"Unto that clause which concerneth corruptions (as you style them) in religion, in Church government, and in discipline, and the removing of such unnecessary ceremonies as weak consciences might check, that for any illegal innovations, which may have crept in, we shall willingly concur in the removal of them. That if our Parliament shall advise us to call a national synod, which may duly examine such ceremonies as give just cause of offence to any, we shall take it into consideration, and apply ourself to give due satisfaction therein, but we are very sorry to hear in such general terms, corruption in religion objected, since we are persuaded in our conscience, that no church can be found upon the earth that professeth the true religion with more purity of doctrine than the Church of England doth; nor where the government and discipline are jointly more beautified, and free from superstition, than as they are here established by law; which by the grace of God, we will with constancy maintain (while we live) in their purity and glory, not only against all invasions of popery, but also from the irreverence of those many schismatics and separatists, wherewith of late this kingdom and this city abound, to the great dishonour and hazard both of Church and State, for the suppression of whom we require your timely aid and active assistance."[239] [Sidenote: _Arrest of the Five Members._] After the Remonstrance had been presented, affairs remained hopeful to the Royal eye; and as the Commons had issued their ordinance touching religious worship, the King on the 10th of December published one of his own, enjoining strict conformity to the form of divine service as by law established. But whatever advantages he might possess at the close of 1641, all were forfeited by the monstrously rash attempt to arrest the five members at the beginning of 1642. That fatal act rung the death-knell of his hopes throughout the country, startling at once friends and foes. A letter by Captain Robert Slingsby to Admiral Pennington gives a Royalist version of the affair, which happened on the 4th of January. [Sidenote: 1641, December.]