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A61423 The case of the Church of England by law established necessary to be considered in order to a more firm and full settlement of peace both at home and abroad : in a letter to a bishop of the present constitution / by an English Catholick. Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. 1700 (1700) Wing S5423; ESTC R38300 7,857 10

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of the Nation and for Relief of the poor Negroes whom their worse than Infidel Masters will not suffer to be instructed in Christianity and to be baptized least they should lose their Service not so much as a Bill brought in or one Motion made in Parliament where they sit and are many times as busie as Solicitors in private Cases of temporal Concern This is not a little aggravated by the cold Entertainment which Doctor Bray's good Proposal had in this Nation not only among the Gentry and People in the Country but among the Citizens and Traders and even those very Pesons who approved and recommended it to the Charitable Contributions of others and after it had been thus sent on begging for so inconsiderable a Sum as Three Thousand Pounds which was as much as it required has been held in Suspence for some Years before it could be raised if it be raised yet And this if I mistake not is the greatest matter that ever was attempted by any of this Church What Multitudes of Souls must have died in Ignorance and Infidelity and in scandalous Sins through the Unfaithfulness and Neglect of this Glorious Reformed Church Can any Man in great Place in this Church think of this without Horror and Amazement for the Account they must one day give for it if they have any thing of true and sincere Christianity in them Could such a Man reproach another for commending Xavier or so much as think of that glorious Saint his admirable Virtues and Works confessed and commended even by Protestants themselves and not be confounded at the Thought of it Are not he and many others of the Popes Missioners the Shame and Reproach of such Persons and of such a Reformation in this World and like to rise up in Judgment against them in the next And who can believe that such a Reformation as this was of God or is indowed with an Apostolical Spirit I need not mention Particulars of the like Unfaithfulness and Neglect at home If publick Records be examined and the Good promoted or but proposed in Parliament by this Order be compared with what they have hindered or opposed I doubt it will be found upon Record that this Reformed Order have been very insignificant Instruments for the Good of the Nation if not much more instrumental to hinder it But we need not be at so much trouble as that of Searching Records if the visible State of the Nation be considered it is manifest and undeniable of what Communion the most Scandalous part of the Nation are and under whose Discipline if that may be called Discipline which was once wished 140 years since but never practised to this day Another great part of the Nation who have little more of Religion than a bare Profession and going to Church on Sundays such as the greatest part of most Country Parishes in England are are of the same Communion and under the Care and Instruction of the same Persons And if we enquire into the Occasions of so great Increase of Atheism Deism and Infidelity I have not in 30 years last past discovered any more common and effectual than the Scandal of the Unconcernedness of the Clergy for the Promotion of the Religion they profess and their eager pursuit of their own Promotion and Preferment in the Church Nor do I think there is any more common and effectual Occasion of so great numbers of Dissenters than that Coldness Formality and Emptiness of a true Spiritual Life and Power which they observed in the Generality of the Clergy of all Ranks and Degrees and thereupon wander to seek for it where they can find it For there is a certain Spiritual Sensation as a learned Man of your own calls it by which devout experienced Souls can perceive such a secret Power and Life in some Persons and Books as that of the Imitation of Christ which have but a mean simple outward Appearance as they perceive to be really wanting in others sufficiently furnished with Learning and Humane Reason to recommend them to those whose Religion is more superficial or notional And such I believe are many among the Dissenters who would never have sought for what they wanted abroad if they could have found it at home Besides all this there is another very notorious which I shall not mention here having a more special Occasion to take notice of it presently and I shall but mention what was not a little Scandalous to me because not so notorious to others the obstinate and wilful Neglect of these two great Parts of our Religion the Peculiar Solemnity of the Worship of which I have said enough in the Preface to the Liturgy and of the Discipline These things I presume will not be denied to be sufficient Motives to a considerate Man to examine the Root of a Religion which brings forth such Fruits and now I shall tell you not all that I observed in my Review that would be too much for what I now design but so much as is necessary and sufficient for the Conclusions I make upon it Three things I believe will go near to determine all Questions needful concerning the Reformation What were the Causes for which What the Authority by which it was done And what the Fruits and Effects Of the moving Causes enough is said for the present in the late Letter and Answer to the Young-Man p. 2 3. And much of the Fruits I have here noted already but there is one so natural to the Root and so remarkable and of so spreading and pestiferous a nature that I thought fit to reserve the mentioning of it for this place The very Root of the present Reformation which was at last Established by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 1. was Cranmer from whom the Consecrators of Matt. Parker the Principal of the present Succession of Legal Bishops in this Nation received their Authority so that he is the Common Ancestor of all What his Principles were and to what Excesses his Flattery of the Civil Magistrate proceeded may be seen in the late Abstract of the Vindication of the Rights of the Church c. 8. even to the betraying of those Sacred and Divine Rights and censuring even the Apostles themselves And it is no wonder if from such an Ancestor and such Principles have proceeded a Progeny of Flatterers of Princes for their own temporal Interest to the Disturbance of all mutual Confidence between them and the People and Destruction of whole Royal Families For this tho' notorious before we need look no farther than the last of the second Race of Kings since the Reformation plainly betrayed into those illegal Actions justifiable indeed by those Principles but not by the Fundamental Laws of the English Government which are the * In the Charters were the Rights of the People invaded in the Ecclesiastical Commissions the Rights of the Church also It was touching the Accursed thing principal things evident against him by those false Principles and