"fake, concern'd in any thing he either fays or does, on that Occafion*?" Certainly very much. The Church is indeed nothing but a Limb of the STATE. But if the STATE exacts of those, whom it deputes to officiate in this Part of its Adminiftration, unreasonable and fhocking things; if it commands them to fay that black is white; to pronounce folemnly a Man faved, whom they think verily to be loft; and to thank GOD that in his great Mercy be bath taken to himself an abominable Sinner, when in their Confciences they believe that GOD took him away in Wrath, and hath driven him from his Prefence to eternal Darkness below, is the Officer,

will you fay, who is to pronounce and to do this, not at all concern'd therein? Nor that Branch of the Adminiftration in which he officiates at all wounded in its Honour or Reputation thereby? Moft deeply, no doubt. And all virtuous and good Men, by the eternal Regards they owe to RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH, ought openly to protest against fuch public Violations of them; and to declare their Diflike of fuch Proftitution of facred things.

The Church, your learned Warburton * tells you, bas, by Contract or Alliance, refign'd up her SUPREMACY in Matters ecclefiaftical, and her INDEPENDENcy to the State. THE STATE, in Confequence of this, hath drawn up for her, Articles of Faith, and Forms of public Worship, which it requires the Church to fubfcribe and to use. Hard Fate of unhappy Church! To come as Pupil to the STATE, to ask what the muft believe, and how the muft worship; yea, to be forced folemnly to fubfcribe ARTICLES, which the by no means believes, and to ufe FORMS of Public Worship, which fhe greatly dislikes! But, is there no Prevarication, no Harm, no Hypocrify in all this? No; the STATE hath commanded it; and we are to be fubject to the Higher Powers, and to

* II Def, p. 82.

* Alliance, &c. p. 78.

obey

obey thofe who have the Rule over us. 'Tis not for a Man's private Confcience to kick against the PUBLIC; but if any one dare fay, “That either

of the ARTICLES is in ANY PART erroneous; or "that the Book of COMMON-PRAYER contains ANY THING in it contrary to Scripture;" your IVth and Vth Canons thunder out upon him ipfo facto, a moft terrible Excommunication, and cut him off, as a Wicked Wretch, from the Body of CHRIST. Excellent Conflitution this! quite holy and apoftolic! moft heavenly and divine! bearing upon every Part lively and glorious Imprefs of the Character of JESUS CHRIST! What Wonder, if the Dignity of the Priestly Character finks? If Religion is ridiculed; and its Sacred Things treated with Drollery and Jeft? It is impoffible, we are told, but Of. fences will come; but WO be to that Man! WO be to thofe Chriftians, whofe hypocritical and corrupt Conduct lays thefe Stones of ftumbling in the Way of Infidels and Papifts! and by whom the Offence cometh!

The egregious Abfurdity of rejecting PRESBYTERIAN, and admitting POPISH Ordinations.

W

E come next to the much contested Point of Orders or Ordination, as to which you are wont to make a mighty folemn Parade. The Severity with which you nullify the Diffenters Ordination, though the very SAME with that of all the illuftrious Churches of PROTESTANTS abroad, when at the fame time you are fo complaifant as to acknowledge the Validity of the Ordinations of the Church of Rome, is a Conduct fo extraordinary as one cannot easily comprehend. The Hands and the devouteft Prayers of a Company of truly virtuous, religious and Chriftian PRESBYTERS, in Scotland or Geneva, are not fo efficacious, it seems, to fend a

Man

Man forth a TRUE Minifter in the Church of CHRIST, as the Hands and fuperftitious Prayers of an antichristian, idolatrous, perfecuting and wicked BISHOP of Italy or Spain. o; let a Prieft, ordained by one of thefe, come over to the Church of England; he fhall be received as a valid Minister, rightfully ordained: But, let another, ordained by the moft learned, religious PRESBYTERY which Germany, Hungary, or the whole World can boaft, come over alfo to this Church; this Proteftant Church; his Orders fhall be pronounced NOT VALID, he must fubmit to be ordain'd afresh. The FORMER is admitted, as one rightly and duely enter'd a Paftor in the Chriftian Church, because a Bishop's Hand was laid upon him, though with a great many ridiculous, fuperftitious and foolish Rites; and though he was really no CHRISTIAN Bishop, but an Apoftate from Christianity, an open and avowed Idolater and Perfecutor of the Flock of CHRIST; yea, tho the Church alfo into which, by that Ceremony, he was enter'd, was fo far from being a TRUE CHURCH, that for 900 Years paft, nothing can be more t..

But the LATTER, though fet apart to the-Miniftry by the most fervent and holy Prayers; tho' he has long labour'd in the Church of GOD with great Diligence and Succefs; has fuffer'd, perhaps, the Loss of all for the Sake of CHRIST and his Truth; and is fled hither from the Rage of idolatrous and cruel Bishops; yet (ftrange to relate!) for not having had the Hand of fuch an idolatrous and cruel Bishop in the Ceremony of his Ordination, he is confider'd but as a mere LAYMAN in this Proteftant Church of England; he fhall not, cannot, be acknowledg'd by us as a Minister of JESUS CHRIST. How myfterious and quite aftonishing is the Partiality of this!

But let us hear your Cenfure on this Head, "Our Ministers are not duly ordain'd to their Office:

The Words of the Homily which every Clergyman subscribes his folemn Approbation of.

2

"Their

"Their Miniftrations are moft certainly irregular; "an unneceffary and wanton, if not a factious Departure from the primitive Order, and therefore "those who attend them cannot depend that fuch "Ordinances will be bleffed to them, nor can they "be pleafing to GOD *." And concerning the eftablished Prefbyterian Church of Scotland, you affirm,

"That having renounced EPISCOPACY, and "their Ordinations being irregular, their COMMU"NION can be neither SAFE nor LAWFUL+." A moft fchifmatical and rafh Judgment; which equally condemns ALL the illuftrious REFORM'D Churches of France, Holland, Swizerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, &c. They ALL likewise have renounc'd Epifcopacy; their Ordinations therefore must be irregular, and their Communion neither safe nor lawful.

But to give you, Sir, more just and favourable Impreffions of Ordination by Prefbyters; and to fink a little your Efteem of that epifcopal Ordination on which you pique yourself so much, I recommend to your Confideration the following things:

1. That Timothy was ordain'd by the laying on of the Hands of the PRESBYTERY, 1 Tim, iv. 14,That Paul and Barnabas were ordained by certain Prophets and Teachers in the Church of Antioch, and not by any BISHOP (of whom there is not a Word in all that Solemnity) prefiding in that City, A&ts xiii. 1, 2, 3,And that it is a well known, acknowledg'd, inconteftible Fact that Prefbyters, in the celebrated Church of Alexandria, ordain'd even their own Bishops for more than 200 Years in the earliest Ages of Chriftianity.

2. Bishops and Prefbyters are in Scripture the very fame; or are not a diftinct Order or Office in the Christian Church. The Church at Philippi had but two Orders of Church-Officers amongst them, viz. + II Def, p. 145.

Let. I. p. 73, 74.

Bifhops

Bishops and Deacons, Philip. i. 1. And that the Name, Office, Work of a Bishop and Prefbyters are the fame, appears from Tit. i. 5, 7. For this Caufe left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst ordain Prefbyters in every City, FOR a Bifhop must be blameless.Paul called the Prefbyters together, and charg'd them, Acts xx. 27, 28, To take heed to the Flock over which the HOLY GHOST had made them BISHOPS ETIOиOT85. So I Pet. v. 1, 2. The PRESBYTERS among you I exhort, who also am a PRESBYTER, feed the Flock of GOD among you, performing the Office of BisHOPS, επισκοπέντες,

The SUPERIORITY of Bishops to Prefbyters is not only by the first Reformers and Founders of the Church of England; but by many of its most learned and eminent Doctors fince, not pretended to be of divine, but only of human Inftitution; not grounded upon Scripture, but only upon the Custom or Ordinances of this Realm. "The Truth is, that in the "New Testament there is no Mention of any Degree or "Diftinition of Orders, but only of DEACONS or

66

Minifters, and of PRIESTS or Bishops- -", fays a Declaration of the Function, &c. which was fign'd by more than thirty-feven Civilians and Divines, amongst whom were thirteen BISHOPS*. The Book intitled the Inftitution of a Chriftian Man fubfcrib'd by the Clergy in Convocation and confirm'd by Parliament, owns BISHOPS and PRESBYTERS by Scripture to be the fame. And that the main Ground of fettling epifcopal Government in this Nation was not any Pretence of Divine Right, but the Contenience of that Form of Church-Government to the State and Condition of the Church at the time of the Reformation, your learned Stilling fleet + aff rns, and proves it to be the Sentiment of Archbishop Cranmer and o her chief Reformers both in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth's Reign, of Archbishop

* Burnet's Hift. Ref. Vol. Ap. p. 321. Irenic, Ch. VIII. p. 385, I White