And fhould we leave thofe, who are fo willing to leave us, to all the fatal Confequences of their own Follies, when they are fo ready to accufe us of being Popishly affected, where would be the Injustice? A certain Man is obliged to travel thro' a vaft and very dange rous Foreft, full of Savage Beafts, and yet more Savage Thieves; and there are a thoufand falfe Tracts and dangerous By-ways, any of which, if he follows, he's inevitably loft; the Time when he's to fet upon his Journey, muft be a gloomy Starless Night: A tender Friend confiders his hard Circumftances, and therefore gives him a Guide, a Perfon of approv'd Courage and Fidelity, one who is exactly acquainted with all the Turnings and Windings in the Foreft, and has led many very fafely and honeftly thro' it: The Traveller no fooner comes within the Pourlieus, but he prefently quarrels with his Guide, beats him off, and refolves to adventure thro' the difmal Wild alone: The Event is, he loofes his Way prefently, wanders at Random a long Time, and at laft falls within the Walk of fome ranging Lion, and is torn to Pieces by him. Is fuch a Traveller moft worthy of our Pity, or of our Indignation? Such a Traveller is every Chriftian; this World refembles that Foreft, in which there are fo many falfe Paths, and confounding By-Ways, that it requires abundance of Skill and extraordinary Prudence and. Watchfulness, to avoid thofe infinite Dangers, a Journey thro' it threatens us with: The blef fed Jefus, our kindeft Mafter, and our moft compaffionate Friend, who knows our Blindnefs and our Weakness, has, by certain Rules laid

04

laid down in his Gofpel, appointed fome particular Perfons to manage and direct us in our Paffage thro' it: Their Skill is generally very well fuited to their facred Employments; Millions, by following their Directions, have happily efcaped all the bewildring By-ways, which lead to Death and Deftruction: If any conceited Profeffors building upon their own Strength, and prefuming upon their own Valour and Wisdom, will attempt that fatal Journey alone, how eafily are they by helLifh Witchcraft wheedled into a good Opinion of every plaufible Error? How eafily do they fall into thofe perverfe and deftructive Ways, which however fmooth they may appear, lead directly into eternal Damnation? And how obftinate do we generally find them when they are gotten into thofe dangerous Paths >

If thefe Practices produce Bitterness in the latter End, who can really pity the Cafe of thofe, whofe giddy-headed Follies make them certainly forfeit their own Salvation and Happiness? But while Men thus bewilder and entangle themselves; can they imagine their Adverfaries fo ftupid and negligent, as not to obferve and make their Advantages of their unhappy Conduct? Are not poor ftraying, defencelefs Sheep a ready Prey to every ftrolling Wolf? Will the fuperftitious Papifts fear the Learning and Orthodoxy of our Doctrine, when they fee how eafily their pretended Zealots renounce and contend against it? Will the lewd and extra vagant Debauchee be afraid of that rigid Difcipline, which should restrain him, when he fees those who profefs a Veneration for it,

yet

yet refufe Submiffion to it? It is for our Crimes in thefe Refpects, that God permits the Agents of Schifm, Herefy, Atheism, Superftition and Idolatry, to be fo fuccefsful in their Attempts to make Profelytes; and those such as after they have taken fuch very great Pains with them, are made really more the Children of Wrath, than they were before. It is by Way of Punishment for the fame Guilt, that every Senfualift and Libertine is permitted to pervert others of too eafy a Temper, to his own Lewdnefs and Extravagance. And if our Divifions among our felves be fo great a Crime, as it is, or our forfaking the Doctrine and Difcipline of those who are over us in the Lord, and admonish us; and if the Punishment of that Crime be, to fee all manner of Sin and Wickednefs, either in Opinion or Practice flourish; how prudently, modeftly, humbly and fubmiffively ought we to behave our felves, to put a Stop to thefe Things?

3. Let it be confider'd, that Men by a Refufal to fubmit to the Doctrine and Difcipline of their lawful Paftors and Governors, run themselves into the moft dubious and uncertain Condition in the World. Those who once turn out of the Ways of God lofe themfelves immediately in endless Labyrinths of Errors: And who can look on it otherwife than as a Judgment of God upon them, who has fet before them a plain, full and intelligible Rule; who has laid before their Eyes the Examples of the moft primitive Chriftians, and of the pureft Churches; and yet they are difcontented with his Provifion for them will be looking out every Day for new-fang

0 3

led

led Devices, and new, and before unheard
of, religious Methods of their own. For tho'
the Suppofition be falfe enough, that others
may fall from our eftablish'd Church-Go-
vernment upon the fame Reafons upon which
we deferted the Communion of the Church
of Rome, fince it is impoffible to prove,
that ever the Roman Bishop had any juft
or original Authority in, or over thefe Nati-
ons; fince we foorfcok that Church only in
fuch Things, as were, beyond Contradiction,
and even in the Opinions of the most zealous
Separatifts from the Church of England, di-
rectly contrary to the written Word of God
and fince we have been always willing to put
all our Doctrines, upon the infallible Teft of
Scripture, as interpreted by the antient Coun-
cils and Fathers of the eldeft Chriftian Church-
es, to add no more: Tho' it be impoffible for
thofe, who feparate from the Bishops and
Governors of the establish'd English Church,
to prove any fuch thing again ft us to jufti-
fy their Separation by; yet nothing is more
experimentally true or obvious, than that those
who have once feparated from us, have gi-
ven unanfwerable Advantages to others to de-
part from them, and fo to crumble theChurch of
God into Numberless Fragments, and to raise
up new Sects and Parties in Religion continu-
ally. For fince Men have fet up a private Idol
within their own Breafts, which they mifcall
Confcience; fince they have endeavour'd to
perfuade us, that every Man muft follow their
own private Opinions in Matters of Religion,
(which yet they very feldom do willingly in

A

their Bodily Diftempers, or in their Law-Suits, in which they'd be loath to be debarr'd the Use of a Phyfician, or a good Attorney or Counfellor) let his Parts be never fo mean, his Understanding never fo weak, and his lawful Paftors never fo able to inftruct or direct him; fince they have afferted it to be lawful for every Man, whom the People fhall chufe, or who fhall think himfelf fufficiently, and in an extraordinary Manner, illuminated, tho' he were never brought up at the Feet of any Gamaliel, to take upon him the Office and Dignity of a Preacher; fince these Things have been devis'd and enforced upon Men, and Mens Capacities in religious, as well as other Matters, are of prodigiously different Dimensions; it can be no Wonder, that all who entertain fuch Principles, fhould improve them for their own private Satisfaction, and really find, or think they find as many Errors and Defects in thofe, who first instructed them in these weighty Points, as they could dream they had formerly found in their lawfully commiffion'd Bifhops and Paftors.

It is, indeed, a vain Thing, when the Fence is once broken, to pretend to ftop the Multitude from rushing out at the Breach; and it ⚫ is as vain to imagine, that when they do rush out, they'll all run one and the fame Way: And if that Man who breaks the Unity of the Church, to fatisfy, as he thinks, his own pri vate Confcience, fets in his Mind, fuch and fuch Bounds to his own particular Separation, refolving to go fo far, and no farther; we'll be fo charitable as to fuppofe, that he fincerely believes, that what he does, he does for

i

02

the