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A56561
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A discourse of penal laws in matter of religion endeavouring to prove that there is no necessity of inflicting or continuing them : first delivered in a sermon ... occasioned by His Majesties late gracious declaration for liberty of conscience, and now humbly offer'd to the consideration of the publick / by James Paston ...
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Paston, James, d. 1722?
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1688
(1688)
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Wing P665; ESTC R915
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15,251
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41
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them Let us therefore calmly consider what reason or ground there is for the mighty Out-cry that there is amongst some men against Tolleration in matters of Religion As if all were lost and Religion undone because Men are not still compell'd by outward Force One thing must needs seem strange and amazing to every considering Man namely to hear the same persons inveigh against the French King for Executing the Penal Laws against Dissenters in France and against their own King for Suspending the Penal Laws against Dissenters in his Dominions against that King for Persecuting his Subjects and against this King for not Persecuting his So St. John Baptist Came neither Eating nor Drinking and the Scribes and Pharisees say Behold he has a Devil The Son of Man came Eating and Drinking and they say Behold a man Gluttonous and a Wine-biber a Friend to Publicans and Sinners Whereas indeed neither was our Saviour any otherwise a Friend to Publicans and Sinners then in his design to Save them Nor had John Baptist a Devil But sure they whom nothing will please are possess'd with a strange Tetchy and froward evil Spirit and what our Saviour said to his two Disciples may rightly be apply'd to them They know not what manner of Spirit they are of However they seem not to consider what meekness the Gospel injoyns by what meekness it at first stood and prevail'd they seem not to consider the nature of that power which Christ put into the Hands of his Church which extended only to Teaching Exhorting Rebuking Administring Sacraments and Excommunicating And that when outward Force has been made use of it proceeded wholly from the Temporal Authority and that it is in the power of this Authority to inflict or not to inflict Temporal punishments But now it may be some will be ready here to object that whiles I Discourse thus I seem to forget two main things which particularize our Circumstances Namely 1st How His Majesty has been pleas'd to ingage Himself to protect the present establish'd Church of England 2dly What the particular constitution of Government is in these Kingdoms under His Majesty And though what has been said already may be sufficient to give satisfaction as to these two particulars yet in the residue of my Discourse I will briefly say something more to each And First As to the Kings having ingag'd Himself to protect the present Establish'd Church The Church may be protected and effectually too though the Civil Magistrate inflicts not Temporal Punishments upon those that Dissent from her for Dissenting His Majesty protects her and maintains her as he says in his Gracious Declaration In the free Exercise of her Religion as by Law Established and in the quiet and full Enjoyment of all her Possessions without any Molestation or Disturbance whatsoever How Happy would the primitive Christians have thought themselves might they have had such Protection Nay it is considerable that it seems not improbable that taking away the smart of Penal Laws from a Churches Adversaries may make that Church more safe because it may make them less Industrious to Destroy her since they find themselves undisturb'd by her standing and are not therefore vex'd into Conspiracies against her And then Secondly As to the present Churches particular Constitutions in this Kingdom they seem to Recognize a Right in the Civil Power and particularly in the King to determine at least in Exteriors and therefore when Penal Laws are to be Executed for the first Canon says that Canon 1. The Kings Power within His Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other His Dominions and Countries is the highest Power under God to whom all Men as well Inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all Powers and Potentates upon Earth And in the five and fiftieth Canon it is injoyn'd to Pray for the King under the Title of Canon 55. Our Soveraign Lord King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governour in these Realms and Dominions and Countries over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal The Oath of Supremacy also Stiles him the Only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other His Highnesses Dominions and Countrys as well in Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal And therefore Charles I. the Royal Father of our present Gracious Soveraign Stiles himself Head of the Clergy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 17. The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men says he will soon let them see what a poor Carcass they are when parted from the influence of that Head to whose Supremacy they have been Sworn So that the King in suspending the Penal Laws has done nothing contrary to His Royal and Gracious Promise to Protect the Church of England Nothing beyond that Power which the Church of England in her publick Canons ownes to be in the Kings of England I beg leave therefore humbly to Advertise those Men of this Church who are disatisfied with His Majesty's late Gracious Declaration for Toleration that they seem neither at the same time whilst they are so disatisfied to consider the Oeconomy of the Gospel the temper it requires in Christians nor what benefits of Protection the Church of England enjoys nor what Power its Canons own to be in the King Doubtless the Actions and Expressions very indiscreet to give them no worse Epithet which some Men have been guilty of and which they have been hurry'd into by a blind inconsiderate Zeal have help'd in a great measure to introduce that Toleration which they now exclaim against and yet after all the noise His Majesty by the Power which they Recognize in Him deprives not the Church of any one Branch of that Power which Christ gave to his Church She may teach still she may still exhort rebuke enjoyn Penances and Excommunicate those of her Communion as much as ever So that I say the King takes not away the Churches power but only forbears Executing of His Own in punishing Dissenters for Dissenting And this is no more than what our late King His Royal Brother did for He also Granted an Indulgence to Dissenters Nay no more than what His Royal Father Charles the First advised His Son to when Prince of Wales 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 27. When He bids Him Beware of exasperating any Factions by the crossness and asperity of some Mens Passions Humours or private Opinions imploy'd by Him grounded only upon differences in lesser matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion wherein connivance and Christian-Toleration often dissipates their strength whom rougher Opposition fortifies and puts the despised and opposed Parties into such combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion
This that good King had too much cause to say for He had found it true by a woful Experience and this our present Gracious Sovereign seems to consider For He tells us in His Declaration not only that Conscience ought not to be constrain'd but that He is confirm'd in this Oppinion the more by the Reflections He has made upon the Conduct of the four last Reigns for after all the frequent and pressing endeavours that were used in them to reduce this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion it is visible that the Success has not answered the Design and that the Difficulty is invinsible So that His Majesty in Granting a Toleration does no more than what His Brother did no more than what His Father Advised no more than what His Royal Wisdom by weighing the precedent management of Publick Affairs sees to be expedient and necessary Nay some of those very Men who so Zealously exclaim against it have themselves resolv'd in Parliament as I have been inform'd and with a nemine contradicente that the Penal Laws were grievous to the Subject gave advantage to Popery and were destructive to the Protestant Religion and why therefore should these Men especially be displeased that the King has suspended such Laws as themselves thought so pernicious Why should they envy the King the Pleasure and the Honour of thus mercifully easing His Subjects of their Grievances and thereby securing that Religion which these Patriots would seem so tender of the Reason is too shameful to be mention'd and therefore I shall pass it over in silence And besides let us but consider what good such Severities have done what advantage the Church has made of putting the Penal Laws in Execution It may be some very few by this means have been brought to a real Conformity whilst none knows but that Gentleness might have won more But then many have thereby been scar'd into Hypocrisy and have entered under the Sacred Roofs only for shelter not from meer Excommunication no this they accounted but Brutum fulmen But from the danger which followed to consume their Goods and Estates They chose to go to Church to keep from going to Goal Whilst many thousands to avoid both transplanted themselves and Families in Foreign Countreys to the ruine of Trade and impoverishing the Kingdom and others who stay'd though devided among themselves yet united against the Church of England which the several Dissenters look'd upon as their Common Enemy and under that notion it was ruin'd in the time of Charles the First and its overthrow has been contriving by them ever since This has made the Peace of the Kingdom unsettled and render'd the Estates and Lives of its Inhabitants continually unsafe And if the Dissenters from her should meet with as fit a Juncture as Mr. Fox did to Write a Book of Martyrs to set forth in frightful representations the Proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts and describe with such horrid ugliness the Chancellors Commissarys and Apparitors with the Imprisonments Pillorings and Banishments with the Starvings of Families the Burnings the Hangings and Quarterings which have been inflicted since the Reformation doubtless it would cause as great a Dread and Abhorrence of the Church of England as ever Mr. Foxe's Book did of that of Rome For People have and do conspire against their Persecutors or Prosecutors whoever they be and are provok'd by severities from whence soever they proceed and when they are so provok'd the danger is too great to be slighted where the Malecontents are numerous For there never want Men Men of no Religion to make their advantage of the Religious Discontents in the mistaken tho well-meaning Dissenters So the House of Bourbon to revenge themselves for the supposed wrong which they had offer'd them in the Court of France according to the subtile advice of Admiral Coligny made use of the Hughonots who were discontented for being deny'd a Toleration to work its dreadfu Revenge and dreadful I may call it for by this means that wretched Kingdom groan'd under the dismal misery of a Civil War for the space of almost Forty years Davila's Hist of the Civil Wars of France lib. 1. pag. 18 19. Printed in the Year 1678. So our Ambitious Commonwealths-Men made use of our Dissenters to destroy Monarchy when these Dissenters also were discontented for want of a Toleration and gall'd with the Penal Laws in the Reign of Charles the First and by their help they subverted the Government both of Church and State. In the doing of which what Blood was spilt what Rapine what Sacriledges what Murder was committed But our Gracious King has prevented such horrid Miseries has secur'd His Subjects from the like civil Ruins and Devastations for by suspending the Penal Laws he has obstucted the pernicious Designs of these wicked and Commonweal-principled-Men It is in vain now for these Politicians to think to destroy the Government and Usurp the Rights of their King and their fellow Subjects by those that want a Toleration for none want one So that for my part I see no reason why we should not think ourselves why every Party should not think it self more safe now than at any time for many years before nor can I imagine since the Church of England in her publick Canons and Constitutions owns so much Power in the King why her Members should forbear thanking His Majesty for His Gracious Promise to make use of this Power to Potect this Church although Himself be of another why when all Parties return their grateful acknowledgments of His Royal Favour they should generally persist in their Non-Addressing humour and come behind even those whom they have tax'd with Dis-loyalty It will make some imagine and they do object it that the reason why the Dissenters have been Dis-loyal is only because Kings have endeavour'd to suppress them and the reason why the Members of the Church of England have been Loyal is only because Kings have endeavoured to support them by suppressing all that are not of her Communion But what Cause have any of her Members to murmur and complain the King takes not from her any of those means by which Christianity at first prevail'd nay he protects her in the Exercise of her Religion in the Injoyment of her Honours and Revenues He suffers her not indeed to disturb any for matters of meer Religion But then he suffers none to disturb her for himself under the great King of Heaven is the Gracious and common Defence of all My humble advice is therefore that none would follow the Humours of mistaken interested and revengeful Men who care not though they Sacrifice the publick Peace to their own private Advantage and froward Discontent It is but reasonable that all sorts of Men endeavour to make His Majesties Government easie for all enjoy the benefit of it and that by a Peaceable and quiet Behaviour and though there be difference in Religion yet let there be one and the same Loyalty in all for it is Due from all and that upon the account of Interest as well as Duty For according to that saying of Caarles I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 15. Different Professions in point of Religion cannot any more then in civil Trades take away that Community of Relations either to Parents or Princes And before in the same Chapter Differences of Persuasion may easily fall out where there is the sameness of Duty Allegiance and Loyalty I wish with all my heart that it were not seasonable to advertise some Men that as it is unlawful to take up Arms so also even the Tongue or Pen against the King upon any pretence whatsoever That the same Duty Allegiance and Loyalty not only obliges us to tye up our Hands from Striking but to restrain the Pen from Writing and that as sharp Instrument the Tongue from making any Invectives any keen Reflections upon the Actions of his Sacred Majesty who is the common Parent of his Country commonly the one is but a preparative to the other and Reflecting and Murmuring but more wary steps to Rebellion Let us not therefore upon any pretence whatsoever take up so much as these Weapons and I am sure as yet we have no colourable pretence to do so and I really believe we never shall have any Let us live in that peace which the Spirit of meekness recommends and indispensably injoyns And let our main contention be who shall most adorn His Christian Profession by true Piety to God the King of Kings by true Loyalty and Obedience to his Vicegerent King James the Second May whose Gracious Reign continue over Us till any Party shall desire its own Suppression by its Adversary FINIS