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A47442
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A second admonition to the dissenting inhabitants of the diocess of Derry concerning Mr. J. Boyse's Vindication of his Remarks on A discourse concerning the inventions of men in the worship of God : with an appendix containing an answer to Mr. B's objections against the sign of the cross / by William, Lord Bishop of Derry.
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King, William, 1650-1729.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing K534; ESTC R4453
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121,715
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288
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Authentick Rule concerning it at all as I shew'd in my Admonition And when Proposals were made concerning it they were rejected by a Parliament of your own Party with great Abhorrence We cannot say they in their Declaration 1646 consent to the granting of an Arbitrary and Unlimited Power and Jurisdiction to near Ten thousand Judicatories to be Erected within this Kingdom and this demanded in a way inconsistent with the Fundamentals of Government excluding the Power of Parliaments The Question then between Your Discipline and Ours is Whether it is better to have no Rules but meer Arbitrary Power in Ten thousand Judicatories to exercise a Discipline inconsistent with the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and the Power of Parliaments or to have certain and determinate Rules for the Exercise of it such as our Canons and Rubricks which are very consistent with the Constitution of the Kingdom and would certainly reform the World if executed and nothing hinders their execution that I know but Your Separation I cannot reckon it a Happy Progress in Reformation as Mr. B. does to throw down a well-establish'd Discipline founded on good Authority and with good Rules and Establish nothing in the place of it 'T is not Purity of Discipline to make it Arbitrary and have no Rules at all And yet I am afraid many are for reforming Faith as You have reformed Discipline III. Secondly in your Church Constitution you are not yet agreed and we do not know what you would have I observed that Mr. B's sense of these things is much different from yours both as to the Rules and Manner of Proceeding in your Judicatories insomuch as you are not yet agreed who shall have the power of the Keys Whether a single Congregation or a Presbytery Adm. p. 47. To make you a little sensible of this I will compare Mr. B. and his Parties Sentiments with Yours First then You own generally That a National Church is of Divine institution but Mr. B. and his Party declare Reflect p. 4. That such a National Church is not of Divine Institution and is indeed only A Combination of Churches as united under one Civil Soveraign its true Notion lies not in any Combination purely Ecclesiastical and Intrinsical but Civil and Extrinsical Secondly You hold that many particular Congregations may be under one Presbyterial Government Mr. B. and his Party That no particular Church shall be subordinate to another and That none of them their Officer or Officers shall Exercise any power or have any Superiority over any other Church or their Officers Heads of Agreement p. 11. You hold That it is agreeable to the Word of God that there be a Subordination of Congregational Classical Provincial and National Assemblies for the Government of the Church Mr. B. and his Party That Church-Councils are not for Government but for Unity not as being in Order of Government over the several Bishops Reflect p. 58. and Heads of Agreement p. 10. Thirdly You hold that Excommunication is a shutting the Kingdom of Heaven against impenitent Sinners But with Mr B. and his Party Excommunication it self in their respective Churches is no other than a declaring such scandalous Members as are irreconcilable to be incapable of Communion with them in things peculiar to the visible Relievers Pref. to the Heads of Agreement In which sense any two Men may Excommunicate a third It requires no Power at all to declare a Man incapable of Communion with me but only Judgment and so there is an end of Church Governors and Censures Fourthly You hold That those that are Ordained ought not to be Ordained again but Mr. B. and his Party teach That if any hold in case of the Removal of one formerly Ordained to a new Station or Pastoral Charge there ought to be a like solemn Recommending him and his Labours to the Grace and Blessing of God No different Sentiments or Practice herein shall be any occasion of Contention or Breach of Communion amongst you Fifthly You hold That Ruling Elders are of Divine Right and your Constitution so far as appears to us is founded on them but Mr. B. and his Party declare that whereas divers are of Opinion that there is also the Office of Ruling Elders and others think otherwise They agree that this makes no Breach among them Heads of Agreement p. 13. Sixthly You hold That the Ruling Officers of a particular Congregation have only power to suspend from the Lord's Table and that Casting out belongs to the Presbytery But Mr. B. and his Party hold That each particular Church hath Authority from Christ for Exercising Government and of enjoying all the Ordinances of Worship within it self Heads of Agreement p. 4. All these are material Differences and concern the Being of a Government and in all of them you differ from Mr. B. and his Party and only in one of them from us that is in the Fifth and then judge what Progress it is in Reformation to separate from a National Constitution to joyn with such that do not so much as pretend to it IV. Thirdly Your Purity that should invite Men to joyn with you doth not consist in Doctrine for in this confessedly you have no Advantage of us for these very Heads of Agreement acknowledge it sufficient as to Soundness of Judgment in Matters of Faith to own the Doctrinal part of those commonly called The Articles of the Church of England which we all Subscribe You then have made no Progress in this Point Fourthly As to Preaching the Gospel which is a necessary Mark of the Purity of a Church it is manifest You come short of Us the great Mysteries thereof being neither so Diligently so Constantly so Regularly or so Universally taught by your Ministers as in our Church nor so Good and Obliging Rules for doing so So that Men that would hear them taught in this manner ought to joyn with us as I have already shew'd Fifthly As to the Administring the Sacraments which is another necessary Mark of the Purity of a Church Your Ministers have been Notoriously Defective they have let many dye without Baptism that had a Title to it and have been no less Negligent in Administring the Lord's Supper insomuch that not one of them have done their Duty this thirty Years in Administring it often as Christ requires Therefore those of you that would partake frequently of this Sacrament must joyn with our Church Sixthly As to Holiness of Life you have no Advantage over us being no better than your Neighbours and if you take away such as are not of us as a Church but as we are the Governing Party and who will always Joyn themselves to that which is so I doubt whether you be so good There needs no more to convince you of this than to consider that Mercy Justice and Truth are counted by our Saviour to be the great things of the Law and you will not find that the Protestants in the North of Ireland of which You
distant parts of Desertoghill about 10 or 12. The like might be shewed of Maghâ—ra Ardstra and Donaghmore and there needs no more to prove the truth of this than to consult the Maps of the Counties IV Let me add that even these are not constantly supplyed for the Ministers what on account of assisting their Neighbour Ministers at Sacraments what on account of their visiting other parts of the Kingdom and what on account of their private Affairs do frequently miss and disappoint their People Insomuch that in Ardstra for Example their Minister has been absent at least 7 or 8 Months If then we lay these things together and take one Meeting and one Sunday with another I think my Computation was very modest when I conjectured that hardly one in ten of you Worshiped God any where on the Lords-day V. But because I would have as little dispute with Mr. Boyse as possible I will take his own Computation and allow 1st That there are 9 Meeting-Houses in the Diocess tho really for the last 2 Years there has been only 8 and for the last 7 or 8 Months only 7 2dly I will allow that there are 700 at each Meeting Mr. Boyse sayes 600 ordinarily and some above 1000 tho' really take one Sunday and one Meeting with another there are not 300. 3dly I will allow that there are but 30 thousand Dissenters in the Diocess tho really there are more And now let us see how many Worship God on the Lords day and how many prophane it by staying at home according to Mr. Boyse's own account And it is thus Nine times 700 make 6300 the Number of Worshipers which taken out of 30000 there remains 23700 that stay at home and attend no Worship at all Perhaps half as many as Worship God in all the Dissenters Meetings in Ireland A thing that deserves a serious Consideration and Concern and tho Mr. B. seemes to make light of it Vind. p. 2. yet sure to use my endeavours to perswade these 23000 to attend their Parish Churches rather than to stay at home on the Lords day was my duty as a Christian Bishop and Pastour And how Mr. B. will Answer to God that he has contributed to hinder my Endeavours tho he professes he did not design it I leave it to our Common Judge and Master VI. Neither Mr. Boyse nor your Ministers could be ignorant of this since it arises clearly from their own Compuration And I leave you to judge whether it looks not like amusing the World and serving a Party to publish such an Account as he and they have done For to tell us of two Meeting-Houses in one Parish when indeed there are only those two in one quarter of the Diocess I am sure looks like such a Design Yet this has been your case for many years past and is like to be in a great measure for many to come For when can you expect Ten Ministers more than you have in the District of Derry and Burt And yet these would be rather of the fewest to accommodate each place with a Meeting at a due distance VVhen can you expect Seven instead of one in the District of Ballykelly or Six in the District of Aghadowy and proportionally in the rest VII I desire you to observe that Mr. B. p. 26. declares That it was not his design to hinder you from joyning with the Established Church in our ordinary Lords-day Service and Expresly declares his own Opinion for the Lawfulness of it I hope your own Ministers are of the same Opinion since he professes p. 24. That he had a just call to write his Remarks and that from the Dissenting Ministers of this Diocess And Three of them by their Certificates seem to approve of his Performances If then it be their Opinion that it is lawful for you to joyn in Our Publick Worship at least when you cannot go to your own Meetings and that you had better do so than stay at home especially where the Established Ministers are sober able orthodox and diligent as those of this Diocess I presume generally are I desire you to call to mind whether your Ministers have declared their opinion to you in this point or no. If they have consider how you will answer your neglect of God's Publick Worship so long at the last day when it shall appear you might lawfully have joyned in it But if your Ministers have not made any such Declaration of their Opinion in this point tho they know it to be Lawful judge with your selves whether they have discharged the Office of Faithful Guides to you in revealing to you the whole will of God as they ought to have done since they have suffered for many Years and yet do suffer about Nine in Ten of you to stay at home on the Lord's day and joyn in no Publick Service of God rather than joyn in the Worship Praises Prayers and Sacraments Celebrated in your own Parish Churches or hear the Scriptures Read and the great Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven opened to you by such Ministers as you cannot but in your Conscience acknowledge and many of you have acknowledged to be equal to your own in Piety Learning Diligence and Industry and who would have been eminent amongst you if they had been of your Party I conceive the resolution of this Question to be of great Moment to you and a great step to our Peace and Union and therefore you ought every one of you to require your Ministers direct and positive Resolution in it By which you will perceive whether your Guides are of one mind in this weighty Affair and if they be you 'l consider how you came to be ignorant of it as your Practice and Profession declare you are and where the fault is to be laid I the rather press this because I know that several are willing and desirous to frequent the publick Worship but dare not fearing the malice and hatred of their Neghbours who treat them as Apostates that do so and contrive their Ruine The truth is Your Ministers have Preached you into a Dislike of the Established Worship they have represented it as Idolatrous and by these means they have entirely separated you from us as to all publick Worship and have got you to depend on themselves And now when they have you they are not able to supply you but have dealt with you as the false Mother did with the Child before Solâ—mon they would rather you should not worship God at all than with us But whether this looks like Zeal for God's Worship I must leave it with you to judge As for my self I hope I shall not be reputed I am sure I shall not become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth And shall apply the words of St. Paul Gal. 4. 17. To you and your Teachers They zealously affect you but not well they would Exclude you or rather Us as in the Margine of your Bibles that you may