AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY TO A LATE LETTER TO A DISSENTER Upon Occasion of His MAJESTIES Late GRACIOUS Declaration of Indulgence By a Member of the Church of England LONDON Printed for M. R. in the Year 1687 AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY TO A Late Letter Writ to a Dissenter c. SIR IT is the unhappy state of mankind that the over-weening Opinions and Sentiments which by Education or Custom we have entertain'd incline and warp our minds so to the maintaining of them that we are as difficultly alter'd as the Tree is which bended when a young sappling is rarely by any Art made straight Besides this the tempers of most Mens Souls are such that they easily divide into Parties and being listed as in a state of War they study nothing more than to convince or subdue all those who differ from them Yea we too frequently find that they make those the Object of their aversion or abhorrence who study to compose their eager tempers or direct them to any degree of humanity Hence it is that when National limits are not sufficient causes of quarrels the ranks and degrees of Men the City and Country Fraternities Neighborhood yea Domestical Interests crumble us and cast us into various figures These Jars and Hostilities are fomented by Interest Ambition and all the cross-grain'd passions of our Souls and when Religion mixes with our humane concerns it sublimes all their corrosive spirits and is the universal dissolvent Every one is apt to think the fire of his own Altar the purest and is not content to have liberty to trim his own Houshold hearth and warm himself at his own Faggot but endeavours according to his power to make all gain-sayers Victims and Sacrifices to his Deity and when no Secular Interest moves them the pretended eager Charity to save their Souls and the preventing as they call it the spreading of that Infection makes them mortify them in their Estates or send them to the Pest-house or cut them off as gangren'd Members Hence it is that the Roman Catholick Church the Church of England and Dissenters according as they have had the favour of the Government or could exercise any Authority have each of them punished or supprest the other and have been more or less severe according as the Government judging it to conduce to secure the publick peace was inclin'd to embrace that Religion or the desires of Church-men were more or less pressing to bring all to Uniformity in Faith and Discipline Former Ages have experimented this way of proceeding and it hath been accompanied with the lowd cries of the suffering Parties the decay of Trade the unpeopling of Countries and Intestine Seditions and Rebellions Our unhappy Island hath not wanted Instances of the ill effects of arming by Penal Laws Church Communities one against the other so that the Governing Parties under Religious Denomination have produced almost as much mischief as in Ancient times the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster occasioned and however oppressive the State-Church of England is reputed yet I think it will not be disown'd that when those called Dissenters got the Power in their hands they made greater Ravage and Depredations in Twenty years upon the Roman Catholicks and the Members of the Church of England than had been inflicted on themselves in an Age witness the sequestring decimating and seizing their Estates Fining Imprisoning Banishing and putting to Death of so many and selling the Lands of the Bishops Deans and Chapters Our Gracious King revolving therefore in His Princely Mind the Fatalities that have attended this Conduct and the unfortunate and mischievous Results of such proceedings the effects whereof he had felt Himself hath in His profound Wisdom resolved to try the most probable expedient to still and quiet these so long continued Animosities Contrarieties and Ferments of His Subjects Some publick notices of this He gave in the very beginning of His Reign by Prohibiting in His Courts and discountenancing proceedings upon the Penal Laws But that I may discover the true steps the King made towards it and the foot upon which the late Indulgence stands and prevent some Repetitions I should otherwise be necessiated to use in my Reply to your Letter I shall succinctly touch the Kings Progress and the deportment of some Members of the Church of England and Dissenters before and since the Indulgence At the First Council the King held after his coming to the Crown he expressed the sense he had of the Church of Englands Loyalty and gave us Assurances of His Defence and Support of it This pleased the Dissenters only so far as it gave them hopes that the Protestant Religion might be preserved but they were afraid lest the King might remember their former promoting the Bill of Exclusion and that thereby they should not only continue under the lashes of the Church of Englands Discipline but of the Kings disfavour and having yet the Idea's which had been infused into them of a Popish Successor and the D. of Monmouth giving them an opportunity to make head under the specious pretence of preserving the Protestant Religion as many of them as were near the Scene of Action and were fool-hardy joyn'd with him in that Rebellion and the wishes for his success were not wanting in most of that Party But that Rebellion being so speedily and almost miraculously suppressed they fled to the Church of England for Protection flocked to the Churches personated a Conformity and so closely mixed that they now seemed one Body and one Church Some leading Men of the Church of England finding this great accession of strength and being desirous entirely to win the Dissenters over thought it expedient to let them see how much they had been mistaken in thinking them in the matter of Exclusion to be going over to Rome and being willing to wipe off the Calumny the Dissenters had cast upon them as being Papists in Masquerade they began instantly to shew their utmost Zeal against the Kings Religion When therefore the King pursuant to His Royal design before-mentioned required the taking off the Test and Penal Laws many leading Men of the Church of England set themselves to oppose the King in it and from that day the more they found the King press it the more they shewed their reluctance Suddenly several Ministers able or unable to manage the dispute with the Church of Rome began to confirm their Auditors in the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion and to insinuate the danger we were in to lose it as soon as the Test and Penal Laws should be repeal'd they murmur'd and repin'd at every favour shewn to Roman Catholicks and none were so much applauded as those who lost their places upon their denial to concur with the King in his demands They animated and encouraged one another to stand the shock not thinking perhaps they had to deal with a more resolved Prince than some of His Predecessors nor apprehending or not willing
imposer and if the taker satisfie his Conscience and perform all required in the taking of them the Civil Power enquires no further But in the return of thanks the receivers of the Benefit are the best Judges in what sense they render them and I know not how they are concern'd in any Inferences unless of those that scruple their reality It is true if Dissenters only dream'd of an happiness they might consult you for the Interpretations but whilst their eyes are open and they have the full sense of repose and ease they must beg you will spare your Divinations being resolv'd to rely upon the kindness and Authority of the Giver and will never be afraid of any Inferences when it is so manifest that His Majesty designs common ease and a perpetual settlement of it by Act of Parliament which they think they have all the reason in the World to endeavour may be effected in His Majesties Reign who laid the Foundation of such a Temple of Concord as none of His Royal Predecessors ever did before As to the ridiculing some Loyal persons Zeal to have had a favourable sense put upon the thanks return'd for the Kings Gracious Speech if there had been more of the Members of both Houses who would have credited the Kings Royal desire to have been just and equitable and reflected upon the true Reasons the King had to insist upon that point no doubt they might have had a kind return from the King and such a settlement of the Church of England as they could have desired and better than they now may expect Therefore since by your Confession so many never intended to answer the Kings Speech with more than a bare Complement I do not think it was any such difficulty to obtain liberty of objecting against the Prerogative of Dispensing which I suppose a great many more are now satisfied in the legality of and when there is occasion both the Judges and other Members of the long Robe will make clear by Law and Equity u Sure there are numerous parties of all persuasions who know how to set a right value on the Constitution of the English Government but I will never reckon these in the number who are for such a stipulatory mixt Monarchy as our old Publicans asserted who at first complementing the people that the Original of the Supream Authority was in them as soon as they had power assumed it to themselves under the notion of Representation To proceed the end of the Journey will never be reached if the Traveller set down his rest in the midway The King hath been the great Means and Author of this Liberty and I hope it 's not that time of the day to Vote Him dangerous The way to have that preserved which is granted by the King is to study by all thankfulness to preserve His Royal Favour and to press forward to obtain its compleat Establishment and never to sound a Retreat till they obtain the full enjoyment of the Praemium held out to them which if by flagging in the pursuit they shall only enjoy during His Majesties Life they will have cause to repent at His Death that they got it not better secured x Thanks for the Indulgence and strenuous desires to have it Parliamentarily Confirm'd is taking time by the fore-top and striking while the Iron is hot The Temple of Janus was opened in Augustus Caesars time as a certain sign that the Roman Empire was then at peace Should not Dissenters rejoyce even to some excess that our Augustus hath now open'd it whereby through our Vito they may see what Intestine jars what effusion of blood the Penal Laws have made and from the other may have the most delightful Prospect of large and long lasting Freedom By the Instances you bring of the Non-Conformists rough usage of the Church of England when they had the fleecing of it and the manner of its retaliation I should think you ought to have determined the usefulness and necessity of embracing the Kings favour whereby neither party might Tyranize over the other for the future rather then to decoy the Dissenter by the soft word of mistake as if either Party did such mischief to other by some Venial Inadvertency only when all the World knows that the endeavours to secure their several Governments occasion'd the sad galling of one another Yet of the two it is Demonstrable that the State Church of England Men were the favourablest y Here you think to put the Dissenters upon a Dilemma that if they blame the severe usage of the Church of England against them they must not now return it by being angry with them or if they allow it they must not be offended at what they did What if Dissenters shall reply that by too sad experience they have found that Persecution was ruinous to both and that it is neither Anger or Revenge against the Church of England that makes them so thankful to the King and so desirous that all Tushes may be filed off whereby there may be no Tearing or Tyrannizing by any Party for Conscience but for ease-sake these have reason to wish the Rod burnt that felt the last smart of it will not this Answer cut of the horned Argument z A Man not well skilled in your cunning would judge you were owning all this when you disallow the Methods of the former Rigid Prelates and would make Dissenters believe that the present Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England by the Sense of their former mistaken Rules were content to lower their haughtiness and were ready to change the spirit of Persecution and bitterness for that of Charity and Condescention But the Inference you make is very contrary and falacious viz. that because if they believe you the present Conductors of the Church of England are of an Uniting Temper therefore the Dissenters must so far relie upon their good nature that they must reject the offers of a most Gracious King who endeavours to secure them from present and future sufferings and put it out of all peoples power when the next favourable revolation comes to have recourse to former severeties Suppose the Dissenters say that they may be justly jealous that if a thousand of the Church of England in this juncture gave them an assurance under their Hands and Seals that they should never be compelled under a Protestant King to Conformity they durst not relie upon it much less on such a single Voucher as your self what have you hitherto produced to convince such unbelievers a Church-men of all Societies may be subject to like passions as other men and I believe them not only humblest but the charitablest best natured and holyest too when their power is not overgrown But it doth not therefore follow that the objecting the severity of the Church of England against Dissenters when cherished by a Prince of her Communion is uncharitable and ungenerous much less that it is mis-timed For if the Members of
and do not only Muster the Rebels but they do as much as in them lyes to enfeeble or taint the Allegiance of the remainder You have contributed all you possibly can to effect these things and exposed your Letter as a Banner to invite to jealousies and fears which are the very Avant-couriers of Sedition and Rebellion and this in you that pretend to be a Son of the Church of England is so much the worse in that you know how strictly it enjoyns Obedience to the Lawful Sovereign and how much the Doctrine of Non-Resistance hath been taught and practised by its Members If the Kings Intentions to settle the Roman Catholick Religion by force which you surely cannot in good earnest believe practicable were much more apparent than it is If the inevitable ruine of the Protestant Religion here should be the consequence of the Repeal and if the exercise of His Prerogative and Dispensing Power were the certain ruine of all Mens Properties you and others who own no other Loyalty to their Sovereign than what is consistent with their supposed Interest could not invent more provoking Reflections upon the King or mis-interpret His Actions worse than you do But how unreasonably undutiful is it in Subjects and those who would be reputed the zealousest for our Church to charge the King with Intrigue and Hypocrisy or breach of promise who of all Princes living detests mear tricks and to prevaricate with any To whom Dissimulation is the odiousest of Vices and whose very In-bred Natural and Heroick courage places Him as much above all low Arts as His Dignity doth above His Subjects Besides all the un-answerable Arguments which have been produced why the taking off the Test and Penal Laws cannot work such a change in our Religion you may consider that at the same time the Church of England may be Insured by Laws of greatest caution Furthermore we have most solemn and publick promises That His Majesty will Protect and Maintain the Church of England in the free exercise of its Religion as by Law Established and in the quiet and full enjoyment of all Her Possessions without any molestation or disturbance which He will inviolably observe If by a stubborness that shall be unpardonable in the judgement of all Impartial Men we forfeit not a Clemency so rarely to be parallel'd To all which may be added the universal aversion of the Nobility Gentry and Commonality to the Roman Catholick Religion occasioned even by the deepest Impression that Education Custom and an Opinion of the Purity and Primativeness of it hath made If none of these Arguments will prevail with you to change your evil Opinion of the Kings designs by the Repeal consider deliberately I pray you how the King must overthrow the very Foundation upon which the great Enterprize of Universal Liberty and consequently of all the Benefits to His people by enriching them and keeping them in peace and securing the Roman Catholicks in future times in any tollerable state if He ever give way to invest any one Church-Community with a Coercive Power But I know it is Objected that if a Toleration only were intended how comes it to pass that so many Loyal Members of the Church of England even of those who so couragiously adhered to the Crown in its utmost danger are now displaced and the Roman Catholicks or Dissenters even such of the last as have most violently opposed His Majesties Succession are substituted in their Rooms In answer to this It is well known that the number of Protestants of the Church of England Employed by the King in His Court in His Council in His Courts of Judicature in Camp and all Places of publick Employments almost as far exceed the Roman Catholicks as our Clergy do theirs and yet we make so hideous a noise at the Conferring Places and Honours upon some deserving and Loyal Roman Catholicks and two or three Masters and a few Fellows of Colleges being Preferr'd which are but the effects of common distributive Justice and consentaneous to the Paternal care of such a Prince who would show some marks of favour to those few of His own Religion who are not now surely to be wholly Excluded Therefore in my judgement it shows a very ill Nature in those who own His Majesty to be their Lawful King and that He may at His Pleasure use the service of which of His Subjects He pleases to grudge His intermixing so few of His own Religion with others Besides this you cannot be ignorant that it never was the practice of any Prince or Government what Religion soever to imploy Subjects in Places of Trust who set themselves directly to oppose what by prudent forecast for the publick good they determined to Establish Now since the King for the Reasons published in His Gracious Declaration is so intent upon compleating this great work of General Freedom and securing those of His own Religion in common with the rest It cannot be thought reasonable or expedient that He should cherish and countenance those who so bitterly oppose him in it Especially since it is so apparent that even such who have shown great zeal for the support of the Crown upon the Heads of their Protestant Sovereigns now manifest not only an indifference and coldness but an unbecoming way wardness to the Kings Service In so much that some decline sitting in Commission with Roman Catholick Justices of the Peace and others think it honourable to quit their places rather than to make one step towards the Repeal so that even the Badges and Livery of Loyalty are changed from that to the King to that of the Church of England and those who make the greatest complaint of hard usage have themselves turned the Tables As to Dissenters it is their Interest to close with the Crown side for Protection and since they can derive this unlooked for favour from none but the King they should be the most ungrateful of Men if with chearfulness and sincerity they did not pay all possible Acknowledgments to His Majesties Bounty for it So that I do not wonder to hear them with great Asseveration say it was not for a Commonwealth they fought and were continually striving against the stream but it was to get the Weather-gage of Persecution It was to obtain this Liberty of Conscience which they never could expect from former Governments that provoked them to commit such Hainous things they now are ashamed of and which indeed they ought to Attone for in another manner than they have hitherto done They now declare that if they might have had the Tenth of that Liberty the Church of England now enjoys under our Gracious King they would never have lifted up an hand or opened a Mouth against the late Kings of blessed Memories and I think they are the rather to be believed because neither the Doctrine nor the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome are so much declaim'd against by them now as those of the Church of England
to see what publick benefit the King design'd to the body of His Subjects by the Repeal and in fine began to pursue all the methods of male-contents finding this the only way to embarras the King hinder all His glorious designs for the publick and render useless his eminent virtues in not affording Him the opportunity of appearing like Himself or rendring His Reign glorious because they were unwilling any thing Great should be performed by a King that was not of their Religion All this His Majesty carefully observed and being unwilling to act any thing but according to Justice and the Laws of the Land He wisely enquir'd into the extent of His legal power He knew he was by the Statutes declared Supream Head of the Church in His Dominions had undoubted Prerogatives He might make use of and a Dispensing Power and so settled those by judicial Proceedings The King having now asserted His Sovereignty he thought it reasonable to manifest to all His Subjects that it was not the ease only of the Roman Catholicks he aim'd at but that He intended His Clemency should be as extensive as His Empire First therefore He published His General Pardon excepting some few persons and in the interim shew'd His displeasure against those who obstructed His great design of Repeal and lastly published this Indulgence wherein He layed open the paternal goodness and benignity of His Soul the method of enriching His people and a foundation of their concord during His Reign and for succeeding Ages by extirpating the causes of Animosities Heart-burnings Feuds and Oppressions of His people by any prevailing Party abridging them of nothing used in their Religious Worship but only of the power of compelling any one to Conformity and depriving every party of that Authority of magisterial imposing such distinguishing and Excluding Tests as incapacitated His Subjects to serve Him and the Government according to their Allegiance and every Free-Mans Liberty One would rationally have thought that no party should have been wanting in their Thanks for so great a Grace and Favour so much the greater in that it was bestowed by a Prince from whom no such largess of Royal Bounty was expected not the Church of England since in the body of the same Indulgence so liberal a Provision was made for it not the Dissenters who had the most visible benefits nor any else who did not prefer the profits they had by the Penal mulcts imposed or the pleasure of inflicting punishments upon those who were obnoxious to Ecclesiastical Censures or the Laws for Vniformity There was then a Party of the Church of England who owning the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy and His Prerogative looked upon this as an Act of State which the King might Exert at pleasure for the publick tranquillity of His Dominions and thought it their duty to be truly thankful that the King had so generously secured to them the Honors and Emoluments of the Church and entirely left them the Cathedrals the Churches and the profits annexed to them Another and a major part of the same Church was vehementy moved by the Declaration murmur'd that their former serives were slighted that Dissenters who had unanimously opposed the Kings Succession and been Rebels as often as they had opportunity were preferr'd before them and suggested that this was design'd to enlarge the Roman Catholick Church and as a scourge to them and though they never publickly urged it yet it is most manifest that the depriving them of the coercive power though all other parties were as much disarmed of that as They gratefully contributed to their reluctance The Conductors of their Affairs pitched upon two Expedients as most effectual to hinder the Kings reaping any benefits to the Roman Catholicks by it The one was to secure the Members of the Church of England from a complyance by stiffly opposing the Repeal and questioning the Dispensing Power The second by dissuading Dissenters from separating from the common interest as it is called of Protestants or making any court to the King in rendring any Tribute of Thanks for His Royal Grace to them To Estabâ—ish this consultations are had leading Men among the Dissenters are treated with great promises are made that Persecution against them shall cease if ever the Church of England return again to its former sun-shine Pamphlets from Holland and at home aggravate the fear of Popery and of the destruction of the Church of England and not only declaim against the abrogating of all Penal Laws but the Dispensing Power likewise as tending to the shaking all other Laws even those of Property and this seems the design of your Letter writ smoother than Dr. Burneâ—s or the Representation but with as little difference as to design as there is betwixt a Dagger in a wooden or silver Scabbard Sir I must own that the politeness of the Style the sharpness and plausibleness of the Arguments will contribute more towards the establishing such Mens minds who have the greatest affection for the Church of England and equal aversion to the Church of Rome than any thing Published hitherto But in my judgement you have mixed so much Varnish as a steady eye may easily discover what need you had of it When we see a falling Star we make no great remarks upon it because it happens so frequently and how bright so ever it appear'd we find nothing upon its fall but a little jelly dropt from the Clouds But when a Comet appears it excites the curiosity of the learned to enquire into its motion the altitude of it and by consulting by-past-times and considering what events happened when such appear'd before to make some Prognosticks of its effects Your Letter is not to be looked upon as a shooting Star or paper Kite but a blazing Star therefore deserves a serious consideration for whatever those formerly reputed meteors did signifie yours most evidently denotes an unquiet temper in those of your persuasion a studious desire in them to estrange the Hearts of Loyal Subjects from their Sovereign a questioning His prerogative and a charging Him with overturning the Laws and an intention to Rule Arbitrarily This fills peoples minds with doubts suspicions and jealousies strows flax all over the Kingdom ready to be set on fire when you by your enflaming Eloquence have prepared Undertakers Therefore I think it the duty of all that Honour the King and love their Country's peace and tranquillity to examine the tendency and prevent the evil effects of such an Apparition But to leave the Allegory and consider the Letter As it is a discourse penn'd with Art and Elegance and beautified with ornament of Language it is delightsom to be read but when the scope of it is weighed the factiousness of it under the smoothness of the periods the unreasonable postulatums the fictitious suppositions and the severe reflections upon the King and His Government it becomes honest Men to enquire into those poisonous drugs that are so artificially gilded and provide
Antidotes against them There are many Thousands of His Majesties Subjects both better able and more at leisure and concerned to Animadvert upon your Letter but upon the first reading I found many incentives to urge me to it when I saw such mis-interpretations of his Majesties Honourable designs his conduct so calumniated such dangerous innuendo's such endeavours to poyson the Members of the Church of England in their Loyalty the Arts to make them forfeit their Reputations with His Majesty and the World by alluring them to do every thing that made former Dissenters so abnoxious and leading them in the same steps with which they had trod the stage so tragical to themselves and the Kingdom What I have writ was the result of my thoughts e're I had read any Answer except the first two that were made you but by distance of place and other intervening accidents which hinder the communicating of it hath been stopped hirherto and if the opinion some have that it may be yet useful to some that may need repeated cautions and admonitions to beware of being seduced by the plausibleness of your Language had not prevailed with me I should have totally suppressed it Now that I may do you all possible right I have inserted the Letter entire according to the different Paragraphs and subjoyned mine and do freely yield your Column is that of the composit order beautiful though not strong and I hope that mine may be more solid like the Dorick rather chusing to render my Answer according to my Capacity flattering my self at least in the good intention sincere and useful than florid or fallacious desiring all along when I mention the Church of Englands severity to be understood no ways as censuring the Church as Author of those Laws nor questioning the prudence of the State in making Laws which according to the temperament of the times the security of the publick peace and it may be the desire of Uniformity upon prudential grounds our Kings thought fit to Enact But in this great revolution when our King thinks fit to try other measures I humbly judge it the interest of all peaceable spirits and dutiful Subjects calmly to weigh His Majesties Reasons and yeild to the Repeal of such Laws as cannot now be put in execution and may in all human probability conduce much to the publick tranquility of the Nation But I shall take an opportunity to speak to this after I have dispatched what I have to say to your Letter wherein I would not be understood to plead for the merits of Dissenters but to shew that they have no reason to quit their right in the Kings favour tendered to them without their seeking by any Arguments you have brought nor that the Members of the Church of England ought to be so much disquieted that it is granted to them since the Dissenters thereby will be without all excuse if this make them not better Subjects Nor think I the Church of England hath reason to be so jealous of being overlaid by them since the constitution of the Government of the Church of England is better adapted to the Monarchy than either the Classical or Congregational way and that the Roman Catholicks can so multiply as to ballance both in my judgement is to be reckoned among the portents of Nature and I will sooner believe a grain of the powder of projection can turn a Hundred pound of Lead to pure Gold than that this can be effected in one Age without a Divine Miracle which when wrought none will be troubled at that own an omnipotent Being to whose guidance they do submit themselves THE LETTER SIR SInce Addresses are in fashion give me leave to make one to You. This is neither the effect of Fear Interest or Resentment therefore you may be sure it is sincere and for that Reason it may expect to be kindly received Whether it will have power enough to Convince depends upon the Reasons of which you are to judge and upon your preparation of Mind to be persuaded by Truth whenever it appeareth to you It ought not to be the less welcom for coming from a friendly Hand one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of Opinion and who will not let his thoughts for the publick be so tyed or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle the Charity which besides all other Arguments is at this time become necessary to preserve us b I am neither surprized nor provoked to see that in the condition you were put into by the Laws and the ill circumstances you lay under by having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your Charge you were desirous to make your selves less uneasie and obnoxious to Authority Men who are sore run to the nearest Remedy with too much hast to consider all the Consequences Grains of allowance are to be given where Nature gives such strong Influences When to Men under Sufferings it offereth Ease the present Pain will hardly allow time to examine the Remedies and the strongest reason can hardly gain a fair Audience from our Mind whilst so possessed till the Smart is a little allayed c I do not know whether the Warmth that naturally belongeth to New Friendships may not make it a harder Task for me to persuade you It is like telling Lovers in the beginning of their Joys that they will in a little time have an End Such an unwelcom Style doth not easily find credit but I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new Passion but that you will Hear still and therefore I am under the less discouragement when I offer to your Consideration two things d The first is the cause you have to Suspect your New-Friends The Second the Duty incumbent upon you in Christianity and Prudence not to hazard the Publick Safety neither by desire of Ease nor of Revenge e To the first Consider that notwithstanding the smooth Language is now put on to engage you these New Friends did not make you their Choice but their Refuge They have ever made their first Courtships to the Church of England and when they were rejected there they made their Application to you in the second place The instances of this might be given in all times I do not repeat them because whatsoever's unnecessary must be tedious the Truth of this Assertion being so plain as not to admit a Dispute You cannot thereforer reasonably flatter your selves that there is an Inclination to you They never pretended to allow you any Quarter but to usher in Liberty for themselves under that shelter I refer you to Mr. Coleman's Letters and to the Journals of Parliament where you may be convinced if you can be so mistaken as to doubt nay at this very hour they can hardly forbear in the height of their Courtship to let fall hard words of you So little is Nature to be restrained it will start out sometimes disdaining to submit to the Vsurpation of Art and
be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with Principles of all Religions as not to relie upon a Death-bed Repentance x There are certain Periods of Time which being once past make all Cautions ineffectual and all Remedies desperate Our Vnderstandings are apt to be hurried on by the first Heats which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the case of your Anger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter tast of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge y Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that Reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them so that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of your Morality and Vnderstanding z If you had now to do with those rigid Prelates who made it matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence but kept you at an uncharitable distance and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff inexorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so laid open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of a Peace Charity and Condescention shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England and are you so in love with Separation as not to be moved by his Example It ought to be followed were there no other reason than that it is a Vertue but when besides that it is become necessary to your preservation it is impossible to fail the having its effect upon you a If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being believed when she pretendeth to it the Answer is first it would be an uncharitable Objection and very much mis-timed an unseasonable Triumph not only ungenerous but unsafe So that in these Respects it cannot be urged without Scandal even though it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a false Foundation for whatever may be told you at this very hour and in the heat and glare of your present Sun-shine the Church of England can in a Moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a Smile for a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Compliance would throw you back into the state of Suffering and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you and yet the Church of England with all her Faults will not allow her self to be rescu'd by such unjustifiable means but chuseth to bear the weight of power rather than lie under the burthen of being Criminal b It cannot be said that she is Vnprovoked Books and Letters come out every day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the stile one would swear they were Vndertakers and had made a Contract to fall out with the Church of England There are Lashes in every Address Challanges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet In short the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters whom she will suppose to Act as they do with no ill intent and these small Skirmishes pickt and sent out to picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome c This conduct is so good that it will be scandalous not to Applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing ills and not commend them when they do well d To hate them because they persecuted and not to be reconciled to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the Advantages that can be gained by criminal compliance is a Principle no sort of Christians can own since it would give an Objection to them never to be answered e Think a little who they were that promoted your former Persecutions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of our Sufferings f Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Vertue of a Conge d'eslire and instead of Election be satisfied if you are Returned g Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its Consequences and Repeal the Test by which you will make way for the Repeal of all the Laws that were made to preserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall Destroy it h Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles i Are you so linked with your new Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it k Consider that the implyed Conditions of our new Treaty are no less then that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only vpon Bayl the first Act of Non-compliance sendeth you to Jayl again l You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since the being so very earnest to get it Established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain it is a clear Evidence that they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a good Foundation especially when this is done under a Prince so very tender of all the Rights of Sovereignty that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it m You have formerly blamed the Church of England and not without reason for going so far as they did in their compliance and yet as soon as they stopped you see they are not only Deserted but Prosecuted Conclude then from this Example that you must either break off your Friendship or resolve to have no Bounds in it If they do not succeed in their Design
they will leave you first if they do you must either leave them when it will be too late for your Safety or else after the squeasines of startling at a Surplice you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation n Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were Trimmers for enduring you and now by a sudden Turn you are become the Favourites do not deceive your selves it is not the Nature of lasting Plants thus to shoot up in the Night you may look gay and green for a little time but you want a Root to give you a continuance It is not so long since as to be forgotten that the Maxim was It is impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBELL Consider at this time in France even the new Converts are so far from being Imployed that they are Disarmed their sudden Change maketh them still to be distrusted notwithstanding that they are Reconciled What are you to expect from your dear Friends to whom when ever they shall think fit to throw you off again you have in other times given such Arguments for their excuse o Besides all this you Act very unskilfully against your visible Interest if you throw away the Advantages of which you can hardly fail in the next probable Revolution Things tend naturally to what you would have if you would let them alone and not by an unseasonable Activity lose the Influences of your good Star which promiseth every thing that is prosperous p The Church of England convinced of its Errour in being Severe to you the Parliament whenever it meeteth is sure to be Gentle to you the next Heir bred in the Country which you have so often Quoted for a Pattern of Indulgence a general Agreement of all thinking Men that we must no more cut our selves off from the Protestants abroad but rather inlarge the Foundations upon which we are to build our Desences against the Common Enemy so that in truth all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction if by too much hast to anticipate your good Fortune you do not destroy it q The Protestants have but one Article of Humane Strength to oppose the Power which is now against them and that is not to lose the advantage of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided r We all agree in our Duty to our Prince our Octjections to his Belief do not hinder us from seeing his Virtues and our not complying with his Religion hath no effect upon our Allegiance we are not to be Laughed out of our Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance though even those who perhaps owe the best part of their Security to that Principle are apt to make a Jest on 't s So that if we give no Advantage by the fatal Mistake of misapplying our Anger by the natural course of things this Danger will pass away like a shower of Hail fair weather will succeed as lowering as the Sky now looketh and all by this plain and easie Receipt Let us be still quiet and undivided firm at the same time to our Religion our Loyalty and our Laws and so long as we continue this Method it is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the Bet except the Church of Rome which hath been so long barren of Miracles should now in her declining Age be brought to Bed of One that would out-do the best she can brag of in her Legend t To conclude the short Question will be Whether you will joyn with those who must in the end run the same Fate with you If Protestants of all sorts in their behaviour to one another have been to blame they are upon the more equal terms and for that very reason it is fitter for them now to be Reconciled Our Disunion is not only a Reproach but a danger to us those who believe in modern Miracles have more Right or at least more Excuse to neglect all Secular Cautions but for us it is as justifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the humane Means of preserving it THE REPLY SIR IT is a most undeniable truth that fashionable Addresses are very little to be regarded and the temper of the Nation as little to be known by them as we can know Men to be of one inclination because they were one sort of habit but when they flow from Gratitude Duty and Interest and not from fear or resentment they are good symbols of unconstrainedness and sincerity and to whom soever presented ought to be kindly received I own not my self a Dissenter from the Church of England and upon that score find not my self concerned in all that you write relating to them but assure you I am one of those that have a propensity of mind ready to receive any impression of Reason and who am so sensible that a great part of the comforts of humane Life and Oeconomy of Government is lost to those who confine their Charity good Esteem and Candor to those only of their own Opinion That you and I differ mostly in that you confine your thoughts for the publick to the subdivision of Protestants only whereas I think they ought to be enlarged likewise to all Honourable Virtuous and Loyal persons of other denominations and neither Fear or Resentment ought at this time to make us swerve from that Golden Rule of doing to others as we would have others do to us b It is true that in small wounds in the fleshy parts only the sympathetick way of Cure and closing the wound in its own blood with bandage of clean Linnen will serve but where amputations and lacerations are such as Seclusion and Rebellion sovereign wound salves are requisite You allow your Dissenter to act by natural instinct as other Animals do that can lick themselves whole and you dress their wounds with so gentle a touch as if you were unconcerned whether they were cur'd or not and least they should infandum renovare dolorem reflect upon the fresh bleeding wounds you give them a dose of Opium It is true you blame the Patient for his precipitateness in using the Remedies nearest at hand without examining not only the skill and ability but the good intention of the Chirurgion and the vertues of his Remedies but this is all Artifice that you may get the Patient to commit himself to your care and that you might possess him with an Opinion that none else had the true method of healing which is not fair practice to decoy him from using the certainest and most assured help this Island can afford c Here you change the Scene and transform your Patient into a passionate Wooer who is fallen in love with a new Friend and since you presume it will be an hard task to make him quit his new Amours for his late coy and scornful Lady you are contriving a Fascination and would garnish his Bridal Feast with a Mene Tekel a
Memento Mori which shows by your favour an ill nature in you that will not allow a Dissenter the joy of his hony moon In this you are like one that after vows persuades to Enquires But I hope e're I have gone through with this discourse you will acknowledge though your Style is soft and beautiful yet there is a weakness in your Reasonings will not easily prevail with a true dissenter who is not so far gone in his new passion but that he will hear and answer too d Since you quit your exhortatory Preface which was penn'd to obtain Audience and now will let us see your dexterity at Argument I shall endeavour to follow your method owning you have chosen the fittest mediums and if you could make them as convincing as plaufible which is now to be examined you might expect many Proselites e The Kings Justice and Honour was as conspicuous as early in his praises of and promises to the Church of England and I believe in the upshot those Politicians will be found the worst enemies to both who made such ill constructions of the Kings desire of the Repeal So that whatever the Church of England hath or can suffer may be ascribed to their taking the matter by the wrong handle But it is most evident Dissenters were then designed to have a mutual share of Liberty since the King granted noli prosequi's inhibitions and other relexations to them as soon as he did to Roman Catholicks How dutiful it was to reject the Kings Courtship I leave to all un-interessed persons to judge and the more the Instances can be multiplied the greater is the demonstration of the Kings desire to preserve them in their Duty and the more faulty those Men who filled peoples minds with the affrightments of the Kings design to settle Popery and destroy the Church of England which they knew morally impossible and yet continue to make it the only Helmet Argument Those who fly to any for Refuge had need use better Arguments than flattery whilst Dissenters were Rebells they could expect no other Quarter than the Law prescribed if the King had not been most merciful and it is most apparent a greater cause of the granting Indulgence is to take away all occasions and pretences of Rebellion rather than singly to usher in Liberty to Roman Catholicks by that Grace Neither is it any new inclination in the King to relieve Dissenters in Communion with the Roman Catholicks unless you will give him the lie who so publickly avows that it hath been ever his judgment that none ought to be Oppressed and Persecuted for matters of Religion and I think He ought to be believed as soon as any in His Kingdom Therefore if any Roman Catholicks at this time let fall hard words against Dissenters it can be against none but such who they have reason to suspect do act by no publick spirit of preservation for any but their own party and by this show that they have not changed their Nature by the favour that is afforded them f After all the search I can make I neither find it to be an Article of Faith in the Church of Rome to deny Liberty to nor that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and if any Constitution or Decree of a Council be found to the contrary that obligeth not Catholicks in point of Obedience The fallacy of your reasoning is easily detected by pulling out one pin the whole Machine flies in pieces One cannot be a Member in Communion with the Church of Rome or any other constituted Church whether Fallible or Infallible who is by that Church declared a Heretick so that liberty of Communion is only what is inconsistent with the Church of Rome but it no ways follows that Schismaticks or Hereticks in their sense ought not to be tollerated to Live yea enjoy their Worship by the power of the Prince who grants that Indulgence as Father of his Country For it is no Church Membership that is required by Tolleration Suppose any Prince let the Scene be where it will that hath in his Kingdom great numbers of Subjects of several persuasions in Religion must he unpeople his Kingdom of Two Hundred of his Subjects for every single Man of his own Religion according to your Calculation Do you judge in good earnest His Ghostly Father or his Holy Father the Pope will judge him to be in an habit of sin for it or enjoyn him for a Pennance to make such a Carnage no surely they will rather let the Tares grow among the Wheat or if He do not this must he pull ruine upon Himself and all those of His persuasion How Infallible soever the Church of Rome may judge it self yet you must allow she is not quite void of Sense Prudence and humane Policy or will not in several things yield to publick good and necessity You must suppose that Church to oblige that King to a Barbarism even impossible in it self to be effected e're you can make good any such conclusion from the Premises Excommunication is the highest and most destructive Sentence any Church can pronounce and it is to avoid Mutulations Dismembring Incisions and Corrosives for Religion our merciful King proposeth this Repeal since it hath been by too sad experience found how Magistrates Members of other Churches besides that of Rome have been guilty of the same whether with better Dexterity Success or Authority I now dispute not but surely all this harangue tends rather to engage Dissenters at any rate to purchase that Sovereign Panacaea which will prevent Persecution from any hand than to continue in a state of danger g Kings as well as others may Time matters and the Indulgence of a Prince makes no quicker a change in a Dissenter than a Pardon doth after the Malefactor hath his Irons on or the Halter about his neck or the poor Man made instantly rich by finding a Treasure These motions are from extreames as quick and as surprizing Dissenters while under the sense of continual sufferings might be instigated to Rebellion and so be Sons of Belial yet this sacred Ray if such mists as you are casting before them hinder not may well transform them to thankful and dutiful Subjects which is all that is expected It is true if the Dissenters Features be not changed from having a sower sullen murmuring and repining Aspect to that of chearfullness and gratitute Roman Catholicks have no reason to harbour a good Opinion of them Or if they be such Bigots to charge all persons that are not of their persuasion with Idolatry as you know they have done to the Church of England even by that Churches own Argument they are to be instructed better but this hinders not the King to do them good even against their deserts and I think it one of the greater Arguments that you are a most Rigid Calvinist or Brownist rather than a Church of England-Man that make use of this Article and that you are a most
that Church did not endeavour to hinder the Repeal of those Laws which only enable them to re-assume their Rods and Axes Dissenters might hope their kindness was to be relied upon But since they see them so unwilling to part with their offensive Arms even at the desire of their Sovereign they have just reason to think they scandalize them not in saying they dare not as yet believe that they intend them any good security that they will not call them to an after-reckoning or that they will afford them such an assurance of freedom as they may now have under the Kings broad Seal But to pass on I wonder not so much at your denying the Church of England is never humble but when she wants power for you may mean another Church than other Mortals do or by humble you may mean she least useth Church Censures when the Magistrates Inflict the Laws most severely which Evasion you may when pressed flie to But the reason you give for it is more surprizing that she is even now meek and lowly when she hath power to confound all Dissenters with a Breath This indeed is a brisk flourish like a brave Leaders encouragement to his seemingly foyled Party that he hath one stratagem yet which will gain the absolute Victory if they will credit his Conduct I pray Sir for all this rattle in the Clouds which is no more formidable than intelligible give me leave to ask you what this Smile this kind Word this glimps of Compliance should be that can work such wonders There was a time at or before some Men were put to the Test when a compliance with the Kings desires of Repeal would have continued several Eminent Men in their Stations and they would have felt many effects of His Majesties Royal Favour But all that would have been as a reward of their publick splritedness and concurrence with the King in the truly Catholick design of making all His Subjects easie as to their Religious Concerns But it looks like Presumption yea insolence in you to assert that when such have lost the opportunity of preserving themselves in the Kings good Opinion He should take them into His Throne and permit them to guide His Arm to dart His Thunder where they please No if they should offer all compliance for the future securing Roman Catholicks provided they might execute Penal Laws against Dissenters yet this would have no power to encline a Prince so steady to His Resolutions and the publick Declaration of His Judgement to alter in the least His Royal purpose of granting Universal Liberty of Conscience to such as would live peaceably and give no disturbance to the Civil Government Much less can those hope to prevail who declare all Compliance with the Kings desires so Criminal and Vnjustifiable that they will rather choose to stand mute and be press'd to Death in hopes to preserve their Estates for the next Heir then to quit their beloved Test b As to Provocation while you write you commit the fault you so severely complain of As to those Books writ upon the subject of Religion every one may observe that those in defence of the Protestant Doctrine have been throngly cryed about the streets with the Emphasis of being Vindications of the Church of England and the Licenses of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London whereas Roman Catholick Books except some few Sermons of the Fathers have been dispers'd without the pomp of a publick Cryer Only some Dissenters concern'd to give publick Testimonies of their gratitude to the King have enlarged the Gazets and set some Printing Presses on work But that any such Writers are Vndertakers or have made any Contracts with the Romanists to begin a Fray among Protestants for the sport or advantage of the Church of Rome I see no shadow of Reason Since the Interest they have to own the ease they find by His Majesties Indulgence and the Opposition they find from some Members of the Church of England to it are sufficient Motives to them to write and speak all they have hitherto done And your entring the Lists with so many fine devices on your Helm and Shield and all over your whole Armour cannot but Excite many Combitants to engage so gaudy a Challenger c What you expect to be applauded or commended in this conduct I cannot tell Persecution for Conscience you own to be ill yet you would not have it equal dealing to blame such who oppose the Repeal of such Laws as only arm Persecutors which is dancing in a Circle d To hate the causers of our Torments is very natural in those who have not learnt to pray for their Enemies but for the Persecuted to court and love the Persecutors who judge it Criminal and are ready to suffer themselves rather than yield up the wheels racks and strapado's fetters and chains and the cruel instruments of Persecution when the Supream Magistrate forbids it is a Principle neither Heathen or Christian can own So that I will not trouble my head to Divine what the Objection should be that you acquaint us not with and yet you say is un-answerable e I have heard it accounted as some solace to have Companions in misery but never that any took delight in procuring Torments to others that they might have more stripes themselves How the Papists should promote the Penal Laws against Dissenters is a Ridle However it is not dutifully done to make the Church of England the Lictors and Bedels of the Church of Rome but some will lose their Friend e're they lose their Jest or false Suggestion f This Paragraph ought to be accounted for at Westminster-Hall Before there can be any sense made of it it must be most scandalously suppos'd that the King is about to alter the Constitution of the Election of Knights and Burgesses and to design another Praise God Barebone Parliament then which no reflection can be more odious g When-ever the Dispensing Power is argu'd I doubt not but many more Members in Parliament will allow it than did before the point had been so cleared as now and in duty we ought to believe the King by the Repeal intends no more than what He expresses in His Royal Declaration notwithstanding the Indulgence to secure the Church of England in her rights and possession of the Honours and Revenues and Liberty both to it and Dissenters which being done there will be no room for those unreasonable Surmises h The great Talbots Name was long after his Death us'd to affright the Children of France with Is it fit that a serious Gentleman should judge all Dissenters such Children as to be affrighted with the Name of Roman Consistory Our Lawful Sovereign is the only Lord of the Articles who will propose the Question and Obedience in this case may be more beneficial than to be always made Sacrifices by severe Penal Laws i Is it a Parliament of two Houses you mean shall offer this Indulgence to
and room enough to enlarge the Foundations and build stronger Defences against the common Enemy of Persecution if this conspiring against a work which You own Dissenters need and deserve do not destroy it q In this Paragraph you are numbering the people and examining Your strength by the Muster-roll and the head of those Powers you design to Oppose is manifestly the King which is not very agreeable to the Church of Englands Doctrine of Non-Resistance r Good words butter no Parsnips if the Expressions of Duty were not tainted and hollow and in your Opinion His Majesties Religion did not only shade but totally Eclipse His Vertues Your Allegiance would not look as it doth more like a Submission than a Duty nor would You adventure upon that Bravado that some own their best security to Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance which look very like bidding Roman Catholicks beware least they rouse a sleeping Lyon For I know not who they are that Laugh at the commendable Doctrine of Non-Resistance but when I see Men fomenting jealousies against their Sovereign ridiculing His Conduct endeavouring to Represent Him as acting against the Laws assuming an Arbitrary Power denying Him the service of all His Subjects and by all possible Arts endeavour to withdraw the Affections of the people from Him solely because of His Religion I cannot judge such to be true practicers of that Doctrine s Here you give a touch of your Astrology and it being customary for the pretenders to that Art to attempt by Horary Questions to know Diseases and after a while to set up for Empericks So you give us a pretty Receipt to clear a lowring Sky the Sense of which is for all Protestants to lye in of the sullen keep their beds and there use some kind of reasonable Devotion and entertain their Visitants with discourses of their Loyalty and their adhering to the Laws and it will be twenty to one but they will be freed from the Hail-storm and escape the danger of the Infectious Air. But lest any should object that Bed-zid Protestants are not like to keep out Popery you have a most Infallible Elixir in your Repository which is that neither the Church of England or Protestant Dissenters ought to be affrighted with any fear that the Roman Catholick Religion can be Established by a Toleration since the ods is two hundred to one without a greater Miracle than any we read of in any Legend especially in the old Age of a Church which hath been so long barren of them For shame therefore give over your false Alarums amuse the Dissenters no more to such circumspect standing upon their guard to keep out Popery since in our days there is no feeding Five hundred with Five Loves and two Fishes t The conclusion is agreeable to your premises an Exhortation to an Association a gainst the King and all of His judgement in the matters of the Test and the motives to it are pretty odd that since both Parties have been too blame in Persecuting one another therefore they should be reconciled and combine in opposing the Indulgence which is most likely to put an end to all rancor and malice One would have thought that the Inference more naturally should have been that since they both had experienced the mischiefs of Persecution and neither of them bettered their condition by it therefore they should both have joyned in the promoting the general Indulgence that there might be no more strife among them since they were Brethren I am sure this had more truly resolved the Question But instead of this you tell the Dissenters without giving any Reason for it that dis-union is not only a Reproach but a danger to both This I own to be true if the Union you desire were for the publick good of both but if the Union be to combine you and them in equal undutifulness and ingratefulness to the King if this Union be desired to hinder the Kings Progress in His laudable purposes if this Union be but to while the business with a Shall I Shall I to tire the Kings Patience and disappoint His expectation it will redound to both the Dissenters and your Danger if not Reproach To persuade to such an Union as this is the whole drift of your discourse and something you must mean more than Passive Obedience when you rivet the Nail you have all this while been driving in telling your Reader that it is as unjustifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the means of preserving it This looks like a second sound to Horse and you have a pretty slight in your Mouth to persuade Roman Catholicks because you think them so credulous of Miracles to neglect all Cautions or means to preserve themselves but to relie upon a Supernatural Power But those of your Principles must use the Humane Means of preserving it and of how many Battalions these must consist though you have reason to conceal the Intimation from the World yet you give a sufficient Item what may be expected and thereby caution the Government to have more Circumspection over your Sayings and Actions Thus Sir I have now finished my Observations upon your Letter I shall subjoyn something the subject matter induceth me to offer to the consideration of all Christian Dutiful Subjects and then close the whole SIR I have hitherto follow'd the train you have lead me and endeavoured to give a reasonable Answer to the most material parts of your Letter What was bare supposal and groundless suspicion I have not much concerned my self with Those being but like the Feathering of unpiled Arrows which help their flight but enforce them little to do harm where-ever they fall Neither have I attempted to reach the Towring Flights of your Oratory which how Ornimental soever are but like mounting Bubbles which break and vanish when at the utmost stretch Your affrightments when well considered are but like the sparks in a Smiths-shop which upon a brisk heat and stroak fills all with seeming liquid fire yet it is as soon extinguished as the Iron cools or the labouring stroke ceaseth What was Seditious and tending to instigate the Subjects to jealousies and disloyal Opinions of their Sovereign I have endeavoured to Disprove and Repress What was Calumny I have gently wiped off unless when it was couched in such general Terms as placed it beyond all reach of the Spung. Rebells in open Hostility are not so dangerous to a Prince and His Governmet though the severest Punishments are inflicted on them when mastered as those are who by sly Arts Detraction evil Surmises and Constructions render their Prince suspected of Ruling Arbitrarily and altering Religion and Laws and thereby blast His Credit with His people For those are the Men that make the whole Reigns of Princes troublesom and unfortunate to Themselves and their Subjects These List the Men provide Magazines and Arms and prepare all things in readiness against the sound of the Trumpet
which they formerly reputed Idolatrous They now think themselves justified in their Espousing the Parliaments side from whom they expected and had Indulgence and please themselves to find another kind of non Addressors and as zealous persons to hinder the Repeal of Penal Laws against their Sovereigns declared desire as they were formerly for it Yet though the Scene be thus changed I hope there are sufficient numbers of such whom the Church of England will own to be her Children that will let no Dissenters out-goe them in Loyalty and Dutifulness to their Sovereign and who are well assured the King will have as great regard to them and our Church for their sakes and as freely permit them the enjoyment of the Exercise of their Religion and Benefices as to any provided they will concur with Him in the Repeal and be content to let their Fellow-Subjects of different Persuasions enjoy likewise their Liberty That the Members of the Church of England ought to yield this in common prudence and even for the Preservation of their own Religion I think there are many Reasons especially this that as yet the time is not clapsed but that when His Majesty convenes His Parliament sufficient Security may be obtained that the Church of England shall enjoy all the King hath promised and when by the Wisdom of the Houses such an Act is contrived as will answer the Kings desires of the Universal ease of His Subject the Church of England will feel as great effects of the Kings kindness as she can expect or desire and by the freedom all will enjoy there will be no more contests but who shall approve themselves most dutiful and deserving of His Majesties Clemency and Kindness Upon such a closure the Roman Catholicks and Dissenters will freely yield to the mutual security of the Church of England and that Church will regain its Reputation of Loyalty and confirm what you promise in her name of being kind to Dissenters and a Protestant Prince succeeding and finding things thus Amicably Composed will reap the benefit as the whole Kingdom will do of this happy undertaking of the King But on the contrary if the Majority of the Members of the Church of England in Parliament obstinately oppose the Kings desires they will oblige His Majesty to pursue other Methods and it will give occasion to all such as are no great well-wishers to our Church to urge its uncharitableness that rather than it will permit the King to exercise His Prerogative of being served with all His Subjects of what denomination soever He pleases to make use of and that Men of different Professions in Religion may enjoy the favour of the Kings Indulgence they will put themselves out of His Royal Protection and absolve Him from His promise therein and the upshot of all will be that by His Majesties steady pursuit of this great work which He firmly believes will conduce so much to the universal good of His Subjects In a few years by such sedulous countenancing all those who will strenuously co-operate with Him to effect it the Dissenters will obtain the Majority of Voices in Parliament which if once effected those Members of the Church of England who have Obstructed the Repeal will be at the mercy of Dissenters and if the King be not their best Friend may fall short of what they may now so effectually obtain I shall conclude with a short Paraphrase upon the Words His Majesty used to His Privy Council March the 8th 1686. concerning this Indulgence in which the substance of what need be said in justifying the Kings granting it are clearly laid down First His Majesty shows the practice of former Ages and the success of them That although an Vniformity in the Religious Worship had been Endeavoured to be Established within this Kingdom in the successive Reigns of Four of His Majesties Royal Predecessors assisted by their respective Parliaments yet it hath proved altogether ineffectual This is obvious to every one that reads the History of those times and well know to those that lived in the beginning of the Rebellion for Dissenters were then so encreased that they were numerous and powerful enough to overthrow not only the Church of England but the Monarchy that defended it The Kings Words are That the Restraint upon the Consciences of Dissenters in order thereunto viz. to Conformity had been very prejudicial to this Nation as was sadly experienced in the horrid Rebellion in the time of His Majesties Royal Father The King then pitcheth upon the true and principal cause of all those Calamities that befel the blessed Martyr and were freshly commencing again in the later time of His Majesties Royal Brothers Reign which are best expressed in the Kings own Words That the many Penal Laws made against Dissenters in all the foregoing Reigns and especially in the time of the late King had rather increased than lessened them If therefore our Gracious King out of an excess of love and Paternal care did not study the Universal benefit ease profit and enriching of His people He might have pursued former Precedents But as a Wise and Compassionate Prince He searcheth diligently for the true Causes and while too many are busying themselves in Traducing His zeal for His Religion as if it were the only concern of His Royal Cares He Demonstrates to all His Subjects how much more sollicitous He is to find some better Method whereby at once He may Establish His Throne and those of His Successors in a stable peace and security and give Ease Freedom and Riches to all His People of what Persuastion soever Therefore declares That nothing can more conduce to the peace and quiet of His Kingdom and the increase of the Numbers as well as the Trade of the Subjects wherein the greatness of a Prince does more consist than in the extent of His Teritories than an entire Liberty of Conscience That His Majesty may likewise obviate all the great scruple such as you raise as if He did this for any private ends you have His Royal Word to the contrary when He tells all His Subjects That it hath been His Opinion as most suitable to the Principles of Christianity that no Man should be Persecuted for Conscience sake which His Majesty thinks is not to be forced By this His Majesty shows that He grounds not His judgement upon the agreeableness or ungreeableness of it to the interest of any Church but as it is suitable to the uery Principles of Christian Religion and having by this shown His Royal Intentions how to proceed upon that bottom during His own Reign out of a well grounded Confidence that it may be a rule and standard to His Royal Successors He closeth all with this Maxim That it can never be the true Interest of a King of England to endeavour to force Conscience Have not all Men from hence and all His Majesties Actions reason to think there is a Clemency Benignity and tenderness in the King