and Hatred imaginable and made the Song of the Drunkard some thousands of Families as can be made to appear crush'd and almost ruin'd Houses rifled Prisons fill'd and many forced to leave their Native Countrey and all this acted against them by the very Men they had let into the Nation contrary to the minds of a more wary and politick Party who have not failed frequently to upbraid them with it over these things we are willing to draw a Curtain did not this Man and such as he force us to speak the naked truth in our own defence It is necessary indeed that these Men should render us odious as can be imagined for all the World must own either we are the worst of Men or they that have treated us so barbarously must be so themselves But blessed be God we have a King upon the Throne that understands and loves the true Interest of England too well to regard such calumnies as these which indeed our former Princes knew to be false though to serve a wretched Interest they would sometimes seem to believe them I now return with T.W. to Mr. H's Book he would fain have Mr. H. to make this Conclusion if having one Minister in admiration above another be Schism how much more am I a Schismatick who am no Minister but keep up a Communion separate from the Church of God That is to say if Mr. H. in compliment to this Man will own his Ordination to be invalid and his Congregation no part of the Church of God then T. W. will prove him a Schismatick but what if Mr. H. will not grant this why then the Man must prove it and that 's more than he can do I am sure he has not yet done any thing like it Mr. H. and the Citizen are both agreed in this That is Schism which breaks or slackens the Bond by which the Members are knit together but they are not agreed what this Bond is Mr. Henry says 't is true Love and Charity the Unity of the Spirit and Bond of Peace not an Act of Uniformity obliging to Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies T. W. does not think fit to say that an Act of Uniformity is the Bond but says the breach of Communion breaks the Bond by which the Members are knit together which according to his own sence is but to say the breach of Communion breaks Communion for he makes Communion and the Bond the same this is to be attributed to his Ignorance in the meaning of this term Communion which I have before taken notice of if he mean for us to meet and Worship God in places different from theirs and without the Ceremonies they use does necessarily destroy Love and Charity we must tell him it is only with such Men as himself that are captivated to a Party for all Men of Sence and Sobriety can retain Christian Love and Charity for all that agree with them in Essentials and Integrals of Religion notwithstanding lesser differences Mr. H. says if the Bond of Unity betwixt the Members of Christ be Love and Charity then it is not an Act of Uniformity in point of Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies this T.W. says is a manifest contradiction but I am perswaded no Man alive besides himself can find it out I hope Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies is not the only or the Essential Communion of Saints by this every Church would Damn all the rest for their different Modes of Worship the Bond by which the Members are united must be something common to all Christians which the Ceremonies cannot be therefore our not joining with them in these cannot necessarily break that Bond so long as we retain that which is Common and Essential to Christianity that is Faith and Charity the breach of the former is Heresie and of the latter Schism Mr. H's Definition of Schism is this Schism is an uncharitable Distance Division or Alienation of Affiction amongst those who are called Christians and agree in the Fundamentals of Religion occasioned by their different apprehensions about little things T.W. says he has condemned him out of his own Mouth In good time How does that appear why breach of Christian Communion is certainly the breach of Christian Charity the old blunder Sir we hold Communion with you in all that 's necessary either to the being or welfare of a Church and by your unnecessary Trifles you break with us and not we with you if any breach there be From the Definition of Schism Mr. H. infers There may be Separation of Communion where there is no Schism for thus we all agree there may be difference of apprehension and yet no Schism provided it do not eat out Christian Love but be managed amicably as betwixt the Arminians and the Calvinists in the Church of England and adds if this difference in Opinion be about Modes of Worship there must be distinct Communion Here T. W. exclaims against him for illogical reasoning in bringing an instance to justifie Separate Communion from Schism where there was no Separate Communion at all But a little consideration would have spoil'd this Triumph Mr. H's arguing is this If there may be different apprehensions about Doctrinal matters without breach of Charity why may there not be different apprehensions about matters of Worship and terms of Conformity without breach of Charity and consequently without Schism If I may love and honour a Man that is not of my mind nor expresses himself after my manner about the Divine Decrees the Operations of Grace and the Consistency thereof with the freedom of Mans Will c. why may I not likewise love and honour that Man that differs from me about a stinted Form the Cross in Baptism Bowing at the Altar and Name of Jesus are these things of greater importance than the former Oh but says he you break Communion about these things for you will not join with us in them What must I join with things I judge unlawful Is there that fatal necessity laid upon me that I must either be a Hypocrite or a Schismatick And has God made it necessary to Salvation to know that all these things are lawful if you will not suffer me to Communicate with you except I join with you in those things we must Worship God in another place with those that will not so impose upon us and yet we will love as Christians still here 's no breach of Charity on our side and if so no Schism for if the formal nature of Schism be breach of Charity as Mr. H. has proved and this Man cannot deny without giving the Lie to Scripture as he has done then Separate Communion may be without Schism and the reason of the Consequence is because Separate Communion may be without breach of Charity T. W. says it cannot for it is naturally and infallibly the cause of the hottest and fiercest Contentions and highest breach of Charity That is to say T. W.
own for the pride and perverseness of men shall not make the Faith of Christ of none effect That prevalency of the Gospel which he speaks of in Primitive times we believe and adore that divine Energy that appeared therein making its way through so formidable an opposition as it every where met with and next to the Power of God which is to be accounted the principal cause we cannot but ascribe this wonderful success to the sanctity of the Preachers and the spirituality and simplicity of their Doctrine and Worship for we find it has made but a slow progress in the World since men upon pretence of adoring it have encumbred it with needless Ceremonies and committed the management thereof to men who many of them had little to recommend them to the service besides a vehement Zeal for these Religious Impertinencies But though the Apostles did propagate the Gospel far and wide yet that they did actually Preach it to all Nations is a thing we never heard of before T. W. told us so and we must have better evidence before we believe it Whether the seven Churches in Asia had seven Bishops presiding over them neither more nor less is a thing that no way affects the present Controversie nor can any thing be concluded from thence in favour of our English Prelacy till the Power of those Bishops the extent of their Diocesses the quality of their Under-Officers the Modes of their Worship and Terms of Communion be proved the same with ours or liable to the same exceptions We have no prejudice against Episcopacy name or thing provided it be reduced to the Primitive Standard He must not think to run us down with a bare word We find mention made of Presbyters in Scripture he would think it irrational from hence to assert Scotch Presbytery to be Jure Divino the name will signifie little in the debate till the true bounds and limits of the Office so named be stated and adjusted I will not take upon me to contradict those Learned men that think the Angels there mentioned were Bishops but to say it is plain by the word Angel they were so is a wonderful Argument indeed as if Bishop and Angel were convertible terms And so the two young men that came to rescue Lot out from the Sodomites were Bishops and the glorious Messengers that brought to Mary and Elizabeth the joyful tydings of our Saviour's approaching Birth were Bishops it 's plain they were so by the name Angel the Scriptures give them and if this hold good there will be a great many more Bishops in Heaven than Chrysostom expected to find there He tells us though there was a multiplication or plurality of Churches in those times by the encrease of Believers yet no variation I am glad to hear that the encrease of Believers will make it necessary to multiply Churches and why does it so but because the encrease of Church-members may be so great as makes them uncapable of ordinarily meeting together to worship God therefore a Church in the primitive sense must consist of no more than could ordinarily so meet and that every Church had its Bishop is evident for without the governing part it cannot be a distinct Political Society but if the model of our Episcopal Churches be right which are made up of some hundreds of Congregations and Millions of Persons that cannot be known to the Bishop or one to another if this I say be allowable I see not how the encrease of Believers can be a sufficient cause for the multiplying of Churches But what does he mean in saying in these multiplied Churches there was no variation was there no variety at all in any circumstance of worship That 's gratis dictum and the contrary may be proved even in the Apostles times Whence was that scuffle betwixt the believing Jews and Gentiles about Jewish Ceremonies Acts 15. What need was there of that Apostolical Synod and of all those precepts against imposing upon or condemning one another upon the account of different Sentiments If he means there was no variation from the Scripture Rules tho we are afraid that will scarce hold yet we wish it had been so still We have a Notion of Church Unity laid down p. 2. in which we freely concur with him i. e. That all Churches are one as united into one Body whereof Christ is Head having the same Baptism the same Faith and the same Eucharist that is the same for substance for it that they all agreed in the Primitive times in the same Circumstances such a Unity we hold and doubt not but in our Congregations this Unity may be found They are made up of visible Christians such as in the Judgment of Charity are united to Christ by Faith we have the same Baptism with the Apostolical Churches for Substance and come as near in circumstances as we can to the Rule leaving out the innovations of latter and more corrupt times we hold the same Doctrines of Faith and the same Eucharist and after the Apostolical Mode as far as by their Writings appears and thus far we are the same with them in the External Worship and Service of God and the same with all other true Churches as far as they are the same with the Apostolical and differ from them no farther than upon a serious Enquiry we find they differ from these We expect T. W. should stand to this Description of Church Unity he has here given us and if he does we can easily make it appear he has ruin'd his whole Book and Cause for if this be the true proper Unity of Churches then there may be true Church Unity without the uniting of many particular Churches Ministers and People into one Diocesan Church under the Jurisdiction of a Prelate and his Officers then there may be true Church Unity without a necessary observation of the same Parochial Precincts I do not speak against the conveniency of such a thing but only observe that it is not de Essentiâ Unitatis according to this Mans definition and there may be true Church Unity without an absolute Uniformity in the same Modes and Circumstances of Worship and consequently a Man may plead to the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Prelate may step over Parish Bounds and may worship God without the Ceremonies used in England and yet be free from the guilt of Schism for if none of these things be Essential to the Churches Unity they may be omitted and that preserved entire notwithstanding Touching the continuance of the Church of God upon Earth we have no Controversie with him we believe it will be till Christs second coming but whereas he affirms that the power wherewith our Saviour vested the Apostles was not to cease or expire with them we think a Man of Sence would have distinguish'd betwixt the extraordinary power which was properly Apostolical and that ordinary Pastoral power which was eminently comprehended in the other as to the former we do not
Interest acknowledge there were the greatest Encroachments imaginable made upon the Liberties of the Subject from the very first appearance of that unhappy Prince in the Government the Foundation whereof was laid in his Fathers Reign For when King James the first Ascended Englands Throne the Prelatick Party dreading lest the Puritans would have too great a share of his Favours upon the account of his Education and the Influence the Scottish Nobility and Ministry might have upon him bent all their Studies to create in him a prejudice against them and finding no Bait was so like to take with him as the extending of his Authority and enlarging the Prerogative which had perhaps been too much limited by his Antient Subjects they flattered the Ambition and Vices of that Prince and thereby made him entirely their own and this was indeed the true Origine of all the misfortunes of Succeeding times for when once the Fence is broke and the Land-mark removed 't is hard to fix it again but the loosned Hind will wander endlesly Buoy'd up with expectations of an Absolute Power his Son begins a Fatal Reign during which there was not one Parliament from his very first year to his Exit that did not seriously remonstrate the Grievances of the Nation and humbly Petition they might be redress'd The Levying of Tunnage and Poundage without Act of Parliament the Illegal Imprisonment of Peers Extravagant Dispositions of Crown Lands were the Early Complaints of his Reign Granting Commissions to require Money under the Title of a Loan Imprisoning Persons of Quality that refused to pay that which they had no pretence of Law to demand and denying them the Priviledge of Habeas Corpus when they moved for it Menacing of Parliament telling them if they would not grant him sufficient Sums of Money for his Occasion he would take some other course openly in Parliament threatning those Gentlemen that opposed these Violences calling them Vipers and sending at one clap seven worthy Gentlemen to the Tower whereof Denzen Holles and the Great Selden were two and this for no other Crime but in a Parliamentary way opposing the Kings Arbitrary proceedings The suspicious actions of the Marquess of Hamilton in raising Forces discovered to my Lord Rhees Maccay to be designed for England in the Seventh year of this Reign the whole Story which had a very ill Aspect all those can tell who have any Acquaintance with the History of those Times The breaking to pieces that brave and pious design of buying up Impropriations for the maintenance of a preaching Ministry and consiscating to the Kings use vast Sums of Money given by well-disposed Persons for that purpose the greatest piece of Sacriledge that was ever heard of The Declaration for Sports on the Lords day and Suspending and Depriving of Ministers for not reading it the Hectoring such Judges and Justices of the Peace as made Orders of Court against Rioting and Revelling on that Sacred Day The Exacting of a new invented Tax call'd Ship Money in the Twelfth year of his Reign and proceeded to give Judgment against the Defaulters The Extravagant and Tyrannical proceeding of the Star-Chamber the Suspending of Bishop Williams ab Officio Beneficio by the mischievous malice of Archbishop Laud of Blessed Memory And to fill up the measure the imposing the English Liturgy upon Scotland added to the many Violations of the Constitution of that Kingdom these are the known occasions of that unhappy Breach betwixt that King and his Parliament which I have taken a more particular notice of not to vindicate our selves for the challenge has been often made to Name four Persons in that whole Parliament that were not in full and compleat Communion with the Church of England as by Law Established when the War begun but to vindicate the Nation for it was a general and common case and those Men have been very disingenuous and unjust to their Countrey who have put such false and dismal Colours upon a War to which the Nation was forced in defence of those Priviledges which they had derived from their Ancestors by a Title as Sacred and Inviolable as the greatest Monarch has unto his Crown 't is true indeed the Bishops were many of them great Sufferers their Honour and Interest obliged them to stand by the King and his Courtiers and to vindicate those Extravagancies where of they were the principal Causes and Instruments and that was the reason of the Parliaments readiness to lay that Order wholly aside that had for the support of their own Grandeur abetted and consecrated the violation of the Laws and Liberties of England I am no way obliged to defend all the Irregularities and Distractions that happened upon that War when once the Sword is drawn and Men are flush'd with Blood and Victory it 's impossible they should be kept within due Bounds and not be too severe upon those who had acted the first part upon that Tragical Scene every Body knows the Complexion of that War was at length greatly changed and it was pursued far beyond the first design but the blame of all belongs to those that were the first Aggressors and made it necessary by force to withstand that Torrent of Arbitrariness that bore down all Legal Fences before it And yet 't is notoriously false that all the Episcopal Clergy were then Silenced and Sequestred there were many of them conniv'd at and preach'd all along those Times indeed there were many of them as they are now notoriously Debauch'd and lamentably ignorant and it will be hard to perswade us that the removing of such is any great Curse to the Nation there was an allowance given for the maintaining of those that lost their Places for refusing to submit to the Powers that then were during that time it cannot be proved that the Presbyterians ever varied from the true Interest of the Nation but always endeavoured to maintain the Balance betwixt an unlimited Monarchy on the one hand and Popular fury and confusion on the other and thousands of them lost their lives upon that Score and at length by their Address and Interest under God the Nation was prepared to receive the Banished Prince the solemn Promises fair Words and great Assurances that were made them by the Church and Court Party upon the Treaty of Restoration are very well known and the speedy and bare-fac'd violation of all is not to be parallel'd in Story in little more than two years time two thousand of these Ministers were turn'd out of their Office and Livings when Scandal or Insufficiency were never so much as pretended only because they would not declare their Assent and Consent to three Books of Humane Composure and all and every thing therein contained and made uncapable of teaching Schools and a while after Banished five Miles from the places of their former Ministry and from Corporations that there might be no possibility of escaping to Starve and ever since treated with the greatest Scorn
finds he must necessarily hate and revile us and after the fiercest manner contend with us because we pray without a stinted Form and he prays with one because we take no more notice of the Altar than of the Pulpit whilst he bows towards it because our Ministers preach in Cloaks and his in a Surplice And if it be so natural and necessary for him to run out into the highest breaches of Charity against us upon this account we cannot help it but heartily pity him but if he 'll search to the bottom he may find that his unruly passions and rampant pride are the natural and infallible causes of such Contentions and these distinct Modes of Worship are but the occasions or perhaps but the pretences thereof We know very well there are a great many of the Conformists that we love and honour and can live very peaceably and quietly with them and have very intimate converse together and they have the like respect for us notwithstanding those different practices which he calls Separate Communion they earnestly desire the Ceremonies in Debate might be laid aside because the Papists have not only spit upon them as the Bishop of Salisbury speaks but have made them Tools of Discord and Mischief and if all the Members of the late Convocation had been like some few we should have hop'd the Bone of Contention would have been removed and I know not what such Men as T. W. would then have done for a Cloak to cover their Malice but though that Assembly fail'd the expectation of the King and Countrey yet we are not without hopes it will come to that at last however in the mean time we are very desirous to be peaceable and glad we can be so and if these men are resolved they 'l have no Charity for any but their own Party let them wipe off the guilt of Schism as well as they can We now come to his citations out of Calvin that we ought not to separate from a Church upon the account of many blemishes and we say so too but if those blemishes and corruptions be made Terms of Communion and we must testifie our approbation of them it will greatly alter the case we know there are blemishes in the purest Societies but when we must be obliged to admire and praise these Deformities we shall desire to be excused and that 's our Case The Three Letters of Le Moyne L' Angle and Claude have been already reflected upon by some of the Answerers of Dr. Stillingfleet it appears by many passages therein that they have been very much misinformed concerning our Practice and the Grounds thereof as if we thought none in Communion with the Church of England could be saved that we are the only Men in the Nation that are predestinated to Salvation and such like things for which we are greatly obliged to those that have thus represented us but those that would be further satisfied in the disingenuity of some Men towards us and what Arts they have used to procure the Suffrage of Forreign Divines against us may read the three last pages of Mr. Rules Rational Account to which I could add something my self were it not an invidious piece of work When Mr. H. used these words Whether they be Episcopal Presbyterian Independant or by what Name or Title soever they be self-dignified or distinguished T. W. charges him with Malice against the Clergy as if he meant them only whence so gross a mistake should happen I know not unless it be from the same cause that makes every thing look yellow to some that have been afflicted with predominancy of Choller it 's plain Mr. H's design was to censure the vanity of assuming to our selves the Title of a Party or valuing our selves upon it which certainly has done much mischief But this must needs reflect upon the Archbishops and Bishops which he says are Orders Instituted by the Apostles in the Church of God and from them continued to this present Age without Interruption and for this he refers us to 1 Cor. 12.28 And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers helps Out of some little cunning design no doubt Governments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though he puts it helps in Government but where 's the Archbishop and Diocesan Bishop he says God has set them up but we cannot tell where all that he says concerning Mr. H's despising and speaking evil of Dignities proceeds from nothing but the Spleen We reverence the Bishops as they are vested by our Laws with a Civil Power circa Sacra and as many of them are Men of great Learning and Worth but cannot allow them to be our Governours by a Divine appointment till we see it better prov'd Sir That Act of Parliament by which we enjoy our present Liberty and which is your intolerable grievance does not carry the Title of Indulgence as you affirm it has in it the very words permitted and allowed which you ought not to have been ignorant of and had you taken as much delight in conversing with this Act as those by which we have been so unkindly oppressed you would not have needed to have been told this It 's true this Act does not Authorize our Churches nor Annex the Benefices to them but as we need not the former for we derive our Authority higher so we are not at all discontented for want of the latter you tell us it is given us for the hardness of our Hearts we might here very well retort and say it was rather given for the hardness of your Hearts who turn'd the Edge of Laws made chiefly against Papists to destroy your Fellow Protestants which was declared by one of the best of English Parliaments to be greatly serviceable to the Popish Interest and the ready way to bring ruin upon Protestants and a Bill brought in for the Uniting of us how that Parliament was represented by such Men as these and what thanks they had for running those great hazards for their Countreys preservation is sufficiently known The Story he brings of Barrow Penry and Burchet signifies nothing but the Malice of the Relator the two former who were Brownists flew so high as with this Man to unchurch and condemn all besides their own Party which is indeed a very ill Principle and none ever more guilty of it than T. W. Burchet was Hang'd for Killing his Keeper would it not be thought a very ill thing for us to charge upon the whole Episcopal Party the Odium and Guilt of all the Rogues and Felons that have died at Tyburn in their Communion We challenge this Man or any of his Abettors to shew any one Principle of ours that has the least Aspect towards Treason or any practices of that kind we have been guilty of though under the greatest provocations We vindicate not the Extravagancies of the Brownists nor will the sober Men of his own Party vindicate the severe handling of
find that it was designed to out-live their Persons and therefore in this we know of no Successors that they have their call to this Apostolical power was extraordinary their Authority was Universal their Commission extended to the whole World and was the same in all Churches Now to say that the Bishops which are stated Pastors in an Organical Church are the Apostles Successors in this Apostolical power is destructive to their own Notion of Church Government and would give the Bishop of Rome as great power in England as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury when there is one Indeed as the Apostolical power did contain eminenter the Pastoral power so far the Bishops or Pastors of Churches do succeed them but this cannot be properly called an Apostolical Succession I shall not dispute with him the Episcopal Jurisdiction of Timothy and Titus it signifies nothing till the Nature and Extent of that Office be first determined out of Scripture Dr. Hammond tells us all the Elders we read of in Scripture were Bishops and that every particular Church had at least one of these and no doubt but Ephesus and Creet had such Bishops as well as other Churches but whether Timothy and Titus were such is not certain or material though their frequent removes from place to place at the command of the Apostles makes it very probable that their Office was itinerant and unfixed But 't is pretty to hear him say these two were ordained the Bishops of Ephesus and Creet by the Apostles Was there any Apostle then besides Paul concerned in it But here lyes the Trick they must needs be two Bishops and the Apostolical Succession must begin in them and therefore it was necessary to mention their Ordination by Apostles in the plural because it does not agree with the nature of a proper Succession that two Bishops should succeed one Apostle in his Apostolical power for then Timothy would have been as much Bishop of Creet as of Ephesus and Titus as much Bishop of Ephesus as Timothy for the Apostolical power vested by Succession in them extended as much to the one as the other and as much to all the World as to either And how pray could Timothy and Titus succeed the Apostles in the Sees of Ephesus and Creet whilst the Apostles were yet living Were they translated to a higher Seat or suspended or degraded for not owning the Authority of the Civil Magistrate To be the Apostles Successors in Apostolical power the Apostles yet alive and in plenitude of power is a very great Mystery and something akin to the honest Vicar of Newport's quondam Prayer that King Charles the Second might out-live all his Successors Whereas he says no Presbyters had power to ordain I desire him to try how he will reconcile this with Dr. Hammond that says these Presbyters were all Bishops or indeed with Scripture it self that says even Timothy received the gift by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4.14 But as to this delicate Notion of Apostolical Succession he is pleased further to inform us that for the propagation thereof Linus by Apostolical Consecration Succeeded the Apostles in the See of Rome here 's a double blunder again Linus Succeeded whilst the Apostles were alive for how else could he have Apostolical Consecration and Linus a single person Succeeds the Apostles in the plural As before the Apostolical power of one Apostle was divided betwixt two Bishops Timothy and Titus so here the power of two or more Apostles is exhausted by one Bishop who is their Lineal Successor and they still living in full enjoyment of their power ask him not how can these things be they must be so for Dissenters must be Schismaticks and this is the way to prove them so and therefore must be rational and solid whatever absurdities our Sceptical Heads discover in it I need not here take notice how positively he asserts the immediate Succession of Linus when all the Learned Men in the World acknowledge great Difficulties and uncertainty whether Linus or Cletus were first Bishop or whether both at once one as Bishop of the Circumcision the other of the Gentiles As Grotius thinks but Ignorance is the rarest thing in the World to make a man bold and venture at any thing Nothing but this Faculty of Ignorance would have emboldened him to say as p. 3. That this Line of Apostolick Succession of Bishops hath continued in all Ages to this present time an Assertion without the least shadow of proof yea contrary to the Acknowledgments of all Church-Historians The very Papists themselves whose Interest it is to make men believe it was so confess there are insuperable difficulties about the Succession of Popes in the Roman See and if the Succession be so perplexed there it must be much more so in other Churches whose obscurity in former Ages makes it less feasible to trace this Line of Succession And though Irenaeus might be able to name all the Successors of the Apostolick Churches in his day yet that will hardly prove that there has been no interruption since Irenaeus is said to have been the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Disciple of Sr. John and he is said to have died in the year of Christ 182. It is therefore very probable he might remember the names of all that had been Bishops of Rome Jerusalem and Alexandria since he had not much above the space of an hundred years to burthen his memory with a less man than he can tell who have been Bishops of Chester for a hundred years but does it follow that an uninterrupted Succession for above 1600 years is equally certain I might here enquire how it came to pass that this Apostolical Succession was propagated in so few Churches as the Patriarchal were methinks there should have been as many as the Apostles were For this man to be so very positive in these difficult and perplexed points shews a very great Effrontery and what may we not expect from the man that will talk at this rate And to say whoever exercises any Ministerial Office out of this Line of Apostolick Succession can be no other than a Lay-Impostor is to expose Christianity it self and to leave the Consciences of all men in the World at an utter uncertainty whether they have a true Ministry and Ordinances or no. Wretched men that to support the beloved Cause of Persecution will advance a notion destructive to our common Christianity and the Peace and Comfort of the Christian World and rather than the Dissenters in England should not be Schismaticks will shake the foundation not only of all the Reformed but of all the Christian Churches in the World Certainly T. W. ought to have been well advised before he had given it under his hand That if there be not an uninterrupted Succession betwixt all the Bishops in England and Apostles they are Lay-Impostors and Schismaticks and that he and the rest of his Friends have no
better evidence that the Church of England is a true Church than they have of such a continued Succession that they can as soon demonstrate such an unbroken Line as that their Ministry and Sacraments are true and that they have no better proof that Dissenters are Schismaticks than they have of this nor any better defence of all the Severities they have used against them than this and if it should happen that in almost 1700 years there has been the least breach made upon this Line all that they have said and done against Dissenters becomes due to themselves Would any man in the World that was not hired to betray the Churches Cause have put it to such an Issue I am sure no wise man would venture his Estate upon it And yet this man has chosen to fix his Church and Faith and Salvation upon no better a Foot than this For in how many cases may this Line be broken and all that Apostolick Power conveyed there be spilt and lost if there should happen a vacancy in any of those things he calls Apostolical Churches and Sees for some years and the succeeding As the Northumbrian Bishops by the Abbot of Hy. Incumbent be a person ordained by an Abbot who was no Bishop as is allowed in the Roman Church through which this Authority must be conveyed to us does not this make an Intercision in the Line of Episcopal Ordination be so indispensable it must do so I desire to know of this man or any other that encourage him to write little Books whether this Line of Succession may be continued in a Schismatical Church and the Apostolical Power conveyed thereby if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Universal Church as this Man frequently affirms in his Book then such Schismatical Churches are no Churches nor parts of the Universal Church and so cannot be the Subjects of this Apostolical power and if this power cannot be derived through a Schismatical Church then he must grant either that the Church of England has not this power or that the Papal Churches through which this Line and Power runs are not Schismatical and if they be not his own Church must be so for separating from them for he allows Separation utterly unlawful unless from a Schismatical Church But after all though by this continued Line of Apostolical Episcopal Succession he would Exclude all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea that have not those Governours he will allow to be Scripture Bishops Supposing this same Line he makes such a splutter about were certain or necessary which it is not yet till this Man has proved the English Prelacy to be nearer a-kin to the Scripture Episcopacy than the Pastoral Office which is the Episcopacy we contend for we stand as fair for any advantage this Notion may afford as his Party does for we reverence and maintain Ministerial Ordination and so are in the Line still if such a Line there be which yet we are no way concerned to prove because we look upon Ordination to be no more but a publick Approbation of Ministerial Abilities by competent Judges and we doubt not but the Ministers that have such Qualifications themselves are the most competent Judges thereof in others but if there should happen a case wherein such Persons could not be had As if a company of Christians should be cast upon a remote Island or if all the Pastors in a Countrey should be put to Death or all turn Hereticks we doubt not but it would be lawful for a Man of the best Qualifications being chosen by the rest and approved and set apart by the most competent Judges amongst them to Administer in Holy Ordinances to them and that he would be a true Minister of Jesus Christ sufficiently Authorized to the Work and a Lay-person no longer but if we assent to the Whimsey of a constant Succession as if power were conveyed like Water in a Conduit after a Physical manner by contact passing through the Finger ends of the Prelate into the Noddle of the Person Ordained then can no necessity make the practice aforesaid warrantable and so the Substance must fail and perish for want of the Ceremony which is contrary to Reason and the Notions Men have of the Goodness of God This conceit of an entire Apostolical Line was forg'd upon the same Anvil with that of an uninterrupted Succession of English Monarchs from the Eldest Son of Noah whereby a Patriarchal Right descends inseparable from the Person Sacred and Irresistible which has tortured the Ears of all Men of Sence and Sobriety in these late Times The Leud and Extravagant Caresses that have happen'd between Ambitious Princes and Aspiring Church-men have produc'd such Twins as these that lately threatned the Kingdom with a dismal Fate No less pretences than those of Patriarchal and Apostolical Powers were sufficient for the Usurping an Absolute Empire over the Civil and Religious Rights of Men but as we have seen the One deserted exposed to just contempt and renounced by the very Authors thereof not in words only but in actions famous and publick throughout the World so we doubt not they will to deal with the other it being of the same extract and calculated to serve the very same interest and design His fourth page is taken up with proving that to love as Christians in Scripture Sence is to love as Members of Christ and obliges us to preserve the Body from Rents and Schisms which we never deny but wonder at some Men who notwithstanding all their talk for Peace and Unity have so little real Love for it as to Excommunicate and Damn all those that cannot comply with those Ceremonies which themselves acknowledge have no Moral goodness in them and therefore can be but idle incumbrances upon the Worship of God which as one says of Friendship and Heraldry is noblest when plainest bravest when alone Certainly such unreasonable Stiffness cannot have much in it of that love which is the Characteristick of Christs Disciples but these Gentlemen think to excuse their aversation to us by saying we are not Christians we are out of the Catholick Church this is to make one gross act of Uncharitableness to excuse for another but we thank God they are not to be our final Judges For our further Conviction we are told The Communion of Saints is one External visible Communion of the Christian Church which is so far from explaining the thing that it makes it much darker We hold Communion in Essentials with every Church of Christ upon Earth and in Integrals with all sound Churches and we know few Churches that hold Communion in all accidentals nor was such a Communion ever pretended to be necessary This word Communion not rightly understood nor the sence of it carefully distinguisht has strangely misled some Men and is at the bottom of all those clamours that have fill'd the Ears of our Rulers and the whole Nation against us and this Man seems as little
to understand it as any one that ever pretended to write upon the Subject In the fifth page we have an aggregate description of the Communion of Saints which we shall particularly examine and apply to the present case the Communion of Saints consists of these things 1. A firm Belief of all the Articles of Faith contained in the Apostolical Nicene and Athanasian Creed and why not in Scripture these Creeds are but of Humane Composition and some things in them want Explanation however so far we are within Communion though hereby the Greek and other Eastern Churches are shut out which the Citizen of Chester has no Commission to do 2. To partake all of the same Table he cannot mean the same individual Table but the same Eucharist in specie so far we are with him still But whether this will not exclude the Papists who by denying the Cup to the Laity have taken away in part the matter of the Eucharist I shall leave to his second thoughts who I believe will not be over-forward in Unchurching them for fear of breaking the Line by which his own Church hangs 3. To join all in the same holy Prayers and Supplications and in giving Thanks he cannot mean that in these Duties we must necessarily use the very same words without the least adding substracting or changing for then he Excommunicates all the World but those of his own perswasion and a great many of them too 4. To be subject and obedient to our Spiritual Rulers and Governours who have derived their Authority from the Apostles by a due Succession in all things pertaining to a Godly Life Decency and Order We are very desirous to give due Honour and Obedience to our Spiritual Governours who derive their Authority from Christ which is more proper than to speak of deriving it from the Apostles for Christ is the only Fountain of Authority and the Streams are derived rather from the Fountain than the Cistern It is observable the Mans Expression is sunk from an uninterrupted Succession to a due Succession to observe the Apostolical precepts in Government and Worship may make it up a due Succession but there 's more required to an uninterrupted one than so Now before he can say we want this Qualification for Communion he must prove that Diocesan Prelates are made our Rulers by a Divine Command A single Person taking upon him to govern some thousands of Congregations by such Rules and Officers as our English Prelacy uses and this by the Nomination of the Civil Magistrate without the Consent of the People or of the Ministers within the Diocess is a Creature we neither find in Scripture nor in Primitive Times and therefore can be no Spiritual Governour of ours by Divine Right let him prove this and he does something but till this be done his whole Book is as insignificant as waste Paper When this Man or any one for him has made it to appear that the Authority of a Diocesan Prelate Dean Lay-Chancellor c. over all in the Diocess is as certain and Sacred as that of Moses and Aaron we will not dare to dispute it for fear of Corah's doom but till this be evinced I hope he will not take it amiss if we be not frighten'd out of our Wits by such misapplyed Passages which we have often heard urged to back the Doctrines of Non-resistance and all those Principles of Slavery some Men have been endeavouring to instil into our Minds but as we see they have no great regard for such alligations themselves when adhering to them would be chargeable and dangerous so we believe they cannot heartily blame us if we despise them too In the last Paragraph of the fifth page we have the Communion of Saints described over again being willing I suppose to make up in the Number what is wanting in Weight and here we are told all those particular Churches who agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in all the Articles of Faith and in the External Visible Worship and Service of God are true Members of the Universal Church and in the Communion of Saints In what Bounds he will fix the Primitive Church we know not certain it is a Century or two made a very considerable change in the features of their Government and Worship but if we must take our measures by those Courches that are truely Primitive we fear not to put our selves to the Tryal That our Congregations have this agreement in Faith none will deny and he has not proved that we differ from them in the Essential or Integral parts of Gods Worship or in any considerable circumstance and that this Divine Worship and Service is Visible and External this Gentleman is but too sensible and 't is a very great Eye-sore to such as he that it is so much more Visible than formerly it has been If we will take his confident and repeated assertions for demonstration we may believe that the Church of England has from the first planting of the Gospel here retained the Apostolical power of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by an uninterrupted Succession of Arch-Bishops and Bishops in a right Line from the Apostles days to this present time but how uncertain this is and how inconsistent with other parts of his Book I suppose has been sufficiently manifested I shall therefore take no farther notice of it especially because that till the true Bounds of Episcopal Power be fixt by Scripture Rules it is as impertinent as uncertain After he has thus delivered himself of his crude and confused apprehensions he tells Mr. H. he has done it as cleanly as he could and that may be true enough for ought I know but 't is no fault of Mr. H's he could do it no better his Capacity and Employment indeed may be some excuse for his blunders but will by no means lessen the fault of his officious and confident impertinency in medling with things he so little understands We are no way concerned in the Citation of the Fathers brought in against us till he has proved that Episcopacy then was the same thing it is now and that the terms of Communion we scruple were ever imposed by them Ignatius charges the Bishop in his time to take a personal cognizance of every Member of his Church not excepting the very Servants It was the Custom then in every Congregation to receive the Sacrament every Lords day and they never received it nisi ex Antistitis manu but from the Hand of the Bishop What could such Bishops be more than Pastors of single Congregations but I shall forbear dipping into this Argument which has been so copiously managed by Blondel Baxter Owen Clarkson and others It is observable in the passage cited out of Irenaeus the Presbyters are said to have their Succession from the Apostles it seems they were the Apostles Successors as well as Bishops surely then they must have the same power if the Bishops claim the power they have as the Apostles Successors
then must all the Successors of the Apostles have the same power the Rule is known à quatenus ad omne It is plain by this that Apostolical Succession in the sence of those times was not any such fine Aerial Thread as this Man speaks of but Conformity to the Apostles model in Government and Worship and those that best observe that are in the truest sence the Apostles Successors whether the Line has been broke by intervening Hereticks and Schismaticks or no. We all grant that for Persons wilfully to withdraw themselves from such particular Churches as are framed according to Scripture Rules and impose no new or needless terms is to act Schismatically because such wilful Separation when no cause is given cannot be without breach of Charity with our Fellow Christians which is the Scripture Notion of Schism and this Mr. Henry himself grants and calls it Separation for Separation's sake which T.W. might have taken notice of had he designed fair dealing But this is not at all proved to be our case We earnestly desire Episcopacy may be reduced to its proper Sphere that every particular Church may have its Bishop and Presbyters and so power within it self to admonish suspend and reject scandalous Persons we desire the Rules of the Gospel may be carefully lookt into and a Model of Government and Worship taken from thence such as may be likely to answer the great Ends of Church Societies that nothing may be imposed but what is either expresly commanded or has a natural and proper tendency to promote that which is so then would the Worship of God appear like it self rational grave and majestical becoming reasonable Creatures to offer and a Being of perfect Simplicity and Spirituality to receive nor would we as we are accused under pretence of Spirituality reject the natural decorum of an Action in Divine Worship but only lay aside those Formalities that are over and above natural decency which in civil converse are counted foppish and daily grow out of repute betwixt Man and Man and are no where so improper as in the Service of God It is certainly a very odd Custom these Men have taken up against us if they find in any of the Fathers the word Bishop they presently transfer it a Diocesan Prelate if they read of Breaking off from the Communion of the Bishop it must be immediately applyed to the practice of Dissenters in England When alas till the Extent of Power way of coming into Office and Charge terms of Admission c. be proved to be tantamount to what they now are bare words will conclude nothing at all And yet without so much as offering to prove any thing of this T.W. will needs perswade Mr. H. to confess himself a Schismatick and so out of the Catholick Church and possibility of Salvation Though we need not concern our selves to soften or extenuate the fault of Schism no such thing being proved against us yet it may not be amiss to take notice how this eager Man over-shoots himself in these matters he first makes all those Churches Schismatical that do not agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in Faith Worship and Government without adjusting the measures of such Agreement as if every little difference made a Schism which would bear hard upon all the Churches at this day in the World And when he has done this he cuts off all these Schismatical Societies from being parts of the Catholick Church or under a possibility of Salvation It must needs follow from hence that Popish Churches to say nothing of others must be Schismatical for they vary notoriously from the Primitive in Faith Government and Worship as I suppose this Man will grant all those Churches therefore since this Variation were no parts of the Catholick Church that is no Churches at all and by consequence according to him their Bishops must be but Lay-Impostors their Ordinations null and void the Line of Communication broken the Apostolical Power lost and all England in a state of Damnation and all this is the Effect of over-great earnestness to prove the Dissenters Schismaticks We have with a great deal of Patience examined T. W's Notions of the Church of Communion and Unity and whether there be any thing observable in them besides Ignorance Confusion and Contradiction is left to the Judgment of the Reader That which remains is to view the Remarks he has made upon Mr. H's Book The Instance of Eldad and Medad was never designed to run of all four but thus far 't is to the purpose as it proves that God has not limited his People in Religious Actions so nicely to the publick places as some would pretend and that even good Men are apt too severely to censure such actions when managed out of the usual Method before they fully understand the reason of the thing and that meek and humble Men like Moses who are more concerned for the Substance than Circumstances of Religion would not deny the Church the advantage of those Gifts which God has bestowed upon Men even though the exercise of them might seem to derogate from their own Grandeur those general Inferences naturally follow from the place and the application of them is not improper as this Man fancies whatever the Office of this Man was to be yet doubtless this Act of prophecying was of a Sacred rather than a Civil nature and though under that Oeconomy the Priests were principally engaged in the Ceremonial part of Worship yet in the Moral part the Prophets often bore a share which was discovering the mind of God to the People and pressing them to Obedience and it is to this rather than the Priestly Office that a Gospel Minister succeeds If these Men demand we should give as signal proof of our Authority to the Bishops as Eldad and Medad could to Moses I hope we may expect that the Bishops should give as signal proof of their Authority as Moses could do but if extraordinary Commission need not be pretended in the one case we suppose there 's as little need of it in the other and we are ready to give satisfaction to all the World of the ordinary Warrant which consists in suitable Qualifications enquired into and approved by such as the Scripture calls Bishops Upon Mr. H's bare mentioning of the Worshippers of the Diana of their own opinion T. W. charges him with saucy Language but Mr. H. needs not come to this Man to learn how to speak the reflection Mr. H. made was general that there are such cannot be denied and let it fall where 't is due but why must this of Necessity be spoke of the Bishops such an invidious innuendo in the last Reign might have cost a Man dear of which Mr. Baxter is a memorable Instance But T.W. will answer for the Bishops and they are certainly very happy in such an Advocate that if the Punctilio's of Opinion do not cause a separate Communion they will not censure that for
Schism But what if they make these Punctilio's of Opinion the terms of Communion do they not then become the true causes of that Schism which they censure for in this case what must we do must we immediately lay aside our Opinions and jump all of a sudden into the same Sentiments with them That cannot be done till the evidence and force of Reason does it must we then subscribe and profess our assent to what we do not believe That T. W. himself has already condemned as downright Hypocrisie and Knavery page 10. parag 4. Must we then quite desert the publick Worship of God and turn Pagans I hope they will not say so Then there is no other course left but to meet together our selves and Worship God in places distinct from the Imposers and whatever there is culpable in this breach falls upon those that made such little Opinions terms of Communion which might have been preserved entire without them That which next falls in our way is a pleasant Instance as this Man calls it of an innocent difference in Opinion but it had been much more for his Reputation to have denied himself the pleasure of it he tells us it was Mr. H's Fathers Opinion that it was best to put him to be a Lawyer 's or Attorney's Clerk this is one of the many Falshoods a Debauched Club have contrived against a Person who upon all accounts deserved better treatment Mr. H. needs not be ashamed to own that he spent some considerable time in the Inns of Court but with no design of making that his business and the honourable Acquaintance and Respect he has gained thereby have set his Name far above all the little malicious calumnies of this Man or his Myrmidons He has so little to do as to tell the World that he was put to a Mercer this is a discovery of very publick Concernment without doubt for which the World is greatly oblig'd to him as for his Neighbours they needed not much the Information some of them have but too much reason to remember it but the envious Man must needs expose himself to introduce an idle flam which he thought might lessen Mr. H's Reputation He says he has proved Diversity or Separation of Communion to be the formalis ratio of Schism The greatest Charity that any Man can have for him is to believe that he does not here understand what he says for 't is a downright giving the Lie to the Apostle Paul who charges the Corinthians with the guilt of Schism when there was no such Separation and can there be Schism without the ratio formalis the proper nature of Schism does he not know that Forma dat esse rei could none of his Club teach him that scrap of Reason or at least advise him to adjourn writing of Books till he has learn'd common sense Upon the Apostle Paul's Exhortation to the Corinthians to be of one mind Mr. H. made this Remark that it must be understood of Fundamentals for to be so in every little thing is morally impossible and that where they are advised to speak the same things it is as if he should say in your Preaching and Converse speak of those things only wherein you are agreed which fair and rational Comment T. W. most maliciously perverts as if Mr. H. allowed Men to speak one thing and think another and so he runs a long and dull ramble how well it would do would he go to Rome and Constantinople and set up with this Notion of speaking only of things wherein all are agreed But is there no difference betwixt concealing our thoughts and speaking contrary to them Could Mr. H. have dispens'd with such doings he might have subscribed to the Articles and Homilies as Articles of Peace not of Truth as some others have distinguish'd though most Men thought they did it as to Articles of Preferment Is there no difference betwixt forbearing to Preach upon those lesser Controversies that might be amongst the Corinthians and waving those Fundamental Doctrines by which we are distinguished from Papists and Mahometans Is it not a shame so notoriously to wrest plain words and make them speak things never intended Does not this Man know that in the Reign of King Charles the First his Prince of incomparable Piety there was a strict prohibition against Preaching upon the Quinquarticular Points and do not many of our Clergy tell us the Articles of the Church of England are expressed in words of that Latitude as may be subscribed by either Arminians or Calvinists and do they not applaud the thing wonderfully as if done out of a prudent and peaceable design and yet the very same Sentiments in Mr. H. must be represented as down-right Hypocrisie and Knavery and thought to deserve no better a reply than a piece of the meanest sort of Rallery which he calls his Harrangue forfooth a man may hear twenty such Harrangues as full of Wit and Sence at Billings-gate almost every day in the year To say it is morally impossible to be of the same mind in every thing is no bar either to Argumentation or Preaching as he pretends few Persons that are fit either to argue or preach will make every little difference the matter of their Discourse but the practice which T. M. has undertaken to vindicate that is forcing to declare their assent where they have had no convincing evidence would indeed render Argumentation ridiculous To reason Men into an Opinion does not very well consist with hectoring fining and forcing them into it I am sure such Practice precludes all reasoning or any other Methods proper to work upon a rational Crearure He gives us Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase upon the Text viz. That ye all teach the same Doctrines and nourish Charity and Unity that there be no Divisions in Churches but that ye be Compacted and United as Members of the same Body in the same Belief and Affection and then he triumphantly demands Is not this quite different from your Exposition If this Mans Judgment were but half the size of his Spleen and Confidence he might easily see a very good Agreement betwixt these two Expositions Dr. Hammond understands the place as obliging to preach the same Doctrine so does Mr. H. and to nourish Charity and prevent Division and to be of one Faith and Affection so does Mr. H. too But does the Doctor any where affirm that this obliges men to be of the same Opinion in every Punctilio which is all Mr. H. denyes No he has not one word to that purpose Where then lies this mighty difference truly in nothing but this Mr. H. makes the thing more plain and urges it more home than the Doctor for since Unity and Charity ought to be nourished and yet different Opinions will be held This Apostolical Rule obliges men not to make their differing Sentiments in these smaller things the matter of their Preaching much less Terms of Communion for then it will be impossible to