Holy Spirit, as it is written, Neb. ix. 18. 20. Tea, when they bad made them a Molten Calf, and faid, this is thy. God-yet thou, in thy manifold Mercies for fookeft them not-Thon gaveft thy good Spirit to inftruct them, &c.

AND let it be here obferv'd, that tho' God fent many Prophet's to reprove the great Wickedness and Idolatry, as well of their Priefs as People; yet none of thefe holy Prophets did feparate Communion from the wicked Priefts: They would not joyn in their Idolatrous Worship; but in all other Parts, they joyn'd with them; and fet up no oppofite Priesthood to them.

So little did the Prophets think that their Idolatry had either un Church'd them, or broke the Succeffion of their Priefts; or that it was lawful for any, bow holy foever, to ufurp upon their Priesthood, and fupply the Deficiencies of it to the People. And apply to this, what I have before fhewn, in the words of St. Clement, whofe Name is written in the Book of Life, That the Evangelical Priesthood, is as furely fixed, in the Bishops of the Church, and its Succeffion continu'd in thofe ordain'd by them, as the Levitical Priesthood was confirm'd by the Budding of 4, ron's Rod, and to be continu'd in that Tribe.

AND here let our Korabites, of feveral Sizes, take a view of the Heinoufnefs of their Schifm; and let them not think their Crime to be nothing, becaufe they have been taught, with their Mother's Milk, to have the utmoft Abhorrence to the very Name of a Bishop; tho' they cou'd not tell why. Let them rather confider feriously the Misfortune of their Education, which thou'd make them Strangers, to all the rest of the Chriftian World but themselves in a Corner; and to all the former Ages of Chrifianity.

BUT, are they willing to be undeceiv'd? Then they must know that Epifcopacy has none fo great an Enemy as the Papacy; which wou'd engrofs the whole Epifcopal Power, into the fingle See of Rome; by making all other Bishops abfolutely dependent

upon

upon that, which only they call the Apoftolical Chair. And no longer fince than the Councel of Trent, the Pope endeavour'd with all his Intereft, to have Epifcopacy, except only that of the Bishop of Rome, to be declar'd not to be Fure divino. By which none other Bishops cou'd claim any other Power, but what they had from Him. But even that Council was not fo quite degenerated as to fuffer this to pafs.

AND the Jefuits, and others, who difputed there on the Pope's Part, us'd thefe fame Arguments against the divine Right of Epifcopacy, which from them, and the Popish Canonifts and School-men have been lick'd up by the Presbyterians and others of our Diffenters. They are the fame Arguments that are used by Pope and Presbyter against Epifcopacy.

WHEN the Pope cou'd not carry his Caufe againft Epifcopacy in the Council of Trent, he took another Method, and that was, to fet up a vast Number of Presbyterian Priefs, that is, the Regulars, whom he exempted from the Jurisdiction of their refpective Bishops, and fram'd them into a Method and Difcipline of their own, accountable only to Superiours of his, and their own contriving, which is exactly the Presbyterian Model

THESE Ufurpations upon the Epifcopal Authority, made the famous Arch-bishop of Spalato, quit his great Preferments in the Church of Rom, and travel into England, in the Reign of King James I. to feek for a more Primitive and Independent Epifcopacy. Himfelf, in his Confilium Profections, gives thefe fame Reafons for it: And that this fhameful Depreffion and Prostitution of Epifcopacy, in the Church of Rome, was the Caufe of his leaving her.

HE obferv'd truly, that the further we fearch upward into Antiquity, there is ftill more to be found of the Epifcopal, and lefs of the Papal Power and Eminency.

ST. Ignatius is full, in every Line almoft, of the high Authority of the Bishop, next and immediately under Chrift; as all the other Writers i thofe primi

tive.

five Times: But there is a profound Silence in them all of that Supremacy in the Bishop of Rome, which is now claim'd over all the other Bishops of the Catholic Church; which could not be, if it had been then known in the World. This had been a fhort and effectual Method, whereby St. Paul, or St. Cle-. ment might have quieted the great Schifm of the Cointhians, against which they both wrote, in their Epifles to them; to bid them refer their Differences to the Infallible Fudge of Controverfies, the Supreme Paftor at Rome. But not a Word of this. Efpecially confidering that St. Peter was one, for whom fome of these Corinthians ftrove (1. Cor. i. 12.) against those who preferr❜d others before HIM.

THE ufurp'd Supremacy of the later Bishops of Rome over their Fellow Bishops, has been as fatal to Efpifcopacy, as the Rebellion of our yet later Presby ters against their refpective Bishops.

AND indeed, whoever wou'd write the true Hiftory of Presbyterianism, must begin at Rome, and not at Geneva.

So very groundless as well as malicious, is that popular Clamour of Epifcopacy having any the leaft Relation to Popery. They are fo utterly irreconcilable, that it is impoffible they can ftand together: For that Moment that Epifcopacy were reftor'd to its primitive Independency, the Papacy, that is, that Supremacy, which do's now distinguish it, muft ipfo facto ceafe.

THUS I have fhewn, in Anfwer to the Objection of the Ages of Popery in England, that all thofe Errors, even Idolatry it felf, do's not un-Church, nor break Succeffion. And 2dly. I have exemplyfy'd this from the parallel of the Jewish Church, under the Law. Then applying of this to our Cafe, I have vindicated Epifcopacy from the Imputation of Fopery. And I will now go on to farther Reafons, why the Succeffion of our prefent Bishops is not hurt by that Deluge of Popery which once cover'd the Face of Great Britain.

THE

THE End of all Government, as well in the Church as State, is to preferve Feace, Unity and Order; and this cannot be done, if the Mal-AdminiBiration of the Officers in the Government, did vacate their Commiffion, without its being recall'd by those who gave fuck Commision to them. For then, f. Every Man muft be Judge, when fuch a Commiffion is vacated; and then no Man is bound to obey longer than he pleases. 2dly. One may fay it is vacated, another not, whence perpetual Contention muft arife.

A Man may forfeit his Commiffion, that is, do thofe Things, which give juft Caufe to his Superiours to take it from him: But it is not actually vacated, 'till it be actually re-call'd by those who have lawful Power to take it from him: Otherwife there cou'd be no Feace nor Certainty in the World, either in public or private Affairs.

No Family cou'd fubfift. No Man enjoy an Eftate. No Society whatever could keep together: And the Church being an outward Society muft confequently fubfift by thofe Laws, which are indifpenfible to every Society. And tho' Idolatry do's juftly forfeit the Commiffion of any Church, in this Senfe, that God's Promifes to her being Conditional, He may juftly take her Commiffion from her, and remove her Candlestick: Now tho' her Commiffion be thus forfeitable, yet it ftill continues, and is not actually vacated, 'till God fhall pleafe actually to recall it, or take it way: For no Commiffion is void, 'till it be fo declar'd. Thus, tho' the Jews did often fall into Idolatry, yet (as before has been faid) God did bear long with them; and did not un-Church them, tho' they had juftly forfeited. And those wicked Husband men, who flew thofe whom the Lord fent for the Fruits of his Vineyard, yet continu'd ftill to be the Husband men of the Vineyard, till their Lord did difpoffefs them, and gave their Vineyard

unto others.

AND

AND natural Reafon, do's enforce this; if a Steward abufe his Truft, and oppreffes the Tenents, yet are they still oblig'i to pay their Rent to him, and his Difcharges are fufficient to them against their Landlord, 'till he fhall fuperfede fuch a Steward. And thus it is in the Sacerdotal Commiffion. Abufes in it, do not take it away, 'till God or thofe to whom He has committed fuch an Authority, fhall fufpend, deprive, or degrade, (as the Fact requires) fuch a Bishop or a Prieft.

AND there is this higher Confideration in the Sacerdotal Commiffion, than in thofe of civil Societies; that it being immediately from God, as none (therefore) can take this Honour to Himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron; fo none can take it away, but he that is as exprefly and outwardly called thereunto, as Aaron was to be a Prieft. For this wou'd be to Ufurp upon God's immediate Prerogative, which is to conftitute his own Priefs. Upon this Foundation I argue.

As the Neceflity of Government, and the General Commands in Scripture, of Obedience to Govern➡ ment do require our Submmiffion to the Government in being, where there is no Competition concerning the Titles, that is, where no One claims a better Right than the Poffeffor: So where a Church,once establish'd by God, tho' fuffering many Interruptions, do's continue, Her Governours ought to be acknowledg'd, where there is no better Claim fet up against them.

THIS was the Reafon why our Saviour and his Apoftles did, without Scruple, acknowledge the High-Prieft and Sanhedrin of the Jews in their Time; tho' from the Days of the Maccabees, there had been great Interruptions, and Breaches in the due Succeffion of their Priefs: And before Chrift came, and all his Time, the Romans as Conquerors, difpos'd of the Priesthood as they pleas'd, and made it annual and arbitrary, which God had appointed bereditary and unmoveable. BUT