An humble apology for non-conformists with modest and serious reflections on the Friendly debate…

Quest. Can any man believe that the High Conformists were not the great Doers and Sufferers ⟨p. 29⟩both, for his Majesty, and that merely out of Principles of Conscience?

Quest. Can any man believe that the High Conformists were not the great Doers and Sufferers ⟨p. 29⟩both, for his Majesty, and that meerly out of Principles of Conscience?

Answ. I acknowledge there were divers amongst the Bishops and the Conforming-Clergy, that did both do and suffer really out of principles of Conscience; yet that their own Interest had some considerable influence into the Loyalty of many of them, may be suspected; for that they seem to express more and greater Zeal against the Presbyterians, who yet endeavoured to save the King's Life, than against the Regicides themselves that put him to death; and more frequently and more fiercely every where charge, arraign, and condemn the Covenant, than the Engagement; as if they judged it was a more unpardonable crime to endeavour to extirpate Prelacy, than actually to take away King and House of Lords, more heinous to divest a Prelate of his Pontificalibus, than to cut off the Head of the Lords Anointed. This may possibly occasion many sober persons to query, If the Tables had been turned, and that his Majesty bad been for the extirpation of Prelacy, and the removal of Liturgy and Ceremonies, and the Parliament for the continuance and upholding of them, whether many that were very hot, would not have been lukewarm, if not key-cold in his Majesties cause? I conclude the Answer to this Question, when I have laid down this great Truth; That the Mitre is more beholden to the Crown, ⟨p. 30⟩than the Crown to the Mitre; and that it wit his Majesty that restored the Bishops, and not the Bishops which restored his Majesty.

Answ. I acknowledge there were divers amongst the Bishops and the Conforming-Clergy, that did both do and suffer really out of principles of Conscience; yet that their own Interest had some considerable influence into the Loyalty of many of them, may be suspected; for that they seem to express more and greater Zeal against the Presbyterians, who yet endeavoured to save the King's Life, than against the Regicides themselves that put him to death; and more frequently and more fiercely every where charge, arraign, and condemn the Covenant, than the Engagement; as if they judged it was a more unpardonable crime to endeavour to extirpate Prelacy, than actually to take away King and House of Lords, more heinous to divest a Prelate of his Pontificalibus, than to cut off the Head of the Lords Anointed. This may possibly occasion many sober persons to query, If the Tables had been turn'd, and that his Majesty bad been for the extirpation of Prelacy, and the removal of Liturgy and Ceremonies, and the Parliament for the continuance and upholding of them, whether many that were very hot, would not have been lukewarm, if not key-cold in his Majesties cause? I conclude the Answer to this Question, when I have laid down this great Truth; That the Mitre is more beholden to the Crown,