The Searchers for Schism Searched, Treatise · Question 22
Queſt. 22.
But if you ſhall ſay, you intend by Chriſts Doctrine thoſe ſix Principles contained, Heb. 6. a… that whoever agrees with you in them, doth agr… in fundamentals, and with ſuch you can communicate: then we demand why ſome of you refuſe communion about an Oath, others about mixt Marriages, others about waſhing of Feet; others … you refuſe communion with ſuch as are under layin… on of Hands, if they do hold communion with th… that are not under laying on of Hands; others refuſe communion in matters of Apparel; others … bout Blood and things ſtrangled? What reaſon ha… you for theſe diviſions, unleſs you will ſay, all th… are Fundamentals; and if they be, then what a… your circumſtantials you talk of? and whether … have not adopted more Fundamentals than ever yo… found in the 6th of the Hebrews? And wheth… you may not by the ſame reaſon, if that Notion … Chriſts not taking fleſh of the Virgin, get but Proſelytes enough; adopt that alſo into the number … Fundamentals, as well as the reſt? and ſo at l… leave us no circumſtantials to differ about; for … can well remember, when laying on of Hands w… …ot eſteemed a Fundamental Doctrine, but the …ractiſers of it, for ſome time, kept their communion with us, till it had made a Party, and then … was advanced to the dignity of Fundamental, …nd afterwards we were eſteemed too mean to keep …mpany with thoſe that ſo eſteemed it; and have … all the fore-mentioned Opinions, bid fair for the …me advancement? and will they not be ſo eſteemed, when they which are the Abettors of them …hink they have numbers and opportunities for that …rpoſe?
And may they not by the ſame arguments which … uſe to ſeparate from us, ſeparate from you, when …ey believe any thing to be a Doctrine of Chriſt …hich you do not?
And do you not by this means furniſh men with …eapons to divide Churches into Atoms, till they …ve made Gods ſpiritual Houſe like his literal Houſe, that ſhall not have one Stone left upon another, which will not be thrown down? Will they …t argue thus: They which abide not in the Do…trine of Chriſt, have not God; but ſuch as are not …or waſhing of feet, ſaluting with a holy kiſs, and …ch as are for taking an Oath, though to end ſtrife, … for eating of Blood, and things ſtrangled, and …uch as being under laying on of hands, yet communicate with them that are not under it; together …th ſuch as do not eat a Supper before breaking of …ead, and ſuch as marry out of the Church, and …ch as believe Christ took fleſh of the Virgin Mary; all theſe do not abide in the Doctrine of Chriſt, and therefore they have not God? Where will not this kind of reaſoning run you at laſt?