the Spirit among Christians is witnessed maintained and strengthened by their holy communion of Love and Peace one with another but is darkened weakened and lessened by their uncharitable Dissentions Hence it is evident that the Unity here commended is primarily that of the Church in its internal and invisible State or the Union and Communion of Saints having in themselves the Spirit and Life and Power of Christianity T is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external order with a vital Union with Christ and holy Souls his living members is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new Nature and Divine Life Secondarily it is the Unity of the Church in its external and visible State which is consequent and subservient to the internal and stands in the profession and appearance of it in the professed observation of the duties arising from it Where there is not a credible Profession of Faith unfeigned and true Holiness there is not so much as the external and visible Unity of the Spirit Therefore a sensual Earthly generation of men who are apparently lead by the Spirit of the World and not by the Spirit that is of God have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external Church order whatsoever it be Holy love which is unselfed and impartial is the Life and Soul of this unity without which it is but a dead thing as the Body without the Soul is dead And this love is the bond of perfectness that Cement that holds altogether in this mystical Society For this being seated in the several members disposeth them to look not to their own things but also to the things of others and not to the undue advancement of a Party but to the common good of the whole Body Whosoever wants this love hath no vital Union with Christ and the Church and no part in the Communion of Saints The Church is much more ennobled strengthened and every way blessed by the Communion of holy love among all its living members or real Christians than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances or accidental modes of Religion By this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders than by outward pomp and ornament or any worldly splendor The Unity of the Church as visible whether Catholick or particular may be considered in a three-fold respect or in three very different points The first and chief point thereof is in the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life The second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of Church state that is in the Christian Church-Worship Ministery and Discipline considered as of Christs institution and abstracted from all things superadded by men The third and lowest point is in those extrinsecal and accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination Of these several points of Unity there is to be a different valuation according to their different value Our first and chief regard is due to the first and chief point which respects Christian Faith and Life The next regard is due to that which is next in value that which respects the very constitution or frame of a Church And regard is to be had of that also which respects the accidentals of Religion yet in its due place and not before things of greater weight and worth Things are of a very different nature and importance to the Churches good Estate and a greater or lesser stress must be laid upon Unity in them as the things themselves are of greater or lesser moment The Rule or Law of Church Unity is not the will of man but the will of God Whosoever keeps that Unity which hath Gods word for its Rule keeps the Unity of the Spirit And whosoever boasts of a Unity that is not squared by this Rule his boasting is but vain An Hypothesis that nothing in the Service of God is lawfull but what is expresly prescribed in Scripture is by some falsly ascribed to a sort of men who earnestly contend for the Scriptures sufficiency and perfection for the regulating of Divine Worship and the whole state of Religion God in his Word hath prescribed all those parts of his Worship that are necessary to be performed to him He hath likewise therein instituted those Officers that are to be the Administrators of his publick Worship in Church Assemblies and hath defined the authority and duty of those Officers and all the essentials and integrals of Church state As for the circumstantials and accidentals belonging to all the things aforesaid he hath laid down general Rules for the regulation thereof the particulars being both needless and impossible to be enumerated and defined In this point God hath declared his mind Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it Deut. 12. 32. What soever thing I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it The prohibition is not meerly of altering the Rule Gods written Word by addition or diminution but of doing more or less than the Rule required as the precept is not of preserving the Rule but of observing what is commanded in it Such human institutions in Divine Worship as be in meer subserviency to Divine institutions for the necessary and convenient modifying and ordering thereof are not properly additions to Gods commandments For they are of things which are not of the same nature end and use with the things which God hath commanded but of meer circumstantials and accidentals belonging to those things And these circumstantials are in genere necessary to the performance of Divine Institutions and are generally commanded in the Word though not in particular but are to be determined in specie by those to whom the power of such determination belongs They that assert and stand to this only Rule provide best for the Unity of Religion and the Peace of the Church For they are ready to reject whatsoever they find contrary to this Rule they are more easily kept within the bounds of acceptable Worship and all warrantable obedience they lay the greatest weight on things of the greatest worth and moment they carefully regard all Divine institutions and whatsoever God hath commanded and they maintain Love and Peace and mutual forbearance towards one another in the more inconsiderable diversities of Opinion and Practice Those things that are left to human determination the Pastors Bishops or Elders did anciently determine for their own particular Churches And indeed it is very reasonable and naturally convenient that they who are the Administrators of Divine institutions and have the conduct of the People in Divine Worship and know best what is most expedient for their own Society should be intrusted with the determination of necessary circumstances within their
there is a real hazard of a greater mischief and in hasty attempts of changes things may be carried on beyond the commendable end designed even to its utter ruin For commonly men are not Masters of what they get in such precipitate ways CHAP. XXVIII Considerations tending to a due inlargement and unity in Church-communion AN unhappy kind of controversies about Forms of Divine Worship Ecclesiastical Government and qualification of Church Members hath been the calamity of our times The differences in these points have made a sad breach upon Church unity and divided Brethren of the same Reformed Profession both in affection and interest and have been the occasion of much misery In regard whereof some things that make for an amicable condescention among Brethren and for humble submission to Superiors are here propounded for consideration but not as peremptory resolves Though many or most of them seem to me to carry their own evidence Yet it becomes one who is sensible of human weakness and of his own meaness to write modestly in these points about which there is so great a variety of apprehensions The Communion of Saints is the Communion of the Catholick Church and of particular Christians and Churches one with another as Members thereof and therefore we may not restrain our fellowship to any particular Church or Churches so as to with-hold it from the rest of the Catholick Church Our Communion with the Catholick Church is as well in Religious Worship as in Christian Faith and Life As there is one Faith so one Baptism and one Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and we being many are one Bread and one Body Though we cannot at once locally communicate with the whole Church in external Worship because it cannot possibly meet in one place yet according to our capacity and opportunity we are so to communicate with the several parts thereof and not unwarrantably withdraw from any and this is a vertual communicating with the whole Church Discipline and Government as to the particular Form thereof hath much more obscurity than the Doctrine of Christian Faith and Life and is much more controverted among the Godly Learned And in more dark and doubtfull points humility charity and good discretion teacheth mutual forbearance In Ecclesiastical Regiment all Church Members are not so concern'd as Church Guides and Pastors are Christ hath not left the affairs of his Kingdom in so loose a posture as to give a liberty of leaving or chusing the Communion of a Church according to our own affections without regard to order A particular visible Church being a Body politick cannot subsist without rules of stable Policy Her censures and judgments ought to be clear certain and uniform or of the same tenor and therefore may not proceed upon such a kind of Evidence as at the most is but conjectural and of variable apprehension Our arbitrary conjecture of an others Regeneration is but an uncertain way of admission to sacred Priviledges wherein no uniform judgment can be held between several Churches nor the several Members of the same Church nor by the same Person with himself at several times For mens apprehensions about the Spiritual Estate of others are exceeding different and inconstant But whether a Person make a credible profession or be competently knowing or grosly ignorant whether he be scandalous or walk orderly is capable of certain evidence and of constant regular proceeding thereupon Let it be considered whether of these two either to proceed with men according to our private hopes and fears about their internal state or according to stated Rules and certain Evidence be the surer way to preserve the Church in Peace and to propagate true Piety Also whether Persons passable by such publick Rules can in Ecclesiastical Tryal be judged to be ungodly or to make a false profession whatsoever our private fears are concerning them And if their Profession be not proved false whether it be not to pass for credible in that Tryal Human Laws and publick Judgments presume them to be good that are not evicted to be bad Private familiarity is at every ones choice but our Church-communion being a publick matter must be Governed by publick and common Rules and not by private will If a Church impose such Laws of her Communion as infer a necessity of doing that which is unlawfull there is a necessity of abstaining from her Communion so far as those unlawfull terms extend Churches mentioned in Scripture had their corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Manners yet the Godly did not separate from them for those corruptions nor were commanded so to do Indeed they are commanded to come out of Babylon which is no other than to separate from Idolatrous Heretical Antichristian Societies Yet in suggesting this I do not encourage to a stated Communion in such Churches as have no other Ministers placed in them than such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of Souls commited to them that is who are unable to teach or teach corruptly either teaching pernicious Doctrine or abusing mishandling and misapplying sound Doctrine to encourage the Ungodly and discourage the Godly For the Scripture bids us beware of blind Guides and false Prophets By continuing in Church-communion we partake not of the Sins of others which we have no power to redress nor are we made guilty by their leaven if it doth not infect us and profane Persons are no more countenanced by our presence than those lewd Priests the Sons of Eli were by the Peoples coming to sacrifice In communicating in holy things we have internal Communion only with the faithfull and as for the meer external Communion it is with those that have as yet an outward standing in Christ till they are cut off by the hand of God or due order of Discipline When a Minister hath done his part to keep off the unworthy in the dspensing of the Sacrament to such he is in a moral sense meerly passive so that their unworthy participation cannot be imputed to him Nor in such an Administration is a practical lie or any falshood uttered For the Sacrament seals the mercy of the Covenant not irrespectively but conditionally and the words of the application must be so understood If we have not power to separate an obstinate scandalous offender from the Church yet the withdrawing of our selves from him is an Excommunication in some degree and the effect thereof is hereby in part obtained When Ministers and People do their duties in their Places without usurpation of further Power than they have warrant for then all will be though not so well as it might yet as it can be at present Of several modes and methods of publick Action Prudence makes choice not always of what is simply best but of that which is most passable if it be not so disorderly as to marr the substance or frustrate the end of an Administration In sacred Adminstrations we may yield without sin to others sinfull weaknesses
chiefest point thereof being in the essentials and weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life the highest violation thereof and the chiefest point of Schism lies in denying or enormously violating the said essentials or weighty matters And it is directly a violation of the Unity of the Catholick Church and not of particular Churches only Not only particular Persons but Churches yea a large combination of Churches bearing the Christian name may in their Doctrine Worship and other avowed Practice greatly violate the essentials or very weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life and be found guilty of the most enormous breach of Unity It is no Schism to withdraw or depart from any the largest combination or collective body of Churches though for their amplitude they presume to stile their combination the Catholick Church that maintain and avow any Doctrine or Practice which directly or by near and palpable consequence overthrows the said essentials The next point of external Unity being about the essentials and integrals of Church state the Sacraments and other publick Worship the Ministery and Discipline of the Church considered as of Christs institution the next chief point of Schism is the breach hereof And this may be either against the Catholick or a particular Church Of such Schism against the state of the Catholick Church there are these instances 1. When any one part of professed Christians how numerous soever combined by any other terms of Catholick Unity than what Christ hath made account themselves the only Catholick Church excluding all Persons and Churches that are not of their combination 2. When a false Catholick Unity is devised or contended for viz. a devised Unity of Government for the Catholick Church under one terrene Head personal or collective assuming a proper governing power over all Christians upon the face of the whole Earth 3. When there is an utter disowning of most of the true visible Churches in the World as having no true Church state no not the essentials thereof and an utter breaking off from communion with them accordingly Of Schism against a particular Church in point of its Church state there be these instances 1. The renouncing of a true Church as no Church although it be much corrupted much more if it be a purer Church though somewhat faulty 2. An utter refusing of all acts of communion with a true Church when we may have communion with it either in whole or in part without our personal sin of commission or omission 3. The causing of any Divisions or Distempers in the state or frame of a true Church contrary to the Unity of the Spirit But it is no Schism to disown a corrupt frame of Polity supervenient to the essentials and integrals of Church state in any particular Church or combination of Churches like a leprosie in the Body that doth grosly deprave them and in great part frustrate the ends of their constitution The last and lowest point of external Unity lying in the accidental modes of Religion and matters of meer order extrinsick to the essentials and integrals of Church-State the violation thereof is the least and lowest point of Schism I mean in it self considered and not in such aggravating circumstances as it may be in Those accidental Forms and Orders of Religion which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination are allowed of God when they are determined according to prudence and charity for Peace and Edification and accordingly they are to be submitted to Consequently it is one point of Schism to make a Division from or in a Church upon the accountal of accident Forms and Orders so determined according to Gods allowance But if any of the accidentals be unlawfull and the maintaining or practicing thereof be imposed upon us as the terms of our communion it is no Schism but Duty to abstain from communion in that case For explicitly and personally to own errors and corruptions even in smaller points is evil in it self which must not be committed that good may come In this case not he that withdraws but he that imposes causeth the Division And this holds of things sinfull either in themselves or by just consequence And herein he that is to act is to discern and judge for his own practice whether the things imposed be such For Gods Law supposeth us rational creatures able to discern its meaning and to apply it for the regulating of our own actions else the Law were given us in vain Submission and reverence towards Superiors obligeth no man to resign his understanding to their determinations or in compliance with them to violate his own conscience Persons meek humble peaceable and throughly conscientious and of competent judgment may not be able by their diligent and impartial search to see the lawfulness of things injoyned and t is a hard case if they should thereupon be declared contumacious Seeing there be several points of Unity the valuation whereof is to be made according to their different value mens judgment and estimation of Unity and Schism is very preposterous who lay the greatest stress on those points that are of least moment and raise things of the lowest rank to the highest in their valuation and set light by things of the greatest moment and highest value as indeed they do who set light by soundness of Faith and holiness of Life and consciencious observance of Divine institutions where there is not also unanimity and uniformity in unscriptural Doctrines and human ceremonies And they that make such an estimate of things and deal with Ministers accordingly do therein little advance the Unity of the Spirit or indeavour to keep it in the bond of Peace Seeing the word of God is the rule of Church Unity a breach is made upon it when other bounds thereof are set than this rule allows An instance hereof is the devising of other terms of Church-communion and Ministerial liberty than God hath commanded or allowed in his Word to be made the terms thereof Also any casting or keeping out of the Church or Ministery such as Gods Word doth not exclude from either but signifies to be qualified and called thereunto God doth not allow on the part of the Imposer such tearms of Church communion or Ministerial station as are neither Scriptural nor necessary to Peace and Edification nor are any part of that necessary order and decency without which the Service of God would be undecent nor are in any regard so necessary but that they may be dispensed with for a greater benefit and the avoiding of a greater mischief And they are found guilty of Schism that urge such unscriptural and unnecessary things unto a breach in the Church Such Imposers are not only an occasion of the breach that follows but a culpable cause thereof because they impose without and against Christs warrant who will not have his Church to be burdened nor the consciences of his Servants intangled with things unnecessary Nevertheless such unscriptural or
modesty of its Professors in upholding civil distinctions and degrees of honour among men and in rendring to all their dues according to those degrees CHAP. XXIII The observing of a due latitude in Religion makes for the security and increase thereof CHristianity is not to be extended to such a latitude as to take in Hereticks 〈◊〉 Idolaters or real Infidels because they arâ—… named Christians nor is it shut up in severeâ—… Parties distinguished by certain Doctrinâ—… Rites and Platforms which the tyranny 〈◊〉 ancient Tradition National custom Politicâ—… Interest or passionate zeal hath exalted but it incompasseth all those that hold Christ the Head in the unity of Faith and Life Wherefore the constitution of the Church must be set as much as may be for the incompassing of all true Christians which indeed makes for its most fixed and ample state And the taking of a narrower compass is a fundamental error â—n its Policy and will always hinder its stability and increase The true state of the Church as of any other Society lies in the universality or the â—hole Body and not in any divided or subâ—ivided parts thereof Accordingly its true â—nterest leads not to the things that make for the exalting of this or that Party but to those common and great concernments that uphold and increase the whole Body And it is but just and equal to accomodate the publick Order to the satisfaction of all Parties not in what their several designs and humors crave which is impossible but in what they all may justly challenge by their Christian liberty and which is possible namely that their consciencies may not be perplexed and â—…rdened with things unnecessary how highâ—… soever magnified by some one Party They that seek Worldly wealth and glory 〈◊〉 a Church state think it as good to yield 〈◊〉 all as to relinguish any thing of their â—…nstitutions For although they know that moderation might make for a general Peace and for the lasting good of a Christian People yet they foresee that by removing offences and reforming abuses they should open a door to men of such principles as may subvert the foundations of their building Therefore they think it safer to immure themselves by institutions sutable to their own estate and to adhere to them unalterably According to this reason in the Council of Trent the Pope gave his Legates instruction so to proceed that the Lutherans might despair oâ— Peace without a total submission For hâ— regarded not their return upon such termâ— as would diminish the Authority and Revenue of his Court or weaken any of thâ— foundations of Papal Power Such a Party value all men whether they draw nearer tâ— them or keep further from them as they stand affected to the interest which they maintain But true Religion stands upon another bottom and pursues other ends to wit Holiness and Peace and that without partiality and without hypocrisie It hath no privatâ— carnal Interest to uphold and therefore need not such carnal devices for its own securitâ— and advantage By comprehensiveness loseth nothing because it seeks not greâ—… things upon Earth nor serves the designs of anâ— Faction and as it loseth nothing hereby sâ— it gaineth much both in amplitude and stâ— bility In Church affairs those things are to be held fast which Christ our Lawgiver hath by his unalterable Rule determined and made necessary to the building up of his Church such as are the Spiritual Ordinances and Officers of his institution But things of meer human determination are not unalterable and the alteration thereof in a season that requires it doth no whit weaken Religion or darken the glory of it And doubtless they ought not to be more regarded than integrity of life and Ministerial ability and industry for the Churches Edification in Faith and Holiness The exercises of Christian meekness and charity in such things is far more glorious to the Church than a forc'd uniformity and that constraining rigor which doth but debase mens judgments into servility and teaching them to strain their consciences â—ends to make them less Conscientious and Religious Besides the said moderation in those matters wherein uniformity of apprehensions is unnecessary and imposible will keep the Church in a better consistency and deliver it from those contests and breaches wich may end â—n its dissipation But what glory or safety â—s there in a publick Order that is and ever will be made the subject of controversie more than the Rule of Unity The hinderance of the most important things of Christs Kingdom is a mischief that always follows the promoting of narrow principles and partial interests in Religion Whereof these instances among many others may be noted The obstructing of the liberty of publick Ministerial Service to be given to Ministers that lie under restraint lest some that accept it not should be weakened in their severed Interest Also the opposing of a publick order of Catechizing the People in the uncontroverted principles of Religion lest the petty Liberties of a Party in their severed way should be impaired But the concerns of any particular Party are set behind the common Interest of Christianity by a true Catholick Spirit which is ready to joyn hand in hand with any that seek the increase of Faith and Godliness in the unquestionable means thereof And no detriment can accrew by concurring even with men of adverse principles in setting on foot those things received in common that have a sure tendency to advance true Religion of which sort are all good means of introducing knowledge and civil conversation among a People rude and ignorant The fixing of Divine right upon matters of meer prudence and the damning of things indifferent for unlawfull is an error of evil consequence It causlesly breaks a People into Parties and excites them to subvert their opposites and the opposition seems unchangeable Hereby publick affairs are discomposed the cause of Religion is imbroiled and the propagation thereof obstructed and perhaps at length after tedious contests either both Parties being weary of endless strife sit down in silence or the weaker being vanquished is crush'd or yields with shame and loss Into the snare of this Error men are brought by narrowness of judgment or strength of fancy or hurry of prejudice driving from one extream to another to which may be added the private Interests of leading men Wherefore we should take care that we lay no bonds upon our selves in those things wherein neither the Law of nature nor any positive Law of God hath bound us up Furthermore it doth not stand with the settlement or inlargement of any Church Interest to enter into such Religious bonds as must needs conflict not only with the opposition of perpetual adversaries but also with the dissentings and dissatisfactions of friends considerable for number and quality in as much as they are too narrow for the common Interest and biass too strongly to a Party of one persuasion For which cause their preâ—alence is
he separated from the Communion he recited for himself things done in the Reign of Decius and the exquisite observation of a certain severe Canon that they who after Baptism had fallen into that kind of sin which the Scripture calls a sin unto death ought not to be partakers of the Divine mysteries but to be exhorted to repentance and to expect the hope of remission not from the Priest but from God who hath power to forgive By this it appears that the Novatians did not deny the Salvability of the lapsed or others that had fallen into a sin unto death but only refused to admit them to Sacerdotal Absolution and Church-Communion And thus they made a very unwarrantable separation grounded upon an unjust rigor of very bad consequence Nevertheless their error was no other than what holy and good men might be ensnared in by the appearance of a greater detestation of sin and its tendency to prevent the lapse of Christians into Idolatry and to make them more resolved for Martyrdom And by as credible History as any we have of the ancient times they are reported to have had among them men eminently Pious and some famous for Miracles They unmovably adhered to the Homousian Faith and for the maintenance of it together with the Orthodox suffered dreadfull Persecutions They had some Bishops remarkable for Wisdom and Godliness and such as were consulted with by some of the chief of the Catholick Bishops and that with good success for support of the Common Faith against the Arrians and such like Hereticks Under a certain Persecution wherein they were Companions of the self same suffering it is said that the Catholicks and Novatians had Prayers together in the Novations Churches and that in those times they were almost united if the Novations had not utterly refused that they might keep up their old institutes yet they bare such good will one to another that they would die one for another These and many other things of like nature are reported of them by Socrates whom some indeed suspect to have been addicted to them yet upon no other ground but because he gives them their due upon evident proof And besides what he hath reported Sosomen thus testifies of them L. 2. C. 30. That when other Sects expired the Novatians because they had good men for the Leaders of their way and because they defended the same Doctrine with the Catholick Church were very numerous from the beginning and so continued and suffered not much dammage by Constantines Law for suppressing of Sects And Acesius their Bishop being much favoured by the Emperor for the integrity of his life greatly advantaged his Church Also L. 4. C. 19. He reports the great amity that was between them and the Catholicks in a time of common Persecution Whether the case of the Dissenters from the Uniformity now required be in point of Schism of the same or like reason with the above mentioned or any other anciently reputed Schismaticks is now to be considered And it is the case of those that dissent not in the substance of Religion but only in things pertaining to the Ecclesiastical Polity or external Order in the Church that is here taken into consideration Of these some being persuaded of the necessity of their own Church-Order desire to remain as they are in their severed Societies yet they do not nullify the legal Churches or Ministery or the dispensation of the Word Sacraments and Prayer therein performed Others being satisfied in the constitution of Parochial Churches and in the substance of the Established Form of Worship would gladly embrace a freedom of Communicating and Administring therein upon the removal of some bars that lie against them and which they think may well be removed Thereupon they seek an Accommodation and Union by a sufficient comprehensiveness in the publick constitution and withall a reasonable indulgence towards those Brethren who for the straightness of their judgments cannot be comprehended Neither Party of the Dissenters here described can be charged with any thing like the Donatistical fury before expressed If Austin sought the suppression of that Sect by the secular power in regard of the horrible outrages committed by them it cannot reasonably be urged for a precedent as it hath been by some for the suppression of men Sober and Peaceable and sound in the main points of Christian Faith and Life Nor can either Party of us be charged with that intolerable presumption and arrogance of the Donatists in confining the Flock of Christ to their own Party or the disannulling and utter denouncing of all Churches besides their own Nor is the ground of our dissatisfaction like theirs which began in a quarrel against a particular Bishop and was maintained by animosity against those that would not condemn him It is well known that another manner of account is to be given of our Dissents If it be objected that those Dissenters whose principles bind them up to persevere in their severed Societies seem in this respect to be as the Novatians who would not admit a re-Union with the other Churches it may be answered for them that reasons have been offered in the foregoing parts of this Discourse for indulgence to conscientious People who are intangled by the narrowness of their principles touching Church-Order Besides they do not stand off upon so harsh and rigorous a point as the Novatians did viz. The utter repelling of the lapsed though penitent from the Communion of the Church And they have ordinarily communion in the Word and Prayer with Congregations that are not of their Church way and occasionally in the Sacrament with those Congregations where they apprehend a care of the exercise of Discipline Nor may they be judged so irreconcilable to the Established Order but that the holy lives of those in the publick Ministery and their lively Preaching and a greater care of true and real Church-Discipline might do much to their recovery In the mean time why may not these be upon as good terms under the present Government as the Novatians were under the Government of their times Church History reports that they were cruelly Persecuted by the Arrian Emperours and Bishops and that they had great indulgence under Orthodox Emperours and with many Catholick Bishops and Patriarchs whose prudent and moderate Government did best provide for the Peace of their Churches But those Orthodox Bishops who took from them their Churches and Estates were chiefly either such as took to themselves a Secular Power and ruled imperiously and with violence or such as with their zeal had more of wrath and rashness than of meekness and prudence This can be easily proved in the particular instances if need were But this is not the case of all Nonconformists For part of them and upon good experiment made they may be found the greater part do not seek to abide in a severed State but desire a Union It is well known they are as sensible of the evil of Schism and