oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable manner the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God, who herein are subject to no certain order, but pray both what and how they list; to him, I say, which weigheth duly all these things, the reasons cannot be obscure why God doth in public prayer so much respect the solemnity of places where, the authority and calling of persons by whom, and the precise appointment even with what words or sentences, his name should be called on amongst his people.

It behoveth generally all sorts of men to keep themselves within the limits of their own vocation; and seeing God, from whom men's several degrees and pre-eminences do proceed, hath appointed them in his Church, at whose hands his pleasure is that we should receive both baptism and all other public medicinable helps of soul, perhaps thereby the more to settle our hearts in the love of our ghostly superiors; they have small cause to hope that with him their voluntary services will be accepted, who thrust themselves into functions, either above their capacity, or besides their place, and over-boldly intermeddle with duties whereof no charge was ever given them. They that in any thing exceed the compass of their own order, do as much as in them lieth to dissolve that order which is the harmony of God's Church.

I could easily declare how all things which are of God, he hath by wonderful art and wisdom sodered as it were together with the glue of mutual assistance, appointing the lowest to receive from the nearest to themselves what the influence of the highest yieldeth. And therefore the Church, being the most absolute of all his works, was in reason to be also ordered with like harmony, that what he worketh might, no less in grace than in nature, be effected by hands and instruments duly subordin

ated unto the power of his own Spirit. A thing both needful for the humility of man, which would not willingly be debtor to any but to himself; and of no small effect to nourish that divine love, which now maketh each embrace other, not as men, but as angels of God.

7. Four apostolical rules of Church Government.

The apostle hath set down in Scripture four general rules, requiring such things alone to be received in the Church, as do best and nearest agree with the same rules, that so all things in the Church may be appointed, not only not against, but by and according to the word of God. The rules are these, nothing scandalous or offensive unto any, especially unto the Church of God; all things in order and with seemliness; all unto edification; finally, all to the glory of God.

8. Disobedience.

How cometh it to pass, that we are at this present day so rent with mutual contentions, and that the Church is so much troubled about the polity of the Church? No doubt, if men had been willing to learn how many laws their actions in this life are subject unto, and what the true force of each law is, all these controversies might have died the very day they were first brought forth.

9. Obedience.

The safest and unto God the most acceptable way of framing our lives therefore, is with all humility, lowliness, and singleness of heart, to study which way our willing obedience, both unto God and man, may be yielded, even to the utmost of that which is due.

10. The Church triumphant, a model in its order, for the Church militant.

Then are the public duties of religion best ordered, when the militant Church doth resemble by sensible means, as it may in such cases, that hidden dignity and glory wherewith the Church triumphant in heaven is beautified.

11. The Church external should be a type of the Church internal.

In the powers and faculties of our souls God requireth the uttermost which our unfeigned affection towards him is able to yield; so that if we affect him not far above and before all things, our religion hath not that inward perfection which it should have, neither do we indeed worship him as our God. That which inwardly each man should be, the Church outwardly ought to testify. And therefore the duties of our religion which are seen, must be such as that affection which is unseen ought to be.

12. Union of Religion and Polity.

It is no peculiar conceit, but a matter of sound consequence, that all duties are by so much the better performed, by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed. For if the course of politic affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit instruments, and that which fitteth them be their virtues, let polity acknowledge itself indebted to religion; godliness being the chiefest top and well-spring of all true virtues, even as God is of all things.

13. Union of the undivided Trinity with each other, the Church and its Members.

We see how the Father is in the Son, and the

Son in the Father; how they both are in all things, and all things in them; what communion Christ hath with his Church, how his Church and every member thereof is in him by original derivation, and he personally in them, by way of mystical association, wrought through the gift of the Holy Ghost, which they that are his receive from him, and together with the same what benefit soever the vital force of his body and blood may yield; yea, by steps and degrees they receive the complete measure of all such divine grace as doth sanctify and save throughout, till the day of their final exaltation to a state of fellowship in glory with him, whose partakers they are now in those things that tend to glory

They which belong to the mystical body of our Saviour Christ, and be in number as the stars of heaven, divided successively, by reason of their mortal condition, into many generations, are notwithstanding coupled every one to Christ their head, and all unto every particular person amongst themselves, inasmuch as the same spirit which anointed the soul of our Saviour Christ, doth so formalize, unite, and actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so many limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened all with one and the same soul.

That which linketh Christ to us, is his mere mercy and love towards us. That which tieth us to him, is our faith in the promised salvation revealed in the word of truth. That which uniteth and joineth us amongst ourselves in such sort that we are now as if we had but one heart and one soul, is our love.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AS BY LAW ESTABLISHED.

1. The object of discussing the Laws and Customs of the Established Church, not victory but truth. OUR endeavour is, not so much to overthrow them with whom we contend, as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those things which, for want of due consideration heretofore, they misconceived.

2. Three Postulates or Petitions.

Let our first demand be therefore, that in the external form of religion such things as are apparently, or can be sufficiently proved effectual and generally fit to set forward godliness, either as betokening the greatness of God, or as beseeming the dignity of religion, or as concurring with celestial impressions in the minds of men, may be reverently thought of.

Our second petition is this :-In things the fitness whereof is not of itself apparent, nor easy to be made sufficiently manifest unto all, yet the judgment of antiquity concurring with that which is received, may induce them to think it not unfit, who are not able to allege any known weighty inconvenience which it hath, or to take any strong exception against it.

We therefore crave, thirdly, to have it granted, that where neither the evidence of any law divine,