those bonds that are laid upon Dissenters of truly tender and by experience of peaceable Consciences and by Law establish the free Exercise of their Worship to Almighty God that the Fears Jealousies Disaffection and Distraction that now affect the one common Interest of Protestants may be removed for it seems impossible to preserve a distinct Interest from both But to which of these they may incline I must not determine and yet I hope they will not be of the mind of a late Monk of Cullen that in his publick Exercise exhorted the Civil Magistrates to chuse to have their City poor and Catholick that is Popish rather then great and Opulent by the Admission of trading Hereticks but if they should may our Magistrates have at least their Prudence for the Culleners gave him the hearing but were as true to their Interest as the Monk to his Superstition Under favour the Civil Government is greatly concern'd to discountenance such Biggotrys for it Thins the People Lessens Trade Creates Jealousies and Endangers the Peace and Wealth of the Whole And with Submission of what should the Civil Magistrate be more tender than in suffering the Civil Interest of a great People to be disturb'd and narrow'd for the Humor of any one Party of them for since the Civil Interest lies as large as the People of that Interest the people must be preserved in order to preserve that Common Interest Other Notions ever did divide and weaken Empire and in the end they have rarely mist to pull the Old House about their Ears that have govern'd themselves by such disproportionable measures By all means interest the Affections of the People in the Prosperity of the Government by making the Government a SECURITY to their perticular Rights and Properties I ask if more Custom comes not to the King and more Trade to the Kingdom by encouraging the Labour and Traffick of an Episcopalian Presbyterian Independent Quaker and Anabaptist than by an Episcopalian only If this be true why should the rest be render'd uncapable of Trade yea of Living What Schism or Heresy is there in the Labour and Commerce of the Anabaptist Quaker Independent and Presbyterian more than in the Labour and Traffick of the Episcopalian I beseech you give me leave is therâ— ever a Church-man in England that in distress would refuse the Curtesie of one of these Dissenters If one of them should happen to fall into a Pond or Ditch would he deny to be helpt out by a Dissenters Hand Is it to be supposed he would in such a pickle be Stomachful and chuse to lie there and be Smother'd or Drowned rather than owe Aid to the good Will of a poor Phanatick Or if his House were on Fire may we think that he would have it rather burnt to the ground than acknowledge its Preservation to a Non-conformist Would not the Act be Orthodox whatever were the Man So in case of being Sick Imprison'd Beset Benighted out of the Way far from Kindred or Acquaintance with an hundred other cases that may happen daily can we think that such Men would ask Questions for Conscience sake or charge Schism upon the Relief given them No no Self will always be true to its Interest let Superstition mutter what it will But since the Industry Rents and Taxes of the Dissenters are as currant as their Neighbours who loses by such narrowness more than England than the Government and the Magistracy For till it be the Interest of the Farmer to destroy his Flock to starve the Horse he rides and the Cow that gives him Milk it cannot be the Interest of England to let a great part of her Sober Useful Inhabitants be destroy'd about things that concern another World And 't is to be hop'd that the Wisdom and Charity of our Governors will better guide them both to their own real Interest and their Peoples Preservation which are inseparable that so they may not Starve them for Religion that are as willing as able to WORK for the good of King and Country I beseech you let Nature speak who is so much a better Friend to Humane Society than False or Froward Opinion that she often rectifies the Mistakes of a Prejudiced Education that we may say how Kind how Gentle how Helpful does she teach us to be to each other till that Make-bate OPINION falsly call'd Religion begins the Jangle and Foments to Hatred All the Productions of Nature are by Love and shall Religion propagate by Force If we consider the poor Hen she will teach us Humanity Nature does not only learn her to hatch but to be tender over her Feeble Chickens that they may not be a Prey to the Kite All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the Use and Nourishment of Man are produced by the kind and warm influences of the Sun Nothing but kindness keeps up Humane race Men and Women don't get Children in Spight but Affection 'T is wonderful to think by what Friendly and Gentle ways Nature produce and matures the Creatures of the World and that Religion should teach us to be Froward and Cruel is Lamentable This were to make her the Enemy instead of the Restorer of Nature But I think we may without Offence say That since True Religion gives Men Greater Mildness and Goodness than they had before that Religion which teaches them less must needs be False What shall we say then but that even Nature is a truer guide to Peace and better informs us to preserve Civil Interest then false Religion and consequently that we ought to be true to the Natural and Just Principles of Society and not suffer one of them to be violated for Humor or Opinion Nor is every Difference in Opinion to be reputed or Nick named a New or Different Religion Let us go together as far as our way lies and Preserve our Unity in those Principles which maintain our Civil Society This is our Common and our Just Interest all Protestant-Dissenters agree in this and it is both Wise and Righteous to admit no Fraction upon this Pact no Violence upon this Concord For the consequence of permitting any thing to break in upon the Principles of Humane Society that is Forreign to the Nature of it will distract and weaken that Society We know that in all Plantations the Wisdom of Planters is well aware of this and let us but consider that the same ways that plant Countries must be kept to for preserving the Plantation else 't will quickly be Depopulated That Country which is False to its first Principles of Government and mistakes or divides its Common and Popular Interest must Unavoidably Decay And let me say That had there been this Freedom granted Eighteen Years ago Protestancy had been too Potent for the Enemies of it nor had there been those Divisions for Popery to make its advantage by at least not in the Civil Interest of the Nation And where that has been preserv'd entire it has been never
next place they do not only consequentially disclaim the Pope's Supremacy and all adhesion to forreign Authority under any Pretence but therewith deny and oppose the Romish Religion as it stands degenerated from Scripture and the first and purest Ages of the Church which makes up a great Negative Union And it cannot be unknown to men read in the Reasons of the Reformation that a Protestation made by the German Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the fifth imposing Romish Traditions gave beginning to the word Protestant In short It is the Interest of the Ruling or Church Protestants of England that the Pope should have no Claim or Power in England It is also the Interest of the Dissenting Protestants that the Pope should have no Claim or Power here in England because they are subject to the same Mischiefs and Sufferings in their Civil and Religious Rights that the Church Protestants are liable to if then both are like to lose by Pope and Forraign Authority their Interest must needs be one against Pope and Forraign Authority and if they have but one Interest it will follow that the Church Protestant cannot prejudice the Dissenting-Protestant but he must weaken and destroy his own Interest The Civil Interest of English Protestants being thus the same and their Religious Interest too so far as concerns a Negative to the Usurpation and Error of Rome I do humbly ask if it be the Interest of the Government to expose those to Misery that have no other Civil Interest than THAT of the Government Or if it be just or equal that the Weaker should be prosecuted by the more Powerful Protestants whose Interest is Positively the same in Civils and in Religion Negatively One would think 't were Reasonable that they should not suffer by Protestants who if Popery ever have a day are likely to suffer with them and that upon the same Principles Experience tells us That the wisest Architects lay their Foundations broad and strong and raise their Squares and Structure by the most exact Rules of Art that the Fabrick may be secure against the Violence of storms but if People must be destroy'd by those of the same Interest truly that Interest will stand but Totteringly and every breath of Opposition will be ready to shake it 'T was the Inconfutable answer Christ made to the Blasphemers of that Power by which he wrought Miracles A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand what he said then let me on another occasion say now an Interest divided against it self must fall I know some Men will take Fire at this and by Crying The CHURCH The CHURCH hope to silence all Arguments of this Nature But they must excuse me if I pay no manner of Regard to their Zeal and hold their Devotion both Ignorant and Dangerous at this time It is not the way to fill the Church to Destroy the People A Church without People is a Contradiction especially when the Scripture tells us that 't is the People that makes the Church And 't is not without an appearance of Reason that some good wise men are apprehensive that the greatest Sticklers for Persecuting Protestant Dissenters in favour of the Church of England are men addicted and devoted to the Church of Rome or at least animated by such as are who disparing of doing any great Feats if known hide themselves under these pretences but the meaning of it is to debilitate the Protestant cause in general by exciting the Church of England to destroy all other Protestant Interests in these Kingdoms that so nothing may remain for Popery to conflict with but the few Zealous abettors of that Church And that this may not look disingenuous or like a Trick of mine I will enforce it by a demonstration It is plain fact that the Church of Rome hath ever since the Reformation practic'd the Restoration of her Religion and Power in these Kingdoms It is as evident that Religion is with her a word for Civil Interest that is that she may have the Rule over men both Body and Soul For 't is Government she aims at to have the rains of Power in her hand to give Law and weild the Scepter To do this she must either have a greater interest then the Protestants that are now in possession or else divide their Interest and so weaken them by themselves and make them Instruments to her ends That her own force is Inconsiderable is clear She has nothing within Doors to give her hope but the Discord of Protestants It follows then that she must of necessity bestir her self and use her Arts to enflame the reckoning among Protestants and carry their Dissents about Religious matters to a division in the Civil Interest And it is the more to be fear'd because whatever she has been to others she has been ever true to her self If this then be the only domestick Expedient left her we are sure she will use it and if so it must needs be of great Importance with all Protestants to let fall their private Animosities and take all possible care that their dissents about Faith or Worship which regard the other World divide not their Affection and Judgment about the Common and Civil Interest of their Country because if that be kept entire it equally frustrates the designs of Rome as if you were of one Religion For since as I said before Religion with the great men of that Church is nothing else but a softer word for Civil Empire preserve you but your Civil Interest from fraction and you are in that sense of one Religion too and that such an one as you need not fear the temptation of Smithfield if you will but be true to it This being the case I would take leave to ask the Zealous Gentlemen of the English Church If Conformity to the fashion of their Worship be dearer to them then Englands Interest and the Cause of Protestancy if their love to Church-Government be greater then to the Church and her Religion and to their Country and her Laws or lastly whether in case they are sincere in their Allegations for the Church which I confess ingenuously I am apt to suspect it is to be supposed that the present Church-men Conformists I mean are better able of themselves to secure Protestancy and our Civil Interest against the Attempts of Rome then in Conjunction with the Civil Interest of all Protestant Dissenters If they say yes I would have them at the same time for the same reason to give it under their Hands that 't is a standing Rule in Arithmetick that ONE is more then SIX and that hitherto we have been all mistaken in the art of Numbers Being brought to this pinch I conceive they must say that they had rather deliver up their Church to the Power and Designs of Popery then suffer Dissenters to live freely among them though Protestant of one negative Religion and of the same Civil Interest or else hasten to break
able to Prevail Witness the careful Government of Holland where the Preservation of their Civil Interest from Fraction hath Secur'd them against the growth of Popery though it be almost Tolerated by them So powerful are the Effects of an United Civil Interest in Government Now because the Civil Interest of this Nation is the Preservation of the Free and Legal Government of it from all Subjection to Forreign claim and that the several sorts of Protestants are united as in the common Protestancy that is a General Renunciation of Rome so in the Maintenance of this Civil Government as a common Security for it strikes both at their Rights Civil and Sacred their Conscience Religion and Law to admit any Forreign Jurisdiction here it must follow that had these several as well English as Protestant Parties been timely encourag'd to this united Civil Interest they had secur'd the Government from this danger by rendering it too formidable for the Attempt But there is a twofold Mistake that I think fit to remove First That the difference betwixt Protestants their Dissenters is generally manag'd as if it were Civil Secondly The difference betwixt Papist Protestant is carried on as if it were chiefly Religious To the First I say 'T is plausible but false it is an Artifice of ill men to enflame the Government against good People to make base Ends by other Mens Ruin whereas they that dissent are at a Ne plus ultra on the behalf of the English Government as well as themselves They neither acknowledge nor submit to any other Authority They hold the one common Civil Head and not only acquiess in the Distribution of Justice by Law but embrace it as the best part of their Patrimony So that the difference between Protestants and their Dissenters is purely Religious and mostly about Church-Government and some Forms of Worship apprehended to be not so pure and Apostolical as could be desired and here it is that Tenderness should be exercis'd if in any case in the World or St. Paul is Mistaken But as to the Second under Correction the case is alter'd for though it be mostly manag'd on the side of Religion The great Point is meerly Civil and shâ—uld never be otherwise admitted or understood For want of this caution Protestants suffer themselves to be drawn into tedious Controversies about Religion and give occasion to the Professors and Favourers of that way to exclaim against them as Persecutors for Religion who had reprobated such Severity in the Papists to their Ancestors a most plausible and very often a succesful Plea when in reality the difference is not so much Religious as Civil Not but that there is a vast contrariety in Doctrine and Worship too but this barely should not be the cause of our so great distance and that Provision the Laws make against them but rather that Fundamental inconsistancy they carry with them to the Security of the English Government and Constitution unto which they belong by acknowledging a Forreign Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms So that drawing into Question and Danger the Constitution and Government to which Scripture and Nature and Civil Pact oblige their Fidelity and Obedience there seems a Discharge upon the Civil Government from any further care of their Protection that make it a piece of Conscience to seek its Ruin and which is worse a Principle not to be informed of better things for even here not Reason or Law but the Pope must be Judge This being the Brief and Modest state of the Case I must return to my first great Principle That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government and that how much Men desert the Interest of a Kingdom so much they Wound and Subvert the Government of it I appeal to all Wise and Considerate Men of the Truth of this by the present Posture of Affairs and their proper Causes To come then to our Point Shall English Men by English Men and Protestants by Protestants be Free or Opprest That is Whether shall we receive as English men and Protestants those that have no other Civil Interest than that which is purely English and who sincerely profess and embrace the same Protestation for which the Antient Reformers were stiled Protestants or for the sake of Humour or Base Ends disown them and expose them and their Families to utter misery I would hope better of our great Church-mens Charity and Prudence but if they should be so unhappy as to keep to their old measures and still play the Gawdy but empty Name of Church against the Civil Interest and Religion of the Nation they will shew themselves deserted of God and then how long it will be before they will be seen and left of all sober men let them Judge For to speak freely after all this Light that is now in the world no Ignorance can excuse such Zeal nor will wise men believe it to be either but a Trick to weaken Protestancy that her declared Enemy may with less hazard gain the Chair And there is not so much reason to fear Profest Roman Catholicks as those Gentlemen who valuing themselves by their respects to the Church and tenderness of her Independent honour have the opportunity with less suspition of letting in Popery at the Back door These are the men that pay off the Phanatick in the Name of the Church but for the good of the Pope to whose account those endeavours must be placed But it will go a great way to our Deliverance if we are not Careless to observe the Secret workings of those that have vow'd our Misery of them such as are in Masckarade and wear the Guize of Friends are most Dangerous But some Men are Pur-blind they can see Danger as near as their Nose but in a Difficulty that is not a Foot from them they are Presumptive Rusty and not to be govern'd Could some Church-men but see the Irreparable Mischiefs that will attend them if sincere to their present Profession unless prevented by a Modest and Christian condescension to Dissenting Protestant Christians they would never suffer themselves to be Misâ—guided by Stiff and Rigid Principles at this time of day If Christianity that most Meek and Self denying Religion cannot prevail upon them me thinks the Power of Interest and that Self interest too should have some Success for in those cases they use not to be obstinate But I expect it should be told me That this is the way to Ruin the Church and let in an Anarchy in Religion Cujus contrarium verum I am glad to obviate this before I leave you seeing the Contrary is most true for it leaves the Church and Church-men as they are with this Distinction that whereas now Conformity is Coercive which is Popish it will be then Perswasive which is Christian And there may be some hopes when the Parsons destitute of the Magistrates Sword shall of necessity enforce their Religion by good Doctrine and holy Living nor