apt to suspect that the best way to preserve Liberty of Conscience is to keep the Test and Penal Laws III. For Thirdly If there be any reasou to suspect any other design than Liberty of Conscience as suppose to promote Popery and by degrees to make it the Established Religion of the Nation which certainly is the Design unless you can imagine that Priests and Jesuits and one who hath given up his Understanding and Conscience to them can ever be without this Design You will easily be convinced that there is infinite hazzard in repealing the Test and the Penal Laws This sets Papists upon an equal level with Protestants and then the Favour of the Prince will set them above them and when the whole power of the Nation and the whole administration of Justice is in Popish hands there will need no Penal Laws to persecute Protestants If you say this is done in a great many instances now before such a Repeal I answer then you may certainly guess what will be done when those incapacitating Laws are repealed And yet the difference is very great For while they are under such a legal Incapacity the distrust of their power will make them more modest which is the only thing that can plead excuse hereafter but when they have legal authority they will shew their Nature without restraint Men who have any thing to lose will act cautiously in prospect of an After-reckoning or while these legal incapacities continue will be afraid to act but when the Legal Authority and Power is in their hands Protestant Subjects will quickly find what a Popish liberty of Conscience means While these Laws continue some professed Professed Protestants whose Consciences are govern'd by their Interest are afraid to declare and by these means Popery wants hands and numbers to do its work But when these Laws are removed hopes of preferment will prevail on some and fear on others and when this frozen Adder begins to grow warm and recover its blood and spirits it will find its sting too This would certainly overthrow the Constitution of the Church of England which is the most effectual way to let in Popery For when all Incapacities are removed Papists are as well qualified for Church-Preferments as Protestants and it will be an easie matter to find pretences to remove the best Men to make way for them We have four Catholick Bishops as they vainly call themselves already prepared to fill vacant Sees and if such Men have the impudence to publish their Pastoral Letter and make their publick Visitations while all the Laws against them are in force judge what they will do when they are repealed Thus our Parishes may be filled with Roman Priests and they indeed are the fittest to serve under Roman Bishops And if one Colledge be already seized into Popish hands and the Protestant possessors turned out of their Freehold when those Laws are Repealed we may quickly see more follow them and judge whether this be not a fair and easie step to Popery Nay I have heard some good Lawyers say that when the Penal Laws are repealed Popery is the Established Religion of the Nation That when a repealing Law is repealed the repealed Law revives I am not so good a Lawyer as to judge of this but I think it is worth your Considering But who knows when all the Ecclesiastical Laws are Repealed what the King's Supremacy and his Ecclesiastical Commission may do There have been great and big words said of it of late and I believe You had better keep your Penal Laws than fall under the lash of a Popish Supremacy I know there hath been a great talk of an Equivalent but I would gladly know what that Equivalent should be Shall it incapacitate all Papists for any Office either in Church or State That must not be for fear of depriving the King of the natural right he has to the service of his Subjects and then I am sure there can be no Equivalent for the repeal of the incapacitating Laws But you say there shall be a New Charter for the Church of England the Protestant Religion and Liberty of Conscience Now shall this be with a Penalty or without one If with a penalty then you do not repeal but only exchange your Penal Laws and if Penal Laws are not such Unchristian things but they may be allowed we cannot have better for the security of our Religion than we have and therefore we had best keep these Is there any other fault in our Penal Laws especially when they are not executed but that they are too great a security to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest And if this be a reason for Protestants at this time to repeal them I have done But if this new Establishment be without a penalty what is it good for When these Penal Laws are removed Papists are qualified to sit in both Houses of Parliament and who knows whether Closetting and Reforming of Corporations and such other Arts may not quickly make a Popish Parliament And then Good Night to your New Establishment and Liberty of Conscience These things I hope Sir You will consider in your Choice of Members for Parliament and not be cheated with the Popular cry of Liberty of Conscience into the vilest and most despicable Slavery both of Soul and Body I am SIR Your very Cordial Friend and faithful Monitor A Plain Account of the PERSECUTION laid to the Charge of the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE desire of Liberty to serve God in that way and manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extremely provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the conceit withall which most men have that their way of serving God is the only acceptable way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all means to constrain all others to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same mind but have different inclinations in one state from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short view of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complain'd got their liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and Sequestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the Reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not
approve that of the Dissenters in separating from their Communion â—… we do confess they had some reason in the bottom for it and that the Ceremonies which they have refused to submit to are the Remains of Popery which we could rather wish might have been entirely abolished In this unhappy Schism which has so long time rent the Church of England we look upon it that both Parties have been equally defective in their Charity On the one side the Dissenters ought by no means to have separated themselves for the Form of Ecclesiastical Government nor for Ceremonies which do not at all concern the Fundamentals of Religion On the other side The Bishops should have had a greater Condescension to the Weakness of their Brethren And without doubt they would have â—… in a manner more agreeable to the Spirit of the Gospel if instead of treating them with so much rigour as they did they had left them the Liberty of serving God according to their Conscience till it should have pleased him to re-unite All under the same Discipline However the Conformity of Opinion between the Dissenters and Us ought to have prejudiced Us in their favour had we been capable of Partiality on this occasion There is also another thing which might have disposed us to judge less favourably of the Bishops than of them and that is the Yoke which they have imposed upon the French Ministers by óbliging them to receive a second Ordination before they could be permitted to Exercise their Ministry in the Church of England as if the Ordination they had received in France had not been sufficient But we must do Justice to all the World and bear Witness to the Truth We have already said and we must again repeat it It seems to us that on this last Occasion the Bishops have discharged their Duty and are most worthy of Praise whereas the Dissenters on the contrary are extreamly to be blamed And we will presently offer our Reasons wherefore we judge so of the one and of the other In the mean time most dear Brethren give us leave freely to tell you That if our Brethren the Dissenters of England who have Addressed to the King are to be blamed as we verily believe they are you certainly are much more to be condemned The Hardships under which they had lived for many years without Churches without Pastors without Assemblies made them think the Liberty of Conscience which was offered to them a great Ease Their Spirits soured and prejudiced by the ill Treatments they had received from the Church of England had not freedom enough to let them see that the Present which was made them was Empoison'd And therefore upon the sudden they received it with joy and thought themselves obliged to testifie their Acknowledgment of it But for you who never had any part in the Divisions of the Church of England and who by consequence were in a state to judge more soundly of things How is it that you should not have perceived the Poison that was hid under the Liberty of Conscience offered to them Or if you did not perceive it of your selves how is it that the Generous Refusal of the Bishops tho' at the peril of their Liberty and Estates to publish the Declaration in their Diocesses should not at least have open'd your eyes How have those Venerable Prelates now highly justified themselves from the Reproach that was laid upon them of being Popishly affected and of persecuting the Dissenters only but of a secret Hatred to the Reformation How well have they made it appear that these were only Calumnies invented by their Enemies to render them odious to the Protestants and that their hearts were truly fixed to the Reformed Religion and animated with a Zeal worthy Primitive Bishops Could you see those faithful Servants of God disobey the Order of their Soveraign expose themselves thereby to his Disgrace suffer Imprisonment and prepare themselves to suffer any thing rather than betray their Consciences and their Religion without admiring their Constancy and being touched with their Examples But above all could you resolve by your Conduct to condemn that of those generous Confessors Is this the Acknowledgment which you ought to have made to them for that Charity with which they had received and comforted you in your Exile Is this to Answer the Glorious Quality of Confessors of which you so much vaunt your selves Is this the Act of Faithful Ministers of Christ Give us leave to tell you most dear Brethren your Proceedings in this Affair appear so very strange to us that we cannot imagine how you were capable of so doing It seems to us to have even effaced all the Glory you had attained by your Sufferings to Reproach your Ministry and to be unworthy of True and Reformed Christians This is no rash judgment which we pass and to convince you that it is not we beseech you only to examine these things with us without Prejudice and Interest The Declaration of which we speak is designed for two purposes The one the re-establishment of Popery The other the extinction of the Reformed Religion in England The former of these designs appears openly in it The second is more concealed 't is a Mystery of Iniquity covered over with a specious appearance and of which the trace must be concealed till the time of manifestation comes We will say nothing of a third Design which is Of the Oppression of the Liberties of England for the Establishment of an absolute Authority but shall leave it to the Politicians to make their Reflexions upon it As for us if we sometimes touch upon it it shall be only with reference to Religion We will apply our selves chiefly to the two other Designs which they proposed to themselves who made that Declaration It cannot be deny'd but that by this Declaration there is a Liberty of Conscience granted differently to the Papists and to the Dissenters â—… comprehends both the one and the other under the Name of Nonconformists And we may with confidence affirm That they were the Papists especially whom the King had in his eye when he gave this Declaration And howsoever he may pretend to have been touched with the Oppressions which the Dissenters had suffered yet that his principal design was to re-establish Popery Behold here already a very great evil and such as all true Protestants are obliged with their â—… most power to oppose What shall we see Popery that abominable Religion that prodigioâ—â— heap of Filthiness and Impurity re-establish itself with all it honours in Kingdoms from which the Reformation had happily banished it And shall there be found in those Kingdoms Protestant who not only stand still without making any opposition to it but e'en favour its re-establishment and openly give it their Approbation Who could have thought that the Dissenters of England â—… who have always testified so great an aversion to the Roman Religion and who have no other pretence to separate
from the Bishops than that they have in part retained in their Government and Ceremonies the Exteriors of that Religion should now themselves joyn to bring it intirely in But above all Who could have believed that the French Ministers who after having experimented all the Fury of Popery in France were at last banished rather than that they would subscribe to its Errors and Abuses And for this very cause fled into England that they might there more freely profess the Protestant Religion should now contribute to re-establish Popery in their new Country where they had been received by their Brethren with so singular a Charity Would you indeed Gentlemen see England once more submitted to the Tyranny of the Pope whose Yoke it so happily threw off in the last Age Would you there see all those monstrous Doctrines all those Superstitions and that horrible Idolatry which reigned there before the Reformation domineer once more in it Would you that the People should again hear the Pulpits and the Churches sounding out the Doctrins of Purgatory of Indulgences of the Sacrifice of the Mass c. and see the Image and Reliques of the Saints carried solemnly in Procession with a God formed by the hand of Man. And that in sine they should again publickly adore those vain Idols We are confident there is not â—… good Protestant in the World that would not startle â—… at the thought of it But this is not yet all The Declaration of which we speak does not only re-establish Popery with all its abominations but does moreover tend to the Ruine of the Reformation in England A Man need not to have any great Sagacity to be convinced of this And that as much as it seems to establish for ever the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom it does on the contrary destroy the very Foundations of it The ground upon which the Reformation is founded in England are the Laws which have been made at several times for the settlement of it and to abolish either the Tyranny of the Pope or the Popish Religion altogether And as these Laws have been made by the King and Parliament together so that the King has not the power to Repeal them without a Parliament they secure the Protestant Religion against the Enterprizes of such Kings as should ever think to Destroy it But now if this Declaration be executed we are no more to make any account of those Solemn Laws which have been passed in favour of the Reformation they become of no value and the Protestant Religion is intirely lest to the King's Pleasure This is what will clearly appear from what we are about to say The King not having been able to obtain of the last Parliament to consent to a Repeal of the Laws which had been made against the Nonconformists dissolved the Parliament it self Not long after without attending a new one he did that alone by his Declaration which the Parliament would not do conjunctly with him He granted a all Liberty of Conscience to the Nonconformists he freed them from the Penalties which had been appointed against them and dispensed with the Oaths to which the Laws obliged all those who were admitted to any Charges whether in the souldiery or in administration of Justice or of the Government In pursuance of these Declarations he threw the Protestants out of all Places of any great Importance to clap in Papists in their room and goes on without ceasing to the intire establishment of Popery Who does not see that if the Protestants approve these Declarations and themselves authorize such Enterprises the King will not stop here but that this will be only one step to carry him much further What can be did when he shall do the same thing with reference to those Laws which exclude the Papists out of the Parliament that he has done to those which shut them out of all Charges and Imploys and forbad them the Exercise of their Religion Does not the approbation of such Declarations as it overthrows these last carry with it before-hand the approbation of those which shall one day overthrow the former And if the King shall once give himself the Authority to bring Papists into the Parliament who shall hinder him from using Solicitations Promises Threatnings and a thousand other the like means to make up a Popish Parliament And who shall hinder him with the concurrence of that Parliament to repeal all the ancient Laws that had been passed against Popery and make new ones against the Protestants These are without doubt the natural Consequences of what the King at this time aims at These are the fruits which one ought to expect from it if instead of approving as some have done his Enterprises against the Laws they do not on the contrary with all imaginable Vigor oppose them Reflect a little on what we have here said and you will confess that we have reason to commend the Conduct of the Bishops who refused to publish the Declaration and to condemn those Dissentèrs who have made their Addresses of Thanks for it It is true that the Dissenters are to be pitied and that they have been treated hardly enough and we do not think it at all strange that they so earnestly sigh after Liberty of Conscience It is natural for Men under Oppression to seek for Relief and Liberty of Conscience considered only in it self is it may be the Thing of all the World the most precious and most desirable Would to God we were able to procure it for them by any lawful means and without such ill Consequences tho' it were at the peril of our Lives But we conjure them to consider how pernicious that Liberty of Conscience is which is offer'd to them as we have just now shewn On the one side it is inseparably linked with the Establishment of Popery and on the other it cannot be accepted without approving a terrible Breach which his Majesty thereby makes upon the Laws and which would be the ruine of the Reformation in his Kingdoms were not some Remedy brought to it And where is the Protestant who would buy Liberty of Conscience at so dear a rate and not rather chuse to continue deprived of it all his Life Should the private Interest of our Brechren the Dissenters blind them in such a manner that they have no regard to the general Interest of the Church Should they for enjoying a Liberty of Conscience so ill assured shut their Eyes to all other Considerations How much better would it be for them to re-unite themselves to the Bishops with whom they differ only in some Points of Discipline but especially at this time when their Conduct ought to have entirely defaced those unjust Suspicions which they had conceived against them But if they could not so readily dispose themselves to such a Re-union would it not be better for them to resolve still to continue without Liberty of Conscience and expect some more favourable time when they may by lawful
making of Laws which shall Authorize the Deisying a bit of Bread the Worshipping of it for a God the Praying to it Idolatry Blasphemy any thing in the World for them that like it Now is not this a very fair Speech and does it not well become the mouths of Protestants I would fain press this home upon the Consciences both of those Dissenters who are hired and of those who are not hired to labour the Repeal of our Laws Do you fear the Informers more than God Will you for the sake of your little Conventicles do the greatest Evils which you know to be such You know in your very Hearts that the Worship of Images Crosses and of a Wafer is abominable Idolatry that the Half-Communion is Sacriledge and that many other Points of Popery are blasphemous Fables And will you set up this for one of your Religions as by Law Established Will you do all that hands can do to entail Idolatry upon the Nation not only Removendo prohibens as Divines distinguish by pulling down the Laws which hinder it but also Promovendo adjuvans by making a perpetual Magna Charta for it The Laws and Constitution of a Country do denominate that Country if Atheism were Authorized by Law this would be an Athiestical Nation and if Idolatry be set up by Law it is an Idolatrous Nation and all that have any hand in it make it the Sin of the Nation as well as their own Think therefore of these things in time before you have involved both your selves and your Country in a miserable Estate and remember poor Francis Spira who went against Light. But Secondly There is just as much Prudence as Conscience in these Proceedings for by Repealing the Laws against Popery you Reverse the Outlawry and take of those legal Disabilities which the Papists now lie under and which have hitherto tied their Hands from destroying Hereticks When Papists shall be right Justices and Sheriffs and not Counterseits when they shall be Probi legales homines and pass Muster in Law when they shall be both our legal Judges and our lawful Juries and when Protestants shall come to be Tryed by their Country that is to say by their Twelve Popish Godfathers they may easily know what sort of Blessing they are to expect The Papists want nothing but these Advantages to make a fair riddance of all Protestants for we see by several of their late Pamphlets that if any thing be said against Popery they have a great dexterity in laying it Treason Now this is a civil way of answering Arguments for which we are bound to thank them because it so plainly discovers what they would be at if it were in their Power But how comes it to be Treason to speak against a Religion which is itself High-Treason and is Proscribed by so many Laws Why their Medium is this That Popery is the King's Religion and therefore by an Inuendo what is said against that is meant against him But is there any Law of England that Popery shall be the King's Religion Or is it declared by any Law that Popery either is or can be his Religion On the other hand we are enabled by an Act in this very Reign to pronounce Popery to be a False Religion and to assert the Religion which is now professed in the Church of England and Established by the Laws of this Realm to be the True Christian Religion Act for building St. Ann's Church p. 133. But these Gentlemen it seems are for Hanging Men without Law or against Law or any how and therefore we thank them again for being thus plain with us before hand Now if they be thus insolent when they are so very abnoxious themselves and have Halters about their own Necks with what a Rod of Iron will they Rule us when they are our Masters What havock will they then make of the Nation when we already see Magdalen Colledge which was lately a flourishing Society of Protestants now made a Den of Jesuits and that done to in such a way as shakes all the Property in England Or who can be safe after our Laws are Repealed when Endeavours have been lately used to extract Sedition even out of Prayers and Tears and the Bishops Humble Petition was threatned to be made a Treasonable Libel But here the Dissenters have a plausible excuse for themselves for say they We have now an opportunity of getting the Laws which are against us Repealed which is clear gain and as for our refusing to Repeal the Laws against Popery there is nothing gotten by that either to us or to any body else for they are already as good as Repealed by the Dispensing Power and therefore such Discourse as this only advises us to stand in our own light without doing any good to the Nation at all for there will be Popish Justices Sheriffs Judges and Juries whether we will or no for whatsoever we refuse to do the Dispensing Power will supply To which I answer Do you keep your hands off from Repealing the Laws let who will contravene or Transgress them for then you are free from the Blood of all Men you have no share in the guilt of those Mischiefs which befal your Country which would sooner or later be a heavy burden and a dead weight upon the Conscience of any Protestant But besides let the Laws alone and they will defend both themselves and us too for if the Law says That a Papist shall not nor cannot have an Office then he shall not nor cannot for who can speak Louder than the Laws As for a Dispensing-Power inherent in the King which can set aside as many of the Laws of the Land as he pleases and Suspend the Force and Obligation of them which has been lately held forth by many False and Unlawful Pamphlets the Dissenters know very well that there is no such thing but that no body may pretend Ignorance I shall here prove in very few words That by the Established Laws of the Land the King cannot have such a Dispensing-Power unless Dispensing with the Laws and Executing the Laws be the same thing and unless both keeping the Laws himself and causing them to be kept by all others be the English of Dispensing with them For in the Statute of Provisors 25 Eaw 3. c. 25. we have this laid down for Law That the King is bound to Execute those Statutes which are Unrepealed and to cause them to be kept as the Law of this Realm The words are these speaking of a Statute made in the time of Edward the First Which Statute holdeth always his Force and was never Defeated or Annull'd in any point And by somuch our Sovereign Lord the King is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm although by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary So that the Coronation Oath and the Dispensing-Power are here by King Edward the Third and his
Parliament Declared to be utterly Inconsistent Now the Coronation-Oath is a Fundamental Law of this Kingdom for it is antecedent to the Oath of Allegiance Accordingly if you look upon the Coronation-Oath in the Parliament-Roll 1 H. 4. you shall there find that in the third Branch of it the King Grants and Promises upon his Oath That the Laws shall be kept and protected by him secundum Vires suas to the utmost of his Power and therefore he has no Power lest him to Dispense withal By which it appears that those men are the wretched Enemies both of the King and Kingdom who would fain perswade the King that he has this Dispensing-Power because therein they endeavour to perswade him that Perjury is his Prerogative Heretofore in Trisilian's time some of the Oracles of the Law were consulted Whether it could stand with the Law of the Kingdom that the King might Obviatt and Withstand the Ordinances concerning the King and the Kingdom which were made in the last Parliament by the Peers and Commons of the Realm with the King's Assent though as the Courtiers said forced in that behalf And they made Answer That the King might Annul such Ordinances and Change them at his pleasure into a better fashion because he was above the Laws Knyghton Col. 2693. Now this was very False Law as those Judges found afterwards to their Cost and it was grounded on the worst Reason that could be For they must needs know from all their Books and from the Mirror in particular p. 282. That the first and Sovereign Abusion of the Law that is the chief Contrariety and Repugnency of it is for the King to be Above the Law whereas he ought to be Subject to it as is contained in his Oath Neither could they be ignorant of that Argument which the Peers used to shew the Absurdity of such a Supposition it is recorded in the Annals of Rurton set forth as I take it by Mr. Obadiah Walker Si Rex est supra Legem tunc est extra Legem Num Rex Angliae est Exlex If the King be above the Law then he is without the Law. What! is the King of England an Outlaw And as for the words of Bracton they were too plain either to need a Comment or Translation Rex habet Superiorem Deum item Legem per quam sactus est Rex item Curiam suam seil Comites Baronts As likewise those other words of his Ubi Voluntas Imperat non Lex ibi non est Rex Where he makes it the very Essence of our King to Govern according to Law. Having therefore shewn that the Laws are always in full Force till they are Revoked by the same Authority which made them and that all Persons whatsoever bound to the Laws and that the Laws themselves were never in Bondage to any Man we know from thence what we are to conclude concerning those Papists who pretend to be in Office in Desiance to the Laws We had once a mischievous Distinction of Sheriffs de Jure and Sheriffs de Facto But those who pretend to be in Office without taking the TEST are no Officers either in Right or in Fact for the 25 Car. 2. says That their Offices are ipso facto void and then those Officers are ipso facto no Officers and can do us no more hurt than if they were under Ground and therefore we need not trouble our Heads about them though they may in all likelihood fall under the Care and Consideration of a Parliament After all some persons may possibly be so far deluded as to think there is somewhat of Equity in the Toleration of Papists and that it is the Christian Rule Of doing as one would be done by Now for any Papist to plead this Rule of Equity himself or any body else in his behalf is just as if a High-way Man should thus urge it upon his Judge My Lord if you hang me you break the Golden Rule for I am sure you are not willing to be so served yourself nor to hang with me Now the Equity of the Judge in this case does not lye either in forbearing to punish the Offender or in Hanging with him for Company but in being content to submit to the same Law if he himself should commit the same Crime And so are we willing to lye under all the Penal Laws whenever we turn Papists And therefore no body can tax us with want of Equity because we do no otherways to the Papists than we are willing to be done by in the same case But it may be said that our Conscience does not serve us to be Papists though theirs does Neither does the Judge's Conscience serve him to rob though it seems the High-way Man 's did and therefore take heed of Liberty of Conscience Still it may be further replied That this is properly a Judicial Cause because Robbery is a breach of the Peace and of Property and therefore ought to be Punished whereas the worship and Service of God according to a Man's Conscience though it be amiss yet it ought not to be punished by Hamane Laws but is to be reserved to the Judgment of God alone who is Lord of Conscience Now this is the New Doctrine which I shall prove to be False by positive and express Scripture For Job says Chap. 31. Ver. 28. That is his Heart had been secretly perswaded and he had thereupon kissed his Hand to the Sun or Moon This were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge because he had therein Lyed against the God above So that though a Man's Heart and Conscience lead him to Idolatry yet Job tells us this is inditable it is Avon Pelili a Judicial Crime and as Punishable by Humane Laws as Adultry with another Man's Wise is as you have it in the same Phrase in the 11th Verse of the same Chapter The Second Instance of a Punishable Conscience in the Service of God is that which our Saviour gives us John 16. 2. Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service Now I would sain know whether such a Conscience as this ought not to be Restrained and Punished And whether it be Sacriledge for Humane Laws to controul Conscience I mean such a one as Kills and Murders for God's sake And I ask again Whether there be no Consciences of this Stamp now in the World And whether there has not been an Holy Inquisition Religious Crusadoes and Meritorious Massacres to extirpate Hereticks and abundance of this Divine Service in the Church of Rome Whether they have not offered up whole Hecatombs of these Sacrifices in most Countries And whether a Neighbouring Prince has not been highly extolled and had all his most Christian Titles double Gilt with the Flatteries of his Clergy for the late Merit of his Religious Service in this kind And therefore if men will do things in order let them first send for a breed of Irish Wolves and
interpreted to be the Approbation of the King 's whole Speech and a Restraint from the further Examination of any part of it though never so much disliked and it was with difficulty obtained not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dispensing meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good Manners by which no such thing could possibly be intended This sheweth that some bounds are to be put to your good Breeding and that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a Complement Now that you have for some time enjoyed the benefit of the End it is time for you to look into the Danger of the Means The same Reason that made you desirous to get Liberty must make you sollicitous to preserve it so that the next thought will naturally be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with the Principles of all Religions as not to rely upon a Death-bed Repentance There are certain Periods of Time which being once past make all Cautions ineffectual and all Remedies desperate Our Understandings are apt to be hurried on by the first Heats which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the case of your Anger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them so that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of your Morality and Understanding If you had now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence but kept you at an uncharitable distance and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff and inexorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the Common Danger hath so laid open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towaods you is for ever extinguished and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescention shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England and are you so in love with Separation as not to be moved by this Example â—… It ought to be followed were there no other reason than that it is a Vertue but when â—… sides that it is become necessary to your preservation it is impossible to fail the having its Effect upon you If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being Believed when she pretendeth to it the Answer is first it would be an uncharitable Objection and very much mistimed an unseasonable Triumph not only ungenerous but unsafe So that in these respects it cannot be urged without Scandal even tho it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a false Foundation for whatever may be told you at this very hour and in the heat and glare of your present Sun-shine the Church of England can in a Moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a Smile or a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Compliance would throw you back into the state of Suffering and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you and yet the Church of England with all her Faults will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means but chuseth to bear the weight of Power rather than lye under the burthen of being Criminal It cannot be said that she is Unprovoked Books and Letters come out every day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the Stile one would swear they were Undertakers and had made a Contract to fall out with the Church of England There are Lashes in every Address Challenges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet in short the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters whom she will suppose to Act as they do with no ill intent and these small Skirmishers pickt and sent out to Picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome This Conduct is so good that it will be Scandalous not to Applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing ill and not commend them when they do well To hate them because they Persecuted and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to Suffer rather than receive all the Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal compliance is a Principle no sort of Christians can own since it would give an Objection to them never to be Answered Think a little who they were that promoted your former Persecutions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of your Sufferings Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Virtue of a Conge d' eslire and instead of Election be satisfied if you are Returned Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its consequences and Repeal the Test by which you will make way for the Repeal of all the Laws that were made to preserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall Destroy it Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles Are you so linked with your new Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it Consider that the implied Conditions of your new Treaty are no less than that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only upon Bayl the first Act of Non-compliance sendeth you to Gaol again You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since the being so very earnest to get it Established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain
be overstrained And yet it is such a Complement as they need not For we see they are qualified by the Dispensing Power without the Repeal of the Test which hath made me often wonder why they are so zealous to have it repealed Do they still question the Kings Dispensing Power And desire some better security Let them say so then and give up that point and then we 'll talk with them about repealing the Test but there is no need of repealing this Law since the King it seems hath power to dispense with it in his Reign and they are very sanguine men if they hope to have any occasion for it in another And if after all their boasts of a Dispensing Power the Law still keeps them in awe can it be the interest of Protestants to take off these restraints Are they not insolent enough already while these threatning Laws hang over their heads Or do we hope that their modesty and good Nature will increase with their Power For my part I desire that all men whom I fear may lie under a legal incapacity for though their Force and Power may be the same yet there is some difference in point of Authority and Self-defence II. There are many things which would make a wise man suspect that there is some farther Design than Liberty of Conscience in all this zeal for repealing the Penal Laws and Test. For it would be very surprising to find a Roman Catholick Prince whose Conscience is directed by a Jesuit to be really zealous for Liberty of Conscience to see so many Popish Pens imploy'd in pleading for Liberty of Conscience and declaiming against Sanguinary Laws when all the World knows what Opinion the Church of Rome has about Liberty of Conscience what great friends the Jesuits are to it how they abhor persecuting men for their Religion witness the mild and gentle usage of the French Protestants by a King whose Conscience is directed by a tender-hearted Jesuit And if a Princes zeal for his Religion be much greater than for Liberty of Conscience it would make one suspect that his chief design is to serve his Religion by it and this is no new invention but as old as the days of the Apostate Julian when the same method was taken to reinforce Paganism by Liberty of Conscience This was the last effort of dying Paganism may it be so of Popery too We know there was no talk of Liberty of Conscience till the Nobility and Gentry of the Church of England refused to take off the Test and then there was no other way left but to buy off the Penal Laws and Test with Liberty of Conscience which demonstrates that Liberty of Conscience is not the last End but only a Means in order to some further End and the Means is seldom valued when the End is obtained Men who can offer so much violence to their own Nature and the Principles of their Religion as to grant Liberty of Conscience which of all things they hate to procure a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws when that is done can easily find some occasion to pretend a forfeiture of this Liberty and to salve their Conscience and Honour together Penal Laws to keep men from damning themselves will be thought more merciful than Liberty of Conscience and the softness and tenderness of Nature must give place to a Bigottry in Religion and then we shall in vain wish for our old Penal Laws and Test again when we feel the more terrible smart of new ones Though it be told us that it hath always been his Majesties Persuasion that Conscience ought not to be forced I think that is no security because though this has always been his Principle yet it hath not always operated We know whose hand was most concern'd both in making and executing Penal Laws in the last Reign and if our Dissenters suffer'd so much then as they now complain of they know what they may suffer again notwithstanding these Principles for Liberty of Conscience for the same Principles obtain'd then as do now Upon the last withdrawing into Scotland notwithstanding those Principles the poor Scotch felt the severity of those Penal Laws with a witness and methinks it is not safe trusiing to such Principles as so often act by way of Antiparistasis and produce Effects quite contrary to their own Natures and however the Church of Rome may indulge such Principles now they are convenient to serve a present turn if the Scene ever alter this private Conscience will be thought as great Heresie as a private Judgment and whosoever now may own it must then be guided by the publick Conscience of the Church as well as by their Faith. There are so many surprising Circumstances in this whole matter as cannot but amaze a thinking Man that so fierce a Zeal should be now kindled for a Liberty of Conscience that a Liberty of Judgment will not be allowed but who ever will not concur in this Opinion must undergo the high displeasure whereas there can be no Liberty of Conscience without Liberty of Judgment And to be mortally angry with every man who is not of my Opinion is no good Preface to granting every Man a Liberty to think and act as he pleases If a Potentate should be so Zealous for Liberty of Conscience as to change all his old Antipathies and Friendships to receive his profess'd Enemies and Rebels into his bosom and cast off his tryed and Experienced Friends that he should forget all injuries and all kindnesses together this would be such an effect of a great passion for Liberty of Conscience as was never known before and when Causes do not work naturally we suspect some preternatural ingredients mixed with them That a Zeal against the Test and Penal Laws should be made a Test to the whole Nation and that not without severe Penalties too viz. The forfeiture of our Princes favour of all Places of Trust and Honour and incapacity to serve in Parliaments if they can prevent it or to be Members of any little Corporation That for the sake of Liberty of Conscience the whole Clergy must be forced to publish the Declaration though they declare it to be against their Consciences That the Archbishop and six of his Suffragans must be sent to the Tower for Petitioning for their own Liberty of Conscience and whither they must have gone next God knows unless they had been rescu'd by an Honest Jury That all those who did not read the Declaration are still threatned with Suspensions and Deprivatious Archdeacons and Chancellors commanded to turn Informers though almost all of them must inform against themselves for not reading or not sending the Declaration and all this while the Laws are on their side It is like to be a very terrible Liberty of Conscience when it is grown up into the Maturity and strength of a Law which like another Hercules can strangle all Laws and Liberties in its Cradle These things make me
and better Rule to steer mankind than the empty Motions of the Schools â—… only to perplex and confound our â—… lest it should discover the naked Truth of things The present Letter will confine it self only to Publick Promises Oaths and Solemn Contracts scandalonsly violated by the Roman Catholicks nor with Heathens and Hereticks only but amongst themselues We will begin with the more remote Countries The Spaniards and Portugueses have acted so treacherously with the Africans and the Natives of both Indies that the Cruelty of the History would be incredible if it was not related by their own Historians their Leagues and Treaties the most sacred Bonds under Heaven were soon neglected and the Spirit of their Religion broke all before it how many Millions of those innocent Creatures were murder'd in cold Blood and for Pastime sake with all the variety of Torments that the Devil could inspite into them how soon were the vast Regions of Mexico New Spain Peru Hispaniola Brasel c. depopulated above twenty Millions of the poor harmless Inhabitants being put to death in full Peace and they the best natur'd People in the World and very Ingenious tho' they may seem Savages to a sort of Men who think all Barbarians that differ from them in Habits Manners Customs Diet Religion Language c. not considering that all-wise Nature hath contriv'd a different Scene of things for various Climates Nay such is the Inhumanity of these Catholick Nations here at home that they will frequently bring Strangers settled amongst them by the Laws of Commerce and their own fellow Subjects into the Inquisition especially if they are Rich upon a pretence of some Heretical opinion tho' they themselves at first protect and license the Opinion is in the case of Molino whose Book had receiv'd an Imprimatur from most of the Inquisitors of Spain and Italy and even from the Infallible Head of the Church yet afterwards it was burnt and he himself together with many of his Followers miserably tortur'd the Pope scarce escaping the Punishment The Generous Marshal Schombergh driven out of France for his great Services who had won many Battels for the Portugueses and sav'd their Country could not be suffer'd to end his Old Age amongst them but was forc'd in the midst of Winter to commit himself to the Sea and fly to an Inhospitable Shoar The present French King renounced all his Pretences on Flanders concluded the Pyrenean Treaty and swore at the Altar not to meddle with that Country but how well he observ'd that Sacred Covenant Baron D'Isola will best inform you in his â—…â—… for which he was thought to be poison'd neither hath the French Monarch been contented to break all Faith and Measures with the Spaniard but he hath gone about to deceive and ruine the Pope Emperour all the Princes and Electours of the Empire the Prince of Orange Duke of Lorrain the Swizzes the Dutch and the English and not only these his Neighbours and Allies but his own Protestant Subjects who had all the Security that Solemn Edicts Oaths and Promises could afford then besides many other obligations upon the Crown for bringing the King to the Throne yet all of a sudden they found themselves oppress'd and destroy'd by his Apostolical Dragoons their Temples razed their Wives and Children taken away their Goods and Estates confiscated themselves cast into Prisons sent to the Gallies and often shot at like Birds His seising of Lorrain Franch Compte Alsact Strasburgh Luxembergh the Principality of Orange the County of Avignon Philipsburg the whole Palatinate the Electorates of Mentz Trevis and Cologn his building of Citadels in the Empire and in Italy c. are so contradictory to National Agreements and Publick Treatles that scarce a Jesuit or a Frenchman can have Impudence enough to defend them a Banditto a Pyrate or a Pick-pocket would be asham'd of such Actions and an ordinary Man would be hang'd for a Crime a Million times less His seising upon Hudson's Bay and leading the English into Slavery the French Treachery in the Engagement at Sea between us and the Dutch their frequent seizing of our Ships are light things not worthy our Resentment being under the Conduct of a Monsicur whom the World so justly vilifies and despises The Emperour can have no good Pretence to condemn the King of France or any other Catohlick Prince for breach of Common Faith and Honesty since he himself hath plald the same Game with his Protestant Subjects inviting some of the â—… of the Hungarian Nobility to Vienna under the colour of Treaty and Friendship and then cutting of their Heads seizing their Estates and Properties destroying their Pastors and Churches and extirpating the whole Reform'd Religion after he had promis'd and stipulated to protect and give them the liberty of their Consciences The Parisian Massacres were carried on and executed under a Mass of Friendship all the Principal Protestants of France being invited to the healing Marriage to Revel and Caress were Barbarously Butcher'd at the Toll of a Bell in their Beds when they dream'd they â—… securely The Irish Massacre of above 200000 Protestants was no less Treacherous it was a Copy of the Spanish Cruelty in the West Indies to whom the Irish are compar'd by Historians for their Idleness and Inhumanity tho'not for their Wit. The Persecutions of the Protestants in the Valley of Piedmont are another instance of Popish Immunity and baseness they were under the common shelter of publick Pactions and Treatles and â—… been solemnly own'd by the Dukes of Savoy to â—… the most Loyal and the most Couragious of the Subjects The present Duke who undertook the last Persecution was not content to destroy the with his own Troops but call'd in the French assist at the Comedy to shoot them off the Rock to hunt them over the Alps and to sell the stronger of them to the Gallies that the very Turkish Slave themselves might deride and insult over â—… Catholicks who have not Power or Opportunity execute the same things seem to condemn the Conduct in Publick but sing Te Deum in Private and soon as ever they have got a sufficient Force commit the like Barbarities so essential to their Religion that all the instinct of Nature cannot separate them The Holy Father at Rome tho' he sets for a moderate and merciful Pontificate order'd Deum to be Sung up and down for the extirpation of Heresie out of France and Pidemont and â—… English Catholicks have given us as their Army â—… Interest encreas'd several proofs how well â—… can juggle and disguise themselves setting up â—… of Inquisition turning Protestants out of all â—… and even out of their Freeholds dispensing â—… Laws Ravishing Charters packing Corporations â—… and all under a notion of Liberty or a Divine â—… they with their Accomplices defended illegal Declarations and set up an Authority above all our â—… under the Cloak of a sham Liberty of Conscience racking at the very same time the
December 21. 1688. Licensed Fourteen Papers VIZ. I. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon occasion of a Pamphlet Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel II. A Letter from a Freeholder to the rest of the Freeholders of England and all Others who have Votes in the Choice of Parliament-Men III. An Enquiry into the Reasons for Abrogating the Test imposed on all Members of Parliament Offered by Sa. Oxon. IV. Reflections on a Late Pamphlet Entituled Parliamentum Pacificum Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and Printed at London in March 1688. V. A Letter to a Dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence VI. The Anatomy of an Equivalent VII A Letter from a Clergy-man in the City to his Friend in the Country Containing his Reasons for not Reading the Declaration VIII An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Country Friend IX A Letter to a Dissenter from his Friend at the Hague concerning the Penal Laws and the Test shewing that the Popular Plea for Liberty of Conscience is not concerned in that Question X. A Plain Account of the Persecution said to the Charge of the Church of England XI Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion XII The King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated XIII A Letter of several French Ministers fled into Germany upon the Account of the Persecution in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the Kings Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original in French. XIV Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Gentleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of Orange's Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin ' near the BlackBull in the Old-Bailey 1689. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon occasion of a Pamphlet Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel SIR AS soon as the Letter Entituled A Vindication of the present Government of Ireland c. came to my hands I set upon Answering it with the same expedition and plainness of Style as uses to accompany naked Truth which needs not the cloathing of sophistical Arguments or florid Expressions to recommend it to the unprejudic'd part of Mankind And indeed upon the very first reading of every Paragraph of it the slightness of the Arguing or the notorious Falshood of the Matter of Fact did so evidently appear that a man of ordinary capacity needs not put his Natural Talent on the Rack to resute them The very first Position of the Paper viz. That Ireland is in a better Way of Thriving under the Government of a Native than an Englishman by which I suppose you mean one not barely so by Birth but by Inclination Interest Education Religion c. is so false that it contradicts the Experience and Reason of Mankind and disgusts one so much in the front of the Letter that I was tempted to fling it away unread judging it not worth the loss of so much time if the rest should prove of the same kind as indeed I found it upon perusal but having ventured through it I looked upon myself obliged to say something by way of Answer since in the opinion of some sort of Men the not Answering though even the most trifling Pamphlet is given out to be the Inability of the Party to reply to the weight of such Arguments as are contained in it I will not insist much upon the constant Practice of all the Predecessours of our English Kings and their Counsellors ever since the Conquest of Ireland who made it an establisht Maxim in relation to that Kingdom That none but an Englishman should be Chief Governour insomuch that till within these two Years that Practice gave occasion to the common erronious opinion That a man born in Ireland however otherwise qualified was thereby incapacitated from being Lord Deputy It is certain that long before the Reformation when Matters of Religion made no distinction between the Natives of each Country this was the setled and unalter'd Rule Have we any reason then to alter it now that Religion is put into the Scale and become the additional weight which never fails giving the advantage to the side it espouses and adheres to or rashly to condemn the wise Proceedings of the Ancestours of our Kings and contrary to the Opinion of the World judge our Author's Irish Understanding better than all the English ones that have been heretofore Our Author will certainly allow Ireland to be a conquer'd Country and consequently that the Conquerours have right to establish Laws with such restrictions and limitations as shall seem fitting and convenient towards the keeping it in their hands and the welfare of the Inhabitants which are of two sorts the British Planters and the Natives I shall prove that it has been and still is the Advantage of both these that Ireland should be Govern'd by an Englishman By the way I would have it understood that I do not pretend to put these two Interests into any ballance I know the British Interest does so far outweigh the other that it were a wrong done it to bring them into any competition more than two parts of three of the Lands of Ireland being by the several Rebellions of the Irish in British hands and for the Quality Temper Industry c. there is no comparison besides that if one of two Parties is to be pleased tho' by the detriment of the other 't is but just that the Conquerours who have right to give Law should be indulg'd how much more when it is consistent with the welfare of the Irish themselves if they understood their own good I am convinc'd that whatever has been done in favour of the Natives is pure Grace and cannot be claimed as a just Debt any otherwise than since it has been confirmed by Our Laws and Acts of Parliament He that reflects on 1641 will readily assent to this which makes me admire at the pertness of our Author in Capitulating as if we stood upon even ground with them but 't is plain he considers the Interest but of one Party in that Kingdom and tho' he names Ireland often he means the Native Irish Papist only But I proceed To prove that it is the Interest of the British that Ireland should be Governed by an Englishman I need say no more than that they all ardently desire it and People are the best Judge of their own Necessities The common Maxim That Interest will not lye Holds good here to some purpose The ill effects the contrary method has had on their Persons and Estates is but too visible Whoever had seen Ireland four Years ago and
wherewith he is intrusted to the destruction of the most considerable Party in it Far be it from us to think it was His Majesties Intentions to depopulate a flourishing Country to undo multitudes of laborious thriving Families in it to diminish and destroy his own Revenue to put the Sword into Mad-mens hands who are sworn Enemies to the British No! His Majesty who is willing that liberty of Trade as well as Conscience should equally flourish in all parts of his Dominions that recommends himself to his Subjects by his impartiality in distributing Offices of Trust and from that practice raises his greatest Argument to move his people to Repeal the Penal Laws never intended that some general Commands of his should be perverted to the destruction of that people his intention is to protect His Majesty Great as he is cannot have two Consciences one calculated for the Latitude of England another for Ireland We ought therefore to conclude in respect to the King. that His Commands have been ill understood and worse executed and this may be done as our Author confesses and the King undoubtedly obeyed but such an Obedience is no better than a Sacrifice of the best Subjects the King has in this Kingdom Our Author has given very good Reasons why the Natives may be well content with their present Governour but I cannot forbear laughing at those he has found out to satisfie the poor British with My Lord Tyrconnel's most Excellent Charitable English Lady His high sounding Name â—… in great Letters a Name that no less frightens â—… Poor English in Ireland then it once â—…â—… French a Name which because he is in possession of I will not dispute his Title to but I have been credibly informed that he has no relation to the most Noble Family of Shrewsbury though â—… Lord Tyrconnel presumes to bear the same Cost â—… Arms a Name in short which I hope in â—… â—… â—…â—… A Second Reason is drawn from his Education We have heard and it has never yet been contradicted that my Lord Tyrconnel from his Youth â—… has constantly born Arms against the British If our Author will assure us of the contrary I â—… apt to believe his Excellency will give him no â—… who lays the foundation of his Merit upon the â—… of his constant adherence to the Irish Party â—… use of Consolation can be drawn from this head â—… the British is beyond my skill to comprehend A third Reason is drawn from his Stake in England the Author would do well to shew us in what Country this lies that we may know where to find Reprisals hereafter for since he offers this for our Security 't is fit to enquire into the Title and Value of the Land before we give so valuable a Consideration Thus this great heap of substantial Reasons together with a large Panegyrick upon his Excellency's fair Face and good Shapes telling us by the by now he was not kill'd at Drogheda because he run away is enough and more than enough to demonstrate that the British have not the least cause to be dejected because they are sufficiently secure But I will agree with the Author in this That he seems to have been reserved by Heaven against the most critical occasion that should happen in this Age reserv'd as one of the Vials of God's Wrath to plague the People 'T is well known Self-preservation is allowed by God and Man and sines he tells us we are â—… People of a contrary Inurest he gives us right to provide for our selves and our Families as well as we may t is like a generous Aggressor first he declares who are his Enemies then gives them warning to put themselves into a posture of Defence We are beholding to him soo this hint and â—… hope shall make the right use of it 'T is below â—… to take notice of the â—… of the Expression of an honest Man's losing his Head in a â—… and the nonscence of the other The most men bite at the stone c. Dogs indeed â—… to do so with us but this is only to let the World know what Country man our Author is â—… it may be 't is the custom here for these Men to â—… these more rational Creatures Our Author seems sensible that many hard things â—… been done which occasioned Clamours â—… the present Governour though I think our Grievances how intolerable soever have been â—… more silently then any Peoples since the Creation since I do not remember any one Pamphlet â—… hitherto come out to represent them ours â—… of that nature as â—… as and takes away â—… use of the Tongue and Pen Cura lives â—… â—… stupent I say he is not willing this â—… of Calumny should rest on my Lord Tyrconnel â—… casts it all on His Majesty imagining that the â—… we beat and justly to our King ought â—… tender us â—…-â—… in relation to the Male-â—… of his Minister But I have â—… shewn how the King's Orders may be stretch'd â—… perverted The very best and most cautiously â—… Laws have a double edge and if the Executive Power be lodg'd in ill Hands have the worst Effect even to the Punishment of Well-doers and the Encouragement of them that do Ill and I question not in the least but this is our Case and as little doubt that our Grievances would be redress'd did not one of His Majesties most Eminent Virtues interpose between us and His Grace I mean his Constancy to his old Servants and our Condition is so much the more deplorable that His Majesty cannot be a Father of His Country without seeming to desert His Minister but 't is to be hoped that at long running the Groans of a distressed Nation will prevail over all private Considerations Whether the Employment His Majesty has given my Lord Tyrconnel has not prov'd the occasion of the Augmentation of his Fortune as our Author insinuates it has not shall neither prove the subject of this Discourse nor object of our Envy I shall only say if the report be true that my Lord owes all his Estate to the King's bounty 't is ungratefully done to rob His Majesty of the Honour and Thanks due to him by denying it much less is it our business to find fault with the advancement of five Relations In this point Authors differ for some speak 55 at least If there had not been the greatest Partiality in the World shewed we should never have open'd our mouths if in an Army of about 9000 English Officers and Souldiers there be not 200 left in a Country where the English have so much cause to fear and those turn'd out for the most part without any cause assign'd after the most ignominious disgraceful manner imaginable stript naked in the Field their Horses Boots Buff-coats c. taken from them giving them Bills to receive so much Money in Dublin as â—…â—… half the value of their Equipage and â—… without Charge and Attendance have â—… reason to fear
them this way is fit to be debated The other is the probability of his getting the Statute for benefit of Clergy in favour of Cow-Stealers and House-Robbers Repealed and where by the way there is a severe Rebuke given to our English Priests for their ill-placed Mercy to Irish Offenders A fault I hope they will be no more guilty of Whether these Advantages be so considerable as to move His Majesty to continue a Man for other more weighty Reasons absolutely destructive to this Kingdom or whether some of them might not be performed by an English Governour His Majesty is the only Judge Only this I am sure of The King if he were under any Obligations to His Minister has fully discharged them all and has showed himself to be the best of Masters in giving so great and honourable an Employment to his Creature and continuing him in it so long notwithstanding the decrease of his own Revenue and the other visible bad effects of his Management the Impoverishment of that Kingdom amounting to at least two Millions of Money And His Majesty may be now at liberty without the least imputation of Breach of Promise to his Servant to restore us to our former flourishing condition by sending some English Nobleman among us whose contrary Methods will no doubt produce different effects To conclude methinks the comparison between His Majesty and Phillip of Mactdon when he was drunk is a little too familiar not to say unmannerly and that between Antipater and my Lord Tyrconnel is as great a Complement to the latter But provided my Lord be commended which was our Author's chief design he cares not tho' the comparison does not hold good in all points 't is enough that we know we are Govern'd by such a Prince that neither practises such Debauches himself nor allows of them in his Servants But we are not beholding to the Author for the knowledge of this should a Forreigner read his Pamphlet or get it interpreted to him he would be apt and with reason to conclude that His Majesty as much resembled Phillip in a Debauch as my Lord Tyrconnel does sober Antipater I have now done with all that seems of any weight in our Author's Pamphlet and can see nothing in his Postscript that deserves an Answer All that I will say is That his Recipes bear no proportion to our desperate Disease and he will prove not to be a Physitian but a pretending Quack who by ill applied Medicines will leave us in a worse Condition then he found us I shall conclude with telling you That your Letter which enclosed the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dublin 1688. SIR Your most humble Servant A LETTER from a Freeholder to the rest of the Freeholders of ENGLAND and all Others who have Votes in the Choice of Parliament-Men THE Power of Parliaments when they are duly Elected and rightly Convened is so very Great that every Man who has any share in the Choice of them has the weight of his whole Country lying upon him For it is possible for my single Vote to determine the Election of that Parliament-Man whose single Vote in the Parliament-House may either save or sink the Nation And therefore it belioves Men who thus dispose both of themselves and their Posterity and of their whole Country at once to see that they put all these into safe hands and to be as well advis'd as much in earnest when they chuse Persons to serve in Parliament as they usually are when they make their Last Will and Testament And if this is to be done at all times certainly a much greater proportion of Care is to be taken at this time when endeavours have been used not only to sorestal the Freedom of Elections but even the Freedom of Voting in the Parliament House and when the Counties of England have been practised upon to be made Repealers both within doors and without They have been Catechised whether if they were Parliament-Men they would Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests or if they were not chosen themselves whether they would chuse such as would And as for the Boroughs they have been all of them Sifted to the very Bran Nay some Persons have been wrought upon to enter into Engagements beforehand in their Addresses But I suppose those that have been so very forward to promise themselves to serve a Turn will never be thought worthy to serve in Parliament And at the same time others have made it their business to render these Laws very odious to the People and to hoot them out of the World they have been Arraign'd and Condemn'd as Draconicks as Bloudy and Canibal Laws as Ungodly Laws and contrary to the Divine Principle of Liberty of Conscience without the common Justice of ever being heard For the preambles of these Laws which shew the Justice and Equity of them and the reasonableness both of their Birth and Continuance have been industriously suppressed This indeed has been a very bold Adventure for I am apt to think there is much Truth in my Lord Chief Justice Coke's Observation That never any Subject â—… a Fall with the Laws of England but they always broke his Neck And therefore according to the Courtesie of England I shall wish Friend Will. Pen and his Fellow-Gamesters a good Deliverance But while they have taken the liberty to say their Pleasure of these Laws which are now in as full Force as the day they were made I shall take leave according to the Duty of a Loyal Subject with whom the Laws of the Land are a Principle and who must always own the Majesty and Authority of them till such time as they are Repealed to offer a few words in their behalf which shall be dictated by nothing but Law Truth and Iustice and if every word that I say do not appear to be such I â—… content to have this whole Paper go for nothing and be as if it had never been Written And to proceed the more clearly and distinctly I shall first consider the Penal Laws as they are called against the Papists and the two Tests And secondly the Penal Laws against the Dissenters In the Statute 3 Iacobi c. 1. which is Read â—… very Fifth of November in our Churches the Law made against the Papists in Queen Elizabeth's time and the Confirmation of them 1 Iacobi â—… which the great Outcry is now made and for the sake of which they then attempted to blow â—… both the King and Parliament are called Necessary and Religious Laws And it I prove them to be undoubtedly such I hope the good People of England will look upon them an hundred times before they part with them once First The Laws against the Papists are Religious Laws they are Laws made for the high Honour of God as well as for the common Profit of the Realm which is the old
give them English Liberties let them dig down their Walls and let in the Sea let them begin with some of these Preliminaries before they think of Repealing the Laws against Popery and of letting loose such Consciences as these upon us To Conclude therefore It highly Concerns you in the Choice of Parliament-Men to decline all those Men who are willing to Consent to so Great and so Fatal a Revolution as the Repeal of so many Laws at once which would plainly expose the Protestant Religion to be swallowed up You want Men like their Ancestors who had the Courage and Resolution to declare in Parliament Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari We will not have the Laws of England altered Chuse such as will not Betray the Great ' Frust you repose in them The Writ for Elections says That you Impower your Representatives Tell them therefore for what you Impower them For the Maintenance and Presirvation of the Protestant Religion and of our good Laws and not for their Destruction And when you have done this and taken all the care you can you have done your Duties And I have nothing more to add but GOD speed your Elections An ENQIRY into the Reasons for Abrogating the TEST imposed on all Members of Parliament Offered by Sa. Oxon. WHEN the Cardinals in Rome go abroad without Fiocco's on their Horses heads it is understood that they will be then incognito and they expect nothing of that Respect which is payed them on other Occasions So since there is no Fiocco at the Head of this Discourse no Name nor Designation it seems the Writer offers himself to be examined without those nice regards that may be due to the Dignity he bears and indeed when a Man forgets what he is himself it is very natural for others to do itlikewise It is no wonder to see those of the Roman Communion bestir themselves so much as they do to be delivered from the Test and every thing else that is uneasie to them and though others may find it very reasonable to oppose themselves in all the Just and Legal Ways that agree with our Constitution to this Design yet it is so natural to all that are under any Pressure to desire to get free from it that at the same time that we cannot forbear to withstand them we cannot much condemn them But it raises Nature a little to see a Man that has been so long fatned with the Spoils of our Church and who has now got up to a degree so disproportioned to his Merit to turn so treacherously upon it If he is already weary of his comfortable importance and will give her into the bargain and declare himself no body will be surprized at the change of his Masque since he has taken much pains to convince the World that his Religion goes no deeper than his Habit yet though his Confidence is of a piece with all his other Vertues few thought it could have carried him so far I confess I am not surprized but rather wonder to see that others should be so for he has given sufficient Warning what he is capable of he has told the World what is the worst thing that Dr. Burnet can do pag. 50. but I am sure the Doctor cannot be quit with him to tell what is the worst thing that he can do it must needs be a very fruitful Fancy that can find out all the Degrees of Wickedness to which he can go and though this Pamphlet is a good Essay of his Talent that way yet that Terra Incognia is boundless In the Title Page it is said that this was first writ for the Author 's own Satisfaction and now Published for the Benefit of all others whom it may concern But the words are certainly wrong placed for the truth of the matter is That it was written for the Author 's own Benefit and that it is now Published for the Satisfaction of all others whom it may concern In some sence perhaps it was written for the Author 's own Satisfaction for so petulant and so depraved a mind as His is capable of being delighted with His Treachery and a poor Bishoprick with the addition of a Presidentship being too low a Prize for his Ambition and Avarice He resolved to assure Himself of the first great Bishoprick that falls the Litge Letter lets us see how far the Jesuites were assured of him and how much courted by him and that he said that none but Atheists supported the Protestant Religion now in England yet how many soever of these may be among us He is upon the point of lessening their number by one at least and he takes care to justifie the Hopes which these Father 's conceiv'd of him They are severe Masters and will not be put off with Secret Civilities Lewd Jests Entertainments and Healths drank to their good Success so now the Price of the Presidentship is to be paid so good a Morsel as this deserved that Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Burnet and some other Divines should be ill used and he to preserve the Character of Drawcansir which is as due to him as that of Bays falls upon the Articles of the Church and upon both Houses of Parliament It is Reproach enough to the House of Lords that he is of it but it is somewhat new and a Character becoming Sa. Oxon to arraign that House with all the Insolence to which he can raise his wanton Pen. Laws that are in being are treated with respect even by those who move for their Repcal but our Drawcansir scorns that modest strain He is not contented to arraign the Law but calls it Barbarous and says that nothing can be more Barbarous and Prophane then to make the renouncing of a Mistery so unanimously received a State Test p. 133. p. 64. But he ought to have avoided the word Prophane since it leads Men to remember that he had taxed the Praying for the King as under God and Christ as Crude not to say Prophane when in the Prospect he had then of a Bishoprick he raised the King above Christ but now another Prospect will make him sink him beneath the Pope who is but at best Christ's Vicar But this is not all there comes another Flower that is worthy of him he tells us That the TEST was the first born of Oats's Plot and brought sorth on purpose to give Credit and Reputation to the Perjury p. 5. and because this went in common between the two Houses he bestows a more particular mark of his Favour on the House of Lords and tells them That this was a Monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an Imposture ibid. But after all the Royal Assent was added and here no doubt it itched somewhere for if it had not been for the manner of the late King's Death and the Papers published since his Death he would have wreaked his Malice upon his Memory for he will never forgive his not advancing him And the
Godly and wholsom Doctrine all this Clamour against Idolatry turns against himself for he will find the Church of Rome charged with this almost an Age before Dr. Stillingfleet was born and though perhaps none has ever defended the Charge with so much Learning as he has done yet no Malice less impudent than his is could make him the Author of the Accusation It will be another strain of our Author's Modesty if he will pretend that our Church is not bound to own the Doctrine that is contained in her Homilies he must by this make our Church as treacherous to her Members as Sa. Oxon is to her for to deliver this Doctrine to the People if we believe it not our selves is to be as impudent as he himself can pretend to be A Church may believe a Doctrine which she does not think necessary to propose to all her Members but she were indeed a Society sit for such Pastors as he is if she could propose to the People a Doctrine chiefly one of so great Consequence as this is without she believed it herself So then he must either renounce our Church and her Articles or he must answer all his own Plea for clearing that Church of this Imputation which is so slight that it will be no hard matter even for such a trifling Writer as himself is to do it As for what he says of Stabbing and Cut-throat Words he may charge us with such Words if he will but we know who we may charge with the Deeds I would gladly see the List of all that have been murder'd by these Words to try if they can be put in the Ballance either with the Massacre of Ireland or that of Paris upon which I must take Notice of his slight way of mentioning Coligny and his Faction and telling us in plain Words p. 45. That they were Rebels This is perhaps another instance of his kindness to the Calvinist Prince that is descended from that Great Man. If Idolatry made our Plot it was not the first that it made but his Malignity is still like himself in his charging Dr. Stillingfleet who he says is the Author of the Imputation of Idolatry as if he had suborned the Evidence in our Plot. I should congraulate to the Doctor the Honour that is done him by the Malice of one who must needs be the Object of the Hatred of all good Men if I did not look upon him as so comtemptible a Person that his Love and his Hatred are equally insignificant If he thinks our Church worse than Canibals I wish he would be at the pains to go and make a trial and see whether these Salvages will use him as we have done I dare say they would not eat him for they would find so much Gall and Choller in him that the first bit would quite disgust them REFLECTIONS on a Late PAMPHLET Entituled PARLIAMENTUM PACIFICUM Licensed by the Earl of Sunderland and Printed at London in March 1688. I. PEace is a very desirable thing yet every state that is peaceable is not blindly to be courted An Apoplexy is the most peaceable state into which a man's Body can be laid yet few would desire to pacific the Humours of the Body at that rate an Implicit Faith and Absolute Slavery are the two peaceablest things that can be yet we Confess we have no mind to try so dangerous an Experiment and while the Remedies are too strong we will chuse rather to bear our Disease than to venture on them The Instance that is proposed to the Imitation of the Nation is that Parliament which called in the late King and yet that cannot so much as be called a Parliament unless it be upon a Common-wealth Principle That the Sovereign Power is radically in the People for its being Chosen without the King 's Writ was such an Essential Nullity that no subsequent Ratification could take it away For all People saw that they could not depend upon any Acts passed by it and therefore it was quickly Dissolved and ever since it has been called by all the Monarchical Party a Convention and not a Parliament But now in order to the Courting the Common-wealth Party this is not only called a Parliament but is proposed as a Pattern to all others from the beginning to pag. 19. II. But since this Author will send us back to that time and since he takes so ill That the Memory of the late King should be forgotten let us Examine that Transaction a little and then we shall see whether it had not been more for his Honour to let it be forgotten The King did indeed in his Declaration from Breda promise Liberty of Conscience on which he insisted in a large and wise Declaration set out after he was settled on the Throne But after that he had got a Parliament chosen all of Creatures depending on himself who for many years Granted him every thing that he desired a severe Act of Uniformity was passed and the Kings Promise was carried off by this That the King could not refuse to comply with so Loyal a Parliament It is well enough known that those who were then secretly Papists and who disguised their Religion for many years after this as the King himself did to the last animated the Chief Men of our Church to carry the Points of Uniformity as high as was possible and that both then and ever since all that proposed any Expedients for uniting us or as it was afterwards termed for Comprehending the Dissenters were represented as the Betrayers of the Church The Design was then clear to some that so by carrying the Terms of Conformity to a great rigidity there might be many Non-Conformists and great occasion given for a Toleration under which Popery might insensibly creep in For if the Expedients that the King himself proposed in his Declaration had been stood to it is well known that of the 2000 Conscientious Ministers as he calls them pag. 14. by an Affectation too gross to pass on them that were turned out above 1700 had staid in Their Practices had but too good Success on those who were then at the Head of our Church whose Spirits were too much soured by their ill usage during the War and whose Principles led them to so good an Opinion of all that the Court did that for a great while they would suspect nothing But at the same time that the Church Party that carried all before them in that Parliament were animated to press things so hard the Dissenters were secretly encouraged to stand out and were told That the Kings Temper and Principle and the consideration of Trade would certainly procure them a Toleration and ever since that Party that thus had set us together by the ears has shifted fides dextrously enough but still they have carried on the main Design which was to keep up the Quarrel in the Intervals of Parliament Liberty of Conscience was in vogue but when a Session of Parliament came
and the King wanted Money then a new severe Law against the Dissenters was offered to the angry men of the Church-party as the price of it and this seldom sail'd to have its effect so that they were like the Jewels of the Crown pawned when the King needed Money but redeem'd at the next Prorogation A Reflection then that arises naturally out of the Proceedings in the Year 1660. is That if a Parliament should come that would copy after that pattern and repeal Laws and Tests The King's Offers of Liberty of Conscience as may indeed be supposed will bind him till after a short Session or two such a meritorious Parliament should be dissolved according to the precedent in the Year 1660. and that a new one were brought together by the same Methods of changing Charters and making Returns and then the Old Laws de Heretico Comburtedo might be again revived and it would be said that the Kings Inclinations are for keeping his Promise and Granting still a Liberty of Conscience yet he can deny nothing to a Loyal and Catholick Parliament III. We pay all possible respect to the King and have witnessed how much we depended on his promises in so signal a manner that after such real Evidence all words are superfluous But since the King has shewed so much zeal not only for his Religion in general but in particular for that Society which of all the other Bodies in it we know is animated the most against us we must crave leave to speak a little freely and not suffer our selves to be destroyed by a Complement The Extirpation of Hereticks and the Breach of Faith to them have been Decreed by two of their General Councils and by a Tradition of several Ages the Pope is possessed of a power of dissolving all Promises Contracts and Oaths not to mention the prviate Doctrines of that Society that is so much in favour of doing Ill that Good may come of it of using Equivocations and Reservations and of ordering the Intention Now these Opinions as they have never been renounced by the Body of that Church so indeed they cannot be unless they renounce their Infallibility which is their Basis at the same time Therefore though a Prince of that Communion may very sincerely resolve to maintain Liberty of Conscience and to keep his Word yet the blind Subjection into which he is brought by his Religion to his Church must force him to break through all that as soon as the Doctrine of his Church is opened to him and that Absolution is denied him or higher Threatnings are made him if he continues firm to his merciful Incliations So that supposing His Majesties Piety to be as great as the Jesuits Sermon on the Thirtieth of January lately printed carries it to the uttermost possibility of Flesh and Blood then our Fears must still grow upon us who know what are the Decrees of that Church and by consequence we may infer to what his Piety must needs carry him as soon as those things are fully opened to him which in respect to him we are bound to believe are now hid from him IV. It will further appear that these are not injust Inferences if we consider a little what has been the Observation of all the Promises made for Liberty of Conscience to Hereticks by Roman Catholick Princes ever since the Reformation The first was the Edict of Passaw in Germany procured chiefly by Ferdinand's means and maintained indeed religiously by his Son Maximilian the Second whose Inclinations to the Protestant Religion made him be suspected for one himself but the Jesuits insinuated themselves so far into his Younger Brother's Court that was Archduke of Grats that this was not only broken by that Family in their Share but though Rodolph and Mathias were Princes of great Gentleness and the latter of these was the Prorector of the States in the beginning of their War with K. Philip the Second yet the violence with which the House of Grats was possessed overturned all that so that the breaking off the Pacificatory Edicts was begun in Rodolph's time and was so far carried on in Mathias's time that they set both Bahemia and Hungary in a Flame and so begun that long War of Germany 2. The next Promise for Liberty of Conscience was made by Queen Mary of England but we know well enough how it was observed The Promises made by the Queen Regent of Scotland were observed with the same Fidelity after these came the Pacificatory Edicts in France which were scarce made when the Triumvirat was formed to break them The famous Massacre of Paris was an instance never to be forgot of the Religious Observance of a Treaty made on purpost to lay the Party asleep and to bring the whole Heads of it into the Net This was a much more dreadful St. Partholomew than that on which our Author beflows that Epithere pag. 15. and when all seemed setled by the famous Edict of Nantes we have seen how restless that Party and in particular the Society were till it was broken by a Prince that for thirty years together had shewed as great an aversion to the Shedding of Blood in his Government at home as any of his Neighbours can pretend to and who has done nothing in the whole Tragedy that he has acted but what is exactly conform to the Doctrine and Decrees of his Church so that it is not himself but his Religion that we must blame for all that has fallen out in that Kingdom I cannot leave this without taking notice of our Author's Sincerity who page 18. tells us of the Protestants entring into their League in France when it is well known that it was a League of Papists against a Protestant Successor which was afterwards applied to a Popish King only because he was not zealous enough against Hereticks But to end this List of Instances at a Countrey to which our Author bears so particular a kindness when the Dutchess of Parma granted the Edict of Pacification by which all that was past was buried and the Exercise of the Protestant Religion was to be connived at for the future King Philip the Second did not only ratifie this but expressed himself so fully upon it to the Count of Egmont who had been sunt over to him that the easie Count returned to Flanders so assured of the King's Sincerity that he endeavoured to perswade all others to rely as much on his Word as he himself did It is well known how fatal this Confidence was to him and see Mettren lib. 3. that two years after this that King sent over the Duke of Alva with that severe Commission which has been often Printed in which without any regard had to the former Pacification or Promises the King declared That the Provinces had forfeited all their Liberties and that every man in it had forfeited his Life and therefore he authorised that numerciful man to proceed with all possible rigor against them It is also
remarkable that that bloody Commission is founded on the King 's Absolute Power and his Zeal for Religion This is the only Edict that I know in which a King has pretended to Absolute Power before the two Declarations for Scotland in the year 1687. so whether they who penned them took their pattern from this I cannot determin it I could carry this view of History much further to shew in many more Instances how little Protestants can depend on the Faith of Roman Catholicks and that their condition is so much the worse the more pious that their Princes are As for what may be objected to all this from the present State of some Principalities or Towns in Germany or of the Switsirs and Grisons it is to be considered that in some of these want of Power in the Roman Catholioks to do mischief and the other Circumstances of their affairs are visibly the only Securities of the Protestants and whensoever this Nation departs from that and gives up the Laws it is no hard thing to guess how short-lived the Liberty of Conscience even though seiled into a Magna Charta would be V. All that our Author says upon the General Subject of Liberty of Conscience is only a severe Libel upon that Church whose Principles and Practices are so contrary to it But the proposition lately made has put an end to all this dispute since by an Offer of Repealing the Penal Laws reserving only those of the Test and such others as secure the Protestant Religion the question is now no more which Religion must be tolerated but which Religion must Reign and prevail All that is here offered in opposition to that is that by this means such a number of persons must be ruined pag. 64. which is as severe a way of forcing People to change their Religion as the way of Dragoons I will not examine the particulars of this matter but must express my joy to find that all the difficulty which is in our way to a happy quiet is the supplying such a number of men with the means of their subsistence which by the execution of the Law for the Test must be taken from them This by all that I can learn will not come to near an hundred thousand pound a year and indeed the supplying of those of the King's Religion that want it is a piece of Charity and Bounty so worthy of him that I do not know a man that would envy them the double of this in Pensions and if such a Sum would a little charge the King's Revenue I dare say when the settlement of the Nation is brought to that single point there would not be one Negative found in either House of Parliament for the Reimbursing the King. So far are we from desiring either the Destruction or even the Poverty of these that perhaps wait only for all occasion to burn us I will add one bold thing further That though I will be no Undertaker for what a Parliament may do yet I am confident that all Men are so far from any desire of Revenge but most of all that the Heroical Minds of the next Successors are above it that if an Indemnity for that bold Violation of the Law that hath been of late both Practised and Authorised amongst us would procure a full settlement even this could be obtained Though an impunity after such Transgressions is perhaps too great an Encouragement to offend for the future But since it is the Preservation of the Nation and not the Ruine of any Party in it that is aimed at the hardiness of this Proposition will I hope be forgiven me It is urg'd pag. 63. That according to the Dutch Pattern at least the Roman Catholicks may have a share in Military Employments but the difference between our Case and theirs is clear since some Roman Catholick Officers where the Government is wholly in the hands of the Protestants cannot be of such dangerous consequence as it must needs be under a King that is not only of that perswasion but is become nearly allied to the Society as the Liege Letter tells us VI. It is true our Author would perswade that the King 's Dispensing Power hath already put an end to this Dispute and that therefore it is a seeming sort of Perjury see pag. 48. to keep the Justices of Peace still under an Oath of executing those Laws which they must consider no more Some Precedents are brought from former times p. 22 23 24. of our King 's using the Dispensing Power in Edward 3d Richard 2d Henry 7th Henry 8th Edward 6th and Queen Elizabeth's time It is very true that the Laws have been of late broke through amongst us with a very high hand but it is a little too dangerous to upbraid the Justices of Peace with their Oaths lest this oblige them to reflect on so Sacred an Engagement For the worthy Members of Magdalen Colledge are not the only Persons in England who will make Conscience of observing their Oaths So that if others are brought to reflect too much upon what they do our Author's officiousness in suggesting this to them may prove to be no acceptable piece of Service I will not examine all his Precedents we are to be govern'd by Law and not by some of the Excesses of Government nor is the latter end of Edward the Third a time to be much imitated and of all the parts of the English History Richard the Second's Reign should be least mentioned since those Excesses of his produced so Tragical a Conclusion as the loss of his Crown and Life Henry the Sixth's seeble and embroyled Reign will scarce support an Argument And if there were some Excesses in Henry the Eighth's time which is ordinary in all great Revolutions he got all these to be either warranted or afterwards to be confirmed in Parliament And Queen Elizabeth's power in Ecclesiastical Matters was founded on a special Act of Parliament which was in a great measure Repealed in 1641 and that Repeal was again ratified by another Act in the late King's time We are often told of the late King's Acts concerning Carts and Waggons but all Lawyers know some Laws are understood to be abrogated without a special Repeal when some visible inconvenience inforces it such as appeared in that mistaken Act concerning Waggons So the King in that Case only declared the inconvenience which made that Law to be of itself null because it was impracticable It is true the Parliament never question'd this A Man would not be offended if another pulled up a Flower in his Garden that yet would take it iil if he broke his Hedge And in Holland to which our Author's Pen leads him often when a River changes its course any Man may break the Dyke that was made to resist yet that will be no Warrant to go and break the Dyke that resists the Current of the same River So if a Dispensing Power well applyed to smaller Offences has been past
much the more conformed and incouraged to deal instead of being hindred by them but if instead of an answer to satisfie there is nothing but anger for a reply it is impossible not to conclude that there is never a good one to give so that the objection remaining without being fully ◅ there is an absolute bur put to any further Treaty There can be no dealing where one side assumeth a privilege to impose so as to make an offer and not bear the examination of it this is giving judgment not making a bargain Where is called unmannerly to object or criminal to refuse the surest way is for men to stay when they are rather than treat upon such disadvantages If it should happen to be in any Country where the governing power should allow me Liberty of Conscience in the choice of their Religion it would be strange to deny them liberty of ◅ in making a bargain Such a contradiction would be so discouraging that they must be unreasonably sanguine who in that case can entertain the hopes of a fair Equivalent XIII An equal Bargain must not be a Mystery nor a Secret The purchaser or proposer is to tell directly and plainly what it is he intendeth to give in Exchange for that which he requireth It must be viewed and considered by the other party that he may judg of the value for without knowing what it is he cannot determine whether he shall take or leave it An assertion in general that it shall be as good or a better thing not in this a sufficient excuse for the mistake of dealing upon such uncertain terms In all things that are dark and not enough explained suspition naturally followeth A secret generally implied a defect or a deceit and if a false light is an objection no light at all is yet a greater To pretend to give a better thing and to refuse to shew it very near saying it is not so good a one at least so it will be taken in common construction A Mystery is yet a more discouraging thing to Protestant especially if the Proposition should come from a Papist it being one of his great Objections to that Church that there are so many of them Invisible and Impossible which are violently thrust upon their understandings that they are overlaid with them They think that rational creatures are to be convinced only ◅ reason and that reason must be visible and ◅ else they will think themselves used with ◅ instead of equality and will never allow such a suspected secrecy to be a fit Preface ◅◅ Equivalent XIV In matters of Contract not only the present value but the contingencies and consequences far as they can be fairly supposed are to be considered For Example if there should be a possibility that one of the parties may be ruined by accepting and the other only disappointed by ◅ refusing the consequences are so extremely unequal that it is not imaginable a man should take that for an Equivalent which hath such a fatal possibility at the heels of it If it should happen in a publick case that such ◅ proposal should come from the minor part of an Assembly or Nation to the greater It is very must that the hazard of such a possibility should more or less likely fall upon the lesser part rather than upon the greater for whose sake and advantage things are and must be calculated in all publiok Constitutions Suppose in any mixed Government the chief Magistrate should propose upon a condition in the Senate Diet or other Supreme Assembly either to Enact or Abrogate one or more Laws by which a possibility might be let in of destroying their Religion and Property which in other language signifieth no less than Soul and Body where could be the Equivalent in the case not only for the real loss but even for the fear of losing them Men can fall no lower than to lose all and if losing all destroyeth them the venturing all must fright them In an instance when Men are secure that how far soever they may be over-run by Violence yet they can never be undone by Law except they give their assistance to make it possible though it should neither be likely nor intended still the Consequence which may happen is too big for any paesent thing to make amends for it Whilst the word Possible remaineth it must forhid the Bargain Where ever it falleth out therefore that in an Example of a publick nature the Changing Enacting or Repealing a Law may natūrally tend to the misplacing the Legislative power in the hands of those who have a separate interest from the body of a People there can be no treating till it is demonstrably made out that such a consequence shall be absolutely impossible for if that shall be denied by those who make the proposal if it is because they cannot do it the motion at first was very unfair If they can and will not it would be yet less reasonable to expect that such partial dealers would ever give an Equivalent fit to be accepted XV. It is necessary in all dealing to be assured in the first place that the party proposing is in a condition to make good his Offer that he is neither under any former Obligations or pretended claims which may render him uncapable of performing it else he is so far in the condition of a Minor that whatever he disposeth by sale or exchange may be afterwards resumed and an Contract becometh void being originally defective for want of a suffistent legal power in him that made it In the case of a strict Settlement where the party is only Tenant for life there is no possibility of treating with one under such fetters no purchase or exchange of Lands or any thing else can be good where there is such an incapacity of making out a Title the interest vested in him being so limited that he can do little more than pronounce the words of a Contract he can by no means perform the effect of it In more publick instances the impossibility is yet more express as suppose in any Kingdom where the people have so much liberty left them as that they may make Contracts with the Crown there should be some peculiar rights claimed to be so fixed to the Royal Function that no King for the time being could have power to part with them being so fundamentally tied to the Office that they can never be separated Such Rights can upon no occasion be received in exchange for any thing the Crown may desire from the People That can never be taken in payment which cannot lawfully be given so that if they should part with that which is required upon those terms it must be a gift it cannot be a bargain There is not in the whole Dictionary a more untractable word than inherent and less to be reconciled to the word Equivalent The party that will Contract in spight of such a Claim is content to take what is
impossible to grant and if he complaineth of his Disappointment he neither can have Remedy nor deserveth it If a Right so claimed hapneth to be of so comprehensive a nature as that by a clear inference it may extend to every thing else as well as to the particular matter in question as often as the Supream Magistrate shall be so disposed there can in that case be no treating with a Prerogative that swalloweth all the Right the People can pretend to and if they have no right to any thing of which they are possessed it is a Jest and not a Bargain to observe any Formality in parting with it A Claim may be so stated that by the power and advantage of interpreting it shall have such a murthering eye that if it looketh upon a Law like a Basilisk it shall strike it dead Where is the possibility of Treating where such a Right is assumed Nay let it be supposed that such a Claim is not well founded in Law and that upon a free disquisition it could not be made out yet even in this case none that are well advised will conclude a Bargain till it is fully stated and cleared or indeed so much as engage in a treaty till by way of preliminary all possibility shall be remov'd of any trouble or dispute XVI There is a collateral circumstance in making a Contract which yet deserveth to be considered as much as any thing that belongeth to it and that is the character and figure of the parties contracting if they treat only by themselves and if by others the Qualifications of the Instruments they employ The Proposer especially must not be so low as to want credit nor so raised as to carry him above the reach of ordinary dealing In the first There is scandal in the other danger There is no Rule without some Exception but generally speaking the means should be suited to the end and since all Men who treat pretend an equal bargain it is desirable that there may be equality in the persons as well as in the thing The manner of doing things hath such an influence upon the matter that Men may guess at the end by the insteuments that are used to obtain it who are a very good direction how far to rely upon or suspect the sincerity of that which is proposed An Absurdity in the way of carrying on a Treaty in any one Circumstance if it is very gross is enough to perswade a thinking Man to break off and take warning from such an ill appearance Some things are so glaring that it is impossible not to see and consequently not to suspect them as suppose in a private case there should be a Treaty of Marriage between two Honourable Families and the proposing side shöuld think sit to send a Woman that had been Carted to perswade the young Lady to an approbation and consent the unsitness of the Messenger must naturally dispose the other party to distrust the Message and to resist the temptation of the best Match that could be offered when conveyed by that hand and ushered in by such a discouraging preliminary In a publick instance the suspicion arising from unfit Mediators still groweth more reasonable in proportion as the consequence is much greater of being deceived If a Jew should be employed to sollicit all sorts of Christians to unite and agree the contrariety of his profession would not allow men to stay till they heard his Arguments they would conclude from his Religion that other the Man himself was mad or that he â—… those to be so whom he had the Impudence endeavour to perswade Or suppose an Adamite should be very sollicitous and active in all places and with all sort of Persons to settle the Church of England in particular and a fair Liberty of Conscience for â—… Dissenters though nothing in the World â—… more to be said for it than Naked Truth yet such a Man should run up and down without Cloaths let his Arguments be never so good of his Commission never so Authentick his Figure would be such a contradiction to his business that how serious soever that might be in it self but interposition would make a Jest of it Though it should not go so far as this yet â—… Men have contrarieties in their way of living â—… to be reconciled as if they should pretend infinite â—… for liberty and at that time be in great savour and employed by those who will not endure it If they are affectedly singular and conform to the generality of the World in no one thing but in playing the knave If demonstration is a familiar word with them most especially where the thing is impossible If they quote Authority to supply their want of sense and justifie the value of their Arguments not by reason but by their being paid for them in which by the way those who pay them have probably a very melancholly Equivalent If they brandish a Prince's Word like a Sword in a Crowd to make way for their own impertinence â—… and in dispute as Criminals formerly sled to the Statue of the Prince for Sanctuary if they should now when baffled creep under the protection of a Kings Name where out of respect they are no farther to be pursued In these cases Though the propositions should be really good they will be corrupted by passing through such Conduits and it would be a sufficient Mistake to enter into a Treaty but it would be little less than Madness from such hands to expect an Equivalent XVII Having touched upon these particulars as necessary in order to the stating the nature of an equal Bargain and the Circumstances belonging to it let it now be examined in two or three instances what things are not to be admitted by way of Contract to pass under the Name of an Equivalent First Though it will be allowed that in the general corruption of mankind which will not â—… Justice alone to be a sufficient tie to make â—… a Contract that a Punishment added for â—… breach of it is a fitting or rather a necessary circumstance yet it does not follow that in â—… cases a great Penalty upon the party offending â—… absolute and an entire Security It must be considered in every particular case how far the circumstances may rationally lead a Man to rely more or less upon it In a private instance the Penalty inflicted upon the breach of Contract must be First such a â—… as the party injured can enforce and Secondly such a one as he will enforce when it is in his answer If the Offending Party is in a capacity of hindering the other from bringing the Vengeance of the Law upon him If he hath strength or â—… sufficient to over-rule the Letter of the Contract in that case a Penalty is but a Word there â—… no consequence belonging to it Secondly â—… forfeiture or punishment must be such as the â—… aggrieved will take for Example if upon â—… Bargain one of the Parties
happen to them not to see their Interest for want of Understanding or not to leap over it by excess of Zeal Above all Princes are most liable to Mistake not out of any defect in their Nature which might put them under such an unfortunate distinction quite contrary the blood they derive from wise and great Ancestors does rather distinguish them on the better side besides that their great Character and Office of Governing giveth a noble Exercise to their Reason which can very hardly fail to raise and improve it But there is one Circumstance annexed to their Glorious Calling which in this respect is sufficient to outweigh all those advantages it is that Mankind divided in most things else agree in this to conspire in their endeavours to deceive and mislead them which maketh it above the power of human understanding to be so exactly guarded as never to admit a surprize and the highest applause that could ever yet be given to the greatest Men that ever wore a Crown is that they were no oftner deceived Thus I have ventur'd to lay down my thoughts of the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short word Where Distrusting may be the cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the cause of bringing Ruin the Choice is too easie to need the being explained A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City To his Friend in the Country Containing his REASONS for not Reading the DECLARATION SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruin us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine Comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to prosess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that 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 So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any Pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an Obstinate and peevish or sactious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed be fore it must imply our own consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of Mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and
come from His Majesty who has experienc'd their faithfulness upon so many and pressing Occasions This could not well proceed from any but a Stranger to those Honourable Persons and the Nation and a greater Stranger to shame and good manners and what have we to do to Publish the Venome and Virulency of a Jesuit A Letter to a Dissenter from his Friend at the HAGUE concerning the Penal Laws and the Test shewing that the Popular Plea for Liberty of Conscience is not concerned in that Question SIR I Suppose you are very busie about the Choice of Parliament-men and all hands are at work to Elect such Members as may comply with the great Design to Repeal the Penal Laws and the Test. The pretence I confess is very plausible for all men are fond of Liberty of Conscience who dissent from the Established Religion but you and I have liv'd long enough in the world to observe that the most pernicious Designs have been carried on under the most plausible Pretences and that is Reason enough to enquire whether there be no danger of it now I shall not say one word against Liberty of Conscience nor for Penal Laws and Tests Imagine the best things you possibly can of the one and declame as much as you please against the other For I do not see that either of them are concerned in the present Dispute but only made use of to wheadle unthinking people and to catch them with a very inviting Bait and therefore before you engage too warmly in this Cause I would offer some few things to your calm and deliberate Thoughts The great Pretence is Liberty of Conscience and if this were the true state of the Case the Dispute would be more doubtful and perplexed for that is an Argument a man may talk of without end and it is not to be expected that men who feel the want of Liberty or taste the sweetness of it should be perswaded by any Arguments to forgo it when it may be had But now if Liberty of Conscience may be had without the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws if it be apparent to men who will open their eyes that the true spring of all this zeal for Repealing the Test and Penal Laws is not Liberty of Conscience if there be great danger that by consenting to this Repeal we shall forfeit both the Liberty of our Consciences and our Civil Liberties into the Bargain then I presume you will readily grant that Liberty of Conscience as good a thing as it is is no Reason for such a Repeal I. As for the first it is a very plain case For you enjoy Liberty of Conscience now and yet the Penal Laws and Test are not Repealed What greater Liberty do you desire than you now have What can the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test do for you which the King's Declaration hath not done You have his repeated Promises his avow'd Principle that Conscience is not to be forced and that no man ought to suffer meerly for his Religion though the Penal Laws are not repealed yet ' they are suspended they are not executed either against Papists or Dissenters and you have the security of the King's Declaration for it If you say that the King can quickly recall his Declaration and reinforce the Penal Laws if he find you obstinate against Repealing them I Answer first It is very dishonourable to imagine such a thing of the King after such a Declaration as this which he hath repeated the second time with all possible assurances of his Resolutions to stand to it and that not as a meer Act of grace and favour but as his own avowed Principle that Conscience ought not to be forced If you Reply that the King may very Honourably recall this Liberty of Conscience when you will not have it but resolve to keep these persecuting Laws I answer Not if it be against the Principles of his own Conscience to Persecute Meer favours may be withdrawn when they are slighted but no man will violate his own Conscience to be revenged of such ingratitude And yet this is not the case You do not slight the grace and favour of his Declaration but gladly accept the Liberty he gives and all the World sees that You use it too but instead of Repealing these Penal Laws You chuse to rely upon his Royal Word and Dispensing Power which argues so great a Confidence in him and attributes such Authority to him that it cannot possibly displease him This is a plain sign that you think your selves secure in his Reign and can you think the King will persecute you in his own Reign because you are contented to trust his Successors too which would be a very odd kind of passion for Liberty of Conscience To imagine the King should reinforce the Penal Laws upon your refusal to Repeal them is to suspect that this great Zeal is not for Liberty of Conscience but for the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test that is that Liberty of Conscience is granted for the sake of Repealing the Penal Laws and Tests not the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Tests desired for the sake of Liberty of Conscience and then who knows what will become of Liberty of Conscience when the Penal Laws and Test are Repealed If you suspect any such thing which never ought to be suspected of so just and indulgent a Prince it is better to make the Experiment before than after such a Repeal Suppose the King should withdraw his Declaration upon your refusal to comply who would put the Laws in Execution against you They must either be Dissenters or Papists or the Church of England I presume you do not fear that you should execute the Laws against your selves and as for Papists it were worth trying whether they who are so obnoxious to the Laws themselves would put them in Execution against Dissenters especially after all their Clamors against them and as for the Church of England when they have been so reproached by Papists for Executing these Laws already though more at the instance of the Court than from their own inclination they will no longer be made the instruments of such Executions only to serve the turn of them that will reproach them So that if the Declaration were recalled you have a moral certainty that the Penal Laws cannot be Executed in this Kings Reign because there is no body to execute them As for the Test you cannot pretend that Liberty of Conscience is concern'd in the Repeal of that You may go to Conventicles and the Papists may go to Mass without any disturbance though the Test be never repealed and therefore the only design of repealing that must be to give a legal Qualification to Papists to possess all places of Honour Profit and Trust in the Nation that is to put your Lives and Liberties into their hands which I confess is a great Complement to a Roman Catholick Prince but a Complement may sometimes
not been set on by directions from Whiteball For in their Order they press the Execution of the Statute 1 Eliz. and 3. Jac. 1. for levying Tuelve pence a Sunday upon all those that do not come to Church Whereas the House of Commons Nov. 6. 1680. had Resolved Nemine contradicente that it is the Opinion of this House That the Acts of Parliament made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants ought not to be extended against Protestant Dissenters VI. Who should not forget how backward the Clergy of London especially were to comply with this design of reviving the Execution of the Laws against them what courses they took to save them from this danger and what hatred they incurred for being so kind to them Which in truth was kindness to themselves for now they saw plainly enough that Nothing was intended but the destruction of us both by setting us in our turns one against the other Many indeed were possessed with the old Opinion that the Dissenters aimed at the overthrow of the Government both in Church and State which made them the more readily joyn with those who were employd to suppress them by turning the edge of the Laws upon them But both these were most industriously promoted by the Court who laboured might main to have this believed that they who were called Whigs intended the ruine of the Church and of the Monarchy too and therefore none had the Court favour but they alone who were for the ruining of them all others were frown'd upon and branded with the name of Trimmers who they adventured at last to say were worse than Whigs Meerly because they seeing through the design desired those ugly Names of Whig and Tory might be laid aside and perswaded all to Moderation Law Unity and Peace If any man had these dangerous words in his mouth he had a mark set upon him and was lookt upon as an Enemy as soon as he discovered any desires of Reconciliation No peace with Dissenters was then as much in some mens mouths as no peace with Rome had been in others They were all voted to destruction and it was an unpardonable Crime so much as to mention an Accommodation Such things as these ought not to be forgotten VII But if they lift not to call them to mind tho' they be of fresh memory yet let them at least consider what they have had at their Tongues end ever since they knew any thing That the Church of Rome is a persecuting Church and the Mother of Persecution Will they then be deluded by the present Sham of Liberty of Conscience which they of that Church pretend to give It is not in their power no more than in their Spirit They neither will nor can give liberty of Conscience but with a design to take all liberty from us That Church must be obeyed and there is no middle choice among them between turn or burn conform or be undout What Liberty do they give in any Country where their power is established What Liberty can they give who have determined that Hereticks ought to be rooted out Look into France with which we have had the strictest Alliance and Friendship a long time and behold how at this moment they compel those to go to Mass who they know abher it as an abominable Idolatry Such a violent Spirit now acts them that they stick not to prophane their own most holy Mysteries that they may have the face of an Universal Consofmity without the least Liberty For the new Converts as they are called poor Wretches are known to be mere outward Compliers in their Hearts abominating that which they are forced eternaliy to worship They declare as much by escaping from this Tyranny over their Consciences and bewa ling their sinful Compliance whensoever they have an opportunity And they that cannot escape frequently protest they have been constrained to adore that which they believe ought not to be adored And when they come to dye refuse to receive the Romish Sacrament and thereupon are dragg'd when dead along the Streets and thrown like dead Dogs upon the Dunghils Unto what a heighth of rage are the spirits of the Romish Clergy inflamed that it perfectly blinds their eyes and will not let them see how they expose the most sacred thing in all their Religion the Holy Sacrament which they believe to be Jesus Christ himself to be received by those who they know have no reverence at all for it but utterly abhor it For they sorce them by all manner of violence to adore the Host against their will and then to eat what they have adored tho' they have the greatest reason to believe that those poor Creatures do not adore it That is the Church of Rome will have her Mysteries adored by all tho' it be by Hypecrites None shall be excused but whether they believe or not believe they shall be compelled to do as that Church doth Nothing shall hinder it for the hatred and fury wherewith they are now transported is so exceeding great that it makes them as I have said offer violence even to their own Religion rather than suffer any body not to conform to it VIII And assure your selves they are very desirous to extend this Violence beyond the bounds of France They would fain see England also in the same condition the Bishop of Valence and Die hath told as much in the Speech which he made to the French King in the Name of the Clergy of France to Congratulate his glorious Atchievements in rooting out the Heresie of Calvin In which he hath a most memorable passage for which we are beholden to him because it informs us that they are not satisfied with what their King hath done there but would have him think there is a further Glory reserved for him of lending his help to make us such good Catholicks as he hath made in France This is the blessed Work they would be at and if any among us be still so blind as not to see it we must look upon it as the just judgment of God upon them for some other sins which they have committed They are delivered up to a reprobate mind which cannot discern the most evident things They declare to all the World that they have been above fifty years crying out against they know not what For they know not what Popery is of which they have seemed to be horribly afraid if they believe that they of that Religion either can or will give any Liberty when they have power to establish their Tyranny It is no better St. John himself hath described that Church under the name of Babylon that cruel City and of a BEAST which like a Bear tramples all under its feet and of another Beast which causes as many as will not worship the Image of the Beast to be killed and that no man may buy or sell save such as have had his mark i. e. are of his
Religion Rev. 13. 1 15 16. This Character they will make good to the very end of their Reign as they have fulfill'd it from the beginning They cannot alter their nature no more than the Ethiopean change his skin or the Leopard his spots It ever was since the rise of the Beast and it ever will be till its fall a bloody Church which can bear no contradiction to her Doctrine and Orders but will endeavour to root out all those that oppose her from the face of the Earth Witness the Barbarous Crusado's against the poor Albigenses in France in one of which alone Bellarmine himself saith not without Triumph there were killed no less than an hundred thousand Witness the horrible Butcheries committed in France in England and in the Low-countries in the Age before us and in Poland the Vallies of Piedmont and in Ireland in this Age upon those who had no other fault but this that they made the Holy Scriptures and the Roman Church the Rule of their Faith. IX But it you be ignorant of what hath been done and is doing abroad yet I hope you observe what they do here at home What do you think of the Declaration which was very lately imposed to be read in all our Churches Which when several Bishops and their Clergy most humbly represented they could not in Conscience publish to the People in time of Divine service this would not excuse them their Petition was receiv'd with indignation and look'd upon as a Libel the Bishops were prosecuted for it and Inquiry is now ordered to be made after those who did not read it as well as those that did that they may be punished by the High Commissioners Call you this Liberty of Conscience Or do you imagine you shall never have any thing imposed upon you to be read in your Congregations which you cannot comply withall Consider I beseech you what will become of you when that time shall come What 's the meaning of this that ever they are look'd upon as Offenders for following their Conscience whose Services have been acknowledged to be so great that they should never be forgotten It ought to teach Dissenters what they are to expect hereafter when they have served them so far by taking off the Tests and the Penal Laws as to enable them with safety to remember all their former pretended transgressions Let them assure themselves the services of the Church of England are not now more certainly forgotten than the Sins of Dissenters will hereafter when they have got power to punish them be most certainly remembred Be not drawn in then by deceitful words to help forward your own destruction If you will not be assistant to it they cannot do it alone and it will be very strange if you be perswaded to lend them your help when the deceit is so apparent For what are all the present pleas for Liberty but so many infamous Libels upon the Roman Church which denies all Men this Liberty While they declaim so loudly against Persecution they most notoriously reproach Popery which subsists by nothing but deceit and cruelty And who can think that they would suffer their Church to be so exposed and reviled as it is by such discourses but with a design to cheat heedless people into its obedience For this end they can hear it proved nay prove it themselves to be an Antichristian Church when they prove it is against Christianity nay against the Law of Nature and Common Reason to trouble any body for his opinion in Religion X. Once more then I beseech you be not deceived by good words if you love your Liberty and your Life Call to mind how our poor Brethren in France were lately deluded by the repeated Protestations which their King made he would observe the Edict of Nantes which was the foundation of their Liberty even then when he was about to overthrow it and by many assurances which were given them by those who came to torment them that the King intended to reform the Church of France as soon as he had united his Subjects What he had done already against the Court of Rome they told them was an instance of it and they should shortly see other matters Such ensraring words they heard there daily from the mouths of their armed Persecuters who were ready to fall upon them or had begun to oppress them And therefore they would be arrant fools here if they did not give good words when they have no power to hurt us But we shall be far greater fools if we believe they will keep their word when they have got that power the greatest of all fools if we give them that Power They have no other way but this to wheedle us out of our Laws and Liberties Do but surrender the one I mean our Laws they will soon take away the other our beloved Liberties Be not tempted to make such a dangerous Experiment but let the Laws stand as they are because they are against them as appears by their earnest endeavours to repeal them and be not used as tools to take them away because they have been grievous to you They never can be so again For can they who now Court you have the face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestant Prince shall come will joyn in the healing of all our breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed work They cannot meet together in a body to give you this assurance how should they without the King's authority so to do but every particular person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer oontend to bring all men to one Uniformity but promote an Uniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give mere words I mean honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the beauty and honour not the blot and discredit of our Religion To such a temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been known to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivocate nor to give good words without a meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Uprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with men God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren
Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2 Nor to Abridge or Diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly Confirmed Allowed or Enacted by Parliament or by the Established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17. of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law. Secondly That the occasion of making it was not from any doubt that did arise Whether the High-Commission Court were taken away or Whether the Crown had power to Erect any such-like Court for the future but from a doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceedings in Causes Ecclesiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical persons had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delagating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the words of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High-Commission Court or the new erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch should stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2. 12. or any other But there may arise an Objection from the words in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs Whence some Men would gather That the same Power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the honour of the Legislators King Lords and Commons Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine Whether they can so construct the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering violence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely Repealed the Branch of 1. Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. â—… ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. â—… but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. â—… ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON â—… and therefore have sufficient Reason to â—… That the same would never have been set on â—… by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath â—… upon his Royal Word That he will invade â—… Mans Property had he not been Advised there unto by them who are better versed in the Canon of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER of several French Ministers Fled into Germany upon the account of the PERSECUTION in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the Kings Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original in French. ALtho' in our present Dispersion most dear and honoured Brethren it has pleased the Providence of God to conduct us into places very distant from one another Yet that Union which ought always to continue betwixt us obliges us to declare our sense to one another with a Christian and Brotherly Freedom upon all occasions that may present themselves to us so to â—… 'T is this makes us hope that you will not take â—… amiss of us if at this time we deliver our Opinion to you touching the Affairs of England in matter of Religion and with reference to that Conduct which you have observed therein We ought not to conceal it from you â—… greatest part of the Protestants of Europe have been extreamly scandalized to understand that certain among you after the example of many of the Dissenters have Addressed to the King of England upon the account of his Declaration by which he â—… granted Liberty of Conscience to the No-nconformists And that some others who had already ranked themselves under the Episcopal Communion nevertheless published the said Declaration in their Churches and this at a time when almost all the Bishops themselves with so much Firmness â—… Courage refused to do it If we may be permitted to tell you freely what â—… Opinion is concerning the conduct of the Bishops and of the Dissenters in this conjuncture we shall make no difficulty to pronounce in favour of the former We look upon it that they have exceedingly well answered the Duty of their Charge whilst despising their own private Interest they have so worthily supported that of the Protestant Religion Whereas the others for want of considering these things as they ought to have done have given up the interest of their Religion to their own particular advantages It is not out of any complement to the Bishops which less out of any enmity to the Dissenters that we make such different judgments concerning them We know well enough how to commend â—… blame what seems to us to deserve our Praise â—… our Censure both in the one and in the other We do not at all approve the conduct of the Bishops towards the Dissenters under the last Reign And altho' we do not any more
means attain it than to open themselves a Gite to Popery and to concur with it to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion You will it may be tell us that it looks ill in us who so much complain That we have been deprived of Liberty of Concience in France to sind fault with the King of England for granting it to his Subjects And that it is the least that can be allowed to a Soveraign to allow him the Right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his own Kingdoms and to make use of the Service of such of his Subjects as himself shall think sit by putting them into Charges and Employs You will add That his Majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the ancient Laws nor to make new ones All he does being only to dispence with the Observation of certain Laws in such of his Subjects as he thinks fit and for as long time as he pleases and that the right of dispensing with and suspending of Laws is a Right insepably tied to his Person That for the rest the Protestant Religion does not run the least Risque There are Laws to shut the Papists out of Parliament and these Laws can neither be dispensed with nor suspended So that the Parliament partaking with the King in the Legislative Power and continuing still Protestant there is no cause to fear that any thing should be done contrary to the Protestant Religion Besides What probability is there that a King who appears so great an Enemy to Oppression in matters of Conscience and Religion should ever have a thought tho' he had the Power himself to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his Subjects and take from them that Liberty of Conscience which he now grants to them and which he promises so â—… to observe for the time to come These are all the Objections that can with â—… appearance of Reason be made against what we have before said They may all be reduced â—… five which we shall examine in their order And we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear that they are all but meer Illusions 1. We do justly complain That they had taken from us our Liberty of Conscience in France because it was done contrary to the Laws And one may as justly complain that the K. of England does labour to re-estalish Popery in his Country because he cannot do it but contrary to the Laws Our Liberties in France were founded us on solemn Laws upon perpetual irrevocable and sacred Edicts and which could not be â—… without violating at once the Publick Faith the Royal Word and the Sacredness of an Oath And Popery has been banished out of England by Laws made by King and Parliament and which cannot be repealed but by the author of King and Parliament together so that the therefore there is just cause to complain that the King should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his Declaration 2. It is not true that a Soveraign has always the right to permit the Exercise of his own Religion in his Dominions and to make use of the â—… of such of his Subjects as he himself shall that fit that is to say by putting of them into â—… and Employs And in particular he has this right when the Laws of his Country contrary thereunto as they are in the â—… before us Every King is obliged to observe the fundamental Laws of his Kingdom And the King of England as well as his Subjects ought to observe the Laws which have been established by King and Parliament together 3. For the third the distinction between abrogation of a Law and the dispensing â—… and suspending of it cannot here be of use whether the King abrogates the Laws which have been made against Popery or whether without saying expressly that he does abrogate them he overthrows them by his Declarations under pretence of dispensing with suspending of them it is still in effect same thing And to what purpose is it the Laws are not abrogated if in the â—… time all sorts of Charges are given to Papists and Popery it self be re-established contrary to the tenor of the Laws The truth is if the King has such a power as this if this be â—… Right necessarily tied to his Person 't is in vain â—… the Parliament does partake with him in the Legislature This Authority of the Parliament is but a meer Name a Shadow a Phan â—… a Chimera and no more The King is still the absolute Master because he can alone and without his Parliament render useless by his Declarations the Laws which the Parliament shall have the most solemnly established together with him We confess the King has right of dispensing in certain Cases as if the concern be what belongs to his private Interest he may without doubt whenever he pleases depart from his own Rights 't is a Liberty which no body will pretend to contest with him But he has not the power to dispense to the Prejudice of the Rights of the people â—… by consequence put the Property the Liberty and the Lives of his Protestant Subjects into the hands of Papists 4. What we have now said in Answer to the third Objection will be more clear from the Answer we are to give to the fourth They should perswade the Protestants that their Religion is in safety because on the one side the King cannot make Laws without the Parliament and that on the other there being Laws which exclude Papists out of the two Houses it must necessarily follow That the Parliament shall continue to be Protestant But if the King has the power to break through the Laws under the pretence of dispensing with and suspending of them what Security shall the Protestants have that he will not dispense with the Papists the Observation of those Laws which do exclude them out of the Parliament as well as â—… has dispensed with those that should have kept them out of Charges and Imployments â—… Security shall they have that he will â—… at any time hereafter suspend the Execution of the former as he has already suspended the Execution of the latter Which being â—… what should hinder us from seeing in a little â—… a Popish Parliament who together with the King shall pass Laws contrary to the Protestant Religion What difference can be shewn between the one and the other of these Laws â—… the one should be liable to be dispensed with and suspended and the other not Were they not both established by the King and Parliament Were not both the one and the other made for the Security of the Protestant Religion and of those who profess it Are not the Rights of the people concerned in the one as well as in the other And whosoever suffers and approves the King in the violation of these Rights in some things does he not thereby authorize him to violate them in all If the King has power to put the Liberty and
property and Lives of his Protestant Subjects at the mercy of the Papists by placing them in Charges contrary to the Law why should he not have the power to raise the same Papists to the Authority of Legislators by declaring them capable of sitting in Parliament seeing that is but contrary to Law Do not deceive your selves the Laws are the Barrier which bound the Authority of the King and if this Barrier be once broken he will extend his Authority as far as he pleases And it will be impossible for you after that to set any bounds to it 5. In fine he must be very little acquainted with the Spirit of Popery who imagins that it will be content to re-establish it self in England without aiming to destroy the Protestant Religion Give it but Time and Opportunity to fortifie it self and you may then expect to see what it is In all places where it has got the power in its hands it will not only rule but rule alone and not suffer any other Religion besides it self and imploys the Sword and Fire to extirpate that which it calls Heresie Were not this a Truth confirmed by infinite Examples both ancient and modern which every one knows who has read any thing of History it would be too much evidenced by the Cruelties which it has so lately exercised against the Churches of Hungary of France and of the Vallies of Piemont And men ought not to be lulled asleep by the pretence of an Inclination which the King of England would be thought to have for Liberty of Conscience nor by the Promises which he makes to perserve it to all his Subjects without distinction Every one knows that persidiousness and breach of Faith are Characters of Popery no less essential to it than Cruelty Can you doubt of this Gentlemen you who so lately came from making a sad Experiment of it How often did our King promise us to preserve us in our Priviledges How many Declarations How many Edicts did he set out to that purpose How many Oaths were taken to confirm those Edicts Did not this very King Lewis XIV himself solemnly promise by several Edicts and Declarations to maintain us in all the Liberties which were granted to us by the Edict of Nantes And yet after all what scruple was there made to violate so many Laws so many Promises and so many Oaths The Protestants of England have themselves also sometimes likewise experimented the same Infidelity And not to alledge here any other Example let us desire them to remember only the Reign of Queen Mary what promises she made at her coming to the Crown not to make any change of Religion and yet what bloody Laws she afterwards passed to extinguish the Reformation as soon as she saw her self fast in the Throne And with that inhumanity she spilt the Blood of her most faithful Subjects to accomplish that design After such an instance as this a man must be very credulous indeed and willing to deceive himself that will put too much confidence in the promises of the King that now reigns Do we not know that there are neither Promises nor Oaths which the Pope does not pretend to have power to dispense with in those whom he employs for the Extirpation of Heresie And do we not also know that it is one of the great Maxims of Popery a Maxim authorized both by the Doctrine and Practice of the Council of Constance That they are not obliged to keep any Faith with Hereticks We ought not to believe that King James II. a Prince who has so much Zeal for Popery should be governed by any other Maxims than those of his Religion And whosoever will take the pains to examine his Conduct both before and since his coming to the Crown will find that he has more than once put 'em in practice And this Gentlemen we suppose may be sufficient to convince all reasonable persons that there is nothing more pernicious than that Declaration which you have approved whether by publishing it as some of you have done or by addressing to the King to thank him for it When you shall have reflected upon these things you will without doubt your selves confess that you have suffered your selves to be amused with some imaginary advantages which you hope to make by this Declaration In the mean time most dear Brethren you will pardon us if we have chanced to have let any thing slip that is not agreeable to you We had no Design to give the least Offence either to you or to our Brethren the Dissenters of England If we have spoken our Thoughts freely of your Conduct and â—… theirs we have at least spoken with no less liberty of that of the Bishops And God is our Witness that we have said nothing of the one or the other but in the sincerity of our Heart and out of a desire to contribute somewhat to his Glory and the good of his Church We are Most honoured Brethren Your most Humble most Obedient and most affectionate Brethren in Jesus Christ. N. â—… Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Genleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of ORANGEs Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament THE credulity and Superstition of Mankind hath given great Opportunities and Advantages to cunning Knaves to spread their Nets and lay â—… Traps in order to catch easie and unwary creatures these being led on by Ignorance or â—… they by Pride or Ambition or else a Vile and â—… Principle Therefore seeing we are in this state of Corruption bred up to believe Contradictions and Impossibilities led by the Nose with â—… State Monntebank and Mankish Jugler â—… like Puppets by Strings and Wires it seems â—… time to vindicate Humane Nature and to free â—… from these Shackles laid upon her in the very â—… for Man who ought to be a Free and â—… Animal in his present state is only an â—… and Machine contriv'd for the Vanity and â—… of Priests and Tyrants who claim to themselves â—… seem to Monopolize the Divine Stamp tho' we â—… all made of the same Materials by the same â—… and in the same Mould equal by Nature â—… together and link'd in Societies by mutual contracts plac'd by turns one above another and intrusted for some time with the Power of executing our own Laws and all by general consent for the Publick Good of the whole Community this is â—… genuine Shape and Figure of Primitive and â—… Government not distemper'd and fatally â—… with the monstruous Excrescencies of Arbitrary Power in one single Member above all the Laws of the whole Infallibility Divine Right c. â—… by Knaves and Sycophants bellev'd by Fools â—… scarce ever heard of the Greek and Roman Histories and never read their own I shall therefore give some Examples out of an infinite number of People ruin'd and utterly destroy'd by their â—… Credulity and good Nature matter of Fact â—… a stronger Proof
Consciences of the Church of England Men and â—… the Foundation of our State If Mr. Pen â—… his Disciples had condemn'd the unlawfulness the Declarations and the Dispensing Power â—… they wrote so fast for Liberty of Conscience they had then shew'd a generous zeal for a just freedom in Matters of Religion and at the same â—… a due veneration to the Legislative Power Kings Lords and Commons but the secret of the â—… was to maintain and Erect a Prerogative â—… all Acts of Parliament and consequently to produce upon that bottom Tyranny and Popery yet â—… all this uncontroulable Power and â—… of Grandeur an Easterly Wind and a Fleet Fly-Boats would cancel and undo all again Our â—… Historians relate of King John that being some distress he sent Sir Tho. Hardington and â—… Sir Ralph Fitz-Nichols Ambassadours to â—… the great Emperour of Morocco with â—… of his Kingdom to him upon Condition he should come and aid him and that if he prevail'd â—… would himself turn Mahometan and renounce â—… I will not insist upon the violations of Laws and Treaties in the Low Countries or the Spanish â—… over them because the Spaniards have got so much by that Persecution and Cruelty that they might be tempted to practise the like again for forcing the Netherlanders to take up Arms for their defence and by necessitating Queen Elizabeth â—… and preserve them they have set up a â—… and Glorious State as they themselves have call'd them in some Treaties that hath preserv'd â—… languishing Monarchy of Spain and the Liberty of Christendim The base and cowardly Massacre of that great â—… William Prince of Orange of the Renowned â—… Coligny and the Prince of Conde the many bloody Conspiracies for the Extirpation of the whole Race of the House of Orange The Murders â—… Henry the 2d and Henry the 4th are all Rewards and everlasting Monuments of Popish Barbarity What incredible Effusion of Blood hath been occasion'd by the frequent revolts of the Popes against the Emperours by he Image-Worship and the Holy Wars What Treachery in the Bohemian Transactions and Treaties What Inhumanity burning Jerome of Prague and John Hus when they had the Emperours Pass and all other â—… securities from the Council it self that put to â—… those two Good Men. The Reign of Queen Mary is another Scene of the Infidelity and Treachery of the Church of Rome what Oaths did she take what Promises and Protestations did she make to the Suffolk Men who had set the Crown upon her head and yet they were the first that felt the strokes of a Persecution from Her. Read her History in Fox's Martyrs and Doctor Burnet's History of the Reformation The many Conspiracies to destroy Queen Elizabeth and King James the Gunpowder Plot the Counsels carried on in Popish Countries to take off King Charles the First and the many late Popish Plots are a continued Series and Thred carried on by the Church of Rome to break thro' all Laws both of God and Man to erect an Universal Monarchy of Priest-Crast and to bring the whole World under their Yoke The Sweeds have taken an effectual and commendable way to keep Popish Priests and Jesuits those â—… and disturbers of Societies the declared Enemies to the Welfare of Mankind out of their â—… by Gelding them and consequently rendring them incapable of Sacerdotal Functions tho' the Priests have found out a Salvo and will say Mass and Consess if they can procure their Testicles again and carry them in their Pockets either preserv'd or in Powder In aethiopia China and Japan the Roman Priests have been so intolerably turbulent and such extravagant Incendiaries that they have been often Banished and put to Death so that now they disguise themselves all over the Eastern Nations under the Names and Characters of Mathematicians Mechanicks Physicians c. and dare not own their Mission to propagate a Faith which is grown ridiculous all over Asia The long and dreadful Civil Wars of France the many Massacres and Persecutions and lastly the Siege of Rochel are living Instances how far we may rely upon Engagements and Laws both as to the taking of that Bulwark and the promised relief from hence The Protestant Defenders of it refusing to rely any longer upon Paper Edicts and the Word of a Most Christian King had this City granted them as a Cautionary Town for their Security for before they had always been deluded out of their Advantages by fair promises insignificant Treaties and the word of a King yet Lewis the 13. following the vitious Examples of Treacherous Princes fell upon this Glorious City which upon the account of their Laws and Priviledges made a resistance and brave defence having never heard of Passive Obedience amongst their Pastors thinking it more lawful to defend their Rights than it was for Lewis to invade them As for the late and present Reign here in England they are too nice and tender things for me to touch whether the Transactions of them are consistent with the Coronation-Oaths the many Declarations Protestations publick and solemn Promises I am no fit Judge they are more proper for the Gravity of an Historian or the Authority of a Parliament to handle than for a private Gentleman in a Letter to his Friend The Bishops Papers and the P. of Orange's Declarations are the best Memoirs of them but they only begin where the two parts of the History of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government left off and how far we may trust to Catholick Stipulations Oaths and Treaties the facts of past and the present Age are the best Criterions and Rules to guide and determine us for what happens every day will in all probability happen to morrow the same Causes always produce the same Effects and the Church of Rome is still the same Church it was a hundred years ago that is a Mass of Treachery Barbarity Perjury and the highest Superstition a Machine without any principle or setled Law of Motion not to be mov'd or stopt with the weights of any private or publick Obligations a Monster that destroys all that is sacred both in Heaven and Earth so Ravenous that it is never content unless it gets the whole World into its Claws and tears all to pieces in order to Salvation a Preteus that turns it self into all shapes a Chamelion that puts on all Colours according to its present circumstances this day an Angel of Light to morrow a Beelzehub Amongst all the Courts of Christendom where I have conversed that of Holland is the freest from Tricks and Falshood and tho' I am naturally jealous and suspitious of the Conduct of Princes yet I could never discover the least Knavery within those Walls it appear'd to me another Athens of Philosophers and the only Seat of Justice and Vertue now left in the World as for the Character of the Prince of Orange it is so faithfully drawn by Sir Will. Temple Doctor Burnet and in a half sheet