one against them There is no such Preaching and Praying and performing good Duties as is absolutely perfect and free from all Faults and often-times in necessary Ingredients and Conditions the best Man faileth This supposed the Question arising is Whether they who observing the Call of God Answer of their Conscience need and benefit of Souls are blessed of God in their Work tho but in some measure do not do better to preach and pray at all hazards if otherwise it cannot be than if they did forbear because in one point they offend against a revokable Law and for that how many Circumstances do over-match that one First For their Persons they are else in all points subject to the Laws Secondly For their Doctrine ready to give an account Thirdly For the manner of doing it is in a peaceable way without any kind of Riot they meet and part as peaceably as any of our Church-Assemblies do There is I say again no such performance of Duties as is absolute faultless and perfect in all Circumstances The Duties they perform are religious defective only in outward Form and is it not comparatively better to perform them than forbear them And can he that punisheth them for such Religious Exercises neither materially poisonous nor effectually poisoning Subjects ever be excused from punishing Well-doing and for Religion if these Considerations have any Reason in them Obj. It is not Religion but their Nonconformity to the Laws that 's punished Answ Their Nonconformity was punished once before by their loss of their Livings and temporal undoing how often must the same Men be punished for the same Fault as you and not they account it Obj. They are Men of ill Designs c. Answ Why do not you prosecute them as such if they are such and leave out their Preaching and Praying out of your Informations and Warrants Obj. If the Execution of Laws shall be termed Persecution then wo to Magistrates will any Man dare to call it Persecution This 〈◊〉 the case c. Answ All due Reverence to the Laws and to the Magistrates premised the Administrators of Laws may be guilty of undue Prosecutions and persecuting Men with good Laws Merciless and uncharitable urging of good Laws beyond their intention and scope and with Revenge and Rigor upon the Peccant is Persecution in the common Acceptation of Men. To conclude this Disquisition It is undeniable that nothing but Preaching and Praying and other Religious Exercises are the Cause of Trouble and Sufferings to very many who had not been at all molested but for those Duties If there be a house full of Friends or Strangers that come and go in a peaceable manner yea altho many or all of the Men are armed with ordinary Weapons if there be nothing but eating and drinking and common Discourses they are not molested yea if a great deal of their Discourse be religious there is no Information nor issuing out of Warrants but if there be a Preacher among them and any Solemnity in the Duties of Religion this becomes offensive and liable to the Laws It is the Exercise of Religion that gives the Offence and makes the Company guilty and how Punishments fall upon such when met without Weapons or quarrelling or disturbance of the Peace to make it a Riot but for Religion is not to be thought There is no Question to be made but many Justices have been guilty of gross Persecution abusing the Laws to the service of their Anger and Revenge and have gone beyond the Law when they have wanted sufficient Evidence either of Preaching Praying or Expounding or of any Preacher being in Company but have told the Informers if they heard but a Tone like Preaching it was sufficient It can be proved of one Justice that without any other Proof sent out his Warrant to levy upon the Goods of them that were present and I have seen a Copy of another Warrant for levying of 20 l. when it was not proved that there was a Preacher in the House If these are true then such Executioners of Justice do execute for Religion and for no other Offence Such also as threaten they will not leave a Meeting-house standing who know bo h the Preachers and their Auditors to be peaceable Persons and cannot pretend any cause of Fear From their Assemblies do threaten as displeased with their Religious Exercises and for no other Cause for if they can suffer many lazy irreligious Persons to absent from Church and not punish them tho they have no lawful cause of their Absence and threaten to punish them that are religious but in another way it is not Conscience and Zeal of Duty to the publick Worship that moves them for then they would punish the lazy 〈◊〉 idle or prophane and say They will not suffer any Person to be absent from the Common-Prayer but be zealous against some as against others But this is not the Temper of all therefore I will not bring in a charge of Persecution against all but I will endeavour to shew what is required of a Man that cannot be said to persecute and leave it to the Examination and sentence of every Mans Conscience 1. He must be a knowing Man not in Christian Religion in general only but in these controverted points about Religion he must not be so senceless as to call Religion Sedition nor to make a different Form to be a different Religion or that Religion is subverted by a Difference from some humane Constitutions He must be a knowing Man lest he rush ignorantly upon the Servants of Christ Paul was a Persecuter when he was ignorant Ignorance did excuse him from the Malice but not from the Persecution He must not only think he doth God good Service for so did others who for all their thought did persecute the Disciples but be sure he doth God good Service 2. He must be a sincere Lover of Jesus Christ of his Holy Ordinances of all that believe on him and that worship him for if he hate Christ hate his Gospel Preaching Praying and Religious Duties or hate the Disciples of Christ he must needs be a Persecutor and of the grosser sort 3. He must be sincere in what he doth for the thing which he doth he must be satisfied that he doth well and he must intend the Glory of God and the honour and preservation of Religion in it If he pretend in his Warrants Sedition or evil Designs when there is none he acts falsly and pretends that to be the cause of his Commands which he verily knows is not the cause as not being as much as alledged or proved If he thus proceeds he strikes at Religion under pretence of Sedition and Rebellion 4. He must consider the Circumstances of the Persons both Preachers and Hearers the time of their Meeting the need they have in their Places and other Circumstances But if without Examination or making any difference for his Information he follows the story of the Informer then
agree in the same avowed publick Creeds and Doctrines and all the parts of Gospel-Worship And it is more brotherly to denominate them from their Agreement with us than from their Dissent and Disagreement from us But I must not digress and this I humbly submit The thing now to be done is to make the best of our Differences and what 's best to be done as the Case stands It is better as more conducing to the ends of the Laws by which you proceed to suppress them Therefore it is better The ends of the Laws have been declared above as respecting the State and the Church 1. With respect to the State When they preach in publick they are known to be the same Men that upon Principles of Loyalty and Conscience prepared the People or concurred with the Loyal Nobles and Gentlemen and Commonalty of England to bring back the King They are known to the Land which once accounted them a Blessing to it their Judgments and Practises are known and while these are in the head of the younger Dissenters they are as Directions and Examples to them to keep them from dangerous Excursions When His Majesty was moved to grant an Indulgence the indulged were to give their Names and their Places which they did and this was cautiously done for the safety of the Kingdom there being less danger from a Person known than one unknown and a great Obligation upon a known Person to keep within tolerable Bounds Our greatest Dangers have been from Persons of many Names many changes of Wiggs and Habits and moving up and down the Land in secret and Disguises 2. It is better for the State For when learned and good Men have their publick Liberty they will by sound Doctrine teach perswade exhort reprove instruct them in their Duties to God to the King c. Charge them to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates And while they preach sound Doctrine one end of the Magistrate's Care to the State is obtained 3. They cannot possibly sow Sedition or move Insurrections in publick Assemblies if they were so wickedly disposed The safety of King and Kingdom and the Confidence of the King and Kingdom may rest undoubted as to any ill Designs of those Preachers while they preach in publick And I do humbly offer it to the Consideration of all Loyal Protestant Magistrates to forbear to drive them into private Houses by their Severities because under colour of private Meetings our destroying perfidious Enemies of Rome may sow Sedition and further plot upon Protestants They may as well proclaim a Rebellion at the Exchange Cheapside or in a Parish-Church as preach it in one of their Meeting-places 4. It is better they should be spared than prosecuted because they will be better enabled and more encouraged to perform other Offices and Duties to the King and State than they can possibly by being ruined in their Estates 5. They have many Friends and Relations in the Church of England which must suffer many ways in their Poverty and undoing It will be a Tenderness and Kindness to them to have them spared and not beggared or forced to leave the Kingdom Lastly It is certain that it conduceth more to the publick Peace 〈◊〉 for when Dissenters are connived at and gratified they are so far obliged and owned and even when their private Dissatisfactions remain their Liberty being so far indulged they have no cause to complain of the Magistrate and while they are not disturbed by him committing nothing that is provoking they even from Interest and love of Quietness if their Conscience of Duty lay dormant in them will not disturb him that permits them The publick Peace is best secured when Men of private Opinions keep them private and have no disturbance given to their Peace I do not speak this as if I feared their Turbulency but granting for Argument sake that they have Touchwood in them keep Fire from incensing it and it will do no harm Secondly Forbearnce will be better for the Church and prevent a greater Schism against which the Laws seem to fortify it 1. By their publick preaching or as they can We have a great considerable number of able Men that influence the People that are agreed with us against the Force and Subtilty of Rome therefore the more we have against them the stronger we are Indulge the Dissenters and you secure them but if not they 'll be afraid of you and you afraid of them and by your mutual Fears and Jealousies the Papists get what they get and not by meer Nonconformity 2. By this publick way they walk with you according to the same Rule as far as they have attained and that this is near enough for Forbearance 3. The Scandal that is given to forreign reformed Churches is abated and a great Example given to them that have long contended under the name of Luther and Calvin and others of Calmness and Forbearance 4. The Schism will come hereby to a greater Closure than otherwise it will for when the Church is satisfied by their profitable Preaching and peaceable Deportment they cannot but conceive better of them and desire a Peace and Union and abate some things which they stand upon and when they do taste the Sweetness of the Bishops Temper they will love and honour them and the Differences that remain will appear to be only such as may be between good Men and Brethren 5. By this publick Preaching Multitudes of poor Souls that know not whither else to go and Multitudes that will go no where else are kept in the way of Salvation and Profession of the Gospel And this is that which some Divines of the Church of England are so sensible of that they treat the Nonconformists as Friends and Fellow-Labourers I could if need were instance in some Great Men and great Places where this is true The second Branch of the Comparison now comes to be handled and then the Argument runs thus It is better that Protestant Dissenters should be spared or freed from the Penalties of the Laws than be prosecuted for the Evils of Execution will be greater than the Evils of Forbearance I am to remember my own Question and therefore I am not concerned in the Question about Separation either the Sinfulness or Excusableness of it which hath been lately largely debated but what is best to be done at this time and in this posture of Affairs The Unhappiness and Evils of our divided State have been considered by Divines and States-men The Divines have opened them in the Pulpit and in Print and have driven different ways to the same end the Union and the Preservation of the Church some representing the Mischief have taken the more moderate way of Perswasion abhorring Persecution and have so managed their Discourse as to take off the People from their Teachers Dr. Stilling fl Mischief of Separation and to bring them to the Church because there is nothing required of
preach as we do they suffer for those Religious Exercises therefore for Religion and Well-doing but supposing them imperfect for want of the Common-Prayer yet so far as they are religious they are good Obj. But they are looked upon as suspitious Persons because they subscribed not c. to the Act of Uniformity in the Oxford Act. Answ True but two things are considerble 1. Many took off that Suspition by subscribing that Declaration yet that will not excuse them if they preach to above Four 2. Their not subscribing and declaring according to the Act of Uniformity makes the cause of their Suffering doubtful The Law calls them to conform upon such Conditions of subscribing and declaring Their Consciences after the most diligent search into all things required command them upon peril of sinning against God to forbear They may be deceived and why may not fallible Imposers be deceived say they if they suffer for not sinning against God and Conscience If they suffer for performing Religious Exercises according to the general Rules of the Gospel and their own Consciences as well informed as they can inform themselves they suffer for Religion altho they that exact and execute Punishments think they suffer for Omissions and Obstinaces in those Omissions They suffer for Omission of humane Constitutions which they hold not Divine and perform Duties which they hold to be Divine The case is as clear to them to be unlawful as it is clear to them that command them to be lawful therefore the Case hangs in doubt If they that refuse to conform refuse upon peril of temporal Losses they who inflict them do inflict them upon peril of sinning also He that suffers for doing what is confessedly Religious and forbears what is dubious or sinful in appearance is on the safer side than he that punisheth for undoubted religious necessary Duties only for the Omission of unnecessary things Obj. But holding their Meetings to above Four and in publick is seditious in the eye of the Law and they suffer for that and not for their Religion Answ Indeed that seems to be the only criminal Circumstance But why shall this alter the Case which is far better and more satisfactory to Magistrates and the Church than their retiring into allowed private Houses and the stinted Number But this doth not make Religious Exercises to be no Religious Exercises except it infuse poisonous Principles into a Multitude which is not known and cannot be proved it is Religion and not a Riot that is really punished Now granting this to be a forbidden Circumstance compare it with the many Circumstances that make it the more allowable and then shall Religious Exercises necessary to be observed profitable to many be therefore unpardonable because of one Circumstance This I humbly refer to Consideration before the Magistrate strike with the heavy hand of the Law Make the most that can be of the Fact Here 's Religious Service performed without Ceremony and Form there 's the defect here 's a Religious Exercise to a supernumerary Company that 's the excess But to this let us compare the nature of the Exercises unquestionably Divine The Institutor is Christ our Lord the Ordinances are necessary the manner of Performance according to the general Rules of Christ highly beneficial and tending to publick Good and eternal Life yet for the want of a Circumstance or two made necessary by a mutable Law the Observers of them shall be punished as Evil doers Are not Humane Constitutions subject to the Providences of God the Supream Governour whose Dominion is especially to be owned in all Christian Kingdoms Suppose then by the over ruling Providences of God there are Alterations made in the Affairs of the Kingdom which make that which is a Divine Ordinance become a necessary Duty to Men prohibited by temporal Laws whether Governours of Chrstian States should not observe them and make their Laws stoop to the Divine Will The Defenders of the Church argue It is more reasonable the Dissenters should yield to the Bishops than the Bishops to them so say I It is more reasonable and decent that Humane Laws should yield to the Divine Pleasure than the Work of God be stopt by Humane Laws The true State of this as far as I can perceive lies before us thus First The preaching of the Gospel is an indispensible good Duty Secondly They who are fitted called and devoted to God are bound to preach it Thirdly Some that are happily fitted for it become suspicious to some in Power Fourthly By long Experience and Process of time they cannot be charged with such Crimes as are of ill Operation to the State Fifthly These Men are ready to give such security to the State as the Generality of unquestionable Subjects give and to take away all just cause of Jealousy and Mistrust Sixthly They are qualified by Christ and must give an account to him they are called and invited to discharge their Duties as Preachers 1. Their Conscience puts them in mind of their Vows as Persons devoted to Christ to serve him upon his Conditions 2. The cry of Souls calls them that either want or want such as can and will do them good this is the plain case in multitudes of Places 3. God unexpectedly opens a door for them by Fire and Plague and other providences 4. Calm Proceedings of Magistrates and the Inclination of Law givers give them Encouragement 5. Their Zeal for God answers this Call 6. God gives them his Blessing followeth them with success which is a sign of his Approbation which he never gave to Evil-doing And shall this be punished by Christians as Evil-doing This is to act contrary to God to punish them whom God approves There is a Humane Law stands in their way revoked in Voto by them that made it shall the observance of that Law suspend the Administration of Ordinances in themselves good well performed in the general manner where there is great need and to good Ends without dangerous Effects or Consequences to them that once did forbid them Preaching and Praying are good Duties but the Nonconformists Preaching and Praying tho good in Substance is not good because of ill Circumstances say some Now then the Opposition here is not between their Preaching and Praying and ours but between their Circumstances and ours we according to Legal Constitutions they not according to them But as hath been argued there is but one Circumstance that is faulty the want of Common-Prayer and Ceremonies makes not their Preaching faulty for the Law that enjoyned them did not brand their Preaching and Praying without them as Evil-doing the Evil attending their Preaching are the ill Designs and Ends which they never drove at it is good if free from them it is ill it seems because to too many Hearers Here 's one Circumstance or want of one Condition To this one oppose all the Circumstances if you call them so and they are more and greater for them than this