for above twenty years and which Dr. Burnet had in his Hands for many Months and which they shewed to as many as desired to see but that had turned so much to his Shame that first vented the Calumny that it seems he summoned Sa. Oxon to appear his Second in the Slander and he whose Brow is of so peculiar a Composition will needs bring it here tho never so impertinently But I forgive the Hatred that he bares both to that Manuscript and to those Doctors since nothing could be less to the Satisfaction of those for whom he published his Book then to see the Nature and Regular Methods in which the Reformation was advanced For the Bishops and Divines were appointed to Examine all Points with much Care and to bring every man his Opinion in Writing all which were compared very faithfully and upon these the Decisions were made There any many other Papers yet extant which by comparing the Hands shews these to be Originals and they were in the Salisbury Family probably ever since they were at first brought together Their Ancestor the Lord Burghly who was Secretary of State in Edward the Sixth's time gathered them up and as appears in a Letter under his own Hand yet extant he had six or seven Volumes of them of which Dr. Stillingfleet had only two but Dr. Burnet saw
remarkable that that bloody Commission is founded on the King 's Absolute Power and his Zeal for Religion This is the only Edict that I know in which a King has pretended to Absolute Power before the two Declarations for Scotland in the year 1687. so whether they who penned them took their pattern from this I cannot determin it I could carry this view of History much further to shew in many more Instances how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Roman Catholicks and that their condition is so much the worse the more pious that their Princes are As for what may be objected to all this from the present State of some Principalities or Towns in Germany or of the Switsirs and Grisons it is to be considered that in some of these want of Power in the Roman Catholioks to do mischief and the other Circumstances of their affairs are visibly the only Securities of the Protestants and whensoever this Nation departs from that and gives up the Laws it is no hard thing to guess how short-lived the Liberty of Conscience even though seiled into a Magna Charta would be V. All that our Author says upon the General Subject of Liberty of Conscience is only a severe Libel upon that Church whose Principles and Practices are so contrary to it But the proposition lately made has put an end to all this dispute since by an Offer of Repealing the Penal Laws reserving only those of the Test and such others as secure the Protestant Religion the question is now no more which Religion must be tolerated but which Religion must Reign and prevail All that is here offered in opposition to that is that by this means such a number of persons must be ruined pag. 64. which is as severe a way of forcing People to change their Religion as the way of Dragoons I will not examine the particulars of this matter but must express my joy to find that all the difficulty which is in our way to a happy quiet is the supplying such a number of men with the means of their subsistence which by the execution of the Law for the Test must be taken from them This by all that I can learn will not come to near an hundred thousand pound a year and indeed the supplying of those of the King's Religion that want it is a piece of Charity and Bounty so worthy of him that I do not know a man that would envy them the double of this in Pensions and if such a Sum would a little charge the King's Revenue I dare say when the settlement of the Nation is brought to that single point there would not be one Negative found in either House of Parliament for the Reimbursing the King. So far are we from desiring either the Destruction or even the Poverty of these that perhaps wait only for all occasion to burn us I will add one bold thing further That though I will be no Undertaker for what a Parliament may do yet I am confident that all Men are so far from any desire of Revenge but most of all that the Heroical Minds of the next Successors are above it that if an Indemnity for that bold Violation of the Law that hath been of late both Practised and Authorised amongst us would procure a full settlement even this could be obtained Though an impunity after such Transgressions is perhaps too great an Encouragement to offend for the future But since it is the Preservation of the Nation and not the Ruine of any Party in it that is aimed at the hardiness of this Proposition will I hope be forgiven me It is urg'd pag. 63. That according to the Dutch Pattern at least the Roman Catholicks may have a share in Military Employments but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear since some Roman Catholick Officers where the Government is wholly in the hands of the Protestants cannot be of such dangerous consequence as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that perswasion but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us VI. It is true our Author would perswade that the King 's Dispensing Power hath already put an end to this Dispute and that therefore it is a seeming sort of Perjury see pag. 48. to keep the Justices of Peace still under an Oath of executing those Laws which they must consider no more Some Precedents are brought from former times p. 22 23 24. of our King 's using the Dispensing Power in Edward 3d Richard 2d Henry 7th Henry 8th Edward 6th and Queen Elizabeth's time It is very true that the Laws have been of late broke through amongst us with a very high hand but it is a little too dangerous to upbraid the Justices of Peace with their Oaths lest this oblige them to reflect on so Sacred an Engagement For the worthy Members of Magdalen Colledge are not the only Persons in England who will make Conscience of observing their Oaths So that if others are brought to reflect too much upon what they do our Author's officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of Service I will not examine all his Precedents we are to be govern'd by Law and not by some of the Excesses of Government nor is the latter end of Edward the Third a time to be much imitated and of all the parts of the English History Richard the Second's Reign should be least mentioned since those Excesses of his produced so Tragical a Conclusion as the loss of his Crown and Life Henry the Sixth's seeble and embroyled Reign will scarce support an Argument And if there were some Excesses in Henry the Eighth's time which is ordinary in all great Revolutions he got all these to be either warranted or afterwards to be confirmed in Parliament And Queen Elizabeth's power in Ecclesiastical Matters was founded on a special Act of Parliament which was in a great measure Repealed in 1641 and that Repeal was again ratified by another Act in the late King's time We are often told of the late King's Acts concerning Carts and Waggons but all Lawyers know some Laws are understood to be abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible inconvenience inforces it such as appeared in that mistaken Act concerning Waggons So the King in that Case only declared the inconvenience which made that Law to be of itself null because it was impracticable It is true the Parliament never question'd this A Man would not be offended if another pulled up a Flower in his Garden that yet would take it iil if he broke his Hedge And in Holland to which our Author's Pen leads him often when a River changes its course any Man may break the Dyke that was made to resist yet that will be no Warrant to go and break the Dyke that resists the Current of the same River So if a Dispensing Power well applyed to smaller Offences has been past
over as an Excess of Government that might be excusable though not justifiable this will by no means prove that Laws made to Secure us against that which we esteem the greatest of Evils may be suspended because Twelve Men in Scarlet have been tried or practised on to say so The Power of Pardoning is also unreasonably urged for justifying the Dispensing Power the one is a Grace to a particular Person for a Crime committed and the other is a Warrant to commit Crimes In short the one is a Power to save Men the other is a Power to destroy the Government But though they swagger it now with a Dispensing Power yet Rede Caper Vitem c. may come to be again in Season and a time may come in which the whole Party may have reason to wish that some hair-brain'd Jesuits had never been born who will not only expose them to the Resentments but even to the Justice of another Season in which as little regard will be had to the Dispensing Power as they have to the Laws at present VII Our Author's kindness to the States of Holland is very particular and returns often upon him and it is no wonder that a State settled upon two such hinges as the Protestant Religion and the Publick Liberty should be no small Eye-sore to those who intend to destroy both So that the slackning the Laws concerning Religion and the moderating that State by invading it seem to be terms that must always go together In the first War began the first slackning of them and after the Triple Alliance had laid the Dutch asleep when the Second War was resolved on it was begun with that Heroical Attempt on the Smyrna Fleet for our Author will not have the late King's Actions to be forgotten at the same time the famous Declaration for Suspending the Laws in 1672 came out And now again with another Declaration to the same purpose we see a return of the same good inclinations for the Dutch though none before our Author has ever ventur'd as in a Book Licensed by my Lord President of the Council to call their Constitution pag. 68 a Revolt that they made from their Lawful Prince and to raise his stile to a more sublime strain he says pag. 66. that their Common-wealth is nothing else but the result of an absolute Rebellion Revolt and Defection from their Prince and that the Laws that they have made were to prevent any casual return to their natural Allegiance and speaking of their obligation to Protect a Naturalized Subject he bestows this honour on them as to say p. 57. 58. Those that never yet dealt so fairly with Princes may be suspected for such a superfluous Faith to one that puts himself upon them for a Vassal Time will shew how far the States will resent these Injuries only it seems our Author thinks that a Soveraign's Faith to protect the Subject is a superfluous thing A Faith to Hereticks is another superfluous thing So that two Superfluities one upon another must be all that we are like to trust to But I must take Notice of the variety of Methods that these Gentlemen use in their Writings here in England we are always upbraided with a Revolt of the Dutch as a scandalous imputation on the Protestant Religion And yet in a late Paper Entituled An Answer to Pensionary Fagel's Letter the Services that the Roman Catholicks did in the beginning of the Common-wealth are highly extolled as Signal and Meritorious upon which the Writer makes great Complaints that the Pacification of Gaunt and the Union of Utrecht by which the free Exercise of Religion was to be continued to them was not observed in most of the Provinces But if he had but taken pains to examine the History of the States he would have found that soon after the Union made with Utrecht the Treaty of Collen was set on foot between the King of Spain and the States by the Emperour's Mediation in which the Spaniards studied to divide the Roman Catholicks in those Provinces from the Protestants by offering a Confirmation of all other Priviledges of those Provinces excepting only the Point of Religion which had so great an effect that the Party of the Male-contents was formed upon it and these did quickly Capitulate in the Walloon Provinces and after that not only Brabant and Flanders Capitulated but Reenenburg that was Governour of Groening declared for the King of Spain and by some places that he took both in Friesland and Over-Issel he put those Provinces under Contribution Not long after that both Daventer and Zutphen were betrayed by Popish Governours and the War was thus brought within the Seven Provinces that had been before kept at a greater distance from them Thus it did appear almost every where that the Hatred with which the Priests were inspiring the Roman Catholicks against the Protestants disposed them to Betray all again to the Spanish Tyranny The New War that Reenenburgh's Treachery had brought into these Provinces chang'd so the State of Affairs that no wonder if this produced a Change likewise with relation to the Religion since it appeared that these Revolts were catried on and justified upon the principles of the Church and the general Hatred under which these Revolts brought the Roman Catholicks in those Out-Provinces made the greater part of them to withdraw so that there were not left such numbers of them as to pretend to the Free-Exercise of their Religion But the War not having got into Holland and Utrecht and none of that Religion having Revolted in these Provinces Roman Catholicks continued still in the Countrey and though the ill inclinations that they shewed made it necessary for publick Safety to put them out of the Government yet they have still enjoyed the common Rights of the Countrey with the free Exercise of their Religion But it is plain that some men are only waiting an Opportunity to renew the Old Delenda est Carthago and that they think it to be no small step to it to possess all the World with the odious impressions of the Dutch as a Rebellious and a Persidious State and if it were possible they would make their own Roman Catholick Subjects fancy that they are persecuted by them But though men may be brought to believe Transubstantiation in spight of the Evidence of Sence to the contrary Yet those that feel themselves at Ease will hardly be brought to think that they are persecuted because that they are told so in an ill-writ Pamphlet And for their Rebellion the Prince that is only concerned in that sinds them now to be his best Allies and chief support as his Predecessors acknowledged them a Free State almost an Age ago And it being Consest by Historians on all sides That there was an Express Proviso in the Constitution of their Government That if their Prince broke such and such Limits they were no more bound to Obey him but might Resist him And it being no less certain
happen to them not to see their Interest for want of Understanding or not to leap over it by excess of Zeal Above all Princes are most liable to Mistake not out of any defect in their Nature which might put them under such an unfortunate distinction quite contrary the blood they derive from wise and great Ancestors does rather distinguish them on the better side besides that their great Character and Office of Governing giveth a noble Exercise to their Reason which can very hardly fail to raise and improve it But there is one Circumstance annexed to their Glorious Calling which in this respect is sufficient to outweigh all those advantages it is that Mankind divided in most things else agree in this to conspire in their endeavours to deceive and mislead them which maketh it above the power of human understanding to be so exactly guarded as never to admit a surprize and the highest applause that could ever yet be given to the greatest Men that ever wore a Crown is that they were no oftner deceived Thus I have ventur'd to lay down my thoughts of the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short word Where Distrusting may be the cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the cause of bringing Ruin the Choice is too easie to need the being explained 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 ruin 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 prosess 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 peevish or sactious 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 be fore 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 look'd 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 my self 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 Hornily for Transubstantiation or Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images if the King sends me such good Catholick 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 he 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 do 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 His Declaration which was much more Innocent than to publish the Declaration it self 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 his Conscience to do an action without consent which the Nature of the Thing the Design and intention of the Command and the Sense 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 sear 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 cught 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 Protestatio 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 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 against it 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 my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have subscribed and thefore 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 judgment 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 likely 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 Titus 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 Cowardise 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 ruine 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 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 it self which I foreseee 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 than 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 complyance 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 as 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
the City of God. But before that comes it is possible that the Throat that belch'd out this Nasty Insolence may be stopp'd with something which it cannot swallow II. Besides there are some Passages in the Declaration which in Conscience we cannot Read to our People though it be in the King's Name for among others we are to Read these Words We cannot but heartily wish as will easily be believed that all the People of our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church Our People know too well the English of this and could not but be strangely surpriz'd to hear us tell them that it would be an acceptable thing to the King that they should leave the Truth and our Communion and turn Papists The Wish of a King when solemnly Declared is no light insignificant thing but has real influence and effect upon the minds of Men. It was but a Wish of Henry the Second that cut off T. Becket then Archbishop of Canterbury Councils and Courts of Justice too often bend to a King's Wishes though against their own Inclinations as well as against their Rule And can we imagine that they can have no force at all upon the common people therefore we cannot in Conscience pronounce these words in the Ears of the People whose Souls are committed to our Charge For we should hereby lay a snare before them and become their Tempters instead of being their Instructers and in very fair and reasonable construction we shall be understood to sollicite them to Apostacy to leave the Truth of the Gospel for Fables and the mistakes of men a reasonable and decent Worship for Superstition and Idolatry a true Christian Liberty for the most intolerable Bondage both of soul and body If any will forsake our Doctrine and Fellowship which yet is not ours but Christs at their own peril be it But as for us We are resolv'd by the grace of God to lay no stumbling block in their way nor to be accessary to their ruine that we may be able to declare our integrity with S. Paul That we are pure from the blood of all men III. In the next place We are to declare in the King's name That from henceforth the Execution of all and all manner of Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion established or for or by reason of the exercise of Religion in any manner whatsoever be immediately Suspended and the sarther Execution of the said Penal Laws and every of them is hereby Suspended What! All and all manner of Laws in matters Ecclesiastical What the Laws against Fornication Adultery Incest For these are in Ecclesiastical matters What! All Laws against Blasphemy Prophaneness open Derision of Christian Religion Yet these crimes are punishable by no other Laws here than such as have been made in favour of the Established Religion How shall the Lord's day be observ'd What shall hinder covetous men to Plow and Cart and follow their several Trades upon that day since all the Laws that secure this observance and outward countenance of respect to the Christian Religion are by this general expression lade aside Besides these words for not coming to Church or not receiving the Sacrament or for any other Nonconformity to the Religion Established cannot in Conscience be read by us in our Churches because they may be a temptation to young unguided people to neglest all manner of Religious Worship and give them occasion of deptiving themselves of such opportunities of grace and salvation as these Penal Laws did often oblige them to use For being discharg'd attendance on our Service they are lest at liberty to be of any Religion or none at all Nay Christian Religion is by these general terms left at discretion as well as the Church of England For men may forsake us to become Jews or Mahometans or Pagan Idolaters as well as to be Papists or Dissenters for any care taken in this Declaratoin to prevent it And even of such as pretend to be Christians there either are or may be such Blasphemous Sects so dishonourable to our Common Lord and Master as are incapable of all publick encouragement and allowance for that would involve the Government in the Imputation of those Blasphemies and the whole Nation in that curse and vengeance of God which such provocations may extort Wherefore it is not out of any unreasonable opinion of our selves nor disaffection to Protestant Dissenters that we resuse to publish this Indulgence but out of a tender care of the Souls committed to us especially those of the weaker sort to whom we dare not propose an Invitation to Popery and much less any thing that may give countenance or encouragement to Irreligion It is said indeed that we are not required to approve but to read it To this Sir you have very well answer'd that Reading was Teaching it or if it be not so absolutely in the nature of the thing yet in common Construction I am affraid it would have been so understood But we do not stand in need of this Excuse for if there be any passages in it that are plain temptations to Popery or Licentiousness it cannot consist with our duty either to God or the Church to read them before our People As for the Dispensing Power and the Oaths and Tests required to qualifie men for Offices Military and Civil I must leave them to the Consideration of those who are nearer concern'd and therefore reasonably presum'd to understand them better Nor do I envy his Majesty the use of his Popish Subjects though I do not know what service they may be capable of doing more than other men This Nation has for some time made hard shift to subsist without much of their Aid and against the wills of several of them but now they are become the only necessary men and seem to want nothing but Number to fill all places Military and Civil in the Kingdom in the mean time the Odiousness of their Persons and the Insolence of their Behaviour with their way of menacing strange things makes some abatement of the merit of their service Lastly The respect which we have for His Majesties Service will not permit us to Read the Appendix to the Declaration Where the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom are something hardly reflected on as Persons that will not contribute to the peace and honour of the Nation Because they would consent to the taking away the Laws against Papists that they be put into a Condition to give us Laws The Persons here reflected on We know to be the chief for Ability and Interest and Inclination to serve the King and therefore cannot do His Majesty that disservice as to be Publishers of their disgrace make our selves the Instruments of alienating from his Majesty the Affections of his best Subjects Nay we find in our selves a strange difficulty to believe that this could
not been set on by directions from Whiteball For in their Order they press the Execution of the Statute 1 Eliz. and 3. Jac. 1. for levying Tuelve pence a Sunday upon all those that do not come to Church Whereas the House of Commons Nov. 6. 1680. had Resolved Nemine contradicente that it is the Opinion of this House That the Acts of Parliament made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants ought not to be extended against Protestant Dissenters VI. Who should not forget how backward the Clergy of London especially were to comply with this design of reviving the Execution of the Laws against them what courses they took to save them from this danger and what hatred they incurred for being so kind to them Which in truth was kindness to themselves for now they saw plainly enough that Nothing was intended but the destruction of us both by setting us in our turns one against the other Many indeed were possessed with the old Opinion that the Dissenters aimed at the overthrow of the Government both in Church and State which made them the more readily joyn with those who were employd to suppress them by turning the edge of the Laws upon them But both these were most industriously promoted by the Court who laboured might main to have this believed that they who were called Whigs intended the ruine of the Church and of the Monarchy too and therefore none had the Court favour but they alone who were for the ruining of them all others were frown'd upon and branded with the name of Trimmers who they adventured at last to say were worse than Whigs Meerly because they seeing through the design desired those ugly Names of Whig and Tory might be laid aside and perswaded all to Moderation Law Unity and Peace If any man had these dangerous words in his mouth he had a mark set upon him and was lookt upon as an Enemy as soon as he discovered any desires of Reconciliation No peace with Dissenters was then as much in some mens mouths as no peace with Rome had been in others They were all voted to destruction and it was an unpardonable Crime so much as to mention an Accommodation Such things as these ought not to be forgotten VII But if they lift not to call them to mind tho' they be of fresh memory yet let them at least consider what they have had at their Tongues end ever since they knew any thing That the Church of Rome is a persecuting Church and the Mother of Persecution Will they then be deluded by the present Sham of Liberty of Conscience which they of that Church pretend to give It is not in their power no more than in their Spirit They neither will nor can give liberty of Conscience but with a design to take all liberty from us That Church must be obeyed and there is no middle choice among them between turn or burn conform or be undout What Liberty do they give in any Country where their power is established What Liberty can they give who have determined that Hereticks ought to be rooted out Look into France with which we have had the strictest Alliance and Friendship a long time and behold how at this moment they compel those to go to Mass who they know abher it as an abominable Idolatry Such a violent Spirit now acts them that they stick not to prophane their own most holy Mysteries that they may have the face of an Universal Consofmity without the least Liberty For the new Converts as they are called poor Wretches are known to be mere outward Compliers in their Hearts abominating that which they are forced eternaliy to worship They declare as much by escaping from this Tyranny over their Consciences and bewa ling their sinful Compliance whensoever they have an opportunity And they that cannot escape frequently protest they have been constrained to adore that which they believe ought not to be adored And when they come to dye refuse to receive the Romish Sacrament and thereupon are dragg'd when dead along the Streets and thrown like dead Dogs upon the Dunghils Unto what a heighth of rage are the spirits of the Romish Clergy inflamed that it perfectly blinds their eyes and will not let them see how they expose the most sacred thing in all their Religion the Holy Sacrament which they believe to be Jesus Christ himself to be received by those who they know have no reverence at all for it but utterly abhor it For they sorce them by all manner of violence to adore the Host against their will and then to eat what they have adored tho' they have the greatest reason to believe that those poor Creatures do not adore it That is the Church of Rome will have her Mysteries adored by all tho' it be by Hypecrites None shall be excused but whether they believe or not believe they shall be compelled to do as that Church doth Nothing shall hinder it for the hatred and fury wherewith they are now transported is so exceeding great that it makes them as I have said offer violence even to their own Religion rather than suffer any body not to conform to it VIII And assure your selves they are very desirous to extend this Violence beyond the bounds of France They would fain see England also in the same condition the Bishop of Valence and Die hath told as much in the Speech which he made to the French King in the Name of the Clergy of France to Congratulate his glorious Atchievements in rooting out the Heresie of Calvin In which he hath a most memorable passage for which we are beholden to him because it informs us that they are not satisfied with what their King hath done there but would have him think there is a further Glory reserved for him of lending his help to make us such good Catholicks as he hath made in France This is the blessed Work they would be at and if any among us be still so blind as not to see it we must look upon it as the just judgment of God upon them for some other sins which they have committed They are delivered up to a reprobate mind which cannot discern the most evident things They declare to all the World that they have been above fifty years crying out against they know not what For they know not what Popery is of which they have seemed to be horribly afraid if they believe that they of that Religion either can or will give any Liberty when they have power to establish their Tyranny It is no better St. John himself hath described that Church under the name of Babylon that cruel City and of a BEAST which like a Bear tramples all under its feet and of another Beast which causes as many as will not worship the Image of the Beast to be killed and that no man may buy or sell save such as have had his mark i. e. are of his
Religion Rev. 13. 1 15 16. This Character they will make good to the very end of their Reign as they have fulfill'd it from the beginning They cannot alter their nature no more than the Ethiopean change his skin or the Leopard his spots It ever was since the rise of the Beast and it ever will be till its fall a bloody Church which can bear no contradiction to her Doctrine and Orders but will endeavour to root out all those that oppose her from the face of the Earth Witness the Barbarous Crusado's against the poor Albigenses in France in one of which alone Bellarmine himself saith not without Triumph there were killed no less than an hundred thousand Witness the horrible Butcheries committed in France in England and in the Low-countries in the Age before us and in Poland the Vallies of Piedmont and in Ireland in this Age upon those who had no other fault but this that they made the Holy Scriptures and the Roman Church the Rule of their Faith. IX But it you be ignorant of what hath been done and is doing abroad yet I hope you observe what they do here at home What do you think of the Declaration which was very lately imposed to be read in all our Churches Which when several Bishops and their Clergy most humbly represented they could not in Conscience publish to the People in time of Divine service this would not excuse them their Petition was receiv'd with indignation and look'd upon as a Libel the Bishops were prosecuted for it and Inquiry is now ordered to be made after those who did not read it as well as those that did that they may be punished by the High Commissioners Call you this Liberty of Conscience Or do you imagine you shall never have any thing imposed upon you to be read in your Congregations which you cannot comply withall Consider I beseech you what will become of you when that time shall come What 's the meaning of this that ever they are look'd upon as Offenders for following their Conscience whose Services have been acknowledged to be so great that they should never be forgotten It ought to teach Dissenters what they are to expect hereafter when they have served them so far by taking off the Tests and the Penal Laws as to enable them with safety to remember all their former pretended transgressions Let them assure themselves the services of the Church of England are not now more certainly forgotten than the Sins of Dissenters will hereafter when they have got power to punish them be most certainly remembred Be not drawn in then by deceitful words to help forward your own destruction If you will not be assistant to it they cannot do it alone and it will be very strange if you be perswaded to lend them your help when the deceit is so apparent For what are all the present pleas for Liberty but so many infamous Libels upon the Roman Church which denies all Men this Liberty While they declaim so loudly against Persecution they most notoriously reproach Popery which subsists by nothing but deceit and cruelty And who can think that they would suffer their Church to be so exposed and reviled as it is by such discourses but with a design to cheat heedless people into its obedience For this end they can hear it proved nay prove it themselves to be an Antichristian Church when they prove it is against Christianity nay against the Law of Nature and Common Reason to trouble any body for his opinion in Religion X. Once more then I beseech you be not deceived by good words if you love your Liberty and your Life Call to mind how our poor Brethren in France were lately deluded by the repeated Protestations which their King made he would observe the Edict of Nantes which was the foundation of their Liberty even then when he was about to overthrow it and by many assurances which were given them by those who came to torment them that the King intended to reform the Church of France as soon as he had united his Subjects What he had done already against the Court of Rome they told them was an instance of it and they should shortly see other matters Such ensraring words they heard there daily from the mouths of their armed Persecuters who were ready to fall upon them or had begun to oppress them And therefore they would be arrant fools here if they did not give good words when they have no power to hurt us But we shall be far greater fools if we believe they will keep their word when they have got that power the greatest of all fools if we give them that Power They have no other way but this to wheedle us out of our Laws and Liberties Do but surrender the one I mean our Laws they will soon take away the other our beloved Liberties Be not tempted to make such a dangerous Experiment but let the Laws stand as they are because they are against them as appears by their earnest endeavours to repeal them and be not used as tools to take them away because they have been grievous to you They never can be so again For can they who now Court you have the face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestant Prince shall come will joyn in the healing of all our breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed work They cannot meet together in a body to give you this assurance how should they without the King's authority so to do but every particular person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer oontend to bring all men to one Uniformity but promote an Uniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give mere words I mean honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the beauty and honour not the blot and discredit of our Religion To such a temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been known to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivocate nor to give good words without a meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Uprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with men God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren
Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2 Nor to Abridge or Diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly Confirmed Allowed or Enacted by Parliament or by the Established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17. of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law. Secondly That the occasion of making it was not from any doubt that did arise Whether the High-Commission Court were taken away or Whether the Crown had power to Erect any such-like Court for the future but from a doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceedings in Causes Ecclesiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delagating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the words of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High-Commission Court or the new erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch should stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2. 12. or any other But there may arise an Objection from the words in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs Whence some Men would gather That the same Power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the honour of the Legislators King Lords and Commons Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine Whether they can so construct the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering violence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely Repealed the Branch of 1. Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. â—… ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. â—… but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. â—… ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON â—… and therefore have sufficient Reason to â—… That the same would never have been set on â—… by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath â—… upon his Royal Word That he will invade â—… Mans Property had he not been Advised there unto by them who are better versed in the Canon of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER of several French Ministers Fled into Germany upon the account of the PERSECUTION in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the Kings Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original in French. ALtho' in our present Dispersion most dear and honoured Brethren it has pleased the Providence of God to conduct us into places very distant from one another Yet that Union which ought always to continue betwixt us obliges us to declare our sense to one another with a Christian and Brotherly Freedom upon all occasions that may present themselves to us so to â—… 'T is this makes us hope that you will not take â—… amiss of us if at this time we deliver our Opinion to you touching the Affairs of England in matter of Religion and with reference to that Conduct which you have observed therein We ought not to conceal it from you â—… greatest part of the Protestants of Europe have been extreamly scandalized to understand that certain among you after the example of many of the Dissenters have Addressed to the King of England upon the account of his Declaration by which he â—… granted Liberty of Conscience to the No-nconformists And that some others who had already ranked themselves under the Episcopal Communion nevertheless published the said Declaration in their Churches and this at a time when almost all the Bishops themselves with so much Firmness â—… Courage refused to do it If we may be permitted to tell you freely what â—… Opinion is concerning the conduct of the Bishops and of the Dissenters in this conjuncture we shall make no difficulty to pronounce in favour of the former We look upon it that they have exceedingly well answered the Duty of their Charge whilst despising their own private Interest they have so worthily supported that of the Protestant Religion Whereas the others for want of considering these things as they ought to have done have given up the interest of their Religion to their own particular advantages It is not out of any complement to the Bishops which less out of any enmity to the Dissenters that we make such different judgments concerning them We know well enough how to commend â—… blame what seems to us to deserve our Praise â—… our Censure both in the one and in the other We do not at all approve the conduct of the Bishops towards the Dissenters under the last Reign And altho' we do not any more
Consciences of the Church of England Men and â—… the Foundation of our State If Mr. Pen â—… his Disciples had condemn'd the unlawfulness the Declarations and the Dispensing Power â—… they wrote so fast for Liberty of Conscience they had then shew'd a generous zeal for a just freedom in Matters of Religion and at the same â—… a due veneration to the Legislative Power Kings Lords and Commons but the secret of the â—… was to maintain and Erect a Prerogative â—… all Acts of Parliament and consequently to produce upon that bottom Tyranny and Popery yet â—… all this uncontroulable Power and â—… of Grandeur an Easterly Wind and a Fleet Fly-Boats would cancel and undo all again Our â—… Historians relate of King John that being some distress he sent Sir Tho. Hardington and â—… Sir Ralph Fitz-Nichols Ambassadours to â—… the great Emperour of Morocco with â—… of his Kingdom to him upon Condition he should come and aid him and that if he prevail'd â—… would himself turn Mahometan and renounce â—… I will not insist upon the violations of Laws and Treaties in the Low Countries or the Spanish â—… over them because the Spaniards have got so much by that Persecution and Cruelty that they might be tempted to practise the like again for forcing the Netherlanders to take up Arms for their defence and by necessitating Queen Elizabeth â—… and preserve them they have set up a â—… and Glorious State as they themselves have call'd them in some Treaties that hath preserv'd â—… languishing Monarchy of Spain and the Liberty of Christendim The base and cowardly Massacre of that great â—… William Prince of Orange of the Renowned â—… Coligny and the Prince of Conde the many bloody Conspiracies for the Extirpation of the whole Race of the House of Orange The Murders â—… Henry the 2d and Henry the 4th are all Rewards and everlasting Monuments of Popish Barbarity What incredible Effusion of Blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent revolts of the Popes against the Emperours by he Image-Worship and the Holy Wars What Treachery in the Bohemian Transactions and Treaties What Inhumanity burning Jerome of Prague and John Hus when they had the Emperours Pass and all other â—… securities from the Council it self that put to â—… those two Good Men. The Reign of Queen Mary is another Scene of the Infidelity and Treachery of the Church of Rome what Oaths did she take what Promises and Protestations did she make to the Suffolk Men who had set the Crown upon her head and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of a Persecution from Her. Read her History in Fox's Martyrs and Doctor Burnet's History of the Reformation The many Conspiracies to destroy Queen Elizabeth and King James the Gunpowder Plot the Counsels carried on in Popish Countries to take off King Charles the First and the many late Popish Plots are a continued Series and Thred carried on by the Church of Rome to break thro' all Laws both of God and Man to erect an Universal Monarchy of Priest-Crast and to bring the whole World under their Yoke The Sweeds have taken an effectual and commendable way to keep Popish Priests and Jesuits those â—… and disturbers of Societies the declared Enemies to the Welfare of Mankind out of their â—… by Gelding them and consequently rendring them incapable of Sacerdotal Functions tho' the Priests have found out a Salvo and will say Mass and Consess if they can procure their Testicles again and carry them in their Pockets either preserv'd or in Powder In aethiopia China and Japan the Roman Priests have been so intolerably turbulent and such extravagant Incendiaries that they have been often Banished and put to Death so that now they disguise themselves all over the Eastern Nations under the Names and Characters of Mathematicians Mechanicks Physicians c. and dare not own their Mission to propagate a Faith which is grown ridiculous all over Asia The long and dreadful Civil Wars of France the many Massacres and Persecutions and lastly the Siege of Rochel are living Instances how far we may rely upon Engagements and Laws both as to the taking of that Bulwark and the promised relief from hence The Protestant Defenders of it refusing to rely any longer upon Paper Edicts and the Word of a Most Christian King had this City granted them as a Cautionary Town for their Security for before they had always been deluded out of their Advantages by fair promises insignificant Treaties and the word of a King yet Lewis the 13. following the vitious Examples of Treacherous Princes fell upon this Glorious City which upon the account of their Laws and Priviledges made a resistance and brave defence having never heard of Passive Obedience amongst their Pastors thinking it more lawful to defend their Rights than it was for Lewis to invade them As for the late and present Reign here in England they are too nice and tender things for me to touch whether the Transactions of them are consistent with the Coronation-Oaths the many Declarations Protestations publick and solemn Promises I am no fit Judge they are more proper for the Gravity of an Historian or the Authority of a Parliament to handle than for a private Gentleman in a Letter to his Friend The Bishops Papers and the P. of Orange's Declarations are the best Memoirs of them but they only begin where the two parts of the History of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government left off and how far we may trust to Catholick Stipulations Oaths and Treaties the facts of past and the present Age are the best Criterions and Rules to guide and determine us for what happens every day will in all probability happen to morrow the same Causes always produce the same Effects and the Church of Rome is still the same Church it was a hundred years ago that is a Mass of Treachery Barbarity Perjury and the highest Superstition a Machine without any principle or setled Law of Motion not to be mov'd or stopt with the weights of any private or publick Obligations a Monster that destroys all that is sacred both in Heaven and Earth so Ravenous that it is never content unless it gets the whole World into its Claws and tears all to pieces in order to Salvation a Preteus that turns it self into all shapes a Chamelion that puts on all Colours according to its present circumstances this day an Angel of Light to morrow a Beelzehub Amongst all the Courts of Christendom where I have conversed that of Holland is the freest from Tricks and Falshood and tho' I am naturally jealous and suspitious of the Conduct of Princes yet I could never discover the least Knavery within those Walls it appear'd to me another Athens of Philosophers and the only Seat of Justice and Vertue now left in the World as for the Character of the Prince of Orange it is so faithfully drawn by Sir Will. Temple Doctor Burnet and in a half sheet
lately printed that I who am so averse from Flattery that I can scarce speak a good word of any Body or think one good thought of my self will not write any further Panegyrick upon his Highness only that he is a very Honest Man a great Souldier and a Wise Prince upon whose Word the World may safely rely A late Pamphleteer reviles the Prince with breaking his Oath when he took the Statholder's Office upon him not considering that the Oath was impos'd upon his Highness in his Minority by a French Faction then jealous of the aspiring and true Grandeur â—… his Young Soul that the States themselves â—… whom the Obligation was made freed his Highness from the Bond and that the necessity of Affairs and the Importunities of the People forced that Dignity upon him which his Ancestors had enjoy'd and he so well deserv'd that he sav'd the sinking Common-wealth their Provinces being almost all surpriz'd and enslav'd by the French compared to the gasping State of Rome after the loss of Canne His Highness was no more pust up with this Success than he had been daunted with Hardships and Misfortunes always the same â—… Just Serene and Unchang'd under all Events and Argument of the vastness of his Mind whereas on the contrary Mutability sometimes Tyrant sometimes Father of a Country sometimes â—… other times Sneaking is oftentime a â—… of a Mean and Cowardly Soul vile and â—… born for Rapine and Destruction As for the Princess she may without any flattery be stiled the Honour and Glory of her Sex the most Knowing the most Virtuous the Fairest and yet the best Natur'd Princess in the World â—… and Admir'd by her Enemies never seen in any Passion always under a peculiar Sweetness of Temper extremely moderate in her Pleasures taking delight in Working and in Study Humble and Affable in her Conversation very percinent in â—… Questions Charitable to all Protestants and frequenting their Churches The Prince is often see with her at the Prayers of the Church of England and she with the Prince at the Devotion of â—… Church she dispenses with the use of the Surplice Bowing to the Altar and the Name of Jesus out â—… Compliance to a Country that adores her being more intent upon the Intrinsick and Substantial Parts of Religion Prayer and Good Works â—… speaks several Languages even to Perfection is entirely Obedient to the Prince and he extremely â—… to her in a word She is a Princess of many extraordinary Virtues and Excellencies without any appearance of vanity or the least mixture of â—… and upon whose promise the World may safely depend As for the many Plots and Conspiracies against this Royal Couple a short time may bring the all to light and faithful Historians publish them in the World Lastly We may observe that whereas it hath been the Maxim of several Kings both at home and abroad of late years to contend and outvie each other in preying upon and destroying not only their Neighbours but their own Protestant Subjects â—… all methods of Persidiousness and Cruelty the only way to establish Tyranny and to enslave the natural Freedom of Mankind being to introduce a general Ignorance Superstition and Idolatry For if once people can be perswaded that Statues and Idols are Divinities and adorable and that a Wafer is the infinite God after two or three ridiculous Words utter'd by a vile Impostor and Impudent Cheat then they may easily be brought to submit their necks to all the Yokes that a Tyrant and a Priest can invent and put upon them for if once they part with their Reason their Liberty will soon follow as we behold every day in the miserable enslav'd Countries where Popery domineers On the contrary it hath always been the steddy and immutable principle of the House of Orange to rescue Europe from its Oppressors and to resettle Governments upon the primitive and immortal Foundation of Liberty and Property a glorious Maxim taken from the old Roman Common-wealth that fought and conquer'd so many Nations only to set them free to restore them wholsome Laws their natural and civil Liberties a Design so generous and every way great that the East groaning under the Fetters and Oppressions of their Tyrants flew in to the Roman Eagles for Shelter and protection under whose Wings the several Nations liv'd free safe and happy till Traitors and Usurpers began to break in upon the Sacred Laws of that vertuous Constitution and to keep up Armies to defend that by Blood and Rapine which Justice would have thrown in their Face and punished them as they deserved the preservation and welfare of the People being in all Ages call'd the Supreme Law to which all the rest ought to tend From the foregoing Relation of matter of Fact it appears most plain that the Roman Catholicks are not to be ty'd by Laws Treaties Promises Oaths or any other bonds of Humane Society the sad experience of this and other Kingdoms declares to all Mankind the invalidity and insignificancy of all Contracts and Agreements with the Papists who notwithstanding all their Solemn Covenants with Hereticks do watch for all Advantages and Opportunities to destroy them being commanded thereunto by their Councils and the Principles of their Church and instigated by their Priests The History of the several Wars of the Barons of England in the Reigns of King John Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second in Defence of their Liberties and for redressing the many Grievances under which the Kingdom groan'd is a full representation of the Infidelity and Treachery of those Kings and of the Invalidity of Treaties with them how many Grants Amendments and fair Promises had they from those Princes and yet afterwards how many Ambuscades and Snares were laid to destroy those glorious Patricts of Liberty what Violations of Compacts and Agreements and what havock was made upon all Advantages and Opportunities that those false Kings could take Read their Histories in our several Chronicles FINIS â—…â—…