The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…

VII. It would be an unexcusable Sin in such a one as I, who live not in another Age, Land, or Place, where the Imposers sense could not be known, but in the same Age, and Place, and have had so many Personal Treaties with the Bishops and the Lord Chancellor Hide, who were the chief promoters of the Impositions, and who know so many of the Parliament and Convocation that made these Forms, and have had so great and satisfactory testimony of their Minds and ⟨p. 133⟩Meanings, and their Speeches and Reasons in Parliament upon these subjects; and am fully satisfied in my Conscience, that you satisfy their meaning. It is not the sense of any Bishops that came in since that Act was made, nor of any odd Person that is to pass for the Law-makers sense.

VII. It would be an unexcusable Sin in such a one as I, who live not in another Age, Land, or Place, where the Imposers sense could not be known, but in the same Age, and Place, and have had so many Personal Treaties with the Bishops and the Lord Chancellor Hide, who were the chief promoters of the Impositions, and who know so many of the Parliament and Convocation that made these Forms, and have had so great and satisfactory testimony of their Minds and ⟨p. 133⟩Meanings, and their Speeches and Reasons in Parliament upon these subjects; and am fully satisfied in my Conscience, that you satisfie their meaning. It is not the sense of any Bishops that came in since that Act was made, nor of any odd Person that is to pass for the Law-makers sense.

VIII. People commonly think that Preachers should be so much more holy than they, that if they come but near us they are safe. And therefore if we stretch Oaths and Covenants, they may do that, and such as they count lesser Sins than Perjury; and so we may harden them to Damnation.