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"the civil.---A bishop may make a priest by the scriptures, and so may princes and governors "also, and that by the authority of God commit"ted to them; and the people also by their elec"tion. For, as we read that bishops have done "it, so christian emperors and princes usually "have done it; and the people, before christian princes were, commonly did elect their bishops "and priests. In the New Testament, he, that "is appointed to be a bishop or priest, needeth "no consecration by the scripture; for election, "or appointing thereto, is sufficient."*

Agreeably hereto, the bishops in this church, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. took out commissions from the crown like other state-officers, for the exercising their spiritual jurisdiction; in which they acknowledge," That "all sorts of jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as "civil, flow originally from the regal power as "from a supreme head, the fountain and spring "of all magistracy within this kingdom; and that "they ought with grateful minds to acknowledge "this favour derived from the king's liberality "and indulgence; and accordingly they ought. "to render it up whenever the king thought fit "to require it of them. And, among the parti

culars of ecclesiastical power, given them by "this commission, is that of ordaining presbyters; "and all this to last no longer than the king's "pleasure. And these things are said to be " super and ultra over and above what belongs "to them by scripture."+

To the fame purpofe fpeaks the Erudition of a Christian Man, which was drawn up by a committee of bifhops and divines, and read and approved by the lords fpiritual and temporal, and the lower houfe of parliament, anno 1543. Vide Neal's Hift. Purit. Vol. 1. pages 33, 36.

Rights Chrift: Ch. Pref. page 39.

Even Archdeacon Echard acknowledges, that, in the reign of Henry VIII. the bishops took out, and acted by commiffions, in which they were but fubaltern to the king's vicegerent; but,

From the commissions which the bishops took out, (especially Bonner's, bishop of London,) it is evident, that all the power of ordination which the bishops had, or could have, and exercise in this kingdom, they derived entirely from the civil magistrate, and only from him.* And that this really is the case as to the ecclesiastical orders conferred by our present bishops; that all the validity, significancy, or weight, which they have in this church, they derive purely and solely from the authority of the magistrate, incontestibly appears from hence, namely, that the magistrate has authoritatively directed and prescribed how, and to whom ordination is to be given. + And, should an ordination be given by all the bishops of this church in other manner, and other form than that prescribed by the magistrate, such or-dination would be of no legality at all, nor authority in this church. The man so ordained would be no proper minister in the church of England. A minister in the church of Christ he possibly might be; but he would, I repeat it, be no minister in the church of England, nor would he have power and authority to officiate as a priest therein.‡

in the reign of Edward VI. none being in that office, they were immediately under the king. But, by thefe commiffions, they declare that they held their bishoprics only during the king's “pleasure, and were empowered in the king's name, as his de"legates, to perform ALL the parts of the epifcopal function." Echard's Hift. of Eng. page 299.

* Anno 1550, an order of council was made, that fome bishops and other learned men, fhould devise an order for the creation of bishops and priests. Burnet's Hift. Reform. Vol. III. page 59.

+ Vide the judgement of the court in the cafe of Howel, a nonjuring clergyman, ordained by Dr. Hicks, (Tindal's Hift. of Eng. Vol. IV. page 502.) His ordination was pronounced illest gal, and he difowned as a clergyman. Vide a Statute 8, of Eliz. in Fuller's Ch. Hift. Book ix. page 80.

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The bishop at an ordination afks, "Are you called accor ding to the will of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and the DUE ORDER, of this REALM ?"

Note; it is not fufficient to make him a minifter in this

church, that he is called according to the will or inftitutiol of Jefus Chrift, if he be not alfo called according to the Dee ORDER of this REALM.

The church of England, if you duly weigh it, seems evidently constituted upon the congregational, or independent plan. It is from the people, (in other words, from the king and parliament, in whom the people have lodged their power,) that all the officers in this church receive their whole authority, and are directed how to act. In all their ordinations, jurisdictions, ministrations, its bishops and priests act entirely by an authority committed to them by the civil magistrate, which he received originally from the people. So that, as the people by their representatives, are supposed to have authorised, directed, and appointed them to act; so, and so only, are all the archbishops, bishops, and priests in this church to officiate, and discharge their several functions therein. And, if they presume to transgress the bounds which the people, by their representatives, have set them, and to officiate otherwise than in the form and manner prescribed, their ministrations are illegal, and of no authority in this church.

This, Sir, (I appeal to all who know our constitution,) is the real and true nature of your boasted episcopal ordination as it now stands in our church. It is an ordination performed by a civil officer, i. e. by one who officiates only by an authority derived to him from the civil magistrate, and the legality of whose ministrations, and their efficacy in this church, depend entirely upon his observing the manners and forms which the magistrate hath enjoined. Ordinations, then, in the church of England, if traced to their proper origin and rightly considered, are, in truth, nothing but merely civil, or popular ordinations.

Nor let it be here replied,---That these bishops, who, by the laws of England are empowered to ordain, are at the same time to be considered as successors of the apostles, and as having received power of ordination from these founders

of the christian church by an uninterrupted lineal descent. For the constitution and law of England knows nothing at all of this: it rests not this power, which it commits to its bishops, upon any such lineal succession or descent; (which it knows to be a rope of sand, a ridiculous chimera, a thing which no man upon earth is able to make out.) No, but it considers the king, vested (by) act of parliament, or the suffrage of the people) with a fulness of all power ecclesiastical in these realms, as empowering and authorising bishops to ordain. This power of ordination was once delegated to Cromwell, a layman, as vicegerent to the king. And, by the constitution and law of England, this layman had then as much authority to ordain as any bishop in the realm; and any priest, whom he had ordained, would have been as much a minister in the church of England, and his ministrations as valid, as if all the bishops of the realm had laid their hands on his head. But,

*

4. The only possible way of avoiding this difficulty is recurring to the wretched refuge of popish ordinations, and deriving the validity of your orders and ministrations, and your powers of ordination from the idolatrous church of Rome. If you derive them not from the civil magistrate, you must derive them from popish bishops. A desperate refuge this! attended with a train of monstrous absurdities! all which you resolutely defend rather than admit the orders of foreign protestant divines, and the regularity of their ministrations.

That popery is an undoubted fundamental subversion of the whole scheme of christianity,--that it is that apostacy from the christian faith,

* Heath and Day, the bishops of Worcester and Chichester, were deprived of their bishoprics by a court of delegates, who, were all laymen. Vide Echard's Hift of Eng, page 310.

Σ

described by St. Paul, 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, 3.---The man of sin and the son of perdition, sitting in the Temple (or church) of God, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God, foretold by the Holy Spirit, 2 Thess. ii. 3. 4.---and that the church of Rome is represented by the prophetic spirit in the Revelation of St. John, as an adulterous and bloody woman, who hath broken the marriage-covenant that espoused her to Christ, and is fallen into a state of abominable and open lewdness, multiplying her fornications; and instead of bringing forth and cherishing a faithful seed to the Redeemer, breathes out horrid threatenings and persecutions against them, makes war with the saints, destroys them from the earth, and is drunk with their blood;---that the papacy, or church of Rome, is thus described by the Holy Spirit, is readily acknowledged by all protestant divines, those even of the church of England not excepted. How astonishing then is it to see, that from this idolatrous apostate church, you derive by ordination your spiritual and sacerdotal powers; and boast that you can trace from her by an uninterrupted line, your ecclesiastical descent. Strange! that, without shame, you declare yourselves before the world, the offspring of this "filthy withered old harlot," as your church expressly calls her; and that you rest the validity. of your ordinations and holy offices in Christ's church upon their transmission to you from this antichristian and false church, even at the very time that you acknowledge, that, for a thousand years past, it has been so far from having the nature of the true church, that nothing can be more. What absurdities are here! That, which is not true church, nor has been any thing like it for a thousand years past, yet conveys true, regular, church offices and powers! An anti-apostolic church imparting genuine apostolic orders! The synagogue of Satan becoming the sacred reposi