the Saints as Fellow Members I desire to be resolved who those Saints are Not the reformed Protestants not the Primitive Christians you exclude both their Church being not separate if they be acknowledged Members of the Catholick Church they are interested in the Communion of Saints expressed in the Creed And then your separation from them amounts to a separation from the Church and the Communion specified in the Creed To ascend higher are the Apostles the Saints you own a Communion with Then prove they made such separations from Christian Congregations as you do But you admit them not the Title of Saints let me inoffensively ask for my own satisfaction if they be real Saints why not Titular If your selves as real assume the Title why may not the Apostles be indulged that privilege in regard you plead to be Saints of the same extraction especially since us to the judgment of others at least there is greater certainty infallibility of their Saintship than of yours As for your desire of company comfortably to partake the things of God those Assemblies you have quitted do afford those sacred Comforts you have deserted them for wherein sacred Ordinances are most comfortably because most charitably celebrated Being private Persons or Pastors of a Parochial Church we are principled to be Converts not Judges to exercise severity in repentance not censure to be inquisitors in our own Breasts to condemn none but our selves Religion is not tainted with Faction among us nor Zeal stained with Schism We bewail the practical prophaneness of any that the same tincture of Grace is not visible in Worship and in Life however our wickedness is not in Gilgal as to this charge God's pure Ordinances are not slurred not vitiated much less vacated rendred ineffectual by mens impure desailances unless to themselves only To the pure all things are pure The LETTER Therefore do humbly offer these ensuing grounds to your serious consideration desiring your judgement on them and thoughts of them The ANSWER I take no felicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Nazianzens expression to mould Divinity into a Comedy I shall not by the Divine assistance fail of a serious Discussion of your Advertisements weighing them in the ballance of Reason and Religion I am not so improvident an Enemy to a numerous Family as to be peevishly wedded to clouded Tenets could I be rationally and conscienciously divorced from them I should not stick to pen my own Retractations according to the laudable Example of St. Austin The LETTER That there is a Church of God here on Earth all do agree in concerning the Matter and Form in general there is no great difference That it is coetus fidelium a company of people called out and segregated from the World by the Word to walk together in the Gospel of Jesus is granted The ANSWER The quod sit that there is a Church is uncontrolled undiscussed the quid sit what that Church is is the subject of Ancient and Modern Debates Here the Logick Rule is to be observed Ambiguous words are first to be distinguish'd then defined The Church is either Universal or Particular Grand Differences being loudly prosecuted touching the Matter and Form of both The Romanists comprehend Miscreants Reprobates for material parts and Members of the Catholick Church the Reformed allow only Elect Persons to be true and real Members of this Church yet they avouch vitious Christians nay scandalous till excommunicated to be Members of a particular visible Church but the Separatists do quite expunge raze them out The Romanists exact not as a consecutive but a constitutive essential Note as a formal mark of every particular Church Subjection to the Pope The Separatists require a Church Covenant an evidence if not assurance of the grace of every Member The Reformed Protestants dissent from both But not to tread out of your track Your Latin definition of the Church coetus fidelium is accommodated to the inward Church invisible Though an Assembly if particular be an object of Sense Believers properly are not But your English illustration of it is the Character of the outward visible Church that walk in the profession of the Gospel of Jesus If they walk whether in the Notion of Nature or Scripture if they profess they must be visible This is to shuffle together Disparata The LETTER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints by calling is Scripture Definition Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 33. but how far these terms may be understood how far extended and wherein restrained is the controversie The ANSWER I shall not except at the Etymologie nor the Scripture definition but the Restriction of it That 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main hinge of the Question If you understand Saints by calling of an inward effectual vocation the Testimony is an impertinency as to our debate touching an outward visible Church If you understand it of an outward Vocation remember our Saviours uncontrolled Maxime many are called but few are chosen This suites with a mixt Communion with an outward profession take Aretius his rational descant on St. Pauls Character How are they called Saints since it is certain many Novices in belief yea notorious lewd wretches in life were among them whereto he frames a double answer They were Saints by calling because called to Sanctity and endowed with preparatory Graces Because the better part were Holy the rest were Saints in the judgement of Charity though not of Infallibility It is the Candor the Rhetorick of the Apostle that the Title might be a Lecture the name a charm to Holiness Zanchy under the name of Saints apprehends titular professing Christians but the faithful distinguish'd severed from these by the Apostle to be sincere Believers Thus your first Citation is a Nominal definition of Christians nominal professional not real habitual outwardly interested by Baptism though not inwardly regenerated Saints by destination by designation not in conversation not in the least perfection of parts much less of degrees Your second Citation 1 Cor. 14. 33. is less advantageous to advance your design God is not the Author of confusion not of dissention in the vulgar Latin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of tumult but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints That is in all Christian Churches that are called obliged to be Saints If you observe your separation to be the source of dissention of confusion admitting no dependance no subordination it will appear at a great distance from those Apostolical Churches of the Saints especially if you note the coherence in the Claromonte Edition approved by Beza and other Reformed Divines immediately adjoyning to the 33 verse the 36 37 38 39 40 th vers and annexing 34 35 vers to the 40 th What came the Word of God from you or to you only The ophylact thus illustrates it You are neither the prime nor the sole Believers It behooves you to entertain that with affection with submission which hath
were not Captives not fettered but taught not hurried enforced but perswaded preached to their Religion You object the noise of Axes and Hammers to be heard in the Building This noise is no solecism in erecting a Fabrick no nor in repairing it and reducing into order a beam that is starting out But I pray unpartially recollect your own station How edifying is the noise of Drums and Guns Not the Ordinances of the Temple but the Camp A Church Militant without a Trope Had not Regiments been Arguments and Battels Proofs and Victories Demonstrations your separation might have been scanted for Proselites in this Climate quickly have shifted Scenes and like Cato on the Theatre vanish'd as soon as it appeared So that the Church of England is rather conquered than confuted not foiled gladio oris sed ore gladii Power and terror are the Pillars to support your separation wealth and honour the allurements the embellishments to engratiate it Such prevalent Principles may fortifie not justifie your separation By this Martial Topick the Bible must truckle to the Alcoran in the Greek Churches But you tax the Church of England for a promiscuous ungracious reception compulsion without regard of Knowledge Conscience Grace This confident Objection seconds the virulent imputation of the Romanists Were it so that many Churches were like Mishromes of a days growth that whole Nations became Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by heaps God were to be the more magnified for so miraculous a conversion Were not three thousand Souls the Converts of one Sermon In so numerous a Congregation there was no possibility of St. Peters punctual satisfaction of the personal knowledge conscience of each If you look back to the Baptists Church there appears a larger confluence Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and they were baptised of him in Jordan confessing their sins To close with you Do you charge the Church of England in its first Conversion or Reformation In its first Conversion there was no external force or power nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no influence but of conscience no Trumpet sounded but of the word that of Isaiah no Sword brandish'd but of the Spirit that of St. Paul In its Reformation Catechisms and Sermons took place of Edicts and Proclamations The Reformation was initiated by Henry the Eighth improved by Edward the Sixth compleated by Queen Elizabeth The Scriptures being translated into English many gross Errors were gradually discountenanced and at length fairly discarded Papal Supremacy Pardons Merits Images Pilgrimages under Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth made a further progress During the storm of the Marian Persecution the Blood of the Martyrs became the Seed of the Church After that Tempest was blown over the Pious Confessors reduced from confinement and banishment became zealous Propagators of the Reformed Religion Forrain Protestant Divines were entertained in England Peter Martyr and Bucer for purging the Universities that those eminent Fountains might be no longer corrupted Moses and Aaron both co-operated Commissioners assisted with Preachers were disperst into every Canton of the Nation the Bench being steered by the Pulpit The people were instructed weaned not constrained not scared out of their superstition If you aim at Truth not at Triumph to be furnish'd for satisfaction not cavil the Historical Narratives of Bishop Goodwin and Cambden Foxes Acts and Monuments will plentifully inform you in the holy and wary steps of the Reformation Happy it is for the Church any way to be refined from its dross It better becomes us to magnifie the Divine Mercy for the effects the Fruits of so blessed a Reformation than to quarrel for the Instruments the Formalities punctilioes of it and inconsiderately to gratifie our common adversary After your light skirmish of invectives conscience or none c. you muster up your grand Battalio Texts of Scripture for a more vigorous assault Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling This Testimony argues for voluntary assmbling not separating Such were the crowds of the Primitive Congregations whose Allelujalis sounded like claps of Thunder saith St. Jerom Thus Gods people the Jews thronged into his Temple Some desert our Congregations because they seem holy disgusting our Sacred Publick Ordinances out of their real prophaneness and others abandon them because our Congregations by reason of their mixtures seem prophane out of a formal critical Holiness These extremes exempted the rest assemble with an alacrity of piety who are affected with Davids solace to rejoyce when any say Let us go to the house of the Lord. Take the Psalmist in what acception you please Because those that are regenerated are convened and not constrained Will you hence infer that the unregenerate cannot by Edicts of Magistrates be constrained to the helps and requisite means that they may be regenerated They may be compelled to be assembled though not to be reclaimed to come in though not to worship when they are come in Nay unwilling Auditors may become willing Converts St. Aastin entred St. Ambrose Church with an itching ear to carp he departed with a bleeding heart to relent This Answer sufficiently manifests the invalidity of your second Testimony Es. 2. 1 2. which is a prediction of the propagation of the Gospel All nations shall flow to it in the 2. verse They shall serve God as St. Jerom expounds it Both verses flourish out the solemnity of an unanimous Congregation not the privacy of a disjoynted separation If you will appropriate these Prophesies to your selves like Homers Iliads contracted in a Nut-shell I pray exclude not the next verse Swords broken to plowshares and spears to pruning books The next text cited is Zach. 4. 6. Neither by an army nor strength but my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts This portion of Scripture is the interpretation of a Vision Commentators apprehend Zorobabel to whom the Vision was interpreted to be the Type of Christ. It is saith Vatablus a Prophesie of his Nativity without humane concurrence Mary being over shadowed by the Holy Ghost others expound it Historically of the Jews rescued from their Captivity only by the Divine Power or Prophetically of the Church guided and guarded soly by the Sacred Spirit However this doth not cotten with the web of your separation that hath a Martial Countenance and Assistance Whereas the Church of England hath no arm of flesh to strengthen it no Army but the Heavenly Militia no General but the Lord of Hosts no Banners but the Cross. Your third Citation Rev. 12. 15 16. is a Mystery the Application a Riddle I must desire you to be your own Oedipus And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carryed away of the flood And the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which
set down what proportion of knowledge is precisely requisite in a Communicant and how far that phrase of discerning of the Lords Body is necessarily to be extended After constant Catechisms and Sermons in Parochial Churches mens ignorance is not so great in not knowing what to practice as their prophaneness in not practising what they know Where Catechisms and Sermons are not frequent where the Expedients of saving knowledge are not tendred your Charity may determine this ignorance of a pure negation not of a depraved disposition an involuntary necessitated not a voluntary affected ignorance However you deem there is a gratious high Priest after the order of Melchisedeck who can have compassion on the ignorant Heb 5. 2. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to Theophylact imports commensuration compassion condescention condonation to match to melt to bend to stoop so the Syriack to pardon This compassion is not confined to the ignorant but extended to the Delinquent And on them that are out of the way 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as swerve deviate from the narrow Path of integrity such as are seduced by the wiles the impostures of Satan This notion comprehends your description of the black rabble Swearers Drunkards c. especially if the transgressions be not predominant if the transgressors be not impenitent They may be titled Saints professional though not actual for their Tenets though not for their Lives as to the outward Administration of the General Covenant of Grace though not as to the inward special Participation Yet in the strictest consideration they are to be enrolled Saints till they are convicted to be miscreants Till then though they are not such really in themselves yet they are judicially in the Eye of the Law in the Censure of the Church Not only by the Rule of Charity but Equity every man is presumed supposed to be good till he be legally proved to be evil To twist together your objections of ignorance and prophaneness drunkards c. which you press as inconsistent with Saintship I confess not reconcileable with practical yet reconcileable with federal sanctity to be interested in a visible Church The Israelites were charged for ignorance worse than brutish The ox knows his owner the asse his masters crib But Israel hath not known my people hath not understood So universally signally corrupted for conversation the whole Nation is decypher'd branch'd out to be Princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah and yet titled the Children of God in vers 2. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts in Is. 5. 7. yet the fruits were not delitious Oppression in vers 7. Covetous in vers 8. Drunkenness in vers 11. 12. Security and Impenitency in verse 12. Deliberate obstinate iniquity in vers 18 20. Though Sodom and Samaria were outvied in guilt by Israel yet were they a people relating to God by Covenant though forfeited by their defailance disobedience yet by Gods indulgence not deserted disclaimed by himself I will remember my covenant made with thee in the days of thy youth It is Hoseah's black enditement No truth no mercy no knowledge of God in the land By lying and swearing and killing and stealing and whoring blood toucheth blood and yet it is appropriated My people in the sixth and twelfth verses of that Chapter Not ironically but truly as Zanchy expounds it in regard of an external adoption of outward Symboles expresses of Religion which served as publick badges and cognizances to manifest the Jews Ecclesiastical visible priviledges not to be a people uncovenanted unchurched Suppose this Nation more depraved than Sodom and Samaria yet is it but ballanc'd with Israel and it is no greater Soloecism in Scripture Language to entitle this Nation to be Saints for its Parochial Members for the profession of true Religion than to entitle the Jews to be Gods people on the same account They are like parallel lines proportionable suitable to each other The people of Israel were sanctified by a federal relation were circumcised they owned Gods Oracles but disobeyed his Laws The scene of Circumcision being shifted to Baptism our case holds resemblance as to a visible Church as face answers face in water I shall add by way of surplusage The Apostles themselves were not absolutely acquitted from ignorance of scandal even in a remarkable conjuncture notwithstanding the celebrating of our Saviours last Supper and the approaching of the last scene of our Saviours Tragedy they were contentious and ambitious tainted with pride and variance There a rose a strife among them which should be greatest Ignorant they were of the saving mysteries of Christs Passion his Resurrection notwithstanding the predictions of the Prophets the Sermons of our Saviour yet they understood the Scepter only not the Cross of Christ the apprehension of a Temporal not a Spirituall Messiah fluttered in their brains yet were still listed reputed Disciples Apostles Nay Judas himself when he was declared pointed out a Traitor being not excommunicated was not debarred the name or the seal of a Disciple the Sacrament as it is recorded by three Evangelists A truth written radio Solari in Tertullians Phrase with a Sun-beam manifest to discerning judgement not dimmed with prejudice or cavil Since that Judas his treason being discovered but not doomed was reckoned among Christs Disciples why may not vitious persons uncensured by the Church who profess Christianity as to that profession be named Saints You pretend this is contrary to Gods Word 1 Cor. 6. 9. This Text hath been already sifted As to your present application of it I answer This debars such offenders from being Members of the Mystical Church of that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven not of the Church Militant so far as it is visible here on earth Your next Text is 1 John 1. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth This excludes practical habitual Malefactors such as walk in darkness from being comprehended in the Catholick invisible Church not in a particular visible Church The next verse points out as an evidence of this innocence Fellowship one with another an united Congregation not a disjoynted Separation Your third Citation is Matth. 3. 7 8. And when he saw many of the Pharisees come to his baptism he said to them O generation of vipers who had warned you to flee from the wrath to come Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance This by way of Analogy betwixt Baptism and the Eucharist proves that every Communicant ought to be a real penitent not that we ought not to communicate with him who is a real impenitent You seem to deal with these Texts to form and fit them to your opinion as Procustes did with his guests to proportion their dimensions to his bed some he hack'd and cut shorter others he rack'd and stretch'd out You annex a Caveat Is. 5. 20. Wo
c. whom you will allow to be Tares it were a fruitless attempt a phrensie of piety There being so populous an increase they must be suffered to grow together till the Harvest This demonstrates That the Church Militant is not exempted acquitted from Tares and that the Wheat grows with them in the same Field I shall not examine for the literal sense whether these Tares are to be understood Thorns as Aretius imagines or spreading Plants as Diodati fancies peculiar to the soyl of Palestine noxious to Corn whether parched Corn on the same stalk with the purest grain or a distinct cockle a kind of darnel or eaver Cynthius aurem vellit It is Isidore Pelosiots caution not to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not scan syllables and circumstances in Parables wherein only the scope is properly argumentative The three Parables couch'd up in your Objection are like different lines that meet in one and the same Center the same drift or design to discover the mixt condition of the Church Militant of various colours like a Rain-bow The season of separation of condemnation being the day of Judgement which as the Italian speaks of the day of death leva tutte lemaschere takes of all Masks St. Cyprian hence infers because we discern Tares in the Church we must not therefore depart from the Church It is the observation of Junius and Tremelius translated exactly in our English Marginal Annotation The Church shall never be free from offences both in Doctrine and Manners till the day appointed for the restoring of all things do come and therefore the faithful have to arm themselves with patience and constancy This instructs an humble holy toleration not a stern haughty separation In the conflict betwixt the Reformed and the Romish when the Romish Disputants object these three Parables to confirm that Reprobates are Members of the Catholick Church our Reformed Champions do unanimously reply That these Parables are Hieroglyphicks Representatievs of a particular visible Church not to be stretch'd and applied to the Catholick and invisible If you question the truth of my recital of this responsal I will produce for your satisfaction a full particular Catalogue Instance at present only in Whitakers determination touching these three Parables We do not deny in the floor that is in every visible Church there is Chaff mixt with the Wheat but notwithstanding we aver with St. Austin in the 48. Epistle the Church to be preserved in the Lords Grain not in the Chaff but with the Chaff that the Church groweth among the Tares yet is not a Field of Tares In the renowned dispute the Carthage betwixt the Catholick Bishops and the Donatist Bishops assembled by the Edict of the Emperour our Controversie being then in solemn agitation The Parable of the Net collecting the good and bad Fish being pressed by the Catholick Bishops the Donatists were pinch'd so far as to confess good and wicked persons to be in the Church but the wicked only covertly as in a Net in the Sea whilst the good Fish are not distinguish'd from the bad But the Catholick Bishops reinforc'd their Parabolical Argument The Church is not only compared to a Net hut also to a Floor wherein the Chaff is more apparent that the Corn. The Donatists though convinced yet were not silenced but clamor'd This were to constitute two Churches one on Earth mingled with sacred and prophane the other in Heaven severed sanctified refined from dress and mixtures The Catholick Bishops vindicated the Church to be one and the same but not in one and the same state Militant and Triumphant The Church may in some considerations be expressed mortal because consisting of mortal members on Earth but immortal in Heaven As Christ himself was mortal before his Passion but immortal after his Resurrection Hereupon the Donatists reviled rather than argued and triumph'd or rather vapor'd when themselves were conquered as if a strange Paradox had been vented in asserting the Church is mortal The Catholick Bishops candidly reply Times ought to be distinguish'd The Church in its present condition admits corruptible Saints in its future incorruptible when a mortal dress shall be exchanged for a robe of immortality The Judge or Mediator herewith satisfied set a period to the debate in that particular and in the final close of that grand disputation the said day he pronounced that the Donatists were manifestly confuted by the Catholick Bishops But you are still unsatisfied that though Tares be permitted as undiscerned covert Hyppocrites yet that no way be left that pernicious weeds should be ejected I grant they may be rooted out by excommunication but I deny a separation without it The wholesome Herbs and fragrant Flowers in the Garden are not to be neglected abandon'd because some pestilent weeds are not rooted up Beware left your separating be the weeding of our Garden If you wave Humility and Charity your selected Flowers are but perfumed Thistles like the Ibides in Alexandria which exclude one stench but create another Lastly you Syllogise If Christ should allow of wicked men to be taken into his Church and to be continued in he would contradict himself as hath been proved But Christ doth not contradict himself Therefore Not to except against the illogical composure of your Syllogism in an Hypothetical form which being reduced to Categorical the Logical exactest its want of genuine artifice will be evident But not to sift punctilioes of Art of Mood and Figure I answer your major proposition is a false supposition you obtrude a tenet which we own not That God allows the taking and continuing of wicked men into his Church I pray distinguish betwixt permission and approbation and for the admittance and continuance of the wicked betwixt the visible and invisible Church This permitting in the visible Church is not the acquitting of the men but the protracting of the doom If your Major be understood of the approbation of wicked men in the invisible the Catholick Church it is an impertinence we disclaim any such assertion If your Major be meant of the toleration of wicked men in a particular in a visible Church it is an inconsequence Christ doth not herein contradict himself So that the force of your smart proof is but the flourish of Sophistry 'T is fallacia consequentis The LETTER Object Let a man examine himself and look to himself Answ. 'T is true for his own particular benefit he must look to himself especially but I am so far bound to look to him as to keep my self clean if any thing offends me I am bound to go to him and deal with him according to the Rule of Christ if he be wicked I am bound to see him purged from the Congregation 1 Cor. 5. 6 12. I am not to suffer sin to lye on my brother much less on my self Levit. 18. 17. It was the speech of Cain Am I my brothers keeper The ANSWER Though the Argument you slightly propose hath not
draws his Arrows out of this sacred Quiver He obtruded Scripture to our Saviour but wrested curtled it It is the Orthodox Maxim of Tertullian Truth is no less obstructed by adulterating depraving the sense than corrupting perverting the Letter It is not the Shell but the Kernel is the delicious word of life Some Expedients are requisite for attaining the Kernel The Expedients are inward and outward The first inward Expedient is Interpretation which is promoted by examining Translations consulting with Originals The second inward Expedient is Comparation by a survey of the Context to pick the sense out of the coherence or else by Analogy of Texts for as one Taper kindles so one portion of Scripture illustrates another There are also external Expedients the outward helps of the Arts especially Logick for apprehending the force and importance of the Proofs in Scripture Rhetorick for discovering the Flourishes the Ornaments of its Tropes and Figures of Witnesses wherein though the Modern are not to be excluded the Primitive are to be preferred The most ancient are of best repute being least tainted and biassed Moses and Bildad Jeremiah and Solomon recommend the Inquiry of Antiquities it is Christ's prescription against Pharisaical Heretical Novelties From the beginning it was not se. Though the Fathers are not to be idolized with the Papal Gloss yet are they not peremptorily to be contemned or condemned in their opinions and expositions Though the Romanists are Veteratores saith Joseph Scaliger corrupters of Antiquity yet the Reformed are no rejecters of it not Novatores nor introducers of Novelties unanimous Ecclesiastical Antiquity cheeques not with Purity It is the Golden Rule of Vincentius Lyrineusis That which is asserted in all Christian Churches in all Ages is truly Catholick and Venerable All these Expedients being united are to be improved by a fervent penitent Devotion Scripture is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of private interpretation that every one hath liberty to impose his own fancy but there ought to be sensus innatus pursued as the Hugonot Champion Chamier distinguisheth not illatus Though the Holy Ghost only can truly expound what himself dictates yet to pretend his Comment on his own Text with a neglect of all subservient helps were not a holy confidence but a haughty arrogance I presume your Modesty and Ingenuity will not permit you to split on this Rock that you will not profess with Abulardus to run counter with all the Fathers of the Church nor with Faustus Infaustus Socinus explode the track of primitive Piety for Guidance I have dilated this Point because it is the Lydius Lapis the Touch-stone of the Controversie Having premised these Cautions I joyn issue with you in S. Bernard's Close To the Gospel you have appealed to the Gospel you shall go I may here review S. Austin's challenge Produce one voice of Scripture in the behalf of Donatus The LETTER For the Searcher of all hearts can bear me witness that it was not inconsiderately or for any by-end that I changed my former thoughts and practice The ANSWER I cannot be so uncharitable as to boggle at that you ratifie with so sacred and solemn a seal Though your changes have been the impressions of your heart yet be pleased to consider there is no such pernicious Sophister as the heart of Man It is deceitful above all things A Supplanter according to the Original deep beyond our fathoming wily beyond our kenning Your spiritual change still suiting with your temporal advantages your own retired thoughts may admit a severe reflection on your integrity so far as to examine it though I shall not blast nor scruple it The Enemy sowed his Tares in the choicest Grain the Wheat like Agrippina that distilled her poison into Claudius's delicacies Satan may insert rivet an advantageous separation into a pious intention whereby the Serpent may insensibly swallow up the Dove like Julian who caused the Images of the Heathen Gods in the engraving to be intermingled with the Images of the Emperour that so the Christians in affording a civil reverence to the one might exhibit an idolatrous to the other though unwittingly Ecclesiastical Histories are ample Records of Gracious Men ungraciously swayed by secular interests to desert the best Tenets The most Orthodox Venerable Fathers under Constantine the Emperour were swayed by the potent violent stream of the Age under Constantius to embrace the Arrian Confession This Torrent bore away the grave devout Osius centenario major saith the Historian being above an hundred years old as if more crazed and decrepit in Soul than Body he renounced the sacred Sanctions of the Nicene Council which himself compiled and established How rigid and dismal a Doom did Ecebolius pronounce against himself who having still moulded his Religion to the season shifted Sail with every propitious Gale at last he cast himself prostrate in the Church with this expression of perplexity and horrour Trample on me as unsavory Salt I relate it not virulently with the least design of Application but affectionately hint it for caution The LETTER As my Creed taught me there is a Communion of Saints so my desire was to find such a company whereby I may comfortably partake of the things of God according to his revealed Will. The ANSWER I am glad you own that renowned Christian Badge of Piety and Antiquity whereto this Age affords not publick recital scarce private repute The Foundation you lay will not support the Fabrick you erect thereon The Communion of Saints will not prove a Division a Fraction of Separatists 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it unsoders the Church untwists the Article This allows not society with good Men in evil Actions it debars not society with evil men in good Actions S. Paul enforceth his Admonition of endeavouring the preservation of the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace by a Paraphrase of this Communion One God one Faith one Baptism This Communion relates to the Head or Members The Communion of the Head with the Members consists in our partaking of Christ's Merits by Adoption by Justification in his partaking of our indignities by Interpretation of our iniquities by Imputation Satisfaction The Communion of the Saints deceased with the living consists in their general prayers for us in our general and particular praises for them The former in the judgment of Reformed Divines consists with the excellency of their Charity The latter suits with the practice of the Primitive Church The Communion of the Saints living consists in affection by sympathy of joy or grief in edification exercising our Graces to the benefit of others in distribution of outward Talents This bottom of Communion of Saints being thus unravelled will not countenance or present the least thread of your separation If you aver a Communion with