the Offices 〈◊〉 there performed he shall not be Punishable for any Breach otherwise of the Acts of Vniformity any thing in the said Statutes to the Contrary notwithstanding THE Bill for Indulgence FOrasmuch as Some Ease to Tender Consciences in the Exercise of Religion may be an Effectual Means to Unite His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Interest and Affection which is highly necessary in this time of Eminent Danger from the common Enemy the Papists Be it Enacted By the Kings Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That neither the Statute made in the 23d Year of the Reign of the Late Queen Elizabeth Entituled An Act to retain the Queens Majesties Subjects in their due Obedience Nor the Statute made in the Twenty Eighth Year of the said Queen Entituled An Act for the more speedy and due Execution of certain Branches of the Statute made in the Twenty Third Year of the Queens Majesties REIGN Videlicet the aforesaid Act Nor Statute made in the Third Year of the Reign of the Late King James Entituled An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which may grow by Popish Recusants Nor any other Law or Statute of this Realm made against Popish Recusants shall be construed to Extend to any Person or Persons Dissenting from the Church of England that shall being lawfully required take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which Oath of Allegiance is contained in a Statute made in the Third Year of the Late King James and make and Subscribe the Declaration mentioned in a Statute made in the Twentieth Year of His Majesties Reign that now is Entituled An Act to prevent Papists from Sitting in either House of Parliament And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every Person and Persons already Convicted or Prosecuted in Order to Conviction of Recusancy by Indictment Information Action of Debt or otherwise grounded upon the aforesaid Statutes or any of them that shall take the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and make and Subscribe the aforesaid Declaration in the Court of Exchequer or Assizes or General or Quarter Sessions to be held for the County where such Person lives and to be thence respectively certified into the Exchequer shall be thenceforth discharged from all the Penalties Seizures and Forfeitures incurred by force of any the aforesaid Statutes without any Composition Fee or further Charge whatsoever And be it further Enacted By the Authority aforesaid that all and every Person and Persons that being lawfully required shall take the said Oaths and make and subscribe the Declaration aforesaid shall not be liable to any Pains Penalties or Forfeitures mentioned in an Act made the Thirty Fifth Year of the late Queen Elizabeth Entituled An Act to retain the Queens Majesties Subjects in their due Obedience Nor in an Act made in the Twenty Second Year of His Majesty that now is Entituled An Act to prevent and suppress Seditions Conventicles Nor shall any of the said Persons be Prosecuted in any Ecclesiastical COURT for or by reason of their Non-conforming to the CHURCH of ENGLAND The Bill proceeds next to a Proviso That the Doors be not Locked Barred or Bolted where there are Meetings Then to the Relieving Constables Church-Wardens and the like Officers that Scruple the Oaths that be long to those Offices by admitting a Deputy Then to the Repealing the Oxford Act or Releasing the Penalty to all such as shall take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and Subscribe to the Declaration aforesaid and the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England with the exceptions of the former Bill Upon the same Terms Liberty is granted to any Person to teach a School or be a Tutor in a Private Family It Proceeds to giving Ease upon the same to Dissenting Protestants who Scruple the Baptizing Infants Then to the Easing other Persons who scruple Taking all Oaths whom it shall suffice to say That J. A. B. Acknowledge Profess and Testify instead of J. A. B. Swear That c. According to the Words of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Then there is an Excellent Proviso That no Persons who do not go upon Sundays to some Congregation of Religious Worship allowed by this Act shall have any benefit at all by it The Bill is Long upon these Contents and therefore upon Consideration also that it hath been once Printed already so that the Copy thereof is in the hands of many when it is not so nor could be so with the other it is conceived best to forbear any further Repetition For indeed if the whole Bill for Indulgence were waved and one Clause onely advanced into the Bill before for Comprehension giving it the Title of a Bill for Comprehension and Indulgence both it were rather to be Chosen and easier Passed That Clause should be to this effect ANd forasmuch as there are some Ministers of a good Life that cannot according to their Judgments allow of our Parochial Churches nor a Book of Liturgy but do chuse to Worship God and Jesus Christ in the way of their Gathered or Separate Congregations and crave the Protection and Clemency of the King upon their Allegiance as other Subjects Be it finally Enacted for the Happiness and quiet of the Realm and the Reduction of these Men by other means than those which have hitherto proved unsuccessful That every Christian Subject throughout the Land that profess the Reformed Religion be pardoned all Faults and Penalties incurr'd upon the Account of any forepast Nonconformity And that all Prosecutions of the Paenal Laws which concern the Protestants and not the Papists in the matter of Religion shall be Suspended Vntil by a further Act of Parliament those that are fit to be tollerated and the Intollerable be distinguished and such Order be taken as is necessary to the settling a more Firm and Lasting Vnion in the Nation ERRATA PAge 20. l. 8. read cuervo p. 27. l. 15. r. Nachmanides p. 45. l. 31. r. many other p. 51. l. 5. for hope r. help p. 56. l. 10. r. desquels l 23. r. function p. 58. l. 8. f. as r. or p. 61. l. 7. r. proposition p. 72. l. 21. after are r. not Some literal mistakes there are in the Oriental words as Cheth for Ain and Pe for Mem and others which I omit Besides the mangling some French and Italian Quotations FINIS
enforce them puts a period to all search and enquiry it gives a check to all endeavours after an Encrease in Knowledge For if men use the means thereof they will differ in their Sentiments and Apprehensions and those differences will expose them to the publick Rods and Axes and therefore they must grow utterly negligent therein chusing rather to be ignorant with security than to obtain Knowledge to their ruine and destruction and whatever puts a period to all endeavours after Knowledge and Understanding doth certainly ruine and destroy the Power of Religion For Ignorance introduces Irreligion Formality and Superstition but is no Mother to or promoter of true internal hearty Religion and Devotion And this is one of the dismal Effects that Impositions and Laws for the inforcing of men have had in Popish Countries especially in Spain and Italy There 's nothing left in those Countries but the name of Christianity and some outside Formalities of Worship and Devotion they know nothing of the Power of it And I am not without fears that if the present Impositions in England be continued and the Laws prosecuted and Dissenters ruined and destroyed thereby that unless God raise up others the Life and Power of Religion will decay and Tepidity Formality Indifferency with an encrease of Sensuality and Prophaneness succeed thereunto And really such a State peradventure may be acceptable enough to some men for so they may live in Plenty and Peace and have what may caress their senses and please and gratifie their lusts they care not much what becomes of the Honour of God or the Souls of Men. Thus 't is in Popish Countries the Pope and his Cardinals the Bishops Abbots and most of the Clergy live in Honour and at ease they abound in all things that are grateful to the Flesh they withhold not their hearts from any Joy but whether the People serve God or the Devil whether they be saved or damned is very little their concernment Let them believe as the Church believes let them be obedient to the Orders thereof let them advance no Opinions contrary to its Institutions and for other things they are at liberty and may do as they list There is no sin like Inconformity and breaking the Orders and tyrannous Impositions of the Church They may break all God's Commandments with more security than any one of them Some there be do not fear to say That there are others in the world that are much of the humour of those Catholick Gentlemen and many there be that do not know very well how to confute them Let it not be said that I impute all seriousness in Religion to variety and differences of Judgment and Opinion I mean no such thing I impute it to an encrease of Knowledge and skill in the Scriptures and Doctrine of Christianity to which diversity of Opinions and some diversity in Practices too is for ought that I can see unavoidable nor is there any way of preventing one without the other This the Papists see well enough and therefore forbid the Reading of the Scripture to the Vulgar and some Protestants see it too See Bishop Bramhall's Vindication against Mr. Baxter who shall scape fairly he says if none cast it in his teeth that the promiscuous licence which they give to all sorts of people qualified or unqualified not only to Read but to Interpret the Scripture according to their private spirit or particular fancies without any regard either to the Analogy of Faith which they understand not or the Interpretation of Dectors of former Ages is more prejudicial I might better say pernitious beth to particular Christians and to whole Societies than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanist p. 116 117. There are more may see it in due time and 't is to be susspected that those that commend that Book and have espoused some other notions of that Author concerning Patriarchal Power and the Obligation to obey the Laws of Universal Councils till they be repealed which how they shall be I cannot tell may have some kindness for the same Opinion and some illuminations concerning it though it be too early in the morning as yet to propose them to publick Consideration However I have entertained the persuasion which I think I am not so like to forsake that Knowledge with serious Piety and Godliness though mixed with some real Errours Divisions and Mistakes for in variety of judgment concerning the same things all cannot be true is more eligible than Union and sameness of apprehension with Ignorance Prophaneness Formality and a form of Godliness without the Power of it A living man though something mishapen and deformed is better than a lifeless Statue though it be never so beautiful and comely and most Parents had rather have their Children alive though by their little pievish humours and quarrels they give them some trouble and vexation than to be deprived of them having nothing but their pictures and lifeless Marbles which never need their Umpirage to reconcile their animosities and waspish feuds SECT IX BUT what means all this Discourse Why this is the meaning of it Union and Peace among Christians is a very fine thing and greatly desireable but so various are the Understandings and so great and inveterate are the prejudices of men that Union of Judgment can never be expected with any probability unless in a few plain necessary things Peace Union and Love was preserved in the Christian Church in the Primo-Primitive times upon such terms upon the consent unto and agreement in a few plain necessary things Those were thought then sufficient and they are so still though the belief of it be perished from among men Those persons that suspend the Peace of the Church upon many dark useless and controverted Propositions and Doctrines and will prosecute all Dissenters by severe and sanguinary Laws I will say it over again do but take a fair way to destroy the Church of God and leave nothing but the empty Name of Religion in the World You will say What then would you have Would you have all men left at liberty to believe and do as they list in Religion Would you have no Laws or Rules be imposed upon the Judgments and Faith of men Shall they be permitted to believe and publish what Doctrines they please Before I make any Answer to this Objection I shall with all humility beseech both our Civil and Ecclesiastical Governours especially the latter whose Government certainly is paternal that before they make Laws and Rules for the Consciences of men they would a little consider 1. The Weakness Impotence and Depravtion of humane Minds Methinks those that govern the Churches of Christendom seem to have very little sense of the common Calamity of Mankind they seem to have forgotten the great and lamentable Imperfections of the whole posterity of Adam Are not the Understandings of most men pittifully blind and dark Are they not strangely impotent and weak yea unable to
be cured or prevented by imposing may be healed and provided for by more Christian Methods Neque ad plenam charitatis societatis Christianae concordiam necessaria est plena opinionum de Dogmatibus Ritubus Consensio sedcum aliqua in hisce dissensione iniri jure potest ac honeste foveri inter dissidentes Ecclesiastica Pax fraterna consociatio Forbs Instruc Histor Theol. lib. 14. c. 7. Before I go off I must request the Reader calmly and without heat to consider the Contents of this Discourse before he censure or condemn it and that he will not take some single Sections separate and alone and charge them with Absurdities which he may easily do but consider the Whole and compare the Parts with each other For what in one Place is liable to Objection may in another be freed from it If any Man shall think fit to reply to what I have written and doth write calmely and with a peaceful Spirit I shall not promise a Rejoynder but I shall consider what he says But if he rages and is angry and gives me hard words having no cause for them I know how to imploy my time better than in answering such Folly And now then I will shut up my Book with some words which were in the Mouths of the Protestants at the First Reformation in Italy and may be put in the Mouths of those that Dissent from us now in England God knows how soon we may be made one to our cost Ne vi Lasciate dare a Credere da i Vostri Ecclesiastici che quelli che per la Lettione de la Same Scritture vengono ne la cognoscenz a del Siglivolo di Dio et de sue promesse ne le quali Confidati rejettano tutte le Traditione humane Sciano come pare hoggi a torto ci chiamanno Tumultuosi Perturbatori de la Pace e Quieta publica Autori de Seditione e Pieri d'egni vitio e Licenza Impero che Dio non e Autore di Divisione ma di Pace Ne siamo noi i primi i quali siamo di cio Stati Salsamente imputati Concioscia che a Elia primo su dello che egli disturbaa il popolo d' Israel Christo Anchora su chiamato seditioso da i Judei Egli Apostoli erano accusati che commoverano it Popolo Suffer not your selves to be prevailed upon by your Ecclesiasticks to believe that those who by reading the Scriptures come to the Knowledge of Christ and his promises and trusting on them reject all Humane Traditions are as at this day to their great injury they are called Tumultuous Disturbers of publick Peace Quiet Authors of Sedition Licentiousness for God is not the Author of Division but of Peace We are not the First to whom these things have been imputed It was said of Elias That he was the Troubler of Israel The Jews said of Christ That he was Seditious and Subverted the People And 't was said of the Apostles That they did exceedingly trouble their Cities and turned the World upside down Aprite Aprite gliocchi vosteri e considerate bene voi che permettete che ne vosteri citta stiano Gjudeiet altri non solamente di contraria Religione a quella del figlivolo di Dio ma Distruttori d'essa Anchora et Atheisti et non permetterete chi quelli i quali seguitano la Vera Dottrina e Religione de Giesu Christo stiano ne vostri Citta e Case loro contrae ogni Giustitia e Legge tanto civile quanto Divina Open open your Eyes and consider you that permit Jews in your Cities and others not only of contrary Religion to that of the Son of God but utter Destroyers of it yea arrant Atheists And will ye not suffer those which follow the true Doctrine and Religion of Christ Jesus to dwell in your Cities in their own Houses contrary to all Right both Humane and Divine These are Words in an Address to the Italian Princes and Republicks in the Year 1562. Unto which I will therefore yet affix a Sentence that is Fresh out of the present Bishop of Cork in his late Book call'd The Protestant Peacemaker who hath rendred himself I take it Observable for his several Condescending passages to the Nonconformists and more especially for the mention he makes of one Book of theirs entituled A Peaceable Resolution of Conscience touching our present Impositions and it is a Peaceable Book indeed with so much Integrity and Honour as he does though scarce taken notice of by others as also for this one saying of his which is fit I think to be set on a Beacon and shall be therefore my Conclusion I am and must be of the mind that the strength of the Protestant Cause both at Home and throughout Christendom lies in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Power of Christianity in this World stands or falls with Protestantism SECT Vlt. TO this Discourse before going written by a Learned Hand in the Countrey which does here end the Bookseller who knows him not is advised to annex the Copy of those two Bills for Accommodation that were in the House of Commons when they Sate last at Westminster to this end that they may be here as it were upon Record for the Use of the Parliament when any shall be called It is some Months since this Book which so much concerns that Argument was sent out of the Country and it was retarded in the Press several Weeks in hopes of a Parliament coming that might have made the Subject more seasonable But now the very Talk of one being lodged for this Summer it is fit something be put to it as may make it to be of use in October The Bees and Ants have their Instinct in the Summer to make Provision for their Lives against the Winter There are Two sorts of Nonconformists we know The One who do allow of a Liturgy and our Parochial Churches and these may be all Câ—â—prehended upon very reasonable condescenâ—â—â—â—s The Other who do not allow of either and these must be Indulged or destroyed It is two Bills therefore or these two things in one Bill which are necessary to the designe of Accomodation In that Parliament the One of these Bills for there was Two of them as the Gentleman before hath told us the Bill for Indulgence was carefully attended by some concerned in it and was therefore brought to Perfection The Other Bill that for Comprehension was looked after very sorrily and if it had Passed as it was Drawn up would have brought in no Body For instance The Declaration of Assent and Consent to the Book of Common-Prayer required in the Act of Vniformity was taken away wholly in this Bill but the Subscription required in the same Act was taken away only in the latter part And when in the former part there are these words And I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England
Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person shall without making any Interpretation of his own unless it be such as shall be allowed to be Orthodox by his Diocesan or two other Bishops Subscribe and Declare his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of the Articles of Religion mentioned in the Statute made in the 13th Year of the late Q. Elizabeth except only the 34th 35th and 36th Articles and also except these words in the 20th Article Viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites Ceremonies Authority in Controversies of Faith in like manner as he is already Obliged to Subscribe and Declare his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of all the said 39 Articles Every such Person shall be as capable of taking any Degree in either Vniversity or being Ordained Priest or Deacon or of being Collated Admitted or put into and to Hold and Enjoy any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion as if the said Person had Subscribed and Declared his Assent and Consent unto and Approbation of all the said Articles of Religion And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Person Ordained between the Year of our Lord 1644 and the First of May in the Year 1680 according to the Form of Ordination used by laying on of hands by the Presbytery shall be as capable of any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion as if he had been Ordained according to the Form of Making and Ordaining Priests and Deacons in the Church of England And that every Person Ordained only by Presbyters since the Year of our Lord 1660 shall not be admitted to any Benefice unless he receive a second Imposition of Hands from some Bishop to recommend him to the Grace of God for the Work or Exercise of his Office in the Place or Charge unto which he is call'd and the Bishop shall frame his Words accordingly And Whereas by a Statute made in the 13th and 14th Year of His Majesties Raign that now is Entituled An Act for the Uniformity of the Publick Prayer and Administration of Sacraments other Rites and Ceremonies and for Establishing the Form of Ordaining Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Church of England there are two Declarations imposed upon several Persons and in such manner as is there specified Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person that hereafter shall be Presented or Collated or Put into any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion shall declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the Vse of all things contained and Prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer nor Make and Subscribe the other Declaration or Acknowledgment Viz. I A. B. do declare That it is not Lawful to take up Arms against the King c. according to the Formes in the said Act in the 13th and 14th Year of His Majesties Reign directed and appointed but that Both the said Declarations shall be wholly Omitted any thing in the aforesaid Statute to the Contrary Notwithstanding And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person shall hereafter be capable of being collated Admitted or put into any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion before such time as the said Person shall have taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which Oath of Allegiance is contained in the Statute made in the 3d Year of King James before the Bishop of the Diocess who is hereby Impowred to administer the same and shall also Make and Subscribe the Declaration mentioned in an Act of Parliament made in the 30th Year of His Majesties Reign that now is Entituled An Act to prevent Papists from Sitting in either House of Parliament And the Name of every Person so taking the Oath and Making and Subscribing the Declaration aforesaid shall be Enrolled with the Day and Time of his Taking the same in Rolls to be kept by the respective Bishop of each Diocess for that purpose And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person shall hereafter be Obliged to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience or to make the Subscription required by the Canons or to go to the Bishop for a License to Preach being already lawfully Ordained any Statute or Custome to the contrary Notwithstanding And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from henceforth no Person whatsoever wear a Surplice during the time of Reading Common Prayer or Preaching or Performing any Religious Worship in any Church or Chappel whatsoever except only in the Chappel of the Kings Majesty and all Cathedral Churches of this Realm of England and Dominion of Wales And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That from henceforth no Minister or other Ecclesiastieal Person shall be Obliged or compelled to use the Signe of the Cross in Baptism or any Parent Obliged to have his Child Christened by the Minister of the Parish if the said Minister will not use or omit the Sign of the Cross according to the Desire of the Parent who in that Case may procure some other Minister to do it Nor shall the Child of any Person be refused Baptism for want of Godfathers and Godmothers so long as the Parent is present to fill their place And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Minister or Ecclesiastical Person that shall Officiate in the Administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper shall refuse it to any Person that desires to be admitted to the same although such Person shall not use the Gesture of Kneeling in the Act of Receiving nor come up to the Communion Table but shall go to such Convenient Place in the Church where such Person is and there give it him in some other decent Gesture of Ordinary use in the Reformed Churches Nor shall any Minister be troubled for the withholding his own Act in delivery of the Sacrament from any whom he Judges notoriously unworthy or unfit for it Nor for suspending his reading the Sentence of Excommunication against any of his Parish until he be satisfied in the Case that his crime deserves it And to the intent that Vniformity may so far as it is needful and so far as it can be still maintained Be it enacted Moreover by the Authority aforesaid That every Parson Vicar and Lecturer shall conform to the Liturgy of the Church in the Ordinary Lords-day Service reading the same by himself or by his Curate as by Law it is Established Reserving a Necessary and Just Liberty for his Conscience in any Matter or Words which himself esteems unlawful and so to him it is sin in the By-Offices Occasional Service the Rubricks and otherwise and also for Prudence in the whole Mannagement to Act with respect to Time Place and Circumstances so as appeares most conducive to Edification And so long as the main Body of the Service appointed is there Read and the Substance of
as it is now by Law Established which are really equivalent with the Declaration of Assent and Consent to the Vse of the Book and it is to no more than to the Vse of it the Declaration is required to be made by the Act it follows that to take away One of these injunctions and not the Other could be of no Signification Upon notice hereof therefore given to some Members of the House it was moved at the Committee to take away the whole Subscription as well as the Declaration and it being carried in the Affirmative the Bill as it is here presented hath that Amendment There are some few Additions more inserted as necessary thereunto for the obtaining its end the reasons whereof appear in their own light yet is it Judged fit that publick notice be given of two or three of them The One of them is the Parenthesis about the Beginning where the Thirty-Nine Articles are imposed on every Minister to Subscribe which notwithstanding the Exception of Three of the Articles do yet require more Caution Whosoever have read a Book called A part of a Register wherein there is a Relation of several things in reference to the Nonconformists in Q. Elizabeths days they will find that there was nothing so greivous to them and exasperated them then against the Bishops so much as the Subscriptions of those times and the Subscription to the Articles was one among the rest which makes me wonder what our good men did now mean to impose the Subscription of these Articles so rigidly upon all for the enjoyment of the benefit of either of their Bills of Vnion or Indulgence They know not really what it is they were a doing for if the Persecuting Spirit should be raised hereafter about this Subscription and the thing be so pressed that all who Subscribe not shall be Prosecuted by the Law there were like to arise greater troubles to tender Consciences and scruples more unanswerable then could be about the Cap and Tippet the Surplice and Cross in those dayes The doubtfulness of many about the Ceremonies is not to be compared to a Conviction of Conscience that a man must not Subscribe to any point which he believes untrue By this means therefore should these Articles of the Church intended for Peace become the instruments of Torment and be had in the greatest Detestation which consequently will defame and then ruine the Protestant Religion There will be Persecution in the Church that 's certain for the Devil will have it so There will be Tender Consciences that 's certain for God will have it so When there are no other things then to trouble Mens Consciences but this Subscription Exceptions and Scruples will be raised against these Articles and it a Parliament do not prevent them in their Bill by a present mitigation they Act not like wise Men and do not see Ten Years before them The only remedy against this evil is to provide a liberty in both the Bills that every Consciencious Man that really scruples any of the Articles may explain his sense which if it shall not pass unless it be allowed to be Orthodox by the Bishop or by two other Bishops in case the Diocesan be partial there can be no harm in it at least none in comparison of this mischief which is to be prevented hereby Another of them is about the Middle concerning Orders In the late Times when the Bishops were down many were ordained by Presbyters and the House was willing to allow those Orders as good in a Case of Necessity upon which account only the rigid Episcopalian will allow of the Ministry of the Reformed Churches beyond the Sea but there being others that have been Ordained since the return of the Bishops the House made no provision for such in the Bill being not willing we may suppose to countenance a neglect of the Bishops out of that case And what then shall such do There is an Ordination to the Office or Ministry it self and he that is Once Ordained to that whether by Presbyters or Bishops cannot receive the Spiritual Power or Character or be made Ministers Again But there is a laying on of hands to the Work of that Office in regard to a new Charge as Paul and Barnabas who were Ministers before and yet are separated to that peculiar Work unto which they were called by the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the Hands of those who are named Act. 13. Such an Ordination now as this may be repeated and is the only Medium for resolution of this dimculty The Third of these Insertions is the last whole Clause concerning the Common-Prayer the due consideration whereof is the very main hinge upon which the whole matter of this Comprehension does turn If Union it self be necessary it must be necessary to know what is the Bottom upon which we can be United In all Reconcilements between different Parties the first thing that is to be found out is a Medium for their Agreement When we have found this it must be considered how far each Party can come up to that Medium and then we can make the Accommodation The Medium of Reconciliation in this Business at this time between the Conformist and Nonconformist is the Common-Prayer Some Persons as is said before do hold that a stinted Form of Prayer and our Parish-Churches are unwarrantable by God's Word who though they may be Indulged are thereby uncapable of Comprehension Others are ready to maintain the Lawfulness of both these and the Enquiry about such is How far they can do that which is enjoyned That is How far they can Read the Common-Prayer and how far they cannot Conform to it This is the Critical Point in regard to this Bill between the Conformist and Nonconformist The One can Read all the Other so much only as will serve for Union The Nonconformist now who hold a Form of Prayer and the Parish-Churches lawful are for the most part of them able through Providential Merey to Conform to the Ordinary Lord's Day Service their Exceptions which make the Liturgy to them unlawful lying in other Parts or Moments of the Book And consequently if the Bill may be hemmed up with the Clause here offered it will do Without that Clause it is apparently imperfect With it it will be what we may call Perfect that is Perfect in its kind so far as to answer its end and bring in All of the Willing and Many of the Vnwilling that go under the Name of the Presbyterian Perswasion This being premised the Bills the Titles only as they were in the House being voluntarily omitted are as followeth THE Bill for Comprehension WHereas the Peace of the State is highly concern'd in the Peace of the Church Therefore at all Times but especially in this Conjuncture it is most Necessary to be preserved In Order therefore to remove Differences and Dissatisfactions which may arise among Protestants Be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent