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

Answ. I humbly conceive not. And there are thousands of good Subjects, and good Christians (many of them good Sons and Daughters of the Church of England) who did eat Flesh last Lent, or last Friday, asking no Question for Conscience-sake, in reference to any penal Law or Statute in that Case; and who have not scrupled to bury their Dead in Linen, though contrary to a late Act of Parliament. And if you lay so great a Burden upon every breach of a penal Statute, how shall the Carrier long keep his Cart on Wheels, or the Citizen long stand on his Legs for want of Trading, by reason of an Act of Parliament requiring the Tire of the Wheels to be four Inches wide, under the penalty of forty Shillings for each offence?

Answ. I humbly conceive not. And there are thousands of good Subjects, and good Christians (many of them good Sons and Daughters of the Church of England) who did eat Flesh last Lent, or last Fryday, asking no Question for Conscience-sake, in reference to any penal Law or Statute in that Case; and who have not scrupled to bury their Dead in Linen, though contrary to a late Act of Parliament. And if you lay so great a Burthen upon every breach of a penal Statute, how shall the Carrier long keep his Cart on Wheels, or the Citizen long stand on his Legs for want of Trading, by reason of an Act of Parliament requiring the Tire of the Wheels to be four Inches wide, under the penalty of forty Shillings for each offence?

Quest. Is it not therefore enough to satisfy the Law to pay the Mulct or Penalty required in such Cases? (Vide Contin. pag. 22.)

Quest. Is it not therefore enough to satisfie the Law to pay the Mulct or Penalty required in such Cases? (Vide Contin. pag. 22.)

Answ. Mr. Perkins, famous both at Home and Abroad, for his great Piety and Learning, hath amongst his Cases of Conscience, this Case: Whether Students in Colleges, and Members of Corporations, are tied to observance of their Local Statutes, under pain of Perjury? In resolving whereof, he hath something useful, and pertinent to our purpose: He saith, That Statutes are of two sorts, Principal and Fundamental, or less principal; the first sort, belonging to the Being of the Society, are necessary to be kept under pain of Perjury: As