re

belongs not to the commission of our superiors, I do with submission conceive, that there is very little else of religion left for them to have to do with: the rest merits not the name of religion, and less doth such a formality deserve persecution. I hope such circumstances are no necessary part of English government, that cannot reasonably be reputed a necessary part of ligion: and I believe he is too great a divine and lawyer, upon second thoughts, to repute that ' a part of our

laws, a part, and a necessary part of our government,' that is, such a part of religion as is neither the · di. ( vine principle, nor yet the actions immediately ! flowing from it;' since the government was most complete and prosperous many ages without it, and hath never known more perplexed contests and troublesome interruptions, than since it hath been received and valued as a part of the English government: and God, I hope, will forbid it, in the hearts of our superiors, that Englishmen should be deprived of their civil inheritance for their nonconformity to church formality: for ' no property out of the church,' (the plain English of publick severity for nonconformity) is a maxim that belongs not to the holy law of God, or common law of the land.

IV. If liberty and property must be the forfeit of conscience for nonconformity to the prince's religion, the prince and his religion shall only be loved as the next best accession to other mens estates, and the prince perpetually provoked to expose many of his inoffensive people to beggary, for what is no fault at common law. V. It is our superiors interest, that

property

be

preserved, because it is their own case: none have more property than themselves. But if

property be exposed for religion, the civil magistrate exposes both his conscience and property to the church, and disarms himself of all defence upon any alteration of judgment. This is plainly for the prince to hold under the prelate, and the state to suffer itself to be rid by the church.

VI. It obstrucis all improvement of land and trade; for who will labour that hath property, or hath it exposed to an unreasonable fort of men, for the baré exercise of his conscience to God? And a poor country can never make a rich and powerful prince. Heaven is therefore heaven, to good and wise men, because they are to have an eternal propriety therein.

VII. This sort of procedure, hitherto opposed, on the behalf of property, puts the whole nation upon miferable uncertainties, that are followed with great difquiets and distractions; which certainly it is the interest of all government to prevent: the reigns of Hen. VIII. Edw. VI. Q. Mary and Q. Eliz. both with relation to the marriages of the first, and the religious revolutions of the rett, are a plain proof in the case.

King Henry voids the pope's supremacy, and assumes it himself. Comes Edw. VI. and enacts Protestancy, with an oath to maintain it. 1 Q. Mary, ch. 1. this is abrogated; Popery folemnly restored, and an oath inforced to defend it: and this queen repeals also all laws her father made against the pope, since the 12th of Hen. VIII. Next follows Q. Elizabeth, and repeals ber laws, calls back Protestancy, ordains a new oath, to un-oath queen Mary's oath : and all this under the penalty of losing estate, liberty, and sometimes life itself; which, thousands, to avoid, lamentably perjured themselves, four or five times over, within the space of twenty years. In which fin, the clergy transcended: not an hundred for every thousand, but left their principles for their parishes. Thus hath conscience been debauched by force, and property toffed up and down by the impetuous blasts of ignorant zeal, or finifter design.

VIII. Where liberty and property are violated, there must always be a state of force: and though I pray God that we never need those cruel remedies, whose calamitous effects we have too lately felt, yet certainly, self-preservation is of all things deareft to men ; insomuch that being not conscious to themselves of having done an ill thing, they, to defend their unforfeited 'privileges, chearfully hazard all they have in this world: so very strangely vindi&tive are the sons of men, in maintenance of their rights. And such are the cares, fears, doubts, and insecurities of that administration, as render einpire a Navery, and dominion the worst fort of bondage to the possessor. On the contrary, nothing can give greater chearfulness, confidence, security and honour to any prince, than ruling by law; for it is a conjunction of title with power, and attracts love, as well as it requires duty.

Give me leave, without offence (for I have God's evidence in my own conscience, I intend nothing but a respectful caution to my superiors) to confirin this reason, with the judgment and example of other times. The governors of the Eleans held a strict hand over the people; who, despairing of relief at home, called in the Spartans, and by their help freed all their cities from the sharp bondage of their natural lords.

The state of Sparta was grown powerful, and oppressed the Thebans: they, though but a weak people, whetted by despair, and the prospect of greater miseries, did, by the Athenians, deliver themselves from the Spartan yoke.

Nor is there any other considerable reason given for the ruin of the Carthaginian state, than avarice and severity. More of this is to be found in Ralegh's History of the World, l. 3. who hath this witty expression in the same story, 1. 5. of a severe conduct:

When a forced government,' faith he, · shall decay ( in strength, it will suffer, as did the old lion, for " the oppression done in his youth ; being pinched by (the wolf, gored by the bull, and kicked also by the < a/s :' the senseless mob,

This lost Cæsar Borgia his new and great conquests in Italy. No better success attended the fevere hand held over the people of Naples, by Alphonfo and Ferdinand. It was the undue severity of the Sicilian governors, that made the Syracufians, Leontines, and Messenians, fo eafy a conquest to the Romans. An harsh answer to a petitioning people lost Rehoboam

ten

ten tribes. On the contrary, in Livy, Dec. 1. 1. 3. we find, that Petilia, a city of the Brutians in Italy, chose rather to endure all extremity of war from Han. nibal, than upon any condition to desert the Romans, who had governed them moderately, and by that gentle conduct procured their love ; even then, when the Romans sent them word, they were not able to re• lieve them, and wished them to provide for their own safety.'

N. Machiavel, in his Discourses upon Livy, p. 542. tells us, “That one act of humanity was of more force • with the conquered Falisci, than many violent acts • of hoftility :' which makes good that saying of Seneca, Mitius imperanti melius paretur ; · They are best • obeyed, that govern most mildly.'

IX. If these ancient fundamental laws, so agreeable with nature, so suited to the dispositions of our nation, so often defended with blood and treasure, so carefully and frequently ratified by our ancestors, shall not be, to our great pilots, as stars or compass for them to fteer the vessel of this kingdom by, or limits to their legislature; no man can tell how long he shall be fecure of his coat, enjoy his house, have bread to give his children, liberty to work for bread, and life to eat it. Truly, this is to justify what we condemn in Roman Catholicks. It is one of our main objections, that their church assumes a power of imposing religion, thereby denying men the liberty of walking by the rules of their own reason and conscience, and precepts of boly writ: to whom we oppose both. We say, the church is tied to act nothing contrary to reason; and that holy writ is the declared law of heaven; which to maintain, power is given to the true church. Now let us apply this argument to our civil affairs, and it will certainly end in a reasonable limitation of our legislators, that they should not impose that upon our understandings, which is inconsistent with them to em, brace; nor offer any the least violation to common right. Do the Romanists say, 'Believe as the church • believes? Do not the Protestants, and, which is

harder,

harder, legislators, fay fo too? Do we say to the Romanists at this rate, Your obedience is blind, and

your ignorance is the mother of devotion? Is it not also true of ourselves? Do we object to them, This makes your religion uncertain, one thing to

day, and another to-morrow?' Doth not our own case submit us to the like variation in civils? Have we not long told them, that, 'under pretence of obey! ing the church, and not controuling her power, the

hath raised a fuperstructure inconsistent with that i foundation the pretends to build upon ?' And are not we the men in civils, that make our privileges rather to depend upon men than laws, as she doth upon councils, not scripture ? If this be not popery in temporals, what is ?

It is humbly beseeched of superiors, that it would please them to consider what reflection such severity justly brings upon their proceedings; and remember, that in their ancient delegations, it was not to define, resolve, and impose matters of religion, and sacrifice civil privileges for it; but, to maintain the people's properties, according to the ancient fundamental laws of the land, and to add such statutes only, as were consistent with, and preservative of, those fundamental laws.

Lastly, To conclude this head: my plain and honest drift has been, to shew that church government is no essential part of the old English government, and to disintangle property from opinion; the untoward knot which the clergy for several ages have tied, which is not only the people's right, but our superiors interest to undo; for it galls both people and prince. For, where

property is subjected to opinion, the church interposes, and makes something else requisite to enjoy property, than belongs to the nature of property; and the reason of our possession is not our right by, and obedience to, the common law, but conformity to church law, or laws for church conformity. A thing dangerous to civil government, since it is an alteration of old English tenure, a suffering the church to trip

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