together the Turk abroad The differences between the French and the Spaniards were composed by the Marriage of the eldest Infanta of Spain with Lewis the Fourteenth the yongest being given to the Emperor the Chief of the House of Austria This Peace gave leasure to the French Court and an opportunity to the Pope and his Agents to Work and Solicit the Ruin of the Protestants by pulling down their Churches and denying them the priviledges allowed them before Several ways were then proposed in the Assembly of Cardinals answerable to the state of every Kingdom England was then groaning under the Tyranny of an Usurper dreadful to all Europe but a Religion was then here professed in opposition to Popery The Kings Majesty was in his Banishment It was therefore resolved to get here such an Interest in the Army and in the Land as that the Papists might be able to make a strong party when time should serve for that purpose several Jesuits were sent over to set up new Religions and divide the people amongst themselves and to joyn with the Army into which they were admitted in Offices of Trust under their usual disguises A proposal had been made to our Gracious Soveraign to draw him from the Truth with large hopes of an universal assistance of the foreign Papists in such a case to settle him again in his Throne but he was not to be drawn to be the Popes Slave in hopes of a Crown nor to be perswaded to embrace such absurdities against his Conscience and Reason God therefore performed for him what his Enemies had but proposed and restored to him his inheritance as a reward of his Fidelity to Truth contrary to the whole Worlds expectation When the Court of Rome saw so great a revolution in this Kingdom and the Protestant Religion succeeding to the former Anarchy in the Church when they saw no hopes of that Change they wished for they sent as many Emissaries as they could to sow the seeds of division amongst us and our brethren of the same perswasion for the carrying on of their damnable designs the ruin of our Kingdom and Church against which they planted all their Engins A Consultation was regularly had in London of the most experienced and wisest Jesuits who had intelligence with most parts of the Kingdom and knew by Letters the posture of all Affairs and the Peoples dispositions The result was sent over to their General at Rome and the Assembly appointed there for English Affairs From thence they received every month new Orders how to proceed which Orders they had a general Commission to correct according to the unexpected accidents that might happen During the late Civil War and Usurpation the Jesuit had got many Proselytes to his Religion by drawing them from the Truth or causing some to cast off all respect of any other Religion but that which their sordid Interest recommended The Wicked and Antichristian Principle of the former and the prophaness and licentiousness of the latter made them both ready to embrace Popery as soon as it should appear with any credit amongst us but all this while the Knave lurked under the shape of an Anabaptist of a Quaker of a Fift-Monarchy man and sometimes for his Interest he would appear amongst the Presbyterians and Independents The severity of the antient Laws and the Peoples general hatred of Popery and Jesuits suffered him not to lift up his Mask therefore all his proceedings were private and secret and under such outward garbs as hindred him from being visible to every eye But as soon as the Kings Majesty returned to his Crown and Kingdom the Jesuits and Papists were resolved to take other measures The services of some of their Party and the Authority of Crowned Heads emboldned them to appear amongst us with more Courage and less Fear of the Law which by the King 's merciful temper was mitigated towards them and they suffered to make profession of their Religion without fear of punishment All that they seemed then to desire and pretend to was but the freedom to exercise their Religion but give the Devil an Inch and he will take an Ell. Their secret aim and private contrivances have always tended to the overthrow of Church and State for the better carrying on of their purposes they have endeavoured to have all the Interest they could make amongst the great ones There was then three obstacles to their grand Design not to be overcome on a sudden The Kings reality in the Protestant Profession the Nations general aversion for Popery some out of Interest and for Fear of losing their Impropriations and Abbey-Lands others out of a principle of Religion and the third obstacle was the Parliaments Sincerity and Loyalty to God and their King To attempt openly to overcome these impediments was but a madness which could not turn but to their ruin They found out a way to batter these invincible Bulwarks and if not to render them assaultable at least to prevent the danger they apprehended from thence the Peoples aversion they took away by degrees by their officious and kind behaviour civil deportment and usual professions of fidelity to their Prince and care of the publick safety honour and happiness by spreading abroad both in the Countrey and the City Books of their Religion with moderate Disputations and Refutations of ours which they gave to all that would hearken to them or shew them any countenance or likelihood of embracing their ways and by settling of Popish School-Masters in every corner of the City who endeavoured if not to poison the Children with their principles at least to give them such a tincture of their Religion as might remove the natural aversion They dealt with every one according to his quality disposition and place To the Great and Noble they seemed to be true trusty and officious to the meaner sort they appeared with hopes and promises of advantage and to all they discovered the Popish Religion under the disguises of pleasure and profit as many as were not well principled they endeavoured to debauch and corrupt chiefly if they were in any place of trust that they might shew themselves favourable to Popery and Papists Some they would recommend and promote to places of profit to Offices and Employments in Noble Families and in the State to others they would give monies and with all persons they endeavoured to ingratiate themselves casting all the misery and troubles of our Civil War upon Presbyterians Reformation and Non-conformity to render them the more odious to King and People One thing gave them a jealousie and they were resolved to employ all their Skill and Art to prevent it That was a reconciliation between the Episcopal Party and the moderate Non-Conformists endeavoured by the Kings Majesty and desired by the whole Nation To hinder this conjunction which doubtless would have proved fatal to Popery in this Land and break the neck of all their designs they laboured to interpose between both
and to incourage the one in his stifness by buzing in the ears of the simpler sort the danger of unity the corruption in the Church the glory of Constancy in Religion and their ingagements for the Covenant and by upbraiding the more knowing party with the Peoples discourses of the Ministers bad Lives unfaithfulness unconstancy and the danger their Souls were in if by their too hasty compliance to that which their former Interest obliged them to exclaim against they gave them a slender Opinion and an Atheistical impression of Religion it self To these they represented Conformity as the most intolerable burthen and the heaviest yoke could be imposed upon them by Authority and our Religion of the Church of England the nearest in affinity to Popery full of Superstition if not of Idolatry They accused all our zealous endeavours to bring the People to Unity to be Persecutions of the good Servants of God and every step that we made was slandered and discredited by these men who had a design to advantage themselves by our Divisions To the Governours in the Church and State they would exclaim against the wickedness and danger of Conventicles and Non-Conformity They represented all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas as incouragers of our dissensions by their Examples and Government without Bishops Calvin and all his Calvinists were Traitors Schismaticks Hereticks Enemies of the Publick Peace promoters of Rebellion insufferable in a Common-Wealth dangerous Conspirators against the Kings Person and Government and what not With these and such like Notions they infected the minds of many of our Clergy with an unjust prejudice against all the Religious Churches of God beyond the Seas and had not a very worthy Divine Dr. Durel cleared their innocency by representing to the publick their disallowance of our frivolous discords and their acknowledgment of us for their Brethren and our Liturgy and Government to be altogether agreeable with Gods Word and Will we should have proceeded to a publick Excommunication However these impressions given to the Rulers in Church and State cast oyl into the fire angred the minds of our zealous Governours and drew from them those severe resolutions which have increased our discords and caused many to imagin more in Non-Conformity than really there is for as some sort of Wounds putrifie and increase the more they are handled so the Divisions of our Church about quid dities Indifferencies Trifles and Vanities would have vanished by degrees the less we had minded them But as we had our Enemies on both sides acquainted with our temper and interests they would not suffer the one to conform nor the others to admit them upon more moderate terms than a strict compliance with all the inconsiderable punctilio's which the Publick Peace and Gods Glory might easily dispense with as well as Religion Government and Conformity it self In all the publick Disputations too much Gall proceeded from the Jesuits hatred of us both and their apprehension of our sensibleness of our own Interest and of an union between those that differed for the most part but in shadows However they laboured to raise such a mist between us and our Brethren that we could not see to joyn together in one body and worship All this while they advanced some of their own disguised fellows into Offices and Places of Trust and when they saw any person able to serve their turn they would befriend him with their assistance in his promotion and discourage all other persons When I lived near London a Jesuit an ingenious and a good Linguist knowing my Skill in that and other sorts of Learning and how much I had been neglected in the Church though I had done good Service both at home and abroad was sent purposely to search into the Principles of my Religion whether I would favour Popery could I have dissembled with him I might have had a considerable preferment by the Jesuits means but I chose rather to abide in a mean condition and to be confined to the remotest wilderness of the Land to a small Vicarage of about sixty pounds per annum there to bury my Talents than to employ them in the Service of the Devil and the Pope But all these indeavours at home tended to the promotion encouragement and increase of the Popish Religion but amongst a few and such as dared not to discover what they were And though it had got so much credit that many ingenious and good Protestants could not endure to hear the Pope or Papists spoken against or blamed for superstition or any of their practices This could not bring to pass the grand Design without a more powerful endeavour and stronger assistances for that purpose as soon as the Court of Rome was perfectly reconciled with the French King and that he had consented to gratifie them to have the Monument of their Disgrace taken away and all remembrances of his Ambassadors affront and their weaknesses pulled down in Rome they resolved to make use of his Assistance and to govern all Europe if not all the World by a Triumvirat I shall not trouble my Reader with any part of this Plot relating to Foreign Affairs only as it looks upon us and concerns us here in England It is sufficiently known that the Court of Rome pretends to an Universal Monarchy and to hold by the Power of the Keys what the same City governed heretofore by the Sword The Jesuits likewise have the same aim but with a pretended subordination to the Pope and his Authority a meer pretence covered over with the Oath of blind Obedience for this crafty and devilish Society if it once get a Head will as easily forget their Allegiance to the Pope as they do now that to their most lawful Princes under God But neither the Jesuits nor the Pope of Rome now that all their Cheats have been discovered to the World in these latter Ages through the Preaching of the Gospel can carry on or compass so great a Design without other assistance therefore they resolved together to employ the old Policy of the antient Romans in Conquering Kingdoms which was to subdue them with their Weapons and by the Courage of their own Inhabitants Of all the Monarchs subject to the Roman See in the end of Alexander's Papacy none seemed so powerful in men and money as the French A young Prince Lord of a flourishing Kingdom and of a great Continent but of an Aspiring mind that would readily entertain the first proposals of larger Dominions and other Empires Therefore the Jesuits and the Pope agreed to tempt him with the Glories of the World and to make him the Universal Monarch if he would encourage the Popish Religion and declare himself an Enemy to the Protestant Profession in and out of his Kingdom This same Proposal had been made to Philip the Second of Spain when that Kingdom was in its Grandeur and in order to its accomplishment he gratified the Pope with the Expulsion and Banishment of the
dismal consequences I. It weakens the Society and People and renders them less able to resist their Enemies It is not to be imagined what inconveniency a small division will cause in a City or Common-wealth As in the natural body a head-ach or a light distemper renders the man feeble and not fit for action so the publick divisions bring great impediments to those proceedings that would tend to the Nations happiness honour safety and peace and ought to be so much the more odious the more a well compact and setled body in good order and temper is in a thriving and prosperous condition II. It breeds discontents and disturbances at home which if kept secret occasions murmurings and complaints amongst the inferiors and many times when they break out they raise Rebellions and Civil-Wars for it is certain that there can be no division or faction in a place but must proceed from and cause discontent hatred and variance which commonly rob from us our inward and outward peace And though the Division may be only in some particular respects which may not hinder a correspondency in other publick relations that correspondency can never be hearty and those endeavours together cannot be so successful and vigorous when they proceed from parties that entertain mutual displeasures especially in that very thing which is the greatest tye of all human Societies Religion III. It lays us open to all the attempts contrivances and malicious designs of our Enemies How easie is it to ruin a divided party to set and incourage one faction against another And though the division may observe some bounds and not proceed to that extremity to which it naturally tends it cannot be denied but that a crafty Enemy may easily advantage himself thereby and work the mischief if not the total overthrow of a divided People for there are alwaies opportunities given for such wicked purposes by the discovery of this weakness In short that Nation is in no small danger and the mischiefs into which it is likely to fall are innumerable that is divided in such a manner that there is no hopes of union Our Blessed Saviour foretells the fate of that Society or House that it cannot stand but must needs of its own accord fall into ruin But of all divisions those about Religion seem to be the most unnatural unreasonable and ominous factions and parties in the State may be tolerated when they aim not directly at the dissolution of Government nor the discredit or opposition of Authority in such a case they are not so dangerous nor of that ill consequence as to give us an hot Alarm And though they may diminish of that Love and Respect that is due to our Sovereign by obliging us to prefer an interest not agreeable with his and the Common-wealths they are not so criminal but they may correspond with our Allegiance to our Prince But divisions and factions in Religion in the same Nation threaten us with those unavoidable dangers that make Governours take heed how they tolerate that which is against all policy chiefly in those Kingdoms as are surrounded with watchful Enemies that wait for such an opportunity to insinuate themselves and undermine us They tend to the dissolution of the Government the overthrow of the Laws the introducing of all disorder in the State as well as in the Church They tend first to the contempt of Authority and next to the ruin of mens Bodies and Souls leaving us naked to the first attempts of all our spiritual and temporal Enemies chiefly when that division which is envied and aimed at is so twisted with the Government of the Common-wealth that there is no dissolution of the one without the danger of the other when all the other divisions rise in opposition to it and will admit of no compliance with it when openly and secretly they labor to discredit it and its lawful proceedings incouraging the Factious part to exclaim against it and its injunctions and to endeavour to draw away the people from their respect to it and its way of worship what rational Soul can tolerate so palpable an opposition What Governours in the State can suffer Religion to be contemned and trodden under foot with a publick allowance Is it reasonable that such dangerous factions should have the liberty to increase and act with the sufferance of the Laws and of the publick Authority When all the actings and distasts of these factions are not justifiable amongst men of reason by the Laws of God or the Laws of men and all are grounded upon prejudices mistakes and misapprehensions and such frivolous causes as they will be one day ashamed to own when all masks and vizards shall be pulled off Is it just that the Rulers of the State in such a case should countenance such pernicious proceedings and give the stamp of Authority to Actions either ridiculous in themselves or dangerous to the People committed to their charge The danger may seem less when they are weak and inconsiderable but little evils are to be shunned and avoided as well as great though they have not increased to an head they deserve no allowance because they are not able to prevail upon the sound part but should be cured as speedily as may be in the mean while for the publick peace and quiet the execution of the Laws is suspended and by the wisdom of the Governours they are winked at but all Factions are not to be esteemed by what they can do but by what they would do Let the Principles of those that are divided from us be enquired into let the designs of their party be examined let their tempers and dispositions be tried by an impartial scrutiny and they themselves will discover so much danger to the Nation and find the Government and Kingdom threatned with such mischiefs as that they will have no reason to incourage such divisions whereby their own peace and safety is threatned as well as that of their Posterity I know Conscience is the grand Plea of all our dissenting Brethren the Papist he pleads Conscience for the murther of Kings and Princes and the advancing his Religion by Hellish Plots and Contrivances The Heathen he pleads Conscience in the worship of his Idols The Jew and the Mahumetan saith he observes the Rules and Dictates of his Conscience and our Brethren have the same pretence in their mouths for their opposition of Lawful Authority and their incouragement in their division from us But this plea that is so commonly used in the justifying of the greatest villanies causeth us with good reason to suspect it in less matters Remember O my Christian Brother and Sister when thou shalt appear before the Impartial Tribunal of the Lord Jesus this pretence of thy Conscience will not be able to sanctifie thee and cause him to approve of Actions and Proceedings directly opposite to his Word and Holy-Laws Though it may blind thine own eyes and cause thee to be more excusable before men than
Brethrens refusing a Conformity with us in our worshipping of God is a too zealous affection for a Party or for the Name of a Party unto which they have devoted themselves This factious humor proceeds out of some displeasure conceived against us our persons or our way or out of a propensity for that Party which they embrace in opposition to us And many times they are so fond and blind that they give not themselves the trouble to examin the differences between us but resolutely embrace Presbytery or Independency and addict themselves to these empty names for no other cause nor reason but because they have an inclination for the Sect or only for the Name of the Sect. I dare appeal to the judgment and inquiry of the more reasonable persons amongst them whether this be not the cause of the separation of many from us I am persuaded that most of them know no real difference between us and them but only in the outward form and garb they understand not what Presbytery and Independency are and yet they are in appearance such rigid Presbyterians and Independents in their outward behaviour that by no means will they be persuaded to comply with us in the least punctilio These are commonly the greatest Enemies of Unity who are thus led on by blindness and ignorance They are the most unreconcileable slanderers of our Worship and Government upbraiding us with the Ministers viciousness the Peoples formality and other trivial matters which discover more hatred than reason in their carriage to us To this kind of Non-Conforming Brethren whom St. Paul checks for their carnality I recommend that Christian moderation which the same Apostle wishes to the Corinthians and his other Disciples and to remember that their furious Devotion for their several parties agrees not with that Devotion which they should have for Peace for Religion for their Christ and his Interest That their espousing of a Factior divorces them from this good Saviour and renders their Souls unfit for a Communion with him here or hereafter And that they shew themselves to be the greatest Enemies of Truth and Concord when they thus engage themselves desperately in the encouraging of a Party without understanding the depth and designs of it No doubt but if these men had but as sincere an inclination for Truth and the Publick Peace they would be as averse to their Sects as they are now forward to promote the interest of them IV. Another sort are preingaged by a worldly interest and kept from a compliance with us for fear of crossing or losing that advantage which they reap from a Non-Conformity or from their Acquaintance with the Non-Conformists Too many I understand are kept from hearkening to their Reason and Knowledge of the Lawfulness of our Worship and their Duty to God and Man by that bewitching thing Seeming Interest But such men value more their present profit than their future hopes and prefer the vanities of the Earth to the unspeakable advantages of Heaven which they might reasonably expect from an obedience to Gods Laws Their condition I reckon to be very desperate for however they may look upon this Sin with contempt or think their refusal of joyning with us deserves less blame because they side with our Brethren of the same Religion yet in regard that they stand in opposition to us and division is thereby encouraged in Christs Church This their sin of Non-Conformity is so much the more hainous because they know their Duty and refuse to practise it for fear of parting with an advantage which they might probably lose did they forsake their Faction and Party I would intreat these men to weigh the words of our Saviour directed to such Idolaters of worldly interest He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven And to remember that Christ is seemingly denied when we refuse Communion with such whom we know to be real Christians and a compliance with that Lawful Worship which is agreeable with his Word and Will V. Another hinderance to the Non-Conformity of some of the more Learned and Wiser sort are those who either think themselves so or desire to be so esteemed is Shame The shame and reproach of the world which they justly deserve for complying too much with the irregularities of former times causeth them to continue constant in their Errors for fear of confessing their guiltiness by a change though for the better I conceive that their judgments were then over-ruled by the Authority and Currant of the times and perswaded to condemn that Government and Worship which Rebellion was resolved to pull down being insensibly drawn in to side with that Enemy of our Laws and Liberties Now therefore that this same Government and Worship is by Gods good providence reestablished they are ashamed to confess their former weakness to discover any unsetledness in their minds they choose for this purpose rather to persist in their mistakes than to acknowledge them by a recantation Such men consider not that obstinacy in Errors is a great aggravation of a Crime and that to confirm now wilfully and resolutely in opposition to Law and the dictates of their Conscience what the necessity of the times forced them to subscribe to is a most hainous sin near related to that of the Holy Ghost However our Saviour Christ highly condemns such men in the Gospel according to S. John Ch. xii vers 43. For loving more the praise of men than the praise of God For having a greater regard to the approbation of their former disciples than to be approved of by God for their ready compliance with their duty and his Divine Laws Truth is to be always acknowledged by all the Disciples of Truth and may be denied in little matters as well as in great but in matters of Religion of the publick Peace of the Service of God and the Unity of Christs Church every Truth is of a great importance to stand stifly in the denyal of it to refuse a compliance with it to oppose it obstinately and continue in that opposition till death is a wickedness that I judge to be unpardonable before God as it is inexcusable before men Such persons to save their credit care not how they damn their Souls and for fear of the reproach of men run themselves into the danger of forfeiting their God and happiness together with their interest in his Church by a wilful separation I intreat these my Brethren to take heed how they deny or oppose that which they know to be Just or True for the God of Truth is a revenger of all opposition to it A small liberty that men give themselves in an error or a vice hardens them in it and draws them insensibly into greater and more hainous and the longer men continue in them the less able they are to repent and amend VI. Some of the wiser sort were first persuaded to oppose the Church of Englaad and
to refuse Conformity to its late establishment because they had been fierce and unadvised disputers and contemners of it during the late Usurpation And now they would not comply not so much for fear of reproach as the former but for fear of endangering the Faith of their disciples or for fear of prejudicing their esteem of Religion by shewing so great a readiness to comply with the times for they imagin that their peoplewill be apt to suspect the truth of Christianity when they who are the chief Teachers of it discover any unconstancy in the most visible part of it which is Gods Publick Worship The apprehension therefore of doing that which might bring an open scandal to Religion prevailed upon some of the more conscientious Teachers of the Presbyterian and Independent parties to refuse Conformity to the reestablishment of the Church of England These seem to be more excusable than any of the rest because their care of Religion obliged them to refuse a compliance together with the mistakes of their Congregations for though they found nothing in the Government of the Church by Bishops and in the things enjoyned but what they could readily embrace as agreeing with Piety and good manners and the exactest Rules of Gods Holy Word yet because those whose Souls and Consciences they were to have a regard to in all their actions were prepossessed by the wickedness of former times with such invincible mistakes against this Church that they could not be persuaded out of them upon a sudden if all their Teachers had forsaken them at the alteration of the Government they might have indangered the interest of Religion in their Souls and given them strange prejudices against the Holiness and Purity of Christianity especially in these prophane days in which men are too apt to imagin it only a Politick Contrivance and the rather they would have entertained this wicked conceit of Gods Religion and Truth if their Teachers whom they looked upon as their Examples of Piety and men of great Learning for the most part should have entertained without any demur those very things which they or others but a few years before exclaimed against as impious and idolatrous and were generally believed to be so The People who commonly take things upon trust without giving themselves the time to examin their mistakes would have wondered to see men so unconstant in their behaviour so changeable for the present advantages of life to embrace such seeming impieties repugnant to their blinded Consciences Therefore they thought they could do no less than comply with their Peoples weakness rather than with the Authority of the Nation and chiefly because their People expressed a willingness to supply their necessities by their liberal contributions The Holy Apostles of our Saviour Christ seemed to have been in the same case after the preaching of the Gospel the Converted Jews were willing to embrace Christ and his Doctrine but the Laws of Moses they were not willing to forsake because they and their whole Nation had so great a Devotion for those Ceremonies which they looked upon to be perpetual and obligatory to their Nation in regard of Gods Covenant that they could not be induced to neglect them though Christ and his Apostles had shewed them the intent of them all which was but to keep them in expectation of their Saviours coming and the Revelation of the Gospel Mysteries But when the Apostles saw no possibility of drawing the Jews from their Mosaical Observances they connived at them who embraced Christianity and took that course which might further their acceptance of Christs Religion So far were they from dissuading them from it that they themselves yielded to all such observances that they might not seandalize the rest though they were fully acquainted with their insignificancy By this compliance with the Nations mistakes and the Peoples weakness which they were resolved to continue till Christianity had gained a sufficient credit amongst them they minded two things First The avoiding of all Controversies and dissensions which might have risen to disturb the Publick Welfare from the Pharisees extraordinary Devotion for their Law Secondly The taking away of that which would have proved the greatest obstacle amongst the Jews to the progress of Christs Religion if its first reception had commanded them to forsake Moses and his Ordinances by which the Priestly Order was maintained in its splendor But for the better encouragement of Christians they suffered Moses to usher in Christ and the People to profess Judaism and Christianity together before they would venture to call them away from those carnal Ceremonies which ended at Christs Death and Passion In process of time St. Paul to the Hebrews shews them their emptiness and insignificancy and advises them at last to leave the shadows seeing they enjoyed the Substance and the Body I could heartily wish that as many of the Learned and Conscientious Teachers as amongst our Non-Conforming Brethren have imitated the Apostles in their compliance with the peoples weakness for the avoiding of Scandal and Religions sake would now at last imitate them in their second endeavors to undeceive their people now that they are all so well acquainted with us and our worship by several Disputations that none but those whose Eyes are wilfully shut can conceive any such uncharitable opinion of us That we are Popish and Superstitious in the Service of God Now that they all see that the Pope creeps not in amongst them under our white Surplices and is not hidden under our supposed Altars nor that our Religious Prayers usher not in the Antichristian Mass Now that the Holiness of our Religion the significancy of our Ceremonies the Integrity of our Laws In a word the Excellency of our Church Order and Worship are visible to all the Nation It would become the Wisdom and Christianity of those Learned and Wise Teachers of the Presbyterian and Independent parties to perfect what is already begun and to encourage an union with us The same care of Religion which obliged them first to comply with their Peoples mistakes calls them now to persuade them out of them lest these mistakes should gangrene in their Souls through their encouragement and turn to the subversion of our Church and the Protestant Religion in this Nation I am certain that now Christianity and the Souls of these men are in greater danger through your compliance with them my reverend Brethren than they would be if you did gently deal with them to shew them the lawfulness of our practices and worship and persuade them by word and deed to joyn with the approved forms and established Service of God in this Nation For now their obstinacy is no longer weakness but wilfulness no longer Conscience but Resolution and Aversion You know sufficiently how dangerous it is to nourish them up in an abhorrency of Truth and to encourage them in a displeasure against the Professors of it You know how contrary to the blessed disposition of