own Soul, and is inconfiftent with the Liberty of a Private Judgment, if not in the Notion, yet in the Practice of it, and which is acknowledg'd by the moft Learned and Orthodox of your own Church to be the Natural, Fundamental, and Sacred Right of every Man, confider'd as a Rational and Religious Creature.

3. You fay, 'Tis every Chriftian's Duty thus actually to Communicate. Now who they are that you will please to own for Chriftians, is another thing that you have here left in the dark; Whether all those that have receiv'd Chriftian Baptifm ; or whether you will own that to be Christian Baptism, which is not done in the Way of the Church of England, this there is reafon to question, because that which you call Chriftian Burial, is, by fo many of you, denied to fuch; or whether every Christan must be taken in the largest extent of its fignification, as your unlimitted Expreffion doth undenyably import: If fo, you were beft to confider, how it agrees with the Doctrin and Difcipline of your Church of England, which in the Rubrick of the Communion, hath bar'd that Ordinance against several kinds of Immoralities, as the Common Light of Reason, and the Nature of that Ordinance, have done against all fuch as are under natural, or preternatural incapacities; fo that perhaps the greater part of Baptized Chriftians will be neceffarily bar'd against what you fay every Chriftian muft actually do, to preferve the Unity of the Catholick Church; But,

4. If it be every Chriftians Duty actually to Communicate with that Sound part of the Catholick Church, which he finds at home or abroad; then ought you to make no Scruple of Communicating with the Presbyterian Churches, unless you will difown them, as no Sound, i. e. no true parts of the Catholick Church. So that your Preferva

tive is like to prove a very inartificial and deleterious fort of Medicine, if made up after your loofe and general Prescription, as to this Firft Ingredient of it.

P. 24.

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น.

2. The other part of your Preferuative is this, It is the Duty of Private Chriftians to obey the Spiritual Guides which are Lawfully Eftablish'd in any Sound part of the Catholick Church where they refide. And this, I perceive, is that wherein the main force and vertue of the Medicament lies; the plain Sense whereof is this: That we ought to be govern'd and determin'd, in all matters that concern our Souls, by thofe Ecclefiaftical Officers that are by Law Established, and fet over us; where the word Established feems to carry all the Emphafis, and is of great ufe in oppofition to Tolerated, left any, that ftand under that Character, fhould pretend to a fhare with you in this your Catholick Rule. And on this it is that you spend the remaining part of your First Section. But before I can clofe with you, it will be necessary to diftinguifh on what you have too generally prescrib'd to us, as a Rule of our Practice. For,

1. You fay, 'Tis the Duty of Private Chriftians; where I hope you do not exempt your felf, nor the reft of your Brethren from Obedience to your Ecclefiaftical Superiours, tho' you stand in a Publick Poft; but to let that pass,

2. You fay, 'Tis their Duty to obey their Spiritual Guides. This looks indeed as if your Rule were calculated only for the Laity, because the Spiritual Guides comprehend the whole Clergy, both Superiour and Inferiour, by what Names or Titles foever Dignify'd or Distinguished, and unto whom you claim the Obedience you are pleading for. I commend you that you are aware not to affert the painful Duty of Obedience, but in favour to your felf. But when you lay this Duty of Obedience to the Spiritual

Spiritual Guides on all Private Christians, I would hope you do not expect they should pay you a blind Obedience, but that you will please to give them leave to be firft fatisfy'd in their own Confciences, of the Lawfulness of your Commands, left they, fhould chance to disobey God in obeying you; unlafs you can affure them that you are Infallible in what you require their Obedience to, which I doubt will be a hard matter for you to do, with thofe that have been but competently inftructed in the Divine Rules of the Gofpel, and that have any serious regard for their own Souls. For your calling them Spiritual Guides can fignify but this, That they are fuch as are Ministerially entrusted in the Spiritual Affairs of Men's Souls; but the Carnality and Immorality of the Principles and Conversations of too many of them is notoriously evident to the World; which I now write, Sir, without any Reflection on your self, or on any others, who have, by a stricter degree of Morality, obtain'd a fairer Character in the Church of England. Neither will this juftify that latitude of the Obedience you require, that you are Guides Lawfully established in a Sound part of the Catholick Church. For to be Lawfully Establish'd can fignify but this, To be establifh'd by Law. And this gives us the occafion to confider, by what and whofe Law it is that they are to be establish'd; which can be no other than either the Law of God, or the Law of Man, or of both. If you mean the Law of God, we fhall foon fo far agree, if we can but once be brought to a right Understanding of what the Law of God is in this cafe; tho' yet this will not be enough to vindicate the Duty or the Lawfulness of our Obedience to all its Commands and Conditions of Outward Communion with it. For tho' a Church be of Divine Establishment, as to its Conftitution, Doctrin, and the Effentials of a True Church, yet it may grievously Sin in many

things of Human Invention, which it may require in order to Outward Communion with it. But if you mean Establish'd by the Law of Man, then is your Doctrin calculated for any Meridian in the World, where any stated Publick Worship of a Deity, true or falfe, is by Law Established. Neither will this relieve you, to fay, it must be a Sound part of the Catholick Church, while the Word Catholick, of which you are fo fond, gives fo uncertain a found, and while it is certain that every one is Sound and Orthodox to himself. But will you fay that 'tis the Word of God that must determine what is Sound, and what is Unfound in all Churchmatters? Say and hold, and I will fay fo too, but then the next knot to be untied will be this, Who fhall interpret for us the true Sense of this Word of God? For we fee how familiarly fome Men can make it a Nose of Wax, and how fain every one would make it to speak his own Sentiments. Where fhall we find that Infallible Interpreter, that every one is bound acquiefce in? 'Tis true, the Church is called the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. súa xai dedi. not that the Truth is Eftablish'd on the Authority of the Church, as that of Rome falfly pretends, but it is that Seat, and Place in the Earth, in which the Truth is to be found the Pillar to which it is affixt, and by which it ought to be defended and fupported: But for all this we are but little the nearer, till it be better agreed What and Whom we are to understand by the Church, which is made fo ambiguous a Name. 'Tis true, there is that which is called the Analogy of Faith, which is a fure, unerring and determining Rule in all the Effentials of the Christian Religion: And there is the Analogy of Right Reafon too, as a Subordinate Rule to guide us therein: But where is that Church, or who is that Interpreter, that shall determine to us all matters of Rites and Ceremo

mies, and what fhall or fhall not be impofed, of things confelfedly Indifferent, and therefore not neceflary? Here you will fay, That every particular Church hath this Power in it felf, to determine for it felf, and for its Members. But then

1. I hope it will be granted, that no Church hath this Power over fuch as are not Members of it. 2. I would ask, Whether any Church under Heaven hath any Power from Chrift, to make Members against their Will, or to inflict any other Punishment on fuch as refufe to be made Members of it, than to deny them the peculiar Priviledges of Church-Members?

3. I am bold to ask you too, What Warrant any Church hath from Chrift, to exercise Arbitrary Authority over its Members; and whether the Nature and Tendency of fuch Authority be not Tyranny and Superftition? For what may not an Arbitrary Power impofe?

4. Whether the unbounded Power of Impofing whatsoever is called Indifferent, because in its own Nature it is fo, and not exprefly forbidden by the Word of God, be not an Arbitrary Power? For what greater Latitude can any Church in the World pretend to practice upon ?

5. Whether you have not afferted this unbounded Arbitrary Power, in your denying, that those words of the Apostle 1 Theff. 5. 12. iv xupiw, in the Lord, do import the Bounds of our Obedience, as well as the general Matter of it, or

Motive to it, as in my Letter I had Page 25, 26. affirmed? But this you call a very

Strange way of interpreting the Laws of God, and an Evafion for our own Convenience, a Perverting of the Holy Scriptures; a making fuch an Exception from it, as he hath no where allowed; a reftraining of the Apofles words, otherwife than he hath done; and a fixing on them what Senfe I pleafe. But that we ought to

obey