spirituality of a Bishop, it was in favour of the Church in possession, provided, first, that none should be consecrated into any see: and secondly, that they who were consecrated should forbear to act till, upon failure of the Bishops now deprived, there would, for keeping up the succession, be a necessity for them to execute the powers committed to them, and to afford those who should adhere unto them orthodox and holy ministrations, as Mr. Kettlewell expresses it."[1] This writer states, that he shall not meddle with their reasons for so acting.
Their statement of their case was couched in the following terms:
"1st. That in the year of our Lord 1688, the ecclesiastical authority of the Church of England was with the most reverend Father in God, Dr. William Sancroft: as Primate and Metropolitan of all England, and with the right reverend the Bishops (now deprived) in their dioceses, and that the acknowledged altars were with them, is agreed on both sides.
2. That since that time, several Bishops and Priests subordinate to him and them, and to whom they were bound by oaths of canonical obedience, having rejected that authority, withdrew their obedience, and set up and owned another Primate and other Bishops against those acknowledged Bishops, is matter of fact.
3. Whence a separation being made by them, and there being two parties divided, with the old metropolitan at the head of one, and the late Dean Dr. Tillotson at the head of the other: the question is with which of these the faithful are obliged to hold communion. Now if the Archbishop and the rest of the Bishops deserted any doctrines of the Church, or
- ↑ Kettlewell, 134.
