There need be no doubt that he preferred republican government to hereditary monarchy, and religious toleration (within an exceedingly loose Erastian establishment organized along congregationalist lines) to the species of enforced uniformity and discipline sought variously by Anglican Royalists and Presbyterian divines.

The presence in Coornhert's Netherlands of Anabaptists, Arminians, Calvinists, Catholics, Erastians, Gomarists, Libertines, Lutherans, Mennonites, Nicodemites, Remonstrants, Sacramentarians, and Zwinglians indicates not only the freedom of religion created by the revolt against Rome but also the potential for seething sectarian disputes.

This conflict between the visible and invisible communication of grace is not exclusive to Hooker, of course, but it does become for him an issue connected with his erastian tendencies: "It must be confessed that of Christ, working as a Creator, and a Governor of the world by providence, all are partakers; not all partakers of that grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he saveth" (2:232).