other than to snatch the reines out of the hands of a skilfull Coachman and either to lay them loose on the horses necks or to deliver them to the hands of some ignorant and unskilfull lackeyes that run along by them But of this point more elsewhere My zeal and my respects to the Churches abroad and my care and pitie of many seduced soules at home have drawne me on farther in this discourse than I meant For who can indure to see simple and well meaning Christians abused with the false colour of Conformity with other Churches when there is apparently more distance in the ground of their differences than in the places of their situation Be wise my deare Brethren and suffer not your selves to be cheated of the Truth by the mis-zealous suggestions of partiall-teachers Reserve your hearts free for the clearer light of Scripture and right reason which shall in this discourse offer to shine into your soules For you Sir fu frere confesse unlesse you can in truth deny it that you goe alone and that you have reason absolutely to quit all the hope of the Patrocination of other Churches which you might seeme to challenge from their example and practice For now that I have got you alone I shall be bold to take you to task and doe in the name of Almighty God vehemently urge and challenge you to maintaine if by any skill or pretence you may your owne act of the condemnation of Episcopacie and your penitent submission to a Presbyteriall government Wherein I doubt not but I shall convince you of an high and irreparable injury done by you to God his Ordinance and his Church § 6. The project and substance of the Treatise following FOr the full and satisfactorie performance vvhereof I shall only need to make good these tvvo maine points First That Episcopacie such as you have renounced even that vvhich implies a fixed superioritie over the rest of the Clergie and jurisdiction is not only an holy and lavvfull but a divine Institution and therefore cannot be abdicated vvithout a manifest violation of Gods Ordinance Secondly That the Presbyterian Government so constituted as you have novv submitted to it hovvever venditated under the glorious names of Christs Kingdome and Ordinance by those specious and glozing termes to bevvitch the ignorant multitude and to insnare their consciences hath no true footing either in Scripture or the practice of the Church in all ages from Christs time to the present That I may clearly evince these two maine points wherin indeed consists the life and soul of the whole cause I shall take leave to lay down certain just and necessary Postulata as the ground-workes of my ensuing proofs all which are so cleare and evident that I would fain suppose neither your selfe nor any ingenuous Christian can grudge to yeeld them But if any man will be so stiffe and close-fisted as to stick at any of them they shall be easily wrung out of his fingers by the force of Reason and manifest demonstration of Truth §. 7. The first ground or postulate That government whose foundation is laid by Christ and whose Fabrick is raised by the Apostles is of Divine Institution THe first whereof shall be this That government whose ground being laid by our Saviour himselfe vvas aftervvards raised by the hands of his Apostles cannot be denied to be of Divine Institution A Proposition so cleare that it were an injurie to goe about to prove it He cannot be a Christian who will not grant that as in Christ the Sonne of God the Deity dwelt bodily so in his servants also and agents under him the Apostles the Spirit of the same God dwelt so as all their actions were Gods by them Like as it is the same spring-water that is derived to us by the Conduit-pipes and the same Sun-beames which passe to us through our windowes Some things they did as men actions naturall civill morall these things were their own yet they even in them no doubt were assisted with an excellent measure of grace But those things which they did as Messengers from God so their names signifie these were not theirs but his that sent them An Ambassador dispatcheth his Domesticall affaires as a private man but when he treats or concludes matters of State in his Princes name his tongue is not his owne but his Masters Much more is it so in this case wherein besides the interest the agents are freed from errour The carefullest Ambassador may perhaps swerve from his message these which was one of the priviledges of the Apostles were through the guidance of Gods Spirit in the acts of their Function inerrable So then if the foundation were laid by Christ and the wals built up by his Apostles the Fabrick can be no lesse than divine §. 8. The second ground That the practice and recommendation of the Apostles is sufficient warrant for an Apostolicall Institution SEcondly It must also be granted That not onely the government which vvas directly commanded and enacted but that vvhich vvas practised and recommended by the Apostles to the Church is justly to be held for an Apostolicall Institution In eminent and authorized persons even examples are rules much more in so sacred Neither did the Spirit of God confine it selfe to vvords but expressed it selfe also in the holy actions of his inspired servants as Chrysostome therefore truly said That our Saviour did not only speak but vvork Parables So may vve say here that the Apostles did not only enact but even act lavves for his holy Church Licèt autem nullum extat praeceptum de manuum impositione c. Calv. l. 4. Instit C. 3.8.16 And this is learned Calvins determination about imposition of hands Although saith he there is no certaine precept concerning Imposition of Hands yet because vve see it vvas in perpetuall use vvith the Apostles their so accurate observation of it ought to be unto us instead of a command and therfore soone after he affirmes plainly That this Ceremony proceeded from the Holy Ghost himself And in the fore-going Chapter speaking of the distribution of Pastors to their severall charges he saith Nec humanum est inventum c. It is no humane device but the Institution of God himselfe For vve read that Paul and Barnabas ordained Presbyters in all the Churches of Lystra Antioch Iconium And that direction vvhich the great Apostle of the Gentiles gave to Timothy vvas as Calvin truly Mandati nomine in the name and nature of a command And vvhat els I beseech you vvould the rigid exacters of the over-severe and Judaicall observation of the Lords day as an Evangelicall Sabbath seem to plead for their vvarrant vvere they able to make it good any vvay but the guise and practice of the Apostles Precept certainly there is none either given or pretended Thus the bitter Tileno-mastix can say There was a double Discipline of the Apostles Docens and Vtens in the first they gave precepts to
government sadly complaining of Antichrist and that the light of life hath lien hid under the mask of Popery until this day of love and now he coms to erect his Seniores sanctae intelligentiae Elders of the holy understanding and his other rabble Beware therefore I advise you how you take up this challenge but upon better grounds disgrace not Gods Truth with the odious name of Antichristianisme honour not Antichrist with the claime and title of an holy Truth Confesse the device new and make your best of it But if any man will pretend this governmet hath beene in the world before though no footsteps remaine of it in any history or record he may as well tell me there hath beene of old a passage from the Teneriffe to the Moone though never any but a Gonzaga discovered it §. 8. A Recapitulation of the severall heads and a vehement exhortation to all Readers and first to our Northerne brethren NOw then I beseech and adjure you my deare brethren by that love you professe to beare to the Truth of God by that tender respect you beare to the peace of his Sion by your zeale to the Gospell of Christ by your maine care of your happy account one day before the Tribunall of the most righteous Iudge of the quick and dead lay every of these things seriously together and lay all to heart And if you finde that the government of Episcopacie established in the Church is the very same which upon the foundation of Christs Institution was erected by his inspired Apostles and ever since continued unto this day without interruption without alteration If you finde that not in this part of the Western Church alone into which the Church of Rome had diffused her errours but in all the Christian world farre and wide in Churches of as large extent as the Roman ever was and never in any submission to her no other forme of government was ever dreamed of from the beginning If you finde that all the Saints of God ever since the holy Martyrs and Confessors the Fathers and Doctors both of the Primitive and ensuing Church have not onely admitted but honoured and magnified this onely government as Apostolicall If all Synods and Councels that have been in the Church of God since the Apostles time have received and acknowledged none but this alone If you finde that no one man from the dayes of the Apostles till this age ever opened his mouth against it save onely one who was for this cause amongst others branded and discarded for an heretick If you finde that the ancient Episcopacie even from Mark Bishop of Alexandria Timothy Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Câ—ete were altogether in substance the same with ours in the same altitude of fixed superiority in the same latitude of spirituall jurisdiction if you finde the Laicke Presbytery an utter stranger to the Scriptures of God a thing altogether unheard of in the ancient times yea in all the following ages of the Church If you finde that Invention full of indeterminable uncertainties If you finde the practice of it necessarily obnoxious to unavoydable imperfections and to grosse absurdities and impossibilities Lastly if you finde the device so new that the first authours and abettors of it are easily traced to their very forme as those that lived in the dayes of thousands yet living If you finde all these as you cannot choose but finde them and many weighty considerations moe being so clearly laid before you I beseech you suffer not your selves to be led by the nose with an vnjust prejudice or an over-weening opinion of some persons whom you thinke you have cause to honour but without all respects to flesh and blood weigh the cause it self impartially in the ballance of Gods Sanctuary and judge of it accordingly Vpon my soul except the holy Scripture Apostolicall acts the practice of the ancient Church of God the judgement of all sacred Synods of all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church all grounds of faith reason policie may faile us we are safe and our cause victorious Why then O why will you suffer your selves to be thus impetuously carried away with the false suggestions of some mis-zealous teachers who have as I charitably judge of some of them whatsoever grounds the rest might have over run the truth in a detestation of error and have utterly lost peace in an inconsiderate chace of a fained perfection For you my Northerne brethren for such you shall be when you have done your worst if there were any foul personal faults found in any of our Church-governours as there never wanted aspersions where an extermination is intended alas why should not your wisdome charity have taught you to distinguish betwixt the calling the crime were the person vicious yet the function is holy why should God his cause be stricken because man hath offended yet to this day no offence proved Your Church hath been anciently famous for an holy and memorable Prelacie and though it did more lately fall upon the division of Dioeceses D. Henr. Spelman ex Hectore Boetio Anno 840. so as every Bishop did in every place as opportunity offered executo Episcopall offices which kinde of Administration continued in your Church till the times of Malcolme the third yet this government over the whole Clergie was no lesse acknowledged than their sanctimony after the setling of those your Episcopall Sees it is worth your note and our wonder which your Hector Boetius writes Sacer Pontificatus Sancti Andreae tanta reverentia c. The Bishoprick of St. Andrewes was with so great reverence and innocence of life from the first institution of it in a long line of Episcopall succession continued to the very time wherein we wrote this That six and thirty and more of the Bishops of that See were accounted for Saints Good Lord How are either the times altered or we There may be differences of carriage and those that are Oxthodoxe in judgement may be faulty in demeanour But I grieve and feare to speak it There is now so little danger of a Calender that no holinesse of life could excuse the best Bishop from being ejected like an evill spirit out of the bosome of that Church Deus omen c. In the name of God what is it what can it be that is thus stood upon Is it the very name of Episcopacie which like that of Tarquin in Rome is condemned to a perpetuall disuse What hath the innocent word offended Your own Church after the Reformation could well be contented to admit of Superintendents and what difference is here as Zanchius well but that good Greek is turn'd into ill Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superintendens Their power by your owne allowance and enacting is the same with your Bishops Their Dioeceses accordingly divided their residence fixed viz. The Superintendent of Orkney his Dioecesse shall be the Isles of Orkney Catnesse and Strathnever his Residence
is laid by Christ and whose fabricke is raised by the Apostles is of divine institution Page 28 § 8 The second ground The practice and recommendation of the Apostles is sufficient warrant for an Apostolicall Institution Page 30 § 9 The third ground That the formes ordained for the Churches Administration by the Apostles were for universal and perpetuall use Page 32 § 10 The fourth ground That the universall practice of the Church immediately succeeding the Apostolike times is a sure Commentary upon the practice of the Apostles and our best direction Page 35 § 11 The two famous rules of Tertullian and S. Augustine to this purpose asserted Page 39 § 12 The fifth ground That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another forme of government different from that they received of the Apostles Page 50 § 13 The sixth ground That if the next successors would have innovated the forme of government yet they could not in so short space have diffused it through the whole Christian world Page 56 § 14 The seventh ground That the ancientest Histories of the Church and writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive state of the Church than the latest Authors Page 59 § 15 The eight ground That those whom the ancient Church of God and all the holy Fathers of the Church since have condemned for Hereticks are no fit guids for us to follow in that their judgement of the government for which they were so condemned Page 64 § 16 The ninth ground That the accession of honourable Titles and Compatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling Page 66 § 17 The tenth ground That those Scriptures whereon a new and different forme of government is raised had need to be more evident and unquestionable than those which are alledged for the former that is rejected Page 69 § 18 The eleventh ground That if Christ had left this pretended order of government it would have ere this time been agreed upon what that forme is and how to be managed Page 71 § 19 The twelfth ground That if this which is challenged be the Kingdome of Christ then those Churches which want any essentiall part of it are mainly defective and that there is scarce any at all entire Page 72 § 20 The thirteenth ground That true Christian policie requires not any thing absurd or impossible to be done Page 74 § 21 The fourteenth ground That new pretences of truths never before heard of especially in maine points carry just cause of suspicion Page 76 § 22 The fifteenth ground That to depart from the judgement and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and to betake our selves to a new invention cannot but be beside the danger extremely scandalous Page 78 The Second Part. § 1 THe Termes and state of the Question setled and agreed upon Page 1 § 2 Church government begun by our Saviour in a manifest imparity Page 11 § 3 The execution of this Apostolicall power after our Saviours ascent into Heaven Page 16 § 4 The derivation of this power and majoritie from the Apostles to the succeeding Bishops Page 19 § 5 The cleare testimonies of Scripture for this majoitie especially those out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus urged Page 26 § 6 Some elusions of these Scriptures met with and answered Page 35 § 7 The testimonie of S. John in his Revelation pressed Pag. 41 § 8 The estate and order of Episcopacie deduced from the Apostles to the Primitive Bishops Page 49 § 9 The testimony and assent of Bucer and some famous French Divines Page 54 § 10 The superiority and jurisdiction of Bishops proved by the testimonie of the first Fathers and Apostolicall men and first of Clemens the partner of the Apostles Page 59 § 11 The pregnant and full testimonies of the holy Saint and Martyr Ignatius urged Page 65 § 12 The testimonie of the ancient Canons called the Apostles Page 79 § 13 The state and historie of the next age Page 84 § 14 Proofes of the confessed superiority of Bishops from severall forceable arguments out of antiquitie Page 88 § 15 Power of Ordination only in Bishops Page 90 § 16 Power of jurisdiction appropriated to Bishops from the first Page 95 § 17 Exceptions against our Episcopacie answered and particularly of the dissimilitude of our Bishops to the Primitive in their Pompe and perpetuity Page 99 § 18 The practice of the whole Christian Church in all times and places is for this government by Bishops Page 110 § 19 Of the suppression of contrary Records and of the sole opposition of the heretick Aerius Page 117 § 20 The vindication of those Fathers which are pretended to second Aerius his opinion Page 120 § 21 The practice of the Waldenses and Albigenses in allowance of Episcopall government Page 125 § 22 The government by Bishops both universall and unalterable Page 129 The Third Part. § 1 THe appellation of Lay-Elders and the state of the Question concerning them Page 1 § 2 No Lay-Elder ever mentioned or heard of in the times of the Gospell in all the world till this present age the texts of Scripture particularized in pretence of the contrary Page 7 § 3 Lay-eldership a meere stranger to all antiquitie which acknowledgeth no Presbyters but Divines Page 15 § 4 S. Ambrose's testimonie urged commonly for Lay-Elders answered Page 19 § 5 The utter disagreement and irresolution of the pretenders to the new Discipline concerning the particular state of their desired government Page 24 § 6 The imperfections and defects which must needs be yeelded to follow upon the discipline pretended and the necessary inconveniences that must attend it in a kingdome otherwise setled Page 30 § 7 The knowne newnesse of this invention and the quality of the late authors of it Page 36 § 8 A recapitulation of the severall heads and a vehement exhortation to all Readers and first to our Northerne brethren Page 42 § 9 An exhortatorie conclusion to our brethren at home Page 53 EPISCOPACIE BY DIVINE RIGHT §. 1. An expostulatorie entrance into the Question GOod God! what is this that I have lived to heare That a Bishop in a Christian Assembly should renounce his Episcopall function and crie mercy for his now-abandoned calling Brother that was who ever you be I must have leave a while to contest seriously with you the act was yours the concernment the whole Churches You could not think so foule a deed could escape unquestioned The world never heard of such a Penance you cannot blame us if we receive it both with wonder and expostulation and tell you it had beene much better to have been unborn than to live to give so hainous a scandal to Gods Church and so deep a wound to his holy truth and Ordinance If Tweed that runs betweene us were an Ocean it could not either drown or wash off
the Church Paracles l. 1. c. 4 and her Governours in the second their practice prescribes her government although as he adds without booke not without the Churches owne consultation and consent which if it be granted makes the more for us who ever since we were a Church have consented to the Apostles practice and constantly used the same What do I stand upon this They are the words of Cartwright himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the example of the Apostles and generall practice of the Churches under their government draweth a necessitie §. 9. The third ground That the formes ordained by the Apostles were for universall and perpetuall use THirdly it is no lesse evident that the form which the Apostles set and ordained for the governing of the Church was not intended by them for that present time or place onely but for continuance and succession for ever For no man I suppose can be so weak Praecepta ipsa disciplinae omnibus in futurum Ecclesiis dictante Sp. Sancto tradiderunt Sco. Wy Paracles l. 1. c. 4 as to thinke that the rules of the Apostles were personall locall temporary as some Dials or Almanacks that are made for some speciall Meridians but as their office and charge so their rules were universall to the whole world as farre and as long as the world lasteth For what reason is there that Crete or Ephesus should be otherwise provided for than all the world besides Or what possibility to think that those first planters of the Gospell should leave all the rest of Christs Church as the Ostrich doth her eggs in the dust without any farther care The extent and duration of any rule will best be measured as by the intention of the Authour so by the nature and use of it S. Paul's intention is clearely expressed for a continuance untill the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 As for the nature of the severall directions they carry perpetuity and universality of use in the face of them there being the same reason of their observation by all persons concerned and in all times and places why should not every Bishop be as unreproveable as a Cretian or an Ephesian Why should an accusation be received against an Elder upon more slender evidence in one place than another Why should there not bee the same courses taken for Ordination and Censure in all ages and Churches since the same things must of necessity bee done every where in all ages and Churches But why should I strive for a granted Truth For it is plaine that the Isle of Crete and Ephesus were but the patternes of other Churches and Timothie and Titus of other faithfull Overseers If therefore it shall appeare that Episcopacie so stated as we have expressed was in these persons and Churches ordered and setled by Apostolicall direction it must necessarily be yeelded to be of Apostolike and therefore Divine Institution §. 10. The fourth ground That the universall practice of the Church immediately succeeding the Apostolike times is a sure Commentary upon the practice of the Apostles and our best direction FOurthly I must challenge it for a no lesse undoubted Truth That the universall practice of the Church immediately succeeding the Apostles is the best Commentary upon the practice of the Apostles and withall that the universall practice of Gods Church in all ages and places is next unto Gods Word the best guide and direction for our carriages and formes of Administration The Copartners and immediate Successors of those blessed men could best tell what they next before them did for who can better tell a mans way or pace than he that followes him close at the heeles And if particular men or Churches may mistake yet that the whole Church of Christian men should at once mistake that which was in their eye it is farre more than utterly improbable A truth which it is a wonder any sober Christian should bogle at yet such there are to our griefe and to the shame of this late giddy age even the great guides of their faction Polit. Eccles l. 2. cap. 7. Falsum est c. Our mis-learned countriman Parker the second Ignis fatuus of our poore mis-led brethren and some Seconds of his stand peremptorily and highly upon the Deniall It is false saith he that the universall practice of the Church is sufficient to prove any thing to be of Apostolike Originall And jeeringly soone after Vniversa Ecclesiae praxis consensus patrum unica Hierarchicorum Helena est The universall practice of the Church and consent of Fathers saith he is the onely dearling of the abettors of the Hierarchy But the practice of the Church immediatly after the Apostles is no evidence Heare now I beseech you my deare brethren all ye who would pretend to any Christian ingenuity and consider whether you have not reason to distrust such a leader as would perswade you to slight and reject the testimony and practice of the whole Church of God upon earth from the first plantation of it to this present age and to cast your selves upon the private opinions of himselfe and some few other men of yesterday surely in very matter of doctrine this could be no other than deeply suspicious than foulely odious If no man before Luther and Calvin had excepted against those points wherein we differ from Rome I should have hated to follow them how much more must this needs hold in matter of fact Iudge what a shame it is to heare a Christian Divine carelesly shaking off all arguments drawne from Antiquity Continuance Perpetuall Succession in and from Apostolike Churches unanimous consent universall practice of the Church immediate practice of all the Churches succeeding the Apostles as either Popish or nothing And all these are acknowledged for our Grounds and are not Popish For me I professe I could not without blushing and astonishment read such stuffe as confounded in my selfe to see that any sonne of the Church should be not onely so rebelliously unnaturall to his holy mother as to broach so putrid a Doctrine to her utter disparagement but so contumelious also to the Spirit of God in his providence for the deare Spouse of his Saviour here upon earth Holy Jrenaeus Iren. l. 4. contr haeres I am sure was of another minde Agnitio vera saith he The true acknowledgement is the doctrine of the Apostles antiquus Ecclesiae status and the ancient state of the Church in the whole world by the Succession of Bishops to whom the Apostles delivered the Church which is in every place And then whiles we have both these the doctrine of the Apostles seconded by the ancient state of the Church who can out-face us What meanes then this wilfull and peevish stupidity Nihil pro Apostolico habendum Ibid. l. 2. c. 7. Nothing saith Parker is to be held for Apostolike but that which is found recorded in the writings of the Apostles Nothing Was all
onely could claime the whole world for their Dioecesse neither could they leave any heires behinde them of their Apostleship the succeeding Administrators of the severall Churches were fixed to their owne Charges having neither power to command in another mans division nor such eminence of authority as that their example should be a rule to their neighbours How then can any living man conceive it possible if there had not been an uniforme order setled by the Apostles that all the world should so suddenly meet in one forme of policie not differing so much as in the circumstances of government That which Parker thinks to speak for his advantage neque uno impetu disciplina statim mutata est Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. 8. sed gradatim paulatim that the discipline was not changed at once but by little and little as by insensible degrees makes strongly against him and irrefragably for us for here were no lingring declinations towards that government which we plead for but a present and full establishment of it in the very next succeeding hands which could not have been but by a supereminent and universall command If we doe but cast our eyes upon those Churches which now dividing themselves from the common rule of Administration affect to stand upon their own bottome do we not see our Countrimen of Amsterdam varying from those of Leiden concerning their government and in the New-English Colonie those of the Boston-leaders from the Westerne Plantation When we see drops of water spilt upon dry sand running constantly into one and the same streame we may then hope to see men and Churches not overswayed otherwise with one universall command running every where into a perfect uniformity of government especially in a matter of such nature and consequence as subordination and subjection is It was the singular and miraculous blessing of the Gospell in the hands of the first Propagators of it Psal 19.3 4. that There was no speech nor language where their voice was not heard Their line of a sudden went out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world The Sun which rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race could scarce out-goe them but as for their followers the very next to them they must be content to hold their own a much slower pace and by leisure to reach their journeyes end If therefore it shall be made to appeare that presently after the decease of the Apostles one uniforme order of Episcopall government so qualified as we have spoken was without variation or contradiction received in all the Churches of the whole Christian world it must necessarily be granted that Episcopacie is of no other than Apostolicall Constitution §. 14. The seventh ground That the ancientest histories of the Church and Writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive state than the latest Authours SEventhly I must challenge it for a Truth not capable of just denyall that the ancientest histories of the Church and Writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive State of Church-government than those of this present age A truth so cleare that a reasonable man would think it a shame to prove yet such as some bold leaders of the faction that would be thought learned too have had the face to deny Parker the late oracle of the schisme hath dared to do it in termes who speaking of the testimony of the Primitive times Park Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. â— Haecne Ecclesia illa est quae certum testimonium in causa disciplinaria praestitura nobis est Is this saith he in the high scorne and pride of his heart the Church that shall give us so sure a testimony in the cause of Discipline and every where disparaging the validity of the ancient histories preferres the present Is Eusebius mentioned who records the succession of Primitive Bishops from their first head Ibid. l. 2. c. 5. At Eusebio defuit c. But saith he Eusebius being carried away with the sway of that age wanted that golden reed which is given to the Historians of our times Apoc. 11.2 to measure the distance of times the difference of manners the inclinations of Churches and the â—rogresse and increases of the Antichristian Hierarchy c. Are any of the holy Fathers allâ—â—â—ed Alas poore men saith he they were much mistaken yet howsoever they are much beholden to him Ibid. c. 8. for saith he Non volentâ—s sed nescientes non per apostasiam aut contemptum sed per infirmitatem ignorantiam lapsi sunt Patres qui in disciplina aberrârunt The Fathers who erred in this matter of discipline did not offend out of will but out of want of knowledge not through apostasie or contempt but through infirmity and ignorance But can I now forbeare to ask who can indure to heare the braying of this proud Schismatick For the love of God deare brethren mark the spirit of these men and if you can think it a reasonable suggestion to believe that all ancient histories are false all the holy and learned Fathers of the Church ignorant and erroneous and that none ever saw or spake the truth not of doctrine onely but not of fact untill now that these men sprung up follow them and relie upon their absolute and unerring authority but if you have a minde to make use of your senses and reason and not to suffer your selves to be wilfully besotted with a blinde and absurd prejudice hate this intolerable insolence and resolve to believe that many witnesses are rather to be believed than none at all that credible judicious holy witnesses are rather to be trusted for the report of their own times than some giddy corner-creeping upstarts which come dropping in some sixteen hundred yeares after But what then will ye say to this challenge Quid autem Patres qui adversus nos c. Polit. Ecclesâ—l 2. c. 19. The Fathers saith Parker which by the favourers of Episcopacie are produced against us were for the most part Bishops so as while they speake for Episcopacie they plead for themselves Ecquis igitur eos credendos dicet Will any man therefore say they are to be believed Or will any man forbid us to appeale from them Blessed God! that any who beares the title of a Christian should have the forehead thus to argue Appeale To whom I pray To the succeeding Doctors and Fathers No they were in the same predicament to the rest of the whole Church They were governed by these leaders whither therefore can they imagine to appeale but to themselves and what proves this then but their owne case And if the Fathers may not be suffered to be our witnesses will it not become the house well that these men should now be the Fathers Iudges But the Fathers were Bishops the case was their owne true they were Bishops and it is our glory
and comfort that we have had such predecessours In vaine should we affect to be more holy and more happy than they Let them if they can produce such presidents of their parity But the case was theirs Had there been then any quarrell or Contestation against their Superiority this exception might have carried some weight but whiles there was not so much as the dreame of an opposition in the whole Christian world how could they be suspected to be partiall They wrote then according to their unanimous apprehension of the true meaning of the Scriptures and according to the certaine knowledge of the Apostolike Ordinances derived to them by the undoubted successions of their knowne predecessours Heaven may as soone fall as these evidences may faile us See then I beseech you brethren the question is whether a man may see any object better in the distance of one pace or of a furlong Whether present witnesses are more to be believed than the absent whether those which speake out of their own certaine knowledge and eye-sight or those which speake out of meere conjecture and if this judgement be not difficult I have what I would If I shall make it good that all ancient histories all testimonies of the holy Fathers of the Church of Christ are expresly for this government which we maintaine and you reject the Cause is ours §. 15. The 8th ground That those whom the ancient Church of God and all the holy Fathers of the Church have condemned for hereticall are no fit guides for us to follow in that judgment of the government for which they were so condemned EIghthly I must challenge it for an unquestionable truth that those men whom the ancient Church of God and the holy and Orthodoxe Fathers have condemned for erroneous and hereticall are not fit to be followed of us as the Authours of our opinion or practice for the government of the Church in those points for which they were censured It may fall out too oft that a man whose beliefe is sound in all other points may faile in one and proceed so farre as to second his error with contumacie The slips of the ancients are too well knowne and justly pitied but they passe as they ought for private oversights if any of them have stood out in a publike contestation as holy Cyprian did in that case of Rebaptizing the Church takes up his truth as her common stocke balkes his errour not without a commiserating censure Now if any man shall think fit to pitch upon the noted mis-opinions of the holiest authors for imitation or maintenance what can we esteeme of him but as the flye who passing by the sound parts of the skin fals upon a raw and ulcered sore And if the best Saints may not be followed in their faults how much lesse may we make choice of the examples or judgements of those who are justly branded by the whole Church for schisme or heresie What were this other than to run into the Prophets woe injustifying the wicked Esa 5.23 and taking away the righteousnesse of the righteous from them Is not hee like to make a good journey that chooses a blinde or lame guide for his way When the Spouse of Christ enquires after the place of his feeding Cant. 1.7 8. and where he maketh his flocke to rest at noone he answers her If thou know not O thou fairest among women goe thy wayes forth by the footsteps of the flocke and feed thy kids besides the shepheards tents what is his flocke but Christian soules and his shepheards but the holy and faithfull Pastors The footsteps then of this flock and the tents of these Shepheards are the best direction for any Christian soule for the search of a Saviour and of all his necessary truths To deviate from these what is it but to turne aside by the flocks of the Companions If then it shall be made to appeare that one onely branded Heretick in so many hundred yeares hath opposed the received judgement and practice of the Church concerning Episcopall government I hope no wise and sober Christian will think it safe and fit to side with him in the maintenance of his so justly exploded errour against all the Churches of the whole Christian world §. 16. The ninth ground That the accession of honourable titles and compatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling NInthly It must be yeelded that the accession of honourable titles or not incompatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling These things being meerely externall and adventitious can no more alter the nature of the calling than change of suits the body Neither is it otherwise with the calling than with the person whose it is The man is the same whether poore or rich The good Patriarch was the same in Potiphar's dungeon and on Pharaoh's bench Our Saviour was the same in Joseph's work-house and in the hill of Tabor Saint Paul was the same while he sate in the house with Aquila making of Tents that he was raigning in the Pulpit or disputing in the Schoole of Tyrannus As a wise man is no whit differently affected with the changes of these his outward conditions but looks upon them with the same face and manages them with the same temper so the judicious beholder indifferently esteemes them in another as being ready to give all due respects to them whom the King holds worthy of honour without all secret envie yet not preferring the Gold-ring before the poore mans richer graces valuing the calling according to its owne true worth not after the price or meanenesse of the abiliments wherewith it is cloathed If some garments be course yet they may serve to defend from cold others besides warmth give grace and comelinesse to the body there may be good use of both and perhaps one and the same vesture may serve for both purposes It is an old and sure rule in Philosophie That degrees do not diversifie the kinds of things The same fire that flashes in the Tow glowes in the Iuniper if one gold be finer than another both are gold if some pearles be fairer than other yet their kinde is the same neither is it otherwise in callings and professions We have knowne some Painters and in other Professions many so eminent that their skill hath raised them to the honour of Knighthood in the meane time their worke and calling is the same it was But what doe I go about to give light to so cleare a truth If therefore it shall be made to appeare that the Episcopacie of this Island is for substance the same with that of the first Institution by the Apostles howsoever there may have beene through the bounty of gracious Princes some additions made to it in outward dignity or maintenance The cause is ours §. 17. The tenth ground That those Scriptures whereon a new and different forme of government is raised had need
to be more evident and unquestionable than those which are alledged for the former rejected TEnthly It cannot but be granted That those passages of holy Scriptures wherein any forme of government different from the anciently received and established is pretended to be grounded had need to be very cleare and unquestionable and more evident and convictive than those whereon the former now rejected policy was raised For if only Scripture must decide this question and no other either evidence or judgment will be admitted besides it And if withall there be difference concerning the sense of the texts on either sides alledged it must needs follow that the clearer Scriptures must carry it and give light to the more obscure we are wont to say that possession is eleven points of the Law surely where that is had and hath long been held it is fit there should be a legall ejection and that ejection must bee upon better evidence of right If therefore the Church of God have beene quietly possessed of this government by Bishops for above these sixteene hundred yeares it is good reason the ejectors should show better proofe than the ancient possessours ere they be outed from their Tenures And what better proofe can there be than more cleare Scripture Shortly then if it shall bee made to appeare that the Scriptures brought for a lay-Presbytery are few doubtfull litigious full of diverse and uncertaine senses and such as many and much clearer places shall plainely show to be otherwise meant by the Holy Ghost than these new maisters apply them then it cannot be denied that the lay-Presbytery hath no true footing in the Word of God and that the old forme of Administration in an imparity of Ministers ought onely to be continued in the Church §. 18. The eleventh ground That if Christ had left this pretended order of government it would have ere this time been agreed upon what that forme is and how to be managed ELeventhly I may well take it for granted neither can it reasonably be denied that if the Order which they say Christ and his Apostles did set for the government of his Church which they call the Kingdome and Ordinance of Christ be but one and that certaine and undoubted then certainly it must and should and would have beene ere this agreed upon by the abettors of it what and which it is For it cannot without impiety be conceived or said without blasphemie that the Sonne of God should erect such a Kingdome upon earth as having lyen hid for no lesse than sixteene hundred yeares cannot yet be fully knowne and accorded upon so that the subjects may be convinced both that it is his and by what Officers and what rules it must be managed If then it shall be made to appeare that the pretenders to the desired Discipline cannot yet all this while agree upon their verdict for that kingdome of Christ which they challenge it will be manifest to every ingenuous Reader that their platformes of this their imagined kingdome are but the Chimericall devices and whimsies of mens braines and worthy to bee entertained accordingly §. 19. The twelfth ground That if this which is challenged be the kingdome of Christ then those Churches which want any essentiall part of it are mainly defective and scarce any at all entire TWelfthly It must be yeelded that if this which they call for be the Kingdome and Ordinance of Christ then it ought to be erected and maintained in all Congregations of Christians all the world over And that where any essentiall part thereof is wanting there the Kingdome of Christ is not entirely set up but is still mainly defective If therefore it shall appeare that even in most of those Churches which doe most eagerly contend for the Discipline there neither are nor ever were all those severall Offices which are upon the list of this spirituall Administration it will irrefragably follow that either those Churches doe not hold these offices necessary which having power in their hand they have not yet erected or els that there are but very few Churches if any upon earth rightly constituted and governed which to affirme since it were grossely uncharitable and highly derogatory from the just glory of Gods kingdome under the Gospell it will be consequent that the device is so lately hatched that it is not yet fledge and that there is great reason rather to distrust the plots of men than 〈◊〉 condemne the Churches of God §. 20. The thirteenth ground That true Christian policie requires not any thing absurd or impossible to be done THirteenthly I have reason to require it granted That true Christian policie requires not any thing which is either impossible or absurd to be done If therefore it shall be pretended that upon the generall grounds of Scripture this sacred Fabricke of Discipline raised by the wisedome of some holy and eminent reformers conforme to that of the first age of the Church it is meet it should be made manifest that there is some correspondence in the state of those first times with the present and of the Condition of their Churches with ours Otherwise if there be an apparent difference and disproportion betwixt them it cannot sound well that one patterne should fit both If then both the first planters and the late reformers of the Church did that which the necessity of the times would allow this is no president for the same persons if they were now living and at their full liberty and power neither can the Churches of those Cantons or Cities which challenge a kinde of freedome in a Democraticall State be meet examples for those which are already established under a setled Monarchy If therefore it shall appeare that many foule and unavoidable inconveniences and if not impossibilities yet unreasonable consequences will necessarily follow upon the obtrusion of a Presbyterian government upon a Nationall Church otherwise setled all wise Christians who are members of such Churches will apprehend great and just cause why they should refuse to submit and yeeld approbation to any such novell Ordinances §. 21. The fourteenth ground That new truths never before heard of especially in maine points carrie just cause of suspicion FOurteenthly It must be granted that Those truths in Divinity which are new and hitherto unheard of in the Church but especially in those points which are by the fautors of them held maine and essentiall carrie just causes of suspicion in their faces and are not easily to be yeelded unto And surely if according to Tertullians rule quod primum verum That the first is true then the latest is seldome so where it agrees not with the first After the teeming of so many ages it is rarely seene Liberum esse praeter contra sanctorum Patrum Doctorum sententiam in religionis doctrina innovare Alphons Var. Toletan de Stratagem Iesuit that a New and Posthumous verity is any other than spurious It was the position it seemes of
Episcopall power as those Bishops which they have abdicated 1 Tim. 3.8.9.10 Thirdly Timothy must prove and examine the Deacons whether they be blamelesse or not Whether they be so qualifyed as is by him prescribed and if they be found such must allow them to use the office of a Deacon and upon the good and holy use of it promote them to an higher degree How should this be done without a fixed Superiority of power Or what other than this doth an English Bishop 1 Tim. 3.15 Fourthly Timothy is encharged with these things in the absence of St. Paul that if he should tarry long he might know how to behave himself in the house of God which is the Church of the living God That is how to carry himself not in the Pulpit only but in Church government in admitting the Officers of the Ephesian Church This could not be meant of the duties of a meer Presbyter for what hath such an one to doe with the charges and Offices of his Equals par in parem c. Besides that house of God which is the Church wherin his behaving is so required is not some one private Congregation such an one were not fit for that style of the Pillar and ground of Truth but that famous Diocesan Church of Ephesus yea of Asia rather wherin there was the use of the variety of all those offices prescribed Neither may we think that Timothy was before after so much attendance of the blessed Apostle in his journeys ignorant of what might concerne him as an ordinary Minister it was therefore a more publique and generall charge which was now imposed upon him he therefore that knew how to behave himself in a particular Congregation must now know what carriage is fit for him as a Diocesan Fifthly Timothy must put the brethren that is 1 Tim. 4 6. the Presbyters in remembrance of the foreâ—old dangers of the last times and must oppose the false doctrine there specified with this charge Command and teach He must teach then himself he must command others to teach them Had he been only a simple Presbyter he might command and go without Now hee must command If our Lords Bishops do so much what do they more Sixthly 1 Tim. 5.1 Timothy is encharged with censures and prescribed how he must manage them towards old and yong Rebuke not an Elder roughly c. He is also to give charge conâ—erning the choyce carriage and maintenance of these widowes which must be provided for by the Church he hath power to admit some and to refuse others and to take order the Church be not charged unduely which a single Presbyter alone is not allowed to do even where their own Presbytery is on foot Seventhly Timothy must care and see that the Elders 1 Tim. 5.17 or Presbyters who are painfull in their callings be respectfully used and liberally maintained what is this to an ordinary Presbyter that hath no power of disposing any maintenance If every Presbyter had and no body over them to moderate it at what a passe would the quiet of the Church be Who would not repute himselfe to be most painfull if himselfe might be judge No it was the Bishops work that A thing that the Bishops once might well do when all the Presbyters were and so were all at first as of the Bishops family all the tiths and means of the Church comming in to him and he dispencing among the Priests and other Church-officers to every one his portion Now indeed as by the distinction of Parishes and since that by other events things are falne it is that which our Bishops indeed may endeavour and pray for but sure I am it is more than they can hope to do till God himselfe be pleased to amend it Eighthly 1 Tim. 5.19 Timothy was charged not to receive an accusation against an Elder or Presbyter but before two or three witnesses So then Timothy by his place might receive accusations against Presbyters How could he do so if he were but their equall Our Northerne paraclesis can tell us parium neutrum alteri subordinatur and paria non sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 4. that fellowes cannot be subordinate witnesses must bee called before him in cases of such accusation How can this be without a Iurisdiction And when he findes a Presbyter manifestly faulty he may he must rebuke him before all that others also may fear Epiphan haere 75. That of Epiphanius is upon good ground therefore The Divine speech of the Apostle teacheth who is a Bishop and who a Presbyter in saying to Timothy Rebuke not an Elder c. How could a Bishop rebuke a Presbyter if he had no power over a Presbyter Thus he The evidence is so clear Camer in 1 Tim. 4. that Cameron himselfe cannot but confesse Nullus est dubitandi locus c. There can be no doubt saith he but that Timothy was elected by the Colledge of Elders to governe the Colledge of the Elders and that not w thout some authority but such as had meet limits Thus must thus might Timothy do even to Presbyters what could a Bishop of England do more And thus Cameron Though I cannot approve of his election by the Colledge that conceit is his own but the authoritie is yielded 1 Tim. 5.21 Ninthly Timothy is charged before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angels to observe all these things without preferring one Presbyter before an other and doing nothing by partiality plainly therefore Timothy was in such place and authority as was capable of giving favour or using rigor to Presbyters what more can be said of ours 1 Tim. 5.22 Tenthly Timothy is charged to lay hands suddenly on no man he had therfore power of the imposition of hands On whom should he lay his hands for Ordination but on Presbyters and Deacons therefore he above Presbyters The lesse saith the Apostle to the Hebrews is blessed of the better Hâ—br 7.7 He laid hands then Yes but not alone say our Opposites My demand then is But why then should this charge be particularly directed to Timothy and not to more The Presbytery some construe to have laid hands on the ordained but the Presbytery so constituted as we shall hereafter declare but a meer Presbyter or many Presbyters as of his or their owne power never An Apostle did so to Timothy himselfe and Timothy as being a Bishop might do it but who or where ever any lesse than he Neither doth the Apostle say lend not thine hand to be laid on with others but appropriates it as his own act whereas then our Antitilenus tells us the question is not whether this charge were given to Timothy but whether to Timothy alone me thinks he might easily have answered himselfe Doth St Paul in this act joyne any with him were there not Elders good store at Ephesus before Could they have
of power a Priority of Presidencie for the time not personall Beza yields him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he acknowledges Justine Martyr to call him President of the Presbytery imo ne perpetuum q. istud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 munus esse necessario opportuisse but perhaps not perpetuall wherein I blesse my self to see how prejudice can blinde the eyes of the wise and learned for what Author in the whole world ever mentioned such a fashion of ambulatory Government in the Church And do not our Histories testifie that Polycarpus the Angel of Smyrna dyed Bishop there that Onesimus by Ignatius his testimony so continued Bishop of Ephesus James at Ierusalem and of these errors taxed by the holy Ghost were but for the time of a shifting Presidencie why should any one of the momentany guides of the Churches be charged so home with all the abuses of their Iurisdiction How easie had it been for him to shift the fault as hee did the chair for how could it concerne him more then the next men surely this conceit is more worthy of pity than Confutation No indifferent Reader can looke upon that Scripture and not confesse it a strained Construction Here then were certainly both Continuance and Iurisdiction Wherein Parker braves our learned Docter Field as relying meerely upon the proofs of humane authority but that worthy Divine had he insisted upon the point which hee but touched in the way could easily out of the very Text it self have evicted the Angels power and Iurisdiction for how plain is it that the Angell of Ephesus had taken the Examination of the counterfeit Apostles and found them lyers which if a meer Presbyter had undertaken to do to bee sure hee had been shaken off with scorn enough It is imputed to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus that however himself in his own person held constant to the Faith yet that there were those under his charge who held the doctrine of Balaam the beastly errours of the Nicolaitans lhey were of his Clergie that taught these wicked Doctrines And for this the Bishop is texed and menaced how should this be if he had not had a coe cive power to restraine and punish them And more plainly the Angell of the Church of Thyatyra notwithstanding all his good parts graces services is sharply taxed What is his fault Revel 2.26 That thou sufferest the woman Iezabel who calleth herself a prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants c. Were he but an Ordinary Presbiter unarmed with power how could he helpe it Or why should he be charged with what he could not redresse Let an ingenuous reader now judge whether these bee not more than probabilities of a Supereminent and Iurisdictive power in these speciall Angels of the Asian Churches Shortly then upon these clear passages of Saint Paul and Saint Iohn meeting with the grounds laid by our blessed Saviour I am for my part so confident of the Divine Institution of the Majority of Bishops above Presbiters that I dare boldly say there are weighty points of faith which have not so strong evidence in holy Scriptures Let me instance in that power which we that are Evangelicall Ministers have by the vertue of our sacred Ordes given to us alone for the Consecration and distribution of the holy Eucharist a point not more highly than justly stood upon by all Orthodox Divines yea Christians What warrant can we challenge for this right but our Saviours practise And with all that speech of his to his Disciples Luke 22.20 Do this in remembrance of me Now if this Hoc facite shall be taken as it is by some as not spoken of the Consecration or benediction but of the receit what warrant had the Apostles and all their holy successors in the Church of God ever since to enjoyne and appropriate this sacred worke to none but those that are Presbyters by Ordination The receiving of Infants to holy Baptisme is a matter of so high consequence that we justly Brand our Catabaptists with heresie for denying it yet Let me with good assurance say that the evidences for this truth come farre short of that which the Scriptures have afforded us for the superiority of some Church-governors over those who otherwise indeed in a sole respect of their ministeriall function are equall He therefore that would upon pretence of want of Scriptures quarrell at the divine Institution of Bishops having so evident and unavoydable Testimonies might with much better colour cavill at those blessed Ordinances of God which the whole Church hath thought her self bound upon sufficient reason to receive and reverence §. 8. The estate and order of Episcopacy deduced from the Apostles to the Primitive Bishops DId not the holy Scriptures yield unto these firme grounds whereon to build our Episcopacy in vain should we plead the Tradition and practise of the Church ever since for as much as we have to deal with those who are equally disaffected to the name of a Bishop and to Tradition and are so fore-stalled with their own prejudice that they are carried where Scripture is silent to an unjust jealousie against the universall practise of the whole Church of God upon earth But now when Christ and his Apostles give us the text well may the Apostolicall and universall Church yield us the Commentary And that let me boldly say is so clear for us that if our Opposites dare stand to this triall the day is ours their gultinesse therfore would fain decline this barre Tertull. de prescrip c. 24 25. Parker taking advantage from a word of Tertullian Nihil interest quando quid sit quod ab Apostolis non fuit It matters not when any thing is which was not under the Apostles that is Adulterine what ever it be that is not named by the Apostles inferres What then It matters not when the Episcopall Hierarchy began whether sooner or later Qi d igitur Nihil interest c. l. 2. c. 8. it is enough that it is Adulterine for that it is not named by the Apostles And contrarily it matters no whit at what time the reformed dis ipline was impayred whether in the very first Church or no or whether in the time immediatly succeeding Thus he And shall we take him at his word Where then did the Apostles name this mans Consistory Where his Lay-changable Presbytery Where his Discipline It is therefore Adulterine As also Where name they the peoples voyce in their Ministers Election where Classes or Synods Are all these adulterine For us we are not concerned in this Censure Our Episcopacy is both named and recommended and prescribed by the Apostles As for his discipline seeing it never came within the mention either of an Apostle or of any Christian for above fifteen hundred yeers since our Saviour left the world what can that be but grosly adulterine But to make up all Parker should have done well to have taken notice of the following words of
registred by themselves which we must believe they did or enacted For doctrine necessary for salvation we are for him but surely for evidence of fact or rituall observation this is no better than absurd rigour than unchristian incredulity Where is there expresse charge for the Lords Day Where for Paedobaptisme Where for publike Churches Where for Texts to be handled in Sermons Where for publike Prayers of the Church before and after them and many such like which yet we think deducible from those sacred authorities That is true of Hierome Hieron Tom. 6. in Agge 1. Quae absque authoritate c. Those things which men either finde or feigne as delivered by Apostolike tradition without the authority and testimonies of Scripture are smitten by the sword of Gods Spirit But what is this to us who finde this which we challenge for Apostolicall recorded in the written Word of God Or with what conscience is this alledged against us which is directly bent against the hereticall doctrines and traditions of the Marcionites either utterly without or expresly against the Scripture §. 11. The two famous Rules of Tertullian and S. Augustine to this purpose asserted I May not baulke two pregnant testimonies of the Fathers wherewith this great Anthierarchist and his Northerne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much and justly troubled as our cause is advantaged not so much because they are the sentences of ancient Fathers which they have learned to turne off at pleasure with scorne enough as for that they carry in them such clearenesse and strength of reason as will not admit of any probable contradiction The former is Tertull. conâ—r Marcion c. 4. that of Tertullian Constabit id esse ab Apostolis traditum quod apud Ecclesias Apostolorum fuerit sacrosanctum That shall clearely appeare to be delivered by the Apostles which shall have been religiously observed in the Churches of the Apostles What evasion is there of so evident a truth Vbi supra Me seemes saith Parker that Tertullian understands onely those Churches which were in the very time of the Apostles not the subsequent for he saith not Quod est but Quod fuerit and thus it may be held true But this is to mocke himselfe and those that trust him and not to answer all the Fathers testimony The question must be what in Tertullian's time should be held to have beene Apostolike and therefore he saith Constabit not Constitit now if he shall speak to Parkers sense he shall say That which was religiously kept in the Church planted by the Apostles and in their own time is to be held Apostolike what is the reader ever the wiser since it were equally hard to know what their Churches then did and what they themselves ordained to be done were it not for the continued tradition and practice descending from them to the succeeding ages so as either they must trust the Churches then present for the deduction of such truth or els nothing would be proved Apostolike Neither is there any thing more familiar with the Fathers than to terme those the Churches of the Apostles even for some hundreds of yeares after their decease wherein they after some residence had established a government for future succession which had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius speaketh as it were too easie to instance in a thousand particularities yea that it may appeare how Parker shuffles here against his owne knowledge there is a flat mention of the Churches after the time of Saint Iohn the longest liver of all that holy traine which he cals Ioannis alumnas Ecclesias Tert. l. 4. contra Marc. c. 5. So as this of Parkers is a miserable shift and not an answer The other is that famous place of Saint Augustine against the Donatists agiâ—ated by every pen Quod universa c. That which is held by the universall Church and not ordained by any Councell but hath beene alwayes retained in the Church is most truly believed to be delivered by no other than Apostolicall authority which Parker sticks not to professe the Achillaean argument of the Hierarchists Neither have they any cause to disclaime it the authority of the man is great but the power of his reason more For that which obtaineth universally must either have some force in it selfe to command acceptation or els must be imposed by some over-ruling Authority and what can that be but either of the great Princes as they are anciently called of the Church the holy Apostles or of some generall Councels as may authoritatively diffuse it through all the world If then no Councels have decreed the observation of an ordinance whence should an universall not reception onely but retention proceed saye from Apostolike hands No cause can work beyond his owne Sphere Private power cannot exceed its owne compasse Let not any adversary think to elude this testimony with the upbraiding to it the Patronage of the Popish Opinion concerning Traditions we have learned to hate their vanities and yet to maintaine our owne Truths without all feare of the patrocination of Popery We deny not some Traditions however the word for want of distinguishing is from their abuse growne into an ill name must have their place and use and in vaine should learned Chamier Fulk Whitakers Perkins Willet and other Controversers labour in the rules of discerning true Apostolicall Traditions from false and counterfeit if all were such and if those which are certainly true were not worthy of high honour and respect And what and how farre our entertainment of Traditions is and should be I referre my Reader to that sound and judicious discourse of our now most Reverend Metropolitan against his Iesuite A.C. Onwards therefore I must observe That whereas Chamier doth justly defend Cham. Panstrat de Traditionibus that the Evidence of these kind of Traditions from the universall receipt of the Church doth not breed a plerophory of assent he doth not herein touch upon us since his Opposition is only concerning points of faith Our defence is concerning matter of fact neither do we hold it needfull there should be so full a sway of assent to the testimony of the Churches practice herein as there ever ought to be to the direct sentence of the sacred Scripture Will none but a divine faith serve the turn in these Cases which Parker himselfe professes to bee farre from importing salvation Is it not enough that I doe as verily believe upon these humane proofes what was done by the Apostles for the plantation and settlement of the Church as I doe believe there was a Rome before Christ's Incarnation or that a Iulius Caesar was Emperour or Dictator there or Tully an Oratour and Consul or Cato a wise Senator or Catiline a Traytor Certainly thus much beliefe will serve for our purpose who so requires more besides the grounds of the Apostolike Ordinances recorded in Scripture thus seconded may take that counsell which boyes construe the Lapwing
to give for her nest Two things are answered hereto by Parker and his Clients The one That the rule of S. Augustine availes us nothing since that the Originall of Episcopacie is designed as from Decree by S. Hierome as from Councels by S. Ambrose but what that decree was or could be besides Apostolicall or what those Councels were hee were wise that could tell He and all his abettors I am sure cannot But of this in the Sequell The other after some mis-applied testimonies of our owne Authors who drive onely at matter of faith that hee can make instance in diverse things which were both universally and perpetually received no Councell decreeing them and yet farre from an Apostolike Ordination Sibrandus Lubbertus helpes him to his first instance borrowed from S. Augustine a fixed day for the celebration of Easter And what of that How holds his argument in this For that this or that day should be universally set and perpetually kept for that solemne Feast who that ever heard of the state of the Primitive time can affirme Since those famous quarrels and contrary pretences of their severall derivations of right from the two prime Apostles are still in every mans eye but that an Easter was agreed to be solemnly kept by the Primitive Church universally Euseb l. 5. hist c. 24. Quanquam enim in ipso die differeâ—tia erat in hoc tamen omnes Eâ—â—lâ—siae conspirâ◠unt Diem Paschatis observandum aliquem esse Ibid. Polit. Eccles those very Contentions betwixt Polycarpus and Annicetus do sufficiently declare and Parker himselfe confesseth Thus it was kept and withall decreed by no Councell yet not saith he by any Apostolicall institution How doth that appeare Nihil illi de festis c. They .i. the Apostles never delivered ought concerning Feast-dayes nor yet of Easter Why but this is the very question Parker denies it and must we take his word for proofe whereas we have the Apostles direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the feast And afterwards there is a plaine deduction of it from and through the times succeeding as is fully and excellently set forth by our incomparably-learned the late Bishop of Winchester to whose accurate discourse of this subject B. Andrewes Serm. of the Resur Ser. 13. I may well referre my reader His second instance is the Apostles Creed which our Authors justly place within the first three hundred yeares after Christ used and received by the whole Church and not enacted by any Councels yet not in respect of the forme of it delivered by the Apostles A doughty argument and fit for the great Controller of times and Antagonist of government we speak of the matter of the Creed he talkes of the forme of it we of things he of words and just so Tilenus his friend instances in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found in Ignatius But do these men suppose S. Augustine meant to send us to seek for all common expressions of language to the Apostles Let them tell us Is there any thing in the substance of that Creed which we cannot fetch from the Apostles Are not all the severall clauses as he cites them from S. Augustine per divinas Scripturas sparsae indè collectae in unum redactae scattered here and there in the Scriptures penned by the Apostles gathered up and reduced into this summe As for the syntaxe of words and sentences who of us ever said they were or needed to be fathered upon those great Legates of the Sonne of God Our Cause is no whit the poorer if we grant there were some universall termes derived by Tradition to the following ages whereof the Originall Authors are not knowne This will not come within the compasse of his quiddam vox est praetereà nihil His third instance is in the Observation of Lent for which indeed there is so great plea of Antiquity that himselfe cannot deny it to be acknowledged even by old Ignatius a man contemporary to some of the Apostles and as overcome by the evidence of all Histories grants it to be apparent that the whole Church constantly ever observed some kinde of Fast before their Easter no lesse than Theophilus Alexandrinus Polit. Eccles ubi suprà Lex abstinendi the Law of fasting in Lent hath beene alwayes observed in the Church and what need we more And yet saith Parker for all that Lent was not delivered by Apostolike authority Et in eo lapsi sunt Patres therein the Fathers are mistaken Magisterially spoken and we must believe him rather than S. Hierome who plainely tels us it is secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum according to the Tradition of the Apostles The specialties indeed of this fast admitted of old very great variety in the season in the number of dayes in the limitation subject and manner of abstinence as Socrates hath well expressed Socrat. l. 5. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a quoddam jejunium some kinde of fast I see no reason why the man that can be so liberall as to grant it alwayes observed by the universall Church should be so strait-laced as to deny it derivable from the Tradition of the holy Apostles and when he can as well prove it not Apostolike as we can prove it universall we shall give him the Bucklers To what purpose do I trace him in the rest the ancient rites of the Eucharist and of Baptisme urged out of Baronius of gestures in prayer of the observation of solemne Feasts and Embers let one word serve for all it will be an harder work for him to prove their universality and perpetuity than to disprove their originall let it be made good that the whole Church of Christ alwayes received them we shall not be niggardly in yeelding them this honour of their pedigree deducible from an Apostolicall recommendation In the meane time every not ungracious sonne of this spirituall Mother will learne to kisse the footsteps of the universall Church of Christ as knowing the deare and infallible respects betwixt him and this blessed Spouse of his as to whom he hath ingaged his everlasting presence and assistance Behold I am with you alwayes to the end of the world and will resolve to spit in the face of those seducers who go about to alienate their affections from her and to draw them into the causlesse suspicions of her chast fidelity to her Lord and Saviour To shut up this point therefore if we can show that the universall practice of the Church immediately after the Apostles and ever since hath been to governe by Bishops superiour to Presbyters in their order and jurisdiction our Cause is won §. 12. The fifth ground That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another forme of government different from that they received from the Apostles FIftly we may not entertaine so irreverent an opinion of the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church That they who
were the immediate Successours of the Apostles would or durst set up a forme of government different from that which was fore-designed to them and that either faulty or selfe-devised Certainly it must needs follow either those succeeding governours practised maintained and propagated that forme which they immediately before received from the hands of the Apostles or els they quite altered it and established a new If the first we have what we desire if the later those holy men were guilty of a presumptuous Innovation which were a crime to thinke Charity thinks not evill And what evill can be worse than to violate or transgresse Apostolicall Ordinances How highly doth the Apostle of the Gentiles praise the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they kept all his orders and observed his Traditions and would he have lesse deeply blamed those that should have wilfully broken them Vultis veniam in virga Will ye that I shall come to you with a rod saith the same Apostle All the Christian world knew how sacred the Authority of those great Delegates of our Saviour was how infallible their Determinations how undoubted their inspirations Withall it must be granted that the first Ages were the purest as the water that first rises from the spring is clearer than that which by a long decursion hath mixed it selfe with the soyle of the Channell Can it therefore enter into any wise and honest heart that those prime Saints even in the greatest purity of the Church would wilfully varie from the holy Institutions of the blessed Apostles And as the fickle Israelites did so soone as Moses his back was turned worship Idols of their owne invention Surely he must be strongly uncharitable that shall thinke so strangely impudent that dares maintaine it and wickedly credulous that can believe it Quae defectio in Ecclesia quidem ipsa Apostolorum aetati proximâ adeò coepit ut argumento certo illius universa praxis esse nequeat Paâ—k Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. 8. But the defection began in the Church presently after the Apostles yea in their time A point eagerly urged by the faction It is no trusting therefore to the universall practice of the Successors Our owne Authours are frequently alledged for the earlinesse of this Apostasie Whitakers Reynolds Field Mornay what need it when the Apostle himselfe tels us the mystery of iniquity began then to worke yea and as it is said your Moderator lately told you Saint Paul himselfe by appointing Bishops was himself a worker in it The mystery of iniquity What is that but the plots of that Antichrist Yea but you ordinarily speak of him as I thought but as one The Romane vice-god Now I perceive it is a mistake there was the Antichrist at Hierusalem the Antichrist of Antioch of Alexandria shortly in every Church one But let them say now Doe they repute the Bishop of Rome to bee the Antichrist or not If they doe let them shew us what it is that makes him so which all good Bishops do not as mainly oppose What hand hath the Patriâ— rch of Constantinople or Alexandria or the Abassine Bishops in his transcendent supremacy and usurpation These disclaime him these resist him Did the Episcopacie of these and all other Christian Churches give any aid to the advancement of that usurpers infallibility or universall supremacie Did or do the Christian Bishops of all other Churches give him their shoulder to hoyse him up above all that is called God If they helpe him up who offers to pull him down Shortly then if the mystery of iniquity did then work for Rome yet not for the Grecian Syrian Asian Churches No no it was not any point of the defection this but rather of the perfection of the Church But here we are choaked with the examples of some Churches which soone after their plantation swerved from their former purity Of Israel it is said Rehoboam left the Law of the Lord 2 Chron. 12.1 and all Israel with him Of the Galathians I marvell that you are so soon turned away from Christ Galat. 1.6 and severall errours are reckoned up of succeeding Churches and men It is no such strange matter therefore that the Christian Church should in some sort faile after the decease of the Apostles How little reason and great uncharitablenesse is there in this Argument If there were some errours shall we suspect all truths And if some particular Churches failed in some opinions shall we therefore mis-doubt the practice of the universall Parker grants that in the times of the Apostles the Church was in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height of her health even then were there not quarrels were there not foule mis-opinions in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Thessalonica Colossae If these particular failings did not hinder the soundnesse in doctrine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in government of the universall Christian Church what reason have we to cast this aspersion upon the subsequent It is true as Physitians observe that in seven yeares the body changes and in thirty there is as Keckerman observes not ill a remarkable alteration in every state Neither is the Church priviledged from mutability but as a man changes his complexion but still holds his visage and as the State changes its Officers but still retaines the lawes and formes of Administration so the Church may perhaps alter some Customes and either mend or impaire in manners and yet still continue the rules and formes of her government neither have we reason to thinke otherwise of those which succeeded the Apostolike And if some men therein declined towards errour or heresie God forbid the Church should suffer as guilty of their lapses But as for the maine lawes of Church-Discipline if the succeding Governours should have so foulely forgotten themselves after the decease of the two great Apostles of the Gentiles and the Circumcision yet Saint Iohn lived a faire age after no lesse than sixty eight yeares after our Saviour and had leisure enough to controll their exorbitances had they been such neither would he have indured any such palpable and prejudiciall innovation in the Church of God Briefly then if it shall appeare that these holy men who were immediate Successours in the Apostolike chaires continued and maintained an imparity and superiority of the Episcopall function we have evicted what we plead for § 13. The sixth ground That if the next successors would have innovated the forme of government yet they could not in so short space have diffused it through the whole Christian world BVt sixtly if the succeeding Church-Governours would or durst have owned so much presumption as to alter or innovate the forme of government left by the Apostles yet they could not possibly in so short a space have diffused their new uniforme platforme of Administration through the whole Christian world For who knowes not that universality of power and jurisdiction died with the Apostles they
Poza the braine-sick Professour of Divinity set up by the Iesuites at Madrill That it is free for any man besides and against the judgement of the holy Fathers and Doctors to make innovations in the doctrine of religion And for his warrant of contemning all ancient Fathers and Councels in respect of his owne Opinions borrowes the words in Ecclesiasticus Concil Constantinop Act. 5. Ecclesiast 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cited by the Councell of Constantinople Beatus qui praedicat verbum inauditum Blessed is he that preaches the word never before heard of impiously and ignorantly marring the text mistaking the sense belying the Authour slandering the Councell the misprision being no lesse ridiculous than palpable For whereas the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in auditum he turnes them both into one adjective inauditum and makes the sentence as monstrous as his owne stupidity Pope Hormisda in his Epistle to the Priests and Deacons of Syria turnes it right Qui praedicat verbum in aurem obedientis He that preaches a word to the obedient farre bee it from any sober and Orthodoxe Christian to entertaine so wild and wicked a thought he hath learned that the old way is the good way Ier. 6.16 and wil walk therin accordingly and in so doing finds rest to his soule he that preacheth this word is no lesse happy than hee that obediently heares it neither shall a man finde true rest to his soule in a new and untrodden by-way If therefore it shall be made to appeare that this government by lay-Presbyters is that which the ancient and succeeding Church of God never acknowledged untill this present age I shall not need to perswade any wise and ingenuous Christian if otherwise he have not lost the free liberty of his choice that he hath just cause to suspect it for a misgrounded novelty For such it is §. 22. The fifteenth ground That to depart from the judgment and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and to betake our selves to a new invention cannot but be besides the danger vehemently scandalous c. LAstly it must upon all this necessarily follow that to depart from the judgement and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and abandon that ancient forme wherein we were and are legally and peaceably infeoffed to betake our selves to a new one never till this age heard of in the whole Christian world it cannot but be extremely scandalous and savour too much of Schisme How ill doth it become the mouth of a Christian Divine which Parker hath let fall to this purpose Quod duo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posuerit Park Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. 5. Who dareth to challenge learned Casaubon for proposing two means of deciding the moderne controversies Scriptures and Antiquity what more easie triall can possibly be projected Who but a profest Novellist can dislike it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the old and sure rule of that sacred Councell and it was Salomons charge Remove not the old land-marks Prov. ◠If therefore it shall be made to appeare that Episcopacie as it presupposeth an imparity of order and superiority of government hath been a sound stake pitched in the hedge of Gods Church ever since the Apostles times and that Parity and lay-Presbytery are but as new-sprung bryars and brambles lately woven into the new-plashed fence of the Church In a word thus if it be manifest that the government of Bishops in a meet and moderate imparity in which we assert it hath been peaceably continued in the Church ever since the Apostolicall Institution thereof and that the government of lay-Presbyters hath never beene so much as mentioned much lesse received in the Church untill this present age I shall need no farther argument to perswade all peaceable and well-minded Christians to adhere to that ancient forme of Administration which with so great authority is derived unto us from the first Founders of the Gospell and to leave the late supply of a lay-Presbyterie to those Churches who would and cannot have better The Second Part. §. 1. The termes and state of the Question setled and agreed upon THese are the grounds which if they prove as they cannot but do firm and unmoveable we can make no fear of the superstructure Let us therefore now addresse our selves to the particular points here confidenly undertaken by us and made good all those severall issues of defence which our holy cause is most willingly cast upon But before we descend to the scanning of the matter reason and order require that according to the old and sure rules of Logicians the terms be cleared and agreed upon otherwise we shall perhaps fight with shadows and beat the ayr It hath pleased the providence of GOD so to order it that as the Word it self the Church so the names of the Offices belonging to it in their severall comprehensions should be full of Senses and variety of use and acception and that in such manner that each of them runs one into other and oftentimes interchanges their Appellations A Prophet we know is a foreteller of future things an Evangelist in the naturall sence of the word is he that preaches the glad tidings of the Gospel an Apostle one of Christs twelve great Messengers to the world a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Overseer of the Church a Presbyter some grave ancient Churchman a Deacon a servant or Minister in the Church yet all these in Scripture are so promiscuously used that a Preacher is more then once termed a Prophet 1 Cor. 14. Act 1.20 2 Ep. Iohn 1 Peter 5.1 1 Tim. 4.6 an Evangelist an Apostle an Apostle a Bishop an Apostle a Presbyter a Presbyter an Apostle as Romans 6.7 a Presbyter a Bishop and lastly an Evangelist and Bishop a Deacon or Minister for all these met in Timothy alone who being Bishop of Ephesus is with one breath charged to do the work of an Evangelist and to fulfill his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ministery It could not be otherwise likely but from this community of names there would follow some confusion of apprehensions for since names were intended for distinction of things where names are the same how can the notions be distinguished But howsoever it pleased the Spirit of God in the first hatching of the Evangelicall Church to make use of these indistinct expressions yet all this while the Offices were severall known by their severall Characters and employments So as the function and work of an Apostle was one viz. To plant the Church and to ordain the Governours of it of a Bishop an other to wit To manage the Government of his designed Circuit and to ordain Presbyters and Deacons of a Presbyter another namely To assist the Bishop and to watch over his severall charge of a Deacon another besides his sacred services to order the stock of the Church and to take care of
the poor yet all these agreed in one Common Service which was the propagation of the Gospel and the sounding of Gods Church and soon after the very terms were contra-distinguished both by the substance of their charge and by the property of their Titles insomuch as blessed Ignatius that holy Martyr who lived many yeers within the times of the Apostles in every of his Epistles as we shall see in the sequel makes expresse mention of three distinct orders of Government Bishops Presbyters Deacons Now we take Episcopacie as it is thus punctually differenced in an eminence from the two inferior orders of Presbyter and Deacon so as to define it Episcopacie is no other than an holy order of Church-Governours appointed for the Administration of the Church Or more fully thus Episcopacie is an eminent order of sacred function appointed by the Holy Ghost in the Evangelicall Church for the governing and overseeing thereof and for that purpose besides the Administration of the Word and Sacraments indued with power of imposition of hands and perpetuity of Iurisdiction Wherein we finde that we shall meet with two sorts of Adversaries The one are furiously and impetuously fierce crying down Episcopacy for an unlawfull and Antichristian state not to be suffered in a truely Evangelicall Church having no words in their mouthes but the same which the cruell Edomites used concerning Ierusalem Downe with it down with it even to the ground And such are the frantick Separatists and Semi-separatists of our time and Nation who are only swayed with meer passion and wilfully blinded with unjust prejudice These are Reformers of the new Cut which if Calvin or Beza were alive to see they would spit at and wonder whence such an off-spring should come Men that defend and teach there is no higher Ecclesiasticall government in the world than that of a Parish that a Parochiall Minister though but of the blindest village in a Country is utterly independant and absolute a perfect Bishop within himselfe and hath no superiour in the Church upon earth and doth no lesse inveigh even against the over-ruling power of Classes Synods c. than of Bishops you are not perhaps of this straine for we conceive that our Northern neighbors desire and affect to conforme unto the Genevian or French discipline Honoratiss Do. Glanico Cancellario Scotiae respon ad sex quaestiones for which we find Beza's directions although both your act of a brenunciation and some speeches let fall in the assembly of Glasco and of the plea of Covenanters fetching Episcopacy within the compasse of things abjured might seem to intimate some danger of inclination this way our charity bids us hope the best which is that you hate the frenzeys of these our wilde Countrey-men abroad for whom no answer is indeed fit but darke lodgings and Ellebore The other is more milde and gentle and lesse unreasonable not disallowing Episcopacy in it selfe but holding it to be lawfull usefull ancient yet such as was by meer humane device upon wise and politick Considerations brought into the Church and so continued and therefore upon the like grounds alterable with both these we must have to do But since it is wind ill lost to talke reason to a mad-man it shall be more than sufficient to confute the former of them in giving satisfaction to the latter for if wee shall make it appeare that Episcopacy is not onely lawfull and ancient but of no lesse than divine institution those raving and black mouthes are fully stopped and those more easie and moderate opposites at once convinced But before we offer to deal blows on either side it is fit we should know how far we are friends and upon what points this quarrell stands It is yielded by the wiser fautors of Discipline that there is a certain Polity necessary for the retention of the Churches peace That this Polity requires that there must be severall Congregations or flocks of Christians and that every flock should have his own Shepherd That since those guides of Gods people are subject to error in Doctrine and exorbitance in manners which may need correction and reformation and many doubtfull cases may fall out which will need decision it is requisite there should be some further aid given by the counsell and assistance of other Pastors That those Pastors met together in Classes and Synodes are fit arbiters in differences and censurers of errors and disorders That in Synodes thus assembled there must be due order kept That order cannot be kept where there is an absolute equality of all persons convened That it is therefore necessary that there should be an head President or Governour of the assembly who shall marshall all the affairs of those meetings propound the Cases gather the voyces pronounce the Sentences and judgements but in the mean while he having but lent his tongue for the time to the use of the Assembly when the businesse is ended returnes to his own place without any personall inequality A lively image whereof we have in our lower house of Convocation the Clerks whereof are chosen by the Clergy of the severall Diocesses They all having equall power of voyces assemble together choose their Prolocutor He cals the house receives petitions or complaints proposes the businesses asks and gathers the suffrages dismisses the Sessions and the action once ended takes his former station forgetting his late superiority This is the thing challenged by the Patrons of Discipline who do not willingly heare of an upper house consisting of the Peeres of the Church whose grave authority gives life to the motions of that lower body They can be content there should be a prime Presbyter and that this Presbyter shall be called Bishop and that Bishop shall moderate for the time the publike affairs of the Church but without all innate and fixed superiority without all though never so moderate Iurisdiction Calvin in this case shall speak for all who writing of the state of the Clergie in the Primitive times hath thus Calv. Instit l. 4. c. 4. Quibus ergo docendi munus c. Those therefore which had the charge of teaching injoined unto them they named Presbyters These Presbyters out of their number in every city chose one to whom they especially gave the title of Bishop lest from equality as it commonly fals out discords should arise Neither was the Bishop so superiour to the rest in honour and dignity as that he had any rule over his Colleagues but the same office and part which the Consul had in the Senate to report of businesse to be done to ask the votes advising admonishing exhorting to go before the rest to rule the whole action by his authority and to execute that which by the common Councell was decreed The same office did the Bishop sustain in the assembly of the Presbyters Thus he and to the same purpose Beza in his Treatise of the degrees of the ministery Moulin Chamier others So as we easily see how
judgement was given hath thus Non hoc putandum de ultimo judicio c. We may not think this spoken of the last judgement but the seats of the Prelats or presidents by whom the Church is governed and the governors themselves are to be understood the judgment that is given cannot be any better way taken than for that which is said Whatsoeuer ye binde on earth shal be bound in heauen §. 3. The execution of this Apostolicall power after our Saviours ascent into Heaven THe power is clear will you see the Execution of it Look upon St. Paul the Posthumous and Supernumerary but no lesse glorious Apostle see with what Majesty he becomes his new erected Throne one while deeply (a) 2 Thess 36. charging and commanding another while (b) 1 Cor. 5.4.5.6.7 controlling and censuring One while (c) 1 Cor. 11.2 1 Cor. 16 1. giving Laws and Ordinances another while urging for their observance One while (d) 1 Tim. 1.6 1 Tim. 2.9 1 Tim. 6 13. 2 Cor. 13.2 2 Cor. 4.21 1 Tim. 1.20 ordaining Church-governours another while adjuring them to do their duties one while threatning punishment another while inflicting it And if these be not acts of Iurisdiction what can be such which since they were done by the Apostle from the instinct of Gods Spirit wherewith he was inspired and out of the warrant of his high vocation most manifest it is that the Apostles of Christ had a supereminent power in Gods Church And if any person whosoever though an Evangelist or Prophet should have dared to make himselfe equall to an Apostle he had been hissed out yea rather thunder-struck by deep Censure for an Arrogant and saucy usurper Now if our blessed Saviour thought it fit to found his Church in an evident imparity what reason should we have to imagine he did not intend so to continue it It had been equally easie for him had he so thought meet to have made al his followers equally great none better than a disciple none meaner than an Apostle But now since it hath pleased him to raise up some to the honour of Apostles no lesse above the 70 than the seventy were above the multitude only injoyning them that the highest in place should be the lowest in minde and humility of service what doth he but herein teach us that he meant to set this course for the insuing government of his Church Neither is it possible for any man to be so absurd as to think that the Apostles who were by their heavenly Master infeoffed in this known preeminence should after the Ascent of their Saviour descend from their acknowledged superiority and make themselves but equall to the Presbyters they ordained No they still and ever as knowing they were qualified for that purpose by the more speciall graces of the holie Ghost kept their holie state maintained the honour of their places What was the fault of Diotrephes but that being a Church-governour he proudlie stood out against St. John not acknowledging the Transcendant power of his Apostolicall Iurisdiction whom the provok't Apostle threats to correct accordinglie so as those that lay Diotrephes in our dish do little consider that they buffet none but themselves who symbolize with him in opposing Episcopal that is as all antiquity was wont to construe it Apostolicall government But you are ready to say This was during their own time they were persons extraordinary and their calling and superioritie died with them Parâ—câ—â—l 1. c. 4. Thus our Tileno-mastix in terms The only question is Whether of the ordinary Presbyters which were singlie set over severall Churches they advanced one in degree above his brethren We shall erre then if we distinguish not These great Ambassadors of Christ sustained more persons than one they comprehended in themselves the whole Hierarcy they were Christians Presbyters Bishops Apostles So it was they were Apostles immediatlie called miraculouslie gifted infalliblie guided universallie charged Thus they had not they could not have any successors they were withall Church governours appointed by Christ to order and settle the affairs of his Spirituall Kingdome And therein besides the preaching of the Gospel and baptizing common to them with other Ministers to ordain a succession of the meet Administrators of his Church Thus they were would be must be succeeded Neither could the Church otherwise have subsisted No Christian can denie this all binding upon a necessitie of Apostolicall succession though differing in the qualitie and degree of their successors §. 4. The derivation of this power and majority from the Apostles to the succeeding Bishops NOw therefore that we have seene what ground our Saviour laid for a superioritie in them Let us see how they by his divine inspiration erected it in others who should follow them â—hat was Apostolicall this was Episcopall It is true as Calâ—in saith that at the first all to whom the Dispensation of the Gospell was committed were called Presbyters whether they were Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors and Doctors as before the Apostles were commonly called by the name of Disciples in every Chapter yet in degree still above the 70 and we do still say one while Bishops and Curats comprehending all Presbyters and Deacons under that name another while Bishops Pastors Curats not distinctly observing the difference of names So they all were called Presbyters yet not so but that there was a manifest and full distinction betwixt the Apostles and Presbyters as thrise Act. the 15. They therefore though out of humility they hold the common names with others yet maintained their places of Apostles and governed the Church at first as it were in common And thus as St. Ierome truly All maine matters were done in the beginning by the common Councell and consent of the Presbyters their consent but still the power was in the Apostles who in the nearer Churches since they in person ordered Ecclesiasticall affairs ordained only Presbyters in the remoter Bishops This for the Consummation of it was an act of time Neither was the same course held at once in every Church whiles it was in Fieri some which were nearer being supplied by the Apostles presence needed not so present an Episcopacy Others that were small needed not yet their full number of Offices neither were there perhaps fit men for those places of eminence to be found every where whence it is that we finde in some Scriptures mention only of Bishops and Deacons in others of Presbyters not of Bishops This then was the Apostles course for the plantation of the Church and the better propagation of the Gospel where ever they came they found it necessary to ordain meet assistants to them and they promiscuously imparted unto them all their owne stile but Apostolicall naming them Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons according to the familiarity and indifferency of their former usage therein But when they having divided themselves into severall parts of the world found that the number of
gravity and holy Moderation as I verily suppoie our Island yeildeth none such let his person ruler let his calling be innocent and honourable It is not wealth or power that is justly taxable in a Bishop but the abuse of both and that man is weakly grounded which would be other than faithfull to his God whether in an higher or meaner Condition Forasmuch therefore as these imaginary dissimilitudes betwixt the Primitive Episcopacy and ours are vanished and ours for substance is proved to be the same with the first that ever were ordained and those first were ordained by Apostolike hands by direction and inspiration of the holy Ghost we may confidently and irrefragably conclude our Episcopacie to be of no lesse than Divine Institution §. 18. The practice of the whole Christian Church in all times and places is for this government of Bishops HOwever it pleaseth our Anti-praesulists to sleight the practice and judgement of all Churches save the Primitive Church which they also without all ground and against all reason shut up within the strait bonds of 250 yeers out of a just guiltinesse of their known opposition yet it shall be no small confirmation to us nor no lesse conviction to them that the voice as of the Primitive so of the whole subsequent Church of God upon earth to this very age is with us and for us Quod semper et ubique Alwaies and every where was the old and sure rule of Vincentius Lirinensis and who thinks this can fail him as well worthy to erre It were a long task to instance in all times and to particularize in all Churches Let this be the triall Turn over all histories search the records of all times and places if ever it can be shown that any Orthodox Church in the whole Christian world since the times of Christ and his Apostles was governed otherwise than by a Bishop superiour to his Clergy unlesse perhaps during the time of some persecution or short inter-regnum let me forfeit my part of the cause Our opposites dare not stand upon this issue and therefore when we presse and follow them upon this point they runne back fifteen hundred years and shelter themselves under the Primitive times which are most remote And why will they be thus cowardly They know all the rest are with us and against them yea they yeild it and yet would fain think themselves never the worse Antichrist Antichrist hath seized upon all the following times and corrupted their government what a meer gullery is this Do not they themselves confine Antichrist to Rome And hath not Bishop Downham diligently noted his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Boniface his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hildebrand his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times Surâ—ly had these men bestowed that time in perusing Bishop Downhams discourse concerning Antichrist Diatrib de Antichrist 〈◊〉 â—â—on Lessâ—â—â— which they have spent in confuting his worthie Sermon they had needed no other either reformation or disproof For can any indifferent man be so extreamly mad as to think all the Christian world these men only by good luck excepted is or ever was turn'd Antichrist or that that Antichrist hath set his foot every where in all assemblies of Christians and that he still keeps his footing in all Gods Church upon earth To say nothing else concerning the notorious falsity hereof what a derogation were this to the infinite wisedome providence and goodnesse of the Almighty that he should so slacken his care of his Church as that he should from the very beginning give it up wholly up to the managing of Antichrist for the space of more than fifteen hundred years without any check or contradiction to his government no not within the first Century Yea but his Mystery began to work betime True but that was the mystery or iniquity not the mystery of good order and holy government And if the latter times should be thus depraved yet can any man be so absurd as to think that those holy Bishops of the Primitive times which were all made of meeknesse and humility and patience being ever persecuted and cheerfully pouring out their blood for Christ Loco supra citato would in their very offices bolster up the pride of Anti-christ Or if they would yet can we think that the Apostles themselves who saw and erected this superiority as Chamier himself confesseth would be accessary to this advancement of Anti-christ Certainly he had need of a strong and as wicked a Credulity of a weak and as wilde a wit that can believe all this So the Semper is plainly ours and so is the ubique too All times are not more for us than all places Take a view of the whole Christian world The state of Europe is so well known that it needs no report Look abroad ye shall finde that for the Greek Church Christianography of the Greek Ch. the Patriarchate of Constantinople which in the Emperour Leo's time had 81 Metropolitans and about 38 Arch-bishopricks under his Jurisdiction hath under him still 74 Metropolitans who have divers Bishops under them As Thessalonica ten Bishops under him Corinth four Athens six c. For the Russian Church which since the Mahumetan tyranny hath subjected it self a Patriarch of their own neer home of Mosco he hath under him two Metropolitans four Arch-bishops six Bishops For the Patriarchate of Jerusalem to which have belonged the three Palestines and two other Provinces Tirius reckons also five Metropolitans and ten Bishops For the Patriarchate of Antioch which hath been accounted one of the most numerous for Christians it had as the same author reckons fifteen Provinces allotted to it and in them Metropolitans Arch-bishops and Bishops no fewer than 142. For the Armenian Christians they acknowledge obedience to the government of two Patriarks of their own the one of Armenia the greater who kept his residence of old at Sebastia the other of Armenia the lesse whose residence was formerly at Mytilene the Mother City of that Province now neer Tarsus in Cilicia Mr. Sands reports their Bishops to be 300 but Baronius 1000. For the Jacobite Christians they have a Patriarch of their own whose Patriarchall Church is neer to the City of Merdin in Mesopotamia and he hath under his government many Churches dispersed in the Cities of Mesopotamia Babylonia Syria For the Maronites whose main habitation is in Mount Lebanus containing in circuit 700 miles they have a Patriarch of their own who hath eight or nine Bishops under his Jurisdiction For the mis-named Nestorian Christians they are subject to their Patriarch of Musal or Seleucia besides others which they have had Under one whereof is said to have been 22 Bishopricks and more than six hundred Territories For the Indian Christians named from St. Thomas they have their Archbishop lately subjected to the Patriarch of Musall For the African Christians we finde that in one Province alone under one Metropolitane they have had 164 Bishops