are newer and straiter Bonds added to them; a new Declaration of Affent and Confent: And befides all this, the Consciences of men are provoked, which otherwife would have remained filent, if not satisfied; new Scruples are raised in the Minds of Men, which before lay buried, and which would otherwife have been quite forgot; in that it is not thought fufficient that the Covenant should be laid afide, but that it should be formally renounced; and not only fo, but it is required that men must fwear not only for themselves, but that no man elfe is obliged by

it.

Now after all this wonder, there is not any one Thing which is not very easily accounted for: For furely it hath been among men not at all unufual, nor in it self strange, that where former fecurities have been found too flight, to add others to them. As for the Declaration of Affent and Con fent, the addition which it doth make to the former Subfcriptions is not fo confiderable, as to raise a scruple in

the

the mind of any man who was real in them. And I fuppofe that the great Mystery which is pretended to lie in the terribie found of Affent and Consent, which the People are taught to be affrighted at, as if fome difmal meaning were hid under it, is nothing elle but an Art to raise their Jealousie, that so they might be the better prepared for the finding out fome plot or other in the following Renunciation of the Covenant. A thing which was ordered not without great cause; and it is very fufpicious that that Cause doth not only continue, but increase, as appears but too plainly from this, That there is fo great a Clamour raised upon it. And this Caufe did in a great measure proceed from themselves, and that great ftir which they made about the Obligation of the Covenant, in the first and fecond year immediately after the Restoration of his Majefty, both from Prefs and Pulpit: Parties were made in the City, and endeavoured to be made in Parliament, for the owning of that Obligation. It was with great D 3

con

confidence urged, that it was A Publick and National Oath, binding all Perfons of this Nation, whether they did fwear it perfonally or not, and all Posterity after us in their particular places; and all that shall fucceed into the Publick Places and Politick Capacities of this Kingdom, to pursue the things covenanted for: And this Obligation is for ever to remain and abide, and by no Humane Act or Power to be abfolved or made void; as, amongst others, Mr. Crofton hath endeavoured to prove at large in his famous Writings on that Subject. And, to speak the truth, if we once admit the Grounds which this Party of Men do go upon, what he doth alledge hath great reason in it; it being very evident, that thofe Claufes which he doth produce out of the Covenant, do fuppofe all Pofterity to be involv ed in them: And this he urgeth not as his own fingle Opinion, but as the Sence of his whole Party; and, befides the Evidence of the thing, he alledgeth, The Testimony to the Truth of Jefus Chrift and the Covenant, by

the

the London Ministers, Dec. 14. 1647. feveral of which are at this present Preachers to the feparated Congregations; In which it is plainly declared, That it is not in the Power of any perfon or perfons upon Earth to difpence with or abfolve us from it. Nay, the Power of Parliaments, which in other cafes is allowed to be large enough, is in this bound up, as Mr. Cr. tells us, p.139. That the Parliament confisting of Lords and Commons, and that in their Publick Capacity as a Parliament, the House of Commons affembled in their Houfe, and in formality of the Body of the Nation, with their Speaker before them, went unto St. Margarets Church in Westminster with the greatest Solemnity imaginable, did, as the Reprefentative Body of the Kingdom, fwear this Covenant: which, as a farther Teftimony that it was a National Covenant, they caufed to be printed with their Names fubfcribed, and to be hanged up in all Churches, and in their own Houfe, as a Compass whereby (in conformity to right, Reafon and Religion) to fteer their then Debates, and to diD 4 &ate

date TO ALL THAT SHOULD SUCCEED IN THAT PLACE AND CAPACITY what obligation did before God ly upon the Body of this

Nation.

Those who plead for the removal of the Renunciation of the Covenant, either they do believe, that the Covenant doth oblige at this time, or, that it doth not oblige; if they do believe that it doth not oblige, why may they not declare that they do believe it not to do fo? One Reafon may indeed be given, why the Preachers themselves may believe the Covenant not to oblige, and yet that they should by all means avoid the declaring that they do thus believe; and that is this, that they would have the People believe it to have an Obligation, although themselves believe it to have none. A Perfwafion this which, in fome juncture of Affairs or other, they may chance to make very great use of; and that this may not be altogether incredible their Procedure hath not been one jot honefter than this amounts to in another

part