it, and call it a watch, and turn away all my servants, if
they refuse to call it so too.

For my own part, I must confess that this opinion of the independent
power of the Church, or _imperium in imperio_, wherewith this writer
raiseth such a dust, is what I never imagined to be of any consequence,
never once heard disputed among divines, nor remember to have read,
otherwise than as a scheme in one or two authors of middle rank, but
with very little weight laid on it. And I dare believe, there is hardly
one divine in ten that ever once thought of this matter. Yet to see a
large swelling volume written only to encounter this doctrine, what
could one think less than that the whole body of the clergy were
perpetually tiring the press and the pulpit with nothing else?

I remember some years ago, a virtuoso writ a small tract about worms,
proved them to be in more places than was generally observed, and made
some discoveries by glasses. This having met with some reception,
presently the poor man's head was full of nothing but worms; all we eat
and drink, all the whole consistence of human bodies, and those of every
other animal, the very air we breathe, in short, all nature throughout
was nothing but worms: And, by that system, he solved all difficulties,
and from thence all causes in philosophy. Thus it hath fared with our
author, and his independent power. The attack against occasional
conformity, the scarcity of coffee, the invasion of Scotland, the loss
of kerseys and narrow cloths, the death of King William, the author's
turning Papist for preferment, the loss of the battle of Almanza, with
ten thousand other misfortunes, are all owing to this _imperium in
imperio_.

It will be therefore necessary to set this matter in a clear light, by
enquiring whether the clergy have any power independent of the civil,
and of what nature it is.

Whenever the Christian religion was embraced by the civil power in any
nation, there is no doubt but the magistrates and senates were fully
instructed in the rudiments of it. Besides, the Christians were so
numerous, and their worship so open before the conversion of princes,
that their discipline, as well as doctrine, could not be a secret: They
saw plainly a subordination of ecclesiastics, 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: Th