no Considerative Ingenuous and Free-minded man but had rather have twenty harmless Rites imposed on his Practice than two disputable and uncertain Doctrines upon his Belief And such lastly are those Parties who whensoever they have had opportunity have been Rigidly severe to Dissenters from themselves What security can we possibly have that those who for the time past have been Persecutors whenever they had Power in their hands will never be so for the time to come if they should have Power Especially if they still retain those principles which naturally tend to make men Cruel Here if I expatiated I would have onely to do with the Popish Faction and spare others who though they have been too guilty in this respect yet not comparably to them What is better known throughout the Christian World than the Horrible Tyranny of the Romish Church than her most Barbarous and Savage Cruelties towards those who would not Worship that Beast and his Image and would not receive the mark of his Name What an Ocean of Bloud hath this Ravenous Beast shed of the Saints and of the Prophets of God The History of Pagan Rome's cruelties towards the Christians in the ten Famous Persecutions is far out-done by that of Rome Christian I had rather say Rome Antichristian towards poor Protestants Guess we what a prodigiously vast number have fallen as Sacrifices to her Devilish Fury by two or three Instances It is computed that in the Massacre in Paris and other parts of France were Butchered about an Hundred thousand That of the Albigenses and Waldenses were Murthered no fewer than a Thousand thousand That within the space of Forty years from the Founding of the Blessed Order of the Iesuits were Murthered about Nine hundred thousand That the Holy Inquisition in the space of Thirty years destroyed with an infinite number of cruelties an Hundred and Fifty thousand That in the Low Countries Duke Alva that Bloudy Bigot of Rome caused to be executed about Six thousand And what great numbers did suffer here in England purely upon the score of Religion in the Reigns of King Henry the Eighth and Queen Marâ— And what work the Priests and Jesuits and other of the Sons of Rome had ere this time been employed in again among us if their â—ate Horrid Conspiracy had taken effect we very well know Those know no more of the Principles or Spirit of Popery than a sucking Infant who can give the least credit to their most solemn promises of a Toleration of or Indulgence towards Protestants although they should back them with never so many Sacred Oaths upon the Holy Bible and pawn their Souls upon their fulfilling them with never so tremendous and direful Execrations And yet these men are so void of all shame that ever since the Reformation they have turned every stone to obtain a Toleration of their Religion among us And that notwithstanding the plainest Demonstrations which from time to time they have given us that they seek it for no other End but that by the means of it they may do that by Fraud against our Religion and all that 's dear to us which thanks be to God they are not strong enough to do by force nor by any other methods of Fraud neither Though they could never yet obtain a legal Toleration yet they have not wanted for indulgence and kind usage but this hath been so far from melting them into good nature that they have still taken Advantage from thence to lay Designs for our Ruine At that very time and for some time before when their Gunpowder Conspiracy not to be thought of without the greatest Horror was projected and almost effected by them did King Iames treat them with not onely extraordinary Clemency but also Friendship and Bounty At the Trial of the Traitors his Majestie 's Attorny General observed that that Treason was hatched at a time when the King used the greatest Lenity towards the Papists whom he honoured with Advancement and Favour as well as others and by the space of a whole Year and four Months took no Penalties by Statute of them And this likewise the King himself remembred them of the more to convince them of their prodigious Ingratitude And to pass by their Conspiring the Death of King Charles the First of most Happy Memory and afterwards effecting it by the hands of the Fanaticks whose instruments they were not onely in the not to be parallel'd Murder of that excellently pious Prince all circumstances of it considered but also in the long Civil War preceding it as Doctor Peter Du-Moulin hath discovered in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus I say to pass by all that to which nothing could provoke them except the most Gentle Gracious and Kind usage 't is known to every body that nothing neither except the like usage could provoke them to this last most Inhumane and Hellish Conspiracy And yet notwithstanding they have always been to us like the Philistines to the Israelites sharp Thorns in our Sides and Pricks in our Eyes are they still so impudent as to insist upon it as their Right to have Liberty of Conscience and hope with the Assistance of their old tried Tools at last to obtain it And 't is matter of Grief and Astonishment to us that these will not yet see though it be as visible as the Light that if with their help they do obtain it the best Recompence they shall receive for their good service will be the Inslaving of themselves and the Ruine of their Religion I thought not of so far enlarging upon this Proposition but considering into what a large Field I was entered I found it somewhat difficult to break off so soon Prop. 10. In the last place Governours ought not to impose any thing but for weighty Reasons but what upon the maturest deliberation they judge to be necessary or upon one account or other very highly Expedient To make little and insignificant things the matter of Laws is the readiest course to beget in the People a sleighting of Authority and to lessen the Veneration that is due to Laws And also gives ill-minded persons a great advantage and puts plausible objections into their mouths against the Government But having taken leave to say what becomes Governours I am obliged to add that private Persons are no competent judges of the Necessity or Expediency of Laws And that it very ill becomes them to be forward to Censure those as needless the reason of which is unknown to them 'T is an Argument of great immodesty and pride to think that we who stand upon the lower ground can see as far as those who are so much above us And a very little Prudence and Humility will serve to convince us that those much better understand the Methods of Government than we do and what is fit to be imposed whose whole Business and Employment it is to Govern We have certain Rules whereby to judge of the Lawfulness of things imposed but we
offend any I shall be sorry for it but must withal take leave to tell the offended that it is an Evidence of exceeding great Weakness not to say worse to be Angry with those who endeavour in the Spirit of Meekness to convince us of our Dangerous Mistakes But such is the Fate of Conscientious opposing Popular and Prevailing Errors that it seldom meeteth with better success than kindling the Passions and sharpening the Tongues and Pens too of those who are most obliged to be thankful for it But Wisdom is justified of her Children But however it be taken it was never more seasonable nor ever scarcely so Necessary to do our utmost towards the rectifying of Peoples Apprehensions about matters of this nature when our Contentions and Animosities about little things mostly things very little in themselves and so great a Defection from our Church merely upon the account of such things as are no where condemned by the Law of God nor are opposed by any express or plain Text but by exceedingly laboured and far fetch'd Consequences have given our Adversaries such Advantage against us and do them far greater service than all their open Attempts or secret wicked Plots and Conspiracies through the infinite Goodness of God to us have hitherto done God Almighty grant that that saying be not to be applied to us ere long which was used of our Predecessors the Britains when their intestine Quarrels had occasioned their being Vanquish'd by the Romans viz. Dum singuli pugnant Vniversi vincuntur While they severally contend and quarrel with one another they are all overcome by a Common Enemy I must confess when I consider what Excellent Treatises have of late been published fraught with Unanswerable and the most convincing and affecting Arguments to perswade our Brethren of the Separation to ease us in a great measure of our Fears of Popery or Confusion by Returning to the Communion of that Church wherein most of them were Baptized and when withal I observe what little Success those Treatises have had I have as faint hopes as can be that so small an endeavour as this should do any Service But however it is some satisfaction to my Mind to express my Good Will But we are told by some that we may thank the Church of England if ever the Pope be again our Master and particularly that Principle of Hers we have been now defending viz. that Imposing of Indifferent things in the Worship of God is no Violation of Christian Liberty And that this Principle will open a door to Popish Conformity if we should be once more so unhappy as to be brought into Subjection to the Roman Yoke To these I Reply in the First place That 't is unconceiveable how any thing but Malice or the thickest Ignorance can charge the Church of England with serving the Interest of the Popish Religion For is any thing more Notorious than that almost all the opposition that hath either heretofore or of late been made against Popery hath been by the Bishops and the other Clergy of this Church To say nothing of what the Separating Party have done though not upon that Design to promote Popery which would be as large as unpleasant a Theme to insist on what have they done in defence of the Reformed Religion against Popery Have they all of them put together done the half quarter part of that Service in this kind that One Excellent Dean of our Church hath done Truly I much doubt it And I think I may adventure to say that all the Reformed Churches together can hardly shew of their own so many Learned and Judicious Treatises against the Body and the several Parts of Popery as our single Church can shew of Hers. Again Is any thing better known than that the Priests and Jesuits and Popish Faction do at this time spit all their Venome and bend all their Force against the Church of England and indeed always have done This sheweth that they are well aware though so many among our selves will not acknowledge it but would have the World think the directly contrary that our Church is the most Formidable of all their Adversaries In short Who needs Arguments to convince him that the Church of England is at present our onely Bulwark against Popery As ever since the Reformation she hath been acknowledged by our Brethren beyond Sea to be the strongest and most impregnable upon several accounts But Secondly as to this Principle of our Church that Imposing of Indifferent things in the Worship of God is no Violation of Christian Liberty it is a most weak and ignorant furmise that it should in the least befriend Popery Those little understand what Popery means that think thus For First There is nothing more plainly demonstrable than that many of those things which are imposed by the Roman Church are far from being Indifferent in their own nature but the grossest Corruptions as contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the first Ages of the Church and which is far more as contrary to the Laws of God and our Saviour Christ as is Darkness to Light I have given a Catalogue in the Design of Christianity of the chief of these with Remarks upon them and thither I refer the Reader that needs satisfaction Secondly Other of Her Impositions which are Indifferent in themselves are made to change their Nature by the Notion under which they are enjoyned by her That Church enjoyns no Indifferent things as such as ours doth all she imposeth as appears by her 34 th Article but as made necessary by Divine Authority She pretending to the Infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost in all Her Decrees and Constitutions And therefore expects your Receiving them as you do the Holy Scriptures with a Divine Faith and the self-same awful Regard and Reverence I might add too that several of her Rites and Ceremonies are imposed under a most Superstitious notion either as Sacraments conveying Grace or as having some special Virtue in them to atone the Divine Majesty or to scare away the Devil c. Thirdly It is my opinion too that though their Ceremonies were never so innocent in themselves yet the Multitude of them doth make them in the lump to cease to be Indifferent My reason is because it is unconceiveable to me but that so great a Number must needs so employ the Mind in the Worship of God as that it is not possible to be intent thereupon and consequently must frustrate at least in a great measure the Design of Worship But this is no Reason to a Papist who cannot be thoroughly so and acknowledge the necessity of exercising the Mind in Divine Worship For his Holy Mother hath taught him this mad and impious Doctrine That the Sacraments confer Grace ex opere operato from the work Done and so are differenced from those of the Old Testament they conferring Grace ex opere operantis from the work of the Doer as also that a mere general
Words not by Blows And the Arguments used by the most Ancient Fathers against persecuting people for mere dissenting in matters of Religion are as strong against the persecuting practices of Rome Christian as they were against those of Rome Pagan And this means hath proved always as unsuccessful as it is improper the best success it hath ever had hath been to make some Hypocrites and the rest more averse and obstinate than they were before That way of Religion they before disliked they now hate and oppression making even wise men mad as King Solomon observeth multitudes from modest Dissenters in their own defence turn Factious and Seditious and down-right opposers And nothing hath been more ordinarily observed than that Persecution doth mightily encrease instead of diminishing the number of Dissenters As it is grown into a Maxim Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae The bloud of Martyrs is the seed of the Church so nothing makes any party so considerable nor any thing gains them so many Proselytes as their bearing Death or Torment or any cruel usage like Martyrs which we need not be informed the very worst of men have frequently done Thanks be to God the Church of England is as far departed from that of Rome in this point of merciless Severity as in the rest of her Abominations Which hath made me stand amazed at the Tragical out-cries of one or two of late against our Church as if the Inquisition it self could hardly match her in her savage cruelty towards sober Dissenters Such Libellers as these have as little Wit as Christianity or Common Honesty for can they more expose their Reputation than by publishing to the World such things as every body can confute from his own knowledge These people cannot but believe in their Consciences that modest Dissenters nor immodest neither as themselves know by experience cannot hope to have fairer quarter in any part of the Christian world where there is any Establishment than they have in this Church Nay that there is hardly any one Party of the Dissenters that would be half so favourable to the rest should they get into Power as our Constitution is to all of them The principal of our divided Parties 't is well known have been tried in England Scotland and New-England and how exemplary they have been for their Moderation towards men of a different perswasion is too well understood to be quickly forgotten But old sores shall not bleed afresh by my rubbing them as great provocation as is given by some at the most unseasonable time imaginable Prop. 5. But notwithstanding what we have now Asserted there is a necessity of making it more mens interest to comply with the publick Establishment than not to comply with it Which cannot be done so long as those who are conformable thereunto and those which dissent from it are both put into the self-same circumstances It is as good nay better to have no legal Establishment at all than not to back it with motives of Temporal Interest to disswade from Disobedience to it it is so so long as this sort of interest hath so great a power over the generality of men nay of professors of Religion too as we see it hath and so few comparatively are governed by pure Reason and Conscience as great pretences as there are to both Penalties of one nature or other are necessary Sanctions of Laws and were it not for the annexing of them Laws would be so far from being generally obeyed that they would be generally despised and contemned Nay the perverse natures of men do so incline them niti in vetitum to do what 's prohibited through their excessive fondness for Liberty that I am perswaded the way to have this or that done by the far greater part would be for Authority to forbid it without a Penalty And as for that Objection that Civil penalties make men Hypocrites how is it possible that those who make it should not at the same time see that it is as much levelled at all Laws as at those which relate to matters of Religion Then men ought not to be prohibited Murther Adultery or Theft under Civil penalties because they will be apt to make them Hypocrites as 't is certain those are no better who abstain from those crimes from the mere fear of the lash of the Law But it is better for the Publick that men should be Hypocrites in their Obedience than that they should live in Disobedience and somewhat better for themselves too And no man will be made a Hypocrite by penalties but such a one as would disobey and be an open sinner were it not for them I add that this Objection is also levelled at leaving it to every bodies Liberty to comply or not comply with the legal Establishment What a Temptation would this be to those to plead scruples of Conscience against some condition of Communion who are only swayed by some motive of Interest to get better trading to please their Wives or the like to leave the Church and joyn themselves to separate Congregations Prop. 6. We must distinguish between a Liberty of serving God according to our Consciences and a Liberty of making others to be of our perswasion There is a wide difference between these two It is inconsistent with Government for this latter Liberty to be Allowed Nothing can come of Authorities giving licence to Dissenters to make Proselytes to their several Parties but downright Confusion I appeal to themselves whether if any of them now sate at the Helm and were in the chair of Government they could endure to have their Authority publickly confronted they know they could not and much less give Liberty that is Encouragement to those to confront it who have a mind to it But what is it to put an affront upon Authority if publick Endeavours to withdraw People from Obedience be not so It is the greatest immodesty to desire of Governours such a Liberty as this and supposeth them either not to understand or to have no concern for their own interest as Governours And those that dissent from the legal Establishment ought to think themselves most kindly dealt with and to be very thankful may they enjoy upon tolerable terms their own way of Religion without free licence to do all they can to encrease their Party How happy would our good Ancestors in the Reign of Queen Mary have thought themselves had Her Majesty vouchsafed them such a Liberty as that They would hardly have thought they could pay too dear for 't It may be objected what if a man be immediately commissionated by the King of Kings as the Apostles were publickly to withdraw men from Obedience to those Laws which require of them unlawful things and withal he prove his Commission by working of Miracles is not Authority obliged to give Liberty so to do in that case Surely it is I answer surely it is not but 't is obliged to do that which is much better