Chap. X. The HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANs: 351' " would make ufe of fame other form of divine fervice for himfelf, and K. Charles I. " forbid mafs to be faid in the queen's chapel." This was his maje!ly's ~ final anfwer, which the commons voted unfatisfaCl:ory, and ordered the · commiffioners to acquaint him with their votes. The treaty was prolonged three weeks after this, in which time the Arguments cornmiflioners did all that was in their power to obtain h.is majefiy's ~;dhmotzv,es · ' · · h h .. b. d d k fi 0; 1 e par · confent, befeeching h:m Wit tears upon t e1r. en e nees,. mce ma~- commijfioners ters were brouaht to io narrow a.compafs, to y1eld up the pomt of relt- to gai11 the gion. In thei~ lafl: paper of No·v. zo. they befeech him to confider, king's con– " that it is not the apof!olical bijhop which the parliament defire him to{~~w. " abolifh, but that epifcopacy which was formerly efl:ablithed by law in p. 1335, " this kingdom, and has been found by experience to be an hindrance Whit!. " to piety, a grievance to the fubjeCl:, an encroachment upon the power P· 35 1 • '' of the civil magifhate, and fo a burden to the perfons, pm-fes, and " confciences of men. They do not meddle with the apoflofical bijhop, " nor determine what that biihop was whom the apof11es mention in " in fcripture; but they are for putting him down by a law who was fet " up by a law; and certainly nothing can be more proper for parlia- " ments, than to alter repeal or make laws, which appear to them for · " the good of the commonwealth. " But admitting apqfio!ical bijhops were within the purport of this bill, . " we humbly conceive it does not follow, that therefore in confcience it " mull not be palf.ed, for we may not grant, that no occafion can make. " that alterable which has foundation. only in the praClice of the apofl:les, " and not in a precept. Some things have certainly been altered which " the apofiies practifed; circumfl:ances many times change the nature '' of moral aB:ions; for the attaining a great good, or the avoiding a " great evil, that which fingly confidered is not tit to be done, and per– " baps would be a fault if it were, may become a duty,and a man may be " bound in confcience to do it. And if ever circumfhnces could have a more '·' powerful and confiderable influence than in this junCl:ore, we leave to " your majefl:y's confideration. But this is (aid only for argument take, " admitting but not granting the grounds on which your majefl:y is " pleafed to go, in refufing to pafs this bill." The fl: rength of the corn~ mifiioners reafoning upon this head may be feen at once in this fhort fyllogifm; whatfoe"uer is not if dinJine inftitution may be '1Xry lawfully al– tered, changed, or 1·ever[ed.- But tbe epijcopacy which is rjlablijhed in the church if England is not that epifcopacy mmti01ud in fcripture - ther~fort! the laws which eflabfijhed it may take it away. The co~miffioner~ go on, " As .for the fale of bijhops lands, which " your maJefiy conce1v.es to be .facrtlege, we humbly offer that bifhoprics " being dilfolved their lands revert to the crown, which is their founda– " tion
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