a one should tell them That it will seem unequal to deny a Toleration to them and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for which is in effect to say They have as good reason to expect an Indulgence from this State as others that maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England yea such as communicate in her publike Worship Is there no better way of exalting Prelacy and disgracing its supposed Adversaries then by this Reproach and Damage done to the whole Protestant Profession Yea he so far extenuates the guilt of Papists and brings it down so low as to make it common to all other Sects In which one would think he should have been more wary who in one place stretcheth the notion of Sect so far as to make its reason to lye in being different from the Established Form of Church Government Now for matter of practice he imputes the same guilt to all other Sects And if the Papists saith he have any Doctrines which countenance those Practises that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness And he implies That it is onely the want of strength that other Sects are not so bad as they for such kind of Doctrine as well as Practice Such passages falling from a Protestants Pen may do the Papists better service than their late Apology But why doth he say If the Papists have any such Doctrines Doth he not know they have The Church of England was assured of it when concerning the Adherents of Rome she used this expression in a publike form of Prayer Whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction We wish their eyes were open who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid Crimes peculiar to that Religion and rooted in the Principles thereof The evidence hereof given in the former Discourse is not needful to be rehersed in this place This Author as others that oppose the wayes of Amity and Peace loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh To renew the remembrance of the late Warr. Those distracted Times are the great Storehouse and Armory out of which such men do fetch their Weapons of offence and the great Strong-hold unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of Reason and then they think they are safe though therein they contradict the true intent of the Act of Oblivion Some of those that now so importunately urge the Injury and Tyranny of those Times did then sufâ—iciently comply with Usurpers and left Episcopacy to sink or swim and did partake of the chiefest Favours and Preferments that were then conferred And on the other hand such as they upbraid and are now Sufferers did as little comply with those that subverted the Government and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late Sovereign and for the restitution of His present Majesty as any sort of men in the Realm But to intermeddle in the Differences of those Times and to repeat Odious Matters and to use Recriminations that will disturb the minds of men and tend to a perpetual Mischief is aliene from and opposite unto my Pacifick Endeavours As for his charging the Nonconformists with certain Doctrines and Positions by him there mentioned which I know none that maintains and other Accusations and Reports relating to the time of the Warr the Truth or Falshood the Equity or Iniquity the Candor or Disingenuity of his Testimony in those things is left to the judgment of the Righteous God and of Impartial Men. SECT IX Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful ANother part of the Proceeding is very Unrighteous and Presumptuous The Dissenting Ministers appeal to God That they dare not Conform for Conscience sake This Author hence inferrs The force of the Argument is There is a Necessity of Toleration because they Will not conform Is a Cannot for Conscience sake of no more force than a bare Will not But who best knows their hearts themselves or their Adversaries He would make the world believe that not Conscience but Obstinacy and Faction is the cause of their holding out and that the greatest part were trapann'd into Nonconformity That trifling story of their being trapann'd is not worthy of serious discourse It is so evident as not to be denied That about the time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practice there were motions and overtures of Indulgence from the King and some of the great Officers of State who were known to have high affection and esteem for the Church of England yet did approve and promote those Overtures as the best Expedient for the setling of this Church and Kingdom But to let that pass Can men of Understanding and Candor think that so many serious persons who as well as others may be thought to love themselves their Families and Relations should continue such egregiously obstinate Fools as to refuse the Comforts of their Temporal Being for a Humor and remain in a state of Deprivation into which they had been meerly trapann'd As for the objected unprofitableness of their returning how doth it appear What hinders their Capacity of gaining Benefices yea and Dignities if they could Conform Why should they not find as good acceptation as others in their Preaching and Conversation It may be they would enter too fast for the good liking of some into those Preferments who therefore would set such Barrs against them as they should not be able to break thorough SECT X. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied IN the late Times of Usurpation there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to Peace and Concord The longing desire and expectation that was in them as much as in any others of a National Settlement and general Composure did accelerate His Majesty's Peaceable Restauration Surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great Turn of Affairs without the thoughts of their own yeilding and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other Perswasion Their early and ready Overtures of Reconciliation which are publikely made known will testifie their Moderation to the present and future Ages Their Offers of Acquiescing in Episcopacy Regulated and the Liturgy Reformed was on their part a good advance towards Union His Majesty hath given this Testimony of them in His Declaration When We were in Holland We were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom We had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon Vs would permit Vs to have and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them persons full of Affection to Vs of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they had been given out to he to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which
to Mr. Richard Hooker about the writing of his Ecclesiastical Polity in these words It may be remembred that at the first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined to that way the Books then written savoured for the most part of the Disciplinary stile it sounded every where in the Pulpits and in the common phrase of mens speech and the contrary Part began to fear they had taken a wrong course There is as little Truth and Justice in that report That the Party that were against Ceremonies caused the Troubles at Frankford and brought a Dishonor to the Reformation and Infamy upon our Nation The English Congregation at Frankford was setled after the Discipline of the Foreign Reformed Churches and enjoyed much Peace till certain eminent men zealous of the English Forms and Rites came among them and by a high hand brought in the Liturgy and brake them to pieces and forced away the Ministers and those Members that were in the first forming and setling of that Church Afterward they that remained and received the Liturgy continued not long in unity but in a short time an incurable and scandalous Schism brake out between the Pastor and almost the whole Congregation Lastly There is a great mistake in the main business of the Narrative in representing things as setled by the Church of England in the beginning of the Queen's Reign to please each Party in the abolishing of some and the retaining of other Ceremonies Whereas at the reviving the Reformation at that time the Ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all Protestants and nothing appears to be done in favour of the Anticeremonial Party about the points in difference But things were carried to a greater height against their Way than in King Edward's time whose Reformation was thought to incline more to that which was afterwards called Puritanism For which cause the Historian before mentioned hath written That that King being ill principled his Death was no infelicity to the Church of England The truth of the matter is That in the first Times of the Queen whose Reign was to be sounded in the Protestant Religion the Wisdom of the State intended chiefly the bringing over of the whole Body of the People and to settle them in that Profession and therefore thought fit to make no more alteration from their old Forms then was necessary to be made Care was taken that no part of the Liturgy might be offensive to the Papists and they accordingly resorted to our Divine Service for the first Ten years Also the retaining of the Ceremonies was a matter of condescention to the Popish Party the State thereby testifying how far they would stoop to gain them by yeelding as far as they might in their own Way Now long Experience hath shewed That what was done with respect to the Peace of former Times and reconciling of Papists to Protestants is become an occasion of dividing Protestants from one another without hope of converting Papists SECT XIV The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined DIvers Reasons are alledged to prove a continued necessity for these Ceremonies as Because they that are for the Church are unwilling to have them taken away To revoke them is to comply with those that will never be satisfied Imputations have been laid upon the Things injoyned as Antichristian Idolatrous Superstitious A Warr was undertook to remove them And it is a reproach to the Church whose Foundation is upon the Truth to be various Hereunto we make answer Whosoever delight in the use of the Ceremonies may enjoy their liberty but let it suffice them to use it without laying a stumbling-block before others or intangling their Consciences or hindring all of a contrary Perswasion from the Ministry from teaching School yea and from taking any Academical Degree With what soberness can it be said the Dissenters will never be satisfied when hitherto they were never tryed with any Relaxation or Indulgence although they have given evident proofs of their unfeigned desires of Accommodation They do indeed esteem the Ceremonies an excess in the Worship of God but suppose that some have been immoderate in disparaging those Rituals on the other hand shall their value be so inhansed as to be thought more worth then the Church's Unity and the exercise of mutual Charity among its Members May not the Church salve her Honour by declaring That in remitting these Injunctions she meerly yeelds to the infirmity of weak Consciences As St. Paul declared concerning abstaining from meats who had as much power to make a Canon as any sort or number of Ecclesiastical persons can now pretend unto As concerning the late Warr it is easier said then proved That it was undertaken to remove the Ceremonies and it was not so declared by those that managed it But if it were so indeed as it is here suggested let this Argument be well weighed A dreadful Warr that had a dismal issue was undertaken to remove certain Ceremonies that at the best are but indifferent therefore let them never be removed but still inforced to the uttermost upon Consciences that disallow them As for the reproach of the Church by the appearance of being various we conceive the controverted Ceremonies are no Foundation of the Church of England nor any substantial part of her Religion and do therefore hope that some Indulgence therein will not fix upon her any brand of Inconstancy It is objected That the Popish Priests would hereby take advantage It seems then that greater care must be taken that the Papists who are implacable Adversaries be not offended then that many thousand honestly minded Protestants should be relieved But the strangest Reason comes up last Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to make these Injunctions That is say the things are but indifferent yet great dissentions have risen about them and are like to continue without end therefore the Church hath been necessitated to impose them with great severity upon multitudes who esteem them unlawful and all for this end That dissentions may be removed We are astonished at this Argument from the Pen of a Learned man The truth is these alledged Reasons have more of Animosity in them then of Equity Charity or good Advice Indeed the Apostle saith Mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have received but he doth not so brand those that scruple unwritten Traditions and needless Ceremonies but adhere to the intire Doctrine of Christ and all Divine Institutions SECT XV. Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England THE Moderation of the Church of England in the Articles of Predestination Divine Grace and Free-will being urged against the rigorous imposition of the controverted Orders and Ceremonies this Answer is made That the case is not the same for that those points are so full of difficulty that they and questions of
A Second Discourse OF THE RELIGION OF ENGLAND Further Asserting That REFORMED CHRISTIANITY Setled in its Due Latitude is the Stability and Advancement of this KINGDOM Wherein is included An ANSWER to a late Book ENTITVLED A Discourse of TOLERATION LONDON Printed in the Year 1668. A Second DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGION of ENGLAND SECT I. Of the Foundation of our Peace already laid in the Religion of the Nation and the Structure thereof to be perfected by the Vnity of that Profession COncerning Religion in this Kingdom there have been and still are great thoughts of heart and the troubled state thereof hath much disturbed the Minds of Men and the whole course of Human Affairs Doubtless Religion it self is not in fault which in its right and sound state being an Institution holy just and good must needs be of great efficacy to compose and quiet our minds and to heal and settle the Nations But that which in it self is Excellent is by the Errors and Corruptions of men made subject to much vanity And the Adversary of Mankind being not able to raze out the deep impressions thereof that are in our Nature hath made it his Master-piece so to corrupt or discompose it as to disorder the Passions of Men and the Affairs of the World about it Concerning the Cure of these Distempers and the Redress of the Evils thence arising there is no cause of Despair or Despondency if Men cease from their high Provocations and God from his righteous Indignation The most effectual means of Reconciliation between the Disagreeing Parties is For all of them to be reconciled to God Then would that Spirit of Perversness which by the Divine Displeasure hath been mingled in the midst of us be controled and vanquished and Offences and Prejudices being removed we might discern the Way of Peace God forbid that Sentence should pass upon this Generation Destruction and misery is in their paths and the way of peace they have not known Next under the Divine Favour and Blessing our Help standeth in the Wisdom and Piety of our SOVEREIGN and His PARLIAMENT But this Grand Affair is acknowledged to be full of difficulties caused by the Passions Prejudices and Interests of the several Parties Nevertheless the Prudence and Patience of those that sit at the Helm of Government is able to Master it For the Ground-work of Peace is laid to their hands in the Religion of the Nation and the Impartial may descry the opportunity of such a Settlement as may accommodate all those Parties in which the Nation 's Peace is bound up The true Interest of Soveraignty is the self-same with that of the Universality or whole Body of the Kingdom and this is founded in such a Common-Good as belongs to all sorts of men by whom the Publike Weal consists And where there are and inevitably will be different Perswasions among them the Wisdom of the Government is to contract and lessen their differences as much as it is possible but howsoever to prevent or heal divisions and to hold them united among themselves in the common Benefit and all of them necessarily dependant upon the State This is a firm Basis of the perpetual stability of Empire as also of the Subjects Tranquility and Prosperity and the present Discourse rests upon this Principle as its sure Foundation Now in this Realm the joint Stock of those several Parties for matter of Religion is REFORMED CHRISTIANITY for which they are all jealous even unto discomposure upon any Encroachments of the Popish Party Wherefore it is the Wisdom of this Government to remove or lessen the Differences and to cure the Divisions which now disturb and divide the Protestants and to hold them united among themselves and all of them in firm dependance upon this State and consequently to give them all their due encouragement not indeed in loose and irregular wayes but in a ruled Order consistent with stable Polity and agreeable to the Government of this Kingdom The Ground-work being already laid in the Protestant Religion which is the general and grand Interest of this Nation the Structure and Fabrick of the Unity and Peace of this Realm is more or less perfected as the Unity of this Profession and the Peace and Concord of its Professors is more or less acquired And now this great Question lyes before us Whether the Vnity of Religion be obtained by requiring a Conformity of Judgment and Practice in matters of perpetual difference from the beginning of the Reformation unto this very day or by permitting a latitude of Opinion and Practice in those points and that not infinite and inordinate but limited by the Publike Rule SECT II. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by common Equity and the good of the Vniversality HOw happy might the disposition of Human Affairs be if that were acknowledged in mens Practice which is most clear and obvious to Human Understanding That things of common Equity and regard to all sorts who are necessarily included in the Publike State be preferred by each particular Party before great Advantages to themselves apart with disregard of all others For all particular Interests which are uncorrupt and will hold firm are imbarked in the Interest of the Universality and must sink or swim therewith Whereupon not onely the Commonwealth but the more appropriate Concernments of men are better secured for continuance by this Moderation and common Equity There lye before us the Protestant Religion which is the true Primitive Christianity and the Ancient Equal and Happy Constitution of the Government of this Kingdom The Conservation and Advancement of both These are infinitely more valuable than the prevalence of Parties by all true Protestants and true English men A publike Spirit is that which is truly pious and generous But over and above this Noble and Christian Consideration this also should be very prevalent That those Two great things before named in which all do share and by which all subsist are the Basis even of the more private and contracted Benefits of the several Parties and by disturbing these they weaken their own hold and disturb their own safety Those that hate Moderation and follow Extremes on either hand consider not the true state of England It is an unhappy Error when divided Parties who when all is done in their divided state can be but Parties and not the Whole shall so act in their turns as if they took themselves to be the whole Body of the Nation or equivalent thereunto And it is a calamitous aversness when such as must live together either as Friends or Enemies shall refuse lawful and safe terms of mutual agreement As for Conscience and its high Concernments if it be guided by that Wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable it puts in no caution against the healing of this breach For Order and Peace may be obtained upon terms not repugnant to the Principles of either Party His Majesty's Wisdom hath
of that Discourse to which he pretends an Answer And this hath brought forth a large Impertinency which takes up more than a third part of his Book For those whose Liberty He seeks to withstand are not touched with that which he writes at large of the nature of Dissentions with their Causes and Consequences and the Magistrates duty concerning them whether it be right or wrong setting aside the injurious application thereof And all that labour had been spared if he had put a difference between Dissention and Dissent words that are near in sound and perhaps sometimes promiscuously used but in their strict and proper sense far distant For Dissention is no sooner presented to the mind but it is apprehended as something either culpable and offensive or calamitous and unhappy But Dissent is of a better notion and is not necessarily on both sides either a Fault or a Grievance But if this Author means by Dissentions no more then dissents or differences of Opinion with what truth and justice can he charge them all as he doth with such execrable Causes and Effects Dissentions have been and may be remedied and their fuel being taken away those flames will be extinguished But diversity of Opinion seems in this state of Human Nature to be irremediable It is therefore hoped that the state of this Church and Kingdom is not so deplorable as to want a Settlement while these Dissents remain Moreover there are private dissents between particular men within the latitude of the Publike Rule and there are dissents that may be called Publike as being from the Publike Rule or some parts thereof Now the broader and more comprehensive the Rule is the fewer will be the Dissenters from it And the permission of private diversities of Opinion in a just Latitude within the Rule is the means to lessen Publike Dissents and consequently Dissentions much more And this was the main scope of the first Discourse The great importance of Vnity in the Church of Christ is acknowledged and contended for as much on this side as on the other Howbeit we do not believe that Christ our Head hath laid the Conservation and Unity of His Church upon unwritten and unnecessary Doctrines and little Opinions and Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of meer Human Tradition and Institution But He hath set out the Rule and Measure of Unity in such sort as that upon Dissents in those things the Members of this Society might not break into Schisms to a mutual condemnation and abhorrency The imposing of such things except in those Ages whose Blindness and Barbarism disposed them to stupidity and gross security in their Religion hath been ever found to break Unity and to destroy or much impair Charity Goodness Meekness and Patience which are Vital Parts and chief Excellencies of Christianity SECT V. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State ONE grand Objection is That the Dissentions among us are but so many several Factions in the State But meer dissents in Religion are no State-Factions at all but proceed from a more lasting Cause than particular Designs or any temporary Occasions even from the incurable Infirmity of our Nature And if it were granted That the Dissentions were State-Factions yet they are not so originally and radically but by accident Some may take advantage to raise and keep up Factions by them For this cause take out of the way the stumbling-block of needless rigors and then Dissentions will cease or languish and consequently the State Factions if there be any such that are kept up by them will come to nothing It is so evident that Toleration which came not in till after the breach between the Late King and Parliament did not open the avenues to our Miseries that one may wonder any should say it did But meet Indulgence to all sound Protestants is the likeliest means of stopping such avenues And if it be for the Interest of England to have no Factions the best way is to remove those burdens which like a partition-wall hath kept asunder the Professors of the same Religion Then the Masters of our Troubles whosoever they be cannot have that advantage by their Eminency in their Parties to drive on their Designs in the State Factious Spirits are disappointed when Honest Minds are satisfied and secured This Author relates the Aims of several Parties on this manner The Papists are for the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome some of the other Sects are for a Commonwealth others are for the Fift Monarchy But if the true state of the Nonconformists be well considered it will be found that in Them as well as any others the King and Kingdom is concerned and the good of Both promoted It is not with them as with the Popish Party who have such a severed Interest to themselves that the State is little concerned in it save onely to beware of its Incroachments But the Protestant Dissenters are such as do much of the Business of the Nation and have not their Interest apart but in strict conjunction with the whole Body-Politick Yea they have no possible means of ensuring their Interest but by Legal-Security obtained from the Higher Power and by comporting with the general tranquility both of the Church and State of England They cannot flye to the Refuge of any Foreign Prince or State as the Papists have done frequently they acknowledg no Foreign Jurisdiction which is a Principle of the Popish Faith but all their Stake lies at home and they can have no sure Hold that is aliene from the Happiness of the King and Kingdom An Impartial Observer cannot but discern this If it be lawful to name a thing so much to be abhorred as a Change of the Ancient Laws and Government they could not be happy nor do their Work by such an unhappy Change Experience witnesseth That their Interest is not for hasty and unstable Victory or unfixed Liberty but for a state of firm Consistence and Security and that they cannot hold their own but by the common Safety both of Prince and People The summ of this Matter is That a Party not onely comporting with the good Estate of this Realm but even subsisting by it and therefore firmly linked unto it should not be cast off SECT VI. Whether the NONCONFORMISTS Principles tend to Sects and Schisms SOme Reasons were offered to shew That Indulgence towards Dissenting Protestants did much concern the Peace and Happiness of this Realm And the Prudent will judg Arguments of that sort to be of the greatest weight in the Affairs of Government There is no need to reinforce the cogency of those Reasons The Adversary hath wrested them to an odious meaning contrary to their manifest true intent but whether he hath indeed evinced them to be of little or no moment or whether they stand in full force let judicious men consider The whole reasoning in that particular rests upon this Maxime That it is the SOVEREIGN's true Interest to make
that nature have been matter of dispute in all Ages and in all Religions but about the Orders and Ceremonies this is the only thing to be resolved Whether the Church hath power to injoin an indifferent Ceremony But there is no such difference in the case The Question of things Indifferent hath been mistaken for the Grand Case of the Nonconformists for those points which are the main reason and matter of their inconformity are by them accounted not indifferent but unlawful and therefore not to be admitted in their practice till their Consciences be better satisfied And it is not irrational to think that serious doubtings may arise in sober minds about some parts of the injoyned Uniformity and particularly about those Ceremonies which seem to draw near to the significancy and moral efficacy of Sacraments and thereupon may appear to some not as meer circumstances but as parts of Divine Worship and their Consciences may be struck with Terror by the sense of God's Jealousie about any instituted Worship which Himself hath not prescribed Moreover these Orders and Ceremonies have been matters of dispute in all times since the beginning of Protestant Reformation But under the degenerate state of the Christian Churches by the great Apostacy of the later times there could be no occasion of disputing these things when Will-worship was generally exalted and the grossest Idolatries had prevailed I question the truth of that Assertion That the Dissenters cannot name one Church besides ours in which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony For a great Rent was made in the Christian Church throughout the World about a Ceremony or as small a matter to wit the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter But whensoever a Schism is made let them that cause it look to it and lay it to heart Wo to the world because of offences and wo to that man by whom the offence cometh But we still insist upon this Argument That these Rites being at the best but indifferent in the opinion of the Imposers the observation of them cannot in reason be esteemed of such importance to the substance of Religion as the different Opinions about the Articles aforesaid are And who knows not with what animosity and vehemence the Parties that are called Arminian and Antiarminian have fought against one another and what dreadful and destructive Consequences they pretend to draw from each others Opinions Now put case the more prevalent Party in the Church of England should go about to determine those Controversies on the one side or the other and truly they were sometimes determined by a Synod in His Majesty's Dominions namely by that of Dublin in the year 1615 also by the greatest Prelates and most eminent Doctors in England in the Lambeth-Articles and what hath been may again come to pass would not that side against whom the Decision passeth be ready to cry out of Oppression Yea how great a Rent would be made by it through the whole Fabrick of this Church Furthermore in Ceremonies publikely used and matters of open practice the Church of England hath thought good to indulge Dissents as in that of bowing toward the Altar or the East unless it be required by the local Statutes of particular Societies And in this the Sons of the Church do bear with one another according to the direction of the Canons made in the year 1640. Unto which may be added That the Mode of Worship in Cathedrals is much different from that in Parochial Churches Likewise some Ministers before their Sermon use a Prayer of their own conceiving others onely as the phrase is bid Prayer If these and other Varieties be no reproach to our Church will it reproach her to suffer one to Officiate with a Surpliss and another without it SECT XVI Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in Peace IT is no vain speculation to think we may have peace if men perswaded in their Consciences that the controverted Ceremonies are superstitious or at the best but Trifles and that the Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Polity need some Reformation should be joined with men far otherwise perswaded And the preserving of Peace in that case doth not suppose or require that all these differently perswaded men will be wise on both sides to content themselves with their own opinions But it supposeth the State and the chief Guides of the Church to be wise as it is always requisite they should be and that many of Reputation and Eminency on both sides will be prudent and temperate and examples of Moderation to others and not to suppose this is to disparage and debase our present Age but above all it supposeth the Publike Constitution so well stated and setled as to be able to curb the Imprudent and Unsober and to encourage the Modest and Well-advised Surely all Dissenters upon Conscience will not be prevailed with by the same Conscience to endeavour the propagation of their own way in these differences to the depression of others If some offer to disturb the Peace can no Rule of Government restrain them It is a deplorable case indeed if there be no remedy but for those that are favoured by the Higher Powers utterly to exclude and reject those that want the like favour and countenance At this day the Church of England by Her present Latitude or at least Connivence keeps peace among Her Sons of such different Perswasions as formerly stirred up great Dissentions in this Church Who is ignorant of the Contentions raised about the Arminian Controversies in the several Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First But in the present Times the mutual forbearance on both sides but chiefly the Church's Prudence hath lay'd asleep those Controversies whereas if one side presuming upon its Power and Prevalency should go about as formerly to decry and depress the other and to advance and magnifie themselves and ingross the Preferments doubtless the like flames would break out again For there is a great dislike and abhorrency setled at the Heart-root of both these Parties against each others Opinions and a sutable occasion would soon draw it out to an open Contestation Now if the Church's Peace and Unity be already maintained in such seemingly dangerous diversity of Opinion among her Members and Officers and those not of the meanest rank why should her Prudence and Polity he suspected as insufficient to maintain Unity and Peace in the indulging of the differently perswaded in the now disputed Rites and Opinions SECT XVII Of DISSENTERS of Narrower Principles and of TOLERATION THE Latitude discoursed in the former Treatise is unjustly impeached as providing onely for the Presbyterians and relinquishing all other Dissenters for it comprehends within the Establishment those of all sorts that are of Principles congruous to stated Order in the Church so that no sort is excluded whose Principles make them capable And was this Capacity any where restrained to the Presbyterians Some Nonconformists are for