This, Sir, muft be the real Meaning and Intent of the Article, notwithstanding the reftrictive Claufe.. Accordingly, in Confequence of this Claim, your Church have authoritatively decreed Thirty-nine Articles of Faith; and thefe it declares to have decreed for the taking away Difference of Opinion, and to establish an Agreement in true Religion * The plain Language of Authority. Thefe 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 prefcribed. From all which it appears, that, notwithstanding the pretended Limitation, there is a real Authority claimed by the Church, that is to fay, by itsGovernors, to fettle Points of Faith But if there be fuch Authority really vefted in them, then the People are bound to fubmit 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 refufe. 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 vefted in the Church, and ought, as fuch, as be renounced by returning to the Church of Rome..

In this Manner, Sir, a Romifh Priest will turn upon the Church of England its own dangerous Artillery; and by the mere 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, fhould any of your Parishioners be likely to be feduced. And this,

Preface to XXXIX Articles.

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perhaps, is the Reafon why the numerous Converts thefe Priests 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 Mysteries, &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 Bifhops of this Church: Thefe ONLY have Power to make or to unmake Forms and Rites of Worhip, and do authoritatively instruct and prescribe 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 Doctrine to preach who are to be admitted to the Epifcopate or Priesthood, and who to be refufed by what Ceremonies, Prayers, and Exhortations they are to be fet apart, and confecrated to their OfficeThefe, with every Other Circumftance relating to Religion and the Worfhip of GOD, which is authoritatively prefcribed or enjoined in your Church, you know, Sir, not the Bishops

4

and

and Clergy, but the KING with his Parliament, are the ONLY Perfons who have authoritatively enjoined and prefcribed them.

"The Clergy of the whole Land, in Convocation affembled, cannot fo much as attempt any Canons or Con*ftitutions 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 §."

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Yea, fo far, Sir, were the Bishops and Clergy from having any Hand in the firft forming our prefent eftablished Church, or in ordering its Rites and Articles of Faith, that it was done not only without, but in a&ual Oppofition to them: "For in the 1ft of Q. Eliz. the Parliament alone "eftablished the Queen's Supremacy and the Commonprayer-book, in fpite of all Oppofition from the Bishops "in the Houfe of Lords; and the Convocation then fitting, were fo far from having any Hand in thofe Church acts for Reformation, that they prefented to the Parliament feveral Propofitions in Behalf of the "Tenets of Popery, directly contrary to the Proceedings "of the Parliament *. ".

1919

Hence then, Sir, I think you must be abfolutely forced to own (what I know Gentlemen of your Robe don't care to hear) viz. That the Church of England is really a PARLIAMENTARY Church; that it is not properly an Ally,

§ Vide Examination of the Codex, &c. Pag. 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 Resolution of theirs to "have the Force of a Canon, unless the King confirm it. Nor is it then

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alid, if it be contrarient or repugnant to the Laws, Statutes, and Cuf-, "toms of this Realm, or be to the Damage or Hurt of the King's Prerogative royal And of this the Courts of Westminster Hall must judge. Hale, in bis Analyfis ( Page 12.) fays, If eclefiaftical Laws are not confirmed by Parliament, the King may revoke and annuel them at his Will and Pleafure.". Vide Notes on an Aufwer to the Examipation of the Bishop of London's Codex.

Vide Pricfcraft in Perfection, Pref. Page 4.

but a mere Creature of the State. It depends entirely upon the Acts and Authority of PARLIAMENT for its very Effence and Frame. The Qualifications of its Minifters, their Power to officiate, the Manner in which they are to administer the Sacraments, are all limited and prefcribed by Authority of Parliament, and this Authority, which at first made, can alone alter and new make it can abolish, or add to its Articles or Rites, according to its Pleasure, even tho' the whole Body of Bishops and Clergy ever fo much diflike, or proteft earnestly against it.

It is a Point therefore inconteftible, and abfolutely out of Doubt, that THE CHURCH, your Article declares to have this Authority and Power here, is the KING and PARLIAMENT of thefe Realms; and it is no other than they. But,

THIRDLY. The grand Point which yet fticks, and which, without your Affiftance, I fhall never get over, is, how came the civil Magiftrate by this Authority in the Church of CHRIST? Who gave him this Power to decree Rites in Chriftian Worship, which Chrift never decreed; and to make Articles of Faith which Chrift never made? Neither CHRIST, nor the Apostles, ever gave him this Authority; whence then is it derived?

The Subjection to higher Powers, and Obedience to Magiftrates, which the Scriptures enjoin Chriftians, relates only to civil, not at all to religious Matters: For this obvious Reafon; that the Maftigrate at that Time was every where Pagan. The Apostles therefore instead of paying, or exhorting Chriftians to pay, any Subjection to him in religious Affairs, ftrenuoufly exhorted them to renounce and difavow it to come out from among them, and be feparate. They were every where, you know, Sir, Diffenters from the established Church.

CHRISTIANITY is fo far from enjoining, that it actually ids, Obedience to civil Governors in Things of a reus Nature: It commands us to call no Man upon Earth

Earth Father or Mafter S, i. e. to acknowledge no Authority or Jurifdiction of any in Matters of Religion, but to remember that ONE, one only is our Master and Law-giver, even CHRIST; and all Christians are Brethren; i. e. ftand upon an equal Foot, having no Dominion over one another. Tho' the Princes of the Gentiles = exercife Dominion over them, and they who are Great exercife Authority upon them, yet it fhall not, our LORD fays, be fo amongst you t. Nay, but your Church replies, in this its XXth Article, it fhall be fo amongst us. There are fome who have Authority over others in Matters of Faith --- There are other Mafters befides CHRIST. Thus the Article and the Scripture manifeftly clafh: Will you be fo good, Sir, as to adjust the Controverfy betwixt them, and tell me which I am to follow.

The Church is CHRIST'S Kingdom, a Kingdon not of this World: For his voluntary Humiliation and Suffering of Death, he is advanced to the high Honour of being fole Law-giver, Judge and Sovereign in religious Matters He only hath Authority to fix the Terms of Communion for his Followers or Church; and the Terms which He hath fix'd, no Man upon Earth, nor Body of Men, have Authority to fet afide, to alter or new make. And if any Man upon Earth fhall prefume to alter, or new make, Terms of Communion in his Church; they are guilty of great Arrogance, and invade his Authority and Throne. But this, we apprehend, is what you have done. You will not now receive a Perfon to publick Baptifm or the Lord's-Supper upon the Terms on which CHRIST and his Apoftles would have received him. Neither CHRIST nor his Apostles ever made the Sign of the Crofs, or other Sponfors befides the Parents, neceffary to a Child's Baptifm; nor did they ever make kneeling a neceffary Term of receiving the Sacramental-Supper; but both thofe you make

Matt. xxiii. 8, 9.

† Matt. xx. 25.

neceffar