⚫ of to others. Nor may thofe who formerly enjoy'd them receive the mean Profits after the Term of fix Months with a good Conscience. But the Synod wishes that fome due Provision might be made, • fuch as the Pope fhall think fit, for the • Neceffities of those who are hereby oblig'd to refign.

These were the Decrees that were made by that pretended General Council: And wherefoever that Council is received, they are fo feldom difpenfed with, that the Scandal of Non-Refidence, or Plurality, does no more cry in that Church. In France, tho' that Council is not received, yet fuch Regard is had to primitive Rules, that it is not heard of among them. Such Examples are to us Reproaches indeed, and that of the worst Sort; when the Argument, from the Neglect of the Paftoral Care, which gave fo great an Advantage at firft to the Reformers, and turned the Hearts of the World fo much from their careless Paftors to thofe who fhewed more Zeal and Concern for them, is now against us, and lies the other Way. If the Nature of Man is fo made that it is not poffible but that Offences must come ; yet, Woe be to him by whom they come.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Of the declared Senfe and Rules of the Church of England in this Matter.

W

Hatfoever may be the Practice of any among us, and whatsoever may be the Force of fome Laws that were made in bad Times, and perhaps upon bad Ends, yet we are sure the Senfe of our Church is very different: She intended to raise the Obligation of the Paftoral Care higher than it was before; and has laid out this Matter more fully and more ftrictly than any Church ever did in any Age, as far at least as my Enquiries can carry me. The trueft Indication of the Sense of a Church, is to be taken from her Language in her Publick Offices: This is that which she speaks the most frequently, and the most publickly; even the Articles of Doctrine are not fo much read, and fo often heard, as her Liturgies are. And as this way of Reasoning has been of late made ufe of with great Advantage against the Church of Rome, to make her accountable for all her Publick Offices in their plain and literal Meaning; fo will I make use of it on this Occafion: It is the stronger in our Cafe, whofe Offices

being in a Tongue understood by the People, the Argument from them does more evidently conclude here.

In general then this is to be observed, that no Church before ours, at the Reformation, took a formal Sponfion at the Altar from fuch as were ordained Deacons and Priests: That was indeed always demanded of Bishops, but neither in the Roman nor Greek Pontifical, do we find any such solemn Vows and Promifes demanded or made by Priests or Deacons, nor does any Print of this appear in the Conftitutions, the pretended Areopagite, or the ancient Canons of the Church. Bishops were asked many Queftions, as appears by the first Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage. They were required to profefs their Faith, and to promise to obey the Canons, which is ftill observed in the Greek Church. The Queftions are more express in the Roman Pontifical; and the first of these demands a Promife, That they will inftruct their People in the Christian Doctrine, according to the Holy Scriptures: Which was the Foundation upon which our Bishops juftified the Reformation; fince the first and chief of all their Vows binding them to this, it was to take Place of all others; and if any other Parts of thofe Sponfions contradicted this, such as their Obedience and Adherence to the See

of

of Rome, they faid that these were to be limited by this.

All the Account I can give of this gene ral Practice of the Church, in demanding Promises only of Bishops, and not of the other Orders, is this, That they confidered the Government of the Priests and Deacons as a thing that was fo entirely in the Bishop, as it was indeed by the firft Conftitution, that it was not thought neceffary to bind them to their Duty by any publick Vows or Promises (though it is very probable that the Bishops might take private Engagements of them before they ordained them) it being in the Bishop's Power to reItrain and cenfure them in a very abfolute and fummary way. But the Cafe was quite different in Bishops, who were all equal by their Rank and Order; none having any Authority over them, by any divine Law or the Rules of the Gofpel; the Power of Primates and Metropolitans having arifen out of Ecclefiaftical and Civil Laws, and not being equally great in all Countries and Provinces; and therefore it was more neceffary to proceed with greater Caution, and to demand a further Security from them.

But the new Face of the Constitution of the Church, by which Priests were not under fo abfolute a Subjection to their Bishops,

as

as they had been at first, which was occafioned partly by the Tyranny of fome Bifhops, to which Bounds were fet by Laws and Canons; partly by their having a fpecial Property and Benefice of their own, and fonot being maintain'd by a Dividend out of the common Stock of the Church as at firft; had fo altered the State of things, that indeed no Part of the Epifcopacy was left entirely in the Bishop's Hands, but the Power of Ordination. This is ftill free and unreftrained; no Writs nor Probibitions from Civil Courts, and no Appeals, have clogged or fettered this, as they have done all the other Parts of their Authority. Therefore our Reformers obferving all this, took great Care in reforming the Office of Ordination; and they made both the Charge that is given, and the Promises that are to be taken, to be very exprefs and folemn, that fo both the Ordainers and the Ordained might be rightly inftructed in their Duty, and ftruck with the Awe and Dread that they ought to be under in fo holy and fo important a Performance: And though all Mankind does eafily enough agree in this, that Promises ought to be religiously obferved which Men make to one another, how apt foever they may be to break them; yet to make the Sense of these Promises go deeper, they are ordered to be made at the

Altar,