SUrely, Sir, I should much offend you, should I not conclude you of the same Mind with the Author of this your Re-printed Oration: For that were to deale too plainly with you, and to de­clare you Guilty of what those of your Gang are too much attainted, viz. The Watermans­practice, of Rowing one way, and looking a­nother. But there was sure some extraordinary impulse active in your Orator; (For all things are Miraculous that hap­pen to your Party) and we now are bound to believe him a Prophet, since your very thoughts and words were by way of Anticipation, or Praediction delivered to King James the Fifth of Scotland a hundred years since. I shall therefore let the Author sleep with his Fathers, and make no reflections upon the departed; for, in that juncture of Af­faires, and considering the temper of that Nation, the Advice might [Page 2] then be Prudent and Politick. But because, if Pythagoras's Metemsy­cosis be true, you are possessed with his Scottish Genius; give me leave to animadvert a little upon it as your Bratt, and none of his. I cannot conclude you any great Politician, or deserving the title of a Mr. of Reason, and consequently unfit to document a Prince, because you for­get to distinguish, between Nation and Nation; Party and Party; nay, the very same Party, as they may lie under different circumstan­ces, viz. between Presbyterified-Separatists painting their Tenets with Plausible Pretences, and the Varnish of Sanctity; washing their Opinions in Milk and Butter: and the same Schismaticks, as displaying their Sentiments with greatest confidence, sounding them forth with Trumpet and Drum; and involving a Kingdom (the Genuine conse­quent of their Tolleration) in Warr, and Blood. To deale ingeni­ously with you, I must begg your pardon; if I take you for one of a Linsewoolsy-temper; a Party per pale Puritan, and Papist. For I pretend not to Divine the Authors meaning (though it may be the Author and Printer are both the same;) For this Stile was not in those dayes, or in that Nation currant and intelligable, with reference to the Affaires then on Foot: but yours, in Publishing it at this pre­sent juncto; And to me it is plain, that when you talke of two Reli­gions, you then plead for the Papist; and when of Separatists, you are the Non-conformists-Champion. And, it is not amiss that you make the discovery, for Experience as well as Lysimachus Nicanor gives us to understand, that there is no [...] between them: And we may justly fear that Popery will not be long banished, if a Tolleration be granted. That I presume is the thing you all aime at, let your Pamphlets be never so little to the purpose, and your Practice a cleere Confutation of the Proposition: But the evill of this hath been suf­ficiently evinced by a more Learned Pen; and my design now is to Answer a Fool according to his Folly, least he be wise in his own con­ceit: Therefore not daring to direct my Lines to the Supreme, I shall Levell them at Your Self, and only desire you to peruse the se­veral Periods of your Speech a little converted into other Sense, and leave the Readers to Judge which stands to most reason.

Amongst the many Curses that God in these last dayes hath in­flicted upon this our Native Land, this is not the least; that he hath been pleased permissively to open the Bottomless Pit, and hath fulfilled St. Iohns Revelation, Chap. the 9th. in suffering many Locusts to cover this our Earth; who, having the Faces of Men, and the Preten­sions [Page 3] of Saints, yet have Stings in their Tailes, and have hurt this our Land many times five Moneths, viz. That brood of Sectaries, who have once darkened the Sun of Regall Majesty, and now endea­vour again the second time by their Infectious breath to Smoak it into an Eclipse. And amongst the many Blessings the Subjects of this Kingdom have injoyed under the Gracious Government of our Dear and Dread Sovereign, this is not the least conducing to the Weale of this Nation. That the Honourable House of Commons, have had a Gracious Liberty, and the Religious boldness to open their Mindes, and Declare their Opinions, viz. That Schismatical Persons are not fit objects of Favour; and that it doth not consist with the Grandeur of Royall Majesty to bend to them, who will not bend to it; and who do not only confidently bend, but im­pudently break all its Sanctions.

And if ever there was a time thus strictly to determine, it is this: and the insolency of the Factious doth importunately require it. For, in matters of Advice and Consultation, we cannot al­wayes follow what is most Reasonable, nor what Christian Con­descention in some respects may require; but what Necessity drives us unto, and what is most convenient for the present time, and what may be fairly accomplished and effected. For though we grant that which we need not, viz. That in a Spirit of meekness the Errors of the Weak are to be tollerated in the Re-printers sense; Yet it being most apparent, that they, who pretend to be so, are wil­full, not weak: And since, not only Reason and Scripture [...], but dear-bought Experience teaches us, that that Tolleration no whit a­vailes to the prevention of Dissentions; but that sufferance enhan­ces the Insolence of the Party: So that after a grant of 19 Petiti­ons they will be so impudent as to Rebell, Should they be deni­ed the 20th? And since it is apparent, that to enfringe an Esta­blished Law for the pleasure of a Few, would be a Sovereign way to make Lawes cheap, Authority contemptible, and Sectaries proud, who swell too much already. It cannot be deny'd, but that that Moderation and meekness, that forbearance and condescention, which might be exercised towards some particular Persons, cannot without apparent danger be granted generally to the Party; and that the very Safety of the STATE denies such a Comprehen­sion.

The Estate of the Kingdom is much troubled with divers Opini­ons [Page 4] concerning Religion: and it is to be wished that the only true Religion were in the hearts of every Subject: But since diversity of Opinions of Religion, and Heresies, are the very punishment of God Almighty upon Men for their horrible Vices, Roaring Sins, and hypocriticall Delusions: And when Men forsake his fear, and true obedience, God abandoneth them to their own Opinions and Fantasies in Religion, and giveth them over to believe lies; Out of which arise Partialities, Factions, Divisions, Strife, Intestine Discords, which burst forth into Civill Warr, and in short time bring Kings and Kingdomes to their last Periods, Therefore, that matters may not arise to such a heighth of insolency, and that the Seditious Spirit of 40 and 48, which did then imbrue the Land in Blood, may not again be encouraged by Connivance and Indul­gence, without dissembling my thoughts, I cannot but averr; That the preservation of the Lawes Ecclesiasticall and Civill, Inviolable and Entire, and a due care to quicken and Execute them; will be the best way to preserve the Peace, and promote the Unity of this Land and Nation.

I hold it the desire of none but Persons Jesuitted, to Wish for the Free-Exercise of two Religions: for, under the pretence and shadow of them, the common Peace of the Subject will be torn in peices. And certainly your Magisteriall Doctor his Interrogation is altogether destitute of wisdom and truth: For (though like a simple sophister you seem to deny it) Wisdom may devise a Pe­nalty for Separatists (whose Principles do not lead them directly to Rebellion) that is neither Death nor Banishment (for these two are not immediate opposites, and therefore the Proposition is pi­tifull and fallacious) there being a Medium between them, viz, a Pecuniary Mulct, or lighter Corporal Punishments. But it is the Trick of these Scriblers, like their Father the Devil, Fortiter Ca­lumniari, and to Exasperate the People, by telling them what Cru­elties they must expect, and what Torments are Decreed; hoping thereby to excite them to Rebellion, under the Specious Pretence of Liberty, and Self-preservation. But though I must freely say, as to the Promoters of a Religion differing in Fundamentalls from the Doctrine of the Gospel, and introducing another Supreme Head of the Church, that those two Punishments are most fit for them, and deserved by them; yet as to those who only differ in Circum­stance and Ceremonies from the Church of England; there is ano­ther [Page 5] way not as yet thought on by our addle-headed Reprinter; viz. to let them be tollerated as to living, conversing, and injoying liberty amongst us; but let them be fined for the neglect of Divine Service, and their verbose Teachers discountenanced and silenced; and this I take to be a way different farr from that which is here proposed. But these men love to scare the people into sedition, and to make them believe that death is threatned, and many evils invented which were never thought of by any but themselves. And whereas this opinion of the conveniences of inflicting penalties for Non-conformity to cere­monies, may seem to interfere with that rule of Quod tibi sieri non vis, &c. It will easily be rejoyned, though that Axiome always is of force in commutative justice, yet I presume it is not so in that we call distri­butive, which comprehends the affairs of Superiours with Inferiours: because inferiours are not competent judges in the case, till the tables be turn'd and themselves supposed the power offended, and then they have determined the case to our hands; even then when their autho­rity was altogether unlawful, and no other then a notorious usurpation and divellish Tyranny.

So soon as a Prince begins upon the insolencie and impudence of some obstinate dissenters to comply with the Traitors, and condescend to their Petitions: He gives them an incouragement the more to plague and pester him with Petitions, Declarations, Remonstrances, &c. And shall find (which I pray God avert from this Nation) that they will never leave inching and asking, till they have justled, and pusht him out of his Throne. And here again we have the Presbyterian knack of lying: for as soon as the Prince denies to them who have de­served death, an interest in his peculiar favour and kindness; they pre­sently exclaim that he spoils, banishes, kills, and burns his people for matters abstract from sense and altogether Spiritual; when as in truth and reality he onely frowns on them, and checks them for disobedient contumacy to his Laws and Edicts, and their clancular endeavour to set Church and State into uproar and combustion, rather than submit to what they acknowledge indifferent.

It is a very great and malicious errour in you (Master reprinter) to affirm the discountenancing of Regecides, or at least the ringleaders to that barbarous inhumanity, a persecuting of them for an opinion of Piety, and for matters of Faith: And unless you take faith in a very loose sense you cannot here be excused from being the Papists advo­cate, (who are latitudinarians in Faith in a contrary sense to them that [Page 6] are so in conformity: for whilst those will do something, these will be­lieve all things) whose cause (I dare say) was never promoted by suffer­ing themselves, but causing all dissenters from it to suffer: The com­pliance of their doctrine with mens carnal interests being a cogent ar­gument to the Libertine to embrace it; and therefore your argument here being very insignificant deserves no further answer. But if by matters of faith, you mean ceremonies of Religion, and the perswa­sions of men about things indifferent, you then broach a Lye for the interest of the Presbyter, for you never yet knew any condemned to death for any such dissent, nor any number gained to the factious party by the obstinate sufferings of a vain-glorious Pyrgopollinices. But it is the frequent practice of these seditious scriblers to amuse men with brags of their Proselytes, and boasts of their number; hoping thereby to affright their Superiours into a complyance with their Peti­tions. Now how it can consist with the prudence of a Parliament to be Hectored and Hufft into a yielding to the factious, whose very na­tures and notions strike at Supremacy, I do not understand.

It would surely be no great errour of State to endeavour the trans­planting of turbulent and implacable Spirits. For though I question not, but that the men you plead for, are inveterate enemies to their native Countrey, yet there is certainly some probable hopes that these artists of sedition, might do us a courtesie in making uproares abroad as they have done at home. Neither is this (Good Sir) an extravagant fancy: for your Beloved Sir H. Vane that Baronet of Babel; had in some few months almost set the whole Plantation of Concistorian New England into as bad a combustion as you did this of Old. But however, suppose we should fail of our hopes in this: yet sure it is far better (if their enmity be implacable) to have our enemies abroad then to have them at home, a Swelling in the Arm, or an exterior Boil, is no­thing so dangerous, as an impostume or an ulcer neer the Heart, or in the Kidneys.

I cannot but think (Sir) you have taken up Arms, and profess open hostility to sound reason: In that you tell us here in a settled Kingdom, where the interests of the Church are intricately interwoven with those of the State, that Religion is not to be preached by arms, that is in truth (if you would a little lay aside your Tragical Language) that Schismaticks are not by penalties to be restrained, and bring in the first Primitive days to avouch it. As if there were no difference between a Church establishing, and one established: and that because they were [Page 7] deprived of the Magistrates countenance, and consequently could not proceed in that Method; that therefore it is unlawful for Christian Kings to punish with the sword temporal, those who violate their Ec­clesiastical Constitutions, surely this is no judicious arguing. And again (as if there were no difference to be made between Religion it self, and the adjuncts thereof) to argue that because the doctrine of the Go­spel was not imposed by force on the infidels; that therefore obedi­ence to an acknowledged legal Authority, ought not to be enforced upon Christian Professours, though the things to be submitted to are matters of order and decency, is so poor a shift that it deserves not a line more to confute it: We shall readily grant you, that you never knew any arms taken up by True Protestants (For I must tell you I ac­count not the Separatists so) for the matter of Religion, for when the Episcopal party went of late into the Field, it was to defend their Soveraign, and also themselves: But these detesters of Wars (because their horns are short) they were the men that made the abuse of Reli­gion, and fear of Superstition; their pretence to invade the King and his Subjects. And we now (I hope) shall not need to enterprize that difficulty you speak of, and put our selves in arms against Sectaries, as such. But if these men (as it is natural to them) prove as great traitors in deeds as they are already in words, I hope the enterprize will not be thought unlawful; for sure he's neither a good Englishman, nor a good Christian, who will not endeavour their suppression. Little need is there of arms to force men to be Hypocrites, when hypocrisie is so ready to force men into arms; And I cannot in charity judge him any other then a hypocrite, who under pretence of Religion arms his tongue with reproaches: and whose fingers itch at a sword, and all this against his undoubted Soveraign. I must agree with you herein, that fire and iron cannot work upon mens souls: but yet let me tell you, they have been found more effectual then love and pity; for these men you are concern'd for, will break sooner then bend, and are not so inge­nious as to be moved with mercy. And therefore (good Sir) whilst we love, and in our excellent Litany desire their conversion, and pray for their persons, give us leave to withstand and oppose their obstinate errours.

The Will must be acknowledged to be free from necessitation, and coaction, but yet not so free but that it may be attracted by motives, and perswasives; by rational arguments, and judicious reasonings into a complyance with what before it could not submit to; and it is every [Page 8] mans duty to endeavour to have his understanding so rightly informed, that his will which follows the dictates and representations of that high­er faculty may be complyant and sequacious to its dictates. But now if in stead of this, men suffer their wills to usurp the thrones of their un­derstanding, and are resolved to believe only what they list (and the trite Proverb tells us it is an easie matter thus to believe) and love to make to themselves a creed and gospel out of their own notions, and to frame it according to their own fancies, interests and passions, who can pity these men, if we endeavour to reclaim the stubbornness of their wills by enacting penalties for their wilfulness. I wish heartily it were not too true, that there are some amongst us who are so addicted to their own fancies, that they resolve to give a Supremacy to their Wills, and to have and obey no other Cesar; and that tell us this is the God that is to be obeyed rather then man. Sure then, though the power of the Prince be especially over the bodies of men; yet because the body hath some influence upon the Soul, and the Soul also acts in many things by the body: and especially because it ordinarily appears, that money is the life of these mens lives, and there is nothing comes in competition with it, but the vogue of the people, and a great repu­tation; It may not be unreasonable to punish them in their muck and money, for the maliciousness of their minds. True it is, these men are members of the body Politick: but such as a Sore-leg is to the body natural, which if it festers, rankles, gangrens, Ense recidendum ne pars sincera trahatur: I mean not this in the strict and literal sense: for I love not Draco [...]s laws that are writ in bloud; but my meaning is, an old Sore is not to be excused from sharp corrosives; because the part aggrieved is a member of the body, but the smarting costick may well be used in hope of a Cure.

A nobler way and a gentler connivance hath been used with these men, then they ever deserved; Penal laws take no cognisance of their clancular Preachments, provided there be not above five besides the family: And our Gratious Soveraign hath for this twelve Months last past, very much born with their tumultuous Conventicles; But what is the effect of all this Lenity, but an ungrateful impudency and open railery against King and Parliament; Though the Oxford Act was never yet executed, yet are these Unthankful persons so little senseable of the Kings Indulgence to them; that they fear not to assert that they do not apprehend it any product of Lenity, but rather the effect of a miraculous Providence, which hath stopt and barr'd the mouth of the [Page 9] Lion. Thus they fear not to speak evil of dignities; and spread evil reports of the Lord's Anointed. But can Tolleration be thought the way to Union, as you seem to intimate? or is poison to be antidoted by keeping it in the Stomack? Surely, Sir, both Propositions are equally probable. Since therefore Lenity will not avail to cure them, Severity must be endured by them, and administred to them, for who can help what will away?

It is false, irrational, and absurd to affirm, that diversity of Religions is not destructive to Society, and a bar to the civil Conversation of men. Sure, Sir, you are a great stranger in Israel, if you know not what Ty­gers, a meer difference in opinion, hath rendred some Oliverians to the Loyal party: And as great a stranger are you to the Tempers of men, and the Wiles of Satan, if you have not observed, that such a diversity is the Author of feuds, and bitter animosities; and that Two Religions like Cesar and Pompey will be always at Daggers drawing for the Su­premacy; the one not enduring any Superiour, the other hating the thoughts of an equal. For every man being so far his own Parasite, as to flatter himself into a belief that the truth is on his side; will take all occasions to assert, and promote it; and to malign them who seem to oppose it. And then nothing will be so common as to cast reproaches upon the highest Authority that shall dissent from them, and to averre such Tolleration a silent concession of the goodness of their cause; for such impudent conclusions are not seldom extorted from gracious premises.

And why, I pray, may not our almost infinite, and most pragmatical sects be as kind and good natured as the Moncks are, who content themselves with, and submit themselves to the Orders and Rules of their Holy Father the Pope, acknowledging and embracing him as Su­preme, though imposing Novelties as Articles of Faith, and have there­fore good reason to yield onely unto him a passive, but no active obe­dience: I am sure our dissenters of the Classical Order, have much more reason to acquiess in the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of our Church, then they of theirs: because our Holy Mother the Church hath declared to her children in her Rubrick of Ceremonies, that they are indifferent in themselves, and are onely imposed for the sake of or­der and decency; and makes nothing an Article of faith which God hath not. So that here lies the difference between these two parties, they, I mean the various orders in the Romish Church, are lull'd into a repose by the drowsie rockings of a blind obedience, and our Separatists [Page 10] here would hurry us into confusion, by their impudent stickling for a perverse disobedience; they sin by easie submission, but these sin more by the Witchcraft of Rebellion. But since you know, whose property it is to be questionist, and I apprehend this Paragraph a weak and in­considerable one, I shall onely say that therefore these Separatists and Papists cannot be suffered; because we have found by an experience, that hath been the price of Royal bloud, that Lenity and Kindness will not reduce these men to the right Government: that they cannot for­bear to practice against the politick Laws and Constitutions of the King­dom; and therefore it is not fit they be tollerated in the State.

The Murthers, Slaughters, Battels, Massacres, which not long since arose, and were promoted amongst us, were the unhappy consequents of putting power into the hands of these cruel Separatists, and a too great condescention unto them. Opportunity not onely makes a thief, but also discovers the dispositions of men; And if we are not wil­fully blind (which is the worst obscurity) we cannot but see they have given us a sufficient Comment upon their Natures, how inclined they are to flesh themselves with bloud and slaughter, to ravage and roar like Famished Lions, though they thereby sacrifice their Souls to the infernal powers. Sure then this should be a cogent argument to clip their Claws, because an unjust and imprudent Tolleration would open a gate to all this impiety. For who sees not, that they are so far from repentance, that they are traversing over again their old steps, and want nothing but a Rump Parliament to set them a gog. Good reason then hath this our Prudent Parliament to look to themselves, their Laws, and the Kingdom; and provide manacles for these Orlando Furiosoes.

In seeking Liberty of Religion these men seek to believe any thing that may whimsically come, or, by a cunning Jesuit, be subtilly insi­nuated into their brains. And under the pretence of Religion, and the exercising of it, according to the first Christians institution, they will neither serve God, nor obey the Laws under which they are born.

That Maxime so often repeated amongst the Church-men of Rome, hath not (in their sense) been ever executed upon the Separatists of England; At least not upon them as Separatists, and Dissenters from us in Religion, but as they have been guilty of sedition and treason, which is the Lacquey attendant upon the zealous Separatist. And this is cer­tain that where Hereticks are countenanced, and the seditious encou­raged, there neither the power of the Prince shall be preserved, nor yet the benefit of the Common people long maintained. The next [Page 11] way to bring in infidelity, is to suffer men to believe what they list, for by that means they will at last believe nothing at all.

Christian Kings are obliged to advance the glory of God, and the Salvation of their Subjects, by taking care that the Word and Sacra­ments be orthodoxly preached, and duly administrated to them. And though it is plain, that you here squint at the revenue of the Church; as your great eye-sore, yet give me leave to tell you that double ho­nour, i. e. extraordinary maintenance as well as countenance is to be given to them, who by his Majesty are called to watch over the Souls of his Subjects. It is questionless the Magistrates duty to uphold and encourage most singularly the Bishops, that take care that the Word be preached without sophistication and the higgling Knavery of whining Oratory and extemporary non-sense: That see that the people be in­structed in their duty both to God and the King, which though never so often joyned together in Scripture, shall be sure to be separated either directly, or implicitely by these Hectors for Schisme. Now this you call governing the Kingdom by the interests of Priests, a shrewd sign that your desire is to have a nation of Atheists. I heartily wish that rule you seem to harp on: viz. Quicquid propter Deum fit, aequa­liter fit, were duly observed by this pharisaical generation; for then I am sure whilst they religiously plead for the observation of the Sabbath, they would not wickedly forget the fifth Command­ment.

Now then since this Vice cannot be Tollerated but by the ruine of the State; and since there is a greater obligation, and necessity of Law to punish Hereticks, and obstinately seditious Separatists, than Fornicators, and other such scandalous Livers; because they are more immediately destructive of civil Society, and the peace of a Nation than these are (though it is true, For these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.) It cannot be thought that they are persons to be indulged, being so neet of Kind to the Vipor. For how hath the beams of favour hardned their dirty dispositions, emboldening them to spit their poison even at the King himself, and to talk treason with a familiar confidence; which that it may not be brought into act, it concerns the Magistrate not to be hufft out of their Severity.

[Page 12] These Men (I know) would willingly be thought to be of the same nature and condition of which we are: They pretend to Worship the same God as we do, but forget he hath said, Thou shalt not speak evill of the Ruler of the People. And whereas Michael the Arch-Angel brought not a Railing Accusation against the Disputing Devil, these men study nothing but Slanders and Sar­casms against the Fathers of the Church. And in truth, notwithstand­ing all the Gayety of their Pretences, the Differences between them and us, will be found so vast, that nothing but their Conformity, or their Suppression can secure our Tranquility. I know none that desires to have them Prosecuted with Fire and Sword, that Smells Rank of the Schismatical Humour, who have from their Success en­deavoured to perswade us, That God was in their bitter Divisions and Alenation of Affections; in their Raging Flames of Mutiny and Sedition; in the Tempests, and Turbulent Whirl-wind of a Spirit of Contradiction; and not in the Gentle Breathings after Peace and Concord: It being no less then Sequestration to Teach the People Allegiance. This is the Sport their Fingers now Itch at; But we would fain perswade them to Love and Amity, by Chalking out unto them the good Old-Way: we would give them Light, but they shut their eyes; we endeavour to cut off the Scales, and they cry out we Kill them. In Musicall Instruments if a String jarr, and be out of Tune, and will not by any Arts and gentle means be veered about to a Concord, but snaps and flyes in the very face of the Musician, it is broke off, thrown aside, and a new one put in its room. Let not us therefore be so cruel to our selves, as to doat on those Serpents, who have already stung us almost to death, and of whose dolorous wounds we are not as yet recovered.

Let these Men therefore be guided by reason, and rest satisfied in the Decrees of the Council of the Nation: For, as they have been sufficiently proved Erroneous, so they have too apparently proved themselves Seditious and Treacherous. That the Opinions they Maintain are contrary to the Principles and Practise of the Antient Church, is clear as the day: only to instance in that which the time of the Year mindes me of. They deny it a duty to Ce­lebrate the Festival of Easter, which never but one Light-headed-Aerius asserted before them: otherwise this their Tenet would have been Condemned by a Lawful Council; but what need that, since Saint Aust. tells us, that the Passion, Resurrection, Ascention [Page 13] of Christ, and the Coming of the Holy Ghost, Toto terrarum orbe universaria solennitate celebrantur. And you shall find that the four first Councils did not dispute the Matter, but the Manner, viz. The true Time of its Observation: Let their Worship of God be compa­red with that of the First Age, you shall find a difference too great to be Indulged.

You do well (Sir) to Compare your Devotoes to the Refractory Jewes, and had I a mind to exceed a sheet of Paper, I could show you a large Analogie between them: But I shall only tell you, that if Rome had been so Havockt and Injured by the Circumcision there; as we have, by them of the Concision here, they would have again verifyed that of the Psalmist, and have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in their Land. But these Men are worse Incendiaries then the cruell Iewes: for though they have had Instructions from a free and Lawfull Counsil; yet they abandon all thoughts of Re-union and Ami­ty, and think it a disparagment to their Names, to forsake their Er­rors.

That which some of them believe, viz. The Doctrine of Enthusiasts, Anabaptists, &c. is false and evill, and that in many Grand-Articles of our Christian Faith: The Faith of some others, though right as to the main, in respect of Doctrine; yet is so inveterately bent against the Churches Discipline, that their ignorant Zeale inevitably excites them to Confront both Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority; and to reduce Church-Matters to their Penitential-stool, and Imperious Consistory, And if it be no offence to judge of the Tree by its fruits, we may say, without any violence to Christian Charity, that they are in this respect defective in good, and have espoused and obtained an habit of evil: They are not therefore Condemned before they are Judged, nor yet Judged before they are heard; for the sound of Trumpets with which they Ala­rumed People to Battel, and their Cursings of the People after the si­militude of Meroz, because they would not Fight against the Lords Annointed, are sufficient Proclamations of their Opinions to the World. And we have all the reason in the World to Conclude, That it is their Passion and Perverseness; their Pride and Peevishness; and not their Religion that troubles the State.