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
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
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
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-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
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