to confess them to be Men nothing appearing upon Record in contradiction thereto but very much from their Poets and Writers in the confirmation of it Hence that trite Distich ascribed to Cato adviseth Si fueris servos mercatus c. Homines tamen esse memento Agreeable to that of the Greek Poet Philemon thus expressing the same Article of the Gentiles Belief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That is That no one is the less a Man for Servitude And no less doth the good natured Master in Juvenal acknowledg when on his Slaves behalf he delivers this Oracle Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa That no consideration could be too great where a Man's Life then as is said pleading for his Slave was concerned Which the Virago Mistress in her Reply durst not Contradict O Demens Ita Servus Homo est Tho she derided her Husbands tenderness And Augustus Caesar as I think Dion relates of him being invited to a Dinner where he overheard the outcrys of a certain Slave condemned to be Impaled for a miscarriage about some Cristal Glasses forbad the Execution affirming That the Life of a Man that is of that Slave was of too great value to be destroyed for Trifles And Tully speaking of Justice declares it due Etiam adversus Infimos even to the basest sort of Men which he there affirms Slaves to be And tho these Heathens did not much trouble their Slaves with Religion yet their allowing it to them which these words of Aristophanes in his Acharnens pag. 572. where he introduceth one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vna cum servulis sacrificantem as the Paraphrast reades it The same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used Eccles 10. 25. in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not obscurely intimate doth plainly discover in what rank of Creatures they accounted them And for the Jews and Turks their being admitted to the Passeover Exod. 12. 44. by the first and the others zeal to proselyte Slaves both Negro's and others do testifie their esteem of them And even the last the under the like temptation of Profit yet do not think it worth their giving the Lye so palpably to both their own and every Man's Reason 30. THE two last things objected are the Negro's Stupidity and the pretended barbarousness of their Manners both which for brevity I shall dispatch together Their Barbarousness which I shall treat of first must be discernable either from their Demeanour and Conversation in the World or else from their behaviour and practice in their Worship and Ceremonies of Religion or from both Now for Religion It cannot be denied but that nothing is more barbarous and contrary to Christianity than their Polygamy their Idolatrous Dances and Revels in which they usually spend the Sunday after that the necessity of labour for their Provisions for the Planting of which that Day alone is allotted them has been complied with But as to these the blame doth lie wholly upon such who pretending themselves Christians do suffer and even compel them to those Actions part whereof are against their Wills and where even a Check or Frown would restrain them from the rest 31. And here that I may not be thought too rashly to impute Idolatry to their Dances my Conjecture is raised upon this ground besides their being Gentiles for that they use their Dances as a means to procure Rain Some of them having been known to beg this Liberty upon the Week Days in order thereunto Now it is certain that the Gentiles anciently did esteem and practise Dancing as a part of Divine Worship And no less also did the Jews as may be proved from Exod. 32. 19. and from David's Dancing before the Ark 2 Sam. 6. Add to this their placing confidence in certain Figures and ugly Representations of none knows what besides themselves which very decently for want of more Magnificent Temples they usually enshrine in some stately Earthen Potsherds The Fugitives and Runaways believing these Deities able to protect them in their Flight and from Discovery like as the Egyptians worshiping of Baal Zephon was to detect them Their companions and fellow Slaves also that remain'd at Home having been over-heard upon the seizure of these Puppets in a search after the other instantly to give assurance that there was no possibility of their further concealment And this doubtless is a manifest token of their Impiety in this kind and no less of their Barbarity But as Christianity would soon if duly applied cure this evil so I see not how it should prove them to be Brutes more than the rest of the World formerly and even to this Day more or less addicted to the same vanity and deception of false Worship 32. And then as to their Civil Conversation and outward Demeanour in the World it cannot be expected it should be so Gentile and Modish as our Europeans who perchance must be acknowledged as not to be parallel'd by any other of the three Quarters thereof upon whom yet as great Barbarity was formerly no less chargeable as most Authors do agree Plutarch in the Life of Theseus tells us that the Athenians lived scattering like the wild Nomader of Scythia before they were by him reduced to a better order of Life formed into civil Societies and acquainted with the blessings of Government And the Aborigines are by Salust described to have been Genus hominum agreste sine legibus sine imperio liberum atque solutum Certain wild People without Laws or Government loose and destitute of all positive Obligations And Cesar's account of the Ancient Britains is not such as should make us proud For he informs us that they were clad with Skins and did paint their Bodies from which custom the name of Britain is by our Cambden derived He also adds that Brothers with Brothers and Parents with their Children had Wives in common A greater Barbarity than I have at any time heard of amongst the Negro's And this we find of them very late and but a few Years before our Saviours Birth tho situated much nearer to the civilized World and withalin a colder Clime than any part of Africa and most of America And so little were they advanced in Civility by their converse with a gentiler People that even two hundred Years after this entrance of Caesar we find the forementioned Epithets of Picti and Cerulei continued to them Nor doth Tacitus give any more honourable account of the Germans from whom the Saxons our immediate Ancestors are sprung Of whose Barbarousness also Gildas a Britain with other of our Writers have delivered no very creditable Account The Danes who supplanted them were full as bad if not worse And the Picts who inhabited the North of Britain had that Name continued long after the other had lost it for no better Reason than that for which the first had it given them Neither is it improbable but that the Gaities and Adornments of Elder Ages did much
tho Black to be of the same species with the Whiter As is seen of Birds which do often differ much in the Feather yet nevertheless are one and the same in kind But alas for this the poor African must be Unman'd and Unsoul'd accounted and even ranked with Brutes A partiality highly becoming Christians pretending to so much Justice and Knowledg which some do arrogate to themselves and would even be thought to profess whilst they practice and assert Principles so opposite thereunto 18. Here also it might be demanded Why Colours should do more than Deformities by all granted not to prejudice the concerned party as to his Species A Crooked Person Dwarf or Hermophrodite being as truly of the Species of Man as any the more Compleat Simple and well Proportioned The Canons of the Church formerly and for ought appears still allowing even those last as capable of Benefices without Dispensation saith one and to be promoted to Holy Orders And both the Civil and Common Law not prohibiting them to be instituted Heirs to succeed to an Inheritance And even Monstrous Births partaking of Mankind having the benefit and help of Reason may very well saith the same Person be admitted to succeed to their Parents dying Intestate according to the custom of most Countries which willeth that the Dead should give Seizin to the Living 19. To this I shall not think it time mispent to rehearse a Story borrowed out of a French Author made English which happened as he saith not many years since near Argenton a Town in Normandy It is this A certain Gentleman complotted with some Neighbours there to play certain Plays wherein should be acted certain Devils to the intent that the Pleasure and Pastime of their Pageant might be greater And this Gentleman would needs himself be attired in the habit of a Devil and did personate such a part Insomuch as after the Plays were ended he chafed in his Furniture went home to his Wife and had company with her clad in the same attire wherein he played the Devil By means whereof she at the end of nine Months was delivered of a Son so Monstrous as in his Countenance Head Face and all the parts of his Body especially in his Feet he resembled and was more like unto a Satyr such as the Poets have described than unto an ordinary and natural Man After this he had other Children all which together with their brother the Monster did survive both their Parents Upon whose decease there grew a Contention and Variance between them touching the succession of his Inheritance all of them endeavouring to exclude this Monster not only from the birth-right of being Heir and Eldest Son but even from the total Succession of any thing that he should claim that might in Right appertain unto him Hereupon was the Process sued and the Matter proceeded in suit between them before a Judge of an Inferiour Court By whom it was ordered that they should make their Entry upon the Estate and that the Eldest Brother should Inherit as next Heir to his Parents according to the Custom of Normandy From this Sentence the younger Brethren brought their Appeal and removed the Suit into the Court of Parliament of Roan where it was by them pleaded that he was a very Monster born and that there was no Reason that he should be accounted a Man But hereunto it was replied That those were not in any sort to be allowed Monsters who are born of Mankind and are capable of Reason and of the future Resurrection But those only are to be held for such who are born of some Beast and not of a Man which last as they are forthwith to be slain so the former may not in any sort be so dealt with whether they have the use of Reason or not but be so Monstrous as not having so much as the Face of a Man but rather of some Beast Nor are they ever denied due succession in Inheritance but the Monster doth either Bellow like an Ox or eat Grass as a Sheep performing only the actions of a Beast And therefore the Defendents concluded that the Judgment had been well and rightly yielded And the Court by a solemn Arrest did confirm the same and pronounce that the Sentence from which the Brethren had Appealed should be fully and wholly Executed c. Thus far our Author Wherein may be observed that as Interest induced the younger Brethren to conspire together to deprive the Elder of his Inheritance upon the advantage of his Deformity so the Reasons and Arguments used in his behalf together with the Sentence thereupon awarded do prove as much for our Negro's as for that supposed Monster To this I shall add that in the Book before mentioned Numb 14. of this Section consisting of strange Representations and unusual Features both of Face and Body agreeable to the Fashions and Customs of the several places they relate unto but much exceeding the deformity of Complexion the Author doth not therefore in the least seem to suspect any of them as if thereby the further removed from perfect and real Men. 20. This opinion also if driven to the head would infer another no less strange and before unheard of conceit in Divinity viz. That Colours are a means of Grace and have a power in them to recommend us to God Whence it would follow that Vertue should be an unseparable attendant upon Beauty and the fairest Bodies must then inevitably inshrine the purest and brightest Souls the contrary whereto was the Satyrist's observation The holy Scripture no less informing us the same when it teacheth us that God looks not upon the Countenance or the height of the Stature nor seeth as Man seeth but God looks upon the Heart And in truth this whole Argument is fraught with too many evil Consequences and Absurdities to be relied on and therefore deserves to be thrown aside and be forgotten into a disuse as too dangerous a Weapon for Slaves to learn the use of from us And which being turned to the other end may be so improved as to humble us to the same Brutality which we so ridiculously have imputed to our Negro's 21. NOR will Bondage which is the next thing to be treated of do any more towards this Metamorphosing and Brutifying of our Negro's than Deformities could It being not to be imagined by sober Men whatever the distracted Tribe may do that Misfortunes and evil Accidents should carry that force in them as to alter Substances there being no so great Fascinations attending the mightiest changes of Fortune as thereby to take away the nature of things For he that before was a Rich Man or Potentate is still a Man tho like Belizarius become a Beggar Marius was as much a Man when conceiled in the Marsh and Dungeon as when he arrived to be Consul the Seventh time And Caesar when in the Pirats hands was the same Man as when he got to be Perpetual Dictator David was but a
Son of such a Person and made to distinguish liber ingenuus from one that was manumissed that is Persons originally Free from such as were but lately made so do enough declare the no want of Slaves even amongst those who thus assert their Right and condemn all their unmerciful usage of them 7. But to proceed Had Slaves no Right at all all Laws and Injunctions against oppressing them had been unjust 't is certain very needless for it had been no other than to infringe their Owners Right of exercising his it matters not whether Gentle or Cruel Pleasure and Authority over them which might be justly practiced even to the utmost extremity were the Parties divested of all Right to better usage Oppression being neither more nor less than an over rigorous treating of those under our power beyond what justly the one could pretend or the other ought to submit to which in this case could never happen For what can he lay claim to who hath nothing either within or without him which he can call his own Or what wrong is it to bar or deprive him of that which is not his Those Laws therefore do confess a Right in the Party on whose behalf they were made Else that in Exod. 21. 27. He shall let his Servant go free for his Tooths sake had been impertinent and injurious And Job's purgation of himself Job 31. 13. If I despised the cause of my Man-servant or of my Maid-servant when they contended with me c. had been idle and ridiculous and an argument that he understood not his own Privilege and Right whilst he stood so nicely upon theirs And no better had been the advice of Siracides Ecclus 7. 20 21. 33. 30 31. ver Whereas thy Servant worketh truly entreat him not evilly nor the Hireling where note what the former were that bestoweth himself wholly for thee Let thy Soul love a good Servant and defraud him not of Liberty Again If thou hast a Servant let him be unto thee as thy self because thou hast bought him with a Price So that the Servant here also is a purchased Bondman whom yet we are to treat as our selves and in the next Verse as a Brother The like also must St. Paul's Exhortation or rather Precept to his Colossians be Chap. 6. 1. Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allow not give your Servants for that agrees not so well with what follows that which is just and equal such things being not to be reckoned Gifts which are our due and to which we have a just Right So likewise to his Ephesians Chap. 6. 9. Where he exhorts both Masters and Servants to Reciprocal Duties giving the former to understand That the Master of them both so the Margent tells us some Copies have it was in Heaven who in punishing Injustice in either Party would be Impartial Which with many the like places are to be understood of Slaves purely so taken as may be proved from 1 Cor. 7. 21 22. and from 1 Tim. 6. 1. Also from 1 St. Pet. 2. 18. in the first of which omitting that out of Siracides they are advised to accept of Freedom when offered being therefore at that time no doubt under Bondage as in the next v. they are plainly declared to be under the Yoke Not to be understood of those whom we stile Apprentices that is Learners such being certain of Freedom so soon as it is convenient or safe for them And therefore we have reason to imagine that St. Paul's advice was given to Servants of an inferiour degree and to whom Liberty might be more safe and advantagious even as it was more difficult to be obtained Besides he there chargeth every Man in general to abide in the same Calling wherein they were called that is wherein Christianity found them unless which is presently excepted they might lawfully obtain their Liberty And the cruel usage unto which St. Peter intimates the Servants he wrote to were subject doth sufficiently manifest that their Condition was no better than direct Servitude and that even to Heathen Masters For otherwise the Exhortation in his 1 Ep. Ch. 2. 18 19 20. and afterwards had been improper such Rigour and Cruelty of Christian Masters in those early and devout times being unlikely to have escaped his Apostolic Censures and severest Menaces if not to have cost the Authors a total rejection from the Communion of Christians From hence also we may note no less than from Saint Paul's words 1 Tim. 6. 2. As many as have believing Masters which shews that some of them had not that the very Gentiles then were not so ill-natur'd and malicious against Christianity as to hinder their Slaves from embracing it And throughout the Old Testament both Abraham's Servants and the rest downwards were no better than Slaves unless where we find Mercenarii Hirelings for distinction added The word Slave being no where found in the holy Scripture except once by a misinterpretation in the Apocalyps And the Latine word Servus taking its derivation from Servatus and importing one saved in Battel by his mercy that took him In lieu whereof by Custom Gratitude and Necessity he was obliged to do him Service the remainder of his Life So also in the Apocrypha besides that of Ecclus. Raguel's giving half his Sâ—rvants to his Son in Law Tobias Tob. 10. 10. And Judith's setting her Maid free Judith 16. 23. And in the New Testament St. Paul's Antithesis 1 Cor. 9. 19. and Gal. 2. 4. with the Jews reply to our Saviour St. John 8. 23. all before mentioned do plainly discover the meaning of the word Servant in holy Scripture not to import a Mercenary or Hireling but a meer Bondman or Slave And so from the whole may be collected That Servitude is no such forfeiture of Right but that a Slave hath as good a plea and just claim to Necessaries both for his Soul and Body as his Master hath to his strength and industry in those Works about which he is imployed 8. No more doth that Maxim in the Civil Law That whatsoever the Servant acquires is properly derivable to his Lord and Master as the true and sole Proprietor of his Servants Acquisitions interfere or jar with this Right than any thing that hath been pretended besides This Right extending only to necessaries for Life not to superfluities or abundance which are the things aimed at in that Maxim These only and not the other being to be reckoned for Acquisitions and therefore seizable to the Master Not but that there are some that can swallow this Maxim in its fullest Latitude and even extended to the Lives and Fortues of Freemen whom no less than Slaves they can without scruple divest of all Right These shall assure us That Men have no stronger obligations to Justice than either Fish or wild Beasts who prey upon and devour each other And That God is no more honoured by A. N. G. E. L. wittily pronouncing the Letters thus severally with
more dangerous Frugality if I may so call it viz. The starving of their Souls Contenting themselves to give a free course to Turkish and Heathenish Licentiousness and even to all Irreligion and Atheism for a wretched false Gain but in the mean time blindly overlooking the many greater Advantages which are the undoubted fruit of true Christianity 3. For can it be believed that the small trouble of Christenings to be had without Fees as also of Catechizing Marrying Churching and Burying of them the consenting to which will one Day like Nehemiah's good deeds for Jerusalem or Tobit's charity for the Dead be our greatest comfort can equal Think upon me O my God for good according to all that I have done for this People Neh. 5. or any way be compared with the solid benefit and satisfaction arising from the unquestionable Fidelity and Integrity of a vertuous Servant Can a few hours Sunday-Work for I plead not for the other Holy-days be alike beneficial to us as the same spent in learning them their Duty or as the blessing of God upon us for it in the ensuing Week Can starving or working them to Death for it cannot be denied but that these are too frequent be equally profitable with keeping them alive for our future Service Or can we believe it alike expedient or conducive to our Interest to be put each Year to purchase and train up Raw Ignorant and unhandy Barbarians with preserving for our occasions the tried and more experienced by good usage of them 'T is true you may alledg the temptation and certainty of the present Profit with the uncertainty of future Contingencies the possibility of their out-living those hardships and of their dying also under better usage yet surely this is but a brutish Plea and at best not a little savouring of their Providence who devour all at one Meal as uncertain whether ever they should live to enjoy another 18. As for the charge of Instructing them if they think it too much to undertake themselves which the holy Patriarchs did not they cannot but know the same Person who attends this work upon Sundays or Saturdays Afternoon which last was formerly allowed to both Slaves and Servants when this Island was less Wealthy and Populous than now it is may be further useful in the rest of the Week particularly in teaching their own and the neighbouring Youth or possibly in keeping their Accounts c. which would prevent a greater Charge together with the hazard of transporting them to Europe for Education Not omitting that so much beyond the dangers of the Sea and of different Climes worse mischief of their being betimes Debauched scarce to be avoided at so great a distance from their Parents care and inspection as in many Instances is too apparent And this also might be a means in some measure to put a stop to that Barbarism which through the want of Schools do threaten the irrecoverable Ruine of all our Hopes in them 19. As for the danger of our Slaves release from Servitude thereby to what I have said before I shall only add That if they suspect the Validity of their own Laws the contrary to which I have always found no doubt but his Majesty and the Honourable Houses of Parliament will have their Ears open to their just Fears and Complaints thus arising from a pious sense of their Duty and the safety of their Peoples Souls no less than of their own so as to fortifie their Interest with as good Laws and Fences as themselves shall in Reason propose or their Omnipotencie pardon the expression Rulers can do much within their proper Spheres can create or give life to Nor let that over-proud fear of thereby acknowledging what they cannot possibly avoid their dependence upon England nor that of rendring the rest of their Laws with their Legislative Power which I confess some would fain extend beyond its due bounds questionable be any impediment thereto since neither the one nor the other are more secured without it And these two being known to be different things in Law viz. To corroborate an old and create a new Title 6. And for the charge of dividing and lessning the Parishes very necessary if but the for English alone and the encreasing the number both of Churches and Ministers tho this doth not absolutely follow the foregoing Expedient being admitted nor perhaps without it All the danger which from thence is like to arise is that thereby we are like to be made better Christians and by such a convenience enabled more duly to serve God a benefit well worth the purchasing at so small an Expence Tho Christians in such a case should first reflect upon the Prophets reply to King Amaziah 2 Chron. 25. 9. The Lord is able to give thee mucb more than this And the old Jewish Aphorism Decima ut dives fias answering to our English Adage that Meat and Mass others have rendred it Prayer and Provender do never hinder Work do confirm that in the Sum total Nothing is lost by our attending upon God's Service and Religion 7. Hereby also besides the Integrity and Long-livedness of their Slaves which would abundantly recompence the loss of other less commendable Profits and Advantages their gettings would not be so clogg'd with those troublesome gripes and stings of Conscience which first or last are the certain Appendices of unlawful and bloody Gain nor with that Curse denounced by the Prophet Hab. 2. 6 7 8. for such Unmercifulness and Impiety Nor would their Estates be so subject to that Moth and Canker which some observing Persons nor over addicted to Priests nor to Religion 't is well known but even from amongst themselves have so forcible are Right words Job 6. 25. been brought to confess as being most Notorious Who at the same time could not find out any cause whereto to ascribe those apparent effects besides that of oppressing these People For as an Achan or a Saul may trouble Israel so even very Gibeonites may bless the Inheritance of the Lord. And so all would be enjoyed with greater Security And that which now is as unstable as Water and a Curse rather than a Blessing would be a durable and firm Passession not as now for the most part to the immediate Heirs only but even to the succession of many Generations For as one very well observes Interest is best preserved by Justice and Equity which will entitle it to that blessing from God which he hath promised in his Word and which are naturally apt to be instrumental to Providence in producing that good which he hath promised 8. And as each private Man so also the public will be made more happy Religion saith one causeth good Orders and good Orders do create Peace and Concord which is a Peoples greatest strength A Fool if he tread in the ways of Holiness and Religion cannot err according to the Prophet Isaiah 35. 8. There shall be an High-way and a Way and it
Minister or other without exception doth by virtue of that Law put himself into the Transporters power and is made to become his Servant or to Ransome himself from that Thraldom and Misery at a very great rate perhaps four or five times so much as their Passage should have cost them A deceit which no Englishman not versed in those American Arts and Frauds can provide against and is indeed the great stay and support of the Kidnappers Trade and Mystery A Trade that 't is thought carries off and consumes not so little as ten thousand People out of this Kingdom yearly which might have been a defence to their Mother-Country but now are many of them miserably destroyed without any advantage to it The second is that Act wherein contradictory to it self no less than to our Act of Vniformity and to another of their own it is declared That to the intent that Servants Marriages may not be made in secret they are forbidden to be published before hand by Banns the usual and only way of preventing that Secresie and that under no less penalty than 10000 pounds of Tabacco a Sum almost if not quite double to divers Ministers Incom and Allowance And this for a thing unto which they are bound under as great Penalties by the said Act of Vniformity and other Laws enjoyning the said Publications Which being once by most of the Ministers of that Colony in an humble Address and Petition to your Excellency represented as both unreasonable and unpossible to be complied with at the same time giving in their reasons for that Allegation they were so far from finding Redress from the Assembly then sitting unto whom it was referred that the Ministers found their condition much more uneasie afterward than it was before Besides the present Punishing of the Promoters thereof tho not under that but another Guise I might here also insert the danger which doth usually ensue to the Minister upon his demanding the benefit of those Laws which concern their Maintenance This being a Crime which no Grandee of any Vestry throughout the Country shall ever forgive To this may be added the profound Silence as to things given to Pious Uses the not only permitting but commissioning Lay-Men to preach and to enjoy four or five Parishes but at under Rates Deacons to undermine and thrust out Presbyters to Administer the Sacraments reade the Absolution and enjoy Pluralities Their suffering Parishes to extend to sixty or seventy Miles in length or letting them lie void for many Years together to save Charges as the Metropolis your Honour's Parish did as 't is said for near twenty Years some little Intervals only excepted And in a word the permitting of all things that concern the Church and Religion to the Mercy of the People One thing I had almost forgotten and that is besides the establishing of Religion amongst the English the propagating of it amongst the Heathen both Natives and Slaves also brought from other parts Which tho as must be piously supposed it were the only end of God's discovering those Countries to us yet is there lookt upon by our new Race of Christians as so idle and Ridiculous so utterly needless and unnecessary that no Man can forfeit his Judgment more than by any proposal looking or tending that way I presume I need not acquaint your Excellencie how useful Religion where it hath not lost its Force and there it ought by all means to be revived is to the ease and support of Government and may prove to the securing of the King's Interest in those Plantations Nor what an excellent Heathen Writer tells us That Religion is the Cement of all Communities and the chief Basis of Legislative Power That it is much more easie to build a Castle we may also add To plant a Colony in the open Air without any ground to found it upon than to establish a Government without Religion Much less that the despising of the Ephod was the Rot of Sauls Kingdom and Government And that the cause why Jeroboam is made to carry that infamous Train and Brand Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin nineteen times after him in sacred Scripture was only for the contempt of Religion and his committing the sacred Oracles to unclean and unholy Hands Your Excellency knows all these things already and needs no information who doubtless are possessed with a deep inward veneration and sense of Religion upon a much higher Account and that is the salvation of Souls However let me be bold to be your Remembrancer and to mind your Excellency how needful it is that those good Laws which are made for the suppression of Vice and for reducing the People from this affected Gentilism to a more diligent and conscientious discharge of their Duty to God the only sure means to retain them in their due Allegiance to their Soveraign be by the Inferiour Magistrates more duly executed The Ministers encouraged and all Invaders of that sacred Calling cashired and punished for their bold and prophane Vsurpations But I begin â—o exceed my Limits in thus presuming to prescribe unto your Excellency who are wise enough to effect whatsoever is necessary as to this most Important Affair so soon as you shall find it expedient so to do Wherefore beseeching your Excellency to excuse this Presumption and to accept these my weak Performances which I humbly submit unto your Censure I am Your Excellencies Servant and Orator M. G. Psal 119. 12. It is time for the Lord to Work for they have made void thy Law Ezek. 8. 12. For they say The Lord seeth us not the Lord hath forsaken the Earth FINIS