A DISCOURSE FOR TAKING OFF THE TESTS AND Penal Laws ABOUT RELIGION The Disciples said Lord wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Luke 9.54 55 56. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor MDCLXXXVII The Preface Reader VVHatever thy Thoughts may be of the Author of the following Discourse I can give thee Arguments enough were it needful to satisfie a Rational and Considering Mind that He is most sincerely concern'd for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Universal Peace and Quiet of every good Subject He has made some Remarks on the Measures which some of his Majesty's Royal Predecessors have taken to Establish Religion but could never observe that Penal Laws did ever effectually suppress a False or propagate the True Religion The many Severities against the Lollars from the Sixth of Richard the Second to the end of Henry the Eighth could never put a Stop to the Spreading of their Opinions for under Edward the Sixth the whole Nation became Lollars And the Extremities endur'd under Queen Mary tho' they Damm'd up the Water for a while yet it was but in order to the Overflowing the whole Kingdom ever since And it 's to be presum'd that there are wise Men among the Roman-Catholic who observing the mischievous Effects of Penal Laws then for so they must esteem them are so very much set against all such Ways now And ever since Q. Eliz. entred the Throne a Considering Protestant will see more reason to conclude that it 's not the making Sanguinary Laws against the Papist but the Power of Truth that has hindred the Growth of Popery For notwithstanding the most violent Persecutions that have been of late Years against the Protestant Dissenters they have waxed strong and their Party more numerous now than it was some Years ago It 's true many to escape the Penalty have wounded their Consciences and others who did not run the same Course with them have been ruin'd to the great Damage of the whole Nation but none have been convinced that the Church of England has the more Truth on her side because she has exercis'd so much of her Persecuting Power Penal Laws for Religion have occasion'd great Disorders and Confusions amongst us but never yet did any good and therefore it is that the Author heartily wishes that all such Laws may be so vacated as not to receive Life amongst us any more I am very confident that nothing can afford greater Satisfaction to the Author than to see the very Principle on which Persecution is rais'd so effectually eradicated that none for the future may be expos'd to Corporal Mulcts for their Religion No not the Quaker Anabaptist Independent Presbyterian Churchman nor Papist The Author is afraid that so long as the Persecuting Principle lives the prevailing Party of what Persuasion soever will make use of it Let the Principle then according to his Majesty's Royal Resolution be destroy'd and there are hopes of Peace and Quiet to the whole Kingdom The fear is that if the Tests which are a Branch arising from the Persecuting Principle be taken off the Papists will be Empower'd to Establish Persecuting Laws but what greater Assurance can we have against this Fright than that his Majesty designing the Prevention of all such Mischiefs will accept of any Expedient that shall be offer'd to him and found sufficient to secure us The Design therefore of these Papers is to prepare and dispose his Majesty's Subjects to a Closure with what may Establish our Peace and Tranquillity on a sure Bottom and the Author doubts not but that our wise and thoughtful Gentry will weight what is urg'd and act as becomes good English-men and Christians and concur with his Majesty who desires to make us all Happy with a Great Charter Declaratory of the Ancient Constitution of our Government whereby Liberty of Conscience may be secur'd on the same Foundation our Civil Rights and Property are and be setled amongst the Inalienable Rights of the English-man And the Reader is importun'd to consider that this is a Design that no way lessens the Church of Englands True Happiness or Just Glory for it will not deprive any deserving Person of that Communion of any Advantage The whole they are sought unto for is that their Neighbors be not destroy'd for not acting contrary to their Consciences and for not prostituting their Souls to the Lusts of Persecutors And what Injury is done that Church when nothing more is insisted on unless it be said that their Happiness consists in other Mens Miseries And I may be bold to speak thus much on the behalf of the Dissenters that they can cheerfully forgive all the past Injuries and Wrongs receiv'd from the Church of England Clergy and their Creatures I must confine the Forgiveness to them because the Wrong was only from them And it must be Recorded to the Glory of our English Gentry that they ever hated those Severities and no doubt having seen the Havock of a vehement Execution of Penal Laws for Religion and of the Excesses which the Prosecutors fell into will rejoyce to have an Opportunity to manifest more fully their Dislike by concurring with his Majesty in a Repeal But to return The Dissenter I am sure doth not only Forgive but can easily Forget all that these Clergy-men and their Adherents have done against them longing to see that Day wherein the Lamb may lie down with the Lion and in which Ephraim shall not envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim God is the God of Peace and he has commanded it and therefore the Dissenters desire to pursue it It 's really a Matter of unspeakable Grief to the Dissenters when they consider how much some of the Church of England do revile them for studying the Things that would make even for their Churches Peace And what an amazing Consideration must this be that the Church of England express themselves so vehemently against the Persecution of Foreign Papists and yet are so very angry with Protestant Dissenters for joyning with the English Papists in putting a stop to the Persecution at home For whilst they plead for Penal Laws against the Papists for their Religion they justifie the Penal Edicts that are against Protestants To say that none must be punish'd for an adherence to Truth but for a closure with Error is no more than the most violent Persecutor will concur with you in for they never punish'd any for a good Work as such but for what they esteem'd Evil. The whole Controversie about Penal Laws for Religion must be reduc'd to this Head viz. Whether it be agreeable to the Divine Will that any Man be punish'd Corporally or depriv'd of his Civil Rights for the sake of his Religion If
it be Query'd Whether it be lawful to punish any one Corporally for his being of the True Religion All will hold in the Negative and yet keep up Persecution For the Higher Powers esteeming their own Religion the True and all other Religions False tho' they are severe in punishing all others yet 't is because they are of a False Religion But if the Question be stated as above and if it be held in the Negative all Corporal Punishments for Religion are laid aside and a Stop put to Persecution It must be carefully observ'd that the Protestant can't have so ill an Opinion of the Papist but the Papist has as bad an one of the Protestant and so long as it is held lawful to propagate the Truth and suppress Error by Corporal Mulcts the Papists will have as much reason for the use of these Methods to propagate what he takes to be True and suppress what he judges an Error as the Protestant can This then must be fix'd That it is not agreeable to the Will of God to punish any Man Corporally or deprive him of his Civil Rights for the sake of his Religion The setling this Principle will put an end to all Persecutions nothing else can do it Thus much the Author would inculcate on the Minds of his Readers and is not in the least mov'd by that extravagant Question What would you not have Blasphemers and Murderers punish'd if they pretend 't is their Religion to Blaspheme and Murder for 't is manifest to all that the Religion we are speaking of is what leans on Positive Revelation and not that which the Light of Nature makes known What is discover'd by Natures Light and is a part of Natural Religion is so very manifest to all Men that no Man without laying a Violence on his own Faculties can pretend that what is really contrary unto it is a part of his Religion Tho' those Scriptures from which are drawn the Rules of Positive Religion must be acknowledg'd to be so obscure and dark that a Rational Man who means well may mistake their true and genuine Sense yea tho he has the help of a Guide pretending Infallibility yet Natures Laws are so plain so clear and manifest to all Rational Men that there is no room left for any ones falling into such Mistakes as are alledg'd and pretend that it is his Religion to Blaspheme and Murder Mistakes therefore touching the Sense of a Scripture are to be rectifi'd by Scriptural Reasonings but such Faults as are committed against the Laws of Nature are to be punish'd by the Civil Magistrate I say such must be punish'd because they act contrary to their own Light. The Difference between Crimes that the Light of Nature discovers and those Mistakes that are about the Sense of a Scripture is so very great that we cannot so argue from the one to the other as to infer a necessity of treating those who mistake the Sense of a Text with the like Severity they ought to be dealt with who violate Natures Laws Thus much the Author insists on as what is agreeable to the Light of Nature to the Ancient Constitution of our Government and the Rules of Christianity and accordingly forms his Arguments for the Taking off the Tests and all Penal Laws for meer Religion proposing such Things to Consideration as may so move the Church of England Clergy the Protestant Dissenter and Roman-Catholic that notwithstanding the great Differences there are between 'em in Matters of Religion they may agree on this one thing namely to Live peaceably together And that the Papists may never be in a Capacity to Persecute any more in this Land the Author makes it his Endeavor to persuade our Nobility and Gentry to concur with his Majesty in setling Liberty of Conscience on such a Bottom that it may never be in the power of any to Persecute And he is confident that this is the only Way to settle the Peace of the Church of England for nothing can so much endanger her as an obstinate Adherence to Penal Laws and Tests which will provoke the Body of the Nation to conclude Her their only Enemy and that it 's their Interest to guard against her as such A too resolute Endeavor to keep up her Persecuting Power may issue in her loss of that and all her External Pomp and Glory 'T is well known that if the Pope in Henry the Eighth's Days had been more yielding he might have kept this Nation much longer under his Power and if our Clergy will be content with their present Standing and part with their Penal Laws and Tests none will envy their Happiness God give them Wisdom not only to see their Error which some say they now do but to improve the present Opportunity by a Christian Concurrence with his Majesty in Setling their own and the Nations Peace A DISCOURSE For taking off the PENAL LAWS and TESTS About RELIGION THE many Discourses that have been and still are about the TESTS being on a Point of the Highest Importance both to the King's Majesty and to the whole Kingdom it doth most undoubtedly become every Englishman to consider with the greatest Caution not only the Nature of the Thing but what may be the Tendency either of the Damning or Establishing 'em And whoever ventures to offer his Thoughts about them must remember he has a very narrow Bridge to pass over where one false Step will be fatal for there is such a thwarting of Opinions as makes the Case marvellously perplex'd and intricate Some Great Men are fully persuaded that a Taking them off will prove pernicious to the Protestant Subject And there are others of as great a Figure who are convinc'd that in this Juncture a sticking to 'em will be more mischievous to all than the destroying 'em can be to any And because of the different Apprehensions Men of a great Character have of this Thing the Inferior sort are hugely distracted and in a Commotion amongst themselves which makes it necessary to do somewhat more than yet has been done to enlighten and settle the Body of the Nation on a sure Basis in their Reasonings about it And I cannot think of a better Method than the giving a just Account of the Ancient Constitution of our Government and the several Interests of the KING and PEOPLE For what is most agreeable to that Constitution and these Interests is undoubtedly most safe and meet to be done I will therefore keep to this Method and in the first place mention just so much of the Ancient Constitution of the Civil Government as is necessary to the present purpose and 't is this THE Civil Government must be recogniz'd to be a thing entire within it self and of distinct Consideration from Religion For altho' there may be many Religions in a Kingdom yet the Government is but One and the same and tho' there may be great Alterations made on the Religion of the State yet that makes no
Alteration on the Government The blending any particular Religion so very close to Government that a change of the former must infer a ruin on the latter is quite contrary to the Ancient Constitution of this Nation in which the Religions have been various even when the Government remain'd the same unalter'd and unshaken The change of Religion from Heathen to Christian made no Alteration on the Government nor did the turning it from Popish to Protestant Under all these Vicissitudes and Changes the Civil Government for of that I still speak was the same And as Civil Government is distinct from Religion and entire without it so the different Subjects and Ends of the one and the other makes it apparent Civil Government in the Intention of the Ordainer is design'd to maintain Peace among Men as Men and is Conversant about the Outward Man regulating it by that Law which is reveal'd by a Light common to Mankind and maketh use of Coercion for the enforcing Obedience But the Design of Religion is to procure a Peace between God and Man and its Subject is of a far larger Extent for it reacheth the Souls of Men giving Laws for their Regulation which are Sanction'd by Spiritual not Corporal Retributions I doubt not but the Intelligent Reader will do me right in the taking it for granted that when I distinguish Civil Government from Religion it 's meant of that Religion that leans on Positive Revelation and not of Natural Religion that lieth in an Observing of the Laws given us with our Being For it is the great End of Civil Government to see that Men frame their Manners in conformity to those Laws and by Corporal Mulcts to punish such as violate ' em But the Religion that is founded on Positive Revelation tho it comprehends Natural Religion within its compass yet as contradistinguish'd from it the chief Duty it requires is Faith which can no ways be forced and being to regulate Mens Hearts it can operate no otherwise but by the proposal of Spiritual Encouragements and Threats Here then do's arise a clear difference between Civil Government and Positive Religion The one is only conversant about the Outward Man taking no cognizance of Mens Thoughts but in order to the Outward Act The other is conversant about the Hearts of Men. The one therefore makes use of Coercion or Corporal Enforcements the other of Spiritual only The Ecclesiastical Law and the Temporal Law have several Proceedings and to several Ends The one being Temporal to inflict Punishment on the Body Lands or Goods The other being Spiritual prosalute animae The one to punish the Outward Man the other to Reform the Inward And this appeareth in 20 Hen. 7.22 10 Edw. 4.10 Coke Caudrey's Case If a Man violates those Laws that are adjusted for the keeping Peace amongst Men as such he is obnoxious to a Corporal and External Penalty but if his Crimes lie only in transgressing those Laws that are brought to light by Positive Revelation he is only liable to a Spiritual Punishment not to what is Corporal Thus the Civil Government I say regards the Outward Conversation the Keeping an External Peace amongst Men by taking care that they observe the general Laws of Nature and every other particular Law which either Custom or the present State of Affairs declare to be necessary for the good of the People But Religion respects the Consciences of Men having only the advantage of Persuasion to propagate or at least defend it self against Foreigners to which is added the power of casting all Domestick Adversaries out of Communion that cannot be prevail'd with by Persuasion The confounding these has prov'd mischievous to Kingdoms and so has the twisting Religion with the Government of the State so as to make it lawful to deprive the Subject of his Civil Liberty or Property for not closing with the Religion Thus much I may safely affirm altho' I should also as I do grant that it 's the Duty of the Government to encourage that Religion which it esteems best for there is a great difference between the encouraging Men of one Religion and the destroying all of another Besides such is the Nature of true Religion as obliges its Professors to be content with Religious without calling in the Aid of Civil Methods for its Security and Defence And it s no part of Civil Government to use Coercion for the advantage of any Religion Be the Religion what it will unless it can defend it self by dint of Argument it may fall for any help the Civil Powers are bound to give it And let all the Religions stand in equal Favor with the Higher Powers it 's not to be doubted but suppos'd that what 's True will be found to prevail and conquer And thus much we boldly assert according to Christ's Doctrin which assures us of no other destruction of all Heresies than by the Brightness of his Coming and no other overcoming all his Adversaries but by the Sword that goes out of his Mouth viz. the Word of God. It is therefore to be observ'd very much to our purpose what was the Practice of the first Christian King amongst the Saxons as venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical Story expresly avers For Ethelbert saith Bede after due deliberation receiv'd Christ's Religion and tho' resolv'd to give the greatest Countenance to those who became Christian yet would compel none to receive the same Faith he did Nullum tamen cogeret ad Christianifmum sed solummodo credentes arctiori dilectione quasi concives sibi regni coelestis amplecteretur Didiceret enim à Doctoribus auctoribusque suae salutis servitium Christi Voluntarium non Coacticium debere esse Bede Histor Eccles Gent. Angl. l. 1. c. 26. believing as he was taught that the Service of Christ ought to be Voluntary and not by Constraint Now according to this first Record in our English History I must aver that after the strictest Endeavor I could make for the investigation of Truth in this Particular for succeeding Generations I have been induc'd from the whole to conclude That as Government and Religion are two distinct Things their Subjects and their Ends distinct in like manner as True Religion rejects all Coercive Props and Supports as what is contrary to some special Rules given by our Lord Jesus Christ himself So the Ancient Constitution of our Government is such as offers Protection to all that demean themselves like good Subjects of what Religion soever they be That Liberty and Property are too sacred to be invaded for the sake of an Opinion that no way hurts it And that the Temporal Peace and Quiet which is the result of an entire enjoyment of Liberty and Property is so much the Englishman's Right that no one without unjust Violence can deprive him of it for his Religion The truth of which is so very obvious that every particular English Spirit cannot but find it as it were engraven on his own
Soul for what People under the Cope of Heaven are more tender of Liberty and Property than the English And I am sure that the other day a great Lawyer express'd himself very freely touching the Subjects Rights affirming That as Kings have their Prerogatives too great for an Act of Parliament to bound or limit and as the next Heir to the Crown has so firm a Right to the Succession that no Consideration of Religion no nor that of Treason it self can be made a Bar to exclude him for Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt So Subjects have their various and different Rights either by Inheritance Creation or Election answerable to their several Qualities which no Act of Parliament can divest them of insomuch that if a Statute be de facto made contrary to a Fundamental Right of the Subject it 's void and null and if any one in pursuance of such a Statute ravish from the Subject his Liberty and Property in one King's Reign he may as it has been heretofore suffer for it in the Reign of another I insist not nevertheless at this time on this Great Man's Opinion any farther than to offer it to the Consideration of the Learned in the Law that if possibly I may do it they may be provok'd to an Enquiry and to give the People some farther Satisfaction than he did when he only told me it was so plain that instead of confirming it by Authorities he must defere to the known Rule viz. In rebus manifestis errat qui authoritates Legum allegat quia perspicuè vera non sunt probanda For let this Opinion be clear'd 't will contribute extreamly towards the ending the present Controversie especially if the other thing he mention'd also which indeed concludes our whole Argument be made out viz. That amongst the Inalienable Rights of the Subjects we must reckon this That no Free-Man may be depriv'd of his Liberty or Property or any other Civil Right or Privilege for the sake of his Religion so long as his Religion has no influence on the Government Let this I say be made good 't will unavoidably follow that all the Penal Laws for meer Religion and the Securing the Tests must appear to be ab initio void and null and a Great Charter Declaratory of so much will put a stop to Persecution for evermore for Conscience sake and answer all the Objections that can be brought against the Taking away the Tests But to return It 's my part to enquire more particularly Whether the Damning or Establishing the Tests be most agreeable to what I have declared the Ancient Constitution of our Government to be And the Solution is easie for from the Contexture of the foregoing Discourse we must conclude for the Taking them off because they twist the Religion of one part of the People so closely with the Government as to deprive the Body of the Nation of their Civil Rights Liberty and Property for the sake of an Opinion that hurts no Body but its Owner There are three or four Tests which do twist Religion and the Civil Government so unluckily together that whoever scruples the Religious part of the Test is immediately esteem'd an Enemy to the Government The First requires that they who take it do declare that they 'll never endeavor any Alteration of Government in the Church The Second obliges all in Office to Receive the Lord's Supper according to the Church of England and declare in these Words I A. B. do declare 25 Car. 2. cap. 2. That I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever The Last imposed both on the Nobility and Commons chosen to Sit in Parliament runs thus I A. B. do solemnly and sincerely in the Presence of God profess testifie and declare That I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now us'd in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous These being the several Tests impos'd on the Subjects of this Realm there are these several Arguments which occur to my Thoughts against their continu'd Establishment I. It 's contrary to the Liberty of the Subject who without just cause is hereby depriv'd of his Rights as an Englishman It is the Right of a Freeholder in the County My Lord Chief-Justice Coke positively affirms That the Barons ought to have a Writ of Summons ex debito Justitiae to Sit in Parliament and it s most manifest that their Summons must be either of Grace or ex debito If the former it lies in the Breast of the King to call whom of the Lords he will and so never want an House of Lords for his Purpose If the latter then my Argument abides in its strength and it 's the Barons Right to be Call'd and Sit in Parliament and of a Free-man of any City or Town Corporate to choose his Representative in Parliament and the Right of those freely chosen if good Subjects which they may be tho' of a Religion different from that of the State to Sit in Parliament and it 's the Birthright of our Ancient Nobility and the most undoubted Right of every Peer of the Land tho created a Peer but yesterday to Sit in the Higher House of Parliament and Advise and Consent to the Enacting Laws And it 's a known Case that tho' a Man be Excommunicate yet he is not thereby divested of his Right to choose his Representative and why but because a Man may remain a good Subject and a good English-man altho' thrown out of the Church and therefore ought to enjoy the Privilege of an English-man And why shall not the Persons chosen and the Nobility so long as they sufficiently demonstrate to the World that they are true English-men and good Subjects enjoy their undoubted Rights and Privileges What belongs to a good Subject as such belongs to every good Subject and it 's a Wrong to rob him of it Let there then be such a Test impos'd I mean a CIVIL TEST which Characterizes a good Subject and which a good Subject cannot refuse to take and let that be all for that surely may be made sufficient and unscrupulous to secure the just Prerogatives of the King and the Liberty and Property of the Subject which is the whole Concern in it that a true Englishman as such is bound to look after II. The Imposition of a Religious Test on the Subject excluding the Refusers from having any Advancement in Places of Trust is a Branch of that Doctrin on which all Penal Laws for Religion
the Ring-leaders Executed at St. Edmundsbury Baker's Chron. for the Brownists asserting That the Church of England was no true Church and that their Ministry was no true Ministry the Clergy immediately made use of their Inferring Faculty and Argued thus to the destruction of some Mens Lives If the Church of England be no true Church as you affirm then the Queen the Head of it is no true Christian but must be ranked among the Infidel and Heathen that is you do your utmost to expose her Majesty to the Odium and at last to the Rage of the People and do what in you lies to depose her Majesty from the Throne And thus it was made a Capital Crime and some were Executed on this Account But we need not Reason it thus with the Church of England for without such far-fetcht Consequences the very Principles and Practices of his Majesty are called Superstitious and Idolatrous and his Majesty by a most immediate Inference publickly declared to be an Idolater And therefore I think it the Wisdom of the Sons of the Church now to call to mind what they have done to their own Brethren in the Case above and take heed that they continue not in a worse Crime by a zealous sticking to those Tests For unless she will give up the Cause to the Dissenter in some momentous Instances and be moreover guilty of that Brownistical Practice which she has so severely condemned in Queen Elizabeths Days she cannot be for the Establishing the Tests And this I would leave with the Sons of the Church of England that they may fix it on their Minds and take heed that above all Men they be not too eager in pressing for a Continued publishing to the World that his Majesty is an Idolater It 's requisite that they remember how tender they have been of the Honor of those Princes that were of their own Religion and if they will be as Loyal as they profess they must shew as great a regard to their Prince now tho' of another Religion When they had a Prince of their own Religion not only the Brownists were condemned for exposing the Queen to the rage of the Mobile by their affirming the Church of England to be no true Church and thereby making their Prince worse than an Atheist but at last they began to draw the same conclusions from Non-subscribing as Mr. Nichols Vide Nichol's Plea for the Innocent an humble Servant of the English Church declares I have saith he heard it objected in a Sermon by a Reverend man who now is a Bishop that by refusing to subscribe we make the Queen's Majesty to be an Atheist worse than Papists and namely of No Religion For saith he you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Orders then do you make that we have no good Ministry you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Common-Prayer then make you that we have no good Liturgy and Service of God you refuse to subscribe to the Book of Articles which contain the sum of our Faith and Doctrine then do you make that we have no sound Doctrin But these be the Books which her Majesty by her Authority doth set forth and by them sheweth what Reliligion she is of and what she holdeth and maintaineth therefore if there be no good Liturgy no good Doctrin no good Ministry then it follows that you make the Queen to be of no Religion And thus much was urged to prove the Old Nonconformists to be Seditious Rebellious and implacable Enemies to the Queen's Majesty and I would fain know whether it be not as mischievous to represent any other Prince under the most odious Characters as it is to expose one of the Church of England's Communion If it be not then there can be no Security in England while our Church-men prevail for that Prince whose Right it is to reign over us is of a Religion different from theirs that is in plain English our Church-men are resolv'd to be Loyal no longer than the King is for the Church of England's Religion But if it be as pernicious to represent our Prince of what Religion soever he be under an ill Character to the People then do all those of the English Church who are for a continuing this Test out-do the old Brownists for what they did was by a remote Consequence They denied the Government of the Church of England to be good but granted that there were many good Christians of their Communion and seeing the Government of the Church is considered distinctly from their Doctrins and is not of the same Necessity to Salvation with their Doctrins the saying that an asserting the Government of their Church and consequently their Ministry to be naught is a Damning their Doctrins must be by a very remote Consequence But in this Test tho' it be the known Practice of a Roman Catholic to invocate the Saints and adore the Sacrifice of the Mass yet it 's not only affirm'd by a few more privately but must be publicly declar'd by all that will have any Interest in the Government that this is Superstitious and Idolatrous and consequently whoever is for this Practice is guilty of that Idolatry that is to be abhorr'd of all men Thus you may see the tendency of Establishing the Tests how much it exposes His Majesty to the contempt of the Mobile and consequently how much it endangers his Person and Government and therefore how necessary 't is to take all off However To add one thing more I humbly think that I may be bold in asserting That such is the present case of England thro' the multiplication of Tests that a great part of our Gentry must be necessarily involv'd in the Guilt of Swearing one thing and Declaring another or it must be recogniz'd that His Majesty without the Aid of Parliament may alter Oaths and Tests and so vacate them or to prevent the King 's doing it 't will be necessary that a Parliament concur with His Majesty in taking off all Tests My reason is this Those Sheriffs that have been Parliament-men must take an Oath contradictory to the Parliamentary Test For by the One he must declare That he believes that there is no Transubstantiation and that the Invocation of Saints is Superstitious c. and by the Other he must swear That he will endeavor the Extermination of all those who do thus believe as just before he professed to do For the Sheriff's Oath runs thus Ye shall do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease all manner of Heresies and Errors commonly called LOLLARS within your Bailiwic from time to time to all your power Now Tritem chron Hir. Saug vit Sigism an 5. whatever may be the reason of the name Lollardy as whether it had its Rise from one Walter Lollard who was burnt at Cologn for an obstinate Adherence unto his Opinions as Tritemius in his Chronicle reports or from Lolium a Tare or Weed
Subjects are deprived of their Civil Rights for the sake of their Religion and such are the Test-Laws is contrary to the Ancient Constitution of our Government which secures our Civil Rights Liberties and Properties from the Assaults of those who would for Religion divest us of them and that therefore it 's his Majesty's Interest which very much consists in the Ease and Quiet of his Subjects to be for the removal of all those Laws And such are the Principles of Protestant Dissenters sufficiently discover'd by their many Complaints against Persecution for Conscience sake that they cannot be for Penal Laws nor for the Test Laws which are of the same kind with them and indeed such is their Interest that unless they improve the present Overture they may never have the like Opportunity more and so be expos'd to the Curse of their Posterity for entaling on them a lasting Persecution And as for the Church of England if she doth not hold that Dominion is founded on Grace and desire to be delivered from the Odium of abetting so pernicious a Principle or of doing the very thing for which they condemned the old Brownists as Traitors she must be for the Taking off those Tests And now there remains nothing but the Objections against the Contents of this Discourse which are to be set down with fairness and faithfulness that is with that openness and ingenuity which becomes an English Heart and to be Answer'd accordingly These Objections may be drawn together in a little room as they are very happily by the Hand of a Learned and worthy Person that hath sent them me unto whom these Papers have been shewn and because I cannot draw them up more short and full I will give them as I have them In all Laws saith the Gentleman the great or chief Thing which is to be attended is the End of their making or the Intention of the Lawgiver If the End of these Tests were to get all who are concern'd to take them they were the most wicked Laws that could be made for what could be more openly profane than for a Man to renounce the Religion he thinks true But this is not the End of the Law the End is that by the refusing the Test such and such Men may be hindred from such and such Offices and Employments which they could not possess without Danger to the Publick And there can be no Complaint here but of their Grievance in being kept out of those Advantages which else they might enjoy But as for that an Answer is in every Month that this is the Nature of Laws in general to restrain Particular Persons from some Conveniences which were else their Right for the sake of the Community that the Publick Emolument be promoted or Detriment prevented There is no Government could stand but on this Foundation That which is not profitable to the Bee-hive is not good for the Bee as Antoninus has it Now if the Test be Repealed it is supposed we shall in due time have a Parliament trumpt up that may be most Papists and the Popish Religion consisting in the Decrees of General Councils confirm'd by the Pope The Council of Lateran we know hath decreed the Extermination of all Heretics by which Means the Nation being generally Protestants may come to Destruction Popery under Toleration may Strengthen but Popery in Dominion Ruins this Nation And what can be now said to this with any satisfaction I see not seeing really there is but one thing could secure us which is if the King would lodge so much of his Power in the Hands of some Great Men whom He and his People both durst Trust as when an Act for Accommodation shall Pass might capacitate them to be effectual Guardians of it In the mean time this being a thing not likely I apprehend the Condition of the Dissenter to be much at one with that of the Lepers at Samaria If the Penal Laws continue of Force they perish if the Test be Repeal'd they may perish too upon the Account mention'd If they stay in the City the Episcopalian will Famish them if they go out the Papist may knock them on the Head. What they will do God knows it is but being Persecuted to Death whether it be by the one or the other This is the Objection thus set down wherein are these Things to be consider'd Here is one Argument against the Taking off the Tests drawn from the Nature of Human Laws another from the State and Constitution of the Popish Religion with an Insinuation that nothing but one unlikely Expedient can be found out for the securing us against our Fears and in the close a forced Acknowledgment that such are the Circumstances of the Dissenters that whose Interest soever it may be to Resolve on the Establishing the Test Act yet it 's theirs to be for the Repealing it To begin then with what is said in regard to the Nature of Human Laws I grant that in the composing all Laws the good of Private Men is to give place to the good of the Public for it is a Principle at the root of all Politics that Vniversi praesunt singulis singuli universis subduntur But I deny that to be good here which is supposed Here is certainly a Mistake and a dangerous one in the Case The Good supposed is that the King must be thought to intend the Ruin of all his Subjects but they that are or will turn Papists and to prevent this Ruin the Rights of the Lords and Commons which depends on the very Constitution of the Realm must be subverted I will answer therefore that such a Thought of the King as this is a wicked Thought for it is against Charity It is an Injurious Thought for it is against the King's constant Profession both in his Declaration and to every body that he will not have Conscience to be constrained and to say he is not of that Principle which he avouches is to make the most stedfast and faithful Prince to be the deepest Dissembler in the World. It is also a Foolish Thought as if the King had a Purpose like to that in the Apologue of the Sea determining with it's Waves to invade the Trees upon the Hills If the main Body of the Nation were Papists there were some Sense in these Fears but when it is so exceeding contrary in that regard there is no reason for them On the other side it is to be thought rather and verily to be believed that there are many worthy Gentlemen and Lords that are Roman Catholics in the Land and as they are English Subjects they have English Hearts and English Estates who being sensible of the Frailty of Human Life are willing to provide for themselves and their Posterity by doing that to their Fellow-Dissenters now under the Reign of a Catholic King as they would have done to them under the Reign of a Successor who is like to be a Protestant And an Act for
intermedling of any Exterior Person or Persons to declare and determine all such Doubts and to administer all such Offices and Duties as to their Rooms Spiritual doth appertain So far the Statute 24. Hen. 8. c. 12. From which I infer That as the English Papists differ from Foreign Papists so the reason they give for what they hold in contradistinction to Foreign Papists is very cogent and powerful They need not apply themselves to any Foreign Power because they have always had at home persons every way qualified to determine all their Doubts And this was not only the Judgment of the Papists at this time but as they declare this has been the sense of their Forefathers for say they it has been always reputed it has been always found it has been always thought heretofore as well as at this hour and whoever will look back to the first words of the Statute may see cause to conclude that thus much they gathered out of the divers Authentic Histories and Chronicles which they consulted And that this must be esteemed especially by the Church of England to be the sense of the English Papist is manifest from the whole scope of Archbishop Bramhall's arguing against the Papists in Vindication of the Church of England when he charges the Papists for making the first Separation from Rome The first Separation saith he was not made by Protestants but by Papists and he endeavors to justifie the Separation by proving that always the English Papists esteem'd themselves a Church that did ever renounce the Pope's Supremacy and that what Henry VIII did was no more than an acting in pursuance of the ancient Law of the Land. To this of the Archbishop's I add That if the first Separation from the Church of Rome was made by Papists then it 's the Judgment of English Papists that they do not stand oblig'd to any Foreign Councils 't is their Judgment that tho' they grant the Pope a Primacy of Order yet that he ought not to have a Supremacy of Jurisdiction for the Crown of England is Imperial and the English Bishops are sufficiently qualified to determine all matters of doubt within themselves And this has been always their Judgment and is so at this time for our King by a continued Exercise of his Ecclesiastical Supremacy asserts it to be a Jewel inherent in his Crown and not to be parted with This then being the avowed Principle of the English Papists the mentioning the Decree of the Council of Lateran as what obliges them before it is prov'd to have been received amongst our Laws cannot affect us for until it be taken in amongst our Laws it obliges not an English Papist nor are they bound to take in this Decree amongst our Laws any more than they were anciently obliged to receive the Canon about Bastardy Furthermore whoever will look into this Objection he must needs see it to be ill as well as weak in the Foundation For to give strength to their Argument it must be presumed That either the Body of the People will turn Papist as soon as the Tests are taken off and choose none but Papists to sit in the following Parliament for to say some few may for Preferment does not reach the Case or a Parliament contrary to all Laws shall be imposed upon us To presume the former is to insinuate without the least colour of Reason that the Body of the Kingdom have nothing to say for their being Protestants but this That their Religion is uppermost and established by Law and that there are such Tests imposed on those who sit in Parliament that Popery is like never to be established But whatever may be said of the Church of England of whom yet I have better thoughts the world knows that a great part of the Nation notwithstanding the severity of the Penal Laws could not be persuaded to close with the Church of England because there was so much Popery in it and it 's to be supposed they 'll abide so firm to the Protestant Religion when they are in no danger of Sufferings as they did when they suffer'd so very much And it must be further considered That these Dissenters when Penal Laws hung over their heads and they were in constant danger of being immediately destroyed by them did even then appear so vigorously in the choosing their Representatives as to carry it for three Parliaments successively against the Papist and Church of England too and it 's not to be doubted but that when the Penal Laws are taken off they 'll not be less Able nor less Industrious to choose such to sit in Parliament as shall be far from introducing the Lateran Decree into their Laws for extirpating the Protestant Religion If on the other hand it shall be urged That a Parliament contrary to the Fundamentals of our Constitution shall be imposed on us by Regal Authority which is a thing the thoughts whereof should be abhorr'd by every good Subject it cannot be apprehended to be more Legal hereafter than such a Parliament presently chosen made up of whomsoever He pleases without taking the Test And considering that our King is aged if such a thing were design'd would it not be the Papists Interest to take that course immediately And seeing they take it not now may we not conclude rationally that they 'll not do it hereafter And yet farther if this were supposed as to the House of Commons the House of Lords for all that are so many of 'em Protestant and out-ballancing the Papists that unless we will reflect on our Nobility as well as on His Majesty and the Body of the Nation and say That as soon as the Tests are taken off they 'll be all Papists also there is no fear of such a matter Again the Papists also must be presum'd to be all fallen under the most strange deliration and madness imaginable seeing otherwise they must know that if they declare themselves to be for violent Methods or make any such attempt it must be with the greatest disadvantages to themselves for it is as if Five men would encounter a Thousand And they must consider how much such an Attempt would enrage the whole Kingdom and how uncertain they are of compassing their end in this King's Reign and how easie is it for the Protestants under a Successor of their Religion to destroy the Papists So that the very Attempt would but prepare their Families and Posterity for a Sacrifice under a Protestant Successor If then there be any wise men of Estates among them that can influence they 'll see it their Interest and make it their Endeavor if possible to Establish Liberty of Conscience on a Rock that can never be moved And altho' some may say that the Priests and Jesuits are a Fiery-spirited People who are for pushing on to violence yet it 's manifest that our Popish Gentry heretofore were never so Priest-ridden as to regard the Priests Humor more than their own