PART II. cessary to salvation, yet she is often said to admit the right of private judgment also, and may not therefore novel expositions of the Scriptures be publicly propounded with her permission by Ministers in her communion?

A. The term private judgment is often used very erroneously by those who do not consider its true meaning. Every one is bound to use his reason; but by private judgment we mean the act of a member or minister of the Church set ting up his own private opinions in opposition to the declared public sentence of the Church1.

The Church of England no where sanctions any such judgment, but, on the contrary, openly and strongly condemns it. Thus in her xxth Article, she asserts the power of the Church to decree rites and ceremonies, and that it has "authority in controversies of faith." And with respect to discipline also, she says in her xxxivth Article, "Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth break the traditions of God's Church, which be not repugnant to God's Word, and be ordained and approved by common Authority, ought to be rebuked openly, that others may fear to do the like." She denies not indeed the liberty to any one to determine whether he will engage to expound according to her public formularies; but she admits no right in any one who has made such an engagement, to alter, weaken, and subvert, what he is by his own act pledged to maintain: on the contrary, she censures all impugners of her doctrine and discipline; and no Minister of her communion may expound at all, unless examined, approved, and licensed by the Bishop; and all Preachers are under the jurisdiction of their Ordinary. She affirms (Art. viii.) that "the Three Creeds ought thoroughly to be received and believed ;" and she has emphatically declared her reverence for Scrip

2

3

ture, as expounded by Antiquity, in her Canon of CHAP. V. 1571, concerning Preachers; In primis videbunt Concionatores, nequid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiosè teneri et credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinæ Veteris aut Novi Testamenti, quodque ex illâ ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres et veteres Episcopi collegerint 5.

1 HOOKER, Pref. vi. 6. When public consent of the whole hath established any thing, every man's judgment, being compared thereunto, is private.

2 Canons of 1603. 3 Canons 48, 49.

Canons 5, 6, 7, 9, 36.

4 Canon 53.

Called by Bp. COSIN "the Golden Rule of the Church of England." On the Canon of Scripture, Table, ad finem. See also Bp. BEVERIDGE, vol. i. Serm. vi. p. 126, on this Canon. "So wisely hath our Church provided against novelties; insomuch that had this one rule been duly observed as it ought, there would have been no such thing as heresy or schism amongst us; but we should all have continued firm both to the doctrine and discipline of the Universal Church, and so should have held fast the form of sound words' according to the Apostle's counsel." And HUGO GROTIUS de Imperio Sum. Pot. circa Sacra, vi. 8. Non possum non laudare præclarum Angliæ Canohem, 'Imprimis,' &c. See also Bp. PEARSON, Posthumous Works, i. 436.

. But if the Church of Rome be chargeable with error and corruption in doctrine and discipline, is not the Church of England tainted with error and corruption, since she has derived so much from that of Rome? and if she wishes to be a pure Church, ought she not to renounce and utterly destroy what she has so received?

a. Let it be allowed for argument's sake, that the Church of England has received from the Primitive Church many things through that of Rome, and not rather through the medium of the ancient British, Irish, and Scotch Churches; and some things from that of Rome herself. But the nature of the former, as, for example, the Sacraments, the Word of God, Holy Orders,

PART II. Episcopal Government, Prayers, Creeds, Places for Divine Worship, the observance of the Lord's Day and of Fasts and Festivals, has not been impaired by transmission; and if, because they had been abused', she had lost these, she would have lost herself; for the abuse of a thing does not take away its lawful use, but, on the contrary," Is confirmat usum, qui tollit abusum." The latter, such as certain Prayers and Ceremonies, were not derived from Romanists, as such, but from them as being therein reasonable and Christian men; and the Church of England, by retaining both, has prudently, charitably, and piously vindicated and restored God's things to God's service: whereas, if she had permitted the accidental association of bad with good to deprive her of the good, and had chosen to destroy, instead of to restore, she would have been guilty of the folly and of the sin of promoting the cause of evil against Almighty God and against herself3.

1 CANONS of 1603. Canon xxx. See further below, Pt. iii. ch. ii., last question but one.

2 HOOKER, IV. III.

3 IV. VII. 6. When God did by His good Spirit put it into our hearts first to reform ourselves, (whence grew our separation,) and then by all good means to seek also their reformation, had we not only cut off their corruptions, but also estranged ourselves from them in things indifferent, who seeth not how prejudicial this might have been to so good a cause? See Bp. SANDERSON's Preface to his Sermons, § xv., and HOOKER, IV. VIII. IX. 2. IV. x. V. xii 6. V. XVII. V. XXVIII.

CHAPTER VI.

UNINTERRUPTED SUCCESSION OF HOLY ORDERS
IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Q. I WOULD now ask, whether the Church of CHAP VI England can stand the test applied by the ancient Fathers to try Christian communities, as to their soundness as branches of the Catholic Church?

A. Of what test do you speak?

. That before mentioned (Chapter viii.); viz. whether her Ministers derive their commission by succession from the Apostles1.

A. Yes; the Church of England traces the Holy Orders of her Bishops and Presbyters in an unbroken line from the Apostles of Christ2; and she declares in her Ordinal, (approved in her Articles [Art. XXXVI.] and Canons [Canon XXXVI.], and subscribed by all her Ministers and by all who have taken Academic Degrees in her Universities of Oxford and Cambridge,) that "there have ever been Three Orders in Christ's Church, those of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, from the Apostles' times;" and she recognizes none as having these orders, who have not received Episcopal Ordination. (See above, Pt. i. ch. xi. Pt. ii. ch. i.)

1 S. IREN. iv. 43, p. 343. Grabe. Oportet obedire nis, qui, cùm successionem habent ab Apostolis, cùm Episcopatûs successione charisma veritatis certum, secundum placitum Patris, acceperunt.

TERTULLIAN, Præscript. Heret. c. 31. Edant (Hæretici) origines Ecclesiarum suarum; evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis viris habuerit auctorem et antecessorem.

S. CYPRIAN, Ep. 69. Non Episcopus computari potest, qui nemini succedens à se ipso ortus est; such an one S.

PART II. CORNELIUS calls ἐπίσκοπον ὥσπερ ἐκ μαγγάνου τινὸς εἰς μéσov дiplévтa. Routh, Rel. Sacr. ii. p. 10.

S. AUGUST. in Joannis Evang. Tract. xxxvii. 6. Catholica fides veniens de doctrinâ Apostolorum, plantata in nobis, per seriem successionis accepta, sana ad posteros transmittenda, inter utrosque, id est, inter utrumque errorem, tenuit veritatem.

Abp. BRAMHALL, i. p. 112. Apostolical succession is the nerve and sinew of Apostolic Unity. See Bp. PEARSON, Minor Works, ii. 232.

2 Bp. BEVERIDGE, Serm. i. vol. i. p. 23, on Matt. xxviii. 20. They certainly hazard their salvation at a strange rate, who separate themselves from such a Church as ours, 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 pretend to succeed the Apostles, nor, by consequence, any right to the Spirit which her Lord here promiseth.

3 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER of the United Church of England and Ireland; Preface to Ordination Service. It is evident unto all men diligently reading the Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which offices were evermore had in such reverent estimation, that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by publick Prayer, with Imposition of Hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful authority. And therefore, to the intent that these Orders might be continued and reverently used and esteemed in the United Church of England and Ireland, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon in the United Church of England and Ireland, or suffered to execute any of the said functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had formerly Episcopal Consecration or Ordination.-See also ACT OF UNIFORMITY, xiii. xiv.

Q. And this series was never interrupted?