did manifestly narrow the Interest of the King by confining it to one Party but blessed be God and the King that we have out lived that fond Conceit and that we see that Liberty of Conscience hath united the Dissenters to his Majesty and that he becomes the common Father of all his People 4. The Unreasonableness of constraining Conscience and forcing People in matters of meer Religion Conscience is God's peculiar and so out of Man's Jurisdiction Is it not then most unreasonable to have it floating about at the Will of humane Powers and to oblige Christians to suffer or to fall in with all Changes of Religion It is unreasonable because impossible to compel a Man to the Belief of any thing out of the compass of his Knowledg our Lord left neither Precept nor President for such a Practice Men under the Gospel are first to be enlightned and then to practice in Conformity thereto The way of dealing with Men by Violence was in all Ages unsuccessful therefore 't is more than time to explode it ad hominem to give one irrefragible Argument to our Church of England which at this day is or would be the Persecutor of her Brethren Is it not unreasonable nay absur'd that that Church which in its Doctrin allows Judicium discretionis a liberty of judging for our selves and pretends not to Infallibility should require me to change my Opinion and to be of hers when I conceive my self to be in the right and she hath no infallible Assurance that she is not in the wrong 5. The Mischiefs of Compulsion in spoiling Trade depopulating the Country and discouraging Strangers amongst the many mischievous Events which we have seen from the denyal of Liberty of Conscience that upon Trade is not the least nor to be last mentioned Imposition in Religion damps mens Undertakings and hath drove Multitudes into forreign Parts and not a few to a Retirement from their Trades and Vocations who would otherwise have been very useful to the Common-wealth Conscientious Men have a very sow Esteem of all things compared with their religious Liberty who will lay out his Estate and Trade freely where the bare exercising his Religion gives vile Informers a Power to dispoil him of his Substance Toleration in the united Netherlands hath brought them from all parts of Europe a Confluence of People and by consequence of Treasure and Trade wherefore their Policy has heretofore as much approved our pressing a Uniformity here as they now seem disturbed at our Liberty of Conscience it being that which with so great Advantage they have long monopolized And Lastly The ill Success which Force in Religious Matters has always been attended with Compulsion never attained the intended End it may and hath too often made Hypocrites never sincere Converts The earnest desire of Liberty when refused creates Discontents which boile in the Breasts of Men and have too often broken out to the endangering Governments for Persons of differing Sentiments in Religion will unite in an Opposition to the Force about Religious Things which renders every dissenting Party uneasy so that the Danger seems to lye in Persecution for Conscience sake and not in the having under one Government several Perswasions and Parties in Religion I shall now proceed to the Objections made against this Liberty of Conscience and the Repeal of the Penal Laws by some very warm Clergy Men for the Church is not a little divided in this Point and the best possibly the greatest part thereof will be found not to approve Persecution 1. They say their Opposition arises from a Dread of Popery To answer these Gentlemen and dissipate their Fears 1. Can the Church of England Circumstances considered possibly invent a better Security than she hath by his Majesties Declaration That first of all Declares that the King will protect and maintain Her in the free Exercise of her Religion as by Law established and in the quiet and full Enjoyment of all her Possessions without any Molestation or Disturbance whatsoever What would she further have Will she call into question the Sincerity of his Majesties Promise The King intends the Concurrence of a Parliament for the establishing the Indulgence and the abolishing the Tests and Penal Laws It will be then seasonable for the Church of England to ask her further Security if she will pretend to stand in need thereof 2. Let the Church consider that the King only takes from her the Power of doing Mischief She will not pretend to deny his Majesty Liberty of Conscience If she doth not can she expect by his Permission and Authority to cudgel her fellow Subjects into a Communion which he doth not approve and that after he hath so solemnly declared his Royal Judgment to be against all Persecution for Conscience sake He intends not to deprive the Church of England of such Laws as are defensive of her Religion and Possessions but only to abrogate such Statutes as the Iniquity or short-sightedness of past Ages hath armed her with to annoy and offend her Neighbours Laws wicked in themselves and which she hath too long very wickedly executed and therefore very fit to be yielded up The Objectors fear of Popery by the Repeal of the Penal Statutes is not easily to be comprehended let the Papists with all other the Kings Subjects be restored to what ought to be theirs by the Laws of God and let them have their Birth-rights and we have them in the common Interest of the Nation Such who are in love with Persecution may not think to make the Romanists uneasy in the Reign of the present King let us then weigh it whether it be not the best Discretion to secure them of Ease in the next Reign Another Objection brought for keeping up the Penal Laws is That they for whom Liberty is desired are Factious and that it will strengthen those who have always been for a Common-Wealth Of what force this Objection is will be seen if it be considered That Persecution foments Faction but Liberty wins over the Malecontent if not it lays him open and will make every Body ready to be his Executioner Violence may have forced many to factious Practises who were not nor would not chuse be Factious Oppression making the wise Man mad Give Men Security in their worshipping God and you may soon distinguish between Conscience and Faction It hath been well observed that no Government is endangered by the People it seeks to preserve Did not the Church by Rigour and Severity in time past drive many Dissenters from their Native Country and force those who remained to shelter themselves under the Enemies of the Crown I justify not the Practice nor can the Fact be denyed The King is at this Day by his transcendent Grace Tenderness to Consciences become Master of the Hearts and by consequence of the Lives and Estates of his dissenting Subjects I shall in the next place take the liberty of offering some things to the
Advice to Freeholders and other Electors of Members to serve in PARLIAMENT In Relation to the PENAL LAWS and the TESTS In a Letter to a Friend in the Country With Allowance SIR IT having pleased the King to emit a gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and it being more than probable that the matter thereof may be the Subject of the next Parliament I do here present you my old Friend with some of the Motives inclining me to exert my self to my Ability when called to it whatsoever Opposition or Censure may therein attend me for the Election of such Members as may concur with his Majesty in giving Sanction to this Indulgence it being what we have long wanted and wished for and in securing it to after Ages which is as undoubtedly the King 's Royal Purpose as it is our common Interest my Reasons are 1. That herein I shall be found to act in consistency with my constant Principle for I always esteemed it to be a glorious Work to set Conscience free from Church-Tyranny and to extricate the Nation from the intolerable Burden of destructive Penal Laws 2. That in the present Undertaking I see my Security we have in this happy Juncture the Advantage of promoting what we highly prize and that with his Majestie 's Royal Recommendation so we are safe whosoever snarles in conforming to so great so good and so wise a Resolution as the King has propitiously taken And moreover 3. Gratitude to his Majesty for this Declaration and for his gracious Proclamation of Pardon of the 10th of March 1685 engages and spurs me as I hope it will do Multitudes to promote with my utmost Might this present Work as it is a thing acceptable to the King. To add no more these Reasons are prevalent with me and if they may dispose you to contribute to the making proper Elections so that his Majestie 's gracious Purpose for the Relief and Tranquility of his People may not be frustrated by unreasonable Malecontents it will be most grateful to me for I know you to be very capable of contributing significantly to this publick Good. I perceive that some of your Neighbours are beating their Brains for Arguments to justify the upholding the persecuting Laws and the discriminating and most unreasonable Tests With me it is out of Question that those Men are very narrow soul'd and their Maxims ill grounded pray therefore bear with me that I present you with my Thoughts of the great Point now agitated Liberty of Conscience or Toleration I am well satisfied of the Truth and Stability of the following Positions and he that is so must cease to Love Persecution 1. Liberty of Conscience is consonant to the Gospel which no where countenances Force and Compulsion 2. To grant this Liberty is the true Interest both of Prince and People to evince the Truth of these let it be considered as to the first That Liberty of Conscience is consonant to the Gospel It is a Gospel of Peace and not of Force and Fury If so it is most unbeseeming this Gospel to do things rashly and violently for its Advancement it is not to be so propagated Its Language is he that believes shall be saved And our blessed Lord and his Apostles who had the command of all Power to bring Men to this Faith used Instruction Perswasion and Reasoning but never went about to deal with Mens Consciences by Violence they used no Sword but that of the Spirit and left every Man to his own Light. Error as well as Truth is seated in the Mind of Man and we are without one Instance since the Creation where Compulsion ever wrought a Change in any ones Principles tho it hath wrought on many to deny or conceal their Opinions The Soul of Man is out of the reach of the Magistrates Sword and therefore 't is as vain to pretend to direct what I shall believe and to force in me a Faith of any thing as 't is to attempt to bring the Angels under an outward secular Power Compulsion undoubtedly will dispose a Man to hate whatsoever is so proposed and not better evinced To proceed 2. That Liberty of Conscience is the Interest both of the King and his People this is well proved by the invincible Reasons in his Majesties gratious Declaration which are these 1. The Glory of the King. 2. The Peoples Peace 3. Union between the King and his People 4. The Unreasonableness of constraining Conscience and forceing People in matters of meer Religion 5. The Mischiefs of Compulsion by spoiling Trade depopulating Countries and discouraging Strangers And lastly the ill Success which Force has had in Religious Matters which shews the invincible Difficulties which attend those Methods 1. The Glory of the King. Will any Member of the Church of England so fam'd for Loyalty repine at his Majesties being truly Glorious surely no and hath not this his Act of Tenderness added highly to his Glory It undoubtedly hath It secures not only common Homage of Obedience and Subjection to his Majesty but with it that more noble of the Hearts and Affections of a very great multitude of his People who are sober serious industrious and also wealthy these by Persecution have been made heartless in themselves and useless in a very great Measure to the King and Kingdom I say this Indulgence hath secured to the King the Hearts of his dissenting Subjects who are brought to depend upon him and they will love him who favours and protects them and hath put them into a Posture than which they can never hope for a better and seeing the Church of England cannot but love him and be Loyal he is without Controversy become the most Glorious because the greatest and most beloved Prince that ever yet swayed the English Scepter 2. The Peoples Peace Do not we know by sad Experience how greatly Coercion in things relating to God and Conscience has disturbed the Peace of Mankind and created terrible Concussions in these Kingdoms What lamentable Divisions and Animosities have we beheld to spring from the Execution of the Penal Laws and how dismally sad have been their Effects It is not reasonable to imagine that Persecution should not disgust those who suffer and By-slanders tho otherwise perswaded as to Religion are dissatisfied to behold their peaceable honest dealing Neighbours torn to pieces for Conscience sake such are disposed to pity the Sufferers and to dislike the Severities wherewith they are exercised 3. Union between the King and his People It is most evident that the Disaffection which not long since had overspread our Horizon did spring from the Severities of the Laws and of their Execution The happy Union between Prince and People has been if not broken to a very great degree weakened by a mistaken Maxim that but one part of his Majesties Subjects and that a much lesser part than some are willing they should be thought deserved to live and to be protected This too predominant Opinion
Consideration of all our Country-men both of such as are Members of the Church of England and of Dissenters 1. The Gentlemen of the established Church may please to remember that their Church when brought under pleaded for Liberty and thankfully accepted it from the late Usurpers surely then they will or ought to deport themselves decently in this Juncture to their lawful Soveraign differing from them in Religion and not censure or repine at his Resolution to make all his People easy when that same Clemency of the Kings secures them in their Religion with the comfortable Addition of their large Possessions Let them consider their antient Loyalty interwoven with their Religion and approve themselves against those who begin to accuse them of turning upon the Government what they have always boasted unalterably Loyal Shall the Fanaticks with alacrity come into the King's Interest and will the Church of England appear sullen soure and averse thereto I am confident she will not To clear up my meaning herein let me tell you I take not the Clergy to constitute the Church of England No not in conjunction with some cloudy morose ambitious great Men who seem at this Day to abet their Discontents but the People who joyn in her Communion will be found to be the best by far the greatest part of that Church The Ecclesiasticks and some of their designing Adherents are indeed angry and why Because his Majesty resolves they shall not confound their Neighbours But did you ever observe a violent persecuting Minister to enjoy the Hearts of the People who lent him their Ears You may remember that in our late highly contested Elections of Parliament Men we saw in many parts of the Kingdom the rigid siery Parson abandoned his by Flock and galloping to give his single Voice which was all that he and his Horse could bring in the Parish certainly falling in with the Side which he opposed and why Because detesting his Spirit and Principles they could not be disposed to esteem him a good Man for whom their Minister voted May this go for some sort of measure of the Churches Interest I think we cannot readily have a better than that of the Freedom of voting in Elections how miserably then will that Interest be found to dwindle when the Clergy shall come stript of the Advantage of compelling Men into it by making use of the Kings Name to that they were formerly owing their Success where they found it and not to the Esteem they had with their own Members I have heard some compute that not above one 5th or 6th part of the known World is Christian It will be found that his Majesties Interest in his People vastly excels that of the Clergies and that the Church of England in the Point now discussed Liberty of Conscience will not be found to comprehend such a part of the Nation as the Christians make of the World. Would our Militant Church-men but put on Temper and sequester so much Time as to weigh with calmness and deliberation the Opinions of the most eminent Divines of their Church in the Point of Imposition they would be found no Friends to Persecution Reverend Dr. Taylor late Bishop of Downe thus expressed himself for Liberty of Conscience viz I do earnestly contend that another Mans Opinion shall be no Rule to mine and that my Opinion shall be no Snare or Prejudice to my self In another place that learned Man proceeds thus It is a part of Christian Religion that the Liberty of Mens Consciences should be preserved in all things where God hath not set a Limit And further The same Meekess and Charity should be preserved in propagating Christianity which was in its first Publication The Reverend and Learned Dr. Stillingfleet did once apprehend the Mischief of Imposition when he declared his Opinion to be That Non-conformity to any suspected Practise required by any Church Governor as the Condition of her Communion was lawful if the thing so required was judged unwarrantable by a Man 's own Conscience I have been told and doubt not the Truth thereof that a late Reverend Prelate Dr. Brownrig who lived to see the Restoration of his late Majesty and of the Church of England secured tho' not actually accomplished did upon his Death-Bed lament the imposing presecuting Spirit which he foresaw would return with the Church And I think I have good ground to say that at a late Conference between a Bishop whose Health is drank throughout the Kingdom and some of his Clergy of great note a dignified Doctor of eminent Learning and candor of Spirit did very freely declare That he thought the Church was under Gods Displeasure for her Severity to Dissenters and that thereupon the Bishop lamented that he ever had his Hand in that Work and declared that should he be restored to Power he would use it better than he had done I wish all the Clergymen then present and throughout the Kingdom were so resolved and would shew themselves for Peace by throwing away their Weapons of War. 2. I propose to the Consideration of Dissenters and that of every Denomination that as when a Town is on Fire every Man without any great Regard to what Intimacy or Distance hath been amongst Neighbours doth his best to extinguish the devouring Flames so that they would with unanimity joyn in this common Cause of removing and that for ever the undistinguishing Instruments of Mischief the Penal Statutes They do equally extend to all and may by turns reach every Dissenter Hath not the Church of England persisted to exercise her Severities upon all Dissenters within her reach even in the present Reign Are the Roman Catholicks tho sheltered by the Kings Religion willing to deliver other Dissenters with themselves from those destroying Laws and to secure them from what hath been of so terrifying an Aspect in Popery Persecution And will they refuse to be unshakled I cannot imagine they should especially when I observe amongst them such a universal Serenity since his Majesties Declaration They owe their Ease to the Kings Princely Clemency he invites them out of Slavery if they will their Liberty may be established his Majesty is resolved to do that which the Church never would when she had Power nor can we think she would now if it be true that she accosts the King with heat against it Let then all Dissenters see their common Interest to approach the King with Duty and Affection and to evidence their Affection by closing with the happy Opportunity which now offers of setting themselves free by Law seeing his Majesty calls them to it But The Fanaticks are told by Church-Men That it is not now either seasonable or safe I doubt in their Opinion it never will and they promise that they will do the Work. Affliction is the best School and I do hope the Fanaticks have learn'd therein better than to be tampered withal and decoy'd into an Opposition to his Majesties so gracious Disposition