he may bid fair to Pervert the whole Nation he has deeply poysoned them already And if this be not a time to speak we may for ever after hold our Tongue He that would not in this Case expose his Life and all that he had would never do it for any Cause of Christ for the Ax was never laid more palpably at the very Root of all Christianity I hope what I have said will at least provoke abler Pens to Engage in Defence not only of Christianity but of the first Principles and Foundation of Religion in General which the Hobbiss have depress'd far below that of the Heathen who acknowledg'd Divine Revelation tho' they mistook it But these make it a perfect Tool and Engine of State hung at the Belt of the Civil Magistrate and disposeable by him at his pleasure These are yet more dangerous more affronting to God than the Socinians For the Socinians argue tho from a false Topick for the Honour of God as if more Persons were Dishonourable to the Divine Nature But these dare Blasphemously to make God an Ape to the Devil himself and to be beholding to his Imvention and the Capricio's of Foolish and Wicked Men for all the Institutions of his Holy Religion and to have sent our Lord Christ into the World and Sacrificed Him upon the Cross for no other End than to comply with the wickedness of Men and instead of destroying the works of the Devil infinitely to out-do them to put them out of Countenance and make them asham'd of their Littleness in Sacrificing Beasts and Men instead of which poor Butcheries and Murther and to make them no more regarded Here the Son of God shall be murthered to shew how little mischief the Devil could do in Comparison of God! And to frighten and amaze Mankind the most wicked of them and to stop their hand from the further pursuit of their little Insignificant Cruelties to one another by being struck with the horror of such Super-wickedness and unnatural Barbarity As the K. of Moab Sacrificed his Eldest Son to stop the pursuit of his Enemies 2 Kings 3.27 by over glutting their Revenge and out-doing their Cruelty These are not Tares Sown in the Night and by Stealth But it is Rooting up all Revealed Religion in the Noon-day and exposing of Christianity to the Contempt and Buffoonery of Atheistical Wits And if the Husbandmen take no no notice of it They are not Asleep but Dead God awaken them by a timely sense of their Duty and not by a Total Extirpation and Removeal of their Candlestick Amen Some REFLECTIONS upon the Second of Dr. BURNET's Four Discourses concerning the Divinity and Death of Christ Printed 1694. I Had ended the Reader 's Labour and my own but that I am call'd back by a Book now lately Published Licensed by this Great Dr. Himself Jo. Cant. to give it the greater Authority and wrote by his Collegue Dr. Burnst now called Bishop of Sarum It is Entituled Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Sarum c. Printed 1694. One of these Discourses is Concerning the Divinity and Death of Christ wherein there is such a Notion of Christ's Divinity set down as would make any Christian Ear to tingle He gives the very same account of it as the Brief History of the Vnitarians in Answer to John 1.14 The Word was made Flesh that is says that Socinian Author the Word dwelt in or did Inhabit the Person of Jesus Christ There is none that is unprejudiced but must see how very far this is from the full Import of that Text and what a force is done to the words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was made Flesh This is sure a degree beyond bare Inhabitation It is true our Soul may be said to dwell in our Body But there is something more It is Impersonated with our Body whence there arises what the Schools call Communicatio Idiomatum between the Soul and the Body That is that the Properties of each are attributed to the Person who partakes of Both. Thus Man is called Mortal because his Body is such and Immortal because his Soul is such And thus it is that Christ is called God in respect to his Divine Nature and Man in respect to his Human. Neither of these can be predicated of the other The Divine Nature is not the Human Nature nor the Human Nature the Divine The Soul is not the Body nor the Body the Soul But each of these is predicated of the Person who partakes of Both. All the Atiributes of the Divine and Properties of Human Nature are predicated of Christ as all Properties of Soul and Body are predicated tho' not of One another yet of Man who is made up of Both. This is the true Notion of Impersonation and without this Christ could never be made Flesh The Spirit of God did Inhabit or Inspire the Apostles Prophets and Holy Men of Old and will do every Saint or Holy Person to all Eternity But this does not make God to become Flesh If you answer that the Spirit of God or the Word as the Socinians say did inhabit or inspire that Man Jesus Christ in an Higher Degree than other Men That will make nothing as to the Word 's becoming Flesh God was no more Flesh in Abraham or St. Paul than in the Meanest Saint tho' he inspired one much more than another Nothing short of Impersonation could make him to become Flesh or make that Flesh Adorable without the highest Idolatry Dr. B. thinks to solve all this by comparing God's Indwelling in Jesus to the Indwelling of God in the Cloud of Glory in the Temple and he says p. 127. That the Jews worshipped the Cloud of Glory because of God's Resting upon it and therefore that they could make no Objection to the Christians Worshipping of Christ by vertus of the Indwelling of the Eternal word in Him Make no Objection Yes sure and Retort the Argument to the Confusion of such Christians For they did not worship the Cloud of Glory That had been Rank Idolatry Notwithstanding of any Inhabitation of God there and therefore from this Reasoning it must have been Idolatry to have worshipped Christ notwithstanding of any Inhabitation of God in him Nor will it solve this that the Dr. says p. 116. That there was a more perfest Indwelling of God in Christ than in the Cloud So there was in the Cloud more than in the Temple yet it had been as great Idolatry to have worshiped the Cloud as the Temple God's Presence was never more visibly exhibited in any Apparition under the Law than when he descended upon Mount Hereb in Fire Cloud c. He spoke out of that Fire with an Audible Vâ—ice which he did not out of the Cloud of Glory in the Temple And yet he strictly forbids the worshipping of any thing they there saw or the making any Resemblance or Similitude of any thing that there appeared lest it should
these forms in which he appeared into his own Person for then wou'd have follow'd the Communicatio Idiomatum such Fire or Body in which he appear'd would have been truly and Really God and God wou'd have been that Fire or that Body which as it is Blasphemy to affirm so this shews us a stricter Notion of Impersonation than the Dr. sets up which is only the Minds Commanding and Governing of matter In which Sense God must be Impersinated with every Body in the World for he Commands and Governs them Absolutely and he Inhabits and Dwells in every one of them for in Him they have their Being The Dr. in his Vindicatory Letter to Dr. Williams before Quoted p 99. adds further That this indwelling is a vital one like that of the Souls dwelling in the Body and not an assisting one like Inspiration or the Gift of Tongues or Miracles But this will not hinder the Consequence above told For in God we Live and Move as well as have our Being in Him Acts. 17.28 Therefore He may be even a VITAL Indwelling and yet short of Impersenation He says That this Indwelling of the Word in Christ is LIKE that â—f the Souls dwelling in the Body It may be like it but not of the same sort Every like we say is not the same He says above in the same page That the Vnion of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ is represented in Scripture as the Compounding one Person as much as in other Men the Vnion of Soul and Body makes one Man This indeed is fairly said if it be as sincerely intended For if this be so there must follow the Communitio Idiomatum betwixt the Divine and Human Natures in Christ as much as betwixt the Soul and Body of Man Which the Dr. will not allow For if he allow'd this there cou'd be no Cause of Dispute And if he had thought thus he cou'd never have explain'd it by the Indwelling of God in the Cloud nor found any scruple against the word Person nor have been forc'd to new and uncouth Expositions of Personality Nor wou'd he have made a Distinction as before told betwixt the Man-hoed of Christ or the Man Christ being advanc'd into God as the Athanasian Creed expresses it or the Communicating Divine Honour to Him as Dr. Burnet words it p. 120. of his Discourse above Quoted I say if he had Really and Truly believ'd the Impersonation of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ as the Soul and Body are Impersonated in Man as he would seem to speak in his Vindication he could not have made a Distinction between Christ's Assumption into an High Dignity or the Communicating Divine Honour to Him and betwixt the Dwelling of the Eternal Word Bodily in him For if by Bodily here he had meant a Bedily Impersonation as betwixt MANS Soul and Body then that Man CHRIST had not only Divine Honour Communicated to Him which the Dr. denies by the Indwelling of the Word but He Himself was the Word But the Dr's true meaning is that the Bodily dwelling of the Word in the Man Christ was only a dwelling in his Body without Impersonation or Communicating His Divine Attributes to Him and therefore that no Divine Honour was thereby Communicated to Him which the Dr. asserts as above Quoted in the 120th p. of his Discourse And instead of correcting this in his Vindication he re-asserts it more positively in another as he thinks more odious Form of words For there p. 96. He puts the Case of a Mans being made a God and that was so called and was to be worshipped as such And this he calls a new Doctrine that it seems says he scarce conceivable how any one can entertain this and yet retain any value for Religion I must confess says he I cannot and it is so natural for a Man to judge of others by himself that I do not think others do it or indeed can do it These are his words And by this it is very plain that he does not think the Man Christ to be God or that Christ is God and Man but only God in Man And consequently that there is no Hypostatical that is Personal Union betwixt the Divine and Human Nature of Christ as there is betwixt the Soul and Body in Man For if there were then the Communicatio Idiomatum must necessarily follow that is the Properties or Attributes of each of their Natures would belong to the Person who did partake of both And the Man Christ would be as truly God as he was Man And as for the Dr's Bug-bear word of a Man's being made Gods with which he thinks to frighten us as if God could be made let him know that there are none so absurd as to think that God can be made and that this is not the same thing as a Man's being made God because tho' the God-head cannot be made and in that Sense nothing can be made God yet a Man by being taken into a Personal Union with God becomes really God as much as the Body becomes a Man by its Personal Union with an Human Soul Notwithstanding of which Vnion the two different Natures of Body and Soul remain nothing the less distinct and Unconfounded in themselves and in their several Properties Incommunicable to each other tho' all equally Predicated of the same Person who partakes of both Natures And therefore Dr. Burnet by this Phrase in this place does plainly declare against the Divinity of Christ and that he neither does nor can believe it Nay he Ridicules it and Blasphemes it in setting up the Notion of a Man that was made a God And tho' as he says p. 99. The Vnion of the Divine and Human Nature in Christ irrepresented in Scripture as the compounding one Person as much as in other Men the Vnion of Soul and Body makes one Man He must mean by this only that this was a Comparison or Representation used in Scripture whereby the Dwelling of the Word in Christ was in some manner shadowed out or represented not that it was strictly so For if he had thought it strictly so that the Divine and Human Natures in Christ were as much Impersonated as Soul and Body in other Men he would never have made it an absurdity that a Man was made God more than that the matter of a Man's Body is made a Man or part of the Person of a Man He could never have stumbled upon such broad Blasphemy as to say That no Divine Honour was Communicated to Christ and that he was not our Lord by an Assumption into an High Dignity as before quoted Hence we must learn how to understand many of his Plausible sayings as thus p. 127. of his Discourse where having Explain'd Personality as above told to mean no more than a Power in the Soul to Command and Govern the Body he brings in a Plausible Sentence for the Personal Union of the Divine and Human Natures in Christ but yet with a
Salvo to secure his secret meaning So that upon these Reasons says he and not otherwise we may well and safely determine that Christ is truly God and man and that the God-head did as really dwell in his Human Nature and became Vnited to it as our Souls dwell in our Bodies and are Vnited to them This sounds very Orthedox But it is all to be understood only upon these Reasons That is which dwindle down Personality only to a Power to Command and Govern and by Christ is God and Man he means no more than that God dwelt in that Man Christ and so He was both God and Man but not that they were one Person any otherwise than as God did Command Govern or Enliven that Man as he does all Men. Christ was truly God That is as the Cloud was Jehovah which the Dr. asserts in this same page and is one of the Premises from whence he draws this Conclusion 2. The God-head dwelt in Christ and was Vnited to him as our Souls dwell in our Bodies and are Vnited to them that is as the Dr. has Explain'd it only to Command and Govern them Thus you see what true pains is taken by these two Great Doctors to Elude and totally to Enervat the whole Christian Doctrine and all the Terms wherein for suppression of Heresies it has been conceived and delivered down to us from Christ and his Apostles through all Ages of the Catholick Church If it be not so Why are not they content to set down their Faith in the plain Terms used by the Church Why all these New and Laborious Expositions Why do they thus Intangle and Perplex Why can they not say three Persons in the Trinity as well as three differences three somewhats Why do they confound us as this Dr. p. 96. with the difference betwixt distinct and distinction viz. That by Person in the Trinity we must not mean a compleat Intelligent Being distinct from every other Being But only that every one of that Blessed Three has a peculiar distinction in Himself by which he is truly different from the other Two Different but not distinct Not distinct but that has a Distinction What is the meaning of this What is the Quarrel at the word Person O that these Dr's would speak out That they would go fair over to the Socinian side Or do they stay that they may more Effectually undermine the Christian Doctrine by distinguishing and Accommodating all to the Socinian Hypothesis And by this means draw Men Insensibly into it Therefore we must deal plainly with them and tell because they will not what they would be at Which is to make the 3 Persons of God onely 3 Manifestations of God Or the same Person of God considered under 3 different Qualifications and Respects as our Creator Redeemer Sanctifier But we must Ask if it was only a Manifestation that was made Flesh If we are Baptized into the Faith and worship of a Manifestation why but 2. or 3 Manifestations of God are there not Hundreds is God or the first Person one of his own Manifestations Why then is He reckoned as one of the Three Are these three all one and the same Person Is this then the meaning of Mat. 12.32 That whosoever speaketh against one of these One shall be forgiven but whosoever speaketh against Another of the same One shall not be forgiven That we are Baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son who is the Same person with the Father and of the Holy Ghost who is the same Person with them both or in the Name of the Father and of Himself and of Himself This is the plain Easie and Intelligible Socinian System of Divinity This is the Rational account of their Faith And this Doctors Both you must stick to or give us leave to use the word Person in the already known and Received Notion of that Term and as the Holy Catholick Church hath always understood it in Expressing the Glorious Trinity of God Dr. B. Concludes this point with referring to the four bove-said Sermons of Dr. T. and clawing him for the Grace of this Imprimatur by giving his Judgment of that work as perform'd with great Strength and clearness of Reason p. 128. Thus these two Pillars stand bound jointly and severally for one Anothers Ingenuity and Performances And that they may keep even pace Dr. B. now passes on to the other great point of Socinianism the Sacrifice and Death of Christ p. 134. Wherein he Copys after and comes up to the full of that Diabolical Heresie so bare-fac'd set up by Dr. T. against the Satisfaction of Christ which is the only Foundation for the Remission of sin He first p. 134. Endeavours to Remove the Great Ground-Work of any Satisfaction being due to Gods Justice for sin by Advancing that Notion of Justice which Dr. T. does in his Sermon of Hell He calls it onely a Right of punishing which is vested in Himself and therefore which he may either use or not use at his pleasure Upon this is grounded the precariousness of Hell that God not being Oblidg'd in his Justice to inflict Hell notwithstanding of his threatening it It is not certain whether he will do it or not Dr. B. Says that this Justice is a Right vested in God Himself and which therefore He argues God may dispense with at his pleasure So far he argues truely That God is not nor can be accountable to any other And therefore in this sense he may do in every thing as he pleases That is as to any Outward Compulsion or giving an Account of his Actions to any whatsoever But on the other hand God is as I may so say Ty'd up to his own Inherent Rectitude and all the Perfections of his Nature It is not being Ty'd up or any way Limited It is the Highest and most absolute Liberty that he can never be otherwise If he could lose his Liberty He would not be so free Thus God cannot Die cannot cease to be God Cannot make Himself not to be Eternal Infinite c. And that he cannot depart from any of his Attributes not withstanding the sound of the word Cannot is no Stinting of his Prerogative but the Height of it Now Justice is as much an Attribute of God as his Mercy He is not onely just that is has Justice or a Great deal of Justice in him but he is Justice it self Justice in the Abstract Justice is of the Nature of God And therefore He can no more depart from it than from Himself The Highest Notion of Justice as of Love or Goodness that is God it is the very Nature of God God is Love 1 John 4.8 God is likewise Justice And as all the Love or Goodness in us is but a participation of the Infinite and Eternal Goodness so all the justice all the Notion we have of Right or Wrong is but a Ray Sent down to us from the Eternal and Essential Restitude and
three pages together to their own No-Hypothesis Thus when they are angry with Kings the malice to Them and to Priests commonly go together then Idolatry and Sacrifices were the Invention of Kings and Priests came in but at second hand to keep it up and improve it This Blount Sect. 2. p. 7. endeavours to prove The Primitive Institution of Idolatry says he received its Birth from Princes at whose Charge it was afterwards Educated by Ecclesiasticks Again Sect. 3. p. 8. Idolatry and Sacrifices which were the Worship Instituted to the Idol being thus Instituted by the Civil Power the Ecclesiastick was left to build upon that Foundation But the History of Religion p. 6. makes Priests to be the first Inventers and that Kings seeing the Veneration and Authority they obtain'd by it became Priests themselves and joined that Title to the Imperial Dignity thus Casar and other Emperors of Rome were Priests and among the Egyptians their Kings were chosen from among the Priests Thus they preserve to themselves a double Handle tho' by this in true Reason â—hey lose both and make Religion to be Priest-Craft or State-Craft as it serves their purpose For these Latitudinarians in Religion are always the same in Government But this History if Religion being the latest Effort brings the matter closer Blount Ridicules Religion in the Person of the Heathen This in the same Form exposes it in the Church of Rome Whose Errors they have given too much occasion for it he makes use of not to Reform but undermine Christianity it self and makes all to be Nothing but Priest-Craft tho' he forgets not the Heathen Parallel and to spit his Venom at the Mosaical Institution when it comes in his way to shew that he Grafts upon the same Stock Page ' s 8 Speaking of the Religious Institutions before Christ he calls them Strange and Puziling Methods of Religious Ceremonies and Mysteries and of various Rites of Sacrificing good for nothing but to confound and distract the Minds of Men. Then coming down to Christianity he borrows the Socinian Arms against it And so exactly in their very words as points to us plainly out of whose Quiver this Arrow came He sets up Irreconcilable War against all Mystery And making Transubstantiation his Mark he levels directly at the Trinity Incarnation Divinity and Satisfaction of Christ and every thing that there is the least pretence of Mystery in And yet these Gentlement endeavour all they can at Mystery while they wound Christianity covertly as they think through the sides of the Heathens Jews and Roman Catholicks But the Clovâ—n-Foot does plain appear for their Wit is not so great as their Malice They confess God to be Incomprehensible and his ways past finding out yet they cry out upon Mystery in his Religion There are Mysteries Irreconsilable to them in their own Natures and in the Natures of every thing they see before them yet they would have every thing in a Supernatural Religion Revealed from Heaven to be so plain that their Reason should be able to dive to the very bottom of it which if it were it would be no Revelation or perfectly to no purpose for what needed Revelation in things which are Plain and Obvious without it Physick is an Art and a Mystery to those who know it not Which leads only to the preservation of Health in those Bodies whose Constitutions we know and their Original as much as of any thing that we see or touch And yet we will let nothing be Mysterious that is nothing but what every Man in the World perfectly understands with all the Reasons and hidden Causes of it in the saving of a Soul whose Substance Origination Constitution Operation and every thing of it but that we know it is and feel it by its Effects is altogether hidden from us Our coming into this World is totally a Mystery No Human Reason can attain unto it And must there be no Mystery at all in our Re-Generation and being Born into the never-ending World of Spirits Is not the other World is not Heaven a Mystery to us Do we understand it Perfectly Can we Describe it And is it not Reasonable is it not Necessary that the Methods of fitting us for it and of conveying us thither should be very Mysterious to us If we know not the End of out Journey how do we pretend to understand every step of the way But let us hear this Author's Reason against Mystery You find it p. 60. and 61. in the very words of the Defence of the History of the Vnitarians and other Socinian Books lately Printed for the Instruction of this Age viz. That no Revelation can be a Mystery more than a Secret when it is told can be a Secret still But these strong Reasoners should know that a Mystery is not that of which we know nothing at all But that of which we know some part but darkly and obscurely as in a Glass which is the Comparison the Apostle makes use of 1 Cor. 13.12 Thus it is we know Heaven Yet it is Revealed And thus we know the Trinity Incarnation and Divinity of Christ If they had not been Revealed we should have known nothing of them Yet we understand them not Perfectly nor can give the Reason for every Modus of them Why it is thus and thus and the manner How For that is not Revealed Nor are our Understandings capable of Comprehending the whole Nature of God for nothing but Infinit can Comprehend Infinit And to attempt it or go about it and reject every thing we do not understand in it is not only Wicked and Prophane but it argues the greatest Weakness and Folly in any Man who is capable of such a Thought of any other Instance that is possible to be given Christ says to his Apostles Joh. 16.12 He had many things to tell them which they were not able to bear If I have told you Earthly things says He to Nicodemus that is concerning the Re-generation by the Spirit of God in this life and ye Believe not that is cannot Comprehend it for the Difficulty and Mysteriousness of it How shall ye Believe if I tell you of Heavenly things Joh. â— 12 Will not these be much more Mysterious to you This Author would have called him a Mystery-Monger as he does his Disciples for Preaching what he Taught p. 62. He laughs at any thing that is called Sublime in Religion or above the reach of Servile Reason as he thinks he Rallies p. 43. And it is a Servile and Poor Reason indeed that can see nothing above it self that can find nothing Sublime in God or His Religion in those Infinit Promises of an Eternal Heaven and the wonderful Methods by which He has appointed to Conduct us thither in ways suitable to His Justice which is as much Himself and as Indispensible in Him as His Mercy The truth of the matter is These sort of Gentlemen do not love to Think Their Wet is Frothy
Peace in this World As he does in his Seâ—â—on upon Luke 9.55 which is quoted with Magnificence in the Preface to this History of Religion But this Historian himself had the Modesty or Cunning to leave out those broad words of the Doctors which I have shewn above viz. That it were better there had never been any Revealed Religion that is that Christ had never come than to make uneasiness in the World and disturb Government for it And tho' as I have shewn above The Christian Religion is the greatest Security to Government and the outward Peace of this world yet that Notion could never have come into the Head of a Christian that we had better never have had any Christ than that any Worldly Government should be disturb'd Nay farther when as I have shewn above this Dr. makes a Mother Suckling her own Child to be of a more Necessary and Indispensible Obligation than to believe in Christ that is than any possitive Precept of Revealed Religion which are his words for the Belief of Christ is nothing else but a Possitive Precept of Revealed Religion When He Disputes openly against the Satisfaction of Christ and makes all our Thirty Nine Articles or the Belief of any particular Church but the Jargon of a Party and Commands all the Children of the Nation to be bred up loose from any such Narrow Principles When He makes not only the Eternity but the Being of a Hell wholly Precarious And lastly when as I have shewn from Dr. Burnâ—t Licens'd by Dr. Tillotson That Christ is made to be no otherwise God than the Cloud of Glory in the Temple When such Wickedness is set up in our High Places shall we not give warning First to the Clergy in these Mens Communion quickly and speedily to separate from them I meddle not Here with the point of Schism That stands a Dispute by it self but as the 15th Canon of the Synod of Constantinople which was omitted in Mr Hody's Edition of the Baroccian MS. expresly ordians That if any Bishop though a lawful Bishop do hold Heretical Opinions and shall PUBLICKLY Teach and Preach the same bare-fac'd in the Church all even the meanest Laick is Obliged to Separate from such wicked Teacher even before Synodical Condemnation And whether the Opinions before told are not in the grossest manner Heretical And whether Preaching them at White-Hall and Printing them be not a publick Teaching and Preaching the same is left to the Judgment of the Reader And then what an Indispensible Obligation must lie upon all the Clergy especially in their Communion to Separate from them and as publickly and openly as they have done to Disclaim Renounce and Confute their Damnable Heresiel Otherwise the Blood of all those Souls who shall be infected by them and of all their Posterities whom they shall likewise infect will be required of every single Clergy-Man who but by his Silence and continuing in their Communion shall so far giue Countenance to their Errors Silence can never be an excuse in a Watch-Man whose Office it is to cry aloud And if he â—low not the Trumpet he cannot deliver his Soul And tho' immediate Death attended it this he ought to do But there is not that Hazard The Government is not concern'd in this It is the Common Cause of Christianity And I see no Reason but to expect that every such Clergy-Man would be esteemed and valued even by this Government which would besides think it some sort of a Vindication of the Government from what share it may be supposed they have in the Abetting or Encouragement of such Heterodox Principles Preach'd before them by those in such High Place with them and said to be Printed by Their Special Command And for the People such Clergy would certainly be greatly regarded by them as Men of Conscience and Zeal for their Religion But if the Clergy which God forbid should prove so Laodicean as not to think this worth their while and so leave the Imputation to fall upon their whole Communion Then I must Admonish all the Godly Laity that they are obliged in their Station as much as the Clergy in theirs to Separate from such wicked Teachers and that by the above quoted Council of Constantinople they are not to be Reputed Schismaticks for so doing but aâ— Preservers of the Unity of the Church whose Unity consists chiefly in the Unity of their Doctrine But they have a greater Authority than that of any Council Gal. 1.8 Tho' we says one of the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be Accursed And as all the Laity are hereby oblig'd under the penalty of Sin to Separate from the Church-Communion of these Heretical Bishops and of all who Communicate with them so is it likewise required of them to abstain as much as is possible even from their private Conversation with such a one says St. Paul not so much as to eat And let them think that these are Trying Times sent on purpose to distinguish God's Elect from the Reprobate to Separate His Little Flock from the World of Iniquity For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved way the made manifest among you 1 Cor. 11.19 FINIS