THE Minister's Reasons For His not reading the Kings ' Declaration Friendly Debated By A Dissenter Allowed to be Published this 21st day of June 1688. SIR I Am beholding to you for Publishing the Reasons you alledg for your refusal to Read His Majesties Declaration in your Church for by them I discern that he who writ the first Letter to a Dissenter wherein he told us you were convinc'd of your Error in being Severe towards us and that we had not now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a matter of Conscience to give us the least Indulgence writ this of his own Head without any Authority from you but that He or They who writ a Treatise which was Published a little before the Kings Declaration Entituled The Vanity of all pretensions for Toleration wherein the Question is put and Answered Shall we give up the Cause and subscribe to a Toleration Nothing less and that because in our Circumstances it is not only contrary to Religion and Civil Prudence but also to Charity and Compassion were guided in this matter by the same temper of Mind with that which is discovered in your reasonings which are as like one to the other as Face is to Face in a Glass for therein the Author who is your Advocate and without doubt had both your Countenance and Assistance tells us That the practice of punishing Dissenters is contrary neither to the Doctrine or Practice of Christ and therefore He hopes they that use it upon great occasion may be discharged of the odious Imputation of Antichrist and that Experience hath taught us that Compulsion in matters of Religion serves many times to render Men more Teachable and willing to be Instructed And besides all this That a steady and discreet Execution of the Laws against Dissenters might happily have been a much more merciful Conduct even with respect to them then that Râ—â—nissness or Connivance which tempted them to presumptuous Sins One touch he hath also at the Kings Prerogative not like to your present reasoning which calls it into Question but by way of Allowance and Commendation for he says We owe it only to the Wisdom and Foresight of His late Majesty that some of the most considerable Laws are now in being I mean that of 35 Q. Elizabeth which He saved by His Prerogative as well as Men when it was condemned to be Abolished and if His Clemency had saved many who the Laws had justly Condemmed Why should it not save a Law that had done Him and His Ancestors no small Service and was then doom'd to an undeserved Fate I intend not to enter upon Examination of this your Advocate Treatise which is sufficiently refelled and rebuked by His Majesties Royal Declaration of Indulgence but to shew you until you give a better Evidence to the contrary then hitherto you have done how the Dissenters are to interpret Your Charity Your Compassion Your Mercy Your Clemency and Your due tenderness towards them when you have an opportunity of shewing your Inclinations without danger But I pass from this to what I intend and that is to make a brief enquiry into the weight of your Reasons which I suppose you therefore make Publick that they might be well consider'd scann'd in order thereto I have without partiallity or injury to their proper sence not Literally Transcribed but Extracted the substance of them That which hath principally induced me to this is because I think you either do not your self understand the substance of the Kings Declaration or else by your not Reading it and Mis-representing it you seem unwilling that it should be understood by any others For thus you begin I. To take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in Yet it sets open our Church Doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter Here is a far fetch'd Inference How would you be understood Suppose it granted for Argument sake that to take away the Test and Penal Laws is but one step from the introducing of Popery Is your Reading the Declaration a nearer step to the introducing of Popery then such a Repeal If you should Read it will that open your Church Doors so wide that Popery may enter without any more to do though the Penal Laws and Test should not be taken away I take the true and genuine sense of the Kings Declaration to be a setting open your Church Doors that Papists and Dissenters who have no mind to be there may not be Compelled by Temporal Penalties to come in and abide there whether they will or no For you have hitherto opened your Church Doors that you may drive them in and in force of Penal Laws to keep them there in Spiritual Bondage against their Wills and if they have at any time for above these Hundred Years adventured to start out of your Churches to free themselves from this sort of Bondage you by your Excommunication prosecuted them into Corporal Bondage without Redemption It s accounted an ill Omen to stumble at the Threshold but this you have done by calling that an opening your Doors to let Popery in which is intended only to let Papists and Dissenters out and to leave you with all that are of the Religion Established by Law in the full and peaceable Possession of your Churches and to enjoy them with Security to Perpetuity II. You say Should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would Despise and Hate us and then we may be easily Crush'd may soon fall without any Pity In reasoning thus you are either very Censorious and Uncharitable toward all Dissenters or else you greatly mistake their Temper For your reasoning herein can conclude no less then either that there is not one good Protestant among all the Dissenters or else if there be any such that they would Dispise and Hate you for doing of that which is their Interest to do themselves and to have done by all Men and by you in particular that the Justice Reason and Clemency which the King has manifested in His Gracious Declaration may be known and acknowledged by all If any other good Protestants should Despise and Hate you for it for which they have no cause yet you do not suppose that they are the Men that would Crush you and for the Dissenters though you Mis-represent them in the Close of your Letter yet herein I would do them this right to rid you of your groundless Fears You may be assured that for your Reading Pursuing the intent of the Kings Declaration which Tends both to your and their Security in Equity and Law they will not Crush you for thereby they will expose themselves to be Crush'd together with you so that I see no cause for your Fears either of Dishonour or Downsal unless you resolve to throw
the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 but by the Method before prescribed especially iâ— such a case as is before us wherein you say It may be no fault to consent to the Declaration for if the Matter be so doubtful in it self as that it cannot be any otherwise determined to be either Good or Evil then by every Mans private Judgment by such a Rule as What is not of Faith is Sin you have exceeded your Bounds in prescribing a general Rule concerning it as a like Obligatory upon all Ministers IX You say I take the Declaration to be a contradiction of the Doctrine of our Church by Law Fstablished Oâ—r Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of thanks which our Clergy generally Resused tho it was onely to thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in his Declaration which was much more Innocent then to Publish the Declaration it self in our Churches I think my self bound in Conscience not to Read it because I am Bound in Conscience not to approve it It s against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have Subscribed and am therefore bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this obligation lasts Your Terms are so general and the sâ—nse of your Arguments are so Ambiguous that tho I labour to Pick out your true meaning I am afraid of mistaking it if I do so pray R 〈…〉 iâ—ie me Candidly and Friendly because the manner of your Express 〈…〉 your self and not any wilful Error in 〈◊〉 is the cause of it You take the Declaration to be a Contradiction of the Doctrine of your Church by Law Established In what Sence shall I take your say so Is the whole and every part of the Declaration contrary to all and every part of your Doctrine by Law Established This cannot be your Meaning because you take Notice of the Kings Gracious Promises Renewed to the Church of England I can find none of the Thirty-Nine Articles Contradicted nor any of your Religious Constitutions Invaded by any thing in the Kings Declaration But Your Doctrines your Service your Ceremonies remain all the same as they were Settled and Exhibited to the late King Charles the Second by the Presidents Bishops and Clergy of Both Provinces with the same Civil Sanction for the use of them that Ever they had And besides that they are neither contradicted nor Invaded The Royal promise you mention is to Protect and Maintain his Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of England in the Free Exertise of their Religion as by Law Established and therefore if you would Free your Self from all Suspition of Prevarication in this Point Its incumbent on You first to shew wherein the Kings Declaration Contradicts it self and then wherein in particular 〈◊〉 Coatradicts your Doctrine and Invades your Constitution For till then your telling openly That You take the Declaration in General to be a Contradicton and against the Constitution of the Church of England in General may be taken as Intended by You to Amuse and not to Edify your Reader But what is it you mean when you say Your Reading must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which your Clergy generally Refused Did His Majesty Require You should Thank Him for his Declaration as He does that you should Read it did you Refuse to Obey Him in that tho' as you say It was more Innocent than the Other as you do in this Is this Intended as a Memorial of unmannerly Disobedience at First and undutiful Carriage at Last or what is that you signify by your Resusing to Thank Him which must now be Recompenced by Reading Do you think His Command to Publish His Declaration is of no more Weight in point of State than your passing of a complement with His Majesty in Giving Him Thanks or that the Thing He designed in His Command was principally to Solve the Want of your thankful Addresses Let me tell you this is not only a streign of Levity in Interpreting the Reason of the Royal Precept for your Reading His Declaration in your Churches unbecoming your Gravity but a Surmize of a more Dangerous consequence The King Commanded that you should Publish His Declaration in your Churches that All His Loving Subjects might Know the Contents of it And you Insinuate to them That it is to Serve instead of a thankful Addressing which before you Refused But you pass from this to Matter of Conscience and herein you shew your Self more Subtle in your Distinction of Conscience then the Learned Bishop Sanderson in all his Praelections on this Subject For you seem to have a Politick Conscience not to do any thing which by consequence may Hurt your Interest or as you Term it the Church and herein your Conscience is Guided by a frequent Review and Must ' ring up the Numbers on both sides How many may be for and how many may be against your Reading and finding by the Computation you make that the greatest Number of your supposed Friends will be Disobliged by your Reading and that more may be against it than for it This Governs you to make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Doing the most Immoral Action in Nature Your Second Distinction is of a Temporary Conscience which is to Last as long as the Obligation of your Subscription to that you call the Constitution of the Church of England lasts By what means you will reckon your selves Discharged of this Temporary Obligation of Conscience I cannot divine unless you Reckon that perhaps you may be Absolved from it by an Act of Convocation or Statute-Law But then here lies the Difficulty with me Because Your Third Distinction of the Obligation of Conscience seems to be of such a permanent Nature as no Law of Convocation or Parliament any more than the Kings Prerogative can Absolve you from For this I take to be the Genuine Sense of this sort of Conscience you mention in contradistinction from the other That you are Bound in Conscience not to Read the Kings Declaration because you are bound in Conscience not to Approve it And If you make the Invariable Law or Revealed Will of God the Rule of your Consciencious Approving or not Approving the Matter of the Kings Declaration You cannot in my Apprehension any more Approve of it or Consent to the Reading of it if it should be Established by A Convocation or Statute-Law the Law of God and the Matter remaining the same as now they are than you can Do it at the Command of the Kings Royal Will. Tenthly Possibly the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against Our Principles But is this any Excuse that we Read and by reading Recommend that to them which is against our Censcience and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King Commands it did we approve of the
Matter of it But to Consent to Teach our People such Doctrines as we think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but Aggravate the Fault Consenting to Teach your People such Doctrine as you think contrary to the Laws of God is a Fault may be a great Fault Tho' the Doctrine you Teach may in it self be true Doctrine because Conscience though Erroneous obliges not to Act against it But what it is that does not lessen but aggravate the Fault you mention I cannot discern For you Grant That reading the Declaration when the King commands it if you Approved the Matter of it would be no Fault at all You say It is possible the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against your Principles I Answer T is possible they understand neither the Declaration nor your Principles for by the Reports I hear frequently â—ut of the Countrys there may be Thousands that never Read themselves nor heard the Kings Declaration read to them but take the Matter of it to be as you represent it which to be sure is Bad enough and thus they are kept in ignorance and Affrighted with the conceit of it Most certainly if the Kings Heart were not well Assured of the Justice and Clemency towards all His Subjects in what He has Declared It would be the most Impolitick Action imaginable for Him to command that it should be Published and Communicated to all of them in the most solemn manner when they are Discharged from all Secular Diversions and have their Minds most Free and Intent upon the Matter that is read to them His Majesty Declares the Reason why He would have it thus Published Viz. That they may Vnderstand and Reap the Benefit of that General Good which He designs for the whole Kingdom That His chief Aim has been not to be the Oppressor but the Father of His People That they may lay aside all Animosities and groundless Jealousies and Choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to Finish what He has Begun for the Advantage of the Monarchy over which Almighty God hath placed Him. Now if the Matter of the Declaration would not bear the most exact Scrutiny and Recommend it self to the Consciences and Understanding of all His Subjects Can any Man rationally think that this was a probable way for His Majesty to Effect the End He proposed therein But since you put me upon Possibilities I think it may possibly be and very probably also as I Gather from your Reasonings that you do what lyes in you to Conceal from your People the Matter of the Declaration least your People would Approve it and Consent to Promote it But though you are thus Industrious to Conceal the Declaration Why do you not tell us what your Principles are for in this you are as Dark as in all the rest I must profess if I had no other means of knowing what the Declaration contains nor what your Principles are than by what you have said in your Discourse concerning them you deal so much in Generals that I should never be Able to Understand either of them nor wherein the One is against the Other But now let us come to the main Point for in comparison of that All the Rest is of little value You say For you to Consent to Teach your People such Doctrines as you think contrary to the Laws of God or the Laws of the Land does not lessen but aggravate the Fault You have in your Letter made mention of an old Maxim The King can do no Wrong And therefore if any Wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Ministers who does it Nor is any Minister who does an Illegal Action allowed to pretend the Kings Commission and Authority for it You cannot Forget who They were that before you Insisted upon this sort of Argument nor how severely you of all Men have in your Pulpits and Prints handled them for it But now you think it may serve your Turn you Revive it again Since therefore you make it no scruple of Conscience in this Case to Approve such Things now as you Condemned heretofore Why should you not do it in some other Cases also The Dissenters as oft as they were Summoned into your Courts or elsewhere for their Nonconformity to your Modes of Worship or for Assembling to Worship in other manner Pleaded simply They could not Do the One nor Forbear the Other because in doing the first or forbearing the last They should Sin against their Conscience and Transgress the Law of their Lord whatever your Laws or the Laws of the Land commanded or prohibited This Plea was usually Termed a meer pretence and their Assemblies Censured by their Secular Judges as Riots Routs Seditious or Vnlawful Assemblies and by your Judges they were Condemned as Obstinate and Contumacious and upon these Scores they suffered the Penalties inflicted Now though you did Publish and cause to be Executed such Sentences heretofore against the Dissenters who made use of this Plea as a Pure matter of Conscience with respect to God's Law this may be no Bar as appears by your former instance but that you may take up the same simple Honest Plea at this time if you are as they were sincere therein and make it for your selves now as they did then And by this way you may without Intangling your selves by determining positively Doubtful Points of Law which is not your Province come to a fair Issue in that which is the proper Charge of your Function as Ministers for the Dissenters agree with you in this Principle that For any Man to Consent to Teach others such Doctrines as he thinks contrary to the Laws of God is a great Fault Let the Matter of the Declaration therefore be fairly Discussed between you and us with that Modesty which becomes Subjests Many Dissenters differ from you in their Thoughts in this point They think The King's Declaration is not contrary to the law of God and that therefore it may lawfully be Read If any of them question any part of it It is that wherein the King promises to Protect and Maintain the Arch-Bishops and Bishops as Lord Bishops of which they find no Footsteps in the Holy Scriptures but if they will consider that the Dignity of Barons is only an Addition to that of a Bishop and does neither Alter Enlarge or Abrogate the Spiritual Office but is an Honour conferr'd upon them by the Civil Sovereign Power There is no Reason for any Dissenter or any other of the King's Subjects to make this a scruple of Conscience in regard it proceeds from a Civil Constitution and is a Law of Mans Creation to which among others of like nature every Christian is to submit for the Lord's sake And that you and I may as well Agree in our Thoughts about the Subject in hand as in the Principle I have mention'd It s necessary that we consider what it is
Prosecution of Dissenters was a weakning of the Protestant Interest you Promoted it with greater Vehemence than ever before If the King at any time dispense with Penal Laws you Cry out The Dispensation is Illegal As oft as any Bill of Comprehension has been brought into Parliament to touch any thing of your Constitution so as to enlarge it beyond its present Streightness it hath met with Opposition from your Ordinaries So that the Dullest Dissenters in England have been sensibly taught by you That there has been no Opportunity wherein you could without Danger shew them any kindness for Twenty Eight Years past and if any Dissenters should be so Catch'd in the Snare of your Insinuations that at some time or other hereafter there may happen an Opportunity wherein you may be kind toward them as to let go the present Season wherein His Majesty Proposes a Legal and Perpetual Establishment both of your Church State and their Freedom from Temporal Penalties for Nonconformity to it I shall not take such Dissenters to be in this Case either Wise or Considerate 13. Say you Reading the Declaration is to Recommend to Our People the choice of such Persons to Sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgment against Our Reading will Discourage Provoke or Misguide all the Friends the Church of England has Have we not Reason to Expect That the Nobility and Gentry who have already Suffer'd in this Cause when they hear themselves Condemned for it in all the Churches of England Will think it time to mend such a Fault and Reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this Way is there any Reason to expect that it should Ever Rise again These Consequences are almost as Evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will Destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Intrest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of Doing it as of Doing the most Immorall Action in Nature If We must compare Consequences To Dis-oblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading the Declaration is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters By Your Mistaking and Misrepresenting the Sentiments of the Dissenters You have given me Cause to Suspect You may be Mistaken in some things which you have Asserted concerning the Nobility and Gentry particularly in that you make no distinction between the Repeal of the Penal Laws and that of tie Fest which diverse of the Nobility and Gentry in their ordinary Discourses on this Subject have Done and this seems to me the more Remarkable because you make it Equally as Necessary for the preserving your Constitutions to keep the Penal Laws on Foot as the Test Secondly You lay in my Opinion too great a Stress upon your Reading Do you suppose None of your Friends to have any better Discerning then to be Misguided in their Judgments by the bare Reading the Declaration No more Resolution then to be Discouraged by it No more Charity then to be Provoked to be your Enemies by it I cannot see any Reason you have to Expect that your Reading the Declaration should lay any of the Nobility or Gentry under any Conviction of a Fault or that they would reckon themselves Condemned if it had been or should be read in all the Churches of England for any thing which they have Done or Suffer'd in that you call this Cause His Majesty has been pleased to Declare the Reason of the Changes He has made in Civil and Military Officers not thinking any ought to be Employed in His Service who will not Contribute towards the Establishing the Peace and Greatness of their Countrey If a Question be put to any Noble Man or Gentleman Whether he will give his Consent to Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests Where such a Question meets an Inward Setled Principle that no man ought to be Debarr'd of his Civil Rights or Privilidge for the sake of his Religious Opinions and that no man ought to be Compelled by Temporal Penalties to perform an Act of Religious Worship against his Conscience Such a Person is always prepared to give a Ready Answer l'ts fit that all such Laws as tend to do either of these should be Repealed because they Tend to Alter such Fundamental Maxims as should ever be preserved Inviolable the One in reference to Civil Rights the other in reference to the Christian Religion But where the Question meets not with any such Setled Principle but either the Contrary Opinion or that present Policies of State may Govern in deciding it In this latter Case Honour and Prudence both may be pleaded against a Pre-engagement until they Arrive to a Satisfaction therein by Debates on this Subject in Parliament Who sees not that there 's a vast difference between a previous Obligation to a positive Vote in Parliament and your Refusal to perform Such a Ministerial Act in Obedience to the King's Order which you have never Scrupled to do in Obedience to any Order of your Ordinary or his Officials without any regard had to the matter published But I perceive You are now upon your Politicks and you would therefore have it That these Noblemen and Gentlemen are already Engagâ—d in the same Cause with your Selves or if they be not you do your Best that they may be so and not be Reconciled to their Prince For then you Suppose your Church would Fall and not only So but that if it Fall this Way You have no Reason to Expect It should Ever-Rise again And these Consequences you would have to pass for Demonstrations from your Foresight of the Event make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Destroying the Protestant Religion and Interest together with the Church of England I will not give my Self the Liberty for your Churches Sake to Dilate upon the Surmises I take them to be the Effect only of a Sudden Vertigo raised by an Imagination that You are upon the Top of a Precipice in imminent Danger of a Destructive Fall When in Truth though you are in the ASCENT above any of your Fellow Subjects yet you have there a broad Space to Walk upon as long as you please and a safe Descent into the Plain to others of your Companions when you please and are in no Danger at all of Falling Down from any other Cause but the Swimming Conceipt of your Own Head. If it were not so You would never have taken the Method you have done to draw your Conclusion from such Comparison of Consequences as you have made to Disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters Would you have it Conceited That you have Engaged the Nobility and Gentry by a Positive Promise upon no Terms to part with the Penal Laws or give the Dissenters any Ease till you
Signifie to them by Reading the Declaration That it is an Opportunity wherein they may Do it without any Danger Have you no Cause as you are a Minister of the Gospel to relent at the Hard Measure which You and Others by your Instigation have Meted out to the Dissenters of all Sorts Suppose All the Nobility and Gentry were against the Repealing of Penal Laws Yet I should think If you set your Thoughts upon the proper Discharge of your Function that Equal Justice and Clemency would Govern your Determinations more then all Worldly Policy But you are for putting a Question Ironically and Answering it plainly and positively Cannot the King keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repeal'd Your Answer is We cannot say but this may be And yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and if the Question were put to us We think We ought in Conscience to deny them Our Selves and we Commend those Great Men that deny it This looks as if your Passions were in a high Ferment and yet there is some appearance of an Artifice in it It Sounds with what follows as if you had an Assurance That the gene â—a Vogue of the Nation is under your management and direction either to have or not to have a Parliament to Repeal or not Repeal the Test and Penal Laws as you please For say you Are there not as high Probabilities that our reading the Declaration will Promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will Ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery Herein you shew your selves to be greater Artists the Doctrine of Probabilities then any College of Jesuits whilst you persist in your Disobedience to the Kings Order and will not read it The Nation does not think fit to try But if you Return to your Obedience and Read you shall thereby induce them to Try and Promote the Repeal Let me for once after your Example tho I come One Thousand degrees short of your skill in the Doctrine Conjecture at a few probable Points First It seems to me that you are convinced in your Conscience that there is Such an innate Vertue and Power in the matter oâ— the King's Declaration as will command an Assent in the minds of them that hear and consider it whence it may be That you think in your Conscience it is not safe for your Interest to Read it Secondly If you were not under some such Conviction it 's probable you would make as little Conscience to read it as you did any of those Censures or Orders which you cannot otherwise justifie than as you therein only performed a Ministerial Act in Obedience to your Superiours Thirdly It 's very probable that it is also from hence that in your Reasonings you run altogether upon the Topicks of Trusting to the King's Promise and upon a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and speak not a Word either of the King 's making no doubt of the Concurrence of his two houses of Parliament when he shall think sit to call them to this Declaration of Indulgence which he mentions in the first Paragraph of it or of His Majesty's Conjuring His Subjects to lay aside all private Animosities as well as ground less Jealousies and to choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to finish what he has begun in the close of it or of any of the Clauses throughout the whole of it or of His Majesty's Endeavours to establish Liberty of Conscience on such just and equal Foundations as will vender it unalterable and secure to all People the free Exercise of their Religion for ever Now if this be plainly manifest as it is in its self and will appear to every Man who is not scar'd by you from considering it that it is not any one Single Clause but the whole and every part of the Declaration that the King seeks to have Established by a Perpetual Law and that he would have this speedily Effected Why is it that you descant so much upon His Royal Promise of the stedfastness whereof we have had so general an Experience as if that were all the Security intended to Perpetuity unless you have still a Mind to Monopolize the Laws to your selves and that none of His Subjects should have the Benefit of any Law but such as will though it be contrary to their Conscience Conform to a Tittle to your Measures and Modes of Worship Lastly It may be also probable if a Parliament be speedily called as His Majesty declares he intends it shall be that they when they are met will wisely Consider how both to gratifie the King in what he desires and secure the Subject in all their Properties Civil and Religious For the Sum of all that is to be Granted de Novo Is Liberty of Conscience to worship God without incurring any temporal damage by it What things are already setled by Law as to the Religion of the Church of England and their Possessions are so to continue and be confirmed to them And if such a New Law be contrived to this Purpose as may continue for ever it will require such Ingredients to be in it as may by the Provisions therein made which the Wisdom of Parliament will readily suggest render it stable and perpetual and it may be in particular such as may prevent your suggested Jealousies of Preists and Jesuits and also keep you as well as them within the Spheres of your proper Function that all of the Clergy who expect the Benefit of other Laws shall subscribe t before your Eyes that no Royal Promise no setled Laws no common Interest can dispel it so as to give a Discerning of the proper Means to Arrive at a secure Establishment Bear with my Expostulations I am coming to a Close It is not desired you should Part with any Laws in â—â—ing but such only as are the Causes of an Vnjustifiable â—â—pression and consequently of an Vnavoidable Contention If you can justifie the Compelling of any Man â—y Temporal Punishments to Worship God contrary to his Vnderstanding and Conscience bring out your strong Reasons for it that all who are otherwise minded may be Convinced But if you cannot do this bring your Mind to do and permit Right to be done to all Men herein Even your Enemies that they may have no just Quarrel against you nor seek by any undue Attempt to wrest themselves from under your Power Neither you nor any others have any Reason to fear a Downfall if you are willing to depart from the Ways of Opression It is not desired that any Laws in being should be Removed by any other means but by Introducing such as are Just Equal and of much greater security in their stead Do not conceit your self safe and that you can be secured oâ—â—â— under the Continuance of Vnequal and Oppressive Laws such as 〈◊〉 iust humane Nature Christian Grace and Known Maxims of the Law of the Land. I Consider how you close your Letter That if you were never so desirous that the Dissenters might have their Liberty yet you cannoâ— consent they should have it this Way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was Granted I am afraid from First to Last leâ—st I should mistake your Meaning You have said before You dare nâ—t â—each the Dispensinâ— Power till you have the Authority of Parliament for it You cannot Read the Declaration because it is to Recommend to your People the Choice of such Persons to Sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws So that you suggest as there is no Authority so you are not willing there ever should be any countenance given by Authority Either to Dispense With or to Repeal Penal Laws against Dissenters Where to do your Desires that they should have Liberty Tend You cannot consent they should have it This Way that is by a Dispensing Power nor that Way that is by a Repeal In your next I Pray signifie what means you Propose that are effectual for the Accomplishment of your Desires and if upon the Contemplations thereof you cannot find any Means in common Use heretofore so effectual for making Way for Removal of Spiritual Oppressions as the stirring up the Hearts of Princes In the first Place To give the Subjects ease by Discountenancing and Suspending such Laws as are the Occasion of their Oppression And in the next place By the Royal Assent to the Advice of their great Council to Repeal such Laws and Establish better and more equal in their stead Return to your Obedience and acknowledge it is just and equal that together with your own Perpetual Establishment by Law Dissenters of all sorts should by the same Law be secured in that which is THEIR RIGHT by the Law of GOD and NATURE in common with all mankind not to be Compelled to Worship contrary to their Consciences but to enjoy a just and duly-stated Liberty to Worship God according to their Consciences and that measure of Understanding of the Will of God that he has or shall please to Reveal to them And if you can remove your Prejudice and come to a right Mind in these things I doubt not but they will Incline you not barely to Read the Kings Declaration in your Churches but also to Recommend to your Auditors from the Consideration of the Reasonableness Righteousness and Clemency of it the Choice of such Members to serve in Parliament as may Happily Finish that which His Majesty has therein Proposed and Mercifully Begun LONDON Printed by G. Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate 1688.