altogether reasonable in themselves, may yet in fome fort be thought fit to be complied with in regard of the Number, Quality, Merits or Interest of thofe Perfons who appear to be fond of them. In a Debate about the alteration of a Legal Establishment, there are Two things highly confiderable; 1. The Nature of the Alteration it felf; 2. The Nature of those who defire it, who they are, how many, and what kind of People. Now these are things which themfelves alone are qualified to make out unto us; and till they have done that, Authority is fcarce in a Capacity to concernit felf about it: For it can have no Measures to take,nor propofe toit felf any End ; it can neither know what Conceffions to make, nor to whom ; can have no way the leaft affurance, either what will fatisfie, or who they are who are to be fatisfied.

And as for the late device of Comprehenfion, the nature of of it is as yet unknown,and he must be a bold Man who will undertake for the Event of it.As to that which is by ordinary Per

fons

fons to be understood of it, it amounts to no more than a pretty artifice of faving the Reputation of about a dozen Perfons, who are fick of their prefent Separation from the Church, and stand in need of a plausible Pretence under which to return unto it: Their credit will not fuffer them to renounce their old Principles, and they are weary of sticking longer to them. Now if the Pride of thefe Men should be thus far gratified, who can fecure us of any great Effect from it? Will their Hearers imitate their Teachers in their compliance upon these Terms or abhorr them for it? And if we had any affurance in getting above thefe Difficulties, yet however, as to all those who do not come within the Comprehenfion, every one of all the Pleas of Liberty of Confcience and Perfecution remain as they were before, fo that fuch a Purchase will be upon no prudent estimate worth the price we pay for it.

to be

Thefe Two things therefore I take very clear; First, that Liberty with Bounds and Limits fet to it,is not

Liberty

Liberty of Confcience: 2. That if any other Bounds and Limits are to be fet befides those which the Law hath already fet, it is very requifite, indeed neceffary, that thofe Limits fhould be known before admitted, agreed upon among themfelves before they be defired from their Superiours. But because I very well know that how reasonable foever this way of procedure is in it felf, yet that the concerned Gentlemen will find more than a few difficulties in it; I shall therefore enquire a little into the other Member of the fore-mentioned Divifion, and that is, fuch a Toleration as is unlimited.

And here I do freely confefs this, that all the Pleas which pretend to fhew the reasonableness and usefulness of Liberty of Confcience do plainly prove this, if they do prove any thing at all: And the late Authour of Hu-. mane Reafon hath been fo much ho nester than many of the Writers upon this Argument, that he hath fairly owned the Conclufion which his Premifes naturally do tend unto. Now

that

that which here doth first offer it felf to our Confideration, is this: How it doth come to pass that in this Part of the Argument the Prefbyterians of late have obfervably been very filent? There was a time when in this Cafe their Zeal was as warm as any mans, and nothing in the whole World was in their esteem more frightful, more intolerable than Toleration. In the year, 1644. This Point of Indulgence was a matter of high Debate, and the Diffenters from the Presbyterian way did defire the fame Liberty from their Impofitions which they had both of them before joyned in defiring from the National Settlement; their Pretences were at least equal, they had the fame natural right to Freedom which any other men had,they had the fame Pleas of Christian Liberty, and befides all this they had another very good title upon which they might expect Indulgence from the Presbyterians in Point of Merit; the fame Arguments the Sectaries fhewed to be in common between them both, and withall had this to add farther, that

their Arms added that affiftance, without which the Presbyterians could never have been able to have brought themselves into a condition, to have enjoyed that Liberty as to themselves, which the other Sects by their joynt concurrence did put them into a condition to grant, and therefore very well deferved to have received from them. But in thofe dayes, their dear Brethren, to whom they were much beholding for their joynt concurrence in Prayers and Arms; their mutual Contributions of Blood and Treafure, and whom at prefent they smile most fweetly upon, did receive the harsbest ulage which was in their Power to give them, and it was no fmall matter of publick complaint, that they were not permitted to handle them with much greater roughness: To omit many others there then came out a Book entituled, Wholesome Severity reconci·led with Christian Liberty, Licensed by Ja. Cranford, wherein we are told, that Liberty of Herefie and Schifm is no part of the Liberty of Confcience which Chrift hath purchased for us, but that

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