or disowned by most of the Land and conformists usually profess another sense Upon this very reason I write this short Debate to avoid the injuring of the Reâ—ders of my Writings about the English Diocesan frame XLII The Book I animadvert on is called Mr. Baxters Judgment and Reasons against câ—mmunicating with the Parish Assemblies as by Law râ—quâ—red Ans I am for communicating with them in the essentials of Christianity and Communion as the Law requireth if I understand it because the Law of Christ requireth it But in whatever circumstances any law shall â—e against Christs Law I communicate not according to such a Law XLIII All that he citeth out of my writings p. 2 3 is against his cause which he thought was for it as I have proved What he citeth § â— the first is unproved the second I own and is nothing for him XLIV P. 5. And oft throughout he alledgeth that I make the Parâ—shes not compleat particular Churches Ans No wonder those may be true churches that are not compleat in integrity or degree will you separate from all churches that are not so compleat I know not of any strictly compleat on earth many true churches are incompleat as to integrals much more as to ornament order and strength And all particular churches are less compleat than the universal and that on earth alas how far from compleat Believe him not Reader that R.B. is against your joining with all churches which he proveth to be not compleat yea or to be very faulty and defective in point of â—oliness Love or Order of Ministers or people But they are true churches in essentiality tho parts of a Diocess as that is of a Nation not meer parts of the lowest single Church P. 6. § 2. What I say of suspending the power is not nulling it in the office and what I say of practice by canons and visitation Articles is not said of Law much less of all the Churches and Pastors consent to them and what I say of misgoverning in exercise is not said of a national profession that so it ought to bâ— P. 7. He citeth my words further against restraint of the Ministers power But 1. That nulleth not Christs Institution of it 2. More Power is given As 1. To deny the Sacrament as is said to all that are not ready to be confirmed 2. To deny absolution to all the sick who do not humbly and earnestly desire it c. And the Power of doing it by Ministerial Application of Gods Word is all that is properly ministerial though they take all cogent power from us Mans taking away our power is but hindring the exercise quantum in se but the Power is of Christ which they cannot take away P. 8. They cannot suspend our commanded act but only our doing it with liberty and advantage I can refuse the Sacrament to the unfit tho it be to my trouble P. 9. I say there are many additions to the old conformity that make the case harder to Clergy and Laity than of old But I there maintain that none of these additions do make Parochial Communion now pleaded for unlâ—wful XLV P. 10. He saith If we might not endeavour to restore the old Prelacy then not to give strength to it being restored And say others lest we be perjured having sworn and covenanted against it Ans This needeth impartial Consideration They say That our covenant engagement maketh that unlawful to us which was lawful to the old Nonconformists But 1. Did not Gods Law make it unlawful to them or to us before Then you think we covenanted to do somewhat thâ—t â—ods law bound us not to if so it was superstition and is not adding our self-made vows and duties as bad as adding Ceremonies 2. Yea they then thought Brownism a sin and if they mistook not we cannot by covenanting turn sin into duty 3. Ad hominem the Author professeth Independency And I suppose he knoweth that the chief of that way did some write to prove that the Covenant bound not at last and some likened it to an Almanack out of date and some said it was a League which was dissolved and so bound not and how great a party thought that it bound them not from pulling down both King and many Parliaments and conquering Scotland res ipsâ— loqunta â—st And even King and Parliament Lord Spiritual Temporal and Commons have declared it their judgment in the Corporation Act and Declaration which bindeth all the Corporation Officers to declare without exception that there is no obligation on them or any other from the Oath called the solemn League and Covenant It 's true indeed that the Presbyterian Ministers and Soldiers and People thought that this Covenant bound them to restore the King and said Let us keep our covenant and trust God with the issue and G. Monks Army Officers in their address to him glory in it not doubting but the King would find such his best subjects but the Law that bindeth men to declare that there is no obligation on them or any other tells them they did err when they thought it bound them to restore the King Whether this be true or not I meddle not with but by this you see that there are few in the land of any party save Presbyterians that can charge us with Covenant breaking herein for going to the Parish Churches without contradicting themselves or guides but this is but ad Hominem 4. But what words be they in the Covenant that we violate did it mean If power restore the Liturgy and Bishops and will suffer no other Churches we will rather all give over all worship of God in churches than we will join with them This were a wicked Oath and could no more oblige us than to give over all family worship I hope few sober men ever so sware 5. I so little consent to the corporation declaration that I do believe that I was bound by that vow to do as I have done in going to the Parish Churches For 1. I am bound by it against Prophaneness and all that 's câ—ntrary to sound Doctrine and Godliness But to forsake all publick Worship of God without necessity is prophaneness and câ—ntrary to Godliness 2. I am bound in my place and calling to oppose Popery But to tell all the Protestants in England that they sin if they forsake not all the Parish Churches is to preâ—are them for the reception of Popery seeing that will be the National Religion which possesseth those Parish Churches By deserting our Garisons we shall deliver them up 3. I am bound by it against Schism and I am not able to excuse it from being Schism if under all the obligations that now lye upon us I should by my constant avoiding the Parish Churches even unto sufferings declare that I take their Communion for absolutely unlawful and so slander so many Churches of Christ and seduce others with me into the same error and sin This would be
may command all that consent to signifie it by such a sign as standing or lifting up the hand or subscribing c. And they are bound to obey them 6. I have oft enough instanced in Translations Metres Tunes Utensils Ornaments and many such like Obj. The Pastors make no Laws Ans Dally not with names Any thing is a Law which ruling authority maketh duty If Writing it maketh a Law they may write it But a verbal-Mandate is one species of a Law And imposeth and determineth and obligeth to obedience and it is sin to disobey because God commandeth them to obey Heb. 13.17 And even by the 5th Commandment It doth as truly limit and oblige when Pastors command as when Magistrates do it tho they force not by the Sword Obj. But these are but natural circumstances and belong no more to worship than to any other things Ans It 's a sad thought to me to think how many seem satisfied with such an answer as this All substances have their accidents quality time place c. But yet the accident of one substance is not the accident of another The quantity and quality of a man is not the quantity and quality of a Toad c. When these accidents are adjoyned to worship they be not accidents of other things Is Speaking no part nor accident of worship because speaking is used in common things Kneeling is used in other cases But kneeling in prayer to express reverence is not common to other things Putting off the hat sheweth Reverence to a Prince But to be uncovered at Prayer or Sacrament is the Accident at least of that Worship and not of other things Metre and Tunes belong to Ballads But the Metre and Tune of Psalms doth not but is appropriate to those Psalms Time and Place belong to all natural actions But the Time and Place separated to Gods Worship is an accident only of that It is not the natural specification of an act or circumstance or the generical nature that we speak of but the individual accident or circumstance as appropriate to a religious work Is love to God no worship because love is a natural act Is praying no act of Religion because we may pray to men Is eating and drinking no part of the Sacrament because we use them as natural acts for our daily sustenance Is washing no part of Baptism because we wash at other times Thinking is a natural act but holy thinking is more Were Davids sorts of Musick no part or accident of Worship because Musick is natural or artificial It magnifieth these acts to be applied to worship and it is a commendation of Worship-Ordinances that they are suited to nature and advance and sanctifie it Now at last I come closer to my question Have you no Church Rulers among you No Elders that rule well Is it unlawful to communicate with you if those Elders by Mandates which are obligatory to the flock do prescribe Days and Hours Temples or publick places for ordinary Worship and if they command you to use the new Translation rather than the Geneva publickly or prescribe the same Metre and Tunes rather than your Congregation shall sing some one Psalm and some another Or if they command them to be uncovered at Sacrament and Prayer or to kneel at prayer c. If you take this power from the Pastors and will separate from them for such obliging Laws or Mandates you do that very thing which you fiercely talk against you destroy or resist Christs Kingly Government by his Officers Oh what is Man What are the best of Men What doth the Church and World suffer by them The same men that cry up Christs Kingdom call it rebellion against him to obey his Officers As if we must depose or disobey the King unless we disobey all his Judges Justices and Officers All the obligatory decisions that the Apostles made about their Love Feasts anointing the sick the Kiss of Love long Hair covering or uncovering order of prophecying and of collections c. were not standing Laws to us nor done by uncommunicable power but were temporary Laws and local and such as their Successors when fit may make If you have no such Rulers in your Churches you should queston whether your Churches have the true order of Pastors as well as you question the Parish Ministers Do they not want ruling power as well as theirs specially if you deny the very power and they be but hindred in the exercise Obj. But some may be forced to say Our Pastors do nothing but by the peoples consent Ans They are their Pastors by consent and rule them as voluntary and not by force But their rule and precepts are never less obligatory on Conscience by vertue of Gods command to obey them Must they prescribe none of the things forementioned till all have voted it or consented They must command them to consent and they sin if they disobey tho they can force none to obey Object But some may be driven to say We allow such prescribing power to Pastors but not to Magistrates Ans 1. What Power the Kings of Judah used in Worship David Solomon Asa Jehosaphet Hezekiah Josiah I need not tell 2. Christ came not to put down Kings but to sanctifie their office All power is given him By him Kings reign The Kingdoms of the world are his by right Rulers are his Ministers for our good They must punish evil doers and promote well doing He commands us to honour and obey them They are keepers of both Tables They may drive Ministers to their duty and punish them for mal-administration Tho they may usurp nothing proper to the pastoral office nor forbid them any such thing yet such circumstances as belong to the nation or to many Churches and not to this or that in peculiar the Magistrates may determine It is of great use that all the approved Churches in a Nation signifie their consent in the same Confession of Faith the same anniversary days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving as is done about the Powder Plot and the same Translation of the Scripture if not also the same Psalm Books God strictly commandeth Concord and to serve him with one mind and mouth and to avoid confusion and division and discord What reason can any man give why Christs Officers appointed to rule by the sword may not thus discharge their trust Shall we sin if the Law impose a Translation Psalm Book or reverent gesture unless we separate Is commanded obedience become a sin And yet not if a Pastor or a ruling Majority of people injoin it or unless we leave all to confusion X. Here therefore I utterly renounce the opinion that shall hold that such things being lawful when uncommanded become unlawful when commanded by such as in Ministry Magistracy or Families or Schools are Rulers Yea if the Ruler misdo his work the sin is his I must not separate from every Kingdom Church or Family that is ill governed Nor am I
will be more sounder than our writing This Author exclaims against me as Popish Arminian for Justification by works for merit c. May it not be expected that I preach as bad as I write And is it not then a sin to be my hearer Can I think that he will not preach as ill as he writeth in this book And are all sinners therefore for hearing him I promise him that if I know of any Parish Minister that will usually preach with as much error reflexion and gall as he here writeth I will be none of that mans hearers or usual Communicants But to this he saith P. 19. We distinguish between the rule of worship and the administration and performance 1. It is not sins of ordinary infirmity 2. Nor sins not foreknown so as to prevent joining with them but them that worship God by a false rule c. Ans 1. This is the great strength of all his Book That we sin by a false rule but they sin only against a true rule but I think nothing is sin indeed but that which is against a true rule even Gods word making and using a false rule is therefore sin because it is against the true rule Most hypocrites are supposed to own a true rule while they are false to it and sin against it To sin against knowledge and an acknowledged rule is an aggravation of the sin and such shall be beaten with many stripes Paul opens it to the Jews Rom. 2. at large therefore this will not excuse our communion with such 2. This Reason crosseth the business of the opponent for whereas the greatest reason against Communion with Parish Churches is the badness of the Communicants and Ministers lives these are not the obeying of the Law or Canons but disobeying them The Law called the Rule bids no man swear rashly lye be drunk unclean slander rail c. Nay it commandeth the Minister to deny the Sacrament to such Ignorance unbelief hypocrisie are not commanded but forbidden by that Rule Ministers break the rule iâ— they preach error or heresie or against Love and Peace and promote not Godliness and mens salvation with all holy diligence by Doctrine and Life so that no sins against this is cause of separation if it be only using a false rule that is just cause 3. But what is the false Rule The word Rule maketh all this excuse and accusation of his a meer equivocation In general a rule is any thing to which we purposely conform our actions that they may be right Of this there are divers sorts 1. The Primary Rule is the absolute Law of God to which all mens actions should be conformed 2. Subordâ—nate humane Rules These are of divers sorts 1. The obliging commands of Authority 1. Of Magistrates 2. Pastors 3. Parents and Masters of Families 4. School-Masters and Tutors of Youth c. 2. Contracts or Agreements of men for concord 1. Gods Law is never a false rule but an erring Expositor may make the words the matter of a false rule by putting on them a false sense 2. Just subordinate rules are not false justly used 1. Magistrates rule either by common Laws or temporary and particular Mandates both being obligatory to duty and indeed but several sorts of Laws while they use but that authority which God gave them Laws or Mandates are just rules 2. Pastors can make duty by ruling-authority for none but the Flocks committed to them They may command what God authorizeth them to command whether it be by word or writing is all one And whether you will call it a Law or not the name altereth not the case Tho indeed in the general notion all is true law which authoritatively by command maketh a subjects duty It s a true rule when the Ruler goeth not beyond his authority Heb. 13.7 17 24. 1 Thes 5.12 17 c. 3. The same must be said of Parents Masters Tutors c. 4. Agreements or contracts are rules made for Concord by the self-governing power that all men have over themselves and they are just rules when justly used 5. Besides all these most make a mans own reason judgment or conscience the immediate subordinate rule of his actions Indeed it is more fitly called the discerner of his rule and duty as the eye is to the body For it maketh not duty but discerneth it made But if any will call the Understanding a Rule to the Will instead of a Guide we may bear with the impropriety All this is clear truth Now the question is how any of these subordinate rules are just or false 1. Two things God hath not only allowed but commanded them all to do about Religion 1. To command subjects as Gods officers to obey Gods Laws and in just cases to punish the breakers of them in matters within their jurisdiction And to do this by Laws Mandates Judgment and Execution 2. To make subordinate Mandates or Laws for determining such Circumstances as God hath commanded them to determine by the General Law of Governing or Ruling and of doing all to unity concord edification peace order and decency These things Christian-Magistrates may do Nationally Pastors to their Flocks Masters to their Families and Scholars and equals Pastors and People may make fit agreements where they are free And these rules may be called false or true in several degrees 1. It 's gross falsood and usurpation to set up an office forbidden of God and false in its very nature 2. It 's next in degree false for men of an office of Gods institution to command things utterly out of their calling and jurisdiction in which they have no power from God mediately or immediately Conscience binds none to formal obedience propter authoritatem imperantis to either of these tho material obedience and non-resistance may be duties The lower degree is when the office is of God and the matter is in their power and not only belonging ad alienum forum But they mis-determine it in the manner not usurping anothers office but doing their own amiss Tho herein conscience is not bound to obedience gratia materiae sub ratione indebiti modi yet if the matter be not forbidden of God obedience may be a duty herein sub ratione medii necessary to several ends that is to concord to honour the governor to avoid offâ—nce and to avoid greater hurt to the Church others or our selves But if the thing commanded be forbidden of God no man must do it But divers things commanded unlawfully in the manner may become duties by that command because they be made thereby needful means of Unity Peace Honour to Rulers c. as aforesaid which else would have been sin as to meet at an inconvenient time or place to use a Translation metre c. less fit Now all these being subordinate rules they bind only subordinately by virtue of Gods supreme rule who made them rulers and he is no ruler that can give no rule even as corporation
By Laws bind only by vertue of the Soveraigns higher Law And tho this Author would be the Ruler of Language so far as to say that all sinful Worship is not false Worship they that use words as greater Masters have long stated the sence do know that the falseness is the disconformity to Gods supream Rule and that may be in all the degrees forementioned And Rules or Worship are both false so far as they are disconform to the Law of God And now wherein is our Rule false and theirs true 1. We own no Rule of direct immediate obedience to God nor of any universal or unchangeable duty to God but what his Law of Nature or supernatural doth make us We hold that no man hath power to alter Gods word to command any thing against it nor any thing which God hath appropriated to himself as to make new conditions of salvation new Sacraments new Laws as Gods or new duties for themselves necessary to Salvation no nor any thing but what Gods own General Law doth command or allow them to determine being left by him undetermined to their Power and Rule We hold that if any Ruler go contrary to and beyond those Rules of God it is their sin and not ours and we openly disown it And so do our Rulers in general themselves most expresly in the Books of Articles Ordination Homilies Apology c. Binding all Ministers to the Scripture for the Rule of their Preaching and Living only infallible sufficient in all things necessary to Salvation and that if Councils or any men err or disagree with Scripture they are not to be followed We openly renounce all false Rules and Canons but if for such sin against their own profession of Scripture-sufficiency we must renounce Communion with all that are guilty we scarce know the Church on Earth which we must not renounce And the opponents in Particular 2. For let us try now whether you have no Rule which you call False as well as false or sinful practice But I will first take in his fuller explication left I mistake him IX Page 37. I roundly assert against you That tho every Church of Christ hath the liberty aad priviledge to act prudentially or make prudential determinations concerning the present use of indifferent things pro hic nunc yet to make any standing or binding determination and Laws for themselves or other is altogether unlawful as highly derogatory to the Kingly office of Christ and robbing themselves or others of their granted priviledge and so a forfeiture of their Charter And so all your by-standing laws and subordinate Laws for worship which you talk of are unwarrantable additions to the word of God Ans 1. This indeed is round assreting but your word is no proof and here is no better Contraily 1. Those whom Christ maketh Rulers of his Church and commandeth to do all things not particularly determined by him as shall conduce to peace concord order decency and edification may Rule accordingly by such determinations But some such there are whom Christ maketh Rulers of his Church c. ergo c. Maj. Prob. Matth. 24. Who then is a faithful and wise Servant whom the Lord hath made ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season c. 1 Thes 5.12 Know them who are among you and are over you in the Lord c. 1 Cor. 4.12 Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God c. Heb. 13.7 17.24 Remember them who have the Rule over you c. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account c. Salute all that have the rule over you c. 1 Tim. 5.17 The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour 1 Cor. 14.26 Let all things be done to edifying 4. Let all things be done decently and in order 33. God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the Saints By all this it is evident that Church Rulers there must be and such successors of the Apostles in the ordinary parts of their office as Christ will be with to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 And also in what their Rule consisteth Now to the question of Imposing I premise that tho this usurper of a Magistry in Language will have Imposing taken still in an ill sense I leave that to him it is enough for me to tell him that I take it according to the prime signification to put a thing on others without respect to well or ill doing it 1. I know not whether by every Church he intend a meer voting body of People and Pastors by consent or the Pastors alone as the Rulers of a voluntary People 2. I know not whether he take prudential determinations as distinct from Governing Obligations or not 3. I know not whether by present use he mean it only for one present meeting or for more and for how many and how long And by standing how long he meaneth I grant to him that no man may make universal or unchangeable Laws but temporal and mutable and only for his own subjects But I maintain 1. That Pastors may by word or writing make binding commands or determinations to their Flocks of the foresaid modes and circumstances of Religion and Worship For 1. They are such as are necessary in genere and the determination to this or that sort disjunctively necessary Somebody must determine them and that for more than the present meeting even statedly And it belongs to the Rulers office to do it None else is fit or hath any other power than by contract I have oft enough instanced in particulars It is not meet that every meeting the People be put to Vote where to meet next And there is no certainty that they will agree but some be for one place and some for another An ordinary capacious place is necessary It is the Rulers office to appoint it It 's no sin against Christ for him to require them to come to the same place from year to year while it is fit 2. The same I say for a commanding determination of the Lecture-days or times of meeting which the Pastor may prescribe statedly by his office without the Peoples votes Or if all such things were imposed by a Major Vote on the Minor their Vote would be a Governing Rule to the Minor part 3. While Praying with the Hatt on is by the custom of the country a sign of unreverence the Pastors or Elders that Rule well may command the Flocks by their authority ordinarily and not at the present only to be uncovered at Prayer and Sacrament in the assembly without wronging Christs Power unless obeying it be wronging it The same I say of usual kneeling at Prayer 5. If the Congregation be called to confess their Faith or renew their Covenant with God the Rulers
Communicant hath not so much more than I. XXXVI But say they then you are bound to avâ—â—d sâ—andal by professing openly that you Communicate 〈◊〉 a Dissenter and not with the Church as established by Law Ans 1. Then I should falsly say that which I either think is otherwise or am not resolved in I tell you Few can truly say this if any 2. What need this when the open Profession of all Christians is That it is a Church and Worship of Christs making which they own and intend and none that is against them And when the Articles of the Church of England and the Ordination covenant own Scripture-sufficiency and disclaim all that is against Gods word Must we be supposed to renounce Religion when we meet to profess it And surely for disowning any thing which the Nonconformists judg unlawful all the Books written by them and all the notorious sufferings in twenty two years Ejection and Prosecution are no obscure Notification of their Judgments without speaking it at the Church â—oors or before the Assemblies Must I openly protest against Independency Anabaptistry or Presbytery if I dissent before the face of their Congregations if I will Communicate with them 3. But to stop your demand befâ—re I Communicated in the Parish â—hurch where I now am I went to the Incumbent and told him that I would not draw him into danger or intrude against his will I had been â—â—iled by the Kings Commission and after by the Lord Keeper to debate about Alteration in the Liturgy and Worship and Discipline and I thought that thereby I waâ— by 〈◊〉 6 7 8. ipso facto Excommunicate but not bound to do Execution on my self and therefore if I were separated it should not be my act but I left it to his will He took time and upon advice admitted me Obj. But you must tell them that the Parish Church hath no dependance on the Bishops but as the Kings Officers and that it is Independent and then you fall not under our opposition Ans 1. How many Lawyers and Civilians do openly say as Crompton before Cosins Tables that all Church Government floweth from the King And doth that satisfie you 2. And why must the Parish Church and Pastor needs be Independent Will you have no Communion with Presbyterians 3. And what if it be dependent on the Diocesan as governour tho not as destroyer Is it any more destructive of its Essence than to be governed by a Classis or Council XXXVII As for your telling us Wâ—â—m the Canons eâ—câ—mmunicate or 〈◊〉 Lay-chancellors Officials Surrogates Archdeacâ—ns c. excâ—mmunicate what Oaths they impâ—se c. tell them of it and not us who are not responsible for other mens deeds It no more concerneth our cause of Parochial Lay-communion than to tell us how bad men some Ministers are nor so much neither For I that willingly joyn in the Liturgy will not willingly if I know it so much as seem to own the Ministry of any man that is notoriously Insufficient Atheistical Heretical or so Malignant or Wicked as to do more hurt than good Avoid such and spare not XXXVIII Obj. They want the Peoples câ—nsent and so are no Pastâ—rs Ans The People shew their consent by ordinary Submission and Communion Obj. The People must be supposed to consent to the Law which maketh them no Pastors but the Bishops Curates Ans Both the Suppositions are before confuted both that the People are supposed to consent to any Law against Gods and that the Law maketh Curates to be no Pastors XXXIX To conclude the Objections about the Essence of Parish Churches 1. The question is not Whether there be not a sort of Diocesan Prelacy which nulleth them 2. Nor whâ—ther there be not some men in England that write and plead for such Diocesan Churches as have no true Episcopâ—s pregis much less Episcopus 〈◊〉 under them but are 〈◊〉 Bishops in that Diocess Nor of what number power or interest these men are of against whom I have oft written 3. But whether the Law be on their side or against them for the old Diocesan Government of subordinate Pastors and Churches is to me nâ—w uncertain I did once incline most to the fiâ—â—t sense of the Law but on secâ—nd thoughts hope better of it and am not Lawyer good enough to be certain 4. But if it should be so I verily think â—â—e main 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 not to renounce their Pâ—rish â—overnment â—ut only to use it in subordination to the Bishop 5. And I am pâ—st doubt that all the Communicants of England are neither â—ound to decide this Law-doubt nor to understand it nor to believe that the Law hath altered the Government 6. And if they did believe it they ought to keep on in Church Assemblies according to Christs Law taking all that 's against it as void as long as they are put â—n no sin themselves nor the Church notoriously renounceth its â—ssentials 7. And if they were stated Members of other Churches e.g. the Greâ—k the Dutch the French they might â—ccasionally Communicate in our Parishes transiently without examining the Pastors call and discipline but judging by possession and practice 8. And if they should prove no lawfully called Ministers their Office would be valid to those that blamelesly were deceived and knew it not 9. And if they were sure that they were no true Ministers they may joyn with them in all Worship belonging to Lay-Christians 10. But if they prove able godly Ministers of Christ tho faulty setled by Law to the advantage of Religion in a Christian Kingdom where all are commanded thus to maintain national Concord and the upholding those Churches is the very National possession of the Protestant Religion and it goeth for publick Disobedience and Scandal to forsake them and that at a time when many forsake them too for unjust grounds and by suffering for it stand to unwarrantable Accusations of them and sharply Censure those that do not as they and oppugne Peacemakers and all this after the old Nonconformists full Confutation of the Separatists unwarrantable way and the doleful experience of Subversion of all sorts of Government by the Prosecution of such mistakes I say If all this should be the case it is deeply to be considered XL. But the most effectual hindrance is the opinion of unlawfulness in jâ—yning in the Liturgy yet my last Objectors confess that It is lawful to some and that it is nâ—t Communion in it much less in all forms which they call unlawful tâ— all And the sober sort are loth to say tâ—at the Millions of Christians in England and Scotland who live where they can be in no other Churches should rather like Atheists live without all Church-Worship and local Communion And in gaining this I have gained the better half of what I pleaded for And they confess and so do I that publick Communion may be one mens duty and anotâ—â—rs sin as circumstances vary
Schism and Covenant-breaking in me whatever it is in others XLVI Obj. But you swore against Prelacy and Liturgy and now you strengthen them Ans 1. As the Covenant was made the terms or test of national Church Union excluding all the Episcopal who were half the Kingdom and more I think it was a rash sinful Engine of unavoidable division But when I took it it was not so imposed but offered to them that were of that mind and I saw not then that snare 2. I never swore against the Common-Prayer nor against the Englsh frame of Prelacy much less all Episcopacy any further than in my place and calling to endeavour Reformation according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches And this I have endeavoured to the utmost of my power perhaps more than my accusers And 3. There is much good in the Liturgy Parish Order and Government I never did covenant against that and therefore the Ministers who laboured for Reformation and Concord 1660 and 1661 thought they kept their covenant by craving some amendments and not an abolition and if we did think any thing to be bad that was good we must not be obstinate in that error forsaking the good which is our duty is not the way to amend any sin or error avoiding Gods publick Worship and living like Atheists save in private is not the way to amend the faults of publick Worship or Government Praying to God for what we want and owning the Scriptures and Christian Religion and communicating with Christians on lawful terms is not encouraging any sin in church Priests or Prelates unless men by our duty will be encouraged to sin and we must not forsake duty to avoid such mens encouragement the sons of the Coal are most angry with those that come nearest to them in all things save their sin and error and say those that stand afar off cannot hurt them I do not justâ—fie all that is in every Assembly that I join with must I needs renounce Local communion with every Independent Presbyterian or Anabaptist church that I dissent from for fear of strengthning them I covenanted as much against Schism as faulty Prelacy and yet if I must join with no church that is guilty of Schism alas whither shall I go 4. I humbly desire you to examine whether your way be not a breach of the covenant you plead not only as it advantageth Prophaneness Popery and Schism but as it strengtheneth that which you say I strengthen he knoweth not England who knoweth not that perceiving the error of unwarrantable separation and the unjust accusations of the Liturgy and churches used by very many besides some failings in some private churches hath been and is a grand cause of encouraging too great a number even to superconformity and to the fierce opposition of us and to the utmost confidence in their own way and as you charge me more than others as drawing more to the communion of Godly Protestant Parish Ministers that is to christian catholick love peace and communion So do the Sons of the Coal the superconformists more fiercely revile me as stopping more than you have done from their extremities Gods Word is a sufficient rule keep to that and fear not breaking any self-made laws XLVII Obj. But by this latitude you may join with Papists and say you judg of them according to Christs description Ans I answered this in the former book When I joyn with any church as a church I join with them as meeting to profess and practice christian faith and worship their by faults I own not But if they openly profess Idolatry or Heresie instead of Worship and Faith or if they meet to practice any sin which renders the whole church or worship rejected by God I must not assemble with them but avoid them which I must not do for tolerable failings lest I avoid all the world I say again I will cast away my Wine or Broth for Poyson in it which I will not do for a fly If the church renounce Christs description in the essentials notoriously I will not call it a church against their own consent But if they do it only in some Accident or Integrals I will only disown those faults XLVIII Obj. But say they p. 13.14 It is impossible there should be two national churches at least in one nation therefore by joining with a Parish you can be no part of the national church tho we confess that if you join with a Parish Assembly that forms it self into a compleat single church and the people â—onsent to take the Parish Minister for their Pastor and the Minister should exercise the whole power of a Pastor in this Parish church Mr. B. may hold communion with this Parish church and not own the Diocesan constitution Ans Of two churches in one assembly I spake before 1. Doth this Author think that exercise of power is as essential to a Minister as Power Yea that it must be the whole power that is exercised and so that no one is a true Pastor among the Presbyterians when the Classis exerciseth the highest part of the Power nor in Helvetia where Discipline is unexercised nor in England from the first Reformation Were all the Conformists that submitted to Diocesans no Church-Pastors nor no Independents whose Churches having many Pastors and Elders no one exerciseth no nor hath more than part of the power Integrity and essentiality office and exercise are not all one 2. All good Ministers that I know in the Parish Assemblies do consent to the Pastoral Office and the people love them and shew their consent by ordinary Communion and they exercise all essential to the office tho under the restraints of Government not owning in consent destructive but governing Diocesans some as de jure divino lawful some as best some as necessary many as merely impowered to a cogent Government by the King and doth not your concession imply that these are true Churches of intolerable men I speak not 3. What you confidently deny is certainly true There may be two national churches in one nation if not three that is the word is equivocal and hath divers sences and it is not called national because all persons in the nation are of it but because that the diffused parts of the Nation own it formally in a publick national relation 1. A Christian Kingdom as such is by many called a national Church thus England is such 2. A coalition of the most or all the publick Ministers in a Nation in Synodical Agreements for Communion as such is called a National Church such also is England 3. The subjection of the most of the Clergy in a nation by consent to some Ecclesiastical Primate Patriarch or other constitutive governing Head as a Bishop is in his Diocess may make a national Church in another sence The same men may be of divers of these equivocal Churches or if part be for one form and part
destroy it but their sin may consist with the true office that is hindred If we cannot pray without penalty we are yet bound to pray And if any such penalties should prevail with any Ministers to cast off so much of Discipline as is indeed their duty their office is so far destroyed as to its exercise But it is not every ill Council Canon Bishop or Priest of old when they began to be corrupted that changed and nullified the Pastoral Power and Office as from Christ I have repeated things over and over here because I would not be misunderstood nor leave a snare behind me to mislead men The sum again is 1. The Pastoral Office in specie is instituted by Christ and his Spirit therefore the essence of it is unchangeably fixed by him and no Bishops or Churches may change it by pretending they may give Presbyters as their servants what degree or kind of power they please or make the office another thing II. The said office in mutable accidents or circumstances may be altered by Princes Laws or the several Churches Agreements and thus far it is humane Of the Divine sort was the Apostolick and other extraordinary Prophetick offices And the ordinary Presbytery commonly called Priesthood and Elders setled over particular Churches were Episcâ—pi Gregis Bishops over the flock And of the humane sort is the Presidency of one in every single Church over the rest of the Presbyters who was the Episcopus Presbyterorum a Bishop over the Presbyters of one single Church as well as over the people This was the old Episcopacy of the first three Centuries this is it which I say our Diocesans have put down and we that would have them restored and would have such a Bishop and Assistant Elders in every Church are by the heighth of impudency said to be against Bishops because we would have them restored to each Church tho not as essential to it as hath been thought of old yet as a way of peace to comply with Antâ—quity and avoid singularity and they that put down many score or hundred Bishops and instead of them would have but one call themselves Episcopal III. Whether Arch-bps Diocesans as successors of the Apostles in the ministerial care of many Churches by the word and not the sword be of Divine or Human Institution I am in doubt IV. The cogent Power by the Sword is only the Magistrates and if Diocesans appropriate this only they are Magistrates and thereby take none of our office from us V. The â—ssence of the Parish ministerial oversight being of God de specie and the accidents that are mutable from man the existence of the office in individual persons is not without consent of the Pastors so that no man can be a Pastor against or without his will nor yet without a capacity in qualifiâ—atiâ—n so that if you prove any person to be uncapablâ— or else to have truly disclaimed and renounced the essentials of his office I am not about to perswade you that such a man is a true Pastor VI. But then we must know that indeed it is such an incapacity or renunciation and not a tollerable defect nor subscriptions and Oaths which by unseen consequences may seem to renounce it when the man took them in a sense which renounced it not For tho such a man may greatly sin by taking Oaths or subscriptions in a forced sense which plainly taken would infer worse yet his sin is not a renunciation of the office if he declare that he meant it in a better sence and took it on such mistake for we must not for bare words against mens meaning quibble or dispute our selves into unwarrantable separations out of Christian Communion especially when it is specially necessary VII And if any lay-men or men unauthorized will usurp the Keys or any Councils will make hurtful Canons and hinder men in the work appointed by God we must be faithful and patient and God in due time will judg and decide all causes justly VIII The office-power is essentially related to the work so far as Parochial Incumbents are allowed the work as of Christ they are acknowledged to be Pastors and Bishops of the flocks tho the name were denied them and so far as the Bishops office may be delegated to Lay-men or to Clergy-men of another Order so far it is Humane and not proper to them by Gods Institution They therefore that say All Diocesans Jurisdiction may be so delegated to them that are no Bishops but that the Pastoral Rectorship by Word Sacraments and Keys cannot be delegated to any men that are not of the same office do thereby say as much as that the Diocesan government is of men and may be changed by men but the Pastoral Incumbency is of Christ and cannot be changed The Lord that instituted it protect it and save it from Satans most dangerous assault which is by getting his own servants into it by error and malignity and strife and cruelty to do his work as the Ministers of Righteousness and as by Christs Authority and in his name London Aug. 13. 1684. POSTSCRIPT Aug. 25. 1684. HE that gave me notice of this Book which I answer did withall send me a Manuscript to be privately answered containing the very same things but somewhat enlarged His displeasure against my former mention of his private Writings to me and the Contents made me confident that he would not have any thing Published which I should answer to his last By which I found my self in a notable strait For if he at once privately sent me his reasons and also in another Book Printed them if I should answer his private papers which reason forbad me doing in my condition for his use alone I should judg my self forestalled from answering the Printed Book because the matter being the very same and 't is likely by the same man I should be supposed to have broken the Laws of Civility to have answered his private papers But having no Amanuensis or Scribe to take any Copy of his papers or my own I thought it the best way to return his unanswered they being Written for my use which Reading will as fully serve as answering them but supposing the Printed papers must be answered I inserted also an answer to the strength of all his additionals in the Manuscript And at last he giveth me some notice of his thoughts of publishing the Manuscript or a vindication of it Which falls well for the Readers use that I have answered that Manuscript before it is Published without taking notice of it and sâ— avoiding wordy altercations The Author professeth himself my great acquaintance Who he is I know not but he seemeth to be a very rational sober man God forbid that I should ever contribute unless duty do it accidentally to the grievance of such men I doubt not but he speaketh as he thinketh And I doubt I have given him occasions by some uncautelous words in my writings I
discharged from obedience in lawful things by the addition of some unlawful commands that destroy not acceptable Worship and turn not our food to Poyson I tell those Ministers that publickly charge this on Nonconformists that they must not charge any Doctrine of Seekers or Anabaptists or such separatists to be the Nonconformists Doctrine I know not one meer Nonconformist of that mind What we of this Age thought of Epâ—scopacy Liturgy and Magistracy all that would come in and own that cause openly with us have told the world in our published Proposals of 1660 and 1661 To which we refer them that would know their minds XI But when I oft alledged the example of Christ and the Apostles this Objector and Answerer saith p. 19. We make not Christ and his Apostles Hypocrites for we have proved that Christ never joined with false worship so much as with his presence at the place of it unless with this intent to bear witnâ—ss against it nor did he ever advise his disciples so to dâ— As for Moses Chair it was then Christs own Institution and he had thâ—n no other Church or Institution on earth Ans It was cautelously done to pass by the instances of the Apostles that neither separated nor commanded one man to separate from all the faulty Churches Rev. 2.3 Notwithstanding the Woman Jezabâ—â—s Doctrine and that of the Nicolaitans which God hated and the evil practices nor from the Church of Corinth where were carnal Schisms Defraudings Lawsuits before Heathens incest unlamented Sacrament disorders even to excess of drink disorder in Church Worship c. Nor from any other faulty Churches Methâ—nâ—s thâ—y that are so strict against any additions in Modes of Worship should not so much add or alter Scripture or accuse it of deâ—â—ctiveness as to suppose the Apostles to have culpably communicated with such Churches as Coâ—inth Coloss Ephesus Sardis Laodicea Smyâ—na c. yea and with the Jews who by falsifying the Rules called it unlawful to eat with the Gentiles or to eat what Moses Law foâ—bad and not to keep their days Pauls accomplishing of his Vow in the Tâ—mple and becoming a Jew to the Jews was fully contrary to the opponents Dâ—ctrine And as to Christs practice we said before you that he conformed not to any evil nor should you But did he not send the Lepers to a false ill-called corrupt sort of Priests to do by and with them what the Law required Did he not ordâ—narily joyn in the Synagogues in their worshâ—p Could he have leave constantly to teach there if he had there used to cry down their ordinary worship Had the Ceremonious Pharisees no ill forms nor ceremonies in their Worship Again I say Their long Prayers which were the Cloak of their oppression were either â—xtâ—mporate or forms of Liturgy If extemporate then the worst of Hypocrites may constantly use long extemporate Prayers and it had been no injury to the Spirit in them to have perswaded them to use Christs form instead of them If they were Liturgies then Christ did not separate from such no nor reprove them at all when he reproveth the hypocritical abuse of them Yea seemeth to commend them while he nameth them as a Cloak to cover evil which nothing is fit for that is not good Obj. He had no othâ—r Church Ans 1. Then most in England mâ—y go to the Parish Churches where they have no other Church to go to 2. But Christ had twelve Apostles and 70 or 72 other Teachers and many more Disciples Were these no Church nor matter for a Church XII Obj. Page 4. God hath not left it in our power to communicate with any society when they make that the condition of my Communion which I am convinced of to be sin to me that I question whether it be lawful or no c. Ans How oft have I answered this without any reply 1. If they make your consent to any sin the condition of your Communion you must avoid it But if they put no sin on you to be present when they sin is a condition to all Church Communion and to your own praying who sin in all your self you before excepted sins of ordinary infirmity as not warranting separation And when did you ever prove that the composing and imposing of the Liturgy much more the Obedient use of the Lords-day part is not a sin of infirmity as much as slandering it and the Churches and writing such Books as yours Accusing is not proving 2. If your taking it for sin be true you must forbear it If you mistake it for sin which is duty per se or per accidens you sin against God and truth by your mistake and by your Omission God bindeth you to alter your Judgment and so he doth if you take an indifferent thing for sin tho here it is safest to forbear An erring Conscience is no Lawmaker less then a Magistrate but a misconceiver and doth ligare non obligare XIII Obj. But none of the things are indeed Worship which you say men may command Ans That man shall be none of my guide that makes questions of bare names to seem to the people as if they were about the matter named They are such accidents of the Worship which God himself commandeth as are done in the outward expression of reverence and honour to God and the more decent and edifying performance of his own Institutions This is the description of them Kneeling being uncovered swearing with outward signs singing in Tunes Metre c. Agree to the thing and call these Worship or no Worship as you please You say False Worship is no Worship If so it is no bad Worship but all faulty Worship is not null XIV As for his general talk of me how much I have promoted Popery and being for Justification by works and merit c. I give him leave to ease his Stomach without an Answer and all those to be deceived by him that will take his word and not read mine especially my Treatise of imputed Righteousness Page 9. He saith When the Scripture speaks of justification by faith Doth any sound Divine or Christians understand it of the act of believing but that its the objâ—ct of faith that justifieth Ans See how strictly these men stick to Scripture that will have it the sole Law of Circumstances and yet can deny it as Expositors at their pleasure when Paul over and over so often saith That we are justified by faith and faith is imputed for righteousness and Christ saith Thy faith hath saved thee It is not faith that they mean but Christ It is faith in Christ There is no faith but the act or habit of believing Rom. 3.21 The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ on all that believe 25. Through faith in his blood 26. The justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Many ways such will be odiously perverted if you put Christ instead of Faith we are justified by no
my duty to God besides faults long ago pardoned and common humane infirmities And it is not mens calling duty by the name of the most odious sins that depriveth Martyrs of their reward with God The false imputation of sin by men was not the least part of the sufferings of Christ and his Apostles and the Martyrs in all ages XVII And because others as well as I have need of such admonition I will tell my Brethren that our chief work is the same with Jâ—bs to frustrate the Tempter and see that in all this we sin not nor charge God foolishly And he that only triumpheth in suffering in conscience of his innocency and doth not know that suffering hath its proper temptations and studyeth not wisely how to escape them will suffer more by himself than by all his enemies I will therefore tell you what are the temptations here which I fear and watch against 1. Lest the injuries of men should destroy my due charity to them Tho its true that the setled Study and labour of some for factious or carnal ends be to destroy Christian Love and serious Godliness and the Souls Bodies and estates of the most innocent who they think stand in their way and falsehood hatred and destruction are the Devils work and image and no man must extenuate such crimes John 8.41 42. Yet Diabolisme is not to be imputed to all that men suffer by much less to our Govornours whom we must honour Paul himself persecuted in ignorance and Christ said they know not what they do Much less must we blame others if truly the cause be only in our selves 2. Much more must we watch against desires of revenge or call for fire from Heaven or imitate any that injure us by requiring evil with evil but see that we forgive as we would be forgiven If they be impenitent and God forgive them not their suffering will be heavy enough 3. We must watch against blinding passions that it carry us not into contrary extremes that we may be far enough from sin and so lest we fall into sin on the other side Too few can keep to the line of truth most reel like drunkards from side to side 4. We are much in danger of biassed study never studying impartially what may be said against us and for our opposers but only all that may be said for us against them 5. Men that have a good cause are too apt to betray and spoil it by an ill manner of defending it by mixt errors ill arguments or passions to the hardening of the adversaries and afflictors 6. We must take heed that we fear not suffering wrong more than doing wrong He that doth the wroâ—g is a far greater sufferer or loser than he that is wronged Our study must be that we neither think wish speak or do any wrong to our adversaries and afflictors 7. We must watch lest the great wickedness of any adversaries should be so much in our eye as to tempt us to make light of our own sin because it is not so great as theirs 8. And we must watch lest the conscience of our good cause or innocency to man should make us foget our many sins against God for which he may permit men by injury to afflict us 9. We must watch lest we judge of the Cause by the Person and should take truth to be falshood and good to be evil because bad men or adversaries own it or lest we take falshood to be truth and evil to be good because good men hold it and lest in Love or Pity we justifie the sâ—n of any sufferers 10 But we must specially take heed lest fleshly interest and love of râ—ches liberty or life should bias and blind our judgments to take any thing to be Lawful which we think is necessary to our quietness and safety and to use sinful means to avoid danger and sufferings These are my Studies and I think them necessary to all And the rather when it grieveth my heart to see so many carryed by suffering so far from unity charity and moderation that they even joyn with those whom they sharpliest accuse tho by other reasons to do their very work and to destroy that which they think they are promoting For instance 1. They blame the Papists and such conformists for saying that the Ministers of the Reformed Churches are no true Ministers And they say the same 2. They blame them for saying their Churches are no true Churches And they say the same 3. They blame them for recusancy and saying it is unlawful to communicate with them and they say the same 4. They blame them that silence Ministers and forbid and hinder them from worshipping God And they themselves disswade all the land from all publick Church-worship where none but with those that use the Liturgy can be had 5. They justly blame Love-killing reproachful Sermons And they write Love-killing reproachful Books 6. They justly blame false accusers of particular persons and they â—â—lsely accuse almost all the Churches on Earth as no true Churches 7. They are justly for mutual forbearance and against cruelty and they unjustly aggravate the faults of almost all Church-worshippers on earth as so odious that it must be separated from and in a sort excommunicate them 8. They fear Popery is ready to take possession of the Land and Church and they exhort all Protestants to forsake all the publick churches which are the Garison of the Protestant cause that so the gates may be set open and the Adversaries may find the houses ready swept and garnished or the Garison emptied for their coming 9. They are against the ejecting of the Ministers 1662. and yet crying down a Comprehension they would not have them restored unless it were on terms that will take in them also and who knoweth whom 10. Yea the very top of Popery is to appropriate all power of church-government and worship to the Clergy and to make Magistrates therein but the Clergies Executioners saying they are only for civil government for the body but the Pope and Clergy only for Religious government of the church and for the souls And some called by dividing names among us say That Christ only and his Ministers have power in such matterâ— and that Princes sin if they command but a Translation a reverent gesture a church-ornament and such circumstances and that it 's a sin to obey them When I see that exasperation by afflicters hath cast some sufferers into such self-contradicting ways I will set on my heart and judgment a double watch in sufferings and abuse And now Reader I again say That tho I was dragg'd to this sort of work as against my will I thank God and my sober sort of Opponents for calling me to it that before I dye I might explain my Writings and not by writing only against one extreme leave them behind me as snares to tempt men to the other extreme And I here leave my testimony again
against all malignity that would charge these errors on the innocent for a cloak of hatred and cruelty and oppression that I know not one meer Nonconformist that holdeth any of these errors and I verily believe that the Independents that I am acquainted with are true servants of Christ and many called Anabaptists sober godly Christians and that some called Separatists retain Christian charity and meerly for fear of sinning flye too far from others And as for all the rest it is not mens calling them all Dissenters nor their suffering together that can make the innocent responsible for the faulty who perhaps do more against their mistakes than ever such Accusers did to cure them And I must tell the Abaddons that the opposition that hath been raised against them among those that I was acquainted with before 1641 and 1642 was caused chiefly by the badness of those that made it their trade to preach against strict and serious obedience to God as Puritanism and Hypocrisie and made it the Ladder of their aspiring Ambition to make such odious and to hunt with jealous severity those that used for mutual help in the ways of Salvation to pray together especially if they fasted or consulted how to obey Gods Law Justacting over the part of the Bps that Martin separated from described by Sulpitius Severus rendering all suspected of Priscillianism that were more than others in reading the Scripture Fasting and Praying and clapping on the back with encouragement the Drunkards and prophane ignorant rabble who in every Town were the haters of the godly Conformists and Nonconformists and making these the instruments of their malice and praising them and the multitude of ignorant reading Priests as more worthy Subjects than men fearing God Ri. Hooker in his Preface describeth these and he that readeth his Europae Speculum may know that it was no better Conformists that his most beloved Pupâ—l Sir Edwin Sandys was against while he was one of the zealous Parliamentarians It 's true that many were very hot against Bishop Laud and the Arminians and against Dr. Heylin and Dr. Pockington for proving Sunday no Sabbath and calling the Table an Altar and the Ministers Priests and the Sacrament a Sacrifice Blame not men that had read of their principles and practice how Rome is a Leech that must live on blood and cannot stand without it if they were afraid of coming thither again or drawing too near it Upon my knowledg the debauchery and malignity of many that hunted them and would not let them stay at home in peace and the terror of two hundred thousand murdered in Ireland was it that drove most that ever I knew into the Parliaments Army And fear doth often drive men to seek for self-defence to that which seemeth next at hand Had those whom they feared been such as their functions obliged them to be men of Holiness Love and Peace they would have been less prejudiced against the rest they bore easily with Dr. Chappel Mr. Mayâ—en and some other godly charitable men that were reputed Arminians I here adjoin it to my confessions 1. That I thought worse of that called Arminianism than I should have done and have proved in my Catholick Theology not yet writ against by any that I know of that the difference is not in any great and intolerable error on either side 2. That the practice of them that prophaned the Lords day and the malignity of their abettors made me too much offended at the books that called the Lords day no Sabbath and the Ministers Priests and the Table an Altar and the Sacrament a Sacrifice For I now know that these allegorical Names were usual with the best of the ancient Churches without contradiction And that the Lords Day is indeed never called the Sabbath in the New Testament and that the word Sabbath in the Bible signifieth a day of ceremonial Rest which was a Jewish Ceremony and that all such are by Paul said to be put down and that the Lords Day is a day of holy Assemblies and rejoicing in spiritual Evangelical Worship Ignorance and prejudice in these controversies prevailed not from argument but from the experience of the quality of too many that opposed them They thought it a most improbable thing that God should illuminate vicious worldly haters of Godliness and desert those that most desired to please him And of late times what abundance have been driven from the publick Churches by those that rail at them when they come there and would get the Birds into their Net by throwing stones and bawling at them and would get the fish to take the bait by beating the Waters The Bishop of Worcesters silencing me and preaching as he did and the imprisonment of many of the people after affected my old hearers with so much distast of that sort of men that all the Writings and perswasions I could use would not reconcile them nor scarce keep them from falling out with me for my perswasions And now they have a Worthy Pious preaching Bishop a Man of Love and Peace and a good Minister they all crowd the Church and are like to fall in love with such Bishops And I must testifie that with the generality of the Nonconforming Laity I never found but it was good preaching and good living that won their Love And they will honour and follow such men whether Bishops Conformists or Nonconformists XV. Since the writing of this I understand that some timerous persons have been afraid to communicate in publick or joyn with the Liturgy by hearing that some that have done it have been so troubled in Conscience that they have fallen into despair and a doleful state of trouble To this I answer 1. You shall never prove that I have perswaded any Minister to give Christs body and blood as a Drench to the unwilling or to make the Sacrament of Love the Instrument of Malice or Cruelty or a snare to strangle Souls It must be that Offence must come but wo to them by whom it cometh The old Church made men beg for Church-Communion if any withdraw from it and excommunicate themselves they did not send them to Goal for their Conversion to force them to say that they repent and to force them to Communion 2. But I must say that these Ministers or people that have so ill taught these troubled Souls by Doctrine or Example as to tempt them to take their Duty or a lawful thing for so deadly a sin are far from being guiltless of their Trouble Distraction or Destruction If any should make them believe that it were such a dangerous thing to pray by a Book to sing Davids Psalms to Communicatie with Presbyterians not to be rebaptized not to keep the Saturday Sabbath c. And then when he hath affrighted one to make away himself in melancholy despair should use this instance as an argument to affright away others also from their duty I should think that he were too blame This were