(430) punifhed, with paying twelve pence a day &c. 1 fhould, corn: paratively, fcarce have blamed them : For it had been but to make Minifers fareharder, or live poorlier, or work for their livings, or to pay their penalties and the Church might fill have had their labours : but to filence and fufpend them, and that when there werenobetter to fupply the room (then fuch as were put in,) this was topunifh the ChurchofChrift, and the fouls ofmen (and that with everlafling punifhment) for the (real or fuppofed) faults of the particular minifters : which was not juft. § 3. object. But (faith the Preface to thecommon prayer- book) though the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it felf con - fidered,be but a final thing; yet the %vilfiell and contemptuous tranfgreon andbreaking ofas common order and difcipline, ii no fmalloffence before God. §. 4. Anfw. r. You fhould therefore put no fuck fnares on men byyour commands, as to impofe upon them needlefs things, when you think the penalty ofdifobeying you will bedamnation. 2. But howcame you to fee into theheartsofmen, that their non. conformity is wilfull andcontemptuous ? when they them- felves profefs that they would obey you if they durft.Theythink they fand at the brinkof Hell, and fhould wilfully fin againft God ifthey did obey you: and you come behind them, with filencingand imprifonment, and drive themon, while they cry out to you for compaffion, and proteft that they are ready to obey as far as theycan fee the lawfulnefs of the thing': and yet you fay, its wiifulnefs and contempt. 3. And why cloth not your Laws except from punifhment all thofe that conform- ed not, that were not wilful/1 or contemptuous ? The A& for conformity makes the penalty to be Imprifonment half a year for the firft fault : ayear for the fecond, and during life for the third, befidedeprivation : and Imprifonment during lifefor the fecond offence, if theperfon have noBenefice : and this is betides the Ecclefiaftical cenfure. 4. Iftheworkof Church Governors be to make fmall matters great, and make that damnable that before was lawful!, and this without any neceffity at all, it will tempt the people to think fuch Governors to be the plaguesof the earth. . 5. I confers it is lawfull for me to wear a Helmeton my - head
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