their Disciples and Followers who refusing to be called of that Sect yet participate too much with their Humours in maintaining the above-mentioned Errors and the King further adds I Protest upon my Honour I did not mean it generally of all those Preachers or others that like better the single Form of Policy in our Church than of the many Ceremonies of the Church of England or that are perswaded that their Bishops smell of a Papal Supremacy No I am so far from being contentious in these things that I equally love and honour the Learned and Grave Men of either Opinion And that those called Puritans at that time in England were not such Persons as are here described appears sufficiently from the earnest Endeavours both of the House of Commons and Lords of the Privy Council on their behalf and the different account they give of them who must needs be acknowledged very competent Judges and it is observable that the Familists in England took notice of this censure of the King 's Fuller Church Hist Book 10 p. 30. and in their Petition to him when he came into England they disown all Affinity with the Puritans and speak reproachfully of them under that Title themselves I hope this will abundantly acquit the Old English Puritans from being the Persons aimed at in those Royal Reflections and therefore notwithstanding any thing in that Book it may be very true that the Bishops flattered that King into an ill Opinion of them That some of our English Prelates endeavour'd to do very ill Offices betwixt the King and Presbyterian Party even before he came into England is most certainly true and it cannot be imagined that they would be less busie when they had him amongst them Bishop Bancroft was more than ordinary active in such Designs as appeared amongst other things by a Letter from one Norton a Stationer in Edenburgh directed for him and intercepted Calderwood's Hist of the Ch. of Scotland p. 248. upon Examination Norton acknowledged that he was employed by Bancroft to disperse certain Questions that tended to the Defamation of the Kirk and Presbyterial Government The same Bishop writ frequent Letters to Mr. Patrick Adamson the Titular Archbishop of St. Andrews which were many of them intercepted wherein he stirs him up to Extol and Praise the Church of England above all others and to come up to London Ibid. p. 259. assuring him that he would be very welcome and well rewarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury This Adamson had composed a Declaration which passed under the King's Name wherein the whole Order of the Kirk was greatly traduced and condemned The Commissioners of the General Assembly complained to the King of the many false Aspersions contained therein which were so shameful that the King disowned it and said It was not his doing but the Archbishops and prudently discarded that great Favourite and gave the Rents of the Bishoprick to the Duke of Lenox The poor Gentleman thus abandoned professes himself to be truly Penitent for what he had done and makes a full Recantation which he Subscribed in the presence of a great many Witnesses and directs it to the Synod conven'd at St. Andrew's Confessing That he had out of Ambition Vain-Glory and Covetousness undertaken the Office of an Archbishop That he had laboured to advance the King's Arbitrary Power in Matters of Religion and Protested before God that he was commanded to write that Declaration by the Chancellor the Secretary and another great Courtier and that he was more busie with some Bishops in England in Prejudice of the Discipline of the Kirk partly when he was there and partly by Mutual Intelligence than became a good Christian much less a Faithful Pastor c. Now although the King fondly adhered to such kind of Men whilst he hoped to advance his Prerogative thereby yet when he began to perceive the ill Effects of such Conduct Ibid. Preface he still deserted them and in those prudent Intervals would freely declare his good Opinion of the Presbytery and their Form of Government particularly in the National Assembly 1590. He thank'd God that he was King of such a Country wherein says he there is such a Church even the sincerest Church on Earth Geneva not excepted seeing they keep some Festival Days as Easter and Christmas and what have they for it As for our Neighbours in England their Service is an ill mumbled Mass in English they want little of the Mass but the Liftings Now I charge you my good People Barons Gentlemen Ministers and Elders that you all stand to your Purity and Exhort the People to do the same and as long as I have Life and Crown I will maintain the same against all deadly Nay Calder p. 473. when he took his leave of Scotland upon the Union of the two Kingdoms he solemnly promised the Ministers of the Synod of Lothian that he would make no Alterations in their Discipline but when he came up to London those who had been tampering with him and his Courtiers before had a fair opportunity to accomplish their Design which was the utter Abolition of the Presbytery in Scotland and the Suppression of the Puritans in England And saith my Author as soon as the English Prelates had got King James amongst them R. Baylie's Vindication and Answer to the Declarat p. 11. they did not rest till Mr. Melvill and the Prime of the Scots Divines were called up to London and only for their Just Defence of the Truth and Liberties of Scotland against Episcopal Usurpations were either Banish'd or Confin'd and so sore Oppressed that it brought many of them with Sorrow to their Graves and the whole Discipline of the Church was over-thrown notwithstanding the King 's parting Promise to the contrary The Nonconformists in England were so far from being brought over by the Severities of the former Reign that they drew up a Petition about this time Signed by Seven hundred and fifty Ministers desiring Reformation of certain Ceremonies and Abuses in the Church which Fuller gives us at large this was designed to have been presented before the Conference at Hampton-Court but was deferr'd till after The Relation of this so much talk'd of Conference as Fuller reports it out of Barlow is justly suspected of great Partiality and the Historian himself speaks doubtfully of it and yet even in that we have a plain Indication of what temper the Court and Bishops were It looks very odd that when the King had allow'd several of Dr. Reynold's Exceptions he should threaten if they had no more to say He would make them to Conform or hurry them out of the Land or do worse a poor business for a Prince to menace his own Subjects for Non-conformity to that which himself had formerly called an Ill-mumbled Mass in English and even now acknowledged wanted some Reformation But we have this Matter set in a truer Light by Mr. Patrick Galloway in his Account of it
that the Priests and Bishops be all one St. Austin saith what is the Bishop but the first Priest So saith St. Ambrose there is but one Consecration of a Priest and Bishop for both of them are Priests but the Bishop is the first Thus he The next I shall mention is Dr. Whitaker Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge Contr. Duraeum l. 6. § 19. de Eccl. Regim qu. 1. Cap. 1. de notis Eccles quaest 5. He repeats Sr. Jeromes words at large on 1 Titus and to Evagrius that Bishops and Presbyters were the same that the Primitive Churches were governed by the common consent of the Presbyters that this custom was not changed by the Apostles but afterwards by the Church and thus argues If the Apostles had changed the order as Sanders pretendeth what had it advantaged him to have so diligently collected Testimonies out of the Apostles to prove that they were sometimes the same He might easily have remembred that the Order was changed by the Apostles themselves after the Church was distracted with contentions if any such thing had been done and he enquires Wherefore then saith Jerome Before it was said I am of Paul c. He answers This might deceive Sanders but it is certain Jerome onely alludeth to that place of the Apostle to shew that Schisms were the Cause of changing the Order but this Remedy was almost worse than the Disease for as at first one Presbyter was set above the rest and made a Bishop afterwards one Bishop was preferred before the Rest and this custom at length produced the Pope with his Monarchy Resp ad decion rationem Campiani p. 51. and elsewhere he thus speaks of Aerius his Heresie And truly if to condemn Prayers for the Dead and to make Bishop and Presbyter equal be Heretical Nihil Catholicum esse potest nothing can be Orthodox and Catholick That passage in Mr. Tract of Schism p. 13. Hales of Eaton is as memorable as its Author They do but abuse themselves and others that would persuade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any superiority over men further than Reverence or that any is superior to another further than positive order agreed upon among Christians hath prescribed Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath any hand in the Heraldry of Secundum sub supra all this comes from composition and agreement of Men among themselves wherefore this abuse of Christianity to make it Lacquey to Ambition is a Vice for which I have no extraordinary name of Ignominy and an ordinary one I will not give it lest you should take so transcendent a Vice to be but trivial The most Excellent Arch-bishop Usher both in his Writing and Discourse acknowledged these Orders to be the same that the difference was only in degree that Bishops ordained as Presbyters but regulated the Ordination as Bishops and would not endure to hear the Ordination of the Reformed Churches condemned In his Reduction of Episcopacy Printed by Dr. Bernard he proves both by the words of Paul of Tertullian P. 2 3. and the Order of the Church of England that Spiritual Jurisdiction belongs to the Common Council of Presbyters in which the Bishop is no more than President and page 6. has these words True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterial Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the name of Rector was also first given to him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispense the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that Right proceedeth only from the Custom now received in the Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hindrance may be well removed And to say the Truth this was the general opinion of the Church of England for many years after the Reformation and very few even of the Bishops themselves opposed it Till the Treaties about Marriage with Spain and France became the great occasion of corrupting the Court and Church and letting in a sort of Men who in pursuance of secret Articles were to effect an accommodation with Rome Vid. Dr. Heylin's Cyprianus Angl. Mr. Baxter against a Revolt to a Forreign Jurisd p. 25. alibi See also the late Bishop of Hereford's Naked Truth and therefore must settle the Jus Divinum of the Prelacy as the Council of Trent had done before them by taking the power of opposition and dissent out of the hands of the inferiour Clergy who generally abhorred the design from that time this new Doctrine has much grown upon the Nation and with a great deal of noise and confidence has been asserted by the main bulk of the Ecclesiasticks and yet some few of the most learned of them have declared against it I shall onely mention two both of eminent note and figure in the Church at this day I mean the Bishops of Worcester and Salisbury For the Bishop of Worcester I have cited his Irenicum so often already that it would be in vain to add any thing more the main design of that learned Tract especially the latter part of it is to prove that God has not by his Law settled any form of Church Government and he has for ever ruined the pretensions of Episcopacy to a Jus Divinum they say indeed he has retracted that Book but as long as he has not destroyed the reason of it we are well enough for it is upon the reason of the thing not the authority of his person how great soever that we depend and till that Book be undone as well as unsaid it will remain in full force and virtue for reason is always the same though Men and their Interests may vary The Bishop of Salisbury inferior to none in all the accomplishments of Gentleman Vindication of the Church of Scotland p. 306. States-Man and Divine spoke his thoughts freely at a time when Prelacy was in its Zenith thus At first every Bishop had but one Parish but afterwards when the numbers encreased that they could not conveniently meet in one place and when through the violence of persecution they durst not assemble in great multitudes the Bishops divided their charges into lesser Parishes and gave assignments to the Presbyters of particular Flocks which was done first in Rome in the beginning of the second Century c. And P. 310. I do not alledge a Bishop to be a distinct office from a Presbyter but a different degree of the same office c. P. 331. I acknowledge Bishop and Presbyter to be one and the same office and so plead for no new Office-bearer in the Church the first branch of their power is their authority to publish the Gospel to manage the worship and dispense the Sacraments and this is all that is of Divine Right in the Ministry in which Bishops and
time a power of installing them themselves when it cannot be done otherwise since naturally that which we have a right to do by another we have a right to do by our selves Nay what if not onely Monsieur Claude but Monsieur Dodwell too that speaking head of our high-flown Clergy acknowledges such a right in particular Societies of chusing and investing their Officers No matter whether it be reconcileable with the other parts of his Scheme or no Dodwel Separat of Churches p. 102. P. 52. In his Separation of Churches he speaks to this purpose The Church with whom God has made the Covenant is a Body Politick though not a Civil one and God has designed all persons to enter into this Society It is sufficient for my purpose that the Ecclesiastical Power be no otherwise from God than that is of every supream Civil Magistrate it is not usual for Kings to be invested into their Offices by other Kings but by their Subjects yet when they are invested that doth not in the least prejudice the absoluteness of their Monarchy where the Fundamental Constitutions of the respective places allow it to them much less doth it give any power over them to the persons by whom they are invested If the power of Episcopacy be Divine all that men can do in the case is onely to determine the person not to confine his power no act can be presumed to be the act of the whole Body P. 509. but what has passed them in their publick Assemblies in which Body is the Right of Government As nothing but the Society it self can make a valid conveyance of its right so it is not conceivable how the Society can do it by any thing but its own Act And when ever a person is invested into the Supream Power P. 522. and the Society over which he is placed is independant on other Societies such a person can never be placed in his power if not by them who must after be his subjects unless by his Predecessor which no Society can depend upon for a constant Rule of Succession I am apt to think this must have been the way of making Bishops at first how absolute soever I conceive them to be when they are once made This seems best to agree with the absoluteness of particular Churches P. 523. before they had by compact united themselves under Metropolitans and Exarchs into Provincial and Diocesan Churches And this seems to have been fitted for the frequent persecutions of those earlier Ages when every Church was able to secure its own succession without depending on the uncertain opportunities of the meeting of the Bishops of the whole Province And the alteration of this practice the giving the Bishops of the Province an interest in the choice of every particular Colleague seems not to have been so much for want of power in the particular Churches to do it as for the security of compacts that they might be certain of such a Colleague as would observe them It is probable that it was in imitation of the Philosophers Successions that these Ecclesiastical Successions were framed and when the Philosophers failed to nominate their own Successors the Election was in the Schools These are his words and they are too plain to need a Comment If every particular Church had Originally a power within it self to chuse and invest its Bishop and the concurrence of other Bishops herein was not for want of Power in that particular Church but only for securing the agreement of Bishops amongst themselves We have done with the necessity of a continued Line of Episcopal Ordinations and there may be true mission without it quod erat probandum But 2dly Should we grant that there is a necessity of an uninterrupted Line and that this as he learnedly speaks is a sufficient proof that there is such a Line yet it must be considered this necessity will onely prove that there must be some Bishops and Churches that are in the Line but it will not prove that they are all so nor that it is the case of those amongst us for though we may suppose that God has had a true Ministry in all Ages and will have that will not demonstrate that he hath such in England and therefore to prove the Ministry of the English Churches true he must have some better Evidence than the necessity of such a Line which will onely prove it is somewhere not that it is amongst us and it is but small satisfaction to us to know that there is a true Ministry some where in the World but no man in the World can tell where it is By this Gentlemans way of reasoning the Papists pretend to prove the Infallibility of their Church first they suppose the necessity of an Infallible Judge and then take it for granted that this Judge is to be found amongst them and truly Arcades ambo The Vindicator put a question to him and we should be glad of a better answer than he has yet thought fit to give us He desired T. W. to tell him whether this Line of Succession might be continued in a Schismatical Church for if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Catholick Church as this Man affirms such Schismatical Churches are indeed no Churches no parts of the Universal Church and so cannot be the Subjects of the Apostolical Power and if this Power cannot be derived through a Schismatical Church then must he grant either that the Church of England has not this Power or that the Papal Churches through which it runs are not Schismatical and if they be not his own Church must be so in separating from them for he holds separation to be utterly unlawful unless it be from a Schismatical Church His answer to this such as it is you have in the 23 page of his reply in these words I cannot understand his Logick in this if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Universal Church then such Schismatical Churches are no Churches But is not the consequence as plain as can be if Schism cut Men and Societies off from the Universal Church then such Schismatical Societies are no Churches Can they be Churches and yet cut off from the Universal Church Can they be cut off by Schism and still united to it He that does not understand the Logick of this does not understand the Logick of Common Sense but has he nothing farther to reply Yes he says Churches they are though Schismatical while they retain the Apostolical Succession But the Question is whether Schismatical Churches can retain the Apostolical Succession Since by Schism he says they are cut off from the Catholick Church and so Unchurched these things will require a second reading and a more direct reply and that I may provoke him to do it I shall lay the case before him in these three points 1. If any Schismatical Societies may still remain Churches then Schism as such does not cut Men and
Learned Grotius has fully proved that there never was a Council truly called General excepting that of the Apostles at Jerusalem that Councils have no governing Power Non ideo convocari Synodum quòd in co pars sit imperii Yea that the Church has no Legislative Power by Divine Right That what was written in Synods for Order and Ornament are not called Laws but Canons and have either the force of advice only Burnets Abridement p. 139. or they oblige by way of agreement c. And our Reforming Bishops Cranmer Tonstal and others being required to give their opinions concerning the Authority of General Councils declared that this Authority did not flow from the number of the Bishops but from the matter of their decisions and this indeed is the only true notion of Ministerial Power it depends purely upon the matter of their Canons not the Authority of the Person so that they can never by their Authority make a thing indifferent to become a Duty Praeeant ipsi judicio directivo says Grotius they are Councils not Parliaments and only to shew men what is Sin and Duty not to make any thing Duty which was not so before Dr. Sherlock fairly acquits himself of the Suspicion of ascribing unto a Council of Bishops Vind. of Prot. Princ. p. 30. Vind. of the Def. of Dr. St. p. 162. any Power in matter of Faith or Manners or Catholick Unity and because in a former Treatise he had let fall an Expression that might seem to give them such a Power he by much strugling gets from under it and says he meant no more than a Power of Deposing Heretical Bishops but withal adds It does not follow that any Bishops or any Number of Bishops however assembled have such an Authority to declare Heresie as shall oblige all men to believe that to be Heresie which they decree to be so and therefore the effects of those Censures must of Necessity depond upon that Opinion which People have of them those who believe the Censure just will withdraw from the Communion of such a Bishop those who do not will still communicate with him and whether they do right or wrong their own Consciences must judge in this World and God will Judge in the next And elsewhere he thus speaks As for Ecclesiastical Causes nothing is a pure Ecclesiastical Cause but what concerns the Communion of the Church who shall be received into Communion or câ—st out or put under some less Censures c. Here we see it is not in the Power of Councils or Synods to take away any of that Power from Presbyters that God has given them this is none of the Ecclesiastical Causes belonging to them This is more directly asserted by the Author of the Summary of the Controversies betwixt the Church of England P. 119. and the Church of Rome what he says of the Episcopal Office will hold true of the Ministerial in General That a General Council has no Authority to give away those Rights and Powers which are inherent in every Church and inseparable from the Ministerial Office for it is not in Ecclesiastical as it is in Civil Rights Men may irrevocably grant away their own Civil Rights and Liberties but all the Authority in the Church cannot give away it self nor grant the whole entire Episcopacy with all the Rights and Powers of it to any one Bishop If Bishops or Presbyters will not exercise that Power which God has given them they are accountable to their Lord for it but they cannot give it away neither from themselves nor from their Successors for it is theirs only to use not to part with and therefore every Bishop or Presbyter may reassume such Rights though a General Council should give them away because the Grant is void in it self By ancient Ecclesiastical custom Arch-Bishops were set over Bishops Vind. Prot. Prin. p. 72. and yet Dr. Sherlock confesses they have not direct Authority and Jurisdiction over them and if Bishops have no Superiority over Presbyters but what is grounded upon this Ecclesiastical Right it will not amount to formal Authority But 2. No Power can be claimed by Ecclesiastical Right but what has been acquired according to the Rules of those Councils and Customs by which they claim if it be a jus Ecclesiasticum they must come by it more Ecclesiastico in that method which Ecclesiastical Canons have prescribed and nothing is more evident than that the Rules of the Primitive Churches gave all the Presbyters and the People too a voice in the Election of their Bishops the African Bishops in a Council where Cyprian Presided Cypr. Ep. 68. Concil Nic. Arab. Can. Sozom. l. 1. c. 23. determined that Plebs maximè habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi St. Ambrose Ep. 82. Electio vocatio quae sit à tota Ecclesia verè cartò est divina vocatio ad munus Episcopi That this was the Primitive Custom none will deny though some Question whether this be absolutely necessary or no and I will not say it is necessary where the Office stands upon a Divine Institution but certainly where it only stands upon the Plea of Ecclesiastical Right the Ecclesiastical Method is absolutely necessary to give that Right for our Bishops cannot pretend to stand upon the Foundation of those Canons which they do not observe in their entrance upon that Office since those Canons must needs bind them as much in their Acquisition of Power as the People in their Subjection to them The best Title therefore our Bishops have to shew for their Prelatical Jurisdiction is the Law of the Land Our learned Historians and Lawyers tell us that before William the Conquerors time there were no such Courts in England as we now call Courts Ecclesiastical or Spiritual only by the Laws of Ethelstane the Bishops were allowed to be present with the Sheriffs in their Tourne Courts Brompton de Leg. Ethels where all Ecclefiastical matters were heard and determined Sir Edward Cook says William the Conquerour was the first that by his Charter to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln prohibited Sheriffs to intermeddle any more with Ecclesiastical Causes but leave them wholly to the Bishop 4. l. Institut c. 53. p. 259. and yet there appears no enrolment of any such Charter till the 2d of Rich. 2d And Cook himself mentions the Red Book of Henry the first de general placit Comitat. extant in the Office of the Kings Rememb in the Exchequer wherein 't is said of the Sheriffs Tourne Courts Ibi agantur primo debita Christianitatis jura secundo Regis placita postremo causae singulorum and he adds certain it is the Bishops Consistories were erected and Causes Ecclesiastical removed from the Tourne to the Consistory after the making of the said Red Book Nothing will set this matter in a better Light than our Acts of Parliament especially that of the 37. Hen 8. Entituled An
proving the Dissenters Schismaticks and the Vindicator repay'd him with another of those that have defended them from that Charge And adds whether these have not done as much to prove the Imposers Schismaticks as the former to prove the Dissenters such is referred not to the judgment of an interessed Party but of all the unbyass'd part of Mankind Our famous Surveyor asks Where shall we have a Council of such For those that have a Liturgy and Ceremonies and Bishops are certainly for us and those that are for none of these are all byassed against us But Sir the Question to be referr'd is not whether a Liturgy and Ceremonies and Bishops are lawful but whether such as ours be so and whether it be lawful to take those Oaths and make those Declarations that have been required of us and as there is no Church upon Earth requires the same things as this of our Nation so we have judges enough of this matter that are disinteressed without going to Pagans or Atheists for them and what their thoughts are has been already in part discovered He would help T.W. to prove that a Man who is not divested of all Christian Temper Humility and Consideration Review p. 34. may yet be in a desperate condition because it seems He may not have Grains enough of these Virtues to save him What! must we have a statical Divinity too If a Man has Christian Faith though it be but as a Grain of Mustard-seed it will be effectual to Salvation and I know not why the same may not be said of all other Graces he that has them not in the prevailing degree has them not at all that Man in whom Pride is Habitually prevalent has not the least Grain of Christian Humility The Gentleman therefore must find out some other Salvo against the next time The Vindicator took notice of a blunder in the Citizen in calling the same Person Sceptical a Slighter of our Religion Obstinate and Perverse c. And thought Sceptical and Obstinate did not jump well together This Gentleman endeavours to help him here too and says T.W. intended these as so many several Characters and did not intend to unite them all in one Person But it is certain he did he speaks in the singular number if thou be Sceptical I shall altogether glory in thy Scoffs c. These are all joined together no disjunctive particle betwixt them all lodged in one single Person in a distinct Paragraph as a third Man distinct both from the Church-man and Dissenter and this is so plain that Alderman himself as this Author calls him was too honest to deny it The Question concerning the ninth Article of the Creed and in what sence T. W. sets it up as a Standard of Controversie is fully manifested in the Preface to this Paper And 't is a very groundless suggestion that we have any design to lay it aside that we may impose whatever Notions we please upon the World we very well approve of the Creeds and have subscribed to them and to the Doctrine of the Church as laid down in the Articles and it were to be wished your own Ministers kept as close to those Articles in their Preaching as ours do The Vindicator has been already defended in the exceptions he took at T. W's date of the Origination of the Catholick Church This Gentlaman says he spoke of it under the denomination of Christian which is very false as those that read the passage will see however the Alderman is beholden to his brisk Champion for he 'll say any thing in the World to help him at a dead lift He puts the question Whether when our Saviour said upon this Rock I will build my Church he did not speak of it as yet unbuilt I answer if by unbuilt he means unfinished it is true for the Church Universal is a building in fieri and will not be compleated till the End of the World But if by unbuilt he means unbegun I say there is no reason so to understand the words of our Saviour for he has been building his Church upon the same Rock there spoken of from the Fall of Man but I am loth to spend time upon such quibbles if the Gentleman had mentioned the Christian Church or if he had not said a few Lines before that the Angels were the most glorious Members of the Church I dare say the Vindicator would not have taken notice of it Review p. 35. nor have blamed him no more than Tertullian and Jerome for speaking of the Christian Church in its infancy And though the Vindicator acknowledges the Apostles and Disciples were the Church he did not say the whole Church much less that the Church then had its first existence I hope when these Gentlemen call the Church of England the Church they do not mean the Church Universal I desire this Gentleman to give us some better proof than his bare Word that ever the Apostles imposed upon the Disciples things indifferent P. 36. especially because they tell us it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them not to do so And he must also prove that the Bishops are their Successors in the same plenitude of power till then he beats the Air but gains no Victory The Vindicator bewails the slow Progress the Gospel has made in the World and imputes it in part to the needless Ceremonies with which Men have encumbred it and want of Personal worth in the managers To this he replies The Divines of the Church of England are no way concerned in it No What! not when there is so much notorious Debauchery amongst us that insolently out-faces all the Letters and Orders whereby our Pious King and Queen have stirred up Magistrates and Ministers to do what they can for the suppression of it And yet these Gentlemen see no want of success of the Gospel in England but are for recommending to the Dissenters a Journey to China or Tartary Alass Man The design of the Gospel is not onely to give Nations another Title but to make the Inhabitants other Men and if you be not sensible that has made but a slow Progress in England in that which is its main design you 'll make but an ill Watch-man upon the Walls of your Church And if our Ministers should take such a journey as you are pleased to assign them it is not the first time that they have been forced to leave the dear and pleasant land of their Nativity and expose themselves to the fatigues of a tedious Voyage and all the dangers and hardships of a Pagan Wilderness that there at least they might enjoy that liberty of serving God according to his Word Vid. The Life of Mr. Elliot amongst the Barbarous Indians to whom they brought the Glorious Gospel and what toils they under-went and what success God was pleased to give them the whole World has seen and admired The Citizen acknowledged that in the Primitive times there was
this Gentleman had made Preaching the Gospel of Reconciliation one of them I am sure for that end he press'd that Text How can they preach except they be sent Does he mean the Sacraments why the Fathers of his own Church tell him all Antiquity allows the Baptism of Private Persons in Case of necessity and why not the other Sacrament too the Words of Tertullian are well known offers tingis he argues from that Text He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and to his Father It is the Authority of the Church that hath put a difference between the Clergy and the Laity Tert. de Corona Militis de Baptism p. 602.603 Laices etiam jus est Sufficiat in necessitatibus and which hath established this sacred honour for the Body of the Clergy this is so true that where there is no Clergy-man to be had thou dost Celebrate thou dost Baptize and thou art to thy self a Priest now where there are three there is a Church though they be Laicks for every one lives by his own Faith and God is no respecter of Persons If therefore these Abyssines deprived themselves so long of the Sacraments they were needlesly scrupulous Ruffinus tells us that when Frumentius by the Providence of God was advanced to some Power in the Realm during the Kings Minority he carefully sought out such as were Christians among the Roman Merchants and exhorted them to meet together and pray which they did and when the Indians came amongst them they instructed them in the Christian Faith and all this was done before he took his Journey to Alexandria and tho' Valesius will needs be so nice as to distiuguish betwixt Oratories and Churches and betwixt Preaching and instructing I yet here was the great End of Churches and Bishops and Sermons happily attained viz. The Conversion and Instruction of Poor Souls a greater Seal of Mission than that of working Miracles wherewith 't is said Frumentius returned The Gentleman 's other instances prove no more but that in the sence of those times it was very desireable to have Ministerial Ordination and that they rather chose to be at a great deal of pains than to want it but it is not the desireableness but the necessity of it that the Vindicator denied and the Church of England you see will stand by him in it Nor was it his design to ridicule the Ceremony of laying on of Hands But that foolish conceit that by such contact there is a transition of power from one to another in a continued Line The Presbyterians themselves always use that Apostolical rite in their Ordinations tho' they do not think it necessary to the conveyance of Authority He charges the Vindicator with want of Sence or Integrity in reporting the Notion of a Patriarchal Right to Soveraignty But if he can explain that Notion any better 't would have been a very obliging thing to have done it I must confess I am as dull as the Vindicator in understanding it and cannot imagine how that Patriarchal Right should exist any where but in the Line of the Eldest Family in the World For if at any time you set up a Younger Brother it must be upon some other Title not the Patriarchal but either the express Nomination of God or Election or Conquest or the like But to claim the Regal Power by Patriarchal Right without pretending at least to the Line of Primogeniture is a thing I despair of ever understanding That this Patriarchal Right was ascribed to our Kings in the Late Reigns is too well known and will not be so easily forgotten by the Nation as it is denied by those that then filled Mens Ears with it E. of W. a Noble Peer pretty well known to T. W. once publickly Animadverted upon this Doctrine and the Authors of it and observed that such a right could be but in one Person in the World at once and no Person in the World could tell who that was What he mentions p. 56. concerning the Decency of Ceremonies has been obviated in the former part and there he may learn from the Bishops and Doctors of the Church of England that the Worship of God is never the better performed for them and therefore never the more decently and Bishop Sanderson condemns him for a Superstitious Fop that thinks otherwise this case is therefore adjudged already See the Review p. 57. If the Motion he makes of allowing the Bishops to be judges of Decency is to be so understood as that whatever the Clergy in Convocation Judge Fit and Decent must presently be submitted to and that the Pastors of Particular Churches or People how mean or half-witted soever must not make use of their discerning faculty this I confess is one way to end controversies by tying us all up to the Inspirations of the Canonical Tribe and this is that some of them have been long aiming at but surely 't is too far of the day to impose at this rate upon English Men. The Survey or endeavours to justifie their Excommunications by the old pretence of contempt and malice but these Men ought to be very certain that it is Malice and not real Scruple of Conscience against which they so severely proceed And they have no power to impose those things upon Men which they know thousands are dissatisfied in and they themselves acknowledge render their Duties not a whit more pleasing and acceptable to God That scandalous and disorderly Persons are to be disciplin'd according to the demerit of their Actions and Behaviour No Church or sober Christian that I know of will deny but that persons of Orthodox Judgment and Sober Conversation should be Excommunicated Fined Imprisoned Banished and Ruined because they dare not comply with such things as have been imposed in England is a practice not to be justified by any Rule in our Bibles or President in the Reformed Churches but is indeed contrary to Humanity it self To what he says about the Greek Churches p. 59. it is sufficient to reply If the procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son be not an Article of Faith we desire to have a rule to distinguish what is de fide and what not in those Creeds But if it and the Greek Churches object against it then T. W. has excluded them unless he will say that ours is not the true Athanasian Creed and if it be not why must it be put into the Liturgy and Subscribed and Assented to under that denomination He endeavours to help his Alderman out about the same Table and tells us he meant something else by it than the same Table in Specie but since he has not told us what that more is we may suppose he wanted a handsome Salvo for he durst not say it must be the same numerically and it would be hard to find any thing betwixt those two kinds of Identity He tells us To have the same Prayers is to join with the Church
Oecumenius who wrote above a thousand years after Christ nay the very Postscripts themselves prove that they are of much later date than the Epistles for in one of them Phrygia is called Pacatiana which was not the name of it till above three hundred years after Christ when it was conquered by one Pacatius a Roman General and after him called Pacatiana and in the Postscript to Titus it is said the Epistle was writ from Nicopolis which it could not be since in the Epistle it self Paul speaks of Nicopolis a place whither he designed to go and Winter and would have Titus come to him there come to me to Nicopolis for there not here I design to Winter these Postscripts therefore betray themselves by their own language And he should have told us what there is in the word Angel that will demonstrate a Diocesan Bishop but instead thereof tells us a long story out of Dr. Hammond which is worse than impertinent for it affirms that those Angels were not Diocesan Bishops but Metropolitanes or Arch-Bishops that had Bishops under them Vid. Dr. Sherlock Vindic. of Prot. Princ. p. 71. now our learned Church Men acknowledge that Metropolitanes are not of Divine but of Ecclesiastical Institution and have no proper Jurisdiction over Bishops and they generally desert Doctor Hammond in this Notion but this Gentleman had not considered so far but found a large Paragraph that would prove the largeness of those Churches and thought he had got a prize in short let them but acknowledge Presbyters to be Bishops as Dr. Hammond says they all were in Scripture Times Dr. Morrice of Diocesan Ep. scop p. 27. and let the Bishops be Metropolitans holding only by Ecclesiastical Institution without any proper Authority over the Presbyters and we shall not much differ from them Let us now see what evidence may be brought to prove that Presbyters are of the same Order with Bishops and have the same power as they And 1st It is no contemptible argument that Presbyters are frequently called Bishops in Scripture that the names are used promiscuously the greatest Patrons of the Prelacy acknowledge the Elders of the Church of Ephesus are so called Acts 20.28 The Ministers of the Church of Philippi are called Bishops and it is observable that the Syriack Version which is very antient has but one word for Presbyter and Bishop now if there be so material a disserence betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter as some men would make it is strange there should not be a distinct word to express it by if only such as are now owned to be Bishops were called Presbyters the argument would not be so strong for they might think to evade it by saying the lesser is included in the greater and they are Presbyters before they are Bishops but when even those who are acknowledged to be meer Presbyters are called Bishops it is very considerable for the lesser cannot include the greater it would sound very strange in England for a Presbyter to write himself Bishop and if the Apostles had known any thing of this mighty distinction upon which the Fate of so many Churches and Salvation of so many Souls is made to depend we cannot suppose they would have laid such a temptation before us to draw us into an opinion of the Identity of Order by the indifferent and promiscuous use of the Titles Dr. Morrice in his defence of Diocesan Episcopacy makes very little account of the Title of Bishops being given to Presbyters in the Church of Philippi Pag. 29 30. and is pleased to say This debate about the Bishops of Philippi had soon been at an end if our Author had thought fit to explain himself and told us what he meant by Bishops for were the Pastors of single Congregations respectively in Covenant Then there must have been several Congregations or Churches in the same City which Mr. Clarkson will not allow Or were those Bishope only Presbyters ruling the Church of Philippi with common and equal authority Then our Authour must give up the question and instead of making many Bishops must own that there was none at all there but onely Presbyters will he contend that there were no other Bishops than Presbyters That will be to abuse his Reader with the Ambiguity of a Word which he takes in one sence and the Church in another that many Presbyters might belong to one Congregation none ever denied but that many Bishops in the Allow'd and Ecclesiastical sence of the Word had the oversight of one City seems strange and incredible to the Antient Christians Chrysostom observing this expression of the Bishops of Philippi seems to be startled with it What many Bishops in one City By no means it cannot be what then They were not Bishops properly so called but Presbyters I have taken the more notice of this Paragraph Works of the Learned Augustin p. 25. because La Crose magnifies it as a terrible Dilemma though he has lamentably spoiled it in the Abridgment but taking it as the Dr. has laid it before us I see not how it can much weaken our Cause or fortifie his own We do really maintain that these Bishops were Presbyters ruling the Church of Philippi with common consent and whether this be the Ecclesiastical sence of the word or no we are not much concerned to enquire it is sufficient to our purpose that it is the true Scriptural sence and the only one too Communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesâ—e gubernabuntur Hieron 1. Tit. for we never find the word in all the New Testament signifying an Ecclesiastical Order of Men Superior to Presbyters we deny not but that this Name very early began to be appropriated to the Senior Presbyter in a Church or City who yet never pretended to be a distinct Order from the rest of his Colleagues of the Presbytery for a long time afterwards But as the word thus used is taken in an Ecclesiastical not Scriptural sence so the Dignity thereby expressed is of meer Ecclesiastical not Divine Institution And whereas Chrysostom says They were not Bishops properly so called he can mean no more by it but that they were not such Bishops as that word was made to signifie by common usage in his time and we grant they were not for the Distinction of Office and Degree not being known in Scripture the word could not be used in that distinguishing sence there Thus a Learned Canonist gives it as the Vogue of many Primitive Authors Lancel Instit Lag Can. l. 1. Tit. 21. p. 32. That Bishop and Presbyter were formerly the same and that Presbyter was the Name of the Persons Age Bishop of his Office but there being many of these in every Church they determined amongst themselves for the preventing of Schism that one should be Elected by themselves to be set over the rest and the Person so elected retained the Name of Bishop for Distinction sake the rest were only called Presbyters and in
same over all Churches and this Surveyor says The Bishops succeed them in the same Authority only the exercise thereof is limited by humane Agreements and asks the Vindicator whether a Bishop be not as truly a Bishop and a Presbyter as truly a Presbyter in any other Man's Diocese or Parish as in his own But here he puts things together that should be kept distinct a Bishop in the received and ordinary sence of the word is a Relative term and always connotes a Bishoprick either in Possession or Title as his Charge and Cure and therefore though he be Bishop in another Man's Diocese he is not Bishop of that Diocese indeed as a Minister of the Gospel he may Preach and Administer the Sacraments any where that Providence casts him and gives him an opportunity of so doing and if this be all the Episcopal Power they pretend to we will allow it to be as Universal as they please but the Power of Jurisdiction over Ministers and People which they call the Apostolical Power they have not any where but in their own Dioceses and yet even that Power the Apostles had all the World over and could not be limited in it by any Humane Agreements whatsoever By this Notion our Gentleman has advanced the Bishop of Chester has no more Authority in Cheshire than the Bishop of Rome Review p. 40. but what is founded on Humane Agreements and what thanks his Diocesan will give him for such a Doctrine I cannot tell for he afterwards acknowledges that the Bishop of Rome has no Authority at all in England which makes the whole Power of our Bishops to depend upon Humane Agreements without which he that has none at all would have as much as they Or perhaps it is liable to a worse Consequence than that for if every Bishop has Universal Power in all Dioceses by the Grant of Christ and is only restrained in the Exercise thereof by Humane Agreements then may the Bishop of Rome with Apostolical Authority make Canons for all England and Excommunicate us all if we receive them not for Christ gave him Universal Power only it was limited by Humane Agreements which he never agreed to and if he had that could not render his Act unauthoritative but only irregular Only the best on 't is any Bishop in England may make Canons for Rome too and Damn them all Pope and Cardinals and all if they will not obey I would gladly understand this Doctrine a little better and therefore I beg the favour of this Gentleman to tell me what Agreements these are of which he speaks where and when made and by whom Are they only made by the Bishops amongst themselves or had the People a hand therein or does he mean the Laws of the Land If Bishops can by mutual Agreement so restrain the Exercise of their Power why may they not by the like Agreements constitute one to be Head over them all I wish this Gentleman would go to School to a learned Doctor of his own Church though he was not in Communion with him in these Notions yet I hope no Schismatick for all that Treat of Supremacy p. 120 121. 't is the worthy Dr. Isaac Barrow whose words are The Offices of an Apostle and Bishop are not in their own Nature well consistent for the Apostleship is an extraordinary Office charged with the Instruction and Government of the whole World and calling for an answerable Care the Apostles being Rulers as St. Chrysostom saith ordained by God Rulers not taking several Nations and Cities but all of them in common intrusted with the whole World but Episcopacy is an ordinary standing charge affixed to One place and requiring a special Attendance there who as St. Chrysostom saith do sit and are employed in one place Now he that hath such a General Care can hardly discharge such a particular Office and he that is fixed to so particular an Attendance can hardly look well after so General a Charge I need not repeat what has been said about the Powers of Timothy and Titus what the Gentleman here alledges is anticipated and answered He must prove that Presbyters may not do what Timothy and Titus did that they may not ordain that they may not reprove one another for their Faults as they have occasion He says These are the Powers that Bishops have exercised all along and so have Presbyters too and if exercise proves the Title they must therefore be Bishops also He adds The Congregational Invention allows of no such Officers the most ordinary Pastors being all Independent without ever a Timothy or Titus to Govern them and therefore by Scripture stands condemned and if it be so I am sure Episcopacy is involved in the same Condemnation for the Bishops are by their own Party accounted the only Pastors and the Inferiour Clergy are but their Curates and yet these Pastors have none to supervise them but are as Independent as can be there 's no Paul to govern these Timothies and Titus's and therefore their Churches are to use his own words plainly contrary to the Apostolical Pattern And Dr. Morrice has told us That it is not essential to a Bishop to have many Congregations under him Bishops may be Pastors of single Congregations yea they may not have one Presbyter under them Review p. 60. and yet be Bishops still for Milles the Martyr was a Bishop and yet had no Christian in his Diocese and yet I think there are few Pastors of our Congregational Churches but what have Presbyters under them so that Episcopacy and Independency may very well comport together for Episcopacy is Independent and may be Congregational and if the one be condemned by Scripture the other must fall with it He says It is an idle fancy to suppose that the Office of Timothy and Titus was itinerant for then says he they were out of their Office when they were at home the one in Ephesus and the other in Crete If by calling those places their Homes he would insinuate that they were their proper Diocesan Sees where they were to reside 't is a begging of the Question and every Body knows that's the way of Idle Persons it is as certain as our Bibles can make it that Timothy was only to abide at Ephesus for a Season till Paul's return out of Macedonia 1 Tim. 3.14 after which he accompanied Paul into Asia Chap. 4.13 from thence to Italy Heb. 13.23 thence Paul declares he would send him to Philippi Chap. 2.19 and we find him at Rome again Col. 1.1 And Titus was so far from being resident at Crete Gal. 2.1 3. 2 Cor. 2.12 7. 13. 12.8 2 Tim. 4.10 that he was commanded away to Nicopolis before Winter Chap. 3.12 he was sent to Corinth and Dalmatia and went up to Jerusalem with Paul and came to him during his Imprisonment at Rome These Removes our Gent. would have us to think were their Episcopal Visitations but that would
from London to the Presbytery of Edenburgh Calder p. 474. after it was Revised by the King 's own Hand The words are Beloved Brethren after my hearty Commendations these Presents are to shew you that I received Two of your Letters One directed to His Majesty the other to my Self for my Perusal the same I read closed and three days before the Conference delivered into His Majesties Hand and received it back again after some short Speeches upon those words in your Letter the Gross Corruptions of this Church which were then expounded and I was assured all Corruptions dissonant from the Word of God or contrary thereunto should be amended The Twelfth of January was the day of Meeting at which time the Bishops were call'd upon and gravely desired to advise upon all the Corruptions of this Church in Doctrine Ceremonies and Discipline and as they would answer it to God in Conscience and to His Majesty upon their Obedience that they should return the Third day after which was Saturday Accordingly they returned to His Majesty and when the Matter was propounded to them as before they answered All was Well And when His Majesty with great fervency brought instances to the contrary they upon their Knees with great earnestness craved that nothing should be altered lest the Popish Recusants punished for Disobedience and the Puritans punished by Deprivation ab officio beneficio for Nonconformity should say they had just Cause to insult upon them as Men who had endeavoured to bind them to that which by their own Mouths now was confess'd to be Erroneous After five Hours Dispute had by His Majesty against them and his resolution for Reformation intimated to them they were dismissed for that day c. but it appears by the result their importunity overcame him at last Dr. Fuller observes That whereas before this Conference it was disputable whether the North where he long lived or the South whither he lately came would prevail most on the King's Judgment in Church Government now this Question was clearly decided I hope now the Vindicator may be allowed to have some Grains of Shame and Modesty common to Humane Nature though he ventured to say That the English Prelates flattered King James into an ill Opinion of the Puritans and the thing is not so plain or known a Contradiction as the Citizen pretends and for him to tell the World at this time a day of the famous Piety and Virtue of that Prince is ridiculous enough Alas the History of his Reign is too well known his Contending with Parliaments his Encouraging of Papists his Secret Articles upon the Treaties with Spain and France his greedy Desire of Arbitrary Power his Prostituting the Honours and Wasting the Treasures of the Nation after a most inglorious manner produced those ill Effects under which these Kingdoms have laboured and languished ever since till by the late happy Revolution our Antient Rights and privileges were raised out of the Grave recognised and settled upon their true Basis once more The Unhappy Government of K. Charles the First is now sufficiently Unveiled especially by Rushworth's Impartial Collections The Vindicator briefly hinted at those Irregular and Arbitrary Practices that forced the Parliament to take up Arms for the Defence of their Liberties and for rescuing the King out of the hands of those Councellors that had so fatally misled him T. W. calls this Notorious Calumny and says he could answer all the Instances particularly but he refers to the Rolls and Acts of Parliament The Vindicator is willing to joyn issue with him here and appeals to the several Petitions Remonstrances and Speeches made in Parliament as they stand upon Record in the Journals of both Houses and they are now made so publick that no Man but one who has no Reputation to lose would have offered to deny that which all the Nation that can read Books know to be true And I will also tell him that there is not one passage mentioned by the Vindicator concerning the Male Administration of that King but what he may find in the Supplement to Baker 's Chronicle a History never suspected for Disloyalty but evidently partial the other way The Vindicator renew'd the Challenge to Name four Persons in that Parliament Dr. Burnet tells us the Duke of Hamilton was dissatisfied with the Courses some of the Bishops had followed before the Troubles began and could not but impute their first rise to the Provocations that had been given by them Memoirs p. 408. that were not in full Communion with the Church of England when the War began It is true many of them that were for Episcopacy were highly offended at the Behaviour of some of the Bishops as appears by the Speeches of the Lords Falkland and Digby both great Royalists and for my part I desire no other Evidence of the intolerable Usurpations of the Laudensian Party than what those Noble Lords have given us which being now in so many Hands by the Publishing the third part of Rushworths Collections I will not transcribe The Nonconformists indeed generally joyned with the Parliament in that Cause which was doubtless as just and necessary when first undertaken as ever was carried upon the Point of a Sword But that it was without the least design upon the Kings Person their Solemn League and Covenant plainly proves and the many Declarations and Remonstrances which they afterwards made when they saw new designs laid and pursued In the Year 1648. When the Republican Faction was at the highest the Ministers called Presbyterian in and about London fearing that which afterwards happened boldly Published a Vindication of themselves and Exhortation to the People part of which I shall here Transcribe to let the World see how shamefully they have been abused about the Death of that King their Words are these To this Vindication we are compell'd at this time Vindicat. of the Minist Printed for T. Underhil Ann. 1648. Subscribed by C. Burgess D. D. W. Gouge D. D. E. Stanton D. D. T. Temple D. D. G. Walker E. Calamy B. D. J. Whitaker D. Câ—wdrey W. Spurstow L. Seaman D. D. Sim. Ashe T. Case N. Proffect T. Thorowgood E. Corbet H. Roborough A. Jackson J. Nalton T. Cawton C. Offspring Sa. Clark Io. Wall F. Roberts M. Haviland J. Sheffield W. Harrison W. Jenkin J. Viner E. Blackwel J. Cross J. Fuller W. Taylor P. Witham Fra. Peek Ch. 〈◊〉 J. Wallis T. Watson T. Bedford W. Wickins T. Manton D. D. Tho. Gouge W. Blackmore R. Mercer R. Robinson J. Glascock T. Whately J. Lloyde J. Wells B. Needler N. Staniforth S. Watkins J. Tice J. Stileman Jos Ball. J. Devereux P. Russel J. Kirby A. Barham because there are many who very confidently yet most unjustly charge us to have been formerly instrumental toward the taking away the Life of the King and because also there are others who in their Scurrilous Pasquils and Libels as well as with their Virulent Tongues represent us
was too easie a Task these Gentlemen were engaged in to require so much help it 's a beaten Road in which they were to Travel and as I do not find that the Papists offered any thing of late but what has been in substance answered a thousand times so it was not necessary for our Doctors to set their Wits on the Rack for a Reply not indeed do I perceive any thing Method and Language excepted that pretends to be new nor is this any Diminution of their Honour but a Peace of Justice to the Memory and worth of those that have gone before them And I might add Fuller C. H. l. 9. p. 74. This clause was left out of the Art in 1571 but A. B Land would have it inserted again Parker Cartwright Walker Boyes Farmer Slater Manby Good all c. the Presbyterians had little Reason to fear that any of their Perswasion would be perverted their distinguishing Principle of the sufficiency of the Scripture will infallibly secure them whilst they adhere unto it But many of our Churchmen had instill'd into their Followers very odd Notions concerning the Power of the Church in Matters of Faith as in the twenty Article and of the Apostolical Succession and Authority of Bishops and their Power of Judging what is fit and decent in the Worship of God to which all others must submit and concerning the binding force of old Canons and Councils and such Doctrines as these would be in danger to betray men into the Arms of that Church that can pretend as high in these matters as any and it is certain in Fact some of their Bishops and Doctors and Clergy fell in with them and it was time for them to bestir themselves to deliver their men out of the Snares which they had helped to lay for them And the Dissenters were very well pleased to see those Learned Men baffling the Papists upon such Principles as they had reason to hope would set the Authors themselves more upright than before some of them had been those that read Dr. Sherlocks Preservatives against Popery and what he there says concerning the Nature of Gospel Worship That God will not now have a Temple nor is his Presence appropriated to any place and the like and compare it with that he has formerly writ especially in that Book wherein he told us Vind. Defence of Dr. St. p. 13. that Christianity is nothing else but Mystical Judaism will find that his late Polemical Engagements were so very beneficial to himself that it had been a thousand pitties to have taken the work out of his Hands And what I have collected out of these Modern debates concerning Church-Unity Communion Succession c. may convince any man that we had all the reason in the World to make them fair way and room when they were got into the good old Road of Scripture Catholick Notions that would infallibly confound the Papists and when they had done that would very much contribute to the reconciling of Protestants amongst themselves The Author of the Review takes upon him to affirm that none of our Ministers endeavoured at that time to fortifie his Conventicle against Popish Delusions but how can he expect to be believed in that which 't is as impossible for him to know as to be an Ubiquitarian and in all the Conventicles in England at the same time and as he can never prove it to be true so there are thousands in England know it to be false and are able to testifie that notwithstanding their Obligations to the Government their Ministers never failed to confute Popish Tenets when they fell in their way and that not seldom they would go a step or two out of their way to meet them As unhappy is he in the little stories that follow Dr. Owen was in Fee with King James and yet was dead several years before Our present Patrons were the men pickt up at Court to compleat our Ruine and yet I know of no Patrons we have for our Liberty but the King Lords and Commons I hope he does not mean them We know very well what Bishops and others were of the Ecclesiastical Commission in the Bishop of Londons Case and in that of Cambridge and Maudlin Colledge in Oxford not one Presbyterian amongst them Let this Gentleman prove that any Ministers of ours assisted at Jesuitical Intreagues or had Mony sprinkled amongst them to carry on those designs and by my Consent whoever is found Guilty shall be his Bondslave but by no means let Confidence and Noise and loud Appeals be taken for Evidence against them Amongst all that Croud of Writers that give us the History of the late Revolution there is scarcely one of them but acknowledges that the Dissenters were aware of the Popish design of taking away the Test and would not consent to it though for the Penal Laws they thought many of them might be very well spared and I challenge him to prove that either Mr. Lob or any other Person amongst those called Presbyterian and Congregational and we have nothing to do with others ever advised King James to any thing but what our Present King and Parliament have thought fit to establish by Law If as this Gentleman tells us a little Money Review p. 33. and a Toleration will make the Dissenters so easie and quiet and well satisfied it is a sign they are not the worst tempered People in the World and it were well if our Churchmen were as easily pleased for what my Lord Falkland a great Royalist said of some of the Bishops in 1641 they were so cordially Papists that it was all that fifteen hundred Pounds a Year could do to keep from Confessing it I am afraid is too true concerning many of our Clergy in another respect it is as much as some hundreds a year can do to keep them Quiet and Content under the present Government However we are obliged to him for telling us what the sober thinking People judge of us it seems They do not stick to say that our Zeal against Popery is all Counterfeit that we would be better Conformists if Popery should prevail than we are now but he should have told us who these sober thinking People are for many will presume to dignifie themselves with those Epithets See the Review Ibid. that have as little right to 'em as any People in the World and it is usual enough for a Mob of Ecclesiastical Politico's to get together and when they are well heated with drinking Healths to the Church of England and have liberally Cursed and Damned the Dissenters then step forth and look big and think themselves capable of reporting the opinion of all the sober thinking men of the Nation and I am the more inclin'd to believe that it is a Cabal of such men as these that have chosen this Gentleman for their Speaker because our own experience assures us those Conformists that are really most sober have always