ends for which they were given: for the perfecting the ART. faints, (by perfecting feems to be meant the initiating XXIII. them by holy mysteries, rather than the compacting or putting them in joint; for as that is the proper fignification of the word, fo it being fet firft, the other things that come after it make that the ftrict fenfe of perfecting; that is, completing does not fo well agree with the period,) for the work of the Miniftry, (the whole ecclefiaftical or facred fervices,) for the edifying the body of Chrift, (to which inftructing, exhorting, comforting, and all the other parts of preaching may well be reduced;) and then the duration of thefe gifts is defined, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man. This seems to import the whole ftate of this life.

We cannot think that all this belonged only to the infancy of the Church, and that it was to be laid afide by her when the was further advanced: for when we confider that in the beginnings of Chriftianity there was fo liberal an effufion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon fuch great numbers, who had very extraordinary credentials, miracles, and the gift of tongues, to prove their miffion; it does not feem fo neceffary in fuch a time, or rather for the fake of fuch a time only, to have fettled thofe functions in the Church, and that the Apostles fhould have ordained Elders in every Church. Those ex- Aas xiv. traordinary gifts that were then, without any authorita- 23. tive fettlement, might have ferved in that time to have procured to men fo qualified all due regards. We have therefore much better reason to conclude, that this was settled at that time, chiefly with refpect to the following ages, which as they were to fall off from that zeal and purity that did then reign among them, fo they would need rule and government to maintain the unity of the Church, and the order of facred things. And for that reafon chiefly we may conclude, that the Apoftles fettled order and government in the Church, not fo much for the age in which they themselves lived, as once to eftablish and give credit to conftitutions, that they forefaw would be yet more neceffary to the fucceeding ages.

This is confirmed by that which is in the Epiftle to the Hebrews, both concerning those who bad ruled over Heb. xii. them, and those who were then their guides. St. Peter 7, 17. gives directions to the Elders of the Churches to whom Pet. v. he writ, how they ought both to feed and govern the flock; and his charging them not to do it out of covetoufnefs, or with ambition, infinuates that either fome were beginning

2, 3.

ART. to do fo, or that, in a fpirit of prophecy, he forefaw that XXIII. fome might fall under fuch corruptions. This is hint

enough to teach us, that, though fuch things fhould happen, they could furnish no argument against the function. Abufes ought to be corrected, but upon that pretence the function ought not to be taken away.

If from the Scriptures we go to the firft writings of Chriftians, we find that the main fubject of St. Clemens' and St. Ignatius' Epiftles, is to keep the Churches in order and union, in fubjection to their Paftors, and in the due fubordination of all the members of the body one to another. After the firft age the thing grows too clear to need any further proof. The argument for this from the ftanding rules of order, of decency, of the authority in which the holy things ought to be maintained, and the care that must be taken to reprefs vanity and infolence, and all the extravagancies of light and ungoverned fancies, is very clear. For if every man may affume authority to preach and perform holy functions, it is certain religion must fall into diforder, and under contempt. Hotheaded men of warm fancies and voluble tongues, with very little knowledge and difcretion, would be apt to thrust themselves on to the teaching and governing others, if they themselves were under no government. This would foon make the public fervice of God to be loathed, and break and diffolve the whole body.

A few men of livelier thoughts, that begin to fet on foot fuch ways, might for fome time maintain a little credit; yet fo many others would follow in at that breach which they had once made on public order, that it could not be poffible to keep the fociety of Chriftians under any method, if this were once allowed. And therefore those who in their heart hate the Chriftian religion, and defire to see it fall under a more general contempt, know well what they do, when they encourage all thofe enthufiafts that deftroy order; hoping, by the credit which their outward appearances may give them, to compass that which the others know themselves to be too obnoxious to hope that they can ever have credit enough to perfuade the world to. Whereas those poor deluded men do not fee what properties the others make of them. The morals of infidels fhew that they hate all religions equally, or with this difference, that the ftricter any are, they muft hate them the more; the root of their quarrel being at all religion and virtue. And it is certain, as it is that which thole who drive it on fee well, and therefore they drive it on, that if once the public order and national conftitu

XXIII.

tion of a Church is diffolved, the ftrength and power, as ART. well as the order and beauty, of all religion will foon after it; for, humanly speaking, it cannot fubfift without

it.

go

I come in the next place to confider the fecond part of this Article, which is the definition here given of those that are lawfully called and fent: this is put in very general words, far from that magifterial ftiffness in which fome have taken upon them to dictate in this matter. The Article does not refolve this into any particular confitution, but leaves the matter open and at large for fuch accidents as had happened, and fuch as might ftill happen. They who drew it had the ftate of the feveral Churches before their eyes, that had been differently reformed; and although their own had been lefs forced to go out of the beaten path than any other, yet they knew that all things among themselves had not gone according to those rules that ought to be facred in regular times: neceffity has no law, and is a law to itself.

This is the difference between those things that are the means of falvation, and the precepts that are only neceffary, because they are commanded. Thofe things which are the means, fuch as faith, repentance, and new obedience, are indifpenfable; they oblige all men, and at all times alike; because they have a natural influence on us, to make us fit and capable subjects of the mercy of God: but fuch things as are neceffary only by virtue of a command of God, and not by virtue of any real efficiency which they have to reform our natures, do indeed oblige us to feek for them, and to use all our endeavours to have them. But as they of themselves are not neceffary in the fame order with the firft, fo much lefs are all those methods neceffary in which we may come at the regular use of them. This diftinction fhall be more fully enlarged on when the Sacraments are treated of. But to the matter in hand. That which is fimply neceffary as a mean to preserve the order and union of the body of Chriftians, and to maintain the reverence due to holy things, is, that no man enter upon any part of the holy miniftry, without he be chofen and called to it by fuch as have an authority fo to do; that, I fay, is fixed by the Article: but men are left more at liberty as to their thoughts concerning the fubject of this lawful authority.

That which we believe to be lawful authority, is that rule which the body of the Paftors, or Bifhops and Clergy of a Church, fhall fettle, being met in a body under the due refpect to the powers that God fhall fet over them:

rules

ART. rules thus made, being in nothing contrary to the word XXIII. of God, and duly executed by the particular perfons to

whom that care belongs, are certainly the lawful authority. Thofe are the Paftors of the Church, to whom the care and watching over the fouls of the people is committed; and the Prince, or fupreme power, comprehends virtually the whole body of the people in him: fince, according to the conftitution of the civil government, the wills of the people are understood to be concluded by the fupreme, and fuch as are the fubject of the legislative authority. When a Church is in a fate of perfecution under those who have the civil authority over her, then the people, who receive the faith, and give both protection and encouragement to thofe that labour over them, are to be confidered as the body that is governed by them. The natural effect of fuch a state of things, is to fatisfy the people in all that is done, to carry along their confent with it, and to confult much with them in it. This does not only arife out of a neceffary regard to their prefent circumftances, but from the rules given in the Gospel, of not ruling as the kings of the feveral nations did; nor lording it, or carrying it with a high authority over God's beritage, (which may be alfo rendered over their several lots or portions.) But when the Church is under the protection of a Chriftian magiftrate, then he comes to be in the ftead of the whole people; for they are concluded in and by him; he gives the protection and encouragement, and therefore great regard is due to him, in the exercife of his lawful authority, in which he has a great fhare, as fhall be explained in its proper place. Here then we think this authority is rightly lodged, and fet on its proper bafis.

And in this we are confirmed, because, by the decrees of the first General Councils, the concerns of every province were to be fettled in the province itself: and it fo continued till the ufurpations of the papacy broke in every where, and difordered this conftitution. Through the whole Roman communion the chief jurifdiction is now in the Pope; only Princes have laid checks upon the extent of it; and by appeals the fecular court takes cognizance of all that is done, either by the Pope or the Clergy. This we are fure is the effect of ufurpation and tyranny : yet fince this authority is in fact fo fettled, we do not pretend to annul the acts of that power, nor the miffions or orders given in that Church; because there is among them an order in fact, though not as it ought to be in right. On the other hand, when the body of the Clergy

comes

comes to be fo corrupted that nothing can be trufted to ART. the regular decifions of any fynod or meeting, called XXIII. according to their conftitution, then if the Prince fhall felect a peculiar number, and commit to their care the examining and reforming both of doctrine and worship, and fhall give the legal fanction to what they fhall offer to him; we must confefs that fuch a method as this runs contrary to the established rules, and that therefore it ought to be very feldom put in practice; and never, except when the greatnefs of the occafion will balance this irregularity that is in it. But ftill here is an authority both in fact and right; for if the Magiftrate has a power to make laws in facred matters, he may order those to be prepared, by whom, and as he pleafes.

Finally, if a company of Chriftians find the public worfhip where they live to be fo defiled that they cannot with a good confcience join in it, and if they do not know of any place to which they can conveniently go, where they may worship God purely, and in a regular way; if, I fay, fuch a body finding fome that have been ordained, though to the lower functions, fhould fubmit itfelf entirely to their conduct, or finding none of those, should by a common confent defire fome of their own number to minifter to them in holy things, and fhould upon that beginning grow up to a regulated conftitution, though we are very fure that this is quite out of all rule, and could not be done without a very great fin, unless the neceffity were great and apparent; yet if the neceflity is real and not feigned, this is not condemned or annulled by the Article; for when this grows to a conftitution, and when it was begun by the confent of a body, who are supposed to have an authority in fuch an extraordinary cafe, whatever fome hotter fpirits have thought of this fince that time; yet we are very fure, that not only those who penned the Articles, but the body of this Church for above half an age after, did, notwithstanding those irregularities, acknowledge the foreign Churches so conftituted to be true Churches as to all the effentials of a Church, though they had been at firft irregularly formed, and continued ftill to be in an imperfect ftate. And therefore the general words in which this part of the Article is framed, feem to have been defigned on purpose not to exclude them.

Here it is to be confidered, that the High-Priest among the Jews was the chief perfon in that difpenfation; not only the chief in rule, but he that was by the Divine appointment to officiate in the chief act of their religion, the

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