that all external Things must be measured by their End and Use. Those are innocent and laudable Customs which serve a good End either help the Devotion of the Worshipper or make the Worship more grave and solemn provided it be not in forbidden Instances 4. The practice of the Apostles and the first and best Churches are a great vindication of the Constitution and Worship of the Church of England Where we have not a plain and express Rule Examples which are great and good Ones have the authority and face of a Rule and he must be a very unreasonable Man who will desire any better Examples than of the best and purest Churches Some are offended at the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters and the Inferior Clergy which they say is expresly forbidden by Christ The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve In which words it is plain our Saviour forbids such kind of Authority over one another as the Gentile Princes exercise over their Subjects but that it should forbid all kind of Superiority among the Ministers of the Gospel is contrary to the Example even of the Apostolick Age. The Apostles indeed were all equal had no superiority of Order or Power over one another and our Saviour in this Place speaks only to the Apostles not to exercise Superiority over each other for there was a strife among them which of them should be greatest But by our Saviour's own Institution the Office of an Apostle was superior to the Seventy Disciples whom he sent out to preach the Gospel And after the Resurrection of Christ the Apostles were supream Governors of the Church and if we believe the first Records we have of the Christian Church Bishops were the Apostles Successors in their Power in the Church and in their superiority over Presbyters and Deacons and so the Government of the Church continued in the hands of Bishops till the Reformation when the necessity of Affairs and the aversion some Men had against Popish Tyrannical Bishops perswaded some Reformers to lay aside the Order which has been made the most specious Argument against the Reformation and to say no more If Episcopacy be Antichristianism the whole Church was Antichristian for above fifteen hundred Years together from the very Times of the Apostles themselves But if it be an Apostolical Order I know not what Authority any Man had to alter it and for my own part think that Communion safest which is most agreeable to the Pattern of the Apostolick Churches Others except against Forms of Prayer Now not to take notice that Forms of Prayer were of old in use in the Jewish Church and that our Saviour himself gave a Form of Prayer to his Disciples we must grant that we have no certain Evidence what the practice of the Church in the Apostles Days was in this respect I am much of S. Chrysostoms Opinion That there were in that Age of Miracles extraordinary miraculous Gifts of Prayer as there was of Healing and Prophesying and working Miracles Not that every Christian had these Gifts any more than the Gift of Miracles but there were some Persons who had the Gift of inspired Prayer for the publick benefit of the Church which made it needless in that Age to have Forms of Prayer for Publick Worship and when I see that Age of Miracles return again I will gladly renounce Liturgy to join in inspired Prayers But as Miracles ceased so did the miraculous Gift of Prayer and then as the same Father observes the Church worshipped God in allowed Forms to be sure so it was in his days and a great while before him and if we cannot trace it to its first Original for want of early Records in those Matters yet I think he must be a very scrupulous Man who would refuse to communicate with the Church in Constantine's Days who composed Forms of Prayer for his Souldiers which it is not probable he would have done had not the Church at that time used Forms of Prayers And so it continued till the Reformation and the Reformation made no alteration in it for the Lutheran and Bohemian Churches the Church of Geneva France and Holland have their Lyturgies and Forms of Prayer and so has the Church of England since the first Reformation of it and if not only allowed but advised by Mr. Calvin himself till some Jesuites in Masquerade first set up that way of conceived and extemporary Prayers on purpose to break good Order in our Church as we well are assured by very credible Testimony Others scruple significant Ceremonies and yet in the very Apostles Days we find such in use which are now disused as the Holy Kiss and the Love-Feast which was an addition to the Lord's Supper much more obnoxious to censure than the Cross in Baptism and yet was retained for several Ages in the Church In Tertullian's and St. Cyprian's Times we find a great many symbolical and significant Ceremonies in use among them They frequently crossed themselves to shew that they were Christians upon all Occasions the baptized Person was cloathed in white and thence Whitsunday received its Name because that was a solemn Time for Baptism when those who were baptized were cloathed with white Garments It were easy to give you abundance of such Instances which are so obvious to any one who is acquainted with Ecclesiastical Writers that it is superfluous to mention them In St. Austin's Time Ceremonies were grown so numerous that he very much complains not of the significancy and symbolicalness but of the burden of them but never disturbed the Peace of the Church himself but adviseth others to conform to the Rites and Usages of any Church where they came though different from the Customs of their own As far as I have observed there never was any Schism occasioned in the Christian Church about significant Ceremonies till of late among us and it would a little startle a modest Man to separate from the Church of England for such Reasons as must have made him a Schismatick from all ancient and modern Churches in all Ages to this day These things carefully and impartially considered must needs tend to compose Mens Minds and reduce those who are gone astray into the Communion and Unity of the Church For my part I should rather venture erring with all the Churches of Christ from the Apostles to this present Age than break the Hedges of the Church and Christian Communion to follow some upstart new Lights tho it were possible they might lead me right SECT III. Containing an answer to some popular Cavils or a Vindication of the Church of England from the Charge of Will-Worship Superstition Idolatry Popery LEt us now consider some popular Cavils and Exceptions which too often
God or not when they think to please God by the bare external performance of them for whatever is external in Religion cannot be acceptable to God for it self In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature and Faith which worketh by Love and Obedience to the Commandments of God And to hope to please God with any thing else is to hope to flatter him and to compound with him for the breach of his Laws and the want of an inward vital Principle of Religion by external Hypocrisies and Superstitions But on the other hand we may be sure 1. That no Man can be guilty of Superstition who hopes to please God and obtain his Favour only by an Universal Righteousness and Holiness of Heart and Life Such a Man is truly Religious who endeavours to conform his Mind to the Divine Nature and Image and to frame his Conversation by the eternal Laws of Goodness he neither fears nor flatters the Deity as the Superstitious Man does but is the Son and the Friend of God and the external Expressions and Exercises of his Religion are fitted to the great ends of an Universal Holiness 2. That cannot be the matter of Superstition which is not made or judged an acceptable part of Divine Worship for Superstition can be only in such things wherein we hope to please God and this effectually justifies the Church of England from the charge of Superstition with respect to the External Rites of Worship which she declares to be no parts nor acts of Worship but such Circumstances and Ceremonies as make the external performance of the Acts of Worship decent and solemn and are useful to Edification to help Men to worship God better not to please God by such external Rites The third Accusation of the Worship of the Church of England is Idolatry a terrible and yet a ridiculous Charge But Idolatry is an odious Name and that is enough if there be those who are bold enough to say it they will be sure to find some of their Proselytes ignorant enough to believe it It is but calling the Common-Prayer Book and Ceremonies Idols and then they are plainly forbid in the Second Commandment But is there indeed no difference between worshipping God in a sober and pious form of words and worshipping a Graven Image No difference between wearing a Surplice and falling down to a Stock or Stone No difference between signing Children with the sign of the Cross and dedicating them to an Idol or false God Whither does a blind Zeal transport these Men I am sure this is much more like Blasphemy than any thing in our Worship is like Idolatry but such an Argument as this does not deserve to be answered nor such Men deserve to be reasoned with those who can abuse themselves and others with such formidable Nothings stand more in need of Physick than a sober Confutation 4. Another Accusation of the Worship of the Church of England is That it is Popery And so indeed it is as much Popery as it is Superstition and Idolatry And thus our Religious Princes and Godly Bishops are well rewarded for reforming Religion with infinite pains and labour and to their utmost peril It cost many Martyrs their Lives and would have made the Crown to shake had it not been secure by an Omnipotent Hand and All-seeing Providence and all this it seems for nothing for we are not got out of Babylon yet That Command still lies against the Church of England as our Ancestors believed it did against the Church of Rome Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you It is somewhat strange that God should suffer our Reformers who were so sincere and honest who spared no pains and feared no danger to purge the House of God to retain so much of the old Leaven as makes it unsafe for all good Christians to partake in such Worship And it is strange that the Papists should be such mortal Enemies to the Church of England which is so near a Kin to Rome and look so kindly upon our new Thorough-Reformers But I would desire these Men to tell me what Point of Popery is still retained in the Doctrine Government or Discipline of our Church O say they that is quickly done The very Office of Bishops is a Relique of Popery And if this be so then the whole Christian Church from the very first institution of it has been popishly affected for if we will allow the Apostles to have had an Episcopal Power and Authority we find no Christian Church without Bishops till the Reformation that is for 1500 Years and I confess I never thought Popery could have pleaded such Antiquity and early prescription That Supream and Soveraign Power which the Bishop of Rome challenges over all other Bishops and Secular Princes nay that uncontroulable Authority he challenges over the Laws of God and Institutions of our Saviour to change and alter them by his infallible Decrees when he pleases his absolute Power to forgive Sins and to dispose of Heaven and Hell is no doubt the Perfection of that Apostacy which was foretold should happen in the latter days and if our Bishops challenge any such Power to themselves I will own them to be Antichristian and Popish But we may see what admirable Reformers those are like to make who know not how to distinguish between an Apostolical Office and Antichristian Usurpations But the Common-Prayer Book is Popish I beseech you wherein as it is a Form of Prayer Then our Saviour taught Men Popery for he taught his Disciples to pray by a Form and the whole Book of Psalms must be ranck Popery which consists only of Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving composed for the use of the Temple But is there any Remains of Popish Worship in our Liturgy are there any Prayers to Saints or Angels or the Virgin Mary Are our Prayers concealed from us in an unknown Tongue Do we not understand what we say what Petitions we put up to God Do you find the Sacrifice of the Mass or any Reliques of it in our Liturgy Thanks be to God for our Reforming Bishops and Martyrs who purged our Worship from all these Abominations But the Common-Prayer Book is taken out of the Mass-Book and therefore it is but Popery still This I will in part grant but deny the Consequence for every thing in the Mass-Book was not Popery unless you will say that the Creed Ten Commandments and Lord's Prayer are parts of Popery The plain case is this You must consider the Church of Rome as a true Church corrupted and degenerated from its Primitive Institutions for we must acknowledg that the Church of Rome was not inferior in all Gifts and Graces to the most eminent Churches in the World in the Apostles days and several Ages after And therefore no wonder if in its greatest degeneracy it retained some small
afraid to speak evil of Dignities that is who did wilfully and obstinately oppose the Apostles of Christ who were invested with his Authority answerable to the Sin of those in the Jewish Church who set themselves up against Moses and Aaron and reproached the Rulers of the People and it is expresly called doing presumptuously not to hearken to the Priest that standeth to minister before the Lord. And therefore these Men are said to have forsaken the right way and are gone astray And whoever compares this Chapter with St. Iude's Epistle will find that St. Peter and S. Iude speak of the same Men for their Characters do exactly agree and of them S. Iude tells us these be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit And thus in the first Ages of Christianity no Men ever separated from the Communion of the Church but such gross Hereticks the several Sects of Gnosticks of whom Irenaeus and Epiphanius give us a large and particular account and for this reason the name Heresy which properly signifies a Sect or Separation came to be applied to corrupt and Heretical Doctrines which in those days were the only cause of Separations And we may find some remains of this ancient and original use of these words in after-ages for though Schism commonly was used in Church-Writers to signify Separation from Church-Communion and Heresy to signify false Doctrine yet separation from the Christian Church though it were only ocasioned upon a Dispute about Discipline without any other error in matters of Faith was called Heresy Thus St. Cyprian I remember calls the Schism of Novatianus Haereticam Pravitatem Heretical Impiety and in answer to that question of Antonianus Quam Haeresin Novatianus introduxisset What Heresy Novatianus was the Author of he alledges nothing but the breach of the Peace and Unity of the Church and says That we ought not curiously to enquire what he teaches who is out of the Church for whatever he be he is no Christian who is not in the Church of Christ. And thus Felicissimus and his adherents are called Haeretica Factio an Heretical Faction though the Schism was occasioned only by a Dispute of Discipline concerning the restoring the Lapsed to the Peace and Communion of the Church So that in St. Cyprian's time Separation from the Church without any other Error in the Fundamentals of Faith was called Heresy And though Heresy did most frequently signify corrupt Doctrine yet a meer error in Doctrine was not thought a compleat formal Heresy without such Wilfulness and Obstinacy as ended in Separation And therefore St. Austin describes Hereticks to be those who hold some false and corrupt Doctrines and when they are reproved in order to reduce them to truth and sobricty of Iudgment do obstinately resist and refuse to correct their poisonous and damnable Opinions but persist in defending them Thus they become Hereticks and going out of the Church become its enemies c. And this I take to be the meaning of this Father in that famed Saying Errare possum Hereticus esse nolo though he might err yet he would not be an Heretick that is that he would not so obstinately persist in the defence of any private Opinion in opposition to the received Doctrine of the Christian Church as to break the Communion of the Church upon that account Now if this were the Case that besides those Divisions among Christians in the same Communion which are called Schisms by St. Paul there were formal Separations from the Church of a much more heinous nature which none in those days were guilty of but those who renounced the purity of the Christian Doctrine if such Separations were always condemned in the Primitive Church as Heresy and Apostacy from Christianity though such Separatists were not guilty of any fundamental Error in Doctrines of Faith I see not what Dr. Owen gains by proving that Separation is no Schism when it appears to be a much greater evil And indeed if the Doctor will allow Schism to be a great evil when it signifies no more than Contentions and Quarrels in a Church any one would reasonably think that Separation from a Church should be a much greater Evil for Contentions and Quarrels are then come to their heighth and perfection when they make Friends Brethren and Confederates part company and it seems strange that less Quarrels should be a greater Evil than greater Quarrels unless he thinks it is with Schism as under the Law it was in the case of Leprosy that when the whole Body was over-spread with it the Leper was pronounced clean But the most material Inquiry here is What is a Publick Assembly for Religious Worship for our Dissenters meet as publickly now as the Church of England and therefore cannot be charged with forsaking Christian Assemblies and in times of Persecution the Primitive Christians met very privately in small numbers or in the night or very early in the morning to avoid the discovery of their Persecutors and yet such private and clandestine Meetings were not really Conventicles but publick Church-Assemblies Which is a plain Proof that it is not numbers nor meeting openly and publickly which makes a Church-Assembly but holding such Assemblies by the Publick Authority of the Church and in union with it As in the State when a great many People meet together without Publick Authority it is a Riot not a Legal Assembly Publick Places of Worship allowed by the Publick Authority of the Church is one thing which makes the Assemblies of Christians publick For the Primitive Christians allowed no separate Assemblies no Congregations but what met in the publick Church and therefore we find an express Canon in the Council of Gangra That if any shall take upon him out of the Church privately to preach at home and making light of the Church shall do those things which belong only to the Church without the presence of the Priest and the leave and allowance of the Bishops let him be Accursed So that Publick Worship is that Worship which is performed in Publick Churches or in case of necessity in other places by the allowance and appointment of the Publick Authority of Church and State and Separate Meetings which have no such allowance and authority must be Schismatical Conventicles unless they can prove the lawfulness and necessity of such a Separation for indeed nothing can make a Separation lawful but what makes it necessary II. This following Treatise consists of two Parts the first concerns those who wholly or for the most part absent themselves from the Publick Assemblies of Christians and these are of three sorts 1. Those who forsake Religious Assemblies out of prophaneness for want of a due sense of any Religion or in contempt of it 2. Those who forsake Religious Assemblies for want of a due sense of the necessity and advantage of Publick Worship who do not go to Church because they think they
and lay them aside again when they please but this seems to be a plain and easy way to satisfy our Consciences that since the Law of God is their Rule we must never scruple the lawfulness of any thing which is not either expresly forbid by God or by such evident and necessary consequence as every honest Man may discern without using any great skill and subtilty While Men do not judg of things by the Law of God but by arbitrary Rules of their own inventing or by Fancy and Humour Prejudice or Interest they may like or dislike just what they please and call it Conscience when they have done but the observing this one Rule would soon cure all Fanaticism and restore the Church to Peace and Unity To make the Scripture a perfect Rule not only of Faith and Manners and all the essential parts of Worship which we readily grant and prove against the Church of Rome but also of all external Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies when we find no such thing said in Scripture nor any such entire and perfect Form of Discipline and Worship prescribed in it is the true cause of all our Divisions and fills peoples heads with endless and infinite Scruples but to make the Commands and Prohibitions of Scripture the Rule of our Consciences and the certain measure and standard of what is lawful and unlawful so as neither to condemn nor scruple what is not forbid in Scripture would infallibly heal our Breaches and restore us to Peace with our selves and with one another Fourthly I observe further That neither a mistaken nor a scrupulous Conscience can justify our Disobedience to the Commands of our Superiors We may indeed oppose the Authority of God against any humane Power a Conscience informed and governed by the Divine Laws will not cannot ought not to stoop to the greatest Prince who commands any thing contrary to God's Law because the Power and Authority of God is most sacred and venerable absolute and supream but an erroneous mistaken doubting scrupulous Conscience in a word a Conscience which is not governed by the Laws of God is not armed with his Authority neither and therefore cannot justify our Disobedience to Princes for it is only the Opinion of a private Man and therefore cannot justify Disobedience to publick Authority Which shews us how necessary it is to inform our Consciences aright and to keep close to our Rule not to neglect any thing which God has commanded nor to do any thing which he has forbid and where God has not determined us by his Authority in those things which he has neither commanded nor forbid to submit our selves to our lawful Superiors for nothing but the Authority of God will justify our Disobedience to Humane Authority and where we cannot pretend God's Authority as we cannot in those things which are left undetermined it is a sin to disobey our Rulers though they be but Men. I shall not determine that Question now Whether a Man who is under some Doubts and Scruples ought not to obey his Governors notwithstanding those Scruples because he that doubts is only supposed not to be satisfied about the evil of the thing commanded but in the mean time he is certain that it is his Duty to obey his Superiors and therefore not being sure that he shall sin in obeying because he is not sure that what they command is sinful and being sure that he shall sin in disobeying them if their Commands be lawful and being withal under a necessity of doing one or t'other whether he ought not in prudence to take the sure side that is to wave his Scruples and obey his Prince I shall at present only observe this one thing without drawing any peremptory conclusion from it That Obedience to our Superiors is a plain and express Law and so the proper Rule of Conscience and therefore if what our Prince commands us be not forbid by as plain and express a Law as that is which commands our Obedience we seem to oppose our private and uncertain Opinions against the express Authority of God and chuse rather to follow our Consciences where they are not evidently directed by a Divine Law than where they are No Humane Authority must be set up against the Authority of God but a Divine Authority that is a Divine Law is a more certain Rule than private Opinions The sum of all is this That no Man acts out of true Principles of Conscience but he who keeps his Eye fixed upon his Rule who directs and governs his Conscience by the Law of God other Men live by their private Humors and Fancies are turned aside by every Novel and groundless Conceit And tho they may be pleased to call this Conscience yet it will not excuse them from the guilt of Schism if they divide the Church and rend themselves from the Body of Christ Conscience will never justify us but when we obey and observe our Rule Secondly Another Question I would propose to these Men is Whether they ever seriously consider the hainous nature of Schism Now there is great reason to ask this Question if we observe with what little consideration most Men engage themselves in it how wantonly they forsake the Communion of the Church as if it were perfectly indifferent whether they come to Church or go to a Conventicle as if it were no more than to leave their own Parish Church and go to another where there is a Preacher whom they like better It is plain that such Men as these never understood what Christian Unity is nor ever considered what the danger of Schism is that is that they have not acted honestly and sincerely in a Matter of such vast importance The Christian Church is represented in Scripture as one Body united to Christ who is the Head of his Church and the Saviour of the Body This St. Paul makes a powerful Argument to Unity endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all What does this Bond of Peace signify but the external Communion of the Christian Church when Christians live together as Members of the same Body and united to each other as the Members of the natural Body are by Nerves and Sinews For Christians are called one Body with respect to their external Communion which is represented in the Lord's Supper by their eating of one Bread as St. Paul argues The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread So that we become one Body by external visible Communion by being united into one Religious Society for the Worship of God and our mutual edification But speaking the
into them by degrees as they are able to bear it There is milk for babes and meat for strong men to understand the first principles of Christian knowledge is necessary to teach them to understand a Sermon which commonly supposes some competent knowledge in the principles of Christianity and the true reason why so few men understand Sermons or get any good by them is because they never well understood their Catechism The want of this careful instruction of Youth makes them so unstable and uncertain in their Religion when they come to be men This makes so many different Opinions and Sects of Religion that they are turned aside with every wind of doctrine that they are taken with every new phrase that they fall into such monstrous errors so destructive to the fundamentals of Christian faith for it is impossible a house should stand which has no foundation So that all men must acknowledge that it is very necessary that Children and Youth should be carefully instructed in the fundamental principles of Religion 2. I cannot suppose neither that any considering men should think there is no need of the assistance of the Ministers of Religion for the instruction of Youth this indeed is a duty which every Parent and Master of a Family is concerned in to instruct those who are under their care in the knowledge and fear of God but if they think their Minister able to instruct themselvs they cannot but think it reasonable to desire his assistance to instruct their Children They call in the assistance of men expert and skilful in several Arts to teach them those Arts which they profess though they have some skill themselves in them and there is nothing of such moment to them and nothing it may be more difficult than to be thoroughly instructed in Religion It requires great skill and such as every Learned Rabbi is not Master of to fit the principles of Christian knowledge to the capacity of Children and Youth The Articles of the Christian Faith contain the highest and most Seraphical Speculations that ever were taught by any Philosophy such as the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God who was conceived in the womb of a pure Virgin and came into the world in our nature and wrought miracles and dyed as a Sacrifice for sin and rose again from the dead and is now ascended up into Heaven in our nature and invested with great power and glory having all power given to him both in heaven and in earth a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father That when these earthly bodies shall dye and rot in the grave they shall be raised again at the last day incorruptible and glorious These are great sublime stupendious Mysteries and it requires no small skill to know how to teach such great and mysterious Doctrines to Children and Youth that they may so by degrees discover these Mysteries as neither to blind nor dazle their eyes with their brightness and lustre nor yet to remain wholly ignorant of them The thorough knowledge of Christianity is not so easily attained as some men imagine nor is every one who knows something himself fit to be a Teacher of others And therefore though I would earnestly exhort you all to use the best skill you have to instruct your Children and Servants yet this is no reason to withdraw them from publick instructions nor can any man who understands his Religion think he discharges his duty to God and the Church meerly by his private instruction of his family when he neglects or refuses to bring them to publick instructions 3. For he must consider that his Children and Servants who are baptized are members of the Christian Church and therefore ought to be subject to the instructions and discipline of it as far as their age and capacity will permit They do not only belong to his private care but to the publick care of the Church who is to provide for the instruction of her Children and to deny the Church liberty to instruct her Children or not to interpose their own authority to make them submit to it is to withdraw their Children from the Communion of the Church after a solemn dedication of them to God No good man can with patience think of being guilty of so great a sin which is a kind of Sacriledge as it respects God a degree of Schism from the Church and very injurious to his Childrens souls Especially considering that there is a more peculiar blessing attends the publick instructions of the Church for the same reason that God prefers publick before private Worship and is more peculiarly present in Christian Assemblies than in the families of private Christians and blesses the publick administrations of his Word before private counsels 4. Which may further convince us that the publick Catechizing of Children and Youth is not needless whatever good instructions they may have at home for besides what I have already observed that God does more peculiarly bless publick Institutions there are several advantages in it which I shall briefly represent 1. This will make them more careful to improve in knowledge when they know they must give an account of such improvements to the publick Congregations there will be an emulation between Youth who shall give the most manly and reasonable account of their faith and as they grow in years they will be ashamed to continue Children in understanding we see the effects of this shame and emulation in other matters and when it may be improved to such admirable advantage in this case if there were nothing more to recommend it it were a sufficient reason to all good men who desire the improvement and increase of Christian knowledge in the World to encourage and promote it 2. By this means the Church may take notice of the improvement of Youth in Christian knowledge which is necessary to their regular admission to higher acts of Communion Those who are baptized when they are Children ought not regularly to be admitted to the Lords Supper till they have been confirmed and to qualifie them for Confirmation it is necessary they should in some competent measure understand their Religion and be able to give a reasonable account of their faith and though indeed the Minister and Bishop may be satisfied in this by private examinations yet this is no satisfaction to the Congregation with whom they are to communicate any otherwise than as they relye upon the authority of their Minister but such young men will be received with a more universal applause and sincere joy to the Table of our Lord who have given such publick testimony of their improvements in Christian knowledge 3. Another advantage is that this trains up Children and Youth in a just respect