ART. rules thus made, being in nothing contrary to the word XXIII. of God, and duly executed by the particular persons to whom that care belongs, are certainly the lawful authority. Those are the Pastors of the Church, to whom the care and watching over the souls of the people is committed; and the Prince, or supreme power, comprehends virtually the whole body of the people in him: since, according to the constitution of the civil government, the wills of the people are understood to be concluded by the supreme, and such as are the subject of the legislative authority. When a Church is in a state of persecution under those who have the civil authority over her, then the people, who receive the faith, and give both protection and encouragement to those that labour over them, are to be considered as the body that is governed by them. The natural effect of such a state of things, is to satisfy the people in all that is done, to carry along their consent with it, and to consult much with them in it. This does not only arise out of a necessary regard to their present circumstances, but from the rules given in the Gospel, of not ruling as the kings of the several nations did; nor lording it, or carrying it with a high authority over God's heritage, (which may be also rendered over their several lots or portions.) But when the Church is under the protection of a Christian magistrate, then he comes to be in the stead 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 exercise of his lawful authority, in which he has a great share, as shall be explained in its proper place. Here then we think this authority is rightly lodged, and set on its proper basis.

And in this we are confirmed, because, by the decrees of the first General Councils, the concerns of every province were to be settled in the province itself: and it so continued till the usurpations of the papacy broke in every where, and disordered this constitution. Through the whole Roman communion the chief jurisdiction is now in the Pope; only Princes have laid checks upon the extent of it; and by appeals the secular court takes cognizance of all that is done, either by the Pope or the Clergy. This we are sure is the effect of usurpation and tyranny: yet since this authority is in fact so settled, we do not pretend to annul the acts of that power, nor the missions 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 so corrupted that nothing can be trusted to the ART. regular decisions of any synod or meeting, called accord- XXIII. ing to their constitution, then if the Prince shall select a peculiar number, and commit to their care the examining and reforming both of doctrine and worship, and shall give the legal sanction to what they shall offer to him; we must confess that such a method as this runs contrary to the established rules, and that therefore it ought to be very seldom put in practice; and never, except when the greatness of the occasion will balance this irregularity that is in it. But still here is an authority both in fact and right; for if the Magistrate has a power to make laws in sacred matters, he may order those to be prepared, by whom, and as he pleases.

Finally, if a company of Christians find the public worship where they live to be so defiled that they cannot with a good conscience 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 say, such a body finding some that have been ordained, though to the lower functions, should submit itself entirely to their conduct, or finding none of those, should by a common consent desire some of their own number to minister to them in holy things, and should upon that beginning grow up to a regulated constitution, though we are very sure that this is quite out of all rule, and could not be done without a very great sin, unless the necessity were great and apparent; yet if the necessity is real and not feigned, this is not condemned or annulled by the Article; for when this grows to a constitution, and when it was begun by the consent of a body, who are supposed to have an authority in such an extraordinary case, whatever some hotter spirits have thought of this since that time; yet we are very sure, 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 constituted to be true Churches as to all the essentials of a Church, though they had been at first irregularly formed, and continued still to be in an imperfect state. And therefore the general words in which this part of the Article is framed, seem to have been designed on purpose not to exclude them.

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

ART. yearly expiation for the sins of the whole nation; which was XXIII. a solemn renewing their covenant with God, and by which

atonement was made for the sins of that people. Here it may be very reasonably suggested, that since none besides the High-Priest might make this atonement, then no atonement was made, if any other besides the High-Priest should so officiate. To this it is to be added, that God had by an express law fixed the high-priesthood in the eldest of Aaron's family; and that therefore, though that being a theocracy, any prophets empowered of God might have transferred this office from one person or branch of that family to another; yet without such an authority no other person might make any such change. But after all this, not to mention the Maccabees, and all their successors of the Asmonean family, as Herod had begun to change the highpriesthood at pleasure; so the Romans not only continued to do this, but in a most mercenary manner they set this sacred function to sale. Here were as great nullities in the High-Priests that were in our Saviour's time, as can be well imagined to be: for the Jews keeping their genealogies so exactly as they did, it could not but be well known in whom the right of this office rested; and they all knew that he who had it, purchased it, yet these were in fact High-Priests; and since the people could have no other, the atonement was still performed by their ministry. Our John xi. 51. Saviour owned Caiphas, the sacrilegious and usurping Highxviii. 22, Priest, and as such he prophesied. This shews that where the necessity was real and unavoidable, the Jews were bound to think that God did, in consideration of that, dispense with his own precept. This may be a just inducement for us to believe, that whensoever God by his providence brings Christians under a visible necessity 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 chosen, the last is the least evil, and has the fewest inconveniencies hanging upon it, and that therefore it may be chosen.

23.

Our Reformers had also 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 sent to such as had authority so to do. So Frumentius preached to the Indians, and was afterwards made a Priest and a Bishop by Athanasius. The King of the Iberians,

before he was baptized himself, did convert his subjects; ART. and, as says the historian, he became the Apostle of his coun- XXIII. try before he himself was initiated. It is indeed added, that he sent an embassy to Constantine the Emperor, desiring him that he would send Priests for the further establishment of the faith there.

These were regular practices; but if it should happen that princes or states should take up such a jealousy of their own authority, and should apprehend that the suffering their subjects to go elsewhere for regular ordinations, might bring them under some dependance on those that had ordained them, and give them such influence over them, that the Prince of such a neighbouring and regular Church should by such ordinations have so many creatures spies, or instruments in their own dominions; and if upon other political reasons they had just cause of being jealous of that, and should thereupon hinder any such thing in that case, neither our Reformers, nor their successors for near eighty years after those Articles were published, did ever question the constitution of such Churches.

We have reason to believe that none ought to baptize but persons lawfully ordained; yet since there has been a practice so universally spread over the Christian Church, of allowing the baptism not only of laics, but of women, to be lawful, though we think that this is directly contrary to the rules given by the Apostles; yet since this has been in fact so generally received and practised, we do not annul such baptisms, nor rebaptize persons so baptized; though we know that the original of this bad practice was from an opinion of the indispensable necessity of baptism to salvation. Yet since it has been so generally received, we have that regard to such a common practice, as not to annul it, though we condemn it. And thus what thought soever private men, as they are divines, may have of those irregularsteps, the Article of the Church is conceived in such large and general words, that no man, by subscribing it, is bound up from freer and more comprehensive thoughts.

John iv. 23, 24.

ARTICLE XXIV.

Of speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue
as the People understandeth.

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God,
and the Custom of the Primitive Church, to have
Publick Prayer in the Church, or to minister the
Sacraments in a Tongue not understanded of the
People.

This Article, though upon the matter very near the same,
yet was worded much less positively in those at first set
forth by King Edward.

It is most fit, and most agreeable to the Word of God, that nothing be read or rehearsed in the Congregation in a Tongue not known unto the People; which St. Paul hath forbidden to be done, unless some be present to interpret,

In King Edward's Articles they took in preaching with prayer, but in the present Article this is restrained to prayer. The former only affirms the use of a known tongue to be most fit and agreeable to the word of God; the latter denies the worship in an unknown tongue to be lawful, and affirms it to be repugnant to the Word of God; to which it adds, and the Custom of the Primitive Church.

THIS Article seems to be founded on the law of nature.

The worship of God is a chain of acts by which we acknowledge God's attributes, rejoice in his goodness, and lay claim to his mercies. In all which the more we raise our thoughts, the more seriousness, earnestness, and affection that animates our mind, so much the more acceptably do we serve God, who is a spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth. All the words used in devotion are intended to raise in us the thoughts that naturally belong to such words. And the various acts, which are as it were the breaks in the service, are intended as rests to our minds, to keep us the longer without weariness and wandering in those exercises. One great end of continuance in worship is, that, by the frequent