It is true indeed We have had Woful Experience of men who to free themselves of such Injunctions have put the Nation into Confusion and those who scrupled at a Surplice made no Difficulty to roll many Thousand Garments in Blood And yet the Injunctions of our Church were no more than needs must For at the beginning of the Reformation there were two sorts of men Reasons of the Ceremonies before the Common-Prayer-Book One that thought it a great matter of Conscience to depart from a place of the least Ceremony they were so addicted to their old Customes Another sort were so new fangled that they would Innovate all things and nothing could satisfie them but what was new Whether was it not Necessary for the Church to interpose for Peace sake and by her Determination to put an end to those Controversies If it was necessary that she should interpose she must either fling off one of the Parties or make a Determination that might satisfie both sides if Moderation would prevail To have flung off that Party that were for Ceremonies had been imprudent being the greatest Number comprehending all those who staid at home and did not fly in the time of Queen Mary's Persecution which did facilitate the return of Protestancy at Queen Elizabeth's Reception to the Crown It had been also the more dangerous for it would have made them more obnoxious to the temptations of Romish Priests who would have soon took the Advantage of so numerous a Discontented Party and wrought their Dissatisfaction to a relapse to Popery That Party which were against Ceremonies though they were but small as being but some few of those that â—led beyond Sea for all were not so vain to like those things they saw abroad because they had no such at home though they had likewise brought a Dishonour to the Reformation and an Infamy upon our Nation by their unquiets and troubles they caused at Frankfort yet it had been great pity to have cast them off since they had suffered for Religion and gave evidence that they had a zeal for Piety though in somethings not according to knowledge Besides it would not have been of good report in the Churches abroad among whom these men had conversed and with whom it was expedient for Ours to hold a good Correspondence and Brotherly Communion although she was no more obliged to receive all their practices than they to receive hers Nor was it safe in their first beginnings to have rejected or despised any number of men when the Common Enemy was Numerous and Industrious Thus it being neither Prudent nor Safe to reject either Party it was necessary for the Church to consult her own Peace betwixt them But this was not possible for her to do without pleasing each Party to their Edification in some things Which being Indifferent were therefore in her Power either to Confirm or Condemn and also enjoyning some things to the Common Observance of all The Church therefore did take away the excessive Multitude of Ceremonies as those which were dark that had been abused by the superstitious blindness of the Unlearned and such as did administer to the Covetousness of others This might have satisfied the Innovators if reason could or if they had had any desires of Peace any compassion for their Opposites that were subject to the same Infirmities with themselves though under different forms On the other side the Church 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 And this did satisfie those which were against too great and many Innovations Now let any man judge whether the Church's Injunctions at first were not necessary The same Necessity for them continues still Because those that are for the Church are as unwilling to have these Ceremonies taken away as her Enemies are for the removal both of them and her And are these to be revoked by a complyance with those that will never be satisfied Shall the Church abandon those who in Conscience adhered to her in the severest Persecution to gratifie those who pretended Conscience to destroy her Besides the imputations that have laid upon the things enjoyned as Antichristian Idolatrous Superstitions c. the War that was undertook to remove them makes the Church think it her behoof to keep them lest Concessions in that kinde may be urged by her Adversaries for a confession of those crimes and taken as a colour to charge her with all the Blood that has been spilt in that quarrel For so these very men served the late Murdered King Moreover what a reproach is it for a Church whose Foundation is upon a Truth to be various And what advantage do the Popish Priests make of our very Temptations to Inconstancy which makes all that have Authority contemptible and Changes are full of danger So that the Injunctions are become as necessary as Prudence Safety and Honour can make them It was the importunity of Hereticks that made the Primitive Church determine many things in their seasons which before were not matter of observation and take up some expressions which were not vulgarly known in the Church before So likewise Dissentions about things indifferent have necessitated the Church to Injunctions for as other Laws arise from Corruptions in manners so Schisms in Religion do beget Injunctions We wish as well as you that Injunctions were fewer i. e. we wish you had never given occasion for them But that we may know what is necessary he tells us That the Indisputable Truths of Faith and the Indispensable duties of Life are the main object of Church Discipline Yet he leaves us still in the dark for what are those Indisputable Truths since there is scarce any Truth of Faith that hath not been disputed against if these be the main of her charge she hath a narrow Province and Papists and Socinians and every Heretick may promise themselves exemptions from her care And as for Indispensable Duties is there any one duty more Indispensable that is more strictly enjoyned then the Unity and the Peace of the Church and yet all this dispute is to deprive her of the means that were proper for it and because she will still take care of it she cannot avoid the slander in the last words of that Paragraph In the next place he would have the Moderation which the Church of England uses in her Articles of Predestination c. to be likewise used in the present Orders and Ceremonies But the case is not the same Those points are so full of difficulty that they and questions of that nature have been matter of Dispute in all Ages and all Religious therefore our Church did with prudence take notice that there were some common Truths on both sides which have analogy to the Faith and are a Foundation for Good Life and these she is tenacious of and leaves the nicer speculations to the curiosity of Disputers
A DISCOURSE OF Toleration In Answer to a late BOOK Intituled A DISCOURSE Of the RELIGION of ENGLAND ROM 16.17 Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them LONDON Printed by E.C. for James Collins at the Kings-Head in Westminster-Hall 1668. ERRATA PAge 3. l. 1. read men p. 4. l. 25. r. succeeding p. 6. d. 12. r. extract p. 21. l. 37. r. in resisting p. 22. l. 11. r. Law l. 12. r. the Emperours l. 30. r. had marg r. vâ—ternosae p. 23. l. 11. r. that p. 32. l. 37. r. Discourser A DISCOURSE OF TOLERATION SECT 1. To form a right Judgment of Toleration it is necessary to consider the subject of it THere is so much malignity in our corrupt Nature that Detraction and envious Reflections are easily believed and we daily see one man sport at the loss of anothers Fame This corruption appears in nothing more than in the case of Magistrates to speak ill of whom is mistaken for Liberty whilst the commendation of their just actions scarce escapes the infamy of flattery or servitude Hence it is that Writings which pretend to plead the cause of a Party whose Interest is judged inconsistent with the publick have a great vogue because they do insinuate the ill management of Superiours imply their Want of Love to the Truth Ignorance of their own Concerns and Cruelty to the Innocent And such are Discourses for Toleration of Dissentions in Religion which finde acceptance with weaker Spirits because they are both prone to pitty even those that suffer justly and have too jealous a fear of those that are in power But yet to do right to our humane nature we must acknowledge that though it be corrupted yet is not the Light of it wholly extinguished nor hath it utterly lost its Notices and Inclinations to good though it may sometimes be deceived by its own passions in the pursuit of it so that when any thing is discovered to be ill in its nature the product of some infamous causes and attended with consequences of raine then reason will prevail unless some base lust hath wholly debauched the Soul and vindicate it self from the impostures of a mistaken interest And however men may be kinde to a Toleration when it is considered barely as a bearing with Dissenters moderating the Rigors of those whose fortune and power tempts them to an insolency as it is a pity due to the Infirmities of mankinde which is subject to erre and hath a semblance to the Meekness of Christianity yet when they consider the subject of it which are Dissentions in Religion whose prime causes are for the most part hateful and the consequences terrible they will boggle at it as being that which will quite enervate Religion and also shake if not overthrow all Societies To form therefore a right Judgment of Toleration we must first consider the Nature Causes and Events of the Subject of it SECT 2. The Nature of Dissentions in Religion WHat Dissentions of Religion are in their nature is best known by reflecting upon the wayes and means which Christ hath appointed for the maintenance and continuance of Religion in the World Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ having purchased a great Salvation for Mankinde and made known the means of obtaining what he had acquired that this knowledge might be propagated through all Ages to those that were capable of his benefits did establish a Society which should be conservers of these truths into which all those that did believe what he had done and said and would submit to those conditions he required upon the solemn profession thereof by Baptism were to be admitted without any distinction of State Sex or Nation And this is his Church That this Society might perform its Office and be preserved to this great end Unity of the Members among themselves was more necessary for it then for any other Community because it was for greater and more glorious ends than ever any Society of man was established for and without unity it could not possibly attain these ends For if those who pretended to shew men the way of Life did disagree among themselves were divided into several factions mutually abhorring each others Communion and condemning each others for false or defective Churches how could those who were without believe the truths which all pretended unto and yet every one did mutually deny to be found in another since these truths not like those which Philosophers pretended unto that were but the Collections of mens Observation and Conclusions of Discourse were all asserted as such which had been revealed by the most Wise and Faithful God and were the manifestations of the pleasure of his Will wherein was no place left to humane invention every pretender contending that what he delivered was spoken at first by the Lord Heb. 2.3 and confirmed to following ages by those that heard him Besides those who some way or other had convictions of the truth of Jesus and desired to be more fully instructed in that way and to do those duties which Christ commanded one Christian to do with another these I say must be much distracted being yet Babes and Novices in Christ and so supposed not able to determine by reason of all those controversies of the different parties with whom they might joyn themselves unto the Lord so that without this Unity the Church cannot perform those great ends for which it was instituted by our Saviour Therefore to preserve this Unity Christ hath done all those things which he thought necessary for it He poured out prayers to his Father That all those that believed on him might be one Joh. 17.21 23. and be made perfect in one He hath ordered that the Supplies of his Spirit should be administred by their holding of him their Head and by being fitly joyned and compacted together Eph. 4.16 1 Cor. 12.12 He hath so dispensed the gifts of his Spirit in that way and measure that the Members of his Body might have the same dependance the same benefits as one member of a natural Body hath fâ—om another and so conserve so strict an Unity as may entitle the Church to the Honour of his Name and be called Christ He commands them to maintain their Unity by a constant and frequent Communion of his Sacraments 1 Cor. 10.16 17. What weight hath he put upon his command of Love the principle of Unity and there is no duty more pressed by him and his Apostles than those of Unity and Peace Yea all those Precepts of Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness Patience are in order to this great end of Unity among the Professors of his Doctrine Thus the necessity of Unity and methods by Christ appointed for its preservation must needs argue Dissentions which are destructive of it to be of a nature hateful to every soul that hath a true sense of Christianity SECT 3.
The Causes of Dissentions and Schisms in the Authors of them BUt besides this they are more odious in their causes whether we consider the first Authors of them or the Followers As for the Authors of them the Apostles set forth them to be persons led by such motives as did abandon all respect to Christ Rom. 16.18 that They served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly 2 Cor. 3.3 Gal. 5.20 Phil. 3.19 1 Tim. 1.19 They were called carnal Seditions and Heresies are reckoned amongst the works of the flesh They are said to be the enemies of the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame The putting away of a good Conscience and making shipwrack of the Faith is their character Pride and covetousness are said to be their grand principles ib. c. 6.4 Tit. 3.11 Subversion and Sin is their state of Life S. Peter and S. Jude give them characters full of horror Thus in the â—ucceeding ages of the Church the Historians who give us an account of those Heresies and Schisms which arose in it do also tell us how great Monsters they were which did bring them forth and there was in every Sect many opinions and practices that rendered all Christians of whose number they pretended to be odious even to the Heathen The abominations of the Gnosticks are not to be named even by a sober Heathen for the vilest acts of uncleanness which would dishonour even a Stewes were taken up by them for Duties of Religion which shewed the causes of their dissentions to be exceeding hateful It would be tedious to survey all and give a particular account of the causes of every Sect. One instance will be sufficient and it shall be that of the Donatists a great and lasting dissention which had a complication of Wickednesses to bring it forth into the world It began at the Election and Ordination of Caecilianus Bishop of Carthage whereby the ambition of Botrus and Caelesius two Presbyters of the same Church and Competitors of the same Dignity being disappointed to depose him they conspire with other Presbyters to whom Mensurius the preceding Bishop had in the times of persecution delivered the Church-Plate to be kept private that it might not be a spoil to the Persecutors these men had refused to deliver to Caecilianus to whom at his Ordination the Inventory of Church Goods was given up the things committed to their trust and that they might ascertain the prey to themselves they laboured to draw the people from Communion with the Bishop This separation was forwarded by one Lucilla a rich woman who having been displeased with Caecilianus because when he was a Deacon he had admonished her to behave her self as the other Christians in the publick Worship she continued her passion to him now made a Bishop and by her gifts and promises corrupted others that they should depose Caecilianus and set up in his stead one Majorinus who lived in her house To strengthen this Separation they call to Carthage Secundus Bishop of Tigisita Primate of Numidia who together with other Numidian Bishops in a Council at Cirta had mutually convicted one the other to have been Traditores i.e. such who had delivered up the Holy Scriptures to be burnt by the Gentiles and so having pardoned one the other that they might not be questioned by the other Churches of Africk did willingly embrace this occasion of making and compleating a Schism at Carthage whereby also they might hide their Indulgences one to the other at home by their severity to others abroad removing from themselves the suspicion of that Crime which they condemned in others These men being entertained at Carthage by those whom Ambition Anger and Covetousness had made factious did condemn Caecilianus unheard as being ordained by Faelix Bishop of Aptungita who was accused to have been a Traditor and then set up Majorinus in his stead and so formed that Schism which for a long time troubled all Africk and polluted it with much blood This one instance is enough to shew how Dissentions in Religion may and sometimes do owe their Original to the lusts of men and that evil Affections though different and various may yet amass men together in the same Schism and that however we hear of nothing now as it was probable they did so then pretended for a dissent but Conscience Yet we know that men live and dye by the same rules and the same lusts in this age will work as they did of old in the same circumstances and whatsoever is of such an extract must needs be hateful SECT 4. The Causes of Dissentions in the Followers AS for the Followers of these Dissentions although it is possible many of them may be led aside in the simplicity of their souls by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness of such as lie in wait to deceive Ephes 4.14 yet we find the Scriptures often censure such of lusts also which give them over to the arts of those who lead them captive 2 Tim. 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 2 Pet. 2.19 As an Averseness to the sound doctrine which contradicts their lusts an Affectation of Novelty having itching ears or of too much Liberty greater than will comport with the Discipline of the Truth An affectation of some more then ordinary knowledge thus the Apostle saith Col. 2.18.23 Jude 16. some were beguiled by things which had a shew of wisdom St. Jude saith that the Hereticks of his time did speak great swelling words by which he implyed the Gnosticks who did abuse the people with a strange noise of words that signified nothing but their followers imagined to have the secrets of wisdom And thus St. Augustine saith that he was a follower of the Manichees for 9 years together having sleighted the Religion his Parents had educated him in and that because they promised not to require any mans faith Aug. lib. de Vtilitate cred c. 1. unless they made the truth clear and evident and therefore this captivated him being young and when he was by reason of some knowledge in the disputes of the learned Garrulus and Superbus i.e. talkative and proud 2 Tim. 4.3 2 Pet. 2.19 Another cause may be a want of love to the Truth 2 Thes 2.10 Hence comes their Loathing all pains that are necessary for the searching after the Truth and from this a Compliance with those opinions that are importunately imposed upon them by their Relations Add to these the Envy at those whom the Providence or Spirit of God hath advanced either by more useful Graces or to more splendid conditions this was it which made much of that noise which was in the divided Church of Corinth Weakness in not differencing between the Lives and Professions of those that continue within the Church so Audius as Epiphanius saith began his schism and sometimes Injuries received from those that are for the Truth make morose and cholerick minds
all down before them that at last they put all in disorder and were themselves upon the brink of Destruction together with a confused Nation If therefore these be sufficient reasons to deny a Toleration to one Sect it will seem unequal if it should be granted to others that are no more innocent of the same Crimes So that this Author hath laid down grounds upon which Toleration is to be denied as well to the other Sectaries whom he pleads for as to the Papist The VIII IX and X. Sections of that Discourse is to shew that the Reformed Religion makes good Christians and good Subjects and it is the permanent Interest of this Kingdom that it ought to be settled in its full extent All which needs no Dispute if it be understood of The English Reformation established by Law which I conceive that Author intended but if it be meant of any Reformation of that Reformation he will finde it a difficulty to make others believe him but I will give him the most Charitable construction and so proceed to the rest SECT 13. That there is no Necessity of a Toleration nor any Intent to extirpate Dissenters but only Dissentions IN Sect. XI He brings his Arguments for the Necessity of Toleration which only can give a colour to it for Toleration is by the Confession of all one of those things that are not good in their own Nature The thing he asserts is That the Dissenters from the present Ecclesiastical Polity are as he phraseth it Momentous in the ballance of this Nation This he proves 1. By their Number They are saith he every where spread through City and Countrey they make no small part of all ranks and sorts of men c. The use of this Argument you must observe 1. Hath been one of the ancient Arts of all Dissenters In the Conference at Carthage the Donatists would needs have the names of all the Bishops of their Party read before they would admit any Conference To this very end that they might by their number daunt the Judge of the Cause and their Opposites In Queen Elizabeths time when the Dissenters were but in their beginnings yet Mr. Hooker tells us that they published the Musters they had made of their Party Preface to Eccl. Pelit and proclaimed them to amount to I know not how many thousands To the same purpose is the Number boasted of at this time But 2dly It is less terrible now then ever it was For though the Multitude of Dissenters be great yet their Divisions are no less which weaken them as to any undertaking Jealousies and divided Interests which are the issues of Dissentions in Opinions breed confusions in the Counsels of a Multitude and distract their Force and therefore this Argument hath the less strength to terrifie the Governors as was intended or to enforce a Necessity of Toleration The next argument is that the dissenting Ministers notwithstanding all Reproaches Provocations and Wishes do appeal to God that they dare not conform for Conscience sake and whatsoever their grounds of Dissent are they still hold out c. The force of this argument is as I take it that there is a necessity of a Toleration because the Dissenting Ministers will not conform But if this be a motive strong enough now it might have been then when the Covenant was pressed when so many thousand Ministers and both Vniversities in effect declared they did not dare for Conscience sake to take it and held it out all the time of Tyranny and yet there was then no thoughts of a Comprehensive Ordinance no Toleration nor Connivance unless it were of some very few whom their Relations covered from the fury of the Imposers Besides the Number of the Non-Conformists compared with those that do now conform and of those that under the Usurpers suffered for Conformity to the Laws are so inconsiderable that the Testimonies of a few ought not to come in ballance with the multitude on the other side Moreover though it should be granted that their Dissents are from Conscience etiher Scrupulous Dubious or Erroneous yet we cannot say their holding out is upon that account not as that Author saith against hopes of Indulgence but upon hopes of it For it is sufficiently known that about that time the Act of Uniformity was to be put in practise there was then spread abroad through the whole Nation a report that the King and Council would give an Indulgence that their friends at London had petitioned for it and that the surer way to obtain what they aimed at was to hold out from Conforming When as indeed there was nothing petition'd for but only an Indulgence for some few Ministers in London who pretended to have been very industrious for the Kings Return without any consideration of their Party in the Nation Yet this had the effect of truth for a time for it made many Ministers that were inclined to Conformity to neglect the Season when they should have done it And by this means were the greatest part of them trapann'd into Non-conformity For having lost their Livings and having so publickly declared against the Law the Shame of being too changeable and the Unprofitableness of returning made most of them hold out Though we can name some after they had given examples to others of slighting that Act did immediately by their Patrons favour in a new Presentation gain an institution by subscribing to what before they declared against and no year is without examples of some coming in to Conformity when they have opportunities of getting a Benefice by it While the others are almost every year abused to an Obstinacy by renewed hopes of Indulgence The third Argument is because the several Laws for Uniformity for regulating Corporations against Conventicles for the removal of Non-Conforming Ministers from Burroughs c. have not advanced the esteem acceptance of the Ecclesiastical State and the acquiescence of the people in it To this it is answered That these Laws have not their intended effect is not because the King and the Parliament were mistaken in their Counsels but in that those who were entrusted with the Execution have been unfaithfull in their Offices For it is too apparent how these Laws have not been executed to the ends for which they were made They have been sometimes interpreted contrary and beside the mindes of the Law-givers and the intent of the Law Many sober Justices of the Peace having done what their Oaths and the Law required of them have been discouraged in their Dâ—ties having all their Acts reversed by others And when the Laws are not executed it is much worse than if they had never been made For they do more encourage the Wicked impunity hardens in sin and men sport with Laws that have no hand to maâ—age them as with painted Thunderbolts The Righteous and Just are Ensnared by a Law that is not Executed for doing what that requires and yet not finding protection by it they
But about her Orders and Ceremonies this is the only thing to be resolved Whether the Church hath power to enjoyn an indifferent Ceremony which sure may be soon disputed and determined Besides the Dissenters are not able to name any one Church besides Ours from which there was a Schism made for a Ceremony His last Argument against Injunctions is Men might more easily agree in the use of these little things or of some of them were their Internal Judgments spared and subscriptions not enjoyned Churches and States have never thought it safe to permit the concernments of their Peace to the Ingenuity of men but have secured their Quiet by strict Laws and the Ingagements of those who were to minister in them I have shewed above that Toleration of Dissentions that is a leaving men to their different opinions hath not abated but encreased them It hath been found necessary that men should declare their Internal Judgments to keep off their Disputes against things in practice for if men were left to this Itch of Wrangling and doting about Questions the smallest Doubts and Scruples may be blown up to the most bloody Contentions It was observed that the Controversies betwixt the Lutherans Europe Spec. p. 172. Edit 1637. and Calvinists were but a coal which a wise man with a little moisture of his mouth might soon have quenched but at length the Ministers with the winde of theirs in their Disputings have so enflamed them that it threatneth a great ruine and calemity of both sides So that to take off Injunctions on this score is neither Prudent not safe But alas there is no Probability that if they be not enjoyned they will ever be used they themselves have given us too full an experience For all the time from the King 's coming home to the time that the Act of Uniformity was to be put in Practice there was a suspention of these Injunctions yet it is sufficiently known that none of the present Non-Conformists did in the least measure agree in the use of any these little things as he calls them but Writ Preached and Railed against them And though desired by the King to read so much of the Liturgy as themselves had no exception against and so could have no pretension from Conscience Yet the honour of their Party and their Credit was not to be reconciled with such a compliance to the Condescentions of their Sovereign they thought to bring Him and the Parliament to lower terms by being high in their own Resolutions So fresh an experiment cools us as to all the hopes this Author suggests unto us of what they may do When as neither he nor they will give any assurance that they will do so It is needless therefore to argue with him what the Church should do in case their own good nature would bring to them Conformity since it appears but a Chimera of his own Fancy and it would be but sport to talk of that which neither was nor is nor is like to be It is as vain and needless to speak to the XVIth which enquires Whether the Dissenters are capable of being brought into such a Comprehension For since this Comprehension is to be formed by moderating the established Order and this Moderation is to be performed by taking away all the Injunctions that the Church and State have made for peace sake which abrogation cannot be proved to be either safe or Prudent and would be the Prostitution of the Authority of the King and the Parliament to the forwardness of men that will not be satisfied and therefore not fit to be done to what purpose then will it be to argue Whether they would receive what is dangerous to give Besides the Dissenters are of several Sects and every one of them have the same common pretensions For they all profess they dare not conform for Conscience sake They are angry if you do not believe them to be as Godly Sober Civil as they themselves say they are They boast of their Number and that Trading and Commerce will either Languish or Flourish as they are used and yet for all this this very Author gives over all other Sects but only the Presbyterians for he saith Be it supposed that some among them seem not reducible to Publick Order but another sort there are whose Principles are fit for Government i. e. Presbyterians Thus all this noise for comprehension is but for one only Sect that hath no other pretensions to the kindeness of the State but what are common to all and therefore in equity should be no more considered than the others Nay but saith the Discourser they are of chiefest moment their Principles are fit for Government the stability whereof hath been experimented in those Countries where they have had the concurrence of the Civil Powers But yet this cannot satisfie us for no experiment hath yet ever been in the World of Presbytery permitted and encouraged where there was a Protestant Episcopacy as this comprehension supposeth For where Episcopacy is established by the Antient and Fundamental Laws of a Nation there Presbytery is no other but a Sect and being so will as the Author saith of Popery and as every Sect and as we have had a late experiment of this very Presbytery be restless till it bear all down before it or hath put all into Disorder It is also not for the credit of Presbytery which the Author adds that Their way never yet obtained in England nor were they favoured with the Magistrates vigorous Aid c. For if those that brought it to the light encouraged it bound themselves and all they could either perswade or terrifie to it by a Solemn League and Covenant If they who for this plundered Sequestred and Undid many thousand Families in the Nation for the Covenant was to Establish this Presbytery were yet afterwards Sick of it and gave it no more nay not so much countenance as they did to the other Sects whom this Author saith are not reducible to publick Order it is a strong presumption that they found the principels of Presbytery no more fit for Government than the Principles of any other Sects So that it is to be conclued that in the Judgment of the first Admirers and Friends of Presbytery it is no more capable of being brought into a Comprehension than any other Sect. For as they made use of it to undermine Episcopacy so they hissed for all other Sects to affront reproach and baffle Presbytery But notwithstanding all this the Author though he waves the Asserting of their Discipline yet he makes this inquiry Whether the Presbyterians be of a Judgment and Temper that makes them capable of the Magistrates Paternal Care and conduct to such a stated order as will comport with this Church and Kingdom This in plain English for the Original is a Dialect of Canting is whether Presbytery is to be established together with Episcopacy or Whether Ministers that are of the Presbyterian perswasion