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
Antidotes against them There are many Thousands of His Majesties Subjects both better able and more at leisure and concerned to Animadvert upon your Letter but upon the first reading I found many incentives to urge me to it when I saw such mis-interpretations of his Majesties Honourable designs his conduct so calumniated such dangerous innuendo's such endeavours to poyson the Members of the Church of England in their Loyalty the Arts to make them forfeit their Reputations with His Majesty and the World by alluring them to do every thing that made former Dissenters so abnoxious and leading them in the same steps with which they had trod the stage so tragical to themselves and the Kingdom What I have writ was the result of my thoughts e're I had read any Answer except the first two that were made you but by distance of place and other intervening accidents which hinder the communicating of it hath been stopped hirherto and if the opinion some have that it may be yet useful to some that may need repeated cautions and admonitions to beware of being seduced by the plausibleness of your Language had not prevailed with me I should have totally suppressed it Now that I may do you all possible right I have inserted the Letter entire according to the different Paragraphs and subjoyned mine and do freely yield your Column is that of the composit order beautiful though not strong and I hope that mine may be more solid like the Dorick rather chusing to render my Answer according to my Capacity flattering my self at least in the good intention sincere and useful than florid or fallacious desiring all along when I mention the Church of Englands severity to be understood no ways as censuring the Church as Author of those Laws nor questioning the prudence of the State in making Laws which according to the temperament of the times the security of the publick peace and it may be the desire of Uniformity upon prudential grounds our Kings thought fit to Enact But in this great revolution when our King thinks fit to try other measures I humbly judge it the interest of all peaceable spirits and dutiful Subjects calmly to weigh His Majesties Reasons and yeild to the Repeal of such Laws as cannot now be put in execution and may in all human probability conduce much to the publick tranquility of the Nation But I shall take an opportunity to speak to this after I have dispatched what I have to say to your Letter wherein I would not be understood to plead for the merits of Dissenters but to shew that they have no reason to quit their right in the Kings favour tendered to them without their seeking by any Arguments you have brought nor that the Members of the Church of England ought to be so much disquieted that it is granted to them since the Dissenters thereby will be without all excuse if this make them not better Subjects Nor think I the Church of England hath reason to be so jealous of being overlaid by them since the constitution of the Government of the Church of England is better adapted to the Monarchy than either the Classical or Congregational way and that the Roman Catholicks can so multiply as to ballance both in my judgement is to be reckoned among the portents of Nature and I will sooner believe a grain of the powder of projection can turn a Hundred pound of Lead to pure Gold than that this can be effected in one Age without a Divine Miracle which when wrought none will be troubled at that own an omnipotent Being to whose guidance they do submit themselves THE LETTER SIR SInce Addresses are in fashion give me leave to make one to You. This is neither the effect of Fear Interest or Resentment therefore you may be sure it is sincere and for that Reason it may expect to be kindly received Whether it will have power enough to Convince depends upon the Reasons of which you are to judge and upon your preparation of Mind to be persuaded by Truth whenever it appeareth to you It ought not to be the less welcom for coming from a friendly Hand one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of Opinion and who will not let his thoughts for the publick be so tyed or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle the Charity which besides all other Arguments is at this time become necessary to preserve us b I am neither surprized nor provoked to see that in the condition you were put into by the Laws and the ill circumstances you lay under by having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your Charge you were desirous to make your selves less uneasie and obnoxious to Authority Men who are sore run to the nearest Remedy with too much hast to consider all the Consequences Grains of allowance are to be given where Nature gives such strong Influences When to Men under Sufferings it offereth Ease the present Pain will hardly allow time to examine the Remedies and the strongest reason can hardly gain a fair Audience from our Mind whilst so possessed till the Smart is a little allayed c I do not know whether the Warmth that naturally belongeth to New Friendships may not make it a harder Task for me to persuade you It is like telling Lovers in the beginning of their Joys that they will in a little time have an End Such an unwelcom Style doth not easily find credit but I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new Passion but that you will Hear still and therefore I am under the less discouragement when I offer to your Consideration two things d The first is the cause you have to Suspect your New-Friends The Second the Duty incumbent upon you in Christianity and Prudence not to hazard the Publick Safety neither by desire of Ease nor of Revenge e To the first Consider that notwithstanding the smooth Language is now put on to engage you these New Friends did not make you their Choice but their Refuge They have ever made their first Courtships to the Church of England and when they were rejected there they made their Application to you in the second place The instances of this might be given in all times I do not repeat them because whatsoever's unnecessary must be tedious the Truth of this Assertion being so plain as not to admit a Dispute You cannot thereforer reasonably flatter your selves that there is an Inclination to you They never pretended to allow you any Quarter but to usher in Liberty for themselves under that shelter I refer you to Mr. Coleman's Letters and to the Journals of Parliament where you may be convinced if you can be so mistaken as to doubt nay at this very hour they can hardly forbear in the height of their Courtship to let fall hard words of you So little is Nature to be restrained it will start out sometimes disdaining to submit to the Vsurpation of Art and
be not to engage your self beyond Retreat and to agree so far with Principles of all Religions as not to relie upon a Death-bed Repentance x 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 tast of your rough usage to them in other times that it made them forget their Interest and sacrifice it to their Revenge y 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 than will be supposed of men of your Morality and Vnderstanding z If you had now to do with those rigid Prelates who made it matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence but kept you at an uncharitable distance and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff inexorable the Argument might be fairer on your side but since the common Danger hath so laid 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 a Peace Charity and Condescention shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England and are you so in love with Separation as not to be moved by his Example It ought to be followed were there no other reason than that it is a Vertue but when besides that it is become necessary to your preservation it is impossible to fail the having its effect upon you a 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 uncharitable Objection and very much mis-timed an unseasonable Triumph not only ungenerous but unsafe So that in these Respects it cannot be urged 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 Sun-shine 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 for 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 rescu'd by such unjustifiable means but chuseth to bear the weight of power rather than lie under the burthen of being Criminal b 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 stile one would swear they were Vndertakers and had made a Contract to fall out with the Church of England There are Lashes in every Address Challanges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet In short the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters whom she will suppose to Act as they do with no ill intent and these small Skirmishes pickt and sent out to picqueer and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome c 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 ills and not commend them when they do well d To hate them because they persecuted and not to be reconciled to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the Advantages that can be gained by criminal compliance is a Principle no sort of Christians can own since it would give an Objection to them never to be answered e Think a little who they were that promoted your former Persecutions 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 our Sufferings f Have you enough considered what will be expected from you Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Vertue of a Conge d'eslire and instead of Election be satisfied if you are Returned g 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 preserve your Religion and to Enact others that shall Destroy it h 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 i 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 k Consider that the implyed Conditions of our 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 vpon Bayl the first Act of Non-compliance sendeth you to Jayl again l You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power which you are to Justifie since the 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 m You have formerly blamed the Church of England and not without reason for going so far as they did in their compliance and yet as soon as they stopped you see they are not only Deserted but Prosecuted Conclude then from this Example that you must either break off your Friendship or resolve to have no Bounds in it If they do not succeed in their Design
they will leave you first if they do you must either leave them when it will be too late for your Safety or else after the squeasines of startling at a Surplice you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation n Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were Trimmers for enduring you and now by a sudden Turn you are become the Favourites do not deceive your selves it is not the Nature of lasting Plants thus to shoot up in the Night you may look gay and green for a little time but you want a Root to give you a continuance It is not so long since as to be forgotten that the Maxim was It is impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBELL Consider at this time in France even the new Converts are so far from being Imployed that they are Disarmed their sudden Change maketh them still to be distrusted notwithstanding that they are Reconciled What are you to expect from your dear Friends to whom when ever they shall think fit to throw you off again you have in other times given such Arguments for their excuse o Besides all this you Act very unskilfully against your visible Interest if you throw away the Advantages of which you can hardly fail in the next probable Revolution Things tend naturally to what you would have if you would let them alone and not by an unseasonable Activity lose the Influences of your good Star which promiseth every thing that is prosperous p The Church of England convinced of its Errour in being Severe to you the Parliament whenever it meeteth is sure to be Gentle to you the next Heir bred in the Country which you have so often Quoted for a Pattern of Indulgence a general Agreement of all thinking Men that we must no more cut our selves off from the Protestants abroad but rather inlarge the Foundations upon which we are to build our Desences against the Common Enemy so that in truth all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction if by too much hast to anticipate your good Fortune you do not destroy it q The Protestants have but one Article of Humane Strength to oppose the Power which is now against them and that is not to lose the advantage of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided r We all agree in our Duty to our Prince our Octjections to his Belief do not hinder us from seeing his Virtues and our not complying with his Religion hath no effect upon our Allegiance we are not to be Laughed out of our Passive Obedience and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance though even those who perhaps owe the best part of their Security to that Principle are apt to make a Jest on 't s So that if we give no Advantage by the fatal Mistake of misapplying our Anger by the natural course of things this Danger will pass away like a shower of Hail fair weather will succeed as lowering as the Sky now looketh and all by this plain and easie Receipt Let us be still quiet and undivided firm at the same time to our Religion our Loyalty and our Laws and so long as we continue this Method it is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the Bet except the Church of Rome which hath been so long barren of Miracles should now in her declining Age be brought to Bed of One that would out-do the best she can brag of in her Legend t To conclude the short Question will be Whether you will joyn with those who must in the end run the same Fate with you If Protestants of all sorts in their behaviour to one another have been to blame they are upon the more equal terms and for that very reason it is fitter for them now to be Reconciled Our Disunion is not only a Reproach but a danger to us those who believe in modern Miracles have more Right or at least more Excuse to neglect all Secular Cautions but for us it is as justifiable to have no Religion as wilfully to throw away the humane Means of preserving it THE REPLY SIR IT is a most undeniable truth that fashionable Addresses are very little to be regarded and the temper of the Nation as little to be known by them as we can know Men to be of one inclination because they were one sort of habit but when they flow from Gratitude Duty and Interest and not from fear or resentment they are good symbols of unconstrainedness and sincerity and to whom soever presented ought to be kindly received I own not my self a Dissenter from the Church of England and upon that score find not my self concerned in all that you write relating to them but assure you I am one of those that have a propensity of mind ready to receive any impression of Reason and who am so sensible that a great part of the comforts of humane Life and Oeconomy of Government is lost to those who confine their Charity good Esteem and Candor to those only of their own Opinion That you and I differ mostly in that you confine your thoughts for the publick to the subdivision of Protestants only whereas I think they ought to be enlarged likewise to all Honourable Virtuous and Loyal persons of other denominations and neither Fear or Resentment ought at this time to make us swerve from that Golden Rule of doing to others as we would have others do to us b It is true that in small wounds in the fleshy parts only the sympathetick way of Cure and closing the wound in its own blood with bandage of clean Linnen will serve but where amputations and lacerations are such as Seclusion and Rebellion sovereign wound salves are requisite You allow your Dissenter to act by natural instinct as other Animals do that can lick themselves whole and you dress their wounds with so gentle a touch as if you were unconcerned whether they were cur'd or not and least they should infandum renovare dolorem reflect upon the fresh bleeding wounds you give them a dose of Opium It is true you blame the Patient for his precipitateness in using the Remedies nearest at hand without examining not only the skill and ability but the good intention of the Chirurgion and the vertues of his Remedies but this is all Artifice that you may get the Patient to commit himself to your care and that you might possess him with an Opinion that none else had the true method of healing which is not fair practice to decoy him from using the certainest and most assured help this Island can afford c Here you change the Scene and transform your Patient into a passionate Wooer who is fallen in love with a new Friend and since you presume it will be an hard task to make him quit his new Amours for his late coy and scornful Lady you are contriving a Fascination and would garnish his Bridal Feast with a Mene Tekel a
imposer and if the taker satisfie his Conscience and perform all required in the taking of them the Civil Power enquires no further But in the return of thanks the receivers of the Benefit are the best Judges in what sense they render them and I know not how they are concern'd in any Inferences unless of those that scruple their reality It is true if Dissenters only dream'd of an happiness they might consult you for the Interpretations but whilst their eyes are open and they have the full sense of repose and ease they must beg you will spare your Divinations being resolv'd to rely upon the kindness and Authority of the Giver and will never be afraid of any Inferences when it is so manifest that His Majesty designs common ease and a perpetual settlement of it by Act of Parliament which they think they have all the reason in the World to endeavour may be effected in His Majesties Reign who laid the Foundation of such a Temple of Concord as none of His Royal Predecessors ever did before As to the ridiculing some Loyal persons Zeal to have had a favourable sense put upon the thanks return'd for the Kings Gracious Speech if there had been more of the Members of both Houses who would have credited the Kings Royal desire to have been just and equitable and reflected upon the true Reasons the King had to insist upon that point no doubt they might have had a kind return from the King and such a settlement of the Church of England as they could have desired and better than they now may expect Therefore since by your Confession so many never intended to answer the Kings Speech with more than a bare Complement I do not think it was any such difficulty to obtain liberty of objecting against the Prerogative of Dispensing which I suppose a great many more are now satisfied in the legality of and when there is occasion both the Judges and other Members of the long Robe will make clear by Law and Equity u Sure there are numerous parties of all persuasions who know how to set a right value on the Constitution of the English Government but I will never reckon these in the number who are for such a stipulatory mixt Monarchy as our old Publicans asserted who at first complementing the people that the Original of the Supream Authority was in them as soon as they had power assumed it to themselves under the notion of Representation To proceed the end of the Journey will never be reached if the Traveller set down his rest in the midway The King hath been the great Means and Author of this Liberty and I hope it 's not that time of the day to Vote Him dangerous The way to have that preserved which is granted by the King is to study by all thankfulness to preserve His Royal Favour and to press forward to obtain its compleat Establishment and never to sound a Retreat till they obtain the full enjoyment of the Praemium held out to them which if by flagging in the pursuit they shall only enjoy during His Majesties Life they will have cause to repent at His Death that they got it not better secured x Thanks for the Indulgence and strenuous desires to have it Parliamentarily Confirm'd is taking time by the fore-top and striking while the Iron is hot The Temple of Janus was opened in Augustus Caesars time as a certain sign that the Roman Empire was then at peace Should not Dissenters rejoyce even to some excess that our Augustus hath now open'd it whereby through our Vito they may see what Intestine jars what effusion of blood the Penal Laws have made and from the other may have the most delightful Prospect of large and long lasting Freedom By the Instances you bring of the Non-Conformists rough usage of the Church of England when they had the fleecing of it and the manner of its retaliation I should think you ought to have determined the usefulness and necessity of embracing the Kings favour whereby neither party might Tyranize over the other for the future rather then to decoy the Dissenter by the soft word of mistake as if either Party did such mischief to other by some Venial Inadvertency only when all the World knows that the endeavours to secure their several Governments occasion'd the sad galling of one another Yet of the two it is Demonstrable that the State Church of England Men were the favourablest y Here you think to put the Dissenters upon a Dilemma that if they blame the severe usage of the Church of England against them they must not now return it by being angry with them or if they allow it they must not be offended at what they did What if Dissenters shall reply that by too sad experience they have found that Persecution was ruinous to both and that it is neither Anger or Revenge against the Church of England that makes them so thankful to the King and so desirous that all Tushes may be filed off whereby there may be no Tearing or Tyrannizing by any Party for Conscience but for ease-sake these have reason to wish the Rod burnt that felt the last smart of it will not this Answer cut of the horned Argument z A Man not well skilled in your cunning would judge you were owning all this when you disallow the Methods of the former Rigid Prelates and would make Dissenters believe that the present Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England by the Sense of their former mistaken Rules were content to lower their haughtiness and were ready to change the spirit of Persecution and bitterness for that of Charity and Condescention But the Inference you make is very contrary and falacious viz. that because if they believe you the present Conductors of the Church of England are of an Uniting Temper therefore the Dissenters must so far relie upon their good nature that they must reject the offers of a most Gracious King who endeavours to secure them from present and future sufferings and put it out of all peoples power when the next favourable revolation comes to have recourse to former severeties Suppose the Dissenters say that they may be justly jealous that if a thousand of the Church of England in this juncture gave them an assurance under their Hands and Seals that they should never be compelled under a Protestant King to Conformity they durst not relie upon it much less on such a single Voucher as your self what have you hitherto produced to convince such unbelievers a Church-men of all Societies may be subject to like passions as other men and I believe them not only humblest but the charitablest best natured and holyest too when their power is not overgrown But it doth not therefore follow that the objecting the severity of the Church of England against Dissenters when cherished by a Prince of her Communion is uncharitable and ungenerous much less that it is mis-timed For if the Members of
that Church did not endeavour to hinder the Repeal of those Laws which only enable them to re-assume their Rods and Axes Dissenters might hope their kindness was to be relied upon But since they see them so unwilling to part with their offensive Arms even at the desire of their Sovereign they have just reason to think they scandalize them not in saying they dare not as yet believe that they intend them any good security that they will not call them to an after-reckoning or that they will afford them such an assurance of freedom as they may now have under the Kings broad Seal But to pass on I wonder not so much at your denying the Church of England is never humble but when she wants power for you may mean another Church than other Mortals do or by humble you may mean she least useth Church Censures when the Magistrates Inflict the Laws most severely which Evasion you may when pressed flie to But the reason you give for it is more surprizing that she is even now meek and lowly when she hath power to confound all Dissenters with a Breath This indeed is a brisk flourish like a brave Leaders encouragement to his seemingly foyled Party that he hath one stratagem yet which will gain the absolute Victory if they will credit his Conduct I pray Sir for all this rattle in the Clouds which is no more formidable than intelligible give me leave to ask you what this Smile this kind Word this glimps of Compliance should be that can work such wonders There was a time at or before some Men were put to the Test when a compliance with the Kings desires of Repeal would have continued several Eminent Men in their Stations and they would have felt many effects of His Majesties Royal Favour But all that would have been as a reward of their publick splritedness and concurrence with the King in the truly Catholick design of making all His Subjects easie as to their Religious Concerns But it looks like Presumption yea insolence in you to assert that when such have lost the opportunity of preserving themselves in the Kings good Opinion He should take them into His Throne and permit them to guide His Arm to dart His Thunder where they please No if they should offer all compliance for the future securing Roman Catholicks provided they might execute Penal Laws against Dissenters yet this would have no power to encline a Prince so steady to His Resolutions and the publick Declaration of His Judgement to alter in the least His Royal purpose of granting Universal Liberty of Conscience to such as would live peaceably and give no disturbance to the Civil Government Much less can those hope to prevail who declare all Compliance with the Kings desires so Criminal and Vnjustifiable that they will rather choose to stand mute and be press'd to Death in hopes to preserve their Estates for the next Heir then to quit their beloved Test b As to Provocation while you write you commit the fault you so severely complain of As to those Books writ upon the subject of Religion every one may observe that those in defence of the Protestant Doctrine have been throngly cryed about the streets with the Emphasis of being Vindications of the Church of England and the Licenses of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London whereas Roman Catholick Books except some few Sermons of the Fathers have been dispers'd without the pomp of a publick Cryer Only some Dissenters concern'd to give publick Testimonies of their gratitude to the King have enlarged the Gazets and set some Printing Presses on work But that any such Writers are Vndertakers or have made any Contracts with the Romanists to begin a Fray among Protestants for the sport or advantage of the Church of Rome I see no shadow of Reason Since the Interest they have to own the ease they find by His Majesties Indulgence and the Opposition they find from some Members of the Church of England to it are sufficient Motives to them to write and speak all they have hitherto done And your entring the Lists with so many fine devices on your Helm and Shield and all over your whole Armour cannot but Excite many Combitants to engage so gaudy a Challenger c What you expect to be applauded or commended in this conduct I cannot tell Persecution for Conscience you own to be ill yet you would not have it equal dealing to blame such who oppose the Repeal of such Laws as only arm Persecutors which is dancing in a Circle d To hate the causers of our Torments is very natural in those who have not learnt to pray for their Enemies but for the Persecuted to court and love the Persecutors who judge it Criminal and are ready to suffer themselves rather than yield up the wheels racks and strapado's fetters and chains and the cruel instruments of Persecution when the Supream Magistrate forbids it is a Principle neither Heathen or Christian can own So that I will not trouble my head to Divine what the Objection should be that you acquaint us not with and yet you say is un-answerable e I have heard it accounted as some solace to have Companions in misery but never that any took delight in procuring Torments to others that they might have more stripes themselves How the Papists should promote the Penal Laws against Dissenters is a Ridle However it is not dutifully done to make the Church of England the Lictors and Bedels of the Church of Rome but some will lose their Friend e're they lose their Jest or false Suggestion f This Paragraph ought to be accounted for at Westminster-Hall Before there can be any sense made of it it must be most scandalously suppos'd that the King is about to alter the Constitution of the Election of Knights and Burgesses and to design another Praise God Barebone Parliament then which no reflection can be more odious g When-ever the Dispensing Power is argu'd I doubt not but many more Members in Parliament will allow it than did before the point had been so cleared as now and in duty we ought to believe the King by the Repeal intends no more than what He expresses in His Royal Declaration notwithstanding the Indulgence to secure the Church of England in her rights and possession of the Honours and Revenues and Liberty both to it and Dissenters which being done there will be no room for those unreasonable Surmises h The great Talbots Name was long after his Death us'd to affright the Children of France with Is it fit that a serious Gentleman should judge all Dissenters such Children as to be affrighted with the Name of Roman Consistory Our Lawful Sovereign is the only Lord of the Articles who will propose the Question and Obedience in this case may be more beneficial than to be always made Sacrifices by severe Penal Laws i Is it a Parliament of two Houses you mean shall offer this Indulgence to
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
which they formerly reputed Idolatrous They now think themselves justified in their Espousing the Parliaments side from whom they expected and had Indulgence and please themselves to find another kind of non Addressors and as zealous persons to hinder the Repeal of Penal Laws against their Sovereigns declared desire as they were formerly for it Yet though the Scene be thus changed I hope there are sufficient numbers of such whom the Church of England will own to be her Children that will let no Dissenters out-goe them in Loyalty and Dutifulness to their Sovereign and who are well assured the King will have as great regard to them and our Church for their sakes and as freely permit them the enjoyment of the Exercise of their Religion and Benefices as to any provided they will concur with Him in the Repeal and be content to let their Fellow-Subjects of different Persuasions enjoy likewise their Liberty That the Members of the Church of England ought to yield this in common prudence and even for the Preservation of their own Religion I think there are many Reasons especially this that as yet the time is not clapsed but that when His Majesty convenes His Parliament sufficient Security may be obtained that the Church of England shall enjoy all the King hath promised and when by the Wisdom of the Houses such an Act is contrived as will answer the Kings desires of the Universal ease of His Subject the Church of England will feel as great effects of the Kings kindness as she can expect or desire and by the freedom all will enjoy there will be no more contests but who shall approve themselves most dutiful and deserving of His Majesties Clemency and Kindness Upon such a closure the Roman Catholicks and Dissenters will freely yield to the mutual security of the Church of England and that Church will regain its Reputation of Loyalty and confirm what you promise in her name of being kind to Dissenters and a Protestant Prince succeeding and finding things thus Amicably Composed will reap the benefit as the whole Kingdom will do of this happy undertaking of the King But on the contrary if the Majority of the Members of the Church of England in Parliament obstinately oppose the Kings desires they will oblige His Majesty to pursue other Methods and it will give occasion to all such as are no great well-wishers to our Church to urge its uncharitableness that rather than it will permit the King to exercise His Prerogative of being served with all His Subjects of what denomination soever He pleases to make use of and that Men of different Professions in Religion may enjoy the favour of the Kings Indulgence they will put themselves out of His Royal Protection and absolve Him from His promise therein and the upshot of all will be that by His Majesties steady pursuit of this great work which He firmly believes will conduce so much to the universal good of His Subjects In a few years by such sedulous countenancing all those who will strenuously co-operate with Him to effect it the Dissenters will obtain the Majority of Voices in Parliament which if once effected those Members of the Church of England who have Obstructed the Repeal will be at the mercy of Dissenters and if the King be not their best Friend may fall short of what they may now so effectually obtain I shall conclude with a short Paraphrase upon the Words His Majesty used to His Privy Council March the 8th 1686. concerning this Indulgence in which the substance of what need be said in justifying the Kings granting it are clearly laid down First His Majesty shows the practice of former Ages and the success of them That although an Vniformity in the Religious Worship had been Endeavoured to be Established within this Kingdom in the successive Reigns of Four of His Majesties Royal Predecessors assisted by their respective Parliaments yet it hath proved altogether ineffectual This is obvious to every one that reads the History of those times and well know to those that lived in the beginning of the Rebellion for Dissenters were then so encreased that they were numerous and powerful enough to overthrow not only the Church of England but the Monarchy that defended it The Kings Words are That the Restraint upon the Consciences of Dissenters in order thereunto viz. to Conformity had been very prejudicial to this Nation as was sadly experienced in the horrid Rebellion in the time of His Majesties Royal Father The King then pitcheth upon the true and principal cause of all those Calamities that befel the blessed Martyr and were freshly commencing again in the later time of His Majesties Royal Brothers Reign which are best expressed in the Kings own Words That the many Penal Laws made against Dissenters in all the foregoing Reigns and especially in the time of the late King had rather increased than lessened them If therefore our Gracious King out of an excess of love and Paternal care did not study the Universal benefit ease profit and enriching of His people He might have pursued former Precedents But as a Wise and Compassionate Prince He searcheth diligently for the true Causes and while too many are busying themselves in Traducing His zeal for His Religion as if it were the only concern of His Royal Cares He Demonstrates to all His Subjects how much more sollicitous He is to find some better Method whereby at once He may Establish His Throne and those of His Successors in a stable peace and security and give Ease Freedom and Riches to all His People of what Persuastion soever Therefore declares That nothing can more conduce to the peace and quiet of His Kingdom and the increase of the Numbers as well as the Trade of the Subjects wherein the greatness of a Prince does more consist than in the extent of His Teritories than an entire Liberty of Conscience That His Majesty may likewise obviate all the great scruple such as you raise as if He did this for any private ends you have His Royal Word to the contrary when He tells all His Subjects That it hath been His Opinion as most suitable to the Principles of Christianity that no Man should be Persecuted for Conscience sake which His Majesty thinks is not to be forced By this His Majesty shows that He grounds not His judgement upon the agreeableness or ungreeableness of it to the interest of any Church but as it is suitable to the uery Principles of Christian Religion and having by this shown His Royal Intentions how to proceed upon that bottom during His own Reign out of a well grounded Confidence that it may be a rule and standard to His Royal Successors He closeth all with this Maxim That it can never be the true Interest of a King of England to endeavour to force Conscience Have not all Men from hence and all His Majesties Actions reason to think there is a Clemency Benignity and tenderness in the King
undutiful Subject that will brand your Sovereign with being an Idolater So that if there were no other Reason for that single inference every Loyal Subject should be for Repealing the Test and be so far from dispensing with any Dissenter for broaching this Doctrine which might tempt some judaizing Zealots to stone him that non obstente all the Indulgence they should be proceeded against as enemies to the Kings Crown and Dignity and that should be all you should get by ridiculing such words as the Kings Prerogative impowers him to use h That self-preservation may cause agreement of several interests to disarm a common Persecutor is no Paradox or that the men of Taunton and Tiverton shall become Loyal when the prime ground of their disloyalty is taken away nor that in this comprehensive liberty the Quakers though no Christians with some who may object Antichristianity against others should not be considered For in the Kings Indulgence the Subjects are not considered as conforming to Canons and Constitutions of Churches but as obedient grateful or useful and industrious Surely in a populous maritine City we wonder not nor is it thought inconvenient that Turks and Jews Chinesses Abyssines Japanners or Persions Italians French or Spaniards or any other remote Nations frequent the Exchange and exercise their several Religions provided they enrich it by Traffick and it is a much pleasinger sight than to see the streets thronged with beggars in as differently patched Coats sounding one uniform doleful note of want to cause pity and compassion It is most true that if a Popish Successor were in reality such a one as he was sometimes represented we should need to suspend our belief of his Clemency and that we have been under most shameful and I may say of too many even wilful mistakes concerning our Royal Sovereign is a most demonstrable truth and since He gives so many Arguments that it is not for the bringing in of Popery but for the securing not only His Roman Catholicks but of all His other Subjects from the lash of Penal Laws that he grants this Indulgence whereby all Industrious peaceable Men may follow their imployments without being obnoxious to Fines Imprisonments or Death for want of Uniformity It will not surely be the Question Whether the Priests words of Consecration can Annihilate the Sacramental Bread but whether it be more Kingly for our Sovereign to feed His whole Family or starve some whilst others are too much pamper'd It is not the mystery of the Sacrament so much troubles some as it is that a Roman Catholick King should have more kindness for Protestant Dissenters than those who would be esteemed the zealousest for the Church of England can afford them i Mens heads are much easilier laden with then unladen of suspicions how light soever they be they generally Ballast the Vessel and where ever jealousie enters with it croud in Legions of evil Spirits If one had as many eyes as Pores it would fit them all with destain'd Optick Glasses or Prismes to give deceitful Colours to every Object And that which is most troublesom in this passion is that it is with great difficulty master'd especially when it is heightned by Interest You have a great dexterity to improve this by Affrightment Calumny and Detraction which you couch in such General Terms as it is difficult to get a grasp of them Therefore I must pass by what is Common place and tell you that a Secretary of the Cabals of the Usurpers or to the famous E. of Shaftsbury could not have given a livelier Description of the Imployment of these Emissaries than you have done but you do wifely not to expose persons lest we should know who they are that are imploy'd on the errand which is only to alienate the Subjects Affections from their Sovereign and to excite the peoples jealousie If any be imploy'd that have been detected and are now sincere they are fitter to discover the former methods for being wedges of the same wood they are fittest for the work of pinning or cleaving But to hang a scandal in the Air like a Cloud that none can know where the shower may fall is not done like a Gentleman of your Morality and Vnderstanding k This character of a Juggler is so drawn to the life that one would swear you were looking all the while in the Glass while you used the Pencil Dissimulation is such a changling that it is all Vizard-mask with several foyles seperable by sleight of hand so that one may sooner find Faith in an Affrican than in such a shift-coat But till you can prove such are Commissionated to work Dissenters to comply with the King all the Water runs but by the Mill. l That there are mercinary Men is no such News that need be told with such cumlocution Those that use such tools will find them often need the whetting and they must be vain spend-thrifts which I think you cannot say of our King that pour their Mony into a bottomlels purse Oates Ignoramus Juries and pensionary witnesses were more proper Cattle to be fed with such Provinder than Dissenting Ministers if I be not mistaken in them The King neither needs nor will ever imploy such Instruments He knows better how to manage his Exchequer than to waste it on such Hirelings who sell their Conscience and Service by inch of Candle m From Eye-witnesses and Contributors themselves I have heard that several Charities to Non-conformist Ministers were put under their Preaching Cushions and I do not much wonder that these Benevolences which were as good as Glebe and Tithe enabled them to resist the Temptation of taking Benefices with the condition of renouncing the Covenant c. But that there should be any among them now who for such filthy lucre design to Morigage the Protestant Religion which you must suppose or nothing I shall never believe upon your bare suggestion In former times by keeping up the Schism they might hope for some favourable Revolution whereby they might be capable of liberal Maintenance but that the Rigor of their Creditors shall drive them to put on the Cowl or Scapular or co-operate with those that design it shall be no Article of my Faith n It seems you were sensible of the weakness of this Medium and now the Dissenters must Preach the Gospel for envy The forward Ministers amongst them are much obliged to you since it seems they are either Judas's to sell the Cause for Silver or must be branded with one of the Devils Characters Accusers of the Brethren and whether you lessen their crimes in saying those who act this Cholerick part believe not themselves but therein sin against their Consciences and only pursue higher directions I leave to others to judge What wages such may get here they best know But I think it must be a severe punishment they may expect hereafter May we not be more charitable to judge that such Men are so far from personating a