first of these demands a promise, that they will instruct their people in the christian doctrine, according to the holy scriptures; which was the foundation upon which our bishops justified the reformation: Since the first and chief of all their vows binding them to this, it was to take place of all others; and if any other parts of those Sponsions contradicted this, such as their obedience and adherence to the see of Rome, they said that these were to be limited by this.

All the account I can give of this general practice of the church, in demanding promises only of Bishops, and not of the other orders, is this, that they considered the government of the Priests and Deacons as a thing that was so entirely in the bishop, as it was indeed by the first constitution, that it was not thought necessary to bind them to their duty by any public vows or promises (though it is very probable that the bishops might take private engagements of them before they ordained them) it being in the bishop's power to restrain and censure them in a very absolute and summary way. But the case was quite different in bishops, who were all equal by their rank and order; none having any authority over them, by any divine law or the rules of the gospel; the power of primates and metropolitans having arisen out of ecclesiastical and civil laws, and not being equally great in all countries and provinces; and therefore it was more necessary to proceed with greater caution, and to demand a further security from them.

But the new face of the constitution of the church, by which Priests were not under so absolute a subjection to their bishops as they had been at first, which was occasioned partly by the tyranny of some bishops, to which

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bounds were set by laws and canons; partly by their having a special property and benefice of their own, and so not being maintained by a dividend out of the common stock of the church as at first; had so altered the state of things, that indeed no part of the Episcopacy was left entirely in the bishop's hands, but the power of ordination. This is still free and unrestrained; no writs nor prohibitions from civil courts, and no appeals, have clogged or fettered this, as they have done all the other parts of their authority. Therefore our reformers observing all this, took great care in reforming the office of ordination; and they made both the charge that is given, and the promises that are to be taken, to be very express and solemn, that so both the ordainers and the ordained might be rightly instructed in their duty, and struck with the awe and dread that they ought to be under in so holy and so important a performance. And though all mankind does easily enough agree in this, that promises ought to be religiously observed which men make to one another, how apt soever they may be to break them; yet to make the sense of these promises go deeper; they are ordered to be made at the alter, and in the nature of a stipulation or covenant; the church confering orders, or indeed rather Christ, by the ministry of the officers, that, he has constituted confering them upon those promises that are first made. The forms of ordination in the Greek church, which we have reason to believe are less changed, and more conform to the primitive patterns than those used by the Latins, do plainly import that the church only declared the 'divine vocation. The grace of God, that perfects the feeble and heals the weak, promotes this man to be

a Deacon, a Priest, or a Bishop: Where nothing is expressed as confered, but only as declared; so our church, by making our Saviour's words the form of ordination, must be construed to intend by that, that it is Christ only that sends, and that the bishops are only his minis ters to pronounce his mission: Otherwise it is not so easy to justify the use of this form, Receive the Holy Ghost; which as it was not used in the primitive church nor by the Roman, till within these 500 years, so in that church it is not the form of ordination but a bene diction given by the bishop singly, after the orders are given by the bishop and the other Priests joining with him: For this is done by him alone as the final consummation of the action. But our using this as the form of ordination, shews, that we consider ourselves only as the instruments that speak in Christ's name and words; insinuating thereby that he only ordains. Pursuant to this in the ordaining of Priests, the questions are put in the name of God and of his church, which makes the answers to them to be of the nature of vows and oaths: so that if men do make conscience of any thing, and if it is possible to strike terror into them, the forms of our ordinations are the most effectually contrived for that end that could have been framed.

The first question that is put in the office of Deacons, is, Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office, to serve God for the promoting of his glory, and the edifying of his people? To which he is to answer, I trust so. This is put only in this office, and not repeated afterwards, it being justly supposed that where one has had this mo tion, all the other orders may be in time confered pur

suant to it; but this is the first step by which a man dedicates himself to the service of God, and therefore it ought not to be made by any that has not this divine vocation. Certainly the answer that is made to this ought to be well considered; for if any says I trust so, that yet knows nothing of any such motion, and can give no account of it he lies to the Holy Ghost, and makes his first approach to the alter with a lie in his mouth, and that not to men, but to God: And how can one expect to be received by God, or be sent and sealed by him, that dares do a thing of so crying a nature, as to pretend that he trusts he has this motion, who knows that he has it not, who has made no reflections on it, and when asked what he means by it, can say nothing conerning it, and yet he dares venture to come and say it before God and his church? If a man pretends a commission from a Prince, or indeed from any person, and acts in his name upon it, the law will fall on him, and punish him; and shall the great God of heaven and earth be thus vouched, and his motions be pretended to, by those whom he has neither called or sent? and shall not he reckon with those who dare to run without his mission, pretending that they trust they have it, when perhaps they understand not the importance of it; nay, and perhaps some laugh at it, as an enthusiastical question, who yet will go through with the office? They come to Christ for the loaves; they hope to live by the altar and the gospel, how little soever they serve at the one, or preach the other; therefore they will say any thing that is necessary for qualifying them to this, whether true or false. It cannot be denied, but that this question carries a sound in it that seems a little too high

and that may rather raise scruples, as importing somewhat that is not ordinary, and that seems to savour of enthusiasm; and therefore it was put here, without doubt, to give great caution to such as come to the service of the church. Many may be able to answer it truly according to the sense of the church, who may yet have great doubting in themselves concerning it; but every man that has it not, must needs know that he has it not.

The true meaning of it must be resolved thus: The motives that ought to determine a man to dedicate himself to the ministering in the church, are a zeal for promoting the glory of God, for raising the honour of the christian religion, for the making it to be better understood, and more submitted to. He that loves it, and feels the excellency of it in himself, that has a due sense of God's goodness in it to mankind, and that is entirely possessed with that, will feel a zeal within himself, for communicating that to others; that so the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, may be more universally glorified, and served by his creatures. And when to this he has added a concern for the souls of men, a tenderness for them, a zeal to rescue them from endless misery, and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting happiness; and from these motives, feels in himself a desire to dedicate his life and labours to those ends; and in order to them, studies to understand the scriptures, and more particularly the New Testament, that from thence he may form a true notion of this holy religion, and so be an able minister of it: This man, and only this man, so moved and so qualified, can in truth, and with a good conscience, answer, that he