ries, that there were Bishops in all Churches from the very Beginning.

IF Bishops then were conftituted as Governors of Churches,he that difowns the Governor of any Society or Corporation difowns the Government of it, and cannot be call'd a Member of fuch a Society, and confequently has no Title or Right to the Privileges of it. THIS is evident both in Fact and Reafon every Day before our Eyes. And the Diffenters will allow it in every Cafe but their own. And in their own, when any break off from them. Therefore I won'd earneftly exhort them to confider of their Cafe, and that it must be the fame in their Cafe as in others, for that the Reafon is the fame :

AND if fo, then their Ordinations in Oppofition to Epifcopacy are not only invalid but Sacrilege, and Rebellion againft Chrift who did inftitute this Society, and gave them their Charter, and if their Ordinations are null, then their Baptifms are fo too, and all their Ordinances. They are out of the vifible Church, and have no Right to any of the Promifes in the Gofpel which are all made to the Church, and to none other.

NAY, Baptifm by any other Lay-men or by a Mid-wife in Cafe of Neceffity, is more excufable, and I fhou'd have a lefs Sin to answer for, if I fhou'd fuffer my Child to be baptiz'd by fuch an One, than by thofe who pretend to have Ordination, but have none, except what is worse than nonë, that is, what is in direct Oppofition to the Church. For the firft of thefe pretend to no Commiffion or Authority, but excufe themselves purely upon the Point of Neceffity, and wou'd not have thought it lawful for them to do if any Clergy-man had been prefent: Whereas the other claim it as their Right,and in Preference to the Bishops or Clergy. The Liffe rence feems to me ; as if in my Abfence one fhou'd break open my Doors on Suppofition of a Fire, and an Houfe-breaker fhou'd do it to rob me.

If we cannot have the Ordinances as Chrift nas commanded them, it is more dutiful to God, and exG2

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expreffes greater Humility in our felves,to pray Him not to impute the Want of them to us, than to take upon us to inftitute new Ordinances, or fet up a new Priefhood of our own Heads, as Fereboam and Micab did.

BUT it is certainly lefs culpable for a Lay-man to do fome one Prieftly Act, as to baptize, &c. upon a Neceffity, and where no Clergy-man is to be had, than if he fhou'd fet up falfe Orders, and pretend to the facred Office, and gather Congregations after him, in direct Oppofition to the Church, and to tear her in pieces. There is no Comparison betwixt thefe two Cafes.

I ask any fober Man,nay, any Man of but common Senfe or Reafon, this one Queftion.

Suppofe you had a Grant of an Eftate or Office from the King, but it was to pafs the Great Seal and my Lord Chancellor not being in the way,wou'd you counterfeit the Great Seal to fecure your Grant? No, furely, for if you did, (I have a ftrong Fancy) you wou'd lofe your Grant, and be hang'd for Treafon into the Bargain.

I verily believe you'd think it much fafer to truft the King's Promife, and tell him how it was not in your Power to have the GREAT-SEAL put to the Grant.

WITHOUT doubt you are of Opinion, that this wou'd be the most fafe and wife Courfe you cou'd take. And the King wou'd (furely) lay no Blame upon you for what was not in your Power to help.

Now I apply it. We have a promife of Salvation by the Redemption of Chrift. But it is requir'd that this Grant be Sign'd and Seal'd by Baptifm. The Apoftles, and their Succeffors the Bishops of the Church, are thofe empower'd by Chrift to affix this Seal of Baptifm to the Grant, either by themselves, or their lawful Deputies whom they fhall empower to do it: Such as the Priefts and Deacons, to whom they give this Commiffion by folemn Words, and the laying on of their Hands.

Now

Now, fuppofe I were in a Place where none of thefe were to be had. Shall I take upon me to af fix the Seal myfelf? Or fhall I conftitute Priests or Deacons to affix it for me? or fhall I rather chufe to want it, fince I cannot have the proper Officers, and truft to the Mercy of Chrift?

I am fure I fhou'd chufe the laft. It wou'd be much greater Humility in me, and Trust in God too, who, I wou'd not doubt, wou'd fupply the Defect which was not in my Power to help, than to counterfeit the Great Seal of Heaven, and to take upon me to appoint Officers to reprefent Chrift, and to fign and feal his Covenant, as his Attorneys, in his Name, to whom he gave no fuch Commiffion; this wou'd be to ufurp the Prerogative of the great and tremendous Go D, and the higheft Treafon against the Majefty of Heaven! against the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! I fhou'd think my Grant much more fecure without any Seal, than with fuch a Seal, and fo affix'd.

AND now I apply myself with a Chriftian Concern to our misled Diffenters, and let them fee and confider, that when they receive (what they call) the Sacraments of Baptifm and the Lord's Supper, in their Congregations, they receive no Sacraments, nor are their Children baptiz'd any more than if a Midwife had done it: Nay, that it had been lefs guiltily done by her, in Cafe of Neceffity, than by the others in the ordinary Way; whofe Miniftrations are not only void, and null, (if they have not a lawful Authority) but are Sacrilegious, and like the Offerings of Korab, are Rebellion against the Lord. And will tender Parents carry their Children to, at leaft, difputed Baptifms? while the Presbyterians themselves deny not the Validity of Epifcopal Ordination, and confequently of the Sacraments adminiftred by their Hands. Will you run an Hazard then, where your Souls are concern'd, and of your Children, when you may be fure, by the Confeflion G 3

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of all Partics, even of those Men, who (thro' Ignorance) unhappily mislead you? O lay your Hands upon your Hearts, and ftand not out wilfully againft your own Salvation, and in fo plain a Cafe, where you have no Excufe!

AND now, I am well affur'd, that to those who with unprejudic'd Minds feek for Truth: I fay, I am fure, that what has been offer'd in Defence of Epifcopacy will appear fufficient: Yet, left any foolish Perfon who ftudies to obfcure Truth for Intereft, and to fupport a bad Caufe, fhall notwithftanding all that has been faid, make use of that old thread bare Argument, and harp ftill upon the old work out String, I mean the Etymology, the fenfelefs Fingle of the Words Bishop and Presbyter; and because the Word Presbyter fometimes fignifies ą Bishop, and the Word Bishop fometimes fignifies a Presbyter, and therefore they will (with juft as much Learning as Modefy) ftand to it, that Bishop and Presbyter are the fame Thing.

OR if any learned Gentleman, to fhew his Parts, fhou'd ftill patronize this forfaken Argument, (tho' I am certain that moft People will be fully fatisfy'd, that those who fhall infift upon it, have nothing elfe to fay.) I fhall now, that the poor People may not be deceived with fuch fenfelefs Logomachy, fay fomething further to it.

THE Word Imperator, which we tranflate Emperor, fometimes fignifies the General of an Army, or any other Commander; for the Word fignifies Commander. And we know that many command befides the Emperor himfelf. Now fuppofe any to thew his Wit and Learning, fhou'd fet up a new Hypothefis and fay, That there never was an Emperor in Rome, and fupport this learned Nonfenfe with abundance of Quotations out of the Roman Authors, where the General of an Army was call'd Imperator, and thence fhou'd moft wifely argue that Cafar or Auguftus, or any other of the Roman Em

perors,

perors were no more than bare Generals of Armies, but had nothing to do in civil Affairs, or were any civil Magiftrates at all.

I fuppofe every Body wou'd laugh at him, or if he were in earneft, think him a Madman. Becaufe he play'd with Words against plain Fact. And all the Hiftories of thofe Times wou'd contradict him and fhew his Folly. When I fee the Pictures of the 12 Cafars or Emperors of Rome: I mean fo many Kings with regal Power, and I have been always told fo, and never heard any Body fay otherwife.

AND the Succeffion of the Roman Empire was deduc'd in the Succeffion of their Emperors. And it is told when one Emperor did fucceed another. There were many Imperatores, that is, Generals in every one of thefe Reigns, as it is with us; but the Government was not deduc'd in the Succeffion of these Generals, but only of their Kings or Emperors, in the proper Acceptation of the Word, as Kings.

AND I will appeal to any learned Diffenter in the World, whether in the Ecclefiaftical Hiftories, the Succeffion of all the Churches is not reckon'd by the Succeffion of the Bishops alone, and not of the Presbyters or Deacons.

THIS makes the Cafe clear. And that the Bifhops were the Governors of the Churches. And as I faid before, how cou'd thefe Bishops have thrust themselves thus into the chief Government all the World over, without any Oppofition, and to be own'd as fuch, and acknowledg'd by all, if the Original Inftitution had been Presbytery or any other Frame of Government? Or it there were Presbyterians in those Days, (as our Presbyterians wou'd have us believe) they were much more moderate and complaifant than our Presbyterians, to let the Bishops ufurp upon their Authority, and engross all into their own Hands, without fo much as one Remonftrance! or the leaft Snarle from any of them! Strange! wondrous ftrange!

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