due acknowledgement of their transcendent worth and especially of the most reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of all Ireland who in an exact knowledge of all good learning in depth of judgment in the due stating and well cleering controversies of Religion and in sanctity of life was not much if at all inferior to any the best of Bishops since the Apostles dayes And lasty in an acceptable tast which I have had of the sweetness of your vertue in a particular favour for which I present my humble thanks to your Lordship May it please you right reverend father to take this small work into your honorable patronage and protection and pardoning my boldness in this attempt to take in good part the very humble and hearty tender of my best service to your Lordship God Almighty long continue your life and prosperous Estate and make you a happy instrument of much good to his Church Your Lordships in all Duty John Lloyd Praesb The PREFACE THis short treatise containeth the sum and substance of what the reverend Doctors of the Primitive Churches for the first four hundred years after the birth of our blessed Saviour have practised and written and thereby transmitted to our times concerning Episcopacy Presbytery Ecclesiastical Discipline Liturgy and Ceremonies omitting onely those which appear to be impertinent to the state and condition of the present times Every material point herein is proved out of authors received by all sides which caused the omission of the testimony of Ignatius c. and such authors against whom it cannot be reasonably presumed that they were deceived or erred in their relation of matters of fact and practise done or used in the times wherein they themselves or those with whom they conversed did live The authorities were not collected by the help of tables or received from second hands whence mistakes do easily and usually arise but were taken from the authors own work read and duely considered Because the Holy Scripture by reason of humane infirmities in all and perverseness in many is in many parts thereof-diversely understood it is very needful saith Vincentius Lirinensis that the line of Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation be directed according to the rule of Ecclesiastical and Catholick sense And also in the very Catholick Church great care must be had Adversus haeres c. 2. saith the same ancient author that we hold that which hath been believed every where alwayes and by all Which direction of this discreet Writer In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopre curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est c. 3. rightly understood and applied is very good and is and hath been of singular use especially against Schismaticks and Hereticks For when the consent of the Catholick Church in her principal members in all the parts of the world and in all ages beginning in and proceeding from the Apostolicall times unto any other set or proposed age doth clearly appear to be in any Divine Doctrine Discipline Liturgie Rites or any Ecclesiasticall usage who can gainsay that unanimous judgment of all the Saints of God which is a far better interpreter of the word of God then any generall councell can be who dare refuse to embrace the sentence of that just and impartiall Iudge except in decrees about things in their nature and morally mutable which may by the good leave of that Judge be with honour layed aside when they become unprofitable or dissentaneous to the edification and peace of the Church The Ecclesiasticall institutions which want sufficient evidence to prove their approbation by the Church flourishing in the Apostles dayes and are found to have the generall approbation of the Churches between the times of the Apostles and about the year of our Lord 500 although they be of less esteem and regard then the institutions known to be received by the Apostolicall Church yet are they Venerable and worthy of very great regard partly because of the propinquity of those Churches to the time of the Apostles from whom some of them might be probably thought to be derived although a certaine proofe of their derivation appeared not to succeeding ages partly because of the eminent wisdome of the Fathers and exemplary sanctity of the Churches in those times in comparison of the Churches in the following Generations The Churches of this space of time that is between the Apostles decease and the year 500. wanted the extraordinary Apostolicall Spirit which so guided the Church planted by them in all publick resolutions that she would make no Ordinance without the Apostles approbation and having it she could not erre in her determinations All other Churches therefore might easily erre and they that upon good occasion given them would modesty affirm that they did erre in some constitutions and usages generally approved by them and also in some remote conclusions of the Divine Doctrine are not to be thought to disparage them seeing upon the matter they say no more then that they were men which wanted the guide of the holy Spirit to lead them infallibly to truth and goodness in all things of Ecclesiasticall concernment but that those Churches within the first 500 years erred in any publick constitutions or customes unto Idolatry or which is less unto apparent superstition is a thing improbable and incredible to them who rightly consider the publick doctrine and Ecclesiasticall Ordinances of those times and take due notice of the great prudence and holiness of many of the chief Governors and Pillars of those Churches Hereticks Idolaters and superstitious persons were in many of the Churches but that the Churches themselves in any part of that time became Haereticall Idolatrous or Superstitious is very untrue and unworthy the thought of a prudent and charitable man And here by the way concerning the Church of England if we compare her in her legall constitution with any other Church after the year of our Lord 180. it will be found that they who charge her with Antichristianisme Idolatry or Superstition in her constitution established by Law do by clear consequence pass the sentence of the same condemnation upon every of those Churches especially them of the 4th and 5th century the rashness and injustice of which censure is very worthy of a very severe censure The Apostle indeed saith that the mystery of iniquity began to work in his time 2 Thes 2.7 Revel 2.24 but did he meane thereby that the mysterious iniquity and depth of Satan began to work in the publick constitutions of the Catholick Church in his dayes and that they were parts of the constitutions no surely neither can any Christian be so simple or so injurious to the Ministery of the Apostles and the purity of that Church as to think that the Apostle had any such meaning The mystery of Iniquity was indeed in the Church in some dead branches in some
to suspend their reception of the ancient Episcopacy but in very deed receiving in some hidden sort the substance of it secretly giving that Authority to the moderator of the Colledge of Presbyters which tantamounts the Authority of the ancient Bishops This was done by them in their Emergency out of the Gulfe of the Babylonish Idolatry and Haeresies when the state of persons and Circumstances would not permit them directly and manifestly to set up the ancient Episcopacy but covertly and cloathed with the apparel of Presbytery Because the appearing of it in its native cloathing seemed to threaten an extreme danger of returning again to Idolatrous Babylon Thus when two duties became inconsistent the keeping out of Idolatry and the open and manifest use of an Ordinance inferior to the maintenance of the purity of Gods worship they did as it was their duty so far forbear the open use of Episcopacy as seemed needfull that they might preserve the truth and sincerity of the worship of God I know many writers are of another mind but the intentions of Churches are better seen in the causes of their actions and the managing of them then in the letter of a Law or in the speculative opinions of private persons Some think the present condition of our Church to be almost the same with the state of those Churches when they first began their Reformation and therefore that we stand in need of the same cure under the habit of the Presbyterian Government Surely these are much deceived first in their opinion of our present state secondly in the sequele if our case were like theirs for when we were like them in departing from Babylon we were unlike them in many other respects and needed not the habit of Presbyters but fall to purge the ancient Episcopacy from as many of the foul excrescencies which the sins of men made to grow to it as the condition of that time would permit whereby our Church kept more uniformity with the primitive Churches and by the blessing of God upon our endevour obtained more measure of the Heavenly light and of the power of Godliness in peace and that for a longer time then any part of those Churches attained unto which were necessitated to shrowd themselves under another habit of Government This I say not any way to disparage any other Church of Christ whom I honour and pray for from my heart or to ascribe any thing to our own wisdome and providence but to honour and glorifie the grace of God for his great mercies to our Church and to defend her honour against the mistakes of some But now our condition is changed our sins have brought us to misery the light and glory of our Church is turned to darkness confusion and contempt from which notwithstanding our unworthiness Gods infinite mercy which hath most gratiously restored our Soveraign Lord the King unto his Kingdomes and Subjects will be pleased I trust to deliver us and to beautifie our Church with the primitive Apostolicall Episcopacy attended by his assessors and Senate the reverend grave wise learned and pious Colledg of Presbyters to govern the house of God after the best pattern of the primitive holy orders and discipline for the obtaining whereof God would have us assisted by His grace to contribute our endevours improved to the uttermost of Christian Wisdom and moderation to be crowned with his rich blessing And because this business is about things for the most part spirituall tending to the edification of Gods house it will no doubt please our gracious King and his great Councell not to proceed in this work without the advise and counsell of them whom Christ hath ordained under Himself Minister all builders of His House least the neglect of His Ordinance and Ministers cause the Lord to blast all other Counsells and endeavours how probable soever they may seem to be in the eye of the world Give unto Casar the things which are Caesars and let the Vicegerents of Christ enjoy the things belonging to them let all interests have their due part in this weighty work and then whatsoever Government be settled what form soever of Divine service what Rites soever and Ceremonies shall be established they will with all readiness and due submission be received and embraced by all the people and all the obedient Sons and Daughters of our dearest Mother the Church of England among whom if there shall be some whose judgments cannot acquiesce in some determinations of the higher powers they will wisely consider first that in the remote conclusions of Divine maximes all good men in this our infirmity will never agree and that nature teacheth us that in controversies the resolution of the major part must be obeyed without which debates would never be ended and St. Paul saith let the spirits of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets Secondly That God hath appointed the powers civil and Ecclesiasticall in his stead to determine Ecclesiasticall controversies and to make Ecclesiasticall Ordinances from whose judgment there is no appeal but only to God by prayer Thirdly That to preserve the peace of the Church and Charity the bond of perfectness is a duty to be preferred before the duty of publick teaching divulging or preaching many of those Divine Truths whose ignorance if not voluntary doth not exclude from Heaven when that teaching or publishing doth disturb the publick peace and consequently the keeping of the peace requireth abstinence in that case from such divulging or preaching And from these considerations good men will infer that it is good for them and that it is their duty both for the sake of Gods Authority for good order sake and for Charity and peace sake out of a Conscientious regard to the higher powers to acquiesce in their determinations and to desist from opposing their private opinion to the publick judgment and pursuing their private interest to the prejudice of publick peace and Charity For which Wisedome and moderation that they may be in all let all good men pray to the onely wise and most mercifull God the Author of Truth and peace An APENDIX THe manner of the Ordination of Bishops forgotten to be shewed by me in due place is declared by the fourth Councill of Carthage in these words Can. 2. When a Bishop is ordained lay and hold the book of the Evangelists upon his head and neck and one Bishop pronouncing the Benediction over him let the rest of the Bishops present touch his head with their hands The Church never accounted any to be capable of this Episcopall Ordination that was not first ordained a Presbyter the manner of whose Ordination was that the Bishop blessing him saying receive the Holy Ghost whosoever sins you shall remitt Concil earth Can 3. c. and laying his hand upon his head the Presbyters present lay their hands upon his head by the hand of the Bishop There was a (a) Tert. de praescript c. 41. Cyprian Epist ad
of old condemned in the Canons of the Church under pretence of contumacy or the like But I am weary of raking in this puddle Concil Aurelian 5. c. 2. Leo. Epist 87. where the many dependences upon those Courts seemed to require exorbitances that every one might have a tolerable livelyhood If the excrescencies which the corruptions of the times made to adhere to the primitive Episcopacy were cut off and the spiritual jurisdiction restored to the Bishop and Presbyters it is not to be doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. munus baptizandi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in 1 Cor. hom 3. but that our brethren who dislike the Episcopacy in its present constitution and the more because they took an oath whether well or ill I let go to endevour the abrogation of it would be abundantly satisfied with the Apostolical Episcopacy where one was ordained for the union strengthening of the jurisdiction of Presbyters for the defence of which Episcopacy they had taken a former oath in the solemn Protestation which as taken lawfully and in lawful things maketh all contrary oaths unlawful to be after either taken or kept Although the Apostles ordained no governing Elders besides the Bishop and preaching Elders yet the primitive Episcopacy will well bear that some lay Elders be joyned to the Presbytery and in every parish where fit persons may be had to help the Bishop and Presbyters in the inspection of manners in the instruction of the ignorant in brotherly admonitions and teproofs and in giving notice to the Bishops and Presbyters of the scandalous offences to be proceeded against in an Ecclesiastical order and also to represent the people and vote for them where their consent is requisite Here I desire it may be noted that when I spake of Presbyters which were the Senate of the ancient Bishops Conc. Neocaesar cum Ep. 7. Zachariae papae ad Bonifac. c. 4. c. 15. Et Concil Meldens an 845. c. 54. I understood not all and every one subject unto the Bishop but the more ancient grave pious learned discreet and moderate of them for such were the City Presbyters in the old times which alone usually and mostly were the Bishops assessors in the spiritual judicature and which therefore in some places and specially in Rome obtained the name of Cardinal Presbyters Some dislike the civil honour wherewith godly Kings have dignified our reverend Prelates Sect. 13. truely if the taking of it had made them less able to fulfil the office of preaching the Gospel or did widen the distance between them and the Presbyters or made them less accessible by or condescending to their flock or ecclipsed the veneration due to their CoÌ„-presbyters or involved them in civil affaires which all the ancient Canons forbid the addition of that honour were not to be liked but it is evident enough to the eye of every impartial judgement and the lives of many most holy Bishops have made it good that if any of these evils happen'd from the receiving of that dignity as too often hath been seen it proceeded from the evil of the person and not from the innocent honour which wâ—s conferred upon them by pious Princes out of their love to Châ—â—â—â— and his Ambassadors the better to preserve them from the contempt of the wicked who regard no goodness besides the civil and worldly and to enable the better to maintain the great interest which in civil things belongs to the Ecclesiastical estate and that the great Council of a Christian Kingdom should not sit without giving the Ambassadors of Christ an honourable place and priviledge among them that in them Christ might be seen to be the more present and their ready spiritual Council might prevent some proceedings not well agreeing with the interest of religion and the laws of Christ which without them might more easily happen But what was done in a heat may be undone in a milder temper Irenaeus who was born within very few years after the decease of the Apostles saith that the Church nourished such presbyters of whom the Prophet saith I will give thy Princes in peace and thy Bishops in righteousness where this ancient Father doth shew that Bishops be princes And so doth Hierom upon the place the prophet saith he calleth the future princes of the Church Bishops Esa 60.17 Secund. 70. interpret It is then very congruous that the Christian Kings set over these Ecclesiastical princes and by their ministery made partakers of the caelestial dignities should in a certain way of retribution dignifie them with some eminent degree of civil honour which cannot be well supported without some proportionable revenue The Holy Scripture tells us that it is a more blessed thing to give then to receive Surely God would have every of the presbyters of the Church enabled for that blessed work of giving over and above a convenient maintenance for Wife and Children which the Apostle supposeth to be in their families for whom they are bound to provide or in the judgment of the same Apostle to be deemed to have denied the faith and to be worse then infidels And if every Presbyter ought to be thus provided for if possible then the elder Brethren should have a double portion besides the proportion which their civil dignity doth require and where any of the rest are indued with more excellent ministerial gifts it 's very convenient they should have a larger measure of the matter and instruments requisite for the fuâ—l exercise of their more excelling vertues What the revenue of the reverend Bishops is I do not know but I have good reasons to assure me that it is not excessive at which any would grudg or envy except the sacrilegious truckers which would have the reverend Clergy live upon their leavings and scraps Certain it is that the maintenance of many hundreds of Pâ—â—sbyters is so small that they can scarse feed and cloath their Families so that when they die many Hospitals might be filled with their poor Wives and Children And if no better provision be made for the poor Cures and Vicarages it were an eminent work of charity to erect and endow Hospitals proper to poor Ministers Wives and Children This starving of Christs Ambassadours is the shame and great sin of the Kingdome But now it is the hope and expectation of all good men that his sacred Majesty and the most honourable houses of parliament will provide a remedy for this miserable disease of the Church for it 's onely an act of parliament that can surely sweetly and fully cure it There be not a few who complain against the canonical oath Sect. 14. concerning which I can find no mention until about the year 813. wherein the Fathers of the second Council of Cabilon say it is spoken of certain of our brethren that they compel them whom they are to ordain to swear that they will do nothing
that the priests and deacons should communicate before the altar the subordinate Clergy in the Quire the people without the Quire This Council drave the people far off from the railes of the altar Many more Rites and Ceremonies were used in the fourth Century which do not pertain to our purpose and very many more were afterward added especially in the Roman Church From what hath been said we may perceive that the Composers of our Divine Service book made choice of the best things out of the most ancient Liturgies of the Churches Sect. 18. which flourished long before the birth of Antichrist leaving many Ceremonies used in the primitive times not very convenient to the present state of our Churches retaining other that the garment of Christian religion with us might not altogether vary from the ancient form so far as it could without prejudice to the body of religion be fitted to us Tertullian saith that the solemnities and mysteries of Idols gained credit and reputation with men by the sumptuous rites and rich ornaments whereby they were set forth and adorned It is likely that the ancient Fathers when miracles began to cease saw it expedient for the removing of some of the obstructions to Christian faith to add to the divine Solemnities some agreeable Rites whereby the Christian Doctrine might be commended to the rectitude of humane judgment as not incredible or contemptible and it may be thereby be commended as credible and worthy of good regard The Schismaticks in Tertullian's time Tertull. de prescript baeret c. 41. as he saith named the decent Ceremonious Discipline of the Churches a bawd and counted the prostration of that Discipline by themselves to be Christian simplicity Whereas in very deed that prostration of edifying order and Ceremonies caused the confusion of the holy ordinances among them and sluttishness in the celebrations of the divine institutions as Tertullian noted in those Schismaticks and we see now a days in ours But on the other side we must remember that we may erre as in the defect so in the excess of Ceremonies or in the choice or in accounting and compelling others to own them for unchangeable Apostolick institutes or by too rigid pressing the use of every of them especially upon people of weak capacity humble peaceable and of a scrupulous conscience August Epist 119. Placuit Spiritui S. nihil aliud oneris imponere praeterquam quae necessario servare oportet At quidam haec nihil curantes omnem quidem fornicationem pro nihilo habent De Diebus autem feriis institutis perinde atque de anima ipsa decertant Dei mandata invertentes sibi ipsis leges ferentes per Socrat. hist l. 5. c. 21. Edit Basil 1570. Augustine was grieved to see the transgression of a Ceremony to be more severely reprehended then the transgression of Gods law his judgment was that the Ceremonies should not be many so as by them to press with servile burthens the Church of Christ which God would preserve free in the use onely of few Rites commended by manifest reasons Antiquity is venerable yet it may not ought not continue a Rite or Ceremony in any Church with whose edification and peace it is become inconsistent There be but few ordinances meerly Ecclesiastical which have not in some Churches become noxious or at least useless And there is a vicissitude of profit or detriment growing from them many times in the same Churches arising from notable changes in persons and circumstances Augustine thought that those observances which the whole Church kept and no diversity of manners had varied were ordained by the Apostle St. Paul Epist 110. This his thought holds forth a probability and no demonstration for he himself in some place grants that such universal and de facto unvaried rites might have been made by a general Council and we may add by custome Many Ceremonies were universal as many then believed and unvaried in Augustine's time which were in following times either altered or altogether disused Wherefore surely because they ceased to be useful or became hurtful And therefore if St. Paul was the author of them he gave them with consent of the Churches to be used so long as they saw them to continue serviceable or at least not hurtful to Christian religion It was difficult in the ancient times to know which rites descended from the Apostles and which not or which were universal in such an age by them that lived therein They many times said some Rites to be universal which were so onely in the part of the Christian world where they lived as in the Eastern or Western Churches Socrat. hist l. 5. c. 21. Et Sozom. l. 7. c. 18 19. It was before shewed that many things were said by the Fathers to be of divine or Apostolical institution which were not so indeed if we speak of divine or Apostolick institutes in a proper sense Sometime what was by one of the Fathers affirmed to be so was by some other ancient writers referred to a more recent author De offic Eccl. l. 1. c. 15. as to one Pope or other So some ascribe the Roman Liturgy to St. Peter as Isidore every part whereof is assigned to other authors by Gregory the great or Amalarius or Alcuinus or Strabus or some other which have writen of the Roman Service I find none to determine in particular what part of that Service was made by St. Peter Duran rationale div offic pricip l. 4. but onely a few affirming that he composed three prayers of it But if he had been the author of it as Isidore relates it is not to be doubted but that the Western Churches or most of them had used onely that Liturgy But the Church of Millaine had a proper Liturgy the Churches of Spaine had another proper to them Concil Milevit Can. 12. Et Carth. 3. Can. 23. Cur cum una sit fides fint Ecclesiarum consuetudines diversae altera consuetudo missarum in Romana Ecclesia atque altera in Galliarum Ecclesiis teneatur huic interrogationi Augustini Anglorum Episcopi sic resp Gregoriuâ— Papa 1. and the Africans had divers in divers Churches some of which had unawares put into their Liturgy some prayers composed by Hereticks which caused some African Councils to ordain that no prayers should be received into the Liturgy but such as were examined by Learned men or approved by a Council Novit fraternitas tua Romanae Ecclesiae consuetudinem in qua se meminit eruditam Sed mihi placet ut sive in Romana sive in Gallicana seu in qualibet Ecclesia aliquid invenisti quod plus emnipotenti Deo possit placere solicite eligas in Anglorum Ecclesia quae adhuc ad fidem nova est institutione praecipua quae de multis Ecclesiis colligere potuisii infundas Non enim pro locis res sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt
Ex quibusque ergo Ecclesiis quae pia quae religiosa quae recta sunt elige haec quasi in fasciculum collecta apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone Every Church at least every Provincial Church composed their prayers or other parts of their divine Service as seemed most conducible to their edification and after altered the same or made a new form Vide Bern. Augiens de quibud rebus ad missam pertinent c. 2. Vide Sozom. hist l. 7. c. 19. or received a form used in another Church as they pleased Spain or some part of it received the Roman Liturgy And therefore if it should seem good to the Church of England to mend their Liturgy or compose a new one if need be more agreeable to the present time they should do therein no more then the most famous Churches have done before and which can be no disparaging of the wisdome and piety of the Composers of it which intended onely to make it as fit as could be for the state of the Church in their time which I believe they performed very exactly and not to frame and impose an unchangeable form which could never prove incongruous to any possible variety in the state of the Church for this is not in the power of any persons or Churches Howsoever Ceremonies and a form of Liturgy are no more necessary for Episcopal then a Presbyterian Government which may equally erre in defect or excess or quality of the rites and divine Service Now although both the forms of government and all Ecclesiastical rites be in their nature changeable Sect. 19. because of their dependance upon variable circumstances yet some have been less subject to change or abrogation then other either because they be of smal efficacy to hurt or profit or because the hurt done by them is hardly discerned or because the circumstances which are apt to make them noxious seldome happen or because they are believed to have the Apostles for their authors or approvers Of all other Episcopacy seems least subject to abrogation First because the Churches in all parts of the world were always firmly perswaded that the institution of Episcopacy had the Apostles hand and seal joyned with the mother Churches for the confirmation of it Secondly because many believed that the Apostles never permitted the Colledge of Presbyters to ordain Presbyters in the time that they ruled in the Churches this they received by tradition to which they easily gave their assent because they found not in the Acts of the Apostles or the Apostolical Epistles that sole Presbyters ordained any except perhaps by an immediate command of the Holy Ghost which is extraordinary but with a President either an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Vicegerent of an Apostle as Timothy Titus c. whence they thought it might be very probably collected that the Apostles would have given a principality of the exercise of the power of ordination unto one Presbytet onely in every Church so as without him the whole Colledge could not ordain and would have left the government to be exercised in common equally by all if the Colledge had not so grosly abused their ruling power whereby it was seen that the Colledge had need of a President both in the Government and the Ordination which was accordingly given them by the decree of the Church approved by the Apostles St. Hierome himself hath some passages which seem to favour this opinion â—i passim omnibus Presh esses concessum ordinare tot admitterentur ad ordines quod non servaretur ordo immo potius generaretur confusiâ— ideo dispositum est Dei consilie quod solis Episcopis ordinum dispensatio aliorum officiorum ut consecratio abbatum monialium ecclesiarum consimilium concedatur Bonevent in 4. d. 25. q. 1. and therefore the Churches never suffered a Presbyter or Chorâ—piscope to ordaine except he supplied the place of a Bishop when he could not be present and the Ordination could not be delayed Thirdly The Presbyterian Government was in use in the purest purity of the Churches beginning to spread abroad over the world by the preaching of the Apostles and yet in less then twenty years space Schismes grew out of it which caused the Churches to out it and to establish Episcopacy as the best antidote against Schisme and for the restauration and maintenance of the Churches peace Now if the Presbyterian Government was uneffectuall for the preserving of peace among the most godly and consequently the most addicted to peace who can expect it should be effectuall to restore union and peace and to preserve it in Churches too full of pollutions and staines very much degenerated from the holiness of the Apostolicall times It seems a desperate and preposterous course to use that as a soveraigne Antidote in our time which had the effect of a Poyson upon the Churches in the Aposties time A hurnt Child dreads the fire and should not the weaker members of the body dread the fire that burnt the strongest and best able to resist its force Seeing the remainder of naturall corruption in the most holy Churches drew the Poyson of Scisme from the Presbyterian forme of government we cannot without high presumption think that the far higher degrees of sin remaining in us will be idle suffer grace to make of it an Antidote against Schisme Mountebanks are seen sometime to heal by improper Medicines where the strength of nature and the concurrence of some other secret causes do performe the cure and not the nature of the Physick So may the Presbyterian government have in some place the credit of healing Schismes maintaining peace when in very truth those good effects proceed from the confluence of other causes and not from the aptness of that government to effect them For it seems incredible that it should have in it an aptness to keep us in peace that had in it an ineptitude to keep the most peaceably disposed Apostolick Christians in unity and peace Whence we may conclude that although the ancient Episcopacy be in its nature changeable as being of the Churches and by consequence of humane constitution yet morally and practically it may not be abrogated without dammage to the Church which will assuredly follow if some accidentall benigne influences of some other causes do not for some time hinder its birth I am very apt to believe that the Churches which seem to use the Presbyterian government never intended by any Law deserving the proper name of a Law to settle the primitive Presbytery in their Churches whence the sad Schismes arose in the primitive times much less to abrogate the ancient Episcopacy which in the judgment of the best Christians and of the Apostles is the healer of Schismes and the preserver of peace But that they intended as they had good reason to abrogate the corrupted Hierarchy with the multitude of its oppressing attendants and as necessity compelled them seemingly