AND muft they not be told of this? Muft I be their Enemy becaufe I tell them the Truth? Is it because I love them not? God knoweth, I

declare, fo far as I know my own Mind, (tho' I cannot fay as St. Paul did in a like Cafe, yet) I wou'd giv iny Life to purchase their Reconciliation, and that I might fee the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace..

If they will not believe me, I cannot help it. But I will not fail to tell them the true and the right Way.

AFTER what I have faid, he muft want all Charity who does not believe my Profeffions are true and from my Heart. Nay, it is against my Intereft to provoke fo great a Body of Men, and who have fo great Power and Influence, and who are capable to do me good or harm. Therefore it can be nothing that moves me to concern myself with them, and to lay their Sin before them, but the Danger I apprehend there is to their Souls.

AND it will confirm my Charge againft them, if inftead of anfwering my plain and fhort Argument, they return railing Accufations against me, and Hatred for my Good will.

INDEED I provoke them to anfwer, but it is not by way of infulting, but to fhew them the little Ground they have for their Separation, when they cannot justify it, or anfwer one plain Question that is ask'd them, When did Epifcopacy begin?

IT is to he hop'd, that fome will confides this; and if they fee not their Way thro' but that they are hedg'd in on ev'ry fide, and can find nothing to reply, they will think of returning, that they Sin not wilfully, nor offend of malicious Wickedness, of whom King David fays, forgive them not. And the fevereft faying in the whole Book of God, is of those who forfake the affembling themselves together, as the manner of fome is, Heb. x. 25. For of thofe it is faid, That, if we fin wilfully, after we have receiv'd the Knowledge

Knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more Sa crifice for Sins,but a certain fearful looking for of Judg ment and fiery Indignation, which hall devour the Adverfaries..

Oh! dreadful! And will Men make themselves thefe Adverfaries, by forfaking the Church of Chrift, and feparating themfelves; and run the Hazard of this terrible Sentence; and upon a Caufe which they cannot defend, nor anfwer a Word to that plain but forceable Queftion I have ask'd, and without anfwering of which they muft ftand condemn'd to all the World; and (which is more) to their own Confcience! pray God give them Repentance before

it be too late.

I have reduc'd the Difpute betwixt us to one fingle Point, of which every one may judge, a Point of Fact which cannot be counterfeited. That is, when Epifcopacy did begin. And this determins the whole Matter, without a multitude of Quotations, or referring to many Books.

I hope what I have already faid in Vindication of my Innocency, will be fufficient to fatisfy all Perfons of the fincerity of my Intentions towards them.And fo without making any further Apology; Go we on to filence one great Clamour, which I believe will be made against the Doctrine I have laid down, and which raifes fuch Prejudices in the Minds of many, that if I cannot remove it, all I have faid will be ineffectual, and tho' they cannot answer me, yet they will ftill oppofe me. Some Men fay, that by my Argument all the foreign Reformed Churches which have not. Bishops are un Church'd, and put out of the Fold of Chrift's Flock. Which is fo very uncharitable, and of fuch dangerous Confequence to the Reformation, that if thou'd bring tẻn thousand Demonftrations to fupport it, they will not receive it.

I have spoke before of the reform'd Churches abroad which are not Epifcopal, and yet are not Anti-epifcopal;

H 2

copal; that is, whofe Principles are not againft Epifcopacy; but their Circumftances, the Frame of the Civil Government where they are, and other Neceffities they lie under, they fay, hinders them from having it. But that they highly aprove it, and wifh they might have it. As I have fhewn from Calvin, and others of the first Reformers, and from the Church and University of Geneva at this Day. Who condemn our Diffenters, and even anathematize them, for fetting up againft Epifcopacy, and making a Separation in England from it.

Now, if the Neceffity of these foreign Churches be really and truly as they pretend, which they muft know better than we, great Allowance will be made for the Cafe of Neceffity, as of David's eating the Shewbread, which otherwife had been prefumptuous in him, and a Sin. And the Countenance which our Dif Jenters plead from thefe foreign Churches, is the fame as if from this Example of David,others fhou'd have fet up a Principle, that the Shew-bread was no more ballow'd than any other Bread, and that it was lawful for any, and without any Neceffity, to profane the Temple, and eat of that Bread which it was not lawful to eat, but for the Priests only. Is it not the fame, that from a Neceffity, pleaded in Geneva, &c. our Diffenters, without any Necefity, renounce and difown Epifcopacy in itself, and for Epifcopaсу fake? Because it is Epifcopacy!

BUT now to put the Cafe to the utmoft Extremity; Suppofe thefe reform'd Churches fhou'd, like our Diffenters, give up the Plea of Neceffity, and ftand it out againft Epifcopacy upon a Principle as un-Scriptural, as an Ufurpation, and confequently as Anti chriftian. Put the Cafe thus, and what wou'd be the Confequence? Muft the Demonftration of Epifcopacy from the Beginning fall to the Ground, becaufe a few in thefe latter Ages had departed from it? Muft all the Churches in the World be given up in Favour of the Calvinifts? For that

is

is the Cafe. All others are Epifcopal, and have been fo. And what proportion does the Calvinift Party bear to all the Churches in the Chriftian World? Not fo much as a Mole bill to a Mountain. Which then muft give Place? Wou'd you throw down a Mountain to make room for a Mole bill? Wou'd you throw down all Antiquity to make room for a very modern Novel? Wou'd you reject the Example of the firft 1500 Years, to countenance a late Up-Start in the two laft Centuries? If fo, (my Friends) if that be your Defign, I wou'd willingly ask one Question more, and a ferious, a very ferious one too, that is, how you will defend the Creed, the Authority of the holy Scriptures, or even any Article of the Chriftian Faith? For do we believe them any otherwife than as handed down to us all from Chrift and his Apoftles, as the Doctrine which was once deliver'd to the Saints!

the way

BUT fome may fay. What! wou'd you put the Faith and Doctrine of Chrift, upon the fame Level with Epifcopacy.

To which I anfwer. Whatever the Importance of the one or the other may be, the Evidence for them is the fame, yea, and in one Point stronger for Epifcopacy, as being Matter of Government, which is more obvious to the Notice of Men, and any Change or Alteration in it more obfervable than in Doctrines or Opinions. Tho' as I faid before, Doctrines may become Facts. and provable the fame way; as it is now a Matter of Fact, whether fuch and fuch Doctrines are profefs'd in the Church of England, what Books are in the Canon of the holy Sciptures allow'd by her, &c.

AND thus the Faith and Chriftian Doctrine, is prov'd throughout all the Ages from Chrift. We fee what the Faith was which was all along profefs'd in the Church. And thus we detect the novel Doctrines of Rome, and of the Sectaries among us.

H 3

THUS

.

THUs much as to the Evidence of Epifcopacy. But now as to the Importance of it. There is nothing of more, Importance to any Society than Government. It is neceflary, and of the very Effence of a Society, without which no Number of Men cou'd be a Society,

THEREFORE Government is abfolutely neceffa-ay, and the moft of any other Thing, to the Church, as a Church, that is, as a Society. And the Prefervation of the Faith and Doctrine of the Church, depends under God, moftly and chiefly in the Support of the Government of the Church, that is, in fupporting her as a Society. Whence She is call'd in Scripture the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.

AND where her Difcipline fails, there is an open Door for all Errors and Herefies, to creep in, as the Experience of our own as well as of former Ages has inftructed us. And as it is in all other Governments, the Laws lofe their Force, and are forgotten, where the Power of the Governors is cramp'd or overaw`.

BUT it may be Reply'd. The Diffenters have Government in what they call their Churches, for they are Societies, and, as you fay, every Suciety nuft have Government.

IN Anfwer to which I fay, That as every Society must have Government, fo no Society or Corporation can have any other than what is prefcrib'd to them by their Charter, granted to them by their firft Inflitutor and Founder of their Corporation.

Suppofe a Mab fhou'd rife up in London, and fuppofe fome of the Common Council or Alderman thou'd join with them, and they fhou'd make a new Regulation of their Charter and inftead of ONE Lord Mayor fhou'd fet up TE N, and make a new Divifion of their Wards and fet over thein whom they Pleas'd; and if this fhou'd prevail for many Years together, wou'd all this make them a lawful Government? Might not the King juftly bring a Quo Warranto againft fuch a Corporation, who acted from no Authority

but