find that it was designed to out-live their Persons and therefore in this we know of no Successors that they have their call to this Apostolical power was extraordinary their Authority was Universal their Commission extended to the whole World and was the same in all Churches Now to say that the Bishops which are stated Pastors in an Organical Church are the Apostles Successors in this Apostolical power is destructive to their own Notion of Church Government and would give the Bishop of Rome as great power in England as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury when there is one Indeed as the Apostolical power did contain eminenter the Pastoral power so far the Bishops or Pastors of Churches do succeed them but this cannot be properly called an Apostolical Succession I shall not dispute with him the Episcopal Jurisdiction of Timothy and Titus it signifies nothing till the Nature and Extent of that Office be first determined out of Scripture Dr. Hammond tells us all the Elders we read of in Scripture were Bishops and that every particular Church had at least one of these and no doubt but Ephesus and Creet had such Bishops as well as other Churches but whether Timothy and Titus were such is not certain or material though their frequent removes from place to place at the command of the Apostles makes it very probable that their Office was itinerant and unfixed But 't is pretty to hear him say these two were ordained the Bishops of Ephesus and Creet by the Apostles Was there any Apostle then besides Paul concerned in it But here lyes the Trick they must needs be two Bishops and the Apostolical Succession must begin in them and therefore it was necessary to mention their Ordination by Apostles in the plural because it does not agree with the nature of a proper Succession that two Bishops should succeed one Apostle in his Apostolical power for then Timothy would have been as much Bishop of Creet as of Ephesus and Titus as much Bishop of Ephesus as Timothy for the Apostolical power vested by Succession in them extended as much to the one as the other and as much to all the World as to either And how pray could Timothy and Titus succeed the Apostles in the Sees of Ephesus and Creet whilst the Apostles were yet living Were they translated to a higher Seat or suspended or degraded for not owning the Authority of the Civil Magistrate To be the Apostles Successors in Apostolical power the Apostles yet alive and in plenitude of power is a very great Mystery and something akin to the honest Vicar of Newport's quondam Prayer that King Charles the Second might out-live all his Successors Whereas he says no Presbyters had power to ordain I desire him to try how he will reconcile this with Dr. Hammond that says these Presbyters were all Bishops or indeed with Scripture it self that says even Timothy received the gift by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4.14 But as to this delicate Notion of Apostolical Succession he is pleased further to inform us that for the propagation thereof Linus by Apostolical Consecration Succeeded the Apostles in the See of Rome here 's a double blunder again Linus Succeeded whilst the Apostles were alive for how else could he have Apostolical Consecration and Linus a single person Succeeds the Apostles in the plural As before the Apostolical power of one Apostle was divided betwixt two Bishops Timothy and Titus so here the power of two or more Apostles is exhausted by one Bishop who is their Lineal Successor and they still living in full enjoyment of their power ask him not how can these things be they must be so for Dissenters must be Schismaticks and this is the way to prove them so and therefore must be rational and solid whatever absurdities our Sceptical Heads discover in it I need not here take notice how positively he asserts the immediate Succession of Linus when all the Learned Men in the World acknowledge great Difficulties and uncertainty whether Linus or Cletus were first Bishop or whether both at once one as Bishop of the Circumcision the other of the Gentiles As Grotius thinks but Ignorance is the rarest thing in the World to make a man bold and venture at any thing Nothing but this Faculty of Ignorance would have emboldened him to say as p. 3. That this Line of Apostolick Succession of Bishops hath continued in all Ages to this present time an Assertion without the least shadow of proof yea contrary to the Acknowledgments of all Church-Historians The very Papists themselves whose Interest it is to make men believe it was so confess there are insuperable difficulties about the Succession of Popes in the Roman See and if the Succession be so perplexed there it must be much more so in other Churches whose obscurity in former Ages makes it less feasible to trace this Line of Succession And though Irenaeus might be able to name all the Successors of the Apostolick Churches in his day yet that will hardly prove that there has been no interruption since Irenaeus is said to have been the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Disciple of Sr. John and he is said to have died in the year of Christ 182. It is therefore very probable he might remember the names of all that had been Bishops of Rome Jerusalem and Alexandria since he had not much above the space of an hundred years to burthen his memory with a less man than he can tell who have been Bishops of Chester for a hundred years but does it follow that an uninterrupted Succession for above 1600 years is equally certain I might here enquire how it came to pass that this Apostolical Succession was propagated in so few Churches as the Patriarchal were methinks there should have been as many as the Apostles were For this man to be so very positive in these difficult and perplexed points shews a very great Effrontery and what may we not expect from the man that will talk at this rate And to say whoever exercises any Ministerial Office out of this Line of Apostolick Succession can be no other than a Lay-Impostor is to expose Christianity it self and to leave the Consciences of all men in the World at an utter uncertainty whether they have a true Ministry and Ordinances or no. Wretched men that to support the beloved Cause of Persecution will advance a notion destructive to our common Christianity and the Peace and Comfort of the Christian World and rather than the Dissenters in England should not be Schismaticks will shake the foundation not only of all the Reformed but of all the Christian Churches in the World Certainly T. W. ought to have been well advised before he had given it under his hand That if there be not an uninterrupted Succession betwixt all the Bishops in England and Apostles they are Lay-Impostors and Schismaticks and that he and the rest of his Friends have no
finds he must necessarily hate and revile us and after the fiercest manner contend with us because we pray without a stinted Form and he prays with one because we take no more notice of the Altar than of the Pulpit whilst he bows towards it because our Ministers preach in Cloaks and his in a Surplice And if it be so natural and necessary for him to run out into the highest breaches of Charity against us upon this account we cannot help it but heartily pity him but if he 'll search to the bottom he may find that his unruly passions and rampant pride are the natural and infallible causes of such Contentions and these distinct Modes of Worship are but the occasions or perhaps but the pretences thereof We know very well there are a great many of the Conformists that we love and honour and can live very peaceably and quietly with them and have very intimate converse together and they have the like respect for us notwithstanding those different practices which he calls Separate Communion they earnestly desire the Ceremonies in Debate might be laid aside because the Papists have not only spit upon them as the Bishop of Salisbury speaks but have made them Tools of Discord and Mischief and if all the Members of the late Convocation had been like some few we should have hop'd the Bone of Contention would have been removed and I know not what such Men as T. W. would then have done for a Cloak to cover their Malice but though that Assembly fail'd the expectation of the King and Countrey yet we are not without hopes it will come to that at last however in the mean time we are very desirous to be peaceable and glad we can be so and if these men are resolved they 'l have no Charity for any but their own Party let them wipe off the guilt of Schism as well as they can We now come to his citations out of Calvin that we ought not to separate from a Church upon the account of many blemishes and we say so too but if those blemishes and corruptions be made Terms of Communion and we must testifie our approbation of them it will greatly alter the case we know there are blemishes in the purest Societies but when we must be obliged to admire and praise these Deformities we shall desire to be excused and that 's our Case The Three Letters of Le Moyne L' Angle and Claude have been already reflected upon by some of the Answerers of Dr. Stillingfleet it appears by many passages therein that they have been very much misinformed concerning our Practice and the Grounds thereof as if we thought none in Communion with the Church of England could be saved that we are the only Men in the Nation that are predestinated to Salvation and such like things for which we are greatly obliged to those that have thus represented us but those that would be further satisfied in the disingenuity of some Men towards us and what Arts they have used to procure the Suffrage of Forreign Divines against us may read the three last pages of Mr. Rules Rational Account to which I could add something my self were it not an invidious piece of work When Mr. H. used these words Whether they be Episcopal Presbyterian Independant or by what Name or Title soever they be self-dignified or distinguished T. W. charges him with Malice against the Clergy as if he meant them only whence so gross a mistake should happen I know not unless it be from the same cause that makes every thing look yellow to some that have been afflicted with predominancy of Choller it 's plain Mr. H's design was to censure the vanity of assuming to our selves the Title of a Party or valuing our selves upon it which certainly has done much mischief But this must needs reflect upon the Archbishops and Bishops which he says are Orders Instituted by the Apostles in the Church of God and from them continued to this present Age without Interruption and for this he refers us to 1 Cor. 12.28 And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers helps Out of some little cunning design no doubt Governments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though he puts it helps in Government but where 's the Archbishop and Diocesan Bishop he says God has set them up but we cannot tell where all that he says concerning Mr. H's despising and speaking evil of Dignities proceeds from nothing but the Spleen We reverence the Bishops as they are vested by our Laws with a Civil Power circa Sacra and as many of them are Men of great Learning and Worth but cannot allow them to be our Governours by a Divine appointment till we see it better prov'd Sir That Act of Parliament by which we enjoy our present Liberty and which is your intolerable grievance does not carry the Title of Indulgence as you affirm it has in it the very words permitted and allowed which you ought not to have been ignorant of and had you taken as much delight in conversing with this Act as those by which we have been so unkindly oppressed you would not have needed to have been told this It 's true this Act does not Authorize our Churches nor Annex the Benefices to them but as we need not the former for we derive our Authority higher so we are not at all discontented for want of the latter you tell us it is given us for the hardness of our Hearts we might here very well retort and say it was rather given for the hardness of your Hearts who turn'd the Edge of Laws made chiefly against Papists to destroy your Fellow Protestants which was declared by one of the best of English Parliaments to be greatly serviceable to the Popish Interest and the ready way to bring ruin upon Protestants and a Bill brought in for the Uniting of us how that Parliament was represented by such Men as these and what thanks they had for running those great hazards for their Countreys preservation is sufficiently known The Story he brings of Barrow Penry and Burchet signifies nothing but the Malice of the Relator the two former who were Brownists flew so high as with this Man to unchurch and condemn all besides their own Party which is indeed a very ill Principle and none ever more guilty of it than T. W. Burchet was Hang'd for Killing his Keeper would it not be thought a very ill thing for us to charge upon the whole Episcopal Party the Odium and Guilt of all the Rogues and Felons that have died at Tyburn in their Communion We challenge this Man or any of his Abettors to shew any one Principle of ours that has the least Aspect towards Treason or any practices of that kind we have been guilty of though under the greatest provocations We vindicate not the Extravagancies of the Brownists nor will the sober Men of his own Party vindicate the severe handling of
is referr'd not to the Judgment of T. W. or of an Interessed Party but of all the unbyass'd part of Mankind upon a fair hearing which yet we could never obtain Mr. H's design was to create a good agreement betwixt Parties that had been so long and learnedly contending and in this I know of no professed Adversary he has but T. W. and whether his design be not more honest than this mans and his management more rational will be speedily tried Our sincere Lover before he finishes his Preface makes his honours to three sorts of Readers the Church-man the Dissenter and the Sceptick and he does it with as good a grace as can be expected from a man in his circumstances As for the true Member of his Church he 's assur'd of him that he has been taught the Candour to cover the faults of a weak Brother be the performance never so vicious Zeal for the Church will consecrate and make it pass with applause amongst such as himself and if they be but pleased he 's satisfied for to humour them was all he design'd Now to the Dissenter if he be one that has not sacrificed his name to the factious so as to divest himself of all Christian temper humility and consideration But what a strange supposition is this Is there ever a Dissenter in the World that is not devoted to Faction and stript of Humility They have formerly condemned us in the lump 't is well our Friends have learned to distinguish Well if there should chance to be such a creature he is desired to consider his desperate condition how humble considerate of a Christian temper and yet in a desperate condition this is as great a Riddle as the former In good earnest if a man may be in a desperate condition with all these Virtues I would desire T. W. to consider what the condition of that man is that appears to have none of all these The Dissenter however bids me thank him for his weak endeavours to snatch him as a firebrand out of the fire but I am also to tell him his weak service comes too late for it has pleased God to move the King and Parliament to do it who have already by their gracious Indulgence pluckt a great many Brands out of the fire of these mens rage and fury in which they and their Interest were almost consumed a blessing which we doubt not all the Angels congratulate to us excepting those whose business it is to accuse the Brethren and to raise storms and tempests in the World His last Address is to the Sceptick and if the Sceptick be obstinate and perverse an obstinate Sceptick is almost as great a Riddle as a humble Dissenter It has been the way of some men to represent all men as Sceptical and Atheists that have had larger Souls themselves and would not joyn with them in unchurching the greatest part of the World for the sake of a Mitre and a few Ceremonies and yet many of these Scepticks have as true a veneration for the Clergy and Church as T. W. himself for it can hardly be imagin'd that man can have any real value For an Office whose life does openly confront the great Ends thereof And now he takes leave of his Reader and turns him to Mr. H. himself and upon the first salutation blames him for not chusing the true Standard whereby to discover Schism Mr. H. chose no other but the Sacred Scriptures which being the great Law for the Government of Men must certainly be the truest Touch-stone of Sin and Duty and if the Schism this man would charge us with be not so according to the Standard of Scripture we shall not much dread the guilt or danger of it This is a hopeful beginning of Controversie to decline the sufficiency and propriety of Scripture as the Standard of good or evil But will this man assign a better yes the ninth Article of the Apostle's Creed I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints But by what Standard must we discover the true notion of these words Who must tell us what the Unity of the Church is and what the Communion of Saints Must not Scripture be our Rule And must you not then come to Mr. H's Standard at last a happy Omen when the first Paragraph contains a plain affront both to Scripture and common sense But let us see how he goes on He offers to our consideration the Origination and first Existence of the Catholick Church which was before the day of Pentecost but how long before that day he does not tell us If a man pretends to acquaint me with the Origination of the World and tells me it was before the Babylonish Captivity I shall count him a ridiculous trifler but I suppose he means it was immediately before or a little while before the day of Pentecost and here indeed is a discovery worthy of its Author But had God no Church then amongst the Jews must they be excommunicated too for what cause pray Not for want of Ceremonies or a Pontiff I hope The man told us in his Preface the Angels in Heaven were the most glorious Members of the Church How must we lay these things together Were the Angels originated at the day of Pentecost had they their first Existence then or did the Members of the Body exist before the Body let the Citizen or any of his Cabbala solve these Riddles and I 'le promise him he shall be my great Apollo That the Apostles and Disciples were the Church we do not question nor the power Christ gave his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to all the World and he well observes that Christ's commission and charge That in every Nation they that believe might be baptized and so made Members of the Church How well they have observed their Commission who refuse to admit of Church-Members upon their profession of Faith unless they will also comply with some significant Rites of their own that are alien to the Scripture Rules some men may do well to consider and whether to deny Gospel-priviledges to those that in the Judgment of Charity are Believers be not to assume a greater power than that which this man calls the Universal Power given to the Apostles whereby they become guilty of the worst sort of Tyranny because the Liberties hereby invaded are of all others the most sacred and invaluable It is plain from this mans confession that to be a Disciple or Believer would make a man a Member of the Church in Apostolical times and we cannot but assent to that excellent saying of the now Bishop of Worcester It is pity that which would make a man a Disciple of Christ then should not be sufficient to make him a Member of the Church now but we have no reason to doubt the contrary and if such a person should be clave errante shut out of the Communion of a particular Church God would still look upon him as his
own for the pride and perverseness of men shall not make the Faith of Christ of none effect That prevalency of the Gospel which he speaks of in Primitive times we believe and adore that divine Energy that appeared therein making its way through so formidable an opposition as it every where met with and next to the Power of God which is to be accounted the principal cause we cannot but ascribe this wonderful success to the sanctity of the Preachers and the spirituality and simplicity of their Doctrine and Worship for we find it has made but a slow progress in the World since men upon pretence of adoring it have encumbred it with needless Ceremonies and committed the management thereof to men who many of them had little to recommend them to the service besides a vehement Zeal for these Religious Impertinencies But though the Apostles did propagate the Gospel far and wide yet that they did actually Preach it to all Nations is a thing we never heard of before T. W. told us so and we must have better evidence before we believe it Whether the seven Churches in Asia had seven Bishops presiding over them neither more nor less is a thing that no way affects the present Controversie nor can any thing be concluded from thence in favour of our English Prelacy till the Power of those Bishops the extent of their Diocesses the quality of their Under-Officers the Modes of their Worship and Terms of Communion be proved the same with ours or liable to the same exceptions We have no prejudice against Episcopacy name or thing provided it be reduced to the Primitive Standard He must not think to run us down with a bare word We find mention made of Presbyters in Scripture he would think it irrational from hence to assert Scotch Presbytery to be Jure Divino the name will signifie little in the debate till the true bounds and limits of the Office so named be stated and adjusted I will not take upon me to contradict those Learned men that think the Angels there mentioned were Bishops but to say it is plain by the word Angel they were so is a wonderful Argument indeed as if Bishop and Angel were convertible terms And so the two young men that came to rescue Lot out from the Sodomites were Bishops and the glorious Messengers that brought to Mary and Elizabeth the joyful tydings of our Saviour's approaching Birth were Bishops it 's plain they were so by the name Angel the Scriptures give them and if this hold good there will be a great many more Bishops in Heaven than Chrysostom expected to find there He tells us though there was a multiplication or plurality of Churches in those times by the encrease of Believers yet no variation I am glad to hear that the encrease of Believers will make it necessary to multiply Churches and why does it so but because the encrease of Church-members may be so great as makes them uncapable of ordinarily meeting together to worship God therefore a Church in the primitive sense must consist of no more than could ordinarily so meet and that every Church had its Bishop is evident for without the governing part it cannot be a distinct Political Society but if the model of our Episcopal Churches be right which are made up of some hundreds of Congregations and Millions of Persons that cannot be known to the Bishop or one to another if this I say be allowable I see not how the encrease of Believers can be a sufficient cause for the multiplying of Churches But what does he mean in saying in these multiplied Churches there was no variation was there no variety at all in any circumstance of worship That 's gratis dictum and the contrary may be proved even in the Apostles times Whence was that scuffle betwixt the believing Jews and Gentiles about Jewish Ceremonies Acts 15. What need was there of that Apostolical Synod and of all those precepts against imposing upon or condemning one another upon the account of different Sentiments If he means there was no variation from the Scripture Rules tho we are afraid that will scarce hold yet we wish it had been so still We have a Notion of Church Unity laid down p. 2. in which we freely concur with him i. e. That all Churches are one as united into one Body whereof Christ is Head having the same Baptism the same Faith and the same Eucharist that is the same for substance for it that they all agreed in the Primitive times in the same Circumstances such a Unity we hold and doubt not but in our Congregations this Unity may be found They are made up of visible Christians such as in the Judgment of Charity are united to Christ by Faith we have the same Baptism with the Apostolical Churches for Substance and come as near in circumstances as we can to the Rule leaving out the innovations of latter and more corrupt times we hold the same Doctrines of Faith and the same Eucharist and after the Apostolical Mode as far as by their Writings appears and thus far we are the same with them in the External Worship and Service of God and the same with all other true Churches as far as they are the same with the Apostolical and differ from them no farther than upon a serious Enquiry we find they differ from these We expect T. W. should stand to this Description of Church Unity he has here given us and if he does we can easily make it appear he has ruin'd his whole Book and Cause for if this be the true proper Unity of Churches then there may be true Church Unity without the uniting of many particular Churches Ministers and People into one Diocesan Church under the Jurisdiction of a Prelate and his Officers then there may be true Church Unity without a necessary observation of the same Parochial Precincts I do not speak against the conveniency of such a thing but only observe that it is not de Essentiâ Unitatis according to this Mans definition and there may be true Church Unity without an absolute Uniformity in the same Modes and Circumstances of Worship and consequently a Man may plead to the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Prelate may step over Parish Bounds and may worship God without the Ceremonies used in England and yet be free from the guilt of Schism for if none of these things be Essential to the Churches Unity they may be omitted and that preserved entire notwithstanding Touching the continuance of the Church of God upon Earth we have no Controversie with him we believe it will be till Christs second coming but whereas he affirms that the power wherewith our Saviour vested the Apostles was not to cease or expire with them we think a Man of Sence would have distinguish'd betwixt the extraordinary power which was properly Apostolical and that ordinary Pastoral power which was eminently comprehended in the other as to the former we do not
then must all the Successors of the Apostles have the same power the Rule is known à quatenus ad omne It is plain by this that Apostolical Succession in the sence of those times was not any such fine Aerial Thread as this Man speaks of but Conformity to the Apostles model in Government and Worship and those that best observe that are in the truest sence the Apostles Successors whether the Line has been broke by intervening Hereticks and Schismaticks or no. We all grant that for Persons wilfully to withdraw themselves from such particular Churches as are framed according to Scripture Rules and impose no new or needless terms is to act Schismatically because such wilful Separation when no cause is given cannot be without breach of Charity with our Fellow Christians which is the Scripture Notion of Schism and this Mr. Henry himself grants and calls it Separation for Separation's sake which T.W. might have taken notice of had he designed fair dealing But this is not at all proved to be our case We earnestly desire Episcopacy may be reduced to its proper Sphere that every particular Church may have its Bishop and Presbyters and so power within it self to admonish suspend and reject scandalous Persons we desire the Rules of the Gospel may be carefully lookt into and a Model of Government and Worship taken from thence such as may be likely to answer the great Ends of Church Societies that nothing may be imposed but what is either expresly commanded or has a natural and proper tendency to promote that which is so then would the Worship of God appear like it self rational grave and majestical becoming reasonable Creatures to offer and a Being of perfect Simplicity and Spirituality to receive nor would we as we are accused under pretence of Spirituality reject the natural decorum of an Action in Divine Worship but only lay aside those Formalities that are over and above natural decency which in civil converse are counted foppish and daily grow out of repute betwixt Man and Man and are no where so improper as in the Service of God It is certainly a very odd Custom these Men have taken up against us if they find in any of the Fathers the word Bishop they presently transfer it a Diocesan Prelate if they read of Breaking off from the Communion of the Bishop it must be immediately applyed to the practice of Dissenters in England When alas till the Extent of Power way of coming into Office and Charge terms of Admission c. be proved to be tantamount to what they now are bare words will conclude nothing at all And yet without so much as offering to prove any thing of this T.W. will needs perswade Mr. H. to confess himself a Schismatick and so out of the Catholick Church and possibility of Salvation Though we need not concern our selves to soften or extenuate the fault of Schism no such thing being proved against us yet it may not be amiss to take notice how this eager Man over-shoots himself in these matters he first makes all those Churches Schismatical that do not agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in Faith Worship and Government without adjusting the measures of such Agreement as if every little difference made a Schism which would bear hard upon all the Churches at this day in the World And when he has done this he cuts off all these Schismatical Societies from being parts of the Catholick Church or under a possibility of Salvation It must needs follow from hence that Popish Churches to say nothing of others must be Schismatical for they vary notoriously from the Primitive in Faith Government and Worship as I suppose this Man will grant all those Churches therefore since this Variation were no parts of the Catholick Church that is no Churches at all and by consequence according to him their Bishops must be but Lay-Impostors their Ordinations null and void the Line of Communication broken the Apostolical Power lost and all England in a state of Damnation and all this is the Effect of over-great earnestness to prove the Dissenters Schismaticks We have with a great deal of Patience examined T. W's Notions of the Church of Communion and Unity and whether there be any thing observable in them besides Ignorance Confusion and Contradiction is left to the Judgment of the Reader That which remains is to view the Remarks he has made upon Mr. H's Book The Instance of Eldad and Medad was never designed to run of all four but thus far 't is to the purpose as it proves that God has not limited his People in Religious Actions so nicely to the publick places as some would pretend and that even good Men are apt too severely to censure such actions when managed out of the usual Method before they fully understand the reason of the thing and that meek and humble Men like Moses who are more concerned for the Substance than Circumstances of Religion would not deny the Church the advantage of those Gifts which God has bestowed upon Men even though the exercise of them might seem to derogate from their own Grandeur those general Inferences naturally follow from the place and the application of them is not improper as this Man fancies whatever the Office of this Man was to be yet doubtless this Act of prophecying was of a Sacred rather than a Civil nature and though under that Oeconomy the Priests were principally engaged in the Ceremonial part of Worship yet in the Moral part the Prophets often bore a share which was discovering the mind of God to the People and pressing them to Obedience and it is to this rather than the Priestly Office that a Gospel Minister succeeds If these Men demand we should give as signal proof of our Authority to the Bishops as Eldad and Medad could to Moses I hope we may expect that the Bishops should give as signal proof of their Authority as Moses could do but if extraordinary Commission need not be pretended in the one case we suppose there 's as little need of it in the other and we are ready to give satisfaction to all the World of the ordinary Warrant which consists in suitable Qualifications enquired into and approved by such as the Scripture calls Bishops Upon Mr. H's bare mentioning of the Worshippers of the Diana of their own opinion T. W. charges him with saucy Language but Mr. H. needs not come to this Man to learn how to speak the reflection Mr. H. made was general that there are such cannot be denied and let it fall where 't is due but why must this of Necessity be spoke of the Bishops such an invidious innuendo in the last Reign might have cost a Man dear of which Mr. Baxter is a memorable Instance But T.W. will answer for the Bishops and they are certainly very happy in such an Advocate that if the Punctilio's of Opinion do not cause a separate Communion they will not censure that for
better evidence that the Church of England is a true Church than they have of such a continued Succession that they can as soon demonstrate such an unbroken Line as that their Ministry and Sacraments are true and that they have no better proof that Dissenters are Schismaticks than they have of this nor any better defence of all the Severities they have used against them than this and if it should happen that in almost 1700 years there has been the least breach made upon this Line all that they have said and done against Dissenters becomes due to themselves Would any man in the World that was not hired to betray the Churches Cause have put it to such an Issue I am sure no wise man would venture his Estate upon it And yet this man has chosen to fix his Church and Faith and Salvation upon no better a Foot than this For in how many cases may this Line be broken and all that Apostolick Power conveyed there be spilt and lost if there should happen a vacancy in any of those things he calls Apostolical Churches and Sees for some years and the succeeding As the Northumbrian Bishops by the Abbot of Hy. Incumbent be a person ordained by an Abbot who was no Bishop as is allowed in the Roman Church through which this Authority must be conveyed to us does not this make an Intercision in the Line of Episcopal Ordination be so indispensable it must do so I desire to know of this man or any other that encourage him to write little Books whether this Line of Succession may be continued in a Schismatical Church and the Apostolical Power conveyed thereby if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Universal Church as this Man frequently affirms in his Book then such Schismatical Churches are no Churches nor parts of the Universal Church and so cannot be the Subjects of this Apostolical power and if this power cannot be derived through a Schismatical Church then he must grant either that the Church of England has not this power or that the Papal Churches through which this Line and Power runs are not Schismatical and if they be not his own Church must be so for separating from them for he allows Separation utterly unlawful unless from a Schismatical Church But after all though by this continued Line of Apostolical Episcopal Succession he would Exclude all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea that have not those Governours he will allow to be Scripture Bishops Supposing this same Line he makes such a splutter about were certain or necessary which it is not yet till this Man has proved the English Prelacy to be nearer a-kin to the Scripture Episcopacy than the Pastoral Office which is the Episcopacy we contend for we stand as fair for any advantage this Notion may afford as his Party does for we reverence and maintain Ministerial Ordination and so are in the Line still if such a Line there be which yet we are no way concerned to prove because we look upon Ordination to be no more but a publick Approbation of Ministerial Abilities by competent Judges and we doubt not but the Ministers that have such Qualifications themselves are the most competent Judges thereof in others but if there should happen a case wherein such Persons could not be had As if a company of Christians should be cast upon a remote Island or if all the Pastors in a Countrey should be put to Death or all turn Hereticks we doubt not but it would be lawful for a Man of the best Qualifications being chosen by the rest and approved and set apart by the most competent Judges amongst them to Administer in Holy Ordinances to them and that he would be a true Minister of Jesus Christ sufficiently Authorized to the Work and a Lay-person no longer but if we assent to the Whimsey of a constant Succession as if power were conveyed like Water in a Conduit after a Physical manner by contact passing through the Finger ends of the Prelate into the Noddle of the Person Ordained then can no necessity make the practice aforesaid warrantable and so the Substance must fail and perish for want of the Ceremony which is contrary to Reason and the Notions Men have of the Goodness of God This conceit of an entire Apostolical Line was forg'd upon the same Anvil with that of an uninterrupted Succession of English Monarchs from the Eldest Son of Noah whereby a Patriarchal Right descends inseparable from the Person Sacred and Irresistible which has tortured the Ears of all Men of Sence and Sobriety in these late Times The Leud and Extravagant Caresses that have happen'd between Ambitious Princes and Aspiring Church-men have produc'd such Twins as these that lately threatned the Kingdom with a dismal Fate No less pretences than those of Patriarchal and Apostolical Powers were sufficient for the Usurping an Absolute Empire over the Civil and Religious Rights of Men but as we have seen the One deserted exposed to just contempt and renounced by the very Authors thereof not in words only but in actions famous and publick throughout the World so we doubt not they will to deal with the other it being of the same extract and calculated to serve the very same interest and design His fourth page is taken up with proving that to love as Christians in Scripture Sence is to love as Members of Christ and obliges us to preserve the Body from Rents and Schisms which we never deny but wonder at some Men who notwithstanding all their talk for Peace and Unity have so little real Love for it as to Excommunicate and Damn all those that cannot comply with those Ceremonies which themselves acknowledge have no Moral goodness in them and therefore can be but idle incumbrances upon the Worship of God which as one says of Friendship and Heraldry is noblest when plainest bravest when alone Certainly such unreasonable Stiffness cannot have much in it of that love which is the Characteristick of Christs Disciples but these Gentlemen think to excuse their aversation to us by saying we are not Christians we are out of the Catholick Church this is to make one gross act of Uncharitableness to excuse for another but we thank God they are not to be our final Judges For our further Conviction we are told The Communion of Saints is one External visible Communion of the Christian Church which is so far from explaining the thing that it makes it much darker We hold Communion in Essentials with every Church of Christ upon Earth and in Integrals with all sound Churches and we know few Churches that hold Communion in all accidentals nor was such a Communion ever pretended to be necessary This word Communion not rightly understood nor the sence of it carefully distinguisht has strangely misled some Men and is at the bottom of all those clamours that have fill'd the Ears of our Rulers and the whole Nation against us and this Man seems as little