Chancellors use of the Keys to be unlawful 3. Nor those that think that Officials Surrogates Commissaries Arch-Deacons being no Bishops have no just power but what the King may give them and not a superior Power of the Keys see Dr. Hammond's Explication of it § 2. But after you think that none but the Bishop is the Ordinary but the Church-Laws and common use contradict you and call all these when Judges of the Court your Ordinaries § 3. And I told you which you pass over that this is condemned by the Decrees of Antient Councils as a mischievous thing § 4. You say It binds us not to obey the Canons else the Oath of Allegiance would bind us to it and all the Statute-Laws Answ. This hath more seeming strength than the rest But 1. If it did hold it removeth but one branch of the difficulty 2. And indeed he that sweareth Obedience to the King doth swear to obey him according to the Law And so he that sweareth Obedience to the Bishop may mean more and include Mandates but he cannot reasonably mean less and exclude the Governing Laws But yet as we never meant that the King's Laws are all blameless or that we will obey them if they command us to sin against God but only will shew our submission by suffering So I confess our Oath to Bishops as such can mean no more But then were I under a King whose very frame of Laws were unlawful as tending to extirpate Piety I should doubt whether I might simply swear to obey him as my Governor How far the Canons are more unmeet instruments for true Church-Government than our Laws are for Civil Government I will not here enquire CHAP. VI. § 1. YOur fifth Section is about the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. in Ordination 1. Two things you include in the sense 1. Inward Qualifications 2. Investiture But I told you 1. Inward Qualifications are presupposed and the person examined accordingly 2. I never heard or knew of any that received them by Ordination 3. By Investiture it is the Ministerial Office that is given them To none of this do you answer But you say Christ used the words and no extraordinary thing then conferred c. Ans. 1. If Christ intended their after-reception of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost it followeth not that we must use such words that can promise or give no such spirit 2. There were five several sorts of Mission or Commission then given to Christ's Ministers 1. Christ sent out the twelve and seventy temporarily to Preach do Miracles and return and gifted and blessed them accordingly 2. He chose twelve as related to the number of the Tribes and ordained them stated Apostles to the Jews or Circumcision and he qualified them accordingly by his Spirit 3. He ordained them Apostles to all the world indefinitely and accordingly renewed their Commission For this he qualified them with ordinary gifts of his Spirit initially now at his resurrection together with their new Commission and more fully and miraculously at Pentecost You know how ignorant the Apostles were of Christ's Death Sacrifice Resurrection Ascension c. till he was risen And then Christ opened their understandings in these Articles and gave more Faith and answerably we must conceive other grace was given than they had before This cannot be denyed And is not this giving of the Holy Ghost more than man must now pretend to imitate 4. Besides these there were after-missions of particular Apostles as Paul and Barnabas or particular messages in particular Provinces 5. And there was the Ordaining of Bishops or Elders as fixed Guides of particular Churches And these being ordinary Officers were ordinarily to be qualified before they were ordained and not to receive their Abilities by their Ordination And this is the Ordination that we have to do with CHAP. VII § 1. YOur sixth Section requireth pity rather than reply The Church that a Bishop is ordained to is many hundred Parishes the Bishop of Lincoln hath many Counties You know by whom the Bishops are Chosen and where Consecrated The words were originally used to the Church over which the Bishop was placed And is it serious dealing to send word to none of them of your Time or Place and then call to Men in a Church in London or a private Chappel to come forth and speak their Exceptions If you can prove that this may be Assented and Consented to you have a stronger proving Faculty than I have CHAP VIII § 1. I See nothing satisfactory to the Objections which I made about the Damnatory Passages in Athanasius's Creed And I had reference much to a Manuscript in which Mr. Dodwel is the Objector and the Bishop of Lincoln supposed the Answerer which he doth with great Learning and Impartiality But to his Argument That we are not to Assent to the truth of the Passages excepted against because we read the Apocrypha and yet the Church intendeth not to bind us to believe some Untruths in it which he nameth I Answered that Athanasius's Creed is part of the Book which we must assent to but the Apocrypha is not I make less my self of this Scruple than the rest because I have reason to believe Athanasius meant it well when I have not the same assurance of the meaning of the Authors of some late Impositions CHAP. IX § 1. YOur Sect. 8 about the certainty of Baptized Infants Salvation being made here an Article of Faith I have much more to say against But you answer not to any of the strength of my Objections 1. And how strange is it that you saw a Manuscript of Bishop Usher's telling us of this Clause coming surreptitiously into the Book whereas he was Dead two Years before the Book was altered or that Clause put in Indeed there was another in that sounded almost like it which meant no more than that A Baptized Child hath all that is necessary to Salvation supposing his right ex parte Ecclesiae though he die without Confirmation or the Eucharist which were formerly given to Infants But this never said what the new Article saith § 2. You say many Conformists say It is no part of Assent and Consent because it is not used as part of the Church Service and they subscribe to no more Answ. Name not those Conformists lest you Dishonour them Do they declare their Assent to all things contained in the Book and mean only the Service which they must say Or do they Consent to the use of all and take an Article of Faith to be put in for no use Intreat them not to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy with that Latitude and Exceptiousness § 3. You say you can Assent to it in a sound sense And it's more than you can prove that all Infants are saved but all that have right before God are saved but not those that have no right before God Answ. 1. But you were told that the Church signifies her sense by
Vow falsly But the harder it is for him to know his own Mind the more excusable he is And a false entrance is not a Sin that is unpardonable nor is the Sinner uncurable but may be converted in the Church though he came in unlawfully § 6. While preposterously you tell us who you think hath right to Baptism and the Lord's Supper you pass over the Fundamental Controversie as if you knew it not which is What Baptism and the Lord's Supper are This is it that we are mostly disagreed about End this and end all I suppose you take Baptism to be the first Sacrament and that less is not necessary to the Lord's Supper than to it And I presume to tell you that Christ never ordained nor the Church ever used any other Baptism of the Adult than 1. That which delivered the present Remission of Sin and right to Life to the just receiver of Baptism 2. and that which contained on the part of the Receiver his present profession of saving Faith and Repentance that is his true consent to the Covenant § 7. The Scripture telleth us that Baptism saveth as containing the answer of a good Conscience to God And that as many as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ and have professed that they are buried with him by Baptism into his Death and raised with him to newness of Life c. § 8. God in great Mercy hath delivered down to us from the Apostles the form of Baptism by a fuller Tradition than the words of the Scripture or any things else of our Religion are delivered All Ages and Churches to this Day have retained the same form as to all the Essential parts The very words of the Baptizer and the Baptized the Credo Abrenuncio c professed full shew that all used this one Baptism which was a professed Vow and Covenanting with God and renouncing of the Flesh the World and the Devil for present delivered pardon and right to Christ and Life See the long List in Gataker against Davenant of the Ancients that took all the Baptized for justified In a word If you make another Species of Baptism which hath lower Conditions and Gifts only than these I am past doubt 1. That you introduce a new sort of Christianity 2. That you hereby would change the very Essence of the Church and wofully corrupt it A worse thing than to impose new Ceremonies 3. That by denying the truth of so universal concurrent Tradition as the form of Baptism hath you will shake Mens Faith by weakning the Credit of that Tradition by which we have received the Bible It being a harder matter to keep all the words of such a Book than the Form of Baptism used on every Christian in the World 4. That you will too grosly reproach all the Christian Churches as if they had in all Ages and Places been ignorant what Christening and Christianity is and had used a false Baptism till of late 5. You will contradict the Church of England which you Conform to and all the Churches now in the World which in their form of Baptizing and their Catechisms and Confessions tell us of no Baptism but what is a present Covenanting with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as consenters to his Covenant giving up our selves to him in the foresaid Relations for present Pardon c. See Dr. Hammona's Pract. Cat. of the Baptismal Vow And is all this fit Work for two or three singular Men To deny the said History is to be grosly Ignorant or Immodest § 9. And now I am ashamed to trouble you and the Reader with the opening of all your Impertinencies and Contradictions of That Man will not be persuaded to consent to the Baptismal Covenant and to be a Christian indeed doth yet sigh and grown and pray for that which he would not have and that the Impenitent must penitently use this means for Penitence and because whosoever will must come and take the Water of Life therefore they that will not take it must take the Sacrament And that the outward Act which is false Vowing themselves to God and saying They consent to the Covenant when they do not is the means of Grace appointed for their Conversion in which they do well and are accepted And that Non-consenters may fly to Christ as a merciful Physician to save Souls and cast themselves at his Feet Repenting Praying and crying for Mercy which they would not have and yet if they come with particular ill intentions away with them Confute what I have written to the contrary if you would convince me or any Man that hath read my Five Disputations QUEST III. WHether a Minister may put from the Sacrament those of his Parish who be Christned People and come to Church and joyn in the Publick Worship and tender themselves to receive being under no sentence of Excommunication You say He may not Ans. § 1. 1. What 's this to the Primitive Churches that were not Parishes Or to the Countries that yet are not settled into Parish Churches Or to such Churches as are but tolerated among Papists Parishes 2. And all that is here mentioned the Papists did for the first ten Years of Queen Elizabeth 3. And remember that we have in our Parishes many that are open Atheists Infidels Sadduces Persecutors Scorners of the Scripture and Religion open boasting impenitent Whore-mongers Blasphemers Drunkards c. and many that openly deny the Ministry and Sacraments and yet to avoid Penalty and for Custom will do all that is here named though they deride it And that all these are to be received though also you suppose that they never so much as professed consent to the Baptismal Covenant you take on you to prove 1. Because it is the Will of Christ. Oh! Brother dread such additions to Christ's Words And how is that proved Why None but Dogs and Swine must be denied holy things Ans. 1. Where found you that None else 2. How prove you that none of these are Dogs or Swine 3. Yea are not all they swinish despisers of Grace who will not be persuaded to consent that God shall be their God and Christ their Saviour and the Holy Ghost their Sanctifier and give up themselves to him in these Relations § 2. Yet Page 30. the Case is this If the People being Christened do make a credible profession of true Christianity or a profession of true Christianity which we cannot prove to be false at least by a violent Presumption we must accept their Profession and admit them Ans. This is mine as cited and the plain truth But 1. Did you think that a credible profession of true Christianity is not a credible profession of Conversion Are not true Christians saved What else are Men to be Converted to 2. Do all such as are afore described make such a credible profession of true Christianity § 3. You tell us that the Standard that Christ hath set is that If now thou be
set a faithful Minister in the Parish he becomes as to Office and Right a Pastor a Guide a Minister and Teacher to their Souls If they receive him not they are Rebels and Traytors against Christ and are no longer Christian People save as an Adulterous Wife c. Ans. Alas where can we say a Man will stop when he is once tumbling down the Hill 1. Why did you think your bare word should serve for this That it is Jesus Christ that made this the Office of the Magistrate 2. Is it all Magistrates or some only that have this Power and Jesus Christ chooseth us Pastors by If but some what the better are we for your Discourse if you tell us not how to know them And 3. Will you not then put the People upon a harder and more perilous Task to judge of all Magistrates fitness for this Trust than it would be to judge of their Pastor 4. If it be all then Heathens and Turks must choose Christians their Pastors If you say It is all Christian Magistrates then the Protestants in France are Rebels and not Christians for refusing Papists Priests If it be not Papists who are they Must all receive Lutherans or Socinians or Anabaptists or such like Pastors that live under Imposing Princes of those minds 5. Why do you limit it to faithful Ministers who must judge of their Faithfulness and Qualifications If the Magistrate Papists Socinians Prophane Magistrates or Heretical will judge as they are If the People we are wheeled about to that which is resisted And then When is it that they must judge before they receive him or after If before then must they have trial of him or take all for Faithful that are ordained by a Bishop or that Being Strangers they know no harm by him or all the Patrons present If so we come to the forementioned Misery If they must receive them first and try them after and depart from them when they shew themselves unfaithful then the People must either depose their Pastors or separate And most that separate from the Parish Churches do it as thinking the Ministers unfaithful And is this your Cure of Church-divisions And if never Preaching be a proof of the Unqualified the Canon forbids us to go from such And in some Countrys there are none within reach to go to from them And if there be the Canon suspendeth them if they receive one to their Communion that goeth from a Non-preaching Minister 6. Did any one Church on Earth receive a Pastor by the Magistrates imposition for the first 300 Years Or had not the Churches then rightly called Pastors 7. Did not the Orthodox Churches commonly refuse Bishops which Valens and such Erroneous Emperors set over them 8. Were not Parish Ministers chosen by the Bishops and People and not by Magistrates for 1400 Years in all known Churches in the World It was but the Patriarchs at first that were imposed on the People by the Emperors and afterwards when the Henrys contended with the Pope it was not for choice of Priests but for the Investiture of Bishops and Abhots only and in this they left the choice to the People and Clergie and pleaded but for Investiture per baculum annulum so that for ought I know Magistrates never imposed Priests on Parish Churches till the Reformation And since then besides Helvetia and Belgia it is but few that do it And even in England it is not done by Magistracy but by Patrons presenting and Diocesan Prelates Instituting So that if this be Christ's Way of making Pastors to particular Churches there were no true Pastors or Churches for 300 Years and perhaps none or next none for 1400 Years in Parishes And if this Doctrine be true the Catholick Christians in many Princes Reigns that rejected imposed Bishops if that were as bad as rejecting Parish Priests were Rebels and Traytors against Christ and no Christians And whether he so Stigmatize not the Universal Church for want of such Reception of Priests in almost all Ages I wish him to consider And whether that be like to be a better way of Concord which he and few such in the end of the World devise to the condemning of the Churches of all the former Ages that never had any such Concord 9. Hereby also he leaveth the Tolerated Churches in France Germany and all the Greek Churches and Copties and Syrians c. that are under adverse Princes to be without Pastors sent in the way of Christ's Appointment And yet vouchsafeth not to name one Text where Christ ever Appointed it 10. And when he maketh all in a Parish to be the Pastors Flock or Charge that are Christians he condemneth those Canons that ordained that if Any Bishop convert not the Hereticks in his City they shall be his Flock who doth convert them and all that have had two Churches in one Parish Or else he maketh Parish Priests to be Pluralists and if there be many Chappels and Churches in his Parish he is the Pastor to them all And yet he never tells us whether the Chappel Priest be also Pastor of the rest of the Parish And if so whether each be to Govern distinctly or one subordinately as Governed by the other Or whether both must agree each being but part of the Governing power 11. The same Man saith That multitudes of Parishioners are Rebels Traytors and no Christians c. and yet that we must give them all the Sacrament if demanded For multitudes demand the Sacrament to satisfie Law and Custom who declare that they take not the Priest for their Pastor nor as Authorized by Christ and multitudes that know not what Christianity or a Sacrament is and will not speak with the Minister about it 12. Did not he say before that the Man cannot be their Pastor without his own and the Peoples consent And yet the Magistrate may make me a Pastor to the Parish What Whether I will or not Am I also a Rebel Traytor and no Christian if I refuse What if the Parish have 60000 or 40000 Souls and I am not able to do a Pastor's Office for 500 What if I think it is a Sin to be obtruded on dissenting unwilling People And if my Dissent do not Unchristen me why doth the People's Unchristen them The Lord pity us we need no Enemies but our selves to seduce us and destroy nor any to make the most odious Schisms than the decryers of Schism What Schismatick doth condemn so many Christians and Churches as this Censure I can scarce except Mr. Dodwel whom in his last Book he called an odd disowned Man § 13. He tells us after of the Pastor's Duty to teach Publickly and from House to House And yet it 's no Church but when Assembled and he hath equal charge of all Christians though Papists in the Parish § 14. He saith No thing cuts off from a Church particular but what cuts off from Christ Christianity and the Church Universal Ans. 1. What if
Of the use of the Apocryphal writings as they are imposed by the Calendar and Rubrick to be approved of and consented to CHAP. XII Concerning consenting to the Imposition of Reading the Liturgy every day CHAP. XIII About denying Christian burial to unbaptized Infants and persons excommunicated CHAP. XIV Touching Confirmation CHAP. XV. Whether we may declare our Consent that none should be admitted to the Communion till he be confirmed or desirous and ready to be confirmed CHAP. XVI Concerning the sole sponsion of God-Fathers in the Liturgie CHAP. XVII Concerning the imposing of kneeling at the Lords supper CHAP. XVIII Of the Cross in baptism as a Consecrating dedicating sign § 1. Reasons against it ibid. The silence of Christ in this matter 2. It seemeth to accuse Christ's Law of imperfection 3. Christ commissioned not his Apostles to institute any new Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace Whether it be made a Sacrament § 2. Of Gods prohibition 12 Deut. of adding or diminishing § 3. Mr. C's Argumentum ad hominem considered § 4. The antient Christians practise § 5. Mr. C's objection removed § 6. The meaning of the second commandment in forbidding Images § 7. Mr Cheney's concession § 8. A full explication of the nature of that sign § 9. Answer to the great Bishops notions § 10. Of the efficacy of Sacraments from Aquinas c. § 11. More objections answered and cavils removed § 12. c. CHAP. XIX About giving the Sacrament to all parishioners thrice a year CHAP. XX. Of accusing those that are refused the communion within 14 dayes The true case of the parish minister's power to suspend his own act and not give the Sacrament against his conscience in 22 particulars § 2. CHAP. XXI Of the Chancellor's office Of Mr. C. thirteen parts of discipline § 2. Proved to be defective § 3. Objection answered § 4. What power the parish minister hath in publishing an excommunication § 5. CHAP. XXII Of the Surplice CHAP. XXIII Of the Rule for finding Easter day CHAP. XXIV Concerning our Assenting Consenting to and approving of the many disorders and defects in the Liturgy CHAP. XXV Whether we may assent to the Preface for justifying all that was in the Book before CHAP. XXVI Whether the Act of Uniformity be any part of the book to which we are required to give our consent CHAP. XXVII About declaring it unlawful to take arms by the Kings authority against any commissionated by him CHAP. XXVIII Of the Obligation of the Covenant handled at large per tot CHAP. XXIX About the exposition of Oaths and Laws CHAP. XXX Several false devices of Mr. Ch. for stretching of Subscriptions Covenants and Professions The vanity of which is discovered CHAP. XXXI Mr. Cheney ' s conclusion evidenced to be a bundle of mistakes and impertinencies CHAP. XXXII A full and clear answer to Mr. Ch's supplement The second part Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings considered 1 Quest. Whether it be certain by Gods word that Infants baptized dying before actual sin be undoubtedly saved 2 Quest. Whether may unconverted ones within the Church demand and receive the Lords supper 3 Quest. Whether a minister may put from the Sacrament those of his parish who be Christned People and come to Church and joyn in the publick worship and tender themselves to receive being under no sentence of Excommunication 4 Quest. Whether the common sort of ungodly Christians are to be cast out of the Church by penal excommunication and used as excommunicate ones 5 Quest. Whether Mr. Baxter's Doctrine and principles concerning particular Churches be sound and good A DEFENCE OF THE NON-CONFORMIST'S Plea for Peace AGAINST Mr. J. CHENY THE Non-conforming Conformist CHAP. I. § 1. DEar Brother I have diligently read and considered your Book and think it my duty to give a short Account of the Effect I have reproved many that blame you for not telling me first of it and knowing what I could say to it before you ventured to publish it 1. Because of our true Love and Acquaintance 2. Because a man should be willing to try and hear the utmost before he engage too deep 3. Because if you mistake it is many and heinous sins that you may be guilty of by hardening multitudes in impenitency To which I answer then 1. I consulted not you before I wrote and why then must you needs consult me 2. A wise man can conjecture what may be said against him without asking 3. You might suspect some hinderance to that which you judged a necessary duty 4. You have heard and read what the Non-Conformists say as I did what the Conformists say without any further consultation But I am most impatient with them that suspect your intention and design and do hereby profess to them that know you not so well as I do that I do from my heart believe you to be a better man than my self of good judgment in other things of greater meekness patience humility and self-denyal and do verily believe that your End was to promote Christian Love and Concord which was mine And as I wrote to cure mens uncharitable thoughts of the Non-Conformists so did you to cure or prevent mens thinking worse of the Conformists than they do deserve an End that 's good and necessary § 2. But our measures of understanding are so various that it is no wonder that we differ about the means And therefore lest I should be guilty 1. Of deserting the Truth and Cause of Righteousness 2. And of the loss of the Plaister which I made to heal the ulcerated minds of the haters and reproachers and silencers of them that deserve it not 3. And of the sin of such as be drawn by your Book to that which hath the aggravations which I named and fear my self I shall take the freedom of telling you and others my thoughts of your performance in your Book § 3. I. I perceive it is not your design to draw any man into so much Conformity as will procure him allowance in the Publick approved Ministry And then what the better will the Church be for his change in all the rest while one point of Non-conformity will keep him out as well as a hundred For 1. You profess that you cannot justifie all though you fain would 2. You over-pass some in your defence 3. You call your self a Non-conforming Conformist 4. You are fain to fly from your Country being an excommunicate man and to live in a poor condition among strangers to keep out of the Goal to avoid the Writ de excommunicato capiendo and yet you lived under the Worthy and Learned Bishop Pearson accounted one of the most moderate and best in England And what good would so much Conformity do the Church Can we serve them in a Prison any better than Non-Conformists may But let us consider of your Defence it self § 4. II. You would have your Reader have my Book before him and you profess to answer it and yet you profess
Sabbath as I have proved in a peculiar Treatise Men may set apart one day in a year for special Thanksgivings or Commemorations and one day in a week e. g. in a time of Plague and danger to fast and pray c. But if any should make another weekly day of holy observance to commemorate the same work of Christ's Resurrection or our Redemption which Christ did separate that day to commemorate I think he would be both an unjust accuser of Christ's Law as insufficient and an unjust usurper of his Prerogative 4. And it is considerable to me that though Christ so extraordinarily Commissioned and Qualified his Apostles to record his Words and Acts in Scripture and settle Church-Orders and Inferiour Offices and teach the Nations to observe all that he had Commanded them yet even them did did he never Commission to make a new Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace nor did they ever make one but contrarily rebuked those that would but have kept up some of the old Ceremonies Divine or Humane And was not the Cross a stumbling and foolishness to the World in the Apostles Days and yet they never made such a Sacrament And who hath equal Power with them § 2. If any say the Church doth not make it a Sacrament I answer 1. It is not the Name that we contend about but the thing 2. I have before proved it by the Constitutive parts which you answer not 3. If Christ had Instituted the Cross as the Church doth as a Badg of our Christianity dedicating the Child to God as a solemn Covenanting Figure by which the Minister in God's Name and in the Persons pronounceth him Consecrated and engaged as signifying both God's part or Grace of the Covenant and Mans part or Duty I ask Whether you would not have câ—â—led this a Sacrament And if it want but Divine Institution and Benediction it wanteth indeed a due Efficient but it is still a Humane Sacrament though not a Divine and therefore an unlawful Sacrament I would but know whether Men may make New Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace or not If yea how many and Quo jure § 3. And God's Prohibition Deut. 12. of adding or diminishing is not washt away so easily as your words would make Men believe You say It reacheth to the whole Duty of Man and Government of the Church c. Ans. There be some things in the Duty of Man and Church-Matters that God hath left to Man To do those is no addition to God's Laws But to do the like work that God by his Law hath done which he never left to Man seemeth to me the Addition there forbidden e.g. If Men had made another Tabernacle another Ark of the Covenant another holy Vestment for Aaron another Sacrament like Circumcision or the Passeover he that so reproved their worshiping in the High Places would have reproved these § 4. But the sum of your defence is ad Hominem to my self for granting the lawfulness of humane private professing Signs and of the Cross as such It 's strange to me that you that are so judicious can discern no more difference between 1. Private and publick Church-actions And 2. Between a bare professing Sign in genere and a Sacramental Covenanting-dedicating Symbolical Sign in specie 1. Every Sacramental Symbol is a professing Sign But every professing Sign is not a Sacramental Symbol a solemn Sacramental Celebration of a Mutual Covenant by an investing signification of the parts of both the Covenants Doth it follow then that because Men yea any Man may make a professing Sign of his Mind that Man yea every Man may make a new Sacrament An Israelite might have lift up his Hand to signifie consent to a Duty or to answer a Question But might he therefore have imitated Circumcision or the Passeover When a Man is Baptized if you ask him whether he consent he may signifie it by Bowing lifting up his Hand by Writing which are all but to the same use as Speech But he must Sacramentally signifie it by the reception of Baptism as the instituted solemn Covenanting Symbol of his Religion But for any to make to the Church of Christ a new Sacramental Symbol for such a Covenanting use is another Matter A Man that at the Lord's Supper is asked whether he consent to Christ's Covenant may signifie it as aforesaid But he may not therefore joyn to the Sacrament such another Covenanting Symbol of Christianity e. g. To make or consent to and approve and use a Law that all Christians shall solemnly after the Eucharist have their Heads anointed with Oyl to signifie that they are Members of Christ and hereby Covenant with him and the Holy Ghost as signifying his Grace received and their Duty performed and promised and this applied by a Minister Officiating as by his Commission § 4. I perceive by your mistaking Inferences that you understood not my distinction of Private and Publick and thought I had meant Secret or Open or before Few or Many Whereas I speak in the sense that these words are commonly used in Politicks e. g. When they distinguish Index publicus privatus Res publicae privatae Actiones publicae privatae c. Publick is that which either belongeth to the Society or a Publick Officer as such As a meer Subject is Homo privatus so his Actions and Affairs meerly as his are private The Aerarium of the Commonwealth though kept secretly is the publick Treasure The judgment of a publick Judge when few are present in his Chamber is Iudicium publicum and the judgment of a meer Arbitrator before thousands is Iudicium privatum A private Man's arbitrary Words or Actions in Westminster-Hall at the Bar are Actiones privatae § 5. I have more reverence for the Ancient Christians than to be a bold condemner of all their Actions which I wish they had not done and had they foreseen the Consequents they would not have done And I must Fide humanâ give some credit to those ancient Writers specially such as Augustine who tells us of Miracles adjoyned to some use of the Cross And considering how they used it I find it was when those things were done as a private arbitrary professing Sign such as it would have been to say by words I am a Christian or I trust in Christ or I am not ashamed of a Crucified Saviour And if when one asked them of their Faith or derided them for trusting in a Crucified Man they answered by crossing I judge them not for so doing The occasions and Persons might excuse such a private professing Action But if they would turn this into a publick Church-Ordinance by a Law and into a Humane Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace requiring all to receive it as the common Badge of Christianity I reproach not the approvers but I dare not approve it or so use it § 6. You say We must reduce what is said in the Canon to the words in the
and will trusting another with it discharge him 4. We fear being guilty of the Lay-man's Usurpation and the Church-Confusion 5. But worst of all it is people fearing God that the Canon excommunicateth ipso facto and that the Chancellor is to excommunicate Had it been my duty to pronounce you excommunicate because the Chancellor decreed it 6. Where you say If I know the sentence to be void unjust and illegal I am not to publish it Ans. Well set together But if you know it to be unjust and yet legal according to the Canon you must publish it or be a Non-Conformist and may be suspended And are all the Canons Decrees just CHAP. XXII YOU speak next of the Surplice of which I gave you no occasion But we that know that the true meaning of the Liturgy is that all must use it that shall be suffered to officiate 1. Will not believe you if you tell us the contrary hereafter and lay it only on the Canon and think it nothing that you are obliged to consent to and aprove 2. Nor will I yet believe that you will undertake to justifie the ejecting and silencing of all that dare not use the Surplice Or if you will you cannot The 14th and 15th of the Romans cannot be confuted nor the many proofs that I have given that it reacheth our case in my late Book for the Church's Concord And why talk you of the Surplice and omit the main Question Whether we may consent to the Liturgy Preface and Rubrick which impose it as they do You durst not consent to silence two thousand or one that dare not use it CHAP. XXIII § 1. YOur next Section is of the false Rule for finding Easter-Day To this you say If really there be an Error I assent not to it Ans. Nor I Nor will I say I do when I do not And to what purpose then do you write for Conformity when one Lye must not be told to save our Liberty § 2. But you say It is not an Error in Divinity Ans. What then May I Lye about any other things § 3. But you say Some yet continue to affirm it is no Error Ans. And what will not some Men affirm You see how hard it is for a Non-conformist to be justified with some Men when all the Almanacks in England cannot do it in such a point I am too weak to deal with Men that will not take such evidence as this You say That it is questionable whether this be any part of the Book to be assented to Ans. You had some fair pretence to deny the act of Uniformity to be a part though the Contents say it is but if this be questionable you may question as the School-Men so long till you leave us little unquestionable This would increase my Resolution against Conformity when we cannot be sure what it is that we must Assent and Consent to and what not How can you tell us which is or not of the Book if this be not § 4. You say For the time past none will lay it to the charge of the Conformists and for the time to come it will be abated those that shall Subscribe and Conform Ans. How oft have I told you that I am laying nothing to the Charge of others but excusing our selves But I cannot justifie them that will do they know not what Especially it is sad that when such a Convocation which is the Representative Church of England shall all consent to draw up such things to be imposed on a Kingdom and so great a Parliament require assent to it on the Penalties enacted and executed on so many they should have no more honourable a defence than you make for them § 5. And who it is that hath the power to abate us that which the Law so severely requireth we do not yet know unless it be the King whose Mind you know not It is the Bishop that you mean But I doubt the Lawyers that have so lately questioned the Kings Power of Dispensation will contradict you that give that to the Bishop which they deny the King CHAP. XXIV § 1. THe next Section is about our Assenting to Consenting to and approving the many Disorders and Defects in the Liturgy You confess there are such and name many of them And the sum of your Answer is That you Assent and Consent to use the formes though disordered and defective and the Assent and Consent is no otherwise to be understood Ans. Soon said but where 's the proof 1. The words are All things contained in and prescribed by the Book Is the mode and disorder none of the All If I should say I Approve Assent and Consent to something but not all or the Matter but not the Order and Manner doth this answer the common sense of the universal words What if the Book did say the Lord's Prayer or Ten Commandments backward or Baptized in the Name of the Holy Ghost the Son and the Father or began as it ends c. may I declare that I Consent to and approve all things contained in it and prescribed by it § 2. As to your limitation of the sense to the word Use I have told you that the Parliament rejected it and that it is a groundless Fiction and that it makes your Cause no whit the better were it granted CHAP. XXV § 1. THe next is Whether we may assent to the Preface for justifying all that was in the Book before You say that It was not the intent of the Book to bind any Man to approve the Errors of Translators and Printers nor to use the Forms in the Liturgy so as to contradict one another Ans. 1. Printers Errors indeed are not the Convocations nor the Books as made by them Did I instance in any of them But if Translators Errors also be excepted our difficulty of understanding the Imposition still increaseth Then it seems as to the Psalms Epistles and Gospels we Assent and Consent only to the Original Text and so much as we judge well Translated I thought it the Book by ill Translation had grosly contradicted or depraved the Scripture it had been one of the worst sort of Errors I told you where it directly contradicteth the Text. What Heresie may not be brought in by a false Translation We thank God for the worst as a great Mercy to the Church and by them that will not receive a better in the Psalms we are thus commanded to justifie even that which was worst lest they should be thought to have needed any amendment And you make your self their Expositor without their Authority and tell us that the intent of the Book is not to bind us to approve the Errors of Translators And I believe you as the Book is distinguished from the Authors and so hath no intent at all But if the Translaton hath done as Heylin saith the King's Printer did that put Thou shalt commit Adultery for Thou shalt not and I were commanded
WHether it be certain by God's Word that Infants Baptized dying before Actual Sin be undoubtedly saved § 1. I expected your Work had been to Convince Men of the good of Conformity But seeing it is to save Men from being seduced by my Directory you may doubt whether you will not rather tempt some impartial Men to read the words And then your work is spoiled when they compare them with your Accusation § 2. I lookt for some plain Text of Scripture to prove this both certain by God's Word and undoubted But finding none such I humbly beseech you hereafter when you have mind to shew your Argumentative strength leave out the abusive pretence of the Word of God Holy things must be holily used § 3. Your first Argument is that A Carnal Christian hath propriety in his Child and therefore may devote him to God as he may his Goods Ans. It had been more piously prudent to hear what could be said to such pretty new Knacks before you had tempted the Church by publishing them 1. Your first Proof is 1 Sam. 26. 26 27 28. and there are but 25 Verses in the Chapter and none to your purpose The next is Lev. 27. 28. Did you ever consider the Text Ainsworth and the Rabbies suppose from the Notation of the word and from the express words ver 29. that it is devoting of Slaves or Malefactors to death that is here spoken of Others better That it includeth both the absolute dedication of acceptable Persons to Service and of odious Persons to Death Therefore all are not saved that are here called holy as devoted Neither the Cursed nor the Levites that by dedication obliged to Service are hereby saved For more than Obligation is necessary to the reward The First-born were specially to be given to God and yet that implied not their certain Salvation 2. A Dissembler may by his Covenant obtain a right with Man that knoweth not his Heart and he may be received into the outward Communion of the Church by God's Approbation who Commissioneth Ministers who know not mens Hearts to receive Men according to their Profession And these are holy to the Lord as the Iews were but not therefore under a promise that they shall be undoubtedly saved Were all the Iews saved because they were a holy Nation 3. Not only his Child but the grossest hypocritical Lyar himself who is Baptized and cometh into the Church in Malice to betray it is yet holy as a Visible Member and hath obliged himself to real Holiness and yet is far from a state of Salvation 4. Nothing is holy and accepted by the Devoters Act alone without God's accepting Act Nor any further or to any other uses than God accepteth it to Some he accepteth unto Visible Membership and Communion and some to the Sacred Ministry and some to Magistracy c. who are not accepted to Salvation 5. Doth Lev. 27. prove that all Nations in the World might devote their Children unto God with the same assurance of acceptation as the Israelites 6. The Jewish Mosaical Law is abrogated and neither bindeth us as such nor secureth us of acceptance for obeying it 7. All Heathens and Infidels have some propriety in their Children and yet if in unbelief they devote them with the Tongue alone to God that will not make their Salvation undoubted 8. Few God-Fathers have propriety in them How then will their devoting prove their Salvation 9. God hath made no promise of his acceptance which you can shew therefore you cannot by his Word be certain of it 10. God saith that the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Him much more when he doth it with an evil mind And he expressly saith Else were your Children unclean if one Parent were not a Believer but now are they holy Therefore when both Parents are Unbelievers the Children are not accepted of God as holy 11. The question is of all Baptized Children For it is Quatenus Baptizati that they are said to be saved and à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia And it 's an Indefinite in re necessariâ But we have too many scorners at Christianity followers of Hobbes Spinosa Pomponatius and Vaninus who for fashion sake will bring their Children to Baptism And certainly such are far worse than Heathens If one believeth not in Christ tell a wilful Lye and say he believeth can any Man think that his Child shall be ever the more saved for his Wickedness and Hypocrisie § 4. You gather Christ's acceptance from Mat. 10. 13. c. It is not said of the Infants of the Godly only is the Kingdom of Heaven Ans. Nor is it said that of all Infants or of all Baptized Infants is the Kingdom of Heaven The Text will prove indeed that the Infant state is capable of Christ's acceptance into the Kingdom of Grace and of Glory But not that nothing is necessary thereto but that they be Infants If all Infants be saved bringing them to Christ was not necessary to their Salvation If all only that were brought to Christ were saved it seems they were very few 2. Is it like that any would bring their Children to Christ to be Blessed who did not believe in him And what reason have we to surmise that they were not sound Believers 3. As Christ healed some blind Men and not all and some Lepers Sick c. so if as a Specimen to shew that Infant state is capable of Grace he took up some Infants of Hypocrites or Infidels or impious Parents which can never be proved it will not follow that all such shall be received and that to Salvation 4. If by verbal profession Parents and their Children are taken into the outward Covenant and Church and by Water Men are born into the Visible Kingdom of God it followeth not they need not to be born of the Spirit for admission into the Invisible and Heavenly Kingdom or that the Spirit always goeth with the Water and that the Parents answer of a good Conscience to God is not necessary to his Child 's Covenant-right to Salvation as well as to his own 5. I deny that any wicked Man much more every one doth yea or can univocally and truly devote his Child to God according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant Though I grant that the love of his Childs Lust do not hold him so strongly as the love of his own yet he that never so knew God in Christ and so believed in Christ and so believed in him as to perceive him practically to be better for himself than all the World and sinful Pleasures cannot with a true and practical Affiance so take him for his Child 6. And God no where commandeth or accepteth the devoting of our Infants to him primarily or as seperated from our selves but only as Appendices or Conjunct with us that is that we devote our selves and ours And so not without us but with us doth he accept them § 5. Your
great pretended Proof is That all the Males of Israel were Circumcised Ans. 1. If you had proved that they were all saved you had said more to the matter 2. To open here the nature of the Iews Covenant of Peculiarity as one select Nation of whom Christ should come as distinct from and as conjunct with the common antecedent Covenant of Grace and to shew the reasons of the Institution of Circumcision of Abraham's peculiar Seed and not for all that from Adam and Noah were under the common Law of Crace would be a work which such a light occasion would not warrant me here to stand upon 3. The sign of Circumcision was but the seal anexed to the Covenant And the meer External Act as Water in Baptism entered them but into the External Church-state 4. Almost all the gross Sinners at least if presumptuous and impenitent were to be put to death by that Law And dead Men beget not Children But I have so largely handled this in my 3d Disp. of Right to Sacraments that while you leave it unanswered I will not repeat it on so slight a Cause § 6. And what if you had proved the Salvation of all wicked Christians Baptized Infants what 's that to our Question which extendeth to all not excepting the Children of profest Atheists Infidels Sadduces or Heathens that have but God-Fathers § 7. But pag. 8 9. you tell us that Infants by reason of their innocent harmless state seem to be Christ's Off-spring and to be a subordinate Root and Bottom to themselves and to stand by their own innocency under Christ and by his Divine Grace Look what Regeneration is to the Adult that in some sort the Infant-state may be to Infants that is All Infants are in a New and Second state by Christ So the word Regeneration doth properly import Pag. 10. Christ alone without Parents Godliness is able to the Salvation of all the Infant World I am not able to prove that bare having of Circumcision and Baptism doth save any nor that the bare want thereof doth bar any from Salvation Ans. 1. But what is this to Conformity Did you think that this was the meaning of the Liturgy that all Infants are saved when it saith All the Baptized 2. It doth not follow that Christ saveth all because he is able to save them 3. I have said so much to prove Original Sin and some participation of Guilt from our Parents Sins and to prove God's Promises to the Faithful and their Seed which are not made to the Infidels and Wicked in two Disputations of Original Sin that I refer you thither for your Answer to this unproved Fiction of the Salvation of all Infants and their Regenerate Innocency 4. Woful experience tells us as soon as they can but speak and go how far their Natures are from an innocent disposition And to be void of holy Dispositions is not to be innocent 5. If they be conceived and born Innocent what need have they of Baptism for Remission of Sin If you say that Christ Regenerateth all as he is the Giver of their Nature the Church hath condemned this in the Pelagians that make Nature as from Christ to be the same with Grace 6. If all be Pardoned all have the Holy Ghost for Baptism giveth right to both But that 's not so § 8. Page 11. Did you satisfie your Conscience in expounding But now are they holy 1 Cor. 14. after what we have said of it to Mr. Tombes Is it Your Children are pure to you as your Meat is § 9. When you ask me Why I say notoriously ungodly You consulted not the credit of your knowledg to tell Men in Print that you know not what Notorious signifieth no not in Notation or common use As if it signified more than ordinary Notorious is that which is certainly openly easily Knowable I have told you of some of my own Parishioners that live in the open opposition to Christianity seeking in their Converse to persuade Men that the Scripture is a Book of Lyes and Christianity a meer Deceit and they will bring their Children to Baptism for Law and Custom-sake and say all the Creed and words required it was in the time when I had leave to admit the Parent to enter his own Child in the Covenant with God We know now abundance of the followers of Hobbes and Spinosa and many that deride Scripture and the hopes of Heaven and the fears of a Hell and think Man is but a subtle sort of Beast Yet these will all have their Children Baptized and to avoid the penalty of the Law will receive the Eucharist And there are others who are common scorners of Serious Religiousness and persecutors of it to their power and hate him that will tell them of the evil of the common Drunkenness and Whoredom which they live in and glory in their Shame We look for better proof than your Wrigling-nothings to make us undoubtedly certain from God's Word that the Baptized Infants of all these are saved The Rubrick meaneth Quia qua Baptized and you mean Because innocent and Christ died for them and all the Unbaptized are saved But as I see none of your proof of the latter so I will not crookedly crawl into Conformity by the fallacious Exposition And you that were in your last Book uncertain your self of what you can now prove certain do so quickly Change and so quickly publish your Change that your judgment hath the less power by any reverence of it to the changing of mine QUEST II. WHether may Unconverted ones within the Church demand and receive the Lord's Supper Mr. Baxter saith flatly they may not Right to Sacram. pag. 140. The Confutation followeth § 1. Ans. I can bethink me but of one of these three Ends of this your Writing 1. Either barely to make a confession of your Faith and Judgment 2. Or to save me from my Error by Conviction 3. Or to save the Readers of my Book from the danger of them 1. If the first be your Work I confess your words I conceive are suitable But Confessions use to be otherwise concisely and orderly formed and no Adversaries names besides Pilate's needed to be put into your Creed 2. If the second or third be your Work you seem to think very contemptible of my Judgment and of every such Readers when you expect that when I have written and they have read full Disputations opening the state of the Question proving what I assert by many Arguments and Scripture vindicating twenty Arguments of Mr. Galespies from all that is answered to them we should after this be convinced that our Cause is wrong by one that neither will be at the labour distinctly to state the Controversy nor to reply to my Answers already given to all his Reasonings and much more nor to answer the many Arguments which I and others urge but saith little more of any moment than I am induced to think thus though I once
cohabit or dwell near The confutation is I conceive he is out Ans. What is he against Parish Churches after all this No He only denieth it of a transient Member pro tempore as a Traveller and granteth it as to a stated Member And yet I am out Many and many a time have I written of Churches and use to distinguish first of the Equivocal Name saying That an occasional meeting of Christians for Worship may be called a Church and a transient Christian pro tempore a Member I have written more this way than ever he did But declared that it is a settled Political Society that I defined when I speak of what he now accuseth And why should a wise and good Man thus hastily trouble the World and make discord by pretending because he cannot have leisure to know what he speaks against § 3. My third Error is That to the being of a particular Church there is necessary a mutual Covenant or exprest consent between Pastor and People even every Member and the more express the better And I define a Church to be a Society of Christians consisting of Pastor and People associated by consent The force of the Confutation is I conceive he is out But wherein is it We have here such work as I never met with before 1. He granteth that none are to each other Pastor and People against their Wills Good still And yet do I err But saith he as Christ is Christ and a Saviour by Office whether Sinners will or not So faithful Ministers are Pastors by Office whether the People accept them or no. Reader it is not the least blemish of my Writings that on divers occasions I oft repeat the same things And many a time have I distinctly said 1. That the Ordainers judge who shall be a Minister of Christ in general 2. The Magistrate is judge whom he will Countenance Maintain or Tolerate 3. And the People must be consenting judges to whom they will trust the conduct of their Souls As it 's one thing to be a Licensed Physician and another to be Physician to this Hospital or Person If this Brother mean otherwise what meant he by saying that No Man can be a Pastor to a People against their will Doth he say and unsay in the next Lines Is Christ any Man's actual Saviour whether they believe in him and accept him or not I have oft said that in divers Cases the People may be bound in duty to Consent as all are bound to be Christians But they are no Christians or Church-members till they do Consent What then is it that he meaneth as our Difference § 4. Yes He saith No more is necessary to the being or well-being of a particular Church than this A company of Christians met together in publick for the Solemn Worship of God by Iesus Christ having a Pastor or Minister with them to guide and govern the Congregation and edifie himself and them by the Word and Sacraments where there is no Assembly of Pastor and People there is no Church and no longer than the Assembly lasteth are they a Church Ans. Did the World ever here this Doctrine before When the Church at Ierusalem Corinth Cenchrea Colosse Laodicea c. and the Churches in Iudea Galatia c. are mentioned when the Apostles ordained them Elders in every Church Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 3 5. c. Is the word Church here taken for no Christians longer than they are Assembled Doth not Scripture Canons Fathers and all Writers speak of Churches as Associated Christians remaining Churches all the Day and Year and not only while Assembled If the word Church may be taken for a Transient Assembly doth it follow that there is no other Have we so many Books of Ecclesiastical Policie if there be no Political Society that is a particular Church What an unpleasing talk is it to be put on a defence against such an Opponent § 5. Saith he I would but ask Mr. Baxter what is it that you mean by Associated by consent Ans. Have I in the Books cited by you so largely told you what I mean and must you print the Question before you will take an Answer Saith he Either you mean bare Assembling or some other thing Ans. Will you better understand me if I write it again than you did before When I told you at large in what Cases express consent by words or other signs is meet and that where the Laws settle Parish Churches ordinary attendance and submission to the Pastor's Office must be taken for express Consent But then I do hold that there is such a Church as I describe and that the Parish is not Unchurcht when the Assembly is dismist § 6. He saith When the Assembly breaks up the Church for that time ceaseth till the Meeting be renewed till which time they remain Christian Inhabitants Neighbours Families Parishioners or Sojourners the Pastor of the place dwelling among them Ans. In your Equivocal sense of a Church this is true In the Political sense they are a Church still as the Parliament Citizens Souldiers are a Parliament City Army when they Assemble not If your wrangle be de re do you deny their continued Relation If it be de nomine let the Scripture and all Nations judge whether the name Church belong to them no longer than they are Assembled 1. Then all that stay at Home or are Sick are no Church-members 2. Then the Bishop or Pastor hath no Church but while Assembled And he hath no Duty to perform for his Church but while Assembled 3. This is quite contrary to our Diocesans who say as honest Mr. Cawdry himself that a Diocess is the first particular Church and that it is no matter how many Assemblies it consist of and that there is no Church without a Bishop and so that we have no more Churches than Bishops 4. If a Bishop build a Temple on London Road where Travellers shall be his ordinary Hearers whom he shall never see again this is a Temporary Transient Church but verily it is another sort Church that is described in Scripture and by Ignatius Cyprian and all Church-writers And when the Bishop was to visit the Sick and take care of the Poor and to exhort from House to House it was as for a Church and not meerly as for Christian Neighbours And do you think no more consent was necessary to his special Duty to these more than to others and theirs to him than bare Assembling Atheists Infidels Hereticks may Assemble with the rest and Catechumens ordinarily did so and were never made themselves the judges whether and when they should be Baptized and admitted to Communion but the Pastors were the judges § 7. As to your oft mentioning the words Covenants and Oaths for such Church Associations as if I had written for Oaths or had not written against all needless Covenants which though you say not your words would make the Reader believe whilst over and over it is
a Man disown only the Pastor of that Church 2. What if he will not joyn with them in the Liturgy or Mode of Worship there used 3. What if that Church be Nestorians or Eutychians or Papists and he separates from them or they cast him out 4. What if he remove his Dwelling § 15. Next I am censured for demanding the People of Kederminster ' s consent to my Ministry and their Church Relation And he will now be distinct and maketh Answers to `distinct Questions for them But never tells us whether such Answers had been true or false if they had given them His first Question is Do we take you to have the just qualifications of a Pastor And the Answer is Learning is one qualification of which the Ignorant are incompetent Iudges And for Wisdom Holiness and Ministerial skill of Fidelity you are to make proof of them This is to be answered some Years after and not ask before-hand And so under Papists Socinians prophane Imposers you are to take all as Wise Holy Faithful till some Years after you find them otherwise Here he expoundeth his former words for rejecting the unqualified and unfaithful But who shall be judge at some Years after His second Question is Do we take you to be duly ordained And the Answer is We are bound to judge those to be justly Ordained which are so reputed and we have no reason to suspect Ans. 1. But whose reputation is it that you rest on Half the Parish say you are not justly ordained but by a Bishop The other half say you are justly ordained by Presbyters You falsifie if you feign them all of a mind 2. And who knows how to define and bound your Reasons of Suspicion 3. The Canons and Bishops say you have sorfeited your License if you conform not and without a License you may not Preach 4. And if you will question no mens orders you will have many Lay-Pastors To his 3d Quest. he answereth We question not your presentation Ans. And yet it is the Magistrate that must impose Ministers and in times of Usurpation he feigneth them to be unquestioned The sum hitherto is We must take any Man for our Pastor that is Ordained and presented But what if I knew that multitudes do not so doth it make them of that Church because they should consent and do not Of 1800 or 2000 only 600 would come to the Sacrament though they usually heard unless all the rest would receive it kneeling and administred by the Liturgy though they were left free to use that Gesture themselves and withal they were told that we had not a Bishops license The 4th Quest. is If we take you alone for our Pastor And it 's answered We know of no other in view but you Ans. All these are Fictions 1. I never desired nor consented to be their Pastor but to be one of three 2. I agreed with them in the Town-Hall publickly in writing to undertake only a Lecture which I had before the War in conjunction with another that should have the Presentation or Sequestration And yet honest Mr. Durel tells the World that it was a rich Benefice given me for my Service under Cromwel who would never endure me to speak to him 3. There were three Competitors One an old Vicar that somehow preacht once a Quarter that had the Presentation and was Sequestred 1. I will not tell you here for what 2. His Curate sequestred and removed 3. An old Chappel Curate grosly ignorant and vicious that lived by unlawful Marrying 4. And by all this you determine that of three of us none was Pastor but only that one that had the Presentation and so you depose all other Curates not presented And yet the Chappels that have such Curates put in only by the Parsons are true Churches such are your frequent Contradictions Sect. 16. Next as a meek Questioner he askt me Why I will not baptize their Infants if I take them for Christians and Parishioners He saith after If they make not a tolerable profession of Christianity in the publick Assembly they produce no valid claim we are not to admit them Ans. I suppose there are in the three next Parishes here 80000 Persons whom the Pastors never had any other account of as to their knowledg but by their coming to Church and half of them that rarely come And those of us that have talkt with almost all our Parishioners find that multitudes know not what Christianity or a Sacrament is A man about 80 years old in Kederminster said Christ was the Sun and the Holy Ghost the Moon Is standing up at the Creed then or sitting in the Church a tolerable profession Hobbes and his followers would do the same 2. But what obligation is on me to baptize all the Children of those that take me for none of their Pastor The Parish may have 20000 more than I am able to do the Pastoral Office for I cannot tell whether they come to Church or not If they do they are strangers to me some come into the Parish and others go out and many are Lodgers And he that as a Pastor is to Baptize is also to do abundance more to Catechize visit the Sick the Poor c. Am I bound to impossibilities for every stranger that I never knew Nor can I know so much as whether he be Christened or be indeed a Parishioner Yea a Church with you is only a present Assembly What if these persons assemble not or but twice or thrice a Year What if Travellers be that day of the Church Bishop Taylor saith Pref. of Repen No one can give account of those that he knoweth not Sect. 17. His talk of the Tares again deserveth no answer but read Expositors His repeated insinuation by the word Oaths and Covenants tell us that a good man may become un insinuater of Calumnies His two Conclusions pag. 55. from my words are 1. That they are no Churches that want this cementing Covenant Ans. They are none that are not so related by consent expressed by one way or other If you turn this into cementing Covenant when you had newly cited my express denial that express Covenanting was necessary ad esse it 's worse than Ceremony which you are already come to think lawful The 2d Concl. is The Churches that have it not in the most plain obliging way are defective spotted and ill-favoured because I said that the more express way is laudable ad bene esse As if all were called spotted and ill-favoured that want any thing laudable ad bene esse And will Christ take away his Churches spots and wrinkles Ephes. 6. when there were none And he saith This he calls the true and only way of the Churches Concord As if every word in the Book were called the true and onely Way It rather tendeth saith he to Discord and to make every single Minister a Pope or Church-tyrant and to make Churches Schismatical and traiterous Combinations dividing themselves from all other Churches and Christians c. Ans. 1. And yet he before said himself that the unwilling cannot be Pastor and Flock And is not this the same 2. Thus all Christ's Churches that ever I read of for 300 yea a 1000 Years are Stigmatized who still made expressed consent necessary 3. A Pope is one that claimeth Soveraignty over all the Church on Earth Doth he do so that taketh none for his Flock but Consenters 4. Which is liker Tyranny not to pretend to Government over any but Volunteers or to say I will Govern you whether you will or not 5. Is it Dividing and Schism to know my Flock as Consenters and not to take other Mens Flocks Sine literis Communicatâ—riis as oft as they will dwell or lodg in my Parish The words Oaths and Covenants are oft again so mentioned by him and his profession that he hath the Episcopal and Presbyterian on his side and other untruths so rashly uttered that I am heartily grieved for the success of his Temptation And whether he or I be Schismatical and differ from the Ancient Churches I refer the Reader to my Abridg. of Church History and to my Citations in my Book of Right to Sacraments My Preface to Mr. Rawlet's Book of the Sacrament confutes some of his Intimations I thank God that I am going to a more peaceable World FINIS