deny not but the Providence of God hath made use of the Roman Power Numbers Concord and Riches to uphold the common Cause But all is not Good that God over-ruleth and useth to good permitting Man to cause the Evil. As a Man may use the Cruelty without causing it of a Hound a Ferret or a Hawk against the Prey to fulfil his just will Had National Kingdom Churches been kept up under true Christian Kings and Pastors and these Kings and Pastors in Dyets and Councils kept due Confederacies by Consultation and Contract without mutual Jurisdiction the common Cause had been better promoted than it hath been by Popery that hath shamed it and weakened it by Persecutions Divisions Treasons and Wars Quest IV. Whether the Divisions of other Christians render the Roman Government desireable for Concord Ans 1. There are more that Unite in Mahometanism and far more in Paganism than all the Christians in the World And Satan knoweth how to advantage his Kingdom by Concord as well as to weaken Christs Kingdom by Division 2. The Bishops have made the greatest Schisms and Division in the Church that ever was made by sinful Usurpation and Corruption and Impositions and Persecutions Unchurching the far greatest part of Christians and appropriating the Church Title to his own Sect alone All the Bloody Murders of the Waldenses Bohemians and other Protestants the Inquisition the present Wars that France hath involved Europe in are on pretence of Unity We like not the Unity that Satan maintaineth and that at such a rate of Blood 3. But I have before and elsewhere proved that the Protestants for all their Divisions have a far better Unity than the Papal Church hath so that this Question is elsewhere and here sufficiently answered Quest V. Whether the Errors of the Protestants do not so disparage them as to make the Roman Church more Honourable Ans 1. That is should not Men chuse a Leprosie to cure an Itch We deny not but where Controversies shew our Differences among our selves one Party must needs be in an Error either de re or de nomine But we agree in all that 's necessary to Salvation and Brotherly Love And Pride and Envy and Malignity are more the Causes of our Disagreement than our Religion Especially unskilfulness in Words and stating Cases I have endeavoured to shew in many Books especially my End of Doctrinal Controversies my Catholick Theology and Methodus Theologiae that our Differences are most in Words whose sence is not mutually understood How many Loads of Controversal Volumes are written by Papists against each other And what heavy Charges of Simony Filthiness Heresie c. have even General Councils and Historians laid on the Popes and many Councils And note that the Pope or Council is the Essentiating Form of the Papal Church as such and therefore an Unholy or Debauch'd or Heretick Head proveth that the Church is Unholy or Heretical Because the Form denominateth and is Essential But it is not so with the Protestants that own no Universal Head but Christ who is Infallible and perfect This much I thought needful to add against them that pretend an Institution of Christ for a Political Universal Head and a Foreign Jurisdiction above a National Church or Christian Kingdom He that would compare Papists Errors with Protestants let him read Chamier Blondel de Ecclesia Molinaeus of the Novelty of Popery Rivet Downame de Antichristo Jewel Whitaker and other such § 7. How few Bishops or Church Doctors are for Learning equal to Boetius Joh. Picus Francis Picus Erasmus Hutten Goldastus Freherus Pistorius Faber Stephanus Father and Son Mornay Lord Du Plessis Mich. Hospitalius Thuanus the two Scaliger's Salmasius Grotius Sarravius Justellus and many other Lay-men And are Kings and Magistrates uncapable of Wisdom § 8. How vast is the difference between Governing one Kingdom and Governing all the World Do I need to aggravate it And is not one King with Wise Judges and Justices as capable of Governing one Kingdom as an Utopian College of Bishops that some dream of or a Pope and Cardinals of Governing all the World Can such ignorant vicious Monsters as Councils have condemned for the most odious Wickedness and Heresie better Rule at Abassia Armenia or the Antipodes than a Good King can Rule in England § 9. Councils consist of the Subjects of many Foreign Princes and usually their Princes chuse who shall go And they that are near the place of meeting will be the most And none can come against their Princes wills And few Bishops will disobey their Lords that send them or that they live under And must such Subjects of Papists Turks Infidels Heathens be Masters of England of King and People and of all the Religion in the World § 10. Cannot Bishops at hand here better try the Cause of one accused for Heresie Fornication Treason Murder c. and that by virtue of a Commission from God than a meeting of Bishops out of all the World a Thousand Mile off can try it § 11. But I shall here pass by my chief proof of this that God hath ordained no Humane Government distinct from meer consultation or Concord and Communion above National Headed by Christian Soveraignty Because I have ready for the Press a full Treatise of it in Two Books The first proving Historically by their own words that Archbishop Land Archbishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Bishop Sam. Parker Dr. Pet. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell and divers others have written for a Foreign and Universal Jurisdiction The second Book fully disproving it and proving that the Kingdom and Church is Sworn against it and that the Parliaments and the Church of England till Laud's days were against it And that this very Parliament and Convention having taken a new Oath against it besides the old Oaths of Supremacy to stigmatize the Church and Nation with the foresaid Perjury would dangerously presage the Rune of the Perjured if not of the Land Chap. XIII What are the dangerous Diseases of a National Church § 1. DEath cometh on Bodies Politick as on Natural Bodies by degrees as Diseases weaken and break them And while they are Diseased they are in an unlovely troublesome condition Gods Word and History and Experience hath told us what Diseases they be that are the usual presages of Confusion or Dissolution § 2. In general All sin is to the Soul what Sickness is to the Body and hath some tendency to destruction And the increase and abounding of Sin is a dangerous Prognostick sins of Sensuality Gluttony Drunkenness and Fornication when they grow common and impudent seldom go unpunished O how dangerous then is the case of England in which the Sin of Adultery and Fornication is commonly said to be so increased that multitudes are guilty now for One that was ever suspected of it before the Reign of K. Charles the Second And brutish Wretches scarce take it for a shame Sins of Injustice and
called the Keys or Governing Power extended both to the ordinary and the extraordinary part of the Apostles Office and included even such miraculous power as Peter executed on Ananias and Sapphira and Paul on Elymas and which is called giving up to Satan that the Flesh may be destroyed and they may learn not to blaspheme When there were no Christian Magistrates Christ made his Apostles the executioners of his justice as to sentence as Satan was in executing their sentence not when and how they pleased but as the Spirit determined them § 10. That the office of the Apostles was partly for an ordinary sort of work to be continued to the end of the World and partly for the extraordinary work which ended with them or is now ceased is past dispute 1. The extraordinary work was 1. To be immediately sent by Christs own mouth and to go upon that Mission and act by that Commission in which also the seventy did concur 2. To be the Witnesses of what they had seen Christ do and of what they had heard him say 3. To deliver this to the World by Preaching and Writing as such first Witnesses 4. To do this under a Promise of Christ that he would give them his Spirit to bring all things to remembrance and to lead them Infallibly into all Truth 5. To speak the Languages which they had never learnt by art or use 6. To work Miracles to confirm their Testimony and Doctrine and to have the Gifts of Prophecy Healing c. In which tho others did partake with them yet it was but for a time and not as a standing Office and Power 7. To Sentence some men as aforesaid to Satans Execution 8. To be the first planters of Congregate Churches and ordainers of their Pastors or Elders and authorized to institute such Orders and Subordinate Officers Deacons Deaconnesses by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as should continue 9. To be Inspired Infallible Expounders of the Prophecies and Types of the Old Testament And the Infallible deciders of Controversies 10. To be Instrumental by Imposition of Hands in giving the extraordinary miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to others All these are works that God hath made no Promise of continuing to the end and therefore this part of their office ceaseth § 11. II. These following Works of the Apostles cease not and therefore in these they have Successours to the end 1. To Preach Gods Word and Publish the Gospel by voice or writing 2. Indefinitely to Teach and make Disciples of all Nations tho' they could not Universally go to all yet to go as far as they could and as they were called 3. To gather Churches of the Converted and settle Elders over them and to be chief tho' not sole Agents and Guides in ordaining them 4. To take care and oversight as General Pastors of the Churches Gathered and Ordered as being not confined to be Officers only of this or that single Congregation tho' they might also divide their Provinces for order sake and have their most usual habitation fixed 5. To administer the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper where ever they came as General Ministers 6. To censure or use discipline authoritatively in various Churches 7. To try Causes upon Appeals from several Congregations 8. To do all this as instituted Officers Superior to the Interior particular fixed Elders and Churches All these continue § 12. That all these are works to be continued is plain in Scripture 1. The first is common to them with all Christs Ministers in the Office of Elders And so is the fifth 2. The second must be done by all occasionally and as far as the work of their particular Churches will allow But that differeth much from doing it as the Work of a General Officer specially Commissioned for such general Indefinite work and tied to no one setled Church save for Temporary service As we use to say that which is every mans work is well done by none in comparison of that which some are specially appointed to Others may do it These must do it Others will make it their second work but these their first 3. The same I say of gathering and setling particular Churches Others may do it These must do it 4. The fourth is proper to general Officers to take a stated official care and oversight of many Churches as confined to no one Others must Secondarily take a Brotherly care But General Officers take a Fatherly Stated care of them as their province or charge It would be tedious to cite all the texts that mention Pauls and Barnabas and such others care to preserve and edifie the several Churches which they had planted Paul staid at Ephesus some years to carry on this edifying setling work so did John and other Apostles in their Provinces This was not to play the Bishop in other mens Diocess as it would be in a common Pastor if he should intrude without the particular Pastors consent which yet a General Officer may do 5. The same I say of Censuring 6. And of trying Causes officially in various Congregations There is the same reason for these in all Ages as there was in the first 7. And that all this be done as by General Officers superior to the particular fixed Elders hath the same reason for it now as it had at the first All these are works that may still be done and therefore must have Officers to do them § 13. That Christ intended a setled Institution of such Disparity of Ministers as to the Ordinary part of the Apostolick Office I prove as followeth 1. Because having found a disparity before in the Jewish Church he offered not to repeal it when he offered to gather all that Church to himself as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings Yea he sent the Lepers to the Priests and bid men hear them in Moses Chair and owned the disparity § 14. Because he formed a disparity himself as is aforesaid between the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy and that in some Conformity to the Jewish Church Policy And tells his Apostles that they shall Judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel § 15. Because he suiteth his Governing Laws and Discipline much to what he found among the Jews This is evident in Mat. 5. where he doth but vindicate the Law from the Pharisees abuse And Mat. 18. 15. where he formeth his Discipline much to their Method And many Learned men have proved that the Jews Baptized Proselites before John and Christ Baptized And they had the Ten Commandments before And Selden and others shew that they had a Prayer before very like the Lords Prayer And Grotius sheweth that they had Synagogues in every City even to small numbers like our Parish Churches or Chappels And Christ submitted to the Rulers of the Synagogues for his own leave to Preach § 16. I once doubted in my Dispute of Church Government whether the Apostles Superiority was not only for their peculiar advantages
of Knowledge and Gifts rather than a setled Superiority of Office and whether any Pastors might not do all their Ordinary continued work But besides the singularity of that doubt I was soon convinced of an Official Superiority and Disparity not only because a Judas had been one but because the number of Twelve in Superiority was to be kept up by the choice of his Successor even one from among those that had been Witnesses of Christs Words and Works as well as he And by Pauls being made a thirteenth Apostle when the Gospel was to be carried further than to the Jews And his claim of Apostolical Power and Priviledges § 17. Especially because I find Christ Mat. 28. 19 20. describing the General Office as well as the Particular even going into all the World to Disciple whole Nations as well as to teach them to observe Christs Commands promising to be with them to the end of the World § 18. And also because it is apparent that Preaching the Gospel to Heathen and Infidel Nations is a Work still to be done and for want of men purposely appointed to do it the progress of the Gospel hath been wofully stopt Few doing any thing in it but Mr. Eliots and a few honest men in New England and they say some of the Dutch and the Jesuits and Fryers that do it corruptly Particular Church Work is below this § 19. And I am fully confirmed when I find that the Apostles themselves setled a General sort of Ministers in Superiority and General Work to succeed them As Christ himself by his Spirit made Barnabas an Apostle so he gave to his Church also Evangelists who were General helpers of the Apostles and were put in a state of Disparity and Superiority Sil as and Mark and Luke and Apollos and many more are named The texts that mention the General Office and Superior power of Timothy and Titus are so well known and oft cited that it 's needless to repeat them The charge of setling and overseeing many Churches as in Crete and of caution in Imposition of Hands receiving accusations rebuking sharply ruling them well ordaining Bishops and Deacons and much more the like I never thought Saravia and the Kings Arguments in the Isle of Wight well answered Mr. Prins and the common answer is that these were not Bishops but Evangelists I grant it but that confirmeth me For the name Bishop was then ordinarily appropriated to fixed particular Church Elders But our question is not de nomine but de re an Apostle Evangelist were above such Bishops Call them Apostles as Dr. Hammond proveth that the Fathers oft call them or call them Evangelists or Arch Bishops or General Bishops or Diocesans or Provincial Bishops it is not the name that is our Controversie It proveth that the Apostles did settle a sort of General Overseers to gather and take care of many inferior Bishops and Churches to succeed them in the ordinary part of their Office § 20. But another argument fixeth me in this opinion and that is that when it is fully proved that Christ instituted such a Disparity and Superiority he that will affirm that this doth not now continue and bind us must prove the repeal or revocation or prove that he did make this establishment but for a time and how long that was But Scripture plainly asserteth that he then appointed the foresaid Disparity and hath any as plainly proved that he repealed it or confined it to that Age It is not proved that I have seen And to assert this without proof is 1. To make Christs Institutions to signifie but what mans fancy thinks meet and make us the Masters of his Laws before we will be ruled by them 2. It is a charging Christ with temerity or dishonourable mutability as Instituting one form of Church Ministry and Government for one Age and changing it presently for another 3. It seemeth a dangerous taking Gods Name in vain by affirming such a mutability of him and change of his Laws without any proof 4. It defameth the state of his Church when it was under Persecution and when Heaven and Earth after rejoiced in its deliverance as if all that time it had been corrupt by owning the foresaid Disparity And it 's dangerous Presumption to Father on God that which he never did and never owned § 21. But no doubt but the Circumstances of this Superior Office or degree of Ministry are undetermined by God save as by General Rules and may be altered As 1. Whether there shall be One only or Two such General Ministers in one and the same Diocess or Province Christ sent out his Preachers by two and two Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark went out by Couples Peter and Paul were together at Rome And Grotius and Dr. Hammond think that for the first times till the Christian Jews and Gentiles became one Communion the great Cities Rome Alexandria Antioch c. had each two Congregate Churches and two Bishops were it but for language sake And as I think the Jewish and Gentile Christian Ministers during the time of Miraculous Gifts while no Christian Magistrates Ruled were the two Witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse so I conjecture that Peter and Paul were the radical instances of them And when two join together it may take off envy from each Yet this is undetermined in Scripture and left to humane Prudence If two cannot agree how will such agree others § 22. The Scots had at first a General visiter that was really a General Bishop But the Visitors aspiring and abuse changed that way But I am told that in Ulster in Ireland each Classical Synod chuse two Grave Divines and send them out to Preach in any Congregation in that Classis where they see cause As where there are young raw men or men suspected of Heresy or men of scandalous fame and to admonish and counsel such and to tell the People that if they had any thing against their Ministers they should tell them and they would try them in the Classical Synod I think this is real and laudable Episcopacy whatever name it have § 23. It is also undetermined how large the Diocess be of the said General Minister while he excludeth not Inferiors As Prudence would teach the Apostles to Preach in several Countreys and not all in one when they left Jerusalem So Natural Reason teacheth Men still to divide and know their several Provinces § 24. It is undetermined how long each one shall stay in one City or place As Paul did long at Ephesus § 25. And it is left to Prudence how many subordinate Pastors and Churches there shall each oversee so they overthrow not the said subordinate Officers and Churches § 26. And it is left to Prudence what secular Lands or Riches they shall have called Glebe And what secular honour they shall have As to be Barons and Lords or to sit in Parliaments though Reason saith that
cause efficientis And the Kingdoms chief in Meliority in genere causae finalis it is false that the King who is singulis major is Universis Minor in Authority or Jure regendi But it is true that the King tho singulis melior melioritate Relativd is not universis melior for finaliter the King was made for the Kingdom rather than the Kingdom for the King And yet both King and Kingdom are made by God and for God that is for his Will or Pleasure and his Glory and Honour And as it is the Honour of Gods Soveraignty Wisdom and Justice that is glorified in the Magistracy so even the honour of Magistracy is part of the final meliority As Gods Love glorified in the common good is another part of it And so God is the Beginning and the End and All in All. And this is the Rulers Interest § 6. The People have no Jus regendi Governing Authority to use themselves or to give to others So false is the Principle of Mr. Hooker and Laud and many others that make them the Fountain of Power They have the Power called strength in which a Horse excelleth a Man but not Authority If any Nation be Democratical it is not because men are born with any right to Political Government but only to Private Self-government But because Contract hath so ordered the Form of Government And indeed tho a City may be Democratically Governed I know not how any great Nation can possibly be so So that I think there is scarce any true Democracy in the World For to chuse Governours is not to Govern And those that by the People are chosen are an Aristocracy Rome was not all the Roman Empire What right then had the Populus Romanus to Govern the Empire This was not like Democracy where the Majority of the whole body Governs The same I may say of Venice as they Govern all that are under them It is truely an Aristocracy § 7. Mankind is by dullness and sloth so far drowned in Ignorance that the great concerns of Souls Bodies and Kingdoms are disordered and almost hopelesly confounded by the ignorance of those that will be the Rulers of them I. Soul matters and Church matters are ravelled by Ignorant Proud Self-conceited Priests and have been so above 1300 years The things of Religion being mysterious and Students Dull and Impatient of hard Study II. The Diseases and concerns of the Body are so abstruse that if among one thousand that practise Physick there be ten that do not kill any of their Patients they escape well that escape their Hands All the Neighbours about us hurt us not because we trust them not But Physicions kill far more than Enemies III. And I would it were not so with Politicians who will be the determiners of the affairs of Kingdoms and Churches where an error may be pernicious to the Society and Nation The best Politician that ever I knew was wont to lament that Lawyers and Divines usually studied what the Law of the Land saith and what Gods Law saith and never well studied what a Law in genere is what Government and the several Causes of it are and being Ignorant in Political Doctrine understand not the words or things that they talk of And all through uncapableness and sloth § 8. How commonly do such dispute the foresaid case whether the Prince or People be the chief without distinguishing Majority and Meliority How oft do they speak of their different Right without distinguishing separate or distinct from opposite How oft do they falsly tell us that the People are the Fountain of Power And how oft do they tell us that Government Monarchical or Aristocratical are a meer Trust and Rulers only the Peoples Trustees without distinguishing what is of God in it and what is of man and what trust God committeth to them and what men commit And what power people have by Nature and what by Contract § 9. I have oft proved that Political Government of Societies is so far different from Self-government that it is not the contribution of the Self-governing power of individuals given up to one that maketh political power It 's fully proved 1. In that God is the prime Soveraign from whom all Power is given There is no Power but of God 2. And God hath gone before man and hath instituted Government himself by the Law of Nature and of Scripture and hath not staid for man to do it How can man be the Fountain of that which God hath instituted before him He hath not left man to his own choice whether he will have Government or not but hath prevented him by the obligations of Necessity and Command 3. And God hath made Universal Political Laws for Societies and Legislation is the first part of Government 4. And he maketh Rulers as his Ministers and instituteth their Office in specie to be for the promoting of obedience to his own Law and for his Glory and the common good So that it is of Gods institution I. That there be humane Governors as Gods Officers II. That finally they be for his Glory and the common welfare III. And that materially they take God's Laws for the prime Laws of their Government As that they punish sins against the Ten Commandments according to their weight And thus far they are God's Trustees And if the People forbid any of this it is but Nullity and Rebellion against God But the People are Proprietors and may limit the Ruler in the dispose of their Propriety And they have the choice of the Person or Line and Family that shall rule them who it shall be and whether One or Many or How many For these and other circumstances God hath not previously determined save that his Providence making some one by Conquest or strength to be only able to rule and protect them imposeth on them a necessity of consenting to that One. And in these things the Ruler is the Trustee of the People but not in the former so that in the prime essential parts of power the People are but the Objects and the King is to them in different degrees the Trustee of God for the People as the Shepherd is his Masters Trustee for the Sheep and not the Trustee of the Sheep The same I say of true Pastors of the Churches God hath specified their Office tho' the People may circumstantiate it § 10. Princes having the Power of Legislation even about the undetermined circumstances of Religion as well as things secular and also to enforce Obedience to God's Laws all Subjects are bound to obey them herein yea tho' they so far mistake as to chuse the circumstances that might have been better chosen if they command not sin For who doth any thing so well but it might have been done better For instance should they chuse a tolerable but less perfect Version and Meeter of Psalms or Translation of Scripture or form of Publick Worship or Time Place Utensils Ministers
and so train up youth into an enmity and scorn of that which should have their chiefest Love and Labour Alas if such a Serpentine Generation shall for staying so many years in Idleness and Lust in Universities be thought to have right to take the charge of multitudes of Souls that never took just care of their own and to have right to Church Dignity and Maintenance if any bad Patron will but present them how sad a case is such a Church and Nation in They will bring their Ignorance and Malice into the Pulpit and then those hearers that know bitter from sweet and the unclean from the clean will loath their folly And when the Priest seeth that he is despised or loathed he will become the Enemy of those that disesteem him and so he will become a Wolf to the Flock And then it is the Ungodly part that must be his Friends and Companions in Sin whom he will harden to their own Destruction Thus hath a bad Clergy been the ruine of many Churches § 13. And this will prove so strong a Temptation to the Religious part to disaffect the Ministry and to go too far in separations as that Schisms and Pernicious Divisions will be soon multiplied And then Persecution must be tryed on them instead of Light and Love § 14. But the Immediate dividing and dissolving of Churches and overthrow of the Peace of Christian Kingdoms is by Ignorant Malicious or Tyrannical Laws or Canons that impose things forbidden of God on pain of ejecting and silencing the most Faithful Ministers and scorning and ruining the most Religious People that will not sell their Souls for Worldly Interest nor to humour the ill designs of Tyrants These snares are often made by meer malice and revenge as Daniel was forbid to pray Because they could find no fault or accusation against him except it were concerning the Law of his God Especially when some great quarrels have exasperated revenge § 15. But usually error concurreth with Malice while Ignorance and Pride make Prelates and Priests still confident that all their Opinions and Impositions are just and blameless and that all are willfully erroneous that refuse them So rare is a humble understanding § 16. And it fixeth a National Church in this way to ruine when such an unworthy Ministry must be continued till they die and there is no great visible hope of removing them How many difficulties must be overcome before one Parish can get a cure of such § 17. And yet worse is it when there is small hope of a better when the bad Priest is dead but the corrupt Fountain is still sending forth polluted Streams and Money and Friendship chuse the Man And when the worst Man that hath but Money enough to buy a Patronage shall have the choice of a Pastor for Mens Souls § 18. And yet worse will it go when the Keys which are the most peculiar part of the Priviledge and Office of the Pastors shall be exercised by Lay Civilians in the Bishops name without his judging or consent And Government by the Word is managed by such Men in the manner that Secular Affairs are managed without due reverence to holy things § 19. And worst of all is it when the Body of the Nation is by such means brought to so much ignorance and sinfulness that they would have it so And are glad to have so much countenance to their malignity and sin and follow their malicious Military Leaders § 20. And last of all when their madness hath drawn their own Swords against each other or provoked God to let in a Foreign Enemy on them then they must expect that God avenge the quarrel of his Covenant specially when after great Mercy and long Patience they would not know the time of their Visitation nor in their day the things that belong to their peace but defend their sin Chap. XIV Whether the National Church of England be at the present of a sound Constitution And what is necessary to its Welfare Safety Reformation and Peace § 1. TO tell what particulars need Reformation I have done so oft to the great displeasure of the guilty that I have no encouragement to offend them more by doing it again § 2. And to give the true History of original causes and progress of our corruptions disorders and divisions will not be endured by them that still justifie their own and Predecessours sin and can see no fault in any but those that they first make and then call their adversaries I have found that the most notorious matters of fact will be denyed furiously by such men even what hath been said and done in their presence and mine before a multitude of Witnesses Bishops Doctors and divers others Yea things said and done in Parliaments and Armies and publickly notified are by such men contradicted with rage Therefore I will not here tell the World either what or who have been the causes of our sufferings and dangers having long purposed to have done it in a Treatise by it self called REPENT O ENGLAND and therein I. To declare my own Repentance II. To tell those called Presbyterians what they must Repent of III. And those called Separatists IV. And those called Antinomians V. And those called Prelatical especially the Ruling part But God seemeth to deny me time for that intended Work § 3. That which I shall now add is I. To shew what there now is in the English Constitution fitted to Christs Institution of a true National Church II. What is yet wanting III. And what are the Remedies § 4. I. I begin with that which is Good and Laudable Not only to avoid offence by unprofitable finding faults but especially to rectifie those prejudiced censures that call Good Evil and run away from Gods Mercies under the false name of Sin This hath had no small hand in our Divisions ever since the troubles at Frank-ford and our first Reformation The Adversaries of Popery did lay more of the personal Crimes of the Papists Bishops and Priests and Monks too on the Office and Order than they should have done § 5. I. The National Church of England is rightly constituted under one Supreme Royal Government as the Unifying Head as I have proved § 6. II. It is duely constituted of professed Baptized Christians and Churches as the subject matter § 7. III. It hath National Laws which profess their subserviency to the Law of Christ and the Nullity of all that is against it § 8. IV. It maketh none Magistrates but professed Christians No nor Burgesses and choosers of Magistrates § 9. V. It hath Diocesans that are General Overseers of many particular Churches as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the ordinary parts of their Office which I before proved to be Christs Institution § 10. VI. It justly maketh Bishops Members of Parliament it being unfit to make Laws for Religion without the Pastors notice and advice § 11. VII It justly giveth large maintenance and