THE many wild and unfcriptural Claims ftarted, and impetuoufly maintained by very many of those whom you represent (and I wish I could fay denied, though but faintly, by any confiderable Number of others) gave Occafion to the following Sheets; and, having in them fhewn to my Brethren, the Laity, the Abfurdity and Impiety of thofe Claims, by Arguments fetched from Reason, the Gospel, and the Laws of our Country; Ifhall, in this Address to your felves, endeavour to convince you, that it is your Intereft to drop them; and if I can fucceed in this Point, I prefume, that all other Arguments may be useless.

THESE Gentlemen, in the Heat of their Demands and Contention for Power, have gone fo far towards Rome, and borrowed fo many of her Principles, that I fee no other Medium left for them, but either to proceed on in their Journey thither, (which, as they have managed Matters, is now a very fhort one) or to turn back to the Principles of the Reformation (a very long Journey, I confefs!) and accept of the Bishop of Bangor's Scheme, as much as they hate it and him. That Scheme, though it

Dr. BENJAMIN HOADLY.

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may not be altogether fo palatable, yet is a fafe Scheme And though it does not entitle them to all the Power and Wealth in England, yet it fecures to them what they have.

CONSIDER, Gentlemen, that you cannot take as much of Popery as you please, and leave the reft. Machiavel has long fince told us, that no Government can fubfift long but upon its original Foundation, and by recurring often to the Principles upon which it was firft founded. It will indeed stand upon no other; and when that is fapped and undermined, the Superstructure must fall to the Ground, the old Inhabitants must find out new Materials, erect new Buildings upon other Foundations, and are, for the most part, undone by the Experiment.

THE first Principles of our Proteftant Church, are the Principles of the Reformation; namely, the spiritual Supremacy of the Crown; the Right of the Laity to judge for themfelves; the forming of all Ecclefiaftical Polity by the Legislature; and confequently, the creating of Clergymen by the Civil Authority; a Power forgot by too many of the Clergy, and remembred, against their Wills, by the Laity. Whoever would maintain the Reformation, muft maintain these Principles;

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ciples; or embrace Popery, if he desert them. Whether the folemn Oaths of the Clergy in general, have been fufficient Pledges and Motives for their believing and defending them, I appeal to their Behaviour and their Writings.

BEING the fworn Servants of the Law, many of them have avowedly contradicted and bid Defiance to the Law. Being entrusted with ferving and instructing the People, they have deceived and set up for commanding the People. Being chofen by the Crown to ministerial Offices, they have claimed a Power above the Crown; from which they acknowledge, upon Oath, to have received all Power. They have done what in them lay, to make the Mercy of God of none Effect, by damning whom they pleased; and to disarm his Justice, by pardoning whom they would. They have made Heaven itself to wait for the Sentence from the Prieft's Mouth, and God himself to follow the Judgment of the Prieft. They have pretended to oblige God Almighty to open and shut Heaven's Gates. They have afferted, that the Priesthood is a Princely Power, greater and more venerable than that of the Emperor: That the spiritual Government (that is, a Government by Priests) is farther above the Civil Power, than Heaven

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is above the Earth: That a Bishop is to be ho noured as God: That the Revenue of Priests ought to be greater than the Revenue of Kings: That greater Punishment is due to an Offence against a Prieft, than to an Offence against a King: That Kings and Queens are to bow down before the Priest, with their Face towards the Earth, and to lick up the < Duft of his Feet: That it is the Royal Office

of Kings and Queens, to carry the Priest in 'their Bofom, or on their Shoulders: That < great Men ought not to fay My Chaplain, in C any other Sense than we say, My KING, or 'MY GOD.'

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As to the King's Nomination of Bishops, and the Power that he has over the Convocation, they have maintained, that the Church should

as reasonably have the Nomination and de'pofing of Kings; and that it is as reasonable that the Parliament should neither meet nor act without the Bishop's Licence and Authority: That the Chief Magiftrate is bound to fubmit to the Bishop, who may excommunicate him: That it is a Contradiction and an' Impoffibility, for any State to have Authority cover the Church, that is, over the Priests: That the Priests Power extends to the fettling

of Fafting, and Feafting, and Clothes: That < those Clergy, who comply with the GovernC ment, and yet retain their old Principles, are the best Part, and most numerous of the Clergy; that is, that those of the Clergy, who are perjured, are the best and most numerous. They have decreed, that to maintain that the Sovereignty of England is in the Three Eftates of England, namely, in King, Lords, and Commons, is a damnable Principle. They have afferted, that the Lords and Commons have no more Share in the making of Laws, than a Beggar has in one's Alms: That all Subjects are Slaves as to Life and Property: And that Re< fiftance is not lawful for the Maintenance of the Liberties of ourselves and others; nor for the Defence of Religion; nor for the Prefer<vation of Church and State; nor for the Sal'vation of a Soul; no, nor for the Redemption of the whole World.'

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THERE is a choice Catalogue of these extravagant Doctrines, collected in a Pamphlet published some Years fince, and entitled, A new Catechifm, with Dr. Hickes's 39 Articles; and all of them taken out of the Writings of Men in the highest Reputation amongst you. Yes, Gentlemen, all these impious, mad and selfish

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