reservation you would have said Over all Persons and over all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil then we had understood you but we are well satisfied how Anti-Monarchical Presbiterianism is And if you are so well satisfied in the ancient fundamental Constitution of this Kingdom what means your whole pragmatical Legislative Discourse wherein the factious and seditious Models that you have cast in your supercilious Noddle are proposed as sufficient to persuade the changing the fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom especially of the Church which hath been established by the wisdom of so many Parliaments but the reason of this boldness you ingenuously confess in this Section when you say That as some set their wits a work in framing so do others in evading the designs of such Engagements which are no less than the Laws of the Land in this particular which I could advise you for Conscience sake if there is any Obedience to be paid to the Higher Powers and what they enact to bear more Reverence and Obedience to and not so seditiously endevour their overthrow otherwise you may chance meet with the Goats Fate described in the Poet Rode Caper vitem tamen hinc cum stabis ad aras In tua quod fundi cornua possit erit Then according to your own words The condition of the Dissatisfied because they wilfully and seditiously will be so may without damage or just scandal to any be made such that they shall not long for changes but gladly embrace present things and then the implacably evil minded will want matter to work upon and rest without hope of disturbing the Publick Peace which your seditious insinuation so cunningly endevours when you give us in this Section the Character of the People of England in these words The English in general are an ingenuous and open-hearted People and if unluckie accidents discompose them not they are of themselves disposed to have their Kings in great veneration Is not this a huge piece of Rhetorick to persuade His Majesty that the approbation and exaltation of Presbiterians is his own great Interest if it bears any sense or construction it must speak thus Presbiterians profess much affection to Monarchy and the Royal Family and have the King in great veneration but if He grant not what they demand they will not do it they have stiffly both by Pen and Sword resisted and opposed all Authority and if He will not do what they will have Him it will prove an unluckie accident that shall discompose them and put them quite besides it and then we must expect if not Wars and Tumults as we have had yet Woe and Misery Thus forsooth is established the Kings Interest § 21 In the next place you pretend to demonstrate the Church and Clergies interest and benefit by the Legal Establishment of Presbiterians But here as you did before you bring no argument to the Point but having to deal with the Clergy more in this Section than in any other you lay about you like a mad man vilifying them as reproach unto the Church telling us That the more considerate Sons of the Church do observe and bewail such dangerous miscarriages by Simony Pluralitics Non-residency and Profaneness as threaten a second downfall That if the Church would flourish the Bishops must not be the head of such Ministers as for Ignorance and Lewdness are a scandal and scorn to their Neighbours c. I suppose you mean your selves for the more considerate Sons of the Church and therefore you should have done well to have named who are so guilty and where they are that they might receive their reward but I hope it only proceeds from your malice which is very hot against the Bishops and Clergy witness these your words It is taken for granted that neither Conscience nor Interest will permit the Bishops and Clergy of England to unite to the See of Rome Their Doctrine is too pure and their judgment too clear for a full compliance with Popery Here you imitate Archers who draw back the Arrow that they may wound with a greater force you vindicate their Conscience and Interest their Doctrine and their Judgement and yet most maliciously wound them with your full compliance There are more of this nature which I shall let pass and observe how with the same breath you magnifie your selves saying Presbiterian Ministers are Godly and Learned able and apt to teach the People by experience we know what stiling your selves Labourers in the service of the Lord of the Harvest The chief Shepherds faithful servants Orthodox and pious Ministers Godly and peaceable men preaching only the indubitable truths of Christianity Men of known moderation c. One would wonder at your impudent partiality and your shameless malicious scandals if you did not presently discover your design in them when you say The Religion of any State will sink if it is not held up in its venerable estimation amongst the People By these actions of you and your Party the World doth take notice what men are cast out and why and thinks it is the honour strength and safety of the Church that such men be numbred amongst their opposites who can with Conscience pretend That it is sincerely wished that the Clergie may hold their state in safety and honour that they may never be laid low for want of meet Revenue or Dignity and in the very next Page propose the cutting off some Luxuriances from some of the Highest Order and the sharing among many what is ingrossed by a few Now we fully understand you hitherto I confess I was amazed although I well knew what were the Motives that moved you to procure our late Troubles what could be the chief drift in your design seeing you here sincerely wished That the Clergie might hold their state in safety and honour and that you so often in your Discourse declared that the things of difference between you and the Church were so inconsiderable that you professed you could bear with others in the practice of them although you could not practice them your selves and that you could submit to some things which you cannot approve and that not for unworthy ends but for Conscience sake That you acknowledged also That the Presbiterians generally by which it is evident you are not all of a mind nor ever will be held the Church of England to be a true Church c. and therefore that they did frequent the Worship of God in the Publick Assemblies And that many that press earnestly after further Reformation which it seems is never to have an end do yet communicate as well in the Sacraments as the Word preached and Prayer c. and therefore for divers reasons you lay down you say It may be well thought they would accept reasonable terms and rest satisfied therein O! would you again be fing'ring the Revenues of the Church are these the reasonable terms which your avarice calls a moderation because
third word is That such a Condescention to a widened Establishment is the safety of Religion This is a great word and comfortable if it be true that we may therefore the more readily believe it you tell us That a sound Church as Englands is cannot so easily be hurt by the abatement of a few rigours in themselves but indifferent and so esteemed by the wiser Dissenters Presbiterians you mean who can easily let them pass in such as will use such little things or of some of them they can bear with others in the practice of some things which themselves cannot practice and they can submit to some things which they cannot approve not for unworthy ends but for Conscience sake without engaging therefore in troubles whereof none knows the issue that is if you may be admitted else you will roar out upon them and they that use them The wiser Dissenters are men without all doubt better taken in by Authority into the Established order of favour and protection than left out with the other people of more unmanageable and instable principles to increase the reputation of their Party This indeed doth found like something of safety the fewer Rebels the securer our Peace and where is most of Peace our safety is there the greater But all this is understood if these Dissenters now to be admitted into societie and friendship have laid down those seeds of Disagreement and Dissention which hitherto have kept them asunder before this their admission Upon these very Motives which you now say are Formalities Petty matters Indifferent and Tristing things you did voluntarily first separate your selves and inferr'd a War which ruin'd the whole Land let your Books and Writings be brought forth they will testifie that you accounted and called those Motives Weighty and Fundamental for the justifying of your Wars and Broyls which now for the making up of your Association You say are but small and indifferent and no wayes fit to hinder so much happiness and safety as the said Association would bring to Religion and the Nation For the obtaining now of favour and protection amongst the Bishops set up again by the Magistrate after you by force of Arms had cast them down all those differences you would bring with you are very minutulous and indifferent which to overthrow them formerly were great Christian and Momentous truths How comes this to pass are you changed men no the very same of the same animositie and in the same mind and all those points which differences you from the Episcopal Protestant are now momentous and weighty with you just as they were then And they were then indifferent and meer Trifles just as they are now For they were then indifferent and small in order to the Bishops yielding and condescention unto you and your whole Partie therein and so they are still but in order unto your condescention unto them your Bishops and Shepherds the very same points wherein they require your compliance O they are deadly and needless Choke-pears which you cannot swallow they are Popish Rites besides Holy Scripture they are Forms of men and not of God they are racks and ruinous scandals to weak Consciences and so they were then nor is there any more change in you than in Aesop's Fox who by force worried the Pullen when he had them in his reach and when he found them safely roosted he persuaded them by kindest words that they might be all together for that he loved them all in Visceribus suis. And if the Bishops will but pull you up to them because they think it not convenient to come down to you we shall soon see how dearly you love them and how quickly the frozen Serpent being warm'd in their bosome will hiss and sting both them and us but of this we shall perceive more in your following Discourse But why do you choose this Legislative way intermixt with supplications for the obtaining of an End which you lately compassed so successfully by the Swords of your industrious ready and willing People O you sigh us out the reason hereof in most compassionate tones The wiser sort of Dissenters Presbiterians say you whose Conformity were they gain'd would most avail for what are weary of these strifes they dread the consequence of changings the hurrying into other extreams and the wilde excursions of some spirits they would not be left again to the late uncertainty and continual vacillations in Government and they have long since seen the manifold errors committed in the Policy of the late times they know that such unfixed liberty would not secure them and therefore it may be well thought they would accept reasonable terms and rest satisfied therein For all this the Nation well enough perceives that you the wiser sort of Dissenters are as readie now for War in your minds as you were 28 Years ago when it was first begun and prospered in your hands for you walk not any longer now in the dark as then you did you have the same resolution greater purses by plundring and cheating the whole Nation more men educated already in your principles and train'd up to your hands and which is the sum of all a greater probabilitie now of Victorie than before you durst promise to your selves Why then do you not proceed prosperously and endevour to get by strength that authoritie and power for which you do now so whiningly pray and supplicate O! there is a weighty and momentous reason for it which you have not yet told us plain enough Is it your inclination and love to Peaceableness Love to your poor Countrie which you are loth to see any more imbroyl'd Fear of success No shall I tell it you wonder you needs must how I got into your heart to find out your meaning for your meaning once found out will enable us sufficiently to understand your words but your words will never guide us sufficiently to find out your meaning It is this You wise Dissenters do now seriously consider that after you had betrayed the People into the waste of so much Time Treasure and Blood in your last victorious War enterprised for the rooting out of those damnable unchristian Points and Practices in the Church of England which now to currie favour with the same Partie after strange Revolutions set up again by the miraculous hand of God you call Trifling and Indifferent things in that very nick of time when you looked to receive the reward of your triumphant malice the Victorie now wholly obtain'd and the English Church and State then under your feet it pleased God in his just judgment for your Hypocrisie to Him Treason and Sedition against the Church your Mother and the King your Father to let that Bodie of Puritans whereof you were the leading part to shiver imperceivably into several pieces and the simpler part thereof called afterwards Independents to cast you the wiser part then and ever since called Presbiterians out of the Saddle So that you
DOLUS an VIRTUS OR An ANSWER TO A SEDITIOUS DISCOURSE CONCERNING The RELIGION of ENGLAND AND The Settlement of Reformed Christianity in its due Latitude Vae Vobis Hypocritae To which are added The VOTES of PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Star in Little Britain M. DC LXVIII AN ANSWER TO A SEDITIOUS DISCOURSE CONCERNING The RELIGION of ENGLAND MEeting with your Discourse of the Religion of England asserting That Reformed Christianity settled in its due Latitude is the Stability and Advancement of this Kingdom I was inclin'd to peruse it because casting my Eye upon your Preface I found your first words acknowledge That Religion is deeply imprinted in humane Nature and hath a great power over it therefore I could not but hope to meet with the great Effects of it in your own especially since you seem'd so sollicitous only for the Peace of Religion and the Nation and that you did so ingenuously profess That nothing was suggested in your Discourse for Politick ends That Episcopacy was not undermin'd nor any other Form of Government insinuated That all Pragmatical Arrogance presuming to give Rules to Governors or teach them what to do was carefully avoided That only the Possibility Expediency and Necessity of Moderation was represented And that you humbly desired this honest intention of yours in pursuance of Peace might find a favourable reception This is the pretended Incense you offer to the Publick good hoping that the smoke of it will skreen your Falsehood from view but being smoke it vanisheth and leaves your designs so perspicuous that I esteemed my self obliged to detect you and to shew the World how contrary your Discourse is to all these Pretensions in your Preface A man may see an itching humor in you to be doing but what one can hardly conjecture but by the shadows of your motions which are subtle and violent and therefore properly to be called Presbiterian Three differing wayes of Religion are mentioned in your Discourse to be in this Realm viz. Protestants of the Church of England Protestants Non-conformists and Papists With the Papists you begin and therein spend seven Sections which are premised on purpose to make your Reader more attentive and kind to the Author who would be accounted so fiery an enemy to them But this part of your Discourse I am not concerned in who neither am nor ever was a Papist nor do I pretend to understand their Religion as you do therefore I shall leave them to the consideration of the Parliament who you confess hath appointed a Committee to receive Informations concerning them only I shall offer somewhat out of your Discourse whereby it may truly be discern'd how true an enemy you are in your heart to them I have heard very wise and great Politicians say that Jesuites are but Popish Presbiterians and Presbiterians but Protestant Jesuites and it is no wonder that Cocks of the Game bred up in the same Principles should sometimes fight with one another not coldly as with some others but with most sharp and deadly stroakes provoked and enabled by the Spurs of Emulation and Pragmaticallness Under this consideration I confesse you may be looked upon as an enemy but wherein else we will now consider In your Preface you acknowledge that in this your discourse you only submissively offer to the consideration of your Superiours a Relaxation only of the Prescribed Uniformity and some Indulgence to Dissenters of sound Faith and good life amongst which number you account the Papists because after the Character you have given of their Faith and Actions you say in your Seventh Section That Notwithstanding they have not changed their Principles c. but have taken methods of greater artifice and subtilty yet you professe that your whole preceeding Discourse against them is not directed against the security of their Persons and Fortunes or any meet Indulgence or Clemencie towards them but advise That they may have their Faith to themselves without being vexed with snares or any wayes afflicted Here your Proposing a Tolleration for Popery under the pretence of a meet Indulgence or Clemencie must not by any means be thought a suggestion for Politique Ends although 't is one of the chiefest in your whole discourse since it increases the number of the Dissenters from the Church of England which presently makes the body of them in your opinion so momentous c. Next The security without any limitation which you plead for their Persons and Fortunes which at once proposes the Repealing of all the Poenall Statutes against them which you account snares is in your opinion only a Relaxation of the prescribed Uniformity and no pragmatical arrogance nor doth not in the least presume to teach your Governours what to doe contrary to the established Sanctions both of Church and State But Dat veniam Corvis You may write what you please provided you pretend That you only propound these things in Case of insuperable necessity and that for Truth 's sake but should any thing of the like nature be in the least motioned by any else of whatsoever persuasion we know the Tune you would sing presently Now Sir I will accompany you to your main design where you would be though with much cunning sliness you creep to it by degrees and with more Pollicy even then conceal it when you speak it so that none may see your skin but only such as can see thorough the thin lawn of your Rhetorick § 10 First then in your Tenth Sect. you tell us That you would have Reformed Christianity to be settled in the Kingdom in its full extent In your Eleventh That Protestants Non-Conformists are most momentous in the Ballance of the Nation In your Twelfth That the Extirpation of them is most difficult and unprofitable And in your Thirteenth That all this your discourse for them is neither threatning nor intimation of Rebellion I could wish you had not mentioned these last words for the very telling us you do not threaten after you have discoursed so largely of the number momentousnesse and weight of Non-Conformists and withall of the impossibility of their extirpation which was never yet thought of Does deeply threaten Reform'd Christanity must be settled in its full extent this argues that it is not yet done Those who require it are an innumerous people powerfull and momentous which indeed they did demonstrate sufficiently but the other day when they bare down all before them and now being again debarr'd from the Benefices and Fatness of the Land they esteem themselves ruin'd and extirpated and yet they cannot be extirpated because it is neither good nor feasable not feasable and therefore cannot not good and profitable and therefore will not all this you say and yet if any think you threaten in all this he is much mistaken you do not use to threaten before you strike nor strike before you find evidently you can prevail and strike home But what is the Cause of all this
to act all this without regret as things of no moment amongst their momentous progeny Surely had you not already moulded every thing amongst your selves unto your own satisfaction so that you are now ready as you phrase it your self to stand in your stations you would not yet have dropt from your Pen these your most villanous and impious derisions let me prophesie for once however plausible and facile the means you have projected may appear now unto you you will miss of your end as you have once already through the infinite mercie of Almightie God to this poor Nation and fall your selves into these heavie miseries which you mention as slight things by way of derision to the State and Kingdom § 14 To prevent all these inconveniencies and miseries your Legislative prudence tells us That all that are thought fit to abide with security so that it seems there are some you think fit to force again into Exile though you will not now name them may be reduced to three sorts you would first have an established order made up of such as are proportionable to the ends of Church and State secondly a limited Tolleration of some others and thirdly a discreet Connivance to the rest according to charity and safety But who shall be placed in the first and who in the other ranks must be concealed till the time of acting in particular what here you word in general be in season And although a vulgar man can hardly distinguish betwixt Tolleration and Connivance yet distinguished they must be for you will have three sorts I suppose although you never speak it your self in respect to three states of Dissenters Presbiterians Independents and Quakers c. Presbiterians you would have put into the comprehensive state with Episcopal Protestants settled and established and cherished by Law The Independents are only to be tollerated but with careful restrictions that they come not too near the Line The Quakers to be wisely and charitably connived at as rules of safety may suggest And you take this your rule it may be from the consideration of the Rainbow which hath three chief colours in it the Pumicious or Yellow-colour gilds the outward and greater semicircle refracted from the least Opacitie the Green tincture is in the middle refracted from a meaner thickness of matter the Purple is the interior of the least semicircle and therefore so much the darker for stronger is the action of the Luminous bodie in the outward Periphere and greater the Opacitie in the inward and a mean of both in the middle The Presbiterian must be put in the outward and greater Circle with the Episcopal Protestants here called the comprehensive state or established and cherished order as next to the firmament The less lightsom and greenish Independent must be in the middle state of Tolleration as further from God And the Quaker who professeth himself to be the only pure light must be content with the lower Rim of discreet connivance which being nearest the earth hath more of Opacitie in it and less of light If you do not mean this pray tell us what you mean I am sure you would have the fine Yellow Presbiterian to be in the Circle of comprehensive approbation or else your whole Book signifies just nothing § 15 Now to let us know something more of your mind as far as generalities will go concerning this Established Order stated in its due Latitude you tell us here and in your Sixteen and Seventeen Sections three words more The first is That this established Order must be sure to be made wide enough that it may take in so many as may be able to controul all the rest those forms of men which use to be imposed on the Consciences of those who enter in being so far made void that they may neglect them without offence and hold only to indisputable Truths and indispenceable Duties This is in plain English to let the Presbiterians come within the line of Communication and favour with the Episcopal Divines now cherished and all the rest kept out that they may have some bodie under them to controul But why should any be kept out that use the very same Plea for themselves which you now do and if you once proceed so far as to give any reason for their Exclusion you shall find that they have already used the same for yours But you will not be in Heaven except you may have some bodie there to controul and trample on You first were begotten and born with this controuling spirit and if it should once fail you would be no more your selves let me tell you a secret To controul and trample upon Inferiours is but a Presbiterians Propertie but to controul Superiours is his very Essence and Nature § 16 Your second word is That the Dissenters who desire to be included in this Comprehensive state under the paternal favour and care of Magistrates Presbiterians you mean are very capable of such an inclusion as being those whose Principles are fitted for Government and Doctrine according to Godliness and so ready to cement with the Church of England which is true in substance though defective in Discipline and Rules compiled by men which the true Sons of the Church cannot swallow They allow of true Episcopacy as ballanced with Presbiters They admit of a Liturgy and are satisfied in their Judgments concerning the lawfulness of it and Ceremonies too if consonant to the Word and Rules of Scripture the time was when you threw us into blood about it but it is well if the miraculous hand of God in restoring the Church hath convinced your judgments but I doubt 't is but conditionally if you may be admitted And you say It is our misery that the favoured Party will never condescend but still trample upon the rest But Sir we perceived but lately that you would not your selves be otherwise favoured than that you might have some left out to trample on But as to that favoured part unto whose Societie you would be taken you let them know in this word of yours That you mean still to think as you have thought and speak and act as you have done hitherto but yet notwithstanding you are very capable of that their Association because they giving an example of Moderation must condescend to let you the wisest of Dissenters sit upon their Benches whilst you are wilfully resolved to condescend and complie with them in nothing The Church of England never excepted against your Principles and Doctrines which be conform to Government and Godliness What you disavow what you have railed at so unjustly and your implacableness in your own wayes which it is unknown to this day whither they will tend or in what they can rest This is the only impediment of your favour and your general cautation of your own holiness sobriety justice and industry all which we have fully experimented is no recantation of this nor any real way of Sociation § 17 Your
most tyrannically trampl'd upon if Presbiterianism get the sway for then instead of every Bishop that is put down in a Diocess there will be set up a Pope for absoluteness in every parish But the same Principles and Practices must not wear the same colour in you and in other men others look hellish black whilst you must be pure as cristal in other men they are Oppressions Crimes Sedition blood-shed murther and devilish inhumity but in you the willing People it is Piety Zeal for the Lords Cause Tenderness of Conscience Care of Gospel Designs Prudence Love of publick Good what others act or write amiss is their damnable Religion yours but petty swervings from the way if happily you did ever fail in such slippery places Thus Plures cum faciunt idem non est idem You cann't therefore do amiss because only you do it nor others act well because they are others and not you who act it § 19 In this Section you advise Dissenters of narrow and rigid principles unto Moderation that is to say to be content with the Tolleration and Connivence you shall allow them Doth this your counsel come from your heart ought they in reason and conscience to acquiesce in it They ought surely then hear me You are all now equally in the state of Tolleration and Connivence nor have you the wise Dissenters any one word to say for your selves but what the other have I hope then you will take your own counsel though it issue from anothers mouth it is your counsel still Hear then the Church of England thus speaking in your own words unto you wise Ones who can better understand the power of your own advice than other Dissenters can As Authority may be too prone to erre most wise Dissenters in the severity of imposing so Subjects may be too wilful in refusing to obey As an explicite assent and approbation may by Superiors be too rigidly exacted in doubtful things so the unreasonable stiffness and harshness of Inferiors may keep them from that compliance in practice which their Conscience becalm'd from passion and prejudice would not gainsay Every Christian should be deeply sensible of the common Interest of Reformed Christianity which is incomparably more valuable than those private and little narrow Models which may have much of fancy and affection Well-minded persons may easily be deceived touching their private sentiments in Religion they may think they are under the uncontroulable sway of Conscience when indeed they are but bound up by custom education complexion interest or some other kind of prejudice The prudent and sober should not easily settle upon such Opinions as will never settle the Nation but tend rather to infinite perplexity and discomposure Howsoever we will not bear too hard upon any thing that may fairly pretend to Conscience which though erroneous should not be harshly dealt with Nevertheless when all is said some dissatisfaction doth invincibly possess the judgment in that case Christian humility and charity as well as discretion adviseth such persons to acquiesce in their private security and freedom and not to reach after that liberty that may unsettle the Publick order and undermine the common safety This is your Nineteenth Section advising your under Dissenters as you esteem them to Moderation and it is the Churches advice to you pray take it since you confess That such is the complicated condition of humane Affairs that it is exceeding difficult to devise a Rule or Model that shall provide for all whom equity will not plead for therefore the prudent and sober will acquiesce in any constitution that is in some good sort proportionable to the ends of Government Nay nay the Case is altered quoth Ploydon you will say presently That was our counsel to other men and then it signified something but it signifies nothing now when it is given by others to us indeed you speak but what you think if you speak thus All your own actions are just and virtuous your own words powerful and efficacious but the same things spoken by other men are fruitless and the same deeds when other men act them are abominable ungodly and devilish But you see in the interim how alike unsuccessful wise Presbiterians are both in their writing and fighting They war most stoutly but O Fortuna Presbiteriana the Victory is no sooner got but another then unthought of comes between them and home and takes away the Garland They write most politickly but O Fortuna all their whole Discourse so subtilly contriv'd pleads for them they intended to oppose One would think the two Elders in Daniel who accused innocent Susanna were their first Fathers they have the same fortune with them in whatsoever they do to seek for Renown and thereby to be ashamed and confounded to accuse others and with the same breath to condemn themselves There might be much more of this nature pick'd out of your Discourse for your self-condemnation but I must hasten to your conclusion § 20 This Section pretends to shew That the Presbiterians exaltation in the widened Establishment is the interest of the King But no body that reads it can find the least argument towards the evincing the point for it is wholly taken up in excusing and colouring over the wicked principles and practices of Presbiterians for you say That the arraignment of the Non-conformists supposed principles may happily proceed upon mistakes and that they and others inclinable to their way are by some charged with such principles as detract much from Kingly Power and Dignity and tend to advance Popular Faction For their vindication you say 'T is confessed they have been eager Assertors of Legal Liberties Doth this acquit them from the charge or doth it not rather deeply charge you and all that are of such an opinion before the great God for stiling the late bloody and rebellious Wars an assertion only of Legal Liberties If you had proved the mistake you had done something but seeing you could not I commend you for saying That a looking back to former Discords mars the most hopeful Redintegration Acts of Indempnity are Acts of Oblivion and must be so observed which is the reason I do not give you such an answer to many parts of your Discourse as you justly deserve but whether you may not be justly charged with the said accusation I leave it to be seriously considered by the Reader for you alledge in this Section That the Non-conformists profess much affection to Monarchy and the Royal Family And that they are so well satisfied as none more in the Ancient Fundamental constitution of this Kingdom If so how came it to pass you declared in your former part of your Discourse so cunningly and cautiously in these words That the Ministers of the Presbiterian persuasion do heartily acknowledge His Majesty to be Supreme Governour over all Persons and over all Things and Causes in these His Dominions If you had dealt ingenuously without any Presbiterian mental
any thing which Your Majesty hath thought fit to propose And though we do no way doubt but that the unreasonable Distempers of mens Spirits and the many Mutinies and Conspiracies which were carryed on during the late Intervalls of Parliament did reasonably incline Your Majesty to endevour by Your Declaration to give some allay to those ill humours till the Parliament Assembled and the hopes of Indulgence if the Parliament should consent to it especially seeing the pretenders to this Indulgence did seem to make some Titles to it by virtue of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda Nevertheless we Your Majesties most Dutifull and Loyal Subjects who are now returned to serve in Parliament from those several parts and places of Your Kingdom for which we are chosen Do humbly offer to Your Majesties great Wisdom That it is in no sort advisable that there be any Indulgence to such persons who presume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and the Religion established For these Reasons VVE have considered the nature of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda and are humbly of opinion That Your Majesty ought not to be pressed with it any further Because it is not a Promise in it self but only a Gracious Delaration of Your Majesties Intentions to do what in You lay and what a Parliament should advise Your Majesty to do and no such Advice was ever given or thought fit to be offered nor could it be otherwise understood because there were Laws of Uniformity then in being which could not be dispensed with but by Act of Parliament They who do pretend a right to that supposed promise put the Right into the hands of their Representatives whom they chose to serve for them in this Parliament who have passed and Your Majesty consented to the Act of Uniformity If any shall presume to say that a Right to the benefit of this Declaration doth still remain after this Act passed It tends to dissolve the very Bonds of Government and to suppose a disability in Your Majesty and the Houses of Parliament to make a Law contrary to any part of Your Majesties Declaration though both Houses should advise Your Majesty to it We have also considered the nature of the Indulgence proposed with reference to those Consequences which must necessarily attend it It will establish Schism by a Law and make the whole Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of no Moment or Consideration at all It will no way become the Gravity or wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at one Session for Uniformity and at the next Session the reasons of Uniformity continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or weaken the execution of it It will expose Your Majesty to the restless Importunity of every Sect or Opinion and of every single person also who shall presume to dissent from the Church of England It will be a cause of increasing Sects and Sectaries whose numbers will weaken the true Protestant Profession so far that it will at least be difficult for it to defend it self against them And which is yet further considerable those Numbers which by being troublesome to the Government find they can arrive to an Indulgence well as their numbers increase be yet more troublesom that so at length they may arrive to a general Tolleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last contend for an establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without President and will take away all means of convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the method and proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly It is humbly conceived that the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the contrary That the asserting of the Laws and the Religion establisht according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable means to produce a setled Peace and Obedience throughout Your Kingdom Because the variety of Professions in Religion when openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into parties and withall gives them opportunity to count their numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a Religious pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the several Factions which are all Governed by a several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of Your Kingdom And if any persons shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and in all Occasions be ready with our utmost endevour and assistance to adhere to and serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance FINIS §. 15. P. 31. P. 32. l. 1. §. 14. P. 28. l. 10. P. 35. l. 1. P. 41. l. 21. Pag. 41. l. 33. Pag 42. l. 23. Pag. 20. l. 30. Pag. 31 18. Pag. 33 31. Pag 37 15. Pag. 34. l. 9. Pag. 32. l. 24. Pag. 22. l. 16. Pag. 21. l. 15. Pag. 17. l. â—â— Pag. â—â— l 19. Pag. 37. l. â—