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
To this Objection you frame a double resolution First as if the Apostle had reflected on their first constitution past not their present condition and qualification This is as Bembus blasphemed to make Scripture a nose of Wax You confidently boult out an unwarranted uncountenanced gloss unwarranted because it checks with the literal Grammatical expression It is to the Church of God in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Participle of the present Tense nor is there the least plausible plea for a tropical evasion to flee to an Enallage temporis Since the holy Ghost vouchsafes the same title to the Corinthians of Corinth in the 2 Ep. v. 1 of Galatia Gal. 1. 2. of Ephesus Rev. 2. 1. of Pergamus Rev 2. 12. of Thyatyra Rev. 2. 18. of Sardis Rev. 3. 1. of Laodicea Rev. 3. 14. And yet all soyl'd with scandals Do not your self vindicate an Authority of Excommunication at Corinth when this Epistle was written Where there was a true power of Excommunication you must grant a true Church The consequence is infallible Though there may in some Cases which I have already manifested be a true Church where there is not the Exercise of Excommunication the terms being not reciprocal yet wheresoever there is a lawful exercise of excommunication or a lawful right for that Exercise though diverted there is true Church As your Exposition is unwarranted so uncountenanced by Primitive by Reformed or even Romish Commentators Produce but one of any repute and your strained gloss shall pass more smooth and solemn In the mean time I shall subscribe to the universal Comment All deceive none none deceive all saith Pliny The Fathers generally flourish out the description of the present condition of the Christians at Corinth the Church of God as a perswasive spell to conjure their Unity not to be divided and their Piety not to be defiled depraved Reformed Expositors raise as a natural genuine observation on this title a reproof of your Church separation Your second Answer closeth with the former For if they must cast out then they must be a Church and the scandalous then of the Church till ejection excommunication for else they could not be cast out As for the excommunicating of their corrupt Members the Historical evidence is very scanty the sole instance is the incestuous person wherein the judgement was determined the sentence pronounced by the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 3. but recommended to the Church of Corinth to be attested to be effectually executed Some eminent Divines both anciently and lately have conjectured That at the writing of this first Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle St. Paul had not fully establish'd the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Church of Corinth but retain'd the reins of Government in his own hands However I shall not obtrude that opinion not question the Commission of the Church of Corinth for excommunication nor can you justly the Jurisdiction of the Church of England which I have amply cleared from administring any cause of just desertion upon this account though there may be vented an unjust imputation Whether the Church of Corinth might excommunicate its own corrupt members is not controverted betwixt us But whether these being not excommunicated the sound part was bound to separate locally from the unsound in religious Exercise Let it be proved that this was effected at Corinth Et eris mihi magnus Apollo The LETTER Object Can there be a perfect Church on Earth it is compared to the Tares and Wheat a draw net a barn floor Answ. Grant it be the Church meant there which is to be proved for the preaching of the Gospel is called the Kingdom of Heaven but how came in the Tares not by Gods allowance but by the Devil and by the carelesness and negligence of the keepers of the Field Matth. 13. 39. 2. They are Tares that is something as most Expositors have it as I have been acquainted with very like to Wheat that they could hardly be discerned from the Wheat without endangering it and so far close cunning hypocrites may be left alone but that there should be no way left to cast out those that are venomous weeds which do hurt and mischief I deny I would answer particularly to each of these but I shall say only this if Christ should allow of the wicked to be taken into his Church he would contradict himself as hath been proved But Christ doth not contradict himself ergo The ANSWER The double Answer to this Parabolical Objection is like Mephibosheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 halting with both feet First you mince it as an unnecessary concession that it is to be proved by me and assay'd to be disproved by your self In other passages in other parables recited in this Chapter the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church why not in this This is the ordinary gloss this is the Exposition of the Primitive Fathers the Donatists excepted But you offer rationally to evince the contrary The Church is not the Kingdom of Heaven because the preaching of the Gospel is This Exception is ignoratio Elenchi Both may be so titled in different considerations The Church on Earth is the Kingdom of Heaven initiate and the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church consummate the preaching of the Gospel is the efficient instrumental cause for propagating the Church on Earth for promoting to the Kingdom of Heaven and may Metonymically be so named After this Objection you Question But how came in the Tares it concerns not our Controversie to sift the Original for the admittance of the Tares but the peril of their continuance Or whether a Field because it hath good Ears ought to be quitted because it hath Tares intermingled I shall dismiss this curiosity touching the Original of the Tares as St. Austin did an enquiry touching Original sin with the pert reply of one plunged in a deep pit who being demanded by a passenger the occasion of that disaster He replyed Be sollicitous how I may be rescued out of this pit not how I came to be ingulfed in it The second part of your Answer observes the likeness of Tares to Wheat scarce to be discerned 'T is true in the blade but not in the ear The Text doth manifestly assert their manifestation But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit then the tares appeared also They were not permitted to be served before Harvest not because they were obscur'd not sufficiently discover'd but lest the pure grain should be hazarded to be rooted up being so intermingled with the Tares When this mischief of a promiscuous extirpation may be prevented Tares ought not to be suffer'd I confess but Tares do often improve to be so numerous and vigorous in such strength and multitude that they prevail above the Wheat in this case both must be reserved till Harvest to be separated Should the Church of England address it self by Ecclesiastical severity to root out the Quakers Ranters Anabaptists
Proposition To communicate in and with the Parishes of the Church of England is not to communicate with those we are commanded by God to separate from your proof is Fallacia Accidentis The wickedness wherein we are to separate is extrinsecal accidental to the holiness wherein we communicate Were our Parishes such as you decypher them yet were it no sin to communicate in and with them for acts of necessary duty of piety but of unnecessary familiarity intimacy impiety It is no sin to communicate with such sinners Sacramentally whilst such sinners are not excommunicated The LETTER A Church that generally consists of ignorant prophane and scandalous persons and scoffers therein is a degenerate Church and not safely to he communicated with when other lawful ways are offered But such are generally the people of the Parishes of England and Wales as sad experience testifieth and so a degenerated Church Therefore not safely to be communicated with It was Gods controversie with the Church Rev. 2. 20. The ANSWER I may except against your Major Proposition For a Church is not to be estimated by the Errors the Erailties nay the enormities the prodigies of some Members but by its own Laws establishments acknowledgements and by the manners the practices of the better the sounder part saith Peter Martyr The bent of your Argument is fallacious A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter whilst you tax the constitution of the Church for the corruption of its Members However I deny your Minor Proposition which is illogically expressed and helps to shape your Syllogism a Paralogism by excrescence of terms I shall crave leave to rectifie to regulate it Let testified by sad experience be inserted in your Major Proposition A Church that testified by sad experience consists of ignorant prophane scandalous persons is not safely to be communicated with when other lawful ways are offered Let your Minor be thus framed Such are generally the people of the Parishes of England as sad experience testifieth when other lawful ways are offered I presume it was not your inadvertency to omit this Clause when other ways are offered being in this Controversie of special importance Your Minor Proposition being thus enlarged contains a charge of the Church of England and a discharge of your selves from its Communion a redress by other lawful ways offered The first part is not so properly a Proposition as an Aspersion This is to calumniate not demonstrate The Church of England generally consists of ignorant prophane scandalous persons and scoffers Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae The Jesuit will congratulate and applaud this invective which partly justifies Bellermines censorious condemnation It is notorious manifest to all that among Hereticks he means Protestants there is not one good gratious person You here reinforce your former impeachment of ignorance as if a separate Church were the Goshen of a new sacred Light and the Church of England were like the rest of Egypt overspread with superstitious darkness I have already endeavoured to vindicate it from this imputation To ignorant you add the brand of prophane scandalous scoffers as if your separation were like Gideons Fleece besprinkled with the dew of Heaven whilst the Church of England is parch'd with barbarism of infidelity Be it so yet be not high minded but fear lest your spiritual tumor alter the Scene remove the Candlestick Pride tainted Adam in Paradise the Angels in Heaven once blessed Spirits now damned Fiends Remember the second part of the Miracle Gideons Fleece partch'd all about it bedewed Mary Magdalen who was once possessed with Devils was afterward replenish'd with Graces These scoffers you tax may by Gods Grace mourn for their scoffs Those prophane persons who o'erflow in their cups may o'erflow in their sorrows and exchange a deluge of distempers for tears their frequent oaths and imprecations for penitent prayers and supplications And though the outward fruit be blasted to your eye yet there may be secret buds and blossoms discernible to God and acceptable in Christ notwithstanding those apparent witherings There may be deep sighs and sobs of spirit passionate yernings and pantings for Grace where there are no manifest effects of it Will you deny the balm of Gilead to these bleeding wounds of Souls The sound have no need of the physician but the sick Our captivity interests us in a Redeemer our iniquity in a Saviour who summons attracts those who are heavy laden clogged with their transgressions to be disburdned of this weight and pressure who came not to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just persons who justifie themselves but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heinous scandalous sinners to repentance that so where sin abounds for apprehension conviction as well as commission there Grace of remission may much more abound To conclude as to the first part of your Minor Proposition Those ignorant prophane persons in the Church of England are of Christs visible floor your pen is not the fan of that floor to dispel to reject them as chaff nor are they to be deemed so by you till doomed so by the Church The second part of your Minor Proposition asserts other lawful ways offered besides communicating with the Church of England degenerated Separation is no lawful way this is Petitio principii the begging not the proving of the Question This loud vaunt of other lawful ways is not unlike the Cyclops clamor in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is but an empty sound It is the grave Caveat of Dr. Kellet take it in his own expression Reasons more than ordinary will be expected by God and good men from him who leapeth out of the Church in which he was born and bred kicking at the breasts of his Mother running with the bit in his teeth his own ways He chalks out these paths as the most lawful ways and expedients First Integrity To wash the heart from wickedness A Church is ill contradicted by ill depraved men 2. To pray for and practice humility First cast out the beam out of thy own eye and thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye so likewise out of thy Mothers eye A second Expedient is conference without prejudice with learned pious Pastors of a different Opinion that truth not interest or faction may impartially be promoted If our addresses be made to our discourses held only with those who are byast with our own Tenets we must expect to be soothed applauded in our judgements not informed and rectified If after these assays having been sanctified humbled having conferred we remain yet unsatisfied he prescribes a retired mourning and silence wherein he pleads the current judgement of Jerome Ockam and Dr. Field Thus without separation may the peace of the Church and our own innocence be secured inviolable Thus with Unity and Humility of spirit may we uprightly renounce the Errors and Vices of any Members of the Church but
men It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lenity gentleness in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to exactness of rigor You may live to acknowledge my words Prophetical When future years and various occurrences shall improve you spiritual prudence and experience especially if God shall vouchsafe a sanctified calamity you will confess the Unity the Peace of the Church to conduce more to the saving of souls than the most specious Sects varnish'd with the most pious glorious pretences You cannot be to cautelous in rending the Church of England If you dissect her bowels sift her Articles her Constitutions you may perhaps discover more Beauty of Purity than you imagined like Neroes acknowledgment However cast not dirt upon the Dugs that gave you Milk the sincere Milk of the Gospel Tear not the Womb of your Christian birth by Baptism Let me recommend to you the Apostolical charm Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hastily endeavouring lest the wounds of a bleeding languishing Church become uncurable Let me censure you with Abrahams powerful Rhetorick Let there be no strife between me and thee for we are brethren The precedent words enforce enliven the spell of this sacred Eloquence Moreover the Canaanites and Perezites dwelled at that time in the Land Then said Abraham to Lot c. There are men of Romish principles in the Land lately titled Recusants but now I am to enquire how to name them Consider whose hands you weaken your Brethren So you are to us as Parmenianus was to Optatus Recollect your self whom you fortifie our common Romish Adversaries The Eclipse of the Church of England is their Splendor They are united by our divisions justified by our mutual Reproaches our Scandals and Schisms objected proclaimed by our selves are their renowned gloried Victories and Triumphs I hope in these Cautions and all other passages I shall have no cause to revive Theodorus complaint that what is tendred with the right hand is received with the left You have my judgement requested sincerely discovered without any wily windy collusion as weighing I must pass an account on the dreadsul day of Judgement for every word hath past my Pen in this debate As to your promise of weighing this in the Ballance of the Sanctuary I am not diffident of your performance but I pray remember in Phocylides expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the Scales be held even not bended with a singular prejudice For in Scripture as in a glass our prejudicate Opinion discerns only its own complexion Like the indulgent phansie of that Athenian Thrasilaus who walking on the Key of Athens conceited that every ship which arrived was his own As to your engagement of embracing whatever bears the Scriptum est I shall only offer to your consideration St. Austin's Maxime There is no Exposition of sacred Writ proceeded from the holy Ghost unless it tend to Charity And if you please to annex to this Canon the same Fathers pithy Ejaculations That in perusing and citing the Scriptures Grant O Lord that I my self be not deceived in them that I deceive not others by them Lastly I shall assure you of a reciprocal Love Our Affections may be link'd though our opinions are not And though we are not both members of a separated Church on each yet I hope by the sacred Merits of our blessed Redeemer we shall be both in the same Congregated Church in Heaven Where in a full Quire of Angels all Notes shall be tuned to an exact Harmony no jar of Faction no Descant of Division but entire Unisons where our Anathemaes shall be exchanged to Anthems our Censures to Allelujah Laughern Decemb. the last 1655. SIR Your truly affectionate Friend to serve you William Thomas Non ego tibi sed causae causa respondit Et si culpa est respondisse quaeso ut patienter audias multo major est provocasse Sed facessant istiusmodi querimoniae Sic inter nos pura germanitas deinceps non quastionum sed charitatis nos scripta mittamus FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isoc ad Dem. Psal. 51. 3. Non ulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus Tertull. l. de Poenit. c. ult Gal. 6. 2. Conscientia erronia ligat Aqu. Act. 23. 1. 2 Cor. 4. 2. 2 Cor. 2. 17. Videns eos Hireticos volare per singula quaeque sancta legis Volumina Nihil unquam de suo proferunt quod non etiam Scripturae verbis adumbrare conentur Lege Pauli Samosateni opuscula Prisciliani Eunomii Joviniani reliquarumque pestium cernes infinita exemplorum congeriem prope nullam omitti paginam quae non novi aut veteris testamenti sententiis fucata colorata sit Vincent Lyr. ad Haeres Mat. 4. 6. Luke 4. 10. Non minus veritati obstrepit adulter sensus quam corruptus stylus Tertull. de Praes c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Rhet. l. 1. Deut. 4. 32. Job 8. 8. Jer. 16. 16 Prov. 22. 28. Mat. 19. 8. Id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est Vincen. Lyr. advers Haeres 1 Pet. 1. 20. Omnes Patres sit sed ego non sic Abul Ego neminem agnosco patrem neminem magistrum Socin Ad Evangelium appellasti ad Evangelium ibis Bernard Ede mihi unam Scripturae vocem pro parte Donati Aug. de pasc c. 14. Jerem. 17. 9. Sozom. l. 5. p. 16 Sulpit. Senec. Hist. l. 4. Socrat. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 11. Ephes. 4. 5. Gal. 4. 5. Rom. 3. 24 25 26. Rom. 5. 1. 18. Col. 1. 24. Es. 53. 4. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 21 24. That importunate appeal for judgment to persecutors Rev. 6. 10. doth infallibly infer a compassionate suit as to their Fellow Members Rom. 12. 15. Rom. 15. 2. 1 Thes. 5. 11. Acts 2. 45. Acts 4. 35. 1 Tit. 15. Sancti titulus non virtutis sed professionis Erasm. in 1 Cor. 1. Matth. 20. 26. Quomodo sancti dicantur cum certum sit apud eos multos rudes in fide imo palam impios fuisse Respon Rectè dici Sanctos propter finem Vocationis ad Sanctitatem vocati sunt w. e. ut tales sint Aret. in 1 Rom. vers 7. Zanch. in Eph. 1. 2. the same distinction is expressed Col. 1. 2. Socrat. in Hist. Eccl. l. 5. c. 10. 1 cor 11. 16. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 8. c. 2. Ingemuit totus orbis se Arrianum esse miratus est Hier. advers Luc. 1 Kings 19. 18. Non deserendi boni propter malos sed tolerandi mali propter bonos Aug. Ep. 48. Nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio Tert. in l. adv Scap. Nec Religionis est cogere religionem quae sponte suscipi debeat non vi Tert. in l. adv Scap. Jude 22. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in