HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of ENGLAND Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLIC KING With reference to the TEST and PENAL LAWS In a Letter to a Friend by a Member of the same Church LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687. THE TITLES OF THE SECTIONS SECT I. THe Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England Page 1. SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion Page 4. SECT III. How the Bishops and Clergy behaved themselves in those times Page 14. SECT IV. The Calumnies against the Loyal Members of the Church of England in the foregoing times Page 18. SECT V. The Affrightments and Arts now used to make Subjects believe that the Protestant Religion is to be extirpated here Page 22. SECT VI. That the Church of England hath been in a disturbed condition under Protestant Princes Page 27. SECT VII That it is in a more flourishing condition now Page 33. SECT VIII The self-denial of the King in the Exercise of his own Religion Page 36. SECT IX The difficulty of effecting a change of Religion Page 40. SECT X. Two Objections answered Page 56. SECT XI That the Kings dispensing with the Test is no Argument of his design to Extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 62. SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion Page 72. SECT XIII Concerning the Test Page 78. SECT XIV Concerning Sanguinary and Penal Laws against Roman Catholics Page 143. SECT XV. The Inconveniencies that will attend the not Repealing of Penal Laws and particularly the Test Page 165. SECT XVI The Practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living under one Secular Government Page 180. SECT XVII The Character of his Majesty Page 191. SECT XVIII The Conclusion Page 205. ERRATA PAge 15. Line 7. for assured read afraid P. 22. the last line but one for These r. There P. 31. l. 17. for confirmed too r. conformed to P. 40. The Title of the Section should have ended at the word Religion and the rest be placed in the Margent P. 79. l. ult for it r. them P. 94. l. 7. for naturally r. natural P. 113. l. 12. for But r. yet P. 117. l. 1. after we put in may P. 178. l. 7. for preached r. practised P. 182. l. 3. for attemps r. attempts P. 183. l. 11. for Budifir r. Budifin P. 185. l. 7. for Abby r. Abbot HOW THE MEMBERS OF THE Church of England Ought to behave themselves under A ROMAN CATHOLICK KING In a Letter to a Friend SECT I. The Character of an old Loyalist of the Church of England SIR SINCE our first acquaintance we have seen the Revolution of almost fifty years In all which time your unshaken Loyalty and steady Adherence to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England have been most conspicuous You equally hated the Flatterer who by stretching the Length of the Scepter made it unweildy and the Factious who by continual filing made it too slender and of no more force than a Reed or so shortned it that from a Sovereign Battoon it scarce equalled a Serjeants Mace. You valued him most who paid a just Deference to the Regal Prerogative and was infinitely thankful for all the gracious Enfranchisements of the Subject You knew too well the Injustice and Illegality of taking Arms against King Charles the First setled your Judgment so firmly then that none of the Designers Arts to cajole the Multitude made any impression on you And however great your Sufferings were then and thereby by your Disability to aid the Banished Prince yet you were as forward as any to assist him in all things serviceable to his Interest not only in confirming your Neighbours and Acquaintance in their Allegiance when their Enemies success made them dispond but in making Converts of those who had been deluded by the specious pretence of Liberty and Reformation So that you helped much to prepare Mens minds earnestly to wish and effectually to promote the late Merciful King's Restauration and when in his later time he was so Embarrassed with some of his Parliaments you were an eminent Abhorrer and as strenuous an Opposer of the Bill of Seclusion and though you were branded with the name of Papist in Masquerade and a Janizary for Arbitrary Power yet you kept your Post and assured those that conversed with you that Loyalty which you had been taught in the Church of England was so firm a Basis to you that the attacks of Slander and Obloquy should never remove you one hair's breadth from your Duty It was the very Polar Star to which you directed all your Actions without trepidation the Axis on which you designed to move SECT II. How such behaved themselves during the Transaction of the Bill of Seclusion GIVE me leave to remind you of some of those Answers you used to make to those Speeches were sent you from one of the Clerks of the Commons House when the debate was hottest about the Bill of Seclusion for it was at that critical Time the truest Sons of the English Church were discriminated from the Latitudinarian Protestants Non-Conformists and Common-wealth's Men. S. W. J. Collection of Speeches When that overgrown Lawyer said He took it for granted that it was impossible that a Papist should come to the Possession and quiet enjoyment of the Crown without wading through a Sea of Blood and without occasioning such a War as for ought he knew might shake the Monarchical Government You then reply'd This was more like the Bellowing of a Bull than a Responce from an Oracle of the Laws and that who ever lived to see the Duke Succeed as in course of Nature it was likely would find the True Sons of the Church of England so far from listing up an hand against him that if his Right were opposed they would with as much Zeal and Concern as any fight under his Royal Standard and if any such Bouteseu's as he raised a Rebellion they would only afford Trophies to his Victorious Sword and fall as Sacrifices to the Justice of his Cause When that bitter mans Speech was urged That a Popish Head on a Protestant Body would be such a Monster in Nature as would neither be fit to preserve or be preserved and it as naturally followed as the Night did Day that the Head would Change the Body or the Body the Head You answered That we ought to consider the Royal Headship abstractedly from the Subject-Body as we do the sublimed Animal and vital Spirits from the gross Blood and the grosser composition of the Body The Sovereignty being as a Presiding Coelestial Power fitted to govern Members of various Temperaments and Constitutions and that it was as easie to conceive how a Popish King might benignly govern his Protestant Subjects as it was for a Father to govern with Paternal Care and Indulgence his Children of different Humors and Inclinations and
plain proof that some people believe the Promise of protecting the Church of England Which makes them shelter themselves under it but I suppose it will be no longer than the Storm is impending In fine unless it be that we want his Majesties presence at the Royal Chappel we find no alteration from what was in King Charles the Second's time and the generality of the people finding the Clergy so boldly to stand to the Protestant Religion respect and reverence them more than ever So that if the flourishing state of a Church be to be known by the number of Communicants by the populous Auditories conformableness to the Ecclesiastical Doctrine and Discipline If by the decency of the Churches the full free and solemn Exercise of the Rites of our Religion by the eloquent learned and painful preaching of the Ministers by the full and free enjoyment of their Revenues the uninterrupted Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Laws and Discipline The present state of the Church of England is as flourishing as we can desire and may so continue if we can be content to yield Roman Catholics a favour next to a Tolleration SECT VIII The Self-denial of the King in the Exercise of his own Religion SINCE I am discoursing of the paralel of the flourishing state of the Church of England formerly and now I think we ought seriously to reflect how gracious our King is to us and how little a share of liberty to his Catholics he is content with None sure could have counted it injustice if our Sovereign had chosen his own Royal Chappel in his own Palace to have performed his Devotions in whereas he quits that to the Prince and Princess to the Archbishops great Ministers of State the Nobility Bishops and Protestants of all ranks and contents himself with the Queens Chappel at St. James's hath only one Bishop his Confessarius and a small number of Chaplains and circumscribes his Processions within the Cloyster of that small Convent And at Windsor his Summer-Palace leaves the Collegiate Church to Protestants and only keeps to himself the small new Chappel adjoyning to St. Georges Hall which if he had not taken though some unquiet Spirits made such a noise at it he must have had no place there for his Devotion The King graciously allows us the Cathedrals Parish-Churches and Chappels and the free and unrestrained exercise of our Religion have we reason then to grudge him two or three small Chappels and the Subjects of his Faith their Private Oratories We have had a further Instance of his Majesties tenderness in protecting the Church of England in the Letter sent to the two Arch-bishops at such time when it was generally bruited abroad we may judge by whose Artifice and Malice that the King intended to prohibite preaching of Controversies betwixt the Church of Rome and us and to take away Lectures and Afternoon Preaching whereas we find by the Instructions annexed to the Letter That it was no more than had been done in King James's and in King Charles the First 's time and was verbatim what had been published by King Charles the Second And in stead of restraining our Ministers from preaching in defence of the Church of England it is allowed yea appointed them so it be done according to the Instructions Let us therefore receive these largesses of Princely Favours with dutiful and thankful Hearts and by no petulancy or unnecessary eagerness for more indanger the loss of what we enjoy And I doubt not but Roman Catholics will allow something to a people devoted to their Religion and distinguish betwixt those that are and ever will be truly Loyal even under Sufferings and a party that seek all opportunities to repine SECT IX The difficulty of effecting a Change of Religion First from the Peoples general Prejudice against it TO proceed more particularly to the further Reasons why I think the Protestant Religion is in no such danger as some labour with all their Arts to make us believe I shall desire it may be considered How averse the body of the People are to it Protestantism here has taken deep Root and the prejudice against and even abhorrence of Popery hath been instilled into us with our first Rudiments So that the generality may as well be prevailed upon to embrace Turcism or Heathenism as the Religion which hath been represented to them as Idolatrous and so contrary to Scripture Education and a long Series of contrary Usage are great Impediments in the minds of all Men to admit of any change in Customs much more in Religion The great Obstacle that hinder the common people from complying with the Roman Catholic Religion are That the Publick Service is celebrated in an Unknown Tongue in which they know not how to joyn as they do in our Liturgies and the multitude of mysterious Ceremonies do no less amaze them who will be rather contented to be accounted thick-skulls than they will be at the pains to learn them The Clergy and those who are able to consider the matters in dispute betwixt the two Churches cannot after that vast number of Books that have been writ on both sides satisfie themselves in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints worship of Images Purgatory Merit and several other matters in which difference they unite with other Reformed Churches And there is something peculiar which will be a constant Remora to the Clergy especially viz. That First the Reformation was here more regular than in any other Country Secondly That Episcopal Government is maintained in good order and such a Liturgy and Ceremonies used as come nearest to the Primitive usage as they think themselves very able to maintain Thirdly They are unwilling to yield the Roman Catholic Church to be the Judge of Controversies betwixt them And as to the Supremacy of the Pope The English Clergy will most unwillingly yield it after so long a renouncing it Lastly The Indispensible Celebacy of the Catholic Clergy is an insuparable hinderance of English Ministers submission to that Religion since the married here will be incapable of preferment and on the contrary must suffer degradation and beggery Who seriously considers those things will not only judge it an attempt unseazable especially when the prospect of a Protestant Successor is an Ensuring-Office to our Religion but may satisfie any of the groundlesness of those Fears some people are too prone to suggest more I think out of design than that they believe it themselves That the Protestant Religion is designed to be overthrown There are but four ways by which this can be effected Either First by the freedom of preaching of the Fathers Secondly Their Writings Thirdly Their Conversation Or Fourthly by Force which I shall now consider As to their Preaching 1 That it will not be effected by the preaching of the Fathers First It is observeable That it is a most rare thing to hear any discourse of Controversies in the King 's or either Queen's Chappels or
none of those Acts of bounty or choice he can do if he cannot dispense with penal Laws Yet for all this gracious and just Favour to Catholics I do not see that by any the remotest consequences either the King doth design or that it is his Interest by them to extirpate the Protestant Religion but rather to conciliate a better Union betwixt them by conversation and mutual Service that in as much as in him lies by the experience now of that good Accord betwixt them in the Civil and Military management of Affairs a better understanding may be betwixt them even under a Protestant Prince Though it is to be doubted that however now we grudge that a few Catholics are in Commission and are peevish because any are imployed besides Protestants yet who ever lives to see a Protestant Successor will not find the same reciprocal Favours to Catholics SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion THe Reason that presseth me much to believe that the King neither Designs nor thinks it his Interest to introduce the Catholic Religion so as to extrude the Church of England is the moral impossibility that so wise and generous a Prince and so great a lover of his Country however his wishes may be in his Judgment thinking it conducibâ—e to the Salvation of their Souls will undertake a Business that requires a long long Age to effect and must render those days he hath to live which I wish many and many full of disquiet and anxiety if not of Blood and Carnage For it is a Princes paramont Interest to consult the safety of his Government and where he governs Subjects as his are circumstantiated so to manage Affairs as he may not weaken his Kingdoms defence against his watchful Neighbours by giving the Power into a few hands against the hundred times more numerous and consequently more able to serve him in his Defence or give opportunity to such as we may be sure are not true to the Principles of the Church of England of non-resistance to raise some formidable disturbance which the Catholics singly will not be able to quell It is very evident that the Doctrine professed by the Church of England is unconditioned Loyalty and the Members of it that understand best the Doctrine and their Duty think in this particular they carry the Prize from all other Church-Societies But they are not all to be reputed Members of the Church of England who go by that Name there are some can be very loyal to a Protestant King but can be factious seditious Male-contents and sowers of jealousies and fears under a Catholic and think it no sin to be regardless of his Honour or Success And if any Rebellion should happen which God avert they would think it their Duty to sit still and others who fight for pay only of which it may be presumed there are many of the Common Sort if upon any Revolt they had a prospect of Money and the better securing of the Religion they value would swiftly run over to that side where they might hope for both Besides which the indefatigable Commonwealths-men Male-contents Non-conformists and several of the Zealous true Protestants Associaters and Exclusionists would combine in opposition to barefac'd Popery for they are all threaded on one String the same Iron Sinue runing through them all so that if by any Wars abroad or Intestine Discontents at home any Calamity should happen which may fall out under the prudentest and wisest Prince It is to be suspected by the mere terrible Engine the fear of losing their Religion the Body of the People would consider their strength only and make their Loyalty give place to their great Concernment and neither regard the Kings Sovereignty or the Loyal Principles of the Church of England but forget all Duty and Reverence to secure that which they would make us believe is dearer to them than their Lives and Fortunes and then the Catholics and true Sons of the Church of England would be only left to abide the shock of all the rest And though such a Prince as ours is not to be affrighted out of his Methods yet we may rationally Judge that he considers all this and must compute what Hearts and Hands he is sure of and will not embarras and imbroil himself in Matters so difficult to accomplish and make his Reign uneasie to himself by imposing a Religion upon his Subjects they are so much Strangers unto and have such an aversion from and to no other end but to force his people at the best to become Hypocrites Having thus I hope cleared that Point that the Protestant Religion is in no such danger as timerous or designing Persons would have us believe I come now to speak more particularly to the Test which is looked upon as the very Barrier Rampire and Citadel that is only left to defend us against the over-powering Attacks of Popery which some Men would make us believe if it once be yeilded up to the Kings demolishing no visible hold is left to prevent the whole Nation 's being subdued to the Catholic Religion SECT XIII Concerning the Test I Shall first therefore endeavour to shew the Nature of the Test and the occasion of the making of it and the several Reasons why it may be prudence to revoke it and other penal Laws And lastly the inconveniences of denying to repeal it and so draw to a Conclusion The Motives that occasioned the making of the Test It must be owned that it hath been the Care of most Protestant Parliaments especially since the late Kings Restauration to secure the Militia and the Kings Guards and standing Forces in the hands of Protestants only Therefore in the Act for Setling the Militia Anno 1661 the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were injoyned and when it was known that our King had left the Communion of the Church of England the Houses began to be more intent upon finding out ways to secure the Protestant Religion and then those who afterwards pushed forward with such violence the Bill of Seclusion having gained so specious opportunity to lay all the stress of their Contrivances upon the necessary endeavours to secure the Protestant Religion under the notion of protecting the Person and Government of our late King and preventing a Popish Successor from Arming Catholics to the hazard of the Protestant Religion They prevailed upon the King to give his Assent to the Bills I shall now give you a Breviate of it in the words of the Act and give some short Notes upon them and then proceed The First Act. Stat. 2â— Car. 2. c. 2. The Title of the Act is For preventing dangers which may happen from popish Recusants And the preamble adds For quieting the minds of his Majesties good Subjects It is enacted That all and every person or persons as well Peers as Commoners that shall bear any Office or Offices Civil or Military or
withstanding by those Laws this invincible perswasion without any other Crime is interpreted High Treason and punished as such and Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Rochester and others suffered death upon that account In others of them not only Priests for receiving Orders according to the Rites of the Church of Rome and coming over to Exercise the Office of their Function but such as were converted to the Romish Faith or Reconciled were involved in the Crime of Felony or Treason without lifting an hand uttering a Word or imagining the least disloyal thought against the peace of the Nation where they were Subjects First consideration how the grounds of those severities now cease Therefore first it must be considered that since some of these Laws were made in the tender Age of the Reformation when our Princes were very careful that it might not be overlaid in its Swathing Cloaths but now it is at a manly and masterly growth and back-set with so numerous a Progeny and powerful Abettors that it can plead a prescription and possession sufficient to maintain it self by Argument and Vote Therefore we cannot now judge such severe Laws so necessary there being no such danger of the Popes exercising any other Supremacy here than what is purely spiritual over those of that Communion in the Divine Offices of their Religion without having any power to dispose of any Benefices endow Religious Houses or establish any Religious Polity over the Protestant Subjects And as to any Temporal Jurisdiction it is impossible he should receive any thing of that which hath been so strenuously opposed even while the whole Nation in Spirituals submitted to the Doctrine and Discipline of that Church and I think all may be well satisfied that our King is no ways disposed to quit any of his Royal Prerogatives or subject his Crown to any other Potentate upon Earth The second Reason Secondly It ought to be remembred that in Queen Elizabeth's time there grew a strong Faction in the State by reason of the doubtful legitimacy of that Queen as being by the Pope and all Roman Catholics looked upon as born out of lawful Wedlock her Fathers Wife Queen Catherine being then alive and her Mother married to the King before a legal Divorce according to the Ecclesiastical Laws then in force which occasioned the Roman Catholics here to be great Favourers and Abetters of Mary Queen of Scots so that there was a political necessity in Queen Elizabeth and those that adhered to her and upon that account were desirous to preserve the Protestant Religion she embraced with all the Art and Industry they could by the severest Laws to secure the one and the other and by reason of several Attempts Insurrections and Forreign oppositions the unfortunate Queen of Scots was put to death for the safety of that Queen which the Politicians of that Age thought could never be as long as her Ryval lived Therefore we must look upon those Laws as made mostly for the security of the Sovereignty against Roman Catholics who as such were adjudged the greatest Enemies to it So that if we consider the times when and the persons upon whom the bloodiest Laws were executed we shall find that they were principally if not only when the State was either in real or imaginary danger from such Whence it was that the great States-man the Lord Burleigh published that Discourse That Papists were not put to death here for their Religion but for their Treasons Tho whoever considers how the security of the State and of the Religion was interwoven will find it requires a subtil head to separate them The grounds of them now cease However the Case is now wholly altered the Succession of our King is not in the least disputable by Roman Catholics or Protestants so that there can be no ground to keep up those in force for any other end than the securing the Protestant Religion only So that we must invalidate all my Lord Burleighs Arguments and bottom all our reasoning upon Religion if we plead for those Laws which cannot fully be justified but by avowing of that position so much exploded by the Church of England that Dominion is founded in Grace which dangerous Doctrine if it were once yielded no Prince could be safe from those that would alledge and were powerful enough to prove it that a Prince was not as holy as they or of their Society and where punishments of the severer kinds are inflicted for different modes of Worship where neither Immorality Sedition or Treason deserve it or it is not done with due reference to the peace and tranquility of the State we must ground them on the same Principle that because such and such are not Believers of the true Faith which the present Rulers would infer they only had must be cut off or punished as Malefactors Whereas it seems much more agreeable to Christian Moderation and the Rules of true Policy that where any Church is legally settled the care of preventing mischiefs should be left to the Government which no doubt would provide redress by suppressing Sedition whereby none but such as were Factious Turbulent and endanger the peace of the Government might be under any pressure or forced to withdraw their effects and forsake their Country or to live in obscurity and reservedness as people under the hatches all which do manifestly impoverish a Country However in our case it seems an unbecoming distrust of the intrinsick goodness of our Religion or the strength of our Arguments for it when it must be defended by Club-law And since we are out of all danger of Roman Priests Trafficking for Forreign Invasions as when the severe Laws were made the State was apprehensive of or of plotting and contriving against the King and Government It is too great an Argument that the refusing to take off the penal Laws and that we do not acquiesce and yield to the moderate desire of so gracious a King is more out of an inclination to gratifie Humor and Contention than for any other Cause It being sufficient that if ever such a time should occurr wherein the State should be indangered by Roman Catholics the severities might be reinforced When therefore we consider that the sanguinary and penal Laws now in being are severe to the utmost extremity When a Turk or a Jew not to mention other professions more turbulent in a State are not under any such impending Lash And consider what an after reckoning they may undergo so that the Laws standing not only Priests and new Converts but most of the old hereditary Roman Catholics must be forced to flee or abscond themselves And as to the Test however the King may for his time dispence with the taking of it and grant Pardons to and Indempnifie the not-takers of it toties quoties yet who ever shall act after the very last Pardon may be informed against under the next Protestant Successor and then it may be
the two Houses might find useful for the public good Lastly This Non-correspondence must gratifie and incourage all the Enemies to Monarchy and all those who were for the Bill of Seclusion this Discord being the only pleasing Harmony to them who never hug themselves with so full an Ohe of content and satisfaction as when they find the Crown in any straits or can foment if not conjure up a Spirit of Jealousie betwixt the King and his Parliament and when they have stolen the Peoples Hearts from the King they are upon the Tiptoes of hope that they may strike in for the prize If we have not a feeling sense of the miserable state that Sedition and Rebellion It's most savage Elder Brother will bring us all to let us consult our bloody Annals and our Ancestors deplorable experience and then ponder well whether it be Tanti to move Heaven and Earth harras our Country and embrue it with the blood of so many of our Country-men and nearest Relations and at last fight our selves into a much worse condition than we are ever like to be in by granting this Repeal which in this juncture is most reasonable if not for our Kings sake and the Roman Catholics yet at least for our own peace and tranquility and the establishing our hopes of his Majesties kindness to our Church The last Inconvenience The last Reason I shall urge is that the refusing to Vacate these Acts may necessitate the King to grant a Toleration which of all things the Church of England hath hitherto most dreadded and to which we may believe the King is well enough inclined out of a principle of clemency to his people in general as well as Indulgence to his Catholic Subjects which altho his Royal Brother after an essay at the earnest solicitation of his Parliament was Graciously pleased to recal to gratifie the Church of England yet we cannot expect that our King not having those motives and being courted by so many to grant it and finding the extension of his Supremacy will think it his Interest to revoke it if he once establish it The difference betwixt Roman Catholics and other Dissenters from the Church of England Here it will not be a miss to consider the great difference there is betwixt Roman Catholics and other Dissenters while the Laws are in force The Non-conformists may meet to the number of Five besides the Family and have their Pastor or Teacher with them and the disagreeableness betwixt them and the Church of England is not so great but that those who have Estates or desire to obtain Offices of honour or profit even to do the Crown a disservice as we found in those that were to capacitate themselves to be Sheriffs in the late times could readily Conform Whereas Roman Catholics are in extream peril from the very harbouring their Priests so that in this the Roman Catholics are in a sadder state than any Christians are For to exercise their Religion without Priests for performing the Office of Baptizing Administring the Blessed Sacrament burying the Dead c. Is in that Church and ought to be in all others impossible and to have them for celebrating these and other Divine Offices as the Laws now are renders them obnoxious to the punishments inflicted on Felons and Traytors and there is no possibility of the Roman Catholics as such conforming even so much as in going once a month to Church without putting themselves out of the Communion of their Church which with them is to be avoided more than the utmost sufferings When therefore we consider the Unchristianness of such severe Laws under our circumstances and reflect that tho the greatest part of the disquiets from the Tenth Year at least of Queen Elizabeth have arisen from the pretences of keeping out Popery and the Advantages the Long Parliament had against King Charles the First was from that source and the troubles of our late merciful King were bottomed on the same apprehensions and yet now that we see it 's actually practised we find no such dreadful events but that the Vizard was portraied much more terrible than now when it appears with open face and now when we see the publick exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion we only find it gazed at as a Novelty but no affrightments attending it and we find what we understand in Sermons and Catechizing is Christian and profitable and what we understand not in Ceremonies we see full of Pomp and Magnificence and further we see not I say when we consider all this and that it is in our choice whether we will allow the sanguinary and penal Laws to be abolished with a security in the exercising the Protestant Religion or on the contrary the Inconveniencies before recited and a Tolleration to boot methinks it should be no difficult matter to determine which were more advantagious Having thus shewn some of the disadvantages to Us and our Religion by the refusal of a Repeal I might propose the advantages which will accrue by yielding up those Laws the King hath such an obligation in Honour and Justice at least in his own Royal Apprehension to insist upon but that the removal of the one puts the other in their place SECT XVI The practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living under one Secular Government THerefore I shall chuse rather to shew the practicableness of Roman Catholics and Protestants living in the full enjoyment of their respective Religions under Princes of either Religion And first shall observe that the Church of Rome and the Church of England are the two Churches in Europe at least that are the most conspicuous and of most renown Both plead for the Antiquity of their Doctrine The Roman Catholics are of one Communion and so is the Church of England but Protestantism at large takes in a greater variety of subdivisions and those separate from the Church of England as much as that doth from the Roman Secondly It hath been the endeavour of many learned and pious men to accommodate the points in difference betwixt Roman Catholics and Protestants But by reason of secular interests no expedient could be found to adjust them till at last in Germany from whence our Saxon Ancestors came after about twenty years war wherein the Country was the very Theatre on which the most Tragical Effusion of Blood and the most depopulating waste by Fire and Rapine were acted to the highest degree of humane cruelty and revenge and all this principally upon the account of the difference between Roman Catholies and Protestants upon account of their Religion and being at last throughly wearied with the unsuccessful attempts upon one another in the year 1624. they came to the following settlements which I believe they hitherto reap the fruit of being confirmed Anno 1648. at the Treaty of Munster whereby it was made an Imperial Law. The Duke of Newburgh is a strict Roman Catholic yet in his Country of Juliers even at Deuseldorp
that whatsoever Latitude other Church-men might take to obey Princes only so far as they were Nursing Fathers to their Church yet the Principles and Doctrine of the Church of England contained in its Homilies obliged all the Subjects to be dutiful bear Faith and Allegiance to their Sovereign and support his Crown and Dignity though he were of a different Religion and it taught absolute and unconditionate Obedience for Conscience sake When some thought to touch you more closely in your Private Col. B. Concerns as knowing you had some Church Lands and shewed you the Colonels Speech who said He took it for granted that we have nothing of our own if Popery come in not only the Church Lands but all the Lands we have will be little enough for them for they will never want an Holy Sanctified Religious pretence to take them from us To this you answered That the unpractitableness of restoring Church Lands is apparent in the possession of those in Germany got into by Hostilities and established by Treaties and seeing that in Queen Mary's days when the Romish Government and the Popes Supremacy was re-established and the individual Parcels disseiz'd from the Church easily known in the Reign of a Princess so zealous to remove the Guilt of Sacriledge that she actually restored what was in her Possession and proceeded to the Rebuilding of some Religious Houses seeing you said that she thus earnest upon the Work and who had the Interest of the Pope and the Zeal of a much vaster number of Catholicks then are now to assist her was yet so far from being able to obtain an Act of Parliament for that purpose that the Pope himself by Bull confirmed them Certainly if this then was unpracticable when Protestantism was at so low an Ebb what could be expected after almost 150 years quiet possession So that if there were no other obstacle but the inextricable confusion it would be impossible that any Court of Claims could adjust the Title of any Religious to them by any colour of Law or Equity and no Catholick Prince whatsoever would disquiet and disoblige the whole Body almost of his Subjects both Catholicks and Protestants for the advantage of three or four of his English Subjects in every Monastery for if he should recall all the Religious of his Subjects out of all the Foreign Convents they would not supply them to a greater number S. H. C. When you read another Splenetick Gentlemans Harangue That Misery and Slavery were the Concomitants of Popery And when in answer to a Gentleman that urged against the Bill That it would lay the foundation of a miserable Civil War The aforesaid zealous Knight reply'd That the Barbarousness exercised in Queen Mary 's Reign by Fire and Fagot might be put in the Ballance with all the inconveniences that ever happened by any Exclusion-Act I remember you pitied the Contlemans short Memory or want of perusing our Histories where he might have found in many of the Skirmishes besides the sixteen pitch'd Battels fought betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster upon the Usurpation of King Henry the Fourth against Richard the Second that more were slain in one day and more Families ruined in one year than in the whole Reign of Queen Mary And however the matter should fall out as we had no shadow of Reason to suspect it were better to die as Sufferers guilty of no other Crime than the Adhearing to our Religion then to die by the Sword Bullet Ax or Halter for Rebellion You farther said That we ought to consider the difference betwixt a lawful Hereditary Prince and an Usuper The one being obliged by Interest so to govern that he may have a peaceable and comfortable Reign and have willing and wealthy Subjects Whereas the other having the establishing his Usurpation his sole scope enslaves all he can studying only to aw all into Obedience by force and strong hand But it would be otherwise in the Succession here where the Princesses his R. H. only Daughters who or their Issues were in the course of Nature if he had no Son to succeed him were married to Protestants so that he would have as great regard to their peaceable Possession as his own And let the Motives be what they could he would content himself with the Publick Exercise of his own Religion and affording Liberty Countenance and Protection to all Catholicks and imploying some of them and suspending the execution of such Laws as were heavy upon them And if this were not opposed you doubted not but his Reign would much increase the Wealth Glory and Military Discipline of the Nation How scrupulous now Yet after all this since you have lived to see so much of the Prognosticks verified of late you have expressed apprehensions of the danger of your Religion and the concern for that hath made you hearken to the suggestions of some Church-men and others who really believe all which the Seclusionists then without crediting a Tittle of it most artificially spread abroad I think my self therefore bound to offer you my Reason why you ought not to fear this and in the first place think fit to remind you how the Clergy of England that surely considered consequences behaved themselves then and after shall answer the best Arguments I have met with to the contrary SECT III. How the Bishops and Clergy behaved themselves in those times THe Deportment of the Bishops and the Loyal Clergy may be best known by their adhearing to the Crown-side and the endeavours that were used to render them less credited by the People It is very well known how strenuously they opposed the Bill of Seclusion both in the City and Country and how few if any of the Bishops in the House of Peers countenanced that Bill which occasioned such bitter and biting Speeches or such sly insinuating Girds against them as if they were ready to enroll themselves under the Banner of St. Peter and betray the Protestant Interest rather than be deprived of the warming Beams of the Rising Sun. Sr. F. W. Hence one of the Active Members said They might be assur'd of their Religion if the Fathers of the Church joyn in being against the only means to preserve it and he desired the Church might not be scandaliz'd for they did not disinherit the Prince for his Religion but to save their own And further said That he thought it a kindness to the Church above all other Acts whatsoever And lest in this he might not be understood aright he added that he meant the Protestant Church which shewed that these men considered the conformable Clergy of England as a different Body from the Protestants at large And so the kindness of that Act would operate to them though not to the present Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England who defired no such indirect proceedings to secure them W. H. Another said He was unwilling to detract from the Merits of Church-men for whom
I think in that of the Popes Nuncio or chappels of Embassadours Those Protestants which have heard them can universally testifie That the Text mostly is out of the Epistle or Gospel of the day and the scope of the Discourse is generally incitements to the duty of Holy Living disswasives from all kind of sin and true motives to penitence for them When they commemorate any Saint in celebrating the Festival the application is to imitate their Sanctity and praise God for the Grace conferred on them and affording such Examples of Devotion and holy living Which Heads when they are most powerfully treated upon may be effectual to make a Man a good Christian but avails not much to make him a Roman Catholic It is well known to most that hear them that if it were not for the habit the Ave Maria the want of Notes the devision of the Discourse and some small difference in the way of delivery they could not distinguish their Sermons from those in Protestant Churches So that they gain only by that a little mitigation of peoples Censures who have had them represented either as ridiculous or absurd Since therefore the Preachers of both Churches agree in the points of Moral Piety and the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity It may prevail with Lay Auditors to judge those are the necessary things knowable and that the skill in nice and subtil Controversies are nothing so needful to salvation as the decrying and shunning Vice and Debauchery When therefore we consider the advantage the Ministers of the Church of England have over the Fathers we surely must yield That they may much more easily keep their own Flock from straying than the other can win them over to the Romish Faith. For First the Ministers are infinitely more numerous and settled in their several Parishes as so many Shepherds to secure their charge Secondly They have willing and unprejudiced Auditors to hear them whereas most Protestants that go to hear the Fathers generally do it out of curiosity or to censure them Thirdly The Ministers of England have a good Art of Address to enforce their Doctrines and having been longer used to preaching than the Fathers and using a different method from them to which people have been more accustomed I see no reason to fear that they can so prevail as to commit a rape upon their Auditors Affections and Judgments whereby they should be converted by thousands as those were at S. Peters Sermons and without such Miracles I think by preaching the Protestants will not be changed As to their Writings 2 Nor by their Writings the scope of those seem to be primarily to explain those Articles of Faith wherein Protestants most differ from them in such a manner as may conciliate a better understanding between the two Churches and by a sweetening and favourable representation of the Catholic Doctrine endeavour to remove the Prejudices Protestants have entertained against it as irroconcileable to Scripture and the exposition of the Primitive Fathers This seems the most Christian and Charitable method they have or possibly can take to render their Religion intelligible to us or at least incline us to less censoriousness of theirs which province the Bishop of Meaux hath undertaken with greatest applause and it hath been followed by some of our Country Yet when we consider how little hither to hath been gained by this expedient we need neithe be waspish and angry or abandon our selves to such sinking sears as if the Church of England would be overset by so smooth a Sea. The Church of England hath in it many learned and dextrous men who have good Libraries and are well skilled in History and the Antient Fathers and are well pleased they have the opportunity of shewing their Talents and are confident they can manage their cause more advantagiously than the Catholics and think this way of their Adversaries Writings effects not what is aimed at but on the contrary confirms the people That they have been taught by their Pastors the more antient and true Doctrine as it was believed in the Ages nearest the Apostles times So when the Pope yielded to the Bohemians the use of the Wine in the Sacrament It being received by them as a confirmation That the Eucharist ought to be administred in both species and that it was as reasonable that other Points in difference should be allowed them the Pope recalled the Tolleration When we further consider That the dubious expressions of the Fathers afford subtil men on both sides sufficient matter for arguing pro and con and that the Writers in both Churches agree not upon a Judg betwixt them It is not easie to conceive how by this way a National Conversion can be effected For though the number of Writers were never so much multiplied Yet since the Arguments are the same and neither part can put the principal differences to Umpirage or fix upon an Umpire they may both write till Dooms-day 3 Nor by their freedom of conversation and endeavours to proselite the people ere they accord As to Conversation It must be owned that in this as well as the foregoing particulars the R. Catholick Church-Men have that advantage now that they never had since the Reformation both publickly to preach and publish their Books of Controversie and be as industrious as they please to prevail with people in their conversation which is like a single combate betwixt a Man skilled at his Weapon and a Novice It must be granted also That several persons may be reconciled to the Church of Rome especially such as are curious after Novelties and not well grounded in the Protestant Religion or such as fall into solicitous thoughts about the state of their Salvation and come to think the failures they have committed have been occasioned by their want of due Instruction Or once conceive that Salvation is not to be had out of the most Catholic Church or that a perfect absolution upon Confession and Contrition is to be had no where out of the Church of Rome and some may be won by an affectation of the modishness of being of the Religion of their Prince or in hopes of the more propitious royal Smiles and such in my judgment as change their Religion for this sole end neither deserve the countenance of their Prince nor of any worthy Man for such will vary with the next Wind and neither God nor Man will find stability in them But we experimentally find that the progress of these kinds of conversion is very slow and it must be a work of many Ages to effect any great matter this way where so thick-set prejudices and prepossessions of a different perswasion are so firmly retained that to change a Religion this way is but like the demolishing a Fabrick of immense firmness and size by picking out here and there a single Stone even while others are as diligent and industrious to secure it If lastly any be won over to the Church
of Rome by any of these or any other method of more force the act being personal seeing every Mans Salvation toucheth himself most why should any so much be concerned about it seeing it is their own voluntary act and no injury is done to the willing yielder and it would be a strange obstinacy in any not to yield to conviction Having shewn the groundlesness of those peoples fears that dread the overthrow of the Church of England by any of the three forementioned ways I come now to the last that is Force It was a Master-piece in the Seclusionists 4 That it is morally impossible to effect it by force to represent Popery and Slavery as Twin-Monsters and inseparable Fiends which they described in the most terrible shape with Jaws of Lions Talons of Vultures and Harpyes Eyes of Basilisks and fierceness of Tygers surrounding them with Fire and Brimstone horrible Flame and the equipage of Chains Racks and Wheels and all the Torments of the Ten Persecutions or what ever else inventive Mischief hath since found out Yet we now live to see them all but terrible Bugbears and the Affrightments of Hypocondriac Dreams By a natural instinct we English of what perswasion soever are very careful to preserve our properties which in all times have been dear to us and those most antient Laws that secure them were made before the name of Protestant was known in the World. We must also consider that with what ever daring courage religious zeal may inspire Men yet common policy and interest will certainly discourage all Catholics from attempting any change of Religion by force and enslaving lest they or their posterity in the next Age might undergo a Retaliation as heavy upon them when it would be more easie to extirpate the whole Roman Religion here than now it would be to change that of one City When therefore the founding of Religion will be the ruine of Estates and the Story of Perrillus's Bull is not worn out of Mens Memories or Men are like to be the Sacrifices upon the Altars they too precipitately raise we are not to expect such venterous Heroes as will have the hardiness of Sampson especially since if they had they would want the Power and force to effect it SECT X. Two Objections answered I Know it is urged That we had a sad Experiment of the change made by a standing Army here which was able to overthrow the Monarchy And the French Kings late proceedings against the Hugonots prove That by force great alterations otherwise looked upon as next to impossible may be effected But the Cases are very different from ours 1 That the case of the Usurpers over throwing the monarchy and episcopacy is very different from ours for in our late Civil Wars the people were only wrought up to the height of power to dispose of the fate of Monarchy by the belief the Designers impressed upon them That Popery and arbitrary Government were making great approaches and fully designed to be introduced by the King and Bishops And a Parliament was by a fatal oversight perpetuated which was of the same perswasion and had the Hearts Purses and Heads of infinite multitudes to assist them in the work of Reformation in the Church and redressing of Grievances as they were called in the State Which being such specious pretensions and having a Parliament to patronize it and the Scotch Nation to abett them it was the less to be wondred at that such a Revolution was made especially when we consider the Churches alteration was nothing so great as it would be betwixt the exchange of Protestant Episcopacy for R. Catholic Hierarchy and the Popes Supremacy which is here so much antiquated Then the Doctrine of the Church was little altered except in that they rejected the Order of Bishops for the Service being in the known Language without any Ceremonies only consisting of Prayers reading of Scriptures Preaching and Administring the Sacraments according to the use of Scotland Geneva Holland and the Hugonots of France the transition was more easie after the Army was victorious Yet we have seen how short liv'd even that Usurpation was In our present case a Religion is to be brought in against the most earnest endeavours the firmest perswasions and Resolutions and the utmost detestation and abhorrence of the people So that while we see only a mixture of Catholic Officers with a far greater number of Protestants and a Body almost intire of Protestant Soldiers We may as well have credited That Oliver Cromwel's Army could have pulled the Pope out of his Palace and introduced Protestantism in all Catholic Countries as I have heard some of the Officers and Chaplains of that Army confidently enough hope as that we can expect an extirpation of our Religion here by so small a number of R. Catholics as are in the Court Camp or Country As to the instance of the French Kings proceeding 2 That the proceedings of the French King ought nor to affright us surely they that urge it never give themselves liberty to reflect upon the discrepancy of the case In France the King and the whole Body of his Kingdom are R. Catholics and the Religion is established by Law and it is easie to obtain further Laws for the support of it and the destroying of all others by a King so victorious and reverenced since how numerous soever Protestants were there yet comparatively to the Catholics they were very inconsiderable If indeed the King of France were an Hugonot and with the assistance of his Protestant Subjects had been able to have brought all Catholics to his Religion then there might have been some ground for such an instance If the advancers of this affrightment would have been so candid as to have subjoyned how our gracious King hath granted not only the French Exiles a safe retreat into his Kingdom but hath likewise promised them a Protection in the exercise of Religion conformable to the practice of the Church of England And to all such hath granted his Gragracious Letters Patents for the collecting the Charity of his Subjects for their Relief which is accordingly with a superlative Liberality afforded them They would rather have made it as an Argument of the Kings inviolable observing his Gracious promise in protecting the Church of England than have produced it as an incitement to our fears of the contrary But these kind of men know how to boil up Sugar to the bitterness of Aloes and extract Poison out of Cordials SECT XI That the King 's dispensing with the Test is no Argument of his Design to extirpate the Protestant Religion I Know it is urged that if his Majesty did not design some alteration in Religion what need is there of his so great solicitude and earnest endeavours for the taking away of the Test and how comes it to pass that the Law against it is dispensed with and so many Catholics are Commissioned in the Army and may be in
shall receive any Sallary Fee or Wages by reason of any Patent or Grant from his Majesty or shall have command or place of Trust from and under his Majesty or from any of his Majesties Predecessors or by His or Their Authority or by Authority derived from Him or them within the Realm c. or in his Majesties Navy I slands c or shall be of the Houshold or in the Service or Imployment of his Majesty or of his Royal Highness the Duke of York c. shall personally in the Court of Chancery or Kings-Bench take the several Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the usage of the Church of England and the like for all Officers to be admitted to any Office for the future within a time limitted The Neglecters or Refusers to be adjudged incapable of any other Office or to Sue use any Action Bill Plaint or Information in Courts of Law or prosecute any Suit in any Court of Equity or to be a Guardian to any Child or Executor or Administrator of any Person or be capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gist or to have any Office and shall forfeit 500 l. The persons obliged to take the Oaths shall at the same time make and subscribe the Declaration following under the same penalties and forfeitures as by the Act appointed The Declaration is in these words I A. B. do declare that I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever There is a Provision that this Act shall not hurt or prejudice the Peerage of any Peer of this Realm either in time of Parliament or otherwise But this was in the next Act fully vacated The Second Act. 30. Car. 2. The second Act is Intiuled An Act for the more effectual preserving the Kings Person and Government by disabling Papists from sitting in either House and the Preamble adds That for as much as divers good Laws have been made for preventing the increase and danger of Popery in this Kingdom which have not had the desired effect by reason of the Liberty which of late some of the Recusants have had and taken to sit and vote in Parliament Therefore it was Enacted That no Peers of the Realm and Members of the House of Peers should Vote or make their Proxy in the House of Peers nor any sit there during any debate in the said House Nor should any Members of the House of Commons Vote or sit there during any debate after the Speaker was chosen until they respectively take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and make and subscribe and audibly repeat the Declaration following I A. B. Do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God Profess Testifie and Declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever and that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous Likewise no Peer of England Scotland or Ireland being twenty years old nor any Convict Recusant that takes not the same Oaths and make and subscribes the Declaration may advisedly come into or remain in the presence of the King or Queens Majesty or come into the Court or House where They or any of Them reside Every Peer or Member thus offending shall be deemed and judged a Popish Recusant and suffer as such be disabled to hold or execute any Office or place of Profit or Trust Civil or Military in any of His Majesties Dominions c and shall not Sit or Vote in either House or make a proxy in the house of Peers or have any benefit of the Law as in the foregoing Act and shall forfeit 500 l. Also every sworn Servant of the King not having performed all things in the former Act required shall do what this Act enjoyns or shall be disabled to hold any place as sworn Servant to the King and suffer all the Pains and Penalties aforesaid The Proviso's are That Nine of the Queens Men-servants natural born-subjects of Portugal and as many Women-servants such as shall be nominated by the Queen under her Hand and Seal are exempt from the taking these Oaths c. Secondly That none be restrained from coming or residing in the King or Queens presence c. that shall first obtain warrant so to do under the Hands and Seals of six or more Privy Councillors by order from his Majesties Privy Council upon some urgent occasion therein to be expressed so that such Licence exceed not the space of ten days at one time nor thirty days in one year and such Licence to be recorded in the Petty-bag-Office Lastly That nothing in this Act shall extend to his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK Some Reflectione upon these Acts. Whoever peruseth these Acts in the circumstance we now are in will easily I think yield that whatever temporary uses there could be formerly of them yet they could never be put in practice by a Roman Catholick King or that he could suffer the execution of them as I shall more at large shew in the following Discourse In this place I shall only touch upon some few Heads As The Sererity First Concerning the severity in General upon those who could not renounce the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints these being purely Metaphysical Points of Religion setled by Pecrees of Councils in the Roman Catholic Church oblige those of that Communion to believe them under the penalty of an Anathema yet I think it is not easie to prove that these Doctrines have any Natural Tendency to induce the Believers and Practisers of them either to endanger the Person of the King or the Government which is declared to be the principal end why the Acts were made and as to the increase of Popery these very Doctrines are so far from working upon Protestants that they are the very chief impediments which hinder the people in General from embracing that Religion Therefore it must appear very severe that all persons who by a spiritual obligation cannot renounce these Doctrines and Practices should be obnoxious to those penalties which as convict Papists they are liable to and which however vexatious and chargeable to them redound mostly to the profit of Informers Bayliffs Clerks and such persons as bear no proportion of Merit or Interest in the Government to those suffering Roman Catholic Lords and Gentlemen and by such Payments Fines c. the Kings Revenue is very little encreased The Reasons why made Although some may think some of the branches were then necessary to prevent all Roman Catholics from enjoying publick