Rescue your selves from the Severity of One Law you give a Blow to All the Laws by which your Religion and Liberty are to be protected and instead of silently receiving the Benefit of this Indulgence you set up for Advocates to support it You become Voluntary Aggressors and look like Counsel retained by the Prerogative against your Old Friend Magna Charta who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under your Displeasure P. 5. IF the Supporting of this Indulgence be the setting of the Prerogative and Magna Charta together by the Ears and that His Majesty has in This Act Vsurpt upon the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the People What Court of Judicature will the Author of This Calumny fly to with his Appeal Or what is This Suggestion Less then an Arrow shot at the Heart of the Supreme Magistrate how speciously soever drawn by the Arm of a Pretended Patriot 'T is well enough ad Populum to talk of the Dissenters giving a Blow to All the Laws that Protect them by Endeavouring a Rescue from One Law that Offends them But in Substance and Effect there 's no more in 't then the Cadence of a Well-Turn'd Period To take the Matter Aright 't is not the Law that Protects Us for Laws have neither Hands nor Feet but an Over-ruling Power that Manages Protects and Actuates That Law. The Law is a Rule 't is True to such or such a Form or Frame of This or That Government But it is yet No Further a Rule then as it Squares with the Divine and Fundamental Rules of Government it self of which Rules and Measures tho Supreme Magistrate is the Only Moderator and Judge If the Case then should be that the Price expected from you for this Liberty is giving up your Right in the Laws sure you will think Twice before you go any further in such a Losing Bargain P. 6. IT will not be Denyed that the Subject has a Right in the Benefit of the Laws but he has none at all Undoubtedly in the Interpretation or the Administration of them So that our Authors Case in This Expostulation is Right or Wrong an Vsurpation upon the Province of his Superiors for there 's no longer any Order or Reason in the Works and Offices of Providence and Nature when Authority and Subjection shall come to be Inverted or Confounded He seems extremely Tender on the Behalf of the Dissenters for fear they should give up their Birth-rights in a Composition for their Liberty This is it which he calls their Right in the Laws but he hopes they will be Better Advis'd first Here is an Imperial Prerogative over-ruled by a Pamphlet A Cause given against the King by John-a-Styles and First or Last a whole Systeme of Republican Consequences Built upon it and it is upon a Point too that perhaps was never Controverted till now in any Setled State and upon This Bottom It is a Right of the Crown Common to All Governments in the World and so Essential to the Maintaining of a Civil Polity in Peace and Security that No State can Subsist without it And Consequently No Act of State can take it away In one Word I speak of the Power of Calling Forbidding Continuing or Dissolving Publique Assemblies And the Exercise of That Power is the Point in Question upon This Declaration And without This Power he can neither Defend Himself nor Protect his People neither Punish the Guilty not secure the Innocent Nor finally Discharge the most Necessary Duties of State and Justice After giving Thanks for the Breach of One Law you lose the Right of Complaining of the Breach of all the rest You will not very well know how to defend your selves when pressed and having given up the Question when it was for your Advantage you cannot recall it when it shall be to your Prejudice P. 6. HE takes the Case all the way for Granted and so Proceeds upon the Presupposal of an Imaginary Breach and Right He makes a Mighty Bus'ness of the Peoples giving up That which they never Had and of their Losing Certain Priviledges in the Future that they have No Pretence to And after All not one Colour of a Reason offered why Sentence should not be given against him If it be Clear that the People have Not This Right truly to My Thinking he Ventures his Person and his Reputation upon a Dangerous Position Or what if a Man for Arguments sake should Yield that the People Have such a Right the Authors Hand is yet in the Wrong Box to Commence a Suit against His Majesty in No Bodies Name In a CIRCULAR LETTER thus and No Day or Place set for a Hearing Briefly If there were no More in 't the very Manner of the Proceeding would be enough to turn Justice it self Thus Communicated into a Libel To come now to the Merits of the Question There 's First a Claim set a-foot without Any Foundation 2ly A Right Supposed and the Cause utterly Spoil'd by Ill Management But what if a Body should give him his Vttermost Demands now and take the Matter De bone esse as He Himself has set it forth That is to say Suppose his Challenge to be Good The Proceeding Regular and Modest and the Subjects Right in Strictness of Law as Clear and as Vndubitable as He Affirms it to be He will find himself in a Worse Condition perchance This way then he was Before For if Subjects will be standing upon their Terms and by Vying Privileges against Privileges with their Sovereign Provoke him to Return Strictnesses for Strictnesses upon them by way of Reprizal Our Author I fear is not Aware of the Certain Consequences of such a Contest If the KING shall come to take All Advantages against the Subject on the other hand that the Rigour and the Letter of the Law will Allow him If you will set up at one time a Power to help you which at another time by parity of Reason shall be made use of to destroy you you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a Mischief you draw upon your selves by being so UNREASONABLY Thankful It is like calling in Auxiliaries to help who are strong enough to subdue you In such a case your Complaints will come too late to be heard and your Sufferings will raise Mirth instead of Compassion p. 6. HEre 's the Supposition of a Power set up to Help the Dissenters that shall be made use of to their Destruction Now say I on the Other Hand that the Power here pretended to be set up is a Power over and over Recogniz'd allready A Power Inherent in the Crown and a Power Inseparable from it The English of his Caution that they should not set it up Imports the bidding of them to Disown it and more then Insinuates the Antimonarchical Doctrine of making the King's Power to be Radically in the People But here 's a Bugbear started and all long of themselves
Fancy that has taken People in the Head upon this Occasion First That no Church of England man will Answer This Letter 2ly L'Estrange of All Others that has ever been so Bitter and so Violent against Liberty of Conscience is the Unfittest Man in Nature to take upon him to Defend it In Contradiction to his Toleration Discuss'd his Observators and Twenty Pamphlets more upon This Subject Generals prove Nothing Beside that they are commonly the Refuge of Shufflers and Cheats But I am content however to put the Matter to This Issue Let but any man that Charges Mee with such Contradictions submit to pass for a Fool if he does not particularly Prove them and let me Wear the Reputation of a Knave if in a Fair and Reasonable Equity of Construction he makes his Accusation Good. I have now but One Point more to speak to And That 's the Subject of the King's Power 'T is no more then what the Letter Requires and what I have Promised to do And in Conclusion a Right that I Owe both to the Cause and to my Word The Author of the Letter to a Dissenter has several Dangerous Doctrines and Passages p 5 6 8 a. upon the Argument of the King's Prerogative and the Duty of a Subject He Questions the Kings Late Declaration in point of Law p. 5. And lays down for a Maxim that No Trespass against the Laws in Being is to be Defended Though Vniversal Practice and Opinion are agreed upon 't that the Obligation of All Humane Laws is in some sort Conditional He makes Addressing of Thanks upon That Declaration to be the Giving up of a Right in the Law p. 6. He supposes the King himself Doubtful of his own Power p. 9. He Reasons all he can against the Dispensing Power and Repealing the Test p. 8. And he calls Submission to That Declaration the Setting up of a Power to HELP the People that will DESTROY them p. 6. These Positions are Communicated in at Least Twenty Thousand Copies perhaps to his Majesties Subjects in All Quarters of the Kingdom and the Doctrine For t'd with the most Artificial Colours that the Matter will bear Upon the whole Business there 's Nothing to be done in such a Case as This but by Encountring Industry with Industry and Opposing Truth to Error There will be No Need of a Distinct and a Particular Answer to This and That Clause or Period but rather to speak to the Whole Question at Once in a Clear and an Effectual Reply TO begin at the Root of the Controversie The King puts out a Declaration of Indulgence The Author of the Letter to a Dissenter Denyes his Dispensing Power makes the very Acceptance of it Criminal in the Subject and a Giving up of their Rights and Positively Pronounces the Law to be so Sacred that No Trespass against it is to be Defended It rests now to Prove that This Doctrine and Practice is not only Erroneous and Pernicious with a Respect to our Present Case and Constitution but Utterly Destructive of Humane Society and of the very Foundations of Government it self To say nothing how Artificially the Writer of That Letter has shamm'd upon the People his Maiesties Act of Grace in favour of the Dissenters for a Matter Concerted betwixt Them and the Papists without which Pretence the Incidians Part of the Pamphlet falls to the Ground Now for the Clearing of This Question He that would take the Just Measures of the Prerogatives of Power should properly look back into the Original of Government and from thence Trace the Wisdom and the Providence of Almighty God through the Means to the End and through the Causes to their Effects There are 't is true Certain Prerogatives Peculiar to This or That Frame of State and Differing in One Place from what they are in Another But These are of a Humane Make and may be Laid down as they were Taken up at pleasure They are Local Temporary Personal Conditional Occasional Privileges perhaps and not of the Number of Those Sacred Vnchangeable and Incommunicable Essentials that we are here speking of It was the Work of an Omnipotent Power to make the World out of Nothing As Order was the Work of the Divine Wisdom and Government consequently of a Divine Institution and Appointment This Government was Ordained for the Regulation of Men in Society And That Ordinance would have been utterly Vain and of No Effect without a Competency of Powers and Faculties for securing of All the Ends of it Now if Government it self was immediately from God Those Eminences of Privilege and Authority without which That Primary Power Cannot Work must needs be of Divine Right too And Kings are so less Answerable to their Principal for the Maintenance of the Power with which they are Entrusted then they are for the Exercise of it So that if Rulers cannot Depart from These Fundamentals of Government without Breach of Faith If Humane Laws shall be found Insufficient to Answer all the Emergencies and Variations of Humane Affairs And if the Reserve of a Power to Dispense with those Humane Laws in case of such and such Exigencies shall be likewise found of Absolute Necessity for the Support of Government the Sum of the Question will be brought into a Narrow Compass and no more then This Shall a Prince in favour of an Imperfect Humane Law Dispense with an Vndispensable Duty to a Law Divine And in so doing Dispense with God's Law rather then Dispense with his Own It is a Thing past Dispute that many Laws have been Nullities in the very Creation of them And it is Impossible to make Any Positive Law of Man so Extensive as to Answer All Circumstances of Time Place Condition Change or Occasion The Force and the Frequency of Over-ruling Necessities is Granted on All Hands and that where-ever the Government is there is the Judgment If the People may Judge they may Censure If Censure Punish If Punish they Govern And the Yielding of One Point to a Popular Vsurpation does in Effect Tacitly Entitle them to the Rest. Neither is there Any other Limit set to this Power then the Honour the Conscience and the Justice of the Governer For the Bare Admittance of a Check or Controll Implies a Superiour Power Men are Corrupt Frail Short-sighted and their Works Imperfect Bills may be Carry'd by Passion Interest Power and there may be likewise Inadvertency or Sinister Consideration in the Passing of them but the Laws of Nature and of Equity are Sacred and Certain for That which Nature does God does This is Chiefly intended of Laws that were Well enough or perhaps Excellent Provisions at the First making of them but in Tract of Time upon some Vnexpected Revolution or in such or such a Case perchance may be found Inconvenient These I say may be Suspended but then there are Laws of Another Sort that are Void ab Initio and upon No Terms to be either Defended or Executed As I have Instanced formerly somewhat to this Purpose in the Case of the Proceedings under Charles the First against the Papists That Excellent Prince according to all Reasonable and Humane Presumption lost his Crown and his Life in Complement to a Void Act of his Own in pretending to Bar himself the Vse and Service of his Subjects As if an Act of State could Supersede a Fundamental of God and Nature I have the Authority of Great Man Bishop Sanderson to Back me in the Casuistical Stress of This Instance God says he hath given to his Vicegerents here on Earth a RIGHT In and a POWER Over the Persons of ALL their Subjects within their several Respective Dominions even to the spending of their Lives in their Countries Service WHENSOEVER they shall be by Their Authority called thereunto Five Cases p. 71. Now if they have These Privileges of RIGHT and POWER from GOD and Extending to ALL and WHENSOEVER without Exception either to Time Number or Distinction of Persons What Earthly Power shall dare to Controll This Commission And I have One Word more to Offer now that I have formerly spoken to which comes a little Closer yet to the Point The Precept of Honour thy Father and thy Mother is undoubtedly of Divine Authority and a Command of an Immutable and Indispensable Obligation And it has Catholique Assent to 't that it Extends as well to our Civil and Political as to our Natural Parents By This Law All Subjects are Bound in Conscience to Attend the Call and the Service of their Prince for the Precept is Positive without Any Qualification Limitation or Condition whatsoever The Question will be Shortly This now Whether Any King can by any Act of Civil Authority Divest himself of This Right over the Persons of his Subjects I do not say but he may Chuse whether he will Command them or Not but he Cannot Discharge his People of their Duty of Obedience in case he Requires their Service That is to say In any case which is not Contrary to the Will and Word of God. No Humane Law Can Absolve them from That Office of Allegeance So that in the Conclusion either Those Subjects are Clear before God that serve their Prince when by him thereunto required notwithstanding any Law of Man to the Contrary Or the Ten Commandments may be turn'd to Waste Paper If the Law of the Land shall Forbid upon a Penalty That which the Law of God Commands upon a Penalty This is enough for my Present Purpose and if it be not so for Common Satisfaction My Third Volume of Observators has Fifty Times as much upon this Subject FINIS Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer Letter Answer
Think Hardly of them too He says Extremely Well at last in Contemplation of the Difficulty of Restraining Nature She Disdains he says to submit to the Vsurpation of Art and Interest This he Says and This he Proves in the same Breath and Paper for in despight of All the Art and Interest of This Discourse his Inclination shews it self and his Nature breaks through the Disguise This Allyance between Liberty and Infallibility is bringing together the Two most contrary things that are in the World. The Church of Rome doth not only dislike the allowing Liberty but by its Principles it cannot do it Wine is not more expresly forbidden to the Mahometans than giving Hereticks Liberty is to Papists They are no more able to make good their Vows to you than Men Married before and their Wife alive can confirm their Contract with another The Continuance of their Kindness would be a Habit of Sin of which they are to Repent and their Absolution is to be had upon no other Terms than their Promise to destroy you You are therefore to be Hugged now only that you may be the better Squeezed at another time There must be something Extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up Bills and offereth Plaisters for Tender Consciences By all that hath hitherto appeared her Skill in Chirurgery lyeth chiefly in a Quick Hand to cut off Limbs but she is the worst at Healing of any that ever pretended to it HEre 's a Splendid and a Fallacious Amusement in the First Line and it is Plausibly enough Pursued too but Inevitably attended with the Fate of All Things that are Built upon a False Bottom Supposing LIBERTY and INFALLIBILITY as the Matter is here set forth and Assum'd to be the Present Point before us upon a Question of Competition or Consistence Upon this Supposal I say All the Following Cost and Figure for the Dazling of Weak Eyes and the Transporting of Impotent Affections is very well Bestowed upon it But if Liberty and Infallibility shall fall out in This Case to be Nothing a-kin The One to be a Civil Point The Other a Religious And the One in short to Differ as much from the Other as Doctrine does from Practice or the Exercise of a Secular Power from a Theological Perswasion Why then This Liberty and Infallibility Truly Vnderstood and Rightly Distinguished may very well stand together and the Holding of the One Opinion does not at all Clash with Permitting the Exercise of the Other This Specious Sparkling Way of Reasoning will have little more in 't at last than what we see Every Day in the Skill and Address of Bird-catching where the Twinkling of the Glass brings the Lark Dancing down into the Net. A Man that would put his Thoughts and his Wits upon the Stretch might Enlarge till Doomsday upon the Text of LIBERTY and INFALLIBILITY But I am for speaking Plain Home and in Few Words to the Stress of the Subject in hand rather than squandring away more Time and Paper than needs in Talking it out at Length The Roman-Catholique-INFALLIBILITY and the Dissenters LIBERTY are the Two Hinges of the Controversie here in Debate Put them On Right and the Door Opens or Shuts with All the Ease in the World But if This Gentleman will needs set them on a-Cross and then Exclayme against them as the most Contrary Things in the World when it is the Fault of the Workman not of the Hinges that the One Hinders the Other from doing its Proper Office. What help for 't This is an Error in the Speculation of the Thing that we see Dayly Disprov'd and Contradicted in Fact And it must be a very Gross Partiality that shall take upon it self to support Fancy against Experiment Now if the Liberty and Infallibility here Represented Intended and Designed be quite Another Thing than the Liberty and Infallibility that lies Naturally within the Compass of This Question all the Flowers that are here Employed for the Recommending and the Garnishing of This Topique how Artificially soever must not be Allowed to come up yet to the Least Colour of a Conclusion or an Argument for any thing that hitherto appears The First Query toward the Discussing of This Question will in One Word be This. What does This Gentleman mean by LIBERTY Why does he not give some Standard of it Is it a Determinate or an Vnlimited Liberty Why is it not Ascertain'd that a Body may see Thorough it For how shall any Man take upon him to make a Reasonable Discourse upon an Vnknown Meaning If he Means Liberty of CONSCIENCE with a Respect to the Present Circumstances of the Dissenters His Majesties Gracious Declaration of April the 4th Last Past will most Explicity Adjust That Point in These Following Words We have thought fit by Vertue of our ROYAL PREROGATIVE to Issue forth This our Declaration of Indulgence So that it is a Liberty Granted by Vertue and in the Right of His Majesties ROYAL RREROGATIVE A Civil Liberty to Meet for a Religious Worship Or in the Words of the Declaration it self For the Free Exercise of their Religion The Plain English of the Case is This The Dissenters find themselves Aggriev'd for want of Liberty of Conscience And why But because they cannot Meet to Worship God in their Assemblies as they say they reckon themselves Bound to do This Restraint makes them Vneasie The Law lies Heavy upon them and they have no Means of Relief but by the Kings Suspending the Execution of the Penalties in That Case Provided and Exerting His Sovereign Authority in Their Favour Now Every Body knows it for a Principle that is Rooted in the very Foundations of Government it self That All Publique Assemblies That is to say the Indicting the Inhibiting the Adjourning Proroguing Continuing or Dissolving of them are Entirely and Incommunicably at the Will and Pleasure of the Supreme Magistrate The King in the Right of This Power Allows his People to Meet to the End that they may Worship The Dispensation respects the Freedom of Assembling not the Articles of every Particular Congregation's Faith or Creed His Majesty Grants so much as by His Prerogative he May and not One Jot more for All Humane Acts whatsoever are to All Purposes Void when they come to break in once upon the Laws of God and Nature So that here 's neither Ground Place nor Pretence for an Immoral or an Vnrighteous Liberty And if the Gentleman in This Paragraph speaks of a Boundles and of an Indefinite Licence it neither IS neither CAN it be neither can it be SVPPOSED to be the Case that is here in Agitation It Involves a Nullity to Imagine it so and it Imports a Tacit Censure of Authority even so much as to Insinuate that it was ever Intended so For No power upon Earth Can either Discharge or so much as Suspend the Over-ruling Dictates and Sentences of Equity and of Right Reason Now 't is no Wonder if the Church of Rome
they Declare and Promise more then they Intend to Perform they Cut their Own Throats by Playing the Knaves to their Ruine and by Acting against Common Honesty as well as against Common Sense Their Interest it is most Undenyably for they get Remission Ease and Favour by 't If the Papists think Better of the Dissenters then they deserve 't is an Error on the Right Hand But the Dissenters it seems that but T'other day were Sons of Belial are now all of a sudden in the Opinion of the Papists become Angels of Light. And is it not just the very same Thing at least if the Author of This Letter Judges Aright from the Dissenters to the Papists that it is from the Papists to the Dissenters And where 's the Hurt on 't if they are Both Agreed to think Better One of Another then they were used to do Or according to our Author's Opinion then Effectually they have Cause to do Well! But he gives to Understand that though the Papists have Changed their Style they have not yet Changed their Thoughts of them And Then in comes a Philosophical Caution not to give Credit to Vnnatural Motions that pass from One Extreme to Another at a Stride If he had look'd Both ways he would have found as great a Leap of State on the One Side as he does of Inclination on the Other For let a Man's Thoughts and Purposes be never so Sound and Reasonable 't is No Vnreasonable Thing yet to Change Those Thoughts and Purposes upon Change of Accidents and Occasion He says that the Dissenters Features are not Altered but I shall take leave to say that the very Cause it self is Alter'd and that During his Majesties Suspension of the Penal Laws they are in a Fair Equity of Construction no longer Dissenters But whether this Gentleman hits the Papists Thoughts or Not is the teast Part of the Care of This Paragraph For the Author seems much more sollicitous for fear the Papists and the Dissenters should agree upon 't to think Well of One Another then for fear that the Crafty Jugling Papists should put a Trick upon the Poor Innocent Lambs on the Other side And I would in One Word more now put it to the Authors Conscience Whether the Papists and his Own with a respect to the Dissenters be not the very same Case and the very same Trick He would have them stand upon their Guard he says but against What And what to do As if Good Discretion and Good Nature could not stand together As if People could not be Prudent without being Inhumane It was such Hints and Touches as These that turn'd the Hearts and the Brains of the Common People into Wax to stamp Forgeries upon But God forbid that the same Scene should Open Once again and that the Epilogue to One Sham should prove the Prologue to Another It is Worthy of Observation that in All Officious Discourses of This Quality there are Certain Words of Common-Place Interspers'd up and down that when the Pen grows Dull are made use of as a Butcher does of his Steel when his Knife is Blunted to give it a New Edge As here 's IDOLATRY brought in p. 2. of the Sheet-and-Half-Edition And then p. 9. he he is pleased to give it Another Whet upon the Word TRANSVBSTANTIATION Now I do Previously Declare my self to be Perfectly a Church of England Man upon These Two Points And yet saving all Possible Veneration to my Mother and Reverence to my Profession I cannot Imagine any other End or Reason for the very Mention of IDOLATRY in This Place then to stir the Bloud of the Protestant Reader and to Brand the Romanists with a Mark of Odium and Reproche Here 's a Civil Question started Not so much betwixt Roman Catholiques and Dissenters with regard to their Differing Perswasions in Religion as with a Respect to the Interest of the Common Peace and Safety in the Agreement or Disagreement of These Two Bodies of His Majesties Subjects And what 's This to the Polemicks betwixt the Two Churches The Roman Catholiques Believe as they Did And the Dissenters Believe as they Did So that the Papists Favour he says is Inconsistent with this Single Article And is not the Dissenters Favour on the other side as Inconsistent with the same Article So that there 's no more hope of favour on the One side then there is on the Other Now if they are Resolv'd on Both Sides not to Yield what are All These Elaborate Disswasives but only so many Fine Words thrown into the Air Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a Foundation of Paradoxes Popery now is the only Friend to Liberty and the known Enemy to Persecution The Men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all other eminent for Loyalty The Quakers from being declared by the Papists not to be Christians are now made Favourites and taken into their Particular Protection they are on a sudden grown the most accomplished men of the Kingdom in Good Breeding and give Thanks with the best Grace in double Refined Language So that I should not wonder though a Man of that Perswasion in spight of his Hat should be Master of the Ceremonies Not to say Harsher Words these are such very New Things that it is impossible not to suspend our Belief till by a little more Experience we may be informed whether they are Realities or Apparitions We have been under shameful Mistakes if these Opinions are true but for the present we are apt to be incredulous Except we should be convinced that the Priests Words in this Case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual Change and that their Power is not limited to the Sacrament but that it extendeth to Alter the Nature of all other things as often as they are so disposed p. 3. IT would be Good Advice to the Author as well as to the Dissenter to Consider the Danger of Building upon Paradoxes For it is to My Thinking Extremely Paradoxal to draw Arguments of Inclination from Results of Necessity and to make it an Act of Friendship for Two Bodies or Divisions of Men that have Need One of Another to shake Hands upon Certain Terms and Articles of Composition The Papists would be at Liberty and so would the Dissenters And I think they should deserve to be Chronicled for Idiots and Mad-Men not to Unite in any Common Medium with Justice Honour and a Good Conscience toward their Joint-Ease and Relief And what 's the Papists Friendship now to Liberty but that they would fain be out of their Shackles Themselves And what 's their Enmity to Persecution but a Desire to stand upon Even Ground with the rest of the Kings Subjects Especially as they are Entitled to it by the Kings Late Indulgence God forbid that any Honest English Man should Envy any of his Fellow Subjects the Benefit of the Kings Mercy because in Effect a man can hardly do it without some sort
and if the One Example be not as much to be Avoided as the Other Wherefore I think it would not do Amiss if the Dissenter should Counter-Advise his Remembrancer upon Two or Three of these Last Points For the Letter deals altogether by Secular Arguments too and there may be Mony Walking on the One Side as well as on the Other And then again the Disuniting of the Kings Subjects of what Religion soever they are is a Point as Suspicious As any that we have yet Before us And it is a Thing every jot as much out of Season certainly to Endeavour the making the Romanists Odious As Romanists under a Prince of That Communion as it is to Endeavour the Conciliation of a Friendship betwixt the Roman Catholiques and any other sort whatsoever of the Kings Liege People 'T is a Rash an Irreverent a False and a Seditious Insinuation to Possess Subjects with an Opinion that there is No Faith Truth Honour or Justice to be Expected from the Religion of That Church whereof their Sovereign is a Member And so to the Next Supposal If there should be Men who by the Load of their Crimes against the Government have been bowed down to comply with it against their Conscience who by incurring the want of a Pardon have drawn upon themselves the necessity of an intire Resignation Such Men are to be Lamented but not to be Believed Nay they themselves when they have discharged their Vnwelcom Task will be inwardly glad that their forced Endeavours do not succeed and are pleased when Men resist their Insinuations which are far from being voluntary or sincere but are squeezed out of them by the Weight of their being so Obnoxious P. 4. BEfore I speak to the Case I cannot but do a Gentleman 's Right to the Author and say that If Troy could have been Defended This was the Hand to have done it In one Word more It is Cleanly and Artificial but still it makes his own Saying Good at last that It is a Dangerous Thing to Build upon a Foundation of Paradoxes What Credit says he is to be given to Criminals that are forced to Compound for their Necks against their Consciences Nay they 'l be Inwardly Glad not to be Able to Succeed in their Endeavours for 't is All Force without the least Pulse or Stroke of Nature or Inclination If these Men will Act AGAINST their Consciences for a Pardon will they not much more Act ACCORDING to their Consciences for the Continuance of that Security That is to say upon Conviction that they were in an Error But if the Dutiful Conscience of Preserving the Publique Peace Works One way And if the Letter will Suppose a Conscientious Obligation either so in Truth or so Vnderstood for the Destroying of a Lawful Government on the Other it is a kind of a Scandal upon the very Rebellion to call it a Crime In Opposition to the Text here that Implies it to be a Matter of Conscience Here 's the Present Case in short Stated and Read upon And so we 'le Proceed If in the Height of this great Dearness by comparing Things it should happen that at this Instant there is much a surer Friendship with those who are so far from allowing Liberty that they allow no LIVING to a Protestant under them Let the Scene lie in what part of the World it will the Argument will come home and sure it will afford sufficient Ground to suspect Apparent Contradictions must strike us Neither Nature nor Reason can digest them Self-Flattery and the desire to deceive our selves to gratifie a present Appetite with all their Power which is great cannot get the better of such broad Conviction as some things carry along with them Will you call these vain and empty Suspicions Have you been at all times so void of Fears and Jealousies as to justifie your being so unreasonably valiant in having none upon this Occasion Such an extraordinary Courage at this unseasonable Time to say no more is too dangerous a Virtue to be commended P. 4. THere may be Time Place and Occasion for the Private Entertaining and the Secret Apprehending of Fears and Jealousies And there may be Just Ground Powerful Inducements and Necessary Prudence so to do But for the Propagating the Publishing the Spreading and the Irritating of Those Jealousies where the Honour of the Prince The Dignity of the Government and the Peace of the State are All wrapt up in the Consequences of Moving That Distemper there can be No Time Place or Occasion to Warrant such a Practice I could Wish that This Letter had been kept Clearer of the very Word SVSPECT Or that where the Author has thought sit to make Vse of it the Suspicion had not been Carried further then I am willing to understand it was Intended For Jealousie Naturally runs into the most Implacable Hatred and to tell Protestants that there 's No LIVING under Papists is to tell them at the same Time that there 's no Suffering of Papists to Live under Them and so to set All the Believers of This Doctrine Immediately upon the Cutting of One Anothers Throats He puts the Case of a Possibility of a Surer Friendship at This Instant but then Cloggs it with such After-Claps that Nothing but Future Damnation for a Present Disobedience can be more Dreadful then the Course of the Impendent Calamities that he has set before us Apparent Contradictions must strike us he says And is it not an Apparent Contradiction to Vest Subjects with the Authority of Governours To Invert the Order of Reason and Nature and to take the Office of Rule out of the Grown and cry Hail King to the Multitude Neither Nature nor Reason can Digest the turning of the Ordinance of Power Topsy-Turvy And the Case is not Appetite as he says but Duty Let Convictions be never so Broad the Proper Judge of 'em is the Person that God has appointed to Judge of 'em and the Slandering of Gods Annointed on the One hand is Worse then the very Supposed Male-Administration on the Other The People are Happy where a Prince Governs Well But still in Case even of a Mis-Government there 's No Remedy but what 's Worse then the Disease Toward the Close of This Paragraph he draws an Inference from the Dissenters Behaviour under Past Fears and Jealousies to their Behaviour under Fears and Jealousies at Present Now if he had taken into This Calculation an Account of the Artifices that Rais'd Those Fears and Jealousies an Account of the Design and the Application of them the Misery and Desolation that they brought upon the King and Three Kingdoms he would not have Advised them I hope to the saying of the Same Lesson and to the doing of the Same Things over again And whereas he calls Courage a Dangerous Virtue at This Vnseasonable Time It is the most Daring and the most Dangerous of All Courages that he Himself now Practices That is to
themselves either in Looks Speech Writing or Action No man waâ—â—ever Thankful because he was bid to be so but because he had or thought he had some Reason for it If then there is cause in this Case to pay such extravagant Acknowledgments they will flow naturally without taking such pains to procure them and it is unkindly done to tire all the Post-Horses with carrying Circular Letters to sollicit that which would be done without any trouble or constraint If it is really in it self such a Favour what needeth so much pressing men to be Thankful and with such eager circumstances that where Perswasions cannot delude Threatnings are employed to fright them into a Compliance Thanks must be voluntary not only unconstrained but unsollicited else they are either Trifles or Snares they either signifie nothing or a great deal more then is intended by those that give them p. 5. THe Author comes now to Enlarge himself upon the Text of Thanksgiving but he forgets I fear that there are Thanks of Good-Manners and Respect as well as of Passion Thanks for Protection in the Enjoyment and Possession of Benefits as well as for Actual Bounties in the Collation of them Many stand in need to be Taught to be Thankful which he calls Bidding to be so and they had never Thought on 't perhaps if they had not been Admonished so to be As to the Such Extravagant Acknowledgments which he speaks of I do neither Vnderstand the Such nor the Extravagant Unless he Means that in the Testimonials of the Peoples Loyalty and Affections to his Majesty as they are set forth in so many Addresses the Play is not worth the Candle His Conceit of Tiring Post-Horses is an Allegation without any Proof or so much as Probability to Back it But I hope if it were True he would have the Charity to Allow the Government for That 's the Innuendo of it a Liberty to do the same Thing which he Practices Himself For to his Honour be it spoken never any Man perhaps made more Work for Post-Horses with Two or Three Sheets of Paper then the Author has done with This Letter And never any Letter perhaps was more Vniversally Circular then This has been And to What End but to Sollicite to Perswade to Threaten to Fright People These are his own Words into a Complyance with his Dictates He is against Pressing Men to be Thankful Nhw Gratitude is a Duty both toward God and our Neighbour And certainly a Duty that may be Pressed and Inculcated in the Moral Offices of a Civil Life as well as in the Chair or the Pulpit To make an End of This Clause Either he is gone off from his Text of Thankful Addresses or else he does a Worse Thing in making either Trifles or Snares of Those Applications which in Common Justice and Modesty ought to receive a Fairer Construction If an Inference should be made That whosoever Thanketh the King for his Declaration is by that engaged to Justifie it in point of Law it is a greater Stride than I presume all those care to make who are perswaded to Address c. p. 5. IT must not be Forgotten that though the Author of the Letter has Chang'd his Battery from Invention to Rhetorique from Rhetorique to Calumny and now at last from Calumny to Law That he is still Constant to his First Design and to the Two Main Topiques viz. of the King's Declaration of Indulgence and of the Addresses that have follow'd upon it But Whether for Decency Affection or Good Company it Matters not to Our Present Bus'ness He enters upon his Subject with a kind of an Exposition Ex post facto of the Addressers Meaning After the Addresses were Presented and without much Regard to What they thought either Before or upon the Spot at the very Presenting of them This is much after the President of the Protestation of Forty First they made the People Take it and when they had once gotten it down the Imposers Publish'd a Comment upon the Meaning of it The First Step that he Advances toward his Law-Point comes within a Hair's Breadth of Pronouncing the King's Declaration to be a Nullity But he brings it In with an IF and an I PRESUME And What does he Presume but that All the Addressers are either Fools or Knaves in either Taking or in Addressing Thanks for that which they think in their Consciences the King has No Power to Give If he can sink the Reputation of the King's Power and Prerogative the Whole work is done at a Stroke But he is Resolved to have at least Two Strings to his Bow and to Try what 's to be done upon the Passions of the People if he Cannot Captivate their Vnderstandings And so he sets himself to the Driving of Another Naile If it shall be supposed that all the Thankers will be Repealers of the Test whenever a Parliament shall meet such an Expectation is better prevented before then disappointed afterwards and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a Scandal is not to do any thing that may give a Colour to the Mistake P. 5. HIs First Attempt is to Invalidate the Kings Declaration it self and if he cannot Carry the Law-Point he is now a Trying what he can do upon the Poll toward the Frustrating and Poysoning of it in the Operation and Effect upon the Meeting of Another Parliament If it shall be supposed says he that all the Thankers will be Repealers c. 'T is Better Prevented then Disappointed As who should say Let the Next Choice be made according to our Authors Measures and the Members must be neither Church-of-England-Men nor Papists nor Dissenters but a sort of Amphibious Republicans according to This Letter-Model and the Government will be then most blessedly brought to Bed of a Representative Wisdom These Bespoken Thanks are little less improper then Love-Letters that were sollicited by the Lady to whom they are to be directed so that besides the little Ground there is to give them the manner of getting them doth extremely lessen their Valne P. 5. HE will not allow Bespoken Thanks in This Case or in This Manner to have either Ground or Value If there be such a Fatality in the Matter that there is No keeping the Author of the Letter out of Harms-way I had much rather that he should fall upon his Own Weapon then by Any Malicious Practice or Address of Mine So that for a Dish of Coffee These Thanks shall be BESPOKEN or NOT Bespoken whether of the Two He pleases For they are never the More or the Less due for Being or Not Being either the One or the Other And if they be Due with a respect to the Person to the Occasion to the Prudence Good Manners or to Twenty other Circumstances that Enter into Offices of This Quality 't is Enough to give them both Ground and Value The King speaks to All his People in This Declaration
it seems for being so UNREASONABLY Thank full The King Grants them an Indulgence They Thank him for 't and That Vnreasonable Thankfullness says our Author will be their Ruine I hope he does not mean the King by that Destroying Power though I do not see any way in the World to keep his Majesty Clear of That Innuendo And Briefly the Edge Strikes the Same Way thorough the Whole Course of the Paper If you think for your excuse to expound your Thanks so as to restrain them to this particular case others for their ends will extend them further and in these differing Interpretations that which is back'd by Authority will be the most likely to prevail especially when by the advantage you have given them they have in truth the better of the Argument and that the Inferences from your own Concessions are very strong and express against you This is so far from being a groundless Supposition that there was a late instance of it in the last Session of Parliament in the House of Lords where the first Thanks though things of course were interpreted to be the Approbation of the King 's whole Speech and a Restraint from the further examination of any part of it though never so much disliked and it was with difficulty obtained not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dispensing meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good Manners by which no such thing could possibly be intended p. 6. I Find little more in This Paragraph or in This Page I might have said then a Rhetorical Reading upon the Virtue of INGRATITUDE and how Mortal a Sin it is under the Highest Obligations to a Prince for Subjects to be THANKFULL The Great Danger and Inconvenience that appears in This Section is the hazzard of Misconstruction for fear a man that gives Thanks for Chalk should be thought to give Thanks for Cheese Now it was my Opinion that a man might be as Explicit in his Thanks as upon Any Other Subject and if This Banter passes I am Absolutely for keeping my Hands in my Pocket and my Tongue betwixt my Teeth in my Own Defence for if a body either Speaks or Writes and Authority should make Treason on 't it might be as much as a man's Life's Worth. His Instance of a Case last Session of Parliament in the House of Lords is a Point too Hot for Mee to Meddle with But I may venture yet without the Risque I hope of a Scandalum Magnatum to take Notice of the Author's saying that the King's Speech was DISLIK'D A Term that I presume he had no Commission for And then for his Irony upon the MIGHTY Prerogative of Dispensing 't is a Flower not to be Pass'd over without an Emphasis In One Word more it is a Wonderful Thing that our Author's Head should run so much upon the Differing Interpretations that would be Pass'd upon his UNREASONABLE Thankfullness in such a Case as This and never so much as Dream of the Constructions that would be made on the Other Hand â—or certainly a more Vnreasonable Vnthankfullness This sheweth that some bounds are to be put to your good Breeding and that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a Complement Now that for some time you have enjoyed the benefit of the End it is time for you to look into the Danger of the Means The same Reason that made you desirous to get Liberty must make you solicitous to preserve it so that the next thought will naturally be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with the Principles of all Religions as not to rely upon a Death bed Repentance p. 6. THis Paragraph does in some Measure make good the Suggestion of the Next before concerning the Danger of Differing Interpretations for I cannot fully make out the Secret of the Author 's Meaning about the Principles of All Religions and a Death-bed Repentance unless he intends by it so Comprehensional a Charity that All Christians in what Latitude soever may go to Heaven Hand in Hand in the way of a Holy Common-Wealth He would not have the Constitution of England according to his Popular Vnderstanding of it Complemented away out of Good Breeding Neither would I have That Constitution according to the Legal and Monarchical Frame of it Coursly dealt withall Calumniated and Disparag'd out of Ill-Breeding He gives Advice about the Benefit of the End and the Danger of the Means and so Conveys a Title over to the People of Entring into a kind of Joynt Commission with his Majesty for the Managing of Publique Affairs and for Obviating the Political Consequences of Things Take him in short quite thorough and he shews himself Directly an Advocate for a Popular Liberty without so much as One Salvo for the Rights of the Crown There are certain Periods of time which being once past make all Cautions ineffectual and all Remedies desperate Our Vnderstandings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats which if not restrained in time do not give us leave to look back till it is too late Consider this in the Case of your Anger against the Church of England and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind when after the late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge p. 6. 7. HEre 's a kind of a Predestinarian Foundation with Certain Philosophical Political and Historical Meditations and Reflexions upon it The Time Presses and when 't is too Late 't is too Late which is a Pithy way of Speaking a Great deal in a Little. His Councell to the Dissenters of Moderation toward the Church of England is Good and Seasonable but least the Church of England should grow Proud of being so much in our Author 's Good Graces he gives her a Box o' th' Ear at the very Next Word that makes her Stagger again and in the Same Period makes as Arrant a Jilt of his Beloved Clyent as ever he did of the Whore of Babylon Take Warning says he by the Church-of-England's Mistake And what was that Mistake in his Opinion at last but an Impotent Folly and a Diabolical Revenge So that to the Scandal of our Author's Profession he has set up Two Churches of England The One of them a Desperate Hair-Brain'd Vindictive Wretch as He would Represent Her The Other a Good Peace-making Gentlewoman Whereof He Himself takes upon him to be a Son and a Member And now to shew that he is all of a piece and as Faithful an Historian as a Canonical Church-of-England-Man Nothing can ever so Effectually Terminate THis Dispute as the Issue of the Conference at the Savoy soon after his Majesties late Return toward a General Accommodation I forget Names But they Brake upon This Point
Because the King's Commissioners would not agree That the Enjoying of Things Lawful by Lawful Authority if they may by Accident be the Occasion of Sin is Sinful His Majesty for the Purpose bids the Asserter of that Doctrine Light him a Candle No says he if it should happen to be Blown out and give Offence some bodies Throat may come to be Cut upon 't This is it now that our Author calls The Church of England's Sacrificing their Interest to their Revenge because they would not Agree to a Principle Absolutely Destructive of Human Society Either you will blame this Proceeding in them and for that Reason not follow it or if you allow it you have no reason to be offended with them So that you must either dismiss your Anger or lose your Excuse except you should argue more partially then will be supposed of Men of your Morality and Vnderstanding p. 7. This Method of Reasoning is just as if a Man should Raise a Building upon a Foundation of Blown Bladders where there 's nothing but Wind and Blast to Support the Fabrick He runs away with the Fact for Granted Dilemma's upon it and so leaves the Matter in the Hands of Men of Morality and Vnderstanding If you had now to do with those Rigid Prelates who made it a matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff and inexorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so land open that Mistake that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescension shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England And are you so in love with separation as not to be moved by this Example It ought to be followed were there no other Reason then that it is a Virtue but when besides that it is become necessary to your Preservation it is impossible to fail the having its Effect upon you This Party-per-Pale-Humour runs to the Tune of the Old Song And no body else shall Plunder but I For the Quarrel does not lye to the Dissenters so much for any Animosity of Theirs toward the Church of England but for breaking in upon our Author's Patent of Sole Privilege for the Abusing of them Himself There was a Time 't is True when Prelates says he were Rigid Vncharitable Vnreasonable Stiff and Inexorable Haughty and under the Power of the Spirit of Persecution c. But All is turn'd now it seems into a Spirit of Peace Charity and Condescension Quere if it should not have been Comprehension As witness the Pacifick Genius and Tenderness of the Author here and his Paper Is the Church of England so Reform'd the Letter's Church of England that is and will none of You my Masters come in to take your Parts in the Blessing Are you so in love with Separation that when Wee come down to You you 'l be running away from Vs For That 's the Meaning on 't 'T is your Interest as well as your Virtue to Associate And what 's All This now but the Down-right Project of Uniting into a Republique If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble but when she is out of Power and therefore loseth the Right of being believed when she pretendeth to it The Answer is First it would be an Vncharitable Objection and very much miss-timed An Vnseasonable Triumph not only Vngenerous but Vnsafe So that in These Respects it cannot be Vrged without Scandal even though it could be said with Truth Secondly This is not so in Fact and the Argument must fall being built upon a false foundation for whatever may be told you at this very Hour and in the Heat and Glare of your present Sunshine the Church of England can in a Moment bring Clouds again and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads Blow you off the Stage with a Breath if she would give but a Smile or a kind Word the least Glimpse of her Compliance would throw you back into the State of Suffering and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity which have accrued during the time of this Kindness to you and yet the Church of England with all her Faults will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means but chooseth to bear the Weight of Power rather then lye under the Burden of being Criminal p. 7 8. VVE have here as Lewd a Charactor given betwixt Hawk and Buzzard of the True Church of England from the Pen of a Pretended Church-of-England-Man as the Concurring Wit and Spite of the Greatest Enemy she has upon the Face of the Earth could put together Her Humility is made the Effect of her Impotence and therefore there 's No Believing of her says the Comment But then says the Author Handy Dandy That 's a little Vncharitable and Miss-timed and it is neither Generous nor Safe So that at This Season it could hardly be said without Scandal tho among Friends no more perhaps then Truth But then he Rubs up the Dissenters again with a Politick Flint that the Church of England Meaning â—his Church of England still is not so Low yet neither as People Imagine and that she Could in the next Moment Command Clouds and Thunder Turn Heaven and Earth Topsy-Turvj with but a Smile or a Kind Word But Our Author's Church of England scorns to be Rescued by such Vnjustifiable Means as giving the King Thanks and will rather beare the Weight of Power then the Burthen of being Criminal which is all one as to say Let the King do what he will he shall never make us Crouch either to his Authority or his Power like a Company of Sneaking Sniveling Loyal Thankful Rogues But have His Church-of-England-Men a Power to do All This as he says Why then they have the Power to make the King Break his Word and to Stop the Sun in his Course In fine his Majesties Faith Honour and Government at the rate of these Hussing Challenges lye all at Mercy It cannot be said that she is Vnprovoked Books and Letters come out every Day to call for Answers yet she will not be stirred From the supposed Authors and the Style one would swear they were Vndertakers and had made a Contract to fall at with the Church of England There are â—â—…shes in every Address Challenges to 〈◊〉 the Pen in every Pamphlet In short the fairest Occasions in the Wâ—â—ld 〈…〉 Quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters 〈…〉 will suppose to Act as they do with no ill Intent and these small 〈…〉 and sent out to Picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the Entortainment as well as the Advantage of the Church of Rome p. 8. THat there are Provoking Books and Letters that Call for and that Answer is a Point
readilly agreed upon on My Part and our Author will I hope upon Second Thoughts admit This letter of his to be One of the Number Nay and the Writers and the Managers of some of those Pamphlets look like 〈◊〉 or Sharpers that make it their Trade to start Quarrels and then Scoure away with a Hat or a Cloak in the Interim I have seen several Addresses too that seem to Extend Liberty of Worship to Liberty of Reproche and that think they Cannâ—â— Bless God sufficiently on the One hand without Treading upon their Neighbours 〈◊〉 on the Other There 's no Denying of This and what 's the Issue at last but that the True Church of England Suffers for the Faults of our Authors Church of England Falsly so Called This Conduct is so good that it will be scandalous not to applaud it It is not equal dealing to blame our Adversaries for doing Ill and not commend them when they do Well p. 8. SVbmission Patience and Resignation are Virtues Undoubtedly that Deserve Applause and the Impartial Distribution of Reward or Punishment for Well or Evil-doing is but Writing after the Copy of the Divine Justice But then we must not call Evil Good nor Good Evil. Let us have no Stealing of Crowns in Canorica Habits No doing of Ill Things under False Names No Writing of Letters to Disturb Government to Dishonour a Nation as well as to Reproche any Religions Profession And after All These Contradictions to the Doctrine and Practices of the Apostolical Church of England let 's have No Casting a Canonical Role over the Shoulders of an Impostor and leave the Taylor to Answer for the Character To hate them because they persecuted and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer rather then receive all the Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal Compliance is a Principle no sort of Christians can Own since it would give an Objection to them not to be Answered p. 8. THe Author sets up here for a Sufferer What would the World think of him now if his Name should come to be found among the Persecutors Not among the Persecutors of the Dissenters which he most Vn son-like Reflects upon in This Clause but among the Persecutors even of Those pretended Persecutors Themselves I Charge him with Nothing for I do not know him but he takes a kind of a Wrigling Biass in this Letter as if he were Creeping into his Mother's Bells again The Criminal Compliance is only the Conscientious Duty of Acknowledging His Majesties Authority which is a Characteristical Diserimination betwixt the Ligitimate and the Illegitimate Sons of the Church of England Think a little who they were that promoted your former Perseuetions and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of your Sufferings TO put this into English now the Papists were the Promoters and the Protestants the Instruments of the Dissenters Former Persecutions And will you now make a League says he with the Authors of your Sufferings This is only a Paraphrase upon Otes's Epistle before his Narrative and a Story so quite out of date that a Man would as soon put Pen to Paper in Answer to a Canterbury Tale. 1. Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Vertue of a Conge d'essire and instead of Election be satisfy'd if you are returned p. 8. 2. Will you in Parliament justifie the Dispensing Power with all its Consequences and repeal the Test by which you will make way for the Repeal of All the Laws that were made to perserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall Destroy it 3. Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate into the Merit of Obedience and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles 4. Are you so linked with your New Friends as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it p. 8. TO take these Four Heads as they lye The First Implies a Direct Practice and Confederacy both In and With the Sheriffs The Second Anticipates the Question and Precludes the Freedom of a Parliamentary Debate It makes the Common People Judges of State-Consequences and subjects the Wisdom and Justice of the Government to the Censure of the Multitude Neither is the Test so Sacred as not to be lyable to the Common Conditions and Limitations that are Annexed to All Other Laws 3ly What is This Contemptuous Insinuation but an Enflaming Bitterness Mockery and Scorn to the Highest Degree while the Kings Declaration is made the Ground of the Calumny and the Incentive to 't 4ly This is as who should say Leave it to the Parliament to set you at Liberty but be sure you have nothing to do with the Kings Declaration nor with Any Indulgence that shall include the Papists for Company Consider that the implyed Conditions of your new Treaty are no less then that you are to do every thing you are desired without examining and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you you are let loose only upon Bayl the first Act of Non Compliance sendeth you to Jayl again p. 8 9. HEre 's an Extravagance of Figure and Hyperbole without the force of any Image of Reason or Truth but the Author Bethinks himself what would be the most Provoking Thing in Nature to be Said or Done under our Circumstances and then Throws it out to the Mobile as the Resolution and Design of the King and his Ministers You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since they being so very earnest to get it established by a Law and the doing such very hard things in order as they think to obtain it is a clear Evidence that they do not think that the single Power of the Crown is in this Case a good Foundation especially when this is done under a Prince so very tender of all the Rights of Sovereignty that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it THis Section is a piece of Art that only Differs from the Former Strokes of the same Pen in that it Lashes the Government with somewhat a Better Grace The Pretext is Popular but bring it to the Touch and it vanishes like a Mist before the Sun. The King Suspends by his Prerogative but a Total Repeal must be the Work of his Majesty in Parliament which does not yet hinder the Temporary Virtue of a Temporary Suspension But to give the Author
have known what to speak to One might have made a Bolt or a Shaft on 't but to talk of the Same Fate at Large why who knows but he may Carry it to Election Reprobation or What not And under favour it was a Great Oversight in him to lay the Stress of the Persuasive upon the Train of the Company that goes the same Way rather then upon the Reason of the Thing Especially Considering that the Same Argument holds stronger for the Broad Way then it does for the Narrow 'T is true he Proposes an Vnion here which is neither Better nor Worse then an Association There remains yet One very Extraordinary Point behind that is not upon Any Terms to be Pass'd over without some Animadversion That is to say A Resolution upon the Case betwixt the Comprehensional-Church-of-England-Men and the Dissenters as it is Determin'd by the Author of This Letter Resolved That it is as Justifiable to have No Religion as Willfully to throw away the HUMANE MEANS of Preserving it In the First Place What is That Man's Religion that is of a Hundred and Fifty Religions according to the Case here in Hand Or has That Man Any Religion or No that Compounds All These into One 2ly Had not a man better be Careless or Improvident then Atheistical and better be Guilty of a Failing in his Duty toward God in This or That Particular then of a Blasphemous Defyance of him in the Habit of an Impious Life 3ly What does the Author intend by HUMANE MEANS For Conspiracies Force of Arms Seditious Practices and All the Methods of Overturning Governments fall properly enough under the Classis of Humane Means Now if a man may take the Liberty with This Paper that the Fathers of the Church do with the Holy Bible i. e. of Expounding One Text by Another Here is Anti-Monarchical Doctrine in 't Project of Confederacy Force of Numbers and Dint of Calumny which do all fall Naturally under the Topique of Humane Means The Word Willfully even if the Other Law words Advisedly and Maliciously had been added to 't amounts to no more then what is Necessarily Involv'd and Imply'd in the Rest. Now to Conclude Humane Means for Preserving a Religion can Operate no further then in Cases where Religion may be Taken away And I never heard of a Religion yet that was taken away by Actual Violence I have now done with the Letter it self and the Authors Last Words shall be the Answerers too I am Dear Sir Your most Affectionate Humble Servant IN the Course of This Letter and Answer I have dealt Faithfully in every Particular both of Text and Comment but I have somewhat yet more to add upon the Whole Matter touching the Judgment Candor and Design of the Author together with the Conduct and Argument of the Paper it self The Author Writes himself a Church-of-England-Man but it must be by a Second Venter then for he gives his Orthodox Mother most Bloudy hard Words even in his Pretended Zeale for the Interest of That Communion A Papist is his Aversion And Then he is No Dissenter neither for 't is the Main Drift of his Discourse to Cluck the Dissenters over to him and Gather them under his Wing Only by shewing what he is Not he gives in some measure to understand what he Is. If one may Judge of his Perswasion by his Letter it is an Hundred and Fifty Diversities of Opinion Kneaded together according to the Amsterdam Dispensatory into one Sovereign Composition under the Nick Name of PROTESTANT So that a Body may say of the Religion of This Pamphlet as the Wench in the Comedy said of her Bastard 'T is the TROVP'S Religion 't is the TROVP'S Child and there went a great many People to the Making of it In one Word it is a Coalition of so many Nominal Religions into One State-Faction for though there may be Conscience in the Particular Opinions Severally and Apart it is yet Impossible for the Agreement to be any thing but a Confederacy in the Conjunction Tha being the Only Medium wherein they can Vnite As to the Candor of the Writer and his Design It is as Clear as Day that he has taken up a False Pretence as well as a False Person and that he neither is a Genuine Son of the Church of England nor a True Friend to 't for Light and Darkness are not more Contrary One to Another then his Practice is to his Profession Insomuch that his own Words and Works are a Thousand Witnesses against him The Church of England he says upon the Late Kings Restauration Sacrificed their Interest to their REVENGE RIGID PRELATES that kept People at an UNCHARITABLE Distance STIFF and INEXORABLE to Reasonable Scruples HAUGHTY and Govern'd by the Spirit of PERSECUTION Letter to a Dissenter p. 7. Is not This a Gracious Church-of-England-Child now to talk at This Rate of his own Mother And then to shew that he has every Jot as little Reverence for his Civil Parent as he has for his Ecclesiastical take his Papers from End to End and he has not so much as One Line in 'em that looks kindly upon the Government for what 's the Drift of them but to Debauch the Dissenters from their Duty to Possess the Multitude with Desperate Positions against the King's Power Calumnies against his Administration and Down-right Slanders upon his Honour and Justice To Hair Them out of their Wits with Croking and Ill-boding Presages Fill their Heads with Enflaming and Implacable Jealousies Alarm them with Visionary Dangers Stir them up to Outrages by an Ostentation of their Numbers Flatter them into a False Opinion of their Right and Privileges And who but the Mobile all this while for the Judges of the Controversie What 's the Whole Discourse in fine but a Lecture of Civil Power betwixt King and People upon the Text of PROTESTANT and PAPIST And in One Word A Paradox of Conscience Dodg'd into a Popular Scheme of Government But All under the Pretext still of a Church of England Letter too though Bloud was as much a Church of England Doctor when he Stole the Crown And I would the Resemblance of This Pamphlet did not look like the same Character Assum'd again for the same End. This Letter they say has made some Proselytes as they call them but Secret Friends and Abetters it has in Abundance though most Infallibly whoever is a Friend to the Intent and Matter of it is an Enemy to the True Church of England as well as to that of Rome to the Honour of his Majesty and to the Peace of his Dominions And therefore People should do well to Consider the Doctrine and the Biass of This Letter before they take upon them to Judge of the Merits of it I reckon it My Duty however not to let the Scandal of so Vndutiful a Practice rest at the Door of the Church of England if I know how to remove it I have one Word more to say yet upon a