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A26183 A seasonable vindication of the truly catholick doctrine of the Church of England in reply to Dr. Sherlock's answer to Anonymus his three letters concerning church-communion. Atwood, William, d. 1705? 1683 (1683) Wing A4182; ESTC R7909 57,215 86

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for me to desire you to define what you meant by it when considered as Catholick and Universal when in a more restrained Sence seeing as I had shewn you seem to have no other Idea of it but as particular visible nay and that national too or at least as being the only true Church within the Nation or City where one resides Here I shew'd that you applied that to the Visible National Church which belongs to the Invisible as well as Visible Church where it lay not upon me to prove that the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit are not confined to the Visible Church 'T was enough to have shewn that you had no ground for what you had said from the Text which will not bear that restraint And the same thing is obvious of what you call my Attempt to prove Congregational Churches from 1 Cor. 14. 23. For how can you prove that one ought to communicate with the National Church and not communicate with any other Congregation from what proves no more than that you ought to meet in some publick Place of Worship even according to your own Argument in the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet which is no beter than to argue that because you must go to some Church therefore you must to this Not being concern'd for Congregational Churches more than others I should not give my self the trouble to examine what you say against them did not you oblige me to a small Diversion to observe how wonderfully you prove that it is very plain that the Apostle in 1 Cor. cap. 14. means no more but that all the Members of the Church do worship God in the publick Assembly of the Church tho not all in the same Assembly and Congregation where to oppose aright you should have made it in those publick Assemblies which meet together in one place for there is no doubt but successive Assemblies must be meant or else there could be no Provision for more than one Meeting and then how can you without begging the Question maintain that when the Women are commanded to keep silence in the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it might not be spoke of several successive Assemblies still in one place Nor are you more happy in encountring the difficulty upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You say indeed it is very plain that it does not always signify one place And who says it does when Circumstances determine it another way but how can you affirm it to be so here without still begging the Question For your purpose you instance in Acts 4. 26 27. The Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Lord and against his Christ c. This you say well signifies no more than an Agreement and Conspiracy in one Design But would not the most proper Inference from this Quotation be that as a Conspiracy may by a Figure be called a Meeting together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore t is not to be proved from that Text which prohibits a forsaking the assembling together that those who live in a Church need actually to assemble together but if they agree in the same Lord the same Faith the same Baptism they may be said to gather together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You cite another Text Acts 2. 44. And all that believed were together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed this signifies no more then that they were together and being together may be granted not to refer to their religious Assemblies but their common Abode but what is this to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If therefore the whole Church come together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where one would think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added for nothing but must signify the same place And to my thinking there is another Passage in this Epistle to the Corinthians which regards them as a Church that used to assemble together in one place which is where the Apostle directs them to excommunicate a notorious Sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye are met together and my Spirit c. Do you think that there was any need of a Miracle to pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication and that it must be done in the very same moment in distant Congregations I may be bold to say that neither Scripture nor the Homilies take notice of your fancied Catholick or National Communion If you say that what we find in the Homilies to this purpose being spoke in a Church already constituted must relate to the present Constitution so may it be said of the Apostle's Exhortation to that Church to which he wrote which for ought yet appears was a single Independent Congregation Yet it may be a Question whether such Limitation can be supposed to have been intended in the following Words which you may read in the Homilies Churches are not destitute of Promises for as much as our Saviour Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst among them A great number therefore coming to Church together in the Name of Christ have there that is to say in their Church their God and Saviour Christ Jesus present among the Congregation of his faithful People by his Grace by his Favour and godly Assistance according to his most and comfortable Promise Now concerning the Place where the People of God ought to resort together and where especially they ought to celebrate and sanctify the Sabbath-Day that Place is called the Temple or Church because the Company or Congregation of God's People which is properly called the Church doth there assemble themselves The holy Patriarchs for a great Number of Years had neither Temple nor Church to resort unto In the time of Christ and his Apostles there were no Temples nor Churches for Christian Men for why they were always or for the most part in Persecution Vexation and Trouble so that there could be no Liberty nor Licence obtained for that purpose yet God delighted much that they should often resort together in one Place c. But then speaking of the building of Churches afterwards it says And to these Temples have Christians customably used to resort c. True it is that the chief and special Temples of God wherein he hath greatest Pleasure and most delighteth to dwell are the Bodies and Minds of true Christians and the chosen People of God according to the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures c. Yet this notwithstanding God doth allow the material Temple made with Lime and Stone c. How far this agrees with your Notion That such Temples of God cease to be so if they are divided from or shut out of these material Temples I cannot see nor how you have brought your Notion of a Church into Conformity with the 19th Article which I before mentioned but you thought fit to