ther from them to the Church again, to which they made ample Recompence by their Writings, and were great Ornaments to it in every Respect all their Lives long. I knew them both very well, and am glad of this Opportunity, to mention them with that Refpect which is due to both their Memories; whereof the Latter told me, that he had the Misfortune to lead Mr. Allen out of the Church to the Schifm, but that Mr. Allen had the bleffed Part to lead him out of the Schifm to the Church again. It is to me a comfortable Prefage, that God will not forfake the Church of England, nor fuffer Toleration and the Gates of Hell to prevail against her, because he raifes out of her People, Men to defend her, and adorn her with their Writings. I pray God to ftir up more fuch continually, that those, who are misled by unauthorized Minifters, and Teachers, may confider the great Danger they are in, and after your Example, enter in at the right Door into her Fold, and declare, as you have bravely done, That you fincerely believe the Subject of your Difcourfe to be a fubftantial Truth, nay even a first Principle of Christianity, and that without the couragious afferting thereof, the whole Chriftian Priesthood, and the Divine Autho rity of it, must be called in Question, and encourage every bold Intruder to ufurp the fa

cred

cred Ministry, in Oppofition to that Commission, which hath been conftantly handed down from Chrift and his Apoftles to this very Day. In the fame Place you fay you hope, that none vefted with this Divine Authority will fight against it, &c. which if any Clergyman fhould do, in the Manner as you there mention, I could not but fufpect, that he was one of thofe who took Gifts and Prefents of the Diffenters, to let the Names of their Children, who had no other but Schif matical Lay-Baptifms, be Regiftred among the true Baptifms of the Church. This unwarrantable Practice, which you have obferved to be fcandalously practifed in fome Places, I can confirm to be true; For I knew fome Minifters of this City (now dead) who were guilty of this Practice, and are gone to God to give an Account of it; and I my self, foon after I was prefented to the Vicaridge of Alhallows Barkin, had feveral, and fome very great Offers, from Diffenters, to enter their Childrens Names, as baptiz'd, in the Parish Church Register; and a Parochial Prieft of a great City in this Kingdom, who gave me a Vifit about a Year fince, did affure me, that all the Minifters of that Place, himself only excepted, were guilty of this execrable Practice, execrable I call it, because it is a double Falfification of our Parochial Dip

tychs

tychs, as they are Regifters and Records both of Church and State, and I think both Deprivation, and the Pillory, to be just Punishments for that Minifter, who dares do fo great and mischievous a Wickedness, or fuffer it to be done,

I fay, I fhould be tempted to fufpect any Clergyman, that fhould write in the Manner you mention, against you, to be one of that corrupt Sort, or at leaft of another, who to court the Favour and Applause of the Diffenters, either never preach in Defence of the Church against them, or if they do, they do it no otherwife than barely to fhew, that the Church of England is a fafe Communion, and that thofe, who thro' Miftake separated from it, would be in no Danger of Damnation if they returned to it. But to fhew that Separation from it is SCHISM, and by Confequence a damning Sin, and that the Separatifts of all forts from it, are, without the extraordinary Mercy of God, in great and apparent Danger of Damnation, thefe Gentlemen love not to touch upon that Point, nor rife to that Heighth, which long before the Revolution occafioned the Diftinction between High and Low Church-men, and the former to be called by ill, or ignorant Men, High-Flyers, Tantivies, and other fuch opprobrious Names. It was, I suppose, a

Reflection upon these Men, and the Indig nation he had against their double Practices, which Provoked a Divine not very many Years fince, to utter a Sarcafm upon them from the Pulpit, in Words to this Purpose, That fome (at the Time he spoke it) were become Fathers of the Church, who never were her true Sons.

Sir, I wish all Clergymen, who are concerned in either of thefe Remarks, would feriously confider your pious and feasonable Addrefs to us in the Conclufion of your Appendix. We are all concerned, (as you befeech and conjure us to do,) to confider our high and holy Calling to the Priesthood, and to vindicate our unalienable Rights to adminifter the Holy Sacraments, and to let the People understand, that the Miniftration of them is ESSENTIAL to our Office, and our Office effential to the Miniftration of them; and that our long and general Silence in not afferting, and defending this great Truth, bath, as you obferve, been the Ŏccafion of much Ignorance among the People, of the Nature of Schifm, and the direful Con fequences of it, which fome of our Order ftill are, as I am fure fome have been, fo averfe (contrary to their Truft, and the Duty of it) to fet before the People. I remember, when fome of the London Clergy, refolving to do this, as you now beseech us,

and

and for the same Reasons, it was oppofed by the free-thinking Divines, efpecially by one of them, whom I will not name, for no other Reafon, but that it would be cen fured as preaching up our felves; a Reafon, whereof the Weaknefs and ill Confequences are fhewn by an excellent Perfon, in the Preface to his Companion for the Festivals and Fafts of the Church of England; where, to oblige the Clergy to inftruct the People in the great Truth of Sacerdotal Miffion, and Authority to adminifter, the Sacraments, he wifhes the Catechifm of the Church might be continued, in a few Queftions and Anfwers, to fhew, who only have Power to adminifter the Holy Sacraments. I need not name this worthy Gentleman, whom God raifed up out of the People before you, to defend the Rights and Authority of the Priesthood, and who thinks it no Dimunition, or Difhonour to him, to be thought one of the People with refpect to the Church, than one of them with refpect to the State.

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In your Appendix to your Book, I think you have folidly and fatisfactorily answer'd all the Objections that have been made against the useful Subject of it, fince the firft Edition, taking in your Second Thoughts, and the Explanation of your Design, and Meaning in fome Paffages of