The Vindication of Liturgies Proved No Vindication, Postscript – Publishers advertisement
Poſtſcript.
BEcauſe our Vindicator is ſo mightily confident, that if ever there was a Sinful Separation in the World, the Diſſenters, altho they agree in the Doctrine of the Church of England (and poſſibly more heartily, then ſome others who profeſs only to ſubſcribe the 39 Articles in their own ſenſe, and as Inſtruments of Peace) and in the ſame Acts of Worſhip, and do not condemn the Church or Churches of England as no Churches, are guilty, notwithſtanding of ſuch a Sinful Separation. I ſhall crave leave to mind him of an Argument to the contrary brought this laſt Commencement at Cambridge (I ſuppoſe the Vindicator might hear it) which the Auditors did not judge they heard ſufficiently anſwered by the Dr. Reſpondent. It was this.
To Separate (or withdraw rather) from a Church which doth not acknowledge the true Miniſters of Chriſt as ſuch: is no Sinful Separation. But to ſeparate from the Church of England is to ſeparate from a Church that diſowns the true Miniſters of Chriſt to be ſuch. Ergo.
The Minor was proved becauſe it will not own Miniſters ordained by meer Presbyters to be true Miniſters, and ſo conſequently diſowneth the Miniſtry of all Forraign Churches, which by ſeveral Acts of Parliament (3 at leaſt, one 13 Eliz. another made in the Parl. 1660, and the late Act for Uniformity) are acknowledged true Miniſters. The trite anſwer, That it is in a caſe of neceſſity (thoſe Churches having no Biſhops to ordain Miniſters) is pitiful, for no caſe of neceſſity can make one to be that which by the Law of Chriſt he is not; nor was there any neceſſity that our Parliaments ſhould ſo own them in three Acts. We had Biſhops in England which could have re-ordained Miniſters in 13 Eliz. and in the year 1660, and 1662.
The Baſis of this Argument is alſo much larger. It is this: It is lawful to withdraw from any Church, where any Ordinance of Chriſt, proper and neceſſary for any Church, is diſowned, or not to be enjoyed according to the Practice of that Church.
Now whether the choice of their own Miniſters and the excluſion of the ignorant and ſcandalous from the Lords Supper, And a power in a Church to purge it ſelf from Miniſters who by their lives, or Doctrine, make it appear, that God never called them to the Miniſtry, and from Members that by the Laws of Chriſt are to be ſhut out of the Communion of a Church, be not Inſtitutions of Chriſt, neceſſary to the very being of a Church, moſt certainly to its well being, let any judge, and that thoſe charged with Separation can enjoy them in the Parochial Churches of England, lies upon our Vindicator to prove, and ſhould have been well thought on, before he had been ſo very poſitive in his charge, there being eſpecially ſo many men of unqueſtionable Learning and Piety that are of another mind in the Caſe and as well aſſured of the contrary.
FINIS.
An A…ement to the Reader.
WHat thou haſt here in anſwer to Dr. Faulkner, hath been more than nine Months in the Bookſellers or Printers hand, and is at laſt come out with more Errata's, then are conſiſtent with the Authors reputation; ſome of the principal of them I ſhall give thee an account of, and for miſtakes of a letter or a ſtop, leave my ſelf to thy Charity. Only that I may not again be ſo ſmartly reflected on, for my want of skill, in the Chronology of Gregory the great, I muſt give thee notice, that whereas in the Title to the Introduction, the Vindicator is ſaid to have aſſerted that Gregory died 15 years before (according to Platina) he entred his Popedome, and in the Book, p. 14, there is only mention of ten: it is none of the Authors miſtake. For in the Edition of Platina in Fol. thou wilt find he entred his Popedome Anno 1610, which was but 6 years after the Vindicator ſaith he died: but in the late Edition of Platina in 24, he is ſaid to have entred it 1619, which was 15 years after. The Author hath left thee a latitude to believe which thou wilt, only with thy Pen correct theſe following Errata's, ſome whereof might be mine, in writing, but the moſt the Printers.
P. 2. l. 13. and ſo in many other places, for Liturgy, r. Leiturgy; l. 19. r. foreign; p. 3. l. 17. r. deliver; p. 7. l. 7. r. Arguments; l. 8. r. with him; l. 23. r. ſelf have; p. 10. l. 5. r. dicendum ne; l. 13. r. & fruſtra; l. 19. r. we judge; l. 28, 29. r. ſaepe etiam olitor eſt opportuna locutus; p. 12. l. 22. r. 604; p. 13. l. 29. r. 1000; p. 15. l. 21. r. ſelf ſay; p. 18. l. 5. r. Darapti Feriſon; p. 24. l. 7. r. foreign; p. 28. l. 8. r. guſt; l. 20. r. an Author; p: 35. l. 25. ſo p. 159. l. 17. r. word-bate; p. 40. l. 30. r. no other; p. 41. l. 32. r. may be; p. 67. l. 16. r. For Miniſtry, he; p. 76. l. 3. r. foreign; p. 116. l. 13. r. whether it or yt; p. 118. l. 15. r. by which; p. 21. l. 22. r. who joyn; p. 140. l. 15. r. ſometimes very little; then blot out theſe words [and where they concern it, very little or nothing at all.] p. 143. l. 15. r. when he pleaſeth; l. 30. r. gifts; p. 145. l. 17. r. he be able; p. 146. l. 22. r. in inadviſed; p. 185. l. 4. r. prefer; p. 195. l. 17. r. I may; p. 219. l. 16. r. foreign; p. 224. l. 28. r. foreign; p. 226. l. 24. before proper r. as; p. 238. l. 5. r. prayer; p. 239. l. 29. for others r. them.
End of the text · John Collinges, The Vindication of Liturgies Proved No Vindication (1681)