Page:A Letter from a Person of Quality, to His Friend in the Country (1675).pdf/13

 hand, without a Power always in being of dispensing upon occasion, was to suppose a constitution extreamly imperfect and unpracticable, and to cure those with a Legislative'' power always in being, is, when considered, no other then a perfect Tyranny. As to the Church, he conceived the Declaration was extreamly their Interest; for the narrow bottom they had placed themselves upon, and the Measures they had proceeded by, so contrary to the Properties, and Liberties of the Nation, must needs in short time, prove fatall to them, whereas this led them into another way to live peaceably with the dissenting and differing Protestants, both at home and abroad, and so by necessary and unavoidable Consequences, to become the Head of them all; For that place is due to the Church of England, being in favor, and of neerest approach to the Most powerful Prince of that Religion, and so always had it in their hands to be the Intercessors and Procurers of the greatest Good and Protection, that partie throughout all Christendom, can receive. And thus the A. Bishop of Canterbury might become, not only Alterius Orbis, but Alterius Religionis Papa, and all this addition of Honor and Power attaind without the least loss or diminution of the Church; It not being intended that one living Dignity, or Preferment should be given to Any but those, that were strictly Conformable. As to the Protestant Religion, he told me plainly, It was for the preserving of That and that only that he heartily joyned in the Declaration; for besides that, he thought it his Duty to have care in his Place and Station, of those he was convinced, were the People of God and feared Him, though of different persuasions; he also knew nothing else but Liberty, and Indulgence that could possibly (as our case stood) secure the Protestant Religion in England; and he beg'd me to consider, if the Church of England should attain to a rigid, blind, and undistputed Conformity, and that power of our Church should come into the hands of a Popish Prince, which was not a thing so impossible, or remote, as not to be apprehended; whether in such a case, would not all the Armes and Artillery of the Government of the Church, be turned against the present Religion of it, and should not all good Protestants tremble to think what Bishops such a Prince was like to make, And whom those Bishops would condemn for Hereticks, and that Prince might burn; Whereas if this which is now but a Declaration, might ever by the Experience of it, gain the Advantage of becoming an Established Law, the true Protestant Religion would still be kept up amongst the Cities, Towns, and Trading places, and the Worthy­est, and Soberest (if not the greatest) part of the Nobility, and Gentry, and People: As for the toleration of Popery he said, It was a pleasant Objection, since he could confidently say that the Papists had no advantage in the least by this Declaration, that they did not as fully enjoy, and with less noise, by the favor of all the Bishops before. It was the Vavity of the L. Keeper, that they were named'' Rh