Preface he says, "Among the many remarkable impresses of truth our Church bears, it is one, that she does not blindfold her proselytes, but leaves them the use of their faculties; and does not, by intruding on them an implicit belief, force them to lay down their reason, when they take up their faith."[1]
After Collier's death, it became necessary to consecrate other Bishops in that section, of which he had been the leader. Accordingly, in 1727, Thomas Brett, junior, was consecrated by Brett, senior, Griffin, and Campbell: and, in 1731, Timothy Mawman was set apart to the Episcopal Office, by the two Bretts and George Smith.
The other section, both being anxious to continue the succession, applied to the Bishops in Scotland, and, in the year 1726, Henry Doughty was consecrated by four Scottish Prelates to assist their friends in England. During the same year, John Blackburn and Henry Hall were consecrated by Spinkes, Gandy, and Doughty. After the death of Spinkes, the leader of this section, Richard Rawlinson, was consecrated in 1728, by Gandy, Doughty, and Blackburn; and George Smith, by Gandy, Blackburn, and Rawlinson.
It appears, that Smith assisted the Bishops of the other line in consecrating Mawman in 1731: so that the disputes respecting the usages must have subsided. This is evident also from a letter of Carte's,
- ↑ The History of the Pontificate: from its supposed beginning, to the end of the Council of Trent, Anno Domini 1563, in which the corruptions of the Scriptures and sacred antiquity, forgeries in the councils, and incroachments of the Court of Rome on the Church and State, to support their infallibility, supremacy, and other modern doctrines, are set in a true light. By Laurence Howell, A. M. 8vo. London, 1716.
