in order the more easily to bring in all sorts of heresy, after the destruction, or at least the diminution, of their influence: so that though Moses, though St. Peter and St. Paul, were themselves alive amongst us, and as highly valued and honoured as their dignity would demand, yet would they not escape the envious attacks of this sort of men. long as the authority of Christ's servants remains intact in a Church, the engines of the Devil can effect but very little; when once it has been destroyed they dare do every thing; this needs no lengthened demonstration.

So

I am compelled then, by the wickedness of our times, to speak rather boldly concerning the rank to which the rulers of the Church are entitled in the State.

That the wicked should not be able to endure that due honour be rendered to Religion, but use their endeavours to destroy it, or prevent its display, is no wonder ; but it is the height of absurdity for men so to act who profess to be religious, and who ought

to be the asserters and defenders of Ecclesiastical dignity. I will not listen to complaints about abuses from those whose design is not to remove these, but to utterly destroy the thing itself.

If the rulers of the Church do not adorn their ministry with that purity of morals and innocency of life which their office, reason, and the holiness of Religion require; I by no means object to their being punished by the laws, or to the appointment of better men in their stead: for they are not so exempt from the jurisdiction of the magistrate, as that he may not decide concerning their persons, life, and property, in the same way as of the persons, life, and property of other

citizens.

It is the interest of Princes and States, that the best men should have rule over the Churches, and the bad be removed. Whatever opprobrium bad rulers of the Church, either here or elsewhere, may bring upon Religion, disgrace attaches to the supreme civil magistrate who tolerates such ministers

of sacred things, and such rulers of the Church.

The Clergy of the Church of Rome are differently situated: having a peculiar magistracy of their own, and not being subject to the common laws which bind the community in which they live, they are in the State without being part and parcel of it, any further than suits their interests, the civil magistrate believing that he has no right to punish them, nor power to correct any offence of which they may be guilty. If, however, the civil magistrate thinks good to connive at the slanderous outcries now publicly made, I will not complain, provided the accusers find fault only with the offence, not with the order of men who give it: and provided that, whilst faults, in the exercise of sacred functions, are assailed, the dignity of the functions themselves be preserved inviolate, and provided no one be treated with contumely merely because he is a Bishop or a Minister of the Gospel.

I have now said as much as the design

of this treatise at present required, concerning the institution by our Lord, the Apostolic tradition, and the perpetual existence in the Church, of a twofold Order of Presbyters. It remains for me to add a few words concerning Teachers.

IT cannot be ascertained from the context of the passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians, where St. Paul has mentioned " Pastors and Teachers," whether he meant two distinct offices, or only one and the same, because a Pastor is necessarily a Teacher, but not contrariwise. The very nature of the case suggests this, for not every one who is blessed by God with learning and the capacity of teaching sound doctrine, is therefore and thereupon invested with the authority of a Pastor; a knowledge of Scripture may be vouchsafed