who fucceed the Apostles by a fubftitute Ordination, He that heareth you, heareth me. So faith St. Athanafius (e) How can they be Bishops, if they have received their Ordination from Hereticks, even by their own Accufation? Laftly, to omit infinite Paffages in Tertul. St. Aug. Optatus, &c. I fhall bring one Witnefs, whom they often, (tho' very unjustly) claim, as a Favourer of their Cause, St. Jerome, (f) who fpeaking of Hilary the Deacon, Author of one of the Sects of the Luciferians, faith, Together with the Man his Sect is likewife perished, because a Deacon could not ordain a Clerk to fucceed after him. Now it is not a Church which hath no Priests.

Were fuch Arguments as thefe Logical and efficacious in the third and fourth Century of Chriftianity, and are they of no Force now? When was it that they began to lofe their Virtue? Did all the ancient Martyrs, Bishops, and Doctors of the Church, Champions of the Chriftian Religion, confound all the ancient Herefies, by demonftrating that the Authors of them had no perfonal, legitimate, nor doctrinal Succeffion; and fhall we believe fuch a Succeffion now is not as neceffary as then, or that there is any Valid Miniftry, where Regular, Succeffive, Ecclefiaftical Order is laid afide? Is this a pure Reformation, or is it not rather Novelty, Herefy, and Schifm?

What Words can come more Home to our Cafe, than these of the holy Fathers? Well may we think they were guided by a very extraordinary Measure of the divine Spirit, who, by Prophetical Impulfe, fo many Ages ago, not only

(e) In Synod. (f) In Dialog. contra Lucifer.

con

confuted the Herefies of their own Time, but left fufficient Testimonies against all fuch as fhould afterwards arife to the Disturbance of the Church; being dead, they yet speak by their pious and orthodox Writings, against all falfe Doctrine, Herefy, and Schifm ; and they that participate of that divine Spirit which animates the Body of Chrift, they hear their Voice, or rather the Voice of the chief Shepherd in them, the Voice behind them, (that is, in the Ages paft) calling from deftructive Error, Novelty, and Separation, and faying, This is the Way, walk ye in it..

And let it be here obferved, that these fevere Denunciations of the Fathers were for the moft Part against fuch as were Epifcopally ordained, but had received their Orders from, and joyned in Communion with Heretical and Schifmatical Bifhops. The Arians, Novatians, Donatifts, Nefto rians, Eutychians, &c. all had their Bishops and diftinct Orders of Clergy. Aerius alone, (whom I mentioned before) was the only Perfon in all the large Tract of Time, and Extension of Chriftianity, from the Apostles to the fifteenth Centu ry, that ever pretended that Presbyters could confer Orders, or that Bishop and Priest were the fame Order and Office. He had few Followers in this, as in other Heretical Opinions; it was not then fo eafy, to perfwade Men to run counter to the Cuftom and Order of all the Churches of Christ. Yet God be thanked, there are fuch Arguments on our Side, as amount to a Demonftration, that our Zeal for the Apoftolical Order of Epifcopacy is not a criminal Contention about a Thing indifferent (as the Latitudinarians, and Favourers of Occafional Conformity pretend) a Dispute about Words engendring Strife, but being zealously affected in a

good

good Caufe, fuch as concerns the very Life and Soul of Religion. For if our Presbyterian Teachers will but fhew any from the Apostles down to the Days of Luther and Calvin, who held their Doctrine even in that one Particular, I dare oblige my felf to prove he was marked as a Heretick, and his Sect was called by his Name, to distinguish it from the Houshold of Faith, over whom Chrift has appointed Stewards to give them their Meat in due Seafon. We own, many among the Presbyterian Teachers may be of competent Abilities, and alfo of good moral Lives; but this is not what can conftitute them Minifters, or give them Authority in the Church of Chrift; for in neither of thefe do they exceed the found Learning and pious Lives of the Orthodox Epifcopal Clergy; it is not Perfonal Qualification, but Sacerdotal Power; not the Preaching or Praying well, bur the having Authority to do fo, from fuch as received it fucceffively handed down from the Apostles, That we contend for; and this is fo material, that without it, Succeffion in Doctrine fignifies nothing. Miferable we are (faith a learned Divine of the Church of England) if he that now fits Archbifhop of Canterbury, could not derive his Succeffion from St. Auguftin, St. Auguftin from St. Gregory, St. Gregory from St. Peter. Such Ordination have our Bishops as the Bishops in England, the fame very Succeffion, as they agree in the fame very DoEtrine, and all the Separation is equally finful in both Nations, only with this Aggravation, that here, they have proceeded to extirpate the ancient Church Government of Epifcopacy, there; they are labouring to undermine it; in both they have fworn to destroy it. Nor is the Crime of Schifm lefs, or Presbyterian Religion more Orthodox, or

the

the Condition of fuch as adhere to it lefs dangerous, that they are the Eftablished Church Government in Scotland. Were the Arians the Church, because they were favoured by Imperial Edics, and had Power to perfecute the Faithful by Form of Law, and Civil Procefs? Is a Church more a Church, when established by Law, than when fubfifting without, or against Law? Then the Church of Scotland is more a Church than the whole Catholick Church in the three first Centuries; then Chriftianity is Herefy in all Dominions that are not Chriftian, and true Religion must appear in as many different Shapes, as the different Fancies and Humours of feveral Nations will have it: What is in one Place Sound and Orthodox, will be efteemed Herefy and Falfe Doctrine in another; and a Chriftian must as often shift his Religion, as he changes his Habitation. But if Chriftian Religion is the fame, and to remain unchanged in all the Variety of human Events, and the Church of Chrift is Catholick, or Univerfal in Time and Place, then it will appear our Duty to adhere to that Form of Church Government, That Apoftolical Order which has ever been obferved in the Church of Chrift. Chriftian Religion ftands under the fame Terms of Duty to God and Man as heretofore it did, we have as ftrict Obligation to Church Unity, and Obedience to thofe that are over us in the Lord, as had our firft Fore-runners in the Faith; we are as forcibly bound to join in the fame publick Worship as they were, and all Separation will be as penal, and as certain a Prejudice to the Judgment of the Great Day, as it was efteemed in the primitive Church; and 'tis declared to be by the holy Fathers: For what St. Auguftin faid to the Donatifs,

tis

tis fit every Chriftian fhould seriously confider. a) Whoever shall be divided from the Church Ca tholick, how laudably foever he may think he doth Live, for this very Wickedness, that he lives disjoined from the Unity of Christ, he shall not have Life, but the Wrath of God remains upon him. But who foever within the Church lives well, other Mens Sins in it do no way prejudice him. I fhall conclude all with the Rule of Vincentius Lyrinenfis, which I have before mentioned, according to which let those things be tried, viz. Whether Liturgy and Epifcopacy were not always every where, and by all held and approved; and that all Separation has ever been condemned in the Church of God. (b) " As "As holy and learned Men have taught me (faith "he) fo I exhort others, that they interpret the "Divine and Canonical Scripture, according to "the Tradition of the Univerfal Church, according "to the Rules of Catholick Doctrine, in which "likewise they muft of Neceffity follow UNI

VERSALITY, ANTIQUITY, and CONSENT of the "Catholick and Apoftolick Church. And therefore, "if at any time a Part rebel against the Whole,

Novelty against Antiquity, the Diffention of one

or a few (feduced with Error) against the Con"fent of all, or the far greater Part of Catholicks; "in that Cafe, let them prefer the Integrity of "Univerfality before the Corruption of a Part; "and in Univerfality, let them alfo prefer the

Religion of Antiquity before profane Novelty: "And again, in Antiquity, let them prefer be"fore the Temerity of one or a few, the Decrees of a General Council, if any be; or if no

(a) Epift. 152.

(b) Adv. Hæref. Cap.15.
Q2

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