none of those Acts of bounty or choice he can do if he cannot dispense with penal Laws Yet for all this gracious and just Favour to Catholics I do not see that by any the remotest consequences either the King doth design or that it is his Interest by them to extirpate the Protestant Religion but rather to conciliate a better Union betwixt them by conversation and mutual Service that in as much as in him lies by the experience now of that good Accord betwixt them in the Civil and Military management of Affairs a better understanding may be betwixt them even under a Protestant Prince Though it is to be doubted that however now we grudge that a few Catholics are in Commission and are peevish because any are imployed besides Protestants yet who ever lives to see a Protestant Successor will not find the same reciprocal Favours to Catholics SECT XII That it is not the Kings Interest to extirpate the Protestant Religion THe Reason that presseth me much to believe that the King neither Designs nor thinks it his Interest to introduce the Catholic Religion so as to extrude the Church of England is the moral impossibility that so wise and generous a Prince and so great a lover of his Country however his wishes may be in his Judgment thinking it conducibâ—e to the Salvation of their Souls will undertake a Business that requires a long long Age to effect and must render those days he hath to live which I wish many and many full of disquiet and anxiety if not of Blood and Carnage For it is a Princes paramont Interest to consult the safety of his Government and where he governs Subjects as his are circumstantiated so to manage Affairs as he may not weaken his Kingdoms defence against his watchful Neighbours by giving the Power into a few hands against the hundred times more numerous and consequently more able to serve him in his Defence or give opportunity to such as we may be sure are not true to the Principles of the Church of England of non-resistance to raise some formidable disturbance which the Catholics singly will not be able to quell It is very evident that the Doctrine professed by the Church of England is unconditioned Loyalty and the Members of it that understand best the Doctrine and their Duty think in this particular they carry the Prize from all other Church-Societies But they are not all to be reputed Members of the Church of England who go by that Name there are some can be very loyal to a Protestant King but can be factious seditious Male-contents and sowers of jealousies and fears under a Catholic and think it no sin to be regardless of his Honour or Success And if any Rebellion should happen which God avert they would think it their Duty to sit still and others who fight for pay only of which it may be presumed there are many of the Common Sort if upon any Revolt they had a prospect of Money and the better securing of the Religion they value would swiftly run over to that side where they might hope for both Besides which the indefatigable Commonwealths-men Male-contents Non-conformists and several of the Zealous true Protestants Associaters and Exclusionists would combine in opposition to barefac'd Popery for they are all threaded on one String the same Iron Sinue runing through them all so that if by any Wars abroad or Intestine Discontents at home any Calamity should happen which may fall out under the prudentest and wisest Prince It is to be suspected by the mere terrible Engine the fear of losing their Religion the Body of the People would consider their strength only and make their Loyalty give place to their great Concernment and neither regard the Kings Sovereignty or the Loyal Principles of the Church of England but forget all Duty and Reverence to secure that which they would make us believe is dearer to them than their Lives and Fortunes and then the Catholics and true Sons of the Church of England would be only left to abide the shock of all the rest And though such a Prince as ours is not to be affrighted out of his Methods yet we may rationally Judge that he considers all this and must compute what Hearts and Hands he is sure of and will not embarras and imbroil himself in Matters so difficult to accomplish and make his Reign uneasie to himself by imposing a Religion upon his Subjects they are so much Strangers unto and have such an aversion from and to no other end but to force his people at the best to become Hypocrites Having thus I hope cleared that Point that the Protestant Religion is in no such danger as timerous or designing Persons would have us believe I come now to speak more particularly to the Test which is looked upon as the very Barrier Rampire and Citadel that is only left to defend us against the over-powering Attacks of Popery which some Men would make us believe if it once be yeilded up to the Kings demolishing no visible hold is left to prevent the whole Nation 's being subdued to the Catholic Religion SECT XIII Concerning the Test I Shall first therefore endeavour to shew the Nature of the Test and the occasion of the making of it and the several Reasons why it may be prudence to revoke it and other penal Laws And lastly the inconveniences of denying to repeal it and so draw to a Conclusion The Motives that occasioned the making of the Test It must be owned that it hath been the Care of most Protestant Parliaments especially since the late Kings Restauration to secure the Militia and the Kings Guards and standing Forces in the hands of Protestants only Therefore in the Act for Setling the Militia Anno 1661 the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were injoyned and when it was known that our King had left the Communion of the Church of England the Houses began to be more intent upon finding out ways to secure the Protestant Religion and then those who afterwards pushed forward with such violence the Bill of Seclusion having gained so specious opportunity to lay all the stress of their Contrivances upon the necessary endeavours to secure the Protestant Religion under the notion of protecting the Person and Government of our late King and preventing a Popish Successor from Arming Catholics to the hazard of the Protestant Religion They prevailed upon the King to give his Assent to the Bills I shall now give you a Breviate of it in the words of the Act and give some short Notes upon them and then proceed The First Act. Stat. 2â— Car. 2. c. 2. The Title of the Act is For preventing dangers which may happen from popish Recusants And the preamble adds For quieting the minds of his Majesties good Subjects It is enacted That all and every person or persons as well Peers as Commoners that shall bear any Office or Offices Civil or Military or
shall receive any Sallary Fee or Wages by reason of any Patent or Grant from his Majesty or shall have command or place of Trust from and under his Majesty or from any of his Majesties Predecessors or by His or Their Authority or by Authority derived from Him or them within the Realm c. or in his Majesties Navy I slands c or shall be of the Houshold or in the Service or Imployment of his Majesty or of his Royal Highness the Duke of York c. shall personally in the Court of Chancery or Kings-Bench take the several Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the usage of the Church of England and the like for all Officers to be admitted to any Office for the future within a time limitted The Neglecters or Refusers to be adjudged incapable of any other Office or to Sue use any Action Bill Plaint or Information in Courts of Law or prosecute any Suit in any Court of Equity or to be a Guardian to any Child or Executor or Administrator of any Person or be capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gist or to have any Office and shall forfeit 500 l. The persons obliged to take the Oaths shall at the same time make and subscribe the Declaration following under the same penalties and forfeitures as by the Act appointed The Declaration is in these words I A. B. do declare that I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever There is a Provision that this Act shall not hurt or prejudice the Peerage of any Peer of this Realm either in time of Parliament or otherwise But this was in the next Act fully vacated The Second Act. 30. Car. 2. The second Act is Intiuled An Act for the more effectual preserving the Kings Person and Government by disabling Papists from sitting in either House and the Preamble adds That for as much as divers good Laws have been made for preventing the increase and danger of Popery in this Kingdom which have not had the desired effect by reason of the Liberty which of late some of the Recusants have had and taken to sit and vote in Parliament Therefore it was Enacted That no Peers of the Realm and Members of the House of Peers should Vote or make their Proxy in the House of Peers nor any sit there during any debate in the said House Nor should any Members of the House of Commons Vote or sit there during any debate after the Speaker was chosen until they respectively take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and make and subscribe and audibly repeat the Declaration following I A. B. Do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God Profess Testifie and Declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever and that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous Likewise no Peer of England Scotland or Ireland being twenty years old nor any Convict Recusant that takes not the same Oaths and make and subscribes the Declaration may advisedly come into or remain in the presence of the King or Queens Majesty or come into the Court or House where They or any of Them reside Every Peer or Member thus offending shall be deemed and judged a Popish Recusant and suffer as such be disabled to hold or execute any Office or place of Profit or Trust Civil or Military in any of His Majesties Dominions c and shall not Sit or Vote in either House or make a proxy in the house of Peers or have any benefit of the Law as in the foregoing Act and shall forfeit 500 l. Also every sworn Servant of the King not having performed all things in the former Act required shall do what this Act enjoyns or shall be disabled to hold any place as sworn Servant to the King and suffer all the Pains and Penalties aforesaid The Proviso's are That Nine of the Queens Men-servants natural born-subjects of Portugal and as many Women-servants such as shall be nominated by the Queen under her Hand and Seal are exempt from the taking these Oaths c. Secondly That none be restrained from coming or residing in the King or Queens presence c. that shall first obtain warrant so to do under the Hands and Seals of six or more Privy Councillors by order from his Majesties Privy Council upon some urgent occasion therein to be expressed so that such Licence exceed not the space of ten days at one time nor thirty days in one year and such Licence to be recorded in the Petty-bag-Office Lastly That nothing in this Act shall extend to his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK Some Reflectione upon these Acts. Whoever peruseth these Acts in the circumstance we now are in will easily I think yield that whatever temporary uses there could be formerly of them yet they could never be put in practice by a Roman Catholick King or that he could suffer the execution of them as I shall more at large shew in the following Discourse In this place I shall only touch upon some few Heads As The Sererity First Concerning the severity in General upon those who could not renounce the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Invocation or Adoration of Saints these being purely Metaphysical Points of Religion setled by Pecrees of Councils in the Roman Catholic Church oblige those of that Communion to believe them under the penalty of an Anathema yet I think it is not easie to prove that these Doctrines have any Natural Tendency to induce the Believers and Practisers of them either to endanger the Person of the King or the Government which is declared to be the principal end why the Acts were made and as to the increase of Popery these very Doctrines are so far from working upon Protestants that they are the very chief impediments which hinder the people in General from embracing that Religion Therefore it must appear very severe that all persons who by a spiritual obligation cannot renounce these Doctrines and Practices should be obnoxious to those penalties which as convict Papists they are liable to and which however vexatious and chargeable to them redound mostly to the profit of Informers Bayliffs Clerks and such persons as bear no proportion of Merit or Interest in the Government to those suffering Roman Catholic Lords and Gentlemen and by such Payments Fines c. the Kings Revenue is very little encreased The Reasons why made Although some may think some of the branches were then necessary to prevent all Roman Catholics from enjoying publick
incur the penalty of Premunire I need not mention the severe Laws of that Queen against convict Lay Recusants As confining them within five miles of their Habitation and the poorer sort that had none to Prisons or other Restraints and to the end that the Realm be not pestred and overcharged with the multitude of such seditious and dangerous people they must abjure the Realm King James the 1st 1º Reg. c. 4. Confirms all the Laws of Queen Elizabeth against Jesuits Seminary Priests c. and enjoyns the taking of the Oath of Obedience commonly called Allegiance which was more directly to oblige to Fidelity than in point of Faith and only enjoyned to repair to Church and continue there during the time of Divine Service and not to send any to Seminaries beyond Seas Cap. 4. But in the third of his Reign when the Gun-powder Treason was discovered the Laws were made more severe that If any shall put in practice to absolve perswade or withdraw any of the subjects of the King or of his Heirs from their Natural Obedience to his Majesty his Heirs or Successors or to reconcile them to the Pope or See of Rome it shall be High Treason and those that are willingly absolved or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly reconciled shall be adjudged Traitors ◠5. At the same Parliament it was enacted that Recusants should not come to the Court that they should depart from London be confined within five miles of their Habitations Convict Recusants should be as Excommunicate Persons made incapable of most Offices Civil or Military of practising Law Physick c. Which no doubt gave rise to the Test and which in its full extent was never put in use and hath been connived at or dispensed with under Protestant Princes ever since Likewise under several penalties they were to Marry Baptise and Bury according to the Laws of the Realm The grounds of these Laws Now if we enquire into the grounds of all these Laws we shall find them expressed in the several Acts as in that of the 35º of H. 8. it is said to be made in Corroboration of that made in the 28th of the same King To exclude the long usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome That of the first of Queen Elizabeth is to the intent That all usurped and foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. In the 5th of the same Queens Reign the grounds are expressed For the avoiding both of such hurts perils dishonours and inconveniences as have before time befallen as well to the Queens Majesties Noble Progenitors Kings of this Realm as for the whole estate thereof by means of the Jurisdiction and Power of the See of Rome unjustly claimed and usurped within this Realm as also of the dangers by the fautors of the said usurped Power at this time grown to marvelous outrage and licentious boldness and now requiring more sharp restraint and correction of Laws c. 〈…〉 The Reasons for the passing the Act of the 13th of the same Queen is more full viz. That divers seditious and very evil disposed people minding not only to bring the Realm and the Imperial Crown thereof being indeed of it self most free into the Thraldom and Subjection of that Foreign Vsurped and Vnlawful Jurisdiction Preheminency and Authority claimed by the See of Rome but also to estrange and alienate the minds and hearts of sundry her Majesties Subjects from their dutiful Obedience and to raise and stir Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm and so mentions the Pope's Bull to absolve and reconcile all those that will be contented to forsake their due obedience whereby hath grown great disobedience and boldness in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from all Divine Service now most Godly set forth and used in this Realm but also have thought themselves discharged of and from all obedience duty and allegiance to her Majesty whereby most wicked and unnatural Rebellion hath insued and to the further danger of this Realm for hereafter very like to be renewed if the ungodly and wicked attempts in that behalf be not by severity of Laws restrained and bridled Cap. 2. The 27th of the same Queen lays no stress upon Religion but only on the security of the State altho it was the first Act that prohibited Jesuits Priests to come over and stay here under penalty of Treason without whose Offices the Roman Catholics could no ways exercise their Religion The grounds in that Act are expressed That of late Jesuits Priests c. have come and been sent into the Realm c. of purpose not only to withdraw her Highness Subjects from their due obedience to her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Rebellion and open Hostility within the same c. Cap. 2. The Act of the 35º of that Queen expresseth that For the better discovery and avoiding of such traiterous and most dangerous conspiracies and attempts as are daily devised and practised against the Queen by sundry wicked and seditious persons who terming themselves Catholics and being indeed Spies and Intelligencers c. hiding their Detestable and Devilish Purposes under a false pretext of Religion and Conscience c. Cap. 4. In the Act of the first of King James the first the grounds are For the better and more due execution of the Statutes heretofore made against Jesuits Seminary Priests and other such like Priests as also against all manner of Recusants be it ordained c. The third of the same King expresseth the Reasons thus For as much as it is found by daily experience that many his Majesties Subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence by the wicked and devilish counsels of Jesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are sō far perverted in their Loyalties and due Allegiance unto the Kings Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any treasonable conspiracies and practices as evidently appears by that more than barbarous and horrible attempt to have blown up with Gun-powder the King c. Having thus given a short draught of the severe Laws against Roman Catholics and the Reasons and Grounds of them It is obvious that those for the Supremacy were enacted principally to exclude the Popes Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical which opposed King Henry the Eighth's Divorce and the Reformation of the Religion begun So that a Subject in point of Conscience and mere Matter of Faith that could not be induced to believe a King and Prince capable of being Head of the Church but shall be invincibly perswaded how erronious soever that the Pope is St. Peter's Successor and Christs unquestioned Vicar upon Earth and cannot without hazard of his Soul consent to acknowledge otherwise yet not