PROPOSALS Tender'd to the Consideration of Both HOUSES of PARLIAMENT For Uniting the Protestant Interest for the Present And preventing Divisions for the Future Together with the DECLARATION OF K. CHARLES II. Concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs And some Proposals of TERMS of UNION BETWEEN THE Church of England AND DISSENTERS Long since published By the Reverend Dean of S. Pauls LONDON Printed for Henry Clark and sold by the Book-sellers of London and Westminster M DC LXXX IX Humble and Modest PROPOSALS For Uniting the Protestant Interest I Doubt not but every Pious and Sober Protestant of this Nation cannot but be heartily troubled to observe those passionate Differences and unchristian Dissentions which daily increase among Brethren who are united in one and the same Doctrin of their Religion and reformed from the Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome Upon the due Consideration of which every one who wisheth Peace and Prosperity to the Kingdom he lives in ought to consider what should be the Occasion of those unhappy and ruinous Divisions we have so long suffered under and to offer probable means for composing them As to their first Rise I doubt not but they ow their Original to the different manner of the Reformation and the establishing of the Orders which each Church did think fit and convenient for it self as the Reverend and Pious Mr. Hooker acquaints us which were so peremptorily established under that high commanding Form which rendered them to the People as things everlastingly required by the Law of that Lord of Lords against whose Statutes there is no Exception to be taken by which means it came to pass that one Church could not but accuse and condemn another of Disobedience to the Will of Christ in those things where manifest Difference was between them Whereas the self-same Orders allowed but yet established in more wary and suspense manner as being to stand in Force till God should give the Opportunity of some General Conference what might be best for them afterwards to do This I say had both prevented all occasion of just dislike which others might take and reserved a greater Liberty unto the Authors themselves of entring into farther Consultation afterwards which though never so necessary they could easily now admit without some fear of Derogation from their Credit And therefore that which once they had done they became for ever after resolute to maintain Now if we consider the shortness of that time wherein our first Reformation continued under Edward the Sixth and the Persecution in Queen Mary's reign which forced many Pious and Learned Clergymen of the Church of England to flee into Foreign Countries as Zurick Embden Basil Strasburg Frankford Geneva c. for the Preservation of their Religion and Lives where they frequently conversed with those Eminent Divines who were the great Reformers there 't is no Wonder that some of them should return better pleased with their Discipline than their own especially considering that several of them had intimate Acquaintance and Conversation with one of the Reformers whom the Reverend Mr. Hooker thought incomparably the wisest Man Man that ever the French Church did enjoy since the Hour it enjoyed him In Queen Elizabeth's King Iames and K. Charles the First 's Reigns 't is well known how our Differences increased until that unhappy War broke out by which the Non-conforming Interest prevailed so that the Presbyterian Discipline was endeavoured to be fixed as the established Form of Government in this Nation our Universities Preachers Writings Education c. were generally modelled thereto by which means the greatest number of the trading part of the Kingdom several of the Gentry and some few of the Nobility observing the Precepts and Practices Lifes and Deaths of many of that Clergy to be Pious and Exemplary joyned with them of this or the like Perswasion Since which time it pleasing God to restore King Charles II. the Parliament thought it convenient to establish the same Discipline which our first Reformers judged prudential and that as the Dissenters do complain upon stricter Subscriptions than formerly not abating or laying aside any of those Ceremonies which have been matters of dispute and contention betwixt them and the Church of England ever since our blessed Reformation from Popery and Superstition Upon which account many of the Non-conforming Divines laid down their Livings and the old Controversies began afresh to be revived and so are like to be continued until we be either ruined by Popery or healed by Moderation which is the only Salve to cure the Churches Wounds and that admirable Remedy formerly proposed to the wisdom of Superiours by the Reverend Dr. Stillingfleet who having highly commended the prudence and temper of the French Churches in composing their publick Forms of Prayer that they were so far from inserting any thing controversial into them that Papists themselves would use them And saith he the same temper was used by our Reformers in the composing our Liturgy in reference to the Papists to whom they had an especial Eye as being the only Party then appearing whom they desired to draw into their Communion by coming as near them as they well and safely could And certainly those holy Men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their Principles as the Papists were did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender Consciences from their Communion That which they laid as a Bait for them was never intended by them as a Hook for those of their own Profession But the same or greater Reason which made them at that time yield so far to them then would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same Profession with themselves now For surely none will be so uncharitable toward those of his own Profession as not to think there is as much reason to yield in compliance with them as with the Papists And it cannot but be looked upon as a Token of God's severe displeasure against us if any though unreasonable Proposals of Peace between us and the Papists should meet with such entertainment among many and yet any fair offers of Vnion and Accomodation among our selves be so coldly embraced and entertained Thus far our Reverend and Learned Dean of Pauls delivered his Opinion as to these matters of Dispute near thirty Years a-gone before the Laws were established against Dissenters And in his Book Entituled The unreasonableness of Separation wrote twenty years after the former He hath given the World such a Testimony of his real Kindness to Dissenters notwithstanding his hard usuage from them and of his sincere and hearty desire to heal our unhappy Breaches and unite our unchristian Divisions as will for ever consecrate his Memory to posterity Upon these and some other like Considerations I should humbly propose to the Wisdom of this present Parliament some probable means
abundant evidence could in the least degree startle Us or make Us swerve from it and that nothing can be proposed to manifest Our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent And We said then that We did hope in due time Our self to propose somewhat for the Propagation of it that will satisfie the World that We have always made it both Our Care and Our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring Disadvantage to it And the truth is We do think Our Self the more competent to propose and with God's Assistance to determine many things now in difference from the time We have spent and the experience We have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France in the Low-Countries and in Germany where We have had frequent Conferences with the most learned Men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the distempers and too notorious Schisms in matters of Religion in England And as the most learned among them have always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the established Government of the Church of England and the great Countenance and Shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times So many of them have with great Ingenuity and Sorrow confessed that they were too easily misled by mis-information and prejudice into some dis-esteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best Fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World And We are perswaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration When We were in Holland We were attended by many grave and learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Us would permit Us to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to Us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they have been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which the Indisposition of the time and the tenderness of some mens Consciences had contracted For the better doing whereof We did intend upon Our first arrival in this Kingdom to call a Synod of Divines as the most proper expedient to provide a proper Remedy for all those Differences and dis-satisfactions which had or should arise in matters of Religion and in the mean time We published in Our Declaration from Breda a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no Man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matter of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that We shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to Us for the full granting that Indulgence Whilest We continued in this temper of mind and Resolution and have so far complyed with the perswasion of particular Persons and the distemper of the time as to be contented with the exercise of Our Religion in Our own Chapel according to the constant practice and Laws established without enjoyning that practice and the observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which We have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that Zeal for the Church which We ought to have and which by God's grace We shall always retain We have found Our Self not so candidly dealt with as We have deserved and that there are unquiet and restless Spirits who without abating any of their own distemper in recompence of the Moderation they find in Us continue their bitterness against the Church and endeavour to raise Jealousies of Us and to lessen Our Reputation by their Reproaches as if We were not true to the Professions VVe have made And in â—â—der thereunto they have very unseasonably caused to be Printed Published and Dispersed throughout the Kingdom a Declaration heretofore Printed in Our Name during the time of Our being in Scotland of which We shall say no more than that the Circumstances by which We were enforced to sign that Declaration are enough known to the World And that the worthiest and greatest part of that Nation did even then detest and abhorr the ill usage of Us in that Particular when the same Tyranny was exercised there by the Power of a few ill Men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore We had no reason to expect that We should at this Season when We are doing all We can to wipe out the Memory of all that hath been done amiss by other Men and We thank God have wiped it out of Our own remembrance have been Our Self assaulted with those Reproaches which We will likewise forget Since the Printing this Declaration several seditious Pamphlets and Quaeries have been published and scattered abroad to infuse Dislike and Jealousies into the Hearts of the People and of the Army and some who ought rather to have repented the former Mischief they have wrought than to have endeavoured to improve it have had the hardiness to publish that the Doctrine of the Church against which no Man with whom We have conferred hath excepted ought to be reformed as well as the Discipline This over-passionate and turbulent way of proceeding and the Impatience We find in many for some speedy determination in these matters whereby the Minds of Men may be Composed and the Peace of the Church established hath prevailed with Us to invert the method We had proposed to Our Self and even in order to the better calling and composing of a Synod which the present Jealousies will hardly agree upon by the assistance of God's blessed Spirit which We daily invoke and supplicate to give some determination Our Self to the matters in difference until such a Synod may be called as may without Passion or Prejudice give us such farther assistance towards a perfect union of Affections as well as submission to Authority as is necessary And We are the rather induced to take this upon Us by finding upon the full Conference We have had with the learned Men of several Perswasions that the Mischiefs under which both the Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any form'd Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintaâ—◠〈◊〉 avows but from the Passion and Appetite and Interest of particular Persons who contract greater prejudice to each other from those Affections than would naturally rise from their Opinions and those distempers must be in some degree allayed before the meeting in a Synod can be attended with better success than their meeting in other places and their discourses in Pulpits have hitherto been and till
all thoughts of Victory are laid aside the humble and necessary thoughts for the Vindication of Truth cannot be enough entertained We must for the honour of all those of either perswasion with whom We have conferred declare That the Professions and Desires of all for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their professions of Zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of Affection and Duty to Us the same They all approve Episcopacy They all approve a set form of Liturgy and they all disprove and dislike the sin of Sacriledge and the alienation of the Revenue of the Church And if upon these excellent Foundations in submission to which there is such a harmony of Affections any Superstructures should be raised to the shaking those Foundations and to the contracting and lessening the blessed gift of Charity which is a vital part of Christian Religion We shall think Our Self very unfortunate and even suspect that We are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath entrusted Us. We need not profess the high Affection and Esteem we have for the Church of England as it is established by Law the Reverence to which hath supported us with Gods Blessing against many temptations nor do We think that Reverence in the least degree diminished by Our Condescentions not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of Ceremony which however introduced by the Piety and Devotion and Order of former times may not be so agreeable to the present but may even lessen that Piety and Devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be first introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with and We hope this charitable compliance of Ours will dispose the Minds of all Men to a chearful submission to that Authority the preservation whereof is so necessary for the Unity and Peace of the Church and that they will acknowledge the support of the Episcopal Authority to be the best support of Religion by being the best means to contain the Minds of Men within the Rules of Government And they who would restrain the exercise of that holy Function within the Rules which were observed in the Primitive times must remember and consider that the Ecclesiastical Power being in those blessed times always subordinate and subject to the Civil it was likewise proportioned to such an extent of Jurisdiction as was most agreeable to that And as the Sanctity and Simplicity and Resignation of that Age did then refer many things to the Bishops which the policy of succeeding Ages would not admit at least did otherwise provide for so it can be no reproach to Primitive Episcopacy if where there have been great alterations in the Civil Government from what was then there have been likewise some difference and alteration in the Ecclesiastical the Essence and Foundation being still preserved And upon this ground without taking upon Us to censure the Government of the Church in other Countries where the Government of the State is different from what it is here or enlarging Our Self upon the Reasons why whilst there was an Imagination of erecting a Democratical Government here in the State they should be willing to continue an Aristocratical Government in the Church It shall suffice to say that since by the wonderful Blessing of God the Hearts of this whole Nation are returned to an obedience to Monarchick Government in the State it must be very reasonable to support that Government in the Church which is established by Law and with which the Monarchy hath flourished through so many Ages and which is in truth as ancient in this Island as the Christian Monarchy thereof and which hath always in some respects or degrees been enlarged or restrained as hath been thought most conducing to the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom and therefore We have not the least doubt but that the present Bishops will think the present Concessions now made by Us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully conform themselves thereunto 1. We do in the first place Declare Our purpose and Resolution is and shall be to promote the Power of Godliness to encourage the exercises of Religion both publick and private and to take care that the Lord's Day be applied to holy Exercises without unnecessary divertisments and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church And that as the present Bishops are known to be Men of great and exemplar Piety in their Lives which they have manifested in their notorious and unexampled Sufferings during these late Distempers and of great and known sufficiency of Learning so We shall take special Care by the assistance of God to prefer no Men to that Office and Charge but Men of Learning Vertue and Piety who may be themselves the best examples to those who are to be Governed by them And We shall expect and provide the best We can that the Bishops be frequent Preachers and that they do very often Preach themselves in some Church of their Diocess except they be hindred by Sickness or other bodily Infirmities or some other justifiable occasion which shall not be thought justifiable if it be requent 2. Because the Diocesses especially some of them are thought to be of too large extent We will appoint such a Number of Suffragan Bishops in every Diocess as shall be sufficient for the due performance of their work 3. No Bishop shall Ordain or exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censures of the Church without the advice and assistance of the Presbyters And no Chancellors Commissaries or Officials as such shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction in these cases viz. Excommunication Absolution or wherein any of the Ministry are concerned with reference to their Pastoral charge However Our intent and meaning is to uphold and maintein the Profession of the Civil Law so far and in such matters as it hath been of use and practice within Our Kingdoms and Dominions Albeit as to Excommunication Our Will and Pleasure is that no Chancellor Commissary or Official shall Decree any Sentence of Excommunication or Absolution or be Judges in those things wherein any of the Ministry are concerned as is aforesaid Nor shall the Arch-Deacon exercise any Jurisdiction without the advice and assistance of six Ministers of his Arch-Deaconcy whereof three to be nominated by the Bishop and three by the election of the major part of the Presbyters within the Arch-Deaconry 4. To the end that the Deans and Chapters may be the better fitted to afford Counsel and Assistance to the Bishops both in Ordination and the other Offices mentioned before We will take care that those Preferments be given to the most Learned and Pious Presbyters of the Diocess And moreover that an equal number to those of the Chapter of the most learned pious and discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess annually chosen by the major vote of all the Presbyters of that Diocess
reasons best if not only known to themselves choose rather to do it fitting or standing We shall leave all decisions and determinations of that kind if they shall be thought necessary for a perfect and entire Unity and Uniformity throughout the Nation to the advice of a National Synod which shall be duly called after a little time and a mutual Conversation between persons of different perswasions hath mollified those distempers abated those sharpnesses and extinguished those jealousies which make men unfit for those Consultations And upon such advice We shall use Our best endeavor that such Laws may be established as may best provide for the Peace of the Church and State. Provided that none shall be denied the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper though they do not use the gesture of kneeling in the Act of receiving In the mean time out of Compassion and Compliance towards those who would forbear the Cross in Baptism We are content that no Man shall be compelled to use the same or suffer for not doing it But if any Parent desire to have his Child Christned according to the Form used and the Minister will not use the Sign it shall be lawful for that Parent to procure another Minister to do it And if the proper Minister shall refuse to omit that Ceremony of the Cross it shall be lawful for the Parent who would not have his Child so Baptised to procure another Minister to do it who will do it according to his desire No Man shall be compelled to bow at the Name of JESUS or suffer in any degree for not doing it without reproaching those who out of their Devotion continue that ancient Ceremony of the Church For the use of the Surplice we are contented that all Men be left to their Liberty to do as they shall think fit without suffering in the least degree for wearing or not wearing it Provided that this liberty do not extend to Our own Chappel Cathedral or Collegiate Churches or to any Colledge in either of Our Universities but that the several Statutes and Customs for the use thereof in the said places be there observed as formerly And because some Men otherwise pious and learned say They cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canon nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience We are content and it is Our Will and Pleasure so they take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive Ordination Institution and Induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience And moreover That no Persons in the Universities shall for the want of such Subscription be hindred in the taking of their Degrees Lastly That none be judged to forfeit his Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it upon the Statute of the Thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth Chapter the twelth so he read and declare his assent to all the Articles of Religion which only concern the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments comprised in the Book of Articles in the said Statute mentioned In a word We do again renew what we have formerly said in Our Declaration from Breda for the liberty of tender Consciences that no Man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and if any have been disturbed in that kind since our arrival here it hath not proceeded from any direction of Ours To conclude and in this place to explain what We mentioned before and said in Our Letter to the House of Commons from Breda That We hoped in due time Our Self to propose somewhat for the Propagation of the Protestant Religion that will satisfie the World that We have always made it both Our Care and Our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it We do conjure all Our Loving Subjects to acquiesce in and submit this Our Declaration concerning those differences which have so much disquieted the Nation at home and given such offence to the Protestant Churches abroad and brought such reproach upon the Protestant Religion in general from the Enemies thereof as if upon obscure notions of Faith and Fancy it did admit the practice of Christian Duties and Obedience to be discountenanced and suspended and introduce a Licence in Opinions and Manners to the prejudice of the Christian Faith. And let Us all endeavour and emulate each other in those endeavours to countenance and advance the Protestant Religion abroad which will be best done by supporting the Dignity and Reverence due to the best Reformed Protestant Church at home and which being once freed from the Calumnies and Reproaches it hath undergone from these late ill times will be the best shelter for those abroad which will by that Countenance both be the better Protected against their Enemies and be the more easily induced to compose the differences amongst themselves which give their Enemies more advantage against them And We hope and expect that all Men will henceforward forbear to vent any such Doctrine in the Pulpit or to endeavour to work in such manner upon the Affections of the People as may dispose them to an ill Opinion of Us and the Government and to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Which if all Men will in their several Vocations endeavour to preserve with the same Affection and Zeal We Our Self will do all Our good Subjects will by Gods Blessing upon Us enjoy as great a measure of Felicity as this Nation hath ever done and which We shall constantly Labour to procure for them as the greatest Blessing God can bestow upon Us in this World. Given at our Court at Whitehall this Twenty fifth day of October 1660. The Reverend Dean of Pauls his Proposals or Terms of Vnion betwixt the Church of England and the Dissenters Taken out of his Preface to the Vnreasonableness of Separation Pag. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94. IS there nothing to be done for Dissenting Protestants who agree with us in all Doctrinal Articles of our Church and only scruple the use of a few Ceremonies and some late Impositions Shall these Differences still be continued when they may be so easily removed and so many Useful Men be Encouraged and taken into the Constitution Do we value a few indifferent Ceremonies and some late Declarations and doubtful Expressions beyond the satisfaction of Mens Consciences and the Peace and Stability of this Church As to this material Question I shall crave leave to deliver my Opinion freely and impartially and that I. With respect to the Case of the People the Terms of whose Union with us is acknowledged by our Brethren to be so much easier than their own But these are of two sorts 1. Some allow the use of the Liturgy but say they cannot joyn in Communion with us because
the participation of the Sacraments hath such Rites and Ceremonies annexed to it which they think unlawful and therefore till these be removed or left indifferent they dare not joyn with us in Baptism or the Lord's Supper because in the one the Cross is used and in the other Kneeling is required As to these I answer 1. Upon the most diligent Search I could make into these things I find no good ground for any scruple of Conscience as to to the use of these Ceremonies and as little as any as to the Sign of the Cross as it is used in our Church notwithstanding all the noise that hath been made about its being a New Sacrament and I knew not what but of this at large in the following Treatise 2. I see no ground for the Peoples Separation from other Acts of Communion on the account of some Rites they suspect to be unlawful And especially when the use of such Rites is none of their own Act as the Cross in Baptism is not and when such an Explication is annexed concerning the intention of Kneeling at the Lord's Supper as is in the Rubrick after the Communion 3. Notwithstanding because the use of Sacraments in a Christian Church ought to be the most free from all Exceptions and they ought to be so Administred as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous Persons from joyning in them I do think it would be a part of Christian Wisdom and Condescention in the Governors of our Church to remove those Bars from a freedom in joyning in full Communion with us Which may be done either by wholly taking away the Sign of the Cross or if that may give offence to others by confining the use of it to the publick Administration of Baptism or by leaving it indifferent as the Parents desire it As to Kneeling at the Lord's Supper since some Posture is necessary and many Devout People scruple any other and the Primitive Church did in Ancient times receive it in the Posture of Adoration there is no reason to take this away even in Parochial Churches provided that those who scruple Kneelling do receive it with the least Offence to others and rather Standing than Sitting because the former is most agreeable to the practice of Antiquity and of our Neighbour-Reformed Churches As to the Surplice in Parochial Churches it is not of that consequâ—nce as to bear a Dispute one way or other and as to Cathedrâ—l Churches there is no necessity of alteration But there is another thing which seems to be of late much scrupled in Baptism viz. The Use of God fathers and God-mothers Excâ—â—â—ing the Parents Although I do not question but the Practice of our Church may be justified as I have done it towards the end of the following Treatise yet I see no necessity of adhering 〈◊〉 strictly to the Canon herein but that a little alteration may â—revent these Scruples either by permitting the Parents to joyn with the Sponsors or by the Parents publickly desiring the Sponsors to represent them in offering the Child to Baptism or which seems most agreeable to Reason that the Parents offer the Child to Baptism and then the Sponsors perform the Covenanting part representing the Child and the Charge after Baptism be given in common to the Parents and Sponsors These things being allowed I see no obstruction remaining as to a full Union of the Body of such Dissenters with us in all Acts of Divine Worship and Christian Communion as do not reject all Communion with us as unlawful 2. But because there are many of those who are become zealous Protestants and plead much their Communion with us in Faith and Doctrine although they cannot joyn with us in Worship because they deny the Lawfulness of Liturgies and the right Constitution of our Churches their case deserves some consideration whether and how far they are capable of being made serviceable to the common Interest and to the support of the Protestant Religion among us To their Case I answer First That a general unlimited Toleration to Dissenting Protestants will soon bring Confusion among us and in the end Popery as I have shewed already and a Suspension of all the Penal Laws that relate to Dissenters is the same thing with a boundless Toleration Secondly If any present Favours be granted to such in consideration of our Circumstances and to prevent their Conjunction with the Papists for a general Toleration for if ever the Papists obtain it it must be under their Name If I say such Favour be thought fit to be shewed them it ought to be with such Restrictions and Limitations as may prevent the Mischief which may easily follow upon it For all such Meetings are a perpetual Reproach to our Churches by their declaring That our Churches are no true Churches that our manner of Worship is unlawful and that our Church-Government is Antichristian and that on these accounts they separate from us and Worship God by themselves But if such an Indulgence be thought fit to be granted I humbly offer these things to Consideration 1. That none be permitted to enjoy the priviledge of it who do not declare That they do hold Communion with our Churches to be Unlawful For it seems unreasonable to allow it to others and will give Countenance to endless and causeless Separations 2. That all who enjoy it besides taking the Test against Popery do subscribe the Thirty Six Articles of our faith because the pretence of this Liberty is joyning with us in Points of Faith and this may more probably prevent Papists getting in amongst them 3. That all such as enjoy it must declare the particular Congregations they are of and enter their Names before such Commissioners as shall be Authorized for that purpose that so this may be no pretence for Idle Loose and Prophane Persons never going to any Church at all 4. That both Preachers and Congregations be liable to severe Penalties if they use any bitter or reproachful words either in Sermons or Writings against the Established Constitution of our Churches because they desire only the freedom of their own Consciences and the using this Liberty will discover it is not Conscience but a turbulent factious Humour which makes them separate from our Communion 5. That all Indulged Persons be particularly obliged to pay all legal Duties to the Parochial Churches lest meer Covetousness tempt Men to run among them and no Persons so Indulged be capable of any Publick Office. It not being reasonable that such should be trusted with Government who look upon the Worship established by Law as Unlawful 6. That no other Penalty be laid on such indulged Persons but that of Twelve Pence a Sunday for their absence from their Parochial Churches which ought to be duly Collected for the Use of the Poor and cannot be complained of as any heavy Burthen considering the Liberty they do enjoy by it 7. That the Bishops as Visitors appointed by Law have an exact Account given to them