the Trinity and in the divine authority of the Scriptures, though they might dissent otherwise in doctrine, worship, or discipline from the Established Church, were to be protected in the exercise of their own religion and worship,—­this liberty not to extend to Popery, Prelacy, or the countenancing of blasphemous publications.  Ministers and Preachers agreeing in “matters of faith” with “the public profession,” though differing in “matters of worship and discipline,” were not to be excluded from the Established Church by that difference, but might have “the public maintenance appointed for the ministry” and promotion and employment in the Church according to their abilities.  None but those whose difference extended to matters of faith need remain outside the Established Church.  Dissenters from the Established Church, if sufficiently right in the faith, were to have equal admission with others to all civil trusts and appointments, subject only to any disqualification for civil office attached to the ministerial profession.  His Highness was requested to agree to the repeal of all laws inconsistent with these provisions.—­Article XII. required that all past Acts for disestablishing or disendowing the old Prelatic Church, and appropriating the revenues of the same, should hold good.—­Article XIII. required that Old Malignants, and other such classes of persons as those disqualified for Parliament in Article IV., should be excluded also from other public trusts.—­Article XIV. stipulated that nothing in the Petition and Advice should be construed as implying the dissolution of the present Parliament before such time as his Highness should independently think fit.—­Article XV. provided that the Petition and Advice should not be construed as repealing or annulling any Laws or Ordinances already in force, not distinctly incompatible with itself.—­Article XVI. protected in a similar way all writs, commissions, grants, law-processes, &c., issued and in operation already, even though the wording should seem a little past date.—­Article XVII. and Last requested his Highness to be pleased to take an oath of office.  A form of such oath appeared in the Additional Petition and Advice, with another form of oath for his Highness’s Councillors in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and a third for the members of either House of Parliament.  This last, besides a promise to uphold and promote the true Protestant Religion, contained a special promise of fidelity to the Lord Protector and his Government.  Farther, by the same Additional Petition and Advice, the Lord Protector was requested and empowered to issue writs calling qualified persons to the other House in convenient time before the next session of Parliament, and such persons were empowered to meet and constitute the other House at the time and place appointed without requiring farther approbation from the present Single House.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The original Petition and Advice is given in full in Scobell (378-383), Whitlocke (IV. 292-301), and in Parl.  Hist.  (III. 1502-1511); the Additional Petition and Advice in Scobell 450-452, and Whitlocke, IV. 306-310.  But see also Cromwell’s Speech XIII. with Mr. Carlyle’s elucidations (Carlyle, III. 279 et seq.)]