in then a well regulated Society, like a natural Body, wherein all the Members maintain their respective Relation, and act in a due fubordination to, and dependence upon, one another, no difpute or Schifm about Fundamentals of Faith or Government arofe any Church, but they all fympathiz'd as Members of the fame Body, and bewail'd it univerfally, and forthwith apply'd all the Lenitives of Perfuafion to heal the Breach, and if thefe prov'dineffectu al, proceeded to feverer Methods of Penance and Excommunication. For they concluded with St. Paul, That without Church-Unity there was no Inheriting the Kingdom of God. For the better Prefervation of which Unity, they had their Eusaliai, or Commendatory Epiftles mention'd by St. Paul, which were Letters granted by the BiShop to fuch of his Clergy as were going into another Diocefe, to teftifie the Soundness of their Faith, and the Integrity of their Lives, and to fuch likewife, as had been under Excommunication, or at leaft fufpected fo to have been, to declare their Abfolution, and recommend 'em to be again receiv'd into the number of the Faithful. But now this Union and Correspondence between Churches is in a manner quite laid afide; every one forms its own way of Worship and Polity, without confulting another; nay, one Epifcopal Church can look upon the Ruin of another, without interpofing a Prayer for its Recovery, as is done for the welfare of other reformed Churches, and as is prefcribed by the 55th Canon. But from the Beginning it was not fo; for no fooner was Aerius fowing his Tares, and Anti *Cypr. de Unit. Ecclef. p. 184. Epifcopal Epifcopal Principles, but immediately the Phinehas's food up and Condemn'd the Heretick, and fo the Plague was ftayed from the Church of Christ. We can no longer fay, that Jerufalem is at Unity in it felf, and that the Church is but one, for 'tis rent into Factions and Parties, and Chriftians divide now a days not only upon juft Grounds, but we have a Church within a Church, and Strife, and Hatred, and Nick-names of Distinction, between thofe of the fame Communion; and we have different Sects and Communions where we are united in one common Faith and Intereft. These things, my Brethren, ought not fo to be. But 'tis not likely to be otherwise, while there is not Primitive Honesty and Greatness of Soul enough to lay before the People plainly the great Sin of Separation, about matters indifferent in their own Nature. For if Schifm be a Sin, and a damnable one too, as the Apoftle affirms, then it can never be too often inculcated; that tho' the Civil Power may excufe from the Penalty, it can never take off from the Guilt. But while we go on at this rate with our mollifying Oyntments, and are for fowing Pillows only, and providing for the Repofe of Sinners; while we are continually Haranguing upon a falfe Moderation, and can reject a Schifmatick with one Hand, and give him the Communion with the other, what do we elfe but teach the People to Err upon Principle, and to look upon Church-Communion as no wife necessary to Salvation? Something, 'tis true, must be allow'd to the Iniquity of the Times; but fure Iam, that fo many fmooth things upon this Head wou'd never have been prophecy'd under the Primitive Warmth of Christianity. If then, the want of Union and Order is the Bane of all Society, either Spiritual or Civil, I come now in the laft Place to the Point of Difcipline. The noife of the Seas, and the madness of the People go together in Scripture and Experience, and we may as well preach ftilnefs to the one without a Sea-Wall, as Obedience to the other without Difcipline. Whoever reads over but the tenth Book of Sleidan's Commentaries, will fee fuch a Scene of Confecrated Cruelty, Beaftliness, and Blafphemy, as will make the Hair of his Flesh (in Job's phrafe) ftand up, and put him hard to't from an Imagination of Hell broke loofe upon Earth, to form an Idea of Wickedness equal to what he will there ( there find in fact from the Anabaptifts at Munfter. And when the Ancient Fences of the Church are broken down,and the Reins of Difcipline let loose upon the Necks of the People, and Enthufiafm the Spur, they feldom flop fhort of the fame Pitch of Religious Frenzy. We have felt fomething like it at home, and what has been, may be. For not only the Power of the Keys, but the very Name of Church in the Sence of the Ancients, is now a perfect Feft in the Sence of fome Moderns. Chriftian Liberty is look'd upon, not meerly as a Gracious Delivery from our felves, from the Guilt and Powers of Sin, and Satan, and from the Toke of Moses, but as a Total Exemption from the Fundamental Laws of Society and Order; that is, the Gofpel-Difpenfation is fuch a Perfect Law (if I may fo term it) of Libertinism or Levelling, that the Congregation are Holy every one of them; not every Man only, but every Woman, tho exprefly forbidden by St. Paul fo much as to Speak in the Church, has now it feems the fame Authority to admit into it by Baptifm, as a Prieft. So that in fhort, the Powers that are, both Sacerdotal and Civil, according to the new way of Gofpelizing, are not from God but the People; and confequently all Power being inherent in them, they can determine the Form and Execution of it as they will, and Officiate (if they pleafe) in any part of the Priestly Function; tho' it may not feem so Auguft and Agreeable to Sovereign Majefty to do every thing by it felf, for the People to be Mafters and Minifters both, and to ferve at the Altar in Perfon, when they Ordain the Clergy to do it for 'em. But while the People are poifon'd with fuch Schemes of Licentiousness, and permitted to fleep under the pleafing Delufion, and to look upon the Primitive Difcipline of the Church, as an Arbitrary thing of meer Human Inftitution only, and confequently alterable at pleasure, this Error, I fay, if fuffer'd to go on at this rate, is not unlikely to end, not only in the Ruin of the Church as a Society, but in the utter Diffolution of Chriftian Morality. And therefore I shall take upon me to prove, that the Primitive Difcipline, as to its Effentials, is a necessary and inviolable Order of God; and this I shall fhew, from the Nature of the thing, from the exprefs Word of God, and from the confequent Practice of the Universal Church; and if these three will not amount to a Demonftration of a Divine Eftablishment, I fball defpair of ever knowing what will. And firft, from the Nature of the Thing. The God of Order never appoints any Government, but therewithal appoints the Means neceffary to that End. And if be fecur'd the Polity of the Jewish Church, which was to be diffolv'd in the fulness of Time, with fuch a Hedge of Ceremony and Difcipline; 'tis not reafonable to believe, that he left the most perfect and lafting Church of Chrift without any particular Rules of Government; especially fince Chrift has manifeftly fixt the Orders of ChurchGovernours upon the Jewish Model, and in the cafe of private Differences (as fhall be more fully evinced anon from Matth. xviii. 15, 16, 17.) proceeded upon the order in practice amongst the Jews. Had the Primitive Paftors admitted Men into the Church without diftinction, and retain'd them as Members in spite of their Sins, the Chriftian Society had been justly charg'd by the Heathen, as a College of Debauchery, but by admitting fo cautiously, and upon fuch a folemn Vow of Holiness in the prefence of the Congregation, and fo likewife by publickly cenfuring |