Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

much oppofed it as the clergy, and the most zealous fons of that church and if they could or would not then fee it to be reasonable, I cannot fee why one fhould trust to people fo selfish and fhort-fighted. But if she will stoop to all thofe diffenting interefts that are Protestant, it must either be by a comprehenfion, and then she must part with her bishops, her common-prayer, her ceremonies, and this itself is but. Prefbyterian; (and fhe must go lower yet, if fhe will comprehend the reft) or, if not, fhe muft perfecute, or give this liberty of confcience at laft; which, that she will ever yield to uncompelled, and at a time too when there is none to do it, while the refuses it under her present preffing circumftances, I confefs I cannot apprehend. But there is yet one argument that can never fail to oblige your compliance with the general ease intreated, viz. That the penal laws are against our great law of property, and fo void in themselves.' This has been the language of every apology; and that which, to fay true, is not to be anfwered: how then can you decline to help their repeal, that in confcience, reafon and law, you think void in their own nature?

Laftly, There is nothing that can put you in a condition to help yourselves, or the church of England, against the domination of Popery, but that which the weakly thinks the way to hurt you both, viz. The

repeal of the penal laws.' For, as you are, you are tied hand and foot; you are not your own men; you can neither ferve her nor yourselves; you are fast in the stocks of her laws, and the courfe fhe would have you take, is to turn martyrs under them to support them if you like the bargain, you are the best-natured people in the world, and fomething more. And fince begging is in fashion, I should defire no other boon; for upon fo plain a lofs of your wits, your eftates will of courfe fall a ftray to the government, fo that without the help of a penal law, you make an admirable prize.

I have no mind to end fo pleafantly with you; I have a fincere and Christian regard to you and yours. Be not cozened, nor captious, at this juncture. I know fome of you are told, If you lofe this liberty,

you introduce idolatry, and for confcience fake you ⚫ cannot do it.' But that is a pure mistake, and improved, I fear, by thofe that know it fo, which makes us the worfe; for it is not introducing idolatry, (taking for granted that Popery is fo) but faving the people from being deftroyed that profefs that religion. If Chrift and his apostles had taken this courfe with the world, they must have killed them, instead of converting them. It is your mistake, to think the Jewish rigorous conftitution is adequate to the Chriftian difpenfation; by no means: that one conceit of Judaifing Christianity in our politicks, has filled the world with mifery, of which this poor kingdom has had its share. Idolaters are to be enlightened and perfuaded, as St. Paul did the Athenians and Romans, and not knocked on the bead, which mends nobody. And to fay a Christian magiftrate is to do that, that a Chriftian cannot do, is ridiculous; unlefs, like the bishop of Munster, who goes like a bishop one part of the day, and a foldier the other, he is to be a Chriftian in the morning, and a magistrate in the afternoon. Befides, it is one thing to enact a religion national, and compel obedience to it, (which would make this cafe abominable indeed) and another thing to take off Chriftian penalties for the fake of fuch mistakes; fince that is to give them power to hurt others, and this only to fave you from being hurt for mere religion.

To conclude my address to you: of all people, it would look the moft difingenuous in you, and give you an air the leaft fenfible, charitable and Chriftian, not to endeavour fuch an eafe, that have fo much wanted it, and fo often and fo earnestly preffed it, even to clamour. But that you fhould do it for their fakes who have used you fo, and that the inftruments of their cruelty, the penal laws, should from a com

mon

mon grievance become a darling to any among you, will be fuch a reproach to your understandings and confciences, that no time or argument can wipe off, and which I befeech God and you to prevent.

I

The CONCLUSION.

Shall conclude with one argument, that equally concerns you all, and that is this; you claim the character of Englishmen. Now to be an Englishman, in the sense of the government, is to be a freeman, whether lord or commoner, to hold his liberty and poffeffions by laws of his own confenting unto, and not to forfeit them upon facts made faults, by humour, faction, or partial intereft prevailing in the governing part against the conftitution of the kingdom; but for faults only, that are fuch in the nature of civil government; to wit, breaches of thofe laws that are made by the whole, in pursuance of common right, for the good of the whole.'

This regard muft at no time be neglected, or violated towards any one intereft; for the moment we concede to fuch a breach upon our general liberty, be it from an averfion we carry to the principles of those we expofe, or fome little finifter and temporary benefit of our own, we facrifice ourselves in the prejudices we draw upon others, or fuffer them to fall under; for our intereft in this refpect is common. If then, as Englishmen, we are as mutually interested in the inviolable confervation of each other's civil rights, as men embarked in the fame veffel are to fave the ship they are in for their own fakes, we ought to watch, ferve and fecure the interest of one another, because it is our own to do fo; and not by any means endure that to be done to please fome narrow regard of any one party, which may be drawn in example at fome other turn of power to our own utter ruin.

Had

Had this honeft, juft, wife and English confideration prevailed with our ancestors of all opinions from the days of Richard the fecond, there had been lefs blood, imprisonment, plunder, and beggary for the government of this kingdom to answer for. Shall I fpeak within our own knowledge, and that without offence? There have been ruined, fince the late king's restoration, above fifteen thousand families, and more than five thousand perfons dead under bonds for matters of meer confcience to God: but who hath laid it to heart? It is high time now we should, especially when our king, with fo much grace and goodness, leads us the way.

I beseech you all, if you have any reverence towards God, and value for the excellent conftitution of this kingdom, any tenderness for your pofterity, any love for yourselves, you would embrace this happy conjuncture, and pursue a common expedient; that fince we cannot agree to meet in one profeffion of religion, we may entirely do it in this common civil intereft where we are all equally engaged; and therefore we ought for our own fakes to feek one another's fecurity, that if we cannot be the better, we may not be the worse for our perfuafions, in things that bear no relation to them, and in which it is impoffible wę fhould fuffer, and the government efcape, that is fo much concerned in the civil fupport and profperity of every party and perfon that belongs to

it.

Let us not therefore uphold penal laws against any of our religious perfuafions, nor make tefts out of each other's faiths, to exclude one another our civil rights; for by the fame reason that denying transubftantiation is made one to exclude a Papist, to own it, may be made one to exclude a church of England man, a Prefbyterian, and Independent, a Quaker, and Anabaptift: for the question is not who is in the right in opinion, but whether he is not in practice in the wrong, that for fuch an opinion deprives his neigh

bour

bour of his common right? Now it is certain there is not one of any party, that would willingly have a teft made out of his belief, to abridge him of his native privilege; and therefore neither the opinion of tranfubftantiation in the Papifts, epifcopacy in the church of England-man, free-will in the Arminian, predeftination in the Prefbyterian, particular churches in the Independent, dipping of adult people in the Anabaptists, nor not fwearing in the Quaker, ought to be made a teft of, to deprive him of the comforts of his life, or render him incapable of the fervice of his country, to which by a natural obligation he is indebted, and from which, no opinion can discharge him; and for that reafon much less should any other party think it fit, or in their power to exclude him.

And indeed it were ridiculous to talk of giving liberty of confcience (which yet few have now the forehead to oppose) and at the fame time imagine those tests that do exclude men that fervice and reward, ought to be continued: for though it does not immediately concern me, being neither officer nor Papist, yet the confequence is general, and every party, even the church of England, will find herself concerned upon reflection; for fhe cannot affure herself it may not come to be her turn.

But is it not an odd thing, that by leaving them on foot, every body shall have liberty of confcience but the government? For while a man is out of office, he is teft-free; but the hour he is chofen to any ftation, be it in the legiflation or administration, he must wiredraw his conscience to hold it, or be excluded with the brand of diffent: and can this be equal or wife? Is this the way to employ men for the good of the publick, where opinion prevails above virtue, and abilities are fubmitted to the humour of a party? Surely none can think. this a cure for divifion, or that animofities are like to be prevented by the only ways in the world that beget and heighten them.

[ocr errors]

Nor

« EdellinenJatka »