making of Laws which shall Authorize the Deisying a bit of Bread the Worshipping of it for a God the Praying to it Idolatry Blasphemy any thing in the World for them that like it Now is not this a very fair Speech and does it not well become the mouths of Protestants I would fain press this home upon the Consciences both of those Dissenters who are hired and of those who are not hired to labour the Repeal of our Laws Do you fear the Informers more than God Will you for the sake of your little Conventicles do the greatest Evils which you know to be such You know in your very Hearts that the Worship of Images Crosses and of a Wafer is abominable Idolatry that the Half-Communion is Sacriledge and that many other Points of Popery are blasphemous Fables And will you set up this for one of your Religions as by Law Established Will you do all that hands can do to entail Idolatry upon the Nation not only Removendo prohibens as Divines distinguish by pulling down the Laws which hinder it but also Promovendo adjuvans by making a perpetual Magna Charta for it The Laws and Constitution of a Country do denominate that Country if Atheism were Authorized by Law this would be an Athiestical Nation and if Idolatry be set up by Law it is an Idolatrous Nation and all that have any hand in it make it the Sin of the Nation as well as their own Think therefore of these things in time before you have involved both your selves and your Country in a miserable Estate and remember poor Francis Spira who went against Light. But Secondly There is just as much Prudence as Conscience in these Proceedings for by Repealing the Laws against Popery you Reverse the Outlawry and take of those legal Disabilities which the Papists now lie under and which have hitherto tied their Hands from destroying Hereticks When Papists shall be right Justices and Sheriffs and not Counterseits when they shall be Probi legales homines and pass Muster in Law when they shall be both our legal Judges and our lawful Juries and when Protestants shall come to be Tryed by their Country that is to say by their Twelve Popish Godfathers they may easily know what sort of Blessing they are to expect The Papists want nothing but these Advantages to make a fair riddance of all Protestants for we see by several of their late Pamphlets that if any thing be said against Popery they have a great dexterity in laying it Treason Now this is a civil way of answering Arguments for which we are bound to thank them because it so plainly discovers what they would be at if it were in their Power But how comes it to be Treason to speak against a Religion which is itself High-Treason and is Proscribed by so many Laws Why their Medium is this That Popery is the King's Religion and therefore by an Inuendo what is said against that is meant against him But is there any Law of England that Popery shall be the King's Religion Or is it declared by any Law that Popery either is or can be his Religion On the other hand we are enabled by an Act in this very Reign to pronounce Popery to be a False Religion and to assert the Religion which is now professed in the Church of England and Established by the Laws of this Realm to be the True Christian Religion Act for building St. Ann's Church p. 133. But these Gentlemen it seems are for Hanging Men without Law or against Law or any how and therefore we thank them again for being thus plain with us before hand Now if they be thus insolent when they are so very abnoxious themselves and have Halters about their own Necks with what a Rod of Iron will they Rule us when they are our Masters What havock will they then make of the Nation when we already see Magdalen Colledge which was lately a flourishing Society of Protestants now made a Den of Jesuits and that done to in such a way as shakes all the Property in England Or who can be safe after our Laws are Repealed when Endeavours have been lately used to extract Sedition even out of Prayers and Tears and the Bishops Humble Petition was threatned to be made a Treasonable Libel But here the Dissenters have a plausible excuse for themselves for say they We have now an opportunity of getting the Laws which are against us Repealed which is clear gain and as for our refusing to Repeal the Laws against Popery there is nothing gotten by that either to us or to any body else for they are already as good as Repealed by the Dispensing Power and therefore such Discourse as this only advises us to stand in our own light without doing any good to the Nation at all for there will be Popish Justices Sheriffs Judges and Juries whether we will or no for whatsoever we refuse to do the Dispensing Power will supply To which I answer Do you keep your hands off from Repealing the Laws let who will contravene or Transgress them for then you are free from the Blood of all Men you have no share in the guilt of those Mischiefs which befal your Country which would sooner or later be a heavy burden and a dead weight upon the Conscience of any Protestant But besides let the Laws alone and they will defend both themselves and us too for if the Law says That a Papist shall not nor cannot have an Office then he shall not nor cannot for who can speak Louder than the Laws As for a Dispensing-Power inherent in the King which can set aside as many of the Laws of the Land as he pleases and Suspend the Force and Obligation of them which has been lately held forth by many False and Unlawful Pamphlets the Dissenters know very well that there is no such thing but that no body may pretend Ignorance I shall here prove in very few words That by the Established Laws of the Land the King cannot have such a Dispensing-Power unless Dispensing with the Laws and Executing the Laws be the same thing and unless both keeping the Laws himself and causing them to be kept by all others be the English of Dispensing with them For in the Statute of Provisors 25 Eaw 3. c. 25. we have this laid down for Law That the King is bound to Execute those Statutes which are Unrepealed and to cause them to be kept as the Law of this Realm The words are these speaking of a Statute made in the time of Edward the First Which Statute holdeth always his Force and was never Defeated or Annull'd in any point And by somuch our Sovereign Lord the King is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm although by Sufferance and Negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary So that the Coronation Oath and the Dispensing-Power are here by King Edward the Third and his
those who possess any Church-Lands or Goods who are still left under the sentence of Excommunication Toleti Instr. Sacord and his Explicatio casuum in Bulla canae Dni reserva From which considerations it's evident that it never was the design of the Pope to confirm the English Church Lands to the Lay-possessors but that he always urg'd the necessity of restoring of them to religious uses in order to which the Papists prevailed to have the statute of Mertmaln repealed for 20 Years In Queen Elizabeths Reign the factious Party that was manag'd wholy by Romish Amiffaries demanded to have Abbies and such religious Houses restored for their Use and A. D. 1585 in their Petition to the Parliament they set it down as a resolute Doctrine that things once dedicated to Sacred Uses ought so to remain by the Word of God for ever and ought not to be converted to any private use Bishop Bancrofts Sermon at p. c. A. D. 1588. p. 25. And that the Church of Rome is still gaping after these Lands is evident from many of their late Books as the Religion of M. Luther lately printed at Oxford p. 15. The Monks wrote Anathema upon the Registers and Donaticns belonging to Monasteries the weight and effect of which Curses are both felt and dreaded to this day To this end the Monasticon Anglicanum is so diligently preserved in the Vatican and other Libraries in Popish Countries and especially this appears from the obstlnate refusal of this present Pope to confirm these Alienations tho it be a matter so much controverted and which would be of that vast Use towards promoting their Religion in this Kingdom If therefore the Bishops of Rome did never confirm these Alienations of Church Lands but earnestly and strictly required their Restitution if they have declared in their Authentick Canons that they have no power to do it and both they and the last general Council pronounce an heavy Curse and Anathema against all such as detain them Then let every one that possesseth these Lands and yet owns either of these foreign Jurisdictions consider that here is nothing left to excuse him from Sacriledge and therefore with his Estate he must derive a curse to his Posterity There is scarcely any Papist but that is forward to accuse King Henry the 8th of Sacriledge and yet never reflects upon himself who quietly possesseth the Fruits of it without Restitution either set them not accuse him or else restore themselves Now whatever opinions the Papists may have of these things in the time of health yet I must desire to remember what the Jesuits proposed to Cardinal Pool in Doctor Pary's Days viz. That if he would encourage them in England they did not doubt but that by dealing with the Consciences of those who were dying they should soon recover the greatest part of the Goods of the Church Dr. Burnet's Hist. Vol. 2. p. 328. Not to mention that whensoever the Regulars shall grow numerous in England and by consequence butthensome to the few Nobility and Gentry of that Perswasion they will find it necessary for them to consent to a Restitution of their Lands that they may share the burthen among others For so vast are the Burthens and Payments that that Religion brings with it that it will be found at length an advantagious Bargain to part with all the Church Lands to indemnifie the rest And I am confident that the Gentry of England that are Papists have found greater Burthens and Payments since their Religion hath been allow'd than ever they did for the many years it was forbid and this charge must daily encrease so long as their Clergy daily grows more numerous and their few Converts are most of them of the meanest Rank and such as want to be provided for And that 's no easie matter to force Converts may appear from that excellent Observation of the great Emperor Charles the Fifth who told Queen Mary That by indeavouring to compel others to his own Religion i. e had tired and spent himself in vain and purchas'd nothing by it but his own dishonour Card. Pool in Heylins Hist. Ref. p. 217. And to conclude this Discourse had the Act of Pope Julius the Third by his Legate Cardinal Pool in confirming of the Alienation of Church Lands in England been as vallid as is by some pretended yet what shall secure us from an Act of Resumption That very Pope after that pretended Grant to Cardinal Pool published a Bull in which he excommunicated all that kept Abby Lands or Church Lands Burnets Hist. Vol. 2. p. 309. by which all former Grants had there been any were cancell'd His Successor Pope Paul the Fourth retrieved all the Goods and Ecclesiastical Revenues that had been alienated from the Church since the time of Julius the Second and the chief Reasons that are given why the Popes may not still proceed to an Act of Resumption of these Lands in England amount only to this That they may stay for a fair opportunity when it may be done without disturbing the Peace of the Kingdom From all which it 's evident that the detaining of Abby Lands and other Church Lands from the Monks and Friars is altogether inconsistent with the Doctrine and Principles of the Romish Religion The King's Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated HIS present Majesty having erected an High-Commission Court to enquire of and make redress in Ecclesiastical Matters c. Q. Whether such a Commission as the Law now stands be good or not And I hold that the Commission is not good And to maintain my Opinion herein I shall in the first place briefly consider what Power the Crown of England had in Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Matters for I take them to be synonymous Terms before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And 2ly I shall particularly consider that Act of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And 3ly I shall consider 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. And by that time I have fully considered these three Acts of Parliament it will plainly appear That the Crown of England hath now no Power to erect such a Court. I must confess and do agree That by the common Law all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was lodged in the Crown and the Bishops and all Spiritual Persons derived their Jurisdiction from thence And I cannot find that there were any attempts by the Clergy to divest the Crown of it till William the First 's time in whose time and his Successors down to King John the Pope obtained four Points of Jurisdiction 1st Sending of Legates into England 2ly Drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome 3ly Donation of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices And 4ly Exemption of Clerks from the secular Power Which four Points were gained within the space of an hundred and odd years but with all the opposition imaginable of the Kings and their People and the Kingdom never came to be absolutely inslaved to the Church of Rome till King John's time and then both King and People were
If in a Country whose â—… was perfectly in the English hands so sudden an alteration was made that both the Courts of Judicature and Charters of their Corporations were taken from them without any fault of theirs have they not reason to complain and be affraid If those very Arms which are taken from them be put into the hands of their sworn Enemies and their just Debts paid after a new Method by beating or killing the Creditors when they demand their own Have they not reason to fear and desert the Kingdom If these and an hundred other things do not justifie the retreat of several of the British into England I know not what shall be adjudged a sufficient Reason This our Author would insinuate is caused by a sullen Combination as if the Gentry of a Nation could agree together to do a thing so contrary to their visible Interest as desert their Houses and Estates to the loss of one half of them meerly out of spite to the Government But because our Author is so good at his Narratives and would induce the World to believe that there was but two Regiments disbanded by his talking only of two and in another place speaking of some Officers that were Cashiered We shall hereafter give a faithful Account of the Proceedings in the business of Disbanding and in the mean time affirm That his whole Account of the Affair at Molingar is most unsincere The English Soldiers were given to understand that they were all to be turned out and the only Grace his Excellency did them was to declare before a long and tedious March That such as had a mind or had Settlements in that Country might better quit then than hereafter This is plainly shewn by the turning out afterwards all those English who then actually continued in the Service they were glad that any would quit voluntarily but those that did not and after a publick Tryal were willing to serve His Majesty they soon after turn'd out Thus the false gloss that our Author puts upon my Lord Tyrconnel's Speech is discover'd And I assure the Reader the Memoires I have by me are from such unquestionable hands and there are so many hundred living Witnesses to the truth of them that our Author will not have the Impudence to deny what may be prov'd before His Majesty if he require it I shall only take notice of the ill Application of our Author's Sea-Metaphor Though in stress of Weather the Owner is willing to make use of all hands that may be helpful towards the saving the Vessel yet he takes care to call for none whose practice it hath been to cut the Tacklings and to steer contrary to the Pilot's Directions he thinks such safer by far shut up under Hatches then set at liberty or employ'd to do mischief As for his supposition of 30000 men to be sent out of Ireland into Flanders I cannot tell what to make on 't Let them crack the Shell that hope to find a Kernel in it For my part I despair though the readiness of the English Soldiers of Ireland who at twenty four hours warning came into England to serve His Majesty in the time of Monmouth's Rebellion ought to have been remembered to their advantage and might serve to any unprejudic'd person as a Pattern of the Loyalty and good Inclinations of all the Protestants in that Kingdom if His Majesty had had occasion â—… them Whether the Parliament will Repeal â—… Test for those several weighty Reasons our Author says are fitter for Contemplation then Discourse tho methinks it would be pleasant to see a House of Commons sit like the Brethren at a silent Meeting is not my Province to determine As likewise Whether they will so much consider that â—… Reason the King will have it so for his Conscience and theirs may differ or what the Dissenters will do I cannot tell One thing I am sure â—… there will be no such Stumbling-block in the â—… of the King's desires when they meet as the present condition of Ireland they will be apt â—… His Majesty tells them they shall have their â—… shares in Employments when they have Repealed the Laws to say Look at Ireland see what is done there where the Spirit of Religion appears â—… fac'd and accordingly compute what may become of us when we have removed our own legal â—… Since they now leap over those Hedges what may we expect when they are quite taken away Poyning's Law is a great grievance to our Author and here in one word he discovers that 't is the dependance this Kingdom has on England he quarrel at 'T is fit the Reader should understand that Law enacted when Poynings was Lord Deputy make all the English Acts of Parliament of force in Ireland we are therefore so fond of that Law and cover so much to preserve our dependance on England that all the Arguments our Author can bring shall not induce us to part with it I will not reflect in the least on the Courage of the Irish I know there are several brave men among them but they have had the misfortune to fall under the Consideration of as our Author softens â—… but the plain sence is been beaten by a Warlike Nation and I question not unless they behave themselves modestly in their Prosperity they will again fall under the Consideration of the same Nation 't is better we should live in peace and quietness but the Choice is in their hands and if they had rather come under our Consideration again than avoid it let them look to the Consequence Another Advantage which may accrue to Ireland by a Native as Governour our Author â—… to be His personal knowledge of the Tories and their Harbourers and his being thereby better capacitated to suppress them Malicious People would be apt to infer from this Suggestion that his Excellency had occasion formerly to be familiarly acquainted with such sort of Cattle I have heard indeed that one of our bravest English Princes â—… the during the Extravagancies of his Youth â—… company with publick Robbers and often shar'd both in the Danger and Booty But as soon as the Death of his Father made way for his Succession to the Crown he made â—… of his former acquaintance of their Persons and â—… to the extirpating and dissolving the greatest knot of Highway-men that ever troubled England My Lord therefore in imitation of his great Prince no doubt will make use of his Experience that way to the same end and I really assent to the Author that no English Governor can be so fit to clear that Kingdom of Tories and that for the same reason he gives us There are two other Advantages remaining one is his Excellency's having already made different Parties in that Kingdom the Objects of his Love and Hatred let the Offences of the one or the Merits of the other be never so conspicuous Whether the British can draw any comfort from his Excellency's knowledge of
to mind how it fared with those in King Charles the First 's Reign who read the Book of Sports as it was called and then preached against it To return then to our Argument if reading the Declaration in our Churches be in the nature of the Action in the intention of the Command in the opinion of the People an interpretative consent to it I think my self bound in conscience not to read it because I am bound in conscience not to approve it It is against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have subscribed and thefore am bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this Obligation lasts It is to Teach an unlimited and universal Toleration which the Parliament in 72. Declared illegal and which has been condemned by the Christian Church in all Ages It is to teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my free leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass It is to teach the dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it It is to recommend to our People the choice of such persons to sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal-Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their judgment against It is to condemn all those great and worthy Patriots of their Country who forfeited the dearest thing in the World to them next a good Conscience viz. The Favour of their Prince and a great many honourable and profitable Employments with it rather than consent to that Proposal of taking away the Test and Penal Laws which they apprehend destructive to the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and he who can in Conscience do all this I think need scruple nothing For let us consider further what the effects and consequences of our reading the Declaration are likely to be and I think they are matter of Conscience too when they are evident and apparent This will certainly render our Persons and Ministry infinitely contemptible which is against that Apostolick Canon Let no man despise thee Titus 2. 15. That is so to behave himself in his Ministerial Office as not to fall under contempt and therefore this obliges the Conscience not to make our selves ridiculous nor to render our Ministry our Counsels Exhortations Preaching Writing of no effect which is a thousand times worse than being silenced Our Sufferings will Preach more effectually to the People when we cannot speak to them but he who for Fear or Cowardise or the Love of this World betrays his Church and Religion by undue compliances and will certainly be thought to do so may continue to Preach but to no purpose and when we have rendred our selves ridiculous and contemptible we shall then quickly fall and fall unpitied There is nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruine of the Church of England because our Reading the Declaration will discourage or provoke or misguide all the Friends the Church of England has can we blame any man for not preserving the Laws and the Religion of our Church and Nation when we our selves will venture nothing for it can we blame any man for consenting to Repeal the Test and Penal Laws when we recommend it to them by Reading the Declaration Have we not Reason to expect that the Nobility and Gentry who have already suffered in this Cause when they hear themselves condemned for it in all the Churches of England will think it time to mend such a fault and reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this way is there any any reason to expect that it should ever rise again These Consequences are almost as evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foreseee will destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Interest I think I ought to make as much conscience of doing it as of doing the most immoral Action in Nature To say that these mischievous consequences are not absolutely necessary and therefore do not affect the Conscience because we are not certain they will follow is a very mean Objection Moral Actions indeed have not such necessary consequences as natural causes have necessary effects because no moral causes act necessarily Reading the Declaration will not as necessarily destroy the Church of England as fire burns Wood but if the consequence be plain and evident the most likely thing that can happen if it be unreasonable to expect any other if it be what is plainly intended and designed either I must never have any regard to Moral Consequences of my Actions or if ever they are to be considered they are in this case Why are the Nobility and Gentry so extreamly averse to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws why do they forfeit the King's Favour and their Honourable Stations rather than comply with it if you say that this tends to destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion I ask whether this be the necessary consequence of it whether the King cannot keep his promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repealed We cannot say but this may be and yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and we commend those great men who deny it and if the same questions were put to us we think we ought in Conscience to deny them our selves and are there not as high probabilities that our Reading the Declaration will promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery upon us Is it not as probable that such a complyance in us will disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry who have hitherto been firm to us as that when the power of the Nation is put into Popish Hands by the Repeal of such Tests and Laws the Priests and Jesuits may find some salvo for the King's Conscience and perswade him to forget his Promise to the Church of England and if the probable ill consequences of Repealing the Test and Penal Laws be a good reason not to comply with it I cannot see but that the as probable ill consequences of Reading the Declaration is as good a reason not to read it The most material Objection is that the Dissenters whom we ought not to provoke will expound our not Reading it to be the effect of a Persecuting Spirit Now I wonder men should lay any weight on this who will not allow the most probable consequences of our Actions to have any influence upon Conscience for if we must compare consequences to disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading it is likely to be much more fatal than to anger the Dissenters and it is more likely and there is much more
conform to the Presbyterial Government And when these Dissenting Brethren commonly known by the name of Independants had got a Party strong enough which carried all before them they would not allow the use of the Common Prayer in any Parish no not to the King himself in his own Chappel not grant to one of the old Clergy so much liberty as to teach a School c. Which things I do not mention God knows to reproach those who were guilty of them but only to put them in mind of their own Failings that they may be humbled for them and not insult over the Church of England nor severely upbraid them with that which when time was they acted with a higher hand themselves If I should report all that the Presbyterians did here and in Scotland and all that the Independants did here and in New-England it would not be thought that I exceed the Truth when I say they have been more guilty of this fault than those whom they now charge with it Which doth not excuse the Church of England it must be confessed but doth in some measure mitigate her fault For the Conformable Clergy having met with such very hard usage in that dismal time wherein many of them were oppressed above measure no wonder if the smart of it then fresh in their minds something imbittered their Spirits when God was pleased by a wonderful Revolution to put them into Power again III. Then a stricter Act of Uniformity was made and several Laws pursuant to it for the enforcing that Uniformity by severe Penalties But let it be remembred that none were by those Laws constrained to come to Church but had Liberty left them to serve God at home and some Company with them in their own way And let it be farther remembred that the reason why they were denied their liberty of meeting in greater Assemblies was because such Assemblies were represented as greatly endangering the publick Pecce and Safety as the words are in the very first Act of this nature against Quakers in the Year 1662. Let any one read the Oxford Act as it is commonly called made in the Year 1665. and that at Westminster in the Year 1670. and he will find them intended against Seditious Conventicles That is they who made them were perswaded by the Jesuit interest at first to look upon such Meetings as Nurseries of Sedition where bad Principles were infused into mens minds destructive to the Civil Government If it had not been for this it doth not appear that the Contrivers of these Laws were inclined to such Severities as were thereby enacted but the Nonconformists might have enjoyed a larger liberty in Religion It was not Religion alone which was considered and pretended but the publick peace and seulement with respect to which they were tyed up so straitly in the exercise of their Religion Which to deal clearly I do not believe would have taught Rebellion but this was constantly insinuated by the Court Agents and it is no wonder if the Parliament who remembred how the Ministers of that Persuasion though indeed from the then appearance of Popery had been the principal Incouragers of that Defensive War against the King were easily made to believe that they still retained the same Principles and would propagate them if they were suffered among the People Certain it is also that the Court made it their care to have those Acts passed though at the same time they hindred their execution that they might keep up both Parties in the height of their Animosities and especially that they might make the Church of England be both hated and despised by the Dissenters IV. Thus things continued for some time till wise men began to see into the Secret and think of a Reconciliation But is was alway hindred by the Court who never thought of giving Liberty by a Law but only by the Prerogative which could as easily take it away There was a time for instance when a Comprehension c. was projected by several Great Men both in Church and State for the taking as many as was possible into Union with us and providing Ease for the rest Which so netled the late King that meeting with the then Archbishop of Canterbury he said to him as I perfectly remember What my Lord you are for a Comprehension To which he making such a reply as signified he heard some were about it No said the King I will keep the Church of England pure and unmixed that is never suffer a Reconciliation with the Dissenters And when the Lords and Commons also had not many years ago passed a Bill for the repealing of the most heavy of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters viz. the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. which by the Parliament is made against the Wicked and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries and â—… persons his late Majesty so dealt with the Clerk of the Parliament that it was shuffled away and could not be sound when it was to have been presented to him among other Bills for his Royal Consent unto it A notable token of the abhorrence the Court then had of all Penal Laws and of their great kindness to Dissenters V. Who may remember if they please that as once there was a time when the Court turned out or chid those Justices who were forward in the Execution of the Laws against Nonconformists because they were then in so low a Condition that the Court was afraid the Church of England might indeed be established in its Uniformity So when the Nonconformists were by some liberty grown stronger and set themselves against the Court interest in the Election of Sheriffs and such like things then all those Justices were turned out who hung back and would not execute the Laws against them and Justices pickt out for the purpose who would do it severely Nay the Clergy were called upon and had Orders sent them to return the Names of all Nonconformists in their several Parishes that they might be proceeded against in the Courts Ecclesiastical And here I cannot forget the Order made by the Middlesex Justices at the Sessions at Hickses-Hall Jan. 13. 1681. Where they urge the Execution of the Act of 22 C. 2. against Conventicles because in all probability they will destroy both Church and State. This was the reason which moved them to call upon Constables and all other Officers to do their duty in this matter Nay to call upon the B. of London himself that he would use his utmost endeavours within his Jurisdiction that all such Persons may be Excommunicate This was a bold stroke proceeding from an unusual degree of Zeal which plainly enough signifies that the Bishops were not so forward as the Justices in the prosecuting of Dissenters Who may do well to remember that the House of Commons a little before this had been so kind to them that those Justices would not have dared to have been so severe as they were at Hickses-Hall if they had
and so continued to be in a great measure in Henry III's time and so would in all likelihood have continued had not the wise Edward I. opposed the Pope's Usurpation and made â—… Statute of Mortmain But that which chiefly â—… the Neck of this was That after the Pope and Clergy had endeavoured in Ed. II's time and the beginning of Ed. III. to usurp again Ed. 3. â—… resist the Usurpation and made the Statutes of Provisors 25 Ed. 3. and 27 Ed. 3. And Richard II. â—… those Acts with 16 Rich. 2. ca. 5. and kept â—… Power in the Crown by them Laws which being interrupted by Queen Mary a bloody Bigot the Church of Rome during her Reign there was an Act made in 1 Eliz. ca. 1. which is intituled An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing foreign Powers repugnant to the same From which Title I collect three things 1st That the â—… had anciently a Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual 2ly That that Jurisdiction had for some time been at least suspended and the Crown had not exercised it 3ly That â—… Law did not introduce a new Jurisdiction but restored the Old but with restoring the old Jurisdiction to the Crown gave a Power of Delegating the Exercise of it And as a Consequence from the whole that all Jurisdiction that is lodged the Crown is subject nevertheless to the Legislative Power in the Kingdom I shall now consider what Power this Act of 1 â—… 1. declares to have been anciently in the â—… and that appears from Sect. 16 17 18. of the same Act. Section 16. Abolisheth all Foreign Authority in â—… Spiritual and Temporal in these words And the intent that all the Usurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries 2. May it please Your Highness that it may be further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate â—… or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any â—… after the last day of this Session of Parliament â—… enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from â—… the same shall be clearly Abolished out of this â—… and all other Your Highness's Dominions for â—… any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions â—… any other matter or cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And after the said Act hath abolished all Foreign Authority in the very next Section Sect 17. It annexeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown in these words And that also it may likewise please Your Highness That it may be Established and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm From these words That such Jurisdiction c. as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had then-to-fore been exercised or used were annexed to the Crown I observe That the Four things aforesaid wherein the Pope had incroached were all restored to the Crown and likewise all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that had been exercised or used in this Kingdom and did thereby become absolutely vested in the Crown Then Section 18. gives a Power to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in these words And that Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall please Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being natural horn Subjects to Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors as Your Majesty Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within these Your Realms of England and Ireland or any other Your Highness's Dominions and Countries 2. and to Visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or may lawfully be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained or Amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Vertue and the conservation of the Peace and Unity of this Realm 3 And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorised and appointed by your Highness your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under your Highness your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to Exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Eliz. and a High Commission Court was by her Erected which late and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Eliz. King James the first and King Charles the first till the 17 year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some words in the aforesaid branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are Authorized to execute their Commission acording to the tenor and effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Art and divers
from the Bishops than that they have in part retained in their Government and Ceremonies the Exteriors of that Religion should now themselves joyn to bring it intirely in But above all Who could have believed that the French Ministers who after having experimented all the Fury of Popery in France were at last banished rather than that they would subscribe to its Errors and Abuses And for this very cause fled into England that they might there more freely profess the Protestant Religion should now contribute to re-establish Popery in their new Country where they had been received by their Brethren with so singular a Charity Would you indeed Gentlemen see England once more submitted to the Tyranny of the Pope whose Yoke it so happily threw off in the last Age Would you there see all those monstrous Doctrines all those Superstitions and that horrible Idolatry which reigned there before the Reformation domineer once more in it Would you that the People should again hear the Pulpits and the Churches sounding out the Doctrins of Purgatory of Indulgences of the Sacrifice of the Mass c. and see the Image and Reliques of the Saints carried solemnly in Procession with a God formed by the hand of Man. And that in sine they should again publickly adore those vain Idols We are confident there is not â—… good Protestant in the World that would not startle â—… at the thought of it But this is not yet all The Declaration of which we speak does not only re-establish Popery with all its abominations but does moreover tend to the Ruine of the Reformation in England A Man need not to have any great Sagacity to be convinced of this And that as much as it seems to establish for ever the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom it does on the contrary destroy the very Foundations of it The ground upon which the Reformation is founded in England are the Laws which have been made at several times for the settlement of it and to abolish either the Tyranny of the Pope or the Popish Religion altogether And as these Laws have been made by the King and Parliament together so that the King has not the power to Repeal them without a Parliament they secure the Protestant Religion against the Enterprizes of such Kings as should ever think to Destroy it But now if this Declaration be executed we are no more to make any account of those Solemn Laws which have been passed in favour of the Reformation they become of no value and the Protestant Religion is intirely lest to the King's Pleasure This is what will clearly appear from what we are about to say The King not having been able to obtain of the last Parliament to consent to a Repeal of the Laws which had been made against the Nonconformists dissolved the Parliament it self Not long after without attending a new one he did that alone by his Declaration which the Parliament would not do conjunctly with him He granted a all Liberty of Conscience to the Nonconformists he freed them from the Penalties which had been appointed against them and dispensed with the Oaths to which the Laws obliged all those who were admitted to any Charges whether in the souldiery or in administration of Justice or of the Government In pursuance of these Declarations he threw the Protestants out of all Places of any great Importance to clap in Papists in their room and goes on without ceasing to the intire establishment of Popery Who does not see that if the Protestants approve these Declarations and themselves authorize such Enterprises the King will not stop here but that this will be only one step to carry him much further What can be did when he shall do the same thing with reference to those Laws which exclude the Papists out of the Parliament that he has done to those which shut them out of all Charges and Imploys and forbad them the Exercise of their Religion Does not the approbation of such Declarations as it overthrows these last carry with it before-hand the approbation of those which shall one day overthrow the former And if the King shall once give himself the Authority to bring Papists into the Parliament who shall hinder him from using Solicitations Promises Threatnings and a thousand other the like means to make up a Popish Parliament And who shall hinder him with the concurrence of that Parliament to repeal all the ancient Laws that had been passed against Popery and make new ones against the Protestants These are without doubt the natural Consequences of what the King at this time aims at These are the fruits which one ought to expect from it if instead of approving as some have done his Enterprises against the Laws they do not on the contrary with all imaginable Vigor oppose them Reflect a little on what we have here said and you will confess that we have reason to commend the Conduct of the Bishops who refused to publish the Declaration and to condemn those Dissentèrs who have made their Addresses of Thanks for it It is true that the Dissenters are to be pitied and that they have been treated hardly enough and we do not think it at all strange that they so earnestly sigh after Liberty of Conscience It is natural for Men under Oppression to seek for Relief and Liberty of Conscience considered only in it self is it may be the Thing of all the World the most precious and most desirable Would to God we were able to procure it for them by any lawful means and without such ill Consequences tho' it were at the peril of our Lives But we conjure them to consider how pernicious that Liberty of Conscience is which is offer'd to them as we have just now shewn On the one side it is inseparably linked with the Establishment of Popery and on the other it cannot be accepted without approving a terrible Breach which his Majesty thereby makes upon the Laws and which would be the ruine of the Reformation in his Kingdoms were not some Remedy brought to it And where is the Protestant who would buy Liberty of Conscience at so dear a rate and not rather chuse to continue deprived of it all his Life Should the private Interest of our Brechren the Dissenters blind them in such a manner that they have no regard to the general Interest of the Church Should they for enjoying a Liberty of Conscience so ill assured shut their Eyes to all other Considerations How much better would it be for them to re-unite themselves to the Bishops with whom they differ only in some Points of Discipline but especially at this time when their Conduct ought to have entirely defaced those unjust Suspicions which they had conceived against them But if they could not so readily dispose themselves to such a Re-union would it not be better for them to resolve still to continue without Liberty of Conscience and expect some more favourable time when they may by lawful
means attain it than to open themselves a Gite to Popery and to concur with it to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion You will it may be tell us that it looks ill in us who so much complain That we have been deprived of Liberty of Concience in France to sind fault with the King of England for granting it to his Subjects And that it is the least that can be allowed to a Soveraign to allow him the Right to permit the exercise of his own Religion in his own Kingdoms and to make use of the Service of such of his Subjects as himself shall think sit by putting them into Charges and Employs You will add That his Majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the ancient Laws nor to make new ones All he does being only to dispence with the Observation of certain Laws in such of his Subjects as he thinks fit and for as long time as he pleases and that the right of dispensing with and suspending of Laws is a Right insepably tied to his Person That for the rest the Protestant Religion does not run the least Risque There are Laws to shut the Papists out of Parliament and these Laws can neither be dispensed with nor suspended So that the Parliament partaking with the King in the Legislative Power and continuing still Protestant there is no cause to fear that any thing should be done contrary to the Protestant Religion Besides What probability is there that a King who appears so great an Enemy to Oppression in matters of Conscience and Religion should ever have a thought tho' he had the Power himself to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his Subjects and take from them that Liberty of Conscience which he now grants to them and which he promises so â—… to observe for the time to come These are all the Objections that can with â—… appearance of Reason be made against what we have before said They may all be reduced â—… five which we shall examine in their order And we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear that they are all but meer Illusions 1. We do justly complain That they had taken from us our Liberty of Conscience in France because it was done contrary to the Laws And one may as justly complain that the K. of England does labour to re-estalish Popery in his Country because he cannot do it but contrary to the Laws Our Liberties in France were founded us on solemn Laws upon perpetual irrevocable and sacred Edicts and which could not be â—… without violating at once the Publick Faith the Royal Word and the Sacredness of an Oath And Popery has been banished out of England by Laws made by King and Parliament and which cannot be repealed but by the author of King and Parliament together so that the therefore there is just cause to complain that the King should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his Declaration 2. It is not true that a Soveraign has always the right to permit the Exercise of his own Religion in his Dominions and to make use of the â—… of such of his Subjects as he himself shall that fit that is to say by putting of them into â—… and Employs And in particular he has this right when the Laws of his Country contrary thereunto as they are in the â—… before us Every King is obliged to observe the fundamental Laws of his Kingdom And the King of England as well as his Subjects ought to observe the Laws which have been established by King and Parliament together 3. For the third the distinction between abrogation of a Law and the dispensing â—… and suspending of it cannot here be of use whether the King abrogates the Laws which have been made against Popery or whether without saying expressly that he does abrogate them he overthrows them by his Declarations under pretence of dispensing with suspending of them it is still in effect same thing And to what purpose is it the Laws are not abrogated if in the â—… time all sorts of Charges are given to Papists and Popery it self be re-established contrary to the tenor of the Laws The truth is if the King has such a power as this if this be â—… Right necessarily tied to his Person 't is in vain â—… the Parliament does partake with him in the Legislature This Authority of the Parliament is but a meer Name a Shadow a Phan â—… a Chimera and no more The King is still the absolute Master because he can alone and without his Parliament render useless by his Declarations the Laws which the Parliament shall have the most solemnly established together with him We confess the King has right of dispensing in certain Cases as if the concern be what belongs to his private Interest he may without doubt whenever he pleases depart from his own Rights 't is a Liberty which no body will pretend to contest with him But he has not the power to dispense to the Prejudice of the Rights of the people â—… by consequence put the Property the Liberty and the Lives of his Protestant Subjects into the hands of Papists 4. What we have now said in Answer to the third Objection will be more clear from the Answer we are to give to the fourth They should perswade the Protestants that their Religion is in safety because on the one side the King cannot make Laws without the Parliament and that on the other there being Laws which exclude Papists out of the two Houses it must necessarily follow That the Parliament shall continue to be Protestant But if the King has the power to break through the Laws under the pretence of dispensing with and suspending of them what Security shall the Protestants have that he will not dispense with the Papists the Observation of those Laws which do exclude them out of the Parliament as well as â—… has dispensed with those that should have kept them out of Charges and Imployments â—… Security shall they have that he will â—… at any time hereafter suspend the Execution of the former as he has already suspended the Execution of the latter Which being â—… what should hinder us from seeing in a little â—… a Popish Parliament who together with the King shall pass Laws contrary to the Protestant Religion What difference can be shewn between the one and the other of these Laws â—… the one should be liable to be dispensed with and suspended and the other not Were they not both established by the King and Parliament Were not both the one and the other made for the Security of the Protestant Religion and of those who profess it Are not the Rights of the people concerned in the one as well as in the other And whosoever suffers and approves the King in the violation of these Rights in some things does he not thereby authorize him to violate them in all If the King has power to put the Liberty and
would compare its Condition with what it is now from the most thriving and flourishing Country of Europe from a place of the briskest Trade and best paid Rents in Christendom it is fallen in one Year and a half 's time to Ruine and Desoration in the most frequent Cities empty Houses and melancholy Countenances in the best Peopl'd Counties unmanur'd neglected Fields and Solitariness Such a one I say might justly exclaim Heu Quantum mutatus ab illo But it would be impertinent to insist any longer on this I must now prove That 't is the advantage of the very Natives themselves who have long been uneasie under the English Government and often endeavour'd to shake it off to be Rul'd and Guided by that Nation they hate so much They are beholding to us for reducing them from a state of Barbarity which left but little difference between them and Brutes We taught them to Live to Eat Drink and Lodge like humane Creatures if they esteem this any advantage and do not really prefer their Native Wildness to all the Benefits of Civil Society Trade Agriculture Merchandizing Learning c. and if the gentleness of the English Government could have had any influence on them they had no reason to be discontented at it They had the equal Protection of the Laws in relation to their Estates and Persons they bore but their just proportion in all Taxes and Cesses Their Lands improv'd in value by the means of their British Neighbours and their Rents were much better paid than formerly whil'st themselves were Masters of the whole Island They had a large connivance for the exercise of their Religion and were even allowed to hold a National Synod of their own Clergy in Dublin Anno 1666. The poor Natives were not oppressed when their severe Land-lords the Irish Gentry by their cruel Extortions Casherings Duties and Days Labour ruin'd them who as soon as the English Manners prevailed among them as they were introduced with difficulty enough there was need of the Authority of Acts of Parliament to constrain them for their own good lived plentifully and in convenient Houses had their share of the current Coyn and proportion of all other Necessaries to the life and well-being of Man which now they want insomuch that several of them have been heard to Curse my Lord Tyrconnel for to his Government they attribute their Misery and acknowledge they never liv'd so well as under the Direction of the English Rulers nor expected to do so again till they were restored to the Helm See the force of Truth which compels a consession of it even from the mouths of its Adversaries One may easily perceive by our Author's manner of arguing where the Shooe pinches he is really concern'd that Ireland is not altogether an independent Kingdom and in the hands of its own Natives he longs till the day when the English Yoak of Bondage shall be thrown off Of this he gives us broad hints when he tells us that England is the only Nation in the World that impedes their Trade That a man of English interest will never Club with them as he phrases it or Project any thing which may tend to their advantage that will be the least bar or prejudice to the Trade of England Now why a man of English interest unless he will allow none of that Nation to be an able and just Minister to his Prince should be partial to ruine one Kingdom to avoid the least inconveniency of the other contrary to the positive Commands of his King I cannot imagine For since it is the Governour 's Duty to Rule by Law and such Orders as he shall receive from His Majesty I know no grounds for our Author 's Arraigning the whole English Nation in saying That no one man among them of what Perswasion soever will be true either to the Laws or his Majesty's positive Orders which shall seem repugnant to the smallest Conveniencies of England This is a glory reserv'd only as it seemes for his Hero my Lord Tyrconnel The Imbargo upon the West-India Trade and the Prohibition of Irish Cattel are the two Instances given It were to be wished indeed for the good of that Kingdom that both were taken off and I question not but to see a day wherein it shall seem proper to the King and an English Parliament to Repeal those Laws a day wherein they will consider us as their own Flesh and Bloud a Colony of their Kindred and Relations and take care of our Advantages with as little grudging and repining I am sure they have the same and no stronger Reason as Cornwall does at Yorkshire There are instances in several Islands in the East-Indies as far distant as Ireland is from England that make up but one Kingdom and Govern'd by the same Laws but the Wisdom of England will not judge it time sitting to do this till we of Ireland be one Man's Children either in Reality or Affection we wish the latter and have made many steps and advances towards it if the Natives will not meet us half way we cannot help it let the Event lie at their own Doors But after all I see not how those Instances have any manner of relation to the English Chief Governours in Ireland they were neither the Causes Contrivers nor Promoters of those Acts. The King and an English Parliament did it without consulting them if they had 't is sorty to one My Lord of Ormond and the Council whose stake is so great in Ireland would have hindred it as much as possible Our Author's Argument proves indeed That 't is detrimental to Ireland to be a subordinate Kingdom to England and 't is plain 't is that he drives at let him disguise it as much as he will but the Conclusion he would prove cannot at all be deduced from it Shortly I expect he will speak plainer and in down-right terms propose That the two Kingdoms may be governed by different Kings Matters seem to grow ripe for such a â—… Proposition â—… Acts and not the subjection to an â—… â—… were the Grievances they would be so â—… British there as well as to the Natives but though we wish them Repealed we do not repine in the mean time if the British who are the most considerable Trading part of that Nation and consequently seel the ill effects of those Acts more sensibly can be contented why the Natives should not acquiesce in it unless it be for the forementioned Reasons I cannot see Our Author allows that there are different ways of obeying the King 't is a Point gained for us and proves there may be such a partiality exercised in executing His Majesty's Commands as may destroy the very intent of them and yet taking the matter strictly the King is obeyed but a good Minister will consider his Masters Intention and not make use of a word that may have a double sence to the ruine of a Kingdom nor of a latitude of power
them this way is fit to be debated The other is the probability of his getting the Statute for benefit of Clergy in favour of Cow-Stealers and House-Robbers Repealed and where by the way there is a severe Rebuke given to our English Priests for their ill-placed Mercy to Irish Offenders A fault I hope they will be no more guilty of Whether these Advantages be so considerable as to move His Majesty to continue a Man for other more weighty Reasons absolutely destructive to this Kingdom or whether some of them might not be performed by an English Governour His Majesty is the only Judge Only this I am sure of The King if he were under any Obligations to His Minister has fully discharged them all and has showed himself to be the best of Masters in giving so great and honourable an Employment to his Creature and continuing him in it so long notwithstanding the decrease of his own Revenue and the other visible bad effects of his Management the Impoverishment of that Kingdom amounting to at least two Millions of Money And His Majesty may be now at liberty without the least imputation of Breach of Promise to his Servant to restore us to our former flourishing condition by sending some English Nobleman among us whose contrary Methods will no doubt produce different effects To conclude methinks the comparison between His Majesty and Phillip of Mactdon when he was drunk is a little too familiar not to say unmannerly and that between Antipater and my Lord Tyrconnel is as great a Complement to the latter But provided my Lord be commended which was our Author's chief design he cares not tho' the comparison does not hold good in all points 't is enough that we know we are Govern'd by such a Prince that neither practises such Debauches himself nor allows of them in his Servants But we are not beholding to the Author for the knowledge of this should a Forreigner read his Pamphlet or get it interpreted to him he would be apt and with reason to conclude that His Majesty as much resembled Phillip in a Debauch as my Lord Tyrconnel does sober Antipater I have now done with all that seems of any weight in our Author's Pamphlet and can see nothing in his Postscript that deserves an Answer All that I will say is That his Recipes bear no proportion to our desperate Disease and he will prove not to be a Physitian but a pretending Quack who by ill applied Medicines will leave us in a worse Condition then he found us I shall conclude with telling you That your Letter which enclosed the Pamphlet whereof I have here given you my thoughts was more than a Fortnight on the way or else you had received this sooner I am Dublin 1688. SIR Your most humble Servant A LETTER from a Freeholder to the rest of the Freeholders of ENGLAND and all Others who have Votes in the Choice of Parliament-Men THE Power of Parliaments when they are duly Elected and rightly Convened is so very Great that every Man who has any share in the Choice of them has the weight of his whole Country lying upon him For it is possible for my single Vote to determine the Election of that Parliament-Man whose single Vote in the Parliament-House may either save or sink the Nation And therefore it belioves Men who thus dispose both of themselves and their Posterity and of their whole Country at once to see that they put all these into safe hands and to be as well advis'd as much in earnest when they chuse Persons to serve in Parliament as they usually are when they make their Last Will and Testament And if this is to be done at all times certainly a much greater proportion of Care is to be taken at this time when endeavours have been used not only to sorestal the Freedom of Elections but even the Freedom of Voting in the Parliament House and when the Counties of England have been practised upon to be made Repealers both within doors and without They have been Catechised whether if they were Parliament-Men they would Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests or if they were not chosen themselves whether they would chuse such as would And as for the Boroughs they have been all of them Sifted to the very Bran Nay some Persons have been wrought upon to enter into Engagements beforehand in their Addresses But I suppose those that have been so very forward to promise themselves to serve a Turn will never be thought worthy to serve in Parliament And at the same time others have made it their business to render these Laws very odious to the People and to hoot them out of the World they have been Arraign'd and Condemn'd as Draconicks as Bloudy and Canibal Laws as Ungodly Laws and contrary to the Divine Principle of Liberty of Conscience without the common Justice of ever being heard For the preambles of these Laws which shew the Justice and Equity of them and the reasonableness both of their Birth and Continuance have been industriously suppressed This indeed has been a very bold Adventure for I am apt to think there is much Truth in my Lord Chief Justice Coke's Observation That never any Subject â—… a Fall with the Laws of England but they always broke his Neck And therefore according to the Courtesie of England I shall wish Friend Will. Pen and his Fellow-Gamesters a good Deliverance But while they have taken the liberty to say their Pleasure of these Laws which are now in as full Force as the day they were made I shall take leave according to the Duty of a Loyal Subject with whom the Laws of the Land are a Principle and who must always own the Majesty and Authority of them till such time as they are Repealed to offer a few words in their behalf which shall be dictated by nothing but Law Truth and Iustice and if every word that I say do not appear to be such I â—… content to have this whole Paper go for nothing and be as if it had never been Written And to proceed the more clearly and distinctly I shall first consider the Penal Laws as they are called against the Papists and the two Tests And secondly the Penal Laws against the Dissenters In the Statute 3 Iacobi c. 1. which is Read â—… very Fifth of November in our Churches the Law made against the Papists in Queen Elizabeth's time and the Confirmation of them 1 Iacobi â—… which the great Outcry is now made and for the sake of which they then attempted to blow â—… both the King and Parliament are called Necessary and Religious Laws And it I prove them to be undoubtedly such I hope the good People of England will look upon them an hundred times before they part with them once First The Laws against the Papists are Religious Laws they are Laws made for the high Honour of God as well as for the common Profit of the Realm which is the old
Title of all our Laws and is the right End to which all Laws ought to be directed But why are they called Penal Laws for have not all Laws a Penalty annexed to them Perhaps they mean that these are Laws which interpose in Matters indifferent such as the Eating â—… Flesh on Frydays But is not Popery Malum is â—… Is Idolatry an Evil only by chance and by happening to be prohibited Is not the Worship of a â—…-God an Onion-God or a Red-cloth-God an unspeakable Dishonour to the God of Heaven in â—… Places in every Season of the Ear every Day of the Week and all Hours of the Day Is it not â—… ternally Evil The Laws of the Land found Idolatry prohibited to their hands by the â—… Law of God and even antecedently to that it â—… prohibited by the Law of Nature and no Muncipal Laws in the World need desire a â—… Warrant And therefore to Repeal the Law made against the Idol of the Mass Agnus â—… Blocks-Almighty and the infinite Idolatry which interwoven with Popery is neither more nor â—… than to undertake to Repeal the Laws of God. Secondly The Laws made against the Seminary Priests and Romish Missioners are Religious Laws because they are made in pursuance of â—… Iohn's Precept a Epist. 10. 11. If there come â—… unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive â—… not into your house neither bid him God-speed â—… â—… that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his â—… deeds But do the Seminaries come and bring â—… the true Doctrine of Christ Do they not bring â—… another Gospel As Dr. Sherlock hath unanswerably proved upon them in the Second Part of his Preservative against Popery And therefore as every private Man is bound to shut his Doors against these Deceivers and Seducers by the same reason â—… Community is bound to expel and drive them â—… of the Nation And I think there were never â—… errant Cheats and Impostors as these are for â—… by their Masses can fetch Souls out of â—… of their own putting in they can forgive â—… in the Sacrament of Confession they can â—… away the Devil with Crosses and Holy â—… and they can make their God in the Sacrament They make a God! they make a â—… Again The Laws against the Papists are â—… Necessary Laws and so they were to the very â—… of the Kingdom In the first of Elizabeth â—… Oath of Supremacy was absolutely necessary to â—… off the Romish Yoke and that intolerable â—… and Tyranny of the Pope under which â—… the Crown and Kingdom were perfect Slaves â—… afterwards was it not time to look after the â—… Chaplains when they had raised a Rebellion â—… the North and he himself had sent a Bull to â—… the Queen and to Absolve her Subjects from â—… Allegiance I do not mention the continual â—… of the Queen of Scots in which the â—… Party always joyned with her and besides â—… drawn in several deluded Protestants which â—… a great Jest to the Papists That Protestants â—… be so insatuated as to assist the Queen of Scots to their own Destruction as is to be seen in â—… Francis Walsingham's Letter written from â—… still extant in the Cebala of Letters In short â—… appears by the Preambles of all those Statutes in â—… Reign that the Kingdom made every one of â—… in their own Defence and to preserve â—… from Popish Attempts and that the Nation â—… utterly perished without them And then in King James's time did not the â—… dig under the very Pillars of the Kingdom â—… make them shake when they laid so many â—… of Gunpowder under the Parliament-House â—… was it not high time to tye their Hands by the â—… which followed by more closely consining â—… to their Houses by banishing them ten Miles â—… London by disabling them not only from all â—… but from being in any Publick Employment and by thoroughly disarming them so much â—… from wearing a Sword. And was it not time in the late King's Reign to put new life into the Disabling Acts by the addition of a Test when several Papists had gotten the greatest Offices of the Kingdom into their hands And then as for the Parliament-Test that the Papists may not be our Law-givers besides the perpetual necessity of such a Law the Occasion of it is still upon Record both in Mens Minds and very largely in the Journal of the House of Lords and in other inferiour Courts of Record And if these were all of them Necessary Laws when they were made they are become ten times more necessary since for now Popery has beset us and hemmed us in on every side We have an Army of Priests and Jesuits the true Fore-runners of Antichrist in the Bowels of the Kingdom nay the Pope himself who by several Laws is declared to be the Publick Enemy of the Kingdom has arrived some time since in his Nuncio and is now compassing the Land in his Four Apostolick Vicars And therefore to talk of Repealing Laws when we want the strictest Execution of them is talk only fit for Bedlam and that Nation which Repeals Necessary Laws when it has the greatest necessity for them must be concluded to be weary of its own Life and is Felo de se Secondly I am now come to the Penal Laws against the Dissenters concerning which I shall say the less because God's time for the Repealing of those Laws is not yet come For if they cannot be Repealed in this Juncture of time unless the Dissenters put forth their hands to the setting up of Idolatry when they cannot be Repealed and therefore what cannot be now done without manifest Impiety must even be let alone till it can be done with a good Conscience As for the good Disposition which is in the Conformists to Repeal those Laws with the first opportunity that is always to be measured by Actions rather than Words and therefore I shall give them an instance of it in the Bill for Repealing the 25th of Elizabeth which passed both Houses of a Church of England Parliament though the Dissenters lost the benefit of that Pledge and Earnest of their Good-will and are not ignorant which way it was lost But in the mean time if our Dissenting Brethren should endeavour to get these Laws Repealed by parting on their side with the Laws against Popery then I beg of them to mind the plain English of such Conditions It is as if the Dissenters should say thus to the Papists Do you help us to set up Meeting-Houses and we will do as much for your Mass-Houses Let but the pure Worship of God be Established without Ceremonies and we are content that Idolatry itself shall go share and share-like in the same Establishment to make a Magna Charta which shall be equal let Christ have his part in it and Antichrist shall be sure to have his Our business is to receive the Sacramext without Kneeling and upon that Condition we will joyn in the
give them English Liberties let them dig down their Walls and let in the Sea let them begin with some of these Preliminaries before they think of Repealing the Laws against Popery and of letting loose such Consciences as these upon us To Conclude therefore It highly Concerns you in the Choice of Parliament-Men to decline all those Men who are willing to Consent to so Great and so Fatal a Revolution as the Repeal of so many Laws at once which would plainly expose the Protestant Religion to be swallowed up You want Men like their Ancestors who had the Courage and Resolution to declare in Parliament Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari We will not have the Laws of England altered Chuse such as will not Betray the Great ' Frust you repose in them The Writ for Elections says That you Impower your Representatives Tell them therefore for what you Impower them For the Maintenance and Presirvation of the Protestant Religion and of our good Laws and not for their Destruction And when you have done this and taken all the care you can you have done your Duties And I have nothing more to add but GOD speed your Elections An ENQIRY into the Reasons for Abrogating the TEST imposed on all Members of Parliament Offered by Sa. Oxon. WHEN the Cardinals in Rome go abroad without Fiocco's on their Horses heads it is understood that they will be then incognito and they expect nothing of that Respect which is payed them on other Occasions So since there is no Fiocco at the Head of this Discourse no Name nor Designation it seems the Writer offers himself to be examined without those nice regards that may be due to the Dignity he bears and indeed when a Man forgets what he is himself it is very natural for others to do itlikewise It is no wonder to see those of the Roman Communion bestir themselves so much as they do to be delivered from the Test and every thing else that is uneasie to them and though others may find it very reasonable to oppose themselves in all the Just and Legal Ways that agree with our Constitution to this Design yet it is so natural to all that are under any Pressure to desire to get free from it that at the same time that we cannot forbear to withstand them we cannot much condemn them But it raises Nature a little to see a Man that has been so long fatned with the Spoils of our Church and who has now got up to a degree so disproportioned to his Merit to turn so treacherously upon it If he is already weary of his comfortable importance and will give her into the bargain and declare himself no body will be surprized at the change of his Masque since he has taken much pains to convince the World that his Religion goes no deeper than his Habit yet though his Confidence is of a piece with all his other Vertues few thought it could have carried him so far I confess I am not surprized but rather wonder to see that others should be so for he has given sufficient Warning what he is capable of he has told the World what is the worst thing that Dr. Burnet can do pag. 50. but I am sure the Doctor cannot be quit with him to tell what is the worst thing that he can do it must needs be a very fruitful Fancy that can find out all the Degrees of Wickedness to which he can go and though this Pamphlet is a good Essay of his Talent that way yet that Terra Incognia is boundless In the Title Page it is said that this was first writ for the Author 's own Satisfaction and now Published for the Benefit of all others whom it may concern But the words are certainly wrong placed for the truth of the matter is That it was written for the Author 's own Benefit and that it is now Published for the Satisfaction of all others whom it may concern In some sence perhaps it was written for the Author 's own Satisfaction for so petulant and so depraved a mind as His is capable of being delighted with His Treachery and a poor Bishoprick with the addition of a Presidentship being too low a Prize for his Ambition and Avarice He resolved to assure Himself of the first great Bishoprick that falls the Litge Letter lets us see how far the Jesuites were assured of him and how much courted by him and that he said that none but Atheists supported the Protestant Religion now in England yet how many soever of these may be among us He is upon the point of lessening their number by one at least and he takes care to justifie the Hopes which these Father 's conceiv'd of him They are severe Masters and will not be put off with Secret Civilities Lewd Jests Entertainments and Healths drank to their good Success so now the Price of the Presidentship is to be paid so good a Morsel as this deserved that Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tillotson Dr. Burnet and some other Divines should be ill used and he to preserve the Character of Drawcansir which is as due to him as that of Bays falls upon the Articles of the Church and upon both Houses of Parliament It is Reproach enough to the House of Lords that he is of it but it is somewhat new and a Character becoming Sa. Oxon to arraign that House with all the Insolence to which he can raise his wanton Pen. Laws that are in being are treated with respect even by those who move for their Repcal but our Drawcansir scorns that modest strain He is not contented to arraign the Law but calls it Barbarous and says that nothing can be more Barbarous and Prophane then to make the renouncing of a Mistery so unanimously received a State Test p. 133. p. 64. But he ought to have avoided the word Prophane since it leads Men to remember that he had taxed the Praying for the King as under God and Christ as Crude not to say Prophane when in the Prospect he had then of a Bishoprick he raised the King above Christ but now another Prospect will make him sink him beneath the Pope who is but at best Christ's Vicar But this is not all there comes another Flower that is worthy of him he tells us That the TEST was the first born of Oats's Plot and brought sorth on purpose to give Credit and Reputation to the Perjury p. 5. and because this went in common between the two Houses he bestows a more particular mark of his Favour on the House of Lords and tells them That this was a Monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an Imposture ibid. But after all the Royal Assent was added and here no doubt it itched somewhere for if it had not been for the manner of the late King's Death and the Papers published since his Death he would have wreaked his Malice upon his Memory for he will never forgive his not advancing him And the
Account of it who said That he had not heard of it any other way and was so fully convinced that the Nuion had cause given them to be jealous that he himself set forward the Act and the rather because he saw that the E. of S. did not much like it The Parliament as long as it was known that the Religion was safe in the King 's Negative had not taken any great Care of its own Constitution but it seemed the best Expedient that could be found for laying the Jealousies of his Late Majesty and the Apprehensions of the Successor to take so much Care of the Two Houses that so the Dangers with which Men were then allarm'd might seem the less formidable upon so effectual a Security And thus all the stir that he keeps with Perjury and Imposture ought to make no other impression but the wantonness of his own temper that meddles so boldly with things of which he knew so little the true Secret. For here was a Law passed of which all made great use that opposed the Bill of Exclusion to demonstrate to the Nation that there could be no danger of Popery even under a Prince of that Religion but as he would turn the matter it amounts to this That that Law might be of good use in that Season to lay the Jealousies of the Nation till there were a Prince on the Throne of that Communion and then when the turn is served it must be thrown away to open the only door that is now shut upon the Re-establishment of that Religion This is but one hint among a great many more of the state of Affairs at the time that this Act of the TEST was made to shew that the Evidence given by the Witnesses had no other share in that matter but that it gave rise to the other Discoveries and a fair opportunity to those who knew the Secret of the late Kings Religion and the Negotiation at Dover to provide such an effectual Security as might both save the Crown and secure the Religion and this I am sure some of the Bishops knew who to their Honour were faithful to both The Third Reason he gives for Repealing the Act is the Incompetent Authority of those who Enacted it for it was of an Ecclesiastical nature and here he stretches out his Wings to a top-flight and charges it with nothing less than the Deposing of Christ from his Throne the disowning neglecting and assronting his Commission to his Catholick Church and entrenching upon this Sacred Prerogative of his holy Catholick Church and then that he might have occasion to seed his Spleen with railing at the whole Order he makes a ridiculous Objection of the Bishops being present in the House of Lords that he might shew his respect to them by telling in a Parenthesis That to their shame they had consented to it But has this Scaramuchio no Shame left him Did the Parliament pretend by this Act to make any Decision in those two points of Transubstantiation and Idolatry Had not the Convocation desined them both for above an Age before In the 28th Article of our Church these words are to be found Transabstantiation or the change of the substance of bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthrows the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions and for the Idolatry of the Church of Rome that was also declared very expresly in the same Body of Articles since in the Article 35. the Homilies are declared To contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine necessary for those times and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the people And the second of these which is against the Peril of Idolatry aggravates the Idolatry of that Church in so many particulars and with such severe expressions that those who at first made those Articles and all those who do now sign them or oblige others to sign them must either believe the Church of Rome to be guilty of Idolatry or that the Church of England is the Impudentest Society that ever assumed the name of a Church if she proposes such Homilies to the People in which this Charge is given so home and yet does not believe it her self A man must be of Bay's pitch to rise up to this degree of Impudence Upon the whole matter then these points had been already determined and were a part of our Doctrines enacted by Law all that the Parliament did was only to take these out of a great many more that by this Test it might appear whether they who came into either House were of that Religion or not and now let our Reasoner try what he can make out of this or how he can justifie the Scandal that he so boldly throws upon his Order As if they had as much in them lay destroyed the very being of a Christian Church and had profanely pawned the Bishop to the Lord and betrayed the Rights of the Church of England as by Law established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in general p. 8 9. All this shews to whom he hath pawned both the Bishop and the Lord and something else too which is both Conscience and Honour is he has any lest When one reflects on two of the Bishops that were of that Venerable Body while this Act passed whose Memory will be blessed in the present and following Ages those two great and good men that filled the Sees of Chester and Oxford he must conclude that as the World was not worthy of them so certainly their Sees were not worthy of them since they have been plagued with such Successors that because Bays delights in Figures taken from the Roman Empire I must tell him that since Commodus succeeded to Marcus Aurelius I do not find a more incongruous Succession in History With what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the Gravity the Piety the Generosity and Charity of the late Bishop of Oxford look on when they see such a Harleguin in his room His Fourth Reason is taken from the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the Declaration itself pag. 9. For our Comedian maintains his Character still and scorns to speak of Establish'd Laws with any Decency here he puts in a Paragraph as was formerly marked which belonged to his Second Reason but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself thought he had not said enough on that head and therefore to save blottings he put it in here After that he tells the Gentry That Transubstantiation was a Notion belonging to the Schoolmen and Metaphysicians And that he may bespeak their Favour he tells them in very soft words That their Learning was more polite and practicable in the Civil Affairs of Human Life to understand the
happen to them not to see their Interest for want of Understanding or not to leap over it by excess of Zeal Above all Princes are most liable to Mistake not out of any defect in their Nature which might put them under such an unfortunate distinction quite contrary the blood they derive from wise and great Ancestors does rather distinguish them on the better side besides that their great Character and Office of Governing giveth a noble Exercise to their Reason which can very hardly fail to raise and improve it But there is one Circumstance annexed to their Glorious Calling which in this respect is sufficient to outweigh all those advantages it is that Mankind divided in most things else agree in this to conspire in their endeavours to deceive and mislead them which maketh it above the power of human understanding to be so exactly guarded as never to admit a surprize and the highest applause that could ever yet be given to the greatest Men that ever wore a Crown is that they were no oftner deceived Thus I have ventur'd to lay down my thoughts of the Nature of a Bargain and the due Circumstances belonging to an Equivalent and will now conclude with this short word Where Distrusting may be the cause of provoking Anger and Trusting may be the cause of bringing Ruin the Choice is too easie to need the being explained A LETTER from a Clergy-man in the City To his Friend in the Country Containing his REASONS for not Reading the DECLARATION SIR I Do not wonder at your concern for finding an Order of Council published in the Gazette for Reading the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in all Churches and Chappels in this Kingdom You desire to know my Thoughts about it and I shall freely tell them for this is not a time to be reserved Our Enemies who have given our Gracious King this Counsel against us have taken the most effectual way not only to ruin us but to make us appear the Instruments of our own Ruine that what course soever we take we shall be undone and one side or other will conclude that we have undone our selves and fall like Fools To lose our Livings and Preferments nay our Liberties and Lives in a plain and direct opposition to Popery as suppose for refusing to read Mass in our Churches or to swear to the Trent-Creed is an honourable way of falling and has the divine Comforts of suffering for Christ and his Religion and I hope there is none of us but can chearfully submit to the Will of God in it But this is not our present Case to read the Declaration is not to read the Mass nor to prosess the Romish Faith and therefore some will judge that there is no hurt in reading it and that to suffer for such a Refusal is not to fall like Confessors but to suffer as Criminals for disobeying the Lawful Commands of our Prince but yet we judge and we have the concurring Opinions of all the Nobility and Gentry with us who have already suffered in this Cause that to take away the Test and Penal Laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of Popery and therefore to read such a Declaration in our Churches though it do not immediately bring Popery in yet it sets open our Church doors for it and then it will take its own time to enter So that should we comply with this Order all good Protestants would despise and hate us and then we may be easily crushed and shall soon fall with great dishonour and without any Pity This is the difficulty of our Case we shall be censured on both sides but with this difference We shall fall a little sooner by not reading the Declaration if our Gracious Prince resent this as an act of an Obstinate and peevish or sactious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to him We shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall unpitied and despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more And may I suffer all that can be suffered in this World rather than contribute to the final Ruine of the best Church in the World. Let us then examine this matter impartially as those who have no mind either to ruine themselves or to ruine the Church I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration Let us then consider whether reading the Declaration in our Churches be not an interpretative Consent and will not with great reason be interpreted to be so For First By our Law all Ministerial Officers are accountable for their Actions The Authority of Superiours though of the King himself cannot justifie inferiour Officers much less the Ministers of State if they should execute any illegal Commands which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of Church or State to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the Will of Superiours without exercising any Act of judgment or Reason themselves for then inferiour Ministers were no more punishable than the Horses are which draw an innocent Man to Tyburn and if inferiour Ministers are punishable then our Laws suppose that what we do in obedience to Superiours we make our own Act by doing it and I suppose that signifies our Consent in the eye of the Law to what we do It is a Maxime in our Law That the King can do no wrong and therefore if any wrong be done the Crime and Guilt is the Minister's who does it for the Laws are the King 's publick Will and therefore he is never supposed to command any thing contrary to Law nor is any Minister who does an illegal Action allowed to pretend the King's Command and Authority for it and yet this is the only Reason I know why we must not obey a Prince against the Laws of the Land or the Laws of God because what we do let the Authority be what it will that commands it becomes our own Act and we are responsible for it and then as I observed be fore it must imply our own consent Secondly The Ministers of Religion have a greater tye and obligation than this because they have the care and conduct of Mens Souls and therefore are bound to take care that what they publish in their Churches be neither contrary to the Laws of the Land nor to the good of the Church For the Ministers of Religion are not look'd upon as common Cryers but what they Read they are supposed to recommend too tho' they do no more than Read it and therefore to read any thing in the Church which I do not consent to and approve nay which I think prejudicial to Religion and the Church of God as well as contrary to the Laws of the Land is to Mis-guide my People and to Dissemble with God and
come from His Majesty who has experienc'd their faithfulness upon so many and pressing Occasions This could not well proceed from any but a Stranger to those Honourable Persons and the Nation and a greater Stranger to shame and good manners and what have we to do to Publish the Venome and Virulency of a Jesuit A Letter to a Dissenter from his Friend at the HAGUE concerning the Penal Laws and the Test shewing that the Popular Plea for Liberty of Conscience is not concerned in that Question SIR I Suppose you are very busie about the Choice of Parliament-men and all hands are at work to Elect such Members as may comply with the great Design to Repeal the Penal Laws and the Test. The pretence I confess is very plausible for all men are fond of Liberty of Conscience who dissent from the Established Religion but you and I have liv'd long enough in the world to observe that the most pernicious Designs have been carried on under the most plausible Pretences and that is Reason enough to enquire whether there be no danger of it now I shall not say one word against Liberty of Conscience nor for Penal Laws and Tests Imagine the best things you possibly can of the one and declame as much as you please against the other For I do not see that either of them are concerned in the present Dispute but only made use of to wheadle unthinking people and to catch them with a very inviting Bait and therefore before you engage too warmly in this Cause I would offer some few things to your calm and deliberate Thoughts The great Pretence is Liberty of Conscience and if this were the true state of the Case the Dispute would be more doubtful and perplexed for that is an Argument a man may talk of without end and it is not to be expected that men who feel the want of Liberty or taste the sweetness of it should be perswaded by any Arguments to forgo it when it may be had But now if Liberty of Conscience may be had without the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws if it be apparent to men who will open their eyes that the true spring of all this zeal for Repealing the Test and Penal Laws is not Liberty of Conscience if there be great danger that by consenting to this Repeal we shall forfeit both the Liberty of our Consciences and our Civil Liberties into the Bargain then I presume you will readily grant that Liberty of Conscience as good a thing as it is is no Reason for such a Repeal I. As for the first it is a very plain case For you enjoy Liberty of Conscience now and yet the Penal Laws and Test are not Repealed What greater Liberty do you desire than you now have What can the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test do for you which the King's Declaration hath not done You have his repeated Promises his avow'd Principle that Conscience is not to be forced and that no man ought to suffer meerly for his Religion though the Penal Laws are not repealed yet ' they are suspended they are not executed either against Papists or Dissenters and you have the security of the King's Declaration for it If you say that the King can quickly recall his Declaration and reinforce the Penal Laws if he find you obstinate against Repealing them I Answer first It is very dishonourable to imagine such a thing of the King after such a Declaration as this which he hath repeated the second time with all possible assurances of his Resolutions to stand to it and that not as a meer Act of grace and favour but as his own avowed Principle that Conscience ought not to be forced If you Reply that the King may very Honourably recall this Liberty of Conscience when you will not have it but resolve to keep these persecuting Laws I answer Not if it be against the Principles of his own Conscience to Persecute Meer favours may be withdrawn when they are slighted but no man will violate his own Conscience to be revenged of such ingratitude And yet this is not the case You do not slight the grace and favour of his Declaration but gladly accept the Liberty he gives and all the World sees that You use it too but instead of Repealing these Penal Laws You chuse to rely upon his Royal Word and Dispensing Power which argues so great a Confidence in him and attributes such Authority to him that it cannot possibly displease him This is a plain sign that you think your selves secure in his Reign and can you think the King will persecute you in his own Reign because you are contented to trust his Successors too which would be a very odd kind of passion for Liberty of Conscience To imagine the King should reinforce the Penal Laws upon your refusal to Repeal them is to suspect that this great Zeal is not for Liberty of Conscience but for the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test that is that Liberty of Conscience is granted for the sake of Repealing the Penal Laws and Tests not the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Tests desired for the sake of Liberty of Conscience and then who knows what will become of Liberty of Conscience when the Penal Laws and Test are Repealed If you suspect any such thing which never ought to be suspected of so just and indulgent a Prince it is better to make the Experiment before than after such a Repeal Suppose the King should withdraw his Declaration upon your refusal to comply who would put the Laws in Execution against you They must either be Dissenters or Papists or the Church of England I presume you do not fear that you should execute the Laws against your selves and as for Papists it were worth trying whether they who are so obnoxious to the Laws themselves would put them in Execution against Dissenters especially after all their Clamors against them and as for the Church of England when they have been so reproached by Papists for Executing these Laws already though more at the instance of the Court than from their own inclination they will no longer be made the instruments of such Executions only to serve the turn of them that will reproach them So that if the Declaration were recalled you have a moral certainty that the Penal Laws cannot be Executed in this Kings Reign because there is no body to execute them As for the Test you cannot pretend that Liberty of Conscience is concern'd in the Repeal of that You may go to Conventicles and the Papists may go to Mass without any disturbance though the Test be never repealed and therefore the only design of repealing that must be to give a legal Qualification to Papists to possess all places of Honour Profit and Trust in the Nation that is to put your Lives and Liberties into their hands which I confess is a great Complement to a Roman Catholick Prince but a Complement may sometimes
be overstrained And yet it is such a Complement as they need not For we see they are qualified by the Dispensing Power without the Repeal of the Test which hath made me often wonder why they are so zealous to have it repealed Do they still question the Kings Dispensing Power And desire some better security Let them say so then and give up that point and then we 'll talk with them about repealing the Test but there is no need of repealing this Law since the King it seems hath power to dispense with it in his Reign and they are very sanguine men if they hope to have any occasion for it in another And if after all their boasts of a Dispensing Power the Law still keeps them in awe can it be the interest of Protestants to take off these restraints Are they not insolent enough already while these threatning Laws hang over their heads Or do we hope that their modesty and good Nature will increase with their Power For my part I desire that all men whom I fear may lie under a legal incapacity for though their Force and Power may be the same yet there is some difference in point of Authority and Self-defence II. There are many things which would make a wise man suspect that there is some farther Design than Liberty of Conscience in all this zeal for repealing the Penal Laws and Test. For it would be very surprising to find a Roman Catholick Prince whose Conscience is directed by a Jesuit to be really zealous for Liberty of Conscience to see so many Popish Pens imploy'd in pleading for Liberty of Conscience and declaiming against Sanguinary Laws when all the World knows what Opinion the Church of Rome has about Liberty of Conscience what great friends the Jesuits are to it how they abhor persecuting men for their Religion witness the mild and gentle usage of the French Protestants by a King whose Conscience is directed by a tender-hearted Jesuit And if a Princes zeal for his Religion be much greater than for Liberty of Conscience it would make one suspect that his chief design is to serve his Religion by it and this is no new invention but as old as the days of the Apostate Julian when the same method was taken to reinforce Paganism by Liberty of Conscience This was the last effort of dying Paganism may it be so of Popery too We know there was no talk of Liberty of Conscience till the Nobility and Gentry of the Church of England refused to take off the Test and then there was no other way left but to buy off the Penal Laws and Test with Liberty of Conscience which demonstrates that Liberty of Conscience is not the last End but only a Means in order to some further End and the Means is seldom valued when the End is obtained Men who can offer so much violence to their own Nature and the Principles of their Religion as to grant Liberty of Conscience which of all things they hate to procure a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws when that is done can easily find some occasion to pretend a forfeiture of this Liberty and to salve their Conscience and Honour together Penal Laws to keep men from damning themselves will be thought more merciful than Liberty of Conscience and the softness and tenderness of Nature must give place to a Bigottry in Religion and then we shall in vain wish for our old Penal Laws and Test again when we feel the more terrible smart of new ones Though it be told us that it hath always been his Majesties Persuasion that Conscience ought not to be forced I think that is no security because though this has always been his Principle yet it hath not always operated We know whose hand was most concern'd both in making and executing Penal Laws in the last Reign and if our Dissenters suffer'd so much then as they now complain of they know what they may suffer again notwithstanding these Principles for Liberty of Conscience for the same Principles obtain'd then as do now Upon the last withdrawing into Scotland notwithstanding those Principles the poor Scotch felt the severity of those Penal Laws with a witness and methinks it is not safe trusiing to such Principles as so often act by way of Antiparistasis and produce Effects quite contrary to their own Natures and however the Church of Rome may indulge such Principles now they are convenient to serve a present turn if the Scene ever alter this private Conscience will be thought as great Heresie as a private Judgment and whosoever now may own it must then be guided by the publick Conscience of the Church as well as by their Faith. There are so many surprising Circumstances in this whole matter as cannot but amaze a thinking Man that so fierce a Zeal should be now kindled for a Liberty of Conscience that a Liberty of Judgment will not be allowed but who ever will not concur in this Opinion must undergo the high displeasure whereas there can be no Liberty of Conscience without Liberty of Judgment And to be mortally angry with every man who is not of my Opinion is no good Preface to granting every Man a Liberty to think and act as he pleases If a Potentate should be so Zealous for Liberty of Conscience as to change all his old Antipathies and Friendships to receive his profess'd Enemies and Rebels into his bosom and cast off his tryed and Experienced Friends that he should forget all injuries and all kindnesses together this would be such an effect of a great passion for Liberty of Conscience as was never known before and when Causes do not work naturally we suspect some preternatural ingredients mixed with them That a Zeal against the Test and Penal Laws should be made a Test to the whole Nation and that not without severe Penalties too viz. The forfeiture of our Princes favour of all Places of Trust and Honour and incapacity to serve in Parliaments if they can prevent it or to be Members of any little Corporation That for the sake of Liberty of Conscience the whole Clergy must be forced to publish the Declaration though they declare it to be against their Consciences That the Archbishop and six of his Suffragans must be sent to the Tower for Petitioning for their own Liberty of Conscience and whither they must have gone next God knows unless they had been rescu'd by an Honest Jury That all those who did not read the Declaration are still threatned with Suspensions and Deprivatious Archdeacons and Chancellors commanded to turn Informers though almost all of them must inform against themselves for not reading or not sending the Declaration and all this while the Laws are on their side It is like to be a very terrible Liberty of Conscience when it is grown up into the Maturity and strength of a Law which like another Hercules can strangle all Laws and Liberties in its Cradle These things make me
apt to suspect that the best way to preserve Liberty of Conscience is to keep the Test and Penal Laws III. For Thirdly If there be any reasou to suspect any other design than Liberty of Conscience as suppose to promote Popery and by degrees to make it the Established Religion of the Nation which certainly is the Design unless you can imagine that Priests and Jesuits and one who hath given up his Understanding and Conscience to them can ever be without this Design You will easily be convinced that there is infinite hazzard in repealing the Test and the Penal Laws This sets Papists upon an equal level with Protestants and then the Favour of the Prince will set them above them and when the whole power of the Nation and the whole administration of Justice is in Popish hands there will need no Penal Laws to persecute Protestants If you say this is done in a great many instances now before such a Repeal I answer then you may certainly guess what will be done when those incapacitating Laws are repealed And yet the difference is very great For while they are under such a legal Incapacity the distrust of their power will make them more modest which is the only thing that can plead excuse hereafter but when they have legal authority they will shew their Nature without restraint Men who have any thing to lose will act cautiously in prospect of an After-reckoning or while these legal incapacities continue will be afraid to act but when the Legal Authority and Power is in their hands Protestant Subjects will quickly find what a Popish liberty of Conscience means While these Laws continue some professed Professed Protestants whose Consciences are govern'd by their Interest are afraid to declare and by these means Popery wants hands and numbers to do its work But when these Laws are removed hopes of preferment will prevail on some and fear on others and when this frozen Adder begins to grow warm and recover its blood and spirits it will find its sting too This would certainly overthrow the Constitution of the Church of England which is the most effectual way to let in Popery For when all Incapacities are removed Papists are as well qualified for Church-Preferments as Protestants and it will be an easie matter to find pretences to remove the best Men to make way for them We have four Catholick Bishops as they vainly call themselves already prepared to fill vacant Sees and if such Men have the impudence to publish their Pastoral Letter and make their publick Visitations while all the Laws against them are in force judge what they will do when they are repealed Thus our Parishes may be filled with Roman Priests and they indeed are the fittest to serve under Roman Bishops And if one Colledge be already seized into Popish hands and the Protestant possessors turned out of their Freehold when those Laws are Repealed we may quickly see more follow them and judge whether this be not a fair and easie step to Popery Nay I have heard some good Lawyers say that when the Penal Laws are repealed Popery is the Established Religion of the Nation That when a repealing Law is repealed the repealed Law revives I am not so good a Lawyer as to judge of this but I think it is worth your Considering But who knows when all the Ecclesiastical Laws are Repealed what the King's Supremacy and his Ecclesiastical Commission may do There have been great and big words said of it of late and I believe You had better keep your Penal Laws than fall under the lash of a Popish Supremacy I know there hath been a great talk of an Equivalent but I would gladly know what that Equivalent should be Shall it incapacitate all Papists for any Office either in Church or State That must not be for fear of depriving the King of the natural right he has to the service of his Subjects and then I am sure there can be no Equivalent for the repeal of the incapacitating Laws But you say there shall be a New Charter for the Church of England the Protestant Religion and Liberty of Conscience Now shall this be with a Penalty or without one If with a penalty then you do not repeal but only exchange your Penal Laws and if Penal Laws are not such Unchristian things but they may be allowed we cannot have better for the security of our Religion than we have and therefore we had best keep these Is there any other fault in our Penal Laws especially when they are not executed but that they are too great a security to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest And if this be a reason for Protestants at this time to repeal them I have done But if this new Establishment be without a penalty what is it good for When these Penal Laws are removed Papists are qualified to sit in both Houses of Parliament and who knows whether Closetting and Reforming of Corporations and such other Arts may not quickly make a Popish Parliament And then Good Night to your New Establishment and Liberty of Conscience These things I hope Sir You will consider in your Choice of Members for Parliament and not be cheated with the Popular cry of Liberty of Conscience into the vilest and most despicable Slavery both of Soul and Body I am SIR Your very Cordial Friend and faithful Monitor A Plain Account of the PERSECUTION laid to the Charge of the CHURCH of ENGLAND THE desire of Liberty to serve God in that way and manner which Men judge to be most acceptable to him is so Natural and Reasonable that they cannot but be extremely provoked against those who would force them to serve him in any other But the conceit withall which most men have that their way of serving God is the only acceptable way naturally inclines them when they have Power to use all means to constrain all others to serve him in that way only So that Liberty is not more desired by all at one time than it is denied by the very same Persons at another Put them into different Conditions and they are not of the same mind but have different inclinations in one state from what they have in another As will be apparent by a short view of what hath passed in these Churches and Kingdoms within our memory II. Before the late Civil Wars there were very grievous Complaints made of the Bishops that they pressed the Ceremonies so strictly as to inflict heavy Censures upon those called Puritans who could not in Conscience conform to them Now no sooner had those very Persons who thus complain'd got their liberty to do as they pleased but they took it quite away from the other and Sequestred all those who would not enter into their Holy League and Covenant for the Reforming all things according to the Model which they propounded Nay they were not willing to bear with Five Dissenting Brethren among themselves who could not
And they are not so void of common sense as to adventure to incur his most high displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for tho' they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12. 19 20. The lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying Tongue is but for a moment Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a matter as the total alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as vvill satisfie the reasonable doubts and scruples of a religious and conscienciousPerson except it be confirm'd by the supreme Authority in this Church its evident that the Protestants vvho assert the Church of England to be autokephalor and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Church the Convocation as the Church representative and by the King and Parliament as the supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign Superiour Jurisdiction either in a general Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the consent of one or both of these Superiour Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see hovv any Roman-Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this day that pretends to be general but that of Trent vve neeed only look into that for the satisfaction of such Roman Catholicks as esteem a general Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess. 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the root of all evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperour or a King as that by force fear or frand or any art or colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own use usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatsoever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie underan Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Profits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terrour did this strike into the English Papists that were possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Julius the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess. 25. Decret de Ref. c. 20. Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Canons and general Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in savour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by every one and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of vvhat estate soever that they vvould observe the Rights of the Church as the commands of God and desend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gentlemen whatsoever but severely punish all those vvho hinder the Liberties Immunities and Jurisdictions of the Church and that they vvould imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invaded and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not see hovv any of those Roman Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from those heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those that detain Church-Lands especially since the Papists themselves vehemently accuse King Henry the Eighth for sacrilegiously robbing of religious Houses and seising of their Lands a great part of which Lands are to this very day possess'd by Papists Now though there may be some Plea for the Popes Authority in the interim of a general Council and in such things vvherein they have made no determination yet in this matter there is no colour for any such pretences since the Council of Trent was actually assembled within few years after these Alienations and expresly condemned the possessors of Abby-Lands and after all this was all confirm'd and ratified by the Pope himself in his Bulla Super conf gen Concil Trid. A. D. 1564. And tho' we have here the Judgment of the infallible See as to this matter in the Confirmation of the Trent Council yet because there be some that magnifie the Popes extravagant and unlimited power over the Church and pretend that he confirm'd the Abby-Lands in England to the Lay-possessors of them I shall shew Secondly That the Pope neither hath nor pretends to any such Povver nor did ever make use of it in this matter under debate only I shall premise that whereas some part of the canon-Canon-Law seem to allow of such particular alienations as are made by the Clerks and members of the Church with the consent of the Bishop yet such free consent was never obtained in England and as to what was done by force fraud and violence is of so little moment as to giving a legal Title that even the alienations that were made by Charles Martell who is among the Papists themselves as infamous for Sacrilege as King Henry the Eighth yet even his Acts are said to be done by a Council
property and Lives of his Protestant Subjects at the mercy of the Papists by placing them in Charges contrary to the Law why should he not have the power to raise the same Papists to the Authority of Legislators by declaring them capable of sitting in Parliament seeing that is but contrary to Law Do not deceive your selves the Laws are the Barrier which bound the Authority of the King and if this Barrier be once broken he will extend his Authority as far as he pleases And it will be impossible for you after that to set any bounds to it 5. In fine he must be very little acquainted with the Spirit of Popery who imagins that it will be content to re-establish it self in England without aiming to destroy the Protestant Religion Give it but Time and Opportunity to fortifie it self and you may then expect to see what it is In all places where it has got the power in its hands it will not only rule but rule alone and not suffer any other Religion besides it self and imploys the Sword and Fire to extirpate that which it calls Heresie Were not this a Truth confirmed by infinite Examples both ancient and modern which every one knows who has read any thing of History it would be too much evidenced by the Cruelties which it has so lately exercised against the Churches of Hungary of France and of the Vallies of Piemont And men ought not to be lulled asleep by the pretence of an Inclination which the King of England would be thought to have for Liberty of Conscience nor by the Promises which he makes to perserve it to all his Subjects without distinction Every one knows that persidiousness and breach of Faith are Characters of Popery no less essential to it than Cruelty Can you doubt of this Gentlemen you who so lately came from making a sad Experiment of it How often did our King promise us to preserve us in our Priviledges How many Declarations How many Edicts did he set out to that purpose How many Oaths were taken to confirm those Edicts Did not this very King Lewis XIV himself solemnly promise by several Edicts and Declarations to maintain us in all the Liberties which were granted to us by the Edict of Nantes And yet after all what scruple was there made to violate so many Laws so many Promises and so many Oaths The Protestants of England have themselves also sometimes likewise experimented the same Infidelity And not to alledge here any other Example let us desire them to remember only the Reign of Queen Mary what promises she made at her coming to the Crown not to make any change of Religion and yet what bloody Laws she afterwards passed to extinguish the Reformation as soon as she saw her self fast in the Throne And with that inhumanity she spilt the Blood of her most faithful Subjects to accomplish that design After such an instance as this a man must be very credulous indeed and willing to deceive himself that will put too much confidence in the promises of the King that now reigns Do we not know that there are neither Promises nor Oaths which the Pope does not pretend to have power to dispense with in those whom he employs for the Extirpation of Heresie And do we not also know that it is one of the great Maxims of Popery a Maxim authorized both by the Doctrine and Practice of the Council of Constance That they are not obliged to keep any Faith with Hereticks We ought not to believe that King James II. a Prince who has so much Zeal for Popery should be governed by any other Maxims than those of his Religion And whosoever will take the pains to examine his Conduct both before and since his coming to the Crown will find that he has more than once put 'em in practice And this Gentlemen we suppose may be sufficient to convince all reasonable persons that there is nothing more pernicious than that Declaration which you have approved whether by publishing it as some of you have done or by addressing to the King to thank him for it When you shall have reflected upon these things you will without doubt your selves confess that you have suffered your selves to be amused with some imaginary advantages which you hope to make by this Declaration In the mean time most dear Brethren you will pardon us if we have chanced to have let any thing slip that is not agreeable to you We had no Design to give the least Offence either to you or to our Brethren the Dissenters of England If we have spoken our Thoughts freely of your Conduct and â—… theirs we have at least spoken with no less liberty of that of the Bishops And God is our Witness that we have said nothing of the one or the other but in the sincerity of our Heart and out of a desire to contribute somewhat to his Glory and the good of his Church We are Most honoured Brethren Your most Humble most Obedient and most affectionate Brethren in Jesus Christ. N. â—… Popish Treaties not to be rely'd on In a Letter from a Genleman at York to his Friend in the Prince of ORANGEs Camp. Addressed to all Members of the next Parliament THE credulity and Superstition of Mankind hath given great Opportunities and Advantages to cunning Knaves to spread their Nets and lay â—… Traps in order to catch easie and unwary creatures these being led on by Ignorance or â—… they by Pride or Ambition or else a Vile and â—… Principle Therefore seeing we are in this state of Corruption bred up to believe Contradictions and Impossibilities led by the Nose with â—… State Monntebank and Mankish Jugler â—… like Puppets by Strings and Wires it seems â—… time to vindicate Humane Nature and to free â—… from these Shackles laid upon her in the very â—… for Man who ought to be a Free and â—… Animal in his present state is only an â—… and Machine contriv'd for the Vanity and â—… of Priests and Tyrants who claim to themselves â—… seem to Monopolize the Divine Stamp tho' we â—… all made of the same Materials by the same â—… and in the same Mould equal by Nature â—… together and link'd in Societies by mutual contracts plac'd by turns one above another and intrusted for some time with the Power of executing our own Laws and all by general consent for the Publick Good of the whole Community this is â—… genuine Shape and Figure of Primitive and â—… Government not distemper'd and fatally â—… with the monstruous Excrescencies of Arbitrary Power in one single Member above all the Laws of the whole Infallibility Divine Right c. â—… by Knaves and Sycophants bellev'd by Fools â—… scarce ever heard of the Greek and Roman Histories and never read their own I shall therefore give some Examples out of an infinite number of People ruin'd and utterly destroy'd by their â—… Credulity and good Nature matter of Fact â—… a stronger Proof