Worshipping him amounts to besides the Union of the Creature with the Creator in whom he liveth c. And no unregenerate ungodly Christian is united to him savingly 5. They are united among themselves 6. This is by a Covenant 7. And by a Covenant Divine as to command approbation and object It is God that they Covenant to own and obey The common Profession of the Mahometans is There is one God and Mahomet is his Prophet It is Divine in tantum as commanded For God Commandeth all men to Own him to believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him And God so far approveth it St. Iames saith Thou dost well to him that believeth there is a God much more that is professedly devoted to him Let us by this examine the Jewish Church Iews now may be 1. A Body 2. Of Men 3. Separated from the rest of the World even in Religion and Church pretensions 4. United to God as Creatures as Men as the corporal seed of Abraham and as professing Belief Love and Obedience to God as their God 5. Strictly united among themselves 6. By a Covenant 7. Which God once commanded and still approveth so far as they own God Let us consider whether this description take not in those in every Nation that fear God and work Righteousness that never heard of Christ being thus combined And whether the Kingdom of God be not larger than his Church Joyn the Head and Tail of this mans book together and by the Head the description for ought I see Iews Mahometans if not almost all Heathens are the Church But at the End I think none on Earth is the Church At least none that separate from a pair of Organs or an ignorant Curate Nor can any man know who Page 2. § 2. He explaineth his Word Body as opposed to a confused Multitude A. But a Community of Equals that have no Governours may have order and â—e no confused Multitude And he himself after pleads over much for a necessity of Rulers P. 3. § 3. And in many places his Confusion and grand errour is repeated that the Christian Church is but one p. 7. We know no Church but what all Christians are members of by Baptsme which is the Vniversal Church p. 8. There is but one Church of which all Christians are members as there is but one Covenant p. 19. If there be but one Church and one Communion of which all true Christians are members c. p. 23. I am no otherwise a member of any particular Church than I am of the Vniversal p. 40. It 's a schismatical Notion of membership that divides the Christian Church into distinct memberships and therefore into the distinct Bodyes And p. 19. and often he saith those Churches which are not members of each other are separate Churches and Schismaticks A. I had hoped that no man but Mr. Cheny had talkt at this rate I. It 's agreed on that there is but one Universal Church The contrary is a Contradiction 2. It is agreed that there is no lawful particular Church which is not a part of the Universal 3. That whoever hath just Union and Communion with a true particular Church hath Union and Communion with the Universal 4. That all men in their Worship of God should accordingly perform it and do all that they do as Men in that Relation to the Universal Church None of this is controverted II. But I had hoped never to have heard any but Seekers say that there are not many lawful particular Churches distinct from the whole and from one another though not disjunct in the Common Essentials For the proof of the contrary 1. I begin with that which I expect should be most powerful The mans own after-Confessions to which he is oft brought Pag. 8. Distance of Place and the necessities and conveniences of Worship and Discipline has divided the Church into several parts and members and Particular Churches c. So pag. 14. pag. 19. All Christian Churches ought to be members of one More fully p. 20 21. This is ad hominem Yea and Nay is his Resolution 2. But I 'le bring other Arguments that prevail more with me The Sacred Scriptures oft tell us of many Churches therefore there are many Act. 9.31 The Churches had rest and 15.4 Confirming the Churches 16.5 So were the Churches established in the Faith Rom. 16.4 All the Churches of the Gentiles So ver 16. 1 Cor. 7.17 So ordain I in all Churches 11.16 Neither the Churches of God have such Custom 14.33 As in all the Churches of the Saints 34. Let your Women keep silence in the Churches So 16.1.19 2 Cor. 8.1 The Grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia 18. Whose Praise is in the Gospel through all the Churches So 19.23 24. and 11.8.28 The care of all the Churches 12.13 Inferior to the other Churches Gal. 1.2 22. 1 Thes. 2.14 2 Thes. 1.4 Rev. 1.4 To the seven Churches ver 11.20 Angels and Candlesticks of the seven Churches And 2.7 11 17 29. and 3.6 13 22 23. and 22.16 His Concordance might have shew'd him all these in order Phil. 4.15 No Church communicated with me concerning giving and receiving but ye only The dispute now must be whether the Apostles or this Resolver be to be believed They say there are many Churches parts of One he saith There is but one and it 's Schismatical to divide it into distinct memberships or Bodyes c. It 's no Schisme here to say I am for Paul and the Holy Scripture Let who will believe the contradictor 3. My next Argument is this Where there are many Political Societies consisting of Christian Pastors and People professedly associated for the ordinary Exercise of those Relations as such in holy Communion in Christian Doctrine Worship Order and Conversation for Edification in true Faith Hope Love and Obedience and the Glorifying of God therein There are many distinct true Churches parts of the Church Universal But on Earth there are many such Societyes c. Ergo c. Either the controversie is De re or de nomine for we called Separatists use to separate these 1. If de re Let the existence of the thing defined be tryed by Scripture Reason and common Experience 2. If de nomine Forma quae dat esse dat Nomen Here is the true specifick form which is found in many single Churches ergo the Name of such single or individual Churches is due to them 4. Again ad hominem from the consequences 1. If there be not many single Churches in the Universal then there are not many Patriarchal National Provincial Metropolitical Diocesan or Parochial Churches For non entium non datur numerus Many nothings is a contradiction Multae sunt ergo sunt Abest tertij adjecti ad est secundi valet argumentum But if there be not many then 1. All the Parish Churches in England being but one and not many
Communion is an Essential duty of a Church-member meaning a Christian. A. 1. And yet before he denyed that Communion lay essentially in this Exercise but only in Vnion Yea and Nay is his Custom 2. Some few Christians as those that live where such Communion cannot be had without sin c. are not bound to it therefore it is not true that it is Essential to Universal Church-membership And I think sickness endeth not the essentials that disableth men 3. Note Reader that by this mans Doctrine we are all unchristened and damned if we do not gather into disallowed Churches if we be unjustly cast out of the allowed ones For all must be Church members that will be Christians and an unjust Excommunication cannot disoblige us from Christianity nor bind us to consent to be damned Now read the 5 th 6 th 7 th 8 th c. Canons of the Church of England which ipso facto Excommunicate all that affirm any thing in their Liturgy Articles Ceremonies or Government sinful and answer Spalatensis arguments against Excommunicating ipso facto and prove all this just and you may prove what you will just But you see where he layeth the Controversie If any be Excommunicated without sufficient cause or by Lay Civilians to whom God never gave that power or by such Bishops or Pastors as have no just Authority for want of a true call or Consent or if any unlawful thing be made necessary to Communion all such persons must by his own confessions hold Church-communion whether these imposers will or not for all Christians are bound to be of some Church § 3. p. 33 34. He saith that None but publick Prayers are the Prayers of the Church properly and acts of Communion that is such as are offered by the hands of men authorized and set apart for that purpose c. Ans. Who would have thought that we are more for the Liturgy than he I undertake to prove that all the Responsal Prayers and all the Litany Prayers in which the Minister names but the matter to them and the People make it a Prayer by speaking the petitioning parts are all the publick Prayers of the Church and so are all the petitioning Psalms spoke or sung by the People and not only that which is offered by the Priest I do not think that he believeth what he carelesly saith here himself But the Independents are stiffer for his first Thesis of the necessity of Church-communion than he is his unfit words I pass by CHAP. III. Of his second Case § 1. THE next question of Occasional Communion as distinct from fixed he turns out of doors as if there could be no such thing and it 's very true as to the Church universal but as to visible actual Communion with this or that particular Church it is not true 1. A Traveller of another Country who on his journey communicateth with every Church where he passeth is not a fixed Member of that Church for 1. The Pastor or Bishop hath not that peculiar Charge of him as of fixed members 2. He is not bound where he passeth to take such notice of the lives of Communicants or Pastors and to admonish the Offenders and tell the Church as fixed members are 3. He hath not the right in chooseing Pastors or Deacons as the fixed Members have 4. An itinerant Bishop in transitu is not their fixed Bishop ergo an Iterant Lay-man is not a fixed Member The same I may say of one that is a fixed member of another Church in the same City and cometh to that only to signifie universal Communion or neighbourly which though he deny to be lawful I shall further prove anon And the same I may say of those that dwell where there is no fixed single Church at all for want of a Pastor but they congregate only when some strange Minister passeth through the Town CHAP. IV. His third Case § 1. PAge 48 49. He resolveth his third Case Whether it be lawful to Communicate with two distinct and separate Churches negatively and saith It is contrary to all the Principles of Church Communion as any thing can possibly be it is to be contrary to our selves it is Communicating with Schism That the Presbyterian and Independent Churches have made an actual separation from the Church of England he hath evidently proved and they are Schismaticks and to communicate with them is to partake in their Schism and if Schism be a great sin and that which will damn us as soon as Adultery and Murther then it must needs be a dangerous thing to communicate with Schismaticks And p. 42. There cannot be two distinct Churches in one place one for occasional and another for constant Communion without Schism Ans. To save those that are willing from the Poyson of these Schismatical Doctrines lapt up in confusion by men that abhor distinction or understand not what they say I will first lay down that truth that he fights against with convincing evidence and then shew you the mischief of his false Doctrine and Application § 2. The confusion of these words Church Communion Separation and Schism which every one signifie divers things is the chief means to blind and deceive his Reader whether it do so by himself I know not I. The Word Church signifieth sometime the universal Church sometime a single Organized Church as part of it and sometime humane combinations of such single Churches and that into Diocesan Classical Provincial Patriarchal National and Papal II. The Specification and Nomination of Churches is from the formal cause and the proper Government is that form And the Individuation is from matter and form but principally from the form III. The Union of Pastor and Flock in Relation makes that which is a form aptitudinal as the Soul to the Body to be the form in act as the Union of Soul and Body and Gods command and consent with the consent of the necessary relate and correlate cause that union IV. Union is in order to Communion which is primary by the exercise of the formal powers on the matter and secondary by the action of all the parts according to their several capacities and Offices V. The Union of the Church is of divers degrees 1. The formal Union of the Head and Body which maketh it essentially the Christian Church 2. The Vnion of the parts among themselves as Christian which maketh them a Body capable of Union with the Head 3. The Union of the parts as unequal Organized the Official with the rest which maketh it an Organized Body fit for its special use and welfare 4. Union in integrity of parts which maketh it an intire Body 5. Union in due temperament and Qualities which maketh it a healthful Body 6. Unity in Common Accidents which make it a Comely Beautiful Body joined with the rest But 7. Union in mutable Accidents is unnecessary and impossible VI. These several degrees of Union are found in Bodies natural and Politick 1. The
certain that I am unable to do this to One of an Hundred who can claim a right to that or more 4. But out of this his Doctrine I gather That if all the Christian World have rigâ—â— to communicate with me upon occasion 1. Sure there is some difference between occasional and fixed Local Communion 2. And surely if I refuse any that would communicate on common necessary terms because they will not break the Custom of their several Countries and communicate with me in doubted unnecessary things I wrong all the Christian World and am to them a Schismatick Much more if I presume to Excommunicate every Stranger that cometh into my Precincts and herein differs from me as you do us and most of all if I impose many sinful terms of Communion on him All Christians are bound to hold Communion in Christianity and in all things necessary to the common Communion of them all and to extend this also to as many Integrals as they can reach But there are Multitudes of things in which they are not bound to have Communion much less as necessary to salvation § 10. p. 36. We have all explained by an odd supposition viz. Suppose the whole World were one Family or one Kingdom in which every man according to his rank and station enjoys equal Priviledges the necessity of Affairs would require that Men should live in distinct Houses and Countries But yet if every Man enjoyed the same Liberty and Priviledges wherever he went as he now does in his own House and Countrey the whole World would be but one great Family or universal Kingdom Ans. 1. The whole World is one great Kingdom of God as verily as the Church is the Church of Christ And yet we Non-Conformists think that every Man in it no nor every Saint hath not right to be King of England nor a Judg in our Courts nor Lord Mayor of London nor so much as a Freeman in any City And we think that the Church hath no more one subordinate universal Soveraign than the World And that therefore the case in point of universal priviledg is not by this similitude well explained 2. Your odd supposition of the World being one Family either supposeth one Husband to all the Wives in the World and one Father to all the Children in the World or else that all distinct Husbands Wives Children and Servants are in this one Family In the first supposition I may suppose that you take him to be more than a Man that can be an Husband to all the Women and a Father to all the Children on Earth And therefore if his Wisdom be equal to such a greatness he must be no Fool. And if so whiâ—e Men are his Family he will order and govern them as Men and then they will be distributed into subordinate Families Cities and Kingdoms as now they are But if you suppose many Husbands and Fathers our Opinion is that Husbands and Wives should not be common nor Parents and Children Nay which way ever you take that Childrens Food Rayment and Portions should not be common Nor could any come from India and claim a Lordship or Lands in England as a Member of the Family Fathers distribute unequally as their Will and Wisdom and their Childrens fitness are diversifying Causes Even in a Colledg one cannot claim anothers Chamber Books Cloaths or Food One would think by your scourge for Non-Conformists that you were no Leveller nor against fatherly justice and inequality of right and distribution Even they that come to your Church cannot so much as claim equal right in Seats And verily if all the World that will come to you may claim equal Pastoral oversight from you or any Bishop your equality must be like his to the Beggars that gave nothing to any that he might serve them all alike § 11. P. 38 39 c. he saith He can hardly be so charitable to me as not to believe that I wilfully mistook him it being impossible for any man of common sense who ever read him to mistake his Catholick Communion for some transient acts Ans. Reader it 's hard terms that these Men hold us to I was loath to judg him so void of common Sense or use of Words as to talk of Catholick Communion which was in no transient acts But for the future rather than forfeit common sense or be wilful I will believe him that by Catholick Communion he meaneth Union and that he meaneth neither Baptism nor profession of Christianity nor owning any Article of Faith nor owning Bishops nor any Church-order or Worship of God But do not unsay all this again and call us all to nought for believing you § 12. But he saith Upon a stricter examination he finds me blundered and confounded about the Notion of Unity This Unity I term Union Ans. The Doctor will grow over-critical if he hold on if he mean this as part of my blundering and confusion But it is but Grammar that I am ignorant of I confess my ignorance I thought that Unio had Two significations one active for that act of uniting which maketh One of Two and that also Twofold 1. To unite efficiently 2. To unite constitutively And the other as signifying the same with Unity caused And I thought that Unitas had ordinarily signified by a more abstract word the same Oneness as Unio in the latter sense and sometimes abusively active Union But I am ready to learn better § 13. But saith he He understands it of our Union to Christ not of the Unity or Oneness of the Christian Church Ans. The best is he saveth me from unmannerly telling you that he speaketh falsly by confessing the falshood in the very terms of accusation For if he dare say that it is no Church-Union to be all United to one Christ in our common Christianity he is a very falâ—e Teacher § 14. P. 39. Repeating my words he tells you I misconstrue both terms But you are best take it on his word And he feigneth that I do or must infer ergo the Unity of the Catholick Church doth nâ—t consist in being one Body and Society and Communion of Christians Whereas I infer the clear contrary That it doth consist in one such body it 's Union with Christ making it such an one Yet here he addeth If this be to write controversies we may as well lay wagers and cast lots for major minor and conclusion Which words truly tell you what the Doctor 's Logical strength is like the Woman that told the Doctor that she could make her hungry Pig cry with better Logick than all the Doctors in the University did dispute And could not a Quaker say as much § 15. P. 41 42. He seemeth serious in asking me How the Catholick Church is united in one Body so as to be one Church And when I tell him how many sorts af Union there are he saith he cares not how many sorts there are so I will tell him what the Unity of
matter 2. God gave Christ to be the Mediator and Head 3. God made by Christ the Covenant of Grace by which as by a Law and Gift he determineth of the Conditions of Church-Relation and Benefits and commandeth Man's belief and consent and professeth his own acceptance of such consenters 4. His Ministers and Word perswade Men to believe and consent 5. His Spirit efficiently causeth Men to believe and consent 6. At that time God's conditional grant becometh actual and giveth them actually a right and relation to Christ and his Benefits 7. Thereupon Christ's Ministers solemnize this Covenant declaring God's acceptance and by Baptism investing the person in the visible possession of his relation to Christ and all his Members the person professing his believing which maketh it a mutual Covenant the Parent doing it for Infants These Seven Acts go to make up the total efficient Cause of the Churches Essence and Unity and each Members Union therein And if you exclude any one of them you will be a false Teacher Is there any room here for a Controversie among Christians The Father the Son the Holy Ghost the Covenant and Law the Consenter the Minister and Baptism all make up the efficient Cause of the Churches Essence And that which maketh it a Church maketh it One Church As that which maketh it an House a Ship a Family a School a Kingdom maketh it thereby One House One Ship One Family c. for eus unun convertuntur § 17. But tho his Question How that ambiguous Syllable enquire not of the Churches Essence and of what who knows yet p. 43. he ventures to enquire of it upon my words it is only essential to the Church that there be an organized Body of Pastors and People united to Christ the Head saith he Here I agree with Mr. B. if he would add One Body for that is the thing in dispute Whether Christ have one or a thousand bodies Ans. I pray you remember this happy agreement that we agree of the Churches Essence But is not A Body the Singular Number If I say that a man is corpus organicum and a rational soul united do I need to put in One Body or One Soul while unum is entis inseparabilis affectio Good Doctor why must not Verum and Bonum be named with every eus in a definition as well as Unum Can it be a Body and not One Body O! what a Jest will School-boys make of us for such disputing 3. But the pretended disagreement is much worse asserted Is that the Controversie Whether Christ have One Body or a Thousand Would you make men believe that we deny the Unity of the Universal Church If you would prove it or blush 2. Do you your self deny the being of Thousands of particular Churches which are parts of the Universal When you have seemed long to do it you come again and confess such Churches and condemn us as separating from them 3. Is the Controversie whether these single Churches de nomine may be called so many Bodies of Christ 1. Name the men that so call them and prove it or confess your self a false Accuser 2. If they did an unfit Name is not an error de re I never heard man so speak We say that the word Church used for the Universal and the Particular is not univocally used but analogically expenuriâ nominum As oft the whole and part have one Name We say that as an hundred Cities and Counties may make one Kingdom and were they all equivocally called Republicks or Kingdoms it would be no change in the Doctrine All the Christian World call the universal and the particulars by the name of Church And yet if to help us out of the Equivocation you will invent a better Name and get men to consent to it not reprehending the Scripture-use we will hearken to you But as One Kingdom is individuate by One King and yet subordinate Societies may have subordinate individuating Heads so is it here And it 's grosly unfit to say Christ hath many Bodies tho he have many Churches in one as the King hath many Cities but one Kingdom here But he adds If but One how do all the Christians in the World make up that one Body How must not be explained If by how he meant by what efficiency I have told you If it mean by what constitutive Causes it is by Form and Matter united If it be any Mode that you mean vouchsafe to tell us what § 18. P. 43. he goes on thus reciting some of my words In this definition Christ only is the supreme constitutive summa potestas or regent part The organized body of Pastors and People is the pars subdita and the Union of Christ and that body maketh it a Church And saith he This is very well But the main doubt still remains untouched What is it that makes all the Christian Pastors and People in the World to be but One Church Ans. Contra negantem principia non est disputandum This intimateth that eus unum non convertuntur And that besides that which maketh it a Church somewhat else must go to make it one Whether your obstinate equivocation in the word make shall be by you expounded of the efficient or constitutive causes in this it 's all one That which maketh it a Church doth thereby without any more causality make it one Church This is as if he said We are agreed what maketh a Man an House a City a Book c. but we agree not what maketh him One Man and so of the rest Nothing but that which maketh him a Man and causeth the existing Essence Matter and Form united constitutively And efficiently all that which causeth Matter and its Disposition which Aristotle calls Privationâ— and Form and their Union But Reader it 's so hard to understand such a Speaker that we must â—ift every doubtful word lest he come again and say we wilfully mistake him Who knows but the Doctor hath a Câ—tâ—urnus in the word but and the question be What maketh this the only Church or that God hath no other but one As if the question were What made Adam at first the only man in the World or the Israelites the only peculiar Nation I answer Nothing in Adam nothing in Israel and so nothing in the Church can be the cause of Nothing No Man no Nation no Church speak Nothing Not to make another is nothing but the words are a meer Negation And Nothing hath no Cause What is the Cause that there is not another Sun Why Nothing hath no Cause But if we must give any other Answer it must be only by calling the Negation of a Cause by the Name of a Cause and saying that the Cause why there is but one Sun that we know of and one Church Universal is because God made no more § 19. The Doctor proceeds Nor does his similitude help him out which is so admirable in its Philosophy and
Col. 1.18 19. He is the head of the body the Church In him all fullness dwells 2.3 In whom are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledg 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily 17.19 The body is of Christ the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred knit together increaseth with the increase of God 3.3 4. Your Life is hid with Christ in God when Christ our Life shall appear 11. Christ is all and in all 1 John 1.2 The Life was manifested and we have seen it 4.9 We live through him 5.11 12. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life We are in him that is true in his Son Iesus Christ. These and many other signifie that Christ is fitly likened both to a Head and to a Soul to his Church and is not a dead Head but a living and that the word Head includeth the Soul operating in the Head for the Sense Reason and Guidance and increase of the body And that he doth operate by the Holy Ghost who is one God with the Father and Himself confirmeth it Even as Christ is said to be quickned by the Spirit and by the Spirit to offer himself to God and to justifie us c. which is far from proving that he did it not himself Chrysostome and Basil and Ambrose need not to have been at so great care to prove that it is Christ himself that is called The Spirit and the Lord the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.17 18. against the Arians It will prove him God that as he the word in making the World moved on the Waters by the Spirit which is one with him so he doth by his Spirit which is one with his own Godhead sanctifie Souls I hope you are not against the Filioque Briefly He that giveth to his Church and every true Member of it Spiritual Life Light and Love illumination Sanctification Strength increase and Consolation as appointed by the Father to do all this by himself and by his Spirit is the form Essentiating the Church as much and more than the Soul is to the Man But such is Christ Ergo If I were of their mind that anathematized the Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites as damn'd Hereticks for their unskilful words I should much more Hereticate a Doctor in our Age that will say That if Christ be the Head of the Church he cannot be to it as a Soul a forma informans denominans But I am not of that mind 3. But when this Doctor added If Christ be not the Head of the Body the Church must be without a Head or have some other Head than Christ which I suppose is the Reason why he talks so much of a constitutive Regent Head of the Church Reader Can you tell what he means by which is the Reason Which of the two meaneth he that I suppose the Church without a Head When I so oft and largely prove Christ to be the Head Or is it that I hold some other Head When my Book is to disprove it Which ever it be I do not think refusing such a Pastor as makes no more of the Ninth Commandment is a damning Schism The Sin of Church tyranny goes not alone § 20. P. 45 He proceeds But the organized Body is the constitutive matter of the man though other Philosophers used to call the Body a constitutive part but to let that pass Ans. You had not the Wit to let it pass Durst I have accused you of what you bewray and accuse your self Reader Is not the Matter a Part And is not the Form a Part of the man And doth that man speak plainer that barely calleth either of them a Part and tells you not which Part it is Matter or Form If one of his Pupils should say Sir you should not call the Soul the Form but a Part nor the Body the Matter but a Part what would the Boys say to him § 21. He goes on Thus an Organical Church is the constitutive Matter Of what Of Christ or of his Church or of some third compoundâ—d Ans. 1. Did I say An Organical Church or an Organical Body When Aristotle saith the soul is entelechia corporis physici organici doth he say Hominis physici Organici But you are an enemy to vain Philosophy and distinction 2. What if I had said an Organical Church as I sometimes do an Organized who knows not that ex penuria nominum the words Church Kingdom City Family School c. are ordinarily used equivocally sometimes properly for the whole Church Kingdom City c. as a Governed Society including Matter and form united And sometimes improperly for the Material part alone the Kingdom as distinguisht from the King the Church as distinct from Christ and from the Bishops and so of all the rest And when I so oft told you that the Organical Body of Christians is the Matter of the Church and Christ the foâ—m as far as these terms fit Bodies Politick could you not find in such words Of what it is the Matter of the Church of Christ. § 22. He adds But that these parts be duly placed and united is forma Corporis non Hominis which what it means I cannot tell unless that a man would be a man though the several parts of his Body did not stand in their right places nor were united to one another so they were all united to the Soul Ans. Do you not understand what it means What if I had so accused you Whether it be long of your Tutor or You I know not But 1. If you know not the difference between forma Corporis and forma Hominis some body is too blame Forma dat esse nomen The Soul giveth Being and Name to a Man He is no Man without it Do you think it gives Being and Name to the Body What if Lazarus his Body in the Grave were without its Soul is it not Corpus a Body What if such a Body as Mâ—ns had only the Soul of a Brute were it no Body What if Drâ—â—elius made his Engines move constantly by the Sun or Fire Is it not an Engine materially organized before the Sun or Fire move it Hath not a Wind â—â—ll or Water mill its mechanical form which is but the Organization oâ— dâ—e matter when Wind or Water move it not But to what purpose is it to talk to one that tells us he cannot understand it 2. But the addition is shameful misunderstanding Doth he that saith Organization is forma Corporis say that one may be a mâ—n without it This is below puerility Did I not maintain that as Aristotle haâ—h his three principles Matter Privation and Form and by Privation meaneth the Dispositio receptiva of the matter so Politick Bodies by similitude to natural have And that Organization is
that Dispositio receptiva sine qua Materia non recipit formam And now this famous Doctor cannot understand me when I assert it's Necessity to humanity unless I mean that one may be a man without it I would not exagitate this ignorance were it not in a Man that is damning and encouraging the silencing and ruining of so many Servants of Christ for their supposed Ignorance of the Lawfulness of all their Oaths Promises and Impositions But Reader my Heart grieveth to think that so great a number should be caried by such men as this to the same Love-killing opinions and practices I 'le put a case to you A Leveller that would have got down the Universities undertook that his Parrot should Learn Philosophy as well as Scholars and should dispute with any of them all He taught the Parrot only two words before Noon every day It 's true Sir and I understand you and to say two more every day afternoon viz. You lie Sir and away you Rogue When he had learnt them perfectly he inviteth a Tutor to read Philosophy to his Parrot He reads in the morning a Lecture of the Principles of Man and the Parrot oft saith I understand you and I'ts true Sir The Hearers admiring it are invited to dispute with the Parrot in the Afternoon Multitudes come and the Respondent maintained that Man hath a Reasonable Soul and next that Parrots have none such The Parrot oft answered You lie Sir and at last Away you Rogue If the Company gave the Parrot the better and concluded for Brutes against Humanity did they more deserve pity or indignation Once more God made Adam's Body before he breathed into it the Breath of Life If this Body had not its form it was not a Body nor a humane Body without the proper form of such That which hath no form is no being If the form of that Body was forma Hominis then Adam's Body was a Man without his Soul And then the Soul is not forma hominis But saith the Doctor I know not what it meaneth unless it be that Adam may be a man without the Corporeal form or Organization But lest the Doctor when he understands me should think that I have hereby served his Notion of Communion I must add that it is not either the placing or the being of all the parts of a humane Body that is this formâ—l Organization but only of the Essential parts It may be a humane Body without a Finger or Hand or Foot or Arm or Leg and what great diversity of parts are found within men and diversity of place and shape you may see in Skenkius his Observation as well as in Paraeus Hildanus Hollerius and multitudes more that afforded him his instances But without a Heart a Brain a Stomach a Liver Lungs c. it cannot be a humane Body organized And without a Gospel Ministry to guide the Flocks it is not a compleat organized Body of Christ though in fieri it was an Embrio before But I must again warn the Reader not to argue too far from Similitudes In a natural Body God hath fixed all the parts by a constant Law of generation except in Monsters But in political Bodies the difference is much Civil politicks quoad formas specificas are humane Creatures and men may alter them The Church is a Divine politie God hath fixed its essentials But he hath left many of its Accidents to the choice of Man who may alter them as Edification requireth And again I say that Catholick Union in the Essentials only is necessary to the Being of the Church and in the Integrals to its Integrity and in the needful common Accidents to its Comeliness and in other Accidents its unnecessary and impossible God makes the Man but the Tailor makes his Cloathes and the Country and Usage and Parents may diversifie Colour and Complexions Metropolitans and Patriarchs and Diocesian Churches as containing multitudes of Churches without Bishops and their Chancellors Officials Commissaries Arch-Deacons c. are humane Creatures as the Episcopal Protestants usually confess And Liturgies are various as Languages and Ceremonies are like our Periwigs Some think it lawful to wear Womens Hair and some think it unlawful though the fashion But I remember none yet that have taken all for Rebels or Out-laws that wear not Periwigs or are not of the same Habit Language or Complexion nor any that for these send men to Prison nor that think it a wise way to unity § 23. p. 46. He comes after with an If I mean to conjecture what I mean and think it fits his present case well why then doth he quarrel with it But what is his case Then the Church cannot be united to Christ in one Body without union with it self and the unity of the Catholick Church cannot consist meerly in the Union of all particular Churches in and to Christ without any Union among themselves Ans. Who did he ever Read or hear say that the Churches have no Union or no other than their Union in Christ among themselves He may see before § 9. I named ten points of their Union On Condition that he will not take the Cloathes or the Periwig or the House or the Horse or Coach no nor his Wealth or Office for the man I 'le once more tell him for the Readers sake and not his wherein the Unity of the Church consisteth and also in what all have Communion Politick Bodies are not like Natural where all the Members must have a continuity of contract Men that touch not and see not one another may be Members of one Kingdom Houses that touch not one another may make one City 1. The Church is considered in its meer Essence 2. It s Organized compleat state needful to its Edification 3. In its gradual growth or perfection 4. In its mutable accidents I. Christ and Christians United are all that is Essential to it as a Church II. Christ and Christians Sub-Churches or Societies of Pastors and Flocks are all that is necessary to make it an Organized Church compleated in the parts necessary to its Edification These Pastors at first were extraordinary Apostles and Prophets for the first settling of universal Laws and order And after Ordinary Pastors to Teach and Guide the Flocks III. This Body hath integral parts of various degrees differing in Knowledge Orthodoxness Piety Peace Power of Preaching and Purity and order of Worship and Government Some in it Preach Christ not sincerely but in strife and contention to add affliction to sincere suffering Preachers and some as Diotrephes receive not the Brethren but cast them out of the Church and forbid others to receive them and judge or despise each other for things that God would have left free and receive not those that Christ receiveth IV. All of them differ in multitudes of accidents They are not bound to agree in the same Forms Liturgies or unnecessary Circumstances Nor in humane additional Modes called forms of Government
dilemmatically either by Peace and Union you mean inclusive Union with Christ and the Unity of the Spirit one Faith one hope and Union of Christian Love and by Communion a Communion in things necessary to salvation or you do not If you do then this is the true Paraphrase of your words They may have all the Essentials of a true Church except all the Essentials for those they have not If you do not include these then this is the Paraphrase They may be true Believers and penitent and love God and Man sincerely and be Members of Christ and have his Spirit and one Baptism and one true hope of Heaven and the pardon of sin and yet be Rebels and damned for want of somewhat ese which I call Unity Peace and Catholick Communion I think you mean subjection to such as you in all your Canonical Impositions In short the plain truth of this Case I before opened viz. When disobedience to true Church-â—astors proveth tâ— be as Adultery and Murder sins signifying such Predominance of the Flesh and absence of Divine Faith and Love as is inconsistent with 〈◊〉 then it is damning as other grâ—ss and reigning sin is But else it â—uts not off from Christ and if the Prelates pretend to cut off such they are liker to cut off themselves § 33 His rare distinction he fullier openeth which is Between the Visible Church and the one true Catholick Visible Church The Visible Church comprehends all Societies of professed Christians Hereticks Idolaters or whatever they be Tâ—e one true Catholick Church 〈◊〉 not Ans. I have answered this before It 's well the distinction is not commonly observed as the Coyner saith for it would be a common abuse Hitherto we have known but one Universal Church considered as Mystical in Believers or Visible in Prosessors of the same and not another Faith Profest Idolaters or Hereticks that deny the Essential are no Members of it as Visible But this Doctor hath forged an One true Catholick Church less than the Visible and yet Visible Could he have spoken sence he would but have said The Universal Visible Church hath some Members that are sound orderly and peaceable and some that are erroneous disorderly and unruly even as it hath some holy and some Adulterers Thieves and Persecutors In a great house are some Vessels of Earth to dishonour § 34. I fear if I should survey but half the confused passages of this book I should tire the Reader as well as my self I will be briefer with the rest P. 94 95 c. He giveth us an allay against the tenor of his Excommunications and Damnations to shew that he is not so uncharitable as he seems to be and that his Canon that maketh so great a noise hath but Powder without Bullet I look he should say I misunderstand him and therefore I will not tell you his meaning but the sum of his words viz. p. 87. to shew us why Those that believe in Christ repent of their sins and lead an holy life in all godliness and honesty may yet be excluded from all the ordinary means of salvation He first blames them that in these days have thought Holiness so sufficient and would cheat his Reader by citing Austin as of that mind who hath no mention in the words which he cites of Faith Holiness Love to God or to his Saints or Service but only a Catalogue of such Virtues as Heathens or â—nfidels plead for viz. Chastity Continence not coveâ—â—us not serving Idols not contentious patient quiet emulating and envying none sober frugal But yet an Heretick who is without the Christian Faith and Love so far is he from including these in his Description But no doubt he will have some Readers that will swallow all such Hooks as these Then supposing men have no Love that communicate not on his terms nor love the Peace and Unity of the Church unless they joyn in such Principles as his that would destroy it he tells us truly that Heaven is only the Gift of Christ as merited by him and therefore can be had only on his terms and that is only in Communion with his Church and by his Sacraments Ans. And what Christ's Terms are he hath told us Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 3.16 Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life c. The Whole Gospel is a Charter of salvation to all that have true Faith Hope Love and Holiness And all such are in the Church of Christ. 2. And as ordinarily doth the Scripture tell us that the preaching of the Gospel is the means of faith and holiness by which God saveth them that believe and that by the hearing of faith preached the spirit is given Gal. 3.2 c. Rom. 10.14 17. John 5.24 Acts 18.8 Acts 10.44 The holy ghost fell on all them that heard the word before they were baptized even the miraculous gift of the Spirit Matth. 13.18 Mark 4.20 Luke 8.13 21. and 11.28 Christ himself preached but did not baptize He sent forth his Disciples to convert men by preaching Matth. 10.7 and 11.1 Mark 1.38 and 3.14 Luke 4.18 19 43. and 9.2 60. Acts 5.42 and 10.42 and 8.5 25 35 40. and 9.20 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Cor. 1.17 Paul saith he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel John 15.3 Ye are clean through the word c. John 6.63 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and life John 17. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth 6.68 and 8.30 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 1 Tim. 5.17 and 1.2 John 4.2 It is able to save souls James 1.21 1 Pet. 2.2 John 8.31 Heb. 4.12 It is able to make us wise to salvation It is by the word of God that men are born again as an incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1.23 It is that abiding in us that is our continued life 1 Iohn 2.14 There is no mention in Scripture of any one that was converted and made a Believer by Baptism or the Lord's Supper The Adult were all to repent and believe before they were baptized and God promised them forgiveness thereupon He never bid men baptize Infidels nor graceless men Baptism was but the publick solemnizing of the Covenant which they consented to before and the solemn investing them in that relation to which they were before entered And entring them by Baptism stated them in the Universal Church before ever they were setled under any particular Pastor in a particular Church as the case of the Eunuch Acts 8. shews But that which I call his Allay is that he copiously tells us that Heaven is a supernatural state of happiness and not the natural reward of an eartly creature p. 92 93. It is but an earthly happiness that Nature was made for and was promised to Adam in Paradise an immortal life on Earth An immortal life after death cannot be the natural Reward Innocent flesh is flesh Were it not for Heaven
Politick informed by Christ the Divine-Humane Head and particular Churches are subordinate Bodies Politick parts of it as such but not as Christian constitutively informed by their proper Pastors which all those Episcopal men believed that used the old description Ecclesia est plebs Episcopo adunata This is all plain to other men § 49. P. 201 202. He finds nothing like proof but my Assertion That the Regent part is the Informing part and if it have not one Regent part it is not one Society as Political If it have none it is no Polity If it have many it is many Ans. Reader his own words are What a Drudgery it is to dispute with such If he had talkt of these things at School he would not have challenged his Master to prove the signification of the words in his Dictionary but now he is a Disputer there is no end with him If he challenge me to prove that Rex signifieth a King and Subditus a Subject and so of the rest he will get the better by tiring me I can only refer him to books and use and men of that profession And so I do here If Politia do not signifie the Government and Governed Societies informed by Government all the Politicks and Dictionaries and use of Politick-Professors have deceived me I know Politria is sometime used Tropically for any cause of life any rules of living yea for good works by Chrysostome c. But I said enough to make him know that I spake of it in the usual proper sense of Politicians And so it is taken 1. For the stated Form of â—â—vernment in Civiiate 2. For the administration of that Government 3. For the Ius Civitatis or Burgesship in a governed City 4. For the â—nverâ—ation of men in such a governed Society What is Politica but civilis scientia What is Politicus but civilis respublicae gerendae peritus or â—ui rempublicam gerit Tho it be called Respublica a fine from the publick â—â—od yet men of that profession have appropriated the Names of Respublâ—ca Civitas and Politia to governed Societies only and analogum per se pâ—situm stat pro famosiâ—re analogato Saith he ' This I grant is true of such Societies as are One by one supreme 〈◊〉 power but not of such a Society as is One not by one supreme power over the whole but by one Communion And such a Society the Church is Ans. This is downright Heresie But he meaneth not as he speaks For he often confesseth that Christ is the Soveraign Head of the Church And to confess that and yet say That tho Christ be the Regent Head and Soveraign yet this doth not inform it or unifie it is gross contradiction as if the Fâ—rm did not give the specifying and unifying esse nemen We may next come to deny that Master and Scholars are a School or King and Subjects a Kingdom or Soul and body united a Man or that Two and Two are Four 2. He here plainly makes the Church to be but a Community which is false 3. And yet he will have it a Political Society For he saith That for a Politicaâ— Sâ—ciety to be informed by the One Regent part is not true of the Church which plainly includeth That the Church is a Political Society and yet hath not One Regent Head which is a contradiction He saith The Church must be excepted from Mr. B 's Rules and Definitions of 〈◊〉 Ans. You see to what a pass these men would bring us As we must have New Rules and Laws of salvation if we will be of their Church-state so we must have New Politicks and New Dictionaries The Church cannot be a species of a Politick Society without New Definitions of Polity Next say God's Laws are no Laws unless you make a New Definition of Laws in genere and Christians are no Men without a New definition of a Man I will not pretend to teach this Doctor but if he will go to School again I may hope he may meet with a Tutor that will teach him these Things following I. That a meer Community is not a proper Body Politick Civitas vel Respublica but an ungoverned Society of Equals in hoc associated for common good So are a company of men that venture all their Goods and Lives in one Ship as Equals agreeing on some means of common safety or any combined Body without Government 2. That no Community can make a true Law in proper sence but meer contracts tho the Names of Laws may be abusively so used For a Law is only the signification of a Rector's Will making the Subjects duty with due reward or punishment And it is the first part of the Administration in Government Legislation is the Prerogative of Rulers and never belongs to Equals in Community III. That a proper Political Body is only a Society consisting of Governour and Subjects united relatively IV. That if Twenty Governors Kings or States that are each supreme in their Republick confederate so as to set up one in rule over all the rest or the Major Vote of themselves to be Governor of the rest they make a new Kingdom or Republick by it But if they only confederate for the strictest Concord Offensive and Defensive this makes no new Polity nor Law but meer Contract of Equals tho all are Kings each one may make Laws for his own Kingdom according to those Contracts but they are Laws only by the Authority of their proper Soveraign V. That Cities are Bodies Politick and in a Kingdom are subordinate parts headed per modum formae by their proper chief Governour but supposing the superior Headship of the Kingdom and that Kingdoms are informed by Union with their Soveraigns specified as the Soveraigns are Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or mixt and unified by them But no man's Soveraignty is unlimited independent or absolute God being only such over all and Earthly Soveraigns more dependent under him than Mayors and Justices under the King VI. That even so it is in the Church which is one Political Body under Christ containing particular Churches subordinately inâ—ormed by their proper Pastors VII That a Confederacy of these Pastors is very useful for agreement to observe the Laws of Christ and to make such Local By-Laws as Corporations may do by Charter to determine their own Circumstances which the Law of the Land determines not each Church hath power which many may agree to use allowing necessary variety And the Magistrate may determine that which is not proper to the Pastor's Office for many But the concord of these Associated Confederates can make no Law but contract nor any proper new Church-form save as improperly called a Church from Accidents If the Saxon Heptarchs had agreed to govern all their Kingdoms by strict consent this had not made another Kingdom or Law they had not been made One Kingdom by such a Confederacy but many Kingdoms agreeing as one Community of Equals VIII The Relation that all
the only Remedy against Schism to be the chiefest cause They have made Associations and Confederacies of Men to set up New Forms of Churches Church-Government or Communion by multitudes of Clergy-Laws or Canons of their own to be necessary to Ministry and Communion and consequently to avoid Schsm and consequently to Salvation By which Arrogancy and Impositions and Arbitrary Laws and Censures thereupon the Christian World is now almost all broken into Sects condemning and censuring one another into Greeks Muscovites Armenians Georgians Nestorians Jacobites Abassines Maronites Papists Protestants c. And of all these the Papists pretend to a Power of Government by Legislation and Iudgment over all the Christians on Earth some placing it in the Pope as chief some in a Council or the Colledge of Bishops as chief of which the Pope is the prime Member most in Pope and Council agreeing This Sect unchurcheth all Christians save themselves and have made so many Canon-Laws as none can understand and keep Some that yet do not own the Pope tell us That yet the Church on Earth is one Political Body not unified by its Relation to Christ the Head and Form He is not Visible enough say the Papists to Head a Church that may be called Visible But it is unified by a certain Confederacy of Communion among themselves which sometime they call an Universal Government and say they have power to make Universal Laws and sometime say It is not One Unifying Government but One Communion and yet make Laws which all must hold Communion with They say and unsay and know not what to say They cannot tell us what are the necessary terms of that Communion nor how to know with what Nations and Churches we must hold it But this they agree in That Christ the Finisher of our Faith hath left Faith Worship and Government so unfinished that Bishops of all the World or many Nations they know not who must make us more Laws and when they will have done and compleated Religion no man knows And that all that will be Christians must on the Terms of these Canons have Communion with them and refuse not one thing that they command And therefore must all be learned enough to know that all that they command is lawful And if any withdraw for an Oath or Covenant or Ceremony tho he mentally own them as true Churches or if for dissent he be excomunicated by them he must worship God in no other Assembly but live like an Atheist till he be convinced of the Lawfulness of their Impositions else all that so worship God are damnable Schismaticks and so are all that communicate with them So that I know but few on Earth that they damn not for breaking their Canons tho they would keep all the Laws of Christ And every where they that have strength and possession presume that it is they that must thus be the Standers and Rulers of all others about them It is an utter Maze which they make the Terms of catholick communion and consequently of Salvation instead of the few plain certain things which Christ made necessary We can get but few of the vulgar to understand the sense of Baptism the Creed Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments And our churches are much made up of such and our Parishes have too many Sadduces Infidels and Hobbists yet all must be supposed to know 1. That all the Bishops and Priests are truly called and authorized when few know what maketh them Pastors indeed 2. And that all their words ceremonies and impositions are not repugnant to God's Word 3. And that all are to be avoided whom their Canons and Lay-civilians excommunicate 4. That it is a company of true Bishops and Churches in other Nations whose communion they own 5. That all are Schismaticks that they so judg and their churches no true churches of The English Schismatick detected and confuted Occasioned by a Resolver of Cases about Church Communion CHAP. I. SAITH THE RESOLVER § 1. THE Church is a Body or society of men separated from the rest of the World and united to God and to themselves by a Divine Covenant A. He saith this is the plainest description he can give That is not the fault of his Auditors or Readers 1. As to the Genus a Community of equals without Rulers is a body but I suppose he meaneth not such 2. Is it enough that it be of Men sure now they should be Christians 3. Many are separated from the rest of the World secundum quid that are no Christians some in one respect and some in another and none in all respects 4. Vnited to God is an ambiguous word no Creature is Vnited to him perfectly so as to be thereby what he is God in the created Nature Only Christ is united to him Hypostatically in his created Nature All are so far united to him in natural being as that in him they live and move and have their being And the Nature of man is one sort of his Image All things are united to him as effects to their constant efficient The Church should not be defined without any mention of Christ The Churches Union with God is by Christ. 5. Christ himself as Head is an essential part of the Church and should not be left out of a Definition thô the meer Body may in common speech be called the Church as the People may be called a Kingdom 6. Will any Divine Covenant serve or must it not be only the Baptismal Covenant 7. Is it called Divine only as made by God or as commanded by God and made by Man or as mutual Certainly Gods Law and offered or Conditional Promise is most frequently called His Covenant in Scripture and this uniteth not men to God till they consent and Covenant with him Their own Covenant Act is necessary hereto And that is a Divine Covenant only as commanded and accepted and done by Gods assisting Grace 8. The form of a Church is Relative and the Terminus is essential to a Relation It is no definition that hath not the End of the Association Therefore this is none at all and so the beginning tells us what to expect This description hath nothing in it but what may agree to divers forms of Society and so hath not the form of a Church And if he intended not a Definition but a loose description I would a defining Doctor had had the Chair during this controversie Let us try this description upon a Mahometan Kingdom Army or Navy or suppose them meer Deists 1. Such a Kingdom Army or Navy may be a Society 2. Of Men. 3. Separated from the rest of the World secundum quid ad hoc and none are separated from it simpliciter ad omnia e. g. No man is separated from the common humanity No Deist from any but Atheists and no Christian in believing a God and the Law of Nature and Nations 4. They are Vnited to God so far as owning a God and
proper Authority but only in such matters as concern the Unity of the Episcopacy or the Peace and Communion of the Catholick Church If a Bishop be convicted of Heresie or Schism or some great wickedness or impiety they may depose him and forbid his people to communicate with him and ordain another in his stead because he subverts the Unity of the Faith or divides the Unity of the Church or is himself unfit for Communion Ans. 1. Either these are meant as acts of Government or not If yea then why do you so oft disclaim it and call it only Advice and Communion Then you place this governing Power in Forreigners when they are no further off than with ease and convenience we may confederate with them And whither this will lead I 'le not enquire If nay then it seems men may depose Bishops and set up or ordain others in their stead without any governing Power over them If so then by Authority you must mean Authoritatem Doctoris vel Nimcii and so I confess Pastors may in Christ's Name require other Churches to do their duty and not Authoritatem Regentis And if so it 's as true that when there is just cause a few may depose many as many depose a few But men use not to call it deposing and ordaining in his place when men do but charge others in Christ's Name to do their duty I find not thaâ— St. Martin excommunicated the Bishops and Synods in Ithacius and Idacius time but I find that he renounced Communion with them and so may Equals do § 43. P. 140. he saith The sensless imputation of Cassandrianism and French Popery is managed so knavishly by Mr. Lob and with such blind fury by Mr. Baxter with so much confusion c. Ans. The Terms I wonder not at but whatever we are for Knavery or blind Fury if this man help us against Confusion it 's strange § 44. P. 173. he grants that the Bishops are not the Governours of the Church as united in one common regent Head over the whole Church but as every Bishop governeth his own share And this of true Bishops who denieth him P. 183. It is but a voluntary combination and stricter associasion for preserving Unity by advice c. All this is good tho damned by him in the Independents if they would combine to rule according to the Laws of Christ and not make any of their own without authority nor so as to accuse Christ's Laws of insufficiency nor make dividing noxious snares § 45. Saith he p. 189. That this Church is Universal is founded on the Laws of Catholick Communion Ans. No Humane Laws make the Church Universal Men may make their own Subjects or Confederates unite in accidents either just as in one Translation of Scripture one time and place and meeting c. or unjust when it 's hurtful vain or belongs not to them but it is only he that maketh the Church a Church who thereby maketh it One Church in Essentials And in Integrals he that maketh it entire by institution or efficiency 2. This Union is founded in mens Unity in Christianity Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. § 46. P. 192. He saith The Association and Confederacy of Neighbour-Churches is founded on the Law of Catholick Communion and the Catholick Communion cannot be maintained without it Ans. Not without Baptismal Confederaâ—y in the necessary Duties commanded by Christ But as to your Confederacies in Humane new Church-Forms Patriarchal Metropolitan c. was not the Church One without them before they were invented Here he maketh voluntary Confederacies to make new Church-Canons or Laws of Discipline necessary to Unity and that Unity necessary to Salvation all being cut off from Christ that break it As if Christ had not made Laws enough necessary to salvation and he that only kept his Laws and not mens Canons could not be saved Can he tell us then where to fix our Religion On what Bishops and on what Canons I am certain that his Religion will not stand with certainty of salvation when no man can be certain what is necessary to salvation nor what de novo will by Bishops be made necessary the next year nor who those Bishops must be 2. See here again When he made it a renouncing our Christianity to confederate and associate to do mens duty in a particular Church he yet maketh it necessary to Unity and so to salvation by confederacy to make new Humane Church Forms All this is to bring all mens salvation opinionatively into the power of those that can get uppermost as if men could as easily damn others as themselves § 47. P. 200 201. saith he If the Church cannot be a Political Society without one constitutive Regent Head then the Church is not a Political Society for it neither has nor can have any such on Earth over the whole Ans. We thank you for that much But the Church is a Political Society and to deny it is to deny an Article of the Creed and to unchurch it quoad ipsam formam And Christ is its constitutive regent Head The whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named by him from whom the whole compacted body is increast and edified And it 's dangerous false Doctrine worse than breaking one of your Canons to hold that the Church cannot be a Political Society unless it have an Head on Earth § 48. He adds when I shewed that all Episcopal Writers as Hooker Spalatensis c. of Church Polity take the Church for one Body Politick But what is this to the purposo Does Hooker set up one Regent Head Ans. 1. Yes Christ. 2. Was it not directly to my purpose to prove it a Polity which was that which I alledged it for But saith he do any of them prove That Civil and Ecclesiastick Polity is the same thing Ans. Yes in genere Do they use the word equivocally Is not Polity or Government in Civils and Ecclesiasticks Polity in genere How can these else be distinct species of it Was this ever denied by Conformist before Saith he ' Do not the Civil and Ecclesiastick Commonwealth differ as much as the Church and the State Ans. And do not Church and State differ in specie as being both Politick Bodies sub uno genere He adds Therefore he must still prove That as one supreme Regent Head is necessary to the Unity of a State or Kingdom so it is to the Unity of the Church which will be a fair advance towards Popery Ans. 1. Every Christian holds That Christ is the Head over all things to his Church But every Christian says not That this is an advance to Popery Is Christianity Popery 2. Is one State and Kingdom all the World All that I have to prove is That as all the Earth is one Divine Kingdom God being the absolute Soveraign and each particular Kingdom is part of it a Political Body subordinate informed by its One Humane Soveraign even so the Universal Church is one Body
and Devote himself to Him Therefore to force the unwilling to be Baptized is a Sacrilegious Prophanation of Baptism 4. To be Baptized is to be solemnly invested in a visible State of Regeneration Pardon Adoption and Right to Christ and Life Eternal by a Ministerial Delivery of such Right as in the Name of Christ. But no unwilling Person hath any Right to these unvaluable Gifts Therefore no unwilling Person should be forced to receive the said Investiture 5. Christ's Tryal and Description of the Willing is Whether they resolve to accept of his Grace forsaking all worldly interest that stands against it Luke 14.26 27 to the end Therefore to Baptize all that are forced to it by the Sword and had rather be Baptized and say they Believe than lose all they have and lie in Gaol is to Preach another Gospel in part 6. Persons Baptized in infancy have no right to Communion in the Lord's Supper till they profess their personal Faith and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant And the Unbaptized are not to be forced to Communicate The Lords Supper redelivering all the same great unvaluable Gifts to the Receivers which were delivered in Baptism the Unwillâ—ng are no more capable of one than the other And to force them to say they are Willing and to receive that which they have no right to is Sacrilegious prophaning Holy things 7. The ancient Churches for many hundred years were so far from forcing any to Baptism or Church-Communion or thinking that they should be forced that they admitted none that did not earnestly desire it And if the Baptized by Impenitency or Apostacy or â—long withdrawing from Communion did shew themselves again uncapable by unwillingness they Declaratively cast them out 8. And that the Excommunicate as such should be laid up in Prison and undone to force them again to be Willing to be Christians or to Communicate hath the same Reasons against it as against doing it at the first and to take them for Willing and Capable of Absolution and Salvation who had rather say they Repent and Consent than lye in Gaol is to pervert Christ's Gospel and Sacraments and confound the Church And the ancient Churches would have abhorred the motion of such a thing 9. But it is just and meet that Princes make a difference between Christian and Infidel Subjects and between those that live Willingly in Communion of the Church and those that refuse it And that a Christian Kingdom should give those Powers and Immunities to willing Christians which they give not to Infidels and the justly Excommunicate especially in matters relating to Government Legislative and Judiciary and especially about Reâ—igion and the Church And if any to obtain such Immunities or Powers do Hypocritically profess Christianity and consent themselves only are guilty of the Prophanation no wrong means was used and the Church is no searcher of the Heart 10. But Christianity being necessary to our Salvation and it being the Christian Magistrates Duty to do his best for the Salvation of all his Subjects and Knowledge being the means of Consent and Teaching and Learning the means of Knowledge it is the Duty of such Magistrates to provide sufficâ—ent Teachers for Number and Qualâ—ty for all the Subjects and to compel men to Hear Conâ—er and Learn as Catechumens The ancient Churches had their previous Instructions for such who were yet dismissed before the Communion Exercises proper to the faithful § 3. II. To the second case I Answer 1. There is nothing in this World that Man can do without all inconveniencies or which may not be turned to some occasion of Evil. On one side 1. It is most desirable that all Kingdoms were wholly Christians and the Princes be Defenders and Promoters of Religion and the Church and Kingdom be materially the same and the Civil Government used Holily according to God's Laws to holy ends 2. And it is desirable accordingly that the Kingdom being all Christian be divided into fit parts for Christian Conversation and Communion such as our Parishes are and that all be of the Church who are of the Parish and the Civil State sanctified and the Ecclesiastick grow up as Body and Soul into one And that all in the Parish be of one mind and of one Church and that there be no just cause given for any to separate from the rest nor any do it without cause 3. And it is desirable that all these Parish-Churches in a Kingdom living under one civil Government do by the means of Senior Pastors and Synods hold such Correspondence as is necessary to their common Concord and Strength These things being Desirable it is no wonder if good Governours Endeavour them and that ignorant men Plead for all such Concomitants Subordinates and Consequents as do suppose them When as in Fact the case being quite otherwise to administer matters on a false supposition of the matter of Fact as if that were which is not is but like the Men of Gothams striving and fighting which way they should drive their Sheep and where they should pasture them when they had none 1. No Kingdom is so wholly Christian as not to have many alas how many uncapable of Church-Communion 2. Yet it is a matter of order to be endeavoured that the Country be divided into Parishes and that they have an Ecclesiastick as well as a Civil Relation That is That each of these Parishes have a stated Teacher or many for the Catechumens who are uncapable of Communion And that the same Men be the Pastors of all in that Parish who consent and have the Temples and Tythes by the Magistrates Countenance and Consent And this great advantage of Publick Countenance and Maintenance will no doubt prevail with the main Body of Christians in that Parish if the men be desirable or tollerable to chuse them rather than others to avoid discountenance and the maintaining of others As all in the Hospital will be for the established Physician who dare trust him with their Lives But if this should be carried further to bind all persons to an absolute acceptance of such Parish Priests to be their only Pastors under the Bishops who are put upon them the mischiefs would be intollerable For 1. Then all must accept of Papists Priests only in France Spain Italy Bavaria Austria c and of bare Readers in Muâ—covy 2. Or else all Subjects are made Judges of the qualification of their Kings whether they are Orthoodox enough to chuse them Pastors while they are not allowed to judge what Pastor to trust 3. And then every ignorant malignant or prophane Man who by inheritance or purchase hath got Advowsons or Presentations hath got an advantage greatly to hinder the Salvation of all the Parish And if Money may buy Souls for so much probability of Damnation no wonder if the god of this World imploy many rich Merchants to purchase Advowsons For how ordinarily God worketh according to the suitableness of means Scripture and full Experience