Apostles were not permitted to the Judgment of Church Officers only as they were able to inform themselves out of the Scriptures but were as undoubtedly settled by the Apostles themselves Personally where themselves had propagated their Doctrine and therefore as agreeably to their minds as if it had been expressed in the Scripture it self and accordingly those Primitive Authors on whose Credit alone we can be rationally assured of the Books of the Scriptures themselves were as confident that what they could thus make out from such Practices instituted by the Apostles was as agreeable to the Apostles mind as what was written by them and were as confident that several of these Practices were indeed derived from the Apostles as they were that several of these Books which they have recommended to us were written by them And because the usefullness of Arguments deduced from Scripture-Consequences is generally owned by that sort of Adversaries with whom I am at present dealing But yet I do not intend to make use of any other Arguments for clearing the design of the Scriptures in these Particulars but such as are in Prudence most proper for discovering it and such as were in all likelyhood made use of by those then living for whose use the Scripture was Primarily written either plain Consequences or plain Correspondencies to those Patterns from which they were Originally derived and Notorious and Vniversally-received Practices then prevailing And certainly if the Holy Ghost had any design to be understood by them he must have expressed himself so as that the Sense which he saw them inclinable to conclude from the use of those Means they were likely to Judge most Prudent must have been that which was intended by himself and it cannot be reasonable for us to fear that We should be misguided by those means now by which they were securely conducted then The distinct Proof of these Particulars I shall endeavour as they fall in with the principal design of my following Discourse not being willing to be more tedious than my Subject will necessarily Oblige me § LII BUT as that Noble Society which has intitled our Nation to the Honour of being the first that has carried on a Publick design for the Reformation of Natural Philosophy and rendring it useful for material purposes in Humane Conversation have now unanimously agreed on it as the most Prudent Course for erecting a rational solid Hypothesis first to inform themselves accurately of the Phaenomena by a Natural History Prudently collected and Credibly attested so the like Method of adjoyning Historical Experiments to our other Informations in Order to our passing an accurate Judgment of the whole must needs be of Universal use in all kind of knowledge which is only Probable and Conjectural and a posteriori but more especially in matters of Practice and even among them yet more especially in such as depend on Arbitrary Institution as matters of Government generally do Nor will it only be a pleasing entertainment to the Reader in affairs of this nature to find the Principles so exactly agreeable to Practice and Experience and the Reasons so illustrated by all the stages and Periods of History even where there could be nothing to reconcile them but the intrinsical agreeableness of their natures but a very solid Argument for mutually proving both the Reason and the History For as it will appear that the Practice of that Power cannot be excepted against as unfit to be proposed to us as a Precedent when it is found agreeable to the Principles of the Government so it must needs be a very strong Conviction that those Principles of the Government are genuine and natural which exactly are found Answerable to all its justifiable Practices It is certain that the true Hypothesis whatever that be must necessarily be supposed agreeable with all its Iustifiable Practices and though it may be possible that a false one may be so too yet neither is it likely that it should be false which is found to do so and if it were yet it will serve our purpose for the direction of our Practices which is all for which we are concerned in its Truth so well as that our mistake cannot prove Prejudicial to us and we may therefore as confidently rely on it as ordinarily Astronomers do on their Hypotheses of the Heavens in their Calculations for which they have no better security Besides this way of Proceeding will mutually supply each others defectiveness For as there are some things so clear in Reason and express Testimony as that by them we may be able to Judge concerning Practices whose allowableness or unlawfullness is not so clear from the Histories by which they are delivered to us so on the other side there are some Practices of whose allowableness we may be better assured from their Histories than by the Antecedent Evidence of those Principles on which they are immediately grounded so that from both a much more intire account may be expected concerning this whole affair than from either singly This is the reason that has induced me to divide my Discourse accordingly into two Parts the Rational and Historical For I conceived it more convenient thus to consider them distinctly than to mix them together both that I might thus confine them within more Legible limits and because in a Discourse of this nature wherein a Series of Principles is indeavoured the very Interruption which must have been occasioned by so frequent Digressions must needs hinder the Reader from discerning the closeness of the Discourse In this former Part I keep close to my Method and am more solicitous to prove my Assertions and to prevent any Adversaries Exceptions than to make formal Answers to every one particularly which will be very easy to any who has understood my Principles but I do not intend to neglect any thing that I conceive considerable and to multiply words concerning such things as upon my stating of the Question appear to be plain misunderstandings of it I cannot conceive likely to prove grateful to the Intelligent Reader In the later I intend not only to shew that by the Notion of Shism which was condemned for such in the first and purest Ages our Separating Brethren cannot be excused from its Guilt but also that the several Principles on which I ground it were owned by them and are certainly agreeable to the sense of the Apostles Separation of Churches from EPISCOPAL Government as Practised by the NON-CONFORMISTS Proved Schismatical c. CHAP. I. Less security of Salvation out of the Episcopal Communion than in it sufficient to oblige to submit to all unsinful Conditions of continuing in it THE CONTENTS 1. That for proving our Obligation to enter into the Communion of the visible Church it is not requisite to prove that we must otherwise be excluded from all hopes of Salvation but it is abundantly sufficient to make it appear that we cannot be otherwise so well assured of it This proved as to
from the provisional constitutions of the standing Government especially where they confirmed their Mission by signs as these generally did but also from most of the commands of the Law it self I do not know whether any command was excepted save that of Idolatry and the perpetual obligation of their Law and every precept of it Otherwise a Prophet might require the breach of any one precept that of Idolatry excepted so it were but for a time and this seems to have been the sense of the Jews of that Age if we may trust the modern Jews for the sense of their Ancestors Maimonid Fund Leg. c. 9. And I need not warn how much the new Converts to Christianity were then generally possessed with the Notions of the Jews whom they had deserted § XXIII ACCORDINGLY we find those strange disorders intimated in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which the Apostles were at length necessitated to reform by the exercise of Government but it was late before they attempted it not till the disorders grew intolerable and then they proceeded by slow degrees so hard it was to prevail on the contrary pretensions When St. Pauls first Epistle to the Corinthians was written many of the Prophets spoke at the same time as it should seem the Apostles and their companions did on the day of Pentecost the Women also prophesied and that publickly in the Church and they who had the gift of Tongues exercised it in the publick also without Interpeters and behaved themselves so extravagantly as that the Apostle himself tells them that an unbeliever coming among them would think them all mad These notorious and great disorders in their Synaxes make me apt to think that at that time at least they had no visible Government at all among them Which conjecture seems methinks the more likely because the Apostle in the address of this Epistle takes no notice of the Bishops and Deacons as he does elsewhere where there were any and as it was the general custom of those times in writing to Bodies to make their address particularly to the heads of the Bodies where there were such and because he blames the Corinthians for not mourning that the incestuous Person might be taken from among them which they needed not to have done if themselves had power of exercising Discipline upon him and because he expresly empowers them to meet together with his Spirit both for the Excommunication and Absolution of the incestuous Corinthian and ratifies their proceedings in that matter with his own approbation that to whomsoever they forgave any thing he forgave it also § XXIV AND therefore when the celebration of the Eucharist is mentioned among them I am to suspect that it was not performed by ordinary Presbyters but by Persons extraordinarily inspired who undertook that part of the Ecclesiastical Office as they did others also by vertue of this extraordinary Call This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in the xivth Chapter 1 Cor. xiv 16 Otherwise when thou blessest with the Spirit how shall he that supplieth the place of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks Apol. 2. Matt. xxv◠26 Mark xiv 22 Luk. xxii 19 1 Cor. xi 24 Matt. xxvi 27 Mark xiv 23 1 Cor. x. 16 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in Justin Martyrs time a term of Art for this Sacrament and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or blessing is used Synonymously with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew and St. Mark is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke and St. Paul and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew and St. Mark is expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul And in Justins time Amen was answered in that Office by the People just as we here find that it was answered by him that supplied the place of the unlearned And by the expectation of this answer of the People to it and by the other offices with which it was joyned it seems rather to have been a part of the Ecclesiastical office than otherwise If it had not been part of the Ecclesiastical Office how had the unlearned been obliged to say Amen to it How had he been obliged to use an Interpreter in it for the edification of the Church For that the Apostle seems plainly to mean in that whole Chapter by doing any thing in the Spirit the doing the same thing in an unknown tongue which they who were supposed to do it without the Spirit did in a tongue commonly understood Thus it is most accurately opposed to the doing a thing with understanding § XXV NOR did this reason hold only for hindring the exercise of Government where there was no other settlement but these occasional extraordinary Dictates of the Spirit to uncertain Members but even after the settlement of certain known Ecclesiastical Officers It is certain that this same Church of Corinth had such Officers when St. Clement wrote his Epistle to them And yet even then they who were guilty of the Schism which occasioned his writing that Epistle were encouraged to resist their Superiors by their pretensions to these gifts and that notwithstanding the Apostle himself had so long before warned them of the obligation of such Persons themselves to submit to order and the constitution of Officers among them had plainly enough signified his mind that he intended them for Judges of those Rules which were requisite for order At least this reason of condescension lasted so long if not as these gifts lasted yet till the Apostles Authority was generally received without control and till the Apostles had declared their judgments expresly in this matter that even these extraordinary gifts should be under the restraint of the ordinary Governours of the Church and till this their declaration had reached the cognizance of the whole Church universally and till men had withal some respite given them for wearing out gradually their preconceived opinions to the contrary as we find that Rule of Prudence generally observed by the Apostles to allow them respit in such Cases These reasons will at least concern those times of which the Scripture History gives us an account and will therefore concern all the Text by them insisted on in those times § XXVI I HAVE the rather particularized all these reasons of condescension in those times that our Brethren may understand the unreasonableness of the way they have hitherto insisted on for knowing the original extent of Ecclesiastical Authority For if the Apostles were of themselves so careful to condescend to the weaknesses of their new Converts if withal there were then so many reasonble inducements to perswade them to this condescension it must then be reasonable to expect that their actual practice must have fallen short of their just right and therefore that their way of arguing from the non-appearance of a precedent then to deny a right now is in it self extremely weak though we had all the Records
on the Persons who were to be tryed Though it is also very observable that even in that Age wherein these extraordinary means were used yet because they were not evident to any but them to whom they were made at least not certainly therefore even then they were not intended immediately for the Multitude but for the satisfaction of the Ordeiners who when they were themselves by these means informed of the qualifications of the Persons to be ordeined then invested them with the Powers So that as it is most probable even then that it was not their gifts of which these extraordinary discoveries were only testimonies but the Solemnities of this investiture that immediately gave them the Power it self so it is much more certain that in this way of proceeding the judgment of the ordeiners concerning the sufficiency of these evidences and the testimony given by them by the act of ordination it self were even then the only assurances by which the vulgar were enabled to judg concerning the Authority of any who were placed over them even by God himself And therefore in this way of tryal none could be presumed to have Authority from God but they whom the ordinary Governours judged to have received it Which will as to all intents of Practice oblige them to as near a dependence on the ordinary Governours of the Church as if they had received their Authority from those Governours themselves And certainly the reason will be much more cogent to oblige them to a dependence on Governours who can make out no better a title to the Call it self than what they can receive from the Governours than those who might pretend that their obligation to depend on them was only for their approbation in the exercise of the Authority committed to them not for deriving the Authority it self These if their pretence was true could only be punished for the disorderliness of their proceeding but they who derive their Power not from any supernatural gifts received by them antecedently to their ordination but from their ordination it self must expect that their proceedings be not only disorderly but invalid if they presume to exercise any Divine Authority not received by Ordination § VIII HENCE therefore I infer 4. That God did leave them to those ordinary means of judging concerning the right of their Governours which had been usual among them in judging concerning their secular Governours These were best suited to vulgar understanding that they might the same way judg of the title of their Spiritual Governours by which even they had been used and often been obliged to judg of the title of their secular Governours and the better such means are suited to popular understandings by so much they must prove more serviceable to the great end of Government They must have been more easily applicable to this particular design of Government than any new means that could have been introduced for this purpose and it is always to be presumed that all prudent Governours would rather make use of present means than any other if they may withal serve their ends as well In such a Case the very avoiding innovation is a very considerable advantage of such a means above any other Besides it was to be presumed that these were the means intended if no express provision was made for any other For we are to consider the present customs and Notions of that Age as the matter of their Revelations to be reformed where they were amiss and to be assured where they were uncertain especially where the Subject was of consequence And therefore where something was necessary to be practised and no new order was taken for the introduction of any thing new there it was most natural to presume that Christ did not think fit to make any alteration and therefore that he was pleased with what was already received § IX CERTAINLY we have reason to believe that this was most likely to be the reasoning of that Age and therefore if it had been a mistake he would in all likelihood have prevented it especially in the first beginnings of Christianity not only in regard of the moment of the thing so far as that Age it self was concerned in it but also in regard of the ill influence a mistake in that Age must have on all succeeding Ages and the great difficulty of ever reforming any such mistake afterwards when the mistake should have the advantage of a present possession and the averseness which is natural to men against changing any thing that had such possession when also such a possession received from such Persons who had best reason to know what was fit to be received would pass for a Presumption against the right of innovating any thing and when withal the credentials of Persons who would afterwards be desirous to reform them should decay as this Prescription and Presumption would grow stronger and prevail more on the minds of men This therefore being supposed that the Scriptures silence concerning any new provision is a strong presumption that the sacred Writers and the Apostles whose History they wrote never intended any this I say will let our Brethren see how insufficient their reasoning is from this silence of the Scripture concerning any certain Rule prescribed for Succession to conclude against any confinement of this Power to those certain Persons through whose hands this Succession is to be continued when by this means of management it is proved to be an Argument of the contrary And they must needs apprehend it as a great distress to their Cause to be obliged to produce any direct or positive Arguments either to disprove this confinement of the Power to Persons in Authority for the time being for maintaining Succession or to prove that they who pretend to an Authority which they have not received from their Superiors can justifie their claim by any other solid Principles Yet to this distress they must needs be reduced by this Observation § X 5. THEREFORE If this be the Case indeed that God intended that the Spiritual Power should be the same way derived to Posterity as the Temporal Power is then the matter will be plain that none may pretend to this Spiritual Power but they who have received it from those men to whom it was first committed For in deriving Temporal Power this method is still observed punctually not only that they who are Authorized by them who first received the Authority are validly Authorized but that none else are so And this Negative that none may pretend to Power but they who have received it from those men who had at first a Power to give it has by all wise Legislators been thought as necessary to oblige inferior Governours to a dependence on their Superiors as this dependence has been also thought necessary for the practicableness of all visible Government Besides where-ever Princes are obliged in extraordinary Cases to give extraordinary commands and Authority to some particular Persons without the formalities of
it And it is not only an excusing presumption to presume that to be true concerning God which is most worthy of him where either there are no Arguments at all or where the Arguments appear in other regards equal but it is also a great Argument of the Truth of an Hypothesis when all things answer it so as they would or must have done if God himself had been the Author of it § V NOW that the Hypothesis here given is indeed thus fitted for practice will appear if it be considered that general cases are those which all prudent contrivers of Government do take themselves to be obliged to foresee If these things be sufficiently provided for they will not think their reputation concerned if things fall out hard in particular cases Not only the impossibility for humane prudence to foresee all particulars which will concern men but the nature of the things which will reach even God himself will make such inconveniences as those are impossible to be avoided But where these general cases are not provided for that is a certain disrepute to the whole contrivance and therefore a certain conviction of a contrivance pretending to come from God and where they are best provided for that ought to be a prevailing presumption that such a particular Hypothesis came from God where it is certain and supposed that some did so § VI BUT the general cases relating to Government are they which concern the Multitude of those who are to be governed and therefore those of mean and ordinary capacities and unimproved by learned Education because indeed these are the most considerable ingredient in the Multitude And therefore it is certain that a Government contrived by Divine Wisdom must needs be such as that even they proceeding on those general presumptions which they are capable of in their other affairs may be capable of knowing their duty even where they are sensible of their own incapacity of judging concerning the merit of the things And that Hypothesis which gives the best account in this regard and most suitable to such capacities must therefore be presumed most agreeable to the Divine Wisdom And this will appear in both those particulars which are of principal importance for making duty practicable in regard of the Superiors to whom this duty is to be performed where many competitors pretend to the title of Superiors and in regard of the extent of that duty which they are to perform to those true Superiors § VII 1. IT will be most easie by these Principles even for such capacities to distinguish their true Superiors from the multitude of false pretenders to that name These ordinary Persons I am speaking of need not trouble themselves with those disputes of our Brethren concerning the form of Government settled in that part of the Apostles Age whereof the Scriptures do inform us no nor in the Histories of those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles either for clearing the sence of those Scriptures or for shewing what was introduced by the Apostles in that later end of their Age wherein the Church was more ripe for settling a succession of Government and whereof the Scripture History does not pretend to give us any account nor for discovering what was introduced by the unanimous consent of the Church of parties concerned as well as others and which was morally impossible to have been without the knowledg or approbation of the Apostles and much more impossible that it should have obteined so suddenly and universally if the Apostles had known and disapproved it These disputes besides that they are not so certain in such a loss and obscurity of Primitive Monuments by which they ought to be decided are withal matters of Learning beyond the reach of the Persons I am now discoursing of But they way of judging which is the true Church in opposition to other Schismatical ones by Succession as it is more certain in it self so its proof depends on things much more capable of being judged of by these Persons For § VIII 1. IT is plain and plain even to such illiterate Persons who do but understand what it is to reason that granting the Principles of our present discourse there must be such a succession owned somewhere unless we will question the validity of all the Sacraments of the World which were indeed to question the continuance of the Church it self at least as it is a Body Politick And this being certain will be a rational presumption of the falshood of any Arguments produced to the contrary though they could not tell how to answer them Especially if they depend on things of which such Persons find themselves less competent Judges than they are of this Whence it will also follow that such Arguments cannot in reason expect a bearing from such Persons till they be first convinced of the insolidity of these Principles § IX AND 2. It may even to such Persons be also notorious by the unanimous consent of all Persons skilled in the Histories of those Ages that for many Centuries before the Reformation Succession from the Apostles was not mainteined so much as in any one individual Church in the World by any Government but Episcopal This is not a thing controverted even by them who do indeed dispute the right of Episcopal Government And therefore here unskilful Persons may securely trust the testimony of the skilful because they are unanimous on the same account of prudence whereby they find themselves obliged in other cases wherein they have no skill to trust them who are skilful Now from this unanimous acknowledgment of this matter of Fact in our present case it will follow both that the Succession was then mainteined in the Episcopal Government even as then administred seeing it must otherwise have been perfectly lost and that all pretences to this Succession in any Person now must be derived from that Episcopal Government which immediately preceded the contrary Innovations because no other could then pretend to such a Succession § X AND 3. Upon these terms of tryal the same common prudence which enables even such illiterate Persons for managing their worldly concernments wherein they have equal occasion for knowing something not done within their own cognizance and wherein they must consequently be obliged to relie on the testimony of other credible Persons and the same industry which even that common prudence will dictate to be necessary for so great and near concernments as those are of eternity These I say will enable these same Persons to judg which of these different pretenders are really invested with Authority and consequently to which of them they are bound as Subjects to pay Obedience For § XI 1. THE Innovations are so late and of so clear and remarkable an Original as that it needs no great Learning even for such a Person to inform himself when they began and what Government then prevailed universally He may be assured it was Episcopacy if he should distrust his own enquiry
God and the present sense of their Occidental Church the standard of Tradition without recourse to the monuments of the Primitive times and admitted withal so many incompetent ways of bringing in new opinions as new pretended revelations attested by justly-suspicious miracles not to mention the Authority of the Pope whereby it came to be in the power of a few to impose upon the whole it could not be admired that the further they pursued the consequences of these Principles the more they should prove mistaken and that meaner Persons who had the happiness to examine things by more certain Principles should discover many things which they had overseen And as to the means of information that those Ages of Popery wherein their errors were introduced wanted many such means with which God had blessed the World at the beginning of the Reformation Such were the edition of many of the unquestionable Records of the Primitive times the study of the tongues wherein the Scriptures and those Primitive Monuments were written the exacter skill in Ecclesiastical Antiquity by which they were better enabled to distinguish counterfeit from genuine Writers With these assistances it could not be admired if meaner Persons made greater discoveries than great multitudes of others who were otherwise more sagacious if they wanted them § XIV THE same plea I have to make against our present Adversaries both as to Principles and as to the means of information As to Principles that one great Principle by them opposed to the other extreme of the Romanists That the Scripture alone is the adaequate Digest of all Ecclesiastical Practices as well as of matters of belief was by rational consequence like to lead them into multitudes of errors into a contempt of Authority into a rejection of Ecclesiastical Constitutions prudently fitted to circumstances of present practice into an impossibility of Ecclesiastical Peace till all sorts of Persons Laicks as well as Clergymen may be agreed on which side the Scripture is clear in many things whereof if this Principle should prove false no account at all is to be expected in the Scripture Now the mistake of these men is not in any thing that concerns their abilities but meerly in their infelicity in lighting on such a very fallacious principle They judg of the consequences and judg rightly and I am so far of their mind that these and the like things are indeed just consequences from that Principle But the Principle it self they take up as a Principle that is precariously either without any reason at all or upon such reasons as could signifie nothing with any but such as are already possessed with a great favour to it They do not ordinarily dispute it without some indignation at the supposed impiety of him who questions it and by their whole behaviour clearly shew that it is rather their affection and the insensible prejudices of education that has engaged them in defence of it than any shew of reason either that it is true or that it is impious to question it And can we think it any reflection on the abilities of such to be insensibly carried away into a belief of such Principles when they make so little use of their abilities in judging concerning them § XV THE like may be also said concerning our means of information that our Adversaries generally use such means of understanding the Scripture as must necessarily leave them ignorant of many things which yet might certainly have been designed by the sacred Writers and by the Holy Ghost who inspired them Which is one general way of their making disputes endless by requiring a resolution in such cases wherein their own unwary stating of things have made them uncapable of a resolution They are for expounding the Scriptures only by themselves especially in matters doctrinal without allusion to the sense of those times in terms of Art which were plainly suited to the capacities of them who used those terms without allusion to the Notions and Doctrines of those times which were either confirmed or confuted by the sacred Writers without allusion to the whole Systemes of Principles then mainteined though they are very forward to expound difficult obscure passages by their modern Systemes without so much as offering to shew that any then mainteined them which yet they call expounding it by the Analogy of Faith without allusion to the Systemes of the immediately succeeding Ages of the Church who certainly took up their Systeme from what they understood of the Apostles minds from their Writings and Preachings and Conversations to whose capacities the Sacred Writings themselves were more immediately accommodated than they were to ours Upon these and the like Principles most of those things are grounded which may look like Paradoxes in my Expositions of the Scripture And I shall say no more at present in defence of them because something has been suggested to that purpose in several parts of this discourse but principally and professedly in my Prolegomena to my Tutors Book de Obstinatione whither I must again by all means refer my Reader who shall be curious to know what I have to say in favour of these seeming Novelties All that I shall at present remark to my present purpose is that by either not thinking on these things or by utterly neglecting them if they did think of them they must have deprived themselves of all possibility of understanding those Scriptures which were not intelligible without them And then what wonder is it that many things may be cleared by these assistances which they had never thought on nay that they should be cleared by one who had been incomparably less able to clear them if he as well as they had wanted these assistances § XVI BUT to give them all they can with any shew of reason desire Suppose I were as much mistaken as it the interest of their cause to wish I should be suppose their condition were not indeed so dangerous as I conceive it to be Yet why should they take it ill to be warned of a danger which I thought to be a danger though I were mistaken in thinking so Can I do otherwise if I would let them see my hearty well-wishes for their welfare Can I do it more fairly or with less suspicion of imposing on them than by tendring my reasons why I think their condition dangerous to their impartial consideration And what hurt is done them if my reasons should prove less convincing Must it not be a great satisfaction to themselves to be assured that those reasons are not convincing which make others think their condition dangerous Must it not be much more satisfactory even to themselves to know the uttermost of those reasons than only to be left to indefinite suspicions which usually in matters wherein mens fears are concerned make men apt to think they may be more solid than they appear to be upon enquiry No doubt they would think so who were as serious and sincere for their spiritual
but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used against the Pyrrhonians not for an adequate comprehensive knowledg but for any that was certain And particularly 4. They held the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Plato's Timaeus from whence the Daemons whom they supposed to be the immediate Authors of this inferiour World were supplied with the immortal seed which they were to infuse into those Beings who were to consist of a nature mixed of mortal and immortal So that by this means the immortal part even of the Soul of Man was thought derived from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who can then think it strange that this Diviner kind of Life should be derived from him also Nay 5. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one of the benefits expressly ascribed to this God of the Vniverse So Pythagoras or whatever antient Pythagorean is the Author of that antient fragment quoted by the k Apud Justin. Martyr Paraen p. 18. Ed. Par. sed correctiùs apud Clem. Alexandr Protrep .. p. 47. Ed. Par. Fathers under his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may not mention later Testimonies And 6. They take the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the whole Archetypal World and the repository of all the Divine Ideas And they did not think its influence to be only as a Pattern for the Father to work by but ascribed the production also of the things to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self They allowed it the influence of a * Didym apud Euseb. Pr. Eu. L.xi. c. 23. Seal not only to represent but impress its own likeness And therefore as the Son is said to bear the character l Heb. i. 3 of the Father so we are said to bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the image not immediately of the Father but of the second m 1 Cor. xv 49 Adam who is the Son And therefore among other things derived from him this of Life is also reckoned That a Joh. v. 26 as the Father has Life in himself so has he given to the Son to have Life in himself And b Ver. 21. as the Father quickens so also the Son quickens whom he will And accordingly as these Philosophical Authors call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in regard of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we derive from him so for the same reason they call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard of the Life which we derive from him also For in this Philosophical language this seems to be the true Importance of this term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the abstract Ideal perfections as they are in the Patterns in contradistinction to the like perfections as they are received by the Creatures Which if others had observed they would never have fallen into so strange misunderstandings concerning the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as ascribed to Christ. For by it no more is meant than that beatified men are called c Proleg ad D. Stearne de Obst. Gods in the language of that same Philosophy so they are made Gods by participating immediately of the Deity of the Son But as the Sons Deity is not Archetypal in regard of the Father but of the Creatures so there will nothing hence follow so dangerous as these men apprehend who have not acquainted themselves with the Principles of this Philosophy as if he should therefore have his Deity uncommunicated from the Father Nay rather as the Creatures cannot be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the language of this Philosophy in regard of the Son because they are according to the Image of the Son so by the same Principles the Son cannot be called so because he is even as to his Divine Person the Image of the Father But this only by the way to shew the use of this same Philosophy for clearing this difficulty with which others have been so much perplexed 7. Therefore it is yet more particularly observable that by the whole Scheme of this Philosophy the recovery from a state of Death to this Divine Life must wholly depend on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this new Divine Life was recovered by the awakening of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by aspiring upwards which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much spoken of in this Philosophy by exercises of the intellectual operations and by disuse and dying to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But all these things are most properly ascribed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to this Philosophy I need not instance in particulars because themselves make application this way as often as they speak concerning these matters § XXV And therefore if these Persons would ascribe the original of this Life to their Messias it was requisite that they should hold that as Messias he was to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also And when I consider the several Arguments made use of by the Apostles for proving Christ to be the Messias from the old Testament it self from such Expositions as were not likely to have agreed to a pure Man according to the Principles of these Persons nay when I consider that Philo in his Mystical Allegories of the Scripture does expound some things of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostles do by way of Argument apply to Christ as acknowledged Characters of the true Messias with those Persons with whom they had to deal nay when I consider that all the Spiritual benefits which were expected from a spiritual Messias such as was most likely to have been owned by the Persons I am speaking of were not according to their other Principles capable of being expected from any but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say when I consider these things I cannot but think it very probable that these Persons did own indeed that the true Messias was to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence it will follow that in all regards true Life must be expected from the true Messias only so that they who are separated from the true Messias must for that very reason be supposed also from the true Life and therefore to be in a state of Death But then this state of Death being proved only from Principles proper to the true Messias will only by force of the consequence agree to Persons wholly separated even from the external Profession of him not to them who separate only from any one of the several Parties which all agree in Profession of him which is our Adversaries Case at present § XXVI In answer hereunto I confess I could be heartily willing that our Brethren could excuse themselves from the danger of their separate condition by this Apology which I have suggested in their behalf and I confess withall that there were peculiar aggravations in the circumstances of Apostates in the
the present possessors of the power of Government yet that would give no title to the discoverers of that failure and therefore cannot justifie their proceedings on presumption of such a title from Vsurpation and that even in this Case there is no reason to expect that God should supply in equity what they cannot justifie by a Legal claim § XX 1. THEN It is necessary for the security of visible Government as such that a presumptive title be not rejected but on very evident proofs to the contrary By a presumptive title I mean such a one as the first Innovators found settled when they began their Innovations especially if they themselves had formerly submitted to it and found all who might pretend competition with it submitting to it also nay if they found it unanimously received without any accountable appearance of force or fraud in the first Originals of it This was plainly the Case of our Dissenters in relation to Episcopal Government from which they made their Separation They cannot so much as pretend any other place where any other form of Government had been derived in a Succession from the Apostles to those times They can mention no place where the Bishops were not actually possessed of their § V Power with the consent and submission of the Presbyters themselves nay and the people also and indeed of all those who may be pretended to have been injured by them and who had therefore been concerned to interrupt the peaceableness of the prescription which might in time go far to legitimate their enjoyments before so long a time might pass them as might serve for a prescription All Laws of all Societies do presume in favour of such a title § XXI AND allowing it no more than the force of a presumption yet so it self it is the interest of all Government that want of evidence of its original Right be not allowed alone for a sufficient reason for any to call the Justice of it in Question at least not so far to question it as to venture to oppose it in practice It is otherwise Morally impossible that any Government should pass unquestionable to many successions and by how much the more men usually think it better grounded by its long continuance it must indeed be more liable to exception if the inevidence of its original Right be allowed to be a just exception against it Length of time will either obliterate the original Records or make them accidentally obscure in things wherein they were very clear when they were first written by making alterations in the Tongue and Customs and Opinions of the Age then alluded to Which changes though they be insensible in the particular degrees by which they were made yet it cannot be expected otherwise but that they must grow extremely considerable in the process of a long time In this regard it is for the interest of all Societies whatsoever that want of evidence be not allowed for sufficient to question any part of the challenge of the present supreme visible Governours of the Societies without very evident proof to the contrary § XXII AND it cannot be supposed agreeable to Gods will that when God was founding a Society which was to continue through all ages of the World he should make the conveyance of Authority in it to depend on such means as should be Morally impossible to be so conveyed or that the right of Government should in course grow more questionable in those times which should need its being more unquestionable when both Subjects would grow more unruly and a coercive power should be therefore more necessary than it was at first when they were of themselves more dutifully disposed and when withal the ordinary Governours should want those extraordinary Credentials which recommended the Authority of the Apostles and Apostolical Ages Yet this very presumption if it hold will overthrow all that our Adversaries can say to clear themselves from the guilt of Schism They cannot say that the Scripture forbad them the use of their Authority in things indifferent but only that it does not appear to them that it allowed them to use it § XXIII BUT though this inevidence be not allowable by the fundamental principles of Government to question any part of the Authority in those who are truly invested with it yet why will they say may not the inevidence of particular Persons being lawfully invested in the right of Government excuse us from duty to such Persons concerning whom it does not appear that they are our lawful Governours This will serve their purpose For they need not be solicitous concerning their Duty to Government if they may be excused from Duty to all Persons pretending to a right to govern them and there will be no Persons to whom they will be obliged to pay any Duty if this inevidence of the Legal manner of their coming by their Office may be allowed as sufficient to excuse them from their Duty For this the Scripture will not do but it will be further necessary to be acquainted with the History of every particular Persons Ordination and not only of all in this Age but of all in all the Ages which might have passed between this and that of the Apostles especially of all those Persons in each of them from whom our present Orders are derived But this is a thing which no Records are kept of nor if any had been kept are we secure of their conveyance to us at such a distance in an ordinary way or do we think Providence obliged to secure them to us by an extraordinary one It must therefore be granted further by those Principles whereby the conveyance of any Government to Posterity is secured that no inevidence of this kind can excuse Subjects from their Duty even to present Governours especially when it is otherwise known in general that if the Canons and Constitutions of the Church were observed the Persons ordained according to such Canons must have been validly ordained and that all the Ordained as well as the Ordainers were obliged in interest to have the Canons observed without which they must have weakened their title to the benefits and Priviledges of their Orders so uncanonically received § XXIV THESE are such presumptions on which the Successions of all Government and all the Authority of future Governours in the several Ages of Succession do subsist and which no Society allows to be questionable in the Case of any particular Governour without particular express proof of a failure in his particular Case Mat. xxiii 2 3. And certainly the Scribes and Pharisees who in our Saviours time sate in Moses's Chair and are therefore supposed by him to have the Authority of Moses could not possibly make out their Succession at that distance and after so many revolutions of their state and so great miscarriage both of their Discipline and Records which must needs have been occasioned by those Revolutions by greater assurances than these are § XXV I CONFESS
they are said neither to have been of men nor by men Gal. i. 1 Eph. iv 11 2 Cor. v. 20 They are reckoned among the gifts of Christ upon his ascending up on high They are called Embassadors for God and in Christs stead And it has always been reckoned among the Prerogatives of Majesty to have the sending of his own Embassadors Nay it was counted so peculiar a property of an Apostle to be sent by God himself as that St. Paul insists on it as an Argument to vindicate his own Apostleship against the false Apostles who quarelled at it Gal. i. 11 12. 1 Cor. ix 1 that he had received nothing from the other Apostles themselves and that himself had seen our Lord that he might receive his Authority from him Thus far therefore there appears no Precedent of any Authority either received from the Multitude or given to the Multitude by Christ himself who as yet alone had power to give it § XVI NOR do I think that our Adversaries themselves will pretend that the Apostles received their Authority from the People Yet so unwary they are in their arguing for the Authority of the People as that they produce such Proofs as must conclude this if any thing If the Peoples Expostulation with St. Peter concerning his baptizing of Cornelius had been an Act of proper Jurisdiction it must have been an exercise of Jurisdiction over St. Peter himself And if so they must in reason be supposed to have had some power of punishing him either by deposing him from his office or by suspending him from the exercise of it or at least by Authoritative withdrawing from him yet so as still to continue in the same good condition wherein they were before which can hardly be understood without a weakening of his Apostolical office For no proper Jurisdiction can be understood without a proportionably proper power of inflicting punishment in case of misdemeanour And if they will not own this that the People had a Power over the Apostles they must at least let go all their proofs which prove this if they prove any thing Which will extremely streighten them in their pretended Scripture Precedents For where-ever they find the People doing any thing without the Apostles which is the only Case wherein they could shew the proper extent of their own Authority they will find the Apostles themselves concerned which must therefore oblige them to understand such actings not to have been by way of Jurisdiction but of Expostulation § XVII WHEN was it therefore that this Authority was given to the Multitude By whom was it given to them who had a just Power of giving it them Was it afterwards given them by the Apostles who had hitherto held it independently of them If so it were well our Brethren would remember to insist only on such Proofs as are later than the date wherein they think it was given them and on such Proofs which speak more home to their design than those which are antienter than those times wherein themselves conceive this conveyance to have been made and which they must therefore acknowledg unconclusive But so far were the Apostles from giving away that Power to the Multitude which they had never received from them as that we find generally the Ordinations mentioned in the Scriptures performed either by themselves or by Persons Authorized as themselves were either by God himself or by them not by the People Tit. i. 5 Act. xiv 23 Act. vi They ordeined Elders in every City By them the order of Deacons was instituted and the Persons promoted to the Order They visited whole Countries and settled and confirmed the Churches they constituted what Officers and gave them what degrees and prescribed what Rules of Government they pleased according to their own Prudence and the suggestions of the Holy Ghost without consulting the Authority of any others which they could not have done if they had either acknowledged any self originated Power in the People or immediately given them that power which themselves had received immediately from God It cannot possibly be understood how the Rules of a Democratical Government could ever have permitted them to act so arbitrarily as it is plain they did in those first beginnings of Christianity § XVIII THERE were indeed many prudent reasons proper for those times which might prevail with the Apostles to desire the Peoples consent in the administration of their Government though the obliging validity of what was done had not depended on their Authority The Church was then a Body linked together only by an awe of Conscience not by any other external coercion And though now that the truth of Christianity and the Authority of the Apostles are sufficiently confirmed all are obliged to submit to the Rules prescribed by them as they would secure their happiness which will not leave them to that Liberty nor consequently intitle them to that right in the Government before they submit to it as our Brethren fancy yet before this conviction had prevailed on the minds of men it could not have been prudent for them to exercise the utmost extent of that Authority which did really belong to them Our Adversaries themselves will at least acknowledg the Apostles to have been infallible whence it will follow that their word alone ought to have been taken in Controversies then started at least where there appeared not evident reason to the contrary But we plainly find that even themselves durst not venture their Authority on so hard a tryal Even in probable things we do not find that they required their Auditors assent without such reasons as the matter would afford that is at least without probable ones And generally we find them so laying the stress of their persuasion on those reasons as if their Authority had been no reason at all Therefore in the Controversie concerning Circumcision Act. xv the Elders and the Multitude convened together with the Apostles to give their judgment concerning it and that in a Case which was to be decided by the Holy Ghost But what need had there been of all that trouble if the Apostles Authority alone had been sufficient for this decision The Holy Ghost spoke by the Apostles alone And could the whole Synod after all their diligence in enquiring and debating the Truth in that matter pretend to any greater Authority Was it likely that the ordinary Presbyters much more that the Laity themselves should have had any thing revealed to them which had been concealed from the very Apostles But we find the whole matter debated by reasons and rational applications of the Mystical sense of the Old Testament as if no new revelation had been pretended § XIX THE like might have been observed from the debates with St. Peter concerning his Preaching to Cornelius and with St. Paul concerning his Preaching against the obligation of the Ceremonial Law The lawfulness of Preaching to the Gentiles and of forbearing the externals of the Law were
the Scripture sense any otherwise than as they thought the Presbyters in the modern sense justified by the Scripture If this was the reason as in all likelihood it must according to the sense of those times then certainly their prime design was only to give that power which was then granted to Presbyters which will not include the power of ordeining others as I have already shewn Besides it cannot be presumed that their design was to make Presbyters in the Scripture sense any farther than as they thought Scripture precedent obliging to their own times If they thought it lawful for them to alienate the right which originally belonged to them if at least they thought such an Alienation valid when done however unlawful to be done why should they rather think of retrieving the Scripture-practice in this particular than in those of the Deaconesses and the feasts of Love c. to which no parties think themselves obliged at present § XXI I CANNOT but think that this was really St. Hieromes sense of this matter Ad Euagr. who never thought himself obliged by his singular opinion concerning the Primitive form of Ecclesiastical Government to make any disturbance in the present settlement And the reason he gives for the change that it was for the avoiding Schism was a commendable reason and as much concerning his own and all future times as it did those wherein this change was first supposed to have been made Schism is still as dangerous to the Church and Episcopacy is still as prudent an expedient for preventing the occasion of Schism arising from parity now and for ever as it was then And the decree of the whole World which he mentions as the Authority by which this change was made if it do not include the Apostles or some such extraordinary Officers who in those times had alone the power of making such a Decree as he there speaks of which might oblige the whole World and in whose time the expressions he makes use of for expressing this Schism that one said he was of Paul another of Cephas another of Apollos were first and most literally fulfilled and it is unlikely that they would defer the remedy so long after the occasion as our Adversaries suppose besides that the mistake of mens thinking that the Disciples baptized by them were their own is not likely to have continued so long and to have prevailed so universally as to occasion a general Decree against it after the death of all the Apostles when St. Paul himself had so expresly condemned it so long before If I say the whole World concerned in this business did not include the Apostles and it is most certain that it cannot exclude them yet certainly it must have included all those extraordinary persons of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who besides their intimate acquaintance with the Apostles were themselves indued with great and Apostolical gifts and as they cannot be presumed ignorant of the Apostles mind in a matter of fact so notorious as this was of Government so they cannot be presumed unfaithful to their trust in a matter of this consequence as to make a Decree directly contrary to an establishment of the Apostles designed by them to be unalterable and this Decree an universal one without contradiction of any one of these Apostolical Persons § XXII WHATEVER our Brethren may think of these things now yet certainly St. Hierome could not on these terms think this change invalid Nor consequently could any of them think so who were in this matter guided by St. Hierome And if so we have no reason to presume that they must have intended to restore the antiquated Scripture-right of Presbyters which if it prove true must overthrow all our Adversaries Arguments for proving that Ordination was a right of Scripture-Presbyters in order to the proving the like right in Presbyters now Though it was their right then yet if it be alienable it may cease to be their right now If it were unalienable from those who once had it yet without defending the validity of any alienation they may want it now not because they alienated it but because they never had it However though it had been their design to give our present Presbyters all that right which belonged to Presbyters in the Apostles times yet certainly they who made these Presbyters are the most competent Judges of their own intentions if we will deal fairly not captiously And therefore even in this case our Adversaries should not immediately conclude that to be the right of modern Presbyters because themselves think that Presbyters in the Apostles time had it unless they could prove our modern Ordeiners to have been of their mind in this particular It suffices at present that I have shewn that it is not from the Scriptures as a Charter but from their Ordeiners as Persons Authorized by that Charter and as Authentick Expositors of it if not as to truth yet at least as to practice that they receive their Orders and therefore that the power actually received by them must not be measured by the true sence of the Scriptures but from that wherein their Ordeiners understood them But I have already proved that they who intended to make them Presbyters in the Scripture-sence did not could not suppose that the power of Ordination was the right of Scripture-Presbyters § XXIII BUT they may object further that the rights united by God are inseparable by any Humane Authority and that the power of Ordination is by God united to the other rights of Scripture Presbyters so that it was impossible to give them any one right without giving them all or to retein one without reteining all and therefore that if our present Presbyters have the power of administring the Sacraments they must not be denied the power of Ordination If our Adversaries mean that those Presbyters who had both those powers united in them by God could not be deprived of the one power without the other nor indeed of any by any Humane Authority this if it should prove true yet is a case wherein our present Ordinations are not concerned which were not received in those times wherein our Adversaries pretend to prove that these two powers were so inseparably united If further they say that de jure they ought not to be separated as they will find the bare Argument from Scripture-precedent very unconcluding to this purpose they neither can prove that ever Scripture-Presbyters did ordein in separation from a President much less that smaller over-voted parts of any particular Presbyteries or any Presbyteries made up of fugitives from many did so nor if they could can they prove the precedent obliging now without some more inforcing considerations from the nature of the thing so they will not find it easie to produce better And it is at present sufficient for my purpose that they may be separated de facto though they who separate them be to blame for doing so § XXIV NOR
particular examination of its Grounds it may appear to be well grounded But if the Declaration be conceived to be Authentical as it is performed by such Persons the meaning of that must be that it must be generally presumed valid so that the cases may be but rare wherein the Person obnoxious to it may presume his own cause so good as to venture to stand out in opposition to it And to that purpose it will be requisite that the Sentences be presumed valid before God even in cases wherein Governours may themselves be mistaken in the Causes of their Infliction as I see no reason why they may not where the mistake is at the uttermost no more than an Imprudence not a Sin either to Governours or Governed for in such a case though the Omission it self be not Sinful as considered Precisâ—ly yet it may as Obstinacy against lawful Governours and Disobedience and violation of Peace which will oblige us to condescend in Instances howere Imprudent if not Sinful may make it so or that the Instances wherein they may prove Invalid before God be either so rare or so difficult to be known more securely by a Mans private Judgment than by the publick as that it can very rarely be Judged Safe or Prudent for a Man to rely on his own private Judgment concerning them in opposition to the Publick § XLVI ESPECIALLY considering 3. that this Church Government is by all acknowledged Fallible in matters of that nature for which we are concerned in our present Controversy The very Romanists themselves confess their Ordinary Ecclesiastical Governors at least Fallible in matters of Fact and in Rules of Prudence and our dissenting Brethren themselves do not charge our Impositions with Heresy or Immorality But if the Censures of a Fallible Church cannot be presumed valid in any Instances wherein we cannot be assured that she is not actually mistaken and the nature of the thing is such as does not afford certain Arguments on either side but generally contrary probabilities on both such a Government must generally prove Vseless and Vnpracticable and therefore unlikely to have been settled by God § XLVII AND then 4. the very design of the Constitution of this Body Politick being Spiritual the Rewards and Punishments must be so too And therefore that Subjects may be encouraged to Obedience and discouraged from Disobedience it will be requisite that they may as confidently presume that they shall receive such Spiritual Advantages by virtue of their admission into such a Society to which no private Dispositions whatsoever could so assuredly intitle them I do not say if they had proved negligent in their Addresses to be admitted into it but also if they had not submitted to all Impositions not Sinful in Order to their reception into it and have as Just and Probable Reasons for fearing Spiritual Inconveniences by their exclusion from it as Secular Subjects are assured of Secular Advantages or Disadvantages by their admission to or exclusion from Secular Societies § XLVIII AND 5. it is very agreeable to the same design that where exclusion does not as it did in the Apostles time expose the Person to external visible Corporal Inflictions as now generally it does not there it be at least understood to deprive the Person excluded of all the Priviledges he enjoyed by virtue of his being a Member of such a Society and so to expose him to those mischieves whatever they be that are necessarily consequent to such a deprivation § XLIX AND 6. it is also very consequent to the same purpose that the Priviledges of such a Society be understood to be all the Advantages designed by God in its Erection And therefore whatever good was designed to Mankind in the Gospel there is no reason to believe that he designed it for any particulars any farther than as they should approve themselves willing to submit to such Terms as he was pleased to prescribe them and it is not Credible that if he were pleased to erect a Body Politick he should be thought at the same time to allow such encouragements out of it and independent on it as that it should be left to the Liberty of particular Subjects either to enter themselves into it or not to enter themselves or to submit to its constitutions or to refuse submission § L AND 7. that these hopes and fears may prove in an external way Coercive it is very convenient that their application to particular Persons be transacted with particular external Solemnities For it is by this means that particular Persons may be justly terrified with the loss of the Spiritual Advantages when they are excluded from the external Solemnities of Application without which they are not Ordinarily to be expected And this is all which can be done by Governours to exclude particular Subjects from such Solemnities which can be of no efficacy for terrifying Conscientious Persons if the Advantages to be gained by them may also be easily expected without them And as all this is very naturally consequent to a design of Erecting the Church into a Body Politick and does effectually promote that design by letting Subjects understand their obligation to submit to all Impositions not Sinful under pain of losing all the Ordinary means of intitling themselves to the Priviledges of the Gospel so certainly it must give Men the most satisfactory account that God has actually intended such a design to let them understand that this is the very Method observed by God in the actual Constitution of the Church under the Gospel And indeed whoever denies any of them will make Government so unpracticable as that it would be improbable to have been designed by God § LI But for proving all this I cannot think it reasonable to confine my Discourse to express Scriptures both because as I have already observed we do not find the Scripture to enlarge professedly on Instances of this nature but rather Occasionally to intimate them as coincident with its principal design as presuming them already sufficiently Notorious from the Practices of the Church to the capacities of the meanest Idiotes then living And because it is not usual for the Scriptures even where they do indeed allude to notorious Practices to insist Critically on their true design and usefullness which were then also so very notorious from the manner of their Practice as that the weaker fort of Christians for whose use the Scripture was principally accommodated could not be presumed Ignorant of them as they were then concerned to know them And because it is not the Letter but the Sense of the Scripture for which I am at present principally concerned and it is in Prudence the most advisable means to expound the Sense of all Laws especially concerning Power by the actually avowed Practices of the Courts of their respective Jurisdictions And because the Practices of the Churches in those Primitive Ages especially those concerning the power of the several Orders of Governours undoubtedly established by the