His Arguments for Lay-Depriva- tions contradictory to his Scheme The Church of England would be very thankful to the State for the fame Privileges granted by their Kirk, which this Author His repeated fraudulent Practice in ufing Arguments against the ing any notice of the Answers to them. Councils &c. confider'd. p.139 That Author has used no Argument against the Ecclefiaftical, but what will hold against the Re- gal Power. He ridicules the Priests Claim to miffion from the People. p.142 As much Malice against Chriftia- Deifm. is difingenuous Artifice in quoting the 25 of H. 8. c. 19. to prove that the Bishops of the Refor- p. 147 His unfair Practice in quoting a His Argument to prove the Church The Invalidity of his Hypothefis As also the Vanity of his Argu- His great Kindness to the Clergy his Errors under the pretence of He fallaciously quotes my Ld Cla- His Difhonefly and Malice in com- His Inconsistency fhew'd in magni- His Doctrine of National Right- deftructive of the Regal Power, The Alls of Parliament, whereby His mobbish Arguments against the Sacerdotal Office and Order con- Notice taken of his Ridiculing and Blafpheming the Confecrations of Bishops, and the Ordination of Priefts by Impofition of Hands. He endeavours obliquely to wound No fuch Office, as this Author men- tions used in the Church of Eng- His Blafphemy, in giving God the Name and Office of the Clergy's The unchriftian Freedom he uses in The Divine Inflitution and uninter- furdities he charges upon them. His falfe Suppofition, if true, That clefiaftical Tribunal, no Argu- Goodness of God for impofing a ment upon the World. p. ib. 192 His reiterated invidious Clamour Tis not the Doctrine of the Divine Their plea of Neceffity confider'd. A ferious and compaffionate Exbor tation to fuch as have reform'd, Those who wilfully rejc& or abdi- cate Epifcopacy as unlawful, and plead it as a Duty jo to do, are His Objection against the Bishops deriving their Right by an un- interrupted Succeffion from the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, Dr. Morley, and others, refused to Some Reafons for declining an An- tranfcrib'd from the Bishop of few Questions humbly offer'd to The Author of the Rights in his Last Chap. feems to have a De- His Artifice fhew'd whereby he wou'd confound the Notion of the one Body Politick of the Catholick His Arguments on this Head ex- Some Queries put to the Author The Method he takes to obviate an Objection against the Magi- ftrate's Power to confecrate Bi- Shops, as trifling and false as the reft, viz. because our Kings cannot judge in Perfon, there- fore cannot exercise the Eccle- Several Authorities to prove that An Answer to his Arguments against the Church's Fower,in the Words of the Right Reverend Dr.Wake, Bishop of Lincoln, and the Re- His Arguments against Church Go- vernment contrary to Matter of As also his Objection of a Pope- dom being unavoidable from the which he cites particularly out 2d Book wherewith he threatens has done the World in defending Some of his Contradictions noted, His Objection against the Indepen- An Answer to the Author's Obje- Etion taken from the King's au- thorifing 32 Perfons to establish rum's Expofition of the 23 Ar- He obviates an Objection which THE PREFACE. S OME Years fince I happened to be in the Country, where a worthy Lady did me the Honour to invite me to her House, and to make some stay there. I had been little more than a Day with her, when I perceiv'd what a venerable Prelate had told me of her some Years before, that she was a Person of great Memory, a clear Understanding, a penetrating Judgment, and much Reading; and that particularly fhe was perfect Miftrefs of the Controverfy between the Church of England, and the Church of Rome, having thoroughlyexamin'd it in almost all the Books, that had been written on both fides in her Mother Tongue. In her younger Years, living among Roman atho licks, fhe was perverted by them about the time of the King's Martyrdom, and lived fome Years in their Communion, but not without Doubts,and Diffatisfactions, which daily encreasing both in number and degree, fhe confeffed them to the Priests, particularly to the famous Father Huddleston; from whom not receiving Satisfaction, fhe returned to her Mother the Church of England; and, like Mr. Chillingworth, was ftill the more able to defend her felf against them, for having been one of them. She wrote her Reasons to Father Huddleston, for which the left A left their Communion, in a very civil Letter; but the Father never returned any Anfwer to it: The Force of it was too great for a Reply to fuch a Judg ment, and Understanding as hers, who had a clear View of the Controverfy; and as she did me the Honour to impart a Copy of thatLetter to me in her own Writing, fo at my Request she let me transcribe it, which I did with much Satisfaction, and Delight. As we talked of things relating to this Controverfy, she told me, fhe thought nothing was fo needful to the understanding of it, or any other Difputes, which the Church of England had with any of her other Adverfaries, as to have a right and compleat Notion of the Church; all Controverfies, as fhe obferved, being about the Doctrine, or Government, or Worship of the Church: And, faid fhe, though, I hope, I have a true, yet I doubt, whether I have a perfect Notion of it. For when I exercise my Thoughts about it, methinks I find fomething defective in my Notion of it, tho' I cannot tell what it is. I perceived by a little more Difcourfe with her, that by the Notion of a Church, she meant the Notion of it, as a Society, and that it would be useful to her to help her to range the Conceptions she had of it, as fuch; for I fufpected, that tho' they were perfect, yet for want of orderly thinking they might perhaps be confufed. I therefore took the liberty to ask her fome Questions relating to that Subject, in a mathematical fort of Method; in which every following Question was always a Confequent of that which was asked before. She presently perceived my Defign, and was much pleafed with the Order, in which I propounded my Questions; and I found by her Answers to thein, that she wanted nothing requifite to a compleat Idea of the Church, as a Spiritual Society, but a more clear understanding of the Collegiate Government of the Church by Bishops, and |