and ordinances and reflectes on the work of reformation it selfe as if their proper genuine and natural parent The reformation of the Church is a duty incumbent on every man and member thereof Reformation must be by lawfull means onely it must be pursued in their places and capacities by just and lawful means without schism from or if possible in the Church or sedition in the Common-wealth both which my soul ever did abhor as disgraceful to Religion dishonourable to God and destructive to Reformation I never did nor yet can allow or advise other means of reformation then Ministerial admonition to the Church Logical dispute and Theological argumentation and redaurgtion among equals humble proposal petition and supplication to superiors with a patient and submisse attendance on their pleasure and on God acting the same such as receive Kings as nursing Fathers to the Church will rejoyce in them as Christians much more as professedly reformed and with all peaceable submission embrace such degrees of Reformation of the extrinsecall order and ministerial method of Gods worship enjoying the substance in the essential form thereof as they will allow untill God encline their hearts to allow what himselfe expecteth and his people desire soberly pursuing the bene esse with joy in the esse of Religion and in communion with the Church waiting on the truth of Gods ordinances quietly attending their Superiors for purity and regularity of dispensation I find not that the men fearing God in Iudah did tumultuously tumble down the high places nor turn away from Gods Temple because of them yet their standing was the stain of Government to their reforming Kings to flye out of Gods house or in the face of Gods Vicegerents because his own appointments are administred by instruments in order to his service unsuitable and to us offensive is a frowardness which God cannot nor will not admit or indulge in any of his children Ministerial reproofs and admonitions and vulgar mournings and murmurations are loud alarums to God and the consciences of men and strong enforcements of Reformation preces Iacrymae ever were and still are the onely weapons of the truly Godly Our state and time calleth for an higher degree of Reformation under and against the oppositions of just authority and lawful Princes such as God hath in his mercy and by his miraculous providence restored to our Church and Nation I am afflicted by and ashamed of the slow progress and shameful retrogradation of Englands Reformation under and against publike national solemn sacred bonds whose obligation will abide before God and conscience though the affirmations thereof may be interdicted by men If Calvini in his days could say If Godly Religion had flourished in England till that day the time of Queen Mary her Raign there ought to have been an order of service better corrected Epistle to the Ch. at Frankford and many things quitte taken away Can we without grief consider our Church hath enjoyed true Religion more then eighty years since that time and yet we ignorantly continue and violently contend for that order of service as if ashamed to give place unto better things yet I dare not deny her to be a reformed Church or as such decline Communion with her in and for whom the Lord hath emminently appeared and out of whom he hath gratiously purged all things venentous and destructive though some things nauseous and distastfull were continued and are returned into her having defended her against the Spanish Ariâ—ado and Popish Conspiracy by Gunpowder and other agitations and attempts of Papall power and Antichristian rage with an Almighty hand and outstretched Arme. I do beleive the infancy of Reformation might rejoice in and grow up under that order of divine service which the adult estate thereof ought to cast off as puerile and unsutable First degrees were matter of Comfort though not of Content to such who seek the simplicity of the Gospell remaining dreggs ought to be discharged and I doubt not God will notwithstanding mens aversness and opposition in due time effect it In the mean time i see no reason to refuse to drink because my waters are pudled or presented in an unclean Vessel and I can come by no purer remaining degrees of Reformation must be so purified that those obtained may not appear to be disowned or despised though our order of Divine Service be a Roman dregge of some dangerous distastfull influence yet it is not Popery shall we not blesse God and rejoyce in England as brought out of Babylon though some Babylonish Vestures Rites and Orders which ought to be abandoned are yet retained I conceive them ingratefull for the purity obtained who run out of Gods house for the Corruptions continued and obtruded I cannot but repute them over forward who shall refuse the Substantials of true Religion and Christs Institutions because of some rude Rough Appendants shall we not acknowledge Gods mercy in affording us and humbly use the truth of Gods word because transmitted unto us with some humane traditions and the substance of his own worship celebrated in a disorderly way and method with some foolish Appendants of mens inventions My good friend my zeal care and contests for Reformation of this poor Church have cost me dear yet if God suffer the Charge to rise as hâ—gâ— as did that of my namesake by the unkindness of King Joash not one mite too dear I blesse God however my passions worke I see no cause to repent my bargain I pray God glorifie himself and edifie his people by my bonds onely I must professe to all that fear God I see no sufficient cause to satisfie my Conscience or to plead before my God on which to refuse Communion with her and attendance on Gods solemn publique worship under her rude Ministerial method for that duty is not warantably superseded by the iniquity of another man my sufferings nor other mens sin under which I mourn because I cannot mend it must not turn me out of Gods way to the right or left hand superstition and separation must be shunned as Rocks equally dangerous to Gods Church and worship the prophanesse of this and its Subjects must not drive me nor the pretended purity and piety of the other and its Subjects allure or draw me unto the positive evil of separation or privative evil of voluntary non-Communion I pray and hope God will keep me upright under and against all temptations from falling into the extreams of our unhappy age and Church and yet give me to see the purity of his worship in Union and Communion with his Church here on earth or possesse me with his undefiled unstained glory in Heaven for from the one I dare not depart untill I arrive at the other least by shipwarck I should be deprived of both Fourthly Let it be considered Consi 4th Scandall is an argument of no strength when pleaded to supersede or condemn a positive duty Jobs friends
REFORMATION NOT SEPARATION OR Mr. CROFTON'S Plea for Communion with the CHURCH under those Corruptions and by that disorderly Ministration to which he cannot Conform nor by it Administer IN A LETTER Written JVLY 20. 1661. In and from the TOWER of LONDON to R. S. To satisfie the Weak and silence the Wicked who insulted in or were offended at his endeavoured and clamorously reported as obtained attendance on Gods PUBLICK WORSHIP in that Place during his Confinement NOW PUBLISHED To silence Censures and Calumnies satisfie such who would walk uprightly in this houre of Temptation By the said R. S. to whom it was written Unto which is added the Copy of another LETTER Written on the same Occasion and Subject Printed in the YEAR M.DC.LXII TO THE READER READER IT is more than a Year since it was clamoured Mr. CROFTON goeth to the Church and heareth Common-Prayer in the Tower of LONDON Whereupon he was not little Censured by some whose Profession of Religion and Relation to him required much more Charity Mr. CROFTON did then write unto me this ensuing LETTER with Advice to Communicate the same for the Satisfaction of the Weak who stumbled to their own wounding and Silencing of the Wicked who insulted to the Grief of him and Gods Church In Observation of this Instruction I did to save the labour of the Pen and make this Paper more profitable to the Church put it into the Press where some good Friends did seize and for present stisle it choosing rather to Communicate the written Copy as they could This Copy was imparted to many Christian Friends and Ministers who seemed to be in this matter otherwise perswaded in special Those of the Congregational way who seemed most concerned in the same these were all requested to Correct Mr. CROFTON'S Errour and Rectifie his Judgment but none would or did undertake the work though assured he had an hearing Ear Horresco referens though he hath been most bitterly Censured he never received any the least Admonition concerning this matter one excepted a Copy whereof with his Answer thereunto being come to my hands I have presumed to annex unto this LETTER I presume without Mr. CROFTON'S knowledge First To make these Papers publick to evidence the little Cause men have to represent Mr. CROFTON'S Non-conforming Communion to be a Defection from the Cause of Reformation and Result of his Temptation Secondly To let men see on what Grounds Mr. CROFTON hath satisfied himself in his solitary Estate when he could neither Confer with Men and Books that so if they appear weak some serious man may by word or letter whilst the Press will not be allowed to speak help him to Conviction I cannot but determine it unchristian to condemn without Fraternal Correption or an Essay for Conviction those Censures do reflect with Violence on the Censurers which are retorted with a what doth your arguing reprove Thirdly To help others to discover that Point of Piety which is proper for their places and capacities under the present Providences of God in and towards his Church in these Nations What lately was Mr. CROFTON'S Case is now our own we must either withdraw from the Prayers and Publick Worship of God in this Church or attend it by this disguised Ministerial Mode and Order and with Grief I speak it we are in the dark and we are left in the dark our Prophets are gone who should tell us and before their going have not told us how in this Case Christianity doth require us to carry Some general Cautions we indeed received in their last Councels but no clear Directions in reference to the special Case and Condition into which we are resolâ—ed I well know most Presbyterian Divines to be in Judgment the same with Mr. CROFTON but their Prudence doth prohibit the Publication thereof to us or at least in a particular Specification of our present Condition I will not say Mr. CROFTON by his Act or Apology appeareth any very wise Pilate I leave those to whom it doth belong to judge his skill in the Compass but I cannot but say he seemeth to be most Simply Faithful in fufilling his Ministry proposing himself a pattern and perswading his friends and people to walk in the Exactness of Truth against all Extreams though his worldly and carnal Interest lieth on either hand and might easily induce him to advance or at least by his silence to abett the same I cannot but observe this is not the first time Mr. CROFTON hath divided from the Policies of them who could not disown his Principles or Scripturally determine against his Practice And truly I wish men may consider whether the Serpent do not out-stretch and over-reach the Dove in those Policies which make Religion unto its reproach a matter of Faction and study to save and recover Reformation by the appearance of a Bulky Party for Separation I cannot but let thee know I am thus far clear of Mr. CROFTON'S mind Unwarrantable Non-communion may not be allowed no not for a day though to saving Reformation for we may not do Evil that Good may come thereof and I cannot be perswaded I am disbanded from Christs Army so soon as I am superseded to my Conduct I must march under his Banner when I may not be permitted to march at the Head of a Company And sure I am it is more easie to fall into either Extream than to walk between both uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel Reader I will stay thee no longer only know That this Season of Publication of this LETTER is by me chosen or rather constrained by the over-prudent Supersedeas before mentioned and silence our over-general Cautions of our pious Ministers in this Case and houre of Temptation which is come upon us If any Minister be hereby provoked to beat out the Truth which must guide the Churches Practice If any Christian do hereby receive Direction to dispel his Doubts and steer his Conversation Or if any rashly censorious Saint be hereby convinced of their uncharitable unchristian Censures and bitter words by which they have wounded themselves and grieved him whom God hath smitten be hereby convinced of their fault so as to give Glory to God and with Jobs Comforters confess their Guilts I have obtained mine End and hope it shall not much displease my Pastor on whom I confess I have herein too much presumed I am thine in Union with the Church And Simplicity of the Gospel R. S. Sept. 1. 1662. REFORMATION no SEPARATION OR Zachary Croftons Plea for Communion with the Church of England In a Letter to a Christian Friend Christian Friend COnsidering we live in an Age exceeding scrupulous and the actions of a Prisoner are subject to Observation and Censure without the least enquiry into the reasons end and inducements thereof And well knowing my unhappy self to be a man much mistaken and misrepresented obnoxious to and afflicted with the groundless calumnies of the wicked and censures of the weak
vessel doth quench the thirst and these are either some matter superadded not intermingled with or destructive to Gods Ordinances such as were the high places posts by Gods posts thresholds by his thresholds Altar by his Altar in Israel unto the very Image of Jealousie set up in Gods house which yet remained his and as such was continued preserved and acknowledged The Lord Jesus found the Temple his Fathers house of Prayer though made a Den of theeves and such is our Crosse in Baptism though seemingly sacramental yet distinct from Gods imitating Seal of the Covenant and such is a Roman linnen vesture in ministration of Gods worship by a lawfull Minister or some corrupt rude and unsutable ministerial method and order which is the vessel and only instrument of conveiance though unclean of administration such was the violent and unfitting snatching of the Priests part of the Sacrifice by the sons of Eli the confused acclamations of the Church of Corinth speaking all at once different matters in different tongues and our imposed method disorderly method of publick Prayer by Versicles Responds abruptions abreviations and popular acclamations with artificial singing by boyes and base fellows thereunto appointed under all which Gods Ordinances abide a subject compleat truly and formerly existent and distinct from these superadded corruptions operative unto salvation and therefore may not be declined or disowned Corruptions intrinsecal are indeed such as do not only warrant but necessitate non-communion yea separation of the highest nature as a duty indispensable In sence hereof all those in Israel who feared God and set their hearts to seek the Lord prayed for and according to divine directions departed from Dan and Bersheba forsook the solemn Assemblies Jeroboam had constituted and followed the Tribe of Levi Gods only Ministers unto Jerusalem Gods only place of publick solemn worship and our Saviour resolved the woman of Samaria her enquiry concerning the place of worship with a ye know not what ye worship for salvation is of the Jews This is the very ground of the Reformed Churches departure and non-communion with Rome who though she be by original constitution the Temple of God is become the very seat of Antichrist and by the same so vitiated that her Ministrations are the cup of abomination by which she hath made the Nations drunk having by her intercessions of and to Saints the Popes infallibility divine power and properties and by her expiatory Sacrifices disowned and nullified as much as in her lieth Christs mediatory offices and by dividing the elements destroying the outward signe essential to a Sacrament and on a fancied transubstanciation turning it into a Sacrifice for quick and dead nullified Christs Ordinances and by many other intrinsecal evils poysoned Gods whole worship and rendred it directly destructive to salvation and is therefore presented to us under the Appellation Babylon in the very abstract spiritual Sodom and Egypt and so the object of our departure advised with a lest ye partake of her sins which were and are so universally diffused and hath so farre vitiated the subject that a guilt will be contracted by meer Communion Corruptions extrinsecal may Extrinsecal corruptions warrant no separation and must grieve the spirits of Gods people occasion their loud complaints his Ministers most zealous reproofs and the studâ—ous endeavours of all to prevent and remove them because scandals to the Church prejudicial though not directly destructive to salvation dishonourable to Religion and the God whose prerogative it is to prescribe every pin and the very snuffers to be used in his House 1 King 11 3â— and is therefore highly displeasing to God provoking him to rend a Kingdom from the house of David to loath and at least to leave his holy place and remove his Candlestick from such as will not fear him in the simplicity of his own institutions without the vain and needlesse Appendants of their own inventions But yet these cannot warrant separation or voluntary non-communion because the Church abideth related to God as his Spouse his worship and Ordinances remain for matter and essential form entire and exactly his own notwithstanding the concomitancy of some super-added matter or the unfit ministerial method and order by which they are dispensed and Gods presence is to them continued though with a grieved striving spirit threatning his departure and thereby we are under a possibility of salvation though engaged to more care and industry this was the case of the Prophets our Saviour and his Disciples the Church of the Jews and Primitive Christians under the many parallel yea transcending to ours corruptions before mentioned without any prescript or practice of Separation or Non-Communion Christian Friend it is too evident That many and great Corruptions are to our sin and shame retained The Case of England under corruption and to the aggravation thereof with an high hand and defiance of the God of Jealousie returned after a Solemn and Sacred Expulsion into our Church but yet they are extrinsecal and not of the substance of Gods Worship which for Matter and essential Form remaineth entire and properly his own though not so acceptable under as well as without them and will not therefore warrant my Separation or Non-Communion so far as to lie at Home or loyter in the Church-yard until the Common-Prayer whereby God is truly though not orderly invocated and worshipped wherein I as a Member of that Church am interested and unto which as it is Publick Solemn Prayer though in an unsutable Method my Amen is an indispensable Duty being ended The Administrations of Gods Worship among us are indeed nauseous and unhealthful but not void or venemous our waters are bitter and pudled but not poysonous our Pastures are trodden down and the proud of the Flock do push us with Horn Ezek. 34.18 19 20 21. and with Hoof but we are not yet driven out of Christs Fold not dare not we say our Pasture is quite taken from us To be plain Under all our Corruptions we must not we cannot we dare not deny the Matter and essential Form of Gods Ordinances and Worship is continued to us though some superstitious Rites are unto them annexed which are apparent Appendants redundant to and separable from and not vitiating destructive or annihilating to their Subject and are therefore pretended and professed by the Canons appropriated to this Church to be Acts of Order and Ornament rather than of Worship and Adoration to God and they are such wherein the people are generally passive not active Baptism is fully and formally Gods Ordinance though the Cross be needlesly and superstitiously added thereunto and the Parent by virtue of whose interest in Gods Covenant the Child receiveth the Seal is unjustly excluded and a deputation of Godfathers and Godmothers is groundlesly imposed The Word of God is not excluded though now and then a piece of Apocripha is unwarrantably read in the publick Assembly nor doth it cease to be
extreams of Supâ—…stitions disorderly administrations of Gods ordinances and Church-rendring religion subverting separation nor am I herein sensible that our case because our capacity is so is different from theirs onely I wish it to be observed the difference is graduall not Real it lieth on the measure and mode not in matter and Substance they were bound to endeavour an extirpation of the same evil but not by so strong an obligation They were in the infancy we are in the adult estate of Reformation and must therefore esteem the puerilia which were their pleasure our shame The nature and quality of the Corruptions with the necessity of their expulsion were by them under dispute it has been determined and that by an Authority sometime reputed just and whatever it will do in politiques will in point of conscience yet abide a dispute as to its lawfulness they were entangled in the snares of education and under the insensible yoakes of unseasonable subscriptions of approbation of and promise to administration by this rude order and confused method whereby the conscience was awed and the credit of Religion engaged them by a burdensome groaning spirit to bear what they did not see how they could regularly be released from from all which we are free and most strictly tyed by contrary obligations but neither they nor we might out of our places and Capacities attempt a Reformation by any sedition in the Republique or sinfull Schisme from the Church Non-communion is no more warantable to us under the strongest bonds to reformation then it was unto them without them because it is an evil in it self The nature of the retained returned corruptions were the same to them they are to us but to neither a justifiable reason for Non-communion The administration of these good men in and by this corrupt order I can better excuse then justifie or intimate I beleive extirpation to have been their duty as it is mine and I see not how I may act though I as a private member may and must attend assent and give my Amen unto right matter in that order and method with those corrupt Appendants I am bound to extripate Abstinence from action being the least and first act of extirpation in which the private Christian is passive purely passive necessarily passive because he cannot enjoy or attend Gods worship in this indispenceable duty of holy convocation without it I beleive the ministerial method of publique worship to have been subject to their Judgement and within their power as Ministers of the Gospell and Stewards of the misteries of God himselfe full and formall Judges of the mâ—de and order of dispensation not belonging to or charged on the private members and objects thereof as to me In both which respects besides that special capacity in which I conclude all the Ministers of our Church now stand by that special obligation which the transactions of providence in our unhappy times brought u on us and our posterities and successors I have else where professed and must still profess it as the result of my most serious and deliberate thoughts I can keep Communion under that form of worship Epistle to Considerator coâ—…dâ—res whereby I cannot administer and heartily say Amen to the Master of those petitions which are put up in an order so confused preposterous and indigested that it seems to me to be so much below the gravity of the Church whose mouth I must be the seniousness of the office whereby I minister the sanctity of the duty I am to perform and the sacred nature of the object to whom they are presented that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same I presume no man will or can deny my capacity as a Minister to differ from the capacity of a private Member and barr me against or bind me unto what the capacity of a private member of the Church doth not barr against or bind unto non-administration may subject me to a suspence of my Ministry when non communion cannot be warranted nor excused the restraint of that must not run me upon the sin of this I must with the pious Israelite leave my sacrifice before the Lord though with my souls abhorrency of the prophane preposterous order of administration when I dare not with violence snatch the fat of the sacrifice and act according to the method of the sons of Eli I must not leap out of Christs fold nor leave his pastures when trodden down by others because I dare not present his sheep with puddled waters in the one I am passive by other mens sin in the other my action maketh the sin mine own Gods substantial worship must not be slighted or refused because the sinful order of men attend it Strait is the gate narrow is the way which leadeth to life whilst I flie from the sin of my Ministry I may be and must take heed I be not split by flying into the sin of a Member of the Church that guilt may be charged on me in the collective body which I must be innocent of in my personal capacity where the Constitutions of men include the righteous judgement of God will distinguish and discriminate Ezek. 9.4 all particulars are included in an universal defection but do not perish by it God will not forget to mark his mourners under Israels abominations in his worship Numb 14 which they could not mend nor avoid his Joshua's and Caleb's who follow him fully shall nonfall short of the land of promise Confid 6. though all Israel fall in the wilderness Sixtly Let it be considered my communion with this Church under these corruptions is not more consonant unto the example of these good men of our Church Communion under corrup is consonant to my own professions and the carriage of other reformed Churches then unto my self who am and I hope through divine Grace shall be semper idem ever since I knew any thing of Religion and in any measure discovered the wayes of God and his people I have grieved for and contested against the corruptions of his Church but avoided abhorred and opposed separation from yea a non communion with it as the much greater evil though palliated with professions of piety and pretences of purity to the seduction of the simple such as have sate under my ministery now clouded by a righteous God reveiwing their notes and reflecting their thoughts on what I preached will find a series of rebukes and admonitions against separation and non-communion though enticed by men seemingly the most holy and pretences unto the greatest purity and sanctity In the last Sermons that I preached from John 4.22 from our Saviours practise and pleading for the Church of the Jews opposed to the Samaritans I affirmed Communion with Gods Church under many and great corruptions is not only lawful but an indispensable duty the which I amplified by shewing the different nature of corruptions as nouseous and venomous prejudicial
from my special by those things which will not bar the Duties of my general Relation and Capacity I conceive Administration of Gods Worship is much different from Attendance on Gods Worship and I stand bound to the last when I am justly or unjustly barred from the first Abiathar and the Idolatrous Priests were not barred from serving God with the Church when thrust from serving in the Priests Office In my general Relation as a Member of the Church I stand charged and am capacitated to judge the Matter and essential Form of Gods Worship assent to which is mine only Act But in my special Relation as a Minister I stand also charged and am capacitated to judge the Ministerial Mode and humane Order by which Gods Worship is celebrated and if herein I be imposed on and that by an Order rude irreverend and unsutable to God his Church or Worship which right Reason much less true Religion will not allow me to receive I am interrupted in my Ministerial Office the Formality of which is As a man to Modifie Gods Institutions whereby an intercourse is maintained between God and men such imposition I judge to be a subversion of Ministerial Office and Authority not to be offered by others or admitted by my self without great iniquity and if it therefore be enforced by violence that I must be restrained from my Ministerial Modification of Gods Ordinances according to mine Office and Ministerial Gifts received or I may not be permitted to Minister I yet stand in my Relation as a Member of the Church bound to communicate The Ministerial Mode imposed and sinfully received by such as subjugate their Ministry not vitiating the Subject or nullifying the Ordinances of God will not warrant my Non-attendance on them It is not equally necessitous and obliging that I a Speaker pronounce a wild indigested Speech full of Incongruities Non-sense and Solecisms from which a sound mind doth bar me as that I join and concur in the Substantials thereof with the Assemblies so asking common and certain good things I may not cast off my general Relation wherein I am purely passive because those things are to be personally acted in my special Relation and Capacity which I cannot without sin consent to do and therefore must stand still I cannot beat it into my Brains that it is aeque or aequaliter to attend and give an Assent unto the Matter prayed as to utter pronounce and express the raw rude and disorderly Speech of the Speaker Or that the Necessity or Obligation of the whole House in this general Order to present it self before his Majesty which will and doth warrant the one may justifie the other the Speakers Speech is often censured when the Commons concerned in it are commended and justified But Sir Rather than not enforce this Fancy you will knock me on the Head with a Chamber-pot you urge my necessity to Communion to be the same to Ministration and tell me I judge the Nurse is bound in Duty and Necessity to give the Child his bread his milk had been more proper out of a Chamber-pot as she her self or the Child it self out of it An homely Simile but in a starving Necessity I do judge so but I judge Similes do not currere quatuor pedibus there is no aptitude in this to my Case that Necessity will constrain me to take my Meat in an unclean Vessel which will not constrain me to give it in that Vessel to another I suppose your Nurse is poor who hath no other Vessel but a Chamber-pot yet I must suppose her a good Huswife capacitated to make it clean But if her Superiours have stripped her of all other and will bar her from her cleansing this I suppose she is not bound to play the Nurse and feed others though she must thus feed her self if filthy Parents will have such Nurses or none I hope it is in my power to be none of them I am not bound to it I am by Nature bound to deny it and yet I must maintain mine own being as well as I can If the being of Christianity depend upon my personal Ministry as my being or appearing a Christian doth on my Communion with the Church visible your Inference might be of some force but this it doth not That therefore you may understand the difference keep to similitudes more apt The King hath Decreed All the Citizens shall each Month present their Petitions by a joint Assent to the Expressions of a Speaker the Governours of this City direct a course by which to design different Speakers they consult Matter to be spoken and the Mode of speaking the first is good and allowed the second is rude and disordered the Speakers can better express the desired Matter but shall not be permitted are they aeque or aequaliter obâ—iged to speak in this Mode as to attend this Assembly and give Assent to this common good Matter rudely expressed by others Not speaking in this Mode they lose the Honour and Advantages of the Speakers but not attending or assenting to the Matter they lose the benefit and being of Citizens are these equally to be embraced and pursued They are bound in the one personally to Act and denying to subjugate their Judicium rationale to the rude Prescriptions of others they are barred from it but resolved into the common state in which assent to the Matter is their only Act being wholly and purely passive in the prescribed and imposed Form and Mode of expression in your Chamber-pot Case you suppose Christianity to depend on my personal Ministry which my Relation as a Nurse doth renounce and then indeed your Inference may be cogent for then your Chamber-pot will square with du Moulins Fools Coat but in my more sutable and sociable Case I am bound to attendance when and where I am not bound to administer The Necessity of City-Interest and Relation doth bind me to attendance and assent to City-Petitions but not to the Duty and Dignity of a Speaker between the King and the City from which I am barred by the irrational imposition of an irregular undue Mode of expression in which I must personally act by a suspense of my Judicium rationale which I am bound to act in this more and beyond what I must judge in my more common Capacity Now Sir I must tell you I know not whom you intend by the Brethren who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the rest sure I am they are not Congregationallists who have no little blasphemed the COVENANT by their late Professions for it and by their Martyrs pretences to it as the Bond of their most barbarous pernitious Treasons and Impieties which was by themselves slighted as an Almanack out of Date and prophanely blasphemously violated before they could or did consult and perpetrate the same I cannot suppose them to be the Brethren for the late specifical Difference whose Policy propounded an interpretation of the COVENANT contrary to the literal