an Episcopal Protestant in truth a Free-Philosopher another Potamon neither Episcopal nor Presbyterian nor Independent nor Erastian but somewhat of each could he once tell what Ay but Arch-Bishop Vsher's Form of Episcopal Government would down with him and others of his Persuasion This is pretended often since that Learned Prelate's Death How far he might condescend in the worst of Times to keep up some appearance of Authority in the Church when Prelacy was abjured I know not But can it enter into any Man's belief that his Grace would ever call the Government of the Church of England or of Ireland as it was in his Time settled and now again is restored Tyrannical Or that he should submit to do Penance himself for Church-Tyranny Or did he ever allow of Ordination by meer Presbyters here as valid Mr. Baxter hath it The Bishops to some of us and Senior Pastors a new word for Presbyters to others by Ministerial Investiture imposed the necessity of Preaching on us Hear we now the Primate as one who well knew reports it Holding as I do that a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above a Presbyter you may easily judg that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn Canonical Obedience cannot possibly be excused by me from being Schismatical Will these Episcopal Protestants hold as he did a Bishop to have Superiority in degree above a Presbyter And will they declare as he did the Ordination by Presbyters revolted from their Bishops to be Schismatical Then perhaps they may begin to lay some claim unto his Patronage But until then for Episcopal Protestants they may write themselves with more both of Truth and Ingenuity Protesters or Covenanters against Episcopacy But all this while do any amongst us plead for Church-Tyranny No that is the Abuse of the lawful Power our Bishops are invested with and which they disclaim no less than he But here most invidiously design'd I fear it was to insinuate into the Peoples minds that our Bishops are but so many Church-Tyrants God bless his Majesty next from the Imputation which his Father of blessed memory with all his Innocence and Condescension could not escape Be it known to the Reader that the Name of Nonconformists was not made by our selves but by others as the Names of the four Confessors Dan. 1. were Sure this must needs be thought a matter of some great moment proclaimed as it were with a Noverint Vniversi to the World and we are much to blame if we make not some Observations upon it But what is the Name of Nonconformists so odious as not to be owned when the thing it self is a Glory Doth meer Nonconformity bring some into Reputation as conscientious And is the Name yet deemed a Reproach The thing it self is sure odious if the Name be so odious as to turn your Stomachs How should the Presence and Guilt of it terrify you if the Name make you start So Mr. Baxter elsewhere reasons But do you conform to the Ecclesiastical Laws or do you not If not why are you so shie of the Appellation of Nonconformists as if there were somewhat in it that you were really ashamed of I have sometimes seen a Book entitled A short Survey of the grand Case of the present Ministry by some Conformable Nonconformists printed in the Year 1663. So there you prettily stile your selves Conformable Nonconformists i. e. if I understand English Nonconformists which do or can conform Nonconformists which do conform sounds a Contradiction Nonconformists who can conform but will not denotes Perverseness Chuse whether you like best Non-conformists you are still by your own Subscription and it is not unlike but Mr. Baxter among the rest may be concerned in it But there is somewhat else the Reader is to gather from this grave Intimation The People by all means forsooth must look upon you as so many Confessors Daniels that will not be defiled with the Portion of the King's Meat and resolved with the other three whatever come of it not to bow down to the Image which the King hath set up no tho you were like to be cast into a fiery Furnace heat seven times hotter than ordinary for it We take the Hint The King is or may be And you are the Non such Confessors Dan. 1.19 20. None like Daniel Hananiah Mishael Azariah Therefore stood they before the King and in all matters of Wisdom and Vnderstanding that the King enquired of them he found them ten times better than all the Magicians and Astrologers that were in his Realm The Application and Use is left to the Populace However for once let us bear the blame of naming you what you are You certainly who take offence at so small a matter must be presumed innocent and blameless your selves as to all others and those especially you here challenge Then whose I beseech you are all these ' The old and new Strain of Bishops The old Episcopal Divines and the new reconciling Papists or Grotians The new Prelatical Romanists and Separatists c. I need not send you from the present Treatise A silencing Diocesan The Sect of the Diocesan Prelatists Vsurpers Mr. Fulwood and some such other Pamphleteers Ithacian Masters and Synod Learned zealous High-Conformists Selfish envious Conformists Sober godly unwilling Conformists who have stretch'd themselves to do what they have done Masters of the Game Got into the Saddle Lovers of Church-Power Self-obtruding Prelacy Church-Tyranny Sir you have the Mint with you and can coin what you please As to the Point of Church-Government the Quarrel of the present Age we easily confess that we are not all of a mind which is no Cause of Alienation of Affections nor should be a Cause of mutual Persecutions It being our Judgment that Christians are to bear with one another in greater Matters than Episcopal Presbyterians Independents and Anabaptists disagree in And if any among us have done otherwise heretofore it was from a Vice homogeneal to that of the present Conformists which now they smart for and the Conformists may repent of in due time If we have been at Cudgels we mean not to live and die at a Work so unsutable to our Religion and to our Minds ' The Quarrel of the present Age. Examine well the Quarrellers the Law on the one side and the several Parties that contend against it on the other Confess'd we are not all of a mind It is well you will confess any thing it shall be no more we may be sure than you must needs For what here you sentence as a Vice is very cautelously express'd with an If as to your former Guilt and a Mitigation of it by reflecting the like on others If any among us have done otherwise If we have been at Cudgels It was from a Vice homogeneal c. It is to be feared the Case is yet
be his Monitor in a Point or two and so leave him to con his Lesson better if he be not now too old or too proud to learn I shall desire to know of you saith the Doctor who are the Schismaticks and Separatists and so the Breakers of Charity and Peace and brotherly Vnion We who continue and persevere in the good old Way of the Church of England in which we were born and baptized and to which we have vowed a due Conformity and Obedience or You and your darling Presbyterians who have departed from our Assemblies and separated your selves from our Communion receded meanly from your Subscriptions and bound your selves by an Oath to extirpate your Fathers who were over you in the Lord whom you had solemnly promised reverently to obey And again You cannot charge any sort of Men for having separated from you without incurring the same Charge for having separated from us When Mr. Caudry wrote against Independency and gave it the Title of a great Schism I could not but smile at the Retortion which Dr. Owen very speedily and fitly made him Nay it is publickly declared by a great Body of Congregationals That they did not break from the Presbyterians but the Presbyterians rather from them You are so far from agreeing one with another that you can never expect to be at Vnity with your selves unless by being reconciled to the Church of England whose Calamities have obscured but not destroyed her The Sin of Schism is contracted saith the judicious Dr. Hammond either by some irregularity of Actions contrary to the standing Rule and Canons of this Church or by disobedience to some Commands of Ecclesiastical Superiors And then by whom it is contracted I need not tell you But blessed be God as he goes on the Church of England is not invisible it is still preserved in Bishops and Presbyters rightly ordained and Multitudes rightly baptized none of which have fallen off from their Profession To your preposterous Demands then Why we separate from you and refuse to go to your Communion The first and shortest Answer is this That we are passively separated because you actively are Separatists We by remaining as we were are parted from you and you by your violent departure have made our Difference unavoidable We are divided by Necessity and you by Choice We from you our Dividers but you from us and between your selves You like Demas having forsaken us and embraced this present World it is our Lot as it was Paul's to be unavoidably forsaken When the Times are changed by some and others are changed by the Times you must at least excuse if not commend us that we meddle not with those that are given to change For you to go from us and then to chide us for being parted is the greatest Injustice to be imagined because it requires us to verify the two Extremes of a Contradiction c. Had these things offered formerly to our Author's consideration been digested by him he had certainly been antidoted in a great measure against those odd Prejudices which do now so exceedingly swell him We are told of Schism from the Church of England when I would give him all the Money in my Purse to make me understand what the Church of England is I know not well here which to admire at more the Query it self or the Manner of propounding it both for certain are extreme idle and extravagant Had this been said in the Times of Deformation when the Face and Appearance of our Church had been obscured by the thick and black Clouds of Persecution or by one born and bred up altogether in those times there might have been some pretence perhaps for it But since the Return of the Stream and Tide of things into their ancient Channel to make this Enquiry is little other than groping for the Sun at Mid-day He may publish himself an Episcopal Protestant and one of the greatest Adversaries to the Papists as long and as loudly as he please Here is an evident Discovery whose Friend he is and what Side he takes to Had he lived in King David's or Solomon's time or any other religious Prince's on record in the holy Scriptures he might have bid as fair to make him understand what the Church of the Jews was But who can ever hope to make him understand against his Will He could have easily enough resolved himself unto a tolerable Satisfaction had he not design'd to become troublesom I confess easily saith he that many Churches united under one King and living in one Kingdom and having thereby special Opportunity for Synods and Correspondence and Concord he might have added observing the same Liturgy agreeing in the same Articles and Profession of Faith and guided by the same Laws and Canons in their Government and Worship may be called one Church by a Denomination 1. accidental 2. humane not used in Scripture he should have excepted the Old Testament And we will not be so quarrelsom as to avoid that Language where Men will needs use it Time was when a National Church was no such slight matter in the esteem of his Brethren But it is the thing it self saith he and not the Name that we enquire of What is that one essential constitutive Head which makes the Churches of England to be all one Church in a proper political sence as a Governed Society None question the Civil Head none question the need of Agreement among all these Churches But the question is only of the one Ecclesiastick constitutive Head Are not our Ecclesiastical Governors as unquestionably known as the Civil 'T is difficult therefore to know what he would be at unless he would have us declare some one Pope over us Tell us what you mean by our Schism from the Church of England saith he we divide not our selves from the King or Kingdom or from the particular Churches as concordant in any necessary thing If you divide your selves from the Bishops or Governors of the Church and oppose and confront those Ecclesiastical Constitutions which are the standing Rules and Measures of the Churches Concord in Doctrine Discipline and Worship and what things are necessary thereunto you are guilty of this Schism and so far you divide your selves from the King and Kingdom too as that Government and those Constitutions are adopted into the Laws of both But perhaps 't is our Disobedience to the Church that is our Schism from it But every one that maketh himself an Ecclesiastical Governor over other Pastors and Churches is not therefore their rightful Lord. The King we know and his Officers we know but we know not all that call themselves our Lords and Masters Not but that Obedience is the easiest Course of Life to a quiet humble Mind as yours I doubt is not but Fidelity to our King commandeth the disowning of Usurpers The Intimation here is too foul and seditious that our Lord Bishops are
Change of times doth not change the Truth nor will warrant us to change our Religion He that saith our Preaching is Evil may tempt men to think that the Gospel which we Preach is Evil or that Infidelity Atheism Sensuality and Wickedness which we preach against is good or harmless If you turn to them that Calumniate us of Preaching Error or Sedition the Law is open Our Writings and Doctrine are easily tryed If we say Evil bear Witness of the Evil. Blame us not then for using upon occasion this Liberty and Freedom which you invite us to and stand in some need of whilst you remain so securely Confident of your own Innocencies Too much Evil hath been said and Printed And some Witness hath been born of it too in the Rebels Plea the Evangelium Armatum the Bishop of Worcesters Letter c. And somewhat is added farther for the satisfaction of your desires here in these Reflections which I have not yet done with The Presbyterians distinguish between a parish-Parish-Church that imposeth nothing on the Ministers or people that God forbids and one that doth And between a Parish-Church that is reformable in that which notoriously needeth Reformation and one that Solemnly covenanteth against Reformation The intimation here is that our Parish-Churches impose on the Ministers or People what God forbids and do solemnly Covenant against Reformation even in that which notoriously needeth it And this he often glanceth at For my self I have long been of Opinion which one day you will pardon that Perjury Perfidiousness and Persecution Proud contending who shall be greatest and Covenanting never in certain points to obey Christ against the World and the Flesh is not the way of God And again speaking to some of the Conformists whom he calls Godly and sober Plain dealing is not the Sign of Enmity but Love I must tell you that we cannot but think that you need Repentance Great Repentance for Sinning more and that by Publique Deliberate chosen Covenanted ministerial Sin Protesting against Repentance This is plain enough and the Charge high and home Covenanting Solemnly Covenanting against Reformation and that not for a time only but for ever nor in some one thing but several ' Never in certain points to obey Christ against the World and Flesh and this Ministerially Publiquely Deliberately upon Choice and this besides other horrid Sins of Perjury Perfideousness Persecution and Proud contending who shall be greatest adding that unto all which makes them most unpardonable ' Protesting against Repentance There had need be good proof giv'n of this Accusation whereof yet none is offered or we must record the Accuser for a shameless Slanderer and admonish him in his own words to ' Repent of such Calumnies and not study to aggravate his fault by Excuses And after all this we must still believe that he loves us and spares us and is extremly loth to say what evil he knows by us unwilling to frighten others from our Parish-communions and loth to provoke us more then needs or to meddle with our Consciences Is not here a Compositian of hainous crimes sufficient enough to scare men from our Communion Is not here enough to brand us for a sort of the most flagitiously wicked wretches under Heaven For who can lay on greater loads of aggravation And that Preaching which can reconcile such Immoralities as these with the attributes of Godly and Sober dishonours Christianity and debauches the World He that is fallen under such Drunken Readers as I was bred under in my youth that were Drunk many times ofter then they Preached I am ready to prove it for they never Preached but were Drunk-oft This poor man and his Family must venture their Souls on this sottish Drunkards conduct because it is a True Church What a trick hath the Devil found to bind men to constancie in his service so it be done in a True Church Bating the spitefulness of the Reflection and subtilty of the Demonstration ' Many times oftner Drunk than they Preached for they never Preached The Church of England Sir hath better provided for all her Children in the necessaries to Salvation than to leave them barely to the private Discretion or conduct of the Best much less of sottish Drunkards And if any such there be it were a greater charity to the Publick to complain of them to those unto whom it belongs to admonish suspend and remove them than propagate idle stories as the manner is from hand to hand to the prejudice even of the innocent But as there are more ways of Preaching in a true sense than that which is vulgarly cried up for such so there are more ways also of being drunk than those two common ones by Wine and strong Drink Isa 29.9 We could easily tell you of Men drunk with Passion and Self-conceit and Error and a Spirit of Giddiness Mr. B. can tell you at another time That certainly Pride is a greater Sin than Whoredom or Drunkenness c. And Dr. Pierce hath formerly recommended this useful Remark to your Consideration Many are no Drunkards who are yet more scandalous than if they were The Devil himself is no Drunkard but he is proud and envious and hypocritical rebellious sacrilegious and many other ways worse than a common Drunkard His frequenting the Church and transforming himself into an Angel of Light appearing like a Saint and putting on Godliness for a Disguise doth make him much more scandalous in the true importance of the word than he could possibly be if he could be drunk And altho a Drunkard is so detestable a thing as not to deserve a Toleration in the meanest of the People much less Impunity or Connivance in any Priest yet I would not have him punished more for his Judgment than his Life as I can prove many have been because a Drunkard may be Orthodox and a dry Man may be an Heretick a Drunkard may be loyal to God's Anointed whilst one who never was drunk may be a Rebel Nor can I think it praise-worthy Ad Rempublicam perdendam aut Ecclesiam sobrium accedere Tho we differ not at all from the Doctrine of the Church of England till the new Doctrine about Infants was brought into the new Rubrick yet it is not in minutioribus that we differ from the Conformists Gather from it what you can God knoweth we think the Matters in difference very far from things indifferent We differ not at all from the Doctrine of the Church of England What not at all from Artic. XX where it is declared That the Church hath Power to decree Rites and Ceremonies Not at all from Artic. XXXIII where it is declared That that Person who by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Vnity of the Church and excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance
and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Authority thereto Not at all from Artic. XXXIV where it is declared That whosoever through his private Judgment wittingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of weak Brethren Not at all from Artic. XXXVI where it is declared That the Book of Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops and ordaining of Priests and Deacons doth contain all things necessary to such a Consecration and Ordaining neither hath it any thing which is of it self superstitious or ungodly And are not these part of the professed Doctrine of the Church of England But why chatechize I you thus far when you have before profess'd your Ignorance what is meant by the Church of England How then can you tell what the Doctrine of that Church is and whether or no or in what you agree and differ with it Till the new Doctrine about Infants was brought into the new Rubrick If you differ not at all from the old Doctrine of the old Rubrick as you would seem to tell us there needs no question about the new for let us view them well together The Old Rubrick thus That no Man shall think that any Detriment shall come to Children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for a Truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved The New more shortly thus It is certain by God's Word that Children which are baptized dying before they commit actual Sin are undoubtedly saved Where indeed the Preface of the former is omitted but nothing is taught for a Truth certain by God's Word but what was so acknowledged before For the Omission of that one Clause have all things necessary to their Salvation is sufficiently included in are undoubtedly saved and the inserting that other dying before they commit actual Sin tends rather to restrain than to enlarge the Proposition as the impartial Observer will easily judg And yet forsooth this new Doctrine as he slanders it sticks much with them who avouch themselves not to differ at all from the Doctrine of the Church of England till that new Rubrick which contains it was introduced And here is the Sum of his Doctrinal Corruptions in the Plural Number which we had mention of before And he hath yet another Fling at it before the end I read in the Rubrick of something about Infants certain by the Word of God but I never read in what Chapter or Verse it was Now must he not evidently affirm as much of the Old if he agree unto it as he would be thought to do Is it not there as express He shall know for a Truth that it is certain by the Word of God Is not that Fanatick Exception every whit as pertinent and agreeable there ' But I never heard in what Chapter or Verse it was What need of this I pray to either What Chapter or Verse As if Scripture Sence and Consequences were not as truly the Word of God as Scripture-Words and express Assertions That which is there dianoeticè as well as that which is there axiomaticè as some love to speak Or as if Holy Scripture were not before Chapter and Verse were determined in it But this is the doughty way of arguing which the Presbyterians have furnished the other Sects withal against themselves What Chapter and Verse saith so and so And this great Rebuker of other Sectaries seems mightily taken himself with it What Chapter and Verse saith that only Subscribers Swearers Declarers and Conformers are the Church of Christ and those that fear an Oath and Conformity are none of it This one would think were matter enough for many Verses ' Yet it is not in minutioribus that we differ from the Conformists So it appears God knoweth we think the Matters in difference very far from things indifferent Gather from it what you can We must gather from it then That they are not minute or small Matters upon which you are rejected and that the Church and you are not like to agree until either she renounce her Doctrine or you alter your Judgment about it We can therefore the more easily believe you when you say We have almost twelve years ago cried out even to Vnmannerliness that if possibly we might have been heard to the Reverend Prelates O drive not godly People from your Communion for nothing Vnmannerliness with a Witness But can any thing be of less weight than nothing Elsewhere you have it Do you excommunicate and drive from your several Parishes the Members of Christ for not eating with your Spoon And can there be any thing almost more minute or indifferent than that But elsewhere you are still more irreverent and in your own word unmannerly malè morati Do you silence us and depose us from the Ministry and forbid Baptism and the Lord's Supper to all that have not as wide a Swallow as your selves And yet all this while you meddle not with our Consciences It were obvious to retort that their Swallow was wide enough who could let down the Covenant Bishops and their Lands together and may claim Kindred with those on Record for straining at Gnats and swallowing Camels Why may not we in the allowed Places exercise our Ministry in baptizing the Children of any of your Flocks that shall desire it or giving them the Sacrament I yet understand not unless for avoiding your Envy and Displeasure Again What harm will it do you if a N. C. preach by you if many follow him if some prefer him before you Yea further Brethren what if the Nonconformable Ministers do give the Sacrament to some as you do to others What if they call themselves a Church or exercise Discipline which without need I would not have them do what harm will this be to you or others Were they once permitted we may perceive how they would be still hitching forward and encroaching step by step For I note these Passages only as a Specimen of those Liberties which they design to take from their Toleration And yet we must believe him We never desired to play the Bishops in other Mens Diocesses What! not in the Bishop of Worcester's not in the Bishop of London's c But to the Questions briefly Why may we not do so and so Or What harm will it do to you or others We may answer as the Presbyterians themselves sometimes did their Independent Brethren The whole Church of England in short time will be swallowed up with Distraction and Confusion And the Mischiefs in the Church will have
rejoyce the Enemies grieve the Godly that are peaceable and judicious and wound the Consciences of the Contenders We see the Beginnings of such Fires are small but whither they will tend and what will be the End of them we see not 8. By this means also Magistrates will be provoked to take Men of tender Consciences for factious unruly and unreasonable Men and to turn their Enemies and use Violence against them when they see them so self-conceited and refusing Obedience in lawful Circumstances 9. By this means also the Conversion and establishment of Souls will be much hindred and People possessed with Prejudices against the Church and Ordinances when they take us to be but humorous People and see us in such Contentions among our selves 10. It will seem to the wisest to savour of no small measure of Pride Humble Men would sooner suspect themselves and quarrel with their own Distempers and submit to those that are wiser then themselves and that are set over them for their Guidance by the Lord. There may more dangerous Pride be manifested in these matters then in Apparel and such lower Trifles 11. Consider also that yielding in things lawful the Scripture recommendeth to us How far yielded Paul when he Circumcised Timothy Act. 16.3 And when he took the Men and purified himself with them c Act. 21.26 27. And this for almost seven Days 1 Cor. 9.19 20. Study this Example Read also Rom. 14 and 15. Chap. and 1 Cor. 8.13 c. and Matth. 12.1.2 to 9. You find that hunger justified the Disciples of Christ for plucking and rubbing the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath Days And Hunger justified David and those that were with him for entring into the House of God and Eating the Shew-bread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for them which were with him but only for the Priests And the Priests in the Temple were blameless for prophaning the Sabbath Day Now if things before Accidentally Evil may by this much necessity become lawful and a Duty then may the Commands of Magistrates or Pastors and theVnity of the Church and the avoiding of Contention and offence and other Evils be also sufficient to warrant us in obeying even in inconvenient Circumstantials of the Wroship of God that otherwise could not be justified Lastly Consider How much God hath express'd himself in his Word to be pleased in the Obedience of Believers not only to Christ immediatly but also to him in his Officers 1 Sam. 15.22 Col. 3.20 22. 1 Thes 5.12 13. Heb. 13.7 17 24. 1 Tim. 5.17 As the General Commission to a Parent or Master or Magistrate to govern their inferiour Relations doth authorise them to many Particular Acts belonging to their Office that were never named in their Commission So your General Command to obey them obligeth you to obey them in the said Particulars If a Child shall ask a Parent where doth God's Word allow you to command me to learn this Catechism or read this Divine's Writings or repeat this Sermon or write it c. Doth not the Question deserve to be answered with the Rod The general Commission for the Parents to Govern their Children is sufficient c. Reader I have been at the pains to transcribe all this from the End of a Tedious Volumn of pro and con Disputations where it was like to be read but of very few as matter of General Instruction fit to be Communicated to the whole World And it would go a great way certainly to end our Controversies and Divisions if People were but once resolved who are their Governours both Civil and Ecclesiastical to whom all this Obedience is upon so many weighty grounds both of Scripture and Reason due The Question is not we see of the necessity of Government on the one hand and Obedience on the other and the people do but deceive themselves to expect an Ease by any Turn or Change as to their duty but who should Govern or whom we are to own for our Masters and Teachers Apply but all this Discourse to the King as Supreme and our lawful Governours under him both in Church and State and the Product of it will be Blessed Conformity to their oderly Appointments about the Circumstantials of Religion for the well securing the substance of both to us and our posterity And whatever opinion be now suggested by any against the Bishops of our Church as Vsurpers Mr. Baxters words in one of these Disputations are these We have had and have Men of that judgment that have been excellent instruments of the Churches good and so eminent for God's Graces and gifts that their Names will be precious whilst Christ hath in England a Reformed Church Moreover who knoweth not that Most of the Godly able Ministers of England since the Reformation did judge Episcopacy some of them lawful and some of them most Fit For the Nonconformists were but few And that even before this late Trouble and War the most even almost all of those that were of the late Assembly at Westminster and most through the Land did subscribe and conform to Episcopal Government even the English Prelacie as a thing not contrary to the Word of God So that it is evident That it is very Consistent with a Godly Life to judge Episcopacie even that of the Church of England lawful and fit or else we should not have had so many Hundred Learned and Godly Men of that mind I will not comment any farther upon the particulars but add this only for a close that it may be worth the while for Every one to lay his hand upon his Heart and impartially examine who they were that first brake these useful Rules and set that perverse Copy of Disobedience to Rulers and Teachers which hath now so strangely over-run and poisoned the whole Nation And then to move the Question Why for the time to come this should not be as Good and wholesome Doctrine under King Charles the Second as it was reputed under R. the Protector FINIS A Short Index of the Contents of this Book A Letter to the Book-seller and therein a Character of Mr B. from a professed Friend A most serious Preface out of Mr B. subservient to many good purposes The Protestation of the writer of these Reflections to the World The Author of Sacrilegious Deserttions known and described by the intrinsic Characters of his Book Of N. C. Ministers Abilites Of the Names Presbyterian and Non-conformist whereby they are call'd and the name Episcopal Protestant whereby some of them would be call'd Confessâ—d to be not all of one mind Of their Candor and Charity towards Conformists Some of their sentiments and opinions Viz. Of the power of Magistrates and Bishops to Confine and Silence Of Ejected Ministers and their Successors Of the Church of England and Schism from the same Of the great Evils of gathering into distinct and