the least Disorder the same Person tells us p. 286. is maintain'd at Francfort And who is so great a Stranger abroad as not to know that the Cantons of Switzerland are made up of Protestants and Papists all united by their common Interest notwithstanding their Differences in Religion And in two of those Cantons as the forecited Author assures us pag. 27. Apenzel and Glaris both Religions are tolerated and capable of equal Privileges And in some Bailiages conquer'd in common by the Cantons of Bern and Friburg in the Wars with Savoy the two Cantons name Bailiffs by turns and both Religions are so equally tolerated that in the same Church they have both Mass and a Sermon and that with such equality that on one Sunday the Mass begins and the Sermon follows and on the next Sunday the Sermon begins and the Mass comes after it without any disorder or murmuring These Instances are undeniable Evidences of the consistency of Popery with Liberty of Conscience so that whatsoever Arguments can be produced to prove the contrary are like Zeno's Reasonings against the possibility of Motion confuted by the noise of Diogenes's Tramplings that disturb'd his Lectures It 's in vain to argue that Papists cannot live peaceably where they are tolerated or that they cannot tolerate others where they have Power since we can produce such plain Matter of Fact both for the one and for the other And since some Papists live peaceably with Protestants and allow them to enjoy equal Freedom with themselves in the Exercise of Religion a Pretence to Infallibility may be consistent with Liberty without building upon a Foundation of Paradoxes which he says is so dangerous And this Suggestion is no concluding Argument that the King intends to deceive the Dissenters and oppress all other Parties but his own You have seen plainly that the Papists do allow Living and Liberty to Protestants under them in Germany by the Treaties of Munster and Osnaburgh that they have alternative Election of Magistrates and that neither Party do's or is allow'd to disturb other in the Exercise of their Religion in Publick and that all others with a free Conscience without Disturbance or Inquisition shall Exercise their Religion in their own Houses privately and in the Neighborhood where and as often as they please and therefore we have less ground to suspect their doing it sincerely here in England where 't is more their Interest because the King is so great a Lover of his Country that he will never give the Power into those few Hands of the Catholics against the more numerous Party of his Protestant Subjects and consequently more able to Serve him against his potent watchful Neighbors who would catch at such an opportunity to stir up Wars against him both Abroad and at Home The King knows that he is sure of the Hearts and Hands of all the true Sons of the Church of England and he will never oppress them to make them Hypocrites or to lose their Services His next Suggestion of Suspicion is from the Instruments of this new Friendship pag. 4. whom for Arguments sake designing to make them out of love with them and to question their Integrity he supposes to be suspicious Persons And are not all such Hypothetical Arguments as easily blown away by supposing the contrary I will easily grant him that they are bad men who Preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England pag. 5. But as the King discourages all such kind of Discourses in his own Chaplains so we may charitably suppose that whoever use them are none of his Instruments who designs Ease to Dissenters without Vengeance against the Church of England And therefore they who act that cholerick Part are I am sure none of the King's Instruments You maliciously suggest that the Mediators of this new Alliance have been formerly Employ'd in Treaties of the same kind and there detected to have acted by Order by whose you do not tell us but leave us to our guess nor by whom so detected and to have been impower'd to have given Encouragements and Rewards and that this is an Argument to suspect them Nay you come farther home and insinuate that the King hath given them a Commission and not improbably a Dispensation in the Case of Truth when it may prejudice his Service that Employs them Calumniare audacter aliquid haerebit and would have the Dissenters look upon them as Embassadors sent to lie Leiger i. e. Ad mentiendum Reipublicae causâ You suppose there are some Men Employ'd by him who have Means and Authority to persuade by Secular Arguments and that they in pursuance of that Power have sprinkled Mony among the Dissenting Ministers and that this is an Evidence of the Deceit intended and that many unfortunate Men whose Names you will not be tempted to discover have fall'n under this Temptation who for fear their Frailty should be discover'd and expos'd will continue it whose Arguments tho' never so specious are to be suspected because they came from them who have Morgag'd themselves to severe Creditors who expect a rigorous observation of the Contract let it be never so unwarrantable and these are the Dog-Stars of all the malignant Influence against which you declaim But how came you to be privy to all this unless you were once One of the same Cabal and one who hir'd them to Preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England If there be any such inflaming Eloquence in the Conventicles I will easily grant it to be as unseasonable as your Pamphlet and they who act this cholerick Part upon what Forfeiture soever they are oblig'd to it are very corrupt Men no doubt almost as bad as your self and their Wages in the next World without Repentance will be Death and that Eternal whatsoever they hope to get by it in this The last of his Insinuations is from the great Endeavors that are us'd to Court Addresses it being improper for the Benefactor to press Men to be Thankful and an Argument that he intends to Snare them by their own Acknowledgments as he suggests pag. 7. But to allude to his own Comparison a little after our Great Sovereign is not of so mean a Spirit as to sollicit for Love-Letters He entertains the Grateful with Respect but when did he ever Court the Ungrateful to give him Thanks I have heard of Instances wherein he forbad the moving of some to Address that needed Courting but never the contrary except from this Author It may be some Persons asham'd of the Ingratitude of some of their own Party were active to remind them of their Duty but it is an incredible Calumny that the King should Court much less Threaten or cause to be Courted or Threatned as this Man affirms pag. 7. any to Thank him for those Favors which not the expectation of Applause hut his own innate Goodness hath produced No it 's the more Glorious to be Thankful to him because such is
A Modest CENSURE OF THE Immodest Letter TO A DISSENTER Upon occasion of His Majesty's late Gracious DECLARATION FOR Liberty of Conscience By T. N. a true Member of the Church of England Published with Allowance LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor 1687. A Modest Censure of the Immodest Letter to a Dissenter c. SIR THE Letter to a Dissenter by T.W. which you sent me the last Week I have perused and find it very spitefully endeavoring to persuade the Dissenters 1. To suspect the Kindness of His Majesties late Gracious Declaration And 2. To use their Interest against the Establishment of that Liberty by Law which he therein Graciously Indulges to all His Subjects The Letter it self is like a Pleasure-Boat richer in the Trimming than in the Lading The Language of it I confess is very smooth and Gentile but his Suggestions are too sowre and severe and his Style too sharp when it touches upon the Government nor could any Man speak so Evil of Dignities as he do's without Scandal even tho' it could be said with truth The Character T. W. gives of himself in the first Page is That he is a Protestant at large who will not let his thoughts for the Public be so ty'd or confin'd to any Subdivision of them as to stifle his Charity which is become so necessary at this time for their mutual Preservation and yet one would think by his Letter that his tender Conscience had catch'd the Cramp with his too much stretching and that he was insensible of what dropt from his Pen for after he had charg'd the King with the worst of Crimes One that would not only falsifie his Word with them at first but give them no Quarter at last and drawn his Picture like one of the Squint-ey'd Italian Pieces which present us with a Saint on the one side and a Monster on the other and the Church of England with haughtiness and the rigidness of her Prelates towards Dissenters and the Spirit of Persecution he would make us believe pag. 4. that no sharpness was in his Style nor any Gaul mingled with his Ink because Healing was the only thing he intended and that he would not expose any particular Men how strong soever the Temptation might be and how clear the Proofs to make it out whereas in truth for what appears to me by his Lower his Skill seems Chiefly to lie in a quick Hand for Lancing and Cutting and pag. 3. he is the worst at Healing of any Writer that ever pretended to it Never any State-Mountebank offer'd more improper Plaisters for Tender Consciences and should he ever set up his Protestant Bills I should rather send the Dissenters to his Friend Burnet or Ferguson than to him for a Cure of their Distempers neither of which ever Preach'd up more Vengeance against the Church of England pag. 5. than he has done at which he must forgive me if I am both surpris'd and provok'd and startled to have an Eye upon him for when a Man comes so quick from the one Extreme to the other in such an unnatural Motion he has taught me how much it concerns me to be upon my guard pag. 3. I can as little guess at the Author's Religion as at his Name he seems to me to be some degraded Courtier who having been outed of his Employment begins to Harangue upon what he has lost and to satisfie not his Reason but his Revenge resolves to plume his towring Fancy over the King 's and Churches Interest and doubts not but to make a Prey of both in the end if by his Seditious Methods he can hinder a good Correspodence between the King and his two Houses of Parliament when he shall think sit to call them or at least to make himself more considerable than now is he by being troublesom whatsoever he be I dare say he is no legitimate Son of the Church of England nor will she ever give him her Blessing till he beg the King's and her Pardon for the Disloyalty of this Letter Now tho' I am not at all accountable for the Dissenters whose Separation from the Church of England I have always lamented and condemned yet my just zeal for that Church makes me impatient to find one who pretends to be of her Communion by his sly Insinuations Libelling both the Government and Her too The Father's danger makes Craesus's dumb Son to speak and on what better occasion can I hitherto a silent Spectator begin to speak than for the Vindication of the Father of my Country and my dear Mother which will I hope Apologize for all my other Weaknesses whilst I represent to you how ill it becomes a Member of the Church of England to persuade any Subjects into an ill Opinion of their Prince and to represent Her as an Enemy to his Clemency to any of his Subjects of what Persuasions soever in Religion I begin with the First Design of this Letter which is to persuade the Dissenters into a suspicion of his Majesties Kindness This is the first thing he offers to their Consideration pag. 2. What reason they have to suspect their new Friends Now by the sequel of the Discourse it is manifest that by their new Friends he means those whom the Declaration represents for their Friends and that being the King's Declaration it 's the King and his Council whom he must needs mean by their New Friends and consequently it is the King's Expression of Kindness to them in his Declaration that he would have them to suspect But how ill such a Design becomes a Member of the Church of England is very apparent For she hath always taught her Children not only not to Resist but to Honor the King and consequently never allows them to speak evil of much less upon weak Surmises to charge him with the basest Disingenuity viz. a Design to cheat all that trust him At his Majesties first approach to the Throne we all unanimously concluded it our Duty to believe and trust to his Royal Promise and seem'd with a becoming Zeal to suspect the Loyalty of all such as distrusted in the least the sincerity thereof And what reason can we have to be weary of well doing There was a time when we thought any the least diffidence in the King 's repeated Promises to be the most disobliging thing in the World and such as would be resented accordingly we had then Courage and Conscience enough to stick to our Principles and shall we now be so easily frighted out of our Wits and Loyalty as some Neuter-passive-Royalists are whom we see driven from their old Principles as some silly Birds are from their Food by Men of Clouts an empty windy Noise or a sensless Scare-crow dress'd up by any Pamphleter who envies their Happiness O foolish Galatians you did run well at first who has hindred you of late from holding on in the same good old way of Duty to God and the King who has been
Indulgent to you beyond a President and done nothing to disoblige you but in keeping you from biting and devouring one another you know not why And who will harm you if you be followers of that which is good I am one of those who am so valiant as to have none of those Fears and Jealousies about me which our Author speaks of nor do I think that he himself who acts this timorous Part before the Dissenter do's believe himself but only pretends it in pursuance of some other dark Designs for which his Letter as black as it is would blush if they should be brought to light The King has done all things that in him lies to create a Confidence in him and all things conspire to give us Ease Satisfaction and Security if we are not wanting to our selves and therefore we have great reason to be extreamly pleas'd and oblig'd and to shew the Nation that part of it which is without as well as that within the Pale of the Church that we are so for this is such a piece of Good Manners as will be a â—â—â—â—â—…ian Duty and not a Court Complement and the Vertue of it is the gloater because it is now become necessary for the preservation oâ— the Church of England and the justification of her avow'd Principles of Loyalty We have hitherto been taught absolute and uncondition'd Obedience for Conscience sake and practis'd it in opposing the black Bill of Exclusion for which our Divinity as well as our Policy was arraign'd by some such Protestants at large as the Author of this Letter at least our want of Foresight and palpable Inadvertency And shall we not now retain the same Integrity and Wisdom and the same Consciences void of offence towards God and Man Wherein hath our Gracious Sovereign been worse than his Word to us Ours is the National Religion still our Revenues and Privileges are as great as ever our Churches are as well fill'd our Sacraments as much frequented our Ministers as much respected at least as they were in the late King's time the present State of the Church of England is as flourishing as ever we knew it and so Exemplary is the King's Self-denyal in the Exercise of his own Religion that he hath not taken any one Church or Chappel throughout the Kingdom for himself or those of his own Communion which was ever dedicated or appropriated to ours by Law so little cause do's he give us of Repining and so much of Rejoycing and Gratitude The first Reformers in Germany as whoever peruseth Sleidan's Commentaries may observe repeated their Addresses of Thanks to the Emperor as oft as he renew'd his Promise of Protection and when something had been done in the Chamber of the Empire that seem'd to them an infringement of former Grants Sleid. Comment l. 10. Edit Argentor 8. p. 292. and some suggested his Design to oppose them by a War upon his Gracious Declaration in a Letter to them of his Resolution still to Protect them they made a new Address of Thanks for delivering them from their new Fears by renewing his Promise And tho' in like Circumstances some of the Church of England who had put such Bounds to their good Breeding as our Author cautions others to do prov'd resty and refus'd to repeat their grateful Acknowledgments for his Majesty's late Gracious Declaration to Protect them in the first place lest such an innocent and usual piece of Good Manners should be interpreted to be the Approbation of the King 's whole Declaration yet others acted more agreeable to the forecited President by renewed Addresses on that occasion whereby they declar'd that they still believ'd him sincere in and faithful to his Promise notwithstanding all the Suspicions that by Malecontents were whisper'd to the contrary And let the World judge whether 〈◊〉 have not acted more agreeable to the Loyal Principles of the Church oâ— England than this Author who not only suspects the Ingenuity of his Sovereign's Promise but writes on purpose to propagate his Suspicions among the rest of his Fellow Subjects They cannot by Words or Writing treat the King worse who have an opinion of his Idolatry than he do's nor can the Church of Rome her self be worse at Healing than he is who pretends so much to it and therefore 't will be fit for Dissenters to pause upon his Methods before they believe them or have so good an opinion of them or him as not to be upon their guard when he accosts them like one fully resolv'd that his over-merits of the Crown should never do him prejudice And if it be Moral Parricide to wound the Reputation of him whom these three Kingdoms deservedly Honor for their Common Parent and Father of their Country except his licencious Pen can give us a Dispensation for that too and secure us by a Non obstante to the Divine Law that God will not think the worse of us for it the true Sons of the Church of England will not take his Judgment to be any intellectual Standard nor be seduc'd into so crying a Sin by his subtil Devices His whole Letter betrays such groundless Fears and Jealousies of the King and drives on an Interest so very destructive to the Crown and Church of England of which I profess my self to be a Member and declaims with so deep a Resentment against her Persecuting Humor that how sincere soever his Address may seem to them who judge of his Sincerity by the clearness of his Style more than by the weight of his Reasons and have Minds prepar'd to be deceiv'd by his malicious Insinuations because he tells them that they come from a friendly Hand yet I am one of those who have neither Faith nor Charity enough to believe Him to be either a good Subject or a true Son of the Church of England And I must beg his pardon if I am both surpris'd and provok'd to see that in the Condition we are now put into by the Laws and the ill Circumstances we lie under by having the Persecution of Dissenters and the want of Loyalty to the King laid to our charge We who pretend to be true Sons of the Church of England should endeavor to make our selves and others more uneasie and obnoxious to the Present Authority which God hath set over us And methinks he seems to be sore put to it when out of a desire of revenge he teaches Dissenters to run to their old Methods of Embroyling the Kingdom with too much haste to consider all the Consequences and hopes to instigate us of the Church of England to run along with them to the same excess of riot They must be unreasonably valiant who dare follow such Advice and such an extraordinary Courage at this unseasonable time to say no more is too dangerous a Vertue to be commended by any good Christian or good Subject He had need to go upon certain Evidence who charges his Neighbor much more his Prince with sinister
Intentions and Treachery in his Kindnesses otherwise he violates the natural Obligations of Justice and Charity as well as the Loyal Principles of the Church of England What then may we judge of T. W. who in the Name of the Church of England takes such pains to persuade the Dissenters that their New Friend their Gracious King is a treacherous Man especially considering the weakness of those Reasons wherein he grounds his Suspicion and which come now to be Examin'd The First I find pag. 2. That the Dissenters are not the King's Choice but his Refuge after the Church of England hath refus'd his Courtships That he might the better teach Dissenters to cast off their new Lovers he persuades them that they had before made their ineffectual Courtships to the Church of England and been scornfully rejected by them and must either drive a Contract with them or despair of good Fortune for ever and that if their sudden Passion have not blinded them they must needs see they Court them not for Love but Interest Which to me seems to speak as softly as may be a very rude Insinuation such as T.W. would never have us'd had he not wanted the Bounds to his Ill Breeding which he would have others put to their Good Breeding An Insinuation that equally wrongs the King and the Church of England who would no more be guilty of putting her King to his Shifts than such a King as ours would stoop to such mean ones Did not his innate Clemency and Compassion to his Subjects perhaps to an Excess prompt him to it I see no necessity of his Circumstances that could drive him to Court the more despicable part of them as the Dissenters are reputed to be What Courtships of the King or from Men of his Communion the Church of England hath rejected I know not and what Applications soever shall be made to her in the first or second place I doubt not but she will receive with that Respect and Duty which becomes her But the next Insinuation is more considerable That there is no Alliance between Infallibility and Liberty pag. 4. That it is the bringing together the two most contrary things in the World and that their Absolution for the mortal Sin of promising it is to be had upon no other Terms than their Promise to destroy them which they will be the easier tempted to do because in truth they have no Inclination no not so much as to give them any Quarter but to Usher in Liberty for themselves under that Shelter for which he refers them to Mr. Coleman's Letters and the Journals of Parliament where they may be convinc'd if they can be so mistaken as to doubt And that they cannot forbear even in the height of their Courtship to let fall hard words of them because their cruel Nature is not to be restrain'd from starting out as disdaining to submit to the Usurpation of Art or Interest Now to shew the weakness of all he suggests on this Head I shall offer these Two Considerations 1. Whether there be not some difference between the Church of Rome offering Liberty to Heretics and a Gracious King of that Communion promising Ease to his Subjects For however cruel toward Dissenters the Principles of the Church of Rome can be suppos'd to be the Sweetness of his Nature may correct them or the Generosity of his Courage over-bear them A Papist may be a Friend to Liberty and a known Enemy to Persecution and our present King upon whom you squint was always so and ever will be There is no Religion so bad but there may be very good Men among the Professors of it however inexorable to those it calls Heretics Popery can be thought to be there are many Papists we know merciful Men. And who more worthy of that Character than this Prince whose Clemency hath hitherto so flatly given the Lye to all former Characters of a Popish Successor Were it not then more fair and just to believe this Declaration sincere because made by so good a Prince than to suspect it of Treachery because we have a bad opinion of his Religion And that the Obligations of Natural Religion will prevail more with him to be still merciful in his Proceedings and faithful to his Promises than the supposed Principles of Popery to betray those that relie on his Royal Word which is as currant as his Coyn Our Confidence in our Prince's Word which is as sacred as his Person will be our greatest Prudence We can never trust our Lives and Fortunes in safer Hands than his to whom by our Addresses we have so unanimously tendred them at which his Enemies and ours are not a little netled If we are any of us afraid of his Power it is not his Fault but our own take not mine but St. Paul's word for it Do that which is good and you shall have praise of the same but if you do that which is evil you may well be afraid your selves and make us so too for he bears not the Sword in vain but is the Minister of God for revenge to execute wrath upon them that do evil He has oblig'd us ever since he came to his Throne in such a Princely manner as to puzzle our Understandings as well as our Gratitude we are as safe and secure as we can desire to be whilst he lives and he is content we should be as true to our God as to our King. 2. And yet it is no such Paradox as he pretends pag. 4. that Popery should be a Friend to Liberty or the Pretenders to Infallibility tolerate Dissenters and live peaceably with them That there have been great Cruelties acted by Men of that Communion is out of question and this Author acknowledges p. 10. l. 16. that there have been Prelates of our Church too rigid And as these are now convinc'd of their Error in being severe to Dissenters as he saith p. 16. l. 1. is it not possible that those may see their Mistake too especially since they pretend to Infallibility only in Matters of Faith not in Fact or the Conduct of their Practice However what hath been practis'd in other Places is not altogether unfeazable among us For besides the Toleration of the Three Religions in Germany by the Treaty of Munster Dr. Burnet whom he will not deny to be an authentic Historian in a late Account he gives of his Travels pag. 289. acquaints us That Charles Lewis late Prince Palatine seeing of what advantage Liberty of Conscience is to the Peopling of a Country not only allow'd the Three Religions the Calvinist Lutheran and the Roman to be Profess'd there but built a Church for them all Three which he call'd The Church of the Concord in which they all had in the Order above set down the Exercise of their Religion and yet he maintain'd the Peace of his Principality so entire that there was not the least Disorder occasion'd by this Toleration The like Toleration without
and lest they should imitate her Faults he cautions them against seeking to be reveng'd by attempting the Repeal of them Whether this Instance of his Desperation will be as successful as the King of Moab's and prevail with his Adversaries to quit their Advantage I know not but if it do they are certainly very good-natur'd Adversaries in both the Acceptations of the Phrase whether it denote the excess of their Kindness or the defect of their Understandings Some Men are so Spiderspirited as to suck Poyson out of the sweetest Flowers For my part I cannot think so ill of those Great Men who suffer'd with so much Christian Patience for their Loyalty as that they came from under the Rod breathing nothing but Revenge against their Persecutors It is a more just Account and suitable to the Character of their Piety and Loyalty that what they then did in Severity against the Dissenters was not from private Revenge but from the Necessities of the Kingly Government to which the Dissenters had been very pernicious and which they thought could not be safe at that time without the suppressing of them But if his Suggestion were true that the Penal Laws against Dissenters were made out of Revenge what Argument is this against their endeavoring the Repeal of them Unless it were Criminal to seek for a Release from the Injuries that Revenge hath laid upon them or a Sin to flee from the Avenger of Blood into the City of Refuge To Retaliate Injuries is a Crime but to seek for Protection and Ease from them is not And I see not but that the Dissenters if they be according to his Character of them pag. 10. Men of good Morality and Understanding may thus argue The Church of England after the late King's Restauration sacrific'd its Interest to Revenge in making the Penal Laws against us and therefore we may lawfully for our own Ease endeavor the Repeal of them and not lose the present Opportunity to rescue our selves out of her avenging Hand But to mend the matter he tells us pag. 10. that the Common Danger had now so laid open the Mistake that all former Haughtiness of the Church of England toward them is for ever extinguish'd and hath turn'd the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescention A fit Argument to infer this Conclusion Therefore the Dissenters ought not to endeavor their own Ease Whereas this seems the more natural Inference That therefore the Church of England will now joyn her Endeavors with them for the Repealing of those Laws the Enacting and Execution of which he imputes to a Spirit of Persecution But to do the Church of England right against these malicious Suggestions I am sure her Principles are against Persecution or any thing of Violence and Cruelty toward any for Religion And whatever may have been the Practices of some rigid and violent Persons of her Communion the most Wise Pious and Learned of them have still declar'd it unlawful to make any Sufferers for their Conscience unless where it interferes with the Peace and Safety of the State They would have no Man's invincible Persuasion in Religion be made High Treason as it was in Sir Tho. More 's and the Bishop of Rochester's Cases The Opinions in Religion that are inauspicious to the Government they think ought to be punish'd not because they are Errors in Religion but because they are Seditious and dangerous to the Government Now when they are and when they are not so as the change of Circumstances in the State may alter their Prospect on it the Government is more proper to judge than the Church and when that thinks its Safety not endanger'd by the toleration of them she is not for punishing them According to which Principle by the same Reason that she was for making the Penal Laws formerly she may now be for their Repeal because the Government thinks it self safe without them And this I think is almost the only thing wherein T. W. doth not Misrepresent her That now she is really for the Ease of Tender Consciences not as he brings in her Enemies suggesting p. 12. because she wants Power to Oppress but because the change of Circumstances in the Government makes the Opinions of Dissenters whether Protestant or Popish not so dangerous to the Peace of the State or the Authority of the Civil Powers as formerly they have been And this she may modestly conclude because the King and his Council have thought fit to Indulge them whose Interest obliges them to be most Impartial and whose Experience in State Affairs makes them most able to judge of such things The State was then in such real or imaginary Dangers as it is not now The Succession of the King to the Crown is not now in Dispute nor is Dominion believ'd to be founded in Grace if such Times should come again the old Severities might be soon reinforced Whilst we are in no danger of them let us put them into a Condition of Ease and Safety frankly that they may have no just Prejudice against us or our Religion and that the King who is intitled to the Service of every Subject of his of what Persuasion soever by the Law of Nature and the Common Law of the Land of which no Act or Parliament can or ought to bar him may make use of their Persons and Services according to his own Discretion Why should not his Catholic Subjects be equally capacitated to render him Service and be united with us in the same Bonds of Duty and Allegiance tho' they cannot accord with us in Matters of Religion Why should we shew so much Violence in those Points of Faith of which perhaps we can shew no certain Evidence The decrepit World in the twilight of its declining Age may be easily mistaken in the Colours of Good and Evil true or false Their Merits have been great of the Crown and their Sufferings more than Ours and why then should we repine to see the long deserv'd deferr'd Rewards of their Loyalty conferr'd upon them at last Let our onely Emulation be who shall serve him best Princes are not to be Catechis'd in bestowing their Honors or Offices nor could we think he had any true Zeal for his Religion if he should not countenance and preserve them at least caeteris paribus with others if not before them Suppose our repining should provoke him to turn the Tables upon us and to employ no Officers or Servants about him but Roman-Catholics whom could we reasonably blame but our selves Let the King unite them and us in one Camp and Court in God's Name and let there always be a Religious Correspondence between them and us in the Service of so great and so good a Master To dispute his Power in this Case were to deny him the choice of his Servants which we should think a Wrong to the meanest of us to be depriv'd of and also to rob him of the Militia of the
Displeasure Our Gracious Sovereign hath already done more for our Church than the most sanguine of her Sons ever look'd for which gives us reason to believe that he will never be sorry for doing what we desir'd Liberty of Conscience is more than pretended to be given by him and yet there is no Freedom or Property to be sacrific'd for it neither as far as yet appears or we believe is ever like to do The King intends not to unhinge the Establishment of the Church of England for that he can no more do than he can be unfaithful He only desires Safety and the Protection of the Laws for those of his own Communion and other Dissenters too which however peevish Men may be at the first motion will appear so reasonable upon second and more sedate Thoughts that however p. 17. the odds be Two hundred to one in the number of us and them yet there will be no such odds in the Votes for and against their Indulgence I am as loth as he is that we should throw away all Human Means of preserving our Religion p. 17. and I doubt not but that the Wisdom of the Nation may find Human Expedients to secure it to us without Infringing the natural Liberty of Subjects by severe Tests or tyrannizing over their Consciences by Penal Laws Sure I am a peevish provocation of a Prince whose Spirit and Power are equally great is no Human Means of its Preservation Our Author 's great fear is that the Thankers of the King will be Repealers of the Test in the next Parliament which would bring them under such a Scandal as would make them odious to all Mankind from which that he may the better deter them he tells them that by rescuing themselves from the severity of one Law they will necessarily give a blow to all the rest and that the Price of their Liberty will be no less than the giving up their Right in all the Laws which were a losing Bargain indeed to draw such a Mischief as this upon themselves But whether those Methods which he proposes to them will not more infallibly destroy them I hope the Dissenters and the Church of England men will consider well before they follow them It concerns us all to take heed that in acting for the preservation of our Religion we do not expose it to more imminent and apparent danger Tanti non est ut placeam Tibi perire Martial If nothing will gratifie our Author but what will displease and disserve the King let his Pretexts be never so specious he shall not intice us into a sinful Compliance we will follow the Golden Rule to do to others as we would have them do to us in like Circumstances Arma tenenti omnia dat qui justa negat Our obstinate and unseasonable stiffness hath made some Alterations already in Public Affairs and Administrations and may provoke his Majesty to do those things in his Displeasure which may be more prejudicial to our Religion than the Repealing of the Test can be the making whereof she abhorr'd and oppos'd as much as she could and cannot remember the Author or Occasion of it without Detestation And I hope the King 's Old Friends will not put the King to such shameful Shifts as to fly to his New for any Justice they can do him in this or any other kind If they should fail of their Duty in this kind their Mother Church will not bless them nor be displeas'd to see the Father of the Country correct such ill-nurtur'd Children as are too big for her Discipline I question not but that the next Parliament will do what the King and all good Subjects expect from them The King is assur'd of the Affections of his People in gross they have already Presented him with their Lives and Fortunes in their repeated weekly Addresses and therefore he will be sure to find it by their Loyal Representatives who will never sail to give him that Satisfaction in a Parliamentary way which they have already done in a Popular one for they would wrong us as well as him if they should not give him that Satisfaction in Formalities of Law which our Devotion hath already design'd and dedicated to him All true Sons of the Church of England rejoyce and are pleas'd in his Majesties Government and doubt not but a good Correspondence between him and his two next Houses of Parliament will put the Ballance of Europe into his Hands but if once a Spirit of Jealousie should be rais'd between him and us to fright us from the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws what Disadvantages may accrue to our Nation or our Religion I tremble to think We had need do something more than ordinary to atone for the innocent Blood that has been shed upon the Testimony of a few perjur'd Villains Thus Sir I have given you my Opinion of the Pamphlet you sent me which was certainly writ with a very ill Design against the King no good Intention for the Church of England whom it represents as it would persuade her to be obstinately engag'd not only against the Religion but against the Interest of her Prince too attempting to draw Men to suspect his Mercy for Treachery and inviting Dissenters to Combine against his Gracious Designs for the Ease of all his Subjects which I am persuaded the Church of England by her Compliances without obstinacy as far as without deserting her Religion she may will in the Event demonstrate to be black-mouth'd Calumnies FINIS