thereof drawn by any Person or Persons other than some of those that subscribed the same respectively ever sent shewn or proposed to any of the Subscribers That then the Person or Persons making such Discovery shall upon his or their Application to the Bookseller whose Name and Habitation is hereunto prefix'd receive Directions where and of whom He or They and every of them making such Discovery may and shall besides most hearty thanks have and be honestly and Bonâ Fide paid a Reward of Fifty Pounds of Lawful Money of England The rest of his Supposals are of the same Leaven both for Truth and Charity Who are those Dissenters and on what part of the Globe do they dwell For sure they must be Antipodes to Ours that preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England That are under a Contract which obliges them upon a Forfeiture to make use of Inflaming Eloquence That apprehend their Wages would be retrench'd if they should be moderate Quite contrary they have with a most Christian Moderation so far overcome the Resentments of their past hard Usage or present Provocations that they treat that Church with all Friendliness and Respect But think they mean her no Harm when they wish those dangerous Weapons out of her hands which she has so long indiscreetly made use of only to ruine other innocent People and stab her own Reputation Does this Sir Politick T. W. or W. T. for some Criticks think that the truer Reading imagine Liberty of Conscience or Freedom to worship our Creator in such manner as we are convinc'd to be most agreeable to his Will without being jailed or undone for the same and without being scarr'd by sever Temporal Penalties to joyn externally and Hypocritically in a Religious Worship which our Consciences tell us is sinful does he I say conceit this noble Priviledg so cheap and vile a thing that none will appear for it but such as are either suborned with Money or have deserved to be hang'd Is it not a pretty Notion and much becoming a Statesman that those who chiefly to assert Liberty of Conscience though in a very bad and irregular way incurr'd the Want of a Pardon must after such Pardon obtained needs act against their Consciences if they offer to perswade any to endeavour the settling such Liberty regularly in a Legal Course Nor is his next politick Squint less impertinent as if one Prince might not for Reasons of State continue Friendship with another whose Conduct in some Particulars he highly disapproves nor know I how in that case he can more effectually declare such dislike than by steering a direct contrary Course himself His Noise of solliciting Addresses the Tyring Post-Horses with Circular Letters and threatning where Perswasions would not serve to procure them is all but the Product of a very bold Imagination And he has been sufficiently challenged to give but one single Instance Sure the Gentleman is Master of no great Stock of Gratitude at home that he can think the whole Nation so wondrous barren of it on one of the most glorious Occasions that ever were given for that good-natured Vertue to display it self Rather than faâ—â— of advancing Jealousies he seems willing to contradict himself as well as Truth and both complains of the Dissenters for their Forwardness and yet would have the World believe they were very backward in Addressing But still wherein I pray lies the harm of the thing it self that either there should need such Variety of Artifices to draw in the unwilling Or that can render them criminal that did with all ready Zeal make those grateful Acknowledgments This he undertakes to tell us pag. 8. 9. for I follow the first Edition and the Sum of his Discourse amounts to neither more nor less than this That the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was an IRREGVLAR ACT Very dutifully spoken therefore the Dissenters ought not to have taken any notice of it but to have forborn the Publick Exercise of their Religion till a Parliament had allowed it which if he and his Associates can help it shall never be But since they did not only receive the Benefit granted but publickly return his Majesty Thanks for it they thereby give a Blow to all the Laws by which their Religion and Liberty are to be protected and fall foul upon Magna Charta Which Chapter of it I beseech you Sir gave up their Right in the Laws for after giving Thanks for the Breach of one Law they lose the Right of complaining of the Breach of all the rest This is sed News but as good Luck would have it there is not one Article of it true for the Kings's Declaration was in it self not only a very pious prudent and gracious but according to the antient Constitution of this Realm a most Legal Act. The Dissenters had been the most inexcusably peevish People in the World if they had not accepted of it the most ungrateful if they had not thankfully acknowledged it and will be the most stupid Neglecters of their own Interest both Religious and Civil if they do not exret all their Endeavours towards having it established for Posterity by a Law Upon this occasion it may be expected that I should enter into a long Discourse in Affirmance of his Majesties Right to dispense with Coercive Laws in Matters of Religion But since that is already done by a far better Hand in a Just Treatise which may possibly er'e long see the Light I shall not actum agere or inlay my Copper with that Noble Author's Gold but content my self to say in general 1. That as it was the Right of our English Kings by the Common Law so it has been confirmed to themby several Statutes and they have accordingly exerted it time out of mind and particularly 't is reserved to the Crown by the Statute of 22 Car. 2 cap. 1. for preventing and suppressing seditious Conventicles in these Words Provided That neither this Act nor any thing therein contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs But that his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may from time to time and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all Powers and Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs as fully and as amply as himself or any of his Predecessors have or might have done the same Any thing in this Act notwithstanding 2. As to what is alledged touching all other Laws being by this Precedent shaken and that such as give Thanks for the Breach of One Law preclude themselves from complaining of the Breach of all the rest because on the like Ground the King may Repeal any other Statutes without Common Consent in Parliament It may readily be answered besides what has been already pointed at in the foregoing graph That there is a great difference between Repealing a Law and relaxing or dispensing with the Penalty The first can only be done in Parliament the latter has been
Interest stands in prospect of Futurity I cannot but remind you that no body that I have met with supposes the removal of the Tests without some equipollent Provision in the very same Act that may obviate these Fears And 't is inconceivable that the Wisdom of the Nation so refined should yet be so barren as not to be able to contrive some Civil Security as strong and safe without Hampering of Conscience For Why may there not be a Civil Test form'd altogether as effectual and yet not so obnoxious to Exceptions as these Religious Ones 2. If we can secure due Elections and Regular Returns we are safe for undoubtedly the Free-holders Citizens and Burghers of England are not very fond of chusing Roman Catholicks for their Representatives 3. As to any Apprehensions that by taking away these Laws the Roman should pretend a Right to be the National establish'd Religion by vertue of any Antiquated Statutes that may easily be dash't by an Establishment or Confirmation of the present Church of England as to all its Priviledges but such as are Compulsory by Temporal Penalties altogether unadequate means to secure Religion and unnecessary to the Well-being of a Gospel-Church 4. What if in the same Bill that vacates all the Old Penal Laws it be by the King in Parliament asserted and declared that Liberty of Conscience is part of the Constitution of this Kingdom The natural Birth-right of every English Man And that all Persons endeavouring to undermine of subvert such Settlement shall be adjudg'd Criminal and liable to such Penalties as shall be thought fit all Acts tending thereunto in themselves ab initio and for ever void And every Member of either House of Parliament obliged before he sits or acts solemnly to make some such Declaration 5. Or what if all the Penal Laws together with the Test debarring from Offices and Imployments be abrogated and only that relating to Members of Parliament be kept on foot Will none of these Expedients or such better ones as may be contriv'd allay your Fears That which alone must conclude any honest Man's Judgment is the Resolution of this single Question Whether Persecution in it self be lawful That is whether for meer Opinions or Exercise of Religious Worship tho different from the national Form yet no ways disturbing the Publick Peace injuring Civil Society or violating Morality any Persons whatsoever ought according to the Law of God or Nature be punish'd by Death Banishment Mulcts Fines or Imprisonments or be rendred liable unto any Forfeitures of or Preclusions from those Advantages and Priviledges which otherwise they might justly pretend to or ought to enjoy They and They only that will undertake to justify the Affirmative may reasonably appear for the Continuance of the Penal Laws and Tests But then if they assert any kind of Persecution to be lawful they ought also to tell us the Bounds and Limits of it why the Penalties may not be sanguinary as well as pecuniary positive as well as privative why we may not burn a Man for his supposed Error in Religion as well as take away his Goods or his Birth-right On the other side all Those who cannot but acknowledg such Statutes and all Prosecutions thereupon to be unwarrantable as being against the main Tendency of the Gospel contrary to our Lord's Rule of doing as we would be done by and opposite to the Maxims of Reason and Civil Policy are bound in Conscience as well as Interest to declare and use their utmost Endeavours for the Abolition of all these burthensom destructive Laws Nor will they be affrighted with any imagined bad Consequences or a Noise of what Advantages ill Men may design to make by such a Repeal for as we are not to do Evil that Good may come on 't so we must not omit doing Right whatever may be the Sequel Let us perform our Duty and then we may rest assured that Divine Providence which superintends all the Affairs of this fading World will dissipate the Councils of any Architophels and either preserve us from or support us under the worst they can contrive But if the Dissenters wilfully lose this Opportunity which God and the King have graciously vouchsafed And shall in Distrust of Providence as well as his Majesties Word multiply to themselves groundless Fears and for certain supposed Politick Ends quit both their Duty and Interest to rely on Egyptian Reeds and future improbable Expectancies the Courtesy of a sort of People whose tenderest Mercies they have found to be cruel and will assist to continue those very Statutes which their own Consciences cannot but tell them are Irreligious and unjust and under the Lash of which they have so lately and so severely smarted and by reason of this resolute Error against their own Convictions and Experience shall happen hereafter to fall under a more dreadful Persecution than ever heretofore 't is no matter by whose Hand Must they not with Confusion of Face acknowledg they have justly deserved it And that themselves have chiefly contributed to their own Miseries and entail'd a Plague on all their Posterity He who is convinced that Persecution for Religion is unlawful and yet refuses to contribute all he can towards removing those Laws which either positively or privatively for they both depend on the same Bottom injoin such Persecution let him pretend what Fears and Jealousies he will of ensuing Dangers from the doing of it I know not how to excuse him from the just Imputation of being either a Fool or an Atheist 'T is true our Orator asserts That 't is as justifiable to have NO RELIGION as wilfully to throw away the humane Means of preserving it But because I always thought Religion was best to be preserved by Religious Methods and that a Church built upon the Rock needs not the feeble Suports of Civil Force I would gladly learn what Humane Means are necessary or Expedient or indeed adequate to preserve true Religion Sure I am the Christian Religion held up its Head not only without but against such Means for the first Centuries And yet then it was that it most flourish'd in purity and spread it self throughout the World but as soon as Politicians would be adding their Humane Means to preserve it and interwove it with Interest of State from thence we commonly date its Declension In a word if it be the Interest both of the Papists of this Nation and of all Protestant Dissenters to have a General Liberty of Conscience firmly setled If this be no real Disadvantage to the Church of England but only keeps her from engrossing all Offices and Employments which caused her to be envied and from ruining her innocent Neighbours which made her hated and is both her Guilt and her Shame If by the Gospel no Man is to be abridged of any of his Civil-Rights for his different Opinion in Religion Since we may have as good Security for the Enjoyment of this Liberty for ever as we our selves can reasonably contrive since we have felt and found so many Evils attending Persecution and never any Good It seems to me Unaccountable why we should not all readily and harmoniously agree to the Total Extirpation of all Tests and Penal Laws for Religion and heartily endeavour the Establishment of that Vniversal Liberty which only can render the Nation lastingly Quiet and Happy I am not so unacquainted with the ill-natur'd World as not to foresee that for this free Publication of my Thoughts I must expect to encountre a thousand Scandals and Calumnies But Hic Murus ahaenus esto Nil conscire sibi Being conscious of nothing but an unbiass'd honest Intention I can smile at and pitty the impotent Malice of false Reports Having taken up that resolution of Quinctius Cincinnatus Vellem equidem vobis placere Quirites Sed multo malo vos salvos esse qualicunque erga me animo sitis futuri THE END * See my Lord Coke's Charge given at Norwich Assizes 4 Aug. 1606 4th page of the sheet F. for 't is not paged
an uninterrupted Freedom of Conscience and prevent any of them from using Violence to the other To joyn with People of another Persuasion in a certain respect where our several Interests happen to unite may be done without the just scandal of favouring their Opinions so when the Pope expostulated with Cardinal d' Ossat Ambassador from King Henry the 4th of France that his Master had entred into an Alliance with the Dutch who were Hereticks to the danger of the Church that most prudent Minister of State replied That his Holiness need not wonder how in Reason of State those of different Religions might joyn together for Political Ends without hazard of altering Religion thus David sought Protection of the Philistines and Abraham redeemed the sinful Sodomites That he took it to be upon the same Ground that his Holiness himself not long before received a Persian Ambassador who was so far worse than an Heretick that he never pretended to the Name of a Christian With which Reason the Pope was pleased to acquiesce Whatever Principles bigotted People may have advanc'd wise Princes have and always will endeavour to act according to Reasons of State and their true Interest The Poets tell us that the Gods esteemed themselves obliged by no Oath but when they swore by Stix The judicious Bacon mythologizes it thus that though some Princes scorn to be Slaves to their Words yet when their Interest runs parallel with their Promises you may rely upon their Performance To remove our Suspicions in this case we have not only the greatest verbal Assurances that can be given from the most steady and generous of Princes but also the concurrence of his Interest together with that of all those of his Communion It is His Interest as to begin so to continue Liberty of Conscience as it allays Animosities secures his own Peace encreases People augments Trade advances his Royal Revenue And to settle it upon an impregnable Foot seems the greatest Kindness he can do those of his own Persuasion to give them any Encouragement to hope further will certainly embroil his Affairs and in the End may probably occasion some great Disaster on that Party They being at most not much above one in sixty nay perhaps not one in a hundred for I conceive our Author may too much under-calculate when he makes them but one in two hundred in number compared with the rest of his Subjects the Force of which over-Proportion is also much augmented by their inbred Aversion to Popery than which nothing can be more visible throughout the Nation whereunto add that the next Heirs in prospect are both Protestants and bestowed in Protestant Alliances which must needs unravel all the Web and perhaps before it may be compleatly woven So that if any of the warmer Religious Orders should think of pushing on any present Advantages so far as to make theirs the National Religion as they are most unlikely to succeed in such a rash Attempt so the Nobility and Gentry of their Party and all that have Estates who must ride out any contingent Storm and stand at mark whilst others may retreat to safe Covert abroad cannot be so dull as not to foresee that whether they fail or prosper at present they must certainly expect to pay for it severely hereafter and they cannot tell how soon therefore will undoubtedly be cautious of countenancing any such precipitate Measures but rather being content with the Liberty of their own Consciences and Enjoyment of their Natural Priviledges in common with their Fellow-subjects will adjoyn their Endeavours towards transmitting that Ease and Happiness to their Posterity upon so comprehensive a Foundation that it shall be the General Interest of the Nation to perpetuate it It may therefore upon the whole matter be most reasonably as it ought most dutifully be believ'd That his Majesty's reiterated Promises deserve our entire Confidence That a Prince so Wise and Generous will not expose both his own Ease and Grandeur the Repose of his Realms the Honour of his Name nay the Honour of his Religion together with the future Safety of all that profess it in these Realms to such inevitable hazards But rather that he intends as he has frankly declared no more than to make his Reign easy to Himself and All his People To leave those of his own Perswasion as well as others in a Condition less Burdensom than for some Reigns past And by these sweet and gentle Methods at once secure the future Tranquillity of his Kingdoms and raise a perpetual Monument of his own Wisdom and Clemency whereunto His great Experience as well as natural Goodness do dispose Him The past Example of a mighty Monarchy reduced to a great Declension chiefly by the Maxims of an over-zealous Fierceness Or that more Modern and Terrible One of Another the Consequences of which may perhaps be foreseen without Consulting Astrology are no very inviting Precedents for a prudent Prince to follow especially when the Difficulties here are so much more insuperable than they were in either of them But after all this very Question whether we shall trust or suspect is in Truth impertinent and has no room in our present Case His Majesty though he well deserves is yet so gracious as not to require our Confidence gratis he offers a legal Establishment of our common Religious Freedom you shall have at the same instant as good Security as can be devised provided Terms be not insisted on that are naturally repugnant to that Liberty intended to be Confirmed For if it be not General it cannot be Effectual But by a General Security equally including All Parties the Fears and Jealousies of Each must vanish and their several Interests Concentre to continue Inviolable For whatever may be the Desires and Inclinations of Roman Catholicks 't is certainly their Interest to secure themselves with the Multitude And if it prove a Security to Them 't is so to others If not to others it will likewise fail them when they may need it Therefore they are as much concern'd as any to make a sound Provision That which defends the Whole preserves every Part But a Partial Security is imperfect and dangerous As to the Particulars or Modalities of such Security 't is the Work of the Great Council of the Kingdom And as it would be a sawcy Vanity for a private Person to prescribe so it can be no less Presumption in any to say That the Wisdom of the Nation can find no Expedients instead of the Tests which without being like them appropriated to the Interest of a single Party or invading Mens Civil Rights or Priviledges for Matters of Conscience as they do may yet no less nay more effectually prevent all Apprehensions of any one Parties over-running the rest If Laws be no Security then the Controverted Laws and Tests are none If they be then why may not another Legal Provision better because more comprehensive and founded on more equal and reasonable Principles