cenfured and punifhed as an Intruder and Difturber. The cafe is the fame here, none but Church-members may exercife any Acts of Communion, as Praying, Hearing, or Receiving the Lord's Supper with the Church, and if any one do thele, not owning himfelt to be a Member, what he doth is no Act of Communion with it, but a gros Abufe put upon it, especially when it is to merely occafional, as only to ferve a prefent turn; it is felf evident, that ChurchCommunion is between Church Members only, but a profeffed Member of a Conventicle can in no good fenfe be faid to be a Member of the Established Church; fo that if such a Perich come to Church at fome critical time, and terve God there after the Church's Order, feldom or never doing it at other times; this in fuch a Person cannot be an Act of Communion with the Church, but an irregular thrusting himself into Holy Offices, of which the Primitive Churches would never have allowed, who did as well de2 ny the Communion to all Schiimaticks, as to any Perfons excommunicated for their fcandalous wickedness. It is in truth (as I faid) arrant Hypocrifie and Diffimulation with God and his Church.

Again, to fpeak of Occafional Communior, must be as abfurd as to fpeak of Occafional rhip, being both one and the tame in Wir Member in the Natural Body is Member only? Every Member er be a fix'd and conftant One, is a Member to day, may, it Member to morrow, which is K

as much as to fay, that it is a Member or no Member, just as it hath occafion for Memberfhip: no more will any rational Perfon allow this in Church membership, or in Church-communion any more than in the Natural Body, the cafe being the fame in both. A Church Member muft either be a fix'd Member of the Church, or he is no Member at all; and if he be indeed a Church Member, that begets a near relation to the Church, and that relation gives him a Right and Title to, and an Obligation of Duty to communicate with it, which Relation, and which Right and Duty must be as fix'd and conftant as his Membership is fix'd and conftant; for if to communicate with a Church, belong as a Right, and as a Duty to the Members thereof, then must bis Communion with it be as fix'd and conftant as his Membership of, and Relation to it.

But of what Church is a Chriftian as a Chriftian a Member? Truely, of the whole Catholick Church primarily, even of the one Mystical Body of Chrift, and then secondarily of that particular Church he lives in, being a Sound and Orthodox part of the Catholick Church, but therefore of no particular Church, fo diftinguished from the Catholick Church as is any company of Men that is in a Schifm or Separation. Now confider the refult of this, If the Communion of every Chriftian as a Chriftian, and as a Church member, must be as fix'd and conftant as is his Membership of, and Relation to the Catholick Church: Then truly, no Man will diftinguish betwixt conftant and occafional Com

munion,

munion, any more than he will betwixt contant and occafional Membership, that at all. understands what he speaks.

Again, feeing all Exercifes and Acts of Communion have a neceflary Relation to a State of Communion, which State of Communion is indeed, a Mans being a fixed Member of the Church (from whence, that which is an Act of Communion, when it is performed by a Churchmember, is (as I have fhewed) no Act of Communion, when performed by one that is not a Church-member.) To talk then of an occafional Communion with a Church, will be the fame contradiction, or at leaft Solecism, as to fpeak of a Mans being an Occafional Member; because, no Man can perform any Act of Communion with a Church, whereof he is no Member, and if fo, he cannot communicate occafionally with a Church whereof he is no Member, unless it could be laid, Tho' he that is not in Communion, may yet perform and exercife the Alts of Communion: for he that is not the Church's Member cannot be in Communion with it: nor can it here avail to fay, That all Acts of Communion which conftitate the Chriftian Worship, as Hearing, Praying, and Receiving the Lord's Supper, &c. m.st of neceffity be performed in fome particular Church. For I have the ved Detore, that still they are not to be look'd upon as Acts of particular Church Communion, but of Catholick Communion with the whole Chure; and every found part of it, although performed in a particular Church. The confequence of which will be, That every Good and Catholick Chri

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ftian is both in a State of Communion with the Catholick Church, and alio lives in a conftant exercife of all Acts of Chriftian Communion with it, and with all Sound and Orthodox. Parts of it, as well as with that particular Church where he lives, and not with it only. The reafon is, becaufe every Act of Divine Worfhip, which is performed as an Act of Communion with fuch a particular Church, is (if that Church be in Catholick Communion) an Act of Communion with the whole Church, and with all its Sound and Orthodox Parts; and if fo, then the exercifes of Church-communion will be alike fixed, and alike occafional, as a Mans Membership of the whole Church, and as his Fellow-membership of all Sound and Orthodox Parts of it, is.

As for that particular Church in which a Man lives, as his being in Communion with it, or being a Member of it in particular, gives him Right and Title to all God's Bleffings promifed to his Church, upon his performance of the condition of the Covenant and of the Promifes, fo doth it oblige him to all the Duties and Offices of a Member of that particular Church, Fellowfhip and Society, one as well as other, that is, to be fubject to the Authority, Canons, Inftrutions, Injunctions and Centures thereof, as well as conftantly to communicate with it, in Hearing, Praying, Sacraments, and all Holy Ordinances; to that, he that either defpifeth the Authority of an Established Church in thole Canons, Inftructions, Injunctions, or Cenfures, or that feparates from its Affemblies, and the

religious Offices therein, and will not at all times partake in them, but breaks through its Unity, ipfo facto, that Man renounces his Membership of, and Communion with it. He puts a very grofs abufe therefore upon that Church, if he for fecular ends thruft himself at a critical time into its Society, and it's a great defect in Difcipline if any can do this unpunished. Thefe are all Principles of Catholick- unity and Churchcommunion, and it is impoffible to reconcile their prevaricating occafional communicating with the Established Church to ferve a turn, who will not hold conftant Communion with it, pretending great fcruples of confcience againft it, which they, out of a pretended tenderness cannot digeft with thefe Principles, which is fufficient to fhew its abfurdity, and I hope the finfulness of it will be acknowledged alto, if I can fhew,

3. That it is not at all warranted in, but is rather contrary to the Holy Scriptures; and let them be fearch'd from the firft verfe in Genefis, to the laft verfe in the Revelation, and I will be bold to fay, that no footstep, either of this Diftinction, or of its Practice can be found therein, that is, no example of any of God's Saints occafionally communicating with any ChurchSociety, with which they thought they could not communicate conftantiy. Let the Separate Minifters produce any one Text if they can, that requiring a Separation from an idolatrous or finful Communion, allows of an occafional communicating with it, for what end foever; or let them on the other hand produce any one Text, where

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