Of this Paper I fent you my Opinion in my Letter of December 6. 1707. to which I refer you, and now, for your farther Satisfaction, acquaint you that I have printed a full Answer to that Paper, which I hope will be publifh'd in a Month, and give your Ladyship perfect Satisfaction, and that after you have read it you will have no more Apprehenfions that God fent the Affliction upon you as a Judgment for not embracing thofe Errors, which he hath taught you to mif-call Truths. You have more reafon to fear, if that Affliction befel you as a Divine Judgment, that it was intended as a Correction and Admonition for hearkning fo long to a falfe Teacher, who, to the great Hazard of your Soul, would draw you from the pure Primitive Faith and Religion of the Church of England to the corrupt, mix'd, novel Faith and Religion of the Church of Rome; from our Divine to their Human Faith and Traditions; from our true to their false Doctrines; from Doctrines which are neceffarily to be believ'd in order to Salvation, to Doctrines which are dangerous to be believ'd, and damnable to be practis'd; in a word, from Doctrines we are to contend for as once deliver'd to the Saints, to Do&trines we are to contend against as never deliver'd to them.

Madam, fuch a Change of Religion, without the extraordinary Mercy of God, who beft knows what Allowances to make to Humane Infirmities, will be very fatal to you; but you are very fafe in continu-> ing in that Religion which you have hitherto profefs'd, but fad will be the Account you must make to God if you apostatize from it, and therefore the best Advice I can give you, and for which I will be answerable to God, is to remain fted faft and immovable in your Religion, and to hearken no more to the falfe Teachers, who would entice you from the Church of England, the Pure Reform'd Church of England, to that moft corrupt one of Rome.

With my Answer to the Paper herein mention'd there will be publish'd, A Letter written by a Lady to a Romish Priest upon her return from the Church of Rome to the Church of England, which I hope will also contribute much to your Ladyfhip's Satisfaction, and in the mean time, till it can be publish'd, I hope you will not let your felf be reconcil'd to the Church of Rome. You are pleas'd to tell me I have express'd a great Concern for you, and I affure your Ladyfhip my Concern is and hath been very fincere, and in the Sincerity of my Heart you must allow me to tell you, that if you make the unhappy Change of Religion you have been fo long inclin'd to make, I fear this, with my other Letters, will rife up in Judgment against you.

As for your Seducer's Letter, there's little or nothing in it that requires an Answer, however, for your Ladyfhip's Satisfaction, I am content to make fome Obfervations upon it: First then it is not true, as he, very unlike a good Cafuift, fuppofes, that a minifterial Miffion is abfolutely neceffary to Faith or Converfion. For many private Perfons, by God's Bleffing, have wrought faving Faith in Unbelievers, and particularly in the Primitive Times, when Heathen Masters, and Mistresses, and their Children, were so often converted to Chrift by their Slaves or Servants. Socrat. Ecclef. Hiftor. Lib. I. Cap. XX. Sozom. Ecclef. Hift. Lib. II. Cap. VII. So the Abyffine Ethiopians were made Chriftians by the Inftru&tion of fome private Chriftian Merchants. Socrat. Ecclef. Lib. I. Cap. XIX. Sozom. Hift. Eccl. Lib. II. Cap. XXIV. Some alfo, Madam, have been converted by Miracles, without Preaching, others by the immediate Infpiration of the Holy Spirit, and others again by feeing the Courage and Conftancy of the Holy Martyrs have turn'd Chriftians, and - confefs'd Christ at the Place of Execution, and were there Baptized in their own Blood.

It is true indeed that the ordinary way of working Faith is by the Preaching of thofe, who are fent and appointed mediately or immediately by God, and fo the main Body of Jewish and Gentile Converts, were at first converted, and this is obferv'd by your Seducer on purpose only to take an occafion to call our Orders or Miffion into question again. His former Objection against our Miffion was taken from the Omiffion of those Words in our Book of Ordination, Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice, as well for the Living as the Dead, to this I gave you an Anfwer in my Letter of February 20. 1707. to which he did not, because he could not, reply; and in this laft Letter his Objection against it is founded on John xxi. 15, 16, 17. where Jefus faith unto St. Peter, Feed my Lambs, feed my Sheep; from hence, Madam, he would moft abfurdly make your Ladyfhip believe, that all Preachers in all Ages have been fent over the Earth to preach the Gospel only by St. Peter and his Succeffors at Rome, as the Vicars of Jefus Chrift, and that those who came independently of their Authority are not fent; fo that tho' they may Talk they cannot preach, because their Preaching and Sending is all Human, and of no Effect to Sanctification. To this Purpose he also faith, that the feeding of Chrift's Lambs and Sheep, without any Limitation to Perfon, Time, or Place, was to come (by virtue of thofe Words) from the Authority given to and from the Office enjoyn'd St. Peter, and that therefore his Authority and Office is the Rock, on which Chrift bath built his Church. This Authority he alfo calls the individual Authority in St. Peter, by which, without any Limitation of Time, he was commanded to feed the Lambs and Sheep of Chrift.

I fay, Madam, his Defign is to make your Ladyfhip believe, that all Preachers in all Ages have been fent about the World to preach the Gospel only by St. Peter and his Succeffors, as the Vicars of Jefus Chrift, and that those who come indepen

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dently of their Authority are not fent, which I muft tell your Ladyfhip is falfe in Fact, and contrary to the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers. First it is falfe in Fact, for as all the Apostles were in like manner fent by Christ, as you may fee by the Texts in the Margin, fo all and every one of them, by virtue of their Apoftolick Office and Commiffion, sent forth Preachers and Governors, to feed and rule the Flock of Chrift, fo did St. Thomas in Parthia, St. Andrew in Scythia, St. John in the Proconfular Afia, St. Matthew in Ethiopia, St. Bartholomew in India, St. Peter to the Jews of the Difperfions in Pontus, Galatia, Bythinia, Cappadocia, and last of all at Rome, where he was crucify'd; and fo did St. Paul in all the Parts of the Heathen World, from Hierufalem to Illyricum, where, by his Apoftolical Authority, he planted Churches, and appointed Bishops and Presbyters to teach and govern them, as your Seducer, if he is a learned Man, knows, and if he is not, he may know by the ancient Writers cited in the Margin; all these, and every one of them, as appears by thofe Authorities, planted Churches and appointed Ministers for them independently one of another, and acted as independently of St. Peter as he did of them, and therefore the Churches were wont to run back their Succeffions to the Apostles, who first founded them, and the first Bishops they fet over them; fo the Church of Smyrna deriv'd their Succeffion from St. Polycarp, fet over them by St. John, who, after the Death of St. Paul, fet Bishops over the Churches which that Apostle had planted in Afia, and fo the Chriftians of St. Thomas in India fo call'd, when the Romish Miffi

1 John xx. 21. Matth. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. Mark xvi. 15. Eufeb. Eccl. Hift. Lib. iii. Cap. i. Socrat. Eccl. Hiftor. Lib. i. Cap. xix. Lib. iii. Cap. xxiii.

Tertullian de Præfcript. Cap. 20, 21, 22.

Ibid. Cap. 32, 36, 37. Irenæus Lib. ii. Cap. iii. Lib. iv. 63. Lib. v. Cap. xx.

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Millioners came to them, deriv'd their Succeffion from that Apostle, and refus'd to be fubject to the Bishop of Rome; fo the Church of Alexandria derives its Succeffion from St. Mark, as the Abyffine Church derives hers from the Church of Alexandria; fo, Madam, the Church of Hierufalem derives her Succeffion from St. James, our Lord's Brother, and the Church of Corinth hers from Dionyfius the Areopagite, St. Paul's Convert, to whom he committed that Church,, as the Churches of Creet deriv'd theirs from Titus, fet over them by the same Apostle; all these, Madam, deriv'd their Succeffions from other Founders than St. Peter, and to St. Peter let me add St. Paul, who, according to h Irenaus, were joynt Founders of the Church of Rome, which I obferve unto your Lady ship because your Seducer, like the other Court-Divines of the Romish Church, afcribe fo much to St. Peter, tho St. Paul was wrapt up into the Third Heavens which we never read St. Peter was, and fuffer'd Martyrdom at Rome as well as he. All other Churches, I fay, were wont to derive their Succeffions from the Apostles who founded them, and the first Bishops whom they fet over them, in the fame manner as the Church of Rome derives her Succeffion from St. Peter, and the firft Bishop or Bifhops he fet over it, be it Linus or Clemens, for Tradition in this is different. I have faid Bishops, Madam, becaufe learned Men, to reconcile the Difference among the ancient Writers about the first Bishop of Rome after St. Peter, do, not without Reafon think there were Two first Bishops, one over the Church of the Convert Jews, and another over the Church of the Convert Gentiles in that City.

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Eufeb. Eccl. Hift. Lib. i. Cap. xvi.

Eufeb. Lib. iii. Cap.

4. Lib. iv. Cap. xxiii.

Eufeb. Eccl. Hift. Lib. ii. Cap. i.

Irenæus Lib. iii. Cap. i. Lib. ii, Cap. iii.

Thus

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