c. Concord in those otherwise not the best may be better and a greater duty than for better to be singular disobedient and dividers or the encouragers of other mens singularity and divisions § 11. If there were no Law or Mandate of the Prince for such concord as aforesaid yet because a National Church should have the comfort beauty and strength of as much concord as can be attained without greater hurt than it will compensate all the Members of it ought to study the maintenance of such unity concord and harmony and if the Pastors and Churches agree on any such lawful circumstances to comply and conform to such agreement and to shun affected causless singularity In such cases Augustine rightly resolved to do as the Church did where he came It being a disturbing discord for one man to be odd against a lawful Custom without cause As for instance if one would affect to be covered with his Hat at Prayer or Psalmody when the rest are uncovered or to use a gesture contrary to all the rest Conformity in things lawful beseemeth them that profess themselves Members of such National Churches as consist of United Confederate Congregations § 12. But if on pretence of Concord or Confederacy yea or Laws any would tyrannically impose sinful things or else make things lawful so much more necessary than in themselves they are as to become the necessary Conditions of Union or Communion excommunicating persecuting or unchurching all that differ from them and appropriating National Church Membership only to those that obey such ensnaring Canons or Agreements It is not lawful to own or countenance such Usurpation and Tyranny nor to deny those that they deny or condemn to be true parts of the National Church It being only Concord in things essential that is necessary to the Essence and Concord in parts integral that is necessary to Integrity and Concord in convenient Accidents that is necessary to the accidental Comeliness of the Church And contrarily Concord against Essentials nullifieth a Church and Discord against Essentials nullifieth a Member and want of Integrals rendereth it maimed and want of due Accidents uncomely and ill Accidents in Concord or Discord partly scabbed and less beautiful § 13. I earnestly entreat therefore all sober Christians to take heed lest the secret desire of seeming more pious or tender conscienced than other godly people and of getting applause for such tenderness and of being reputed stricter than others should tempt them into opinions or practices of unnecessary distance singularity and division Pride is a deep rooted sin in Nature and it maketh our reputation with the stricter people oft to become a selfish Interest as strong as riches and wordly preferments are with the looser sort of men And it maketh it to such as hard to undergo the sharp censures of the censorious and to bear the imputation of want of Piety and Conscience as to undergo imprisonment and want And hereby young ignorant Apprentice Lads and Women being usually the most censorious such become the real Governours of their Pastors and of the Church especially if Persecution also cast them for a livelihood on the Peoples Charity And so it seemeth to make it the Controversie whether the Churches and Pastors should be governed by Bishops or by censorious Women and Boys Satan hath more Baits to angle with than one and more than one way of deceiving Those that are above the sordid bait of riches or preferment or great mens favour may yet be overcome by the over-valuing the love and praise of a Sect or of mistaken religious persons especially in a time when the Clergy is grown infamous and contemptible by ignorance worldliness or malignity and it is become a disgrace to be numbred with them § 14. But Satan hath taught no small part of our Academick Students and our Clergy a way to frustrate all that I have said by accusations against my self as if it were sufficient to turn all into scorn if they could charge any sin on my person or by impudent falshoods either feign me to contradict my self or if they do the work of the Father of Lies by his proper act and imitation On one side I am daily reviled by the Separatists and Antinomians as over-conformable On the other side I am reviled for Non-conformity and told that my practice is contrary to all that I write and preach for Peace And it is answer enough for them to calumniate and say that I condemn my self as if this did justifie both extreams in their impenitent persevering in enmity to Peace § 15. To Mr. Long therefore and such other Calumniators who instead of a rational Confutation of my Arguments answer by accusing me as of a contradicting unpeaceable life I say 1. One would think with men that have any pretence to reason honesty or honour it should be easie to know that when the Controversie is about Church-Government Oaths Subscriptions Ministration what I am is nothing to the Question in hand If they take me for as errant a Knave or Rogue as Judge Jeffreys or Mr. Long have pronounced me what 's this to the common Cause of Truth and Peace 2. If my forty five years labour for Peace my forbearing these thirty years to gather any Church my Communion with my parish-Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacrament kneeling at the Altar all my Writings against Schism and Separation and for the reconciling of Word-warriours my quiet submission to their oft imprisoning me and seizing on and selling all my goods Bed and Books as for Preaching when I was twenty miles off and for such occasional Sermons as the Lord Chief Justice Sanders and the new Lord Chief Justice Polixfen gave not under their hands that I was authorized to Preach by the Bishops License not revoked nor forfeit and all this by Sir James Smith and Sir James Butlers Warrants who neither of them ever told me who accused me nor ever called me to speak for my self If the like Warrant before by Sir Thomas Davis If my Imprisonment before by Justice Rosse and Philips If my being tost from Session to Session and bound in six hundred pound to the behaviour by Justices that openly declared they had nothing against me but took me for innocent If my Banishment out of the County and five miles from all Corporations If my attendance at Judge Jeffreys Bar in daily pain to hear my self reviled being forbidden to speak a word for my self and the Lawyers reviled and threatned that spake for me If my Confinement in the Kings Bench Prison for near two years and a great deal more such usage after they had in 1661. offered me a Bishoprick and sworn me to be the King's Chaplain in Ordinary And after Bishop Morley had silenced me and published a Letter of palpable falshoods against me which I answered and for peace laid it by these 28 years I say if all this prove me unpeaceable and them peaceable and if my Concessions in my English
though they were but Provinces and parts of the Imperial Church And thus Judea became a National Church § 2. It is past question that many Kings who had given up their Kingdom to the Pagan Beast followed the success of Constantine and afterward did give up their Power to Christ yet no Kingdom was wholly converted at once nor of many years But yet while the Soveraign Power and Confederate Christian Pastors and Subjects had the chief Power it was truly a Christian Kingdom For the Form in capable matter doth denominate And tho' many Heathens were long permitted in Government that doth but prove that the Kingdom had two sorts of free Subjects one sort that were Christians and so were the chief Members who in all matters of Religion were exempted from Pagan Judicatures and the other Heathens who had a freedom in things secular § 3. Judea then was more eminently Christian than any other Nation of no greater extent There were Arch Bishops and Bishops and Presbyters and after a Patriarch And there were more Monasteries and Religious Societies and more Temples built there than in any Countrey that was no greater And more Christians flockt thither from other Nations out of a veneration for the place And indeed it was the Mother-Church out of which all other Churches sprang Therefore if any Province might be called a National Church it was Judea § 4. This was when the Fulness of the Gentiles came in that is when the Gentile Empire turned Christian And so the Gentile Powers turned Christian provoked the Jews to emulation and requited them by becoming Nursing Fathers to them and bringing their Glory to Jerusalem And so all Israel was saved that is the body of Abraham's natural Seed and also the faithful Gentiles that were the spiritual Seed were unitedly gathered to Christ § 5. Obj. But they were mostly Gentiles that then dwelt there And that proveth no Conversion of the Jews Ans The scattered Jews were in many Countreys of the Roman Empire And most of them had neither mind nor means to return to a small and barren Land But as many as were willing and were zealous for their Countrey did live there and none were forbidden And it is far most probable that the most that were there left were such as kept their old Habitations And the most that were kill'd were the military part In the days of Constantine and after their Churches flourished And what greater encouragement could they have now to return were they converted than they had None would make them go against their wills If Gentile Christians and Jews were there mixt they did the more fitly suit a Catholick Church-state when Moses Policy and their Peculiarity ceased Should they in the feigned Fifth Monarchy-state be confined to that Countrey which is like our Wales how contemptible a Nation would they be in comparison of what Constantine allowed them both in Judea and throughout all the Empire No Nation was wholly converted at the first and if the Christian Jews that lost their name being Catholicks had no great mind to go to Judea it is no wonder Chap. IV. Particular Churches and Pastors how far essential to a National Church and what are its materials § 1. THere is more essential to a National Church than the meer Formal Cause or Soveraign Matter is essential as well as Form Yet not all parts of the Matter neither though all be parts Integral As in the Body a man cannot be a man without a stomach liver and lungs and heart but he may without a finger or a hand or leg § 2. I doubt not but I have proved that the Soveraign Magistrate is the Formal Humane Head of his Kingdom and as Christian of the Kingdom as Christian And nothing remaineth disputable but de Nomine whether a Christian Kingdom must be named a Church which Custom Etymology and Scripture put past question Our Civilians such as Dr. Zouch Dr. Rich. Cousins c. and our Lawyers say trulier than most have believed that the King is persona mixta Custos utriusque Tabulae and Head of the Church as a Christian Kingdom And for want of knowing this and the true nature and bounds of his Office how foully many have miscarried I have shewed 1. Those called Erastians carry it too far and give the Magistrate part of the Office of the Pastors even the Keys of Admission into the Church as a Church and of Excommunication which God hath put into the hand of the Pastors by as immediate a Commission as he hath put the Sword into the hand of the Magistrate And by this over-doing they undo They would ruine the Prince on pretence of defending his Power For all Authority hath also Obligation to duty And must Princes and Magistrates be put on the task of trying the Faith and Repentance of all that are to be Baptized Confirmed Absolved or Excommunicated Then they must leave their own Calling for they will here find work enough This is like the Separatists making the People Judges by which they would undo them calling them from their Callings to take on them a work of which they are uncapable and about which they will never long agree and making them responsible to God for all their Male-administration As if the King must not only be Governour of Physicions but must be a Physicion himself and give Medicines and be answerable for the Patients lives Or must be a Schoolmaster because he governeth Schoolmasters And this puts them on a necessity of casting out true Discipline and holding the Opinion that Sacramental Communication should be common to the Godly and the openly Wicked as being a Converting Ordinance and that Excommunication is but Tyranny Just as those Diocesans that will have no Bishops but one over a thousand or many score or hundred Parishes by pleading for their sole Episcopal Power take on them the sole Obligation to Episcopal duty and so make themselves responsible for that work which requireth many hundred men and under themselves while they undo the Churches and leave all true Discipline undone and mock not God but men and themselves with names and ceremonious shadows 2. And the Papal and French Prelatists have by this Ignorance got a fixed false Opinion that as Pastors are the Constitutive Heads of Particular Churches so they must be of National Churches and that every National Church must be unified and specified by one Clergy Soveraignty in one person or in a Colledge or Aristocracy Or else that a Christian Kingdom is not properly a Church because it hath not a Priestly Head It 's true that it is not univocally a Church of the same species or rank as a Pastoral Church is but is more eminently and as fitly called a Church as Israel was 3. And the Independent Separatists and Anabaptists for want of understanding this as I said before cry down National Churches with scorn and run away from National Concord into endless Divisions and Sects while at the
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
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
Unmercifulness especially Rich Mens oppression of the Poor Landlords grinding their Poor Tenants and Judges Justices and Lawyers unrighteousness in Suits and Judgments are Sins threatned by the Prophets as the fore-runners of Destruction § 3. But especially when Rulers are the Leaders in Sin and the Patrons of the Wicked The Sins of Men in publick Place are publick Sins and sooner bring publick Judgments than the Sins of private Men. The publick Authors of the late Calamitous Wars of Ireland Scotland and England had a deep part in the Punishment as they had in the Guilt O what a Torrent of Guilt in the Reign of Charles the Second did from King and Court over-flow this Land by the shameless filth of all uncleanness When Men shall affectedly keep Whores as the way to please the Court by Conformity to the King as if it were an Honour or no great Dishonour what can be expected from such horrid wickedness but Publick Divine Revenging Justice § 4. When did it ever go well with Judah or Israel when they had a foolish wicked King How easie is it for such a King and a foolish wicked Senate or Parliament to undo a Nation by Laws of Heresie Cruelty Persecution Division and Iniquity How ordinarily do such make Snares for the Conscionable by commanding them on pain of Fining Imprisonment or Death or Banishment to do something that God forbiddeth or not to do what God commandeth and then to cry them down reproach and ruine them as unruly disobedient despisers of all Order and Government Schismaticks and Rebels And who may call them so with less contradiction than they that can at their pleasure make them seem such and few dare contradict them § 5. Great is the advantage that Supreme Rulers have to put the Name of Evil upon Good and of Good on Evil and to procure the Vulgar to say as they Saving that the Innocency and Worth of the Upright especially of Wise and Charitable Persons constraineth approbation from those that know them and are not deplorate in Diabolism The foolish words of Princes seem wise to ignorant flatterers But he that will dwell in Gods Tabernacle and be a Blessing and not a Plague to the Church must be a Contemner of vile Persons and an Honourer of them that fear the Lord Psal 15. Antishenes could say that the Nation is hopeless that cannot difference good Men from bad What maketh almost all under Papist Rulers to be Papists and under Turks to be Mahometans and under Heathens to be Heathens but the Interest of the Opinion Example and Power of their Rulers § 6. In England and most Nations that are Christian the King and Rich Patrons or the Pope and his Servants have the choice of Archbishops Bishops Deans and Pastors And can it be expected that bad Men and covetous Men and the haters of serious Piety should chuse Men that will promote the Doctrine and Practice which they hate If the King make the Church of England is it like if he be a Papist or Malignant that he will chuse a Protestant and pious Church Or that a Covetous Drunken Filthy Licentious Patron will chuse a Man that will Zealously Preach against his Sins § 7. But the great Cause of the Ruine of a National Church is the Ignorance Viciousness Pride Malignity Covetousness and Persecuting Cruelty of a Degenerate Carnal Worldly Clergy Magistracy and Ministry are Gods great Ordinances by which as his Instruments and partly Representatives he doth by an established Order govern and keep up Order and Piety in the World Magistrates represent him in his Super-eminence and Ruling Power And Ministers in his Guiding and Sanctifying Wisdom and Love And God that will not ordinarily turn setled Order into Miracles worketh by these according to the aptitude of the Instruments and the Receivers And where there is kept up a wise and holy Magistracy and Ministry when and where did it ever go ill with such a people by any publick desolation § 8. If Ministers be Ignorant or unskilful in their publick Work they will be despised If they be Worldly and Covetous the Poor will reproach them If they be Drunkards Gluttons Unclean Idle or any way Sensual they will become the common Scorn But if they be Enemies to serious Godliness or Revilers or Persecutors of Godly Men the wicked will be encouraged to be like them and hardned in their Sin but Pious and Sober men will abhor them as the Servants of Satan though they will not therefore cast off their Honour to the true Ministerial Office and Work It is not an Honourable Office or a Reverend Garb and Name and Title that will hide the shame of Ignorance Ungodliness Sensuality or Malignity Their White Cloathing and Sacred Titles which render their filthiness more visible and odious Bad Men will prove a greater injury to Sacred Offices than open Enemies And it is not the Holiness of the Office or the Goodness of Laws and Order that will serve to Reform or make Happy a Church or Nation in the hands of wicked Men. § 9. Therefore when Bishops shall be such who Ordain and Govern the Inferior Clergy that Church or Nation is near lost and ruined If bad Princes chuse bad Prelates and they Ordain bad Ministers and savouring nothing but Wealth and Reputation shall prove the Jealous Adversaries of Piety and Persecutors of the most serious Christians and Encouragers of the malignant vicious and profane that Church and Nation is next to dead though it have a Name to live and be called Honourable and Rich how comely soever its Order and Ornaments may be and though its Doctrine and profest Opinions be Orthodox § 10. And it will yet render the case more desperate if the same carnal worldly malignant Bishops and Clergy shall grow justly reputed the Adversaries of the most Learned Judicious Godly and Laborious and Powerful Preachers and shall seek to Silence Disgrace and Oppress them The sober part of the Nation will then be tempted to take them as the Devils Militia armed against Christ and Mens Salvation and this the more wickedly as doing it in Christs Livery and in his Name § 11. And if such a Clergy shall in enmity to the Godly flatter the profane Lords Knights and Rich men of the World and make them their upholders and patrons and party to strengthen them in their sin the Confederacy will threaten Gods Vengeance on them all § 12. And yet the case will be more desperate if the wicked in such power shall bring an Universal Infection of Idleness Sensuality and Factious Enmity to serious Godliness on the Universities and other Schools of Learning and shall make them to be Nurseries of Ignorance Errour Impiety and Malignity And if the Prelates and Priests shall teach their Pupils and Candidates to account men of Conscience that obey not their sinful Impositions to be Fanatical Schismaticks and on pretence of bringing Schism into disgrace shall cast their dirt in the Face of Piety