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been long complained of, and yet no Remedy has been provided for it. Let us hear what my Lord Bacon faid of it an Hundred Years ago.

*Excommunication (fays he) is the great-⚫ Bacon's Reeft Judgment upon Earth; Being that which mains, p. 249.

is ratified in Heaven; and being a Precurfory

or prelufory Judgment, of the Great Judgment of Christ, in the end of the World. And therefore for this to be used irreverently, and to be made an Ordinary Process to Lackey up and down for Fees, how can it be without Derogation to God's Honour, and making the Power of the Keys contemptible? I know very well the Defence thereof, which has no C great Force; That it iffueth forth, not for the thing it felf, but for Contumacy. I do not deny but this Judgment is (as I faid before) of the nature of God's Judgments, of which it is a Model. For as the Judgment of God, taketh hold upon the leaft Sin of the Impenitent; and taketh no hold of the greatest Sin of the Convert or Penitent: So Excommunion, may, in cafe, iffue upon the smallest Offence; and, in cafe, not iffue upon the 'greatest: But is this Contumacy, fuch a Contumacy, as Excommunication is now iffued for? For the Contumacy must be fuch, as the Party, (as far as the Eye and Wisdom of the Church can difcern) ftandeth in ftate of Reprobation and Damnation: As one, that for that Time, feemeth given over to • Final Impenitency. Upon this Obfervation, I ground two Confiderations: The one, that this Cenfure be restored to the true Dignity and Use thereof; which is that it proceed not, but in Caufes of great Weight; and

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• that it be Decreed, not by any Deputy or fubftitute of the Bishop, but by the Bifhop in Perfon; and not by him alone, but by the • Bishop affifted.

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The other Confideration is, that in lien thereof, there be given to the Ecclefiaftical "Court fome Ordinary Procefs, with fuch Force • and Coercion as appertaineth; that fo the Dignity, of fo high a Sentence being retained, and the Neceffity of mean Procefs fupplied, the Church may be indeed reftored to the an cient Vigour and Splendour.

Now if what this Noble Lord has here propofed with relation to Excommunication and the Ecclefiaftical Courts could be brought to pafs: The Bishop might then without, Of fence have his Lay-Chancellors to judge in Caufes of Tithes, Wills, Administrations, &c. which are not of pure Spiritual Cognizance, provided the Vilitation and Judicature of the Clergy, Herefie, and other pure Spiritual Caufes were referved wholly to the Bifhop, who fhould judge of them in Perfon, with the Affiftance of his College of Presbyters, the Dean and Chapter: Allowing to the Archdeacons and Rural Deans fuch Inferiour Powers as may be thought requisite.

Wherefore having given, as I truft, a Faithful and impartial Account of the Government and Governors of the Primitive Church and our own, having fhewed how near our Church has been reformed to the Pattern of the Primitive, Apoftolick and Catholick Church in the Point of Government and Discipline, and alfo how it might yet be brought a little nearer to that most excellent Pattern, I heartily and humbly fubmit the whole to the Judgment of

my

my much Honoured and entirely beloved. Mother the Church of England: And if I have unfortunately let flip any thing that may feem. to derogate from the Honour of this most Excellent Church, or to reflect on any of the Governours of it, further than a general Complaint of fome Abufes with which I conceive I have charged no particular Perfon or Body of Men, but only mentioned them as Corrup tions crept in by Degrees, I heartily wish it unfaid, and shall be ready to ask Pardon for it.

And I do again declare and folemnly Proteft that I have not written any thing out of Affection to a Party or any particular Interest whatfoever, but out of a true fincere Love to. the Cause of the Church and of the Truth: And if I am miftaken in my Notions, fhall readily thank any one that fhall rightly inform me and convict me of my Errors. I fhould have been heartily glad if I could as well have vindicated all the Practices of the Church as I truft I have done its Conftitution: And perhaps I may be cenfured by fome as fpeaking Truth unfeasonably. But for my own part I am enclined to think that there are fome Truths which are always Seafonable. I mean fuch Truths as are always of Confequence to preserve the Honour and Welfare of the Church of Chrift. Of which Nature I conceive are these following, viz. That Epifcopacy is of Divine Right; That the College of Presbyters are the Bishops Council; That to separate from our Orthodox Bishop is Schifmatical; That Schifm is a damnable Sin; That if Occafional Conformity be Lawful, conftant Conformity is a Duty; That the. Church

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Church has a Divine Right to its Synods or Councils; That Lay-men ought to have no Right in mere Spiritual Judicature, or to Exercife pure Ecclefiaftical Cenfures, and fuch like. And tho' fuch Things may not be agreeable to the Humour of the prefent Age, yet we are not therefore obliged to fay nothing of them; but should rather take the more pains to vindicate them, especially fince fo many Books have been lately published in Oppofition to them. I have done my part towards vindicating fome of them: How well I have performed it must be left to the Judgment of others. What Succefs it may please God to give to my weak Endeavours, he only knows. And He who knows the fincerity of my Heart, will, I trust, pardon the Defects in my Performance, for the fake of his Son our Saviour Jefus Chrift, To whom with the Father and Holy Ghoft be all Honour and Glory now and for ever

more,

Amen.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Ately Published, fome Confiderations on the Times, wherein Marriage is faid to be prohibited; In two Letters from one Clergy Man to another. By Tho, Brett, LL. D.

BOOKS

at the Rofe in St. Paul's-Church-
Yard.

EXpofitory Notes, with Practical Obfervations on the whole New Teftament of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift: Wherein the Sacred Text is at large Recited, the Senfe Explained, and the Inftructive Example of the Bleffed Jefus to our Imitation Recommended. The whole defigned to encourage the Reading of the Scriptures in Private Families, and to render the daily perufal of them Profitable and Delightful. By William Burkitt, M. A. Late Vicar of Dedham in Effex. The Fourth Edition, Folio.

The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Ezekiel Hopkins, D. D. Late Lord Bifhop of London-Derry: Containing the Vanity of the World: His Expofition on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer: His Sermons and Difcourses on several Subjects. The Third Edition, Folio.

The Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. Richard Hooker, in Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity, compleated out of his own Manufcripts: To which are added, feveral other Treatifes by the fame Author, Together with the Life of the Author, fometime written by Mr. Ifaac Walton. Folio.

Annals of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion and other various Occurrences in the Church of England during the first Twelve Years of Queen Elizabeth's happy Reign. Wherein Account is given of the Reftoring of Religion from its Corruptions introduced under Queen Mary, of filling the Sees with Proteftant Bishops; of the Famous Synod Affembled, in the Year 1562, of the Workings and Endeavours of the Papifts, and of the firft Appearances of Diffenfion from the Church Established: Compiled Faithfully out of Papers of State, Authentick Records, &c, By John Strype, M A, Folio,

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