The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…

XV. We renounce the opinion of them that hold, that circa sacra, the King hath no power to command▪ us circumstances of worship. And that if the King by his Law or Mandate impose on the several Churches, One Translation of the Scripture, one Version of the Psalms, one Lecture day or hour, &c. and the Bishop another, that we must obey our Diocesan rather than the King.

XV. We renounce the opinion of them that hold, that circa sacra, the King hath no power to command▪ us circumstances of worship. And that if the King by his Law or Mandate impose on the several Churches, One Translation of the Scripture, one Version of the Psalms, one Lecture day or hour, &c. and the Bishop another, that we must obey our Diocesane rather than the King.

XVI. We renounce their opinion who hold that the Act of Uniformity, and such other Laws as are made about Church matters, especially such as impose the 39 Articles of Religion, the Subscriptions, Declarations, Oaths and Practices, are to be esteemed by our Consciences, but as Laws of the Church, or Clergy confirmed by King and Parliament, and that the Church men are the proper expositors of them; And that out of the sitting of the Convocation, it is the Bishops that must give us the sense which our Consciences must follow: For we believe that the Law-makers are the only expositors of their own Law, by an exposition commonly obligatory to the Subject, and the several Judges are the expositors for the decision of such particular causes as belong to their Courts; and that if Bishops, or Convocation should put a wrong sense on such Oaths and subscriptions,¹ we may not take them in their sense, and that if they should expound our 39 Articles as Franc[…]a Sancta Clara did, we may not take them in that sense, nor may they so change the Protestant Religion, by changing the sense and keeping the words.

XVI. We renounce their opinion who hold that the Act of Uniformity, and such other Laws as are made about Church matters, especially such as impose the 39 Articles of Religion, the Subscriptions, Declarations, Oaths and Practices, are to be esteemed by our Consciences, but as Laws of the Church, or Clergy confirmed by King and Parliament, and that the Church men are the proper expositors of them; And that out of the sitting of the Convocation, it is the Bishops that must give us the sence which our Consciences must follow: For we believe that the Law-makers are the only expositors of their own Law, by an exposition commonly obligatory to the Subject, and the several Judges are the expositors for the decision of such particular causes as belong to their Courts; and that if Bishops, or Convocation should put a wrong sence on such Oaths and subscriptions,