A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and…

That the Excepter may yet further be convinced that it is not any Party of men called Independents or Anabaptists as such, that I here speak against; As I did in my opposed Book declare that I thought them both, and all others that hold the foundation, and disclaim it not by Heresy, or wicked lives, to be such as the Churches should receive into their Communion; and that it is their duty to hold Communion in the same Assemblies, notwithstanding their difference; and that it is not the Opinions which denominate them, that I write against; but only the Love-killing and Dividing principles which are among them, which make them fly with censure and alienation from their brethren that are as meet for Church-Communion as they; and oft break them into pieces among themselves; so do I yet again here declare the same; And not only so, but that if it were in my power, when their Communion with others cannot be procured, they should yet be tolerated in their separation it self, and enjoy Communion with themselves alone, in their separated Congregations, under the Laws of Peace, being not tolerated to turn their preaching or worship into a reviling and reproaching of the Orthodox, to the destruction of Christian Love: And I should not doubt ⟨p. 152⟩but the Communion of the Orthodox Churches maintained in Constant Synods, together with the special Countenance of the Christian Magistrate, and the daily experience of Believers (which would still make the aged sort forsake them) would suffice better than violent severities to repress the evil, and to give victorious Truth opportunity to do its proper work.

THat the Excepter may yet further be convinced that it is not any Party of men called Independents or Anabaptists as such, that I here speak against; As I did in my opposed Book declare that I thought them both, and all others that hold the foundation, and disclaim it not by Heresie, or wicked lives, to be such as the Churches should receive into their Communion; and that it is their duty to hold Communion in the same Assemblies, notwithstanding their difference; and that it is not the Opinions which denominate them, that I write against; but only the Love-killing and Dividing principles which are among them, which make them fly with censure and alienation from their brethren that are as meet for Church-Communion as they; and oft break them into pieces among themselves; so do I yet again here declare the same; And not only so, but that if it were in my power, when their Communion with others cannot be procured, they should yet be tolerated in their separation it self, and enjoy Communion with themselves alone, in their separated Congregations, under the Laws of Peace, being not tolerated to turn their preaching or worship into a reviling and reproaching of the Orthodox, to the destruction of Christian Love: And I should not doubt