402 The LIFE of the § 327. s. And all this is apparent in the Ends ofit ; which is, I. That Church- Communion may be a Communion of Saints , z. That the Sinner may be laved., and converted to that end ; 3. Or however, that others may bewarned by his fad Example. 4. And that the unbelieving and ungodly World, may fee the Excel- lency ofChriftian Religion, and not be hardened in their Infidelity and Impiety. y. And fo that Chrift, and theFather by him, may behonoured in his holinefs a- mong theSons of Men : Thefeare the Ends of Church-Difcipline. § 328. ;. And asyou fee what the Difcipline is that is to be Exercifed, fo the Number of Perfons on whom it is to beexercifed, may be gathered from what is laid in the beginning : where is (hewed, a. How many hundred Pariffies are in a Diocefi. a. How many hundredor thoufand Souls in a Parini : ( unlefs the very fmalleft). 3. And how many Hereticks, Atheifts , Papifts, Infidels , or Swearers, Curfers, Railers, Drunkards, Fornicators, and other feandalous Sinners there are proportionably in molt Parilhes, I leave to the judgment of every faithful Pallor that ever tried it bya particular knowledgeofhis Flock. §.329. 4. And lal}ly, who they be that are to Exercife all this Difcipline, I have {hewed before ; even one Court or Confiftory in a whole Dioceft, wish the incon- liderable fub1 rviency ofthe ArchDeacon's Court : ( For the Rural Deans do no. thing in it, andare themfelvesfcarce known : and the Pallor and Churchwardens donothing but prefent Men to the Courts, and execute part of their Senten- ces.) § 330. All this being laid together, the impoffrbilityof Chrifl's Difcipline in our Churches is undeniable: r. Becaufe by this Computation there muft ftand at once before the Court many thoufand Perfons to be at once examined, convinced, re- proved, exhorted, or a great Multitude at leaf/ : whenas they can fpeak but to one at once. 2. Becaufe the fecond Admonition which fhould be before two or three, is there before an open Judicature ; which is not fuited to the appointed End : fo that really our ControverSe'withtheDiocefans is the fame in effe &,as ifit were controverted, whether a thoufand or fix hundred Schools {hall have as many governingSchool -mafters or whether one only 1ha11 govern all thefe Schools, and the red of theSchool- mailershave only power to teach, andnot to govern ? (were it only whether one fhould have a general Inlpeetion over the refl., that they may be punifhed for Male-adminidration, we fhouldnot be fo far difagreed : for though we might queftion whether Chrift ever made or allowed any fuch Officer, betides the Magiftrare, yet if the Work were but done by any, we fhould judge it more tolerable.) Or the Controverfce is as if it were queftioned, whether all the Dio- cefs fhould have any more than one Phyfician, that fhould haveany power to pre- fcribe any Government to the Patients, and all the red Ihouldonly read general Le- dures of Phyfick to them, and be his Apothecaries, to carry them his Prefcripts and Medicines ; which were to queftion, whether mod Ihall have any Phyfcian or none? and whether the People !hall have their Lives facrificed to the mad Am- bition of fomeone Man that would be their only Phyfccian. Shifting may deceive the unexperienced, but let any Minitier in England be but fo faithful as to know all his Flock, and regard theirSouls, and he can never deny that this is the true Cafe. For my own part, theLord knoweth that I did with too much remifnef exercifefome Difcipline afew years ( when I had liberty) in one Country Parini, upon one of the molt Reformed People in the Land, and that with the help of manyFellow-Minitiers, and ofmanyof the People in their places, and the coun- tenance and prefence of threeJulices of the Peace; and yet I found the burden toogreat for me, and that one half of that Parifh would have been enough. It is in this, as in Military Difcipline, or Navigation; The Judgment of that Man that never toed it, is of very littlevalue in theCafe. to but try the Government of one Parilh, in the Scripture way, and we !hall not differ. § 331. And the Nonconformiftsfurtherprove, that our Prelacy maketh this Dif cipline morally impoffible, thus : Were it not morally impoffible, fotne one godly Bithop in England would have executed it, as Chrift appointeth: But noone godly, Biflwp in England Both, or ever did, fo execute it: Ergo,- - The Major willnot be denied, ofa Moral Impoffibility, or at lead of a difficul- ty next it: Thatwhich no one Man, no not the wifed or the bed ever did, may well be calledmorally impoffible, or neer it. And that England hath had fome filch Bilhops, we arenot fo uncharitable as to queftion, when we remember Hoop- er, Farrar, Latimer, Cranmer, Ridley, jewel, Grindall, Hag and many more. And I never met with the Manthat would affert, or did believe, that the fore-defcribed' Difcipline was ever exercifed by any Man ofthem throughout his Diocefs, no nor in
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