[206]. Burnet’s History, vol. ii. p. 542.
[207]. Wesley’s History of England, vol. iv. p. 75.
[208]. It is entitled, “The Speech of Henry Sacheverell, D.D., upon his impeachment at the bar of the House of Lords, in Westminster Hall, March 7, 1710. London, 1710.” It was published by Sacheverell himself, and is a small octavo of twenty-four pages.
[209]. Complete History of the Affair of Dr Sacheverell. London, 1711.
[210]. Wesley’s History of England, vol. iv. p. 76.
[211]. Life of Queen Anne; also, Lathbury’s History of Convocation.
[212]. At this time, says Bishop Burnet, there appeared an inclination in many of the clergy to a nearer approach to the Church of Rome. Hicks, who was now at the head of the Jacobite party, had, in several books, promoted the notion that there was a proper sacrifice made in the eucharist. He also openly condemned the supremacy of the crown in ecclesiastical affairs, and the method in which the Reformation was carried. One Brett preached a sermon, in several of the pulpits of London, which he afterwards printed, in which he said no repentance could serve without priestly absolution, and affirmed that the priest was vested with the same power of pardoning that our Saviour himself had. Another conceit was the invalidity of lay baptism, and that, as dissenting teachers were laymen, they and their congregations ought to be rebaptized. Dodwell left all who died without the sacraments to the uncovenanted mercies of God; and maintained that none had a right to give the sacraments except the apostles, and, after them, bishops and priests ordained by them. The bishops thought it necessary to put a stop to such doctrines, and agreed to a declaration against the irregularity of all baptism by persons not in holy orders; but yet allowing that, according to the practice of the primitive Church, and the constant usage of the Church of England, no baptism ought to be reiterated. Archbishop Sharpe (the friend of Samuel Wesley) refused to sign the declaration, pretending that it would encourage irregular baptisms. The Archbishop of Canterbury, with most of the bishops of his province, submitted the matter to the convocation. It was agreed to in the Upper House, but the Lower House refused even to consider it, because it would encourage those who struck at the dignity of the priesthood. This was all that passed in the convocation of 1712.—(Burnet’s History of His Own Times, 1st edit., vol. ii. p. 605.)
[213]. Methodist Magazine, 1781, p. 313.
[214]. Methodist Magazine, 1781, p. 313.
[215]. Whitehead’s Life of Wesley, p. 54.