A letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in London upon the subject of the penal laws and tests Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1687 Approx. 14 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 7 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A54166 Wing P1318 ESTC R32176 12353359 ocm 12353359 60049 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A54166) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 60049) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1025:8) A letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in London upon the subject of the penal laws and tests Penn, William, 1644-1718. 12 p. s.n.], [London : 1687. Attributed to Penn by Wing and NUC pre-1956 imprints. Place of publication suggested by Wing and NUC pre-1956 imprints. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Test Act (1673) Dissenters, Religious -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- England. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-09 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-09 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A LETTER Form a Gentleman in the COUNTRY , To his Friends in LONDON , Upon the Subject of the Penal Laws and Tests . Quod tibi non vis fieri , alteri non feceris . Printed in the Year 1687. Gentlemen , I Wonder mightily at the News you send me , that so many of the Town are averse to the Repeal of the Penal Statutes ; surely you mean the Clergy of the present Church , and those that are Zealous for their Dignity and Power : For what part of the Kingdom has felt the Smart of them more , and at all times , and on all occasions represented their mischeif to the Trade , Peace , Plenty and Wealth of the Kingdom , so freely as the Town has always done ? But you unfold the Riddle to me , when you tell me , 't is for fear of Popery , tho I own to you , I cannot comprehend it , any more then you do Transubstantiation : For that we should be afraid of Popery for the sake of Liberty , and then afraid of it because of Persecution , seems to me absurd , as it is , that Liberty should be thought the high way to Persecution . But because they are upon their fears , pray let me tell you mine , and take them among the rest in good part . If the Romanists seek ease by Law , 't is an Argument to me they desire to turn good Countrymen , and take the Law for their Security , with the rest of their Neighbours ; and a greater Complement they cannot put upon our English Constitution , nor give a better pledge of their desires to be at peace with us . But if we are so Tenacious as we will keep on foot the greatest blemish of our Reformation , viz. our Hanging , Qua tering , Plunder Banishing Laws ; Is it not turning them out of this quiet course , and telling them if they will have ease , they must get it as they can , for we will never conceed it ? And pray tell me if this be not thrusting them upon the methods we fear they will take , at the same time that we give that , for the reason why we do so . If Law can secure us , which is the plea that is made , we may doubtless find an expedient in that which may repeal these , if the danger be not of Liberty it self , but of our loosing it by them at last ; for there is no michief the wit of man can invent , that the wit of man cannot avoid . But that which I confess makes me melancholy , is , that methinks we never made more haste to be cous●ned ; no not in the business of the Declaration of Indulgence , when in the name of Property that was actually damn'd , which at least reprieved it ; and the price the Church of England gave for it , viz. her promise of a legal case , actually failed us : For instead of saving our selves from Popery , we are by these partialities provoking it every day , and methinks foolishly for our own safety ; because there can be no other end in doing so , then securing that Party which calls it self the Church of England , that is in her Constitution none of the best Friends to Property ; for mens Liberties and Estates are by her Laws made forfeitable for Non-conformity to Her : And I Challenge the Records of all time since Popery got the Chair in England , to produce an eight part of the Laws , to ruin men for Conscience , that have been made since the other has been the national Religion , which is , I say , a scandal to the Reformation . She says , she is afraid of Popery , because of its Violence , and yet uses Force to compel it ; Is not this resisting Popery with Popery ? which we call loving the Treason but ha●ing the Traytor : She would have Power to Fo●ce or Destroy others , but they should not have Power to Force or Destroy her , no not to save themselves : Shift the hand never so often , this Weapon is still the same . 'T were happy therefore that all Parties were disarm'd of this Sword , and that it were put where it ought only to be , in the Civil Magistrates hand , to terifie Evil Doers , and cherish those that do well , remember●ng St Peter's saying ( in Cornelius's case ) for an Example , I perceive now of a truth that God is no respecter of Persons , but those that fear him , and work Righteousness in all Nations shall be accepted : Else what security does the Church of England give to the great body of her Dissenters , that she will not do what she fears from Popery , when she has a Prince of her own Religion upon the Throne , that has made so fair a Progress these last six and twenty Years in ruining families , for non-conformity under Princes of an other Perswasion . Come , Interest will not lye , she fears Liberty , as much as Popery : Since those that want , and plead for the one , are an hundred times more in number then the Friends of the other , and all of her side , that Popery should not mount the Chair : So that she would get more then she would lose by the Repeal , if an equal desire to subject both Popish and Protestant Dissenters to her Power and Government be not the Principle she walks by in her present Aversion . And to shew you that this is the case , and that her aversion to Popery is a sham to the Liberty desired , the Dissenters are of no use to her , while the penal Laws are on foot ; for by them they are put in the power of a Prince of the Religion of the Church she fears ; but the moment they are repealed , so far as concerns the preventing Popery to be national , the Dissenters are equally interested with the Church of England against it . But then here is the mischief ; This Liberty takes the Rod out of her hand ; she can no more whip People into her Churches , and she perhaps may modestly suspect her own vertue and ability to preach them thither . In short , if she were in earnest against Popery , more then in love with her own Power and Grandure ; that is , if the World were not in the way , she would rejoyce to deliver Men of her own Religion , that are so much more numerous then the Papists , that they might ballance against her fears of their prevailing : But to cry she is for Liberty to Protestant Dissenters , and make the demonstration of it , her keeping up the Laws that ruin them , and then say it is for fear of the Religion the Prince owns , and yet force them into his hands by doing so , is , I must confess , something incomprehensible . Besides , properly and naturally speaking , the Church of England is the People of England , and when it s apply'd to a Party , 't is a Faction to the whole ; and that Title has no more Truth in it , then 't is sence to say the Roman Catholick Church , which in English , is a particular Universal Church : And pray is there no room left to consider this hard case of the Kingdom ? I hope the civil Magistrate will , who is the supream Pastor of this civil Church on Earth . Is she then no more then a Party ? no certainly . and how great a one , a true Liberty of Conscience would best tell us , and that is the true reason , and not Popery , that she is tender in the point . I conclude then , that whilst those of that Religion only desire to be upon the Level with others ; I mean upon Native Rights , the Great Charter , what we all of us call , our Birth-right , let us not refuse it , lest God suffer them to prevail to curb our partiallity . There are Laws enough to punish Offenders against the State , if these were repealed , and not condemn People by Anticipation . That Law which catches a Protestant , will catch a Papish Traytor , Riotor or seditious Person . Again , let us reflect , that we have a Prince of Age , and more honour ; the prospect of three excellent Princes of the Protestant Religion , the paucity of the Papists , the number of the Enemies of their Commnion , their unity in that aversion : what greater security can we have in the World ? Policy , Honour , Religion , Number , Vnity , ●ay , Necessity too , conspire to make us safe : for all these are concerned in the means of our preservation ; unless our fears and our follies should prevail : which I confess I apprehend most ; for they will be deserted of God , that forsake him and themselves too ; who dare do a certain evil that a supposed good may come of it , contradict their own Principles deny what they expect , sow what they would not reap , do to others what they would not that others should do to them : But there is a God in Heaven , and he is just : He will meet to us what we measure to one another , and his Judgment is inevitable . I therefore advise the Church of England to be as ready in her Christian complyances as is possible : First , because it is impious to keep up distroying Laws for Religion , when her Saviour tells her upon this very Question , That he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them . Secondly , Because by this she will wipe off rhe Reproach she throws by continuing them , upon her own Apologies for Liberty of Conscience , when under the wheel of Power . Thirdly , Because Liberty to the Papists by Law , is bringing them into the legal interest of the Kingdom , and will prevent the force , they may else be driven to , by being made and left desperate : For ' its not to be thought they will willingly pay the reckoning in another Reign , if by any means they can prevent it ; and keeping up the penal Laws can be no security to the Church of England from such attempts , though they may provoke them upon her . Fourthly , She hereby saves her dissenters ; and if it be really her inclination to do so , she has no other way , and this unites them to her in affection and interest , if not in Worship . But if on the contrary she persists obstinately to refuse this national paciffick ; the dissenters , I hope , will consider their honest Interest , Conscience and Property , and imbrace those oppertunities to secure them , that God in his all-wise providence is pleased to yield them in this conjuncture . Thus Gentlemen , you have my thoughts upon your News , pray communicate them to our acquantance , and believe that I am , Yours , &c. POST-SCRIPT . FOr the Tests that are so much discoursed of , I shall only say , that 't is , an other mystery of the Times to me , how the Church of England , that was against the Exclusion , can be for them that were design'd for a Preamble to it ; since in so doing , she is for that which was contrived to introduce the Exclusion she was so Zealously against . I confess I never understood her very well , and she grows more and more unintelligible ; but this I know , that she must either be sorry for what she has done , or she did not know what she did . The first reflects upon her Loyalty , the last upon her understanding ; and because I think that the least , and likeliest evil , I conclude she is no infallible Guide upon the Question . Another thing you tell me , that gives great offence , is , his Majesties turning out Protestants , and putting in People of his Religion . This I conceive a fault , that the Church of England is only answerable for . Other Princes have been so unhappy as to Suffer Tests and Marks of distinction that have broken and disorder'd their Kingdoms , by depriving those of their Temporal comforts , that would not receive them ; and this People esteemed a mighty grievance ; and were frequent and elegant in their complaints about it . We have a King now , that would remove these Marks of distinction , and secure all men upon their native Right and Bottom , That all Parties might sit safely under their own Vine , and under their own Fig-tree ; so that now , who is for Liberty ? becomes the Test . Are they then fit to be trusted that are out of his Interest , and against the Liberty he is for , and the Nation wants and craves ? Or is it good sense , that he ( who is mortal as well as other men ) should leave the Power in those hands , that to his face show their aversion to the Friends of his Communion tho he offers to maintain her still ? She had the offer to keep them , upon that Principle that must heal and save the Kingdom Liberty of Conscience : which shows the King was willing to be served by her sons to chuse , if upon the same general Principle with himself : wherefore 't is the Gentlemen of the Church of England that turn themselves out of power , rather then endure Liberty of Conscience to others ; and shall this Vice be their Vertue . They must be heartily in love with persecution that can sacrifice their Places to the upholding of penal Laws for Religion , because they would not let others , not only , not come in , but not live at their own Charges : A fine thing to suffer for . Their Ancestors were Martyers by penal Laws , but these for them . The cause is chang'd whatever they think , and I am afraid they are chang'd too for want of thinking . I Profess I pitty them with all my Heart and wish them more Wit , and better Consciences against next time , if ever they have it , for these , if they will believe me , will hardly ever make so good a Bargin for them , as they have lost by them . More of this , if you like it , next time , and till then , Adieu . FINIS .