CONSIDERATIONS Moving to a Toleration AND Liberty of Conscience WITH ARGUMENTS Inducing to a Cessation of the Penal Statutes against all DISSENTERS Whatever upon the Account of RELIGION Occasioned by an Excellent Discourse upon that Subject Publish'd by His GRACE The Duke of Buckingham Humbly offered to the Parliament at their next Sitting at Westminster Tantaene animis Coelestibus Irae LONDON Printed for R. Hayhurst 1685. The Epistle Dedicatory To His GRACE the DUKE OF Buckingham My Lord T Is with the Highest Veneration due to Your Graces Illustrious Worth and Quality that I presume to make this Address to a Person of Your Graces Eminence and Greatness And indeed the only Encouragement for that Confidence is That this Discourse is onely Listed under Your Graces Banner Your Grace has been pleased to be the first Assertor of that Justice which in this Age of the World wanted onely so Great a Name to Espouse and Vindicate it For alas whatever tho never so rational has or could be urged in the Defence of Christian Clemency and Tenderness by any less Hand would have been overbourn by the present Impetuous Torrent against it And therefore they only wanted so uninterested a Champion as Your Grace to Patronize them If any less Person had attempted it presently the opprobious Name of a Non-con or a Tub-Preacher would have been thrown in his Teeth and all Reasons whatever upon a Toleration tho never so Convincing would have been instantly Blasted how unjustly soever with the Old Brand of Great is Diana of Ephesus as if Publish'd Maintain'd and cryed up only for the Service or Interest of a Party or Faction But Your Grace has the happiness of a Station and Character above the Reach of so feeble and stingless a Calumny whilst Your Generous Pen has been pleased to adapt that Truth which Malice may Snarl at but cannot Bite I confess indeed the General nay only Arguments urged against a Toleration is that Clamorous pretence of its Danger to the Government through an Indulging of Rebellious and Antimonarchical Principles which under the Mask and Cover of Tenderness of Conscience have been or may be diffused thro' the Kingdom and several Republick Machinations and Poysonous Designs have or may be hatcht and nourisht under the unhappy Consequences of Liberty of Conscience And truly Persecution for Dissent in matter of Faith without this plausible Apology would not have so much as a Shadow of Excuse to Protect it from the Infamy of a more than Pagan piece of Cruelty But alas this weak Pretext when truly and duely weigh'd will quickly fall to the Ground For that there have been and may be again those Atheistical and Diabolical persons who Villanously under the Veil of Religion play the blackest of Hypocrites and carry on their own ambitious and damnable Intregues under that Golden Visor is a most undoubted and too sad Truth But is that a sufficient Plea why those whose utmost Aime is the Innocent Worship of God untainted with any such Disloyal Thoughts should not only be Loaded with their Reproach and Stigmatized with their Brand but also be equally involved in their Condemnation viz. Fined Harast Imprison'd Beggard and Ruin'd as such If the Government has had Experience of those Antimonarchical Principles so fomented undoubtedly that Experience has given it Discretion enough to prevent the future Effects of them and to distinguish betwixt the Guilty and the Innocent Let every Judas therefore have his Judas Fate which may the Wisdom of the Nation and Government take care to see Executed And those that urge the denyal of a Toleration from their Jealousie only of the forementioned Danger must certainly suspect a very great Imbecility in the Administration that can find no better Expedient then rooting up the Flower to keep the Spider from sucking Poyson out of it This whole Discourse therefore being absosolutely free from the least intention of favouring any of those false Pretenders to Religion and Christianity those wicked Enemies of Magistracy the Sacred Ordinance of God is only an Endeavour to evince the Reasonableness of a Christian forbearance to our weak Brother purely and only as such With this Integrity and Innocence these Considerations are made Publick and with no other Recommendation durst the unknown Author lay himself at Your Graces Feet CONSIDERATIONS Moving to a TOLERATION AND Liberty of Conscience c. CONSIDERATION I. IT is not the Will of the Great and Wise God to appoint any Forcible Ways or Courses to bring Men and Women to Conform to his Worship But Christ was pleased to Commissionate his Apostles to whom he committed the Keyes of his Church to Preach and Declare the Christian Doctrine And they that succeed them in their Office are not by Might or by Power but by gentle Invitation and the influence of his kind Spirit to inform the Judgment convince the Conscience and so to perswade the Children of Men to be Reconciled unto God And who is Man that he should take another Course and will not rest in God's Wisdome Now we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you through us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God CONSIDERATION II. THe using outward Compulsion in matters of Conscience does only serve to make Men Hypocrites but works no saving Conversion If Men conform to any Worship or way thereof with an unwilling Mind they cannot serve God aright though the Worship be Right because the Heart of the Worshipper is not Right God calls for the Heart My Son give me thy Heart If it were not for Compulsion the Man would be in some other Practice or Profession and when he Conforms only to save his Person or his Purse he is the Servant of Man and not the Servant of God and this is not to Save his Soul Not by Constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but a ready mind CONSIDERATION III. ALL sorts of Persons are for Liberty of Conscience for themselves even those that are most Imposing upon others They would account it hard measure to be constrain'd to perform or forbear such and such things which concern their Religion or to suffer unproportionable Penalties And why should not the Church Protestants make the Presbyterians the Independents the Papists case their own in this Point seeing they are all Fellow-Christians Therefore whatsoever things ye would that Men should do unto you do ye so unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets CONSIDERATION IV. THe good Rules of Humanity and common Civility which is carefully observed in smaller matters are openly violated by using of force in the matters of Conscience Men abhor to thrust that Meat and Drink down their Neighbours Throat which will not agree with their Stomachs They say commonly Pray take that which best likes you and why are they not as civil in the matter of Religion Have compassion on one another Love as Brethren be Pitiful be Courteous CONSIDERATION V. THe Church Protestants in England
have been distressed by hot doings heretofore in the Reign of Queen Mary when they were accounted Criminals for not conforming to that Worship which was then the Established worship of the Kingdom And they should have taken heed before now of what they did and of what Spirit they be still of in Prosecuting others seeing they know not how soon that part of the Wheel which hath been or is on the Ground may come to be at Top and fall the heavier on them upon this Account For with the same measure Men meet withal it shall be meeted to them again CONSIDERATION VI. THe Conforming and Nonconforming Protestants and the Protestants and Papists all do agree as to the substance of Christianity in the same Articles of Faith and the same Rule of Manners in the Apostles Creed and the sen Commandements There is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptisme As a variety of Flowers may grow on the same Bank so may Protestants and Papists live in England Union in Affection is not inconsistent with disagreement of Opinion There is much more Reason to love one another for the many things wherein we agree then to fall out for those wherein we differ and though we cannot have Communion in the same External worship we can and have Communion in the same Internal Adoration of the same Blessed Trinity and in the one hope of our Calling unto Life Eternal through Jesus Christ We cannot come together in the same Church but may live together in the same Land and as we are under the same Gracious King he may Protect both and suffer no Party to Persecute one another The Woolf shall lie down with the Lamb the Leopard with the Kid they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain CONSIDERATION VII THe French Protestants who are the Dissenters from the Established Worship of that Kingdome are kindly received and succoured by England And when the French King is highly blamed by English Protestants and perhaps too by some English Catholicks for Persecuting his peaceable Subjects shall we do the same things in our Kingdome which we condemn in another Therefore art thou inexcusable Man whosoever thou art for thou that Judgest another dost the same things CONSIDERATION VIII THe Prosecuting Dissenters and Recusants for matters of Conscience is of great disadvantage to the Trade of the Kingdom the Dissenters being a chief part of the Trading People of the Nation considered as Merchants Shop-keepers Clothiers Farmers c. by which many Thousands of the Kings poor Subjects are maintained and consequently Liberty of Conscience must be a most effectual means for the restoring of it I will mention a Story or two which may be easily attested if they be called into Question One Thomas Peard about 16 Years since of West Dean near Barnstable who kept many Poor People at work in the Cloathing Trade was Prosecuted upon the Act for Twenty Pound a Month so many Months for not coming to Church that he was forced to quit his Habitation and Imployment Upon this the Poor People of many Parishes go a Begging and the numbers presently were so great that the Justices were fain to meet and consulting together conclude upon it to get the Mans Fines to be discharged This being done Peard returns to his business takes the Poor off their hands and finds them again the same Living In like manner about 14 Years since the Bishop of Sarum sends forth Instructions into all the Parishes of his Diocess for bringing them to Church or citing them to his Coutt There were Eighty Clothiers Nonconformists of several Judgments in the County of Wilts who being Alarum'd by this Summons think of withdrawing their Trade the time for Provision of their Wool favouring such a suspention but considering what a Number of Poor depended on them some Imploying 500 some a 1000 People under them who were capable of getting no other maintenance Besides that the Farmer was no less concerned than the Spinner and the Carder who could have no Money for his Wool fearing also that if they should give over on a suddain there might so much Clamour ensue as might turn into some uproar they agree upon sending up eight or ten of their sufficient Men to represent their Case to the King and Council Orders are taken hereupon that the Arch-Bishop Writes to the Bishop to desist and assurance is given by both the Secretaries to the Clothiers for their safety in keeping on their Imployment What those Justices and what the Council at that time saw convenient for that Shire and those Towns will be discerned I doubt not by the considerate to be of the like Emolument throughout the Nation And this brings to my remembrance a certain Prophesie that is now much in Mens Mouths and hath been going for Scores of Years That after Eighty Five England shall Thrive which though I have hitherto regarded I must confess when I have heard the words but as Rhime only yet if it shall please the King at his coming now to the Throne to give Liberty of Conscience to his People according to the design of this Paper I shall not doubt but to see the matter really accomplished The Riches of a Nation are the Bodies of Men for the greatness of a Kingdom certainly consists not in a vast continent of Ground but in the Multitude of its Inhabitants and the Thriving of the People lyes in the encrease of Trade Manufacture and Commerce as is intimated An Act for Universal Toleration Stated rightly that is of all so far as they are Tolerable whereof the Wisdome of a Parliament is the fittest Judge would produce both these It would bring People that are Persecuted in our Neighbour Nations about their Religion to England as it does or hath done to Holland and they must bring their Hands and Business with them Besides the Infinite Incouragement it would give to many who now keep in their Monys by Reason of their Obnoxiousness to the Law which they would bring forth most Industriously into Imployment as soon as they could see themselves safe and their Consciences out of danger And when Issachar saw that Rest was good and the Land that it was Pleasant he bowed his Shoulder to Bear and became a Servant unto Tribute CONSIDERATION IX IT hath pleased our most Gracious Soveraign King JAMES the Second whom God Bless with a gentle Mind and good days to declare to his Council and then to the Nation that he will follow his Deceased Brother in his Example of Clemency which we may hope for in this point of Indulgence We have his Royal Word for thus much and his Word we all hear may be Presumed upon so far as the meaning may be Presumed I do not therefore here Presume upon his meaning but the Clemency of the late King and Tenderness to his Subjects in his Gracious Purposes to indulge them in the point of Liberty of Conscience does appear sufficiently to all Men
on Record In his Declaration from Breda April 1660. We do declare says he a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no Man shall be disquieted or called in Question for differences in Opinion in the matters of Religion which doth not disturb the Peace of the Kingdome and that We shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the full granting of that Indulgence In his Declaration Dated October 1660. We do again renew what we have formerly said in our Declaration from Breda for the Liberty of Tender Consciences That no Man shall be disquieted or called in Question for differences in Opinion in matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and if any have been disturbed in that kind since our Arival here it hath not proceeded from any direction of ours At the opening of the Parliament on the Eighth of May 1661. I do Value my self much upon keeping my Word and upon making good whatsoever I Promise to my Subjects Again in his Speech to both Houses on July the 8th 1661. It is to put my self in Mind as well as you that I I think so often as I come to you mention to you my Declaration from Breda and let me put you in mind of another Declaration Published by your selves about the same time which I am perswaded made mine the more effectual an Honest Generous and Christian Declaration Signed by the most Eminent Persons that had been the most Eminent Sufferers in which you Renounced all former Animosities and Memory of former unkindnesses And my Lords and Gentlemen let it be in no Mans Power to charge Me or You with the breach of our Words or Promises which can never be a good Ingredient for our future Security Again in his Declaration of Decem. 1662. Concerning the Non performance of our Promises we well remember the very words from Breda viz. we Remember well the Confirmations we have made of them since upon several occasions in Parliament and as all these things are still fresh in our Memory so are we still firm in the Resolution of performing them to the full And further We do still conceive our selves so far engaged both in Honour and what we owe to the Peace of our Dominions which we Profess we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the Malitious and Disaffected to Inflame the Minds of so many Multitudes upon the score of Conscience with despair of ever obtaining any effect of our Promises for their Ease After all we have his Indulging Declaration indeed for fulfilling all his Promises and puting an end to a preceding violent Prosecution of the Act against Conventicles March 1672. It being Evident by the sad experience of Twelve Years that there is little Fruit of all those forcible courses we think our selves obliged to make use of that Supream Power which is not only Inherent in us but hath been declared and Recognized to be so by several Statutes and Acts of Parliament and therefore do now accordingly Issue out this our Declaration for the quieting the Minds of our good Subjects in these points for Inviting of Strangers in this Conjuncture to come and Live under us and for the better Incouragement of all to a chearful following their Trade and Callings from whence we hope by the blessing of God to have many good and happy advantages to our Government There are many Gracious Sayings here might be added upon this which the late King uttered in return to the Ministers who brought him the Thanks of several Counties for this his Declaration fit to be Recorded as of extraordinary kindness but seeing it hath pleased the Divine Providence to take him from us who should have made them good I am content they be Interred with him The Words of our present Soveraign are I am sure of more concernment now to us which as they make all this which is brought to be material and for which the whole Nation is Addressing him with their Thanks among whom I know no cause why I may not bring also my oblation must not be omitted Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place me in this Station and I am now to succeed so Good and Gracious a King as well as so very kind a Brother I think it fit to declare to you That I will endeavour to follow his Example and most especially in that of his Clemency and Tenderness to his People Then after Five Days Ananias the High Priest descended with the Elders and an Orator Named Tertullus who when he was called forth spake thus Seeing that by thee we enjoy great Quietness and that by thee very Worthy Deeds have been done to this Nation we accept it always and in all places most Noble Felix with all Thankfulness These are some Reasons among Multitudes that fly abroad for Toleration and they are no pick'd chosen ones but the most plain and obvious to the meanest Capacity such as I have catch'd up most easily from the Papers only of two ordinary Sedulous Men the one of them having had Publick Imployment about the Wool and Manufacture of the Nation and so is Versed in these things the other having got or kept such as these Publick Speeches by him and Collected these Passages to my Hand only I have changed their Stile and abbreviated them to avoid the baldness and Prolixity I will now add some Testimonies for the same thing out of an Author of another Character but I will name neither one nor other that I may not offend them or any body And these Testimonies which are Argumentum ab Authoritate shall be my Tenth and Last Consideration CONSIDERATION X. IT is not like in the Three first Centuries of the Church that any thing is to be found in the Christian writings for the use of the Sword in Religion whilst themselves were under it In the next ensuing we have Constantine Constantius Jovian Valentinian Valens Theodosius and after those Honorius and Arcadius may be cited for their larger Permissions especially towards the Jews by those that will be at the pains to do it In the Year 386 Idacius and Ithacius were condemned by the Gallican Bishops for being Authors of bringing the Priscillianists to Execution And St. Augustine no doubt with the Fathers generally are against any Sanguinary Laws in this matter Nullis bonis in Catholica Ecclesia hoc placet si usqus ad Mortem in quemquam Haereticum saeviatur Contra Or sconium lib. 3. cap. 50. Hence were they called Ithacians and held for Hereticks who maintained That those who erred in Religion ought to be put to Death And it is observed it was Dominick was the first that brought up the Fire among Christians upon that account Withdraw from them avoid them says the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not beat or Persecute them as the Heathens do says Ignatius For it is an unheard of strange