Communion an Interest in the Advantages of the Government of the Land. So that if it has been her care to open the way that those who believe Transubstantiation may notwithstanding that belief be admitted to her Communion the making this Test to the excluding all such Believers of Transubstantiation from their Civil Rights must needs be unjustifiable in the Church of England But in Obedience to Queen Elizabeth it has been the endeavor of the Church of England to explain the Doctrin of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist in such a Latitude of Expression as might indeed take in under it the Notion of Transubstantiation Thus much the Queen commanded as Dr. Burnet in his History of Reformation reports in these words The Queen who inclin'd to keep up Images in the Churches was resolved to have the Manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament left in some general words that those who believe the Corporal Presence might not be driven away from the Church by too nice an Explication of it And as Dr. Heylin assures us the Church obey'd this Injunction For saith he in his Hist of Q. Eliz. In the first year of K. Edward the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper being delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. This was thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the gross and carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passeth by the name of Transubstantiation in the School of Rome This was alter'd into this Form in the second Liturgy that is to say Take eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy heart by Faith with Thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisers of the Book in Queen Elizabeth 's time joyned both Forms together that so according to the Queen's Injunctions the Corporal Presence by the Addition of the old Form might receive countenance Vpon this ground they expunged also a whole Rubric at the end of the Communion Service in which 't was declared that Kneeling was not in Regard of any Real and Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood. And to come up closer to the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queen's Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread should be made round in fashion of the Wafers as in Queen Mary 's Days She also ordered That the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood So far Heylin Besides in pursuance of the Queens Orders in the Communion in the Catechism and Book of Homilies there are several Expressions countenancing the Real and Corporal Presence which has been the occasion of Dr. Moor's brief Discourse on the Real Presence in which it must be observ'd that the Doctor putting us in mind of the Bishop of Meaux's Judgment which was That the Opinion of the Real Presence is the Doctrin of all the Churches as well Reform'd as Unreform'd The Doctor adds That he must confess he has been of this Persuasion ever since he wrote his Mystery of Godliness viz. That it is the Doctrin of the Church of England and that the Doctrin is true And he further assures us in these Words I remember saith he this I have heard from a near Relation of mine when I was a Youth a Dignitary of the Church of England and that often viz. That our Church was for the Real Presence but for the manner thereof if asked he would answer Rem scimus modum nescimus We know the Thing but the Mode or Manner thereof we know not And the Assurance we have of the Thing is from the common Suffrage of the Ancient Fathers and from the Scripture it self which impress'd that Notion on the Minds of our pious Predecessors in the Church of God. Nor can we as I humbly conceive relinquish this Doctrin of the Real Presence without declining the most easie and natural Sense of the Holy Scripture as it stands written in the Sixth Chapter of John. Pag. 42. Of which this Doctor saith It is plain that our Saviour's Discourse in this Chapter has for its Object or Subject not the Manner or Way of receiving his Body and Blood as if it were meant of that very Flesh and Blood on the Cross but that it was to be receiv'd in a Spiritual manner which Interpreters several of them drive at but the Object of his Discourse is his very Flesh and Blood it self to be taken as the Fish and Loaves were wherewith he lately fed them or it is Himself in reference to his Flesh and Blood which belongs to him as he is the Eternal Word Thus far Dr. Moor of Cambridge if he be the Author of the Mystery of Godliness from whom I observe the Doctrin of the Church of England to be this viz. That the very Flesh and Blood of Christ is present in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the same Sense as the Fish and Loaves were present to the multitude miraculously fed by them Of this Thing with them there is no doubt tho' as to the Manner how it should be so they are in the dark And were not the Fish and the Loaves Corporally present How then can the Flesh and Blood of Christ be present in the Eucharist as the Fish and Loaves were unless Corporally present And if Corporally present there must be either a Transubstantiation or a Consubstantiation And I have heard some Learned Protestants say that of the two Consubstantiation is the most difficult and perplexing And this Doctor himself unless he lays a violence on the very Words of the Text as understood by all Men throughout Christendom whether Papist or Protestant and moreover falls into one of the greatest Extravagances of Plato cannot escape a closure with Transubstantiation For he offers nothing towards the solving this great Phainomenon but this That tho' the Body of Christ is present yet not the Body Broken on the Cross tho' the Holy Ghost expresly affirms it but a Body made of Divine and Spiritual Flesh and Blood every where present a Vehicle for the Eternal Logos to inhabit So that he is necessitated contrary to express Scripture not to make a Coat for the Moon but God Almighty knows with horror I mention it a Coat for the Godhead of Christ a Body compos'd of Flesh and Blood of equal extent with and for the Clothing of Divine Nature For the countenancing which he brings Gratian a Popish Canonist whom he quotes out of Morney distinguishing between the Body of Christ's Soul which was Broken on the Cross and the Body of the Eternal Word or Logos and affirms That the Body in the Eucharist is the Omnipresent Body of the Eternal Word which is there Corporally present From the whole then I would humbly propose to the Reader 's Thoughts these few Considerations 1. That the Doctrin of the Church
of England as fram'd by its first Queen-Elizabeth-Reformers is so generally express'd as to admit of a Sense owning Transubstantiation 2. That in favor of the Papists there are so many Expressions in their Liturgy Catechism and Homilies that very lately a great Church-of England Doctor The Doctor 's Book lately Licensed by the Archishop's Chaplain the Head of a College with the Countenance of the Archbishop of Canterbury is constrain'd to hold that the Church of England is for a Real Presence in the same Sense the Fish and Loaves were present to those that fed on them that is they are for a Corporal Presence 3. They cannot escape a falling in with Transubstantiation any other way than by closing with a Notion manifestly false and Platonic All which carefully weighed I advance to this Conclusion That the Church of England has hitherto had such favorable thoughts of a Corporal Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist and so much compassion for the Believers of Transubstantiation and have so far given up the Cause to the Papist that they cannot oppose Transubstantiation without embracing as false and a more absurd Notion and that therefore it s now become most unreasonable for them to make the believing of NO TRANSVBSTANTIATION to be a Condition of our Nobilities enjoying those Civil Privileges which are theirs by Inheritance And I doubt not but when our Protestant Lords shall in their great Wisdom have consulted the Sense of the first Reformers in Queen Elizabeths Reign the Countenance our Liturgy Catechism and Homilies give a Corporal Presence on purpose to encourage the Believers of Transubstantiation to come to their Communion they will see cause to conclude That it 's very hard were it their own Case to be justled out of the Rights of Peerage for an Opinion that must lie in their Judgment so doubtful And that whilst our Clergy are so zealous for the Name of Priests and for the Erecting and Railing in their Altars there is cause also why a Son of the Church of England should not be for the Continuation of this part of the Test The last Clause of the Test runs thus And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now us'd in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous And that the Church of England hath no reason to urge the Continuation of this other part of the Test will appear I humbly conceive pretty manifest to those who will cast off old Prejudices and impartially weigh the following Considerations I. That seeing the Church of England has taken more than Ordinary care to give such a general Explanation of the Real Presence as may admit of a Corporal Presence and thus much she hath done with a Design to encourage the Believers of Transubstantiation to joyn with them in the Sacrament she cannot esteem the Adoration of the Sacrifice of the Mass to be Idolatry for it 's well known she would be thought to abhor the holding Communion with Idolaters and to this she must stick or give up the Cause to the Protestant Dissenters who say that they dare not hold Communion with that Church that will admit known Idolaters into their Communion But such doth the Church of England admit in admitting the Believers of Transubstantiation That the Church of England is for admitting the Believers of Transubstantiation who adore the Sacrifice of the Mass has been abundantly prov'd whence it follows That the Church of England must either give up the Cause to the Dissenter or declare that the Believers of Transubstantiation tho' they adore the Sacrifice of the Mass are not Idolaters and that the Adoration of the Sacrifice is not Idolatrous and if not Idolatrous how can they oblige all to declare it to be Idolatrous or part with their Civil Rights and Privileges for not making such a Declaration But II. There are some great Doctors in the Church of England who affirm That the Worshiping what is believed to be God tho' it be not God wants the Formal Nature of Idolatry and it 's not to be doubted but that the Believers of Transubstantiation do verily believe that what they worship is God how can they then insist on their Idolatry For altho' these Doctors are in a Mistake yet before it be so positively determin'd as in the Test the Matter should be fully debated amongst themselves for it 's not agreeable to the Rules of Wisdom for any Church to impose what is matter of doubt to some of her own Sons who are Men of great Learning and Vertue III. As to the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary and other Saints it must be observed that Protestants themselves have different Apprehensions about the Nature of the Sin and tho' all judge it an Error yet all don't esteem it Idolatry and seeing here is not a word of Images in the Test the Church of England will be hard put to it to prove it Idolatry for if it be Idolatry it must in the Sense of a Protestant be either Idolatry against the First or against the Second Commandment Not against the First for who are there of the Church of England that make the Invocation of Saints to exceed the Idolatry of the Heathen The Author of Julian parallel'd it with Heathenish Idolatry but who makes it more absurd and gross And if it be an Idolatry only against the Second Commandment seeing Images are not mentioned how can it be made out unless they fall in with the Protestant Dissenter and say that as the First Command forbids all False Objects so the Second all false Authors and Means of Worship tho' directed Ultimately to the True God and so grant that what part of Worship soever has not God for its Author is Idolatrous Worship and thereby for the same Reason they make Invocation of Saints Idolatrous they make a great part of their own Worship to be so too And seeing they are so hard put to it to prove it Idolatrous they should not impose the Belief on 't with so much Severity as they have done it in this Case But IV. Altho' there were Reasons for the making those Tests when under a Church-of-England Prince yet there can be none for the continuance of 'em under a King who is for the Invocation of Saints for it 's a putting all those Nobles who enjoy their Birthrights and the Representatives of the Nation to pronounce his Majesty an Idolater which is not according to the Duty of a Subject nor indeed Civil But if the Sons of the Church who are for the fixing this Test should be treated by this present Government as the Clergy treated some Brownists in Queen Elizabeths Days it would be made a Crime no less than Capital The Brownists condemned the Church of England for no Church ensnared many in the Nets of their new Schism Neither could they be restrained tho' their Books were prohibited and two of
Lollardiae sic dictae à Lolio quia sicut Lolium inficit segetes sic Lollardi multotâ—es inficiunt fideles simplices inter quos conversantur Lindwood Provinc de haeret c. finaliter ver Lollardiae that proves prejudicial to the Wheat as our Lindwood has it it 's past doubt that the Doctrins of Wickliff were called LOLLARDY and whoever embraced them were called Lollars that is whoever held That Images ought not to be worshiped that the Relics of Saints ought not to be adored that after the Consecration in the Mass there remained Bread and that the Natural Body of Christ is not there whoever held these Propositions were LOLLARS Here then lies the Opposition between the Parliamentary Test and the Sheriff's Oath by the former you declare to believe That there is no Transubstantiation and that Invocation of Saints is Superstitious by the other you swear That to the utmost of your power you will endeavor to exterminate all such as do not believe Transubstantiation or do hold that Invocation of Saints or Adoration of the Sacrifice of the Mass is Superstitious So that as the matter is thus stated the Protestant Gentry who carefully consider these things must needs be marvelously perplex'd in their thoughts about it and afraid lest they contract on them the odious Guilt of swearing they will do what they declare they ought not to do There are I confess two ways taken by some to solve this difficult appearance but whoever insists on either will find himself still more and more involv'd Nostro aevoac cipiunt Lollardos pro Institutae Religionis adversantibus eoq vetus Sacramentum Vicecomitum ad prosequendos Lollardos juratorum hodie attrahunt verb. Lollardiae The first is what Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary suggests who tells us That some by LOLLARDY understand any Religion contrary to what is by Law established and consequently the Popish Religion whereby the difficulty is removed for by this Interpretation the Sheriffs do swear they 'll extirpate the Religion of those who believe Transubstantiation and are for the Adoration of the Blessed Virgin But then it must be added that besides the ill tendency the Oath thus interpreted may have on the Government especially with reference to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex within whose Bailiwic His Majesty resides this way of altering the genuine sense of words necessarily introduces and justifies the grossest Equivocations For Lollardy did never in any other Writings heretofore nor at this day signifie any such thing as is here pretended and this sense of the Oath is quite contrary to the natural and genuine import of the words And if Church-of-England-men may take an Oath in a sense so contrary to the true intent and meaning of it why may not the Papists and whil'st they are taking Church of England Tests intend a Popish sense For thus 't is with our Sheriffs they take a Popish Oath in a Church of England sense and whil'st they swear to endeavor the Extirpation of Church of England Doctrins they mean Popery Methinks it's past doubt that if our Popish Gentry had been so profligate as some represent 'em they need not be so much concern'd for the Taking off the Tests were it not sufficient that they could write after this Church of England Copy And as Protestants by Lollardy understand Popery so by Transubstantiation might not our Gentry mean Consubstantiation and by Superstitious and Idolatrous mean what is agreeable to the mind and will of God and then take the Parliamentary Test in the following sense thus I A. B. do declare That I do believe that there is no Consubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever and that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are agreeable to the mind and will of God. For by the same Rule that Lollardy signifies Popery Transubstantiation may signifie Consubstantiation and the words Superstitions and Idolatrous may signifie what is agreeable to the mind and will of God. And if the one may be without an Equivocation so may the other so that this Hypothesis solves not the Phainomenon it only opens the way to make all TESTS of no use and then no matter whether they continue or are taken away We will therefore in the next place consider the other attempt which is made by some to remove this difficulty and it is this That some time after Sir Edward Coke when prick'd for Sheriff scrupled this part of the Oath care was taken to reform it and this passage about Lollardy has been ever since left out and that therefore now there is no inconsistency between the Sheriffs Oath and other Tests And in Answer unto this I must acknowledge That in the year 1625. this Oath was alter'd and this Clause left out But by whose Authority Did any Parliament take this thing into consideration and make this amendment No it was done by the direction of the King's Council How by the King's Council Then by the Regal Power sure which once granted what need we trouble our heads any longer about the Parliaments taking off the Tests For if according to the Constitution of our Government it belongs to the Prerogative to ALTER an Oath by expunging any momentous part of it no doubt it 's as much within the Circle of Prerogative to make an Alteration on Tests too Whence then I thus argue The expunging this part of the Sheriffs Oath is Valid or not If not then it must be restored and all Sheriffs stand bound to swear That they 'll endeavor the Extirpation of those Doctrins they professed to be for when they took the Parliamentary Tests and so must as but now I prov'd be either involv'd in the Guilt of Swearing one thing and Declaring another or must countenance the worst of Equivocations but if Valid then the Regal Power can make alterations on Oaths and so far change the controverted Tests as to divest them of all their supposed strength And if the Subjects will not concur with His Majesty who most graciously designs the setling the Peace and Quiet of the people in a Parliamentary way do they not provoke him to the exercise of his Prerogative And would it not be more agreeable to the Prudence of the Asserters of our Liberty and Property to assure the King That they will endeavor their utmost to choose such to sit in Parliaments as will be for the Establishing Liberty of Conscience on a sure Foundation and secure the Civil Rights and Privileges of the Subject in such a manner that they may not be touched for the sake of Religion Thus I have laid down a Scheme of those Reasonings which in my Opinion are strong for the Taking off the Tests and have I hope with some Clearness evinced that the Continuation of Penal Laws by which good
Safety and on all occasions have demonstrated so much For even in Richard Il's Reign when Braybrook the Bishop of London being then Lord Chancellor sent out among the Statutes then to be publish'd by the Sheriffs of Counties a Statute for the persecuting the Lollars the Commons being the year following called to sit in Parliament preferr'd a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and to use Sir Edward Coke's words constantly affirmed That they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the supposed Statute might be aniented and declared void for they protested that it was never their intent to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelates more than their Ancestors had done in times past and hereunto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Ypleist au Roy. And as the Commons would not then consent to the making Laws against the Lollards so they endeavor'd both in the Reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. the dispossessing the Clergy of Church-Lands and in Henry V. prevailed so far as to suppress the Friers Aliants whose Lands were united to the Crown and had it not been for their War with France and the Contention between the two Houses of York and Lancaster it 's probable that before Henry VIII's time the insolence of the Clergy had been so severely check'd as it was done by that Great Prince We must not therefore judge of our King and Popish Gentry by Foreign Papists nor by hot headed Priests at home but must remember as a little before I noted that English Blood runs in their Veins and that they 'll labor to excell all their Progenitors in those Vertues that have raised them to an Honor and Glory Immortal especially considering 't is His Majesty's Principle to be for Liberty of Conscience But if the English Papists had been so Bloody as the Objection suggests I cannot see how the continuing the present Tests can indubitably prevent the seared mischief for in the Tests there is not one word against Persecution and a man that takes these Tests may notwithstanding any thing in them be as severe in fetching Blood from Dissenters in Religion as ever any of the Heathen Persecutors have been And the whole that can be said is this That the Church of England would engross all Persecuting Power into her own hands for all her care is to keep all others out of the Government but no care taken to prevent the making Laws for the extremest Persecution And if as a Book lately publish'd by one of the Church of England affirms An Historic Treatise touching Transubstantiation by a Roman Catholic there be an innumerable Company amongst the Papists who believe not Transubstantiation why may it not be supposed possible for our English Papists to fall in with them in this point The Author of the Answer to the two Discourses of the Real Presence c. primed at Oxford doth in his Preface mention many Roman Catholics Men of great Learning who did not believe Transubstantiation viz. Pichereliuâ— Da Perron Father Barns the Benecict ne De Marca Archbishop of Paris Father Sirmond the Jesuit De Marolles Abbot of Ville-Loyn and with some others of that Communion who judge the Invocation and Adoration of the Virgin Mary as generally used in the Church of Rome to be Superstitious and Idolatrous and so take these Tests and leap into the Government and enact Bloody Laws against all those who won't submit unto the Pope and receive the other controverted parts of Popery It 's manifest that our English Papists are for the sweetning methods in most points of Doctrin and tho' I think that this is not very probable yet it being as probable as what the Objection intimates it may be as fairly urged And we have the greatest reason to say that if it be only exterminating Laws that the Church of England are afraid of another Test against all such Bloody Principles and Practices will more effectually secure us This is enough to give Satisfaction to the Objection however I will ex abundanti add somewhat more and consider what may be said to it with reference to an Expedient to prevent the Mischiess that are invented and suppos'd to follow from the taking away the Tests and then fear'd unless One only Way be taken which is so high a One as cannot be hoped and I must answer that I doubt not but there are many Ways to be found out by the Wisdom of a Parliament to anticipate any Design of getting a future Parliament of Papists that shall set up Popery by a Law. For what if it were offered to His Majesty that they will comply to have all the Laws against Papists and Dissenters to be totally repealed reserving the Test only upon the Two Houses during the King's Reign and that then the Test shall cease also If the King would consent to this which is a great deal less than what this Gentleman hath hinted might we not be sure that the Papists shall never be in a capacity to make Laws for the Extirpation of Protestants If the King would not be pleas'd with this but propose something himself in exchange of the Test which should be a better Defence against this supposed Danger than that is should we not be willing to have the Mud-wall thrown down so long as we may have a Brick-wall for it about our House Nay what if upon such an Act once pass'd as gives Quiet to the Land the King should afterward see no need of another Parliament and resolve to have none till he saw need would not this Objection be then solv'd and confounded alone by that Besides who is there certain let him be what Contriver he will that he shall live to see another Parliament after the next Are not the Lives of Princes in God's hand as well as those of the meanest men and are there not a thousand Accidents that may intervene and prevent the deepest Machinations of such as think themselves most wife Is there nothing to be allowed to the Volubility of Human Affairs and the Providence of God Let an Indulgence be enacted and is it not good that there be Peace and Truth in our days as Hezekiah said Again if another Parliament be called let but free Election be secured and false Returns prevented and that alone will go far to do the Business But the great thing I insist on is the King 's solemn and oft repeated Declaration that it 's not only the giving us Ease during his Majesty's Reign that he designs but that a Parliament in Concurrence with him may Settle Liberty of Conscience on such a Bottom as may never be moved For let any thing be invented by the Wisdom of Parliament that may be but equitably offer'd for the securing such an Act never to be infring'd we may be sure he will grant it The King would fain leave with his Subjects such a Magna Charia for the securing them the Liberty of their Consciences as they have for
A DISCOURSE FOR TAKING OFF THE TESTS AND Penal Laws ABOUT RELIGION The Disciples said Lord wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Luke 9.54 55 56. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor MDCLXXXVII The Preface Reader VVHatever thy Thoughts may be of the Author of the following Discourse I can give thee Arguments enough were it needful to satisfie a Rational and Considering Mind that He is most sincerely concern'd for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Universal Peace and Quiet of every good Subject He has made some Remarks on the Measures which some of his Majesty's Royal Predecessors have taken to Establish Religion but could never observe that Penal Laws did ever effectually suppress a False or propagate the True Religion The many Severities against the Lollars from the Sixth of Richard the Second to the end of Henry the Eighth could never put a Stop to the Spreading of their Opinions for under Edward the Sixth the whole Nation became Lollars And the Extremities endur'd under Queen Mary tho' they Damm'd up the Water for a while yet it was but in order to the Overflowing the whole Kingdom ever since And it 's to be presum'd that there are wise Men among the Roman-Catholic who observing the mischievous Effects of Penal Laws then for so they must esteem them are so very much set against all such Ways now And ever since Q. Eliz. entred the Throne a Considering Protestant will see more reason to conclude that it 's not the making Sanguinary Laws against the Papist but the Power of Truth that has hindred the Growth of Popery For notwithstanding the most violent Persecutions that have been of late Years against the Protestant Dissenters they have waxed strong and their Party more numerous now than it was some Years ago It 's true many to escape the Penalty have wounded their Consciences and others who did not run the same Course with them have been ruin'd to the great Damage of the whole Nation but none have been convinced that the Church of England has the more Truth on her side because she has exercis'd so much of her Persecuting Power Penal Laws for Religion have occasion'd great Disorders and Confusions amongst us but never yet did any good and therefore it is that the Author heartily wishes that all such Laws may be so vacated as not to receive Life amongst us any more I am very confident that nothing can afford greater Satisfaction to the Author than to see the very Principle on which Persecution is rais'd so effectually eradicated that none for the future may be expos'd to Corporal Mulcts for their Religion No not the Quaker Anabaptist Independent Presbyterian Churchman nor Papist The Author is afraid that so long as the Persecuting Principle lives the prevailing Party of what Persuasion soever will make use of it Let the Principle then according to his Majesty's Royal Resolution be destroy'd and there are hopes of Peace and Quiet to the whole Kingdom The fear is that if the Tests which are a Branch arising from the Persecuting Principle be taken off the Papists will be Empower'd to Establish Persecuting Laws but what greater Assurance can we have against this Fright than that his Majesty designing the Prevention of all such Mischiefs will accept of any Expedient that shall be offer'd to him and found sufficient to secure us The Design therefore of these Papers is to prepare and dispose his Majesty's Subjects to a Closure with what may Establish our Peace and Tranquillity on a sure Bottom and the Author doubts not but that our wise and thoughtful Gentry will weight what is urg'd and act as becomes good English-men and Christians and concur with his Majesty who desires to make us all Happy with a Great Charter Declaratory of the Ancient Constitution of our Government whereby Liberty of Conscience may be secur'd on the same Foundation our Civil Rights and Property are and be setled amongst the Inalienable Rights of the English-man And the Reader is importun'd to consider that this is a Design that no way lessens the Church of Englands True Happiness or Just Glory for it will not deprive any deserving Person of that Communion of any Advantage The whole they are sought unto for is that their Neighbors be not destroy'd for not acting contrary to their Consciences and for not prostituting their Souls to the Lusts of Persecutors And what Injury is done that Church when nothing more is insisted on unless it be said that their Happiness consists in other Mens Miseries And I may be bold to speak thus much on the behalf of the Dissenters that they can cheerfully forgive all the past Injuries and Wrongs receiv'd from the Church of England Clergy and their Creatures I must confine the Forgiveness to them because the Wrong was only from them And it must be Recorded to the Glory of our English Gentry that they ever hated those Severities and no doubt having seen the Havock of a vehement Execution of Penal Laws for Religion and of the Excesses which the Prosecutors fell into will rejoyce to have an Opportunity to manifest more fully their Dislike by concurring with his Majesty in a Repeal But to return The Dissenter I am sure doth not only Forgive but can easily Forget all that these Clergy-men and their Adherents have done against them longing to see that Day wherein the Lamb may lie down with the Lion and in which Ephraim shall not envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim God is the God of Peace and he has commanded it and therefore the Dissenters desire to pursue it It 's really a Matter of unspeakable Grief to the Dissenters when they consider how much some of the Church of England do revile them for studying the Things that would make even for their Churches Peace And what an amazing Consideration must this be that the Church of England express themselves so vehemently against the Persecution of Foreign Papists and yet are so very angry with Protestant Dissenters for joyning with the English Papists in putting a stop to the Persecution at home For whilst they plead for Penal Laws against the Papists for their Religion they justifie the Penal Edicts that are against Protestants To say that none must be punish'd for an adherence to Truth but for a closure with Error is no more than the most violent Persecutor will concur with you in for they never punish'd any for a good Work as such but for what they esteem'd Evil. The whole Controversie about Penal Laws for Religion must be reduc'd to this Head viz. Whether it be agreeable to the Divine Will that any Man be punish'd Corporally or depriv'd of his Civil Rights for the sake of his Religion If
it be Query'd Whether it be lawful to punish any one Corporally for his being of the True Religion All will hold in the Negative and yet keep up Persecution For the Higher Powers esteeming their own Religion the True and all other Religions False tho' they are severe in punishing all others yet 't is because they are of a False Religion But if the Question be stated as above and if it be held in the Negative all Corporal Punishments for Religion are laid aside and a Stop put to Persecution It must be carefully observ'd that the Protestant can't have so ill an Opinion of the Papist but the Papist has as bad an one of the Protestant and so long as it is held lawful to propagate the Truth and suppress Error by Corporal Mulcts the Papists will have as much reason for the use of these Methods to propagate what he takes to be True and suppress what he judges an Error as the Protestant can This then must be fix'd That it is not agreeable to the Will of God to punish any Man Corporally or deprive him of his Civil Rights for the sake of his Religion The setling this Principle will put an end to all Persecutions nothing else can do it Thus much the Author would inculcate on the Minds of his Readers and is not in the least mov'd by that extravagant Question What would you not have Blasphemers and Murderers punish'd if they pretend 't is their Religion to Blaspheme and Murder for 't is manifest to all that the Religion we are speaking of is what leans on Positive Revelation and not that which the Light of Nature makes known What is discover'd by Natures Light and is a part of Natural Religion is so very manifest to all Men that no Man without laying a Violence on his own Faculties can pretend that what is really contrary unto it is a part of his Religion Tho' those Scriptures from which are drawn the Rules of Positive Religion must be acknowledg'd to be so obscure and dark that a Rational Man who means well may mistake their true and genuine Sense yea tho he has the help of a Guide pretending Infallibility yet Natures Laws are so plain so clear and manifest to all Rational Men that there is no room left for any ones falling into such Mistakes as are alledg'd and pretend that it is his Religion to Blaspheme and Murder Mistakes therefore touching the Sense of a Scripture are to be rectifi'd by Scriptural Reasonings but such Faults as are committed against the Laws of Nature are to be punish'd by the Civil Magistrate I say such must be punish'd because they act contrary to their own Light. The Difference between Crimes that the Light of Nature discovers and those Mistakes that are about the Sense of a Scripture is so very great that we cannot so argue from the one to the other as to infer a necessity of treating those who mistake the Sense of a Text with the like Severity they ought to be dealt with who violate Natures Laws Thus much the Author insists on as what is agreeable to the Light of Nature to the Ancient Constitution of our Government and the Rules of Christianity and accordingly forms his Arguments for the Taking off the Tests and all Penal Laws for meer Religion proposing such Things to Consideration as may so move the Church of England Clergy the Protestant Dissenter and Roman-Catholic that notwithstanding the great Differences there are between 'em in Matters of Religion they may agree on this one thing namely to Live peaceably together And that the Papists may never be in a Capacity to Persecute any more in this Land the Author makes it his Endeavor to persuade our Nobility and Gentry to concur with his Majesty in setling Liberty of Conscience on such a Bottom that it may never be in the power of any to Persecute And he is confident that this is the only Way to settle the Peace of the Church of England for nothing can so much endanger her as an obstinate Adherence to Penal Laws and Tests which will provoke the Body of the Nation to conclude Her their only Enemy and that it 's their Interest to guard against her as such A too resolute Endeavor to keep up her Persecuting Power may issue in her loss of that and all her External Pomp and Glory 'T is well known that if the Pope in Henry the Eighth's Days had been more yielding he might have kept this Nation much longer under his Power and if our Clergy will be content with their present Standing and part with their Penal Laws and Tests none will envy their Happiness God give them Wisdom not only to see their Error which some say they now do but to improve the present Opportunity by a Christian Concurrence with his Majesty in Setling their own and the Nations Peace A DISCOURSE For taking off the PENAL LAWS and TESTS About RELIGION THE many Discourses that have been and still are about the TESTS being on a Point of the Highest Importance both to the King's Majesty and to the whole Kingdom it doth most undoubtedly become every Englishman to consider with the greatest Caution not only the Nature of the Thing but what may be the Tendency either of the Damning or Establishing 'em And whoever ventures to offer his Thoughts about them must remember he has a very narrow Bridge to pass over where one false Step will be fatal for there is such a thwarting of Opinions as makes the Case marvellously perplex'd and intricate Some Great Men are fully persuaded that a Taking them off will prove pernicious to the Protestant Subject And there are others of as great a Figure who are convinc'd that in this Juncture a sticking to 'em will be more mischievous to all than the destroying 'em can be to any And because of the different Apprehensions Men of a great Character have of this Thing the Inferior sort are hugely distracted and in a Commotion amongst themselves which makes it necessary to do somewhat more than yet has been done to enlighten and settle the Body of the Nation on a sure Basis in their Reasonings about it And I cannot think of a better Method than the giving a just Account of the Ancient Constitution of our Government and the several Interests of the KING and PEOPLE For what is most agreeable to that Constitution and these Interests is undoubtedly most safe and meet to be done I will therefore keep to this Method and in the first place mention just so much of the Ancient Constitution of the Civil Government as is necessary to the present purpose and 't is this THE Civil Government must be recogniz'd to be a thing entire within it self and of distinct Consideration from Religion For altho' there may be many Religions in a Kingdom yet the Government is but One and the same and tho' there may be great Alterations made on the Religion of the State yet that makes no
Soul for what People under the Cope of Heaven are more tender of Liberty and Property than the English And I am sure that the other day a great Lawyer express'd himself very freely touching the Subjects Rights affirming That as Kings have their Prerogatives too great for an Act of Parliament to bound or limit and as the next Heir to the Crown has so firm a Right to the Succession that no Consideration of Religion no nor that of Treason it self can be made a Bar to exclude him for Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt So Subjects have their various and different Rights either by Inheritance Creation or Election answerable to their several Qualities which no Act of Parliament can divest them of insomuch that if a Statute be de facto made contrary to a Fundamental Right of the Subject it 's void and null and if any one in pursuance of such a Statute ravish from the Subject his Liberty and Property in one King's Reign he may as it has been heretofore suffer for it in the Reign of another I insist not nevertheless at this time on this Great Man's Opinion any farther than to offer it to the Consideration of the Learned in the Law that if possibly I may do it they may be provok'd to an Enquiry and to give the People some farther Satisfaction than he did when he only told me it was so plain that instead of confirming it by Authorities he must defere to the known Rule viz. In rebus manifestis errat qui authoritates Legum allegat quia perspicuè vera non sunt probanda For let this Opinion be clear'd 't will contribute extreamly towards the ending the present Controversie especially if the other thing he mention'd also which indeed concludes our whole Argument be made out viz. That amongst the Inalienable Rights of the Subjects we must reckon this That no Free-Man may be depriv'd of his Liberty or Property or any other Civil Right or Privilege for the sake of his Religion so long as his Religion has no influence on the Government Let this I say be made good 't will unavoidably follow that all the Penal Laws for meer Religion and the Securing the Tests must appear to be ab initio void and null and a Great Charter Declaratory of so much will put a stop to Persecution for evermore for Conscience sake and answer all the Objections that can be brought against the Taking away the Tests But to return It 's my part to enquire more particularly Whether the Damning or Establishing the Tests be most agreeable to what I have declared the Ancient Constitution of our Government to be And the Solution is easie for from the Contexture of the foregoing Discourse we must conclude for the Taking them off because they twist the Religion of one part of the People so closely with the Government as to deprive the Body of the Nation of their Civil Rights Liberty and Property for the sake of an Opinion that hurts no Body but its Owner There are three or four Tests which do twist Religion and the Civil Government so unluckily together that whoever scruples the Religious part of the Test is immediately esteem'd an Enemy to the Government The First requires that they who take it do declare that they 'll never endeavor any Alteration of Government in the Church The Second obliges all in Office to Receive the Lord's Supper according to the Church of England and declare in these Words I A. B. do declare 25 Car. 2. cap. 2. That I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever The Last imposed both on the Nobility and Commons chosen to Sit in Parliament runs thus I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the Presence of God profess testifie and declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now us'd in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous These being the several Tests impos'd on the Subjects of this Realm there are these several Arguments which occur to my Thoughts against their continu'd Establishment I. It 's contrary to the Liberty of the Subject who without just cause is hereby depriv'd of his Rights as an Englishman It is the Right of a Freeholder in the County My Lord Chief-Justice Coke positively affirms That the Barons ought to have a Writ of Summons ex debito Justitiae to Sit in Parliament and it s most manifest that their Summons must be either of Grace or ex debito If the former it lies in the Breast of the King to call whom of the Lords he will and so never want an House of Lords for his Purpose If the latter then my Argument abides in its strength and it 's the Barons Right to be Call'd and Sit in Parliament and of a Free-man of any City or Town Corporate to choose his Representative in Parliament and the Right of those freely chosen if good Subjects which they may be tho' of a Religion different from that of the State to Sit in Parliament and it 's the Birthright of our Ancient Nobility and the most undoubted Right of every Peer of the Land tho created a Peer but yesterday to Sit in the Higher House of Parliament and Advise and Consent to the Enacting Laws And it 's a known Case that tho' a Man be Excommunicate yet he is not thereby divested of his Right to choose his Representative and why but because a Man may remain a good Subject and a good English-man altho' thrown out of the Church and therefore ought to enjoy the Privilege of an English-man And why shall not the Persons chosen and the Nobility so long as they sufficiently demonstrate to the World that they are true English-men and good Subjects enjoy their undoubted Rights and Privileges What belongs to a good Subject as such belongs to every good Subject and it 's a Wrong to rob him of it Let there then be such a Test impos'd I mean a CIVIL TEST which Characterizes a good Subject and which a good Subject cannot refuse to take and let that be all for that surely may be made sufficient and unscrupulous to secure the just Prerogatives of the King and the Liberty and Property of the Subject which is the whole Concern in it that a true Englishman as such is bound to look after II. The Imposition of a Religious Test on the Subject excluding the Refusers from having any Advancement in Places of Trust is a Branch of that Doctrin on which all Penal Laws for Religion
are grounded for the excluding a Man from entring on and a turning him out of any Place of Trust and Advantage for the sake of his Religion is as Penal as the taking from him his Liberty and Property for Religion There is no difference in the general Nature of the Penalness of these Laws the difference lies in the particular Kinds of the Penalty the one is meerly Privative and the other Positive the one a Casting 'em out of Heaven the other a Casting 'em into Hell. The Nonconformists therefore judge that the turning 'em out of their Places was a Punishing 'em for their Consciences and they reckon it a great part of their Sufferings for Religion as well as they do their Imprisonments Whoever then is against the continuance of the Penal Laws if he will be consistent with himself must be for the taking away all Religious Tests seeing otherwise some good Subjects may suffer for Conscience sake which is the thing they decry They may suffer the loss of their Civil Rights as most certainly those Lords do who are excluded the House in Parliament-time And how then shall we imagine that any Dissenter that is truly and considerately such can be for the Establishing the Tests For thereby whilst they desire Liberty for themselves they cry for Vengeance on others and whilst they desire a Prince of a Religion different from themselves to ease them they must have Men of the King's Religion continu'd under Persecution than which nothing can be more unreasonable seeing in good earnest if they are for the Persecuting others it 's a thousand to one but that they may tempt the Government to give themselves the worst of it III. This blending and twisting Matters Religious with the State so closely as to make a Mistake in Religion to be enough to demonstrate the Man an Enemy to the Government seems to be a Result grounded on that pernicious Notion That Dominion is founded in Grace For why else must a Man be of the Religion that he may have a Share in or Countenance from the Government If Government be not founded in Grace then Grace or the being Religious is no necessary Step to get up into the Government Besides according to the present Practice of the violent Asserters of Tests be their Principle what it will all the Consequences of that Doctrin Dominion is founded in Grace do naturally issue from their Practice seeing by the same Reason a Church-of England Parliament excludes from the Favor of the Government all but Church-of England Men a Popish Presbyterian Anabaptistical Independent or Quaking Parliament may exclude all from the same but Men of their own Persuasion And what is more considerable the Church of England so long as she is for this Practice that she may defend it must insist either on her being in Possession or on a Right only upon this account because she is of the true Religion If on the former then whoever is in possession may have the same Plea and this is no other than what every Usurper may make But if the later it cannot hold good unless the Government be appropriated to True Religion and that none have a Right to Govern but those of the True Religion and all others be Usurpers and to be Deposed And let this be once granted it will follow That Men of every different Religion judging themselves in the Right there is and can be no Sect among us but they may hereby be equally encourag'd to lay a Claim to to the Government And what would be the Consequence hereof but a turning the whole Nation into a Flame a fostering Sedition and all manner of Traiterous Practices against the Government be it either Roman-Catholic Presbyterian or Episcopal for there will be still some who are of a different Religion from it who must esteem themselves oppress'd while kept out and judge it their Duty to be ever Contriving Conspiring and Consulting how they may be possess'd of their fancy'd Right IV. The joyning Religious Tests with Civil Government has occasion'd much Mischief in the Land these last hundred Years to the impoverishing thousands of Families All the Miseries which the Nonconformists have endur'd in this last Age had their Rise and Continuance from this Practice the mingling Religious Tests with the Civil For of the Three Articles unto which all the Clergy were requir'd to Subscribe and for not Subscribing which the Nonconformists were call'd Factious Seditious and Rebellious when the First touches the Just Power of the King the other Two are about the Ceremonies and Government of the Church Subscription now to the Three was strictly enjoyn'd and tho' the Nonconformists declar'd their good liking of the First yet not Subscribing to the Two last they were Censur'd for refusing to Subscribe the Three Articles and so for disowning the King 's Just Power And that the Laity might also be ensnar'd into the same Calamity if Prosecuted in the Spiritual Courts tho' if griev'd thereby they might Enter their Appeal yet unless they did first Personally Promise and Avow that they would faithfully keep and observe all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England and also the Prescript Form of Common-Prayer and likewise Subscribe to the Three Articles formerly specifi'd and declar'd no Judge ad Quem was to admit or allow of his or their Appeals and all that thus refus'd to Subscribe were call'd Factious Appellants Vide Can. 36. 98. The like method being observed in one of the present Tests wherein the Takers are to promise That they 'll not endeavor any alteration of Government in Church and State And altho' they could heartily declare they 'll not endeavor any alteration in the Government of the State yet because they could not say the same with Church-Government they have been represented as Enemies to the State as well as to the Hierarchy and as such expos'd to all manner of Odium Reproach and Ruin. Methinks the Protestant Dissenter should take warning and have a care they be not in the present conjuncture cajol'd by their perfect Enemies to plead for a continuance of this Usage I will in the next place propose what may be urged against the several Tests distinctly and so shew what reasons there are for the taking away all of them The first Test that I shall consider is the Declaration That they will not endeavor any alteration of the Government in Church or State. By this Test besides the above-mention'd Inconvenience all that take it are as much oblig'd to the Ecclesiastical as they are to the Civil Government which brings to my remembrance a passage I have met with in the Writings of a Church of England Divine who speaking of the Power of Parliaments as Whether a Parliament might not change the Government of the Church His Reply was That they might if they could change an Essential of our Constitution As if an Alteration of the Hierarchy had been a Subverting the government of the State
whereas nothing can be more clear than that this particular sort of Ecclesiastical Government under which we now are is but an accidental and a movable Appendage to the Civil Constitution Thus much is known not only to our great Lawyers but to the Nobility and Gentry The Bishops as such who are a constituent part of the Ecclesiastical Government are not God's but the King's Creatures and all their Power as distinguished from their dealings with mens consciences by the Word of God is derived from the King. The words of 37 Hen. 8. c. 17. are That the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical persons have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical but BY UNDER and FROM the King 's Royal Majesty Thus it was in the Judgment of King James I. Queen Eliz. Edward VI. Hen VIII and upward amongst all the Princes of the Roman Communion so far as I can observe But the supposing it so essential to the Government that a Parliament can't Alter it as this Clergy-man insinuates and to oblige the Subject as this Test does solemnly to declare he will never endeavor an Alteration of it as if the Prelatic Power had its Origine from Heaven and not from the King only doth as I humbly apprehend make it necessary for the Government to take off the Test and assert their Power by an exercise of it in this great Instance which I am assur'd is a thing the Nobility and Gentry desire to be at and therefore I need not dwell on it any longer The Second which is impos'd on all that bear Office in the Kingdom viz. The taking the SACRAMENT of the LORD's SVPPER according to the Vsage of the Church of ENGLAND Be the man ever so Ignorant or Debauch'd if called to Office he must receive the Sacrament Altho' Almighty God has ordained it only for the Worthy and most look upon it as the most Solemn and Sacred Ordinance of the Gospel yet must this Pearl be prostitute to Swine this Holy thing profusely given to the vilest of men such as common Drunkards Whoremongers Adulterers and Blasphemers of God and that without scruple for that there are many such amongst the common Soldiers and also in Civil Offices is beyond Controversie Besides let a man be a knowing and pious Christian eminent for Loyalty to his Prince and acknowledged by all to be a good Subject yet if he cannot take it according to the Vsage of the Church of England himself must be deprived of a Place of Advantage and the Government of his Service So that I take this Test to be directly contrary to the Laws of God and the good of the Government and I cannot imagine how any man that has the awe of God upon his Soul and a love to the Government can consent to the establishing of it Especially considering that the Vsage of the Church of England is to receive the Elements kneeling which is a gesture of Adoration and ordained to avoid Profanation even before that Bread which is denied to be God and esteemed only his Image which some think and therefore refuse to take it to be Superstitious and Idolatrous But how fond soever the Church of England may be for the setling this Test yet sure the Protestant Dissenter unless he 'll offer violence to his avowed Principles can't be for it To this there is added the following Declaration which all in any Office Civil or Military must take in these words I A. B. do declare That I do believe that there is not any Transtantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever This TEST being a part of that which the Peers and those who sit in Parliament must take I will only observe in this place how unhappily it 's worded for unless there be some Errata's in my Statute-book a man must declare That in the Elements of Bread and Wine there is no Transubstantiation after the Consecration It 's not said No Transubstantiation into the Body and Blood of Christ but more indefinitely No Transubstantiation at all whereas after the Consecration they are eaten and drunken and after the eating and drinking them there is a Transubstantiation of them into his own Flesh and Blood in like manner as any other thing he eats or drinks is So that this Test being a solemn Declaration which a man is to make of his Faith he ought to be more explicit in the wording of it I presume farther That had it been matter of doubt in Physics whether the Bread be turned into the Flesh of him that eats it yet it 's not so clear that the contrary should be made a matter of Faith and that such as whoever believes it not must be made uncapable of any Office in the State. But this defect being supplied in the Parliamentary Test I will go on to that which is in these words I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess testifie and declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous c. The first part of this TEST I confess is well worded and what a Protestant Dissenter according to his own Principles may safely take tho' not impose but how it can be exacted from every Church of England man to take it or how they can urge the continued Imposition of it on others is beyond me to comprehend My reason in short lies here The Church of England in her first framing after Queen Maries Death did in Obedience to Queen Elizabeth's Command take special care to open her doors so wide that no one for his believing Transubstantiation should be excluded her Communion And if not deprived thereby of the Privileges of the Church why of those of the State The very drift of the Church of England has been to twist the two Interests of Church and State so closely together that none should have any Advantages from the State but those who were of the Communion of their Church and whoever was of the Communion of their Church was the person qualified for the entire enjoyment of all the Privileges of the State and what was not a bar to Church-Communion was none to the being possessed of State-Privileges Tho' they would deprive men of their Civil Liberties for not being of their Communion yet they never denied them to those whom they thought meet to admit to her Communion and indeed unless she will acknowledge that the Terms of her Communion as a Church are too wide I cannot see how she can deny those whom she admits to her
the Ring-leaders Executed at St. Edmundsbury Baker's Chron. for the Brownists asserting That the Church of England was no true Church and that their Ministry was no true Ministry the Clergy immediately made use of their Inferring Faculty and Argued thus to the destruction of some Mens Lives If the Church of England be no true Church as you affirm then the Queen the Head of it is no true Christian but must be ranked among the Infidel and Heathen that is you do your utmost to expose her Majesty to the Odium and at last to the Rage of the People and do what in you lies to depose her Majesty from the Throne And thus it was made a Capital Crime and some were Executed on this Account But we need not Reason it thus with the Church of England for without such far-fetcht Consequences the very Principles and Practices of his Majesty are called Superstitious and Idolatrous and his Majesty by a most immediate Inference publickly declared to be an Idolater And therefore I think it the Wisdom of the Sons of the Church now to call to mind what they have done to their own Brethren in the Case above and take heed that they continue not in a worse Crime by a zealous sticking to those Tests For unless she will give up the Cause to the Dissenter in some momentous Instances and be moreover guilty of that Brownistical Practice which she has so severely condemned in Queen Elizabeths Days she cannot be for the Establishing the Tests And this I would leave with the Sons of the Church of England that they may fix it on their Minds and take heed that above all Men they be not too eager in pressing for a Continued publishing to the World that his Majesty is an Idolater It 's requisite that they remember how tender they have been of the Honor of those Princes that were of their own Religion and if they will be as Loyal as they profess they must shew as great a regard to their Prince now tho' of another Religion When they had a Prince of their own Religion not only the Brownists were condemned for exposing the Queen to the rage of the Mobile by their affirming the Church of England to be no true Church and thereby making their Prince worse than an Atheist but at last they began to draw the same conclusions from Non-subscribing as Mr. Nichols Vide Nichol's Plea for the Innocent an humble Servant of the English Church declares I have saith he heard it objected in a Sermon by a Reverend man who now is a Bishop that by refusing to subscribe we make the Queen's Majesty to be an Atheist worse than Papists and namely of No Religion For saith he you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Orders then do you make that we have no good Ministry you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Common-Prayer then make you that we have no good Liturgy and Service of God you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Articles which contain the sum of our Faith and Doctrine then do you make that we have no sound Doctrin But these be the Books which her Majesty by her Authority doth set forth and by them sheweth what Reliligion she is of and what she holdeth and maintaineth therefore if there be no good Liturgy no good Doctrin no good Ministry then it follows that you make the Queen to be of no Religion And thus much was urged to prove the Old Nonconformists to be Seditious Rebellious and implacable Enemies to the Queen's Majesty and I would fain know whether it be not as mischievous to represent any other Prince under the most odious Characters as it is to expose one of the Church of England's Communion If it be not then there can be no Security in England while our Church-men prevail for that Prince whose Right it is to reign over us is of a Religion different from theirs that is in plain English our Church-men are resolv'd to be Loyal no longer than the King is for the Church of England's Religion But if it be as pernicious to represent our Prince of what Religion soever he be under an ill Character to the People then do all those of the English Church who are for a continuing this Test out-do the old Brownists for what they did was by a remote Consequence They denied the Government of the Church of England to be good but granted that there were many good Christians of their Communion and seeing the Government of the Church is considered distinctly from their Doctrins and is not of the same Necessity to Salvation with their Doctrins the saying that an asserting the Government of their Church and consequently their Ministry to be naught is a Damning their Doctrins must be by a very remote Consequence But in this Test tho' it be the known Practice of a Roman Catholic to invocate the Saints and adore the Sacrifice of the Mass yet it 's not only affirm'd by a few more privately but must be publicly declar'd by all that will have any Interest in the Government that this is Superstitious and Idolatrous and consequently whoever is for this Practice is guilty of that Idolatry that is to be abhorr'd of all men Thus you may see the tendency of Establishing the Tests how much it exposes His Majesty to the contempt of the Mobile and consequently how much it endangers his Person and Government and therefore how necessary 't is to take all off However To add one thing more I humbly think that I may be bold in asserting That such is the present case of England thro' the multiplication of Tests that a great part of our Gentry must be necessarily involv'd in the Guilt of Swearing one thing and Declaring another or it must be recogniz'd that His Majesty without the Aid of Parliament may alter Oaths and Tests and so vacate them or to prevent the King 's doing it 't will be necessary that a Parliament concur with His Majesty in taking off all Tests My reason is this Those Sheriffs that have been Parliament-men must take an Oath contradictory to the Parliamentary Test For by the One he must declare That he believes that there is no Transubstantiation and that the Invocation of Saints is Superstitious c. and by the Other he must swear That he will endeavor the Extermination of all those who do thus believe as just before he professed to do For the Sheriff's Oath runs thus Ye shall do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease all manner of Heresies and Errors commonly called LOLLARS within your Bailiwic from time to time to all your power Now Tritem chron Hir. Saug vit Sigism an 5. whatever may be the reason of the name Lollardy as whether it had its Rise from one Walter Lollard who was burnt at Cologn for an obstinate Adherence unto his Opinions as Tritemius in his Chronicle reports or from Lolium a Tare or Weed
Subjects are deprived of their Civil Rights for the sake of their Religion and such are the Test-Laws is contrary to the Ancient Constitution of our Government which secures our Civil Rights Liberties and Properties from the Assaults of those who would for Religion divest us of them and that therefore it 's his Majesty's Interest which very much consists in the Ease and Quiet of his Subjects to be for the removal of all those Laws And such are the Principles of Protestant Dissenters sufficiently discover'd by their many Complaints against Persecution for Conscience sake that they cannot be for Penal Laws nor for the Test Laws which are of the same kind with them and indeed such is their Interest that unless they improve the present Overture they may never have the like Opportunity more and so be expos'd to the Curse of their Posterity for entaling on them a lasting Persecution And as for the Church of England if she doth not hold that Dominion is founded on Grace and desire to be delivered from the Odium of abetting so pernicious a Principle or of doing the very thing for which they condemned the old Brownists as Traitors she must be for the Taking off those Tests And now there remains nothing but the Objections against the Contents of this Discourse which are to be set down with fairness and faithfulness that is with that openness and ingenuity which becomes an English Heart and to be Answer'd accordingly These Objections may be drawn together in a little room as they are very happily by the Hand of a Learned and worthy Person that hath sent them me unto whom these Papers have been shewn and because I cannot draw them up more short and full I will give them as I have them In all Laws saith the Gentleman the great or chief Thing which is to be attended is the End of their making or the Intention of the Lawgiver If the End of these Tests were to get all who are concern'd to take them they were the most wicked Laws that could be made for what could be more openly profane than for a Man to renounce the Religion he thinks true But this is not the End of the Law the End is that by the refusing the Test such and such Men may be hindred from such and such Offices and Employments which they could not possess without Danger to the Publick And there can be no Complaint here but of their Grievance in being kept out of those Advantages which else they might enjoy But as for that an Answer is in every Month that this is the Nature of Laws in general to restrain Particular Persons from some Conveniences which were else their Right for the sake of the Community that the Publick Emolument be promoted or Detriment prevented There is no Government could stand but on this Foundation That which is not profitable to the Bee-hive is not good for the Bee as Antoninus has it Now if the Test be Repealed it is supposed we shall in due time have a Parliament trumpt up that may be most Papists and the Popish Religion consisting in the Decrees of General Councils confirm'd by the Pope The Council of Lateran we know hath decreed the Extermination of all Heretics by which Means the Nation being generally Protestants may come to Destruction Popery under Toleration may Strengthen but Popery in Dominion Ruins this Nation And what can be now said to this with any satisfaction I see not seeing really there is but one thing could secure us which is if the King would lodge so much of his Power in the Hands of some Great Men whom He and his People both durst Trust as when an Act for Accommodation shall Pass might capacitate them to be effectual Guardians of it In the mean time this being a thing not likely I apprehend the Condition of the Dissenter to be much at one with that of the Lepers at Samaria If the Penal Laws continue of Force they perish if the Test be Repeal'd they may perish too upon the Account mention'd If they stay in the City the Episcopalian will Famish them if they go out the Papist may knock them on the Head. What they will do God knows it is but being Persecuted to Death whether it be by the one or the other This is the Objection thus set down wherein are these Things to be consider'd Here is one Argument against the Taking off the Tests drawn from the Nature of Human Laws another from the State and Constitution of the Popish Religion with an Insinuation that nothing but one unlikely Expedient can be found out for the securing us against our Fears and in the close a forced Acknowledgment that such are the Circumstances of the Dissenters that whose Interest soever it may be to Resolve on the Establishing the Test Act yet it 's theirs to be for the Repealing it To begin then with what is said in regard to the Nature of Human Laws I grant that in the composing all Laws the good of Private Men is to give place to the good of the Public for it is a Principle at the root of all Politics that Vniversi praesunt singulis singuli universis subduntur But I deny that to be good here which is supposed Here is certainly a Mistake and a dangerous one in the Case The Good supposed is that the King must be thought to intend the Ruin of all his Subjects but they that are or will turn Papists and to prevent this Ruin the Rights of the Lords and Commons which depends on the very Constitution of the Realm must be subverted I will answer therefore that such a Thought of the King as this is a wicked Thought for it is against Charity It is an Injurious Thought for it is against the King's constant Profession both in his Declaration and to every body that he will not have Conscience to be constrained and to say he is not of that Principle which he avouches is to make the most stedfast and faithful Prince to be the deepest Dissembler in the World. It is also a Foolish Thought as if the King had a Purpose like to that in the Apologue of the Sea determining with it's Waves to invade the Trees upon the Hills If the main Body of the Nation were Papists there were some Sense in these Fears but when it is so exceeding contrary in that regard there is no reason for them On the other side it is to be thought rather and verily to be believed that there are many worthy Gentlemen and Lords that are Roman Catholics in the Land and as they are English Subjects they have English Hearts and English Estates who being sensible of the Frailty of Human Life are willing to provide for themselves and their Posterity by doing that to their Fellow-Dissenters now under the Reign of a Catholic King as they would have done to them under the Reign of a Successor who is like to be a Protestant And an Act for
Universal Liberty of Conscience in Repealing all the Penal Statutes about Religion being their Interest in common with other Dissenters and Interest being a thing that will not lie they may be trusted in this Matter But it is added by the Objector That the Popish Religion consisting in the Decrees of General Councils confirm'd by the Pope and the Council of Lateran having decreed the Extermination of all Heretics we shall soon after the Taking off the Tests have a Popish Parliament trumpt up who to escape Damnation in the next World will be necessitated to destroy all Heretics within their Compass in this And here lieth the strength of the Objection which I shall endeavor with all the clearness I can to enervate and to this end must beseech the Reader in the first place to observe the great Difference there is between the English Papist and those of other Countries for the English would never pay that Respect unto Foreign Councils nor that Homage to the Roman Pontiffs which other Nations have done and consequently that our Country-men of the Romish Communion are not under the like Obligations of submitting unto the Decrees of General Councils which other Papists are Our Histories and Law-Books do furnish us with Instances innumerable that our Forefathers of the Romish Communion boldly asserted the Kingdom of England to be an Absolute Empire and Monarchy consisting of one Head which is the King and of a Body Politic Compact and Compounded of almost Infinite several yet well agreeing Members viz. the Clergy and Laity both of them next and immediately under God Subject and Obedient to the King their Head. And amongst the Laws of St. Edward the Confessor Spelman Conc. p. 622. Rex autem qui Vicaâ—â—us summi Regis st it is declar'd That the King who is the Vicar of the highest King not of the Pope is ordain'd to this End that he should Govern and Rule the Kingdom and People of the Land and above all things the Holy Church And when the Pope would have William the Conquerer recognize his Supremacy the King's Reply was That he could not find that any of his Predecessors did ever part with that Jewel of the Crown and he was therefore resolv'd to keep it And William Rufus his Son and Successor in this Kingdom declar'd That he would rather part with half his Kingdom than with the Supremacy Nor would Henry the First as William Warlestwast elect Bishop of Exeter told the Pope lose the Authority of Investing his Prelates for the Crown of the Realm King Stephen had the Courage to seize into his Hands the Bishop of Salisbury's Castles and Goods and altho' a Synod was call'd by the Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legat and Complaint made to the Synod yet the Clergy were at last compell'd to a Submission to the King. Henry the Third would by no means yield that his Clergy were so much under the Pope's Conduct as not to be Prosecuted by the Secular Powers for Matters Criminal King John also till forsaken by his Nobles was a valiant opposer of the Pope's Power And the several succeeding Princes maintain'd their Supremacy with a like Courage especially Edward the Third and Richard the Second And what is worthy of Observation the severest Laws against Suing unto the Court of Rome without the King's leave were Enacted in the time of Rich. the Second even the Statute of Provisors and Praemunire And that the Statutes made in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth were not Introductory of any New Law but Declaratory of the Ancient Law of the Land viz. That this Kingdom is Imperial is too plain to admit of the least doubt And as our Kings were ever tender in the point of the Supremacy and would never part with it nor pay that regard to Foreign Laws that other Nations have done in like manner it has been adjudged by a Popish Parliament 25 Hen. 8. cap. 23. That no Laws of any Foreign Powers are of force in this Realm unless they have been devised and obtained within it or unless by sufferance of our Kings the People have taken them up at their free liberty and by their own consent let them be used amongst them The words of the Statute run thus Whereas these your Grace's Realms recognizing no Superior under God but only your Grace have been and are free from Subjection to any man's Laws but only to such as have been devised and obtained within this Realm for the Wealth of the same or to such others as by sufferance of your Grace and your Progenitors the People of this your Realm have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used amongst them and have bound themselves by long Use and Custom to the Observance of the same not as to the Observance of the Laws of any Foreign Prince Potentate or Prelate but as to the Customed and Ancient Laws of this Realm originally established as Laws of the same by the said Sufferance Consents and Custom and none otherwise So far the Statute declaring the Judgment of Roman Catholics in Henry VIII's days whence I thus argue That no Decrees of any Foreign Powers whether those of a General Council or of the Pope are of force here antecedently to our receiving them And that the saying this is a Decree of Rome or of any General Council confirmed by the Pope is not sufficient to oblige us to conclude that therefore an English Papist must submit unto and act in pursuance of it for until that Canon or Decree be by the Authority of the Land placed amongst our Laws it doth not oblige the Roman Catholic of this Kingdom And that this has been the sense of the English Roman Catholic before Henry VIII is easily evinced out of Sir Edward Coke Part 5. Cawdrey ' s Case who in his Reports declares That by the ancient Canons and Decrees of the Church of Rome the Issue born before the Solemnization of Marriage is as lawfully inheritable Marriage following as the Issue born after Marriage But this was never allowed or appointed in England and therefore was never of any force here And this appeareth by the Statute of Merton made in the 20th year of King Henry III. where all the Earls and Barons with one voice declare That they will not change the Laws of England which hitherto have been used and approved Besides it 's further to be observed that in Henry VIII's time it was by the King the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled who were all of the Roman Catholic Religion declared That the Body Spiritual namely the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Officers resiant within this Kingdom and called the English Church hath always been reputed and also found of that sort that both for Knowledge Integrity and sufficiency of Number it hath been always thought and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of it self without the
intermedling of any Exterior Person or Persons to declare and determine all such Doubts and to administer all such Offices and Duties as to their Rooms Spiritual doth appertain So far the Statute 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. From which I infer That as the English Papists differ from Foreign Papists so the reason they give for what they hold in contradistinction to Foreign Papists is very cogent and powerful They need not apply themselves to any Foreign Power because they have always had at home persons every way qualified to determine all their Doubts And this was not only the Judgment of the Papists at this time but as they declare this has been the sense of their Forefathers for say they it has been always reputed it has been always found it has been always thought heretofore as well as at this hour and whoever will look back to the first words of the Statute may see cause to conclude that thus much they gathered out of the divers Authentic Histories and Chronicles which they consulted And that this must be esteemed especially by the Church of England to be the sense of the English Papist is manifest from the whole scope of Archbishop Bramhall's arguing against the Papists in Vindication of the Church of England when he charges the Papists for making the first Separation from Rome The first Separation saith he was not made by Protestants but by Papists and he endeavors to justifie the Separation by proving that always the English Papists esteem'd themselves a Church that did ever renounce the Pope's Supremacy and that what Henry VIII did was no more than an acting in pursuance of the ancient Law of the Land. To this of the Archbishop's I add That if the first Separation from the Church of Rome was made by Papists then it 's the Judgment of English Papists that they do not stand oblig'd to any Foreign Councils 't is their Judgment that tho' they grant the Pope a Primacy of Order yet that he ought not to have a Supremacy of Jurisdiction for the Crown of England is Imperial and the English Bishops are sufficiently qualified to determine all matters of doubt within themselves And this has been always their Judgment and is so at this time for our King by a continued Exercise of his Ecclesiastical Supremacy asserts it to be a Jewel inherent in his Crown and not to be parted with This then being the avowed Principle of the English Papists the mentioning the Decree of the Council of Lateran as what obliges them before it is prov'd to have been received amongst our Laws cannot affect us for until it be taken in amongst our Laws it obliges not an English Papist nor are they bound to take in this Decree amongst our Laws any more than they were anciently obliged to receive the Canon about Bastardy Furthermore whoever will look into this Objection he must needs see it to be ill as well as weak in the Foundation For to give strength to their Argument it must be presumed That either the Body of the People will turn Papist as soon as the Tests are taken off and choose none but Papists to sit in the following Parliament for to say some few may for Preferment does not reach the Case or a Parliament contrary to all Laws shall be imposed upon us To presume the former is to insinuate without the least colour of Reason that the Body of the Kingdom have nothing to say for their being Protestants but this That their Religion is uppermost and established by Law and that there are such Tests imposed on those who sit in Parliament that Popery is like never to be established But whatever may be said of the Church of England of whom yet I have better thoughts the world knows that a great part of the Nation notwithstanding the severity of the Penal Laws could not be persuaded to close with the Church of England because there was so much Popery in it and it 's to be supposed they 'll abide so firm to the Protestant Religion when they are in no danger of Sufferings as they did when they suffer'd so very much And it must be further considered That these Dissenters when Penal Laws hung over their heads and they were in constant danger of being immediately destroyed by them did even then appear so vigorously in the choosing their Representatives as to carry it for three Parliaments successively against the Papist and Church of England too and it 's not to be doubted but that when the Penal Laws are taken off they 'll not be less Able nor less Industrious to choose such to sit in Parliament as shall be far from introducing the Lateran Decree into their Laws for extirpating the Protestant Religion If on the other hand it shall be urged That a Parliament contrary to the Fundamentals of our Constitution shall be imposed on us by Regal Authority which is a thing the thoughts whereof should be abhorr'd by every good Subject it cannot be apprehended to be more Legal hereafter than such a Parliament presently chosen made up of whomsoever He pleases without taking the Test And considering that our King is aged if such a thing were design'd would it not be the Papists Interest to take that course immediately And seeing they take it not now may we not conclude rationally that they 'll not do it hereafter And yet farther if this were supposed as to the House of Commons the House of Lords for all that are so many of 'em Protestant and out-ballancing the Papists that unless we will reflect on our Nobility as well as on His Majesty and the Body of the Nation and say That as soon as the Tests are taken off they 'll be all Papists also there is no fear of such a matter Again the Papists also must be presum'd to be all fallen under the most strange deliration and madness imaginable seeing otherwise they must know that if they declare themselves to be for violent Methods or make any such attempt it must be with the greatest disadvantages to themselves for it is as if Five men would encounter a Thousand And they must consider how much such an Attempt would enrage the whole Kingdom and how uncertain they are of compassing their end in this King's Reign and how easie is it for the Protestants under a Successor of their Religion to destroy the Papists So that the very Attempt would but prepare their Families and Posterity for a Sacrifice under a Protestant Successor If then there be any wise men of Estates among them that can influence they 'll see it their Interest and make it their Endeavor if possible to Establish Liberty of Conscience on a Rock that can never be moved And altho' some may say that the Priests and Jesuits are a Fiery-spirited People who are for pushing on to violence yet it 's manifest that our Popish Gentry heretofore were never so Priest-ridden as to regard the Priests Humor more than their own
their Civil Liberties and Property His Majesty has observ'd the doleful Effects of Persecution for Conscience sake and the Mischiefs of Penal Laws for Meer Religion and finds no way so likely to Establish an Universal Peace and Tranquillity amongst his Subjects as the taking off all Penal Laws for Religion But there are a sort of Men in the Nation I mean some of the English Clergy who think they can live no longer than they have leave to Persecute others and they insinuate into the Minds of Men all that is bad of his Majesty and make dismal Outcries as if Persecution was the only Bulwark of the Protestant Religion And that the Protestant Dissenters to their own hurt may be ensnar'd to an Agreement with them in this Point they tell 'em Take off the Tests and Popery will break in as a Flood And altho' the Church of England can more easily destroy the Protestant Dissenter in one Year and probably will if ever a Church-of England Successor enters the Throne before the Penal Laws be vacated than the Papists can in twenty Years Yet this Noise of a Popish Persecution is made use of to frighten the Dissenter into so fatal an Infatuation as to be content with the bearing on of a certain and grievously-complain'd of Burden for fear of one uncertain and improbable And if this can't be helpt so that neither the Church of England men nor Protestant Dissenters will exercise any Patience in giving the King Credit when he expresses the Sense of his Soul and his Desires of such a Parliament and such an Expedient that may answer the great Ends both of himself and all good Subjects If meerly I say to escape a fancy'd Danger our Nobility and Gentry will be Resolute in their Adherence to the Penal Laws and Tests and will not attend to any Offers to be made for an Accommodation unless such a one of this Gentlemans as perhaps cannot be granted I would humbly propose to their Consideration what have been the fatal Mischiefs of such a prevailing Obstinacy amongst the Subjects with regard to our two late Kings Charles the First and Charles the Second and do pray Almighty God to prevent the like amongst us who are under the Government of so Excellent a Prince It cannot be yet forgotten that in Charles the First 's Reign after a Cruel Bloody-Civil War Propositions were sent the King to which his Majesty of Blessed Memory gave an Answer so full as could not but give Satisfaction to the most unreasonable Men of the Parliament Party yet those who design'd the Death of that Great Prince blew off all with this Reply It 's true the King has granted all we can desire but as soon as he is setled again in the Government he 'll recall all and all that he has granted will be to little purpose And thus they brake off all Treaties and brought the King to the Block and the whole Kingdom into Confusion But because many are yet alive who have drunk deep of the Miseries our Nobles and Gentry were then expos'd unto I need not stay on a particular rehearsal of these things Again in the Reign of his late Majesty there was a Party most Resolute in their Adherence to the Bill of Exclusion which the late King saw cause to be as firmly against But to prevent their Fears and Jealousies he would grant 'em any thing they should Present unto him for the securing the Protestant Religion and the easing the Protestant Dissenter And what was the issue of the Adherence unto that Bill but Ruin to the whole Kingdom For from this Bill all the Confusions Conspiracies and Rebellions to the Destruction of Thousands in the Nation had their Rise His present Majesty sees as much reason to be for the taking off all the Penal Laws and so the very Tests themselves and I cannot but be of Opinion that the Nobility and Wise Men of the Nation will therefore weigh the Matter in all it's Circumstances and learn from the Two last Reigns not to fall into the same obstinate Opposition to his Majesty But considering his Majesty gives us the strongest Assurances to settle LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE on a Rock that cannot be shaken that so not Papist nor Church of England nor any other may Persecute the rest of the People for their Consciences will wisely Consult on an Expedient that may compass so Noble a Design of Good to the whole Kingdom and fully demonstrate to the whole World that there is nothing of Argument in the Objection That there is nothing but Groundless Jealousie and Ill-design in those that stick so very much on it For if there be any Truth in the King and Prudence in the Nation there can be nothing in all this Noise And because his Majesty is known to the whole World to be most Resolv'd in Keeping his Word and the Nobles and Gentry of the Nation are Renown'd for their Wisdom how comes it to pass that our Jealousies don't cease Surely the Gentleman that has sent me the Objections cannot but reflect on it who having compar'd the Case of the Protestant Dissenter to the Lepers of Samaria must be also suppos'd to prefer their Wisdom who shall be ready to venture upon Present Relief from a Parliament concurring with his Majesty tho' of the Roman-Catholic Communion rather than expose themselves to the assur'd Misery that mast attend the Continuance of the Penal Laws and Tests Especially if we consider the Advantages this is like to bring to all Parties in the Peace and Flourishing of our Country wherein every one is equally concern'd and which therefore made the King deliver that Saying with which I shall conclude my whole Argument thus That Person cannot be a true Englishman in his Heart who is not for Liberty of Conscience FINIS