I. ONe should think, that the Behaviour of the English Clergy for some years past, and the present Circum­stances in which they are, should set them beyond Slander, and by consequence above Apologies; yet since the the Malice of her Enemies works against her with so much spight, and since there is no Insinuation that carrys so much Ma­lice in it, and that seems to have such co­lours of truth on it, as this of their ha­ving set on a severe Persecution against the Dissenters, of being still sour'd with that leaven, and of carrying the same Im­placable hatred to them, which the pre­sent Reputation that they have gained, may put them in a further capacity of exe­cuting, if another revolution of affairs should again give them authority to set about it; it seems necessary to examin it, and that the rather, because some aggra­vate this so far, as if nothing were now to be so much dreaded as the Church of England's getting out of her present di­stress.

II. If these Imputations were charged on us only by those of the Church of Rome, we should not much wonder at it; for tho it argues a good degree of Confidence, for any of that communion to declaim against the severities that have been put in practice among us, since their little finger must be heavier than ever our loins were, and to whose Scorpions our Rods ought not to be compared; yet after all, we are so much accustomed to their methods, that nothing from them can surprise us To hear Papists declare against Persecution, and Jesuites cry up Liberty of Conscience, are, we confess, unusual things: yet there are some degrees of shame, over which when People are once passed, all things become so familiar to them, that they can no more be put out of countenance. But it seems very strange to us, that some, who if they are to be believed, are strict to the severest forms and subdivisions of the Reformed Religion, and who some years ago were jealous of the smallest steps that the Court made, when the dan­ger was more remote, and who cried out Popery and Persecution, when the design was so maskt that some welmeaning men [Page 1] [...] [Page 2]could not miss being deceived by the Pro­mises that were made, and the disguises that were put on; that, I say, these very persons who were formerly so distrustful, should now, when the Mask is laid off, and the design is avowed, of a sudden grow to be so belïeving, as to throw off all distrust, and be so gulled as to betray all; and to expose us to the Rage of those, who must needs give some good words, till they have gone the round, and tried how effectually they can divide and de­ceive us, that so they may destroy us the more easily; this is indeed somewhat ex­traordinary. They are not so Ignorant as not to know, that Popery cannot change its nature, and that Cruelty and Breach of Faith to Hereticks, are as necessary parts of that Re­ligion, as Transubstantiation and the Popes Su­premacy are. If Papists were not Fools, they must give good Words and fair Pro­mises, till by these they have so far de­luded the poor credudous Hereticks, that they may put themselves in a posture to execute the Decrees of their Church against them: and tho we accuse that Religion as guilty both of Cruelty and Treachery, yet we do not think them Fools: so till their Party is stronger than God be thanked it is at present, they can take no other method than that they take. The Church of England was the Word among them some years ago, Liberty of Conscience is the Word at present; and have all pos­sible reason to assure us, that the Promi­ses for maintaining the one, will be as religiously kept as we see those are which were lately made with so great a profu­sion of Protestations, and shews of Friend­ship for the supporting of the other.

III It were great Injustice to charge all the Dissenters with the Impertinencies that have appeared in many Addresses of late, or to take our measures of them, from the Impudent strains of an Alsop or a Care, or from the more Important and now more visible steps that some among them, of a higher form, are every day making; and yet after all this, it cannot be denyed but the several bodies of the Dissenters have behave themselves of late like men, that understand too well the true Interest of the Protestant Religion, and of the English Government, to sacrifice the whole and themselves in Conclusion to their private resentments I hope the same justice will be allowed me in stating the matter relating to the so much decried Persecution, set on by the Church of England; and that I may be suffered to distinguish the heats of some angry and deluded men, from the Doctrine of the Church, and the practices that have been authorised in it; that so I may shew, that there is no reason to Infer from past errors, that we are Incurable; or that new Oppor­tunities inviting us again into the same severities, are like to prevail over us to commit the same follies over again. I will first state what is past, with the sincerity that becomes one that would not lye for God; that is, not affraid nor ashamed to confess faults, that will neither aggravate nor-extenuate them beyond what is just, and that yet will avoid the saying any thing that may give any cause of offence to any party in the Nation.

IV. I am very sorry that I must confess, that all the parties among us, have shewed, that as their turn came to be upper most, they have forgot the same Principles of Moderation and Liberty which they all claimed when they were oppressed. If it should shew too much ill nature to exa­min what the Presbytery did in Scotland when the Covenant was in Dominion, or what the Independents have done in New-England, why may not I claim the same priviledge with relation to the Church of England, if severities have been commit­ted by her while she bore rule? yet it were as easy as it would be invidious to shew, that both Presbyterians and Indepen­dents have carried the principle of Rigour in the point of Conscience much higher, and have acted more Implacably upon it than ever the Church of England has done, even in its angriest fits; so that none of them can much reproach another for their excesses in those matters. And as of all the [Page 3] Religions in the world the Church of Rome is the most persecuting, and the most bound by her Principles to be unalterably Cruel; so the Church of England is the least per­secuting in her principles, and the least obliged to repeat any errors to which the Intrigues of Courts or the Passions inci­dent to all parties may have engaged her, of any National Church in Europe. It can­not be said to be any part of our Doctrine, when we came out of one of the blackest Persecutions that is in History, I mean Q. Maryes, we shewed how little we re­tained of the Cruelty of that Church, which had provoked us so severely; when not only no Inquiries were made into the illegal acts of Fury, that were com­mitted in that Persecuting Reign, but even the Persecutors themselves lived among us at ease and in peace; and no Penal law was made except against the publick exercise of that Religion, till a great many Rebellions and Treasons ex­torted them from us for our own preser­vation. This is an Instance of the Cle­mency of our Church, that perhaps can­not be matched in History: and why should it not be supposed, that if God should again put us in the state in which we were of late, that we should rather imitate so Noble a Pattern, than return to those mistakes of which we are now ashamed?

V. It is to be considered, that upon the late Kings Restauration, the remembrance of the former War, the ill Usage that our Clergy had met with in their Seque­strations, the angry Resentments of the Cavalier party, who were ruined by the War, the Interest of the Court to have all those Principles condemned, that had occasioned it, the heat that all parties that have been ill used are apt to fall into upon a Revolution; but above all, the practices of those who have still blown the Coals, and set us one against another, that so they might not only have a divi­ded force to deal with, but might by turns make the Divisions among us serve their Ends: all these, I say, concurred to make us lose the happy opportunity that was offered in the year 1660. to have healed all our Divisions, and to have triumphed over all the Dissenters; not by ruining them, but by overcoming them with a spirit of Love and Gentleness; which is the only Victory that a generous and Christian temper can desire. In short, unhappy Councils were followed, and se­vere Laws were made. But after all, it was the Court party that carried it for rougher methods: some considerable Ac­cidents, not necessary to be here men­tioned, as they stopped the mouths of some that had formed a wiser Project, so they gave a fatal Advantage to angry and crafty men, that to our misfortune, had too great a stroak in the conduct of our affairs at that time. This spirit of Severity was heightned by the Practices of the Papists; who engaged the late King in December 1662. to give a Declara­tion for Liberty of Conscience. Those who knew the secret of his Religion, as they saw that it aimed at the Introduction of Popery, so they thought there was no way so effectual, for the keeping out of Popery, as the maintaining the Uniformity, and the suppressing of all designs for a Tole­ration. But while those who managed this, used a due reserve, in not discove­ring the secret motive that led them to it, others flew into severity, as the prin­ciple in vogue: and thus all the slack­nings of the rigour of the Laws, du­ring the first Dutch War, that were set on upon the pretence of quieting the Na­tion, and of encouraging Trade, were resisted by the Instruments of an honest Minister of State, who knew as well then, as we do now, what lay still at bottom, when Liberty of Conscience was pretended.

VI. Upon that Ministers Disgrace, some that saw but the half of the Secret, perceiving in the Court a great Inclina­tion to Toleration, and being willing to take measures quite different from those of the former Ministry, they entred into a treaty for a Comprehension of-some Dissenters, and the Tolerating of others; and some Bishops and Clergymen, that were Inferiour to none [Page 4]of the Age in which they lived, for true Worth and a right Judgment of things, engaged so far, and with so much suc­cess into this project, that the matter seemed done, all things being concerted among some of the most considerable men of the different parties. But the dis­like of that Ministry, and the Jealousy of the ill designs of the Court, gave so strong a prejudice against this, that the propo­sition could not be so much as hearkned to by the House of Commons: and then it appeared how much the whole Popish Party was allarmed at the project: it is well known with how much Detestation they speak of it to this day: tho we are now so fully satisfied of their Intentions to destroy us, that the Zeal which they pretended for us, in opposing that design, can no more pass upon us.

VII. At last, in the year 1672. the design for Popery discovering it self, the end that the Court had in favouring a To­leration became more Visible: and when the Parliament met, that condemned the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, the Members of the House of Commons, that either were Dissenters, or that favoured them, behaved themselves so worthily in concurring with those of the Church of England, for stifling that Toleration, choo­sing rather to lose the benefit of it, than to open a breach at which Popery should come in, that many of the members that were for the Church of England, promised to procure them a bill of Ease for Pro­testant Dissenters. But the Session was not long enough for bringing that to perfe­ction; and all the Sessions of that Par­liament after that, were spent in such a con­tinual strugle between the Court and Countrey party, that there was never room given for calm and wise Consultations: yet tho the Party of the Church of England did not perform what had been promised by some Leading men to the Dissenters, there was little or nothing done against them, after that, till the year 1681. so that for about nine years together they had their Meetings almost as publickly and as regularly as the Church of England had their Churches, and in all that time; what­soever particular hardships any of them might have met with in some corners of England, it cannot be denied but they had the free Exercise of their Religion, at least in most parts.

VIII. In the year 1678. things began to change their face: it is known, that upon the breaking out of the Popish Plot, the Clergy did Universally express a great desire for coming to some temper in the points of Conformity: all sorts and ranks of the Clergy seemed to be so well dispo­sed towards it, that if it had met with a suteable entertainment, matters might probably have been in a great measure composed. But the Jealousy that those who managed the Civil concerns of the Nation in the House of Commons, took off all that was done at Court, or propo­sed by it, occasioned a fatal breach in our publick Councils: in which di­vision, the Clergy by their principles, and Interests, and their disposition to be­lieve well of the Court, were determined to be of the Kings side. They thought it as a sin to mistrust the late Kings Word, who assured them of his stea­diness to the Protestant Religion so often, that they firmly depended on it: and his present Majesty gave them so many As­surances of his maintaining still the Church of England, that they believed him like­wise: and so thought that the Exclusion of him from the Crown, was a degree of rigour to which they in Conscience could not consent: upon which they were ge­nerally cried out on, as the Betrayers of the Nation and of the Protestant Religion: Those who demanded the Exclusion, and some other securities, to which the Bi­shops would not consent in Parliament, looked on them as the chief hindrance that was in their way: and the Licence of the Press at that time was such, that many Libels and some severe Discourses were published against them. Nor can it be denied, that many Churchmen, who un­derstood not the Principles of Humane [Page 5]Society, and the rules of our Government, so well as other points of Divinity, writ several Treatises concerning the mea­sures of submission, that were then as much censured, as their performances since against Popery have been deservedly admired. All this gave such a Jealousy of them to the Nation, that it must be con­fessed, that the spirit which was then in fermentation when very high against the Church of England, as a Confederate, at least, to Popery and Tyranny. Nor were several of the Nonconformists wanting to Inflame this dislike; all secret Propositions for ac­commodating our differences were so cold­ly entertained, that they were scarce heark­ned to. The Propositions which an Emi­nent Divine made even in his books writ against Seperation, shewed, that while we maintained the War in the way of dispute, yet we were still willing to treat: for that Great man made not those advances towards them without consulting with his Su­periours. Yet we were then fatally given up to a spirit of Dissention: and tho the Parliament in 1680. entred upon a pro­ject for healing our differences, in which great steps were made to the removing of all the occasions of our Contests; the Leaders of the Dissenters, to the amase­ment of all persons, made no account of this: and even seemed uneasy at it, of which the Earl of Nottingham and Sr. Thomas Clarges, that set on that Bill with much zeal, can give a more particular account. All these things concurred to make those of the Church of England con­clude, a little too rashly, that their ruin was resolved on; and then it was no won­der if the spirit of a Party, the remem­brance of the last Wars, the present Pro­spect of Danger, and above all, the great favour that was shewed them at Court, threw them fatally into some angry and Violent Counsels; self-preservation is very natural: and it is plain, that many of them took that to be the case; so that truly speaking, it was not so much at first a spirit of Persecution, as a desire of dis­abling those who they believed intended to ruin them from effecting their designs, that set them on to all those unhappy things that followed. They were animated to all they did by the continued earnestness of the King and Duke, and of their Ministers. That Reproach of Iustice and of the pro­fession of the Law, who is now so high, was singled out for no other end, but to be their Common Hangman over England: of whom the late King gave this true cha­racter, That he had neither Wit, Law, nor Common Sence; but that he had the Impudence of ten carted Whores in him. Another Buf­foon, was hired to plague the Nation with three or four papers a week; which to the Reproach of the Age, in which we live, had but too great and too ge­neral an effect, for poysoning the spirits of the Clergy. But those who knew how all this was managed, saw that it was not only set on, but still kept up by the Court. If any of the Clergy had but preached a word for moderation, he had a chiding sent him presently from the Court; and he was from that day marked out as a dis­affected person: and when the Clergy of Lon­don did very worthily refuse to give In­formations against their parishioners that had not always conformed, the design ha­ving been formed, upon that to bring them into the Spiritual Courts, and excom­municate them, and make them lose their right of Voting, that so the Charter of Lon­don might have been delivered up when so many Citizens were by such means shut out of the Common Council; we re­member well how severely they were censured for this, by some that are now dead, and others that are yet alive. I will not go further into this matter: I will not deny but many of the Dissenters were put to great hardships, in many parts of England. I cannot deny it, and I am sure I will never justify it. But this I will positively say, having observed it all narrowly, that he must have the brow of a Iesuite, that can cast this wholly on the Church of England, and free the Court of it. The beginnings and the progress of it came from the Court, and from the Popish party: [Page 6]and tho perhaps every one does not know all the secrets of this matter, that others may have found out, yet no man was so Ignorant as not to see what was the chief spring of al those Irregular motions that some of us made at that time: so upon the whole matter, all that can be made out of this, is, that the passions and Infir­mities of some of the Church of England, being unhappily stirred up by the Dissen­ters, they were fatally conducted by the Popish party, to be the Instruments in doing a great deal of mischief.

IX. It is not to be doubted, but tho some weaker men of the Clergy may per­haps still retain their little peevish ani­mosities, against the Dissenters, yet the wiser and more serious heads of that great and Worthy body, see now their error: they see who drove them on in it, till they hoped to have ruined them but it. And as they have appeared against Popery, with as great a strength of learning and of firm steadiness as perhaps can be met with in all Church-History, so it cannot be doubted, but their reflections on the dangers into which our Divisions have thrown us, have given them truer No­tions with relation to a rigorous Con­formity: and that the just Detestation which they have expressed of the Corruptions of the Ch. of Rome, has led them to consider and abhor one of the worst things in it, I mean their Severity towards Hereticks. And the ill use that they see the Court has made of their zeal for supporting the Crown, to justify the subversion of our Government that is now set on, from some of their large & unwary expressions, will certainly make them hereafter more cautions in medling with Politicks: the Bishops have under their hands both disowned that wide extent of the Prerogative, to the overturning of the Law, and declared their disposition to come to a Temper in the matters of Confor­mity; and there seems to be no doubt left of the sincerity of their Intentions in that matter. Their Piety and Vertue, and the prospect that they now have of suffering themselves, put us beyond all doubt as to their sincerity; and if ever God in his Providence brings us again into a setled State, out of the storm into which our passions and folly, as well as the treachery of others has brought us, it cannot be imagined, that the Bishops will go off from those moderate Resolutions, which they have now declared: and they con­tinuing firm to them, the weak and Indis­creet passions of any of the Inferiour Clergy, must needs vanish, when they are under the conduct of wise and worthy Leaders. And I will boldly say this, that if the Ch: of England, after she has got out of this storm, will return to hearken to the peevishness of some sour men, she will be abandoned both of God and man, and will set both Heaven and Earth against her. The Nation sees too Visibly, how dear the dispute a bout Conformity has cost us, to stand any more upon such Punctilios: and THOSE in whom our deliverance is wrapt up, under­stand this matter too well, and judge too right of it, to imagin that ever they will be Priestridden in this point. So that all considerations concur to make us con­clude, that there is no danger of our split­ting a second time upon the same rock: and indeed, if any Argument were wanting to compleat the certainty of this point, the wise and Generous behaviour of the main body of the Dissenters, in this pre­sent Juncture, has given them so just a Title to our friendship, that we must re­solve to set all the world against us, if we can ever forget it; and if we do not make them all the returns of ease and favour when it is in our power to do it.

X. It is to be hoped, that when this is laid together, it will have that effect on all sober and true Protestants, as to make them forget the little angry Heats that have been among us, and even to forget the Injuries that have been done us: all that we do now one against another, is to shorten the work of our Enemies, by destroying one another, which must in Conclusion turn to all our Ruin. It is a madmans revenge, to destroy our Friends [Page 7]that we may do a pleasure to our Ene­mies, upon their giving us some good words; and if the Dissenters can trust to Papists after the usage that the Church of England has met with at their hands, all the comfort that they can promise them­selves, when Popery begins to act its natural part among us, and to set Smithfield again in a fire, is that which befell some Qua­kers at Rome, who were first put in the Inquisition, but were afterwards removed to Bedlam: so tho those false Brethren among the Dissenters, who deceive them at pre­sent, are certainly no Changlings, but know well what they are doing; yet those who can be cheated by them, may well claim the Priviledge of a Bedlam, when their Folly has left them no other retreat.

XI. I will not digress too far from my present purpose; nor enter into a discussion of the Dispensing power, which was so effectually overthrown the other day at the Kings Bench Bar, that I am sure all the Authority of the Bench it self is no more able to Support it: yet some late Papers in favour of it, give me occasion to add a little relating to that point It is true, the Assertor of the Dispen­sing power, who as lately appeared with allowance, pretends, that it can only be applied to the Test for publick Im­ployments: for he owns that the Test for both Houses of Parliament is left en­tire, as not within the compass of this extent of the Prerogative: but another Writer, whom by his fence we must conclude an Irish man, by his brow a Jesuit, and by the bare designation in the title page, of James Stewarts letter, a Quaker, goes a strain higher, and thinks the King is so absolutely the Soveraign as to the Legislative part of our Govern­ment, that he may dissolve even the Parliament Test: so nimbly has he leapt from being a Secretary to a Rebellion, to be an Advocate for Tyranny. He fancies that because no Parliament can bind up another, therefore they cannot limit the Preliminarys to a subsequent Parliament. But upon what is it then, that Countyes have but two Knights, and Burroughs as many: that men below such a value have no vote, that Sheriffs only receive Writs and re­turn Elections, besides many more neces­sary requisites to the making a legal Par­liament. In short, if Laws do not regu­late the Election and Constitution of a Par­liament, all these things may be over­thrown, and the King may cast the whole Government in a new Mould, as well as dissolve the obligation that is on the Members of Parliament for taking the Test. It is true, that as soon as a Parliament is legally met and constituted, it is tyed by no Laws, so far as not to repeal them: but the Preliminaries to a Parliament are still sacred, as long as the Law stands that setled them: for the Members are still in the quality of ordinary Subjects, and not entred upon their share in the Legislative power, till they are constituted in a Par­liament legally chosen and Lawfully assem­bled, that is, having observed all the Re­quisites of the Law. But I leave that Impu­dent Letter to return to the most modest Apology that has been yet writ for the Dispensing power. It yeilds that the King cannot abrogate lawes, and pretends only that he can dispense with them: and the distinction it puts between abrogation and Dispensation, is, that the one is a total repeal of the Law, and that the other is only a slackning of its obligatory force, with Relation to a particular man or to any body of men; so that according to him, a simple Abrogation, or a total Repeal, is beyond the compass of the Preroga­tive I desire then that this Doctrine may be applied to the following words of the Declaration; from which the Reader may Infer whether these do Import a Simple Abrogation, or not, and by Conse­quence, if the Declaration is not illegal; We do hereby further Declare, that it is our Royal will and pleasure that the Oaths com­monly called the Oaths of Supremacy and Al­legeance, and also the several Tests and De­clarations — shall not at any time hereafter, be required to be taken, Declared, or subscri­bed [Page 8]by any person or persons whatsoever, who is or shall be Imployed in any Office or Place of Trust, either Civil or Military, under us or in our Government. This is plain English, and needs no Commentary. That paper offers likewise an Expedient for securing Liberty of Conscience, by which it will be set beyond even the Dispensing power; and that is, that by Act of Parliament all Persecution may be declared to be a thing evil in it self, and then the Prerogative cannot reach it. But unless this Author fancies, that a Parliament is that which those of the Church of Rome believe a Ge­neral Council to be, I mean Infallible, I do not see that such an Act would signify any thing at all. An Act of Parliament cannot change the nature of things which are sullen, and will not alter, because a hard word is clapt on them in an Act of Parlia­ment; nor can that make that which is not evil of it self become evil of it self: for can any Act of Parliament make the Clipping of Money, or the not Burying in Woollen evil of it self? Such an Act were indeed null of it self, and would sink with its own weight, even without the burden of the Prerogative to press it down: and yet upon such a sandy foundation would these men have us build all our Hopes and our Securities. Another topick like this, is, that we ought to trust to the truth of our Religion, and the Providence and Protection of God, and not lean so much to Laws and Tests: All this were very pertinent, if God had not already given us human Assurances against the Rage of our Enemies, which we are now de­sired to abandon, that so we may fall an easy and cheap Sacrifice to those who wait for the favourable moment to destroy us: by the same reason they may persuade us to take off all our Doors, or at least all our Locksand Bolts, and to sleep in this exposed condition, trusting to Gods Pro­tection: The simily may appear a little too high, tho it is really short of the matter; for we had better trust our selves to all the Thieves and Robbers of the town, who would be perhaps con­tented with a part of our Goods, then to those whose designs are equally against both Soul and Body, and all that is dear to us.

XII. I will only add another Reflecti­on upon the renewing of the Declaration this year, which has occasioned the present storm upon the Clergy. It is repeated to us that so we may see that the King continues firm to the Promises he made last year. Yet when men of honour have once given their word, they take it ill if any do not trust to that, but must needs have it repea­ted to them: in the ordinary commerce of the world, the repeating of promises over and over again, is rather a ground of Suspition than of Confidence: and if we judge of the accomplishment of all the other parts of the Declaration, from that one, which relates to the maintaining of the Church of England, as by Law establi­shed, the proceedings against the Fellows of Magdalen Colledge, gives us no reason to conclude, that this will be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter not: all the talk of the New Magna Charta can­not lay us asleep, when we see so little regard had to the Old one. As for the se­curity which is offered us in this repeating of the Kings promises, we must crave leave to remember, that the King of France, even after he had resolved to break the E­dict of Nantes, yet repeated in above an hundred Edicts, that were reall and visible violations of that Edict, a clause confir­matory of the Edict of Nantes, declaring that he would never Violate it: and in that we may see what account is to be had of all promises made to Hereticks, in matters of Religion, by any Prince of the Roman Communion, but more particularly by a Prince who has put the conduct of his Con­science in the hands of a Jesuite.