venues in different Dioceses, you must be fobb'd off with just what they please, and your Wages beat down to the uttermoft Farthing. They take Care to qualify themselves according to Law, and to omit nothing that may secure their Title to their Preferments; you must be left to hold your All at their Mercy, and not fo much as a Licence from a Bishop allow'd you for fear of fome Tack or Incumbrance upon them.

ALL the. Faftneffes you had against them they have pre-occupied, and by one Contrivance or another, broke down the Fences of the Laws: Nay, the Laws which were defigned for your Benefit, they have perverted to a contrary Purpose, and turn'd your own Artillery upon you: Remember this therefore and fhew Ifa. xlvi yourselves like Men; for otherwifeyou cannot be 8. Men. While you court Slavery, and defire to live in fubjection to those that have no Right to rule over you; while you court Dependance, and are willing to be in other Mens Power for a Maintainance, which with a little Pains you may secure to yourselves, against all Contingencies; while you court Danger, and chufe the Rifque of being undone, by the Malice or Madness of a fickle Temper, when you have it in hand to fortify yourfelves against it; while, with Solomon's Sot, you lie down, as it were, in Pro. xxib the midst of the Sea, and upon the Top of a 34,35. Maft They have ftricken us, faying to yourfelves, and we were not fick; they have beaten us, and we felt it not: When fhall we awake? we will feek it yet again; you quite unman yourfelves, and lofe for that Time fome of the firft Effentials of Humanity, Caution, and Thought, and Self-Preservation.

THE Only Way then to recover this, and regain the Poffeffion of what you have loft, is to ftand to your Privileges, and make your Basis of this Refolution, Never to ferve in the Capacity of Curates, without a proper Faculty and • Defignation from the Bishop. Combine but in this Defign, and they must come up to your Terms. You have their Idlenefs, as well as Multiplicity of Livings, for your Security, that they cannot do without you. You have the Statutes of the Land, as well as Conftitutions of the Church, obliging you to infift upon it. You have the Laws of Mercy, and Justice to you and yours, as well as Dictates of common Prudence, calling upon you, not to give up a Point whereon the whole depends. And what is more affecting ftill, you have the Profpect of too many Shipwrecks before your Eyes, ever to truft to the Incantation of fair Promifes, that endanger your Safety. As therefore you tender your own Prefervation, the Quiet of your Confciences, and the Welfare of your Families; and are defirous to approve your Subjection to the Government, and canonical Obedience to your Bifhop; truft Providence, rather than ferve in any illegal and unworthy Manner. At the worst, you have Hands to labour with, as well as had St. Paul and the primitive Chriftians. There is no Crime in following fecular Employs, fo long as you cannot be admitted to officiate in your own, without the Violation of many Laws, both civil and ecclefiaftical: Nor will any Bifhop be fo fevere, as to put in Execution fuch Canons as were only defign'd for wilful Apoftates, against thofe, who, by their Confcience or Indigence are compell'd to relinquish their Vocation. But however this happen, learn but of the great Exemplar of Suffering in your Profeffion,

this

this one momentous Leffon, In whatfoever Phil, iv. State you are, therewith to be contented; to 12. know how to be abafed, and how to abound ;. every where, and in all things to be inftructed, both to be full, and to be hungry both to abound and to fuffer need;" and then you may fing with a Thorn at your Breafts, and bid Defiance to the Spight of ill Fortune.

THIS Advice I thought convenient to leave with my Brethren, confidering their unhappy Circumftances, before I proceeded with your Lordfhip, to the fourth and laft thing we think we have a Right to, but fhall have lefs Reafon to enlarge upon, viz.

IV. JUSTICE and Equity when we appeal upon' any Point of Grievance to our fpiritual Gover nours; and Mercy and Lenity, when at any time we have offended.

I AM none of those, my Lord, that shall ever think I fpeak unwarrantably, when I call the Bishops of our Church, the Rulers and Governours of it; when I declare, that their Order and Authority is of divine and apoftolick Inftitution; when I extend their Inspection to the greatest of the Laity, as well the meaneft of the Clergy; and endeavour to perfuade Men, that neither the Power of the Magiftrate, nor the Liberty of the People, is any way infringed by the Exercise of that Authority, which is given them for Edification, and not for Destruction; that they call themfelves, for this * Reason, Miters, not Magiftrates; and their Rule, Canons, not Laws; and that they claim not Dominion, but Direction; and fpiritual Difcipline, not • coercive Jurifdiction." "So far am I from thinking that there is any thing comparable in a Presbyterian Parity, that I readily give in to * Vid. Dr. Hare's Vifit. Sermon, p. 45.

K 2

St.

St. Cyprian's * Sentiment, viz. that as a Flock cannot be fed without a Shepherd, nor a Ship fteer'd without a Pilot, nor a Multitude kept in Order without a Governour;' fo neither can a Church be manag'd, and preferv'd in due Regularity without the Care and Superintendency of a Bishop.

FOR this Reafon, no doubt it is, that St. Tit. i. v. Paul reminds Titus, whom he had left in Crete for that Purpofe, to ordain Elders, i. e. Bishops, in every City; and gives him fo many Rules. about the Choice of fuch Perfons as were fit to ferve in that Order: And for the fame Reason, I suppose it is, that the † Council of Chalcedon t calls upon Metropolitans not to defer the Ordination of Bifhops above three Months, except fome invincible Neceffity require a longer Stay, upon pain of canonical Cenfures. The Office indeed was thought fo effential to the well-being of the Church, and the Prefidence of a pious and prudent Perfon, invefted with all proper Authority, fo neceffary to fet things in order, and to preserve Peace and Unanimity among the Clergy; that it was always accounted a great Grievance, and very bitterly complained against, when Sees were kept vacant beyond the ordinary Limitation of Time. For tho' there was all along fuch an Officer as we call the Guardian of the Spiritualities in the Vacancy of the See, yet his Office being only pro hac vice, and his Ávocations elsewhere, there was not fupposed in him either that Care or Concern for the

* Ut pafcendo gregi paftor, ut gubernando navi gubernator, ut plebi regendo rector redderetur. Cypr. Ep. 58. + Conc. Chal. Can. 25.

The African Code calls him Interceffor; and orders him to provide a Bishop for the vacant See within a Year, or otherwife to be turn'd out of his Office, and another placed in it.

Diocese,

Diocefe, as might be expected from a ftated Bishop; and therefore the People were never fatisfied with his Administration till they got

one.

*

COULD it be fuppos'd indeed, my Lord, that all those who are bound to tell others their Duties, would certainly do their own, there would be lefs need of any fuch Office in the Church, as that of Bishops, who are to inspect and govern, to vifit and reform thofe that they fet over others: Or cou'd it be imagin'd that a good Agreement would always continue between Men of the fame Calling and Fraternity, there wou'd be no Occafion for that troublefom part of the Epifcopal Office, the hearing and determining fuch Differences as happen among us. But fince there will be Failings too frequent among the Clergy, too great a Neglect in fome, and too great Disorder in others; even St. Jerom obferves t, that there is a Neceffity of a fuperior Order to Presbyters in the Church of God, ad quem omnis Ecclefix euræ pertineret. And fince it is impoffible but that Offences fhould come (for a religious Habit gives no Sanctity, nor is it any Amulet against Pride, Envy, and Covetoufnefs, those angry Paffions that fow the Seeds of Contention among us) there is a farther Neceffity for this Perfon of fuperior Order, to take upon him the Decifion of Controverfies, and Suppreffion of fuch Quarrels as arife among the Sons of the Church, co-equal in themselves, but fubordinate to him, for that very Purpose. On

this, in a great Measure (as the fame Father notes) the Peace and Safety of the

*Duties and Rights of Par. Cler. p. 5.

Hier. Comment. ad Titum. Epif. ad Evagr.

Adver. Luciferian.