To Prince James

To the right High and Mightie Prince, JAMES by the grace of God, King of great Britannie, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. An humble Supplication for a Toleration and liberty to enjoy and observe the ordinances of Christ Jesus in the administration of his churches in lieu of human constitutions.

HAving observed on the one parte your Majesty's Princely inclination to distribute justice and mercy amongst your people, and called to mind on the other parte the interest we have, as being your Subjects, to the worthy comforts & advantages which the King of Kings hath enclosed in your Royal Scepter, that you might deliver them forth & dispose them according to the occasions presented: We your High. faithful servants the silēced and disgraced Ministers of the Gospel, together with sundry others concurring in opinion and persuasion of religion with us, do in all humility presume to make tender unto your Ma. of an humble motion, such as concerneth the glory of Christ's Kingdom, the adorning of your Imperial Crown, the service of the Churches amongst us, and the particular comfort of us the said Ministers and people in this time of our extraordinary distress. To the offer whereof we have the rather emboldened our selves, in that we have out of your gracious proceedings towards some of a Romish & disaffected spirit discerned a great and comfortable presumption, that it shall be lawful for each loyal and religious subject without prejudice to his life or liberty, not only to sigh at home in the case of public and private grievances, but (so far as it may be done with all dew regard and reverence) to cry also by way of Supplication in the ear of his Prince: who will (we do not doubt) out of an honorable respect to justice, take notice of the weighty motions offered by his people: and whose sacred person we hope th'Almighty hath reserved and designed to be the proper mean and instrument, not only of further establishment, protection and beauty to the Churches amongst us, but also of a final ruin to that Dagon of Rome, and to all the appendants & pomp thereof. We acknowledge you are the Lord's Lieu-tenent: we find you have such care of matters civil, that you proceed in the managing of the same according to the commission you have received from so high and glorious a Majesty. And therefore we cannot otherwise apprehend but that you will perform the like in the cause of the Lord's spiritual Kingdom: wherein if you shall answereably to the address and instructions you have from him sway your royal Scepter, and approve unto him and to the people under your charge, that your care in this behalf is so much the greater, by how much heaven is to be prized above earth, immortality above mortality, and the power of the spirit above all excellency of the flesh: your Ma: shall greatly honor yourself in the eye of your people, and establish the throne you sit on: so as neither your enemies shall adventure to attempt or plot ought against it, nor your most noble issue fear any impeachment or disturbance therein.

Under this hope of a gracious acceptatiō on your Ma: parte, and withal out of a persuasion of the equity of the cause we plead for (we resting as yet vnconvinced by the Prelates of any error) and out of a conscience of the integrity and dutiefulnes of our hearts to your High. having never entertained or harboured in them the least spark of disloyalty to your Persone & Crown; we prostrate ourselves at your High. feet, most humbly entreating, That whereas the Prelates, our professed adversaries, and their officers, have not either for the nature of their offices, or for the quality of their proceedings any warrant from the word of the Lord JESUS, or the laws of this Kingdom (as we, in case your Ma: shall vouchsafe us audience, are ready to justify) your Ma: would be pleased that we the said Ministers and others may for the considerations hereafter mentioned, have allowed unto us by way of Toleration. First, the liberty of enjoying and practicing the holy ordinances enacted and left by the Lord for the perpetual direction and guiding of his Churches. Secondly, an entier exemption from the jurisdiction of the said Prelates and their officers. And lastly, this happiness to live under the command & charge of any your subordinate civil Magistrates, and so to be for our actions and carriage in the ministry accountable unto them, and likewise liable unto all such duties and taxations, as are by the law and custom of this lande in any sort chargeable upon subjects of our calling and condition.

The considerations that may induce your Ma: to yield us satisfaction herein, are in sum these. First, in that the church-government solicited by us, is more compatible with your Imperial Scepter and more advantageable thereto, then that of the said Prelates. Secondly, in that it standeth with the policy and reason of State to allow the Toleration and exemption desired by us. Thirdly, in that the courses held by the said Prelates against us, are for the extreme rigor and partiality of them such, as your Ma: upon dew information received, cannot but in justice and commiseration afford us relief and redress.

Touching the first consideration, viz. That the Church-government solicited by us doth better sure with your Imperial Scepter, and is of greater advantage thereto, then that of the Prelates. The truth hereof will appear unto your Ma: in case you shall be pleased to take knowledge in particular of the opinions and proceedings held by the Prelates of this your Realm on the one side, and by us the Petitioners for the said Toleration on the other.

Whereas the State of England is free, intier and independent, holding immediately from the Lord of heaven each office and ministry as well in the Churches as the Common-wealth, & not deriving it, either in whole or in parte, frō any foreign Potentate & Governor on earth. It may please your Ma. to examine, whether We, your most humble Petitioners (who avow and profess that we have and ought to have our whole spiritual office and power of administration at home and from among ourselves) do herein prejudice the said free and independent State of England, or the Prelates, who hold their office and ministerle to be essentially derived and conferred upon them not by any authority domestical and proper to the State, but by virtue of such ordination as was cōveyed to their predecessors from the Church of Rome. Wherein as the said Prelates do cast an apparent blemish and dishonor upon the Gospel professed by your Ma. and your people, as if from and by the means of Antichrist, the Churches of Christ should receive the assurance and warrant of their ministry, and consequently of their faith and celestial inheritance: so do they in this particular disclayme the soveraine absoluteness and independencie of the State wherein they live, and make both your Majesty and them selves tied, in regard of their said ministry so received, to acknowledge some obligation and homage to the sea of Rome.

[ 2] We not finding either in the doctrine propounded in the Gospel, or in the practice observed by the Apostles in the churches planted by them, any warrant for Provincial or Diocesan Bishops, do hold their function and calling to be mere human institutions; and therefore that it is in your Majesty's power to remove them from out your Dominions, and to confine them to Rome or Toledo. And this was the judgment of the Prelates and Clergy in the days of King Henry the 8. as may appear by a Treatise entitled, The institution of a Christian man, published and dedicated to the said King. This also was the opinion of this whole State in the time of K. Edw. 6. and since of the late most worthy Queen: yea of Archbishop Whitegift likewise, and R. Hooker, who spared not to divulge and notify so much unto the world. Herevnto do subscribe the best reformed churches in Europe. But our Prelates on the contrary, under pretext of deriving the title and birth of their functions and dignities from Christ and his Apostles, by the interposing of the Pope & church of Rome, do absolutely deny unto your Ma. the said power: and so abridging you in an high point of your supremacy, do intercept and defalke a prerogative annexed to your Crown.

[ 3] Whereas we the said Ministers hold, that the Prelates both Provincial and Diocesan ought (according to the Statutes provided in that behalf) to derive by virtue of Letters pattents, their Episcopal jurisdiction and authority of keeping Courtes and sending forth process from and in the name, & under the seal of arms of your Highnes and Successors: they, the said Prelates, on the contrary have recourse to Provincial and Diocesan Deans and Chapters for this their imploymēt: and do in their own names keep Courtes, send forth process, and execute other partes of jurisdiction ecclesiastical: wherein whether they incoūter not your Ma. Soveraintie, Prerogative and Laws, we humbly leave unto you to be considered.

[ 4] We the said Ministers take it as a certain & vncontrolable Maxim, that it resteth in your Ma. to dispose of the temporalities of the Church. This was the judgment of that worthy John Wycliffe. And the Emperor Frederick could say: Auferamus illis nocen tes divitias: hoc enim facere, est opus charitatis. For the doing whereof, he may seem to have received encouragement frō Ambrose, who approveth this course, and from a certain canon agreeing in judgment with Ambrose. But the said Prelates accounting it a piece of Sacrilege to have drawn and resumed from them & their state what hath been conferred upon them, will not allow unto your Ma: this regal power.

[ 5] We the said Ministers keep ourselves within the limites of our function Ecclesiastical, wholly refusing all public civil offices and government: whereas the Prelates, disbanding them selves, as it were, from out the compass assigned unto them, do rank their persons with, and before temporal Lord's: and join in commission for the managing of State affairs with the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm: so far forth as they make no scruple and difficulty to profess, that in case by your Ma. and the State they should be discharged and secluded from all Civil power and office as persons incapable thereof, you should thereby do unto them a manifest wrong, and expose the Church to the hazarde of ruin. Wherein as they greatly prejudice your Imperial Crown: so they offer no mean indignity and injury to the temporal State, by intercepting and feazing upon the Magistracy & charges, which are the proper right and interest of the Nobility and Gentry: and do likewise work an extraordinary impeachement and hurt to the public good of your High. person, government & kingdom, by withdrawing their personal endeavors and cares from informing your subjects in the duties of obedience, to God and your Ma.

[ 6] We hold that all Officers and Ministers of the Gospel ought to be subject to your High. and to all and every your subordinate civil Magistrates. And that the civil Magistrates only ought to be the Overseers of Provinces and Dioceses, and of the several Churches therein: And that it is a duty enjoined them by God, and which your Ma. should by way of commission impose upon the Nobility & Gentry in the several Counties of your Kingdom, namely to sit in commission, and to take notice of all mis-government in persons Ecclesiastic, committed either in the course of their life, or teaching: and so to proceed accordingly to censure & redress. But the Prelates will not allow unto your Ma. this point of Regal supremacy: they cannot thus subject and abase themselves. They must be, some of them great Primates: some County Palatines: most of them Commissioners for the peace: all of them of an eminent authority & power within their proper Dioceses: so as for persons of their rank & quality to be subject to the proceedings and censure of such, as in every several County carry the sword and authority civil under your Ma: is held by them no less intolerable, then for a Counseler of State to be subject to a petty Constable or Borsholder.

[ 7] As we hold that your Ma. within your Dominions hath power to cal Synods & to dissolve them: so we hold likewise that ruling Synods and united Presbyteries exercising government and imposing Laws & Decrees upon several Churches, and the Pastors of them, are not only human institutions, but in regard of the said government and authority of imposing laws, altogether unlawful, and usurping upon the Supremacy of the civil. Magistrate, in whose power only it resteth to enact & ordain laws ecclesiastical for and over all the churches within his Dominions. And therefore they are not desired by us as a mean either to curb & force the civil Magistrate (a course abhorred by us, and utterly repugnant to our profession and practice) or to procure countenance and respect to our ministerial function amongst others. We acknowledge (as hath been above remembered) no other power & authority for the overseeing, ruling and censuring of particular Churches (how many soever in number) in the case of their misgovernement, thē that which is originally invested in your Royal person, & from it derived to such of your laity, as you shall judge worthy to be deputed to the execution of the same under you. So as the favor humbly solicited by us, is, that whereas our Lord Jesus hath givē to each particular church or ordinary congregation this right and privilege, viz. to elect, ordain, and deprive her own Ministers, and to exercise all other partes of lawful ecclesiastical iurisdictiō under him, your Ma. would be pleased to take order as well that each particular church, that shall be allowed to partake in the benefit of the said Toleratiō, may have, enjoy, and put in execution and practice this her said right and privilege: as that some your subalterne civil officers may be appointed by you to demand and receive of each church a dew and just accompt of their proceedings. Here we do humbly, entreat that we may not be so interpreted as if we disclaymed all sortes of Synods. It is the ruling and not the deliberative and persuasive Synod which we except against. That a Synod should enjoin us to receive and entertain a constitution enacted by them selves, we hold it unlawful. To be moved thereto by way of persuasion grounded upon a clear demonstration of utility and advantage growing thereby to the churches, we do in no sort dislike. How far in this question of Synods, the Prelates do dissent frō us, both touching opinion and practice, it cannot be unknown to any, who are in any measure acquainted with the carriage of church affairs. They, the said Prelates for the calling of Synods maintain the necessity of the office of an Archbishop: they assume to them selves the power of enacting laws: and leave to your Ma. a bare command for the execution of them. The Synods held by them are of a large extent: their authority reaching from Dan to Beersheba, frō Dover in Kent to the Mount in Cornewall: and are withal of such power and ready execution, as where their Canons and Decrees encounter contradiction, there they proceed to the extremest censures. They employ their apparitors to cite and command appearance; they imprison: they deprive: they degrade: they excommunicate: they anathematize. Here we appeal to your Ma. humbly beseeching you to consider, whether the Prelates, whose spiritual arm is of an exorbitant strength, and reaching from the East of your Kingdom to the West thereof, and is able in sort to curb your Nobility and Gentry: or we the Ministers soliciting reformation, whose power is boūded within the limites of a poor parish, and subject to the authority and controlment of any your meanest Commissioners for the peace, do exercise a jurisdiction and government most compatible with your imperial Scepter. It may please you to examine and weigh in your Princely apprehensions & thoughts, to whom the title and name of Pope (so often objected by our adversaries to a Parish pastor ) may with best reason be appropriated, whether to a poor Minister (who of him self and without assistance from others, standeth disabled for matter of jurisdiction, and when he hath out of a cōcurrence from his Collegues with him an authority to proceed judicially, yet cannot make it obligatory & of validity otherwise then with the consent and within the proper precincts of his particular congregation) or to a Prelate, who ruleth alone without check, and whose power of jurisdiction is not only spiritual but also civil: and not confined to a Parish but extended to whole Dioceses & Provinces. If your Ma. shall think meet for the clearing of this point of the appropriation of the title and name of Pope or popeling, to rely upon the judgment of your greatest Prelates, you may readily be satisfied and resolved herein. For they have by the mouth of D ^r Downame preaching at Lambeth in favor and defense of Episcopal preeminence and authority concluded, and since cum privilegio under special allowance divulged & recommended to the world this theological and undoubted Maxim, viz. That a Minister having supreme and sole authority in the Church and causes ecclesiastical, or ruling alone without controlment, & not subjected to the authority of a Diocesan or Provincial Bishop, ruleth as a Pope. The application of this Maxim we humbly leave to your Majesty.

[ 8] Lastly, whereas by their Canons they cross the equal and proportionable distributiō of justice enjoined by the laws of the Land, in that they censure some enormous crimes lightly, and impose a severe punishment on some carriage that in the judgment of the laws of God & of this Realm, either runneth not in the accompt of a crime, or is in the nature of a light transgression. And whereas by the 53. Canon they take frō the subject the liberty granted him by law divine and human to deliver his opinion in a controverted point of Religion: and likewise by another Canon all benefit of appeal allowed by the Laws of this Kingdom. And whereas also they excommunicate such as deny the Convocation to be the representative Church of the true churches of God within England, which said churches are in the true sense and intendment of our laws judged to consist not only of the Clergy but of the King, Nobility and Commons: we do in all hum litie beseech your Ma. to consider, whether the said Prelates do in these several points proceed with dew regard unto your Ma. and the State.

Now forasmuch as the said Prelates, By deriving their office and ministry from the foreign power of the church of Rome: By denying unto your Ma: the authority of removing & abrogating the functions of Diocesan and Provincial Bishops: By executing iurisdictiō Episcopal in their own names, and under their own Seal of arms, contrary to the express letter of the Statutes provided in that behalf: By accounting it sacrilege that your High should by your regal authority dispose of the temporalties of the church: By usurping and managing civil offices, and so withdrawing them selves from informing your Subjects in the duties of obedience to God and your Ma: By exempting their persons, in regard of their eminent dignity and charge both in church and common wealth, from under the jurisdiction and power of your subordinate civil Magistrates: By drawing into use ruling Synods, such namely as whose power is extendable to the utmost confines of this your Kingdom, and over such your Subjects, as are as well of a Noble rank and quality, as of a mean degree and condition: By taking and assuming to them selves the power of enacting laws ecclesiastical, & leaving to your Ma. a bare command only to see them executed. Forasmuch as the said Prelates do, by these their proceedings grounded upon opinions in them answerable thereto, not a little disadvantage your Ma. in the point of your regal power and soveraintie: We do in all humbleness entreat that the consideration hereof may plead with your High. in favor of us the said Ministers, who neither hold in opinion nor entertain in practice any matter either prejudicial to your royal State, Supremacy and Prerogatives (as our Adversaries do) or partaking of Confusion growing from the root of that accursed parity, which incoūtreth the subordinatiō of officers, which we, agreeably to the word of truth, do maintain to be of as necessary and worthy use in the body of Christ, as in a body natural: in which all members are not eyes, or heads or hands, but one is an head, another is an hand, &c. so in the body of Christ one is Pastor, another Teacher, others Elders, others Deacons, &c. And yet we disclayme not such equality as betwixt distinct and separate churches the Spirit of all wisdom hath instituted & recommended: it being in them, as they are with respect of the one to the other considered, no more an incongruitie or disproportion, then parity in eminency and power betwixt the several Kings and Kingdoms of Europe. As it would be a matter of infinite harshnes and of perilous sequel to sovereine Princes, if one amongst them should seize upon the peculiar soveraintie of each, and so intercept that parity in Scepter and government, which the Prince of Princes hath betwixt them respectively ordained: so can it not succeed otherwise in the case of distinct churches, when that power, which is proper to each by divine institution, shall be transferred and linked upon one. This Primacie in power of one Pastor and Church over the rest in the same Kingdom, would (where there be of Arch prelates sundry and distinct Seas) be hardly with patience endured by them. With us the Arch-prelates of Canterbury and York: in France of Reims and Lions: in Germany of Coleyn and Mainz, can well brook some subjection to their several Princes. But a subordination of York to Canterbury, of Rhems to Lions, of Coleyn to Mainz, would happily prove in the stomachs of deintie Prelates a matter of such crudity and indigestion, as that Subordination would be held by them the mother of Confusion and Paritie magnified as the author of excellent beauty and grace in the church.

For a further inducement to your Ma. in this behalf, we are bold to add hereunto, that it standeth with Policy and reason of State to allow the Toleration and exemption desired by us. But here we do humbly beseech your Ma. not to think that by our suit for the said Toleration we make an ouverture and way for Toleration unto Papists, our Sute being of a different nature from theirs, and the inducements thereof such, as cannot conclude ought in favor of them, whose head is Antichrist: whose worship is Idolatry, whose doctrine is heresy, and a profession directly contrary to the lawful State and Governement of free Countries and Kingdoms, as your Ma. hath truly and iudiciously observed. As we do not herein give advantage unto Papists, so do we not by way of Separation disclay me communion with such Churches amongst us, as in opinion of Ecclesiastical regiment differ from us: being ready to communicate with them in the Lord's worship, when without personal and voluntary participation in sin, we may do the same. For your satisfaction then in this point, vouchsafe us (most mighty and noble Prince) this princely equity and patience, as to be informed of that which we do here present.

[ 1] May it therefore please your Ma. in the first place to be remembered, that it is suitable with the wise proceedings of worthy Kings for the reducing of partialities & troubles in their States to a peaceable issue, to draw into practice that expedient and mean, which former experience hath proved to be of worthy use to this purpose. If a Prince should make question hereof: the Physiciā & Navigator could resolve him herein: the one is in his cure, the other in sailing, ever holding that course, which observation & trial hath discovered to be fit and serviceable to the ends they aim at. That the said Toleration is for pacifying contentions in the matter of religiō professed by us a ready mean, may appear hereby, in that it removeth both the original cause & nourishment thereof: & in that it hath been for this excellent service entertained by great Monarchs and Potentats both in ancient times & of late years. Upon this ground did the Roman Empetours surcease their persecution of the Christians, granting unto thē the liberty not only to serve the Lord Jesus according to the holy Ordinances prescribed by him, but to erect also for the better accomplishment thereof convenient buildings & places. Upon this ground did Athenagoras in his Apology, persuade the Emperor Commodus thereto. There hath not yet passed much more then half an age, since Charles the fifth, a Prince of deep & politic reach, permitted unto those in Germany (whom he had for the cause of Religion pursued with arms) as the fittest mean of pacification, the free use of the Profession embraced by them. Herein was Charles a worthy pattern and precedent to Maximilian the Emperor, who at Vienna, and in the Cities descended unto him by inheritance, was out of the rule of Policy, well pleased to yield intertaynement to that Religion, which himself regarded not. It is known to sundry yet living, that the French King Henry the third, when he was to receive the Crown of Poland, notwithstanding his zeal to the church of Rome, condescended to the observation and practice in that Kingdom, of the whole doctrine propounded in the writings of the Evangelistes and Apostles. In the time of the said Henry the third, when the Prince of Condy and other Protestants of note and dignity confederate with him, became suitors for Toleration of Religiō, it is worthy to be considered what course was held by Immanuel Duke of Savoy, being drawn to mediate with the said King in furtherance of the Protestants suit. Though he, the said Duke, acknowledged all service and devotion to that Romish and Antichristian Sea, yet in the instructions delivered by him to his servant Molarius, whom for the purpose aforesaid he addressed into France, he expressly charged him to plead with all earnestness for the grant of Toleration to the Protestants: and not only to propound unto the King the example of the course held by him the said Prince for tolerating the introduction and exercise of Religion in sundry parts of Savoy, but likewise to advertise him of the advantage and good succes he, the said Duke, had in his particular experience discerned and found of the Toleration allowed by him. And not satisfied herewith, he further enjoined Molarius to treat in all serious manner with the Ambassadors sent from the popish Cantons in Switzerland, that they likewise would urge and recōmend unto the French King the cause of Toleration. At the same time it pleased the late Queen Elizabeth, of happy memory by her Ambassador D. Dale, to negotiate with the said King a pacification in the behalf of the Protestants, and to press, as a special and worthy remedy of the present troubles, a grant on the Kings parte of liberty for thē to profess in public & with security to their persons, honors & goods the Religion liked and followed by them. This course of Toleration is held by Henry the fourth now reigning in France: by the present Emperor in divers parts of his Territories: by the King of Poland, and allowed off by the Spaniard in his late Treatie with the States of Holland, and other the united Provinces. The liberty of the Gospel and the free exercise of every part thereof both for Doctrine and Governement, is observed to be of so harmless & peaceable a nature and carriage, and so far from wronging any Monarch in his Soveraintie and public interest, that the very Heathen, the Persian namely and the Turk, give passage and entertainment thereunto. What advantage the Princes above named do receive thereby, to the assuring of their Scepters, and to the advancement of the common good and honor of their estates: the same (O mighty Prince) may your Maiest. reap with the addition of a great glory to your person.

[ 2] As the grant of Toleration persuaded by us, is accompanied with this invaluable effect of giving end to Controversies and Dissensions in a State, such as issue from difference in opinion touching points of our Religion: so in case your Ma. shall be pleased to condescend thereunto, it will be found not unworthy the intertayning for matter of Commodity. For whereas the Prelates by their Courts & their Officers and such proceedings as they observe likewise in private, do yearly, without all warrant from the word of God, draw from the Subject no less a proportion then a Subsidy or two amounteth unto, and so disable the Subject to furnish the ordinary payments & contributions of State: if it shall be judged meet by your High. to honor the people under your government with so gracious a privilege, as that so many of thē, as relish the Reformatiō urged by us, may be exempted frō the power of the Rochet and Crozier, and allowed to live under the Governement and holy ordinances of the Lord Jesus, which will and ought to be in each parte of the Kingdom freely and without charge administered to the people: it will fall out that how much is defalked and withdrawn from the Courts of the Prelates, and intercepted from the fingers of their Officers, so much is reserved in the purse of the Subject, whereby to inhable him for your Ma: service. Of what advantage and consequence this may grow to be to your imperial Crown and dignity, and of what comfort and satisfaction to your people now a long time harassed & wearied by Chancellors, Commissaries, Arch-deacons, Apparitors, and others of this Trade and Mystery, we humbly pray to be examined.

[ 3] Further, we do in all submissive sort beseech your Ma. to call to mind & to weigh in your most wise and grave Deliberations, whether it be not agreeable with the rule of sound Policy, that each Cōstitution and established order in a State should sort & corresponde with the nature and disposition of the people living therein. The greatest Politickes have ever held it for a principle undoubted & observable. If your Ma. likewise shall so apprehend thereof: may it please you thē to consider what correspondence the Canons and Constitutions Pontifical now in force against us the said Ministers and others your loyal Subjects, have with the nature & quality of a great parte of the people within the Churches of England. It is not unknown that partly by the powerful ministry of the Gospel, partly by the Plots and attempts on the parte of the Romanists for supplanting the Gospel and the Professors thereof, many thousands of your people are wrought to a special distaste of such Constitutions and Orders of the Prelates, whereby both the faithful Ministers of the Gospel are in all disgracive and unworthy sort (in regard of their Inconformitie to Popish rites and ceremonies) discarded and removed from being any longer the Lord's Sentinels and Watchmen: and the people also either forced to honor and approve by their presence & practice some the Devises and Institutions of the Romish Synagogue, left amongst us in the worship of the Lord, or drawn into question in the case of refusal to their extraordinary trouble and expense. If then to no mean a multitude of your most dutiful and loving Subjects the said Constitutions and Canons be for the respects above mentioned, as a Dose of wormwood and gall: We beseech you in your royal wisdom to consider, whether it suit not with the reason of State to limit and restrain the execution of them, and so to regard your people, that they may be discharged of all obligation on this behalf, and allowed in the service of the Almighty, not to borrow ought from their sworn & capital Adversaries the Idolaters of Rome, but to interteyne the ordinances enacted by Christ and his Apostles.

[ 4] And whereas a Prince is, by virtue of his regal function and office, tied to distribute in equal and proportionable sort the testimonies of his love & care to the good of his people: it may please your Ma. to debate with your royal self. First whether it stand with the received Axioms of Policy, to yield respect, countenance & support to one parte of your people under your government, and to suffer the other (who is no less, if not more loyal then the former, and whose endeavors have been and are of excellent use and service for the advancement of the Gospel) to rest exposed to unmerciful censure and disgrace. And secondly, whether a proceeding of this nature and upon this ground of inconformitie with Rome in her outward and ceremonial carriage, accompanied with a reproach in an high degree, will not disaffect & discourage the Subject (which in all hearty and affectionate sort we desire of the Lord, may never happen) though not in the point of loyalty, yet in the cheerful course of duty to his Prince. If now your Ma. shall discover that the said proceeding may thorough the continuance thereof, fall out (which we trust shall never, and pray that it may not) to be of special inconvenience and disadvantage unto you in regard of the said discouragement and disaffection it may raise in the hearts of some your people: And that it is an error in Policy for a Prince to carry an vnproportionable and partial hand towards those, who in matters which concern the Gospel & the Lord's worship, are equally to communicate in the Demonstrations and pleadges of his favor. It may then please your excellent Ma. (if you find it to be your own cafe) to deliberate of redress in this behalf: and to afford the Lord that honor, your self that right, your people that contentment and comfort, as to confine and limit the jurisdiction of the Prelates, that it extend not to those who approve Reformation, but that they may in the service of the Lord Jesus be suffered to observe the Orders and Constitutions enacted by him.

[ 5] Moreover, if no reason of State will allow the continuance of that course, which is specially affected and liked by our extremest enemies, as being of great advantage unto them in the peril and hurt it worketh to the Churches of this Kingdom and to the profession of the Gospel embraced by them. And if common sense and experience will advertise us, that the intertayning of those proceedings and practices, which are most distasted by our adversaries as being ready means to frustrate their hopes, will best assure us against their projects & designs: then we presume your Ma. will call to mind how much it importeth you both to command a surcease on the Prelates parte of executing their authority in the silencing and deprivatiō of their fellow-servaunts the faithful Ministers of the Gospel: and likewise to take order that the relics of Antichrist, which have given life & growth to the partialities and factions amongst us, being displanted, & removed, the holy Ordinances only of our blessed Redeemer and King may by way of Toleration receive passage and admittance into some Churches to be gathered by your Ma: special grace in some partes of this Kingdom. That the course held by the Prelates against Reformation and the Ministers urging the same, is of an excellent relish in the taste of the Papists, as the Papists them selves will readily acknowledge: so the particulating of the effects issuing thereon will evidently cōvince. What is more pleasing and of greater contentment to a Romanist, then the disgracing and silencing of him, who laboreth the subversion of the Doctrine and Sea of Rome? When he shall withal discern that by occasiō of the said Course, many Students of worthy parts, do stay and divert them selves from employment in the Ministry: that there is nourished and fed in Romish Catholics at home and abroad a special hope of restoring Popery to her former reputation amongst us: that there is raised much spleen betwixt the Laborers in the Lord's harvest, much harshenes betwixt the several favorers of either opinion, much disorder and dissolution of life: that there is an opportunity presented unto Priests and Jesuits for passage hither, and to negotiate a reconcilement to the Church of Rome: whē a Romanist (I say) shall discern this effect and issue of the said course Pontifical, will it not cheer and refresh his daunted spirits? will it not occasion him to chant a Te Deum in regard thereof? That the course solicited by us the said Ministers is detested by the Romanists, and that it is able to furnish unto a Prince the means of disappointing their hopes, and of securing his State against their plots and attempts, if it needed for the evidencing thereof any further Discourse: we could not only clear it, by laying forth the admirable power and fruits of the Lord's sacred Ordinances practiced in form & manner as is prescribed in the word, but verify it also out of example and experience. If we should by way of instance name only unto your Ma. your Kingdoms of England and Scotland, none knoweth so exactly as your noble self the malice conceived by Romanists against the Gospel and the security yielded to your person & Crown by the free and sincere exercise thereof.

Seeing then the free exercise of the Gospel, in sort as is desired, is a mean to assure your Scepter imperial against the conspiracies of your capital & greatest Adversaries, the Admirers of that romane Arch-Priest and his triple Crown: And since the said course held by the Bishops is in regard as well of the manifold hurtes growing thereby to the Churches of this Realm, as of the sundry advantages rising therefrom to the Synagogue of Rome, exceedingly approved and affected by your said Adversaries: we hope your Ma. will call into deliberation this worthy Admonition: Neque tuae occasioni desis, neque suam hostides: and so resolve to give us contentment in this our just Sute.

For your Majesty's further inducement whereto, let it not be unpleasing unto you to have it represented to your memory, that where there be two factions, the weakening of the one is the strengthening of the other. There is within this your Kingdom a faction of Romanists: for Number, Strength, Dependancie at home and abroad not to be contemned: for Watchfulnes and Readines to take the advantage of all occurrence and times, not unworthy to be carefully eyed and observed: for Malice to the Gospel and the Professors thereof, insatiable: for Desire & secret endeavor to reestablish the authority of S ^t Peters chair amongst us, most affectionate. Now this faction cannot but grow so much the more renforced and potent, by how much the Protestant party shall be enfeebled, & lessened. And the Protestant party cannot but diminish and languish, in case the aforesaid course of the Prelates be continued. For what hindereth the gaining of great numbers to the side of the Gospel, that must of necessity impair and distrengthen the same side. If it shall be in favor of the Prelates replied, that no action can lie against them for any such regard of hinderāce given to the winning and adding of any to the church. It may please your Ma. to remember, that when the ordinary mean faileth of gaining to the true Churches of Christ, the act of gaining numbers thereto must determine: but by pursuing the course Pontifical aforesaid, the ordinary mean of cōversion from Blindnes and Infidelity to the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel is and hath been interrupted and crossed: not only in that human ordinances in the Lord's worship receive special entertainment amongst us, and Popery findeth favor for venting and dispersing her infection in discourses from abroad, & in Sermons sometimes from our Pulpits at home, but likewise in that so many worthy Lights have thereby been removed from shining in the Church, so many able and well qualified Students discouraged from holding place and office therein, so many of good wit and spirit kept from the University and disposed of to mechanical employments, and so many fitter to labor in the vineyards of Gascoine, then in the harvest of the Lord, obtruded to the church. For in turbis etiam prauus sortitur honorem: & quam dignitatis sedem quieta repub. desperate, eam perturbata se consequi posse arbitratur. If then the said course Pontifical work in the party embracing the Gospel a decay of strength, and consequently a further vigor and spirit in the opposite faction: we hope it will be judged agreeable with the rule of wisdom, by grant of the Toleration desired to prevent the decay of the one, and to encounter the rising and growth of the other.

[ 7] Besides, if a surcease of urging Conformitie and Subscription be for curing the disease of partiality and contention in the churches of this Kingdom altogether needful: then can there not against the Toleration solicited by us any just exception be taken: the real use and practice of the Lord's Ordinances in his public worship for the guiding of his Churches being of as great necessity, as the disvse and rejection of human devises & Romish Formalities in the same. That the present Conformitie & Subscription should in politique discourse and reason determine and not further be pressed, this consideration doth admonish us, namely, that whē the remedy, prepared to cure the disease of the State, doth in the application thereof augment and strenthen the malady, we ought to forbear all further recourse to the said remedy. Of this nature and effect we find the urging of the said Conformitie & Subscription to be. We are not ignorant that it is suggested unto your Ma. that, for silencing of Dissensions in the Church, the silencing of Inconformitans is an admirable and present mean. But the observed experience of sundry years under your Ma. and your predecessor Q. Elizabeth, doth witness and proclaim to the world, that for freeing the Church from the sickness of Division and Faction, the urging of the said Conformitie is no receipt of any soveraine virtue in that behalf. It hath (we see) been often administered by the Prelates and their serviceable Apothecaries: but ever with no better succes then an unseasonable Medicine, which doth exasperate and not temper the humors. As therefore Physicians do plus interdum quiet quàm movendo atque agendo proficere: so in the cure of infirmities and distempers of the State Connivere melius est, quàm intempestivis remedijs delicta accendere. The admonition of Moecenas to Augustus is worthy the drawing into practice. It is (saith he to the Emperor ) a point of special wisdom, not to suffer new names, or ought from whence discord may arise. For by interteyning matter of partiality & discontentment amongst the people on the parte of the Governors, as the parties wronged finding no redress, are easily inclined to decay in opiniō of their wisdom and affection towards them: so many advantages are offered to the common Adversarie, and sundry opportunities of doing service to the State intercepted and lost. It cannot be reputed a sufficient plea in the cause of pressing the present Conformitie and Subscription, to allege that the surceasing and the remove thereof is the abrogation of that which is allowed by the State, and hath the force of a Law. For first the State doth not impose the use of the ceremonies as a Statute, prefixed to the book of common Prayer & Preface of Ceremonies, but doeth tolerate them for the time. Secondly, the Statute 13. Elizab. requireth Subscription so far as concerneth the doctrine of Faith and Sacraments only: which, who refuseth? Thirdly, in case the said Ceremonies were enjoined by Law, yet out of a regard to a public benefit and present necessity, even good Laws may, in the judgment of Politiks, suffer derogatiō: how much more repelable then are such Constitutions, as authorise the use of a scandalous and unprofitable Conformitie? If there were in the said Cōstitutions some benefit to the public: yet if the inconvenience of the Law be greater then the fruit reaped thereby, the said Law may with honor to the Statute be permitted to discontinue and expire. And forasmuch as the inferior Law ought to give place unto the superior: the Law of unity & peace in the Churches being of a nobler descent and rank, thē that of outward Conformitie in human Rites and Ceremonies: the Canon for the said Conformitie, in case it work a disvnion in the cōfederate members of the Church, ought so far to yield to the said Law of unity, as not to appear or contest with it.

[ 8] How agreeable it is with the wisdom of a mighty Potentate to hold a course that will daunt the enemies of his State & Religion, & discourage them from practice & attempt against the same, no Prince knoweth so accurately as your Ma. Now whether the said Toleratiō be not a course of this consequence and power, it may please your High to dispute with your most noble self. The less hope your professed Adversaries shall discern of subverting the Gospel and of re-advancing Popery amongst us, so much the more will they grow disharted and vnspirited for matter of project and conspiracy against your Person and Throne: But the more our Churches are purged from Romish Traditions & Relics, & the more ground the Gospel winneth upon Antichrist by the vigilant and careful endeavors of the Ministers thereof (two worthy effects accompanying the said Toleration) so much the less hope will the enemies of your Religion and State conceive of prevailing against the one and the other. And for that regard if it shall under your royal approbation and protection, be lawful for us to worship and honor the Lord Jesus according to the directions only left in his holy word, and after the manner observed in the reformed Churches, which have so far proceeded in their Separation from Rome, that they hold with it no Communiō, either in the proper Doctrine of that Sea, or in the Constitution, Rites and Formalities of the same: we trust that the Lord Jesus, in the behalf of whose kingdom we are humble suitors, will so honor this your Ma. grant of the said Toleration, that Antichrist with the whole party of his favorits and adherents, will out of despair renounce and disclaim all further plotting & attempting, either against the Kingdom of the Gospel or against your Crown and Dignity.

[ 9] If the defect of Toleration and the holding of the said course Prelatical, be a mean to abridge your Ma. in the number of your serviceable and faithful Subjects (in the multitude of whom consisteth the strength and glory of a Prince, and amongst whom the loss, even of one ought to be precious in your sight) and withal to cast upon the government of the Churches of the Lord Jesus within this your Kingdom a double blemish and imputation, the one that it is fashioned not according to the pattern shown to the true Prophet in the mount, but according to the mould of the false Prophet sitting on the 7. hills: the other that it holdeth a proceeding of much sharpness and rigor as well for the silencing & removing frō out the Church no mean number of the worthiest Pastors within this Lande, as for the disgracing and • raducing of many thousands otherwise of your Ma. most loyal and best affected Subjects in regard of their affection to the Reformation desired. May it then please your excellent Ma. to draw under the examination of your most politique and religious thoughts, what we do here propound, and to deliberate with your noble heart seriously and impartially, whether to prevent the inconveniences now particulated and charged upon the said course Pontifical and the want of the said Toleration, it answer not the true principles of wisdom to condescend unto our just & most dutiful Request: considering that it is enjoined to Princes by the Prince of Heaven & earth, both to prize as a singular blessing the multitude of faithful subjects, and so far to regard the honor of his holy name in the government of his Churches, as not to give cause of public obloquy and reproach thereto.

If we shall impute to the defect of Toleration and to the said course Pontifical the Inconveniences above remembered: we shall (we trust) offer to the Prelates no wrong in that behalf. For we do already see that out of a care to worship the Lord according to his word, and detestation to the rags & bages of Popery (which are as yet with the scandalizing of the Lord's people and with the confirming of the Romanist in his love to a foreign Priest, & in his disloyalty to your Ma. retained after a zealous sort in our Churches) sundry your High. Subjects have actually quitted the Realm. That many others upon the same grounds do perform as much, some in wish and desire, some in purpose and determination, is not improbable. That it is in the nature and reach of the said course held by the Prelates to strip your Ma. of the use and service of many thousands of your most affectionate and devoted Subjects, may hereby appear, in that the Prelates have or pretend to have power of excommunicating and imprisoning, not some few but all such as shall refuse the Oath ex officio, disclayme Kneeling at the Sacrament, deny the Convocation to be the true representative Church of Christ within this Lande, give no allowance to all and every parte of the Liturgy: withstand Conformitie and Subscription: affirm that the Ministers cannot yield to all these things with a good conscience, &c.

The authority then of the said Prelates being of this extent, incase it should be drawn into execution against so many of your Ma. Subjects, as are liable to their censures in regard of the above named and supposed offenses & other transgressions iudiciable in their Courts: the holds and prisons already designed within this Realm to the personal restraint of delinquents, though they were for mumber doubled or trebled, yet would not be capable of so great a multitude, as should be sentenced thereunto. And doth not a Prisoner, during the time of his imprisonment, rest disabled for the service of his Prince? If for the time he stand in the account of a person vnserviceable and, as it were, dead to the Crown and State: then if the said Pontifical course shall really and without partiality be executed, it will in a measure unsufferable abridge your Ma. in the number of your serviceable and loving Subjects.

Touching the imputation and dishonor, whereto the regiment of the Churches of the Lord Jesus amongst us, is by the said course Prelatical exposed: for the justifying hereof we appeal, first to the judgment of all the reformed Churches in foreign parts: and secondly, to the Papists themselves. The reformed Churches, namely those who have purged the Lord's public worship from the pollutions of Antichrist in far greater measure then we have done, and are grow̄ into an hatred of his devises and trash, cannot (if they will be true to their own principles, and suitable in their proceedings) but condemn for Romish & Antichristian, what is from out the Synagogues of Priests and Jesuits transported into the holy Congregations of our Savior Christ: they cannot but deplore the indignity and wrong offered to the Churches of God amongst us, in the persons of those worthy and learned Ministers, who are for their love to Reformation, and for their vnconformitie to the rites and observances of Rome, silenced, deprived, and after an extraordinary manner traduced and disgraced, yea in the letter and intendment of the Canons excommunicated and anathematized. they cannot but brande this proceeding with the mark of unusual rigor, such as whereof no age can give an instance, as used by the true professors of the Gospel against their brethren and fellow-servants in the work of the ministry, upon this ground and pretext of the said vnconformitie. Thus must the reformed Churches charge and censure the said Prelatical course, or pass sentence against them selves.

And as for the Romanists: do they not applaud the holding of the said course by the Prelates? Is it not a matter of excellent contentment to their souls, that the Churchgovernement of Rome, & sundry of the outward and proper Formalities thereof, should be honored in our Churches, & the impugners of the same, and seekers of Reformation in this behalf pursued with reproach, imprisonement, excommunication, and ruin in their whole estate? If the Romanists the capital enemies of your Imperial Crown, and of the Gospel professed by yourself and your Subjects, do thus exalt and triumph in beholding the proceedings on the parte of our Prelates, for the support of the Romish church-government and the appendants thereto, and for the extirpation of such as solicit the displanting & remove thereof: doth not this their triumphing proclaim to the world, as well our ready and professed concurrence with them in their ecclesiastical traditions and regiment, as their approbation of the rigorous measure and vexation offered unto us? And can there be a greater reproach and imputation thrown upon the Governement and Officers of our Churches, then that we should concur both in the one and the other with the fashions of Egypt and Babylon? that the one and the other should be condemned by the sincerest professors of Christ, and commended by the followers of Antichrist? censured by our best friends, and approved by our greatest enemies?

If then the defect of Toleration and the holding of the said course Pontifical do in the nature and reach of the Canons, in case they be really and impartially executed, as well extraordinarily prejudice your Crown and Dignity in taking frō your Ma. the use and service of so many thousands your most loyal Subjects, as expose the government of the Churches under you to much imputation and dishonor. It may please you to remember how answereably your Ma. shall proceed to the Maxims of true Policy, in case you take order by the grant of the said Toleration, for the prevention & redress of the abovementioned inconveniences. Whereto we hope your Ma. will be the rather induced, when you shall consider that the best reformed Churches of Europe, interteyning in opinion and practice the cause for which we suffer, are by the Prelates, in our persons and through our sides wounded and censured with all reproach, yea pursued with suspension, degradation, imprisonment, excommunications and anathemaes.

Hitherto we have in all humility and reverence offered to your Princely view and consideration as pleading with your Ma. in favor of us, two important arguments: the one showing that the Church Cōstitution and government solicited by us, doth better sort with your imperial Crown then the government of the Prelates: the other, that it standeth with the reason of State to allow the Toleration desired by us.

We are now in the third and last place most humbly to beseech your Ma. that you would vouchsafe to take notice of the vexation and rigorous measure offered unto us by the Prelates. Our purpose is not to enter into particularities, but to present your Ma. in brief with a general taste and view thereof, so far as it may serve for some inducemēt to procure from your royal heart a commiseration of us.

The indignities and wrongs we have received from the said Prelates are manifold and of an high nature. They have not spared to wrong us in our Souls & Consciences: in our Callings and Functions: in our Bodies: in our Goods and Livings: in our good Names and Credite: in our Writings and Discourses, of which some they enlarge with additions for the gracing of their cause: some they shorten & dismember for the concealing of the truth.

The wrong we have received in our Souls & Consciences, doth in parte discover itself hereby, in that some upon vehement urging on the parte of the Bishops of Subscription and Conformitie, having in the end yielded thereto, have within few days after upon a more serious conference with their own Conscience, discerning their error and miscarriage herein, languished unto death. And we doubt not but the present Subscribers and Conformers, when it shall please the Lord to show mercy to his poor Churches in honoring them with the liberty & use of his holy Ordinances, will then cry with the Bishops of Asia: Nos non nostra voluntate, sed necessitate adducti subscripsimus, non animo sed verbis dunt axat consensimus. Further, do we not receive at the hands of our Prelates a deep wound in our Souls, when they abridge us in the liberty of searching the truth for the satisfying of our Conscience? This do they, when they require us to rest satisfied with the opinion of our Superiors, and menace Excommunication in the case of our refusal. This do they, when they would enslave us to Antichrist by enjoining us to allow the Rites borrowed frō him: and when they would subject us to the will & power of man, by pressing us to admit in matters of religion, the bare will & pleasure of man, and to acknowledge in him, an absolute power for the ordering of things sometime indifferent (in the number whereof the things in controversy are not) and for an vnproportionable distribution of punishments.

How injurious they, the said Prelates are to us in our Callings & Functions, is not unknown at home or abroad. They assume unto themselves the name of the Church, the power of ordination to the ministry, and the sole execution of censures: they exact fees in regard of these: they abādone us to the check of every Offician and Sumner. Upon our refusal to conform or subscribe, they command our appearance in their Courts: they post us from one Tribunal to another: and from this Terme to the next succeeding. They tire our bodies and exhaust our purses And in the issue after we have been sufficiently harassed and loaded with cōtumelies, they silence us and degrade us from our Ministry: they exact bonds of us, whereby to restrain us from all further intermeddling in the same: and lest the world should censure them for too much partiality & charity towards us, they pass us over to Satan by their thunder-bolts of Excommunication.

And not contented with proceedings of this quality against us, they, the said Prelates by their Officers break open the doors of our houses and chambers: they seize upon what pleaseth them: they dispatch us to the Gate house, or the Clinke, there to endure an unlimited imprisonment, hunger and cold, chains and fetters sometimes: there to be shopped up for a time in such sort (in case we stir the humor in them) as that we shall see neither friend nor foe, neither Sun nor Moon; and there likewise to spend our days & last breathing (as some have done) unless the Lord dispose their hearts to compassion.

To be thus wronged in our Souls, in our Callings, in our Bodies, is a matter of surpassing indignity & grief: considering the nature of the cause for which we suffer: and specially considering there hath been not long since published for trial of these cōtroversies a most equal Offer of Disputation, which is no more answered by them, thē sundry other our writings, which they pass over with silence. But yet they, the said Prelates, nothing regarding the same, & being unsatisfied with their afore-remembered injustice and violence, take up other proceedings against us. They dispossess and deprive us of our free holds and livings: they expose us, our wives and children to beggary: they bar us frō employing our persons and industry otherwise for the interteynement of our families, not afoording unto us the favor of relief, which at the dissolutiō of Monasteries, Monks and Friers did find amongst us: and which Thieves and Murderers may now enjoy through the charitable bequests of the dead. Hereto if we shall add the form they hold in their courses against us, their charity towards us will appear the more clearly. They press upon us the taking of an unlawful and irreligious Oath, such as is nowhere in use, but in the Courts of popish inquisition: that we should fall to the accusation of our selves, and to the detection of others, is a matter much affected by them: being parties, they take upon them notwithstanding to sit in judgment and to pass sentence against us. They intercept and take from us our possessions, not by the verdit of Jurors, as the law hath appointed, but by the sole authority and voice of one man: whether the punishment they inflict exceed the offense in question they regard not. The benefit of appeal, which the law of God, and each several Nation alloweth, they deny unto us. And bringing our cause before the civil Magistrate, lest he should yield us relief, they change (at their pleasure) the warrants of our commitment.

And lest we should in these discomforts and extremities gather comfort unto ourselves from the consideration of the integrity of our cause & of our endeavor to approve the carriage of our actions to the Christians amongst whom we converse: they cast not on us some light aspersion and blemish, but heap upon us the greatest imputations. To censure & reproach us for arrogancy and pride, for want of all good literature and knowledge, for men of factious and turbulent spirits, for Schismatics and Puritans, is an ordinary charity we receive from them, and such as being vncōpared with some other their calumniations of us, might easily without contradiction and grieving be passed over. But as if we were altogether unworthy to tread upon the earth, or to behold the Sun, and as if we were compounded of impieties to God, and disloyalties to our Prince: they blush not to give forth that we plot the subversion of the State and Church: that we are enemies to your Ma. Crown and Soveraintie: that we in books and practice hold it for a point of divinity to depose Princes, surprise their persons, and renounce allegiance: that we are worse then the antichristian Papists. Whereat, namely this later calumny, we do not much mervell: they and the Papists being of so near an affinity and correspondence. Herevpon it is that towards them, the said Prelates, either forbear the execution of the Law, or they perform it in a carriage of all favorable mitigation & temper: whereas in questions concerning us, they proceed with all extremity, yea without, beyond, and contrary to Law: they, the said Prelates being not able to show by what Law of God or man, they dispatch us to prison, or keep us under-restraint without limitation at their pleasure, & that sometimes in cold irons and with threats of the rack. But here we are not without this comfort in that your Excellent Ma. in your answer to Tortus, doth acknowledge our readiness to the Oath of Supremacy: and the Bishop of Lincoln him self (so forcible is truth) our loyalty to your royal person.

Wherefore (most Noble, Mightie, and gracious Prince) since these proceedings held against us by the Prelates, are for the manifold indignities and oppression offered in them unto us, and in our persons to the best reformed Churches in Europe, such as do justly enforce us with the doleful cries of our distressed hearts to fill the ears both of God & men, for compassion towards us and redress: And since we have made it appear unto your Majesty (as we hope) that the government and courses interteyned by the said Prelates, are not so compatible with your Scepter & State, as the nature and form of the government solicited by us: And since likewise the received Maxims of Policy do persuade and warrant the grant of the favor we do desire: Let our humble Motion (most dear Soveraine) find grace and regard in your eyes: Let us taste of that Princely commiseration, which in other nations and in all ages both Popish and Ethnic Potentats have shown to persons of our profession and quality. So shall your Majesty highly honor yourself before God and the world, at home and abroad. All Protestant Churches shall rejoice at the hearing thereof, when they shall find the Ordinances of Christ embraced by them, to be countenanced and honored by your Majesty in our assemblies: their blessings, as the dew, shall fall upon your Highnes & your Posterity. The hearts of those that sigh and groan under the burdē of the Prelacie, and who long to behold the glory and beauty of Christ's Kingdom, shall ever admire and bless you. All such your Subjects, as have separated from Rome & embraced the Gospel, shall make tender unto you of a most worthy acknowledgement, when they shall see partiality and faction removed from out the several Churches of this Lande: and in lieu thereof a carriage of mutual amity and respect interteined. The Prelates them selves shall be disburdened of that heavy weight of sin against the Lord, of that continual toil, and of that great obloquy and reproach, which at home and in foreign parts by their irregular and rigorous proceedings against their fellow servants and brethren they do frō time to time draw upon them. Finally, Christ Jesus (who walketh as King in the midst of his Churches) beholding the mercy and compassion extended by you to his poor distressed and afflicted members, shall vouchsafe you the enioyance of the blessing desired by that good King Hezekiah: even Peace and truth in your Highnes days, and in the days of your posterity forever. Now the God of Heaven give us favor in your eyes this day. The Lord multiply upon your royal self and your noble issue all honorable felicities. The Lord disappoint the projects and attempts of your enemies, AMEN.

Pag. 21. lin. 2. put out is.