Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an…

Conscience, and fear of sinning, and of damnation, is the mortal enemy to be conquered or driven out of the Land; as if there were no quietness to be expected in mens minds, no concord in the Church, no obedience to the Clergy, or the Laws, no safety from Sedition, till Conscience be silenced or banished, and men give over fearing God; or as if Christ and Caesar could not both reign, but God or Princes must be dethroned.

And O that the sacred Tribe were innocent, and none of them were the leaders in such hypocritical malignity! Their Canons ipso facto excommunicate all (not excepting Princes, Parliaments or Judges) that do but say, that any of their Ceremonies, Liturgy, or Officers in Church Government, (not excepting the lowest or Lay-mens power of the Church Keys by decreeing Excommunications and Absolutions) are repugnant to the Word of God: And when they have ipso facto Excommunicated ⟨p. 7⟩them all, they call them Separatists for not coming to their Communion: Think not the contradiction and hypocrisy incredible: read but the 5, 6, 7, and 8. Canons, and judge. They have a Law, and by their Law he is cut off from the Church or Christ, that doth but call any of these the Inventions of Prelates, sinful, or say that God forbids them; And the Jail must be his dwelling till he die there, who in ten cases remaineth Excommunicate, and doth not openly profess that he repenteth, and judgeth that to be sinless, which he is utterly unable so to judge. When we have preached seven and seven years, to persuade a Drunkard, a Liar, and Profane swearer, an Atheist, to Repent, he liveth quietly out of the Jail though he repent not: But if a man repent not (when he cannot) of judging that God forbids such humane inventions and impositions in Religion, take him Jailer; He that will not be for our humane Offices, Ceremonies and Impositions, shall not be of our Church; And when we have cast him out, we'll say, He separateth: and if he be not of our Church, he shall be in Jail; As if the Church and the Jail, would hold all the land, except his sin be such a Peccadillo as Atheism, Sadduceism, Bestiality, Hobbism, Popery, Man-slaughter, Adultery, Drunkenness, Swearing, &c. not aggravated by the crimes of breaking the ⟨p. 8⟩