it is so pragmatical as to meddle with those Actions whereas all that Conscience Dictates as a Counsellour â—…ll that Conscience Determines as a Iudge is in the Name of the supream and soveraign Iehovah 4. Jam. 12. There 's one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy and who are thou that judgest another 14. Rom. 4. Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth § 3. His Description seems very lame in that he makes the whole employment of Conscience to be reflection whereas 't is in it's Commission to Dictate before the fact as well as to reflect upon the fact It teaches what we ought to do as well as enquires and examines whether we have done well or no And such a faiture will expose us to great mistakes in this case as that we are not bound to examine the Lawfulness of our work before we act but to rush Headlong upon the precipices of dubious and suspected things and examine them afterwards at leasure Whereas the Apostle condemns the Gentiles especially that they knew before such and such things to be evil and worthy of Death and yet not only did those things but took pleasure in those that did them 1 Rom. 32. Of such a Conscience as this he will certainly make a proportionable emprovement For scarcely says he any man that says his Conscience is incontrollable will say his own Opinion or Reason is the ultimate Rule of his actions Truly I believe so nor any man neither that says his Conscience is Controllable except he be out of his senses for I would sainbe in formed what an ultimate Rule signifies with him that pretends to speak plain English to them that understand nothing else I have heard of a subordinate and ultimate End And I have heard also of a near and a Remote Rule but an ultimate Rule like that Monster which was like a horse and yet not a horse is like sense but in truth very Non-sense All that we affirm of Conscience as 't is a Rule is no more but this That it is the next and immediate Guide and Director of our Actions And that the mind of God however notified to us is the next and immediate Governour or Director of Conscience That as nothing can possibly intervene between the Command of Conscience and the will and executive power in Man so nothing can possibly interpose between the Authority of God and the Conscience and both these are expresly owned by the above mentioned learned Person Dr. S. 1. That God is the immediate Controller of Conscience by his word and will revealed to us Conscience says he is Gods most immediate Deputy for the ordering the life and ways of men 2. That Conscience is the immediate Rule of our Actions The will of Man says he should conform it self to the judgment of the practique understanding as to it 's proper and immediate Rule And such were once the Notions of that great Man when he is professedly pleading the cause of Conformity which had never been waved but that wise men are aware the cause not to be tenable if Conscience be not made a piece of Non-sense whose Nature and Office are therefore inconsiderable because unintelligible But some wise men or other it seems have formed a parcel of objections or else he has formed them to their hands which hâ—… will answer and then suppose himself victorious 1 Objection Allowing Conscience to be nothing but the mind of Man yet even so it 's subject to no humane Laws for as much as no Man can force me to think otherwise then I do nor Compel me to be of his opinion in the inward sence of my mind my mind therefore or Conscience is only obnoxious to God To which he Replies The answer to this is easy for since my mind is not insallible I may and must have something to guide my mind and that is it which we call Law To which I rejoin That this is an easy but not a satisfactory answer For. 1. The Remedy is not proportionable to the disease For if the Reason why my mind must have something else to guide it be because the mind is not infallible the same Reason will informe us to have recourse to a better guide then that which he calls Law because Humane Laws are not infallible It will mend the matter but sorrily to take me of from one fallible guide and send me to another 2. Since the mind of man is thus fallible and there is a necessity that it have something else to guide it in it's determinations God has provided an infallible directory in his word in all things concerning his immediate Worship and that is it which we call the Law of God 3. But if the mind of Man be fallible in it's Directions as well as Humane Laws It 's safer to be guided by that which God has made my next Director though fallible then by that which being also fallible he has not made so God has constituted Conscience the next and immediate Counsellour to my will the next and immediate Deputy under himself and therefore to erre with a Humane Canon against the voice of Conscience is to despise and contemn the Authority of God in whose Name it speaks whereas to erre with my Conscience against an Humane Decrre is but a part of that frailty to which all imperfect Creatures are obnoxious 4. Nor is it universally true what he says that the Law of Man morally obliges to follow it's Directions that is it will be my sin if I do not for it may be my sin if I do obey in some cases as well as my sin if I do not in others at least the Apostles were of this opinion 4. Act. 19. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you more then God judge ye Whatever inconveniences therefore shall â—…rise from an absolute resignation either to the Laws of men or to our own minds directed by natural light we have the infallible word of God which is a light to our feet and a Lamp to our paths for the guidance of our particular Actions 2. Object But we are beund to obey the Dictates of our mind or Conscience before any Law or Command of any humane Authority if they happen to interfere He replies It 's true in things notoriously and plainly evil But where those the Law of God or Reason are silent there the Law of the Magistrate is the Immediate Rule of my Conscience and then to contradict that is to affront the Publick Tribunal with a private Consistory c. To which I Rejoin § That he has given away his whole cause by this one Concession That a higher Law of God or Reasen may make a nullity in the Law of the Magistrate for if Reason in any case may make such a nullity it must either be the publick Reason or the private Reason If the former then it amounts to no more then
this goodly maxime that the Magistrates Reason may make a nullity in his Law But if it be the latter that private Reason may make such a nullity then Conscience guided and directed by that Reason cannot transgress the Law because Reason has already disannulled it as to that particular Person And if it be said that it 's only in things notoriously evil that Reason has this Soveraignty to make a nullity in the Law It 's easily answered that whatever my Reason judges evil is notoriously evil as to me for I have no way to make out the Notoriety of the evil of a thing but my Reason informing it self from Gods Word § 2. We are bound to obey the Dictates of our own Consciences in not acting against them in those things which only appear notoriously evil And God himself has tyed up Conscience from taking one step under those apprehensions 14. Rom. 14. To him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is unclean And the Reasons are very evident 1. Because Bonum oritur ex integris malum è quolibet Defectu The want of that single Circumstance of the satisfaction of my Iudgment that it is Lawful makes the action sin 2. He that has a prepared mind to act contrary to what he takes to be the Law of God would act accordingly if it really were the Law of God As he that dares to strike a private Person whom he takes for a Magistrate would no doubt have struck him though he had been a Magistrate Every man takes the voice of Conscience to be the voice of God and he that will disobey that Dictate which he supposes the voice of God will disobey that dictate which really proves to be his voice 3. The goodness or evil of an action is much estimated by the will of the Deer He that judges an action evil and yet will do it God sees that though the thing was not evil yet he had an evil will The Action was not materially evil but it was so interpretativè I must once more quote the same Learned person If a Man says he be fully perswaded in his Conscience that a thing is unlawful which yet in Truth is not so the thing by him so judged unlawful cannot be done without sin Even an erroneous Conscience bindeth thus far that a Man cannot go against it and be guiltless because his practise should then run cross to his judgment and so the thing could not be done in faith for if his reason judge the thing to be evil and yet he will do it it argueth manifestly that he hath a will to do evil and so becometh a Transgressour of Gods General Law which bindeth all men to eschew all evil § 3. Nor is this to affront the publick Tribunal with a private Consistory nor set up my own opinion against Gods institution for it's Gods own institution 14. Rom. 5. Eet every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind 3. Objection But if after all my Consideration of the Reason of publick Laws I cannot satisfy my self of the Lawfulness of the thing commanded I must then Govern my self by my Conscience and not by the Law He Replies If the unlawfulness of the thing commanded is not as plain and visible as the Command of God for obeying Authority my opinion or Conscience will be no excuse to me Because I forsake a Certain Rule to follow an uncertain To which I Rejoin That he has made a very unaequal Comparison viz. Between the unlawfulness of the particular thing and the general Command of obeying whereas the comparison ought to have been between either Gods General Command not to act against my Conscien and his General Command to obey Authority or else between the unlawfulness of that particular action and Gods Command to obey in that particular It is plain in the General that I ought to obey Authority And it 's as plain in the General that I ought not to sin against the dictate of my Conscience It may be doubtful and not so plain that this particular action is sinful but then it 's doubtful and no more plain that in this case 't is my duty to obey Compare the General Law of obeying the Laws with the general Law of not sinning against my Conscience and it 's much more plain visible or what he pleases that I ought not to sin against my Conscience then that I ought to obey the Laws of Humane appointment for that I ought to obey the latter admits of many exceptions but that I ought not to act against the former admits of none And if Conscience may deceive me in a particular instance so also may the Law deceive me in the particular Command This will more evidently appear if we take the Ranverse of the case thus If the Lawfulness of the thing commanded by the Law be not as plain and visible as the Command of God not to act against Conscience no Command of the Magistrate will excuse me because I forsake a certain Rule to follow an uncertain God commands me to obey Authority the same God commands me not to sin against my light In some cases I am not bound to obey Authority but in no case am I allow'd to act against my light It 's very clear that the Magistrate has a power to Command but not so clear that he has a power to determine things indifferent and make those determinations the conditions of my enjoying the means of Salvation But it 's very certain that Conscientia errenea ligat licet non obligat An erroneous Conscience though it oblige me not to act against what God has made a Duty yet it binds me up from ever acting against it's Convictions And therefore it 's safest to adhaere to the clearer side and not to act against the Decission of Conscience in compliance with a Command which it 's uncertain whether it oblige or no. And in a word if this way of our Enquirers Reasoning be solid Then it will not excuse a Protestant from sin who refuses to how before an Image when the Magistrate Commands it Because it 's plain in the general that we ought to obey Authority but not so plain that it 's sinful to how before an Image if things disputable be less plain then indisputable 4. Objection But if after all endeavours of satisfying my self to Obey the Humane Law yet the thing commanded by the Magistrate however innocent in it self seems to be as plainly unlawful as obedience is plainly a duty What Now He replies This case is pityable and will make some abatement of the sin of Disobedience but it doth not totally excuse it much less make a nullity in the Law To which I Rejoin That he has now made a very noddy of his Objector That can suppose the thing commanded innocent in it self and yet to seem to him as plainly unlawful as obedience is a Duty But to the thing 1. He has put the case very unfaithfully For we
suppose the things controverted though Lawful in their abstracted natures and what actions are not so yet to be really unlawful in their use upon a just ballancing of all Circumstances for we conceive many things Lawful out of worship which in worship are not so Many things Lawful when used without offence which are otherwise when they give offence to the weak Many things Lawful when Conscience is satisfied which are not so under it 's real dissatisfactions many things Lawful to be used under the power of which 't is sinful to be brought 2. We say not that Conscience makes a nullity in the Law but that under present Circumstances it will not suffer us to act But if we had said so we might perhaps have drunk in the Delusion from his own words so lately quoted Some higher Law of God or Reason by which my Conscience is guided hath in that case made a nullity in the Law of the Magistrate 3. His Reason Because sâ—…n is a Transgression of the Law Applied to the Law of God is true but when applied to the Law of Man is not of universal Truth sor neither is the transgression of a humane Law always a sâ—…n Nor at any time is it the formal Reason of sin but because such transgression of the humane Law transgresses some particular Law of God or at least that General Law to obey where we ought to do 2 His second Enquiry is What is a Tender Conscience And here that nothing sacred might escapâ—… the peâ—…ulancy of Priviledged Drolery he is in a Rapture of facetiousness and makes fine spout with poor Tender Conscience When Iosiah that great Pattern of all Royal virtues the great instance of ripe Grace in green years had heard the book of the Law read with those dreadful comminations thundred out against prevarication in that holy Law and had duly consider'd how his people had incurred the menaces by violating the praecepts thereof he rent his cloaths and went to Enquire of the Lord. who gives him this Answer Because thy heart was Tender and thou hast humbled thy self I also have heard thee saith the Lord 2. Kin. 22. 19. Wisdom it self has taught us That the man is happy that feareth always but he that hardens himself shall fall into mischief 28. Prov. 14. They that know the World is thick sown with snares and those snares baited with suitable temptations will see Reason to walk very cautelously towards the world and to maintain a Godly jealousy over themselves least they be surprized with the deceitfulness of sin But there are a daring sort of jolly Adventurers that fear no colours that will come up to the mouth of a Canon that neither regard Gods threatnings or warnings the Devils stratagems or the Ambuscadoes of the flesh but being fool-hardy make a mock of sin and all preciseness about it who think it a piece of gallantry to dance on the brink of that praecipice that hangs over the bottomless pit and can find no fitter essays of their valour and skill then how to come within a hairs-breadth of Hell and yet not tumble in And these are the men that fall into mischief This tenderness of heart being of so great price in the sight of God we must expect it will not escape long the severe lashes of virulent spirits but it will be difficult to persecute a thing so innocent before it be exposed and therefore they advise themselves from Amnon's example who first defiled and then reviled his Sister Tamar A tender Conscience saith this Compassionate Enquirer is nothing but either an ignorant or uninstructed mind or a sickly melancholy and superstitious understanding which he might more concisely have described without this vast expense of words A tender Conscienced person is one that has a soft place in 's Head or had he but spoke in plain English as he did in the Definition of Conscience He is a most profound Coxcomb They who preach this Doctrine to the World might with the same labour and almost equal honesty preach God out of the World for whoever would dethrone God from the heart discovers but an impotent Ambition to pluck him down from his throne in Heaven But when they have run through all their vain methods to excusse his soveraignty God will maintain to himself an Authority in the Conscience Nay this will destroy the Magistrates power also in a while for whose sake the Contrivance is pretended for when subjects are once instructed so far to debauch conscience that though we judge an action sinful yet we may do it it will lead to this easy inference that though we judge the Magistrates Commands Lawful yet we may disobey them for as we say when men have got a hole in their hearts one concern will drop through after another without regret When the Italians would call any one Fool with an Emphasis they say He is a Christian Hence forwards when the Devil would shame his modester Servants from cowardise in sinning he has a nickname for them these are your men of tender Consciences And that which has been a Holy Engine of Gods wisdom to secure from sin shall now become the Devils Machine to flish raw novices in it That a tender Conscience is a good Conscience has been hetherto presumed by all our Divines and I never met with a Collect in the Liturgy of any Church that taught us to pray from the great plague of a tender Conscience Good Lord deliver us which yet if it be so great a judgment we may presume they would have done But the Enquirer is of another judgment and perhaps may proselite us with his Reasons 1. Reason Tenderness cannot be taken in the same Latitude with a good Conscience every good man has such a tenderness as to be affraid of sin and to decline the occasions of it If this argument has any strength in it it must be because every good man is a Fool But why I pray cannot a good and a tender Conscience meet in every good man Oh the Reason is this It would be too arrogant and presumptuous for those that plead the tenderness of their Consciences to suppose themselves the only men that make Conscience of what they do But if a tender Conscience be a good Conscience it will be nevertheless good because some unjustly pretend to it or others unjustly revile it Dissenters do not suppose themselves the only men that make a Conscience of what they do It suffices them to enjoy the peace of their own without daring to judge other mens Consciences 2. Reason Because says he Then the contrary to it must be a brawny Conscience Well! what hurt is there in that Soft and hard tender and callâ—…us sensible and brawny have been opposed before this dispute began a heart of stone is opposed to a heart of flesh and would it not be a way of Reasoning well-becoming a Rhethorician to argue a heart of flesh cannot possibly be a good heart the contrary
be destroyed till they be dress'd up in a Malefactors Cloaths And it seems as much for their Enemies Advantage to make them seem wicked as 't is for theirs to be really Holy It had been a more Important Enquiry than any he has yet made whence such an exulcerated Spirit should proceed The Gospel is a Message of Peace from the God of Peace by the Prince of Peace to the Sons of Peace which Gospel breaths nothing but healing Counsels drops down the Balmy Dews of Gentleness Meckness Patience Long-suffering Charity and if I might borrow an â—…ld Maxime at second hand from him Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Evangelici Either Charity is not Gospel or our Enquirer is an Infidel It 's a grave Axiome in the Law That his Cause ought more to be favoured who only seeks to avoid wrong than his that seeks to get Gain The Dissenters humbly plead the Benefit of it They grudge them not their Preferments and Accumulated Dignities they neither envy nor seek their Great things They only deprecate Ruine till they shall deserve it It 's only from a Prison not for a Palace that they Petition When others have got the Two Swords the Secular and the Spiritual they only crave the protection of the Defensive Shield And think they may with some Reason demand of them who Deifie the freedom of Humane Will that they may be indulged in the freedom of their Consciences regulated by the Word of God CHAP. II. Of the more Remote Causes of the infelicities of this Church The Persecution under Q. Mary The bad provisions for Ministers in Corporations Frequent Wars The mischiefs of Trade and Travel The Designs of Atheists and Papists enquired into with what influence they may have had upon the present separation from the Church of England WHen Adrian VI. was pressed by the clamorous Importunity of the German Princes to Reform the Clergy he answered very gravely That a Reformation was necessary yet the danger of Reforming all at once was so dreadful that he resolved to proceed step by step Some Wise Men smiled at the cautious Advisement of his Holiness and said They hoped he would not break his shins for hast but deliberately make a hundred years at least between every step The same prudence which this politick Pope used in his advance towards a Reformation our wary Enquirer uses in his approaches towards the Causes of Separation Hitherto we have been entertained with certain Romantick Imaginary Causes and now he will give us a gentile Treat with the Real ones But of thâ—…se some are more remote others near hand these come by the running Post those by Tom Long the Carriet Thus your Poching Fellows when they have found the Hare sitting go round about and about the Bush till they have screwed themselves into a convenient Distance and then give poor Pusâ—… Club Law and knock her dead upon the Form 1. Now the first of these Remote Causes is That it was the misfortune and is the great disadvantage of this Church that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its Infancy it conflicted with Serpents in its Cradle and underwent a severe persecution What he understands by that old Blind Heathenish Beldame Fortune I cannot tell The Scriptures have taught us to believe That the Hairs of our Head are all numbred and therefore much more the Heads of the Martyrs That a Sparrow falls not to the ground without the Providence of our Heavenly Father Much less the Blood of the Saints which is more precious in his sight than many Sparrows But this is only a Shibboleth which serves for a Certificate that he is no friend to the immutable Counsels of God However this early persecution must needs have a considerable influence upon the Churches present weakness for thus Mephibosheths Nurse making more hast than good speed in her fright and flight threw down her Nursery and he became lame to his dying day It was therefore politickly done of Licurgus thinks the Enquirer when he had framed the Body of the Spartan Laws to pretend an occasion to Travel and having first taken an Oath of the People that they should make no alteration in that Government either in Church or State till his return he resolvedly never returns again If the old Masters of Ceremonies could have perswaded the people to some such subscription that they would never alter their Inventions till their return and then had sentenced themselves to a voluntary perpetual Exile it had been a successful piece of self denial to cheat a Nation into Uniformity no less honourable to themselves than grateful to thousands But thus the Case stood with the Church in its Infancy King Edward VI. dying Immaturely too soon says the Enquirer too late says Dr. Heylin Q. Mary succeeded him in the Throne and so the Church was put upon difficulties and trials before its Limbs and Ioints were settled and confirmed Persecution has hitherto been esteemed one of the Churches best friends whereof it has been often afraid but never hurt Such was the constant experience of the Primitive Christians Exquifiâ—…ior quaque crudelitas illecebra magis est secta plures efficimur quoties metimur sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesia The cruelties of Enemies does but more encrease the Number the oftner the Church is mowed down the thicker it comes up and there 's no Seed thrives so well as that which is steeped in the Blood of Martyrs That which Christians lose by the wind of persecution is only their Chaff that which the fire of Tribulation preys upon is only their Dross The Marian Fiers did the Church this one good turn that it melted down much of that imposing Spirit and Lordly Temper which reigned in some Church-men over their dissenting Brethren which Bishop Ridley confessed at the Stake That Tree which is of Gods Planting takes deeper Root by shaking and if it loses any Ceremonious Leaves let them go the Tree will bear better and sweeter Fruit with out them Could Persecutors have seen how much good the Wise God would extract out of their evil they would never have aggravated their own damnation to be the instruments of the Christians Salvation But malice is so quicksighted to do mischief that it 's Blind in the reasons of doing it and makes such hast to her end that she stumbles in the means Thus Nero's fingers itcht to be burning of Rome but that he knew it would arise a more glorious Phoenix out of its own Ashes which could the Devil himself consider he would never be content Tribulos metere dum nobis spinas serit to sow us Thorns and reap himself a crop of Thistles All this while we are waiting to see how he will make it out that This early Persecution did any real hurt to our Infant Church And after some Preambles and Introductions he will doubtless come home to the point And first By reason of this Persecution you must
Death that no Ceremony oughtto yeeld to the recovery of Peace the reviving of frozen charity and promoving edification And now to shut up all and himself and whole discourse out of doors he Recommends to us 14. Rom. 17. The Kingdom of God that is the Gospel is not meat and drink that is consists not or lays little stress upon those nice and perplexing matters but in righteousness peace and joy whence some would be ready enough to infer that that Church which lays very great stress upon these nice and perplexing matters is none of the Kingdom of God And I shall only desire him to add for a close that Apostolical Golden Canon v. 20. For meat destroy not the work of God do not by unseasonable using much less by rigorous Imposing things Indifferent much less things doubtful and least of all things sinful in their use destroy souls created of God Redeemed by Christ and capable of eternal Happiness where God has Commanded let him be obeyed not disputed not cavilled out of his right and where God has laid little weight let none make their little fingers an insupportable burden CHAP. VI. Whether the Magistrate hath Authority to determine such Externals of Religion as are the Matters of our Dispute FAbulam Auditor lege Lector audi when the Eagle persocuted by the Beetle could find no place of safe Retreat she prudently deposites her Eggs in Jupiters Royal Lap but he rather then endure the perpetual vexation about a Birds nest shakes them out of his Robe and at once dasht all the Hopes of an Aiery of Eagles Our Ceremonies have sometimes shelter'd themselves under the pretence of Decency and yet under that specious covert could not be secure thence they fled for Refuge into the Abstruse Receptacles of venerable Antiquity and Longaeve custom Yet from those Burroughs have they been hunted The Churches Authority to judge of the Lawfulness and to impose what she so adjudged Lawful amongst the numerous Tribe of indifferencies was nextly pleaded but upon more severe Researches into the Records no such commission can be found At last therefore they have taken sanctuary under Constantins Purple and when Princes shall be weary of protecting them against the pursuit of Scripture they will fairly shake them thence also and leave them to shift for themselves That the Persons and Authority of Magistrates are most sacred the one not to be toucht with common and unclean hands the other not to be profaned with Irreligious Breath all Protestants must acknowledge of which deep things whilst we discourse it will be seasonable to caution our selves from the Royal Prophet Ps. 131. Not to exercise our selves in great matters or in things too high for us Where though the Humble Lamb may safely wade the Castle-bearing Elephant must be forced to swim I look upon the extent of the Princes power to be as far beyond my Reach as the Primum mobile which though I can neither touch nor measure yet may say there is a Being beyond it thus though it were unpardonable boldness to Determine its bounds or say Thus farr shall it go and no farther yet a truly Loyal heart may conceive and a modest tongue express There is a God above it That the Magistrate is Custos utriusque Tabulae The great Fiduciary of Gods Law is not so much a Confession extorted from us by Rack of Scripâ—…ure as our Triumph that he is soâ—… Rejoycing in 〈◊〉 thâ—…kfulness to the â—…lmighty who has made him a Nurâ—…ng â—…ather to his 〈◊〉 To preserve the worship of God in purity and his worshippers in Peace is a Flower of the Crown Imperial which Adornes the Royal Diadem farr more then all it 's own Diamonds and Rubies and gives him a more Orient Lustre that he serves the King of Kings and Lord of Lords then if he had grasped the universal Monarchy and brought mankind to adore his footstool As no forreign power can justly pretend to intermeddle with his Government at home so no person of whatever Character at home ought to own a dependance upon any forreign Potentate Abroad Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers upon which words Holy Bernard thus si omnis anima ergo vestra Quis vos excepit ab universalitate Qui tentat excipere tentat decipere If every soul Then yours also ye Ecclesiasticks for who made you an exception from the General Rule the Pope that would exempt you from your Soveraigns Jurisdiction does but expose you to the Indignation of God What is the ne plus ultra the utmost extent of this Power in Civil and Religious concerns for such pittisul creatures as we are to determine were at once to discover our folly and betray our pride And yet we may say without offence though Princes are called Gods They shine with borrowed Beams from the Divine Majesty the fulness of whose power is Incommunicable And Propriety with Law in the former case and God with Conscience in the latter will go as near to be the shoars that shall terminate this Ocean as any two things that shall measure with them for exactness There are two sorts of Persons that fancy they have laid an eternal obligation upon Princes beyond all possibility of requital The first are they who would entitle them to an absolute Right to and Dominion over the possessions of their subjects The second they would make them soveraign Lords of Conscience Thus the great Hooker Eccles. Polity p. 26. In litigious and contraverted Causes when they come by Authority to be Determined It is the will of God that we should do accordingly though it seems yea perhaps truly seems in our private judgment or opinion it 's utterly disallowed by the Law of God And yet these Men are truer friends to their own Interest then the Princes in this Matter for whilst they deâ—…k his Atchievements with Titulado's impracticable useless and cumbersome Regalities they are sure to make provision for themselves and wisely lick their own fingers for thus it has ever been the cheap way of Church-men to sell shadows for substances as his Holiness sells the shred of a Lambskin to an Arch-Bishop for a thousand pounds sterling and a Consecrated Rose for more then his whole Belvedere is worth When the Enquirer then is so Zealous to become the Princes Champion in Spirituals I hope he understands on which side his Bread is butter'd and will speak two good words for himself whilst he speaks one for the Magistrate And when he has a little Reproacht others and magnified his own sincerity in this undertaking he wipes his mouth decently stroaks his Beard gravely and Reasons most profoundly upon these two Heads 1 That the Magistrate exceeds not his Commission when he enterposes for the Determination of the Circumstantials of Religion This Proposition thus loosely hung may be owned or disowned according to every mans humour Dissenters may subscribe it whithout the least prejudice to their cause or Reflection upon their