AN ADDRESS TO THE Church of England: EVIDENCING Her Obligations both of Interest and Conscience, To Concur with HIS GRACIOUS MAJESTY In the REPEAL of The Penal Laws and Tests.  
Allowed to be Published this 1st of September, 1688.  
IT has pleased the Almighty Power that Rules the Hearts of Princes, to Englighten and Adorn His Present Gracious Majesty, with such peculiar Beams of Mercy and Clemency, those truly Royal Virtues, that render him the nearest Portrait of that Deity whose Vicegerent he is: To win therefore the Universal Love of his People, a Conquest worthy of, and indeed reserved for His Great Self; He has set up His Standard of Compassion, resolving to recover the Alienated Affections of th●se of His Subjects, whom the Administration of His Predecessors may have any ways rendered uneasy.  
There are but two things in the World dear to all Mankind; Religion and Property: The last of these I confess, in the most moderate Distribution of common Right, has all along had its free Course in the true Channels of Equity; only the first has been a little restrained; for Conscience has sometimes been shackled.  
The Sighs therefore, and Groans that have lately breathed from that Restraint, have moved him to that Sacred Commiseration, that He is resolved to break the Fetters that Extort them, the Penal Laws; which to Effect, He has already declared His Determination, for that choice of Magistrates in Authority under him, that in His Princely Wisdom, He thinks will be most hearty in Contributing their best and ablest Endeavours for that Great End.  
To carry on this Pious Work, it is not at all in Reason to be doubted, but the Suffering Party on all sides, who are aggrieved by those Laws, by the mere Dictates of Self-preservation, will be no ways wanting to throw off a Yoke they have so long▪ so unquietly born: And if all their helps (as may be expected) His Majesty is secure of, there remains only the Concurrence of the Church of England; which if obtained, His Kingdom will reap the Fruit, and Himself the Honour, of being the Founder of those lasting Blessings, so much in themselves the more glorious, as that all Hands and all Hearts, shall be assistant to their Creation.  
The Design therefore of this Address, to my Pious Mother the Church of England, is truly and fairly to reason with her, why the Preservation of those Laws, either is, or aught to be any part of her Care; and indeed, how far those Statutes, her sometimes Darlings, are in themselves, either Just, Equitable, or consistent with Christianity itself? And how far she is equally▪ if not more than the Dissenters, obliged to Abolish them? Nor shall I endeavour to urge her Consent from any Resignation or Compliance (those fainter Motives of mere Generosity) to the Pleasure and Will of the King, that desires to have it so; but Enforce the Argument from the Bonds and Ties of Conscience and Justice, that require her Assistance to their Dissolution; and hereby Illustrate the Equity and Reasonableness of His Majesty's Proposal, and prove the Work itself, no more than the incumbent Duty of every Christian Subject, to labour to perfect. For Enquiry therefore into the Penal Laws, I shall make bold to Trace the Grounds of their Rise and Original: And to take them in Order, I must first begin with the Romanist, as being the first that fell under their Lash.  
After the Death of Queen Mary, [for 'twill suffice to set out here] her Protestant Sister Elizabeth succeeding in the Throne, under so fair a Prospect of Establishing her Religion, as having at that time the Half, if not the Majority of the Nation, of her own Persuasion; all Hands were set at Work for so glorious an Enterprise: But the main Engine was, That the Reformers having before their Eyes, the late Severity of her Sister's Reign, the Protestant Church, either truly, or rather seemingly ashamed, [as time will show] was conscious that she had no means so proper to Recommend herself to the People's Esteem, as the avoiding all those Occasions of Odium, which had rendered the Romish Church so much the Object of their Aversion; and therefore the change must be wrought, and Affections won, by the opposite Extremes of Mercy and Moderation.  
These foster Measures for a while, were endeavoured to be rendered her very Fundamental Principles, and one of her proudest Distinguishing Characters from her severer Predecessors. But alas! In few years, Indulgence appeared a too slow-paced Progress of Reformation: For still, notwithstanding the Encouragement of a Protestant Queen, and the Establishment of our Church, the Ecclesiastic Advances went on too leisurely, and Conversions not fast enough to satisfy, either the Church's Itch of Power, or Warmth of Zeal, under the ●ooser R●ins of Toleration. For whilst 〈◊〉 Popish Party were any ways Com●●ed at, and Permitted any Liberty of their Worship, their Church though falling, could not want some few unshaken Members at least, that would still follow even its Ruins: And perhaps, the Romish Priests, though thrown out of Church Preferment, could not, or would not forbear to Confirm, and Encourage their thin and scatterred Party; and possibly, through an Indispensable (as they thought) Duty to that Communion in which persuaded, they only expected Salvation; they might not (to give all Persuasions their due in this Point) omit either Arguments or Industry, (as Opinion wants neither) to render their Religion never the less lovely, for the Cloud it wore, which indeed is but natural to all Religions, whilst they think their own, the only, or at least, the nearest way to Heaven.  
These Remora's, how small Stops soever to her advancing Glory, the Church of England beholding with Impatience, and Repining even at her smallest Favours to the Romish Party, whilst but the least Impediments to her yet unsatisfied Ambition, (for to be uppermost, was not enough, unless she could be all too) began to think of some more Expeditious way, for the Weeding out of Popery; and to look out for a sharper Pruning-Hook, than mere Teaching and Preaching, to do the Work of Reformation: Set agog therefore upon Dispatch and Execution, she felt the Itch of her Forefathers; and if Honour and Reputation could be safe, she should not scruple at a little of the Old-fashioned Shamble-work to gain her Point. But considering, that to 〈…〉 in Religion, and 〈…〉 with Death, would carry too 〈◊〉 the look● of Old S●ithsield, and so 〈◊〉 her own ●●●boasted 〈◊〉 and Innocence; she is therefore put to no 〈…〉 and Invention, to overleap that Difficulty, and accomplish her Projection; till a● last, she lights upon this incomparable Stratagem to mask her Designs, and smooth all; viz. to punish recusancy with Death, under the Bl●●k and Dismal Brand of High Treason The Measures and 〈◊〉 used, and made towards raising this artful Superstructure, take in short as follows.  
In the first Year of Queen Elizabeth, she Ass●rts her Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Supremacy, in all things and Causes whatever, and Creates an Oath to be tendered her Subjects, for Confirmation of that Power.  
In the fifth of Her Reign, grown warmer in that Supremacy; She Imposes the Oath upon all Ministers and Officers of the Government, even to Lawyers, Attorneys, etc. and particularly to be taken by every Member of Parliament; And the second Refusal of taking it, after a first Tender of it Three Months before, is made High Treason.  
In Her Thirteenth Year, to Reconcile, or be Reconciled to the Church of Rome, is High Treason.  
In Her Twenty Third, the former Statute is Explained and Confirmed, and the Offender, besides the Pains of Death, to forfeit all Lands, Tenements, Goods and Chattels, as in Cases of High Treason, [A very sour sort of Grape, to set their very children's Teeth on Edge with; and to Punish even Unborn Heirs.]  
In the Twenty Seventh, Every Jesuit, Seminary, or other Priest, born within the Queen's Dominions, and Ordained without or within the Realm, by any Authority derived from the See of Rome, that shall come into, or remain within this Realm, shall be Adjudged, and suffer as a Traitor.  
Ay, God knows, a v●ry just Sentence, if the Charge be but true: But I desire to know, by what Legerdemain is this Reconciliation made High Treason? Is either the Life, or Dignity of the King struck at, by my being a Member of this or that Communion? By my believing this or that the way to Heaven? Can Faith in God be Treason against Man; for that's the result of the Question? Can a Christians best Endeavour to save his own, or his Brother's Soul, be a Machination to destroy his Prince or his Country? Or can my Praying, or not Praying to a Saint, my Adoring, or not Adoring the Eucharist, make me a true, or not true Leigeman? If Errors in Faith can amount to HIGH TREASON, and the Government is in Conscience, Obliged to treat them as such, Lord have Mercy upon us! How came the Jews to live with that Impunity in the Commonwealth, that instead of Misbelieving in Points of Doctrine, believe not so much as in the Gospel, or CHRIST himself?  
But laying the charge of High Treason more closely against them, pointing even to the blackest part of their Transgression, their Belief or Assertion of the Pope's Spiritual Supremacy; wh●t's all that too any more than mere matter of Faith still? Nor carries it the least shadow of the Subjects Breach of Duty to the Sovereign. For all that Headship they give the Pope, is merely Spiritual, in Decision of Points of Faith, or Rites of Worship; the Pope even in all Reigns, being utterly denied all Temporal or Civil Jurisdiction whatever: Nay, so tender has the Royal Prerogative been here in England, that the very Laws of the Land, even in the most Rigid Romish Administration, had Provided, that no Canons from the Papal See, nor Decrees of Councils themselves, should bind here, till received and allowed by common Assent: Yes, and farther to fence against all Encroachments whatever, from the Papal See, in the height of the Romish Interest here, Statutes have been Enacted; Witness that of the Provisors, to restrain all Papal Invasions of the Sovereign Right of Kings; so that whatever their mistaken Speculative Opinion may Attribute to their Pope, their Loyalty or Obedience to their Sovereign, neither is, nor can be touched, or concerned by any such, though never so Erroneous an Article of their Belief.  
And what unhappily looked a little severe in the Statutes that Asserted Queen Elizabeth's Supremacy under the Penalty of Death, than in either of Her Predecessors, her Father Hemy, or her Brother Edward; and that possibly laid that Stumbling-Block, that a Romanist could not easily overleap; was from an Article of their Faith, so long rooted and grounded in them, (how rightfully is not the matter) received from Age to Age, and Generation to Generation, in Favour of their Pope, to be Compelled by a yesterdays Act of Parliament, under no less a Gild than High Treason, and under the Penalty of Death; not only to acknowledge, but to swear her Majesty, to be wholly and solely, in all causes and things, the Spiritual Head of the Church within her Dominions, who otherwise before in her private Capacity, was incapable of so much as a Sub-Deaconship in a Country Parish; and if St. Paul may be believed, not qualified for so much as speaking in a Religious Assembly.  
But considering the Popular Tenderness seems a little more favourable to the poor Lay- Romanist, and something Commis●rates his hardship from the Letter of this Law; yet they'll tell you 'tis nothing but high Justice against the Romish Priest, as taking Orders from Rome, in themselves little less than Damnable and Diabolical, as received from the Papal See, the very Seat of Antichrist; and then returning home, or staying within the Realm against the Law; All which Notorious Overt Acts, are but too reasonably declared High Treason; and the Offenders therein, are justly-Exposed to the severest of Punishments, as due to so Capital a Transgression.  
To this Thundering Charge, as big as it sounds, (to show the Weakness even of the greatest Strength of their Penal Laws) I shall only make this short Reply.  
If the Church of England has, and always does admit a Convert Romish Priest, into the Protestant Clergy, without any Re-ordination to Capacitate him for that Admission, (as we need look no farther than to the constant Practice of the Church, without so much as one Example to the contrary, from the very Beginning of the Reformation) how unjustly are taking Orders from Rome, charged with High-treason? If the Orders from Rome be in themselves Holy and Sacred, how are they Damnable and Antichristian? And how the taking of them High Treason? If not Holy nor Sacred, (as if High Treason in the very receiving of them, they cannot be) does the Church of England entertain Pastors into her Ministerial Function Unconsecrated, for the Divine Service of Go●? God forbid! No; the very Practice and Concession of the Church in this Case, does so confront the palpable Injustice of this Statute, that nothing can be plainer.  
And if such are the Romish Orders, and the free choice of o●r Belief in God, and the Church we hope to be saved in, be in our own Election, (for our own Souls are answerable for it) by the same liberty of choice; why may not a zealous Believer be his own chooser, whether he will be a Member or Pastor of the Flock he owns, as his own Abilities to serve God in either Station shall dictate to him? And why are men Banished, and Excluded from their Native Right, in the Kingdom in which they are born, for only endeavouring to secure themselves, their no less Native Right in that of Heaven?  
One Observation in the Statute of the Fifth of Her Reign, I had almost forgotten, not a little worthy Remark: In this Statute, where the Incapacity of the taking the Oath of the Queen's Spiritual Supremacy, (for a Refusal of an Oath in that Case, is only a Conscientious Incapacity of taking it) is made High Treason: In one Clause of it the Queen is pleased to tell us, She is so sufficiently assured of the Faith and Loyalty of Her temporal Lords, that this Act, nor any thing contained in it, shall not Extend to Her Barons, nor the Oath be Imposed upon them.  
What Contradictious and Cob-webb-Laws are here? A Commoner belike for his Incapacity of taking that Oath, is guilty of High Treason; but a Baron so Incapacitated, is a Faithful and Loyal Gentlem●n; as if they were not equally Subjects to the Crown, and equally Criminal in any Transgression against it. 'Tis true, had the particular Favour and Indulgence of the Government resolved to Exempt the Peer from the Penalty only of this Law, it had been something▪ but to discharge him, Eo Nomine, from the Guil● too, makes the whole Statute such an Arbitrary Declaration of Treason, that both the Compilers of such Laws, and the Defenders of them, aught to blush at.  
Now as this is the Treatment that the Romish Recusancy meets from our Penal Laws, let us 〈◊〉 what better fare the Protestant Dissenters had amongst them.  
To begin therefore with the very first Penal Vengeance that was armed against them, let us examine the 35th of Elizabeth.  
Eliz. 35. Chap. 1. For preventing such great Inconveniences and Perils as might happen, and grow by the wicked and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries, and Disloyal Persons, it is Enacted, That if any Person above sixteen years of Age, shall forbear coming to Church for one month; or shall either move or persuade any other Person to abstain from hearing of Divine Service, or receiving the Communion according to Law, or come to any Unlawful Assemblies, Conventicles, or Meetings; every such Person shall be imprisoned without Bail, till he Conform, and do in some Church make this open submission following:  

The Form of Submission.  
I A. B. Do humbly confess and acknowledge, That I have grievously offended God in contemning [His] Majesties Godly and Lawful Government and Authority, by absenting myself from Church, and from hearing Divine Service, contrary to the Godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm; and in using and frequenting Disordered and Unlawful Conventicles and Assemblies, under pretence and colour of Religion; and I am heartily sorry for the same, etc. [And so on, till he promises future Conformity.]   
You see what hard meat they are tied to, Conform or lie in Goal without Bail or 〈…〉 very remarkable 〈…〉 Poor Criminal, either really 〈…〉 ●ighted into 〈…〉 of this Law, 〈…〉 obey, he's 〈…〉 a Form of 〈…〉 Declare in open 〈…〉 of God, and his own 〈…〉 what he knows to be a Notory 〈…〉: For how zealously, how peaceably, or how devoutly soever himself, and his other Dissenting Brethren frequented the forementioned Forbidden Assemblies; 'twill not suffice to say his and their Devotion and Zeal were misled and erroneous, and that he is willing for the future to be better instructed by the Pastors of the Church of England, to whom he returns; but he must charge all his former Religious Worship with a Dissimulation-Masque, as only a Pretence and Colour of Religion; and so brand Himself and his Neighbours with the basest and falsest of Hypocrisy: For no less expiatory Penitence will serve his turn.  
Is it not highly to be suspected, that the Compilers of these Statutes valued the Reputation of their Laws above the Souls of their Converts? For considering they are pleased to charge Disorder and Disloyalty upon the Dissenting Assemblies, the Penitent must confess the Impeachments true, or the Walls of a Goal, like the Old fashioned Eloquence of Racks, shall pinch him till he does it.  
But to return to our Statute. If the Party do not Conform, and make his Submission within three Months after Conviction, then being required by any Justice of Peace, He or She shall in open Court, (at the Assizes or Sessions) Abjure the Realm of England, and all other the [King's] Dominions, within such Time as the Court shall Assign: And by such Abjuration, shall lose and forfeit all Goods and Chattels for ever, and Lands and Tenements during Life. [A very Extraordinary sort of Banishment, when by losing all a Man has into the Bargain the Law not only provides to send him packing, perhaps, to none of the most Hospitable Shores; but at the same time, very industriously takes care to see him starve there too.]  
But if such Party either Resuse to forswear the Land, or do any Time after such Abjuration, return to England, or any of [His] Majesty's Dominions, than he shall Die as a Felon, without Benefit of Clergy, etc.  
You see here's the very same Impeachment against the Nonconformist too. The same Taint runs through the Protestant Dissent, as did before through the Romish Recusancy: And without any of the forementioned Capital Popish Gild of owning a Foreign Jurisdiction, (for there wants no such unnecessary Treason, to heap up th●ir Sum) they are nevertheless both alike, Twinn-Brothers in Iniquity; and Sedition and Disloyalty the equal charge against them. And though 'tis true, the Dudgeon of these Laws gives not Death at the first Blow; however, it ends in the Old Noose, a Halter, only under a new Name of Felony.  
You have here the Insant Vengeance, the very Primitive Scorpions of our Church, in 〈◊〉 of Konconsormity. I shall not so much Instance the 〈…〉 of our Church, to keep up this 〈◊〉 Statute in Force: Witness the 26th of Car. 2. on that Occasion: Nor the particular Applause a late Author of our Church gave His late Majesty, for the Exercise of His Royal Prerogative, (as he terms it) in preserving that Law, which was doomed to an undeserved Fate, that is, when the Bill for the Repeal of that Statute, had past both Houses, and lay ready for His Majesty's Signing; His Majesty by His Royal Prerogative, (a very unpresidented one, and therefore the worthier that Author's Commendation) Connived at the Cl●rk in Parliament, that so carefully performed His Commission in losing it.  
The Church of England's great Tenderness for this Statute, is not so much her Trophy, as the Numerous Ossenders Impeached by this Law: Witness the la●e many Thousands at one time, Indicted upon this very Statute; a great part whereof lay in Goals, and all of them expecting their approaching Abjuration, Banishment, etc. Had not a special Be●m from Heaven, in His Majesty's most signal Clemency, like the Angel of Peter, set ●pen their Prison Doors; an Act of so much more than Royal Mercy, that possibly, together with the Numerous Prayers sent up to Heaven for Him, in return for such Unparalleled Grace, may not have a little contributed to obtain from the Almighty Thron●, our late truly Royal Deodat; so special a Blessing of his Age, and Hope of His Kingdom, possibl● given him as the Meed and Reward of such Transcendent Compassion and Clemency.  
Well then! Both Conventicles and Mass-Houses must lie under the same Dilemma, and share the some 〈◊〉; whils● Treason and Sedition lies at the bottom of the Dissent on all sides. And to six this ●●putation upon them, are there any of our Laws made all along against Nonconformists, but whose Preamble runs upon any less Topick, than the Breach of the Peace, and the Underniining the very Foundation of the Government; and all for deserting the Church of England, and meeting in their own Religious Assemblies, to offer up their Prayers and Devotions to God, according to their Consciences? Was there ever a late Conventicle disturbed, with any other Warrant, than as Riotously, and Routously Assembled, and thereupon punished with Fines, Imprisonments, Sequestrations and Banishments, sometimes to the Ruin of whole Families? Whilst our Laws, with the same Masquerade, as in the Popish High Treason before, charges the mere meeting to Worship God, with no less than Sedition and Disloyalty.  
But wherein lay this Sedition and Disloyalty? Was it in their so Meeting? No sure; for as the Intention makes the Gild, the Intention was only a Religious Worship, and not a State-Disturbance.  
Was the Sedition then in the Doctrines they Preached or Printed? If so, Why was it not proved against them? Their Writings are not only public enough to stand that Test, but also their Meeting house Doors stood open, and their Enemies have all along, been both Potent and Namerous enough, to hear and detect any Seditious Design or Doctrines against the Church or State: And the Law was furnished both with Rods and Axes to punish any Crime of that kind, according to its Demerit, before the Penal Laws were so much as thought on: Besides, to clear them in this Point, what Writers are so Voluminous as the Dissenters? And to prove our Episcopal Spectacles read no such Seditious Doctrines amongst them, How comes it that several of the Dissenters Books, as Owen and Caryl's Works, etc. have been thought worthy to instruct our most Orthodox Clergy, when so many of them are to be sound in all their Sudies and Libraries?  
If then they neither publicly Preach, nor Print any such Doctrines of that Seditious and Disloyal Stamp, do they in Conversation Own or Avow any such Traitorous or Disloyal Principles? No, sure; they have more Wit. If they are so hardy as to do that, we have other Laws to noose 'em, without the help of those Religious Penal Statutes.  
Do they then commit any open Act of Treason, Sedition, etc. Let them do that if they dare. If we once catch them at that Game, the Government has 'em fast enough, either Popish or Protestant Dissenters, by the Heels and the Necks too: Nor is any thing of this the Treason or Disloyalty that these Statutes pretend to Arraign. Who ever heard of any Overt Act of Treason or Sedition, Indicted by the 23d, or the 35th of Elizabeth?  
Then if neither Preaching, Printing, Speaking, or Acting of any thing Traitorous or Seditious, be the Capital Gild these Statutes are levelled at, certainly thinking of ●reason must be the Crime. A Popish or Protestant Recusant, is such an Offeader, that by the very Affections of his Soul, cannot be Loyal to the Crown: And to prove this Infallible Accusation true, the Protestant Wisdom has by Divine Inspiration, formed a Law to Arraign and Condemn the very Thoughts of the Heart, of which God only can be Judge. And truly, to make the Calumny stick the faster, they have Established it by a Maxim, held almost as Sacred as Gospel, No Bishop, no King.  
No; though Sedition and Disloyalty was the pretence, it p●●cht not there. The Diss●ters grew too Numerous, and the Church of England began to see her Grandeur her Diana Grandeur shrink, and her Dear Dominion lessen, and therefore for Enacting this, and indeed all other her Penal Laws, her old Arts must be once more her Refuge: The Non-conformists must be crushed and suppressed, and to avoid ad ●mputations of Oppression and Cruelty, Sedition and Riots, and what not, must be the Charge against them, and the Law gilded over with that ●air Title to make it swadowable. 'Tis true indeed the Church Indignation has generally contented itself with omitting the latter part of the Execution, viz. Death as a Pelon. However it has too often laboriously taken care to make their Purses if not their Veins bleed for it, and that too sometimes by so ●otal a Drein, that whole Families have been reduced to the condition of Starving, which is the very next Door to it. And a● things considered, Liberty, next to Life, is so dear, that whole Years of Noisome Imprisonment have been very little the easier Punishment.  
Take then the whole Penal Laws together, the Rubbish so industriously piled up by our Protestant Bulwark-makers, for the gaeat Fence of a Church, and ●ome to the full Result of all. Here's the Church of England so poorly Prevaricating as to ●ollow those very steps which with all her highest Noise and Exclamations she pretends are her greatest Detestation and Abhorrence. And whilst the plainer R●manist Enacts & Executes his most Capital Laws against Heresy from his Church, under the downright Name of Heresy; our poorer spirited Lawmakers are for punishing Heresy from their Church, under Masque and Disguise, obtruding their Penal Laws upon the World, under the meanest of Hypocrisy & Imposture.  
Besides 〈…〉 sent in 〈…〉 thing is not 〈…〉 would render it, how 〈◊〉 the Church of England to treat so many 〈◊〉 Protestant States and Kingdoms, with that 〈◊〉, as Brethren Professors of Truth, when not one of all those Protestant Kingdoms, but is a Dissenter from the Church of England, and yet ●o vigorously Persecutes her own 〈◊〉 Subjects for the very same Dissent, with all the forementioned stigmatising Bra●d etc.  
Having given you this portrait of our Penal Laws, I shall only and some 〈◊〉 Lineaments more, and so finish the P●●ce. And to make a further Balance betwixt ourselves and Rome in that Point, how unchristian or unwarrantable soever all such Penal Inflictions for mere Conscience may be, the Church of Rome has, or at least fancies she has some little pretext for such Laws. For under her Famous Tenent of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, and her consinement of Salvation only within her own Boundaries, she may have sometimes consented to the practice of cutting off a stray Sheep, to terrify the rest of the Flock from leaping the Fold, as imagining to herself in so doing, and in Sacrificing some lost Sons of Perdition (for such she accounts them) and thereby lopping off some corrupt Member, already past hope of Redemption, she only secures possibly the whole Body, as she thinks, from Apostasy and Damnation. And consequently such exemplary Acts, though of the greatest Rigour, how mistaken soever, are only intended as absolutely necessary for that great end, Universal Salvation. But, alas! our more charitable Church, that dares not bound the Grace of God, but by a larger Latitude, and more extended Operation of the Blood of Christ, equally allows Salvation to true Zeal and Piety in both Churches, and indeed in all Christian Professions: Under all this Concession, I say, our Protestant Church utterly wants this Loophole, & upon true examination will be found wholly Inexcusable: for in Executing of her Sanguinary Laws in Punishment of mere matter of Conscience, she cuts off, not like Rome, the supposed Members of Perdition, but even those Professors of Christianity, which by her own Confession may be equally with herself the Sons of Grace and Coheirs of Salvation.  
Nay, I'll venture to add one bold Word more, because a true one, The Church of England in her once Executing of her Sanguinary Laws, is undoubtedly guilty of more Barbarity than the Ten Primitive Heathen Persecutions. For in all cases of Suffering for Religion, 'tis an undeniable Maxim, That He that makes the Martyr lest thinks he makes him. The Bloodiest Pagan Tyrants in all the studied Arts of Torments, Blood and Christian Massacre, did not believe that they Butchered the then only Professors of Truth and Heirs of Heaven; but on the contrary, in Devotion to their own supposed true Deities, they thought they only Executed Apostates, Blasphemers and Infidels, for such they accounted the Christians, as professed Deserters of their Heathen Gods and Sacrifices: But all this while our Church of England (I am sorry to her shame it must be spoken) out does the very Heathens themselves, in Enacting and Executing those severest Penal Cruelties, by which she Ruins, Destroys, or Cuts off those very Members of Christianity, who (if true Zealots in their Profession) she owns are in the number of the Elect of God; and if any true Zealots amongst them, those certainly that have courage to suffer Gaols, Sequestrations, Banishments, etc. even to the constancy of dying for their Religion, are not the least of them; and consequently she cannot deny, but in Executing those Laws, she both makes the Martyr, and knows she makes him too. And if she's so unblamable in her Severity against the Romanists, much more criminal must her Rigour against the Dissenters be, whom she owns to differ from herself in little more than Ceremonies and Punctilios, by her own Confession no ways essential to Salvation.  
Nay, the Ferment has sometimes boiled so high, that our Protestant Church has put her Zeal upon the stretch to find means to vent her Indignation, when some of those very Laws against Recusancy have been extended against the Protestant Dissenters, & the greatest part of their Sufferings received from the Lash of those Laws. I shall not pretend to dive so far, as to ascertain whether that comprehension was Originally Designed by those Laws, or otherwise, an Artificial Superstructure to serve a State turn; but either way the Severity of those Laws is not a little notorious, where so trivial matters of Dissent in Religion, as has been said before, have been so cruelly treated.  
But if our Protestant Church cannot possibly be reconciled to Liberty of Conscience, and therefore these Laws were her Weapons against it, her more generous way, at least more agreeable to a Christian Profession, had been first fairly to have overthrown it by dint of Argument, before she made use of dint of Steel to do it by; and for that purpose, I wonder how that famous Bishop Taylor has passed for so great a Doctor of the Church, all this while, and his Treatise upon that Subject, called, Liberty of Prophesying, not yet answered; or why at least was not the Author under no small Ecclesiastical Fulminations (if no other way to answer it) for so terrible a Blow, against the Churches long main favourite Bulwark, her Penal Laws. 'Tis true I confess, all other means failing, they lighted upon one incomperable Stratagem to confute it, (for 'tis in Controversy as 'tis in War, where open Force cannot Conquer, Policy must) viz. finding their Impotence at all other Weapons, after the late King's Restoration, they very wisely bought up the whole Impression, to silence and sti●le it, and the rest of his Works Reprinted without it.  
'Tis true, some People will object, What are all these Laws to the Church, when enacted only by the civil Power, as an Expedient for its own Security and Defence, and therefore Warrantable and Lawful; nor in any respect are they chargeable upon the Ecclesiastics. Alas! this is such a feeble Objection, that 'tis scarce to be named without blushing; as if the Clergy did not Act in Parliament by their Representatives; nay, the very Bishops ●itting there in Person, assenting to, and undoubtedly little less than Original Founders of those Laws, but grant it, as they say, the m●er Establishment of the Civil Power; the Clergy by owning the Justice, and asserting the Necessity of such Laws for defence of their Church, the Lay-power in this case is little more than the Cats-paw to rake out the Chestnut.  
I confess indeed we have had many late Pulpit Discourses on this Subject, and several softening Persuasions urged, to throw off this Severity on the Temporal Administration: But truly, to our Churches great misfortune, her numerous Excommunications, the peculiar Bolts of her own spiritual Vengeance, and the Goaling that have followed those Thunder-Peales, are such notorious confronting Demonstrations against her, that her clearing her Hands in this matter, is a Second washing the Ethiop. Besides wherein are the Civil Rulers, and the Temporal Power of a Christian Government, any ways more authorised to outgo the Gospel Moderation and Clemency, for any Politic Consideration whatever, than the more immediate Oracles of Truth, our Pastors themselves.  
And this the great Legislators of those Penal Statutes very well knew, and therefore as I told you before, they cunningly converted Recusancy into high Treason, and Nonconformity into Sedition, Disloyalty, and what not, to find something, though but Seemingly justifiable for the Fangs of their Laws to lay hold of; and so boulstered up their Penal Statutes to make them able to walk upright.  
But to evidence how highly our very Church Men have interested themselves in the Persecution of Nonconformity, and shown their implacable aversion even to the least shadow of Moderation, what was their Prosecution of Dr Whit●y and Mr Bold, on the latter of whose Head our Church Indignation, and our Ecclesiastical Boanerges were not contented to pover down their common Vials of Wrath, by any single process against him, to try the Point; but they heaped no less than six several Suits at Law against him at one time; as if the Glory of so Divine a Quarrel could put the stamp of Honour even upon common Barrerty itself: Nay, some of our very Clergy Men thought it no Blemish to their Gown to act the very part of Informers against him.  
I'll only put this one Question to all the Doctors of our Church, With what Conscience can a Church that owns its self fallible, establish Laws to punish Dissenters in Religion, when by her own Confession of fallibility, she neither has nor can have any certainty or assurance (how strong soever she thinks or hopes her own Foundation) but that she Punishes those that possibly may be more in the Right than herself; more especially in those Professions that found their Dissenting Points of Doctrine upon her own Ba●s the Scripture? To speak a little further to this Point: What was our separation from the Romish Communion, and consequently our whole Reformation any more than disclaiming the erroneous Doctrines of the Romish Church, and retrenching her useless or superstitious Ceremonies? and as several of the Dissenters entirely concur with us in disclaiming the same erroneous Opinions, only di●●ering from us in reforming more of their Ceremonies than ourselves, I desire to be informed, by what Light, unless by an infallible Spirit, our Church can say, Roform thus far and no further; The Reformation in this very bound is Holy and Sacred, and one step beyond it or variation from it is Offence and Sin.  
And that a farther Reform may not look altogether so impardenable, King Edward the Sixth was pleased to tell the World, in his Common Prayer Book, That the Reforms then made in the Public L●turgy were not complete; He having at present no further Reform the then time than would bear, and that a farther Reform was intended to be made by him.  
But since that short Reigned Prince, lived not to the performance of the Promise, pray have his Protestant Successors made that further Reform for him? truly I am afraid none or next to none, the Liturgy and what else remaining almost entire (if not more exceptionable) as He left it. Now here will several odd Debates arise, as first either that pious Prince, and our Original Reformers had they finished that Reform (so tender are our Laws, even in the least syllable of our present Liturgy) must have out gone the due bounds of Reformation, and by so hainicous an Error have pulled down upon themselves the scandal of S●st●ries, or else our present Sectaries so called in endeavouring to follow so Pious and Royal a Leader, possibly may not deserve all the hard Names and harder Fates our Penal Laws have bestowed upon them: So that upon the Issue not only that Young King and our Primitive Doctors must be in the wrong for intending any such further Reform, or our present Reformers in the wrong, for so loudly quarrelling the least attempt of such a Reform, as so guilty and so black an Apostasy.  
I cannot tell what Equity wiser Heads may find out for the Ordination of Penal Laws, but truly in my opinion, the great Prince of Peace, that reprimanded the drawing of that Sword that cut off but the Ear of the High-Priests Servant, though in his own immediate Cause, very little intended the raising his Church, or the propagation of his Gospel, by either Axes, or Gibbets, or Gaols, or Dungeons.  
And He that left us the Standard of Christianity, in the Innocency of Doves, never commissioned us the Rapine of Vultures, and though we are conceded the Subtlety of Serpents, I know no Warrant that He gave us either for the Stings or the Poys●● of them; when the Prophecy of the Gospel was, That the Church should learn War no more.  
And though my Zeal for Truth makes me thus plain in detecting the only shame and frailty of the Reformed Church, I hope she has Goodness enough to forgive the Boldness of a blushing Son, who is no otherwise solicitous then for her covering her own Nakedness. And that I may truly term it such the Reformation, that otherwise may boast her Purity and Principles only founded on Holy Writ, and all the rest of her Doctrines and Practices derived from those Sacred Oracles, will be only found tripping here; and in all her support of Spiritual Records in all other Points, I am afraid must have recourse even to the exploded Authority of unwritten Tradition, only for her Penal Laws. For I shrewdly suspect that Lollards Tower's and Inquisition Houses (let her mince it as she will) will be found the only Precedents for the Estates she has Co●iscated, the Families she has Beggared, the Goails she has Filled, besides her sometimes loading of Gibbets, and ripping up the Bowels even of her own Co-Disciples, because dissenting Professors of Christ, and all by her Penal Laws.  
Nor will it suffice for an excuse to insinuate, that the Establishment of Religion and Conformity of Worship on one side, and 〈◊〉 Preservation of Peace and Tranquillity of the State on the other side, exact the necessity of such rigid Laws, (though by the by, the Peace of States is rather destroyed then upheld by such Laws; for what Civil War in almost all the Christian World, that directly or indirectly has not had the Oppression of some Religious Party, its greatest back, if not only incentive)  
No; to gain the first of these great Ends, let the Teachers and Professors of our Established Church live up to the height of their Profession, and recall the Wanderers, and reduce the Strays into the ●old, by their own convincing Examples of 〈◊〉 ●iety; a much more commendable way of making Prosel●●s than the forementioned rigid Acts of Compliance. And for the second great End, the Governments Security, if her Temporal ●ences are not strong enough, let her make stronger; and i● any of her Dissenters are the d●●urbers of her Peace, let her single out the Guilty from the Innocent, and wreak her j●st Vengeance where 'tis deserved, and not punish whole Parties, or the Dissent itself which a● being mere matter of Religion is wholly uncapable of such Crime) for the sake of any corrupted Members, that 〈◊〉 are of, or herd under the covert of such or such a Congregation of Christians. For to do that Work by the undistinguishing merciless Hand of her Penal Statutes, is so little conformable to the Evangelical Precepts, that I am afraid the doing such notorious Ills that Good may come of it, in Punishing the Innocent with the Nocent, whatever Religious Security or Gospel Propagation may be intended by them; these Penal Laws, I say, that can swallow the Estates, Fortunes, Liberties and ●ives of their weaker Brethren and fellow Christians, instead of being either Christian or Just, or any ways related to 'em, will at last appear much nearer of kin to that Famous Rover, that wanders round the World to seek whom he may Devour, insomuch that their Ordination will be ●ound little less than borrowing Engines from Hell to help to set up Heaven.  
Now to the Case of the Church of England, if these are her Penal Laws (for I shall not trouble myself with a tedious recital of the several Statutes of that Nature, as being all out Scions from the same Root) I would gladly know what Beauties, or rather invisible Charms the Church of England can find in these Statutes, to be in the least solicitous for their Preservation. For, alas! Ma●gre all her Volumes written upon the Unreasonableness of Separation from her Communion, and her Justification of her Zealous Endeavours for Conformity, unless the Means and Methods used to obtain it (as these Laws were intended for such) be equally justifiable, her whole Pretensions fall to the ground.  
Nor will it excuse her to say, that they were ch●●●y at least the Sanguinous 〈◊〉 of them (●●r our Gaols themselves sometimes have been scarce able to contain the Thousands that at one time have groaned 〈◊〉 her he● kn●t●est Thongs, her Halt●●●, and Ax●● only excepted) Enacted Interrorem as being but seldom put in Execution, as if a deliberate studied Ill, aggravated with the Formality of Justice, and in the pretended cause of Heaven, were therefore more excusable because committed, supposed but once in an Age; when a foul Act for that very cause, should rather appear the more deformed, as 'tis the rarity that makes the Monster— Besides Queen Mary had that plea to make; for what were Two hundred and sixty Protestants, even by Fox's Muster-Roll, Burnt for Religion in her five years' Reign, to the some Millions of Protestants in those days, when ha●f the Kingdom was of that Persuasion. A far shorter Catalogue of Sufferers I am a afraid when fairly computed, compared with the infinitely larger Scroll, of those almost unaccountable numbers of more lingering Martyrs, that have done our Reformation the honour to breath out their last in her Penal jails; besides some of them that have tasted her kinder stroke of Mercy from the quicker Dispatch of Halters. The number of both which upon inquiry made, has been found to amount to near six Thousand.  
To return therefore to his Majesty's proposal of Abrogating these Laws, 'tis a greater Duty upon the Church of England to abolish them, then in the Dissenters themselves; for as 'tis a Yoke imposed upon their weaker Brethren, in itself wholly unjust, the Sufferer under that Yoke in endeavouring to break it, only Acts by the motives of self-defence, the common Principle of Nature: But the Imposer of that Yoke is tied by the Obligation of Religion itself, to repeal and repent his own Act of Injustice.  
Besides If all arguments of Conscience cannot prevail; and Policy not Equity (though Heaven forbid so uncharitable a thought) is our Church's guide; yet, even then too, what does she yield up in abolishing those Laws; why, truly nothing; for whilst the Government continues in the Hands of a Prince of the Romish Religion, those Statutes will utterly lie dead▪ for the Royal Indulgence, a Prerogative in the Crown, will never put them in Execution. What reason therefore has the Church of England for her Nonconcurrence to a proposal so Equitable, when she has not so much as the least pretext even of mere Interest itself for her refusal?  
But this I am sure, as the Church of England can have no solid Reasons to oppose their Repeal, the State has very substantial Ones to enforce it. For as Trade is the greatest support and strength of a Kingdom; I know no Politics so conducing to the Commerce and Wealth of a Nation as Liberty of Conscience: What greater encouragement to Naturalisation? and England that is not overloaded with People, can have no fairer Inlet to bring in whole Families and Estates, and indeed the Wealth of the World (besides the opening that current of Commerce, even amongst our present Natives; which the restraint of Worship at all times so much shut up) than Liberty of Religion. Nor can I better instance the effects of this policy, than in the growth of the Dutch Greatness, and the decay of the Spaniard, from their different Extremes of National conduct in that Point.  
I am certain his Majesty resolves to eternize his Glory, by being the truest Pater Patriae of all the Crowed Heads since the Conquest; nor has he a fairer prospect of making his Kingdom a true Paradise of Peace and Plenty, but by taking this pattern at the least from the first Paradise▪ that is, by making the Lion and Lamb lie down in Peace together; our long dissension being no otherwise to be reconciled, and our Enmities hushed but by this only universal Pacification.  
I shall only add this last Consideration: the Execution of our Penal Laws, and the Restraint of Conscience, has been the greatest Blow that ever was given to the Hereditary Right of the Subjects of England, their natural Properties and Immunities given and Sealed to them by Magna Charta itself. For who can call his Liberty or Estate his own, whilst a Superior Opinion in Power shall seize our Persons, and confiscate our Estates, for no other cause but difference of Worship and Faith, and neither Person, Estate or Liberty, redeemable under a less Composition than renouncing of God; for Conformity of Worship absolutely against Conscience is little less. And all this capital offence so unfixt, and so undeterminable a sort of Transgression, that a Man has only a mere Lottery to be in the Right or the Wrong: For the blackest Criminal in one Reign, has been the whitest Saint in the next, and so Vice Versa over again, witness the Reigns of Edward the sixth, Queen Marry and Queen Elizabeth, where the Protestants were the Devils one while, and the Papists another: Nay, in the Reign of Henry the eight both Papist and Protestant were at one time in the wrong: For 'twas remarkable in his Reign, that in the same day have Papists been Hanged for Traitors, for disowning his Church Supremacy; and Protestants Burnt for Heriticks, for denying of Transubstantiation. Thus in their turns have all Religions and Opinions lain under the Scourge of the severest of Laws, and all for want of that Obedience to a Law, which▪ Humanity itself is utterly unable to pay. For though our breach or not breach of all other Laws, either Human or Divine, lies in our own free will and choice; to conform or not conform to this or that Belief, is wholly above the Power of Man; Faith only being irresistible: And if our worldly well-being, and all we enjoy in this Life, depends upon such Capricious Decrees of Law, certainly the great Charter of our Liberties and Estates that confirmed 'em both under no such condition or Restriction is not a little invaded by the Penalties of such Laws: Nor is Restraint of Conscience and the Execution of our Penal Laws, in their own nature and tendency only destructive to the rightful Liberty of English-Men, but the very Letter of those Laws themselves has made the most visible Rupture into the very strongest Walls of our Magna Charta, that is our Trial by our Peers, by a Jury of Twelve, our Magna Charta more particularly confirms to us that hereditary right, and our Penal Laws most notoriously take it from us. For instance 22 Car. 2. Cap. 2. It is there Enacted, That one Justice of Peace or other chief Magistrate shall upon the Oath of two Witnese make a Record of a Conventicle, which Record shall be a Conviction, and the Offender sinned, as the Statute further Expresses.  
So that to gain the point of Gaolment or Consiscation, without any process whatever: here's a Justice of Peace, or a Mayor of a Town, though but by Occupation a Thatcher, shall in Conjunction with no more than a Clerk (or perhaps none) as wise as himself, make a Court of Judicature and Record, to convict a Dissenter, and that too in no less a Cause▪ then Where his very Loyalty (if the Statute tells Truth) is concerned; and all this from the Mouth of two Witness generally known by the name of Informers, Persons that sometimes have mounted Pillories, a sort of Men not always of the most substantial unshaken veracity, especially considering the Temptation of 〈◊〉 third Snip in the Fine●, which in Twenty Pounds and For●▪ Pounds at a Fine from the Preacher, besides the lesser ●ulcts from all the whole Auditory, may with good management rise to a Sun.  
Take these Penal Laws all together I cannot tell what greater or more glorious Design his Gracious Majesty can undertake, then by repairing so deep a Breach, wrought through the very Fundamentals of His People's Orriginal Freedom, and Birthrights; nor is th●●e or has been a greater Friend or Patron of the Church of England than His present Majesty, who Himself alone tenders her the means and opportunity to wash off those Stains and Blots, which either the Petulance or Remissness of her Protestant Defenders of her Faith, through these Penal Statutes have east or left upon her, and so to restore and maintain her Whiteness and Innocency.  
Having made this fair inquest into the Penal Laws, I shall take a little scearch into the Test, and lay down those Reasons that equally oblige us to concur with his Majesty in a Repeal of that too.  
In order to which, it behoves us first to sum up all the great and popular Arguments (if I may so call 'em, th● in reality rather the Language of Fears and Jealousies, than the Voice of right Reason) daily urged for the Preservation of the Test, viz. That the whole Defence of the Protestant Religion relies on that Basis. If the Test were once abrogated, the Church of England would soon be blown up, when all Offices both Ecclesiastical and Civil, and all Power and Authority both in Church and State shall be lodged in Roman Catholics, and what not?  
To answer which hideous and formidable Outcry, we'll begin first with the pretended Dangers threatened the Church of England, by Repeal of the Test. Not to insist upon his Majesty's reiterated Word and Honour, his inviolable Engagements to maintain the Church of England, as now by Law Established, in her uninterrupted Rights and Privileges, all her Churches and Church-living, whatever thereunto belonging, etc. in itself alone ●o little Security. But waving that Plea, the Ecclesiastical Government and the Church of England neither are nor can be shaken or touch● by the abrogation of the Test, the Test being indeed no part of her Defence. For first the v●ry taking off the Test is no part of the Qualification of any of the Clergy of England, nor was ever so much as mentioned or thought upon to be impoted or tendered to the Clergy as such: (the tnedring the Test to the Bishops relating only to their Peerage, as Members of the House of Lords) No, as Jealous the Founders of that Test were (or pretended to be) of the danger of P●pery, and as Zealous as they could be for the Security of the Protestant Religion, they very well knew the Church of ●England had two impregnable Bulwarks, the two great Acts of Uniformity, that themselves alone sufficiently established, guarded, and preserved the Church of England in all points, without any Fortification, from the Test; nor indeed was the Test wanted in the Ecclesiastic Administration, those very Statutes being a greater and stronger Test before: For by those Statutes is the whole Liturgy, the Administration of the Sacraments, and indeed all the Canons and Articles of the Church supported; for by the Pence of those Laws, first, no Romanist can be admitted into the Clergy, unless under the most damnable Hypocrisy (which no humane Test can discover) an Hypocrisy too, no ways beneficial to the Romish Cause, whilst tied up to the Divine Service, as now by Law established. Secondly, No other Divine Service, as the Mass, or the like, can be introduced into our Churches, already constituted or assigned for the Divine Service of the Church of England.  
The strength of these two Laws, His Majesty very well knows, and is so far even from the thought of hurting or infringing the least Particle of either of those Laws, or the Security our Church has, does, or can receive from them, by abrogating any Penal Laws or Tests whatsoever, that on the contrary, there is not undoubtedly that farther Confirmation of those Laws, and the Religious Observance of them, or any thing conducing thereunto, that may, or shall be offered to His Majesty in Parliament, that His Majesty shall not readily assent to, and as inviolably maintain. And that in all and every Part and Particle of those Laws, that relates to the Orthodox Qualification of our Clergy, the Establishment of our Liturgy, Rites and Ceremonies, and the securing all other the Regalia of our Church, as now by Law established, Her Tormenta and Flagella only excepted. And indeed His Majesty has instanced His peculiar Aversion to any Invasion of our Church's Right in that point, that He has not so much as taken a Chapel of Ease from them; witness the Late established Lord Mayor Chappel, lying sh●t up, rather th●n invade our Church by the admission of a Dissenter, only pro tem●●re.  
I● then the Church of England, Her Administration and Government (as 'tis plain) stand of themselves alone secure and firm, without any borrowed prop or support from the Test wh●●ever; the Test therefore is only a Buttrice (or at least so intended) to the Civil Magistracy; as first excluding all Roman Catholics from all Offices of Trust in the State; secondly, from all Domestic Services near the Person of the KING; and thirdly, from all Right to Session in Parliament.  
These three Incapacities are by the Test thrown upon the Romanists; and for confuting all suspicions and jealousies, let us examine where, how far, and what part of the Test His Majesty desires to have repealed; what Reasons induce him to desire it; and lastly, what Influence such a Repeal can have over the present Estabisht Church of England.  
In the first place, as to the Civil Government; What Office in the State can a Roman-Catholick hold, any ways impowering him to prejudice the Church of England? Suppose even in the Courts of Judicature (for if any apparition of any such power, 'tis there;) were 〈◊〉 (imagine) in all those Offices? Why 〈◊〉 not a Sir Thomas Moor be as hon●● as a Lord Chief Justice Hales, and execute his Office with as great Integrity and Justice●▪ Why not men of equal abilities, he of equal uprightness in all Religions? Besides the distribution of m●um and 〈◊〉 (more especially when Liberty of 〈◊〉 shall be passed into a perpetual Law, and all Penal Inflictions for Matter of 〈◊〉 thrown out of their Jurisdictions) will then be the whole business that lies before them. And wherein is a Roman-Catholick Judge any more incapacitated for the administration of Justice than another man? Moreover, in a Kingdom where their Number is so truly inconsiderable, as scarce the two hundredth man in the Nation, if they have hopes of making any Converts, or any endeavours that way, it can only be done by holding the Scale of Justice upright, and in all Posts of Trust, by keeping up the steadiest Standard of Right and Equity, as the only means thereby to recommend and endear themselves to the World, and wipe off those blemishes that the mistaken Jealousies and popular Misapprehensions have so long, so unkindly cast upon them. And this, and this only, they are very sensible is their Chart to steer by; and their great Pilot, their Royal Master the best read Student in the Arts of Empire, that possibly ever graced a Throne, equally knows to be his only course, and undoubtedly as sacredly resolves to make it so. And if the Judges of the Land suppose of the Romish Religion (besides their Oaths that bind 'em, and His Majesty's Honour that shall influence them to it) have these Obligations more and above even of Interest to their very Religion itself, to move in so regular a Sphere of Justice, where lies our Danger? And if this higher station will be so inoffensive, What can the poorer Justices of the Peace, or the inferior Subministration of the Government signify, in Popish or not Popish hands?  
But in this Case I have heard some people say; Alas, What stretch of the Laws will not such Judges make? Perhaps for instance, pick a hole in the Abby-Lands, and start some dormient Title or other to revert them to the Church of Rome; a Patrimony that will not a little enrich the Romanists, and advance their Cause.  
This idle Objection was scarce worth naming; as if the stretching of our Laws in that point was not as notorious and arbitrary as a total violation of the Subjects Right, and rending the whole Frame of the Laws in sunder. But to check this idle surmise, if a Romish Parliament itself in the Reign of Queen Mary, with the very Restauration of the Romish Religion and Papal Supremacy into the Saddle, never so much as attempted to revert those Lands: Nay, on the contrary, their whole Title was confirmed to the present Possessors, by a Decretal from Rome itself, as was then so solemnly done by Cardinal Poole, the than Pope's Legate: How groundless must the fear be of any thought or attempt of reverting them now? Or, Why must the Romish Judges in any kind subvert or undermine the Laws, contrary to all their best Politics, in the present state of England, to no true advantage either to themselves or their Church, and possibly to be answerable for it with their Heads, if they live to the next Protestant Prince.  
To come next to the Officers of His Majesty's Household, etc. to have those Posts too barricaded with Tests, and the Imperial Dignity so shackled, as to be debarred the choice of its own Menials; nay, even of its Conversation itself, is an Insolence put upon Majesty, as had been scarce tolerable from an Ordinance of Forty Eight, much less an Act of Parliament: But for our less Wonder at it, we are to consider, 'twas hatched in the same Republic Nest; for no less than the great old Patriot, of three Names, sat sor the brooding of it.  
I think I need not raise Arguments to prove how little those Gentlemen of Honour, the Courtiers I mean, of any Religion whatsoever, in that innocent Station are, or can be concerned in shaking either Church or State. It's enough to say, that greater Indignity, under the Sanction of a Law, was never imposed upon a Crowned Head. The meanest Gentleman in England, whilst this Test keeps footing, has a Prerogative above the KING. For the choice of His Steward, Bailiff, Attorney, or Sollititor, etc. are in His own free Election; but these were Privileges thought too large for a KING; and therefore He is stinted, and bounded to such Elections, as the more Imperial Wisdom of His then great Counsellors in Parliament judged fittest for Him.  
Monarchical Rule is said to be like that of Heaven, where the Primum Mobile acts altogether by inferior Spheres, and Second Causes. And so Majesty, by its Officers and Ministers, as so many Vehicles, by which the Influences of the Royal Power are conveyed. But truly this Ascendency the Late Law makers judged too Great for the King of England, and therefore they found an Expedient to render the Monarchy little more than precarious, making the whole Ministers of the State the Creatures of the Test, and not of the KING. Now, I desire to know, how in reason we can imagine, That a KING in Himself the Fountain of Honour, and Original of Power, though in His Nature the mildest and best tempered of Princes; though without the least thought of Unhinging the Frame of the Government, or disturbing the Settled Church of His Kingdom, to blast His Own Glory, and lose His Subjects Hearts; (for that would be all the Crop 'twould yield Him,) I wonder, I say, how we can imagine, that the Best and most Gracious of Princes, though without the forementioned Designs, could nevertheless brook so Imprincely a Yoke, as the Test. And truly to justify His Majesty's heartiest endeavours, against both Penal Laws and Test, in not labouring to Abrogate the first, as they stand in force against the Lives and Liberties, (and how unjustly has been proved before) of the Members of his own Communion, he would be the most unnatural of men: and in not labouring to repeal the last, as standing so egregiously in force against the Right and Prerogative of His Crown, and indeed originally forged in affront to Himself, he should be the most dishonourable of Princes: Nor will it serve to object, That His late Majesty (whatever Diminution to the Prerogative it might be) by passing it into a Law, has alienated that Power from the CROWN. For, to answer that Argument, we are assured, that whatever alienations of that kind, the Easiness of the present Possessor of the Crown, or any other Reasons, may induce him to make, are no ways truly binding to the Successor.  
Now the Reasons inclining His Majesty so zealously to endeavour the Repeal of the Test in these forementioned stations under him, are by himself declared, viz. That the Service of all his Subjects, is inseparably annexed to, and inherent in the Crown; being indeed so fundamental a Right, so unalterable to his Prerogative, and in its own nature, so far above the Cognizance of Parliaments, that a Crowned Head aught less to be wondered at, for endeavouring to recover so rightful a part of his Royal ●atrimoney, than the ●eanes● of his Subjects for seeking a Redress against the highest oppression, and injury suffered, in the nearest and tenderest part of their Property, Estate, or Liberty, that they hold by Common Law, or Magna Charta itself.  
And besides, the Justice and Equity that prompt His Majesty to seek so peaceably, a recovery of so sacred a Right, by a Restitution from the same Parliamentary Power that that robbed him of it: What can the Kingdom fear, or the Protestant Religion be more threatened by conceding the perpetual Repeal of that part of Test Law, than it does from the Prerogative, which daily at this present dispenses with it. The Roman Catholics are, and will be in all Posts of Power and Trust, whenever the King's Favour, and their own Abilities shall raise them to it, without the Dissolving of the Test: And when dissolved, what more 〈◊〉 they do, or how higher can they rise by i●!  
〈◊〉 ●oo. His Majesty in the Universal 〈◊〉 of his People in matter of Religion, and under his Resolution of a perpetual 〈◊〉 of Liberty of Conscience, with the Repeal of all Penal Laws: for that very Reason ought to think himself obliged not to leave the ●est uncancelled: For as there are very severe Penalties and Forfeitures contained in the Test, which, every Person entering into public Employ, without a Qualification from receiving the Test, incurs. What are these Penalties, when duly examined, any more than for mere matter of Conscience. For if a Romanist (as we see daily and Universal Examples) in all Posts of Trust, acts with equal Integrity and steady Justice with the Protestants themselves, without any Maladministration, in discharge of such Power, or Authority, what is the charge against them from the Test Penalty for Nonqualification any more at the bottom, than mere matter of Conscience, not for any Ministerial incapacity of executing that Trust, but only a Conscientious Incapacity of subs●●bing a Religious Declaration, contrary to the Sentiments of their Faith, require● by that Test. And that the Test Penalties, 〈◊〉 particularly strike at Matters of Religion, all maladministrations, in Papists, or not Papists, with, or without Tests, are liable to Legal and Just Censure, and Condign Punishments, from other more ancient strokes of Law, than the Hand of the Test.  
And for some little farther Inquest into this Test Law, and the Exclusions from Trust ena●●ed by it; I shall refer you to a Command, I hope, as Authentic as that of an Act of Parliament, viz, Honour thy Father and thy Mother, etc. In that Precept we are told, that ●●ey the King, is included. And if so, suppose a Roman Catholic Prince Commands a Roman Catholic Subject, to serve him as an Officer in his Military Affairs, or a Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, are what else in his Civil Administration. In all which places, his Religion can be no Incapacity, for a Romanist in one Post may have as much Courage and Loyalty, and in the other, as much Integrity and Uprightness as another Subject. And shall this Romanist in refusing either of the aforesaid Trusts, be acquitted from a Breach of God's Commandments in disobeying his King, by an excuse of his Tenderness to a Law of Man. And, pray, has this Novel Test Law a sound Root at the bottom, that pretends to super●ede and exclude that Fundamental Indispensable Duty of Obeying the Immutable Laws of God.  
Now, to come to the last point, the Qualification of Members in Parliament. And to begin with the Exclusion of the Popish Pees from Session's in Parliament by Virtue of the Test. His Majesty desires their Restoration, and consequently the Relavation of that part of the Parliamentary Test. And the Reasons moving him thereunto, are the undoubted, unquestioned Birthright of the ●eers, so unnaturally and so notoriously invaded and destroyed by this Parliamentary Exclusion. A point so well handled, ●ud so often before by several better Pens, and so altogether unanswerable, that I shall only add, that as the Nobility of the Land are all Branches and Emanations from the Imperial Fountain of Honour, His Majesty is in equal Justice obliged to recover a Gemm from their Coronets, as a Ravished Jewel from his own Crown. And indeed his Majesty in so doing, is in the highest degree a Champion for the very Dignity and Foundation of Parliaments themselves; for truly, when rightly considered, how are our present Parliaments the Comprehensive Body of the Nation, when so many of the Peers, who neither are, nor can be there by Representatives are shut out? Nay, how much is the Sanction and Honour of the very Laws they make, and the very Constitution of our la●er Parliaments impaired and lessened by such an Exclusion?  
And truly when His Majesty by this intended Religious Charter, resolves to establish and confirm all his Subjects Civil Rights, Properties, Freedom, and Franchises on that solid and immovable Basis above the reach of any Religious Tyranny, or the shock of Conscience to move, it would be very hard to leave his Barons of all his Subjects the only deserted, whilst rifled and divested of so Original and Importan a Heritage as their Session in Parliament▪  
Thus far and no farther does His Majesty desire the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test, wherein 'tis highly remarkable His Majesty's Alleviation of some visible burden Oppression or Injustice, lying upon all or some part of his people, under the pressure of the Penal Tests, in all the forementioned Cases, is so signally manifested, that nothing but a wilful Blindness, can plead Ignorance.  
However, to convince the very Infidel World, and to clear his unblemished Honour, Candor, and Integrity from all the ●eeble Clouds that Malice and Ingratitude have raised to shade those inviolable Oracles his Protestations of descending the Protestant Religion; His last Declaration of continuing the Test in the House of C●●●mons, so totally dispels every least shadow of the popular fear, and puts that stamp upon the Word and promise of a King, and so eternally silences all those ●rightful Apparitions of the Romish Influence over the Protestant Religion, that this very Religious Liberty, so settled as purposed with the continuance of the Test in the House of Commons, joined in the security, cuts off even the very Entail of all Legislative power from Popish Hands, even to the end of the World.  
For whilst the Test confines in the House of Commons, there cannot be to much as one Individual Member, by the Test Qualification, but must be a Protestant. And possibly, the very conceding of the other point. viz. The establishment of a Religious Charter of Liberty, with our Compliance with His Majesty in Repeal of the Penal Laws and ●est in all other Stations, may be one of the most effectual means, if not the only expedient to continue that Test in the House of Commons▪ unshaken, and immovable a●d consequently 〈◊〉 Exclusion of the Romans from all Legislative Power to endless Posterity.  
For whilst at present the Penal Laws 〈◊〉 in f●rce, the Papist has some considerable strength and Allies to join h●m▪ as having indeed so vast a Body as the 〈◊〉 Dissenters under disgu● and disobligation▪ to friend the Romish Party as fellow s●fferers under the weight of Penal Oppressions and which upon any Parliamentary refusal of repealing those Penal Laws, may make them but more and stron 〈◊〉 riveted into one joint interest with the Roman Catholics (if no worse Ferment follows) and consequently render their power, so united more formidable. But after the Sanction of a Religious Liberty, the Protestant Dissenters will have so far gained the Ultimate of their Desire and Ambition, that then in course they will fall in with the Church of England. For all Repeals of that kind▪ end in that greatest of Interest [SELF] and when their own self interest shall be so entirely satisfied from so ample, and open a Field of Liberty, as that Religious Charter, the Bapists, that poor diminutive handful of Men, for ever after, must and will inevitably stand alone, and whilst the Parliamentary Test, can only by Parliamentary Authority be dissolved, where shall there be one individual Man of them, whether Church of England, or dissenting Member, that shall so much as listen even to the least Whisper that inclines to any farther Popish Concessions, more than their granted Liberty, much less to any such threatening station as an Access to Parliament.  
And more and above, when this Parliamentary House of Commons Test shall be enacted by the Royal Fiat from a Roman Catholic Prince, and that Qualification of the Legislative Authority, together with the Church of England Establishment, founded even by such a hand, it may, undoubtedly put no little Check, in all Romish Successions, so much as to every start that shall but arise to either of their prejudice or violation; and when Liberty of Conscience, shall even by a Roman Catholic Prince, be so solemnly owned and avowed a Fundamental and Original Franchise of the people of England, and so exemplarily rati●ed as such, what dread can we have from Romish da●gers, when not only our Parliament Walls shall be so eternally barred against them, but also so asserted, and so potent a free born English Right, shall stand up to confront all future Popish Pretensions whatever.  
And all that Popish Tyranny over Conscience, which almost in all Mouths, and in all Pamphlets has been all along the Gorgon that frights half Mankind out of their little Senses, as being so industriously represented the only Indelible Romish Principle; and indeed, their ultimate aim and desi● in England, must now vanish into air, when this Parliamentary Exclusion shall leave them no hands to grasp it, should it enter into their Hearts to endeavour it.  
To conclude. Wherein are His Majesty's Demands unreasonable, in ask the Repeal of the Penal Laws, in which so great a part of the Vox populi (as their Addresses testify) joins with him, and the principles of Nature, Humanity, and Conscience plead for him! Or in ask the Repeal of the Test in those Branches formentioned for the asserting of his own Honour, and recovering the Birthright of a King, by endeavouring to shake off the most shameful Vassalage that Monarch ever truckled under. And why must his Endeavours of doing his People so much right in the first, and himself so much right in the last, be so poorly misinterpreted by the unnatural Surmizes of his ungrateful People. But let us blush and mend; and by giving up of these Laws, do Equity in return of Clemency and Mercy.  
FINIS.