An humble apology for non-conformists with modest and serious reflections on the Friendly debate…

Answ. Perhaps though he had not read it all over, he might have read some of it, and liked not the taste of it. But I put him, (if such a one there was) with those hundreds that subscribed and gave their Assent and Consent to it, and to all and every thing contained therein, before ever they had seen the Book Authorised by Parliament; it being at that time, if printed, yet not sent down into the several Dioceses where they were to testify their approbation of it.

Answ. Perhaps though he had not read it all over, he might have read some of it, and liked not the taste of it. But I put him, (if such a one there was) with those hundreds that subscribed and gave their Assent and Consent to it, and to all and every thing contained therein, before ever they had seen the Book Authorised by Parliament; it being at that time, if printed, yet not sent down into the several Diocesses where they were to testifie their approbation of it.

Quest. Are not Nonconformists a sour and sad sort of Christians, a Generation not at all Sanguine , of Melancholy Tempers, morose, and but bad Companions?

Quest. Are not Nonconformists a sowr and sad sort of Christians, a Generation not at all Sanguine , of Melancholy Tempers, morose, and but bad Companions?

Answ. They are not all so, nor always so, and some of them not at all so: and as good Friends and Companions as the World hath any. The Fogs and Damps are in the lower part of the Air and Earth, and the Clouds are in the middle Region; all is pure and serene, and always so, in the upper Region. Christians of the lower ⟨p. 95⟩Form, Conformists or Nonconformists, are liable oft-times to be under Darkness, and under the power of Melancholy for a time: Yet as they advance higher, the Weather is clearer with them; and ordinarily the more perfect Christian, the more ful Christian. Yet this may be said for weeping Christians, they may have Joy in their Hearts, when there are Tears in their Eyes; is the Sun sometimes shines whilst it rains. David, one of the greatest Mourners in Israel, witness his watering his Couch with his Tears, &c. was yet the sweet Singer of Israel. Heaviness endures for a Night, and Joy comes in the Morning. And though Christians sometimes deny themselves, yet God doth never deny them any lawful Delight; not did God ever make Godly Sorrow to destroy mens Bodies (though to help towards the Salvation of their Souls) I have heard that Old Mr. Dod observed, That if Godly Sorrow should have killed any man, it might have most probably been Adam, (the first and none of the least Sinners) because of his Apostasy from God, and Fall from Happiness, he and his Posterity; yet he lived 930 years.