f 3:4 ] Pery in himfelf, th1t a fevere penalty is to be in~ flitted on any that !hall fo defame him : Yea he bath paffed Acts for the Cler_gy, Corporations, ,Vefiries, the Militia, 'Nonconformifis, in which they are all obliged by Promife or Oath never to Er.~deavour any .Alteration of the Gove'mment of Church and Statt: : And again I fay, what fober Man can be fo fottiib as to think that to fubject the King, Clergy, and whole Kingdom to the For- . _'reign Juri[dietionof a pretended Univerfal Sove– reignty ( Mori1rchical, Arifl:ocratical or Mixt) is no alteration of the Government of the Church, yea of the Church-fpecifying Form. · XXI. This is a great fecondary reafon why we ·cannot be for fuch a change becaufe we cannot Conient that Church, Veffries, Corporations, Militia, c3vc. !hould be all perfidious or perjored : ·Yea all the Land that have taken the Oath of Su– prem,ky againfi ,all Forreign Jurifdict:ion. We accufe not others but excufe our felves : Yea what Crime is it againft King and Kingdom, to ,make them the Subjects of a Forreign Power, I 'leave to other men to enquire. , XXII. God feemeth purpofely to have con.. founded them in their .Defign, by leaving them no Materials for their Fabrick. I can imagine no · pretences of poflibility but in fome of thefe fol– lowing \vays. r. That it is the Colledge of Bifoops diffufed ,over the Earth that mull: t;xerci[e Legifla– rion and Judgmemby Confent, or by Majority of Votes: .And I !hall never fear the prevalency of this Opinion, till an Epidemical Madnefs turneth us into a Bedlam. 2. That it mun be a true General Council that ' mufl: Govern us: And this is no more to be ex- ., ' · petted
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