• Convocations) than only this: That whereas before, the Archbishop might, whenever he pleased, without any other direction, by his own proper motion have fummon'd his Clergy to his Synod; now hẹ 6 may do it but by the King's Writ to warrant him therein: but as for the Power of calling them, this is ftill left to him, as before; his Mandate runs in • the same form; and by his Summons it is, and by no • other, that our Convocations do affemble at this day. †Should we ever be so unhappy under a Christian Magiftrate, as to be denied all liberty of thefe Affemblies, tho' the Governours and Fathers of the Church fhould with all their Care and Intereft endeavour to obtain it; fhould he fo far abufe his Prerogative, as to turn it not only to the detriment, but to the ruin of all true Religion and Morality among us, and thereby make it abfolutely neceffary for fomething extraordinary to be done to preferve both in fuch a cafe of extremity, I have before said, and I ftill adhere to it, the Bishops and Paftors of the Church muft refolve to hazard all in the difcharge of their • Duty; they must meet, confult, and refolve on fuch Measures, as, by God's assistance, they fhall think their unhappy Circumstances to require, and be content to fuffer any Lofs, or to run any danger for fo • doing.

To this purpose the Arch-deacon, Dr. Kennet, in the Preface to his Ecclefiaftical Synods, declares, That one Motive of writing it was this: To affert the Nature of the Chriftian Church, as a Society endowed with Fundamental Rights, to preferve its own Being; and among thefe, a Right for the Governours to affemble and agree upon the conimon Mca'fures of Faith and Unity, as at first independent on the Heathen, fo even now on the Chriftian Magistrate, ' when the Neceffitys of Desertion and Perfecution fo • require.

Ibid. ch. 3. fect. 12.

P. 9.

P

So

So in P. 98. of the Book: Indeed if an English Synod find it neceffary to fupport Religion by fome new Conftitutions, and upon the profpect of fuch a Neceffity, defire the Prince's Leave to provide for it; and the Prince long and often denies that Leave, with defign of letting the Church being incapable to confult her own Prefervation: in fuch a cafe (which is not Ours) let the Church be true to Chrift, and to the Powers fhe receiv'd from Him. This is the Original Right wich we allert. So in P. 82. faith he, Therefore for all this A&t of Submiffion, Dr. Wake would not have our Princes think, that the Convocations of the Clergy fhould depend on their mere Arbitrary Will, but on the Benefit of the Church, and the great occafion of Religion. For he fays, P. 145. Notwithstanding any thing that hath been hitherto faid, I fhall not doubt to affirm, that whenever the King is in his own Confcience convinc'd, that for the Convocation to fit and act be for the Glory of God, the Benefit of the Church, or otherwife for the publick Good and Welfare of his Realm; he is oblig'd both by the Law of Reafon as a Man, by his Duty to God as a Chriftian, and by his Duty to his People as a Ruier fet over them for their good, to permit, or rather to command his Clergy to meet in Convocation, and tranfact what is fit, for any or all these Ends, to be done by them. So in P. 83. he cites the Bishop for faying, when the King doth abufe his Truft, When the Exigencies of the Church call for a Con• vocation I confess the Church has a Right to its fitting; and if Circumstances be fuch as to require their frequent fitting, during thofe Circumstances it has a Right to their frequent meeting and fitting; and if the Prince be fenfible of this, and yet will not fuffer the Clergy to come together; in that cafe I do acknowledge, that he wou'd abufe the Trust that is lodg'd in Him, and deny the Church a Benefit which of right it ought to enjoy. So in P. 84. he cites him for faying, That whenever the Civil Magiftrate fhall fo far abuse his Authority, as to • render it neceffary for the Clergy, by fome extraordinary • Methods

'

Methods, to provide for the Church's Welfare, that Neceffity will warrant their taking of them. So in P. 85. he recites from Dr. Atterbury this Pafiage out of the Bp of Sarum's Hiftory of the Reformation, That the Ex•tream of ra fing the Ecclefiaftical Power too high in the Times

of Popery bad now produced another of depressing it too • much; fo feldom is the Counterpoise so justly balanc'd, that • Extremes are reduc'd to a well-temper'd Mediocrity.

Our Author hath other trifling Sophiftical Arguments against Church-Governments being placed by God in the Apostles, and their Succeffors, which, as the Arch-bishop of Spalato* obferves, are all Arguments against Fact; and any Man will easily difcern the weak and fallacious Nature of them, who underftands the true Nature of Church Government, or the true Conftitution of the Catholick Church, which was committed in part, and in whole, severally and jointly, to the Apostles and their Succeffors, as I have partly fhew'd in the following Letters; and the true idea of it may be learned by thofe, who are not yet Mafters of it, from Spalatenfis's Book cited in the Margin, or from the Works of St. Cyprian, which thofe, who understand not Latin, may read in the French Translation, or from an excellent little Book, entituled, The Principles of the Cyprianick Age, printed for Walter Kettilby in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1695. and in the Vindica

* Sed poft Chrifti afcenfum in cœlum, quod genus regiminis per homines mortales exercendi idem Chriftus in Ecclefia reliquirit & inftituerit, erit nobis in hoc primo libro inquirendum. Quæfitum proculdubio falli duntaxat eft, ut loquuntur jurifperiti.Quænam vero forma regiminis ei magis placuerit, hariolandum non eft, fed ex ipfo fallo inquirendum.-Is tamen modus (regiminis) fit ne Monarchicus, an Ariftocraticus, an Democraticus, an ex his miftus, non tam ex tioftra fpeculatione, & dialecticis humana fapientia rationibus pendet, quam ex ipfo facto Chrifti. Optime fane monuit Onuphrius Panvinius non effe fidelis hiftorici rem defcribere, ut fieri debuiffet, fed ut facta eft. Alioquin enim, inquit, non res gefta fcribuntur, fed mendacia obtru duntur. Quod autem factum fit, non ex philofophiæ promptuariis hauriendum eft, fed eorum narratione ac fide-Ita nos ex Evangeliftis, & Apoftolis, ac fanctis patribus quafiti noftri folutionem, non ex noftro ingenio petere debemus. Procem. lib. 1. de Rep. Ecclefiaft.

p 2

tion

tion of it, and of the Episcopal Power and Jurifdiction, printed for Robert Clavel and George Strahan, 1701. to which I refer the Reader.

As for his Objection of a Popedom being unavoidable from the Epifcopal Conftitution of Church-Government, and the neceflity of having an external Head, and Principle of Union and Communion in every Church, it needs no Anfwer, the Argument being contrary to matter of fact, and ftands now confuted by the confentient Teftimony and Practice, not only of the Churches of Great Britain, but of the Greek, and Oriental Churches, and all the Members of them, as any Man may foon fee, who will read Nilus Theffalonicenfis, Barlaam the Greek Monk, and Nectarius Patriarch of Hierufalem, and many others, and against the Papal Supremacy, and the feveral Accounts, particularly that excellent one, which Dr. Tho. Smith wrote, of the State of the Greek Church.

To mention his Calumny upon the English Clergy for carrying the Power of the Church as high as the Papifts themselves,and affuming a Power to judge for the People, is fufficient for its Confutation. And as he mifapply'd fome Paffages before out of my Lord Clarendon's Anfwer to Creffy, and Dr. Barrow's Book against the Pope's Supremacy, to the Independency of the Church, as a Society, upon the State; fo with equal Malice and Af furance he perverts the Words of Mr. Chillingworth against the Infallibility and Tyranny of the Pope, by mifapplication to the Church of England, tho' he efteems that Great Man's Authority in behalf of the Church of England and her Epifcopal Government, no more than Straw, or rotten Wood. He cites King Charles II. for faying in a Comparison of the Church of England and the Church of Rome, that one feemed to be in earnest, and the other in jeft. I have recited this Saying of that Prince, who faw abroad the ftrictness of

See the Reverend Mr. Chifhul's Letter, and the end of the Preface to a Book entituled, Several Letters between Dr. Hicks and a Popish Priest. Church

Church-Difcipline, to give the Friends of our Church occafion to confider, how much the is reproached for want of Difcipline, and put thofe in remembrance, who are concerned, to reftore the Primitive godly Difcipline to the Primitive Doctrine and Government of the Church. After the Saying of K. Charles II. he cites a Saying of one he calls a Reverend Divine, which I think fit to recite, to let the World fee, that the Church of England, like her Saviour, hath Judas's among her Priefts, Wolves in Sheeps Clothing, Arians, Socinians, and other forts of Large Souls among her Clergy, who are not only free Thinkers, but free Speakers, as the following Words fhew: The English Prieftcraft (faid that Reverend Divine) is the coursest that I ever faw: The Romish is fine, and hath made a delicate Book of Father Paul's Trent Hiftory; theirs is the Depths of Satan, and ours is his Shallows. This Reverend Divine, I doubt not, but was fuch a one as the Author of the Principles of the Proteftant Religion explain'd, in a Letter to a Lady; a Divine altogether worthy of our Author's Acquaintance, and to be adorned by him, for both write the fame things. In the Conclufion of his Book he promises the World another, in which he faith, if he may be allowed to be a competent Judge, the Reader will find a full Answer to all the Arguments drawn from Scripture, as well as Reafon, for the Independent Power of the Clergy. Here he hangs out his Flag of Defiance to the Clergy, and let them look to themfelves. He is, in his own opinion, and I fuppofe that of his Club,their invincible Champion against Priesthood. However, let me fay again of this unanfwerable full Anfwer, che venga, let it come, and fear it not: For as God hath hitherto rais'd up Davids from among his defpifed Servants of the Clergy, to encounter and conquer thefe Men of Gath; fo I hope a Spirit of Fortitude will still come from him upon others of them, to go out and fight with them, tho' they defy us, and as it were threaten

* P. 413..