to limit and controul in fpiritual and religious Matters, and authoritatively to INSTRUCT all the Bishops, and Clergy, and Men in the Land. Thus did Queen Elizabeth, thus did Queen Anne, and thus hath every Queen Authority to do that fits upon our Throne; Authority to prefcribe and dictate to all, both Minifters and People, what the one are to preach, and the other to receive. And was it not, Sir, a very comely and edifying Sight, to behold the two Houses of Convocation waiting upon the good Queen (Anne) in the Cafe of Whiston's Books upon the Trinity, to be inftructed by her Majefty, whether they were to be condemned as heretical, or not? That venerable and learned Body had folemnly decreed them to be dangerous and heretical; but this their Cenfure was of no Force, till they had laid it before the Queen, to have ber Judgment upon the Point. Upon her Majefty's Determination it entirely depended, whether Whiston's Tenets were to be rejected by the Church of England as erroneous, or not. Majefty, in this Cafe, was of a different Opinion from her two Houfes of Convocation; the thought not fit to cenfure the Books: So her fingle Opinion, ftrange to relate! her fingle Opinion carries it against that of her Bishops and Clergy. She over-rules and fets afide all their Proceedings, reftrains and counteracts them in one of the very chief of their paftoral Functions, the guarding against Errors and Herefies in the Church.

• Anno 1711.

Her

Behold

Behold here, Sir, A WOMAN exercifing fpiritual ecclefiaftical Authority over the Man! Yea, behold the Reprefentative of the Clergy of the whole Land, a moft learned, grave, and venerable Body, waiting upon A WOMAN, to learn from her Mouth, what the Church is to believe, and what to reject, as to this great Myftery of Faith: Upon A WOMAN who could be supposed to know as little of this Matter as of the Motion of the Stars; yet, by her fole Determination, (I repeat it with Astonishment, and you hear it, no doubt, with Perplexity and Grief) your Church was uncontroulably and au thoritatively directed in this deep and mysterious Point.

I ask you, Sir, in the Name of GOD, Is this the Constitution and Frame of the Church of CHRIST? Is it not a Conftitution of a quite different Nature; a Society not DIVINELY, but humanly inftituted; and, therefore, by your own Definition, NOT the Church of Chrift? And may not, think you, a Person separate peaceably from it, without any the least Danger of thereby feparating himself from the one fcriptural, apoftolic, and catholic Church?

CY,

When you ftript the Pope of his SUPREMAcy, and gave it to our Princes, you should have taken Care not to have left his INFALLIBILITY behind. An infallible Head and Director of the Church, be it Woman or Man, be it an He or a She-bishop, is a Thing plaufible enough, and carries a good Face: But, to lodge the abfolute Direction of the Confciences, the Faith, E 2 and

and the Discipline of the Church with a fallible Head! to give a Prince, yea a LADY bred up in all the Softneffes and Diverfions of a Court, an uncontroulable Dominion over the religious Conduct both of Clergy and Laity, authoritatively to direct what thofe are to preach, and what these to believe as the Doctrine of CHRIST! to make HER the fole Judge in all Controverfies which fhall arife upon any the most myfterious and inexplicable Points; so that all the Priefts are to afk Knowledge at HER Lips; and whatever SHE determines is to be received by the Church as Chriftian Verity and Truth! This is fuch a Conftitution as quite shocks the Understanding, and comes not a whit behind Tranfubftantiation itfelf. Hence, doubtless, Sir, the Triumphs of Popish Priefts over you ! Hence their Inroads upon you, and the Thoufands they are continually carrying captive from your Tents! And hence the fad Increafe, and the Infults of Deifts, who taking the Scheme of the Church of England to be that of the Chriftian Church, are authorised by common Senfe, they think, not only to reject, but to treat it with Contempt!

And now, Sir, having fo largely difcuffed this Point, I prefume you are convinced, "That "this fame peaceable Separation of ours is not, "what you call it, a Piece of arrant Nonfenfe "and Contradiction;" and that you will cease to be fo difpleafed at our treating your grave Lectures upon the heinous Sin of SCHISM, as folemn Cant, and Ecclefiaftical Scare-crows. You

fee,

fee, likewife, how extremely unapt, and quite wide of the Point, are the two Inftances you bring to illuftrate our Cafe, viz. " of a Wife

66

..

feparating from the Bed and Board of her "Hufband- Or of two or three Counties difliking a monarchical Government, and throwing off their Allegiance to the King *. Has the Church of England, Sir, any fuch Power or Authority over us Diffenters, as the Husband has over the Wife? Pray who gave it that Authority? Have we ever plighted it our Troth? or bound ourselves by a folemn Vow to honour and obey it to the End of our Life? Or have we ever fworn Allegiance to it; or do we owe it any Homage; as the Counties have fworn and do owe to the King?

Amongst the peculiar Excellencies of your Church you reckon "The Ufe of the three "Creeds in publick Worship; as one of the "most effectual and powerful Means both for "teaching and preferving the Christian Faith "entire and uncorrupt, which we have not in

our Churches +." The Creed called the Apofiles, we have in conftant Use amongst us: And as for the two other, efpecially the Athanafian, we are content you should have the Honour of its being peculiar to yourselves. But methinks, Sir, it fhould a little check your Triumph over us here, to remember, that fome of the wifeft and moft illuftrious Members of your Church, both Clergy and Laity, account the Ufe of this Creed your great Sin and Reproach, and with A. B. Tillotson, wish you were well rid of it.

What

* Letter I. Page 72.

+ Letter I. Page 5.

What are you, Sir, amongst the weak and uncbaritable Minds who damn to the Pit of Hell all who cannot receive all the dark and myfterious Points fet forth in that Creed! Do you in your Confcience think that there is NO SALVATION for those who do not faithfully believe the feveral Articles it contains; and that whofoever doth not keep whole and undefiled the Faith therein delivered, he fhall WITHOUT DOUBT perifh everlaftingly? What! the many great and worthy Perfons, bright Ornaments of your own Church, who instead of keeping it whole and undefiled, have openly difavow'd, preach'd, and wrote against it, dying in this Difbelief, have they without peradventure everlastingly perished? Alas! for the good Doctors Clarke, Whitby, Burnet, &c. For the illuftrious Sir Ifaac, &c. &c. Yea, alas! for the whole Greek Church who have ftrenuously rejected the Article of the Filioq;-They are gone down, it feems, to the infernal Pit! And notwithstanding their great Knowledge and Piety in this World, are, for not believing the Athanafian Creed, funk into EVERLASTING DARKNESS and DAMNATION in the other! Do you wonder Deifm prevails, if this be genuine ChriStianity?

'Tis a Fact, I prefume, indifputable, that a great Part of the most learned and virtuous of your Clergy are departed from the Athanafian Doctrine; and that thofe of them who are not, do by no means think its Belief abfolutely and indifpenfably neceffary to Salvation. What

now