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
Dissenters or would you have them stay to the next Ages If the first you deserve the doom of a Traitor since you must Exclude the King unless Roman Catholicks be included if the latter you must fit the Dissenters with Iron Shooes k You Write as if you were one of the Plenipotentiaries at a Treaty betwixt Roman Catholicks and Dissenters and were well acquainted with the secret Articles All the World hath judged Dissenters to have a great aversion to implicit Faith and blind Obedience but they must all be the most absolute Resigners of their Reason and Religion to the guidance of Roman Catholicks If for this pretended Liberty of Conscience as you call it they must Sacrifice their real Freedom I believe rather that the weight and galling of their late Chains are so much felt that they will be very unwilling to have them put on again by some Members of the Church of England and the confidence to be ever freed from them makes them so ready to embrace this Jayl-Delivery l To what degree soever either Roman Catholicks or Dissenters may judge valid the Dispensing Power yet that no ways should hinder them from desiring the Indulgence may be Established by Law to perpetuate that favour which they at present are only secure of during the Kings Life And as all Gracious and just Princes desire their Honour and good Fame may long out-live them so they wish that the benefits they intend for their people may be extended to future Ages Therefore however His Majesty may be satisfied in the rights of His Sovereignty yet for the tender regard of the future Repose of His Subjects It is a most Gracious Act in Him to endeavour the concurrence of His Two Houses which by an impropriety of Speech you call the Legislative when it is well known that without the Royal concurrence the Two Houses are only the Legispreparative m By those words and not without Reason you discover your self to have been a Seclusionist and yet want the candor of an ingenuous Dissenter who is not angry that those Members of the Church of England complied so far since it hath given them the opportunity of experiencing the Kings surprizing Clemency and condemning the groundless jealousie they had of Him which prompted to that Reluctancy against His Rightful Succession and the Dissenters have no reason to be sorry that these Members of the Church of England made no further Progress after the King came to the Crown Since that stop of theirs made the Wheel move faster towards the Indulgence the benefit whereof least they should be in danger to lose they will with all sedulity endeavour to promote though I presume by no indirect means but such as may be agreeable to the duty of their Allegiance and Thankfulness they owe to the King for it Then the scrupulous niceness concerning significant Ceremonies will cease because none will be obliged to use the Cope Surplice or long Cloak but such as like them only I hope it will be always prohibited to Preach in Buff-coats and mingle Blood with their Oblations n Nothing is more common than to find Names affixed according to peoples fancies and after a while one word serves for Description Definition and Character If Liberty of Conscience once be made practicable and in the vogue Those discriminating Cyphers will be useless and all Subjects will be considered in their morality or immorality obedience or disobedience rather than by the Cognizance of their Religion It is no strange thing in Nature that by some influence of the Heavens and aptness of Soyl some Plants may shoot up more in a Night than others backned by severe Frosts do in a Month and why the rare Plant of Liberty in Religious Worship may not be as perennial as the Thistle of Persecution I see no great Reason if Cultivated with common care If the prospect of continual suffering and the want of Christian Liberty made Dissenters Factious and Rebellious it is to be presumed that the Fundimental Instigation being removed the Witchcraft will no longer prevail It is the concernment of all Governments to see that Men be true to it e're they be trusted and when Princes lay by their co-active Laws it is the interest of the Subjects to lay aside their Animosities and when all Parties quit their Fire-Arms and offensive Weapons I see no reason to despair of Harmony and Accord in the duty of Christians and Subjects and thus being linked in the common bond of freedom I see no occasion to throw one another off again o If things now tend naturally to the ease of Dissenters they have reason to be most thankful to the King as the sole bestower of it and I see no Reason they should let go the Bird in hand in hopes to catch another in the Bush I should think they acted with less circumspection than they have wonted to do if they slip the opportunity of that tender made them in expectation of enjoying any thing like it when the Church of England shall be in a flourishing condition Besides it may be a Question whether a Toleration after the patern of the Low Countries may not be more prejudicial to the Church of England than such one as may be now adjusted p Here you are very Magisterial and have undertaken far more than your Credit will go for To say a Church is convinced of an Errour befits none but the Prolocutor of a Convocation when such a Vote was passed with a Nemine Contradicente and to ensure for a Parliaments Votes is more than any Ten Members of it can do But I presume you speak by Figure here that if Dissenters will not joyn with Roman Catholicks to be thankful for the Indulgence and will stick close to the Members of the Church of England that oppose it then the Parliament under a Protestant Successor and a Convocation will set such a value upon that service that they will be gentile to them and establish some Bill of comprehension which the Governours of the Church of England could never hitherto be brought to yield to All this looks so like decoy that the Dissenter of the lowest form will perceive it But what ever they do all thinking Men must judge the design of this is to animate all Protestants to weather out the point and heighten their opposition to the King which in former times would have been stil'd Sedition As to that excellent Princess I suppose you mean few Princesses in Europe are known to Excell Her in the Accomplishments of Body or Mind and as Her Royal Father is as Indulgent to Her Highness as any Prince can be so She is as Dutiful and whatever the King Establisheth in His time for the publick Good and Tranquility of His Kingdoms if She over-live Him I presume it may be Her desire if not Her Interest to ratifie and to what perfection soever His Majesty may bring this Pantheon there may still remain beautifying and adorning for His Successor
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