they have considered things who are so far carried with their Zeal against the established Government of this Church as to make much use of some passages of the Schoolmen and Canonists that deny them to be distinct Orders for these are the very dregs of Popery N. B. the one raising the Priests higher for the sake of Transubstantiation the other pulling the Bishops lower for the sake of the Popes Supremacy and by such means bringing them almost to an equality So partial are some men to their particular Conceits that they make use of the most mischievous Topicks when they can serve their turn not considering how much farther these Arguments will run if they ever admit them So that although the Phrase of Priests or Bishops might have been used in former times as it was in a Paper printed among the Addenda to the first part of the Doctor 's History p. 324. which Paper was written about six years before the Necessary Erudition as is proved p. 365. of the first part Yet when our Dissenters read as no doubt they did these Remarks of the Doctor 's concerning the rise and mischievous tendences of it their presumption in urging it from that Paper where it is so shamefully condemned is as unpardonable as their endeavour to fasten it on the Necessary Erudition where the contrary is evidently asserted And is this the great Reverence that our Dissenters have for the first Reformers thus to wrest and abuse their Writings by altering their Words curtailing their Sentences and representing them as contradicting themselves as well as the Universal Church in all Ages before them in such an excellent Book and to object that against them which their Adversaries who watched for such an advantage could never find This is no otherwise to honour them than to call them to a second Martyrdom more inglorious and hateful to them than the first And yet these Dissenters could not but know that all they who had a hand in compiling that Book were either Diocesan Bishops or such Divines as lived in a willing submission to them And these things are sufficient to shew that the Dissenters are more genuine Sons of some other Church than of the Church of England according to its Primitive Constitution And thus the Declaration mentioned by our Author to be subscribed by Tho. Cromwell c. which says That in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but only of Deacons or Ministers Priests or Bishops as also the Opinions of Tindal Lambert and Dr. Barnes must be submitted to the more mature and authorized Judgment of the State Civil and Ecclesiastical expressed in the Necessary Erudition And the private Sentiments of such Divines as have written from the days of Edward VI. until now must be adjudged to be conformable to the Judgment and Determination of the Church which hath been established by Law in their days to which also they generally subscribed and then I need say no more but that the Forms of Ordaining and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons will determine the Question whether from the beginning of our Reformation the Church of England hath acknowledged three Orders viz. of Bishops Priests and Deacons or two only And whether the Church-Government established by Law ever since the days of Edward VI. hath not been by Diocesan Bishops But I would ask these men Could they have conformed to Episcopacy and Liturgy under King Henry the Eighth or Edward the Sixth and can they not now Was not Episcopacy the same then as it is now and the Liturgie much better now than it was then Could you conform to Henry the Eighth's Primer to his six Articles and seven Sacraments Or to the Liturgie established by King Edward the Sixth wherein were many things that were deservedly accounted Ineptias As in the Communion-Office where they commend to the mercy of God all his Servants departed hence from us And that God would command our Prayers and Supplications by the ministry of his holy Angels to be brought up into his holy Tabernacle The commending Auricular and Secret Confession to the Priest And in the Office of Baptism enjoyning a great part of that Office to be performed the people standing at the Church-door and then to take the Child by the right hand and lead it towards the Font To sign it with the sign of the Cross on the Breast as well as the Forehead The use of Exorcism in these words I command thee thou unclean Spirit in the Name of the Father c. to come out and depart from this Infant The dipping the Child three times in the Water except in case of weakness first on the right side then on the left and then with the Face towards the Water Then to put on it the Crysom saying Take thou this white Vesture for a Token of the Innocency c. Then to anoint the Infant on the head praying God to anoint him with the Vnction of the Spirit And to omit many other things anointing the sick and signing his breast with the sign of the Cross Commending at the time of Burial into the hands of God's mercy the Souls of the departed As for the Book of consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons it was added to the Liturgie by King Edward as it is received now with some few alterations mentioned by Dr. Burnet for the better p. 144. His Articles and Acts for Vniformity were as severe as any that are now And all these were established in Arch-bishop Cranmer's time and with his good Approbation In the Articles of Religion printed 1552. one concerning the Liturgy declares thus The Book of Prayers which of very late time was given to the Church of England by the Authority of Parliament containing the Manner and Form of praying and ministring the Sacraments and the Book of ordering Ministers of the Church set forth by the afore said Authority are godly and in no point repugnant to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel but agreeing thereunto furthering and beautifying the same not a little and therefore of all faithful Ministers of the Church of England and chiefly of the Ministers of the Lord ought to be received and allowed with all readiness of mind and thanksgiving and to be commended to the people of God. Besides the Discourse concerning Ceremonies retained in our Book was then set forth as also a Proclamation against those that innovate alter or leave down any Rite or Ceremony in the Church and that preach without License printed in the second year of Edward the Sixth to which the Form for Bidding of Prayers may be added See p. 128. of Dr. Burnet's second part All which notwithstanding Bucer and Peter Martyr approved of Conformity And Mr. Calvin himself both perswaded and approved all that was done in the second Liturgy of King Edward in an Epistle of his to the then Protector being the forty first Epistle in the Edition at Amsterdam 1667. to this effect Let there
THE Healing Attempt Examined and Submitted TO THE PARLIAMENT AND CONVOCATION Whether it be HEALING or HURTFUL To the Peace of the CHURCH JOB XXIV 2. Some remove the Land-marks they violently take away the Flocks and feed thereof Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed by Freeman Collins and are to be Sold by Richard Baldwin in the Old-Bailey MDCLXXXIX THE Healing Attempt EXAMINED c. THE Author begins with his Blessing And without Controversie a good Conceit therefore he seems to have of himself who attempts to impose his Conceptions on the Judgment of those Thirty Divines to whom he presents them and to perswade them to Abolish that Government and Liturgy to which they have obliged themselves to live in Obedience and Conformity by their Oaths and Subscriptions And immediately to his Blessing he subjoyns what implies a Curse for loading and increasing the Burthens of their Non-conforming Brethren though he seems to excuse it as being done against their wills And gives it as the Belief of his Brethren That no good will be done them by that Meeting or Convocation seeing they say it is impossible that they c. How this should stimulate them to a greater earnestness to do what they believe and have made impossible to be done I cannot see nor can the Author conceive seeing he thinks it unnecessary to propound any other Argument than what is contained in the Title i. e. Such a Moderation of Episcopacy that the Power be kept within the line of our first Reformers which will certainly destroy his Project and confirm the present Establishment as to Episcopacy and Liturgy from the strict imposition whereof he hopes to be freed The Author complains of want of time and search to excuse the slenderness of his Attempt But if Mr. Jo. Humphryes be the Author I suppose he hath had sufficient time since his renouncing his re-ordination which was about Twenty Years since and that he had made his search before he with the help of other his Non-Con-Brethren set forth their Reply to the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet wherein the chiefest of his present Arguments were then urged and shortly after refuted as by the following Account will hereafter appear He tells his Readers That it is impossible for the Dissenters to Vnite if it be still affirmed That the Bishop and Presbyters are not of the same Order That the Power of Ordination is the sole Prerogative of the Bishops i.e. if the Presbyters may not Ordain as effectually as the Bishops That the Ordination by Presbyters only is void That the Ordaining them again by Bishops is not re-ordination This saith our Author destroys the Church-state not only of the Dissenters but of all other Protestants in the World which is a very large stretch seeing there are many other Protestant Churches who affirm and practice the same things with the Church of England and yet he asserts That if a comprehension may not be had but on these terms there can be none at all However seeing he makes his Appeal to the Sentiments of the first Reformers in the days of Henry VIII Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth to them we will joyntly submit because he says that will heal our Divisions touching Church Government of which I doubt seeing I have Reason to say they are not impartially proposed by Mr. J.H. nor will be found to be so exactly the same with the Dissenters So that if the present Episcopacy appear to be the same as it was in the days of the first Reformers Martyrs and Confessors and our Liturgy much more Reformed though they accounted it such a Grievance as neither they nor their Fathers could bear Their Non Conformity will still lye under the interpretation of a peevish Humour and Obstinacy though they do with the like Confidence pretend that they have Antiquity as well as our first Reformers on their side it is a condescention in the Author to acknowledge that the Canons of James I. run another way and to those Canons the Clergy did consent as do the present Clergy and if as he says Arch-Bishop Vsher adhered to the first Reformers we may yet hope for an Accommodation As for the Opinions of particular Divines I shall refer them to their due place and only intimate his Observation to the Reader That because Jurisdiction is given to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury during the Suspension of the Arch-Bishop therefore they have also the Power of conferring Orders when other Deans and Arch-Deacons also have an Episcopal Jurisdiction in their several peculiars but neither of them have the Power of Orders and frustra est potentia quae nunquam reducitur in actum And St. Hierom expresly appropriates Ordination to the Bishops only As to Mr. Clerkson's Excellent Discourse of Liturgies I shall recommend to the Reader 's perusal what hath been written by Bishop Taylor Dr. Hammond and Dr. Faulkner to which I may add Mr. Calvin's Epistle to the Protector and leave it to the Reader 's determination whether a Liturgy of Extemporary Prayers are most agreeable to Publick Worship I agree with the Author in his Introduction That our Divisions had too great a hand in bringing us under those Dangers and keeping us in those Fears which are still threatning us but that Indulgence and Comprehension together will secure us I much doubt because Experience hath taught the contrary and therefore though Mr. J. H. apprehends a necessity for the saving of many thousand Souls to let in Men of more tender Consciences Absit invidia to set open the Church-Doors wider I think it may be a means to let in many Adversaries with a few Friends I know the Complaints of Dissenters have been bold and clamourous ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and great boasts made of their Numbers and never louder than in the days of Charles the First of Blessed Memory where the Martial Canons were planted to throw down the Ecclesiastical and the Petitions of Dissenters worried that Good Prince and the Archbishop out of their Lives and therefore I think our Governours both in Church and State had more just cause to complain of the Dissenters than these of them whereof you shall hear a fuller account from those whom the Author mentioneth as Friends to his new Model As to the Quotation from Sir Robert Cotton I cannot much commend the ingenuity of Mr. J. H. who in the midst of it leaves out these words after these words Duty to their Sovereign It thus proceeds Therewith start up from among us some that might have been recommended for their Zeal if it had been tempered with Discretion who fore-running the Authority of the Magistrate took upon them in sundry places and publickly to censure what agreed not with their private conceits with which gross humours vented in Pulpits and Pamphlets most Men grew to be frozen in Zeal c. And the Marginal Note says Some think that if these Mens zeal had by order been put to imploy
the same Power for Quis patiatur saith St. Hierom c. Who can endure that they whose Office it was to attend on Tables and Widows should equal themselves to those at whose Prayers the Body and Blood of Christ is consecrated But to let this pass I say 2. This Opinion of his reflects on our Saviour and his Apostles as if they had not sufficiently provided for the future Peace of the Church and that if the Presbyters in after-Ages had not been more provident the Church would have wanted a Remedy against Schisms And if such a Remedy were thought necessary by the whole World of Presbyters then is the Office of a Bishop founded on Natural Reason for it is most true that the Peace of the Church which consists of a great number of the Clergy which are as subject to Passions as other Men cannot be secured in St. Hierom's Opinion without a Superior Power over them Cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes To which if all the rest of the Clergy do not yield Obedience there may be as many Schisms in the Church as there are Priests And thus it would follow that neither Christ nor his Apostles did provide so well for the Churches Peace as common Prudence and Natural Reason would direct 3. It being granted there was a Superiority in the Apostles it is alledged That after their Deaths the Government for a long time fell to the several Presbyters until the inconveniency of it appeared by the increase of Schisms and then it was agreed Toto orbe through the whole World to advance one Presbyter with Power over the rest But when the Succession of Bishops is apparently recorded in most of the eminent Churches immediately after the decease of the Apostles it is an incredible story to tell us that the Power of Governing the Church was in the Body of the Presbyters of which there is not the least Testimony in Antiquity for any one Church nor any for the Time Place or Persons when this Toto orbe decretum this new alteration should be made nor is it probable that all the World would agree at once to make an alteration in Church-Government so that the result is this There was a Superiority in the Apostles days which ceased for a while and then the Presbyters raised in common but that Rule or Government was found to be the occasion of many Schisms and then the Apostolical Superiority was decreed by all to be Re-established 4. St. Hierom's words do not consist with themselves for when he says these Presbyters did exalt one chosen from among themselves to a higher degree whom they named a Bishop how can that consist with what immediately follows That a Presbyter had not the Power of Ordaining Quid enim facit exceptâ Ordinatione Episcopus quod non faciat Presbiter It seems by this the ancient Presbyters did first for necessary Causes first set up Bishops and then it will sound ill if our new Presbyters should put them down unnecessarily So that the most of what hath been alledged from the Divines of the Church of England in favour of Mr. J. H's New Model depending on the Testimony of St. Hierom and that being proved to be a single and slender Opinion contrary to the Practice of all Churches and not consistent with itself I suppose the Reader will not be of Mr. H's mind to destroy the established Constitution for a new dangerous and impracticable Invention which indeed was no elder then Socinus the first Inventer of Independent Churches granting to every Congregation a Power to Elect their Church-Officers for Governing their Affairs and deciding of Controversies And by this Design I perceive Mr. J. H. is of the same Judgment with Dr. Owen as well in Church-Discipline as in Doctrine whose Treatise of The In-dwelling of the Spirit and Praying by the Spirit not without a Contempt of our Lord's Prayer Mr. J. H. in his peaceable Disquisitions and Animadversions on a Discourse writ against Dr. Owen's book of the Holy Spirit he attempts to reconcile to the Truth as now he doth the Independent Principles and Practices with the Church of England FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 2. after the word Controversie add the Less is blessed of the Greater P. 4. l. 35 for of read or