ENGLAND's Present Interest DISCOVER'D With HONOUR to the PRINCE AND SAFETY to the PEOPLE In Answer to this One Question What is most Fit Easie and Safe at this Juncture of Affairs to be done for Composing at least Quieting of Differences Allaying the Heat of Contrary Interests making them Subservient to the Interest of the Government and Consistent with the Prosperity of the Kingdom Presented and Submitted to the Consideration of SUPERIOURS And Abraham said to Lot Let there be no Strife between me and thee for we are Brethren Gen. 13. 8. As ye would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise Luke 6. 31. Lex est Ratio sine appetitu Printed in the Year 1675. THE CONTENTS The Introduction to the Question pag. 1. The Question stated pag. 5. The Answer to the Question pag. 5. I. Of English Rights in the Brittish Saxon and Norman Times pag. 6 7. Particularly of Liberty and Property p. 7 8 9 10. Of Legislation pag. 11 12 13. Of Juries pag. 14 15 16. That they are Fundamental to the Government and but repeated and confirmed by the Great Charter pag. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. The Reverence paid them by Kings and Parliaments and their Care to preserve them pag. 25. The Curse and Punishment that attended the Violators pag. 26 27 28 29 30. More General Considerations of Property c. The Uncertainty and Ruine of Interests that follow especially where it is not maintain'd Presidents That it is the Prince's Interest to preserve it Inviolably from the fingering of the Church that it is not Justly Forfeitable for Non-conformity to her and that where she has the keeping of Property the Government is chang'd from Civil to Ecclesiastical King to Bishop Parliament-House to the Vestary for so the Clergy have the Keys as well of Civil as Church-Society pag. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37. II. Of a Ballance respecting Religious Differences pag. 38 39 40. Eight Prudential Reasons why the Civil Magistrate should embrace it pag. 40 41 42 43 44 45 46. Three Objections Answer'd p. 46 47 48 49 50 51. A Comprehension consider'd but a Toleration preferr'd upon Reasons and Examples pag. 51 52. 53 54. III. Of General Practical Religion pag. 55. That the Promotion of it only is the Way to take in and stop the Mouth of all Perswasions being the Center to which all Parties verbally tend and therefore the fittest Station for a prudent Magistrate to meet every Interest the Neglect of it pernicious Instances That it is the Unum Necessarium to Felicity here hereafter p. 56 57 58 59. An Exhortation to Superiours pag. 60. A Corollary pag. 61 62. THE INTRODUCTION THere is no LAW under Heaven which hath its Rise from Nature or Grace that forbids Men to Deal Honestly and Plainly with the greatest Personages in Matters of highest Importance to their Present and Future Good On the Contrary the Dictates of both enjoyn every Man that Office to his Neighbour and from Charity among private Persons it becomes a Duty indispensible to the Publick Nor do Worthy Minds think ever the less kindly of Honest and Humble Monitors and God he knows that oft-times Princes are Deceived and Kingdoms Languish for Want of them How far the Posture of our Affairs will instifie this Address I shall submit to your Judgment and the Observation of every intelligent Reader Certain it is that there are few Kingdoms in the World more Divided within themselves and whose Religious Interests lie more seemingly cross to all Accommodation then that we live in which renders the Magistrate's Task hard and giveth him a Difficulty some think insurmountable Your Endeavours for a Uniformity have been many Your Acts not a few to Enforce it but the Consequence whether you intended it or no through the Barbarous Practices of those that have had their Execution hath been the Spoiling of several Thousands of the Free Inhabitants of this Kingdom of their Unforfeited Rights Persons have been flung into Goals Gates and Trunks broak open Goods distrained till a Stool hath not been left to sit down on Flocks of Cattel driven whole Barns full of Corn seized Parents left without their Children Children without their Parents both without Subsistence But that which aggravates the Cruelty is the Widdow's Mite hath not escaped their Hands they have made her Cow the Forieit of her Consoience not leaving her a Bed to lie on nor a Blanket to cover her and which is yet more Barbarous and helps to make up this Tragedy the poor Helpless Orphans Milk boiling over the Fire was flung away and the Skillet made part of their Prize that had not Nature in Neighbours been stronger then Cruelty in such Informers and Officers to open her Bowels for their Relief and Subsistence they must have utterly perisht Nor can these in human Instruments plead Conscience or Duty to those Laws that have been made against Dissenters since their Actions have abundantly transcended the severest Clause in them for to see the Imprison'd has been Suspicion enough for a Goal and to visit the Sick to make a Conventicle Fining and Straining for Preaching and being at a Meeting where there hath been neither and Fourty Pound for Twenty at pick and choose too is a Moderate Advance with some of them Others thinking this a Way too Dull and Troublesom alter the Question and turn Have you met which the Act intends to Will you Swear which it intendeth not so that in some Places it hath been sufficient to a Primunire that men have had Estates to loose I mean such men who through Tenderness refuse the Oath but by Principle love the Allegiance not less then their Adversaries Finding then by Sad Experience and a long Tract of Time That the very Remedies applyed to cure Dissension increase it and that the more Vigorously an Uniformity is coercively prosecuted the Wider Breaches grow the more Inflamed Persons are and fixt in their Resolutions to stand by their Principles which besides all other Inconveniencies to those that give them Trouble their very Sufferings beget that Compassion in the Multitude which rarely misse of many Friends and makes a Preparation for not a few Proselytes so much more Reverend is Suffering then making men to suffer for Religion even of those that cannot suffer for their Religion if yet they have any Religion to suffer for Histories are full of Examples The Persecution of the Christian Religion made it more Illustrious then its Doctrine Perhaps it will be denyed to English Dissenters that they relie upon so good a Cause and therefore a Vanity in them to expect that Success Arrianism it self reputed the foulest Heresie by the Church was by no Artifice of its Party so disseminated as the severe Opposition of the Homousians Contests naturally draw Company and the Vulgar are justified in their Curiosity if not Pitty when they see so many Wiser Men busie themselves to suppress a People by whom they see no
Interest so inconsistent with Peace and Unity as that which dare not solely rely upon the Power of Perswasion but affects Superiority and impatiently seeks after an Earthly Crown This is not to act the Christian but the Caesar not to promote Property but Party and make a Nation Drudges to a Sect. Be it known to such Narrow Spirits we are a Free People by the Creation of God the Redemption of Christ and careful Provision of our never to be forgotten honourable Ancestors So that our Claim to these English Priviledges rising higher then the Date of Protestancy can never justly be invalidated for any Non-conformity to it This were to loose by the Reformation which God forbid I am sure ' twas-to enjoy Property with Conscience that promoted it Nor is there any better Definition of Protestancy then protesting against Spoiling Property for Conscience I must therefore take Leave to say that I know not how to reconcile what a Great Man lately deliver'd in his Eloquent Harangue to the House of Lords His Words are these For when we consider Religion in Parliament we are supposed to consider it as a Parliament should do and as Parliaments in all Ages have done that is as it is a Part of our Laws a Part and a necessary Part of our Government For as it works upon the Conscience as it is an INWARD PRINCIPLE of the DIVINE LIFE by which good Men do govern all their Actions the State hath nothing to do with it it is a Thing which belongs to another kind of Commission then that by which we sit here I acquiesce in the latter Part of this Distinction taking it to be a venerable Truth and would to God Mankind would believe it and live it but how to agree it with the former I profess Ignorance for if the Government hath nothing to do with the Principle it self what more can she pretend over the Actions of those Men that live that good Life Certainly if Religion be this Principle of Divine Life exerting it self by Holy Living and that as such it belongs not to the Commission of our Superiours I do with Submission conceive that there is very little else of Religion lest for them to have to do with the rest merits not the Name of Religion and less doth such a Formality deserve Persecution I hope such Circumstances are no necessary Part of English Government that can't reasonably be reputed a necessary part of Religion and I dare believe that he is too great a Lawyer upon second Thoughts to repute that a Part of our Laws a Part a necessary Part of our Government that is such a Part of Religion as is neither the Divine Principle nor yet the Actions immediately flowing from it since the Government was most compleat and prosperous many Ages without it and hath never known more perplext Contests and troublesom Interruptions then since it hath been receiv'd and valu'd as a Part of the English Government and God I hope will forbid it in the Hearts of our Superiours that English Men should be deprived of their Civil Inheritance for their Non-conformity to Church-Formality For no Property out of the Church the plain English of publick Severity is a Maxim that belongs not to the holy Law of God nor Common Law of the Land 4. If Liberty and Property must be the Forfeit of Conscience for Non conformity to the Princes Religion the Prince and his Religion shall only be lov'd as the next best Accession to other Mens Estates and the Prince perpetually provoakt to expose many of his Inoffensive People to Beggary 5. It is our Superiours Interest that Property be preserved because it is their own Case None have more Property then themselves But if Property be exposed for Religion the Civil Magistrate exposes both his Conscience and his Property to the Church and disarms himself of all Defence upon any Alteration of Judgment This is for the Prince to fall down at the Prelate's Fâ—â—t and the State to suffer it self to be rid by the Church 6. It obstructs all Improvement of Land and Trade for who will labour that hath no Propriety or hath it exposed to an unreasonable Sort of Men for the bare Exercise of his Conscience to God and a poor Country can never make a Rich and Powerful Prince Heaven is therefore Heaven to Good and Wise Men because they have an Eternal Propriety therein 7thly This Sort of Procedure hitherto oppugn'd to the behalf of Property puts the whole Nation upon miserable Uncertainties that are follow'd with great Disquiets and Distractions which certainly it is the Interest of all Governments to prevent The Reigns of Henry 8. Edw. 6. Q. Mary and Q. Eliz. both with relation to the Marriages of the first and the Religious Revolutions of the rest are a plain Proof in the Case King Henry voids the Pope's Supremacy and assumes it himself Q. Mary his Daughter by his first Wife Katharine repeals all those Acts made since the 12th of Henry 8. in Disfavour of the Pope Oaths taken on both sides to maintain those Laws Edw. 6. enacts Protestancy with an Oath to maintain it 1 Q. Mary c. 1. This is abrogated Popery solemnly restored and an Oath inforc'd to defend it Comes Q. Elizabeth and repeals that Law calls back Protestancy ordains a new Oath to un-Oaâ—h Q. Mary's Oath and all this under the Penalty of loosing Estate Liberty and sometimes Life it self which Thousands to avoid lamentably perjur'd themselves four or five times over within the space of 20. Years in which Sin the Clergy transcended not an Hundred for every Thousand but left their Principles for their Parâ—shâ—s Thus hath Conscience been debaucht by Force and Property toss'd up down by the impetuous Blasts of ignorant Zeal or sinister Design 8. Where Liberty Property are violated there must alwayes be a State of Force And though I pray God that we never need those Cruel Remedies whose Calamitous Effects we have too lately felt yet certainly SELF-Preservation is of all Things dearest to Men insomuch that being conscious to themselves of not having done an ill thing to defend their unforfeited Priviledges they cheerfully hazard all they have in this World so strangely vindictive are the Sons of Men in Maintenance of their Rights And such are the Cares Fears Doubts and Insecurities of that Administration as render Empire a Slavery and Dominion the worst Sort of Bondage on the contrary nothing can give greater Cheerfulness Confidence Security and Honour to any Prince then ruling by Law for it is both a Conjunction of Title with Power and attracts Love as well as it requires Duty Give me Leave without any Offence for I have God's Evidence in my own Conscience I intend nothing but a respectful Caution to my Superiours to confirm this Reason with the Judgment and Example of other Times The Governours of the Eleans held a strict Hand over the People they being in Despair call'd in the Spartans for
Religion notwithstanding their unanimous Cry for Property a prudent Mannagement of which may return to the great Quiet Honour and Profit of the Kingdom II. Our SUPERIOURS governing themselves upon a BALLANCE as near as may be towards the several Religious INTERESTS TO perform my part in this Point I shall not at this time make it my Business to manifest the Inconsistency that there is between the Christian Religion and a forc'd Uniformity not only because it hath been so often and excellently done by Men of Wit Learning and Conscience and that I have else-where largely deliver'd my Sense about it but because Every free and impartial Temper hath of a long time observ'd that such Barbarous Attempts were so far from being indulg'd that they were most severely prohibited by Christ himself who instructed his Disciples to love their Enemies not to persecute their Friends for every Difference in Opinion That the Tares should grow with the Wheat That his Kingdom is not of this World That Faith is the Gift of God That the Will and Understanding of Man are Faculties not to be workt upon by Corporal Penalties That TRUTH is all-sufficient to her own Relief That ERROR and ANGER go together That base Coyn only stands in need of Imposition to make it current but that True Metal passeth for its own intrinsick Value with a great deal more of that Nature I shall therefore chuse to oppose my self at this time to any such Severity upon meer Prudence that such as have No Religion and certainly They that persecute for Religion have as little as need to be may be induc'd to Tolerate THEM that have First However advisable it may be in the Judgment of some wise Men to prevent even by Force the arising of any New Opinions where a Kingdom is universally of another Mind especially if it be odious to the People and inconsistent with the Interest of the Government it cannot be so where a Kingdom is of many Minds unless some One Party have the Wisdom Wealth Number Sober Life Industry and Resolution of its side which I am sure is not to be found in England so that the Wind hath plainly shifted its Corner and consequently oblieges to another Course I mean England's Circumstances are greatly changed and they require new Expedients and other sorts of Applications Physicians vary their Medicines according to the Revolution and Commixture of Distempers They that seek to tye the Government to obsolete and inadequate Methods supposing them once apt which Cruelty in this Case never was are not Friends to its Interest whatever they may be to their own If our Superiours should make it their Business so to prefer One Party as to depress the rest they insecure themselves by making them Friends to be their Enemies who before were one anothers To be sure it createth Hatred between the Party advanced and those deprest Jacob's preferring Joseph put his Brethren upon that Conspiracy against him I will allow that they may have a more particular Favour for the National Religion if they can think she deserves it then for any other Perswasion but not more then for all other Parties in England that would break the Ballance the keeping up of which will be to make every Party to owe its Tranquillity to their Prudence and Goodness which will never fail of Returns of Love and Loyalty for since we see each Interest looks jealously upon the other 't is reasonable to believe they had rather the Dominion should lodge where it is while universally impartial in their Judgment then to trust it with any one sort of themselves Many inquisitive Men into humane Affairs have thought that the Concord of Discords hath not been the infirmest Basis Government can rise or stand upon It hath been observed that less Sedition and Disturbance attended Hannibal's Army that consisted of many Nations then the Roman Legions that were of one People It is Marvelous how the Wisdom of that General secured them to his Designs Livy saith that his Army for Thirteen Years that they roaved up and down the Roman Empire made up of many Countries divers Languages Laws Customs Religions under all their Successes of War and Peace never Mutined Malvetzy as well as Livy asscribes it to that Variety well mannaged by the General By the like Prudence Jovianus and Theodosius Magnus brought Tranquillity to their Empire after much Rage and Blood for Religion In Nature we also see all Heat consumes all Cold kills that three Degrees of Cold to two of Heat allay the Heat but introduce the Contrary Quality and over-cool by a Degree but two Degrees of Cold to two of Heat make a Poyz in Elements and a Ballance in Nature The like in Families It is not probable that a Master should have his Work so well done at least with that Love and Respect who continually smiles upon one Servant and severely frowns upon all the rest on the contrary 't is apt to raise Feud amongst Servants and turn Duty into Revenge at least Contempt In fine It is to make our Superiours Dominion less then God made it and to blind their Eyes stop their Ears and shut-up their Breasts from beholding the Miseries hearing the Cries and redressing the Grievances of a vast number of People under their Charge vext in this World for their Belief and inoffensive Practice about the next Secondly It is the Interest of Governours to be put upon no Thankless Offices that is to blow noCoales in their own Country especially when it is to consume their People and it may be themselves too not to be the Cat 's Foot not to make Work for themselves or fill their own Hands with Trouble or the Kingdom with Complaints It is to forbid them the Use of Clemency wherein they ought most of all to imitate God Almighty whose Mercy is above all his Works and renders them a sort of Extortioners to the People the most remote from the End and Goodness of their Office In short It is the best Receipt that their Enemies can give to make them uneasie to the Country Thirdly It not only makes them Enemies but there is no such Excitement to Revenge as a rap'd Conscience He that hath been forc'd to break his Peace to gratifie the Humor of another must have a great share of Mercy and Self-denyal to forgive that Injury and forbid himself the Pleasure of Retribution upon the Authors of it For Revenge in other Cases condemnable of all is here lookt upon by too many to be the next way to their Expiation To be sure whether the Grounds of their Dissent be rational in themselves such Severity is unjustifiable with them for this is a Maxim with Sufferers Whoever is in the Wrong the Persecutor is never in the Right Men not conscious to themselves of Evil and harshly treated not only resent it unkindly but are bold to shew it Fourthly Suppose the Prince by his Severity conquers any into a Compliance he can upon