Adoration for his Saviour and yet contrary to the Dictates of Heaven and the Doctrine of the Blessed Jesus make it his business to speak evil of Dignities and disturb the Peace of the Kingdom in which he lives II. I Proceed to shew that we owe a strict obedience to the Higher Powers of this Realm Which is easily evinc'd because they are such Powers which are Sovereign and as they are absolutely Supream so ought we to be absolutely obedient The Kings of this Realm are said crimine vacare because they owe an account of their Offences only to Heaven They are said to be Laws to themselves because tho in the Court of their own Consciences they are oblig'd to reign according to Law yet they are absolv'd of all Laws in relation to an earthly Tribunal The Kings of this Realm like those of the Jews may do whatsoever they think fit without Controlment from the Subject For since they are Gods Lieutenants can they be accountable to any but their Almighty Captain Since they are Heads of the Common-wealth what Member shall call them to Question and since they have the sole power of the Sword what hand can justly draw it without their Commission The Kings of this Realm by vertue their Prerogatives when Laws become sharp may soften them as they please and when too cruel totally pro tempore suspend them To the Prerogative we owe the calling of Parliaments the proroguing of the good and the dissolution of the bad To the merciful exercise of the Prerogative we owe that we our selves sit every Man under his own Vine and drink the waters of his own Cistern For by the same undoubted Rights of Soveraignty that the King in dispensing with the Laws shews the light of his Countenance to some of his Subjects by the same he may if he please become a Cloud and darkness to the rest For by the Rights of Supremacy he may do all things without Controlment and Coertion And altho he at any time act as he may do contrary to the Laws which himself or his Ancestors have ratified yet at the same time he Acts but according to the natural Laws and Rights of his Prerogative And indeed if we consider the Natural Laws and Rights of Soveraignty no Law can be made by a Soveraign but there must be this tacit Reserve in 't viz. That it shall continue in force only so long as the Supreme Power thinks it necessary and convenient And thus since the Kings of this Realm are Supreme we ought strictly to pay them such an humble Obedience as may be answerable to the greatness of their Power III. I come now to shew the reasonableness of our Obedience to the King in this present juncture of Affairs that is why we ought to comply and cooperate with his Majesty in the repeal of the Tests and Penal Laws and setling a lasting Indulgence in relation to Conscience for Matters of meer Religion And this I shall evince from these Eight following considerations 1. From the Nature of Conscience as to Matters of meer Religion 2. From the Genius of the Christian Religion consider'd in its first Planting and Propagation 3. From the ill consequence of Force and the happy Effects of Clemency in affairs of Religion 4. From the Allegiance and Gratitude we owe-to His Majesty 5. From the Liberty that is due to the Subject 6. From the Consideration of the Interest of the Church 7. From the Duties we owe toour Neighbours 8. From the Kindness that is due to our Country First From the Nature of Conscience as to Matters of meer Religion Now Conscience in relation to Matters of meer Religion in the present case is a Conclusion of the reason ableness or unreasonableness of our Belief drawn from Scriptures Thus when Men say they cannot believe such a particular point of Divinity or they must dissent from any parricular way of Divine Worship 't is as much as to say that their understanding tells them that such a point of Faith or such a way of Worship is not consentaneous to the Scripture And when Men say they Believe and Worship according to their Consciences 't is as much as to say that they do both because their understanding concludes that they act according to Gods Word Thus Conscience in Matters of Belief is purely an act of the Soul and since 't is so 't is impossible it should be forc'd and the impossibility of it ought to supersede all endeavonrs towards it Nay Conscience in relation to matters of Worship which is the effect only of the former tho you may obstruct its publick Exercise yet without converting Men into Statues you can never hinder its private and therefore when the Peace of the Kingdom is concern'd it ought to be permitted Besides let us consider that every Soul is only the Empire of Heaven God Almighty has set Conscience there as he has plac'd particular Kings in their respective Kingdoms that is as his sole Vice gerent Whosoever therefore violently Fights against Conscience fights against Heaven because he endeavours by undue means to subject Gods immediate Minister And tho Conscience like some Heathen Kings prove many times erroneous because it draws undue conclusions from Gods sacred word yet it is like those Emperors only answerable to Heaven for such Errors If it be here Objected That men justly ought to be punished if they will not believe when Scripture is rightly Interpreted I answer That I should have thought that the Eye of Faith is only the Gift of the Lord of Light and he only can incline the Heart who made it and therefore to pretend to bestow the Gift of God is to usurp the Prerogative of Heaven No this Gift of God can no more be conferr'd by Penal Laws and taking away Money than that which Simon hop'd to enjoy by giving money Heaven never opens the understanding by unlocking the Chest nor does it prick and wound the Conscience by mangling an Estate and ruining the possessor But some say Dissenters are not punish'd as religious and conscientious but for their disobedience to the Laws of the Nation But this Fallacy is so palpable that 't is easily solv'd by asking one plain Question viz. Why were those Laws made And the answer must be that the Spring which first mov'd their debate was Religion and the end for which they were made was that a religious Uniformity might be observ'd by all the Subjects of this Realm so that whosoever is punished by the force of those Laws whose source is from and whose ends are for Religion is really punish'd as religious and if he suffer not besides as an evil doer his punishment is unjust For in such a Punishment the Body suffers because the Soul is not of the same stamp with that of his Neighbour and for the same reason a Man may be lash'd because he has not as an agreeable a Face as those that liv'd around him for neither his
Face nor his Soul were of his own fashioning Thus force is most improper in relation to Conscience not only because it ought not but because it cannot effect what is design'd by it Force applyed for the Errors of the Mind is like pulling a String for the untying of a Knot your stress only serves to make it the faster By undue pressure you shut the Box closer which you design to open and too much heat contracts the thing it should dilate And therefore since Violence has been ineffectual the King is pleas'd to propose a softer method for the Peace of his Subjects Since Conscience can't conform to the Laws already made His Majesty proposes Laws that may conform to the Conscience And since a Kings Proposals are Virtually his Commands every good Subject will not only be oblig'd by his reason but by his allegiance to contribute what in him lyes towards the repealing of those Laws which are so uneasie to the King and the Burthen of the Kingdom Secondly 'T will appear reasonable to comply with His Majesty in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws from the Genius of the Christian Religion and that consider'd in its first planting or its propagation Our Saviour chose rather to make his approach to Man-kind in the Form of a Servant than of a Triumphant Monarch and the reason may be assign'd Because if the Christian religion had assaulted Men with violent Power it had perswaded them that it contain'd some secret weakness and the World would have conjectured that That Piety was a meer imposture which required so much Tyranny for it's Establishment By force indeed Christ might have Conquer'd but not with that only have converted the World and his rigour might have regulated the Body but never put any influence upon the Soul. He therefore chose to plant his religion rather by Doctrine than by the Sword by his own meek Mouth rather than by loud Clamours of War and to give life to those who were dead in Trespasses and Sins by living and dying innocently himself And by this gentle Method as the Church was planted so by the same only it thriv'd it grew when it was moistened with the Blood of its Members but fell when it self shed the Blood of Dissenters it increas'd when its Votaries fell a Sacrifice to the Heathen Penal Statutes but decay'd apace when by vertue of her own Penal Laws she turn'd the Sacrificer and the Ecclesiastick Ark that sail'd secure when storms were rais'd for ruin by Pagan Persecutors was always wrack'd and that without pity when it self had rais'd the Hurricane for Persecution For when all around cry Peace Peace a Lasting Peace none scarcely will compassionate the defeat if in spite of all a Man makes himself ready for Battel especially when by love peace only as the Victory may so it ought to be obtained And indeed whosoever endeaveurs to get it by other means are still suspected to be in the wrong and all conclude that the best deciding Argument for what they profess is only the sharp Sword which they draw And moreover suppose the suffering Parties to be what you will yet the Sanguinary Method must be unreasonable For if they should be in the right they suffer as Martyrs and you are guilty of their Blood if in the wrong your Violence makes them esteem their wrong just and so they dye to go to Hell who might have lived by a gentle way of Demonstration have seen their Errors and rise at last to Heaven If then we consider the Genius of Christianity we must not take up the Tests and Penall Laws but the meekness of the Cross to be the true followers of our Lord and Master For whosoever pretends otherwise to follow the Lamb follows him only as a roaring Lyon and endeavours to tear and devour that Flock which he dyed to protect But suppose say some that Men Blaspheme have their Hands in Blood Vitiate the Virgin Ravish the Wife and commit all Villany and that out of Principles of Religion should not Penal Laws be made and Executed against such I Answer Yes by all means let all such be severely punish'd He that sheds Mans Blood out of a Principle of Religion by Man let his Blood be shed Let the Sword cut off those who sin against the Unwritten Laws of God and let the Darkness of Death be a Recompence for those who dare to Transgress against Natures apparent Light. But in the mean time let no Man forfeit his Head for the Frail Error of his Brain let no Mans Breath be stopp'd by Law because he does not rightly open a Text in the Gospel and since no man shall be Damn'd for his meer opinion in the next World let him not be made miserable for it in this But for the Sake of Christ's Religion must not Error be Penally punish'd the false Religion chastis'd and Antichrist unseated I Answer By the same Rule every Church must fall foul upon her Sister and because she would think her self a Rachel not only conclude but endeavour to make her Neighbour the Blear-ey'd Leah For every particular one is apt to Stigmatize the rest by the Name of Antichrist to declare it in the wrong and avow it self only in the right it thinks like some imperious School-master it ought to have the sole power of the Rod and triumphantly above all others to be exempted from the Terror of the Lash And so consequently the pulling down Antichrist must dethrone Kings depopulate Nations and ruin the Christian World. If we pretend to be inspired with the true Genius of Christianity let us not pretend to fear Fire and Fagot our selves and at the same time heap Coals of Fire upon the Heads of our Brethren let us not seem ro dread the Rubrick of a Massacre to our own Persons and at the same time take all imaginable care for the Slaughter of others nor let us lest Smithfield should be in a Blaze by Popery set the whole Nation in a Flame by Protestancy For this is whilst we condemn the Crimson Dye in others to wear the Bloody Colours our selves and whilst we blame the Dissenter for not being as white as Snow 't is at the same instant to put on the guilty Blush of the Scarlet No let the cool sedateness of primitive Christianity control the growing heats of Sedition instead of Halters let us meditate only the gentle Bonds of Peace instead of Imprisoning our Neighbours let us put religious restraints upon our imperious desires instead of Levying Fines for Religions sake on Earth let us by Acts of Love secure a Treasure in Heaven And let Charity be what it really ought to be the true and a chief Test of the Christian Religion Such was the Spirit of pure Christianity when all Pride Envy and Interest were Sacrific'd to the Christian Peace Then when St. Chrysostom would rather part with an Arch-Bishoprick then ruin the Tranquilâ—ity of the Church when one Father relinquish'd the See
of Constantinople to avoid an approaching division when Clemens Romanus forsook the Wealth and Honour of the Chair of Rome rather than foment arising Differences when Exile was more Eligible with Peace then shining greatness without it when private interest and safety threw 'em selves away like Jonah to prevent a publick ruin and when Christians like that Prophet were more ready to endure the storm themselves than to maintain it tho with their own security to the Detriment of others Thirdly 'T will appear reasonable to comply with the King in the repeal of the Tests and Penall Laws from the consideration of the ill consequence of force and the happy Effects of Clemency in Matters of Religion 1. We have known that the Fights for Religion were in the late time but so many Battels against it Atheism and Schism sprang up with a greater Luxuriancy and Faction grew double like an Hydras's Head by cutting off of the Conscientious The force that has been us'd in former Ages against Persons for Conscience and meer Religion hath been so sinistrously prevalent as to shake Establish'd Kingdoms to Degrade Royal Palaces into Recesses of Murtherers and Converâ— Gods House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves What confusion has not force for Religion introduc'd A Throne has been chang'd into a Scaffold a Royal Court into a Slaughter-house and the ignoble Shrub exalted into the place of the Heavenly Cedar Hath not the Veil of our Temple been Rent from the Top to the Bottom our Churches render'd as poor as the Beggars which usually attend their Gates and the Altar it self made a Sacrilegious Sacrifice Our Mountains have been made to resemble Calvary each Field almost has been turn'd into an Aceldama and our Rivers like those of Egypt convertrd into Blood. Nor have the very Dead been spar'd Graves have been rifled Sepulchres despoil'd and Tombs stripp'd and ruined as if the deceased had been guilty of Ceremonies because they were adorn'd with an Escutcheon and a Monument Have not our Rocks resounded with the dying Groans of the Wounded Have not our Houses Echo'd with Widdows sighs and bereaved Parents Moans And hath not ev'ry Pavement almost flow'd with the Tears of the Weeping Virgin and the distressed Orphan And did not the Church of England expire with the loss and death of her Martyr'd Head Nor hath severity for matters of meer Religion had any good success since the Restauration of his Late Majesty For 't is too well known that the Penal Laws destroy'd that very Unity and Uniformity which they were design'd to preserve They drove whole Multitudes from that Church to which they should have drawn 'em and the Excommunication from the Congregation very often prov'd an Extermination out of the Kingdom Nor can it be otherwise for as I intimated before Divine Love is no more obtainable by force than humane Affection The Conscience like Wax grows still more stubborn by the coldness of its usage and nothing can so well bend the Spirit of Man as the soft Whispers of the Holy Ghost Since His Majesty therefore has been pleas'd to Grant an Indulgence let us like the good Samaritan instead of the Corrosive Method pour Oyl and Wine into the Wounds of our bleeding Neighbours Let me not be the unfriendly Priest or uncharitable Levite to pass regardless by my Brethren who like the Man going from Jerusalem to Jerico are fall'n among Thieves stripp'd and left half dead No let us have compassion on them bind up their gaping Wounds and instead of Levying Money for their ruin contribute a far greater Summ than the Samaritans Two pence for their recovery This way our Blessed Saviour this the Apostles this the Primitive Christians took by meekness and suffering for Religion they won the Hearts of the World to it they us'd no Sword but that of the Spirit but brake the Flinty Hearts of the Heathen by the soft and downy Methods of the Gospel Can we imagine that the way for our Brethren to hear our winning Arguments is to banish 'em our Conversation to give occasion of a Voluntary Exile that they may become good Subjects and to exalt our selves against them that they may see our meekness in Christ No the Bonds which bind the Dissenter serve too but to confirm his dissention stripes indeed may soften his Flesh but never mollifie his Spirit and the Penal Laws which violently open his Purse will serve but more closely to tye him up and oblige him to stick to his opinion The way to convice the Papist that there is no Transubstantiation in the Eucharist is not to force him to experience a fatal change in his Estate the way to demonstrate that there is only a bare possibility for him of going to Heaven is not to compel him to feel that 't is impossible he should live upon Earth nor is the tying him up from serving his King any good Method to evince that he does not rightly worship his Maker The light of the Spirit grew still more hot and zealous by being Dark-lanthorn'd in a Dungeon the Goal that redue'd the Non-conformist almost to rottenness could never yet mellow him into compliance and the reduction of a Conventicler to a Morsel of Bread never made him one jot the less in love with the Barn. 'T is not difference in but the Penalties for opinion that infringes the Christian Love and Charity The Person suffering envies his Neighbour that lives at ease hates the insulting Party and murmurs against the Fountain of his pressure For Love and Stripes are consistent to no Nature but of a Spaniel and tho an irresistable force may procure quiet yet it never can beget a lasting peace Most men like Steel springs tho they violently stand bent yet they have a strong aptitude of coming into their places like Bows they will break the string that crooks 'em and will be humble no longer than the pressure of their Chaines make 'em so But now kindness smooths the Furrows which the Iron Tests and Penal Laws had deeply plowed sweetens the Vinegar and Gall which harsh mulcts fines and confiscations had gencrated and wins so upon all those who have the least Generosity in their Natures that they who would passively have dyed under an oppressor will dye for him when he appears and becomes merciful Clemency makes the Loyal Cement stick which the roughness of severity would probably have fretted off 't is the great Elixir of a State which must probably Transmute every Subject into the golden temper of Loyalty and ferment the whole Nation into the decent Crasis of a willing obedience For all true Sons of the Common-wealth must surely be pleased when they perceive the King is not at all confin'd to one Party that he has Blessings in store for more than one of his Children that he will suffer no rapacious Excrescence in the Body Politick to draw the whole Nutriment from the useful Members but that Gods Vice-gerent is such that like God himself
Imprisonment and to exclude all but our selves from being rais'd by him what is it but unjustly to defraud our honest English Neighbour to exalt our selves against our Brethren and Lavishly to impose upon the Royal Prerogative If by former Acts of Parliament none ought to have a Coercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of this Realm what shall we think of those who endeavour their utmost to make His Majesty do what they please If to be adherent to the Kings Enemies to give 'em aid and comfort be Treason what are those Men who adhere to them whom His Majesty esteems his Enemies aid 'em with invectives against those he accounts his Friends and comfort them with the hopes and prospect of a sudden Revolution By which they must tacitly own that it is lawful to be Rebellious in present that they may be Loyal in Reversion If to remove the Kings Counsellors to assign His Majesty Methods for the disposition of his Forces of which he had the sole Supream Government Command and Disposition be like Overtures to Rebellion the Test cannot be altogether guiltless which aims at the same things And whatsoever may be Harang'd the contrary to abridge the Kings power in granting Commissions and choosing his Counsellours is no less than to cut short the Prerogative Fifthly We ought to comply with his Majesty in the repeal of the Tests and Penal Laws if we consider the Liberty of the Subject As we are Born English Men we are born Subjects to the lawful Kings of this Realm and being so we are born to all the Priviledges of Subjects too and have a right to all the Liberty and Property which Subjects in our stations are capable of and no Act of Parliament for meer Religion ought to abridge us of those Native Rights nor can any Law justly take 'em from us till we forfeit 'em by the Transgression of the Laws of Nature and those other primitive constitutions of the Government For the Rights of the Members of Civil Government were unalterably such before the Faith of our Saviour was receiv'd in the World and therefore unless God had revealed it to the contrary 't is impossible such rights should be destroyed by the Reception of out Saviours Religion and there being no such Revelation they must stand still inviolable and so stand that neither the Christian Religion should have any direct influence upon them nor they on the contrary upon the Christians as such since they originally were and ought still to be harmlesly apart And hence 't is possible for a Turk or a Jew to be a good Subject to a Christian King. Now therefore if Religion be so different from the Civil Government as it ought not upon its own account to Rob the Members of such Government of their Civil Rights and Priviledges 't will then follow That the Tests are very unreasonable which upon the account of meer Religion rob the Subjects of those Liberties and Rights For my Right as an English Free holder enables me to choose whom I think fit to represent me in Parliament but the Test disables me from it and tells me that unless I choose whom it self only thinks fit 't will make my choice vain The Laws tell me tho a Man can't be apparently Born to the Bar or Pulpit yet he may be so Born to the Rights of Peerage and if not Born he may be made a Peer and either way have a sufficient Title to those Priviledges But the Casuistical Test says No Rights of Peerage without Protestanoy No Rights of Blood without rightly believing that of our Saviour nor any Seat in the House of Lords if I adhere to the Chair of Rome My Birth-right tells me I 'm Born in a Capacity of my Soveraign's Favour of meriting Rewards from his Hand and so consequently in a possibility of advancing my Station But the predestinating Test saith gruffly and severely No There is an irresistable Decree of Reprobation gone out against you Red Letters have certainly mark'd you for bloody Perdition in this World and deprives the Papist even of Ability of doing a good Work or if 't is possible for him to do Ten Millions yet the vast heap shall not be able to make the least Step to advance him one Inch towards the happiness of this Life The Test savagely determines tho the Papist has the Fidelity of an unfall'n Angel the King shall never trust him tho the Valour of Achilles his Prince shan't give him a Commission and tho' he had the Wisdom of Solomon yet he shan't come near to advise him What can be more inhumane what more barbarous than to rob our Brethren at once of their Birthright and their Blessing and to ruine them on Earth because they take another way of going to Heaven As if the Sacramental Bread were design'd to rob Men of their vital Morsel As if the Cup of Blessing in order to the next Life was instituted for Mankinds Curse in this and the Blood of the Blessed Jesus flow'd to destroy those whom 't was mercifully shed to save What makes the vast difference between the Papist and other Dissenters and us Are some of us Loyal So are some of them Are we able to advise His Majesty They have an equal if not a transcendent Talent that way Do we deserve Preferment and not they It lies in the King's Breast which Party merits most Have some of us been conspicuous for our Allegiance They are our Equals Have some of their Religion been fatal to Kings So have some of ours Have they been Plotters So have we Have we been instrumental in preserving this King They were so for the Safety of the last Did Men of another Communion bring the Royal Martyr to the Block Many of our Church began the fatal Quarrel Have they been sanguineously cruel of late Lo by keeping up the Tests we are so now Our Reputation is checker'd as well as theirs the Proportion of the Black and the White of Vice and Vertue stands equal in either we have all been faulty we have all gone out of the way Let us then return by being charitable to each other and obedient to His Majesty If it be here objected That the Dissenters Principles are inconsistent with Government Who is better able to judge of that than He that sits at the Helm If it be said That their Religion is inconsistent with the true Worship of God Charity would believe were they convinc'd of it they would soon retract their Error And since every one of us aims at one eternal End since we all own one God and one Lord Jesus Christ Charity would believe a possibility of attaining the End tho' in the use of different Ways The Arrow that is shot Compass may as certainly hit the White as that which is directed straight The same City may be as surely entred by him that walks o're a Mountain or through a Desert or a Wood to it as by another that trave's o're