tution, Precept, and Rule. For it is forGen. 9. 4. bidden by God in the Old Testament for a Lev.17.14 moral and eternal Reason, viz. because the & 19. 26. Deut. 12. Blood is the Life and in the New Testament, 23. 20, 28. to abstain from things ftrangled and from Acts 15. Blood, is enjoin'd as a neceffary thing. And this Precept was fo religioufly obferv'd by all Chriftians in the firft Ages of the Gofpel, that TERTULLIAN fays, *One Experiment made use of by you Heathens for the difcovery of Chriftians, is to try whether they will eat Black-puddings; you well knowing that they judg it unlawful to commit that Tranf greffion you command. Dr. GRABE, as we are inform'd by Dr. HICKES, was for restoring the pure primitive Practice and Difcipline, which continu'd more or less corrected in the Church till the Reformation (which by this Account was a Reformation backwards) particularly the Practice of Chrifm in Confirmation; anointing the Sick with Oil; Confession, and Sacerdotal Abfolution as judicial; and Prayer for the Souls of the Dead; the want of all which being Defects in the Reform'd Churches. Inter tentamenta Chriftianorum botulos cruore dif tentos admovetis, certiffimi fcilicet illicitum effe penes illos per quod exorbitare vultis. Opera, Ed. Rigal. p. 10. † Account of Dr. Grabe, p. 8, 9, 10. Dr. Dr. HICKES* speaks of several things amifs in the Church. AGAIN, He mentions particular Defects, fuch as the want of a Side-board or Buffet to place the Elements on before they are placed on the Communion-Table, and going to Church in the fame Drefs we go to Plays and Balls, &c. HE fays likewife, ** That in this Kingdom many unchriftian Maxims, extremely hurtful and detrimental to the Chriftian Religion, are receiv'd for Laws, viz. "That the King "is the Supreme Ordinary; That Canons "made by the Church Regent or Epifcopal "College oblige not Chriftians in Con"fcience, without or against the King's "Confent; That the King by Act of Par"liament may deprive Bishops; That he is "the laft Appeal of our Church in fpiri"tual Caufes ;" and that the Acts of Paxliament touching Election and Confecration of Bishops are unchriftian. ་ THE Reverend Mr. LESLEY fays, * Pref. to Letters between him and a Popish Priest. Two Treat. p. 93. **Letter in the Character of a Primitive Bishop, p. 271. Cafe of the Regale, p. 28. F Church Church in general, but for the Clergy before the King. Thus it is in all Liturgys except ours. But the King in our Liturgy is thrust in between the Church and the Bishops, upon the Notion, I fuppofe, of his being Head of the Church; and the whole Royal Family are drawn in after them, as being Heads in Reverfion. We improve, and Jeem to take care in the first place for our Bodys before our Souls, and for this World more than for Eternity. But they retain the primitive Form in Sweden: they reform not backwards. Laftly, OUR Liturgy fuppofes our Church defective, when we pray upon Afbwednesday for the Restoration of Godly Difcipline. 4thly. A FOURTH Inftance of the Priefts Conduct, is, Their profeffing they will not tell the Truth, and making it matter of Reproach in any of the Clergy to tell the truth. UPON occafion of Dr. WAKE's having endeavour'd to ftate by Law and History the Power of our Princes over Synods and Convocations, Dr. ATTERBURY fays, * Were all that Dr. WAKE fays exprefly true and juftifiable, yet whether the labouring the Point fo beartily as he does, and fhewing himfelf fo willing to prove the Church to have no Rights and Privileges, be a very decent part in Pref. to Rights of an English Convocation, p. II. a a Clergyman, he leaves to his Friends to confider. AGAIN, he fays, Could fuch a fine Point be made out, yet furely it does not become Clergymen to help it forward. Let us leave that dirty work to be done by the profess'd Enemies of Religion and the Order; but let not the hands of Levi be employ'd in it. A REVEREND Prelate, in a Letter to Mr. WHISTON about the most important Article of the whole Chriftian Religion, the Eternal Divinity of our Bleffed Saviour, fays to him, † If you are fure you are in the right in any matter wherein you have the Church's Judgment against you, you should be careful not to break the Peace of the Church by writing against it. If it were but one Brother that would take hurt by your writing, the Apoftle fays, it is not good to venture that, even Rom. 14. tho you know you are in the right; for as it 21. followeth, Haft thou Faith? have it to thy felf. Dr. EDWARDS of Oxford fays with refpect to the Reverend Mr. WHISTON'S renouncing the Doctrines of the Ever-blessed Trinity, and the Eternal Divinity of our Lord, That the Oaths, Subfcriptions, folemn and 11 Ibid. p. 38. + Whifton's Primit. Chrift. vol. 1. Pref. p. 27. Doctrine of Original Sin, p. 114. repeated repeated Declarations, thofe ftrong Chains and Fetters, as one might justly imagine them to be, ought not to be broke through. So that according to this profound Divine, the Priefts are never to have any regard for Truth, but when it happens to agree with the Oaths they have once taken, and the Subscriptions and Declarations they have once made. Thus a Mahometan or Popish Priest is for ever to continue true to his falfe Oaths, Subfcriptions, and Declarations; and a Church-of-England Priest is to continue true to his Oaths, &c. not because he is in the right, but because he has worn and subscrib'd. THAT eminent Reformer Archbishop CRANMER, by the following Query laid by him before King Henry VIII. fufficiently fhow'd his Difpofition to conceal the Truth from the Laity, and by confequence muft have fuppos'd the Clergy blamable in telling the Truth. *IF the Clergy know that the common fort of Men have them in a higher Veneration, because they are perfuaded that it lieth in the Will and Power of Priests to remit or not remit Sins at their pleasure; whether in such cafe the faid Clergy offend, if they wink at this, and voluntarily fuffer People to continue in this Opinion? * Canon's Account of two Motions in Convocation, P. 14, 15. 5thly. |