and hope of Order And by his able Conduct of Affairs he became less hated and more feared then at the first yet not beloved His chiefest Grandees in Council and Army he made nothing to cashiere when they appeared to take check at his Proceedings and so he seemed to have made a fair progress in the establishing of his new Dominion But the truth is that Party and those means by which he obtained the Power would in no wise permit him to make it sure His Army was not like that of Caesar who had no other aim than to make their General Lord of the Roman World and to share in his fortunes But it was acted by working Spirits zealous of peculiar Notions touching things both Religious and Civil utterly repugnant to the way of generall Satisfaction and National Settlement And not onely those of the standing Army but the whole body of that irregular Party throughout the Nation did generally oppose the Kingship of this Person who was their head and Chief conceiving that the best insuring of their Interest was not by way of legal Stability but Sword-security This old Leaven their chief Commander could not purge out and this Veterane Party could not with safety be abandoned or neglected until a larger tract of time might beget a better confidence between him and the sober part of the people But in this unsetled posture being taken off by death he leaves all to a Successor depending rather upon the Courtesie of the present Grandees and the peoples peaceable inclination than any potent abilities or interest of his own After a while the wild spirit of the Army before manacled brake loose and instantly dissolved the whole frame of that new Model Forthwith they run into inextricable Errours and Mazes through unstable and head-long Counsels they do and undo build up and pull down the samethings and are always reeling upon the brink of a Precipice And at last to hasten an inevitable ruine the Army and Party combined with it is divided against it self the bonds of Union are broken and things brought into extream disorder by a spirit of Ambition Giddiness Perversness Fury Section II. The Nation grows impatient of these confusions and conceives just indignation at the disgrace and scorn cast upon it by such ridiculous changes and absurd motions in Government Considerate men saw plainly that the state of England was grown poor and feeble and must needs langush more and more till it hath no strength left to resist any Invader or to subsist under its own charge and burthen The thoughts of men in general fix upon the exiled Royal Family as alone sacred to Soveraignty and alone able by reason of its extensive and grounded Interest to hold and manage it In this juncture of time the unruly motions and projects of the prevailing part of the Army received some check by a Chieftain of High Trust yet not of the Army-spirit Presently the three Kingdoms gaze upon him musing what is the design and what may be the issue of his single opposition Being a Person deliberate reserved and resolute by ambiguous expressions and winding Traverses he amuzes all parties and feels his way step by step till he finds when to declare and where to fix himself At length a full Tide of concurring accidents carries him to a closure with the sober part of the Parliamentary party who from first to last intended only a Reformation and due regulation of things in Church and State but abhorred the thought of destroying the King or changing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Whereupon the doors were set open to the Re-admission of the Secluded Members which necessarily drew after it the restoring of King Lords and Commons according to the ancient constitution Nor was it possible in that state of things that any other party could peaceably bring about this much desired and long expected end For the Souldiery however changed and much qualified were not so manageable as to have indured the stirring of those who were then called Royalists but in any such appearance they were in all reason likely to have deserted their General and from that rooted principle of self-preservation to have taken such ways and counsels as might put things to a stand if not to the utmost hazard But those prudent and sober-minded Patriots being re-assembled after so long Exclusion to put a Period to those disorders did not only prevent the aforesaid mischief but also beget a good measure of quietness and confidence in the minds of that party which conscientiously adhered to them in the first Cause asserted by both Houses of Parliament in as much as these longed for nothing more then the securing of the true Reformed Protestant Religion and their Civil Rights and Liberties upon the ancient Foundations and esteemed the legal settlement of the Kingdom to be that regular way wherein they might expect that God should meet them and bless them and give them peace and wherein whatever happens they should finde security and satisfaction to their own Consciences Thus the Divine Providence having first prepared the way brings back King Charles the Second drawn in the swiftest Chariots even the affections of his willing people and amidst their triumphant acclamations peaceably sets him upon the Throne of his Royal Progenitors And there let him long sit and reign and let his House and Kingdom be established throughout all Ages And verily in this great turning time it is of the highest importance to inquire and search how the King and Kingdom who in so wonderful manner have been restored to each other may be put into a stable possession of peace happiness and security unto all mutual complacency and satisfaction Section III. After a dreadful Earthquake shaking all the Powers of the Kingdom and overturning the very Foundations and after a new frame of things erected standing for divers years and seemingly stated for perpetuity the Regal Family and Government is raised up again not by the power or policy of that party who fought under the Banner of his late Majesty in the Wars between Him and both Houses of Parliament But by the restless desire of the Nation and the vigorous actings of the City of London with the concurrence of the Secluded Members of the Long Parliament in conjunction with that Renowned Person who then held the power of the Sword Which it pleased the King to take notice of according to His Princely Condescention in His Gracious Speech to the House of Peers for hastening the Act of Indempnity My Lords if you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing those fears which keep mens hearts awake and apprehensive of safety and security you keep Me from performing my promise which if I had not made I am perswaded that neither I nor you had been now here I pray you let Us not deceive those who brought Us or permitted Us to come together His Majesty thus brought back to a willing and free-spirited people by their own Act
be one with the Church of Rome unless we be subject to the Court of Rome and abandon all Protestantism Section XXXIV Whereupon all approaches and motions towards Rome are dangerous For popish Agents will easily over-act the Reconcilers peradventure lead them whither they would not If we walk on the brink we may soon fall into the pit Although it stands not with Christian Charity to disclaim agreement upon reasonable tearms with any that are named Christians yet it is not fit for a purer Church to incorporate with a Church defiled with such abominations Besides as to reason of State Enmity with Rome hath been reputed the Stability of England concerning which the Duke of Rhoan hath delivered this Maxime That besides the Interest which the King of England hath common with all Princes he hath yet one particular which is that he ought thoroughly to acquire the advancement of the Protestant Religion even with as much zeal as the King of Spain appears Protector of the Catholick Indeed that Scarlet-coloured Whore hath this bewitching ingredient in the cup of her Fornication that she disposeth Subjects to security and blind obedience and exalteth Princes unto absolute Dominion But against this poison a soveraign Antidote is given by a judicious Writer that this proves that subjects are more miserable not that Princes are more absolute among Papists forasmuch as where the Pope prevails there is a co-domination and rivalty in rule and this Protestant Princes are freed from and whereas Popery hath been ever infamous for excommunicating murthering deposing Princes the Protestant Religion aims at nothing but that the Kings Prerogative and popular Liberty may be even balanced If it be said that this is true of Protestantism but Puritanism leads to sedition rebelIion Anarchy let the world know that Puritanism which is no other than sound Protestantism doth abhor these crimes and defie the charge thereof The people that were called Puritans and now Presbyterians have had no fellowship with Polititians and Sectaries in those pernicious ways but their principle is for subjection to Princes though they were Hereticks or Infidels and if they differ herein from the Prelatical Protestants it is only that they plead for liberty setled by known Laws and fundamental Constitutions Section XXXV From the reasons aforegoing we conclude That Protestantism will best consist in the middle way by reducing Prelacy to the ancient synodical government or moderate Episcopacy And this is a blessed work worthy of a pacifick King w th respect to his honor service whose title is The Prince of Peace Herein his Majesty with Gods help may over-rule without difficulty or hazzard He need not say of those that are averse as David sometimes did of the sons of Zerviah That they are too hard for him Prelacy is not popular but moderate Episcopacy is and the more because it is a healing expedient for our broken times The Bishops depend intirely on the King but he hath no dependance on them no need of advantage from them What if some interessed persons be discontented The sober of the Nation both Episcopal and Presbyterian will have great contentment in the King's prudence and moderation His Majesty is a Prince by Nature He is our Native King and the delight of the English Nation and may govern as he please without fear or hazard by continuing to shew himself a common Father For there is none other upon whom the Inrest of England can bottom it self but our gracious dread Soveraign King Charles whose House and Kingdom let the most High establish throughout all generations He hath all hearts that are of sober principles earnestly waiting upon him longing and panting after his moderation and rejoycing in the begun expressions thereof and of which the Presbyterians have had so great expectation that they wished He were both King Lords and Commons as to the setling of this grand Affair Section XXXVI The excessive dominion of the Hierarchy with the rigorous imposition of humane Ceremonies was accounted much of the malady of former times which ended in those deadly Convulsions of Church and State Do we here reproach our Mother the Church of England In no wise This National Church consists of the Body of the Nation combined in the Unity of Faith and substance of Divine worship according to God's holy Word But if the Church be taken in a more restrained sence for the Clergy or Ministery yet so the Hierarchy is not the Church either formally or virtually When as according to Camdens report there are in England above nine thousand four hundred Ecclesiastical promotions how comes all the Interest and virtue of such a numerous Clergy to be gathered up in six and twenty Bishops with their respective Deans and Chapters and Archdeacons And can the self-same state and frame of Ecclesiasticks be now revived after so great and long continued alterations by which the anti-prelatical party is exceedingly encreased and strengthened Machiavel whose reason in things political may challenge regard gives these two directions to a Prince to be alike observed for securing his hereditary Dominions First that he doth not transgress the institutions of his Ancestors Secondly That he serve the time according to new occasions by which if a Prince be inducd with ordinary diligence in action he will preserve himself in his principality His Majesty returns to the exercise of his Kingly power after a long interruption in Government and great alteration in the State Civil and Ecclesiastical And he hath this happy advantage presenting it self to his hand that he may give general satisfaction by retaining the ancient Episcopal Government with some necessary variation conformable to these times in abating the excess of former things and qualifying the same with some temperate ingredients Certainly it concerns an hereditary Prince as to maintain the ancient constitutions so to redress ancient grievances and to cure inveterate maladies The party dissatisfied in former things were not a company of precipitate Mutineers but a Parliament of judicious and consciencious persons and their adherents who for the major part never intended to dissolve the Government but have to their power endeavoured and contrived the setling of these Nations on their ancient basis Section XXXVII Moreover this dissatisfaction in the old frame of the Ecclesiastical Government is not a novelty of these times as appears by those prudent considerations touching the better pacification and edification of the Church presented to King James by that most learned Lord Verulam sometimes Lord Chancellour of England who was no Presbyterian nor enemy to Episcopacy in which are these passages There be two circumstances in the administration of Bishops wherein I confess I could never be satisfied The one the sole Exercise of their Authority the other the Deputation of their Authority For the first the Bishop giveth orders alone excommunicateth alone judgeth alone This seems to be a thing almost without example in Government and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in
to contest with Princes and Nobles and all ranks and degrees about their Immunities Priviledges Pre-eminencies to multiply Constitutions and Ceremonies for props to their own Greatness but not to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of people according to the life and power of Christianity The above-named Venetian Gentleman in his Narrative of the Popes Nuncio delivers this Maxime That the Court of Rome in perpetual pursuance of its old pretences is more sollicitous and laborious to reverse and destroy the Oath of Allegiance because it seems contrary to its temporall grandeur then to extirpate such Heresies as the Realm of England is infected with Even so such an Hierarchy will be more industrious and careful to establish and enlarge their own Power Dignity then to maintain and propagate Christs true Religion What are the weapons of the Warfare by which this Mystical State prevails Not such as are mighty through God working upon the conscience but pecuniary Mulcts and greater temporal penalties not to the wounding of the spirit but to the breaking of the outward estate By what wayes and methods must it be advanced The constant and practical preaching of the Word must be discountenanced Snares must be laid for the most zealous Ministers Sports and pastimes on the Sabbath dayes must be held forth with allowance and approbation Men of strict lives and serious in Religion must be reproached for Fanaticks By these means a people being first enthralled to ignorance superstition and profaness will be disposed unto blinde obedience and perfect spiritual bondage For in very deed the State here described will never stand safely among a people that are free serious searching and discerning in matters of Religion For this cause an Hierarchy of this nature hath a strong bias towards Popery Nay it must for its own safety approach as near it as the Nation can well bear The Reformed Religion doth not glory in the vast riches outward pomp and splendour of Ecclesiastical persons Wherefore when the grandeur of Prelates and pomp of Ceremonies is affected and admired the Church of Rome is sure to finde favour in the eyes of the Clergy The said Venetian reports That the Universities Bishops and Divines of this Realm dayly imbrace Catholick Opinions though they profess them not with open mouth for fear of the Puritans In this matter let them stand or fall by the evidence of their own writings Let it be well observed that the designes of suppressing Puritans and complying with Papists in this Nation had their beginning both at once and proceeded in equal paces And it hath appeared that the moderate Cassandrian Grotian Popery was no abomination to many Prelatists The Conciliators of our age have judged Papists and moderate Protestants as they call them very reconcileable but have cast the Calvinists or Puritans without the limits of the pacification Wherefore we cannot conceive that the excessive height of Prelacy I say not this of regulated Episcopacy to be the strongest Bulwark against Popery unless by Popery is meant no more then what the Trent Fathers except the Italians generally opposed to wit the stupendious exorbitant power of the Pope who pretends to be not only Supream but in effect sole Bishop of the Universe as reputing all other Bishops his meer subjects and delegates We confess Popery in this new and strict notion might be controlled by the height of Prelacy But according to a vulgar sence we take Popery in the height thereof for the Heresies and Idolatries and in the lower degree thereof for the gross errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome Section XXXII Moreover pure necessity in that state will constrain the Hierarchy to negotiate with Rome if they subvert and ruine the Presbyterians If in such a case they intend to uphold a Protestant State they understand not their own concernment The Bishops must either retreat to a moderate compliance with Presbyteriaus or advance to a reconciliation with Papists If they had a design to extirpate the Presbyterians and could accomplish it are they able afterwards alone and by themselves to bear up against the main force and to withstand all the wiles and methods of the popish Faction at home and abroad They mistake themselves if they think their unalterable adherents are so numerous and powerful In case they dissipate that other party which hath been always found most active vigorous and vigilant against Romish Encroachments what remains besides themselves and their zealots but a common dronish multitude that will do little for any religion or men of loose principles that would easily embrace Popery as a flesh-pleasing Religion When the common people are left to ignorance and prophaness for servile ends and purposes they are thoroughly prepared for Popery which is a gross sensual formal pompous way agreeable to the multitude whereas Fanaticism the other extreme takes but with a few in comparison because it hath something of pretended illuminations spiritual notions and raptures to which the common multitude is not propense If you ask how hath Prelacy held it out hitherto against Popery even from the first Reformation take notice that the Episcopal Clergy did not go about to exterminate the Puritans before their latter times and then he that had half an eye could discern the notable advance and the confident expectations of the Popish faction Section XXXIII Do any persons conceive a Reconciliation with Rome hopeful or possible upon moderate tearms as they suppose namely the permission of the marriage of Priests the Popes Dispensation for the Oaths of Allegiance and Supermacy so far as it concerns the Kings temporal power the administring of the Communion in both kinds and the Liturgy officiated in the English Tongue Let them observe that Panzani the Popes Nuncio in England declared privately to his intimate friend that the Pope would never admit any man to govern here as Bishop meaning over the Catholicks that should favour the Oath of Allegiance And the reason hereof is evident because it is a thing contrary to the maxims of Rome Moreover in that little History of the said Nuncio there is a passage which being well considered doth evince that the Courts of England and Rome are irreconcileable unless England become intirely papal That Author saith That this Realm is so perversly addicted to maintain its own resolute opinion of excluding the Popes authority that this hath been the cause why the Catholicks who for the first twelve years conformed themselves unto the Politie introduced into the Church of England have since separated from it and to testifie their uniting to the Pope have refused to frequent the Protestant Churches and have therby framed one party in that State Let a fair accord in the general be supposed yet the sole point of the Popes Supremacy shal dash the whole agreement We know that Jesuitism is the predominant humour in the Papacy and nothing can be done without their influence and therefore we cannot
to be against the Rules of Government to hold under a rigid yoke a free people of such a number and quality and intermingled in all estates and rauks and intimately conjoyned with all parts of the body Politique that it is almost impossible to exclude their Interest from a considerable share in publique actions Besides is it for the service of Christ and the encrease of his Kingdom the Church that so many able Divines should be debarred the use of their Lords Talents that so many laborious Ministers should sit still in silence that when Christ teacheth us to pray that the Lord would thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest those Labourers should be thrust out of his harvest Surely this would make a cry in the ears of the Lord of the Harvest Let me add this 'T is a hard matter to silence them that will preach virtually in pious Conferences whose occasional and Table Discourses will be a kind of Sermon Let me offer a third way Will they afford them liberty of Conscience and yet stave them off as a divided Party to stand alone in their Principles and Interest Verily I cannot think it is in their heart so to do What then remains but to prepare the way and to make the path straight for a solid and perfect closure by laying aside those unnecessary occasions of stumbling Section XVII If the neglect of brotherly Pacification hold on and the Hierarchy resolve upon their own advancement to the highest pitch one may well conclude That they make a full reckoning to wear out the Presbyterians and to swallow up their Interest conceiving they are able to effect it by degrees and that greater changes then these have been wrought without much ado And we confess indeed that a great change in Religion was made by Qu. ELIZABETH without much dispute or difficulty The alteration was not sudden but gradual Camden writes That in the entrance of the Queens Reign for a whole moneth and more the Roman Religion stood as it did at the death of Queen MARY On the 27. of December the Epistles and Gospels the Lords Prayer Creed and Ten Commandements together with the Letany were read in the English Tongue On the 22. of March the intire use of the Sacrament in both kinds was restored by Parliament On the 24. of June the Sacrifice of the Mass was abolished and the whole Liturgy restored into English In July the Oath of Supremacy was given to the Bishops And in August Images were taken out of the Churches and broken or burnt Why may not the Hierarchical Interest swallow up the Presbyterian as easily as Protestantism prevailed over Popery Surely I take these several cases to be very different And first because Queen ELIZABETH had this fundameutal maxime as agreeable to her Conscience and the Interest of Her State to banish hence the exercise of the Roman Religion But our Gracious King in His Christian Prudence and Compassion seeks the uniting of His Protestant Subjects and the healing of their breaches by His Wife and Gracious condescentions already Declared Besides in the beginning of the Queens Raign the inferiour Clergy of this Kingdom universally appeared to be but lukewarm Papists and many of them might be supposed to be Protestants in hearts and the most of them very unlearned and indifferent men in Religion And a great part of the Hierarchy were not more zealous than the rest For when at that time the Ecclesiastical Promotions in England were numbered above nine thousand four hundred in all there were not more then fourscore Rectors of Churches fifty Prebendaries fifteen Heads of Colledges twelve Arch-Deacons twelve Deans six Abbots and Abbesses and fourteen Bishops that refused the Oath of Supremacy Also the English Service was so prepared that it might be no abomination to the Papists no positive thing therein occurring repugnant to their Doctrine for which cause they frequented the same for the first ten years and the Pope did not in many years send forth his thunder lightning against the Queen And Popery being in substance a Religion contrary to what was publickly professed had no advantage for encrease by publick Preaching or Books publickly allowed All these accidents did help forward to an absolute settlement of the Protestant Religion But we may find the state of things far otherwise in point of disposition or inclination toward the Dominion of absolute Prelacy and the rigorous imposition of Ceremonies and the extirpation of the dissenting Party For there are now in England thousands of Ministers dis-satisfied in the Hierarchy and Ceremonies who are all competently and many of them eminently learned They are not generally of light spirits but steddy and well resolved and tenderly affected touching their spiritual liberties The way which in scorn is called Puritanism is not another Religion in substance than Protestantism but the very same or one branch thereof distinguished from the other by an accidental difference Protestant and Puritane Doctrine and Worship all men may know to be the same for substance and Puritanism will grow up with Protestantism notwithstanding all opposition as I have manifested in the former discourse Commonly those people who try all Doctrines by Scripture and are swayed more by its Authority than by the Ordinances and Customs of men do much hesitate and stagger concerning the sole Jurisdiction of Bishops the pomp of the Hierarchy and sacred mystical Ceremonies of Humane Institution And therefore let the Episcopal Party never look to be rid of these difficulties till they remove the matters in Question whereat a knowing people are always ready to stumble Neither in these times are the Presbyterians so hateful a generation as some would have them they are odious to none but those to whom they were ever odious or else to such Ignorants as follow the Cry and speak evil of they know not what They have had no considerable loss of their number by revolt and whatever comes to pass they think never the worse of their main Cause which I have expressed in the Character given of them And if some or many of them have a liberry in their own judgements touching conformity yet that conformity will not strengthen the designs of those Prelatists that are most rigid in such impositions and seek to tread down the Presbyterians It was a notable question which a Carthaginian Senator put to Hanibal's Agents after the great overthrow given to the Romans at Canna When they had magnified Hanibal's great Atchievements Hanno asked them Whether any of the Romans had come to demand Peace and whether any Town of the Latines or any of their Colonies had yet rebelled against the Romans The Agents denying the one and the other Hanno replied Then is the War as intire yet as at the first I apply this to shew how easily men mistake the progress of their own affairs and think themselves to be ready for a triumph when indeed they have gotten little and the state of the controversie is still
lesser differences Section XXXIV Furthermore a great prejudice is taken up against Bishops ruling in consoâ—iation with Presbyters and against Classical or Presbyterian meetings as inclining to Faction and likely to produce alterations which evils are supposed to follow tbe distributing of the power among many Whereupon the Government of a single Person or a Bishop having sole Jurisdictson is apprehended to be the surest means of keeping Church affairs in a fixed state This prejudice having a great shew of truth we must stoop to pry into it more narrowly And first we have this political maxime to direct us in this inquiry that the condition of the people to be governed is the best rule of discerning the aptest form of Government And according to this principle we resolve that absolute Prelacy is the only Government to hold a people that content themselves with a customary service and the Religion of their Country and of their fore-fathers whatsoever it be All Discourses Debates Disputations and all occasions of contest touching Religion and particularly that exercise which is called prophesying must be avoided But this Government is not so agreeable to a people that are given to search the Scriptures and try Doctrines In England where the inferior Clergy or Parochial Ministery is not rude and ignorant but in a great part learned and conscientious where the common people in a great part try all things that they may hold fast that which is good the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction cannot conveniently reside in a Prelate alone governing by severe Canons and denouncing excommunication against all those that express any dissent from any particulars of the received Forms of Worship and Discipline For among such a people this is a likelier way to beget some great distemper then to keep all in quietness and deep silence But a form of Government more free by distributing the power among many and regular meetings for free debates with in certain limits will be much more peaceable and succesful It is here acknowledged that in such an order of things dissentions may arise and cause some interruptions Nevertheless no great inconvenience but sometimes much advantage may follow The stirrings of warm contests may be unadvisedly condemned For as Thunder purgeth the Air so these stirrings may purge the Church from Corruptions ingendering in it Let the frame and order of things be so established that both parties may be made hopeless concerning factious attempts of promoting this or that extream that the contests may not be on the one side for Dominion nor on the other side for inordinate liberty but on both sides for Truths due freedom and then they will end in peace If great mistakes should arise in such meetings and seem for a while to pass currently there may be found some persons of that wisedome integrity and reputation as to be able to shew the fallacy and to convince those of both sides that intend uprightly In which case if they perceive an evil spirit on work and an evil design hatching among some they will turn away with indignation from the contrivers of such mischief Wherfore let the frame of Ecclesiastical politie lean neither towards Tyranny nor Anarchy but be set upright for just liberty Let good orders be kept and priviledges not violated and the greater number of those who mean honestly will not be led into the snare of faction And selfish ambitious pragmatick spirits that trouble them will easily be detected and abandoned Section XXXV Unto this reasoning let the authority of an Eminent pacifique Bishop be superadded concerning the way of order and stability in the conjunction of Episcopacy and Presbytery Bishop Hall in his Discourse Intituled A modest offer of some meet considerations to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster commends the method of the Church of Scotland for prevention of Errour and Heresie by a gradual proceeding from the parochial meeting to the Presbytery from thence to the provincial Synod and from thence to the general Assembly for determining any controversie saying Thus bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the well-willers to that Discipline But let me add That either we have or may have in this very state of things with some small variation in effect the very same Government with us Instead of Presbyteries consisting of several Pastors we have our combinations of Ministers in our several Deanries over whom the rural Dean is chosen every year by the Minsters of that Division as their Moderator This Deanry or Presbytery may be enjoyned to meet every moneth or oftner in some City or Town next to them and there they may have their exercise of Prophecying as I have known it practised in some parts of this Kingdom as it is earnestly wished and recommended by that Excellently Learned Lord Verulam in his prudent Considerations where if any Question fail of determination it may be referred gradually from the lesser to the greater Assemblies till it be brought to a National Synod In the same discourse the said Bishop commends one constant prudent vigilant Overseer superadded to a Grave Judicious Presbytery without concurrence of which Presbytery the Bishop or Overseer should not take upon him to inflict Excommunication or any other important Censure Having discovered certain general Impediments I proceed to Argue upon the particular Concernments of the King of the Nobility and Gentry and of the Episcopal Clergy Section XXXVI His Majesties Concernment in this grand Affair transcends the particular concernments of all others whether Parties or Persons and that beyond all comparison Others may advance themselves and Families by the present occasions and give over in time when they have builded their own houses Many and perhaps the most if changes come may retreat and serve the Times for their own security but the King never descends from the Stage of publick Action and can never cease to be interessed in His people Others having much to get and little to lose may make themselves by present advantages but the King hath little to get but much to secure and not the present occasional and mutable advantage put perpetual stability is His Inrerest His Majesty hath worthily gained the Reputation of a Wise and Gracious Prince of an excellent spirit and temper for these times And truly a Prince as wise as Solomon hath no Wisedom to spare from the weight of these businesses Let the God of the spirits of all flesh and the Father of Lights continually give to His Majesty a large heart and comprehensive Understanding that may see far and near and fetch within its compass all circumstances consequents and moments that are requisite to the forming of a perfect judgment concerning these great Affairs Section XXXVII After so long a War between King and Parliament and after all the changes in Government the King being at length restored to His full Power and Greatness and the people being satiated with Civil Warres tumults and