merely as their creature, which they could create or destroy at pleasure. When, therefore, we reflect upon the character of that Parliament, we cannot but be thankful, that the Church was preserved unimpaired. Not a few in the present day, even among the Clergy, maintain the same erroneous notions respecting the relations between the civil power and the Church. They would allow the state to regulate all ecclesiastical matters: they would even permit episcopal acts to be performed by others than Bishops. Undoubtedly we need to be cautioned, in the present day, against this unsound but prevalent opinion.
Grascome admits, that the state can deprive the Bishops and Clergy for crimes. But he denies the lawfulness of the deprivations in question, alleging that therefore the Nonjurors deemed it necessary to exercise their ministry in a state of separation. He speaks out plainly in condemnation of those who complied. Thus he says: "From the foregoing discourse these consequences may be fairly drawn: first, that whosoever shall be put into the place of the deprived Bishops are not to be esteemed Bishops, nor ought either Clergy or people to regard them, but to adhere firmly to their former true Bishops. Secondly, that whosoever shall ordain such, or endeavour to place them there, make themselves criminals, and liable to ecclesiastical censure. Thirdly, that they and all their adherents are schismatics."[1]
Sharpe, as has been noticed, refused to accept any one of the sees of the deprived Bishops; but Tillot-
- ↑ A Reply to a Vindication of a Discourse Concerning the Unreasonableness of a New Separation, 4to. 1691, p. 24. Besides these works, on the part of the Nonjurors, in reply to Stillingfleet, there is another by Brown, the author of "The Nag's Head Fable Confuted;" but it was not published until the year 1749.
