A DEBATE ON THE Justice and Piety Of the Present CONSTITUTION UNDER K. William In Two Parts The First relating to the State The Second to the Church BETWEEN Eucheres a CONFORMIST AND Dysoheres a RECUSANT By Samuel Hill Rector of Kilmington Author of Solomon and Abiathar Psal 7.8 Judge me O Lord according to my Righteousness and according to mine Integrity that is in me Inter utrumque tene Obsequium amicos Veritas Odium Parit LONDON Printed for John Everingham at the Star in Ludgate-street 1696. Erudito Reverendo Sanctóque Sacerdotum Collegio Diaecesews Bathoniensis Wellensis Clero florentissimo Post Patrum Primaevorum in causâ fidei Vindicias ab imbelli praevaricatorum nequitiâ Usquequaque tutas adhuc inconcussas Vestro quinetiam pro Authore Suffragio publico Invidiae adversùs obloquii tela Munitas pariter ac cohonestatas Amicas hasce denuò Ecclesiae pariter ac Patriae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PacÃsque sacraë conciliatrices Pro Justitiâ publicâ Pietate Contra Seditionis Schismatis Erastianismi dmissi opprobrium admittendÃque periculum susceptas Apologias Integerrimâ fide Summo studio Conscientiâque quà m maximè castâ Votivas dicat Perque gratas optat Vester S. Hill ERRATA PRef p. 1. l. 17. for dismissed r. discussed ibid. l. ult r. appear or seem Booâ— p. 21. l. 14. r. Desertion p. 22. l. 5 6. r. Desertion p. 42. l. 32. r. Anticyrae p. 43. l. 1. r. Prosecute p. 45. l. 27. r. IVs p. 57. l. 24. r. Construction p. 63. l. 26. r. off p. 64. l. 7. for and r. an p. 65. l. 12. dele an p. 71. l. 8. County p. 82. l. 29. r. there can be p. 83. l. 34. r. at full p. 87. l. 25. for thoâ—… r. the oath p. 91. l. 15. r. title ibid. l. 31. r. to surmise p. 95. l. 71. r. to shiâ—… for p. 96. l. 33. r. the moral p. 104. l. 8. r. if we admit p. 105. l. 8. r. say p. 10â—… l. 12. for of Constitions r. of Constitution p. 110. l. 23. r. it had not been p. 15â—… l. 21 22. for excession r. excision p. 156. l. 35. r. invert p. 163. l. 27. for frâ—… r. for p. 165. l. 4. r. takes it in p. 165. l. 31. r. marte p. 168. l. 9. r. Pâ—… p. 170. l. 27. r. imprudently p. 172. l. 3. r. I never look ibid. l. 27. r. Possessâ—… p. 185. l. 9. for sending r. sounding p. 162. l. 8. r. Notion p. 162. l. 37â—… comes into p. 163. l. 32. for using r. refusing p. 167 l. 23. r. presumed p. 17â—… l. 17. r. on evil p. 174. l. 10. r. a form p. 176. l. 10. r. was from p. 172 â—… 17. r. Office p. 8. l. 31. for excuse r. execute p. 199. l. 12. dele which p. 20â—… ult r. Frischmuth p. 205 l. 19. r. peculiarly p. 209. l. 27. r. anothers p. 210 â—… 8. r. procedure p. 211. l. 30 31. r. who thinks the Tenant for sworn for submitâ—… to the new Possessor p. 213. l. 30. r. all to the Secular c. p. 225. l. 6 7. r. sâ—… any thing against him himself ibid. l. 32. r. in dubitable p. 230. l. 36. foâ—… Gase r. the Case p. 231. 32. for and r. am p. 233. l. 31. r. is it p. 235. l. â—… r. validly p. 137. l. 1. dele of p. 239. l. 18. r. Aerianism p. 248. l. 12. â—… and r. an p. 242. l. 22. for if r. is p. 252. l. 30. after c. dele and p. 2â—… l. 8. r. to do good p. 265. for but will r. that will ibid. l. 15. r. Capacity to Ecchâ—… p. 97. l. 13. for might r. weight TO THE READER I Here present thee with a Book which either Destiny or Calumny will drag out into the Public whether I will or no. The pretended University-man in his Remarks upon my Defence of the Fathers having descended to the humble Glory of traducing it and me in his Post-script to Mr. Chiswell by ill Characters and false Histories has enforced this involuntary Publication The Character he gives of it is that it is a Trifle which he presumes of it of his own Sagacity without ever seeing it that he is told by a good Hand that it falls on Mr. Dod ll's Principle with great Fury and treats the Jacobites very brutally The Design herein is to preclude my Interest with the Jacobites to whom he says I am relapsed His historical Account is that it was written and sent up to a Bishop for Publication to divert a Storm expected on the Vindication c. by engaging my Lord of Canterbury and all the Bishops against my Adversary that however finding the Trifle slighted I earnestly desired that Bishop that it might not be printed that so if I could get it again into my Hands I might deny the Writing thereof to the Jacobites as I begin to deny the other The Intention of this is to represent me to all the Powers as an Apostate against the Government Fool and Knave all over that so I may have no Countenance in it but be abandoned by all Mankind Before therefore I offer my own true Account and Apology against this Slander it is easily observable that his Passion has marred his Art of Detraction in giving Marks of its apparent Falshood For what Clergy-man can presume to put a servile Office on a Bishop or what Bishop can be imagined so unresenting as to admit it or after Admission to endure a Countermand from the vain Presumer Besides if it were rejected as a Trifle the Bishop cannot be supposed to promote its Publication without Disgrace and Reproach which none of them have reason to incur for any of their Clergy especially against the Sense of the whole College Episcopal And if so then how could I earnestly desire the Bishop that it might not be printed when it had been before rejected to me as a Trifle He seems as vain also in hopong that that Bishop would keep it from me to refute my supposed denial thereof as if a Trifle were worth a Bishop's keeping or as if any Bishop can be so unjust as to detain from any Man what has been for a while entrusted with him I think this is rather an unhandsome and rude Usage of that Prelate than of me to whom I leave him to make satisfaction The truth is this Book was first written about Whitsuntide Anno 93. before the very Oral Discourse of Warminster it self and while the Heat of its first Conception animated by the Advices of Learned Friends lasted was designed then for the Press But that Ardor being soon cooled I designed to review it and procure a Friend by it if I could among the Fathers not by its Publication but by private Oblation Accordingly after some Deliberation I resolved not to present it any Bishop introduced into a deprived Diocese lest at the same time I should seem to flatter and abuse him with a pretence of bringing succour to
of Crimes * Sol and Ab. pag. 19 20. as Apostasie Heresie Schism c. and demanded whether the Clergy and People may desert a Bishop under such pestilential crimes and impostures and procure another from Social Bishops For if they may Canonically do this in such Cases then perhaps they may canonically do so in other which tho' not so designedly malignant yet necessitate an exauctoration tho' founded in meer infirmities and too pious prejudices as I explained my self in those very passages at which it seems the gall of T. B. is exasperated Dyscher Well I think it not decent for us to draw hard on this invidious subject let us if you please discuss the Canonical forms of your procedure herein which your party generally defends from pretended precedents of Civil Authorities over the Jewish High Priests and the Practice of Christian Churches in submission to Imperial Orders especially the Greek Church under Turkîsh Changes made in their Patriarchal See Now the most famous instance among the Jewish High Priest is that of Solomons deprivation of Abiathar Which tho' you endeavoured to parallel to our present Case yet herein I brought you such just exceptions as neither you nor all your Party will be able to take off For if the Crime was nothing like if there was such a difference between the Constitutions of the Jewish and Christian Churches if it was a manifest Cession on Abiathar's part all which I well proved then that Instance can by no means come up to this Case T. B. Sec. Lett. pag. 36. Eucher Tho' I could not deny the force of your reasonings upon this instance yet have I consulted my friends upon it as well as you have done upon me And the chiefest of their senses I will lay before you to which if you can make any weighty reply you must not thence conclude a vice or fault in the Cause for if I cannot defend it my self perhaps its proper Patrons may who as they have singular Opinions so have they as singular abilities to maintain them Dyscher This is a secure Caution for your own Reputation tho' it betrays an inward suspicion of the Arguments you intend to produce But however since it is but just that no personal defects should prejudice a good Cause and that one man's Errors should not affect another man's Estimation I grant you your Demand and therefore I pray proceed Eucher Have you not seen the Book entitled The Case of Sees Vacant c. whose learned Authors felicity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This great man pretends to dissolve all your machins against this grand Precedent for a Lay-Deprivation and I will exhibite you his Argumentations according to your and his Order First then he observes that * Case of Sees Vacant c. Chap. 2. § 2. this perhaps may be the Plea of our Adversaries in answer to the examples of the Jewish High-Priest that the Office of a Bishop amonst us is much more Spiritual than the Office of those High-Priests To that Plea I answer that he that considers the true and full import of the Question now before us will find it to be no other than this whether a Person duly invested with an Ecclesiastical Office of God's own Institution and Ordinance being deposed by the Lay-power any other can lawfully succeed in that Office Now as to God's particular Institution and Appointment whatsoever otherwise the difference may be which is needless for us to contend about it is certain that the Jewish High-Priests were rather superior than inferior to our Bishops 'T was by God himself and that too in an extraordinary manner that the Office of the High-Priest was instituted and it was from God alone that he received his Authority If therefore a Person was accepted by God as a true and real High-Priest tho' put into the room of another deposed by Civil Authority then a Bishop likewise may be truly a Bishop and accordingly ought to be received tho' put into the place of a Bishop deposed by that Power To this I add that the annual Expiation for the Sins of the whole People was to be performed by the High-Priest This was the chief of the federal Rites of that Religion and that to which our Saviour's offering himself up a Sacrifice is particularly compared in the Epistle to the Hebrews And this they did ex opere operato so that it was of the greatest Consequence to the Jews to have this Divine Institution performed by one appointed to it by God And tho' no provision was made for Cases of necessity yet necessity was understood to be a provision for it self And it is certain these annual Expiations were accepted of God till our Saviour's days For that is a certain Consequence of their being still in Covenant with God since these Expiations were the yearly renewing of that Covenant Nor can any of the performances of the Christian Priesthood be compared to this unless we believe the Power of Transubstantiating These examples of the Jewish High-Priest alone were there no other to be alledged would sufficiently warrant our submission to our present Possessors Dyscher This Doctrine of that learned Doctors is very new and amazing in every Sentence of it as also is his original Principle But whether it be of sincere Metal or no must be tried by the proper Touchstone First then it is strange that he shou'd affirm it certain that the High-Priests are rather Superior to our Bishops as to the Divinity of their Institution For are not Bishops instituted originally by God himself and in a manner more extraordinary than that of Aaron's Consecration For this appears indeed in the Levitical Law to be divinely solemn and glorious as far as external Pomp and Ceremony could adorn it and an Oracular Power of Judgment in things Temporal sanctifie him but yet as the Agent for God in this Consecration was a Servant only viz. Moses so the Oracular Sanctity was not purely Spiritual But the first Bishops were the Apostles made so not by the Hand of a Servant but the Son of God himself in our own Flesh ordaining them with an extraordinary Power of Miracles of all kinds with the insufflation of the Holy Ghost in order to the remission and retaining of sins upon the Soul by the Acts of an Authority to be ratified in Heaven To them the Sacraments were committed the Laver of Regeneration and the Mystery of our Incorporation into Christ and Participation of his Holy Spirit besides the glorious Effusion of the Spirit on them at the Feast of Pentecost consecrating them Preachers of the Resurrection of Christ with an amazing Glory in the sight of all Nations gathered together at Jerusalem in a manner more superlatively divine than any the meaner Forms of Aaron's Investiture Besides the Doctor may as well prefer the Institution of the meanest Levites to that of the Highest Apostles upon the same grounds on which he hath so superexalted the Jewish Pontiff who was
their Cause as if it needed any Advocateship especially such as mine For truly they that write honestly for a public Constitution must not pretend a service to Authority but the Benefit only of those that are under it So I resolved to seek a Patron among the other unconcerned Bishops with whom I could hope my Principles would find favour and so adventured it into the Hands of a Prelate whose universal merits are superior to his Character by him it was recommended to my own Right Reverend Diocesan and he by Letters from London acquaints me with his desire of seeing it and as my Duty was to obey herein I sent it him Upon the reading of it he greatly inclined me to the Publication yet withal forewarning me that it would stir up Adversaries he would not press me against my own Judgment During this intercourse the other Book was in the Press and almost finished and as yet my Diocesan knew nothing of it Whereupon I Wrote to his Lordship that I was engaged for the Faith for which I expected much trouble and I knew not what would become of me but his Lordship not knowing any thing more particularly in the matter supposed my fears as he reputed them causeless Upon which I conceded to what his Lordship pleased to do or have done He thereupon puts it under the judgment of other learned Men and it being by them well liked designed with some little variations offered me that it should be Printed In the mean while the storm pursued me without any hopes or intermission and it was loudly given out that it was intended by the agreement of the Bishops that I should be suspended by my Bishop and Prosecuted upon the ruining Statute except I would prevent it by Humiliation c. The good Offices of Friendship that were really done me among several of my Lords the Bishops were concealed from me and so I expected nothing else but an Excommunication or such a Persecution for the Faith as must have forced me from the present Communion Whereupon I had many causes to stop the Publication of this Book for having but bad Eyes to engage in long Studies and against many Adversaries and under such prospects of Expulsion cut of this Church I thought it not only imprudent to draw on me more quarrels in the defense of a Communion from which I expected ejection but ridiculous also which I am resolved no terrors nor Persecutions by God's help shall render me But I must with Honour acknowledg that all this Authors incentives have not been able to whet my Metropolitan nor any others that I know of to that Spirit of Persecution which this Postscript has ascribed to him so that I have no need of a Sanctuary among the Jacobites tho' I hereupon shall take occasion to let this Author know that such as steer by their private Interest in their choice of Parties and are as ready to change their Faith as their Allegiance and dispose Men by the same Arts to follow them in Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Turns do make more Jacobites by their Prevarications and thereby become more injurious to the public Peace and Powers by far than any the most important and importunate Remonstrants against the Government I have but one thing more to add in a Apology for the Air and Structure of this Book I hope there is no Man no not the raging T. B. nor the more raging Postscriber will be able henceforth to call the Style Brutal I press indeed the Arguments between the Parties and their principal Authors with the utmost Vigour as without any Incivility so without any partiality to either side and this not only as a Disputant but as a Casuist which ought to drive on all considerations home thro' and thro' the Conscience This Justice requires in a Dialogue between Parties where not only the reasons are to be stretched to the utmost but the Zeal of them also personated In this T. B. pretended Solomon and Abiathar to be defective and treacherous which Accusation tho' false and causeless yet has made me to carry on their Person here with much more Acrimony against their Opponents than otherwise I should have done This may indeed displease the Learned Men concerned herein against them for ought I know but to convert the divided I thought it expedient to shew my self severely equal and indifferent in speaking for them in their own Spirit rather than my own and freely owning their Truths as well as ours And if this does not satisfy the great Men whose Hypotheses are here necessarily dismissed I hope they will consider however that I have a Right to defend my own Principles in Solomon and Abiathar with as much strength and ardour as they have asserted theirs And they that have particularly and by name taxed that Pamphlet who were never touched by me for any of their Writings before must concede me a liberty to examin what they have said against it and it's Principle It is an unhappy Misfortune that two of the greatest Ornaments of the Nation should herein run so widely to the Extremes the one so far as to overthrow the Right of the English Reformation the other to the prostitution of the Powers Hirarchical to Rapine and Violence by laying Principles which yet both of them think necessary to the Churches Preservation I have gone the middle way between these admirable Men who are indeed above all the praises that I can give them and since I find that a new Disputation will be moved herein I do most heartily beseech those two great Men calmly and candidly to treat of their Principles and their Consequences in private first and equally endeavour to remove all Prejudices and to quit whatsoever mistakes shall be joyntly discovered between them and when that is done shew such an example of mutual Charity and Self-denial as may render them if possible more admirable to the World than they already are that so we may hasten with all possible earnestness to an happy Union or at least that the fairest grounds may be laid for it The Edition of this Book is indeed very uneasie to me but since necessity is laid upon me to publish it and that as it was Written I shall be glad if it may prevent a reen-flamed Controversie which is threatned in Print by a Learned Jacobite or may offer any such notices as may contribute to their exacter considerations But for my own part I resolve never to appear in this Controversie more for as it may be easie for learned Men to refute and inform me so I can bear instruction not only with ease but with gratitude also Whereupon I have nothing more to offer to all Authors of worth concerned but that they will not think themselves wronged till they have throughly discussed the matters between us impartially and if after that I shall appear to seem to have done amiss I do hereby proleptically beg their forgiveness and upon the discovery
sacred Functions the Church upon certain Notoriety of that Guilt Forfeiture and civil Incapacity may elect and consecrate others who have contracted no such Blemish or Incapacity Nor needs there here the Judgment of a Synod as is confessed in the like Case of Callinicus and Cyrus before mentioned which is only necessary to discuss and determine things dubious in Fact or Right So that in such Cases where there is no Rule set to the contrary the Church on her old original Liberties may of her own accord proceed to a new Promotion and I think ought to do so when the Blemish and consequent Incapacity are irremediable And what the Church in freedom may do without Command she may do when commanded even by those Powers which have no direct Right to manage our Ecclesiasticals as Infidel and Un-Christian Powers have not Yet indirectly I grant a new Settlement in the Church may be necessary to the weal of an Un-Christian State which then has an indirect Right to command the Church within it to fill the Vacancies and then she is in Duty bound to obey not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake whensoever so commanded as having no Authority to oppose those actual Reasons or the civil Causes of such the secular Commands so that in the lawful Vacancy she must be obedient And if this be a just Rule for the Christian Church under Un-Christian Princes much more ought it to be so under Christian ones to whom as nursing Fathers you know our Church gives great Homage and Deference Have you any thing more to object Dyscher Nothing at all except you will hear me repeat the three last Pages of T. B. spent wholly in charging you with soliciting our total Ruin and Misusage of your deprived Metropolitan and Diocesan on their refusal of a Petition with the same pernicious Design but because I must confess you were most carefully tender of censuring the Counsels of those Fathers and T. B. discovers himself too openly calumnious in those Impeachments I have done and commend us all to God's Grace and Mercy Eucher T. B. is one of those Men who love to speak evil of Dignities and the things they know not supplying the Narrowness of his Understanding with Rage and Bitterness for which I heartily remit him to God's Mercy But as for your Fathers and all the venerable Numbers of good Men fallen in this Change I compassionately beseech them tenderly to lay these things to heart and unanimously to think of some healing Expedient for our mutual Peace and Joy There have been who upon the bare dry Inferences of their Arguments have desired them to desist and quit claim only which is to ask not shew them Charity But might it not be thought too assuming I think I could propose such a certain Scheme of Resolutions as would so effectually close up our present Wounds as to turn all our Sighs and Sorrows into Joys and the Voice of Melody But being conscious of my Station and Measures and doubtful of your Misapprehensions I forbear and leave you and your Counsels to the Divine Conduct and your own Piety that you may happily recover that Union from which your Errors and Infirmities have too much alienated you being willing to hope that as St. Paul said of Onesimus Perhaps you are departed from us for a Season that we should receive you again for ever Amen ADVERTISEMENT WHereas T. B. Sec Let. pag. 29. and the impartial Reflecter vehemently contend against my Suggestion in Sol Ab. pag. 11. that K. James's Dispensation with the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might look like a Concession to us to transfer our Allegiance they dealt with me disingenuously for that I made for them an effectual Answer against that Argument before in which my Conformist silently acquiesced And that Answer I made is stronger and sincerer than theirs which I could teize to purpose were I minded to wrangle But as I made Eucheres abide by just Reason then so will I use no perverseness now And in truth that Passage was brought in not with a Design to insist on it but only to introduce it for a smoother Passage to the Liberties granted us by K. James's Coronation-Oath For which Cause I laying no stress upon that Argument from the Dispensation have wholly omitted to contend with my Adversaries on it in this Debate I hope the wicked Surmise of T. B. that His Majesty would murther the Princess of Denmark and the Duke of Gloucester Sec. Lett. p. 22 if her Royal Highness should outlive the Queen is now fully refuted since her Excellent Majesties Death and it will become T. B. torepent for it in Dust and Ashes A Postscript to Mr. Richard Chiswell SIR SInce I was once an Author of yours in Solomon and Abiathar which you Printed and this very Debate was offered to your Edition once Anno 93 which you declined with thanks to me however for the respect I desire you to consider what an ungrateful office you have undertaken in publishing a Reproach against me and these very Books in the Vniversity Man's Postscript to you I am not offended at this miscarriage in you that are a Man of Interest but yet as you may justly reprove your self and your Sollicitor for this indecent way of abusing your own Authors and Books so I challenge you for a witness of the Falshood he has caused you to Print Look upon my Letter to you sometime in the Summer 93. and therein you will find this Book offered you which this Vniversity Man tells you and by your Press the Nation that it was written since the Book remarked on to secure my self against a Storm I shall makeshort however and desire you to remember my love to him and tell him that it is the most undâ—cent sort of confidence in him of all Men living to despise any Man's Writings for the present Government and to accuse any Pen for Brutality towards the Jacobites He will know the meaning at your first suggestion by the interpreting Conscience within him or that part thereof that is left And so I dismiss you with assurance that I am Your much obliged Servant S. Hill A General Remonstrance to all Good Christians IN the name of God the Sovereign Lord and Judge I remonstrate and protest that I measure not any Men by their Fortunes but their Merits and that the Sufferings of good Men increase my Affections towards them 2. That I published Solomon and Abiathar not for worldly Interest nor with any injurious design nor thro' a vanity of Affectation but on purpose to get satisfaction from the learned in the Right of Communion to the avoiding of Schism 3. That particular provocations made that discussion and it's publication absolutely and inevitably necessary 4. That after its Publication I waited two years for Satisfaction before ever I entred into the present Communion 5. That the Meditations in this Debate have satisfy'd me that our Communion is consistent with the most Catholic and Primitive Rules or else I could not have joyned in it 6. That for my own part I renounce all Ecclesiastic Servitude and all Principles leading thereto and I do declare for an assertion of the Rights and Liberties Hierarchical in contempt of all Persecutions yet not to arrogate that Liberty as a Cloak for Maliciousness 7. That tho' Calumny urged the Publication of this Debate yet that alone should not have prevailed thereunto had I not thought it of good use to reconcile Dissensions and to obviate many growing Prejudices 8. That tho' it be a public blemish that the great Authors of our present Heresies are not yet censured by Authority yet this does not illegitimate our public Communion with the Innocent who have no power to reform it nor can it in the least affect those that make their uttermost remonstrances against it 9. That all Spiteful and Insincere Writers on the point of Communion design to widen our Breaches and are therefore utter Enemies to the Church of God and their Native Country 10. That tho' I had many inducements to have collected all T. B's Flowers of barbarous and unparallelâ—d Railery into one view yet that the odium thereof may not reflect any prejudice on the better part of that side I have forborn remitting him to the friendly correction of his wiser and better Brethren and have so endeavoured to temper this Discourse as that all along Mercy and Truth might meet together that Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other Amen After all whosever is not satisfied to the full may hereby be however induced to beware of censuring us for Men wilfully Perjured and Schismatical since I suppose the reasons here offered are not all contemptible but may justify the Author in his Design of quitting himself from the guilt of those black and horrid Imputations the natural Right of every suspected or accused Innocent FINIS Books Printed for John Everingham at the Star in Ludgate-street THE Spirit of Jacobitism or Remarks upon a Dialogue between K. W. and Benting in a Dialogue between two Friends of the present Government A Sermon Preached before the H. of Lords at the Abbey-Church of St. Peter's Westminster on Thursday the 30th of Jan. 1695 6. being the Martyrdom of K. Ch. I. By the Right Reverend Father in God Humphrey L. Bishop of Bangor A Sermon Preach'd before the House of Lords at the Abbey-church of St. Peter's Westm on Wednesday the 11th of Dec. 1695. being the Day Appointed for a Solemn Fast and Humiliation by the Right Rev. Father in God James L. Bishop of Lincoln Eight Serm. Preach'd on sev Occasions 1. Of the Power and Efficacy of Faith 2. The danger of Mis-informed Conscience or Mistaken Principles in Religion 3. Of the Different Dispensations of Grace and of Impenitency under the best Means of Salvation 4. The Case of a late or Death-bed Repentance 5. The Streight and Certain way to Happiness 6. Of Growth in Grace 7. Of Murther particularly Duelling and Self-Murther 8. Of the Shortness and Instability of Humane Life