The Preface. On Suppofïtion of this certain truth, all that ever Iyet read that Condemn the 11Zonconformiits , and Preachfor their Re- proach and Ruine, do confefr, that if any one thing required of us as neceflary to our Miniftry or Communion be Sin, our Nonconformity is but our Duty ; and all the whole Miniftry of England, on whom this was impofed by the A& of Uniformity on Bartholomew-Day, 1662. were bound in Confcience to have been Nonconformifis : (Whether al fo to bave all ceafed to Preach the Gofpel, I leave to their Confide- ration.) This being the Confeffion of all that Silence us, and fend us to Gaols , and call out for our utter Extirpation, I know no fborter or likelier way , to flop all this burning Wrath ,. and end our Mifchievous Diffentions , than to try whether no one thing required of us be Sin. Forty of the things required of Miniflers, and Twelve of thofe required of the Laity, in all Fifty two, I have propofed to Examination, not as accufing the Laws or the Conformtabs, whatever I think of them; but only rendering briefly the Reafons of our own refu- fals. And Forty three Points in which many fafy fuppofe we Conform not (andfame may perhaps be found that do not Con- form to them all) I have fir.kf inflanced in, as being fuch as we oppofe not, nor are any Tarts ofour Nonconformity. If all the 7uflices and Minifiers of England , who cen -lure us, and profecute us ass intolerable Sinners, for our fear- ing thefe as Sin, have impartially tryed all thefe Points, and Reafons, or yet will do , and can find no Sin in any one of the Fifty two , and it trove fo indeed, I mu.i fay that all theTwo Thoufand 1Vlinifers that in 1662. were Silenced, were as un- happy and firangely blinded Men, as moft in the World that are true Chri.kians ; that after all their Study and Prayers, they fbould affright themfelves into fo calamitous a State, again.b all the reafon'of their Worldly Intere. fs, as well ass againik the welfare of the Church, and their Duty to God : 2. But 1 muii fay , pab doubt, that the accufing Clergy are deeply guilty of it, who thefe Twenty one years have ne better anfwered
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=