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among themselves had not gone according to thofe rules that ART. ought to be facred in regular times: neceffity has no law, and is a law to itself.

This is the difference between thofe things that are the means of falvation, and the precepts that are only neceffary, because they are commanded. Those 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 fubjects 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 less are all thofe methods neceflary in which we may come at the regular ufe 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 means 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 say, 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 respect to the powers that God thall fet over them: rules thus made, being in nothing contrary to the word 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 ftate of perfecution under thofe 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 such 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.

ART. This does not only arife out of a neceffary regard to their preXXIII. fent circumftances, but from the rules given in the Gofpel, of not ruling as the kings of the feveral nations did; nor lording it, or carrying it with a high authority over God's heritage (which may be alfo rendered over their feveral 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 share, 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 itfelf: 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 to be fo corrupted that nothing can be trufted to the regular decifions of any fynod or meeting, called 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 fančtion to what they fhall offer to him; we must confefs that such a method as this runs contrary to the eftablished 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 thofe to be prepared, by whom, and as he pleases.

Finally, if a company of Chriftians find the public worship 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 1ome that have been ordained, though to the lower functions,

fhould

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fhould fubmit itself intirely to their conduct, or finding none of ART. those, should by a common confent defire fome of their own number to minister to them in holy things, and fhould upon that beginning grow up to a regulated constitution, 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 neceffity 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 such 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 thofe irregularities, acknowledge the foreign Churches fo conftituted to be true Churches as to all the eflentials of a Church, though they had been at first irregularly formed, and continued ftill to be in an imperfect state. 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 yearly expiation for the fins of the whole nation; which was a folemn renewing their covenant with God, and by which atonement was made for the fins of that people. Here it may be very reasonably suggested, that fince none befides the High-Prieft might make this atonement, then no atonement was made, if any other befides the High-Prieft fhould fo officiate. To this it is to be added, that God had by an express law fixed the high-priesthood in the eldeft of Aaron's family; and that therefore, though that being a theocracy, any prophets empowered of God might have transferred this office from one perfon or branch of that family to another; yet without fuch an authority no other perfon might make any fuch change. But after all this, not to mention the Maccabees, and all their fucceffors of the Afmonean family, as Herod had begun to change the high-priesthood at pleasure; fo the Romans not only continued to do this, but in a most mercenary manner they fet this facred function to fale. Here were as great nullities in the High-Priefts that were in our Saviour's time, as can be well imagined to be: for the Jews keeping their genealogies fo exact as they did, it could not but be well known in whom the right of this office refted; and they all knew that he who had it, purchased it, yet thefe were in fact High-Priefts; and fince the people could have no other, the

Y 3

atone

John 5

xviii. 22, 23.

ART. atonement was ftill performed by their miniftry. Our Saviour XXIII. owned Caiphas the facrilegious and ufurping High-Prieft, and as fuch he prophefied. This fhews that where the neceffity was real and unavoidable, the Jews were bound to think that God did, in confideration of that, difpenfe with his own precept. This may be a juft inducement for us to believe, that whenfoever God by his providence brings Chriftians under a visible neceffity of being either without all order and joint worship, or of joining in an unlawful and defiled worship, or finally, of breaking through rules and methods in order to the being united in worship and government; that of these three, of which one must be chofen, the last is the leaft evil, and has the feweft inconveniencies hanging upon it, and that therefore it may be chofen.

Our Reformers had alío in view two famous instances in church-history of laymen that had preached and converted nations to the faith. It is true, they came, as they ought to have done, to be regularly ordained, and were fent to fuch as had authority so to do. So Frumentius preached to the Indians, and was afterwards made a Pricft and a Bishop by Athanafius. The King of the Iberians, before he was baptized himself, did convert his subjects; and, as fays the historian, he became the Apostle of his country before he himself was initiated. It is indeed added, that he sent an embafly to Constantine the Emperor, defiring him that he would fend Priests for the further establishment of the faith there.

These were regular practices; but if it fhould happen that princes or ftates fhould take up fuch a jealoufy of their own authority, and should apprehend that the suffering their subjects to go elsewhere for regular ordinations, might bring them under fome dependance on those that had ordained them, and give them fuch influence over them, that the Prince of such a neighbouring and regular Church fhould by fuch ordinations have fo many creatures, fpies, or inftruments in their own dominions; and if upon other political reasons they had just cause of being jealous of that, and fhould thereupon hinder any fuch thing in that cafe, neither our Reformers, nor their fucceffors for near eighty years after thofe Articles were published, did ever queftion the conftitution of fuch Churches.

We have reason to believe that none ought to baptize but perfons lawfully ordained; yet fince there has been a practice so univerfally fpread over the Chriftian Church, of allowing the baptifm not only of laicks, but of women, to be lawful, though we think that this is directly contrary to the rules given by the Apoftles; yet fince this has been in fact fo generally received and practifed, we do not annul fuch baptifins, nor rebaptize

perfons

perfons fo baptized; though we know that the original of this bad practice was from an opinion of the indifpenfable neceffity of baptifm to falvation. Yet fince it has been fo generally received, we have that regard to such a common practice, as not to annul it, though we condemn it. And thus what thought foever private men, as they are divines, may have of those irregular steps, the Article of the Church is conceived in such large and general words, that no man, by fubfcribing it, is bound up from freer and more comprehenfive thoughts.

ART.

XXIII.