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time or other removed; and the Minifters of Christ may be left at Liberty to execute his Laws, according to their own Judgments and Confciences? This, one would think, is what every Minifter of the Gofpel, in all Chriftian Churches, fhould petition for. Something, I fear, of this, lies at the Bottom; though the Author thought it more to his Purpose to seem under the Convulfions and Pangs of Confcience, that he might hereby raise the greater Outcry, and move the more Compaffion: Hinc ille Lachrymæ !

And thus, Sir, I have gone thro' this Letter, and made fuch Obfervations upon it, as moft naturally occurred to my Thoughts in reading it: How far I have entered into the Spirit of the Author, or laid open the true Design and Intention of the Book, you and the Publick must be now left to judge. I can truly fay, that I have not wilfully miftaken or misreprefented him; and if I have done it without Defign, I fhall be ready to receive farther Information, and submit to any reasonable Correction. If the Author writ with a fair Design of maintaining true Religion, no doubt but he will be able to fupport his Principles, and his Method of proving them: But if he writ with Artifice,

and

and Defign for worldly Wealth and Dominion, without much Regard to true Religion, this will appear ftill clearer, the more he fhall endeavour to disguise it.

I shall only add, that all this Author's Encomiums upon the Reformation and Revolution, fo far as I can fee, are nothing elfe but complying with the Neceffity of the Times: For I think that his Notions of Church Power, and his Principles of Toleration and Liberty of Confcience, muft otherwise have led him to condemn both. Might he not have argued as ftrenuously and confiftently for the Laws in Being before the Reformation, and Revolution, as he does now, under the Pretence of ftanding up for the Conftitution? Or how comes it about that the Conftitution both in Church, and State was not the fame then as now? 'Tis more than poffible, that. I may be cenfured and condemned by this Author and his Hierarchical Friends, as a peftilent Fellow and a Mover of Sedition, for talking thus freely: But I fhall not be much moved or concerned at this, fince it was once the Charge laid against a much greater Man than I, or any now living, by an eloquent Orator.

If the Author can defend his Principles, he will need no other Affiftance but Reafon; and if he cannot, nothing else can help him.

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A

BRIEF VIEW

OF

Ecclefiaftical Jurifdiction,

As it is at

This Day practised in England.

Addreffed to

Sir NATHANIEL CURZON, Bart.

AND

The reft of the Gentlemen of the Committee appointed by Parliament, for enquiring into the Abuses and Corruptions of ECCLESIAS TICAL COURTS and Jurifdictions.

Firft printed in the Year 1733

L 2

то

2

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