body, or, a general without an army. It can hurt no more, than bullets without powder, or a sword, and no band to use it. I dare fay, there is not of that communion, enough at once, to make all the coal-fires in London; and yet we are apprehensive they are able to confume the whole kingdom. I am ftill more afraid. of her fears than of them; for though they feem high, fhe thinks their religion in no reign has appeared much lower. O, but they have the king of their fide, and he has the executive power in his hands!' True, and this I call the artificial ftrength of the kingdom. But, I fay, first we have his word to bind him. And though fome may think our kings cannot be tied by their people, certainly they may be tied by themselves. What if I do not look upon the act of both boufes to oblige the king, his own confeffion muft; and that may be given in an act of state. I take the king to be as well obliged in bonour and confcience to what he promifes his people in another method, as if it had been by his royal affent in parliament; for an honeft man's word is good every-where, and why a king's fhould not, I cannot tell. It is true, the place differs, and the voice comes with greater folemnity; but why it should with greater truth, I know not. And if the church of England will but be advised to give him the opportunity of keeping his repeated word with her, and not deprive herself of that advantage by jealoufies and distances that make her suspected, and may force him into another conduct, I cannot help believing that the king will to a tittle let her feel the affurance and benefit of his promifes. But next, we have his age for our fecurity; which is the fecond proof, of the second reason, why the Papists fhould look no farther than a toleration. This is the want of time I mentioned. They have but one life in the leafe, and it is out of their power to renew and this life has lived faft too, and is got within seven of threescore; a greater age than most of his ancefDd 4 tors tors ever attained. Well, but he has an army, and many officers, of his own religion.' And if it be fo, What can it do? It may fupprefs an infurrection; but upon the attempts we foolishly fear, they were hardly a breakfast to the quarters they live in. For if they were together, all the confines or remote parts of the nation would rife like grafs upon them; and if difperfed, to be fure they have not ftrength for fuch an attempt. But if they are not fufficient, there is a potent prince not far off can help the defign, who is not angry with Proteftancy at home only,' Suppose this, is there not as potent naval powers to affift the conftitution of the kingdom from fuch invafions? Yes, and land ones too. And as the Proteftant governments have more ships than the other, fo an equal land force, when by fuch attempts to make Popery univerfal, they are awakened to the use of them: but certainly we must be very filly to think the king fhould fuffer fo great a fhock to his own intereft, as admitting an army of foreigners to enter his kingdom on any pretence, muft neceffarily occafion. Thefe bull-beggars, and raw-heads and bloody-bones, are the malice of fome, and the weakness of others. But time, that informs children, will tell the world the meaning of the fright. The third proof of my second reason, is, 'The in• teftine divifion among themselves.' That divifion weakens a great body, and renders a small one barmless, all will agree. Now, that there is fuch a thing as divifion among them, is town-talk. The feculars and regulars have ever been two interefts all the Roman church over and they are not only fo here, but the regulars differ among themfelves. There is not a coffee-house in town that does not freely tell us that the Jefuits and Benedictines are at variance, that Count Da, the Pope's nuncio, and bishop Lyborn, diffent mightily from the politicks of the firft; nay, the other day the ftory was, that they had prevailed entirely over them. The lords lords and gentlemen of her communion have as warmly contefted about the lengths they ought to go; moderation feems to be the conclufion. Together they are little, and can do little; and, divided, they are contemptible, instead of terrible. This Laftly, The Roman church ought to be difcreet, and think of nothing farther than the intreated general ease, because it would be an extreme that must beget another in the fucceeding reign. For as I can never think her so weak as well as base, that after all her arguments for the jus divinum of fucceffion, fhe fhould, in the face of the world, attempt to violate it in the wrong of one of another perfuafion, (for that were an eternal lofs of her with mankind); fo, if the does not, and yet is extravagant, fhe only rifes higher to fall lower than all others in another reign. were provoking their own ruin. And, to fay true, either way would, as the fecond letter has it, "Dif"credit her for ever, and make true prophets of those "they had taken fuch pains to prove false witnesses." And fuppofing her to reckon upon the juft fucceffion, nothing can recommend her, or continue her happiness, in a reign of another judgment, but this "Li"berty equally maintained," that other perfuafions, more numerous, for that reafon, as well as for their own fakes, are obliged to insure her. Here the foundation is broad and strong, and what is built upon it has the looks of long life. The indenture will at least be quinque-partite, and parties are not fo mortal as men. And as this joins, fo it preferves interest intire, which amounts to a religious amity and a civil unity,' at the worst. Upon the whole matter, I advife the members of the Roman communion in this kingdom, to be moderate; it is their duty, and it belongs to all men to see it and feel it from them, and it behoves them mightily they should; for the first part of this difcourfe belongs to their hopes, as well as to the church of England's fears, viz. the duty and Spirit of Chriftianity. Next, let them them do good offices between the king and his excellent children; for as that will be well taken by so affectionate a father, fo it gives the lie to their enemies fuggeftions, and recommends them to the grace and favour of the fucceffors. And having faid this, I have faid all that belongs to them in particular. There is left only my address to the Proteftant Diffenters, and a general conclufion, to finish this discourse. Your cafe, that are called Proteftant Diffenters, differs mightily from that of the church of England, and Rome. For the firft hath the laws for her, the laft the prince. Thofe laws are against you, and she is not willing they should be repealed: the prince offers to be kind to you, if you please: your intereft, in this conjuncture, is the queftion. I think none ought to be made, that it is the liberty of conscience defired, because you have much more need of it, having neither laws nor prince of your fide, nor a fucceffor of any of your perfuafions. The fears of Popery I know reach you; but it is to be remembered alfo, that if the laws are not repealed, there wants no new ones to destroy you, of the Papifts making; fo that every fear you are taught to have of their repeal, is against yourselves. Suppose your apprehenfions well grounded, you can but be destroyed: which is moft comfortable for you to fuffer, by law, or without it? The church of England, by her penal laws, and the doctrine of headship, has armed that religion (as it falls out) to deftroy you. Nay, has made it a duty in the king to do it, from which (he fays) nothing but an act of parliament can abfolve him, and that she is not willing to allow. And is it not as reasonable that you should seek their repeal, that if you suffer from the Papifts, it may be without human law, as well as against Chrift's law, as for the church of England to keep them in force; because if fhe fuffers, it fhall be against the laws made to uphold her? For not repealing them, brings you an inevitable mischief, and her, at moft, but an uncer tain safety; though it is certain, she at the same time will facrifice you to it. And yet if I were in her cafe, it would please me better to remove laws that might reproach me, and ftop my mouth when turned against me; and be content, that if I fuffer for my religion, it is against the law of God, Chriftianity, and the fundamentals of the old and true civil government of my country, before fuch laws helped to fpoil it. In fhort, you must either go to church, or meet, or let fall your worshipping of God in the way you believe. If the firft, you are hypocrites, and give away the cause, and reproach your dead brethren's fincerity, and gratify the old accufation of fchifm, ambition, &c. and finally lose the hope and reward of all your fufferings. If the fecond, viz. that you meet against law, you run into the mouth of the government, whofe teeth are to meet in you, and destroy you, as by law established. If the last, you deny your faith, overthrow your own arguments, fall away from the apoftolical doctrine of affembling together, and fo muft fall into the hands of God, and under the troubles of your own confciences and woundings of his fpirit, of which it is faid, " who can bear them.” So that nothing is plainer than that Proteftant Diffenters are not obliged to govern themselves after fuch church of England measures, fuppofing her fears and jealoufies better bottomed than they are: for they are neither in this king's time in the fame condition, with her, if the penal laws remain in force, nor like to be so, if fhe can help it, in the next reign, if they are not repealed in this; fo that they are to be certainly persecuted now, in hopes of an uncertain liberty then. Uncertain both whether it will be in her power, and whether she will do it if it be. The language of fear and affurance is two things; affliction promises what profperity rarely performs. Of this the promises made to induce the late king's restoration, and the cancelling of the former declaration, and what followeth upon both, are a plain truth. And though the last Westminster parliament inclined to it; nobody fo much |