STILLINGFLEET, BISHOP.- Unreasonableness of Separation; Preface.

... Unthinking people.... are carried away with mere noise and pretences, and hope these will secure them most against the fears of Popery, who talk with most passion, and with least understanding, against it; whereas no persons do really give them greater advantages than these do. For, where they meet only with intemperate railings, and gross misunderstandings of the state of the controversies between them and us (which commonly go together,) the most subtle priests let such alone to spend their rage and fury; and when the heat is over, they will calmly endeavour to let them see how grossly they have been deceived in some things, and so will more easily make them believe, they are as much deceived in all the rest. And thus the East and West may meet at last, and the most furious antagonists may become some of the easiest converts. This I do really fear will be the case of many thousands among us, who now pass for most zealous Protestants; if ever, which God forbid, that religion should come to be uppermost in England. It is, therefore, of mighty consequence for preventing the return of Popery, that men rightly understand what it is. For, when they are as much afraid of an innocent ceremony as of real idolatry, and think they can worship images and adore the Host on the same grounds that they may use the sign of the cross, or kneel at the Communion, when they are brought to see their mistake in one case, they will suspect themselves deceived in the other also..... When they find undoubted practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their teachers, they must conclude Popery to be of much greater antiquity than really it is; and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles' times, they will soon believe it settled by the Apostles themselves. For it will be very hard to persuade any considering men, that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon, so unanimously, so universally, as it must do, if Episcopal government, and the use of some significant ceremonies, were any parts of that apostasy..... Three ways, Bishop Sanderson observes, our dissenting brethren, though not intentionally and purposely, yet really and eventually, have been the great promoters of the Roman interest among us; (1) by putting-to their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy...(2) by opposing the interest of Rome with more violence than reason; (3) by frequently mistaking the question, but especially through the necessity of some false principle or other, which having once imbibed, they think themselves bound to maintain, whatever becomes of the common cause of our Reformation.

KEN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.-Exposition of the Church Catechism.

I believe, O blessed and adorable Mediator, that the Church is a society of persons, founded by Thy love to sinners, united into one body of which Thou art the head, initiated by baptism, nourished by the Eucharist, governed by pastors commissioned by Thee, and endowed with the power of the keys, professing the doctrine taught by Thee and delivered to the saints, and devoted to praise and to love Thee.

I believe, O holy JESUS, that Thy Church is holy like Thee its Author; holy by the original design of its institution, holy by baptismal dedication, holy in all its administrations which tend to produce holiness; and, though there will be always a mixture of good and bad in it in this world, yet that it has always many real saints in it; and, therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee....

Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God, who hast made me a member of the particular Church of England, whose faith, government, and worship are Holy, and Catholic, and Apostolic, and free from the extremes of irreverence and superstition, and which I firmly believe to be a sound part of Thy Church universal, and which teaches me charity to those who dissent from me; and, therefore, all love, all glory be to Thee.

BEVERIDGE, BISHOP AND DOCTOR.-Sermon on Christ's Presence with His Ministers.

In the first place, I observe, how much we are all bound to acknowledge the goodness, to praise, magnify, and adore the name of the most high GoD, in that we were born and bred, and still live in a Church, wherein the Apostolical line hath, through all ages, been preserved entire, there having been a constant succession of such Bishops in it, as were truly and properly successors to the Apostles, by virtue of that Apostolical imposition of hands, which, being begun by the Apostles, hath been continued from one to another, ever since their time, down to ours. By which means, the same Spirit which was breathed by our Lord into His Apostles is, together with their office, transmitted to their lawful successors, the pastors and governors of our Church at this time; and acts, moves, and assists at the administration of the several parts of the Apostolical office in our days, as much as ever. From whence it follows, that the means of grace which we now enjoy are in

themselves as powerful and effectual as they were in the Apostles' days, &c. . . .

And this, I verily believe, is the great reason why the devil has such a great spite at our Church, still stirring up adversaries of all sorts against it,-Papists on the one hand, and Sectaries on the other, and all, if possible, to destroy it; even because the Spirit which is ministered in it, is so contrary to his nature, and so destructive of his kingdom, that he can never expect to domineer and tyrannize over the people of the land, so long as such a Church is settled among them, and they continue firm to it. . . .

As for schism, they certainly hazard their salvation at a strange rate, who separate themselves from such a Church as ours is, wherein the Apostolical succession, the root of all Christian communion, hath been so entirely preserved, and the word and sacraments are so effectually administered; and all to go into such assemblies and meetings, as can have no pretence to the great promise in my text. For it is manifest, that this promise was made only to the Apostles and their successors to the end of the world. Whereas, in the private meetings, where their teachers have no Apostolical or Episcopal imposition of hands, they have no ground to succeed the Apostles, nor by consequence any right to the Spirit which our Lord hath; without which, although they preach their hearts out, I do not see what spiritual advantage can accrue to their hearers by it, &c. . .

"Go," He says,

SHARP, ARCHBISHOP.-Sermons, Vol. vii. Of the Church. "and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, &c." This commission of our Saviour we may properly style the Charter of the Church; and mind, I pray, what is contained in it. Our Saviour here declares the extent of His Church, and of what persons He would have it constituted. It was to extend throughout all the world, and to be made up of all nations. He here declares by whom He would have it built and constituted, viz. the Apostles. He here declares upon what grounds He would have it constituted, or upon what conditions any person was to be received into it, viz. their becoming the disciples of JESUS CHRIST, and undertaking to observe all that He has commanded. He here likewise declares the form or the method by which persons were to be admitted into this Church, and that was by being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And, lastly, He here promises the perpetual presence of His Holy Spirit, both to assist the apostles and their successors in the building and governing this Church, and to actuate and enliven all the members of it.....

Thus, I am sure, I have given the true notion of the Church, which the Scripture always intends, when it speaks of the Church as the Body of Christ, when it speaks of the Church which Christ purchased with His blood, when it speaks of the Church into which we are baptized, when it speaks of the Church to which all those glorious promises are made of the forgiveness of sins, of the perpetual presence and assistance of the Holy Spirit, of the gates of hell never prevailing against it, and of everlasting salvation in the world to come; I say that Church is always meant of the whole company of Christians dispersed over all the world, that profess the common faith, (though perhaps none of them without mixture of error,) and enjoy the administration of the word and sacrament, under their lawful pastors and governors: all these people, wherever they live, or by what name soever they call themselves, make up together that one Body of Christ which we call the Catholic Church,

SCOTT, PRESBYTER.-Christian Life, Part ii. ch. 7.

Another thing wherein those particular Churches, into which the Catholic Church is distributed, do communicate with each other, is, in the essentials of Christian regiment and discipline: for though the particular modes and circumstances of Christian government and discipline are not determined by divine institution, but left for the most part free to the prudent ordering and disposal of the governors of particular churches, yet there is a standing form of government and discipline in the Church, instituted by our Saviour Himself, which, as I shall show hereafter, is this that there should be an episcopacy, or order of men, authorized in a continual succession from the apostles, (who were authorized by Himself) to oversee and govern all those particular Churches into which the Church Catholic should be hereafter distributed; to ordain, &c., &c. And this being the standing government and discipline of the Catholic Church, no particular Church or community of Christians can refuse to communicate in it, without dividing itself from the communion of the Church Catholic; I say, "refuse to communicate in it," because it is possible for a Church to be without this government and discipline, which yet doth neither refuse it, nor the communion of any other Church for the sake of it. A church may be debarred of it by unavoidable necessities, in despite of its power and against its consent. . . . . Though this instituted government is necessary to the perfection of a church, yet it doth not therefore follow, that it is necessary to the being of it. . . . . But though a community of Christians may be a true part of the Catholic Church, and in

communion with it, though it hath no episcopacy; yet it is a plain case, that if it rejects episcopacy, and separates from the communion of it, it thereby wholly divides itself from the communion of the Catholic Church.

WAKE, ARCHBISHOP.-Exposition of the Doctrine of the English Church. Art. 15.

The imposition of hands in Holy Orders being accompanied with a blessing of the Holy Spirit, may, perhaps, upon that account, be called a kind of particular sacrament. Yet since that grace, which is thereby conferred, whatever it be, is not common to all Christians, nor by consequence any part of that federal blessing which our blessed Saviour has purchased for us, but only a separation of him who receives it to a special employ, we think it ought not to be esteemed a common sacrament of the whole Church, as Baptism and the Lord's Supper are..... We confess that no man ought to exercise the ministerial office till he be first consecrated to it. We believe that it is the Bishop's part only to ordain. We maintain the distinction of the several orders in the Church; and though we have none of them below a deacon, because we do not read that the Apostles had any, yet we acknowledge the rest to have been anciently received in the Church, and shall not therefore raise any controversy about them.

Ibid.-Art. 25.

Professing in our Creed a Holy Catholic Church, we profess to believe not only that there was a Church planted by our Saviour at the beginning, that has hitherto been preserved by Him, and ever shall be to the end of the world; but do in consequence undoubtedly believe too, that this universal Church is so secured by the promises of Christ, that there shall always be retained so much truth in it, the want of which would argue that there could be no such Church.

POTTER, ARCHBISHOP.-On Church Government. Chap. v. First, then, it must be shown, that the office and character of all persons, who are admitted into holy orders, extends over the whole world, and it is manifest, in the first place, that the Apostles had a general commission to "teach and baptize," and to execute all other parts of their office in all nations. As the Bishops of the Church have been shown to succeed the Apostles in all the