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A54101 Advice to freeholders and other electors of members to serve in Parliament in relation to the penal laws and the tests : in a letter to a friend in the conntry [sic]. Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1687 (1687) Wing P1250; ESTC R21615 10,704 13

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Advice to Freeholders and other Electors of Members to serve in PARLIAMENT In Relation to the PENAL LAWS and the TESTS In a Letter to a Friend in the Country With Allowance SIR IT having pleased the King to emit a gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and it being more than probable that the matter thereof may be the Subject of the next Parliament I do here present you my old Friend with some of the Motives inclining me to exert my self to my Ability when called to it whatsoever Opposition or Censure may therein attend me for the Election of such Members as may concur with his Majesty in giving Sanction to this Indulgence it being what we have long wanted and wished for and in securing it to after Ages which is as undoubtedly the King 's Royal Purpose as it is our common Interest my Reasons are 1. That herein I shall be found to act in consistency with my constant Principle for I always esteemed it to be a glorious Work to set Conscience free from Church-Tyranny and to extricate the Nation from the intolerable Burden of destructive Penal Laws 2. That in the present Undertaking I see my Security we have in this happy Juncture the Advantage of promoting what we highly prize and that with his Majestie 's Royal Recommendation so we are safe whosoever snarles in conforming to so great so good and so wise a Resolution as the King has propitiously taken And moreover 3. Gratitude to his Majesty for this Declaration and for his gracious Proclamation of Pardon of the 10th of March 1685 engages and spurs me as I hope it will do Multitudes to promote with my utmost Might this present Work as it is a thing acceptable to the King. To add no more these Reasons are prevalent with me and if they may dispose you to contribute to the making proper Elections so that his Majestie 's gracious Purpose for the Relief and Tranquility of his People may not be frustrated by unreasonable Malecontents it will be most grateful to me for I know you to be very capable of contributing significantly to this publick Good. I perceive that some of your Neighbours are beating their Brains for Arguments to justify the upholding the persecuting Laws and the discriminating and most unreasonable Tests With me it is out of Question that those Men are very narrow soul'd and their Maxims ill grounded pray therefore bear with me that I present you with my Thoughts of the great Point now agitated Liberty of Conscience or Toleration I am well satisfied of the Truth and Stability of the following Positions and he that is so must cease to Love Persecution 1. Liberty of Conscience is consonant to the Gospel which no where countenances Force and Compulsion 2. To grant this Liberty is the true Interest both of Prince and People to evince the Truth of these let it be considered as to the first That Liberty of Conscience is consonant to the Gospel It is a Gospel of Peace and not of Force and Fury If so it is most unbeseeming this Gospel to do things rashly and violently for its Advancement it is not to be so propagated Its Language is he that believes shall be saved And our blessed Lord and his Apostles who had the command of all Power to bring Men to this Faith used Instruction Perswasion and Reasoning but never went about to deal with Mens Consciences by Violence they used no Sword but that of the Spirit and left every Man to his own Light. Error as well as Truth is seated in the Mind of Man and we are without one Instance since the Creation where Compulsion ever wrought a Change in any ones Principles tho it hath wrought on many to deny or conceal their Opinions The Soul of Man is out of the reach of the Magistrates Sword and therefore 't is as vain to pretend to direct what I shall believe and to force in me a Faith of any thing as 't is to attempt to bring the Angels under an outward secular Power Compulsion undoubtedly will dispose a Man to hate whatsoever is so proposed and not better evinced To proceed 2. That Liberty of Conscience is the Interest both of the King and his People this is well proved by the invincible Reasons in his Majesties gratious Declaration which are these 1. The Glory of the King. 2. The Peoples Peace 3. Union between the King and his People 4. The Unreasonableness of constraining Conscience and forceing People in matters of meer Religion 5. The Mischiefs of Compulsion by spoiling Trade depopulating Countries and discouraging Strangers And lastly the ill Success which Force has had in Religious Matters which shews the invincible Difficulties which attend those Methods 1. The Glory of the King. Will any Member of the Church of England so fam'd for Loyalty repine at his Majesties being truly Glorious surely no and hath not this his Act of Tenderness added highly to his Glory It undoubtedly hath It secures not only common Homage of Obedience and Subjection to his Majesty but with it that more noble of the Hearts and Affections of a very great multitude of his People who are sober serious industrious and also wealthy these by Persecution have been made heartless in themselves and useless in a very great Measure to the King and Kingdom I say this Indulgence hath secured to the King the Hearts of his dissenting Subjects who are brought to depend upon him and they will love him who favours and protects them and hath put them into a Posture than which they can never hope for a better and seeing the Church of England cannot but love him and be Loyal he is without Controversy become the most Glorious because the greatest and most beloved Prince that ever yet swayed the English Scepter 2. The Peoples Peace Do not we know by sad Experience how greatly Coercion in things relating to God and Conscience has disturbed the Peace of Mankind and created terrible Concussions in these Kingdoms What lamentable Divisions and Animosities have we beheld to spring from the Execution of the Penal Laws and how dismally sad have been their Effects It is not reasonable to imagine that Persecution should not disgust those who suffer and By-slanders tho otherwise perswaded as to Religion are dissatisfied to behold their peaceable honest dealing Neighbours torn to pieces for Conscience sake such are disposed to pity the Sufferers and to dislike the Severities wherewith they are exercised 3. Union between the King and his People It is most evident that the Disaffection which not long since had overspread our Horizon did spring from the Severities of the Laws and of their Execution The happy Union between Prince and People has been if not broken to a very great degree weakened by a mistaken Maxim that but one part of his Majesties Subjects and that a much lesser part than some are willing they should be thought deserved to live and to be protected This too predominant Opinion