for crimes they cannot but commit are certainly the same to the sufferers in the Penalties and Pains they are to undergo whatever be the Lawfulness of the Authority that inflicts them 'T is as small advantage to a man that has all his goods confiscated for the Twenty pounds a Month to think he was ruin'd by an Act of Queen Elizabeth as if he had been plunder'd by an Army of Olivers and as little comfort for the poor Priest that must be Hang'd for his Habit to say he dyes Legally as if he had been Knockt on the Head for taking the Wall. Justice and Equity will be still the same whatever are the various Revolutions of a Politick State and founded upon Eternal Reason as some Maxims in the Schools upon the same Truth Thirdly They must be soon satisfy'd too and with as much Reverence to those Mighty Powers that no Power on Earth no Humane Constitution can make Statutes against the Decrees of Heaven or resist an Omnipotency that is Divine their Dictates they say are Spirit that influences the Will And will any man say Flesh and Blood shall oppose it Souls may be said to have a Property too that cannot be violated by the Sanctions of an Humane Assembly nor Persons made to suffer for obeying the Divine dictates of their Devoutest thought or following the Natural Principles of their Religious Education The one of which even a Moral Turk will tell you must not cannot be oppos'd and any honest Heathen in Philosophy teach us the difficulty to Proselyte * Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret Horat Nature or pervert it and that certainly in lesser concerns than the Salvation of a Soul. Dissenters represent their sufferings in all their addresses and Complaints as Tyrannical too they are sure the best Judges of their miseries that groan under them and there may be Tyranny too in the Laws tho the Legislators had a Lawful Power to make them but these very Laws too have been strain'd by * Ryots made and Routs of Meetings Construction and so they Sympathiz'd with those under Usurpation and suffer'd by none at all Lastly To close this Section with the similitude of the Circumstances of affairs to Crown all the KING himself then like his other self now his only and Lawful Successor intimated his designs against the opening of the first Session of that Free Parliament That he intended a freedom from all Penalties and suffering for Religion promis'd it to General Monk and in his Declarations represented his readiness to Consent to any Act of Parliament for the full granting that Indulgence Upon these Motives was that Miraculous Restoration facilitated upon these foundations was fixt that firm and what perhaps might have been a more lasting Peace too had not the powerful importunities of a prevailing Church interrupted the felicity to the disturbance of the State. Gentlemen the Case of the Church of England was once in Common with some Dissenters and no less hard than theirs is now they suffer'd you see together once from a prevailing Party and Liberty of Conscience was certainly then as dear to them as this Religion Establisht by Law and that from their own mouths if his Majesty may take their words for it was alway dearer to them than their lives It was as great a Crime to them then to have a Common Prayer as to a Dissenter now to make use of the Directory Her book of Liturgy was lookt on then as bad as that of the Mass and all her Canon and Rubrick no more to be receiv'd than a Calendar of Red Letters or the Rituals of Rome Alas What a mighty Metamorphosis the felicity of some peoples affairs can produce to the forgetting of their misfortunes all their fellow-sufferers and even the Sentiments of their own Souls The Dissenters desire to come just to the Circumstances they were in at the late KING's Restoration And why for Godsake must this Establisht Church turn truly Militant not only against all others but it self And like that of Ephesus Leave her first Love and as some say her first Faith too to forget that compassion she had for such Sufferers and her own sense and opinion that such sufferings were most severe What judgment can seriously be made by Sober Persons to what will impartial people impute this her hot Zeal against Dissenters that in the dawning of her Restitution was hardly Luke-warm Will it not give occasion to say that she must answer for her self like the Laodicean too Because says she I am rich now and increased with goods and have need of nothing And if it be so that the Dissenters were promis'd then an Exemption from Penalties for matters of meer Religion and the KING Parliament and Church thought it meet as matter of fact will make it appear then certainly all this cry will sound very harsh and unreasonable against this present Prince that has greater reasons for it when he only performs the promises of his Pious Predecessor gratifies the desires of his Restoring Parliament and answers the very first Petitions of his People SECT III. The Maxims and Methods that it took ANd now by the Division of this Discourse we are come to the Third Point The Maxims and Methods that were taken by this Healing Parliament It met upon the Twenty Fifth of April and who knows but about that time our next may meet and may that Epoche of their Commencement prove as great an Omen of their good Agreement it found the Kingdom most unhappily confus'd with Diversities of Opinions in the ways of worshipping their God it found the severe Laws of Q. Eliz. KING James and Car. 1. very ineffectual for the suppressing of what was call'd Schism and Dissention For this reason they took care in the first place in their Act for Confirming of Ministers That none should be Ejected for their past Non-conformity from 42 to 60 unless such as had in the time of Usurpation Ejected others This was agreeable to what the KING had first propos'd to them both before privately and afterward at the publick opening of the Parliament for this the Lord Chancellor in their first Adjournment was order'd to tell them from the KING in these Terms That no sort of Piety and Godliness should be turn'd into Vid. Lord Chancellors Speech on that Occasion terms of slander and reproach or distinguish between the Court the City or the Country He was order'd further to tell them That by that favourable Act for confirming of Ministers his Majesty was sensible he had gratify'd many worthy and Pious Men and such as should alway receive fresh evidence of his Majesties favor and Kindness In that Parliament he had this Direction to tell them Of the sad consideration that the differences in Religion should be the ground of Animosities Malice and Revenge Passions which the Divine Nature exceedingly abhor'd That the Bloody Wars proceeded from those Contentions And that however descanted on by men that
Church as bold upbraidings as they be to the Crown are but bad Encouragement to continue their KING's Kindness and as Lame excuses for their Ingratitude for sure the Countenance of a Prince would be somwhat of a preservative too and not indanger their Security from the Law whatever Oath he took to Protect their Religion he did not Swear too to put out his Declaration of Assurance also and tho' he be oblidg'd to Govern by Law I don't know what Law oblidges him to tell them so often that He Will In this sure his Majesty has done More than he was bound to do and then those that are deficient in their dutiful Return can never have done so much no Silly Sophistry no Foolish Fear will wipe away the Scandal of such a reasonable reproach and it will sound a little harsh tho' the danger were such indeed when some of Her Enemies shall observe that for keeping out some Popish Secluded Members the Loyal Church of England is now the Non-addressers But to do Her Justice too some of her Bishops upon more serious Consultations did atone for a more General defect and Oblidg'd their Communion by a Prudential Act that fain would have been so improvidently Wise as to Disoblige her self I could superadd here that other silly Suggestion of the Restitution of Abby-Lands were not the Panick Fear of it Superseded by a Learned Treatise and the Confirmation of them from the Pope even in the time of Queen Mary the common Intrest of Papists to Oppose it and that his Majesty might as well set up a Court of Wards and Liverys and so make All Lands ly at his Mercy and that He himself has Assur'd them Expresly to the Scots in his Proclamation SECT VI. The Means that may be us'd to Prevent the Malice and Insinuation of Such as would Obstruct It. AND now at length we are arriv'd to put a Period to these Points and having considered the Methods that have been us'd to Hinder this Healing Parliament we are come to the Sixth and last Section to Consider the Sixth Point The means how to Prevent the Designs and Insinuations of such as would Obstruct It. And for that reflect but a little on these following Considerations if they have but little Weight with them you are not burdned much if they have not a little 't is your Interest to bear with them Consider That notwithstanding the specious pretences of some spiteful and malicious men these dreadful apprehensions that are put into your heads may be none at all at least not such as they are represented that the Authors of them may be men that oppose his Majestys Gracious intention more out of malice to him than kindness to themselves and their Church I speak to Church-men for Dissenters can't be suppos'd dissatisfy'd with that mercy that makes them happy beyond their expectation but they are Members I believe of this Establisht Church for all the many Letters to the other Congregations that from the present Constitution of our Government I fancy must for the most part be concern'd that can best Second the Clemency of their KING and confirm to them an establisht Toleration by a Law and such an one as will repeal All those by which they have a long time so unreasonably suffer'd I. 'T is Reasonable to be done II. 'T is Fittest for them to do it III. 'T is Their Interest so to do And first let them tell me their best pretenders to Reason whether the suffering for Conscience sake can without the greatest reluctance of Conscience it self be defended or whether it's advocates are not toucht with an inward aversion at the same time they write for it especially should they reflect it may be their turn to suffer whether a body ought to suffer for the sentiments and suggestion of the Soul that informs it when it consists only in the Worshiping of the same God in which all Christian Churches agree sure these men are not so fond of the Fire and Faggot they so much fear as to Justifie for it the persecution of the Primitive Christians and make their Martyrdoms but so many Judicial Processes for their Nonconformity when of the old Heathen Emperors few were of Opinion in this Point to Punish people into Compliance the Christian Religion I think is now so well settl'd and the Seed of the Church so well sown that there is no great need of the Sanguis Martyrum to water it neither is the representation of it in this manner so improper or the comparison so absurd for tho there may be a better Warranty to force people of the same Faith in Christ to the worshipping their God in an Establisht Way than the Pagans could pretend to for the forcing us to be Infidels yet this would justify them still who thought their Irreligion and Idolatry the best of Devotion and had the Decrees of their Emperors to Authorise it which were with them the Statutes and Laws of the Land and I am sorry that I can add that such severities amongst our selves seem much worse when we agree in one common Faith in one Creed in one Christ Iesus neither is the comparison of the Punishment and sort of Suffering so absurd for tho we do not exercise by our Laws the Long Sheet in Foxes Martyrology and are left as we see the Heathens were there to study Torment tho' the Flames that he has made to rage so strongly through his vast Volumms are happily quencht all Burnings forbidden and Religion no more to suffer with a Writ de' Haeretico it will be as little credit to it still that 't is now no Fire and Faggot that can force a Conscience but only an Hangman and an Halter 'T is true that whatever has been the severity of the Laws such cruelties have seldom been put in Execution but to say they never were is as certainly false Several in Queen Eliz. Reign suffer'd meerly for professing of their Faith and my self remember three that dy'd for it and that only for being Priests in the late Perjurious time of Arbitrary Oaths and pack't Evidence besides another that was condemn'd and banisht whom I have met with since in his Exile But whatever be the Mercy of the King the Cruelty of the Laws can never be the more defended and they are never the more Merciful because of the Clemency of the Prince that remits them In the mean time such bloody sanctions are certainly blots to that Religion that keeps them upon Record and if we commend those that are for retaining them we must at the same time blame those that but so lately repeal'd the Writ de Comburendo So much for the Reason of them and but this little for Fact they cannot tell us of any Country that is Protestant nor of any Catholick but where the Inquisition is Establisht where it is made Capital to profess a particular Faith even in France whose Cruelty is decry'd so much tho' the fugitives are driven to
held more Bishopricks in her hand for many years many more then this KING since his coming to the Crown has dispos'd of their Churches their Chappels are all at their own Devotion and that within his Royal Pallaces and his own Walls Upon Application of these very People has he confirm'd to them several Freedoms and Immunities where he might have interpos'd with his Power and Prerogative These undistinguisht favours to all alike one would think should oblige some persons not to deny that Peace to their Soveraign which he labours to give to all his Subjects A Peace of Mind A Peace in the midst of Arms but such only as are employ'd for their defence the credit of their Nation and the Terror of their neighbours tho even that must be made their * Dr. Burnets Papers Grievance too which by the Goodness and Grandeur of their Prince is their greatest glory But there are many things besides to be consider'd consider but the reason of Enacting these Laws especially against Popish Recusants upon whom they are most severe and that they are now become the most unreasonable because the very occasions that call'd for them and to some people seem'd to make them necessary are now just none at all the Preambles to those very Statutes seem but so many Contradictions to the body of the Law. It would be hard for a Judge or Justice to tell the King of his dangers from Popish Recusants when he 's sure he can put his greatest faith and confidence in them and has so often try'd them in dangers too but it seems they and the Statutes being the better Judges of it are not bound to believe the KING but to Prosecute his friends for High Treason whom trusting and trying he finds to be guilty of no Treason at all And had not our Protestant officers of the * What can even the Church suffer from the Repeal that it is not expos'd to from the Kings dispensation And the malice of their Dr. Burnet makes them the same Reflections on Declaration Peace better repeal those Laws that are become but a dead letter thenly under a seeming sort of Perjury for not putting them in Execution Consider if in the time of the late KING by some Antecedent †Vid. Q. Eliz K. I. K. Ch. before Cited Law all the Conformists had been banisht the Court or from Access to the Kings Person if they had been made Malefactors Felons and Traytors of whose Loyalty he had so much proof in their adhering to the Crown would not his Majesty have been bound to get them repeat'd and themselves have thought it the most reasonable thing in the world that the Roman Catholicks in England have for a long time lain under severity not only of Opinion and Censure but Punishment and the Law even Protestants may allow without falling from their Faith or favouring their Religion for such a modest confession in their favour is no Vindication of the Doctrine of their Church and their Case to be consider'd here respects only their affairs in relation to the State and the matters being meerly Political must be determin'd by the Maxims of our States-men and so no Subject to be decided by the School-men and Divines And since those Persons suffer from the Constitution of Past-times partial to themselves since Papists that were once deny'd access to the person of their KING are now the Support of his Crown and Dignity since such put in but for a freedom from Penalty and an Immunity only from their being punisht as Malefactors it would be as great a want of honesty to call them Knaves for it as it is of Wit to think them fools But the Absurdity of such unreasonable Laws is somwhat more Considerable when they seem not a little to touch what is expressly forbidden The Lords Anointed Let them tell me where there is another such absurd inconsistency of State where the Statutes and Laws serve only to pollute their very Fountain the KING and make a Criminal of the Prince to that very Government in which he Presides where the Worship of his GOD must be said to be an Offering to Idols and his Conversion to a Faith High Treason against himself And then again since Papists as 't is now apparent have prov'd themselves No such Criminals to the State No such Pests of Society as they have been represented since they have Suffered the Severities of the Nations Iustice and seal'd their Innocency in their sufferings and Blood since they were sacrific'd to the Perjury of Recorded Villains and for a Conspiracy that can now only be Believ'd by Fools upon Record 't is time sure after this Iustice of the Nation has been satisfy'd so much even to the * vid. Oat's Tryal Arraigning of it self to let them find a little Mercy too and the more one would think for their Misfortunes Consider who they are that Furnish you with such distrustful Apprehensions of the Promises of your PRINCE and would frighten you into Dangers and Despair One of them a discontented Malecontent an Exile out of your Country a Criminal by Process in his Own and whose * Tho'by the Dr's leave the Lawyers say Abjuration will not Transfer it vid. Cok. 7. Rept p. 9. Dyer sol 300. Allegiance if we believe him is tranferr'd to another abroad and shall the severest Satyrs that Sedition can afford or Rage and Malice invent pass with us for pure Politicks and Impartial Truth There are ‖ Vid. Dr. B 's Papers Letter Tryal of the Test Others we have touch't upon that are no less Notorious and Applauded whose best of Praise is in not being Known that affect us like Vipers with their sting while at the same time they can hide their Heads Never Credit those that endeavour to Discredit their KING for such as will take that Liberty forfeit their Honesty and by the very Fact are not to be believ'd Pray what Attempt has he made to make the National Religion the Roman Catholick Which perhaps were it design'd is as little feasible that will alway preserve it self the National Religion which is most generally Receiv'd and untill they can prove to us That the Revealing the Laws will make more Papists in England than Protestants they may make many Words but no Arguments Has it not all the appearance in the world that it is the Principle of His MAJESTY's Soul and not any Designs of State that makes Him desire to have all the Souls of His Subjects at ease too to succour and relieve the Oppressed and let the Prisoner go free if not pray what then Oblig'd Him to that tender Compassion to the French-Protestants They are as much Hereticks to the Church of Rome and cannot pretend to a greater share of Friendship from the Agreeableness of their Doctrine or Faith They could not Plead Priviledges Immunities and Magna Charta and tell the KING He was bound by His Coronation Oath to Protect them yet'tis
have a mind to be Seditious is just the same what His present Majesty was pleas'd to signify to be His Sense too in his late Declaration for Indulgence The Ld. Chancellor further declar'd That the marks of a true Church were Charity to one another He tells them That this Disquisition had Cost his Majesty many a Sigh many a Sad Hour That he had taken pains to Compose them with Learned and Pious men of different Perswasions which they should shortly see by a Declaration he would Publish on that occasion by which they should see his great Indulgence to those who can have a Protection from their Conscience to differ from their brethren Exhorting them all to be but pleas'd themselves and perswade others to be so Thus ended that Session and was Adjourn'd to the Sixth of November following Hitherto you see there was no Penal Statutes made no Force to be put upon Peoples Conscience and the Protestant Religion still to be safe without making of Dissenters suffer Pursuant to these Gracious Sentiments of the Prince and prudent Resolutions of the Parliament The KING before their Meeting again Publish't a Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs full of gracious Concessions to Reconcile all different Opinions in Religion And such was the Peaceable Result of that Royal Indulgence for it was really no other that all Subjects seem'd to be satisfy'd all Differences reconcil'd and the Parliament it self afterward giving the KING publick Thanks for his Pious Inclination to Peace and Concord To pursue it further The Lord Chancellor had Liberty to offer Bishopricks and Deanaries to those that Labour'd for this Reconciliation some accepted others refused a Commission was issued out for an Agreement upon some Alterations in the Liturgy as were requisite to satisfy some Tender Consciences And the Ministers met upon it afterward at Sion Colledge and wou'd have agreed on a Model of Episcopacy Here was an Agreement between KING Parliament and People but it was too great an Happiness to last long those that had more cruel Inclinations and aspir'd to be so far powerful as to punish for Non-conformity foresaw that this Parliament would never put them in a Capacity to do it and so prevail'd that on the Twenty Ninth of December following was Dissolv'd this Reconciling Parliament though with the foremention'd Elogys of that Famous PRINCE who as he was beyond all Character best understood how to give One which he did here to this Effect That it should be Call'd to all Posterity The Blessed and the Healing Parliament So also he broke out into this more Exalted Encomium and Emphatical Interrogatory That it should be a Rule to his Actions and Councils to Consider what is such a Parliament like to think of this Council of Mine or this Action And in this Opinion of his Parliament though nothing can add more to it's Fame after such a Panegyrick from it's PRINCE was he seconded by all Historians that Describe it who tell us Never did KING and Parliament better Agree never was a Parliament begun with greater Expectation and onely Ended with less satisfaction in lasting no longer Others call it the Happy Parliament that assur'd the Foundations rais'd the Structure of our Antient English Monarchy And Mr. Cowley the sweetest of our Bards sufficiently sings it's Praises in his Ode on the Restoration But it happen'd here as it always does where the Countenance and Power of the PRINCE makes the Clergy Plenipotentiaries when they began to find their Strength they assoon began to use it and the moderate Men being baffl'd in their Elections and the more Inconsiderate sacrificing their Interest to their Ambition which upon Consideration now they call Revenge settled their Liturgy A Parliament was Assembled in 62. Confirm'd an Absolute Act of Vniformity the KING's Promises Declarations Commissions all Dy or had no Life and about 2000 of Conscientious Ministers most Unconscionably silenc'd for their Opposition * Vid. Letter to Dissent The Gentlemen Confess their Errour and so we need not prove it SECT IV. The wholesome Effects that follow'd it's Sober Consultations IF any one should Ask us now to the Fourth Point What were the good Effects that follow from this Assemblies sober Debates and Consultations Why The Answer is easy and short Peace a National and Universal Peace a Peace in Church a Peace in State so Calm and Serene even to the satisfying of a Conscience and a Soul as if the Spirit of GOD had moved again upon the Face of the Waters after a confus'd Deluge and a Sea of Blood as if the holy Dove it self had brought the Peaceful Branch to our Isle as from the Deluge to an Ark The Good Effects of it cannot better be guest than from the Bad Ones that followed it's being Dissolv'd and that they were no greater can only be imputed to the suddenness of it's Dissolution which was only worthy to have been Endless and what both it 's Preceding and following one were truly Perpetual and Long. And to confirm with the most forcible Argument from matter of Fact the good Effects that follow'd it there was nothing of a Plot heard of all the the Time of it's Sitting and what could be the Reason of such a General Calmness and Serenity certainly nothing else but the Liberty every one enjoy'd to Worship his GOD in his own Way and what was generally expected should have been settled by Law and which had certainly been done too had they sate longer and 't is shrewdly to be suspected that the Interest some People had who affected power and fear'd to lose the Liberty which they better lik't to punish other Religions by the Laws of their Church hinder'd Toleration from being made an Act of the State. And what follow'd pray presently upon it's Dissolution but the Insurrection of Venner and his Fifth Monarchy-men fighting for JESVS CHRIST for fear now of what follow'd that their Reign was like to be but short When the Oaths of Supremacy began to be tender'd to all and the Test of Abjuration that some thought a Temptation to a seeming Perjury was indiscriminately put a thing that Pryn himself that had writ For the KING 's Comming in tho' against all things before could oppose as contrary to Magna Charta when Encroachments in Ecclesiasticals began to creep on were there not then too Designs and Conspiracies set afoot and Barebone Salmon Wildman Ireton and Others seiz'd and Committed to safe Custody When that dreadful St. Bartholomew as they call'd it began to dawn upon the Dissenters by which day they were oblig'd to read Divine Service according to the Act of Uniformity wear the Vestments of the Church or forsake their Pulpits after all their Endeavours to prevail with a Parliament were in vain and their Application to KING and Council as Fruitless when the Bishops were ready and had provided men for to fill the places of such as would not take the Test and near two Thousand were turn'd out upon it the
even Burnets too Ecclesisticals for the founding of their Church greater than they can allow his Majesty only for the Countenancing of his when Her Injunctions to the Church past as currant with them for an Act of State as if 't had only been her Coinage and Shee at the same time could dispense to read the Latine Service * It was said by Moor in her Reign and Justify'd in Parliament that the Queens Non Obstante was good even against the Non Obstanle of an Act of Parliament to her Power Prerogative against what Her Self and Parliament had Enacted And if the Proceedings of PRINCES must be so much expos'd to the Censure of the People we meet with in her Reign perhaps the highest Instance of unheard of Power that History affords or ever was assum'd by any Monarch that Sate on our Throne And that was her Proceeding against the Queen of Scots the next Heir to her Crown tho' some would give Her a better Title whom against the Laws of Nature and Nations the word of a Queen the promise of a Sister the faith of a Christian after she had fled to her for Refuge after she had flatter'd her to restore her after Eighteen Years Imprisonment made her hold up her Hand to a Bar and be Beheaded on a Block It may be the first Example of such a sort of Suffering that ever was offer'd to a Crown'd Head whatever are the thoughts of our sublimated * Dr. Burnet the Author of the Tryal Examination of the New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty Wits to the contrary in the Cases they put For Licinius you must first observe was by their own Confession but a Colleague with Constantine and we may tell such Men of Law that understand Loyalty to be nothing else that till they prove the Queen of Scots a Coparcenary with Q Elizabeth they are impertinent in their Proof but as Bad Luck would have it when Wise Men make Ill Arguments * Vid. Sleid. de quatuor summ Imper. lib. 2. Eutropius lib. 10. Socrates lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 2. cap. 1. This Licinius was Colleague with Maximianus conquer'd by Constantine and kill'd in a tumultuous Mutiny by the Souldiers He might so well have told us of Will Conqueror kill'd Harold the Dane And that Authors other President that he Cites for a Judicial Proceeding against a Crown'd Head fails him too as much tho' he might have told us which Queen Joan there being two that Reign'd and both Bad enough for that of Q. Joan's of Naples Case was shortly this She had Hang'd her first Husband for Insufficiency Kill'd the second in trying too much his Ability Beheaded the third for Incontinency Shee was Vanquish't by the K. of Hungary Brother to her First Husband and Hang'd in Revenge of his Death Here 's the Act again of an enrag'd Enemy made the same with a friend and Ally and the Case of the Lewdest Creature applyed Vid. his Answer to the New Test to the most Pious Lady Dr. B. himself cannot excuse the Barbarous Proceedings that were us'd against her and tho'I do not blame all the Bishops of those Times and This as some severe Papers have done yet to be Just to both most both of the Clergy and the Laity that liv'd then were for sacrificing of her to what they call'd Preservation of Religion and few of those that have followed since have justifyed the Proceedings Whatever were the Cause the Effects I 'm sure were Fatal and I fancy follow'd by some of our own Nation since and that to the spilling of more of the same Blood and verifying the Prophetick foresight as well as the seasonable Sarcasm of that unfortunate Princess that the English were ever wont to Murder their own KINGS and no wonder then they would Sacrifice now the Crown'd Head of another Kingdome Thus Gentlemen suffer'd that Pious Princess and if any a Blessed Saint and that upon the Pretence too of a sort of Penal Law a Test on purpose to destroy her and that upon the account of Religion Buckhurst and Beal both that brought her the dismal Tydings of her Death intimated to her that her Life would be the ruine of the Religion received and indeed 't was as agreeable to the pretended Interest of the State that Condemn'd her for she had no other Crime but their Fears and if her Endeavours to escape from the Confinement of a Faithless Ally were high Treason She was then only in a Plott So fell that Unfortunate Monarch whose Misfortunes would have melted Marble and that by the height of the most Arbitrary Power in a Reign where we dream of nothing else but Liberty Property and no other Dispensations but of impartial Justice And can any one think that his Majesty himself the direct Issue of the same Princess whose Religion is the same is not Wounded too with the sanguinary proceedings of her Times and the severity of those Laws still in force by which whatsoever is pretended many meerly for Religion suffer'd and those Catholicks that were Executed for what was adjudg'd High-Treason found as little Mercy as the other Justice being Cut down alive and Embowelled before their Face till the Queen was forc't to Forbid such cruel Executions That the Power of the Prerogative has been Arraign'd with such Animadversions as are above Suggested and that the KING's Dispensations have been remark't upon as Illegal and without President and that by those very men that made it their Business to advance any absolute Proceeding He must have kept himself very close or doubt his Hearing that disbelieves it but more than that they have given it under their Hand and the most modest of their Papers an Answerer to the Judgment and Doctrin of the Clergy about the power of Dispensing does handsomely clear them from the Belief of the Right of the KING's Prerogative in this point and is loath they should be taken for such Betrayers of the Liberty of the People Their Crime had not been so great had their Opinions lain under the Obloquy of such an Imputation and the Answerer as little obliges his Church as the Pamphleteer but as modest as he is 't is manifest from it that the Judgement of their Church is now against it or else sure it must be a needless labour if not impertinent to take so much pains to vindicate its Members from it But this I must observe from my acquaintance with all those Authors Quoted that tho' they have not in express Terms extended the KING's power to Dispense with Penal Laws they have advanc't his Soveraignty to as high a pitch and when the shooe pinches we are apt to complain tho' it be of our own putting on And those that find from the Revolutions of Affairs any unexpected Inconveniencies to flow from their own Arguments have nothing else to do but deny the Consequence and please themselves with a Non Sequitur but I 'le assure you
Judgment was always fallible and very apt to make false conjectures some People could not think His Majesty would prove a Prince so Gracious Merciful and Indulgent for that were uneasy and who would have thought that some men that insisted so much on Passive Obedience to the Successor shou'd be now Impatient and almost Disobedient under his Reign To Distinguish themselves out of their Loyalty may shew their Logick or their Law but never will their Love and Allegiance I am asham'd to see men labour to make * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 2. Law and Loyalty the same as if People when they have got a Capricious Interpretation in their Head have Authority to spoil the Common acceptation of a Word We all know forsooth as well as the Criticks that Loy signifies Law but was ever Loyalty taken yet in common discourse for Lawfulness too we are bound to do all that 's Lawful Right to one another by Law are we therefore one anothers Loyal and Liege Subjects but to take it in their Perverted Sense or that of Coke Littleton to Defend this Kings Power of Dispensing is the most Loyal Act you can do since by those very * 2d Inst p. 496. Lawyers the Kings Prerogative is maintain'd to be the Best and Chiefest Part of the Law. But I am sorry to see Church-men now assume this very Notion for * Liegeance is the Proper Loyalty and that implys an obligation of obedience from the Subject to the Soveraign by Birth by Nature who is call'd their Natural Lord without respect to Municipal Laws Vid. to this purpose 2 Inst 128 7 Report p. 4. and many Acts of Parliament a reserve to their Love and Allegiance when to my knowledg this very quibling on the Word was us'd not long since by those they call'd Wiggs and Phanaticks and was by the Prerogative-Lawyers of those times laught at and refuted 't is the Fate always when men begin to grow Factious to contradict themselves as if what was Loyalty under one Prince was not so under another and one King cannot dispense with what the other Can. Faction and Malicious Accusation can never carry the cause against Loyalty and the King consider in the Common Case of Felons and Malefactors the credit of their Accusers is in nothing more Invalidated then by proving any manner of Malice in their Prosecutors and pray then let the King when He 's arraign'd for the sake of his Prerogative have but as much Priviledge as a Prisoner at the Bar when his Accuser too appears the most Malicious and what is more by Process upon Record the greatest Malefactor the Law in many Cases Implys a Malice but here it is most plain beyond Implication if you Consider the Libells the learned Doctor has lay'd at your doors are penn'd by a Person that wanted more preferment here and who for his misdeameanors was turn'd out of the little he had By one that * Vid. First Letter to Ld. Midd. left England and I believe him with his Maiesties Approbation and by his commands was forbid to return By one that ly's * Vid. His Process and Citation charg'd with no less than High Treason and who confesses in the Second Address that he sent to the Secretary that such proceedings shall provoke him Whatever is the veracity of the most moderate Man he must not be believ'd when he rages most Immoderately no more than a Bear is to be trusted when you have baited him only because before he was quiet and tame and mens Passions too in spite of our boasted Reasoning even by being too much exalted can debase themselves so far as to become brutal and then the deliberate mischiefs they do are the more dangerous from the sagacity of that seduc'd reason that then truly sells it self to do wickedly and what more Ingenious Revenge could an enrag'd and * Vid. Second Letter provok't bassal take against his Liege Lord then such a pretty expedient for the renouncing his Allegiance And that he means by it more than a * Vid. Third Temporary Revolt to a forraign Jurisdiction will appear from some passages in his own Papers when he suggests to our Peaceful Subjects here the * Vid. Six Papers pag. 22. Principle of Mr. Hobbs his State of War and the Scurvy Paragraph of self Preservation when he insinuates also that his Faith to his Prince may be Temporary too at home and to last no longer than the King will Countenance or Protect What more Malicious Construction can be made from the plain meaning of Express words The King Declares no one shall suffer for meer Religion And what says the Dr Why then when Religion and Policy are interwoven they can claim * Vid. Ibid page 23. no benefit by the Declaration Would the Doctor oblige the King from his Liberty of Conscience to Tolerate Robbers and Murderers for it is the Policy and Publick safety of the State that punishes them still or is it possible that people when they suffer for any other offence that by Law is truly Criminal can be said to suffer for meer Religion when by Law too that is made no Crime at all Or would the Doctor have had the KING's mercy to have Anticipated the Justice of future times and extended to the Crimes which hereafter on the Pretence of Religion they may possibly Commit and yet this with prejudic'd persons must pass for Reason that has nothing in it of Common Consequence and that the Doctor may not want contradiction too for malice will make wise men commit absurdities tho I am sorry to see so Celebrated a Reasoner run himself into such misfortune only for the defaming of his own KING at the same time he would refute for it the French-man for too much Praising of His. In one * Vid. Continuation of Reflection on Mr. Varil p. 5. Page of his Reflections he makes our Queen Mary to get the better of the Monarch of France to be more fiery in her persecution and to have Animated the bloodiest of her Bishops Bonner he makes her as much a Monster as his own malice or that of the other Sex can make a Woman well to be or be well imagin'd and what 's the meaning of all this Why Here 't is very fit for his purpose so to do and the Doctors Satyr must come in here only in opposition to the Monsieur 's Panegyrick but then in another * Ibid. pag. 150. Page this same Q. Mary was a Woman so far from delighting in seenes of blood that her Clemency was much magnify'd and the mildness of that Princesses Reign gave no Cause to complain of the Rigor of her Proceedings and what 's the matter now Why the KING the Council the then Chief Justice are all to be Libell'd and the Clemency to Wiat's Crew set against the Doctors Cruelty in the West and I warrant you we should have heard nothing of Queen
them March 25th Seventy Two made good his Promises to All by a General Indulgence and a Protection of the Church of England SECT V. The Wayes that are Taken Now to Hinder the Having such Another HAving Discours't of the Past we come home now to our Selves and the Present Time and to Consider the Fifth Point The Wayes that are Taken now to Hinder the having such Another Healing Parliament And truly they are not much Honester Attempts than were us'd to prevent the Meeting of the First and that is the Old Antiquated pretence of Jealousies and Fears only there is another Knave turn'd Trumps now tho' 't is the same thing to the Government whether 't is trick't upon by that of Clubs or Diamonds 'T is strange That those that made so lately the Folly of other Mens Fears so Ridiculous should make themselves now to those very Men the most fearful Fools That those who still asserted the Assurance and Security of their Religion from the Promise of their KING should now without the least Breach of it give him the Ly and tell him to his Face You are worse than your * Vid. Letter Word That those who ran up the Prerogative to the Height of it's Power should dispute now the Power of their KING 's Dispensing What is this but a Confessing to their Foes whom they still followed with Fine and Confiscation that their Divines were Dunces their Books were Libels and the Fam'd Filmer the greatest Fool It is a saying so common and so natural that the most ignorant both know it and make use of it too To Look before they Leap and would any Considerate Men make use of the same Arguments and take the same Measures for which they have so much Exposed and Reproached others But it fares with them here in their Civil Matters as the Late KING's Papers almost unanswerably observe of their Concerns in Ecclesiasticals That part of the Nation which looks most like a Church cannot bring Her Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turn'd against Her self But only here they make the Inversion much worse Here She takes the Old Arguments of Dissenters on Her Side only to make Her Own fly in Her Face so that an Honest and Unbyast Asserter of the Government has nothing else to do to Answer the Clamors of the Present time but to Declaim against the Cavils of the Past and both those are Reducible to these Three Celebrated and Contested Points I. Arbitrary Power II. Freedome of Parliaments III. Protestant Religion For the First and for them all in their Order though the present KING's Promises are as Currant with them as his Fathers Coin and both bear the same Image and Superscription Though the Leges Angl ' libertas Parliament Religio Protestant have been the continual Subject of all this KING 's gracious Declarations and particularly in that of His Indulgence when to put it in his * Vid. this King 's Two Proclamations to Scotland his Declaration of Indulgence here Own Words Property Liberty and the Protestant Religion are all assur'd to them on the Word of a KING Yet still the Matter by some or other must be still so manag'd as to make the People to distrust and doubt of all Such is the hard Fate of PRINCES as if a Crown could not be contriv'd to sit soft on a Royal Head as if destin'd to be a Burthen by Decree both Extreams shall conspire to make it uneasy Monarchs for the most part are Endanger'd for their not believing any Danger to be near 'T is hard they should suffer by not being Believ'd too when they tell their Subject there is None Mark but the Goodness of your PRINCE and then see whether he deserves to be treated so Ill. A numerous part of his People being uneasy as certainly those must be that suffer for Conscience sake and when the Iron Enter their very Souls had made the Government a long time so too To silence their Clamours and Complaints the King would take away the occasion of their Calamities the severities of the Laws and that raises now as mighty murmurings among those that were only for surpressing of Malecontents before as if his Throne were more dreadful when he makes it even the Mercy-seat How shall the most gracious Prince please such a divided People where discontent only shifts Parties and Loyalty seems no longer entail'd love at least and affection then as the King continues his favour or it seems only now so long as he confines it to themselves alone sure gratitude and friendship must not be limited like Marriage Vows or those of Devotion to one Object neither is a King to be considerd in his politick capacity like a natural body Whose Love is then the most Generous when 't is most extensive and his power best absolute when he Reigns in the Hearts of all to make himself this Vniversal Monarch seems only the design of his present Majesty and to make him more Fear'd than Lov'd are the devices of some Ureasonable men But the result of these Inconsistencies with themselves they will say does arise and is occasion'd by some deeper insight of theirs into the designs of State and our plausible Varnish may serve to set it off but will never hinder them from seeing through it 't is strang that these politick Spectacles should be so suddenly put on this must make the Dissenters value their opticks proud of a better foresight and more acurate intuition and tell the Church-men we told you of this and then where were your eyes but could the Dissenters have foreseen too his Majesties merciful Inclination Popery and Slavery might never have been their Monimental Motto or themselves seduc'd to follow some more desperate Malecontents to their death and destruction was it Sedition in them to doubt was it Treason almost to think and is it a Loyal Act now to declare in writing the danger of the Protestant Religion and that at a time when the free Exercise of it is permitted to All certainly such unwonted Surmises from Persons that have declar'd their abhorrence of them as Seditious are as surprising as the new Friendship 's and shew that the Tide is turn'd the Wind tackt about against their Interests and what can Dissenters say but that they see through all this and as they told the Dissenters that the Liberty they labour'd for was only a License to do what they List so their Popery that is now coming in is nothing else but their Persecuting Power that 's going out What will they not say when they see those that exalted the seising of Franchises as an undoubted Prerogative Printed and Publisht the forfeiture of all Charters Priveledges and Immunities and that before they were granted with such Restrictions and Reservations as more impower his Majesty than when these People made them all thus dependant on the Crown 'T is strange that even those should murmur at his Majesties power of Dispensing
the King could cause the Parliament to proceed upon Articles by him Limited I think this might have spoil'd the Letter-Makers Jest upon the Elections of Congee d'eslire when it would have chang'd his Liberty of Debate too into a Merit of Obedience and yet these were the resolutions long since of Judges and Lawyers But this I know they 'l say was only offer'd at by an Arbitrary King. I am sure an unfortunate one and whom his Subjects us'd as ungratefully But then wee 'l turn the Tables and tell them of a Popular one whom they Complimented into the Throne and that is his immediate Successor in the 6 of Hen. 4. he call'd a Parliament at Coventry and some say in his process to the Sherifs and Writ of Summons my Ld. Coke will only allow to be in his Letters he Commands that no Lawyer shall be return'd a Knight or Burgess And so by his Royall Authority it succeeded too T is true in the next Year and the next Parliament they Petition'd for the Liberty of freer Elections and had it granted them however this still proves that such Royal Interpositions are not altogether new and that in former Reigns the Prerogative ran higher in this point So much for the second Section of the same old Clamors rais'd and reviv'd and that the Third may be the same too some Churchmen have taken too much Pains and I wish I could say to little purpose No sooner was the Prince by Providence placed in his Throne and whom their Sermons of Nonresistance they say solely set upon it tho' his fortunate Arms in the West did somewhat secure it too but some of the very same men manag'd the matter so as if The Protestant Princes of Germany provided against such reflections on the Emperors Religion at the Dyet at Ratisbone they had a mind to Preach him out again Arbitrary power Popery Protestant Religion was more the Theam of the Pulpit than before it had been of the Fanaticks Papers and Pamphlets and that at the same time that his Majesty had commanded the Priests of his own perswasion to meddle with nothing that was controversial * and which was as Religiously observ'd by them too This was a Great indecency at least if not a little disobedience especially when after the Kings injunctions had satisfy'd them He lookt upon it as tending to Sedition Controversies never yet edify'd much out of a Pulpit and it may be well wisht there were less of it in the Press What party was the first aggressor will not so soon be found tho' that which first desists may be found the Wisest Arguments may now be better worded * Some say the Protestant Side began first in their Sermons Vid. Preface to the further Desence of the Bishop of Condom as all Arts are by length of time improv'd but the best of our Virtuosâ—es in Divinity have with all their late Experiments hardly made any new Discoveries and little has been said after they have labour'd so much on both sides but what has been brought on the Stage before People enter only the List now to shew their Courage and make a Spectacle and like Gladiaters seem to draw by consent and assign the Places of their Combate and sure never was that sacred Science so truly Polemical whereas after all the Mysteries of Religion must either be left to God that gave it to the Church that he has Establisht or to every Individual Breast If to the first we must leave off all disputes and leave the Issue to God and the Last day if to a Church then without doubt to a Universal and Catholick one to which if we submit to be guided by we must think it Infallible whatever it be for sure 't is best to trust most our Salvation where there is the least Error and madness to swear Absolutely to the truth of a thing that may possibly be false And if the Bible and the Books of Scripture as well Interpreted must be the guide who shall be Judg of its being done so well and I cannot see how a National Church or Establisht one that will not pretend to this infallibility can command with Punishment Pains Death and Anathema to believe as she does interpret unless we acknowleg'd that Church to be always in the right that has the Power for if she punishes People for not believing her to Interpret well it will be hard for her to avoid an impossibility of interpreting amiss that will amount almost to somewhat of a Judg that cannot Err so that unavoidably we fall into the last part of the Dilemma of letting every one adhere to the Expositions and Principles of that particular Church which agree best with his Reason and are most satisfactory to his Soul. I confess these Considerations weigh'd with me so much as to think an Establish't Toleration unavoidable both from the Circumstances of the State and the Doctrine of the Church for as Infallibility is hard to be believ'd so sure 't is more hard to think a Church can force you to Believe Her that does not pretend to it and if an Alliance between that and Liberty be such a Contradiction what an Absurdity must Persecution be from those that will not presume to be Infallible and that an Absolute or Implicit Subscription to all her Articles has been alway requir'd I need not prove since Dissenters 't is certain have often Offer'd Conditional Ones and were not so much as suffer'd this modest Interposition of subscribing to her Laws * So Adjudg'd 33 34. of Eliz. were Rejected on the same Account in the 13 14. Car. 2. as far as they were agreeable with those of GOD and the Land which I wish may not lay too much of the Schism at their door that think it only to be supprest with Severities and Executions but while we muster up these Arguments about Religion we raise but the Legion of Spirits we would lay and is only so far from an Impertinence and Digression as it terminates to prove the necessity of a Tolleration and the design of the Discourse I do no Injury to them or the Truth when I tell them thus That the Din of Protestant Religion has founded too much of late the alarum from the Pulpits as if the Watch-man had been plac't upon the Top of the Tower and seen the whole Host of the Assyrians to come up and besiege the * A City that was of Old At unity with it self City of Jerusalem Martyrdom Persecution Sufferings have been the Subject of some Sermons not as Passive Exhortations but rather to create dreadful Apprehensions which can't be so well Justify'd by such as are fond for the retaining the Power of Forcing and were it not so intended the Preachers up of such Suggestions would see themselves impertinent when they take their Texts from all the miseries of the afflicted as if they were already in Torment when they make the Church of England another
Smyrna and tell us of her Tribulation of Ten Dayes Certainly this is not a season of talking of Fire and Faggot as if all Smithfield were in a Blaze when the tenderness of the most Indulgent Monarch makes it his care that there may not be so much as a Fine Inflicted for Religion when He protests and declares to the contrary and by Practice and the very Powers of his Prerogative they will hardly grant him has endeavour'd to make it good Not only some Sermons but several Books assert these suggestions to be sober Truth and I hope I shall not become any peoples Enemy for telling it who if he were known no one would imagin it Malice meant I cannot think a Particular Invective or Satyr of a Zealot ought to be paum'd upon a general Assembly or the Church or the whole Body suffer for any Members Fault tho' they would do well too to deal as fairly with the Church of Rome and not reproach it for maintaining the Deposing Power and the Destroying of KINGS when by their own Confession they find it only among some of their Writers which by the Sorbone at Paris were sufficiently Condemned 'T is hard to tell a Church She is of that Opinion which She generally denies and should another tell a Third what I think were he in his Wits he would sooner take my word for it 'T is to be wish't she would put in practice what I know she has often requested from the Church of Rome for it's Justification to Discover and Censure such as are Transgressours in these inflaming Discourses and by that best of Vindication disown them I could recite some Passages to this purpose out of several Prints but can in kindness forbear them too since they are in pieces that have been less taken notice of and shall only touch upon those that are more generally Known The Notable Letter to a Dissenter The Tryal and Examination of the New Test of the Church of Englands Loyalty which Latter tho' a Piece discommended by both Parties for it's Zeal and Abuse ought to have been Answer'd with less Reflexion on the Crown and the most seditious Papers of Dr. B. All these own themselves under their Hand Members of that Communion while they industriously disperse things dangerous to the State and disagreeing to the Doctrines of that Church they would offer to defend The whole drift and design of these Discourses is only to perswade the People that Popery is solely Concern'd even where the Protestant Religion is so much promis'd to be Protected I forbear to repeat Reflections on a Government that are Libels almost in their very repetition to shoot back their Arrows even Bitter Words should be so done too that the Plague might be stay'd without spreading the Infection he is but a bad Doctor that comes with a Dose in his Pocket and the Disease in his Face It would be but little service at this time to the Crown to reprint a Discourse of Tolleration Discust for the sake of some Cold animadversions upon it and so most Officiously Confute with an Imprimatur what is a Duty to silence and suppress Sedition that is set of with such smooth Insinuations should be dealt with like a Wench that has us'd much dawbing who is then best Expos'd when you have pull'd off some Petticoats and wash't away her Paint for the Press and Printing depends upon it's Management and is onely an undecided and Indifferent Engine and Art either of pretended Good to the Government or real Ill. I come now in the next place to make some Remarks upon another Method that has been taken to hinder the meeting of another Healing Parliament and that is not only in Discouraging all Addresses to the KING that intimated their inclination towards it but even the returning so much as Thanks to His MAJESTY for Repeating of his Promises to protect a Church that has given him the greatest Power in Ecclesiasticals and all this ungrateful obstinacy for the sake of Religion too and as their best Reasons are Vid. Oxford Reasons Letter c. Dr. B. c. lest it should be thought to be Precarious 'T is to be Lamented to see so Learned a Body that was lately so Signaliz'd as some said for a Criminal Obedience a Passive one and burnt those Authors in Effigie that could not come up to their most Meritorious Opinions 'T is hard to see such so suddenly chang'd as to think it no Crime the * The Case of their Contesting College tho' Conscience must give it such a modest Complection was in plain terms the greatest Contumacy to their King Conscience if ever a pretence was truly made so here for not to mention his Majesties Dispensation and their own Dispensing with some of their Coll. Statut or their Societies having submitted to the same Case and so confest it in former Reigns 't is known to both the Vniversitys that where the Stat. of their Coll. obliges them to Elect their Fellows only from such a County that themselves have put Persons of another to move for a Mandamus and brought them in too with a Non Obstante to their Statutes and their Oaths But besides neither of those are Concern'd for the Mandate of their King is an absolute command to Admit and their obligation to their Oaths is only in those Points where they are left to Elect. In short their Combining to be stubborn was but a Confederacy against the Power of their Prince whose Proceedings will Abound with Justice when their Punishment may Want Pity Disobeying of their Bishop and Opposing their KING 'T is strange that such Men must be so sparing of their Thanks now to their PRINCE that once thought they could never return enough when even for a common Kindness we usually say among our selves Thank ye Twice and to say that for the same assurance they had Addrest long since when He came to the Throne was but little better than telling His Majesty He might have spar'd his Complement and this Condescension to his Subjects was a sort of Supererrogation I could never imagine what was the meaning of such Irreverent Reservedness in so many Members of a Church that was once so Forward as to fall under some Peoples Lash for Officious but some Persons now upon the pretence of their Integrity are tickl'd with the Vanity of being Fam'd for stout and standing to their Principles and Men of such a temper from the Fame that they affect must endeavour to be surly and morose but this is still but a desperate sort of Imprudence if we consider the Case that Occasions this Discourse no Wise Man will be stiff and sturdy to those that can humble him and when the Insolency of the Provocation may procure more Mischiefs than any by all his Bravery he can defy To tell us that a * Tryal of the New Test Page 6. Legal Establishment will force a Legal Protection and that the King has sworn to defend the
full Value as little as it terrify'd the bright Spirits of Oxford may Perchance be found the smallest part of the Prerogative and tho such a Canon could not Frighten them so far as to comply with their Diocesan if matters are to be manag'd meerly by the Laws that are made I fear there may be some found that empower the Prince to deprive them of a Bishop Secondly they will do wonderous well I will not say wiser if they do it themselves if only for fear lest others should do it for them I much doubt if Dissenters should once come to be the Prevailing part in a Parliament whether they would make so good terms for this Establisht Church as she might do if she pleas'd for her self The King has given her very good words for it and I wish she may not forgo the Benefit of them He has promis'd to Protect and doubtless will not deny her any reasonable means for her Preservation if he has a mind to do her Good how can she be angry if he 'll only keep her from doing ill the persecutors of Daniel could find no Occasion against him but in the Case of his God but yet we saw the King labour'd to deliver him 'T is not to be doubted if she comply with his Majesties request he will refuse Hers and why may she not be as safe with an Act of Jac. 2d for Establishing her the National Religion tho she part with the 13 Eliz. for hanging up all that differ from her It will never be the worse Church because it cannot do more ill And the Notion that some sort of people have got in their Noddles of the Necessity of such Laws in a Church for the Support of what is the Religion of the State is false both in Reason and Fact for certainly that may be supported without surpressing all other Opinions and there is no need that a Jesuit must be Gibbeted and other Dissenters Banish't and Hang'd too if they return and that Sanoumary Laws must be subservient to an Act of Vniformity T is no more then if a man should tell you Look you Sir most People are of our mind and we can get a Patent to make you think so too and if you wont believe what you cant believe or believe all that we can believe you must even suffer what coms on 't be it Fine Imprisonment Banishment or Death why a moral Heathen would be divided in his passions at the nonsense of such severity and Democritus himself in a doubt whether he should laugh or cry and such partial Christians must Blush too when they blame the Proceedings of the most Christian King and whom they make for it too in their fam'd Antiphrasis even Antichrist himself But one would think that doubt should be out of doors of a Church Establisht by Law not to be able to subsist without it reserve a Power by Law to punish all others when the Present practise of so many Forreign States proves the Consistency and we have the promise and experiment of two KINGS Reigns that it shall and can be so in ours at home 'T is to no purpose to Tattle us out of the Integrity of a good Action with the tale of a Tub or fool away a prudential Act with an Aesop's Fable * Vid. Tryal of the New Test c. p. 5. To tell us of the Conditions of Peace that were made upon the surrendring of the Dogs and that the Sheep afterward were worried by the Wolves Setting aside the malice of the Application it is most foolish and impertinent when the contrary is more true and these sanguinary Laws are to be laid aside and that only for their sucking of blood and sure 't is not the first time too we have known Dogs to worry Sheep And Lastly Common gratitude to so good a King should Perswade this Church to Comply with his reasonable requests has he discountenanc'd any of them but such as have incurr'd it by this Obstinacy perhaps more imprudent than safe And had the Parliament dissolv'd but a little condescended I fancy there would not have been so much work cut out for this Has not the King whose Royal dispensations qualify all prefer'd them Equally both in Court and Camp making every mans merit his promotion without examining of his Faith Has there a single man been prefer'd to any Benefice or Cure but such as have been qualify'd by Law tho some perhaps have been dispens'd with to keep them that for altering their Religion they might not starve * In Edw. the Sixths Reign even from the confession of Doctor Burnet most of the Bishops only for being true to their old perswasions were troubl'd were turn'd out Illegally were imprison'd several years till Queen Marys Reign Vid. the continuance of his Reflection on Mr. Varilas pag. 63. And sure our present Bishop of Londons Case was never yet so hard tho so highly resented Where is this mighty progress for the introducing of Popery The KING now is going into his fourth year and the Church stands still it as was four years agon and the Mighty Din of the measures and faggot of Queen Mary is as much to the Purpose as if they told us of the fire Ordeal of Queen Emm She remov'd all the Bishops in no more than one year and I think Queen Eliz. did it all in one Month and here since Appropriating of Loyalty is so much in fashion we cannot but say this for the Papist too whose Fidelity to the Crown is too much question'd this Protestant Queen was by their own Confession and as it plainly appears from our own Annals advanc'd to the Throne by a Popish Parliament then sitting and no one can tell had they been sitting at KING Charles the Seconds Death of what temper they would have been the Legitimacy of Queen Eliz. was then in dispute amongst all Catholicks the Succession of his present Majesty was indisputable by his blood and yet Heath the Popish Metropolitan and then Lord Chancellor without any discontent says their own * Vid. Heylins Reformation Page 101. Historian declares her Title to the Crown to both Houses of Parliament and so was she receiv'd without the least opposition which certainly does savour somwhat of an Vnquestionable Loyalty And if that wont serve the same Author says more That many in the House of Commons that had a great zeal for their Popish interest yet Preferred their Allegiance page 107. to their Natural Prince before their concernments for the Church of Rome And this is sure more Loyalty then was shewn by the Protestant Reformers to her Predecessor against whom they set an Usurper in the Throne contriv'd a Will and rais'd an Army tho so much must be said for the Suffolk-Gospellers of the Country that they were better Subjects then the mighty Liturgy men at Court and assisted Queen Mary with Men and Arms when the other kept from her the Capital and the Crown Queen Eliz.
well known what Encouragement He has given Them He has made use of His Prerogative for Their Preservation and even Dispens'd with Law for the getting of their Livelihood and exercising of their Trades made use of His Proclamations to Command our Charity and repeated them often to press the Performance These are Great Truths and no little Arguments to silence some Mens seditious Insinuations and the Celebrated Dr. would have been a better Subject and Historian too had he apply'd the Faith of the Prince Palatin he so much Commends to the constancy and goodness of his Own at home and not set off his adhering to their Laws only to represent the Breach of Ours here besides he might have been so Candid to observe that the Peaceable and Flourishing Condition of those German Countries is chiefly owing to that free Exercise that is permitted of Religion the Roman and Lutheran Churches being both sumptuously Built in some Places and as publickly frequented nay in one and the same Church we have known them successively celebrate the Mass and the Protestant Service and the Magistracy took it's Turn in Civil Administration after the same manner as the others did in Ecclesiastical The Dr. would have done well to observe that in these Dominions there was no Forcing of Conscience nor any Penal Laws for it in Force even where the Roman Bishops Preside as Soveraign Princes there is no such Persecution as in the Electorates of Cologn and Mentz but the painful Gentleman must be pardon'd for his Elaborate Observations to abuse his Prince when he has dealt as boldly with the Trinity and from the most Antient of the Manuscripts made room for the Doctrin of the * Vid his Letter Arians If he can serve the Protestant Religion no better abroad than by Betraying the Christian he had better Dispens'd with his Travels and stay'd at Home His frequent Reflections on the late Chief Minister of His Majesties Justice and now the chiefest in the State too as they cannot detract from the mighty Merit of that Loyal Peer so they serve only to make up the Measure of the Drs. Malice his Zeal to the Service of the Crown can never be made Criminal by the Pen of a Zealot that invades it and he cannot but Libel the KING 's most Faithful Friends that so willingly would Abjure his own Faith and Allegiance All Injury is superseded by such Calumny even to the contradicting of the most common Aphorism and nothing of it will stick tho' laid on in abundance Consider that such Mens Suggestions are Malitious and must not cannot be Believ'd Consider that some may make a cry for their Diana tho' no one be going to intercept their Trade or take away her Shrines In such cases those that have no concerns of Employment in the Church are the best Judges whither She be really injur'd for partial People and Persons concern'd are apt to Anticipate Dangers tho' they are not so much as in the Clouds or Hanging over their Heads and those that are but standers by are the best Judges of the Fair Play The Jealousies of such Men is a debasing of their Function that is Sacred when like Mechanicks in a Trade they are afraid of Interlopers and will give occasion to say that this earnest Contending seems more for their Temporal Possessions than for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints If our Laws were truly like the Medes and Persians that they Alter'd not and which was insisted on to a Persian Prince upon the like occasion for Darius his condemning of Daniel for the Worship of his God then I confess the least design of Altering such Laws would make the very intention of it Criminal But when our Law it self tells us That any Subsequent Parliament can Null all the Acts of the Preceding When it has been done almost every Session and is absolutely necessary for the Constitution of a State it must not be put upon with Falshoods and Paradoxes And to say that if the Penal Laws are Repeal'd Popery will then be Establisht by Law will be False both from Inference and Fact for sure that is not presently an Establisht Church that is just let loose from the Prison and the Jayl and there will several Statutes remain in Force For maintaining of her Tyths Dignities and Revenues For making none capable but such as shall be exactly Conformable For preserving the Present a National One unless she be No Church when she has No Power to Punish Don't be deceiv'd with the shaddow that all things shall be granted to your hearts ease under the Next Successor this were it not a foolish sort of argument would help me to Cap their Fable of the Dogs with another to the same but this is certainly Folding your Arms a pensive hoping in the Shade when you can run out and play in the Sun and will ever it's Beams be the less refreshing because it will rise again the next day and you are not sure but it may be in a Cloud but then these Men that draw such a wise Scheam of future Politicks can they foresee the Breasts of Princes that they thus Promise for them and when their Hearts are said to be only in the hands of God Who knows but the Royal Heir out of a Sense of Filial Duty and Pious Gratitude to the memory of it's Parent will protect All those that have Faithfully serv'd him of any Perswasion whatsoever especially when so nearly ally'd to the very Bosome of a Prince whose way of Worship neither is the same with the National here and in whose Countries All Religions have been ever alike Tolerated But besides with submission to their most Judiciary Calculations I look upon it as a little sort of undecent forecast to be Always Erecting such Scheams for the Next Heir both in Discourse and Writing as seem almost to calculate the Nativity of the Present and as if they would comfort themselves that his Reign wont be long Arguments are made Conclusions are drawn and even Projects fram'd with the Premisses Still If the King die * Regno H. 7. Stanley lost his Head by a less severe construction of Treason Ex hypothesi And such insinuations seem to savour of the Prayers made by some Zealots in the 1st of * Vid. also Collins Case in Rolls Report Jac. 1. of words spoken on suppositions vid. 1 Mar. Queen Mary that her Days might be Shortned or her Heart Turn'd but for all the Condition annext it was made Absolutely Treasonable I would not have some men play the Gadbury too much and limit the Life of a Monarch by the calculating of his Age the Prayers of Good men may prolong it and those of the Bad will never cut it short Future Contingencies cannot be foreseen but by that Providence alone that had its being from All Ages that has a Continu'd view of Time and all Eternity by Intuition and in whose Hands alone are these Princes Hearts Human
Mary's being mild had it not been to make our most Merciful Monarch Cruel there is not one such a touch of kindness to that Queen Mary in all his Book of Reformation But after all this his forc't Compliment to her Pious Memory and mildness his excepting it as to matters of Religion will not much mend his matter here for let the Motives to Cruelty be what they will it can never make the Character of the Person mild much less in matters of meer Religion for there it more aggravates and for that the Doctor might have spar'd a little Panegyrick upon His Majesty that in this point is so full of mercy and if Religion only did so Animate Queen Mary to Blood She must in his very instance have shed abundance since that most dangerous Rebellion as he calls it was most upon that score tho' the Spanish Match was so much pretended tho' I think there was as much danger too in that which this KING went through and the severity no more than the necessity of the State so generally distemper'd did inevitably require In the next place in another page of this applauded piece * Reflection P. 54. 55 To condemn a pâ—rson in Absence upon Attainder is there Justify'd in opposition to Varilla's to be alway practis'd by our Law when the Absence was wilful but in other of his works and even there in the next page the Cases of Monmouth and Armestrong are made so many Murders and the highest invasions of Equity and Justice Was the thing alway practis'd by Law and shall it be when the Doctor pleases unlawful But by his leave the two Cases that he confounds so Learnedly were never the same The first was an attainder in Parliament and never question'd for illegal the latter was attainted too but upon Outlary and tho' the Dr. would insinuate the Process upon his seisure to be so unjust only to have another touch at the Judge 't is as certain that he suffer'd Justly for to be sure the Clemency for Revoking the Judgment was by the Law only intended to a Voluntary surrender otherwise the Prosecution of the Law must be in a sort of Abeyance and at a stand and the KING's Officers hearing of his abode could not Seise an Outlaw'd Malefactor till he has absconded Out his Year and a Day * These Cases prove that the prejudice of the Historian has transported him to give false Colours to his Characters even to contradiction only for the defaming of his KING but it would be well if the Dr. would make better use of his Case and take warning by it to forbear his Libells lest his High and Mighty States of Holland and West-Friezland should be rob'd of such a Jewell If this Case does not concern him I know he remembers all the Reformation and how they dealt with a Dr. in Q. Eliz. time that among his Mildnesses too of that Princesses Reign Story was taken even out of Flanders and if we Acts and Mon. page 2152. Lond. Edit 1583. believe his Famous Fox cut up alive in England His Case was so Compleatly Parallel that I compassionately wish this Dr. may never draw the lines so far as to perfect it in his Fate His Case was also put too to the Consultation of all the Lawyers he was Try'd for High Treason he Pleaded hard for himself that he was a sworn Subject to the King of Spain Vid. Fox Ibid. and none to the Queen of England that the Judges had no Power to meddle with him however his Plea was Overul'd with this Resolution That no man can renounce the Country wherein he was Born nor abjure his Prince at his own Pleasure If this be * 6 Papers page 21 Mahometan Government Murder and Court of Inquisition Protestants will have little cause to thank him for his complements too on that mild Reign and the Mercy 's of Queen Eliz. in carrying on the Reformation * Vid. Varill page 55. But besides these expedients of bringing over Persons obnoxious to the Government from Forreign Parts which we see so confirm'd by President even where the Protestant Party Prevail'd the Protection of the States he so stands upon may fail him too and the succour of that Country which he so relyes on by leaning on too much may like the Reed of another Egypt run into his Side as little as he may value Mr. D' Albevills motions to remove him his Masters there are too cunning to Procure a Breach with a Crown for the Protection of a Subject that is indeed none of theirs 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 but especially the danger to the Dr. may be more than he Imagines when the Justice and Law of Nations will oblige them to a surrendring of him up or at least a sending him away unless he fancies for that reason the Dutch will refuse it Men of a greater Figure have been serv'd so the Earl of Suffolk attainted in Hen. 7. time was after a long Debate deliver'd up by the King of Spain and so was the * Phil. de Commines l. 4. Cap. 12. Constable of France by the Duke of Burgundy to Lewis the 11th and what this Celebrated Historian must remember more even in the times of Reformation Queen Eliz. demanded Morgan from France and told the Scots when they did Both well that she would either yield him up to Them or send him away from Her and sure He will not now Vid. Camb. 1593. Blast and Blemish that Reign too as well as all the rest that have been since This Historian must have met with too in his reading that where the delivering up such Fugitives has been refus'd it has only been because they would put them to as fair a Tryal There and so it was told the same Queen by the King of Ibid. 1585. Scots when she writ for Fernihurst Inferiour Criminals for defrauding the Revenue have been return'd us here and High-Treason I hope is of a higher Nature the Crimen laesae Majestatis Mutually concerns all Crown'd Heads not to Protect in the Fugitives of a Forreign State no more than they can Encourage the committing it in their own at home and the Dutch cannot deny it us unless it be only because they have nothing of a Crown It would be an hardship to a Government not to be endur'd that an individual Subject should seize for Contract and Debt in another Dominion or by Reprisals at Sea right himself and yet Fugitives * So were the Regicides to be return'd us by the Fifth Article of the Crown of Denmark 1660. and eveh the Dutch did the same to find refuge for betraying even the Commonweal this would subject the States General to such an Incapacity of righting themselves which every Particular Skipper is capable of that sells but an Herring And at last all doubt
is out of doors where such Protection is provided against by the Articles of Peace All Impartial People I hope will Pardon me for dealing a Little freely with the Dr. that has been certainly more bold with His MAJESTY and taken the liberty to Libel no less than the whole Line and for the Pertinency of such Animadversion I appeal to all his Papers put out on purpose to Oppose any Happy Union and all good agreement between King and People and for the reflections I 've return'd I can safely say I have but Mildly toucht upon and that Promiscuously the most Provoking Sedition from one that with the severest Satyr has pointed at his KING Such rude Recriminations on the Crown he knew would Interrupt the Peace that is expected from an Approaching Parliament and so to clear it from such Scandals and refute such Seditious Argument must fall under our Duty as well as Design But whatever are his hopes from it's Approach and the differences he expects in its Debates who it seems is now so much a Naturaliz'd Dutchman as to promise himself good Fishing from troubl'd Waters and the Mudd I am Morally perswaded they will hardly espouse his Quarrel much less return him another Thanks of the House and what ever are the fond expectancies of some vain People will be so far from Invading the Rights of the Crown as to Confirm this so question'd Prerogative of their King against which the follies of some inconsiderate Persons do so promise an Appeal and will more likely draw up a Resolve to suppress such Libels than any Remonstrance for Grievances to be Redrest The late Ld. Shaftsbury was once against All Tests especially for Religion made a Notable Speech in the House of Lords against that of the * April 65. Oxford Act being more Vniversally impos'd but some Years after when he had a mind to put tricks upon the Papists then Transubstantiation Praying to Saints Sacrifice of the Mass must be all confuted and confounded with a Test when they might as well have Enacted the Trinity to be Nonsense as positively to define what possibly may be None Superstition and Idolatry The Notions of Divinity I think were never before without a General Council so Dogmatically declar'd with an Order'd and Resolv'd and most part of the Christian World Transubstantiated into Pagan with an Act of Parliament If the belief of Catholicks is so Captivated as to consent to the Corporeal and Elemental change into the Substance of a God for Godsake Would they not be worse then Idolators if they did not Adore And must they now be Voted such only because they do not think as others do I must confess I alway thought it would have been a wiser definition of this Establisht Church to have made Her Sacrament more Figurative or the Sacrifice of the Mass less Idolatrous for Really Present and the body and blood to be verily and indeed Taken are Terms that must put us to our Metaphysicks and which I have not yet seen so well Explicated as not to touch upon an Elemental transmutation Luther lik't it so little that rather than like Mahomet's Tomb to hang between two Elements the Heaven and the Earth he made up his more absurd composition of both And then for that other Idolatry of Images and Invocation from their plain words and in Charity to them I am apt to think has really no other Existence than in the Letter of our Laws and the resolution of our Act of Parliament for my self have put it as a Question to several Papists abroad as well as to some of our own at home even to the most ignorant Votary's and if any can be blind Adorers the poorest Plebeians to what they Exalted and in what they Terminated their extreams of Worship when addrest to an Image or a Saint Why the Answer was still to this Purpose To the True GOD alone looking upon those Material Objects but as so many Representations to move and elevate their Devotions to their Saviour and excite them to have recourse to Him by such Intercessors so that if we believe their own words and men may be allow'd to know their own minds their Church cannot be guilty of the only Idolatry that can with any Charity be charg'd upon it A Consequential and even that is but a forc't unkind unintelligible extension of it a Term that has as much of malice in it as of Metaphysicks and certainly can no more make their Doctrine Idolatrous than that would the Church of England if her nine and thirty Articles by a mad-man or a fool should be taken for the Alcoran Ignorance may be the Mother of Superstition or even a Criminal Devotion in the Members of a Communion when it would be madness to make the whole body of Christians suffer for it too as so many Turks and Mahometans I 'le tell you now the substance of some of the Arguments of that Noble Peer against the first Test * An. 1665. Oxf. Act. and you shall see whether they will not serve against all the rest Ay says he It will be a great step to the overthrowing of the Act of Oblivion and reviving distinctions among Parties That all such former Oaths were steps to to the same end that we should rather think of repealing than enjoyning them to be taken by all the Officers of the Nation and Members of both Houses That Oaths ought to be simple and plain whereas that about Religion was intricate and dark and only a snare to the Consciences of well-meaning men That such Oaths were against the Property of the Subject That it is directly against the Kings Crown and Dignity that Subjects should be sworn to matters of the Church That it was the highest invasion of the Supremacy and the greatest attempt that has been made against it since the Reformation These His Arguments cannot but take with Dissenters since it was a Speech he made in their own favor and defence and sure Conformists cannot condemn the reasonings of such a Noble Peer who introduc'd both the Tests against the Roman Catholicks And so Efficacious was his Oratory then that the Lords Iaid aside all further considerations of any Vniversal Imposition of such unreasonable Oaths and so concern'd were they for offering the Imposing it that they drew up * So also in 73. Protestations against it as the Invasion of their Peerage and the Freedom of Parliaments And sure if any of these Protesting Peers are yet Living as I am sure some are their Honor their Interest their Birth-Right their Peerage the very Judgment of their Souls their Hands Hearts are all pawn'd for the repealing of such Laws when against the Passing them they enter'd such a notable Protest a Repeal which Shaftsbury himself would be asham'd were he now alive to oppose This is no flourish but Argument upon the Case that is kept upon Record and that in the highest Court and 't is but consulting the Journal of
the House of Lords and by that let the reasons of such Laws to stand or fall that Honourable Assembly when ever it Sits will find sufficient Reasonings and as much Matter of Fact for the removing all such Tests preserv'd for them within their own Walls and their own Books shew them the best of Presidents and a President where the Case has been contested is worth an hundred when there has been no contest And being here come home to that which touches the only tender Part of the Government The two * Vid. Letter of Pens F. to Mr. St. Tests of Car. 2. against the Catholiques I cannot but take notice of the New Paper of the Dutch Pensioner that is so diligently spread for the diffusion of an industrious mischief and creating the most dangerous Difference that can arise from the debates of a Divided House I cannot do better than close our last Animadversions on their latest effort that is so freshly set afoot for our disturbance The Reasons that it brings up in the Reer are less to be regarded than the Royal Characters that it carries in the Front and we could forgive mijn Heer F. his Arguments if we did not refute them when we cannot so soon Pardon the Presumption for prefixing to a Pamphlet Surreptitious and unauthoriz'd the rever'd name of the Princess of O. the sweetness of whose temper and gentle disposition as it cannot be suppos'd to delight in severity and Persecution so certainly is as little pleas'd to promote any thing to the disturbance of a State to which She still seems so neerly related as her obliging nature does sufficiently secure us she 'l favour an Indulgence so does that dutiful affection as morally perswade she cannot Patronize the opposers of her Parent But the names of such Princes to their pretended piece they were well assur'd would make it Popular the weakest side is the wisest too when it makes the strongest party it was their last expedient that made them trespass upon good manners and presume to make Theirs Her Highnesses opinion It is offer'd it seems in the first place that the Papists throughout all our three Kingdoms should be suffer'd to continue in their Vid. Letter of Pens Religion I confess the kindness is somewhat extraordinary considering the Present season when the greatest Persecution in the Past could not prevail with them to renounce it but if it shall be as the Paper promises with as much Liberty as is allow'd by the States in those Provinces Then I humbly conceive that from their own Concessions both these Two Tests must be taken away for by them both both Peers and Commons of that perswasion are Incapacitated for Military Employment which the Letter it self says by the Laws of that Country even there they cannot do not exclude them from and sure then it will ly harder upon them here to be hinder'd from serving their KING in his Camp when a natural Liegeance requires it * Vid. Coke 7. Rept page 4. express Statutes command it and a Prince of their own Religion receives it Shall the Dutch trust them for their defence that are of a different faith * 1◠H. 7. And cannot the KING of England confide in them because they agree in the same And yet by both these Tests they so contend for the Catholicks are excluded from serving His Majesty tho' they take up Arms only for his preservation So that this Letter-maker must certainly fall into the necessity of this Dilemma that the Papists must not be permitted here the Liberty they are allow'd in Holland or these Tests must be taken away for their more free Admission into Military affairs and without any medium he must renounce his own Position or admit ours The Author of this Paper that must pass for the Pensioner is certainly the worst in the world to write for the Tests when he gives it under his hand that he has never read them and for that reason may be a Forreigner to our Laws as well as Land when he says that thereby Roman Catholicks receive no other Prejudice than their being excluded from Parliaments or publick Employments when by the latter of those Recusants Convict are banish't the Court so much as seeing or coming into the presence of their King or Queen or places where they reside upon pains of incurring all the fearful Penalties and forfeitures that follow the †30 Car. 2d violation of that Act I hope the bare ‖ Even the Ld. Digby a Proselited Papist that contended for Passing the 1st Test us'd this as an Argument because it did Not Banish them the Court which the 2d does most effectually seeing of their Royal Soveraigns can't be call'd a Sitting in Parliament an Office or publick Employment and the coming into their Presence or Place of abode be presently interpreted a promotion to a Place too of high Preferment since 't is seldom deny'd the poorest Plebeian that never expects perhaps the turning of the spit in the Kings Kitchin. I confess this clause is so far for keeping them out of Publick Employment that it almost excludes them human society Herds them among Beasts debases them below Brutes too for if we believe our old English Proverbs even A Cat may look upon a King. But I must tell these Politicians too who so finely extenuate the severities of these Tests into a meer Metaphysical Entity A Negative sort of Punishment that only denies Papists to be preferr'd that to any impartial person these disabling Laws will appear a positive Persecution and that only for the sake of Pure Religion The Abjurations that they force upon the people in France are only more Vniversal and with this disparity they that there will not renounce their Religion must resolve to suffer as Patiently as they can the insolency spoil rapine and outrages of all the Souldiers they send them which reduces several Families to misery and want and for refusing the same renuntiation here many persons that have had their sole dependance upon some office or place have meerly for that been dispossest and remov'd to their utter Ruin and destruction all the difference lying in this between being devour'd by dragoons or beggar'd by being turn'd out discarded or putting the case more favourably we 'l look upon Vid. Letter of Pens F. these Oaths only as they respect in the sense of this Letter the keeping Papists out of Employment what comfort can this be to the poor Catholiques or what mitigation of a Protestant Persecution when they are deny'd the common Advantages that may make them rich It must be certainly the same misfortune as to be turn'd out of their possessions that they may be sure to become poor I cannot see with what Conscience this late Celebrated Vid. Letter of F. Letter can assert that neither from these Tests nor the Other Laws Roman Catholicks are made to suffer upon account of their Consciences This is too gross to be put
upon the Dutch themselves for certainly were these Penal Laws so favourable as only to incapacitate them for Office and Trust yet even that is a severity which they are necessitated to suffer and that for Conscience sake it is but a poor extenuation of an uncharitable temper when he tells us that for some Political ends these Laws for Religion must remain unrepeal'd as if the Sacraments themselves were only made to be subservient to some Civil Institutions and the God of Heaven but an instrument to work out the inventions of man if meerly for secular ends so sacred a being as the Drity it self must be so solemnly invok't which the best Advocates for the cause do seem to confess I am afraid such an Invocation may be worse than that to Saints and be at least very profane if not Idolatrous neither can it be answer'd us that then all Declarations all Oaths must be laid aside for the Consequence fails them too for the Common reason of Imposing them is only or only should be for the detecting of Justice and Equity the discovering of truth from falsehood whereas these Protestations call'd Tests are by their own Confession kept a foot only to be Injurious to their fellow-Subjects that are Equitably born to the Common Priviledges of their Country and are so far from a discovery of what is true or false that they are made about matters so profoundly divine and mysterious that it is morally impossible for human understanding to discover or find it out unless the swearing to an Article of Faith be found a sufficient proof of the soundness of the Doctrine and the books of Scripture Antient Fathers modern Criticks can be all Confuted or be better Expounded by the Votes of an house of Commons This States-man makes it so Incomprehensible for any that profess Vid. Letter themselves Christians to go to disturb the quiet of a state and over-turn Constitutions only that they may be admitted to employments And pray must not others then think it as Vnchristian to have the professors of the same faith and their fellow-Subjects excluded from such employs which as their Religion cannot really debar them from so their very Native Birth-right demands it it is false in fact tho they take it for granted that it is the Roman-Catholicks alone that do so disturb and disquiet the State of the Kingdom it is only these Laws that create all this disturbance to them and the state these establisht-men would have been loath under the Oppression of Oliver to have merited the Name of disturbers of the Nation and 't is shewn before that suffering from a power Legal or Vsurpt is still the same where the Laws are oppressive and if the Overturning of old Constitutions be a thing of that consideration tho hardly a Parliament passes in which there are not new ones made if that I say be such a considerable argument as to make it absolutely necessary for our English Catholiques to acquiesce to continue Out-Laws more incapacitated them some Protestant Aliens how destructive must this be to the Protestant Interest should the Romanists take an opportunity to return upon us an old Law of the Romans that of Talionis and exclude all the Reform'd from Trust with a Test of Retaliation why we must submit we must not endeavour for our Restitution we must not disturb the state overturn establishment or repeal Laws And must not we look very silly too when by our own Arguments we have silenc'd our selves What a formidable blow will this give to the Reformation in England which was carried on as some say by the overturning of all that was Antient and Establisht Sacred and Civil both in Church and State and afford them a Scurvy Argument That they may overturn with a better warrant than they were turn'd out that their alterations will be only a restoring of an old establishment whereas we overturn'd that to set up new Constitutiens In short if they bring no better Reasons for our Religion than its being so much Establisht it will certainly resolve it self into the Power and Pleasure of the Prince and really be what they so scornfully reject truly * Vid. Oxford Reasons Precarious for surely they must see that assoon as they had a Protestant King they presently had their Protestant Religion And that in spite of far more Antient Constitutions and Establishments to the contrary I 'le grant him that every constituted body or Assembly whatsoever will be willing to make Laws for its own safety and Preservation But whatever be the Policy of the State it must be still agreeable to the Rules of Reason and Equity otherwise it proves no more than that all things are Lawful that are Expedient and that a Common-wealth to use his own terms as well as their own Constitution tho the result of an absolute rebellion revolt and defection from their Prince may make what Laws they please to prevent any Casual return to there natural Allegiance or that an Assembl'd or tumultuous People may pull in pieces even a Pensioner to provide against attempts thaet may disturb their peace and granting too that in Political bodies like to those that are truly natural there will be alway somwhat of innate tenderness to their own Preservation that genuin Principle only respects all opposing of a forreign force and no way determines it to domestick oppression no more than if the lazy man that is said alway to see the Lyon in the way should cut off one of his legs that he might the better run away with the rest of his carkass I am sorry I can say that this dismembring of our selves for the difference of Communion at home does no less expose us to Invasions from abroad but I am sure the saying is as certainly True prov'd by Experience Fact unavoidable from these Statutes and the Laws for should the best Seaman the best Souldier by his birth or Conversion be a Papist Convict he is totally incapacitated utterly impossible to do the least service to the Kingdom or the Crown and why should these Dutch people put that upon us the inconvenience of which they see in themselves and take all the care to avoid unless they would Vid. Letter have the more of the Kings Subjects unqualify'd to fight for him only that they might the sooner invade him Before the making of our first Test * 1673. when Papists Participated of Employments had their Places in Parliament I cannot remember that they did Impeach our Peace I am sure some of them did us signal service in the Dutch Wars his foes felt too much of the force of the Admiral and so may well fear the Preferment of his friends What the Reform'd Religion suffers from the Roman-Catholicks in France is no reason at all against the repealing of Vid. Letter these Laws in England unless they can prove the disposition of the Princes and the Politicks of the Two States to be
Magistrates and none can be more Powerful to make Alterations than such as have the Command in an Army and yet his fearful forebodings of future Invasions are now become no matter of Fact makes that fail him too the Protestants promiscuously enjoy that quietly with them too all manner of Publick Imployment and their Religion remains as much Vndisturb'd and Establisht But to infer from these Priveleges that the Romanists already Enjoy from the Clemency and Prerogative of the King that therefore they must have further designs than their Own security and that they need nothing of a Repeal for to compleat their Happiness or to ascertain their safety is certainly an inference uncharitable groundless False for as they have not shewn themselves so forward to subvert this Protestant Religion for this four Years wherein they may be imagin'd to have had all opportunities of doing it and if we believe Dr. B. and the mighty influence he sayes they had in all the last Reign we may add Twenty four Years more we must conclude that it is the want of some Peoples Charity that makes them so designing and that they are only so Formidable because some Persons are resolv'd to be afraid but nothing is a greater Mistake and falser Inference than from the Immunity they Enjoy from the Meer Prerogative of the Prince to say their necessity for abrogating these Laws is Superseded when their sole Safety they must needs see and so do their Enemies too with more satisfaction depends upon the Life of a Merciful Monarch that must be mortal too as long as these Laws are left in Force for their future Destruction and how compleatly they are fram'd for it in the loss of All Property Liberty and Life if these little things can destroy a man by only being lookt upon will appear I le appeal to any Impartial Protestant whether his endeavours would not be the same if his Circumstances were so too one would think that such Counsellors as would Lull them asleep with their seeming security propos'd only their more easy ruin by some sudden surprise such as are content for a time that their helpful Hands bear with them the Sword of Justice as long as another hangs over their Heads that will allow them a good Dinner if they 'le but take it under Damocles his Dagger But Gentlemen this is none of the greatest Kindness to Complement them to such a Meal 't is but civilly telling them in the literal sense Eat and Drink for to Morrow ye Dy. Having said so much before on this so controverted Subject we should hardly have pursu'd it so much farther had not this fresh Provocation upon the closing of this Piece fell into our hands which any one may see is set a foot on purpose to divide the Parliament that themselves are affraid might otherwise Agree in an Vniversal Repeal And I must tell these Contenders as long as a Legal Toleration will certainly be as great a security to all Protestants in the Liberty of their own Worship as any Legal Tests whatsoever These Retainers of them positively declare 'T is not the Protestant Religion alone they are so tender to Preserve For if the Bill of Erclusion had by the more Corruption of the House been Past into an Act they might as well have labour'd too for the continuance of That Since if I have any conception of the Politicks of those times those very two Tests they are so Zealous to retain were directly intended against the very Person of His Majesty The First most effectually made him lose the Place of an Admiral and 't was with much ado the Proviso of the Latter left him a Place among the Peers The Veneration all English Subjects should have for the Presumptive or Apparent Successor of the Crown for in spite of the Sophistry of the late Lord Shaftsbury the sense of the Terms is the Jame when there is none Appears before to Intercept him That as it was sufficient to recommend the Contents of such a Piece to a Serious Perusal so it must needs make it Merit as Modest a Reflection did it really bear that Image and Superscription which I 've reason to imagin was but a Counterfeited Coin. The Presses at London did more probably produce what was their Prudence and Policy to Paum upon the Hague and if Holland had the honour of bringing it into light this Pensioner of the States was only our Dr. at Amsterdam however it is handled with All the respect imaginable even for the sake of those Venerable Characters so Politickly Feign'd The Name of such a Princess by Nature the Best and by Birth Inferiour to None we would truly revere tho' we were sure it was there as Faâ—sly prefixt as we are still bound to Pray for the Royal Family so must Her Prosperity be as much remembred in our Prayers neither will those we use now for the Propagating of It displease such a Generous Princess much less Should make some Protestants so sullen as in a Zeal to decline their Church and Libel their very Prayers since only they are offer'd for Perpetuating that Royal Line of which there are but few in remainder and not so many left and if only the Touching upon such a Subject shall by some be made so Criminal for the sake only of so Sacred a Title tho' without Their Authority they must pardon me that undecency since Royal Papers have been sufficiently reflected on that have been more Authoriz'd and that by those too who with greater decency might have spar'd their Animadversion There remains no more to be said if men will Consider their Interest Examine their Reason have a regard to Equity they will soon see that what is desir'd is only To do to others as they would be done unto But this Golden Rule cannot I confess guide or direct those that can Outface it with a forehead of brass that can treat Princes and * Vid. His Enquiry against the Bishop of Oxford Prelates with more opprobrious terms than themselves would bear or so many Porters but this incomparable Impudence is only due to that unimitable Dr. which in his affected Phrase must be needs an Original because never to be Copy'd Such transcendent insolency soars a pitch beyond Imitation and is indeed such a sublime such a flight to which nothing but a brow of a peculiar composition could attain To Threaten KINGS with their Characters and Life as it is that Altitude and Acme of the most exalted Arrogance So it must be the surest indication of the Profoundest folly it does but bid a defyance to sense and truth and assures us he can reconcile to his Rage and Calumny those vast extreams of Falsehood and Contradiction it only bespeaks the Reader to that villany which the Author is intended to commit secures him his infamy beforehand and blasts his Credit with an Anticipation of his Crime the * Vid. Compare but Burnets Memoirs with Weldens Court. Memoirs