ought they to murmur for that which satisfied Christ and his Apostles should satisfie them His Kingdom is not of this World therefore they should not Fight for him if they would be his Servants and the Children of his Kingdom Christ and not Civil Force is the Rock his Church is built upon Nor indeed has any thing so Tarnisht the Cause of Protestancy as the Professors of it betaking themselves to Worldly Arms to propagate their Religion David could not wear Saul's Armor and true Protestants cannot use Popish Weapons Imposition and Persecution In short 'T is the very Interest of the Church of England to preserve the Civil Interest entire or else Popery will endanger all but that cannot be unless all of that Civil Interest be preserved therefore Protestaat Dissenters should be indulg'd But some will say There is a Difference even among Dissenters Some will give a Security to the Civil Government by taking the Oaths others will not and be it through Tenderness how do we know but Papists will shrow'd themselves under the Wings of such Dissenters and so in Tolerating Protestant Dissenters to fortify Protestancy in reality Popery will be hereby shelter'd incognito I Answer First That such Oaths are little or no Security to any Government and though it may give some allay to the Jealousie of Governors they never had the Effect desired For neither in Private Cases nor yet in Publick Transactions have Men adher'd to their Oaths but their Interest He that is a Knave was never made Honest by an Oath nor is it an Oath but Honesty that keeps Honest men suâ—h Read Story and consult our Modern Times tell me what Government stood the firmer or longer for them Men may take them for their own Advantage or to avoid Loss and Punishment But the Question is What real Benefit or Security comes thereby to the Government It is certain they have often ensnared a Good Man but never caught one Knave yet we ought not to put so great a Value upon Oaths as to render the Security of our Government so low and hazardous God's Providence and the Wisdom of our Ancestors have found out a better Test for us to rest upon and that is our Common Interest and the Laws of the Land DULY executed These are the Security of our Government For example a Man Swears he will not Plot yet Plots pray what Security is this Oath to the Government But though 't is evident that this be no Security that Law which Hangs him for Plotting is an unquestionable one So that 't is not for wise Governours by Swearing men to the Government to think to secure it but all having agreed to the Laws by which they are to be governed let any Man break them at his Peril Wherefore good Laws and a Just Execution of them and not Oaths are the Natural and real Security of a Government But next though some may scruple the Oaths 't is not for the sake of the Matter so much as Form which you know is not the case of Roman Catholicks pray distinguish and those very Persons whoever they be of Protestant-Dissenters I dare say they will very cheerfully promise their Allegiance on the same Penalties and subscribe any Renunciation of Pope and Forraign Authority which the Art of man can Pen nor should it be hard for you to believe they should subscribe what they have alwayes liv'd To that part of the Objection which mentions the danger of Papists concealing themselves under the Character of Protestant Dissenters under Favour I say it is most reasonable to believe that those who will deny their Faith upon record as those that subscribe your Declaration do will swallow the Oaths too for the Declaration flatly denys the Religion but the Oaths only the Pope's Supremacy which even some of themselves pretend to reject Therefore those that can sincerely subscribe the Declaration cannot be Papists If it be yet objected that Papists may have Dispensations to subscribe the Test or a Pardon when they have done it I answer they may as well have Dispensations to take the Oaths or Pardons when they have taken them and these last six Moneths prove as much There is no Fence against this Flail At this rate they may as well be Protestants as Protestant Dissenters Ministers or Bishops in Churches as Speakers or Preachers in Meeting-houses Nay 't is more probable where there is least Suffering and most Preferment But this Objection only shews the weakness of both Oaths and Declaration for the Purpose intended and not that they can hide themselves more under one People then another For they that can have a Dispensation or Pardon for one act can have it for another especially when the matter of the Declaration is of a more general weight to them then that of the Oaths all which confirms my former Judgment of the Insecurity of such Oaths to any Government Give me leave then upon this to ask you if you will bring a certain Ruin upon any Protestant Dissenters for the sake of such an uncertain Security to your selves for this is the Question I beseech you to weigh it as becomes wise and good men shall they be Reprobated for tenderly refusing what being perform'd cannot save or secure you Consider you have no reason to believe but those that are allow'd to subscribe the Declaration or that will be pardon'd when they have done it may be allow'd to take the Oaths or will be pardon'd and absolv'd when they have taken them but you are certain on the other side that the Imposing of the Oaths will be a great Snare to many Protestant Dissenters that love the Government and renounce both Pope and Popery They will be ruin'd which to me is of the nature of an Argument for those People for their not taking the Oaths proves plainly they have no Dispensations nor hopes of Absolution and therefore no Papists shall they then lie under the Severities intended against Papists who have none of their Dispensations or Absolutions to deliver them from them This is with Submission but in plain terms to make the case of the Kingdom worse for it destroys those who are not Guilty and whom I believe you would not destroy Having brought the matter to this I shall first offer you a new Test Next the ways of taking it with most aggravation against the Party rejecting or breaking it And lastly how you may secure your selves from Papists disguizing themselves among Protestant-Dissenters that so nothing may remain a Remora in the way that shall not be removed to leave you a plain and even Path to Peace and Safety The New TEST I A.B. do solemnly and in good Conscience in the sight of God and Men acknowledge and declare that King Charles the second is Lawful King of this Realm and all the Dominions thereunto belonging And that neither the Pope nor See of Rome nor any else by their Authority have Right in any Case to Depose the King or
Dispose of his Kingdom or upon any score whatever to absolve his Subjects of their Obedience or to give leave to any of them to Plot or Conspire the Hurt of the King's Person his State or People and that all such Pretences and Power are False Pernicious and Damnable And I do further sincerely profess and in good Conscience declare that I do not believe that the Pope is Christ's Vicar or Peter's Lawful Successor or that He or the See of Rome severally or joyntly are the Rule of Faith or Judge of Controversie or that they can absolve Sins Nor do I believe there is a Purgatory after Death or that Saints should be pray'd to or Images in any sense be worship'd Nor do I believe that there is any Transubstantiation in the Lord's Supper or Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever But I do firmly believe that the Present Communion of the Roman-Catholick Church is both Superstitious and Idolatrous And all this I do acknowledge intend profess and declare without any Equivocation or reserv'd or other Sense then the plain and usual Signification of these words according to the real Intention of the Law-makers and the common Acceptation of all true Protestants This is the Test I offer large in Matter because comprehensive of Oaths and Test too yet brief in words The next thing is the Wayes of taking it with most Aggravation upon the Refusers or Violaters of it 1. That in all Cities and great Towns notice be given by the Magistrates thereof to the Inhabitants of every Ward or Parish to appear on such a day be it New-Years-Day or Ash-wednesday rather when the Pope Curses all Protestants at their publick Hall or other places of Commerce where the Magistrates shall first openly Read Subscribe Seal the Test Then that it be read again by the proper Officer of the Place to the People and that those that take it do audibly pronounce the words after him that reads it and when they have so done that they subscribe and seal it That such Subscriptions be Register'd and Copies of each Parish's Subscription transmitted to the Parish and Affixt upon some publick Place for all that will to see That in the Countries the Parishes of each Hundred or Rape may be likewise summon'd to appear upon the Day aforesaid at the head Market Town in the said Hundred or Rape and that the Justices of the Peace within that part of the Country shall first read subscribe and seal the said Test in view of the People and then that the People say subscribe and seal the Test as is before exprest Which being done let the said Subscriptious be collected into one Volumn and kept in the County Court as a Book of Record and that to each Parish be transmitted a Copy of the said Parish's Subscription to be affixt upon some publick Place within the said Parish for all to see that please Lastly Let this be done Annually that is upon every New-Years Day or Ash-wednesday as a perpetual Testimony of the Peoples Affection to the King and Government and their Abhorrence of the Practices of Rome The Abuse of this Discrimination should be very Penal for 't is a great Lye upon a Man 's own Conscience and a Cheat put upon the Government Your Wisdom can best proportion and direct the Punishment but it can scarcely be too severe as our Business stands But as in case of such Hypocrisie a severe Penalty should be inflicted so pray let Provision be made that if any Person so subscribing should be afterwards call'd by the Name of Jesuit or Papist without very good Proof it should be deem'd and punisht in open Sessions for a Slander and Breach of Peace yet so as that the Penalty may be remitted at the Request of the Abused Party I should think that this business carefully done might render needless my Answer to the last Objection viz. which Way shall we be able to prevent Papists from passing for Protestant Dissenters that so the Security propounded to the Government be not baffled by Disguize For no Papist can subscribe this but he will Lye in the Face of the Government and Country and that Yearly and upon Record too which is ten times more then a Transient Oath mutter'd with one word spoken and another dropt However that we may carry it as far as humane Prudence can go I yet offer two Expedients First That upon Jealousie of any Persons being a Papist or Popishly inclined who is known to frequent the Assemblies of Protestant Dissenters Four of that Party of most Note and Integrity unto which he pretends to adhere should be summoned to appear before those Justices of the Peace unto whom the Complaint is made to testifie their Knowledge of the Person suspected his Education Principles and Manner of Life which way of Inspection as it goes as far as Man can reach so can it scarcely fail for those Persons will not only discover their own Hypocrisie if they conceal him but expose themselves and their Friends to Ruin So that to say true the Government has the Interest and Security of an Entire Party for the discovery of every such suspected Person But if this will not do then Secondly Be you pleased to refer the Discrimination of suspected Persons to the good old way of the Government that is the Inquiry and Judgment of Twelve Men of the Neighbourhood to wit a Jury provided always that they be such as have taken or will themselves take the Test else that they may be Exceptable by the Party suspected Indeed a good Expedient may be made out of both for the first may be the Evidence to the last and I think you will hardly fail of your Ends. I shall conclude with this Request First to Almighty God that he would please to make us truly and deeply sensible of his present Mercies to us and to reform our Hearts and Lives to improve them thankfully And Secondly to you that we may be loving humble and diligent one to and for another for as from such Amendments we may dare promise great and suddain Felicity to England so if Loosness in Life and Bitterness in Religion be not speedily reprehended and reform'd and the Common Civil Interest maintained entire God will I justly fear repent he has begun to do us good Adjourn the Day of our Deliverance to that of our Repentance and Moderation and Overcast these happy Dawnings of his Favour by a thick and dismal Cloud of Confusion and Misery which GOD AVERT These things that I have written are no wild Guesses or May be 's but the Disease and Cure the Danger and Safety of England in treating of which that God that made the VVorld knows I have not gratified any private Spleen or Interest for I am sorry of the Occasion but singly and conscientiously intended his Honor and the lasting Good of England to which all Personal and Party Considerations ought ever to submit Amicus Plato Amicus Aristoteles sed magis Amica Veritas i. e. Anglia Your own Faithful and Most Affectionate PHIL ' ANGLUS
ONE PROJECT For the GOOD of ENGLAND THAT IS Our CIVIL UNION is our CIVIL SAFETY Humbly dedicated to the Great Council The Parliament of England RELIGION as it is the noblest End of Man's Life so it were the best Bond of Humane Society provided Men did not err in the Meaning of that excellent Word Scripture interprets it to be Loving God above all and our Neighbours as our selves but Practice teacheth us that too many meerly resolve it into Opinion and Form in which not the Text but the Comment too often prevails whence it comes to pass that those Bodies of Men who have but one Common Civil Interest are miserably distramed in favour of their adopted Notions upon whom they are impatient to bestow an Earthly Crown And this is the Reason of that Mischief and Uncertainty that attend Government No sooner one Opinion prevails upon another though all hold the Text to be sacred but Humane Society is shaken and the Civil Government must receive and suffer a Revolution in so much that when we consider the Fury and Unnaturalness of some People for Religion which shews they have none that 's True Religion making Men most Natural as well as Divine we have Reason to Bewail the Mis-understanding as well as Mis-living of that venerable Word But since 't is so hard to disabuse men of their wrong Apprehensions of Religion and the true Nature and Life of it and consequently as yet too early in the day to fix such a Religion upon which Mankind will readily agree as a common Basis for Civil Society we must recur to some lower but true Principle for the present and I think there will be no Difficulty of succeeding 'T is this That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government and where it is not maintained entire the Government must needs decline The word INTEREST has a good and bad Acceptation when it is taken in an ill Sense it signifies a pursuit of Advantage without regard to Truth or Justice which I mean not The good signification of the word and which I mean is a Legal Endeavour to keep Rights or augment honest Profits whether it be in a private Person or a Society By GOVERNMENT I understand a Just and Equal Constitution where Might is not Right but Laws rule and not the Wills or Power of Men for that were plain Tyranny This Goverment must have a Supream Authority in it self to Determine and not to be Superceeded or Controuled by any other Power for then it would not be a Government but a Subjection which is a plain Contradiction Having thus explain'd the Terms of the Principle I have laid down I repeat it viz. That Civil Interest is the Foundation and End of Civil Government and prove it thus The Good of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government but the Good of the Whole must needs be the Interest of the Whole and Consequently the Interest of the whole is the Reason and End of Government None can stumble at the Word Good for every man may easily and safely Interpret that to himself since he must needs believe 't is Good for him to be preserv'd in an undisturb'd Possession of his Civil Rights according to the Free and Just Laws of the Land and the Construction he makes for himself will serve his Neighbour and so the whole Society But as the Good of the People is properly the Civil Interest of the People and that the Reason and End of Government so is the Maintenance of that Civil Interest entire the Preservation of Government For where People are sure of their own and are Protected from Violence or Injury they chearfully yield their Obedience and pay their Contribution to the support of that Government But on the contrary where men are Insecure of their Civil Rights nay where they are daily violated and themselves in danger of Ruin and that for no sin committed aginst the Nature of Civil Interest to preserve which Government was instituted we ought to suppose their Affections will flagg that they will grow dead-hearted and that what they pay or do may go against the Grain And to say true such unkindness is ready to tempt them to believe they should not of right Contribute to the Maintenance of such Governments as yield them no Security or Civil Protection Which Unhappy Flaw in the Civil Interest proves an untoward Crack in the Government Men not being cordially devoted to the Prosperity of that Government that is exercis'd in their Destruction and how far that Fraction upon the Common Interest of the People may Affect the Government I cannot tell but to be sure 't is insecure to any Government to have the People its Strength divided as they will be where their Interest is so disjoynted by the Government One Protected the Other Expos'd Wherefore Wise Governments have ever taken Care to preserve their People as knowing they do thereby preserve their Interest and that how Numerous their People so large their Interest For not only Solomon has told us That the Honour of a Prince is in the Multitude of his People but Experience teaches that Plenty of People is the Riches and Strength of a Wise and Good Government as that is where Vice is corrected and Vertue encourag'd and All taken in and secured in Civils that have the same Civil Interest with the Government But as the Good and Interest of the Whole is the Rise and End of Government so must it suppose that the whole which takes in all Parties concurs in seeking the Good of the Government for the Reason of the Government will not suffer it to protect those that are Enemies to its Constitution and Safety for so it would admit of something dangerous to the Society for the Security of which Government was at first instituted It will follow that those that own another temporal Power superior to the Government they properly belong to make themselves Subjects not of the Government they are born under but to that Authority which they avow to be superior to the Government of their own Country and consequently men of another Interest because 't is their Interest to pursue the Advantages of that Power they acknowledge to be soveraign But those that own embrace and obey the Government of their own Country as their temporal supream Authority and whose Interest is one and the same with that of their own proper Government ought to be valued and protected by that Government The Principle thus far lyes General I will now bring it to our own Case ENGLAND is a Country Populous and Protestant and though under some Dissents within it self yet the Civil Interest is the same and in some sense the Religious too For first all English Protestants whether Conformists or Nonconformists agree in this that they only owe Allegiance and Subjection unto the Civil Government of England and offer any Security in their power to give of their Truth in this Matter And in the