44. A diversity of such circumstances and indifferent modes in divers Churches or Parishes, and sometimes in the same Church, is no such dreadful mischief as some frightful Pastors would make themselves or others believe: much less to be compared with the consequents of unnecessary impositions. What harm is it if one Parish or Pastor use one Liturgic form or ceremony, and another use another, (so that neither of them be evil) any more than that now one Minister in the Pulpit useth one prayer, one Sermon, one method, and another useth another: Our Cathedrals and our Parish Churches have great difference of such modes, without any such mischiefs: And now one Parish Minister prayeth in the Pulpit, and another only biddeth Prayer (and pleadeth for it as the principal way): And one that prayeth in the Pulpit useth his own words, and another doth it in the words of the Liturgy: One useth a form (the same ordinarily) and another varieth according to the matter of his Sermon ⟨p. 159⟩and the occasion: One Minister preacheth Arminianism, (in the points of free-will, effectual grace predestination, Redemption, and perseverance); And another preacheth zealously against it, as a dangerous sort of error: One is for the morality of the fourth commandment, and another against it. One thinketh that the Lords day is of Ecclesiastical institution (and perhaps mutable) and another that it is of Divine institution. Bishop Tailor writeth against Original sin, and Bishop Warner, for it. Doctor Gunning writeth for the Religious observation of Lent, and Doctor More for the Civil only. One sitteth at the singing of a Psalm, and another standeth and another kneeleth (and so at Sermon): One boweth only at the name of Jesus; another boweth also at the name [Christ] and [God] &c. One standeth up at the Reading of the Psalms, and not at the singing of the same Psalms; another sitteth at both, and a third standeth up at both: One thinketh Episcopacy to be of Divine institution; and another thinketh that it is but of humane, and God hath instituted no form of Church Government (as Doctor Stillingfleet, Bishop Reignolds and others think). The Canons of 1640. which set up Altars and Rails, and bowing towards the Altar, leave it indifferent, advising dissenters not to despise or censure one another:
44. A diversity of such circumstances and indifferent modes in divers Churches or Parishes, and sometimes in the same Church, is no such dreadful mischief as some frightful Pastors would make themselves or others believe: much less to be compared with the consequents of unnecessary impositions. What harm is it if one Parish or Pastor use one Liturgick form or ceremony, and another use another, (so that neither of them be evil) any more than that now one Minister in the Pulpit useth one prayer, one Sermon, one method, and another useth another: Our Cathedrals and our Parish Churches have great difference of such modes, without any such mischiefs: And now one Parish Minister prayeth in the Pulpit, and another only biddeth Prayer (and pleadeth for it as the principal way): And one that prayeth in the Pulpit useth his own words, and another doth it in the words of the Liturgy: One useth a form (the same ordinarily) and another varieth according to the matter of his Sermon ⟨p. 159⟩and the occasion: One Minister preacheth Arminianism, (in the points of free-will, effectual grace predestination, Redemption, and perseverance); And another preacheth zealously against it, as a dangerous sort of error: One is for the morality of the fourth commandement, and another against it. One thinketh that the Lords day is of Ecclesiastical institution (and perhaps mutable) and another that it is of Divine institution. Bishop Tailor writeth against Original sin, and Bishop Warner, for it. Doctor Gunning writeth for the Religious observation of Lent, and Doctor More for the Civil only. One sitteth at the singing of a Psalm, and another standeth and another kneeleth (and so at Sermon): One boweth only at the name of Jesus; another boweth also at the name [Christ] and [God] &c. One standeth up at the Reading of the Psalms, and not at the singing of the same Psalms; another sitteth at both, and a third standeth up at both: One thinketh Episcopacy to be of Divine institution; and another thinketh that it is but of humane, and God hath instituted no form of Church Government (as Doctor Stillingfleet, Bishop Reignolds and others think). The Canons of 1640. which set up Altars and Rails, and bowing towards the Altar, leave it indifferent, advising dissenters not to despise or censure one another:
