and latter Times in their Controversials that surely these Men were an excellent part of the Church inspired by the Spirit of Grace and Truth and deserved better usage and a higher place than a Barn or a Hall to preach in In speaking well of the Nonconformists I have followed the Example of them that I reckon among the Chief of the Church of England and if my Affection to them and in them to Christian and Protestant Name and Religion hath prevailed upon me to an unusual Undertaking if it be not pardonable with some if it be acceptable to Jesus Christ and suitable to the Minds of many good Men in the Church and do some tolerable service to the suffering part I doubt not but I shall be saved without the Pardon of them that cannot pardon the Vertue of Moderation any more than the aggravated offence of Nonconformity I have gone no further than to plead a trampled Cause which they that hold it think too good and precious to be trodden on by the proudest Foot as sit to be taken into Consideration by the Wisdom and Authority of the Nation I have not presumed to make Proposals or Demands that 's left to wise and great Men. But if some of our Eminent * Dr. Stilling Preface to the Vnreasonab of Separation Church-Men have made Proposals of Abatement and have not violated their Subscriptions not to endeavour any alteration of the Government in Church or State I hope I have not forfeited my Sonship or broken Faith by doing far less and keeping within the Bounds of a well-meaning Man And so much and perhaps too much by way of Apology I have opened in the Plea the Hardness of the Case Greatness of the Sufferings Worthiness of the Persons of the Non-Conformists and the Loss to the Church by their Exclusion or Suppression I might infer Conclusions from every of those Head of the Arguments and drive the Plea more home but now because their Sufferings are like to be more and greater and they are to be a Carkass to the Eagles I will take leave to discuss this seasonable and necessary Question Q. Whether it be not better that the Penal Laws against the Non-Conformists to which they are obnoxious by their Preaching and Praying and other Religious Exercises should not be executed but forborn rather than put in Excution until such time as our Gracious King and Parliament in time to come shall maturely take the State of divided Protestants into their wise Consideration and bring us all into a happier Legal Establishment than we are in or can be in while our Divisions and their Causes continue It may be thought high Presumption in a private Person to determine which is the better but I conceive that because the Civil Magistrate is not Omniscient but takes his Information from Inferiours and private Men coming to him through Publick Persons it 's rather a Duty than an Offence to propose such a Question and discuss it when too many determine perhaps without due Examination of the Case that the rigorous Prosecution of Dissenters is best and needful In the handling of this Question it will be necessary to state it and shew 1. Who I mean by the Non-Conformists 2. State the Controversy between them and the Church from which they dissent 3. Open the nature of the Offences for which they are liableto the Laws 4. Explain what I mean by Forbearance of them or the Execution of the Laws 5. Why I limit the time until our Gracious King shall take our divided State into further Consideration After which done I will 6. Produce my Arguments for the Affirmative That it is better the Laws should not be executed than put in Execution And 7. Answer Objections to the contrary 1. By Nonconformists I mean only such Ministers Teachers Pastors and People as are sound in the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and substantial Worship that are Protestants or reformed from the Corruptions of Popery that peaceably submit to the Civil Government of the Kingdom and the Temporal Laws thereof Secondly The Controversy between the Nonconformists and the Church or the Conformists lies not in Matters Political and of Civil Government for they agree in that according to the Laws and Constitution of the Realm * Vid. Dr. Stilling Misch Separat p. 21. and their own many Books Cum illis quos tu Puritanos vocas non est nobis de fide aut Fidei dogmate lis ulla de Ritibus illis disciplina Ecclesioe nostrae contendunt Crakenthorp Eccles Anglic. Defensio c. 33. p. 203. Nor is the Controversy in the Fundamentals or Articles of Faith or between a Church-Government and Anarchy or no Government but about Matters of Form and Ecclesiastical Discipline and Terms of Church-Communion or of Exercise of their Publick Ministry consisting in Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and some private Doctrines to be assented to But this is too general an Account more particularly it is carefully to be noted 1. That the Controversy berween the Nonconformists and the Church as now Established by Law is not the same it was between the Church and Nonconformists or Puritans from the Reign of Q. Elizabeth to our King's Reign The Nonconformists in those days and following time asserted a Government and Discipline of Divine Right by Presbyterian Classes Synods and Lay-Elders and dissented from the Government by Diocesan Bishops and Ceremoines principally yet these were against the Brownists who separated from the Church of England as no true Church which the meer Nonconformists did not But since his Majesties wonderful Restauration that part of the Controversy which relates to Church-Discipline and Government is altogether new and quite different from the old No single Person nor Combination of Men did ever desire of the King or Parliament the Establishment or the Toleration of the Presbyterian Government or Discipline See Mr. Baxt. Preface to Bp Morley and Bp Gunning before his True and only way of Concord either in the Presbyterian or Independent Way And therefore the pains of those Writers who have revived the Opinions and raked into the Miscarriages of the Presbyterians might have been spared as not at all to the purpose except to that which is unbecoming either peaceble or wise Men They do only kindle Wrath by stirring Fire and cry Fire Fire in the Church and State when there is not so much as any Smoak ascending from the Embers of Presbyterian Principles Those Tragical Stories of Presbyterians whether true or not which some Men bring to remembrance seem to serve another Design than the union or preservation of the Church and apparently to render the Nonconformists suspicious and odious and to hinder a Reconciliation 2. There are especially two sorts of Dissenters from the Legal Church First Those who are called Presbyterians but wrongfully so called and by me only for Distinction sake the other are the Congregational or Independents The Fanaticks and Sectaries fall under this last Division
found that Reason Conviction and Calmness have been the winning ways upon scrupulous Persons or else it cannot in Charity be thought that they would come behind others in accomplishing the work of Peace and Uniformity They cannot but know what Destruction without Reformation will follow Excommunications if they proceed to Writs and follow the Course of Law to the uttermost Many of our Ecclesiastical Courts have taken that way and can any of them shew us any one Man converted to Uniformity by it Many have removed from one Country and Diocess to another and wrought themselves out of Trouble or abide in them to this day But can they shew any one Man they have brought over to a sincere and hearty Conformity Their Molestations go nearer the Heart to separate them than to unite them If the Church should for Nonconformity proceed to Sentence and thence to Writs and thence to Execution what way can they take more effectual to disobligle the Nation The Gentleman and Landlord suffers in the ruine and loss of his Tenant the thousands of poor Families that live by Manufactures suffer in the Losses or Removes of their Masters and as many as actually suffer of what Condition soever and their Families and Posterity that suffer in them are made the poorer but never the better Christians they are all disobliged and broken from us Besides they know the charge of their Dissent which is often-times no more than pay your Fees and go home The Officers of Courts get but what doth the Church get thereby It is visible that those parts of the Land have the most for number and the most resolute Nonconformists that have been most severely used The more many Men suffer the more Arguments they gather for the Goodness of the Cause for which they suffer The far greater part of our Church-Governours have abstained from rigorous Courses Now the Civil Magistrates are rowzing up and awake as out of sleep But what 's the Cause of this Excitation The Conservators of the Peace are harnessing themselves for the Defence of Church and State But what fear of the King's Life Is it not the Acclamation of all Protestants is there in this one Dissenter among them Long may the King live Who doth hold up a Finger to shake the Throne or Government or who is there that hath heard of as much as a whisper of any Conspiracy If there be God who seeth in secret reveal it quickly by the Guilty themselves and there is no likelihood of a Concealment if there be such a thing for none but beggarly mad Men can be in it the service then must be done to the Church The Magistrates rise up in Defence of it But doth not the Magistrates Vigilancy reproach the Severity and Sleepiness of the Watchmen how can any that at other times and occasions do not talk with any great Concern Affection or Reverence of the Bishops now be so zealous If the Bishops should proceed with one mind roundly to Excommunications and break up Families by it who would sooner complain than Gentlemen that suffer by it who more earnest or be more complemental in Intercessions But now why should they be so forward to undo great Numbers to the apparent detriment of the Common-wealth when the Bishops are so backward to give them their Friends or their Dependents Trouble What Alterations will the Execution make in Rents and Trade and who will sooner feel the Effects than he who takes his Ease and lives high and cannot bear the fall of his Revenues If the Magistrate appear in his Power when the Church calls for his help it will be duty and self-denial too to take part of the Odium of what is counted a Persecution but to hazard the breaking of many thousands who can in some parts of the Kingdom make a Rise or fall of Commodities and the loss and trouble of abundance more by Participation to their own Dishonour is a greater Kindness to the R. R. Bishops than was expected or can be rewarded with their Blessing Secondly It is more God-like Christian and Humane to use Clemency and follow the Examples of the Indulgent especially when the hurtful Effects of Severity are great and apparent and the Benefit doubtful God is wise just and holy but continues to uphold the World by Mercy Christianity is full of Mercy and the Author of it is a Reconciler and Mediator Human Nature so given to offend would be destroyed but for Love Forbearance and Mercy Mercifulness is like the soft Cement that binds all the Stones in the Fabrick of Human Society which else would never hold together but fall without it With ut it Men are like rugged Stones and Severity doth not square but chop and should never be exercised but when Society cannot be preserved without it If this Age will follow Examples of the most exact and strict Governours it will find more room for Mercy than hath been shewn to them that have been excluded for want of it But if it will set it self for an Example it is a question whether wise Posterity will follow it The High Commission Court was a kind of Inquisition so the wise Lord Treasurer Burleigh wrote to Arch-Bp Whitgift But according tomy simple Judgment said he Fuller's Ch. History B. ix An. 1583. this kind of proceeding is too much savouring the Romish Inquisition And of all Men the Puritans felt the weight of it The Puritans were opposite to the Bishops and their Government and Courts and they made themselves and the Queen their Government and Hers all one what was said or done against them was done against Her Majesty As in Mr. Udal's Examination and Trial is to be seen Pr. Lond. 1643. Can. 4 6 9 11. And the Opposition between the Puritan Discipline and the Episcopal was greater than hath been urged ever since the King's Return If Church-History were silent we may learn frrom the Canons of 1603 what Language was common in those times But now the Controversy is not between the Presbyter and the Bishop but between Bishops acting in a narrow Room and a larger Diocess yet they are not discontent if the King shall honour some as he doth with Lordship nor continue their Revenues The Independents supposed to be Brownists but are not give not the Language of Antichristian to Bishops or our Congregations but look upon us as parts of the Catholick Church The Bishops are Antichurchians as against their Congregational Power but not Antichristian Dr. Owen of Church-Peace c. Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes §. 35. which was the Language of the Brownists but those that were more opposite or hung off were more kindly used Mr. Fox a N. C. held his Prebend of Salisbury Dr. Humphreyes was Dean of Winchester President of Magdalen Colledg and Regius-Professor in Oxford Mr. Tho. Cartwright the Head of the N. C. was at last much favoured by his mighty Antagonist A. B. Whitgift made Master of the Hospital in Warwick
Opposition Oratorically but truly and upon Proof the one studies knows and performs his Duty to God and his King and to all Men according to his Knowledg the other knows neither and makes no Conscience in appearance of either he is for the King and you but as he is for the Devil for what he can get by his Service he is ungodly and profane a daily Transgressor of the King's Laws as well as God's and more than one have been cut off by the Sword of Justice having first been rejected by all honest Men the one lives a poor contented Life praying for his King and for all orders of Men and praising God fares hard and goes meanly whilst the other runs in debt cheats his Creditors swears and damns and robs on the High-way or breaks open Houses In a word the one walks in the way of Godliness and Honesty and labours to draw others with him the other neither goes in himself nor suffers others to enter that would And behold and be astonished ye Heavens at this the one is in danger of losing all he hath and suffering because he hath no more to lose for labouring to save Souls and the other hopes to be rewarded with a third part of many of his Neighbours Goods A surer way it is to turn Informer than play the Thief or cheat his Creditors but all hath not done their Work the end of many hath been according to their Work All this is spoken of some of them You are Gentlemen of Estates and cannot think that the ruine of thousands of Traders Farmers Tenants yea the impoverishing of many of good Condition can be a Service to the Common-wealth If you do not suffer an immediate Loss yet hundreds will and what is a Loss to so great a part will be an impairing of the whole That great States-man Sir Walter Rawleigh in the Parliament 35th of Elizab. spake these Words Historic Collect. c. of the 4 last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 76. by Mr. Townshend I am afraid there is near 20000 of them the Brownists in England and when they are gone who shall maintain their Wives and Children Had there been but 20000 Dissenters in England they had been rooted out before now if some had prevailed But who shall maintain a far greater number of Wives and Children when their Husbands and Parents are undone by the Penal Laws And who will get by it not the King his third part if come into his Exchequer will not countervail the loss of his Subjects What have the Poor got this many Years or what have they got that could neither keep nor get nor pay their Debts before they took to Informing As many of you as are Gentlemen of Hospitality relieve many poor at your Doors or other-where can you think it a Charity to relieve Beggars and issue Warrants to make many Beggars that either cannot dig or beg or that keep many to their Labours that else would beg that bear their Burdens in the Common-wealth and are no burden to it Your Place and Office requireth Wisdom And I may be bold to say That the Renowned Sir Matthew Hale was as wise as strict as just as able a Lawyer as the ablest of you all that keep the Chair it is no disparagement of the learnedest and gravest of you all to take him for an Example See his Life by Dr. Gilbert Burnet whose Moderation towards Dissenters is a part of his noble Character you have known what hath been the concurring sense of all our Parliaments since 1672. If none of these shall be your Precedents I beseech you be pleased to consider it is your Wisdom to understand the Duty of your Places and the Matters that are brought before you especially in Cases that concern the Liberties Livelihoods and Estates of many thousands in the Land I humbly conceive you cannot with a clear Conscience proceed against the Dissenters except you understand 1. The matters for which they suffer and that you may see in several Writings 2. Attend to the scope and reasons of the Acts upon which you proceed 3. Distinguish between Preacher and Preacher between the sound and the unsound and other Circumstances and choose rather to give up your Commissions than to act against God and your Conscience by punishing Well-doing as if it were Evil doing That Preaching and Praying which tends to Men's Salvation and to no evil end either to the King or his Government cannot be punished safely without being accessary to the evil Intentions of those designing Men who were the Politick Promoters of those Laws nor without great obstruction of true Godliness and of a most desirable Vnion among Protestants 4. You ought not to act like meer Machines or irrational Instruments If so the Weak and the Rash that can but write their Names to a Warrant or a Mittimus might be as fit as you for your Offices but as Men of Vnderstanding Wisdom Conscience and Religion and if the Laws are hard and too severe for meer Nonconformity be Intercessors with the King and Parliament for his Subjects and your fellow Christians As Just Men Try the fitness of the Witnesses whether they are Boni Legales Punish not Religious Assemblies of peaceable Men under the odious names of Routs and Riots and let not the sound profiatble and peaceable Preachers be ruined with a measure of Punishment only due to the turbulent and rebellious And if by many Years Experience you find no Sedition or Disturbance to the Kingdom only to the minds of some that are too controversially disposed to Passion and Contention or if you find it only to be a Schism a Church-matter leave it to the Church-Men to judg it according to their Law If you maintain the Civil Peace you are happy Instruments in the Government and what more is required of you Noble and honoured Gentlemen I do not presume to dedicate this as to Patrons but humbly offer and submit the Reason and Argument to your Consideration and suggest two things 1. If we believe a Catholick Church of the same Faith in different Forms and Modes why shall not our Fellow-Subjects and Natives professing that Faith in a different Form share in your Charity as parts of the Catholick Church To love them as Christians of the Catholick Church and of the same Faith with our National Church in all things and yet punish them that preach Catholick Doctrine and observe all the Ordinances of the Catholick Church is an odd kind of Love and Charity 2. If there be any among us that are holy sanctified Preachers and Hearers they shall be saved in the last day You know the Process of that great day of Judgment for what Causes the unrighteous shall be condemned I was naked and ye cloathed me not in Prison and ye visited me not Mat. 35.43 O how will it agree with this to say I was in Power and I execated the Laws to distress of Goods and Imprisoment to
gain upon any Man of sense I put off my Hat to them with a seeming Humility and Love and say I pray you come in out of the Wind and Rain and in the mean time prepare neither Room nor Entertainment for them but think my House a great deal better without than with them is as much as to say Be gone or come in upon such hard terms for which they must give Bond and Oath which they cannot yield to Will a Man that hath any Brains in him receive troublesome Persons into his House or contract with perfidious Persons that will eat him out and betray him or espouse a Woman that he takes to be an ill-conditioned contentious unprofitable Brawler We must ground our Agreements upon some rational Confidences And therefore that I might not only pray for Protestant-Christian Peace and Union I used such means as were within my narrow Compass and I could not think of any better than briefly to state the Case and commend the Persons whose Establishment I do heartily desire as they with whom we may safely and comfortably communicate in the same Offices or at least quietly endure to live with us in the same Nation or worship God in Christ as in an outward Court of the Temple tho not in the Body of it or at the Altar If the Gentiles were not admitted into the inward Court they had the allowance of an outward Court they were not forbidden to come into Jerusalem or any Town where the Sanbedrim was held But our Non-Conformist Brethren may approach with us even to the Altar if they be but taken in upon such Terms as Christ and his Apostles would have admitted them upon yea upon Principles declared by our first glorious Reformers And shall it be a Crime in a Conformist to say so to speak Truth in Love They earnestly plead with the Keepers of the Keyes For Christ's sake take us in They plead with the power of the Sword For the Lord's sake smite us not destroy us not for we are Friends To the one they say We would live in Peace and Love with you we would glorify God with one Mouth with you we would not be as Strangers and Enemies To the other they say We will stand on your side we will live and by with you But some that watch at the door and some that stand Sentinel and are upon the Guard cry Who are ye Whence come ye What would you have Is it not a good Service in me or any other that are within that know the Men and have heard or read their Offers to declare who they are and what they offer I look upon it as great an Act of Charity to many in the Church of which I am a Member as to them to make a true report of the things I have written and towards a Reception to repeat the Heads of some former Debates and Consultations for Concord and what hath been the Judgment of and to what some Worthies of former times have condescended But who hath hired you or feod you for your Plea From this and the like false Accusations I appeal to my Judg in Heaven and my Witness within and desy the World round about me of being as much as privy to any such designed work yet I have my Reward on Earth The Tearers of the Church have made at me as invisible as I am but mistaking their Hold have hurt their Nails and Fingers whilst I escape The Admirers of Innovations have cut me out a new Livery which shews the Uniformity they affect dressed one in a Jesuit's long Robes and a Scotish blew Bonnet but from others I have the Reward of Thanks Prayers and Encouragements to proceed from the good Acceptation of the former part And if none of my fellow Servants would acknowledg my Kindness I hope my Master will whose I am and whom I serve And if some of my Mother's Sons look upon me as having nothing of her because I am not like them to an Hair and wonder who I take after I would they should know I take after the Candor and Ingenuity of Heathens and Papists overcome with the Light and Truth towards Christians and in their Language condemned Hereticks and after the Charity of Conformists towards Puritans and Non-Conformsts in former times and so this part of my Apology shall be 1. The imitable Examples of Heathens towards Christians 2. Of Papists towards miscalled Hereticks our fore-runners in the Truth and Faith 3. Of conforming Defenders of the Church of England towards Dissenters of former and latter times And if it be said That none of these did plead the Cause of their Adversaries as I have done I say 1. The condition of the Times require it 2. Their Case will bear it 3. General inclinations to Peace have opened an opportunity for it 1. Shall not a Christian speak as well of a Christian who is of the same Father Faith and Family as an Heathen of a Christian Shall not a Christian Minister do more than a Christian Man for the honour of Christianity Who hath taught us to expose ferious Professors of the Christian Faith to the condemnation and wrath of the ignorant and angry people or to the jealousy of the Potent What is commendable in them ought to be commended and that should be commended in them which is commendable in us And what is excusable in them ought not to be exposed as damnable and intolerable The Christian Qualities Graces and Vertues should be acknowledged and not disowned because they are in a Nonconformist The Piety due Obedience Sobriety Usefulness diligence in Hearing and Preaching the Word yea and tenderness of Conscience which they profess and shew ought to be kindly respected and the common infirmities of Men rather covered for the sake of those undoubted Graces than these Graces to be suspected because we do not affect the Men. Tertullian in his Dissuasive to Scapula the President of Africa from Persecution ad Scapul c. 4. doth move him by the good opinion and commendation of the Emperor Severus Father of Antoninus who did not only shew favour to Torpacion who had cured him with Oil and kept him in his Palace while he lived but knowing some famous Women and some famous Men to be of this Sect so the Christians were called a Sect or a new Sect by way of contempt he did not only not hurt them but adorned and honoured them with his Testimony and did also openly resist or keep off the common people raging against them But most famous is that full Testimony which Pliny the 2d gave to Trajan of the Religion and Manners of the Christians That he found nothing by them but their obstinacy in refusing to sacrifice and that they met before day to sing to God and Christ to consent in the exercise of Christian Discipline forbidding Murder Adultery Deceit Treachery and other Wickednesses Tertul. ad Scapulam cap. 4. edit Pamelii id Apologetico cap. 2. If an Heathen
Friends they live in my Mannor and have trespassed upon me against the orders of it I thought it hard to trouble them or severely to gather my Amerciaments for they were honest Men and of my Religion too for the main they were good Protestants in their way I never heard of any Riots among them or ill Designs that could be prov'd against any of them when others were at their Pastimes they were at their Prayers and were laborious while others that had more of the World took more Pleasure and they know that if I had been severe with them for every Trespass they had not had a Cow or Cows keeping not a Sheep or a Pig and now they have well about them and I am resolved I will make them pay all the Amerciaments of my Court for every Trespass they shall have neither Cow nor Sheep nor House to sleep in in my Mannor I 'll make them pay or ly in Prison or fly the Land for they are a dangerous ungrateful People for when I stand for a Parliament-Man or desire their Votes for my Friend there is not a Man will appear for me but they are all for them that are against a Popish Successor and for uniting of Protestants and such things as these They are cross to me what I abhor they approve when I address they refuse to subscribe Well but Sir I beseech you be merciful to them and if you will have all your Town to be in all things of your Mind give them notice first or else it will be said you forbore them their lesser Fines till they grew to a great Sum. I beseech you do not so by them but be as merciful to them as you are to other kind of Sinners Fifthly The Limitation of the Question is untill such time as our Gracious King and Parliament in time to come shall take the State of the divided Protestants into their Mature Consideration We may rationally hope we shall have a Parliament from our King who hath often declared his Resolution to have frequent Parliaments we hope it will be a free Parliament I do not mean free from force or violence upon Men's Persons but violence upon their Reasons by Drunkenness with its shameful Antecedents and Effects And if ever we have such Elections we shall pitch upon such Men as long as there are any to be found that are Men of Loyalty to the King and Government of Estates and Quality that are freest from Temptation to get by dishonourable Arts and that have too much to give away from themselves and the Freeholders that choose them A Protestant People will elect Protestant Representatives and such as have a respect to Protestant Dissenters in things that may be spared without hurt to Religion or infringement of Government much less a change and that as they are Natives Relatives peaceable and pious good Men. It cannot be thought that they that would exclude Popery will leave a Breach among our selves for it to enter in at our last Parliaments have declared their Inclinations by their Votes and from what they have done we may guess at what they will do if God give them time And there must be a depth in Policy deeper than Men of a short Line can fathom or a great mistake that those Gentlemen and Magistrates that are bent to suppress our Conventicles should act with such a Spirit now when they have declared who and what they are for Is this the way to gain the Body of the Nation to choose them or those they affect into a next Parliament when it is visible what Interest they serve by disobliging the Protestant Nonconformists and giving notice to the Church and Conforming Protestants that they cannot be safe from them that suppress if not cut off as many as they can of the same Faith and Worship for substance for those Differences that need not be if Condescention and Love might but come in Fashion The Controversy between the Church and them is not yet determined The Rev. Dr. Stilling Preface to Vnreasonableness of Separation Mr. Baxter Humphrey Lobb c. but there is this good of late got by the Heat of Writing that both sides have declared their Minds more freely than heretofore and there are Proposals made by both sides which if they cannot be universally admitted yet from the rude Draughts of a Building wise Men may agree upon the Frame by adding taking away and composing As the Parliament made the Laws out of Love to the Church and they will not do Magistrates out of Love to the Church should abstain from Prosecutions for a time and be patient for a while except they saw what no Man can see that lives nearer to them than their Informers any more cause of Suppression by any contrived dangers either to Church or State than when they are fast asleep in their Beds If you have just cause to fear their Principles disarm them of their Knites but those that know them better than their Enemies or your Informers do think no more Danger like to arise from their Principles than there was against the King and most favourable Parliament from their Preparations for Rebellion Are all the Nonconforming Preachers of a sudden turned Jesuits is their Faith turned into Faction have they submitted their Scriptures and their Senses to an Infallible Guide acknowledged in him the power of both Swords and listed themselves under his consecrated Banners Are all their Children Males Are all their Infants in a few Months grown up to be above sixteen Years of Age fit for Arms Are their Wives and Daughters become Amazons How many thousands can they make Where are their Rendezvouz their Musters their Lists their Magazines Where are their Generals Who are their Correspondents and Confederates abroad The distressed persecuted Protestants of France Are they fortifying their Barns and Meeting-Places or ready to march and take the Field Why are we not all in Arms for fear of them if the Danger be so great from their Assemblies Abstain from these Men for a little time and let not their Flight be in Winter or on the Sabbath-Days If you will not forbear till such a time one thing I hope and look for that when you drive their Cattel or offer their Goods to sale you will find no Buyers or if you send them to the Goals their Keepers and Fellow Prisoners may become true Converts and that you that send them thither may fetch them out But I must not forget my Arguments to prove the Affirmative of the Question That it is better the Execution of the Laws should be forborn against Protestant Dissenters than urged or countenanced I have laid the Question in a Comparative and affirm it is better c. The Comparative doth suppose a Positive if I can prove that it is not good to execute the Penal Laws upon Dissenting Protestants then it will follow a fortiore majore that it is better they should be spared than punished
The Argument runs thus It is not good to execute the Laws upon Dissenting Protestants therefore it is better to forbear their Execution than put them in Execution The Proposition is be proved by an Enumeration of the Laws that Men are pressing upon them 1. It is not good to execute the Statute of 35th of Q. Elizab. which they who are in danger are threatned with That which the whole Parliament thought dangerous to the whole Protestant Interest in England and did as far as in them lay disanul a Bill being prepared to be signed by His Majesty should not be thought good or fit to be executed upon one part of Protestants by some particular Justices of the Peace on the irreligious covetous Information of a sorry sort of Men. The loss of that Bill was judged so great a loss to the Nation of Protestants that the next Parliament made diligent Inquiry into the Causes of that dangerous Frustration of what was thought as much for the Preservation of Protestants from Banishment by Abjuration as for the Preservation of our Bodies from burning by the Act de Heretico comburendo But if this Argument be not of force against them that can handle a Sword better or sign a Warrant than answer an Argument or that will not be reasoned out of a Resolution it may receive some further Strength by this further Enumeration 1. The impartial Execution of that Statute will be ill for all the Papists in the Land that owning the Supremacy of the Pope do impugn the King 's in Causes Ecclesiastical and have absented from Common-Prayer They must abjure the Realm and truly a little respect to Nonconformists because they are not Papists but Protestants should direct our Magistrates to begin with the Papists and try if by ridding the Land of Papists the Stifness of the Dissenters may not bend towards Conformity But to begin with Protestants and leave the Enemies of the King and Church to stay behind them that have potent Confederates is not safe nor kind and respective to Protestants 2. It will be ill for thousands of them that go under the Name of Protestants of the Church of England that may be proved not to have been at Common-Prayer in any Church or Chappel or place where Common-Prayer is wont to be made To prosecute Protestants that preach or are present at Religious Duties tho not after the manner of the Liturgy and to spare them that are oftener present at a Coffee-House or Tavern than at any Worship of God is too partial a Proceeding and argues little kindness to Religion by shewing more to them that wear a Name of Religion and not so much as a Cloak of Religion besides 3. It is not for the King's Honour Profit or Safety and therefore it is not good that a general Riddance should be made of all Dissenters both Papist and Protestant out of the Land by Abjuration when the Papists have many Friends that can furnish them with Arms to make their way back again with some Armies and Auxiliary Forces to help them to pull down the Church of England and set up what King they please 4. It cannot be good for the Church of England I mean the severe and rigorous tempered Men who will multiply Enemies against them when they see that Severities are used upon good Subjects and the moderate and sensible part of the Church will be grieved to see their Brethren in the Faith drawn out first for Sacrifice 5. It cannot be good for those Gentlemen who have expressed their dislike of our last Parliaments and that hope for another and labour to be in it themselves when the whole Nation see and know how friendly they are to the Popish Party how hard to believe as much a Popish Plot and have as soon as possibly they can after their Thanks to the King for his Ruling by Laws declared what Laws they are ready to execute Can they think that any besides a terrified servile Dependent Part of the Nation will vote for them or for their Friends Interest That therefore which is good for none ought not by any to be executed and none will but such as are resolved against all Reason and the highest Wisdom The other two Laws are directly against Protestant Dissenters Secondly It is not good to execute the five Mile Act upon them 1. It is not a righteous thing to execute that Law upon them except they are guilty of that Crime for which that Law doth principally and ' mainly provide The Crimes recited in that Act are Whereas they conformed not c. nor made the Delcaration in the Act of Uniformity but setled themselves in Corporations taking occasion thereby to instil the Principles of Schism and Rebellion into the Hearts of His Majesties Subjects to the great danger of the Church and Kingdom This is the pretended Mischief against which that Act was made and if so then it cannot with any Justices be executed but upon such as have sowed those Principles If such have been no Favour is asked for them But who comes out to prove that any Nonconformist Preacher hath instilled such Principles If some have why should those that have not suffer as if they had if some have find them out if all have spare none if none have why should any suffer If they have those Principles are very weak and ineffectual have had many Years to work in and yet for the honour of the Religion which they profess no Rebellion hath been as much as moved Was their Nor conformity a Crime they patiently bore the sentence of the Law Their living in Corporations could be no Crime their preaching Orthodox Doctrine could do no hurt to Church nor States their not taking that Oath was no greater a Crime in them than in all the Lords and Commons who then and since have argued against it and opposed it To instil the Principles of Schism and Rebellion must be the Crime Now if none of them have been guilty of that Instillation it is not good because not just to execute the Laws upon them 2. It is not good to execute that Law upon Dissenting Protestants which at first making was promoted by Men Popishly inclined and since appeared to be Papists and was never executed but in Favour of Popery and was opposed by Loyall Protestants I know not in what rank of Protestants to place him with whom this Argument is weak except among those good natured Protestants that have served the Popish Designs Who were the Promoters of it but Sir Tho. Clifford since Lord Treasurer and a professed Papist Sir Solomon Swale Growth of Popery under the Name of Andrew-Marvel Esq and Sir Roger or Tho. Strickland that since appeared to be Papists Who more opposed it than the wise and Loyal Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer Earl of Shaftsbury who scented the Popish Plot and pursued it before many were aware the Lord Wharton and others firm to the Protestant Interest Take the good
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
them but what many of their Teachers allow to be lawful This way did tend towards Union of the People Others have urged an Execution of the Laws upon the Brethren withal perswading them to believe that they suffer as Evil-doers Dr. Ashton's Toleration disapproved and this is to bring home stray'd Sheep through Briars and Thorns Our great States-men have taken different Measures also Some have moved for a severe Execution and to force them to an intire Obedience saying it was more reasonable they should submit to the Church than the Church to them Others being sensible of the Mischiefs Decemb. 21 1680. have stated the Case more exactly and argued for an Union and this prevailed in the Debate No Man of Sence or Piety can be insensible of the Sickness of the Family but whether it be better to kill some out-right or to starve them or to suffer them to live may be easily determined In a case of Discord and Contention between Brothers whether it be best to accommodate or to determine some shall have what they would and others shall have nothing left comes near the Case in hand The Dangers of a Forbearance are the same that were foretold would be the Consequences of an Indulgence which was opposed by the Parliament in the Year 1662. That House of Commons did argue against an Indulgence and for keeping up the Act of Uniformity by way of Prophecy and fore-sight of Consequences and their humble Advices presented to the King contain the strongest Reasons against an Indulgence that have been found out and contain the great Inconveniences and Evils of a Forbearance February 15 1662. I will give you the Substance of them 1. An Indulgence will establish Schism by a Law make the Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of no moment 2. It will not become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law of Uniformity at one Session and pass another to weaken it the next 3. It will expose your Majesty to the restless importunity of every Sect and every single Dissenter 4. It will cause the Increase of Sectaries whose Numbers will weaken the Protestant Religion their Numbers being troublesome to the Government will as their Numbers increase be more troublesome and from an Indulgence arrive at a Toleration at length contend for an Establishment and end in Popery 5. It will take away all means of convicting Recusants 6. It is more like to occasion greater Disturbances than Peace in the Kingdom But as Events prove Prophecies to be true or false so Events have proved these Arguments to be weak or strong That very Parliament the true Protestant Part of it that did faithfully serve their King and Country with the Additions made to them by a latter Election to fill up vacant Places saw where we were and were sensible of the Necessity of uniting Protestants by Act of Parliament and many of the Episcopal Divines and some Bishops were for it A clear Discovery that the Mischiefs of our Divisions are of that sort that it were better an Abatement were made of some things made necessary to Uniformity without which the Dissenters will not unite than suffer them to hang over our Heads and come upon us We plainly see that many of the Reasons of the Commons 1662 are of no Force I will observe what is of present use to our times which is the first And For the other It became their Wisdom and their Religion to pass a Bill taking from the Act of Uniformity His Majesty hath not been molested with the Importunities of the Dissenters who have not so much as opened their Grievances or Petitioned the King or Parliament in these many Years There is no new Sect appearing nor increase of any by the Nonconformists to weaken the Protestant Religion who have used Endeavours to increase and maintain it it is in no danger from them they are not troublesome to the Government are not for a Toleration of intolerable Sects and Secteries contend not for an Establishment which they would rejoyce in but as becomes learned Men and rational and with as great a Temper at least as theirs that write against them The Peace of the Kingdom is not disturbed by them and if Popery come in it is against their Wills Prayers and Pains to expose and and baffle it It is their Trouble and a considerable part of their Affliction that they are thought troublesome to the Government which may by an ordinary Exercise of Patience and Love overcome the Trouble in their own Breast which is the seat of the Trouble And for the only remaining Evil which is the Evil of Schism it is clear that their Meetings are not established by Law and a Connivance gives no Establishment to it but if they be driven from publick into private Families and keep within their Number the Schism remains as great and greater than otherwise as I said before out of the reach and under protection from the Law What the Evils of a Forbearance are we see but what the Evils of an Execution of the Laws may prove we cannot see but morally and rationally speaking they will be greater than now we suffer I must premise this That if you proceed with rigor you do unspeakable Hurt if not you cannot do the Good you pretend There must be a Concurrence of all Magistrates in all places to take the same Course and as you must concur so you must be sure that the King will shut up his Royal Bowels and Clemency or some particular Men will but become hateful to their Countries and His Majesties Mercy will condemn their Severity This was so well understood by an Honourable Member of Parliament that he moved for ways to compel the Dissenters to an intire Obedience and submit to the Church by severe Penalties This will be the ready way to undo all if any thing do it which as to His Majesties Person and Government I do confidently hope and rationally believe is but a great word of Fancy an Oratorical Scarecrow Mischief of Separation p. 13. p. 22 23 52. The mischiefs of our Separation are laid open to this purpose 1. Great Hazards of unsetling all 2. Alienation of Hearts 3. Advantage of our common Enemies the Papists I borrow the Heads of Mischiefs and argue If the Mischiefs of Separation while there is a cessation of Prosecutions be so great much more when Prosecution cannot heal the Separation but encrease the Causes 1. It will beyond all recovery undo all Men that have been so many Years the more bold to assemble because of the Lenity of His Majesty and the Propensity of our many Parliaments from 1673 to accommodate the Difference and the inferiour Magistrates have found no evil Designs among them to give disturbance to the Government and many of the Judges in their Charges have turned the point of the Sword upon our secret Enemies that would openly do more against us all
than is yet to be done against our Brethren and if other Judges have turned the Edge of the Law against Protestants our Magistrates have not been forward to take the Hilt and lay on how many thousands by their Presumption upon Lenity have been more open than they would haven been But suppose they spare the Sheep and take away the Shepherds the Destruction will be great All the most of them have will not satisfy this Debt to the Law Is it not enough for them to be dispossessed of their Preferments to be driven from place to place but once more they must be undone without regard to Age Sickness Infirmities Families Debts Poverty If they have many Friends their Friends must suffer in their Sufferings if they have none or few they are the more undone their Sufferings will not terminate upon them Who shall set them up again bring up their Children feed and cloath them their Ruine will be an intolerable Oppression upon many parts of the Kingdom 2. Will not this unsettle the Affections wherein the strength of Government doth consist together with Religion and Conscience of thousands more than can be spared if other Dangers arise And if Religion and Conscience oblige them to love their Persecutors and pray for them they will never dare to trust them A mutual Trust and Confidence is a great Strength in time of common danger when we are distracted in Affections we shall be distracted in Reason and Counsel and when we are so then 's the time for a Popish Army to unsettle all It is well known that the Dissenters are a great and an active Part of the Kingdom and if they suffer by Protestants they will be afraid to unite with them and therefore to persecute them is as ill a Service as to cut off a great and potent Part of Religious and Industrious Men from our main Strength when we most stand in need of increasing Friendship Confidence and Strength The unsettling of Affection moving of Passion which Religion cannot subdue in all is an effectual way to unsettle all 3. The Prosecution of Dissenting Protestants tends to no other end but to disunite Affections it is to use Force without Reason or Perswasion The Reason of the Dissenting Brethren is as far from Satisfaction as to our Conformity as ever and their Satisfactions in their Dissent do daily increase to use Force without Reasons is not reasonable and that Force which is used to suppress and cut off must needs be to disunite the Hearts of Men. To suppress them signifies plainly they have no value for them that they hate them as unworthy to dwell in any place but a Goal or to ly upon any Ped but Straw They are first exiled from their good Thoughts and Opinions next from their Affections next they are judged insufferable and they that would drive them out of all would proceed to Banishment and then he that is not thought worthy to live with us in the same Land is reputed next him that is not worthy to live at all and is this the way to win their Affections and if they should force any to abjure his native Country they force him against Nature and that is to root out Affection Now suppose the Dissenters are not wholly yours yet if you cared for them at all you would nourish some Inclinations in them and not thrust them from you but drive in those Inclinations to Peace with you 4. It is plainly the making of a Breach among Protestants The more weak and passionate will be far more out with the Bishops than they were before 1. Because they at the first refused to condescend and procured that Act of Uniformity by which they must needs know a vast Breach would follow 2. Because they can look upon the Suffering of Protestants without Compassion so much as not to make Intercession for them The Brethren and all that suffer in them will be tempted to hate the Bishops and say this doth proceed from them or some of them And this is another way to unsettle all Besides it tends to divide the Hearts of the ignorant and rash censorious Multitude from their Fellow-Christians as if they were worse than Papists as Enemies to the King and Government as Disturbers of Order by their Preaching and Preciseness It will alienate abundance of People that either actually suffer or have any Compassion to them that suffer from abundance of Conforming Ministers who help on the work of pulling down of Conventicles And this is another means that will co-operate to our unsettlement of all 5. This is the way to unsettle all by undoing what hath been done towards an Accommodation or an Union both by late Honoured and ever to be Honoured Parliaments from the Year 1673 to the last at Westminster and all the Endeavous of our Reverend Fathers Protestant Divines and Gentlemen towards a desirable Union As a Treaty of Peace tends to a Settlement so the breaking of a Treaty tends to an unsettlement this zealous Prosecution is like a vowing there shall be no Peace for it plainly breaks off the Treaty 6. This tends to unsettle all as it is an open violent rushing against the Reason of our late Protestant Parliaments As their Reasons and Debates did determine in a Resolve for Settlement so these out of Enmity against them and their Proceedings labour to unsettle all before they can have time to meet to offer any thing towards a happy Settlement to divide the King from his Parliament to undo what many Parliaments have resolved to do to prosecute Protestants against the minds of Protestants to disgrace the Name and to break and weaken the Thing is also the way to unsettle all 7. Except they deal worse by our Protestant Nonconformists than they would deal with Papists they can but drive them to their private Hou'es and Corners and keep them to them and another Argument from this Head doth offer it self will be a greater Evil than what the Church or State can ever suffer from open Meetings And that as operating more ways than one 1. Because our Hearts will be more divided Mens Passions incensed Mens Reasons sharpned and all ways of Reconciliation stopped the conquering Church-men will not offer Treaties the broken and oppressed Church will not be heard all their Arguments and Books will operate no more than the Tears of the afflicted soften the Hearts of them that afflict them 2. The Schism then will so far be protected that this Law against Conventicles cannot touch them and I do hubbly conceive that this Act against Conventicles was never intended for the Good or Growth of the Church of England I mean the Oxford Act and the other or the Protestant Cause 1. Because they that moved in it were moved by a Spirit of Popery is notoriously known who were Sir Tho. Cl. and the rest abovenamed 2. It was as cunning a subterraneous Conveyance for Popery as could be thought of to be made by a Law
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
and hidden Traitors More particularly many of them have deserved well from the Church and State which in humane Probability had never been restored but for their Loyalty Religion and Conscience This made the most Renowned Sir Matthew Hale say whose sence may be as soon taken as most Men's alive for his Wisdom Loyalty Integrity and Impartiality in all Acts of Judgment Many of the Nonconformists had merited highly in the business of the King's Restauration and at least deserved Dr. Burnet ' s Life of Sir M. Hale p. 65 66. large Octavo that the Terms of Conformity should not be made stricter than they were before the War Yea to advance as high as I can in an unquestionable Authority His Majesty in his Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs said pag. 5. That while he was in Holland he was attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to Us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay present Distempers And in his Gracious Speech to the Lords July 27. 1660 to hasten the passing the Act of Oblivion My Lords if you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing this Fear which keeps the hearts of Men apprehensive of Safety and Security You keep Me from performing My Promise which if I had not made I am perswaded neither You nor I had been now here I pray let Us not deceive those who Brought or Permitted Us to come together The greatest Charge against them is That they are Separatists and Schismaticks Besides that this remains in debate between the Accusers and Accused Suppose them to be so Yet 1. The very Independents I mean the chief of them besides what they have declared in the above quoted Declaration of their Faith at the Savoy to be neither Brownists nor Donatists Besides many Passages in Dr. Owen's Books Mr. Nye hath declared himself Case of great and present use Lond. 1677. 35th Serm. on the Ephesians p. 477 fol. as to our National and Parochial Ministry and hearing us preach and Dr. Good lays down the Opinions of Brown and Donatist and saith And against these I for my part and many of my Brethren profess that they are in an Error c. The Turbulency of Brown's own Spirit ran him into many Oppositions and Troubles but he the greatest Schismatick of those days enjoyed his good Parsonage while he lived The first Emperor that made Laws against the Donatists was Theodosius but they were not punished for their Schism the greatest in the World as such but the occasion of the Penal Laws against them Augustin Bonifacio Ep l. 2. Epist 50. was their barbarous abuse and beating of Bishop Maximinian almost to Death tearing of his Altar c. and other insufferable Violences and Furies The Riots and Murders committed by them and the Circumcellions the same Faction was the cause of Severity against them But how far are our Nonconformists from breaking Peace offering Violence or any rude Incivilities by Word or Deed is apparent to all that are not given to wrong them or to take pardonable things too ill from them Lastly The Causes of their Sufferings have been spoken of before to be neither Heresy Sedition nor Rebellion The very Light of Nature seems to abhor punishing the Religious and Just therefore the Heathen Persecutors have falsly imputed horrid Crimes to holy Christians from which they are clearly vindicated in the Apologies of the Fathers The Arrians were Calumniators of the Orthodox and so are the Papists and unpeaceable Lutherans But we that live together should know one another better and be both just and modest The Papists damn us as Hereticks therefore curse and persecute the immoderate Lutherans charge the Calvinists with the denial of Gods Omnipotency Communication of Properties and many other Heresies and Blasphemies But what Heresy can we charge upon the Nonconformists Had Antiquity left us such Confessions and Explications of Faith such Treatises in Divinity Expositions of Scripture Defences of Religion we should have honoured them as much as now many dispise them they are full and firm in their learned and rational Opposition to Popery in all the parts of it And let us observe how we reckon some in former Ages as ours who came short of them and yet we must eject them and multiply Sufferings upon them as none of ours we reckon John Wicliff Jerom of Prague Husse and those plain and heroick Confessors the Waldenses and Albigenses Bohemians c. ours they are in our Martyrologies and among our Witnesses for the Truth in the dark times when nothing was almost visible but Popery Shall we account them Martyrs when the Papists had more colour for their Persecutions and bloody Usages of them considering the Principles of the Papists and the Opposition of those Martyrs than we have for loading our Brethren with Punishment upon Punishment considering the Principles of our Religion and the Quality of the Nonconformists both as to Religion yea and as to the Separation it self For surely the Separation of those Worthies from Rome as Babylon and the seat of Antichrist and a mortally infected Church was a greater provocation of the Roman Powers against them than a peaceable dissent from a Church acknowledged truly Christian only for some scrupled unnecessary things indifferent we say therefore may be spared sinful say they therefore cannot be assented to and some private Doctrines besides c. That which comes nearest our unhappy Case is the Interim that Book that was urged by Charles the V upon the reformed Churches in Germany requiring the Observation of Popish Ceremonies as indifferent things for a time until a General Council should be called What Divisions did it cause among the Princes and their Divines among the Divines differing one from another What woful Dispersions and Miseries attended the refusal of it are at large related by Sleidan in his Commentaries Sleidan p. 20 21. This Book contained Popish Doctrines which the Protestants rejected but the things that divided them were the Adiaphora or media Ceremonies and indifferent things which many refused and suffered to very great Extremities But he who terrified them and persecuted them was a great Emperor and a Papist and the Arguments used against it were because it was not consonant to Scriptures and went against their Conscience and Light received After this the Adversary the Devil stirred up another Controversy attended with a dreadful Division and Persecution to the desolation of Churches and Schools John Brentius invented the notion of Ubiquity of Christ's Body and propagated it by the Apostle of Ubiquity Jacobus Andreas but they gave it a pompous Title of the Majestick Communication of the Divinity and Divine Properties
in point of Government but the meer Congregational are Men of Learning Reason and sound Principles as to Faith Worship and Manners And so there must be a Distinction between some and others that are commonly so called All these agree in that they cannot conform to Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and some in other Matters come nearer or stand further off than others therefore the Difference cannot be more particularly stated without an exact knowledg of their Tenets 3. Those who are commonly called and reputed Presbyterians declared themselves for his Majesties Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs October 25th 1660. Petit. for Peace §. 10. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The due Account and humble Petition of the Ministres of the Gospel commissionated for the review and alteration of the Liturgy Lond. An. 1661. Mr. Baxter's Prefà ce Treat of Episcopacy as they have done against the Terms required by the Act of Uniformity And now if any Man would know the true State of the Difference between the Conformists and one part of the Nonconformists may find it to lie in that Gracious Declaration and that Act of Uniformity The reputed Presbyterian cannot conform to the Act but would have been glad if that Declaration had been made an Act. And they who would have gladly submitted to that rare Invention of Composure and Settlement are no longer to be accounted Presbyterians in a strict and proper sense much less Enemies to the King and Subverters of the Government that would have conformed to what the King proposed upon great Reasons and wise Counsels as appears by the Reasons Frame and Language of that Declaration And they who condemn them that conform not to the Act but would have conformed to his Majesties Declaration if it had been turned into a Law have declared at the same time their dislike of the King's Declaration And if their Zeal be so hot against this kind of Dissenters their Reverence of the King's Act which gave them their Measures and Directions both as to what they should ask and desire to be ruled and governed by should restrain them from being too rigid in their Censures Had they drawn up such a Declaration as that is and presented it to the King and Parliament as the only Rule they would submit unto and the King have rejected and refused it then they had been more deservedly reproved for their Nonconformity But when it was graciously declared by the Ring and gratefully acknowledged by that Parliament and the Divines that now dissent did thankfully acknowledg and receive it See the foresaid Petition At their Meeting in Sion Colledg they cannot be condemned but with some Reflection upon that Declaration and by consequence the King himself and his wise Counsellors and that first Parliament who thanked the King for it And let it be further noted that there was once a Parliament most freely chosen of Loyal Members that thanked the King for Terms of Accommodation and Union and it is much for the Honour of the Dissenters who humbly desired an Union upon those Terms that they had once the King himself and as many of his Wise Council as advised and a Loyal Parliament freely chosen of the same Judgment with them If they are a Faction they are such as never was before them a Faction that would have been ruled by the King and that good Parliament which did restore Him I do notify the first rank of Dissenters from this because they have fubmitted to this and never offered any other Terms or Proposals by general Consent but those declared by the King himself * Or such Alterations as were made in the Liturgy by his Majest Commission And those that are said to be for a new Model are for the King 's own Model 4. The other sort of Dissenters fall under the name of Congregational and Independents As many of these as are under my present Consideration are first Orthodox and sound in Faith agreeing with the Scriptures received Doctrine of this Church in Articles and Homilies and of other Reformed Churches in opposition to Heresies and Popery 2. They dissent not from the Civil Government of the Kingdom Take their own professed Doctrine It is the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other Duties to obey their lawful Commands and to be subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or Difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the People from their Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judg them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever * A Declaration of the Faith and Order of the Congregation Churches in England in their Meeting at the Savoy Octob. 12 1658. c. 24. Of the Civil Magistrate §. 4. Vid. Dr. Owen's Truth and Innocency vindicated Survey of Dr. Parker's Eccles Polity p. 164 c. Ibid. of the Institut of Churches §. 9 3. They are for a Church-Government by Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons but within particular Congregations having all Power within themselves independent as to Jurisdiction or Subordination to any other Church or Synod and they are for the Administration of all the Ordinances of Christ The most that ever these desired at any time even when the Presbyterial Government was most likely to prevail was a Permission or Toleration to exercise their Discipline subjecting themselves as any other Subjects to the Magistrate not defiring the Preferments of the Church which they would have always go to them that conformed to the Constitution of the Church according to Law and with this they would now be thankfully contented The third thing to be spoken to is the Nature of the Offence for which they are liable to the Penalties of the Laws The remote Offence or Transgression is their Nonconformity to the Act of Uniformity for which they have suffered a Deprivation of their Ecclesiastical Preferments The next and immediate Transgression is against other Statutes which are these 1. The Statute of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth declared to be in force 16 of Ch. II. c. 4. 2. The same Act against Conventicles and unlawful Assemblies under Pretence of Exercise of Religion 3. Act 17 Ch. II. c. 2. Nonconformists that take not the Oath or Test therein set down shall not inhabit in any Corporation or live within five Miles of any Town that send Burgesses to Parliament or five Miles of the Place where they were Ministers 4. The Statutes of the 22th of Ch. II. c. 1. Seditious Conventicles prevented and suppressed By the first of these Statutes viz. 35th of Q. Eliz. the Offences are two the first is not coming to some Church or Chappel or other place of Divine Service
to hear Divine Service established by her Laws c. The second is to speak or write or to perswade any to deny or impugn Her Majesties Power in Causes Ecclesiastical or perswade any against hearing Divine Service or to be present at Conventicles or unlawful Assemblies The Penalty is first Imprisonment until he acknowledg his Offence and declare his Submission in some Church or Chappel which if he refuse to do within three Months he shall abjure the Realm if he do not or if he shall return without her Majesties leave he shall be proceeded against as a Felon I shall speak of the second under the fourth because it was to expire after the next Session of Parliament which was after three Years And pass to the third Statute The Offence by that Statute is If any Person that had enjoyed any Parsonage Vicarage Lecture-stipend and had not conformed to the Act of Uniformity and shall not take and subscribe this Oath I A. B. do swear that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are commissioned by Him in pursuance of such Commissions and that I will not endeavour any Alteration of Government either in Church or State If he shall preach in any Conventicle or come within five Miles of any City Corporation or place of his Ministry except on his Journey or summoned by a Subpaena he shall forfeit 40 l. The Original Crime is Nonconforming the next is not taking the Oxf. Oath preaching in Conventicles and coming within five Miles of any such place The fourth Statute Car. 22. is c. And the Crimes are 1. If any Man shall be present at any Assembly c. under colour of any Exercise of Religion in any other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England at which there shall be five Persons or more assembled together besides those of the same Houshold 2. If any Man shall take upon him to preach or teach in any such Meeting he shall forfeit 20 l. for the first Offence after Conviction and 40 l. after the second Conviction of a second Offence 3. If any Person shall willingly suffer such Meeting to be in his House Out-house Barn Yard or Backside and be convicted shall forfeit 20 l. c. And every Hearer 5 s. The Faults that are most obvious and most commonlly prosecuted are first Preaching Hearing or entertaining of any Meeting under pretence of Religious Exercise after another manner than the Liturgy or Practice of the Church of England to five or more besides the Houshold where such Meeting is kept Fourthly I am to explain what I mean by Forbearance 1. I do not mean what never came into the Question an Universal Toleration or License of all Irreligion Atheism Heresy or publishing pernicious Errors contrary to Godliness and Peace 2. I do not mean by Forbearance a Toleration or Forbearance of Prosecution against any that shall be found guilty of those Offences and Crimes Nor did the N. C. desire but the Toleration of those that are toterable and the peaceable Liberties of all that agree on Catholick Terms of Primitive Simplicity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline Petition for Peace Anno. 1661. contained and declared in the Reasons of these Statutes for the prevention whereof these Statutes were primarily intended as the Intention of the Law 1. I do not mean a Forbearance of any Person whatsoever that shall by Printing Writing or express Words purposely practise or go about to prove or perswade any of His Majesties Subjects or any other within His Realm to deny or withstand or impugn His Majesties Power in Ecclesiastical Causes See the Statute 35th Q. Elizabeth or shall perswade any from coming to Church to Divine Service or Communion to that end There is no Nonconformist that hath written or printed or that ever I heard of spoken to impugn His Majesties Power circa sacra but own it as hereafter it will appear 2. I do not mean a Forbearance of any Person or Persons whether more or fewer than five that shall have or do contrive any Insurrections as Seditious Sectaries Vid. Statute of 16 Ch. II. c. 4. or Disloyal Persons or any dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries or other Disloyal Persons who under Pretence of tender Consciences have or may at their Meetings contrive Insurrections or that make but a pretence of Religious Exercises to carry on any such Intentions The above explained Nonconformists will heartily subscribe to this Against these Contrivers the Law is bent and not against such as are in earnest for Religious Exercises but upon no seditious Design tho it is otherwise interpreted contrary to the declared end of the Law 3. The Persons to be forborn are such Preachers and Teachers as never kept Conventicles or Meetings making those Religious Exercises a pretence only when the Design was Rebellion Sedition or Insurrection as never taught any such pernicious Doctrine to such a wicked end but that have taught and hold the contrary performing Religious Exercises for Religious ends and both they that hear them and they that entertain them should be forborn 4. By Forbearance I mean a total Forbearnce of all the Penalties which they have incurred upon their Persons and their Estates The merciful Indulgence of the Government and many over ruling Providences concurring have given them Advantages and Boldness to meet more openly and in greater Numbers than they did before than they could or would have done If now there shall be a severe Prosecution against them the Prisons will fill in many places their Fines amount above their Estates there will be neither Dish nor Spoon Stooll nor Bed left for their Wives and Children no nor a Friend of their way left in the Land in a Condition to relieve them It is the ready way to fill many places in the Land with Tears and Cries Beggary and Misery such as no good Protestant can behold without a Sympathy This is no better than to forbear a Creditor till the Interest grows to a great Sum and then seize upon all he hath enter upon his Land and drive his Cattel c. this is Mercy till Offences grow big for a huge Severity Mercy patent for latent Justice to give them time to gather Flesh and then to devour them If the Rooks the Informers those Birds of Prey hope to flesh themselves by picking the bones of the Nonconformists it should go against the stomack of every true Gentleman not to say Merciful Christian If they must be supprest give them notice of it do not kill them in cold Blood after Quarter given them To make the Case familiar There are a Company of honest quiet People live about me they were once in good Fashion and Reputation but are now fallen in the World's danger and are forced to be beholden to their