in reference to all sorts of persons and things under his Jurisdiction He may politically compel the outward man of all persons Church-Officers or others under his Dominions unto external performance of their respective Duties and Offices in matters of Religion punishing them if either they neglect to do their Duty at all or do it corruptly Thus they yield unto the Supream Magistrate a supream political power in all spiritual matters but they do not yield that he is the Fountain of spiritual power there being a spiritual power belonging to the Church if there were no Christian Magistrate in the world They assert only a spiritual power over the Conscience as intrinsecally belonging to the Church and acknowledge that no Decree or Canon of the Church can be a binding Law to the Subjects of any Kingdom under temporal penalties till it be ratified by the Legislative power of that Kingdome And they do not claim for the Convocation or any other Ecclesiastical Convention an Independency on Parliaments if they did surely the Parliament of England would resent such a Claim Section XIII There goes a voice that the Presbyterians are Antimonarchical But are their Principles inconsistent with Monarchy or any impeachment to the same These are contained in the character above-written let any of them be called into question and let Sentence be past upon them if they be found guilty but if no particular be herewith charged the reproach must pass for calumniation not accusation Peradventure the exact Presbytery that is the parity of degree and authority in all Ministers is that against which this charge is directed although this parity is not insisted upon or urged to the breach of peace neither is it essential to Presbytery yet what reason can be rendred why this may not comport with Kingly Government Or would this sort of men have no King to reign over them Doth a Re-publique better please them Did the English or Scottish Presbyters ever go about to dissolve Monarchy and to erect some other kind of Government In no wise for in the Solemn League and Covenant they bound themselves to endeavour the preservation of the Kings person and Authority and declared they had no intent to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness After the violent change of Government they came slowest and entred latest into those new Engagements imposed by the usurp'd Powers and some utterly refused even to the forfeiture of their preferments and the hazard of their livelihoods when the Nation in general submitted to the yoke and many of those who thus object against them did in temporizing run with the foremost The truth is the generality of Conscientious Presbyterians never ran with the current of those times Some more eminent among them Ministers and others hazarded their lives and others lost their lives in combining to bring our Soveraign that now is to the rightful possession of this His Kingdom And those in Scotland adventured no more then all to uphold him and when He lost the day they lost their Liberty and when He fell it was said by the Adversary Presbytery was fallen I have known when keeping company with the chief Presbyterian Ministers hath been objected by the Republican Council of State for a crime causing Imprisonment Lastly the Presbyterians by their influence first divided and then dissipated the Sectarian party and so made way for his Majesties Return in peace And it is acknowledged by some eminent on the Episcopal side that the sence of the Covenant hath lately quickned many mens Consciences in their Allegiance to the King so as to bring him with David home in infinite joy and triumph All which do shew plainly that they are not averse from Regal Government or the Royal Family but they desire to dwell under the shadow of our dread Soveraign hoping to renive as the Corn and to grow as the Vine under his gracious influence Peradventure it is said they would enervate Monarchy and render it too impotent Surely I cannot finde the rise of this Objection unless from hence that they were not willing to come under any yoke but that of the Laws of the Realm or to pay arbitrary Taxes levied without consent of Parliament I confess there are none that more reverence their Liberties and value the native happiness of the free born Subjects of England And verily their true knowledge and sense of the nature of Christian Religion makes a due freedom exceeding precious For this Religion is not variable according to the will of man but grounded upon an unchangeable and eternall truth and doth indispensibly binde every Soul high and low to one divine law and rule perpetual and unalterable And therefore it doth strongly plead the expedience of a due civil liberty on the behalf of its Professors yet such a liberty as will not infeeble Monarchy nor the legal power of the Kings of England And without controversie a King ruling a free people hath a power much more noble and more free then he that ruleth over perfect Vassals that hath no Propriety The power is more noble because it hath a more noble subject of Government it is more honourable to rule men then beasts and Free men then Slaves Likewise the power is more free For whatsoever Prince hath not his power limited by his peoples legal freedom he will be bound up some other way either by the potency of subordinate Princes and great Lords within the Realm or by a veterane Army as the Turkish Emperour by his Janizaries and the Roman Caesars by the Pretorian Bands and the Legions Upon which account to be a powerful Monarch over a free people is the freedom and glory of our Soveraign Lord above all the Potentates on earth Section XIV But Rebellion and Disobedience is the loud out-cry of some against this party And this were a crying sin indeed But let not sober minds be hurried into prejudice by such exclamations and out-cries It were to be wished for common peace and amity that the late public discords were eternally forgotten But seeing some in these times of expected Reconciliation will not cease to implead and condemn the honest minded and render them odious to the higher Powers a necessity is laid upon us to speak something Apologetical at least to mitigate the business and remove prejudice The Presbyterian party in England never engaged under a less Authority than that of both Houses of Parliament I have read that the Parliament of England hath several capacities and among the rest these two First that it represents the people as Subjects and so it can do nothing but manifest their grievances and petition for relief Secondly that by the constitution it hath part in the Soveraignty and so it hath part in the legislative power and in the final judgment Now when as a part of the Legislative Power resides in the two Houses as also a power to redress grievances and to call into question all Ministers of State and Justice and all
Subjects of whatsoever degree in case of Delinquency it might be thought that a part of the supream power doth reside in them though they have not the honorary Title And this part of the supream power is indeed capable of doing wrong yet how it might be guilty of Rebellion is more difficult to conceive In this high and tender point it belongs not to me to determine And as touching the much debated point of resisting the higher powers without passing any judgement in the great Case of England I shall only make rehearsal of the words of Grotius a man of Renown and known to be neither Anti-monarchical nor Anti-prelatical which are found in his Book de jure belli pacis by himself dedicated to the French King Si Rex partem habeat summi Imperii partem alteram populus aut Senatus Regiin partem non suam involanti vis just a opponi poterit quia eatenus imperium non habet Quod locum habere censeo etiamsi dictum sit belli potestatem penes Regem fore Id enim de bellâ— externo intelligendum est cum alioqui quisquis imperii summi partem habeat non possit non jus habere eam partem tuendi lib. 1. c. 4. s. 13. With reverence to Soveraign Majesty I crave leave to speak this word of truth and soberness In a knowing age flattery doth not really exalt or secure the Royal Prerogative the Authority of Parliaments being depressed and undervalued is the more searched into and urged Concerning the utmost bounds and limits of Royal Prerogative and Parliamentary Power the Law in deep wisedom chuseth to keep silence for it always supposeth union not division between King and Parliament Wherefore the overstraining on either hand let all men forbear His Majesties wisedom and goodness and his peoples obedience and loyalty in all ways of mutual satisfaction will best secure His Prerogative and their Liberty Moreover as to the point of Loyalty now in question the subversion of the Fundamental Government of this Kingdome could not be effected till those Members of Parliament that were Presbyterian were many of them imprisoned others forcibly secluded by the violence of the Army and the rest thereupon withdrew from the House of Commons For they had voted the Kings Concessions a ground sufficient for the Houses to proceeed to settle the Nation and were willing to cast whatsoever they contended for upon a legal security In those times the Presbyterian Ministers of London in their publick vindication thus declare themselves We profess before God Angels and Men that we verily believe that that which is so much feared to be now in agitation the taking away of the life of the King in this present way of Tryal is not only not agreeable to the Word of God the Principles of the Protestant Religion never yet stained with the least drop of the blood of a King or the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom but contrary to them as also to the Oath of Allegiance the Protestation of May 5. 1641. and the Solemn League and Covenant from all which or any of which Engagements we know not any Power on earth able to absolve us or others And in conclusion they warn and exhort men to pray for the King that God would restrain the violence of men that they may not dare to draw upon themselves and the Kingdome the blood of their Soveraign Let prudent men weigh things in the ballance of Reason Is there any thing in the nature of Prelacy that frames the mind to obedience and loyalty or is there any thing in the nature of Presbytery that inclines to rebellion and disobedience If Loyalty be the innate disposition of Prelacy how comes it to pass that in ancient times and for a series of many ages the Kings of England have had such tedious conflicts with Prelates in their Dominions If Presbytery and Rebellion be connatural how comes it to pass that those States or Kingdomes where it hath been established or tolerated have for any time been free from broyls and commotions or that Presbyterians have never disclaimed or abandoned their lawful Prince that they have never ceased to sollicite and supplicate his regards and favour even when their power hath been at the highest and his sunk lowest yea that they have suffered themselves rather to be trodden under foot then to comply with men of violence in changing the Government Let us further examine are the persons that adhere to Prelacy more conscientious in duty to God and man then those that affect Presbytery Are the former only sober just and godly and the latter vicious unrighteous prophane Certainly if it hath been the lot of the one for a time to comply more with Kings then the other hath done it ariseth not from any peculiar innate disposition of the one or the other but somthing extrinsecal and accidental and what that may be let prudent men make their own observations Section XV. Their principles whose cause is now pleaded if faithfully received and kept will make good men and good Christians and therefore cannot but make good subjects When men have learned to fear God they will honour the King indeed and none are more observant of righteous Laws then they that are most a law to themselves yea their pattern and practice will be a law to many others and consequently a main help to civil Government in a Christian Nation Whosoever they be that teach blind obedience Presbyterians teach faith and holiness as also obedience active in all lawful things and passive in things unlawful injoyned by the higher power In the late distracted times the publick State was out of frame always ready to fall asunder the minds of people were unquiet and unsetled those that held the power could never gain half that awful regard and reverence which was given to Kings Nobles and men of Authority in former times Nevertheless prophaness intemperance revellings out-rages and filthy lewdness were not at any time in the memory of the present age held under more restraint Surely some special reason may be rendred why in such want of publick Order there should not be a greater disorder in mens lives and manners then at other times which I conceive is manifest to wit that by means of a practical Ministery more thick set throughout the Nation knowledge and restraining grace did more abound and the orderly walking of religious persons did keep others more within compass and withal strictness of life was not openly derided under the name of Puritanism Those places where Presbyterian Ministers had the greatest influence were evidently the most reformed and civiliz'd for which cause they were so much hated by men of loose principles and dissolute lives Whereupon we affirm boldly That those for whom we plead must needs be good Subjects to a Christian King and good members of a Christian Common-wealth Section XVI Neither are they wandring Stars a people given to change fit to overturn
offensive and groaning more and more under that yoke of bondage as they coneeived they waited for deliverance and were in the main of one soul and spirit with the Non-Conformists And even then the way called Puritanism did not give but get ground But now the Tenents of this way are rooted more then ever and those things formerly imposed are now by many if not by the most of this way accounted not only burthensom but unlawfull And after a long time of search and practice the mindes of men are fixed in this opinion and are not like to be reduced to the practice of former times and therefore in al reason the imposing of such matters of controversie as by so many are held unlawfull and by those that have a zeal for them judged indifferent not necessary cannot procure the peace of Church and Kingdom Section IX That this numerous party will not vary from its self or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents doth hence appear in that it doth not rest upon any private temporary variable occasion but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting Those forementioned Principles of science and practice which give it its proper Being are of that firm and fixed nature that new contingencies will not alter them nor length of time wear them out They are the great things of God which have a great power over the spirit of man And they are imbraced by such as highly prize them not for temporal advantages whereof they have no appearance but for an internal excellency discerned in them as being necessary to the glory of God and the salvation of men And consequently to these men it is not satisfactory at all adventures to be of the State-Religion or to believe as the Church believes Neither will they be dissolved or much weakned by the declining haply of some principall Ones who being bought off by preferment may turn prevaricators For notwithstanding such a falling off the inward spirit that actuates the whole body of them and knits them to each other will remain in full strength and vigour And though many others through weakness or mildness should stagger and give ground in the points of lesser moment and more controverted yet the root of the matter may remain in them and as to the main they may be still where they were But what are those great things for which this sort of men contend Surely they are no other then the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel the upholding of all Divine Institutions particularly the strict observation of the Lords day a laborious and efficacious Ministry taking hold of the Conscience and reaching to the heart a godly Discipline correcting true and real scandals and disobedience in a word all the necessary and effectual means of unfained faith and holy life that the Kingdom of God may come in power And for these things sake they are alienated from the height of Prelacy and the pomp of Ceremonious Worship This was well known and provided against by the swaying part of the later Prelatists For in as much as they could not quell the Puritans by the rigid injunction of Conformity that they might give a blow at the root Lectures were suppressed afternoon Sermons on the Lords day prohibited under pretence of Catechizing which was only a bare rehearsal of the Form of Catechism for Children without explication or application of those principles a Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyned to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation sundry superstitious Innovations introduced a new Book of Canons composed and a new oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforced Far be it from me to impute these things to all that were in Judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations Nevertheless those others that were most vehement active watchful vigorous did not by all the aforesaid means advance but rather weaken their Cause and lessen themselves in the esteem of observing men and the oppressed party increased in number and vigour It is therefore evident that this Interest for which we plead is not like a Meteor which after a while vanisheth away but is of a solid and firme consistence like a fixed Constellation And the injuries done unto it are not of that nature as to be acted once and for all and then to pass into the grave of oblivion but they are lasting pressures to a perpetual regret and grievance And should not these be done away especially when the occasions thereof wil be found not necessary but superfluous Section X. There remaineth yet some greater thing which strikes deep into this Enquiry which at the first glance perhaps may seem a fancy but by impartial judgement will be found a manifest and weighry truth namely that as this Interest will never vary from its self so it will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant I do not now argue from Maximes of Faith and Religion as that the life and power of Christianity shall never fail that after the greatest havock of the true Church there will be a remnant a seed that shall spring up to a great increase after a little season but I have here entred upon a way of reason and let men of Reason judge Suppose that the Persons now in being of this strict profession were generally ruined and rooted out yet let but the Protestant Doctrine as it is by Law established in the Church of England be upheld and preached and it will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other then the life and power of that Doctrine as it is not onely received by tradition education example or any humane authority but also imprinted upon the spirit by a lively energy and operation And this I further say and testifie let but the free use of the Holy Bible be permitted to the common people and this generation of men will spring up afresh by the immortall seed of the Word For that pure spiritual and heavenly Doctrine pressing internal renovation or the new Birth and the way of holy singularity and circumspection and being written with such Authority and Majesty must needs beget though not in the most yet in may a disposition and practise in some sort thereunto conformable This is evident in reason if it be granted that the sacred Scriptures are apt to make deep and strong Impressions upon the minds of men And whosoever denies this as he is in point of Religion Atheistical so of Understanding bruitish For even those impious Politicians who in heart make no account of Religion yet will make shew of giving reverence to it because it is alwaies seen to have a mighty influence upon men of all ranks and degrees Wherefore upon the grounds aforesaid I hold it a matter of unquestionable Verity that the way in scorn called Puritanism will never utterly sink unto Protestantism it self shal fail
every Town and Parish and almost in all mixed companies and occasional Meetings But let the propounded Accommodation be accepted and established and the former mutual injuries will pass into forgetfulness and persons formerly engaged against each other will be able to look one another in the face without provocation and new quarrels Where is our Charity and regard to publick tranquility if we reject the sure and only means of Concord Section XXIII Uniformity in Religion is beautiful and amiable but we ought to consider not only what is desirable but what is attainable There have been are and always will be such points as the Apostle tearms doubtful disputations When the severity of Laws and Canons inforce external Uniformity in things of this nature it exerciseth a tyranny over mens judgments and holds them in a servile condition that they are not free but captivated to the Authority of men or suppressed from making a due search into matters of Religion yea this thraldom will inevitably reach to things of an higher nature even the vital parts of Christianity That servile Principle which hath the heart of Popery in it must be introduced to wit that the Laity should not search the Scriptures nor try the Doctrines delivered but acquiesce in what their Teachers say without the Exercise of their own reason or judgment of discretion Hereupon will follow gross ignorance and supine carelesness in the things of God and in those that any whit mind Religion which is the best of the matter a blind devotion And a people rude and servile in Religion will be rude and dissolute in Conversation as we see in Popish Countries and in all places where spiritual tyranny prevaileth This is so great an evil that it cannot be countervailed by all the imaginable benefit of Uniformity And the truth is all profitable Uniformity is mingled with sobriety and stands not in an indivisible point but admits a latitude and by a little variety in matters of lesser moment becomes more graceful because it is more unstrained and unaffected Section XXIV It is a chief point of knowledge in those whose work it is to mould and manage a Nation according to any order of things to undrestand what is the temper of the people what Principles possess and govern them or considerable Parties of them and to what pass things are already brought among them Those who duly observe and regard the disposition and present State of England and the principles and affections of the several considerable Parties will be able to give the best advice for a happy settlement For such a course as is wisely and succesfully taken in one Nation may in the like business prove unfortunate in another Nation or in the same at another time A State may probably root out such opinions as it conceives to be heterodox and inconvenient by using great severity in the beginning when the opinions are but newly sowed in mens minds and the people are of such a nature as to abhor dangers and aim to live securely and when the Nation in general is devoted to the ancient customs of their fore-fathers But the same course may not be taken when the opinions have been deeply rooted and far spread by long continuance in a Nation of a free spirit and zealous and the generality of those that in a Law sence are called Cives do not detest them At this day England affords a multitude of Episcopal Zealots and a multitude of Presbyterian Zealots balancing the former and between these two there lye a more indifferent sort of people whereof a great number care for none of these things but others are more intelligent and considerate and these seem to approve some things and again to disapprove some things on either side As far as I have observed the indifferent sort of men do accord with the Episcopal way in affecting the Common-Prayer-Book and those among them that are of any reckoning for worth or honesty do also according to the Presbyterian way affect the constant preaching of the Word and the residency of Ministers in their Parochial Charges and disaffect plurality of Benefices Knowledge hath so increased that the people in general will more observe their Teachers Doctrine and conversation and the impertinencies of the one and the irregularities of the other shall not pass without noting The insufficient idle and scandalous will fall into contempt and be slighted by the common people The profanation of the Lords Day by open sports and pastimes is by the Civil part of the Nation accounted scandalous Furthermore the present Age being more discerning all sorts affect a greater liberty of Judgment and Discourse then hath been used in former times Whereupon the State of this Kingdom requires a temper or medium between two extreams to wit medium abnegationis in those unnecessary things wherein no accord can be expected between the Parties by abolishing or not injoyning them and medium participationis in things necessary to Order and Government wherein the moderate of both Parties do easily comply with each other When the State like a prudent Mother not led by the passions of her angry Children shall not engage in their quarrels on this or that side but settle such a temperament for their common good love and peace may ensue between the Parties though difference of judgment still remains When the Nation shall not espouse to it self the Interest of a party but intirely reserve it self for the good of the Universality those hot disputes and contests will of themselves fall to the ground and men of different judgments will be less fond of their own opinions when they observe that the State doth not judge its happiness to rest upon any of them and that the welfare of the Church and Kingdom consists without them Section XXV This Kingdom after the removing of foundations is by a marvellous turn re-established upon its ancient basis And verily that which hath wrought the change will settle it that which hath brought such things to pass will keep them where they are if we do not overlook and sleight it And what was it but the consent of the universality the Vote of all England This did produce an universal motion exceeding vehement but not violent For it was not against but according to nature All things having been out of place and held in a state preternatural when the force was taken off moved to their center and place of rest to wit the ancient fundamental constitution And for this cause the change was not terrible but calm kindly and unbloody Now as that natural inclination which carries things to their resting place will keep them there untill by violence they are forced thence so this consent of the universality which produced a kindly motion of all things to settle in their own place and order upon the right foundation will keep them there until such external force shall come as can break and dissipate the universality Wherefore seeing this great revolution
Party which cannot be rooted out but will be always considerable either as friends or enemies especially when those tearms do comprise some part of their victory that should accept them Let the Episcopal Clergy observe the spirit of the Nation and the condition of the Times that they may rightly comprehend the measure of their own hopes The English are a generous Nation and as they delight in the Majesty and Glory of their King so also in the splendid condition of subordinate Governours that their manner of living be in some sort conformable to the dignity and opulency of the Nation Accordingly they seem to take pleasure that the Ecclesiastical State be upheld by a fair Revenue and competent Dignity yet with moderation For if the Clergy do rise to Princely or Lordly wealth and power they may become the envy of the Nobility and Gentry Let them remember they stand by Grace not by their own strength but by their Prince His Favour The Nation in general may be taken with a grave and masculine decency in all Sacred things sutable to their spiritual Majesty but I make a Question whether in this noon-tide of the Gospel they will fall in love with excessive gaudiness pompous shews and various affected gestures in Sacred Administrations and not rather esteem them vanities too much detracting from the dignity and purity of Gospel-Worship In this noon-tide of the Gospel the Bishops cannot magnifie their Office but by other courses then what were taken in former and darker times Meer formalities will no longer dazle our eyes We shall think they have work of an higher nature then to look only to the observation of outward Forms and Rites ann Ceremonies they must make a nearer approach to the Presbyterian practice in the constant Preaching of the Word in the strict observation of the Lords Day in keeping a true watch over the Flock and in correcting the real scandals that break forth in mens conversations And if they walk in these paths the Prelatists and Presbyterians will not be far asunder Perhaps the friends of Prelacy may imagine that in this coalition Presbytery may at length undermine Episcopacy but reason shews that Episcopacy will stand more firm in conjunction with Presbytery then by it self alone In the body natural there is some predominant humour as sanguine cholerick melancholy or phlegmatick yet none of these do subsist alone without the mixture of the rest in a due temperament In like manner the Body Ecclesiastical may be of several complexions or constitutions as Episcopal or Presbyterial according to the predominant quality Now if the Presbyterian Churches would become more firm and stable by the superintendency of one grave President and the truth is in all Presbyteries there appeareth some Episcopacy either formal or vertual so an Episcopal Church may be judged more firm and stable by a Bishops superintendency in consociation with assistant Presbyters And to remove the fear of the incroachments of Presbytery it is easie to discern that Episcopacy if it contains it self within moderate bounds will be always in this National Church the predominant quality In the Conclusion of this Discourse let me offer these few Essayes concerning the pathes of peace Section XLV The glorifying and pleasing of the highest Potentate and universal Monarch and the eternal happiness of immortal precious souls are the most noble and blessed ends of Government Let his Majesties Reign be happy and glorious in attaining these ends A Christian King esteems it the excellency of his regal Power to hold and manage it as the servant of Jesus Christ to be a Protector of the true Church the Body of Christ the Lambs wife for whose redemption Christ dyed and for whose gathering and perfecting the world is continued It is the Character of this true Church to make the holy Scriptures the perfect rule of their faith and life to worship God in spirit and in truth according to the power and spiritual worship of the Gospel to walk by the rule of the new Creature in spiritual mortification and crucifixion to the world to study holinesse in sincerity to strive to advance it in themselves and others and to have influence upon others unto sound knowledge faith humility godlinesse justice temperance charity The true Church lies in the middle between two extreams Formalists and Fanaticks They are of circumspect and regular walking no way forward in attempting or desiring alterations in a civil State A Prince doth hold them in obedience under a double bond For they know they must needs be subject not onely for wrath but for conscience sake Indeed we will not conceal that in lawful wayes they assert that liberty which is setled by the known Laws and fundamental Constitutions the maintaining whereof is the Princ's as much as the Peoples safety Section XLVI That being the happiest politie that is founded in true Religion and most fully suited to mens everlasting concernments it greatly behoveth Governors to mark and avoid those things which bring Religion into contempt and tend to the increase of Atheism and infidelity The many various Sects and absurd opinions and fancies and pretended Revelations of these latter times have much lessened the reverence of Religion in England This is a great evil and much observed and decryed by the present times There is another evil no less injurious to the honour and estimation of Christian piety to wit Ceremonial strictness with real prophaness or at the most but lukewarmness in the real part of Religion And this is the true state of the Papacy by occasion whereof Atheists have so abounded in Italy Machiavel observes in his time that Christianity was no where less honoured then in Rome which is the pretended Head thereof Let this evil be seen prevented and remedied that the sacred name of the Church be given to a society not carnal but truly spiritual according to that of the Apostle We are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Section XLVII It is the preheminence of His Majesty as General Bishop of the Land for so He is in a political sence to visit His people of all ranks by His prudent inspection And it is worthy of His chiefest care and search to know whether every Pastor be resident with his own Flock and doth constantly on every Sabbath teach them the good Knowledge of God what Pluralists do seize upon several Congregations thrusting or barring out laborious Ministers and leaving the sheep in the hands of one who is a meer mercinary and careth not for them whether Preaching in Cathedral Churches be more frequent since the reviving of Deans and Chapters then before when those places were supplied by one or two stipendiary Ministers whether the Precincts of Cathedrals be the purest parts of the Land and the Members thereof the purest parts of the Clergy as in reason they ought to be In all His Majesties superintendency there is