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As the Princes made their Application to Ezra the Priest, fo did the People, for the Reformation of this Error in their Religion. But they did it not in any Tumultuous Manner, as if they would Force a Reformation. (God does Countenance no Mob-Reformations) But they Ezra x. 2, 3, 4. Addrefs'd to Ezra with great Humility, by the Mouth of Shechaniah; and own'd that the Matter of Reformation did Belong unto Him; And that they would Obey him according to the Law.

In the next place, Ezra us'd no Outward Force to compel them to this, but only the Arms of a Prieft, that is, ftrong Exhortation, and laying the Law of God before them, which brought them to it.

It is faid indeed, That Ezra did Pluck off Ezra ix. 3. the Hair of his own Head and of his Beard, in Deteftation of this Sin of the People; and to move them the more to confider the Heinouf ness of it.

But it is faid of Nehemiah the Tirfhatha, that

is, the Civil Governor, that he Smote certain Neh. xiii. 25. of them, and Pluck'd off their Hair, for the fame Crime. The Civil Governor may inflict Civil Punishments; the Power of the Civil Sword is in him; and he may Exercise it in Ecclefiaftical Caufes, and over Ecclefiaftical Perfons: He is Cuftos utriufque Tabule, fo far as the Power of the Civil Sword reaches; but no farther.

Thus each Power, the Ecclefiaftical and the Civil ftand in their feveral Spheres, Diftin&t and Independent of each other.

The Reformation of Religion ought to move from the Church; and the State to Affift by their Civil Power to fee the Commandments of God, and Canons of the Church conformable thereunto, put in due Execution.

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And for the People, they may Petition and Reprefent, but in all Humble Manner, not in. Mobs, and in Arms; and each Man may Reform himself: But they cannot, without the Sin of Rebellion, carry on a Publick Reformation against the Authority both of Church and State; that wou'd be to Unhinge the World, and carry All back again to their firft Chaos.

We read in Holy Scripture of Reformations made by Priefts, as this of Ezra, and by Ci vil Governors, as that of Nehemiah, and feveral Kings of Ifrael, approved of by God, but none fuch can be found of the People without them.

The Cafe of a But what if the High-Prieft himself, or BiBishop in Er- Shop, who ought to Reform, fhould fall into this, or other Sin or Error in Religion; what hall the People do in fuch a Cafe?

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Anf. They are his Subjects, and cannot act Fudicially against him. No, nor Tumultuously to make Sedition against him, or Defection from him, as Aaron and Miriam cou'd not against Mofes. But the People may feek for Redress against fuch a Bishop from the Epifcopal Synod or College of the other Bishops in the Kingdom, who have a furifdiction over any one Bishop, even the Archbishop himself, who is but their Speaker or Prefident of the Council; and therefor may be Chang'd by them, or Depos'd as any other Bishop, and is fubject as any other, to the Rules and Orders of the Court, tho' he be the Mouth or Speaker of it: For he is fuch by their Authority, and none other.

But fince we are upon this Point, let us put the Cafe to the utmoft, and fuppofe a Bishop fal'n not only into fome fmaller Error, but into Herefie, or Fundamental Errors; may the People then Quit him, and Separate from him even before Synodical Condemnation?

Anf

Anf. 1. The Herefie muft not be what every Man may fo call, but what has been fo defin'd by the Church, in the Primitive times, as well as now: For we cannot make new things to be Herefies, which were not fo in the Senfe of the Primitive Church; that wou'd be to make a New Faith and a New Religion.

2. The Fact must be Notorious; not only Clamour and Jealoufies, and Sufpicion handed about by an Infolent Party; which may befal, and often has, the best Men in the World; and the credulous Mob have fwallow'd all down Greedily; as Archbishop Laud was Hounded by them to Death for being a Papift, who was the most Strenuous and Learned OPPOSER of Popery that was in his Age, and gave it the deepest Wound, in his Immortal Work againft Fisher the Fefuit. And tho' King Charles the Martyr, at his Death, recommended this Book particularly, with others, to his Children, to fecure them against Popery; and declar'd himfelf against it upon the Scaffold, as the Archbishop had done before; yet all this is not fufficient, at this Day, to fecure their Memories from the Imputation of Popery, with a Giddy Multitude, manag'd by a Factions Party, who tell them Stories: Making good herein (and in more than this) the Character one gave of the Humor of the English People, That they believe every thing they Hear, and nothing that they See.

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Therefor, I fay, That if ther be only a Rumor of Herefie against a Bishop, tho never fo Great (for fome make the greatest Noife, when ther is leaft Reafon, because nothing but the Noife will make it go down, and ftop Examining) he ought to have Liberty to Defend himself, and the People muft wait his

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Condemnation by his Proper Judges, that is,
Synod of other Bishops.

But now, on the other hand, fnppose a i Shop fhall not Hide his Herefie, but Preach Openly, and Bare-fac'd in the Church; ther in that Cafe, every Man may, and ought t Quit him, and Separate from him, even befo his being Condemn'd by the Synod: For ther no room of Doubt, or of Proof, which is onl for what a Man Denies. And he that is a Heretick against the Chriftian Faith, is not f much as a Member of the Chriftian Church and he who is not a Member, can never b Head, or Principle of Unity in any Church.

Thus it was Decreed in the Synod of Conftan tinople, Can. 15. If any fhall Separate them felves from Communion with their Superior, for any Herefie condemned by the Holy Synods and Fa thers; be publickly Preaching the fame Heref to the People, and Teaching it Bare-fac'd in the Church; Juch fhall not only be free from Cano nical Cenfure for feparating themselves from Communion with the Bishop fo call'd, before Sy nodical Condemnation, but they shall be thought worthy of the Honour that is due to the Orthodox, because they have not condemned a Bishop, but a Falfe Bishop, and a Falfe Teacher; and have not divided the Unity of the Church Schifm, but have ftudiously Endeavoured to preferve the Church from Schifms and Divifions. In the fame Canon it is before Decreed, That none fhall Separate from his Bishop, upon any Pretence of Accufations against him, till it be Determin'd by the Synod; and it makes All fuch Guilty of Schifm: Which comes up to the Full of all that I have faid.

But

But now (that nothing may be left that if Moft or All can be fuppos'd) let us put the Cafe, That the Bishops in a Nation bou'd Moft or All the Bishops in any Nation should publickly Publickly and Bare-fac'd in the Church preach Preach up He thup Herefies that have been Cenfur'd as fuch by refie ? h the Senfe and Doctrine of the Primitive Church: I fay, in that Cafe, and pursuant to the Canon before recited, as well as the Reason of the thing, the People ought to Separate from fuch Bifhops, even Before Synodical Condemnation; and feek for Orthodox Bishops from other Nations, fuppofing, That they have none fuch left of their own, who may Confecrate others that are Orthodox.

And what the People may do, what every private Perfon may do, furely Princes and Governors may much more do: They may make ufe of the Civil Sword, which is committed to them, to expel fuch Heretical Bishops out of their Dominions, even without Synodical Condemnation.

And this, in one word, clears thofe Obje- our Reformations which are brought against our Reforma- tion Justify'd. tion, because of the Lay-Power that was em ploy'd in it; and brings the Cause to this short fue:

Firft, Whether the Pope has fuch an Univerfal and Unlimited SUPREMACY, as he pretended to at the time of the Reformation? If not (as it is now generally own'd by the Roman Catho1 licks themselves; and Established by the Decrees of the whole Gallican Clergy, in Council Affembled An. 1682.) then the Separation of England from Rome, upon that only Account, if ther were no other, is Juftifiable, as being only the Afferting the Rights of every National Church, from the Ufurpation of the Bishop of Rome.

Secondly,

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