t truly fear the name of God?
Secondly, He supposeth that, when non-conforming ministers are thrust out,
the ordinary means of faith and salvation are not dispensed (to the
comfort and contentment of such as truly fear the name of God) by those
conforming ministers, who are surrogate in their stead which, how his
fellows will take with, let them look to it. 3. Forasmuch as the fear of
God is to depart from evil, therefore such an one as doth truly fear the
name of God, in so far as he doth fear the name of God, and _quatenus_, he
is such an one, will never take well with the practice of inconvenient
ceremonies, which is not a parting from, but a cleaving unto evil. 4. They
who truly fear the name of God, are indeed scandalised by the prelates'
depriving of ministers for refusing to conform; but by the ministers'
suffering of deprivation for this cause, they are not scandalised but
edified. But, _Fifthly_, saith Mr Sprint, it offendeth the magistrate, by
provoking him (persuaded and resolved as he is) to disgrace these
otherwise well-deserving ministers, and to strike them with the sword of
authority. _Ans._ Our refusal to conform to inconvenient ceremonies being
a necessary duty, if the magistrate be provoked therewith, we are
blameless; neither can it any otherwise provoke him to disgrace those
well-deserving ministers, than Moses' seeking of liberty for Israel to go
and serve God according to his will, provoked Pharaoh the more to oppress
them; or than Christ's preaching of the truth, and his abstaining from the
superstitious ceremonies of the Pharisees, provoked them to disgrace him,
and plot his hurt. Howbeit we are not ignorant that the magistrate is not
provoked by our refusing to conform, except as it is misreported,
misdeemed, and misconstructed to him by the false calumnies of our
adversaries, which being so, he is not incited by our deed, but by theirs.

_Sect._ 5. Now, _Sixthly_, saith Mr Sprint, it unjustly condemneth the
harmony of all true churches that ever were primitive and reformed, and
all sound teachers of all times and places, whose universal doctrine it
hath been, that conformity to inconvenient ceremonies is necessary, in
case of deprivation. _Ans._ That the ceremonies practised by the apostles
and apostolic churches were not inconvenient, it hath been already showed;
that since their times, sundry churches, both ancient and reformed, have
practised inconvenient ceremonies, we deny not: yet Mr Sprin