way, to call it no worse, of expreffing himself, where he declaims upon this Subject in fuch manner, as if the Clergy, thofe Chriftian Druids, as he with great Refpect calls them, pretended to* oblige every one, and all People, to fhun their Excommunicats, and become the Executioners of their Sentence; whereas they can command none to do it, but the Members of their own.Church. If he faith, that the People of the Church of England are the great Body of the Nation, I must tell him that that is only accidental, and that it is his Endeavour, and of many hundreds more, to make her the least of the Tribes that pretend to Religion among us; and that fome of them, who are very numerous, expect their turn once more for a National Church. If he fhould fay, that my reasoning against him from his own Scheme is not juft, because the Government of Churches, which he erects upon it, must be in the whole Body, and not in any one Order of Men; but that the Government of the Church is in a particular Order of Men, who call themselves the Clergy: I anfwer, that as to the Independency of the governing Power upon the Magiftrate, it is all one, whether it be in a particular Order, or in the whole Body, in the Priests, or in the People, because in which of the two soever it is feated, it is an independent Power.. Thus the Quakers, for instance, meet in vaft numbers among us, not only for Religious Worship, but for Government, and Discipline, for Legiflation, and Jurifdiction independently on the Magi strate, and with a witnefs fhun their Excommunicats, or those who seeing their Errour leave their Communion, and oblige FRIENDS all the World over to be the Executioners of their Sentence; but I think they have not hitherto done it upon his Scheme of a Natural, but the Pretence of a

* P. 39. 63.

Divine Right. But our Author hath given them, and all Religious Societies pretending to an independent Divine Right, another String to their Bow; and I hope, as he cannot by his own Principles, fo he will not deny the Body of the Church the Benefit of it; and then as a Body she is as exempt, and independent on the Magiftrate, as even High Church, that *Spiritual Babylon, can wish.

The Royal Supremacy muft fall down before his Natural Right, as Dagon did before the Ark, becaufe in Matters of Religion, and the Administration of it, the Magiftrate hath no more Power over the meanest Peafant, than the meanest Peafant hath over him. The 25 H. VIII. c. 19. can be no bar to this Natural Right of the whole Body, tho' he cites it as a bar to the Divine Right,which the Clergy claim. The whole Body will have a Power of Ecclefiaftical Legislature, be they few, or be they many, be they the National, or be they not the National Church, independent on our Kings and Queens in or out of Parliament; and they must be protected in their Faith, their Worfhip, their Articles, their Rites, and Ceremonies, or elfe their Natural Right would authorife them, could they believe it, to call the Magistrate to account for breach of Trust, which they repofed in him. When I fpeak of the Body of the Church of England, I speak strictly of that Body made up of the Laity and Clergy, which would at all times of Tryal and Diftinction adhere to the Doctrine, Worship, Government, and Discipline of their Church, according to which the People believe the Clergy to be by Divine Institution the Governours of the Church, who have the Power of Spiritual Legislation, and Jurifdiction, as well as of Ordination. Such a Babylonish Church of England as this in any Condition, or any Place of the World, + Pref. p. vii.

* P. 33.

or

or consisting of what numbers foever, by his Scheme must have the common Benefit of Natural Right, as well as other pretended Churches, and by confequence at home, or abroad, ought to be as perfectly independent of the Magiftrate, as they are, and according to his Principle ought to be. High Church it felf may challenge all her independent Powers by this Right; and all the Acts of Parliament which he cites with fo much Pomp of Vanity, and Scorn, but to no purpose, against her, muft give place to it. Thus what, he thinks, he hath pulled down with one Hand, he hath built up with the other: And now let the Magiftrate confider what he hath got by the Change of the Divine for the Natural, of the old for the new Claim of Ecclefiaftical Power. Let him confider which of the independent Powers, which of the Babylons he will choose, that built upon Natural, or that upon Divine Right; and in particular, whether he will have the Church of England challenge her independent Powers in virtue of this like an humble Matron with Prayers, and Tears, or in virtue of that, like BELLONA with her Cafque on her Head, and her Sword in her Hand. He faith, that they who pretend to fet up two independent Powers do in effect confound both. What hath he then done, who inftead of one independent Power of the Magistrate hath fet up an hundred as independent of him; who inftead of one Babylon, as he calls the Hierarchy of the Church, hath fet up an hundred Babels of Confufion, an hundred, independent ruling Powers in the fame Society, an hundred Souls in the fame Body Politick? Thefe are his own ways of arguing, and by the Laws of Controverfy I muft demand the benefit of them against himself.

I have already given the Reader Specimens enough of the fraudulent, and contradictory ways of reafon

* P. 33.

ing which this Author ufeth, and might give many more, were it neceflary for me to go through his Book.

*

Sometimes he argues for the bare poffibility of a thing which in fact never was; as of Peoples going out by confent once upon a time, he knows not when, out of a State of Nature into a State of Government, contrary to the History of the Creation, which as foon as the Greeks came to the knowledge of, they turned from that Pagan account of Government to the Chriftian, which taught how Government had its Original from God in the First Man, and Father of Mankind. There never was any abfurd Opinion more effectually baffled, and expofed, than this of his in the Rehearsal in answer to Mr. Lock; but he, as if it were an uncontested Principle, hath built his Book upon it; and the Foundation being falfe, the Superftructure he hath erected upon it, falls to the ground. He tacitly confeffes, that Government could not have been fo fet up by a great number in a State of Nature. Saith he, if a few at first agreed on a common Umpire, 'twas fufficient, if others by their Actions acknowledged an Authority fo advantageous to them. Here his Meaning is fomewhat uncertain: For if by Few he means a few of many actually in being at the fame time, then he muft tell us how a Multitude of Men co-exifting in a State of Nature, came to give a few their feveral Authorities to confent for them to go out of the State of Nature into a State of Government. But if by a few he means two, or three Men, and Women at the firft, and no more, and by others those who defcended from them, then it fuppofes this grand Abfurdity, that Men, and Women born in a State of Government, are born in a State of Nature too, and remain in it till by their Actions at leaft they'll

* P 8.

give their consent to the Government, in which they are born. This I think is his meaning. For, Jaith be, why People should not take this way to come out of the State of Nature at first, as they have done ever fince, there can be no manner of reafon. This is one of the confident ways of fpeaking ufual with him, against many Reasons to the contrary given in the Rehearsal, to which I refer him, and the Reader. And they, faith he, who make this Objection, that Government could not come at firft from Confent, because it cannot be prefumed, that all Parties met together to give an exprefs Confent, may as well argue that no Language could be of Human Inftitution, becaufe Words not fignifying any thing naturally, we cannot imagine that all should meet together to agree that fuch Sounds fhould have fuch Ideas annext to them. And And yet this depends not only on the Agreement of thofe, who spoke any Language at first, but of those who have done it fince."

This very Comparison fhews the precarious, and abfurd nature of the Original of Government according to his Scheme. First, it is as precarious to fuppofe, that a few Men came together to form the firft Government, as that any number of Men ever came together to form the first Speech; and both Suppofitions are equally contrary to the Scripture Account both of the Original of Government, and Languages before and after the Flood. Secondly, it is abfurd, because as the Agreement of a small number of Men together, that fuch Sounds fhould have fuch Ideas annexed to them, fuppofeth they must have had fome common Speech in which they understood one another; fo the meeting of a finall number of Men and Women together to form Government, and to agree on a common Umpire, fuppofes an antecedent Confent, and Agreement to meet, and debate, and choose that Umpire, and form Government; and that antecedent Confent and Agreement, which could not be without Government, must have been before

the