The PREFACE . Right Worshipful ,

IF ( without suspition of blasphemy and irreverence towards Sacred men and Sacred writ ) I may pursue Dr. John Gauden's Metaphor , I cannot but tell you , mens prophane neglect and contempt of the Covenant did not a little perplex me ; but that Solemn and Sacred Oaths should be deemed St. Peters Bonds ; and that Protestant Divines ( dreaming of an Apostolical Priority ) should by Popish Arguments attempt his Release to the Re-establishment of the Papatum alterius mundi ( as it was , is , and must be owned ) of Episcopacy in Lawn sleeves , exercising Paternal Authority over their brethren , as the peoples * * Dr. John Ganden's Analysis of the Covenant . p. 17. equals and inferiors , because in black coats , did much more afflict my spirit .

Sir , in sence hereof , I did send out my Analepsis after the Doctors Analysis ; and made bold to withstand St. Peter to his face , for he was to be blamed , and indeed condemned ( as * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the word in Gal. 2.11 . doth signifie ) and brought him back to prison ( it must be so esteemed ) with silence hearkning for his joyful songs under Christ his Masters yoke ; and in those holy Stocks : and resolved submissively to wait on God , to perfect the peace and purity of his Church in England , and plead the quarrel of the Covenant ; but the Grating Files of some ( more willing than able to dismiss my prisoner ) have disturbed my rest .

Truly , Sir , I love St. Peter better in Bonds than in the Popes Lordly Chair , and was never yet reputed a Sceptick , and therefore cannot now brook to have my Analepsis out-run , and derided with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a scornful escape from my due and diligent pursuit ; and therefore must once more make bold , under your Worshipfull name , 1 Sam. 18.23 . to send this Ahimaaz after Cushi , though on the same errand ; whereunto I am no little encouraged , for that the * * Book so called . Doubts and Scruples concerning the taking the Solemn League and Covenant , which are by the Doctor ( my Antagonist ) and his Nephew No-body , commended to my consideration , hath done me the honour to couple you with me ; and you the honour as to tell the world , you abide as stedfast in the Covenant as they found you in their first assaults .

Noble Colonel , I will not fear to be ( in my place ) your Second , under so holy an Ensign as is the Solemn League and Covenant ; nor once doubt your courage in so good a cause , which I wish may appear in Common-Council , not Champian-Fields : For Sir ,

— Tutius est contendere verbis , Quam pugnare manu —

Sanctified words uttered from a sound mind , may subdue prophaneness , and settle His Majesties Throne in Righteousness , and no way disturb the peace of these too long distracted Nations : rather than which , I desire never to put pen to paper .

Sir , Since my answer to Dr. Gaudens Sense and Solution of the Covenant , many Pamphlets have started into the world , to raise a dust , and make a noise in the streets , that the Vulgar may think something may be said against the Covenant ; but when they come to be considered , they appear like the Apples of Sodom , or out-cries of affrighted women , who cry , Stop , stop , Hold , hold ; but cannot stretch one hand whereby to hold or stay the pursuit .

The first of thse was John Rowland , A Rejoynder to Mr. Rowland's Reply . a right Sir John Suckling in his pretended Reply to the Anonymous Answer to the Doctor , wherein , more like a Sir John Country Curate than Rector of Footscray in Kent , he answereth all matters of moment as to fact or notion , as if to a Quis fuit hic sepultus in his Church-yard , with I know not , I cannot tell , I have not read , I have not the Book , and the like ; meriting to himself Ignoramus Motto , Per verbum Nescio Resolvitur omnis questio . Yet he giveth Mr. Crofton ( the meanest dwarfe , but ) in his monstrous eye the Goliath of the Covenanters , a most capital Confutation : Like a well-skill'd pick-pocket , writing his name in such Capital Letters , that men may run and read , and sucklings stand still and gaze at them : but throughout his whole Book medieth not with him or his Answer , and therefore my Rejoynder to his Reply must be tht of Sir Thomas Moor to the silly Frier ,

Tu bene cavisti ne te ulla occidere possit Litera ; nam tota est litera nulla tibi . Thou tak'st good care the Letter kill thee not , Thy skill is such thou know'st not B from Bot.

But yet in fine , by a Hocus-Pocus Postscript , he conjured Mr. Crofton into a Synonimy with Anonymus , and profoundly concluded , Answer one , answer all .

The next was a paper of the like stamp , Mr. Russel's pischarge discharged . but more immediately directed unto me , yet not to any thing of my Arguments ; This was , The Solemn League and Covenant discharged , by John Russel of Chinkford in Essex : This man pretends not onely to loosen , but to annihilate St. Peters bonds ; and for his strength and skill , was attested by John Gauden D. D. and yet he medleth not with one of those Arguments he pretendeth to discharge , but starts a new notion ; which , because it so well pleased the Doctor , shall ( though not worth it ) come in its place to be considered : I owe this man thanks for his good opinion of the modesty and perfection of my answer , In his Epistle . which he saith , was onely defective in point of memory , for that I did not remember the Kings concessions which were voted a ground of peace , were with continuance of Episcopacy ; but by his leave I remembered it , though my Argument led not to repeat it ; and though he seem to forget , I remember the Concessions were to suspend Episcopacy , and the Liturgy , and admit Presbytery and the Directory for three years . To him I say then ,

Turpe est doctori , cum culpa redarguit ipsum .

And wish him , He so calls it himself in p. 8. who so minds my memory , to look well to his Intellectuals : For , the last qualm of sadnesse made him half mad , to rage and rave , That Mr. Crofton had urged the Ligne de saint in France as the President of the Covenant , who onely rescued the Covenant from the odium of that comparison cast upon it by the Doctor , and that , by the same Argument which himself granteth , ( viz. ) That though the Ligne de saint were sinful in the matter , yet it was lawful enough in the abstracted form of it . And here also he rampantly braggeth , that he could produce an hundred precedents to square with the conditions of the times when the Covenant was taken ; which , considering the Religion professed , the Kingdoms confederated , the Reformation pursued , the Authority directing it , and the like ; if he find ten of his hundred I will go to Bedlam , on condition he lie there till wise men discern the parallel . The common out-cry of others is , The like time was never seen ; but this was to ease his mind , as himself professeth .

The third was the Spurious League Illegal , The Bastardy of the League Illegal . falsly fathered on Dr. Daniel Featly , by the dignity of his name to deceive the world ; but the feature of it is every way unlike a man so acute and Logical as was this Doctor , as is evident in its arguing idem per idem , in the 8 and 11th Arguments , generals from particulars , Argument 8. pag. 26. its Contradiction to the Doctor , who , in his Epistle to the Parliament , prefixed to his Dipper Dipt , denominateth the two Houses Beauty and Bonds , and owns the Commors as Legislators , the Lords as Executors , and determined their War , A repairing the Temple with their Swords in their hands : whom this Book ( pretending to be written the same year with that Epistle ) denyeth to be any Lawful Authority , and denominateth fomenters of that unnatural civil War ; nay , it is contradictory to it self , affirming , No people may make a Covenant in any case without the Kings consent , in pag. 15. Arg. 3. and yet affirmeth , that in sundry cases a people may covenant not onely without , but against the consent and command of the King , Page 20. unto which I might add an heap of Non-sence observable in it , as , That the Covenant is not a vertue , for Aristotle saith , Virtus est habitus Electivus , pag. 26. This piece looking asquint at me , is loaded with such railing language , that it seems to have come from beneath , and must be owned as Dr. Featly's Ghost , raised by the circle of his Executors fancy , to clear his way to preferment ; it gives us arguments by number , not by weight ; the force of any of them is in the Oxford-Reasons ( that fountain that feeds , and Fort that guards all exceptions against the Covenant ) and shall in its place be considered .

The fourth and last Pamphlet no lesse ridiculous than the rest , The doubts and scruples concerning the Covenant weighed . as scarce having a grain of true Religion , or a scruple of a Right Reason , is the doubts and scruples against taking the Solemn League and Covenant , published by an aliquis Nemo , a man in the Moon , and so like to be resolved by Nuper Nunquam ; but this is ushered into the world at its * * Being reprinted . new birth by the learned Epistle of Dr. John Gauden , and is offered to the consideration of Sir Lawrence Bromfield , and Mr. Zachary Crofton ; and so makes the Exchange ring , and streets roar with Dr. Gauden's Reply to Mr. Croftons Answer about the Covenant , and so calls for regard , which otherwise was as fit ware for the Tobacco-shops as any the rest .

Truly , Sir , I could not read this Epistle without astonishment , for that instead of those clear , pregnant , and constant beams of right reason , and true Religion , which shineth with the brightness and stability of Divine and Human Laws ; and might be the pillars of this truth , firm support of duty , sure bounds of obedience , and safe repose of conscience , which he promised in his Analysis , and I demanded in my Analepsis ; he doth idem iisdem verbis asserere , affirm the same thing without distinction , in the same terms without variation , or other demonstration ; onely , ( as having obtained his fancied paternal authority ) he doth something more Magisterially prescribe the performing of the Covenant against Schism ( which he would have us take on his word to de Presbytery , to which Doctor Usher would have reduced Episcopacy ) and Superstition , before we consider its obligation against Episcopacy ; and in a grave passion , brandeth the Covenant ( himself hath sworn ) with the Epithite of a lawless unnational Covenant , and stigmatizeth the exactors thereof as covetous crafty men , engaged in the sacrilegious depredations of the Church , and unstable souls : Which cannot be found in me : My 8 l. per annum will not more acquit me from the one , than my Sequestration for adhereing to the Covenant , will acquit me from the other . But he addeth , Or silly souls , and such an one I may be , yet will play the fool in glorying in such godly simplicity . In this heat he chargeth all Civillians and Casuists with foolish and fanatick Superstition , as well as mad and violent Schism , in teaching men to avoid what is good , honest , just , and lawful , because of a supposed and confessed abuse thereof : Not so much as favouring Hezekiah , who demolished the brazen Serpent ; nor Paul in his resolution , never to eat flesh in his future diet . We may be assured he will never be so superstitious or schismatical , as to cut off his right hand , or pluck out his right eye , ( which are good , honest , just , lawfull members ) in case they offend him , though the Lord Christ himself hath so directed .

But , Sir , with what face think you can Dr. Gauden again urge against the Covenant the defect of Authority , its sad effects , the obscurity , ambiguity , and seeming discrepancy of the Covenant , for the discharge of its obligation , whilst he hath been fully and soberly answered as to these things , and hath made no Reply ? How is it that he presseth forward his Episcopacy without distinction ? and yet I have told him there is Papal Episcopacy to be extirpated , and a Presbyterial Presidency ( pointed unto them by the Primate of Armagh ) to be advanced . Knoweth he not , qui bene distinguit bene docet ? Or doth he disdain to take truth from so mean an hand ? He is a Minister , so am I , though my poor estate , numerous family , or want of the Kings grace , will not allow me to write D. D.

But seriously , Sir , though Popish do , me-thinks Protestant Bishops should not disdain a Reformation in a Luthers hand : Let him then consult Dr. Sanderson De Juramento , and if he square with , or I differ from his Divinity , let him be humm'd , and me be hist , & contra . I believe he would not have us think him so ambitious of his Episcopal See ( to which some say he is promoted ) as for it to break his Covenant , and brow-beat his brethren , and rage against the Oath of God with à non amote — and being demanded a reason , can say no more than Non possum dicere quare . Sure he is not so stout a Sophister as to pass the premises , and stand to the denial of the conclusion . If he have attained to a Papal-Episcopal-Chair , I hope he will not pretend to the Infallibility of it , and bind our faith on his ipse dixit . Verily , Sir , I cannot but say to the Doctor , concerning his Analysis and this Epistle , as Erasmus to Faber of Vienna ,

Mente cares , si res agitur tibi seria ; rursus Fronte cares , si sic ludis , amice Faber .

Whether he be proudly mad , or foolishly pertinacious , I will not judge , but must yet call on him to remember the Covenant , and consider from whence he is fallen , and repent . He had need to run to the common Refuge , the Oxford Reasons ; but it is well if they prove not a broken Reed , more to wound than defend him .

Sir , notwithstanding these and the like Squibs and Crackers flung out against the Solemn League and Covenant , to make prophane men sport , and expose it to vulgar scorn more than satisfie conscience , the Covenant keeps the field in its full force and vigour , and St. Peters bonds abide . I shall not therefore waste time and paper to trace their follies , and tire my Reader with an answer to words without weight ; but in the pursuit of ( the edification of souls ) the end of my Ministerial Writing , as well as Preaching , Fasten St. Peters Fetters , and secure my Prisoner by a Chain made of those Seven Links or Propositions , which , being cleared and confirmed , will extend the influence , and enforce the obligation of the Covenant , against that prophane opposition which is made unto it , ( viz. )

1. The asserting of the Solemn League and Covenant , and its obliging force , is a duty indispensably incumbent on every man in his place ; but especially on the Ministers of the Gospel .

2. The irregularities in first making the Covenant will not discharge its obligation , now it is made and sworn .

3. The matter sworn in the Solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful , to be maintained and pursued .

4. The form and manner of making the Solemn League and Covenant was good and allowable .

5. The Ambiguities and Contradictions of the words in the Solemn League are imagined , and not real .

6. The Covenant in its quality , and for its obligation , is publick and National , as well as private and personal .

7. The Solemn League and Covenant is in the nature of it permanently binding , and no way to be absolved or discharged .

Of these then particularly , and in their order . And first of the first of them .

Sectio Prima . Proposition . The asserting of the Solemn League and Covenant , and its obliging force , is a duty indispensably incumbent on every man in his place , but especially on the Ministers of the Gospel .

WHilst we consider this Proposition , and frame this Link of our Chain , we must take the Covenant in its abstracted form , as it is a Solemn Compact confirmed by an Oath , in which God is witness , or party , or both . And at present take it for granted , that the matter of it is true , just , and lawful ; which yet will hereafter in its appointed place be discussed .

And as such , I say the asserting of the Covenant , and its obliging force , unto the exacting of performance , and rebuke of negative or positive breach of it , in not doing , or in doing contrary to what is covenanted , is a duty indispensably incumbent on all men in their places , ( viz. ) in their publick or private capacities , wherein they are to express themselves , and expect others to be acted ( as men and Christians ) by the dictates and directions of conscience ; in order whereunto , the Covenants in which they bind themselves each to other , or joyntly to God , as well as divine counsel , must be their compass , to guide their course past dangers and destruction .

Conform hereunto was the commendable carriage of Gyth the younger brother , but faithful Counsellor to Harold King of England , who considering the state of the Quarrel between him and William Conqueror , gave the King this warning , Cambd. Brit , p. 149 , 150. In case you have made promise to William of the Kingdom , withdraw thy person out of the Battel ; for surely , all thy forces shall not secure thee against God , and thy own conscience , who will require punishment for breach of faith and promise .

Every man is , in charity , bound to be an Angel to an unmindful Jacob , in point of his vow to God , and Monitor to his back-sliding brother ; but it especially belongs to Gospel-Ministers , who being Gods Watchmen against sin , and his peoples Remembrancers unto duty , are not onely by common Charity , but also by special Office , bound to give warning against approaching evil , contracting guilt , and impending judgments of God ; Ezek. 3.16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 33.7 , 8 , 9 , and that as they will acquit themselves from the blood of those immortal souls , who slip into , and perish by their sin . On this account the word of the Lord cometh unto his Prophets , with a Say unto them , Thus saith the Lord , I will give the men which have transgressed my Covenant , which have not performed my Covenant , even the Princes of Judah , and the Princes of Jerusalem , and Zedekiah the King , into the hand of their en●mies , Jer. 34.18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , &c. And therefore the censure of being contentious , or danger of being cast into prison as seditious , and losing all their comforts , must not deterre the Ministers of God from coming to the King , and crying out in the Name of the Lord , Shall he break the Covenant and be delivered , shall he do such things and prosper , and escape ? Ezek. 17.15 . for in case of silence the sin will be on their heads , and the stones in the street will cry out .

This is a principle so common and clear , The duty urged from piety towards God . that none professing Reason or Religion dare deny it ; and the reason of it is written in such legible Characters , that all may run and read it , ( viz. ) The Covenant is an Oath , the highest appeal to God , who must not , will not be mocked , or made a witness to His own dishonour , but will punish the breach thereof as a most heinous sin . Therefore the Ministers of God ( standing in his stead ) must with all zeal exact the accomplishment of it , as the practice of piety dependant on such a piece of worship : Remembring God hath strictly charged , That if a man vow a vow , and bind his soul , he shall not break his word , he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth , Numbers 30.2 . So that in piety to God the Covenant must be kept , and its obligation be asserted .

Loyalty to the King is no little swasive to this duty ; 2. Loyalty to the King . for that leads to all fidelity in discharges and prevention of every thing destructive and dishonourable to his Majesty ; Perjury ( most odious to God and man ) is abominable in any , and most conspicuous in a Prince . Who can without dread remember the fierceness of Gods fury against Zedekiah for breaking the Oath , into which he was forced by the straitest Siege ? Or , observe the Odium that abideth on Albert the Emperor , Almerick King of Jerusalem , Vladislaus King of Hungary , and the Christian-Princes , for breaking their Covenants with the Turk ? and the obloquy indelible which lieth on Eugenius and Silvester Popes , and Julian Cardinal of S. Angelo , and the Order of Templars , for abetting and advising ( by the same Arguments urged against our Covenant ) the breach thereof ? Can any true English-man , and Liege Subject , without horror call to mind the perjury of King Harold , which let in William Conqueror to our Land ? and how King John was made odious , and deserted by this out-cry , Withdraw your selves from a perjured King , and not in sence thereof be stirred up with zeal to assert the Covenant ? which broken , will load with shame , and subject to the displeasure of that God who can destroy both us and our King , so happily restored to each other .

True Loyalty is no less studious to establish the Kings Throne in Righteousness , than obsequious to the Royal expressions of His Pleasure : Yet to such as center Loyalty in the last , I would advise that they would seriously consider , That howsoever His late Majesty of Honorable Memory ( for the conscience of his Oath ) was acted by the misapprehension of the Covenant to interdict it ; yet he was more sensible of its obliging force when taken , than to attempt the discharge thereof ; and therefore in His Solitudes He adviseth His Subjects unto the Keeping of the Covenant in all honest and just ways , The contemplation on the Covenant . as thinking the chief end of the Covenant in many the takers intention , was to preserve Religion in purity , and the Kingdom in peace . And as one under the awe of the Oath of God , chargeth His most Sacred Majesty that now is , That if God bring Him to His own on hard corditions , He should be careful to perform what he should promise . And His most Sacred Majesty , as a most obedient Son to a Father so piously prudent , having Himself sworn the Solemn League and Covenant , and the establishment of it in all his Dominions , by His Royal Declaration of August 16. 1650. from Dumfirmling , professeth Himself deeply humbled for His Fathers opposition to the Covenant ; and that on full perswasion of the justice and equity of all the Articles thereof , He had sworn and subscribed the Solemn Leagne and Covenant of the three Kingdoms ; and that he was fully resolved ( in the Lords strength ) to adhere thereunto , and to the utmost of his power , in His place and station , really , constantly , and sincerely , to prosecute all the ends thereof , all the days of His life . And by His Royal Command doth conjure all His loving Subjects who have stood against the So-Solemn League and Covenant , and work of Reformation , to lay down their enmity , protesting to have no enemies to Him but the enemies to the Covenant ; nor friends to Him but friends to the Covenant . So that if Loyalty consist in a conformity to the Kings mind , ( as most Courtiers considering what may please , not what may profit , place it ) the respect due to the memory of His late , and the dread we owe to His now Majesty , must animate , and engage the asserting of the Covenant , and its obling force ? For no faithful Subject will dare to fancy , that either the one or the other , designed by these and the like expressions to mock God and the world .

The love of our Country , 3. The love of our Country . and our own interest therein involved , is not the least spurre unto this duty : For such is the deep dye of perjury , that it polluteth the Land , and placeth it under the most direful of Divine plagues . The Heathen detest the breach of Oaths and Covenants , as that which driveth out of humane Society , and destroyeth men and their posterity by most heavy plagues . Juvenal telling us of the sad miseties which befell Glaucus Epicydes , for the purpose of breaking his Oath , which yet passed not into act , concludes ,

Has patitur poenas , peccandi sola voluntas .

And Herodotus hereupon observing the improbable , impossible miseries , which did overtake and subvert the very house and stock of the perjured , concludes ,

At juramento quaedam est sine nomine proles , Trunca manus , Trunca pedes ; tamen impetus magno Advenit ; at que omnem vastat stirpemque domumque . An unknown strength from Oath there doth proceed , Without running pace , or hands to do the deed , Subverts the house , and makes the stock to bleed .

Historians observe perjury to have lien at the root of the Holy War , that it could never prosper ; our own Chronicles conclude , breach of Covenant brought in the Conqueror , and the Barons Wars ; and the Scriptures witness the three years wasting Famine in Israel to have been the fruit of Sauls well meant breach of Covenant with Gibeon , onely expiated by the extirpation of his Family . So that love to our Country , and our selves , as like to be sharers in its calamity , which can onely be prevented by paying the vows we made to God , must quicken all men , especially Ministers , to cry , and cry aloud , Remember , regard the Solemn League and Covenant .

Unto these considerations the Covenant it self addeth no little strength , 4. By the Bond of the Covenant it self . whilst we have sworn not to suffer our selves directly or indirectly , by whatsoever combination , perswasion , or terror to be withdrawn from it ; nor to give up our selves to a detestable neutrality , and indifferency , but in our places and callings to maintain it , and assist such as enter into it ; whereunto the asserting of the Covenant , and its obliging force , is not the least serviceable , nor most out of our capacity ; it being all the places of the Ministry will allow them to do .

These things considered , as I cannot but commend and rejoyce in the assertion and exaction of the Solemn League and Covenant as to the Civil part of it concerning our King and Kingdom , which was expressed by the Secluded Members of the long Parliament , and by the Minislers of London , and other Counties in their Pulpits , and publick testimonies to the Solemn League and Covenant , Printed with their names subscribed , provoking their people to cleave to the Covenant ; so I cannot but admire at their present silence , as to the Religious part of it , which concerneth God , His Church , and Worship : But I am much more amazed to see eminent Divines , who have sworn it , not onely to sleight the Covenant , but to strain their wits , parts , and learning , by false Glosses and foolish Arguments , to make it void , and discharge its obligation , and to make up their defect of reason and Religion , by railing at , and in reproach of such , who in conscience of duty assert its obligation , counting them troublers of Englands peace , spirits of contradiction , acted by malice , as doth Featly in his Preface to his League illegal , or silly unstable souls , ( standing still , whilst these run away ) urging the Covenant on private interests of profit , revenge , envy , and ambition , and the like , as Dr. Gauden in his Epistle to the Doubts and Scruples , &c. I would pray these men to tell me in cold blood , and on serious thoughts , supposing , as I said before , the Covenant to be a just , publick , sacred , and lawful Oath , whether they think any that have zeal for God , loyalty to the King , and love to their Country , can see Superstition acted to that heighth , as to make the Papists smile at the return of that similitude to their worship of which they were wont to boast ; and not barely an Episcopacy restored , but that very specifical Prelacy covenanted against ( in most express terms ) advanced , whereby the Covenant is not onely contemned , but openly contradicted , and yet be silent and not plead the Covenant ? Or again , Is duty a proper turbulency ? If onely such by accident , must not Gods Ministers contend against sin , to prevent Gods contending by His plagues against the Land ?

But , Sir , to conclude this Section , I would pray that our Master-builders , in the re-edifying of their holy Fabrick , ( greatly delapsed and decayed ) would vouchsafe to cast their thoughts upon an Observation made by an Author ( who cannot but be ) acceptable to them ( viz. ) Mr. Thomas Fuller Prebendary of Sarum , who in his Holy War , casting up the causes of that sad Catastrophe of so hopeful and honourable an undertaking , reduceth the summa totalis to superstition and perjury ( usual concomitants ) and on the last he thus glosseth :

How could safety it self save this people , Fullers Holy Warre , lib 5 , c. 11. p. 248. and bless this project , so blackly blasted with perjury ? ( how then should their Watchmen be silent ? ) a sin so repugnant with moral honesty , so injurious to the peace and quiet of the world , so odious in it self , so scandalous to all men , to break a League when confirmed by Oath , ( the strongest bond of conscience , the end of particular strife , the Souldier of publick peace , the assurance of amity betwixt divers Nations ; made here below , but enrolled in his High Court , whose glorious Name doth sign it ) a sin so heinous , that God cannot but most severely punish it . David asketh , Who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? and answereth himself , He that sweareth to his neighbour and disappoineth him not , though to his own hindrance . No wonder then , though the Christians had no longer abiding in the holy Hill of Palestine , driving that Trade wherewith none ever yet thrived , the breaking of promises , wherewith one may for a while fairly spread his train , but will melt his feathers soon after ; the Fabrick must needs come tumbling down , whose foundation is laid in perjury .

Surely , Sir , such as affectionately believe this doctrine , cannot but passionately apply it , to cry aloud , and not spare , Remember the Covenant . I grow , Sir , not a little suspicious , that the last stratagem of the Propogators of the Catholick Cause , is by their Jesuitical Sophistry to strike England into the guilt of perjury ; and then to blaspheme our Religion , and deride our Nation , as did Agesilaus the Grecian Captain in his answer to Tissaphernes the Persian , breaking the League he had made with him , I give you no small thanks , for that by your perjury you have made the gods angry with the Persians , and favourable to the Grecians .