not at all concerned in the Cafe. If they were guilty of any Inconsistency in their Actings, what is that to those who are not of their Communion? I shall therefore proceed to confider this Cafe more particularly without any Regard to the Compliances of the Romanifts in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign; for none of them that we read of came to the Publick Prayers after the Tenth Year of her Reign. But if they had all come to them even to this Day, what is it to the Purpofe? Are we that have folemnly renounced Popery and all the Corruptions of the Romish Church to be directed by the Practice of those who continue in that Communion? No, it is the Scriptures and the Practice of the truly Primitive Church founded on the Scriptures that must be our Guide in this as well as other Matters. But I fuppofe this Querift would have the World think that all who are for the Independency of the Church upon the State are Favourers of the Church of Rome. Whereas it was the Church of Rome which first deftroyed the true Primitive Independency of the Church, and let in the Regale upon it, that by join ing with the Princes of the World to fupprefs the Power of other Bishops, they might raife the Pontificate or Power of the Roman Bishop to an higher Pitch than it could have obtain'd by any other Means. And were the Church restored to her true Primitive Independency, Popery muft fall of Course. For Popery is built on the Deftruction of Provincial Synods, which was the highest standing Authority of the Church, till the Patriarchs firft, and then the Popes ufurped upon them.

But to return to the Affair of Queen Elizabeth, The English Church having long groaned under the Papal Tyranny which had, by gradual Methods, been permitted to ufurp upon the Rights of all the Bishops of the West, as well as upon Princes, the Bishops of this Realm in the Reign of King Hen

ry VIII. joined with that Prince to caft off that Yoke fo contrary to the original Rights and Privileges of all Provincial or National Churches, and to renounce that Obedience which the Pope, contrary to the Laws of God and Man, had exacted from them. They found, that in the Primitive Church all Provincial Churches were fo far independent upon each other as to own no Superiority of one Provincial Church or Metropolitan above another; but Matters were finally determined in the Synod of each Province, and they held a fraternal Communion without any other Subordination, than that of the Suffragans of each Province to their respective Metropolitans or Archbishops; that when they met in larger Synods, as they fometimes did, it was in a Fraternal way; and though at fuch Times it was ufual to give the Primacy of Honour or Place to the Bishop of the greatest See, such as at that Time were Rome, Antioch and Alexandria; yet this gave them no Jurifdiction over other Metropolitans or their Synods; nor was any Province bound by the Decrees of those larger Synods any further than they had bound themselves by their Delegates whom they had fent. thither to confent for them, or afterwards freely received them. This, when Learning began to revive, our Bishops difcovered, and therefore juftly refused to allow the Pope or any other foreign Bi shop any Jurifdiction in this Realm, though they feemed not unwilling to have held a fraternal Communion with him, if that would have been accepted; but nothing but a Submiffion to the pretended Jurifdiction of the See of Rome would fatisfy the Pope, and that being juftly denyed, the Communion was broke and a Schifm formed. But the Schifm is not to be laid to the Charge of the English Bishops who only afferted their own Independent Right, and refufed not a Fraternal Communion with the Pope, but he with them: So that from that Time the Pope

and

and his Adherents commenced Schifmaticks with relation to the English Church, and the Schifm must be charged upon him for refafing to communicate with this Church, only because he would no longer bear his ufurpations and Encroachments upon her Primitive Liberties. After this, upon further Enquiry into the Scriptures, and the Practice of the Primitive Church, our Bishops alfo found that many. Errors and Corruptions both in Doctrine and Difcie pline had been introduced, thefe in the Reign of King Edward VI. thy took care to reform, endea vouring to reduce all to the true Primitive Pattern about the Time of the Council of Nice; and in all Probability had reduced it exactly to that Plan if they would have depended on their own Learning and Judgment, and had not fent for Martyr and Bucer to confult with on this Occafion. However, as it was, 'twas a very good Reformation, and brought this Church nearer to the Primitive than any Church a that time or now in the World. And though I conceive, that it has fome Defects, and might be made more Primitive; yet it has all Things necellary to Salvation. But this Reformation of our Church more enraged the Papists, who instead of being brought to a Sight of their Errors by it and to the Correction of them, became more obftinate and confirm'd all their Corruptions and Errors in the Council of Trent, making them alto Articles of Faith, and thereby adding Heresy to their Schifm. So that our English Church became the only Church in this Part of the World with which a Man could safely communicate, all the reft having either no Bishops to be the Centres of Unity and Communion, as the Reformed abroad, both Lutherans and Calvinists, or only fuch Bishops as were both Heretical and Schifmatical as the Papifts, who refufed Communion with us meerly becaufe we thought proper to caft off the Pa

pal

pal ufurpation, and thofe corrupt Novelties they had introduced, and refolved to be guided by the Scriptures and Practice of the Primitive Church. When Queen Mary came to the Crown fhe turned out the Catholick and Orthodox Bifhops which her Brother King Edward left in Poffeflion of the Bishopricks. Some of thefe, as Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper and Farrar, fhe condemned to the Flames; others, as Barlow, Scory, and Coverdale, the forced to fly to fave their Lives. But it was the Catholick, Orthodox reformed Bishops that were ftill the rightful Bishops of the Church of England, and the Bishops with whom the Martyrs of that Reign held Communion and owned for their Bishops. The Popish Bishops, though poffeffed of the publick Churches and Revenues, and under the Protection of the State, were nevertheless the Schifmaticks as well as Hereticks who intruded into the Sees of the Catholick and Orthodox Bishops. So that when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown, and with the Confent of her Parliament turned out the Popish Bishops and restored the Catholick Orthodox Bifhops to their Flocks: She acted but as a good Prince ought to do, reftoring and protecting the true Bifhops and the true Religion, and ejecting and difcouraging falfe Bishops and falfe Religión. And had Queen Elizabeth ftill continued the Popish Bishops in their feveral Bishopricks as Queen Mary did, no true Catholick and Orthodox Chriflian who held faft to the Communion of the truly Primitive, Catholick, and Apoftolick Church of Chrift, to which Communion our reformed Bishops had returned, could have communicated with them without Sin, both as they were Schifmatical by intruding into full Sees, or had joyned Com munion with those that did fo, and as the Terms of Communion which they impofed upon their Spiritual Subjects, were finful, and fuch as could not be lawfully complied with. So that when Queen

Elizabeth came to the Crown fhe did not make the

Bishop

Bishopricks vacant, but found them fo as to all Spiritual Power; for an Heretick or Schifmatick cannot fill a Bishop's See though he get Poffeffion of it. But fhe found feveral Heretical and Schifmatical Bishops poffeffed of the Temporalties of the English Bifhopricks, and that the and her Parliament deprived them of, and put Catholick and Orthodox Bishops into them. And we all agree, that Poffeffion of Temporalties, when unjustly and forceably detained from the right Owners, must be given by the Civil Magiftrate, who alone has the Power to do Right to those that fuffer Wrong in fuch Cafes. And the Primitive Christians allowed this even to Heathen Princes, that they alone could forceably eject fuch as had gotten a wrongful Poffeffion of the Temporalties of a Church, as we have feen before in the Cafe of Paulus Samosat! ¿ nus, when they applied to the Emperor Aurelian to eject him out of the Epifco, al House at Antioch.

SXLIX. But then it is further asked, If Schifm renders the Administration of all Minifterial Offices ineffectual, and if the Pretenfions of more than one to the Jame See makes a Schism, what shall be faid for the Orders of the English, and indeed of the whole Western Church, which were received from Bishops in Communion with Antipopes who kept up a Schifm for seventy Years together? Were the People all this Time, and fince, deprived of all Benefit of Divine Ordinances without their Fault? To this it may be answered, That Orders given and received in Schifm, though ineffectual for that Time; as S. Paul teaches, that all Gifts and Graces are, where Charity is wanting, which cannot be had in Schism, for the Apottle particularly applies it to that Cafe; yet are not therefore wholly Null and Invalid ; and confequently when the Schifm is healed, and the Schifmaticks returned to Catholick Communion,the Orders given and received in Schifm become effectual alfo; and the fame may be faid of the Adminiftration of other Ministerial Offices. And there

fore,