not less than absolutely inconsistent with Liberty of Conscience and as hard thoughts soever as the smaller Sects have entertained concerning the Bishops they are much more concerned to secure themselves against not a few nor the least Considerable among their own dear Brethren ARTICLE 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of Persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their Plagues and that the Lord may be One and his Name One in these Kingdoms As to the former part of this Article that which concerns the overthrow of the established Government of the Church I shall only say this that the Modesty of these men is in this case very admirable and there is no doubt to be made but that in any other Kingdom it would be thought to be so in that they do expect to be admitted into the Preferments of the Church and to be allowed to be publick Preachers in it and yet at the very same time they do desire to be excused from declaring that they are not of a Perswasion that there doth ly an obligation by Oath upon them themselves the whole Nation or to say no more at least upon some other Person who ought to be nameless to overthrow the whole frame of the Government of that Church which they desire to be admitted into the Preferments of and particularly of that Bishop by whose hands they are admitted I would fain know whether there be any other Part of the World where any Persons dare to demand of the present establishment that it would for their sakes so far relax it self in order to their admission into it Sure these menimagine that the Church is in a very great necessity of them that it cannot stand one moment without them when in the very Terms of their Admission they do demand no less than this that a new Law should be made on purpose whereby they may be privileged from declaring whether or no it is lawful for them to suffer the Church to continue two moments longer than there shall arise an opportunity wherein they may be able to overthrow it As for the remaining Part of the Article concerning Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine or the Power of Godliness c. I shall leave that to our Friends of the Presbytery and their Separating Brethren to dispute about it And it is clear enough that they are altogether as unlike to agree in those Particulars as I am with either of them As lovingly as ever they may look upon one another at present I am sure that the Covenant when opportunity serves will be found to be levelled as directly against the Conventicles as against the Cathedrals I shall observe no more in this Article besides the great Charitableness of the Conclusion That the Lord may be One and his Name One in the Three Kingdoms As if the Church of England followed after strange Gods and that those ordained by her were really no other than as they are often stiled according to the good manners which the People learn of too many such Preachers the Priests of Baal ART 3. We shall with the same Sincerity Reality and Constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of the True Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom That the World may hear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts and intention to diminish his Majesties Iust Power and Greatness This Article hath been very much and very much insisted on and gloried in for the seeming Loyalty of one Expression in it But in order to a right understanding let us consider how Affairs stood at that time It is well known that the Compilers and Enjoyners of this Covenant were at that very time in actual Arms I hope that it is no offence if I say in actual Rebellion against the King This very Covenant was a great Instrument by which they did carry on their Design then on foot against Him The King was betrayed and sold by one part of the Covenanters those from Scotland he was bought imprisoned and in effect deposed by another part of the Covenanters those in England and by the most Loyal of them even the Lords and Commons Assembled at Westminster who by their Votes of Non-address Febr. 17. 1647. which let us note was long before the Seclusion by the Army did declare First That they will make no farther Addresses or Applications to the King And in the fourth Vote That they will receive no more Messages from the King and do enjoyn that no Person whatever do receive or bring any Message from the King to Both or either Houses of Parliament or to any other Person which Votes they published with a Declaration wherein they lay down some few of those many Reasons as they express it why they cannot repose any more Trust in Him Nay long before that time when the Scots complained of some rigours used towards His Majesty as being contrary to the Covenant the House of Commons did return them this Answer Novemb. 18. 1646. We observe that you mention the Defence of the King twice from the Covenant but in both places you leave out in the preservation of the true Religion c. A main Clause without which the other ought not to be mentioned Which very Answer themselves did afterwards receive from their own Army in a Declaration from St. Albans Novemb. 18. 1648. Where they reminded their Masters of their own Doctrine The Defence of the King say they is to be understood with this restriction In the Preservation of c. or otherwise the whole Proceedings of Both Kingdoms in makeing and maintaining War against Him in Defence of Religion and Liberties are questionable for breach of Covenant since that way of preserving did probably tend to the destruction and was without any safe provision either for his Person or that Authority which can properly be called His or understood in Conjunction with His Person but that therein His Person might probably have been destroyed under the Sword or by a Bullet yea was ordinarily endeavoured to be so as well as the Persons of others in Arms with Him and that Authority of His was certainly opposed and endeavoured to be destroyed thereby instead of being defended Remonstrance from St. Albans P. 55. Indeed about the time of the King's Murther many of the Covenanters did declare themselves a
Hearts no manner of zeal for or against any Form of Religion any farther than as theiâ— other Ends and Designs were carried on by it I shall readily grant it him â—ay I shall say this farther That besides Religion the Civil Rights of the Nation were but plausible Colours by which the Leading Men of that Party did set off their other Ends such as Revenge Humour Discontent Covetousness and Ambition And this they were told publickly by one whom they knew to be able to make it good in the excellent Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. Themselves know what Overtures have been made by them and with what Importunity for Offices and Preferments what great Services should have been done for us and what other undertakings were even to the saving the Life of the Earl of Strafford if we would confer such Offices upon them But that Religion was the thing which they did make shew of and by which they drew abundance of well meaning but deluded People to their assistanâ—â— is so plain and known so publickly that it is no little wonder that any should offer to outsâ—â—â— the Nation in so noâ—â—â—ious a Case Did not every Press and every Pulpit declare against Episcopacy Liturgy and Cereâ—onies Did not the Lords and Commons by their Votes of March 12. 1642. resolve upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for the Safety of the Kings Person c. and PRESERVING THE TRUE RELIGION c. Did they not in Iuly following put forth a Delaration concerning the miserable Distractions and Grievances this Kingdom now lieth in by means of JESUITICAL and wicked Cousellours now about his Majesty wherein they tell us over and over again of the Protestant Religion a great Change of Religion That they should be for ever earnest to prevent â— Civil War and those miserable Effects which it must needs produce if they may be avoided without the Alteration of RELIGION c. And in their Resolutions to live and die with the Earl of Essex they tell us That their Army was raised for the MAINTENANCE of the TRUE PROTESTANT RELIGION The Plaâ—e Wedding-rings Thimbles and Bodkins had never been brought in if it had not been that the Cause was so often called the Cause of God Let any man read the Remonstrances and Declarations of the Two Houses and then see whether Religion was not one of those things which they all along declared their Zeal for and accordingly in all the Parliaments Quarters the poor Surplice the Organs and the Common Prayer-book were the first Objects of all their Fury But because this present Design of Comprehension is particularly intended to gratifie some Clergy-men let us enquire under what name they recommended the War unto the People Was it not under the name of Gods Cause the setting Christ on his Throne fighting the Lords Battels There is a Collection of their Sermons Printed which will not suffer any Man to doubt of this out of which there is enough gathered to this purpose in Evangelium Armatum And This Mr. Baxter hath in a late Book confessed as to himself When the Wars began though the Cause it self lay iâ— Controversies between King and Parliament yet the thoughts that the Church and Godliness it self was deeply in danger by Persecution and Arminiaâ—isâ— did much more to byass me to the Parliaments side than the Civil Interest which at the heart I little regarded This Author likewise confesseth That whatever was the Cause at the first it soon became a War for Religion And Mr. Love a Person mentioned by this Author as one of great Merit in his Sermon at the Vxbridge Treaty complains of the so long letting alone the Two Plague-sores of Episcopacy and Common Prayer-Book The Seventh Proposition is this That the Parliamentarians in the beginning of our Troubles declared to abhorr and detest all Designs of deposing and murthering his Late Sacred Majesty That they did declare against any such thing I readily grant and amongst other Reasons for this laid down by our Author That it had been else impossible for them to have gained the people as they did But that there were among the chief Contrivers of the Wars Those who had a design upon the Kings Crown and Life is a thing where of there is great Evidence If it be lawful to fight with a King why is it not lawful to kill him Swords and Bullets are Things which are by no means to be used against that Person which we think we ought not to destroy And of the great danger which his Majesties Person was in at the Battel at Edge-hill himself hath informed us in a Declaration on that Subject And in the Remonstrance of May 26. 1642. the Lords and Commons did plainly assume to themselves a Right to depose the King in these words If we should make the highest Precedents of former Parliaments our Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty and Duty in us when we have not so much as suffered those things to enter into our thoughts which all the World knows they put in act In which words there is thus much plainly contained That whatever former Parliaments have done they take themselves to have a Right to do Now former Parliaments have been over-awed into the deposing of Kings Now that they had their Eyes upon those particular Proceedings of former Parliaments appears by those Words All the World knows what they put in act His Majesty in His Answer to that Declaration of theirs tells us of two Gentlemen who said publickly unreproved in the Parliament House one That the Hâ—ppiness of this Kingdom did not depend upon Him or upon any of the Royal Branches of that Root Another That He was not worthy to be King of England And as for the Royal Power it was plainly demanded from him in the Nineteen Propositions The Eighth Consideration is this That the Non-conforming Presbyteriâ—â—â— had both their hearts and hands in the Restauration of His Majesty to His Royal Throne for which Mr. Love and Mr. Gibbons lost their Heads Of all things I should least have eâ—pected that the Advocates for the Presbyterians should have insisted upon their Merits to His Majesty or the Royal Family for which their best Apology is the Act of Oblivion and if they would have insisted yet however methinks they should of all men not have made Mr. Love the Person to have insisted on As for that Party of the Scots which he corresponded with it is no Part of their Wisdom to remind His Majesty of the Usage which he found from them As to Mr. Love the Learned Author of Saâ—aritanism hath informed us p. 152. That at the Execution of Archbishop Laâ—d he uttered these Words with great Triumph Art thou come Little Will I am glad to see thee here and hope to see the nest of the Bishops here e're long and having dipped his Handkerchief in his blood he rode with it to Vxbridge and used these Words Here is the
little dissatisfied with that way of Proceeding against Him and did how reasonably upon their own Grounds I know not urge the Covenant for His Preservation But of their Behaviour in this Case I shall give only the Account of an Author who lived in those times when they had opportunities enough to have taken what account of Him themselves pleased His Words are these in a Book entituled A short View of the Life and Reign of King Charles the First Monarch of Great Britain pag. 94. The Presbyterians carried on this Tragedy to the very last Act from the first bringing in of the Scots to the beginning of the War and from the beginning of the War till they had brought Him Prisoner to Holmby-House and then quarrelled with the Independents for taking of the Work out of their hands and robbing them of the long expected fruit of their Plots and Practices They cried out against them in their Pulpits and clamoured against them in their Pamphlets for that of which themselves were at least parcel-guilty Et si non re at voto saltem Regicidae c. On the other side the Independents who washed their hands in the blood of the King seemed as desirous as the Presbyterians to wash their hands of it By them it was alleadged more calmly that they had put Charles Stuart to death against whom they proceeded as the Cause of so much bloodshed but that the King had been muthered a long time before by the Presbyterians when they deprived Him of His Crown His Sword His Scepter of His Crown by forcing from Him those Prerogatives which placed Him in a Throne of Eminency above His People of His Sword by wresting the Militia out of His hands by which He was made unable to protect them and of His Scepter in divesting Him of His Power of calling Parliaments and of His Negative Voyce in making those Laws by which He was to govern all Estates of Men under His Dominion And more than so they had deprived Him of His Natural Liberty as a Man of the Society of His Wife as he was a Husband of the Conversation of His Children as He was a Father of the Attendance of His Servants as He was a Master and in a word of all those Comforts which might make Life valued for a Blessing So that there was nothing left for the Independents to do but to put an end to those Calamities into which this miserable man this Vir dolorum as He might very well be called had been so accursedly plunged by the Presbyterians To which I shall only add this farther that notwithstanding all that Loyalty which the Covenanters have so often boasted of from the Obligation of the Covenant yet it is well known that the Covenant was placed by themselves as a bar between him and his Throne that without submitting to this they could not endure to think of His Restauration to that and this to so high a degree that even in Ianuary 1648. Notwithstanding the apparent danger which the King's Life was known to be in yet even then the General Assembly of Scotland did violently oppose all courses thought upon for His Relief and pressed earnestly That His Majestie 's Concessions and Offers concerning Religion may directly and positively be declared unsatisfactory to the Parliament and that there shall be no engagement for restoreing His Majesty to one of His Houses with Honour Freedom and Safety before Security and Assurance be had from His Majesty by His Solemn Oath under Hand and Seal that He shall for Himself and His Successors consent and agree to Acts of Parliament enjoyning the League and Covenant and fully establishing Presbyterian Government Directory of Worship and Confession of Faith in all his Majesties Dominions and that his Majesty shall never make opposition to any of these or endeavour any change thereof Vid. Declar. of Jan. 10. 1648. Now therefore seeing it is so plain a Case that in the Opinion of the Compilers and Enjoyners of the Covenant all the fore-mentioned Violences both might and ought to have been used against the King by vertue and in pursuance of the Covenant It thence follows unavoidably that His Majesty is not a little concerned to be very watchful over all those Persons who are so tender of the honour of the Covenant that they demand it as the Condition of their Admission into the Church that they may by no means be questioned concerning their Opinion about its Obligation ARTICLE 4. We shall with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from His People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or Parties among the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient It is very well known what the meaning of Incendiaries and Malignants is in this Article And it is shrewdly to be suspected That those who are perswaded of the Obligation of this Oath are likewise perswaded that those Incendiaries and Malignants have not as yet been brought to condign punishment and whatever benefit the Covenanters themselves may receive by an Act of Oblivion it is much to be suspected that those who are covenanted against are looked upon as not capable of receiving any advantage by it And there is reason to believe that those who scruple the Validity of that Act of Parliament which declares against the Obligation of the Covenant are by no means to be trusted lest if opportunity should serve they would not likewise scruple the Validity of that Act of Parliament which gave them Indempnity For thus according to their own Grounds they may argue The Act of Oblivion is against the Covenant and then it followeth in the next place that it is against their Consciences It is against the Oath of God lying upon themselves and upon the whole Nation and upon all Posterity and no humane Act or Power can absolve them or any one else from it and every thing done against the Covenant is null and void the whole Nation being bound up by it to all Ages For therefore it was That the Covenant was hung up in the Parliament as a Compass whereby to steer their Debates and to dictate to all who shall succeed in that place and capacity what obligation doth before God lie upon the Body of this Nation as I have before observed Now upon these mens suppositions there is no Security to be had but that they who passed an Act of Oblivion to pardon any thing done against the Covenant are involved in guilt and liable to punishment for so doing and are upon those very accounts to expect when Providence shall put an opportunity into
the hands of these Zealots the very same Return which the Prophet made to Ahab 1 King 20. v. 42. Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast let go a Man whom I have appointed to destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people The next thing which I shall observe in this Article is this That those Persons who covenanted together among other things to maintain the Liberties of the Kingdom have so far forgot themselves as that in that very Covenant they have set up an Arbitrary Government The Rule of condign punishment here set down is not any known Law no not so much as a new one of their own making but as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient By which words it is plain that they did not look upon it as sufficient to take an arbitary Power into their own hands but likewise did delegate it to as many else besides as they pleased ART 5. Whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between the Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of God granted to us and hath lately been concluded and settled by both Parliaments we shall each one of us according to our Place and Interest endeavour that they may be conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to All Posterity and that Iustice may be done upon all wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article According to the preceding Article i. e. as shall be judged convenient The Modesty of these men is very admirable in that they would out-face the World that England and Scotland were never at peace in former times or rather their Language is something mysterious that the Two Nations were never at Peace till they had involved them in a War But as in the former Article they were as I have shewed tender of the Liberty of the Subject so in this they have been very careful of the Authority of his Majesty in that they have taken upon them to make peace with another Kingdom without him and withal when that very Peace was nothing else besides their joyning Forces against him ART 6. We shall also according to our Place and Calling in this Common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary Part or to give our selves to detestable Indifferency or Neutrality in this Cause which so much concerns the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdom and the Honour of the King But shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Letts and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able of our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented and removed All which we shall do in the sight of God From which Article it it is plainly to be seen That those who do believe themselves to lie under the Obligation of this Covenant are and ought to be looked upon as a Party already formed and combined together against the whole Nation besides having a common Band to unite and tie them fast together And this is such an Union as they look upon as sacred and indissoluble And the Ends in order to which they are thus combined are in their esteem such as that nothing can excuse the least intermission in their pursuance after them besides an absolute Impossibility and even in that case it is lawful for them only to delay so long as to expect a more favourable season For they are according to this Article Never to be wrought over to so much as a detestable Indifferency or Neutrality in this Cause of God but zealously and constantly to continue therein against all opposition all letts and impediments whatsoever And having now laid down the Six Articles of the Covenant I shall only add a few of the last words of the large and solemn Conclusion of it wherein they pray God to bless their proceedings herein with such success as may be an encouragement to other Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association or Covenant to the Glory of God the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquillity of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths It hath been often said in the behalf of the Presbyterians that they did not engage in the late War under a less Authority than that of the Two Houses of Parliament What Authority the Two Houses of Parliament have in raising a War against the King shall be no part of this Enquiry nor whether the Lords and Gentlemen who at that time staid at Westminster were the Two Houses of Parliament Be these two things as they will although it is not unknown what may be said as to both those Cases yet however the Covenant hath informed us of another sort of Authority under which a War may be raised at any time against all the Kings in Europe Because in these words is held forth a publick Invitation to all Subjects whatsoever who do either really groan under or are in any danger of any thing which our folk have pleased to call or themselves shall chance to fancy to be a Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to enter either into this or the like Association or Covenant Now I suppose that it is no easie task to make out that all Kingdoms have Parliaments endued with so large a share of the Soveraignty as that they have Authority to take up Arms against their respective Princes And if there were such Parliaments every where this Invitation is only made to the Christian Churches without taking the least notice of Parliaments nay with a full assurance that there were no such Parliaments to be taken notice of So that by this Doctrine the Church alone may enter into association against the State upon the score of Religion especially if it can but cry out Antichrist may engage the Subjects of all Europe against their Soveraigns be they Princes or Commomwealths I know very well that those who urge the taking away of the Declaration enjoyned concerning the renouncing of the Covenant have one evasion whereby to avoyd entring into the merits of the Cause and that is this The seeming unreasonableness of that Clause Also I hold that there lieth no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn c. Is it not unjust that one man should be bound to swear to the Obligations of another
Obligation of the Covenant in the first and second year immediately after the Restoration of his Majesty both from Press and Pulpit Parties were made in the City and endeavoured to be made in Parliament for the owning of that Obligation It was with great confidence urged that it was A Publick and National Oath binding all Persons of this Nation whether they did swear it personally or not and all Posterity after us in their particular places and all that shall succeed into the Publick Places and Politick Capacities of this Kingdom to pursue the things covenanted for And this Obligation is for ever to remain and abide and by no Humane Act or Power to be absolved or made void as amongst others Mr. Crofton hath endeavoured to prove at large in his famous Writings on that Subject And to speak the truth if we once admit the Grounds which this Party of Men do go upon what he doth alledge hath great reason in it it being very evident that those Clauses which he doth produce out of the Covenant do suppose all Posterity to be involved in them And this he urgeth not as his own single Opinion but as the Sence of his whole Party and besides the Evidence of the thing he alledgeth The Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ and the Covenant by the London Ministers Dec. 14. 1647. several of which are at this present Preachers to the separated Congregations In which it is plainly declared That it is not in the Power of any person or persons upon Earth to dispence with or absolve us from it Nay the Power of Parliaments which in other cases is allowed to be large enough is in this bound up as Mr. Cr. tells us p. 139. That the Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons and that in their Publick Capacity as a Parliament the House of Commons assembled in their House and in formality of the Body of the Nation with their Speaker before them went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster with the greatest Solemnity imaginable did as the Representative Body of the Kingdom swear this Covenant which as a farther Testimony that it was a National Covenant they caused to be printed with their Names subscribed and to be hanged up in all Churches and in their own House as a Compass whereby in conformity to right Reason and Religion to steer their then Debates and to dictate TO ALL THAT SHOVLD SVCCEED IN THAT PLACE AND CAPACITY what obligation did before God ly upon the Body of this Nation Those who plead for the removal of the Renunciation of the Covenant either they do believe that the Covenant doth oblige at this time or that it doth not oblige if they do believe that it doth not oblige why may they not declare that they do believe it not to do so One Reason may indeed be given why the Preachers themselves may believe the Covenant not to oblige and yet that they should by all means avoid the declaring that they do thus believe and that is this that they would have the People believe it to have an Obligation although themselves believe it to have none A Perswasion this which in some juncture of Affairs or other they may chance to make very great use of and that this may not be altogether incredible their Procedure hath not been one jot honester than this amounts to in another part of the Controversie between us It is well known that there are among them and not among the meanest of them who have believed the Liturgy and Ceremonies to be very Innocent and yet could be never brought to say one word to the People of this their belief But on the other side now if they are really perswaded that the Covenant doth carry a lasting Obligation along with it In that Case I shall not during that Perswasion of theirs desire them to renounce it but withall I must crave their leave to add this further that during that Perswasion of theirs I think it but reasonable that the Government should cast a very watchful eye over them And of this I shall give an account from the Covenant it self wherein there are so many things and of such fatal and universal consequence covenanted for that the whole Nation is highly concerned that no considerable Part of it should look upon themselves and every Body else as lying under the Obligation of the Oath of God to watch all opportunities wherein they may accomplish such great and publick mischiefs as will appear by a particular Consideration of the Thing it self ARTICLE 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and Callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Vniformity in Religion in Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and that the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us In which Article it is easie to observe many things lyable to very just and material Exceptions as first By what Authority can any private man in England if he keeps himself within his own Place and Calling intermeddle either in the Preservation or Alteration of the Religion and Government of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland Nay by what Authority can any Person in this Kingdom whatever be he in what Publick Capacity he will His Majesty only excepted or those who act by Commission from Him have any thing to do with the Concerns in that Kingdom And secondly this first Part of the Article may upon very good Grounds be supposed to be inconsistent with the remaining Parts of it For we are sworn to preserve the Doctrine Discipline c. of Scotland and withall to bring the three Kingdoms to the nearest Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing So that Scotland must necessarily be our Pattern and yet in the same breath we are sworn to reform England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And it is more than possible that our own Church as it is already by Law established or at least some other Church beyond the Seas may come altogether as near the Word of God as that of Scotland And what is to be done in that Case And in the third place all the other Dissenters whatever besides the Presbyterians are highly concerned to see that the Covenant is not looked upon as a thing of any obligation because that that is express for Uniformity and as such is
which have no manner of relation to Liberty of Conscience and which would have the same effect without it as they can possibly have by it As to our selves and our present Case there are but three Things which I can learn pretended by reason of which it is possible to be supposed that the putting the Act against Conventicles in Execution can draw any prejudice upon Trade First that Merchants who are not willing to conform will not come over and settle in England Secondly that the most eminent Traders being Non-conformists they will either forbear Trading to the utter undoing of all such Workmen as Weavers c. who do depend upon them or leave the Kingdom and carry their profitable Trades along with them which will bring a great decay of Trade here and carry away that benefit which England might have received to that whatever Country they shall please to settle in Thirdly That Merchants beyond Sea as Roman Catholicks c. will not be easily perswaded to trust their Estates in the hands of those who are not of their own Religion and they who are being lyable to such Prosecutions as by our Laws they are liable unto will be fearful of having any Estates in their own hands and look upon it as more adviseable to forbear Trading rather than to be liable to so many Difficulties These are the three most considerable Objections which I have hitherto been able to meet with and to each of these I have this to offer by way of return As to the first that this severity will discourage Forraign Merchants from comming over to us It is a mistake to think that the Church of England is such a Bug bear to the rest of the Reformation as that the Religion of that is looked upon as sufficient Cause to hinder any great Numbers of valuable Persons from coming over to dwell in the Nation It is by no means clear that any store of them do at this time desire to transplant hither and if they did it is more than possible that some other of our Civil Constitutions may be greater bars in their way than the Act against Conventicles and particularly the want of a Register And that Person must have more than ordinary Intelligence who can be able to secure us that there are such Numbers of considerable Merchants at this time designing to come over and are diverted only by the News of the Bill against Conventicles going to be put into Execution as that the advantage and addition of those Persons and that Trade to the Nation should be 〈◊〉 great as to overbalance those many and unavoidable Inconveniencies which I have already shewed that Religion and Government must be exposed to by the grant of Liberty of Conscience It doth not remain in our Memories that in Cromwel's time when there was Liberty given to all except Papists and Prelatists that any were by that Liberty encouraged to come over at least not any such number as to be considerable But suppose it should so happen that some Eminent Merchants should design to come over I could never yet hear nor am I wise enough to think upon any reason why the Act against Conventicles should more fright them from England than the Inquisition doth from other Countries as Spain Italy and Portugal and yet in those Countries Merchants have their Factories and drive their greatest Trade Besides strangers Merchants have as much encouragement in this particular as can reasonably be desired the French have their Church the Dutch theirs nay even the Iews have theirs and all Aliens of 〈◊〉 Reformation have even by the very Act of Uniformity an express provision made for them as to the enjoyment of their own way of Worship at the pleasure of His Majesty and if they do meet and keep to their own Language they need fear no more in this Country than in any other As to the second Thing alledged that if the Act against Conventicles be put in Execution the most Eminent Traders being Non-Conformists they will leave off Trading and by that means undo all sorts of Workmen who do depend upon them and not only so but leave the Nation and carry their Trades away along with them Now that this is a thing of more Noise than Weight will appear if we examine it with a little Care That some eminent Merchants are Non-conformists is undoubtedly True but that the most eminent are so I am sure is not true and could easily make it appear if it were fit to mention the Names of particular Persons But so far as it is true doth any man in his wits imagine that the Act against Conventicles will make them either quit their profitable Trades or fright them out of the Kingdom It doth neither condemn them to be hanged nor burned neither doth it so much as touch their Persons or Estates for being Non-conformists but permits them to be of what Religion they please and alloweth them the free exercise of their Religion in their Families It cannot therefore be easily imagined that People will be so far out of their wits though I must confess that Fanaticism will go a great way toward putting them out of them as to leave their settled and profitable Trades their Native Country Relations and Friends only because they cannot publickly shew the exercise of their Mode of Worship whereas they may freely enjoy it in their own Families and be known to do so without the least interruption in any of the forementioned Conveniencies Especially considering that Merchants of that Eminency that their Case deserves to be taken notice of in a case of this Publick concern now under debate are very well able to keep Ministers in thier own Houses and may do it with far less charge and prejudice than either going into some other Countrey or the forbearance of their Trades will put them to But I shall for once suppose two Things whereof the first is evidently not true the second not at all likely That the most Eminent Merchants are Non-Conformists and that upon that account they will forbear Trading But even upon these Terms it is to be hoped that those they deal with will not be utterly undone whatever may be pretended For put the Case that three or four of the most Eminent Merchants should dy or which I wish did never happen break every dayes experience shews us that the Clothiers they deal with and consequently the Weavers and other Workmen depending upon them are not presently ruined or so much as out of employment but do immediately find other Merchants to deal with the Trades of those who either give over Trading or dy being alwayes continued by their Sons or Partners or shared amongst those who have been their Servants or other Merchants who deal in the same Commodity and to the same Places But suppose that the putting the Laws in Execution should so far distract any Numbers as to make them run out of the Kingdom Let it be considered
whither they will run only into Holland where they cannot more freely enjoy the exercise of their Religion in their own Families nor converse more freely with one another about it than they may do here in England All the difference is that here they cannot meet in great Numbers and I leave it even to the Non-Conformists themselves to Judge whether that one Conveniency of Meeting in great Numbers be a sufficient enticement to any rational man to exchange England for Holland But put the Case that they do go into Holland or into some other Country I did never yet meet with any man who could demonstrate to me how they could carry away their Trade of Merchandizing though they were never so willing live in Holland they may and drive their usual Trades here in England by their Correspondents in which Case the Nation will only loose the common profit of their eating drinking and wearing But to carry away the Trade of the Nation with them is not possible if they leave any Merchants behind as I am sure they will many more and more considerable than any who will go away and by withdrawing themselves into other Countries they will but leave their Trades to be shared amongst better men and better Subjects so that by leaving the Kingdom instead of prejudicing they would occasion a very great blessing unto it by carrying away with them the Divisions but not at all the Trade of the Nation When the Act against Conventicles was first made this Argument against it from Trade was much insisted on and I remember a Story was raised about some great Dealers in the West who had with-drawn their stock left off all business by which means vast Numbers of poor People who did depend on them were utterly undone This Matter seemed so considerable as that several of the most Eminent Persons in the Nation did meet together to consult about a remedy for so great and as it was said so growing an evil But when this Matter came to be enquired into I could never learn that it had any thing more than a great deal of noise in it There is an eminent City in this Nation inferiour perhaps to none except London wherein this Artifice was made use of to fright the Magistrates from suppressing the Conventicles A great rumour was spread up and down that if they might not have Liberty to meet as formerly then they would all with-draw their Stocks which would be a great detriment to His Majesty and a vast loss to the City and leave the Poor to be provided for by their respective Parishes But the Raisers of all this Clamour did quickly find that they had to do with those who were at least as great Masters of Trade as themselves and accordingly it was undertaken by those who were very well able to make it good that if the Dissenters did think fit to withdraw their Stocks there should immediate care be taken that the Trade of the City should be carried on to the very same height which it was at without the least abatement or leaving any one Work-man out of as good an Employment as he had before It was so far from being feared that it was desired that they would withdraw their Stocks and that they may be the better encouraged to the so doing provided that they would give Security that they will not Trade at all neither by themselves or others for them nor in other mens Names they shall at any time have a good sum of money given them if that may move them to it Let us not be vainly afraid where no fear is Do we know the Non-Conformists no better than so that we should suspect them of being apt to give over their profitable Trades It had been a more rational Jealousie to have looked upon them as more intent upon any imaginable way of getting of Money than on any Settlement of Religion of what sort soever And perhaps it would be not only no ill Experiment to destroy this Argument but withall as likely a way to reduce them as any which can be thought upon if there were a Law That those who refuse to conform or at least who meet at Conventicles should not be permitted to Trade Such a Law indeed would be terrible to them and I hope the bare mention of it will make them forbear to use this kind of threatning us with that which to themselves alone will be if at all dreadful As to the third Objection That Merchants beyond Seas as Roman Catholicks c. will be afraid to trust their Estates in the hands of those who are not of their own Religion c. It is of so little weight as to require but a very few words it being evident that all kinds of Merchants at this day do correspond and alwayes have corresponded with others not of their own Religion Papists with Protestants Protestants with Papists c. What other Pretences there are in this Case wherein Trade may seem concerned I do not at present call to mind and therefore shall go on to the next suggestion why a Toleration of several wayes of Religion may not do as well here as it doth amongst our Neighbours in France and Holland As to France the different Professions of Religion there hath not been without many sad effects upon both Parties and hath so sanctified the Animosities on each side that it hath prevailed upon both out of Zeal to God to let Aliens and Enemies into the Bowels of their Native Country But their Case and ours is vastly different the Hugonots who are there tolerated have those Merits to plead which our Non Conformists have not and besides they do not divide into several Communions among themselves neither would any such thing be permitted either by the Government or by the Reformed Church it self As to Holland Liberty of Conscience is a thing which they were not brought to admit of by second Thoughts and after mature Deliberation but were necessitated upon by the Nature of that Cause upon which they first united among themselves and the Constitution of that Government they fell into One part of their Cause was a Deliverance from the Impositions of the Church of Rome as exercised after the imperious manner of the Spanish Government Now Liberty in matters of Conscience was the most natural Word in the World in this Case to be made use of Freedom from the present Pressures was the thing immediately in their Eye and many of their Neighbours at the same time had the same Aim And as they were then only agreed what they would not have but not at all what they would have they invited all that all might come to their Assistance But besides this one Religion was not easie to be brought into so many several Independent Governments as go to the making up of those States For as Sr. William Temple tells us Chap. 2. of their Government p. 75. They are not a Common-wealth but a Confederacy of