Judgment was always fallible and very apt to make false conjectures some People could not think His Majesty would prove a Prince so Gracious Merciful and Indulgent for that were uneasy and who would have thought that some men that insisted so much on Passive Obedience to the Successor shou'd be now Impatient and almost Disobedient under his Reign To Distinguish themselves out of their Loyalty may shew their Logick or their Law but never will their Love and Allegiance I am asham'd to see men labour to make * Vid. Tryal of the New Test page 2. Law and Loyalty the same as if People when they have got a Capricious Interpretation in their Head have Authority to spoil the Common acceptation of a Word We all know forsooth as well as the Criticks that Loy signifies Law but was ever Loyalty taken yet in common discourse for Lawfulness too we are bound to do all that 's Lawful Right to one another by Law are we therefore one anothers Loyal and Liege Subjects but to take it in their Perverted Sense or that of Coke Littleton to Defend this Kings Power of Dispensing is the most Loyal Act you can do since by those very * 2d Inst p. 496. Lawyers the Kings Prerogative is maintain'd to be the Best and Chiefest Part of the Law. But I am sorry to see Church-men now assume this very Notion for * Liegeance is the Proper Loyalty and that implys an obligation of obedience from the Subject to the Soveraign by Birth by Nature who is call'd their Natural Lord without respect to Municipal Laws Vid. to this purpose 2 Inst 128 7 Report p. 4. and many Acts of Parliament a reserve to their Love and Allegiance when to my knowledg this very quibling on the Word was us'd not long since by those they call'd Wiggs and Phanaticks and was by the Prerogative-Lawyers of those times laught at and refuted 't is the Fate always when men begin to grow Factious to contradict themselves as if what was Loyalty under one Prince was not so under another and one King cannot dispense with what the other Can. Faction and Malicious Accusation can never carry the cause against Loyalty and the King consider in the Common Case of Felons and Malefactors the credit of their Accusers is in nothing more Invalidated then by proving any manner of Malice in their Prosecutors and pray then let the King when He 's arraign'd for the sake of his Prerogative have but as much Priviledge as a Prisoner at the Bar when his Accuser too appears the most Malicious and what is more by Process upon Record the greatest Malefactor the Law in many Cases Implys a Malice but here it is most plain beyond Implication if you Consider the Libells the learned Doctor has lay'd at your doors are penn'd by a Person that wanted more preferment here and who for his misdeameanors was turn'd out of the little he had By one that * Vid. First Letter to Ld. Midd. left England and I believe him with his Maiesties Approbation and by his commands was forbid to return By one that ly's * Vid. His Process and Citation charg'd with no less than High Treason and who confesses in the Second Address that he sent to the Secretary that such proceedings shall provoke him Whatever is the veracity of the most moderate Man he must not be believ'd when he rages most Immoderately no more than a Bear is to be trusted when you have baited him only because before he was quiet and tame and mens Passions too in spite of our boasted Reasoning even by being too much exalted can debase themselves so far as to become brutal and then the deliberate mischiefs they do are the more dangerous from the sagacity of that seduc'd reason that then truly sells it self to do wickedly and what more Ingenious Revenge could an enrag'd and * Vid. Second Letter provok't bassal take against his Liege Lord then such a pretty expedient for the renouncing his Allegiance And that he means by it more than a * Vid. Third Temporary Revolt to a forraign Jurisdiction will appear from some passages in his own Papers when he suggests to our Peaceful Subjects here the * Vid. Six Papers pag. 22. Principle of Mr. Hobbs his State of War and the Scurvy Paragraph of self Preservation when he insinuates also that his Faith to his Prince may be Temporary too at home and to last no longer than the King will Countenance or Protect What more Malicious Construction can be made from the plain meaning of Express words The King Declares no one shall suffer for meer Religion And what says the Dr Why then when Religion and Policy are interwoven they can claim * Vid. Ibid page 23. no benefit by the Declaration Would the Doctor oblige the King from his Liberty of Conscience to Tolerate Robbers and Murderers for it is the Policy and Publick safety of the State that punishes them still or is it possible that people when they suffer for any other offence that by Law is truly Criminal can be said to suffer for meer Religion when by Law too that is made no Crime at all Or would the Doctor have had the KING's mercy to have Anticipated the Justice of future times and extended to the Crimes which hereafter on the Pretence of Religion they may possibly Commit and yet this with prejudic'd persons must pass for Reason that has nothing in it of Common Consequence and that the Doctor may not want contradiction too for malice will make wise men commit absurdities tho I am sorry to see so Celebrated a Reasoner run himself into such misfortune only for the defaming of his own KING at the same time he would refute for it the French-man for too much Praising of His. In one * Vid. Continuation of Reflection on Mr. Varil p. 5. Page of his Reflections he makes our Queen Mary to get the better of the Monarch of France to be more fiery in her persecution and to have Animated the bloodiest of her Bishops Bonner he makes her as much a Monster as his own malice or that of the other Sex can make a Woman well to be or be well imagin'd and what 's the meaning of all this Why Here 't is very fit for his purpose so to do and the Doctors Satyr must come in here only in opposition to the Monsieur 's Panegyrick but then in another * Ibid. pag. 150. Page this same Q. Mary was a Woman so far from delighting in seenes of blood that her Clemency was much magnify'd and the mildness of that Princesses Reign gave no Cause to complain of the Rigor of her Proceedings and what 's the matter now Why the KING the Council the then Chief Justice are all to be Libell'd and the Clemency to Wiat's Crew set against the Doctors Cruelty in the West and I warrant you we should have heard nothing of Queen
for crimes they cannot but commit are certainly the same to the sufferers in the Penalties and Pains they are to undergo whatever be the Lawfulness of the Authority that inflicts them 'T is as small advantage to a man that has all his goods confiscated for the Twenty pounds a Month to think he was ruin'd by an Act of Queen Elizabeth as if he had been plunder'd by an Army of Olivers and as little comfort for the poor Priest that must be Hang'd for his Habit to say he dyes Legally as if he had been Knockt on the Head for taking the Wall. Justice and Equity will be still the same whatever are the various Revolutions of a Politick State and founded upon Eternal Reason as some Maxims in the Schools upon the same Truth Thirdly They must be soon satisfy'd too and with as much Reverence to those Mighty Powers that no Power on Earth no Humane Constitution can make Statutes against the Decrees of Heaven or resist an Omnipotency that is Divine their Dictates they say are Spirit that influences the Will And will any man say Flesh and Blood shall oppose it Souls may be said to have a Property too that cannot be violated by the Sanctions of an Humane Assembly nor Persons made to suffer for obeying the Divine dictates of their Devoutest thought or following the Natural Principles of their Religious Education The one of which even a Moral Turk will tell you must not cannot be oppos'd and any honest Heathen in Philosophy teach us the difficulty to Proselyte * Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret Horat Nature or pervert it and that certainly in lesser concerns than the Salvation of a Soul. Dissenters represent their sufferings in all their addresses and Complaints as Tyrannical too they are sure the best Judges of their miseries that groan under them and there may be Tyranny too in the Laws tho the Legislators had a Lawful Power to make them but these very Laws too have been strain'd by * Ryots made and Routs of Meetings Construction and so they Sympathiz'd with those under Usurpation and suffer'd by none at all Lastly To close this Section with the similitude of the Circumstances of affairs to Crown all the KING himself then like his other self now his only and Lawful Successor intimated his designs against the opening of the first Session of that Free Parliament That he intended a freedom from all Penalties and suffering for Religion promis'd it to General Monk and in his Declarations represented his readiness to Consent to any Act of Parliament for the full granting that Indulgence Upon these Motives was that Miraculous Restoration facilitated upon these foundations was fixt that firm and what perhaps might have been a more lasting Peace too had not the powerful importunities of a prevailing Church interrupted the felicity to the disturbance of the State. Gentlemen the Case of the Church of England was once in Common with some Dissenters and no less hard than theirs is now they suffer'd you see together once from a prevailing Party and Liberty of Conscience was certainly then as dear to them as this Religion Establisht by Law and that from their own mouths if his Majesty may take their words for it was alway dearer to them than their lives It was as great a Crime to them then to have a Common Prayer as to a Dissenter now to make use of the Directory Her book of Liturgy was lookt on then as bad as that of the Mass and all her Canon and Rubrick no more to be receiv'd than a Calendar of Red Letters or the Rituals of Rome Alas What a mighty Metamorphosis the felicity of some peoples affairs can produce to the forgetting of their misfortunes all their fellow-sufferers and even the Sentiments of their own Souls The Dissenters desire to come just to the Circumstances they were in at the late KING's Restoration And why for Godsake must this Establisht Church turn truly Militant not only against all others but it self And like that of Ephesus Leave her first Love and as some say her first Faith too to forget that compassion she had for such Sufferers and her own sense and opinion that such sufferings were most severe What judgment can seriously be made by Sober Persons to what will impartial people impute this her hot Zeal against Dissenters that in the dawning of her Restitution was hardly Luke-warm Will it not give occasion to say that she must answer for her self like the Laodicean too Because says she I am rich now and increased with goods and have need of nothing And if it be so that the Dissenters were promis'd then an Exemption from Penalties for matters of meer Religion and the KING Parliament and Church thought it meet as matter of fact will make it appear then certainly all this cry will sound very harsh and unreasonable against this present Prince that has greater reasons for it when he only performs the promises of his Pious Predecessor gratifies the desires of his Restoring Parliament and answers the very first Petitions of his People SECT III. The Maxims and Methods that it took ANd now by the Division of this Discourse we are come to the Third Point The Maxims and Methods that were taken by this Healing Parliament It met upon the Twenty Fifth of April and who knows but about that time our next may meet and may that Epoche of their Commencement prove as great an Omen of their good Agreement it found the Kingdom most unhappily confus'd with Diversities of Opinions in the ways of worshipping their God it found the severe Laws of Q. Eliz. KING James and Car. 1. very ineffectual for the suppressing of what was call'd Schism and Dissention For this reason they took care in the first place in their Act for Confirming of Ministers That none should be Ejected for their past Non-conformity from 42 to 60 unless such as had in the time of Usurpation Ejected others This was agreeable to what the KING had first propos'd to them both before privately and afterward at the publick opening of the Parliament for this the Lord Chancellor in their first Adjournment was order'd to tell them from the KING in these Terms That no sort of Piety and Godliness should be turn'd into Vid. Lord Chancellors Speech on that Occasion terms of slander and reproach or distinguish between the Court the City or the Country He was order'd further to tell them That by that favourable Act for confirming of Ministers his Majesty was sensible he had gratify'd many worthy and Pious Men and such as should alway receive fresh evidence of his Majesties favor and Kindness In that Parliament he had this Direction to tell them Of the sad consideration that the differences in Religion should be the ground of Animosities Malice and Revenge Passions which the Divine Nature exceedingly abhor'd That the Bloody Wars proceeded from those Contentions And that however descanted on by men that
which the practise of the Prerogative and the Laws of the Land did ever Allow I do not design to enter here upon the old distinction of Malum in se Prohibitum For that Evil which was prohibited when by reasons of State it comes to be dispens'd withall is no longer so but really good so it would be oppression in a Prince to demolish the dwellings of his Subjects but no one will say 't is so in a Siege when he burns down the Subburbs But this being not only to be defended by Reason but the Laws was repin'd at as * Arbitrary the King upbraided with Vid. Letter and Answer to the Test of Church of Englands Loyalty Vid. All Burnets Papers his Coronation Oath to keep all the Laws the Judges Libell'd and Satyris'd for their sense and opinions and with a Non Obstante posted up in an house of Office The rumour ran of nothing else but all the Laws to be lay'd aside though only some Penal ones were suspended and when they might as well have made their Satyr and Animadversion upon every Session at the Old Baily where the King was never deny'd the pardoning of a Felon or remitting a Fine tho' the one were for the highest misdemeanour and the other even for murder it self and sure to infer from an argument a fortiori if the Law will justifie the Kings Mercy to a Malefactor for the shedding of blood it will sure extend to forgive the forfeiture of an Office or Place and yet too by the leave of the mighty Dr. and his most malitious * Dr. Burnet's Reflections on Declaration for Liberty c. construction this shall not amount to the repeal of the Law and be but a bare suspension of the Penalty For as it appear'd in the late Case of Hales it was in the power of any man to Prosecute tho it was at last left in the King to Pardon And if the Dr. will make hast before the Parliament may make some Alteration he shall bring what information he pleases against any Papist for their forfeitures where he may shew his malice and do no mischief So that all his Scotch Droll about Cass and Null and Absolute Power apply'd to the Cases in England are nothing to the purpose But it was not Dr. B. alone that was thus bold we heard nothing about that time in private discourse but threatning of Publick impeachments that Parliaments had questioned Wolsey Bristol and others for advising such dispensations and that Judges had been with the old story of Tresilian hang'd for such resolutions Gentlemen it could not be the Dissenters now that were guilty of these sort of Observations unless they were angry at the Clemency and Mercy that reliev'd them But that we have no reason to make this a piece of Arbitrary Power consider but some Presidents of Prerogative and that in the former Reigns King Edw. 3d. repeal'd an Act of Parliament as impos'd by necessity and that by his Royal Prerogative the Parliament in Rich. 2d time by several Judicial Acts had proceeded against the Ld. Chancellor the Duke of Ireland and Arch Bishop of York to which the King had given his assent but assoon as he dissolv'd that Assembly all was dissolv'd too that had been done against them And that the Resolution of our Judges may not be lookt on as so Extrajudicial and Extravagant I 'le refer them to what was resolv'd by the Judges in the same Kings Reign I. That the Statute of Commission made in the last Parliament was Void because against the Prerogative and that the Advisers to it deserved Death II. That the King could cause the Parliament to proceed upon Articles by him limited before they meddled with any other III. That the Judgment against Pool in Parliament was Revocable by the King. So that it is no new thing for the Judges in the highest manner to assert the Prerogative and what ever Miracles were performed afterward by that Parliament of wonders that does not make it less the duty of those sages to assert the right of the Crown tho' some of them were afterward by the rebellious Barons and the designing Duke of Glocester brought to suffer for the service to their King and by the same People too that afterward depos'd their Prince I need no more then mention the Dispensation to the Justices against 37. of Hen. 6. and that common Case of the Sherifs dispensed with by the 2d of Hen. 7. or the Case of Coinage in his 11. when Hen. 8 rejected the Popes Supremicy in Ecclesiasticals 't is as well known he reserv'd it as Entirely to himself settl'd upon him so by Act of Parliament so that if the Pope ever had a Dispensing power with a non Obstante both Hen. 8 and Edw. 6. had it too and I think both of them made use of it with a witness * Vid. Heylin's Hist Reform as also Acts Monuments you 'l see what Waste what Work was made with Altars Images tho' such irreligious Violence was by the Council of Illiberis forbidden to be shewn even the Pagan Idols the Sanctuary it self was not safe against their Dispensations that were extended even to Sacriledge too and the Altar it self was offer'd up for a Burnt-Offering to some Orders of the Council-Board The management of Religious matters will ever depend on the Civil Magistrate and is a saying never the less certain or more false for being the sense too of Mr. Hobbs The power that these assum'd in Ecclesiasticals as some think too much as it was deriv'd to all their successors since so none of them have exercis'd it so little as to lose it by disuse but in all their Dispensations to Forreigners that came to settle to their Families when encreas'd and to several of their native subjects at home sufficiently manifested that this Power was in the Crown that it was often made use of and that it is very unlikely any Prince will be willing to part with it Who ever run the Royal Authority in Sacreds higher than the Church that disputes it now so much So that the Kings power is with them what they please when it only countenances their Establishment and just none at all when it will Favour any Other I must confess I cou'd never find but that Argument Law was ever Relatively Good or Ill according to the disposition of the Party that was to Gain or Lose by it and every man will ever be a Knave or a Fool to those that are not of his Opinion but yet certainly there must be somewhat of Intrinsick Equity and Eternal Reason however confounded according to the diversity of Partyes and partiality of the People and by such an Vnprejudic'd Judgment I dare venture to try not only the Power of Dispensing but of the very Repealing of the Laws I would ask these men whether Queen Elizabeth did not take as great a Liberty in * Vid. Heylin's Reformation
Conformists reserving too much the bitter Tast of their rough Vsage notwithstanding the General Amnesty so much prest by the KING one would think might have been most Religiously observ'd by Prelates Did not then first Fears and Jealousies begin to Invade the State and even make the Government it self afraid So Conscious is Oppression of Consequences that are Fatal that power it self can distrust it 's own Weakness and for this reason presently upon it being sensible of the provocations given in Matters of Religion Walls were order'd to be pulled down several Cities and Towns to be dismantl'd at the same time that the severities of the Laws were to be put in Execution and what ensu'd but the suspected Plot of Danvers Ludlow c. for which Phillips Toung Gibbs and Others were Executed Upon the Neck of that broke out another in the North and while they were Labouring by Rigor to suppress the Divisions in the Church what did they Raise but open Rebellions in the State Several of the Conspirators were Taken and a Commission sent to York to Try them fifteen were found Guilty the Chief of them one Capt. Oates some were Executed at York some at Leeds some in Adjacent Places and so universal was the Discontent upon this encroachment of the Liberty of Worship that the same Conspiracy had spread it self to London and was first to have broke forth in Ireland In the Sickness time when the KING left London and went to Oxford which though not Visited the Dissenters say they found there their Plague too the Five-Mile Act to prevent as they call'd it the spreading their Infection whereby indeed they were Banish't Corporations and Towns as if they were Tainted with the Malignancy that Reign'd and onely fit for a Pest-house and that too with another Test to the purpose why What ensu'd presently upon it Before the Pestilence was hardly ceas'd and the KING well return'd to London but another Discovery for the Alteration of the Government of which Conspiracy one Alexander was the Chief the City to be Fir'd on the Third of September the same time that it was indeed Vid. Gazet. and for which the Romanists were so unreasonably Reproach't for which several were Try'd at the Old-Baily and Executed at Tyburn The first Commotion that began in Scotland was also upon the same Account when the Ryot that was made upon one of their Justices as was Confest by both sides was only for too rigorously Executing the Laws against them in matters of Religion which Ryot tho' rais'd by a small Number of Inconsiderable Sufferers yet soon ran up so high as an Army and which was Marching with all hast to Edenburgh And the last Rebellion at Bothwell-Bridge tho' begun by some desperate Villains to defend themselves from the Justice they had deservd for the Murdering of the Archbishop had never come to that height had not the Covenanters thinking themselves Opprest by the Penal Laws clos'd in with them and increas'd their Army to such a Number as to make them formidable And Lastly I much doubt whether ever Monmouth himself would have made so much work in the West had not the Severities of the Laws then Zealously set afoot sent him many a Souldier into the field that did not dare to stay a home for fear of fine and confiscation and had his Majesty assoon as he Ascended his Throne been Permitted by the Reasons of State or not oppos'd by the importunities of some people to have declar'd his Resolutions of Indulgence perhaps it might have sav'd a great deal of Protestant Blood and Dissenters never have fought for that Liberty of Conscience which it seems to them too was Dearer then their Lives God forbid That ever Rebellion should be really Justify'd by Religious Pretences but since Matter of Fact makes it Plain that they are so of Pretended as is manifest here from the Disturbance that was given to the State constantly upon every Usurpation and Penalty Tryal and Test that was put upon Peoples Souls as is apparent from the foregoing Particulars can any man in his wits not close with a Provident PRINCE to remove the very Pretences too of it To quarrel at such a Prudential Act is to tell His Majesty they are never Easy but when Hee 's Embroyl'd never Secure but when there 's an Insurrection against their KING These sort of Men are more dangerous in their Sentiments than some Country Ideots in their Suppositions some of them wont believe Monmouth to be Dead and these by their own Maxims must wish him Alive 'T is as Certain as Truth it self if Fact can make a thing appear True that Sufferers for Religion and perhaps we may except no Perswasions will endeavour to lay hold on any Alteration of State to Rescue themselves from the severity of such Oppressions 't is as natural as to sinking Men to catch at a Plank And I could prove this from History for above this Hundred and Fifty Years from our Hen. th' Eighth to those instances I make use of in the last Reign To this Provocation do the Hollanders owe their Revolt their Being and their Common-wealth To this do the Hugonots of France Ascribe their Entry into the League and what that Cost that Kingdom let Ours Judge To this do discontented Courtiers and desperate Villains owe all that which to a Government makes them Formidable for such Creatures as could never Hope upon their own Interest to Muster an hundred Men where a general Indulgence is Establish't shall under a Pressure of Conscience raise you a Million and with this Advantage too that the Cause whatever are the Fellows that engage in it will still carry the better Face and Quallify Villains of no Religion to Head those that really Fight for it and to tell you that they are The Armies of the Living GOD the GOD of HOSTS and that they Fight the Battles of the LORD So certain it is that those who are not permitted to assemble in their own Church will alwayes be Restless and Uneasy in the State Passive Obedience in such Cases we see sooner Preach't than Practis'd and such as are deny'd in their own Way to Worship their GOD will assoon be deficient in their Duty to their KING and may the Fear of it never make some sort Vnautiful that Profess they 'l never be Provok't tho' by Suffering for it So much was it the sense of His Late Majesty as partly appears before that in pursuance of his Promises at Breda and his Intimations to his First Parliament that was so Healing To which he prest a Liberty of Conscience that he also in his Declaration of December Sixty Two makes a Confirmation of it and says That he was Firm in his Resolutions of Performing it to the Full And this even against the Sense of his New Parliament that was more for Penalty and Persecution Of this he Exprest his Sense in his Parliament July 16th Sixty Nine And then in spite of
even Burnets too Ecclesisticals for the founding of their Church greater than they can allow his Majesty only for the Countenancing of his when Her Injunctions to the Church past as currant with them for an Act of State as if 't had only been her Coinage and Shee at the same time could dispense to read the Latine Service * It was said by Moor in her Reign and Justify'd in Parliament that the Queens Non Obstante was good even against the Non Obstanle of an Act of Parliament to her Power Prerogative against what Her Self and Parliament had Enacted And if the Proceedings of PRINCES must be so much expos'd to the Censure of the People we meet with in her Reign perhaps the highest Instance of unheard of Power that History affords or ever was assum'd by any Monarch that Sate on our Throne And that was her Proceeding against the Queen of Scots the next Heir to her Crown tho' some would give Her a better Title whom against the Laws of Nature and Nations the word of a Queen the promise of a Sister the faith of a Christian after she had fled to her for Refuge after she had flatter'd her to restore her after Eighteen Years Imprisonment made her hold up her Hand to a Bar and be Beheaded on a Block It may be the first Example of such a sort of Suffering that ever was offer'd to a Crown'd Head whatever are the thoughts of our sublimated * Dr. Burnet the Author of the Tryal Examination of the New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty Wits to the contrary in the Cases they put For Licinius you must first observe was by their own Confession but a Colleague with Constantine and we may tell such Men of Law that understand Loyalty to be nothing else that till they prove the Queen of Scots a Coparcenary with Q Elizabeth they are impertinent in their Proof but as Bad Luck would have it when Wise Men make Ill Arguments * Vid. Sleid. de quatuor summ Imper. lib. 2. Eutropius lib. 10. Socrates lib. 1. cap. 2. lib. 2. cap. 1. This Licinius was Colleague with Maximianus conquer'd by Constantine and kill'd in a tumultuous Mutiny by the Souldiers He might so well have told us of Will Conqueror kill'd Harold the Dane And that Authors other President that he Cites for a Judicial Proceeding against a Crown'd Head fails him too as much tho' he might have told us which Queen Joan there being two that Reign'd and both Bad enough for that of Q. Joan's of Naples Case was shortly this She had Hang'd her first Husband for Insufficiency Kill'd the second in trying too much his Ability Beheaded the third for Incontinency Shee was Vanquish't by the K. of Hungary Brother to her First Husband and Hang'd in Revenge of his Death Here 's the Act again of an enrag'd Enemy made the same with a friend and Ally and the Case of the Lewdest Creature applyed Vid. his Answer to the New Test to the most Pious Lady Dr. B. himself cannot excuse the Barbarous Proceedings that were us'd against her and tho'I do not blame all the Bishops of those Times and This as some severe Papers have done yet to be Just to both most both of the Clergy and the Laity that liv'd then were for sacrificing of her to what they call'd Preservation of Religion and few of those that have followed since have justifyed the Proceedings Whatever were the Cause the Effects I 'm sure were Fatal and I fancy follow'd by some of our own Nation since and that to the spilling of more of the same Blood and verifying the Prophetick foresight as well as the seasonable Sarcasm of that unfortunate Princess that the English were ever wont to Murder their own KINGS and no wonder then they would Sacrifice now the Crown'd Head of another Kingdome Thus Gentlemen suffer'd that Pious Princess and if any a Blessed Saint and that upon the Pretence too of a sort of Penal Law a Test on purpose to destroy her and that upon the account of Religion Buckhurst and Beal both that brought her the dismal Tydings of her Death intimated to her that her Life would be the ruine of the Religion received and indeed 't was as agreeable to the pretended Interest of the State that Condemn'd her for she had no other Crime but their Fears and if her Endeavours to escape from the Confinement of a Faithless Ally were high Treason She was then only in a Plott So fell that Unfortunate Monarch whose Misfortunes would have melted Marble and that by the height of the most Arbitrary Power in a Reign where we dream of nothing else but Liberty Property and no other Dispensations but of impartial Justice And can any one think that his Majesty himself the direct Issue of the same Princess whose Religion is the same is not Wounded too with the sanguinary proceedings of her Times and the severity of those Laws still in force by which whatsoever is pretended many meerly for Religion suffer'd and those Catholicks that were Executed for what was adjudg'd High-Treason found as little Mercy as the other Justice being Cut down alive and Embowelled before their Face till the Queen was forc't to Forbid such cruel Executions That the Power of the Prerogative has been Arraign'd with such Animadversions as are above Suggested and that the KING's Dispensations have been remark't upon as Illegal and without President and that by those very men that made it their Business to advance any absolute Proceeding He must have kept himself very close or doubt his Hearing that disbelieves it but more than that they have given it under their Hand and the most modest of their Papers an Answerer to the Judgment and Doctrin of the Clergy about the power of Dispensing does handsomely clear them from the Belief of the Right of the KING's Prerogative in this point and is loath they should be taken for such Betrayers of the Liberty of the People Their Crime had not been so great had their Opinions lain under the Obloquy of such an Imputation and the Answerer as little obliges his Church as the Pamphleteer but as modest as he is 't is manifest from it that the Judgement of their Church is now against it or else sure it must be a needless labour if not impertinent to take so much pains to vindicate its Members from it But this I must observe from my acquaintance with all those Authors Quoted that tho' they have not in express Terms extended the KING's power to Dispense with Penal Laws they have advanc't his Soveraignty to as high a pitch and when the shooe pinches we are apt to complain tho' it be of our own putting on And those that find from the Revolutions of Affairs any unexpected Inconveniencies to flow from their own Arguments have nothing else to do but deny the Consequence and please themselves with a Non Sequitur but I 'le assure you
full Value as little as it terrify'd the bright Spirits of Oxford may Perchance be found the smallest part of the Prerogative and tho such a Canon could not Frighten them so far as to comply with their Diocesan if matters are to be manag'd meerly by the Laws that are made I fear there may be some found that empower the Prince to deprive them of a Bishop Secondly they will do wonderous well I will not say wiser if they do it themselves if only for fear lest others should do it for them I much doubt if Dissenters should once come to be the Prevailing part in a Parliament whether they would make so good terms for this Establisht Church as she might do if she pleas'd for her self The King has given her very good words for it and I wish she may not forgo the Benefit of them He has promis'd to Protect and doubtless will not deny her any reasonable means for her Preservation if he has a mind to do her Good how can she be angry if he 'll only keep her from doing ill the persecutors of Daniel could find no Occasion against him but in the Case of his God but yet we saw the King labour'd to deliver him 'T is not to be doubted if she comply with his Majesties request he will refuse Hers and why may she not be as safe with an Act of Jac. 2d for Establishing her the National Religion tho she part with the 13 Eliz. for hanging up all that differ from her It will never be the worse Church because it cannot do more ill And the Notion that some sort of people have got in their Noddles of the Necessity of such Laws in a Church for the Support of what is the Religion of the State is false both in Reason and Fact for certainly that may be supported without surpressing all other Opinions and there is no need that a Jesuit must be Gibbeted and other Dissenters Banish't and Hang'd too if they return and that Sanoumary Laws must be subservient to an Act of Vniformity T is no more then if a man should tell you Look you Sir most People are of our mind and we can get a Patent to make you think so too and if you wont believe what you cant believe or believe all that we can believe you must even suffer what coms on 't be it Fine Imprisonment Banishment or Death why a moral Heathen would be divided in his passions at the nonsense of such severity and Democritus himself in a doubt whether he should laugh or cry and such partial Christians must Blush too when they blame the Proceedings of the most Christian King and whom they make for it too in their fam'd Antiphrasis even Antichrist himself But one would think that doubt should be out of doors of a Church Establisht by Law not to be able to subsist without it reserve a Power by Law to punish all others when the Present practise of so many Forreign States proves the Consistency and we have the promise and experiment of two KINGS Reigns that it shall and can be so in ours at home 'T is to no purpose to Tattle us out of the Integrity of a good Action with the tale of a Tub or fool away a prudential Act with an Aesop's Fable * Vid. Tryal of the New Test c. p. 5. To tell us of the Conditions of Peace that were made upon the surrendring of the Dogs and that the Sheep afterward were worried by the Wolves Setting aside the malice of the Application it is most foolish and impertinent when the contrary is more true and these sanguinary Laws are to be laid aside and that only for their sucking of blood and sure 't is not the first time too we have known Dogs to worry Sheep And Lastly Common gratitude to so good a King should Perswade this Church to Comply with his reasonable requests has he discountenanc'd any of them but such as have incurr'd it by this Obstinacy perhaps more imprudent than safe And had the Parliament dissolv'd but a little condescended I fancy there would not have been so much work cut out for this Has not the King whose Royal dispensations qualify all prefer'd them Equally both in Court and Camp making every mans merit his promotion without examining of his Faith Has there a single man been prefer'd to any Benefice or Cure but such as have been qualify'd by Law tho some perhaps have been dispens'd with to keep them that for altering their Religion they might not starve * In Edw. the Sixths Reign even from the confession of Doctor Burnet most of the Bishops only for being true to their old perswasions were troubl'd were turn'd out Illegally were imprison'd several years till Queen Marys Reign Vid. the continuance of his Reflection on Mr. Varilas pag. 63. And sure our present Bishop of Londons Case was never yet so hard tho so highly resented Where is this mighty progress for the introducing of Popery The KING now is going into his fourth year and the Church stands still it as was four years agon and the Mighty Din of the measures and faggot of Queen Mary is as much to the Purpose as if they told us of the fire Ordeal of Queen Emm She remov'd all the Bishops in no more than one year and I think Queen Eliz. did it all in one Month and here since Appropriating of Loyalty is so much in fashion we cannot but say this for the Papist too whose Fidelity to the Crown is too much question'd this Protestant Queen was by their own Confession and as it plainly appears from our own Annals advanc'd to the Throne by a Popish Parliament then sitting and no one can tell had they been sitting at KING Charles the Seconds Death of what temper they would have been the Legitimacy of Queen Eliz. was then in dispute amongst all Catholicks the Succession of his present Majesty was indisputable by his blood and yet Heath the Popish Metropolitan and then Lord Chancellor without any discontent says their own * Vid. Heylins Reformation Page 101. Historian declares her Title to the Crown to both Houses of Parliament and so was she receiv'd without the least opposition which certainly does savour somwhat of an Vnquestionable Loyalty And if that wont serve the same Author says more That many in the House of Commons that had a great zeal for their Popish interest yet Preferred their Allegiance page 107. to their Natural Prince before their concernments for the Church of Rome And this is sure more Loyalty then was shewn by the Protestant Reformers to her Predecessor against whom they set an Usurper in the Throne contriv'd a Will and rais'd an Army tho so much must be said for the Suffolk-Gospellers of the Country that they were better Subjects then the mighty Liturgy men at Court and assisted Queen Mary with Men and Arms when the other kept from her the Capital and the Crown Queen Eliz.
the House of Lords and by that let the reasons of such Laws to stand or fall that Honourable Assembly when ever it Sits will find sufficient Reasonings and as much Matter of Fact for the removing all such Tests preserv'd for them within their own Walls and their own Books shew them the best of Presidents and a President where the Case has been contested is worth an hundred when there has been no contest And being here come home to that which touches the only tender Part of the Government The two * Vid. Letter of Pens F. to Mr. St. Tests of Car. 2. against the Catholiques I cannot but take notice of the New Paper of the Dutch Pensioner that is so diligently spread for the diffusion of an industrious mischief and creating the most dangerous Difference that can arise from the debates of a Divided House I cannot do better than close our last Animadversions on their latest effort that is so freshly set afoot for our disturbance The Reasons that it brings up in the Reer are less to be regarded than the Royal Characters that it carries in the Front and we could forgive mijn Heer F. his Arguments if we did not refute them when we cannot so soon Pardon the Presumption for prefixing to a Pamphlet Surreptitious and unauthoriz'd the rever'd name of the Princess of O. the sweetness of whose temper and gentle disposition as it cannot be suppos'd to delight in severity and Persecution so certainly is as little pleas'd to promote any thing to the disturbance of a State to which She still seems so neerly related as her obliging nature does sufficiently secure us she 'l favour an Indulgence so does that dutiful affection as morally perswade she cannot Patronize the opposers of her Parent But the names of such Princes to their pretended piece they were well assur'd would make it Popular the weakest side is the wisest too when it makes the strongest party it was their last expedient that made them trespass upon good manners and presume to make Theirs Her Highnesses opinion It is offer'd it seems in the first place that the Papists throughout all our three Kingdoms should be suffer'd to continue in their Vid. Letter of Pens Religion I confess the kindness is somewhat extraordinary considering the Present season when the greatest Persecution in the Past could not prevail with them to renounce it but if it shall be as the Paper promises with as much Liberty as is allow'd by the States in those Provinces Then I humbly conceive that from their own Concessions both these Two Tests must be taken away for by them both both Peers and Commons of that perswasion are Incapacitated for Military Employment which the Letter it self says by the Laws of that Country even there they cannot do not exclude them from and sure then it will ly harder upon them here to be hinder'd from serving their KING in his Camp when a natural Liegeance requires it * Vid. Coke 7. Rept page 4. express Statutes command it and a Prince of their own Religion receives it Shall the Dutch trust them for their defence that are of a different faith * 1◠H. 7. And cannot the KING of England confide in them because they agree in the same And yet by both these Tests they so contend for the Catholicks are excluded from serving His Majesty tho' they take up Arms only for his preservation So that this Letter-maker must certainly fall into the necessity of this Dilemma that the Papists must not be permitted here the Liberty they are allow'd in Holland or these Tests must be taken away for their more free Admission into Military affairs and without any medium he must renounce his own Position or admit ours The Author of this Paper that must pass for the Pensioner is certainly the worst in the world to write for the Tests when he gives it under his hand that he has never read them and for that reason may be a Forreigner to our Laws as well as Land when he says that thereby Roman Catholicks receive no other Prejudice than their being excluded from Parliaments or publick Employments when by the latter of those Recusants Convict are banish't the Court so much as seeing or coming into the presence of their King or Queen or places where they reside upon pains of incurring all the fearful Penalties and forfeitures that follow the †30 Car. 2d violation of that Act I hope the bare ‖ Even the Ld. Digby a Proselited Papist that contended for Passing the 1st Test us'd this as an Argument because it did Not Banish them the Court which the 2d does most effectually seeing of their Royal Soveraigns can't be call'd a Sitting in Parliament an Office or publick Employment and the coming into their Presence or Place of abode be presently interpreted a promotion to a Place too of high Preferment since 't is seldom deny'd the poorest Plebeian that never expects perhaps the turning of the spit in the Kings Kitchin. I confess this clause is so far for keeping them out of Publick Employment that it almost excludes them human society Herds them among Beasts debases them below Brutes too for if we believe our old English Proverbs even A Cat may look upon a King. But I must tell these Politicians too who so finely extenuate the severities of these Tests into a meer Metaphysical Entity A Negative sort of Punishment that only denies Papists to be preferr'd that to any impartial person these disabling Laws will appear a positive Persecution and that only for the sake of Pure Religion The Abjurations that they force upon the people in France are only more Vniversal and with this disparity they that there will not renounce their Religion must resolve to suffer as Patiently as they can the insolency spoil rapine and outrages of all the Souldiers they send them which reduces several Families to misery and want and for refusing the same renuntiation here many persons that have had their sole dependance upon some office or place have meerly for that been dispossest and remov'd to their utter Ruin and destruction all the difference lying in this between being devour'd by dragoons or beggar'd by being turn'd out discarded or putting the case more favourably we 'l look upon Vid. Letter of Pens F. these Oaths only as they respect in the sense of this Letter the keeping Papists out of Employment what comfort can this be to the poor Catholiques or what mitigation of a Protestant Persecution when they are deny'd the common Advantages that may make them rich It must be certainly the same misfortune as to be turn'd out of their possessions that they may be sure to become poor I cannot see with what Conscience this late Celebrated Vid. Letter of F. Letter can assert that neither from these Tests nor the Other Laws Roman Catholicks are made to suffer upon account of their Consciences This is too gross to be put