Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending…

Answ. 1. Ministers are limited in their judgement by the Law of God, which telleth how far they may or may not Judge, and how far it shall or shall not be effectual. The people are not absolutely tied to follow their judgement when they err. 2. God hath directed his Precepts for the avoiding of notorious ungodly ones to every Christian directly; and not only to the Pastors directly, and to the people only from them; so that if a Pastor command us to have communion and familiarity with such, we are yet to avoid them (as far as was before expressed) for all that, because Gods command is contrary to the Pastors. And the Law openly declareth that such are not true Christians (or Believers;) and therefore a Pastors sentence cannot make them such: His erring judgement may do more to bring a man into the Church than to keep him in; and in keeping him in as to possession, it may do more to the conveyance of those Privileges which are to come merely from his own hands and administration, than those wherein the people are to be instruments: Because he is more the Determiner of his own Actions, such as are baptizing, administering the Lords Supper, &c. than of theirs: For his own Erring Judgement may ligare, etsi non obligare, entangle him in a kind of necessity of sinning, till that Judgement be changed; but it cannot tie them, nor so necessitate them to sin, though it may bring them under some inconveniences; and for Order and the Peace of the Church, they must quietly, peaceably, and submissively dissent. By the Law of the Land, the Kings Judges in his Courts and Assizes; were the lawful Judges of a Traitor that was brought before them; and yet in some notorious Cases I ⟨p. 321⟩suppose he is condemned ipso Jure, and any man that can come at him might lawfully stab him without Judgement, yea is bound to do it: as if they had stood by and seen the Kings Person assaulted, as the Lord Major of London did by Wat Tyler: Or if it were not in defence, but in avenging of the Treason, if heinous; and in several Cases they might kill them in a forcible apprehension if they resist, as they did by the Powder-Traitors here near us at Holbetch House. But what need I mention these things, when it is so commonly known that in several Cases the Law enableth us for to Execute without Judgement, and yet this is no denial of the Authority of a Judge. So much to the matter of this Argument.

Answ. 1. Ministers are limited in their judgement by the Law of God, which telleth how far they may or may not Judge, and how far it shall or shall not be effectual. The people are not absolutely tied to follow their judgement when they err. 2. God hath directed his Precepts for the avoiding of notorious ungodly ones to every Christian directly; and not only to the Pastors directly, and to the people only from them; so that if a Pastor command us to have communion and familiarity with such, we are yet to avoid them (as far as was before expressed) for all that, because Gods command is contrary to the Pastors. And the Law openly declareth that such are not true Christians (or Believers;) and therefore a Pastors sentence cannot make them such: His erring judgement may do more to bring a man into the Church than to keep him in; and in keeping him in as to possession, it may do more to the conveyance of those Priviledges which are to come meerly from his own hands and administration, than those wherein the people are to be instruments: Because he is more the Determiner of his own Actions, such as are baptizing, administring the Lords Supper, &c. than of theirs: For his own Erring Judgement may ligare, etsi non obligare, entangle him in a kind of necessity of sinning, till that Judgement be changed; but it cannot tye them, nor so necessitate them to sin, though it may bring them under some inconveniences; and for Order and the Peace of the Church, they must quietly, peaceably, and submissively dissent. By the Law of the Land, the Kings Judges in his Courts and Assizes; were the lawfull Judges of a Traitor that was brought before them; and yet in some notorious Cases I