mentioned As first None are to be tolerated but such as accept of the Toleration i. e. acknowledge the Lawfulness of the Absolute Power and swear to maintain it 2. That nothing be said or done in their Meetings that is contrary to the Weal and Peace of our Reign Seditious or Treasonable and that they only exercise in private Houses But what would be interpreted to be Seditious the most cautious Preacher could hardly discern But that all Scotland might know for whose sake the Toleration was granted and who alone would in time reap the benefit of it after a large commendation of the Papists as good Christians and dutiful Subjects it follows We by our Absolute Power suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament made against Roman Catholicks So that they shall be as free in all respects as any of our Protestant Subjects not only as to the exercise of their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them And to this end it follows We do by our Royal Authority aforesaid i.e. the Absolute Power stop disable and dispense with all Laws injoyning any Oaths or Tests c. And whereas the Toleration for Protestants was clogg'd with several Conditions c. this for Papists is amplified in these words We command all our Judges and others concerned to explain this in the most ample sense and meaning c. for their Indemnity I have repeated the heads of this Proclamation more largely that the Reader may see what little reason the Protestants Subjects of Scotland had to return those slavish Addresses which would be too nauseous to repeat It is no great wonder that the Scottish Mobilie should return their Thanks when the Privy Council declared They would assert his Prerogative with the hazard of their Lives and that whoever were employed by him were sufficiently secured by his Authority But that the English Subjects should dance after the Scottish Pipe upon such Winds as blow hot and cold in the same breath is an indelible Reproach of ignorance and of obstinacy against what is their True Interest the support of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties Yet when the like Declaration for Liberty of Conscience dated April 4. 1687 came forth for England tho' the pretences were That it ever had been his Majesty's Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that the perfect enjoyment of their Property had never been in any Case invaded by him when it was known that the rigour used against Dissenters was urged by the Court and many Outrages committed by a Standing Army against the Subjects Property And the suspending of Laws did strike at the very Foundation of Government and Destruction of the Subjects by placing Papists who were not qualified by Law into Offices and Places of Trust Civil and Military it is a wonder how any Faction in England could address their Thanks and promise to stand by the King as a Return of Gratitude for such a Toleration as gave liberty to Turks Jews and Athiests but was particularly designed for the establishing of that Religion which should persecute and devour all the rest and yet there wanted not Addresses of Thanks from all parts of the Nation for this Liberty of Conscience as it is called but really of Confusion The Addresses are so many and fulsome that I shall not surcharge the Reader with them only observe that they were offered by a Generation who succeeded those that petitioned for the Death of the Royal Martyr that addressed Oliver Cromwel and his Son Richard with the like odious Flatteries but that they should address their Thanks for taking off those Laws that kept out Popery and Slavery is more I suppose that their Forefathers would have done only it is evident that it was done on a design to ruine the Church of England though every ordinary person might perceive it had been in the power of the those Addressers Popery and Slavery would have been entailed on them and their Posterity by a Law. And though the Church of England had better Assurances both by the Laws and by their constant adhering to the Crown than the Promises in that Proclamation yet because they refused to return their Thanks they were charged with the brand of Abhorrers by the opposite Factions who might well conclude that since the King failed so much in his most solemn and deserved Promises to that Church which was by Law Established and was the Body of the Nation those scattered Parties which had not deserved any Favour from the Crown could not expect a performance of those Promises But by this we see what slender opportunities some Men are ready to lay hold on to vent their Malice against the Church thô their own Ruine be involved in it And what was the import of such Addresses but to thank the King for dispensing with those Laws and as much as in him lay abrogating and dissolving them which were made as a Fence to the Protestant Religion and for opening a wide gap for Popery and Slavery to come in and triumph over us In April 1688 the King declares That he was encouraged by the multitude of Addresses received from his Subjects to endeavour to establish Liberty of Conscience on such Foundations as should be unalterable And desires his Subjects to consider that for the Three Years last past he was not such a Prince as he had been represented by his Enemies i. e. an Oppressor but a Father of his People And now the Church of England which had merited so many Solemn Promises for their Protection were to have an experiment how well he would perform them for he makes an Order in Council That his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience should be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom Against the Publishing whereof the Seven Bishops who were then on the spot in behalf of themselves and their absent Brethren and their Clergy humbly presented the following Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty Humbly shewing THat the Great Aversions they find in themselves to the Distributing and Publishing in all their Churches Your Majesty's late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience proceeds neither from any want of Duty and Obedience to Your Majesty our Holy Mother the Church of England being both in her Principles and in her constant Practice unquestionably Loyal and having to her great Honour been more then once publickly acknowledged to be so by Your gracious Majesty nor yet from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters in relation to whom they are willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fit when that matter shall be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation But among many other considerations from this especially because that Declaration is founded on such a Dispensing Power as hath been often declared illegal in Parliament particularly in 1662 and 1672 and in the
of England and such Rulers as Defend and Support it are all of them Lying Perjured and Intolerable Persecutors As for his Colleague Mr. Hickringle I shall need to say no more than this That the Design of his Book against Ceremony-Mongers is sufficiently shewn by his other Book against the TEST and Penal Laws as if the Injunction of them were a Persecution for the removal of which Groundless Scandal the following Treatise is now Published The Preface SINCE it hath pleased Almighty GOD in his tender Compassion to a Sinful Nation to set over us a King and Queen who do naturally take Care for us and as industriously seek to Unite and Preserve as the late King did to Divide and Destroy us We should no longer think of shewing our Zeal for Christ as James and John did by calling for Fire from Heaven to consume all such as follow not us and our Opinion but as useful Members under such an able Head Unite into one Body that we may withstand the furious Attempts of our Common Adversaries who incessantly seek to improve the Seeds of Discord which they have sown amongst us for our utter Extirpation And that I may remove and prevent the Prejudices which such as have hitherto Separated from the Established Worship have conceived against the Governours of the Church under Regal Authority I shall here desire them to consider what Condescentions and Concessions they have been always ready to make for the Ease of all Tender Consciences and to which they are ready to Agree when-ever the Supreme Power shall commit the Consideration of those things to the Parliament and Convocation His Majesty Charles the Second in a Declaration from Breda promised a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no Man should be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which did not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that he should be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation should be offered to him for granting such an Indulgence After which he sets forth his Declaration to all his loving Subjects of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Dated at White-hall the 25th of October 1660 which certainly was sufficient to satisfie all sober Protestants He grants a Commission to some Persons of the Presbyterian as well as of the Episcopal Perswasion but what little Effect all these things wrought towards a Reconciliation and by whose Fault will thus appear In his Majesty's Declaration he desired the Dissenters to Read as much of the Common-Prayers as they had no just Exceptions against yet though some had declared they could Use the greatest part of it I never heard that any of them did comply with so reasonable a Desire of his Majesty but instead thereof they Petition for a Reformation both of Doctrine and Discipline and that Commissioners might be appointed to Compile a New Form or Reform the Old. And though the King denied the making of a New having expressed his esteem of the Old in his Declaration Octob. 25. yet Mr. B. or some others drew up another Liturgy in eight Days time which they confessed had many Imperfections yet they call it their more Correct Nepenthe and Protest before God and Men against the Dose of Opium i.e. the Liturgy recommended by the King and Parliament as that which tended to the Cure of their Disease by Extinguishing of Life and to Unite them in a Dead Religion and tell the Bishops If these be all the Amendments and Abatements you will admit you sell your Innocency and the Churches Peace for nothing And in the due Account and Petition they reflect as severely upon his Majesty saying We must needs believe that when his Majesty took our Consent to a Liturgy to be a Foundation that would infer our Concord you i. e. your Majesty meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Liturgy without any considerable Alterations And in the close of the second Paper they tell the King If they should lose the opportunity of their desired Reconciliation it astonisheth them to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce As Basil said to Valens so they p. 117. of their Reply If you will receive the true Faith thy Son shall live which when he refused he said The Will of God be done with thy Son So we say too if you will put on Charity and promote the Churches Peace God will Honour you but if you will do contrary the Will of the Lord be done with your Honours And as to the Laws in a Prognostication set out 1661 p. 12 13. they talk of new Impositions Subscriptions and Oaths Words and Actions which they believe to be against the Word of God this reflects on the Legislators Dr. Stillingfleet observed of the first Plea for Peace That it lookt as if it had been designed on purpose to represent the Clergy of our Church as a company of Notorious Lying and Perjured Villains And that Author in his Answer to the Doctor 's Sermon p. 73. chargeth him with pleading for Presumption Prophanation Usurpation Uncharitableness and Schism And in the Preface of the Second Defence That the Doctor 's Book is made up of 1. Untrue Accusations 2. Untrue Historical Citations 3. Fallatious Reasonings That Learned Doctor had propounded several Concessions to be made for the Ease of Dissenters not without the Consent and Direction of his Superiours as I have been informed all which Mr. B. rejects saying That the Benefit would redound sibi suis not reaching our Necessities p. 21. of the Second Defence I cannot omit what an ingenious Person writes in his Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet which may serve to retort this Reflection p. 68. I will tell Mr. B. a Secret which I have heard but hope he will not put me to prove it That the Parliament made good Laws the Papists out of pretended Reverence to Tender Consciences hindred the Excution of them and some Leading Fanaticks to say no more had private Incouragement to set up a mighty Cry of Persecution to cast all the Odium on a Persecuting Church and Diocesan Canoneers In the Year 1681 was printed an Apology for the Non-conformist Ministers to justifie their Preaching contrary to Law the Book is directed to the Right Reverend Bishops of London Lincoln Hereford Carlile St. David's and Peterborough and others of their Moderation which he calls our best Bishops But with what Reverence and Moderation doth the Author Treat them P. 233. We Humbly lay these Petitions at your Feet and beseech you for the Souls of many Hundred Thousands that you who call yourselves Fathers and Pastors of the Church will not deny them the Bread of Life We beseech you to come out of your Palaces and be familiar with the People and dwell in some Country Village as we have done that you may not see many Hundred Thousands Damned by your means and you have nothing
manner of the Sufferings of those Primitive Christians with the Afflictions and Patience of our Modern Sects we shall find these to be more like pettish and froward Children who fancy Bugbears to themselves and by groundless fears and crying disquiet themselves and others then like those Heroick Christians that indured the most exquisite Torments with invincible patience praying for their Persecutors The Stoicks behaved themselves with a much more imitable fortitude Tormenta a me abesse velim sed si sustinenda suerint ut me fortiter animose honeste geram optabo And thus Seneca Placebit ei ignis per quem fides collucebit He would rather embrace the Fire than betray his Fidelity Whereas our Complainers do by intolerable provocations draw down punishments on themselves and instead of induring them with a Christian patience seek to avenge themselves on the Inflictors How unreasonable the Complaints of such men are will appear if we consider first what their Sufferings have been as to the matter and causes of them Nulli dictum est nega Deum incende Testamentum Idolis Sacrifica It was never said to any of them Deny your God or dye by the hands of an Executioner burn your Bibles or we will burn you Sacrifice to our Idols or we will Sacrifice you Sola fuerunt ad pacem hortamenta ut Deus Christus ejus in unitate coleretur as St. Augustine speaks of the Donatists They were only exhorted to Worship God and his Son Jesus Christ in a peaceable Communion with their Christian Brethren and to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace wherefore he advised them to consider Prius quid secerint deinde quod patiuntur First what they had done and then what they did suffer So shall I desire those that think themselves grieved to consider by what actions and provocations of theirs the Penal Laws that are now in force were procured for Ex malis moribus bonae leges it was the seditious practices of ungovernable Men that gave birth to those Statutes which as the Preamble to those that were made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth declares were made to retain her Majesty's Subjects in due Obedience That there is a necessity of some Penal Laws for the restraint of Evil-doers is the mature judgment of all Mankind for without such every Government would soon run into confusion and therefore every of the complaining Parties have made such Laws and inforced them with more severe Sanctions than those against whom they complain That the making of such Laws belongs to the Supreme Magistrate according to the National Constitution is also unquestionable and it would be ridiculous and bring Authority to contempt to make them and not execute them upon such as render themselves obnoxious by their disorderly behaviour St. Augustine in his 48th Epistle says That it was once his judgment that there was no need of Coercive Laws in matters of Religion lest we should have dissembling Catholicks instead of open Hereticks And therefore he thought that none should be compelled to the Unity of Christ but on second thoughts he altered his opinion and wrote a Tract de Correctione Donatistarum which is extant among his Retractations l. 2. wherein he asserts the necessity of Penal Laws which he grounds on his own experience instancing in the City of Hippo whereof he was Bishop which notwithstanding all his Learning and Endeavours was over-run by the Donatists which set up separate Congregations but by the execution of some Penal Laws was so reduced to Unity as if there had never been any Schism among them for as he observes they being first awed by fear were afterward convinced by truth which they could not hear from their false Teachers And in his 48th Epistle he appeals to them Quis nostram non laudat leges ab Imperatoribus adversus Pagana Sacrificia illius quippe impietatis Capitale supplicium est i. e. Who of us doth not commend the Imperial Edicts against Heathenish Sacrifices although the punishment be capital And in his 50th Epistle he affirms the Laws of the Emperours against those Donatists were a greater act of Charity to their Souls and Bodies as well as Piety towards God than the Indulgence of Julian which was such an occasion of Impiety and Cruelty as had almost destroyed Christianity by permitting Divisions among them wherefore he desires them to consider Quid potias eligatis utrum correcti vivere in pace an in malitia perseverantes falsi martyris nomine vera supplicia sustinere contra Petil. l. 2. which were most eligible either by correction to live in peace or to persevere in malice and draw just punishments on themselves being deceived with a false opinion of Martyrdom and Persecution For as he truly says Non persequitur phreneticum Medicus sed sphreneticus medicum When men that are diseased grow frantick and so ungovernable that they seek to infect and abuse others they that bind them to a better behaviour do the office of a Physitian not a Persecutor and so the Donatists did rather persecute the Laws than the Laws them Leges puniendo non possunt quod ipsi saeviendo potuerunt Epist 170. Nor can any reason be given why such Laws and Penalties should not extend to such as live in the Communion of the Church or separating from it pretend Conscience for their Disobedience for then all sorts of Wickedness might go unpunished seeing that some men have pleaded Conscience as a pretext for the greatest Villanies Now seeing it pleased the Supreme Authority of the Nation having had long experience of the Loyalty and peaceableness of such as lived in Communion with the Established Church to make the Conformity of the Subjects to the publick Doctrine and Worship a Test of their Obedience and Loyalty to the King and having also observed by many Years experience that such as moved Sedition in the State had first raised Division in or made Separation from the Church it pleased them to enact several Laws and Sanctions for an Uniformity in the Worship of God as a means to preserve the publick peace of the State which Laws being the Senatus consulta the effects of the Supreme Authority in Parliaments wherein every Subject by himself or his Representative is supposed to have this Vote they cannot be accounted the Constitutions of the Church any more than the Plebiscita or the Agreement of the People confirmed by the King on the Advice and Counsel of his Parliament and those Laws which on such solemn deliberation and general consent were established cannot rationally be annulled as long as the causes which made the enacting of them necessary are continued And doubtless as the Papists will acknowledge the necessity of them to suppress Heresies and Schisms seeing there is no Nation where their Religion is established where there are not more severe Laws and Sanctions made to suppress such Mischiefs so all other Dissenters will approve of the execution of
beginning of Your Majesty's Reign and is a Matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole Nation both in Church and State that Your Petitioners cannot in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distributing of it all over the Nation and the solemn Publication of it once and again even in God's House and in the time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable construction Your Petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech Your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased not to insist upon the Distributing and Reading Your Majesty's Declaration And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray c. W. Cant. W. Asaph Fr. Ely. Jo. Cicest Tho. Bath and Wells Tho. Peterborough Jonathan Bristol To which His Majesty answered I Have heard of this before but did not believe it I did not expect this from the Church of England especially from some of you If I change My Mind you shall hear from Me if not I expect My Command shall be obeyed The Reasons for not Reading the Declaration given by a Clergy-man being worthy to be transmitted to Posterity I have here inserted A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruine us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to profess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church-doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an obstinate and pievish or factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed before it must imply our own Consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not lookt upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and Men because it is presum'd that I neither do nor ought to read any thing in the Church which I do not in some degree approve Indeed let mens private Opinions be what they will in the
called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument If reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the action in the intention of the command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think myself bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It it against the Constitution of the Church of England which is established by Law and to which I have subscribed and therefore am bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72 declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such Persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgments against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are like to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Tit. 2.15 That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot Speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardize or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruin of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by reading the Declaration have we not reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in itself which I foresee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral action in nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as Fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this Case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws Why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather then comply with it If you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those Great Men who deny it and if the same Questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a compliance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the Power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some Salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more reason for it that one should be offended than the other For the Dissenters who are wise and considering are sensible of the snare themselves