Interest so inconsistent with Peace and Unity as that which dare not solely rely upon the Power of Perswasion but affects Superiority and impatiently seeks after an Earthly Crown This is not to act the Christian but the Caesar not to promote Property but Party and make a Nation Drudges to a Sect. Be it known to such Narrow Spirits we are a Free People by the Creation of God the Redemption of Christ and careful Provision of our never to be forgotten honourable Ancestors So that our Claim to these English Priviledges rising higher then the Date of Protestancy can never justly be invalidated for any Non-conformity to it This were to loose by the Reformation which God forbid I am sure ' twas-to enjoy Property with Conscience that promoted it Nor is there any better Definition of Protestancy then protesting against Spoiling Property for Conscience I must therefore take Leave to say that I know not how to reconcile what a Great Man lately deliver'd in his Eloquent Harangue to the House of Lords His Words are these For when we consider Religion in Parliament we are supposed to consider it as a Parliament should do and as Parliaments in all Ages have done that is as it is a Part of our Laws a Part and a necessary Part of our Government For as it works upon the Conscience as it is an INWARD PRINCIPLE of the DIVINE LIFE by which good Men do govern all their Actions the State hath nothing to do with it it is a Thing which belongs to another kind of Commission then that by which we sit here I acquiesce in the latter Part of this Distinction taking it to be a venerable Truth and would to God Mankind would believe it and live it but how to agree it with the former I profess Ignorance for if the Government hath nothing to do with the Principle it self what more can she pretend over the Actions of those Men that live that good Life Certainly if Religion be this Principle of Divine Life exerting it self by Holy Living and that as such it belongs not to the Commission of our Superiours I do with Submission conceive that there is very little else of Religion lest for them to have to do with the rest merits not the Name of Religion and less doth such a Formality deserve Persecution I hope such Circumstances are no necessary Part of English Government that can't reasonably be reputed a necessary part of Religion and I dare believe that he is too great a Lawyer upon second Thoughts to repute that a Part of our Laws a Part a necessary Part of our Government that is such a Part of Religion as is neither the Divine Principle nor yet the Actions immediately flowing from it since the Government was most compleat and prosperous many Ages without it and hath never known more perplext Contests and troublesom Interruptions then since it hath been receiv'd and valu'd as a Part of the English Government and God I hope will forbid it in the Hearts of our Superiours that English Men should be deprived of their Civil Inheritance for their Non-conformity to Church-Formality For no Property out of the Church the plain English of publick Severity is a Maxim that belongs not to the holy Law of God nor Common Law of the Land 4. If Liberty and Property must be the Forfeit of Conscience for Non conformity to the Princes Religion the Prince and his Religion shall only be lov'd as the next best Accession to other Mens Estates and the Prince perpetually provoakt to expose many of his Inoffensive People to Beggary 5. It is our Superiours Interest that Property be preserved because it is their own Case None have more Property then themselves But if Property be exposed for Religion the Civil Magistrate exposes both his Conscience and his Property to the Church and disarms himself of all Defence upon any Alteration of Judgment This is for the Prince to fall down at the Prelate's Fâ—â—t and the State to suffer it self to be rid by the Church 6. It obstructs all Improvement of Land and Trade for who will labour that hath no Propriety or hath it exposed to an unreasonable Sort of Men for the bare Exercise of his Conscience to God and a poor Country can never make a Rich and Powerful Prince Heaven is therefore Heaven to Good and Wise Men because they have an Eternal Propriety therein 7thly This Sort of Procedure hitherto oppugn'd to the behalf of Property puts the whole Nation upon miserable Uncertainties that are follow'd with great Disquiets and Distractions which certainly it is the Interest of all Governments to prevent The Reigns of Henry 8. Edw. 6. Q. Mary and Q. Eliz. both with relation to the Marriages of the first and the Religious Revolutions of the rest are a plain Proof in the Case King Henry voids the Pope's Supremacy and assumes it himself Q. Mary his Daughter by his first Wife Katharine repeals all those Acts made since the 12th of Henry 8. in Disfavour of the Pope Oaths taken on both sides to maintain those Laws Edw. 6. enacts Protestancy with an Oath to maintain it 1 Q. Mary c. 1. This is abrogated Popery solemnly restored and an Oath inforc'd to defend it Comes Q. Elizabeth and repeals that Law calls back Protestancy ordains a new Oath to un-Oaâ—h Q. Mary's Oath and all this under the Penalty of loosing Estate Liberty and sometimes Life it self which Thousands to avoid lamentably perjur'd themselves four or five times over within the space of 20. Years in which Sin the Clergy transcended not an Hundred for every Thousand but left their Principles for their Parâ—shâ—s Thus hath Conscience been debaucht by Force and Property toss'd up down by the impetuous Blasts of ignorant Zeal or sinister Design 8. Where Liberty Property are violated there must alwayes be a State of Force And though I pray God that we never need those Cruel Remedies whose Calamitous Effects we have too lately felt yet certainly SELF-Preservation is of all Things dearest to Men insomuch that being conscious to themselves of not having done an ill thing to defend their unforfeited Priviledges they cheerfully hazard all they have in this World so strangely vindictive are the Sons of Men in Maintenance of their Rights And such are the Cares Fears Doubts and Insecurities of that Administration as render Empire a Slavery and Dominion the worst Sort of Bondage on the contrary nothing can give greater Cheerfulness Confidence Security and Honour to any Prince then ruling by Law for it is both a Conjunction of Title with Power and attracts Love as well as it requires Duty Give me Leave without any Offence for I have God's Evidence in my own Conscience I intend nothing but a respectful Caution to my Superiours to confirm this Reason with the Judgment and Example of other Times The Governours of the Eleans held a strict Hand over the People they being in Despair call'd in the Spartans for
the Grave's Mediation that they parted scarcely Civil To be sure as far from Unity as Controversie is Luther Cardinal Cajeten met for a Composure of the Breach betwixt the Protestants and the Pope but they were too wide for those Conferences to reconcile no Comprehension could do the Business A second Essay to the same Purpose was by Melanchton Cassander others the Consequence of it was that the Parties were displeased and the Heads suspected if not hated of their Followers Nor had Bucer's Meeting with Julius Pflugg any better Success And how fruitless their Contrivances have been that with greatest Art and Industry have of a long Time endeavoured a Reconciliation of Lutherans and Calvinists is well known to those that are acquainted with the Affairs of Germany and such as are not may furnish themselves from those publick Relations given by those that are employed about that Accommodation where besides a dull and heavy Progress the Reader may be a Witness of their Complaint not only that both Parties are too tenacious but that they suffer Detraction for their good Endeavours each Side grudging every Tittle they yield and murmuring as if they were too hardly born upon And if Persons so disinterested and worthy in their Attempts have had no better Issue I cannot see how those who seem compell'd by Worldly Interest more then Conscience to seek and propagate a Comprehension especially when it determins in the Persecution of the rejected Perswasions can with any Reason expect from God or Good Men any better Success to their Design Lastly there is nothing any Man toucht with Justice and Mercy can alledge for a Comprehension that may not be much better urg'd to procure a Toleration they are Men as well as those of other Perswasions their Faith is as Christian they believe as sincerely live as conscientiously are as useful in the Kingdom and mannage their Dissent with as much Modesty Prudence the Church of England her self being in a great Measure Judge as those on whose Account a Comprehension may be intended To be sure they are English Men and have an Equal Claim to the Civil Rights of their Native Country with any that live in it whom to persecute whilest others and those no better Men are tolerated is as I have already said The Unreasonable and Unmerciful Doctrine of absolute Election and Reprobation put in Practice III. A SINCERE PROMOTION of General Practical RELIGION I am now come to the last which to be sure is not the least Part of my Answer to the Question propounded viz. The Sincere Promotion of general and practical Religion by which I mean the Ten Commandments or moral Law and Christ's Sermon upon the Mount with other Heavenly Sayings excellently improved and earnestly recommended by several Passages in the Writings of his Disciples which forbid Evil not only in Deed but Thought and injoyn Purity Holiness as without which no Man be his Pretences what they will shall ever see God In short General True and Requisite Religion in the Apostle James's Definition is To visit the Widow and the Fatherless and to keep our selves through the Universal Grace unspotted of the World This is as the most sacred so the most easie probable Way to fetch in all Men professing God Religion for that every Perswasion acknowledges this in Words be their Lives never so incongruous with their Confession And this being the Unum necessarium that One Thing only requisite to make Men happy here and hereafter why should Men sacrifice their Accord in this great Point for an Unity in minute or circumstantial Things that perhaps inobtainable and if it were not would signifie little or nothing either to the Good of Human Society or the particular Comfort of any individual in that World which is to come No one Thing is more senseless and condemnable among Men then their Uncharitable Mutinous Clamours and Contests about Religion indeed about Words Phrases whilst they all verbany meet in the most if not only necessary Part of Christian Religion For nothing is more certain then if Men would but live up to one half of what they know in their own Consciences they ought to practise their Edge would be taken off their Blood would be sweetned by Mercy and Truth and this unnatural Sharpness qualified they would quickly find Work enough at home each Man's Hands would be full by the Unruliness of his own Passions and in Subjection of his own Will and instead of devouring one another's Good Name Liberty or Estate Compassion would rise and mutual Desires to be assistent to one another in a better Sort of Living Oh how decent how delightful would it be to see Mankind the Creation of one God that hath upheld them to this Day of one Accord at least in the weighty Things of God's practical Law 'T is Want of Practice and too much Prate that hath made Way for all the Incharity and Ill living that is in the World No Matter what Men say if the Devil keep the House Let the Grace of God the Principle of Divine Life as a great Man lately call'd it in his Speech but be heartily and reverently entertained of men that teaches to deny Ungodliness and converse Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this present evil World and it is not to be doubted but Tranquillity and a very amicable Correspondence will follow Men are not to be reputed Good by their Opinion nor is that nor ought it to be offensive to the Government but Practice is what must save or damn temporally or eternally Christ in his Representation of the Great Day doth not tell us that it shall be Well SAID or Well TALKT but Well DONE good and faithful Servant neither is the Depart from me YOU directed to any but the Workers of Iniquiry Error now is brought from the Signification of an Evil Life to an unsound Proposition as Philosophy is from Mortification and well living to an Unintelligible Way of Wrangling And a man is more bitterly harrac'd for an Erroneous Proposition though the Party holding it thinks not so and the Party charging it denies all Infallible Judgment in this World so that it may as well be true as false for all him then for the most dissolute Life And truly it is high Time that Men should give better Testimony of their Christianity for Cruelty hath no Share in Christ's Religion and Coertion upon Conscience is utterly inconsistent with the very Nature of his Kingdom He rebuked that Zeal which would have Fire from Heaven to devour Dissenters though it came from his own Disciples and forbad them to pluck up the Tares though none had a more gentle or infallible Hand to do it by He preferr'd Mercy before Sacrifice and therefore we may well believe that the Unmerciful Sacrifices some Men now offer I mean Imprisoning Persons spoiling of Goods and leaving whole Families destitute of common Subsistence are far from being grateful to him who therefore
other ill then that for Non-conformity in Matters of Religion they bear Indignities patiently To be short If all the Interruptions Informations Fines Imprisonments Exiles and Blood the great Enemy of Nature as well as Grace hath excited man in all Ages to about Matters of Worship from Cain and Abel's time to ours could furnish us with sufficient Presidents that the Design proposed by the Inflictors of so much Severity was ever answered that they have smother'd Opinions and not Inflamed but Extinguisht Contest it might perhaps at least prudentially give Check to our Expectations and allay my just Confidence in this Address But since such Attempts have ever been found Improsperous as well as that they are too Costly and that they have procured the Judgments of God the Hatred of Men to the Sufferers Misery to their Countries Decay of People and Trade and to their own Consciences an infinite Guilt I fall to the Question and then the Solution of it in which as I declare I intend nothing that should in the least abate of that Love Honour and Service that are due to you so I beseech you do me that Justice as to make the fairest Interpretation of my Expressions for the whole of my Plain and Honest Design is to offer my Mite for the Increase of your True Honour and my dear Country's Felicity The QUESTION WHat is most Fit Easie and Safe at this Juncture of Affairs to be done for Composing at least Quieting Differences for Allaying the Heat of Contrary Interests and making them Subservient to the Interest of the Government and Consistent with the Prosperity of the Kingdom The ANSWER I. An Inviolable and Impartial Maintenance of English Rights II. Our Superiours governing themselves upon a Ballance as near as may be towards the several Religious Interests III. A sincere Promotion of General and Practical Religion I shall briefly discourse upon these Three Things and endeavour to prove them a sufficient if not the only best Answer that can be given to the Question propounded Of ENGLISH-RIGHT THere is no Government in the World but it musteither stand upon Will and Power or Condition and Contract The one rules by Men the other by Laws And above all Kingdoms under Heaven it is England's Felicity to have her Constitution so impartially Just and Free as there cannot well be any thing more remote from Arbitrariness and jealous of preserving her Laws by which all Right is maintain'd These Laws are either Fundamental and so immutable or more Superficial and Temporary and consequently alterable By Superficial Laws we understand such Acts Laws or Statutes as are suited to present Occurrences and Emergencies of State and which may as well be abrogated as they were first made for the Good of the Kingdom For Instance Those Statutes that relate to Victuals Cloaths Times and Places of Trade c. which have ever stood whilst the Reason of them was in Force but when that Benefit which once redounded fell by fresh Accidents they ended according to that old Maxim Cessante ratione legis cessat lâ—x By Fundamental Laws I do not only understand such as immediately spring from Synteresis that Eternal Principle of Truth and Sapience more orless disseminated through Mankind which are as the Corner Stones of Humane Structure the Basis of reasonable Societies without which all would run into Heaps and Confusion namely Honeste vivers alterum non loedere jus suum cuique tribuere that is To live Honestly not to Hurt another and to give every one their Right Excellent Principles and common to all Nations Though that it self were sufficient to our present purpose But those Rights and Priviledges which I call English and which are the proper Birth right of English men may be reduced to these Three First An Ownership and Undisturbed Possession That what they have is rightly theirs and no Body's else 2dly A Voting of every Law that is made whereby that Ownership or Propriety may be maintained 3dly An Influence upon and a real Share in that Judicatory Power that must apply every such Law which is the Ancient Necessary and Landable Use of Juries if not found among the Brittains to be sure practised by the Saxons and continued through the Normans to this very day That these have been the Ancient and Undoubted Rights of English men as three great Roots under whose spacious Branches the English People have been wont to shelter themselves against the Storms of Arbitrary Government I shall endeavour to prove 1. An Ownership and Undisturbed Possession This relates both to Title and Security of Estate and Liberty of Person from the Violence of Arbitrary Power 'T is true the Foot Steps of the Brittish Government are very much over-grown by Time There is scarcely any thing remarkable left us but what we are beholden to Strangers for either their own Unskilfulness in Letters or their Depopulations and Conquests by Invaders have deprived the World of a particular Story of their Laws and Customs in Peace or War However Caesar Tacitus and especially Dion say enough to prove their Nature and their Government to be as far from Slavish as their Breeding and Manners were remote from the Education and greater Skill of the Romans Beda and M. West minster say as much The Law of Property they observed and made those Laws that concern'd the Preservation of it The Saxons brought no Alteration to these two Fundamentals of our English Government for they were a Free People govern'd by Laws of which they themselves were the Makers that is There was no Law made without the Consent of the People de majoribus omnes as Tacitus observeth of the Germans in general They lost nothing by transporting of themselves hither and doubtless found a greater Consistency between their Laws then their Ambition For the Learned Collector of the Brittish Councils tells us That Ethelston the Saxon King pleading with the People told them Seeing I according to your Law allow what is yours do ye so with me Whence Three Things are observable 1st That something was theirs that no Body else could dispose of 2dly That they have Property by their own Law therefore they had a Share in making their own Laws 3dly That the Law was Umpier between King and People neither of them ought to infringe the Law limited them This Ina the Great Saxon King confirms There is no Great Man saith he nor any other in the whole Kingdom that may abolish written Laws It was also a great part of the Saxon Oath administred to the Kings at their Entrance upon the Government to Maintain and Rule according to the Laws of the Nation Their Parliament they called Micklemote or Wittangemote it consisted of King Lords and People before the Clergy interwove themselves with the Civil Government And Andrew Horn in his Miror of Justice tells us That the Grand Assembly of the Kingdom in the Saxon time was to confer of the Government of
Religion notwithstanding their unanimous Cry for Property a prudent Mannagement of which may return to the great Quiet Honour and Profit of the Kingdom II. Our SUPERIOURS governing themselves upon a BALLANCE as near as may be towards the several Religious INTERESTS TO perform my part in this Point I shall not at this time make it my Business to manifest the Inconsistency that there is between the Christian Religion and a forc'd Uniformity not only because it hath been so often and excellently done by Men of Wit Learning and Conscience and that I have else-where largely deliver'd my Sense about it but because Every free and impartial Temper hath of a long time observ'd that such Barbarous Attempts were so far from being indulg'd that they were most severely prohibited by Christ himself who instructed his Disciples to love their Enemies not to persecute their Friends for every Difference in Opinion That the Tares should grow with the Wheat That his Kingdom is not of this World That Faith is the Gift of God That the Will and Understanding of Man are Faculties not to be workt upon by Corporal Penalties That TRUTH is all-sufficient to her own Relief That ERROR and ANGER go together That base Coyn only stands in need of Imposition to make it current but that True Metal passeth for its own intrinsick Value with a great deal more of that Nature I shall therefore chuse to oppose my self at this time to any such Severity upon meer Prudence that such as have No Religion and certainly They that persecute for Religion have as little as need to be may be induc'd to Tolerate THEM that have First However advisable it may be in the Judgment of some wise Men to prevent even by Force the arising of any New Opinions where a Kingdom is universally of another Mind especially if it be odious to the People and inconsistent with the Interest of the Government it cannot be so where a Kingdom is of many Minds unless some One Party have the Wisdom Wealth Number Sober Life Industry and Resolution of its side which I am sure is not to be found in England so that the Wind hath plainly shifted its Corner and consequently oblieges to another Course I mean England's Circumstances are greatly changed and they require new Expedients and other sorts of Applications Physicians vary their Medicines according to the Revolution and Commixture of Distempers They that seek to tye the Government to obsolete and inadequate Methods supposing them once apt which Cruelty in this Case never was are not Friends to its Interest whatever they may be to their own If our Superiours should make it their Business so to prefer One Party as to depress the rest they insecure themselves by making them Friends to be their Enemies who before were one anothers To be sure it createth Hatred between the Party advanced and those deprest Jacob's preferring Joseph put his Brethren upon that Conspiracy against him I will allow that they may have a more particular Favour for the National Religion if they can think she deserves it then for any other Perswasion but not more then for all other Parties in England that would break the Ballance the keeping up of which will be to make every Party to owe its Tranquillity to their Prudence and Goodness which will never fail of Returns of Love and Loyalty for since we see each Interest looks jealously upon the other 't is reasonable to believe they had rather the Dominion should lodge where it is while universally impartial in their Judgment then to trust it with any one sort of themselves Many inquisitive Men into humane Affairs have thought that the Concord of Discords hath not been the infirmest Basis Government can rise or stand upon It hath been observed that less Sedition and Disturbance attended Hannibal's Army that consisted of many Nations then the Roman Legions that were of one People It is Marvelous how the Wisdom of that General secured them to his Designs Livy saith that his Army for Thirteen Years that they roaved up and down the Roman Empire made up of many Countries divers Languages Laws Customs Religions under all their Successes of War and Peace never Mutined Malvetzy as well as Livy asscribes it to that Variety well mannaged by the General By the like Prudence Jovianus and Theodosius Magnus brought Tranquillity to their Empire after much Rage and Blood for Religion In Nature we also see all Heat consumes all Cold kills that three Degrees of Cold to two of Heat allay the Heat but introduce the Contrary Quality and over-cool by a Degree but two Degrees of Cold to two of Heat make a Poyz in Elements and a Ballance in Nature The like in Families It is not probable that a Master should have his Work so well done at least with that Love and Respect who continually smiles upon one Servant and severely frowns upon all the rest on the contrary 't is apt to raise Feud amongst Servants and turn Duty into Revenge at least Contempt In fine It is to make our Superiours Dominion less then God made it and to blind their Eyes stop their Ears and shut-up their Breasts from beholding the Miseries hearing the Cries and redressing the Grievances of a vast number of People under their Charge vext in this World for their Belief and inoffensive Practice about the next Secondly It is the Interest of Governours to be put upon no Thankless Offices that is to blow noCoales in their own Country especially when it is to consume their People and it may be themselves too not to be the Cat 's Foot not to make Work for themselves or fill their own Hands with Trouble or the Kingdom with Complaints It is to forbid them the Use of Clemency wherein they ought most of all to imitate God Almighty whose Mercy is above all his Works and renders them a sort of Extortioners to the People the most remote from the End and Goodness of their Office In short It is the best Receipt that their Enemies can give to make them uneasie to the Country Thirdly It not only makes them Enemies but there is no such Excitement to Revenge as a rap'd Conscience He that hath been forc'd to break his Peace to gratifie the Humor of another must have a great share of Mercy and Self-denyal to forgive that Injury and forbid himself the Pleasure of Retribution upon the Authors of it For Revenge in other Cases condemnable of all is here lookt upon by too many to be the next way to their Expiation To be sure whether the Grounds of their Dissent be rational in themselves such Severity is unjustifiable with them for this is a Maxim with Sufferers Whoever is in the Wrong the Persecutor is never in the Right Men not conscious to themselves of Evil and harshly treated not only resent it unkindly but are bold to shew it Fourthly Suppose the Prince by his Severity conquers any into a Compliance he can upon
no prudent Ground assure himself of their Fidelity whom he hath taught to be Treacherous to their own Convictions Wise Men rarely confide in those whom they have debaucht from Trust to serve themselves At best it resembleth but forc'd Marriages that seldom prove happy to the Parties In short Force makes Hypocrites 't is Perswasion only that makes Converts Fifthly This Partiality of sacrificing the Liberty and Property of all Dissenters to the Promotion of a single Party as it is the lively Representation of J. Calvin's Horrendum Decretum of Predestination so the Consequences of the one belong unto the other it being but that Ill-natured Principle practised Men are put upon the same desperate Courses either to have no Conscience at all or to be Hang'd for having a Conscience not fashionable for let them be Virtuous let them be Vitious if they fall not in with that Mode of Religion they must be reprobated to all Civil and Ecclesiastical Intents and Purposes Strange that men must either Deny their Faith and Reason or be destroyed for acting according to them be they otherwise never so Peaceable What Power is this But that men are to be protected upon Favour not Right or Merit and that no Merit out of the English Church-Dress should find Acceptance is severe That Father we justly blame that narrows his Paternal Love to some one of his Children though the rest be not one jot less Virtuous then the Favouriter Such Injustice can never flow from a Soul acted by Reason but a Mind govern'd by Fancy and enslaved to Passions Sixthly consider Peace Plenty and Safety the three grand Inducements to any Country to honour the Prince and love the Government and the best Allurements to Forreigners to trade with it and transport themselves to it are utterly lost by such Intestine Jars for instead of Peace Love and good Neighbourhood behold Animosity and Contest One Neighbour watcheth another and makes him an Offender for his Conscience this divides them their Families and Acquaintance Perhaps with them the Towns and Villages where they live most commonly the Sufferer hath the Pitty and the Persecutor the Odium of the Multitude and when People see Cruelty practised upon their Inoffensive Neighbours by a Troublesom Sort of Men and those countenanced by a Law it breedeth Ill Blood against the Government Certainly haling People to Goals breaking open their Houses seizing of their Estates and that without all Proportion leaving Wives without their Husbands and Children without their Fathers their Families Relations Friends and Neighbours under Amaze and Trouble is almost as far from the Peace of a well-govern'd Kingdom as it is from the Meekness of Christianity Plenty will be hereby exchanged for Poverty by the Destruction of many Thousand Families within this Realm who are greatly Instrumental for the carrying on of the most Substantial Commerce therein Men of Virtue good Contrivance great Industry whose Labours not only keep the Parishes from the Trouble Charge of maintaining them and theirs but help to maintain the Poor and are great Contributors to the Kings Revenue by their Traffick I his very Severity will make more Bankrupts in the Kingdom of England in 7 Years then have been in it upon all other Accounts in 7 Ages which Consequence how far it may consist with the Credit Interest of the Government I leave to better Judgments This Sort of great Severity that hath been lately and still is used amongst us is like to prove a great Check to that Readiness which otherwise we find in Forreigners to trade with the Inhabitants of this Kingdom for if Men cannot call any Thing their own under a different Exercise of Conscience from the National Way of Religion may their Correspondents prudently say We will not further concern our selves with Men that stand upon such tickling Terms what know we but such Persons are ruin'd in their Estates by Reason of their Non-Conformity before such Time as we are reimburst for Money paid or Goods delivered Nay we know not how soon those who are Conformists may be Non-Conformists or what Revolution of Councils may happen since the Fundamental Laws so jealous of the Peoples Property are so little set by with some of their own Magistrates for though we are told of very worthy and excellent Laws for the Security of the Peoples Rights yet we are also told that they all hang at the Churches Ear and no Church-Conformity no Property which is no Church-Man no English-Man so that in Effect the Rights of their Country depend upon the Rights of their Church and those Churches are so numerous and have taken their Turns so often that a Body knows not how to mannage one's self securely to one 's own Affairs in a Correspondence with any of them For in King Henry the eight's Dayes Popery was the only Orthodox Religion and Luther Melanchton Oecolampadius Calvin c. were great Hereticks In Edward the sixth's Time they were Saints and Popery Idolatry A few Years after Q Mary makes the Papists Holy Church and Protestancy Heresie About six Years complcats her Time and Q. Elizabeth enters her Reign in which Protestants are good Christians and the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon In her Reign and King James ' s and Charles the first 's sprung the Puritans who divided themselves into Presbyterians and Independents the Bishops exclaimed against them for Schismaticks and they against the Bishops for Papistical and Anti christian In the long Parliament's Time the Presbyterian drives out the Bishop O. Cromwel defeating them and sending the Presbyterian to keep Company with the Bishop confers it mostly upon the Independent and Anabaptist who kept it through the other Fractions of Government till the Presbyter and Bishop got it from them and the Bishop now from the Presbyter but how long it will rest there who knows Nor is my Supposition idle or improbable unless Moderation take Place of Severity and Property the room of Punishment of Opinion for that must be the lasting Security as well as that it is the Fundamental Right of English People There is also a further Consideration and that is the rendering just and very good Debts desperate both at home and abroad by giving Opportunity to the Debtors of Dissenters to detain their Dues Indeed it seems a natural Consequence with all but Men of Mercy and Integrity What should we pay them for may they say that are not in a Capacity to demand or receive it at least to compel us Nay they may plead a sort of Kindness to their Creditors and say We had as good keep it for if we pay it them they will soon loose it 't is better to remain with us then that they should be pillag'd of it by Informers though Beggary and Want should in the mean time overtake the right Owners and their Families Nor is it unworthy of the most deliberate Thoughts of our Superiours that the Land already swarms with Beggars and that there
came into the World and preacht that Heavenly Doctrine of Forbearing and Loving of Enemies and laid down his most Innocent Life for us whilst we were Rebels that by such peaceable Precepts and so patient an Example the World might be prevailed upon to leave those Barbarous Courses And doubtless very lamentable will their Condition be who at the Coming of the great Lord shall be found Beaters of their Fellow Servants In vain do Men go to Church pray preach and style themselves Believers Christians Children of God c. whilst such Acts of Severity are practised and any Disposition to molest harmless Neighbours for their Conscience so much as countenanc'd A Course quite repugnant to Christ's Doctrine and Example In short the promoting of this General Religion by a severe Reprehension and Punishment of Vice and Encouragement of Virtue is the Interest of our Superiours several Wayes 1. In that it meets with and takes in all the Religious Perswasions of the Kingdom Penal Laws for Religion is a Church with a Sting in her Tail take that out and there is no Fear of the Peoples Love and Duty And what better Obligation or Security can the Civil Magistrate desire Every Man owns the Text 't is the Comment that 's disputed Let it but please him to make the Text only sacred and necessary and so leave Men to keep Company with their own Meanings and Consequences and he not only prudently takes in all but suppresseth nice Searches fixes Unity upon Materials quiets present Differences about Things of lesser Moment retrives Humanity and Christian Clemency and fills the Kingdom with Love and Respect to their Governours 2. Next A Promotion of general Religion it being in it self practical brings back again ancient Virtue Good Living will thrive in this Soil Men will grow Honest Trusty and Temperate we may expect good Neighbourhood and Cordial Friendship one may depend more upon a Word then now upon an Oath How lamentable is it to see People afraid of one onother Men made and provided for of one God and that must be judged by that one Eternal God yet full of Diffidence in what each other sayes and most commonly interpret as People read Hebrew all Things that are spoaken backward 3. The third Benefit is that Men will be more industrious more diligent in their lawful Callings which will encrease our Manufacture set the Idle and Poor to work for their Livelyhood and enable the several Countries with more Ease and Decency to maintain the Aged and Impotent among them Nor will this only make the Lazy conscientiously industrious but the Industrious and Conscientious Man Chearful at his Labour when he is assured to keep what he Works for and that the Sweat of his Brows shall not be made a Forfeit for his Conscience 4. It will render the Magistrates Province more facil and Government a safe as well as easie Thing for as Tacitus sayes of Agricola's instructing the Brittains in Arts and Sciences and using them with more Humanity then other Governours had done that it made them fitter for Government So if that practical Religion and the Laws made to maintain it were duely regarded the very Natures of Men now wild and froward by Cross and Jealous Interests would learn Moderation and see it to be by far their greatest Interest to pursue sober and amicable Conversation which would rid the Magistrate of much of his present Trouble And the Truth is 't is a Piece of Slavery to have the Regiment of Ignorants and Ruffains but there is true Glory and Royalty in having the Government of Men instructed in the Justice and Prudence of their own Laws and Country Lastly Heaven will prosper so natural so noble and so Christian an Essay which ought not to be the least Consideration with a good Magistrate and the rather because the Neglect of this practical Religion hath been the Ruin of Kingdoms and Common Wealths among Heathens Jews and Christians This laid Tarquin low and his Race never rose more How puissant was Lacedaemon and Athens in Greece till Luxury had eaten out their Severity and a pompâ—…â—…ing contrary to their Excellent Laws render'd their Execution intolerable And was not Hannibal's Army a Prey to their own Idleness and Pleasure which by esseminating their Natures conquer'd them when the whole Power of Rome could not do it What else betray'd Rome to Caesar's Ambition and madeway for the after Rents and Divisions of the Empire The Conquest and Inheritance of a well govern'd People for several Ages as long as their Manners lasted The Jews in like Manner were prosperous while they keept the Statutes and Judgments of their God but when they became rebellious and dissolute the Almighty either visited them from Heaven or exposed them to the Fury of their Neighbours Nothing else sent Zedekiah to Babylon and gave him and the people a Prey to Nebuchadnezar and his Army Neglect of Laws and dissolute Living Andrew Horn that lived in the Time of Edw. the â—st as before cited tells us was the Cause of their miserable Thraldom and Desolation the Brittains sustained by Invaders and Conquerers And pray what else hath been the English of our sweeping Pestilence and dreadful Fires of late Years Hundreds of Examples might be brought in this Case but their Frequency shall excuse me Thus have I honestly and plainly clear'd my Conscience for my Country and answer'd I hope modestly and though briefly yet fully the Import of the Question propounded with Honour to the Magistrate and Safety to the People by an happy Conjunction of their Interests I shall coâ—â—lude That as greater Honour and Wisdom cannot well be attributed to any Sort of Men then for our Superiours under their Circumstances to be sought to by all Perswasions consided in by all Perswasions and obey'd by all Peswasions and to make those Perswasions know that it is their Interest so to do as well as that it is the Interest of our Superiours they should which the Expedients proposed naturally tend to So for a further Inducement to embrace them let it be constantly remembred that the Interest of our English Governours is like to stand longer upon the Leggs of the English People then of the English Church since the one takes in the Strength of all Interests the other leaves out all but her own and it may happen that the English Church may fail or go travail again but it is not probable that English People should do either while Property is preserved a Ballance kept General Religion propagated and the World continues May all this prevail with our Superiours to make the best Use of their little Time remembring in the midst of all their Power and Grandeur that they carry Mortality about them and are equally liable to the Scrutiny and Judgment of the last Day with the poorest Peasant and that they have a great Stewardship to account for that Moderation and Virtue being their Course they for the future shall steer after