into Hypocrisie It may be whilst you are contending against those fleshly Inclinations by which you have formerly been captivated your Hearts will begin to swell with an over-weening Conceit of your own Vertue and Godliness and as a Consequence of that to entertain contemptuous and censorious Thoughts of your Brethren beware now that whilst you are struggling with your old fleshly Lusts you do not overlook these little Defects and Indecencies of your Nature lest while you are conquering one Sort of sins you be captivated by another For if you do not take care to nip them in their Buds and to check these little Essays and Beginnings of them they will soon spring up into Habits of Pride and Insolence Rancour and Vncharitableness and so your Warfare against Sin will be only a Transition from one Evil into another from the Pollutions of the Flesh into the Pollutions of the Spirit and from the Nature of Beasts into the Nature of Devils Wherefore if you would be finally successful in the Christian Warfare you must take great Care that while you are contending with the grosser and more inveterate Vices of your Nature you do not neglect its lesser Defects and Irregularities for whilst they are lesser they may be easily corrected but if they are not they will soon grow greater and in the End prove as dangerous as those you are now contending with For every Vice is small in the Beginning and easie to be cured but if it be neglected like a Scratch in the Flesh it will corrupt and rancle into a spreading Gangreen V. TO our Perseverance to the End in this our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that so far as lawfully we can we should live in close Communion with the Church whereof we are Members 'T is true a particular Church may be so corrupted as that its Members may be obliged to disunite themselves from it For every man is obliged by Vertue of his being in any Society not to agree to any thing which tends to the apparent Ruine of it Now the main End of Christian Society being the Honour of God and the Salvation of Souls every man that enters into it is thereby obliged in his own Station to advance this End and consequently as to join in all Acts of the Christian Society he is united to so far as they tend thereunto so to refuse all such Acts of that Society if any such should be injoyned as do apparently oppose and are directly repugnant to it So that if any Act that is apparently sinful be injoyn'd by the particular Church whereof I am a Member as a necessary Condition of my Communion with her I am bound to abstain from it for the sake of the General End of Christian Society As for Instance suppose the Church whereof I am a Member require it as a Condition of my Communion that I should transgress any just Law of the Commonwealth whereof I am a Subject in this Case I am bound rather to desert that Churches Communion than live in wilful Disobedience to the Civil Authority And this is the Case of those men who though they live in a Christian Commonwealth have been Baptized into and bred up in the Communion of particular Congregations that contrary to Law have separated themselves from the Establisht National Church for if in this national Church there be nothing imposed on them by the Laws of the Commonwealth that is apparently contradictory to the Laws of Christ they are bound in Conscience to desert those separate Congregations allowing them to be true Churches and to join themselves with the Church National and if they do not they are wilful Offenders against the Law of Christ which requires us to obey all humane Ordinances for the Lords sake And again supposing one National Church to be subject to another that which is subject is bound to refuse the Communion of that which is superior if it cannot injoy it without complying with Impositions that are apparently sinful Which is evidently the Case between us and the Church of Rome supposing that de jure we were once her Subjects and Members for had we been so we should doubtless never have separated our selves from her could we but have separated her Sins from her Communion could we have profest her Creed without implicitly believing all her Cheats and Impostures or submitted our selves to her Guides without apparent Danger of being misled by them into the pit of Destruction or joyn'd with her publick Services without worshipping of Creatures or received her Sacraments without practising the grossest Superstitions and Idolatries But when she had made it necessary for us either to sin with or separate from her we could have no other honest Remedy but only to withdraw and if in this our Separation there had been a sinful Schism on either side we could have appealed to Heaven and Earth whose the Guilt of it was their 's that forced us upon it or ours that were forced to it But yet the Case of our Separation from the Church of Rome is vastly different from that of the Separation of private Members from their own particular Churches For we affirm that the Church of Rome is but a particular Church whose Authority extends no farther than to its own native Members and consequently hath no more Power to impose Laws of Communion upon us than we have upon her our particular Church being altogether as distinct and independent from her as she is from ours So that though the Terms of Communion she imposes upon her own Members were all of them lawful and innocent yet do they no more oblige us as we are Christians of the Church of England than the lawful Commands of the Great Mogul do as we are Subjects of the Kingdom of England BUT the Case of private members whither of ours or any other particular Church is vastly different For if we will allow particular Churches to be so many formed Societies of Christians as we must do or else degrade them into so many confused multitudes we must necessarily allow them to have a just Authority even as all other formed Societies have over their own Members And that they have so is evident not only from the Nature of the thing but also from Scripture where the Bishops and Pastors of particular Churches are said to be constituted by the Holy Ghost Overseers of their particular Flocks Acts xx 28 which word both in sacred and prophane Writ denotes a ruling Power And accordingly these Overseers are elsewhere call'd ruling-Elders Tim. i. 5.17 and the Subjects and Members of their Churches are required to obey them as those that have the Rule over them Heb. xiii 17 and elsewhere the Apostle exhorts them to know i. e. submissively to own the Authority of those that were over them in the Lord Thes. i. 5.12 By all which it 's evident that the Members of particular Churches are by divine Institution subjected to the Authority of their spiritual
without the least bandying or Controversie For though some of them do doubtless know much more than others yet there being no Intermixture of Error in the Knowledge of any it is impossible they should oppose or contradict one another because whatsoever is true agrees with every thing that is true And being thus united in Mind and Judgment they freely communicate their Thoughts without ever disputing one anothers Sentences which renders it impossible for them ever to quarrel or disagree So that all their Communion is a perfect Concord of Souls wherein there is no such thing as a Schism or Division as passing cruel Censures or affixing hard Names or bandying Anathema's at one another but in Mind and Heart they are all as perfectly one as if they were all animated by one and the same Soul And thus they live unspeakably happy in the mutual Exercise of an everlasting Peace and all their Conversation with one another is perfect Harmony without Discords IV. AS we are rational Creatures related to one another we are obliged modestly to submit to our Superiours and chearfully to condescend to our Inferiours in those respective Societies whereof we are Members These two I put together because they are Relatives and as such do mutually explain and contribute light to each other Now it being necessary to the Order and End of all Societies that their Members should be distinguished into superiour and inferiour Ranks and Stations that some should be trusted with the power of Commanding and others reduced to the condition of Obedience that so in this regular Subordination they may every one in their several stations be obliged to aid and assist each other and according to their several Capacities to contribute to the good of the Whole which in a state of Equality wherein every Man would be absolute Lord of himself cannot be expected considering the different Humours and Interests by which Men are acted this I say being upon this account necessary it is upon the same Reason equally necessary that they should mutually perform those Offices to one another which are proper to their respective Ranks and Stations That Superiours should look upon themselves as Trustees for the Publick Good who are entrusted with Authority over others not to domineer and gratifie their own imperious Wills but to provide for and secure the Common-weal and consequently to take care that they do not prostitute their Power to their own private Avarice or Ambition but that they employ it for the Common Good and Benefit of their Subjects and Inferiours that they be ready to do them all good Offices to compassionate their Infirmities consult their Conveniencies and comply with all their reasonable Supplications considering that for this End they derived their Authority from God who is the Fountain of Authority to whom they are accountable for their good and bad Administration of it And so for the Inferiours it is no less necessary for the Common Good that they perform their parts towards those that are above them that they behave themselves towards them with all that Loyalty and Modesty Respect and Submission which their Place and Authority calls for that they reverence them as the Vicegerents of God and address to them as to sacred Persons and render a chearful Obedience to that divine Authority that is stampt upon all their just Laws and Commands considering that in their several Degrees they represent the Person of the great Sovereign of the World to whom we owe an intire Subjection and consequently are in every thing to be obeyed and submitted to that he hath not expresly countermanded For that Subjects and Superiours should thus behave themselves towards one another is indispensably necessary to the Welfare of all Societies For whilst the Inferiours of any Society do obstinately refuse to submit to the Will of their Superiours and the Superiours to condescend to the Common Good of their Inferiours they are contending together either for a Confusion or a Tyranny and if the Superiours prevail Tyranny follows if the Inferiours Confusion either of which is extremely mischievous not only to the Society in general but to each of the contending Parties For if Confusion follows 't is not only the Superiour Party suffers by being deposed from its Authority but the Inferiour too by being deprived of Protection and exposed to one anothers Rapine and Violence and if Tyranny follows 't is not only the Inferiour Party suffers by being forced upon a rigorous and uneasie Obedience but the Superiour too by being continually perplexed how to force and extort that Obedience and thus both Parties suffer under the bad effects of each others Misdemeanour So that to make our Society happy it is necessary that whether we be Superiours or Inferiours we should be of a gentle yielding and treatable Temper that so which Rank soever we are placed in we may be pliable either way to a fair Condescension or a just Submission For whilst we are of obstinate perverse and untractable Tempers we are neither fit to be Superiours nor Inferiours but must necessarily be Plagues and Grievances to our Society which Rank or Order soever we are placed in And though in this life we have not always such a sensible Experience of the Evil and Mischief of this malignant Temper because now it is counter-influenced by those more meek and auspicious ones that are in Conjunction with it yet when we go into Eternity we shall be consigned to such a Society of Spirits as are all throughout of our own Genius and Temper For as in the Society of the Blessed there is a Conjunction of every Vertue in every Member so there is of every Vice in the Society of the Wicked who do not only retain those Vices in their Natures which they were here inclined and addicted to but are also continually excited to all other Vices they are capable of by their inveterate Enmity against God which in that miserable estate is perpetually enraged by their Despair of being ever reconciled to him So that whatsoever wicked Temper we carry with us into Eternity we shall be sure to meet with it in every individual Member of the Society of the Wicked and consequently if we carry thither with us a perverse and untreatable Temper that will not endure either to submit or condescend we shall be sure to find the same Humour reigning throughout all the Society of the Wicked And then being eternally united to it as we must expect to be if we are allied to it by Nature in what a miserable state shall we be when every Member of our Society shall be of the same unconversable Temper with our selves and we shall find none that will comply with or endeavour to sooth and mollifie our Obstinacy when all our whole Society shall consist of a Company of stiff and stubborn Spirits that will neither submit to nor bear with one another but every one will have his will upon every one so far as he is able
know is a Sin he refuses to do that which he knows is a Duty So that whether that which the Church imposes be lawful or no 't is apparent Rebellion in him to refuse it because for all that he knows it is lawful and though it should be unlawful yet that cannot be the Motive of his Non-compliance with it who doth not understand the Reasons that make it so He therefore that separates from the Communion of the Church for Causes that he cannot judg of must necessarily separate without Cause or Reason he can have neither true nor false Pretence for his Separation because the Arguments pro and con are beyond the Sphere of his Cognizance and consequently if he thereupon withdraw from the Churches Communion 't is not because he cannot comply with her sinful Impositions but because he will not submit to her just Authority Whereas by modestly submitting our Judgment to the Churches in Cases where we cannot judg for our selves we take an effectual Course to secure our Innocence For though that which the Church injoins us should be materially sinful yet to us who neither do nor can understand it to be so it will be imputed only as an innocent Error because by following the Churches Reason where own cannot guide us we take the best Course we can not to be mistaken and if we should be mistaken we have this to excuse us that 't was by following an Authority which God himself hath set over us whereas if we are mistaken on the other side we are left altogether inexcusable BUT then there may be other Conditions of Church Communion of whose unlawfulness a Communicant may be very doubtful though he be not confidently persuaded of it and what is to be done in this Case To which I answer First that 't is doubtless our Duty not Rashly to determin any thing to be false or unlawful which our spiritual Governors have determined to be true or lawful For we are bound by the Law of Christian Modesty to conclude that they having a larger Prospect of things than we and greater Advantages of enquiring into them are far more capable Judges of what is true and lawful and consequently though we may possibly have some little Probability that their Opinion is false or their Command unlawful yet we ought not to determin it so unless it be in such plain and evident Cases as do not only outweigh the Probability of their Opinions but the Authority of them to Wherefore in Cases of a doubtful Nature 't is both modest and safe to subscribe to the Judgment of our Superiors because in so doing we have not only our own Ignorance to excuse but their Authority to warrant us and if we should happen to be in the Wrong through our Modesty and Humility 't will be safer for us than to be in the Right through our Pride and Self-conceit But perhaps the Probability of our side may be so great or at least seem so to us that notwithstanding we give all due Respect and Deference to her Authority we cannot forbear doubting of the Lawfulness of her Conditions of Communion If so then Secondly 't is to be considered that 't is as much our Duty to Obey her Commands in things that are lawful as not to Obey them in things that are unlawful and therefore if we only doubt whether her Commands be lawful or no our Doubt ought to make us as fearful of disobeying as it doth of obeying them because the Danger of sinning is on both sides equal And therefore in this Case wherein I am necessitated to determin my self one way or t'other it is doubtless my Duty to determin on that side which makes most for the Churches Security and Peace which next to the Honour of God and the Salvation of Souls ought to be preferred above all things and which consequently if it be of any Weight with me must necessarily turn the Scale of my Choice when it is before in Aequilibrio and whither to obey or disobey be most for the Churches Peace is very easie to be determin'd THE Sum of all therefore is this that 't is our Duty to continue in strict Obedience to and Communion with that Particular Church whereof we are Members so long as it injoyns us nothing that is plainly and apparently sinful that if either we cannot judg of the Sinfulness or Lawfulness of her Conditions of Communion or do only doubt of their Lawfulness we are obliged to submit to her Judgment and Authority and not to separate from her till upon an impartial Enquiry into the Reasons of both sides we are fully convinced that they are sinful NOW that this is an indispensable Duty of our Religion is evident not only from the above-named Scriptures by which the Bishops of particular Churches are constituted the Overseers and Governours of them and the Subjects and Members of those Churches are required to yield them Obedience but also from those Texts which forbid Divisions in the particular Churches such as 1 Cor. i. 10 I beseech you by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that there be no divisions among you and which bid us mark them that cause divisions among us and avoid them Rom. xvi 17 and also which Schisms and Divisions to be Fruits of the flesh as particularly 1 Cor. iii. 3 and St. Jude xix and in a word which require us to indeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. iv 3 to be of one mind 2 Cor. xiii 11 and to stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind Phil. i. 27 all which was spoke to Christians as they were Members of particular Churches to oblige them by no means to dissent and separate from those Churches unless they were forced to it by just and manifest Reasons and methinks 't is a most pathetical Conjuration of the Apostle If there be any Consolution in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded being of one accord and of one mind 2 Phil. 1 2. which Exhortation he gives them as they were a particular Corporation of Christians under Epaphroditus their Head and Bishop by whom he sent this Epistle to them The sense of all which is to oblige us not to disunite our selves from the Church of which we are Members so long as we are permitted to continue in her Communion without doing any thing that is apparently unlawful Or if we suppose those Divisions which the Apostle speaks of and forbids to be meant of Factions within the Church without actual Separation then much more is Separation which is the highest Faction and Breach of Unity to be lookt upon as wicked and unlawful So that for men to separate from the Churches Communion upon little Piques uncertain Scruples and blind Prejudices is a very great and dangerous Sin against the Gospel 't is a manifest Violation of the Laws
of Vnion and an open Rebellion against Christs Authority in his Church And being so it is no Wonder that in the purest Ages of Christianity 't was branded with such an infamous Character For thus in the 31 Canon of the Apostles 't is called Ambition and Tyranny and condemned by Ignatius the Disciple of St. John as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Original of Evils Ep. ad smyrn as a Sin that shuts men out of the Kingdom of Heaven Ep. ad Philad and by the African Code 't is stiled a destructive sacrilegious Sin Con. Carth c. Can. 100. and St. Cyprian makes it to be more Heinous than the Sin of the Lapsi that offered Sacrifice to Idols to avoid persecution and to be such a Sin as martyrdom it self would not expiate de Vnit. Eccles. and Dionysius Alexandrinus affirms that to suffer martyrdom rather than make a Schism in the Church is as Glorious an Act as to die refusing to offer Sacrifice to Idols Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 6. And as they thus decry Schism so on the contrary they extol Union as the Nurse of Piety the Fence of Religion the Quintessence and Extract of all Christian Vertue AND indeed 't is to the Vnity of the members of the Church among themselves that the Scripture attributes their Growth and Emprovement in Piety and Vertue For thus the Apostle tells us not only that Charity or a mutual Agreement among Church-Members edifies 1 Cor. viii 1 but also assures us that the whole Church or Collection of Members becomes an holy Temple and an Habitation of God by being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compacted and closely united together in all its Parts Eph. ii 21 22. and Eph. iv 16 he tells us that the Church increases or improves unto the edifying it self in love by being closely compacted and united in all its parts and members and Col. ii 19 he tells us that 't is not only from its Vnion with Christ and those nourishing Influences that are thereby conveyed from him that the Church increases with the increase of God but also from its being knit together or firmly united in all its Parts And if Vnion be so necessary to the Growth and Perfection of the Church it can be no less necessary to the Improvement of each particular Member of it For 1. Schisms and unnecessary Breaches of Church Communion do naturally sour the Tempers of men and render them peevish and uncharitable towards one another For the separating Party must in their own Vindication be forced to accuse those they separate from of something that may be foul enough to justifie their Separation and what they want in Reality they must make up in Pretence otherwise they will be lookt upon as peevish and obstinate Schismaticks and then the Party they separate from will be sure to deem itself injured and in its own Defence be forced to recriminate and this will alarm the Separatists into greater Heats and Animosities and so like two Flints dash'd together they will be continually sparkling and spitting fire at one another till they have kindled the quarrel into an inquenchable Flame Whereas had the Dividers but continued their Communion all this might have been prevented and they might have easily continued their Charity though they had retain'd the Opinions upon which they separated For had they but exercised that Modesty and Goodness as not to prefer their own private Sentiments before the Reason and Peace of the whole Church they would either have kept their Opinions to themselves or at least not have advanced them into Principles of Separation and so by continuing in Communion with that Party of the Church from whom they dissented in Opinion they would have declared that they judged their Errors to be tolerable For by not separating from them they would have plainly manifested that they saw Reason enough to unite upon the score of those Points in which they were agreed but none to disunite upon the score of these in which they differed and consequently that they had a great deal of Reason to love but none to hate and persecute one another and whilst they mutually retain'd this good Opinion of one another 't is very unlikely that their little Differences should cause any great Breaches in their Charity Schism therefore being so destructive to our Charity which is one of the leading Vertues of our Religion must needs have a very malevolent Aspect upon our Perseverance For he that from a charitable Temper relapses into a spiteful and rancorous one is apostatised from one half of the Religion of a Christian and hath exchanged one of the fairest Graces of a Saint for one of the blackest Characters of a Devil But then 2. Schisms or unnecessary Breaches of Church Communion do naturally lead to the foulest Hypocrisies For he that separates from a Church is a very bad man if he hath not a great Opinion of and Zeal for those things upon which he separates which Zeal of his when once he is actually separated will be much more inflamed and that both by the Opposition of the Church he is separated from and the Instigation of the Sect he is separated to and so by Degrees that holy Fervour which should animate him in the plain and unquestionable Duties of Religion will blaze into a fierce Contention for those little Opinions that constitute the Sect he is ingaged in For our Nature being finite and limited in all its Operations it is impossible we should operate diverse ways at once with equal Force and Vigour but whatsoever Time and Attention we bestow upon one thing we must necessarily substract from another Now whilst we continue in a peaceable Communion with the Church we have no other use for our Zeal but to inspire our Devotions to quicken our Vertues and to fight against our Sins with it and this all men agree is the best Use it can be put to but when once we are entred into a schismatical Separation we shall find other Employment for it namely to quarrel at Ecclesiastical Constitutions to wrangle about Modes and Circumstances of Worship and contend for our trifling Speculations and Opinions Which must necessarily weaken it in its nobler Operations and render it more remiss and indifferent in the great and indispensible Duties of Religion and whilst 't is thus impertinently busied in picking Straws and contending about Mint and Cummin to be sure it must more or less neglect the great and weighty things of the Law and so proportionably as it grows warmer and warmer about little Opinions and Circumstances of Religion it will be continually waxing cooler and cooler in the necessary and essential Duties of it till at last 't is wholly degenerated into Peevishness and Faction and dwindled away into a fierce Contention about Trifles That this is the natural Effect of Schism appears by too many woful Experiments For how many Instances of men are there among our selves who had once an honest Zeal for the
Governors and obliged in all things to obey them wherein they are not countermanded by Christ himself So that though one particular Church may refuse the Impositions of another and that not only as they are sinful but as they are Impositions because the other hath no lawful Authority over it yet is it by no means lawful for the Subjects of any particular Church to disobey their Church-Governors in any lawful matter because being subjected to their Authority by Christ the supreme Head of the Church-Catholick they are obliged to submit to them as to his Substitutes and Vicegerents in every thing which he hath not antecedently prohibited And if rather than do so they shall choose to revolt from the Communion of their Church they are Schismaticks or which is the same thing they are Rebels to Christs Authority in that particular Church they Revolt from For what Faction is in the State that is Schism in the Church viz. an unjust Opposition to Authority the one to Christs civil Authority derived upon our Magistrates the other to his spiritual Authority derived upon our Bishops and Ecclesiastical Governors 'T IS true in some Cases as I hinted before withdrawing from the Communion of a Church may be so far from being a Rebellion against Christ that it may be an Act of Duty and Obedience to him For where Christ who is my supreme Lord and my Ecclesiastical Governors who are in Authority under him command things that are directly inconsistent I am doubtless bound to obey him rather than them yea though their Commands are not inconsistent in themselves yet if I am fully persuaded they are it is all one to me Fot when I do what I falsly believe Christ hath forbidden I am in Will as much a Rebel against his Authority as when I do what I truly believe he hath forbidden And so by not complying with my spiritual Governors out of an innocent mispersuasion that what they command is unlawful I do formally and in Will as much obey Christ in so doing as if it were really unlawful So that in short when the Governors of the Church whereof I am a Member do impose as the Conditions of my Communion things that are either unlawful in themselves or that after due Examination I verily believe are unlawful I am bound in Obedience to the Authority of Christ rather to desert that Communion than to comply with the Terms and Conditions of it BUT since to desert the Communion of a Church is a matter of vast Moment as I shall prove by and by it ought not to be done without the greatest Caution and Tenderness For he that rejects sinful Terms of Communion without just Enquiry and sufficient Examination is formally as much a Schismatick i. e. he is as much a Rebel in Will to Christs spiritual Authority in his Church Delegates and Vicegerents as he that rashly rejects innocent and lawful ones For had it been only the Sinfulness of the Condition that displeased him he would have made Conscience before he presumed to reject it duly to inform himself whether it were sinful or no but by thus rejecting it at a venture without a due Enquiry into the nature of it he plainly shews that 't was not so much the Sin that displeased him as the Authority that imposed it and that 't was not his Conscience that took offence at it but his Humour and consequently that he would have had the same Dislike of it though it had been lawful and innocent For Conscience being an act of the Judgment and Reason cannot be offended without Reason either real or apparent and without making a due Enquiry into the Nature of the thing we are offended at we can have no Reason that will either warrant or excuse our Offence NOW to a due Enquiry it is necessary that we should impartially examin both sides of the Question and that while we are doing so we should keep both our Ears open to the Matter in Debate and equally attend to what can be said for as well as to what can be said against it and then that upon a full hearing of both we should determin as near as we can on which side the Truth lies without Favour or Affection For he that enquires only what can be said against the Matter he is offended at doth thereby give a plain Indication that he is resolved to be offended at it right or wrong and that the End of his Enquiry is not so much to satisfie his Conscience as to fortifie his unreasonable Prejudice Wherefore before we do reject the Conditions of our Churches Communion as sinful we are obliged under the Penalty of wilful Schism impartially to enquire what is to be said for as well as against them and for this End to apply our selves to our Spiritual Governours and Pastors and propose our Doubts to them and attend to their Resolutions with an honest teachable Mind that is willing to be informed and where we are capable of judging faithfully to peruse those Books and Arguments that make for the one side as well as the other For unless we do thus its plain that we are biassed by a factious Inclination and that we have a great Mind to separate from the Churches Communion For if we were not prejudiced against her Authority by a schismatical Temper of Mind we should be as forward at least to consult what may be said for her Impositions as what is said against them BUT then if the Matters she imposes are such as a plain and illiterate Communicant cannot judg of nor comprehend the Force of the Reasons that make for or against them such Persons in such Cases are obliged humbly to acquiesce in the Churches Authority and not blindly to separate from her they know not why As for Instance suppose the Matter imposed should be such a Form of Government or such Modes of Discipline or Rights and Circumstances of Divine Worship as carry no such apparent Evil in them or express Contradiction to any Command of our Saviour as to inable an illiterate Christian rationally to pronounce them unlawful and whither they be unlawful or no is not to be determined perhaps without some Skill in the Original Languages and the critical Acceptations of Phrases or Insight into Ecclesiastical History or Metaphysical Nicities and Speculations and 't is by some of these that most of the Controversies between us and our dissenting Brethren are to be judg'd and decided Now in such Matters as these where he cannot judg for himself what should an unlearned Communicant do Why this he knows well enough that 't is his Duty in all lawful things to submit to the Governours of his Church and reverence Christs Authority in them but whether the above-named matters they impose be lawful or no he neither doth nor can know So that if upon the score of those Impositions he rejects the Churches Communion he rejects it he knows not why and to avoid doing that which he doth not