The grand debate between the most reverend bishops and the Presbyterian divines appointed by…

Repl. The mischiefs which you pretend, are Inconveniences attending humane Imperfection, which you would cure with a mischief; Your Argument from the abuse against the use is a palpable Fallacy, which cast out Physicians in some Countries, and rooted ⟨p. 73⟩up Vines in others, and condemneth the reading of the Scriptures in a known. Tongue among the Papists; If the Apostles (that complained then so much of Divisions, and preaching false Doctrines, and in envy and strife, &c.) had thought the way of Cure had been, in sending Ministers about the world, with a Prayer-book, and Sermon-book, and to have tied them only to read either one or both of these, no doubt but they would have been so regardful of the Church, as to have composed such a Prayer-book, or Sermon-book themselves, and not lest us to the uncertainties of an Authority not infallible, nor to the Divisions that follow the Impositions of a questionable power, or that which unquestionably is not Universal, and therefore can procure no universal Concord. If one man among you draw up a form of Prayer, it is his single conception: And why a man as learned and able may not be trusted to conceive a Prayer, for the use of a single Congregation, without the dangers mentioned by you, as one man to conceive a Prayer for all the Churches in a Diocese or a Nation? we know not; These words (That the mischief is greater than the pretended good) seem to express an unjust Accusation, of ordinary conceived prayer, and a great undervaluing of the benefits: If you would intimate that the Crimes expressed by you are ordinarily found in Ministers prayers, we that hear so much more frequently than you, must profess we have not found it so (allowing men their different measures of Exactness, as you have even in writing) Nay to the praise of God we must say, that multitudes of private men can ordinarily pray without any such Imperfection, as should nauseate a sober person, and with such seriousness, and aptness of Expression as is greatly to the benefit and comfort of ourselves, when we join with them; And if such general Accusations may serve in a matter of public, and common fact, there is no way for the Justification of the Innocent.

Repl. The mischiefs which you pretend, are Inconveniencies attending humane Imperfection, which you would cure with a mischief; Your Argument from the abuse against the use is a palpable Fallacy, which cast out Phisicians in some Countries, and rooted ⟨p. 73⟩