will end these forregin Instances with a Prince and Bishop all in one and he a Roman Catholick too and that is the Bishop of Mentz who admits with a very Peaceable success such Lutherains with his Catholicks to enjoy their Churches as live in his Town of Erford Thus does Practice tells us that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration On the contrary the Laws of the Empire which are the Acts of the Emperor and the Soveraign Princes of it have tolerated these three Religious Perswasions viz. the Roman-Catholick Lutherain and Calvanist and they may as well tolerate three more for the same Reasons and with the same Success For it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in Doctrine or in Worship On the contrary they differ much and by that and other Circumstances are sometimes engaged in great Controversies yet is a Toleration practicable the way of Peace with them And which is closest to our point at home it self we see that a Toleration of the Iews French and Dutch Churches in England both Dissenters from the National Way And the Connivance that has been in Ireland And the down-right Toleration in most of his Majesties Plantations abroad proves the Assertion That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy For Experience tells us where it is in any degree admitted the King's Affairs prosper most People Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact why Toleration is safe to Monarchy Story tells us that worse things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Vnion than in places under divided forms of Worship and so tolerating Countries stand to the Prince more than upon equal terms with conforming ones And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries they have as often come from the Conforming as Non-conforming party and so the Dissenter is upon equal terms to the Prince or State with the Conformist The first is evident in the Iews under the conduct of Moses their Dissention came from the men of their own Tribes such as Corah Dathan and Abiram with their pertakers To say nothing of the Gentiles The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor proves my point who by the greatest Church-men of his time was withstood and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness by them substituted in his room because more officious to their Grandure What power but that of the Church dethron'd Childrek King of France and set Pippin in his place The miseries of the Emperors Henry the fourth and fifth Father and Son from their rebellious Subjects raised and animated by the power of Conformists dethroning both as much as they could are notorious 'T is as plain that Sigismond King of Sweedland was rejected by that Lutherain Country because he was a Roman-Catholick If we come nearer home which is most suitable to the Reasons of the discourse we find the Church-men take part with William Rufus and Henry the first against Robert their elder Brother and after that we see some of the greatest of them make Head against their King namely Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his party as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry Stephen Usurpt the Crown when there was a Church Vnion And King John lived miserable for all that and at last dyed by one of his own Religion too The Dissentions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third and the Barrons War with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General The Deposition and Murther of the second Edward Richard sixth Henry and his Son the Prince The Vsurpation of Richard the third and the Murther of the Sons of Edward the fourth in the Tower of London The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond afterwards our wise Henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion and by the Hands of Conformists In short if we will but look upon the civil War that so long raged in this Kingdom between the Houses of York and Laneaster and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion and both back't with numbers of Church-men too to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland especially the first and third James will find cause to say That Church-Vniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are tolerated we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter The Disorders among the Iews after they were settled in the Land that God had given them came not from those they tolerated but themselves They cast off Samuel and the Government of the Judges 'T was the Children of the National Church that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom and animated the Rebellion against his Father David They were the same that revolted from Solomon's Son and cryed in behalf of Jeroboam To your Tents O Israel Not two Ages ago the Church of France too generally fell in with the Family of Guise against their lawful Soveraign Henry the fourth Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief who stiled it an holy War at that time fearing not without cause the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See In this conjuncture the Dissenters made up the best part of that King's Armies and by their Loyalty and Blood preserved the Blood Royal of France and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince That King was twice assinated and the last time murdered as was Henry the third his Predecessor but they fell one by the hand of a Church-man the other at least by a Conformist 'T is true that the next civil War was between the Catholicks and the Hugenots under the conduct of Cardinal Richlien and the Duke of Roan But as I will not justifie the Action so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the fourth as the reward of their singular Merit being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded they say they did but defend their own and that rather against the Cardinal than the King whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person And there is this Reason to believe them that if it had been otherwise we are sure that King Charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their Quarrel However the Cardinal like himself wisely knew when to stop For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown to moderate their greatness and check their growth yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the fore-going Age he saw ' twaswise to have a Ballance upon occasion But this was more then recompenc'd in their first Adhesion to the Crown of France under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal when their Perswasion had not only Number and many good Officers to value it self upon but
she has it But her Dissenters cannot forget That of his Clemency And as they were both great and admirably distinguish't so by no means are they inconsistent or impracticable And if his Justice will not let him be wanting in the One His wonted greatness of Mind will hardly let him leave the Other behind him in the Storm unpitied and unhelpt Pardon me We have not to do with an insensible Prince but one Toucht with our Infirmities More than any Body fit to judge our Cause by the share he once had in it Who should give Liberty of Conscience like the Prince that has wanted it To suffer for his own was Great but to deliver other mens were Glorious It is a sort of paying the Vows of his Adversity and it cannot therefore be done by any one else with so much Justice and Example Far be it from me to solicite any thing in Deminution of the just Rights of the Church of England Let her rest protected where she is and if in any thing Mistaken let God alone perswade her I hope none will be thought to intend her Injury for refusing to understand the King's Promise to her in a Ruinous sense to all Others For it is morally impossible that a Conscientious Prince can be thought to have ty'd himself to compell others to a Communion that himself cannot tell how to be of or that any thing can oblige him to shake the Firmness of those he has confirmed by his own Royal Example Having then so Illustrous an Instance of Integrity as the hazard of the loss of Three Crowns for Conscience Let it at least excuse our Constancy and provoke the Friends of the Succession to Moderation that we may none of us loose our Birth-Rights for our Perswasion us Dissenters to live Dutifully and so Peacably under our own Vine and under our own Fig-Tree with Glory to God on High to the King Honour and Good Will to all Men. The Publication of the following Discourse is occasioned by an Appeal made by a late Author to all Crowned Heads against Toleration and Liberty of Conscience in his pretended Answer to the Duke of Buckingham I shall not Commend it and I hope it will need no Excuse 'T is writ with Duty to the King and Compassion to many of his peaceable People The usual Objections against the Moderation desired are stated and answered The Whole recommended to the Reader By his Affectionate Friend W. P. A PERSWASIVE TO Moderation c. MODERATION the Subject of this Discourse is in plain English Liberty of Conscience to Dissenters A Cause I have with all Humility undertaken to plead against the Prejudices of the Times That there is such a thing as Conscience and the Liberty of it in reference to Faith and Worship towards God must not be denyed even by those that are most scandal'd at the Ill use some seem to have made of such Pretences But to settle the Terms By Conscience I understand the Apprehension and Perswasion a man has of his Duty to God By Liberty of Conscience I mean A free and open Profession and Exercise of that Duty But I alwayes premise this Conscience to keep within the bounds of Morality and that it be neither Frantick nor Mischievous but a Good Subject a Good Child a Good Servant As exact to yield to Caesar the things that are Caesar's as jealous of with-holding from God the thing that is God's For he that with-holds from Man the thing that God requires him to pay with-holds it from God who has his Tribute out of it They do not reject their Prince Parent or Master but God who enjoyns that Duty to them The difference being only this They deny not God his Due immediately and to his face but they do it too often in the Person of his Deligate Those Pathetick words of Christ will naturally enough reach the case In that ye did it not to them ye did it not to me for Duty to such Relations have a divine Stamp And divine Right runs through more things of the World and Acts of our Lives than we are aware of And Sacriledge may be committed against more than the Church Nor will a Dedication to God of the Robbery from Man expiate the Guilt of Disobedience For though Zeal could turn Gossip to Theft his Altars would renounce the Sacrifice The Conscience then that I state and the Liberty I pray carrying so great a Salvo and Deference to publick and private Relations no ill design can with any Justice be fixt upon the Author or Reflection upon the Subject which by this time I think I may venture to call a Toleration But to this so much craved as well as needed Toleration I meet with two Objections of weight the salving of which will make way for it in this Kingdom And the first is a Disbelief of the Possibility of the thing Toleration of Dissenting Worships from that establish't is not practicable say some without danger to the State with which it is interwoven This is Political The other Objection is That admitting Dissenters to be in the Wrong which is alwayes premised by the National Church such Latitude were the way to keep up the Dis-union and instead of compelling them into a better Way leave them in the possession and persuit of their old Errors This is Religious I think I have given the Objections fairly 't will be my next business to answer them as fully The strength of the first Objection against this Liberty is the Danger suggested to the State the Reason is the National Form being interwoven with the Frame of the Government But this seems to me only said and not only with submission not prov'd but not true For the establisht Religion and Worship are no other ways interwoven with the Government than that the Government makes profession of them and by divers-Laws has made them the Currant Religion and required all the Members of the State to conform to it This is nothing but what may as well be done by the Government for any other Perswasion as that 'T is true 't is not easie to change an establish't Religion nor is that the Question we are upon but State Religions have been chang'd without the change of the States We see this in the Governments of Germany and Denmark upon the Reformation But more clearly and near our selves in the case of Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Elizabeth for the Monarchy stood the Family remained and succeeded under all the Revolutions of State-Religion which could not have been had the Proposition been generally true The change of Religion then does not necessarily change the Government or alter the State and if so a fortiori Indulgence of Church-Dissenters does not necessarily hazard a change of the State where the present State-Religion or Church remains the same for That I premise Some may say That it were more facile to change from one National Religion to another than to
the care of the Government for their safety they have no need of their Captains nor These any ground for their Pretences For as They us'd the People to value themselves and raise their Fortunes with the Prince so the People followed their Leaders to get that ease they see their Heads promis'd but could not and the Government can and does give them Multitudes cannot Plot they are too many and have not Conduct for it they move by another Spring Safety is the pretence of their Leaders If once they see they enjoy it they have yet Wit enough not to hazard it for any Body For the endeavours of busie men are then discernable but a state of Severity gives them a pretence by which the Multitude is easily taken This I say upon a Supposition that the Dissenters could agree against the Government which is a begging of the Question For it is improbable if not impossible without Conformists since besides the Distance they are at in their Perswasions and Affections they dare not hope for so good terms from one another as the Government gives And that Fear with their Emulation would draw them into that Duty that they must all fall into a Natural dependance which I call holding of the Prince as the Great Head of the State From abroad we are as safe as from within our selves For if leading Men at home are thus disappointed of their Interest in the People Forreigners will find here no Interpreters of their dividing Language nor matter if they could to work upon for the Point is gain'd the People they would deal in are at their ease and cannot be bribed and those that would can't deserve it It is this that makes Princes live Independent of their Neighbours and to be lov'd at home is to be fear'd abroad One follows necessarily the other Where Princes are driven to seek a forreign Assistance the issue must either be the Ruin of the Prince or the absolute subjection of the People not without the hazard of becoming a Province to the power of that Neighbour that turns the Scale These consequences have on either hand an ill look and should rebate Extreams The Greatness of France carries those Threats to all her Neighbours that politically speaking 't is the Melanchollist prospect England has had to make since Eighty Eight The Spaniard at that time being shorter in all things but his Pride and Hope than the French King is now of the same universal Monarchy This greatness begun by the eleaventh Lewis some will have it has not been so much advanced by the Wisdom of Richlieu and Craft of Mazarene no not the Arms of the present Monarch as by the assistance or connivance of England that has most to lose by him Cromwell begun and gave him the Scale against the Spaniard The Reason of State he went upon was the support of his usurp'd Dominion And he was not out in it for the Exile of the Royal Family was a great part of the price of that Aid In which we see how much Interest prevails above Nature It was not Royal Kindred could shelte a King against the Solicitations of an Vsurper with the Son his Mother's Brother But it will be told us by some People We have nâ—â— degenerated but exactly follow'd the same Steps ever since which has given such an Increase to those Beginnings that the French Monarchy is almost above our reach But suppose it were true what 's the cause of it It has not been old Friendship or nearness of Blood or Neighbourhood Nor could it be from an Inclination in our Ministers to bring things here to a like issue as some have suggested for then we should have clogg'd his Successes instead of helping them in any kind lest in doing so we should have put it into his power to hinder our own But perhaps our cross Accidents of State may sometimes have compell'd us into his Friendship and his Councils have carefully improv'd the one and husbanded the other to great Advantages and that this was more then made for our English Interest and yet 't is but too true that the extreams Heats of some men that most inveighed against it went too far to strengthen that understanding by not taking what would have been granted and creating an Interest at home that might naturally have dissolved that Correspondence abroad I love not to revive things that are uneasily remembred but in Points most tender to the late King he thought himself sometimes too closely prest and hardly held and we are all wise enough now to say a milder Conduct had succeeded better For if reasonable things may be unreasonably prest and with such private Intentions as induced a denial Heats about things doubtful unwise or unjust must needs harden and prejudice Let us then create an Interest for the Prince at Home and Forreign Friendships at best uncertain and dangerous will fall of course for if it be allow'd to private men shall it be forbid to Princes only to know and be true to their own Support It is no more than what every Age makes us to see in all Parties of men The Parliaments of England since the Reformation giving no quarter to Roman Catholicks have forced them to the Crown for shelter And to induce the Monarchy to yield them the Protection they have needed have with mighty Address and Skill recommended themselves as the great Friends of the Prerogative and so successfully too that it were not below the Wisdom of that Constitution to reflect what they have lost by that constiveness of theirs to Cathâ—licks On the other hand the Crown having treated the Protestant Dissenters with the severity of the Laws that affected them suffering the sharpest of them to fall upon their Persons and Estates they have been driven successively to Parliaments for Succour whose Priviledges with equal Skill and Zeal they have abetted And our late unhappy Wars are too plain a proof how much their Accession gave the Scale against the Power and Courage of both Conformists and Catholicks that adhered to the Crown Nor must this contrary Adhesion be imputed to Love or Hatred but necessary Interest Refusal in one place makes way for Address in another If the Scene be changed the parts must follow for as well before as after Cromwell's Usurpation the Roman Catholicks did not only promise the most ready Obedience to that Government in his Printed Apologies for Liberty of Conscience But actually treated by some of their greatest Men with the Ministers of those Times for Indulgence upon the assurances they offer'd to give of their good Behaviour to the Government as then establisht On the other hand we see the Presbyteriens That in Scotland began the War and in England promoted and upheld it to Forty Seven when ready to be supplanted by the Independants wheel to the King In Scotland they Crown him come into England with an Army to restore him where their Brethren joyn them but being defeated They
A PERSWASIVE TO Moderation TO Dissenting Christians In Prudence and Conscience Humbly submitted to the KING AND HIS Great Council By one of the Humblest and most Dutiful of his Dissenting Subjects Let your Moderation be known unto all men for the Lord is at Hand Phil. 4. 5. A Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom Rougher Opposition fortifies K. Charles 1. to the late King London Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1685. THE PREFACE IF it was permitted to Antient Christians to Address Pagan Emperours and Infidels to Solicite Christian Caesars for Indulgence with Success 't were Rude in us to doubt the Issue of a Discourse of this Stile and Tendency with our Superiors when the Interest of the Monarch as well as Miseries of some of His Subjects make it necessary For if we consider the great Numbers that are Disabled in their Livelihoods and some that languish to Death by Confinement and the Spoil that is daily made of the Estates of others by Fines and the lavish and excessive way of raising them for pure Dissent in Matters of Worship And on the other hand how Injurious a state of Severity is to the Interest of the Prince by the Discouragement and Poverty of so great a Number of His People and consequently how much a discreet Indulgence would contribute to the Trade Peace and Amity of His Kingdom we shall be forc'd to conclude That in Prudence as well as Conscience Moderation is a desirable thing It were doubtless one of the most agreeable things in the World that Mankind were of One Mind because the occasion that we see is taken at the Differences Men have about Religion that should teach them to agree make them so uneasie and unhappy one to another But the pleasure of that Harmony is a thing to be wisht rather than yet expected 'T is Fact we differ and upon a point wherein Vnity is out of our Power such as we are what shall we do Destroy one another for our Differences or be moderate and try a discreet Liberty Men must thank themselves for their Animosity that suffer their Opinions to destroy their Affections Let us reflect what it was confounded the first Tongue and if Disobedience has not divided Man's Judgment yet we do not war for Mother-Tongue nor ought we for Religion Man's Fault has been to slight the Divine Oracle in his persuit of Truth and he is apt to entitule his own Thoughts to her Reputation Too many things in Religion and those too fine and nice made necessary to be believed have prest so hard upon the Liberty of Mankind that Nature heaves against the Burden We ought in Charity to presume that all men think they chuse the best way to Heaven especially where the choice is against the Stream and draws Loss or Disgrace after it If they are Mistaken they must be Rectified there where the Mistake lies and that is in the Understanding And to do it Successfully there must be Light and Moderation God gives one and it is our Duty and Wisdom to exercise the other Let us then pray to Almighty God That he would enlighten our Vnderstandings And to the end we may obtain our desire let us be sure to use the Light we have and more will be given us Let us with it see if Expedients may not be found to unite our Interests and so our Affections if not our Faiths How to keep the Peace and Indulge Dissenters safely serves the Government And to see clear we must put away the Prejudices of former Heats and not call Wrath Zeal nor Railing Loyalty As things now are what is best to be done I take to be the Wise Man's Question as to consider and answer it will be his Business Moderation is a Christian Duty Let your Moderation be known to all Men And has ever been the Prudent Man's Practice Those Governments that have used it in their Conduct have Succeeded best and the contrary been unhappy I remember it is made in Livy the Wisdom of the Romans that they relaxed their hand to the Privernates for by making their Conditions easie they made them most faithful to their Interest And it prevailed so much with the Petilians that they would endure any Extremity from Hannibal rather than desert their Friendship that had governed them with so much Moderation even then when the Romans discharged their Fidelity and sent them the Dispair of knowing they could not relieve them So did one Act of Humanity overcome the Falisci above Arms Which confirms that noble Saying of Seneca Mitius imperanti Melius paretur the Mildest Conduct is best obeyed A Truth Celebrated by Grotius Campanella Practised doubtless by the bravest Princes For Cyrus exceeded when he built the Jews a Temple and himself no Jew Alexander Astonisht the Princes of his Train with the profound Veneration he paid the High Priest of that People And Augustus was so far from Suppressing the Jewish Worship that he sent Hecatombs to Jerusalem to encrease their Devotion Moderation fill'd the Reigns of the most Renowned Caesars They were Nero's and Caligulas that lov'd Cruelty then But that which in a singular manner makes Moderation the King's Interest is that those penal Laws which vex Dissenters seem in themselves Antimonarchical and it is therefore less to be wonder'd if any of them have been tempted to be so too For whereas the Prerogative is the peculiar Glory of the King That which gives weight and lustre to his Crown it is so shar'd by these Laws to Poor and Informers that the KING can but put in for a third of his own Power A Triumvirat-ship or Three Estates of Prerogative King Poor and Informers For tho' the King would remit and the Circumstances of the Person deserve a Pardon it cannot be without the Consent of the other Two which is a kind of an Exclusion from two thirds of his Power and so a Dissolution of that entire Prerogative that his Ancestors had is his undoubted Right in the like cases And as some of these Laws injure the Prince so they deeply affect the Subject For People are not only tempted to Inform by Rewards to be sure not the cleanest way of Justice but the Oaths of such are made the Evidence to Convict which is Swearing in their own Cause and to their own profit But this is not all Men are Try'd Cast and Fin'd without a Jury An express Contradiction to one of the most celebrated Branches of the Great Charter So that the Interest of Prince and People as they ever should conspire in the Repeal of those Laws that furnish harsh and unkind Folks with the Power of disturbing their Conscientious Neighbours and which disable the Prince to Receive and Redress the Complaints of such of his Suffering Subjects The Example is to both dangerous but to the KING most If the Church of England claims the King's Promise of Protection 't is fit
yielded their King the ablest Captain of the Age namely Turene It was an Hugenot then at the Head of almost an Hugenot Army that fell in with a cardinal himself see the Union Interest makes to maintain the Imperial Crown of France and that on a Roman-Catholicks head And together with their own Indulgence that Religion as National too against the pretences of a Roman-Catholick Army headed by a Prince brave and learned of the same Religion I mention not this to prefer one party to another for contrary Instances may be given elsewhere as Interests have varied In Sweedland a Prince was rejected by Protestants and in England and Holland and many of the Principalities of Germany Roman-Catholicks have approv'd themselves Loyal to their Kings Princes and States But this suffices to us that we gain the Point for it is evident in Countries where Dissenters are tolerated the Insecurity of the Prince and Government may as well come from the Conforming as Dissenting Party and that it comes not from Dissenters because such But how happy and admirable was this civil Union between the Cardinal and Turene two most opposite Religions both followed by People of their own Perswasion One says his Mass 'tother his Directory both invoke one Deity by several wayes for one success and it followed with Glory and a Peace to this Day O why should it be otherwise now what has been may be Methinks Wisdom and Charity are on that side still It will doubtless be objected that the Dissenting Party of England fell in with the State Dissenter in our late Civil but Vnnatural War And this seems to be against us yet three things must be confessed First That the War rather made the Dissenters than the Dissenters made the War Secondly that those that were then in being were not tolerated as in France but prosecuted And lastly that they did not lead but follow great Numbers of Church-goers of all Qualities in that unhappy Controversie which began upon other Topicks than Liberty for Church-Dissenters And though they were herein blameable Reason is Reason in all Climates and Latitudes This does not affect the Question Such Calamities are no necessary Consequences of Church-dissent because they would then follow in all places where Dissenters are tolerated which we see they do not but these may sometimes indeed be the effects of a violent endeavour of Vniformity and that under all Forms of Goverment as I fear they were partly here under our Monarchy But then this teaches us to conclude that a Toleration of those that a contrary course makes uneasie and desperate may prevent or Cure Intestine Troubles as Anno forty eight it ended the Strife and settled the Peace of Germany For 't is not now the question how far men may be provok'd or ought to resent it but whether Government is safe in a Toleration especially Monarchy And to this Issue we are come in Reason and Fact That 't is safe and that Conformists generally speaking have for their Interests as rarely known their Duty to their Prince as Dissenters for their Consciences So that the danger seems to lie on the side of forcing Vniformity against Faith upon severe Penalties rather than of a discreet Toleration In the next place I shall endeavour to shew the Prudence and Reasonableness of a Toleration by the great Benefits that follow it Toleration which is an Admission of dissenting Worships with Impunity to the Dissenters secures Property which is Civil Right and That eminently the Line and Power of the Monarchy For if no man suffer in his Civil Right for the sake of such Dissent the point of Succession is settled without a Civil War or a Recantation Since it were an absurd thing to imagin that a man born to five Pounds a Year should not be liable to forfeit his Inheritance for Non-conformity and yet a Prince of the Blood and an Heir to the Imperial Crown should be made incapable of his Inheritance for Church-dissent The Security then of Property or Civil Right from being forfeitable for Religious dissent becomes a security to the Royal Family against the Difficulties lately labour'd under in the business of the Succession And though I have no Commission for it besides the great Reason and Equity of the thing it self I dare say there can hardly be a Dissenter at this time of day so void of Sense and Justice as well as Duty and Loyalty as not to be of the same mind Else it were to deny that to the Prince which he needs and prays from him Let us not forget the Story of Sigismund of Sweedland of Henry the fourth of France and especially of our own Queen Mary Had Property been fix't the Line of those Royal Families could not have met with any let or Interruption 'T was this Consideration that prevail'd with Judge Hales though a strong Protestant after King Edward's Death to give his Opinion for Queen Mary's succession against that of all the rest of the Judges to the contrary which noble President was recompenc'd in the Loyalty of Arch-Bishop Heath a Roman-Catholick in favour of the Succession of Queen Elizabeth and the same thing would be done again in the like case by men of the same Integrity I know it may be said That there is little Reason now for the Prince to regard this Argument in favour of Dissenters when it was so little heeded in the case of the Presumtive Heir to the Crown But as this was the Act and Heat of Conforming men within Doors so if it were in Counsel or Desire the Folly and Injustice of any Dissenters without Doors shall many entire Parties pay the Reckoning of the few busie Offendors They would humbly hope that the singular Mildness and Clemency which make up so great a part of his Majesties publick Assurances will not leave him in his Reflection here 'T is the Mercies of Princes that above all their Works give them the nearest Resemblance to Divinity in their Administration Besides it is their Glory to measure their Actions by the Reason and Consequence of things and not by the Passions that possess and annimate private Breasts For it were fatal to the Interest of a Prince that the Folly or Vndutifulness of any of his Subjects should put him out of the way or tempt him to be unsteady to his Principle and Interest And yet with submission I must say it would be the Consequence of Coertion For by expossing Property for Opinion the Prince exposes the Consciences and Property of his own Family to the Church and disarms them of all Defence upon any alteration of Judgment Let us remember that several of the same Parliament-men who at first sacrificed civil Rights for Non-conformity in common Dissenters fell at last to make the Succession of the Crown the Price of Dissent in the next Heir of the Royal Blood So dangerous a thing it is to hazard Property to serve a turn for any Party or suffer such Examples in the