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Power, they Cannot take it away. This power virtually
resides in himself as Ordinary, and is expressly given him by
Act of Assembly ; and whether Out of Grace upon Petition,
or out of Right of his own Motion, an Appointment together
with or without an Induction, and with or Without Consent of
Vestries is Valid in Law. And it seems very Clear To me
that it was the Design of the Legislature by Adding the word
Appointed coupled by the Disjunctive or, to vest the ordinary
with a Two fold discretionary Power. One with Regard to
Pluralities that may when he thinks fit, upon Application or
without it, appoint the Minister of one Parish to be Reader in
Another 'till it could be otherwise Provided for; the Canon
and Statute Law being evaded by the Appointment being
considered a temporary and revocable Act; and the Absurdity
of the Supposition that he can do this upon Application and
not Without will appear from the Consideration that Vestries
may and often do consist of Men who regard neither Church
nor Churchmen, and It would be extremely hard, if a Christian
Congregation should want the Assistance of a Minister to
perform Divine Service sometimes, marry their Children,
Christen their Infants, visit their sick and the Like because
an obstinate Vestry would not petition or Consent that one
should be employed. This would be taking from the Ordi-
nary the power of judging when and in what manner a Church
ought to be Supplied, and assuming to themselves a Concur-
rent Jurisdiction, than which nothing can be more prepos-
terous. But the Ordinary alone must judge because he alone
can execute. If this be not the Sense of Clause touching
Pluralities the Clause itself must fall to the Ground. If Plu-
ralities are only tenable by Consent of Vestries As Suppos'd
to be set forth herein, then this Clause Abridges the Royal
Prerogative, which say all the Common Lawers Canonists
and Civilians does eminently contain in itself a power of
Dispensation in Matters Ecclesiastical. And when at the
[revolution ?] King William was by Statute restrained from
granting Dispensations with Regard to penal Laws in Civil
Concerns yet in Ecclesiastical matters his Power remains
entire, and so has been Exercis'd by him and his Successors
as Supreme Ordinary over the Church, and the Power of pre-
senting his own Chaplains without previous Dispensation to a
Plurality is Confirmed by Statute. But it is particularly
declared By Statute 7 & 8 William 3. C. 22 that all Laws by
Laws, Usages and Customs which shall be in practice in any
of the Plantations repugnant To any Law made or to be made
in the Kingdom relative to the said Plantations shall be utterly
void and of no Effect.
The word Appointment gives a Latitude likewise to the
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