66

other than these: "That the Office of Consecration, so often confirmed by Parliament, warrants every bishop to claim authority by the word of God for the exercise of all manner of spiritual discipline within his diocese." (P. 18.) "That the correction of vice, and of other defects and irregularities of a spiritual nature," (P. 31,) is the proper province of the clergy, and " that temporal penalties in such cases are then, and then only, rendered truly beneficial to religion, when they are provided as a further terror and punishment to be called in as oft as the censures of the Church are disobeyed;" that it were to be wished the Church might, in the exercise of her discipline, be at liberty to proceed by the wholesome method of canonical purgation (C. 1089); that "the ecclesiastical courts might not be pestered with prohibitions" (C. 1066) from the courts of common law, nor have her proceedings stayed, or her censures rendered ineffectual, (C. 1117,) by pardons from the Crown, or by acts of grace," that as in all ecclesiastical causes the clergy ought to be the sole ultimate judges on appeals, (P. 21, C. 1082,) so the whole prudential administration under the King, "of all affairs which concern spiritual persons or spiritual things, ought to be lodged in them" (P. 22); that with regard to making laws concerning religion or the interests of the Church, the "clergy themselves may be presumed the best judges what assistance of that kind the Church stands in need of, and what are the methods" (P. 30, 31) for promoting religion and the interest of the Church in all kinds; that to this end we have a legislature consisting of persons spiritual, namely, the Convocation (P. 29); and that, therefore, (P. 31,) "all suggestions" for the improvement of our ecclesiastical constitution, and for the amendment of the laws in being, of all kinds, as far as concerns the Church, her powers or privileges, are to be reserved till those matters shall be made the subject of synodical inquiries and debates."

66

These principles, admitted in their utmost latitude and in their necessary consequences, would, I fear, soon introduce that wretched state of things which Father Paul thought he sa.. coming on when the wholesome discipline of canonical purgation and the oath ex officio were esteemed parts of our ecclesiastical constitution (ann. 1609). Anglis ego timeo," says that honest churchman, "episcoporum magna illa potestas, licet subrege, prorsus mihi

66

suspecta est.-Ego equum ephippiatum in Angliâ videre videor; et ascensurum propediem equitem antiquum divino. Verum omnia divinæ Providentiæ subsunt.”* [I fear for the English. I hold in suspicion that great power of the bishops, though in subjection to the King.-I seem to see the horse saddled in England, and think that, before long, the old rider will mount. But all things are under Divine Providence.]

THE public hath lately been entertained with a very angry answer to this pamphlet. If the author had favoured me with it at the time the newspapers gave me reason to expect it, a reply might have accompanied this edition. But he may he assured that proper notice will, in due time, be taken of all the facts and reasonings he presumes upon. As for the personal severity with which I am treated by him, it is not in my nature to make any returns of that kind. I forgive him with all my heart. If, upon cool reflection, he can forgive himself, I pity him.

* See his Letters, Pref., P. 51.

C. GREEN, PRINTER, HACKNEY.

A TRACT

CONCERNING

SCHISM AND SCHISMATICS,

WHEREIN IS BRIEFLY DISCOVERED THE

ORIGINAL CAUSES OF ALL SCHISM,

BY THE

EVER-MEMORABLE JOHN HALES,

OF ETON.

WITH

EXTRACTS FROM HIS OTHER WORKS

IN FAVOUR OF

RELIGIOUS AND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.

LONDON:

EFFINGHAM WILSON, 18, BISHOPSGATE STREET; SMALLFIELD & SON, 69, NEWGATE STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT.

It is truly said by the publishers of the complete edition of the Works of the author of the following Tract,-Robert and Andrew Foulis, of Glasgow,*-that "they who are acquainted with the literary and political history of England will perceive, that the leading men of all parties, however different and discordant, have, with a wonderful unanimity, concurred in praise of the virtues and the abilities of the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales, of Eton."

The cognomen of "Ever-Memorable" is given to Hales by immemorial and universal usage, and his pieces are known by the title of " Golden Remains.”

In the time of Hales, parties were oddly cast: while some of the champions of civil liberty were enemies of religious toleration, we find Archbishop Laud patronizing Hales, Chillingworth, Jasper Mayne, and other assertors of the rights of Conscience.

We need not say more and we cannot say any thing better of the Ever-Memorable John Hales, than has been said in the following passages by Lord Clarendon and Bishop Pearson :

"Mr. John Hales had been Greek Professor in the University of Oxford, and had borne the greatest part of the labour of that excellent edition and impression of St. Chrysostom's Works, set out by Sir Harry Savile, who was then warden of Merton College, when the other was fellow of that house. He was chaplain in the house with Sir Dudley Carleton, ambassador at the Hague in Holland, at the time when the synod of Dort was held, and so had liberty to be present at the consultations in that assembly; and hath left the best memorial behind him of the ignorance, and passion, and animosity, and injustice of that convention; of which he often made very pleasant relations; though, at that time, it received too much countenance from England. Being a person of the greatest eminency for

The Works were published by these celebrated printers in 3 vols. 12mo, in 1765, under the patronage of Bishop Warburton, to whom they are dedicated. We reprint from this edition.