to see what publick benefit the King design'd to the body of His Subjects by the Repeal and in fine began to pursue all the methods of male-contents finding this the only way to embarras the King hinder all His glorious designs for the publick and render useless his eminent virtues in not affording Him the opportunity of appearing like Himself or rendring His Reign glorious because they were unwilling any thing Great should be performed by a King that was not of their Religion All this His Majesty carefully observed and being unwilling to act any thing but according to Justice and the Laws of the Land He wisely enquir'd into the extent of His legal power He knew he was by the Statutes declared Supream Head of the Church in His Dominions had undoubted Prerogatives He might make use of and a Dispensing Power and so settled those by judicial Proceedings The King having now asserted His Sovereignty he thought it reasonable to manifest to all His Subjects that it was not the ease only of the Roman Catholicks he aim'd at but that He intended His Clemency should be as extensive as His Empire First therefore He published His General Pardon excepting some few persons and in the interim shew'd His displeasure against those who obstructed His great design of Repeal and lastly published this Indulgence wherein He layed open the paternal goodness and benignity of His Soul the method of enriching His people and a foundation of their concord during His Reign and for succeeding Ages by extirpating the causes of Animosities Heart-burnings Feuds and Oppressions of His people by any prevailing Party abridging them of nothing used in their Religious Worship but only of the power of compelling any one to Conformity and depriving every party of that Authority of magisterial imposing such distinguishing and Excluding Tests as incapacitated His Subjects to serve Him and the Government according to their Allegiance and every Free-Mans Liberty One would rationally have thought that no party should have been wanting in their Thanks for so great a Grace and Favour so much the greater in that it was bestowed by a Prince from whom no such largess of Royal Bounty was expected not the Church of England since in the body of the same Indulgence so liberal a Provision was made for it not the Dissenters who had the most visible benefits nor any else who did not prefer the profits they had by the Penal mulcts imposed or the pleasure of inflicting punishments upon those who were obnoxious to Ecclesiastical Censures or the Laws for Vniformity There was then a Party of the Church of England who owning the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy and His Prerogative looked upon this as an Act of State which the King might Exert at pleasure for the publick tranquillity of His Dominions and thought it their duty to be truly thankful that the King had so generously secured to them the Honors and Emoluments of the Church and entirely left them the Cathedrals the Churches and the profits annexed to them Another and a major part of the same Church was vehementy moved by the Declaration murmur'd that their former serives were slighted that Dissenters who had unanimously opposed the Kings Succession and been Rebels as often as they had opportunity were preferr'd before them and suggested that this was design'd to enlarge the Roman Catholick Church and as a scourge to them and though they never publickly urged it yet it is most manifest that the depriving them of the coercive power though all other parties were as much disarmed of that as They gratefully contributed to their reluctance The Conductors of their Affairs pitched upon two Expedients as most effectual to hinder the Kings reaping any benefits to the Roman Catholicks by it The one was to secure the Members of the Church of England from a complyance by stiffly opposing the Repeal and questioning the Dispensing Power The second by dissuading Dissenters from separating from the common interest as it is called of Protestants or making any court to the King in rendring any Tribute of Thanks for His Royal Grace to them To Estabâ—ish this consultations are had leading Men among the Dissenters are treated with great promises are made that Persecution against them shall cease if ever the Church of England return again to its former sun-shine Pamphlets from Holland and at home aggravate the fear of Popery and of the destruction of the Church of England and not only declaim against the abrogating of all Penal Laws but the Dispensing Power likewise as tending to the shaking all other Laws even those of Property and this seems the design of your Letter writ smoother than Dr. Burneâ—s or the Representation but with as little difference as to design as there is betwixt a Dagger in a wooden or silver Scabbard Sir I must own that the politeness of the Style the sharpness and plausibleness of the Arguments will contribute more towards the establishing such Mens minds who have the greatest affection for the Church of England and equal aversion to the Church of Rome than any thing Published hitherto But in my judgement you have mixed so much Varnish as a steady eye may easily discover what need you had of it When we see a falling Star we make no great remarks upon it because it happens so frequently and how bright so ever it appear'd we find nothing upon its fall but a little jelly dropt from the Clouds But when a Comet appears it excites the curiosity of the learned to enquire into its motion the altitude of it and by consulting by-past-times and considering what events happened when such appear'd before to make some Prognosticks of its effects Your Letter is not to be looked upon as a shooting Star or paper Kite but a blazing Star therefore deserves a serious consideration for whatever those formerly reputed meteors did signifie yours most evidently denotes an unquiet temper in those of your persuasion a studious desire in them to estrange the Hearts of Loyal Subjects from their Sovereign a questioning His prerogative and a charging Him with overturning the Laws and an intention to Rule Arbitrarily This fills peoples minds with doubts suspicions and jealousies strows flax all over the Kingdom ready to be set on fire when you by your enflaming Eloquence have prepared Undertakers Therefore I think it the duty of all that Honour the King and love their Country's peace and tranquillity to examine the tendency and prevent the evil effects of such an Apparition But to leave the Allegory and consider the Letter As it is a discourse penn'd with Art and Elegance and beautified with ornament of Language it is delightsom to be read but when the scope of it is weighed the factiousness of it under the smoothness of the periods the unreasonable postulatums the fictitious suppositions and the severe reflections upon the King and His Government it becomes honest Men to enquire into those poisonous drugs that are so artificially gilded and provide
Vengeance and using fiery Tongues and inflaming Eloquence for that end That they only express their resentment against those who in their Apprehensions have too severely Persecuted them for Conscience-sake Such a Plea may be as like to gain belief as your too groundless Accusation of them for Indulgence Charity and Moderation are very consistent The King desires all may enjoy their Religion in peace and hires none to keep up the strife by recrimination and violence nor designs by the taking away of Penal Laws that one Subject should worry another and therein gives you as well as Dissenters a Gracious President and Example to follow o Here in my Opinion you have exposed your friends something disadvantagiously It is an unfortunate thing for any to have combin'd against the Government since it requires much tryal e're their Repentance can be believ'd It is true those that have had the Rickets are found often to have a good share of cunning and wit but by their bowed Legs or some other infirm parts especially in the region of their breast they are easily distinguished from those of more healthy Constitutions The old Proverb is as often true of hasty Converts as of Pardoned Persons That save a Thief from the Gallows and he will be the first will do you a mischief But God forbid all should be censur'd for some Mens double-fac'd Villanies Such Sycophants shall never find me their Advocate let every Herring hang by his own Tayl. Let those who are detected forfeit their neck or hang by it in the Pillory e're I pity them But what I pray do those deserve who never wore shackles or were bowed down e're they comply'd and promise to their Prince strenuous endeavours for His Service and that they will not fail to hit the mark and yet designedly shoot short or over p It is an unhappy state of Kings that when they endeavour by good Methods the ease and profit of their Subjects yet they must be traduced by the insolent Pens of malevolent Subjects Our Gracious King hath afforded a safe Retreat and Liberal Contributions to the Reffugees whom the great neighbouring Monarch hath Exiled and by His Royal Enterprise to get the Penal Laws Repeal'd designs not only His Dominious to be free from all Persecution for Religion but to be a safe harbor for the Distressed and is thereby taking the most contrary measures to what that neighbouring Prince hath done With what effrontry therefore can you charge the King either with imitating His example or corresponding with him in that design I Appeal to the fled Protestants whether they find not as good usage here as any in their condition do in other Countries which methinks carries conviction broad enough that you are a very evil Caluminator It is true there was a time when the belief of Ten Thousand Pilgrims and Black Bills were endeavoured to be crammed down our throats and some were such Cowards then as to be frighted with them Must we therefore be always Impos'd upon and never return to our senses again The frequent discoveries of those Impostures cannot but recruit the most timerous Spirits and restore them to some degree of valour though it will deserve no great Commendation as a Vertue since the thick mist is so exhaled which made us take a crop of Thistles for a Battalion of Pikes q Amongst a Hundred of your florid Sentences I have not yet found one solid Reason why Dissenters should not act as they do in policy or that they want any Advice or Dictator when they follow the conduct of their own Interest They need not go down to those some call Philistines to whet their Weapons which are only praises and thanks which the poorest Beggar without any touch of good breeding knows how to pay for a small Alms. There was a time when Petitions the Elder Brothers of Addresses being formed by the leading Men of the Lower House were posted into confiding Hands to be sent back Ten or Twenty Thousand strong Those tended to the strengthening the hands of the Murtherers of the King and you would now stint a spirit of Obedience and Thankfulness to our King which springs and flows from content and obligation and may be easily discover'd to be sincere in all the Dissenters Speeches Writings and Actions and are so far from needing to be bid that all your Rhetorick cannot forbid them Surely you think not their Thanks to spring like Mushroms without root and in a Night And if you will not admit Dissenters among the Tribe of thinking Animals yet let them have the Reputation of sensitive Plants that shrink at a rough touch and erect their Leaves by a warmer Gleam I see not therefore why Dissenters having the sense of former sharp usage should not perceive their ease and whence it comes and have no reason to question their sincerity of thanks since they are for a matter of greatest import to them they ever receiv'd from the Crown since they sub-divided from the Church of England Yet I believe there hath been more Industry us'd to Disperse such Letters as yours of Caution and Circumspection then ever there was for those Circular ones of three or four Bishops and you are the first Post that brings the News of any that were threatn'd to joyn with them or any affrightments us'd to cause a compliance since they carry with them all the tokens of Voluntariness Vnconstrainedness and Vnsolicitudeness that could be expected Therefore because in good earnest you think they will signifie a great deal you are at all this pains If that which Dissenters have so earnestly desn'd pray'd yea fought for can be called a Triste you are in the right I never thought Addressors so little acquainted with the Constitution of the Government as to think their Addresses equal to Votes in Parliament or that they with the Kings assent constituted the Legislative though they may hope such Votes out of the House may beget others in it I do not think any one that had a piece of Gold given him would be so besotted to refuse it till he had consulted such a scrupulous Gentleman as you whether it were all just in weight and allay or that the giver came honestly by it I suppose you are angry the Dissenters made not their Addresses in this form Great SIR WE would thank You for Your Gracious Declaration but we know not whether the Law impowers You to grant it we have heard indeed of Your Majesties having the excecutive part of the Laws in Your Royal Person and the Dispencing Power and that You desire the Test and Penal Laws may be abolished by Act of Parliament But before we return You our Thanks for the ease You afford us or that we can resolve to give our Voices for such Repeal we desire to consult our common Lawyers and our Elder Brethren the Church of England and then we will give You our Opinion and we do this the rather least you be mistaken in us
Sir we dare not encourage You to be kind to us and we must stay our Addresses of thanks lest we give a Scandal to our Brethren or they hereafter punish us for this forwardness I fancy you have the vanity to hope that your Letter will prevail with some to desist from Addresses upon those motives otherwise what need was there for you to be so urgent with them to suppress their impatience and for the sake of those that are now Abhorrers to stick close to the Act of Vniformity till the King die whom God long preserve to finish this great work in hopes a Protestant Parliament under a Protestant King will grant them better Terms For I hope by the word Parliament you mean not the Two Houses like those of 41 who Entitled them to the Supream Power It seems if Dissenters hearken not to you though at present you are willing to make a gentle Construction of the well meant Zeal of some in drawing others into the Mistake yet you threaten them with Sharpness and Satyr because in strictness the matter will bear it if we believe you r It seems a Dissenter may feed fully but must say no Grace or cry Roast-meat would you have them pet like froward Children because the Benevolence was not offer'd first to them or in the Circumstances they desire it It seems they may privately thank God for putting it into the Kings Heart to grant them ease yea they may enjoy the Advantag e of it but without noise lest some Dog catch the Morsel the Cat purs upon Oh! a publick owning and desire to have Indulgence Establlsh'd by Law is to support an Act irregularly done against the sacred Laws of the Land This is such a Trespass as may no ways be defended but to observe any rules of good manners or dutifulness to the King is a grievous fault Methinks you ought to have brought very undeniable Authorities e're you had presumed to question the judgement of the King His Privy Council and the Court of the Kings-Bench as to the Dispensing Power But since you offer not one Syllable of Argument I shall remit you to Westminster-Hall to defend the point and receive your doom You endeavour gentâ—y to stroke the Dissenters that are under Temptation and Frailties which makes them you say leap over the Objections may be made and overlook the sad consequence of giving thanks not only as an inlet to Popery but the giving a deadly blow to all the Laws by which their Liberty and Religion are to be protected This is an heavy Sentence whereby they are judg'd to sell their Birth-right for a morsel of Bread or a mess of Pottage Let us therefore turn the Optick Glass and you may more surely discover that the King designs no breach of Magna Charta nor to retain any Council for the Prerogative against it but on the contrary to have it confirmed in a much larger extent than ever it was by His Royal Predecessors for it is most certain that all Penal Laws for Religion are so many infringments of it and if you would have Magna Charta inviolably kept you know what Church is thereby Establish'd Here therefore you quarrel with the King for endeavouring to have a Charter of Liberties Establish'd that will be a standard for all future freedom and enfranchisement of Conscience and to infer that the Subjects yielding to this will put them out of the protection of all the Laws that secure their Liberties is no less an ignorant than seditious Suggestion s We are a most happy people in the security we have by Law to enjoy the Liberties the Royal Predecessors of our most Gracious King hath granted But if His Majecty effect His desire in this Repeal He will be the Author of a greater freedom to the Subjects then they ever yet enjoyed so that none in matters of Religion shall be put upon ever Complaining against or the giving up the Question since all pretences of puttng it will be thereby prevented By the operating power of such an Act such a mutual assurance and security would be given as it would be in no parties power to endevour or to desire to mischief or destroy another I fancy indeed some Apparators and Bailifs may suffer a diminution of profit and some men of vindicative spirits may want the assistance of sanguinary and Penal Laws to revenge themselves by But the benefit that will redound to the whole will sufficiently compensate that loss The Kings of England will be the gainers in that they will be no more disquieted with Rebellions upon the account of Religion The Parliaments will be eased of the tiresom disquieting and unpleasing toyl of making Laws upon every emergence to restrain some party or other from their way of Worship and imposing Tests and Oaths according as prevailing Parties have power and when the intestine struggles of every party to manacle and put the shackles and badges of slavery upon each other shall be taken away the Legislative will be at full liberty to attend soly the aggrandizing of our Kings and restoring them to the power and interest at home and abroad of the gloriousest of their Predecessors And to make good Laws for the enriching of the body of the people and by perpetual harmony unite the Subjects in the common band of Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign and mutual love and endearment to one another The Roman Catholicks would have no occasion to repine since they might freely enjoy their Religion and the Church of England would be possess'd of the Dignities and Benefices they enjoy and the Dissenters would be satisfied that they had the freedom of their Tabernacles and Conventicles and all the content of this would be heightned in the peaceable and durable enjoyment of it when it would be in no Parties power to invade the Liberties of another This is the right Scheme of His Majesties generous design and if Dissenters fall not to their old work of stubbing up Episcopacy root and branch it may most certainly continue For the obedience of Roman Catholicks under a Protestant Government we have the most near and compleat instance in the United Provinces where they live with the free exercise of their Religion under a Bishop of their own who is Treated according to his Character by the States to whom they impart their pleasure and by his directions the Roman Catholicks obey So that when the King of France Invaded that Country none stood firmer than They did These pay such an absolute Obedience that if the States should for a time interdict them the use of their Religion they would yield to it So that all you urge as consequences of the Repeal vanisheth upon the very opening the Kings intentions which I dare venture my head that I have more truly declared than You by all your smooth Oratory have made out by suspicions t Expounding of the sense and meaning of Oaths is generally granted peculiarly to belong to the
and room enough to enlarge the Foundations and build stronger Defences against the common Enemy of Persecution if this conspiring against a work which You own Dissenters need and deserve do not destroy it q In this Paragraph you are numbering the people and examining Your strength by the Muster-roll and the head of those Powers you design to Oppose is manifestly the King which is not very agreeable to the Church of Englands Doctrine of Non-Resistance r Good words butter no Parsnips if the Expressions of Duty were not tainted and hollow and in your Opinion His Majesties Religion did not only shade but totally Eclipse His Vertues Your Allegiance would not look as it doth more like a Submission than a Duty nor would You adventure upon that Bravado that some own their best security to Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance which look very like bidding Roman Catholicks beware least they rouse a sleeping Lyon For I know not who they are that Laugh at the commendable Doctrine of Non-Resistance but when I see Men fomenting jealousies against their Sovereign ridiculing His Conduct endeavouring to Represent Him as acting against the Laws assuming an Arbitrary Power denying Him the service of all His Subjects and by all possible Arts endeavour to withdraw the Affections of the people from Him solely because of His Religion I cannot judge such to be true practicers of that Doctrine s Here you give a touch of your Astrology and it being customary for the pretenders to that Art to attempt by Horary Questions to know Diseases and after a while to set up for Empericks So you give us a pretty Receipt to clear a lowring Sky the Sense of which is for all Protestants to lye in of the sullen keep their beds and there use some kind of reasonable Devotion and entertain their Visitants with discourses of their Loyalty and their adhering to the Laws and it will be twenty to one but they will be freed from the Hail-storm and escape the danger of the Infectious Air. But lest any should object that Bed-zid Protestants are not like to keep out Popery you have a most Infallible Elixir in your Repository which is that neither the Church of England or Protestant Dissenters ought to be affrighted with any fear that the Roman Catholick Religion can be Established by a Toleration since the ods is two hundred to one without a greater Miracle than any we read of in any Legend especially in the old Age of a Church which hath been so long barren of them For shame therefore give over your false Alarums amuse the Dissenters no more to such circumspect standing upon their guard to keep out Popery since in our days there is no feeding Five hundred with Five Loves and two Fishes t The conclusion is agreeable to your premises an Exhortation to an Association a gainst the King and all of His judgement in the matters of the Test and the motives to it are pretty odd that since both Parties have been too blame in Persecuting one another therefore they should be reconciled and combine in opposing the Indulgence which is most likely to put an end to all rancor and malice One would have thought that the Inference more naturally should have been that since they both had experienced the mischiefs of Persecution and neither of them bettered their condition by it therefore they should both have joyned in the promoting the general Indulgence that there might be no more strife among them since they were Brethren I am sure this had more truly resolved the Question But instead of this you tell the Dissenters without giving any Reason for it that dis-union is not only a Reproach but a danger to both This I own to be true if the Union you desire were for the publick good of both but if the Union be to combine you and them in equal undutifulness and ingratefulness to the King if this Union be desired to hinder the Kings Progress in His laudable purposes if this Union be but to while the business with a Shall I Shall I to tire the Kings Patience and disappoint His expectation it will redound to both the Dissenters and your Danger if not Reproach To persuade to such an Union as this is the whole drift of your discourse and something you must mean more than Passive Obedience when you rivet the Nail you have all this while been driving in telling your Reader that it is as unjustifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the means of preserving it This looks like a second sound to Horse and you have a pretty slight in your Mouth to persuade Roman Catholicks because you think them so credulous of Miracles to neglect all Cautions or means to preserve themselves but to relie upon a Supernatural Power But those of your Principles must use the Humane Means of preserving it and of how many Battalions these must consist though you have reason to conceal the Intimation from the World yet you give a sufficient Item what may be expected and thereby caution the Government to have more Circumspection over your Sayings and Actions Thus Sir I have now finished my Observations upon your Letter I shall subjoyn something the subject matter induceth me to offer to the consideration of all Christian Dutiful Subjects and then close the whole SIR I have hitherto follow'd the train you have lead me and endeavoured to give a reasonable Answer to the most material parts of your Letter What was bare supposal and groundless suspicion I have not much concerned my self with Those being but like the Feathering of unpiled Arrows which help their flight but enforce them little to do harm where-ever they fall Neither have I attempted to reach the Towring Flights of your Oratory which how Ornimental soever are but like mounting Bubbles which break and vanish when at the utmost stretch Your affrightments when well considered are but like the sparks in a Smiths-shop which upon a brisk heat and stroak fills all with seeming liquid fire yet it is as soon extinguished as the Iron cools or the labouring stroke ceaseth What was Seditious and tending to instigate the Subjects to jealousies and disloyal Opinions of their Sovereign I have endeavoured to Disprove and Repress What was Calumny I have gently wiped off unless when it was couched in such general Terms as placed it beyond all reach of the Spung. Rebells in open Hostility are not so dangerous to a Prince and His Governmet though the severest Punishments are inflicted on them when mastered as those are who by sly Arts Detraction evil Surmises and Constructions render their Prince suspected of Ruling Arbitrarily and altering Religion and Laws and thereby blast His Credit with His people For those are the Men that make the whole Reigns of Princes troublesom and unfortunate to Themselves and their Subjects These List the Men provide Magazines and Arms and prepare all things in readiness against the sound of the Trumpet
and do not only Muster the Rebels but they do as much as in them lyes to enfeeble or taint the Allegiance of the remainder You have contributed all you possibly can to effect these things and exposed your Letter as a Banner to invite to jealousies and fears which are the very Avant-couriers of Sedition and Rebellion and this in you that pretend to be a Son of the Church of England is so much the worse in that you know how strictly it enjoyns Obedience to the Lawful Sovereign and how much the Doctrine of Non-Resistance hath been taught and practised by its Members If the Kings Intentions to settle the Roman Catholick Religion by force which you surely cannot in good earnest believe practicable were much more apparent than it is If the inevitable ruine of the Protestant Religion here should be the consequence of the Repeal and if the exercise of His Prerogative and Dispensing Power were the certain ruine of all Mens Properties you and others who own no other Loyalty to their Sovereign than what is consistent with their supposed Interest could not invent more provoking Reflections upon the King or mis-interpret His Actions worse than you do But how unreasonably undutiful is it in Subjects and those who would be reputed the zealousest for our Church to charge the King with Intrigue and Hypocrisy or breach of promise who of all Princes living detests mear tricks and to prevaricate with any To whom Dissimulation is the odiousest of Vices and whose very In-bred Natural and Heroick courage places Him as much above all low Arts as His Dignity doth above His Subjects Besides all the un-answerable Arguments which have been produced why the taking off the Test and Penal Laws cannot work such a change in our Religion you may consider that at the same time the Church of England may be Insured by Laws of greatest caution Furthermore we have most solemn and publick promises That His Majesty will Protect and Maintain the Church of England in the free exercise of its Religion as by Law Established and in the quiet and full enjoyment of all Her Possessions without any molestation or disturbance which He will inviolably observe If by a stubborness that shall be unpardonable in the judgement of all Impartial Men we forfeit not a Clemency so rarely to be parallel'd To all which may be added the universal aversion of the Nobility Gentry and Commonality to the Roman Catholick Religion occasioned even by the deepest Impression that Education Custom and an Opinion of the Purity and Primativeness of it hath made If none of these Arguments will prevail with you to change your evil Opinion of the Kings designs by the Repeal consider deliberately I pray you how the King must overthrow the very Foundation upon which the great Enterprize of Universal Liberty and consequently of all the Benefits to His people by enriching them and keeping them in peace and securing the Roman Catholicks in future times in any tollerable state if He ever give way to invest any one Church-Community with a Coercive Power But I know it is Objected that if a Toleration only were intended how comes it to pass that so many Loyal Members of the Church of England even of those who so couragiously adhered to the Crown in its utmost danger are now displaced and the Roman Catholicks or Dissenters even such of the last as have most violently opposed His Majesties Succession are substituted in their Rooms In answer to this It is well known that the number of Protestants of the Church of England Employed by the King in His Court in His Council in His Courts of Judicature in Camp and all Places of publick Employments almost as far exceed the Roman Catholicks as our Clergy do theirs and yet we make so hideous a noise at the Conferring Places and Honours upon some deserving and Loyal Roman Catholicks and two or three Masters and a few Fellows of Colleges being Preferr'd which are but the effects of common distributive Justice and consentaneous to the Paternal care of such a Prince who would show some marks of favour to those few of His own Religion who are not now surely to be wholly Excluded Therefore in my judgement it shows a very ill Nature in those who own His Majesty to be their Lawful King and that He may at His Pleasure use the service of which of His Subjects He pleases to grudge His intermixing so few of His own Religion with others Besides this you cannot be ignorant that it never was the practice of any Prince or Government what Religion soever to imploy Subjects in Places of Trust who set themselves directly to oppose what by prudent forecast for the publick good they determined to Establish Now since the King for the Reasons published in His Gracious Declaration is so intent upon compleating this great work of General Freedom and securing those of His own Religion in common with the rest It cannot be thought reasonable or expedient that He should cherish and countenance those who so bitterly oppose him in it Especially since it is so apparent that even such who have shown great zeal for the support of the Crown upon the Heads of their Protestant Sovereigns now manifest not only an indifference and coldness but an unbecoming way wardness to the Kings Service In so much that some decline sitting in Commission with Roman Catholick Justices of the Peace and others think it honourable to quit their places rather than to make one step towards the Repeal so that even the Badges and Livery of Loyalty are changed from that to the King to that of the Church of England and those who make the greatest complaint of hard usage have themselves turned the Tables As to Dissenters it is their Interest to close with the Crown side for Protection and since they can derive this unlooked for favour from none but the King they should be the most ungrateful of Men if with chearfulness and sincerity they did not pay all possible Acknowledgments to His Majesties Bounty for it So that I do not wonder to hear them with great Asseveration say it was not for a Commonwealth they fought and were continually striving against the stream but it was to get the Weather-gage of Persecution It was to obtain this Liberty of Conscience which they never could expect from former Governments that provoked them to commit such Hainous things they now are ashamed of and which indeed they ought to Attone for in another manner than they have hitherto done They now declare that if they might have had the Tenth of that Liberty the Church of England now enjoys under our Gracious King they would never have lifted up an hand or opened a Mouth against the late Kings of blessed Memories and I think they are the rather to be believed because neither the Doctrine nor the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome are so much declaim'd against by them now as those of the Church of England
which they formerly reputed Idolatrous They now think themselves justified in their Espousing the Parliaments side from whom they expected and had Indulgence and please themselves to find another kind of non Addressors and as zealous persons to hinder the Repeal of Penal Laws against their Sovereigns declared desire as they were formerly for it Yet though the Scene be thus changed I hope there are sufficient numbers of such whom the Church of England will own to be her Children that will let no Dissenters out-goe them in Loyalty and Dutifulness to their Sovereign and who are well assured the King will have as great regard to them and our Church for their sakes and as freely permit them the enjoyment of the Exercise of their Religion and Benefices as to any provided they will concur with Him in the Repeal and be content to let their fellow-Fellow-Subjects of different Persuasions enjoy likewise their Liberty That the Members of the Church of England ought to yield this in common prudence and even for the Preservation of their own Religion I think there are many Reasons especially this that as yet the time is not clapsed but that when His Majesty convenes His Parliament sufficient Security may be obtained that the Church of England shall enjoy all the King hath promised and when by the Wisdom of the Houses such an Act is contrived as will answer the Kings desires of the Universal ease of His Subject the Church of England will feel as great effects of the Kings kindness as she can expect or desire and by the freedom all will enjoy there will be no more contests but who shall approve themselves most dutiful and deserving of His Majesties Clemency and Kindness Upon such a closure the Roman Catholicks and Dissenters will freely yield to the mutual security of the Church of England and that Church will regain its Reputation of Loyalty and confirm what you promise in her name of being kind to Dissenters and a Protestant Prince succeeding and finding things thus Amicably Composed will reap the benefit as the whole Kingdom will do of this happy undertaking of the King But on the contrary if the Majority of the Members of the Church of England in Parliament obstinately oppose the Kings desires they will oblige His Majesty to pursue other Methods and it will give occasion to all such as are no great well-wishers to our Church to urge its uncharitableness that rather than it will permit the King to exercise His Prerogative of being served with all His Subjects of what denomination soever He pleases to make use of and that Men of different Professions in Religion may enjoy the favour of the Kings Indulgence they will put themselves out of His Royal Protection and absolve Him from His promise therein and the upshot of all will be that by His Majesties steady pursuit of this great work which He firmly believes will conduce so much to the universal good of His Subjects In a few years by such sedulous countenancing all those who will strenuously co-operate with Him to effect it the Dissenters will obtain the Majority of Voices in Parliament which if once effected those Members of the Church of England who have Obstructed the Repeal will be at the mercy of Dissenters and if the King be not their best Friend may fall short of what they may now so effectually obtain I shall conclude with a short Paraphrase upon the Words His Majesty used to His Privy Council March the 8th 1686. concerning this Indulgence in which the substance of what need be said in justifying the Kings granting it are clearly laid down First His Majesty shows the practice of former Ages and the success of them That although an Vniformity in the Religious Worship had been Endeavoured to be Established within this Kingdom in the successive Reigns of Four of His Majesties Royal Predecessors assisted by their respective Parliaments yet it hath proved altogether ineffectual This is obvious to every one that reads the History of those times and well know to those that lived in the beginning of the Rebellion for Dissenters were then so encreased that they were numerous and powerful enough to overthrow not only the Church of England but the Monarchy that defended it The Kings Words are That the Restraint upon the Consciences of Dissenters in order thereunto viz. to Conformity had been very prejudicial to this Nation as was sadly experienced in the horrid Rebellion in the time of His Majesties Royal Father The King then pitcheth upon the true and principal cause of all those Calamities that befel the blessed Martyr and were freshly commencing again in the later time of His Majesties Royal Brothers Reign which are best expressed in the Kings own Words That the many Penal Laws made against Dissenters in all the foregoing Reigns and especially in the time of the late King had rather increased than lessened them If therefore our Gracious King out of an excess of love and Paternal care did not study the Universal benefit ease profit and enriching of His people He might have pursued former Precedents But as a Wise and Compassionate Prince He searcheth diligently for the true Causes and while too many are busying themselves in Traducing His zeal for His Religion as if it were the only concern of His Royal Cares He Demonstrates to all His Subjects how much more sollicitous He is to find some better Method whereby at once He may Establish His Throne and those of His Successors in a stable peace and security and give Ease Freedom and Riches to all His People of what Persuastion soever Therefore declares That nothing can more conduce to the peace and quiet of His Kingdom and the increase of the Numbers as well as the Trade of the Subjects wherein the greatness of a Prince does more consist than in the extent of His Teritories than an entire Liberty of Conscience That His Majesty may likewise obviate all the great scruple such as you raise as if He did this for any private ends you have His Royal Word to the contrary when He tells all His Subjects That it hath been His Opinion as most suitable to the Principles of Christianity that no Man should be Persecuted for Conscience sake which His Majesty thinks is not to be forced By this His Majesty shows that He grounds not His judgement upon the agreeableness or ungreeableness of it to the interest of any Church but as it is suitable to the uery Principles of Christian Religion and having by this shown His Royal Intentions how to proceed upon that bottom during His own Reign out of a well grounded Confidence that it may be a rule and standard to His Royal Successors He closeth all with this Maxim That it can never be the true Interest of a King of England to endeavour to force Conscience Have not all Men from hence and all His Majesties Actions reason to think there is a Clemency Benignity and tenderness in the King
AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY TO A LATE LETTER TO A DISSENTER Upon Occasion of His MAJESTIES Late GRACIOUS Declaration of Indulgence By a Member of the Church of England LONDON Printed for M. R. in the Year 1687 AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY TO A Late Letter Writ to a Dissenter c. SIR IT is the unhappy state of mankind that the over-weening Opinions and Sentiments which by Education or Custom we have entertain'd incline and warp our minds so to the maintaining of them that we are as difficultly alter'd as the Tree is which bended when a young sappling is rarely by any Art made straight Besides this the tempers of most Mens Souls are such that they easily divide into Parties and being listed as in a state of War they study nothing more than to convince or subdue all those who differ from them Yea we too frequently find that they make those the Object of their aversion or abhorrence who study to compose their eager tempers or direct them to any degree of humanity Hence it is that when National limits are not sufficient causes of quarrels the ranks and degrees of Men the City and Country Fraternities Neighborhood yea Domestical Interests crumble us and cast us into various figures These Jars and Hostilities are fomented by Interest Ambition and all the cross-grain'd passions of our Souls and when Religion mixes with our humane concerns it sublimes all their corrosive spirits and is the universal dissolvent Every one is apt to think the fire of his own Altar the purest and is not content to have liberty to trim his own Houshold hearth and warm himself at his own Faggot but endeavours according to his power to make all gain-sayers Victims and Sacrifices to his Deity and when no Secular Interest moves them the pretended eager Charity to save their Souls and the preventing as they call it the spreading of that Infection makes them mortify them in their Estates or send them to the Pest-house or cut them off as gangren'd Members Hence it is that the Roman Catholick Church the Church of England and Dissenters according as they have had the favour of the Government or could exercise any Authority have each of them punished or supprest the other and have been more or less severe according as the Government judging it to conduce to secure the publick peace was inclin'd to embrace that Religion or the desires of Church-men were more or less pressing to bring all to Uniformity in Faith and Discipline Former Ages have experimented this way of proceeding and it hath been accompanied with the lowd cries of the suffering Parties the decay of Trade the unpeopling of Countries and Intestine Seditions and Rebellions Our unhappy Island hath not wanted Instances of the ill effects of arming by Penal Laws Church Communities one against the other so that the Governing Parties under Religious Denomination have produced almost as much mischief as in Ancient times the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster occasioned and however oppressive the State-Church of England is reputed yet I think it will not be disown'd that when those called Dissenters got the Power in their hands they made greater Ravage and Depredations in Twenty years upon the Roman Catholicks and the Members of the Church of England than had been inflicted on themselves in an Age witness the sequestring decimating and seizing their Estates Fining Imprisoning Banishing and putting to Death of so many and selling the Lands of the Bishops Deans and Chapters Our Gracious King revolving therefore in His Princely Mind the Fatalities that have attended this Conduct and the unfortunate and mischievous Results of such proceedings the effects whereof he had felt Himself hath in His profound Wisdom resolved to try the most probable expedient to still and quiet these so long continued Animosities Contrarieties and Ferments of His Subjects Some publick notices of this He gave in the very beginning of His Reign by Prohibiting in His Courts and discountenancing proceedings upon the Penal Laws But that I may discover the true steps the King made towards it and the foot upon which the late Indulgence stands and prevent some Repetitions I should otherwise be necessiated to use in my Reply to your Letter I shall succinctly touch the Kings Progress and the deportment of some Members of the Church of England and Dissenters before and since the Indulgence At the First Council the King held after his coming to the Crown he expressed the sense he had of the Church of Englands Loyalty and gave us Assurances of His Defence and Support of it This pleased the Dissenters only so far as it gave them hopes that the Protestant Religion might be preserved but they were afraid lest the King might remember their former promoting the Bill of Exclusion and that thereby they should not only continue under the lashes of the Church of Englands Discipline but of the Kings disfavour and having yet the Idea's which had been infused into them of a Popish Successor and the D. of Monmouth giving them an opportunity to make head under the specious pretence of preserving the Protestant Religion as many of them as were near the Scene of Action and were fool-hardy joyn'd with him in that Rebellion and the wishes for his success were not wanting in most of that Party But that Rebellion being so speedily and almost miraculously suppressed they fled to the Church of England for Protection flocked to the Churches personated a Conformity and so closely mixed that they now seemed one Body and one Church Some leading Men of the Church of England finding this great accession of strength and being desirous entirely to win the Dissenters over thought it expedient to let them see how much they had been mistaken in thinking them in the matter of Exclusion to be going over to Rome and being willing to wipe off the Calumny the Dissenters had cast upon them as being Papists in Masquerade they began instantly to shew their utmost Zeal against the Kings Religion When therefore the King pursuant to His Royal design before-mentioned required the taking off the Test and Penal Laws many leading Men of the Church of England set themselves to oppose the King in it and from that day the more they found the King press it the more they shewed their reluctance Suddenly several Ministers able or unable to manage the dispute with the Church of Rome began to confirm their Auditors in the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion and to insinuate the danger we were in to lose it as soon as the Test and Penal Laws should be repeal'd they murmur'd and repin'd at every favour shewn to Roman Catholicks and none were so much applauded as those who lost their places upon their denial to concur with the King in his demands They animated and encouraged one another to stand the shock not thinking perhaps they had to deal with a more resolved Prince than some of His Predecessors nor apprehending or not willing
Memento Mori which shows by your favour an ill nature in you that will not allow a Dissenter the joy of his hony moon In this you are like one that after vows persuades to Enquires But I hope e're I have gone through with this discourse you will acknowledge though your Style is soft and beautiful yet there is a weakness in your Reasonings will not easily prevail with a true dissenter who is not so far gone in his new passion but that he will hear and answer too d Since you quit your exhortatory Preface which was penn'd to obtain Audience and now will let us see your dexterity at Argument I shall endeavour to follow your method owning you have chosen the fittest mediums and if you could make them as convincing as plaufible which is now to be examined you might expect many Proselites e The Kings Justice and Honour was as conspicuous as early in his praises of and promises to the Church of England and I believe in the upshot those Politicians will be found the worst enemies to both who made such ill constructions of the Kings desire of the Repeal So that whatever the Church of England hath or can suffer may be ascribed to their taking the matter by the wrong handle But it is most evident Dissenters were then designed to have a mutual share of Liberty since the King granted noli prosequi's inhibitions and other relexations to them as soon as he did to Roman Catholicks How dutiful it was to reject the Kings Courtship I leave to all un-interessed persons to judge and the more the Instances can be multiplied the greater is the demonstration of the Kings desire to preserve them in their Duty and the more faulty those Men who filled peoples minds with the affrightments of the Kings design to settle Popery and destroy the Church of England which they knew morally impossible and yet continue to make it the only Helmet Argument Those who fly to any for Refuge had need use better Arguments than flattery whilst Dissenters were Rebells they could expect no other Quarter than the Law prescribed if the King had not been most merciful and it is most apparent a greater cause of the granting Indulgence is to take away all occasions and pretences of Rebellion rather than singly to usher in Liberty to Roman Catholicks by that Grace Neither is it any new inclination in the King to relieve Dissenters in Communion with the Roman Catholicks unless you will give him the lie who so publickly avows that it hath been ever his judgment that none ought to be Oppressed and Persecuted for matters of Religion and I think He ought to be believed as soon as any in His Kingdom Therefore if any Roman Catholicks at this time let fall hard words against Dissenters it can be against none but such who they have reason to suspect do act by no publick spirit of preservation for any but their own party and by this show that they have not changed their Nature by the favour that is afforded them f After all the search I can make I neither find it to be an Article of Faith in the Church of Rome to deny Liberty to nor that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and if any Constitution or Decree of a Council be found to the contrary that obligeth not Catholicks in point of Obedience The fallacy of your reasoning is easily detected by pulling out one pin the whole Machine flies in pieces One cannot be a Member in Communion with the Church of Rome or any other constituted Church whether Fallible or Infallible who is by that Church declared a Heretick so that liberty of Communion is only what is inconsistent with the Church of Rome but it no ways follows that Schismaticks or Hereticks in their sense ought not to be tollerated to Live yea enjoy their Worship by the power of the Prince who grants that Indulgence as Father of his Country For it is no Church Membership that is required by Tolleration Suppose any Prince let the Scene be where it will that hath in his Kingdom great numbers of Subjects of several persuasions in Religion must he unpeople his Kingdom of Two Hundred of his Subjects for every single Man of his own Religion according to your Calculation Do you judge in good earnest His Ghostly Father or his Holy Father the Pope will judge him to be in an habit of sin for it or enjoyn him for a Pennance to make such a Carnage no surely they will rather let the Tares grow among the Wheat or if He do not this must he pull ruine upon Himself and all those of His persuasion How Infallible soever the Church of Rome may judge it self yet you must allow she is not quite void of Sense Prudence and humane Policy or will not in several things yield to publick good and necessity You must suppose that Church to oblige that King to a Barbarism even impossible in it self to be effected e're you can make good any such conclusion from the Premises Excommunication is the highest and most destructive Sentence any Church can pronounce and it is to avoid Mutulations Dismembring Incisions and Corrosives for Religion our merciful King proposeth this Repeal since it hath been by too sad experience found how Magistrates Members of other Churches besides that of Rome have been guilty of the same whether with better Dexterity Success or Authority I now dispute not but surely all this harangue tends rather to engage Dissenters at any rate to purchase that Sovereign Panacaea which will prevent Persecution from any hand than to continue in a state of danger g Kings as well as others may Time matters and the Indulgence of a Prince makes no quicker a change in a Dissenter than a Pardon doth after the Malefactor hath his Irons on or the Halter about his neck or the poor Man made instantly rich by finding a Treasure These motions are from extreames as quick and as surprizing Dissenters while under the sense of continual sufferings might be instigated to Rebellion and so be Sons of Belial yet this sacred Ray if such mists as you are casting before them hinder not may well transform them to thankful and dutiful Subjects which is all that is expected It is true if the Dissenters Features be not changed from having a sower sullen murmuring and repining Aspect to that of chearfullness and gratitute Roman Catholicks have no reason to harbour a good Opinion of them Or if they be such Bigots to charge all persons that are not of their persuasion with Idolatry as you know they have done to the Church of England even by that Churches own Argument they are to be instructed better but this hinders not the King to do them good even against their deserts and I think it one of the greater Arguments that you are a most Rigid Calvinist or Brownist rather than a Church of England-Man that make use of this Article and that you are a most
to His Subjects flowing in His Princely Blood from His Royal Ancestors and peculiar to the family which His Religion can never alter so that where the necessity of His people rather han His own safety does not oblige Him to severity We see daily instances of a Mercifulness beyond all expectation and even to the envy of others some of which have been very late and if this difficulty of the Repeal were once over all His Subjects would know that He would deserve the Epethites of Just Merciful and Pacifick as well as any of His Royal Predecessors having that personal Courage and Fortitude over and above what is to be found in few Crowned Heads so that satis est prostrasse must be owned by all His Majesties ill-willers as peculiar to His Generosity I should here have closed this Discourse but that I find His Majesties late Speech to the LORD MAYOR and Aldermen of London when they Presented Him with their late Address hath occasioned a new Misrepresentation because His Majesty mentioned the advantages would redound to the Subjects by a general Naturalization and publick Register which those who suck poison out of every flower censure as manifest tokens that if these be effected the growth of Popery will be promoted which they thus prove First that Naturilization will open a door to let in from foreign parts such sholes of Roman Catholicks that the Protestants shall soon be out-numbered Secondly that a publick Register will so discover all Mens Estates that the King may easily dispose of them when the Laws of Property shall be as now we see Penal Laws are dispensed with As to the first of these malicious Insinuations I desire all thinking Men to consider that it is a very known Maxim that not only the power of any Prince but the Riches of every Kingdom consists in the multitude of the people well Governed Let us now therefore consider who they are that are likeliest to flock hither if an Act of general Naturilization should pass There are none that leave their own Country to Transplant themselves into another Soil but such as have a Prospect to live more at ease abroad than in their own Country and such must be principally those who retire to avoid Persecution for their Religion or are obnoxious to the Laws for some notorious Trespasses against them or such who dare not show their Heads for Debt or lastly those who in the way of Traffick think to better their Fortunes For it is ridiculous to imagine that Roman Catholick Princes will unpeople their Countries to send Colonies abroad unless it were to make War and to such I presume no Law of Naturilization will extend I suppose then no Objections will be made to the incoming of Aliens but such as do it upon a Religious account Let us therefore consider who they are that can flock hither because they want the freedom of their Religion in their own Countries and surely in Europe we can find none except they are Protestants that are in such a state under Catholick Princes and it will be very difficult to believe they will fly Persecution at home to turn Roman Catholicks here Therefore it appears most manifest that the only effect such a Law can have will be to bring from Poland some parts of Germany Denmark Sweden or Holland the French Refugees since England is known to be a place of more comfortable Retreat than those Countries are and if such French or any other Aliens were Dispersed in some proportion through the Kingdom and not suffered all to settle in the Populous City of London there might be hopes that by their Industry and Trades as well as the consumption of the growth of the Country there would be advantage to the Kingdom by their numbers Thus I hope I have made it appear how directly contrary an effect to what is suggested would naturally follow upon a Bill of Naturalization viz. the increase of Protestants if of any As to the publick Register it is notoriously known how attempts have been made in former Ages to have effected this and it is so far from enabling any Prince to invade thereby the Property of any Subject that it is the greatest security to them For by such speedy Transferring Estates as may be done by a publick Register even Forfeitures to the Crown may be prevented when every one in some few hours may pass their Estates Real or Personal into what secure hands they please It is likewise obvious how many frauds would be prevented by it and how much more plentiful Mony would be when none would be in danger of loosing either Purchase or Lent-mony by Pre-Engagements since fewer shifts could be used to deceive any moderately circumspect person The Proceedings likewise in Law-Suits would be less tedious and intricate and yet many Hundreds of Clerks would find Imployment in Registring in every County and Corporate Town and when mony Men could have such such clear Security not haunted with the Spirit of Forgery the middle sort of Traders the Husbandman Farmers and all sort of Men who had honest occasions for ready Mony might be furnished without so great scruple which the doubtfulness of Security now occasions But these being matters to be Transacted in Parliament need no further discussing here Only I thought it necessary to hint these things that all Ingenuous Men might see how unreasonable some Mens suspicions are and what sinister Interpretations Malice and Envy will make of what is most apparently design'd for a quite different end In fine Would we enjoy the free exercise of the Protestant Religion We have the Kings Sacred Promise for it and upon the taking off the Penal Laws and Test we may have it firmly Established Would Dissenters have Ease they have it freely granted without Terms Would we enjoy all the advantages of Wealth Honour Peace Plenty and the Benefits which a Gracious Valiant and Wise Prince may afford Us We may to the height of our Wishes have them yielding only that our Fellow-Subjects in general and those of His Majesties Religion in particular may be all alike freed from any Force put upon their Conscience for matters of their Religion at present and for time to come while in all other Respects they approve themselves Dutiful Subjects FINIS ERRATA PAge 4. line 23. for reasonable read seasonable P. 5. l. 23. for gratefully r. greatly P. 7. l. 8. for hinder r. hindred ibid. l. 39. dele of P. 9 l. 10. for such as Seclusion r. such as Seclusion P. 11. l. 16. for Communion r. common P. 16. l. 29. for cumlocution r. circumlocution