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
and like a good Angel made their fetters fall off and the doors fly open others were forced to abscond from their Families and Employments for fear of the Excommunication Writ and these it rescued from impending ruine and indeed it found them all insulted over scorned and trampled upon by the Bigots of the other Party but this Declaration put a respect upon them and gave them the Opportunity of letting the World see they were neither so few nor so bad nor contemptible as their Adversaries had represented them There are two things for which Dissenters are frequently reproached in the late Reign First Their accepting that Liberty with such Addresses of Thanks Secondly Their writing so few Books against Popery I have something to say in their just Defence upon both Accounts As to the First It had been the greatest Madness in the World for them to have refused the Advantages of that Liberty they thought themselves obliged to Worship God according to the Dictates of their Consciences when they run the Risque of Prisons and Banishment for so doing and to neglect it when they were freed from those hazards would have been such a piece of sullen unaccountable perversness as these Gentlemen would soon have upbraided us with I know it is commonly said that Toleration was promoted in favour of the Papists and I believe few of the Dissenters ever questioned it but they knew very well that when it was granted for them to have sate still and suffer'd the Papists alone to enjoy the Benefits of it would have strengthed Popery much more the Papists would have had never the less Liberty though Dissenters had been silent and when they were let loose it was time for all hands to be at work to countermine them and there 's no better weapon to subdue Errour than the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God It is objected this Declaration was founded upon a Dispensing Power and to accept of it was owning such a Power But the Dissenters never by Word or Writing ascribed any such Power unto the King as to Dispense with the Laws that are for the good of the Nation indeed they always esteemed the Laws by which they were excluded to be very unjust and unreasonable Edicts contrary to the Law of God and the common Interest and that they ought not to have been made or ever executed when they were made they never thought them binding in Point of Conscience and though they were forced heretofore to submit to the Penalty yet they were not so forsaken of common Sence as to court the Continuance of that Penalty or cast themselves into Prison when the Magistrate did not think fit to do it But the Clergy of the Church of England had often in the Pulpit and from the Press told the King that he had such a Power as the Author of Vox Cleri pro Rege shews us in abundance of Instances And the Judges who were of the Church of England had given it for Law as the other had declared it for Gospel and all the Magistrates in England thought fit to acquiesce in it which surely they would not have done if they had not thought it a just and reasonable thing for indeed the Kings Declaration would have signified little if the Magistrates had put the Laws in Execution still and if they did not think those Laws were really suspended they were bound by their Oaths to have done it and their forbearance was a plain acknowledgment of such a Power at least as to such kind of Laws as were hereby suspended but the Dissenters only persisted to do that which they thought themselves obliged to as they had opportunity by the Law of God any thing in humane Laws to the Contrary notwithstanding And as to their Addresses of Thanks it least becomes the Churchmen of all others to Reflect upon them not only because it was their Cruelty that made Indulgence so very pleasant and Oppression sometimes makes a wise man mad but also because they fall vastly short of those high flights of Complement which these men themselves took in their Addresses of a far worse Nature and Occasion If it be so Criminal to Thank the King for not suffering Protestants to destroy one another what shall we say of those that in the most Luxuriant manner thank'd him for dissolving one of the best of Parliaments E. of W's Speech and as a Noble Peer lately told them Were so forward in the Surrender of Charters and their fulsom Addresses and Abhorrences making no other claim to their Liberties and Civil Rights but Concessions from the Crown telling the King every one of his Commands was stamp'd with Gods Authority c. Besides I am informed by one of those that joined in an Address of Thanks to the King in Cheshire that the Nonconformists never moved in it till the Churchmen had led them the way these Gentleman therefore are too Imprudent to provoke us to Recriminations that will be so vastly to their own dishonour I am sure the Dissenters thank'd the Late King for nothing but what our present King and Parliament have Confirmed to them as the likeliest way to unite Protestants in Interest and Affection as the Preamble of the Act speaks and if there was any thing in that Liberty that was serviceable to the Papists it must be in the manner of giving it not in the thing it self as far as we are concerned in it and if the Episcopal Party had been so wise as to have promoted a legal Comprehension when it was in their Power they had disabled the Papists from serving themselves of any Liberty of ours As to the Second That Dissenters writ so little against Popery in the Late Reign it may be very easily accounted for They have sufficiently demonstrated their Abhorrence of Popery at all times and their Leading Men as Mr. Baxter Mr. Pool and the Preachers of the Morning Lecture have acquitted themselves very well in the Confutation of it and Malice it self cannot really believe that they are in the least favourable to the Romish Heresie the Crime that has been generally objected against them has been their too great aversation and distance from it As for the late Discourses upon that Subject that are so much boasted of it is observable that most of them were begun upon Personal Engagements The Preface to the Exam. of the Council of Trent by Catholick Tradition as one of the Principal Managers thereof acknowledges There is says he a Train in Controversies as well as in Thoughts one thing still giving start to another Conferences produce Letters Letters Books and one discourse gives occasion for another c. Now in such Cases it would not been have decent for a Third Person to have stept in and invaded another mans Province Besides there was no manner of Necessity for it the Papists in England have been a baffled party for some Ages and their Errors so often exposed that it
of Presbyters they are called Bishops Surely these things are as clear proof that Bishops were not a Superior Order as a Negative is capable of and there being no one Text in Scripture that affirms the distinction Semper praesumitur pro negante we must have concluded in the Negative though we had not had these proofs But what is wanting in Scripture they hope to make up out of the Fathers and Councils in behalf of Diocesan Prelacy it is certain they think their greatest strength lies there And we deny not that many of the Fathers seem to make a great difference betwixt Bishops and Presbyters but this does not overthrow our Hypothesis for if they are the same in Scripture the Sayings of the Fathers cannot make them otherwise and yet few or none of the Ancients say that they are distinct Orders much less that they are so by divine right but some of them acknowledge the contrary as we shall presently shew It is not therefore their using the Name of Bishop in a sence distinct from that of Presbyter or requiring Presbyters to be obedient to their Bishop that will prove a superiority of order jure divino for we grant that it was the early Practice of the Church to choose one of the Gravest and Wisest of the Presbyters and constitute him President over the rest and that where there were many Presbyters in a particular Church commonly the Eldest or worthiest was as Pastor and the other his Assistants but still we know the Parson and the Curates are of the same order and every Bishop in England is equal in order to the Archbishop of Canterbury though they take an Oath of Canonical Obedience to him the same we say of the distinction betwixt Bishop and Presbyter in Primitive Times This would be a sufficient reply unto the Antiquities this Gentleman has alledged but lest he should think he has done a mighty feat in transcribing these Passages I shall animadvert more particularly upon them He begins with the Canons of the Apostles but why they should take place of Clemens Romanus and Ignatius I cannot tell unless he has a Mind to cheat us with the Name or was cheated by it himself Dr. Cave reckons them among the Supposititious Works of the First Age and Dr. Beveridge who has laboured so hard to defend them against Daille only contends that they were written by Clemens Alexandrinus near the latter End of the Second Century But what say these Canons why they say Let not the Presbyters or Deacons do any thing without the consent of the Bishop for he hath the People of the Lord entrusted to him and there shall one day be required of him an Account of their Souls Here says the Gentleman the Bishop has the Power of governing the Presbyters and Deacons Concil Carth. c. 23. Cypr. Edit Goul. Ep. 6. p. 17. Ep. 24. p. 55. it is well argued however the Kings of England can make no Laws without the consent of the Lords and Commons have they therefore the power of governing him Cyprian did nothing without the concurrence of his Presbyters nay he determined to do nothing without the consent of his People by our Gentleman's dialect the Presbyters and People had the Power of governing the Bishop And is there one word here to prove that the Bishop was of a Superior Order The Curates of a Church are to have the direction and consent of the Parson and yet the Order is the same And it deserves to be considered whether 't is likely this Bishop the Canon speaks of was any more than the Pastor of a particular Church since he must be supposed capable of giving the Necessary Orders for management of all Affairs and nothing must be done without his consent it would be a Rule hard to be observed as our present Dioceses are Modell'd and if Presbyters must do nothing without the Bishops consent they must do nothing at all the whole time being too little for Travel and Consultation there would be none left for Action unless by consent we must understand a general Permission to do what they please without consulting him at all in particular Matters which would be a very odd Comment upon such a Text and not very well agreeing with the Reason that is added for this consent viz. That the Bishop has the People of the Lord committed to him and shall give an account of their Souls Surtly this requires a more careful and near inspection than to commit the care of all by an Act of general consent to others without ever intending a personal Acquaintance with one of a Thousand Pres Treat of Repentance so solemnly committed to him Dr. Taylor says he is sure we cannot give an Account of those Souls of whom we have no notice The next passage is out of Clemens Romanus his Epistle to the Corinthians a Piece of Antiquity which all the World has a great Veneration for that which the Gentleman thinks is for his purpose he gives us thus The Apostles foreseeing that there would be Contentions about the Name or Dignity of Bishop or Episcopacy they set down a List or Continuation of Successors that when any died such a certain person should succeed him But this place in Clement is very falsly recited and whoever furnished him with it abused him and imposed upon his Ignorance This Translator whoever he be would have us to think that the Apostles set down a List of the Names of those that were to Succeed in the Episcopal See this we cannot admit until he tell us where this List is to be found how far it went It seems it was a Continuation of Successors but it is hard to imagine how they could have the Names of Persons so ready that were yet unborn and unconverted we know an Infallible Spirit could reveal it to them but surely then we should have had it in the Canon of Scripture such a thing would have been of singular Use not only for prevention of Disputes about the choice of Bishops but for the Uncontroulable Evidence of the Truth of Christianity when they were able to produce a Prophetical List with the Names of Persons then unborn and yet all in due time appearing and ascending the Chair according to that Sacred Roll for these Reasons we cannot but reject the Fiction of any such List of Names which when one died declared that such a certain Person should succeed him And I am sure the words of Clement say no such thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Edit Colomes 103. the true English of them is this And our Apostles understood by our Lord Jesus that contention would arise about the Name of Episcopacy and for this Cause being furnished with perfect foreknowledge ordained those before-mentioned and moreover gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order that whensoever they should die other approved Men should succeed and perform their Functions I know there have been great Disputes about this odd word 〈◊〉
Act that Doctors of Civil Law being married may exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction In most humble wise shew and declare unto your Highness your most faithful humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Present Parliament Assembled That whereas your Highness is c. The Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and other Ecclesiastical Persons who have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical but by under and from your Royal Majesty to whom by Scripture all Authority and Power is wholly given to hear and determine all Causes Ecclesiastical and to all such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint thereunto And long before this time our Kings were so tender of their Royal Rights in Ecclesiastical Matters that when the Clergy in Parliament 51. Edw. 3d. Petitioned that of every Consultation Conditional the Ordinary may of himself take upon him the true Understanding thereof and therein proceed accordingly that is without Appeal to the King who by his Delegates by Commission under the great Seal might determine the same the Kings Answer was That the King cannot depart with his Right Instit 4th part cap. 74. p. 339. but to yield to Subjects according to Law upon which Sir Edw. Cook gives an Item Nota hoc stude bene By the Statute 1. Edw. 6.2 The Bishops could hold no Court but in the Kings Name and it was no less than Praemunire to issue out Process in their own Names and under their own Seals and though that Statute was Repealed in 1. Mary 2. Yet it lets us see the true Fountain of Prelatical Jurisdiction and some are of opinion that it was revived in general terms in the 1. Eliz. 1. Which annexes and unites all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Imperial Crown of England and shews that the Prelatical Power of our Bishops is wholly founded directed and limited by the Laws of the Land And this is readily granted by our ablest Civilians particularly Godolphin in his Abridgment of the Ecclesiastical Laws Introduct p. 2◠whose words are No sooner had Princes in ancient times assigned and limited certain matters and causes Controversial to the Cognizance of Bishops and to that end dignified the Episcopal Order with an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but the multiplicity and emergency of such Affairs require for the dispatch and management thereof the Assistance of subordinate Ordinaries c. Dr. Cases of Consc l. 3. ch 3. fol. 544. Jeremy Taylor acknowledges that the Supream Civil Power is also Supream Governour over all Persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical and he says This is a rule of such great necessity for the conduct of Conscience as that it is the measure of determining all Persons concerning the the Sanction of Obedience to all Ecclesiastical Laws c. And in another place It was never known in the Primitive Church that ever any Ecclesiastical Law did oblige the Church unless the secular Prince did establish it The Nicene Canons became Laws by the Rescript of the Emperor Constantine says Sozomen When the Council of Constantinople was finished the Fathers wrote to the Emperor Theodosius Ibidem cap. 4. fol. 600. Petitioning ut Edicto Pietatis tua confirmetur Synodi sententia The Decrees of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon had the same Confirmation as to the last Marcion the Emperor wrote to Palladius his Prefect Quod ea quae de Christiana fide à Sacerdotibus qui Chalcedone convenerunt per nostra praecepta statuta sunt And indeed what is it that the Civil Magistrate may not do in the making of a Prelate in the Church of England He may elect the Person and does so in reality for he nominates Authoritatively and whatever some pretend Godolph Repert Canon p. 42. the Dean and Chapter have no power to refuse the Conge d'eslire and Mr. Gwin in the preface to his Readings tells us that the King of England had of antient time the free appointment of all Ecclesiastical Dignities investing them first per Annulum Baculum and afterwards by his Letters Patents and that in process of time he made the Election over to others under certain Forms and Conditions and affirmeth with good authorities out of the Books of the Common Law that King John was the first that granted this Liberty of Election to the Dean and Chapter but that all Bishopricks were at first Donative The Civil Magistrate may multiply Bishops ad libitum and if he pleases may appoint one in every Parish by the Statute of 26 Hen. VIII c. 14. Six and twenty Suffragan Bishops are added to the Diocesans as saith the Act hath been accustomed to be in this Realm the Arch-Bishop or Bishop was to name two whereof the King to chuse one and to give him the Name Title and Dignity of Bishop and to that Name Title and Dignity the Arch Bishop with two Bishops or Suffragans more is to consecrate him onely he is to act by the Commission of the Diocesan and to have none of the profits of the Bishoprick this restraint in the exercise might have been taken off if the Legislative Power had so pleased And if this Law had not given them the Episcopal Power they could not have exercised that Power by any Commission from the Diocesan whatsoever He may also delegate the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to whom he pleases either to Lay-Men or to Presbyters 'T is commonly assigned to Lay-Chancellors they do judicially Excommunicate and Absolve and they have their Commission to do it from the King not from the Bishop and in some places the Episcopal Jurisdiction is reserved to a Presbyter as in the Peculiars we have in divers parts of England at Bridgnorth six Parishes are Governed by a Court held by a Presbyter and Godolphin tells us there are certain peculiar Jurisdictions belonging to some certain Parishes the Inhabitants whereof are exempted from the Arch-Deacons and sometimes from the Bishops Jurisdiction of which there are fifty seven in the Province of Canterbury A certain proof that the Bishops Jurisdiction is only by humane Right or Custom because the Law can exempt some Parishes from it but by the Citizen of Chesters Divinity all these peculiars have the peculiar priviledge of being unchurched and their exemption would be tantamount to Excommunication because they are not under the Government of the Bishop without which there can be no Church Unity If any say they are under the Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction I answer they are no otherwise under it than the Bishops are and the Prelatical party themselves acknowledge that Arch-Bishops are but of Humane Institution Lastly The Civil Magistrate may also depose and deprive Bishops when they see just cause and this power has been so lately exerted that it needs no farther proof I would fain know whether the deprived Bishops be not divested of all Episcopal Jurisdiction Perhaps this will be thought an invidious question and an insulting over the misfortunes of those learned Gentlemen but I profess seriously it is
be retained since they are neither good in themselves nor have a natural fitness to promote the Common Good were there any usefulness in them we would not reject them meerly because they have been abused but since by their own acknowledgment the Worship of God is not at all the better performed for them we cannot but judge it irrational to retain them a Wise Man will do nothing deliberately in his common Conversation but what he can give some account cui bono to what end he does it And really it is somewhat a hard case that we are in if we use these Ceremonies and know before hand our Duties are never the better for them Conscience and Reason tell us we are guilty of trifling in a Matter of the greatest Solemnity if we use them with an opinion that the Worship of God is better performed with them than otherwise their own Bishops and Doctors tell us we are guilty of Superstition and Will-worship 3. We observe that the Dealers in Ceremonies are apt to grow upon us and if we yield to a few they still urge us with more and indeed the Principle upon which they are defended leaves room to bring in as many as they please provided they be not expresly prohibited in the Word of God which in things of this Nature is not to be expected for it had been an endless task and would have swell'd our Bibles to a Prodigious Bulk to have precluded them all by Name which may be as various and indefinite as the fancies of Men Thus our Canons enjoyn several things which are not required by Law as bowing at the Altar at the Name of Jesus reading some part of the Service at the Communion Table c. and the Practice of some Zealous Men outgoes the very Canons themselves We are very loth to launch out into so vast an Ocean and commit our selves to be tost up and down by the Caprices and Humours of Men which are as uncertain as the Winds and Waves and we know not upon what dangerous Rocks or remote Shores they may at length drive us 4. Those things which we scruple are disapproved by the best Reformed Churches we know it to be so from their own words when the Ministers of the Helvetian and French Churches were desired to give their Opinion about these things they did generally express their dislike of them See a Book Intituled The Judgment of the Reformed Churches Printed at Geneva Octob. 24. 1547. Subscribed by Beza and many famous Divines of those Churches And we cannot forget the Exhortation of the poor Remains of the Bohemian Churches directed to the Reformed especially to that of England by the Learned and Pious Comenius writ in Latine and Dedicated to King Charles II. at his return into England I will transcribe a few Lines because the Book is not in every Bodies hand Contend then P. 8. Oh great Churches among your selves if you please about the Preheminence Strive about the Notion of Faith or for Ceremonies or the Hierarchy as fiercely as you can behold God presents you with a little Child an Infant stript of all Pomp and Dressing considerable for nothing but for Simplicity knows not any thing of preferring it self before others or quarrelling with any or coveting Wealth and Honours only understands how to keep at home to do its own Business not to intermeddle in other Mens Matters but to Serve God in Spirit and in Truth c. And in another Place thus P. 47. As for the Pomp of Church Ceremonies God indeed in the old way of Worship ordained such a thing therein by Shaddows to set forth the Spiritual Mysteries of Salvation which Christ at his coming was to disclose but seeing that since the coming of Christ they have been demolished and levelled by so many Apostolical Strains as Claps of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning directed against them why should we bring them up again still to make use of them Under the Papacy perhaps where the Light of the Gospel is obscured in their Barbarous Generations they might seem to be of some use at least with some colourable pretence but in a Reformed Church I beseech you what use can be made of them Those that have been hitherto retained in England under the Reformed Bishops have not the very Pentificians themselves laught them to Scorn and Derision It is plain to be seen in Weston's Theatre of Life Civil and Sacred Printed at Antwerp 1626. P. 564 c. Where having said that the Religion of the Protestants is without all Religion because they have no Sacrifice Priesthood nor Sacred Ceremonies he adds Some Protestants indeed that they may not appear absolutely Impious and Irreligious use our Missal and Breviary selecting what they please thereof for the Rubrick of their Liturgy and to make the Form of their Worship appear the more goodly they have their Canonical Persons forsooth after the Modes and Customs of the Church of Rome their Caps and Hoods and Holy-Days and such-like Stuff which they say they found in the Synagogue of Antichrist by which very thing it is apparent that the Religion of these Protestants stands guilty of Stealth and Robbery by which it first came into the World or if they will not be taken for Thieves let them go for our Apes These with their whole Service are derided and scorned not only by ours but also by their own the English seem to have driven the Pope out of England in such haste that they have forced him to leave his Cloaths behind him which they as Fools in a Play put on with a kind of Pompous Ceremony of Triumph and so lead the Quire a goodly Reformation it is that they dare not carry it through c. It will therefore be a glorious thing for the Reformed Churches to come back to the Practice of Christ and his Apostles leaving off the Baubles of earthly Riches Honours and Pomp and to look after and busie themselves about things of a higher Nature c. This and a great deal more to the same purpose is there to be seen by which it appears not only that those renowned Martyrs and Confessors called the Taborites disliked our Ceremonies but that the Papists themselves for whose sake they are retained despise and ridicule us for them 2. There are those amongst us that could bear with the use of these things but cannot declare their Approbation of them and their Assent and Consent to all of them this would be to espouse and commend those things which at best they look upon but as Tolerabiles Ineptiae and this Approbation must extend to all things required and they cannot so far dissemble with God and the World There are many things in the Book of Homilies which they like very well but they cannot say so of all there are some very odd Passages which they cannot Assent to P. 160. take one instance of many 2 Hom. of Alms. The same Lesson doth the Holy
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