the necessary points of Christian faith and practice and Certificate be made thereof by the Minister of the Parish were duly practised and might attain to as great purity as is ever pretended to by the separate Congregations who now find so much fault for our want of discipline I wish with all my heart the Rules of the Church were reduced to practice which I am sure they never can nor will be whilst the Diocesses in England are of the present dimensions He that thinks any Bishop can confirm all the children in his Diocess doth but dream were he never so desirous of it and diligent in it 't were impracticable and the neglect and impracticableness of this thing is one great reason of the ignorance and wickedness of our Parishes and Congregations and thus 't is like to be till Diocesses be lessened and the number of Bishops encreased and some effectual care taken that children be instructed and confirmed Page 275. The Dr. asserts a power in the Presbyters of this Church to reject and deny the holy Sacrament to the scandalously wicked provided he give notice of it to the Ordinary within fourteen days and for this produces the Rubrick before the Communion I grant what the Rubrick allows but is not the Minister like to have a sine time of it if he must be bound to inform and prosecute all at Law that are scandalous and unfit to come to the holy Table The Dr. knows that all above the age of sixteen are bound to take the Sacrament three times a year by the Orders of this Church and in some great Parishes the number of the scandalous and wicked is so great that if the Minister be bound to prosecute all whom he accounts himself obliged in conscience to refuse the life of a Kennel-raker were more elegible than his for he must spend his time in perpetual travel and attendance upon Courts which is a very sine Employment for a man of piety and conscience and that desires to spend his time in his study and teaching and instructing the people committed to his care But the Dr. enquires What would you have every particular Pastor have an unaccountable power Or would you not have them bound to justifie what they do and prosecute the person for those faults for which they exclude him from the Communion I answer 1. I think it were not amiss if the excluded person were obliged to complain if he thought himself wronged and the Ministers were excused from doing the Office of an Apparitor but this I insist not on Therefore I add I plead not for an unaccountable power in particular Pastors but for such a power as they may account for which I am sure they can never do for this in great parishes and where the Diocesses are so large and wide and there is no man that will give himself the liberty to think can deny it The number of the scandalous is so great the distance from the Bishops Court in many places so far the tediousness and corruption of the Officers so abominable that it is a thing utterly impracticable 'T is impossible that any man can justifie himself in refusing to prosecute according to Canon all the scandalous that he may justly reject In brief either to talk or think of exercising Discipline or reforming this Church till we have more Bishops or Suffragans and other things altered which might be done if our Superiors pleased without altering the Constitution is to build Castles in the air and to dream of Rocks to set them on among the clouds of heaven Page 278. The Dr. quotes these words of Mr. B. If a Minister doth publickly admonish a person by name not censured by the Ordinary the Lawyers tell him he may have his Action against him To which he replies What need this publick admonition Doth the nature of Church-discipline lye in that To which I answer No man ever dreamt that the whole nature of Church-discipline consisted in publick admonition by name There are several intermediate acts of Discipline Publick admonition by name is not to be attempted till others have been essayed and tryed in vain And this publick admonition after the fruitless use of that which is private is that which Mr. B. says cannot legally be performed by the Presbyters of this Church But the Dr. makes a second Reply to those words of Mr. B. If a restraint be laid on Ministers by Law the question then comes to this Whether the obligation to admonish publickly an offender or to deny him the Sacrament if he will come to it be so great as to bear him out in the violation of a Law made by publick Authority with a design to preserve our Religion To which I answer I do not think that Ministers are obliged to admonish publickly all offenders after the unsuccessful tryal of private means and endeavours though no Law forbad it Pearls are not to be cast before Swine If the person or persons be such as will mischief wound or kill the Minister that should so admonish him or them I think he is not obliged to do it but whether out of that case and others of like nature a Minister may not be obliged to do it is another question yea though the Law should forbid it And 't is another question whether he be obliged to give such a person the holy Sacrament though the Law should command it Mans Laws are not valid against Gods If God obliges Ministers to publick admonition of scandalous and incorrigible offenders and to refuse them a participation in the holy mysteries of our Religion no man can take off the obligation Page 281. The Dr. says The due exercise of discipline is a work of so much prudence and difficulty that the greatest Zealots for it have not thought it fit to be trusted in the hands of every Parochial Minister and his particular Congregation and for this he quotes Calvin and Beza To which I answer I believe there are very few Parish-priests in England that are ambitious of having the exercise of discipline committed to their care and conduct and indeed very many of them have neither piety or prudence sufficient for the management of it But withall I must add I should be very sorry and some are very worthy of blame if it be so if most Parish-Ministers be not as capable of it as Chancellors Commissaries Officials and Surrogates who are the people that exercise what Discipline is exercised in this Church and 't is sufficiently known that many of them are persons of none of the greatest understandings the best prudence the tenderest consciences or the severest lives which yet are qualifications hugely necessary in persons that manage the Discipline of the Church In brief I condemn not the prudence of the Church of England in not committing the exercise of Discipline to every Parish-Minister but then I would humbly move that we might have Bishops enough to do it The Dr. appropriates to Bishops Government Ordination
and Censures and I am very well content they have them provided they will or can discharge them But of the impossibility of that I am past doubt for though the Diocesses of our English Bishops be not so great as that of the Pope which the Dr. acknowledges to be too great and spacious yet I think they are too large for their management and that the duty incumbent on them with respect unto them is utterly impracticable Mount Athos Polion or Ossa are neither of them so great as the Globe of the earth yet they are all burthens utterly insupportable Whether the Dr. will allow this multiplication of Bishops or Suffragans rather that the name Bishop may not become too common and so become less venerable I cannot tell I find him in many places of his Book and in his Preface very jealous of the honour of our Reformation and positively resolved never to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor the lawfulness of the Ceremonies hitherunto practised in it vide Pref. p. 89. I have my self a very great esteem for the Reformation of this Church and a mighty honour for the great and incomparable Hero's that were the Reformers of it but 't is no disparagement to say they were but men though the greatest men nor is it any Reproach to the Reformation to say it was imperfect The Learned and Pious Dr. Burnet hath observed divers defects and imperfections in it and I know not how they can be denied and to speak the truth concerning it is not to reproach it And what if it should be said that among others 't was an imperfection in our Reformation that the number of Bishops was not increased so far as that they might be sufficient for the work and duty incumbent on them Can a Bishop inspect the Clergy in a Diocess of the present dimensions can he exercise the Censures of the Church upon all the culpable delinquents in it can he confirm all the Children in it can he ordain Priests for all the Parishes therein with that circumspection wariness and care which was observed by the primitive Bishops and which the honour of this Church the Christian Religion and the salvation of souls doth require Doth the Reverend Dr. think those things can be done by any the most diligent and industrious Bishop on earth I dare say he cannot think it possible and if he doth not think it possible I would enquire further of him whether he does not think it very necessary and desirable that all this work were put into more hands that they may be capable of performing it for till then I am much assured it can never be done however necessary or desirable it may be These things being said I will now add I shall never desire the Dr. to condemn the Constitution of this Church nor will I brlieve many of the Nonconformists desire him to do it but I would humbly desire him to put to his helping hand for the amendment and perfecting of it and to perfect and compleat it is not to condemn it 't is only to confess it a little short of that perfection that it may attain and what great work is perfect of a sudden at its birth into the world In brief Diocesan Episcopacy I like and that 's the Constitution of this Church and so doth Mr. B. for ought that I can see but I would fain have more Bishops not to controul Episcopal Power but to assist in the performance of Episcopal Duty Page 301. The Dr. undertakes to confute what Mr. B. had said viz. that wherever there is the true notion of a Church there must be a constitutive regent part i. e. a standing governing power which is an essential part of it and this he promises to do from Mr. B. himself How well he hath done it let the Reader judg by what the Author of the Peaceable Design hath replied to him upon this Subject But the Dr. infers from what Mr. B. had said of the necessity of a Regent Head to every Church as followeth And so Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope a wonderful kindness and made a very plausible plea for his universal Pastorship But there are some men in the world who do not attend to the advantages they give to Popery so they may vent their spleen against the Church of England To which I answer Mr. B's Constitutive Regent part of a Church hath done the Pope no kindness at all for another visible Head may be assigned to the Catholick Church and that is the holy Jesus he is both the visible and invisible Head thereof he is unto it both a Head of government and a Head of influence he governs it by his Laws and by the influence of his Spirit and hath appointed inferiour officers for the government and direction of it according to his own institutions and though he be not seen by mortals here below yet he is visible and that is enough to constitute him the visible Head of the Catholick visible Church There are some Kingdoms that never see their Prince and in all Kingdoms multitudes of Subjects that never lay their eyes on him and yet he is never the less their Civil visible Head But there are some men in the world that will take very small occasions to signifie their displeasure against Mr. B. and what hath he done to deserve their lash and why must he be the Subject of these most twinging Satyrs they are the words of a late Author and what is the spleen that he vents against the Church of England that makes their choler to ferment and boyl 'T is true Mr. B. doth with a brave and generous courage rebuke what he thinks amiss in the gnvernours and government of the Church of England he speaks plainly and without respect of persons he flatters none nor fawns upon none but indifferently reproves whatever he thinks worthy of it in whomsoever it be And if this be to vent his spleen against the Church of England I think he hath very venerable patterns and examples for it both in the Old Testament and the New as this Learned Dr. very well knows If it should be said that Mr. B. reproves where there is no fault I answer I should much rejoice if this were true and I believe so would Mr. B. as well as I but he must shut his eyes against the mid-day light that thinks there is no fault in the Government of this Church or nothing worthy of the plainest and most keen reproofs therein 'T were very easie to name many things if a man delighted to rake in Sinks and Kennels I mean the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts Page 302. The Dr. tells us that Mr. B. had said in his Answer to his Sermon that he would fain learn of him what those rules and ties are which make a National Church whether divine or humane If it be a divine rule we says Mr. B. are of the National
of God and why must they assent to and subscribe the lawfulness of the use of the Cross in Baptism with more that might be mentioned Are these things certain and so clear and obvious that an honest man can't doubt of them Are these things necessary Cannot a man be a Minister or a Christian that doth not nor cannot believe them This cannot or at least ought not to be imagined or affirmed why then doth the Church of England require Ministers to subscribe unto them and why must none of the Laity dispute the truth of them What reason can be alledged for it but it s own good will and pleasure I know no other that can be given of it thither it must be referred at last And whether this be not to exercise an Empire over the judgments and consciences of men and to command the surrender of their reason to naked will and pleasure I leave to consideration It hath the likeness and appearance of it and how the Church of England will fairly free themselves of it I do not yet discern I would be glad to see it done for the exercise of Empire over the consciences of men in uncertain and unnecessary things is a very evil and mischievous thing an Engine of the Devil by which I do believe he hath done more mischief in the Church of God than by all the Heathen persecutions and I know no end is served by it unless it be to choak conscientious men for all men of conscience are not Latitudinarians nor like to be in my apprehension The sum of what I have said in these three last Paragraphs is this Mr. A. hath said some little and petty inconveniencies arising from the levity and inconstancy of mens minds is more eligible than the prostituting mens consciences and resigning them to the naked wills of men which is no more than most Protestants have said before him Separations are various some proceed upon reasons apparently true and these are a necessary duty some proceed upon reasons apparently false and these are greatly sinful and intollerable others proceed upon probable reasons which though specious and fair yet are not concluding these are not without sin yet must be endured an inconvenience being better than a mischief And this I conceive is the separation which the Dr. says Mr. A. makes very light of which yet I do not beileve unless it be comparatively and for the sake of which I do not think him worthy of the appellation of Advocate-general for Schismaticks The Church of England doth not pretend to be infallible but is as peremptory in its determinations as if it were It imposes nothing grosly false and against common sense and reason but it requires things unnecessary and uncertain with an unyielding rigour and this looks like tyranny and if the Church of England think it self defamed by that insinuation it may vindicate it self if it can To the Drs. insinuation that Mr. A is not much acquainted in the Writings of Cyprian and St. Austin and that he hath been more conversant in those of Mr. B. I might enquire where is the Proof and what evidence doth this Learned man produce for the confirmation of it I have looked his Book all over but I can find none nor do I imagine what hath given occasion to the Dr. to think so 't is true Mr. A doth not quote those Fathers in his Book but doth it follow from thence that he never read them There are many Books which the Excellent Dr. himself hath never quoted in any of his writings but he that should infer from thence that he never read them would certainly injure and traduce him But Mr. A. is a Dissenter and peradventure for that reason must be an unlearned and unread man whose reason must be as weak therefore as his reading is small and there must be no more argument in his discourse than there was of Wit or Brains in Andrelinus his Poems which to speak modestly is a scurrilous comparison and not becoming the Pen of the Reverend Dr. Mr. B. had said something in his Answer to the Drs. Sermon of the Peoples Power or right of choosing or at least consenting to the choice of their own Pastors whereupon he says that Mr. B. is very tragical upon this argument and keeps not within tollerable bounds of discretion in pleading the Peoples Right or Cause against Magistrates Patrons and Laws p. 307. And p. 329. he says Mr. B. is unsatisfied with any Laws that are made in this matter and in the same page he says that one would think by Mr. B 's Doctrine all Laws about Patronage are void in themselves and all Rights of Advouson in the King Noblemen Gentlemen and the Vniversities are meer usurpations and things utterly unlawful among Christians since he makes such a personal obligation to choose their own Pastors to lie on the People that they cannot transfer it by their own Act. To which I reply Mr. B. will be well enough satisfied if the People may have the liberty of consenting to the Pastor that by the Patron is presented to them and what is there of unreasonableness in such a design or proposal Blessed be God there are in England many worthy Gentlemen that take care of the disposal of their Livings and present sober and learned men unto them and in my observation such persons are usually acceptable to the People and they consent to them without objection or opposition but then it must be acknowledged that there are many others that take no care of the disposal of them some are Papists and give their Livings to the nomination of their Servants and they sell them to whomsoever will give most for them others are prophane Sensualists and such men will present vitious debauched persons Piety and a sober Conversation may preclude but will never commend a man to their presentation And what if for these reasons and more that might be mentioned the people had a consenting power permitted to them are the Rights of Patronage invaded or abdicated injured or destroyed thereby Hath not the Bishop power in some cases to refuse the Clerk that is presented to him for institution and is the Patrons right evacuated by it Surely no I never heard any such thing affirmed or pretended and if the Patrons right may be preserved with a power of just and reasonable dissent and consent in the Bishop it may be also preserved with the same power in the people Are not Patrons right preserved unless they may impose upon the people ignorant and scandalous Ministers that are neither able nor willing to Preach the Doctrines of Faith and Godliness are not their rights preserved unless they have the liberty of presenting whom they list and sending them such Preachers as instead of being ensamples to the flock in Piety Justice Charity and Sobriety shall be ensamples of Impiety Cruelty Injustice and Intemperance unto them If it should be said that such cannot procure Orders nor