A PERSUASIVE TO Moderation TO Dissenting Christians, In Prudence and Conscience Humbly submitted to the KING AND HIS Great Council.  
By one of the Humblest and most Dutiful of his Dissenting Subjects.  Let your Moderation be known unto all men, for the Lord is at Hand, Phil. 4. 5. A Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength, whom Rougher Opposition fortifies, K. Charles 1. to the late King. 
London, Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle, at the Crooked Billet in Holloway-Lane, in Shoreditch, 1685.   

THE PREFACE.  
IF it was permitted to Ancient Christians to Address Pagan Emperors, and Infidels to Solicit Christian Caesars for Indulgence, with Success, 'twere Rude in us, to doubt the Issue of a Discourse of this Style and Tendency, with our Superiors, when the Interest of the Monarch, as well as Miseries of some of His Subjects make it necessary. For if we consider the great Numbers that are Disabled in their Livelihoods, and some that languish to Death by Confinement, and the Spoil that is daily made of the Estates of others by Fines, and the lavish and excessive way of raising them, for pure Dissent in Matters of Worship: And on the other hand, how Injurious a state of Severity is to the Interest of the Prince, by the Discouragement and Poverty of so great a Number of His People; and consequently how much a discreet Indulgence would contribute to the Trade, Peace and Amity of His Kingdom, we shall be forced to conclude, That in Prudence as well as Conscience, Moderation is a desirable thing.  
It were, doubtless, one of the most agreeable things in the World, that Mankind were of One Mind, because the occasion that we see is taken at the Differences Men have about Religion, that should teach them to agree, make them so uneasy, and unhappy one to another. But the pleasure of that Harmony is a thing to be wished, rather than yet expected. 'Tis Fact we differ, and upon a point wherein Unity is out of our Power: such as we are, what shall we do? Destroy one another for our Differences, or be moderate, and try a discreet Liberty?  
Men must thank themselves for their Animosity, that suffer their Opinions to destroy their Affections. Let us reflect what it was confounded the first Tongue, and if Disobedience has not divided Man's Judgement? yet we do not war for Mother-Tongue, nor ought we for Religion. Man's Fault has been to slight the Divine Oracle in his pursuit of Truth, and he is apt to entitule his own Thoughts to her Reputation. Too many things in Religion, and those too fine and nice, made necessary to be believed, have pressed so hard upon the Liberty of Mankind, that Nature heaves against the Burden.  
We ought in Charity to presume, that all men think they choose the best way to Heaven, especially where the choice is against the Stream, and draws Loss or Disgrace after it. If they are Mistaken, they must be Rectified there where the Mistake lies, and that is in the Understanding: And to do it Successfully, there must be Light and Moderation: God gives one, and it is our Duty and Wisdom to exercise the other.  
Let us then pray to Almighty God, That he would enlighten our Understandings; And to the end we may obtain our desire, let us be sure to use the Light we have, and more will be given us. Let us with it see if Expedients may not be found to unite our Interests, and so our Affections, if not our Faiths. How to keep the Peace, and Indulge Dissenters safely, serves the Government. And to see clear, we must put away the Prejudices of former Heats; and not call Wrath, Zeal, nor Railing, Loyalty.  
As things now are, what is best to be done? I take to be the Wise Man's Question; as to consider and answer it, will be his Business. Moderation is a Christian Duty. Let your Moderation be known to all Men: And has ever been the Prudent Man's Practice. Those Governments that have used it in their Conduct have Succeeded best, and the contrary been unhappy. I remember, it is made in Livy the Wisdom of the Romans, that they relaxed their hand to the Privernates; for by making their Conditions easy, they made them most faithful to their Interest. And it prevailed so much with the Petilians, that they would endure any Extremity from Hannibal, rather than desert their Friendship, that had governed them with so much Moderation, even then, when the Romans discharged their Fidelity, and sent them the Dispair of knowing they could not relieve them. So did one Act of Humanity overcome the Falisci above Arms: Which confirms that noble Saying of Seneca, Mitius imperanti, Melius paretur, the Mildest Conduct is best obeyed: A Truth Celebrated by Grotius & Campanella: Practised, doubtless, by the bravest Princes. For Cyrus exceeded when he built the Jews a Temple, and himself no Jew. Alexander Astonished the Princes of his Train with the profound Veneration he paid the High Priest of that People. And Augustus was so far from Suppressing the Jewish Worship, that he sent Hecatombs to Jerusalem to increase their Devotion. Moderation filled the Reigns of the most Renowned Caesars: They were Nero's and Caligulas that loved Cruelty then.  
But that which in a singular manner makes Moderation the King's Interest, is that those penal Laws which vex Dissenters seem in themselves Antimonarchical; and it is therefore less to be wondered if any of them have been tempted to be so too. For whereas the Prerogative is the peculiar Glory of the King; That which gives weight and lustre to his Crown, it, is so shared by these Laws, to Poor and Informers, that the KING can but put in for a third of his own Power: A Triumvirat-ship, or Three Estates of Prerogative: King, Poor and Informers: For tho' the King would remit, and the Circumstances of the Person deserve a Pardon, it cannot be, without the Consent of the other Two: which is a kind of an Exclusion from two thirds of his Power, and so a Dissolution of that entire Prerogative that his Ancestors had, & is his undoubted Right in the like cases. And as some of these Laws injure the Prince, so they deeply affect the Subject. For People are not only tempted to Inform by Rewards, (to be sure, not the cleanest way of Justice) but the Oaths of such are made the Evidence to Convict; which is Swearing in their own Cause, and to their own profit. But this is not all, Men are Tried, Cast and Fined, without a Jury. An express Contradiction to one of the most celebrated Branches of the Great Charter. So that the Interest of Prince and People (as they ever should) conspire in the Repeal of those Laws that furnish harsh and unkind Folks with the Power of disturbing their Conscientious Neighbours, and which disable the Prince to Receive and Redress the Complaints of such of his Suffering Subjects. The Example is to both dangerous, but to the KING most.  
If the Church of England claims the King's Promise of Protection; 'tis fit she has it. But her Dissenters cannot forget That of his Clemency: And as they were both great, and admirably distinguished, so by no means are they inconsistent or impracticable.  
And if his Justice will not let him be wanting in the One, His wont greatness of Mind will hardly let him leave the Other behind him in the Storm, unpitied and unhelpt. Pardon me, We have not to do with an insensible Prince, but one Touched with our Infirmities. More than any Body fit to judge our Cause, by the share he once had in it. Who should give Liberty of Conscience like the Prince that has wanted it? To suffer for his own was Great, but to deliver other men's, were Glorious. It is a sort of paying the Vows of his Adversity, and it cannot therefore be done by any one else, with so much Justice and Example.  
Far be it from me to solicit any thing in Diminution of the just Rights of the Church of England: Let her rest protected where she is, and if in any thing Mistaken, let God alone persuade her. I hope, none will be thought to intend her Injury, for refusing to understand the King's Promise to her, in a Ruinous sense to all Others. For it is morally impossible that a Conscientious Prince can be thought to have tied himself to compel others to a Communion, that himself cannot tell how to be of, or that any thing can oblige him to shake the Firmness of those he has confirmed by his own Royal Example.  
Having then so Illustrious an Instance of Integrity, as the hazard of the loss of Three Crowns for Conscience. Let it at least, excuse our Constancy, and provoke the Friends of the Succession to Moderation, that we may none of us lose our Birthrights for our Persuasion; & us Dissenters to live Dutifully, and so Peacably under our own Vine, and under our own Figtree, with Glory to God on High, to the King, Honour, and Good Will to all Men.  
The Publication of the following Discourse is occasioned by an Appeal made by a late Author, to all Crowned Heads against Toleration and Liberty of Conscience, in his pretended Answer to the Duke of Buckingham I shall not Commend it, and I hope, it will need no Excuse. 'Tis writ with Duty to the King, and Compassion to many of his peaceable People. The usual Objections against the Moderation desired, are stated and answered. The Whole recommended to the Reader,  
By his Affectionate Friend, W. P.   

A PERSUASIVE TO Moderation, etc.  
MODERATION, the Subject of this Discourse, is in plain English, Liberty of Conscience to Dissenters: A Cause I have, with all Humility undertaken to plead against the Prejudices of the Times.  
That there is such a thing as Conscience, and the Liberty of it, in reference to Faith and Worship towards God, must not be denied, even by those, that are most scandaled at the Ill use some seem to have made of such Pretences. But to settle the Terms: By Conscience, I understand the Apprehension and Persuasion a man has of his Duty to God. By Liberty of Conscience, I mean, A free and open Profession and Exercise of that Duty: But I always premise, this Conscience to keep within the bounds of Morality, and that it be neither Frantic nor Mischievous, but a Good Subject, a Good Child, a Good Servant: As exact to yield to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, as jealous of withholding from God the thing that is God's: For he that withholds from Man the thing that God requires him to pay, withholds it from God, who has his Tribute out of it. They do not reject their Prince, Parent or Master, but God, who enjoins that Duty to them: The difference being only this, They deny not God his Due immediately, and to his face, but they do it too often in the Person of his Deligate. Those Pathetic words of Christ will naturally enough reach the case, In that ye did it not to them, ye did it not to me; for Duty to such Relations have a divine Stamp: And divine Right runs through more things of the World and Acts of our Lives than we are aware of: And Sacrilege may be committed against more than the Church. Nor will a Dedication to God, of the Robbery from Man, expiate the Gild of Disobedience: For though Zeal could turn Gossip to Theft, his Altars would renounce the Sacrifice.  
The Conscience then that I state, and the Liberty I pray, carrying so great a Salvo and Deference to public and private Relations, no ill design can with any Justice be fixed upon the Author, or Reflection upon the Subject, which by this time I think I may venture to call a Toleration.  
But to this so much craved, as well as needed Toleration, I meet with two Objections of weight, the salving of which will make way for it in this Kingdom. And the first is a Disbelief of the Possibility of the thing. Toleration of Dissenting Worships from that established, is not practicable (say some) without danger to the State, with which it is interwoven. This is Political. The other Objection is, That admitting Dissenters to be in the Wrong (which is always premised by the National Church) such Latitude were the way to keep up the Dis-union, and instead of compelling them into a better Way, leave them in the possession and pursuit of their old Errors. This is Religious. I think I have given the Objections fairly, 'twill be my next business to answer them as fully.  
The strength of the first Objection against this Liberty, is the Danger suggested to the State; the Reason is, the National Form being interwoven with the Frame of the Government. But this seems to me only said, and not only (with submission) not proved, but not true: For the established Religion and Worship are no other ways interwoven with the Government, than that the Government makes profession of them, and by divers-Laws has made them the Currant Religion, and required all the Members of the State to conform to it.  
This is nothing but what may as well be done by the Government, for any other Persuasion, as that. 'Tis true, 'tis not easy to change an established Religion, nor is that the Question we are upon; but State Religions have been changed without the change of the States. We see this in the Governments of Germany and Denmark upon the Reformation: But more clearly and near ourselves, in the case of Henry the eighth, Edward the sixth, Queen Marry and Elizabeth; for the Monarchy stood, the Family remained and succeeded under all the Revolutions of State-Religion, which could not have been, had the Proposition been generally true.  
The change of Religion then, does not necessarily change the Government, or alter the State; and if so, a fortiori, Indulgence of Church-Dissenters, does not necessarily hazard a change of the State, where the present State-Religion or Church remains the same; for That I premise.  
Some may say, That it were more facile to change from one National Religion to another, than to maintain the Monarchy and Church, against the Ambition and Faction of divers dissenting Parties. But this is improbable at least. For it were to say, That it is an easier thing to change a whole Kingdom, than with the Sovereign Power, followed with Armies, Navies, Judges, Clergy, and all the Conformists of the Kingdom, to secure the Government from the Ambition and Faction of Dissenters, as differing in their Interests within themselves, as in their Persuasions; and 〈◊〉 they united, have neither Power to awe, nor Rewards to allure to their Party. They can only be formidable, when headed by the Sovereign. They may stop a Gap, or make, by his Accession, a Balance: Otherwise, till 'tis harder to fight broken and divided Troops, than an entire Body of an Army, it will be always easier to maintain the Government under a Toleration of Dissenters, than in a total change of Religion, and even then itself, it has not failed to have been preserved. But whether it be more or less easy, is not our point; if they are many, the danger is of exasperating, not of making them easy; for the force of our Question is, Whether such Indulgence be safe to the State? And here we have the first and last, the best and greatest Evidence for us, which is Fact and Experience, the Journal and Resolves of Time, and Treasure of the Sage.  
For, First, the jews, that had most to say for their Religion, and whose Religion was Twin to their State (both being joined, and sent with Wonders from Heaven) Indulged Strangers in their Religious Dissents. They required but the belief of the Noachical Principles, which were common to the World: No Idolater, and but a Moral Man, and he had his Liberty, ay, and some Privileges too, for he had an apartment in the Temple, and this without danger to the Government. Thus Maimonides, and others of their own Rabbles, and Grotius out of them.  
The Wisdom of the Gentiles was very admireable in this, that though they had many Sects of Philosophers among them, each dissenting from the other in their Principles, as well as Discipline, and that not only in Physical things, but points Metaphysical, in which some of the Fathers were not free, the Schoolmen deeply engaged, and our present Academies but too much perplexed; yet they indulged them and the best Livers with singular Kindness: The greatest Statesmen and Captains often becoming Patrons of the Sects they best affected, honouring their Readins with their Presence and Applause. So far were those Ages, which we have made as the original of Wisdom and Politeness, from thinking Toleration an Error of State, or dangerous to the Government. Thus Plutrach, Strabo, Laertius, and others.  
To these Instances I may add the Latitude of old Rome, that had almost as many Deities as Houses: For Varro tells us of no less than thirty Thousand several Sacra, or Religious Rites among her People, and yet without a Quarrel: Unhappy fate of Christianity! the best of Religions, and yet her Professors maintain less Charity than Idolators, while it should be peculiar to them. I fear, it shows us to have but little of it at Heart.  
But nearer home, and in our own time, we see the effects of a discreet Indulgence, even too Emulation. Holland, that Bogg of the World, neither Sea nor dry Land, now the Rival of tallest Monarches; not by Conquests, Marriages, or accession of Royal Blood, the usual ways to Empire, but by her own superlative Clemency and Industry; for the one was the effect of the other: She cherished her People, whatsoever were their Opinions, as the reasonable stock of the Country, the Heads and Hands of her Trade and Wealth; and making them easy in the main point, their Conscience, she became great by them: This made her fill with People, and they filled her with Riches and Strength.  
And if it should be said, She is upon her Declension for all that. I Answer, All States must know it, nothing is here Immortal. Where are the Babylonian, Persian and Grecian Empires? And are not Lacedaemon, Athens, Rome and Carthage gone before her? Kingdoms and Commonwealths have their Births and Growths, their Declensions and Deaths, as well as private Families and Persons: But 'tis owing, neither to the Armies of France, nor Navies of England, but her own Domestic Troubles.  
Seventy Two sticks in her Bones yet: The growing Power of the Prince of Orange, must in some degree, be an Ebb to that State's Strength; for they are not so unanimous and vigrous in their Interest as formerly: But were they secure against the danger of their own Ambition and Jealousy, any body might ensure their Glory at five per Cent. But some of their greatest men apprehending they are in their Climacterical Juncture, give up the Ghost, and care not, if they must fall, by what hand it is.  
Others choose a Stranger, and think one afar off will give the best Terms, and least annoy them: whilst a considerable Party have chosen a Domestic Prince, a Kin to their early Successes by the fore-Father's side (the Gallantry of his Ancestors.) And that his own greatness and security are wrapped up in theirs, and therefore modestly hope to find their Account in his Prosperity. But this is a kind of Digresgression, only before I leave it, I dare venture to add, that if the Prince of Orange changes not the Policies of that State, he will not change her Fortune, and he will mightily add to his own.  
But perhaps I shall be told, That no body doubts that Toleration is an agreeable thing to a Commonwealth, where every one thinks he has a share in the Government; ay, that the one is the consequence of the other, and therefore most carefully to be avoided by all Monarchical States. This indeed were shrewdly to the purpose, in England, if it were but true. But I don't see how there can be one true Reason advanced in favour of this Objection: Monarchies, as well as Commonwealths, subsisting by the Preservation of the People under them.  
But, First, if this were true, it would follow by the Rule of Contraries, that a Republic could not subsist with Unity and Hierarchy, which is Monarchy in the Church; but it must, from such Monarchy in Church, come to Monarchy in State too. But Venice, Genova, Lucca, seven of the Cantons of Switzerland, (and Rome herself, for she is an Aristocracy) all under the the loftiest Hierarchy in Church, and where is no Toleration, show in fact, that the contrary is true.  
But, Secondly, this Objection makes a Commonwealth the better Government of the two, and so overthrows the thing it would establish. This is effectually done, if I know any thing, since a Commonwealth is hereby rendered a more copious, powerful and beneficial Government to Mankind, and is made better to answer Contingencies and Emergencies of State, because this subsists either way, but Monarchy not, if the Objection be true. The one prospers by Union in Worship and Discipline, and by Toleration of dissenting Churches from the National. The other only by an universal Conformity to a National Church. I say, this makes Monarchy (in itself, doubtless, an admirable Government) less Powerful, less Extended, less Propitious, and finally less Safe to the People under it, than a Commonwealth; In that no Security is left to Monarchy under diversity of Worships, which yet no man can defend or forbid, but may often arrive, as it hath in England, more than five times in the two last Ages. And truly 'tis natural for men to choose to settle where they may be safest from the Power and Mischief of such Accidents of State.  
Upon the whole matter, it is to reflect the last Mischief upon Monarchy, the worst Enemies it has could hope to disgrace or endanger it by; since it is to tell the People under it, that they must either conform, or be destroyed, or to save themselves, turn Hypocrites, or change the Frame of the Government they are under. A perplexity both to Monarch and People, that nothing can be greater but the comfort of knowing the Objection is False. And that which ought to make every reasonable man of this Opinion, is the cloud of Witnesses that almost every Age of Monarchy affords us.  
I will begin with that of Israel, the most exact and sacred Pattern of Monarchy, begun by a valiant Man, translated to the best, and improved by the wisest of Kings, whose Ministers were neither Fools, nor fanatics: Here we shall find Provision for Dissenters. Their Prosoliti Domicilii were so far from being compelled to their National Rites, that they were expressly forbid to observe them. Such were the Egyptians that came with them out of Egypt, the Gibeonites and Canaanites, a great People, that after their several Forms worshipped in an apartment of the same Temple. The Jews with a Liturgy, they without one: The Jews had Priests, but these none: The Jews had variety of Oblation, these People burnt Offerings only: All that was required of them was the Natural Religion of Noah, in which the Acknowledgement and Worship of the true God, was, as it still ought to be, the main point; nay, so far were they from coercive Conformity, that they did not so much as oblige them to observe their Sabbath, tho' one of the ten Commandments: Grotius and Selden say more. Certainly this was great Indulgence, since so unsuitable an Usage looked like profaning their Devotion, and a common nuisance to their National Religion. One would think by this, that their Care lay on the side of preserving their Cult from the touch or accession of Dissenters, and not of forcing them, by undoing Penalties to conform, must needs be evident. For if God's Religion and Monarchy (for so we are taught to believe it) did not, and would not at a time, when Religion lay less in the Mind, and more in Ceremony, compel Conformity from Dissenters, we hope we have got the best of Precedents on our side.  
But if this Instance be of most Authority, we have another very Exemplary, and to our point pertinent; for it shows what Monarchy may do: It is yielded us from the famous Story of Mordecai. He, with his Jews, were in a bad pleight with the King, Ahasuerus, by the ill Offices Human did them; the Arguments he used were drawn from the common Topics of Faction and Sedition, That thy were an odd and dangerous People, under differing Laws of their own, and refused Obedience to his; So denying his Supremacy. Dissenters with a witness; things most render to any Government.  
The King thus incensed, commands the Laws to be put in Execution and decrees the Ruin of Mordecai with all the Jews: But the King is timely entreated, his Heart softens, the Decree is revoked, and Mordecai and his Friends saved. The Consequence was, as extreme Joy to the Jews, so Peace and Blessings to the King. And that which heightens the Example, is the Greatness and Infidelity of the Prince: had the Instance been in a Jew, it might have been placed to his greater Light or Piety: In a petty Prince, to the Paucity and Entireness of his Territory; but that an Heathen, and King of one hundred and seven and twenty Provinces, should throughout his vast Dominions, not fear, but practise Toleration with good success, has something admirable in i●.  
If we please to remember the Tranquillity, & success of those Heathen Roman Emperors, that allowed Indulgence; that Agustus sent Hecatomb to Jerusalem, and the wisest honoured the Jews, and at last spared the divers Sects of Christians, it will certainly oblige us to think, that Princes, whose Religions are nearer of Kin, to those of the Dissenters of our times, may not unreasonably hope for quiet from a discreet Toleration, especially when there is nothing peculiar in Christianity to render Princes unsafe in such an Indulgence. The admirable Prudence of the Emperor jovianus, in a quite contrary method to those of the Reigns of his Predecessors, settled the most Imoroiled time of the Chistian World, almost to a Miracle; for though he found the Hearts of the Arian and Orthodox carried to a barbarous height, (to say nothing of the Novations, and other dissenting Interests) the Emperor esteeming those Calamities the effect of Coercing Conformity to the Princes or State's Religion; and that this course did not only waste Christians, but expose Christians to the scorn of Heathens, and so scandal, those whom they should Convert, he resolutely declared, That he would have none Molested for the different exercise of their Religious Worship; which (and that in a true (for he reigned but seven Months) calmed the impestous Storms of Dissension, and reduced the Empire, (before agitated with the most uncharitable Contests) to a wonderful Serenity and Peace; thus a kindly Amity, brought a civil Unity to the State; which endeavours for a forced Unity, never did to the Church, but had formerly filled the Government with incomparable Miseries, as well as the Church with Incharity; and which is sad, I must needs say, that those Leaders of the Church that should have been the Teachers and Examples of Peace, in so singular a juncture of the Church's ferments, did, more than any, blow the Trumpet and kindled the Fire of Division. So dangerous is it to Super-fine upon the Text, and then Impose it upon Penalty for Faith.  
Valantinian the Emperor (we are told by Socrates Scholasticus) was a great Honourer of those that favoured his own Faith; but so, as he molested not the Arrians at all. And Marcellinus further adds in his Honour, That he was much Renowned for his Moderate Carriage during his Reign; insomuch, that amongst sundry Sects of Religion, he troubled no man for his Conscience, imposing neither this nor that to be observed; much less with menacing Edicts and Injunctions, did he compel others, his Subjects, to bow the Neck, or conform to that which himself worshipped, but left such Points as clear and untouched as he found them.  
Gratianus & Theodsius the great, Indulged divers sorts of Christians; but the Novations of all the Dissenters were preferred: which was so far from Insecuring, that it preserved the Tranquillity of the Empire. Nor till the time of Celestine Bishop of Rome, were the Novations disturbed; And the Persecution of them, and the Assumption of the secular Power began much at the same time. But the Novations at Constantinople were not so dealt withal; for the Greek Bishops continued to permit them the quiet enjoyment of their dissenting Assemblies; as Socrates tells us in his fifth and seventh Book of Ecclesiastical Story.  
I shall descend nearer our own times; for notwithstanding no Age has been more furiously moved, then that which Jovianus found, and therefore the Experiment of Indulgence was never better made, yet to speak more in view of this time of day, we find our Contemporaries, of remoter Judgements in Religion, under no manner of difficulty in this point. The Grand Signior, great Mogul, Zars of Mnscovia, King of Persia; the great Monarches of the East have long allowed and prospered with a Toleration: And who does not know that this gave Great Tamerlan his mighty Victories? In these Western Countries we see the same thing.  
Cardinal d'Ossat in his 92d Letter to Villroy, Secretary to H●nry the fourth of France, gives us Doctrine and Example for the Subject in hand; Besides (says he) that Necessity has no Law, be it in what case it will; our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us by his Gospel, To let the Tares alone, lest removing them, may endanger the Wheat. That other Catholic Princes have allowed it without Rebuke. That particularly the Dake of Savoy, who (as great a Zealot as he would be thought for the Catholic Religion) Tolerates the Heretics in three of his Provinces, namely, A●groyne, Luerne and Perose. That the King of Poland does as much, not only in Sweedland, but in Poland itself. That all the Princes of the Austrian Family, that are celebrated as Pillars of the Catholic Church, do the like, not only in the Town, of the Empire, but in their proper Territories, as in Austria itself, from whence they take the Name of their Honour. In Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia▪ Lusatia, Stirria, Camiolia and Croatia the like. That Charles ' the fifth, Father of the King of Spain, was the Person that taught the King of France, and other Princes, how to yield to such Emergencies. That his Son, the present King of Spain, who is esteemed Arch Catholic, and that is, as the Atlas of the Catholic Church, Tolerates notwithstanding, at this day, in his Kingdoms of Valentia and Granada, the Moors themselves in their M●humatisme, and has offered to those of Zealand, Holland, and other Heretics of the Low-Countries, the free Exercise of their pretended Religion, so that they will but acknowledge and Obey him in Civil Matters. It was of those Letters of this extraordinary Man, for so he was (whether we regard him in his Ecclesiastical Dignity or his greater Christian and Civil Prudence) that the great Lord Fulkland said, A Minister of State should no more be without Cardinal d' Ossat's Letters, than a Parson without his Bible. And indeed, if we look into France, we shall find the Indulgence of those Protestants, hath been a flourishing to that Kingdom, as their Arms a Succour to their King. 'Tis true, that since they helped the Ministers of his Greatness to Success, that haughty Monarch has changed his Measures, and resolves their Conformity to his own Religion, or their Ruin; but no man can give another Reason for it, than that he thinks it for his turn to please that part of his own Church, which are the present necessary and unwearied Instruments of his absolute Glory. But let us see the end of this Conduct, it will require more time to approve the Experiment.  
As it was the Royal Saying of Stephen, King of Poland, That he was a King of Men, and not of Conscience; a Commander of Bodies, and not of Souls.; So we see a Toleration has been practised in that Country of a long time, with no ill Success to the State; the Cities of Cracovia, Racovia, and many other Towns of Note, almost wholly dissenting from the common Religion of the Kingdom, which is Roman Catholic, as the others are Socinian and Calvanist, the most opposite to that, as well as to themselves.  
The King of Denmark, in his large Town of Altona, but about a Mile from Hambrough, and therefore called so, that is, All to near, is a pregnant proof of our point. For though his Seat be so remote from that place, and another strong and insinuating State so near, yet under his Indulgence of divers Persuasions, they enjoy that Peace, and he that Security, that he is not upon better Terms in any of his more Immediate and uniform Dominions. I leave it to the thinking Reader, if it be not much owing to this Freedom, and that a contrary course were not the way for him to furnish his Neighbours with means to Depopulate that place, or make it uneasy and chargeable to him to keep?  
If we look into other parts of Germany, where we find a Stout and Warlike People, fierce for the thing they opine, or believe, we shall find the Prince Palatine of the Rhine, safe, and more potent by his Indulgence, 〈◊〉 his Improvements at M●nhine: And as (believe me) 〈◊〉 the Prince to his People in other things, so in this to the Empire; for he has made bold with the Constitution of it, in the Latitude he gives his Subjects in this Affair.  
The Duke of Bradenburg is himself a Calvanist, his People mostly Lutherain, yet in part of his Dominions, the roman-catholics enjoy their Churches quietly.  
The Duke of Newburg, and a strict Roman Catholic, Brother-in-Law to the present Emperor, in his Province of Juliers, has, not only at Dewsburg, Mulheim, and other places, but in Deuseldorp itself, where the Court resides, Lutherain, and Calvanist, as well as Roman Catholic Assemblies.  
The Duke of Saxony, by Religion a Lutherain, in his City of Budissin, has both Lutherains and Roman Catholics in the same Church, parted only by a Grate.  
In Ausburg, they have two chief Magistrates, as their Duumvirat, one must always be a Roman Catholic, and the other a Lutherain.  
The Bishop of Osnabrug is himself a Lutherain, and in the Town of his Title, the Roman Catholics, as well as Lutherains, have their Churches; and which is more, the next Bishop must be a Catholic too; for like the Buckets in the Well, they take turns, one way to be sure, so that one be but in the Right.  
From hence we will go to Sultzbach, a small Territory, but has a great Prince, I mean, in his own extraordinary Qualities; for among other things we shall find him act the Moderator among his People. By profession he is a Roman Catholic, but has Simultaneum Religionis Exercitium, not only Lutherains and Roman Catholics enjoy their different Worships, but alternatively in one and the same place, the same day; so balancing his Affection by his Wisdom, that there appears neither Partiality in him, nor Envy in them, though of such opposite Persuasions.  
I will end these forregin Instances with a Prince and Bishop, all in one, and he a Roman Catholic too, and that is the Bishop of Mentz; who admits, with a very Peaceable success, such Lutherains with his Catholics, to enjoy their Churches, as live in his Town of Erford. Thus does Practice tells us, that neither Monarchy nor Hierarchy are in danger from a Toleration. On the contrary, the Laws of the Empire, which are the Acts of the Emperor, and the Sovereign Princes of it, have tolerated these three Religious Persuasions, viz. the Roman-Catholick, Lutherain and Calvanist, and they may as well tolerate three more, for the same Reasons, and with the same Success. For it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in Doctrine, or in Worship; On the contrary, they differ much, and by that, and other Circumstances, are sometimes engaged in great Controversies, yet is a Toleration practicable, & the way of Peace with them.  
And which is closest to our point at home itself, we see that a Toleration of the jews, French and Dutch Churches in England, both Dissenters from the National Way: And the Connivance that has been in Ireland; And the downright Toleration in most of his Majesty's Plantations abroad, proves the Assertion, That Toleration is not dangerous to Monarchy. For Experience tells us, where it is in any degree admitted, the King's Affairs prosper most; People, Wealth and Strength being sure to follow such Indulgence.  
But after all that I have said in Reason and Fact, why Toleration is safe to Monarchy, Story tells us that worse things have befallen Princes in Countries under Ecclesiastical Union, than in places under divided forms of Worship; and so, tolerating Countries stand to the Prince, more than upon equal terms with conforming ones. And where Princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating Countries, they have as often come from the Conforming, as Nonconforming party; and so the Dissenter is upon equal terms, to the Prince or State, with the Conformist.  
The first is evident in the jews, under the conduct of Moses; their Dissension came from the men of their own Tribes, such as Corah Dathan and Abiram, with their partakers. To say nothing of the Gentiles.  
The Miseries and Slaughters of Mauritius the Emperor proves my point, who by the greatest Churchmen of his time was withstood, and his Servant that perpetrated the Wickedness by them, substituted in his room, because more officious to their Grandeur. What power but that of the Church, dethroned Childrek King of France, and set Pippin in his place? The miseries of the Emperors, Henry the fourth and fifth, Father and Son, from their rebellious Subjects, raised and animated by the power of Conformists; dethroning both, as much as they could, are notorious. 'Tis as plain that Sigismond King of Sweedland, was rejected by that Lutherain Country, because he was a Roman-Catholick.  
If we come nearer home, which is most suitable to the Reasons of the discourse, we find the Churchmen take part with William Rufus, and Henry the first against Robert their elder Brother; and after that, we see some of the greatest of them make Head against their King, namely Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his party, as did his Successor Thomas of Becket to the second Henry. Stephen Usurped the Crown when there was a Church Union: And King John lived miserable for all that, and at last died by one of his own Religion too. The Dissensions that agitated the Reign of his Son Henry the third, and the Barons War, with Bishop Grosteeds Blessing to Mumford their General. The Deposition and Murder of the second Edward, & Richard, & sixth Henry, and his Son the Prince. The Usurpation of Richard the third, and the Murder of the Sons of Edward the fourth, in the Tower of London. The civil War that followed between him and the Earl of Richmond, afterwards our wise Henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a Country of one Religion, and by the Hands of Conformists. In short, if we will but look upon the civil War, that so long raged in this Kingdom, between the Houses of York and Laneaster, and consider that they professed but one and the same Religion, and both backed with numbers of Churchmen too (to say nothing of the Miserable end of many of our Kings princely Ancestors in Scotland, especially the first and third James) will find cause to say, That Church-Vniformity is not a Security for Princes to depend upon.  
If we will look next into Countries where Dissenters from the National Church are tolerated, we shall find the Conformist not less Culpable than the Dissenter.  
The Disorders among the jews, after they were settled in the Land that God had given them, came not from those they tolerated, but themselves. They cast off Samuel, and the Government of the Judges. 'Twas the Children of the National Church, that fell in with the Ambition of Absolom, and animated the Rebellion against his Father David. They were the same that revolted from Solomon's Son, and cried in behalf of Jeroboam, To your Tents, O Israel!  
Not two Ages ago, the Church of France, too generally fell in with the Family of Guise, against their lawful Sovereign, Henry the fourth: Nor were they without Countenance of the greatest of their Belief, who styled it an holy War; at that time, fearing (not without cause) the Defection of that Kingdom from the Roman See. In this conjuncture, the Dissenters made up the best part of that King's Armies, and by their Loyalty and Blood, preserved the Blood Royal of France, and set the Crown on the Head of that Prince. That King was twice assinated, and the last time murdered, as was Henry the third, his Predecessor; but they fell, one by the hand of a Churchman, the other, at least by a Conformist.  
'Tis true, that the next civil War was between the Catholics and the Huguenots, under the conduct of Cardinal Richlien, and the Duke of Rouen. But as I will not justify the Action▪ so their Liberties and Cautions so solemnly settled by Henry the fourth, as the reward of their singular Merit, being by the Ministry of that Cardinal invaded, they say, they did but defend their own, and that rather against the Cardinal, than the King, whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great Wit and Ambition of that Person: And there is this Reason to believe them, that if it had been otherwise, we are sure that King Charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their Quarrel.  
However, the Cardinal, like himself, wisely knew when to stop: For though he thought it the Interest of the Crown, to moderate their greatness▪ and check their growth, yet having fresh in Memory the Story of the foregoing Age, he saw, sawto have a Balance upon occasion. But this was more than recompensed in their first Adhesion to the Crown of France, under the Ministry and Direction of the succeeding Cardinal, when their Persuasion had not only Number, and many good Officers to value itself upon, but yielded their King, the ablest Captain of the Age, namely, Turene: It was an Hugenot then, at the Head of almost an Hugenot Army, that fell in with a cardinal himself, (see the Union, Interest makes) to maintain the Imperial Crown of France, and that on a roman-catholics head: And together with their own Indulgence, that Religion, as National too, against the pretences of a Roman-Catholick Army, headed by a Prince, brave and learned of the same Religion.  
I mention not this, to prefer one party to another; for contrary Instances may be given elsewhere, as Interests have varied. In Sweedland a Prince was rejected by Protestants; and in England and Holland, and many of the Principalities of Germany, roman-catholics have approved themselves Loyal to their Kings, Princes and States: But this suffices to us, that we gain the Point; for it is evident in Countries where Dissenters are tolerated, the Insecurity of the Prince and Government, may as well come from the Conforming, as Dissenting Party, and that it comes not from Dissenters, because such.  
But how happy and admirable was this civil Union between the Cardinal and Turene? two most opposite, Religions, both followed by People of their own Persuasion: One says his Mass, another's his Directory, both invoke one Deity, by several ways, for one success, and it followed with Glory, and a Peace to this Day. O why should it be otherwise now! what has been, may be: Methinks Wisdom and Charity are on that side still.  
It will doubtless be objected, that the Dissenting Party of England, fell in with the State Dissenter in our late Civil, but Unnatural War: And this seems to be against us, yet three things must be confessed; First, That the War rather made the Dissenters, than the Dissenters made the War: Secondly, that those that were then in being, were not tolerated as in France, but prosecuted: And lastly, that they did not lead, but follow great Numbers of Church-goers, of all Qualities in that unhappy Controversy, which began upon other Topics than Liberty for Church-Dissenters. And though they were herein unblamable, Reason is Reason, in all Climates and Latitudes. This does not affect the Question: Such Calamities are no necessary Consequences of Church-dissent; because they would then follow in all places where Dissenters are tolerated, which we see they do not: but these may sometimes indeed be the effects of a violent endeavour of Uniformity; and that under all Forms of Government, as I fear they were partly here under our Monarchy. But then this teaches us to conclude, that a Toleration of those, that a contrary course makes uneasy and desperate, may prevent or Cure Intestine Troubles; as Anno forty eight, it ended the Strife, and settled the Peace of Germany. For 'tis not now the question, how far men may be provoked, or aught to resent it; but whether Government is safe in a Toleration, especially Monarchy. And to this Issue we are come in Reason and Fact, That 'tis safe, and that Conformists (generally speaking) have for their Interests, as rarely known their Duty to their Prince, as Dissenters for their Consciences. So that the danger seems to lie on the side of forcing Uniformity against Faith, upon severe Penalties, rather than of a discreet Toleration.  
In the next place, I shall endeavour to show the Prudence and Reasonableness of a Toleration by the great Benefits that follow it.  
Toleration, which is an Admission of dissenting Worships, with Impunity to the Dissenters, secures Property, which is Civil Right, and That eminently the Line and Power of the Monarchy: For if no man suffer in his Civil Right for the sake of such Dissent, the point of Succession is settled without a Civil War, or a Recantation; Since it were an absurd thing to imagine, that a man born to five Pounds a Year, should not be liable to forfeit his Inheritance for Nonconformity, and yet a Prince of the Blood, and an Heir to the Imperial Crown, should be made incapable of his Inheritance for Church-dissent.  
The Security then of Property, or Civil Right, from being forfeitable for Religious dissent, becomes a security to the Royal Family, against the Difficulties lately laboured under in the business of the Succession. And though I have no Commission for it, besides the great Reason and Equity of the thing itself, I dare say, there can hardly be a Dissenter at this time of day so void of Sense and Justice, as well as Duty and Loyalty, as not to be of the same mind. Else it were to deny that to the Prince, which he needs, and prays from him. Let us not forget the Story of Sigismond of Sweedland, of Henry the fourth of France, and especially of our own Queen Mary. Had Property been fixed, the Line of those Royal Families could not have met with any let or Interruption. 'Twas this Consideration that prevailed with Judge Hales, though a strong Protestant after King Edward's Death, to give his Opinion for Queen Mary's succession, against that of all the rest of the Judges to the contrary: which noble Precedent, was recompensed in the Loyalty of Archbishop Heath, a Roman-Catholick, in favour of the Succession of Queen Elizabeth; and the same thing would be done again, in the like case, by men of the same Integrity.  
I know it may be said, That there is little Reason now for the Prince to regard this Argument in favour of Dissenters, when it was so little heeded in the case of the Presumtive Heir to the Crown. But as this was the Act and Heat of Conforming men within Doors, so if it were in Counsel or Desire, the Folly and Injustice of any Dissenters without Doors, shall many entire Parties pay the Reckoning of the few busy Offenders? They would humbly hope, that the singular Mildness and Clemency, which make up so great a part of his Majesty's public Assurances, will not leave him in his Reflection here.  
'Tis the Mercies of Princes, that above all their Works, give them the nearest Resemblance to Divinity in their Administration. Besides, it is their Glory to measure their Actions by the Reason and Consequence of things, and not by the Passions that possess and animate private Breasts: For it were fatal to the Interest of a Prince, that the Folly or Vndutifulness of any of his Subjects, should put him out of the way, or tempt him to be unsteady to his Principle and Interest: And yet, with submission, I must say, it would be the Consequence of Coercion: For by expossing Property for Opinion, the Prince exposes the Consciences and Property of his own Family to the Church, and disarms them of all Defence, upon any alteration of Judgement. Let us remember that several of the same Parliament-men, who at first sacrificed civil Rights for Nonconformity in common Dissenters, fell at last to make the Succession of the Crown the Price of Dissent in the next Heir of the Royal Blood. So dangerous a thing it is to hazard Property to serve a turn for any Party, or suffer such Examples in the case of the meanest Person in a Kingdom.  
Nor is this all the benefit that attends the Crown, by the preservation of Civil Rights; for the Power of the Monarchy is kept more entire by it. The King has the benefit of his Whole People, and the Reason of their Safety is owing to their Civil, and not Ecclesiastical Obedience: Their Loyalty to Caesar, and not Conformity to the Church: Whereas the other Opinion would have it, that no Conformity to the Church, no Property in the State: Which is to clog and narrow the civil Power; for at this rate, No Churchman, No Englishman, and no Conformist, no Subject. A way to Alien the King's People, and practise an Ecclusion upon him, from, it may be, a fourth part of his Dominions. Thus it may happen that the ablest State-man, the bravest Captain, and the best Citizen may be disabled, and the Prince forbid their Employment to his Service.  
Some Instances of this we have had since his late Majesty's Restoration: For upon the first Dutch-War, Sir William Penn being commanded to give in a List of the ablest Sea-Officers in the Kingdom, to serve in that Expedition. I do very well remember he presented our present King with a Catalogue of the knowingest and bravest Officers the Age had bred, with this subscribed, These men, if his Majesty will please to admit of their Persuasions, I will answer for their Skill, Courage and Integrity. He picked them by their Ability, not their Opinions; and he was in the right; for that was the best way of doing the King's business. And of my own knowledge, Conformity robbed the King at that time of Ten men, whose greater Knowledge and Valour, than some one ten of that Fleet, had in their room, been able to have saved a Battle, or perfected a Victory. I will name three of them. The first was Old Vice-Admiral Goodson; than whom, no body was more Stout, or a Seaman. The second, Captain Hill, that in the Saphire beat Admiral Everson, hand to hand, that came to the Relief of old Trump. The third was Captain Potter, that in the constant Warwick, took Captain Beach, after eight hours smart Dispute. And as evident it is, that if a War had proceeded between this Kingom and France, seven years ago, the business of Conformity had deprived the King of many Land-Officers, whose share in the late Wars of Europe, had made knowing and able.  
But which is worst of all, such are not safe, with their dissent, under their own extraordinary Prince. For though a man were a great Honourer of his Prince, a Lover of his Country, an Admirer of the Government: In the course of his Life, sober, wise, industrous and useful; if a Dissenter from the established Form of Worship, in that condition there is no Liberty for his Person, nor Security to his Estate; As useless to the Public, so Ruined in himself. For this Net catches the best: Men true to their Conscience, and who indulged, are most like to be so to their Prince: whilst the rest are left to Cousin him by their change; for that is the unhappy end of forced Conformity in the poor spirited Compliers. And this must always be the consequence of necessitating the Prince to put more and other Tests upon his People, than are requisite to secure him of their Loyalty.  
And when we shall be so happy in our measures as to consider this Mischief to the Monarchy, it is to be hoped, it will be thought expedient to disentangle Property from Opinion, and cut the untoward Knot, some men have tied, that hath so long hampered and gauled the Prince as well as People. It will be then, when civil Punishments shall no more follow Church faults, that the civil Tenure will be recovered to the Government and the Natures of Acts, Rewards and Punishments, so distinguished, as Loyalty shall be the safety of Dissent, and the whole People made useful to the Government.  
It will, perhaps, be objected, That Dissenters can hardly I obliged to be true to the Crown, and so the Crown unsafe in their very Services; for they may easily turn the Power given them to serve it, against it, to greaten themselves. I am willing to obviate every thing, that may with any pretence be offered against our entreated Indulgence. I say, No, and appeal to the King himself, (against whom the Prejudices of our late Times ran highest, and therefore has most reason to resent) If he was ever better loved or served, than by the Old Roundheaded Seamen, the Earl of Sandwich, Sir William Penn, Sir J. Lawson, Sir G. Ascue, Sir R. Stainer, Sir Jer. Smith, Sir J. Jordan, Sir J. Harmon, Sir Chris. Minns, Captain Sansum, Cuttins, Clark, Robinson, Molton, Wager, Tern, Parker, Haward, Hubbard, Fen, Langhorn, Daws, Earl, White; to say nothing of many yet living, of real Merit, and many inferior Officers, expert and brave And to do our Prince Justice, he deserved it from them, by his Humility, Plainness and Courage, and the care and affection that he always showed to them.  
If any say, That most of these men were Conformists: I presume to tell them, I know as well as any man, they served the King never the better for that; on the contrary, 'twas all the strife that some of them had in themselves, in the doing that service, that they must not serve him without it; and if in that they could have been Indulged, they had performed it with the greatest Alacrity Interest will not lie. Where People find their Reckoning, they are sure to be True. For 'tis want of Wit that makes any man false to himself. 'Twas he that knew all men's Hearts, that said, Where the Treasure is, there the Heart will be also. Let men be easy, safe, and upon their preferment with the prince, and they will be Dutiful, Loyal, and most Affectionate.  
Mankind by nature fears Power, and melts at Goodness. Pardon my Zeal, I would not be thought to plead for Dissenters Preferment; 'tis enough they keep what they have, and may live at their own Charges. Only I am for having the Prince have Room for his choice, and not be cramp and stinted by Opinion; but employ those who are best able to serve him: And I think out of six Parties 'tis better picking, than out of one of them; and therefore the Prince's interest is to be head of all of them; which a Toleration effects in a moment; since those six (divided Interests, within themselves) having but 〈◊〉 civil Head, become one entire civil Body to the Prince: And I am sure, I have Monarchy on my side, if Solomon and his Wisdom may stand for it, who tells us, That the Glory of a King is in the Multitude of his People.  
Nor is this all, for the Consequences of such an Universal Content would be of infinite moment to the security of the Monarchy, both at Home and Abroad. At Home, for it would behead the factions without Blood, and Banish the Ringleaders without going abroad. When the great bodies of Dissenters see the care of the Government for their safety, they have no need of their Captains, nor These any ground for their Pretences: For as They used the People to value themselves, and raise their Fortunes with the Prince, so the People followed their Leaders to get that ease, they see their Heads promised, but could not, and the Government can, and does give them.  
Multitudes cannot Plot, they are too many, and have not Conduct for it, they move by another Spring. Safety is the pretence of their Leaders: If once they see they enjoy it, they have yet Wit enough not to hazard it for any Body: For the endeavours of busy men are then discernible; but a state of Severity gives them a pretence, by which the Multitude is easily taken.  
This I say, upon a Supposition, that the Dissenters could agree against the Government; which is a begging of the Question: For it is improbable (if not impossible without Conformists) since besides the Distance they are at in their Persuasions and Affections, they dare not hope for so good terms from one another, as the Government gives: And that Fear, with their Emulation, would draw them into that Duty, that they must all fall into a Natural dependence, which I call holding of the Prince, as the Great Head of the State.  
From abroad, we are as safe as from within ourselves: For if leading Men at home are thus disappointed of their Interest in the People, Foreigners will find here no Interpreters of their dividing Language, nor matter (if they could) to work upon; for the Point is gained, the People they would deal in, are at their ease, and cannot be bribed; and those that would, can't deserve it.  
It is this that makes Princes live Independent of their Neighbours; and to be loved at home, is to be feared abroad: One follows necessarily the other. Where Princes are driven to seek a foreign Assistance, the issue must either be the Ruin of the Prince, or the absolute subjection of the People; not without the hazard of becoming a Province to the power of that Neighbour that turns the Scale. These consequences have on either hand an ill look, and should rebate Extremes.  
The Greatness of France carries those Threats to all her Neighbours, that, politically speaking, 'tis the Melanchollist prospect England has had to make since Eighty Eight: The Spaniard at that time, being shorter in all things but his Pride and Hope, than the French King is now of the same universal Monarchy. This greatness begun by the eleaventh Lewis, some will have it, has not been so much advanced by the Wisdom of Richlieu, and Craft of Mazarene, no, not the Arms of the present Monarch, as by the assistance or connivance of England, that has most to lose by him.  
Cromwell begun, and gave him the Scale against the Spaniard. The Reason of State he went upon, was the support of his usurped Dominion: And he was not out in it; for the Exile of the Royal Family was a great part of the price of that Aid: In which we see, how much Interest prevails above Nature. It was not Royal Kindred could shelte a King against the Solicitations of an Usurper with the Son his Mother's Brother.  
But it will be told us by some People, We have n●● degenerated, but exactly followed the same Steps ever since, which has given such an Increase to those Beginnings, that the French Monarchy is almost above our reach. But suppose it were true, what's the cause of it? It has not been old Friendship, or nearness of Blood, or Neighbourhood; Nor could it be from an Inclination in our Ministers, to bring things here to a like issue, as some have suggested; for than we should have clogged his Successes, instead of helping them in any kind, lest in doing so, we should have put it into his power to hinder our own.  
But perhaps our cross Accidents of State may sometimes have compelled us into his Friendship, and his Councils have carefully improved the one, and husbanded the other, to great Advantages; and that this was more than made for our English Interest; and yet 'tis but too true, that the extremes Heats of some men, that most inveighed against it, went too far to strengthen that understanding, by not taking what would have been granted, and creating an Interest at home, that might naturally have dissolved that Correspondence abroad.  
I love not to revive things that are uneasily remembered, but in Points most tender to the late King, he thought himself sometimes too closely pressed, and hardly held; and we are all wise enough now to say, a milder Conduct had succeeded better: For if reasonable things may be unreasonably pressed, and with such private Intentions as induced a denial, Heats about things doubtful, unwise or unjust, must needs harden and prejudice.  
Let us then create an Interest for the Prince at Home, and Foreign Friendships (at best, uncertain and dangerous) will fall of course; for if it be allowed to private men, shall it be forbid, to Princes only, to know and be true to their own Support?  
It is no more than what every Age makes us to see in all Parties of men. The Parliaments of England since the Reformation, giving no quarter to Roman Catholics, have forced them to the Crown for shelter: And to induce the Monarchy to yield them the Protection they have needed, have with mighty Address and Skill, recommended themselves as the great Friends of the Prerogative, and so successfully too, that it were not below the Wisdom of that Constitution to reflect what they have lost by that constiveness of theirs to Cath●licks. On the other hand, the Crown having treated the Protestant Dissenters, with the severity of the Laws that affected them, suffering the sharpest of them to fall upon their Persons and Estates, they have been driven successively to Parliaments for Succour, whose Privileges, with equal Skill and Zeal, they have abetted: And our late unhappy Wars are too plain a proof, how much their Accession gave the Scale against the Power and Courage of both Conformists and Catholics, that adhered to the Crown.  
Nor must this contrary Adhesion, be imputed to Love or Hatred, but necessary Interest: Refusal in one place makes way for Address in another. If the Scene be changed the parts must follow; for as well before as after Cromwell's Usurpation, the Roman Catholics did not only promise the most ready Obedience to that Government in his Printed Apologies for Liberty of Conscience: But actually treated by some of their greatest Men, with the Ministers of those Times for Indulgence, upon the assurances they offered to give of their good Behaviour to the Government, as then established. On the other hand, we see the Presbyteriens, That in Scotland began the War, and in England promoted and upheld it to Forty Seven, when ready to be supplanted by the Independants, wheel to the King. In Scotland they Crown him, & come into England, with an Army to restore him, where their Brethren join them; but being defeated, They help, by private Collections, to support him abroad, and after the Overthrow of Sir G. Booth's Attempt; to almost a Miracle, restore him. And which is more, a great part of that Army too, whose Victories rise from the Ruin of the Prince they restored.  
But to give the last Proofs our Age has of the power of Interest, against the Notion opposed by this Discourse. First, the Independants themselves, held the greatest Republicans of all Parties, were the most Lavish and Superstitous Adorers of Monarchy in Oliver Cromwell, because of the regard he had to them; allowing him, and his Son after him, to be Custos Vtriusque Tabule, over all Causes, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, Supreme Governor. And next, the Conformists in Parliament, reputed the most Loyal and Monarchical men, did more than any body question and oppose the late King's Declaration of Indulgence; even They themselves would not allow so much Prerogative to the Crown.  
This proves the Power of Interest, and that all Persuasions centre with it: And when they see the Government engaging them with a fixed Liberty of Conscience, they must for their own sakes seek the Support of it, by which it is maintained. This Union, directed under the Prince's Conduct, would awe the greatness of our Neighbours, and soon return Europe to its ancient Balance, and that into his hand too. So that he may be the great Arbiter of the Christian World. But if the Policy of the Government places the Security of its Interest in the Destruction of the civil Interest of the Dissenters, it is not to be wondered at, if they are less found in the praises of its Conduct, than others to whom they are offered up a Sacrifice by it.  
I know it will be insinuated, That there is danger in builing upon the Union of divers Interests; and this will be aggravated to the Prince, by such as would engross his Bonny and intercept his Grace from a great part of his People. But I will only oppose to that mere Suggestion, three Examples to the contrary, with this Challange, That if after rummaging the Records of all Time, they find one Instance to contradict me, I shall submit the Question to their Authority.  
The First is given by those Christian Emperors, who admitted of all sorts of Dissenters into their Armies, Courts and Senates. This, the Ecclesiastical Story of those Times, assures us, and particularly Socrates, Evagrius, and Onuphrius.  
The Next Instance is that of Prince William of Orange, who by a timely Indulgence, united the scattered strength of Holland, and, all animated by the Clemency, as well as Valour of their Captain, crowned his Attempts with an extraordinary Glory; and what makes, continues Great.  
The last is given us by Livy, in his account of Hannibal's Army; That they consisted of divers Nations, Languages, Customs & Religions: That under all their successes of War and Peace, for Thirteen Years together, they never mutinied against their General, nor fell out among themselves. What Livy relates for a Wonder, the Marquis Virgilio Malvetzy gives the Reason of, to wit, their Variety and Difference, well managed by their General; for said he, It was impossible for so many Nations, Customs and Religions to combine, especially when the General's equal hand gave him more Reverence with them, than they had of affection for one another. This (says he) some would wholly impute to Hannibal▪ but however great he was, I attribute it to the variety of People in the Army: For (adds he) Rome's Army was ever less given to Mutiny, when balanced with Auxiliary Legions, then when entirely Roman. Thus much in his Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus.  
And they are neither few, nor of the weakest sort of men, that have thought the Concord of Discords the firmest Basis for Government to build upon. The business is to Tune them well, and that must be by the skill of the Misitian.  
In Nature we see, all Heat consumes, all Cold kills: That three Degrees of Cold to two of Heat, allays the Heat, but introduces the contrary Quality, and over-cools by a Degree; but two Degrees of Cold to two of Heat, makes a Poise in Elements, and a Balance in Nature. And in those Families where the evenest Hand is carried, the Work is best done, and the Master is most reverenced.  
This brings me to another benefit, which accrues to the Monarchy by a Toleration, and that is a Balance at home: For though it be improbable, it may so happen, that either the conforming or nonconforming Party may be ●●…tiful; the one is then a Balance to the other. This might have prevented much Mischief to our second and third Henry, King John, the second Edward and Richard, and unhappy Henry the sixth, as it undeniably saved the Royal Family of France, and secured Holland, and kept it from truckling under the Spanish Monarchy. While all hold of the Government, 'tis that which gives the Scale to the most Datiful; but still, no farther than to show Its Power, and awe the disorderly into Obedience, not to destroy the Balance, lest It should afterwards want the means of Over-poizing Faction.  
That this is more than Fancy; plain it is, that the Dissenter must firmly adhear to the Government for his Being, while the Churchman is provided for. The one subsists by its Mercy, the other by its Bounty. This is tied by Plenty, but that by Necessity, which being the last of Ties, and strongest of Obligations, the Security is greatest from him, that it is fancied most unsafe to Tolerate.  
But besides this, the Tranquillity which it gives at Home, will both oblige those that are upon the Wing for Foreign Parts, to pitch here again; and at a time when our Neighbouring Monarch is wasting his People, excite those Sufferers into his Majesty's Kingdoms, whose Number will increase that of his Subjects, and their Labour and Consumption, the Trade and Wealth of his Dominions.  
For what are all Conquests but of People? And if the Government may by Indulgence add the Inhabitants of Ten Cities to those of its own, it obtains a Victory without charge. The Ancient Persecution of France and the Low Countries, has furnished us with an invincible Instance; for of those that came hither on that account, we were instructed in most useful Manufacturies, as by courses of the like nature, we lost a great part of our Woollen Trade. And as men, in times of danger, draw in their Stock, and either transmit it to other Banks, or bury their Talon at home for security (that being out of sight, it may be out of reach too (and either is fatal to a Kingdom) So this mildness entreated, setting every man's Heart at rest, every man will be at work, and the Stock of the Kingdom employed; which, like the Blood, that hath its due passage, will give Life and Vigour to every Member in the public Body.  
And here give me leave to mention the Experiment made at Home by his late Majesty, in his Declaration of Indulgence. No matter how well or ill built the act of State was, 'tis no part of the business in hand, but what effect the Liberty of it had upon the Peace and Wealth of the Kingdom, may have instruction in it to our present Condition. 'Twas evident, that all men Laboured cheerfully, and Traded boldly, when they had the Royal Word to keep what they got, and the King himself became the universal Jusurer of Dissenters Estates. White-Hall then, and St. James' were as much visited and courted by their respective Agents, as if they had been of the Family: For that which eclipsed the Royal Goodness, being by his own Hand thus removed, his benign Influences drew the returns of Sweetness and Duty from that part of his Subjects, that the want of those Influences had made barren before. Then it was that we looked like the Members of one Family, and Children of one Parent. Nor did we envy our eldest Brother, Episcopacy, his Inheritance, so that we had but a Child's Portion: For not only Discontents vanished, but no matter was left for ill Spirits, foreign or domestic, to brood upon, or hatch to Mischief. Which was a plain proof, that it is the Union of Interests, and not of Opinions, that gives Peace to Kingdoms.  
And with all Deference to Authority, I would speak it, the Liberty of the Declaration, seems to be our English Amomum at least, the Sovereign Remedy to our English Constitution. And to say true, we shifted Luck as soon as we had lost it; like those that lose their Royal Gold, their Evil returns. For all Dissenters seemed then united in their affection to the Government, and followed their Affairs without fear or distraction. Projects then, were stale and unmerchantable, and no body cared for them, because no body wanted them: That gentle Opiate at the Prince's hand, laid the most busy and Turbulent to sleep: But when the loss of that Indulgence made them uncertain, and that uneasy, their Persons and Estates being again exposed to pay the Reckoning of their Dissent, no doubt, but every Party shifted then as they could: Most grew selfish, at least, jealous, fearing one should make Bargains apart, or exclusive of the other. This was the fatal part Dissenters acted to their common Ruin: And I take this Partiality to have had too great a share in our late Animosities; which, by fresh Accidents falling in, have swelled to a mighty Deluge, such an one as hath overwhelmed the former civil Concord and Serenity of the Kingdom. And pardon me if I say, I cannot see that those Waters are like to assuage, till this Olive Branch of Indulgence be some way or other restored: The Waves will still cover our Earth, and a spot of Ground will hardly be found in this glorious Isle, for a great Number of useful People to set a quiet foot upon. And to pursue the Allegory; what was that Ark itself, but the most apt and lively Emblem of Toleration? A kind of natural Temple of Indulgence. In which, we find two of every living Creature dwelling together, of both Sexes too, that they might propagate; and that as well of the unclean as clean kind: So that the base and less useful sort were saved. Creatures never like to change their Nature, and so far from being whipped and punished to the Altar, that they were expressly forbid. These were Saved, these were Fed and Restored to their Ancient Pastures. Shall we be so mannerly as to compliment the Conformists with the stile of Clean, and so humble as to take the unclean kind to ourselves, who are the less Noble, and more Clownish sort of People? I think verily we may do it, if we may but be saved too by the Commander of our English Ark. And this the Peaceable and Virtuous Dissenter has the less reason to fear, since Sacred Text tells us, 'Twas Vice, and not Opinion that brought the Deluge upon the rest. And here (to drop our Allegory) I must take leave to hope, that thought the Declaration be gone, if the reason of it remain, I mean, the Interest of the Monarchy, the King and His Great Council will graciously please to think a Toleration, no Dangerous nor Obsolete thing.  
But as Toleration has many Arguments for it, that are drawn from the Advantages that have & would come to the Public by it, so there are divers Mischiefs that must unavoidably follow the Persecution of Dissenters, that may reasonably dissuade from such Severity. For they must either be Ruined, Fly or Conform; and perhaps the last is not the Safest. If they are Ruined in their Estates, and their Persons Imprisoned, modestly computing, a fourth of the Trade and Manufacture of the Kingdom sinks; and those that have helped to maintain the Poor, must come upon the Poors Book for Maintenance. This seems to be an Impoverishing of the Public. But if to avoid this, they Transport themselves, with their Estates, into other Governments; nay, though it were to any of his Majesty's Plantations, the Number were far too great to be spared from Home. So much Principal Stock wanting to turn the yearly Traffic, and so many People too, to consume our yearly Growth, must issue fatally to the Trade one way, and on the Lands and Rents of the Kingdom the other way.  
And Lastly, If they should resolve, neither to suffer nor fly, but conform to prevent both. It is to be enquired, if this Cure of Church-Division be safe to the State; or not rather, a raking up Coals under Ashes, for a future Mischief? He whom Fear or Policy hath made Treacherous to his own Conscience, ought not to be held True to any thing but his own Safety and Revenge. His Conformity gives him the first, and his Resentment of the Force that compels it, will on no occasion let him want the last. So that Conformity cousins no body but the Government: For the State Fanatic (which is the unsafe thing to the State) being christened by Conformity, he is Eligible every where, with Persons the most devoted to the Prince: And all men will hold themselves protected in their Votes by it.  
A Receipt to make Faction keep, and preserve Disloyalty against all Wethers. For whereas the nature of Tests is to discover, this is the way to conceal the Inclinations of men from the Government. Plain Dissent is the Prince with a Candle in His hand: He sees the Where and What of Persons and Things: He discriminates, and makes that a rule of conduct: but forced Conformity is the Prince in the dark: It blows out his Candle, and leaves him without Distinction: Such Subjects are like Figures in Sand, when Water is flaped upon them, they run together, and are indiscernible: Or written Sedition, made illegible by writing the Oaths & Canons upon it: The safest way of blotting out Danger.  
And I know not how to forbear saying, that this necessary Conformity makes the Church dangerous to the State: For even the Hypocrisy that follows, makes the Church both conceal and protect the Hypocrites; which together with their Liberality to the Parson, Charity to the Poor, and Hospitality to their Neighbours, recommends them to the first favour they have to bestow. That Fort is unsafe where a part of the Garrison consists of disguised Enemies; for when they take their turns at the Watch, the danger is hardly evitable. It would then certainly be for the safety of the Fort, that such Friends in Masquerade were industrously kept out, instead of being whipped in.  
And it was something of this I remember that was made an Argument for the Declaration of Indulgence in the Preamble, to what, the greater Safety of the Government, from Open and Public, then private, dissenting Meetings of worship; as indeed the rest bear the like resemblance. For these were the Topics, quieting the People, encouraging Strangers to come and live among us, and Trade by it; and lastly, preventing the Danger that might arise to the Government by private Meetings. Of greater reason than from private men, not less discontented, but more concealed and secured by the great Drake of Church Conformity. It is this will make a Comprehension of the next Dissenters to the Church dangerous, tho' it were practicable, of which side soever it be. For in an Age, the present Government shall feel the Art and Industry of the comprehended. So that a Toleration is in reason of State to be preferred. And if the Reasons of the Declaration were ever good, they are so still, because the Emergencies of State that made them so, remain; and our Neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our detriment.  
But it will be now said, Though the Government should find its account in what has been last alleged, this were the way to overthrow the Church, and encourage Dissenters to continue in their Errors. Which is that second main Objection I proposed at first, to answer in its proper place, and that I think this is.  
I humbly say, if it prove the Interest of the three considerable Church-Interests in this Kingdom, a Relaxation, at least, can hardly fail us. The three Church Interests are, That of the Church of England; That of the Roman-Catholick-Dissenter; and That of the Protestant-Dissenter.  
That the Church of England ought in Conscience and Prudence to consent to the Ease desired.  
I pray first, that it be considered, how great a reflection it will be upon her Honour, that from a Persecuted, she should turn a Persecuting Church: An overthrow none of her Enemies have been able to give to her many excellent Apologies. Nor will it be excused, by her saying, She is in the Right, which her Persecutors were not; since this is a confidence not wanting in any of them, or her Dissenters; and the truth is, it is but the begging of a Question, that will by no means be granted.  
No body ought to know more than Churchmen, that Conscience cannot be forced. That Offerings against Conscience, are as odious to God, as uneasy to them that make them. That God loves a free Sacrifice. That Christ forbade Fire, though from Heaven (it self) to punish Dissenters; and commanded that the Tares should grow with the Wheat till the Harvest. In sine, that we should love Enemies themselves: And to exclude worldly strife for Religion; That his Kingdom is not of this World. This was the Doctrine of the Blessed Saviour of the World.  
Saint Paul pursues the same course. Is glad Christ is Preached, be it of Envy; the worst ground for Dissent that can be. It was he that asked that hard, but just Question, Who art thou that judgest another man's Servant? To his own Lord he standeth or falleth. He allows the Church a Warfare, and Weapons to perform it, but they are not Carnal, but Spiritual. Therefore it was so advised, that every man in matters of Religion, should be fully persuaded in his own mind, and if any were short or mistaken, God would, in his time, Inform them better.  
He tells us of Schismatics and Heretics too, and their punishment, which is to the point in hand: He directs to a first and second Admonition, and if that prevail not, reject them: That is, refuse them Church Fellowship, disown their Relation, and deny them Communion. But in all this there is not a Word of Fines or Imprisonments, nor is it an excuse to any Church, that the civil Magistrate executes the severity, while they are Members of her Communion, that make and execute the Laws.  
But if the Church could gain her Point, I mean Conformity, unless she could gain consent too, 'twere but Constraint at last. A Rape upon the Mind, which may increase her Number, not her Devotion. On the contrary, the rest of her Sons are in danger by their Hypocrisy. The most close, but watchful and Revengeful thing in the World. Besides, the Scandal can hardly be removed: To over-value Coin, and Rate Brass to Silver, Beggars any Country; and to own them for Sons she never begat, debases and destroys any Church. 'Twere better to indulge foreign Coin of intrinsic Value, and let it pass for its Weight. 'Tis not Number, but Quality: Two or three sincere Christians, that form an Evangelical Church; and tho' the Church were less, more Charity on the one hand, and Piety on the other, with exact Church-censure, and less civil Coercion, would give her credit with Conscience in all Sects; without which, their Accession itself would be no benefit, but disgrace, and hazard to her Constitution.  
And to speak prudently in this Affair 'tis the Interest of the Church of England, not to suffer the Extinction of Dissenters, that she may have a Counter Balance to the Roman Catholics, who, though few in Number, are great in Quality, and greater in their foreign Friendships and Assistance. On the other hand, it is her Interest to Indulge the Roman-Catholick, that by his Accession. She may at all times, have the Balance in her own hand, against the Protestant Dissenter, leaning to either, as she finds her Doctrine undermined by the one, or her Discipline by the other; or lastly, her civil Interest endangered from either of them.  
And it is certainly the Interest of both those Extremes of Dissent, that She, rather than either of them should hold the Scale. For as the Protestant-Dissenter cannot hope for any Tenderness, exclusive of Roman Catholics, but almost the same Reasons may be advanced against him; so on the other hand, it would look imprudent, as well as unjust, in the Roman Catholics, to solicit any Indulgence exclusive of Protestant Dissenters. For besides that, this keeps up the Animosity, which it is their Interest to bury: The consequence will be, to take the advantage of Time, to snatch it from one another, when an united Request for Liberty, once granted, will oblige both Parties, in all times, for Example sake, to have it equally preserved. Thus are all Church-Interests of Conformists and Dissenters, rendered consistent and safe in their civil Interest one with the other.  
But it will last of all, doubtless, be objected, That though a Toleration were never so desirable in itself, and in its consequence beneficial to the Public, yet the Government cannot allow it, without Ruin to the Church England, which it is obliged to maintain.  
But I think this 〈◊〉 not affect the Question at all, unless by maintaing the Church of England, it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of 〈◊〉 Communion, or knock them on the Head: Let us call to mind, that the Religion that is true, allows no man to do Wrong, that Right may come of it. And that nothing has lessened the Credit of any Religion more, than declining to support itself by its own Charity and Piety, and taking Sanctuary in the Arms, rather than the Understanding of men. Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon. The Church of England must be maintained: Right; but can't that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed? In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword, with this Rebuke, He that kills with the Sword, with the Sword shall be killed, if his Followers are to draw it again. He makes killing for Religion, Murder, and deserving Death: Was he then in the right, Not to call Legions to his assistance? And are not his Followers of these times in the wrong, to seek to uphold their Religion by any methods of Force? The Church of England must be maintained, therefore the Dissenters, that almost hold the same Doctrine, must be ruined. A Consequence most unnatural, as it is almost impossible. For besides that, the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate, who is, the Image of divine Justice and Clemency, and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church, upon one that desires to be esteemed a True one; she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed. King's can no more make Brick without Straw, than Slaves. The Condition of our Affairs is much changed, and the Circumstances our Government is under, differ mightily from those of our Ancestors. They had not the same dissents to deal with, nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable, and their Prosecution mischievous to the State. Nor did this come of the Prince's neglect or 〈◊〉: There are other Reasons to be assigned, of which, the opportunities Domestic Trouble gave to their Increase and Power, and the Severities used to suppress them, may go for none of the least. So that it was as involuntary in the Prince, as to the Church Anxious. And under this necessity to tie the Magistrate to old measures, is to be regardless of Time, whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the conduct of wise men in their present Actions. Governments, as well as Courts, change their Fashions: The same Clothes will not always serve: And Politics made Obsolete by new Accidents, are as unsafe to follow, as antiquated Dresses were ridiculous to ware.  
Thus Seamen know, and teach us in their daily practice: They humour the Winds, though they will lie as near as they can, and trim their Sails by their Compass: And by patience under these constrained and uneven Courses, it is they gain their Port at last. This justifies the Governments change of Measures from the change of Things; for res nolunt male Administrari.  
And to be free, it looks more than Partial, to Elect and Reprobate too. That the Church of England is preferred, and has the Fat of the Earth, the Authority of the Magistrate, and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands, which comprehends all the Honours, Places, Profits, and Powers of the Kingdom, must not be repined at: Let her have it, and keep it all, and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her. But to ruin Dissenters to complete her Happiness, (pardon the Allusion) is Talvavism in the worst sense; for this is that Horrendem Decretum reduced to Practice: And to pursue that illnatured Principle, Men are civilly Damned for that they cannot help, since Faith is not in Man's power, though it sometimes exposes one to it.  
It is a severe Dilemma, that a man must either renounce that of which he makes Conscience in the sight of God, or be civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated. There was a time when the Church of England herself stood in need of Indulgence, and made up a great part of the Non-conformists of this Kingdom, and what she then wanted, she pleaded for, I mean a Toleration, and that in a general Style, as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us: Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor, Bishop of Down, entitled Liberty of Prophecy.  
And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England, is the Modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes: For though perhaps it were indefencible in any Church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true, unless she superseded his Ignorance by Conviction, rather than Authority, it must doubtless look rude to punish men into Conformity to that, of the truth of which, the Church herself pretends no certainty. Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious than one more confident; but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh, when they ruin People for not believing that, which they have not in themselves the power of believing, and which she cannot give them, and of which herself is not infallibly assured. The Drift of this is Moderation, which well becomes us poor Mortals, That for every idle Word we speak must give an account at the Day of Judgement, if our Saviour's Doctrine have any credit with us.  
It would much mitigate the Severity, if the dissent were Sullen or in Contempt. But if men can't help or hinder their, Belief, they are rather Unhappy than Guilty, and more to be, pitied than blamed. However, they are of the reasonable stock of the Country, and though they were unworthy of Favour, they may not be unfit to live. 'Tis Capital, at Law, to destroy Bastards and By-blows are laid to the Parish to keep: They must maintain them at last: And shall not these natural Sons, at least, be laid at the Door of the Kingdom? Unhappy fate of Dissenters! to be less heeded, and more destitute than any Body. If this should ever happen to be the effect of their own Folly, with submission, it can never be the consequence of the Government's Engagements.  
Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest. If God hath elected some to Salvation, it will not follow, of course, that he hath absolutely rejected all the rest. For tho' he was God of the Jews, he was God of the Gentiles too, and they were his People, tho' the Jews were his peculiar People. God respects not Persons, says St. Peter, the good of all Nations are accepted. The Difference at last will not be of Opinion, but Works: Sheep or Goats, all, of all Judgements will be found; and, Come, well done; or Go ye Workers of Iniquity, will conclude their Eternal State: Let us be careful therefore of an Opinion-Reprobation of one another.  
We see the God of Nature hath taught us softer Doctrine in his great Books of the World: His Sun shines, and his Rain falls upon all. All the Productions of Nature are by Love, and shall it be proper to Religion only to propagate by Force? The poor Hen instructs us in Humanity, who, to defend her feeble Young, refuses no danger. All the Seeds and Plants that grow for the use of Man, are produced by the kind and warm Influences of the Sun. 'Tis Kindness that upholds human Race. People don't multiply in spite: And if it be by gentle and friendly ways, that Nature produces and matures the Creatures of the World, certainly Religion should teach us to be Mild and Bearing.  
Let your Moderation be known to all men, was the saying of a great Doctor of the Christian Faith, and his Reason for that command Cogent; For the Lord is at hand. As if he had said, Have a care what you do, be not bitter nor violent, for the Judge is at the Door: Do as you would be done to, lest what you deny to others, God should refuse to you.  
And after all this, shall the Church of England be less tender of men's Consciences than our common Law is of their Lives, which had rather a Thousand Criminals should escape, than that One Innocent should perish? Give me leave to say, that there are many Innocents' (Conscience excepted) now exposed, Men honest, peaceable and useful; free of ill designs; that pray for Caesar, and pay their Tribute to Caesar.  
If any tell us, They have, or may, ill use their Toleration. I say, this must be looked to, and not Liberty therefore refused; for the English Church cannot so much forget her own Maxim to Dissenters, That Propter abusum non est Tollendus usus. It suffices to our Argument, 'tis no necessary Consequence, and that Fact and Time are for us. And if any misuse such Freedom, and entitle Conscience to Misbehavour, we have other Laws enough to catch and punish the Offenders, without treating One Party with the Spoils of Six. And when Religion becomes no man's Interest, it will hardly ever be any man's Hypocrisy. Men will choose by Conscience, which at least preserves Integrity, though it were mistaken: And if not in the wrong, Truth recompenses Inquiry, and Light makes amends for Dissent.  
And since a plain Method offers itself, from the Circumstances, of our case, I take the freedom to present it for the Model of the entreated Toleration.  
Much has been desired, said and pressed in reference to the late King's being Head of a Protestant League, which takes in but apart of the Christian World; the Roman and Grecian Christians being excluded. But I most humbly offer, that our wise men would please to think of another Title for our King, and that is Head of a Christian League, and give the Experiment here at Home in his own Dominions.  
The Christian Religion is admitted of All in the Text, and by All acknowledged, in the Apostles Creed. Here every Party of Christians meet, and centre as in a General. The several Species of Christians, that this Genus divideth itself into, are those divers Persuasions we have within this Kingdom; the Church of England, roman-catholics, Grecians, Lutheraus, Presbyterians Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers Socinians: These I call so many Orders of Christians, that unite in the Text, and differ only in the Comment; All owning one Deity, Saviour and Judge, good Works, Rewards and Punishments: which Bodies once regulated, and holding of the Prince, as Head of the Government, maintaining Charity, and pressing Piety, will be an Honour to Christianity, a Strength to the Prince and a Benefit to the Public: For in lieu of an unattainable (at best an unsincere) Uniformity, we shall have in Civils, Unity and Amity in Faith.  
The jews before, and in the time of Herod, were divided into divers Sects. There were Pharisees, Sadduces, Herodians and Essenes'. They maintained their Dissent without Ruin to the Government. And the Magistrates fell under no censure from Christ for that Toleration.  
The Gentiles, as already has been observed, had their divers orders of Philosophers, as disagreeing as ever Christians were, and that without danger to the Peace of the State.  
The Turks themselves show us, that both other Religions, and divers Sects of their own, are very Tolerable, with seourity to their Government.  
The Roman Church is a considerable instance to our point; for she is made up of divers Orders of both Sexes, of very differing Principle, fomented sometimes, to great Feuds and Controversies; as between Franciscans, Dominicans, jesuits and Sorbomists; yet without danger to the Political state of the Church. On the contrary, she therefore cast herself into that Method, that she might safely give vent to Novelty and Zeal, and suffer both without danger of Schism. And these Regulars, are by the Pope's Grants, privileged with an Exemption from Episcopal Visitation and Jurisdiction.  
Changing then the Terms, from Church to State, the whole contrivance looks very Wise and Imitable. For as by this, Schism in their Church, so Faction in our State may be prevented. And these civil Regulars depending on the civil Power, as those Religious ones do upon the Popes, will Naturally, like them, become the Perpetual Votaries of its greatness. And thus all Parties hanging, like Keys, by one Ring, at the civil Magistrates Girdle, tho' each has its several Lock, he that keeps them can open and shut every Door, as the Persons deserve and the public Safety requires.  
To make this more easy a 〈◊〉 and Practice, I humbly propose; First, that every Party do present a voluntary Assurance of their Fidelity to the Government, in Terms the most full and pain that may be: In which, as the King will have an Account of their Number, so of their Duty to the Government, and Abhorrence of all Faction and Rebellion.  
Secondly, That they should give in a List of their Meetings, as to Place, Time, and the Persons properly belonging to them.  
Thirdly, that once in every Year, the names of Proselytes be delivered into the Clerk of the Peace for every County, and that all of that Party, as well as those new Adherents, do renew their Obligation of Obedience, by Annual Subscriptions.  
Fourthly, Because it is not impossible that some or other may mis-behave themselves, and abuse this Liberty, or be abused in the use of it. That in every County three Persons of most Eminency be Yearly Named to the Magistrates by each Dissenting Interest, to stand a kind of Representatives, both to inform them what they can, upon inquiry, of Persons or Things among the People of that Party, Which may in the least be thought to affect the Government, and to have redress of injuries done to Persons in the sober use of their allowed Liberty.  
These are the Methods that have had most weight with me, and the best I know to create a Reciprocal Confidence and Interest between the Prince and his Dissenting People: To be sure, this Course hath succeeded well elsewhere, even in Monarchiacal States. And therefore in itself not inconsistent with Monarachy.  
And Lastly, Because this Freedom will be best kept and improved to the public Benefit, by maintaining a good Understanding between the divers Orders of Christians within themselves. 'Twere farther requisite, That, first, No Nicknames were continued, and all Terms of Reproach, on all hands, punishable. Secondly, That Controversial Points were carefully avoided, and Vice declined, and Holiness pressed, Without which (St. Paul tells us) no-man shall see the Lord.  
God Almighty inspire the KING's Heart, and those of his Great Council, to be the Instruments of this Blessing to the Kingdom.  
I shall conclude this Persuasive with the Judgement of some Pious Fathers and Renowned Princes.  
QUadratus and Aristides, wrote two Apologies to Adrian, for the Christian Faith, and against the Persecution of it.  
justin Martyr, an excellent Philosopher and Christian, writ two learned dissuasives against Persecution, which he dedicated (as I take it) to Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.  
Melito, Bishop of Sardis, a good and learned man, 〈◊〉 smart Defence for the Christian Religion, and a Toleration, dedicated to Verus.  
Tertullian, in his most sharp and excellent Apology for the Christians, fastens Persecution upon the Gentiles, as an inseparable Mark of Superstition and Error; as he makes the Christian Patience a Sign of Truth. In his Discourse to Scapula, he says, 'Tis not the property of Religion to Persecute for Religion; she should be received for herself, not Force.  
Hilliary, an early and learned Father, against Auxentius, saith, The Christian Church does not persecute, but is persecuted.  
Atticus Bishop of Constantinople, would by no means have the Minister of Nice to respect any Opinion or Sect whatsoever, in the Distribution of the Money sent by him for the Relief of Christians; and by no means to prejudice those that practise a contrary Doctrine and Faith to theirs: That he should be sure to relieve those that hunger & thirst, and have not wherewith to help themselves, and make that the rule of his consideration. In short, he made the Heretics to have his Wisdom in Admiration, in that he would by no means trouble or molest them.  
Proclus (another Bishop of Constantinople) was of this Opinion, That it was far easier by fair means to allure unto the Church, than by force to compel: He determined to vex no Sect whatever, but restored to the Church the renowned Virtue of Meekness required in Christian Ministers.  
If we will next hear the Historians own Judgement, upon a Toleration, I am of opinion (says he) that he is a Persecutor, that in any kind of way molesteth such men as lead a quiet and peaceable Life. Thus Socrates in his third Book: In his seventh, he tells us, That the Bishop of Sinada, indeed, did banish the Heretics, but neither did he this (says he) according to the Rule of the Catholic Church, which is not 〈◊〉 to persecute, (l. 7.)  
Lactantius, tells the angry men of his time, thus, If you will, with Blood, Evil and Torments defend your Worship, it shall not thereby be defended, but polluted.  
Chrysastom saith expressly, That it is n●● the manner of the Children of God, to persecute about their Religion, but an evident Token of Antichrist.  
Thus the Fathers and Doctors of the first Ages. That Emperors and Princes have thus believed, let us hear some of greatest note, and most pressing to us.  
jerom, a good and learned Father, saith, That Heresy must be cut off with the Sword of the Spirit.  
Constantinus, the Father of Constantine the great, laid this down for a Principle, That those that were Disloyal to God, would never be trusty to their Prince. And which is more, he lived thus, and so died, as his great Speech to his great Son, on his Deathbed, amply evidences.  
Constantine the Great, in his Speech to the Roman Senate, tells them, There is this difference between Humane and Divine Homage and Service, that the one is compelled, and the other aught to be free.  
Eusebius Pamphili, in the Life of Constantine, tells us, that in his Prayer to God, he said, Let thy People, I beseech thee, desire and maintain Peace, living free from Sedition to the common good and benefit of all the World; and those that are