HARLOT, that you derive, by Ordination, your fpiritual Defcent. You confefs yourselves born of her, as to ecclefiaftical Pedigree: And the Sons of this fouleft and filthieft of Harlots, you acknowledge as Brethren, by admitting their Orders as regular and valid; whereas thofe of the Protestant Churches you reject. If a Priest, or dained with all the fuperftitious and idolatrous Rites of this antichriftian and falfe Church, comes over to the Church of England; you admit him as a BROTHER, duly ordained; without obliging him to pass under that Ceremony again; But if a Minister of the Reform'd Churches, joins himself to you, you confider him as but a Layman, an unordain'd Perfon, and oblige him to receive Orders according to your Form. How, Sir, is it poffible to account for this Procedure! Can that Church, which is no true Church, impart valid and true Orders? Can a filthy old Harlot produce any other than a Spurious and corrupt Breed? Will you reft the Validity and Regula rity of your Administrations on your receiving the Jacerdotal Character from the Bishops and Popes of the Romifo Church? Many, if not moft, of whom, were Men of most corrupt and infamous Lives; Men, who were fo far from being regular and valid MINISTERS in the Church of JESUS CHRIST, that they were not fo much as regular or real MEMBERS of it at all; and therefore could not poffibly, duly, or, regularly OFFICIATE therein; confequently, had no Power to communicate or convey Orders or Offices in the CHRISTIAN Church. Whatever Offices they convey'd therefore, are at best doubtful and fufpicious; if not abfolutely null, irregular, and void. ---So that really your own Orders, if strictly examin'd, may minister great Doubt and Difquietude of Mind.

If Charity then were filent; Prudence, methinks, fhould loudly dictate, that you speak gently as to the Authority and Orders of our Minifters, when you know it is in their Power fo ftrongly to retort. It was therefore furely not wife, Sir, as well as extremely unkind,

to

to fet them up as Objects of public Odium and Avoidance; and to admonish" every good Man not to have any inti"mate or unnecessary Acquaintance with them, or Fami"liarity in common Life." But BLESSED, our Lord hath faid, are ye, when Men fball hate you, and SEPARATE YOU from their COMPANY, and CAST OUT your Names as EVIL, for the Son of Man's fake: REJOICE ye in that Day, and leap for Foy; for behold, your Reward in Heaven is great !

*

You very strenuously contest what you call "one "of the favourite and fundamental Principles of the "Diffention, namely, That every Lay-Chriftian has a "Right to chufe his own Paftor ‡. A Right fo evidently founded on Reafon, Scripture, and the undoubted Practife of the primitive Church, and fo generally acknowledg'd by all the learned of your own Communion, that I cannot but a little wonder at the Alertnefs with whichyou make your Attack upon it. The Charge given to the Chriftian People To take heed what they hear to beware of falfe Prophets--not to believe every Spirit, but to try the Spirits inconteftibly proves them to have a Right of Judgment and of Choice, relating to this Matter: And that this Right, which God has given them, it is their Duty to use.

1604

When an Apoftle was to be chofen in the Room of Judas the Traitor, the whole Body of the Disciples were applied to on that Occafion, Acts i. who APPOINTED by common Suffrage, Two from their whole Number to be Candidates for that Office, v. 23. " The Election, you' "fay, was evidently made by GODS." But was it not as evidently made by the People alfo? If the Choice of ONE from the two be acknowledg'd to be the Act of GOD; was not the Choice of thefe Two, from amongst the whole Number, as much the Act of the People? The People then were actually concern'd in that Choice.

*Luke vi. 22, 23. Lett. II. p. 6. § Let. II. p. 8.

"T

"The feven Deacons, Acts vi. you fay, were but prefented or recommended by the Brethren "But let the facred Story judge. Wherefore, Brethren, LOOK YE OUT amongst you, Seven Men of honest Report: And the Saying pleased the whole Multitude, and they CHOSE Stephen and Philip, &c. Can Words be more exprefs?

6114

*

That Bishops and Paftors were chofen in the ancient Church by the Suffrage of the People, the Evidence is fo ftrong,as greatly to try the Countenance of the Perfon who difputes. Ignatius, if you will allow him genuine, fays, It becomes you as the Church of GOD to CHUSE a Bifhop. Alexander was made Bishop of Jerufalem, by the Compulfion or CHOICE of the Members of that Church: Upon the Death of Anterus, Bishop of Rome, All the People met together in the Church to chufe a Succeffor---and they all took Fabianus and placed him in the epifcopal Chair. So Cornelius, his Succeffor, was ELECTED by the Suffrage of the Clergy and Laity. Cyprian often acknowledges he was made Bithop of Carthage, Favore Plebis Populi univerfi Suffragio, &c. By the FAVOUR and VOTE of all the People tt. And exprefly fays, Plebis maxime babet Proteftatem, vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes, vel indignos recufandi. The chief Power of CHUSING worthy Minifters, and of REJECTING the unworthy, belongs to THE PEOPLE. I produce no further Evidence upon a Point fo inconteftible, but the Words of a learned Brother of your own, high enough for Church Power, "That "the People had Votes in the Choice of Bishops all must 66 grant; and it can be only Ignorance and FOLLY that pleads the contrary ‡.

"You think a Man provides very well for his Soul, "who fubmits himself to the Inftructions, and devoutly "attends all the Adminiftrations of an able and ortho

*

+ Ibid. Epift. ad Philad. †† Vid. Conftitut. and Difcipline of the Primitive Church, p. 46. ‡ Lowth of urch Power.

dox Minifter, by whomsoever provided. And it will "be confeffed, you fuppofe, that the King, and Bishops, "Lord Chancellor, Nobility, and Gentry, who are our 66 greater Patrons, are more competent Judges of the "Abilities and Orthodoxy of Clergymen, and "of their Fitnefs for particular Stations, than the "common Run of Men, especially the Vulgar S." But imagine yourself, Sir, for a Moment on the other Side the Water, preaching this wholesome Doctrine to the good Proteftants in France. If Kings, Bishops, &c. have Authority and Right to appoint Paftors to the People, then the People are bound to receive and attend the Paftors they fend. But if this be right in one Country (I must again put you in Mind) 'tis right alfo in another; unless one Kingdom can produce a Warrant, or Charter from Heaven giving it fuch Authority, which other Kingdoms have not. If this Doctrine be Truth in England, 'tis Truth alfo in France. The brave Protestants then have rafbly and unwarrantably withdrawn themselves from the Paftors, whom the King and Bishops had fet over them; they ought to return, and fubmit to their established Guides, and not proudly attempt to find Ministers more able and orthodox, than thofe their Superiors have folemnly deputed to that Truft.-. Will you stand, Sir, to this Doctrine? If not, you must allow every Man a Right to judge for himself.

To the common and juft Plea ---"That every Man "has as good a Right to chufe his own Paftor, to whom "to commit the Care of his Soul, as to chufe his Lawyer

or Phyfician, with whom he intrufts his Body or "Eftate," you reply: "Phyficians in many Places are

provided by Governors for thofe who are fick, as "in Chelfea, and other Hofpitals, whilft no Body dreams "of any Incroachment upon their natural Rights f." But tell me, Sir, would you not complain, if whenever

Ibid. p. 9. t Lowth on Church Power, p. 13.

you were sick, you were OBLIGED to accept of this public Provifion; and MUST commit yourself to the Care of those Gentlemen of the Faculty who officiated in the Hofpital, fuppofing you lived near it, whatever Notion you had of their Fidelity or Skill?, Or fhould a Physician be provided, and established by Law in each Parish of this Kingdom, would you not call it an Infringment of your natural Right, to be obliged to call him in (however ignorant or uncapable you took him to be) and to commit your Health to his Care; especially if there was at Hand another, licensed by Authority, whom you thought to have better Judgment, and from whofe Prefcripts you had received frequent and fignal Relief ? I am perfuaded in this Cafe, you would ftrongly and very juftly complain of the Restraint. But every Man furely, is as capable, and has as undoubted a Right to judge and to chufe what Minifter to attend for the Edification of his Soul, as what Phyfician to ufe for the Recovery of his Health.

"No, you reply, there is a Difference in the two "Cafes; your Paftors are your Guides and Governors, "to whom you owe Subjection in fpiritual Things: And "it is not, I think, quite fo reasonable to challenge to "yourselves the chufing of thefe, as of the other who "have no Authority over you*. * " But I beseech you, good Sir, who MADE them my GOVERNORS? Who GAVE them this Rule and Authority over me? Does every gay STRIPLING, juft emancipated from the College, that can get (and there are various Ways of getting, you know Sir,not fit to be here mention'd) to be inducted into a good Living, does he, I ask, thence forward become GoVERNOR of all the Souls dwelling in his Parish, to whom they owe Subjection in fpiritual Things? What must all the learned, the wife, the grave and experienced Perfons refiding in that Parish, confider the enrobed YouTH as their Spiritual RULER, vested with AUTHORITY over them,

Ibid p. 14.

in