THE vehemency and importunity of your Call for an Account to the World of the Reasons of my Judgment and Practise , have sufficiently made me willing of the Work ; and put me upon craving your assistance in it , and to answer me these few Questions . 1. Whether you know of any one that will License it , if I should write it ? or can procure me so great a favour , and who it is ? 2. Or whether you think it lawful to print it unlicensed , contrary to the Law of the Land ? 3. Whether you think it lawful by my Reasons , which you call for , to write that which the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid , under the Name of depraving the Liturgy , and appugning the Church-Government ? 4. Whether you know how I may be kept out of Goale when I have done : ( I hear you are now Minister of the Place , whence a Letter was sent , which occasioned my last imprisonment , where I am virtually still , being adjudged to go to New-gate , when I am apprehended ? ) 5. Or if a Prison , and ( in probability ) thereby Death , be that you desire , whether you think it lawful to suffer so much and die , to satisfie your desire , and do that Work ? 6. Whether you know of any Printer and Bookseller , who would Print and Publish such a Book , and who they are ? The Savoy Papers which you talk of , were written by the Warrant of the Kings Commission , and published ( some of them ; for others were never published ) by poor Scriveners that had the Copies , to get Money , ( without my knowledge , and to our injury , in a Time when the Act against Printing was not made . ) 7. Whether you think if I should write such a Book , that the Diocesane Party would not be much more offended and angry , than if I had said nothing ? 8. Whether I should be called so earnestly to do that which will give so great offence against the New Conformity , when that which you mention , which was done by Commission against the Old Conformity , could never have an Answer ? And is it not as easie with you to contemn another in stead of answering it , as that ? I crave your Answer , especially to the first Questions , because your Importunity would force me into a hope , that at last I have met with the Man ( though unknown ) that will procure me the liberty of writing and publishing an Account of my Non-conformity : For Charity forbiddeth me , till constrained , to charge you with such vile Inhumanity and Impudency , as publickly to call to a Man for that which you take both for Sin and Impossibility , and to reproach him for not printing , when you know the Press is shut up from him ; and know , that it were like to be his death , or ruine ; especially when you appeal in defense of the Reasonableness and Equity of your Demand , and when you are a Preacher of the Gospel , and as much wiser and better than the Non-conformists , as your Book importeth . Craving your Answer , I rest , your greatly obliged Servant , if you procure what you seem to promise me ,

I Receiv'd yours this Afternoon , directed to the Author of the Perswasive . I will not tell you , that shooting at Rovers , you have miss'd the Mark. Though I glory not in such kind of Tactica , but prefer any plain Sermon I preach before them . The main design of of that Essay , ( I hope ) was not only innocent , but commendable : To c ham down fiery Spirits ; not to raise them : And to call in your Charitable Assistance ; not to provoke you . Therefore after such candid dealing , ( especially with your self ) I am not a little surpriz'd with these rough Passages , as — Desiring your Imprisonment , — your Death , — vile Inhumanity , and Impudency , — Reproaching yo● — Accounting my self wiser , and better than the Non-conformists ; besides that Sacrasme , — now you have met with a Man , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ! I hope there is not so much Gall and Acrimony in that whole Book you stumble at . Sir , I beseech you , set a stricter Watch over your Spirit , that you offend not in your Tongue : Let not your Saul-like Parts elevate you so high , as to overlook others . I will assure you , I have no malignant thoughts towards your own Person , or any that are of your Judgment : Those that know me , will be my Compurgators .

I had , and still have a deeper sense of the gasping condition of our bleeding Church — The struglings of her own Children within her Womb , I well knew , procur'd these Throws . If therefore , according to the sentiment of my Judgment ; which I neither receiv'd from extraction , or education , but from deliberate and impartial study ; I ventur'd on an Expedient to reconcile them , and antidote her utter Deliquium ; I had thought I might have escaped the Gauntlet , and only have been pointed at by this Spit , — Magnis tamen excidit Ausis . If I could discover by the narrowest scrutiny , that I was acted with any other Principles , than the Fear of God , and Honour of the King , I would both abhor my self , and abandon my Enterprize ▪ But till then , — Dii coeptis aspirate meis ! I little look'd for this Complaint from you : for when Fame lately spread a Report , Kidderminster . that you would return to your old Province , in these Parts , I did heartily rejoyce ; not only in respect of the publick good , but that I should be happy in such a Neighbour : from whose Torch I might borrow Light , to illuminate those dark and opacous Parts which are in my self .

Before I come to an Answer to your Queries , I must premise my hearty thanks , in that you have gratified me in one of my Requests , by the Retractation of your political Aphorisms . The other , which you stick at , is as modest and as rational . As hereafter we must give an Account , to him that is ready to judge the Quick and the Dead : So what absurdity was it , to desire the Reasons of your Judgment ? since you are pleased to walk Antipodes to us . That you , who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . might extricate us out of the Labyrinth of our Errors ; if you can make them appear so . That so we may come over to you , and walk on the safest part of the Globe .

The Occasion moving me to that boldness , was a startling Assertion from a Friend of yours , Mr. Baxter affirm'd afterwards , that Conformity is an avow'd and deliberate sin . — That Conformity is in it self simply and absolutely sinful . And was it not time to call in Aid ? Let this appear , and then farewell Tythes . How shall I do such wickedness , and sin against God ? I do not find you so peremptory ; but rather to favour sober , painful , and conscionable Conformists : In which Classis I desire to be found .

I had thought some Principles of yours , Healing Church Divisions . formerly laid down , had inclin'd you to us : Not to mention your Approbation of Dr. Brians 6th Sermon ; and your late Book , wherein you affirm many Catholick Truths . Though ( if I rearch your meaning ) — All things are not therein calculated to the pleasing of the Diocesan Party , as you call them . And the deluded Proselytes in these Parts , are as much exasperated with you , on the other hand , for your deserting them : And as they apprehend , too much compliance . I am asham'd to stain my Paper with what they do eruct are in their Frenzy-sits . As double-minded Men are unstable in all their ways : so those are never fix'd , that steer their course according to the Notions of Mans Wisdom . But to your Queries .

I , & 2. Q. Whether I hnow any that will License such a Book , ( as contains the Reasons of Non-conformity . ) And whether it be lawful to print such a Book ?

A. These Queries are captious , and fallacious : Implying , that all Books de sacto are licens'd . The contrary whereof , is by daily experience evinc'd , in Books of the like Argument , and against the Royal Society it self . Nay , some of your own Books are not licens'd . And does your Conscience cheek you at this Instant only ? These Pangs will not be permanent . Were I Chaplain to his Grace of Canterbury , or the Bishop of London , I could give you a more direct Answer to the former ; and as for the latter , you are your own Casuist .

3. Q. Whether it be lawful to write against the Laws of the Land ?

A. I am glad you are now so tender . Ab initio non fuit sic . Far be it from me , to advise you to be disobedient to the Laws . Better my desire should be frustrated , than you should commit the least sin . But see that your Obedience be aequabilis , commensurate to one Law , as well as another , and to the same Law at all times . There is a Relaxation ( you well know ) of the Law sometimes . And who knows , but Authority ( if desir'd ) may dispense with the Letter of the Law in such a Case ? If you had been always so cautious , there had been no need to have complain'd in your next Query of your Imprisonment . But upon what Basis you should ground a Promise of security from me , I am utterly ignorant .

Q. 4 , 5. How you shall be kept out of Goal ? Whether I desire your Death ?

A. May not this be done , with so much moderation and sobriety , that you need not incur the guilt , or penalty of Treason ?

WHen I had wrote an Answer to so much of your Book as concerned my self , I cast it by , perceiving that it contained a just detection and denomination of such things , as none of my Reproachers hitherto have had patience to endure to be told of , who had not the patience or sobriety to forbear committing them . For your Book confirm'd me in the Opinion which late experience of the World had brought me to , that it is one of Satans impudent designs , to make sin pass uncontroll'd in the World , and to render all that oppose it more criminal than them that commit it , to tempt Men to sin in such kinds and degrees , as that he shall seem an uncivil Railer that presumeth to charge them with it . I purposed therefore to leave you in the Fruition of your self-pleasing-crimes , lest the naming of them should transfer the imputed Guilt from you to me . Therefore I only tryed you with a few gentle Questions , in order to the fuller understanding of your sense . I answer to which , and in this second also , you express so great tenderness , and count your softest signification of a dislike , to be Censures so harsh and passionate , as if you were injured , if your Crimes were not applauded : And withall take it ill , to be supposed impatient of hearing the Truth , and call for my Proofs in the very Lines which vehemently express your impatience . Your two Letters so abound with words , which serve only to tell me your conceits and confidence , and what you would have us do , to be pleasing to you , and so much pass over all that it concern'd you in Reason and Justice to have spoke to , that it is with reluctancy that I trouble you with any Return . For what benefit can be expected by it ? You importune me to break the Kings Laws by printing without Licence ; and in the same Volume represent us as hainous breakers of his Law , for — you know what . You can suppose me , without any proof , to have formerly printed without License ; and when you thought I had sin'd once , importune me to do it again : You can intimate to the World how unreasonably I deal , if I write not and publish not that which you judge it a sin to publish , as being forbidden , and so cunningly bring me under one of the imputations unavoidably , either of sinning by my unreasonable silence , or by breaking many Laws . You lay this Charge on me , before the World in print , and so importune me to that Act , which the Law of the Land will heavily punish ; and yet wipe your mouth , and take it ill to be noted , as one that would draw me into suffering . And yet you want not words , when you can give no reasonable Answer concerning any of this . You cannot pretend , that such Laws , if I break them , will not be excuted , when I lie almost these two years under penalty ( adjudged to Newgate it self for six Months , by Sentence and Warrant ) for a far smaller breach of the Law ( which my best understanding perswadeth me is none at all . ) You think the silencing of about 1800 Ministers , while many hundred thousand Souls are perishing through ignorance and ungodliness , to be a Load not heavy enouh to the People and them , ( to say nothing of the great indigence of many of their Families ) unless it be increased by your wordy bitter Oratorical Reproach ; when we would take it for rare clemency , if we might but have leave to preach Christs Gospel without a farthing of their maintenance , ( yea , and to be confined to preach only on the Catechism Points , to some of the poorest ignorant Congregations , such as many in Wales , &c. as I offered , when I was silenced first ; yea , and under sharp Penalties , if ever we speak against Bishops , Liturgy , or Ceremonies ; ) yet after nine years silencing we must be scorned by you , as such as abjure their Calling , and make themselves Milites emeritos : When you know that God will not be served by deliberate avowed sin ; and that he that so entereth on , and exerciseth his Ministry , ( and will sin by Covenant , that he may preach against sin ) can scarce expect a Blessing , if a Pardon : And when you cannot but know , ( for you dwell in England , and write against the Non-conformists ) that the sins which the Non-conformists fear they should be guilty of , if they conformed , ( not accusing any others ) are so inhumane and hainous , that we dare scarce name them , lest you startle , and think we charge them upon you , ( whom we leave to your own Master . ) Yet do you make a hainous matter of it , that we thus by fearing sin our selves , do seem to think , that Conformity is any sin at all , and say we weaken your Hands , prejudice your Ministry , and make the People cold in joyning with you : What then should we do , if we published the Reasons of our Non-conformity , and opened all that sin which we fear , which yet you so vehemently call for ? Yea you say , [ Who would unmuzzle a fierce Panther , that would worry him that set his Chops at liberty ] even then , when I ask you but to get me a License for that which you so openly call for : which is all one as to say , [ Do it if thou dare : and if thou do it not , thou abjurest thy Calling , and refusest to give the World a reason of it : ] You can tell the World , that in my Book of Rest I seem to go their way , that hold , ( That they may fight against the King , if it were for the cause of Religion to purge the Church of Idolatry and Superstition , and cite P. 123. ( in which Edition of 12 , I know not , ) when I never wrote so never thought so ; but have proved the contrary at large in several Writings ! Yet this is done deliberately in print . You fetch your Charge from the old Editions of that Book , eleven years after I had retracted , and expung'd , and left out of that same Book , not only that which you pervert , but all the rest from end to end , which seemed in the least to favour the late Wars . Either you knew this , or you did not . If you did , was that done like a peaceable Minister , to aggravate with such gross and odious untruth things retracted , and utterly expunged , even long before the Act of Oblivion ; and that so as directly tendeth to the temporal ruine of him you charge them on ? If you knew it not , did it beseem you to meddle in Print , where you know no better what you do oppose ? What good will Austins Retractations do him , if he shall ten or eleven years after be freshly charged with all that he retracted , and much more ? ( yea , I gave Mr. Hampden Pie one of the Books of One of the latter Editions so altered , but a little before he came to your House ( to his utter undoing . ) If you did not see it , you might have done , before you had written against it . Yea , ( as not regarding your self-contradiction ) at the same time you call me to retract my Political Aphorisms , and tell me how excellent a Work it would be , when I had done it before , and had so long before retracted what you aggravate : Though the one was done so lately , that you could scarce know of it , the other that was done eleven years before might have been known : And if so long time excuse not the Book , or Author yet , from your bloody Charge , why do you desire him to retract another ? What good will retracting it do , if you will nevertheless so many years after make such use of it , ( from what Principles , and to what Ends I leave to you ? ) The Aphorisms , which you would have retracted , you say , [ are those especially which are gathered by an Eminent Hand : ] Who can think but here you condemn all those which that Eminent hand hath gathered ? And the first of all is [ Governours are some limited , some de facto unlimited : The unlimited are Tyrants , and have no right to that unlimited Government . ] The next words are , [ For they are all Subjects themselves , and under the Sovereignty and Laws of God . ] Because it is your highest Preferments , as you say , to preach the Gospel , I beseech you give me some such light here as is necessary to a Retractation . If any Governours are not limited by God , tell me whether it be any sin in them , if they make Laws , commanding Men to deny God , and blaspheme him , to worship themselves as Gods , as Caligula did , to worship Mahomet or Idols , to kill all the Innocent People of the Land ? ( I talk not of the absolute Power of all Mens Estates and Lives . ) Nay , whether there be any thing imaginable which they may not command ? or whether it be possible for that Man at all to sin , that is not limited by God ? And tell me if this be the Doctrine which you count it your chief preferment to preach ? And whether you can think that any wise Governours in the World will take those for friendly Promoters of their Interest , who would so calumniate them , as to make their Subjects believe , that they lay any such claim ? You can gather , that I approve of Mens terms of Ministration , because I joyn with the Church which they teach . As if no more were required of a Curate , than of a Communicant . And as if the same Reasons which warrant my Worship as a private Man , would warrant all my Subscriptions , Declarations , Oaths , and all the rest of Ministerial Conformity . You can blame me for not Actively submitting to the Laws , when you can name no Law which commandeth me what you mean . You can Magisterially say [ Not that loose paralitick Discourse given to the Kings Commissioners at the Savoy , written rather Rhetorically , ad Captandum Populum , to insinuate into vulgar Capacities , than Logically to evince the Hypothesis contended for , strip'd of its multifarious Fallacies , ungrounded Surmises , and erroneous Suppositions , &c. ] 1. As if you knew what was given in at the Savoy , when a considerable part of the Papers were never published : Yea I have reason enough to believe , that no Man living can give an account of them to you but my self ; because no Copies were taken , and some Papers only read . 2. There are many Papers printed which were given in upon that occasion ; and who knows by this Character which of them it is that is called the Loose paralitick Discourse ? 3. You talk of a Hypothesis contended for , as if you had a mind to be thought to say somewhat , though you understand not about what : For no Hypothesis is named by you , and no wonder . If you mean the first , second or third Paper given in at the beginning of the Business to the Lord Chancellor , the Hypothesis was , that union is desirable ; the means whereto we offered as we were commanded . If you mean our exceptions against the Liturgy , the Hypothesis was , that the Liturgy was corrigible , and to be altered in some things . And do you oppose that Hypothesis which the King had expresly put into the words of his Commission , so far as to appoint Men to alter it ? and which the Convocation by their actual alterations owned ? If you mean our Reply to the Answer of the Exceptions , the Hypothesis general is the same . And what made all those Learned Persons who wanted neither Time nor Will , forbear ever to give an Answer to that Reply , if it were so loose and contemptible as you make it ? Was it because contempt was fitter than a Confutation ? that could not be ; because smaller matters not written by Men commissioned by the King for such a Treaty , nor offered by their own importunity , have found some of them at leisure for a more particular Consideration . If it be our Liturgy offered them that you mean , the Hypothesis there is , That those forms there offered were fit to be taken into consideration , as the Addenda mentioned in the Commission . If this be false , what can you imagine to be the reason that we could by no importunity ever procure any by word or writing to open to us the faults of that Liturgy ; and that L'Estrange himself had no more to say against it ? Though being drawn up in eight days only , we desired we might have had leisure to have made it more perfect , ( which might easily be done . ) If it be the Petition for Peace that you mean , the Hypothesis was , That our Concord was so desirable , as that they should make the abatements there mentioned to attain it ; but especially , rather than silence so many Ministers , and choose the other ill Consequents that would follow . If this be , it you mean , and you are ambitious of acquainting your Rulers , that you will stand at Gods Judgment as an approver of — all that — enjoy the pleasure and fruit of your desire . If the silence of so many hundred Ministers , and the Consequents to so many thousand ignorant Souls , be a Blessing to be rejoyced in , put not your Sickle into other Mens Harvest , but let the Labourer , who is worthy , have the hire . If it be otherwise , what need any Man say , Their — be on us , and on our Children ? 4. And when you talk of Vulgar Capacities , do you not reproach the Reverend Bishops as Vulgar Capacities , in print ? To whom were they given , but to them ? And I never heard of any that they shewed them to . If you say , That they were printed afterward , I answer , 1. Some were , and some were not . 2. How could we then foretel that , when we gave them in ? 3. They were done , as far as I can learn , by a poor reading Curate , that gave the Printer Copies through meer poverty to get a little Money , without our knowledge . For he was th● Scribe that we were forced to use for Copies , and I hear he kept some for himself . 4. I sent to the Kings Secretary , Sir IV. Morrice , when I heard they were in the Press , to desire him to search the Press , and apprehend them . 5. The printing of them by offending our Antagonists , and by the intollerable falseness of the impression , was a very great injury to us . Moreover you dare publish to the world , [ Had Men kept close to the Church of England , they needed not have stumbled at swearing , That it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King . I must tell the whole Chorus of my dissenting Brethren , that this very Fly is enough to spoil the Box of pretended Oyntment : who can choose but nauseate that way of Discipline , which startles at renouncing War against the King ? ] Do you think you were able to bear it patiently , if I should tell you how much of the Diabolical Spirit is in these Lines , and how unfit such a Spirit is for the Sacred Ministry ? 1. You know that it is a time in which our Rulers are justly exasperated for the horrid Murder of the King , and for the Treasons and Rebellions that have been committed : And you know , that no design could more gratifie the Prince of Darkness , than to bring the Odium of all this upon the Ministry , or upon any part of the Ministry whose labours are needful to the Church . 2. I suppose you know , that it is not one of a Multitude of the Non-conformable Ministers that ever took up Arms against the King . I suppose in all Worcester-shire there is not now two , for I remember not one , ( though there are some Conformists that were in Arms against him . ) 3. I suppose you cannot be ignorant ( because you dwell in England ) that they were Episcopal Parliaments that were long quarreling with the King , and that still cried out of the danger of Popery , Arminianism , Monopolies , &c. of which Rushworths Collections sufficiently inform you : And that Dr. Heylin , in the Life of Arch bishop Laud , hath fully acquainted the World , that it was one Party of Episcopal Men , ( of whom he would make Arch-bishop Abbot the head ) that contended against the other , and put in the difference about the Subjects Propriety into the Quarrel ; and that besides , Neile , Laud , Buckridge , Howson , Corbet , and Mountague , the Bishops went all the other way : So that by Andrew's advice it was thought unsafe to let a Convocation meddle in their Cause . 4. I suppose you cannot easily be ignorant , that the War in England against the King was begun by an Episcopal Parliament ; where ( as some of the Members aver to me ) there was but one known Presbyterian in both Houses , and there or four Independants , and two or three Sectaries , and about four hundred Episcopal Men and Erastians : And also by an Episcopal Army , for such was the Earl of Essex , and almost all his Chief Officers ; and by almost all Episcopal Lord-Lieutenants , who were first put into possession of the Militia against the Kings Commissioners of Array : In so much that even the Propositions sent to the King at Nottingham were but for the Regulation of Episcopacy , and not the Extirpation : And among all the Westminster Assembly there were not called ten Non-conformists ( nor I think eight . ) Nor indeed was Presbytery then well known in England , till the notice of it came in long after with the Scots and Covenant . So that it is past doubt with any but the desperately impudent , that it was Episcopal Men in England on both sides that raised War against each other ; though one Party of them afterward fell in with the Presbyterians of Scotland , and the Sectaries , for fear of wanting help , and of being overthrown . 5. You cannot but know that it is not the whole Chorus of your dissenting Brethren , that scrupled swearing , that it is not lawful to take up Arms against the King . That twenty in London took the whole Oxford Oath at once , and more after : That the chief Nonconformable Ministers took it in Northamptonshire , Somerset-shire , Devon-shire , and some other Places : That many Non-conformists were against the War ; as Mr. Geery , Mr. Capel , and almost all the Gloucester-shire Ministers , and many others . Poor Mr. Martin of Weedon , lately in Goal near you for preaching in private , lost an Arm in the Kings Service in his Oxford Army ; when the only Arch-bishop left in England ( Williams ) was a General in Wales in the Parliaments Army . 6. You have not given the World any Proof of any Presbyterian Minister in England , ( much less the whole Chorus ) that ever scrupled swearing what you mention . I should know their minds as well as you , and I know not one , that I remember , that is not ready to swear , that [ It is not lawful to take up Arms against the King . ] I say again , I know not one . And shall a Levite stand up and intimate , ( though it be not so spoken out ) To the King , and to Papists , and to Posterity , that it is the whole Chorus of Dissenters about Discipline ? Put out your other Clauses , and let us have no more Oaths of Allegiance or Fidelity to Diocesanes or Lay-Chancellors put upon us , than were imposed on Christs Churches for 600 or 800 years , and then try who will refuse to swear a Renunciation of War against the King . 7. But I admire how you came to such an obdurateness , as to talk of nauseating [ that way of Discipline , which startles at renouncing War against the King . ] Is it Episcopal Discipline that you mean ? If not , what way of Discipline is it that startles at it , unless you mean Military Discipline ? Read over the Confessions of the French , Belgick , and all other Presbyterian Churches , and see whether there be any thing in their Discipline that startles at it . What if it had been the Presbyterians , and not the Episcopal , that in England raised the War ? Doth it follow that their way of Discipline was for it : Name us that Form of Discipline , and tell us where to find it , which you mean that is guilty of what you charge on it . Doth he that saith [ Every Church should have a Bishop , and not only a thousand or 600 in a Diocess ] hereby say [ we may not renounce War against the King ? ] Do not so wrong God as to think him so unjust , as always to suffer such as you thus to abuse the Innocent . 8. And you that talk so malepertly of the Savoy Papers , it 's like know , that it was not Presbytery , nor any other than Arch-Bishop Usher's Form of Episcopacy in terminis , in his own printed Paper , which we offered the King and Bishops as the Medium of our Concord in 1660. And when that would not be received , see in the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs , whether it was not the down-right Prelacy that was submitted to , with only the additions of some Pastoral Power in a Rural Deanery : And I never heard Presbytery pleaded for by Word , or saw it by Writing in all that Treaty , but only Vshers Episcopacy . Why then do you talk of the Discipline of the Chorus , unless you mean the Episcopal Discipline . And do you not know , ( that write about the Cause ) that the War was not founded in Theological Differences , but in Law Differences ? and that it was Statesmen and Lawyers that made the difference by their Political and Law-Controversies ? Not but that Divines on both sides were too guilty , if not the forwardest . But my dull Brains could never find out any one Point of difference in Theology , about the Power of Kings , and the Duty of Obedience in the People between the Divines called Presbyterians and Episcopal : If you know any , name them me , and tell me your Proof ; I know that they medled too much with the Political and Law-Controversies of Lawyers and States-men , ( for there lay the difference ) as I did my self in my Pol. Aphor. of which I unfeignedly repent , ( though I thought then , that Oceana forced me to do it . ) 10. It 's not probable , that so Learned a Man is ignorant what Bishop Jewel , Bishop Bilson , Bishop Andrews in Tortura Torti , and many more such have said , to prove , that Calvin , and the Presbyterians , and the English Puritans , differ not in these things from the Theology of the Church of England , taking the same Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance , &c. And how come you to be wiser than they , and to prove the Discipline Interest in the disagreement ? And when you have taught the Papists to say that Andrews , &c. spake falsly , how will you prove it ? I know that there were many Sectaries , and some individual Persons of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Judgment , that erred in Law and Politicks , and perhaps in Theologicals too . But what 's that to a difference between the Parties in their Religious Principles ? 11. For can you be ignorant that it is the grand Champions for Prelacy that have written for the Principles of the Long Parliament , by which they pleaded for their War ? Do you not know , ( to pass by Bishop Jewel ) what Bishop Bilson of Subjection hath said , and what Rich. Hooker in his Eccles. Pol. L. 1. & . 8. hath said higher than those Parliament Soldiers that I was most acquainted with ? I have now written a Book , ( Licensed ) which containeth a Defence of Monarchy against R. Hookers Popular Errors . Why then do you not call the Episcopal Party to repentance ? or why do you insinuate such suspitions into Mens Minds , that the Discipline is it that startles at renouncing War against the King ? You know , I suppose , what Grotius de Jure Belli , also hath said in his Enumeration , ( out of Barclay ) of Cases in which it is lawful to take Arms against Kings : Even that Grotius who was the Master of the late Game , and boasteth of the approbation of the English Prelates . Was Arch-bishop Abbot a Presbyterian , ( who saith he was suspended for refusing to License Dr. Sybthorpes Book ; see his Narrative in Rushworth ? ) Did he and all the Clergy , and Parliaments , that went his way , forsake the Church of England ? Who then were the Church ? Yet you can add [ P. 125. And since the Lines of our Peace and Happiness , as to Church and State , do meet and concenter in him , as our common Father , is it unreasonable for Subjects to swear they will not endeavour the alteration of Government in the Church and State ? who would think , that any Natives of a Land , professing themselves the Followers of Christ , — and expecting protection from a lawful Prince , should once demur , whether they should make this Declaration , or take this Oath ? ] ( O easie happy Swearer ! ) Qui deliberant desciverunt : Such as doubt of this , have even shak'd off the Yoke of Subjection , ( unhappy Doubters ! ) 1. Here [ They will not endeavour the alteration of Government ] is put in stead of [ will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government . ] [ 2. In Church and State ] is put instead of [ in Church or State . ] 3. Not one Man of my acquaintance of them you question , refuseth to swear , that he will never endeavour any alteration of the Church Government , as it is in the King according to the Oath of Supremacy . 4. They that offered Bishop Vshers Form of Episcopacy , are not for altering Episcopacy as such . 5. The Oath of the Canons 1640. put [ we will not consent ] in stead of endeavour . And a Parliament condemned that Oath ; and no Parliament since thought meet to justifie or restore it . 6. We know that Lay-Chancellors exercise the Power of the Keys , by decreeing Excommunications and Absolutions : And we believe , that exercising the Power of the Keys so , is Church-Government . And we are all agreed , that yet no reforming alteration is to be attempted by Sedition , Rebellion , or unlawful means ; but only by Subjects petitioning , Parliament-mens speaking , &c. And if you think to come to Heaven by swearing , that we may not petition against Lay-Chancellors use of the Keys , cannot you go quietly your own way , and let others alone that trust not to such means ? 7. We believe , that Ignatius his Episcopacy ( every Churches unity being known by one Altar and one Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons ) is as lawful at least as one Bishop only to a thousand or 500 Churches : And I believe , that it is in the Power of the King and Parliament to reduce our Episcopacy to that ancient Form : And if they do it , I will not swear to disobey them , if they command my Service under them : I was once commissioned among others under the Broad Seal to endeavour such an alteration of the Liturgy , &c. And before what was done about Episcopacy , the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs sheweth ; and I will not swear to disobey the King , if he command me the like again ; nor I will not swear universally , and mean particularly , till the Law-givers so expound themselves . 8. I know by what Oaths the Roman Clergy got their Supremacy , and mastered Kings and Emperors . 9. I know that till Roman Tyranny invaded the Church , the Clergy was not put to swear to the Bishops . 10. I love but one King in a Kingdom , nor any thing that is injurious to him ; and I am willing to swear Allegiance to my lawful King , as I have done , and to take his Office as a Constitutive part of the Kingdom .