and latter Times in their Controversials that surely these Men were an excellent part of the Church inspired by the Spirit of Grace and Truth and deserved better usage and a higher place than a Barn or a Hall to preach in In speaking well of the Nonconformists I have followed the Example of them that I reckon among the Chief of the Church of England and if my Affection to them and in them to Christian and Protestant Name and Religion hath prevailed upon me to an unusual Undertaking if it be not pardonable with some if it be acceptable to Jesus Christ and suitable to the Minds of many good Men in the Church and do some tolerable service to the suffering part I doubt not but I shall be saved without the Pardon of them that cannot pardon the Vertue of Moderation any more than the aggravated offence of Nonconformity I have gone no further than to plead a trampled Cause which they that hold it think too good and precious to be trodden on by the proudest Foot as sit to be taken into Consideration by the Wisdom and Authority of the Nation I have not presumed to make Proposals or Demands that 's left to wise and great Men. But if some of our Eminent * Dr. Stilling Preface to the Vnreasonab of Separation Church-Men have made Proposals of Abatement and have not violated their Subscriptions not to endeavour any alteration of the Government in Church or State I hope I have not forfeited my Sonship or broken Faith by doing far less and keeping within the Bounds of a well-meaning Man And so much and perhaps too much by way of Apology I have opened in the Plea the Hardness of the Case Greatness of the Sufferings Worthiness of the Persons of the Non-Conformists and the Loss to the Church by their Exclusion or Suppression I might infer Conclusions from every of those Head of the Arguments and drive the Plea more home but now because their Sufferings are like to be more and greater and they are to be a Carkass to the Eagles I will take leave to discuss this seasonable and necessary Question Q. Whether it be not better that the Penal Laws against the Non-Conformists to which they are obnoxious by their Preaching and Praying and other Religious Exercises should not be executed but forborn rather than put in Excution until such time as our Gracious King and Parliament in time to come shall maturely take the State of divided Protestants into their wise Consideration and bring us all into a happier Legal Establishment than we are in or can be in while our Divisions and their Causes continue It may be thought high Presumption in a private Person to determine which is the better but I conceive that because the Civil Magistrate is not Omniscient but takes his Information from Inferiours and private Men coming to him through Publick Persons it 's rather a Duty than an Offence to propose such a Question and discuss it when too many determine perhaps without due Examination of the Case that the rigorous Prosecution of Dissenters is best and needful In the handling of this Question it will be necessary to state it and shew 1. Who I mean by the Non-Conformists 2. State the Controversy between them and the Church from which they dissent 3. Open the nature of the Offences for which they are liableto the Laws 4. Explain what I mean by Forbearance of them or the Execution of the Laws 5. Why I limit the time until our Gracious King shall take our divided State into further Consideration After which done I will 6. Produce my Arguments for the Affirmative That it is better the Laws should not be executed than put in Execution And 7. Answer Objections to the contrary 1. By Nonconformists I mean only such Ministers Teachers Pastors and People as are sound in the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and substantial Worship that are Protestants or reformed from the Corruptions of Popery that peaceably submit to the Civil Government of the Kingdom and the Temporal Laws thereof Secondly The Controversy between the Nonconformists and the Church or the Conformists lies not in Matters Political and of Civil Government for they agree in that according to the Laws and Constitution of the Realm * Vid. Dr. Stilling Misch Separat p. 21. and their own many Books Cum illis quos tu Puritanos vocas non est nobis de fide aut Fidei dogmate lis ulla de Ritibus illis disciplina Ecclesioe nostrae contendunt Crakenthorp Eccles Anglic. Defensio c. 33. p. 203. Nor is the Controversy in the Fundamentals or Articles of Faith or between a Church-Government and Anarchy or no Government but about Matters of Form and Ecclesiastical Discipline and Terms of Church-Communion or of Exercise of their Publick Ministry consisting in Subscriptions Oaths and Declarations and some private Doctrines to be assented to But this is too general an Account more particularly it is carefully to be noted 1. That the Controversy berween the Nonconformists and the Church as now Established by Law is not the same it was between the Church and Nonconformists or Puritans from the Reign of Q. Elizabeth to our King's Reign The Nonconformists in those days and following time asserted a Government and Discipline of Divine Right by Presbyterian Classes Synods and Lay-Elders and dissented from the Government by Diocesan Bishops and Ceremoines principally yet these were against the Brownists who separated from the Church of England as no true Church which the meer Nonconformists did not But since his Majesties wonderful Restauration that part of the Controversy which relates to Church-Discipline and Government is altogether new and quite different from the old No single Person nor Combination of Men did ever desire of the King or Parliament the Establishment or the Toleration of the Presbyterian Government or Discipline See Mr. Baxt. Preface to Bp Morley and Bp Gunning before his True and only way of Concord either in the Presbyterian or Independent Way And therefore the pains of those Writers who have revived the Opinions and raked into the Miscarriages of the Presbyterians might have been spared as not at all to the purpose except to that which is unbecoming either peaceble or wise Men They do only kindle Wrath by stirring Fire and cry Fire Fire in the Church and State when there is not so much as any Smoak ascending from the Embers of Presbyterian Principles Those Tragical Stories of Presbyterians whether true or not which some Men bring to remembrance seem to serve another Design than the union or preservation of the Church and apparently to render the Nonconformists suspicious and odious and to hinder a Reconciliation 2. There are especially two sorts of Dissenters from the Legal Church First Those who are called Presbyterians but wrongfully so called and by me only for Distinction sake the other are the Congregational or Independents The Fanaticks and Sectaries fall under this last Division
or Banishment tho it may come to it as it is a proceeding upon the Act of the 17th and 22d of our King but such hath been the Zeal of some Justices in some parts of this Kingdom as to threaten Dissenters with Abjuration Banishment and Death But ordinarily the threatned Punishments are of loss of Goods of Liberty to do good to Souls of Imprisonment for particular Acts and Exercises of the Christian Religion only because performed in an undue manner as to human particular Laws by Preachers that have not conformed upon the imposed Terms of exercising their Ministry and upon such as hear them beyond such a Number and these Punishments are threatned by Christian Protestant Magistrates against professedly Protestant Preachers and Hearers They who suffer say They suffer for Conscience and Religion and therefore they are persecuted they who punish them say It is not for Religion but for doing ill Let us impartially examine the Case as urged by the Nonconformists and as defended by some Conformists The Nonconformists argue thus Preaching and Praying are necessary Duties But the Nonconformists are punished for Preaching and Praying Therefore for necessary Duties and by Consequence they are persecuted A Reverend and by his many serious Professions Toleration disapproved Ox. 1670 2d Edi. which I admit a good Man undertakes to take off this Argument Indeed the Argument is laid down defectively because the words of the Laws are upon pretence of Religious Exercises there are other Exercises of Religion besides Preaching and Praying The same Reverend Author doth distinguish to the major Proposition and flatly denies the minor Preaching and Praying saith he are necessary Duties quoad Substantiam but quoad Circumstantias they are not necessary and he reckons some Circumstances in which 't is true they are not necessary as to two or three thousands c. 2. He utterly denies the minor as false They are punished for not observing those Circumstances saith he about Preaching and Praying which Authority requireth or for not performing those Duties in such a manner or more plainly for not submitting to those Constitutions established for the better ordering of those Duties which Constitutions he proves to be good from an Enumeration of all the Causes They are good respectu Efficientis sufficient Authority 2. Materiae the matter not unlawful or contrary to a former Obligation 3. Formae a sufficient Promulgation 4. Finis the publict Peace and Safety To consider all these things distinctly Let me say 1. By necessary Duties we agree are meant Duties necessary by the Divine Precept or as Means to the Ends of Christian Religion 2. Ministers and People are first obliged to Christ as their Governour absolute according to his Laws and to temporal Governours subordinately in and for the Lord. Therefore the first and principal Regard of Obedience is to Jesus Christ with that strictness he hath bound us to 3. No Action of Religion can be done without Circumstances 4. Circumstances are subservient to Duties and we are sure that God doth not tie up to such Circumstances as do always tie up from the Duties tho in some Circumstances the Duty may be omitted but they are such as render the Duty for that time unnecessary and if Men would learn from God they would never enjoyn such Circumstances as shall hinder any to perform them from whom God requires them 5. Those Circumstances as you call them are such as no private Man can take away because required by Laws Being such it shall never be lawful for any Nonconformist to preach to more than Four beside the Houshold yet they are bound absolutely to Christ to preach without any Restriction if the Bishops please for else they would be only conditionally bound to Christ and absolutely bound to the Bishops If the Bishops allow them then Christ allows them if the Bishops forbids them then Christ forbids them for all Power derived from Christ is for Christ If the Nonconformists neglect necessary Duties out of respect to human Circumstances who do obey He that requires the Duty quoad Substantiam or them that shut them up or rather out per Circumstantias which is best to neglect the Duties required by Christ when they cannot without Sin observe the Circumstances or neglect those Circumstances and do the Duties in such other Circumstances as they can have This were to make the Observation of Human Circumstances more necessary than Divine Ordinances 6. It is in some Circumstances as necessary for a Nonconformist to preach without our Circumstances as it is for us to preach with them 7. The Case hath been and may as it was to Peter Martyr before he lest Italy to preach and administer Sacraments in a Conventicle of many hundreds or some thousands and necessary to venture Life and all for it Apology for N. C. preaching to the Bishops p. 15 16. §. 12. What R. Mr. B. writes is to the point of Circumstances If the Magistrate forbids us to preach the Gospel either our Preaching is necessary or unnecessary and this either notorious or doubtful If our Preaching be notoriously unnecessary we will obey him and forbear If it be a doubtful Case we will use all means God hath appointed us to know the Truth and if yet it be doubtful and our Minds in suspence we will stand to the Judgment of the Magistrate and forbear But if our Ministry be notoriously and undoubtedly necessary to the just Ends which is the Edisication of Mens Souls we will obey God in Preaching as we are able and humbly and patiently bear what is laid upon us by our Rulers nor do we take our selves bound by Christ to one Place or one Time or manner of Teaching or to speak always to a great Assembly but all these are Circumstances which we must fit to the end and success of our Work To conclude this Head Altho the Nonconformists cannot preach in those Circumstances as you call them enjoyned by Law for fear of sinning as they do confidently and seriously declare and for no other Reason they must preach and pray and perform other Religious Exercises upon such Circumstances as they can have and that if it cannot otherwise be upon hazard for it is a greater Sin and deserves a sorer Punishment to neglect a necessary Duty enjoyend by Christ than to neglect the Observation of such Circumstances as are enjoyned by a lawful Authority except Jesus Christ hath given such Power to Magistrates and Church-Governours as to command Circumstances which all his Servants without dispute or hesitancy must obey and that Christ doth rather approve of the neglect of necessary Duties than for respect to them transgress human Circumstances by which necessary Duties may be suspended or rendred unnecessary If both cannot be done the one without the other which must give place the Circumstances to the necessary Duties or the Duties to the Circumstances Especially when we consider that Christian Preachers and People are first and absolutely obliged to
Banishment to Abjuration How will it sound in that Day I was in Prison and ye committed me I was banished and ye banished me I was impoverished and ye impoverished me what ye did to the Preachers whom I sent yet did to me When you shall be judged what will you plead or how can you pray Thy Kingdom come and obstruct the coming of it to any People in any place in the Land If there be nothing in what I humbly offer reject it if there be any Conviction in any thing be pleased to consider of it Philagathus THE Conformist's second Plea FOR THE NON-CONFORMISTS IT must be confessed that there is some turpitude in all Apologies either imputed or committed To Preface a Book with an Apology when the matter is good is to put a foul face upon a good matter but then it is a foul face only in some Men's Eyes which are diseased and will appear if not beautiful yet tolerably handsom to the eye of them that look for nothing perfect and free from humane frailty and that make daily use of a Towel and fair Water themselves Plead for my self I must and I shall make some requests with my Pleas that so if I may not come off without guilt and blame I may come off with my Pardon I did not think the Reverend Non-Conformists so few or weak as to need an Advocate in some things of another Judgment and so far of the other side for as they are most sensible of their own condition so they can both rationally and pathetically open and plead their own Cause and in my mind they have said a great deal to purpose if after all it will be to purpose I am sure had I been one of them I could not have said for them what they have done But knowing how ill they are represented I was resolved in what I could to do them right and therein to express my Compassion proportionable to my Religion which as such is not confined but Catholick and if my Charity and Compassion must extend to all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus I am certain I must shew it to them whom I take to be sound in Faith and Worship and whom I have known and heard and by whose Works I may profit if I have not My request to them is that they would believe there are many in the Church of England that wish an Union they with us and we with them and it must needs be so in all them that are animated by the same Holy-Spirit of Truth Faith and Love I do also beg their pardon that I have pleaded for them with no more Life and Strength I do understand and I easily believe that many of the Reverend Conforming Church-Men are offended that a Conformist should plead for the Non-Conformists It hath seemed to some almost incredible and to look like a Cheat or a Jesuit in Masquerade I am glad I am not to be tried by Judges of that Complexion by whom I am condemned at the very first sight of the Title Page and that it hath found Approbation from them whom I take to be of a better Temper Before I plead I do humbly beg their Pardon and Excuse who have been dishonoured by the Suspicion of being the Authors of the Plea for the Non-Conformists by my concealment of my Name It hath been a greater Honour to me than I ever expected or thought of that it hath passed under some very Reverend Names but it is a Dishonour to them to be counted the Fathers of such a Birth which represents neither their Strength nor Statures neither Feature nor Speech These worthy Men may vindicate themselves with one Negative but I cannot undeceive the Inquirers without running upon considerable Trouble and Temptations I perceive the Injury is so common that I cannot without a greater distrust their Pardoning Ingenuity Having said this I next put in my Apology That Book was fitly called the Conformists Plea because it becomes the Conformist to read and weigh the Case and having done so to be righteous and compassionare to be a good Instrument between his Mother and his Brethren at such a time when ill Agents pass between them and because the greatest Authorities he hath used have been eminent Fathers or Sons of the Church of England Why should it seem strange to any Man in such an Age as this when many that seem Enemies to Popery yet plead for Papists Why should it seem strange that one should labour to prepare the Hearts of Men of the same Faith to meet or to receive Dissenting Protestants into Church-Communion with them by opening the hardness of their Case the Worthiness of their Persons and of their Ministerial Abilities Soundness of their Faith Exemplary Morals peaceable Demeanour c. Why should it offend any Man that I should open their Case and testify for them when we all that have any sense bewail our Divisions and from thence fore-tell our Destruction and profess a desire of Union tho upon different Terms How many in the Land do declaim against their Principles and Practises and are ready to raise a Wind if it were in their Power to carry them away that know neither the Men nor their declared Principles Is it not necessary first to remove Prejudices and next to beget good Thoughts of them in all that through unacquaintance with them or Disaffection towards them before ever we can either desire or admit an Union with them It is a good preparation for an intire affectionate Closure to shew how near they come to us what Abatements other great and excellent Men would have made had they had the management of Church-Affairs in our Days and what Concessions they formerly thought fit to make and more especally in a time when the great Counsellours and Trustees of our Peace and Liberties have unanimously voted for a Legal Union or that which is to some a hateful Word Comprehension It is most unlike a Minister of Christ and a Member of a Christian Reformed Church to kick and spurn at Protestant Brethren that would gladly come into the Arms of a Legal Constitution upon no other terms and by no other ways than such as Wisdom shall find out and the Government resolve upon for the Honour of Christ and his Religion and the safety of the Church In vain do we use the names of Unity and Peace and Uniformity and yet at the same time in the same Discourses revile and bear false witness against our Brethren To commend Peace and dislike fair Proposals is flatly to hate Peace to commend Peace and with Tongues and Pens to persecute them with whom the Peace is to be made is a Method for Peace which I never learned To invite Men to my House and keep the Doors shut as against Thieves and Contentious Persons that will never be quiet or that are not fit to be trusted in it is such a kind of Civility and Complement that can never
found that Reason Conviction and Calmness have been the winning ways upon scrupulous Persons or else it cannot in Charity be thought that they would come behind others in accomplishing the work of Peace and Uniformity They cannot but know what Destruction without Reformation will follow Excommunications if they proceed to Writs and follow the Course of Law to the uttermost Many of our Ecclesiastical Courts have taken that way and can any of them shew us any one Man converted to Uniformity by it Many have removed from one Country and Diocess to another and wrought themselves out of Trouble or abide in them to this day But can they shew any one Man they have brought over to a sincere and hearty Conformity Their Molestations go nearer the Heart to separate them than to unite them If the Church should for Nonconformity proceed to Sentence and thence to Writs and thence to Execution what way can they take more effectual to disobligle the Nation The Gentleman and Landlord suffers in the ruine and loss of his Tenant the thousands of poor Families that live by Manufactures suffer in the Losses or Removes of their Masters and as many as actually suffer of what Condition soever and their Families and Posterity that suffer in them are made the poorer but never the better Christians they are all disobliged and broken from us Besides they know the charge of their Dissent which is often-times no more than pay your Fees and go home The Officers of Courts get but what doth the Church get thereby It is visible that those parts of the Land have the most for number and the most resolute Nonconformists that have been most severely used The more many Men suffer the more Arguments they gather for the Goodness of the Cause for which they suffer The far greater part of our Church-Governours have abstained from rigorous Courses Now the Civil Magistrates are rowzing up and awake as out of sleep But what 's the Cause of this Excitation The Conservators of the Peace are harnessing themselves for the Defence of Church and State But what fear of the King's Life Is it not the Acclamation of all Protestants is there in this one Dissenter among them Long may the King live Who doth hold up a Finger to shake the Throne or Government or who is there that hath heard of as much as a whisper of any Conspiracy If there be God who seeth in secret reveal it quickly by the Guilty themselves and there is no likelihood of a Concealment if there be such a thing for none but beggarly mad Men can be in it the service then must be done to the Church The Magistrates rise up in Defence of it But doth not the Magistrates Vigilancy reproach the Severity and Sleepiness of the Watchmen how can any that at other times and occasions do not talk with any great Concern Affection or Reverence of the Bishops now be so zealous If the Bishops should proceed with one mind roundly to Excommunications and break up Families by it who would sooner complain than Gentlemen that suffer by it who more earnest or be more complemental in Intercessions But now why should they be so forward to undo great Numbers to the apparent detriment of the Common-wealth when the Bishops are so backward to give them their Friends or their Dependents Trouble What Alterations will the Execution make in Rents and Trade and who will sooner feel the Effects than he who takes his Ease and lives high and cannot bear the fall of his Revenues If the Magistrate appear in his Power when the Church calls for his help it will be duty and self-denial too to take part of the Odium of what is counted a Persecution but to hazard the breaking of many thousands who can in some parts of the Kingdom make a Rise or fall of Commodities and the loss and trouble of abundance more by Participation to their own Dishonour is a greater Kindness to the R. R. Bishops than was expected or can be rewarded with their Blessing Secondly It is more God-like Christian and Humane to use Clemency and follow the Examples of the Indulgent especially when the hurtful Effects of Severity are great and apparent and the Benefit doubtful God is wise just and holy but continues to uphold the World by Mercy Christianity is full of Mercy and the Author of it is a Reconciler and Mediator Human Nature so given to offend would be destroyed but for Love Forbearance and Mercy Mercifulness is like the soft Cement that binds all the Stones in the Fabrick of Human Society which else would never hold together but fall without it With ut it Men are like rugged Stones and Severity doth not square but chop and should never be exercised but when Society cannot be preserved without it If this Age will follow Examples of the most exact and strict Governours it will find more room for Mercy than hath been shewn to them that have been excluded for want of it But if it will set it self for an Example it is a question whether wise Posterity will follow it The High Commission Court was a kind of Inquisition so the wise Lord Treasurer Burleigh wrote to Arch-Bp Whitgift But according tomy simple Judgment said he Fuller's Ch. History B. ix An. 1583. this kind of proceeding is too much savouring the Romish Inquisition And of all Men the Puritans felt the weight of it The Puritans were opposite to the Bishops and their Government and Courts and they made themselves and the Queen their Government and Hers all one what was said or done against them was done against Her Majesty As in Mr. Udal's Examination and Trial is to be seen Pr. Lond. 1643. Can. 4 6 9 11. And the Opposition between the Puritan Discipline and the Episcopal was greater than hath been urged ever since the King's Return If Church-History were silent we may learn frrom the Canons of 1603 what Language was common in those times But now the Controversy is not between the Presbyter and the Bishop but between Bishops acting in a narrow Room and a larger Diocess yet they are not discontent if the King shall honour some as he doth with Lordship nor continue their Revenues The Independents supposed to be Brownists but are not give not the Language of Antichristian to Bishops or our Congregations but look upon us as parts of the Catholick Church The Bishops are Antichurchians as against their Congregational Power but not Antichristian Dr. Owen of Church-Peace c. Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes §. 35. which was the Language of the Brownists but those that were more opposite or hung off were more kindly used Mr. Fox a N. C. held his Prebend of Salisbury Dr. Humphreyes was Dean of Winchester President of Magdalen Colledg and Regius-Professor in Oxford Mr. Tho. Cartwright the Head of the N. C. was at last much favoured by his mighty Antagonist A. B. Whitgift made Master of the Hospital in Warwick
Jesus Christ and but subordinately and conditionally to Men in Authority Notwithstanding the Nonconformists non-compliance with what some call Circumstances in Preaching and Praying which are necessary Duties they do well for they obey the greater Now I pass to the Minor But Nonconformists suffer for Preaching and Praying This is utterly denied and indeed if this be not denied the Conclusion would necessarily follow Therefore they are punished for necessary Duties and by Consequence for Religion or doing well Now that which is incumbent upon me is to shew that indeed they suffer for Religious Exercises and to prove that I must consider what is said to the contrary which I shall do in the first place They are punished saith he for not observing Circumstances required or for not performing them in the manner required or for not submitting to those Constitutions established for better Order c. I answer It is true they suffer for not submitting to these but not for that Cause alone but for Religious Exercises ut infrâ You say the Constitutions are good by an Enumeration of Causes To which I answer 1. The Nonconformists do not deny but own the Efficient the Legislative-Power 2. They refuse and question the matter of many of the Constitutions and if they scrupled but one they cannot subscribe to all and that because unlawful to them 3. Many suffer for not subscribing and declaring their Assent to the Common-Prayer which came not to them before the time was expired for so doing Here is a defect of a Cause the formal Cause the Promulgation of the Constitutions We that lived nearer London had but a little time to peruse the Liturgy but many had not time at all in many places and they not in the remotest Parts A Divine of Years and Learning in the Diocess of Lincoln And it was the case of many more in that Diocess And Mr. B. of W. in the County of L. was ejected by Sir Edward Lake altho he gave that Reason that the Book was not brought him before the 24th of Aug. nor before he was declared deprived by the Commissary gave this for one Reason in his Farewel Sermon that he was to be silenced by Law for not subscribing and assenting to a Book which he had not seen It is likely he had other Reasons but they that suffer for not submitting to what they saw not do not suffer for doing ill but well Lastly The Constitutions are for publick Peace and Safety but except the matter be of that Tendency many Constitutions may be good in respect of the Efficient Formal and Final but may be ill in respect of the Matter And the Coutroversy of the Nonconformists is about the matter of the Constitutions chiefly And if their Preaching and Praying give no Disturbance but to some Minds easily stirred and tend to Godliness and Honesty then they are so far good and agree with the design of the Constitutions They suffer as appears for an Omission not obeying the Constitutions and them chiefly in one Cause and but perhaps in some one part of them See then what the principal Cause of their many Sufferings is they are such things as are as we say things indifferent but necessary in Practice by human Laws which compared with the necessary Duties of Religion which are enjoined by Christ and the Laws of the Land are but small and unnecessary yet not obeying these Constitutions which bind not immediately by a Divine Precept shall render able Ministers unserviceable yea it shall be a sinful Act in them to do necessary Duties acknowledged by all Christians to be such for not observing them Having laid these things open I proceed to prove that the Nonconformists suffer for Religious Christian Exercises 1. The Law-makers in their Laws never noted them for other than for Religious Exercises and for good Duties therefore we must take them for good not only by the Law of Christ but by our Temporal Laws All the Ministers of England and Wales that were ejected for not subscribing c. were supposed good if they had subscribed and when they were ejected they were not degraded from their Ministry nor was their After-preaching prejudged to be as no Preaching and Praying The same Act might have declared their Religious Exercises to be null and them no Ministerss they were removed from their Stations and deprived of Tithes and Profits but their After-performances lost not their internal Nature altho they should be performed without Common-Prayer Rites and Ceremonies 2. The Subsequent Acts do not absolutely forbid their Religious Exercises as Evil or Evil-doing but as deficient in the external Form and as abused by ill Men and Hypocrites to move to Rebellion and Insurrection endanger Church and State and to such a Number of People and if they were such they would be materially Evil and then cease to be Religious Exercises 3. So then their Fault lies in Deficiency of things concomitant which doth not so affect them as to change them from Good to Evil they may be acceptable with God and profitable to Men for all that so far as they celebrate Religious Exercises to pious Ends they materially and finally do the things that are pleasing to God and do well even Men being Judges 4. They do not suffer Fines and Imprisonments for not subscribing declraing according to the Act of Uniformity alone they suffered for that before They do not suffer for moving Seditions or Insurrections whereof none hath been so much as charged much less found guilty They do therefore suffer for performing Religious Exercises 1. So the Witnesses or Informers testify and not for moving Insurrections 2. So the Warrants should run against them therefore for doing well and for Religious Exercises 3. If not for Religious Exercises how come the Preachers to be fined 20 l. or others for them not for beating Drums or for bearing Arms I suppose Obj. But the Law prohibits all Religious Duties and to above Four and the Houshold which are not legitimated by the Common-Prayer Answ It is true but then let us observe That the meer absence of the Common-Prayer and Ceremonies doth not change them they are Christian Religious Duties notwithstanding that defect for it could not be supposed that near 2000 Ministers dedicated to God would cast off Religious Exercises when cast out of their Places or that they would use those things to which they refused to subscribe and tho they could not imagine that they denied not Preaching and Praying without a Form and Ceremonies to be Religious Duties 2. Some of the Duties which they perform are after the manner of the Church of England such is their reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms and Preaching we being at liberty as to Text Words Method and their praying before and after Sermon we are not tied to the very Words and Syllables in Canon LV but to those Words or to that Effect To move our Congregations to pray Now if they read sing pray