AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY, TO A LATE LETTER TO A DISSENTER, Upon Occasion of His MAJESTY'S Late GRACIOUS Declaration of Indulgence.  
By a Member of the Church of England.  
LONDON, Printed for M. R. in the Year 1687:   

AN ANSWER FROM THE COUNTRY, TO A Late Letter Writ to a Dissenter, etc.  
SIR,  
IT is the unhappy state of mankind, that the overweening Opinions, and Sentiments, which by Education, or Custom, we have entertained, incline, and warp our minds so to the maintaining of them; that we are as difficultly altered, as the Tree is, which bended, when a young sappling, is rarely by any Art made strait.  
Besides this, the tempers of most men's Souls are such, that they easily divide into Parties, and being listed, as in a state of War, they study nothing more, than to convince, or subdue all those who differ from them. Yea, we too frequently find, that they make those the Object of their aversion or abhorrence, who study to compose their eager tempers, or direct them to any degree of humanity.  
Hence it is, that when National limits are not sufficient causes of quarrels, the ranks and degrees of Men, the City and Country, Fraternities, Neighbourhood, yea, Domestical Interests, crumble us, and cast us into various figures.  
These Jars, and Hostilities, are fomented by Interest, Ambition, and all the cross-grained passions of our Souls; and when Religion mixes with our humane concerns, it sublimes all their corrosive spirits, and is the universal dissolvent.  
Every one is apt to think the fire of his own Altar the purest, and is not content to have liberty to trim his own Household hearth, and warm himself at his own Faggot, but endeavours, according to his power, to make all gainsayers Victims and Sacrifices to his Deity; and when no Secular Interest moves them, the pretended eager Charity to save their Souls, and the preventing, as they call it, the spreading of that Infection, makes them mortify them in their Estates, or send them to the Pest-house, or cut them off as gangrened Members  
Hence it is, that the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, and Dissenters, according as they have had the favour of the Government, or could exercise any Authority, have each of them punished, or suppressed the other, and have been more or less severe, according as the Government (judging it to conduce to secure the public peace,) was inclined to embrace that Religion, or the desires of Churchmen were more or less pressing, to bring all to Uniformity in Faith and Discipline.  
Former Ages have experimented this way of proceeding, and it hath been accompanied with the loud cries of the suffering Parties, the decay of Trade, the unpeopling of Countries, and Intestine Seditions and Rebellions. Our unhappy Island hath not wanted Instances of the ill effects of arming by Penal Laws, Church Communities, one against the other; so that the Governing Parties, under Religious Denomination, have produced almost as much mischief, as, in Ancient times, the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster occasioned; and however oppressive the State-Church of England is reputed, yet I think it will not be disowned, that when those called Dissenters got the Power in their hands, they made greater Ravage and Depredations in Twenty years, upon the Roman Catholics, and the Members of the Church of England, than had been inflicted on themselves in an Age; witness the sequestering, decimating, and seizing their Estates, Fining, Imprisoning, Banishing, and putting to Death of so many, and selling the Lands of the Bishops, Deans, and Chapters.  
Our Gracious King, revolving therefore in His Princely Mind the Fatalities that have attended this Conduct, and the unfortunate and mischievous Results of such proceed, (the effects whereof he had felt Himself,) hath, in His profound Wisdom, resolved to try the most probable expedient, to still and quiet these so long continued Animosities, Contrarieties, and Ferments of His Subjects.  
Some public notices of this He gave in the very beginning of His Reign, by Prohibiting in His Courts, and discountenancing proceed upon the Penal Laws. But that I may discover the true steps the King made towards it, and the foot upon which the late Indulgence stands, and prevent some Repetitions, I should otherwise be necessiated to use in my Reply to your Letter; I shall succinctly touch the King's Progress, and the deportment of some Members of the Church of England, and Dissenters, before, and since the Indulgence.  
At the First Council the King held after his coming to the Crown, he expressed the sense he had of the Church of England's Loyalty, and gave us Assurances of His Defence and Support of it.  
This pleased the Dissenters, only so far, as it gave them hopes that the Protestant Religion might be preserved; but they were afraid, lest the King might remember their former promoting the Bill of Exclusion, and that thereby they should not only continue under the lashes of the Church of England's Discipline, but of the King's disfavour; and having yet the Ideas which had been infused into them of a Popish Successor, and the D. of Monmouth giving them an opportunity to make head under the specious pretence of preserving the Protestant Religion, as many of them as were near the Scene of Action, and were foolhardy, joined with him in that Rebellion; and the wishes for his success were not wanting in most of that Party.  
But that Rebellion being so speedily, and almost miraculously suppressed, they fled to the Church of England for Protection, flocked to the Churches, personated a Conformity, and so closely mixed, that they now seemed one Body, and one Church.  
Some leading Men of the Church of England, finding this great accession of strength, and being desirous entirely to win the Dissenters over, thought it expedient to let them see, how much they had been mistaken, in thinking them, in the matter of Exclusion, to be going over to Rome, and being willing to wipe off the Calumny the Dissenters had cast upon them, as being Papists in Masquerade, they began instantly to show their utmost Zeal against the King's Religion.  
When therefore, the King, pursuant to His Royal design, , required the taking off the Test and Penal Laws; many leading Men of the Church of England set themselves to oppose the King in it, and from that day, the more they found the King press it, the more they shown their reluctance. Suddenly, several Ministers, able, or unable, to manage the dispute with the Church of Rome, began to confirm their Auditors, in the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion, and to insinuate the danger we were in to lose it, as soon as the Test, and Penal Laws should be repealed; they murmured, and repined at every favour shown to Roman Catholics, and none were so much applauded, as those who lost their places, upon their denial to concur with the King in his demands. They animated and encouraged one another to stand the shock, not thinking, perhaps, they had to deal with a more resolved Prince, than some of His Predecessors; nor apprehending, or not willing to see, what public benefit the King designed to the body of His Subjects, by the Repeal; and in fine, began to pursue all the methods of malcontents, finding this the only way to embarras the King, hinder all His glorious designs for the public, and render useless his eminent virtues, in not affording Him the opportunity of appearing like Himself, or rendering His Reign glorious; because, they were unwilling, any thing Great should be performed by a King, that was not of their Religion.  
All this, His Majesty carefully observed, and being unwilling to act any thing, but according to Justice, and the Laws of the Land, He wisely enquired into the extent of His legal power. He knew he was by the Statutes declared Supreme Head of the Church in His Dominions, had undoubted Prerogatives, He might make use of, and a Dispensing Power; and so settled those by judicial Proceed.  
The King having now asserted His Sovereignty, he thought it reasonable, to manifest to all His Subjects, that it was not the ease only of the Roman Catholics he aimed at, but that He intended His Clemency should be as extensive as His Empire: First therefore, He published His General Pardon, (excepting some few persons) and in the interim, showed His displeasure against those who obstructed His great design of Repeal; and lastly, published this Indulgence, wherein He laid open the paternal goodness, and benignity of His Soul; the method, of enriching His people, and a foundation of their concord during His Reign; and for succeeding Ages, by extirpating the causes of Animosities, Heart-burnings, Feuds, and Oppressions of His people, by any prevailing Party; abridging them of nothing used in their Religious Worship, but only, of the power of compelling any one to Conformity; and depriving every party of that Authority, of magisterial imposing such distinguishing and Excluding Tests, as incapacitated His Subjects to serve Him, and the Government, according to their Allegiance, and every Freeman's Liberty.  
One would rationally have thought, that no party should have been wanting in their Thanks for so great a Grace and Favour, so much the greater, in that it was bestowed by a Prince, from whom no such largess of Royal Bounty was expected; not the Church of England, since, in the body of the same Indulgence, so liberal a Provision was made for it; not the Dissenters, who had the most visible benefits; nor any else, who did not prefer the profits they had by the Penal mulcts imposed, or the pleasure of inflicting punishments upon those who were obnoxious to Ecclesiastical Censures, or the Laws for Uniformity.  
There was then a Party of the Church of England, who, owning the King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy, and His Prerogative, looked upon this as an Act of State, which the King might Exert at pleasure, for the public tranquillity of His Dominions; and thought it their duty to be truly thankful, that the King had so generously secured to them the Honours and Emoluments of the Church, and entirely left them the Cathedrals, the Churches, and the profits annexed to them.  
Another, and a major part of the same Church, was vehementy moved by the Declaration, murmured, that their former serives were slighted; that Dissenters, who had unanimously opposed the King's Succession, and been Rebels as often as they had opportunity, were preferred before them; and suggested, that this was designed to enlarge the Roman Catholic Church, and as a scourge to them; and though they never publicly urged it, yet it is most manifest, that the depriving them of the coercive power, (though all other parties were as much disarmed of that, as They,) gratefully contributed to their reluctance.  
The Conductors of their Affairs pitched upon two Expedients, as most effectual to hinder the Kings reaping any benefits to the Roman Catholics by it. The one was, to secure the Members of the Church of England, from a compliance, by stiffly opposing the Repeal, and questioning the Dispensing Power: The second, by dissuading Dissenters from separating from the common interest (as it is called) of Protestants; or making any court to the King, in rendering any Tribute of Thanks for His Royal Grace to them.  
To Establish this, consultations are had; leading Men among the Dissenters are treated with, great promises are made, that Persecution against them shall cease, if ever the Church of England return again to its former sunshine: Pamphlets from Holland, and at home, aggravate the fear of Popery, and of the destruction of the Church of England, and not only declaim against the abrogating of all Penal Laws, but the Dispensing Power, likewise, as tending to the shaking all other Laws, even those of Property; and this seems the design of your Letter, writ smother than Dr. Burne●s, or the Representation, but with as little difference, as to design, as there is betwixt a Dagger in a wooden, or silver Scabbard. Sir, I must own, that the politeness of the Style, the sharpness, and plausibleness of the Arguments, will contribute more towards the establishing such men's minds, who have the greatest affection for the Church of England, and equal aversion to the Church of Rome, than any thing Published hitherto. But in my judgement, you have mixed so much Varnish, as a steady eye may easily discover what need you had of it.  
When we see a falling Star, we make no great remarks upon it, because it happens so frequently, and how bright so ever it appeared, we find nothing upon its fall, but a little jelly dropped from the Clouds. But when a Comet appears, it excites the curiosity of the learned, to inquire into its motion, the altitude of it; and by consulting by-past-times, and considering what events happened when such appeared before, to make some Prognostics of its effects.  
Your Letter is not to be looked upon as a shooting Star, or paper Kite, but a blazing Star, therefore deserves a serious consideration; for whatever those, formerly reputed meteors, did signify, yours most evidently denotes an unquiet temper in those of your persuasion, a studious desire in them to estrange the Hearts of Loyal Subjects from their Sovereign, a questioning His prerogative, and a charging Him with overturning the Laws, and an intention to Rule Arbitrarily. This fills people's minds with doubts, suspicions and jealousies, strews flax all over the Kingdom, ready to be set on fire; when you, by your enflaming Eloquence, have prepared Undertakers. Therefore, I think it the duty of all that Honour the King, and love their Country's peace, and tranquillity, to examine the tendency, and prevent the evil effects of such an Apparition.  
But to leave the Allegory, and consider the Letter: As it is a discourse penned with Art and Elegance, and beautified with ornament of Language, it is delightsom to be read; but when the scope of it is weighed, the factiousness of it, under the smoothness of the periods, the unreasonable postulatums, the fictitious suppositions, and the severe reflections upon the King and His Government; it becomes honest Men to inquire into those poisonous drugs, that are so artificially gilded, and provide Antidotes against them.  
There are many Thousands of His Majesty's Subjects, both better able, and more at leisure, and concerned to Animadvert upon your Letter; but upon the first reading, I found many incentives to urge me to it, when I saw such misinterpretations of his Majesty's Honourable designs, his conduct so calumniated, such dangerous innuendoes, such endeavours to poison the Members of the Church of England in their Loyalty; the Arts to make them forfeit their Reputations with His Majesty and the World, by alluring them to do every thing, that made former Dissenters so abnoxious, and leading them in the same steps, with which they had trod the stage so tragical to themselves, and the Kingdom.  
What I have writ was the result of my thoughts,  I had read any Answer, except the first two that were made you, but by distance of place, and other intervening accidents, which hinder the communicating of it hath been stopped hirherto; and if the opinion some have, that it may be yet useful to some that may need repeated cautions and admonitions, to beware of being seduced by the plausibleness of your Language, had not prevailed with me, I should have totally suppressed it. Now that I may do you all possible right, I have inserted the Letter entire, according to the different Paragraphs, and subjoined mine, and do freely yield, your Column is that of the composit order, beautiful, though not strong, and I hope that mine may be more solid, like the Doric rather choosing to render my Answer, according to my Capacity, (flattering myself at least in the good intention) sincere and useful than florid or fallacious; desiring all along, when I mention the Church of England's severity, to be understood no ways, as censuring the Church as Author of those Laws, nor questioning the prudence of the State in making Laws, which, according to the temperament of the times, the security of the public peace, and it may be the desire of Uniformity upon prudential grounds, our Kings thought fit to Enact. But in this great revolution, when our King thinks fit to try other measures, I humbly judge it the interest of all peaceable spirits, and dutiful Subjects, calmly to weigh His Majesty's Reasons, and yield to the Repeal of such Laws, as cannot now be put in execution; and may, in all human probability, conduce much to the public tranquillity of the Nation. But I shall take an opportunity to speak to this, after I have dispatched what I have to say to your Letter; wherein I would not be understood to plead for the merits of Dissenters, but to show that they have no reason to quit their right in the King's favour, tendered to them without their seeking, by any Arguments you have brought; nor that the Members of the Church of England ought to be so much disquieted, that it is granted to them, since the Dissenters thereby will be without all excuse, if this make them not better Subjects. Nor think I, the Church of England hath reason to be so jealous of being overlaid by them, since the constitution of the Government of the Church of England is better adapted to the Monarchy, than either the Classical or Congregational way; and that the Roman Catholics can so multiply as to balance both, in my judgement, is to be reckoned among the portents of Nature, and I will sooner believe a grain of the powder of projection can turn a Hundred pound of Lead to pure Gold, than that this can be effected in one Age, without a Divine Miracle; which, when wrought, none will be troubled at, that own an omnipotent Being, to whose guidance they do submit themselves.  


THE LETTER.  
SIR,  
SInce Addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to You. This is neither the effect of Fear, Interest, or Resentment; therefore you may be sure it is sincere: and for that Reason it may expect to be kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to Convince, depends upon the Reasons, of which you are to judge; and upon your preparation of Mind, to be persuaded by Truth, whenever it appeareth to you. It ought not to be the less welcome, for coming from a friendly Hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of Opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants, as to stifle the Charity, which, besides all other Arguments, is at this time become necessary to preserve us.  
(b) I am neither surprised nor provoked to see, that in the condition you were put into by the Laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your Charge, you were desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to Authority. Men who are sore run to the nearest Remedy with too much haste, to consider all the Consequences: Grains of allowance are to be given, where Nature gives such strong Influences. When to Men under Sufferings it offereth Ease, the present Pain will hardly allow time to examine the Remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a fair Audience from our Mind, whilst so possessed, till the Smart is a little allayed.  
(c) I do not know whether the Warmth that naturally belongeth to New Friendships, may not make it a harder Task for me to persuade you. It is like telling Lovers, in the beginning of their Joys, that they will in a little time have an End. Such an  Style doth not easily find credit: but I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new Passion, but that you will Hear still; and therefore I am under the less discouragement, when I offer to your Consideration two things.  
(d) The first is, the cause you have to Suspect your New-Friends. The Second, the Duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity and Prudence, not to hazard the Public Safety, neither by desire of Ease, nor of Revenge.  
(e) To the first, Consider that notwithstanding the smooth Language is now put on to engage you, these New Friends did not make you their Choice, but their Refuge: They have ever made their first Courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected there, they made their Application to you in the second place. The instances of this, might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, because whatsoever's unnecessary, must be tedious, the Truth of this Assertion being so plain, as not to admit a Dispute. You cannot thereforer reasonably flatter yourselves, that there is an Inclination to you. They never pretended to allow you any Quarter, but to usher in Liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be convinced, if you can be so mistaken, as to doubt; nay, at this very hour, they can hardly forbear, in the height of their Courtship, to let fall hard words of you. So little is Nature to be restrained: it will start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the Usurpation of Art, and Interest.  
(f) This Alliance, between Liberty and Infallibility, is bringing together the Two most contrary things that are in the World. The Church of Rome doth not only dislike the allowing Liberty, but by its Principles it cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbidden to the Mahometans, than giving Heretics Liberty to the Papists: They are no more able to make good their Vows to you, than Men married before, and their Wives alive, can confirm their Contract with another. The continuance of their kindness, would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent, and their Absolution is to be had upon no other terms, than their promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that you may be the better squeezed at another time. There must be something extraordinary, when the Church of Rome setteth up Bills, and offereth Plasters for tender Consciences: By all that hath hitherto appeared, her skill in Chirurgery lieth chief in a quick Hand, to cut off Limbs; but she is the worst at Healing, of any that ever pretended to it.  
(g) To come so quick from another extreme, is such an unnatural motion, that you ought to be upon your Guard; the other day you were Sons of Belial, now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it will be fit for you to pause upon it, before you believe it: If your features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, what ever may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did, that there is Idolatry in the Church of Rome? sure you do not. See then, how they treat both in words and writing, those that entertain that Opinion. Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single Article, except they give you a Dispensation for this too, and by a Non Obstante, secure you that they will not think the worse of you.  
(h) Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a Foundation of Parodoxes. Popery now is the only friend to Liberty, and the known Enemy to Persecution: The men of Taunton and Tiverton, are above all other Eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers from being declared by the Papists not to be Christians, are now made Favourites, and taken into their particular Protection; they are on a sudden grown the most accomplished men of the Kingdom in good Breeding, and give thanks with the best Grace in double refined Language. So that I should not wonder, though a man of that Persuasion: in spite of his Hat, I should be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our Belief, till by a little more Experience we may be informed whether they are Realities or Apparitions: We have been under shameful mistakes if these Opinions are true; but for the present, we are apt to be incredulous, except we could be convinced, that the Priests words in this Case too, are able to make such a sudden, and effectual Change; and that their Power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they are so disposed.  
(i) Let me now speak of the Instruments of your Friendship, and then leave you to judge, whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No sharpness is to be mingled where healing only is intended; so nothing will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the Temptation may be, or how clear the Proofs to make it out. A word or two in general, for your better Caution, shall suffiee: Suppose then, for Argument's sake, that the Mediators of this new Alliance, should be such as have been formerly employed in Treaties of the same kind, and there detected to have Acted by Order, and to have been Impowered to give Encouragement and Rewards. Would not this be an Argument to suspect them?  
(k) If they should plainly be under Engagements to one Side, their Arguments to the other, aught to be received accordingly; their fair Pretences are to be looked upon as part of their Commission, which may not improbably give them a Dispensation in the case of Truth, when it may bring Prejudice upon the Service of those by whom they are employed.  
(l) If there should be men who having formerly had Means and Authority to persuade by Secular Arguments, have in pursuance of that Power, sprinkled Money amongst the Dissenting Ministers; and if those very Men should now have the same Authority, practice the same Methods, and Disburse, where they cannot otherwise persuade: It seemeth to me rather an Evidence, than a Presumption of the Deceit.  
(m) If there should be Ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under Temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their Frailty, by the awe they are in least it should be exposed: The Persuasions of these Unfortunate Men must sure have the less force, and their Arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, when they come from Men who have Mortgaged themselves to severe Creditors that expect a rigorous observation of the Contract, let it be never so unwarrantabe.  
(n) If these, or any others should at this time Preach up Anger and Vengeance against the Church of England: may it not, without Injustice, be Suspected, that a thing so plainly out of season, springs rather from corruption than mistake; and that those who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue higher Directions, and endeavour to make good that part of the contract which obligeth them, upon a Forfeiture, to make use of their inflaming Eloquence? They might apprehend their Wages would be retrenched, if they should be Moderate: And therefore, whilst Violence is their Interest, those who have not the same Arguments, have no reason to follow such a Partial Example  
(o) If there should be men who by the load of their Crimes against the Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their Conscience: who by incurring the want of a Pardon, have drawn upon themselves the necessity of a Resignation: Such men are to be lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves when they have discharged their Unwelcome Task, will be inwardly glad that their forced Endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist their Insinuations; which are far from being Voluntary or Sincere, but are Squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so Obnoxious.  
(p) If in the height of this great Dearness by comparing things, it should happen, That at this instant, there is much a surer friendship with those who are so far from allowing Liberty, that they allow no Living to a Protestant under them. Let the Scene lie in what part of the World it will, the Argument will come home, and sure it will afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent Contradictions must strike us: neither Nature nor Reason can digest them; Self-Flattery, and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify a present Appetite, with all their Power, which is Great, cannot get the better of such broad Conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these vain and empty Suspicions? have you been at all times so void of Fears and Jealousies as to justify your being so unreasonably Valiant, in having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary Courage at this unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a Virtue to be commended.  
(q) If then for these and a thousand other Reasons, there is cause to suspect, sure your new Friends are not to Dictate to you, or advise you; for instance, The Addresses that fly abroad every Week, and Murder us with another to the same; the first Draughts are made by those who are not very proper to be Secretaries to the Protestant Religion; and it is your part only to Write them out fairer again. Strange! that you who have been formerly so much against Set forms, should now be content the Priests should Indite for you. The nature of Thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being Pleased or Obliged; they grow in the Heart, and from thence show themselves either in Looks, Speech, Writing, or Action: No Man was ever thankful because he was bid to be so; but because he had, or Thought he had some Reason for it. If then there is cause in this Case to pay such extravagant acknowledgements, they will flow naturally, without taking such pains to procure them; and 'tis unkindly done to tyre all the Post-Horses with carrying Circular Letters to Solicit that which would be done without any Trouble or Constraint: If it is really in itself such a favour, what needeth so many pressing men to be thankful, and with such eager Circumstances, that where persuasion cannot delude, Threaten are employed to fright them into a compliance? Thanks must be Voluntary, not only Unconstrained, but Vnsollicited, else they are either Trifles or Snares, they either signify nothing, or a great deal more than is intended by those that give them. If an Inference should be made, That whosoever Thanketh the King for His Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of Law; it is a greater stride than, I presume, all those care to make who are persuaded to Address: If it shall be supposed, that all the Thankers shall be the Repealers of the TEST, when ever a Parliament shall meet. Such an expectation is better prevented before, than disappointed afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal, is not to do any thing that may give a colour to the mistake: These bespoken Thanks are little less improper than Love-Letters that were Sollicitated by the Lady to whom they are to be Directed; so, that besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting them, doth extremely lessen their Value. It might be wished that you would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content for the sake of Religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the Liberty of a public Exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it: But since that could not be, and that the Artifices of some amongst you have made use of the Well meant Zeal of the Generality to draw them into this mistake; I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness which, perhaps, the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on the side of the more gentle construction.  
(r) There is a great difference▪ between enjoying quietly the advantages of an Act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it against the Laws in being; the Law is so Sacred, that no Trespass against it is to be Defended; yet Frailties may in some measure be Excused, when they cannot be Justified. The desire of enjoying a Liberty from which men have been so long restrained, may be a Temptation that their Reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a case, some Objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined to lament the Occasion, than to fall too hard upon the Fault, whilst it is covered with the Apology of a good Intention; but where to rescue yourselves from the Severity of one Law, you give a blow to all the Laws, by which your Religion and Liberty are to be protected; and instead of silently receiving the benefit of this Indulgence, you set up for Advocates to support it, you become voluntary Aggressors, and look like Counsel retained by the Prerogative against your old friend Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under your Displeasure.  
(s) If the case then should be, that the Price expected from you for this Liberty, is giving up your Right in the Laws, sure you will think twice, before you go any further in such a losing Bargain. After giving Thanks for the breach of one Law, you lose the Right of Complaining of the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend yourselves, when you are pressed; and having given up the Question, when it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it, when it shall be to your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a Power to help you, which at another time by parity of Reason shall be made use of to destroy you, you will neither be pitied, nor relieved against any mischief you draw upon yourselves, by being so unreasonably thankful. It is like calling in Auxiliaries to help, who are strong enough to subdue you: in such a case your complaints will come too late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of Compassion.  
(t) If you think, for your excuse, to expound your Thanks so as to restrain them as to this particular case; Others, for their end, will extend them further; and in these differing Interpretation, that which is backed by Authority will be the most likely to prevail; especially when by the advantage you have given them, they have in truth the better of the Argument, and that the inferences from your own Concessions are very strong, and express against you. This is so far from being a groundless Supposition, and there was a late instance of it, the last Session of Parliament, in the House of Lords, where the first Thanks, though things of course, were interpreted to be the Approbation of the King's whole Speech, and a Restraint never so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good Manners, by which no such thing could possibly be intended.  
(u) This showeth, that some bounds are to be put to your good Breeding, and that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a Compliment. Now that you have for some time enjoyed the benefit of the End, it is time for you to look into the danger of the Means: The same Reason that made you desirous to get Liberty, must make you Solicitous to preserve it; so that the next thought will naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond Retreat, and to agree so far with Principles of all Religions, as not to rely upon a Deathbed Repentance.  
(x) There are certain Periods of Time, which being once past, make all Cautions ineffectual, and all Remedies desperate. Our Understandings are apt to be hurried on by the first Heats; which, if not restrained in time, do not give us leave to look back, till it is too late. Consider this in the case of your Anger against the Church of England, and take warning by their Mistake in the same kind, when after the late King's Restoration, they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget their Interest, and sacrifice it to their Revenge.  
(y) Either you will blame this Proceeding in them, and for that Reason not follow it, or if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with them; so that you must either dismiss your Anger, or lose your Excuse; except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of your Morality and Understanding.  
(z) If you had now to do with those rigid Prelates, who made it matter of Conscience to give you the least Indulgence, but kept you at an uncharitable distance, and even to your more reasonable Scruples continued stiff inexorable, the Argument might be fairer on your side; but since the common Danger hath so laid open that Mistake, that all the former Haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and that it hath turned the Spirit of Persecution, into a Spirit of a Peace, Charity, and Condescension; shall this happy Change only affect the Church of England? and are you so in love with Separation, as not to be moved by his Example? It ought to be followed, were there no other reason than that it is a Virtue; but when besides that, it is become necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having its effect upon you.  
(a) If it should be said that the Church of England is never Humble, but when she is out of Power, and therefore loseth the Right of being believed when she pretendeth to it; the Answer is, first, it would be an uncharitable Objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable Triumph, not only ungenerous, but unsafe: So that in these Respects it cannot be urged, without Scandal, even though it could be said with Truth. Secondly, This is not so in Fact, and the Argument must fall, being built upon a false Foundation; for whatever may be told you, at this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your present Sunshine, the Church of England can in a Moment bring Clouds again; and turn the Royal Thunder upon your Heads, blow you off the Stage with a Breath, if she would give but a Smile for a kind Word; the least Glimpse of her Compliance, would throw you back into the state of Suffering, and draw upon you all the Arrears of Severity, which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you, and yet the Church of England, with all her Faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power, rather than lie under the burden of being Criminal.  
(b) It cannot be said, that she is Vnprovoked; Books and Letters come out every day, to call for Answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the supposed Authors, and the stile one would swear they were Undertakers, and had made a Contract to fall out with the Church of England. There are Lashes in every Address, Challanges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet; In short, the fairest occasions in the World given to quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the Body of Dissenters, whom she will suppose to Act, as they do, with no ill intent; and these small Skirmishes picked and sent out to picqueer, and to begin a Fray amongst the Protestants, for the entertainment, as well as the advantage of the Church of Rome.  
(c) This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to Applaud it. It is not equal dealing, to blame our Adversaries for doing ills and not commend them when they do well.  
(d) To hate them because they persecuted, and not to be reconciled to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer, rather than receive all the Advantages, that can be gained by criminal compliance, is a Principle no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an Objection to them never to be answered.  
(e) Think a little, who they were that promoted your former Persecutions, and then consider how it will look to be angry with the Instruments, and at the same time to make a League with the Authors of our Sufferings.  
(f) Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you ready to stand in every Borough by Virtue of a Congee d'eslire, and instead of Election, be satisfied if you are Returned?  
(g) Will you in Parliament, justify the Dispensing Power, with all its Consequences, and Repeal the Test, by which you will make way for the Repeal of all the Laws, that were made to preserve your Religion, and to Enact others that shall Destroy it?  
(h) Are you disposed to change the Liberty of Debate, into the Merit of Obedience, and to be made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws, when the Roman Consistory, are Lords of the Articles.  
(i) Are you so linked with your new Friends, as to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall offer you, if it shall not be so Comprehensive as to include the Papists in it.  
(k) Consider that the employed Conditions of our new Treaty are no less, then that you are to do every thing you are desired, without examining, and that for this pretended Liberty of Conscience, your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed: Your former Faults hang like Chains still about you, you are let lose only upon Bail; the first Act of Noncompliance, sendeth you to Jail again.  
(l) You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the Legality of this Power, which you are to Justify, since the being so very earnest to get it Established by a Law, and the doing such very hard things in order, as they think to obtain it, is a clear Evidence, that they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a good Foundation; especially when this is done under a Prince, so very tender of all the Rights of Sovereignty, that he would think it a diminution to his Prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone, to call in the Legislative help to strengthen and support it.  
(m) You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet as soon as they stopped, you see they are not only Deserted, but Prosecuted: Conclude then from this Example, that you must either break off your Friendship, or resolve to have no Bounds in it. If they do not succeed in their Design, they will leave you first; if they do, you must either leave them, when it will be too late for your Safety, or else after the squeasines of startling at a Surplice, you must be forced to swallow Transubstantiation.  
(n) Remember that the other day, those of the Church of England were Trimmers for enduring you, and now by a sudden Turn, you are become the Favourites; do not deceive yourselves, it is not the Nature of lasting Plants thus to shoot up in the Night; you may look gay and green for a little time, but you want a Root to give you a continuance. It is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the Maxim was, It is impossible for a Dissenter, not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in France, even the new Converts are so far from being Employed, that they are Disarmed; their sudden Change maketh them still to be disinherited, notwithstanding that they are Reconciled: What are you to expect from your dear Friends, to whom, when ever they shall think fit to throw you off again, you have in other times given such Arguments for their excuse?  
(o) Besides all this, you Act very unskilfully against your visible Interest, if you throw away the Advantages, of which you can hardly fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an unseasonable Activity lose the Influences of your good Star, which promiseth every thing that is prosperous.  
(p) The Church of England convinced of its Error in being Severe to you; the Parliament, whenever it meeteth, is sure to be Gentle to you; the next Heir bred in the Country which you have so often Quoted for a Pattern of Indulgence; a general Agreement of all thinking Men, that we must no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather enlarge the Foundations upon which we are to build our Desences against the Common Enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much hast to anticipate your good Fortune, you do not destroy it.  
(q) The Protestants have but one Article of Humane Strength, to oppose the Power which is now against them, and that is, not to lose the advantage of their numbers, by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided.  
(r) We all agree in our Duty to our Prince, our Octjections to his Belief, do not hinder us from seeing his Virtues; and our not complying with his Religion, hath no effect upon our Allegiance; we are not to be Laughed out of our Passive Obedience, and the Doctrine of Nonresistance, though even those who perhaps own the best part of their Security to that Principle, are apt to make a Jest on't.  
(s) So that if we give no Advantage by the fatal Mistake of misapplying our Anger, by the natural course of things, this Danger will pass away like a shower of Hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the Sky now looketh, and all by this plain and easy Receipt. Let us be still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our Religion, our Loyalty, and our Laws, and so long as we continue this Method, it is next to impossible, that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the Bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of Miracles, should now in her declining Age, be brought to Bed of One that would outdo the best she can brag of in her Legend.  
(t) To conclude, the short Question will be, Whether you will join with those who must in the end run the same Fate with you. If Protestants of all sorts in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, they are upon the more equal terms, and for that very reason it is fit for them now to be Reconciled. Our Disunion is not only a Reproach, but a danger to us; those who believe in modern Miracles, have more Right, or at least more Excuse, to neglect all Secular Cautions; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no Religion, as wilfully to throw away the humane Means of preserving it.   

THE REPLY.  
SIR,  
IT is a most undeniable truth, that fashionable Addresses are very little to be regarded; and the temper of the Nation as little to be known by them, as we can know Men to be of one inclination, because they were one sort of habit; but when they flow from Gratitude, Duty, and Interest, and not from fear or resentment, they are good symbols of unconstrainedness, and sincerity; and to whom soever presented, aught to be kindly received.  
I own not myself a Dissenter from the Church of England, and upon that score, find not myself concerned in all that you writ relating to them; but assure you, I am one of those that have a propensity of mind, ready to receive any impression of Reason, and who am so sensible, that a great part of the comforts of humane Life, and Oeconomy of Government is lost, to those who confine their Charity, good Esteem and Candour to those, only of their own Opinion: That you and I differ mostly, in that you confine your thoughts for the public, to the subdivision of Protestants only; whereas I think, they ought to be enlarged likewise to all Honourable Virtuous, and Loyal persons of other denominations; and neither Fear or Resentment ought at this time, to make us swerve from that Golden Rule, of doing to others, as we would have others do to us.  
(b) It is true, that in small wounds, in the fleshy parts only, the sympathetick way of Cure, and closing the wound in its own blood with bandage of clean Linen, will serve; but where amputations and lacerations are such (as Seclusion and Rebellion) sovereign, wound, salves are requisite. You allow your Dissenter to act by natural instinct, as other Animals do that can lick themselves whole, and you dress their wounds with so gentle a touch, as if you were unconcerned whether they were cured, or not; and lest they should infandum renovare dolorem, reflect upon the fresh bleeding wounds, you give them a dose of Opium: It is true, you blame the Patient for his precipitateness in using the Remedies nearest at hand, without examining, not only the skill and ability, but the good intention of the Chirurgeon, and the virtues of his Remedies; but this is all Artifice, that you may get the Patient to commit himself to your care, and that you might possess him with an Opinion, that none else had the true method of healing, which is not fair practice, to decoy him from using the certainest and most assured help this Island can afford.  
(c) Here you change the Scene, and transform your Patient into a passionate Wooer, who is fallen in love with a new Friend; and since you presume it will be an hard task to make him quit his new Amours, for his late coy and scornful Lady; you are contriving a Fascination, and would garnish his Bridal Feast with a Mene Tekel, a Memento Mori, which shows (by your favour) an ill nature in you, that will not allow a Dissenter the joy of his honey moon. In this, you are like one that after vows, persuades to Inquires: But I hope  I have gone through with this discourse; you will acknowledge, though your Style is soft and beautiful, yet there is a weakness in your Reasonings, will not easily prevail with a true dissenter, who is not so far gone in his new passion, but that he will hear, and answer too.  
(d) Since you quit your exhortatory Preface, which was penned to obtain Audience, and now will let us see your dexterity at Argument. I shall endeavour to follow your method; owning you have chosen the fittest mediums, and if you could make them as convincing as plaufible, (which is now to be examined) you might expect many Proselytes.  
(e) The King's Justice and Honour was as conspicuous as early, in his praises of, and promises to the Church of England; and I believe, in the upshot, those Politicians will be found the worst enemies to both, who made such ill constructions of the King's desire of the Repeal. So that whatever the Church of England hath, or can suffer, may be ascribed to their taking the matter by the wrong handle. But it is most evident, Dissenters were then designed to have a mutual share of Liberty, since the King granted, noli prosequi's, inhibitions, and other relexations to them, as soon as he did to Roman Catholics. How dutiful it was to reject the King's Courtship, I leave to all un-interessed persons to judge, and the more the Instances can be multiplied, the greater is the demonstration of the Kings desire to preserve them in their Duty; and the more faulty, those Men who filled people's minds with the affrightments of the King's design to settle Popery, and destroy the Church of England, which they knew morally impossible, and yet continue to make it the only Helmet Argument. Those who fly to any for Refuge, had need use better Arguments than flattery: whilst Dissenters were Rebels, they could expect no other Quarter than the Law prescribed, if the King had not been most merciful; and it is most apparent, a greater cause of the granting Indulgence, is to take away all occasions and pretences of Rebellion, rather, than singly to usher in Liberty to Roman Catholics, by that Grace. Neither is it any new inclination in the King to relieve Dissenters in Communion with the Roman Catholics, unless you will give him the lie, who so publicly avows, that it hath been ever his judgement, that none ought to be Oppressed and Persecuted for matters of Religion; and I think He ought to be believed as soon as any in His Kingdom. Therefore, if any Roman Catholics at this time, let fall hard words against Dissenters, it can be against none but such, who they have reason to suspect, do act by no public spirit of preservation, for any but their own party; and by this show, that they have not changed their Nature, by the favour that is afforded them.  
(f) After all the search I can make, I neither find it to be an Article of Faith in the Church of Rome, to deny Liberty to, nor that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics; and if any Constitution, or Decree of a Council be found to the contrary, that obligeth not Catholics in point of Obedience. The fallacy of your reasoning is easily detected, by pulling out one pin the whole Machine flies in pieces. One cannot be a Member in Communion with the Church of Rome, or any other constituted Church, (whether Fallible, or Infallible) who is by that Church declared a Heretic; so that liberty of Communion, is only what is inconsistent with the Church of Rome; but it no ways follows, that Schismatics, or Heretics, in their sense, ought not to be tolerated to Live; yea, enjoy their Worship, by the power of the Prince who grants that Indulgence as Father of his Country: For it is no Church Membership that is required by Toleration. Suppose any Prince, (let the Scene be where it will,) that hath in his Kingdom great numbers of Subjects, of several persuasions in Religion; must he unpeople his Kingdom of Two Hundred of his Subjects, for every single Man of his own Religion, according to your Calculation? Do you judge in good earnest, His Ghostly Father, or his Holy Father the Pope, will judge him to be in an habit of sin for it, or enjoin him for a Penance, to make such a Carnage? no, surely they will rather let the Tares grow among the Wheat; or if He do not this, must he pull ruin upon Himself, and all those of His persuasion? How Infallible soever the Church of Rome may judge itself, yet you must allow she is not quite void of Sense, Prudence, and humane Policy, or will not in several things yield to public good and necessity. You must suppose that Church to oblige that King to a Barbarism, even impossible in itself to be effected,  you can make good any such conclusion from the Premises. Excommunication is the highest, and most destructive Sentence, any Church can pronounce; and it is to avoid Mutulations, Dismembering, Incisions, and Corrosives for Religion our merciful King proposeth this Repeal, since it hath been by too sad experience found, how Magistrates (Members of other Churches, besides that of Rome) have been guilty of the same, whether with better Dexterity, Success, or Authority, I now dispute not; but surely all this harangue, tends rather to engage Dissenters, at any rate, to purchase that Sovereign Panacaea, which will prevent Persecution from any hand, than to continue in a state of danger.  
(g) Kings as well as others may Time matters, and the Indulgence of a Prince makes no quicker a change in a Dissenter, than a Pardon doth after the Malefactor hath his Irons on, or the Halter about his neck, or the poor Man made instantly rich, by finding a Treasure. These motions are from extremes as quick, and as surprising. Dissenters, while under the sense of continual sufferings, might be instigated to Rebellion, and so be Sons of Belial; yet this sacred Ray (if such mists as you are casting before them hinder not) may well transform them to thankful and dutiful Subjects, which is all that is expected. It is true, if the Dissenters Features be not changed, from having a sour, sullen, murmuring, and repining Aspect, to that of cheerfulness, and gratitute; Roman Catholics have no reason to harbour a good Opinion of them: Or if they be such Bigots, to charge all persons that are not of their persuasion, with Idolatry, (as you know they have done to the Church of England, even by that Churches own Argument,) they are to be instructed better, but this hinders not the King to do them good, even against their deserts; and I think it one of the greater Arguments, that you are a most Rigid Calvinist; or Brownist, rather than a Church of England-Man, that make use of this Article, and that you are a most undutiful Subject, that will brand your Sovereign with being an Idolater. So that if there were no other Reason; for that single inference, every Loyal Subject should be for Repealing the Test; and be so far from dispensing with any Dissenter for broaching this Doctrine, (which might tempt some judaizing Zealots to stone him) that non obstente, all the Indulgence; they should be proceeded against as enemies to the King's Crown and Dignity; and that should be all you should get by ridiculing such words as the King's Prerogative empowers him to use.  
(h) That self-preservation may cause agreement of several interests to disarm a common Persecutor, is no Paradox; or that the men of Taunton and Tiverton shall become Loyal, when the prime ground of their disloyalty is taken away; nor that in this comprehensive liberty the Quakers (though no Christians with some, who may object Antichristianity against others) should not be considered. For in the King's Indulgence the Subjects are not considered, as conforming to Canons and Constitutions of Churches, but as obedient, grateful, or useful and industrious. Surely in a populous maritine City, we wonder not; nor is it thought inconvenient, that Turks, and Jews, Chinesses, Abyssines, Japanners, or Persions, Italians, French, or Spaniards, or any other remote Nations, frequent the Exchange, and exercise their several Religions, provided they enrich it by Traffic; and it is a much pleasinger sight, than to see the streets thronged with beggars in as differently patched Coats, sounding one uniform doleful note of want, to cause pity and compassion. It is most true, that if a Popish Successor were in reality such a one, as he was sometimes represented, we should need to suspend our belief of his Clemency, and that we have been under most shameful, and I may say of too many, even wilful mistakes, concerning our Royal Sovereign, is a most demonstrable truth; and since He gives so many Arguments, that it is not for the bringing in of Popery, but for the securing, not only His Roman Catholics, but of all His other Subjects, from the lash of Penal. Laws, that he grants this Indulgence; whereby all Industrious peaceable Men, may follow their employments without being obnoxious to Fines, Imprisonments, or Death, for want of Uniformity: It will not surely be the Question, Whether the Priests words of Consecration, can Annihilate the Sacramental Bread; but whether it be more Kingly, for our Sovereign to feed His whole Family, or starve some, whilst others are too much pampered. It is not the mystery of the Sacrament, so much troubles some, as it is, that a Roman Catholic King should have more kindness for Protestant Dissenters, than those who would be esteemed the zealousest for the Church of England, can afford them.  
(i) men's heads are much easilier laden with, then unladen of suspicions; how light soever they be, they generally Ballast the Vessel; and where ever jealousy enters, with it, crowd in Legions of evil Spirits. If one had as many eyes as Pores, it would fit them all with destained Optic Glasses, or Prismes, to give deceitful Colours to every Object. And that which is most troublesome, in this passion, is, that it is with great difficulty mastered; especially when it is heightened by Interest. You have a great dexterity to improve this, by Affrightment, Calumny, and Detraction; which you couch in such General Terms, as it is difficult to get a grasp of them. Therefore, I must pass by what is Common place, and tell you, that a Secretary of the Cabals of the Usurpers, or to the famous E. of Shaftsbury, could not have given a livelier Description of the Employment of these Emissaries, than you have done; but you do wifely not to expose persons, lest we should know who they are, that are employed on the errand, which is only to alienate the Subject's Affections from their Sovereign, and to excite the people's jealousy. If any be employed that have been detected, and are now sincere, they are fit to discover the former methods, for being wedges of the same wood, they are fittest for the work of pinning or cleaving. But to hang a scandal in the Air like a Cloud, that none can know where the shower may fall, is not done like a Gentleman of your Morality and Understanding.  
(k) This character of a Juggler is so drawn to the life, that one would swear you were looking all the while in the Glass, while you used the Pencil. Dissimulation is such a changeling, that it is all Vizard-mask, with several foils separable by sleight of hand; so that one may sooner find Faith in an African, than in such a shift-coat. But till you can prove such are Commissionated to work Dissenters to comply with the King, all the Water runs but by the Mill.  
(l) That there are mercenary Men, is no such News, that need be told with such cumlocution. Those that use such tools, will find them often need the whetting, and they must be vain spendthrifts, (which I think you cannot say of our King;) that pour their Money into a bottomlels purse. Oats, Ignoramus Juries, and pensionary witnesses, were more proper Cattle to be fed with such Provender, than Dissenting Ministers, if I be not mistaken in them. The King neither needs, nor will ever employ such Instruments. He knows better how to manage his Exchequer, than to waste it on such Hirelings, who sell their Conscience and Service by inch of Candle.  
(m) From Eye-witnesses, and Contributors themselves; I have heard, that several Charities to Nonconformist Ministers, were put under their Preaching Cushions; and I do not much wonder, that these Benevolences (which were as good as Glebe and Tithe) enabled them to resist the Temptation of taking Benefices, with the condition of renouncing the Covenant, etc. But that there should be any among them now, who, for such filthy lucre, design to Morigage the Protestant Religion, (which you must suppose, or nothing,) I shall never believe upon your bare suggestion. In former times by keeping up the Schism, they might hope for some favourable Revolution, whereby they might be capable of liberal Maintenance; but that the Rigour of their Creditors shall drive them to put on the Cowl or Scapular, or cooperate with those that design it, shall be no Article of my Faith.  
(n) It seems you were sensible of the weakness of this Medium, and now the Dissenters must Preach the Gospel for envy. The forward Ministers amongst them are much obliged to you, since it seems they are either Judas' to sell the Cause for Silver, or must be branded with one of the Devils Characters, Accusers of the Brethren; and whether you lessen their crimes in saying those who act this Choleric part, believe not themselves; but therein sin against their Consciences, and only pursue higher directions; I leave to others to judge. What wages such may get here, they best know: But I think it must be a severe punishment they may expect hereafter. May we not be more charitable to judge, that such Men are so far from personating a Vengeance, and using fiery Tongues and inflaming Eloquence, for that end. That they only express their resentment against those, who in their Apprehensions have too severely Persecuted them for Conscience-sake. Such a Plea may be as like to gain belief, as your too groundless Accusation of them; for Indulgence, Charity, and Moderation, are very consistent. The King desires all may enjoy their Religion in peace, and hires none to keep up the strife by recrimination and violence, nor designs by the taking away of Penal Laws, that one Subject should worry another; and therein gives you, as well as Dissenters, a Gracious Precedent and Example to follow.  
(o) Here, in my Opinion, you have exposed your friends something disadvantagiously. It is an unfortunate thing for any to have combined against the Government, since it requires much trial,  their Repentance can be believed. It is true, those that have had the Rickets, are found often to have a good share of cunning and wit, but by their bowed Legs, or some other infirm parts, especially in the region of their breast, they are easily distinguished from those of more healthy Constitutions. The old Proverb is as often true, of hasty Converts, as of Pardoned Persons, That save a Thief from the Gallows, and he will be the first will do you a mischief. But God forbidden all should be censured for some men's double-faced Villainies. Such Sycophants shall never find me their Advocate; let every Herring hang by his own Tayl. Let those who are detected, forfeit their neck, or hang by it in the Pillory,  I pity them. But what I pray do those deserve, who never wore shackles, or were bowed down  they complied, and promise to their Prince strenuous endeavours for His Service, and that they will not fail to hit the mark; and yet designedly shoot short, or over.  
(p) It is an unhappy state of Kings, that when they endeavour by good Methods, the ease and profit of their Subjects; yet they must be traduced by the insolent Pens of malevolent Subjects. Our Gracious King hath afforded a safe Retreat, and Liberal Contributions to the Reffugees, whom the great neighbouring Monarch hath Exiled; and by His Royal Enterprise, to get the Penal Laws Repealed, designs not only His Dominious to be free from all Persecution for Religion, but to be a safe harbour for the Distressed; and is thereby taking the most contrary measures to what that neighbouring Prince hath done. With what effrontry therefore, can you charge the King, either with imitating His example, or corresponding with him in that design? I Appeal to the fled Protestants, whether they find not as good usage here, as any in their condition do in other Countries? which, methinks carries conviction broad enough, that you are a very evil Caluminator. It is true, there was a time, when the belief of Ten Thousand Pilgrims and Black Bills, were endeavoured to be crammed down our throats; and some were such Cowards then, as to be frighted with them. Must we therefore be always Imposed upon, and never return to our senses again. The frequent discoveries of those Impostures, cannot but recruit the most timorous Spirits, and restore them to some degree of valour, though it will deserve no great Commendation as a Virtue, since the thick mist is so exhaled, which made us take a crop of Thistles, for a Battalion of Pikes.  
(q) Amongst a Hundred of your florid Sentences, I have not yet found one solid Reason, why Dissenters should not act as they do in policy, or that they want any Advice or Dictator, when they follow the conduct of their own Interest. They need not go down to those some call Philistines, to whet their Weapons, which are only praises and thanks; which the poorest Beggar, without any touch of good breeding, knows how to pay for a small Alms. There was a time, when Petitions, (the Elder Brothers of Addresses) being form by the leading Men of the Lower House, were posted into confiding Hands, to be sent back Ten, or Twenty Thousand strong: Those tended to the strengthening the hands of the Murderers of the King; and you would now stint a spirit of Obedience and Thankfulness to our King, which springs and flows from content and obligation, and may be easily discovered to be sincere, in all the Dissenters Speeches, Writings, and Actions, and are so far from needing to be bid, that all your Rhetoric cannot forbid them. Surely you think not their Thanks to spring like Mushrooms without root, and in a Night. And if you will not admit Dissenters among the Tribe of thinking Animals, yet let them have the Reputation of sensitive Plants, that shrink at a rough touch, and erect their Leaves by a warmer Gleam: I see not therefore, why Dissenters, having the sense of former sharp usage, should not perceive their ease, and whence it comes; and have no reason to question their sincerity of thanks, since they are for a matter of greatest import to them they ever received from the Crown, since they subdivided from the Church of England. Yet I believe, there hath been more Industry used to Disperse such Letters, as yours of Caution and Circumspection, than ever there was for those Circular ones of three or four Bishops, and you are the first Post that brings the News of any that were threatened to join with them, or any affrightments used to cause a compliance, since they carry with them all the tokens of Voluntariness, Vnconstrainedness, and Vnsolicitudeness, that could be expected. Therefore, because in good earnest you think they will signify a great deal, you are at all this pains. If that which Dissenters have so earnestly desned, prayed, yea, fought for, can be called a Triste, you are in the right. I never thought Addressors so little acquainted with the Constitution of the Government, as to think their Addresses equal to Votes in Parliament, or that they, with the King's assent, constituted the Legislative; though they may hope, such Votes out of the House, may beget others in it. I do not think any one, that had a piece of Gold given him, would be so besotted to refuse it, till he had consulted such a scrupulous Gentleman as you, whether it were all just in weight and allay, or that the giver came honestly by it. I suppose you are angry the Dissenters made not their Addresses in this form.  
Great SIR,  
WE would thank You for Your Gracious Declaration; but we know not, whether the Law empowers You to grant it; we have heard indeed of Your Majesty's having the excecutive part of the Laws in Your Royal Person, and the Dispencing Power; and that You desire the Test and Penal Laws may be abolished by Act of Parliament. But before we return You our Thanks for the ease You afford us, or that we can resolve to give our Voices for such Repeal, we desire to consult our common Lawyers, and our Elder Brethren the Church of England, and then we will give You our Opinion; and we do this the rather, lest you be mistaken in us. Sir, we dare not encourage You to be kind to us; and we must stay our Addresses of thanks, lest we give a Scandal to our Brethren or they hereafter punish us, for this forwardness.  
I fancy you have the vanity to hope that your Letter will prevail with some to desist from Addresses, upon those motives; otherwise, what need was there for you to be so urgent with them to suppress their impatience, and for the sake of those, that are now Abhorrers, to stick close to the Act of Uniformity, till the King die, (whom God long preserve to finish this great work;) in hopes a Protestant Parliament, under a Protestant King, will grant them better Terms: For I hope, by the word Parliament, you mean not the Two Houses, like those of 41, who Entitled them to the Supreme Power. It seems, if Dissenters harken not to you, though at present you are willing to make a gentle Construction, of the well meant Zeal of some, in drawing others into the Mistake; yet you threaten them with Sharpness and satire, because in strictness the matter will bear it, if we believe you.  
(r) It seems a Dissenter may feed fully, but must say no Grace, or cry Roast-meat; would you have them pet like froward Children, because the Benevolence was not offered first to them, or in the Circumstances they desire it. It seems, they may privately thank God for putting it into the King's Heart, to grant them ease; yea, they may enjoy the Advantag e of it, but without noise, lest some Dog catch the Morsel the Cat purse upon. Oh! a public owning, and desire to have Indulgence Establlshed by Law, is to support an Act irregularly done against the sacred Laws of the Land: This is such a Trespass, as may no ways be defended; but to observe any rules of good manners or dutifulness to the King, is a grievous fault. Methinks you ought to have brought very undeniable Authorities,  you had presumed to question the judgement of the King, His Privy Council, and the Court of the Kings-Bench, as to the Dispensing Power. But since you offer not one Syllable of Argument, I shall remit you to Westminster-Hall to defend the point and receive your doom. You endeavour gent●y to struck the Dissenters, that are under Temptation and Frailties, which makes them, you say, leap over the Objections may be made, and overlook the sad consequence of giving thanks, not only as an inlet to Popery, but the giving a deadly blow to all the Laws, by which their Liberty and Religion are to be protected. This is an heavy Sentence; whereby they are judged to sell their Birthright for a morsel of Bread, or a mess of Pottage. Let us therefore turn the Optic Glass, and you may more surely discover, that the King designs no breach of Magna Charta, nor to retain any Council for the Prerogative against it; but on the contrary, to have it confirmed in a much larger extent, than ever it was by His Royal Predecessors: for it is most certain, that all Penal Laws for Religion are so many infringements of it; and if you would have Magna Charta inviolably kept, you know what Church is thereby Established. Here therefore you quarrel with the King, for endeavouring to have a Charter of Liberties Established, that will be a standard for all future freedom, and enfranchisement of Conscience; and to infer, that the Subjects yielding to this, will put them out of the protection of all the Laws that secure their Liberties, is no less an ignorant than seditious Suggestion.  
(s) We are a most happy people, in the security we have by Law to enjoy the Liberties the Royal Predecessors of our most Gracious King hath granted. But if His Majecty effect His desire in this Repeal, He will be the Author of a greater freedom to the Subjects, than they ever yet enjoyed; so that none, in matters of Religion, shall be put upon ever Complaining against, or the giving up the Question; since all pretences of puttng it, will be thereby prevented. By the operating power of such an Act, such a mutual assurance, and security would be given, as it would be in no parties power to endeavour, or to desire to mischief, or destroy another. I fancy indeed, some Apparators and Bailiffs may suffer a diminution of profit; and some men of vindicative spirits, may want the assistance of sanguinary, and Penal Laws, to revenge themselves by: But the benefit that will redound to the whole, will sufficiently compensate that loss. The Kings of England will be the gainers, in that they will be no more disquieted with Rebellions upon the account of Religion. The Parliaments will be eased of the tiresome, disquieting, and unpleasing toil of making Laws, upon every emergence to restrain some party or other from their way of Worship; and imposing Tests and Oaths, according as prevailing Parties have power: and when the intestine struggles of every party, to manacle, and put the shackles and badges of slavery, upon each other, shall be taken away; the Legislative will be at full liberty to attend solely the aggrandizing of our Kings, and restoring them to the power and interest at home and abroad, of the gloriousest of their Predecessors: And to make good Laws for the enriching of the body of the people, and by perpetual harmony, unite the Subjects in the common band of Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign, and mutual love and endearment to one another. The Roman Catholics would have no occasion to repine, since they might freely enjoy their Religion, and the Church of England would be possessed of the Dignities and Benefices they enjoy; and the Dissenters would be satisfied, that they had the freedom of their Tabernacles and Conventicles, and all the content of this would be heightened in the peaceable and durable enjoyment of it; when it would be in no Parties power to invade the Liberties of another. This is the right Scheme of His Majesty's generous design; and if Dissenters fall not to their old work of stubbing up Episcopacy, root and branch, it may most certainly continue. For the obedience of Roman Catholics under a Protestant Government, we have the most near and complete instance in the United Provinces, where they live with the free exercise of their Religion, under a Bishop of their own, who is Treated according to his Character by the States, to whom they impart their pleasure; and by his directions the Roman Catholics obey. So, that when the King of France Invaded that Country, none stood firmer than They did. These pay such an absolute Obedience, that if the States, should for a time interdict them the use of their Religion, they would yield to it. So that all you urge as consequences of the Repeal, vanisheth upon the very opening the King's intentions; which, I dare venture my head, that I have more truly declared, than You by all your smooth Oratory, have made out by suspicions.  
(t) Expounding of the sense, and meaning of Oaths, is generally granted peculiarly to belong to the imposer; and if the taker satisfy his Conscience, and perform all required in the taking of them; the Civil Power inquires no further. But in the return of thanks, the receivers of the Benefit, are the best Judges, in what sense they render them; and I know not how they are concerned in any Inferences, unless of those that scruple their reality. It is true, if Dissenters only dreamed of an happiness, they might consult you for the Interpretations, but whilst their eyes are open, and they have the full sense of repose and ease, they must beg you will spare your Divinations, being resolved to rely upon the kindness and Authority of the Giver, and will never be afraid of any Inferences, when it is so manifest, that His Majesty designs common ease, and a perpetual settlement of it, by Act of Parliament, which they think they have all the reason in the World to endeavour, may be effected in His Majesty's Reign, who laid the Foundation of such a Temple of Concord, as none of His Royal Predecessors ever did before. As to the ridiculing some Loyal persons Zeal, to have had a favourable sense put upon the thanks returned for the King's Gracious Speech; if there had been more of the Members of both Houses, who would have credited the King's Royal desire to have been, just and equitable, and reflected upon the true Reasons the King had to insist upon that point; no doubt they might have had a kind return from the King, and such a settlement of the Church of England, as they could have desired, and better than they now may expect. Therefore, since by your Confession, so many never intended to answer the King's Speech with more than a bare Compliment; I do not think it was any such difficulty, to obtain liberty of objecting against the Prerogative of Dispensing, which I suppose a great many more are now satisfied in the legality of, and when there is occasion, both the Judges, and other Members of the long Robe, will make clear by Law and Equity.  
(u) Sure there are numerous parties of all persuasions, who know how to set a right value on the Constitution of the English Government; but I will never reckon these in the number, who are for such a stipulatory mixed Monarchy, as our old Publicans asserted; who at first complementing the people, that the Original of the Supreme Authority was in them, as soon as they had power, assumed it to themselves, under the notion of Representation. To proceed, the end of the Journey will never be reached, if the Traveller set down his rest in the midway. The King hath been the great Means and Author of this Liberty, and I hope it's not that time of the day to Vote Him dangerous. The way to have that preserved, which is granted by the King, is to study by all thankfulness to preserve His Royal Favour, and to press forward to obtain its complete Establishment, and never to sound a Retreat, till they obtain the full enjoyment of the Praemium held out to them; which, if by flagging in the pursuit, they shall only enjoy during His Majesty's Life, they will have cause to repent at His Death, that they got it not better secured.  
(x) Thanks for the Indulgence, and strenuous desires to have it Parliamentarily Confirmed, is taking time by the foretop, and striking while the Iron is hot. The Temple of Janus was opened in Augustus Caesar's time, as a certain sign that the Roman Empire was then at peace: Should not Dissenters rejoice, even to some excess, that our Augustus hath now opened it; whereby, through our Vito, they may see what Intestine jars, what effusion of blood, the Penal Laws have made; and from the other may have the most delightful Prospect of large, and long lasting Freedom. By the Instances you bring of the Non-Conformists rough usage of the Church of England, when they had the fleecing of it, and the manner of its retaliation. I should think you aught to have determined the usefulness, and necessity of embracing the King's favour, whereby, neither party might Tyrannise over the other for the future; rather then to decoy the Dissenter, by the soft word of mistake, as if either Party did such mischief to other, by some Venial Inadvertency only, when all the World knows, that the endeavours to secure their several Governments, occasioned the sad galling of one another: Yet of the two, it is Demonstrable, that the State Church of England Men were the favourablest.  
(y) Here you think to put the Dissenters upon a Dilemma, that if they blame the severe usage of the Church of England against them, they must not now return it by being angry with them; or if they allow it they must not be offended at what they did. What if Dissenters shall reply, that by too sad experience they have found, that Persecution was ruinous to both, and that it is neither Anger or Revenge against the Church of England, that makes them so thankful to the King, and so desirous that all Tusks may be filled off, whereby there may be no Tearing or Tyrannising by any Party for Conscience; but for ease-sake, these have reason to wish the Rod burned that felt the last smart of it; will not this Answer cut of the horned Argument?  
(z) A Man not well skilled in your cunning, would judge you were owning all this, when you disallow the Methods of the former Rigid Prelates, and would make Dissenters believe, that the present Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England, by the Sense of their former mistaken Rules, were content to lower their haughtiness, and were ready to change the spirit of Persecution and bitterness, for that of Charity and Condescension. But the Inference you make is very contrary and fallacious; viz. that because (if they believe you) the present Conductors of the Church of England, are of an Uniting Temper; therefore the Dissenters must so far rely upon their good nature, that they must reject the offers of a most Gracious King, who endeavours to secure them from present and future sufferings, and put it out of all people's power, when the next favourable revolation comes, to have recourse to former severeties. Suppose the Dissenters say, that they may be justly jealous, that if a thousand of the Church of England, in this juncture, gave them an assurance under their Hands and Seals, that they should never be compelled under a Protestant King, to Conformity, they durst not rely upon it, much less on such a single Voucher as yourself; what have you hitherto produced, to convince such unbelievers.  
(a) Churchmen, of all Societies, may be subject to like passions as other men, and I believe them not only humblest, but the charitablest, best natured, and holiest too, when their power is not overgrown. But it doth not therefore follow, that the objecting the severity of the Church of England against Dissenters, when cherished by a Prince of her Communion, is uncharitable and ungenerous, much less, that it is mistimed: For if the Members of that Church did not endeavour to hinder the Repeal of those Laws, which only enable them to reassume their Rods and Axes; Dissenters might hope their kindness was to be relied upon. But since they see them so unwilling to part with their offensive Arms; even at the desire of their Sovereign, they have just reason to think they scandalise them not, in saying, they dare not as yet believe that they intent them any good security that they will not call them to an after-reckoning, or that they will afford them such an assurance of freedom, as they may now have under the King's broad Seal. But to pass on; I wonder not so much at your denying the Church of England is never humble but when she wants power, for you may mean another Church than other Mortals do; or by humble, you may mean she lest useth Church Censures, when the Magistrates Inflict the Laws most severely; which Evasion you may, when pressed, fly to. But the reason you give for it is more surprising; that she is even now meek and lowly, when she hath power to confound all Dissenters with a Breath. This indeed is a brisk flourish; like a brave Leaders encouragement to his seemingly foiled Party; that he hath one stratagem yet, which will gain the absolute Victory, if they will credit his Conduct. I pray Sir, for all this rattle in the Clouds, (which is no more formidable than intelligible) give me leave to ask you, what this Smile, this kind Word, this glimpse of Compliance, should be, that can work such wonders. There was a time, at, or before some Men were put to the Test, when a compliance with the King's desires of Repeal, would have continued several Eminent Men in their Stations, and they would have felt many effects of His Majesty's Royal Favour. But all that would have been as a reward of their public splritedness, and concurrence with the King, in the truly Catholic design of making all His Subjects easy as to their Religious Concerns. But it looks like Presumption, yea, insolence in you, to assert, that when such have lost the opportunity of preserving themselves in the King's good Opinion, He should take them into His Throne, and permit them to guide His Arm, to dart His Thunder where they please. No, if they should offer all compliance, for the future securing Roman Catholics, provided they might execute Penal Laws against Dissenters, yet this would have no power to incline a Prince, so steady to His Resolutions, and the public Declaration of His Judgement, to alter in the least His Royal purpose, of granting Universal Liberty of Conscience, to such as would live peaceably, and give no disturbance to the Civil Government. Much less can those hope to prevail, who declare all Compliance with the King's desires so Criminal and unjustifiable, that they will rather choose to stand mute, and be pressed to Death, in hopes to preserve their Estates for the next Heir, then to quit their beloved Test.  
(b) As to Provocation, while you writ, you commit the fault you so severely complain of. As to those Books, writ upon the subject of Religion; every one may observe, that those, in defence of the Protestant Doctrine, have been throngly cried about the streets, with the Emphasis of being Vindications of the Church of England, and the Licenses of the Archbishop of Canterbury, or Bishop of London; whereas, Roman Catholic Books, except some few Sermons of the Fathers, have been dispersed without the pomp of a public Cryer. Only some Dissenters, concerned to give public Testimonies of their gratitude to the King, have enlarged the Gazettes, and set some Printing Presses on work. But that any such Writers are Undertakers, or have made any Contracts with the Romanists to begin a Fray among Protestants for the sport or advantage of the Church of Rome, I see no shadow of Reason. Since the Interest they have to own the ease they find by His Majesty's Indulgence, and the Opposition they find from some Members of the Church of England to it, are sufficient Motives to them to write and speak all they have hitherto done. And your entering the Lists with so many fine devices on your Helm and Shield, and all over your whole Armour, cannot but Excite many Combatants to engage so gaudy a Challenger.  
(c) What you expect to be applauded or commended in this conduct, I cannot tell! Persecution for Conscience you own to be ill, yet you would not have it equal dealing to blame such who oppose the Repeal of such Laws, as only arm Persecutors, which is dancing in a Circle.  
(d) To hate the causers of our Torments, is very natural in those, who have not learned to pray for their Enemies; but for the Persecuted to court and love the Persecutors, who judge it Criminal, and are ready to suffer themselves, rather than yield up the wheels, racks, and strapadoes, fetters and chains, and the cruel instruments of Persecution, when the Supreme Magistrate forbids it, is a Principle, neither Heathen or Christian can own: So that I will not trouble my head to Divine what the Objection should be that you acquaint us not with, and yet you say is un-answerable.  
(e) I have heard it accounted as some solace, to have Companions in misery; but never that any took delight in procuring Torments to others, that they might have more stripes themselves. How the Papists should promote the Penal Laws against Dissenters, is a Riddle: However, it is not dutifully done, to make the Church of England the Lictors and Bedels' of the Church of Rome; but some will lose their Friend,  they lose their Jest, or false Suggestion.  
(f) This Paragraph ought to be accounted for at Westminster-Hall. Before there can be any sense made of it; it must be most scandalously supposed, that the King is about to alter the Constitution of the Election of Knights and Burgesses, and to design another, Praise God Bare-bone Parliament; than which, no reflection can be more odious.  
(g)  the Dispensing Power is argued, I doubt not but many more Members in Parliament will allow it, than did before the point had been so cleared as now; and in duty we ought to believe the King, by the Repeal, intends no more than what He expresses in His Royal Declaration, notwithstanding the Indulgence to secure the Church of England in her rights and possession of the Honours and Revenues, and Liberty both to it and Dissenters; which being done, there will be no room for those unreasonable Surmises.  
(h) The great Talbots Name was long after his Death used to affright the Children of France with. Is it fit that a serious Gentleman should judge all Dissenters such Children, as to be affrighted with the Name of Roman Consistory. Our Lawful Sovereign is the only Lord of the Articles, who will propose the Question, and Obedience in this case may be more beneficial, than to be always made Sacrifices by severe Penal Laws.  
(i) Is it a Parliament of two Houses you mean, shall offer this Indulgence to Dissenters? or would you have them stay to the next Ages? If the first, you deserve the doom of a Traitor, since you must Exclude the King, unless Roman Catholics be included; if the latter, you must fit the Dissenters with Iron Shoes.  
(k) You Writ as if you were one of the Plenipotentiaries at a Treaty betwixt Roman Catholics and Dissenters, and were well acquainted with the secret Articles. All the World hath judged Dissenters to have a great aversion to implicit Faith and blind Obedience; but they must all be the most absolute Resigners of their Reason and Religion, to the guidance of Roman Catholics: If for this pretended Liberty of Conscience, as you call it, they must Sacrifice their real Freedom. I believe rather that the weight and galling of their late Chains, are so much felt, that they will be very unwilling to have them put on again by some Members of the Church of England; and the confidence to be ever freed from them, makes them so ready to embrace this Jayl-Delivery.  
(l) To what degree soever either Roman Catholics or Dissenters may judge valid the Dispensing Power; yet, that no ways should hinder them, from desiring the Indulgence may be Established by Law, to perpetuate that favour which they, at present, are only secure of during the King's Life: And as all Gracious and just Princes, desire their Honour and good Fame may long outlive them; so they wish, that the benefits they intent for their people, may be extended to future Ages. Therefore, however His Majesty may be satisfied in the rights of His Sovereignty, yet for the tender regard of the future Repose of His Subjects: It is a most Gracious Act in Him, to endeavour the concurrence of His Two Houses, which by an impropriety of Speech you call the Legislative; when it is well known, that without the Royal concurrence, the Two Houses are only the Legispreparative.  
(m) By those words, and not without Reason, you discover yourself to have been a Seclusionist; and yet want the candour of an ingenuous Dissenter, who is not angry that those Members of the Church of England complied so far; since it hath given them the opportunity of experiencing the Kings surprising Clemency, and condemning the groundless jealousy they had of Him, which prompted to that Reluctancy against His Rightful Succession; and the Dissenters have no reason to be sorry, that these Members of the Church of England made no further Progress after the King came to the Crown. Since that stop of theirs made the Wheel move faster towards the Indulgence, the benefit whereof least they should be in danger to lose, they will with all sedulity endeavour to promote, though I presume, by no indirect means, but such as may be agreeable to the duty of their Allegiance and Thankfulness, they own to the King for it. Then the scrupulous niceness concerning significant Ceremonies will cease, because none will be obliged to use the Cope, Surplice, or long Cloak, but such as like them; only I hope it will be always prohibited to Preach in Buff-coats, and mingle Blood with their Oblations.  
(n) Nothing is more common, than to find Names affixed according to people's fancies, and after a while one word serves for Description, Definition, and Character. If Liberty of Conscience once be made practicable, and in the vogue, Those discriminating Ciphers will be useless, and all Subjects will be considered in their morality, or immorality, obedience, or disobedience, rather than by the Cognizance of their Religion: It is no strange thing in Nature, that by some influence of the Heavens, and aptness of Soil, some Plants may shoot up more in a Night than others, backned by severe Frosts, do in a Month; and why the rare Plant of Liberty in Religious Worship, may not be as perennial as the Thistle of Persecution, I see no great Reason, if Cultivated with common care. If the prospect of continual suffering, and the want of Christian Liberty, made Dissenters Factious and Rebellious; it is to be presumed, that the Fundimental Instigation being removed, the Witchcraft will no longer prevail. It is the concernment of all Governments, to see that Men be true to it e'er they be trusted; and when Princes lay by their co-active Laws, it is the interest of the Subjects to lay aside their Animosities, and when all Parties quit their Fire-Arms, and offensive Weapons, I see no reason to despair of Harmony and Accord in the duty of Christians and Subjects; and thus being linked in the common bond of freedom, I see no occasion to throw one another off again.  
(o) If things now tend naturally to the ease of Dissenters, they have reason to be most thankful to the King, as the sole bestower of it; and I see no Reason they should let go the Bird in hand, in hopes to catch another in the Bush. I should think they acted with less circumspection than they have wont to do; if they slip the opportunity of that tender made them, in expectation of enjoying any thing like it, when the Church of England shall be in a flourishing condition. Besides, it may be a Question, whether a Toleration after the pattern of the Low Countries, may not be more prejudicial to the Church of England, than such one as may be now adjusted.  
(p) Here you are very Magisterial, and have undertaken far more than your Credit will go for. To say a Church is convinced of an Error, befits none but the Prolocutor of a Convocation, when such a Vote was passed with a Nemine Contradicente, and to ensure for a Parliaments Votes, is more than any Ten Members of it can do. But I presume you speak by Figure here, that if Dissenters will not join with Roman Catholics to be thankful for the Indulgence, and will stick close to the Members of the Church of England that oppose it; then the Parliament under a Protestant Successor, and a Convocation will set such a value upon that service, that they will be gentile to them, and establish some Bill of comprehension, which the Governors of the Church of England, could never hitherto be brought to yield to. All this looks so like decoy, that the Dissenter of the lowest form will perceive it. But what ever they do, all thinking Men, must judge the design of this is to animate all Protestants to weather out the point, and heighten their opposition to the King, which in former times would have been styled Sedition. As to that excellent Princess, I suppose you mean, few Princesses in Europe are known to Excel Her in the Accomplishments of Body or Mind; and as Her Royal Father is as Indulgent to Her Highness, as any Prince can be; so She is as Dutiful; and whatever the King Establisheth in His time for the public Good and Tranquillity of His Kingdoms, if She over-live Him, I presume it may be Her desire, if not Her Interest to ratify; and to what perfection soever His Majesty may bring this Pantheon, there may still remain beautifying, and adorning for His Successor, and room enough to enlarge the Foundations, and build stronger Defences against the common Enemy of Persecution, if this conspiring against a work, which You own Dissenters need, and deserve, do not destroy it.  
(q) In this Paragraph you are numbering the people, and examining Your strength by the Muster-roll; and the head of those Powers you design to Oppose, is manifestly the King, which is not very agreeable to the Church of England's Doctrine of Nonresistance.  
(r) Good words butter no Parsnips; if the Expressions of Duty were not tainted and hollow, and in your Opinion His Majesty's Religion did not only shade, but totally Eclipse His Virtues: Your Allegiance would not look, as it doth, more like a Submission than a Duty; nor would You adventure upon that Bravado, that some own their best security to Passive Obedience, and the Doctrine of Nonresistance, which look very like bidding Roman Catholics beware lest they rouse a sleeping Lion: For I know not who they are that Laugh at the commendable Doctrine of Nonresistance; but when I see Men fomenting jealousies against their Sovereign, ridiculing His Conduct, endeavouring to Represent Him as acting against the Laws, assuming an Arbitrary Power, denying Him the service of all His Subjects, and by all possible Arts, endeavour to withdraw the Affections of the people from Him solely, because of His Religion; I cannot judge such to be true practisers of that Doctrine.  
(s) Here you give a touch of your Astrology, and it being customary for the pretenders to that Art, to attempt by Horary Questions to know Diseases, and after a while to set up for Empirics: So you give us a pretty Receipt to clear a lowering Sky; the Sense of which is, for all Protestants to lie in of the sullen, keep their beds, and there use some kind of reasonable Devotion, and entertain their Visitants with discourses of their Loyalty, and their adhering to the Laws, and it will be twenty to one but they will be freed from the Hail-storm, and escape the danger of the Infectious Air. But lest any should object that, Bed-zid Protestants are not like to keep out Popery, you have a most Infallible Elixir in your Repository, which is, that neither the Church of England, or Protestant Dissenters ought to be affrighted with any fear that the Roman Catholic Religion can be Established by a Toleration (since the odds is two hundred to one) without a greater Miracle than any we read of in any Legend, especially in the old Age of a Church, which hath been so long barren of them. For shame therefore give over your false Alarms; amuse the Dissenters no more to such circumspect standing upon their guard, to keep out Popery, since in our days there is no feeding Five hundred with Five Loves and two Fishes.  
(t) The conclusion is agreeable to your premises, an Exhortation to an Association a 'gainst the King, and all of His judgement in the matters of the Test; and the motives to it are pretty odd, that since both Parties have been too blame, in Persecuting one another, therefore they should be reconciled, and combine in opposing the Indulgence, which is most likely to put an end to all rancour and malice. One would have thought, that the Inference more naturally should have been, that since they both had experienced the mischiefs of Persecution, and neither of them bettered their condition by it, therefore, they should both have joined in the promoting the general Indulgence, that there might be no more strife among them, since they were Brethren; I am sure this had more truly resolved the Question. But instead of this, you tell the Dissenters, (without giving any Reason for it) that dis-union is not only a Reproach, but a danger to both. This I own to be true, if the Union you desire were for the public good of both, but if the Union be to combine you and them in equal undutifulness and ingratefulness to the King; if this Union be desired to hinder the King's Progress in His laudable purposes; if this Union be but to while the business with a Shall I, Shall I, to tyre the King's Patience, and disappoint His expectation, it will redound to both the Dissenters and your Danger, if not Reproach. To persuade to such an Union as this, is the whole drift of your discourse, and something you must mean more than Passive Obedience, when you rivet the Nail you have all this while been driving in, telling your Reader, that it is as unjustifiable to have no Religion, as wilfully to throw away the means of preserving it. This looks like a second sound to Horse; and you have a pretty slight in your Mouth, to persuade Roman Catholics, (because you think them so credulous of Miracles) to neglect all Cautions or means to preserve themselves, but to rely upon a Supernatural Power: But those of your Principles must use the Humane Means of preserving it, and of how many Battalions these must consist, though you have reason to conceal the Intimation from the World; yet you give a sufficient Item, what may be expected, and thereby caution the Government to have more Circumspection over your Say and Actions.  
Thus Sir, I have now finished my Observations upon your Letter; I shall subjoin something the subject matter induceth me to offer to the consideration of all Christian Dutiful Subjects, and then close the whole.    

SIR,  
I have hitherto followed the train you have lead me, and endeavoured to give a reasonable Answer to the most material parts of your Letter. What was bare supposal, and groundless suspicion I have not much concerned myself with. Those being but like the Feathering of unpiled Arrows, which help their flight, but enforce them little to do harm, wherever they fall. Neither have I attempted to reach the Towering Flights of your Oratory, which how Ornimental soever, are but like mounting Bubbles, which break and vanish when at the utmost stretch. Your affrightments, when well considered, are but like the sparks in a Smiths-shop, which upon a brisk heat and stroke, fills all with seeming liquid fire, yet it is as soon extinguished as the Iron cools, or the labouring stroke ceaseth. What was Seditious, and tending to instigate the Subjects to jealousies and disloyal Opinions of their Sovereign, I have endeavoured to Disprove, and Repress. What was Calumny, I have gently wiped off; unless when it was couched in such general Terms, as placed it beyond all reach of the Spung. Rebels in open Hostility, are not so dangerous to a Prince, and His Governmet, though the severest Punishments are inflicted on them when mastered; as those are, who by sly Arts, Detraction, evil Surmises and Constructions, render their Prince suspected of Ruling Arbitrarily, and altering Religion and Laws; and thereby blast His Credit with His people: For those are the Men that make the whole Reigns of Princes troublesome, and unfortunate to Themselves and their Subjects. These List the Men, provide Magazines and Arms, and prepare all things in readiness against the sound of the Trumpet, and do not only Muster the Rebels, but they do, as much as in them lies, to enfeeble or taint the Allegiance of the remainder.  
You have contributed all you possibly can to effect these things, and exposed your Letter as a Banner to invite to jealousies and fears, which are the very Avant-couriers of Sedition and Rebellion; and this in you that pretend to be a Son of the Church of England is so much the worse, in that you know how strictly it enjoins Obedience to the Lawful Sovereign, and how much the Doctrine of Nonresistance hath been taught and practised by its Members.  
If the King's Intentions to settle the Roman Catholic Religion by force, (which you surely cannot in good earnest believe practicable) were much more apparent than it is: If the inevitable ruin of the Protestant Religion here, should be the consequence of the Repeal; and if the exercise of His Prerogative and Dispensing Power, were the certain ruin of all men's Properties, you and others who own no other Loyalty to their Sovereign, than what is consistent with their supposed Interest, could not invent more provoking Reflections upon the King, or misinterpret His Actions worse than you do.  
But how unreasonably undutiful is it in Subjects, and those who would be reputed the zealousest for our Church, to charge the King with Intrigue and Hypocrisy, or breach of promise; who of all Princes living detests mear tricks, and to prevaricate with any: To whom Dissimulation is the odiousest of Vices, and whose very Inbred, Natural, and Heroic courage, places Him as much above all low Arts, as His Dignity doth above His Subjects.  
Besides all the un-answerable Arguments which have been produced, why the taking off the Test and Penal Laws cannot work such a change in our Religion; you may consider, that at the same time the Church of England may be Insured by Laws of greatest caution. Furthermore we have most solemn and public promises, That His Majesty will Protect and Maintain the Church of England in the free exercise of its Religion, as by Law Established, and in the quiet and full enjoyment of all Her Possessions, without any molestation or disturbance, which He will inviolably observe; If by a stubborness, that shall be unpardonable in the judgement of all Impartial Men, we forfeit not a Clemency so rarely to be paralleled. To all which may be added, the universal aversion of the Nobility, Gentry, and Commonality to the Roman Catholic Religion, occasioned even by the deepest Impression that Education, Custom, and an Opinion of the Purity, and Primativeness of it, hath made.  
If none of these Arguments will prevail with you to change your evil Opinion of the King's designs by the Repeal; consider deliberately, I pray you, how the King must overthrow the very Foundation upon which the great Enterprise of Universal Liberty, and consequently of all the Benefits to His people, by enriching them, and keeping them in peace, and securing the Roman Catholics in future times in any tolerable state, if He ever give way to invest any one Church-Community with a Coercive Power.  
But I know it is Objected, that if a Toleration only were intended, how comes it to pass, that so many Loyal Members of the Church of England, even of those who so courageously adhered to the Crown in its utmost danger, are now displaced, and the Roman Catholics, or Dissenters, even such of the last, as have most violently opposed His Majesty's Succession, are substituted in their Rooms?  
In answer to this, It is well known, that the number of Protestants of the Church of England, Employed by the King in His Court, in His Council, in His Courts of Judicature, in Camp, and all Places of public Employments, almost as far exceed the Roman Catholics, as our Clergy do theirs; and yet we make so hideous a noise at the Conferring Places and Honours upon some deserving and Loyal Roman Catholics, and two or three Masters, and a few Fellows of Colleges being Preferred; which are but the effects of common distributive Justice, and consentaneous to the Paternal care of such a Prince, who would show some marks of favour to those few of His own Religion, who are not now surely to be wholly Excluded. Therefore, in my judgement, it shows a very ill Nature in those who own His Majesty to be their Lawful King, and that He may at His Pleasure use the service of which of His Subjects He pleases, to grudge His intermixing so few of His own Religion with others.  
Besides this, you cannot be ignorant, that it never was the practice of any Prince, or Government, what Religion soever, to employ Subjects in Places of Trust, who set themselves directly to oppose, what by prudent forecast for the public good, they determined to Establish. Now since the King, for the Reasons published in His Gracious Declaration, is so intent upon completing this great work of General Freedom, and securing those of His own Religion, in common with the rest. It cannot be thought reasonable, or expedient, that He should cherish and countenance those, who so bitterly oppose him in it: Especially since it is so apparent, that even such, who have shown great zeal for the support of the Crown upon the Heads of their Protestant Sovereigns, now manifest, not only an indifference, and coldness, but an unbecoming way wardness to the King's Service: In so much, that some decline sitting in Commission with Roman Catholic Justices of the Peace, and others think it honourable to quit their places, rather than to make one step towards the Repeal; so that even the Badges and Livery of Loyalty are changed, from that to the King, to that of the Church of England; and those who make the greatest complaint of hard usage, have themselves turned the Tables.  
As to Dissenters, it is their Interest to close with the Crown side for Protection, and since they can derive this unlooked for favour from none but the King, they should be the most ungrateful of Men, if with cheerfulness, and sincerity, they did not pay all possible Acknowledgements to His Majesty's Bounty for it. So that I do not wonder to hear them, with great Asseveration say, it was not for a Commonwealth they fought, and were continually striving against the stream, but it was to get the Weather-gage of Persecution: It was to obtain this Liberty of Conscience, which they never could expect from former Governments, that provoked them to commit such Heinous things they now are ashamed of; and which, indeed they ought to Atone for in another manner than they have hitherto done. They now declare, that if they might have had the Tenth of that Liberty the Church of England now enjoys, under our Gracious King, they would never have lifted up an hand, or opened a Mouth against the late Kings of blessed Memories, and I think they are the rather to be believed, because neither the Doctrine, nor the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome, are so much declaimed against by them now, as those of the Church of England, which they formerly reputed Idolatrous: They now think themselves justified in their Espousing the Parliaments side, from whom they expected, and had Indulgence, and please themselves to find another kind of non Addressors, and as zealous persons to hinder the Repeal of Penal Laws, against their Sovereigns declared desire, as they were formerly for it. Yet, though the Scene be thus changed, I hope there are sufficient numbers of such, whom the Church of England will own to be her Children, that will let no Dissenters outgo them in Loyalty, and Dutifulness to their Sovereign; and who are well assured, the King will have as great regard to them, and our Church for their sakes; and as freely permit them the enjoyment of the Exercise of their Religion and Benefices, as to any, provided they will concur with Him in the Repeal, and be content to let their Fellow-Subjects, of different Persuasions, enjoy likewise their Liberty.  
That the Members of the Church of England ought to yield this in common prudence, and even for the Preservation of their own Religion, I think there are many Reasons; especially this, that as yet the time is not clapsed, but that when His Majesty convenes His Parliament, sufficient Security may be obtained, that the Church of England shall enjoy all the King hath promised; and when, by the Wisdom of the Houses, such an Act is contrived, as will answer the King's desires of the Universal ease of His Subject, the Church of England will feel as great effects of the King's kindness, as she can expect, or desire; and by the freedom all will enjoy, there will be no more contests; but who shall approve themselves most dutiful and deserving of His Majesty's Clemency, and Kindness. Upon such a closure, the Roman Catholics, and Dissenters will freely yield to the mutual security of the Church of England, and that Church will regain its Reputation of Loyalty, and confirm what you promise in her name, of being kind to Dissenters, and a Protestant Prince succeeding, and finding things thus Amicably Composed, will reap the benefit, as the whole Kingdom will do, of this happy undertaking of the King.  
But on the contrary, if the Majority of the Members of the Church of England in Parliament, obstinately oppose the King's desires, they will oblige His Majesty to pursue other Methods, and it will give occasion to all such as are no great wellwishers to our Church, to urge its uncharitableness; that rather than it will permit the King to exercise His Prerogative, of being served with all His Subjects, of what denomination soever He pleases to make use of, and that Men of different Professions in Religion, may enjoy the favour of the King's Indulgence, they will put themselves out of His Royal Protection, and absolve Him from His promise therein; and the upshot of all will be, that by His Majesty's steady pursuit of this great work, which He firmly believes will conduce so much to the universal good of His Subjects; In a few years, by such sedulous countenancing all those, who will strenuously cooperate with Him to effect it, the Dissenters will obtain the Majority of Voices in Parliament, which if once effected, those Members of the Church of England, who have Obstructed the Repeal, will be at the mercy of Dissenters; and if the King be not their best Friend, may fall short of what they may now so effectually obtain.  
I shall conclude with a short Paraphrase upon the Words His Majesty, used to His Privy Council March the 8th. 1686. concerning this Indulgence, in which the substance of what need be said, in justifying the Kings granting it, are clearly laid down.  
First, His Majesty shows the practice of former Ages, and the success of them; That although an Uniformity in the Religious Worship had been Endeavoured to be Established within this Kingdom, in the successive Reigns of Four of His Majesty's Royal Predecessors, assisted by their respective Parliaments; yet it hath proved altogether ineffectual.  
This is obvious to every one that reads the History of those times, and well know to those that lived in the beginning of the Rebellion; for Dissenters were then so increased, that they were numerous, and powerful enough to overthrow, not only the Church of England, but the Monarchy that defended it. The King's Words are, That the Restraint upon the Consciences of Dissenters, in order thereunto, viz. to Conformity, had been very prejudicial to this Nation, as was sadly experienced in the horrid Rebellion, in the time of His Majesty's Royal Father. The King than pitcheth upon the true and principal cause of all those Calamities that befell the blessed Martyr, and were freshly commencing again in the later time of His Majesty's Royal Brothers Reign, which are best expressed in the Kings own Words, That the many Penal Laws made against Dissenters, in all the foregoing Reigns, and especially in the time of the late King, had rather increased than lessened them.  
If therefore our Gracious King, out of an excess of love and Paternal care, did not study the Universal benefit, ease, profit, and enriching of His people, He might have pursued former Precedents: But as a Wise and Compassionate Prince, He searcheth diligently for the true Causes; and while too many are busying themselves in Traducing His zeal for His Religion, as if it were the only concern of His Royal Cares. He Demonstrates to all His Subjects, how much more solicitous He is to find some better Method, whereby at once He may Establish His Throne, and those of His Successors, in a stable peace and security, and give Ease, Freedom, and Riches, to all His People, of what Persuastion soever: Therefore declares, That nothing can more conduce to the peace and quiet of His Kingdom, and the increase of the Numbers, as well as the Trade of the Subjects, (wherein the greatness of a Prince does more consist, than in the extent of His Territories) than an entire Liberty of Conscience. That His Majesty may likewise obviate all the great scruple such as you raise as if He did this for any private ends; you have His Royal Word to the contrary, when He tells all His Subjects, That it hath been His Opinion, as most suitable to the Principles of Christianity, that no Man should be Persecuted for Conscience sake, which His Majesty thinks is not to be forced. By this His Majesty shows, that He grounds not His judgement upon the agreeableness, or ungreeableness of it to the interest of any Church; but as it is suitable to the very Principles of Christian Religion, and having by this shown His Royal Intentions how to proceed upon that bottom, during His own Reign, out of a well grounded Confidence, that it may be a rule and standard to His Royal Successors, He closeth all with this Maxim, That it can never be the true Interest of a King of England, to endeavour to force Conscience.  
Have not all Men from hence, and all His Majesty's Actions, reason to think, there is a Clemency, Benignity, and tenderness in the King to His Subjects, flowing in His Princely Blood from His Royal Ancestors, and peculiar to the family, which His Religion can never alter; so that where the necessity of His people, rather han His own safety, does not oblige Him to severity, We see daily instances of a Mercifulness beyond all expectation, and even to the envy of others, some of which have been very late: and if this difficulty of the Repeal were once over, all His Subjects would know, that He would deserve the Epithets of Just, Merciful, and Pacifick, as well as any of His Royal Predecessors; having that personal Courage, and Fortitude, over and above what is to be found in few Crowned Heads; so that satis est prostrasse, must be owned by all His Majesty's ill-willers, as peculiar to His Generosity.  
I should here have closed this Discourse, but that I find His Majesty's late Speech to the LORD MAYOR and aldermans of London, when they Presented Him with their late Address, hath occasioned a new Misrepresentation; because His Majesty mentioned the advantages would redound to the Subjects by a general Naturalisation and public Register, which those who suck poison out of every flower, censure as manifest tokens, that if these be effected, the growth of Popery will be promoted, which they thus prove.  
First, that Naturilization will open a door, to let in from foreign parts, such shoals of Roman Catholics, that the Protestants shall soon be out-numbered. Secondly, that a public Register will so discover all men's Estates, that the King may easily dispose of them, when the Laws of Property shall be, as now we see Penal Laws are dispensed with.  
As to the first of these malicious Insinuations, I desire all thinking Men to consider, that it is a very known Maxim, that not only the power of any Prince, but the Riches of every Kingdom consists in the multitude of the people well Governed. Let us now therefore consider who they are, that are likeliest to flock hither, if an Act of general Naturilization should pass. There are none that leave their own Country, to Transplant themselves into another Soil, but such as have a Prospect to live more at ease abroad, than in their own Country, and such must be principally those, who retire to avoid Persecution for their Religion, or are obnoxious to the Laws, for some notorious Trespasses against them, or such who dare not show their Heads for Debt; or lastly, those who in the way of Traffic think to better their Fortunes. For it is ridiculous to imagine, that Roman Catholic Princes will unpeople their Countries, to send Colonies abroad, unless it were to make War; and to such, I presume, no Law of Naturilization will extend.  
I suppose then, no Objections will be made to the incoming of Aliens, but such as do it upon a Religious account. Let us therefore consider, who they are that can flock hither, because they want the freedom of their Religion in their own Countries? and surely in Europe we can find none, except they are Protestants, that are in such a state under Catholic Princes; and it will be very difficult to believe, they will fly Persecution at home, to turn Roman Catholics here.  
Therefore it appears most manifest, that the only effect such a Law can have, will be to bring from Poland, some parts of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, or Holland, the French Refugees, since England is known to be a place of more comfortable Retreat than those Countries are; and if such French, or any other Aliens, were Dispersed, in some proportion, through the Kingdom, and not suffered all to settle in the Populous City of London; there might be hopes, that by their Industry, and Trades, as well as the consumption of the growth of the Country, there would be advantage to the Kingdom by their numbers.  
Thus I hope I have made it appear, how directly contrary an effect, to what is suggested, would naturally follow upon a Bill of Naturalisation, viz. the increase of Protestants, if of any.  
As to the public Register, it is notoriously known, how attempts have been made in former Ages to have effected this, and it is so far from enabling any Prince to invade thereby the Property of any Subject, that it is the greatest security to them: For by such speedy Transferring Estates, as may be done by a public Register, even Forfeitures to the Crown may be prevented, when every one, in some few hours, may pass their Estates, Real, or Personal, into what secure hands they please.  
It is likewise obvious, how many frauds would be prevented by it, and how much more plentiful Money would be, when none would be in danger of losing either Purchase or Lent-mony, by Pre-Engagements; since fewer shifts could be used, to deceive any moderately circumspect person. The Proceed likewise in Law-Suits, would be less tedious and intricate, and yet many Hundreds of Clerks would find Employment in Registering, in every County and Corporate Town; and when money Men could have such such clear Security, not haunted with the Spirit of Forgery, the middle sort of Traders, the Husbandman, Farmers, and all sort of Men, who had honest occasions for ready Money, might be furnished without so great scruple, which the doubtfulness of Security now occasions.  
But these being matters to be Transacted in Parliament, need no further discussing here: Only I thought it necessary to hint these things, that all Ingenuous Men might see, how unreasonable some men's suspicions are, and what sinister Interpretations, Malice, and Envy, will make, of what is most apparently designed for a quite different end.  
In fine, Would we enjoy the free exercise of the Protestant Religion? We have the King's Sacred Promise for it; and upon the taking off the Penal Laws and Test, we may have it firmly Established: Would Dissenters have Ease, they have it freely granted without Terms. Would we enjoy all the advantages of Wealth, Honour, Peace, Plenty, and the Benefits which a Gracious, Valiant, and Wise Prince may afford Us? We may to the height of our Wishes have them; yielding only, that our Fellow-Subjects in general, and those of His Majesty's Religion in particular, may be all alike freed from any Force put upon their Conscience for matters of their Religion, at present, and for time to come; while in all other Respects they approve themselves Dutiful Subjects.   
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
PAge 4. line 23. for reasonable read seasonable. P. 5. l. 23. for gratefully, r. greatly. P. 7. l. 8. for hinder r. hindered. ibid. l. 39 deal of P. 9 l. 10. for such (as Seclusion r. (such as Seclusion. P. 11. l. 16. for Communion r. common▪ P. 16. l. 29. for cumlocution r. circumlocution.