To the right High and mighty Prince, james by the grace of God, King of great Britannie, France, and ireland, Defender of the faith, &c.  
An humble Supplication for Toleration and liberty to enjoy and observe the ordinances of Christ IESVS in th'administration of his Churches in lieu of human constitutions.  Psal. 35.11. 
cruel witnesses did rise up: they asked of me things that I knew not.  Dan. 6.22. 
unto thee( o King) I haue done no hurt.  Act. 24.14. 
But this I confess unto thee, that after the way( which they call heresy) so worship I the God of my Fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.  Tertul. ad Scapul. 
Colimus Imperatorem vt hominem a Deo secundum, & solo Deo minorem.  
1609.   

To the right High and mighty 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 Iesus in the administration of his churches in lieu of human constitutions.  
Most gracious sovereign and mighty Prince,  
HAving observed on th'one parte your majesties Princely inclination to distribute iustice and mercy amongst your people, and called to mind on the other parte the interest we have, as being your Subiects, to the worthy comforts & advantages which the King of Kings hath enclosed in your royal sceptre, that you might deliver them forth & dispose them according to the occasions presented: We your High. faithful servants the silenced 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 Christs 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 wee have the rather emboldened ourselves, in that wee have out of your gracious proceedings towards some of a Romish & disaffected spirit discerned a great and comfortable presumption, that it shalbe 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 due 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 honourable respect to iustice, take notice of the weighty motions offered by his people: and whose sacred person wee hope th'Almightie 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 appendents & pomp thereof. Wee aclowledge you are the Lords Lieu-tenent: wee find you haue such care of matters civil, that you proceed in the managing of the same according to the commission you haue received from so high and glorious a majesty. And therefore wee can not otherwise apprehended but that you will perform the like in the cause of the Lords spiritual kingdom: wherein if you shall answereably to the address and instructions you haue from him sway your royal sceptre, 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 honour 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 acceptation on your Ma: parte, and withall 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. 
witness the offer of Disputat. and other books yet unanswered.  having never entertained or harboured in them the least spark of 
* My L. of salisbury in his answ. to certain scandal. papers.  disloyalty to your person & 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 IESVS, or the laws of this kingdom( as we, in case your Ma: shall vouchsafe us audience, are ready to justify) your Ma: would bee pleased that wee 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 practising 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 civill magistrates, and so to be for our actions and carriage in the ministery accountable unto them, and likewise liable unto all such duties and taxations, as are by the law and custom of this land in any sort chargeable vpon subiectes 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-governement solicited by us, is more compatible with your imperial sceptre 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 vs. Thirdly, in that the courses held by the said Prelates against us, are for the extreme rigour and partiality of them such, as your Ma: vpon due information received, cannot but in iustice and commiseration afford us relief and redress.  
Touching the first consideration, viz. That the Church-governement solicited by us doth better sure with your imperial sceptre, and is of greater advantage thereto, then that of the prelates. The truth hereof will appear unto your Ma: in case you shalbe 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, entire and independent, holding immediately from the lord of heaven each office and ministery as well in the Churches as the Common-wealth, & not deriving it, either in whole or in parte, from any foreign Potentate & governor on earth. It may please your Ma. to examine, whether Wee, your most humble Petitioners( who avow and profess that wee 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 vpon them not by any authority domestical and proper to the State, but by virtue of such ordination as was conveyed to their predecessors from the Church of Rome. Wherein as the said prelates do cast an apparent blemish and dishonour vpon 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 ministery, and consequently of their faith and celestial inheritance: so do they in this particular disclaim the sovereign absolutenes and independency of the State wherein they live, and make both your majesty and themselves tied, in regard of their said ministery so received, to aclowledge some obligation and homage to the sea of Rome.  
We not finding either in the doctrine propounded in the Gospel, or in the practise 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 majesties power to remove them from out your Dominions, and to confine them to Rome or Toledo. And this was the iudgement of the Prelates and clergy in the dayes 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 
a Preface pag. 2 et pa. 8●. ●17. 372  Whitegift likewise, and R. Hooker, who spared not to divulge and notify so much unto the world. 
b Pag 133. 136. 139. 154. 155. 156. 159. 165.  hereunto 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 defalk a prerogative annexed to your crown.  
whereas we the said Ministers hold, that the Prelates both provincial and Diocesan ought( according to the 
c 1. Eward. 6. cap. 12. Item anno. 1. jacobi. cap. 25.  Statutes provided in that behalf) to derive by virtue of Letters patents, their Episcopal jurisdiction and authority of keeping courts 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 employment: and do in their own names keep courts, send forth process, and execute other partes of jurisdiction ecclesiastical: wherein whether they encounter not your Ma. sovereignty, Prerogative and laws, wee humbly leave unto you to be considered.  
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 iudgement of that worthy John 
a walls histor. R. 2.  wickliff. And the Emperour Frederick could say: 
b cattle. test. Veritat. in Frederic.  Auferamus illis nocen tes divitias: hoc enim facere, est opus charitatis. For the doing whereof, he may seem to haue received encouragement from 
c Ambros. contra. Auxent.  Ambrose, who approveth this course, and from a certain 
d Decret p. 2. cause. 11. Q 1. c. 27.  canon agreeing in iudgement with Ambrose. But the said 
e Admonit against Mar tin Marprelat.  Prelates accounting it a piece of sacrilege to have drawn and resumed from them & their state what hath been conferred vpon them, will not allow unto your Ma: this regal power.  
We the said Ministers keep ourselves within the limits of our function ecclesiastical, wholly refusing all public civill offices and government: whereas the Prelates, disbanding themselves, as it were, from out the compass assigned unto them, do rank their persons with, and before temporal Lords: 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 hazard 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 vpon the magistracy & charges, which are the proper right and interest of the nobility and gentry: and do likewise work an extraordinary impeachment and hurt to the public good of your High. person, government & kingdom, by withdrawing their personal endeavours and cares from informing your subiects in the dueties of obedience, to God and your Ma.  
We hold that all Officers and Ministers of the Gospel ought to be subject to your High. and to all and every your subordinate civill 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 vpon the nobility & gentry in the several Counties of your kingdom, namely to sit in commission, and to take notice of al 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: al 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 civill 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.  
As we hold that your Ma. within your Dominions hath power to call Synods & to dissolve them: so we hold likewise that ruling Synods and united Presbyteries exercising government and imposing laws & Decrees vpon several Churches, and the Pastors of them, are not onely human institutions, but in regard of the said government and authority of imposing laws, altogether unlawful, and usurping vpon the supremacy of the civill. Magistrate, 
Protest. of the Kings Suprem. pag. 4. sect. 8.  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 civill Magistrate( a course abhorred by us, and utterly repugnant to our profession and practise) or to procure countenance and respect to our ministerial function amongst others. We aclowledge( 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 favour humbly solicited by us, is, that whereas our Lord Iesus hath given 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 jurisdiction under him, your Ma. would be pleased to take order as well that each particular church, that shalbe allowed to partake in the benefit of the said Toleration, may haue, enjoy, and put in execution and practise this her said right and privilege: as that some your subaltern civill officers may be appointed by you to demand and receive of each church a due and just account of their proceedings. Here we do humbly, entreat that we may not be so interpnted as if wee disclaimed all sorts of Synods. It is the ruling and not the deliberative and persuasive synod which wee except against. That a synod should enjoin us to receive and entertain a constitution enacted by themselves, we hold it unlawful. To be moved thereto by way of persuasion grounded vpon 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 from us, both touching opinion and practise, it cannot be unknown to any, who are in any measure acquainted with the carriage of church affairs. They, the said Prelates for the 
a Whitegift pag. 436.  calling of synods maintain the necessity of the office of an Archbishop: 
b Bish. of Lincol. in his answ. to a catho. pag. 170.  they assume to themselves 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, from Dover in Kent to the Mount in cornwall: and are withall 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 city 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 kerb your nobility and gentry: or wee the Ministers soliciting reformation, whose power is bounded within the limits 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 sceptre. 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 himself and without assistance from others, standeth disabled for matter of jurisdiction, and when he hath out of a concurrence from his colleagues 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 onely spiritual but also civil: and not confined to a Parish but extended to whole Dioceses & Provinces. If your Ma. shal think meet for the clearing of this point of the appropriation of the title and name of Pope or popeling, to rely vpon the iudgement of your greatest Prelates, you may readily be satisfied and resolved herein. For they haue by the mouth of Dr Downame preaching at Lambeth in favour and defence of episcopal pre-eminence 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 subjecteth to the authority of a Diocesan or provincial Bishop, ruleth as a Pope. The application of this maxim we humbly leave to your majesty.  
Lastly, whereas by their Canons they cross the equal and proportionable distribution of iustice 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 iudgement of the laws of God & of this realm, either runneth not in the account of a crime, or is in the nature of a light transgression. And whereas by the 53. Canon they take from 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 
a Canon 98  Canon all benefit of appeal allowed by the laws of this kingdom. And whereas also they excommunicate such as 
b Canon 139.  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 preferrment of our laws judged to consist not only of the clergy but of the King, nobility and Commons: wee do in all hum litie beseech your Ma. to consider, whether the said prelates do in these several points proceed with due regard unto your Ma. and the State.  
Now forasmuch as the said prelates, By deriving their office and ministery 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 jurisdiction 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 civill offices, and so withdrawing themselves from informing your Subiects in the dueties 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 civill 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 Subiects, as are as well of a Noble rank and quality, as of a mean degree and condition: By taking and assuming to themselves the power of enacting laws ecclesiastical, & leaving to your Ma. a bare commande only to see them executed. Forasmuch as the said prelates do, by these their proceedings grounded vpon opinions in them answerable thereto, not a little disadvantage your Ma. in the point of your regal power and sovereignty: We do in al humbleness entreat that the consideration hereof may plead with your High. in favour of us the said Ministers, who neither hold in opinion nor entertain in practise any matter either prejudicial to your royal State, supremacy and Prerogatives( as our Adversaries do) or partaking of Confusion growing from the roote of that accursed parity, which incountreth the subordination 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 disclaim 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 incongruity 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 vpon the peculiar sovereignty of each, and so intercept that parity in sceptre 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, shalbe transferred and linked vpon one. This primacy 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-prelats of Canterbury and york: in France of rheims and lions: in Germany of Coleyn and Mentz, can well brook some subiection to their several Princes. But a subordination of york to canterbury, of Rhems to lions, of Coleyn to Mentz, would happily prove in the stomacks of dainty prelates a matter of such crudity and indigestion, as that Subordination would bee held by them the mother of Confusion and parity 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 vs. But here wee do humbly beseech your Ma. not to think that by our suit for the said Toleration wee make an ouverture and way for Toleration unto papists, our suit being of a different nature from theirs, and the inducements therof such, as cannot conclude ought in favour of them, whose head is Antichrist: whose worship is idolatry, whose doctrine is heresy, and a profession directly contrary to the lawful State and government of free Countries and kingdoms, as your Ma. hath truly and judiciously observed. As we do not herein give advantage unto papists, so do wee 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 Lords worship, when without personal and voluntary participation in sin, wee 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.  
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 practise 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 religion 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 potentates both in ancient times & of late yeres. Vpon this ground did the roman Empetours surcease their persecution of the Christians, granting unto thē the liberty not only to serve the Lord Iesus according to the holy Ordinances prescribed by him, but to erect also for the better accomplishment thereof convenient buildings & places. Vpon this ground did Athenagoras in his apology, persuade the Emperour 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 Emperour, who at Vienna, and in the Cities descended unto him by inheritance, was out of the rule of policy, well pleased to yield entertainment 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 practise in that kingdom, of the whole doctrine propounded in the writings of the Evangelistes and Apostles. 
Comment de stat. relic. & Reip. sub Henr. 3.5. part. lib. 14.  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 Religion, it is worthy to be considered what course was held by Emanuel 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 success 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 maner with the ambassadors sent from the popish Cantons in Zuitserland, that they likewise would urge and recommend 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 Emperour in divers parts of his Territories: by the King of Poland, and allowed off by the Spaniard in his late treaty 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 government, is observed to be of so harmless & peaceable a nature and carriage, and so far from wronging any Monarch in his sovereignty and public interest, that the very Heathen, the Persian namely and the turk, give passage and entertainment thereunto. What advantage the Princes above name do receive thereby, to the assuring of their sceptres, 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.  
As the grant of Toleration persuaded by us, is accompanied with this unvaluable 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 bee pleased to condescend thereunto, it will bee 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 shalbe 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 Reformation urged by us, may be exempted from the power of the Rochet and Crozier, and allowed to live under the government and holy ordinances of the Lord Iesus, 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 bee examined.  
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 bee not agreeable with the rule of sound policy, that each Constitution and established order in a State should sort & corresponde with the nature and disposition of the people living therein. The greatest peacocks have ever held it for a principle undoubted & observable. If your Ma. likewise shal so apprehended therof: 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 Subiects, 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 ministery 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 Lords Sentinels and Watchmen: and the people also either forced to honor and approve by their presence & practise some the devices 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 Subiects the said Constitutions and Canons be for the respects above mentioned, as a Dose of wormwood and gull: Wee 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 al 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.  
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 endeavours 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 vpon 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 wee 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 through 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 Lords worship, are equally to communicate in the Demonstrations and pleadges of his favour. 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 contentement 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 Iesus be suffered to observe the Orders and Constitutions enacted by him.  
Moreover, if no reason of State will allow the continuance of that course, which is specially affencted and liked by our extreemest 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 deprivation 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 themselves will readily aclowledge: so the particulating of the effects issuing thereon will evidently convince. What is more pleasing and of greater contentement to a Romanist, then the disgracing and silencing of him, who laboureth the subversion of the Doctrine and Sea of Rome? When he shall withall discern that by occasion of the said Course, many Students of worthy parts, do stay and divert themselves from employment in the ministery: 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 labourers in the Lords harvest, much harshenes betwixt the several favourers 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: when 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 onely clear it, by laying forth the admirable power and fruits of the Lords sacred Ordinances practised in form & maner as is prescribed in the word, but verify it also out of example and experience. If wee should by way of instance name onely 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 sceptre imperial against the conspiracies of your capital & greatest Adversaries, the Admirers of that roman Arch-Priest and his triple crown: And sith the said course held by the Bishops is in regard as well of the manifold hurts growing thereby to the Churches of this realm, as of the sundry advantages rising therefrom to the Synagogue of Rome, exceedingly approved and affencted 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 suit.  
For your majesties further inducement whereto, let it not be unpleasing unto you to haue it represented to your memory, that where there bee 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, dependency at home and abroad not to be contemned: for watchfulness and readiness to take the advantage of all occurrents and times, not unworthy to be carefully eyed and observed: for Malice to the gospel and the Professors thereof, unsatiable: for Desire & secret endeavour to re-establish the authority of S t Peters chair amongst us, most affectionate. Now this faction can not but grow so much the more renforced and potent, by how much the Protestant party shalbe enfeebled, & lessened. And the Protestant party can not 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 shal be in favour of the prelates replied, that no action can lie against them for any such regard of hindrance 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 conversion from blindness and infidelity to the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel is and hath been interrupted and crossed: not onely in that human ordinances in the Lords worship receive special entertainment amongst us, and popery findeth favour 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 labour 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. desperat, 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 vigour and spirit in the opposite faction: we hope it willbe 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.  
Besides, if a surcease of urging conformity 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 bee taken: the real use and practise of the Lords Ordinances in his public worship for the guiding of his Churches being of as great necessity, as the disvse and rejection of human devices & Romish Formalities in the same. That the present conformity & Subscription should in politic discourse and reason determine and not further be pressed, this consideration doth admonish us, namely, that when the remedy, prepared to cure the disease of the State, doth in the application thereof augment and strengthen 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 conformity & Subscription to be. Wee 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 yeares 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 conformity is no receipt of any sovereign virtue in that behalf. It hath( wee see) been often administered by the prelates and their serviceable Apothecaries: but ever with no better success 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 practise. It is( saieth 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 opinion of their wisdom and affection towards them: so many advantages are offered to the common adversary, and sundry opportunities of doing service to the State intercepted and lost. It can not be reputed a sufficient plea in the cause of pressing the present conformity 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 doth 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 iudgement of politics, suffer derogation: how much more repelable then are such Constitutions, as authorize the use of a scandalous and unprofitable conformity? If there were in the said Constitutions 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 discent and rank, thē that of outward conformity in human Rites and Ceremonies: the Canon for the said conformity, in case it work a disvnion in the confederate members of the Church, ought so far to yield to the said Law of unity, as not to appear or contest with it.  
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 practise & attempt against the same, no Prince knoweth so accurately as your Ma. Now whether the said Toleration 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 vpon Antichrist by the vigilant and careful endeavours 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 honour the Lord Iesus according to the directions only left in his holy word, and after the maner observed in the reformed Churches, which have so far proceeded in their Separation from Rome, that they hold with it no Communion, either in the proper Doctrine of that Sea, or in the Constitution, Rites and Formalities of the same: we trust that the Lord Iesus, 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 favourites 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.  
If the defect of Toleration and the holding of the said course prelatical, bee a mean to abridge your Ma. in the number of your serviceable and faithful Subiects( in the multitude of whom consisteth the strength and glory of a Prince, 
Proverb. 14 28.  and amongst whom the loss, even of one ought to bee precious in your sight) and withall to cast vpon the government of the Churches of the Lord Iesus within this your kingdom a double blemish and imputation, the one that it is fashioned not according to the pattern shewed 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 rigour as well for the silencing & removing from out the Church no mean number of the worthiest Pastors within this land, as for the disgracing and ●raducing of many thousands otherwise of your Ma. most loyal and best affencted Subiects in regard of their affection to the Reformation desired. May it then please your excellent Ma. to draw under the examination of your most politic and religious thoughts, what wee do here propound, and to deliberate with your noble heart seriously and unpartially, whether to prevent the inconveniences now particulated and charged vpon 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 prise as a singular blessing the multitude of faithful subiects, 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( wee 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 scandalising of the Lords 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. Subiects have actually quitted the realm. That many others vpon 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 Subiects, may hereby appear, in that the prelates have or pretend to have power of excommunicating and imprisoning, not some few but all such as shal refuse the Oath ex officio, 
Can. 3.4.5.6.7.8 27.139.  disclaim Kneeling at the Sacrament, deny the Convocation to be the true representative Church of Christ within this land, give no allowance to al and every parte of the liturgy: withstand conformity 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, in case it should be drawn into execution against so many of your Ma. Subiects, as are liable to their censures in regard of the above name and supposed offences & 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 number doubled or treble, 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 Subiects.  
Touching the imputation and dishonour, whereto the regiment of the Churches of the Lord Iesus amongst us, is by the said course prelatical exposed: for the justifying hereof wee appeal, first to the iudgement of all the reformed Churches in foreign parts: and secondly, to the Papists themselves. The reformed Churches, namely those who haue purged the Lords public worship from the pollutions of Antichrist in far greater measure then wee haue done, and are grown into an hatred of his devices and trash, cannot( if they willbe 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 Saviour 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 maner traduced and disgraced, yea in the letter and preferrment of the Canons excommunicated and anathematized. they cannot but brand this proceeding with the mark of unusual rigour, 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 ministery, vpon this ground and pretext of the said vnconformitie. Thus must the reformed Churches charge and censure the said prelatical course, or pass sentence against themselves.  
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 contentement to their souls, that the Churchgovernement of Rome, & sundry of the outward and proper Formalities thereof, should be honoured in our Churches, & the impugners of the same, and seekers of Reformation in this behalf pursued with reproach, imprisonment, 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 Subiects, do thus exalt and triumph in beholding the proceedings on the parte of our prelates, for the support of the Romish church-governement and the appendents thereto, and for the extirpation of such as solicit the displanting & remove thereof: doth not this their triumphing proclaim to the world, aswell 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 bee a greater reproach and imputation thrown vpon the government 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 unpartially executed, as well extraordinarily prejudice your crown and dignity in taking from your Ma. the use and service of so many thousands your most loyal Subiects, as expose the government of the Churches under you to much imputation and dishonour. 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. willbe the rather induced, when you shall consider that the best reformed Churches of Europe, interteyning in opinion and practise 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 anathemas.  
hitherto we haue in all humility and reverence offered to your Princely view and consideration as pleading with your Ma. in favour of us, two important arguments: the one showing that the Church Constitution 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 vs.  
Wee 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 inducement to procure from your royal heart a commiseration of vs.  
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 vpon vehement urging on the parte of the Bishops of Subscription and conformity, having in the end yielded thereto, have within few dayes after upon a more serious conference with their own Conscience, discerning their error and miscarriage herein, languished unto death. And wee doubt not but the present Subscribers and Conformers, when it shall please the Lord to show mercy to his poor Churches in honouring them with the liberty & use of his holy Ordinances, will then cry with the Bishops of Asia: Nos non nostra voluntate, said necessitate adducti subscripsimus, 
Evagr hist. lib. 3. cap. 9.  non animo said 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 from him: 
Prov. 22.7.  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 aclowledge 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 ministery, and the sole execution of censures: they exact fees in regard of these: they abandon us to the check of every Offician and Sumner. Vpon our refusal to conform or subscribe, they commande our appearance in their Courts: they post us from one Tribunal to another: and from this term to the next succeeding. They tyre our bodies and exhaust our purses And in the issue after wee have been sufficiently harassed and loaded with contumelies, they silence us and degrade us from our ministery: 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 thunderbolts 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 vpon what pleaseth them: they dispatch us to the Gate house, or the clink, there to endure an unlimited imprisonment, hunger and could, chains and fetters sometimes: there to be shopped up for a time in such sort( in case wee stir the humour in them) as that we shall see neither friend nor foe, neither sun nor moon; and there likewise to spend our dayes & last breathing( as some haue 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 controversies a most equal Offer of Disputation, 
M. Iacobs book. The abridgement of the Ministers of lincoln Dioces. Whitenhall. 12. Arguments. Remooval. &c.  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-remembred injustice and violence, take up other proceedings against vs. They dispossess and deprive us of our free holds and livings: they expose us, our wives and children to beggary: they 
“ Canon 76.  bar us from employing our persons and industry otherwise for the interteynement of our families, not afoording unto us the favour of relief, which at the dissolution of Monasteries, monks and Friers did find amongst us: and which thieves and Murtherers 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 vpon us the taking of an 
* Magna charta. cap. 18.  unlawful and irreligious Oath, such as is no where in use, but in the Courts of popish inquisition: that we should fall to the accusation of ourselves, and to the detection of others, is a matter much affencted by them: being parties, they take vpon them notwithstanding to sit in iudgement and to pass sentence against vs. They intercept and take from us our possessions, not by the verdict of jurors, 
Magna charta. cap. 29.  as the law hath appointed, but by the sole authority and voice of one man: whether the punishment they inflict exceed the offence in question they regard not. The benefit of appeal, which the law of 
a Fascicul. rer repetend in appellar. Parisiens. fol 34.  God, and each several Nation alloweth, they 
b Canon. 98.  deny unto vs. And bringing our cause before the civill 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 endeavour to approve the carriage of our actions to the Christians amongst whom wee converse: they cast not on us some light aspersion and blemish, but heap vpon 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 vncompared 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 vpon the earth, or to behold the sun, and as if wee were compounded of impieties to God, and disloyalties to our Prince: they blushy not to give forth that we plot the subversion of the State and Church: that we are enemies to your Ma. crown and sovereignty: that 
* B of lincoln in his answer to a catholic gent. pag. 124.  wee in books and practise hold it for a point of divinity to depose Princes, surprise their persons, and renounce allegiance: that wee 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. hereupon it is that towards them, the said prelates, either forbear the execution of the Law, or they perform it in a carriage of all favourable 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 vnder-restraint without limitation at their pleasure, & that sometimes in could irons and with threats of the rack. But here wee are not without this comfort in that your Excellent Ma. in your answer to Tortus, doth aclowledge our readiness to the Oath of supremacy: 
B. of Lincol in his answer to a catholic pag 142.  and the Bishop of lincoln himself( so forcible is truth) our loyalty to your royal person.  
Wherefore( most Noble, mighty, and gracious Prince) sith 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 sith wee have made it appear unto your majesty( as wee hope) that the government and courses interteyned by the said prelates, are not so compatible with your sceptre & State, as the nature and form of the government solicited by us: And sith likewise the received Maxims of policy do persuade and warrant the grant of the favour wee do desire: Let our humble Motion( most dear sovereign) 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 potentates haue shewed to persons of our profession and quality. So shall your majesty highly honour 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 honoured by your majesty in our assemblies: their blessings, as the due, shall fall vpon your Highnes & your posterity. The heartes of those that sigh and groan under the burden of the prelacy, and who long to behold the glory and beauty of Christs kingdom, shall ever admire and bless you. All such your Subiects, as haue 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 land: and in lieu thereof a carriage of mutual amity and respect entertained. The prelates themselves 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 from time to time draw vpon them. Finally, Christ Iesus( 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 Ezechias: 
Isa. 39.8.  even Peace and truth in your Highnes dayes, and in the dayes of your posterity for ever. Now the God of Heaven give us favour in your eyes this day. The Lord multiply vpon your royal self and your noble issue all honourable felicities. The Lord disappoint the projects and attempts of your enemies, AMEN.  
Your Ma. most loyal, faithful and 
 obedient subject, some of the late 
 silenced and deprived Ministers 
 and people consenting in iudgement 
 with them.  job. 17.24. 
judge not according to the appearance: but judge righteous iudgement.  job 6.25. 
How steadfast are the words of righteousness? and what can any of you justly reprove?  job 6.29. 
turn I pray you: let there be none iniquity: return I say: and you shall see yet my righteousness in that behalf. Is there iniquity in my tongue? Doth not my mouth feel sorrows?  Math 22.21. 
give unto caesar the things which are Casars: and give unto God those things which are Gods.   

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