they were appeal'd to; and a Temper that favour'd of Inhumanity, if not of Irreligion, to fit unconcernedly by, and fee incens'd Clergymen (to the Honour of Religion, and the Good of their own Souls, no doubt) tearing out one another's Throats for Trifles; when a fmall Matter of Interpofition, a fhort Queftion to the AgExod. ii. greffor, Wherefore fmiteft thou thy Brother? from the Mouth of Authority,would have stopp'd their Fury, and prevailed for a Reconciliation. 73. THE Nicene Council very wifely order'd, that a Synod or fet Number of Bishops fhould twice a Year, in every Province, be conven'd to compofe Differences, and adjuft Quarrels, before they went too far. The † African Code determines the Number of thefe Bishops: Six for Priests, and three to take Information againft Deacons. And 'tis much to be with'd that fome fuch Inftitution were in Force among us, that we might not be fent from our Bifhop's Eye and Obfervation, to fight it out in Ecclefiaftical Courts; where we are fure to be led up and down in an enchanted Caftle as long as our Money or Patience holds out; befides the great Pleasure of feeing Lay-Officers wantonize with the facerdotal Character, and the awful Sentence of Excommunication, fent lacqueying about the World to bring in Fees. HITHERTO, my Lord, we have confidered our inferior Clergyman as appealing to his Bishop, under fome Circumftances of Distress, for Juftice and Relief: But now we must take him under another View, and fuppofe him, for once, guilty of fomewhat; his Cause heard, and himself convicted, and the Sentence juft going to pafs upon him. Yet ftill there is a referv'd Right that we think he has a Privilege to claim, and that is, *Con. Nic. Can. 5. Afr. Cod. Can. 20: V.A V. ARight to the Mercy and Lenity of his Judge, even when he is chargeable with fome Offence. I READILY fubfcribe, my Lord, to every thing that can be faid in Commendation of the Difcipline of the antient Church, and to the yearly Complaint that is made in our's, for want of a Renewal and Reftoration of it. Its particular Severity against offending Clergymen neither disturbs nor displeases me; nor am I follicitous how foon its Cenfures are reviv'd, provided they be diftributed with an equal and impartial Hand. Let but then the Ufurer and Stock-Jobber, the Fraudulent and Sacrilegious, the Perjur'd and Perfidious, the Pleuralift and Non-refident, the Briber and Simonist, the Man of boundless Ambition, or infatiable Avarice, or fupine Negligence (for against all these are Canons and Injunctions to be found) take their Share in this rigorous Difcipline; and, come when it will, we know before-hand where the grand Sweep muft be. The inferior Clergy are exempted from most of these Sins, for they have it not in their Power to incur them; and as for the other Enormities they commit in common with their Brethren, I could easily, by an Induction of fome Inftances, fhew your Lordship whofe Scale preponderates, were I at leifure now to make the Comparison, as at one time or other I fhall think myfelf concerned to do. WHAT may help to give your Lordship's Thoughts another Turn, may poffibly be the many more Complaints that are brought to you against the lower Clergy. But for this there is a vifible Reafon. 1. Their want of Licences gives every little Adverfary (and fuch they chance to make in the Execution of their Duty, oftner than any other way) an Advantage against them, which few are at a Lofs how to make the moft of. Men : fee what a flender Foundation the Curate stands upon, and therefore 'tis but making a bold Thruft at him fays their Malice prefently) and he muft fall; 'tis but fending a few Articles of Accufation to the Bishop, and that will do his Bufinefs. Whereas the Minister is feated above the Impreffion of all fuch Malice. He's in for Life, and not removeable by Complaints: His Faults therefore are conniv'd at, because Informations are in vain Befides that he has fomething in Hand wherewith to purchase their Silence, which the poor Curate is deftitute of. This is the true Reafon of the Disparity: But a Reason, my Lord, that carries this Reflection along with it, that the more liable any Perfon is to be hurt by Malice, the more Malice is to be fufpected in his Accufation; nor fhould any Man be deem'd more culpable, because he is lefs liable to maintain his Ground against Informers. 2. There is another thing that may misguide us in our Estimation of the Clergy, and that is, the Toleration which our Laws, and the Credit which the World has given to fome of their Iniquities, and feems, as it were, to annihilate the whole Guilt and Deformity of them. Nothing is more infamous, for Inftance, than to defraud the Hireling, and grind the Face of the Poor; and yet this is done every Day in the Perfon of many a rich Incumbent, without Cenfure, nay, with fome tacit Approbation of the Man's Frugality, and the feeming Countenance of the Law. Our Ecclefiafticks in Change-Alley may imagine perhaps, that there is no Enormity in negotiating their Money that way, and the Opinion of the World feems to grant it for them; but your Lordship knows very well, that the Apoftolical Canons, the Councils of Nice and Eliberis, the first and fecond of Arles, the firft and third of Carthage, the Council of Laodicea, and and Trullo, together with the Suffrages of great Authority of St. Cyprian, St. Jerom, and too many more to enumerate here, utterly condemn it. The Defender of Pluralities did not think, whatever your Lordfhip may, that there was any Sin in feeding himself and not the Flock; in accumulating Livings, and yet living upon none: But your Lordship remembers, that by the Decrees of many general Councils, and the Determination of Fathers, Cafuifts, and Divines, Pluralities are difallowed, and NonRefidence thought fuch a facerdotal Crime, as was punished sometimes with Degradation. Confequently, if ever the Godly Difcipline we are now fpeaking of, comes to be revived, Offenders of this fort muft be found out and punished, how high foever they may now carry their Heads, and fwell with the World's Approbation and Applause. To fettle a true Estimate of the Clergy then, and make our Computation juft, we must take in the whole Compafs of their Duty, and confider, that neither the Opinion of the World, nor the Dispensation of Laws, can alter the Nature of things that are criminal in themselves: And under this View, we shall see the Vices of the fuperior Clergy greatly bearing down the Scale. BUT be that as it will, we are now fuppofing our inferior Clergyman guilty, as I faid, and committing himself to his Bishop's Mercy. The Queftion is then, with what kind of Spirit the Bishop is to proceed against him? And a Queftion it is that I am the bolder to answer, because I intend to advance nothing in it, but what is the Sense and Determination of Scripture: Not to teach my Rulers their Duty (I have not that Prefumption) from whom I fhall ever be ready and have but too much Need, I am confcious, to learn my own; but to raise in my Brethren a Confi Mat. XX. Confidence in their Goodness, and a Spirit of NONE will deny, I think, but that our bleffed Saviour acted in the Capacity of a Bishop, and his Apoftles were his Clergy, while he continued 'upon Earth. His Decifion of the Controversy that happened upon the Pretenfion of Zebedee's Children is therefore epifcopal; and his Difcourse upon it a true Indication of the Difpofition of Mind that beft becomes a Governor of his Church. The Gentiles exercife Dominion over 20, &c. them, but it shall not be fo among you, is a plain disclaiming of all Sovereignty, and limiting the Power of the Church to the Purposes of doing good. He that will be Chief among you, let him be your Servant, prefcribes Humility and Condefcention, as the only chriftian Expedient to gain an Ascendency over others: And the Son of Man came not to be miniftred unto, but to minifter; gives his own Example for a Proof, and as it were, this Leffon to all Bifhops, Learn of me, Mat. xi. for I am meek and lowly in Heart. 29. Cor. iii. St. Paul, next to his Mafter, the greatest Pattern of epifcopal Humility, affumes nothing to himself extraordinary upon the Account of his more abundant Labours, much less his Station and Superiority over others. When Contention and Debate arofe in the Corinthian Church, about the Worth and Eminence of their respective Teachers, 'tis with fome Warmth and and Indignation that he asks them, Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but Minifters by whom ye believed? I have planted, and Apollos watered; but neither he that planteth, nor be that watereth, is any thing, but God that giveth the Increafe. So far was he from arrogating any illegal Power, or concealing the Bounds of what was committed to him, that we find him twice 1 Cor. x. 8. in the fame Epiftle, telling thefe Corinthians, that |