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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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to it I have never heard that any Judge of the Consistory of Derry since June 1691 when I came first into this Diocess receiv'd any Fees but what came through my hands for I attended constantly on the Courts since that time as Surrogate the first year and Chancellor the two last to your Lordships knowledge who was duly present at them when you were in Town Now during these three Years there are or have been about 200 Persons reputed of that Perswasion that Mr. B. seems to vindicate proceeded against in the Ecclesiastical Courts of Derry presented by the Church-Wardens for Fornication Adultery Incest c. From all which there has not been taken for the Judges Fees to the value of Ten Pounds The last Fifteen Months I resided in my Parish Seven miles distant from the Court yet attended without any Surrogate lest I should be obliged to grant the full Fees to others which I remit often my self so that my many necessary Journeys my neglect of my own private Concerns my staying many Nights and Weeks from my own Dwelling being considered any reasonable person may compute my Gains I shall not enter into any Invidious comparison between this Management and the times of Presbitery or Independency but supposing that my Brethren may justify their Courts in the same manner if the Scene of the present Dispute were not laid in this See I shall content my self with this That all men may hence discern whether our Courts have deserved the severe Intimations before-mentioned or whether Mr. B's friends here have been devoured as a prey c. Ballychelaghan June 6 1694. My Lord your Lordships c. Robert Gourney To conclude I dare affirm that all the Officers of the Court of Derry have not had Forty Pound Fees from all the several hundred Criminals that have been in it since I came into the Diocess so far have they been from Oppressing or Squeezing any And yet I am not satisfied that this Mildness is commendable for I find the greater part so lost to all sense of Goodness and so exceedingly sordid in their Temper that they had rather do Penance both at Meeting and Church than pay a few Shilings and perhaps on such people the fear of paying a little Money would work a greater Reformation and awaken them more than all other Endeavours III. Fourthly He represents Ministers in his Sixth Demand p. 173. as depriv'd of their Pastoral Power that belongs to them and Wishes that Bishops would exercise their Authority in concurrence with their Presbyters and another of your Ministers represents Bishops as the sole Pastours of the whole Diocess Mr. Craghead p. 145. Now all these are Misrepresentations For First There are many acts of Episcopal Power and Authority which a Bishop connot exercise without the concurrence of his Presbyters Secondly There is not one act belonging to a Congregation except confirming the Baptised which has ever been peculiar to Bishops but a Presbyter with the consent of his Bishop may exercise it Thirdly A Presbyter has as much power in the matter of Excommunication as any Presbyterian Minister since he can reprove rebuke exhort and suspend from the Sacrament which is all that any of them can do And whereas Mr. B. alledges that he must turn Informer against such as he suspends in the Spiritual Courts where they are sure to be put to great Charges This is another Misrepresentation For there is no such necessity of putting into the Court such Offenders except their Sins be publick or if they should be put into it that they should be put to much Charges except they continue impenitent and then it is necessary they should pay the Fees of the Office which are very small whatever Mr. B. suggests and 't is the Offenders own fault if they be otherwise who make them so by their obstinacy To conclude a Presbyter must act in dependance and with consent of his Bishop in many things but this doth not hinder him from being a Pastour joyntly with his Bishop of the whole Diocess and particularly in his own Cure IV. Let me Observe further That neither Presbyterians or Independents can with any reason Object this to our Presbyters for every Presbyterian Minister depends on his Brethren in these acts And can neither Excommunicate or perform any other Proper Act of Government that concerns the whole Church without consent of a Synod and if his depending on a Synod in these Acts doth not hinder him from esteeming himself a Pastour why shou'd a Presbyter with us not count himself a Pastour since he has as much power alone as your Ministers and as much in Conjunction with his Bishop as yours have with a Synod and especially when it is considered that the presence and consent of a Bishop is easier had than that of a Synod and the Bishop is obliged by known Rules and Laws to concur in those things that are reasonable whereas generally your Matters are Arbitrary and depend on the major Votes As to the Congregational Ministers They in these Acts depend on the consent of their own Congregations in whom according to them the power of the Keys is Originally seated and they cannot Excommunicate any without consent of their People which is more opposite to the nature of a Pastour than acting with the consent of a Bishop and in Subordination to him and indeed such Ministers are rather meer Servants than Pastours of their People In this point therefore Mr. B. has made a very unjust Representation of our Principles and Practice Sect. XV. Concerning Mr. Sq. 1. THE last Matter of Fact of which I shall take notice concerns a person rejected from Orders in our Church and now a Preacher of your Party Mr. B. affirms that your Ministers declare that they know of no such Person and says That if I mean Mr. Sq. he declares he was never examined as to his Learning by us and that most that know him think that if I reject all those of my Clergy that are not Mr. Sq ' s. superiors in Learning I must exclude a great many of those that are now in this Diocess You see how he necessitates me to give an account of this affair This Gentleman whom I did not name out of the great respect I had to his Relations soon after the Troubles procur'd Mr. Robert Gage of this Diocess to present him to the then Bishop of Rapho for the Order of a Deacon the Bishop according to the 31st Canon demanded a Certificate of his Degree good Life and Conversation under the Colledge Seal but that he neither had nor could procure whereupon the Bishop refus'd him After I came to this place he applied himself to me both in person and by his friends but I refused him and them till such time as he was publickly Examined according to the Canons In the mean while I discours'd him several times and found him unfit as to his Learning yet wou'd not discourage him but advised him to
impowers and it fully justifies it The same may be said of bowing the Head at the Name of Jesus which yet is not required of you there being no Rule for it in the Church of Ireland and the same is obvious of all these other things Mr. B. excepts against Vind. p. 28. Sect. XIII Concerning the Third Fourth and Fifth Canons 1. ATenth Matter of Fact is his adding and taking away from our Third Fourth and Fifth Canons He professes that he cannot imagine wherein he has added to them Vind. p. 33. For the determination of this I desire you to Consult the Remarks p. 179. and there you will find him affirming that our Fifth and Third Canon Excommunicate ipso facto all that are guilty of the Crimes mentioned in them and intimates the same concerning the Fourth But he has added these words ipso facto out of his own head or by inconsiderately transcribing Mr. Baxter who indeed quotes the Third Fourth and Fifth English Canons but the Irish Canons which Mr. B. here quotes treat of different matters and have no such words in them and yet these words are so material that he founds his principal Arguments against these Canons on them alledging it Rem p. 180. as a great absurdity that they Excommunicate without any other Admonition than what the Canons themselves give and that they peremptorily cut off from Christ without presonal warning and p. 146. That all are denounced Excommunicated who affirm or maintain the Doctrines condemned in those Canons Whereas those Canons neither denounce any Excommunicated nor Excommunicate any ipso facto and tho' the Crimes be very grievous such as Preaching against the Established Worship in the Common-Prayer-Book condemning our Orders unchurching our Congregations separating from us as profane and setting up Altar against Altar yet the Canons do not impower the Bishops to Excommunicate Persons so guilty till they be Cited Admonished the Fact proved and they persist impenitently in their Errors Whereas if they were Excommunicated ipso facto as Mr. B. alledges there needed only Citation and a proof of the Fact and a Declaration of the Sentence Sect. XIV Concerning His Demands 1. BUT Eleventhly As Mr. B. denies that he has added to our Canons so he likewise asserts Vind. p. 33. That he has reviewed all the demands he has made in his Remarks and can see no unjust representation in them I do not think it proper to trouble you with an Examination of all those I will only put you in mind that I hinted at some of them in my Admonition p 49. as in the fifth where he represents us absolving the Uncensured which is a very unjust representation For the Absolution of the sick is not the absolving of the Uncensured but of one that by A special Confession of some weighty matter that troubles his Conscience has submitted himself to the censure and judgment of a Minister Secondly In the seventh demand he censures our Canons in the matter of such as are to be Ordained as very desective which is a very unjust representation they being as strict as the Apostles 1 Tim. 3. and in such a degree that if duly observed no insufficient person can be admitted into Orders I will add two or three more for I cannot go thro' all II. Thirdly Therefore in his second demand p. 171. he represents the Authority of Bishops to be so devolved on their Chancellours as to be out of their one hands and humbly desires they would endeavour to recover the spiritual part of it This is an unjust representation and shews he does not understand our Constitution or practice for First In many Cases the Bishop cannot devolve his Power on his Chancellour but must act himself Secondly The Chancellour's Power doth not exclude the Bishops in any case On the contrary he is only his Substitute when absent and his Assistant when present The Bishop may when he pleases sit in his own Courts and when he pleases admit what Clergy-Men he thinks proper to assist him and dispose of all things according to the Canons He may reserve a cause to his own Hearing pass sentence in it according to his own Judgment and dismiss or suspend it and in every step act independently of his Chancellour It is true he cannot in some Cases dispose of the Chancellour or Registers Fees to which being a Lay-perquisite the Common Law intitles them and it is not the Churches fault that we cannot reform it But from this it sufficiently appears that to represent our Jurisdiction as out of our hands is very unjust And here let me take notice of a most unjust Reflection Mr. B. has cast on the Jurisdiction of this Diocess in particular He asserts p 157. That you have very little hopes of Reformation of Manners from either the Persons that compose those Câ—urts or from the manner of their proceedings and hopes that I should not expect that you should turn Informers to bring Grist to our Mills And intimates That we only draw people in there to make a Prey of them These are every one most unjust Representations and I dare appeal to the several hundreds I have had in my Court since I came to this Diocess for the truth of what I assert I can answer for my self and all the Officers of the Court and dare affirm that none of them ever made a Prey of any I shall only give the Chancellours account of this matter and desire Mr. B. to try if he can produce one instance to the contrary My Lord after all the tenderness of your Lordships Ecclesiastical Courts I am surpriz'd to find that Mr. B. in his Book against you speaks to your Lordship of such Courts as bring contempt on the censures of the Church decreeing 'em on frivolous causes in a rash and precipitant manner making 'em an Engine to squeeze the Purses of men rather than reform their Manners p. 155. as hunting for Prey and on that score drawing men into their clutches p. 156. as scandalously managed The censures of the Church prostituted to so vile a purpose as that of filthy lucre and that thereby the Temple of God is turned into a House of Merchandize p. 171. This in a Book so full of harsh innuendo's may make some Readers believe that the Accounts he has from hence of which he sometimes speaks give him ground to talk at this rate And seeing these things are said to the Bishop of Derry and the Reformation of them desir'd those who are strangers to your Lordships Courts and your Diocess may be inclin'd to believe that the Jurisdiction here is managed by such Harpy's as he has described for what Courts can your Lordship reform but your own and why is this objected to your Lordship unless you are supposed to be guilty Therefore as far as this may be understood to relate to your Lordships Diocess concerning which properly all the Dispute is I shall beg leave of your Lordship to offer this short answer