Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and…

But it may be this will not prevail, wherefore in the fifth place, whatsoever a man holds, though his conscience be never so much taken with it, yet if it cannot stand with the power of godliness, but destroys it, if this man be in a Christian society after all means used to reduce him, if he still perseveres in it, he is, notwithstanding his conscience, to be cast out of the society of the Saints; this is not a little matter, if a man hath any conscience in him, it cannot but be a dreadful thing to him: If poison be got into a glass, and you cannot wash it out, the poison and glass too is to be thrown into the sink: Such a man as this is, with the conscience that he hath, is to be thrown upon the dung-hill. If a man by his wickedness cuts himself off from the mystical body of Christ, the Church may cut him off from his visible, he hath forfeited his Church-priviledger.

But it may be this will not prevail, wherefore in the fifth place, whatsoever a man holds, though his conscience be never so much taken with it, yet if it cannot stand with the power of godliness, but destroys it, if this man be in a Christian society after all means used to reduce him, if he still perseveres in it, he is, notwithstanding his conscience, to be cast out of the society of the Saints; this is not a little matter, if a man hath any conscience in him, it cannot but be a dreadfull thing to him: If poyson be got into a glass, and you cannot wash it out, the poyson and glass too is to be thrown into the sinck: Such a man as this is, with the conscience that he hath, is to be thrown upon the dung-hill. If a man by his wickedness cuts himself off from the mysticall body of Christ, the Church may cut him off from his visible, he hath forfeited his Church-priviledger.

Sixthly, If the error with the profession of it be destructive to the State, and he cannot be reclaimed, he may likewise be cut off from it, or at least deprived of the privileges of it, and benefits by it, notwithstanding his plea of conscience. This justifies the cutting off Jesuits and Priests, who teach people that the Crown is at the dispose of any foreign power, ⟨p. 35⟩