and that Christ had committed the Charge and Care of it in whole, as well as in part, jointly, as well as Feparately, to all the Bishops, as his Vieegerents; and that by confequence, not only the Bishops of évery Province, but of the whole Catholick Church were Fellows, and Colleagues. She difcover'd much Satisfaction, in being made Mistress of this Notion, which, fhe faid, encreas'd her Admiration of the Wisdom of God in the Conftitution of his Church, and help'd her to apprehend fome things better than fhe did before, as how much this co-ordinate Union of it depended on the Unity of the Epifcopal College, That its Union with the State in all Countries was only focial, and that the Pope's Supremacy was a moft groundlefs Pretenfion, and a monftrous, and intolerable Ufurpation over the Catholick Church.

Our Conference being ended, the defired me to turn my Questions, and the Difcourfes incident to them, into Propofitions, which I did after fome time, and waited upon her with them."It happened that I found a very pious, and worthy Gentleman, a Serjeant at Law, at her Houfe, to whose Care, and Protection her Husband had left her, upon his Death-bed, as to a moft honeft Gentleman, skilful Lawyer, and faithful Friend. She defired me to let her fhew him my Propofitions, to which I readily confented; and he, after he had read them, with great Civility natural to him, defired the Freedom to object against them; but I told him I would firft fend him, in a Letter, a more compleat Copy of them to read again, and then, upon fecond Thoughts, he might return them to me, with his Objections in Writing, which he shortly after did in a Letter, to which the fecond Letter in the following Book was my Anfwer. But to my great Grief, and the Grief of all, who knew him, he died before I could get it tranfcribed.

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After

After I got a fair Copy I gave a Learned Divine an account of it, who thereupon was defirous to read it, and the Propofitions I fent him with it. I told him I would confent to his Defire, if he would pro mife to read them as an Adverfary, because he could not otherwise read them as a Friend; and when he had read them, he fent them to me with an Objetion, which he faid would be made against my fourth Propofition; an Objection indeed fomewhat furprising, which in the beginning of my first Letter, which is my Anfwer to it, I have recited in his own Words.

I am fenfible I ought to beg the Reader's Pardon, for fo long an account of the Occafions of writing thofe two Letters, and I hope to obtain it; because I could not well give a fhorter account, with due Refpect to my Friends, if I gave any at all.

I must farther acquaint the Reader, that as the Objection mentioned in the beginning of the first Letter was made against my fourth Propofition; fo the Objection mentioned in the beginning of the fecond, was made against the third.

This, I think, obligeth me to present them here to publick View, with the first and fecond Propofitions,without the attendance of which I think they would neither be fo orderly, nor fo decently introduced, nor perhaps be fo fatisfactory to the Reader.

The

The PROPOSITIONS.

IT Church, as a Society, it will be requifue to O understand the Conftitution of the Catholick obferve by what Names it is fet forth in the Scriptures, where it is called the Kingdom of God, and Dominion of Christ, the City of God, the House and Houfhold of God; and becaufe this Houfe of God is an holy Houfe, in which he is especially prefent, it is therefore compar'd to a Temple, wherein he is worshipped by Priefts, and People. It is alfo called the Polity, which we tranflate the Common-wealth of Ifrael, and the 8 Body of Chrift, to fignify, that it is a Spiritual Society, or Incorporation, of which Chrift is the Head, and all partieular Churches are Members.

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f

II. It is to be confidered, that this Kingdom, Domi nion, City, Spiritual Houfe, Body, and Polity of

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Chrift,

Mat. iv. 23. X. 7. xvi. 28. xxi. 43. Mark i. 14. Luk. 1. 32, 33. viii. 1. xxi. 31. Acts i. 3. viii. 12. XX. 25. xxviii. 31. 1 XV. 24. Col. i. 13.

b Dan. ii. 44. vii. 14, 27. Heb. i. 8. ii. 8. 1 Tim. vi.15. Rev. xvii. 14. xix. 16. Act. ii. 34, 36. Rom. xiv. 9. Phil.ii. 9. 10, 11. Heb, xii. 22. fii. 12. Gal. iv. 25, 26. Ephef. ir. 19,

d Heb. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Ephef. ii. 19, 1 Tim. iii, 15. 1 Pet, ii. 5. iv. 17.

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1 Cor. iii, 16. vi. 19. 2 Cor, vi. 16, Ephef. ii. 21, 22.

Ephef. ii. 12.

Ephef. i. 22, 23. iv. 12, 15. v. 23, 30. Rom. xii, 5. 1 Cor. xii. 27. Col. i. 18. 24. Corpus fumus de confcientia Religionis, & difciplina unitate. Tertul. Apol. c. 39. Semel dixerim una Ecclefi a fumus, ita noftrum est quodcunque noftrorum eft, ceterum dividas Cor-' pus. Idem, de Virgin. Veland. c. 2. Sed nec Ecclefiam defendere, qui quando & quibus incunabulis inftitutum eft hoc Corpus, probare non habent, id. de Præfcript. c. 22.

Pet. ii. 5. Ye alfo as lively Stones are built up a Spiritual Houfe, Eos effe Ecclefiam, qui in domo Dei fermanent. Cypr. Edit.

IV. That the Church or incorporate Body of Chriftians is by its Conftitution a Holy, Royal, or Regal Prieftbood, as it is called in the Scriptures. First, Because Christ the Head of it is the Antitype of Melchifedech, and as fuch, a Sacerdotal Sovereign, or Regal Priest. And, Secondly, Because this Sacerdotal Sovereign has committed the Government, and Administration of his Kingdom to minifterial Priefts, who, as I must often put you in mind, are the Vicars, Subftitutes, Legates, or Vicegerents of their Royal, Sacerdotal Lord, and Mafter, in his Kingly, as well as his Priestly Office, throughout all the Districts, and Dominions of his Spiritual Kingdom upon Earth.

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'After telling the Occafion of writing these two Letters, it will be expected I fhou'd give an account of the publishing of them, to which I was provok'd by a late Book, falfly entituled, The Rights of the Chriftian Church: In which the Author with all the Art he was Mafter of, and with more Spite and Infolence, than Julian or any other Apoftate did, hath written without any true Argument, or making any Distinction of Priests gainft the whole Chriftian Priesthood, and against the Chriftian Church, and its true Constitution, and Rights. Whether the Chriftian Church is one Body, or feveral independent Bodies throughout the whole World; and if one Body, whether it is di ftinct, or not from the State, and Independent of it

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• 1 Pet. ii. 5. 9. You are built up a Spiritual Houfe, an holy Priesthood, But you are a chofen Generation, a Royal Priest, hood, or Kingdom of Priefts, Exod. xix. 6.

Neque enim aliunde Herefes oborta funt, aut nata Schifmata, quam inde, quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur, nec unus in Ecclefia ad tempus Sacerdos, & Judex vice Chrifti cogitatur, Cypr. Epift. LIX

in all places; and whether the Administration of it, was not by Divine Appointment committed to Bifhops, as Succeffors of the Apostles, who are to govern it by continued Succeffion, from one to another; and whether they, as fupream Governours of it, have not Authority to admit into, and exclude People out of it, are all Questions of Fact, which are to be determined by the Scriptures, and the confentient Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Church, both Priefts and People. Of which, I hope, I have given a plain and fufficient account, especially in the fecond Letter. And the Reader is to be judge,whether the Reasonings of this Author, (who hath licked up the Venom of Hobbes,Selden, and Marvel, and difgorged it upon the Church) can be of any force against the Teftimony of fuch a cloud of Witnesses, against the joint Authority of fo many holy Saints, and Martyrs, even of all Christianity, from the time of the Apostles, and whether it was not most abfurd in him to argue against Facts fo proved, and a Constitution fo univerfally admitted, and receiv'd, as of Divine Original, in all places, as if there neither were, nor cou'd be any fuch Conftitution, which in his falfe reafoning he mifreprefents, as abfurd, uncharitable, inconfiftent with Reason, and the ends of Ecclefiaftical Difcipline, an Obstacle to the Spreading of the Gospel, deftructive of it self, and the Interefts of the Chriftian Religion, and of infinite Mischief to the Chriftian World, and humane Societies.

Thefe are Charges which were never laid upon the Constitution of the Church in the pureft Ages of Christianity, which had the best means of understanding the Conftitution of it, as living nearest

Both which are thoroughly con futed in 116 fmall Octavo Pages of the first part of a Book entituled, The Cafe of the Church of England, printed at London 1681. And in thofe few Pages the Reader will find a full Answer to the Rights of the Christian Church

the