’Tis true, that the way of giving Temporary Commissions to Bishops for the Exercise of their Episcopal Power, is now laid aside: but since that Power is still deriv’d from the Sovereign, by virtue of a Conge d’Eslire, ’tis impudent in our High Church Priests to complain of the Deprivation of the Nonjurant Bishops by King William and his Parliament; especially if we consider, that Bishops were antiently chosen in Parliament, till the time of Henry I. and that ’tis by Act of Parliament our Princes were impower’d to erect and confer Bishopricks; as appears by 31 H. VIII. c. 9. & 13. and by the 37th of his Reign, c. 17. ’tis declar’d, ‘That Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, and other Ecclesiastical Persons, have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical, but by and under the King, the only undoubted Supreme Head of the Church of England.’
By the 25th Henry VIII. c. 20. the Chapter is oblig’d in twelve Days to chuse the Person nam’d by the King in the Conge d’Eslire; if they do not, his Nomination is sufficient: and the Archbishop and Bishops, to whom the King’s Signification is directed, are oblig’d to consecrate the Elect within twenty Days, as well as the Chapter is to present him, on pain of a Premunire.
Yet tho the English Prelacy is so plainly a Creature of the State, and enjoys all its Power and Revenues from it; our High Church Priests are so traitorous and unconscionable, that they would have the Bishops to enjoy part of the Legislature as an Estate by themselves, and be capable of Posts of State, and of Ecclesiastical and Civil Power, without any Dependence on the State: which, instead of one Pope over Christendom, is to set up twenty six Independent Popes in England, and run both Church and State into Anarchy and Confusion.
It is in vain for them to alledg, that they dispute King William’s Power, because he was not a Lawful King; for we have heard already, that by the antient Constitution of England, our Parliaments always asserted their Power to dethrone Tyrants, and to set up such in their stead as would maintain the Nation’s Privileges.
The Speech enumerates so many sorts of Churches of England, that it will be hard to tell, according to the Notions of the Faction, how many they will come to at last. Here’s a Schismatical Church of England, a Nonjuring Church of England, a Revolution Church of England; he might have added a Perjuring Church of England, of which he himself, and his Fellow Criminal Mr. Hall were noted Members. ’Tis ridiculous to assert, that the Nonjuring Church has kept it self free from Rebellion; for all the World knows, that the Men of that Stamp begun what he calls the Rebellion against the late King James, and they have been Rebels to all our Sovereigns ever since: so that if any Set of Men in the Island deserve to be call’d Rebellious and Antimonarchical, ’tis they. Was it not for Rebellion, that Mr. Paul and others of his Party have lost their Lives? We know indeed, that not only the Nonjurors, but even some others of the Church of England, are shy of calling it Rebellion; yet ’tis so in the Eye of the Law, and in the Opinion of all those Powers in Europe, who have own’d his Majesty’s Title. Then let the World judg, whether Parson Paul’s Authority or theirs, is most to be rely’d on.
’Tis perfectly ridiculous then to alledg, that the Nonjuring Church has kept it self free from Rebellion and Schism, when they have not only been in a Course of Rebellion ever since the Revolution, but separated from their Brethren, and set up private Conventicles, as well as disown’d the Head of the Church: which certainly makes them Schismaticks in the highest sense. Nor is there a Protestant Church in the World at this day, whose Communion they don’t reject. They may talk then of being Catholick as long as they please, but they can be so in no other sense than that they are for a Roman Catholick Prince, and for such an Union with the Church of Rome, as is betwixt her and the Church of France; which Mr. Lesley, the Pretender’s Chaplain, and one of his Bishops, propos’d long ago in his Pontificate and Regale.
Mr. Paul seems miserably to have forgot himself, in saying that he dy’d a dutiful and faithful Member of the Nonjuring Church, when the World knows that he continu’d a Member of the Establish’d Church till the Rebellion begun; and it can be prov’d, that he wou’d have been glad to have continu’d so, and to have own’d the present Government a very little before his Death, tho the Speech calls it a Usurpation, could the Promises and Oaths of such a perfidious Wretch been rely’d upon, or thought worthy of being accepted.
The SPEECH.
Having ask’d Forgiveness for my self, I come now to forgive others. I pardon those, who under the Notion of Friendship persuaded me to plead Guilty. I heartily forgive all my most inveterate Enemies, especially the Elector of Hannover, my Lord Townshend, and all others who have been instrumental in promoting my Death. Father, forgive them! Lord Jesus, have mercy upon them, and lay not this Sin to their Charge.
REMARKS.