fing the Irregularities of the Clergy, and declaiming against the Doctrine of Paffive Obedience, and of the Chriftian Sacrifice, as I could fhew, if I could do it without fwelling this Preface into a Book, that wretched Writer hath done. After thefe Reafons, whoever can imagine Dr. Kennet to be the Author of that Book, must think that Dr. Kennet is not Dr. Kennet, or what he pretended formerly to be; and as for my own part, I ought to be the last of Men, who can believe him to be the Writer of it, unless he hath learn'd to blow hot and cold, to contradict his Reverend Self, and profess one thing in private, and publifh another to the World. For this Author hath written against my Difcourfe of the Chriftian Priesthood, and against the Doctrines of it, I mean the Chriftian Priesthood and the Chriftian Sacrifice, as new Notions; which is my last Argument to prove that the Doctor is not likely to be the Man, because he not only highly commended the whole Work, of which that is one part, at its firft Publication, to fome of his Friends in Expreffions not fit for me to recite: But alfo did me the Honour to write the following Letter of Approbation to me, which I recommend in particular to Dr. Hancock's Perufal, that he may fee Dr. Kennet could not in probability be the Author of that Pamphlet, in which he is encouraged to write against me.

I

REVEREND SIR,

Did not return from my Vifitation before Mon day Night, when I found your excellent Book, a kind Prefent to me. I have fince read over the two Letters, and the Preface with great Satisfaction, and thank you heartily for the great, and feafonable Service you have done to the Chriftian Church, and Religion against the common Enemy of them. I will

come and return my Thanks in Perfon, as foon as my Bufinefs will admit. In the mean time I heartily pray for your Health, and Happiness,

Dear Sir,

Aldgate, May

28. 1797.

Your Obliged Friend, and
Humble Servant,

WH. KENNET.

I must tell Gentlemen, who never read my Book, that the firft of the two Letters the Dean mentions in this Letter to me, is that of the Chriftian Priesthood, in which as well, as in the Preface he fpeaks of, I have afferted, and I think proved the Holy Eucharift to be a proper Sacrifice; and one would even hope againft Hope, that he who then approved my Doctrine of the Chriftian Prieft bood and Sacrifice, fhould not be fo falfe, and inconfiftent with himfelf as to condemn them for new, and by confequence, as ftrange Doctrines, and Innovations, brought into the Church. But if after this it fhall appear, that Mr. Dean did write the Vindication of the Church, and Clergy of England, he must be content to bear the Shame, and Reproach of it, and the Penance of his own Reflections; and let him af fure himself, that what Reverence foever good, and learned Men may have for his Characters, they can have none for his Perfon, if they once come to know, or believe, that he is the Author of that Book. No Apologies will ever juftify, or excufe him for writing of it; no prefent, or future Titles or Promotions can fupport the Credit of a Divine, who will not abide in Honour, but wilfully expofe himself for what I will not name, and thereby dishonour

Two Treatifes, one of the Chriftian Priesthood, the other of the Dignity of the Epifcopal Order.

his venerable Characters as a Dignitary, a Doctor, and a Prieft.

If Dr. Kennet, as I wish, be not the Author of that Book, the publishing of his Letter, which contains nothing, but what becomes his Character, and Profeffion, cannot hurt him, or caufe the leaft Reflection upon him. But if indeed he is the Author of it, as Mr. Sharp tells the World he is, then he ought not to blame me, but himself, who hath obliged me to produce it, or a fummary account of it in Evidence against him for my Vindication: And if he calls this, as perhaps he will, betraying the Secrets of private Converfation, let him remember, that he hath cancelled all the Obligations I had to keep it. private, and broken the Laws of Honour and Friendship by firft fecretly writing not only in contradiction to himself, but with the Air of an Enemy against a Man, that never did him wrong.

There is alfo another Gentleman of Character, who hath honour'd me with a few Strictures, viz. Dr. John Edwards of Cambridge, in the Third Part of his Preacher. P. 10, 11. I refer the competent Reader to what he hath faid there, and leave him to judge between us, and fhall make no other Anfwer to him, than to advise him ferioufly to reflect upon his evil Paffions, thofe inward movements of his Pen, and to confider how much he is fallen below himfelf in his late Writings, and to what a degree he is unhappily funk by publishing of them, in the Efteem of the learned World.

Before I conclude, I cannot but obferve how difingenuous thofe Writers are, who misrepresent this Doctrine of the Euchariftical Sacrifice, as dangerous, and as fuch endeavour to render it fcandalous, and odious to the People, as if it were the ready way, and fo intended by the Teachers of it, to in

troduce the Popish Sacrifice of the Mafs, and bring the Church back to it again. Thofe, who have read Canterbury's Doom, and the Charge of the Scottith Commishioners, will know very well, that Į have juft Caufe to make this Reflection, and particular Reafon to put my Adverfaries in Remembrance of it. But this is a moft uncharitable and unjust Charge, and where it is not the Effect of Ignorance, or infuperable Preconceptions, it is the pure Effect of Malice: For there is no more alliance between the ancient Doctrine of the commemorative or reprefentative Sacrifice of the Bread, and Wine in the Eucharift, and that of the expiatory Sacrifice for the Quick, and Dead in the Mafs, than betwixt Reward, aud Merit, or between the Superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters, and the Supremacy of one chief Univerfal Pontif over all the Bifhops of the Chriftian World. On the contrary it is fo far from being true that there is any confequence of this from that, that of the two, that is a bar to this, and neither is nor can be any more the fame Sacrifice, which Chrift offered upon the Crofs, than an Ambaffador is the King he reprefents, or a Picture its Prototype, or the Reprefentation of Things, and Perfons, and Actions upon a Stage, the Things, and Perfons, and Actions themfelves. Wherefore the right understanding of the commemorative, and reprefentative Sacrifice in the Eucharift is fo far from reducing us to the Sacrifice of the Mass, that it fecures us like a Bulwark against it, and it is as impoffible for Men rightly inftructed in it to mifconceive, or mistake the one for the other, as it is for any Donotary to imagine the Deed of Gift is the Land which the Donor gave him, or for a Spectator of any Dramatick Action to think it the very History or Reality, which it reprefents. The Church then can receive no Damage, or Prejudice by this DoEtrine, as fome Men, and in particular my Adverfa

ries feem to fear: On the contrary it is a great Benefit, and Advantage to her to be thought fo Primitive as to teach, and practise it. For it is one of the Objections which the Papifts bring against us, that we have no Sacrifice, as may be obferved from what I have before cited out of Archbishop Brambal, and I expected it from the excellent Lady, to whom I wrote these controverfial Letters. And I can affure my Adverfaries from good Authority, that there is now a Perfon of great Quality in France, who is kept back by no other Caufe from coming to the Church of England, but that he is told She bath no Sacrifice: To which his learned Correfpondent here, who is one of the French Minifters, in Anfwer hath affured him, that the Bishops, and Clergy of the Church of England freely teach the Doctrine of the Euchariftical Sacrifice, 'as it was taught, and practifed in the pureft Ages of the Catholick Church, which, I may prefume from the Gentleman's ObjeЯtion he understands very well. If he hath but read one of the Ancients, I mean Fuftin Martyr, he cannot but know, that the Euchariftical Bread, and Wine are the Sacrifices or Offerings of the convert Gentiles foretold by Malachi i. 2. that thefe Offerings fucceeded in the room of all other Offerings and that the Meat-Offering mingled with Oil for the cleansing of a Leper (Levit. xiv.) was a Type of the Euchariftical Bread which Fefus Chrift our Lord commanded us to offer; that these Offer

* Περὶ ἢ 7 ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐφ' ἡμῳ ἢ ἐθνῶν προσφερομώων αὐτῶ Θυσιῶν, τελέσι τὸ ἄλλο σ ευχαρισίας, δὴ τὸ πόληeία, ὁμοίως σ ευχαρισίας, προλέξει τότε εἰπων. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 260. Vid. etiam p. 344. 'Age.Tinov To, &c.

8 Δὴ ἡ + Σεμιδάλεως προσφορά ἡ των 7 καθοριζο μήνων από λέπρας προσφερέσθαι παραδοθεῖσα, τύπο ν τὸ ἄρε τ ουκαριςίας ὃν εἰς ἀνάμνησιν το πάθος χειςὸς ὁ κύριο ἡμῷ παρέδωκε ΠΟΙΕΙΝ. Ibid. 259, 260.

Ιησός