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A47798
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An answer to a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of His Majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence / by Sir Roger L'Estrange.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing L1195; ESTC R24430
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50,153
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54
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at this time Preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England may it not without Injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of season springeth rather from Corruption than Mistake and that those who act this Cholerick part do not believe themselves but only pursue higher Directions and endeavour to make good that part of their Contract which obligeth them upon a Forfeiture to make use of their inflaming Eloquence They might apprehend their Wages would be retrenched if they should be Moderate And therefore whilst Violence is their Interest those who have not the same Arguments have no reason to follow such a Partial Example P. 4. HEre 's Supposition upon Supposition More and More sill What if there should be Mony in the Case among the Dissenting Ministers as there has been formerly And what if the Agents of Former Times should be now at their Old Trade again Why truly for My Part it shall be either So or Not so as the Author pleases and e'en let him take his Choice If there has been No Mony given the Author is out in his History And if there Has been Mony given the Single Question is Whether the Thing was Honest or Dishonest Warrantable or Vnwarrantable that was to be done for That Mony. I do not find that there were any Bravo's or Church-Robbers employ'd in This most Important Commission I do not hear of any Murder or Sacrilege in the Question But when it shall be Prov'd that a Wicked Thing was ORDER'D and a Wicked Thing DONE Then and not till Then will be the Time for This Supposition to take Place Now if it was a Lawfull or a Righteous Bus'ness I have very Good Authority for 't that the Labourer is Worthy of his Hire And it is the Wisdom and the Justice of All Well-Ordered States to Reward Publique Services without Suffering Good Subjects to be Call'd Mercenaries for Touching the King's Mony and likewise for the Credit and the Vindication of the Honour of the Government not to suffer the Bountyes of the Prince to be Scandalously Represented to the People under the Odious Names of Corruption Bribery or Subornation Insomuch that the Presumption of Fraud seems to lye much stronger on the Supposers side then it does on the Other The Letter is IFFING of it now again too with a What if the Mercenary Ministers Before supposed should be kept in Awe for fear of telling of Tales They are gotten into Hucksters Hands and there 's No coming off without a Scratch'd Face Now am I the very Same Indifferent Man to This Supposition that I was to the Former and believe it upon the Whole Matter to be a Fiction But I do not yet either Pretend to Know or to Pronounce upon 't and whether it be a Truth or a Figment 't is to Mee All of a Price So that for Quietness sake I am content to Reason with the Gentleman upon his Own Askings His Own Presumptions Nay and I care not if I say upon his Own Affirmations too For This way of Casing a Matter has the Force of Asserting it If in Good Earnest such a Thing has been and that they dare not come off for fear of being Layd Open 't is the Case that I have had somewhere before of a Gentleman that lay given over by his Physician in a Desperate Fit of Sickness A Friend and Companion of His made him a Visit layd his Condition before him and Advis'd him by All means while he had Life yet to Call upon God and Repent Why Ay says he If I were sure to Dye I 'de Repent with all my Heart But then if I should happen to Live the Rogues would so Laugh at me Here 's the Perfect Image of the Author's Thoughts upon the Supposed Dissenter in the Second Period Body and Soul. He 's Affraid to Repent for fear the Rogues should Laugh at him I do not know how far This Bashfull Argument may Work upon the World but I am persuaded that the Plea will hardly be admitted at the Day of Judgment And then he lays the Stress of the Case upon a Point that 's Never to be Clear'd 'till we have All of us Windows in our Breasts and Eyes to See and Read the Thoughts of one Another in our very Hearts And where 's the Result at last but that we are to Draw Conclusions from the Bare Possibility of Things to the Infallibility of a Demonstration Let This be Granted and the Supposition stands Firm but Nothing Less then This will be ever able to Support it And the Case-putting-Humour goes on still too though the Author succeeds no Beeter in his Third Supposition then he did in the Two Former By These or Any Others Preaching up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England He can mean Nothing in the World but Popish Priests or Dissenters unless he should Imagine that the Church-of-England Ministers will lay Violent Hands upon Themselves Such Preaching he says is plainly out of Season with a regard he means to the Timing of it Which seems to Imply that at some other time it might do well enough Now if it be an Ill Thing to do at Any time it will be ALLWAYS out of Season for 't is not with Sermons as 't is with Mackrel to be IN and OVT But if Such Preaching may be Now Out of Season Why may not some Ways of Writing be out of Season too And why may it not be a Thing of as Dangerous Consequence to set the Dissenters and the Papists as to set the Dissenters and the Church-of-England-men together by the Ears Not but that This Way of Conduct Wounds the True and the Genuine Church of England under the Bare Denomination of a Church-of-England-Cause more then it does Either of the Other Two Parties as I shall shew when it comes before me But the Corruption goes on still The Cholerick Part he says is but Acted Higher Directions msut be Pursu'd or the Contract is Void Nay the Dissenters are in Pay too and they have Wages The Design is to Work Violence and There he Pins the Basket. If the Cholerick Part be as he says but Acted the Dissenters and the Church-of-England-Men Understand One Another before hand it seems and the Whole Story of the Letter is but a Banter That same Expression of Higher Directions is a Bugg Word or Two and from Higher to Higher there will be No Resting Place found for this Oraculous Innuendo till we come to the Highest of all Now I am not Lawyer enough to know What such a Charge of CONTRACT CHEAT and VIOLENCE in such a Train of Connexion may amount to This is a Partial Example he says And truly Mythinks This Letter has a very Partial way of Proceeding for it makes War and Peace in the same Breath Rips up Old Wounds under the Colour of Healing them And I appeal to the indifferent World whether a Cholerick Writer may not be as Dangerous as a Cholerick Preacher
his due he has some sort of Justice as well as Wit in his Anger For after the Crippling of the Prerogative he Furnishes a Crutch and calls in the LEGISLATIVE Help to Support it and so drops the Government into a kind of Partnership betwixt King Lords and Commons 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 squeaziness of starting at a Surplice you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation p. 9. EIther This is the Fiction of a Case to serve a Present Turn or it is True in Matter of Fact but it is Clear that the Dissenters mean One Church of England and that our Author speaks of Another But be it as it will here 's no Light of Evidence that I can see nor any Stress of Argument The Charge that was Flat Popery formerly is now Dwindled down into a Bare Complyance But how is This Church Deserted all this while How Prosecuted In the Declaration that 's made the Foundation of the Controversie it is Expresly Provided for and Secur'd and the Liberty that is Given to the One side is not Taken from the Other But the Author's Church is Teachy and Froward and the Answerer's Church is to bear the Blame on 't I am at a loss too at the supposed Stop here How far did we Go What was it we Stuck at A Body would take it to be some Article of Faith at least by the Weight that 's layd upon 't and that we were Half-way to Smithfield allready to Burn at Stake for 't And what 's the Whole Bus'ness at last but Live and let Live Give My People the Exercise of Their Religion says the King and do You Enjoy your Own which in our Case is certainly a very Charitable and a Reasonable Medium The Rest runs alltogether upon State-Calculations which is the Worst way of Tampering Peoples Minds and Spiriting away their Hearts from their Sovereign under the Countenance of Political Judgments These Fore-boders are Undoubtedly the most Pernicious of Wizzards and Fortune-Tellers 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 a 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 REBEL p. 9. There 's a Nest of Boxes in This Clause The Author's Church of England has a Comprehension in the Belly of it and That Comprehension is Big again with a Commonwealth He makes Trimmer here to be a Name of Reproche cast upon the Church of England for Enduring the Dissenters whereas the Temporizing Neutrality-Men Took up This Name to Themselves upon a Point of Vanity as who should say We are the Men that keep the Beat or the Government Even And in This very Place with the Scandal of a Trimmer in his Mouth he does the Office of a Trimmer The Man seems to be Dreadfully affraid of the Papists and yet not Half so much nor in half so Good Earnest as I am affraid of the Commonwealths-Men and there is No way for the doing of That Jobb like the Binding up of a Hundred several Religions in One Comprehension There may be Good Faith Conscience and Moral Honesty and I doubt not but that in a Considerable Measure there is so too in the Exercise of Every several Perswasion Apart but the Vniting of Things Inconciliable in One and the same Mass can be nothing else then a Club of Confederacy to do Mischief Beside that the Gathering of Bodies and Societies together after This manner is one of the Peculiars of Sovereign Power 'T is a strange Thing how much a Greater Priviledge This Vnknown Person Assumes to Himself here upon This Matter then he will allow the King And that it should be so much a Greater Crime to make the Papists and the Dissenters Friends then to Reconcile the Comprehension-Men and the Dissenters Nay with the Exclusion of a Third Party of his Majesties Subjects out of All Terms of Agreement He 's a little Dark in this Paragraph but the Change of One Word will make him as Clear as Chrystal Instead of Tou want a ROOT to give you a Continuance read it You want a HEAD to give you a Continuance And That 's the Natural Exposition of This Text. Consider at this time in France even the New Converts are so far from being employed that they are disarmed Their sudden Change maketh them still to be distrusted notwithstanding that they are reconciled What are you to expect then from your dear Friends to whom whenever they shall think fit to throw you off again you have in other times given such Arguments for their Excuse p. 9. THe Sense of this Period would have run every Jot as well in These Words You see how the Protestants nay and the very Converts too are used in France and you must e'en Expect to be serv'd with the same Sauce here What Colour can be Pretended now for This Calumny after so many Declarations Professions and Instances Every Day Fresh and Fresh to the Contrary But This is the Fruit of a Restless and an Insatiable Comprehension-Principle that Never in This World thought Any Thing enough short of All. 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 unrâ—asonable Activity lose the Influences of your good Star which promiseth you every thing that is prosperous p. 9 10. WHy This is directly a Calculating of the Kings Nativity and an Allmost-Vnheard of way of raising a Use of Consolation to the People from the King's Mortality if not the very Hope of his Majesties Death The Church of England convinced of its Error in being severe to you the Parliament whenever it meeteth 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 enlarge the Foundations upon which we are to build our Defences against the common