Chap. IV. 7'he HIS T 0 RY if the PuiUTANs~· Dr. Bramha/1, that the irijh method might be introduced into EnglanJ; that he faid, if he tbould live ~o fee the church re!l:ored, he would be a humble fuitor to his maje!l:y, that the privileges of the englijh church, in their elections of bitbops, might be introduced into lt·e!and. Dr. Wren bi{hop of Ely, and Dr. Cojim of Peterborough, were for an expedient {omething like the fecond, to which the court agreed, and. Mr. chancellor Hyde writ to Dr. Barwick for the form of fuch a corn– million as they judged proper, and urged, that it might be difpatched with all poffible expedition. The chancellor had this affair very much at heart, but the old bi!hops were fearful leil: it fhould be difcovered, in. which cafe they were fure to be the fufferers. Dr. Brownrigge of Exe– ter, and Dr. Skinner of Oiford, declined meddling in the affair; the. reil declared their willingnefs to advance the work, but lived in hopes there might be no occafion for the hazard. The chancellor, in one of his letters fays, the king was much troubled that no more care ~vas taken if tht church, by thofe whojbould be the guardiam qf it. He cenfures the Oownefs of the clergy, and fays, it was very indecent, that when their. afflicted mother was in extremity, any of he r fans fhould be timorous. and fearful. Such were the chancellor's narrow principles, who feemed . to hang the eifence of chriltianity, and the virtue of all divine ordinances, .. npon the conveyance of ecclefialtical power by an uninterrupted fuccef,._ fion from the apofiles. Inter– Regnum· 1659· l.,..oo~f The non-jurors had the like ca(e in view after the revolution, and pro- Remarks. vided for it in the befl: manner they could. But is not the chri.ltian world in a fad condition, if a chriO:ian biihop cannot be chofen or confecrated without a royal mandate, and the fuffrage of a dean and. chapter, ~hen there were no fuch officers in the church for three. hundred years after the apoltles? and if the validity. of all facerdotal miniftrations mufl: depend on a regular uninterrupted fucceffion from. St. Peter ? efpecially as Baronius a popifh hifl:orian confefies, that in a fucceilion of fifty popes not one pious or virtuous man fat in the chair;. that there had been no popes for fome years together; and at other times two or three at once; and when the fame writer admits, between twenty and thirty fchifms, one of which continued fifty years, the popes . of Avignon and Rome excommunicating each other, and yet conferrina: orders upon their Teveral clergy. How impoffible is it to trace the righ~· line through fo much ·confuGon? But with regard to the king, his co.ncern for the regular confecration King abjum of proteltant biihops was a mere farce; for if he was not a papifl: before tl:e pr. reli– this time, 'tis certain he was reconciled to the church -of Rome this year gpton at the - • yrences at the pyrencean treaty concluded between France and Spain at Fontara- · · hia, whither he had r~paired incognito to engage them in his intereft, - Here
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