Parallels Censures, Letter 1 · Section 9
The ninth Section.
Your next point wherto I will ſpeak is the ſixth in nomber: which you hold error, but I hold as a truth if it be wel conceaved: it is this.
6. That the word truly preached & Sacraments rightly adminiſtred are no infallible tokens of a true Church.
I am ſure you doe or may remember that proprium cum ſpecie convertitur as the Logicians ſpeak: For example: Every man is reaſonabl… & every reaſonable creature is a mā: Now al I ſay is: that the word truly preached, & the Sacraments duely adminiſtred are no properties of a true church: For although this be true, that wherſoever the word is truly preached ex officio, & the Sacraments rightly adminiſtred, ther is a true Church, yet I denie the other, viz: That whe…ſoever ther is a true Church. the word is truly preached, & the Sacraments are rightly adminiſtred: For theſe two are not convertible: but this I hold that a true Church, & powre to preach the word truly, and adminiſter the Sacraments duely, are convertible: and therefore that the powre of our Lord Ieſus Chriſt given to the Church is an eſſential propertie of a true Church, and therefore convertible with a true Church: Now ſometyme it falleth out that a true Church hath not the word miniſterially preached, nor the Sacraments adminiſtred, namely, when it wanteth Officers, as it ſometyme falleth out: This point alſo is plaine enough if you have not loft your Logick: & therefore I leave it requiring your anſwer.
Paralleles, Cenſures, Obſervations, aperteyning to the ninth Section.
I cannot find in all Mr. Bern. book intituled the Sep Schiſme, any thing in oppoſition to this Section of my lette vntounto him, whereby I collect that he yeeldeth it as a truth: & it is not material to the point of Seperation any thing at al: only the truth muſt be defended for the Author of truths ſake that the Lord & his truth may in all things be honored: the ſumme of al this Section is thus much: that as not the act of reaſoning is the true propertie of a man, but the faculty to reaſon: Non ratiocinari ſed rationale: So not the actual preaching & adminiſtring of the Sacraments, but the powre of Chriſt to have & vſe al the holy things of God is the true property convertible, & in fallible token of a true Church: For as every man although he be reaſonable, yet doth not actually vſe reaſō at al tymes, as namely, being an infāt, being a ſleep, being in a Lethargie or ſincope So the true Church though it have alwayes powre to al the holy things, yet actually it doth not vſe the powre: But I liſt not to ſpeak much concerning this particular which is more Scholaſticall then profitable, the rather ſeing Mr. Bernard contendeth not about it.