PART II. _Nec Religionis est cogere Religionem, quæ sponte suscipi debeat, non Vi._ Tertull. _LONDON_: Printed for the AUTHOR, and Sold by him next Door to the _Star_, in _Aldermanbury_, and by the Booksellers of _London_ and _Westminster_. MDCCXXX. [_Price One Shilling._] [Illustration] TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir _Robert Raymond_, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of the Court of _King's Bench_. MY LORD, That I am no Flatterer of _Patrons_, appears by my other _Dedications_: If therefore I should tell your _Lordship_, what I can in Sincerity, that I think you as wise and good a Magistrate, as any of your _Predecessors_ in that _High Court_ of _Justice_, you may be assured, I don't dissemble. Tho' I was so unfortunate, _My Lord_, as to receive a Sentence in your Court, which I wish'd to avoid; yet I have no worse Opinion of your Wisdom and Justice. Your Conduct towards me, from first to last, has rather heighten'd than lessen'd my Esteem and Veneration for you. I observ'd in you such a Tenderness for our religious Liberties; such an Aversion to Persecution; and such Moderation towards my self, that if I had been absolutely acquitted, it would have been but with somewhat more Satisfaction. And if I now write to clear my self of all Suspicions of Infidelity, for which I was sentenced; your _Lordship_, I humbly presume, will not think the worse of me. It is not expected that the Innocent should confess Guilt, in a Compliment to any Court of Justice: Nor does the Condemnation of the Guiltless, at any time almost, so much affect the Justice of the Magistrate, as the Honesty of the Evidence: So I, _My Lord_, know how to lay the Blame entirely on my Ecclesiastical Accusers, and believe your _Lordship_ will be rather pleas'd than offended at any good Defence I can make for my self. From the Beginning of the Prosecution against me, _my Lord_, I hardly believed, that any Sentence would be pass'd on me, till the Day I received it: And the Reason was, not only because the good Tendency of my _Discourses_ was so visible, that I thought it could not be overlook'd by the Wise and Learned; but because I imagin'd our _Bishops_ would have better consulted their Reputation, than to let Matters come to this Issue.