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CHAP. IX.
IN order therefore to invite all able, Orthodox and honest Ministers to some Christian correspondency and fra∣ternall accord, it will not be amisse for me to present both to your equanimous wisdome, (O worthy Gentle∣men) and to your piety, what I humbly conceive the best Medium to be used in so great and good a work, which must be tenderly and impartially carried on by a serious discovery and dis∣cerning, First, what is really good, usefull, and commendable in any party, that this may be allowed and preserved, agreed to and em∣braced by all; Secondly, what either is or seems defective or superflu∣ous, evill or inconvenient, scandalous or dangerous on any side, that this may be either pared off and removed, since it may be well spared, or else in reason and Religion, in piety and charity, so qua∣lified and moderated, as may comply with what is truely good and usefull for the publick on all sides.
First then to begin with Episcopacy, not as it enjoyes or loseth the benefits of secular favour in estate, honour, or jurisdiction, (which are not essentiall to it, any more than cloths are to the man) but as it appeares in its Apostolick primacy of Order, in its Catholick centre of Unity, in its chief power for Ordination and Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction; which it ever enjoyed among good Christians, though it were never so poore and abased by civill powers, as it was in Pri∣mitive times of persecution for 300. yeares.
The reall good of true Episcopacy (which undoubtedly hath the clearest, best and most ancient title to ordination & Church-Govern∣ment, according to the custome and prescription of all Ages for 1500. years) is Decency, Order, Unity, Authority, Stability, Pa∣ternall Presidency, Grave Government, with subordination of younger to the elder, and inferiours to superiours, agreeable to the rules of right reason, and the measures of the best polities, military, civill and religious. Here are the aptest remedies and conservatives against Schismes, the fittest mediums for Catholick Councils, for correspondencies, conventions and Communion of Churches, not in popular rabbles and heady multitudes, but in their chief Presidents and representatives. In this is best kept up, as an Uniformity of par∣ticular Churches, so a Catholick Conformity to the Church universall, when Primitive, purest and most persecuted, which without any peradventure did follow the Apostolick prescription and pattern in all things of so universall use and reception.
Upon the head of Episcopacy, as upon the hill of Hermon, hath the dew of heaven, the blessings of God, as in temporall enjoyments, so in all spirituall gifts and graces, most plentifully faln, and from that to all the lower valleys and inferiour parts of the Church. To this it is that all the most learned, moderate and wise men in all the Christi∣an world, of what ever party or side they are in other things, whe∣ther