from the prefent Pofture of our Affairs. We are now brought very near the greateft Crifis that ever Church or Nation had. And as on the one Hand, if God fhould fo far punish us for our Sins, for our Contempt of his Gofpel, and Neglect of our Duties, as to deliver us over to the Rage of our Enemies; we have Nothing to look for, but a Perfecution more dreadful than any is in Hiftory> So if God hears our Prayers, and gives us a happy fue out of all thofe Dangers, with which the Malice of our Enemies threatens us; we have in View the greateft Profpect of a bleffed and lafting Settlement, that even our Wishes can propofe to us. Now Nothing can fo certainly avert the one, or prepare us to glorify God in it, if he in his Juftice and Wisdom should call us to a fiery Trial of our Faith and Patience; as the ferious Minding of our Functions, of our Duties and Obligations, the Confeffing of our Sins, and the Correcting of our Errors. We fhall be very unfit to fuffer for our Religion, much lefs to die for it, and very little able to endure the hardships of Perfecution, if our Confciences are reproaching us all the while, that we have procured thefe Things to our felves; and that by the ill Ufe of our Profperity, and other Advantages, we have kindled a Fire to confume is. But as we have good

Reafon

Reafon from the prefent State of Affairs, as well as from the many eminent Delive rances, and happy Providences, which have of late, in fo fignal a Manner, watched over and protected us, to hope that God according to the Riches of his Mercy, and for the Glory of his great Name, will hear the Prayers that many good Souls offer up, rather than the Cry of those Abominations that are ftill among us: So Nothing can fo certainly haften on the fixing of our Tanquillity, and the compleating our Happiness, as our lying often between the Porch and the Altar, and Interceding with God for our People; and our Giving our felves wholly to the Ministry of the Word of God, and to Prayer. These being then the fureft Means, both to procure and to eftablish to us, all thofe great and glorious Things that we pray and hope for; this feemed to me a very proper Time to publifh a Difcourfe of this Nature.

A

But that which made it an Act of Obedience, as well as Zeal, was the Authority of my Moft Reverend Metropolitan, who, I have reafon to believe, employs his Time and Thoughts, chiefly to confider what may yet be wanting to give our Church a greater Beauty and Perfection; and what are the moft proper Means both of Purifying and Uniting us. To which I thought Nothing

Nothing could fo well prepare the Way, as the offering to the Publick a plain and full Difcourfe of the Paftoral Care, and of every Thing relating to it. His Grace -approved of this, and defired me to fet about it: Upon thefe Motives I writ it, with alb the Simplicity and Freedom that I thought. the Subject required, and fent it to him; by whole particular Approbation I publish it, as I writ it at his Direction.

There is indeed one of my Motives that I have not yet mentioned, and on which I cannot enlarge fo fully as I well might. But while we have fuch an invaluable and unexampled Bleffing, in the Perfons of thofe Princes, whom God hath fet over us; if all, the Confiderations which arife out of ther Deliverances that God has given us by their Means, of the Protection we enjoy under them, and of the great Hopes we have of them: If, I fay, all this does not oblige us, to fet about the reforming of every Thing that may be amifs or defective among us, to ftudy much, and to labour hard; to lead ftrict and exemplary Lives, and fo to ftop the Mouths, and overcome the Prejudices, of all that divide from us; this will make us look like a Nation caft off and forfaken of God, which is nigh unto curfing, and whofe End is burning. We have Reafon to conclude, that our prefent Blef

fings are the laft Effays of God's Goodnefs to us, and that if we bring forth no Fruit under these, the next Sentence shall be, Cut it down, why cumbreth it the Ground? Thefe Things lie heavy on my Thoughts continually, and have all concurred to draw this Treatife from me; which I have writ with all the Sincerity of Heart, and Purity of Intention, that I fhould have had, if I had known that I had been to die at the Conclufion of it, and to answer for it to God.

To him I humbly offer it up, together with my moft earneft Prayers, That the Design here fo imperfectly offered at, may become truly effectual, and have its full Progrefs and Accomplishment ; which whenfoever I fhall fee, I fhall then with Joy, fay, Nunc Dimittis, &c.

CHAP.

Do not intend to treat of this Matter,

as it is a Part of our Law; but leaving that to the Gentlemen of another Robe, I fhall content my felf with Offering an Hiftorical Account of the Progrefs of it, with the Senfe that the ancient Church had of it, together with fuch Reflections as will a rife out of that.

At first the whole Body of the Clergy, in every City, Parish or Diocess, was as a Family under the Conduct and Authority of the Bishop, who affigned to every one of his Presbyters their peculiar District, and gave him a proper Maintenance out of the Stock of the Oblations of the Faithful. None were ordained but by the Approbation, or rather the Nomination of the People, the Bishop being to examine into the Worth and Qualifications of the Perfons fo nominated. In the firft Ages, which were Times of Perfecution, it is not to be fuppofed that Ambition or Corruption could have any great Influence, while a Man in holy Orders was as it were put in the Front, and expofed to the firft Fury of the

Perfe