And if it shall therefore appear to the Magistrates that they are thus
Conference-proof and (as I may say) Reason-proof by vertue of their Co∣venant,
it will then be found that no one Mmber of a gathered Church
can turn to ours, without the whole Hyena-like turning, and perhaps
some of the Lords the Bishops may think it hereupon proper humbly to
advise his Majesty to null by a Declaration the Obligation of this Cove∣nant
as his Royal Father did that of the Presbyterian Covenant.In the mean time the Consideration of the Principles of Independecy
thus seeming to have cramp'd the Consciences of its followers with a Cove∣nant
(that is at least unnecessary, and must naturally be a troublesom impo∣sition
to men of thought and generous Education who love to perform
Moral Offices without entring into Covenant or giving Bond so to do)
may serve to let men see how the Pastorage of the Church of England
treats them like Gentlemen, and may serve to awaken their Compassion
for their deluded Country-men whom they see frghtened by their Teach∣ers
into a fancy of the unlawfulness of a Ceremony, and yet embolden'd
by them into the belief and practice of a Covenant without the King's
Consent, and from which Persons we should perhaps quickly receive
Alarms of Persecution, if the Government should impose any Covenant
or Test on them in order to Loyalty, tho never so necessary for the pub∣lick
Peace.But the World is aweary of the umbrage Sedition hath found among
denominations of Churches, and of judging of Trees by their Shadows, or
otherwise than by their Fruit, that is by their Principles: and for the hap∣piness
of the present State of England, after we have by many Religion-Traders
been troubled with almost as many Marks of true and false
Churches as there are of Merchants Goods, Nature seems to have direct∣ed
the People to agree in this indeleble Character and Mark of a false
Church, namely, one whose Principles are Disloyal.The Genius of England is so bent upon Loyalty in this Conjuncture,
that a disloyal Principle doth jar in the Ears of ordinary thinking men
like a false string in the Ears of a Critical Lutenist, and the which he
knows that Art or Nature can never tune: and upon any Churches va∣luing
themselves on the intrinsic worth or the weight of their Princi∣ples
as most opposite to Falshood, men generally now take into their
hands the Touch-stone and the Scales of Loyalty, and do presently suspect
any Church that refuseth to bring its Principles to be touch'd and weigh'd,
and they will not now allow the Reputation of a visible Church to any
body of Men, whose Principles relating to Loyalty, shall not first be made
visible.Nor can it be otherwise thought by the impartial, than that Mens
Consciousness of somewhat of the Turpitude of some of their Principles,
restrains them from bringing them to appear in publick View, and accor∣ding
as Cicero in his de fin. bon. & mal. answers Epicurus (who said that
he would not publish his Opinion lest the people might perhaps take of∣fence
at it,) viz. Aut tu eadem ista dic in judicio, aut si coronam times,
dic in senatu. Nunquam facies. Cur; nisi quod turpis est Oratio.I who thus urge the Reasonableness and Necessity of mens being Con∣fessors
of their Principles of Loyalty, have frankly exposed one of mine own
in p. 131. and which I say there that I account the great fundamental one
for the quiet of the World as well as of a Man's own Conscience, viz.
That no man is warranted by any Intention of advancing Religion, to invade
the right of the Sovereign Power that is inherent in Princes by the munici∣pal
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