dred other Things, which are no more con trary to God's Word than the Crofs in Baptism

is.

As your Church now confecrates Ground, it has every whit as much Power to confecrate the other Element, and to make holy Water, as well as boly Earth; and to order it to be decently fprinkled upon its Members (for all Things, you know, are to be done decently and in Order) in Token that they fhall keep themfelve pure from Sin: It hath Power to confecrate boly Knives to cut the facramental Bread; holy Bafons and Ewers for the Priests to wash in before the Sacrament, holy Veftments and Robes, and a great Variety of holy Utenfils, lighted Tapers for the Altar, &c. (all which, you know, Sir, was done by your admired Bishop Laud) knocking on the Breaft, bowing towards the Eaft, Proftration before the Altar.-All these, I fay, and innumerable other Ceremonies your Church claims Authority and Power to enjoin; for none of thefe can be fhewn to be more contrary to the Word of GOD, or to be a whit more fuperftitious, ridiculous, or abfurd, than the croffing at Baptism, or the Jolemn Confecration of Churches and their Yards. But,

2dly. The Limitation or Guard, which the Article feems to put upon this Power of the Church, is really of no Force, and amounts to nothing at all.

For tho' it fays---That the Church may not ordain any Thing CONTRARY to God's Word,

nor fo expound one Scripture as to be REPUG NANT to another: Yet of this Repugnance and Contrariety, the CHURCH alone, you will observe, and not every private Perfon, is allowed to be the proper Judge: For elfe the Article is abfurd; it actually overthrows itself; and takes away, with one Hand, what it gives with the other. For, if every private Perfon hath Authority to judge of the Church's Decifione, and to reject them, if they appear to him repugnant to Scripture, then the Church's Authority in Points of Faith comes to juft nothing at all. It is an Authority to decree, where none are bound to fubmit; that is, an Authority over no Body, an Authority to do nothing. But fuch a fenfelefs, unmeaning, impertinent Claim, can never be the Design and Import of this Article. It does claim therefore for the Church fome real Authority to fettle Points of Faith; confequently, to Points thus authoritatively fettled by it, private Chriftians, its Members, are reverently to fubmit, even tho' to their own Judgments they appear repugnant to the Word of God.

This, Sir, must be the real Meaning and Intent of the Article, notwithstanding the reArictive Claufe. Accordingly, in Confequence of this Claim, your Church hath authoritatively decreed thirty-nine Articles of Faith; and these it declares to have decreed for the taking away Difference of Opinion, and to establish an Agreement in true Religion. The plain Language

Preface to XXXIX Articles,

of

of Authority. These Articles it obliges all its Minifters to fubfcribe; and our Princes, as Heads and Governors of the Church, have authoritatively forbid its Clergy to preach any Thing repugnant to them, and required them to frame their Sermons according to the Plan here prescribed. From all which it appears, that, notwithstanding the pretended Limitation, there is a real Authority claimed by the Church, that is to fay, by its Governors, to fettle Points of Faith. But if there be fuch Authority really vested in them, then the People are bound to · Submit to their Decifions, and have no Right of private Judgment to examine or reject them; for there cannot be two CONTRADICTORY Rights; a Right in Governors to prescribe, and a Right in Subjects to refuse.But if the Church of England has really this Authority and Right, the Church of Rome had it before her; and, as the elder and Mother-church, ought to have been obeyed. The Reformation, therefore, as we are wont to call it, was a Rebellion against Superiors, a Difobedience to the Authority vested in the Church, and ought, as fuch, to be renounced by returning to the Church of Rome.

In this Manner, Sir, a Romish Priest will turn upon the Church of England its own dangerous Artillery; and by the meer Conceffions of this XXth Article, thousands of Profelytes have, no doubt, been gained from you. Nor, with all your Ingenuity, would you find it eafy to ward off the Force of fuch Arguing, should any of B 2 your

your Parishioners be likely to be feduced. And tihs, perhaps, is the Reafon why the numerous Converts these Priefts are faid to make, are gathered all from your Church; whereas, from amongst the Diffenters, you hardly ever hear of one gained. But,

SECONDLY. I want much to be enlightened as to THE PERSONS who are invested with this Authority and Power.

You fay, it is the Church: But Who, I pray, are the Church, in whom this great Power is lodged? You will please to obferve well, Sir, not the Bishops and Clergy, who are wont to fpeak of themselves as our fpiritual Paftors and Guides, as being over us in the Lord, as Stewards of the Myfteries, &c. This Power to order the Manner of God's Worship, and to fettle Articles of Faith, is not at all lodged in them, but entirely in the KING and PARLIAMENT of thefe Realms.

You need not be informed, Sir, that all the Clergy of this Kingdom, with all the Bishops, at their Head, have not the leaft Authority to enjoin one Ceremony or Rite of Worship; or to either establish or annul one Article of Faith. No, but all Power and Jurifdiction relating to these Matters is lodged chiefly in Lay-bands; 'tis folely in the KING and PARLIAMENT, and the Clergy are to act in all Things under their Direction and Controul. The KING and PARLIAMENT are in Truth the real Fathers, Governors, or BISHOPS of this Church: Thefe ONLY have Power to make or to unmake Forms and

Rites

Rites of Worship, and do authoritatively instruct and prefcribe to the Clergy what they are to believe-in what Manner, and to whom the Sacraments are to be given-what Prayers they are to offer up-what Doctrines to preach who are to be admitted to the Epifcopate or Priesthood, and who to be refused by what Ceremonies, and Prayers, and Exhortations they are to be fet apart, and confecrated to their Office.-Thefe, with every other Circumstance relating to Religion and the Worship of GoD, which is authoritatively prefcribed or enjoined in your Church, you know, Sir, not the Bishops and Clergy, but the KING with his Parliament are the ONLY Perfons who have authoritatively enjoined and prescribed them.

"The Clergy of the whole Land, in Convo "cation affembled, cannot fo much as attempt any Canons or Conftitutions without the • King's Licence. If the King and Clergy "make a Canon, tho' it binds the Clergy in re ecclefiaftica, yet it does not bind Laymen *." Yea, fo far, Sir, were the Bishops and Clergy from having any Hand in the first forming our pre

* Vide Examination of the Codex, &c. Page 114, 148. "By "the 25th of Hen. VIII. Cap. 19. it is a Præmunire for the Convocation to meet without the King's Writ: And when they are met to do any thing without the King's Licence: And then "no Refolution of theirs to have the Force of a Canon, unless "the King confirm it. Nor is it then valid, if it be contrarient " or repugnant to the Laws, Statutes, and Cuftoms of this Realm, or be to the Damage or Hurt of the King's Prerogative royal-And of this the Courts of Westminster-Hall muft judge. -Hale, in his Analyfis (Page 12.) fays, If ecclefiaftical Laws s are not confirmed by Parliament, the King may revoke and * annul them at his Will and Pleasure."-Vide Notes on an Anwer to the Examination of the Bishop of London's Codex.