and that they may be imposed upon the credulous and unwary multitude to promote some designs we are not yet acquainted with and that they will certainly serve no other but Popish purposes in the end I shall therefore shew as plainly as I can in this short treatise That the Constitution of the Church of England is such as need not give any matter of offence to the Conscience of any good Christian I shall then answer the most common and popular Objections that are wont to be made against this Constitution and the Clergy that conform unto it and lastly consider the means of Vnion that have been hitherto proposed And in discoursing of these things I shall keep my self as much as may be on the defensive side and strive only to ward off the blows that are made at us without endeavouring to wound the hand from whence they come And that I may if it be possible avoid giving the least offence I shall not so much as name the Authors from whence I take the Objections I endeavour to answer but make choice of such as I have observed to be most usually insisted on of late and some others which have been spread abroad to no other end that I can conceive but to incense the minds of men against us and raise animosities at such a time as the most calm and peaceable Counsels would be more seasonable and of greater advantage to the Protestant Cause And therefore I do here solemnly profess that I shall not say any thing out of partiality or any sinister respect whatsoever or any ill will I ever bore to any of our Non-Conforming brethren by some of which I have been most particularly obliged and I love them all as men and more especially as Christians But as a compassionate member of a poor despised Church that has been made the mark of common obloquy and scorn I shall declare her innocency as publickly as I can now that I take her to be in so much danger of ruine from the settled and deliberate malice of Popish Agents and the inconsiderate heat of other Adversaries that will dearly repent it when it is done if they should ever be so unfortunate as to succeed in such an attempt I cannot have so bad an opinion of all but that they may see what a Church some of them could wish destroyed I shall briefly lay open the Principal parts of the Constitution of it as it consists in Episcopacy Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Laws Of these I shall treat but very briefly and only to give what satisfaction I can to those that have not leisure or skill to peruse those many large and learned discourses that have been formerly and some very lately written upon these Subjects SECT II. Episcopacy or the Government of one Bishop over many Presbyters is a thing so very antient that it seems to have been propagated in the World by the first Planters of the Christian Religion That the Apostles had such an authority will not be denyed and that they communicated the like authority to others is no less evident in the Examples of Timothy and Titus and to affirm that this power of theirs over many Presbyters was only temporary and personal and that it was to cease as soon as the Apostles and those immediately constituted by them were dead is an assertion altogether precarious For the Scripture makes no mention of it and there is no reason to imagine that that Government which was once established in the Church should be afterwards altered unless it had been declared by them that did establish it that it was to continue but for such a period of time And if any without such a declaration shall maintain that the Apostolical and Episcopal power is now wholly ceased others upon the same principle may contend that the Presbyterial power is ceased too and as they say that every Presbyter is become a Bishop so these will plead that every Christian is to be a Presbyter though it might not be so at the first institution But besides that the Scripture does not acquaint us that this power was ever to cease the whole current of antiquity runs strongly against it The oldest and most Authentick writers of the Church do generally acknowledge the Episcopal Authority and look upon Bishops as the successours of the Apostles in their ordinary power and Jurisdiction And sometimes in their disputes with Hereticks they appeal to the Records that were then extant to shew how they succeeded one another from the Apostles down to their own times And this is enough to prove what opinion they had of the Original and continuance of the Episcopal power But if we wanted these testimonies and were not able to derive the succession so high as we can yet this is confessed by the most zealous and learned opposers of Episcopal Government that such Bishops as we contend for were universally allowed very soon after the decease of the Apostles And I do not think that any one can name one Church that had not a Bishop in it in those first and purest ages of Christianity and when other corruptions crept in they were not so great and bold as to attempt the subversion of that truly Primitive Government And when some in these latter times have endeavoured to contrive another kind of Ecclesiastical order they seem to have been forced upon it rather out of necessity than choice They did not so much prefer their own model before the antient one but when they could not have this they were fain to content themselves with that They that framed and promoted the Discipline of Geneva the most have spoken very honourably of the English Episcopacy And many learned Men that have lived quietly under that Constitution have thought ours the more desirable and there have been none that I know of beyond the Seas but that have readily acknowledged that it might at least be allowed So far have they been from calling it Popish or Anti-Christian that is a Complement that none but a disobedient Son could bestow upon so good a Mother But we need not come so low as these latter ages to seek for Authorities to confirm the Episcopal Jurisdicttion it was the Government that was always owned and exercised amongst the first Christians And they were wont to settle their Bishops in places of the greatest confluence in Cities whither the people did usually resort from the neighbouring Villages and lesser Towns for the convenience of Trade and administration of Justice And because in every Province there was one Capital City or Metropolis where the chief Secular Magistrate had his ordinary residence they had there a Bishop which was first called a Metropolitan and afterwards an Archbishop who had an authority over the several Bishops within the whole Province And in some parts of the Roman Empire there were Bishops that were stiled Patriarchs who had a certain Superiority over the Metropolitans themselves The order that was observed amongst
which God had not given them and the rest which had no suffrages in the Case willingly obeyed and esteemed themselves bound to submit to their injunctions And when any controversie happened to arise in such matters the question was not whether the Church had any such Authority to command but whether the thing commanded were really indifferent or not So it was in that famous dispute about the time of keeping of Easter which caused so much dissention in the first ages of Christianity they did not contend against the Power of the Church to determine things indifferent but both sides supposed themselves to be obliged by an Apostolical tradition from which they thought it unlawful to depart But where they judged the matter not to be contrary to some unalterable rule they never opposed the commands of their Governours And the Protestant Churches have been all of the same opinion They have all made some Ecclesiastical Laws for external order and discipline to which they require obedience from all of their own Communion though these particular Laws are not expressed in the word of God provided they be not repugnant unto it And I think our dissenting Brethren themselves do all of them make use of such a Power and indeed I do not see how it can be otherwise For they will all severally acknowledge that there must be some Power amongst them to which every person that joins with their Assemblies ought to be subject in all acts of Discipline and these not being particularly determined in the Scriptures must be determined by this Power or else their Discipline cannot be put into practice And if it may be thus determined once it may be so again and again and so as often as the like cases shall occur and therefore it may be passed into a Law or Rule by which all matters of the same nature may be constantly decided for the future And a collection of many such Laws would be so far equivalent to a Book of Canons that it would contain divers Rules and determinations of things which the Scripture had not particularly determined If this be not granted that some such Rules may be established then all determinations not made in Scripture which will be very many must be left to the discretion of those that have the Church Authority in their hands And then the only difference in this matter betwixt them and us will be this that we shall be governed by known and standing Laws and they by an uncertain Arbitrary Power But since where any Power is allowed some such determinations must be made in the one way or the other it seems clear that they which do blame the Church of England for admitting Ecclesiastical Laws do not only condemn the Apostolical practice and all Churches both antient and modern but themselves too Besides this Power we are now discoursing of seems to have so clear a foundation in Scripture that it cannot well be disputed The Apostle writing to the Hebrews exhorts them thus Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves If they were bound to obey and submit then certainly their Guides or Rulers had Authority to command And if they might command in any thing without doubt they might do it in things that are not forbidden in the Word of God For these are not sinful in themselves neither can they be made so by being injoined by our Superiors unless obedience must be esteemed a Sin But how can that be when we are here expresly commanded to obey Another place there is which has been always urged to this purpose and never yet I think received any full and satisfactory answer Let all things be done decently and in order This is spoken upon occasion of some irregular proceedings there had been in their Religious assemblies at Corinth and it is laid down as a rule and expedient whereby they might avoid the like inconveniencies for the future And that it was to be universally obliging may appear from the grand reason of it which we find mentioned a little before in the same chapter God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace and that not in this or the other particular Church not for this or that time but in all Churches of the Saints in all places and all ages of the World whatsoever And then the precept it self is to be extended to all things whatever they be that are done in the Church they must be done decently and in order But it is not any where particularly expressed what is orderly and decent and if it may not now or at any time be determined what is so then this great Rule in which all Churches of the Saints are concerned would be wholly void and of no effect as to any use that could possibly be made of it For though we should acknowledge our selves obliged to do all things decently and in order as we must yet if it should be supposed that we may not presume to determine of this where the Scripture is silent as here it is we could never make any practical application of this Apostolical command to our own circumstances and so it would be all one unto us as if we had never received it But if it may be determined then it must be done either by publick Authority or else according to every mans private judgement If the former be granted it is that which we contend for that Ecclesiastical Laws may be made for the decent and orderly administration of all things in the Church If the latter be allowed then every one may determine for himself and then considering the strange variety of fancies that there are especially in matters of decency we should scarce find two it may be in a thousand that would be brought to agree in the same opinion and by consequence this general Canon of the Apostles that was intended for the preservation of good order among Christians would occasion the most absolute confusion that can be imagined And for the avoiding of this the determining what is decent and orderly must be left to our Governours and it will be our duty to submit to what they shall injoin in such matters as these I shall name one passage more which may give some farther light and confirmation unto this it is some chapters before where St Paul tells the Corinthians thus The rest will I set in order when I come Here it is very obvious to be taken notice of that there were some things to be regulated which he should leave undecided in this Epistle but designed to take care about them at his being at Corinth whither he intended to go the first convenient opportunity Now these things 't is very probable he did set in order afterwards as he had promised to do but we do not know either what they were or in what manner he disposed them but whatever they were or however he determined them thus much may be reasonably gathered from
whereof Antioch was the chief City and therefore he cannot be denyed to have had many Presbyters under him and it may be several Diocesan Bishops which very probably were then established in so large a Country as that was The last example that I shall bring is that of Polycarpus of Smyrna He was one that had conversed with St John and other Apostles and as some say was made Bishop of Smyrna by St John whose scholar he was But Irenaeus who knew him and had heard him with great attention when he discoursed of many things that he had heard from St Johns own mouth and from others that had seen the Lord he tells us that he was made Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles and if so then this Polycarpus must be that Angel of the Church of Smyrna to whom St John writes one of his Epistles in the Revelation for that Book of holy Scripture was not written till after the death of the other Apostles And if he were made Bishop by them for which we have the undoubted testimony of one that knew him then he must be confessed to have been the Angel of that Church whom St John does so highly commend And that he had Authority over many Presbyters cannot be questioned because he collected the forementioned Epistles of Ignatius and amongst the rest that to his own Church of Smyrna and sent them to the Philippians in all which this power is most fully and evidently asserted I have made choice of these few Examples out of many more because they seem to me to be very clear and were all of them unquestionably within the times that the Apostles lived and therefore it may appear from hence that the Episcopal Government in the Church was a Constitution that was allowed and established by them But if this could not be proved yet it must be confessed that soon after it was universally received all over the Christian World for from about the middle of the second Century and so downwards there is not an instance of any Church that had not a Bishop under whose Government it was The Churches in the Roman Empire and those without it did most unanimously agree in this that they all owned the Episcopal superiority And this is a very strong argument that it was a matter of Apostolical institution For it is not otherwise conceiveable how it could be brought into such general use throughout the whole Catholick Church in so short a time If any should think that it might be determined in a General Council soon after the decease of the Apostles this were a good testimony that it were still Apostolical For else it would never have been decreed by those some of which in all probability must have seen and conversed with some of the Apostles and who were wont constantly to contend for such things as they had heard from them and to reject all other as illegal innovations But that there was never any such Council seems to be beyond dispute For it could not be assembled in a time when the Church was often in a state of persecution and always looked upon with a jealous eye by the Civil power which would not have suffered so great a number of Christian Ministers to meet together without giving them some great disturbance Or if we should suppose they might have been permitted to meet quietly yet that they did so there is not the least mention or intimation in any Ecclesiastical Writer and it cannot be conceived that they could have been silent in a matter so considerable as this when they have punctually recorded so many of far less importance But if any can be inclined to believe that the Episcopal superiority was a meer usurpation of one Presbyter in a Diocess over the rest without the decree of any Council it is exceeding strange that all the World should be imposed upon about the same time in the same manner without ever consulting one with another And who can imagine that the primitive Bishops who are acknowledged to have been such pious mortified and self-denying men could be guilty of an ambition to advance themselves above their brethren contrary to the rule of the Apostles especially when they were like to get nothing by their aspiring but to be the first that should burn at a stake in the market-place or be torn in pieces in the Amphitheater Or if we could suppose them to have been so wicked and foolish too it is not possible that they could have gained this new power without some considerable opposition Men are naturally very jealous of any incroachment that can be made upon their Rights And the Presbyters of those times may well be thought to have had as great a care of preserving their Liberty as we have now of ours It is not therefore at all credible that they should as it were with one consent put their necks quietly under this new invented Yoke and submit without struggling to the usurped power of one of their Equals and that this defection should be so universal that the antient Parity if there had been any such should not keep its possession in one Church in all Christendom And from hence it seems very plain that the Episcopal Government that was exercised by the Apostles and by others in their time and received in all Churches must be instituted by them and they certainly did not act in a Case of that high concernment to the perpetual peace and order of the Church without the particular command of our blessed Lord or the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost I have drawn together in as clear and plain a method as I could the substance of the Argument that may be made for the Power of the Bishop over many Presbyters And if to all this and whatever else may be alledged it should be thought reply enough to say that the Mystery of iniquity began to work in the Apostles days and that therefore we are not to be obliged by any Examples though never so old If this should be pleaded as I think it has been sometimes it may be answered thus That Episcopacy may be proved upon good grounds out of the Scripture it self I am sure far better than any other form of Government can pretend unto But then being explained by the practice of that and all following Ages it will put the thing beyond all controversy if the sacred Text alone should not be clear enough to convince us of it But if the Mystery of Iniquity should be still insisted on this can be no prejudice to our Cause unless it can be proved that such an Episcopacy as we plead for is that Mystery of Iniquity which is spoken of That it is not seems to me very evident Because I cannot think that the Mystery of Iniquity though it did work very early should so mightily prevail that in a very short time there should not be any Church any where that can be heard of that
it that there may some things happen in the Church which may lawfully be set in order that are not expresly determined in Scripture For such are those here mentioned which if they are any where determined it must be in the second Epistle to the Corinthians but there it cannot be for besides that it would be difficult to shew the place where it is done that second Epistle was written not long after the first before the holy Pen-man of it had gotten any leisure to come amongst them but these cases were reserved till then when I come He forbore to write any thing of them because he intended to decide them when he should be personally present But what he did then we have nothing in the sacred writings that acquaints us and therefore it seems that some things may be determined which are not entred into those holy records This is a matter that has been always esteemed so very plain that it was never made a controvesie in former ages But of late some have been exceeding jealous of it because as they conceive it seems to derogate from the great Protestant Doctrine of the fulness and sufficiency of the Scriptures If I could see any argument to perswade me that it did so indeed I should be easily induced to reject it with as much indignation as any of those that do contend the most zealously against it But we do readily acknowledge that the Holy Scripture does contain all things necessary to Salvation that nothing is to be received as an article of Faith that is not there clearly revealed that nothing is to be imposed as a duty in it self acceptable unto God which may not be manifestly proved from thence that nothing is to be accounted an essential part of divine Worship which is not there expresly commanded All that we attribute to our Governours is only a Power of determining about Indifferent things which the word of God has not determined and these we hold to have no other influence upon our future happiness or misery but only as we take obedience to superiours to be our duty and that we ought not obstinately to oppose them in such things as we might have innocently done if they had not been prescribed by their Authority Where the Scripture has forbidden or commanded any thing as it has whatever is necessary there all the Powers upon earth are bound to submit Where the Scripture is silent as it is in many matters of lesser moment there we are obliged to comply with the injunctions of a lawful Power So that the sufficiency of the Scripture may be very consistent with the making of certain Rules for external order and decency But some have thought that if we should allow any Power in the Church of imposing such things we might by degrees have so many of them imposed as might be extreamly prejudicial to the state of Religion and that true Piety might be stifled and buried as it were under the rubbish of a huge number of needless Ceremonies And therefore they think that no such Power ought to be admitted But all that can be proved by this way of reasoning will amount but to thus much that such a Power may possibly be abused but it is not well argued from the abuse of a Power to the nullity of it It has been always supposed that Parliaments had a Power of granting mony upon the Subject But if any should say they cannot tell but that they may in time grant away their whole Estates and therefore should conceive that they could not grant any thing at all such a fond surmize would never be thought to have force enough to deprive them of their undoubted right But in Church Power as it is now bounded there cannot be any just apprehensions of such an excess as is pretended for besides the restraint that common prudence must lay upon those that have the management of it it is limited on the one hand by the Scripture that it cannot command any thing contrary unto that and on the other by the Civil Authority whose approbation will be requisite to give a validity to every order of the Church And here then is a sufficient check to prevent all exorbitancies that can be feared If any thing be imposed that is not confirmed by the Civil Power it will not be thought obliging if any thing be prescribed that is contrary to Scripture it most not be obeyed But if any Constitutions should be made which are only esteemed Burdensome by reason of their number but are not otherwise unlawful the fault will be in those that imposed them and not in those that submit unto them This is a thing that has been antiently complained of but neither those that made the complaint did separate from the Church themselves nor perswade others to do it upon that account For where the Imposition is really Burdensome they are to be blamed that laid it on but they that quietly bear it will make their obedience the more acceptable by adding patience and humility unto it But this objection cannot be made in our particular Case the injunctions of the Church of England are for their nature innocent and for their number not many And if they should be judged to be unlawfully imposed because they may be excessively multiplied I think there is no occasion now for such a fear However it will be time enough to apply the remedy when we feel the distemper growing upon us but it is always dangerous tampering with Physick when we find our selves in perfect health Every extravagant jealousie of what may happen hereafter ought not to shake what is well established at the present For if the contrary principle should be allowed it were impossible for any Church or State in the World ever to injoy one minutes repose Our Church then is so far very blameless that has admitted of a Power of making some Laws for the more orderly conduct of Ecclesiastical affairs since it is a thing very reasonable in it self very agreeable to the practice of all ages and very consonant to the rules of Scripture from whose fulness it does not detract neither can the possibility of its being abused make it wholly null I have hitherto indeavoured to lay together the summ of what I conceive may not be impertinently urged in defence of the Church of England as to the three principal parts of her Constitution Episcopacy Liturgy and Ecclesiastical Laws All which as they are here established are agreeable to the practice of the best Churches consonant to the holy Scriptures and may therefore be conformed unto with a good Conscience SECT V. I shall now give some answer to several objections that have been made against her especially those that I have observed to be the most popular and which have raised the strongest prejudice in the minds of such as do not approve of our present establishment And these are of two sorts some that are made against the Constitution