or Few or Many In which Question we ar grow'n very much bolder than St. Augustin He Questioned but durst not Determin between Every day and Som days we boldly Determin against Daily yea Weekly yea Monthly Communions but stablish not Any at all III. IT is manifest say som that Scarceity advanceth and Plenty abateth the valu of every thing Those acts of worship which are Frequently are also Slightly performed and since we cannot keep Both we were better quit Frequence than Reverence For we shall more honor our Lord by doing this more Reverently thogh less Frequently Than more Frequently with less Reverence And in confirmation hereof they vouch not only Experience which sheweth that Those very persons who strained hard to enjoy the Common Prayer when it was not to be had without difficulty contemn it now it is truly Common but as we com now from saying the Authority of our Church too as satisfied with three times in a year This is their Opinion and thus they defend it It were heartily to be wished that the Antecedent wer as fals as the Consequent is weak That there wer as litl Truth in the alleged contemt of Common Prayer as there is Reason thence to be draw'n against making the Communion common as That And it were further to be wished that those who thus pretend to hear the Church would better consider her declared Judgment But This conceit grave as it looks with its countenance of Piety and Prudence we have found to be the very same with that in the Corinthians against which the Apostle leveleth his whole Argument And plausibl as it looks with its Countenance of Conformity to the Church we shall find it more guilty of Non-conformity than what is by its patrons condemned as such And so much the more injurious to the Church bicause it doth not only rob her of het Authority but her Innocence as making her Accessary to the disobedience she condemns And since I ow a duty to the Church as well as to the Question I shall not proceed further 'till I have vindicated Her from so great Suspicion and This from so great a Prejudice as by This pretence they suffer IV. CONCERNING the sens of our Church in this Question it is strange that there should be any Doubt much more that there should be any Error so plainly doth she declare it in her Offices and Rubriks relating to this Sacrament preparatory whereto she hath provided two Exhortations the One shewing the danger of Unworthiness the Other of Forbearance answering the doubl charge of the Apostl Let a man examin himself and so let him eat I doubt this is News to Them who most are concerned in it For if they had do'n the Church and Themselvs the right to Read and Consider That Exhortation which she hath appointed to be read when the Minister shall see the peopl negligent to come they must needs be convinced if not how great the Error is yet certainly how litle the Church favoreth it For what can be said to This Invitation In Gods behalf I bid you All All indefinitely and beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake that you will not refuse to come being so lovingly caled and bidden by God himself And again I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own salvation What to this Warning Take you heed lest you withdrawing your selves from this Holy Supper provoke Gods indignation against you And again Consider with your selvs how great an injury you do to God and how sore punishments hangeth over your heads for the same What to this Argument You know how grievous and unkind a thing it is when a man hath prepared a rich Fest decked his Table with all kinds of provisione so that there lacketh nothing but the guests to sit down and yet they who are caled most unthankfully refuse to come c. which of you in such a case would not be moved who would not think a great injury and wrong do'n unto him What to the close of all These things if ye earnestly consider ye will by Gods grace return to a better mind for the obtaining whereof we shall not cease to make our humbl peticions to Almighty God our heavenly Father The Invitation is Universal I bid you All. The charge lieth upon All Persons and at All Times For as often as the peopl the peopl in general are Negligent to com so often is the Minister thus to reprove and warn them and there is no limitation to dispens with Any Person or except Any Time Thus thus it is that the Church incourageth us to dispens with our Duty thus she discourageth Constancy in it Thus she setteth up Reverence against Frequency But since Error cannot subsist without borrowing from Truth let us see what appearances there may be of the Churches countenance in the contrary opinion She declareth say they three times in a year to be sufficient But 1. Churches as well as States ar many times necessietated to comply with the ungovernabl humors of the People And what if our Church have do'n in This Subject as Moses did in That of Divorce bicause of the hardness of the peopls hearts chusing a great inconvenience as an escape from a yet greater mischief The indevotion of the peopl is so incorrigibl that she saw too great reason to fear lest if she should exact the constancy due to it she should thereby rather draw contemt then Guests to the Holy Table and therefor lest by requiring All she should lose All thoght necessary to accommodate her self not to what our Savior Requireth but to what she might hope to Obtene This appeareth by the two first Rubriks which caution against exposing the Sacrament if there be not a convenient number to communicate i. e. if there be not the same number which is necessary for the Grace-cup for so is the number expresly determined to three at least And if she thus doubted of Three when it is so Seldom what could she hope if it were Constantly celebrated 2. Where she may Hope more she Requires more She doth not think the Priests more Obliged to communicate but more Likely to be devout and obedient than the People When therefor there is a competent number of such as in Colleges and Collegiat Churches there often is where they cannot want Opportunity if they want not Piety There she requireth not only three times every Year but once every Week and in This requiring of the Priests she doth more than intimate what oght to be do'n by All thogh she forbear to enjoin it bicause of the too justly supposed hardness of the hearts of the generality 3. Nether is she satisfied with This either in Priest or Peopl When she saith it must be thus often At least she doth not declare This to be the Most that is required by our Lords Institution but the Least that can satisfie her Own Discipline Those
but what love shall prescribe and the Performance drest up in such frightful manner as is more apt to produce Dread than Love what other fruit can reasonably be hoped for than what we see that the generality should rather exercise their Aw by Shunning than their Lov by Frequenting it This was to som degree prevented by the Rubrikes of our Church 'till they wer deposed from their Authority by a sort of men who making distance from Rome their mesure of truth must by That rule have restored the Constancy which to banish was the proper act of Popery But Antipodes while they stand in greatest Opposition dwell in the same Latitude and so do these men with the Church of Rome in som of her worst Doctrines For as they also call it the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to advance the Ecclesiastical Power above the Temporal so do they endeavor to make this Sacrament an instrument to subject the People to the Minister When they hoped to ' stablish their Discipline how briskly did they summon the People to the Communion How insolently did they depose them All even such as were every way better than themselvs to the state of Catechumens not admitting them to the Lords Table 'till they had undergo'n Their examination But when they found that they could not prevail ether with the People voluntarily to submit themselvs or with the Governors to compel them to it How quickly did they take pet How sullenly did they cast away the Sacrament as Useless to Any good purpose since it was So to their Own My banishment from the University cast me into a corner where the Dispute was publikly managed by word and writing from the Pulpit and from the Press whether the Lord's Supper wer to be celebrated in an unpresbyterated Church and the Negative so generally prevailed throghout the Land that during their whole reign in som places the very Table it self and in most others the Use of it was quite cast out of the Church When the Church of England was about to be restored and their Representatives wer desired to make their Proposals that they might ether hide or justify so great a neglect they moved to be freed from That Rubrike which obligeth the peopl to communicate at least three times in every year And to This day they make it a distinct cause of separation so that som who join with us in other offices dare not do it in This And their greatest Champion thogh he have his proper Congregation bosteth that he hath not ' ministered it these eighteen years with no less Non-conformity to his own pretences than to the stablished government 1. One pretence is that nothing must be do'n in the Publik worship of God without express warrant in his word Then certainly much less must any thing be omitted which his Command hath made necessary For the general Precept for Decency may virtually contein such Particulars as our Governors shall judge Decent but nothing less than a Particular and Express warrant can free us from a Particular Institution not only Expresly enjoyned but several ways Inculcated 2. Another pretence is that our Church is not rightly constituted according to the mind of Christ And we have discovered by the Nature of the thing by the language of the Apostls and by the unanimos consent of all the Christian world that the Sacraments ar indispensibl marks of a Christian Church which since his Congregation wants by his own principless he must abandon it 3. A Third great pretence is that We have too much Popery in our Worship And we have found that robbing the Publik worship of This Sacrament is the very Soul and Body of Popery but with This difference that the Popish Doctors intended to make it bleed away somthing of Constancy and Non-conformists bleed it to death WE see whence our neglect of the Sacrament took it's first Birth and whence it's Nourishment Popery gave it the one and Schism the other Yet how many among our selvs cherish it that renounce both Parent and Nurse Glad of the liberty which right or wrong they enjoyed during our confusions and loth to return to the troubl they suffered from such a curb to their dear lusts and ease They find that divines require no less for a worthy Communion than for a saving Repentance Repentance they press as absolutely Necessary but the Communion they think not so Who then can be so sottish as to delay his Repentance without giving the Sacrament as long a day Every mans Reason must needs concurr with his Sloth to persuade him that if it be a damnable Sin to com Unworthy but None to Forbear then must it needs be his wisest cours to avoid a task dubly prejudical first to his Ease and then to his Salvation When our Lord commanded us to pluck out our eys and cut off our hands he enforced it with a Reason as cogent as the Command could be rigid For it is better to enter into life with One ey foot or hand than to be cast into Hell-fire with two But so to state this duty as to say If you will do This you must quit your beloved lusts but if you will not do it you miss som benefits but incurr no danger how few such a declaration will persuade rather to renounce their lusts and ease than This Duty shall I call it no but Burthen Reason might have taght our ancestors to Conjectur and Experience compelleth us to bewail Experience which many call the fools mistress bicause those who apprehend not other evidence cannot avoid This Experience which is many times the Severest and alway the Best instructor doth so plainly and sadly reprove us that however excusable Other ages may have be'n who thoght themselvs secure from the ill consequences our Own and Future times cannot be so if we be not convinced by them We somtimes see men encumber their lands when they intend to grace them with Fair but Fruitless bildings and then sell houses land and all to pay the so contracted debt But we never see any so fond of such bildings as to sell the Land for their preservation if by pulling them down they can pay the debt with the materials Let us be as wise in our generation our ' forefathers thoght as such bilders usually do that the Sacrament could well bear and be improved by the cost they put it to that it would be more advanced both in honor and power than prejudiced by abatement of constancy but never thoght of staking its very Being against any hopes whatever That they thoght secured by the Laws of the Church and the unfailing practice of it's very worst members who for shame of their neighbors or fear of their governors durst not neglect it at any of the appointed seasons But now that the late Schism hath out-mischiefed all their fears it is not to be doubted but those very writers who heretofore discoraged the performance by their rigors wer they now
worse But 't is no such jesting mater For as Opinions are Multiplied without Number so are they Valued without Mesure and what is spoken without Reason is imposed without Moderation No Province in Religion is so pestered with Controversies among the Scholastical Mysteries among the Contemplative Scruples among the Practik none prosecuted with greater heat and less satisfaction Every ones zele for his Opinion taking its mesure or unmesurableness rather from his value for the Subject II. WERE there no other Disputes but such as concern the precarious Mysteries which have no other Parent but fanciful mens Inventions nor no other Nurse but Curiosity in niceties not practical however great the Troubl might be the Scandal would be litle toward the Scripture which might with Gallio refuse to be judge of such matters But when the Question is as Important as the Subject is Venerable when it pretends not to gratifie Curiosity but to satisfie Conscience and that not in some Inferior but the Capital Critical duty That our Lord and All his Churches should value it so High and yet the Scripture treat it so Slightly is a Mystery as Great and as Fals as any among the multitude imposed upon it How then shall we escape the Scandalous Dilemma Either the Scriprure cannot be Sufficient if defective in so Capital a subject or the Institution must not be so Valuable if the great Author both of it and the Scriprure did not think it worthy to be Legibly written Wer not the Recrimination more obvious than the Objection did not Tradition leave the Romanists under as great uncertainty in these great questions as the Scriptures do us they would undoubtedly so Urge that we should not be able to Answer the Scandal But to Recriminate is a poor justification Or if the Papists be to be answered What say we to the Jews If the Lord took off the vele from Moses 's face and put a thicker on his Own How shall the Light of the Gospel triumph over the Obscurity of the Law Not all the Ceremonies of the Mosaik Law put together will thicken to so opake a mask as this One They hid indeed the Significance but not the Obligation of the Law The vele was upon their Hearts but not upon their Eyes They saw not the full meaning of Circumcision but they did the Certain Time wherein they were to celebrate it They understood not the utmost signification of the Paseal Rite yet were they sure How often and in what Day they were to Sacrifice and eat the Lamb. But This great office is obscure even in its Obligations We as litle know what we are to Do as the Jews did what they were to Believe How then shall we justifie the Scripture in point of Sufficiency against the Papists or in point of Clearness against the Jews without reneguing the Honor due to the Sacrament We find a kind of Composition offered by one of our greatest Assertors both of the Sufficiency of the Scripture and Dignity of the Sacrament It is saith he not much opened in the writings of the New Testament but still left in its mysterious nature it is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors and by them made more mysterious and like a Doctrine of Philosophy made intricate and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions But if the New Testament hath left it a Shining cloud and the Doctors reasonings varied it into Contingent shapes as he expresseth it what can we say but either there is no need to unvele the Mystery and then the Sacrament must be degraded from its Dignity as not Worthy to be understood or celebrated or we must have some better Oracle to fix its signification and since other Doctors make it more Intricate where can we hope to find satisfaction but from the Infallible Chair This most excellent Author hath written so Much and so Well both for the Scripture and the Sacrament that I cannot doubt him willing to sacrifice This One assertion to Their Reconciliation which also is as worthy our labor as the advancement of Either in prejudice of the Other AND why should we not improve the offer now made us wholely free the New Testament from Mysteriousness and lay the whole blame upon the Doctors as having not encreased only but first caused the entanglement He that shall do this and Prove it true if he appear Rude toward so many Reverend Persons may well hope to be justified by the Necessity And if he further discover not only the Cause of the entanglement but the way to clear it if he take the right Thred and so draw it as to Untwist the whole without leaving any Knot untied he may deserve no worse usage than a Child that with better Luck than Art hath disentangled a skein of Silk which his Parent had snarled and could not unwind The former half of this so justifiable work will not require much time or labor It is but observing and it is obvios to the first glance what is the regular way to discover the mind of any Author and we shall soon find how Generally how Grosly and how Mischievosly it hath be'n forsaken in this Subject If we look upon the Anatomist dissecting a dead Body we may thence learn how we are to examine a Discourse The Artist who aims at no other design but to trace the ways of life first takes a General vieu of the whole Body and then a Particular one of every Member examins the Texture of every Particle the mutual Aspect of each to other and the joint Usefulness of All to the life But the Butcher who aims at nothing but his Profit chops off such members as may best advance it makes of Them the most he can leaving the Bowels as inconsiderable because unprofitable to himself thogh most serviceable to the life Can I help it if truth oblige me to say the Doctors have handled those parts of Scripture which relate to This Sacrament not like Anatomists but like Butchers that they cut off such a Particular clause as they think most advantageous for their own preconceved Opinion treat it as a distinct Body by it self regard not its Office in the Discourse it ought to serve but make the utmost they can of that One without respect to all the Rest c. In matter of Fact nothing is rude that is true I need not therefore stand upon manners but boldly say that the Doctors on both sides have so Treated as if they had agreed to Abuse the Apostles Discourse and our Lords Institution For the Papists cut the Institution alongst and lay aside One Side our Own Divines cut the Apostles Comment athwart laying aside the Upper half IV. 1. THE Papists that they may maintene their beloved Transubstantiation cut our Lords Institution into Sides make all possible advantage of That which seems most Serviceable and lay by the Other as wors than Useless For whereas the Elements are two they
If therefor THIS bread and THIS cup be as I hope I have proved a Singular bread and cup used at Certain Determinate times then have we the Standard whereby we must mesure our Frequency in the Lords Supper And again if we are obliged to do This As often as That then must we understand how often we must Do That So the Relation is perfect and reciprocal Our obligation to celebrate the Lords Supper As often as we Eat THIS c. supposeth it certain how often we eat it And the Certainty of difference between THIS and Other bread and wine determineth how often we are to use Them in the Lords Supper Thus will our Lords mind in This Institution be as plain as in Any other Practical Precept The Apostles Argument as convincing as Any in All his Epistles And our Lord's stile conformable to that of All mankind and that which himself frequently used when most desiros to be understood by the meanest When th u fastest saith he anoint thy head and wash thy face when thou givest thine alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth When ye Pray say Our Fasher c. Had these exercises no other Foundation but the precariosly supposed Will of the performer and That too undrawn by any preceding motive Had they never before be'n heard of in the World as is supposed of This bread and This cup what would such a groundless Precept have signified Who wold thereby have be'n induced to undergo the penance of Fasting the cost of Alms-doing or the labor of Prayer Or what Obligation had there be'n broken by the neglect Whereas now that these Precepts did not Create New performances but Reform Old ones since before our Lord had opened his lips concerning them his Disciples very well knew how frequently Those exercises were performed it must be needless to tell them what they knew already but he must be supposed to imply it in what he bilt upon it And if we may paraphrase his words we may thus do it You often Fast and give Alms and Pray and ye do well in it I give you no new command concerning the Substance or Quantity of those good exercises go on to do as much as you have formerly do'n but I caution you concerning the Manner that as often as you do them you do them sincerely without any misture of Hypocrisie The language is the very same here and so ar all materials A practice presupposed and left to its former mesures a new Precept concerning a change of manner and This mesured in point of frequency by the foreknown Standard Our Lord's and the Apostl's meanings as clear at That time as the supposed practice they both refer to was common I say At That time and insist upon it as necessary both for Justification of the Scriptur and Satisfaction of our Own Consciences that we must redeem That time that therewith we may retrive the Only proper light whereby we may discover both our Lord's and Apostl's meaning And thogh we might now supersede any further proof since our Lord himself may be pleaded the best Interpreter of his own Language frequently used upon like occasions yet because another and more acceptabl sens shall I call it hath gotten possession of Most if not of All minds I shall further observ 1. With what care the Apostle Recordeth these words 2. With what partiality he applieth them to the cup and with what suitable partiality he honoreth the cup for their sake 3. With what care he righteth the bread by giving it equal power with the cup in his own deductions III. 1. IT is very observable with what care the Apostle Recordeth this clause None of the Evangelists mention it and it is probable our Lord used it not in his Institution and therefor the Apostle is careful so to Insert it as withal to Authorise it saying expresly That he receved it of the Lord. This is very considerable and therefor we shall observ 1. This Apostle was our Lords Disciple after another rate than were the rest He enjoyed not as They did an intimate conversation with him upon Earth but was abundantly recompensed with Revelations from Heaven St. Luke indeed is very sparing as became an abridger in recording such Revelations he mentions only That which converted him and a very few others relating to som of his journies Yet in recital of his speech to King Agrippa he plainly intimateth a larger discourse even in That First Vision than himself had expressed and particularly that our Lord promised to make That an earnest of More and Those more instructive I have said he appeared unto thee for This purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of Those things wherein I will appear unto thee Which After-appearances were Such and so Many that he declareth himself in danger of being puffed up by them 2. What he declareth himself to have receved of the Lord must needs be This considerabl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the rest were openly delivered at the Institution to the whole College of Apostles from Them he might have receved them and to their Testimony he might have appeled if his truth had be'n questioned But concerning These important words they must All have joined their testimony Against him if the Evangelists did not join in a strange omission neglecting to report such a considerable clause As therefor our Lord by a very intelligible Ellipsis left these words unspoken because needless at the time of his Institution so doth the Apostle now by another Ellipsis omit the distinction which we are supposed to understand between This clause which he inserted as receved of the Lord by a posthum explication and the rest which All the other Apostles receved without it at his Last Supper 3. These words alone he immediatly resumeth and inforceth as his principal Evidence for all his deductions thence inferred Since this is the Basis of All it oght to be firmly setled and he needed our Lords authority for This only 4. This Authority evidenceth not Only the Truth but the Importance of what was thus delivered These words of deference What I have receved are never paid but to Truths of the first rate In the fundamental Article of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.1 c. when he had honored it with the most illustrios titles The Gospel That whereby we are to be saved c. he addeth This also I have delivered saith he that which I also receved but expresseth not from whom since the cloud of witnesses was apparent When he would confirm the truth of the whole Gospel and exalt its dignity to the highest he speaketh in the present stile Gal. 1.11 I receved it not of man neither was I taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ And since the Stile is the same the Consequence must be the same Here as There If I or an Angel from Heaven teach any other doctrin
hardness of the peopl's hearts In so corrupt an age we may not stand upon our Lords In the beginning it was not so but yield to his Suffer it to be so now I therefor urge no more but this That it is the duty of every Minister to labor with his people to com constantly and to offer the Holy Communion as often as he can prevail with them to receve it Against this so complaisant Assertion bicause St. Augustin's out-running followers have not only opposed his Let every one do what he thinks best but preferred the Centurions aw before Zacheus's reception therefor must this doubl Error be encounter'd with a doubl Question 1. Whether our Lords Do this take not away our liberty to forbear it 2. Supposing we had liberty to do what we believe best whether it were not better to do it frequently than seldom 1. Our first Question must be Whether our Lords Do this leave us any liberty to forbear when we think it better In this Enquiry we must distinguish between Laws Moral and Positive II MOral Laws ar written in the fleshly tables of the heart whose yielding nature may take impression from the various occurrences of life Those Laws as they ar Dictated by Reason so must they be Interpreted by it and bend to the several requires of the subject matter For the Philosopher cannot so fix the bounds of Vertu but that in many cases the Determination of a Prudent man is necessaty to distinguish it from Vice But God wrote his Positive Laws in Tables of Stone whose rigor was uncapabl of yielding Of such Laws the Will of the Law-giver was the Only Reason and must be the Only Mesure We must do Just so no less nor no more nor no otherwise Reason hath here nothing to do but to deny it self to have the least power to Dispens or Derogate or Commute or any way Decline from the express voice of the Law Uzzah could not then plead the appearance of necessity or the evidence of his good meaning when the danger of the Law was greater one way than that of the Ark was the other way To this surpose ler us reflect upon what we have already observed that our Apostl vouched our Lord's authority that so he might assert both the Truth and Importance of what he delivered For we cannot now deny the Truth without affronting the Apostl's veracity nor the Importance without disparaging our Lord's wisdom for the One must be said to take great care for a subject of no valu or the Other report a falshood We have seen som danger that our Lord's mind might be mistaken as if he either intended to consecrate none but the Paschal Supper or valued the whole office at no higher rate than he used to do outward performances We need no other evidence that the Corinthians might probably believ This than the commonness of This belief now notwithstanding the Apostl's indeavor to confute it in both its members by This declaration which plainly discovereth how much our Lord valued this office how often we must perform it and how litl power we have to abate any thing of it For these reasons he doth not plead here as before in another case of outward decency Doth not appeal to Their Judgments nor offer his Own saith not as cap. 10. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say nor as chap. 7. I give my judgment This say I not the Lord but quite contrary This say not I but the Lord and the consequence is Neither I nor an Angel from heaven must be believed against the Revelation Neither I nor an Angel from heaven much less a mans own humor can any way relax the Obligation Grant therefore now that the Observation be as Tru as the Subject is Unhappy suppose Frequence bring danger of Cheapness must we therefor presume to make it Scarce No doubtless If we will needs hear Reason it will tell us that our Lord knew this as well as We It was so Before and In and Ever Since His days as it is in Ours How then dare any one judge That a sufficient reason to hinder him from Doing this which our Lord judged not so to hinder him from Commanding it Doth not such an one declare himself both Superior and Wiser If thou judg the Law saith S. James thou art not a Doer of the law but a Judge I may add Thou art not only a Judge but an Unjust one if thy sentence rob the law of it's due so much more so by how much greater care our Lord took to have it duly paid III. HE therefor that breaketh This which is not the Least of our Lords Commandments and teacheth men so must be weighed in others scales than those of St. Augustine Not compared with the modest Centurion or forward Zacheus but with the most Disobedient Rebel and the most Unworthy Communicant and even so will be found more inexcusable than the worst For he that Doth This however unworthily payeth Somthing of obedience owneth our Lords Authority is easily Convinced of his Crime But he that saith he needs not do it doth not only deny the Law to have power over himself but assumeth to himself power over the Law and renounceth all Need and therefor all Benefit of Repentance He that Disobeyeth the Kings Law may be a Felon but he that setteth up an Opposit Authority is a Rebel and declaring himself as all Rebels do a most Faithful Subject is thereby the more Unpardonabl He that doth this unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord he dishonoreth his Person and that in his Humanity but he that Renounceth any Obligation to do it is guilty of his Crown and Dignity Deposeth him from his Throne and affronteth the Majesty of his Divinity and his pretence of Reason for disobedience whether it be Reverence or his Teachers Authority or what ever els it be it is a Rival to obedience and it 's plausibl Pretences make it so much the more properly Rebellious This perhaps may seem too Severe I grant it nor do I believ our Lord judgeth according to such Rigid mesures but Rigid as they ar they ar Just and may be urged against the Doctrines thogh not against the Persons For if the Preformance be bound upon us by a Positive Law of Christ and Forbearance only by my Own or my Teachers Reason If I prefer This abve That and Justifie my doing so what is this but to say I will not have That but This to reign over me We may not therefor without manifest Deposing our Lord pretend any thing Equal to his Authority but if we will decline our obedience to This Command we must fetch our Warrant from That alone as dispensing with us in such cases as we oppose to our obligation IV. AND this Warrant must be as Express as his Command and it must be either a Countermand or a Dispensation 1. A Countermand may be either Express or Implicit If