brave Officer, you are first to fit in Judgment on him; to confider whether he is an evil Liver; and according as you pronounce concerning his moral Character, he fhall, or fhall not, be qualified and allowed to act Thefe, doubtlefs, are the Days, of which bleffed Laud is faid to prophefy! Who hoped to fee the Time, when no Jack Gentleman in England should dare to ftand cover'd before the meanest Prieft. The holy Martyr, indeed, died unblefs'd with the Sight. But, you, his Son and Succeffor in Doctrine and Spirit, are taking bold Strides to reach Pifgab-Top, from whence to feast your Eyes with that promifed happy State.

I might reft the Matter here-and hope you are now convinced of the prefumptuous and high Nature of the Power you are thus, publickly, again claiming for the Priest: But, to filence for ever all Doubts on this Head, I will present you with an Authority of irresistible Weight. This is no other than the lower House of Convocation, An. 1704; ftaunch Champions for the Church, you know, as ever honour'd the British Inle; in their Addrefs to the upper Houfe, amongft Gravamina Gleri Grievances to be redrefs'd, they reprefent"The increafing Difficulties of the parochial Clergy, "about adminiftring the holy Sacrament indifferently "to all Perfons who demand it, in order to qualify "themselves for Office; because they fee not how

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they could, in feveral Cafes, act conformably to the "Rubrics and Canons of the Church, in Repelling "fuch Perfons as were unworthy, and particularly no"torious Schifmaticks, without expofing themfelves to "vexatious and expensive Suits at Law"*This was the Construction which this learned Body of Ciergy, you fee, put upon, this Law; but a Conftruction, becaufe I had made it, which you, blefs'd with fuperior Light, take upon you to pronounce" forced, unnatural, whimsical, unequitable + ".--Happy 'is nothing worfe!

*Tindal's Hift. Eng. "Vol. 111. Page 686. Ε

† Append. Page 20.

But,

1

But, to conclude this Point-If, as the Law now ftands, the Priest has, as you affirm, a Power to repel evil Livers; pray! what is the Reason that the Rubrics and Canons, which fo folemnly oblige him to it, are not only, not faithfully observed, but most shamefully violated, and quite trampled under Foot? Why, amongst the Swarms of notorious evil Livers, Hereticks, Blafphemers, and open Unbelievers, who continually come to the LORD'S TABLE, to qualify for a Place; do we never hear of one rejected by the Prieft? What! is there no Confcience, no Virtue, no Integrity or Honour left amongst thofe who adminifter this holy Rite of Religion! feeing the Rubric requires, and the Canons obliges to reject thefe evil Livers; and the Scandal of receiving them (both to Deifts without, and to Chriftians within) is fo crying and flagrant; Why, in the Name of GOD, whole Minifters and Stewards you profefs yourselves to be, are thefe Enemies to his Government, thefe Aliens from his Family, thefe Defpifers of his Son, never rejected, but ever tamely received, as his CHILDREN, to his TABLE Why! but because the Priest knows there is a Law which hangs heavily over him, and threatens to punifh with fevere Penalty its Breach: And this being the Cafe, he chufes rather to throw himself upon the Mercies of GOD, than upon the Indignation of Man.

And now, Sir, if with this dreadful and oppreffive Yoke upon your Neck; whilft fcoffing Infidels laugh, and difcerning Chriftians mourn; YOU are easy and well pleased; and bless yourself, and your Church in the Protection of this Law: All I fhall fay, at prefent, is, that I envy not your Felicity; but heartily thank Heaven I have neither Lot nor Share in this Matter. Only, hear the Word, which GOD fent by his Prophet of old to certain Time-ferving Priests. Ezek. XLIV. 6, 7. Thou shalt fay to the rebellious Houfe; let it fuffice you of all your Abominations; in that ye have brought into my Sanctuary Strangers, uncircumcifed in Heart, to be in my Sanctuary, to pollute it; even MY

t

HOUSE

HOUSE, when ye offer my Breadthey have broken my Covenant, because of all your Abominations.

I have faid too much on your first Topic, of ChurchPower, to have either Room or Occafion to add many Things on your last, our Conftitution in Church and State. Here, indeed, I obferve with Pleasure, that amidst the Shew you affect to make of confuting my Account of the regal Supremacy, and of our Conftitu tion, you hardly, in one fingle Inftance, prefume to contradict it. My Account, Sir, was founded upon Fact and upon Law. After clofe Examination, I fuppofe you found it to be fo; and therefore tho' to fave Appearances, you would feem to fay fomething on this Subject allo; yet in your whole 14 Pages, there is scarce the Shew of any Oppofition to what I had

advanced.

As for the Form of Speaking in Ufe amongst us. Our Conftitution in Church and State-That it is really an Impropriety, as generally understood, I do not at all hefitate (with due Submiffion to the great Authori ties by whom it is used) again to infift. It is a Form of Speaking, no doubt, drawn from the Ufage of Popish Times; before the Reformation of our Religion took Place. For then there, truly, was a Conftitution in Church, diftinct from, and independent of, our Conftitution in State. The Church had, then, its Laws, its Rights, its Officers and Powers, and its fovereign or fupreme Head, peculiar to itself, and apart from the State. But, now, by the Reformation all that Independency and Diftinction is abolish'd; it is now become entirely and abfolutely a civil System: There are now no Laws in the Church (I mean none of human Enaction) but what were made by the civil Magiftrate, and receive all their Obligation and Authority from him: There are now no Officers in the Church but what are conftituted by the Authority and Direction of the Magiftrate, and are all liable to be unmade and deprived again by him-But that our Conftitution in Church, is nothing really, but a civil or parliamentary Conftitution;

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tution; has, with inconteftible Evidence, been fhown in the preceding Letters; and is a Truth, indeed, fo plain, that no intelligent or fober Member of your Church will, I apprehend, fo much as attempt to deny.

Our Conftitution, therefore, being now chang'd by the happy Reformation; fo, doubtlefs, would this Form of Speaking too; but feems to have been retain'd for Reasons of Policy, to footh the Weakness of those who were then the weakest of all the People, and the most averfe to the Reformation, I mean the Clergy. With the fame condescending Views, probably, it is ftill kept in Ufe; but in real Strictnefs and Propriety to talk of our Confiitution in Church and State, is not only to put the Body before the Head, the Effect before the Cause, the Handmaid before the Mistress; but it is to convey an Idea your Authorities could not poffibly intend to convey, because not founded in Truth, viz. That the Church has a Conftitution diftinct from, independent of, yea prior or fuperior to our Conftitution in State.By the Way, you will remember alfo, that the Prefbyterian Church of Scotland is as effential, fundamental, and unalterable a Part of our prefent CONSTITUTION, as the epifcopal Church of England can ever pretend to be.

My Account of the PowER which our Laws and Constitution give to the Kings and QUEENS of this Realm, in Affairs ecclefiaftical; to inftruct, over-rule, direct, controul, all the Archbishops, Bishops, and Priests of this Kingdom, in all their facerdotal and moft fpiritual Concerns, &c. you do not pretend to litigate, but rather attempt to vindicate and explain. But you unhappily forget the one grand and material Point, for which it was introduced; and to which, above all other, it concern'd you to speak; and that is, to reconcile this

* So because 'tis faid----The Lords Spiritual and Temporal----Will any one therefore plead, that a Bishop is of higher Rank than a Duke? 'Tis no more than giving a Lady the upper Place; or, according to the apoftolic Precept, Honouring the weaker Veffel. What Defect of Argument does it fhew, to lay fuch Strefs upon a meer Compliment!

Confti

Conftitution of the Church of England, with the Constitution of the Church of Chrift: And to fhew, that Diffenters cannot feparate from the one, without the Danger and the high Crime of Renting themselves from the other. This was what you afferted, and flourished copiously upon; but are now, I prefume, too well inftructed to endeavour to fupport. You now fee them, Sir, to be two diftin&t and quite different Societies: And will be henceforward eafed of thote painful Commiferations over the Souls of your diffenting Brethren, with which your generous Mind labour'd; and be terrified no more with direful Apprehenfions on Account of our Schifm, which feem all your Life long to have held you in Bondage.

There is a little unhappy Slip which, tho' not quite in Place, I fhall take Notice of here-In Page 13. of your Appendix, you charge me with falfe Play in "Citing your XXXIV Article, as declaring exprefsly "that your Church Ceremonies were ordain'd by the civil Magiftrate. And afk me-Did you find there

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66 any fuch Words?" And yet, with agreeable Surprize, I find you either fo uncautious, or fo honeft, as within a few Lines, to cite the very Words of the Article, which fupport, in the strongest Manner, the Senfe 1 had given, where an open and wilful Violation of these Ceremonies is, by the Article declared, to be an Hurting the Authority of the CIVIL MAGISTRATE. Can a Violation of thefe Ceremonies violate the Magiftrate's Authority, if by bis Authority they had not been ordain'd?

But these are small Matters, in Comparifon with what follows. The Affair of Mr. Whiston I thought you would gladly have let fleep. The Cafe, to be fure, rung much: You have been once and again flinging to rid yourself of it; but the Manner in which you now do it, rather forely wounds, than gives you Relief. "You tax me with Mifreprefentation, and with no "mean Talent that Way *." Yea, have the Cou

* Appendix, Page 39.

rage