SINCE I was last with you I have thought of what you said , That ere long all Our Parish Churches would be in your Possession : This hath occasioned me to Write ( I will not say my Advice ) but my Opinion . That you and your Clergy should not Attempt that which I perceive you have already in your Speculations : They who know the History of your Services in the last Wars , and since , must acknowledge that you have deserved well of your Prince , in that not onely you asserted his Cause in the Field with the loss of a Limb , but which is more , you Discovered to one of his great Ministers of State the Design of the Roman Catholicks , managed by Sir K. D. and Father H. an English Sorbonist , to put their part of this Nation under the Subjection and Patronage of Oliver . It is in respect to you , and so many as are of your Loyalty as well as Religion , that I wish in the Game they now play , by venturing high , they may not lose all . You are much mistaken , if from a Toleration you conclude an assurance of Publick Establishment . It is one thing to gain a favourable look , another , that one should so fall in love , as to Espouse your Cause . Consider the Difficulties , if not Impossibilities , which in great Number oppose your Hopes . The Chiefest , as you ought to apprehend , is the firm Resolution of the King to Defend the Church of England , as it yet stands ; a Resolution in him so immovable , that neither an Interest in Mighty Princes , obtainable by such an Exchange , could Invite , nor the Arguments of Military Men could Perswade him to renounce that Church , from which he then received no Advantage , but the satisfaction of her Communion , and suffering in her Defence . You cannot but know withal that to believe Him inclinable to you , is to Commit Treason in your Hearts , since that to say so , is declared Treason by an Act of Parliament . But if you should prove so Sanguine and full of Fancies , as to believe what was formerly ineffectual , might now prevail : I cannot commend your Judgment , except you shew that either your Religion is better , or else that Interest doth more strongly draw the King towards you now than heretofore . For the former part , Religion , you say it ought not in the least to be altered ; and we acknowledge if it were Reformed it will be less worth to the Clergy . For the other , concerning Interest of State , if it disswade under those Circumstances , much more will it at this Day . In those Times he might by this course have been Restored to three Kingdoms . Now he would hereby give up half his Jurisdiction , to wit , Supremacy ; and after a while , a good part of his Revenue , the appendant Possessions of his Supremacy : But this is not the worst ; for besides this by setting up Popery , he sets up the Pope as his Collegue and fellow Soveraign in all His Majesty's Dominions . He gives him at once all the Clergy , and implicitely as many as they frighten with Purgatory and Hell — To Obey Gods Vicar rather than Man : This hath been done , not in the case of the Church alone , but in Temporal Quarrels betwixt him and other Princes . But if you still hold the conclusion against unanswerable Objections , what means pray can you propose whereby this may be accomplished ? Exercise all your Imaginative Power , Fancy any thing , though never so unlikely to be granted or practised , so it be but in the utmost degree of Possibility . There are but two ways to do it , either by Parliament , and you cannot expect that this Parliament , which appeared so earnest against your Toleration , should set you up as the National Church . And if you hope this Parliament may quickly Dye of Old Age , and that another more favourable to the Distressed , may sit in their rooms , you will find your self mistaken ; and that it is not your Party shall be the Men , but rather such , who though they served your turn , never Loved you when they were uppermost .

Let me farther advise you not to forfeit your discretion so far , as to expect as sudden a publick Change of Religion now by a Parliament , as was in Queen Maries dayes ; Then the Reformation had onely been begun by King Edward his six years Reign , and Carelesly Managed by the Greatest Persons under Him , whose Chiefest aimes appear to be quite another thing : So that thereby whilst they Neglected to bring over the Countrey Gentlemen to Protestantisme , they confirmed them in Popery . Thence was it that the Romanists might much better promise themselves to be restored under that Queen , then at these years when people still remember her ; and for several Generations have been reconciled to the Reformation by Writings in those Controversies , and held in by penal Lawes — , and estranged from Rome by 88. and the 5th . of November . Now you cannot look for any Good from a Parliament , you may rightly Dread their displeasure ; especially if you should stretch your Liberty of Conscience to the perverting of other Mens : For do what you can , and Declaim never so much against a Parliamentary Religion ; The Commons will have a Committee for Religion , or else Liberty and Priviledge are utterly lost . So that you ought by a private exercise of your Worship , and a peaceable Demeanour to provide for the coming of a Parliament , as by Repentance men do for Death , because it cannot be avoided , but may be made less hurtful — . By this time , I suppose , you may have laid aside all hopes of being Advanced by a Parliament , and cast your Thoughts towards a standing Army ; Certainly you will find this conceit as Aiery as any of the rest , for ( besides that he whose Authority should raise it , intends you no more then a bare and limited Toleration ) there are very many and Obvious Hinderances of that project , The Kingdom being an Island , takes away the pretences hereof , which are alleadged by our powerful Neighbours , and allowed by reason of their Scituation . So that on the surmizes of such a thing , the Mutinous Temper of this Climate would appear as Jealous of their Liberties , as in some Countreys men are of their Wives . And withall , where could you raise Men for the Service ? your own Gentlemen of Estates would not endure Forreigners ; and they must necessarily want home-born Souldiers , their being not a sufficient Number of your Religion , and of none to give the law of Armes to all your Adversaries . And where will you get the main Weapon , Money ? Though your Religion should open their stock and Treasure as for a Holy War , yet in a little Time either their stock or their Zeal would be spent , and then an Army in its own Country cannot so easily get Bread by the sword , as Labouring men can do by the spade . For proof of this , you may call to mind how that both Rump and Army were well nigh famished into a Dissolution , when the Countrey declared they would pay no mores Taxes . In such Necessities Souldiers like Beasts of prey will fall one upon another and devour their Keepers too ; And if you believe them to be wholly Mercenary , they are never so likely to be hired to a design contrary to their former Commission , as when their Masters cannot pay , nor their Enemies can be plundered , yet will freely part with mony upon their own termes . You see , Sir , how I have followed your Propagators through all , both Probable and Wild Methods , which they can invent ; all which appearing Unprofitable and Unlikely , they will not surely like vain Projectors , waste what they have , for that which they can never obtain — .