House of Commons which was Published by Order of their Speaker Jan 10. 1680 Wherein it was resolved to be the Opinion of that House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws was at that time Grievous to the Subject a Weakening of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Your next Assertion is That an unlimited and universal Toleration has been Condemned by the Christian Churches in All Ages If you mean by this that the Christian Churches in All Ages did Assume to themselves a Power of Judging and Jurisdiction over all men that were without the Church or that the Church in all Ages did by Temporal Penalties constrain men to come into the Church or when they were there to Worship contrary to their Consciences or to Abide there when they had no Heart to do so but would Forsake their Faith their Profession or their Christian Doctrine and Conversation and also their Assemblys I think you are very much mistaken in the Christian Doctrine and Practise of the Churches in the primitive Ages Surely I may say in this as in the Rest Shew me an Apostolical Authority for such a Practise And I have so much the more Reason to insist upon this Because Christs Disciples in the primitive Age were All Volunteers Suitable to the Doctrine which Our Lord and his Apostles Taught Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in the Son of God which are Convictions and Operations upon the Mind of Man and necessary Qualifications to the being of a True Christian and the profession of them to the being of a Visible Christian and the Doctrine of Self-Denial to his Continuance in his Profession The Doctrine is plain Whosoever Will let him take of the Water of life Freely You will not Come to me that you may have life and when many of those who for some time professed to be our Lords Disciples went back and Walked no more with him That which was the Ground of the Others perseverance was that with him were the words of Eternal Life and that they Believed and knew that He was the Christ the Son of the Living God and that therefore there was none Else to whom they could Go The Apostle Foretels us That in the Latter Times some would Depart from the Faith Giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils That there would be Mâ—ckers Walking after their own Ungodly Lusts that such They were who being sensual and having not the Spirit seperated themselves and the Apostle John says Expressly that in his day there were Many Antichrists who went out from us that is from the Apostles and Churches but they were not of us For if they had been of us they would have Remained with us But They went out that it might be made Manifest they were not All of us And this the Apostle makes as the Characteristical Note by which he Knew it was the Last time Now as I cannot find the I east Mention in any One word Doctrine or Precept that any persons were or should be Compelled by Outward Force to come or continue in the Christian Church in the First Age so neither can it be agreeable to the Mind of Our Lord that any persons should be Compelled by Temporal Penalties so to do against their Minds in After Ages Unless you can shew us that the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles are not the same in After Ages that they were when they were first delivered Say you It is to Teach my People that they need never come to Church more but have my Free Leave as they have the King 's to go to a Conventicle or to Mass Does any thing of this kind Flow naturally from the King's Declaration Does that Engage or Incline you or any Man else to teach any Doctrine contrary to his own Sentiment I take it rather to be an Encouragement to do and say sincerely what they apprehend and believe to be the Will of God relating to the Worship of himself and that your Leave is neither Asked nor Granted in my going from your Church further than this That if I be Excommunicate by you for it you cannot thereupon by your Certificate obtain as formerly the Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo to make me a perpetual Prisoner whilst the King is pleased to Suspend the Execution of that Penalty The Declaration does not Teach any of your Hearers that they need not come to Church and Worship God any more there in that Way and Manner if in their Own Consciences they are Convinced they ought so to do It does not Forbid your Teaching or Reading to your People any Doctrines or Homilies Approved of by the Church of England Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions which she Enjoyned to be Read in your Churches Four Times in a Year or any thing Else by which they may be Instructed in the knowledge or discharge of their Duty to God in your Churches You greatly undervalue your Ministry and Doctrine to suppose that there are no Arguments to prevail with your People to come to your Church but only Temporal Scourges For if you have the Truth of God on your side as no Humane Law can Alter the Nature of it so you are at Liberty notwithstanding any thing in the Declaration to Preach it to your People The Declaration is an Incitement to all the King's Subjects to Worship God and no enticement for any of them to forsake his Worship and that they may respectively serve God as the Christian Religion teaches in Holiness and Righteousness without fear His Majesty promises Equal Protection to all who do worship God in such Way and Manner as each of them Understand and Believe it is his Will they should do And in the first place gives the Royal Countenance and Protection to All of the Church of England in their worshiping of God in their Churches as by Law Established So that you make a wrong Gloss upon the Declaration in insinuating that it Teacheth your People that they need never to come to Church more or that they have the King 's Free Leave or Yours contrary to their own Minds and Consciences to forsake the Church or to go to a Conventicle or to Mass For there is nothing in the Declaration that requires gives Leave or Countenance to any man to forsake that Religion and way of Worship to which his Conscience obliges him or to Dissemble and play the Hypocrite in forsaking of any one way and in appearance to adhere to another if he do it not in sincerity but against his Mind and Conscience But we are now come to another Point at which you seem to stick more than at all the rest Say you It is to Teach the Dispensing Power which alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church and Kingdom which we dare not do till we have the Authority of Parliament for it Let this Matter then as you say in your Letter
the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 but by the Method before prescribed especially iâ— such a case as is before us wherein you say It may be no fault to consent to the Declaration for if the Matter be so doubtful in it self as that it cannot be any otherwise determined to be either Good or Evil then by every Mans private Judgment by such a Rule as What is not of Faith is Sin you have exceeded your Bounds in prescribing a general Rule concerning it as a like Obligatory upon all Ministers IX You say I take the Declaration to be a contradiction of the Doctrine of our Church by Law Fstablished Oâ—r Reading it in our Churches must serve instead of Addresses of thanks which our Clergy generally Resused tho it was onely to thank the King for his Gracious Promises renewed to the Church of England in his Declaration which was much more Innocent then to Publish the Declaration it self in our Churches I think my self bound in Conscience not to Read it because I am Bound in Conscience not to approve it It s against the Constitution of the Church of England which is Established by Law and to which I have Subscribed and am therefore bound in Conscience to Teach nothing contrary to it while this obligation lasts Your Terms are so general and the sâ—nse of your Arguments are so Ambiguous that tho I labour to Pick out your true meaning I am afraid of mistaking it if I do so pray R 〈…〉 iâ—ie me Candidly and Friendly because the manner of your Express 〈…〉 your self and not any wilful Error in 〈◊〉 is the cause of it You take the Declaration to be a Contradiction of the Doctrine of your Church by Law Established In what Sence shall I take your say so Is the whole and every part of the Declaration contrary to all and every part of your Doctrine by Law Established This cannot be your Meaning because you take Notice of the Kings Gracious Promises Renewed to the Church of England I can find none of the Thirty-Nine Articles Contradicted nor any of your Religious Constitutions Invaded by any thing in the Kings Declaration But Your Doctrines your Service your Ceremonies remain all the same as they were Settled and Exhibited to the late King Charles the Second by the Presidents Bishops and Clergy of Both Provinces with the same Civil Sanction for the use of them that Ever they had And besides that they are neither contradicted nor Invaded The Royal promise you mention is to Protect and Maintain his Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy and all other His Subjects of England in the Free Exertise of their Religion as by Law Established and therefore if you would Free your Self from all Suspition of Prevarication in this Point Its incumbent on You first to shew wherein the Kings Declaration Contradicts it self and then wherein in particular 〈◊〉 Coatradicts your Doctrine and Invades your Constitution For till then your telling openly That You take the Declaration in General to be a Contradicton and against the Constitution of the Church of England in General may be taken as Intended by You to Amuse and not to Edify your Reader But what is it you mean when you say Your Reading must serve instead of Addresses of Thanks which your Clergy generally Refused Did His Majesty Require You should Thank Him for his Declaration as He does that you should Read it did you Refuse to Obey Him in that tho' as you say It was more Innocent than the Other as you do in this Is this Intended as a Memorial of unmannerly Disobedience at First and undutiful Carriage at Last or what is that you signify by your Resusing to Thank Him which must now be Recompenced by Reading Do you think His Command to Publish His Declaration is of no more Weight in point of State than your passing of a complement with His Majesty in Giving Him Thanks or that the Thing He designed in His Command was principally to Solve the Want of your thankful Addresses Let me tell you this is not only a streign of Levity in Interpreting the Reason of the Royal Precept for your Reading His Declaration in your Churches unbecoming your Gravity but a Surmize of a more Dangerous consequence The King Commanded that you should Publish His Declaration in your Churches that All His Loving Subjects might Know the Contents of it And you Insinuate to them That it is to Serve instead of a thankful Addressing which before you Refused But you pass from this to Matter of Conscience and herein you shew your Self more Subtle in your Distinction of Conscience then the Learned Bishop Sanderson in all his Praelections on this Subject For you seem to have a Politick Conscience not to do any thing which by consequence may Hurt your Interest or as you Term it the Church and herein your Conscience is Guided by a frequent Review and Must ' ring up the Numbers on both sides How many may be for and how many may be against your Reading and finding by the Computation you make that the greatest Number of your supposed Friends will be Disobliged by your Reading and that more may be against it than for it This Governs you to make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Doing the most Immoral Action in Nature Your Second Distinction is of a Temporary Conscience which is to Last as long as the Obligation of your Subscription to that you call the Constitution of the Church of England lasts By what means you will reckon your selves Discharged of this Temporary Obligation of Conscience I cannot divine unless you Reckon that perhaps you may be Absolved from it by an Act of Convocation or Statute-Law But then here lies the Difficulty with me Because Your Third Distinction of the Obligation of Conscience seems to be of such a permanent Nature as no Law of Convocation or Parliament any more than the Kings Prerogative can Absolve you from For this I take to be the Genuine Sense of this sort of Conscience you mention in contradistinction from the other That you are Bound in Conscience not to Read the Kings Declaration because you are bound in Conscience not to Approve it And If you make the Invariable Law or Revealed Will of God the Rule of your Consciencious Approving or not Approving the Matter of the Kings Declaration You cannot in my Apprehension any more Approve of it or Consent to the Reading of it if it should be Established by A Convocation or Statute-Law the Law of God and the Matter remaining the same as now they are than you can Do it at the Command of the Kings Royal Will. Tenthly Possibly the People understand that the Matter of the Declaration is against Our Principles But is this any Excuse that we Read and by reading Recommend that to them which is against our Censcience and Judgments Reading the Declaration would be no Fault at all but our Duty when the King Commands it did we approve of the
your selves down and pu 〈…〉 down the Dissenters also to verisie your subsequent Prognostications III. You say We fall a little sooner for not Reading the Declaration If our Gracious Prince resent this as an Act of an Obstinate Peevish or Factious Disobedience as our Enemies will be sure to represent it to Him we shall as certainly fall and not long after if we do read it and then we shall fall Vnpitied and Despised and it may be with the Curses of the Nation whom we have ruined by our Compliance and this is the way never to rise more I do not Reckon my self to be among the Number of your Enemies and therefore though you are somewhat Peevish I would not that you should be represented to the King as Obstinate For my Hopes are that upon better Consideration you will shew your selves Obedient to his Commands But if it should prove otherwise as your Enemies will not so your Friends cannot Excuse you as being altogether Free from Faction But how comes it to pass that you being a Minister of the Gospel should fix your Eye so steadity upon the Dishonour being Unpitied and Despised as inseparable Concomitants of a Certain Fall not long after you have read the Kings Declaration if you Comply to Read it A settled Apprehension that you shall certainly Fall whether you Read or not Read is sufficient to Disturb your Fancy so as to Interrupt the making of a Solid Judgment in reference to your Duty and Discharge of a good Conscience towards God There is as little need as there is Just Occasion for you to Surmize as you do that your Complyance will Ruin the Nation and procure their Curses for I cannot see any such moral certainty attending your reading as Ruining the Nation Those other Incredients might have been pâ—â—termitted if you have no Disposition by discovering your seeming Fears to stir up a real fear in the minds of others I think it more nearly concerns you setting aside all thoughts of Honour and Dishonour good Report or bad Report to see to it that you have the Law of God on your side to excuse your Disobedience to the King for otherwise the ill Consequences of contending with Soveraign Power and inticing others to do the like after your example will lye heavy upon you For tho you Mention onely your own Fall yet you intimate plainly enough that you are not to Fall alone and never to Rise more but that this will be the Fate of all the Protestant Chruches also and therefore you proceed after that Manner IV. May I Suffer all that can be Suffer'd in this World rather than to contribute to the final Ruin of the best Church in the World. So that it seemes if you Fall the best Church in the World must Fall also and that not partially or for a season but Totally and Finally Do you not Attribute too much to your self in this Are you the only Pillar upon which the best Church in the World is Built And are Penal Laws the onely strength by which you Support the Church If those you will have in this point to be accounted your Adversaries should prevail as once you know they did do for Twenty Years together to Divest you of your Coercive Power your Experience may Dictate to you that a Protestant Church here as well as else where has subsisted and may Subsist through Divine Assistance when that coercive Power is taken out of your Hands However I acknowledg no Man can justifie himself for contributing to the Ruin of any true Church but in this you are not singular as you would make your selves to be the Dissenter may claim Equally with your selves a share in such a resolution as this and say as you do may I Suffer still as I have Suffered all that you have Inflicted upon me or what else the Providence of God Allots for my Portion rather then that I should contribute to the Ruin of the best or any Church of Christ in the World. V. You say I suppose no Minister of the Church of England can give his consent to the Declaration and reading the Declaration in our Churches will be with great Reason interpreted a Consent You might have taken caution from your own Postscript to your Reasons concerning Henry Care not to have made your Supposition so Universally Comprehensive of every Minister of the Church of England in regard you say Reading is Teaching and signifies Consent to the matter Read and you Instance in Four or Five which did Read and I think I may more probably suppose that if any precise Disquisition should happen to be made many of your Ministers who did not Read may chuse to excuse themselves rather by their not receiving Directions from their Ordnary to Read then to alledge as you do that â—hey did refuse to do it because they could not consent to the matter of the Declaration VI. You say By our Law all Ministerial Officers are Accountable for their Actions which shews that our Law does not look upon the Ministers of the Church to be meer Machines and Tools to be managed wholly by the will of Superiours without Exercising any Act of Judgment or Reason themselves Apply this to your usual Practice of publishing all such Declarations in your Churches as have been commended to you by your Ordnary or his Official Tell me in what case you have charged your Conscience so much as to make a private Judgment which you ought always to have done whether all the sentences of Excommunication and Ecclesiastical Censures and Orders which you have published Censures of Church-Wardens for refusing the Oath prescribed by your Cannons Censures for not paying your Apparitors and Officers the Fees they Demanded Excommunications purposely contrived and improved to prevent many of their Votes at Elections Interdicting any Divine Service to be performed in a Church for Burying of persons Excommunicated for Non-conformity in Consecrated ground till the Church-Wardens caused the Dead Corpâ— to be Dug up again and removed Publishing whole Sheets full of Orders of S 〈…〉 on s wherein such Dissenters as conformed so far as to come to Church have been reproached as doing iâ— to save their Money and therefore giving a charge to mark all such 〈…〉 not Kneel at their Prayers and stand up at the Gloria Patri Orders that none should be relieved that fell under Poverty if they came not to Church and Conformed to your Ceremonies if they were able of Body so to do and many others of like nature Have all these in your private Judgment been warranted by the Law of God Do you Esteem it a light thing to Cast or Publish any Mans being cast out of all Christian Society and delivered over to Sathan for such matters as are no crimes against any Divine Law I take it for ought that ever I saw manifested to the contrary that a Subjection to the command of your Superiours as being onely in such things Ministerial Offices has
be examined Impartially and take in here also that Question I touched upon before Whether the Matter of the King's Declaration herein be contrary to the Laws of the Land Whole Treatises have been Written upon this Subject with great Evidence to Manifest the Kings Right of Indulgence in Spiritual Matters which you may do well in Order to your Satisfaction at your Leisure to Peruse I shall here Instance only in some few Cases wherein the Kings of England have for several Ages past Exercised such a Dispensing Power and in their Grants Tolerated a Dissent from the Religion and Ceremonies by Law Established which have been either not Question'd at all in Parliament or there admitted to be legally done Queen Elizabeth in her Reign granted many Dispensations of this kind and as is credibly Reported to some Lay-men to Preach publickly Several Grants have been made before and in the Reigns of the three last Kings both to Foreigners here and to their own Subjects abroad for the Exercise of Religion in their own Way with a Non Obstance to the Statute in Force for Uniformity in Religion The Act for Uniformity in the 14th Year of King Charles the Second takes notice of those Grants to Foreigners and Provides that the Penalties of that Act shall not extend to such Churches as have been Allowed or shall be Allowed by the King His Heirs or Successors The Act for Suppression of Seditious Conventicles though it do not in express Words grant a License for any Number of Persons not exceeding four besides the Family to meet under Pretence of Exercising Religious Worship otherwise than according to the Lyturgy and Practice of the Church of England yet it doth not make it Penal for any so to do except they exceed that Number And the common Interpretation given of it by your selves and others and Encouragement taken thence has been That it was Tantamount to such a Licence and this I think fully reaches that which you call the Matter of the Declaration that you cannot approve of For if you admit as you have done in all the Arguments I have seen upon this Point that is was Allowed that four Dissenters besides the Family might meet and Worship in other manner than is by Law Established without Incurring any Temporal Penalties thereby the Paucity or Greatness of the Number cannot alter the Religious Nature of the Matter What 's lawful for Four is lawful for Four Thousand with respect to the Matter of Worship The restraining the Number is only the Policy and Prudence of the Civil State which may be Limited or Enlarged at Pleasure And by this Act It is provided That Nothing therein Contained shall Extend to Invalidate or Avoid His Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs but that His Majesty His Heirs and Successors may from Time to Time and at all times hereafter Excercise and Enjoy all Powers and Authorities in Ecclesiastical Affairs as Fully and as Amply as Himself and His Predecessors have or might have done the same any thing in this Act Notwithstanding And I think the Exercise of the King's Power is as naturally applicable to his Dispensing with the Limitation of Numbers in this Case as to any other Clause in that Act which without this Especial Provision might have been Construed an Abridgment of the King's Supremacy To make good this That the King 's Dispensing Power in His Declaration alters what has been formerly thought the whole Constitution of this Church It is Incumbent on you to shew wherein it does so more thâ—n has been done in any Case of the like Nature heretofore by any former Royal Dispensations Grants or Authority in Parliament And tell me ingeniously if without any Offence against the Holy Scriptures the King may not if He so please Grant a Dispensation to His Own Subjects as well as to Strangers and their Off spring even after they are become Denizens and understand Our Language to Worship God after their own Way and Manner And whether among all the Jurisdictions Annexed to the Crown which heretofore have been or may lawfully be used for the Reforformation or Order of the Ecclesiastical State there be no manner of Dispensing Power Contained 12. Say you No Men in England will be pleased with Our Reading the Declaration but those who hope to make great Advantage against us and against Our Church and Religion This is a bare Supposition arising meerly from your own Disturbed Imagination which is through Prejudice so Darkned that you cannot discern between your Friends and your Enemies I can tell you of many who neither Hope nor seek to make any Advantage against you your Church or Religion that are displeased at your refusing to Read because you thereby give an Advantage to such as may be your Adversaries which they could never have gained by your Compliance with the King's Order You afterwards suggest That the Dissenters who are Wise and Considering are sensible of the Snare themselves and though they desire Ease and Liberty they are not willing to have it with such Apparent Hazzard of Church and State. But if there be any Dissenters who deserve the Epithites you give them you have by your Severities kept them at such an uncharitable Distance from you that you are unacquainted with their Temper and thence it is that as on the one Hand you Misrepresent them that you may render them Equally Obnoxious to the Government with your selves as giving Countenance to your Disobedience So on the other Hand you suspect them without Cause to be seeking an Advantage against you your Church and Religion You cannot but know that the Generality of Dissenters who have rendred their solemn Thanks to the King for His Indulgence and the Establishment proposed in His Declaration are for the Reading of it That all the King's Subjects may understand and in their places pursue the Contents of it to Effect Therefore upon what Grounds you suggest as if you spoke their Language that they are not willing to have their Liberty in the Way which the King proposes I cannot Imagine You Term it with such Apparent Hazard of Church and State They Apprehend and Express it with Apparent Advantages of Church and State and that which has a direct Tendency to settle Both on such a Righteous Foundation as may preserve them in a safe and prosperous State to Perpetuity But is not this to â—â—â—tter such among the Dissenters as you can Intice to hearken to your Insinuations that they may be thought Wise and Considering For you tell them When there is an Opportunity of shewing your Inclinations without Danger they may find you are not such Persecutions as you are Represented But while you speak of their being sensible of a Snare are not you laying a Snare for them How long may they wait for such a Season wherein you may in your own Apprehension without Danger Manifest any Incliâ—nâ—ions or Kindness towards them Immediately after the House of Commons Declared That the
Prosecution of Dissenters was a weakning of the Protestant Interest you Promoted it with greater Vehemence than ever before If the King at any time dispense with Penal Laws you Cry out The Dispensation is Illegal As oft as any Bill of Comprehension has been brought into Parliament to touch any thing of your Constitution so as to enlarge it beyond its present Streightness it hath met with Opposition from your Ordinaries So that the Dullest Dissenters in England have been sensibly taught by you That there has been no Opportunity wherein you could without Danger shew them any kindness for Twenty Eight Years past and if any Dissenters should be so Catch'd in the Snare of your Insinuations that at some time or other hereafter there may happen an Opportunity wherein you may be kind toward them as to let go the present Season wherein His Majesty Proposes a Legal and Perpetual Establishment both of your Church State and their Freedom from Temporal Penalties for Nonconformity to it I shall not take such Dissenters to be in this Case either Wise or Considerate 13. Say you Reading the Declaration is to Recommend to Our People the choice of such Persons to Sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws which most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation have declared their Judgment against Our Reading will Discourage Provoke or Misguide all the Friends the Church of England has Have we not Reason to Expect That the Nobility and Gentry who have already Suffer'd in this Cause when they hear themselves Condemned for it in all the Churches of England Will think it time to mend such a Fault and Reconcile themselves to their Prince and if our Church fall this Way is there any Reason to expect that it should Ever Rise again These Consequences are almost as Evident as Demonstrations and let it be what it will in it self which I foresee will Destroy the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and Intrest I think I ought to make as much Conscience of Doing it as of Doing the most Immorall Action in Nature If We must compare Consequences To Dis-oblige all the Nobility and Gentry by Reading the Declaration is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters By Your Mistaking and Misrepresenting the Sentiments of the Dissenters You have given me Cause to Suspect You may be Mistaken in some things which you have Asserted concerning the Nobility and Gentry particularly in that you make no distinction between the Repeal of the Penal Laws and that of tie Fest which diverse of the Nobility and Gentry in their ordinary Discourses on this Subject have Done and this seems to me the more Remarkable because you make it Equally as Necessary for the preserving your Constitutions to keep the Penal Laws on Foot as the Test Secondly You lay in my Opinion too great a Stress upon your Reading Do you suppose None of your Friends to have any better Discerning then to be Misguided in their Judgments by the bare Reading the Declaration No more Resolution then to be Discouraged by it No more Charity then to be Provoked to be your Enemies by it I cannot see any Reason you have to Expect that your Reading the Declaration should lay any of the Nobility or Gentry under any Conviction of a Fault or that they would reckon themselves Condemned if it had been or should be read in all the Churches of England for any thing which they have Done or Suffer'd in that you call this Cause His Majesty has been pleased to Declare the Reason of the Changes He has made in Civil and Military Officers not thinking any ought to be Employed in His Service who will not Contribute towards the Establishing the Peace and Greatness of their Countrey If a Question be put to any Noble Man or Gentleman Whether he will give his Consent to Repeal the Penal Laws and Tests Where such a Question meets an Inward Setled Principle that no man ought to be Debarr'd of his Civil Rights or Privilidge for the sake of his Religious Opinions and that no man ought to be Compelled by Temporal Penalties to perform an Act of Religious Worship against his Conscience Such a Person is always prepared to give a Ready Answer l'ts fit that all such Laws as tend to do either of these should be Repealed because they Tend to Alter such Fundamental Maxims as should ever be preserved Inviolable the One in reference to Civil Rights the other in reference to the Christian Religion But where the Question meets not with any such Setled Principle but either the Contrary Opinion or that present Policies of State may Govern in deciding it In this latter Case Honour and Prudence both may be pleaded against a Pre-engagement until they Arrive to a Satisfaction therein by Debates on this Subject in Parliament Who sees not that there 's a vast difference between a previous Obligation to a positive Vote in Parliament and your Refusal to perform Such a Ministerial Act in Obedience to the King's Order which you have never Scrupled to do in Obedience to any Order of your Ordinary or his Officials without any regard had to the matter published But I perceive You are now upon your Politicks and you would therefore have it That these Noblemen and Gentlemen are already Engagâ—d in the same Cause with your Selves or if they be not you do your Best that they may be so and not be Reconciled to their Prince For then you Suppose your Church would Fall and not only So but that if it Fall this Way You have no Reason to Expect It should Ever-Rise again And these Consequences you would have to pass for Demonstrations from your Foresight of the Event make as much Conscience of Reading the Declaration as of Destroying the Protestant Religion and Interest together with the Church of England I will not give my Self the Liberty for your Churches Sake to Dilate upon the Surmises I take them to be the Effect only of a Sudden Vertigo raised by an Imagination that You are upon the Top of a Precipice in imminent Danger of a Destructive Fall When in Truth though you are in the ASCENT above any of your Fellow Subjects yet you have there a broad Space to Walk upon as long as you please and a safe Descent into the Plain to others of your Companions when you please and are in no Danger at all of Falling Down from any other Cause but the Swimming Conceipt of your Own Head. If it were not so You would never have taken the Method you have done to draw your Conclusion from such Comparison of Consequences as you have made to Disoblige all the Nobility and Gentry is likely to be much more Fatal then to Anger the Dissenters Would you have it Conceited That you have Engaged the Nobility and Gentry by a Positive Promise upon no Terms to part with the Penal Laws or give the Dissenters any Ease till you
Signifie to them by Reading the Declaration That it is an Opportunity wherein they may Do it without any Danger Have you no Cause as you are a Minister of the Gospel to relent at the Hard Measure which You and Others by your Instigation have Meted out to the Dissenters of all Sorts Suppose All the Nobility and Gentry were against the Repealing of Penal Laws Yet I should think If you set your Thoughts upon the proper Discharge of your Function that Equal Justice and Clemency would Govern your Determinations more then all Worldly Policy But you are for putting a Question Ironically and Answering it plainly and positively Cannot the King keep his Promise to the Church of England if the Test and Penal Laws be Repeal'd Your Answer is We cannot say but this may be And yet the Nation does not think fit to try it and if the Question were put to us We think We ought in Conscience to deny them Our Selves and we Commend those Great Men that deny it This looks as if your Passions were in a high Ferment and yet there is some appearance of an Artifice in it It Sounds with what follows as if you had an Assurance That the gene â—a Vogue of the Nation is under your management and direction either to have or not to have a Parliament to Repeal or not Repeal the Test and Penal Laws as you please For say you Are there not as high Probabilities that our reading the Declaration will Promote the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws as that such a Repeal will Ruine our Constitution and bring in Popery Herein you shew your selves to be greater Artists the Doctrine of Probabilities then any College of Jesuits whilst you persist in your Disobedience to the Kings Order and will not read it The Nation does not think fit to try But if you Return to your Obedience and Read you shall thereby induce them to Try and Promote the Repeal Let me for once after your Example tho I come One Thousand degrees short of your skill in the Doctrine Conjecture at a few probable Points First It seems to me that you are convinced in your Conscience that there is Such an innate Vertue and Power in the matter oâ— the King's Declaration as will command an Assent in the minds of them that hear and consider it whence it may be That you think in your Conscience it is not safe for your Interest to Read it Secondly If you were not under some such Conviction it 's probable you would make as little Conscience to read it as you did any of those Censures or Orders which you cannot otherwise justifie than as you therein only performed a Ministerial Act in Obedience to your Superiours Thirdly It 's very probable that it is also from hence that in your Reasonings you run altogether upon the Topicks of Trusting to the King's Promise and upon a Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and speak not a Word either of the King 's making no doubt of the Concurrence of his two houses of Parliament when he shall think sit to call them to this Declaration of Indulgence which he mentions in the first Paragraph of it or of His Majesty's Conjuring His Subjects to lay aside all private Animosities as well as ground less Jealousies and to choose such Members of Parliament as may do their part to finish what he has begun in the close of it or of any of the Clauses throughout the whole of it or of His Majesty's Endeavours to establish Liberty of Conscience on such just and equal Foundations as will vender it unalterable and secure to all People the free Exercise of their Religion for ever Now if this be plainly manifest as it is in its self and will appear to every Man who is not scar'd by you from considering it that it is not any one Single Clause but the whole and every part of the Declaration that the King seeks to have Established by a Perpetual Law and that he would have this speedily Effected Why is it that you descant so much upon His Royal Promise of the stedfastness whereof we have had so general an Experience as if that were all the Security intended to Perpetuity unless you have still a Mind to Monopolize the Laws to your selves and that none of His Subjects should have the Benefit of any Law but such as will though it be contrary to their Conscience Conform to a Tittle to your Measures and Modes of Worship Lastly It may be also probable if a Parliament be speedily called as His Majesty declares he intends it shall be that they when they are met will wisely Consider how both to gratifie the King in what he desires and secure the Subject in all their Properties Civil and Religious For the Sum of all that is to be Granted de Novo Is Liberty of Conscience to worship God without incurring any temporal damage by it What things are already setled by Law as to the Religion of the Church of England and their Possessions are so to continue and be confirmed to them And if such a New Law be contrived to this Purpose as may continue for ever it will require such Ingredients to be in it as may by the Provisions therein made which the Wisdom of Parliament will readily suggest render it stable and perpetual and it may be in particular such as may prevent your suggested Jealousies of Preists and Jesuits and also keep you as well as them within the Spheres of your proper Function that all of the Clergy who expect the Benefit of other Laws shall subscribe t before your Eyes that no Royal Promise no setled Laws no common Interest can dispel it so as to give a Discerning of the proper Means to Arrive at a secure Establishment Bear with my Expostulations I am coming to a Close It is not desired you should Part with any Laws in â—â—ing but such only as are the Causes of an Vnjustifiable â—â—pression and consequently of an Vnavoidable Contention If you can justifie the Compelling of any Man â—y Temporal Punishments to Worship God contrary to his Vnderstanding and Conscience bring out your strong Reasons for it that all who are otherwise minded may be Convinced But if you cannot do this bring your Mind to do and permit Right to be done to all Men herein Even your Enemies that they may have no just Quarrel against you nor seek by any undue Attempt to wrest themselves from under your Power Neither you nor any others have any Reason to fear a Downfall if you are willing to depart from the Ways of Opression It is not desired that any Laws in being should be Removed by any other means but by Introducing such as are Just Equal and of much greater security in their stead Do not conceit your self safe and that you can be secured oâ—â—â— under the Continuance of Vnequal and Oppressive Laws such as 〈◊〉 iust humane Nature Christian Grace and Known Maxims of the Law of the Land. I Consider how you close your Letter That if you were never so desirous that the Dissenters might have their Liberty yet you cannoâ— consent they should have it this Way which they will find the dearest Liberty that ever was Granted I am afraid from First to Last leâ—st I should mistake your Meaning You have said before You dare nâ—t â—each the Dispensinâ— Power till you have the Authority of Parliament for it You cannot Read the Declaration because it is to Recommend to your People the Choice of such Persons to Sit in Parliament as shall take away the Test and Penal Laws So that you suggest as there is no Authority so you are not willing there ever should be any countenance given by Authority Either to Dispense With or to Repeal Penal Laws against Dissenters Where to do your Desires that they should have Liberty Tend You cannot consent they should have it This Way that is by a Dispensing Power nor that Way that is by a Repeal In your next I Pray signifie what means you Propose that are effectual for the Accomplishment of your Desires and if upon the Contemplations thereof you cannot find any Means in common Use heretofore so effectual for making Way for Removal of Spiritual Oppressions as the stirring up the Hearts of Princes In the first Place To give the Subjects ease by Discountenancing and Suspending such Laws as are the Occasion of their Oppression And in the next place By the Royal Assent to the Advice of their great Council to Repeal such Laws and Establish better and more equal in their stead Return to your Obedience and acknowledge it is just and equal that together with your own Perpetual Establishment by Law Dissenters of all sorts should by the same Law be secured in that which is THEIR RIGHT by the Law of GOD and NATURE in common with all mankind not to be Compelled to Worship contrary to their Consciences but to enjoy a just and duly-stated Liberty to Worship God according to their Consciences and that measure of Understanding of the Will of God that he has or shall please to Reveal to them And if you can remove your Prejudice and come to a right Mind in these things I doubt not but they will Incline you not barely to Read the Kings Declaration in your Churches but also to Recommend to your Auditors from the Consideration of the Reasonableness Righteousness and Clemency of it the Choice of such Members to serve in Parliament as may Happily Finish that which His Majesty has therein Proposed and Mercifully Begun LONDON Printed by G. Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate 1688.