support his Opinion which is oppos'd by the whole current of Antiquity His Friend Walo Messalinus was more cautious who acknowledges that the distinction of the Orders of Bishops and Presbyters was most Ancient and only requires that the Apostles times should be excepted and yet his demand is too extravagant For the Fathers generally believ'd that there was such a distinction in their days and that by their appointment in Churches of their own plantation This may appear from what has been said already and it may be farther confirm'd from Tertullian who thus upbraids the Hereticks with their Novelty and confutes their pretences to Tradition Let them declare says he the Originals of their Churches Let them shew an Order of their Bishops flowing by Succession in such a manner from the beginning that their first Bishop had an Apostle or an Apostolical Person who was conversant with the Apostles for his Ordainer and Predecessor And he adds that this the Apostolical Churches did And thus he thought to stop the mouths of Gain-sayers and triumphs much in his Argument But his attempt had been extremely vain if they might have return'd him this Answer Sir you are under a mistake or would impose on us The Apostles were Extraordinary Officers and had no Successors nor did they constitute any Bishops as you pretend The Bishops you speak of have deprav'd the Government of the Church They have advanced themselves upon the steps to corruption and contrary to the Divine Institution usurpt a power over their Brethren What reason have we then to believe that they hold fast that profession of faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints since they have so ambitiously trampled on their Equals and made no conscience to establish their own Greatness on the ruines of the Ancient Discipline 'T is our Glory that we have none of them and that we regard not their Authority Yet upon your grounds this they might have replied to the Confusion of that Learned Father had it then been believ'd that Episcopacy was an Innovation I know it has been objected that there are Intricacies and Inconsistences in the Catalogues of the Successions which the Fathers have left us But so there are in the Catalogues of the High Priests that are gâ—ven by Jewish and Christian Writers as Mr. Selden will inform you And also in the Catalogues of the Archontes who amongst the Athenians gave the Name and Title to the year as you may find if you compare many of their Names as they are express'd in the Marble Chronicle at Oxford with what is extant concerning them in the Books of the most famous Greeks and those Books one with another Yet no Body doubts but there was amongst the Israelites a Succession of High Priests from Aaron and amongst the Athenians a Succession of Archontes from Creon And we have no reason to question but there was such a Succession of Bishops from the Apostles as the Fathers speak of notwithstanding in the Tables of their Succession which have been convey'd to us there be some variation The Words of King Charles l. are very apposite to my purpose For says that Judicious and Excellent Prince All Humane Histories are subject to such frailties There are differences in Historiographers in reciting the Succession of the Babylonian Persian and Macedonian Kings and of the Saxon Kings in England And we find more inextricable difficulties in the Fasti Consulares the Catalogues of the Roman Consuls notwithstanding their great care in keeping the publick Records and the exactness of the Roman Histories than are to be found in the Episcopal Catalogues c. Yet all men believe there were Kings in those Countreys and Consuls in Rome in those times So that the discrediting of the Catalogues of Bishops in respect of some uncertainty and differences which yet may be fairly reconcil'd tendeth rather to the Confirmation of the thing it self 2. Wherever Christianity prevail'd the Government of the Churches was Episcopal For as S. Irenaeus argued for the Christian Religion that the Churches amongst the Germans amongst the Hiberi and Celtae the Churches planted in the East in Egypt and Libya and in the Middle Region of the World or Palestine had not a Faith or Tradition different from one another but as one Sun gave light to all the World so did the same Truth shine every where Thus may we say of the Ecclesiastical Polity or Government in the first Ages after the Apostles It was every where the same It was the same as we have seen in Europe and in Asia and in Africa And distant as the Nations were in situation and different as they were in their Customs and Manners yet when Christianity was receiv'd amongst them it brought Episcopacy with it A plain Argument that both proceeded from the same Uniform Cause and that Prelacy was not esteem'd a mere prudential thing that might be rejected at pleasure In the passage that I last cited from Tertullian he manifestly shews that all Apostolical Churches were govern'd by a Succession of Bishops from the beginning And in this he follows Irenaeus who intimates that he could have set down such a Succession in the rest as he did in the Church of Rome but that he was unwilling to swell his Volume into too great a Bulk And in the following Age S. Cyprian says that Bishops were long since ordain'd through all Provinces and all Cities To the Testimony of the Fathers I shall add another of a Modern Writer but it relates to the practice of former times and is pertinent to my design The Author I mean is the celebrated Dr. Walton whose Edition of the Polyglott Bibles was not a little for the honour of our Church and Nation yet it rais'd the Envy of some and that drew from him these words It appears says he by these Ancient Translations that what our Sectaries have cryed down in the Church of England as Popish Innovations viz. Episcopal Government Set Forms of Liturgies Observation of Festivals besides the Lord's Day were us'd as they are still in those Eastern Churches planted by the Apostles and their Successors in Asia and Africk from the first times of their Conversion so that what these men would exterminate as Romish and Antichristian Novelties have been Anciently us'd by those famous and flourishing Churches which never profess'd Subjection to the See of Rome This is that Cordolium of our Novelists the Practice of the Vniversal Church of Christ all the World over I have shew'd what was the Original of Prelacy or Episcopacy and how universally it did obtain But the Dissenters understanding by a Bishop such a Minister as may have no other Pastor above him nor any Presbyter under him I would demand Where there is any instance of him in the holy Scripture or whether the Primitive Fathers writ any thing of him In what Country did he live In what Nation under the Heavens did he exercise his Pastoral
Imprimatur Z. Isham R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris Feb. 4. 1691 2. A TREATISE OF Church-Government Occasion'd by some LETTERS Lately Printed concerning the same SUBJECT BY ROBERT BURSCOUGH M. A. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. THE PREFACE TO THE READER AN Observing Italian has given us an Account of a Transaction which is not so well known amongst us as many others of the like Nature He acquaints us that in an Assembly of Catholicks as he calls them which were brought together by the Late Earl of Bristol a Consultation was held concerning the fittest Means of propagating their Religion in this Kingdom and they agreed that one of the most proper Methods they could make use of for that purpose was to testifie a mighty Zeal and to make a great shew of Friendship for the Non-conformists Whereupon he tells us They represented them as Men of Trade whose Sufferings would be prejudicial to the Nation They pretended to commiserate their Condition and declaim'd perpetually against Persecution And there were two things he says which they propos'd to themselves in this Conduct The first was to maintain the Sectaries against the Church of England hoping they might sooner destroy it by Intestine Divisions and so more easily open a Gate to Popery The second was Under a pretence of tolerating these Sectaries to stop the Execution of the Laws about Religion that their Priests might meet with less opposition in advancing the Religion of the Church of Rome In pursuance of this Design as my Author also informs us They prevail'd with King Charles the Second to issue out his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience which was recall'd by the interposition of the Parliament But the Project which was then so happily blafted by the Parliament reviv'd to amazement in the following Reign and the Nation had the pain to see a Jesuite made a Privy Counsellor and Prime Minister of State and the Protestant Dissenters very deep in his Interests and warm under his Influence To see these Dissenters so liberally offering up their Incense to the Court which was then labouring to inslave us to the Pope and the Court answering their Devotion with many Favors For so it was as every Body knows And when this Alliance was confirm'd between them hardly a Week pass'd over our heads which did not bring us fresh Intelligence of their mutual Endearments What I have said of the Dissenters must not be understood of the whole Body of them without exception For to do them Right some of them were afflicted at the shameful Confederacy in which their Brethren were engaged But neither in Number nor in Zeal and Diligence did they equal those that beheld our Church in distress with such Eyes as the Children of Edom look'd on Jerusalem in the day of her Adversity when they cry'd to the Babylonians Rase it rase it to the foundation But it pleas'd God to disappoint their Devices so that their hands could not perform their Enterprise And one might then have thought that the Reflection on their Actions should have been such a Mortification to them as would have dispos'd them to an Accommodation and Union with those from whom they had made an Unreasonable Separation and who were so willing to forget their former Miscarriages and to receive them with all imaginable Tenderness But they on the contrary have since appear'd more averse from the Way of Peace than ever And it is Observable that the Kindness of the Papists put them into a strange fit of Complaisance and was the Cause that either they employ'd their Pens in the service of the Church of Rome or not against it But the Obligations which they have receiv'd from the Conformists instead of abating have inflam'd their Rage and given them Encouragement to write abundance of Books such as they are against the Church of England And this may shew how dissatisfied they remain in their present Circumstances and that as long as we live with them and not under them we are like to hear of their Complaints When my Adversary who is of their number and gave occasion to this Discourse saw Their Politicks and his Own defeated I had hopes that he would leave me to the Retirement I affected and give me no farther trouble with his Disputes about Church-Government I was in expectation that he would either study to be quiet or that I should meet with him amongst some late Apologists But when I least suspected it he appears in Print on the Offensive side and rudely attacking a whole Community he would persuade his Readers that a Separate National Jurisdiction such as he supposes that of our Ecclesiastical Rulers to be cannot but weaken the Jurisdiction of Kings and other States and is neither more nor less but the very same thing that heretofore was found so burdensom under the Papacy and that made the best and wisest and greatest of our Kings so uneasie So that he lays it down he says as a Maxim that nothing can be of greater danger to any Government than a National Hierarchy that does not depend upon it or is not in the Measures and Interests of it Fresh Experience has learn'd us this In which words his design is to cast an Odium on the Conforming Clergy and to suggest that they have been hurtful unto Kings and usurpt a Jurisdiction that is inconsistent with the Safety and the Rights of Sovereignty But if this cannot be prov'd against them either from the Nature of their Jurisdiction it self or from their National Union or Matter of Fact on which he grounds the Charge he must be content to bear the Infamy of a false Accuser By the Jurisdiction of the Clergy which is first to be consider'd either he understands that which is Spiritual and such as the Pastors of the Church receiv'd from Christ and to say that this hath no Limits and is pernicious to the State is not only to injure the Truth but to cast a Reproach upon our Lord himself Or else he means their Temporal Authority with which they have been legally vested by Sovereign Princes and then he knows that he hath falsly call'd it Independent Unboundable and Uncontrollable he knows it is false that this is neither more nor less but the very same Supreme and Absolute Power which the Popes claim'd and usurpt and by which they made our Kings so Uneasie And I leave him to answer the Convictions of his own Conscience for the wrong he hath done the Reformation by so odious a Reflexion Another thing on which he grounds his Censure of the Clergy is their National Union and he argues that This together with the Independence which he ascribes to them must needs render them very dangerous as putting them into a condition of being made a powerful Faction and easie to be practis'd upon and inabling the Heads of the Faction to convey Malignity to all their Subordinates and
Then so very dangerous when with so much Courage they threw themselvs in the Breach that was made by the Dispensing Power and were asserting and labouring to preserve our Laws and Liberties which others were offering up in Sacrifice They were then conveying their Malignity to the People when in their Books and Sermons they defended the Cause of the Reformation with so much Success that Popery lay Gasping before them in great Agonies notwithstanding the Cordials that were administred to it by other hands And Then indeed the King was uneasie because his Endeavours to establish his Religion did not make the Impressions he desir'd And the Jesuits and their Associats were uneasie because their Measures were broken and their expectation of extirpating the Northern Heresie defeated And such of the Dissenters as had been assisting and pushing them on in works of darkness were uneasie at the Reproach they had brought upon themselves by their ill Conduct But in the rest of the Nation there appear'd a general satisfaction to see Truth prevailing by lawful Methods against the Errors of the Church of Rome when they were cover'd with a powerful Protection One may wonder what it is that induced our Author to lead our thoughts to the Transactions of those Times since it would be more for his Reputation could he bury them in Oblivion or cover them with a Veil of Darkness But it seems he cannot dissemble how much he was affected with the Management of Affairs when himself was in the Interests and Measures of the Government and when in a Pamphlet Intitled Prudential Reasons for repealing the Penal Laws against all Recusants c. Penn'd by a Protestant Person of Quality he declar'd to the World that King James the Second had a clearer prospect of his own and the Kingdoms Interest than any of his Royal Predecessors ever had and pursu'd it with that Conduct and Vigour which did correspond with the Miracles that preserv'd the Crown for him and him for the Crown and for a Glory greater than that of wearing Crowns to wit to be the Restorer of Religion to Liberty and Freedom of Exercise And with such exquisite and servile Flattery was that Unfortunate Prince encouraged in the Large Steps he made to his Ruine That I have imputed to my Adversary the Harangue which I have quoted from the Prudential Reasons you will not think strange when I have told you that sometime since I received several Controversial Letters written by the hand of a Non-Conformist Preacher who subscrib'd them in his own Name and profess'd and persuaded his Easie Followers that they were his own But he could not deny when the Charge was lay'd before him that they were compos'd by the Protestant Person of Quality as he is pleas'd to call himself who hath lately publish'd some part of them to which this Treatise contains an Answer But how his Amanuensis resents this usage or contented he is to be stript of his borrowed Plumes and left naked to the Pity or Derision of Spectators as they are variously affected I pretend not to discover Some may think he hath had very hard measure and that he had much better never have enjoy'd the Glory of his Masters labours than be depriv'd of it in such a manner but that I leave to be adjusted between themselves And I had not said thus much of their Combination but out of great Compassion to a deluded People that I may let them see if they do not wilfully shut their eyes on what it is they grounded their insolent boasting by what Impostures they have been abus'd and by what Arts they have been engaged and encourag'd in their Schism Here it may be fit to take notice that since our Author appear'd in open light his Style differs much from what it was before For many Pages of his Manuscript Papers which I have by me are fill'd with bitter Invectives against me and other Conformists but it is in some measure true what he now says that his Printed Letters are refin'd from Personal Reflexions He thought it seems that Scurrility was suitable enough to the part he acted when he sustain'd the person of another and was asham'd of it when he laid aside his disguise Yet since he shews no Repentance for his former Provocations nor forbears to strike at the whole Body of the Conforming Clergy some may object that I have handled him with an excess of Tenderness But I wish no greater defects may be found in this Discourse than that I have err'd on the side of Lenity and I shall not be much concern'd at this Exception Nevertheless my Adversary may be assur'd that such a Conduct as his must needs have awaken'd the observation of many and I cannot promise that others will spare him as I have done or that he may not receive such Correction from a severer Hand as he is not Stoick enough to bear For my part I could have been content if he had refin'd away none of his Personal Reflexions I was willing enough that the World should have seen with what an impotent Fury I have been assaulted by him and I should have been glad to have been eas'd of the Fatigue of writing and giving a new Turn to the Answers I had sent him But for his own sake I congratulate to him any Tendency towards a Calmness of Thought and still retain for him the Regard that is due to an Intelligent Person of a sharp Wit great Reading and indefatigable Industry I could say more to his advantage but that I am afraid to indulge an Humour in him that is too predominant and what that is you may perceive from the Admonition he gave me in his Letter of Feb. 9. That he and I are never like to answer one anothers expectation so long as he looks for strength and closeness in my Discourses or I think to find weakness or loosness in his Which shews that he is a Man of a peculiar Temper and distinguish'd by such an Air of Assurance as is not common Not but that another might have treated me with as much Contempt but he was the Man of the World that thought nothing could come from him that is weak or loose Finding him in this condition I thought it not unfit to give him such Touches as might make him sensible that he is a Mortal Wight and of Humane Race and having convinc'd him by the method I propos'd that he was not Infallible he now confesses some of his mistakes Yet there are some Remains of his former distemper still hanging on him For says he to his Noble Friends I present you in these following Letters the true Idea as I take it of Church-Government which could it be receiv'd by all others with the same degree of Candor I assure my self it shall by you would be of Infinite Advantage to end these fatal Controversies that for many Ages have perplexed and in this last almost destroyed the Church I have not the honour
enough in my Concessions I. I grant that originally there were but twelve Apostles and I doubt not but as S. Barnabas intimates they were so many in allusion to the twelve Tribes of Israel But it does not follow from hence that the Office of the Apostles was limited to that Number or to their Persons On the contrary I shall prove in another place that it was actually communicated to others yet I deny not but the Name of the Twelve was continued for as it was assign'd to the Apostles with regard to their first Institution when Judas was fall'n and there remain'd only Eleven so it was also when many more were admitted into the Sacred College And thus says Peter du Moulin The Regions of Decapolis and Pentapolis kept up their Names when some of their old Cities were destroy'd or when new ones were built within their Precincts and Neapolis which signifies a New City is still so call'd notwithstanding its great Antiquity II. I grant That the first Apostles saw the Lord but this was no part of their Office only it made them fit to be the first Witnesses of Christianity Because says Paulinus they were to be sent into the World for the Information of all Nations it was requisite they should receive the Faith they were to preach not only with their ears but with their eys that what they had more firmly learned they might more constantly teach But we cannot infer from hence that none might succeed them in teaching and governing Their Conversation with Christ in the Flesh was a great Privilege to which at this time none can justly pretend But what qualified them for the Mission by which they were enabled to constitute subordinate Officers did not hinder them certainly from appointing others to preside over them as themselves had done III. I grant That the Apostles had their Commission immediately from our Saviour But notwithstanding this Privilege others might as well succeed them in the Authority they had to govern the Churches as Princes might sit on the Throne of David who were not advanced to it in a manner so Extraordinary by the particular Appointment and express Declaration of the Almighty as himself had been Noah his Sons receiv'd Power by an express Revelation over the beasts of the earth and over the fowl of the air over every thing that moved upon the earth and over the fishes of the sea and liberty to eat of every living thing as of the green herb Yet they transmitted that Power and Liberty to their Posterity who have not such an intercourse with Heaven as themselves had Thus the first Apostles who were sent immediately by Christ himself might convey their Authority to others who had not that advantage And 't is manifest that their Office was actually delegated to Matthias to whom our Lord did not immediately speak the words of their Commission IV. I grant That the Apostles were in some sense the Foundation on which the Christian Church was built for so we learn from S. Paul Eph. 2.20 But this does not demonstrate that they were an Extraordinary part of the Building Some think they were said to be the Foundation because they first published the Gospel So the Socinians interpret that Expression and they infer from thence as you have also done that the Apostles were Extraordinary Officers But if for that reason they were so in any thing it was in teaching and consequently That was an Extraordinary Part of their work which you say was standing and perpetual Casaubon observes in one of his Exercitations on the Annals of Baronius that when the word Rock is used Metaphorically in Scripture it is with allusion to some Properties of a Rock and denotes Firmness and Stability or the like And says this Learned Man a Rock and Foundation are put for the same thing and differ not in Reality but in Notion only This is what you will be oblig'd to confute if you still adhere to your Opinion for in vain do you argue that the Apostles must needs have had Extraordinary Authority because they had the honour to be a Foundadation of the Catholick Church if no Authority be signified by that expression The Apostles were vested with Authority by their Commission before they planted Churches and therefore did not derive it from that work But if we think that because they formed those Societies their Authority must needs have been Extraordinary and Incommunicable we may as well conclude that Romulus was no King because at Rome he laid the Foundation of the Regal Government which work was not repeated by those that succeeded him in the Throne For my part I know no necessity that they who constitute Churches should be of a distinct Order from those that afterwards preside over them Frumentius was as much a Bishop when he travell'd from one place to another in India after his return thither to plant Churches as any that govern'd them in succeeding times and they that were ordain'd Bishops by the Apostles of those that afterwards should believe did not forfeit their Character whatever that was or acquire any Extraordinary Authority if they were employ'd to convert those that were committed to their Charge But you tell me that whilst the Founder of a College lives it is the duty of the founded on emergent difficulties to have recourse to him and take his directions but he dying his Authority dies with him And it may be so and it may be otherwise You your self cannot be ignorant I am sure how usual it hath been for Founders to appoint Visitors of their Colleges and how permanent their Power has been in our Universities So that this Argument if one may call it so may easily be turn'd against you But Founders you say as such as have no Successors This is profound and it signifies that none came after them to lay the very same Foundations which they had finished before If such arguing as this silences all disputes and puts an end to the fatal Controversies which you truly say have almost destroy'd the Church it must be when the contending Parties are become very weary of their strife and are mightily inclin'd to an Accommodation V. I grant That the Apostles had Power to work Miracles for the Confirmation of their Mission and Doctrine But this hinders not a Succession to them in that Authority which is not miraculous but may be continued in all Ages There was something Extraordinary in the manner of discharging the Apostolical Office but it does not follow from hence that the Office itself was so or ought to be laid aside Otherwise for the same reason we must lay aside Baptism Imposition of Hands Praying and Preaching because all these things were attended with something Extraordinary and Miraculous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says S. Chrysostom There was nothing that was merely humane or common in that Age of Wonders But Miracles are said to be the
not the least appearance that he had any Collegues join'd in Commission with him whose Votes were necessary for the performance of what was expected from him and since he alone is represented as responsible for the miscarriages of the Christians at Pergamus 't is manifest that they were all under his Jurisdiction He might have Subordinate Officers but he had no Equals If the Angels of the Churches had such power as I have ascrib'd to them there is no ground to suspect that they unjustly usurp'd it For if it be a good Argument that the Text it self of the Old Testament had not been corrupted by the Scribes and Pharisees when our Saviour and his Apostles were upon Earth that neither of them laid it to the charge of those wicked men we may conclude from the Epistles directed to these Angels that our Lord was not offended at the Station which they had in the Churches since he censures their faults and makes that no part of them But this is not all that may be said for it He plainly signifies his approbation of it both in condemning their former remisness and in exciting them to greater vigour in the exercise of their Office This agrees exactly with the Historical Accounts that we have of the first Age and particularly with what Clemens Alexandrinus relates of S. John who as he tells us visited the Regions adjacent to Ephesus partly that he might form Churches partly that he might add fit persons to the Clergy and partly that he might Ordain Bishops And if there be any doubt remaining of what Quality they were it may be resolv'd from hence that the Bishop of a City not far from Ephesus is said to be a person placed over All which Character could belong to a Prelate only And as it is probable that this Prelate was the Angel of the Church of Smyrna so it is manifest from the Transaction which I have mention'd that those of his Order were of Divine or Apostolical Appointment CHAP. X. Objections against Episcopacy taken from the Writings of the first Century consider'd I Have shew'd that the Churches of Jerusalem and Philippi of Ephesus and Crete the Churches of Smyrna and Pergamus Thyatira and Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea were govern'd by Bishops in the first Century And one need but read the second and third Book of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History or S. Jerom's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers to find that Bishops then presided in the Churches of Antioch and Rome of Alexandria and Athens and to be inform'd who they were This may give us reason to think that all the Churches in the World were at that time under an Episcopal Administration especially if it appear that they were so in the following Age But before I come to make enquiry into that it may be requisite to remove out of the way some Objections that relate to the Apostles days 1. You argue from Acts 20.17 28. Titus 1.5 7. that mere Presbyters were Bishops And this I am ready to grant But then it must be acknowledged that the Presbyters mention'd in those places were subordinate to other Pastors and consequently a continuance of their Office supposes a continuance of such Superiors as they had to the end of the World Their Superiors were S. Paul and Titus and if there be any question whether the Name of Bishops may be ascribed to them it may be determin'd from what has been said already For if it belongs to the Apostles as I have prov'd from the words of S. Peter and some passages of the Ancients it may fitly be apply'd not only to the Twelve but to all their Colleagues But Episcopacy you tell me is a word of ample signification for 't is not only to be met with in Homer Plutarch Cicero but it is apply'd to God by Basil and to the Elders by Peter nothing therefore is deducible from it as to the special nature of any Office except by way of Analogy And what then Did I ever affirm that it had but one sense in all the Books where it occurs whether they are Sacred or Profane Did I ever assert that none but Apostles were called Bishops and deduce from that Title an account of the special Nature of their Office If you can impute to me neither of these things you must be content to fight with your own shadow And I shall think it enough that the instances I have produced perform what I design'd by them They shew that in affirming the Apostles were Bishops and particularly that S. James was a Bishop whatever exceptions some have taken against it we speak the Language of the Scripture and the Fathers They also shew that if mere Presbyters were Bishops others had the same denomination who had Jurisdiction over them and answer the Objections against Prelacy that have been rais'd from Acts 20.17 28. and other places 2. You argue from Clemens Romanus that in the first Age there were but two Ranks of Ecclesiastical Officers because he mentions no more when he speaks of the Bishops and Deacons that were constituted by the Apostles of those that afterwards should believe As if the whole Scheme of the Government which the Apostles established might be taken from that one Act or they had done nothing but what this Author left upon Record But as Epiphanius tells us All things could not be regulated by them on a sudden And the Churches of their Plantation afford us the best Pattern of Ecclesiastical Polity not as they were only in design or in their infancy but as they had receiv'd from their Founders their due lineaments and just proportions and were grown up to some perfection This might have been a sufficient Answer to what you have objected from the place before us had you demonstrated that when Clemens only mentions two Ranks of Ministers he meant to exclude a greater number But this you have not prov'd as one might have expected you should before you built so much upon it Because persons differing in Degree or Order sometimes come under the same denomination There were many that were said to be Rulers of the same Synagogue as some have gather'd from Mark 5.22 Yet one of those Rulers was the President There were many that at the same time were said to be Princes of Asia yet one of them was called The Asiarcha by way of Eminence and distinguish'd from the rest in Dignity and Power as Spanhemius and Harduinus collect from some Ancient Coins and from the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna And as a Learned Man of our own observes Aaron and his Successor Eleazar are never styled High Priests in the Books of Moses but Priests only and yet the other Priests were subject to them when they had no distinct Title Clemens Romanus himself speaking of Abraham says that all the Priests and Levites were descended from him and in one of the Members of that Division he must be suppos'd