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A30635 Prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against all recusants and for a general toleration penn'd by a Protestant person of quality. Burthogge, Richard, 1638?-ca. 1700. 1687 (1687) Wing B6155; ESTC R4360 8,141 15

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PRUDENTIAL REASONS FOR REPEALING THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST All Recusants And for a General Toleration Penn'd by a Protestant Person of Quality Published by Authority LONDON Printed for Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High Holborn 1687. READER YOu will admire perhaps at first the Confidence of this Person who never was of the Council be sure nor is of the Parliament that he should make so bold as to endeavour to shew the Interests of All Parties and ev'n those of the King and of the Country But you will have cause to cease your Admiration if you consider that the Interests of the Parties do not lie so deep under ground as is thought and that if Men do not see them it is not because they Cannot but because they Will not not because the Object is Hid but because their Eyes with which they must see it are mop't in Passions and Prejudices The Author pretends to see no more than every body else may provided that he will wipe his Eyes and be as impartial and as unprejudic'd as He. As for the King whom God long preserve Thanks be to God he has a clearer Prospect of His own and of His Kingdoms Interest in the Matters debated than Any His Royal Predecessors had and He pursues it too with that Conduct and that Vigor which corresponds with the Miracles that preserv'd the Crown for Him and also Him both for the Crown and for a Glory greater than that of wearing Crowns to wit to be the Restorer of Religion to Liberty and Freedom of Exercise Prudential Reasons for Repealing the Penal Laws against All Recusants and for a General Toleration 1. CHristian Religion and Civil Government are things so different as in their Originals so in their Natures and ordain'd for Ends so different the Former being Divine and Spiritual and ordain'd to be a Means to Mens Eternal Felicity the Latter Human and Secular and appointed for their Temporal Welfare that in themselves and absolutely taken they are nothing a Kin and of no Relation one to another Wherefore Civil Government as such cannot be oblig'd to concern it self in the Business of Religion or to Incorporate Any any further than as Politic and Secular Respects do ingage it that is any further than as a Concernment of Religion may become a matter of State and be for the Quiet Safety Strength and Support and so do's make for the Ends and the Interest of the Government Now it is for the Interest Quiet Strength and Safety of every Government to give as much Contentment and to make it self as easie as is possible unto all its Subjects but especially in matters of Conscience which as they have the greatest Ascendent over the Minds of Men so the Gratifications and Displeasures that have reference to these of all others do most deeply affect them And therefore it is against the Interest the Quiet the Strength and the Safety of Government to espouse Religion in any Mode thereof so as to establish it by Law any further or in any other manner than as may consist with the general liking and give Content unto all in Reason for Reason at last will Rule and over-rule both Passions and Prejudices StateBigottry in any Religion cannot be for the Interest of Government 2. But to circumscribe my self within a nearer compass All the Sanguinary and Burthensome Laws relating to Religion that from time to time have been enacted by our English Parliaments against either Popish or other Recusants They were all made in a Passion of State and only to humour the Times as might be prov'd by Induction of all the Particulars And therefore as things of that Production always have so even these have something in them of Violent Inequitable and Extravagant and of unfit and inconvenient at least for times of Peace and Tranquility So that to repeal them must needs be an Act of Moderation Clemency and Justice and of Politic Prudence and Wisdom 3. Besides the Penal Laws did never answer the Ends and Designs for which they were intended but instead of securing good Order Quiet Peace and Tranquility to the Government they too often prov'd a matter of Embroylment and Disturbance unto it and have been the Handles which upon all occasions Ambitious Factious Discontented Men have taken hold of and have used to wind about the People and make a Property of them to serve their ill Designs and Intentions 1. The Penal Laws never answered or effected their Ends. Queen Elizabeth on several Occasions in several Parliaments gave Life and Birth to Laws of extream severity not only against the Roman Catholic but also the Puritan Recusant but against both to little effect for notwithstanding all that severity Popery was not extirpated and Nonconformity grew and spread it is true the less observedly but not the less dangerously for that it grew in secret and that it was not observed King James succeeding Queen Elizabeth would needs be her Successor as to her Methods of Prudence as well as to her Crown and in the same Method was met with the same success Papists were more sharpned and Puritans spred more the Severities of the Law increasing only the number of Enemies without establishing the Quiet Repose and Peace of the Government When Laws are Enemies to any Men to be sure say they what they will and swear what they will those Men will be Enemies to the Laws Ay! the very Being of the Penal Laws without a perpetual Execution of them do's make Enemies For Men will always hate what they always fear and the Laws if in Being are always feared because if they do not strike always yet they may strike and no body knows how soon they will Which minds me of the second Point 2. That the Penal Laws have often ministred matter of Disturbance and Imbroylment to the Government to evidence which we need not to go back to far remote and distant times but may keep within our own Horizon and Ken and yet have Examples enough and plain enough When King Charles the First for certain Reasons of State had remitted the execution of the severity of the Laws against Roman Catholics and for other Reasons permitted some severities to be used by the Clergy for the suppressing of Puritans occasion is taken hence for making Complaints upon both Hands to wit of the Non-execution of the Laws against the Roman-Catholics and of a too severe Execution against Puritans Popery the Cry is is favored and True-Protestant Religion under pretence of Puritanism and Non-Conformity is discouraged and even undermin'd At last out comes the Popish Royal Favorite and on comes War and Confusion 3. To come nearer yet When Charles the Second after a long experience of the Unfitness and Inefficacy of forcible Courses for setling the Repose of State the which he had wisely observed found Cause to emit his Gracious Declaration of Liberty and Indulgence to quiet the Minds of his Subjects that he might have Peace at home while