The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…

You tell us, God hath made no such Corporations, and every Christian is a Freeman, &c. Ans. But how shall I know whether every Stranger that cometh in be a Christian, or was ever Baptized? Or be not a Heretic Excommunicate by other Churches? Or if I am able to do the Office of a Pastor but for 500, and thousands more will come and claim it?

You tell us, God hath made no such Corporations, and every Christian is a Freeman, &c. Ans. But how shall I know whether every Stranger that cometh in be a Christian, or was ever Baptized? Or be not a Heretick Excommunicate by other Churches? Or if I am able to do the Office of a Pastor but for 500, and thousands more will come and claim it?

§ 9. Another of my Errors is, that Parish Chapels and Oratories, are no true Churches. Ans. You should not thus become an Incendiary, by pretending things that you will not first understand: Where do I say what you affirm? I say, That there may be several Chapels that are but parts of one Church. 2. And I say, That if a Bishop be Essential to a Church, then none below a Diocese is a Church; and therefore that they that so affirm, do put down all Parish Churches and turn them into mere Chapels and Oratories, which are but parts of a Church. 3. I never said, That if a ⟨p. 166⟩place called in English a Chapel (yea, if a Barn, or Field, or Ship,) have such a Pastor and People meeting, as a Church must be Constituted of, that they are no true Church. 4. But if such Pastors and People related as one Church, are by Persecution forced to meet in several Houses, or the Sick, Weak, or Distant, to meet sometime at a Chapel, or without a true Pastor; if a Deacon pray with some of them in a House, or Oratory, this maketh not a Church Political, in the sense that I told you I used that word in; but in another (Equivocal) sense it may be called a Church, and so a Family may be.

§ 9. Another of my Errors is, that Parish Chappels and Oratories, are no true Churches. Ans. You should not thus become an Incendiary, by pretending things that you will not first understand: Where do I say what you affirm? I say, That there may be several Chappels that are but parts of one Church. 2. And I say, That if a Bishop be Essential to a Church, then none below a Diocess is a Church; and therefore that they that so affirm, do put down all Parish Churches and turn them into meer Chappels and Oratories, which are but parts of a Church. 3. I never said, That if a