England's present interest discover'd with honour to the prince and safety to the people. : In answer to this one question, What is most fit, easie and safe at this juncture of affairs to be done for composing, at least quieting of differences ; allaying the heat of contrary interests, & making them subservient to the interest of the government, and consistent with the prosperity of the kingdom?

William Penn

[Anon], 1675

[William Penn's Essay On Religious Toleration: Foundations of Pennsylvania and the Freedom of Conscious: Rare Early Quakeriana]  Second edition (printed the same year as the first, with Penn's name on title page).  Small 4to.  Collated: (vi), 62 pp. Stitched gatherings, as issued.  Held in custom made leather-backed, cloth solander box.  Outer top corner worn, with minor marginal loss.  Wear and short closed tears along text edges.  Dampstaining in gutter and bottom corner of pp. 31-41.  Refs: Sabin 59693; Smith, Friends’ Books, II, p. 293; Church 637; ESTC R23118; Wing P1279. Rare at auction, this work has only been offered once since 1980. 

Early ownership inscription: “England, present Interest Consider'd Joseph Gowthwait Eis Liber Anno Domi 1759"; contemporary ownership signature at bottom of title-page, “William Phillipps Book”.   ]

William Penn wrote this work in the 1670s as a response to increased Quaker persecution by the British state.  He discusses the Declaration of Indulgence of 1673, the Test Act, Clarendon Code, and the noxious effects of English religious laws on the natural rights of Englishmen.  His discussion of the history and separation of civil liberty in England from the established church is part, icularly interesting.  Penn contrasts what he calls fundamental and superficial laws to argue that Quakers, by following their conscience outside of the established Church of England, did not forfeit their rights as Englishmen, and asserts that a government that tolerates a multitude of religious sentiments is strengthened as a whole. Penn's arguments for religious toleration predate Pennsylvania's founding by 6 years.  Penn's Quaker ideals were codified in 1681 when the new colony of Pennsylvania passed an "Act for Freedom of Conscience" to establish religious tolerance.  The foundational ideas of separation of church and state and freedom of conscience echoed in the First Amendment of the Constitution's Bill of Rights.  For Quakers like Penn, toleration was part of faith in practice, so that people could listen to their inner light and find truth through contemplation and divine inspiration.