A serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the Protestant religion and Church of England with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all English Protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the Kingdom.

Conclusion.

I Have now adventured to stretch forth my hand to stay the tottering of the Ark, and to cast in my Mite to the publick Treasury for the service of the Church, which I hope God and Good men will ac∣cept of.

Of what efficacy the foregoing Conside∣rations shall be, is at the mercy of the Reader. But if it please Almighty God to give him such candour and so unprejudi∣cate a mind in the reading, as I call him to witness I have been sensible of in the writing, I do not then despair but they will prevail with all Englishmen that love the Protestant Religion better than their own humour, to Conform to the Church

and Laws establisht; or at least that they shall seem of such weight, as that a few scruples shall not be thought a counter-bal∣lance to them.

Yet the more to assure this so desirable an Issue, I will crave leave for a Conclu∣sion, humbly to recommend these follow∣ing particulars.

1. That all those that are zealous of the honour and interest of the Church of En∣gland, will (the more effectually to de∣monstrate the excellency of it, and to stop the mouth of slander,) oblige themselves to a singular holiness of life. Let us be ashamed that since we pretend to have, and have really, a better way of Religion, not to have so much better Lives as we have better Principles. Let us disdain that any petty Sect whatsoever should outgo us in that which is the great end of Church Society. When those that bring prejudice to our publick Worship, reproach it as a cold Service, Let us labour to have our hearts invigorated with such a sense of De∣votion by it, as may not only consute the slander, but maintain a spiritual heat

and life of Godliness in all our conversati∣on. For let us assure our selves, this is that the credit of any Profession depends upon, when we have used all the Argu∣ments, and the best Vindications of our selves and our Church, it is Holiness of life is the best and most prevalent Apo∣logy.

2. That since for the bringing others to Conformity, we must perswade them to for go some part of their natural Liberties, foras∣much as otherwise they can come under no Government whatsoever, but must be ei∣ther Outlaws or absolute Princes: To the end, I say, that we may prevail with them to deny themselves in some things for the publick good, we should do well to give them example in our own self-denyal and abridging our own liberty in conde∣scension to them in such things as are not the matter of Law. And that we will not outrun the Laws to contradict and vex them, but comply with them in what we may without sin. This is that Charity and avoiding Scandal the Apostle so earnestly recommends, of which I have spoken in the Considerations. And the consequence

is plain; If it be their duty to restrain themselves in the use of that Liberty God hath left them, in complyance with the Laws and Magistrate, and for the sake of pub∣lick Peace and Order; then it is our du∣ty to restrain our selves in the use of that Liberty the Laws of God and Man have left us, for the sake of the same Peace and in Charity to our Brethren. Besides that nothing works upon mens ingenuity like Cession and Yielding, and peculiar∣ly with Englishmen, as I have heretofore observed.

3. That we use no provocation or exa∣speration towards Dissenters, nor counte∣nance those inconsiderable persons that have no other way to shew their Zeal to the Church, but by reviling and vexing those that differ from it. It were good all Go∣vernours of the Church did (and I hope they do) imitate Memnon the General for Darius against Alexander, who when he found one of his Souldiers instead of Darts casting Scoffs at the Enemy, tells him, You are not entertained ut maledicas sed ut pugnes. For besides that this carri∣age where ever it is, is but counted a strong

argument of a weak Cause, it stirs up the mud of mens passions, clouds their under∣standings, and by representing men worse than they are, tempts them to be worse than they would be: And if I see I shall be alwayes nosed with my former Ignorance and folly, I am deprived of one of the greatest encouragements to forsake it.

4. Though I have as I hope sufficiently proved in the foregoing Discourse, that there is no absolute necessity of making any abatement of the Legal terms of Com∣munion with this Church, forasmuch as no∣thing is required or imposed by the Con∣stitution thereof, but what may be submit∣ted to without in; And therefore I will not be guilty of the presumption to pre∣scribe to my Superiours either one way or other in that matter: Yet I humbly sug∣gest, that if any such thing shall be thought fit to be done out of condescensi∣on to the Non-conformists, and to gain them to the Church, it may be done free∣ly and spontaneously, nor as extorted ei∣ther by their importunity or the necessity of affairs. For whatsoever is gotten the latter way, is not accounted yielded, but

won, nec amicos parat, nec inimicos tollit, it passes no obligation upon men, but ra∣ther incourages their importunity, and con∣firms their obstinacy. And there is no∣thing that wise men do or ought to re∣sent more, than the miscarriage of their favours, since thereby they lose not on∣ly what they grant, but their reputati∣on too.

The Council of Trent therefore would hearken to no terms nor Propositions on the behalf of the Protestants, lest they should by some few drops of Concession, increase their thirst of more. But had they had as much of the innocency of the Dove as of the subtilty of the Serpent, or been as sincere as they were wise in their generation, they should have prevented all importunities by a liberal Grant of what was fit and just, and by such an act of Goodness and Charity they might either have wrought upon the ingenuity and mo∣derated the heat of the other Party, or at least, having done what became them, they should then have had good ground perempto∣rily to have refused whatsoever should have been arrogantly demanded. But they (as

I have said) wisely enough in their way, considering that if they once came to ac∣knowledge any thing due to the Protestants, must be forced upon the same terms to yield them more than they were willing to part with, and indeed little less than the whole, resolved therefore to yield no∣thing at all.

But as the case of our Church is not like theirs, so there is no necessity we should make use of the same Politicks; for where there is nothing sinful in the Con∣stitution, nothing can be required to be abated but upon the terms of Prudence and Compassion; and if it shall happen that those Arguments be thought fit to be heard, it is great pitty in that case that the resolution should not be so carried, as that it may be evident to all, that those causes only had influence upon the effect.

If these things be considered by those that favour the Church, and the foregoing Considerations be impartially weighed by the Protestant Dissenters from it, I for my part shall conceive good hope that the

Clergy of England shall recover its anti∣ent and due Veneration, our Churches be better filled than the Conventicles, a blessed Symphony in our publick Prayers, and an Universal Peace, Love and Good∣will be restored in this divided and distra∣cted Church and Nation. Which God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c.

FINIS.