If God ask us why we did not teach our families visit the sick instruct ignorant neighbours study better for to discharge our Ministerial work that we might be men of knowledge and such like the doubt is whether it will pass for a good answer to say we had not time because we must twice a day read the Common-Prayer XXI Assenting Approving and Consenting to all things even to all forms orders c. includeth the order of the Liturgy Two Rules of the order of Prayer are commonly acknowledged 1. The nature and order of the matter to be expressed 2. The Lords Prayer us a directory delivered by Christ 2. The Nonconformists that think that for the main there is nothing but good contained in most of the Prayers of the Liturgy yet think that they are greatly disordered and defective neither formed according to the order of matter nor of the Lords Prayer but like an immethodical Sermon which is unsuitable to the high subjects and honourable work of holy worship 3. They have oft offered whenever it will be well taken to give in a Catalogue of the disorders and defects of the Liturgy Which yet they think it lawful to use in obedience or for unity or when no better may be used But not to approve of such disorder as we do not approve of the failings of any of our own duties though we are daily guilty of them unwillingly XXII The Preface to the Book of Ordination saith that It is evident to all men diligently reading holy Scriptures and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these ORDERS in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons as several OFFICES which are repeated oft in the Collects at Ordination To this all must Assent and Consent 2. Some of us are conscious that we have diligently read the holy Scriptures and ancient Authors and yet three ORDERS and OFFICES are not evident to us 3. We have great reason to believe that Calvin Beza and many more Reformers Blondell Salmatius Robert Parker Gersom Bucer Calderwood Cartwright John Reynolds Ames Ainsworth and multitudes of such Protestants did diligently read both Scriptures and Ancients As also Dr. Sâ—illingfleet Bishop Edw. Reynolds and many such who thought that Scripture instituted no particular forms of Government As also Armachanus and many other Papists who think that Bishops and Priests do not differ ordine but gradu which the R. Reverend Archbishop Usher ordinarily professed We cannot assert that none of these diligently read Scripture or ancient Authors 4. But especially when we find that even the ancient Church of England was of another mind as is legible in the Canons of Aelfrick to Wulfine in Spelman pag. 573. 576. which conclude that in the old large sense there were but seven Ecclesiastical Orders or Degrees and that the Bishops and Presbyters are not two but one Hand pluris interest inter Missalem Presbyterum Episcopum quam quod Episcopus constitutus sit ad ordinationes conferendas ad visitandum seu inspiciendum curandumque ea quae ad Deum pertinent quod nimiae crederetur multitudini si omnis Presbyter hoc idem faceret Ambo siquidem UNUM tenent EUNDEMQUE ORDINEM quamvis dignior sit illa pars Episcopi 18. Non est alius ORDO constitutus in Ecclesiasticis Ministeriis c. Et Leg. Canuti p. 551. Pastores vocamus Episcopos Sacerdotes quorum partes sunt eruditione at que doctrina gregem Domini speculari ac desendere c. 5. And Dr. Stillingsleet hath proved by sufficient evidence that the same was the judgment of Archbishop Cranmer and other Reformers of the Church of England And it is the judgment of some of our Bishops and Conformists now All which we speak not to shew which side we think to be in the right but that the state of the question is Whether we can assent to this as true and approve and consent that it be used as is appointed That it 's evident to all men diligently reading c. that de facto there were three ORDERS and Offices from the Apostles times XXIII The ordering of Priests requireth the Bishop to speak to the people at the Ordination of Priests calling them to come forth in the name of God and shew what crime or impediment they know in the persons to be ordained c. In imitation of the ancient Churches when the Congregation over which they were set had their voice in his election or reception 2. The doubt is whether such a solemn invitation as in God's name be not too vain to be Assented and Approved and Consented to in a Church where the people over whom he is set never use to be present nor invited to it nor have any notice of it or any call to meddle therein being usually many miles and often many score miles distant nor any other people called to that work and rarely any people there that have any knowledge of the man and his conversation XXIV The Ordaining of Priests and the Consecration of Bishops both use these words as concerning the Office Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Priest of a Bishop c. 2. It is not doubted but that the Holy Ghost must set Pastors over the Flocks 1. By qualifying men for the Office and making them desirous of it Both Grace Ability and Willingness are of him 2. By giving the Ordainers a discerning skill to know whom to ordain 3. By giving the flock a discerning and a willing mind We yet know not of any other Collation of the Holy Ghost which Ordination can make Nor know we that in any of these senses these words can be well understood For 1. Grace Gifts and Willingness are the dispositio recipient is presupposed we see not how it can be lawful to ordain him that seemeth not before to have them what else are they examined about Nor know we that God hath given any power to the Ordainers now by the laying on of hands to make an ungodly man godly or an unlearned or ignorant man to be learned or wise or a man of ill utterance to have a better tongue or an unwilling man to be willing The Apostles had a miraculous power of giving the Holy Ghost for extraordinary works and for abilities suddenly infused and they did it we never knew of any in our age that did it and therefore suppose that they have no promise or power so to do 2. And to give a discerning skill to the Ordainers 3. Or to give a discerning or willing mind to the people are neither of them a giving the Holy Ghost to the Priest The doubt is whether this be not an abuse of the words which Christ himself or his Apostles used and so not to be assented to approved and consented to 3. Yet is it not denyed but that Ministerial Authority is given by the ordainers as Ministers Deliverers or Investers But Authority is not the Holy Ghost so called 4. Nor
Christians but not a Political Church which we now define If they are not joyned with a Pastor that hath all the foresaid Powers of Teaching Ruling by the Word and Keys and going before them in Worship and if they consent not to his relation as such they may make a School or an Oratory but not a proper particular Church simpliciter so called but only a Church secundum quid or as to some part for an Essential part is wanting But it is not the defect of Exercise that unchurcheth them while there is the Power and that consented to for Men cannot be Pastors or Churches against their wills Sect. V. 3. As all Christians grant that the Apostles had a general Commission to call Infidels to Christ and to plant Churches with their particular Pastors as aforesaid and to take care that their Pastor and they do the duties not compelling them by their Sword but by the Word so we are far from denying that yet some Ministers of Christ may and should seek the conversion of Infidels and plant Churches of the converted ordaining Pastors over them by their consent and taking due care by their grave advise that such Churches walk in the obedience of Christ as far as they can procure it And such Seniors which have so planted these Churches and Pastors by Gods blessing on their labours should be much reverenced by the Churches which they have planted and their just advise exhortations and admonitions should be heard by the People and the Pastors whom they ordained and all their juniors And though the Apostles have no successours in their extraordinaries yet that some should in this ordinary work succeed them we deny not because 1. We find that it is a work still necessary to be done 2. And others as well as Apostles did it in those times as Silas Luke Apollo Timothy Titus c. and since all such as have planted the Gospel among Infidels 3. Because Christ promised to be with them that did this work to the end of the world Mat. 28. 21. But whether such men be of a different office or order from the junior Pastors whether any true Presbyter that hath ability opportunity and invitation may not do the same work with Infidels and by his success and seniority may not so ordain Pastors over the Churches which he gathered and have an answerable right to reverence and regard from those that he so planteth and ordaineth are controversies which we presume not now to decide And we cannot prove that this maketh a distinct form of a Church no not in the Apostles time and case For we cannot prove that they distributed the Countrys into Provinces or Dioceses peculiar to each Apostle and had any Churches which they supposed to be peculiarly under this or that Apostles Government so as that any of the rest might not with Apostolical power have come resided preacht and governed in the same No Scripture tells us of such limits Provinces Nay the Scripture tells us that many of them were as Apostles at once in the same places As at Jerusalem oft Paul and John had Apostolical power at Ephesus Peter and Paul as is commonly held at Rome And its probable that as Christ sent forth his disciples by two and two so the Apostles went in company as Paul and Barnabas did so that such appropriate settlement of Provincial or Diocesan Churches we cannot see proved though such a Generall Ministry is easily proved and we doubt not but by consent they might have distributed their Provinces had they seen cause and that actually they did so distribute their labours as their work and ends required But if they had become proper Provincial Bishops over several Districts or Provinces it seemeth strange to us that no history telleth us which were the twelve or thirteen Provinces and how limited and that they continued not longer and that instead of three Patriarchs first and four after and five next we had not twelve or thirteen Apostles or Patriarchs seated over all the world with their known divisions And that men seek not now to reduce the Churches to this Primitive State rather than to the said Imperial Constitution and rather to subject us all to the Apostolical Seats than to five Patriarchs in the dominions of another Prince and now mostly subject to an Infidel Yea it is strange to us that the first Seat Rome should derive its pretended power from two Apostles as if our Church might have two Bishops and the second Alexandria from Saint Mark who was no Apostle and the third Antioch from the same Apostle that Rome did as if one Bishop might have two such Dioceses and the fourth Ierusalem from St. James commonly said to be no Apostle and the last which became the second or the first from no Apostle nor make any such pretence if thirteen Apostolick Provinces were then known But we easily acknowledge that as Apostles having planted many Churches staid a while in each when they had setled it and some time visited it again so they are by some historians called the first Bishops of those Churches being indeed the transient Governours of them In which sense one Church might at once have two or many Bishops and one Bishop many Churches and he be Bishop of one Church this week who was Bishop of another where he came the next Sect. VI. Christian Community prepared to be a Polity and a Christian family and a Christian Kingdom we doubt not may all prove their Divine Right And if any will call these Churches let us agree of the definition and we will not strive about the name Sect. VII We know not of any proof that ever was produced that many Churches of the first Rank must of duty make one fixed greater compound Church by Association whether Classical Diocesan Provincial Patriarchal or National and that God hath instituted any such Form And we find the greatest defenders of Prelacy affirming that Classes Provincial Patriarchal and National Churches are but humane institutions of which more anon Sect. VIII We find no proof that ever God determined the Churches should necessarily be individuated by Parish-bounds or limits of ground and that men in the same limits might not have divers Bishops and be of divers particular Churches Sect. IX We never saw any satisfactory proof that ever Christ or his Apostles did institute any particular Church taken in a Political sense as organized and not meerly for a Community without a Bishop or Pastor who had the power of Teaching them Ruling them by the Word and Power of the Church-Keys and leading them in publick Worship Sect. X. Nor did we ever see it proved that any one Church of this first Rank which was not an Association of Churches consisted in Scripture-times of many much less many score or hundred such fixed Churches or Congregations Or that any one Bishop of the first Rank that was not an Apostle or a Bishop of Bishops of whom we now speak
prophesied to be Christian Nations never were distinct Christian Kingdoms but parts of the Empire nor had a National Church or Head being but parts of such a Church Nay when Rome got the National Primacy it had not such a Priestly Governing Soveraignty as the Jews High-Priest had § 25. Though there was no Christian King for three hundred years unless he of Edessa or Lucius of England of whom we have little certainty but it 's like that both were subjects to others yet if a Supream Church-Power had been necessary the Apostles would have before erected it which they never did For even Rome pretendeth to be by them made the Ruler of the whole world and not a meer National Head which Constantinople claimed but not as of Apostolical institution § 27. The question whether the Jews had they believed should have continued their High-Priest and Church Policy is vain as to our purpose 1. It being certain to Christ that they would be dissolved by unbelief And 2. he having setled another way and changed theirs 3. And if their Priesthood and Law except as it typified spiritual things had stood yet it would not have bound the Gentile Christians in other Nations § 28. When Emperours became Christians they did not set up the Jewish Policy nor thought themselves bound to it no nor any setled Priestly Supremacy for National Government For Councils were called but on rare accidents by the Emperours themselves and to decide particular cases about Heresies And the Pope had but the first voice in such Councils § 29. But if every Nation must have the Jewish Policy then the whole Empire must then have one High Priest and then the Pope hath a fair pretence to his claim of a Divine Institution as the Church Soveraign of the whole Empire which it 's like was then seven parts in eight of the whole Christian world at least unless Abassia were then generally Christians as now But then his power would change with the Empire and fall when it falleth § 30. III. But if the question be only whether a National Priestly Soveraignty be lawful or whether God's general Rules for Concord Order Edification do bind the Churches prudentially to erect such a form To this they sayas followeth 1. We will first lay hold on certainties and not prefer uncertainties before them We are sure that such a power of Apostles and Pastors as is before mentioned was established and that the junior Pastors were as Sons to the seniors ordained by them Whether the power of Ordaining and Governing Ministers was by Apostolical Establishment appropriated to men of a superiour degree in the sacred Ministry seemeth to us very dark 2. We are past doubt that all particular Churches by Apostolical order had Bishops and that a Church was as Hierom saith Plebs Episcopo adunata and as Ignatius the Unity of every Church was notified by this that to every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop at that time and as Cyprian Ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia 3. And we are satisfied that every Presbyter is Episcopus Gregis whoever claim to be Episcopi Episcoporum which the Carthage Council in Cyprian renounced 4. And we are satisfied that no Church-superiours have authority to destroy the particular Church form Ministry Doctrine Worship or Discipline which were setled by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles And that the priviledges and duties of these single particular Churches being plainest and surest in Scripture they must be continued whatever Canons or Commands of any superiour Priests should be against them 5. Nor can they force any man to sin 6. Nor have any Priests a forcing power by the sword or violence but only the power of the Word and Keys that is of taking in or putting out of the Church where they have power and binding men over on just cause to the judgment of God The power that they have is from Christ and for him and not against him and for the Churches edisication and not destruction and what is pretended contrary to this is none They cannot dispense with the Laws of God but preach and execute them 7. And these things being thus secured though in our doubts we dare not swear or subscribe that National Patriarchal Provincial or Metropolitical Powers are of God's institution yet we resolve to live in all Christian peaceableness and submission when such are over us § 31. And we must profess that when we find how anciently and commonly one Presbyter in each Church was peculiarly called the Bishop without whom there was no ordinary ordinations and against whom in matters of his power none was to resist and also how generally the Churches in the Roman Empire conformed themselves to an imitation of the civil power as to their limits in all the official part being all subject to the Emperour who set up no Ecclesiastical Peer we are not so singular or void of reverence to those Churches as not by such notices to be much the more inclined to the aforesaid submission and peaceableness under such a power nor are we so bold or rash as to reproach it or condemn the Churches and excellent persons that have practised it §32 Nay we have already said that securing the state worship doctrine and true discipline of the inferiour particular Parish Churches there are some of us that much incline to think that Archbishops that is Bishops that have some oversight of many Churches with their Pastors are Lawful successours of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their work And such of us have long ago said that the Episcopal Government of the Bohemian Waldenses described by Commenius and Lascitius is most agreable to our judgment of any that we know excercised Therefore that which we humbly offered for our concord in England at His Majesties Restauration was Archbishop Ushers form of the Primitive Church Government not attempting any diminution of the Power wealth or honour of the Diocesanes or Archbishops but only a restauration of the Presbyters to their proper Office-work and some tolerable discipline to the particular Parish Churches §33 But we must ever much difference so much of Church order and Government as God himself hath instituted and is purely divine and unchangeable from those accidentals which men ordain though according to Gods general Rules For these are often various and mutable and are means to the former and never to be used against them And of these accidentals of Government we say as they that say no such form is fixed by God Concord order decency and edification are alwaies necessary But oft times it may be indifferent whether concord order and decency be expressed by this accidental way or that And that which is most congruous for order decency edification and concord in one Countrey Church or time may be incongruous in another Therefore if the question be but how far the giving one Bishop or Pastor power over others or making disparity of Cities in conformity to