Memento Mori which shows by your favour an ill nature in you that will not allow a Dissenter the joy of his hony moon In this you are like one that after vows persuades to Enquires But I hope e're I have gone through with this discourse you will acknowledge though your Style is soft and beautiful yet there is a weakness in your Reasonings will not easily prevail with a true dissenter who is not so far gone in his new passion but that he will hear and answer too d Since you quit your exhortatory Preface which was penn'd to obtain Audience and now will let us see your dexterity at Argument I shall endeavour to follow your method owning you have chosen the fittest mediums and if you could make them as convincing as plaufible which is now to be examined you might expect many Proselites e The Kings Justice and Honour was as conspicuous as early in his praises of and promises to the Church of England and I believe in the upshot those Politicians will be found the worst enemies to both who made such ill constructions of the Kings desire of the Repeal So that whatever the Church of England hath or can suffer may be ascribed to their taking the matter by the wrong handle But it is most evident Dissenters were then designed to have a mutual share of Liberty since the King granted noli prosequi's inhibitions and other relexations to them as soon as he did to Roman Catholicks How dutiful it was to reject the Kings Courtship I leave to all un-interessed persons to judge and the more the Instances can be multiplied the greater is the demonstration of the Kings desire to preserve them in their Duty and the more faulty those Men who filled peoples minds with the affrightments of the Kings design to settle Popery and destroy the Church of England which they knew morally impossible and yet continue to make it the only Helmet Argument Those who fly to any for Refuge had need use better Arguments than flattery whilst Dissenters were Rebells they could expect no other Quarter than the Law prescribed if the King had not been most merciful and it is most apparent a greater cause of the granting Indulgence is to take away all occasions and pretences of Rebellion rather than singly to usher in Liberty to Roman Catholicks by that Grace Neither is it any new inclination in the King to relieve Dissenters in Communion with the Roman Catholicks unless you will give him the lie who so publickly avows that it hath been ever his judgment that none ought to be Oppressed and Persecuted for matters of Religion and I think He ought to be believed as soon as any in His Kingdom Therefore if any Roman Catholicks at this time let fall hard words against Dissenters it can be against none but such who they have reason to suspect do act by no publick spirit of preservation for any but their own party and by this show that they have not changed their Nature by the favour that is afforded them f After all the search I can make I neither find it to be an Article of Faith in the Church of Rome to deny Liberty to nor that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and if any Constitution or Decree of a Council be found to the contrary that obligeth not Catholicks in point of Obedience The fallacy of your reasoning is easily detected by pulling out one pin the whole Machine flies in pieces One cannot be a Member in Communion with the Church of Rome or any other constituted Church whether Fallible or Infallible who is by that Church declared a Heretick so that liberty of Communion is only what is inconsistent with the Church of Rome but it no ways follows that Schismaticks or Hereticks in their sense ought not to be tollerated to Live yea enjoy their Worship by the power of the Prince who grants that Indulgence as Father of his Country For it is no Church Membership that is required by Tolleration Suppose any Prince let the Scene be where it will that hath in his Kingdom great numbers of Subjects of several persuasions in Religion must he unpeople his Kingdom of Two Hundred of his Subjects for every single Man of his own Religion according to your Calculation Do you judge in good earnest His Ghostly Father or his Holy Father the Pope will judge him to be in an habit of sin for it or enjoyn him for a Pennance to make such a Carnage no surely they will rather let the Tares grow among the Wheat or if He do not this must he pull ruine upon Himself and all those of His persuasion How Infallible soever the Church of Rome may judge it self yet you must allow she is not quite void of Sense Prudence and humane Policy or will not in several things yield to publick good and necessity You must suppose that Church to oblige that King to a Barbarism even impossible in it self to be effected e're you can make good any such conclusion from the Premises Excommunication is the highest and most destructive Sentence any Church can pronounce and it is to avoid Mutulations Dismembring Incisions and Corrosives for Religion our merciful King proposeth this Repeal since it hath been by too sad experience found how Magistrates Members of other Churches besides that of Rome have been guilty of the same whether with better Dexterity Success or Authority I now dispute not but surely all this harangue tends rather to engage Dissenters at any rate to purchase that Sovereign Panacaea which will prevent Persecution from any hand than to continue in a state of danger g Kings as well as others may Time matters and the Indulgence of a Prince makes no quicker a change in a Dissenter than a Pardon doth after the Malefactor hath his Irons on or the Halter about his neck or the poor Man made instantly rich by finding a Treasure These motions are from extreames as quick and as surprizing Dissenters while under the sense of continual sufferings might be instigated to Rebellion and so be Sons of Belial yet this sacred Ray if such mists as you are casting before them hinder not may well transform them to thankful and dutiful Subjects which is all that is expected It is true if the Dissenters Features be not changed from having a sower sullen murmuring and repining Aspect to that of chearfullness and gratitute Roman Catholicks have no reason to harbour a good Opinion of them Or if they be such Bigots to charge all persons that are not of their persuasion with Idolatry as you know they have done to the Church of England even by that Churches own Argument they are to be instructed better but this hinders not the King to do them good even against their deserts and I think it one of the greater Arguments that you are a most Rigid Calvinist or Brownist rather than a Church of England-Man that make use of this Article and that you are a most
Dissenters or would you have them stay to the next Ages If the first you deserve the doom of a Traitor since you must Exclude the King unless Roman Catholicks be included if the latter you must fit the Dissenters with Iron Shooes k You Write as if you were one of the Plenipotentiaries at a Treaty betwixt Roman Catholicks and Dissenters and were well acquainted with the secret Articles All the World hath judged Dissenters to have a great aversion to implicit Faith and blind Obedience but they must all be the most absolute Resigners of their Reason and Religion to the guidance of Roman Catholicks If for this pretended Liberty of Conscience as you call it they must Sacrifice their real Freedom I believe rather that the weight and galling of their late Chains are so much felt that they will be very unwilling to have them put on again by some Members of the Church of England and the confidence to be ever freed from them makes them so ready to embrace this Jayl-Delivery l To what degree soever either Roman Catholicks or Dissenters may judge valid the Dispensing Power yet that no ways should hinder them from desiring the Indulgence may be Established by Law to perpetuate that favour which they at present are only secure of during the Kings Life And as all Gracious and just Princes desire their Honour and good Fame may long out-live them so they wish that the benefits they intend for their people may be extended to future Ages Therefore however His Majesty may be satisfied in the rights of His Sovereignty yet for the tender regard of the future Repose of His Subjects It is a most Gracious Act in Him to endeavour the concurrence of His Two Houses which by an impropriety of Speech you call the Legislative when it is well known that without the Royal concurrence the Two Houses are only the Legispreparative m By those words and not without Reason you discover your self to have been a Seclusionist and yet want the candor of an ingenuous Dissenter who is not angry that those Members of the Church of England complied so far since it hath given them the opportunity of experiencing the Kings surprizing Clemency and condemning the groundless jealousie they had of Him which prompted to that Reluctancy against His Rightful Succession and the Dissenters have no reason to be sorry that these Members of the Church of England made no further Progress after the King came to the Crown Since that stop of theirs made the Wheel move faster towards the Indulgence the benefit whereof least they should be in danger to lose they will with all sedulity endeavour to promote though I presume by no indirect means but such as may be agreeable to the duty of their Allegiance and Thankfulness they owe to the King for it Then the scrupulous niceness concerning significant Ceremonies will cease because none will be obliged to use the Cope Surplice or long Cloak but such as like them only I hope it will be always prohibited to Preach in Buff-coats and mingle Blood with their Oblations n Nothing is more common than to find Names affixed according to peoples fancies and after a while one word serves for Description Definition and Character If Liberty of Conscience once be made practicable and in the vogue Those discriminating Cyphers will be useless and all Subjects will be considered in their morality or immorality obedience or disobedience rather than by the Cognizance of their Religion It is no strange thing in Nature that by some influence of the Heavens and aptness of Soyl some Plants may shoot up more in a Night than others backned by severe Frosts do in a Month and why the rare Plant of Liberty in Religious Worship may not be as perennial as the Thistle of Persecution I see no great Reason if Cultivated with common care If the prospect of continual suffering and the want of Christian Liberty made Dissenters Factious and Rebellious it is to be presumed that the Fundimental Instigation being removed the Witchcraft will no longer prevail It is the concernment of all Governments to see that Men be true to it e're they be trusted and when Princes lay by their co-active Laws it is the interest of the Subjects to lay aside their Animosities and when all Parties quit their Fire-Arms and offensive Weapons I see no reason to despair of Harmony and Accord in the duty of Christians and Subjects and thus being linked in the common bond of freedom I see no occasion to throw one another off again o If things now tend naturally to the ease of Dissenters they have reason to be most thankful to the King as the sole bestower of it and I see no Reason they should let go the Bird in hand in hopes to catch another in the Bush I should think they acted with less circumspection than they have wonted to do if they slip the opportunity of that tender made them in expectation of enjoying any thing like it when the Church of England shall be in a flourishing condition Besides it may be a Question whether a Toleration after the patern of the Low Countries may not be more prejudicial to the Church of England than such one as may be now adjusted p Here you are very Magisterial and have undertaken far more than your Credit will go for To say a Church is convinced of an Errour befits none but the Prolocutor of a Convocation when such a Vote was passed with a Nemine Contradicente and to ensure for a Parliaments Votes is more than any Ten Members of it can do But I presume you speak by Figure here that if Dissenters will not joyn with Roman Catholicks to be thankful for the Indulgence and will stick close to the Members of the Church of England that oppose it then the Parliament under a Protestant Successor and a Convocation will set such a value upon that service that they will be gentile to them and establish some Bill of comprehension which the Governours of the Church of England could never hitherto be brought to yield to All this looks so like decoy that the Dissenter of the lowest form will perceive it But what ever they do all thinking Men must judge the design of this is to animate all Protestants to weather out the point and heighten their opposition to the King which in former times would have been stil'd Sedition As to that excellent Princess I suppose you mean few Princesses in Europe are known to Excell Her in the Accomplishments of Body or Mind and as Her Royal Father is as Indulgent to Her Highness as any Prince can be so She is as Dutiful and whatever the King Establisheth in His time for the publick Good and Tranquility of His Kingdoms if She over-live Him I presume it may be Her desire if not Her Interest to ratifie and to what perfection soever His Majesty may bring this Pantheon there may still remain beautifying and adorning for His Successor
and room enough to enlarge the Foundations and build stronger Defences against the common Enemy of Persecution if this conspiring against a work which You own Dissenters need and deserve do not destroy it q In this Paragraph you are numbering the people and examining Your strength by the Muster-roll and the head of those Powers you design to Oppose is manifestly the King which is not very agreeable to the Church of Englands Doctrine of Non-Resistance r Good words butter no Parsnips if the Expressions of Duty were not tainted and hollow and in your Opinion His Majesties Religion did not only shade but totally Eclipse His Vertues Your Allegiance would not look as it doth more like a Submission than a Duty nor would You adventure upon that Bravado that some own their best security to Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance which look very like bidding Roman Catholicks beware least they rouse a sleeping Lyon For I know not who they are that Laugh at the commendable Doctrine of Non-Resistance but when I see Men fomenting jealousies against their Sovereign ridiculing His Conduct endeavouring to Represent Him as acting against the Laws assuming an Arbitrary Power denying Him the service of all His Subjects and by all possible Arts endeavour to withdraw the Affections of the people from Him solely because of His Religion I cannot judge such to be true practicers of that Doctrine s Here you give a touch of your Astrology and it being customary for the pretenders to that Art to attempt by Horary Questions to know Diseases and after a while to set up for Empericks So you give us a pretty Receipt to clear a lowring Sky the Sense of which is for all Protestants to lye in of the sullen keep their beds and there use some kind of reasonable Devotion and entertain their Visitants with discourses of their Loyalty and their adhering to the Laws and it will be twenty to one but they will be freed from the Hail-storm and escape the danger of the Infectious Air. But lest any should object that Bed-zid Protestants are not like to keep out Popery you have a most Infallible Elixir in your Repository which is that neither the Church of England or Protestant Dissenters ought to be affrighted with any fear that the Roman Catholick Religion can be Established by a Toleration since the ods is two hundred to one without a greater Miracle than any we read of in any Legend especially in the old Age of a Church which hath been so long barren of them For shame therefore give over your false Alarums amuse the Dissenters no more to such circumspect standing upon their guard to keep out Popery since in our days there is no feeding Five hundred with Five Loves and two Fishes t The conclusion is agreeable to your premises an Exhortation to an Association a gainst the King and all of His judgement in the matters of the Test and the motives to it are pretty odd that since both Parties have been too blame in Persecuting one another therefore they should be reconciled and combine in opposing the Indulgence which is most likely to put an end to all rancor and malice One would have thought that the Inference more naturally should have been that since they both had experienced the mischiefs of Persecution and neither of them bettered their condition by it therefore they should both have joyned in the promoting the general Indulgence that there might be no more strife among them since they were Brethren I am sure this had more truly resolved the Question But instead of this you tell the Dissenters without giving any Reason for it that dis-union is not only a Reproach but a danger to both This I own to be true if the Union you desire were for the publick good of both but if the Union be to combine you and them in equal undutifulness and ingratefulness to the King if this Union be desired to hinder the Kings Progress in His laudable purposes if this Union be but to while the business with a Shall I Shall I to tire the Kings Patience and disappoint His expectation it will redound to both the Dissenters and your Danger if not Reproach To persuade to such an Union as this is the whole drift of your discourse and something you must mean more than Passive Obedience when you rivet the Nail you have all this while been driving in telling your Reader that it is as unjustifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the means of preserving it This looks like a second sound to Horse and you have a pretty slight in your Mouth to persuade Roman Catholicks because you think them so credulous of Miracles to neglect all Cautions or means to preserve themselves but to relie upon a Supernatural Power But those of your Principles must use the Humane Means of preserving it and of how many Battalions these must consist though you have reason to conceal the Intimation from the World yet you give a sufficient Item what may be expected and thereby caution the Government to have more Circumspection over your Sayings and Actions Thus Sir I have now finished my Observations upon your Letter I shall subjoyn something the subject matter induceth me to offer to the consideration of all Christian Dutiful Subjects and then close the whole SIR I have hitherto follow'd the train you have lead me and endeavoured to give a reasonable Answer to the most material parts of your Letter What was bare supposal and groundless suspicion I have not much concerned my self with Those being but like the Feathering of unpiled Arrows which help their flight but enforce them little to do harm where-ever they fall Neither have I attempted to reach the Towring Flights of your Oratory which how Ornimental soever are but like mounting Bubbles which break and vanish when at the utmost stretch Your affrightments when well considered are but like the sparks in a Smiths-shop which upon a brisk heat and stroak fills all with seeming liquid fire yet it is as soon extinguished as the Iron cools or the labouring stroke ceaseth What was Seditious and tending to instigate the Subjects to jealousies and disloyal Opinions of their Sovereign I have endeavoured to Disprove and Repress What was Calumny I have gently wiped off unless when it was couched in such general Terms as placed it beyond all reach of the Spung. Rebells in open Hostility are not so dangerous to a Prince and His Governmet though the severest Punishments are inflicted on them when mastered as those are who by sly Arts Detraction evil Surmises and Constructions render their Prince suspected of Ruling Arbitrarily and altering Religion and Laws and thereby blast His Credit with His people For those are the Men that make the whole Reigns of Princes troublesom and unfortunate to Themselves and their Subjects These List the Men provide Magazines and Arms and prepare all things in readiness against the sound of the Trumpet