Some Sober and Weighty Reasons against Prosecuting Protestant Dissenters, for Difference of Opinion in Matters of Religion. Humbly offered to the Consideration of all in Authority.  
1. Reas. BEcause the great and mighty God, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, hath not imposed matters of Religion upon the Consciences of Men and Women by any outward force: God hath not appointed Death, nor banishment, nor Imprisonment, nor loss of goods, as a means to bring persons to conform to the way of his Worship; but God hath given his Word, and favoured the World with such as can Preach it, whose work is to invite, entreat, persuade; and not in a lordly way to domineer over the Consciences of Men and Women, whether they be Rich or Poor.  
2. Reason, Because all sorts of mankind are fallable in some Divine matters, even in all Country's; the Princes, the Priests, and the People, are yet short of infallabillity in many matters of Divinity; yea the most Eminent Ministers of the Gospel in the Primitive time confessed they saw but in part, and they knew but in part; and said to their fellow Christians, that they would not lord or domineer over them, but be helpers of their Joy.  
3. Reason, Because all sorts of persons do desire this as a great good for themselves, even those that are for distressing of, and imposing upon others, would not be so dealt with themselves, but would Account it hard measure, yea cruelty, to be forced to such things in Religion as are against their Consciences, or else to suffer in their Purse or Persons. As for instance, the Episcopal Protestant would doom it great Persecution to be punished if he would not turn Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, or Quaker; and why then should the Episcopal Protestant take pleasure in punishing of, and so force any of the others to be of his mind? And therefore great and good Reason it is to walk by that Blessed Rule Christ hath given, Do unto others as you would they should do unto you, and what you would not others should do unto you, do not to them.  
4. Reason, Because forcing the Conscience is the Ready way to make men Hypocrites; for if persons conform to any way of Worship unwillingly, they cannot serve God acceptably, though the matter and form of worship be never so Right, because the heart of the Worshippers is not Right, the Service being performed by by Man's Compulsion; God requireth that his Service should be performed with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind; but he that conforms by Compulsion, in stead of being God's Servant, he is but Man's slave: and the Conformity is to Man, and not to God.  
5. Reason, Because His Majesty did Solemnly promise Liberty of Conscience in matters of Religion, when he was at Breda, Just upon his Restauration to his Throne and Kingdoms, in April 1660. In these words: We do declare a Liberty to Tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in Question for differences of opinion in matters of Religion, which do not disturb the Peace of the kingdom; & that we shall be Ready to Consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us, for the full granting that Indulgence.  
6. Reason, Because the prosecuting the Protestant Dessenters for matters of Conscience, is a great disquieting of the minds of great numbers of his Majesty's good Subjects, and a great hindrance to the Trade of the Kingdom, the Dissenters being a great part of the Trading People of this Kingdom; and some thing of this his Majesty was graciously pleased to take into his Princely Consideration, when he put forth his indulging Declaration, by the advice of his Privy Council, in March, 1672. after a violent prosecution of that Act against Conventicles, in these very words: But it being Evident by the sad Experience of Twelve Years, that there is very little fruit of all those. FORCEABLE courses: we think ourselves obliged to make use of that Supreme Power in Ecclesiastical matters, which is not only inherent in us but hath been declared and recognized to be so by several Statutes and Acts of Parliament; and therefore we do now accordingly Issue this our Declaration, as well for the quieting of the minds of our good Subjects in these points, for inviting of Strangers in this conjuncture to come and live under us, and for the better encouragement of all to a cheerful following of their Trade and Callings, from whence we hope by the blessing of God to have many good and happy advantages to our Government.  
7. Reason, Because the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament, sense those Declarations have upon MATURE DELIBERATION considered the ill consequences of prosecuting the Protestant Dissenters by the penal Laws, and have showed their willingness to a Toleration, and prohibiting of a prosecution of Protestants for matters of Conscience.  
8. Reason, Because the French Protestants, who are the Dissenters from the Established Worship of that Kingdom, are graciously Received by the King, and kindly Received and succoured by the People of England, and the French King is highly blamed for Persecuting his peaceable Subjects; and therefore much more Reason that Protestants should not persecute one another, for it is to do the same things that is condemned in others: therefore let the words of the Apostle Paul be well considered, Rom. 2. 1. Thou art inexcusable, O man, whoever thou art, that Judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that Judgest dost the same things thyself; Verse 3. And thinkest thou, O man, that Judgest them which do such things, and dost the same, that thou shalt escape the Judgement of God?  
9 Reason, There is a good and great Agreement between the Conforming, and Nonconforming Protestants, in the Chief things of the Protestant Religion: as for Instance; 1. Both parties believe in the holy Trinity, viz. The Father, Son, and holy Ghost: 2. That Jesus Christ is very God and very Man, and the only Saviour of Sinners: 3. That Salvation doth depend upon the miraculous Birth, the holy Life, the painful Death, the wonderful Resurrection, the Joyful Ascension, the constant Intercession, and the second coming of Jesus Christ: 4. Both parties believe that the Worship of God, and the Conversations of men, aught to be according to the holy Scriptures, and not according to the inventions of any sort of mankind: 5. Both parties do deny all Mediators but only Jesus Christ, and abhor praying to deceased Saints: 6. Both parties deny a Purgatory, and do believe and profess a Heaven of Eternal Joy for the godly, and a Hell of Eternal woe for the wicked. All these things more largely and plainly are made manifest in Confessions of Faith, Printed by the Dissenting Protestants as well as by the Conforming Protestants. Now the matters wherein they differ from each other being smaller than the former things, and yet such as each partty cannot conform unto without wronging their Conscience, and so sinning against God, therefore they ought not to be Forced.  
10. Reason, Because Persecution for matters of Conscience is a Breach of the good Rules of Humanity, and common Civility among all sorts of men, which is carefully observed in smaller matters: as for instance, among the many Creatures of God that are Food for men's Bodies, some things that are very pleasing and comfortable Food for some men, the same things are very Destructive to the health of other men; now in this Case there is such Civility among all sorts of men that they hate and scorn to force one another's Stomaches, looking upon it to be an inhuman practice; and therefore do friendly, say to each other, Pray eat that which will best go down, and agree with your Stomach. Now for as much as Conscience is greater than Stomach, and the hurt of the Soul greater than the hurt of the Body, how much more should persons, especially Protestant's, be thus friendly one to another in matters of Conscience?  
11. Reason, Because all Protestants ought to behave themselves towards each other as Brethren, there being so good and great agreement between them in the chief things of Religion; Especially they being all in a like danger of the Bloody Papists, who if ever the Government should fall into their Bloody hands, (which God of his mercy prevent) then the same miseries that may befall the Protestant Dissenters, will certainly befall the Conforming Protestants; if they prove true to their Protestant Principles, they will all be deemed Heretics, and must suffer as much in their Estates and Persons; and therefore instead of Persecuting one another, they should love each other, and pray for each other, and say as Abraham said to Lot, Let there be no strife between me and thee, for we are Brethren: and more especially because the Popish Cannonite and Perrizite are now too much in the Land.  
12. Reason, Because the Protestant Dissenters do not belong to any Foreign Power, but do abhor, detest, and protest against all Foreign Power or Jurisdiction over the King, the Kingdom, or any of his Majesty's Subjects; neither are they covetous of Preferment in Church or State, but willingly leave that to his Majesty's wisdom, and desire only that they may live a peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty under Authority, as God's Word doth direct.   

London: Printed by G. Larkin, in Scalding-Alley in the Poultry, 1682.