translation it is not lawful say the Fathers of that Synod for the Choropiscopi Countrey or Village Bishops not for the Presbyters of the City to ordain Presbyters or Deacons unless that be committed to them by the Bishop being absent in another Diocess by his letters And therefore the Churches decree constituting Episcopacy abridged the Presbyters whether dividedly or conjunctly considered but onely in the exercise of their power Surely it must be beleeved that no ordination would be made by the Apostles excelling the ordination which our Saviour celebrated breathing upon his Apostles c. and giving them a comission to teach c. with promise to be with them unto the worlds end whereby the Presbyters were virtually ordained and comissionated astruly as the Bishops and therefore received thereby as much power as they in respect of the kind and nature which hinders not but that the exercise of some part of it might be taken from many of the persons ordained But some perhaps may say that Christ in that ordination ordained in the Apostles some as elder Brethren and others as the younger yet hence it will follow that the kind and nature of the ordination is the same in all as the nature of the Father is in all his Sons and that onely a principallity in the having and exercise of it belongs to the Bishops which is granted Others may say farther that Christ in ordaining the Apostles did virtually ordain some as the Sons of the Sons of the Apostles and others as their grand-children if this can be well proved it will indeed evince that the power of ordination as well as the exercise of it is proper to the Bishops but until it be made clear that this was the primary meaning and intention of Christ in that Act of ordination and not an effect onely of a consequent occasional providence of the Apostles and Churches it is probable that the power of ordination remaineth still in the presbyters restrained in the use by the canon of the Churches and Apostles The members of the Church which made the decree of Episcopacy and limited the use of the Eclesiastical power in the presbyters were the greater number of the presbyters themselves which remained in the unity of the mystical body with the greater part of the people and the Authors of it by way of approbation and confirmation were the holy Apostles The Apostles and Presbyters in the effecting of it exercised the ordinary Vicary Authority Basil constit mona c. 22. which they had as being by their ordination made the Vicegerents of the blessed Mediator Christ Jesus considered only as Mediator according to his own saying he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me the saying of the Apostle we are Embâ—ssadors for Christ and we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.20 That authority when it is duely exercised ought to be obeyed And because presbyters may erre in the using of it a spirit of discerning noxious doctrines and constitutions is given to Christians to examine and trie Bas l. reg 72. c. 1. with command to reject the evil and receive the good which good if the major part refuse being by their Pastors propounded to them Aug. de temp serm 143. they may do it upon their peril as they will answer it to God unity and peace interceding and forbidding that no Ecclesiastical constraint or censure proceed against the civil higher power or the major part of the people It is therefore requisite that constitutions to be made laws in the Church be by the leave of the supreme magistrate if he be a Christian propounded to the people that their consent being given the ministerial authority may make them laws Ecclesiastically obliging if no higher authority hinder Before these Law-makers constituted Episcopacy every singular Presbyter was to act according to the directions and rules of the Presbyterian Colledge which was the Church Law-giver and superintendent of the execution having the supreme dignity under the Mediator and preheminence in all things properly Ecclesiastical What is spoken concerning the Colledge of Presbyters must be applied proportionably to the several bodies of them in the Diocesan provincial imperial or universal Church The decree constituting Episcopacy took from the Colledge its high dignity and preheminence and conferred it upon one and so divided the exercise of the Legislative power among the Bishop and the Colledge that the one might not duely use it without the other For although the dignity and precedency of the Bishop may give more weight to his vote yet is the Vicary authority which cannot be separated from Presbyters as long as they be Presbyters as truly exercised in their votes whether in deciding controversies of faith or making of Canons c. as it is in the Bishops vote Which is manifest as by many testimonies of antiquity so by the practise of our English Synods which are conformable in the substance to the best and most ancient constitution of Councils The superintendency which the Colledge had over the execution of all Ecclesiastical duties and ordinances was chiefly in the Bishop yet so as without his Presbyters he could not regularly hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes as before was shewed out of the fourth Council of Carthage and might be further demonstrated out of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers Every suprem civil power on earth as Gods Vicegerent Sect. 10. is bound to advance and preserve the true Religion so far as the light of nature can manifest it or divine revelation doth make it known unto him so that a King which hath embraced Christian Religion which alone is the true Religion is obliged to maintain it and to cause that the Christian duties be by all in their several stations and charges duely performed and therefore a Christian King is a law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers but so that he ought not to hinder the due exercise of their legislative power and make laws purely or properly Ecclesiastical without their concurrence in Counsel and consent but by his Laws and power partly to cause them to meet for the due exercise of their duty partly to maintain and strengthen their right proceedings in performance of their office and lastly if their Edicts be cosistant with the peace of the common-wealth and meet for the edification of the Church to perfect and make them full and complete laws by putting the hand and seal of his highest Vicary authority as Gods Vicegerent to the resolves of the subordinate Vicary authority of the Vicegerents of our blessed Mediator as Mediator God and man the Lord Jesus Christ God is a God of order and hath ordained that this unity and harmony between these two authorities should be firmly kept otherwise by a supine neglect of duty or by an exorbitant usurpation on either side the unity and peace both of Kingdome and Church are equally in danger of being broken The
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
wicked livers and Haereticks but it was not of the Church it was no part of the constitution of the Church although it did labour to insinuate and work it self into it it may be granted as very probable that the mystery of iniquity in particular and those dead members and by them working upon the Churches might more vitiate the Churches of the second century then the Churches in the first century and the Churches in the third century more then the Churches of the second and so of the rest to the end of the fifth century but that in any part of that time it prevailed so far as to become a part of the Ecclesiasticall Doctrine Discipline Liturgy or Ceremonies universally received and used is rather a surmise of an excess of jealousy then an opinion grounded upon probable reasons it is so far from being an approved truth After the year 500. and the division of the Empire and establishment of the Kings 2 Thes 2.3 Revel 17.12 13.16 which were to give their power and strength to the Beast and which in due time were to burn the Whore of Babylon the Churches grew generally more and more corrupt the civill and Ecclesiasticall confusions attending the Warrs in the severall Provinces giving advantage to the mystery of Iniquity to mingle it self first with the Discipline and Ceremonies and after with the publick Doctrine whereby first superstition then Idolatry and lastly Heresies took place in the publick profession of the Churches so that in persons who knowingly swallowed the good and bad together the infection of the mystery of Iniquity hindred the operation of the good portion of the whole lump and working the effect of its poyson into their vital parts corrupted and destroyed them And therefore these latter Churches were not by the first reformers of our Church proposed for patterns as the former were which preserved the purity of Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies without the addition of any thing causing Superstition much less Idolatry or Haeresy Our Church hath separated the Pretious from the Vile the good of Doctrine Discipline and Rites from the pestiferous and noxious additions and now if either the abuse of prosperity or the iniquity of the late times hath added any evil quality to any of our Ecclesiasticall things or made us incapable of good by some Rite or particle of the Discipline or Liturgy or if any defect appear to be in our former reformations and especially if any of these have happened in any Rite of adoration wherein is the greatest danger it is not to be doubted but that all these things will be carefully looked into and whether by omission explanation or otherwise the Discipline and Rites by the help and blessing of God shall be reformed according to the best patterns and as shall most conduce to the godly unity and peace of the Church and Kingdome What do I speak only of future Reformation seeing the deep Wisdome and the most sincere piety of his Sacred Majesty hath by the blessing of God upon his Royal indeavours found out the best temperament for the healing of the present distempers and by his gratious Declaration hath established a most happy Interim the fittest that could be devised for the preparing different apprehensions and affections unto an unity meet to entertain the best form of a Christian Church which the infirmities of these last dayes of the last time can well bear The Regicides of late had proceeded far in breaking down this our House of God Psal 74. 1 King 6.7 with their iron tooles their Axes and Hammers but as it is said of King Solomons Temple that there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any toole of iron heard while it was in building so our blessed Solomon in reedifying this decayed house of God doth the work without all iron instruments without all unpleasing sounds it goeth on sensim sine sensu and it is and will be the glorious effect of his Majesties incomparable providence guided by the most gratious direction of God cunctando restituisse rem But some of them which will read this small tractate may therein observe some passages which suppose the Church of England without the benefit of any proceedings of his Majesty towards her restauration and may therefore be ready to censure the Author as he well deserved if he had not this just Apology namely That he can make it good by many witnesses of worthy persons of known integrity that this treatise was ready written five months agon at the least at which time the Author could only write of the state and condition of things as they were then and not as they would be in times to come If any object It had been better if ever to have published this at that time for which it seemes more convenient to which I say That the Conscience of mine own infirmities retarded and had almost hindred the publication thereof But partly my desire to contribute my poor mite towards the restauration of Gods House prevailed with me partly believing the truth of that saying of Clemens of Alexandria that the science of preaching is in a manner Angelical and whether it be exercised by the tongue or hand writing profiteth either way and knowing my self to be not far from the time when the strength of voyce may decrease I thought it not amiss to put it to the trial by this beginning whether I might hereafter with any hope of acceptance and profit attempt to recompence the defect which if I live may likely happen in my voyce with the labour and pains of preaching by the pen. Some may think that I have made no good choise in preferring the judgment of St. Hierome a Presbyter and not well affected as many think to Episcopacy before the opinion of Epiphanius a Bishop and the elder of the two Aerius maintained that neither the Apostles were nor the Churches could lawfully be the authors of the preferment of a Bishop above the Presbyters and therefore he departed from the Communion of the Catholick Church and became an Independent Presbyter of an independant Congregation First I must deny that Hierome was disaffected to good Bishops or to the Episcopal dignity His works do abundantly testify that he bad in singular honour both the one and the other only he often reproveth and that sharply the Ambition Covetuousness and other vices of many Bishops which not he only but others before him and in his time even Bishops themselves did performe with no less sharpness and severity See one among others Gregory who was created Bishop of Sasimis executed his function in Nazianzum and after was advanced to the Arch-Bishoprick of Constantinople this Arch-Bishop wisheth there were no prerogative of the Throne nor Prelacy which saith he had indeed in former times been desired of good and prudent men but which now to shunne is counted an act of singular prudence What is this wise and holy Arch-Bishop for the abrogation of Episcopacy root
be made to thrust another out of the Church but reading and prayers and preaching c. ought to be so proportioned to the time appointed for them and the strength of them that officiate that no necessity that may be prevented may compel to the omission of any divine ordinance that ought to be performed In the sixt Council of Constantinople at which time much corruption was crept into the Churches the Fathers present in it commanded that the Bishops and Presbyters should dayly preach Gan. 19. especially on the Lords day It is commanded by another Council that if a Presbyter cannot preach by reason of sickness Conc. Vasens Can. 4. sub Leone 1. that a homily or sermon of one of the ancient Fathers be read by the Deacon In another Council it s thus decreed that if the Bishop be not at home or is infirm or is not able for some other cause yet never let on the Lords days or Festivals any want to be of one which may preach the Word of God so as the vulgar people may understand Concil Maguntiac c. 25. circa an 813. The Primitive Bishops were preaching Bishops and usually preached every Lords day as we see in Justine Martyr and in Festival days in the principal fasting days in Lent as we find in Ambrose Chrysost Augustine and others But I must return to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church The Ceremony of standing and not kneeling in prayer on the Lords days and the days between Easter and Whitsontide was in use in the Apostles days and instituted by them Apud anthorem Christian resp resp 115. as Irenaeus the hearer of Polycarpus Auditor of the Apostle John doth testifie In the time of Tertullian about the year 200 many other Ceremonies are mentioned by him which we find not in any approved Author before him spoken of and are affirmed by him to descend from the Apostles as the signing of the forehead of the baptized with the sign of the Cross besides Tertull. de corona militis c. 3. the usual signing with the same sign upon sundry occasions the tasting after Baptism of milk and honey the use of having Suerties for Infants to be baptized De Bapt. c. 7. 18. the annointing of the baptised with oyl Offering for the faithful deceased which was thus the friends of the deceased offered bread and wine in their behalf for the use of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the Priest by faith in prayer in the celebration of the Eucharist presented to God the Father the sacrifice of Christ once offered by him and which was in some manner present in the Sacrament beseeching him for that most holy and perfect sacrifice sake to take away the remainder of sin from the soul departed which was not taken away in this life both as to the guilt and inhaerency of it and to grant to the soul the promised present blessed rest and in the day of judgment to make the person partaker of the publick justification and possession of full faelicity Before the receiving of the Lords Supper they kissed one another with the holy kiss the sign of true love and peace which we are sure was used in the Apostles dayes and seems to argue strongly for the use of significant Ceremonies The Easter and Pentecost were the set and solemn times of the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism de bapt c. 18. I need not speak of Confirmation of the observation of the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost of the fast in the days of our Saviour's death and burial of the less perfect and voluntary fasts of Friday and Wednesday Tert. de jejun c. 2. which be in part before touched for my purpose is not to make an exact collection of the ancient rites but of such as may give some light to see whence those Ecclesiastical Ceremonies which have been and partly are used in our Church took their beginnings As concerning the gesture of the body used in the prayers of the Church de Orat. c. 12. it was kneeling or standing this last on the Lords dayes Tertul. l. 2. ad uxor c. 9. de Monogam 6.10 and in all the Pentecost For as Tertullian saith it is a most irreligious fact to pray to God sitting before him unless we upbraid Him that prayer hath wearied us Concerning Matrimony De Veland Virg. c. 11. de pudicitia c. 9. Ambros Ep. 70. Nazianz. Epist 57. in Tertullian's time they defired of the Bishops presbyters Deacons and Widows leave to marry they were married by a Bishop or presbyter the woman used a Vaile they joyned their right hands kissed and Tertullian doth also seem to intimate the use of a ring it is certain it was in use in Isidors time and before Isidor de Eccl. offic l. 2. c. 19. the Bridegroom saith he gave a Ring to the Bride which was put upon her fourth Finger We may gather from Tertullian De bapt c. 9. Apolog. contagent c. 30. that the Lords prayer was commonly used in the publick prayers of the Church for he calls it the legitime and ordinary prayer which saith he being laid as a foundation we may build upon it the petitions which our particular cases require He shews that our private prayers wherein we express to God our particular wants and desires must not be loud not altogether set formes but prompted to us without such monitor by our own hearts which alone can tell us our particular necessities When we pray saith Cyprian let the Father acknowledge the words of his Son Cypr. de orat Dom. And we do saith he the more effectually obtain what we ask in Christs name if we ask using his own prayer Hom. 42. ex 50. The Lords prayer saith Augustine is dayly said at the Altar of God in his Church The fourth Council of Tolet. Can. 9. called it a Quotidian a dayly prayer and commanded it to be said by the Clergy not onely on the Lords days but every day both in the publick and private duty Concerning prayer de orat dom Cyprian hath these remarkable words when we stand to prayer saith he our mind must be onely upon that it prayeth and therefore the Priest premising a preface before the prayer prepares the minds of the Brethren saying Lift up your hearts that the people answering We have unto the Lord may be admonished they ought to think on noâ—hing but the Lord By which words we learn two things First that in Cyprian's time which was 250 years after our Saviour's birth set forms of publick prayers were used in the Churches Secondly that the people had other answers besides Amen to make to the minister in the solemn prayers of the Church De bono perseverantiae c. 13. de Spir. lit c. 11. Augustine discovereth what followeth those words of the publick prayers mentioned by Cyprian the Priest said saith St. Augustine let us give thanks to
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