Catholic communion defended against both extremes, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ...…Catholick communion defended against both extreams, and unnecessary division confuted in five parts ...…

Ans. A culpable erring judgment entangleth a man in sin, whether he follow it or not: And there is no possibility of avoiding the sin, but by using God's helps till his judgment be set right. For Conscience is not the Maker of the Law, but the Discerner of it: And the Law-maker changeth not his Law, because men change their thoughts of it. But while men are under a self-made necessity of sinning, the lesser sin and the greater may be distinguished, e. g. If you mis-judg it unlawful to keep a Saints day holy, to eat Flesh on Fridays, to use a Cross as a sign of Christianity, it is a greater sin to do these, than to omit them: But if you judg it unlawful to pray, or hear God's Word, or worship him, or to feed your self or children, your error is the aggravation, and no extenuation of the sin. And if you think it a duty to keep a Fast once a week, to wear a course garment, or to do any indifferent thing, it's a greater sin to omit them, than to do them: But if you take it to be a duty to lie, slander, steal, be drunk, murder, persecute, it aggravateth the sin, that both mind and practice are defiled with it.

4. I persuade no one to own the Ministry of an uncapable Person; viz. one utterly Insufficient, Heretical, or Malignant, who doth more harm than good. The Conformists own this Rule, while they silence so many, and tell men, that those that have not Ordination by Diocesans, are not to be communicated with, or owned as Ministers. Both sides then confess, that uncapable persons are not to be owned.

4. I perswade no one to own the Ministry of an uncapable Person; viz. one utterly Insufficient, Heretical, or Malignant, who doth more harm than good. The Conformists own this Rule, while they silence so many, and tell men, that those that have not Ordination by Diocesans, are not to be communicated with, or owned as Ministers. Both sides then confess, that uncapable persons are not to be owned.