Liberty would be to establish Iniquity by a Law: * Many of these Writings are yet to be feen; and, I hear, have been quoted by the Doctor above mentioned. As to their great Objection of prostituting that holy Inftitution, the bleffed Sacrament, by Way of a Teft, before Admittance into any Employment; I ask, whether they would not be content to receive it after their own Manner, for the Office of a Judge, for that of a Commiffioner in the Revenue, for a Regiment of Horfe, or to be a Lord Justice. I believe they would fcruple it as little, as a long Grace before and after Dinner; which they can fay without bending a Knee. For, as I have been told, their Manner of taking Bread and Wine in their Conventicles, is performed with little more Solemnity than at their common Meals. And, therefore, fince they look upon our Practice in receiving the Elements, to be idolatrous; they neither can, nor ought, in Confcience, to allow us that Liberty, otherwise than by Connivance; and a bare Toleration, like what is permitted to the Papifts. But, left we should offend them, I am ready to change this Teft for another; although, I am afraid, that fanctified Reason is, by no Means, the Point where the Difficulty pinches; and only offered by pretended Churchmen, as if they could be content with our believing, that the Impiety and Prophanation of making the Sacrament a Teft, were the only Objection. I therefore propofe, that before the prefent Law be repealed, another may be enacted; that no Man fhall receive any Employment, before he fwears himself to be a true Member of the Church of Ireland, in Doctrine and Discipline, &c. And, * See many hundred Quotations to prove this, in the Treatife called, Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence. that he will never frequent, or communicate with any other Form of Worship. It fhall likewise be further enacted, that whoever offends, &c. fhall be fined five hundred Pounds, imprisoned for a Year and a Day, and rendered incapable of all publick Trust for ever. Otherwife, I do infift, that those pious, indulgent, external Profeffors of our National Religion, fhall either give up that fallacious hypocritical Reafon for taking off the Teft; or freely confefs, that they defire to have a Gate wide open for every Sect, without any Teft at all, except that of fwearing Loyalty to the King: Which however, confidering their Principles, with regard to Monarchy yet unrenounced, might, if they would please to look deep enough into their own Hearts, prove a more bitter Teft, than any other that the Law hath yet invented. FOR, from the firft Time that these Sectaries appeared in the World, it hath been always found, by their whole Proceeding, that they profeffed an utter Hatred to kingly Government. I can recollect, at present, three Civil Eftablishments, where Calvinifts, and fome other Reformers who rejected Epifcopacy, poffefs the fupreme Power; and, these are all Republicks; I mean, Holland, Geneva, and the reformed Swifs Cantons. I do not fay this in Diminution, or Difgrace to Commonwealths; where in, I confefs, I have much altered many Opinions under which I was educated, having been led by fome Obfervation, long Experience, and a thorough Deteftation for the Corruptions of Mankind: Infomuch, that I am now juftly liable to the Cenfure of Hobbs, who complains, that the Youth of England imbibe ill Opinions, from reading the Hiftories of ancient Greece and Rome, thofe renowned Scenes of Liberty and every Virtue. BUT, BUT, as to Monarchs; who must be supposed well to study and understand their own Intereft; they will beft confider, whether those People, who in all their Actions, Preachings, and Writings, have openly declared themselves against Regal Power, are to be fafely placed in an equal Degree of Favour and Trust, with those who have been always found the true and only Friends to the English Eftablishment. From which Confideration, I could have added one more Article to my new Teft, if I had thought it worth my Time, I HAVE been affured by fome Perfons who were prefent, that several of these Diffenting Teachers, upon their first Arrival hither to follicit the Repeal of the Teft, were pleased to express their Gratitude, by publickly drinking the Healths of certain Eminent Patrons, whom they pretend to have found among us; if this be true, and that the Teft muft be delivered up by the very Superiors appointed to defend it; the Affair is already, in Effect, at an End. What fecret Reasons those Patrons may have given for fuch a Return of brotherly Love, I fhall not inquire: For, O my Soul come not thou into their Secret, unto their Affembly mine Honour be not thou united. For in their Anger they flew a Man, and in their Self-will they digged down a Wall, Curfed be their Anger, for it was fierce, and their Wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and featter them in Ifrael. |
