Two LETTERS to Dr. Benjamin Calamy, ONE IN English, the other in Latine, By Thomas De Laune, upon his Imprisonment in Newgate, for the Answer given at the said Dr. Calamy's Call, to his Sermon entituled, A Discourse about a Scrupulous Conscience, in a late Piece called, A Plea for the Non-conformists, &c.
IN your printed Sermon, Intituled, Scrapulous Conscience, you know you gave a fair Invitation to such as differ from you, to examine what each Party (viz. Conformists and Non-conformists) say for themselves, with respect to the Rites and Ceremonies which the Guides of the Church impose on their Members, and by penal Laws upon their Protestant fellow Subjects, the Non-conformists.—Without doubt, your Call to such, pre-supposed a Reply, by which you expected that there may be either an Opportunity given to you and your Brethren, to rectifie what scrupulous Consciences mis-understand, or that there may be some Relaxation procured, of the severity they undergo, if their dissent appears to be warranted by that only Rule of [Page 2] Faith, which Dr. Stillingfleet, and other Eminent Conformists, call [...]he Bible.
If you did not expect an Answer, or thought that none for fear of the Act of Ʋniformity, &c. would make any Return to your Call, what can a man of Reason judge, but that it was a florid Declamation, or a triumphant Harangue, a meer Mockery & ensnaring of poor scrupulous Consciences, when they must be so muzled, that they must not exhibit the Causes of their Doubts. Sir, you know that 'tis unequal to gag the Respondent, when the Opponent's Mouth is at liberty, or to manacle the Assaulted, when the Challenger flourishes a menacing Sword.
Upon that publick Call of yours, I adventured to examine (with the most diligent search I could make) what each of the said Parties say for themselves; and this not out of any Litigious Principle (that pruritus disputandi) now too fatally grown Epidemical, but to give such as are concerned, occasion to investigate these disputed matters to the very Foundation, to the clearing up of Truth in a Juncture when it can never be more seasonable. What was digested, was intended to be sent you in a Manuscript, with some modest Inferences and Inquiries; but upon Re-collection I judg'd it would more answer your end, viz. publick Information, to have such Arguments as are producible by the Dissenters, as publick as the Invitation you gave them from Pulpit and Press, it being equal that the Answer should be as spreading as the Objection.
I am far from the vanity of pretending to be your Competitor in the Faculties of the Schools; I cannot judge of them any otherwise than as unserviceable to Christian Religion, unless tinctured with that Grace, derivative only from the Sanctifier of all Gifts, which I hope you partake of.
I am one of the meanest of the Flock, yet not below the Regards of the Shepherd of Souls, who is no Respecter of Persons, and whose Example such as call themselves his Ambassadors, [Page 3] ought to follow. And therefore though some, who pin their Faith upon Canonical Sleeves, may censure me, for opposing (or, if I may use a Military Metaphor, taking up the Gantlet against) a man of your Figure; yet I can take up my satisfaction in this, that it was not Pride, nor a Popular Itch, much less the love of a Prison, influenced me to become an Answerer of your scrupulous Conscience.
I could heartily wish (as a mercy to these Nations) that all Religious Differences were composed by Evangelical Rules; and and that all who own the Name of Christ would serve him with one Heart, and with one Soul, and not tear each other to pieces, which by consequence must expose them as a Prey to such as gape for their Destruction.
If the Sanctions of Christ in the Old and New-Testament ought to regulate the Modes of his Worship, and that we are under an indispensible Obligation to obey that Magna Charta of Heaven, then let us either quit the Name of Christians, or act according to the supream Law-giver's, unrepealable Statutes, quite exploding what's undeniably borrowed from the Pompilian or Pontifical Canons.
Some Sheets have been printed off of what I intended to present to you, but the Messenger of the Press interrupted the procedure, and got me committed to Newgate, where I am now confin'd. There is nothing done, nor was intended to be done, but a fair Examination of those things your Sermon invited to, which I had thought (if esteemed Criminal) should fall rather within the cognizance of Divines, than the men of Law; for me thinks the Pandects should not be the Oracles of Religion, and that Temporal Statutes should be so civil as to give precedency to the sacred Records.
'Tis possible that Inquirers into Religion will look upon it as a preposterous proceeding, and disagreeable to the Nature of the Christian Faith to force doubting Persons by Penalties to embrace [Page 4] it; for that can never make them good Converts, but Hypocrites. May they not say that 'tis a horrid Disparagement to the Self-evidencing Light of the Gospel, if it cannot stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers, any other way than by the rigid Execution of Acts of State? I cannot find that Christ or his Disciples ever Church-cursed or Newgated scrupulous Consciences to Conformity.
My Confinement is for accepting your Invitation to hear both sides; and I appeal to you, whether it be candid to punish me for obeying a Guide of the Church? I look upon you (in honour) obliged to procure my Sheets (yet unfinished) a publick Passport, and to me my Liberty, else I must conclude it unfair, and that if the irresistible Logick of Goals grows Al-a-mode, it will make the Reformation, some pretend to, suspected to be very little meritorious of that Name.
Religion is a sacred thing, and has been most horribly abused by such as have super added their own Inventions, or those Traditional Fopperies received from our deceiv'd and superstitious Ancestors. I am satisfied you, as well as Dr. Stillingfleet, will own (or there's no debating with you) that the Scripture is our Only Rule of Faith; if so, pray let your scrupulous Consciences be won to Conformity by that. All men are not of equal capacity, to apprehend things doubtful; for if they had been so, there had been no necessity of Preachers: and the methods of Convincing men is as plainly laid down in the Bible, as any thing there, viz. by plain demonstrative Arguments, meek and winning Perswasions, not the syllogisms of Prisons, Pillories, &c.
I beseech you in the fear of God, and as you will answer it to our great Lord and Master Jesus Christ, That without respect to any other end than the good of Souls (as the Profession you take obliges you to) that you would treat scrupulous Consciences, as you would be dealt withal your self. If they have no Reason for their Dissent, and will without ground suffer Imprisonments [Page 5] with all the ruinous Concomitants of so dismal a Circumstance, 'tis certain that Bedlam is more fit for them, than such places of Confinement, as are appointed for men in their Wits; and by consequence 'tis pity to be so severe with such Simpletons. But if you will allow them any Modicum of Reason, than I appeal to all the Guides of the Church, whether it be not more consonant to the Precepts of our soveraign Legislator, to confute them by his Rules, rather than by such coercive Methods, which his Majesty judg'd ineffectual in his Declaration of Indulgence, March 1672.
As Truth seeks no Corners nor Suborners, and as real Beauty will not be beholden to the artificial Dawbings of a Pencil, so the Christian Religion (where professed in its naked simplicity) needs no other Allurement to beget Proselites than its own lovely and illustrious Features, altogether plain, honest, and every way amiable, void of all Meretricious Gawdery, or that Majestical Pomp which pleases only the external Sense.
I have no Malignity against any Person whatsoever, much less against your Church, or any of its Members, all I desire is, that Scrupulous Consciences, who trouble not the Peace of the Nation, should be dealt withal (at least) as weak Brethren, according to Rom. 14.1. and not ruin'd by Penalties for not swallowing what's imposed under the Notion of Decency and Order, tho Eccentrick to the Scheme we have of it in our only Rule of Faith. Sir, I intreat you to excuse this Trouble from a Stranger, who would fain be convinc'd by something more like Divinity then Newgate, where any Message from you shall be wellcome to
QƲod semel at (que) iterum Concionatus eras, Typis (que) mandaver as de Dubitanti Conscientia, quotquot Diversae sint sententiae circa quosdam Ritus ac Ceremonias, ad utrius (que) partis Rationes Examinandas, satis publice vocitaverat.
Tacentibus alijs, in illa re, tibi parebam; non litigandi Causa (impar enim est Congressus inter te, tantum virum & me tantillum) sed uthujus modi Litem adim endi, sicuti praeceperas, adhibeatur occasio.
Si propter tale (duntaxat) obsequium, me paenas daturum, nescio quot quibusve modis, decretum fuerit; Nunquid novae vincendi ratio, sacris paginis inaudita, apud quosdam Antesignanos exoritur?
Quid de his rebus sentiendum esse videatur, ex sacro Codice ac probati. Scriptoribus disquirere proposui, (te Cunctos vacillantes tam acriter invitante) ex illo Lumine semitarum, ex illa Lucerna (Psal. 119.105) Rationes aliquot hauseram adversus varios ac Multiplices Errores, qui in Ecclesiam Irrepserunt.
Eâ solâ de causà us (que) ad Carcerem, ubi nihil amabile est, adactus sum. Ʋtrum Istiusmodi Argumenta valuerint ad vestrae Concicnis ὑπόθεσεισ, probandas sub Judice Supremo lis sit. Anve tali modo ullus ex dubitantibus in spirituale Cogi potuerit, Ovile, Judex esto.
Nihil adversus Regiam Majestatem, nihil de Regimine Civili, nihil contra Monarchiae pacem asseritur. De Rituum ac Ceremoniarum [Page 7] origine, de (que) rebus quae specie veritatis, Etiamsi parum recte, in dubitantes Objiciuntur, sola dissertatio est.
Quid de me Curia decreverit nescio. Fiat summi Patris Voluntas, Ʋniversis qui salutis humanae largitorem secundum verbum ejus Colunt Pacem internam ac externam in hoc, aeternam (que) in futuro seculo Precatur
Ʋt Responsum aliquod, quod Theologum decet per dilecttissimam meam Conjugem, uti promisisti remittas, obsecro.
These two Letters were deliver'd to the Dr. and the Answer I receiv'd to the first, was in effect, That if I had been imprisoned upon the account of answering his Book, he would do me any Kindness that became him: To the second he said (which hearing no effect of the former I sent him) That he lookt upon himself unconcern'd, or to that purpose, as not being mention'd in the Sheets he saw with the Recorder. To satisfie which Doubt, I sent a printed Sheet, the very first of it, that makes it undisputable, viz. that what I am charg'd with is an Answer to his Call. This is published (not out of any disrespect to that Gentleman, but) to invite him to give a fair Hearing to my Plea, and so to remove those Obstacles that lie in the way of scrupulous Consciences, in order to a happy Union. I wish from my Heart that the Controversie might conclude in that blessed effect.
The following Letter I sent to the Recorder, Sir Thomas Jenner, which I publish for no other end, than that it may be a means to stir up the Minds of some judicious Guides of the Church of England, to urge mild Arguments to doubting Persons; for as I am not, nor never was; nor intended to be concern'd in any Action to the Disturbance of the publick Peace, so I have been, and ever shall be, in my mean Station, a hearty Well-wisher to the Prosperity of these Nations under His Majesty's Government.
To Sir Thomas Jenner, Knight, Recorder of London.
YOu know I was committed Prisoner first to the Compter at Woodstreet, then to Newgate by your Warrant. In my Mittimus its said, That I refused to give Bail, which is a Mistake; for being asked by you, Whether I would give Bail then? I said, I could not, it being so late at night, when I had no opportunity to send to such as would bail me. And being ask't, Whether I would give Bail the next Morning? I said, I knew not whether I could or not, because I was not certain whether such to whom I might have made Application would do it, or not. This was no Sullenness nor Obstinacy in me, but what my real Apprehensions then were. Some Friends of mine (free-men of this City) went afterwards to be my Bail, but they were told, you were not at home. They made thereupon an Application to Sir William Turner, who referr'd them to you.
It is said in the Warrant, That I confessed I was the Author of a Libel, entituled, A Plea for the Non-conformists, wherein are contain'd things dangerous to the Government, which thus much, and no further is true: I confessed before you, that I deliver'd a Manuscript of my own writing to one John H [...], with that Title, in order to be printed, and that if the Print agreed with the Manuscript, I would own it—otherwise I could not, because the mis-placing of a Stop, the mis-printing of a Letter or Syllable, or some other Errata's of the Press, would alter the Sense, even to Contradiction of what was intended to be discussed; which was not as my Indictment words it (in a form of aggravating Terms) but in order to a plain disquisition of such things as Dr. Calamy from Pulpit and Press, invited Dissenters to inquire into, as you may see in his Book, called, A Discourse of a scrupulous Conscience. There is nothing of matters relating to the civil State in what I am charg'd with; for I am not concern'd with that: But if the Guides of the Church (as Dr. Calamy calls the benefic'd men of the Church of England) will make publick Challenges, they should receive Objections, without punishing the Objectors, whose (supposed) Crime is only for obeying them; and that, you know, Sir, is disagreeable to Justice.
If any thing I have done falls within the Lash of English Laws, fiat Justitia. But I am satisfy'd I have done nothing in this point unbecoming an honest Subject, a Scholar, a Gentleman, and which is worth all, a Christian. I commit the whole matter, with respect to this Dispute, to that supream Legislator, who is without exception just, and who will judge all that are subordinate to him. Which is all from,