acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions IN the former Treatise this Argument was used The Church doth not claim an Infallibility therefore the cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant but still leaves room for doubting The Answerer makes this to be either a piece of ignorance or of portentous malice and an Assertion that would disturb all Government both in Families and in the State that would confound all Society and extirpate Faith and Justice from among the sons of men But this his strange Inference rather is portentous That the Church cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Warrant is it not a Principle maintained by all Protestants in opposition to the Popish implicit Faith and blind Obedience But is this person consistent with himself For after he hath a while expatiated in his imaginary hideous Consequences he comes himself to deny that the Church bindeth the Conscience by her own Authority And yet it is a lesser thing to bind the Conscience than to settle it and leave no room for doubting For Conscience may be obliged when it is not setled And if the Church cannot oblige doubtless she cannot settle the Conscience by her sole Authority How then could a man of reason draw such hideous Inferences from that Position If I may give way to conjectures I suspect that he might take check at the word Infallibility by which I intend no more then Infallible Direction and I fear not to own this Assertion That whosoever have not Infallible Direction or the certain assistance of an Infallible Guide so as to be exempted from all error in what they propound for Belief or Practice cannot settle the Conscience by their sole warrant I still aver That in prescribed Forms and Rites of Religion the Conscience that doth its office will interpose and concern it self And it is matter of astonishment that a Learned Protestant should say this Position must needs be false For Conscience guided by the fear of God will use all just means to discern his Will and cannot resign it self to the dictates of men in the points of Divine Worship If the Judgment of Discerning which makes men differ from Brutes be to be exercised in any case it is chiefly requisite in these matters wherein the Glory of God and the Saving of the Soul is so much concerned It is granted That to maintain Peace and Unity in the Church and to be obedient to the Higher Powers in those things which are proper matter for their Commands are most strictly injoined Duties But the Injunctions here considered though to the Imposers they are but things Indifferent that is neither Commanded nor Forbidden of God in the Consciences of Dissenters are Unlawful To instance in some controverted Ceremonies They think that God hath determined against them though not in particular yet in the general Prohibition of all uncommanded Worship And they reply Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more then unto God judg ye To restrain that of the Apostle He that doubts is damned if he eat only to things wherein the Church hath not interposed her Authority is a false gloss and a begging of the Question What human Authority can warrant any one to put in practice an unlawful or suspected Action or to make profession of a known or suspected Falshood As concerning the Rights of Superiors it is the Church's Duty and Honour to teach and command her Children to do whatsoever Christ hath commanded And it is the chiefest Glory and most proper Work of the Magistrate who is Gods Minister and Vicegerent to be custos vindex utriusque Tabulae To incourage and inforce Obedience to the Divine Laws whether written in the Bible or imprinted in our Nature and in subserviency thereunto to have power to determine such things as are requisite in the general but in the particulars are left undetermined of God and are to be ordered by Human Prudence according to the Light of Nature and the general Rules of Gods Word But things indifferent in their nature and either offensive in their use or needless and superfluous are not worthy to be made the proper matter of his Commands It is a grave and weighty saying of a Learned man of whatsoever Perswasion he were If the special Guides and Pastors of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there would be far less cause of Schism and Superstition and all the inconvenience that were likely to ensue would be but this That in so doing they should yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their Inferiors a thing which St. Paul would never have refused to do SECT XIII Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation THE Answerer relates at large the proceeding of this Church in the beginning of the Reformation The sum of the Relation is That there being Two sorts of men one that thought it a great matter of Conscience to depart from the least Ceremony they were so addicted to their old Customs the other so new-fangled that they would innovate all things and nothing would satisfie them but that which was new It was necessary for the Church to interpose for Peace sake and casting off neither Party to please each to their edification and also to injoyn some things to the common observance of all and therefore she took away the excessive multitude of Ceremonies as those that were dark and abused to Superstition and Covetousness but retained those few that were for Decency Discipline and apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God We have good warrant to call in question the truth of his Narration in things of the greatest weight First It is not true that the Party that were for Ceremonies comprehended all those who staid at home and did not flye in the time of Queen Mary's Persecution For such as dissented from the Ceremonies in the time of that Persecution had their Assemblies for the Worship of God in this Land and indured among others in the Fiery Trial. And we can find but little zeal in the Martyrs of those days for this kind of Conformity Likewise it is not true that the Party that were against Ceremonies were but small as being but some few of those that fled beyond Sea There is clear evidence to the contrary An Historian zealous for Conformity even unto bitterness reports in his Ecclesia Restaurata That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign many that were disaffected to Episcopacy and Ceremonies were raised to great Preferments Besides those that were in Ecclesiastical Dignities he observes That the Queens Professor at Oxford and the Margaret Professor in Cambridg were among the Nonconformists For the multitude of Dissenters in those dayes there is a notable testimony of a Friend of Prelacy in his Letter
the indisposition of the Time and the tenderness of some mens Consciences had contracted I wonder at the confidence of that Assertion in the Answer That it is sufficiently known That none of the present Nonconformists did in the least measure agree in the use of those little things and though desired by the King to read so much of the Liturgy as themselves had not exception against and so could have no pretence from Conscience For it is well known that some of them did in compliance with the Kings desire read part of the Liturgy in their Churches As for others that did not perhaps for the prevention of scandal they might use their liberty of forbearance till some Reformation were obtained The truth is the Concessions on this side have been abused to the reproach and disadvantage of the depressed Party and from their readiness to yeild so far as they can for the common peace sake a perverse inference is made That they might yeild throughout if Humor and Faction did not rule them Is there any Justice or Charity in such dealing May not men of upright Consciences and peaceable Inclinations forbear the insisting upon some things to them very desirable and give place to some things not approved by them as the best in that kind if so be they might obtain their Peace and Liberty by Indulgence granted them in other things wherein Conscience binds them up that they cannot yeild Moreover some Concessions made by particular men of very Catholick spirits in the earnest pursuit of Peace have been wrack'd and wrested to a sense beyond their true import and then they that so handle them triumph in their own conceit over them as if they had given up the whole Cause Certasnly they are ill employed who from their Brethrens yeelding offers raise Opposition against them and endeavour to set them further off SECT XI The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Church's Peace TO set forth the propounded Latitude in the particular Limits thereof is not agreeable to a Discourse of this nature For it were presumptuous both in reference to Superiors and to the Party concerned in it And it is unnecessary for Prejudices being removed and the Conveniency of a greater Latitude being acknowledged the particular Boundaries thereof will easily be descried And indeed the generals that are expressed are a sufficient indication thereunto His Majesty's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs hath mentioned particular Concessions on both sides and that Harmony of Affections therein He calls excellent Foundations to build upon The Moderation and Indulgence there specified would do the work I mean not so as if all Dissenters would instantly be thereby brought in but that our wide breach would presently be healed in great part and be in the surest way for a total and absolute healing and so much would be gained at present as might be able to conquer the remaining Difficulties The former Discourse had this position That the Ends of Church-Discipline do not require a Constitution of narrower bounds then things necessary to Faith and Life and Godly Order in the Church The Answerer saith That this Establishment is not enough for a Settlement because it doth not secure the Peace And to shew the insufficiency thereof he giveth two instances of Discord between the Parties First about the Persons to whose care the great things of Christianity should be intrusted to see them conveyed unto Posterity whether they shall be a Single Person or a Consistory or each single Congregation Secondly About the means of conveying those things the Worship of God and the Circumstances thereof From hence he draws this Conclusion Therefore to preserve Peace among her Members the Church had need to determine more then the great things of Christianity and to injoyn more then what is barely necessary to Faith and Order Verily it may much amuse one to think what that thing should be in the Ecclesiastical Polity which is not necessary to Christian Faith and Life and godly Order in the Church and yet necessary to secure the Church's Peace And if the aforesaid Instances of discord between the Church of England and the Dissenters are not necessary to Faith or Order what reason can be rendred of the inexorable Imposition thereof upon dissenting or doubting Consciences Can it be necessary to the Church's Peace to exclude or deprive men for such Differences in which neither Faith nor Order are concerned Or is this the Answerer's meaning That the Church's Peace consists in the exclusion of the Nonconformists and that the necessary use of some Injunctions stands in keeping them out so that not their Conformity but their Exclusion is the thing therby intended The Comprehension doth not suppose as it is mis-reported That Presbytery should be permitted or encouraged All intermedling with the Form of Church-Government was declined only the prescribed Uniformity was considered Besides for the exact Presbyterial Form to be comprehended in Episcopacy is contradictory yet that something of Presbytery should be included in it is not repugnant And such a Comprehension is approved in His Majesty's aforesaid Declaration Likewise King CHARLES the First in His Discourse touching the Differences between Himself and the Two Houses in this point declares that He is not against the managing of the Episcopal Presidency in one man by the joint Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters but that He had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors and corruptions and partialities which are incident to any one man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men But neither this nor the former Treatise interposeth in this Matter but leaves it to the Wisdom of our Superiors The desired Latitude leaves not the Concernments of Church or State to the Ingenuity of Men nor casts out any Injunctions that are means of Peace and Unity yea or of that necessary Decency which the Apostle requires only of Rites and Opinions long disputed it would take in no more then needs must and not meerly because they have been long disputed but because they are also of little value and here confessed not to be necessary to Faith and Order yet are matters of endless Controversie in this Church and occasions of great separation from it It being asserted That the indisputable Truths of Faith and the indispensable Duties of Life are the main Object of Church-Discipline the Answerer demands What are those indisputable Truths since there is scarce any Truth of Faith that hath not been disputed against What manner of arguing is this Because All Truths have been disputed doth it follow that there are no indisputable Truths That is called Indisputable that cannot reasonably or justly be disputed though men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the Faith will call the greatest Truths in question and resist the clearest Evidence When the Apostle mentions matters of doubtful disputations he implies there be matters that are indubitable SECT XII Of
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
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
for the Honour of Reformed Religion to suffer from Papists then from Protestants And if it were at ones own choice One should much rather caeteris paribus suffer in defence of the main Truths of Christianity then for refusing a Ceremony or for any other part of Inconformity For this cause a Union is so desirable that these Bitternesses Reproaches and Scandals might cease from among us Lastly Whatsoever Enlargement we have granted by the Favour of our Lawful Superiors we have it in the best way and a Blessing is in it SECT XX. EPISCOPACY will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences THE Answerer enumerates many Reasons why a Form of Church-Government should meet with many Difficulties in its return after a proscription of Twenty years and concludes it must be a Generation or two not seven years that can wear out all those Difficulties On the other side he saith Presbytery languished almost as soon as it had a being c. I perceive Presbytery is a great Eye-sore Peradventure I may be reckoned a Presbyterian and to say the truth I am not ashamed of their company that are commonly called by that Name yet I have no pleasure in such Names of distinction I am of a Perswasion but not of a Party and whatsoever my Perswasion be it is Moderate Catholick and Pacifick Neither my Design nor my Principles engage me to maintain the Presbyterial Government Nevertheless I cannot but take notice with how little reason the intrinsick Strength of Prelacy or Weakness of Presbytery is argued from the duration of the one and the other in this Kingdom Had Presbytery the Strength of the Civil Power Or was it ever formed in England Was it not crush'd while it was an Embryo by the prevailing Potency of its Adversaries Look into those States where it hath been Established if you would judg aright concerning it On the other hand hath not Prelacy had all the Strength of Law and Power engaged in its defence by the Encouragements of Worldly Grandure for its Favourers and by Severities inflicted on its Impugners for above Fourscore years In which space of time none could appear against it without the hazard of utter undoing or great Suffering And though it were thus born up not for Seven years but almost a Century yet we do not find that it had worn out the Difficulties of those Times which were not so Many and Great as this Author reports its present Difficulties to be in its return after a proscription of Twenty years But there is a more excellent and surer Way which it is hoped may attain to a happier End in less time then a Generation or two If the Distemper of Minds were healed and Unchristian Enmities laid aside then Moderation being sincerely begun would hold on and make the Disagreeing Parties to be still more yeelding and mutually obliging those Provocations and Prejudices would then cease by which they have been mutually alienated and hurried into such Hostilities and they would not be tempted in their own Defence as they think to strengthen themselves by Evil Advantages If Episcopacy yeeld to a Moderate Course why should any prudent Dissenters go about to molest it For in so doing they would but perpetuate their own trouble and unquiet state seeing that diversities of Opinions and occasions of Discord are like to continue about Forms of Church-Government until Forms shall be no more On the other side Why should the Episcopal Clergy dread that Moderation that would render Episcopacy more generally inoffensive and acceptable and put some end to the hitherto uncessant struglings against it Are they jealous that the Structure of their Government may be weakned and at length dissolved They might rather apprehend it might gain Assistance and Reputation from many that now either by constraint and necessity or by provocation and prejudice are made its Adversaries Who so searcheth to the root of the matter shall find That not so much the Species of Government nor the Forms that are used as weightier matters have been the chief stumbling-block and the occasions of the greatest disgust and aversation Neither the Episcopal Office nor Habit doth affright this sort of People from hearing a Bishop preach to their Edification The right and sure way to establish Episcopacy in a Land where Reformed Christianity is established is not to urge precise Conformity in Opinions and Orders and doubtful things of meer human determination but to encourage soundness in the Faith Ability and Industry in the proper Work of the Ministry and a Conversation becoming the Gospel and to discourage Pluralities Nonresidencies Licentiousness and Idleness in all sorts who serve not Christ but themselves in their Sacred Functions and whose End is onely to live in Pomp Wealth and Pleasure Will the Church-Governors say as it hath been answered they are bound up by the Laws and if Patrons present unworthy persons which have the Qualifications the Law requires the Bishops must not reject them nor can they turn them out at their pleasure but must give an account to the Laws To this I reply If the Admission and Permission of unworthy Ministers comes to pass not by the Bishops Administration but by the defectiveness of the Laws why hath not their Zeal excited them in the space of so many years and several Princes Reigns to endeavour the obtaining of Laws effectual on that behalf as it hath to procure and make from time to time stricter and stricter Injunctions about Conformity and Ceremonies For we know no reason why as full and vigorous Laws may not be made against Ignorant Negligent and Scandalous Ministers as against Nonconformists Conscience Honour and Safety obligeth the Episcopal Clergy to turn the edg of their Discipline the right way and to shew its energy and vigor not about Ceremonies but the great and weighty matters of Christian Religion And I believe that many worthy Ministers of the Church of England are so perswaded Wherefore in the former Discourse I cast no evil reflection upon the Latitudinarians or any moderate persons nor represented them as conforming not sincerely and as becomes the Ministers of Christ. They may sincerely according to their Principles submit to these Impositions and yet not like the Imposing The expression of their lukewarmness in Conformity signified no more but this That they set a rate upon these Matters according to the value and that they bear but an indifferent respect to things that at the best are but indifferent It is objected against me That having provided a place of rest for my self and my Party in the stated Order I am little sollicitous for others I do here solemnly profess That I am chiefly sollicitous for the Tranquility and Rest of a troubled Nation As for my own Concernment my Deprivation is an Affliction to me and I would do any thing that were not sin to me to recover the liberty of my publike Service in the Church But if it cannot be I submit to His good pleasure by whose determinate Counsel all things are brought to pass and am contented to remain a Silenced Sufferer for Conscience towards God Yea I should much rejoice in such Enlargement of the Publike Rule as might give a safe entrance to others though I my self by some invincible strictness of Apprehension should remain excluded for I have no Faction to uphold and by others Gain I am nothing lessened And in my opinion it will be no dividing of the Nonconsormists or weakning of their Interest if a part of them might close with the Approved Order of the Nation enlarged to the latitude of their judgments when others of streighter judgments are left without Indeed if they were a Faction they might lose or lessen themselves hereby But Reformed Christianity is their Grand Interest and their main Cause lyes not in any avowed difference of Doctrines between them and the Episcopal Protestants nor in any Secular Advantages to hold to themselves in a divided state but in the Advancement of Gods Kingdom by the encrease of true Christian Faith and Piety The Answerer hath used many hard speeches against me and charged me with Malice in divers passages which I answer not in particular because the innocence and inoffensiveness of my words will clear it self and because I would not make this Discourse tedious by replying to things impertinent to the main scope It shall suffice me to add That I have written these things as knowing that the Judg standeth before the Dore. FINIS THE Contents Sect 1. 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 2. The Good of the several Parties is best secured by Common Equity and the Good of the Vniversality 3. What may be esteemed a good Constitution of the State Ecclesiastical 4. The Comprehensiveness of the Establishment and the allowance of a just Latitude of Dissents is the best Remedy against Dissentions 5. Whether the present Dissentions are but so many Factions in the State 6. Whether the Nonconformists Principles tend to Sects and Schisms 7. Of their Principles touching Obedience and Government 8. Of placing them in the same rank for Crime and Guilt with the Papists 9. Whether their Inconformity be Conscientious or Wilful 10. Of their peaceable Inclinations and readiness to be satisfied 11. The propounded Latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the Churches Peace 12. Of acquiescence in the Commands of Superiors and the proper matter of their Injunctions 13. Of the alledged Reasons of the Ecclesiastical Injunctions in the beginning of the Reformation 14. The alledged Reasons why the Ceremonies are not to be taken away Examined 15 Of the diversity of Opinion and Practice already permitted in the Church of England 16. Men differently perswaded in the present Controversies may live together in peace 17. Of Dissenters of narrower Principles and of Toleration 18. It is the Interest of the Nonconformists to prefer Comprehension before Toleration where Conscience doth not gainsay 19. It behoves both the Comprehended and the Tolerated to prefer the common Interest of Religion and the setling of the Nation before their own particular Perswasions 20. Episcopacy will gain more by Moderation then by Severity in these Differences