have Christ's Testament And having elegantly compar'd the Scripture to Man's Testament which is able to determine every Controversie that may arise among his Children adds He who leâ—t us this Testament is in Heaven let his Will therefore be sought for in the Gospel as in a Testament for the things which you now do Christ forsaw before they came to pass The same Justice and no more do we require in the present Case we require with Cyprian that Custom or Tradition which is without Scripture tho' otherways never so Old be thrown away as mouldy Errors Let not the Hope of Emoluments secular Grandeur or Power make Men rack their Wits to Dâ—prave and Detire the Truth and despise the Apostolick Humility and Parity Then saith Chrysostome speaking of these Apostolick Times and that by way of Opposition to his own Age Church-Government was not Honour or Grandeur but Watching and Care of the Flock Seeing it's evident saith Isidorus Pelusiota how vast a difference there is between the Ancient humble Ministry and the present Tyranny Why don't ye Crown with Garlands and Celebrate the Lovers of Parity or Equality Let not the gay Pageantry of foppish Ceremonies steal away our Hearts from the simplicity of the Gospel Is such trash worth the patronizing Nay rather Let the Sword of God Theâ—'re Jerome's words cut off every thing that men without the Authority and Testimony of the Scriptures have devised and pretend as if they had it by Apostolick Tradition Let all such things be broken in Pieces called Nehustan and finally sacrific'd to Truth and Peace Whatsoever thing God commands us let 's observe to do 't and neither add thereto nor diminish from 't This I'm sure is the old Path and the good Way wherein if we Walk we shall find rest to our Souls our Peace shall be as a River and our Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea we shall Dwell together in that Brotherly Vnity which is a true Antecedent of Life for evermore And thus I can freely say is the ultimat Design of Composing and Emitting the ensuing Treatise and is and still shall be the fervent Prayer of Will. Jameson Nazianzeni THE CONTENTS PART I. SECT I. The Scope of the ensuing Treatise The ancient Church for no Divine Right of Diocesan Episcopacy pag. 1. The ablest of its late Patrons of no other mind where Dr. Sandersone is noted 2 An examen of the Conveniencies and Inconveniencies of Prelacy undertaken 5 SECT II. The Aphorism No Bishop no King discuss'd Prelacy contributes not a little to introduce Tyranny ibid. Prelats severall ways most hurtfull to Princes 6 Presbytry well agrees with Monarchy where their Charge of Sedition and Disloyalty is largely vouch'd to be most unjust from the most applauded Writers of our Adversaries themselves 8 SECT III. Their Argument taken from Order weigh'd Their strange Improvement thereof 17 It equally serves Prelatists and Papists Ibid. SECT IV. The Plea for Prelacy drawn from Unity discuss'd Dissentions most frequent where Bishops bore sway 18 Unity and Parity harmoniously lodged in one and the same Assembly 19 SECT V. The Argument Prelatists bring from antiquity canvass'd Ibid. SECT VI. The Instance of Aërius condemn'd by Epiphanius prov'd to be unserviceable to our Antagonists They joyn with the most disingenous of Papists in using this Argument 21 The choicest of the Fathers for the Scriptural and Apostolick Identity of Bishop and preaching Presbyter 22 Epiphanius giveth little Patrociny to our Adversaries 23 His Injustice to Aerius in this matter ibid. If Aerius was Arrian largely disputed the affirmative whereof is rendred improbable by the profound Silence of those who were concern'd to have mention'd it 24 The Tractate ascribed to â—â—siliu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is judgâ—d supposititious wherein there 's nothing to be found concerning Aerius This report of Aërius his Arrianism leans on Epiphanius's testimony alone whose great Levity and Credulity is universally noted 25 It is instanc'd in his dealing with the Donatists whom on no good ground he accuses of the same crime of Arrianism 26 They 're absolv'd by Augustine and Optatus Ibid. It 's objected that Aerius his commerce with Eustathius of Schastia may give countenance to the report of Epiphanius Ibid. Eustathius tho' a Heretick yet was not Arrian but a Macedonian who seems rather to have been dangerously shaken then intirely wedded to Macedonianism Ibid. But on supposition of the worst several reasons are brought making probable that nothing can be inferrâ—d from his commerce to prove Aërius Heretick 27. The loss of the Writings of the Ancient and traduced witnesses of truâ—h is lamentable Ibid. The Judgement of Philastrius concerning Aërius related against whom the Aërians are vindicated from the Crime of Encratitism 28 They were fiercely persecuted and why 29 Between Philastrius and Epiphanius no good agreement The negative testimony of both Philastrius and Rabanus Maurus against what is delivered by Epiphanius 30 SECT VII No Diocesan Bishops in several ancient Churches This Instanc'd in the Churches of Ireland of Africk and of Scotland 30 The ablest of our Adversaries brought to a sore pinch hereby 34 Sir George M ckenzie 's Epistolary Defence of Prelacy canvassed where Bede is vindicated against the Bishop of St. Asaph and Buchanan and Hector Boethius vindicated against Spotswood to whom the Advocat referred Ibid. That we had a constitute Church before the coming of Palladius evinced against both Bishop and Advocat 38 Our Primitive Doctors why called Monks The cavills of Spotswood and the Bishop of St. Asaph removed 39 Smal power of Prelats for a long time after Palladius 40 The most memorable result of the Combat between the Advocat and the Bishop of St. Asaph Ibid. D. M.'s exceptions removed His negative argument no argument 42 â—â—â—ndel vindicated 44 D. M's perversion of Baron's clear testimony detected Ibid. He in vain attempts to deprave and then to exauctorate Prosper himself 46 Other specimens of D. M's unhandsome dealing 47 SECT VIII Prelacy opposite to the Principles of our Reformers The Hierarchy is condemn'd by our Confession 49 Knox and his fellows are proved to have been most opposite to the Hierarchick Domination 50 The Author of the Fundamental Charter of Presbytry adventures not on our special Arguments Ibid. Against whom Knox's great aversness from Prelacy is evinced by vindicating of his Letter to the Assembly 51 And by vindicating of Knox's words and actions at the Installment of John Douglas 52 And from clear and unsuspected records where 't is also evinc'd that the bulk of both Ministers and People were then opposite to Prelacy 54 This Authors cavills from the meeting at Leith 7½ and from some expressions of the Assemblies canvass'd and annihilated 56 Knox's antiprelatical judgement demonstrated from Beza's Letter which is vindicated from this Authors exceptions 60 Who pretending to make Knox a Prelatist only labours to prove him and our other Reformers self-repugnant Bablers 61 His ridiculous Sophisms examin'd and expos'd
of Mentz who only informs us that the Heresie of Aërius consisted in despising Sacrifices for the Dead From all which to me it 's more than probable that there 's no ground to believe that ever Aërius Arrianiz'd Section VII No Diocesan Bishops in several Ancient Churches THo' their Argument brought from Antiquity be already satisfi'd we shall yet give some Instances of Churches which for several Centuries were really without Diocesan Bishops St. Patrick the Irish Apostle is commonly said to have ordain'd several hundreds of Bishops in Ireland who I 'm sure could not be Diocesans Dr. Maurice being displeas'd with this Instance rejects Nennius the Author from whom we have the account of St. Patrick's ordaining 365 Bishops as fabulous But it 's not in their accounts of the numbers of Bishops but of the Deeds and Miracles wrought by Bishops and others of their Saints that the fabulousness of the Writers of these times is commonly to be observ'd He next quarrels with the common reading of that Author alledging that He speaks only of the Bishops in France and Britain in communion with St. Patrick not of his Irish Bishops But I think we may in such critical Learning give Bishop Vsher the Preference who neither judg'd this Book fabulous nor its common reading to be suspected And this account of the great number of Ancient Irish Bishops is strongly confirm'd by what Clarkson cites out of Bernard and Baron shewing that there were well nigh as many Bishops as Churches This the Doctor passes over in silence which was scarce fair enough dealling Neither can the Doctor 's ordinary salvo viz. that the Practice was not generally approv'd nor of primitive Constitution here serve them for whatsoever differ'd from the Roman Model was presently made a Novelty And tho' Bernard and Lanfranc dislike the Practice of having so many Bishops yet they adventure not to instance any time wherein the Irish had been rul'd by a few Diocesans And lastly the Authors most regardable herein inform us that this Practice of having so many Bishops had place even in St. Patrick's time and meer infancy of the Irish Church § 2. Most visible footsteps of this also appear in the African Church during the time of Cyprian for in that Council of Carthage where he presided there was no smal number of Bishops conveen'd tho' doubtless there were many moe Bishops in Africk who could not be all Diocesans seeing few then were Christians in Africk save a small part of the Roman Colonies only Yea the hamlets and villages these Bishops had for their Jurisdictions are so obscure that the learn'd Pamelius is at a stand where to place them And long after in the time of the Vandalick Persecution as Victor Vticensis relates there were in the Zeugitan or proconsular Province alone 164 Bishops others reckon moe Now this was but a small part of what the Romans possess'd in Africk and few beside the Roman Colonies were at that time Christian for the Moors or old Africans who beside what they had in the Cities possess'd almost the whole Country are by the same Victor without exception call'd Gentiles and many of the Romans themselves had not yet imbrac'd Christianity Now subduce from that small number of the Zeugitan Province who were Christians the many Arrians and other Hereticks and Schismaticks whom these Bishops did not reckon as a part of their Flocks and surely there shall scare be found so many as to make up above 164 Parishes Dr. Maurice tells us that all the African Bishops in Cyprian's time could not have suppli'd the Dioceses of one Province in the V or VI Century Which if true is a strong Confirmation of what we plead for viz. that they then were nothing less than Diocesans seeing as is now evident there were even in the fifth Century but a very small number of Christians in Africk compar'd with the rest of the Inhabitans And in Cyprian's time it may well be judg'd that there were some hundreds of Bishops in the Roman Africk But in such Cases not the extent of Bounds but number of Souls is to be considered Wherefore he should be a wild Reasoner that should conclude from Africa's having a dozen or such a number of Bishops or Pastors for surely there were but few at the entry of Christianity that there needed be no more afterward and so make that number the Standard to discern how many Bishops by primitive Right were to be plac'd in all Africa And this is a Kin to what he says elsewhere that tho' there were Bishops in small Towns this was not the primitive State of the Church it may be indeed nor yet at the first entry of the Gospel were there Bishops in most part of the great Towns but was this for fear of Multiplication of Dioceses no surely but these few were all could be then gotten The substance of his Answer here is that Africa was most large fertile popolous The first of which is readily granted but the second not so easily much of these Regions being more fertile of sand and Serpents than of Corn and Wine and this in part discredits the third seeing so much as was barren is not to be suppos'd Popolous wherefore it 's surprising to find him making the Old Roman Africk more Popolous than France is now He supposes that Africk had but 500 Bishops and yet might have 40000 villages But I answer that if the villages were considerable and had Christian Inhabitants for otherways this is nothing to this purpose then had Africk 40000 Bishops for H. Thorndick acknowledges that Bishops in Africk were so plentifull that every good village must needs be the Seat of an Episcopal Church Which words of H. Thorndick are cited by Clarkson but dissembl'd by the Doctor In the mean while I can find nothing which can shake what I have said above or overturn as for example what I have noted from Victor's words and oblige me to lessen my substraction Add to what is said the words of Dr. Burnet In St. Augustin's time saith he it appears from the journals of a Conference he had with the Donatists that there were about five hundred Bishopricks in a small tract of ground But we need not cross Seas in pursuit of ancient Churches free of Diocesans seeing our Country Scotland affords us so luculent a proof of our Assertion The words of Prosper Aquitanicus in his Chronicle annex'd to that of Eusebius and Hierome are most clear and cogent Palladius saith he is ordain'd by Pope Coelestine for the Scots that had already believ'd in Christ and is sent to them to be their first Bishop Never was a passage of any Historian more universally believ'd than this of Prosper which Beda◠and a MS. Chronicle of Scotland in the Library of Glasgow yea the whole stream of Historians repeat and approve but none more amply and plainly than Cardinal Baron whose words are
and other places no small number of excellent Men to Scotland who doubtless did no small service to God therein and especially in the time of Fincormachus when as all observe a great many fled hither who were famous both for Life and Doctrine yea long before this even in the time of Tertullian our Church was well known to much of the Christian World as appears from his clear Testimony The places of Britain saith he to which the Romans could not yet pass are notwithstanding subject to Christ. And if any have called Scotland barbarous or not well reform'd before the coming of Palladius Sir George learn'dly refutes them and names severals and among them even Stannihurst otherways an enemy to our Nation who have done it and he well observes that the reason why some speak of us as then not well enough reform'd was because of our want of agreement with the Church of Rome § 6. As to the last part of the Bishop's discourse saying that it was not permitted to Monks to meddle with the matters of the Church c. And wherein he is seconded by St. Asaph who falls foul on Presbyterians on this account as if they were darkners of all Church History c. They should know that as our Historians call'd these Monks they also call'd them Priests sometimes Presbyters or Bishops or Doctors and frequently Culdees Our people saith Boeth also began most seriously at that time to embrace the Doctrine of Christ by the guidance and exhortation of some Monks who because they were most diligent in Preaching and frequent in Prayer were call'd by the Inhabitants Worshippers of God which name took such deep root with the common People that all the Priests even to our time were commonly without difference call'd Culdees i. e. Worshippers of God Elsewhere this Author call'd these Teachers and Guides indifferently Priests Monks and Culdees Thus also speaks the best of our Historians some of whom we have heard calling them Presbyters and Admistrators of the Sacraments Hence 't is clear that when they call them Monks the word is not to be taken in the later Popish sense for a Layhermite for these our primitive Pastors were only call'd Monks by reason of their strictness of life and frequent retirement to Devotion when the publick work of the Ministry did permit it and perhaps also divers of them abstain'd from Marriage that they might keep themselves free from the World and its care without urging this on others as was the practice of the famous Paphnutius in the council of Nice From all which I conclude that before the coming of Palladius we had a settl'd Church without the least umbrage of their Hierarchy § 7. I add that long after that it had but very slender footing here seeing according to Spotswood they had no distinct Titles or Dioceses whose words are neither had our Bishops auy other Title then that of Scotorum Episcopi or Scotish Bishops whereby they were distinguish'd before the days of Malcomb the III who first divided the Country into Dioceses appointing to every Bishop the limits c. Yea after most strict search for a long time posterior to Palladius he can scarce find the least footsteps of Episcopacy And again long it was after the distinction of Dioceses before they were admitted to any civil Places or Votes in Parliament Hence nothing is more certain than that for many Ages the Church of Scotland knew nothing of their Hierarchy the first Rudiments whereof were bronght from Rome which was sent packing thither again when we renounc'd our obedience to Anti-christ § 8. Take but one other particular and I take leave of the Advocat he 's much displeas'd with St. Asâ—ph terming him a Caresser of Fanaticks for affirming that in consequence of this our Argument taken from the confess'd Practice of our primitive Church we might reasonably conclude that when we covenanted against Episcopacy we had only us'd our own right and thrown out that which was a confess'd Innovation in order to the restoring of that which was our primitive Government A notable and never to be forgotten Concession of so learn'd an Adversary as is this Bishop Let 's hear what the Advocat returns him It will not follow saith he that because our Church in its infancy and necessity was without Bishops for some years therefore it was reasonable for Subjects to enter into a solemn League and Covenant without and against the Consent ef their Monarch and to extirpat Episcopacy settl'd then by Law and by an Old Prescription of 1200 years at least But this most unfair Representation of our Arguments antecedent is I trust now sufficiently discover'd wherefore I have nothing to do here with it not yet am oblig'd to evince the consequence he denies seeing 't is not to be accounted ours but his own who made the antecedent Of the Grounds why the Nation entred into a Covenant I also discours'd already In the mean while I can't but take notice of his settling Episcopacy by Prescription a Romish Argument which whatever it may do in Law has no place here His Prescription I 'm sure essentially differs from that of Tertullian against the Heresies of his time seeing he liv'd in a very early Age when especially if ever Prescription could have place in the Church and the Doctrines which he defended were generally and uninterruptedly held by the Pastors even from the Apostles times and more ancient than the Heresies against which he prescribes whereas in the present case all things are clean contrary For as the Advocat himself here supposes the original of Scotish Episcopacy is several Ages posterior to that of the Apostles so that if the Argument could militat for either Party it serv'd well the Church of Scotland against Prelacy and not at all e contra But tho' things had been quite otherwise there had been no fear of harm from their Prescriptions seeing as Vincentius Lerinensis admonishes In refutation of inveterat Errors we must recurr to the sole authority of the Scriptures And Optatus Milevit plainly asserts that Christ's Testament abundantly suffices to determine all and every particular Controversie among Christians Thus we see how pleasant a spectacle these two Champions afford us the Bishop forms the Major Proposition and asserts on supposition of the Antiquity of our Royal Line and veracity of our Historians that our Church acted with reason enough and was only recovering her own Right when she cashier'd Prelacy The Advocat in attempting to disprove this the Bishop's Proposition has only giv'n such prevarications and elusions as most strongly confirm all the dis-interested of the truth thereof As for the Minor Proposition that our ancient Royal Line is not forg'd but real and our historical Monuments most true and credible the Advocat himself to the conviction of all the unbyass'd in both his Books makes appear It remains therefore as a conclusion of undoubted verity that our Church was
so much or been altogether silent thereof neither of which they did but gave to the World solemnly as the Confession of their Belief that Christ gave to to all Pastors equal and the same power and yet if we believe this Interpreter this that Christ gave may according to the Authors of that Confession be relinquish'd when Men will and Inequality it 's quite contrary introduced in the place thereof Is not this too like the dealing of the Romanists who when they are compell'd to acknowledge that the Apostles gave the Cup to the People yet pretend that they may deprive them of what Christ and his Apostles gave them Divers indeed have said that Church Government was among the Adiaphora and things indifferent But these were more wary then to say as he would have the Authors of these Confessions to say that Christ gave equal and the same Power to all Pastors yea such used not to grant that Christ gave either Equality or Inequality of Power but left all to the Churches management Moreover as he does us no dammage so I 'm sure he does the present Hierarchicks as little service for if this Hypothesis that no kind of Church Government is juris divini stand then the jus divinum of Episcopacy is lost and therefore I 'm sure they shall give him as little thanks as we 'T is also observable that when ever the Authors of these Confessions or other Divines of their Perswasion said that Communion with Churches of a different Government was not to be broken or any thing of that kind he presently inferrs that they judg'd any other form no less agreeable to the word of God than their own And here I cann't but take nottice of what I have met with somewhere in M. Claude's historical defence of the Reformation for at present I have not the book viz. that Diocesan Episcopacy is no less condemnable than Pilgrimages Purgatories or some such Romish dotages which he there names and how averse he was from Diocesan Episcopacy is observed by the Prefacer to the English Translation and yet if we believe some he gave large Testimonies of his great affection to the Diocesan cause And this brings to mind another Artifice for when any Protestant Divines considering the great Power of Popish Bishops and vehemently desiring Peace for the free Preaching and Propagation of the Gospel strain'd their Judgement and seem'd at any time to do or say somewhat that appear'd to comply with Episcopacy our Prelatists anone Infer that such Divines were great Lovers of their Hierarchy Thus for Example they abuse the Words and Actions of Melancton but they should remember that sometimes driving the same Design some of these Divines seem'd no less to comply with the Papacy it self as appear'd at the pressing of the Interim The same end drove Melancton when in a Conference at Ausburg as Osiander relates he seem'd to yeeld somewhat of Jurisdiction to Bishops for be hop'd that if Jurisdiction were granted them they would not so much oppose the Gospel But Philip consider'd not continues Osiander that the Fox may change his hair not his Temper Melancton granted also to the Pope provided he would admit the Gospel a superiority over other Bishops founded only on humane right and yeelded for procuring of the Peace of Christendom Thus Melancton through his extream desire of Peace forc'd his own Judgement for with Luther and the rest he subscribes the Smalkaldick Articles wherein as we have heard the Scriptural Idenity of Bishop and Presbyter is most clearly asserted But what ever they say to perswade us that these or other such Divines favour them we are little oblig'd to believe it for they believe it not themselves and these of our Adversaries that speak out their mind freely tell us that all the transmarine reformed Churches are really Presbyterian It were too much I 'm sure to transcribe what D. Heylin says of this for he freely grants it and then through a whole large Folio as such bespatters with the blackest of Railings and Calumnies every one of the reformed Churches in particular No less positive is Howell who makes Calvin the first Broacher of the Presbyterian Religion And a little after Thus saith he Geneva Lake swallowed up the Episcopal See and Church Lands were made secular which was the white they levell'd at This Geneva Bird flew thence io France and hatch'd the Huguenots which make about the tenth part of that People it took wing also to Bohemia and Germany high and loe as the Palatinate the land of Hesse and the confederat Provinces of the States of Holland Yea Bellarmine being to write against Presbytry lays down in the entry as undeniable that ' t is the common doctrine of both Calvinists and Lutherans § 5. To these may be added all such as were valiant for the truths of God and stoutly oppos'd themselves to Antichrist before Luther as the Waldenses and Albigenses of whom Alphonsus de Castro relates that they deny'd any difference between Bishop and Presbyter and herein differ'd nothing from Aërius This same may be learn'd from Thuan who compares them with the English Non-conformists So far from truth was D M. when he says that these only declaimed against the corrupt Manners of the Church of Rome but never declaim'd against the subordination of one Priest unto another This same doctrine held Wicklef and his followers denying that there is any difference between Bishop and Presbyter The Waldenses and Wicklef were in this as in the rest of their Articles follow'd by J. Huss and his Adherents who also asserted that there ought to be no difference between Bishop and Presbyter or among Priests Yea so Catholick and universall hath this doctrine of the Identity of Bishop and Presbyter still been that it hath all along by the Romanists been justly reck'n'd a prime doctrine of Romes Opposers Nor shall yow readily find one before Luther for of such I now speak of Truth 's Witnesses who condemn'd not all distinction between Bishop and Presbyter § 6. And even in England it self after the Reformation the famousest Bishops and lights of that Church as Hooper Latimer and others could not without great difficulty and reluctancy admitt the exercing of the Episcopal Office the using of their Priestly vestments c to be in any sense lawfull so far were they from believing a Divine Right of Diocesan Episcopacy But as Voëtius observes the use of it was excus'd rather than defended The first or at least the Standard-bearer among the first that either in England or any where else in the reform'd World had the brow to assert its Divine Right appear'd in the latter part of Queen Elizabeths Reign neither was he a Native of Britain but a Flemming I mean Hadrian Saravia once a Pastor in the reform'd Netherlands but as Maresius witnesses reject'd by them as being an Enemy to both their Church and State Neither was
he better look'd on as himself acknowledges by the rest of the reform'd Churches abroad And I think every true Protestant will yeeld that they had reason so to do seeing he dares make not only Bishops but also arch-Arch-Bishops Metropolitans yea and Patriarchs to be of Divine Right And over all these he places the Bishop of Rome as the Supream in Order and Honour He contends moreover that one Man may be lawfully enough both a Bishop and a Civil Magistrat and exerce one of these Offices by himself and another by his Substitutes The vast Rents of Prelates the external Pomp of Honours Titles and train like that of the greatest secular Nobles agree well enough with the simplicity of a Gospel-Ministry They may lawfully enough in their Grandor and multitude of Servants imitat the greatest Earls and Dukes All this is sufficiently warranted by Christ while he chus'd twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples If you tell him that Christ riding to Jerusalem had no train of Servants no Noble-men attending him adorn'd with golden Chains and riding on trapped Horses he answers that Christ did so throw the necessity of that time least he had been suspected as affecting an earthly Kingdom and that his want of such Splendor was the fault of Herod and such Princes as knew him not This Argument continues Saravia that they make against the Popish Prelats and ours is frivolous for it 's deduc'd from the Deeds of the Infidels and hath no place among Christians Tho' Bishops have Bands of arm'd Men to guard 'em and Noble-men adorn'd with golden Chains constantly to Page and attend them this ought to offend no Body And whatsoever he says for covering this Scandal that such superlative Grandour Pomp and Vanity give to every sober Beholder his Reader shall find to be nothing else save what 's commonly brought to palliat the Offence which the World so justly takes at the Luciferian Pride and Arrogance of the great Antichrist yea even long after that time notwithstanding of all the endeavours of Saravia and his Complices so great a Stranger was this Doctrine even there that T. Holland the King's Professor at Oxford branded Laud with publick infamy for asserting the divine right of Episcopacy Section X. Some of the manifold inconveniences and noxious Qualities of Prelacy briefly mention'd I Might in the next place enlarge on its Concomitants and Qualities a few whereof I shall only name One of these was a direfull Spirit of Persecution which still rag'd during the Prelatical Government the sad effects whereof through no small part of this Kingdom on both Bodies and Consciences of the best part of Protestants therein and that for their refusal of the very things which many of the Urgers acknowledg'd to be altogether indifferent are but too well known § 2. Another of its Qualities little better than the former is their Schismatical Practice and Principles as for instance at the last return of Prelats the Church of Scotland whatsoever Differences might have been therein yet was but one and not Altar against Altar did they not then become the Authors of a compleat National Schism while they broke the whole Church into Parties to the end only they might establish such things as many of themselves acknowledg'd to be indifferent Again their re-entry into Scotland was so far from being Legal that it wanted the very colour of all Order Law for no General Assembly of whatsoever kind introduc'd them Seeing then this Church has ever since her return from Rome held General and National Assemblies for her supream Judicatory and Prelats were extruded by full National Assemblies they ought for their re-entry without the like Authority to be accounted by all true Members of the Church of Scotland manifest Violators of all her Laws and Authority And while they upbraid us with the Crime of Separation are exactly like these who having overturn'd all fundamental Laws of a Society and ruin'd all both Officers and Members cleaving thereto should moreover reproach them upon this very account that they would not subscribe to the overthrow of their fundamental Laws and Constitution But marvel not tho' they made so wide a Breach here for they give but too much ground to judge that they have separated themselves from the Body of the reform'd Churches as appears amongst other things in their Doctrine and Practice of Re-ordaining all who come over unto them from these Churches Some indeed would perswade us that they hold this but as a small Ceremony but yet it 's such an one as for ought I can learn they will never quite with notwithstanding of all the Scandals giv'n or taken thereby And the most earnest Asserters of Episcopacy have their Episcopal Ordination in such esteem that they account none true Ministers without it and so look on most of the Reform'd Churches as being without all true Ministers consequently without either true Preaching or true Sacraments And is not this too like a Donatistick Schism And is it strange then that our Church did still with greatest care and vigor tho' on this account only oppose Prelacy and Prelatists they being generally leaven'd with such dangerous Principles And here observe that all the Heats and Debates that were in our Church since her Reformation from Popery owe their Original either more directly to Prelacy while she strove to keep or drive it out of Scotland or more indirectly while some if on good ground or otherwise I determine not greatly feared that some Persons or Practices would prove introductive thereof and therefore against the mind of others sought to have them laid aside And thus Prelacy whither present or absent hath still been the bane of this Church And there 's little doubt but that they were so wise in their Generation as both to kindle and blow at the fire of any Division that happen'd § 3. And as they give but too evident signs of their separating from the Body of the reform'd Churches so in too many things they but too nigh approach the Romanists Their Government and Hierarchick Scale is one and the same save one roundle with that of Rome All their Arguments they bring either from Scripture or Antiquity are learn'd from Bellarmine and such Romanists and admit no less improvement for the evincing a papal Authority than the Episcopals have made thereof for the establishing of their prelatical Power The Romanists affirm that the Apostles and Evangelists were Prelats of particular Diocesses and that a power properly Apostolick still remains in the Church In these and other such Positions too many of our Episcopal Men are ready to follow them But leaving the Apostolick times descend to the subsequent Ages call'd Antiquity there they 're Pylades and Orestes mutual Supporters of one another and have in arguing from this Fountain so great a resemblace that you shall scarce know with whither of the two ye are dealing Neither as we have already touch'd in the
arte perire sua Section V. The Objections they pretend to bring from Scripture against the Doctrine now deduc'd from Ignatius removed ANd indeed Ignatius is encompast with so thick a Cloud of Witnesses who not only deny all support to but give most evident Depositions against the Diocesan Prelat that his Testimony in favours thereof should be a firm demonstration of the Bastardy of these Epistles The time of the Apostles was not far above that of Ignatius Now if we consult these we shall not only find our Adversaries destitute of their Suffrages but also overwhelm'd with their plain Testimonies against the Hierarchy 'T is true they alledge several things out of the Apostolick Writings for establishing their Cause as that Timothy and Titus as also the Angels of the Asiatick Caeurches were Diocesan Bishops The grounds wherein tâ—ey establish the Episcopacy of Timothy and Titus are that they are enjoined to Ordain Elders which in after Ages was the peculiar Province of Diocesan Bishops and that in the Postscrâ—pts of these Epistles they are both called Bishops But their later Topick is by the profound silence of the ancient Commentaries and many other tokens of Forgery and Novelty so baffl'd that Prelacy's present Agents and amongst others D. M are so wise as to suppress it And yet D. M. adventures to conclude Timothy his being made Bishop of Ephesus from Acts 20. 3 4 5. which Inference few I think beside the Author can gather compared with 1 Tim. 1. 3. I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine From which even tho' it be compared with the other Scripture any Man in his Wit would much rather with Chrysostome inferr the very contrary and conclude that Timothy's stay at Ephesus was only temporary to expede the Business there mention'd but not to fix therein But saith he 1 Tim. 3. 14. 15. These things I write unto thee c. plainly insinuat his particular Relation to the Church of Ephesus But the many Scriptures informing us of Timothy's almost perpetual absence from Ephesus perswade that there was no such Relation neither does this place in the least insinuat it but only that Timothy if not sent for was to stay till Paul's return wherefore he begs the Question while he tells us that after he was in a particular manner established Bishop of the Church of Ephesus he might wait upon Paul Moreover this was an odd Attendance that scarce ever suffer'd Timothy to stay with his Flock and this shift too like that of the Romanists who in Answer to the Argument from Scripture-silence against Peter's being Bishop of Rome tell us that he was frequently abroad But here we have not only Scripture-silence but Scripture Testimony shewing Timothy's almost perpetual absence from Ephesus He essays also to bring Timothy's Episcopal Power and particular Relation to Ephesus from 1 Tim. 5. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 1. and 1 Tim. 5. 21. And that this was not temporary or transient but successive and perpetual he would prove from 1 Tim. 6. 13. 20. and 2 Tim. 2. 2. and adds that his Adversaries grant that the Power he pleads for to Bishops was exercised by Timothy But as for the particular Relation he speaks of he should have proved it seeing he knows it will not be granted except he bring more than the bare recitall of the places from which his fancy collects it and without such a particular Relation the Power Timothy exercised be what it will makes nothing for his purpose seeing it might be lodged in him alone as an Evangelist and thus most of his postulata prove useless Yet I will handle them particularly of which the first two are that the Power which Timothy exercised was in it self lawfull and that he practised it in Ephesus And 't is true none denies it but what then untill he first prove Timothy's particular Relation to the Church of Ephesus The third and fourth are that it was committed to him alone and not to a Colledge of Presbyters acting among themselves in Parity And that there 's no mention of any spiritual Power lodged in a Colledge of Presbyters to which Timothy was accountable But Willet an approved Divine of the Church of England shall answer for us Neither saith he can it be gathered by these words of the Apostle lay Hands suddenly upon no Man c. That Timothy had this sole Power in himself for the Apostle would not give that to him which he did not take to himself who associated unto him the rest of the Presbytry in Ordaining of Timothy I add that there 's no less mention of a spiritual Power in a Colledge of Presbyters c. than of Timothy's being fixed Bishop of Ephesus Hence his 5. postulatum viz. That the great and most eminent Branches of the Episcopal Power were lodged in Timothy ' s Person the ordination of such as were admitted unto the sacred Function the care of Widows the Censuring of Elders and his autoritative preventing of Heresies becomes unserviceable His VI is that this Authority was not in it self of temporary duration transient or extraordinary but such as the constant Necessities of the Church do make necessary in all Ages for he was commanded to commit it unto faithfull Men such as should be able to teach others and if there be nothing in it extraordinary why do they say that in the discharging of an ordinary trust there was need of an extraordinary Officer But First he corrupts the Apostles words 2 Tim. 2. 2. substituting it in stead of them that thereby he may force the Text to speak of a Power equal to that of Timothy which was to be derived unto succeeding Teachers when yet it plainly speaks of the Transmission of the Doctrine or things Timothy had heard and others were to teach but nothing of an equality of Timothy's Power to be derived in solidum to every subsequent Bishop or Teacher Now except this be proved D. M. saith nothing Yea Hammond expresly contradicts him Appoint them saith he as Bishops under thee Moreover Christ committed the things Paul here speaks of to his Apostles yet will D. M. say their Power was equall to Christ's Secondly In this his last postulatum there appears a strange kind of reasoning viz. the Things or Actions wherein Timothy and Titus were employed are perpetual and ordinary therefore they were not extraordinary Officers just as if one would Reason It 's ordinary for a skillfull Physitian to relieve a Febricitant therefore our Saviour relieving Peter's Wife's Mother was no extraordinary Physitian For their Method and Way of performing these Actions was extraordinary and temporary they having no special Power over or Relation to any one particular Congregation but such a Power and Relation as equally were extended over all the places whither they were sent Moreover others of their Actions and these which were properly Evangelistick were extraordinary such
seeing as Blondel at large shews the phrase natively yealds only this sense viz. Polycarp and the rest of the Presbyters of that Colleage And thus D. M. may as well inferr Peter's Superiority and Power over the rest of the Apostles from Acts 2. 37. To Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Moreover Blondel demonstrats how on diverse accounts Polycarp without any Eminency and Power over the rest may be particularly nominated rather than others as because he was first in Order and Years But I insist not herein but referr to Blondel who hath nervously baffl'd this their pitifull Coujecture D. M. adventures to ingage with nothing of what he saith and yet is not asham'd to bring to the Field so blunted a weapon I pass also D. M.'s two Arguments for Polycarp's Diocesan Episcopacy drawn from the pretended Succession of Diocesan Bishops in Smyrna and the Epistles of Ignatius mention'd by Polycarp having overthrown both of 'em already and proceed to the Testimony of Hermas who thus speaks Thou shalt write two Books thou shalt send one to Clement and one to Graptes and Clement shall send it to foraign Cities for to him this is permitted and Graptes shall admonish the Widows and Orphans but thou shalt read it with or relate it unto the Presbyters in this City who govern the Church Where we see that not any one Bishop but a Colledge of Presbyters call'd doubtless afterward by the same Author Bishops govern'd the Church of one City Yet D. M. pretends to find here a palpable Evidence of Episcopacy For saith he the sending of the Encyclical Epistle to foraign Cities is insinuated to be the peculiar Priviledge of Clement then Bishop of Rome But if he conclude from this place of Hermas that Clement had any Power over these to whom he was to send that Book or Epistle as for Clement's being Bishop of Rome it 's so far from being insinuated here that the quite contary is from this very place most evident he may as well inferr from Col. 4. 16. that they had Power over the Laodiceans whither they were to send and cause to be read the Apostle's Letter Secondly D. M. ascribing to the Bishop of Rome Power over foraign Cities erects a Pope rather than a Bishop But I 'll assure him he came not in so early for seeing there was undoubtedly one Bishop at least in every particular City so soon as there were any in the World this place of Hermas if it bear D. M's Inference and give a Power to Clement over foraign Cities insinuats nothing of a Bishop's Dignity above Presbyters but of the power of one Bishop over another or rather of a Pope over other Churches A falshood most unanimously exploded by Cyprian Jerome Augustine and the rest of the Ancients D. M. seeks also for his Prelacy in these words of Hermas viz. The Earthly Spirit exalts it self and seeks the first seat Some contend for Principality and Dignity But what if Hermas had said that some contended to get an Empire and Popedome over the whole Church would D. M. hence conclude that it was lawfull or then practised in the Church or when the Apostles contended who should be the greatest Had Christ before that time assured them of the lawfulness of such an Office and told them that they were to have one to be a Prince over the rest By no Logick therefore can it be inferred for Hermas his words that a chief Seat or Principality for both are one and the same with Hermas was then either exercised or held lawfull Again tho' both had been then in Custome no Power of one over the rest can be hence concluded seeing the chief Seats are given to the Moderators of Synods and other Presidents of Assemblies who have no primacy of Power but only of Order And again The polished and white Stones saith Hermas are the Apostles and Bishops and Doctors and Deacons who walked in the Clemency of God aâ—d exercised the Office of a Bishop and taught and served And Such are some Bishops that is Governours of the Churches and these who have the Charâ—e of the Services § 7. In both places saith Blondel he makes only two Degrees that of the Bishops who governed the Churches and that of the Deacons who had the charge of the Services for it 's acknowledged by all that the Doctors are all one with the Bishops when they are said to have performed the Office of a Bishop and that the Apostles as they are opposed to Bishops were placed above the whole Clergy This repons D. M. is Tergiversation with a Witness and a fraudulent Trick in Blondel since Presbyters in the primitive Church are frequently distinguished by the Name of Doctors and Blondel's Commentary is a manifest violence offered to the Text for Doctors are not said to have performed the Office of a Bishop but to have taught and this is very agreeable to their Character being so much imploy'd by their respective Bishops in teaching the Catechumeni and the natural position of these words will allow of no other meaning Which Answer D. M. hath learned from the Practice of our late Bishops during whose Epocha the Buffund might have hid himself well nigh the whole year from the Bishop's fury in the Bishop's pulpit seeing he scarce ever came thither to play the Doctor or ought else As for the Ancient and true primitive Bishops they perpetually preach'd or taught saith Le Moyn Moreover the Fathers generally take Pastor Bishop and Doctor for one and the same as Chrysostome Theophylact Theodoret Sedulius and after them Aquinas Haymo Benedictus Justinianus with others on Ephes. 4. 11. Of the same mind are Hierome Augustine and Anselm and the pretended Clemens Romanus cited by Gratian and Benedictus Justinianus and the Fathers of the Council of Carthage Of the same Mind are the ablest of our Episcopals as Field Hammond and Heylen So truly did Blondel say that Bishop and Doctor is universally taken for one and the same Neither was ever the Presbyter either in Cyprian or any other Ancient called Doctor in opposition to the Bishop but to other Ecclesiastick Presbyters who taught not of whose existence as was before touched we have most sufficient assurance But D. M. in contradiction to the Apostle would have a Bishop who is no Teacher or Preacher like the Droll who said he mett with Priests who were no Clerks And seeing with Hermas there are but two Orders of Church-men and Bishops and praesides Ecclesiarum Church Governours are reciprocal Terms taken for one and the same and seeing that his Presbyters are expresly term'd Church-Governours it 's most evident that he takes Bishop and Presbyter for one and the same and that the word Doctor is purely exegetick or explicative of the word Bishop and that both of them which I 'm sure is not unfrequent in all sorts of Authors evidently signifie one and the same thing § 8. I now
contrary to the holy Canons And thus he acted suitably to his purpose seeing the enslaving the lesser and Country Churches to the Domination of these of the greater Cities made fair way for subjecting all to Rome which on many Accounts was greater than any of the rest He also hereby gratified and much obliged the Bishops of these great Cities who were desirous of nothing more than of Domination and accordingly they even at these times were giving him their mutual help for raising of the Papal Throne yea before the time of Damasus this same Council of Sardica which thought it too vile and base for a Bishop to Dwell out of a great City Decreed also That if any Bishop thought he was injured in any Cause by his Comprovincials and ordinary Judges it should in this Case be lawfull for him to appeal to the Bishop of Rome Let us honour say they the Memory of St. Peter that either these who examined the Matter or other neighbouring Bishops write to Julius Bishop of Rome and if he think it fit then let the Matter be tried and judged again and let him appoint Judges for the Purpose but if he approve of what 's already done and think not fit to call it into Question then the things already done shall be accounted firm and stable Thus these Fathers many whereof otherwise were excellent Men the first I think that ever gave such Deference and Authority to the Pope 't was not therefore incongruous that both of these Decrees should proceed from one and the same Council Hence it 's to be noted that the Tympany of these times had not only exerted it self in separating the things God had conjoin'd and in an holygarchick Confinement of the Power God had given equally to all Pastors unto a few whom they named Bishops a Name also equally belonging to all Christ's Ministers but also in subjecting of the Presbyters yea and even the Bishops of the Countrey to the very Presbyters of the City but much more the Bishops or Pastors of the Countrey to the Bishops of the Cities and these again to the Bishops of the greater Metropolitan Cities and so on till at length not to name the rest of the higher and lower roundles of this Hierarchick Ladder all centred in Rome Yet in these very times it was notwithstanding firmly rooted in Mens Minds that whosoever dispensed the Word and Sacraments and had a Flock or Congregation was a true Bishop as I have made out to be the mind of Hilary and many others of the fourth and fifth Centuries Moreover Optatus asserts that Preaching or Exponing is the proper Province of a Bishop But to proceed these Chorepiscopi or Countrey Bishops of Parish Pastors were in the third Century called absolutely Bishops at the Countrey Places or Villages so speaks the Council of Antioch He say these Fathers i. e. Paulus Samosatenus suborn'd the Bishops of the neighbouring Countrey Villages and Towns as also Presbyters his Flatterers to praise him in their Homilies Dr. Maurice answers that it appears not hence that these were Parish Bishops for Chorepiscopi had many Congregations As if these who dwelt not only in greater Towns but also in the very Countrey Villages which were near to Antioch and near to one another and that even where the far greater part of the Inhabitants were not of their Flocks yea were not at all Christians could be by any in their Wit judged to be any thing else save Parish Bishops or Pastors But let us hear one of the learn'dest of our Adversaries determining the Controversie That saith he which next occurrs to be considered is in what places Bishopricks were founded and Bishops settled We find in all Cities where the Gospel was planted and Churches constituted that Bishops were also Ordain'd Among the Jews wherever there were an hundred and twenty of them together there did they erect a Synagogue and a lesser Sanhedrin the Court of twenty three Judges Compare to this Acts 1. 15. where the number of those that constituted the first Christian Church is the same So it is like wherever there was a competent number of Christians together that a Church was there settled Yet in some Villages there were Churches and Bishops so there was a Bishop in Bethany and St. Paul tells of the Church of Cenchrea which was the Port of Corinth It is true some think that the Church of Corinth mett there Which Opinion he irrefragably Refutes and then proceeds saying Therefore it 's probable that the Church of Cenchrea was distinct from Corinth and since they had Phebe for their Deaconness it 's not to be doubted but they had Both Bishops and Deacons From the several Cities the Gospel was dilated and propagated to the places round about But in some Countries we find the Bishopricks very thick sett They were pretty throng in Asrick for at a Conference which Augustine and the Bishops of that Province had with the Donatists there were of Bishops two hundred eighty six present and one hundred and twenty absent and sixty Sees were then Vacant which make in all four hundred sixty and six there were also two hundred and seventy nine of the Donatists Bishops Thus he And now not to multiply Testimonies in so confessed and plain a Matter it 's most certain that at least for upwards of the three first Centuries you shall not meet with the meanest Dorp or countrey place where there was a Church or Congregation to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments but it had also its proper Bishop I averr no Example to the contrary either has yet no not by Dr. Maurice or any other been or can be brought from the gennine Monuments of these times Yea even from the spurious Writings of Impostures the greatest Adorers of the Hierarchy good proofs of this Truth may be adduced For the thirty eight of the Canons ascribed to the Apostles gives the care of the Ecclesiastick Goods to the Bishop as Justine Martyr gives to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who as we have seen already was purely a Parish Pastor And the 39 Canon saith Let the Presbyters and Deacons attempt nothing without the Bishop for to him the Lord's People is committed and for their Souls he must give an Account Now I demand of all Men brooking either Conscience or Candor if Souls could be committed to any save him who was their ordinary Feeder and Instructer And the Pseudo-Dionysius clearly intimats that wherever either Baptism or the Lord's Supper was administrat'd a Bishop was there and was the Dispenser thereof The High-Priest saith he that is the Bishop preaches to all Men the true Gospel every one that desires to Partake of these Heavenly Things coming to one of the learned in these Mysteries desires to be led to the High-Priest and he brings him to the High-Priest who receiving him with gladness as a Sheep on his shoulders praises the bountifull prinple by which all are
called who are called at all The High-Priest dips him thrice The High-Priest himself having made a holy Prayer at the Divine Altar and beginning to Offer goes round about the whole Chore and the High-Priest praising the Holy Divine Actions sacrifices the most Divine Thing and taking and delivering the Divine Communion he ends with a Holy Thanksgiving Do nothing saith the Pseudo-Ignatius to Hero a Deacon of Antioch without the Bishops for they are Priests thou their Deacon they Baptize Sacrifice or Dispense the Lord's Supper impose Hands thou serves them as St. Stephen in Jerusalem administred to James and the Elders From which place it 's most evident that all Pastors or Priests as the Author speaks are true Bishops that on the account of such things as are common to all Pastors they receive the prime Episcopal Honour and Deference that there was a Colledge of true Bishops in the single City of Antioch accordingly that the rest of the Elders with James at Jerusalem were really true Bishops no less than he I don't say that Bishops and Congregations were reciprocal every-where in the fourth or fifth Century when these Impostors wrote only being to personat Apostolick Men they saw themselves obliged to mix into their Legends some shreds of true Antiquity The stuff they invented themselves was of a far different and contrary Mettal and far from being so conform and like to the Apostolick and prime Primitive Church § 14 And here it 's to be added that as every Bishop had once which continued in very many places for a good space one Congregation only so all Bishops whatsoever are of the same Dignity and Equal with one another For Cyprian calls all Bishops Collegues adding we force none we give Laws to none seeing every Governour in the Administration of the Church hath Power to do according to his own Will for which he is to give God an Acconnt And for none of us is a Bishop of Bishops or by a Tyrannical Power can force his Collegues to Obedience c. And Hierome saith wheresoever Bishops be at Rome or Eugubium Constantinople Rhegium Alexandria or Tanis they are all of the same Dignity and Priest-hood Riches and Poverty make not a Bishop either higher or lower they are all the Successors of the Apostles Which is also Augustine's Mind and must be granted by all who acknowledge the Equality of the Apostles and that Bishops were their Successors Now the Truth of these two Things viz. the allowableness of a Bishop to every Congregation yea the primitive Reciprocalness of a Bishop and a Congregation and the Equality of Bishops among themselves being supposed which indeed is undoubtable to all the Ingenuous their whole Hierarchy turns to nothing And now I hope that which some pretend to be a mighty Prejudice viz. that Episcopacy still de facto has been and from the earliest times of Christianity we hear of Bishops is many ways removed and that by this time it has clearly appeared that either profound Ignorance Osscitancy or the masly beam of Interest in Mens Eyes has been the true Source of this Prejudice Moreover suppose that it could not be easily told when this Corruption which is like the Tares sown during the sleeping of the Husband-man crept into the Church Can they tell when all other Corruptions made their first Entry As for Example can they give a distinct account when the use of Oyl in Baptism whereof Tertullian speaks as of a thing constantly practised among Christians came first in Fashion The like I may say of Exorcization and many other things altogether uncertain as to their Beginning and yet by all Lovers of the Truth of Christianity to be Corruptions whereof see store in Chamier's Panstratia Secondly I trust also that by the foregoing Discourses the Weapon the Papists and other Hierarchicks use against the Reformed Churches to prove that they have no Ministers because of the want of a Succession of Bishops is sufficiently blunted And this minds me of an Objection I was assaulted with from a Gentleman of that Perswasion 't was that these Episcopal Men who ordained our Pastors gave them the Power of Ordination neither in express Terms nor yet intentionally Ergo not at all I Repon'd that tho' they did not give it them intentione Operantis yet notwithstanding intentione Operis in so much as they ordain'd the Ministers of the Gospel all whom we sustain to be true Bishops I add this is to a hair like Becan the Jebusites arguing against Luther's Call to be a Protestant-Minister Luther saith he had no lawfull Calling to the Ministry he exercised after his Defection for then he began to oppugn the Catholick Church abolish Feasts Monastick Vows and Prayers for the Dead these things he could not do by the Power which he had received in the Catholick Church for the Bishop who ordained him gave him no Power for the Destruction of the Church § 15. But there yet remains a great Prejudice and no wonder for it comes from a great City Rome say they and other such vast Cities which certainly contain'd many Congregations have been always ruled by their particular Bishops as the Catalogues yet extant evinc◠But tho' 't were so seeing it 's at least no less certain that in other places Bishops and Congregations were Reciprocal we are even with them and their Argument quite evanishes and Antiquity allows us to give a Bishop to every Congregation no less than it warrands their giving a multitude of Parishes to any one Bishop And Dr. Maurice acknowledges he never yet heard of any Man who made it essential to a Bishop to have many Congregations under him And he 's so far in the right herein that during prime Antiquity 't was never so much as dream'd that 't was either essential or any way requisite for a Bishop to have a plurality of Congregations It 's not saith he the being Pastor of one or many Congregations that makes one a Bishop but the Order There are saith Saravia and have been Bishopricks so small that their Bishops had only one or two Presbyters for we measure not a Bishoprick by the number of the Clergy or by the amplitude of the City or Diocess the magnitude of Riches but by the Authority of the Episcopal Degree altho' the Bishoprick be included in one small Parish alone And some of the most Episcopal amongst them acknowledge that any of our Ministers tho' they have but one Parish want nothing to make them Bishops but only the Episcopal Consecration whereby they at once yeeld the whole Plea destroy their Hierarchy and withall discover their preterscriptural and therefore antiscriptural Superstition And now seeing there is all the warrant and allowance that either can be desir'd or thought on that a Bishop and a Pastor of one single Flock or Congregation is one and the same and that every Congregation may have its own proper Bishop their
Topicks they pretend to draw from Reason as that of Order and the like is there between them any less Consanguinity § 4. The Practice also of our Prelats both former and latter bore no small resemblance to that of the Romanists while they affected so earnestly a secular Grandour and the sullying the purity and simplicity of the Gospel with a mass of Superstition and Romish Ceremonies The affection of too many of that Party to Rome was also visible in their earnestness to get and keep a zealous Papist upon the Throne and in their melancholick and Pannick-fears at any appearance of our Relief from Slavery and imminent danger of Popery And lastly in their excessive Joy when any hope of our Delivery seem to have been crush'd and blasted All this was most legible in their Practice at the appearance of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle and the failing of their Designs They were no less gall'd and vex'd at the most noble and happy Design of his present Majesty praying in the chief Churches of this Kingdom that he might be sunk as a Stone in the mighty Waters And after his entry that as his Army came in one way it might be scatter'd seven ways § 5. Add to all this their either more indirect or down-right calumniating and maligning of the reform'd Churches and first Reformers placing them in the same Category with Papists Take for instance the frontispicial Lines of Nalson's Collections Like Bifrons Janus next does court your eye Rome and Geneva in Epitome They squint two ways in the main Point agree And indeed this is but their kindest dealing Neither do they then speak as they think for their Love and Charity is by many degrees greater toward the Romanists than to the reform'd Churches They will admit none of the latter to a pastoral Office if they refuse Re-Ordination but kindly receive a Romish Priest without it Of the most learn'd and godly Protestant Dissenters from them they speak most contemptuously terming them Arch-schismaticks But the Jesuit Bellarmine and Baron the Popish grand Legendarie they with greatest deference call most eminent Cardinals Yea even in the chief Churches of this Kingdom they repeated their invectives against our first Reformers and Reformation and in some Churches thereof they were not asham'd to say that our Reformation was Deformation Knox deserved knocks On the other hand not a few of 'em all along shew'd no little warmth of affection to Papists intitulating them to the same God and Heaven with themselves and asserting their neighbourhood and conjunction to be infinitely more eligible than that of these whom they-call'd Phanaticks as appears for instance in a printed Sermon of Mr Mcqueen And Heylin says that the Genevan Discipline was begotten in Rebellion born in Sedition and nursed up by Faction And indeed this Author is an Enemy so open and implacable to all the reform'd Churches that Strada Gretser Becan Campian or the like most fiery and venemous Loyolites could scarce with all their impudent slanders and infernal rage out-do yea or equal him With such stuff most of his Works and especially his History of the Presbyterians are wholly cramm'd Yea he doubts not to call both Luther and Calvin Maniches i. e. such as hold two infinite Beings or two Gods Others of the Faction as Dodwell are ready to pronounce all who dislike Diocesan Episcopacy guilty of the Sin against the Holy Ghost But the World hath now seen that the most fiery of such Zelots at length threw off the Mask and profess'd themselves Romanists as for instance L' Estrange or else which their own Dr. Burnet observes of Heylin one would think they had been secretly set on by these of the Church of Rome And so they were in their profession of Protestancy hatefull Hypocrites that they might the more easily bespatter and gore the protestant Religion through the sides of Presbytry Others of 'em are yet more down-right Atheists who if they hear the wrath of God and Hells torments denounc'd against impenitent Sinners will tell you that such a Doctctrine came from a Winter-Preacher so that if a Schytian or Groenlander who are habituated to such extream cold had heard him they would have thought he preach'd of Paradice And some call the Doctrine of Communion with God and Faith in Jesus Christ fine Fables and Stories Behold the Men who make it their chief Work to adore the Hierarchy and inveigh against Presbytry which brings to mind the saying of Tertullian that Christianity must needs be some excellent thing seeing only Nero and such Monsters were its prime Persecuters Some there are also as their own Edwards relates even of their Reverend Divines who turn all the Mosaick History concerning Adam and Eve the Serpent Paradice eating the forbidden Fruit and all the passages relating to them into Parable yea into Ridicule saying that Moses only so talked in complyance with the blockish and thick skull'd Israelites but not a syllable of truth is in all that he saith This is very strange language subjoins Edwards from a Reverend Divine who thereby destroyes the whole system of Theology and of Christianity it self And yet for such black and hainous Crimes we cann't hear that they undergoe the least degree of Censure In my Judgement saith Edwards if there be no publick Censure pass'd upon such a daring Attempt as this by a Member of our Church Athiests will have just ground to laugh at our Discipline And here in Scotland all along during their Reign how closely did they connive at such Irreligion as also at all the growth and progress then made by the active Spirit of Popery and in stead of being providers against such Pests some of our Prelats at Court prov'd Mediators in their behalf saying that there was less to be fear'd from Papists than from Phanaticks And in answer to some imputing gross Enormities to the Church of Rome said that such things were only to be ascrib'd to the Court of Rome not to the Church of Rome Add hereto the great love of not a few of 'em to the Pelagian Jesuitick or Arminian Doctrines Hypotheses clean contrary to the belief of all the reform'd Churches and more especially to that of the Church of Scotland They pretend notwithstanding as if the establishing of Prelacy were the debarring of Popery Episcopacy say they was so far from being judg'd a step to it that the ruine of the Episcopal Authority over Presbyters and the granting them exemptions from the jurisdiction of their Ordinary was the greatest advance the Roman Bishop ever made in his tyrannical Vsurpation over Churches I need not here tell so known a matter as is that of the exemption of the Regulars who being subject to their own Superiours and Generals and by them to the Pope were sent through the World in swarms and with great shows of Piety Devotion and Poverty carried away all the esteem and following from the
to that of Ignatius foisted in a great many Passages wherein nothing but the illimited Power of all Church-men is depredicated and the blind Obedience of the Laity is enjoin'd and commended I 'm confirmed in my sentiment by Ignatius his Epistle to the Romans who certainly had as truly a Bishop as the Smyrneans Magnesians or any other saluted by Ignatius but of the Roman Bishop or of the Honour and Obedience due to him in all this Epistle we find not a syllable Certainly had this servile Obedience to the Clergy been such a fundamental Article of the Christian Religion as all along through these other six Epistles he makes it he had not failed to have inform'd the Romans thereof seeing nothing I believe can be alledg'd to exime the Romans more than other Churches from paying such Honour to their Clergy 'T is vain to repone that he was then on his Journey to Rome and was shortly to see that Church and might on this account forbear seeing they may after this manner of arguing prove the whole Epistle spurious or at least superfluous this Duty of Obedience to Church-men if we believe these six Epistles being so necessary a part of the Christian Religion that 't is never to be forgotten but at all times with the greatest zeal and fervency to be inculcated § 3. Yet in defence of all these most dangerous Injunctions of his Ignatius Dr. Pearson saith That there could be no fitter remedy against Heresies then that the Churches should adhere to the Pastors whom Ignatius knew to be Orthodox But such an adherence as these Epistles every where command is so far from being a Remedy against Heresies and Schisms that as the sad instance of the Romanists witness it has been the greatest Augmentation and the most deadly humour in all the Disease But why did he not acquaint the Romans with this Remedy Did he suspect their Bishop as unsound Or thought he that every Roman Christian was above danger and infallible And indeed the scarce paralellable extolling of Church-men through all the former six Epistles the perpetual silence thereof in that to the Romans loudly proclaim that either they were write by different Authors or else that they have undergone no few Additions and Corruptions which his Epistle to the Romans had escaped seeing I think they will scarce adventure to say that the Epistle to the Romans sometime had in it such Injunctions of Obedience to the Roman Clergy which by some chance or other were afterward obliterate § 4. Again what can we make of that proud boasting in his Epistle to the Trallesians as if he had been the only Muster-Master to the Angels But Pearson tells us That it 's not strange tho' Ignatius a Bishop who had long conversed with the Apostles could write something concerning Heavenly Things which are so often mention'd by the Apostles and he stiffly denies in opposition to Daille That such knowledge is not giv'n to Mortals and perhaps saith Pearson we know not well what Ignatius mean'd when he wrote these things concerning Angels and yet who will say but that he knew them himself And then he acknowledges that Ignatius discourses of his Know not giv'n to any Mortal seeing for the proof hereof it 's enough to repone the words of Elephas to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thee Surely not to Paul seeing it can never be made evident that he either taught others or ascribed to himself the knowledge of these Ignatian or rather Pseudo-Ignatian Mysteries Altho' therefore we know not the meaning of these his words we shall I believe incurr little hazard thereby and if he knew them himself I shall not debate Certainly if we judge of the Author by his Work we shall have little ground to apprehend that his Judgement was of the greatest reach for remove a very few flowers this so much celebrated Garden shall be nothing but a den of weeds neither can better be expected where any intrude into the things they have not seen as the Author of this Passage appears to have done boasting of that wherein neither the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures nor the primitive Christians profess'd themselves to be skillfull for altho ' the Ancients acknowledged that there were or might be such Dignities Distinctions among Angels yet who before the Impostour that borrowed the name of the Areopagite adventured to profess their acquaintance with the particulars thereof But most of all I admire that he for his purpose alledges Irenaeus as if the Mysteries of God were nothing else but a convertible term with the Politicks or Tacticks of Angels With how much more reason may we understand the Mysteries mention'd by Irenaeus to be these magnifi'd by the Apostle 1 Tim. 3. 16. which without Controversie are equaly great and proffitable Lastly as to Chrysostome he cites no where wherfore I cann't so easily make a judgement concerning him otherwise ' tseems he may be understood of a greater measure of knowledge of the Mysteries frequently spoken off by the Apostle And withall I observe that Dr. Pearson still insinuates and intimates as if Ignatius and other primitive Christians receiv'd from the Apostles other mysterious Doctrines not to be committed to writing different from what is comprehended in the holy Scriptures wherein notwithstanding the whole Counsel of God is delivered which Opinion is much fitter for a Jewish Cabalist or Romish Traditionary than a Protestant Doctor § 4. M. Du Pin imbraces and only contracts Pearson's Answer saying that the knowledge of the Orders Offices and Stations of Angels might be affirmed by an ancient Bishop all Christians knew Heavenly Things And Ignatius says nothing of Angels but what had been said by St. Paul But herein he palpably contradicts himself and affirms what he had before deni'd for to prove the Forgery of these Books that bear the Areopagites name Du Pin gives us this Argument He viz. the Author of these Books distinguishes the several Orders of Angels and observes their difference things that were unknown to the ancient Writers and concerning which they were not sollicitous to be informed as S. Irenaeus assures us in lib. 2. ch 55. He opposes also Dr. Pearson who as we have heard deduced from this same Irenaeus a quite contrary Doctrine § 5. Thus far I had proceeded secure of any other Controversie concerning this Passage when I was surpris'd to find Dr. Wake the Englisher of these Epistles make Ignatius together with his language change his Doctrine and speak quite contrary to what he had delivered either in Greek or Latine for thus he Englishes the now controverted words of Ignatius For even I my self altho' I am in bonds yet am not therefore able to understand Heavenly Things as the description of the Places of the Angels and the several Companies of them under their respective Princes the things visible and invisible but in these things I am yet a Learner But this Version is by no
understood of Rome but of the eastern Babylon where saith the Bishop Peter was settl'd hereditary Patiark Some indeed understand them of a City bearing that name in Egypt and this Spanhemius F. and Dr. Pearson prefer to the Assyrian Babylon the former because the old Chaldean Babylon was then desolate the letter for this that after Anilaeus a chief man among the Jews in these parts had injured the Inhabitans many of them were cut off and the rest driven from Babylon who fled to Ctesiphon the most part whereof notwithstanding in a combination made against them by the Assyrians and Greeks were either cut off or expell'd Therefore he concludes that tho' Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision yet he could expect no harvest of the Jews in these parts Now as to the ground Spanhemius goes on it seems sufficient to prove that it could not be the old Chaldean Babylon For it 's certain from Scripture and Plinius witnesses that 't was then reduced to a solitude It seems therefore to be mean'd of the Principal City of the Parthian Impire which succeded to Babylon in name no less then in honour as is clear from that in Lucan Cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda Trophaeis Ausoniis If this their chief City was Ctesiphon or Seleucia may be a doubt Plinius calls Ctesiphon the Head of the Parthian Kingdom But Strabo seems to be more clear in this matter and to give light to Pliny Tacitus Herodianus Am. Marcellinus or otherwise to lay open the ground of their mistake Seleucia saith he a City by the bank of Tigris as Babylon was of old is now the Metropolis of Assyria near it there is a great Village Ctesiphon wherein the Parthian Kings used to winter sparing Seleucia that it might not be spoiled by the warlike Scythians by whom I understand their Auxiliary or guard Souldiers who were rude and ready to Mutany aud therefore were not brought within their Chief and Treasure City this Village is now arriv'd at even the power and greatness of a City Where as is evident he so much prefers Seleucia to Ctesiphon that he makes the former the chief City of the Impire Moreover Crassus when he design'd the conquest of Parthia and the possession of the Kings treasures being asked by the Messengers of Orodes King of Parthia why he broke the peace made with Pompey and Sylla said he would answer them at Seleucia proudly insinuating that he would subdue and spoile their chief City And this City expresly gets the name Babylon by Stephanus and he confounds it with the old Babylon Hence it appears that Seleucia was the chief City of the Parthian Impire and commonly then got the name of Babylon and that the very place of old Chaldean Babylon was not then known for they were certainly in distant places therefore if Josephus seem to mention another Babylon distant from the chief City of the Parthians this is rather to be understood of the Country Babylonia then of the old Chaldean Babylon which then was ruined now tho' the Jews for a time might be compelled to leave that principal City of Parthia they might notwithstanding soon after be permited to return no less then these who were expelled Rome by Claudius got Liberty shortly to come thither again This Dr. Pearson allows and therefore cannot deny the probability of the other However this be nothing is more certain then that by Babylon which Peter mentions the literal proper and well known Babylon which was then the chief City of Parthia Seleucia must be meaned otherwayes the dispersion to which he writes had neither known where he was nor what Church saluted them which is quite contrary to the Apostles Intention there For at that time the Apocalypse was not written and yet on this most false Supposition viz. that by Babylon Peter understands Rome was his Journey thither founded and so must prove no less false in the matter of fact and with it his Episcopacy and that of the earliest Popes his pretended Successors seeing all lean on his Journey thither And ' its with no less confidence and concord averred and delivered then is either his or his pretended Successors their Episcopacy or ought else Subsequent to this his falsly supposed Voyage And indeed the evidence of this our Assertion is so strong that it compell'd even the learned Romanists themselves to acknowledge the Truth thereof as J. Bapt. Mantuanus Michael Caefenas Marsilius Patavinus Joh. Aventinus Joh. Lelandus Car. Molinaeus who are Cited by Spanhemius F. in his Golden Dissertation on that Subject In the mean while I cannot but wonder how this otherways accurat and learned Antiquary finds an Aegyptian Babylon in that distick of Martial Haec tibi Memphitis Tellus dat munera victa est Pectine Niliaco jam Babylonis acus Th' Aegyptian slay gives Tapistry more fine Than ever Babylon could sue or spin Where the Poet only preferrs the Aegyptain woven Cloath to the finest needle-work of the old Chaldaean Babylon But as it is most apparent no more here either expesses or insinuats that there is a place named Babylon in Aegypt then where he comends a Gown bestow'd on him by Parthenius a gentle-man of Domitius's Chamber in this distick Non ego praetulerim Babylonica picta superbe Texta semiramiâ quae variantur acu It far excells the rich Embroideries Of Babylon built by Semiramis Moreover Clemens Romanus speaking of the Death of Peter and Paul intimates that he knew sufficiently where and by whom Paul was kill'd with other such Circumstances of his Death but insinuats that he had no such knowledge of any such Circumstances of the Death of Peter And it 's colligible from Jerome that both Peter and Paul were not kill'd by the Romans but by the Jews in or not far from Palaestine 'T were easie to discover the Forgerie and Falshood of their other Catalogues of Bishops pretended to have been in the like great Cities as for example that of the Bishops of Jerusalem whereof they fain that the Apostles made James Bishop and that on a ground to base and carnal viz. because he was the Son of Joseph and so related to Christ whom the Apostle Paul knew not according to the flesh 2 Cor. 5. 16. and then make him and his pretended successor Simeon to continue Bishops of that See from a little after the death of our Savior to I know not what year of Trajanus between which time and Adrian Trajanus's immediat successor his rebulding of Jerusalem they give to that Church thirteen Bishops to all of whom little more than twenty years can be assingn'd yea some three or four of these are cramm'd into one year and yet we hear of none of these thirteen who died a violent death but which yet more fully discovers the Forgery all along from the destruction of the City by Titus untill 't was rebuilt by Adrian there was
observed how Hilary makes the Bishop a sedulous Dispenser of the Words of suture Life And indeed all the Hierarchick Grandeur and Domination whereby a Bishop was intirely Metamorphosed into a quite other thing than what he had once been could never notwithstanding obliterate and blot out of thinking Mens Minds the true Scriptural Notion and Idea thereof The Episcopal Dignity consists in Teaching saith Balsamon And the fourth Council of Carthage decrees that a Bishop shall not be imployed in caring for his houshold Affairs but shall wholly occupy himself in Reading and Praying aud Preaching the Word § 12. 'T were endless to alledge all that may be produc'd to this purpose neither could any Man who ever seriously read the Bible have any other Notion of a true Bishop than what is common to every Pastor of a Congregation seeing the Apostle's Description of a Bishop 1 Tim. 3. and Tit. 1. agrees equally to all of them And here it 's observable that still where Bishops are spoken of in Scripture not only is the Work and Office which is injoin'd them that of Teaching and Feeding but also the Name is correlative to the Flock and not to a Company of Clergy-men as Acts 20. 28. Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Feed the Church of God 1 Pet. 5. 2. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof or Bishoping it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly as we have oftner than once demonstrated over every particular Congregation there was a Bishop This Assertion may be strongly confirmed from the undoubted Practice of the Church in the fourth Century even when she was fall'n into no small Declension from the Primitive Purity For the Council of Sardica Decrees that a Bishop may not be placed in a Village or small Town where one Presbyter may suffice Dr. Maurice says that this Canon is justified by the Arrians their great multiplication of Bishops to strengthen their Party But the Council it self assigns a quite different Ground that moved them to make this Decree viz. that the Name and Authority of a Bishop fall not into Contempt Where we see the Design of abolishing the Primitive and Apostolick Custome of giving a Bishop indifferently to every Congregation whether in City or in Countrey was the Introduction of a secular Pomp and Grandeur into the Church which finally resolv'd into a Papal Slavery However this Sardican Canon had not so good effect but that about twenty years after a new Sanction thereto was found needfull for the Council of Laodicea Decrees that it shall not be lawfull to place Bishops in little Villages or Countrey Places but only Visitors and that the Bishops who were already placed in these little Villages and Countrey Places should for the future do nothing without the knowledge of the Bishop of the City Mark how a pace the mild and fraternal Church Regimen is turn'd into a Worldly Domination and Dignity to pave the way for a papal Tyranny These rural Bishops or Countrey-parish Pastors for they can be call'd nothing else whom Dr. Beverige acknowledges for real and true Bishops were also assaulted and the subjecting and inslaving of them to the Prelates and Clergy in the greater Cities design'd by other Councils as that of Ancyrum and of Neocesaria and of Antioch there they are called Chorepiscopi i. e. Countrey Bishops And it has been disputed if these were real true Bishops But the same Dr. Beverige not only yeelds but at large pleads for the Affirmative He pretends in the mean while that anciently Bishops were ordained in Cities only many whereof had according to the model of the Empire such ample Territories that 't was impossible for the Bishop of the City his alone to visit and sufficiently to guide them and so it seem'd needfull for such Bishops to have according to the amplitude of their Bishopricks one or two Coajutors in some Region without the City who might disburden them of some parts of the Episcopal Function which could not be done but by some consecrated Bishops Hence 't was that some of these great Bishops Ordain'd in some part of their large Provinces these Bishops but with this provision that these without their leave should do nothing of moment seeing these Regions also belonged to the Care of the City Bishop which we learn continues he from the tenth Canon of the Council of Antioch where it 's expresly Decreed that no Country Bishop Ordain Presbyter or Deacon without the Bishop of the City to which he and his Region is subject But indeed there 's no such thing to be learn'd from that Canon it only says that the Chorepiscopus and his Region was subject to the City as they really were in a Civil Sense not to the Bishop of the City and tho they had said so it 's no proof of his Conclusion seeing they usually pretended Antiquity for the greatest Innovations How far either in or nigh to the Time of the Apostles the Church was from giving to the Bishop such a Princely Dignity as he pretends or from allowing him to do the Work proper to himself by substitute Vassals none acquainted with what remains of these Ancient times can be ignorant and is already oftner then once evinc'd And now I 'm sorry to find a Protestant of sence and Learning lean on that shamefull and most exploded Falshood viz. that the Apostles took the Government of the Empire for their Pattern of Church-Government and darring to publish such gross Falshoods whereof even the more ingenuous Romanists are ashamed The Ecclesiastical Degrees saith Suave were not Originally Instituted as Dignities Preheminencies Rewards or Honours as now they are and have been many hundred years but with Ministery and Charges otherwise called by St. Paul Works and those that exercise them are called by Christ our Lord in the Gospel Workmen and therefore no Man could then enter into cogitation to absent himself from the Execution thereof in his own Person and if any one which seldom happend retired from the Work 't was not thought reasonable he should have either Title or Profit And tho' the Ministeries were of two sorts some Anciently called as now they are with care of Souls others of temporal things for the sustenance and service of the Poor and Sick as were the Deaconries and other inferiour Works all held themselves equally bound to that Service in Person neither did any think of a substitute but for a short time and for great Impediments much less to take another Charge which might hinder that § 13. Bnd now to go on these Countrey Bishops or Pastors could not yet by all these Councils be Un-bishoped And therefore Pope Damasus must next fall on them and authoratively define that they were stark nought in the Church their Institution wicked and