I

thought proper to ordain. In other Words; unless befides being CHRIST's Servants, you will also be ours; and pay Subjection to our Institution and Authority in this religious Rite. This, Sir, is the true State of the Controverfy betwixt us: Judge now, pray you, with the Impartiality of a Chriftian, who makes the Schifm, and who has reafon to fear being brought into Judgment, by the great Law-giver of the Church, for the unhappy Breach which fubfifts.-Let a great Prélate who at present adorns one of the higheft Stations of your Church be heard as Judge betwixt us." In "all other Societies, the express Will of the "Founder, and the Terms of Fellowship and "Communion which he has laid down, are "accounted facred. In all other Kingdoms "the Will of the fupreme Power is a Law. "No one pretends, or dares pretend, to make "Laws of equal Force with his. How hard "then is the Fate of the Chriftian Church, or " of the Kingdom of CHRIST, when his Will "is declared infufficient, and the invented "Words and Decifions of his Subjects are made "co-ordinate with his own, equally exclufive "of others of his Subjects from the Commu"nion of their Fellow Subjects! And how "hard is the Fate of thofe Believers in him, "who defire Communion upon the Terms GOD "bas prefcribed, to be excluded by the Words "of Men; by the Inventions of Men, im"pofed upon them for his Precepts! And how unhappy is the Church, to be reduced by any fuch Methods within more narrow "Bounda

C 2

Bounds than our LORD himself bas confined it"

But you are in Readiness to retort, and with great Affurance tell me, "That the Avoidance. "of Kneeling infifted upon by our Minifters, "is not lefs an Impofition than your enjoining. "it. That we do really impofe the Observance "of one particular Gefture upon our Commu"nicants. That fitting is the regular, unva"ried Practice of our Churches; obferved as conftantly and univerfally amongst us, as Kneeling is amongst you,-never allowed to "be departed from; which our Ministers require, infift upon, and refuse to abate: And you afk me "if one fhould prefent him"felf to take the Sacrament ftanding, or offer ་ to take it on his Knees, whether I don't "think he would undergo fome fevere Expoftulations, and be plainly told, we had no Such Cuftom, nor the Churches of GOD, and it "would not be given him at all t.”

I believe the World will be furprized, Sir, and that an ingenuous Blush will cover your own Face, when you find that this Account of us is abfolutely without Truth, and quite contrary to Fact. I have spent my whole Life amongst the Diffenters, and am acquainted with a great Number of their Churches and Minifters; but never once, till now, heard that SITTING at the Lord's-Table was ever infifted on as a Term of Communion with them; or that

* Bishop of Winchester's Poflfcript to his Answer to Dr. Hare Sermon, page 254.

t Letter II. pag. 56, 57, 58. Letter III. pag. 8, 9.

that it is their unvaried and univerfal Practice. The contrary to this, I know to be Truth. In the Church to which I myself belong, there is a Person who for many Years has conftantly received KNEELING, without the leaft Offence to the Congregation, or any Expoftulation from the Minister on that Account. In fome of our Churches, I am well informed, there are fome who receive Standing, fome Kneeling: In this every one amongft us is left entirely at his Liberty. Tho' the Pofture of Sitting be generally thought by us most fuitable to the Commemorative-Supper of our LORD; instituted inftead of the Pafchal-Supper of the Jews; and moft agreeable to the Practice of CHRIST and his Apoftles, who, without all peradventure, Sat around the Table; yet in this we are all left to follow freely our own Perfuafion. Nor is there, I believe, amongst our Minifters, one in five hundred, who would refufe to give the Sacrament either Standing or Kneeling to any one who thought either of these the fittest Pofture of receiving. Our Liberty as to this Matter you might have feen in Baxter's reform'd Liturgy; where it is expreffly faid-" And let none of the

People be forced to fit, ftand, or kneel in the "Act of receiving, whofe Judgment is against "it." And in Dr. Calamy's brief Account, &c. which you appear to have read " The Commu"nicants among ft Proteftant Diffenters, are AT "LIBERTY to ufe THEIR OWN POSTURE in "the Time of Receiving;, tho' a Table Gesture is most commonly used*"

Letter to a Divine in Germany, pag. 11.

Thus,

(

Thus, Sir, I have at large confidered your Charge of SCHISM upon the Diffenters; and hope by this Time you begin to think more favourably of us; and to justify our Principles as truly catholic and generous; the only BroadBottom on which the Peace of the Church can be folidly fixed; and that the Guilt of the Separation lies wholly on your Church, which infifts upon UNCHRISTIAN and UNSCRIPTURAL Terms of communicating with it.

But I hope to finish your Conviction, Sir, and to wipe off every Speck of the Taint of Schifm from Diffenters, by calling to your Remembrance your own excellent Definition of the Catholic or Chriftian Church; and reasoning with you on it. "The Catholic Church, you say*, is one outward and visible Society "DIVINELY inftituted; the most admirable and glorious Society under Heaven."-Mind, Sir, your own Words; and it will foon end the Debate. If it be a Society DIVINELY inftituted, then whatever Society is not of Divine, but of merely human Inftitution, is not the Church of Chrift. If it be a Society divinely inftituted, then the Terms of Admission into this Society, and the Qualifications of its Members are divinely fixed, i. e. fixed by the Will and Authority of GOD: Whatever vifible Society then hath its Terms of Admiffion and the Qualifications of its Members NOT divinely fix'd, fix'd only by the Will and Authority of Men,

* Letter I. pag. 73.

cannot

cannot be the truly Catholic and Chriftian

Church.

Now here fhall I intreat you, Sir, with the Impartiality of a Chriftian, who has nothing but Trub and the Will of God in view, to stop a Moment and compare the CONSTITUTION of the Church of England, and the CONSTITUTION of the Church of Chrift, and fee if they are not Societies of a quite different Frame; the one a buman, the other a divine Inftitution; the one refting entirely on the Authority and Will of Men, the other upon the Will and Authority of GOD.

If you enquire after the Conftitution and Frame of the Church of Christ, where must you look for it? only in the Bible *. But if you enquire after the Conftitution and Frame of the Church of England, where muft you look for that? in the Statute-book, in the Canons, and Common-prayer-book, and in the Codes of the English-law.

The Church of CHRIST is a religious Eftablishment, founded upon the Scriptures, as the only authentic Rule of its Doctrines and Worfhip; the Church of ENGLAND is a civil Eftablishment, founded upon Acts of Parliament, as the only authentic Rule of what is to be believed and practifed therein. The one a fpiritual Structure, built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, JESUS CHRIST himself being the chief Corner-ftone: The other a political Structure, built upon the Foundation of

the

The Bible only is the Religion of Proteftants. Chillingworth.