Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/203

doctrine, could not be a secret: they saw plainly a subordination of ecclesiasticks, bishops, priests, and deacons: that these had certain powers and employments different from the laity; that the bishops were consecrated, and set apart for that office by those of their own order: that the presbyters and deacons were differently set apart, always by the bishops: that none but the ecclesiasticks presumed to pray or preach in places set apart for God's worship, or to administer the Lord's supper: that all questions, relating either to discipline or doctrine, were determined in ecclesiastical conventions. These and the like doctrines and practices, being most of them directly proved, and the rest, by very fair consequence, deduced from the words of our Saviour and his apostles, were certainly received as a divine law, by every prince or state which admitted the Christian religion; and consequently, what they could not justly alter afterward, any more than the common laws of nature. And therefore, although the supreme power can hinder the clergy or church from making any new canons, or executing the old; from consecrating bishops, or refuse those that they do consecrate; or, in short, from performing any ecclesiastical office, as they may from eating, drinking, and sleeping; yet they cannot themselves perform those offices, which are assigned to the clergy by our Saviour and his apostles; or, if they do, it is not according to the divine institution, and consequently, null and void. Our Saviour tells us, "His kingdom is not of this world;" and therefore, to be sure, the world is not of his kingdom; nor can ever please him by interfering in the administration of it, since he has appointed ministers of his own,