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Penn_251-300.indd 289 1/18/12 1:23 PM A PERSWASIVE to Moderation to Church-Dissenters, in Prudence and Conscience: Humbly submitted to the KING and His Great Council (1686) The EPISTLE. HAVING of lateTime observ'd the Heat, Aversion and Scorn with which some Men have treated all Thoughts of Ease to Church Dissenters, I confess I had a more than ordinary Curiosity to examine the Grounds those Gentlemen went upon: For I could not tell how to think Moderation should be aVice, where Christianity was a Virtue, when the Great Doctorofthat Religion commands, that Our Moderation be known unto all Men; and why? For the Lord is at Hand: 1 And what to do? but to judge our Rancor, and retaliate and punish our Bitterness ofSpirit. And, to say true, 'tis a severe Reflection we draw upon our selves, that though Pagan Emperors could endure the Addresses ofPrimitive Christians, and Christian Caesars receive the Apologies ofInfidels, for Indulgence, yet it should be thought, ofsome Men, an Offence to seek it, or have it ofa Christian Prince, whose Interest I dare say it is, and who himself so lately wanted it: But the Consideration of the Reason of this Offence, will increase our Admiration; for they tell us, 'tis dangerous to the Prince to suffer it, while the Prince is himself a Dissenter:This Difficulty is beyond all Skill to remove, that it should be against the Interest ofa Dissenting Prince to indulge Dissent. For though it will be granted there are Dissenters on differing Principles from those ofthe Prince, yet they are still Dissenters, and Dissent being the Prince's Interest, it will naturally follow, that those Dissenters are in the Interest of the Prince, whether they think on it or no. Interest will not lye: Men embark'd in the same Vessel, seek the Safety of the Whole in their Own, whatever other Differences they may have. And SelfSafety is the highest worldly Security a Prince can have; for though all Parties would rejoyce their own Principles prevailed, yet every one is more solicitous 1. Philippians 4:5. Penn_251-300.indd 290 1/18/12 1:23 PM {290} PENN's ARGUMENT FOR RELIGIOUS Ll BERT Y about it's own Safety, than the other's Verity. Wherefore it cannot be unwise, by the Security ofAll, to make it the Interest as well as Duty ofAll, to advance that of the Publick. Angry Things, then, set aside, As Matters now are, What is best to be done? This I take to be the Wise Man's Question, as to consider and answer it, will be his Business. Moderation is a Christian Duty, and it has ever been the Prudent Man's Practice. For those Governments that have used it in their Conduct, have succeeded best in all Ages. I remember it is made in Livy the Wisdom of the Romans, that they relaxed their Hand to the Privernates, and thereby 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, even then, when the Romans discharged their Fidelity, and sent them the Despair of knowing they could not relieve them.2 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.3 A Truth Celebrated by Grotius and 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.5 Moderation fill'd the Reigns ofthe most Renowned Caesars: And Story says, they were Neros and Caligulas that loved Cruelty. But others tell us that Dissenters are mostly Antimonarchical, and so not to be indulged, and that the Agreement of the Church of England and Rome in Monarchy and Hierarchy, with their Nearness in other Things should oblige her to grant the Roman Catholicks a special Ease, exclusive of the other Dissenters . But with the Leave of those Worthy Gentlemen, I would say, no Body is against that which is for him: And that the Aversion apprehended to be in some against the Monarchy, rather comes from Interest than Principle: For...

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