that it belonged to Timothy being the Bishop of Ephesus as he is expresly called the First Bishop of Ephesus at the end of the second Epistle to him to whom the Church Treasure made up of the Gifts of the People was entrusted to provide for the Presbyters under him a necessary Maintenance which manner of practice continued in the Church the Bishops having the dispose of the Churches Treasure within their several Precincts during all that time the Church had no Christian Magistrate to Countenance her and long after III. He writes to him as an Ecclesiastick Ruler and Judge that had power to hear and examine Accusations brought against Presbyters and accordingly to judge after due Evidence of two or three Witnesses which plainly shews his Power of Jurisdiction over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. IV. He gives him a most solemn Charge before God the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that in the exercise of the Power of Judicatory he act impartially without Favour or biass of Affection not preferring one before another ver 21. V. He writes to him as one having Power of Ordination to Ordain Elders by laying on of Hands and cautions him to lay hands suddenly on no Man ver 22. VI. He writes to him in his second Epistle to stir up the gift of God that was in him by the putting on of his Hands together with the Hands of the Presbytery or Eldership viz. some other Apostles that might jointly with St. Paul lay Hands on him 1 Tim. 4. 14. for that the Presbytery here mentioned was a Colledge only of Presbyters is a bare alledgment viz. when he ordained him the first Bishop of Ephesus as appears from the end of the second Epistle 2 Tim. 1. 6. VII He willeth him that he commit to faithful Men who shall be able to teach others also those Things that he had heard of him among many Witnesses which behoved to be some peculiar Things relating in great part to Rules of Discipline and Church Government which were not fit either for Heathens to hear or Novices in the Faith who yet might hear the common Doctrines of the Christian Faith preached in the Christian Assemblies VIII Writing to Titus he presupposeth him Bishop of the Cretians as appears from the end of the Epistle to him and tells him why he left him in Crete That he should set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as he had appointed him I know no reason why these should be thought Lay-Elders i. e. such as were not to Preach I find none such either here or any where else in the New Testament How could Titus exercise this Authority in such a spacious Island where many Cities were and Christian Congregations set up if he had been only a single Presbyter And if the other Presbyters had equal Power with him why did not he write to him and them jointly Whether in the Ordination of Presbyters others jointly did not lay on Hands with the Bishop is not the present question but whether it is to be found in Scripture or Church History that any Number or Colledge of Presbyters Ordained any without a Bishop presiding over them IX He telleth him that the Mouths of such Teachers as were unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers and who taught things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake must be stopped which plainly shews his Authority to depose and silence false Teachers as well as to Ordain Sound and Worthy X. He telleth him of his Authority to judge who is a Heretick and how after the first and second Admonition if he amend not he ought to reject him By these Instances plainly collected out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus it may I think appear to all impartial persons that well and duly consider them that both Timothy and Titus were Bishops and had a Superiority of Power and Jurisdiction over the Presbyters in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete as well as of Ordination I know W. Prynne hath printed a Book which he called the Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus which I have read but I find not that he hath either sufficiently answered the Arguments brought from Scripture to prove that they were Bishops or given any sufficient Arguments to the contrary I have also seen another great Book of his giving a Historical Relation of the evil Practises of many Bishops all which if true saith nothing against the Office But I could write a great Book threefold greater giving a Historical Relation of many good Things Bishops have done in the World Many Bishops both in the early and latter Ages have been eminently exemplary in Holiness of Life and all Christian Virtues and for divers Ages succeeding the Apostle's Days were blessed and happy Instruments to preserve the Truth and Purity of the Christian Doctrine in the World and the Unity and Peace of the many Churches in it hindring Schisms and curing them that did threaten to arise Cutting down with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God even the Doctrinal Word outwardly delivered in the Holy Scriptures as they were mightily assisted by the Holy Spirit so to do the monstrous and vile Heresies that sprung up from time to time oppugning the Christian Faith wherein Almighty God blessed them with great Success and this they did partly by their particular Writings Treatises and Epistles as well as Sermons and partly by their assembling in great Numbers in Synods and Councils to condemn them and that many times to the danger of their Lives under persecuting Kings and Emperours some whereof were Heathen and some Arian and Eutychian Such who are but ordinarily well acquainted with Antiquity and Church History cannot be ignorant that the Government of the Church from the very days of the Apostles in all the famous places of the World where Christianity came to be planted was by Succession the which did lineally descend for four hundred years from the Apostles days and upwards and in divers places to this Age. There are two places of Scripture in the Old Testament which divers of the Fathers understood of Episcopal Government as it was to be set up in the Church under the New Testament as Psal 45. 16. being a Prophecy concerning Christ's Church and his Government in the same by Church Officers Instead of thy Fathers i. e. the Apostles who were the Founders of the New Testament Church and were her Fathers shall be thy Children i. e. their Successors in the Government of the Church after their Decease whom thou maiest make Princes in all the Earth The other Place is in Isaiah 60. 17. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons or Ministers in Faith as Clemens Bishop of Rome quotes it in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians but as the Septuagint hath it is thus And I will give thy Princes in Peace and thy Bishops in Righteousness Ignatius who conversed with St. 〈◊〉 the Apostle and as his Disciple and Bishop of Antioch being committed by him writeth thus to the Church of Smyrna let the People be subject to their Deacons the Deacons to the Presbyters the Presbyters to the Bishop and the Bishop to Christ as he is to his Bishop Policarp also was constituted by St. John Bishop of Smyrna who both suffered Martyrdom as Church History giveth 〈…〉 saith lib. 3. cap. 3. We have to remember them who were appointed Bishops by 〈…〉 qui ab Apostalis 〈◊〉 sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successoret eorum usque ād nos the Apostles in the Churches and their Successors even 〈◊〉 us This Irenaeus was Bishop at Lyons and lived within about a hundred years after St. John It is acknowledged both by ancient Writers and later yea by some 〈◊〉 and particularly by David Paraeus that the seven Angels of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. John wrote were the seven Bishops set over those seven Churches also it is very probable that St. John himself had planted all these seven Churches and did constitute the Bishops in them Hierom whom the Adversaries of Episcopacy think that he favoureth in opposition to the Episcopal Authority plainly granteth that the Power of Ordination is lodged in the Bishop saying quid enim facis excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod Presbyter non faciat i. e. for what doth the Bishop that the Presbyter may not on ought not to do except Ordination Epist ad Euagrium And the sense affirmeth that from Mark the Evangelist until Heracla 〈…〉 Bishops there the Presbyters of Alexandria did name him Bishop one among themselves elected and placed in a higher degree but he doth not say that they ordained him And both Hierom and Clemens Romanus long before him did make a paralel betwixt the High Priests Priests and Levites in the Jewish Church and Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the New Testament Church what Aaren and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple saith he the same in the Church may Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves Hier. ad Eugr. And how universal the extent of Episcopacy was in all the Churches and to what end it was appointed he further declareth in that same Epist it was decreed in the whole world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the Seeds of Schism be removed Thus far I think I have made it appear that in none of the Particulars above mentioned the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England but that what advantage there is to be found either from Scripture or Church History and Antiquity lieth on her side FINIS
are the more knowing and judicious and of best repute among them either for Piety or Learning and it will be found that they have more Books of Church of England Divines and other forraign Divines who own Communion with her than of any others And yet for all this shall I be so uncharitably judged and my Friends who go along with me as a sort of Apostates and as having bad Ends and Designs and as some of them I hear suggest against me that I do it for a Living I pray God forgive their uncharitable Judgment I neither was nor yet am so hard put to it for a worldly Living as some imagine and as others wish and desire I mean of my Adversaries among the Quakers who have Prophecied of my outward as well as inward Ruine and longed to have their false Prophecies accomplished against me but God hath hitherto disappointed them and preserved me and mine from Ruine both inwardly and outwardly for which I bless his Name and I hope he will preserve me to the End Why should the Expectation of a Living incline me more to the Church of England than to the Dissenters Had I joyned with them I might have got a Living among them perhaps more plentiful by the Peoples Gratuities than by a Set maintenance in the Church of England Which last way of living I think is the more Honourable and less obnoxious to many great Temptations and every way as suitable to the Gospel I find that the Church of God in Scripture is compared to an Army whose Captain is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ called the Captain of our Salvation Now suppose there were two Armies in the Field the one very great and numerous the other far less in Number as suppose the one Thirty thousand the other Ten pray tell me whether it is not more safe for us all who are concerned in one common Cause against the common Enemy to keep within the Body of the Army then in several Parties to straggle and keep asunder from it or Entrench by themselves The like is our present Case both the Church of England and all called Protestant Dessenters profess to be concerned in one common Cause against Papists Turks and Jews Deists and Atheists and others guilty of vile Heresies in a Spiritual Warfare Is it not therefore more prudent and safe to unite together in one Body of Christian Society and Communion against the common Enemy that we may be the stronger especially seeing the differences betwixt the Church of England and the more judicious and moderate of the Dissenters are not in any Materials either of Doctrine or Worship but the very same as they have Confessed Have not these Divisions and Separations had bad Effects weakned the Protestant Interest strengthned the Papists yea and Deists and Atheists and loose and scandalous Persons who take occasion to say there is no true Religion on either side by observing the great Heats and Annimosities and bitter Prejudices of the differing Parties I will now come to answer what I think they will object mainly against my Reason above given They will tell us that if the parity or equality on both Sides were the same my Reason would be good but they will alledge there is a great disparity and inequality the Dissenters having the Advantage in several Particulars as 1st in Doctrines 2dly in manner of Worship 3dly Administration of the Sacraments 4thly Church Governments which say the Dissenters is more agreeable to Scripture among them than in the Church of England To every one of which I think to say something as briefly as I can And First as to the Doctrine as touching the Articles of Faith the Quakers excepted they profess to be one with the Church of England and have signed or profess themselves willing to sign to her Articles Secondly as to the manner of Worship which the Dissenters contend for should be wholly by an extempore Gift of the Spirit whereas the Church of England though she alloweth that Ministers before and after Sermon may Pray without a Set Form either read or repeated from the bare Memory by using their sanctified Parts and Gifts of Understanding to Conceive Prayer by the Help of the Spirit yet She is not only for the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer composed by Pious Men of Spiritual Abilities both ancient and late but for the great Conveniency and Profitableness of them yea and Necessity of them in many respects in the Publick Worship of God leaving every one to their Christian Freedom whether to use or not use Set Forms in their Closet and Private Devotions But to this I say The most Pious as well as Judicious whom the Dissenters esteem so and repute as their Fathers and others that repute them not so yet will allow that they were very holy and spiritual Men have owned the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer yea not only the Lawfulness but the great Conveniency and Necessity of them in the Publick Worship of God Calvin one of the most famous of the Protestant Reformers was for them as I proved to you some time ago Quod ad formulam precum c. As to the Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites Note that I greatly approve that it be certain from which it may not be lawful for Pastors to depart in their Function both to guard against the Simplicity and Unskilfulness of some and also that the Consent of all the Churches among themselves may be more certainly known And lastly to Put a Check to the insolent Liberty of some who affect certain Innovations So then it behoveth there be a Set or fixed Catechism a Set Admininistration of Sacraments also a Set Form of Prayers out of his express words in his Letter to the Protector of England Epist 87. The Protestant Churches abroad in Germany Holland Poland Sweden Denmark and France from the beginning of the Reformation to this very day have used Set Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving in their Publick Worship And yet I think the Dissenters here will not conclude that their Worship was wholly carnal dead and without Life or Spirit as many of them do now argue against the publick Prayers of the Church of England The Life and Spirituality of Prayer doth not consist in the Mode or Form of the words whether Set or Extempore say all sound and judicious Christians but in the Purity and Fervour of the Affections And therefore an Extempore Prayer may be very Formal dead and dry and a Prayer in a Set Form may be very lively powerful and effectual as the experience of Thousands daily confirm And suppose the Dissenters would be so uncharitable to judge that Calvin's Prayers at Geneva in Set Forms and Luther's in Wittenberg and all the other Protestants Prayers in Set Forms were barely Formal Carnal Dead and Dry and the blessed Protestants Prayers who died Martyrs in Queen Mary's Reign that used Set Forms yea many of these now in use which would
be great uncharitableness Will they dare to judge so of the publick Prayers of the Church of Christ that were in Set Forms in the purest Times of Primitive Christianity from the days of the Apostles in the Three First Centuries as is evident from Church History before Popery was heard of in the World Or will they be so uncharitable to Censure the publick Prayers of the Jewish Church in her best and purest Times who had Set Forms of Worship both for Prayer and Thanksgiving And that it was the constant manner of the Jewish Church to have a Part of the Publick Worship with the Priests joining with them in Vocal Prayer with their Mouths and Lips Both in Prayer and Thanksgiving is clear from many places of Scripture in the Old Testament where no doubt their Assemblies both in the Temple and Synagogues consisted of a great mixture of good and bad Sincere and Hypocritical see Psal 50. 15 16. This was spoken not to Priests only but to the People and Isai 29. 13. where the Lord blam'd not the People simply for drawing near to God with their Mouth and honouring him with their Lips but that while they did give him that outward Part of Worship they had removed their Heart far from him and gave him not the internal as well as the external Part of Worship the internal being as the Soul and the external as the Body of it This clearly shews what the manner of their Publick Worship then was and that the People that assembled did really Pray Vocally with the Priests and that they did Offer unto God the Calves of their Lips according to Hos 14. 2. And in like manner the Christians in their Assemblies are commanded to Offer up unto God the Fruit of their Lips Heb. 13. 15. and though the Sacrifice of Praise is there only mentioned yet no doubt Prayer is also understood and is as real a Duty for the People to practise as that of Praise and if People may Sing with the Spirit and yet use Set Forms as they do in Singing David's Psalms in Publick Congregations all of them some Anabaptists excepted why may they not Pray with the Spirit in Set Forms If the Set Form quench not the Spirit in Singing why should it be supposed to do it in Praying It is indeed one of the chiefest Reasons that perswade me that in the Publick Worship of God Set Forms are necessary because the People ought to have a Part of the external Worship as well as the internal by Confessing Praying and giving thanks in Common with their Mouths and Lips as in believing in one Common Faith with their Hearts being a holy Priesthood unto God 1 Pet. 2. 5. And whereas they say the Ministers Mouth when he Prays is the Peoples Mouth unto God in Publick Prayer As this is allowed that sometimes so it is but to say it is always and must be always so is without ground yea is hurtful and prejudicial for so as God is denied that external Service from the People that is due to him of Adoration the People is deprived of that which is their Priviledge and a great Benefit unto them to speak unto God by themselves and not by a Proxy always when they Pray And if Prayer with the Mouth be a Duty in Private for all Christian People it is no less a Duty or rather much more in Publick We are Commanded to Confess with the Mouth as well as Believe with our Heart to hold fast the Profession of our Faith the Greek word in both places signifies a joint Confession simul dicere to say together How should we know one anothers Faith that we hold it fast but by holding fast the Profession of it in joining together in the Christian Assemblies Vocally and with word of Mouth to Confess what we Believe as we are Commanded and as with one Mind so with one Mouth to Glorifie God Rom. 15. 6. This one Mind is the Consent and Harmony of many Minds and therefore the one Mouth is not one simple Mouth of the Minister no more than it is one single Mind of the Minister but the Consent and Harmony of many Mouths even of the whole Congregation There is a greater Advantage and Benefit in Vocal Prayer by the Organs of Speech when duly performed both in Private and Publick than many do well understand and especially in Publick both for their own good and the good of others Although our Prayers neither Vocal nor Mental move God properly speaking yet they move our selves and others and if the Spirit of God assist in our Vocal Prayers as we have cause to believe he doth so assist all good Christians though not in that manner as he did the Prophets that Motion kindles a Celestial Fire both in our selves and others that hear us and if one Mouth so divinely moved kindles a little many Mouths so moved will kindle a great deal St. James tells us the Tongues of wicked Men are set on the Fire of Hell and that one Tongue is like a little Spark of Fire that kindles a great matter James 3. 5. And why may not we as well conclude that the Tongues of Godly Men are enkindled with Fire from Heaven Yea it stands with good reason that Holy Angels who are present in the Assemblies of the Faithful are moved with the Vocal Prayers and Praises of the Faithful in the Church whereby they know our inward States and Thoughts as Men know our Thoughts by our Words when we sincerely express them for Angels know not our Thoughts immediately but mediately either by audible words or by some soft and gentle motion of our bodily Organs of Speech Also it stands with good reason from Scripture Authority that our blessed Mediatour Jesus Christ not as he is God but as he is Man in our Nature now in Heaven glorified is really moved and affected with the Prayers both Mental and Vocal of the Faithful Heb. 4. 15. We find in the Revelations that after the four Living Creatures i. e. the Body of the Church had sung together their Antheme the Twenty Four Elders i. e. the Governours answered with their Antiphone and the Angels answered both with theirs Rev. 4. 8 9 10. compared with Rev. 5. from ver 8. to 12. Now if the People in the Publick Worship should have a Part joining in Vocal Prayer and Thanksgiving with the Minister and answering him sometimes by saying Amen sometimes by other fit and suitable words this must needs be in Set Forms that both are agreed in and know beforehand otherwise either the People must be tied to his Form which however Extempore to him and free yet to them is a Limitation and Restriction as much and much less safe than to be tied to a Form they had formerly known and been acquainted with or else we must suppose a Miracle to be wrought every time they Pray Vocally together If every of them or any two of them Pray extempore in the
of that holy Man Anselm's observation of a Shepherd Boy that had tied a small Stone with a small Thred to the Foot of a small Bird and then let it out of his hand loose to fly The small Bird did fly but a little at a time being incommoded and retarded with the weight of the Stone though but little flying a little and resting a little now mounting upwards as if it would fly straightway to Heaven but then soon after descending to the Earth which that holy Man beholding made the Embleme of the State of his Soul and fell into Weeping saying to this effect What the little Stone is to this little Bird that my Sin that hangs about me is to me To the Third The Administration of the Sacraments wherein do they suppose that the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England they will say that they add nothing to Christ's Institution in Baptism whereas the Church of England adds the Sign of the Cross and at the receiving the Lord's Supper they receive it kneeling to this I answer the Church of England makes not the Sign of the Cross any part of Baptism for she doth not order it to be used at private Baptism to any that is in danger of Death nor does she make it any Means of Grace but a convenient Symbole to put us in mind and also to signify that we own Christ that was crucified on the Tree of the Cross and are not ashamed to confess him the Captain of our Salvation and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. which has but the like Service that a Cross drawn with Ink on Paper has to signify the Cross of Wood that he was crucified upon and is but a sort of Hieroglyphick neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture but simply indifferent and that our Superiors both Ecclesiastick and Civil have Authority to command us in the use of indifferent Things I am well satisfied and I see not but so ought the Dissenters to acknowledge who grant that our Superiors both Ecclesiastical and Civil may enjoin the keeping of a Fast Day for publick Calamities or a Festival Day of Thanksgiving for publick Mercies Baxter makes no more hurt in using the sign of the Cross in Baptism than if we should tie a piece of Thred to our Finger to keep us in mind of what we desire to remember That the Lord's Supper is received kneeling has no more Ceremony nor hurt in it than that we pray kneeling for both the Minister that gives and the People that receives the Elements of Bread and Wine do it with Prayer For all the great Clamour against the Ceremonies of the Church of England I scarcely find any more but one that may be so called to wit that abovementioned the sign of the Cross at Baptism which is a very harmless and a very ancient Practise in the Church of Christ and had a warrantable Original that because the Heathens upbraided the Christians with the Cross to show they were not ashamed of it after receiving Baptism they received the sign of the Cross on their Foreheads nor is that occasion wanting in our Day where so many Thousands here in this Nation on the pretence of high Divine Inspirations have cast away the Profession of Faith in Christ as he was outwardly Crucified together with the Memorials of him Baptism and the Supper And as concerning Infant Baptism time will not permit at present that I should insist on it but this I say I am fully satisfied with the Baptism I had in Infancy and I do believe that it as duly belongeth to the Infant Children of Believers under the New Testament being a seal to them of God's Covenant of Grace for remission of Sin as Circumcision did belong to such under the Old Testament for God is no less merciful to Believers and their Children now than he was then I cannot but think strange that there should be such a Clamour against the Ceremonies in the Church of England having upon enquiry found them so few I lately met with a Book of one of the Church of England wherein I found him having the same Thought with mine that there is but one Ceremony in the Church of England viz. the sign of the Cross and strictly speaking I see no need why it should be called a Ceremony this hard Word offends many ignorant People why may not our Superiors Ecclesiastick and Civil enjoin some Things that are meerly Circumstantial and in themselves indifferent as to the Habit of Minister's Cloathing and the Use of a Surplice in Divine Service of the Decency and Conveniency of which they are more proper Judges than private Persons as well as they are generally allowed to determine other Circumstances of Time and Place and various Actions relating to both Religious and Civil Matters To bury in Wollen and to lay the dead in a Coffin to lay a Cloth or Cushen on the Pulpit to ring a Bell before Sermon to have a Clock or Hour-glass before the Minister's Face when he Preacheth which the Quakers cry out against as much as others do against the Surplice and sign of the Cross to have a clean Linnen Cloth on the Communion Table and Silver Platter and Cup for the distributing the Elements of Bread and Wine at the Lord's Supper all these and divers other Things the Dissenters commonly allow as well as the Church of England some of them by command of Superiors others of them by Custom why do they not call them Ceremonies and fright the People with that hard Word Lastly as to the Government of the Church the Dissenters are so far from having the Advantage of the Church of England that she hath the Advantage over them in that as well as in the other Things above-mentioned That in all Societies both Civil and Ecclesiastical there should be an Order and Superiority of Officers Rulers and Governours Nature it self teacheth it How can a City or Nation be ruled and kept in Order if all the Rulers be equal How can an Army be governed or disciplined or led forth to Battel without divers Degrees Superior and Inferior of Military Officers if all the Captains of each single Company consisting suppose of one hundred Men each single Company and the whole Army consisting of many Thousands if these single Captains had no superior Officers over them but every one left to his own Discretion to lead on his Company to Battle against the common Enemy who has all in good Order and a due and regular Distinction of superior and inferiour Officers how can it be supposed but that the Army that has this good Order and Distinction of various Officers superior and inferior should prevail against the other that hath no such Order and Distinction we may see a wonderful order of Superiority and Inferiority in all Things in the whole visible Creation in the Heavens and Elements and that there is the like Superiority
in the invisible Creation of Angels and Spirits the Scripture doth plainly inform us as Angels Archangels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers Cherubim and Seraphim Jethro Moses's Father-in-Law advised him to set Captains over Tens over Fifties over Hundreds and over Thousands of the People of Israel for the better and easier Government of them both in War and Peace and Moses hearkned to his Advice Exod. 18. 24. And we find in Scripture that the Church is compared to an Army and the Members thereof to Soldiers the chief General and Captain whereof is our Lord Jesus Christ who hath appointed divers Officers in his Church under the New Testament distinct not only in degree but in kind as Bishops Presbyters otherwise called Priests and Deacons answerable to the three Officers that were in the Church of the Jews under the Old Testament to wit the high Priest Priests and Levites and because they were but one Nation all living within a small Compass of Ground one High Priest did suffice according to God's Appointment This threefold distinction of Church Government by Bishops Presbyters and Deacons upon a further search into the New Testament I find so very clear as doth fully satisfie me notwithstanding that by prejudice of Education I was formerly Principled against it and also by searching into Church-History and the Writings of the Ancients nearest to the Apostles Times and the succeeding Ages in the purest and best State of the Churches as well as when there was a great declining from that purity yet as many other things both of sound Doctrine and good practice still remained so this distinction of Church Rulers did all along remain generally in all Places as well as in all Ages where God had any Visible Church or where there was any Society of People professing the Christian Religion until the beginning of the Reformation where in divers Countries abroad there was no Protestant Kings the Protestants set up Churches without Bishops not rejecting the Office nor condemning it as unlawful or Antichristian as some in late Times have done but excusing the want of it by that general maxim Necessity has no Law I need not insist to prove the distinction of Presbyters and Deacons out of the New Testament it being in some sort generally acknowledged by the Dissenters But the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters is that which is condemned by some as Antichristian and by some others judged at best unnecessary and no part of Christian Discipline belonging to Christianity either essential or integral But if you will lay aside all prejudice of Education and uncharitableness you will clearly and evidently see it in the Holy Scriptures That the Apostles had a Superiority over not only the LXX but all other Ministers and Pastors or Teachers is very clear from 1 Cor. 12. 28. compared with Eph. 4. 11. That Bishops were to succeed the Apostles and have the like Office both with them as Churches came to be planted in divers parts of the World before their Decease and also after their Decease not with respect to the extraordinary gifts of Prophecy and Miracles but with respect to the Government of the Church by a regular Succession is evident from Mat. 28. 19 20. compared with the above-cited Eph. 4. 11. otherwise all standing or setled Ministry as an Ordinance of Christ may be rejected as Enthusiasts generally do yea what can these Governments be mentioned 1 Cor. 12. 28. but as really the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters as of Presbyters over the Deacons and the People otherwise why Governments in the Plural Number Also what are these Dignities mentioned Jud. 8. that some despised in the Apostles days and 2 Pet. 2. 10 11. And how should any doubt of the Office of Episcopacy being an Ordinance of Christ in the Church when the qualifications requisite to such an Officer are so expresly set down 1 Tim. 3. from v. 1. to v. 8. But whereas it is objected that seeing there is only mentioned in that Chapter a twofold Order 1. Of Bishops 2. Of Deacons it would seem that Presbyters are there understood by Bishops otherwise Presbyters should be wholly excluded from Church Government I answer that will not follow 1. Because Presbyters though not expressed yet may be understood and implied under either the one or the other expresly mentioned the name Deacon being sometimes a general Name in Scripture signifying the most superiour as well as inferiour Officers in the Church 1 Cor. 3. 5. St. Paul called himself and Apollo by the Name of Deacons as it is in the Greek and 2 Cor. 3. 6. he calls all Ministers and Teachers at large by that Name But 2. in the order of things there were but these two Officers at first excepting the Apostles Bishops and Deacons The Churches in many places at first being small the Bishop could both sufficiently teach and rule his Flock and so did without Presbyters only by the assistance of Deacons but the number of the Flock increasing he did chuse and raise up those that had well used the Office of a Deacon to the higher degree of Presbyters which is called by St. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 13. a good degree which they purchased to themselves even as those that well used the Office of a Presbyter were afterwards raised up to the Office of a Bishop as was accordingly practised in the Church so that in priority of Nature and also of Time the Deacon is before the Presbyter though in priority of Dignity the Presbyter is before the Deacon Hence according to the Order established in the Church none is to be ordained a Presbyter until he first be ordained a Deacon nor can he at one and the same time be Ordained to be both The Distinction and Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters or Elders is very clear to me as well as to many out of St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 1. 3. I. St. Paul writes to Timothy to Command or give in Charge to some that were Teachers at Ephesus to teach no other Doctrine than the pure Doctrine of the Gospel such as he had heard of him And had not Timothy had a Superiority of Office above other Teachers which were then at Ephesus why did he direct both his Epistles to him only laying down excellent rules and method of Government for him to follow in the exercise of his Episcopal Function 1 Tim. 3. 15. with respect to several States of Persons both Male and Female II. Why did St. Paul give the Charge to Timothy to count the Elders that ruled well which were no doubt under him worthy of double Honour especially them who laboured in Word and Doctrine but that he was able to confer that double Honour upon them a part of which was an Honourable Maintenance according to what follows ver 18. for the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward By this it is plain