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
and what ill terms I should have received if I had charged you with such a Crime when your Innocency was so demonstrable But till you produce as plain certain and obligatory a Rule for the teaching of them as I have done amongst us you can never be so secure of learning them from your Ministers publick Teaching as we are I must profess again that I have put it to many of you my self and have got others to do the same and could never be assured that they heard one Discourse professedly on the Trinity Conception Nativity Resurrection or Ascension of our Saviour or his sending down the Holy Ghost much less one or two every Year as it is with us And till Mr. B. produce Vouchers of the times and places I shall believe those that have been thus put to it would have told a thing so remarkable and in which the Honour of their Ministers is so much concerned if they could have done it with truth VII Fifthly Those people that have for many years complained that Christ and the Gospel was not preached amongst us may justly be suspected not to understand what the Gospel is And whilst they accused us of preaching nothing but Morality I am afraid that they reckon these Mysteries and our pressing the necessity of a good Life from them only dead and moral preaching and that they expect some greater and more spiritual Mysteries from us But if any pretend to such they are unfaithful Teachers and fall under the Apostle's Censure Gal. 1. 8. VIII Lastly Let me say one word to you of our own Communion You see my Brethren what an excellent Order our Church has establish'd to secure your being taught all the Mysteries of the Gospel by appointing a peculiar time of the year for teaching each of the principal of them This way of keeping the great Works and Mercies of God in memory is what Nature teaches us as the most effectual method and it is also approved by Presidents in both the Old and New Testament and is of such force that Experience shews us that this one Rule well observed has been the principal means of preserving Christianity in the worst of Times and under the most barbarous Tyranny and Persecution of the Turks and therefore let me entreat you as you love your Saviour and expect a share in the Happiness of his Kingdom that you would diligently observe those times appointed by the Church for the instructing you in the Mysteries of his Kingdom whilst you do so you are sure that you will be fed with the true Bread of Life the old and substantial Articles of your Faith that are able to save your Souls and will not be led away with every Wind of Doctrin or new coined Mysteries of great Pretenders Therefore let neither the Abuses or Arguments of your Adversaries discourage you nor much less Covetousness or Laziness divert your attendance And remember if at any time your Ministers do not teach them it is contrary to the Order of our Church and proceeds generally from your Non-attendance and then you only are guilty of the Neglect Sect. VIII Concerning the Catechism I. A Fifth Matter of Fact denied by Mr. B. is That hardly one in ten get your Catechism by heart nor one in five hundred retain it This I proved by my own Experience and can by the Testimony of many Witnesses that were present at the Tryals to which Mr. B. replies Vind. p. 13. That this is to be imputed to the sullenness or the bashfulness of those I examined But I found no such thing as bashfulness in them and as to sullenness many of them were under obligations to me being my Tenants or otherwise obnoxious and they generally endeavour'd to answer but could not remember either the Words or Matter I got several to make the same Experiment and they returned me the like account II. Mr. B. alledges that there are in the Parish of Derry two Meetings And in those two Congregations 600 can give a good account of and repeat the Assembly's Catechism To this I reply First That this tryal is since my book and doth not come home to the time of which I speak I am glad if so many can do this and believe my Book contributed to it Secondly There are in those Meetings 2400 Hearers in their Rolls and then after all their Labour and pains only one in four has gotten it Thirdly There are many in this Parish that do not enter themselves in your Books and yet go to your Meetings and no where else there is no account of these who are the most ignorant Fourthly Here is no account of the whole District that depends on these Meetings of which 600 is not the tenth if the twentieth part Fifthly A Catechism is chiefly designed for the ignorant and such as cannot read and here is no Voucher that one such has it and they generally speaking are never like to get it so that Your Catechism is useless to those to whom it is most necessary Sixthly Here is no assurance how many of these will retain it for any considerable time An Experiment has been made of this and a Man of good Natural parts has not been able to retain it a Month after Examination I am sure some Eminent Persons of your Perswasion could not give an Account of it sometime before I Published my Book I accidentally discoursed four or five of them about repairing a burying place and prov'd to them that it was a duty so to do from that question in your Catechism What benefits do Believers receive from Christ at death To which the answer is that The souls of Believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into Glory and their Bodies being still United to Christ do rest in their Graves till the Resurrection Therefore to expose their Bodies to Doggs or Swine or any other Indignity is to affront Christ to whom they are United They seemed surprized at this and as I understood afterward did not believe me till they went and consulted the Catechism From whence I concluded that they did not know or believe the Doctrine thereof much less remember the words which indeed I did not expect from them Lastly I do not believe your Ministers can certainly tell who have the Catechism and who have not The Questions they ask are so few of each and so confin'd to one head as I am informed that perhaps there are very few for whom they could vouch on such Examinations And often the Persons guess before-hand in what place of the Catechism they shall be Examined and prepare for it Upon the whole I am afraid my conclusion is too near a Truth and I am confirmed in it by experiments every day In which I do not expect the repeating the Catechism but the Lords-Prayer and Ten Commandments and Belief which many either never learned or have forgotten These then are not rash or mistaken Accusations as Mr.
gives me very hard words for Answering these Arguments alledging Rem p. 125. That he never heard any Dissenter alledge such trifling Reasons That I framed them my self and intimates that few can be of so Sottish an Opinion And yet you see the Chairman of Your Assembly offered these Reasons and Mr. Mede answered them Sixty Years ago as trifling and sottish as they are in Mr. B's Account And perhaps his declaring himself of these and other as odd Opinions was one reason made the Parliament name him for Chairman I wish he had not influenced them to lay aside all Bodily Worship in the Service of God VII Fourthly The Directory excludes Bodily Worship by imposing Sitting at the whole Office of the Administration of the Holy Sacrament even at those Prayers and Thanksgivings that are most properly Christian and peculiar to the compleat Members of Christ's Church The words of the Directory are these The Table being decently covered and so conveniently placed that the Communicants may sit about it or at it the Minister is to begin the action with sanctifying and blessing the Elements Here you see the Communicants are to sit about the Table or at it whilst the Minister begins the Blessing and Thanksgiving Mr. B. replies two things to this Rem p. 113. First That Sitting during the time of receiving the Elements is supposed tho' not enjoyned by the Directory But Supposing in this Case is Enjoyning otherwise our Liturgy doth not enjoyn Kneeling in the Act of Receiving For the words of it are That the Minister shall deliver the Elements to the People into their hands all meekly kneeling This according to Mr. B. only Supposes the People to Kneel but doth not enjoyn it but it is manifest that in these Cases to suppose that People Sit or Stand is equivalent to Imposing because if they do not sit or stand they do not conform to the Order But Secondly He alledges That this imports No more than that the Table must be placed that the Communicants may sit about it but that they must actually sit during the Blessing or Thanksgiving is no where affirmed much less imposed But I answer It is as much supposed and consequently enjoyned that they should sit during the whole Action as during the Receiving That they must sit sometime is plain the Question is when All indifferent Persons will understand it to be at that time where it is mentioned that is before the Minister begin the Action And the whole Directory supposes both Minister and People in the same posture throughout and gives no Order for altering it when they come to distribution or receiving which they would in all reason have done if they had meant that they should Bless and give Thanks in one posture and receive in another Let me add That the President and Practice they had before them was contrary to Mr. B's Interpretation I mean the Church of Scotland The Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of which they had sworn to preserve in their Covenant Now in the Liturgy of that Church which is plainly their Precedent in this part of the Directory as any one will see by comparing them the Order is conceived thus The Exhortation ended the Minister cometh down from the Pulpit and sitteth at the Table every Man and Woman likewise taking their Places as occasion best serveth then he taketh Bread and giveth Thanks And after all the Action thus ended the People sing the 103 Psalm or some other of Thanksgiving which ended one of the Blessings before mentioned is recited and so they rise from the Table Here is Sitting enjoyned throughout Thus you have understood the Directory hitherto And thus your People have practised to this day And in this the Assembly were sworn to preserve you And this I did say and must say hardens you against Reverence in the other parts of the Worship of God For if Sitting be a suitable posture for offering up the most solemn Prayers Thanksgiving and Praises to God and such as are peculiar to Our Religion as Christians they certainly are suitable to all others And yet this the Church of Scotland and Assembly have determined to be suitable And therefore Mr. B. is very unreasonable when he asserts Vind. p. 31. That He is no more obliged to defend any particular Persons in that posture that indulge it out of Sloth than I am to defend the toying or laughing that is too often used in our Church This he repeats out of his Remarks but the case is not parallel For First We have particular Canons against all such Behaviour namely the Seventh that forbids Any Person to be otherwise at such times busied than in quiet attendance to hear mark and understand that which is read c. And the 88th which requires the Church-wardens c. to see That none walk talk or stand idle in the Church-Yord or Porch much more in the Church And the 91st has these words They shall also see that in every meeting of the Congregation Peace be well kept and that none behave themselves rudely or disorderly in the Church And to that end they shall warn the people that they bring not with them to the Church Dogs Hawks with bells or Children which are not so nurtured as they can be kept quiet in their Seats without running up and down Neither shall they suffer any person to disturb the Service or Sermon either by untimely ringing of Bells or by walking talking laughing or any other noise which may hinder the Minister or offend the People And the Names of all such as offend in this kind they shall truly and personally present in the Ordinary's Visitations Till he shew as express a Rule against Sitting at Prayers in the Directory he and all that own that Directory are concerned in this charge But Secondly It is very uncharitable and without Ground to insinuate That Toying or Luighing is as universally practis'd with us as Sitting with you I have been in more Churches than Mr. B. and I must profess that I have generally observed the People behave themselves with reverence and devotion and I do not believe that any Church in the Kingdom can be justly charged with Irreverence of this kind any more than your Meetings except perhaps one and that is not because those that do it there are not admonished of their Duty but because they are too big to be Corrected I have not said this to encourage you in your Irreverence but to shew you the Unreasonableness of it and to convince you of the Weakness or Unfaithfulness of the Guides your Party followed when they left our Church of whom your Advocate is ashamed and whom he would fain excuse by denying plain Matters of Fact As for me I do assure you I should be much better pleased to find I was mistaken in your Principles and Practices then that the whole Body of you should be guilty of such an Irregularity and therefore if I had observed that you