only, to exercife his Function without any Prohibition to the Innocent Perfons, I can fee no Reason why they fhould not have been obeyed, provided they had declared that to be the fole Ground for fuch their Prohibition. For it is one thing for a Magiftrate to say to a Man, you shall forfeit and lofe your Office, I will not permit you to exercife it, and give no Reason for it but his own Will, (tho' this is fufficient in a Temporal Office derived only from the Magiftrate) and another to fay, you will not fubmit to my Laws and Government, and for that Reafon you fhall forfeit and loofe your Office, that is, I will not fuffer you to execute it in my Dominions. In the former Cafe it would be the Duty of a Clerk to give the Apostles Answer, and to fay, I must obey God rather than you. I have a Cure of Souls legally committed to me, and I must discharge my Truft Faithfully whatever I fuffer by it. In the other Cafe, provided he be satisfied that the Reason given is the true Reason why he is prohibited to exercise his Function, and that due Care fhall afterwards be taken of his Charge by another as duly qualified as himself, he ought to fubmit and obey the Magiftrate, and quit the exercife of his Office 'till he fhall be allowed by the Magistrate to refume it. And if he will not do fo, the Magiftrate may further punish him for his temporal Offence, in refufing to fubmit to his Laws and Govern

ment.

Secondly: It may be objected, that the Nonjurors did not quit their Cures, but were violently thruft out of them: That the Archbishop himself was ejected from the Poffeffion of his House at Lambeth, and fome others were

nfed

ufed in the fame manner. That fome of them do ftill continue to exercise their Functions in Private, as the Primitive Christians did in the Days of Perfecution, and that this is as much as they are or have been capable of doing fince their Deprivation by Parliament, to teftifie that they yet ought to be esteemed the Rightfnl Incumbents of those Cures from whence they have been Ejected. Now, as to their Ejectment from their Houfes or Poffeffions, I do not conceive it is any thing to the prefent purpose, all Poffeffions are of temporal Cognizance, and the Civil Magiftrate has ever been allowed to be the Judge of the Perfons to whom fuch things appertain. When Paulus Samofatenus was depofed by the Council of Antioch and another put in his Place, and he would not part with the Poffeffion of the Houfe belonging to that See, tho' the Magistrate was then an Heathen, the Chriftians could find no other way to recover the Estate belonging to the Bishoprick from him, than by Application to the Emperor Aurelian, who having heard the Caufe, granted an Ejectment, and gave the Poffeffion to the New Bishop. It is not therefore, I think, to be Difputed, but that the Supreme Power of a Nation may deprive an Ecclefiaftick of the Temporal Profits of his Cure, because they are the Sovereign Judges in all fuch Matters.

As to what may be faid, that fome of the Non-jurors do ftill continue to exercise their Functions in Private, as the Primitive Chriftians did in the days of Perfecution, &c. I Anfwer, If it can be made appear that those Non-jurors, who have acted in this manner, have done fo all along in thofe Places where

the

the Cure of Souls was legally committed to their Charge, then I conceive that the Objection may be ferioufly weighed and confidered: but 'till I can be fatisfied as to matter of Fact in this Point, I defire to be excufed from faying any thing more to it. For if any of them have gone into other Places where they had no Cure legally committed to them, and have there undertaken and continued to exercise their Functions, this I am fure is no better than Conventicling, and is down-right Schif matical.

The Cafe then in fhort is this: The Prefentation or Nomination of Ecclefiafticks to a Cure may be in Lay-Hands (as I fhall fhew hereafter) and all the Estates and Perquifites belonging to them, tho' on the account of their Office are fubject to the Temporal Cognizance, and were acknowledged to be fo by the Primitive Christians, even whilft the Magistrate was an Infidel, and the Church in no manner incorporated with the State. Therefore the Magistrate may judge and determine concerning thefe Matters as he thinks convenient, and whatsoever the Supreme Power shall determine concerning them, must be fubmitted to. But the Cure of Souls, the Spiritual Cure is derived from the Bishops, who have received that Power and Authority from Chrift and his Apostles, and had, and exercised it for three hundred Years together even in oppofition to the Magiftrate,and that Bishops, both before and fince the Magiftrate became Chriftian, have ever committed the Cure of Souls as well for Diocesses as leffer Districts to fuch Perfons as have been presented to them after, they have examined and approved them.

And for this
Reafon

Reafon (with all due Submission to my Superiors) I conceive, that as the Temporal Authority does not give the Spiritual Cure, fo neither can it deprive a Man of it. Yet the Magiftrate may, undoubtedly, for Civil Offences oblige an Ecclefiaftick to forbear to exercise his Spiritual Function within his Dominions, and may justly punish him if he do not.

How

ever, if the Ecclefiaftick fo prohibited to act, shall nevertheless proceed to execute his Fun&tion as before, (tho' this fhall give him no Right to the Profits of his Benefice which the Temporal Law, that gave him a Right to them before, has otherwife difpofed of) the People that were committed to his Charge are bound in Foro Confcientia to hold in Communion with him as their true and rightful Paftor in all things purely relating to their Souls Health, fo long as he will officiate within his proper District, which was committed to his Care: But if he leaves them, and feeks to collect a Congregation in another Place, this is as formal a Refignation of his Legal Cure as may be, and they ought then to join in Communion with his Succeffor, and to receive him as their undoubted Paftor. For the other by his own A&t is now become a Conventicler or Schifmatick. Yet withal, I muft add, that the Ecclefiafticks thus prohibited by the Civil Power, would have done ill not to have quitted their Cures, being affured they fhould have good and Orthodox Succeffors, because by retaining them, they might have brought great Inconveniencies upon themselves, and the People committed to their Charge. But they might have then made a better excufe for themselves than they can now, as many of them as have

fet

fet up private Meetings in places where they never had any Right or Pretence of Right to the Cure of Souls.

This is my present Notion of this Cafe, and if I am mistaken in what I have here laid down, I shall be very ready to retract it upon better Information. However, thus much I think I may affert as certain and indifputable. Whatever the Magiftrate may do as to depriving Ecclefiafticks of their Cure of Souls, he cannot deprive them of the Priesthood: Which is a certain Token that their Orders are not received from him. The Acts of a Priest deprived by the Magiftrate are as valid as if there had been no fuch Deprivation. If a deprived Bishop fhall Ordain, the Perfon Ordained by him is as good a Clerk as any, and will be fo esteemed in any Proteftant Epifcopal Church : And if a deprived Priest shall Baptize, the Perfon Baptized by him, is as much a Chriftian as if he had been Baptized by any other. When a Man has his Authority meerly by Commission from the Magiftrate, as foon as the Magistrate fhall deprive him, all Acts which he fhall pretend to execute after fuch Deprivation by virtue of his Commiflion are Null and Void. But they are not fo with an Ecclefiaftick, therefore his Commission is plainly not from the Magiftrate. It is evident from the Scriptures themselves, that the Magiftrate cannot Ordain a Prieft, neither by any Commiffion he can give, can he appoint whomfoever he will to execute this Office, for this was (a) the Sin of Jeroboam, who made Ifracl (4) 1 King. 9.33. to Sin. Neither can the Sovereign execute the Ministerial Office, or any part of it himfelf; (b) This was the Sin of Saul, for which, &c.

God

(b) Sam. 13.