to it I have never heard that any Judge of the Consistory of Derry since June 1691 when I came first into this Diocess receiv'd any Fees but what came through my hands for I attended constantly on the Courts since that time as Surrogate the first year and Chancellor the two last to your Lordships knowledge who was duly present at them when you were in Town Now during these three Years there are or have been about 200 Persons reputed of that Perswasion that Mr. B. seems to vindicate proceeded against in the Ecclesiastical Courts of Derry presented by the Church-Wardens for Fornication Adultery Incest c. From all which there has not been taken for the Judges Fees to the value of Ten Pounds The last Fifteen Months I resided in my Parish Seven miles distant from the Court yet attended without any Surrogate lest I should be obliged to grant the full Fees to others which I remit often my self so that my many necessary Journeys my neglect of my own private Concerns my staying many Nights and Weeks from my own Dwelling being considered any reasonable person may compute my Gains I shall not enter into any Invidious comparison between this Management and the times of Presbitery or Independency but supposing that my Brethren may justify their Courts in the same manner if the Scene of the present Dispute were not laid in this See I shall content my self with this That all men may hence discern whether our Courts have deserved the severe Intimations before-mentioned or whether Mr. B's friends here have been devoured as a prey c. Ballychelaghan June 6 1694. My Lord your Lordships c. Robert Gourney To conclude I dare affirm that all the Officers of the Court of Derry have not had Forty Pound Fees from all the several hundred Criminals that have been in it since I came into the Diocess so far have they been from Oppressing or Squeezing any And yet I am not satisfied that this Mildness is commendable for I find the greater part so lost to all sense of Goodness and so exceedingly sordid in their Temper that they had rather do Penance both at Meeting and Church than pay a few Shilings and perhaps on such people the fear of paying a little Money would work a greater Reformation and awaken them more than all other Endeavours III. Fourthly He represents Ministers in his Sixth Demand p. 173. as depriv'd of their Pastoral Power that belongs to them and Wishes that Bishops would exercise their Authority in concurrence with their Presbyters and another of your Ministers represents Bishops as the sole Pastours of the whole Diocess Mr. Craghead p. 145. Now all these are Misrepresentations For First There are many acts of Episcopal Power and Authority which a Bishop connot exercise without the concurrence of his Presbyters Secondly There is not one act belonging to a Congregation except confirming the Baptised which has ever been peculiar to Bishops but a Presbyter with the consent of his Bishop may exercise it Thirdly A Presbyter has as much power in the matter of Excommunication as any Presbyterian Minister since he can reprove rebuke exhort and suspend from the Sacrament which is all that any of them can do And whereas Mr. B. alledges that he must turn Informer against such as he suspends in the Spiritual Courts where they are sure to be put to great Charges This is another Misrepresentation For there is no such necessity of putting into the Court such Offenders except their Sins be publick or if they should be put into it that they should be put to much Charges except they continue impenitent and then it is necessary they should pay the Fees of the Office which are very small whatever Mr. B. suggests and 't is the Offenders own fault if they be otherwise who make them so by their obstinacy To conclude a Presbyter must act in dependance and with consent of his Bishop in many things but this doth not hinder him from being a Pastour joyntly with his Bishop of the whole Diocess and particularly in his own Cure IV. Let me Observe further That neither Presbyterians or Independents can with any reason Object this to our Presbyters for every Presbyterian Minister depends on his Brethren in these acts And can neither Excommunicate or perform any other Proper Act of Government that concerns the whole Church without consent of a Synod and if his depending on a Synod in these Acts doth not hinder him from esteeming himself a Pastour why shou'd a Presbyter with us not count himself a Pastour since he has as much power alone as your Ministers and as much in Conjunction with his Bishop as yours have with a Synod and especially when it is considered that the presence and consent of a Bishop is easier had than that of a Synod and the Bishop is obliged by known Rules and Laws to concur in those things that are reasonable whereas generally your Matters are Arbitrary and depend on the major Votes As to the Congregational Ministers They in these Acts depend on the consent of their own Congregations in whom according to them the power of the Keys is Originally seated and they cannot Excommunicate any without consent of their People which is more opposite to the nature of a Pastour than acting with the consent of a Bishop and in Subordination to him and indeed such Ministers are rather meer Servants than Pastours of their People In this point therefore Mr. B. has made a very unjust Representation of our Principles and Practice Sect. XV. Concerning Mr. Sq. 1. THE last Matter of Fact of which I shall take notice concerns a person rejected from Orders in our Church and now a Preacher of your Party Mr. B. affirms that your Ministers declare that they know of no such Person and says That if I mean Mr. Sq. he declares he was never examined as to his Learning by us and that most that know him think that if I reject all those of my Clergy that are not Mr. Sq ' s. superiors in Learning I must exclude a great many of those that are now in this Diocess You see how he necessitates me to give an account of this affair This Gentleman whom I did not name out of the great respect I had to his Relations soon after the Troubles procur'd Mr. Robert Gage of this Diocess to present him to the then Bishop of Rapho for the Order of a Deacon the Bishop according to the 31st Canon demanded a Certificate of his Degree good Life and Conversation under the Colledge Seal but that he neither had nor could procure whereupon the Bishop refus'd him After I came to this place he applied himself to me both in person and by his friends but I refused him and them till such time as he was publickly Examined according to the Canons In the mean while I discours'd him several times and found him unfit as to his Learning yet wou'd not discourage him but advised him to
influence my words and actions and I thank God they yield me a comfort and satisfaction above all that the World can afford me But this was very different from what many of your Party expected they measured me not from what I am or from what I do and say but from the Representations some of themselves had made of me 'T was from these that a rumour went abroad whilst my Book was in the Press that I was publishing a most furious Book full of bitterness and railing and that I wou'd now discover what a passionate angry Man I was This went current But when my Book appeared I thank God it was of a different sort and and very much surprised those whose interest it was to represent me and it otherwise and by all I can learn nothing displeased them more than the Seriousness Charity and Civility with which it was Written III. Mr. B. seems to be sensible that this gives my Book some advantage and takes great care to prevent it Sometimes he makes slight of it sometimes endeavours to expose it as ridiculous But his greatest endeavour is to perswade you that it is not real and sincere in me To make this appear probable he produces several Arguments both in his Preface and in his Remarks In the last he insists on one p. 157. on which he thinks fit to enlarge again in his Vindication p. 25 'T is taken from a Clause in the Leases of the See of Derry whereby the Tenants are obliged not to sett to Mass-Priests or Dissenting Ministers This he thinks will excuse all the hard words he gives me and prove me guilty of unfair dealing but this is to censure Actions before he knows the reason of them as I suppose every body may observe and since it concerns only my own Person I did not think it necessary to make any Apology for it and I assure you my tenderness to you and indeed to our common Christianity obliged me rather to suffer the reproach as I have done in many other Cases than to Publish those things of which I apprehended the common Enemies of our Religion might make advantage And had not the importunity and perswasions of my Friends to whose Judgments I have a Deference required it now from me no provocations of my Answerers shou'd have done it However I shall endeavour to give an account of this matter in the least offensive way I can and if any thing seem hard in it the blame must be justly theirs who gave the occasion IV. I find this Clause verbatim so far as relates to Popish Priests in the oldest Leases of this See of Derry in which there has been since the Reformation a succession of Wise Learned and Pious Men my Predecessors Dr. Montgomery Dr. Babington Dr. Downam Dr. Bramhall Dr. Wild Dr. Mossom Dr. Ward and Dr. Hopkins were Men generally famous for their Works yet remaining and for their Eminent Service they did to the Church of God These found it necessary to put this Clause into their Leases at the first making of them or to continue it in as many as were renew'd So far therefore this is no new Clause it being as I have said in the oldest Leases of the See and put in by Wise and Good Men for good Reasons I found the same Reasons not only to continue it but to extend it to all Teachers Dissenting from the Church and should have thought my self answerable to my Successors if whilst the Reasons were as good I had departed from the wise Conduct of my Predecessors That the Reasons are as good will appear from what follows My Predecessors found that their Tenants liv'd easily as to Rents and freest of any from Exactions or Oppressions and that this made as it still makes those that are averse to the Office and Revenues of a Protestant Bishop yet desirous to be their Tenants That the Popish Priests especially found their Advantage in living under them both to their Temporal and Spiritual Interest for they had such influence on their own Party that none of them durst come in competition with them in taking their Farms and so they had them at what rate they pleas'd and where they had such influence the Protestants durst not take them by which means they were able to keep them waste if they could not get them to themselves which I have effectually found in a Farm where one of them had crept in And as to their Spiritual Interest it was no ill Policy to secure those places where the Bishop had greatest influence I am sure these things are true of your Ministers and these or the like Motives so far prevail'd on them that before the Troubles they had at least one half of their Meetings on the Church Lands Again no one would willingly have a Tenant that looks on him as an Usurper or is sworn to Extirpate him as soon as he can this was a good reason to refuse Popish Priests for Tenants and holds no less against such of your Teachers as adhere to the solemn League and Covenant I must mind you also That Coshering and Exacting on Tenants by way of Meat and Lodging is against the Laws of this Kingdom and the Popish Priests lived by such ways but were not near so oppressive to their Neighbours as your Meetings are Your Sacraments especially are attended with a most oppressive Coshering and so it is and must be where Four or Five thousand meet together from distant places and stay several days And indeed none that live near the Meeting House can call their Meat or Drink or Grass or Houses their own during these times or dare refuse them to those Cosherers if they would live quietly And here I must declare That I had private Information from several of my Tenants of this Oppression and they were heartily glad when they found I had contrived a way to ease them tho' they durst not publickly own it There is a further Reason and that is That Men whose avowed Principle it is to tolerate no body when they have power ought not to pretend to the same Favour with other People that are moderate This is a just Exception against Popish Priests and for ought yet appears it is no less against your Teachers some of which seem to be of as persecuting a Spirit as they and have so far influenced the most zealous of their Hearers that they already persecute as far as they have Power those that Dissent from them insomuch that as I observed before some that are heartily desirous to come to Church dare not for fear of being undone by their Neighbours And no Wonder it should be so since you are taught in your very Catechism to Oppose all False Worship and according to each ones Place and Calling to remove it And Tolerating a False Religion is reckoned in express terms a Breach of the Second Commandment A Clause very unfit for a Catechism that ought to contain only the Principles of our
Authentick Rule concerning it at all as I shew'd in my Admonition And when Proposals were made concerning it they were rejected by a Parliament of your own Party with great Abhorrence We cannot say they in their Declaration 1646 consent to the granting of an Arbitrary and Unlimited Power and Jurisdiction to near Ten thousand Judicatories to be Erected within this Kingdom and this demanded in a way inconsistent with the Fundamentals of Government excluding the Power of Parliaments The Question then between Your Discipline and Ours is Whether it is better to have no Rules but meer Arbitrary Power in Ten thousand Judicatories to exercise a Discipline inconsistent with the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and the Power of Parliaments or to have certain and determinate Rules for the Exercise of it such as our Canons and Rubricks which are very consistent with the Constitution of the Kingdom and would certainly reform the World if executed and nothing hinders their execution that I know but Your Separation I cannot reckon it a Happy Progress in Reformation as Mr. B. does to throw down a well-establish'd Discipline founded on good Authority and with good Rules and Establish nothing in the place of it 'T is not Purity of Discipline to make it Arbitrary and have no Rules at all And yet I am afraid many are for reforming Faith as You have reformed Discipline III. Secondly in your Church Constitution you are not yet agreed and we do not know what you would have I observed that Mr. B's sense of these things is much different from yours both as to the Rules and Manner of Proceeding in your Judicatories insomuch as you are not yet agreed who shall have the power of the Keys Whether a single Congregation or a Presbytery Adm. p. 47. To make you a little sensible of this I will compare Mr. B. and his Parties Sentiments with Yours First then You own generally That a National Church is of Divine institution but Mr. B. and his Party declare Reflect p. 4. That such a National Church is not of Divine Institution and is indeed only A Combination of Churches as united under one Civil Soveraign its true Notion lies not in any Combination purely Ecclesiastical and Intrinsical but Civil and Extrinsical Secondly You hold that many particular Congregations may be under one Presbyterial Government Mr. B. and his Party That no particular Church shall be subordinate to another and That none of them their Officer or Officers shall Exercise any power or have any Superiority over any other Church or their Officers Heads of Agreement p. 11. You hold That it is agreeable to the Word of God that there be a Subordination of Congregational Classical Provincial and National Assemblies for the Government of the Church Mr. B. and his Party That Church-Councils are not for Government but for Unity not as being in Order of Government over the several Bishops Reflect p. 58. and Heads of Agreement p. 10. Thirdly You hold that Excommunication is a shutting the Kingdom of Heaven against impenitent Sinners But with Mr B. and his Party Excommunication it self in their respective Churches is no other than a declaring such scandalous Members as are irreconcilable to be incapable of Communion with them in things peculiar to the visible Relievers Pref. to the Heads of Agreement In which sense any two Men may Excommunicate a third It requires no Power at all to declare a Man incapable of Communion with me but only Judgment and so there is an end of Church Governors and Censures Fourthly You hold That those that are Ordained ought not to be Ordained again but Mr. B. and his Party teach That if any hold in case of the Removal of one formerly Ordained to a new Station or Pastoral Charge there ought to be a like solemn Recommending him and his Labours to the Grace and Blessing of God No different Sentiments or Practice herein shall be any occasion of Contention or Breach of Communion amongst you Fifthly You hold That Ruling Elders are of Divine Right and your Constitution so far as appears to us is founded on them but Mr. B. and his Party declare that whereas divers are of Opinion that there is also the Office of Ruling Elders and others think otherwise They agree that this makes no Breach among them Heads of Agreement p. 13. Sixthly You hold That the Ruling Officers of a particular Congregation have only power to suspend from the Lord's Table and that Casting out belongs to the Presbytery But Mr. B. and his Party hold That each particular Church hath Authority from Christ for Exercising Government and of enjoying all the Ordinances of Worship within it self Heads of Agreement p. 4. All these are material Differences and concern the Being of a Government and in all of them you differ from Mr. B. and his Party and only in one of them from us that is in the Fifth and then judge what Progress it is in Reformation to separate from a National Constitution to joyn with such that do not so much as pretend to it IV. Thirdly Your Purity that should invite Men to joyn with you doth not consist in Doctrine for in this confessedly you have no Advantage of us for these very Heads of Agreement acknowledge it sufficient as to Soundness of Judgment in Matters of Faith to own the Doctrinal part of those commonly called The Articles of the Church of England which we all Subscribe You then have made no Progress in this Point Fourthly As to Preaching the Gospel which is a necessary Mark of the Purity of a Church it is manifest You come short of Us the great Mysteries thereof being neither so Diligently so Constantly so Regularly or so Universally taught by your Ministers as in our Church nor so Good and Obliging Rules for doing so So that Men that would hear them taught in this manner ought to joyn with us as I have already shew'd Fifthly As to the Administring the Sacraments which is another necessary Mark of the Purity of a Church Your Ministers have been Notoriously Defective they have let many dye without Baptism that had a Title to it and have been no less Negligent in Administring the Lord's Supper insomuch that not one of them have done their Duty this thirty Years in Administring it often as Christ requires Therefore those of you that would partake frequently of this Sacrament must joyn with our Church Sixthly As to Holiness of Life you have no Advantage over us being no better than your Neighbours and if you take away such as are not of us as a Church but as we are the Governing Party and who will always Joyn themselves to that which is so I doubt whether you be so good There needs no more to convince you of this than to consider that Mercy Justice and Truth are counted by our Saviour to be the great things of the Law and you will not find that the Protestants in the North of Ireland of which You
in this as appears from what he says p. 45. where the whole force of his Argument against the Cross depends on our making it a Rite whereby we Oblige and Bind our selves to serve God But in order to clear the matter I will shew that an Obliging Ratifying Dedicating Sign in this sense has nothing of a Sacramental Nature in it but that we may make use of such Signs to this purpose as common Universal Custom has made proper This I will shew First from Scripture and Secondly from your own Practice and then shall make appear that the use of the Sign of the Cross is altogether of this sort IV. 1. For the proof of this from Scripture I appeal to the Jewish Church after the Captivity The Jews had been guilty of many breaches of God's Covenant made with their Fathers and there was great necessity to renew it on their part and accordingly we find they applied themselves to do it with Fasting with Sackcloaths and Earth upon them Neh. 9. 1. and after a solemn humiliation and confession they renew their Covenant with God and declare their Resolution and Promise to keep it by such methods as were usual to oblige men in other cases that is first by an Oath Neh. Chap. 10. 29. They entred into a Curse and into an Oath to walk in God's law which was given by Moses 2. They Bind Engage and Oblige themselves by certain usual Signs never that we can find prescribed by God that is by writing and sealing the Covenant Neh. 9. 3 8. We make a sure Covenant and write it and our Princes Levites and Priests seal unto it Now to make a Covenant with God the same that Circumcision entered them into even to walk in God's law which was given by Moses was certainly to oblige engage and dedicate themselves to God's service Mr. B. himself alledges Vind. p. 42. That Circumcision was an external Bond on those that received it to observe that Law yet notwithstanding this Bond of Circumcision and their renewing the same Obligation in the Passover these Jews added new Bonds to their Covenant and made use of new Signs to engage and oblige themselves to keep it and to ratifie and confirm it on their part It cannot be deny'd but Signing and Sealing are outward Signs and their use is to ratifie and confirm that to which the Name and Seal is put and to oblige the Persons to perform what they promise in it if therefore these be peculiar and principal uses of Sacraments it clearly follows that these Jews by using these Signs made two Sacraments for ought appears out of their own Head But if God commanded them then here are two Signs obliging confirming and ratifying the Covenant they entred into of divine Institution and then they must be divine Sacraments which no body ever yet pretended that I have heard of The truth then is that to renew our Covenant with God to declare our Resolution Purpose and Promise to obey God's Laws and keep his Covenant either by such Words or Signs as universal Custom has made expressive of such a Promise c. are alike lawful and the one has no more of a Sacramental nature in it than the other V. I shall add one Instance more out of the New Testament and that is laying on of Hands a Sign used in Blessing from the Patriarchs to this day Fathers used it in blessing their Children Priests in blessing not only the People but likewise in blessing Persons and Offerings dedicated to God but more particularly it is used in that solemn Blessing to which our Church directs us in our Catechism under the title of being Confirmed by the Bishop For the understanding of which you must observe 1. That the Apostles who had commission to Teach and Baptize did upon their Converts declaring their conviction of our Saviour's being the Messias or Christ immediately Baptize them tho' they were not particularly instructed in all the parts and duties of the Religion they embraced as appears sufficiently from the second of the Acts where in one day 3000 were Converted and the same day Baptized as appears v. 41. Then they that gladly received his words were Baptized and the same day there were added to them about 3000 Souls It is not to be supposed thot all these could be fully instructed in all the necessary Articles of their Faith but it was sufficient that in general they believed in Christ and were willing to learn his Doctrine as opportunity offer'd The same appears in Baptizing the Jaylor and his Family Acts 16. and on several other occasions This is one Ground of Baptizing the Children of the Faithful with us because it is supposed that God according to his Promise will in Baptism give a Principle of Faith to such which together with the influence of their Parents on them and of the society whereof they are members will dispose them to learn the Principles of their Religion as soon as they are capable so that there is a radical Faith and presumed willingness tho' not an actual 2. At the beginning of Christianity the Converts were many and the Teachers few and it would have too much confined them if they had been obliged to teach every Convert in the ordinary methods of Learning and therefore God gave the Apostles an extraordinary power to confer the Holy Ghost not only led those that received it into all truth but likewise enabled them to teach others which appears from several places of Scripture particularly from Acts 8. 19. 6. When Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came up in them and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied 3. When the number of Teachers were sufficiently multiplyed this extraordinary manner of teaching Converts and enabling them to teach others was not necessary not but the Holy Ghost is still the true Teacher of his Church insomuch as without his influence no Man can attain such a degree of Knowledge as to save his own Soul or instruct others all true Knowledge then is still from him but it is not without our own industry or study or the assistance of those that Christ has commissioned to Teach us in an ordinary way 4. Such as were Baptized immediately after their Conversion before full instruction or in their infancy when particularly and explicitly instructed were brought before the Church and there made a solemn Recognition of their Faith and declared their Resolution to adhere to it whereupon the Bishop or chief Governour of the Church laid his hands on them Blessed them Prayed for their continuance in Grace and Knowledge and admitted them as competently instructed Members by this they were taught and assured that the Grace and Knowledge they had was from the Holy Spirit and that the encrease and continuance of it must be Expected from him 5. This laying on of hands is reckoned a principle of our Religion Heb. 6. 2. and joyned with Baptism That this is the true meaning of