is in the Church as National must heal our Breaches The Catholicks are for one Universal Organical Church throughout the World whereof the Pope is Head according to some and the Bishops Convened in a General Council according to others That there is a Catholick Church Visible on earth as well as invisible whereof CHRIST is Head who was on Earth and is now Visible in Heaven is past doubt also with Protestants But that this Church is Organical and under the Government of a Monarchy by the Pope or of an Aristocracy by a General Council it seems a thing not possible in nature because neither can any Oeâ—umenical Council ever be Called or any One Man he sufficient to take on him the Concernmenâ—s of the whole World. A Political Church is a Community of Chrisâ—â—ans brought into an Orber of Superiority and Inferiority by an Head and Members organized for the Exercise of that Government which is proper to it but the whole Earth is not capable of any such Order And Councils therefore which are gather'd out of several Countries or of Bishops belonging to more Dominions than of one Supreme Power may behad for mutual Advice and Concord but not for Government A Nation Empire or Kingdom which consists of one Supreme Magistrate and People who are generally Christians are capable of such an Ecclesiastical Polity and a National Church Political in England is to be asserted and maintained The Church of England then is a Political Society of all the Christians in the Land united in the King as Head and organized by the Bishops for the executing those Laws or Government which he chooses for their spiritual Good and the publick Peace There is this difference between a Church National the Church Catholick and Particular Churches The two latter-are of Divine Right and Essential Consideration but the former is and can be only of Humane Institution for it is manifestly Accidental to the Church of Christ that the chief Magistrate and the whole People should be Christian. Distinguish we here of the Government of the Church as Internal belonging to the Spirit and External which belongs to Men And of the External Regiment thereof which is either Formal belonging to the Ministers or Officers of Christ or Objective belonging to the Magistrate the one being only by the Keyes the other by the Sword. Whether the Community now of Christians in England may be accounted a National Church in respect to any Formal Government of it we leave for dispute to others let them judg according to the foregoing Definition of a Political Church But that the main Body of the Nation are or may be constituted a proper Political Church National in respect to that External Objective Regiment which is or should be exercised by the Bishops as the proper Organs thereof under the King is what we hold reasonable and would lay as the Foundation-Stone of Peace in the matter of Religion between all Persons in the Kingdom Let the Parliament therefore we have be heartily for the Publick Good and thriving of England which must and can be only by an entire Liberty of Conscience in opposition to the narrow Spirit of any single Party or Faction and when such a Parliament as this shall set themselves about the Business of Union to purpose a Bill should be brought in Entituled An Act for declaring the Constitution of our Church of England A Parliament is the Representative of the whole Nation and no doubt but by Consent and Agreement they might upon the account mentioned Make a new Constitution and much more may they Declare the Constitution of it It should be declared then in such a Bill or Act that the Church of England consists of the King as the Head or pars Imperans who is to give Laws thereto and all the several Assemblies of Christians which he shall tolerate as the pars subdita or Body Some Discrimination between the Tolerable and Intolerable is indeed never to be gainsaid by any wise and good Man unto whom there is no Liberty can be desirable which is not consistent at least with these three things the Articles of our Creed a Good Life and the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom It is not for any private persons but a Parliament to prescribe the Terms of National Communion But we would have all our Assemblies that are Tolerable to be made Legal by such an Act and thereby parts of the National Church as well as the Parochial Congregations The Church here therefore must come under a double consideration as the Church of Christ and as the Church of England Take the Church as the Church of Christ and there must be as we have said at first endless Controversy about this point who are the true Members of it but take it under the consideration as National and there will be none at all for those must be Membâ—rs whom the Head by a Law does allow to be parts of the Body and the King under this notion only is made Head of the Church by the Stature that is as it is called Ecclesia Aâ—glicana The Protestant Dissenterâ— of all sorts as well as the Conformists will acknowledg the King to be Supreme Coercive Governour over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil throughout his Dominions And will not those who are Roman Catholicks do the like Did they not do so in Henry the Eight's time when they were generally such Again the Dissenters of all sorts even the Congregationalists of every Sect are ready to submit to any power legally derived from the King and upon such an account will admit of a superintendency of the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him when they cannot own any Authority that they have over other Ministers from Iesus Christ and will not Papists also be subject to all Authority that is exercised legally in his Name howsoever they may question the Spiritual Title of the English Clergy and their succession We would have the Bishops then qua Bishops as distinct in Office from Priests declared no other than the King's Officers whose power is but Objectively Ecclesiastical and to act Circa Sacra only by Vertue of his Authority and Commission As Iehoshaphat did comit the Charge incumbent upon him as Supreme Magistrate in regard to all Matters of the Lord unto the care of Amariah being Chief Priest and in regard to the King's Matters unto Zebadiah being as the Chief Iustice of the Realm so should the Diocesian Bishop be in our Ecclesiastical as the Judges are in Civil Matters the Substitutes altogether of His Majesty and execute his Jurisdiction This is indeed at State point which was throughly canvased by Henry the Eight whose Divines did agree on two Orders alone Priest and Deacon to be of Divine Appointment and that the Superiority of a Bishop over a Presbyter or of one Bishop over another was but by the Positive Laws of Men only as appears in that Authentick Book then put out entituled
perhaps may not always agree with the Interest of France in this matter And I think aggravating this Breach at present to be also prejudicial to the Catholick Religion it self The great Design we have so long aimed at is applying to the King of France to take from the Hereticks all hopes of a Head or any other Protection than what they must expect from their own King whereby they finding themselves expos'd to his Pleasure will the more readily subscribe to his Will. But this misunderstanding between us will occasion an opportunity to the Hereticks to set up the Prince of Orange for their Chief And let me assure you not to deceive your selves The Religious of England as well as the Presbyterians themselves regard the Prince of Orange as their Moses and his Party is already so powerful in both these Kingdoms that it will appear terrible to any thinking Person should things come to extremity as may never happen if matters are not push'd on too far but managed with Moderation And I desire therefore with great deference to you better Judgment that this matter might be hinted to his Most Christian Majesty as opportunity shall serve and am sensible it must be done with very great caution I can tell you nothing at present concerning the certainty of calling a Parliament it requires so many things to be consider'd of and measures to be taken that his Majesty ought to be well assur'd of the success before he convenes them together I am not of opinion with many other Catholicks who say That by calling them the King hazards nothing for if they will not answer his Ends he need only prorogue them as is usually done But it is my Opinion and the Sense of many others That his Majesty hazards much for if it should unfortunately happen that they should in their Assembly refuse to comply with his Majesty's Desires it may be long enough ere he compass his Ends by way of a Parliament and perhapâ— never and then there rests no Expedient or other Means but by Violence to execute the Orders of his secret Council which must be suppos'd by his Army who upon a pretence of Incamping may be called together with the less Jealousie or Suspicion So you may see most Reverend Father that we do not want work in these Quarters and I must be supported by your Prayers which I beg of you and from all those of our Society His Majesty is so desirous that things may be done in order and upon a sure Fund so as to be the more lasting that he makes great application to the Shires and Corporations to get such Persons chosen fâ—r the Parliament as may be favourable to his Ends of which he may be sure before they come to debate And the King will make them promise so firmly and exact such Instruments from them in writing that they shall not be able to go back unless they will thereby draw upon themselves his Majesty's utmost Displeasure and make them feel the weight of his Resentment And I have here inclos'd some Effects of his Majesty's Endeavours in this matter which is an Address which the Mayor Sheriffs and Burgesses of New-Castle in the County of Stafford have presented to the King see the Gazette where this Corporation as well as Glocester and Teuxbury and others in their Addresses promise to chuse such Members as shall comply with his Majesty's Desires If all Towns were in as perfect Obedience as these we should certainly have a Parliament call'd which the Catholicks and Nonconformists expect with great Impatience But since this cannot be said of many of them the King 's secret Council think good to wait for the Queen's Delivery that they may see a Successor who may have need of the whole Protection of the Most Christian King to support him and maintain his Rights And by the Grace of God we hope that that Prince treading in his Father's steps may prove a worthy Son of our Society like his Father who thinks it no Dishonour to be so call'd As to other things most Reverend Father our Fathers with me as well as generally all the Catholicks with what grief do we hear of the Disunion that arises between his Holiness and the Most Christian King How does my Head in imitation of the Prophet's become a Spring of Tears to lament night and day the Schism that I foresâ—e coming into the Church Is is possible that our holy Society should not stand in the Breach and prevent the Mischiefs that this difference may occasion in the Church And that no body can reconciâ—e Levi and Iudah the Priesthood and the Scepter the Father and the Son the eldest Son of the Church with the Vicar of Christ upon Earth And what a Desolation and what Advantage to the Hereticks must this occasion They begin already to bid us convert the Children of the Family before we begin to convert Strangers And I must with grief confess they have but too much reason for what they say and if there does not come some present Assistance from above I foresee this Affair will occasion great Prejudices in the North Nor have we any hope that his British Majesty will interpose herein openly he receiving so little Satisfaction from his Holiness in some Demands made by his Ambassadour at Rome which morally speaking ought not to have been denied so great a King who first made this step which his Predecessors for a long time were not willing to undertake in sending his Ambassadour of Obedience to Rome And yet for all this our holy Father had not any particular Consideration of this Submission and Filial Obedience so that I dare not mention this matter but by way of Discourse daily expecting that of himself he will be pleased to make some Proposal therein I doubt not Reverend Father of your constant Endeavour to accommodate this matter thereby to take away from the Hereticks especially the Hugonots of France this occasion to laugh and deride us and we should think the Châ—nge much for the worse if instead of the French King 's going to Geneva he should march to Rome What may not all this come to especially since the Marquess de Lavardin has been so passionate in his Discourse to the Cardinal-Chancellor as to call him Impertinent and so far to forget his Duty and Reverence toward our Holy Father the Pope himself as to say he Doted as the Hereticks do confidently discourse in these parts I have caused some Masses of the Holy Ghost to be said That God would please to inspire the discontented Parties with a Spirit of Peace and Concord You did acquaint me some time since That Madam Mainteron did take upon her the Title of Daughter of the Society by virtue whereof you may command her by virtue of Obedience to use her Credit and Eloquence with the King to incline him to an Accommodation in this matter In the mean time I hear that at Rome many eminent Persons
how unfit I am to arguâ— matters of Religion with your Highness and those subtil Sophisters the Pest of Europe and shame of Christianity which are always croaking about Persons of Quality whom they have perverted to their Idolatries being my self but a Lay-Gentleman of little Learning and in the course of my Life more conversant with the Sword than the Pen And I must wonder with Regret if none of the Right Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops or some of our other Learned Divines have not vigorously made Applications to your Highness even in a publick Manner to regain you to the Protestant Communion If they have not charg'd you as they are God's Ambassadors to shew some Reasons why you havâ— broke the League your Baptismal vows with his Church and join'd your self to the Tents of his Enemies If they have not adjur'd you in the Name of our Lord to shew on what offence taken amongst us and for what Beauties observ'd in the Church of Rome you quitted the true Spouse of Christ to follow the Enchantments of a Strumpet whose shameless Adulteries have long since caused an utter Divorce between Her and the Blessed Jesus If they have not solemnly called Heaven and Earth to Record that they are ready to satisfie all your scruples to answer all your objections and to shew That it is not through any default in them for want of Endeavours nor in our Church for want of Truth but that your defection must be wilful as well as unreasonable whereby to render you either convicted or inexcusable Nor do I doubt but several of those Glorious Lights of our Church may accordingly have discharged without fear of flattery their Functions herein in private discourses But certainly a matter of that inestimable importance as wherein not only the Soul of one of the Bravest Princes of the Earth but also the whole Protestant Interest in the World especially within these Three Nations is so deeply and dangerously concern'd might require since I am sure it deserves a Publick and General Application Nor ought any though the meanest of Men to be blam'd for contributing modestlyÌ„ his help to prevent a disaster of such universal influence And therefore who knows but that Almighty Providence who overthrew Iericho's proud Walls of old not with Battering Engines of War but with the blast of contemptible Rams-Horns and is often pleased to make use of the weakest Instruments to effect mighty Works may give a Blessing to these poor uâ—polish'd inartificial Lines which have nothing but the Power of Truth and the Honesty of a sincere Intention to recommend them to your Princely Consideration That you were educated in Protestant Principles is notorious I beseech your Highness therefore to satisfie the World what could induce you to a change I shall not mention your Royal Grandfather whose Learned Pen baffled all the Conclave nor shall I insist on that Curse which he solemnly pronounced on any of his Posterity that should turn Papist I shall only say Had you not the Example and the Commands too of a most Indulgent Pious Prince your Royal Father for perseverance therein who though barbarously murder'd by vile Men yet continued stedfast and even with his last breath discharg'd and â—lear'd the Doctrine of the Reformed Religion from having any share in their Crimes What Impiety is it if you should dare to profess your Fathers Blessed Soul to be eternally damn'd and yet if you are a Papist you can do no less for you cannot be such without believing That there is no Salvation out of the Pale of the Church and that there is no Church but that of Rome and I am confident none can have the Impudence to suggest that He died in the Communion of that Church What follows then or how will you answer this Horrid Scandal on his Sacred Memory when you shall meet his glorified Spirit at the last dreadful Judgment-day Nor can the keenest Jesuit blunt the edge of this Argument by a Retortion from the Consideration of your Highnesses Illustrious Mother For though Papists are so audacious as to place the Keys of Heaven at the Pope's Girdle and uncharitably doom us All to unquenchable flames not affording us so much as a Room in Purgatory yet Protestants are not so unchristian but according to Scripture leave secret things to God and allow grains for Education Prepossessions Ignorance c. which is yet no more a Reason for any Man to turn Papist than 't is for him that stands safe on the shore to leap off into a Vessel so rotten and leaky as just ready to sink upon a presumption that still some of those that are in her may escape the danger Or to chuse an impudent Quack who boasts he only can cure him and refuse a Learned Physician who modestly grants he may peradventure be healed by the other though very improbably but withal that 't is a Million to one but the Patient under such hands miscarries and that in this case eternally But quitting this Argument which is only Personal I beseech your Highness to tell us how you or any Man of sense can so far forget not only his Education and Interest but his very Reason as to imbrace POPERY frightful detestable ridiculous Popery that Chaos of Superstition Idolatry Error and Imposture that has no foundation but a Cheat No Ends but to gratifie Pride and Avarice no solid Argument to promote and maintain it but Impudence and Cruelty Popery That depends wholly upon nice and poor uncertainties and unprovable supposals As 1 st That Peter was Bishop of Rome 2 dly That He left there one to be Heir of his Graces and Spirit in a perpetual unfailable Succeâ—sion 3 dly That He so bequeathed his Infallibility to his Chair as that whosoever sits in it cannot but speak Truth so that all who sit where he sat must by some secret Instinct say as he taught that what Christ said to him absolutely without any respect to Rome must be referr'd yea ty'd to that place alone and fulfill'd in it 4 thly That Linus Clements and Cletus the Scholars and supposed Successors of Peter must he preferr'd in the Headship of the Church to Iohn the beloved Apostle then still living 5 thly That He whose Life is oft times monstrously debauch'd his Judgment childishly ignorant cannot yet when in his Pontifical Chair possibly erre 6 thly That the Golden Line of this Apostolical Succeâ—sion in the confusion of so many long desperate Schisms shamefully corrupt Usurpations and Instrusions and confess'd Heresies yet neither was nor can be broken Popery That teaches Men to worship Stocks and Stones and painted Clouts with the fame Honour as is due to our Creator and lest that practice should appear to her simple Clients too palpably oppoâ—ite to God's Law most sacrilegiously stifles one of the Ten Commandments in their vulgar Catechisms and Prayer-Books Popery That utterly confounds the true Humanity of Christ while they give unto it Ten thousand places
The Necessary Eruâ—ition And consequently that the Bishop could not have or exert any Jurisdiction over the Subject unless warranted and derived from the King without danger of a Premunire which made Bonner wiâ—h others hold his Bishoprick by Commission Upon this ground if it should please His Majesty to chuse some persons of the Dissenters to this Office authorizing them to it no otherwise than by a like Commission which they should also hold with the Judges quam diâ— se benâ— gesseâ—unâ— As none of them could scruple then the acceptance so must a Union from that day forward commence in England especially if he would not leave filling up the Vacancies that fall with such till they in some measure equal the Conformists We are sensible unto what Distress the Ministers of a Particular Congregation of all sorts may be brought in the exercise of Discipline over some potent turbulent and refractory Members and what relief he might find in such an external Ecclesiastical Officer as this We are sensible how many inconvenices of Congregational Episcopacy may by this means only be saved Their work in general should be to supervise the Churches of all parties in their Diocesses that they walk according to their own principles in due Order agreeable to the Gospel and the peace of one another And more particularly in the observance of all Laws and Limitations Rules or Canons which the King as Supreme Head shall by advice of a Convocation oâ— the consent of his three Estates in Parliament make on purpose and impose upon them with respect both to the publick Emolument and the safety of his own Person Dignity and Dominions For example suppose this to be one Canon or Injunction That no Novice but such as are Grave Men only among the Sects be admitted to be Teachers Another this That the doors be kept open in all Conventiâ—les for any that wilâ— to come in and hear that no Sedition be there hatched or broached There are such and many the like Impositions may be found very fit to be laid on some Persons not needful for others and it is Time and the Trial and Experience which must be the Mother to bring them forth and cultivate them after to their best advantage To the making such Canons we humbly motion a third Clerk for the Convocation to be added to the two in every Diocess and chose out of the Dissenters with indifferent respect to all sorts of them that mutual Satisfaction and Concord my thereby be prosecuted with unanimity of Heart and Good will throughout all the Churcheâ— And the two Provinces of Canterbury and York should unite in this Convocation for the making them one National Church and not two Provincial ones in a diverse Assembly By this means shall one Organ more be added to this great Political Society for deriving an influence from the Head to these parts of the Body as well as others which now seem neglected and to have no care taken of them The more especial business of such an equally Modell'd Convocation should be the revising the Book of Canons for the reversing the main body of them having been fitted to that narrow scantling which is unworthy the Church of England and for the leaving only those and making new as we have exemplified in one or two for instance-sake even now which do and will suit to that larger Constitution thereof intended by this Paper And having now said thus much for Explanation of this Design we must say some little also in favour of it The Design of such an Accommodation as this shall advance not lessen the outward power and honour of the Bishop extending it over those who before had no conscientious regard for their Function while yet it would ease them of the tremendous burden of such a Cura Animarum they take on them otherwise as must be of impossible performance This Design which is suppos'd to find us in our Divisions and not to make any shall by little and little with God's blessing on it cool Animosities and enkindle Charity and Holiness among all parties which now is so much wanting while those that are Catholicks and those that are Protestants and much more those that are Conformists and those that are Nonconfrmists do agree in the substance of one Christianity having the same Scriptures the same Articles of Faith in the three Creeds and the same Rule of Manners in the Decalogue There is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism They cannot indeed have both Communion in the same External Worship but they can have it in the Internal Adoration of the same blessed Trinity and in One Hope of our calling unto eternal Life through Christ Iesus They must separate into several Congregations but there shall be no Schism in the Body by this means for all that For as while the Supreme Power allows only the Parochial Meetings as established by Law it hath bin accounted Schism to go to Separate Assemblies So if the Scene be altered and these Separate Congregations be also made Legal this Schism or Mens being called Schismaticks in that regard must vanish and be at an end Indeed these divers Congregations will Accuse one another as guilty of Sin and Schism before God for each separating from the others Communion and threaten his Judgment but so long as there is no separating from the Church whereof the King is Head while he tolerates the Meetings of both and makes them parts of it as National there shall be no prosecution of Law against any but all quiet as fellow-Members upon that account Only as to the Roman Catholicks it is not indeed for them to imagine that a Protestant King and Parliament should allow of their Mass in Publick as they do of the Service-Book This were not to tolerate the Papists but to set up Popery whereas the Determining what is to be permitted to one Party and what to another so as no Detriment may be brought to the Church or State and no Sin or Guilt upon the Nation by that permission is a nice thing and the business of this Parliament There is one Motion farther should be added and that is for another Bill also to be brought in to take away Pluralities which is the Pest of our present Conforming Clergy I mean both of Livings and Dignities impartially to this end that the King may have wherewithal to engage those he receives into the Church thus enlarged and consequently restores to their Labours by this Accommodation for that is a thing will make the favour indeed significant to such persons I will conclude with one Argument for what I have proposed There is no power given upon Earth for any Man to command that which he in his Conscience does judg to be Sin. Non datur potestas ad malum But to conform in all things to the present Church according to Law is Sin in the judgment of Dissenters Catholicks and others and the Late King was a
notwithstanding any want of thâ— Kings Writs or Writ of Summons or aâ—y defect whatsoever and as if the King had been present at the beginning of the Parliament this I take to be a full Judgment in full Parliament of the case in question and much stronger than the present case is and this Parliament continued till the 29 th of December next following and made in all thirty seven Acts as aboâ—e mentioned The 13 Caroli 2. chap. 7. a full Parliament called by the Kings Writ recites the other of 12 Caroli 2. and that after his Majesties return they were continued till the 29 th of December and then dissolved and that several Acts passed this is the plain Judgment of another Parliament 1. Because it says they were continued which shews they had a real being capable of being continued for a Confirmation of a void Grant has no effect and Confirmation shews a Grant only voidable so the continuance there shewed it at most but voidable and when the King came and confirm'd it all was good 2. The dissolving it then shews they had a being for as ex nihilo nihil sit so super nihil nil operatur as out of nothing nothing can be made so upon nothing nothing can operate Again the King Lords and Commons make the great Corporation or Body of the Kingdom and the Commons are legally taken for the Free-holders Inst. 4. p. 2. Now the Lords and Commons having Proclaimed the King the defect of this great Corporation is cured and all the Essential parts of this great Body Politique united and made compleat as plainly as when the Mayor of a Corporation dies and another is chosen the Corporation is again perfect and to say that which perfects the great Body Politique should in the same instant destroy it I mean the Parliament is to make contradictions true simul semel the perfection and destruction of this great Body at one instant and by the same Act. Then if necessity of Affairs was a forcible Argument in 1660 a time of great peace not only in England but throughout Europe and almost in all the World certainly 't is of a greater force now when England is scarce delivered from Popery and Slavery when Ireland has a mighty Army of Papists and that Kingdom in hazard of final destruction if not speedily prevented and when France has destroyed most of the Protestants there and threatens the ruin of the Low-Countries from whence God has sent the wonderful Assistance of our Gracious and therefore most Glorious King and England cannot promise safety from that Forreign Power when forty days delay which is the least can be for a new Parliament and considering we can never hope to have one more freely chosen because first it was so free from Court-influence or likelihood of all design that the Letters of Summons issued by him whom the great God in infinite Mercy raised to save us to the hazard of his Life and this done to protect the Protestant Religion and at a time when the people were all concerned for one Common interest of Religion and Liberty it would be vain when we have the best King and Queen the World affords a full house of Lords the most solemnly chosen Commons that ever were in the remembrance of any Man Living to spend Mony and lose time I had almost said to despise Providence and take great pains to destroy our selves If any object Acts of Parliament mentioning Writs and Summons c. I answer the Precedent in 1660 is after all those Acts. In private cases as much has been done in point of necessity a Bishop Provincial dies and sede vacant a Clerk is presented to a Benefice the Presentation to the Dean and Chapter is good in this case of Necessity and if in a Vacancy by the Death of a Bishop a Presentation shall be good to the Dean and Chapter rather than a prejudice should happen by the Church lying void Surely â fortiori Vacancy of the Throne may be supplied without the formality of a Writ and the great Convention turn'd to a Real Parliament A Summons in all points is of the same real force as a Writ for a Summons and a Writ differ no more than in name the thing is the same in all Substantial parts the Writ is Recorded in Chancery so are His Highnesses Letters the proper Officer Endorses the Return so he does here for the Coroner in defect of the Sheriff is the proper Officer the People Choose by virtue of the Writ so they did freely by Virtue of the Letters c. quae re concordant parum differunt they agree in Reality and then what difference is there between the one and the other Object A Writ must be in Actions at Common Law else all Pleadings after will not make it good but Judgment given may be Reversed by a Writ of Error Answ. The case differs first because Actions between party and party are Adversary Actions but Summons to Parliament are not so but are Mediums only to have an Election 2. In Actions at Law the Defendant may plead to the Writ but there is no plea to a Writ for electing Members to serve in Parliament and for this I have Littleton's Argument there never was such Plea therefore none lies Object That they have not taken the Test. Answ. They may take the Test yet and then all which they do will be good for the Test being the distinguishing Mark of a Protestant from a Papist when that is taken the end of the Law is performed Object That the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought to be taken and that the new ones are not legal Answ. The Convention being the Supream Power have abolish'd the old Oaths and have made new ones and as to the making new Oaths the like was done in Alfreds time when they chose him King vide Mirror of Justice Chap. 1. for the Heptarchy being turn'd to a Monarchy the precedent Oaths of the seven Kings could not be the same King Alfred swore Many Precedents may be cited where Laws have been made in Parliament without the King 's Writ to summon them which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention For a farewel the Objections quarrel at our Happiness fight against our Safety and aim at that which may indanger Destruction The Amicable Reconciliation of the DISSENTERS to the CHURCH of ENGLAND being a Model or Draught for the Universal Accommodation in the Case of Religion and the Bringing in all Parties to Her Communion Humbly presented to the Consideration of Parliament WHereas there are several parties of Christians in the Nation who must and will ever differ in their Opinions about the Church and Discipline of it in the Question which is of Christ's Institution it is not our Disputes about the Church â—s Particular which are rather to be mutually forborn and every party left herein to their own Perswasion but a common Agreement in what we can agree and that