and awful Regard toward Sovereign Princes And though sometimes it may so fall out that they may have other Reasons and Motives to determine them to their Loyalty yet there are no Enforcements so powerful and irresistible as Convictions of Conscience All others may and often do fail but this never can But now as for the dissenting Party their Religion spends it self another way their Preachers fill the Peoples Heads with Wind and Phrases possess their Fancies with Dreams and Visions and spend most of their Pulpit-sweat in making a noise about Faith Communion with God Attendance upon Ordinances that as they manage them with some other fluttering and Romantick Stories serve only to appease their natural sense of Religion and to stroak them into a very civil and kind Opinion of themselves But as for the Duty of Respect and Obedience to Superiours being a Paultry Moral Vertue it is a Topick that has very little or no place among their Cases of Conscience and though the Scripture be so very plain and pregnant in this Article and abounds with so many clear and express Determinations of the indispensableness of the Duty yet they can rarely find either a Text or an Occasion as many as there are of both to discourse it in their Pulpits and recommend it to their People And if at any time it so falls out that they cannot avoid it they will make hard shift but before they have done they will be too cunning for their Text for be that never so plain and positive they will so over-reach and draw it in with Tricks and Distinctions that before they part it shall be perfectly wheel'd about to the Long Parliament side They still Preach Obedience with so much Caution and under so many Reserves as utterly abates its Obligation for they make the People so tender and timorous of their own Complyance and so jealous of the Commands of their Superiours that they are scarce more afraid of doing what God has expresly forbidden than they are of what the Magistrate expresly requires and they are taught to dispense with their Duty and Obedience towards their Governours upon no greater or wiser Pretence than that they only fear and suspect lest possibly their Commands should cross with the Divino Laws And they are exhorted above all things to keep their Consciences i. e. themselves free from the Usurpation of all Humane Powers that is in effect they are forbidden to make any Conscience of Subjection to Princes for 't is only Conscience that is capable of the Obligation of Laws so that if that be exempt the whole Man is at Liberty And how little sense they have of this Duty or concern to discharge it is very observable from their own most publick solemn Devotions where though they strain and wink hard for the largest and foulest Confessions of sins and arreign themselves of all the Crimes they can think of and rake together whether they ever did or did not commit them And withal though most of them be pretty well concerned in the Guilt of this Wickedness if a Wickedness at all yet it has no place in their Catalogues of Vice and they never deign so much as to take notice of it to Almighty God or to beg his pardon for it and could never yet be prevailed upon so much as to acknowledge it but among the Infirmities of his People and that is a shrewd ground of suspicion when People that are or would seem to be so tender in all other Cases are so sullen and insensible in this Nay what is worse than all this they instruct the People in all the Doctrines and Pretences of Disloyalty for Rebellion never appears bare-faced but always comes forth mask'd with popular and plausible Demands now they furnish them with such Principles and Maxims as will easily excuse all Disorders and Disobedience such as the Preservation oâ— the true Religion and the Maintenance of their Fundamental Laws and Liberties not against the Prince by no means but against his evil Council And whenever they have a Mind to make Trial of their Princes Patience or Courage they are provided with Aphorisms of all sorts to warrant all the Pranks and Frolicks of the Experiment This has been often enough and from time to time represented to the Publick but if we will not attend to other Mens Information yet it is mad and wilful sottishness if we will wink against our own smarting and dear-bought Experience and yet that we must shamefully do if we can put any Confidence in the Loyalty of these holy Men. For their Practices have never shamed their Principles and though some of them are so modest as to excuse and deny their own Vertues yet it must be confest that they have never failed to behave themselves as becomes the holy Brotherhood They have like the great Hercules from their very Cradle laid hold upon all occasions to affront and grapple with the Royal Authority they have always been forward to dispute and to abate the Sovereign Prerogative and industrious to raise Iealousies against the Government and the Integrity of their Prince And our Princes have all along complained of those Disrespects and Abuses that have been put upon them by the Puritan Party and its Abettors and have at length to some purpose felt the Kindness and Civility of these Right-godly and Religious Rebels This is the true and undeniable Character of the Leading Faction and as for all the other Clans and Sub-divisions they were meerly spawn'd out of the Presbyterian Disorders and bred out of the very Dregs of their Rebellion and were never distinguished from any other Parties of Men but by their Confederated Zeal and Fierceness for the Republican Usurpation against Monarchy and C. S. and yet since his Majesties Restauration would never be provoked to make the least Acknowledgments of their former Disloyalty or to offer any Engagements of their future Allegiance Now let us lay all this together and ten times as much more that I am forced to omit in haste and then consider how peaceable such People are likely to prove that are first poisoned with such Principles of Anarchy and Sedition and then managed by Leaders of such bloody and ambitious Designs The People themselves are of such a peevish and envious Humour both from their Temper and their Principles that no Government can ever please or oblige them they are a sort of Creatures that love to lie at catch for Opportunities of discontent and it is a satisfaction to their proud and peevish Minds if they can but affront their Superiours This is the natural Genius of the Party and the several Brotherhoods are made up of People of this Complexion and Men List themselves into the separated and discontented Churches only to gratifie this snarling and waspish Humour Pride and Ill-nature are the Fundamental Principles of all their Zeal and they are rude and restive to Authority not always out of disaffection but out of a wanton and
Persons that have no regard to Truth or Modesty or Sobriety towards God or Man and shall be sure to be accounted with at the Day of Iudgment to the great Relief of his tender Heart That are animated by their secular Interest or desire of Revenge that are unacquainted with the Spirit of the Gospel and the Christian Religion that are incompassionate towards the Infirmities of others whereof yet none in the World give greater Instances than themselves that have no thoughts but of Rage and Destruction and that had they Power would render all Christians like the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that is are for nothing less than Massacres and cutting of Throats c. Sweet Sir Enough enough of these healing Words we are vanquisht for ever with these generous strains of Meekness and Civility Did ever Man pass by such unparallel'd Injuries and Provocations with so much Gallantry and Greatness of Mind What execrable Miscreants must they be that could treat so brave an Adversary with Rudeness and Incivility or assault such an Heroick Ingenuity with ignoble and unhandsom Arts He is too hard for us at all Weapons there is no contending with a Person of such an Adamantine Honour he rebukes us with his Endearments and strikes us dead with his sweet and kissing Looks We yield we yield we cannot resist all this kind and melting Goodness He has requited our Malice with so fair and â—ivil a Character that it were a notorious Calumny to paint any thing but the Devil himself in blacker Colours And if but one half of this Enamouring Description that he has bestowed upon his Adversaries in the very Pangs of Love and Compassion were true or credible no Man that is yet unhang'd unless he had been marked thrice at least with the Honourable Brand of Authority would ever be so mad as to change condition with such cast and irreclaimable Wretches However we accept his kind Offer and his Good Meaning and seeing he is willing to respite his Revenge to the Day of Iudgment Ah sweet Day when these People of God shall once for all to their unspeakable comfort and support wreak their Eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies it is agreed upon for we are not so fierce and fiery but we can wait with as much patience as he for satisfaction And therefore let us by mutual consent forbear all this unnecessary Courtship and Complement for the future and fall on bluntly upon the Argument without hugging and kissing before we draw Sword It is a pretty point of Honour for young Gentlemen but we that are a more sullen sort of Combatants may without any great inconvenience spare the Ceremony And now upon this Proposal it will be found that these intemperate Reflections as he calls them are so far from making the Book unanswerable that they are the only thing to which he has ventured to make any Reply so that it is plain this is not the Reason but purely the Pretence of his Reluctancy For alas the Evidence of the Cause is so bright and convictive as prevents all tolerable Mistakes or Exceptions and as for his bold and bare-faced Falsifications they arâ— all spent in the former Engagement and all his jugling shifts have been so sufficiently laid open to the World that they can never do him or his Cause any service for the future And setting these aside the Argument of the Controversie is so plain and easie that it is not capable of any farther Doubt or Disputation For all their Exceptions especially as they concern the Church of England relate either to the Power it self or to the Matters of the Command the first are directly levell'd against the very Being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general Pretences must not dare to put any Restraints upon their Subjects Consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the Fundamental Liberties of Humane Nature and undo honest Men only for their Loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this Right be claimed without Restraint or Limitation then the Consequence is unavoidable That Subjects may whenever they please cross with the Authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the Name or make a shew of Religion But this is so grosly absurd that J. O. nor any Man else in his Wits never had the Courage to assert it And then the Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least not contradicted for whoever admits an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first Assertion of a Supreme Authority over the Conscience in Matters of Religion But then say they there are some particular things exempted from all Humane Cognizance which if the Civil Magistrate presume to impose upon the Consciences of his Subjects as he ventures beyond the Warrant of his Commission so he can tie no Obligation of Obedience upon them seeing they can be under no Subjection in those things where they are under no Authority Now this pretence resolves it self thus that they do not quarrel his Majesties Ecclesiastical Supremacy but they acknowledge it to be the undoubted Right of all Sovereign Princes as long as its Exercise is kept within due bounds of Modesty and Moderatiâ—n Which being granted all their general Exceptions against the Sufficiency of the Authority it self are quitted and they have now nothing to except against but the excess of its Iurisdiction So that having gained this ground the next thing to be assigned and determined is the just and lawful bounds of this Power and that has been already distinctly enough described as to all the most material Cases that can probably occur in Humane Life all which may be summ'd up in this one general Rule viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience in any other case this is the safest and most easie Rule to secure the Quiet of all that are upright and peaceable and all that refuse Subjection to such a gentle and moderate Government make themselves uncapable of all the Benefits of Society in that if we stop not their Liberty of Remonstrating to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall for ever be at an utter loss for making any certain Provisions for the Peace and Security of Commonwealths So that if they will attempt any thing here to any purpose they must again either cancel all Ecclesiastical Power or confine it within narrower bounds of Iurisdiction both which are equally absurd and dangerous the former we have already cashiered as flat Anarchy and the latter is no less because there is no end of the Follies and Impostures or at least the Pretences of Religion so that if they may be suffered to over-rule the Power of Princes then can Princes claim no Power over any
without the consent of his Bishops Thirdly my former exceptions as he stileth them or rather my preparatory conditions do virtually comprehend all the gross errours of the Roman Church both in Discipline and Doctrine leaving no difference in necessary points of faith but only in opinions So if my conditions be observed there is no place left for any such supposition Lastly I observe what an unsound kind of arguing this is to deny a man his just right as Patriarchal power was the Bishop of Romes just right for fear lest he may abuse it All factions use to miscal their own terms Christs terms to cancel all humane right under the notion of humane devises is both inconsistent with the Law of Christ and the welfare of all Societies They who made the Bishop of Rome a Patriarch were the Primitive Fathers not excluding the Apostles and Christian Emperours and Oecumenical Councils What Laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for conscience sake until they be repealed Lawfully by virtue of the Law of Christ. A fairer plea than I know any for their own Consistory where Lay-men usurp the power of the keys contrary to the Law of Christ. His sixth exception is the same with the fifth only there it is proposed hypothetically If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose And here it is repealed categorically many things in Doctrine and worship which on these terms would be imposed both on East and West and prevail in most of the Churches at this day are sins against God and therefore how small so ever they may be are not to be consented unto for unity If there be any grain of truth in this proof it is so indefinite so conjectural and so accidental that it requireth no answer How should a man either affirm or deny or distinguish of many things without specifying any one thing in particular I assent thus far in general that no man can be obliged to do a sin against God and that whatsoever humane Ordinance doth necessarily and essentially produce sin is unlawful But until he tell us in particular what these many things are or at least some one of them and prove evidently that it is a sin against God indeed and not in his opinion only and that it is infallibly true that it would be imposed which would be an hard task to undertake without the gift of Prophesy and lastly that the imposition of some such sinful thing or things is not an arbitrary or accidental abuse of that Lawful power which I admit but floweth naturally or essentially from it I say until he do all this all that he doth say signifieth nothing and so I leave his many things as just nothing And come unto his seventh exception The Aethiopian and other Churches that were still without the verge of the Roman Empire will never alknowledge thus much to the Pope seeing that even those humane Constitutions which gave him his Primacy of Order determined of no more than the Roman World and had nothing to do beyond Euphrates How did the Popes lay any claim or meddle any further And abundance among the Eastern Churches will deny this Primay This exception was made in the dark and therefore the errours that abound in it may more easily be pardoned as proceeding from the not knowing of the true State of the Aethiopick and other Eastern Churches Both the Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do unanimously admit this form of Government by Patriarchs which I acknowledge The Aethiopians have a Patriarch of their own and so have all the other Eastern Churches And particularly the Albuna or Patriarch of Aethiopia is under the Partriarch of Alexandria named by him and ordained by him from time to time So untrue it is that the Oecumenical Constitutions of general Councils extended not beyond Euphrates The Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do submit to the Council of Nice and other Oecumenical Councils by which Patriarchal Government was confirmed They all acknowledge the Patriarch of Rome to be the chief Patriarch whilst he behaveth himself well and to have a Primacy of order among the Patriarchs They know no points of faith but those which are contained in the ancient Creed as we find at large in the Historical Description of Aethiopia by Francis Alvares They all deny the Popes Supremacy of power as we do And when the Pope songht to introduce it into Aethiopia by the mediation of the King of Portugal Claudius then Emperour of Aethiopia returned this answer Se quidem fraterna in Lusitanum Regem voluntate esse ac fore caeterum nihil sibi minus in mentem venisse quam ut ideirco à Majorum institutis ac tot saeculorum spatio corroborata religione deficeret That he ought all good will to the King of Portugal as his Brother but it was the least part of his thought therefore to Apostate from the orders and Religion of his Ancestors received and radicated in Aethiopia throughout so many ages Pet. Maffei Hist. Jud. l. 16. p. 749. His eighth Exception is There is no hope of uniting the Churches on any terms but what are necessary and divine for its vain to think that things humane and unnecessary should be consented to by all Much less things sinful In the name of God why is it not possible that the Churches should be united upon some humane or prudential terms Are there not common principles of natural equity which reason dictateth to all mankind That is one mistake Secondly the Law of Nature is a divine Law And though Patriarchal Regiment be no express principle of the Law of Nature yet it is very agreeable to it and grounded upon it Thirdly though no humane ordinances be absolutely necessary to salvation as those supernatural truths which are revealed in holy Scripture are yet they may be respectively necessary to the well-being of Religion Lastly in his conclusion much less things sinful he disputes upon that which is not granted nay more which is absolutely denyed Mr. Baxter will never be able to prove that any thing which is sinful is contemned in my reconciliatory Propositions His ninth Exception signifieth as little as the rest There is no union to be had but upon the terms on which the Churches have sometimes been united For a new way of union is not to be expected attempted But never was the Church united on such concessions as these and therefore never will be I Deny his assumpsion altogether And if I were to chuse a reason or medium whereby to demonstrate my way of reconciliation to be good I could not fix upon a better than this The Catholick Church hath been united on these same principles which I suppose the same Faith without any addition the same Ecclesiastical Discipline without any variation the same Form of serving God publickly And since the dispersion of the Church all over the World it never was united upon any other principles but these nor
all causes whatsoever though they be never so Diametrally opposite one to another Secondly I answer that there is not one grain of clear distinct necessary truth in this whole Discourse but uncertain suspicions groundless perswasions confused generalities and beggings of the question That the terms are unlawful and unwarrantable that he and his party are the soundest and wisest and holiest of Christians is groundless presumption and begging of the question That the Princes of Christendom will be perswaded themselves and thereupon condemn the dissenters and silence the Ministers and persecute the People are all uncertain conjectures and accidental events What Princes of Christendom he doth intend or can intend who are those dissenters whom he calleth the soundest and wisest and holiest of men what Ministers he meaneth ordained or unordained or both And what Flocks such as they had a legal title to or such as they have usurped are all confused indefinite generalities and ought to have been set forth more distinctly In a word mutato nomine de se Fabula narratur Whatsoever he faineth of imaginary Grotians is really true of his own Party They have prevailed with persons of power and Authority and perswaded them to silence and persecute and to chase away from their Flocks the right Pastors and have usurped their Benefices and Charges themselves And all this while pretended shameless men that they are doing God good service He is not able to charge any of his imaginary Grotians with any such thing This is to bite and whine as the Proverb hath it to do wrong and to complain of suffering wrong Popular Persecutions of all others are ever most groundless and most violent The more moderate that mens judgements are as Grotius his judgement was and mine is the farther off they are from engaging Princes to persecute their Subjects Cowards ordinarily are most cruel So weak and willful persons are most apt to promote Persecutions knowing that to be their only defence against those whom they are unable to answer with reason There are seditious principles and practices enough in the World to irritate Princes without any other bad offices which have been introduced into the Church under a pretext of Religion such as no man living can justifie such as are inconsistent with all humane Societies Such as if God be pleased once to restore men perfectly to their right Wits they must be sure in the first place to cast out of the World if they do ever mean to preserve Peace and Tranquility among themselves It were much more politickly done of him to leave this subject which the more it is stirred in the worse it will smell to some body In the conclusion of this Objection he complaineth thus This is the unhappy issue of the attempts of Pride When men have such high thoughts of their own imaginations and devices c. Which is most true in general if he can let it rest there But if he proceed any farther to examine on what side this Pride doth lie whether among the Grotian Party as Cassander and Wicelius and Grotius or among his own Party if it were fit to name them he will quickly find who they are that do calcare fastum majore fastu tread down Pride with greater Pride through the holes of whose coats vain glory doth discover it self That ever Presbyterians should complain of Pride CHAP. VII Of Mr. Baxters one was of reconciliation THus having in his own Imagination battered down that frame of an Union which he thought I had proposed though in truth all his reasons have scarcely force to shake an Aspin leaf Yet for our comfort he telleth us that he will not leave the business thus lest whilst he pulls down all and offers nothing instead thereof he might he thought an Enemy to peace It is all the reason in the World that if peace be so desirable as he maketh it and he shew his dislike of our ways to procure it he should propose a better expedient of his own that other men may have the liberty to try if they can say more against his way than he hath hitherto been able to say against theirs but I have my jealousies and fears as well as he and better founded that he will never prove a good Architect in this kind because I never found any man yet who was given to innovation but his genius was ten times apter for pulling down than for building up But let us view his own way or terms of peace without prejudice In general therefore I say that the terms of an Universal concord or peace must be purely Divine and not humane necessary and not things unnecessary ancient according to the Primitive simplicity and neither new nor yet too numerous curious or abstruse These are Generals indeed and if they were all consented unto the peace would not be much nearer than it is I think such general terms or Articles of peace were never seen before in our days From what hopes am I fallen I expected that having rejected our ways of reconciliatioxn he would have chalked us a new ready way of his own free from all exceptions And he only telleth us that a way must be short and streight beaten and smooth and so leaveth us to find out such a way for our selves where we can This is just take nothing and hold it fast Such general ways are commonly the ways of Bunglers or Deceivers One of Mercuries Statues though it were dumb could have given better directions for a way than this But he who will be a Reconciler of Controversies must be more particular Yet let us take a particular view of his general directions The terms of an Universal peace must be purely Divine not humane How purely divine not humane That is impossible That which is purely divine hath no mixture of humane in it but these terms of peace must be made and contrived by men between man and man for the use of men and after an humane manner not by immediate inspiration So these terms cannot be purely divine But perhaps his meaning is no more than this that in an accommodation no humane Constitutions ought to be imposed upon the Churches Then down goes his Presbyterian Discipline for that is both humane and new When Calvin first proposed it to the Helvetian Divines for their approbation he desired no more of them but to testify that it was not disagreeable to the word of God or came near to the word of God It is meet and just that no humane Constitutions should be imposed as Divine ordinances but it doth not follow thence that all humane right and law must be thrust out for rotten Humane right is grounded upon Divine right that is the Law of nature and the positive Laws of God and cannot be violated without the violation of the Divine Law and ought to be observed for Conscience sake out of a respect to the Divine Law which commandeth every soul to be subject to the higher
that the Chiefs of the Party are only the Remainders of the old Rebellion and the Republican Faction and such as profess no great kindness to Monarchy or Sovereign Princes These that are so stein'd with Guilt and Disloyalty are they that are every where so zealous to make their Cabals of Zeal and their Musters of Reformation or at least to keep up the Cause and themselves above despair by keeping up a factious and discontented Party that if ever opportunity should favour them may have Strength and Interest enough to act over their old Designs of Zeal and Reformation Now at present it is the Way and the Wisdom of these Men to bend all their Forces against the Ecclesiastick State not only to disguise their Intentions but to remove the main hindrance of their Designs For 't is the Church that is the best part of every Commonwealth and when all Projects are tried Religion is the best Security of Peace and Obedience The Power of Princes would be but a very precarious thing without the Assistance of Ecclesiasticks and all Government does and must owe its quiet and continuance to the Churches Patronage 't is the Authority that has over the Consciences of Subjects that chiefly keeps the Crown upon the Princes Head and were it not for the Restraints of Conscience that are tied on by the Hands of the Priest and the Laws of Religion Man would be a monstrously wild and ungovernable Creature For though the World be kept in some tolerable Order notwithstanding there are too many Persons in it of Atheistical and Irreligious Principles yet of all Subjects these are the most dangerous and disloyal because 't is impossible to bring them under any effectual Engagements of Duty and Allegiance and hence it is that all Seditions and Treasons are headed and managed by such Leaders At least though they are not able to do so very much mischief because their Party is not very considerable yet were all Mankind of their Humour and Perswasion nothing could be more insecure and destitute of help than the Condition of Princes because no Man according to their Principles could be so foolish as to think himself any way obliged to venture Life and Fortune for the sake of their Interest and whenever they are attempted Subjects would be determined as to their Loyalty by the chance of Success and not by any antecedent Obligations and whenever the Princes Affairs were brought into any straight or danger they must leave him to shift for himself and revolt to an Usurper for their own Safety and Interest But those only are Loyal Subjects and true Friends and Servants to the Establisht Government that think it their Duty to adhere to their Prince in all Fortunes and to assist and serve him against all Enemies and 't is their Numbers every where that keep the World in that little order and security that it enjoys for beside the useful and advantagious Offices that they do to the Crown by their own immediate Service 't is their known and sworn Fidelity that in a great measure keeps back wicked and seditious Men from attempting it too lightly Every aspiring Mind or neglected Grandee would be presently venturing at the Throne if it stood naked and unguarded of the Assistances of Loyalty but when they are assured that howsoever their Designs may succeed that there is so strong a Party unalterably resolved to make Head against them and all their Attempts 't is that that chiefly makes such Projects and Practices not so very frequent or easie Now 't is nothing but Conscience and Religion that can awe the Minds of Men to any sense of this Duty and they ever are and ever must be Govern'd by Ecclesiasticks other Persons may tamper with them and inveigle some stragling People but still the main Body of a Nation and especially the sober part of it will chuse to submit themselves to their Conduct whose Publick Profession it is to guide Souls and instruct Consciences so that to them and the discharge of their Duty do all Princes plainly owe the main Strength and Seourity of their Government This Obligation of kindness to the Ecclesiastical State is common to all Civil States and so much as they discountenance the Power and Reputation of the Church so much do they disadvantage the Interest of their own Authority But this reason of State is of greater force and more peculiar usefulness in reference to the present Constitution of the Kingdom of England The Nation is manifestly divided into two opposite Parties the Church of England and the Body of the Nonconformists The former whereof is the greatest Example of Loyalty that perhaps ever appeared in the Christian World Its Clergy are the most Zealous Assertours of the Rights of Princes they have all along undauntedly maintain'd their Supremacy against all Assaults and Invasions they have possest the Peoples Conscienecs with a religious Awe and Reverence of Government they have restrained them from all Attempts of Rebellion or of taking up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever under the greatest and most dreadful Penalties they have secured them from being abused with the Impostures of Zeal and Superstition and have carefully prevented all the Shifts and Excuses of Disobedience and after they have made Subjection a prime and indispensable Duty they do not evacuate the Efficacy of their Doctrine by juggling Reserves and Limitations And thus are the People train'd up in a Conscience of their Loyalty and take it in together with their Religion and are as strongly principled against the hateful sin of Rebellion as against Witchcraft or Idolatry And of this our Princes have had sufficient proof and experience ever since the Reformation They have ever found all their Subjects of the Communion of the Church of England modest and peaceable and were never troubled with Disputes and Remonstrances Plots and Disturbances from any of her Friends And when Rebellion broke forth and the Royal Power was invaded and oppressed with what Zeal and Devotion did they appear in its Defence and for its Recovery and what Numbers sacrificed Lives and Fortunes out of meer sense of Duty and Allegiance For though it is not to be doubted but that some might engage themselves in the Royal Cause for other ends yet 't is manifest from too many sad Circumstances that the true and hearty Sons of the Church were acted by Principles of Conscience and Religion and whilst others might be bought over by the Rebels and Usurpers no Temptation could prevail upon their Minds but they were constant and impregnable in all Conditions They forsake their Prince You must first force them to renounce their Faith their Loyalty stands upon their Religion and they were Martyrs as well as Souldiers for his Cause and in his Service This is the peculiar Genius and these the distinguishing Principles of the Church of England and as far as they are admitted into the Minds of Men so far do they work in them this religious