i8flj L. Do you not before complain of too n;uch exercife of Difiipline by Excommunications? M. Yes, of Difcipline againfl Chrit : It is not enough for your Churches to be common and unclean without true Difci- pline, but when you fhould drive out the Dogs and Swine, you turn out the Children : Witnefs- all the fore-mentioned Canons. As I faid, you firft force in all the ignorant ungodly multitude that are unfit ; then thefe are the fírength and major part : Then they cannot come under due Difcipline ; then this grieveth Re- ligious People, and they find fault with it. And then they muff be taken for Schifmaticks,and condemn'd and ruin'd for finding fault. In fhort, what need there difputing : Is it not notorious mat- ter offad that this Difcipline is not exerçifed againff one Drun- kard, Swearer, Fornicator, &c. of a multitude ? and are not Men then deprivedof the ufè of it ? And when it's known that they cannot have it in molt or many Parifhes, how are they bound to live and die without the benefit of it ? L. Do you think Men are bound tofeparate from all Churches that have not this Difcipline ? Sure it is not Effential to the Church. .n4 I do not think that Preaching, as diffind from reading, is effential to a Church ; but that it may be at leaff for a time a forry Church without it, as thofe in Mofcovy are. But I would not continue in fàch a Church that is without ir, if I can have a better. It's one thing what a Man fhould endure that can have no better without morehurt than good ; and another thing what Men fhould chufe in obedience to .Chriff, and for their own and the Churches good that can attain it. Do you think it is lawful to omit all Duty that is not effential to the Church ? furely your many humane Offices, your Forms and Ceremonies, your Decla- rations and Subfcriptions to them, are further from being effen- tial than true Difcipline is, and yet you think that the omitfion of thefe is uniîufferable : Is mans accidental inventions more neceffa- ry than Chrifts Ordinanceand ChurchGovernment ? L. The Presbyterians call their Difcipline the Kingdomof Chrift, andfeign their Government tobe Chrifts. M. I fpeak for nothing proper to Presbyterians: For noLay- Elders, nor Synods that by; Votegovern all the Churches of the Land, but only for that fubílance OfParifh Difcipline which all acknowledge, not refillingAppeals from abut-lye Miniflers toBi- tôps or Magiflrates. Racer was no Adverfary to moderate Epif copacy
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