chief, and Rumour upon Rumour ;) that they bould feek a Vifion from the Prophet; but the Law Should perifb from the Prieft, and Council from the Antients. All this is to be look'd upon as one of God's moft dreadful Judgments upon a difobedient People. It is true, that before the Captivity of Babylon, the High Priest had Urim and Thummim, thofe extraordinary Oracular Appendages of the Sacerdotal Veftments. But it is apparent by the unfanctify'd Behaviour of fome of them, that they did not always confult what they had fo ready a Mean to apply themselves to. But when both the Chief and the Inferior Priefts were fo exceedingly corrupted; the People were not at all difpens'd with, as to their former Duty of confulting them: But to fecure themselves against Ifa. 8, 20. the Intrufions of Error, they were to apply all Things again, to the Law and to the Tefimony, and if the Priests Spake not according to Jer. 6. 16. them, it was because there was no Light in them. And again they were inftructed, to ftand in the Ways and fee, and to ask for the old Paths, Where is the good Way, and to walk therein, that they might find Reft for their Souls. Hence it appears, that the Failures of the Prieft were only to be confider'd fo as to excite the People's Diligence; and if they mifs'd of thofe Inftructions from them, which they look'd for, they were to take the more Pains, to enquire after the Doctrines and Practices of their Forefathers, whofe Piety and Obedience had been exemplary and exceedingly bleffed by their God. And thus comparing Things with Things, they were to endeavour to find out the Truth; but after all, not to feparate from the Com

munion

2, 3.

munion of the Priest, in Things lawful or not difagreeable to the written Law.

From whence too our Saviour takes that Rule for the Practice of his Difciples, The Mat. 23. Scribes and Pharifees fit in Mofes's Seat, bear them. And thus, tho' the Difficulties were greater in thofe Days, than they had been before, there was yet a Mean for God's People among the Jews, when moft degenerated from their primitive Piety, to know God's Will, withour either Infallibility in, or Separation from the first conftituted Governors of the Church. If we apply this to our own Cafe, it will appear, that the Gofpel of the Chriftian Church is at least of as great Authority, in as plain and intelligible a Stile, and of as edifying and obligatory a Nature to them, as ever the Mofaick Law was to the Jews: And I doubt not, but it will be eafily confefs'd, that the Priesthood is as powerful, as holy, as learned, and as ready to inftruct the People under the Chriftian Gofpel, as under that Law; unless we'll fuppofe a better Law had worfe or only inferior Officers appointed for its Propagation. It must be granted, that an Application of the Doctrinal and Difciplinary Rules or Principles of the Chriftian Priesthood to the written Word of God, and to the Doctrines and Practices of the eldest Churches, which are Interpreters of the beft Authority of the Rules and Prefcriptions of the Apoftles and Apoftolical Men; is as ready and as certain a Way to find out Truth among them, as it was among the Jews; and that it is as eafy for all Chriftians to concurr in their Apprehenfions about Religious Matters, as it was for all the

And that

Tribes of Ifrael to do the fame. Chriftian Priests being but Men, are of themfelves as liable to Errors and Mistakes, as thofe of the fews. From the Force or Confequence of thefe Principles, the Church of England as by Law, eftablifh'd, pleads not, nor needs any Exemption. She requires all Men in her Communion to be very diligent in fearching the Scriptures, to examine all those Docrines which they hear from their lawful Paftors, by thofe Scriptures. She pretends to no more Infallibility than what the derives from thence; and fo long as fhe requires Obedience from none, but fo far as the agrees with that Rule, a Separation from her, on any Pretence whatsoever, must be a great, and a damnable Sin.

Had the Church of Rome allow'd this Liberty among those who held Communion with her; there had been no Occafion for that Breach between her and the Reformed Churches: And it had been impoffible, that those Corruptions,which now deform the Roman Church, fhould have prevail'd so far, or have been fo ftrongly rooted in her. But when the thut up the Fountains of faving Knowledge, by de barring Chriftians from reading God's Word in their own Native Languages; and when they depretiated the facred Text, as the great Forge and Foundation of all Herefy, and immediately anathematis'd all thofe, who dared to examine their Ways by the Law and by the Testimony; when the Reformation of an apparent Error was cenfur'd as a Practice Heretical and damnable, and all under Pretence of a vagous and uncertain Infallibility; It

was

was Time for the Chriftian World, to look to it felf, and rather to follow Prefcriptions unquefionably divine, than to inflave Men of Reafon to fuch grofs and notorious Errors, that the leaft Glimpfe of that Heavenly Light, fet forth in the Law and in the Golpel, was enough to detect them. But the Epifcopally eftablifh'd Church of England, as it abjur'd all the Errors of the Church of Rome, fo to fhow the Reasonablenefs of its Reformation, her prudent Governors retain'd all thofe Things in the Church of Rome, which were founded on plain Scripture, as explain'd and interpreted by the eldeft Fathers and Councils of the Chriftian Church. To forfake the Church of Rome, where that Church forfook the Rules of God's Word, was a neceffary Duty: To forfake her,wherever fhe maintain'd that heavenly Rule, had fhewn more of Superftition, than the Roman Church her felf had been guilty of before. By proceeding with fo much Temper, our Church made it evident to all the World, that it was not Novelty, but true primitive Chriftianity, which it aim'd at; that we neither hated Rome, nor envy'd the Grandeur, in which that Church appear'd in the World; but that we hated thofe Falfhoods, thofe abominable Superftitions and Idolatries, which were embraced and encouraged in it; leaving her, as I hinted before, no farther than fhe had left thofe Truths which our Diffenters themselves own to have been Evangelical and indifpenfably neceffary to Salvation. And it is obfervable, that while the Church of England, in all thofe Points, in which the has deferted the Church

of

of Rome, hath had the general Aprobation even of the Diffenting Parties; the feveral Diffenting Parties in thofe Points, in which they have deferted us, have neither had the Concurrence of one another, nor any Condefcenfions from the Church of Rome; tho' they have principally gratify'd her Interefts, by those Fractions and Confufions, which they have created among us. And I have made it my own Obfervation, and indeed it is obvious to every inquifitive Perfon, that where both Papifts and Diffenters have endeavoured by all Means to invalidate all those Arguments made ufe of by the Church of England, to enforce Conformity to our Ecclefiaftical Laws; yet both Papifts and Diffenters, where they have prevail'd, and any one Party of them has over-power'd the reft, they have still been fain to make Ufe of the fame Arguments which they had taken fo much Pains to answer, to oblige others to conform to themselves: which is an unanswerable Proof of theStrength and real Solidity of our Arguments against them both: As it is the cleareft Proof of the Excellency of Religion in general, that all Perfons in all Ages have ftill made ufe of Religion, as a principal Cover for all their villainous Enterprizes.

But tho' the lawfully-eftablifh'd Church of England, be always ready to expofe her Do&trines and Practices, as to their Soundnefs and Regularity to the fevereft Scrutinies; it is not expected, that those who divide from her, fhould act with the fame ingenuous Freedom; fince there's that Fundamental Defect

among

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