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A54191
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A perswasive to moderation to dissenting Christians in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the King and his great council by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects.
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Penn, William, 1644-1718.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing P1337A; ESTC R28423
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35,496
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61
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therefore of an Opinion-Reprobation of one another We see the God of Nature hath taught us softer Doctrine in his great Books of the World His Sun shines and his Rain falls upon all All the Productions of Nature are by Love and shall it be proper to Religion only to propagate by Force The poor Hen instructs us in Humanity who to defend her feeble Young refuses no danger All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the use of Man are produc'd by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun 'T is Kindness that upholds human Race People don't multiply in spight And if it be by gentle and friendly ways that Nature produces and matures the Creatures of the World certainly Religion should teach us to be Mild and Bearing Let your Moderation be known to all men was the saying of a great Doctor of the Christian Faith and his Reason for that command Cogent For the Lord is at hand As if he had said Have a care what you do be not bitter nor violent for the Judge is at the Door Do as you would be done to lest what you deny to others God should refuse to you And after all this shall the Church of England be less tender of mens Consciences than our common Law is of their Lives which had rather a Thousand Criminals should escape than that One Innocent should perish Give me leave to say that there are many Innocents Conscience excepted now exposed Men honest peaceable and useful free of ill designes that pray for Caesar and pay their Tribute to Caesar If any tell us They have or may ill use their Toleration I say this must be look't to and not Liberty therefore refused for the English Church cannot so much forget her own Maxim to Dissenters That Propter abusum non est Tollendus usus It suffices to our Argument 't is no necessary Consequence and that Fact and Time are for us And if any misuse such Freedom and entitle Conscience to Misbehavour we have other Laws enough to catch and punish the Offendors without treating One Party with the Spoils of Six And when Religion becomes no mans Interest it will hardly ever be any mans Hypocrisie Men will chuse by Conscience which at least preserves Integrity though it were mistaken And if not in the wrong Truth recompences Inquiry and Light makes amends for Dissent And since a plain Method offers it self from the Circumstances of our case I take the freedom to present it for the Model of the entreated Toleration Much has been desired said and prest in reference to the late King 's being Head of a Protestant League which takes in but apart of the Christian World the Roman and Grecian Christians being excluded But I most humbly offer that our wise men would please to think of another Title for our King and that is Head of a Christian League and give the Experiment here at Home in his own Dominions The Christian Religion is admitted of All in the Text and by All acknowledged in the Apostles Creed Here every Party of Christians meet and center as in a General The several Species of Christians that this Genus divideth it self into are those divers Perswasions we have within this Kingdom the Church of England Roman-Catholicks Grecians Lutheraus Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Quakers Socinians These I call so many Orders of Christians that unite in the Text and differ only in the Comment All owning one Deity Saviour and Judge good Works Rewards and Punishments which Bodies once regulated and holding of the Prince as Head of the Government maintaining Charity and pressing Piety will be an Honour to Christianity a Strength to the Prince and a Benefit to the Publick For in lieu of an unattainable at best an unsincere Vniformity we shall have in Civils Vnity and Amity in Faith The Iews before and in the time of Herod were divided into divers Sects There were Pharisees Sadduces Herodians and Essenes They maintained their Dissent without Ruine to the Government And the Magistrates fell under no censure from Christ for that Toleration The Gentiles as already has been observ'd had their divers orders of Philosophers as disagreeing as ever Christians were and that without danger to the Peace of the State The Turks themselves show us that both other Religions and divers Sects of their own are very Tolerable with seourity to their Government The Roman Church is a considerable instance to our point for she is made up of divers Orders of both Sexes of very differing Principle fomented sometimes to great Feuds and Controversies as between Franciscans Dominicans Iesuits and Sorbomists yet without danger to the Political state of the Church On the contrary she therefore cast her self into that Method that she might safely give vent to Novelty and Zeal and suffer both without danger of Schism And these Regulars are by the Popes Graunts privileg'd with an Exemption from Episcopal Visitation and Jurisdiction Changing then the Terms from Church to State the whole contrivance looks very Wise and Imitable For as by this Schisme in their Church so Faction in our State may be prevented And these civil Regulars depending on the civil Power as those Religious ones do upon the Popes will Naturally like them become the Perpetual Votarys of its greatness And thus all Parties hanging like Keys by one Ring at the civil Magistrates Girdle tho' each has its several Lock he that keeps them can open and shut every Door as the Persons deserve and the publick Safety requires To make this more easie a 〈◊〉 and Practice I humbly propose First that every Party do present a voluntary Assurance of their Fidelity to the Government in Terms the most full and pain that may be In which as the King will have an Account of their Number so of their Duty to the Government and Abhorrence of all Faction and Rebellion Secondly That they should give in a List of their Meetings as to Place Time and the Persons properly belonging to them Thirdly that once in every Year the names of Proselytes be delivered into the Clark of the Peace for every County and that all of that Party as well as those new Adherents do renew their Obligation of Obedience by Annual Subscriptions Fourthly Because it is not impossible that some or other may mis-behave themselves and abuse this Liberty or be abused in the use of it That in every County three Persons of most Eminency be Yearly Named to the Magistrates by each Dissenting Interest to stand a kind of Representatives both to inform them what they can upon inquiry of Persons or Things among the People of that Party Which may in the least be thought to affect the Government and to have redress of injuries done to Persons in the sober use of their allowed Liberty These are the Methods that have had most weight with me and the best I know to create a Reciprocal Confidence and Interest between the Prince and his Dissenting People To be
to the Publick yet the Government cannot allow it without Ruin to the Church England which it is obliged to maintain But I think this 〈◊〉 not affect the Question at all unless by maintaing the Church of England it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of 〈◊〉 Communion or knock them on the Head Let us call to mind that the Religion that is true allows no man to do Wrong that Right may come of it And that nothing has lessen'd the Credit of any Religion more than declining to support it self by its own Charity and Piety and taking Sanctuary in the Arms rather than the Vnderstanding of men Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon The Church of England must be maintain'd Right but can't that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword with this Rebuke He that kills with the Sword with the Sword shall be killed if his Followers are to draw it again He makes killing for Religion Murder and deserving Death Was he then in the right Not to call Legions to his assistance And are not his Followers of these times in the wrong to seek to uphold their Religion by any methods of Force The Church of England must be maintain'd therefore the Dissenters that almost hold the same Doctrine must be ruined A Consequence most unnatural as it is almost impossible For besides that the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate who is the Image of divine Justice and Clemency and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church upon one that destres to be esteemed a True one she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed Kings can no more make Brick without Straw than Slaves The Condition of our Affairs is much chang'd and the Circumstances our Government is under differ mightily from those of our Ancestors They had not the same dissents to deal with nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable and their Prosecution mischievous to the State Nor did this come of the Princes neglect or 〈◊〉 There are other Reasons to be assigned of which the opportunities Domestick Trouble gave to their Increase and Power and the Severities used to suppress them may go for none of the least So that it was as involuntary in the Prince as to the Church Anxious And under this necessity to tye the Magistrate to old measures is to be regardless of Time whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the conduct of wise men in their present Actions Governments as well as Courts change their Fashions The same Clothes will not always serve And Politicks made Obsolete by new Accidents are as unsafe to follow as antiquated Dresses were ridiculous to ware Thus Sea-men know and teach us in their daily practice They humour the Winds though they will lie as near as they can and trim their Sails by their Compass And by patience under these constrained and uneven Courses it is they gain their Port at last This justifies the Governments change of Measures from the change of Things for res nolunt male Administrari And to be free it looks more then Partial to Elect and Reprobate too That the Church of England is prefer'd and has the Fat of the Earth the Authority of the Magistrate and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands which comprehends all the Honours Places Profits and Powers of the Kingdom must not be repined at Let her have it and keep it all and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her But to ruin Dissenters to compleat her Happiness pardon the Allusion is Talvauism in the worst sence for this is that Horrendem Decretum reduc'd to Practice And to pursue that ill-natured Principle Men are civilly Damn'd for that they cannot help since Faith is not in Man's power though it sometimes exposes one to it It is a severe Dilemma that a man must either renounce that of which he makes Conscience in the sight of God or be civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated There was a time when the Church of England her self stood in need of Indulgence and made up a great part of the Non-conformists of this Kingdom and what she then wanted she pleaded for I mean a Toleration and that in a general Stile as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor Bishop of Down entituled Liberty of Prophecy And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England is the Modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes For though perhaps it were indefencible in any Church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true unless she superceeded his Ignorance by Conviction rather than Authority it must doubtless look rude to punish men into Conformity to that of the truth of which the Church her self pretends no certainty Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious then one more confident but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh when they ruin People for not believing that which they have not in themselves the power of believing and which she cannot give them and of which her self is not infallibly assured The Drift of this is Moderation which well becomes us poor Mortals That for every idle Word we speak must give an account at the Day of Judgment if our Saviour's Doctrine have any credit with us It would much mittigate the Severity if the dissent were Sullen or in Contempt But if men can't help or hinder their Belief they are rather Vnhappy than Guilty and more to be pitied than blamed However they are of the reasonable stock of the Country and though they were unworthy of Favour they may not be unfit to live 'T is Capital at Law to destroy Bastards and By-blows are lay'd to the Parish to keep They must maintain them at last And shall not these natural Sons at least be laid at the Door of the Kingdom Unhappy fate of Dissenters to be less heeded and more destitute then any Body If this should ever happen to be the effect of their own Folly with submission it can never be the consequence of the Government 's Engagements Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest If God hath elected some to Salvation it will not follow of course that he hath absolutly rejected all the rest For tho' he was God of the Jews he was God of the Gentiles too and they were his People tho' the Jews were his peculiar People God respects not Persons says St. Peter the good of all Nations are accepted The Difference at last will not be of Opinion but Works Sheep or Goats all of all Judgments will be found and Come well done or Go ye Workers of Iniquity will conclude their Eternal State Let us be careful