time came, took our flesh and perfect human nature of that blessed and pure Virgin, that he might reveal to men that hidden and secret will of his Father which was concealed from all former ages and generations; and that in this human body he might finish the mystery of our redemption, and might nail to his cross our sins, and the obligation which lay against us. Col. ii. 14.

3. For we believe that for our sakes he died, was buried, descended into hell, and the third day, by a divine power, returned to life, and arose, and after forty days, in the sight of his disciples, ascended into heaven, that he might fill all things, and that the very body in which he was born, in which he conversed, in which he was despised, in which he had suffered most grievous torments, and a most direful death, in which he rose, and now ascended to the right hand of his Father, was placed above all principalities and power, and every name which is mentioned, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, in majesty and glory. And we believe that he doth now sit there, and shall sit there till all things are fulfilled; and although the majesty and divinity of Christ is diffused every where, yet his body (as St. Augustine saith) ought to be in one place. We believe that though Christ added majesty to his body, yet he took not from it the nature of a body ; nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God, that we should deny him to be inan; and as the martyr Vigilius said, Christ left us as to his human nature, but he hath not left us in his divine nature; and though he is absent from us by the form of a servant, yet he is ever with us by the form of God.

4. And from thence we believe, Christ shall return to exercise a general judgment, as well upon those he shall then find alive, as upon all that are thea dead,

5. We believe that the Holy Ghost, who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity, is true God, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding from both, that is, from the Father and the Son, in a way neither known to mortals, nor possible to be expressed by them. We believe, that it is He who softens the hardness of man's heart, when he is received into their hearts, by the saving preaching of the Gospel, or by any other way whatsoever; that it is He who enlightens them, and leads them to the knowledge of God, into all the ways of truth, into a perfect newness of life, and a perpetual hope of salvation.

6. We believe, that there is one church of God, and that not confined, as it was heretofore, to the Jewish people, in one angle or kingdom, but that it is catholic and universal, and so diffused or spread over the face of the whole earth; that there is no nation which can justly complain that it is excluded, and cannot be admitted into the church and people of God; that this church is the kingdom, the body, and spouse of Christ; that Christ is the only prince of this kingdom; that there are in the church divers orders of ministers; that there are some who are deacons, others who are presbyters, and others who are bishops, to whom the instruction of the people, and the care and management of religion, are committed : and yet that there neither is, nor is it possible there should be, any one man who has the care of this whole catholic church, for Christ is ever present with his church, and needs not a vicar, or sole and perfect successor; and that no mortal man can in his mind contain all the body of the universal church, - that is, all 'the parts of the earth; much less can he reduce them into an exact order, and rightly and prudently administer its affairs. That the apostles, as St. Cyprian saith, were all of equal power and au

thority, and that all the rest were what St. Peter was ; that it was said to all alike, Feed; to all, Go ye into all the world; to all, Teach ye the Gospel. And that, as St. Jerome saith, All bishops, wheresoever they are settled, whether it be at Rome or Eugubium, at Constantinople or Rhegium, they are of equal worth, and of the same priesthood. And as St. Cyprian saith, There is but one episcopacy, and each of them huth a perfect and entire share of it. And that, according to the judgment and sentence of the council of Nice, the bishop of Rome hath no more authority in the church of God than the other patriarchs, viz. the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. That the bishop of Rome, who now endeavours to draw all the ecclesiastical authority to himself alone, if he doth not his duty, that is, if he doth not administer the sacraments, if he doth not instruct the people, admonish and teach, he is not to be called a bishop, or indeed a presbyter; for, as St. Augustine saith, Bishop is the name of a work or office, and not a title of honour; so that he who would usurp an unprofitable pre-eminence in the church is no bishop. But then, that the bishop of Rome, or any other person, should be the head of the whole church, or an universal bishop, is no more possible, than that he should be the bridegroom, the light, the salvation, and the life of the church; for these are the privileges and titles of Christ alone, and do properly and only belong to him; nor was there ever any bishop of Rome, who would suffer so insolent and proud a title to be given him, before the times of Phocas the emperor, who, as we very well know, aspired to the empire by a most detestable villany (the murder of Mauritius the former emperor, his sovereign), that is, till the year of Christ 613. That the council of Carthage expressly decreed, that no bishop should be called the highest pontiff or

chief priest. But the bishop of Rome, because he now desires to be so called, and usurps a power which belongs not to him, besides that he acts directly against the ancient councils and the fathers, if he dares believe St. Gregory, one of his own predecessors, he has taken upon him an arrogant, profane, sacrilegious, antichristian title, and is therefore the king of pride, Lucifer, one that sets himself above his brethren, who has denied the faith, and is thereby become the forerunner of antichrist.

7. We say that a minister ought to have a lawful call, and be duly and orderly preferred in the church of God, and that no man ought at his own will and pleasure to intrude into the sacred ministry; so that a very great injury is done us by them, who so frequently affirm, that nothing is done decently and in order by us, but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly, and that with us all (that will) are priests, teachers, and interpreters.

8. We say, that Christ has given to his ministers the power of binding and loosing, of opening and shutting. And we say, that the power of loosing consists in this, that the minister, by the preaching of the Gospel, offers to dejected minds and true penitents, through the merits of Christ, absolution, and doth assure them a certain remission of their sins, and the hopes of eternal salvation; or, secondly, reconciles, restores, and receives into the congregation and unity of the faithful, those penitents, who by any grievous scandal or known and public offence, have offended the minds of their brethren, and, in a sort, alienated and separated themselves from the common society of the church and the body of Christ. And we say the minister doth exercise the power of binding or shutting, when he shutteth the gate of the kingdom of heaven against unbelievers and obstinate persons, and denounceth to them the ven

geance of God and eternal punishment; or excludeth out of the bosom of the church, those that are publicly excommunicated; and that God himself doth so far approve whatever sentence his ministers shall so give, that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their ministry here on earth, he will in like manner bind or loose, and confirm, in heaven. The key with which these ministers, do shut or open the kingdom of heaven, we say, with St. Chrysostom, is the knowledge of the Scripture; with Tertullian, is the interpretation of the law; and with Eusebius, is the word of God. We say the disciples of Christ received this power (from him), not that they might hear the private confessions of the people, and catch their whispering murmurs, as the popish priests every where now do, and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the keys consisted only in this; but that they might go and preach and publish the Gospel, that so they might be a savour of life unto life, to them that did believe; and that they might be also a savour of death unto death, to those that did not believe; that the minds of the pious, who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill lives and errors, after they beheld the light of the Gospel, and believed in Christ, might be opened by the word of God, as doors are with a key and that the wicked and stubborn, who would not believe and return into the way, might be left, shut up, and locked, and, as St. Paul expresseth it, 2 Tim. iii. 13, might wax worse and worse. This we take to be the meaning of the keys, and that in this manner the consciences of men are either bound or loosed. We say that the priest is a judge; but then we say with St. Ambrose, that he hath not the right of any dominion; and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words, that he miht reprove their negligence in teaching (Matt.