Lordship be mistaken concerning the Laws and Constitutions of Our Kingdom there is the like Occasion for a Right Information therein to be given to his Lordship and all others who concern themselves therein And as he subjoyns the Reasons why the Roman Catholick's are not shut out of Military Employments but are Excluded by Name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of their Country so I may humbly offer to His Lordships further Consideration such Reasons as I think to be cogent why no Dissenter Roman Catholick nor Protestant if Commanded and Authorized by the King and in all other Respects not touching his Religion duly qualified according to Law to Execute any Employment Civil or Military should be Excluded from thence purely because his Religion or manner of Worship is different from that which by Statute-Law is Establish'd to be the publick Worship of the Nation I doubt not but that forementioned Maxim which tends to and is necessary for the Maintenance of publick Peace and equal Justice and which is before declared to be the Opinion of their Highnesses is built upon the same Foundation which his Lordship declares to be the ground why he is very much against all those who would Page 3. Persecute any Christian because he differs from the Publick Establish'd Religion Scil. Because that Light with which Religion Illuminates Our Minds is purely an Effect of God's Mercy to us and inclines to Pity and Pray for those who Err That God would bring them into the Way of Truth and to use all Gentle and Friendly Methods for Reducing them to it And his Lordship may very well say That He could never Comprehend for I think it is not to be Comprehended by any man how any that Profess themselves Christians and that may Enjoy their Religion freely and without any Disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to Overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be Admitted into Employments And let me add to this from the like Reasons of State and Obligation of Religion I can as little apprehend how any that are of the National Religion and may enjoy both that and all the publick Benefits of it freely and without any Disturbance can go about to disturb the Quiet of this Kingdom and to make not only Religious but our Civil Constitutions so to jarr and justle one against another as to threaten the over turning of the whole That so under the Umbrage of Statute Laws in some Respects incoherent if not with the Fundamental Law yet with the present State and Management of Publick Affairs they themselves may be the only Persons capable of Employments Exclusive of those many Myriads in the Nation who upon a Civil Account may justly desire that such Statute Laws may in an orderly Method be either in part or in whole Repealed or so Limited or Explained as that they may not for the future be any more than others of His Majesty's Subjects entangled in or subjected to a loss of their Civil Rights for a good Conscience towards God or Obedience to the Commands of their King in such things as are in their own Nature not only lawful but necessary to be done It may be his Lordship has not taken such strict notice of the Nature of the Government Constitutions and different Qualities of the Respective kinds of the Laws of England as he has done of those of his own Countrey all which are necessary to be known and well pondred before any Solid Judgment can be made in Respect of such Proceedings as have been and are like to be amongst us in the disposal and calling of Persons to Offices Places of Trust and Publick Employments His Lordship is pleased frequently in his Letter to put a great Emphasis upon such Laws as he would not have Repealed in that they are made both by King and Parliament whereas setting aside the subject matter there is nothing more in this then what is requisite to every Statute that passes into a Law some of which have never been observed at all but openly broken every day and no man ever Prosecuted for the breach of it Others Prohibiting some sorts of Trades and Merchandizes which have been Evaded Neglected or Counived at or Dispensed withal upon divers Occasions not needful to be mentioned Nothing is more frequent amongst us then to have Statute Laws made in one Parliament to be Repealed in part or in whole by the next Succeeding and sometimes in the same Parliament if of any Long Continuance But on the other hand the Sages of our Law have in their Law Books delivered certain Fundamental Maxims from which we can never recede as that If a Statute Law should be made contrary to Common Right and the General Law of Nature Reason or Scripture such a Law would be void of it self And when Actions have been grounded upon a particular Statute which in the ordinary construction of words did seem to Intrench upon any Fundamental Maxims Our Judges have given another Interpretation of such Statutes then the words in common construction would bear rather then give Judgment in any special case against such General and Fundamental Maxims The King's Prerogative is part of the Common Law of England and as this is expresly saved in several Statutes so it hath been frequently Interpreted by the Sages of our Law to extend to the Dispensing with Suspending or Pardoning of any Penalty incurred by a Statute-Law whereby no Subject can derive a particular damage to himself and wherein the Kings Power is not expresly limited And where the nature of the Offence is such as may be dispensed with the King is not confined to Number Place or Time for That the Law leaves indefinitely to His Pleasure that the Remedy may be proportionable to the Occasion And tho every Penal Statute is intended in some sense Pro Bono Publico yet it may not be Pro Bono Singulorum Populi And in such cases the Offence is understood to be only to the King's damage in His Publick Capacity of Supream Governour and therefore wronging none but Himself His Prerogative may be Exercised as oft and as largly as he is Gratiously Pleased it shall be in Acts of Mercy Kindness and Goodness to any of His Subjects who are Obnoxious to Penalties by breach of Penal Laws so as no other of His Subjects be injur'd thereby in their particular Rights And in many cases with a Non-obstante in His Grant to a Non-obstante in an Act of Parliament therein Recited His Lordship is pleased to say That it is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who recieve none to a share in the Government or to Publick Employments but those who profess the Publick and Established Religion and that take care to secure it against all Attempts whatsoever But this must be taken with an Exception
as to Military Employments in his Lordships Country as he has exprest it and also with an Exception as to our Kingdom which as Sr. Edward Coke Chief Justice has well Observ'd is divided not only by the Seas but by its own Laws from all the rest of the World for that they have no dependance upon any Forreign Law whatsoever no not upon the Civil Law but are in such a manner Appropriated to it self as that no forreign Precedents are to be objected against it And with this special Exception in the very Act of Parliament for the taking the Parliamentary-Test in Relation to the the King's Majesty that now is being then Duke of York and Heir Presumptive to the Crown which in Right of Succession to His Royal Brother He now Enjoys there is a Proviso made in these words Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend to His Royal Highness the Duke of York Provided had been sufficient and I presume always will be construed only as Redundant But as there is no express Saving so neither is there any express limitation of the King's Prerogative in that Act. I also conceive That His Lordships Assertion ought to be taken with an Explanation or farther Exception of such Governments as by their Laws and Constitutions admit of the Publick Exercise of both Religions Roman Catholick and Reformed and also of all such Imperial Dyets in Germany and Poland as are Constituted of of Princes and Palatinates as well of one as of the other Religion And tho I have no other Exceptions to add in matter of Fact as it is limited to Christian States yet among such as are of the Reformed Religion who acknowledge the Authority and Verity of the Holy Scripture It may be alledged that Ab Origine it was no General Rule Law or Reason of State in Relation to Civil Government That all who were admitted to Publick Employment should be of one and the same Religion I omit to instance those mean Examples which may be given from thence to the Contrary I shall mention only that of the Babylonian and Persian Kings Nebuchadnezzar gave directions to the Master of his Eunuchs to bring the Choicest of the Isralites for Wisdom and Knowledge to stand in the Kings Pallace Daniel and his Brethren were brought and stood before the King tho they neither were of nor would take any care to secure the Kings Religion or the Publick Worship of the Countrey And these and others of their Nation were promoted by him And the Succeeding Persian Monarchs in Places of Trust and Publick Employments and obtained great Priviledges in relation to their own Religion Nation Countrey and Principal City But it is to be observed That tho Liberty-of-Conscience was rarely Interdicted by any of the Great Monarchs before or till the Age after our Saviours manifestation in the Flesh so that to dissent from any Established Religion was no impediment to a Secular Employment yet an Antichristian Spirit ever and anon discovered it self in such as had a form of Godliness in their Disturbing and Opposing the true Servants of God in the Peaceable Enjoyment of their Civil and Religious Liberties upon the account of their dissent from such Forms of Worship as by Custom or Tradition were commonly used Reformation according to the Revealed Will of God has often been maligned whereof we have also divers instances in Scripture one I shall mention because tho it be a digression it seems apt to our present purpose The Laws of the Medes and Persian were as by a stated Maxime esteemed unalterable Cyrus their King as also his Successors having experience of the Wisdom and Fidelity of some of the Jews in their Captivity not only placed them in Publick Employments but granted them as a special Favour the Rebuilding of their City and the Temple of God and Restitution of His Worship at Jerusalem according to the Divine Law. The Kings great Officers and the Nations inhabiting in the Countries Adjacent tho they pretended to seek and do Sacrifice to the same God yet being Adversaries to the Jews Restitution and Reformation of Divine Worship obtained countermands to this Persian Kings decree and even in the Reign of Cyrus hired Councellors to frustrate the Jews purposes and by Royal Orders obtained contrary to the first Decree Interrupted the Progress full Accomplishment thereof for many years after And tho these King had Experience of the Fidelity of the Persons to whom these Favours were granted yet on Pretensions that the Grants would be to the Kings damage and that the Jews in general were as some of them at certain seasons had shew'd themselves to be a Seditious People They were prevented for a long time of the full Enjoyment of the Priviledges Granted In like manner so far as the parallel in a due construction will bear If the States of the United Netherlands had made such a Judgment Universally of all that were of the Communion of the Church of Rome That they were and would be persidious to their Civil Governours of another Religion And had for that Reason in the first formation of their State rejected those Roman Catholicks who joyned with them in defending their Publick Liberty They never could have had that Experience of their Fidelity and Eminent Service for which his Lordship now applauds them It is not my part to speak any thing more concerning the English Roman Catholicks upon this ccasion then only to refer to such of our Laws as in Ages past were made by them to Vindicate and Guard the Kings Prerogative and the Rights of his Subjects against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and Clergy of that Communion But I conceive his Lordship by observing the different conduct of those of the Reformed Religion where they have the Government toward the Roman Catholicks from what the Roman Catholicks is where they have the Power and reckon themselves safe towards those of the Reformed Religion hath administred a fair occasion to His Majesties Subjects of that Communion to manisest how far it consists with their Religion and Resolution whether admitted into or debarr'd from places of Trust and Publick Employments indispensably to persist in their Obdience to the Soveraign Majesty of this Kingdom and Amicable and Peaceable Behaviour towards all their fellow Subjects of the Reformed Religion And whether they will contribute their assistance in their respective Capacities for establishing and preserving Liberty of Conscience on such a Foundation as may secure all sorts of Dissenters now and herereafter from all Penalties and Coercion For if by any such Declaration it should appear we have English Roman Catholickt like unto those of the Netherlands This might perhaps make way for some distinctions to be made in future provisions by Law as heretofore has been done between some Roman Catholicks and others so as to avoid the general condemnation of all who are of their Communion as other parties have been to the injury of many Thousands
by whole sale and if it should ever hereafter happen upon proof That any of our English Roman Catholicks should do Eminent Service in defence of the Public Peace and Liberty I make no doubt but the consequence would extend farther with respect unto such individual Persons then it did with the Papists in the Netherlands For greater Fidelity to the Publick Interest could not be shewn then to hazard their Lives and Persevere in their Constancy with the Reformed Protestants in defence of their Civil Liberties against Armies of their own Religion when any Act of Treachery as the Princes of the Philistians said to the King of Gath concerning King David might have Reconciled them to those of their own Communion 1 Sam. 27.4 5. perhaps with a secular Advantage to themselves and Hazard if not certain Ruine of the Lives and Liberties of the Reformed Protestants Certainly those Individual Persons if the Conditions of their Service were not before hand expresly limited to a Military Station might think they were hardly used to be excluded by Name for the sake of their Religion from all share in the Government and other publick Imployments which they had been instrumental with others to recover and defend There is one passage more in his Lordship's Letter which will lead me to what I have farther to add upon this occasion His Lordship says He would gladly see one single good Reason to move a Protestant that fears God and that is concerned for his Religion to consent to the Repealing of those Laws that have been Enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament which have no other Tendency but to the Security of the Reformed Religion and to the restraining of the Roman Catholicks from a capacity of overturning it These Laws inflict neither Fines nor Punishments and do only Exclude the Roman Catholicks from a share in the Government who by being in Employments must needs study to Encrease their Party and to gain to it more Credit and Power which by what we see every day we must conclude will be extreamly dangerous to the Reformed Religion and must turn to its great Prejudice I have before declared I have been long reckoned among dissenting Protestants and do acknowledge it is my Duty above all earthly things to Fear GOD and to be concerned for my Religion But I must beg his Lordships patience and permission to enquire into the true meaning of this Passage before I attempt to satisfy his Lordships desire 1. Because I cannot find any such Law as is effectual our present State considered to keep Reman Catholicks and no others out of Imployments or that do not either directly or of necessary consequence tend to the inflicting of Fines and Punishments on them or any other Dissenters if they resuse or without the qualifications required accept the execution of those imployments 2. I premise there may be an Explaining Qualisying or Repealing any Laws in part without a general or absolute Repeal of the whole Law an instance of this kind we have in the Reign of King James the First in the Third year of His Reign a Law was made for some persons taking and subscribing the Oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance in the form prescribed In the Seventh year of the same King another Law was made wherein notice is taken of a just desence of the said Oath against false and unsound Arguments undertaken and performed by the Kings Majesty to the great contentment of all his loving Subjects notwithstanding the gain-saying of contentious adversaries and in this last Act it is said That the form of the Oath tends only to the Declaration of such duty as every true and well-affected subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the command of Almighty GOD ought to bare to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors And Enacts That every person above the age of Eighteen years therein mentioned and intended shall Make Take and Receive a Corporal Oath upon the Evangelists according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Oath set forth in the first mentioned Statute before such persons as are in that Act expressed In the Kings Epistle to all Christian Monarchs Free-Princes and States Prefixt to his Apology his Majesty declares That his Intent in that Oath was only to meddle with that due temporal obedience which his Subjects owed to him and not to intrap nor inthrall their Consciences And in Answer to the Popes Second Breve That such as had taken this Oath had sworn to no more than their Natural Allegience The Kings Intent being thus declared His Apology approved by Parliament and the Oath Explained satisfied many so as to take the said Oath which otherwise would have scrupled it Another instance we have in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in the First year of her Majesties Reign that Statute which prescribes and enjoyns the taking of the Oath called the Oath of Supremacy by all the Clergy and Temporal Officers whereby they obliged themselves to assist and desend the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors in all Jurisdictions united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm does also among other things unite and annex to the Crown all Jurisdictions Spiritual and Ecclesiastical which had before or might Lawfully be exercised for Reformation of all manner of Errors Heresies and Schisms This Act and Oath occasioned many seruples in the minds of her Majesties Subjects for which cause soon after the dissolution of this Parliament and about four years before the Calling of the next her Majesty besides the dispensations which she gave to particular Persons upon special reasons published a Book commonly called the Queens Injunctions wherein she was graciously pleased by her Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs to declare such a construction and sense of the words of this Oath exprest in other words much different as gave Her Subjects in general relief therein and acquitted such of them as should in the sense she declared take the said Oath from all manner of Penalties which were very great against such as should refuse to take the same In the next succeeding Parliament which was held in the Fifth year of her Majesties Reign this Oath of Supremacy was enjoyned to be taken not only by all such persons as were mentioned in the former Act but also by every Member of the Commons House of Parliament and it was Enacted That such as should enter into the Parliament House without taking the said Oath should be deemed no Member thereof and should suffer such pains and penalties as if he had presumed to sit in the same whithout Election Return or Authority But it was also therein provided That the said Oath should be taken and expounded in such form as was set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Injunctions published in the First year of her Majesties Reign which was exprest in the Act and refer'd to the said Injunctions by which it more plainly appeared and in the Eighth
year of her Majesties Reign in an Act then made it is recited That the Queens Highness in Her Letters Patent to any Archbishop Bishop or others for Confirming Investing and Consecrating of any Person elected to the Office or Dignity of any Archbishop or Bishop had not only used such Words and Sentences as were accustomed to be used by King Henry and King Edward her Majesties Father and Brother in their like Letters Patents made for such Causes But also had used and put in her Maiesties said Letters Patent divers other general VVords and Sentences whereby her Highness by her Supream Power and Authority had dispensed with all causes or doubts of any imperfection or disability that could or might in any wise be objected against the same And the same Statute declares That all Acts and Things done by any Person or Persons by vertue of her Majesties Letters Patents or Commission about any Consecration Confirmation or Investing of any Person or Persons elected to the Office or Dignity of any Archbishop or Bishop within this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions since the beginning of Her Reign should be judged and deemed by Authority of that Parliament at and from every of the several times of the doing thereof good and perfect to all respects and purposes any matter or thing that could or might be objected to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding and provides that all tenders of the Oath of Supremacy before that Sessions by vertue of any Act made in the first Session of that Parliament which was about three years before and all refusals of the Oath so tendered by any Archbishop or Bishop should be void and of none effect or validity in the Law and that no person or persons should at any time afterwards be impeached or molested in Body Lands Livings or Goods by occasion or mean of any such Certificate touching or concerning the refusal of the said Oath and in the preamble of this Act it is declared That the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm it was thought convenient thereby to touch such Authorities as did allow and approve the making and consecrating of the Archbishops and Bishops to be duly and orderly done according to Law. By which proceedings it may appear That the extent of the Oath of Supremacy as it might have been taken to be by the first Statute was by the Queens Admonitions explained limited and restrained Any deficiences which were or might be construed to be in the second Act or in such words and sentences as were used by her Predecessors for Confirming Investing or Consecrating Archbishops or Bishops being one of the great States of this Realm were by general words and sentences in the Queens Letters Patent and Commissions supplyed All causes and doubts of any imperfection or disability were by the Queens Highness Supream Power and Authority removed out of the way and all that was done pursuant thereunto declared to be good and perfect at and from the time of the doing thereof In the King's Apology before mentioned his Majesty reflects upon the Pope for having in his Breve dealt both indiscreetly with his Majesty and injuriously with his own Catholicks With his Majesty in not refuting particularly what special words he quarrell'd in that Oath which if he had done It might have been that for the fatherly care the King had not to put any of his subjects to a needless extremity he might have been contented in some sort to have reformed or interpreted those words With his own Catholicks for either if the King had so done they had been thereby fully eased in that business or at least if he would not have condescended to have altered any thing in the said Oath yet would thereby some appearance or shadow of excuse have been left unto them for refusing the same not as seeming thereby to swerve from their Obedience and Allegiance unto him but only being staid from taking the same upon the scrupulous tenderness of their Consciences in regard of those particular words Herein if the King does not assert his Prerogative to extend to reforming the words of an Oath Established by Law for the ease of the Consciences of some of his Subjects yet his Majesty plainly intimates some regard is to be had to those who did not swerve from their obedience but were only staid from taking this Oath through scruples of Conscience In the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth King James the First King Charles the First King Charles the Second divers Grants were made or confirmed and Toleration given to Strangers for exercise of Religion in the Principal Cities and Towns of England as London Norwich Canterbury and Southampton in Forms different from the Act of Uniformity of worship with a Non obstante to that Act And Charters in like manner in the Reign of all or some of the three last Kings to divers of their own Subjects for exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in Forreign parts within their Majesties Dominions with a dispensation as to Laws in force relating to Religion and requiring Oaths of Obedience in the form prescribed by such Laws and though some of these Dissenters who obtained these Grants have contrary to the common rules of Justice and Equity inflicted temporal penalties upon such of their brethren as have dissented from the forms of Worship established by their own municipal Laws and have therein usurped a power over Conscience which they desired and obtained by Grant from the King might not be exercised in reference to themselves yet those Regal Grants made to secure them from the penalties which otherwise they might have incurred by their Nonconformity to the General Laws in being respecting Religion Sacrament and Oaths which reacht not only throughout the Realm of England but all other their Majesties Dominions have been continued and renewed without ever being taken notice of in Parliament as an extention of the Kings Prerogative beyond the due bounds of Law. By all which instances it seems to me evident that his present Majesty has not by his Gracious Declaration of Indulgence exercised his Prerogative in any Case or upon any other Grounds than has been done before by his Royal Predecessors respecting the nature of the things but only in the degree as it is a more general extensive and comprehensive Act of Grace than any of those special Grants which have been made by his Progenitors grounded upon the most universal and evident Maximes of Religion and Civil Government viz. That his Majesty may have the benefit of the service of all his Loving Subjects which by the law of nature is inseparably annext to and inherent in his Royal Person without imposing upon any of them such Religious Tests or Oaths as they cannot in Conscience to God submit to The present Laws which require taking of the Sacrament Oaths or Tests in order to a residing in the Kings Courts or presence or
executing offices and places of trust declare the Reasons thereof to be in that of the Twenty Fifth of the Late King For preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants and quieting the minds of his Majesty's good Subjects And in that of the Thirtyeth year of his Reign For that divers good Laws had been made for preventing the increase and danger of Popery in this Kingdom had not had the desired effects by reason of the free access which Popish Recusants had to his Majesty's Court and by reason of the liberty which of late some of the Recusants had and took to sit and vote in Parliament and for the safety of his Majesty's Royal Person and Government I do not remember any Law passed in the five years interval between the first and last Test which from the Subject matter of it can be supposed to be influenced much less carried by any Roman-Catholicks taking a liberty to sit and vote in Parliament nor that any Roman-Catholicks were in that time or for five years after the last Law prosecuted to effect so as to suffer the penalties incurred by either of those Acts. If a due observance and execution be the life of any Law and if upon enquiry it should be found that this was wanting it may thence be infer'd if any Roman-Catholicks did within this time reside in this Majesty's Court that a Law of this nature where the King will not incourage and much more where he will stay the prosecution is but as a dead letter and never like to attain its end in that respect And when all is done that can reasonably be thought of in this kind it still remains to be farther considered whether the King in being be not the sole and proper judge of his own safety and which of his Subjects shall have liberty to reside in his Courts and come and abide in his Royal presence And if after the passing these Acts the Late King had as his present Majesty has required many of his dissenting Subjects Roman-Catholicks or Protestants who could not in conscience take the Sacrament Oaths and Tests in the form prescribed to attend his Person and execute his Lawful commands with a Non obstante to these Poenal Laws I see not how they could have been justified in refusing to obey such commands nor if they therein do no more than what they are obliged to by their true duty and service of Allegiance how it can consist with reason and good conscience that they should be prosecuted upon these or any such like Poenal Laws for refusing to qualify themselves for such duty and service in the sorms thereby prescribed which are contrary to their conscience when the King is pleased to dissence with such Laws and is otherwise satisfied of their Fidelity There is one thing more which the Subject matter of the Oaths and Tests enjoyned by these Laws lead me to consider I take the main drist of them to tend to a discrimination between the understanding and conscience of some men from others concerning the Religious Opinions and Practice therein to be attested in reference to their being admitted into or excluded from the Royal presence Publick Trusts and Imployments and that the weight of these Laws lies principally in securing the Natural and Civil Rights of the Supream Governor and his Subjects from being invaded by Recusants and though the security of the Protestant Religion might also be in the eye of our Legislators yet the keeping out false Doctrines Superstition and Idolatry from corrupting our Religion was not that which was especially considered in framing these Laws and Tests For if it should be supposed that these Laws because they require Tests of a Spiritual Nature in order to admission into a Civil Imploy are capable of any such Interpretation as may lay the weight of any Persons being excluded from such Places upon this That they are Persons guilty of False Doctrines Idolatrous and Superstitious Practices and therefore not fit for any Trust in the Government because the admission of such Persons into those Places has a tendency to corrupt the Reformed Religion Then it would also follow That whoever is guilty of any other such-like False Doctrine Idolatrous or Superstitious Practice or of any open irreligious Crimes rank'd with and of as hainous a nature and as destructive to all True Religion as These are equally unfit for such Places Which Opinion if followed would require Tests of another kind besides these now prescribed For the same revealed Doctrines and Rules which instruct us in the Nature and Use of the Sacrament and other Holy Mysteries of the Christian Religion do also instruct us and give warning That none be deceived neither Fornicators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners no more than Idolaters shall inherit the Kingdom of GOD. The Spirit and Soul of the Christian Religion which is pure and undefiled before God consists in the Exercise of Faith Love Hope and such-like Graces which do all tend to an internal Sanctity and to a Manifestation of it self in suitable acts of Piety Charity and Mercy And unless such Tests be added as have a tendency to discriminate such as are Religious from others who are openly Prophane the testifying against one sort of False Doctrine or Idolatry only will no more Secure our Religion against the growth of Irreligion or Prophaneness which is as bad as the worst Religious part of Popery than if he that served Malcham should be excluded when he that served Belial might be admitted But since this cannot be neither is it required to be in reference to Mens enjoying their Natural and Civil Rights it remains only to be considered Why any one sort of Idolatry or Superstition should exclude any Person from Publick Imployments rather than another And this may be not from the nature of the Worship but from the combination of the Worshippers against all others And if this can be separated or other sufficient Caution provided we may be as Secure both in our Civil and Religious Liberties when these Tests are no more as we were before they were made And for the accomplishment of this nothing can have a more direct and natural tendency than such a Repeal or Qualifying of Poenal Laws and Tests as may set such of the R. Catholicks as shall oblige themselves to be true to the Government and Interest of the Nation upon the same terms of Security for enjoyment of all their Civil Rights with the rest of their fellow-Subjects notwithstanding their Dissent in Religion It was the great Wisdom and Care of King James the First as he declares in his Apology to distinguish such of his Subjects as were Papists and the Rule will hold to every other sort of Christians who retaining to themselves their religious Opinions would acknowledge their Fidelity and Civil Obedience to their Soveraign from such others as would not so
evident such Human Laws have been in process of time and may be again from the Reasons before expressed subject to such Mutations as to inflict Penalties for doing that at one time as if it were in its self a Crime which at another time they command under the like Penalty to be done as if it were a positive and indispensable Duty And the removing of all temporal Penalties and Incapacities from such Religious Laws and Tests seems to be so much the more reasonable because it has always been and is granted on all Hands That the Natural and Civil Rights of a Supream Governour are neither more or less whether his Conscience or Religion agree with or differ from the Religion Established by Statute Laws within his Dominions and the same reason may hold that such of his Subjects also as differ from the Established Religion may notwithstanding their different Sentiments therein be upon an equal Foot with the rest of their fellow Subjects as to the enjoyment of any Civil Rights or Priviledges especially considering that it is not essentially necessary to nor under the immediate care or concern of the Civil Government that all their Subjects should be compelled by any temporal Penalties or Disabilities to be of one and the same Religion and that by other Cautions a of Civil and not of a Religious Nature the Peace and Security of the Civil Government may be sufficiently provided for IX The contemplation of that series of Divine Providence which has of late Years been manifested amongst us administers some ground for caution That we do not irregularly resist the effects of it nor fret under it so as to transgress the general Laws of Government by adhering too much to the Letter of some Statute Laws which agree not very well with the present state of it and may admit of an alteration without the breach of any Divine Law if a Liberty for every Mans exercise of his Religion according to the Dictates of his Conscience guided by common Reason and the measure of his Understanding of the Will of God therein with Security to his Natural and Civil Rights be of more value in its self then an Uniformity in any Mode of Worship which is not of choice or voluntary but constrained by temporal Penalties Then what the King desires herein ought to be complyed with for its own sake And if too much insisting on an outward Form of Godliness under colour of Law or exercise of Power even to the prophaning of the Sacred Mysteries to so mean a use as not only to keep or turn Men out of civil Imployments but to make them subscribe to the granting or denying a License to sell Ale so little regarding the Power of Godliness may be a just cause from above to make us fear other Exercises then we have yet felt it is high time for us to seek after some other means to preserve our Religion and Civil Rights then by continuing such Laws in Force as have given occasion or have been made use of to countenance such abuse of the Sacred Mysteries And whatever our Fears may justly suggest as to future Events it seems to be much more justifiable and prudent to subscribe to and also improve the present Occurrences of Providence by all such means as are agreeable with our present Duty to God and the King and equal right-doing to all Men and thereby to seek and secure the peaceable and fre-exercise and enjoyment of our Religious and Civil Rights in such Methods as are proposed by his Majesty for this present Age leaving the Events in Ages to come to the issues of the same Divine Providence which has brought us to the state we are now under then by resisting the present Occurrences thereof and contending to maintain a particular Interest to the prejudice of man others who are not wrapt up therein under colour of some present Laws not agreeing with the present state of our Government to hazard all our Settlement during this Age upon a presumption we may in the Generation to come obtain a better Settlement which presumed better Settlement is so only in esteem with relation to such Interests as may be therein comprehended exclusive of many and we know not nor have any certainty how many or what Interests shall be comprehended therein or excluded thereout For such as acknowledg the Divine Providence in bringing about the Changes in Government which have already hapned and are visible amongst us will be safe and quiet at least in their Consciences in doing that which is indisputably lawful in its self if not a present indispensable Duty and trusting to the same Providence as to future Events whatever may happen Then any can be who shall be Instrumental to hinder our present Settlement in opposing such a Course as is lawful in its self and contending in such a manner as is manifestly inexpedient for the present Season and very disputable at the least whether it be consistent with our present Duty to God and to our Soveraign in case the immediate Consequences or future Occurrences of such an opposition should prove otherwise then they expect or desire X. Another Consideration arises from the termes of the last Test and tendency of the Law by which it is Established The Law is perpetual and reaches not only to the then present King and Queen but to their Royal Successors Kings or Queens of England And if any Subject to perpetuity who should at any time afterwards be convict of Popish Recusancy come advisedly into or remain in the Presence of the King or Queens Majesty or into the Court or House where they or any of them Reside he shall incur and suffer all the Pains Penalties Forfeitures and Disabilities in that Act mentioned or contained unless every Person so Convict do respectively in the next Term after such his coming or remaining take the Oaths and make and subscribe the Declaration prescribed in his Majesties High-Court of Chancery And if any Peer or Member of the House of Peers or Member of the House of Commons shall presume to do any thing contrary to that Act he shall be thenceforth deemed and adjudged a Popish Recusant convict to all intents and purposes whatsoever And shall Forfeit and Suffer as a Popish Recusant convict This last Clause is somewhat unusal for it might have sufficed if a Protestant Peer or Member presumed to do any thing contrary to that Act that he should suffer like Penalties as a Popish Recusant without being deemed or judged a Popish Recusant Convict for that lays him under many more Penalties besides those innumerated in that Act but that which relates to the Queens Majesty for the time being is more observable in reference to Her Servants and Attendants for the Proviso which was proper for the then present Queen who is now the Queen Dowager that nothing in the Act should relate to any Person being a natural born Subject of the King of Portugal who should then