if dispersed to be sure they have not strength for such an Attempt But if they are not sufficient there is a Potent Prince not far off can help the Design who is not angry with Protestancy at home only Suppose this is there not as Potent Naval Powers to assist the Constitution of the Kingdom from such Invasions yes and Land ones too And as the Protestant Governments have more Ships then the other so an equal Land Force when by such attempts to make Popery universal they are awaken'd to the use of them But certainly we must be very silly to think the King should suffer so great a shake to his own Interest as admitting an Army of Forraigners to enter his Kingdom on any pretence must necessarily occasion These Bull-Beggers and Raw-Heads and Bloody-Bones are the Malice of some and Weakness of others But time that Informs Children will tell the World the meaning of the Fright The third Proof of my second Reason is the Intestine Division among themselves That Division weakens a great Body and renders a small one harmless all will agree Now that there is such a thing as Division among them is town talk The Seculars Regulars have ever been two Interests all the Roman Church over and they are not only so here but the Regulars differ among themselves There is not a Coffee-House in Town that does not freely tell us that the Jesuites and Benedictines are at variance that Count Da Da the Popes Nuncio and Bishop Lyborn Dissent mightily from the Politicks of the first Nay t'other Day the Story was that they had prevail'd Entirely over them The Lords and Gentlemen of her Communion have as warmly contested about the lengths they ought to go Moderation seems to be the conclusion Together they are little and can do little and divided they are Contemptible instead of Terrible Lastly the Roman Church ought to be discreet and think of nothing further then the entreated general Ease because it would be an extream that must beget another in the succeeding Raign For as I can never think her so weak as well as base that after all her Arguments for the Jus divinum of Succession she should in the Face of the World attempt to violate it in the wrong of One of another Perswasion for that were an eternal loss of her with Mankind So if she does not and yet is Extravagant she only rises higher to fall lower then all others in another Raign This were provoking their own Ruin. And to say true either way would as the second Letter has it discredit her for ever and make true Prophets of those they had taken such pains to prove false Witnesses And supposing her to reckon upon the just Succession nothing can recommend her or continue her happiness in a Raign of another Judgment but this Liberty equally maintained that other Perswasions more numerous for that reason as well as for their own sakes are obliged to insure her Here the Foundation is broad and strong and what is built upon it has the looks of long Life The Indenture will at least be quint-pertite and Parties are not so mortal as Men. And as this joyns so it preserves Interest intire which amounts to a Religious Amity and a Civil Vnity at the worst Upon the whole matter I advise the Members of the Roman Communion in this Kingdom to be moderate 't is their Duty and it belongs to all Men to see it and feel it from them and it behoves them mightily they would for the first part of this Discourse belongs to their Hopes as well as to the Church of Englands Fears viz. the Duty and Spirit of Christianity Next let them do good Offices between the King and his excellent Children for as that will be well taken by so affectionate a Father so it gives the lie to their Enemies Suggestions and recommends them to the Grace and Favour of the Successors And having said this I have said all that belongs to them in particular There is left only my Address to the Protestant Dissenters and a general Conclusion to finish this Discourse Your Case that are called Protestant Dissenters differs mightily from that of the Church of England and Rome For the first have the Laws for her the last the Prince Those Laws are against you and she is not willing they should be Repeal'd The Prince offers to be kind to you if you please Your Interest in this Conjuncture is the Question I think none ought to be made that it is the Liberty of Conscience desired because you have much more need of it having neither Laws nor Prince of your side nor a Successor of any of your Perswasions The Fears of Popery I know reach you but it is to be remembered also that if the Laws are not Repeal'd there wants no new ones to Destroy you of the Papists making so that every fear you are taught to have of their Repeal is against your selves Suppose your Apprehensions well grounded you can but be Destroy'd Which is most comfortable for you to suffer by Law or without it The Church of England by her Penal Laws and the Doctrine of Headship has Armed that Religion as it falls out to Destroy you Nay has made it a Duty in the King to do it from which says she nothing but an Act of Parliament can absolve him that she is not willing to allow And is it not as reasonable that you should seek their Repeal that if you suffer from the Papists It may be without human Law as well as against Christs Law as for the Church of England to keep them in force because if she suffers it shall be against the Laws made to uphold her For not repealing them brings you an inevitable mischief and her at most but an uncertain safety tho 't is certain she at the same time will Sacrifice you to it And yet if I were in her case it would please me better to remove Laws that might reproach me and stop my Mouth when turn'd against me and be content that if I Suffer for my Religion it is against the Law of God Christianity and the Fundamentals of the old and true Civil Government of my Country before such Laws helpt to spoil it In short you must either go to Church or Meet or let fall your Worshipping of God in the way you believe If the first you are Hypocrites and give away the Cause and reproach your dead Brethrens Sincerity and gratifie the old accusation of Schism Ambition c. and finally loose the Hope and Reward of all your Sufferings If the second viz. that you Meet against Law you run into the Mouth of the Government whose Teeth are to meet in you and Destroy you as by Law established If the last you deny your Faith over-throw your own Arguments fall away from the Apostolical Doctrine of assembling together and so must fall into the Hands of God and under the troubles of your own
Good Advice TO THE Church of England Roman Catholick and Protestant Dissenter In which it is endeavoured to be made appear that it is their Duty Principles Interest To abolish the Penal Laws and Tests Beati Pacifici Licenced June the 30th 1687. LONDON Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch and at the Three Keys in Nags-Head-Court in Grace-Church-Street over-against the Conduit 1687. THE PREFACF Reader NO matter who but what and yet if thou wouldst know the Author he is an English-Man and therefore obliged to this Country and the Laws that made him Free. That single Consideration were enough to command this Vndertaking for 't is to perswade his Country Men to be delivered of the greatest Yoke a Nation can well Suffer under Penal Laws for Religion I mean. And now thou hast both the who and what If thou art Wise and Good thou art above my Epethites and more my Flatteries If not I am in the Right to let 'um alone Read Think and Judge Liberty English and Christian is all that is sought in the ensuing Discourse Adieu Good Advice c. PART I. I Must own it is my Aversion at this time to meddle with Publick Matters and yet my Duty to the Publick will not let me be Silent They that move by Principles must not regard Times nor Factions but what is just and what is honourable and that no Man ought to Scruple nor no Time nor Interest to Contest The single Question I go upon and which does immediately concern and exercise the Minds of the Thinking as well as Talking Men of this Kingdom is whether it be fit to repeal the Penal Laws and Tests in matters of Religion or not I take the Affirmative of the Question and humbly submit my Reasons to every reasonable Conscience I say reasonable because That which knows not its own Duty Principles and Interest is not so and That which is not willing to do to others as it would be done by less deserves to be thought so Now there are three sorts of People that will find themselves concerned in this Question The Church of England the Roman Catholick and the Protestant Dissenter and these make up the whole Body of the Kingdom If it appear to be their Duty Principles and Interest the Question is gain'd and no body is left to complain and if I am mistaken it is with so great an inclination to serve them all that their good nature cannot but plead my Excuse especially when they consider I am neither mov'd by Hopes nor Fears Private Loss or Gain being farther from my thought then I hope they are from a good Understanding I say first then it is the Duty of all of them because they all profess that Religion which makes it their common duty to do it Christianity I mean For no Christian ought to deprive any man of his native Right for matters of Faith and Worship towards God in the way that he thinks most agreeable to the Will of God because it is necessary to a Christian to believe that Faith is the Gift of God alone and that He only is Lord of Conscience and is able truly to enlighten perswade and establish it and consequently that prejudicing Men in their Persons or Estates or depriving them of any Station in the Government they might otherwise in their turn be capable to serve the Publick in is contrary to the tenderness and equity of that Religion which will yet further appear if we consider that Christianity is the sole Religion of the World that is built on the Principles of Love which brought with it the greatest Evidences of Truth Equally convincing our Understandings with its Light and bearing down our Sences with its Miracles Which silenc'd the Oracles of the Heathens by the Divine Power present with it and vanquisht their Hearts that had left nothing else to conquer leading Kings and Emperors with their Courts and Armies in triumph after the despised Cross of him who was the holy and blessed Author of it It was he that laid not his Religion in worldly Empire nor used the Methods of worldly Princes to propagate it as it came from Heaven so that only should have the Honour of protecting and promoting it His whole business to mankind from first to last was Love. 'T was first Love in his Father to send him as St. John teaches God so loved the World that he sent his Son c. It was love in Jesus Christ to come on that Arrand that he who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should take the form of a Servant to adopt us Children and make himself of no Reputation with the World that he might make us of Reputation with God his Father And he did not only come in much Love but preach't it and prest it both to Friends and Foes Love one another Love Enemies do good to them that hate you forgive them that trespass against you what you would that other Men should do unto you do that unto them by these things shall all Men know you are my Disciples for I came not to destroy Mens Lives no not for Religion it self for my Kingdom Power Force Weapons and Victory are not of this World. In all this Love prevails It was his great his new his last Commandment of all his Disciples the most persued by his beloved One that in his Bosom had learn'd his Heart as his Divine Doctrine of Love in his Epistle tells us As he liv'd in Love so he died in Love with us and for us and that while we were rebellious too ay he pray'd and dy'd for them who put him to Death shewing us says St. Peter an Example that we also should follow his Steps And what are they doubtless the Steps of Love the Path he trod To do good to Mankind Enemies as well as Friends that we may be like our heavenly Father that causes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Just and Vnjust This must be the Apostles meaning for the rest of his Passion was Inimitable Now if this be the Doctrine of Christ the Nature of Christâ—anity the Practice of the Primitive Church that like Adam was Created in full Strength Beauty and Wisdom and so an Example to succeeding Ages of Religion and to which we so often refer as our Original with what Pretence to a Christian Conscience can any one stickle to keep Imprisoning Banishing Impoverishing Hanging and Quartering Lawâ— on â—oot for Religion sake but especially against such as are by Creed professors of Christianity as well as themselves I know the Case is put hard by those that have the Laws on their side We do this to save our selves but an harder Case than Christs can never be put whose Answer in his ought to resolve theirs fully Christ is sent by his Father for the Salvation of the World He introduces and proves his Mission by Miracles and the great Authority
a Riot are as invisible in a Dissenters Meeting as Christ in the Transubstantiation yet it must be a Riot without any more to do The English of which is 't is a Riot to pray to God in the humblest and peaceablest manner in a Conventicle I know it is said The Blood-shed in the fore-going Raign and the Plots of the Papists against Queen Elizabeth drew those Laws from the Church of England But this was no reason why she should do ill because they had done so Besides it may be answered that that Religion having so long intermixt it self with worldly Power it gave way to take the revenges of it And certainly the great men of the Church of England endeavouring to intercept Queen Mary by proclaiming the Lady Jane Gray and the Apprehension the Papists had of the better Title of Mary Queen of Scots together with a long Possession were scurvy Temptations to kindle ill Designs against that extraordinary Queen But tho nothing can excuse and less justifie those cruel Proceedings yet if there were any reason for the Laws it is plainly removed for the Interests are joyn'd and have been since King James the first came to the Crown However 't is certain there were Laws enough or they might have had them to punish all civil Enormities without the necessity of making any against them as Papists And so the civil Government had stood upon its own Legs and Vices only against it had been punishable by it In short it was the falsest Step that was made in all that great Queens Raign the most dishonourable to the Principles of the first Reformers and therefore I know no better Reason why it should be continued than that which made the Cardinal in the History of the Council of Trent oppose the Reformation at Rome That tho it was true that they were in the wrong yet the admitting of it approved the judgment of their Enemies and so good-night to Infallibility Let not this be the Practice of the Church of England and the rather because she does not pretend to it But let her reflect that she has lost her King from her Religion and they that have got him naturally hope for ease for theirs by him that 't is the end they labour'd and the great use they have for him and I would fain wonder that she never saw it before but whether she did or no why should she begrudg it at least refuse it now Since 't is plain that there is nothing we esteem dangerous in Popery that other Laws are not sufficient to secure us from Have we not enough of them let her think of more and do the best she can to discover Plotters punish Traitors suppress the Seditious and keep the Peace better than those we have can enable us to do But for Gods sake let us never direct Laws against Men for the cause of Religion or punish them before they have otherwise done amiss Let Mens Works not their Opinions turn the Edg of the Magistrates Sword against them else 't is Beheading them before they are Born. By the common Law of this Kingdom there must be some Real and Proper Overt Act that proves Treason some Malice that proves Sedition and some violent Action that proves a Rout or Riot If so to call any sort of Religious Orders the one or Praying to God in a way out of fashion the other is prepostrous and punishing People for it down right Murther or Breach of the Peace according to the true use of Words and the old Law of England If the Church of England fears the growth of Popery let her be true to the Religion she owns and betake her self to Faith rather than Force by a pious humble and a good Example To convince and perswade which is the highest honour to any Church and the greatest Victory over Men. I am for a National Church as well as she so it be by Consent and not by Constraint But Coercive Churches have the same Principle tho not the same Interest A Church by Law established is a State Church and that is no Argument of Verity unless the State that makes her so be infallible and because that will not be asserted the other can never oblige the Conscience and consequently the Compulsion she uses is unreasonable This very Principle justifies the King of France and the Inquisition For Laws being equally of Force in all Countries where they are made it must be as much Fault in the Church of Englands Judgment to be a Protestant at Rome or a Calvanist at Paris as to be a Papist at London Then where is Truth or Conscience but in the Laws of Countries which renders her an Hobbist notwithstanding her long and loud Clamours against the Leviathan I beg her for the love of Christ that she would think of these things and not esteem me her Enemy for performing the part of so good a Friend Plain Dealing becomes that Caracter no matter whether the Way be agreeable so it be right We are all to do our Duty and leave the rest to God He can best answer for our Obedience that Commands it and our Dependance upon his Word will be our Security in our Conduct What weight is it to a Church that she is the Church by Law established when no humane Law can make a true Church A true Church is of Christs making and is by Gospel established 'T is a Reflection to a Church that would be thought true to stoop to humane Law for her Establishment I have been often scandal'd at that Expression from the Sons of the Church of England especially those of the Robe What do you talk for our Religion is by Law established as if that determin'd the Question of its Truth against all other Perswasions The Jews had this to say against our Saviour We have a Law and by our Law he ought to Dye The Primitive Christians and some of our first Reformers Dyed as by Law established if that would mend the matter but does that make it lawful to a Christian Conscience we must ever demur to this Plea. No greater Argument of a Churches Defection from Christianity than turning Persecutor 'T is true the Scripture says The Earth shall help the Woman but that was to save her self not to destroy others For 't is the Token that 's given by the Holy Ghost of a false Church That none must Buy or Sell in her Dominions that will not receive her Mark in their Forehead or Right-hand That is by going to Church against Conscience or bribing lustily to stay at Home Things don't change tho men do Persecution is still the same let the hand alter never so often but the Sin may not For doubtless it is greatest in those that make the highest claim to Reformation For while they plead their own Light for doing so they hereby endeavour to extinguish anothers Light that can't concur What a Man can't do it is not his Fault he don't do nor
be of the same Judgment That Conscience ought not to be forced nor Religion imposed upon men at their civil peril I own they are all of that mind at one time or other and therefore that I may purge my self of any Animosity to the Doctrine of the Church of England I will Ingeniously confess the severe conduct I have argued against is not to be imputed to her Principles but then her Evil will be the greater that in fact has so notoriously contradicted them I know some of her defenders will hardly allow that too Tho the more candid give us their Silence or Confession For they tell us 't is not the Church that has done it which unless they mean the Laws were not made a Church must needs be false since those that made and executed them were of her own Communion and are that great body of Members that constitute her a Church but by her shifting them off 't is but reasonable to conclude that she tacitly condemns what she publickly disowns One would think then it should not be so hard to perswade her to quit them in the way she made them or to injoyn her Sons to do it if that language be to harsh for her This Story she must hear of some way and I pray God she may endeavour to do her duty in it She is not alone for every Party in Power has too evidently lapst into this Evil tho under the prevalency and persecution of another Interest they have ever writ against club Law for Religion And to the end that I may do the Reformation Right and the Principles of the Church of England Justice I must say that hardly one person of any note dyed in the time of Queen Mary that did not pass Sentance upon Persecution as Antichristian particularly Latimer Philpot Bradford Rogers very Eminent Reformers The Apologies that were writ in those times are of the same strain as may be seen in Jewel Haddon Reynalds c. and the Papists were with reason thought much in the wrong by those Primative Protestants for the Persecution that they raised against them for matters of pure Religion But what need we go so far back is it not recent in memory that Bishop Vsher was Employ'd to O. Cromwell by some of the Clergy of the Church of England for Liberty of Conscience Dr Parr in the Life of Dr Vsher Primate of Armagh fol. 75. has that passage thus Cromwell forbidding the Clergy under great penalties to teach Schools or to perform any part of their ministerial function some of the most Considerable Episcopal Clergy in and about London desired my Lord Primate that he would use his Interest with Cromwell since they heard he pretended a great respect for him that as he granted Liberty of Conscience to almost all sorts of Religions so the Episcopal Divines might have the same freedom of serving God in their private Congregations since they were not premitted the publick Churches according to the Liturgie of the Church of England and that neither the Ministers nor Those that frequented That Service might be any more hindered or disturbed by his Souldiers So according to their desire he went and used his utmost Endeavours with Cromwell for the taking off this restraint which was at last promised tho with some difficulty that they should not be molested provided they meddled not with any matters relating to his Government Certainly those Gentlemen were of my mind And to give Dr Hammond his due who I understand was one of them he left it to the Witnesses of his end as his dying Counsel to the Church of England That they displaced no man out of the University or present Church but that by Love and an holy Life they should prevail upon those in possession to come into their Church But this lookt so littie like the Policy and Ambition of the Living that they resolved it should be Buried with him This I had from an eminent Hand in Oxford a year or two after his Death An older man out liv'd him and one of the most Learned and Pious of that Communion Bishop Sande son I mean They were the two great men of their sort that was of the Party Let us see what this Reverend man says to our point The Word of God doth expressly forbid us to subject our Consciences to the Judgment of any other or to usurp a Dominion over the Consciences of any One. Several cases of Conscience discussed in ten Lectures in the Divinity School at Oxford 3 Lect. 30 Sect. pag. â—03 Printed 1660. He is not worthy to be Christs Disciple who is not the Disciple of Christ alone The Simplicity and Sincerity of the Christian Faith hath suffered a great prejudice since we have been divided into Parties neither is their any hope that Religion should be restored to her former Original and Purity until the Wounds that were made wider by our daily Quarrels and Dissentions being anointed with the Olye of Brotherly Love as with a Balsom shall begin to close again and to grow entire into the same Unity of Faith and Charity ibid Sect. 29. The obligation of Conscience doth not signifie any Compulsion for to speak properly the Conscience can no more be compelled than the Free-will ibid 4. Lecture Sect. 5. pag. 109. The express Commandment of God doth oblige the Conscience properly by it self and by its own force and this obligation is absolute because it doth directly and always oblige and because it obligeth all persons and the obligation of it is never to be cancelled Noâ—e but God alone hath power to impose a Law upon the Conscience of any Man to which it ought to be subjected as obliging by it sâ—lf This Conclusion is proved by the words of the Apostle There is but one Law-giver who can both save and destroy In which words two Arguments do profer themselves to our Observation In the first place they assert there is but one Legislator not one picked out amongst many not one above many but one exclusively that is to say One and but one only The Apostle otherwise had made use of a very ineffectual argument to prove what he had propounded for he rebuketh those who unadvisedly did pass their Judgment either on the persons or the deeds of other Men as the Invaders of their Rights Who art Thou saith he who dost judge another as if he should have said dost thou know thy self what thou art and what thou dost It doth not belong to Thee to thrust thy sawcy Sickle into the harvest of another Man much less boldly to fling thy self into the Throne of Almighty God. If already Thou art Ignorant of it then know that it belongeth to him alone to judge of the Consciences of men to whom alone it doth belong to impose Laws upon the Consciences of men which none can do but God alone ibid pag. 111 112 113. The Condition and Natural estate of the Conscience it self is so placed as it were
so free and excellent a Principle is come to make execute and uphold Penal Laws for Religion against her Conscientious Neighbours but it is to be hoped that like Nebuchadnezzar's Image whose Feet was a mixture of Iron and Clay and therefore could not stand for ever Persecution will not be able to mix so with the Seed of Men but that Humanity will overcome it and Mankind one day be delivered from that Iron hard and fierce Nature I have done with my Church of Englands Evidences against Persecution And for the Judgment of all sorts of Dissenters in that Point let their Practice have been what it will nothing is clearer than that they disallow of Persecution of which their daily Addresses of Thanks to the King for his General Ease by his Excellent Declaration are an undoubted Proof Thus then we see it is evident that it is not only the Duty of all Parties as they would be thought Christians to Repeal Penal Laws for Religion but upon a fair enquiry we see it is the avowed Principle of every Party at one time or other that Conscience ought not to be compel'd nor Religion impos'd upon worldly Penalties And so I come to the third and last part of this Discourse PART III. It is the Interest of all Parties and especially the Church of England AS I take all Men to be unwillingly separated from their Interests and consequently ought only to be sought and discours'd in them so it must be granted me on all hands that Interests change as well as Times and 't is the Wisdom of a Man to observe the Courses and humor the Motions of his Interest as the best way to preserve it And least any ill-natur'd or mistaken Person should call it temporizing I make this early Provision That I mean no immorral or corrupt complyance A Temporizing deservedly base with Men of Vertue and which in all times my Practice as well as Judgment hath shown the last Aversion to For upon the Principle I now go and which I lay down as common and granted in Reason and Fact with all Parties concern'd in this Discourse that Man does not change that morrally follows his Interest under all its Revolutions because to be true to his Interest is his first civil Principle I premise this to introduce what I have to offer with respect to the Interests to be now treated upon And first I say I take it to be the Interest of the Church of England to abolish the Penal Laws because it never was her Interest to make them My reasons for that Opinion are these First they have been an Argument to invalidate the Sufferings of the Reformers because if it be unlawful to disobey Government about matters of Religion they were in the wrong And if they say O but they were in Error that punish'd their Non-conformity I answer how can she prove that she is Infallibly in the Right And if this cannot be done she compels to an uncertainty upon the same terms Secondly She has overthrown the Principles upon which she separated from Rome For if it be unlawful to plead Scripture and Conscience to vindicate Dissent from her Communion it was unlawful for her upon the same Plea to dissent from the Church of Rome unless she will say again that she was in the Right but the other in the Wrong and she knows this is no Answer but a begging of the Question for they that separate from her think themselves as Serious Devout and as much in the Right as she could do If then Conscience and Scripture interpreted with the best Light she had were the ground of her Reformation she must allow the Liberty she takes or she eats her Words and subverts her Foundation then which nothing can be more destructive to the Interest of any Beeing Civil or Ecclesiastical Thirdly The Penal Laws have been the great Make-bate in the Kingdom from the beginning For if I should grant that she had once been truly the Church of England I mean consisting of all the People of England which she was not for there were divers Parties dissenting from the first of her establishment yet since it afterwards appear'd she was but one Party tho the biggest she ought not to have made her Power more National than her Faith nor her Faith so by the Force of her Temporal Authority 'T is true she got the Magistrate of her side but she engaged him too far For she knew Christ did not leave Caesar Executor to his last Will and Testament and that that should be the reason why she did so was none of the best Ornamentâ— to her Reformation That she was but a Party tho the biggest by the Advantages that temporal Power brought her I shall easily prove but I will introduce it with a short Account of our State-Reformation here in England Henry the Eighth was a kind of Hermophredite in Religion or in the Language of the times a Trimmer being a meddly of Papist and Protestant and that part he acted to the Life or to the Death rather Sacrificing on the same Day Men of both Religions because one was not Protestant enough and t'other Papist enough for him In this time were some Anabaptists for the distinction of Church of England and Calvanist was not then known Edward the Sixth succeeded a Prince that promised Vertues that might more than ballance the Excesses of his Father and yet by Arch-Bishop Cranmer was compelled to sign a Warrant to Burn poor Joan of Kent a famous Woman but counted an Enthusiast But to prove what I said of him 't was not without frequent Denials and Tears and the Bishop taking upon him to answer for it at Gods Judgment of which I hope his Soul was discharged tho his Body by the same Law suffered the same Punishment in the succeeding Reign Thus even the Protestants begun with Blood for meer Religion and taught the Romanists in succeeding times how to deal with them At this time the Controversie grew warm between the Church of England and the Calvanists that were the Abler Preachers and the Better Livers The Bishops being mostly men of State and some of them looking rather backward then forward Witness the Difficulty the King had to get Hooper Consecrated Bishop without Conformity to the reserved Ceremonies Queen Mary came in and ended the Quarrel at the Stake Now Ridly and Hooper hug and are the dearest Brethren and best Friends in the World. Hooper keeps his Ground and Ridly stoops with his Ceremonies to t'others further Reformation But this Light and Union flow'd from their Persecution For those abroad at Frankford and other places were not upon so good Terms Their Fewds grew so great that the one refused Communion with the other many endeavours were used to quench the Fire but they were ineffectual at best it lay under the Ashes of their Affliction for another time for no sooner was Queen Elizabeth upon her Throne then they returned and their Difference with them They
in Example at some other turn of Power to our own utter Ruin. Had this Honest Just Wise and English Consideration prevailed with our Ancestors of all Opinions from the days of Richard the second there had been less Blood Imprisonment Plunder Beggery for the Government of this Kingdom to answer for Shall I speak within our own knowledge and that without Offence there has been Ruin'd since the late Kings Restoration above Fifteen Thousand Families and more then Five Thousand Persons Dead under Bonds for matters of meer Conscience to God But who hath laid it to Heart It is high time now we should especially when our King with so much Grace and Goodness leads us the way I beseech you all if you have any Reverence towards God any Value for the Excellent Constitution of this Kingdom any Tenderness for your Posterity any Love for your Selves you would embrace this happy Conjuncture and persue a common Expedient That since we cannot agree to meet in one Profession of Religion we may entirely do it in this common civil Interest where we are all equally engaged and therefore we ought for our own sakes to seek one anâ—â—â—ers Security that if we cannot be the Better we may not be tâ—e Worse for our Perswasions in things that bear no relation to them and in which it is impossible we should Suffer and the Government escape that is so much concern'd in the civil Support and Prosperity of every Party and Person that belongs to it Let us not therefore uphold Penal Laws against any of our Religious Perswasions nor make Tests out of each others Faiths to exclude one another our civil Rights for by the same Reason that denying Transubstantiation is made One to exclude a Papist to own it may be made one to exclude a Church of England-man a Presbyterian an Independant a Quaker and Anabaptist For the Question is not who is in the right in Opinion but whether he is not in Practice in the wrong that for such an Opinion deprives his Neighbour of his common Right Now 't is certain there is not one of any Party that would willingly have a Test made out of his Belief to abridge him of his native Priviledge and therefore neither the Opinion of Transubstantiation in the Papists Episcopâ—cy in the Church of England Man Free-will in the Arminian Predestination in the Presbyterian Perticular Churches in the Independant Dipping of adult People in the Anabaptist nor not-swearing in the Quaker ought to be made a Test of to deprive him of the comforts of his Life or render him incapable of the service of his Country to which by a natural Obligation he is indebted and from which no Opinion can discharge him and for that Reason much less should any other Party think it fit or in their power to exclude him And indeed it were ridiculous to talk of giving Liberty of Conscience which yet few have now the fore-head to oppose and at the same time imagine those Tests that do exclude men that Service and Reward ought to be continued For though it does not immediately concern me being neither Officer nor Papist yet the Consequence is general and every party even the Church of England will find her self concern'd upon reflection For she cannot assure her self it may not come to be her turn But Is it not an odd thing that by leaving them on foot every Body shall have Liberty of Conscience but the Goverment for while a man is out of Office he is Test-free but the hour he is chosen to any station be it in the Legislation or Administration he must wiredraw his Conscience to hold it or be excluded with the Brand of Dissent And can this be equal or wise Is this the way to employ men for the good of the Publick where Opinion prevails above vertue and Abilities are submitted to the humour of a Party surely none can think this a Cure for Division or that Animosities are like to be prevented by the only ways in the World that beget and heighten them Nor is it possible that the ease that should be granted can continue long when the Party in whose savour they are not repeal'd may thereby be enabled to turn the point of the sword again upon Dissenters I know Holland is given in Objection to this extent of freedom where only one Perswasion has the Government tho the rest their Liberty But they don't consider first how much more Holland is under the power of Necessity then we are Next That our Constitutions differ greatly For the first 't is plain in the little compass they live in the uncertainty and precariousness of the means of their subsistance That as they are in more danger of Drowning so neerer ruin by any Commotion in the State then other Countries are Trading is their Support This keeps them busy That makes them Rich and Wealth naturally gives them caution of the disorders that may spoil them of it This makes the governing Party wary how they use their power and the other Interests tender how they resist it for upon it they have reason to fear a publick Desolation since Holland has not a natural and Domestick Fund to rely upon or return to from such national Disorders The next Consideration is as clear and cogent our Constitutions differ mightily For though they have the Name of a Republick yet in their choice in order to the Legislature they are much less free then we are And since the Freeholders of all Parties in England may Elect which in Holland they can no more do then they can be chosen there is good reason why all may be elected to serve their King Country here that in Holland cannot be chosen or serve And if our Power to chuse be larger then theirs in Holland we are certainly then a freer People and so ought not to be confin'd as they are about what Person it is that must be chosen Methinks it bears no proportion and therefore the Instance and Objection are improper to our purpose But it is said by some That there cannot be two predominant Religions and if the Church of England be not that Popery by the Kings Favour is like to be so It is certain that two predominant Religions would be two Uppermosts at once which is nonsence every where But as I cannot see what need there is for the Church of England to lose her Churhces or Revenues so while she has them Believe me she is Predominant in the thing of the World that lies nearest her Guides But if I were to speak my inclination I cannot apprehend the necessity of any Predominant Religion understanding the word with Penal Laws in the tale of it The Mischief of it in a Country of so many powerful Interests as this I can easily understand having had the opertunity of seeing and feeling it too And because nothing can keep up the Ball of Vengance like such a Predominant Religion and that Penal Laws and Tests are the means of the Domination I for that reason think them fit to be Repeal'd and let English Mankind say AMEN I do not love Quibling but 't is true to a Lamentation that there is little of the power of Religion seen where there is such a predominant one unless among those it Domineers over I conclude they that are so Predominant and they that seek to be so be they who they will move by the same Spirit and Principle and however differing their Pretentions and Ends may be the odds are very little to me by which it is I must certainly be Opprest Dare we then do for once as we would be done by and show the World we are not Religious without Justice nor Christians without Charity That False self shall not govern us against True self nor oppertunity make us Thieves to our Neighbours for Gods sake the end of Testing and Persecuting under every Revolution of Government If this we can find in our Hearts to do and yet as Men and as Christians as English Men we do but do our Duty let the Penal Laws and Tests be Repeal'd and in order to it Let us now take those measures of men and things that may give our Wishes and Endeavours the best success for the publick good that our Posterity may have more reason to bless our Memories for their Freedom and Security then for their Nature and Inheritance FINIS Irenicum a Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds by Edward Stillingfleet Rector of â—uton in Bedfordshire in Preface to the Reader L. 6. Cod. de Paganis