IT has pleased the Almighty Power that Rules the Hearts of Princes, to Englighten and Adorn His Present Gracious Majesty, with such peculiar Beams of Mercy and Clemency, those truly Royal Vertues, that render him the nearest Portraict of that Deity whose Vic [...]-ger [...] he is: To win therefore the Universal Love of his Peo­ple, a Conquest worthy of, and indeed reserved for His Great Self; He has set up His Standard of Compassion, resol­ving to recover the Alienated Affections of th [...]se of His Subjects, whom the Admi­nistration of His Predecessours may have any ways rendred uneasie.

There are but two things in the World dear to all Mankind; Religion and Pro­perty: The last of these I confess, in the most moderate Distribution of common Right, has all along had its free Course in the true Channels of Equity; only the first has been a little restrained; for Con­science [Page] [Page 1] [...] [Page 2] has sometimes been shackled.

The Sighs therefore, and Groans that have lately breathed from that Restraint, have moved him to that Sacred Com­miseration, that He is resolved to break the Fetters that Extort them, the Penal Laws; which to Effect, He has already declared His Determination, for that choice of Magistrates in Authority under him, that in His Princely Wisdom, He thinks will be most hearty in Contribu­ting their best and ablest Endeavours for that Great End.

To carry on this Pious Work, it is not at all in Reason to be doubted, but the Suffering Party on all sides, who are ag­grieved by those Laws, by the meer Di­ctates of Self-preservation, will be no ways wanting to throw off a Yoke they have so long▪ so unquietly born: And if all their helps (as may be expected) His Majesty is secure of, there remains only the Concurrence of the Church of En­gland; which if obtained, His Kingdom will reap the Fruit, and Himself the Ho­nour, of being the Founder of those last­ing Blessings, so much in themselves the more glorious, as that all Hands and all Hearts, shall be assistant to their Creation.

The Design therefore of this Address, to my Pious Mother the Church of En­gland, is truly and fairly to reason with her, why the Preservation of those Laws, either is, or ought to be any part of her Care; and indeed, how far those Sta­tutes, her sometimes Darlings, are in them­selves, either Just, Equitable, or consist­ent with Christianity it self? And how far she is equally▪ if not more than the Dissenters, obliged to Abolish them? Nor shall I endeavour to urge her Consent from any Resignation or Compliance (those fainter Motives of meer Genero­sity) to the Pleasure and Will of the King, that desires to have it so; but En­force the Argument from the Bonds and Tyes of Conscience and Justice, that re­quire her Assistance to their Dissolution; and hereby Illustrate the Equity and Rea­sonableness of His Majesty's Proposal, and prove the Work it self, no more than the incumbent Duty of every Christian Subject, to labour to perfect. For Enqui­ry therefore into the Penal Laws, I shall make bold to Trace the Grounds of their Rise and Original: And to take them in Order, I must first begin with the Ro­manist, as being the first that fell under their Lash.

After the Death of Queen Mary, [for 'twill suffice to set out here] her Protestant Sister Elizabeth succeeding in the Throne, under so fair a Prospect of Establishing her Religion, as having at that time the Half, if not the Majori­ty of the Nation, of her own Perswasion; all Hands were set at Work for so glo­rious an Enterprize: But the main En­gine was, That the Reformers having be­fore their Eyes, the late Severity of her Sisters Reign, the Protestant Church, ei­ther truely, or rather seemingly ashamed, [as time will shew] was conscious that she had no means so proper to Re­commend her self to the People's E­steem, as the avoiding all those Occasi­ons of Odium, which had rendred the Romish Church so much the Object of their Aversion; and therefore the change must be wrought, and Affections won, by the opposite Extreams of Mer­cy and Moderation.

These foster Measures for a while, were endeavoured to be rendred her ve­ry Fundamental Principles, and one of her proudest Distinguishing Characters from her severer Predecessours. But a­las! In few years, Indulgence appeared a too slow-pac'd Progress of Reformati­on: For still, notwithstanding the En­couragement of a Protestant Queen, and the Establishment of our Church, the [Page 3] Ecclesiastick Advances went on too lei­surely, and Conversions not fast enough to satisfie, either the Churches Itch of Power, or Warmth of Zeal, under the [...]ooser R [...]ins of Toleration. For whilst [...] Popish Party were any ways Com [...] ­ [...]ed at, and Permitted any Liberty of their Worship, their Church though fal­ling, could not want some few unshaken Members at least, that would still fol­low even its Ruines: And perhaps, the Romish Priests, though thrown out of Church Preserment, could not, or would not forbear to Confirm, and Encourage their thin and scatterr'd Party; and possibly, through an Indispensable (as they thought) Duty to that Commu­nion in which perswaded, they only ex­pected Salvation; they might not (to give all Perswasions their due in this Point) omit either Arguments or In­dustry, (as Opinion wants neither) to render their Religion never the less lovely, for the Cloud it wore, which indeed is but natural to all Religions, whilst they think their own, the only, or at least, the nearest way to Hea­ven.

These Remora's, how small Stops so­ever to her advancing Glory, the Church of England beholding with Impatience, and Repining even at her smallest Fa­vours to the Romish Party, whilst but the least Impediments to her yet unsa­tisfied Ambition, (for to be uppermost, was not enough, unless she could be all too) began to think of some more Ex­peditious way, for the Weeding out of Popery; and to look out for a sharper Pruning-Hook, than meer Teaching and Preaching, to do the Work of Re­formation: Set agog therefore upon Di­spatch and Execution, she felt the Itch of her Fore-fathers; and if Honour and Reputation could be safe, she should not scruple at a little of the Old-fashioned Shamble-work to gain her Point. But considering, that to [...] in Religion, and [...] with Death, would carry too [...] the look [...] of Old S [...]ithsield, and so [...] her own [...] ­boasted [...] and Innocence; she is therefore put to no [...] and Invention, to over-leap that Difficulty, and accomplish her Projection; till a [...] last, she lights upon this incomparable Stratagem to mask her D [...]signs, and smooth all; viz. to punish [...]ecusancy with Death, under the Bl [...]k and Dis­mal Brand of High Treason The Mea­sures and [...] used, and made to­wards raising this artful Superstructure, take in short as follows.

In the first Year of Queen Elizabeth, she Ass [...]rts her Spiritual and Ecclesia­stical Supremacy, in all things and Cau­ses whatever, and Creates an Oath to be tendered her Subjects, for Confirma­tion of that Power.

In the fifth of Her Reign, grown warmer in that Supremacy; She Impo­ses the Oath upon all Ministers and Officers of the Government, even to Lawyers, Attorneys, &c. and particu­larly to be taken by every Member of Parliament; And the second Refusal of taking it, after a first Tender of it Three Months before, is made High Treason.

In Her Thirteenth Year, to Recon­cile, or be Reconciled to the Church of Rome, is High Treason.

In Her Twenty Third, the former Statute is Explained and Confirmed, and the Offender, besides the Pains of Death, to forfeit all Lands, Tene­ments, Goods and Chattels, as in Cases of High Treason, [ A very sowr sort of Grape, to set their very Childrens Teeth on Edge with; and to Punish even Vn­born Heirs.]

In the Twenty Seventh, Every Je­suite, [Page 4] Seminary, or other Priest, born within the Queens Dominions, and Or­dained without or within the Realm, by any Authority derived from the See of Rome, that shall come into, or remain within this Realm, shall be Adjudged, and suffer as a Traytour.

Ay, God knows, a v [...]ry just Sentence, if the Charge be but true: But I de­sire to know, by what Legerdemain is this Reconciliation made High Treason? Is either the Life, or Dignity of the King struck at, by my being a Member of this or that Communion? By my believing this or that the way to Heaven? Can Faith in God be Treason against Man; for that's the result of the Que­stion? Can a Christians best Endea­vour to save his own, or his Brothers Soul, be a Machination to destroy his Prince or his Countrey? Or can my Praying, or not Praying to a Saint, my Adoring, or not Adoring the Eucharist, make me a true, or not true Leige­man? If Errors in Faith can amount to HIGH TREASON, and the Government is in Conscience, Obliged to treat them as such, Lord have Mer­cy upon us! How came the Jews to live with that Impunity in the Common-wealth, that instead of Mis-believing in Points of Doctrine, believe not so much as in the Gospel, or CHRIST himself?

But laying the charge of High Trea­son more closely against them, pointing even to the blackest part of their Transgression, their Belief or Assertion of the Pope's Spiritual Supremacy; wh [...]t's all that too any more than meer matter of Faith still? Nor carries it the least shadow of the Subjects Breach of Duty to the Soveraign. For all that Headship they give the Pope, is meerly Spiritual, in Decision of Points of Faith, or Rites of Worship; the Pope even in all Reigns, being utterly denied all Temporal or Civil Jurisdiction whate­ver: Nay, so tender has the Royal Prerogative been here in England, that the very Laws of the Land, even in the most Rigid Romish Administration, had Provided, that no Canons from the Pa­pal See, nor Decrees of Councils them­selves, should bind here, till received and allowed by common Assent: Yes, and farther to fence against all Incroach­ments whatever, from the Papal See, in the height of the Romish Interest here, Statutes have been Enacted; Witness that of the Provisors, to restrain all Papal Invasions of the Sovereign Right of Kings; so that whatever their mi­staken Speculative Opinion may Attri­bute to their Pope, their Loyalty or Obedience to their Sovereign, neither is, nor can be touch'd, or concerned by any such, though never so Erroneous an Article of their Belief.

And what unhappily looked a little severe in the Statutes that Asserted Queen Elizabeth's Supremacy under the Penalty of Death, than in either of Her Predecessours, her Father Hemy, or her Brother Edward; and that possibly laid that Stumbling-Block, that a Romanist could not easily overl [...]ap; was from an Article of their Faith, so long rooted and grounded in them, (how rightfully is not the matter) received from Age to Age, and Generation to Generation, in Favour of their Pope, to be Compel­led by a yesterdays Act of Parliament, under no less a Guilt than High Trea­son, and under the Penalty of Death; not only to acknowledge, but to swear her Majesty, to be wholly and solely, in all causes and things, the Spirituall Head of the Church within her Domi­nions, who otherwise before in her pri­vate Capacity, was incapable of so much as a Sub-Deaconship in a Countrey Pa­rish; [Page 5] and if St. Paul may be believed, not qualified for so much as speaking in a Religious Assembly.

But considering the Popular Tender­ness seems a little more favourable to the poor Lay- Romanist, and something Commis [...]rates his hardship from the Letter of this Law; yet they'll tell you 'tis nothing but high Justice against the Romish Priest, as taking Orders from Rome, in themselves little less than Damnable and Diabolical, as received from the Papal See, the very Seat of Antichrist; and then returning home, or staying within the Realm against the Law; All which Notorious Overt Acts, are but too reasonably declared High Treason; and the Offenders therein, are justly-Exposed to the severest of Pu­nishments, as due to so Capital a Transgression.

To this Thundering Charge, as big as it sounds, (to show the Weakness even of the greatest Strength of their Penal Laws) I shall only make this short Reply.

If the Church of England has, and always does admit a Convert Romish Priest, into the Protestant Clergy, with­out any Re-ordination to Capacitate him for that Admission, (as we need look no farther than to the constant Practice of the Church, without so much as one Example to the contrary, from the very Beginning of the Refor­mation) how unjustly are taking Or­ders from Rome, charged with Hi [...]h-Treason? If the Orders from Rome be in themselves Holy and Sacred, how are they Damnable and Antichristi [...]n? And how the taking of them High Trea­son? If not Holy nor Sacred, (as if High Treason in the very receiving of them, they cannot be) does the Church of England entertain Pastors into her Ministerial Function Unconsecrated, for the Divine Service of Go [...]? God for­bid! No; the very Practice and Con­cession of the Church in this Case, does so confront the palpable Inju­stice of this Statute, that nothing can be plainer.

And if such are the Romish Orders, and the free choice of o [...]r Beli [...]f in God, and the Church we hope to be saved in, be in our own Election, (for our own Souls are answerable for it) by the same liberty of choice; why may not a zealous Believer be his own chooser, whether he will be a Member or Pastor of the Flock he owns, as his own Abilities to serve God in either Station shall dictate to him? And why are men Banish'd, and Excluded from their Native Right, in the Kingdom in which they are born, for only endea­vouring to secure themselves, their no less Native Right in that of Heaven?

One Observation in the Statute of the Fifth of Her Reign, I had almost forgotten, not a little worthy Remark: In this Statute, where the In [...]apacity of the taking the Oath of the Queens Spi­ritual Supremacy, (for a Refusal of an Oath in that Case, is only a Conscien­cious Incapacity of taking it) is made High Treason: In one Clause of it the Queen is pleased to tell us, She is so sufficiently assured of the Faith and Loyal­ty of Her [...]emporal Lords, that this Act, nor any thing contained in it, shall not Extend to Her Barons, nor the Oath be Imposed upon them.

What Contradictious and Cob-webb-Laws are here? A Commoner belike for his Incapacity of taking that Oath, is guilty of High Treason; but a Baron so Incapacitated, is a Faithful and Loy­al Gentlem [...]n; as if they were not e­qually Subjects to the Crown, and e­qually Criminal in any Transgression a­gainst it. 'Tis true, had the particular [Page 6] Favour and Indulgence of the Govern­ment resolved to Exempt the Peer from the Penalty only of this Law, it had been something▪ but to discharge him, Eo Nomine, from the Guil [...] too, makes the whole Statute such an Arbitrary De­claration of Treason, that both the Com­pilers of such Laws, and the Defenders of them, ought to blush at.

Now as this is the Tr [...]atment that the Romish Recusancy meets from our Penal Laws, let us [...] what better fare the Protestant Dissenters had amongst them.

To begin therefore with the very first Penal Vengeance that was armed against them, let us examine the 35th of Elizabeth.

Eliz. 35. Chap. 1. For preventing such great Inconveniences and Perils as might happen, and grow by the wicked and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries, and Disloyal Persons, it is Enacted, That if any Person above sixteen years of Age, shall forbear coming to Church for one month; or shall either move or perswade any other Person to abstain from hearing of Divine Service, or receiving the Com­munion according to Law, or come to any Unlawful Assemblies, Conventicles, or Meetings; every such Person shall be im­prisoned without Bail, till he Conform, and do in some Church make this open sub­mission following:

You see what hard meat they are ti­ed to, Conform or lie in Goal without Bail or [...] very re­markable [...] Poor Criminal, either really [...] [...]ighted into [...] of this Law, [...] obey, he's [...] a Form of [...] Declare in o­pen [...] of God, and his own [...] what he knows to be a Notor [...] [...]: For how zealously, how peaceably, or how devoutly soever himself, and his other Dissenting Bre­thren frequented the fore-mentioned Forbidden Assemblies; 'twill not suffice to say his and their Devotion and Zeal were misled and erronious, and that he is willing for the future to be better in­structed by the Pastors of the Church of England, to whom he returns; but he must charge all his former Religious Worship with a Dissimulation-Masque, as only a Pretence and Colour of Reli­gion; and so brand Himself and his Neighbours with the basest and falsest of Hypocrisie: For no less expiatory Peni­tence will serve his turn.

Is it not highly to be suspected, that the Compilers of these Statutes valued the Reputation of their Laws above the Souls of their Converts? For considering they are pleased to charge Disorder and Disloyalty upon the Dissenting Assem­blies, the Penitent must confess the [Page 7] Impeachments true, or the Walls of a Goal, like the Old fashioned Elo­quence of Racks, shall pinch him till he does it.

But to return to our Statute. If the Party do not Conform, and make his Sub­mission within three Months after Conviction, then being required by any Justice of Peace, He or She shall in open Court, (at the As­sizes or Sessions) Abjure the Realm of En­gland, and all other the [King's] Domi­nions, within such Time as the Court shall Assign: And by such Abjuration, shall lose and forfeit all Goods and Chattels for ever, and Lands and Tenements during Life. [A very Extraordinary sort of Banishment, when by losing all a Man has into the Bar­gain the Law not only provides to send him packing, perhaps, to none of the most Hospitable Shores; but at the same time, very industriously takes care to see him starve there too.]

But if such Party either Resuse to forswear the Land, or do any Time after such Abju­ration, return to England, or any of [ His] Majesty's Dominions, then he shall Die as a Felon, without Benefit of Clergy, &c.

You see here's the very same Impeach­ment against the Nonconformist too. The same Taint runs through the Protestant Dissent, as did before through the Romish Recusancy: And without any of the forementioned Capital Popish Guilt of owning a Forreign Jurisdiction, (for there wants no such unnecessary Treason, to heap up th [...]ir Sum) they are never­theless both alike, Twinn-Brothers in Ini­qu [...]ty; and Sedition and Disloyalty the equal charge ag [...]inst them. And though 'tis true, the Dudgeon of these Laws gives not Death at the first Blow; how­ever, it ends in the Old Noose, a Halter, only under a new Name of Felony.

You have here the Insant Vengeance, the very Primitive Scorpions of our Church, in [...] of Konconsormity. I shall not so much Instance the [...] of our Church, to keep up this [...] Statute in Force: Witness the 26th of Car. 2. on that Occasion: Nor the par­ticular Applause a late Auther of our Church gave His late Majesty, for the Exercise of His Royal Prerogative, (as he terms it) in preserving that Law, which was doom'd to an undeserved Fate, that is, when the Bill for the Repeal of that Statute, had past both Houses, and lay ready for His Majesty's Signing; His Majesty by His Royal Pr [...]rogative, (a very unpresidented one, and therefore the worthier that Authors Commend [...] ­tion) Connived at the Cl [...]rk in Parlia­ment, that so carefully performed His Commission in losing it.

The Church of Englands great Tender­ness for this Statute, is not so much her Trophy, as the Numerous Ossenders Im­peach'd by this Law: Witness the la [...]e many Thousands at one time, Indicted upon this very Statute; a great part whereof lay in Goals, and all of them expecting their approaching Abjuration, Banishment, &c. Had not a special Be [...]m from Heaven, in His Majesty's most sig [...]l Clemency, like the Angel of Peter, set [...] ­pen their Prison Doors; an Act of so much more than Royal Mercy, that possi­bly, together with the Numerous Pray­ers sent up to Heaven for Him, in return for such Unparalel'd Grace, may not have a little contributed to obtain from the Almighty Thron [...], our late truly Royal Deodat; so special a Blessing of his Age, and Hope of His Kingdom, possibl [...] gi­ven him as the Meed and Reward of such Transcendent Compassion and Clemen [...]y.

Well then! Both Conv [...]nticles and Mass-Houses must lye under the same Di­lemma, and share the some [...]; whils [...] Treason and S [...]dition lyes at the bottom of [Page 8] the Dissent on all sides. And to six this [...]putation upon them, are there any of our Laws made all along against Noncon­formists, but whose Preamble runs upon any less Topick, than the Breach of the Peace, and the Underniining the very Foundation of the Government; and all for deserting the Church of England, and meeting in their own Religious Assem­blies, to offer up their Prayers and De­votions to God, according to their Con­sciences? Was there ever a late Conven­ticle disturb'd, with any other Warrant, than as Riotously, and Routously Assembled, and thereupon punish'd with Fines, Im­prisonments, Sequestrations and Banish­ments, sometimes to the Ruine of whole Families? Whilst our Laws, with the same Masquerade, as in the Popish High Treason before, charges the meer meet­ing to Worship God, with no less then Sedition and Disloyalty.

But wherein lay this Sedition and Dis­loyalty? Was it in their so Meeting? No sure; for as the Intention makes the Guilt, the Intention was only a Religious Worship, and not a State-Disturbance.

Was the Sedition then in the Doctrines they Preach'd or Printed? If so, Why was it not proved against them? Their Wri­tings are not only publick enough to stand that Test, but also their Meeting house Doors stood open, and their Enemies have all along, been both Potent and Namerous enough, to hear and detect any Seditious Design or Doctrines against the Church or State: And the Law was fur­nish'd both with Rods and Axes to punish any Crime of that kind, according to its Dem [...]rit, before the Penal Laws were so much as thought on: Besides, to clear them in this Point, what Writers are so Voluminous as the Dissenters? And to prove our Episcopal Spectacles read no such Seditious Doctrines amongst them, How comes it that several of the Dissen­ters Books, as Owen and Caryl's Works, &c. have been thought worthy to instruct our most Orthodox Clergy, when so ma­ny of them are to be sound in all their Sudies and Libraries?

If then they neither publickly Preach, nor Print any such Doctrines of that Sedi­tious and Disloyal Stamp, do they in Con­versation Own or Avow any such Trayte­rous or Disloyal Principles? No, sure; they have more Wit. If they are so har­dy as to do that, we have other Laws to noose 'em, without the help of those Religious Penal Stat [...]tes.

Do they then commit any open Act of Treason, Sedition, &c. Let them do that if they dare. If we once catch them at that Game, the Government has 'em fast e­nough, either Popish or Protestant Dissen­ters, by the Heels and the Necks too: Nor is any thing of this the Treason or Dis­loyalty that these Statutes pretend to Ar­raign. Who ever heard of any Overt Act of Treason or Sedition, Indicted by the 23d, or the 35th of Elizabeth?

Then if neither Preaching, Printing, Speaking, or Acting of any thing Trayto­rous or Seditious, be the Capital Guilt these Statutes are level'd at, certainly thinking of [...]reason must be the Crime. A Popish or Protestant Recusant, is such an Offeader, that by the very Affections of his Soul, cannot be Loyal to the Crown: And to prove this Infallible Ac­cusation true, the Protestant Wisdom has by Divine Inspiration, formd a Law to Arraign and Condemn the very Thoughts of the Heart, of which God only can be Judge. And truly, to make the Calumny stick the faster, they have Establish'd it by a Maxime, held almost as Sacred as Gospel, No Bishop, no King.

[Page 9] No; though Sedition and Disloyalty was the pretence, it p [...]cht not there. The Diss [...]ters grew too Numerous, and the Church of England began to see her Grand [...]ur her Diana Grandure shrink, and her Dear Dominion lessen, and therefore for Enacting this, and indeed all other her Penal Laws, her old Arts must be once more her Refuge: The Non-conformists must be crusht and sup­prest, and to avoid ad [...]mputations of Op­pression and Cruelty, Sedition and Riots, and what not, must be the Charge against them, and the Law gilded over with that [...]air Ti­tle to make it swadowable. 'Tis true in­deed the Church Indignation has generally contented it self with omiting the latter part of the Execution, viz. Death as a Pe­lon. However it has too often laboriously taken care to make their Purses if not their Veins bleed for it, and that too sometimes by so [...]otal a Drein, that whole Families have been reduced to the condition of Star­ving, which is the very next Door to it. And a [...] things considered, Liberty, next to Life, is so dear, that whole Years of Noysome Imprisonment have been very little the easi­er Punishment.

Take then the whole Penal Laws toge­ther, the Rubbish so industriously piled up by our Protestant Bulwark-makers, for the gaeat Fence of a Church, and [...]ome to the full Result of all. Here's the Church of Eng­land so poorly Preva [...]icating as to [...]ollow those very steps which with all her highest Noise and Exclamations she pretends are her greatest Detestation and Abhorrence. And whilst the plainer R [...]manist Enacts & Ex­ecutes his most Capital Laws against Here­sie from his Church, under the downright Name of Heresie; our poorer spirited Law­makers are for punishing Heresie from their Church, under Masque and Disguise, ob­tr [...]ding their Penal Laws upon the World, under the meanest of Hypocrisie & Imposture.

Besides [...] sent in [...] thing is not [...] would render it, how [...] the Church of England to treat so many [...] Protestant States and Kingdoms, with that [...], as Bre­thren Professors of Truth, when not one of all those Protestant Kingdoms, but is a Dissen­ter from the Church of England, and yet [...]o vi­gourously Persecutes her own [...] Sub­jects for the very same Dissent, with all the forementioned sti [...]matizing Bra [...]d &c.

Having given you this p [...]rtrait of our Penal Laws, I shall only and some [...] Linea­ments more, and so finish the P [...]ce. And to make a further Bal [...]ance betwixt our­selves and Rome in that Point, how un­christian or unwarrantable soever all such Penal Inflictions for meer Conscience may be, the Church of Rome has, or at least fancies she has some little pretext for such Laws. For under her Famous Tenent of extra Eccle­siam nulla salus, and her consinement of Sal­vation only within her own Boundaries, she may have sometimes consented to the practice of cutting off a stray Sheep, to ter­risie the rest of the Flock from leaping the Fold, as imagining to her self in so do­ing, and in Sacrificing some lost Sons of Perdition (for such she accounts them) and thereby lopping off some corrupt Member, already past hope of Redemption, she only secures possibly the whole Body, as she thinks, from Apostacy and Damnation. And consequently such examplary Acts, though of the greatest Rigour, how mistaken so­ever, are only intended as absolutely ne­cessary for that great end, Vniversal Salvation. But, alas! our more chari­table Church, that dares not bound the Grace of God, but by a larger Latitude, and more extended Operation of the Blood of Christ, equally allows Salvation to true Zeal and Piety in both Churches, and indeed [Page 10] in all Christian Professions: Under all this Concession, I say, our Protestant Church utterly wants this Loop-hole, & upon true ex­amination will be found wholly Inexcusable: for in Executing of her Sanguinary Laws in Punishment of meer matter of Consci­ence, she cuts off, not like Rome, the sup­posed Members of Perdition, but even those Professors of Christianity, which by her own Confession may be equally with her self the Sons of Grace and Co-heires of Salvation.

Nay, I'l venture to add one bold Word more, because a true one, The Church of England in her once Executing of her San­guinary Laws, is undoubtedly guilty of more Barbarity then the Ten Primitive Hea­then Persecutions. For in all cases of Suffer­ing for Religion, 'tis an undeniable Maxim, That He that makes the Martyr least thinks he makes him. The Bloodiest Pagan Tyrants in all the studied Arts of Torments, Blood and Christian Massacre, did not believe that they Butchered the then only Professors of Truth and Heires of Heaven; but on the contrary, in Devotion to their own sup­posed true Deities, they thought they only Executed Apostates, Blasphemers and Infidels, for such they accounted the Christians, as profest Deserters of their Heathen Gods and Sacrifices: But all this while our Church of England (I am sorry to her shame it must be spoken) out does the very Heathens them­selves, in Enacting and Executing those se­verest Penal Cruelties, by which she Ruins, Destroys, or Cuts off those very Members of Christianity, who (if true Zealots in their Profession) she owns are in the num­ber of the Elect of God; and if any true Zealots amongst them, those certainly that have courage to suffer Gaols, Sequestrations, Banishments, &c. even to the constancy of dying for their Religion, are not the least of them; and consequently she cannot deny, but in Executing those Laws, she both makes the Martyr, and knows she makes him too. And if she's so blameable in her Se­verity against the Romanists, much more criminal must her Rigour against the Dissen­ters be, whom she owns to differ from her self in little more then Ceremonies and Punctilios, by her own Confession no ways essential to Salvation.

Nay, the Ferment has sometimes boil'd so high, that our Protestant Church has put her Zeal upon the stretch to find means to vent her Indignation, when some of those very Laws against Recusancy have been ex­tended against the Protestant Dissenters, & the greatest part of their Sufferings received from the Lash of those Laws. I shall not pretend to dive so far, as to ascertain whe­ther that comprehension was Originally Designed by those Laws, or otherwise, an Artificial Superstructure to serve a State turn; but either way the Severity of those Laws is not a little notorious, where so trivial matters of Dissent in Religion, as has been said before, have been so cruelly treated.

But if our Protestant Church cannot possi­bly be reconciled to Liberty of Conscience, and therefore these Laws were her Wea­pons against it, her more generous way, at least more agreeable to a Christian Professi­on, had been first fairely to have over­thrown it by dint of Argument, before she made use of dint of Steel to do it by; and for that purpose, I wonder how that fa­mous Bishop Taylor has past for so great a Doctor of the Church, all this while, and his Treatise upon that Subject, called, Liberty of Prophesying, not yet answered; or why at least was not the Author under no small Ecclesiastical Fulminations (if no other way to answer it) for so terrible a Blow, against the Churches long main fa­vourite Bulwark, her Penal Laws. 'Tis true I confess, all other means failing, they [Page 11] lighted upon one incomperable Stratagem to confute it, (for 'tis in Controversie as 'tis in War, where open Force cannot Con­quer, Policy must) viz. finding their Im­potence at all other Weapons, after the late Kings Restoration, they very wisely bought up the whole Impression, to silence and sti­ [...]le it, and the rest of his Works Reprinted without it.

'Tis true, some People will object, What are all these Laws to the Church, when enacted only by the civil Power, as an Expedient for its own Security and Defence, and therefore War­rantable and Lawful; nor in any respect are they chargeable upon the Ecclesiastics. Alas! this is such a feeble Objection, that 'tis scarce to be named without blushing; as if the Cler­gy did not Act in Parliament by their Repre­sentatives; nay, the very Bishops [...]itting there in Person, assenting to, and undoub­tedly little less then Original Founders of those Laws, but grant it, as they say, the m [...]er Establishment of the Civil Power; the Clergy by owning the Justice, and asser­ting the Necessity of such Laws for defence of their Church, the Lay-power in this case is little more then the Cats-paw to rake out the Chesnut.

I confess indeed we have had many late Pulpit Discourses on this Subject, and se­veral softening Perswasions urged, to throw off this Severity on the Temporal Admini­stration: But truly, to our Churches great misfortune, her numerous Excommunica­tions, the peculiar Bolts of her own spiri­tual Vengeance, and the Goalings that have followed those Thunder-Peales, are such notorious confronting Demonstrations a­gainst her, that her clearing her Hands in this matter, is a Second washing the Ethi­op. Besides wherein are the Civil Rulers, and the Temporal Power of a Christian Government, any ways more authorised to outgo the Gospel Moderation and Clemen­cy, for any Politick Consideration what­ever, then the more immediate Oracles of Truth, our Pastors themselves.

And this the great Legislators of those Penal Statutes very well knew, and there­fore as I told you before, they cunningly converted Recusancy into high Treason, and Nonconformity into Sedition, Disloyalty, and what not, to find something, tho but Seeming­ly justifiable for the Fangs of their Laws to lay hold of; and so boulstered up their Penal Statutes to make them able to walk upright.

But to evidence how highly our very Church Men have interested themselves in the Persecution of Non-conformity, and shewn their implacable aversion even to the least shadow of Moderation, what was their Prosecution of Dr Whit [...]y and Mr Bold, on the latter of whose Head our Church In­dignation, and our Ecclesiastical Boanerges were not contented to pouer down their common Vials of Wrath, by any single process against him, to try the Point; but they heaped no less then six several Suites at Law against him at one time; as if the Glory of so Divine a Quarrel could put the stamp of Honour even upon common Bar­rerty it self: Nay, some of our very Cler­gy Men thought it no Blemish to their Gown to act the very part of Informers against him.

I'l only put this one Question to all the Doctors of our Church, With what Con­science can a Church that owns its self [...]al­lible, establish Laws to punish Dissenters in Religion, when by her own Confession of [...]alli [...]ility, she neither has nor can have any certainty or assurance (how strong soever she thinks or hopes her own Foundation) but that she Punishes those that possibly may be more in the Right then her self; more e­specially [Page 12] in those Professions that found their Dissenting Points of Doctrine upon her own Ba [...]s the Scripture? To speak a little further to this Point: What was our separation from the Romish Communion, and consequently our whole Reformation any more then disclaiming the erroneous Do­ctrines of the Romish Church, and retrench­ing her useles [...] or [...]uper [...]itious Ceremonies? and as several of the Diss [...]nters intirely con­cur with us in disclaiming the same errone­ous Opinions, only di [...]ering from us in re­forming more of their Ceremonies than our selves, I desire to be informed, by what Light, unless by an infa [...]i [...]le Spirit, our Church can say, Roform thus far and no fur­ther; The Reformation in this very bound is Holy and Sacred, and one step beyond it or va­ration from it is Offence and Sin.

And that a farther Reform may not look altogether so impardenable, King Edward the Sixth was pleased to tell the World, in his Common Prayer Book, That the Reforms then made in the Publick L [...]turgy were not com­pleat; He having at present no further Re­formed the then time then would bear, and that a farther Reform was intended to be made by him.

But since that short Raigned Prince, li­ved not to the performance of the Pro­mise, pray have his Protestant Successors made that further Reform for him? truly I am afraid none or next to none, the Liturgy and what else remaining almost en­tire (if not more exceptionable) as He left it. Now here will several odd Debates arise, as first either that pious Prince, and our Original Reformers had they finished that Reform (so tender are our Laws, even in the least syllable of our present Liturgy) must have out gone the due bounds of Re­formation, and by so hainicous an Error have pulled down upon themselves the scandal of S [...]st [...]ries, or else our present Sectaries so called in endeavoring to follow so Pious and Royal a Leader, possibly may not de­serve all the hard Names and harder Fates our Penal Laws have bestowed upon them: So that upon the Issue not only that Young King and our Primitive Doctors must be in the wrong for intending any such further Reform, or our present Reformers in the wrong, for so loudly quarreling the least attempt of such a Reform, as so guilty and so black an Apostacy.

I cannot tell what Equity wiser Heads may find out for the Ordination of Penal Laws, but truly in my opinion, the great Prince of Peace, that reprimanded the drawing of that Sword that cut off but the Ear of the High-Priests Servant, tho in his own immediate Cause, very little in­tended the raising his Church, or the pro­pagation of his Gospel, by either Axes, or Gibbets, or Gaols, or Dungeons.

And He that left us the Standard of Christianity, in the Innocency of Doves, never commissioned us the Rapine of Vul­tures, and tho we are conceded the Subtilty of Serpents, I know no Warrant that He gave us either for the Stings or the Poys [...] of them; when the Prophesie of the Gospel was, That the Church should learn War no more.

And tho my Zeal for Truth makes me thus plain in detecting the only shame and frai [...]ty of the Reformed Church, I hope she has Goodness enough to forgive the Bold­ness of a blushing Son, who is no otherwise solicitous then for her covering her own Nakedness. And that I may truly term it such the Reformation, that otherwise may boast her Purity and Principles only found­ed on Holy Writ, and all the rest of her Doctrines and Practices derived from those Sacred Oracles, will be only found tripping here; and in all her support of Spiritual Records in all other Points, I am afraid must [Page 13] have recourse even to the exploded Autho­rity of unwritten Tradition, only for her Penal Laws. For I shrewdly suspect that Lollards Towers and Inquisition Houses (let her mince it as she will) will be found the only Precedents for the Estates she has Co [...]iscated, the Families she has Beggar'd, the Goails she has Filled, besides her some­times loading of Gibbets, and ripping up the Bowels even of her own Co-Disciples, because dissenting Professors of Christ, and all by her Penal Laws.

Nor will it suffice for an excuse to insinu­ate, that the Establishment of Religion and Conformity of Worship on one side, and [...] Preservation of Peace and Tranquility of the State on the other side, exact the ne­cessity of such rigid Laws, (tho by the by, the Peace of States is rather destroyed then upheld by such Laws; for what Civil War in almost all the Christian World, that di­rectly or indirectly has not had the Oppre­ssion of some Religious Party, its greatest back, if not only incentive)

No; to gain the first of these great Ends, let the Teachers and Professors of our E­stablished Church live up to the height of their Profession, and recal the Wanderers, and reduce the Strays into the [...]old, by their own convincing Examples of [...] [...]iety; a much more commendable way of making Prosel [...]s than the forementioned rigid Acts of Compliance. And for the second great End, the Governments Secu­rity, if her Temporal [...]ences are not strong enough, let her make stronger; and i [...] any of her Dissenters are the d [...]urbers of her Peace, let her single out the Guilty from the Innocent, and wreak her j [...]st Vengeance where 'tis deserved, and not punish whole Parties, or the Dissent it self which a [...] be­ing meer matter of Religion is wholly un­capable of such Crime) for the sake of any corrupted Members, that [...] are of, or herd under the covert of such or such a Congregation of Christians. For to do that Work by the undistinguishing merciless Hand of her Penal Statutes, is so little con­formable to the Evangelical Precepts, that I am afraid the doing such notorious Ills that Good may come of it, in Punishing the Innocent with the Nocent, whatever Re­ligious Security or Gospel Propagation may be intended by them; these Penal Laws, I say, that can swallow the Estates, Fortunes, Liberties and [...]ives of their weaker Bre­thren and fellow Christians, instead of being either Christian or Just, or any ways rela­ted to 'em, will at last appear much nearer of kin to that Famous Rover, that wanders round the World to seek whom he may De­vour, insomuch that their Ordination will be [...]ound little less then borrowing Engines from Hell to help to set up Heaven.

Now to the Case of the Church of Eng­land, if these are her Penal Laws (for I shall not trouble my self with a tedious recital of the several Statutes of that Nature, as be­ing all out Scions from the same Root) I would gladly know what Beauties, or ra­ther invisible Charms the Church of Eng­land can find in these Statutes, to be in the least solicitous for their Preservation. For, alas! Ma [...]gre all her Volums written upon the Unreasonableness of Separation from her Communion, and her Justification of her Zealous Endeavours for Conformity, unless the Means and Methods used to ob­tain it (as these Laws were intended for such) be equally justifiable, her whole Pretentions fall to the ground.

Nor will it excuse her to say, that they were ch [...]y at least the Sanguinous [...] of them ( [...]r our Gaols themselves sometimes have been scarce able to contain the Thou­sands that at one time have groaned [...] her he [...] kn [...]t [...]est Tho [...]gs, her Halt [...], and Ax [...] only excepted) Enacted In­terrorem [Page 14] as being but seldom put in Executi­on, as if a deliberate studied Ill, aggravated with the Formality of Justice, and in the pretended cause of Heaven, were there­fore more excusable because commited, supposed but once in an Age; when a foul Act for that very cause, should rather appear the more deform'd, as tis the rarity that makes the Monster—Besides Queen Mary had that plea to make; for what were Two hundred and sixty Protestants, even by Foxes Muster-Roll, Burnt for Re­ligion in her five years Reign, to the some Millions of Protestants in those days, when ha [...]f the Kingdom was of that Perswasion. A far shorter Catalogue of Sufferers I am a fraid when fairly computed, compared with the infinitely larger Scroll, of those almost unaccountable numbers of more lin­gring Martyrs, that have done our Refor­mation the honour to breath out their last in her Penal Jayls; besides some of them that have tasted her kinder stroke of Mercy from the quicker Dispatch of Halters. The number of both which upon inquiry made, has been found to amount to near six Thou­sand.

To return therefore to his Majesties pro­posal of Abrogating these Laws, tis a grea­ter Duty upon the Church of England to abolish them, then in the Dissenters them­selves; for as tis a Yoke imposed upon their weaker Brethren, in it self wholly unjust, the Sufferer under that Yoke in indeavour­ing to break it, only Acts by the motives of self-defence, the common Principle of Nature: But the Imposer of that Yoke is tied by the Obligation of Religion it self, to repeal and repent his own Act of In­justice.

Besides If all arguments of Conscience cannot prevail; and Policy not Equity (though Heaven forbid so uncharitable a thought) is our Churches guide; yet, even then too, what does she yeild up in abolish­ing those Laws; why, truly nothing; for whilst the Government continues in the Hands of a Prince of the Romish Reli­gion, those Statutes will utterly lye dead▪ for the Royal Indulgence, a Prerogative in the Crown, will never put them in Execu­tion. What reason therefore has the Church of England for her Nonconcurrence to a proposal so Equitable, when she has not so much as the least pretext even of meer Interest it self for her refusal?

But this I am sure, as the Church of Eng­land can have no solid Reasons to oppose their Repeal, the State has very substanti­al Ones to inforce it. For as Trade is the greatest support and strength of a King­dom; I know no Politicks so conducing to the Commerce and Wealth of a Nation as Liberty of Conscience: What greater encouragement to Naturalization? and England that is not overloaded with Peo­ple, can have no fairer Inlet to bring in whole Families and Estates, and indeed the Wealth of the World (besides the opening that current of Commerce, even amongst our present Natives; which the restraint of Worship at all times so much shut up) than Liberty of Religion. Nor can I better instance the effects of this po­licy, than in the grouth of the Dutch Great­ness, and the decay of the Spaniard, from their different Extreams of National con­duct in that Point.

I am certain his Majesty resolves to eter­nize his Glory, by being the truest Pater Patriae of all the Crow'd Heads since the Conquest; nor has he a fairer prospect of making his Kingdom a true Paradice of Peace and Plenty, but by taking this pat­tern at the least from the first Paradice▪ that is, by making the Lyon and Lamb lye down in Peace together; our long dissen­tion being no otherwise to be reconciled, [Page 15] and our Enmities husht but by this on­ly universal Pacification.

I shall only add this last Considera­tion: the Execution of our Penal Laws, and the Restraint of Conscience, has been the greatest Blow that ever was given to the Hereditary Right of the Subjects of England, their natural Properties and Immunities given and Sealed to them by Magna Charta it self. For who can call his Liberty or Estate his own, whilst a Superiour Opinion in Power shall seize our Persons, and confiscate our Estates, for no other cause but difference of Worship and Faith, and neither Person, Estate or Liberty, re­deemable under a less Composition then renouncing of God; for Con­formity of Worship absolutely against Conscience is little less. And all this capital offence so unfixt, and so undeter­minable a sort of Transgression, that a Man has only a meer Lottery to be in the Right or the Wrong: For the blackest Criminal in one Reign, has been the whitest Saint in the next, and so Vice Versa over again, witness the Reigns of Edward the sixth, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, where the Protestants were the Devils one while, and the Papists another: Nay, in the Reign of Henry the eight both Papist and Protestant were at one time in the wrong: For t'was remarkable in his Reign, that in the same day have Pa­pists been Hanged for Traytors, for dis­owning his Church Supremacy; and Pro­testants Burnt for Heriticks, for deny­ing of Transubstantiation. Thus in their turns have all Religions and Opinions lain under the Scourge of the severest of Laws, and all for want of that Obedi­ence to a Law, which▪ Humanity it self is utterly unable to pay. For though our breach or not breach of all other Laws, either Human or Divine, lyes in our own free will and choice; to conform or not conform to this or that Belief, is wholly above the Pow­er of Man; Faith only being irresisti­ble: And if our wordly well-being, and all we enjoy in this Life, depends upon such Capricious Decrees of Law, cer­tainly the great Charter of our Liber­ties and Estates that confirmed 'em both under no such condition or Re­striction is not a little invaded by the Penalties of such Laws: Nor is Restraint of Conscience and the Exe­cution of our Penal Laws, in their own nature and tendency only destructive to the rightfull Liberty of English-Men, but the very Letter of those Laws themselves has made the most visible Rupture into the very strongest Walls of our Magna Charta, that is our Try­al by our Peeres, by a Jury of Twelve, our Magna Charta more particularly confirmes to us that hereditary right, and our Penal Laws most notoriously take it from us. For instance 22 Car. 2. Cap. 2. It is there Enacted, That one Justice of Peace or other chief Ma­gistrate shall upon the Oath of two Wit­neses make a Record of a Conventicle, which Record shall be a Conviction, and the Offender sined, as the Statute further Expresses.

So that to gain the point of Gaol­ment or Consiscation, without any process whatever: here's a Justice of Peace, or a Mayor of a Town, though but by Occupation a Thatcher, shall in Conjunction with no more then a Clark (or perhaps none) as wise as himself, make a Court of Judicature and Record, to convict a Dissenter, and that too in no less a Cause▪ then [Page 16] Where his very Loyalty (if the Sta­tute tels Truth) is concern'd; and all this from the Mouth of two Witness [...]s generally known by the name of In­formers, Persons that sometimes have mounted Pillories, a sort of Men not always of the most substantial unsha­ken veracity, especially considering the Temptation of [...] third Snip in the Fine [...], which in Twenty Pounds and For [...] ▪ Pounds at a Fine from the Preacher, besides the lesser [...]ulcts from all the whole Auditory, may with good management rise to a Sun.

Take these Penal Laws all together I cannot tell what greater or more glorious Design his Gracious Majesty can undertake, then by repairing so deep a Breach, wrought through the very Fundamentals of His Peoples Or­riginal Freedom, and Birthrights; nor is th [...]e or has been a greater Friend or Patron of the Church of England than His present Majesty, who Him­self alone tenders her the means and oppertunity to wash off those Stains and Blots, which either the Petulance or Remisness of her Protestant De­fenders of her Faith, through these Penal Statutes have east or left upon her, and so to restore and maintain her Whiteness and Innocency.

Having made this fair inquest into the Penal Laws, I shall take a little scearch into the Test, and lay down those Reasons that equally oblige us to concur with his Majesty in a Repeal of that too.

In order to which, it behoves us first to sum up all the great and popu­lar Arguments (if I may so call 'em, th [...] in reality rather the Language of Fears and Jeal [...]es, than the Voice of right Reason) daily urged for the Pre­servation of the Test, viz. That the whole Defence of the Protestant Religi­on relyes on that Basis. If the Test were once abrogated, the Church of England would soon be blown up, when all Offices both Ecclesiastical and Civil, and all Power and Authority both in Church and State shall be lodged in Roman Catho­licks, and what not?

To answer which hideous and for­midable Out-cry, we'll begin first with the pretended Dangers threatned the Church of England, by Repeal of the Test. Not to insist upon his Majesties reiterated Word and Honour, his in­violable Engagements to maintain the Church of England, as now by Law E­stablisht, in her uninterrupted Rights and Priviledges, all her Churches and Church-Livings, whatever thereunto belonging, &c. in it self alone [...]o lit­tle Security. But waving that Plea, the Ecclesiastical Government and the Church of England neither are nor can be shaken or touch [...] by the abrogation of the Test, the Test being indeed no part of her Defence. For first the v [...] ­ry taking off the Test is no part of the Qualification of any of the Clergy of England, nor was ever so much as men­tioned or thought upon to be impoted or tendred to the Clergy as such: (the tnedring the Test to the Bishops rela­ting only to their Peerage, as Members of the House of Lords) No, as Jealous the Founders of that Test were (or pretended to be) of the danger of P [...] ­pery, and as Zealous as they could be for the Security of the Protestant Reli­gion, they very well knew the Church of [...]England had [Page 17] two impregnable Bulwarks, the two great Acts of Uniformity, that themselves alone sufficiently establish'd, guarded, and pre­served the Church of England in all points, without any Fortification, from the Test; nor indeed was the Test wanted in the Ec­clesiastick Administration, those very Sta­tutes being a greater and stronger Test before: For by those Statutes is the whole Liturgy, the Administration of the Sacra­ments, and indeed all the Canons and Ar­ticles of the Church supported; for by the Pence of those Laws, first, no Romanist can be admitted into the Clergy, unless under the most damnable Hypocrisie (which no humane Test can discover) an Hypocri­sie too, no waies beneficial to the Romish Cause, whilst tied up to the Divine Ser­vice, as now by Law establisht. Second­ly, No other Divine Service, as the Mass, or the like, can be introduced into our Churches, already constituted or assigned for the Divine Service of the Church of England.

The strength of these two Laws, His Majesty very well knows, and is so far even from the thought of hurting or in­fringing the least Particle of either of those Laws, or the Security our Church has, does, or can receive from them, by abro­gating any Penal Laws or Tests whatso­ever, that on the contrary, there is not un­doubtedly that farther Confirmation of those Laws, and the Religious Observance of them, or any thing conducing thereun­to, that may, or shall be offer'd to His Majesty in Parliament, that His Majesty shall not readily assent to, and as inviola­bly maintain. And that in all and every Part and Particle of those Laws, that re­lates to the Orthodox Qual [...]fication of our Clergy, the Establishment of our Liturgy, Rites and Ceremonies, and the securing all other the Regalia of our Church, as now by Law establisht, Her Tormenta and Fla­gella only excepted. And indeed His Ma­jesty has instanced His peculiar Aversion to any Invasion of our Church's Right in that point, that He has not so much as taken a Chappel of Ease from them; wit­ness the Late establish'd Lord Mayors Chappel, lying sh [...]t up, rather th [...]n invade our Church by the admission of a Dissenter, only pro tem [...]re.

I [...] then the Church of England, Her Ad­ministration and Government (as 'tis plain) stand of themselves alone secure and firm, without any borrow'd prop or support from the Test wh [...]ever; the Test therefore is only a Buttrice (or at least so intended) to the Civil Magistracy; as first excluding all Roman Catholicks from all Offices of Trust in the State; secondly, from all Domestick Services near the Person of the KING; and thirdly, from all Right to Session in Parliament.

These three Incapacities are by the Test thrown upon the Romanists; and for confuting all suspicions and jealousies, let us examine where, how far, and what part of the Test His Majesty desires to have repealed; what Reasons induce him to desire it; and lastly, what Influence such a Repeal can have over the present Esta­bisht Church of England.

In the first place, as to the Civil Go­vernment; What Office in the State can a Roman-Catholick hold, any waies impo­wering him to prejudice the Church of England? Suppose even in the Courts of Judicature (for if any apparition of any such power, 'tis there;) were [...] (imagine) in all those Offices? Why [...] not a Sir Thomas Moore be as hon [...] as a Lord Chief Justice Hales, and execute his Office with as great Inte [...]rity and Justice [...] ▪ Why not men of equal abilities, he of equal uprightness in all Religions? Be­sides the distribution of m [...]um and [...] (more especially when Liberty of [...] shall be past into a perpetual Law, and all Penal Inflictions for Matter of [...] [Page 18] thrown out of their Jurisdictions) will then be the whole business that lies before them. And wherein is a Roman-Catho­lick Judge any more incapacitated for the administration of Justice than another man? Moreover, in a Kingdom where their Number is so truly inconsiderable, as scarce the two hundredth man in the Nation, if they have hopes of making any Converts, or any endeavours that way, it can only be done by holding the Scale of Justice upright, and in all Posts of Trust, by keeping up the steddiest Stan­dard of Right and Equity, as the only means thereby to recommend and endear themselves to the World, and wipe off those blemishes that the mistaken Jealou­sies and popular Misapprehensions have so long, so unkindly cast upon them. And this, and this only, they are very sensible is their Chart to steer by; and their great Pilot, their Royal Master the best read Student in the Arts of Empire, that possi­bly ever graced a Throne, equally knows to be his only course, and undoubtedly as sacredly resolves to make it so. And if the Judges of the Land suppose of the Romish Religion (besides their Oaths that bind 'em, and His Majesties Honour that shall influence them to it) have these Obli­gations more and above even of Interest to their very Religion it self, to move in so regular a Sphere of Justice, where lies our Danger? And if this higher station will be so inoffensive, What can the poorer Justi­ces of the Peace, or the inferiour Submi­nistration of the Government signifie, in Popish or not Popish hands?

But in this Case I have heard some people say; Alas, What stretch of the Laws will not such Judges make? Per­haps for instance, pick a hole in the Ab­by-Lands, and start some dormient Title or other to revert them to the Church of Rome; a Patrimony that will not a little enrich the Romanists, and advance their Cause.

This idle Objection was scarce worth naming; as if the stretching of our Laws in that point was not as notorious and arbitrary as a total violation of the Sub­jects Right, and rending the whole Frame of the Laws in sunder. But to check this idle surmise, if a Romish Parliament it self in the Reign of Queen Mary, with the very Restauration of the Romish Religion and Papal Supremacy into the Saddle, never so much as attempted to revert those Lands: Nay, on the contrary, their whole Title was confirmed to the present Possessors, by a Decretal from Rome it self, as was then so solemnly done by Cardinal Poole, the then Pope's Legate: How groundless must the fear be of any thought or attempt of reverting them now? Or, Why must the Romish Judges in any kind subvert or undermine the Laws, contrary to all their best Politicks, in the present state of England, to no true advantage either to themselves or their Church, and possibly to be answerable for it with their Heads, if they live to the next Protestant Prince.

To come next to the Officers of His Majesties Houshold, &c. to have those Posts too barricaded with Tests, and the Imperial Dignity so shackled, as to be de­barr'd the choice of its own Menials; nay, even of its Conversation it self, is an Insolence put upon Majesty, as had been scarce tolerable from an Ordinance of Forty Eight, much less an Act of Parlia­ment: But for our less Wonder at it, we are to consider, 'twas hatch'd in the same Republick Nest; for no less than the great old Patriot, of three Names, sate sor the brooding of it.

I think I need not raise Arguments to prove how little those Gentlemen of Honour, the Courtiers I mean, of any Religion whatsoever, in that innocent Station are, or can be concerned in sha­king either Church or State. It's enough [Page 19] to say, that greater Indignity, under the Sanction of a Law, was never imposed upon a Crown'd Head. The meanest Gentleman in England, whilst this Test keeps footing, has a Prerogative above the KING. For the choice of His Ste­ward, Bayliff, Attorney, or Sollititor, &c. are in His own free Election; but these were Priviledges thought too large for a KING; and therefore He is stinted, and bounded to such Elections, as the more Imperial Wisdom of His then great Counsellors in Parliament judged fittest for Him.

Monarchical Rule is said to be like that of Heaven, where the Primum Mo­bile acts altogether by inferiour Spheres, and Second Causes. And so Majesty, by its Officers and Ministers, as so many Vehicles, by which the Influences of the Royal Power are conveyed. But truly this Ascendency the Late Law makers judged too Great for the King of En­gland, and therefore they found an Expe­dient to render the Monarchy little more than precarious, making the whole Mini­sters of the State the Creatures of the Test, and not of the KING. Now, I desire to know, how in reason we can imagine, That a KING in Himself the Fountain of Honour, and Original of Po­wer, though in His Nature the mildest and best temper'd of Princes; though without the least thought of Unhinging the Frame of the Government, or di­sturbing the Settled Church of His King­dom, to blast His Own Glory, and lose His Subjects Hearts; (for that would be all the Crop 'twould yield Him,) I wonder, I say, how we can imagine, that the Best and most Gracious of Princes, though without the forementioned De­signs, could nevertheless brook so Im­princely a Yoke, as the Test. And truly to justifie His Majesties heartiest endea­vours, against both Penal Laws and Test, in not labouring to Abrogate the first, as they stand in force against the Lives and Liberties, (and how unjustly has been proved before) of the Members of his own Communion, he would be the most unnatural of men: and in not la­bouring to repeal the last, as standing so egregiously in force against the Right and Prerogative of His Crown, and in­deed originally forged in affront to Him­self, he should be the most dishonoura­ble of Princes: Nor will it serve to ob­ject, That His late Majesty (whatever Diminution to the Prerogative it might be) by passing it into a Law, has al [...]e­nated that Power from the CROWN. For, to answer that Argument, we are assured, that whatever alienations of that kind, the Easiness of the present P [...]ss [...]s­sor of the Crown, or any other Reasons, may induce him to make, are no waies truly binding to the Successor.

Now the Reasons inclining His Majesty so zealously to endeavour the Repeal of the Test in these foremention'd stations under him, are by himself declared, viz. That the Service of all his Subjects, is insepa­rably annex'd to, and i [...]her [...]nt in the Crown; being indeed so fundamental a Right, so unalterable to his Prerogative, and in its own nature, so far above the Cognizance of Parliaments, that a Crown'd Head ought less to be wonder'd at, for endeavouring to recover so rightful a part of his Royal [...]a­trimoney, than the [...]eanes [...] of his Subjects for seeking a Redress against the highest op­pression, and injury suffer'd, in the nearest and tenderest part of their Property, E­state, or Liberty, that they hold by Com­mon Law, or Magna Charta it self.

And besides, the Justice and Equity that prompt His Majesty to seek so peaceably, a recovery of so sacred a Right, by a Re­stitution from the same Parliamentary Po­wer [Page 20] that that rob'd him of it: What can the Kingdom fear, or the Protestant Religion be more threaten'd by conceding the perpe­tual Repeal of that part of Test Law, then it does from the Prerogative, which daily at this present dispenses with it. The Ro­man Catholicks are, and will be in all Posts of Power and Trust, whenever the King's Favour, and their own Abilities shall raise them to it, without the Dissolving of the Test: And when dissolved, what more [...] they do, or how higher can they rise by i [...]!

[...] [...]oo. His Majesty in the Univer­sal [...] of his People in matter of Religion, and under his Resolution of a perpe­tual [...] of Liberty of Conscience, with the Repeal of all Penal Laws: for that very Reason ought to think himself obliged not to leave the [...]est uncancell'd: For as there are very severe Penalties and Forfeitures contain'd in the Test, which, every Person entring into pub [...]ick Employ, without a Qualification from receiving the Test, in­currs. What are these Penalties, when duly examin'd, any more than for meer matter of Conscience. For if a Romanist (as we see daily and Universal Examples) in all Posts of Trust, acts with equal Inte­grity and steddy Justice with the Protestants themselves, without any Male-Admini­stration, in discharge of such Power, or Authority, what is the charge against them from the Test Penalty for Nonqualification any more at the bottom, than meer matter of Conscience, not for any Ministerial inca­pacity of executing that Trust, but only a Consciencious Incapacity of subs [...]bing a Religious Declaration, contrary to the Sentiments of their Faith, require [...] by that Test. And that the Test Penalties, [...] particularly strike at Matters of Religion, all Male-Administrations, in Papists, or not Papists, with, or without Tests, are liable to Legal and Just Censure, and Con­dign Punishments, from other more ancient strokes of Law, than the Hand of the Test.

And for some little farther Inquest into this Test Law, and the Exclusions from Trust ena [...]ed by it; I shall refer you to a Command, I hope, as Authentick as that of an Act of Parliament, viz, Honour thy Father and thy Mother, &c. In that Pre­cept we are told, that [...]ey the King, is included. And if so, suppose a Roman Catholick Prince Commands a Roman Ca­tholick Subject, to serve him as an Officer in his Military Affairs, or a Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, ar what else in his Civil Ad­ministration. In all which places, his Re­ligion can be no Incapacity, for a Romanist in one Post may have as much Courage and Loyalty, and in the other, as much Integrity and Uprightness as another Sub­ject. And shall this Romanist in refusing either of the aforesaid Trusts, be acquitted from a Breach of God's Commandments in disobeying his King, by an excuse of his Tenderness to a Law of Man. And, pray, has this Novel Test Law a sound Root at the bottom, that pretends to super [...]ede and exclude that Fundamental Indispensable Duty of Obeying the Immutable Laws of God.

Now, to come to the last point, the Qualification of Members in Parliament. And to begin with the Exclusion of the Po­pish Pees from S [...]ssions in Parliament by Virtue of the Test. His Majesty desires their Restoration, and consequently the Relavation of that part of the Parliamen­tary Test. And the Reasons moving him thereunto, are the undoubted, unquestion'd Birthright of the [...]eers, so unnaturally and so notoriously invaded and destroyed by this Parliamentary Exclusion. A point so well handled, [...]ud so often before by seve­ral better Pens, and so altogether unanswe­rable, that I shall only add, that as the No­bility [Page 21] of the Land are all Branches and E­manations from the Imperial Fountain of Honour, His Majesty is in equal Justice o­bliged to recover a Gemm from their Co­ronets, as a Ravisht Jewel from his own Crown. And indeed his Majesty in so do­ing, is in the highest degree a Champion for the very Dignity and Foundation of Parli­aments themselves; for truly, when rightly considered, how are our present Parliaments the Comprehensive Body of the Nation, when so many of the Peers, who neither are, nor can be there by Representatives are shut out? Nay, how much is the Sanction and Honour of the very Laws they make, and the very Constitution of our la [...]er Par­liaments impair'd and lessen'd by such an Exclusion?

And truly when His Majesty by this in­tended Religious Charter, resolves to e­stablish and confirm all his Subjects Civil Rights, Properties, Freedom, and Fran­chises on that solid and immoveable Basis above the reach of any Religious Tyranny, or the shock of Conscience to move, it would be very hard to leave his Barons of all his Subjects the only deserted, whilst [...]i­fled and divested of so Original and Impor­tan a Heritage as their Session in Parlia­ment▪

Thus far and no farther does His Maje­sty desire the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test, wherein 'tis highly remarkable His Majesty's Alleviation of some visible bur­then Oppression or Injustice, lying upon all or some part of his people, under the pres­sure of the Penal Tests, in all the foremen­tion'd Cases, is so signally manifested, that nothing but a wilful Blindness, can plead Ignorance.

However, to convince the very Infidel World, and to clear his unblemisht Ho­nour, Candour, and Integrity from all the [...]eeble Cl [...]uds that Malice and Ingratitude have rais'd to shade those inviolable Ora­cles his Protestations of desending the Pro­testant Religion; His last Declaration of continuing the Test in the House of C [...] ­mons, so totally dispels every least shadow of the popular fear, and puts that stamp upon the Word and promise of a King, and so eternally silences all those [...]rightful Apparitions of the Romish Influence over the Protestant Religion, that this very Re­ligious Liberty, so setled as purposed with the continuance of the Test in the House of Commons, joyn'd in the security, cuts off even the very Inta [...]l of all Legislative po­wer from Popish Hands, even to the end of the World.

For whilst the Test consines in the House of Commons, there cannot be to much as one Individual Member, by the Test Qualification, but must be a Protestant. And possibly, the very conceding of the o­ther point. viz. The establishment of a Religious Charter of Liberty, with our Compliance with His Majesty in Repeal of the Penal Laws and [...]est in all other Stati­ons, may be one of the most effectual means, if not the only expedient to continue that Test in the House of Commons▪ unshaken, and immoveable a [...]d cons [...]quen [...]ly [...] Ex­clusion of the Romans from all Leg [...]slative Power to endless Posterity.

For whilst at present the Penal Laws [...] in f [...]rce, the Papist has some considerable strength and Allies to joyn h [...]m▪ as havin [...] indeed so vast a Body as the [...] Dis­senters under disgu [...] and disobl [...]gation▪ to friend the Romish Party as fellow s [...]fferers under the weight of Penal Oppressions and which upon any Parliamentary refusal of repealing those Penal Laws, may make them but more and stron [...] riveted into one joynt interest with the Roman Catholicks (if no worse Ferment follows) and conse­quently render their power, so united more formidable. But after the Sanction of a Religious Liberty, the Protestant Dissen­ters [Page 22] will have so far gain'd the Ultimate of their Desire and Ambition, that then in course they will fall in with the Church of England. For all Repeals of that kind▪ end in that greatest of Interest [ SELF] and when their own self interest shall be so in­tirely satisfied from so ample, and open a Field of Liberty, as that Religious Char­ter, the Bapists, that poor diminitive hand­ful of Men, for ever after, must and will in­evitably stand alone, and whilst the Parlia­mentary Test, can only by Parliamentary Au­thority be dissolv'd, where shall there be one individual Man of them, whether Church of England, or dissenting Member, that shall so much as listen even to the least Whisper that inclines to any farther Popish Concessi­ons, more than their granted Liberty, much less to any such threatning station as an Ac­cess to Parliament.

And more and above, when this Parlia­mentary House of Commons Test shall be enacted by the Royal Fiat from a Roman Catholick Prince, and that Qualification of the Legislative Authority, together with the Church of England Establishment, founded even by such a hand, it may, un­doubtedly put no little Check, in all Romish Successions, so much as to every start that shall but arise to either of their prejudice or violation; and when Liberty of Consci­ence, shall even by a Roman Catholick Prince, be so solemnly own'd and avow'd a Funda­mental and Original Franchise of the people of England, and so exemplarily rati [...]ed as such, what dread can we have from Romish da [...]gers, when not only our Parliament Walls shall be so eternally barr'd against them, but also so asserted, and so potent a free born English Right, shall stand up to confront all future Popish Pretensions what­ever.

And all that Popish Tyranny over Consci­ence, which almost in all Mouths, and in all Pamphlets has been all along the Gorgon that frights half Mankind out of their little Senses, as being so industriously represent­ed the only Indelible Romish Principle; and indeed, their ultimate aim and desi [...] in England, must now vanish into air, when this Parliamentary Exclusion shall leave them no hands to grasp it, should it enter into their Hearts to endeavour it.

To conclude. Wherein are His Ma­jesty's Demands unreasonable, in asking the Repeal of the Penal Laws, in which so great a part of the Vox populi (as their Addresses testifie) joyns with him, and the principles of Nature, Humanity, and Con­science plead for him! Or in asking the Repeal of the Test in those Branches formentioned for the asserting of his own Honour, and recovering the Birth­right of a King, by endeavouring to shake off the most shameful Vassalage that Mo­narch ever truckled under. And why must his Endeavours of doing his People so much right in the first, and himself so much right in the last, be so poorly misinterpre­ted by the unnatural Surmizes of his un­grateful People. But let us blush and mend; and by giving up of these Laws, do Equity in return of Clemency and Mercy.