AN ENGLISH ANSWER TO THE Scotch Speech, Showing the intolerableness of TOLERATION In Matters of RELIGION. AND Converting each Argument in that Speech to its most Reasonable, Genuine and Proper Use; and each Paragraph into an Argument against its Author.  
By W. K. A Lover of Loyalty, Truth and Tranquillity; and one who Accounts it a Dignity, as well as Duty, to be an Obedient Son of the CHURCH of ENGLAND.  
LONDON: Printed by T. N. for Edward Man, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Swan near York-House in the Strand. 1668.   

AN ENGLISH ANSWER TO THE SCOTCH SPEECH.  
SUrely, Sir, I should much offend you, should I not conclude you of the same Mind with the Author of this your reprinted Oration: For that were to deal 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 Predication 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 Affairs, and considering the temper of that Nation, the Advice might then be Prudent and Politic. But because, if Pythagoras' Metemsycosis be true, you are possessed with his Scottish Genius; give me leave to animadvert a little upon it as your Brat, 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 Schismatics, as displaying their Sentiments with greatest confidence, sounding them forth with Trumpet and Drum; and involving a Kingdom (the Genuine consequent of their Toleration) in War, and Blood. To deal ingeniously with you, I must beg 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 Author's meaning (though it may be the Author and Printer are both the same;) For this Style was not in those days, or in that Nation currant and intelligable, with reference to the Affairs then on Foot: but yours, in Publishing it at this present juncto; And to me it is plain, that when you talk 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 Toleration be granted. That I presume is the thing you all aim at, let your Pamphlets be never so little to the purpose, and your Practice a clear Confutation of the Proposition: But the evil of this hath been sufficiently evinced by a more Learned Pen; and my design now is to Answer a Fool according to his Folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit: Therefore not daring to direct my Lines to the Supreme, I shall Level them at Yourself, 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 days 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. john's Revelation, Chap. the 9th. in suffering many Locusts to cover this our Earth; who, having the Faces of Men, and the Pretensions of Saints, yet have Stings in their Tails, and have hurt this our Land many times five Months, viz. That brood of Sectaries, who have once darkened the Sun of Regal Majesty, and now endeavour again the second time by their Infectious breath to Smoke it into an Eclipse. And amongst the many Blessings the Subjects of this Kingdom have enjoyed under the Gracious Government of our Dear and Dread Sovereign, this is not the least conducing to the Weal of this Nation. That the Honourable House of Commons, have had a Gracious Liberty, and the Religious boldness to open their Minds, and Declare their Opinions, viz. That Schismatical Persons are not fit objects of Favour; and that it doth not consist with the Grandeur of Royal 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 always follow what is most Reasonable, nor what Christian Condescension 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 tolerated in the Re-printers sense; Yet it being most apparent, that they, who pretend to be so, are wilful, not weak: And since, not only Reason and Scripture 
* 〈…〉 , but dearbought Experience teaches us, that that Toleration no whit avails to the prevention of Dissensions; but that sufferance enhances the Insolence of the Party: So that after a grant of 19 Petitions they will be so impudent as to Rebel, Should they be denied the 20th? And since it is apparent, that to infringe an Established Law for the pleasure of a Few, would be a Sovereign way to make Laws cheap, Authority contemptible, and Sectaries proud, who swell too much already. It cannot be denied, but that that Moderation and meekness, that forbearance and condescension, 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 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 hypocritical 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 Civil War, and in short time bring Kings and Kingdoms to their last Periods, Therefore, that matters may not arise to such a height 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 aver; That the preservation of the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil, 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 pieces. 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 pitiful and fallacious) there being a Medium between them, viz, a Pecuniary Mulct, or lighter Corporal Punishments. But it is the Trick of these Scribblers, 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 Fundamentals 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 way not as yet thought on by our addleheaded Reprinter; viz. to let them be tolerated as to living, conversing, and enjoying 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 far from that which is here proposed. But these men love to scare the people into sedition, and to make them believe that death is threatened, and many evils invented which were never thought of by any but themselves. And whereas this opinion of the conveniences of inflicting penalties for Nonconformity to ceremonies, may seem to interfere with that rule of Quod tibi sieri non vis, etc. It will easily be rejoined, though that Axiom always is of force in commutative justice, yet I presume it is not so in that we call distributive, which comprehends the affairs of Superiors with Inferiors: because inferiors are not competent judges in the case, till the tables be turned 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 than a notorious usurpation and devilish Tyranny.  
So soon as a Prince gins upon the insolency and impudence of some obstinate dissenters to comply with the Traitors, and condescend to their Petitions: He gives them an encouragement the more to plague and pester him with Petitions, Declarations, Remonstrances, etc. And shall find (which I pray God avert from this Nation) that they will never leave inching and ask, till they have justled, and pushed 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 only 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 error 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 lose sense you cannot here be excused from being the Papists advocate, (who are latitudinarians in Faith in a contrary sense to them that 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 men's 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 persuasions of men about things indifferent, you then broach a Lie 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 vainglorious Pyrgopollinices'. But it is the frequent practice of these seditious scribblers to amuse men with brags of their Proselytes, and boasts of their number; hoping thereby to affright their Superiors into a compliance with their Petitions. Now how it can consist with the prudence of a Parliament to be Hectored and Huffed into a yielding to the factious, whose very natures and notions strike at Supremacy, I do not understand.  
It would surely be no great error 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 Country, yet there is certainly some probable hopes that these artists of sedition, might do us a courtesy in making uproars 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 imposthume or an ulcer near 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 Schismatics 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 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 itself, 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 Professors, 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 Sovereign, 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 enterprise that difficulty you speak of, and put ourselves 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 enterprise 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 hypocrisy is so ready to force men into arms; And I cannot in charity judge him any other than 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 Sovereign. I must agree with you herein, that fire and iron cannot work upon men's souls: but yet let me tell you, they have been found more effectual than love and pity; for these men you are concerned for, will break sooner than 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 errors.  
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 persuasives; by rational arguments, and judicious reasonings into a compliance with what before it could not submit to; and it is every man's 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 compliant 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 easy 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 hearty 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 men's 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 Politic: but such as a Sore-leg is to the body natural, which if it festers, rankles, gangrenes, 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 blood; 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, than they ever deserved; Penal laws take no cognisance of their clancular Preachments, provided there be not above five besides the family: And our Gracious Sovereign hath for this twelve months' last passed, very much born with their tumultuous Conventicles; But what is the effect of all this Lenity, but an ungrateful impudence and open raillery against King and Parliament; Though the Oxford Act was never yet executed, yet are these Unthankful persons so little sensible of the King's 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 stopped and barred the mouth of the Lion. Thus they fear not to speak evil of dignities; and spread evil reports of the Lord's Anointed. But can Toleration be thought the way to Union, as you seem to intimate? or is poison to be antidoted by keeping it in the Stomach? Surely, Sir, both Propositions are equally probable. Since therefore Lenity will not avail to cure them, Severity must be endured by them, and administered 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 Tigers, a mere difference in opinion, hath rendered 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 Superior, 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 descent from them, and to aver such Toleration 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 Monks 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 only 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, than they of theirs: because our Holy Mother the Church hath declared to her children in her Rubric of Ceremonies, that they are indifferent in themselves, and are only 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 lulled into a repose by the drowsy rockings of a blind obedience, and our Separatists here would hurry us into confusion, by their impudent stickling for a perverse disobedience; they sin by easy 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 only say that therefore these Separatists and Papists cannot be suffered; because we have found by an experience, that hath been the price of Royal blood, that Lenity and Kindness will not reduce these men to the right Government: that they cannot forbear to practice against the politic Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom; and therefore it is not fit they be tolerated in the State.  
The Murders, Slaughters, Battles, 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 condescension unto them. Opportunity not only 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 blood 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 Toleration 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 than 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 subtly insinuated into their brains. And under the pretence of Religion, and the exercising of it, according to the first Christian's institution, they will neither serve God, nor obey the Laws under which they are born.  
That Maxim so often repeated amongst the Churchmen 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 Lackey attendant upon the zealous Separatist. And this is certain that where Heretics 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 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 eyesore, 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 Magistrate's 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 nonsense: That see that the people be instructed in their duty both to God and the King, which though never so often joined together in Scripture, shall be sure to be separated either directly, or implicitly by these Hectors for Schism. 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 hearty wish that rule you seem to harp on: viz. Quicquid propter Deum fit, aequaliter fit, were duly observed by this pharisaical generation; for than 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 Tolerated but by the ruin of the State; and since there is a greater obligation, and necessity of Law to punish Heretics, 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 neat of Kind to the Vipor. For how hath the beams of favour hardened 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 huffed out of their Severity.  
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 evil of the Ruler of the People. And whereas Michael the Archangel 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 Gaiety 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 Tranquillity. 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 persuade 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 Whirlwind of a Spirit of Contradiction; and not in the Gentle Breathe after Peace and Concord: It being no less than Sequestration to Teach the People Allegiance. This is the Sport their Fingers now Itch at; But we would fain persuade 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 Musical Instruments if a String jar, and be out of Tune, and will not by any Arts and gentle means be veered about to a Concord, but snaps and flies 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 ourselves, as to dote 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 Practice of the Ancient Church, is clear as the day: only to instance in that which the time of the Year minds 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, Ascension 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 Jews, and had I a mind to exceed a sheet of Paper, I could show you a large Analogy between them: But I shall only tell you, that if Rome had been so Havocked and Injured by the Circumcision there; as we have, by them of the Concision here, they would have again verified that of the Psalmist, and have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in their Land. But these Men are worse Incendiaries then the cruel jews: for though they have had Instructions from a free and Lawful Council; yet they abandon all thoughts of Reunion and Amity, and think it a disparagement to their Names, to forsake their Errors.  
That which some of them believe, viz. The Doctrine of Enthusiasts, Anabaptists, etc. is false and evil, 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 bend against the Church's Discipline, that their ignorant Zeal 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 Alarmed People to Battle, and their Curse of the People after the similitude of Meroz, because they would not Fight against the Lords Anointed, 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.  

Postscript.  
THink not (Gentle Reader) that I live to rake in Ranckled-Soares, it's not my Inclination, but their presumption that hath produced these Lines, which I hope, considering that they follow the prescriptions of another Man's Fancy, may be excused from the imputation of severe Raillery: Since I have but laid the Brat at the Right Door, and given them their own in their own Language. And I cannot but hope these few Lines may also serve to enervate the Mis-applied Arguments contained in a Letter To a Member of the House of Commons for the Promotion of Liberty of Conscience. Because neither the Israelites, nor the Primitive-Christians ever Experimented (as we have done) those Tolerated by them, so destructive to their Policy, as these men have been to ours: If they had, there would have been provisions made for their Suppression and Extirpation. And though the Epistler passes it over as a thing not worth noting; yet to sober men, it will be of moment to think, that the Totall destruction of the Jewish Nation was the immediate consequent of their numerous Sects.   
FINIS.