Laws about Religion and the Church affairs should not be made without the advice of them who are so greatly intrusted with Religion And yet that their Riches should be such as may not be too strong a Temptation to Sensuality Worldliness Pride and Tyrannizing over their Brethren § 27. There are three ranks of Bishops Two if not all three of Divine Institution And when any one of the three would suppress the other two they are corrupted into a sinful Tyranny I. The ordinary Presbyters are Episcopi Gregis Bishops over the Flocks So called and proved not only by Grotius passim but by most Papists and Protestants specially expositors on Phil. 1. and 1 Tim. 3. and 1 Pet. 5. c. II. The Churches being first gathered usually under some one Pastor and he taking in the ripest of his Converts or Disciples to become his assisting Presbyters and to avoid divisions that one or some other was chosen to be Episcopus Praeses the President Bishop of that particular Congregate Church As the incumbents in big Parishes are with us And tho I can prove no Institution of this but by Gods General Commands of doing all in Order Unity and to Edification yet we have reason to believe that it was begun in the Apostles days if Jerom say true about Mark at Alexandria who died before John And I find no party of Christians against it of many hundred years perhaps not of a thousand for even Aerius called it not unlawful And the Novatians Donatists and other Sects were Zealous for this sort of Episcopacy III. And that a Superior sort of Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists were of Divine Institution I have proved before § 28. The appropriating the name of BISHOPS to this General rank here called the Diocesanes contrary to Scripture and Truth hath proved a mischievous snare for Deceit and Tyranny For hereby first our Innovators have denied the Parish Incumbents to be true Pastors secondly And the Parish Churches to be true Political Churches for want of proper Bishops or Pastors but only parts of the Diocesan Church As if that were infimae specei 3. By this they have made the ignorant Laity believe that those ordained by the Proestotes the parochial President Bishops are ordained by no Bishops at all and so must be re-ordained And 4. they are become the grand Enemies of Episcopacy putting down many hundred Bishops to set up one alone And yet perfrictâ fronte have called such as are for more Antiepiscopal and themselves the Episcopal party Just as if one Schoolmaster or Physition should put down many hundred that he may be the only Schoolmaster and Physition or one Judge put down all the Justices and Mayors and then impudently say that they are against Physitions Schoolmasters and Justices and he only is for them But who can expect Truth or Modesty from Ungodly Worldly Proud Tyrannical Men. Tho it is not the Name that is our Controversie I allow them the Name of Diocesanes Yet abuse of Names hath been of mischievous effects § 29. Such Diocesane or General Bishops as put down all the Particular fixed Bishops and Churches are not only no sort of Bishops of Christs Institution but are Pernicious Enemies to Episcopacy and the Churches As nominal Apostles would have been had they put down all the Particular Churches and Bishops which they should oversee or a General Commander that would put down all the Collonels and Captains § 30. To refuse to be ordained by such usurping Enemies and to disown them is not to refuse true Episcopacy § 31. If these usurping Bishops would swear Men to obey them and refuse to ordain any that will not Assent Consent Subscribe or Covenant to sin against God by Omission or Commission especially many great and hainous sins he that refuseth such ordination may truly say he could not be so ordained the Bishop was the refuser and not he And he hath better ordination that is ordained by Parish Bishops on lawful Terms § 32. Yet if the Christian Prince make a true Diocesan that putteth not down the Parish Churches to be of the Quorums and have a Negative voice in Ordinations of such as he will own and maintain I think none should scruple submission For while Diocesans are good Men it seemeth to be a way safe and orderly § 33. There are two degrees of deposing the Parish Pastors I. When somewhat essential to their Office it self is denied de specie As Mr. Dodwell would have the Office made and specified by the Will and Intention of the Ordainer This only the Innovaters are guilty of II. When the Essentials of the Office are owned but the exercise sinfully restrained This the Old English Canons and Bishops were guilty of But it unhappily was by fitting their Canons to the State of the Parish Priests that came newly out of Popery and were by ignorance and errour unfit for their Office and Work But of all this I treated with unquestionable evidence of Truth in my Treatise of Episcopacy which is yet unanswered § 34. Those that only abusively restrain the Parish Pastors in the exercise of their Offices and are but misgoverning Diocesans may yet be owned as true Ministers de specie tho we must not own their sinful Misgovernment But those that destroy the very Office of the Parish Pastors in any essential part and their Churches are no true Ministers of Christ de specie nor to be owned as such while they will be the sole Pastors of many hundred Congregations § 35. How came this General Episcopacy that was to gather and fix Churches to be so much ceased A. 1. By the difficulty and costliness of the work of Apostolick Travels and Labours Ministers chose the easier state of a fixed particular Ministry 2. The particular Bishops living among Heathens found work enough on those within their reach and so by degrees conjoined the two Offices of General and Particular Episcopacy into one 3. And when the Heathen near them were converted ambition drew them to enlarge their Particular Churches into one Diocesan Church instead of gathering the new Swarms into a new Hive under a true particular Bishop And thus Satan hath by subtilty reduced the Churches to be too like to the Heathen World by killing Religion and turning it into Hypocritical Ceremony and meer Names while one Bishop will needs undertake the work of many Score or Hundreds which he cannot possibly perform § 36. Q. How prove you that the Largeness of the Diocess altereth the Species of Episcopacy and Churches A. It doth not at all if it put not down the subordinate Parish Pastors and Churches But if it turn them into half-Pastors and Chappels by destroying their essence it is easily proved Because it is two sorts of Communion that specifie the two sorts of Churches and Pastors The lowest particular sort is for presential personal Communion of such as may personally converse and may know each other and may at least sometime assemble
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-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
the Jewish State and not an Universal And this National Form went before that part of the Apostles Work and Power which was to be Universal or Indefinite § 15. IV. The Apostles made no Universal Laws of their own but only promulgated the Laws of Christ which by his Word and Spirit he taught them And to that end he promised and gave them his Spirit to lead them into all Truth and bring all to their remembrance and they were sent to all Nations indefinitely to Convert them and Baptize them and to teach them to observe all things that Christ had commanded them The Cryer is not the Law-maker though he proclaim the Law The Obligations to Infant-baptism and the Lords day alledged by some as Apostolical Laws are from Christ himself as I have proved elsewhere at large the Apostles being Authorized Witnesses and Promulgators And had they done it by the extraordinary promised Spirit it had so been Christs own Law-giving no other having that promise of the Spirit to make a new Word of God or Universal Law by bringing all his Commands to remembrance and leading them into all Truth The determinations Acts 15. were also the delivery of the Law of Christ the Holy Ghost giving them the certain understanding of it And it 's like that as two of the four Cases Fornication and Idol-Communion were of known Morality so the other two strangled and Blood-eating if not so were not of Universal Obligation but only to those Gentiles that lived among the offended Jews The like may be said about the Institution of Deacons and Bishops of single Churches If they did not Institute them as in Christs Name by his Command or Spirit but had Authority from him to do it as Apostles It was under the promise of the Spirits Infallible Guidance and a Temporary Work in which they have no Successors For Christs Church would never be formed nor his Laws and Word setled perfect if we must have Men in all Ages to add to his Church Ordinances and Officers and to make him new Laws and a new Word How big would his Bible be then at the last Why have no new Scriptures as his been so made these 1600 years I hope our Volumes of Councils will not go for such § 16. V. The occasional determination of Questions about mutable Circumstances as long Hair the Vails the Love-feasts the time of Collections for Charity and divers such were not Universal but Local and not of Immutable but occasional Mutable Obligation and were but such as National and Congregational Governors may determine without any Universal Supreme Power The Genus or Rule by which they must be determined Edification Love Concord Peace Decency Order being Gods Laws § 17. VI. There is great difference between what the Apostles did as Segregate or Dis-junct each one in his Province and what they did as an Aristocratical Person or College unitedly They Ordained Elders gave the Holy Ghost setled Churches decided Controversies wrote Books and Epistles singly each one in his Province and met not to write any one Book or Epistle by a Major College-Vote in one Body And though their Books now oblige all the Church that have them yet 1. At the first writing they obliged only the Churches or Persons to whom they were written and only after by parity of Reason bind others that have them And every ordinary Pastor that writeth a Book that is sound Divinity bringeth an Obligation on all that read it to obey it according to the Evidence of truth The Obligation of the Apostles Books and theirs is Extensively Indefinite or Universal to all that read or hear it But the Degree of the Obligation Intensively is greater from the Apostles Writings because of their extraordinary Spirit § 18. VII The decision Acts 15. was not by a General Council nor a Pope No such Council was called But they were sent and appealed to as Men of most infallible fitness to decide that Case and if they did it as a College it was only as a National Church College such as de formâ the Jews Nation had in which relation they were first setled For as Twelve they were only so related others being added to be sent with them to the Centiles And besides and after that we never read that they did any thing but in their separate Provinces and Personal Capacity § 10 VIII And as they never did as an Universal Aristocratical College by Vote make new Universal Laws to the Church much less by any ordinary continued Power so neither did they as such a College exercise Judicial or Executive power but did it in their single Capacities only in their proper Provinces and that was partly by an ordinary power of Reproof and Excommunication which continueth and partly by an extraordinary miraculous power of delivering to Satan for Corporal punishment which power is ceased with them Tho' Papists in a mock-imitation deliver the Excommunicate to the Secular powers to be kill'd as if these were Devils As for the Universal Laws that tell whom to Excommunicate they are Christs own Laws and Rules of Judgment To which if men may add the like no wonder if they make Sin and Heresie as they please and Excommunicate and deliver to Satan their Magistrates whom they will and if he that was an Orthodox Saint this year be burnt without change as an Heretick the next and it be never certain till the end of the World what is Heresie or Sin and what not § 20. IX It being certain then that the Apostles did not as an Aristocratical Supreme power over the Universal Church Exercise Legislation Judgment and Execution much less by any ordinary continued power it followeth that they have no Successors that have such power and all Government being contained in these three parts there is de Jure no Universal Governour § 21. X. The power of Moses and Aaron were of equal extent and both of Divine Institution but Aaron was under Moses Government And Christ gave the Twelve and Seventy at first no larger Provinces or Power And when he added more and sent them to the Gentiles he commanded every Soul to be subject to the Princes power as of God Therefore their power in the Empire was limited and subject to the Imperial Government and so in other Lands They were bound to fear God and Honour the King They might by Doctoral and Nunciative Authority perswade Emperors and deliver Gods Commands and so still may any ordinary Teacher but not by Imperant Judicial and Executive power Govern them unless by self-subjecting they make them their Governors as Pupils do their Tutors and Patients their Physicions Yea they could make no Man a Christian but by Persuasion to voluntary consent and till they were Christians they could not Govern them as Christians And they were not Governors of the World but Monitors and Persuaders § 22. XI Indefinite and were it possible Universal Concord Love and Communion All Christians must endeavour
which Ministers do with greater Obligation and Advantage than the People and Apostles above both And Kings and States are as much obliged to it as Bishops But they are not on that pretence to make one Universal King or Senate to be a Soveraign Power to them and all the Earth or Church But only by Diets or Confederacies to join their Powers and Endeavours to so good an End And so is it with Bishops and Churches § 23. If they say That it is Union and Concord with the Pope or Rome or their Councils that we are bound to let them but renounce their pretence to Government of all and we shall easily decide the other difference If we must not Unite to them as Governors but as Brethren they are as much bound to Love and Union with us as we with them And Christ is sufficient to be the Center of Union to the whole Body and hath made them the sufficient and only Laws of Universal Concord among themselves § 24. Obj. To be obliged by Gods Law to Concord and to have Councils and Bishops determine in what we must agree inferreth our Duty to agree in those Points which cometh to all one as Government by them Ans 1. If they be not Governors but Equals we have as much power to propose Articles of Agreement to them as they to us 2. There are no Articles of Universal Agreement in all the Churches on Earth necessary but what Christ hath made such And to pretend to make such and Usurp his Prerogative is a sin that we must not agree with 3. The vanity of their talk of true Universal Councils I have oft at large detected 4. We grant submission to the true power of National Governors and Councils but Universal we know not 5. Just National Laws must be obeyed But Conciliar Canons of Concord by Equals bind us not to Agreement when mistake maketh them against the common Good and Ends of Concord Nor do Mens Laws or Agreements bind us to any thing against the Laws of God § 25. XII We all own an Universal Church Government Partite or Exercised by parts as all the Physicions Medicate all England and all the School-masters teach them and all the Judges and Justices judge them And so Cyprian meant that Episcopatus unus est of which each one hath a part That is 1. In specie institutâ 2. Quoad Objectum All the particular Churches governed make one Universal Church 3. Quoad Finem But no Man nor any Senate or College or Council as una persona politica is Soveraign We have no Universal King but Christ Chap. XI Whether a National Church Soveraignty infer the need or lawfulness of a Humane Universal Church Soveraignty § 1. Ans NO For 1. Man is capable of one but uncapable of the other 2. Christ hath given Commission for one but not for the other 3. Every Kingdom hath one Humane Soveraignty in Sword Government But so hath not all the World one And there is less reason for and less possibility of one Humane Governing Soveraignty by the Word and Keys 4. God set one Moses and one Aaron or Priesthood over Israel but not over all the World If Adam or Noah was such while the World was but a Family or Tribe he would not have it so when it was uncapable of it 5. The Summons and Subscriptions and the Limits of the Imperial Power tell us that the most General Councils were but Imperial that is National in Extent as I have proved against Johnson And therefore no more can be claimed since § 2. Obj. But if a Presbyter must be Ordained by a Bishop as Superior and a Bishop by an Archbishop and he by a Patriarch what Superior shall make him but a Pope or Council Ans 1. You may next ask Who then must Make or Consecrate a Pope Is it a Superior Contrarily If a Pope may be made by Inferiors as they do a Patriarch a Metropolitan an Archbishop and a Bishop may quoad esse be validly made by Men of the same Order Yea and Presbyters too where Politick Order and Church safety forbid it not § 3. It is so far from being true as I once foolishly thought that National Church Supremacy inferreth Popery that it is a necessary or very great means against it without which though particular Souls may be saved from Popery a Nation cannot long nor ever was that I have read of For Popery is but the Invading of the power of all other Bishops and Kings And for each one to reassume his own power is the direct Deposing of the Pope As if one King or Senate claimed the Government of all Kings and Senates how should these Usurpers be Deposed but by every King and Parliaments reassuming their own § 4. But then every party that differeth in the Form of National Government must not pretend that it is only their Form that is the Bulwark against Popery National Church Concord and Strength may be kept up by a Supreme Christian Prince or State with a Concordant Ministry whether among themselves United as the Scots in General Assemblies or as in England by Archbishops Bishops and Convocations obeying the Laws of Christ and the just Laws of the King and State that are made for determining needful Circumstances supposing such Bishops qualified and chosen justly and usurping none of the Sword-bearers power § 5. That National Laws about matters of Religion may and must be made and that Princes consulting with Pastors must make them and that these are not to extend to all the World is a truth unquestionable In England the Law must command us to use English Bibles but not all over the World It is meet to bind the Churches to use one Translation of the Scriptures Else one will say Your Text or what you alledge is not in my Bible and another It is not in mine And many inconveniences would follow And one Form of Catechism one Form of Confession one Metre of singing Psalms and about the Sacraments and other Offices one Form moderately imposed or agreed on is convenient But if one part will too rigorously impose things needless or command things sinful or justly suspected or the other side refuse things lawful and fit because imposed National Concord will be broken Chap. XII The Three other Reasons for Popery answered briefly Quest III. SHould not the Roman Church Policy in reason be owned for the advantage of Christianity against Infidels Ans 1. We deny not but Unity Concord Power and Riches and the great number of Adherents is a great advantage to Christianity against Infidels And all these are Gods Gifts and as such do good 2. But the abuse of them though it do not quite frustrate the genuine Effects yet so depraveth them that it 's a doubt whether the hurt to the common Christianity be not greater than the advantage If Unity were maintained in Christs way it would have far better Effects than in the Papists way 3. Yet we
of man Parents being seriously taught to know what it is to enter their Child into the holy Covenant and to Dedicate their Child to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the World the Devil and the Flesh And the Parents or Pro-parents and not perfidious dissembling God-fathers must solemnly promise their careful education § 22. II. The transition of those Baptized in Infancy into the state of Adult Communicants must be made by an understanding and solemn owning of their Baptismal Covenant and that by such Pastors as have time to examine and instruct them and not made a deceitful Ceremony called Confirmation by a Diocesan that hath perhaps many hundred thousands in his Diocess § 23. III. The Parishes must be known to the Pastors that take the Charge of them and the three sorts of Inhabitants distinguished 1. Those that are of another Church as Papists c. or of no Church 2. Those that are Catechumens and submit to be Catechized and Hear 3. Those that are Communicants And each Parish must have Ministers for number and quality suited to the number of Souls and fit to know them and perform their undertaken Office § 24. IV. The partial unrighteous Canons must be cast away § 25. V. Nothing sinful or unnecessary to Ministry or Communion must be imposed as necessary Terms nor Godly able Ministers Silenced or Persecuted causelesly that do more good than hurt § 26. VI. They that Worship not God in all our Forms and Ceremonies or that are too scrupulous must be tolerated to Worship as they can by themselves so be it their Doctrine and Worship and Conversation and Unpeaceableness be not intolerable § 27. VII The Keys must be exercised only by the Clergy And if the Chancellors or Civilians Courts be kept up they must be the Kings Magistrates and use only such power as Magistrates may use § 28. VIII Those that by the Laws are to be excluded from the Communion of the Churches publick and tolerated should not have the power of choosing Incumbents Nor those that exclude themselves Nor should those Patrons that choose the Incumbent that shall have the Place and Tythes hinder any person from choosing to whom he will voluntarily trust the peculiar Pastoral care of his own Soul Nor should men be hindered from the publick or tolerated Ministry of such as they so choose § 29. IX Ordinations should be made after sufficient tryal of the Learning and Abilities of the Ordained in Preaching and Praying as well as upon a full testimony of his Pious and Upright Conversation and no Institution to a Title granted till the Parishioners have leave warning and time to know the man and shew their acceptance or dissent and be impartially heard § 30. X. Bishops should usually ordain in Synods or with their concurrence Or at least with such as the Synods choose to represent them § 31. XI Parish Churches must be acknowledged true Churches and the Presbyters to be Episcopi Gregis and the Incumbent that hath Curates to be Episcopus Praeses as well as the Diocesans to be General or Archbishops And Ordination by President Bishops not called Null or said to be no Episcopal Ordination But the corruption of the Ministry by unqualified men is so dangerous a thing that if the Supreme Power give the Diocesane a Negative power as of the Quorum without whom no Ordination shall entitle any man to any Benefice leaving Incumbents only to choose their own Curates and to concur with the Diocesan in other Ordinations there will be no just cause of refusing such Diocesans Power or Ordination § 32. XII An utterly insufficient heretical malignant ungodly scandalous Minister is not to be maintained nor tolerated and due means must be used to keep and cast such out § 33. XIII The purging of the Universities and the appropriating of their Government and Tutoring to Godly Wise and Conscionable men is one of the greatest points of necessary Reformation And till this be done no man should be forbidden to choose Godly careful Tutors for his Children in his house or elsewhere § 34. XIV The sad disaffection like enmity between the Ministry and the most Religious People must be healed which will be easily done in those Parishes where the Ministers Preach Judiciously Experimentally Spiritually and Powerfully and live Piously Charitibly Justly and Temperately and love good men and rebuke the wicked and put due difference between the precious and the vile those that serve God and those that serve him not those that swear and those that fear an Oath and make not the Church like the Commons or Wilderness And where the Diocesans are the encouragers of serious Godliness and duely rebuke the Enemies and neglecters of it and the vicious and profane I have never seen the place where such an exemplary worthy Ministry did not win the Hearts of the Nonconformists and became not very dear and amiable to them and usually drew them to Concord where before they differed § 35. But it must be a wise and godly King that must be the principal means to accomplish all this if ever it be done such a one that understandeth Gods Law and Interest and his own and Kingdoms real welfare may do that by good Laws and Prudent Government which shall be to parties of erroneous opinions a powerful byas to incline their Judgments to go right One man we may have more hope of making wise than of multitudes I had rather have a uniting settlement by the choice of a wise Prince and Parliament yea or of Diocesanes of Wisdom Piety and Peace than by the choice of any of the extreams whether Separatists or the Laudian New Church men that are for a Forreign Jurisdiction But through Gods great mercy the most of the Godly able Nonconformists Ministers falsly called Presbyterians of my acquaintance are so much for Truth and Peace and Concord that they would rejoice to live under such Bishops as were Nazianzene Basil Chrysostom Austin or such as Beadle Usher Downame tho an angry man Jewel Dr. Parker Grindal Pilkinton Sandies G. Abbot Rob. Abbot Hall Carlton Morton Davenant Brownrig and such like And are most Episcopal Nonconformists and would choose none but healing Terms § 36. And now what shall I gain by this Discourse I am sure of the censure of both the extreams And I expect that few should much regard what I have said but that scorners will scorn still and Fools hate Knowledge and that Lies carry on Murders and he that is the Father of both by both carries on his work in the World But great is the Truth and will prevail at last but whether on this side the new Heaven and Earth I know not § 37. I conclude with an earnest request to Godly peaceable men that they consider well before they speak against a National Church or for any above National under one humane Government and that they will read my old dispute of Church Government about Apostolick Successions with