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that fome people have conceived of his intentions in reference to religion. Their jealoufy is, that his aim has been to fettle POPERY in this nation, not only in a fair and secure liberty, but even in a predominating fuperiority over all other profeffions : and from hence the inference follows, that whofoever has any part in the councils of this reign, must needs be popifhly affected: but that to have fo great a C part in them, as you are faid to have had, can happen to none but an abfolute papift. That is the direct charge; but that is not enough, your poft is too confiderable for a Papist of an ordinary form, ⚫ and therefore you must be a Jefuit: nay, to confirm that fuggeftion, it must be accompanied with all the circumstances that may best give it an air of probability; as that you have been bred at St. OMER'S, in the Jefuit's college; that you have taken orders at Rome, and there obtained a difpenfation to marry; and that you have fince that frequently officiated as a priest, in the celebration of the mafs at ▾ Whitehall, St. James's, and other places. And this ⚫ being admitted, nothing can be too black to be cast upon you. Whatsoever is thought amifs either in church or ftate, though never fo contrary to your advice, is boldly attributed to it, and if other proofs fail, the fcripture itself must be brought in to con‹ firm, "That whofoever offends in one point" ‹ (in a point especially fo effential as that of our too much • affected uniformity)" is guilty of the breach of all "our laws." Thus the charge of popery draws after it a tail like the et cetera oath, and, by endless in⚫uendoes, prejudicates you as guilty of whatever malice can invent, or folly believe: but that charge therefore being removed, the inferences that are drawn from it will vanish, and your reputation will return to its former brightness.

Now that I may the more effectually perfuade you to apply fome remedy to this disease, I beseech you, Sir, fuffer me to lay before you fome of its perni⚫cious confequences. It is not a trifling matter for a

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'perfon raised, as you are, above the common level, to lie under the prejudice of fo general a mistake, in fo important a matter. The general and the long ' prevalency of any opinion gives it a strength, efpe' cially among the vulgar, that is not eafily fhaken, And as it happens that you have also enemies of an higher rank, who will be ready to improve fuch popular mistakes, by all forts of malicious artifices, it 'must be taken for granted that thofe errors will be thereby ftill more confirmed, and the inconveniences that may arife from thence no lefs increased. This, Sir, I affure you, is a melancholy profpect to your 'friends; for we know you have fuch enemies. The defign of fo univerfal a liberty of confcience as your ' principles have led you to promote, has offended 'many of those whofe intereft is to cross it: I need not tell you how many and how powerful they are: nor can I tell you either how far, or by what ways ' and means, they may endeavour to execute their revenge. But this, however, I must needs tell you, ' that in your prefent circumstances, there is fufficient ground for fo much jealoufy, at least, as ought to excite you to use the precaution of fome publick vindication. This the tenderness of friendship prompts 'your friends to defire of you; and this the juft fenfe of your honour, which true religion does not extinguish, requires you to execute.

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Pardon, I intreat you, Sir, the earneftness of these expreffions; nay, fuffer me, without offence, to expoftulate with you yet a little farther. I am fearful left these personal confiderations fhould not have their due weight with you, and therefore I cannot omit to reflect alfo upon fome more general confequences of your particular reproach. I have faid it already, that the king, his honour, his government, and even the peace and fettlement of this whole nation, either are, or have been, concerned in this matter: your reputation, as you are faid to have meddled in publick affairs, has been of publick, ? concernment. The promoting a general liberty of

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⚫ confcience having been your particular province; the afperfion of popery and jefuitifin, that has been caft upon you, has reflected upon his MAJESTY, for hav¬ ing made use, in that affair, of fo disguised a perfonage as you are fuppofed to have been. It has ⚫ weakened the force of all your endeavours, obftructed their effect, and contributed greatly to disappoint • this poor nation of that ineftimable happiness, and fecure eftablishment, which I am perfuaded you defigned, and which all good and wife men agree, that a juft and inviolable liberty of confcience would infallibly produce. I heartily with this confideration had been fooner laid to heart, and that fome de• monstrative evidence of your fincerity in the profeffion you make, had accompanied all your endea( vours for liberty.

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But what do I fay, or what do I wifh for? I confefs that I am now ftruck with aftonishment at that • abundant evidence which I know you have constantly given, of the oppofition of your principles to those of the Romish church, and at the little regard there has been had to it. If an open profeffion of the directeft oppofition against Popery, that has ever appeared in the world, fince Popery was firft diftinguifhed from common Christianity, would ferve the turn, this cannot be denied to all thofe of that soCIETY, with which you are joined in the duties of religious worship. If to have maintained the principles of that fociety, by frequent and fervent difcourfes, by many elaborate writings, by fuffering ignominy, imprisonment, and other manifold difadvantages in defence thereof, can be admitted as any proof of your fincere adherence thereunto; this, it is evident to the world, you have done already: nay farther, if to have enquired as far as was poffible for you, into the particular ftories that have been framed against you, and to have fought all means of rectifying the mistakes upon which they were grounded, could in any measure avail to the fettling a true character of you in mens judgments; this alfo I know

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have done. For I have feen under the hand of * reverend dean of our English church, a full, acknowledgment of fatisfaction received from you, in a fufpicion he had entertained upon one of thofe ftories, and to which his report had procured too. great credit. And though I know you are averse to. the publishing of his letter without his express leayé, and perhaps may not now think fit to ask it; yet I am fo thoroughly affured of his fincerity and candour, that I cannot doubt but he has already vindicated you in that matter, and will (according to his promife) be ftill ready to do it upon all occa⚫ fions. Nay I have feen alfo your juftification from another calumny of common fame, about your having kidnapped one who had formerly been a MONK, out of your American province, to deliver him here into the hands of his enemies; I fay, I have seen your juftification from that story under that person's own hand and his return to Pennsylvania, where he now refides, may be an irrefragable confutation of it, to any that will take the pains to enquire there

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Really it afflicts me very much to confider that all this does not fuffice. If I had not that particular ' refpect for you which I fincerely profefs; yet I could not but be much affected, that any man who had fo ' defervedly acquired fo fair a reputation as you have formerly had, whofe integrity and veracity had always been reputed spotless, and whofe charity had been continually exercifed in ferving others, at the dear expence of his time, his ftrength, and his eftate, without any other recompence than what results from the consciousness of doing good; I fay, I could not but be much affected, to fee any fuch person fall innocently and undefervedly under fuch unjust reproaches as you have done. It is an hard cafe; and I think no man, that has any bowels of humanity, can reflect upon it, without great relent<ings.

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Dr. Tillotson.

• Since

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Since therefore it is fo, and that fomething remains yet to be done, fomething more exprefs, and especially more publick, than has yet been done for your vindication, I beg of you, dear Sir, by all the tender efficacy that friendship, either mine, or that of your friends and relations together, can have upon you; by the due regard which humanity, and ‹ even Christianity, obliges you to have to your reputation; by the duty you owe unto the king; by ? your love to the land of your nativity; and by the cause of univerfal religion and eternal truth; let not the fcandal of infincerity, that I have hinted at, lie any longer upon you; but let the sense of all these obligations perfuade you to gratify your friends and relations, and to ferve your king, your country, and your religion, by fuch a publick vindication of your honour, as your own prudence, upon thefe fuggef<tions, will now fhew you to be moft neceffary, and most expedient. I am, with unfeigned and most refpectful affection,

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London, October the

• 20th, 1688.'

Honoured Sir,

Your most humble, and

moft obedient Servant,

W. PENN'S Answer to the foregoing Letter. • WORTHY FRIEND,

T is now above twenty years, I thank God, that

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'I have not been very folicitous what the world thought of me. For fince I had the knowledge of religion from a PRINCIPLE in MYSELF, the first and main point with me has been, to approve myself in the fight of God, through patience and well-doing: fo that the world has not had weight enough with me, to fuffer its good opinion to raife me, or its ill opinion to deject me. And if THAT had been the only motive or confideration, and not the defire of a good friend, in the name of many others, I had

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