My Dear Brethren, could Thofe amongst you who call and count God your Father, be brought to own the purest Church upon Earth for your Mother, who is ready to open her Arms, and Heart, as well as her Doors, to receive and embrace you; Lord! What a most happy congress and Conjunction would it be! For it would foon be found fo.comprehensive a Bleffing, as to have many others combin'd with, and refulting from it. And oh! that ye would please but once to make the Experiment.

Tell me, Good Brethren, what should hinder you? Not any Sin in our Worship; ye can't fairly charge us with that now, when so many of you (and some very good Men) have often join'd with us in it, and do so still upon Occafion. And if in it there be any indifferent Things, which ye fcruple, and cannot comply with; Why do we not hear of them? Ours being the national Church, it is your part (and She may reasonably expect it) to draw up your Complaints, and give in your Exceptions, and lay down your Terms, and declare ingenuously, upon what Grounds ye will agree with Her. And by boneft Propofals meekly, regularly, and fincerely offer'd, She will beft be wrought upon to yield, fo far as ye can reasonably wish, or the Thing can be done; for thus it will ap

Fear

pear, that ye are in good earnest for Reconcili ation.

Nor need our Church-Government be an obftacle to this, if duly confider'd in one circumftance; namely, what vaft difference there is between thofe, that fet up our Government, and Them, by whom yours was erected.

Now the Principal on your fide, and of greatest Note, was Mr. Calvin, of whom that judicious Writer Mr. Hooker (as well as divers others) fpeaks candidly and respectfully, But allowing him to be as good as any would have him, yet was he an Apoftle? Did he converfe perfonally with Chrift? Was he inspired by God? Could he work Miracles? Or did he die a Martyr? Yet thus it was with them that fet up Dioce fan Epifcopacy. And how early it was done, and how far it fpread, and how generally it was received within three hundred Years after our Lord's Birth; when the Church was pureft, and the common reward of faithful Bishops was violent, if not cruel Death; is too well known to be bere related. And therefore that it fhould be more authentic than Mr. Calvin's Form of Government, and very preferable to it, which was of fo late à Date, and of bis own private Invention; is highly reasonable. And that His is not coetaneous with ours, (tho Lome would have it fo) is clear from what mo

dern

dern Divines of Eminent Learning fay concerning it: I cite but three, who, we have reafon to think, have throughly fifted, or examined the Matter.

The first is (a) Epifcopius: He makes the Diftinction between Teaching and Ruling Elders, novitium vpnμa, a new Device. And fays, that in the New Testament there is no fufficient Foundation for it, and that all Antiquity is against it, and that 'tis Blame-worthy for not a few Reasons.

The two other, are Curcellæus, and A. Limborch. They both declare (b) that the manner or order, of Ruling Elders, which the reform'd now contend for, can neither be well proved to bave been inftituted by the Apostles, nor to have obtained in their Days. Which can't be faid of our Government, it being as evident, that Bi..

(a) Nihil in toto Teftamento eft quod Distinction; fundandæ fufficit. Tota Antiquitatis praxis ei repugnat; & non paucæ funt rationes propter quas, &r. Apolog. pro Conf. Rom. pag. 225.

(b) Morem illum in temporibus Apoftolorum obtinuiffe, non video fatis folidè probati. Curcel. Tract. de Ecclef. Jef. Chrift. Cap. 9. Sect. 3.

Ordinem autem illum ab Apoftolis inftitutum fuiffe, aut Apoftolorum tempore obtinuiffe, ut hodie reformati contendunt, folidè probari non poteft. A Limborch Theolog. Chrift. lib. 7. cap. 4. Sect. 9.

Shops

fhops were then, as that Lay-Elders were not. And had they been at first a standing Order in the Church, there must have been better Proofs of it, and Evidences would have been as common and clear for it, as they are for Bishops, Pref byters and Deacons. Particularly in the seven genuin Epiftles of Ignatius, where we find those three Orders mentioned together, and fo repeated; Lay-Elders had they then been Ecclefiaftical Officers, fhould fome-where at leaft have been mention'd with them, or inferted amongst them: The doing of it would have been fo natural, that it must have happen'd even in Course, and could not regularly have been avoided.

But as by Him they were never mention'd, fo let me affure you, that they, who imagin them as antient as the aforefaid Orders, are at fuch a Lofs for good Authorities to fupport this their Fancy, that they are ready to catch at any plaufible Pleas for it: And wherever they meet but with the Words Prefbyters, and Elders, either in facred or civil Writings, they often Strain and press them to ferve their Purpofe, tho' against their proper Meaning, forcing them to fignifie Ruling Elders of the Plebeian fort. Nor, in truth, can Mr. Calvin be exempted from this Charge, for, tho' he infifts much

upon

to ferve them in the Government. As a moft Illuftrious Peerage, a Loyal Parliament, and a wife Council at home and abroad.

May all that act under our Great SOVEREIGNS, do it continually with fuch Fidelity, Vigilance, Valour, and wife Conduct, as that they may foon obtain an honourable, happy, and lafting Peace. Then we need not doubt, but. their MAJESTIES, amongst other Glories of their Reign, will take fuch effectual care of, and ufe fuch wife and prudent Measures, for Her, as may firmly (with God's Bleffing) establifh Her in a flourishing State,

Thus have we seen upon many Accounts, how truly EXCELLENT our Church is. Not that I affirm She's free from all Faults, or think Her to be fo: for the best of Churches have their Irregularities. And tho' fome in it may too much diflike and cenfure our Church, and fancy this or that to be better; yet were they Members of any other, they wou'd perceive Disorders there too, and Matters of as great Difguft, as thofe, which they now complain

of.

Indeed we read of a glorious Church, boly, and without blemish, not having Spot or Wrinkle, or any fuch thing, Ephef. v. 27. And every Church fhould aim at this, and endeavour after it; tho' all they can reach to here, will be but