a Foot parts similar and dissimilar in man are all compounded of lesser Parts If many Students may make one Colledge why may not many Colledges make one University It 's strange if a Doctor deny this 3. But let us consider of his Reason and enquire 1. Whether the Church have all things Common 2. Whether the very Essence of it consist in this I. It is granted that the whole Essence of the Genus and Species is found in every individual of that Species Natural or Politick but did we ever hear till Mr. Cheny and this Doctor said it that Politick Bodies differ not numero as well as Natural The Kingdom of England and of France are two the Church of Rome and Constantinople long strove which should be uppermost but who ever said that they were not two II. Have they all things common Dissenters would have excepted Wives and Husbands th◠the Canons called Apostolical do not Why should the Essence of a Church lie in this and not the Essence of a City or Kingdom Tories in Ireland would have all common Merchants and Tradesmen Knights Lords and Princes here would not But it 's no Schism here also to distinguish simpliciter secundum quid Propriety and the use of Propriety There is no Community without Propriety Men have first a Propriety in themselves their members their food the acquests of their Labours their Wives and Children and Goods And they consent to Community to preserve this Propriety because every man loveth himself And yet they must use their Propriety even of Life for common good because all are better than one But if they had no Propriety they could not so use it for the Common-wealth And I never conformed to the Doctrine that denyeth Propriety in Church Members and Particular Churches and thought all simply common I 'le tell you what Particular Churches have to individuate them not common to all 1. They consist of individual natural Persons many of which as much differ from many other Persons those in England from those in Spain as one man doth from another 2. Their Graces and gifts are numerically distinct Faith Hope Love c. from those of other Churches thó ejusdem speciei 3. England and France London and Oxford have Churches of different place and Scituation 4. But the formal individuating difference is their nearest Relation to their several Pastors as several Kingdoms Cities Schools are numerically distinct by their distinct Kings Maiors School-masters so are several Churches ejusdem speciei 1. Thess. 5.12 13 Know those that are among you and over you in the Lord and esteem them highly in love for their Works sake As every mans Wife Children and Servants must be used for the common good and yet are not common one mans Wife and Children are not anothers So the Bishop of London of Oxford c. must govern his Church for the good of the Universal but he is not the Bishop of Gloucester Norwich Paris Rome These are differences enow to constitute a numerical difference of Churches Paul distinguisheth the Bishops of Philippi Ephesus c. from others Do you yet see no Priviledges that one hath Proper and not common to all none that make a difference in specie but both numerical and gradual 1. All Churches have not Bishop Iewel Bishop Andrews Doctor Stillingfleet Doctor Sherlock to be their Teachers All Churches be not taught all that 's in this Resolver 2. All Churches have not men of the same soundness nor excellency of Parts It was once taken for lawful to account them specially worthy of double honour who laboured in the Word and Doctrine and to esteem men for their works sake Paul saith of Timothy I have no man like minded If those that heard not a Sermon in many years differed not from your Congregation why do you preach I am reproached in Print for telling the world this notorious truth That I lived till ten years old where four men four years hired successively were Readers and School-masters two Preached as it was called once a Month the other two never Two drank themselves to beggery After I lived where many Parishes about us had no Preachers The Parish that I lived in had a Church with a Vicar that never preached and a Chappel with a Parson eighty years old that had two Livings twenty Miles distant and never preacht His Son a Reader and Stage-player was sometime his Curate His Grand-son my School-master his Curate next that never preacht in his life but drunk himself to beggery One year a Taylor read the Scripture and the old man the best of them all said the Commmon-Prayer without book for want of sight The next year a poor Thresher read the Scripture After that a Neighbours Son my Master was Curate who never preacht but once and that when he was drunk in my hearing on Mat. 25. Come ye Blessed and go ye Cursed the saddest Sermon that ever I heard These things were no rarities Now my assertion is That the Church that had such as Austin Chrysostome Iewel Andrews and such worthy men as London now hath many had Priviledges distinct from these and many the like that I was in If you say that every Bishop and Preacher is as much the Bishop and Preacher to all other single Churches as to that which is his Title then 1. He must be condemned for not teaching them all 2. Then he may claim maintenance from them all 3. Then he may intrude into any mans Charge 4. Then no Church is unchurcht for want of a Bishop for any one Bishop is Bishop to every Church in the World and so ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia signifieth but that Church and Bishop are on the same Earth and Ecclesia est Plebs Episcopo adunata may be verified if there be but one in the World 5. And so Mr. Dodwell and such are self-confuted before you are aware Geneva Holland and all Presbyterians are true Churches for they have all Bishops e. g. The Bishop of London is Bishop to them all For if one man be no more a Member of one single Church than of another and so no more a Subject to one Bishop than to another then one Bishop is no more Pastor of one Church than of another 7. And how can you magnifie the Church of England for a Wise Learned Pious Clergy above other Churches if all Priviledges be common and they have no proper Pastors of their own 8. Do you think that the Church e. g. Of Hippo that was in Austins dayes was the same numerical single Church with that which is there now were there any or with the Diocesan Church of London if not then at least distance of time and change of Persons maketh divers Particular Churches and it 's no more against the unity of the Church Universal to have divers particular Churches in it in the same Age than in divers Ages In short Diversity of matter and form maketh a numerical Diversity as of Natural
sound and moving words are set before an unready Speaker they help his affection more than his own shorter and unmeeter words would do And his mind being not taken up with the study of words is the freer to attend its affections You must not measure all Mens Volubility of Speech by your own I can truly say that Forms are oft a help to me I find young and old Christians are more fit to use them than the middle-aged For the young cannot at first pray well at least before others without them till use hath taught them And the old have discretion to fit their Affections to sound words oft repeated But the middle-aged that have a greater Heat and a lesser Light are much more taken with their own sudden Effusions and Expressions Do you think that when Calvin formed the Liturgy for Geneva and France he had so Malignant a Design as to defeat the Spirits help Or do our English Psalms and Tunes quench the Spirit and are they used to keep Men from the Gift of making Hymns Ex tempore 2 I answered your Minor first because it is matter of Fact but your Major also is untrue For that which is imposed with an ill Intent may be used to a good one And that which hurteth some may be a help to others If the Parish Churches were all built to serve Popery and the Mass and dedicated to Saints yet we may use them lawfully to better Purposes If Priests Marriages be forbidden for ill Ends it may be forborn for good Ends. If Glebe and Tythes were here given first to maintain the Mass they may be used to maintain sound Teachers It was Popes that reverst the old Custom of not adoring kneeling on any Lords day And yet you may lawfully kneel then in Prayer Yea tho they brought in kneeling to the Host by that Alteration XXV Errer So that this is another Error And your Confirmations are not true D. O. Hereon the Church lived and acted for several Ages performing all Divine Worship in their Assemblies by vertue of the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit and no otherwise When these things were neglected when the way of attaining and the exercise of them appeared too difficult to Men of carnal minds this way of Worship by a Prescribed Liturgy was insensibly brought in to render the Promise of Christ and the Work of the holy Ghost in the Administration of Gifts useless And herein two things do follow § 13. 1. IT is a great Error to think that the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit may not be exercised if we use the same words or if they be prescribed The chief help of Gods Spirit lieth in giving us a due esteem of the things prayed for and a holy Desire after them and a lively Faith and Hope that we shall obtain them and a fixed Resolution to use all other means for them and avoid all that would deprive us of them And doubtless he that hath these mental Dispositions hath thereby a great help for his Expression of them for out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh But 1. It 's well known that Use and Knowledge can enable an Hypocrite to pray as long and in as good Words and earnest Tone as a sincere Christian. 2. That which is easiest needeth the least help It is to me so much easier to speak my own thoughts in Prayer ex tempore than to remember a form of words that never since I was twenty years old did I ever learn and say without Book the words of one Prayer or one Sermon since I Preacht to have learnt a Prayer or Sermon without Book would have cost me ten times and more both time and labour and fear of being out than I ever used or could afford 3. Pardon me for asking Whether if this Author put all the Errors of this his writing into a Prayer or Sermon he did not need more help of the Spirit to have avoided them and to have spoken nothing but truth than to have fluently uttered so many mistakes He hath heard those called Arminians on one side and Antinâ—mians on the other oft fluently express their Opinions in Gods Worship The former he took to be heinous Errors Had not all these had more of the help of Gods Spirit if they had uttered nothing but true and good in a form than they had to speak so much Error and Evil to God or Man with extemporate fluency 4. May not a man use the Lords Prayer by the Spirits help If I have any help of Gods Spirit it is more in the use of that Prayer than at any other time 5. May not one sing Psalms by the help of the Spirit unless he make them extempore I doubt you lay too much on words Gods Spirit worketh on the heart and its greatest help is in its greatest gifts which are Faith Repentance Love Desire c. and not words Words must be used and weighed but the main work is heart work and God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit when we have but groans which we canot express and cry but Abba Father But you come to History and add another misreport in the words XXVI Error and no otherwise that the Church for several ages Worshipped no otherwise than by such gifts as you describe which exclude Liturgick forms It 's plain in the descriptions of Iustin and Tertullian that they did use extemporate Prayer then but not that they did no otherwise 1. Tertullian himself giveth you their form of a Creed and so do many others 2. They used a set form of words in Baptizing 3. And they constantly used singing Psalms and Hymns which were not made ex tempore nor by every singer 4. They used the Lords prayer in form often 5. At the Lords Supper they had divers words of form and responses In Cyprian some parcels are to he seen and in divers others 6. The truth is our History of the Churches manner of Worship for the first two hundred years is so little that we know but little how they did it beside the foresaid two passages in Iustin and Tertullian But by what is in the Historians of the next Ages and by the Churches general use of the Liturgies without contradiction soon after and what Daillee hath gathered de cultu Latinorum c. we know that no otherwise is not true 2. It 's too true that the carelesnesâ— sloth and worldly alienations of Ministers made all useful sufficiency for the work of the Ministry in Praying and Preaching to be neglected and doth to this day But I hope no wise man dreameth that all the Pastors had one soul or one mind and design If any Malignants used or enjoyned forms to make â—hrists promise and the Spirits help useless others used them and promoted the use of them for the performance of Christs promise and the Spirits help 1. Because there were not when publick countenance increased the Churches half enough
Jurisdiction by right in this Land And all that by mistake say the King hath not chief Power in all his Dominions meaning in France of which he professeth to be King and we so call him even in our Prayers to God All that say contrary to Art 38. that it is not their Duty liberally to give Alms according to their ability All that contrary to Art 39 think men in conforming may swear upon trust of their Superiours words without judgment and true understanding of Justice and Truth Aâ—l these are already ipso facto Excommunicated by this one Canon and if they elsewhere worship God are called Separatists and Schismaticks in danger of Damnation as Adulterers and Murtherers are And how great a number are these 10. All are ipso facto Excommunicate by the sixth Canon who affirm that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law established are superstitious or such as now commanded men who are zealously and godly affected may not with a good Conscience APPROVE use and subscribe as occasion requireth That is all that thus mistake kneeling at the Sacrament on the reasons aforenamed to be against the second Commandment or that judge so of the Surplice or that think the Cross as described by the Canon and Liturgy hath all the Essentials of a humane unlawful Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace And all that are against the Rites of Godfathers that never owned the Child as theirs to be the only Sponsors in its Name and to Vow its Christian Education when I never knew one living that so much as made the Parents believe that he intended it And all that think the words of the Liturgy making Imposition of hands an assuring sign of Gods Gracious acceptance make Confirmation a humane unlawful Sacrament and say so All these are cut off 11. By Canon seventh all are ipso facto excommunicate that affirm that the Government of the Church of England under his Majesty by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE in the same is repugnant to Gods word that is all Bishops Ministers Noblemen Gentlemen or People that say that it is against Gods word for Lay Civilians or Chancellours to govern by the Church Keyes excommunicate or absolve And all that think it unlawful for Surrogates that are not Bishops but Presbyters either as a Cryer pro forma to pronounce all excommunicate or absolved who are so decreed by the Lay Chancellor or else for them or a Priest-Chancellour to govern a Diocess by the Keyes of Excommunication and Absolution being no Bishops and all that think it sinful for Archdeacons Commissaries Officials c. who are no Bishops to exercise the same Government by the Keyes over so many Pastors or Churches or for a Bishop to do his Office by others that are no Bishops any more than a Priest by those that are no Priests or for a Diocesan with his Lay Court to Govern many score or hundred Churches under him without any subordinate Bishop in those Churches that is to set up the Name and shew and make Christs Discipline impossible Or for Lay Chancellors or Surrogates to publish Excommunications in the Bishops Name which he never knew of nor tryed the cause Or for such Chancellours to oblige all Parish Ministers to publish all their Excommunications which are agreeable to these Canons What quality and number they are of that call any of this sinful I pretend not to know But they are all now excommunicate men 12. The eight Canon ipso facto excommunicateth all that affirm that the form and manner of making and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons hath any thing repugnant to Gods Word c That is all those that hold Bishops and Presbyters to be the same Order contrary to the words of that Book Which yet even the Church of England while Papists declared in King Aelfriks Canons see Spelman And all such as Thorndike who say the People and Clergy should choose their Bishops or that say the Peoples consent is necessary to the Pastoral Relation to them and that the old Canons for this are in force 13. The ninth Canon ipso facto excommunicateth the Separatists 14. The tenth Canon excommunicateth all that affirm that Ministers that refuse to subscribe to the Liturgy c. and their Adherents may truely take to themselves the Name of another Church not established by Law and dare publish that this their pretended Church hath long groaned under the burden of imposed grievances by the Church of England and the Orders and Constitutions therein by Law established Ipso facto is not here This reacheth to all that confine not Gods Church in England to the Party that subscribe and their Adherents If any say that if such as Blondel Rivet Amesius or any other the most Learned holy peaceable men that dare not subscribe as aforesaid should with any Christians worship God together and that these are a true Church though he judge them faulty and that these Canons are grievances such are to be excommunicated Though it be gross Schism in others to confine not onely the Purity but the Verity of a Church to their own Party For such to feel and groan loud here is Excommunication 15. The eleventh Canon much to the same purpose requireth the Excommunication of all that affirm that any Subjects in England may rightly challenge the Name of true and lawful Churches besides those allowed by Law though the King should License them 16. The twelfth Canon ipso facto excommunicateth all that make Rules and Orders in Causes Ecclesiastical without the Kings Authority and submit to them e. g. All that without the Kings authority agree to turn the Table Altar-wise to require People to kneel at the Rails or to bow toward the Alter or East or to set up Organs c. All these are now excommunicate by an Authority above the Bishops which no Bishop or Priest can dispense with but only forbear to publish and execute it but not nullifie it no nor absolve any that publickly repent not of it as a wicked Errour 16. By Canon fourteenth if any Minister shall diminish any part of the Orders Rites Ceremonies Prayers c. in regard of Preaching or ANY OTHER RESPECT or shall adde any thing in matter or form e. g. If he let the Parent express the dedication of his Child to God or lay any charge on any Parent he breaketh the Church Law and so far separateth from it 17. By Canon fifteenth when twenty or thirty thousand are commanded to come to a Church that cannot receive six thousand and the Alleys and Pewes are wedg'd so that they cannot all kneel yet all that kneel not at the Prayers and all that say not audibly the Confession Lords Prayer Creed and Responses disobey the Laws of the Church and so far separate from it 18. When twenty thousand Persons are commanded to come in more than can if ten thousand of them or any number should come to the
dilemmatically either by Peace and Union you mean inclusive Union with Christ and the Unity of the Spirit one Faith one hope and Union of Christian Love and by Communion a Communion in things necessary to salvation or you do not If you do then this is the true Paraphrase of your words They may have all the Essentials of a true Church except all the Essentials for those they have not If you do not include these then this is the Paraphrase They may be true Believers and penitent and love God and Man sincerely and be Members of Christ and have his Spirit and one Baptism and one true hope of Heaven and the pardon of sin and yet be Rebels and damned for want of somewhat ese which I call Unity Peace and Catholick Communion I think you mean subjection to such as you in all your Canonical Impositions In short the plain truth of this Case I before opened viz. When disobedience to true Church-â—astors proveth tâ— be as Adultery and Murder sins signifying such Predominance of the Flesh and absence of Divine Faith and Love as is inconsistent with 〈◊〉 then it is damning as other grâ—ss and reigning sin is But else it â—uts not off from Christ and if the Prelates pretend to cut off such they are liker to cut off themselves § 33 His rare distinction he fullier openeth which is Between the Visible Church and the one true Catholick Visible Church The Visible Church comprehends all Societies of professed Christians Hereticks Idolaters or whatever they be Tâ—e one true Catholick Church 〈◊〉 not Ans. I have answered this before It 's well the distinction is not commonly observed as the Coyner saith for it would be a common abuse Hitherto we have known but one Universal Church considered as Mystical in Believers or Visible in Prosessors of the same and not another Faith Profest Idolaters or Hereticks that deny the Essential are no Members of it as Visible But this Doctor hath forged an One true Catholick Church less than the Visible and yet Visible Could he have spoken sence he would but have said The Universal Visible Church hath some Members that are sound orderly and peaceable and some that are erroneous disorderly and unruly even as it hath some holy and some Adulterers Thieves and Persecutors In a great house are some Vessels of Earth to dishonour § 34. I fear if I should survey but half the confused passages of this book I should tire the Reader as well as my self I will be briefer with the rest P. 94 95 c. He giveth us an allay against the tenor of his Excommunications and Damnations to shew that he is not so uncharitable as he seems to be and that his Canon that maketh so great a noise hath but Powder without Bullet I look he should say I misunderstand him and therefore I will not tell you his meaning but the sum of his words viz. p. 87. to shew us why Those that believe in Christ repent of their sins and lead an holy life in all godliness and honesty may yet be excluded from all the ordinary means of salvation He first blames them that in these days have thought Holiness so sufficient and would cheat his Reader by citing Austin as of that mind who hath no mention in the words which he cites of Faith Holiness Love to God or to his Saints or Service but only a Catalogue of such Virtues as Heathens or â—nfidels plead for viz. Chastity Continence not coveâ—â—us not serving Idols not contentious patient quiet emulating and envying none sober frugal But yet an Heretick who is without the Christian Faith and Love so far is he from including these in his Description But no doubt he will have some Readers that will swallow all such Hooks as these Then supposing men have no Love that communicate not on his terms nor love the Peace and Unity of the Church unless they joyn in such Principles as his that would destroy it he tells us truly that Heaven is only the Gift of Christ as merited by him and therefore can be had only on his terms and that is only in Communion with his Church and by his Sacraments Ans. And what Christ's Terms are he hath told us Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 3.16 Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life c. The Whole Gospel is a Charter of salvation to all that have true Faith Hope Love and Holiness And all such are in the Church of Christ. 2. And as ordinarily doth the Scripture tell us that the preaching of the Gospel is the means of faith and holiness by which God saveth them that believe and that by the hearing of faith preached the spirit is given Gal. 3.2 c. Rom. 10.14 17. John 5.24 Acts 18.8 Acts 10.44 The holy ghost fell on all them that heard the word before they were baptized even the miraculous gift of the Spirit Matth. 13.18 Mark 4.20 Luke 8.13 21. and 11.28 Christ himself preached but did not baptize He sent forth his Disciples to convert men by preaching Matth. 10.7 and 11.1 Mark 1.38 and 3.14 Luke 4.18 19 43. and 9.2 60. Acts 5.42 and 10.42 and 8.5 25 35 40. and 9.20 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Cor. 1.17 Paul saith he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel John 15.3 Ye are clean through the word c. John 6.63 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and life John 17. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth 6.68 and 8.30 2 Cor. 5.19 20. 1 Tim. 5.17 and 1.2 John 4.2 It is able to save souls James 1.21 1 Pet. 2.2 John 8.31 Heb. 4.12 It is able to make us wise to salvation It is by the word of God that men are born again as an incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1.23 It is that abiding in us that is our continued life 1 Iohn 2.14 There is no mention in Scripture of any one that was converted and made a Believer by Baptism or the Lord's Supper The Adult were all to repent and believe before they were baptized and God promised them forgiveness thereupon He never bid men baptize Infidels nor graceless men Baptism was but the publick solemnizing of the Covenant which they consented to before and the solemn investing them in that relation to which they were before entered And entring them by Baptism stated them in the Universal Church before ever they were setled under any particular Pastor in a particular Church as the case of the Eunuch Acts 8. shews But that which I call his Allay is that he copiously tells us that Heaven is a supernatural state of happiness and not the natural reward of an eartly creature p. 92 93. It is but an earthly happiness that Nature was made for and was promised to Adam in Paradise an immortal life on Earth An immortal life after death cannot be the natural Reward Innocent flesh is flesh Were it not for Heaven
not Hereticks with Exceptions That they may yet possibly be saved Christians But those that I confute charging the whole Church on Earth for 1200. years with Idolatry or false Worship which God accepteth not and none may communicate therein do thereby call all men to come out from among them and be separate and to hate them with that hatred which is due to Idolaters and to afford them no other love than is due to Idolaters or men that we must renounce Communion with I write therefore but as a Defendant of Love and Unity and the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saintâ— and the Souls of Thousands young ignorant persons that being justly afraid of sin and Idolatry and Damnation are aâ—frightned from Christian Love and Unity and Forbearance into the Wilderness of sinful Divisions and Confusions by these false frightful Names As I renounce all Canons that ipso facto exccommunicate men for being against humane unnecessary Formalities Offices yea and Corruptions So do I for the same Reasons renounce them that at one blow woâ—ld cut off all Christ's Churches on Earth or renounce Communion with them if they have but really or conceitedly such Corruptions and Defects Yea I maintain in the First Part That such faulty seâ—arating from one another is not a separation of them all from Christ when they see not the Consequences of their own Errors and man on Earth is in so great darkness that we all swarm with multitudes of Errors Now Reader if opposing all this be not Peace-making I know not what is And if the Peace-makers be the Incendiaries for confuting the Excommunicators and to be taken for the Enemies of Peace for breaking Satan's factious Peace breaking Peace Christ was mistaken that calleth them blessed And if the Zeal of the Sects which inclineth men to speak evil of such Peace makers as Troublers of the Church be the Wisdom from above why did Christ call such the Children of God O that men would often read over Rom. 14 and 15. 1 Cor. 12. and Iames 3. with â—hil 2. The â—lain Consequents of the Cause which I confute are these which I charge on the ill Cause and not on the honest ignorant men that see them not 1. That is is unlawful to communicate with almost any Church on Earth 2. That Christ having no Church for 1200. years was no Head of it and so no Christ. 3 That men must covenant to disobey Rulers or Pastors if they bid them kneel be uncovered or any of the oft named Accidents and manner of Worship And Children must dâ—sobey Parents that command them a Form of Prayer Psalm or Catechism 4. The Scots Covenant and Independent Covenant Catalogue of Fundamentals c. are made Idolatry 5. The contrary Extream is encourag'd To charge all this falsly on the Nonconformists if we confute it not 6. The Nonconformists that 1660 1661. attempted Concord by reforming the Liturgy are made Idolaters or their Communion unlawful c. II. And whereas my Writing is judged unseasonable by some that own the Cause â— write for 1. â—t never will be so seasonable as to be liable to no inconveniencies or great abuse nor hath been this Three and Twenty years 2. It is when the Universaâ— Non-Communion is maintained in Print by many and more dangerously by an excellent man in Writing and multitudes by these drawn into the sin 3. And when thousands are possest with a false Opinion that the Nonconformists commonly are of these Opinions and are to be hated and destroyed our silence seeming to them to own them 4. And when by 20 years forbearing publick Communion tho commanded and persecuted for it our hearers are brought confidently to believe that we all this while took it for unlawful and that if any now say otherwise it is but cowardly backsliding 5. It is when the Papists assaults of us and of honest Conformists as Trimmers maketh it necessary to unite and encourage all honest men That we fall not all into Roman snares and not to bid all Christians forsake all such honest Parish-Ministers 6. It is at a time when thousands are in danger of being ruined for mistake and thousands to be drawn from all Church-Worship when they can have no other than in Parish Churches 7. It is when we are in danger of transmitting this dividing Error to posterity by suffering for it as for the cause of God 8. It is when other Ministers do it not and therefore some one must And I that have no great impediment from friends or outward temptations but wait for my change am fitter to bear the noise of Censures than they that I hope may labour longer 9. And if I do it it must be now or never For there is no work in the Grave and Darkness But of all this my Reasons say more III. As to the Manner of my writings I doubt not but all that ever I wrote are faulty I am imperfect and can do nothing perfectly I herein suspect this and all my self and which is worst I have not skill enough on the longest consideration to avoid the faultiness For I have a strong love to Truth and hatred of Lying and specially a love to historical Truth and hatred to the deceiving of the World and Posterity And I have a diseased Impatience above any ordinary Tryal to hear men rage and be confident in Error and pour out words for untruths with unconvincible Fallacy and speak evil most zealously of that Truth which they least understand And in this Impatience I am apt to fit my Confutations to the Cause taking words to be false that are not to be adapted to the Matter But when I have done the guilty yea and their favourers cannot bear them and the words fit not the hearer which fit the Matter but the Disease is exasperated by the Medicine But then I think what 's needful to save those that are not yet infected and to silence reproaching Enemies tho the guilt be not cured As to this writing it grieved me to write a Defence against Mr. Ralphson in Prison and more when I heard that he was dead But I knew no other means suitable against a printed Temptation and Accusation but a printed Antidote and Defence Mr. Warner hath since printed a further Accusation with the same charge of Idolatry and false Worship against all the Manner of Worship not instituted and gives no Answer to my Confutation of it in Mr. Ralphsâ—n and said so little that I will not write for him that cannot himself confute him The Twelve Arguments I understand are likest to prevail most by the honour of Dr. Owens name more than by any strength that is in them I was willing as long as I could to believe that they were not his they being as fallacious and frivolous as any of the rest and one Error managed with above forty Mistakes But when his own Friends that have more of his on the same Subject chiding me for Answering them