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
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
he had a great Veneration yet he could not but observe however since the Presbiterian Plot they preached up the danger of Phanaticks to be more than of Papists and that to disinherit the Duke was against the Law of God Which said oppinions said he If they should be Imbibed by the People what would the Associating Bill signifie or any other Law against Popery J. B. Another said That People were come to know that the Clergy may be good Divines but not so good Politicians And that the Clergy-men might be in a possibility of being advanced by Popery if they submitted but the Laity under a probability of loosing all notwithstanding all Submission And added That he doubted not but that many of the Beshops and Clergy would as soon die for the Protestant Religion as any Person in the Nation but he was jealous there was some over-ruling Power yet amongst them something answerable to that of a Popish Successor This Gentleman seemed kinder than the rest in that he charged them mostly with want of foresight and inadvertency that some Leading Men of their Order were decoying them to overlook their Interest But surely in this they Acted like good Politicians as well as Divines in that thereby they saved a great effusion of Blood which necessarily must have followed such an unjust Bill And I hope they will retain the same Integrity and Wisdom with a good Conscience as to afford no occasion to their Enemies to censure their defect of Religion or Policy or allay the King-Affection and Grace to them for that Service then done to him SECT IV. The Calumnies against the Loyal Members of the Church of England in the foregoing times I Think it not unfeasonable here to refresh your Memory with a Summary of the Calumnies laid upon the Loyal Members of the Church of England in the Reign of the two late Kings of Glorious Memory In King Charles the First 's Reign the People being wrought upon to repine at some ways of levying Money not usual and some Rules of Uniformity either disused or not so Universally practised before chose in most places such Members of Parliament as they thought would be most ready to redress those Grievances who no sooner were met but the Designers amongst them set the People upon petitioning against Innovations Then the Bishops and most of the dignified Clergy were accused of an intention to bring in Popery and to make some approaches to a Conformity to the Church of Rome Every where hideous Crys were heard of the apprehensions of the Inundation and Inflowing of Popery when the thousandth Man scarce knew what it was or who were the Preservers of the Banks which most powerfully kept it out and having got Power by those Suggestions and gained an Aversion in so many against them before they had over powered the Monarchy voted down and in the effectualest way they could totally overthrew the English Hierarchy And all that asserted the Government then exercised in Church and State were branded as Betrayers of the Subjects Birthright Priviledges and Liberties and Favourers of Popery and Arbitrary Government Which Epithets they never failed to interweave and on whomsoever they fastned such of their Petars they were sure to have their Reputation blasted and all their subsequent Actions rendred odious to the Commonalty who the soonest of any Mortals are blear-cy'd and distorted with the suspitious squint In the late Kings time all Loyal Men who profest most strict conformity to the Church of England and were not for the Bill of Seclusion or Comprehension were stigmatiz'd with the names of Papists in Masquerade How efficacious these Calumnies were to Arm so great a part of the Subjects against the blessed Martyr of his People and bring him to that tragical end is too fresh in our Memories to need a recital And when we found the powerfulness of those Fictions and Imaginary Goblins in both Kings Reigns to endanger the Subversion of the Monarchy and Episcopacy Have we not reason to believe that there are a great number of Republican Spirits yet at work who subtily mingle themselves with all Male-Contents and dissatisfied Parties and by their sly insinuations inflame every small Scratch and rancle it into a venomous Boil by their pestilent and contagious Breath Those are continually raking into the Ashes of every of these by-past Designs keeping some Brands always in the Embers ready upon every light occasion to be blown into a Flame Can we believe those to be now at rest and quiet to have hushed or mortified their eager Concupiscence of advancing the Good Old Cause No no let us not believe the Fox hath forgot his Shifts and Wiles or the Crocodile his Tears or the Asp his venemous Bite Let us fear the gilded Snake in the Grass yea rather lurking in every Thicket where repining murmurs sears jealousie or discontent can lodge SECT V. The Affrightments and Arts now used to make the Subjects believe that the Protestant Religion is to be extirpated here THese are a set of Men who by their whispering dissatisfaction and suspitions of the danger of the Protestant Religion are but fitting their Mouths and preparing their Lungs to blow the Bag-pipe of Sedition And when they have allured the Crowd will endeavour to decoy them into the same Designs with themselves and excite us to follow the Methods they used in our Fathers days That new Japan doth much resemble the old Varnish only they have found out new Exotick affrighting Figures And whereas before the Emblem of Venient Romani was placed at so great a distance from the Sight that it was but faintly delineated as in a remote Prospect Now they think they may be bold to place it in a nearer Light and hope to allure the Tender-sighted and well Affected to the Church of England to believe the reality of the Representation which is no other but that the Roman Altars are to be placed where Communion Tables now stand That the great Fabrick of St. Pauls is to have a Cupula with the Sword of that Saint and the Keys of St. Peter upon it That our Common Prayer is to he changed for a Mass-Book And in fine that the Protestant Religion is designed to be extirpated The Plausible Inducements they pretend to have to believe this are the Liberty the King grants to all his Catholic Subjects to Exercise their Religious Worship the suspending the execution of all the penal Laws against them and the placing of Catholics contrary to the Provision made by Act of Parliament to exclude them These Proceedings of the King they would make us believe are manifest Demonstrations of his intentions to recede from his Royal Promise of protecting the Church of England and consequently that it will crumble to nothing by his withdrawing it This they endeavour to infer by the consideration of the influence the Pope and the Catholick Fathers may have upon his Majesty who will be continually instilling into his Royal Mind how