252 The LIFE of the Y. I B. I. which will be out of Queffion againít us when we arecalled to fabfiribe, or are to be forbidden topreachthe Gofpel. . And let what is here confeffed for Presbyters Affiftance in Ordination, ¡land on Record againfi them when it is neglected or made an infignificant Ceremony. rz. 4. In the lait alfo you give up your Caufe, and yet it's well if you will amend it. Whetherthe Canons be Laws, let the Lawyersjudge : And whether all the Bishops Books ofArticles ( as againli making Scriptureour Table-talk, andma- ny fuch others ) be either Laws, or according to Law, let the World judge. The Remedies offered for reforming thefe Evils. r . I. Whereas to avoid all Exception, or fruftrating Contentions or Delays, we offeredonly Bishop Ufber's Platform ( fubfcribed alfoby Dr. Holdfwoyrb ) that the World might fee that it is Epifcopacy it felf that we plead for ; you tell us that it wr# formedmany Tears before bis Death, and is not confsftent with twoother ofhis Dïf- courfes : In which either you would intimate that he contradideth himfelf, and could not fpeak confiftently, orthat he afterward retracted this Reduction. For the firff, We muff believe that many Men can reconcile their own Writings, when Come Readers cannot, as better understanding themfelves thanothers do. And that this reverend Bishop was no fuch rawNovice, as not to know when hecontradict- ed himfelf in fo publick and practical a Cafe, as a Frame of Church - Government; Nor was he fach an Hypocrite as to play fart and loose in the things of God : But upon Debate we undertake to vindicate his Writings from this Afperfion of In- confislency ; only you muff not take him to mean that all was well done, which as an Historian hefaith was done. Andas toany Retraction, one of us (my (elf) is ready to witnet that he owned it not long before his Death, as a Collection of fit Terms to reconcile theModerate in these Points, and' toldhim that he offered it the late:King. Andwhereas you tellets that the conforming. of Suffragans to Rural Deaneries, and other filch, are his private Conceptions, deftitate of any Testimony ofAntiquity : We an(wer, No marvel, when Rural Deaneries were unknown to true Antiquity. And when in the Ancienteff Church, every Church had its proper Bishop, and every Bishop but one Church, that had alfo but one Altar. But furely the Corepifcopi were no Strangers to Antiquity, as may appear ( before the Council at Nice) in Concil. Ancyran. Can. ra. and in Concil. Antiocbin. Can. ro. &c. It was unknown in the days of Ignatius and yaflin Martyr, that a Church should be as large as a Rural Deanry, containing a dozen Churches with Altars, that had none of them pecu- liar Bishops : But it was not ffrangethen that every Church had a Bishop and if it were Rural, a Chorepifcopus. As alfo you may gather even from Clemens Ro- manus. TheQuarrel which you pick with the Archbishops Reduction for not Naming the King, as if he defiroyed. his Supremacy, is filch as a low degree of Charity, witha little Underftanding, might easily have prevented. Either you know that See Queen , of Keys p pr p fj ) Elita eth's it is the Power the , called Spiritual and o er- Eale:a seal and not the Injantti- Coercive Power circa Ecckfraf ica, which the Archbishop fpeakethof,andall our Con- ons and troverfe is about, or you do not knowir. If you do know it, either you think this our 39 , Power of the Keys is resolved into the King, ornot : Ifyou do think fo , you differ tides. from theKing, and from all of your felves that ever we talked with, andyou con- tradict all Proteftant Princes, that haveopenly difclaimed any filch Power, and published this to the World to flop the Mouths ofCalumniating Papifis : And we have heard the King, and force ofyou, disclaim it : And how can you then fitly debate thefe Controverfies that differ from all Proteftant Kings, and from the Church ! But if you your felves do notfo think, had you a Pen that would charge the Archbishop fordeftroying the King's Supremacy,for alferting nothing but what the King and you maintain i' And ifyou knew not that this Spiritual Power of the Keys, as diftind from Magiltratical Coercive Power, is the Subject ofour Contro- verfie, we difpute to good purpofe indeed with Men that know notwhat Subject it is that we are to difpute about !fo that which way foever it go,you feehow it like to fall; and how Men that are out of the duff and noire will judgeof our Debates. And here we leave it to the Notice andObfervation of Pofterity, upon the perufat of all your Exceptions, How little theEnglish Bàfhopo had to fay againft the. Form of Primitive Epifcopacy 'contained kit Archbishop Ujher's Reduction,. in the day when they ratherchofethe increase ofout Divifions,the Silencingofmany Hu died
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