WHY do you not come to Church? Give a Reason why you will not come?

I demand of thee the Kings Patten, with his Seal, and his Hand, and his Armes, for keeping thy Court, before I speak to thee any more; For many keep Courts and shew not their Authority, and by that I may be brought into Bondage: So I will see thy Patten, with the Kings Seal and Hand, and Armes.

And Secondly, I would know the Reason of thee, Why thou and you forsook us near about twenty years ago, and left your Church? that by this time I might have been turn­ed Heathen, a Turk, or a Jew, and my Soul might have been lost for thee and you. For who hath watched over me and been my Keeper about these twenty years? But you have left me, I have neither Sermon, nor Exhortation, nor Epistle, nor Colect, nor Gospel, nor Even-song, nor Homily, nor Mattin, from you; though the Lord God hath been my Watcher over me, and my Overseer, who is now my Teacher. And do you think that the Lord will not require his Fock at your hands which you left almost twenty years to the Wolves and Dogs, to tear our Fleece, and Flesh, and to destroy the Sheep; and then will he require the Fleece, if he require the Sheep and his Flock, which you have left to Wolves and Dogs, to tear the Fleece off the back of them? For how have Ana­baptists, and Independants, and Presbyterians torn the Flesh off the backs of the Sheep, and Prisoned the Sheep to Death: And you in the time of Persecution neither sent Epistle, nor Colect, nor Exhortation, nor Gospel, nor Even-song, nor Homily, nor Mattin to the Sheep, nor mattered not them, nor cared for them. For if a man hire a man to keep a flock of Sheep, and have so many delivered into his hand, and the hireling Shepherd have so much a year, will not the Master or the Lord require both Sheep and Fleece of the hireling Shep­herd if he see a Dog, or a Wolf, (which may be calling the Usurping Power) come to worry the Sheep, and he fly away in the time of Persecution, is not this an hireling that flies, be­cause he is an hireling, and doth not care for the Sheep, and worse than David who defended his Sheep from the Bear and the Lyon? And so if the Shepherd suffer any of the Sheep to be worried, or Feece to be torn off, Will not the Master or Lord require both his Fleece and Sheep of the Shepherd? So read Jacob to Laban. For doth not the Lord say, He will require both the Fleece and Flock? So consider and judge your selves in this case, and do not ask me a reason Why I do not come to the Church but answer me this, Why you left me as a Sheep to all the Wolves? For we have the Kings Speech, and Declarations, and Promises, and Words of a King for Liberty of Conscience, that none should call us in question if we live peaceably un­der his Government. Therefore what have you to do to call us in question contrary to the Kings Speech and Declaration, and Word of a King, we being peaceable? As you may read his late Declaration, and there is an Act that Four may meet, So I may meet with my own Family by the Act of Parliament. And so if you will give me a Reason Why you for sook us, and prove all your Practice, Worship and Reli­gion by Scripture, and whether or no Paul, and the Apostles, Timothy and Titus the Bishops, had Tippets, Hoods, Rayles, Al­tars, Surplices in their Worships? And whether Timothy and Titus, which were called Bishops, were called Gracious Lords, as your Bishops are? And whether to be called so is not a breach of Christs Command, who said, The Gentiles were called Gracious Lords, but it should not be so among his Disciples? And whether or no John Baptized Christ in a Font, and signed him with the Sign of the Cross? And whether he had a God-Father, or God-Mother, yea, or nay? And whether or no those several thou­sands that Peter Baptized, whether he Baptized them in a Font, and signed them with the Sign of the Cross? And whe­ther had all these God-Fathers, and God-Mothers? And whe­ther or no the Eunuch, when Philip Baptized him, did he it in a Font with the Sign of the Cross? And if so, Who were their God-Fathers and God-Mothers, and where stood the Font, and who Commanded the Cross? Answer me these things by Scripture, and convince me by Scripture of these things, for we are to search the Scriptures whether these things be so as you speak, and try all things, and hold fast that which is good. And we are to lay hands on no man suddenly, nor presume above what is written; thou knowest this is Scripture; Read the Corinthians and the other Epistles.

And whether or no the Apostles, or Christ, or Timothy, or Titus had Paritors to summon in People to hear them, and if they would not hear them, and come to their Meeting­ing Place, Excommunicate them before they were of their Religion, or know what it was, and before they had con­vinced them by sound Doctrine, and good Conversation? And whether Excommunication be not to such as be of their Church, and know their Principles, and which doth some bad thing for which they are Excommunicated and put out of their Assemblies? And is this Reason to Excom­municate such as were never of their Church, and do not know their Principles or Doctrine, nor cannot be charged with a bad Conversation in any particular, and before they be convinced by sound Doctrine, or good Conversation con­cerning your Religion and Worship? And is this reason­able to Excommunicate those that you ran away from, and lest to the Devourer, before you seek to bring them in again by sound Doctrine or good Conversation? Answer these things, Yea, or Nay.