Prefumption, not only of his Sub-Presbyters, but of the Martyrs themfelves, who pretended to admit those to a Re-communion with the Church who had fallen from their Profeffion in that Time of Perfecution, upon eafier Terms than the Canons of the Church had ever been known to permit.

But these were not the moft difficult Cafes in which the Conduct and Refolution of the Bifhops and Presbyters were put to the Teft. The Affairs of Religion were wonderfully alter'd when Christianity grew the Imperial Religion, by which the Obligations of the Spiritual Guides of the Church feem'd to be re-enforc'd. Yet when Arianifm prevail'd in the World, and Herely grew triumphant; thofe Bifhops who were Orthodox in the Faith, tho' they fuffer'd the greatest Extremities for their Pains, did not forbear to exert their Spiritual Authority; but both fingle Bishops and confiderable Synods pafs'd their Anathemas freely upon those who dared to deny the Eternal Divinity of the Son of God. And it had been no lefs than an open betraying of their Chriftian Profeffion, had they not vigo-. roufly oppos'd the Advance of fuch damnable Herefies, by all proper Ecclefiaftical Methods, how much foever either the Roman Emperors or their Substitute Governors might be dif pleas'd at it. There were indeed, none in those elder Days, who durft pretend to excommunicate Sovereign Princes: And it may be St. Ambrofe himself had been fcarce excufable for his Severity to the Great Theodofius; had not that excellent Emperour by a voluntary Submiffion to the Vigour of that good Bishop's Zeal feem'd to acknowledge, that the Bishop's Management

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proceeded from the more powerful Influence of the Spirit of God, who took that happy Occafion, by the Humility of fo mighty a Prince, to teach the whole Body of inferior Christians what reverence and fubmiffion they ought always to fhow to the regular Cenfures of the Church. It was fuppos'd in those Days, that the Bifhops and their Presbyters discharged their Duties well, if they laid down the Doctrines of Truth before their Civil Superiors; if they beg'd and intreated of them, that they would not defert those Doctrines, nor, by their Favour encourage Hereticks or Schifmaticks; if they told them the Danger of all fuch Encouragements, and how likely they were to bring down the Curfes of God upon the Heads of thofe who were concern'd in them. But there were none in those Days; (no, not the Bishop of Rome himself, tho' his juft Authority was as great then, as ever it has been fince) who durft fo much as Talk of Depofing Sovereign Princes, or of discharging Subje&s from that Allegiance to them, or of giving their Kingdoms, according as their own Discretion fhould direct, to the next Invader Nor were any Teachers indulged in those Days, who durft maintain any fuch unchristian or rebellious Pofitions: No; The Fathers of the Church had then more of the Prudence of the Serpent, as well as of the Innocence of the Dove: They expos'd their holy Religion to the Adorations of Mankind, only in its fimple Native Beauties; and would never dress it up like fome hideous Spectre to the Terrour of all fuch as were in their Senfes : But when they exerted neceffary Difcipline against ungodly Men with the greatest Boldness and Severity, they ftill offer'd VOL. II.

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their Lives at their Sovereign's Feet, ready to fubmit themselves as humble and faithful Subjects to the utmost Violences of their Indignation; for they had learn'd that peaceful Leffon from him who was the Prince of Peace.

The Schifm of the Donatifts, tho' their Party was once very great, yet was not particularly patronis'd, as I remember, by any one Sovereign Prince; fo that the immediate Spiritual Governours of the Church had no Oppofition from their Temporal Superiors. Yet to prevent the Prevalency of that religious Faction, where it got Ground moft, there it was most strenuously oppos'd; and many Bishops were ordain'd, and Bishopricks founded where there had been none before, on Purpofe to countermine the mifchievous Industry of thofe bufy Schifmaticks. Nor did the Donatifts themselves fail to make good our Notion at the fame Time: For tho' their Schifm was condemn'd by feveral Synods, and they were juftly frown'd on by the greatest Civil Powers in the Univerfe; yet while they pretended themselves to be in the right, and confined the Catholick Church only to the narrow Limits of their own Conventicles; they too ordain'd Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons, they adminiftred all religious Ordinances in their Way, exercis'd all Manner of Difcipline among themselves, and all without any Regard to the Will of those their Superiors who could not favour their rigid and unreasonable Opinions. And, to fay Truth, fince the Time of thofe Schifmatical Donatifts, every other religious Sect has, by their Practice, given Teftimony to the fame Right as inherent in the Bishops and other meer Spiritual Governors of the

Church;

Church; which, fince they are generally forced to acknowledge; thofe who are Catholick Chriftians indeed, may with the utmost Juftice and Reason, practise upon and vigorously affert it.

And from hence it will be no ftrange or abfurd Inference, that when Errors overfpread the Church in general, (And fuch a Time once there was, if the Confeffion of a fuppos'd infallible Person were not a great Miftake, witness the plain Confeffion of Adrian the 6th Bishop of Rome, by his Legate at the Diet of Norimberg,) when fuch a fatal Deluge of Error and Impiety over-runs the Church; then those, who being Watchmen over the Flock of Christ grow fenfible of its Condition, are obliged, not only in their own Perfons to oppofe fuch Errors to the utmost of their Powers; but they are to provide for the Security of Pofterity, and for their Reformation, by ordaining other Bishops and Paftors to take the fame Care upon themselves afterwards, as their Ordainers had done before.

From all this it appears, that, if the Bishops of the Church of England, as reform'd under King Edward the VIth, did according to that Power and Authority in them, ordain Succeffors to themselves in the Paftoral Work, during the Reign of Queen Mary, who endeavoured by violent Methods to refettle the erroneous Doctrines and ufurp'd Authority of the Church of Rome in these Nations; if thofe reform'd Bishops and Presbyters boldly reprov'd Herefy, Superftition and Idolatry; if they preach'd the Truth dili gently, tho' privately; if they exercis'd Difcipline duly upon fuch Offenders as belong'd to their own Communion, notwithstanding the Countermand of the then fupreme Civil AuthoE 2

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rity; if they did all thefe Things; fince they were lawfully commiffion'd to feed the Flock of Chrift by an Evangelical and Authentic Ordi-' nation, and all the while afferted and maintain'd all humble and faithful Subjection to their lawful Secular Superiors, and chofe rather to lay down their Lives in Submiffion to the Penalties of unrighteous Laws, than to practise or encourage any forcible Refiftance against them; those Perfons fo acting did no more than their Paftoral and Episcopal Duty, and what was right and justifiable both by the Laws of God and Man. Upon the fame Principle, when, during the great Rebellion, the profperous Tares of innumerable impious Seats had almost choaked the good Seed of the pure Word of God fown among us; when every one, who had but Impudence enough to outface both Scripture and Reason, dubb'd himself a Preacher, and thrust the lawful Paftors violently both out of their Pulpits and their Cures, fcattering the Poifon of their damnable Doctrines in every Quarter; during that dismal Time of thick and palpable Darkness, when fuch Bishops as by God's overruling Providence efcaped the bloody Inquifition of Domineering Rebels, maintain'd their Sacred Character ftill, and according to the Canons of the Catholick Church, ordain'd others, that they might be ready, not only to act regularly in irregular Times, but to fupply the emergent Neceffities of the Church of England, in cafe of a Recovery or Refufcitation of it from its then deplorable Ruins, all which the then tyranizing Rebels endeavoured to prevent by Force and Fraud, and to impose upon us a Frippery of Enthufiaftick Whimfies inftead of a juft Refor

mation,