A second admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw written to call him to repentance for…

Now would not the Boys laugh at you if you should reason thus: An usurped Heathenish Kingdom or Common-wealth, as such is unlawful, and not to be communicated with; A Classical Church as such is not to be communicated with; An University as such is not to be communicated with: Therefore such or such a particular Church as such is not to be communicated with, which is a part of that Kingdom, that Classis, that University! E. B. a Christian is a member of a Society which is not to be owned: Ergo E. B. a Christian as such is not to be owned. What more apparent than that the consequent should be but this? Therefore such a Church should not be owned, as it is a Part of such a Kingdom, Classis, University, &c. which is all accidental to the Church.

Now would not the Boyes laugh at you if you should reason thus: An usurped Heathenish Kingdom or Common-wealth, as such is unlawful, and not to be communicated with; A Classical Church as such is not to be communicated with; An University as such is not to be communicated with: Therefore such or such a particular Church as such is not to be communicated with, which is a part of that Kingdom, that Classis, that University! E. B. a Christian is a member of a Society which is not to be owned: Ergo E. B. a Christian as such is not to be owned. What more apparent than that the consequent should be but this? Therefore such a Church should not be owned, as it is a Part of such a Kingdom, Classis, Vniversity, &c. which is all accidental to the Church.

So that here is a double Equivocation, and more than four terms: 1. [As such] speaketh (as I said) one essence in the Antecedent, and another in the Consequent. ⟨p. 95⟩2. The word [Communicating] speaketh several things in the Antecedent and in the Consequent. For to Communicate with a Diocesan Church, is not to Assemble with it in public Worship: For a Diocese (in our sense) cannot so assemble: but it is to own the Diocesan Relation, and Prelates. But to Communicate with a particular Church in a Parish, is to have personal Communion in the Worship of the Assembly. So that this is your Argument if put in plain words: [If it be unlawful to Communicate with a Diocesan Church as such, by owning the Diocesans and the relation to them, then it is unlawful to communicate with a true particular Church in a Parish, (or bounded Parochially) in the Assembly Worship as it is such a particular Church, which is part of that Diocesan Church: But, &c.] Answ. Yes, It may be unlawful to communicate with it as a Part, and that by Diocesan Communion; but not as a true Church of Christians by assembly communion.