Reflections upon the new test, and the reply thereto with a letter of Sir Francis Walsingham's, concerning the penal laws made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
WHereas you desire to be advertiz'd, touching the pro∣ceedings here in Ecclesiastical Causes, because you seem to note in them some Inconstancy and Variation, as if we inclin'd sometimes to one side, and sometimes to another; and as if that Clemency and Lenity were not us'd of late, that was us'd in the beginning: All which you imputed to your own superficial Ʋnderstanding of the Affairs of this State, having, notwithstanding Her Majesty's doing in singular Re∣verence, as the real Pledges which She hath given unto the World of her Sincerity in Religion, and of the Wisdom in Government, well meriteth. I am glad of this occasion, to import that little I know in that Matter unto you, both for your own Satisfaction, and to the end you may make use thereof, towards any that shall not be so modestly and reasonably minded, as you are. I find Her Majesties Proceedings to have been grounded upon two Principles. The one, that Consciences are not to be forced, but to be won and reduced by force o
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