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

Reply. But because at our last meeting it was said with so much confidence by one, that the case in Rom, 14. and 15. was nothing to ours, we shall here say the more to what you say, that St. Pauls not eating flesh is nothing to the purpose: your reasons are, first, because he speaks of nothing commanded by God or his Church. Secondly, not of any thing of decency or significancy to serve in the Church. To the first, we have oft told you, that which is undeniable; First, that Paul was a Governor of that Church himself, that had no superior to control him. ⟨p. 105⟩If you say that he then wrote not as a Governor; we answer, Yes: For he wrote as an Apostle, and wrote the Epistle that was to be a standing Law or Canon to them: If this be not an act of his Office, and Authority, there was none such; And then you must say the like of all the rest of the Epistles. 2ly: Moreover, as Paul the Apostle excludeth all such impositions; so he wrote to all the resident Pastors that were at Rome, for he wrote to the whole Church: and therefore these commands extend to the Governors, that they make not such things the matter of Contempt or Censures, or any uncharitable Course, but bear with one another in them. Will you call men obstinate self-offenders, that differ from you, when you have no better answers then these, to the plain decisions of the Holy Ghost? What we speak of Rom. 14. 15. we speak also of 1 Cor. 8. And 3ly. It is to the Rulers of the Church, that we are speaking, and it is they that answer us: and shall the Rulers say [If it were not a thing commanded we might bear with you] when it is themselves that command them ecclesiastically; and we entreat them but to forbear that, and to concur with us in petitioning the King, to forbear commanding them coercively, who no doubt will easily for bear it, if they do their part. 4ly. Yea, à fortiori, it layeth a heavier charge on such Governors, then others: If it be so heinous a sin as Paul maketh it, to censure or despise one another, for meat, and days, and such like things; how much more to excommunicate, silence, and undo one another, & deprive thousands of souls of the preaching of the Gospel that consented not to their Pastours non-conformity? 5ly.