such sort that thereby they should serue euen the meanest of their brethren to doe them good and become all things to all men that they might winne some This he caught them that very time not in wordes onely but by deeds also for hauing washed their feete and wiped them drte he saieth vnto them Vnderstand you what I haue done to you you call me Master and Lord and you say well for I am so Then if I your Lord and Master haue washed your feete you ought to wash one an others feete I haue giuen you an example that as I haue done to you you should also doe the liked They should be so farre from striuing who should be greatest that euen the greatest and chiefest should striue to preuent the lowest and meanest with honour and seruice after the example of their Master These texts then conâ—â—â—â—e two speciall doctrines vnto vs. The 〈◊〉 that Apostles and Preachers may not chalenge by vertue of their office any compulsiue dominion or violent iurisdiction ouer their brethren but leaue that to Princes The next the greater our calling is in Christes Church the readier we should te to make our selues euen with those of the lowest degree to gaine them thereby but that Christ intended in those places to giue all sortes of Minister and helpers in his Church equall power and authoritie with his Apostles I am not perswaded and that for these causes What Christ had alreadie giuen or after meant to giue to his Apostles he would neuer crosse with any speach of his The sonne of God cannot repent his fact or alter his mind but the same kingdome that was appointed to him he appointed to them and as his father sent him so sent he them into all the world with a larger warrant from his mouth and greater power and wisedome of his holy spirit to teach all nations what he commanded them and to open all the counsell of God vnto them then was giuen to other teachers and helpers in the Church He therefore neuer recalled nor rebated any part of their Apostolike prehâ—â—nnence aboue others but onely taught them to vse it to Gods glory and the edifying of his Church Againe what Christ had prohibited no Apostle guided by his spirite would euer haue vsed or chalenged but Paul in his writings hath chalengeth and vseth an Apostolicall power and preheminence aboue other Pastours and Teachers in the Church as is alreadie declared It was therefore neuer intended by our Sauiour to make all others equall with his Apostles in the direction and regiment of his Church Lastly if those places did conclude any thing for an equalitie that must bee referred to the Apostles amongst themselues to whom Christ gaue equall power and honour as Cyprian noteth of them The Apostles were endued with like fellowship of honour and power And Ierome All the Apostles receiued the keies of the kingdome of heauen and the strength of the Church is equally grounded on them But Paul speaking of himselfe saieth not that wee haue dominion ouer your fayth but are helpers of your ioy and Peter admonisheth all Pastours to feede the flocke of God not as if they were lordes ouer Christes inheritance but as examples to the flocke Qui vocatur ad Episcopatum faieth Origene non ad Principatum vocatur sedad seruitutem totius Ecclesiae Hee that is called to bee a Bishop is called not to the soueraigntie but to the seruice of the whole Church Episcopi sacerdotes se esse nouerinst non Dominos saieth Ierome Let the Bishops vnderstand they are Priestes not Lordes or Masters And Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est Dominatio interdioitur indicitur ministratio The paterne for the Apostles themselues is this dominion is interdicted a ministration is enitâ—ned These and such like speaches in the Scriptures and fathers doe neither prooue all ministers to haue equall power and honour with the Apostles nor impugne the regiment which the Pastours haue ouer their flocks but as wee 〈◊〉 before by the wordes of our Sauiour they distinguish betweene pastorall and princely regiment and direct both Apostles and Pastours how they shall gouerne The thing so much prohibited by Christ and his Apostles whose wordes the auncient fathers doe follow is that Preachers and Pastours should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behaue or thinke themselues to be lords and masters ouer their brethren What word is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scriptures and wherein consisteth the relation betwixt them if we call to mind we shall not be deceiued in the right sense of these wordes Christ saieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seruant is not aboue his lord or Master and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no seruant can serue two masters The power of lordes masters ouer their seruants is likewise expressed by our Sauiour The seruant that knoweth his masters will and doeth not according to his will shall bee beaten with many stripes And againe I say to my seruant doe this and he doeth it Yee seruants faieth Paul obey the masters of your flesh in all things for know yee not that his seruaunts you are whom you obey whereby as by infinite other places it is euident that opposite to lord and master are neither children nor brethren but seruants and he is a seruant that is vnder the yoke and bound to obey his masters will euen as he is a lord or master that may commaund his seruant to execute his will or thereto compell him with stripes for that is the right of a lord and master to commaund and punish his seruant that disobeieth What maruell then if Christ forbade his Apostles to bee lordes and masters ouer their brethren that is to commaund them and compell them aâ— their vassals since the beleeuers are no servaunts but brethren and the Pastours no lordes ouer Gods inheritance but fathers vnto the faithfull Whereby the honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Christes flocke is not diminished but augmented and the people not licenced the sooner to 〈◊〉 theâ— but thereby required the rather to regard them for 〈…〉 honour due to master or father and who loueth most a seruant or a sonne Amare filiorum timere seruorum est A sonne doeth loue a seruant doeth feare which God expresseth by his Prophet when he â—aith If I be a father where is mine honour If I be a Master where is my feare Wherefore to increase the loue of his sheepe towards their shepeheards Christ would not haue his Apostles to be feared as masters but to be honoured as fathers and consequently Pastours not to force but to feede not to chase but to lead the flocke committed to their charge neither toughly to intreat them as seruants but gently to perswade them as coheires of the same kingdome If at any time they require and commaund they doe it in Gods name as messengers sent to declare his will who
an example and at their next meeting though hee were absent by the mightie power of the Lorde Iesus hee would deliuer him vnto Satan for the destruction of the flesh to saue the spirite by repentance Paul decreed this of himselfe without the knowledge or consent of the Corinthians To execute that which hee decreed hee needed and therefore vsed the mightie power of the Lorde Iesus For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Saint Paul is often taken for the miraculous power of the holie Ghost whereby the Apostles and others did great workes and had euen the diuels in subiection vnto them That which he woulde doe should be this to deliuer him vnto Satan in the presence of them all for the destruction of the flesh to the ende the affliction of his flesh might bring him to repentance and so saue his soule in the day of Christ. To deliuer vnto Satan is more then to excommunicate Many are secluded from the companie of the godly for a time that are not yeelded vnto Satan yea many were deliuered vnto Satan without excommunication as Ananias and Elymas The end of this action was the affliction or destruction of the flesh which in excommunication hath no sense except it be Metaphoricall For excommunication endangereth the Spirite and toucheth not the flesh And the lustes of the flesh are not destroyed by excommunication but by repentance which of it selfe is no consequent to the other for many are excommunicated that neuer repent but affliction and feare of destruction cause repentaunce and thereby the soule is saued Forsomuch then as Paul decreed it alone and that absent and in perfourming it vsed the mightie power of Christ to the destruction of his flesh that had sinned which thinges can not bee vnderstoode of excommunicating or remoouing the offendour from the fellowship of the faithfull and that is before and after in other wordes expressed I am perswaded that by deâ—iâ—ering vnto Satan the Apostle meant to shewe the mightie â—ower which Christ had giuen him to reuenge the disobedient when the Spirite of God shoulde see it needefull to make some men example to others Of that power hee thus warneth the rest of the Corinthians I write these thinges vnto you absent lest when I am present I shoulde vse sharpenesse according to the power which the Lorde hath giuen mee I feare when I come I shall be waile many of them which haue sinned already and not repented I write to them which haue heretofore sinned and to others that if I come againe I will not spare But grant that by deliuering vnto Satan were meant excommunication what reason is there to affirme the Apostle alone coulde not doe it He alone decreed it and required them though hee were absent to execute it yea hee rebuketh them for not putting the Trangressour from amongest them and else-where he saieth of himselfe that hee did the like Hymeneus and AlexaÌ„der I haue deliuered vnto Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme Why shoulde wee not beleeue he could doe it since he saith he did it He that had vengeance in readines against all disobedience why coulde hee not by the same power deliuer the offendour at Corinth vnto Satan as well as he did else-where Hymeneus and others Excommunication some thinke pertained to the whole Church because our Sauiour saide Tell the Church If hee heare not the Church let him bee to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane and therefore they conclude the Apostle neither coulde nor woulde excommunicate without the consent and liking of the Church What I take to be the true meaning of Christes wordes if hee heare not the Church let him bee to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane I haue said before I shall not neede to repeate it as nowe Neuerthelesse because the ancient Fathers vse as well these wordes of our Sauiour as those of Saint Paul to expresse the strength and terrour of excommunication I will not gainesay their exposition yet this shall wee finde to bee most true that no Catholike father euer heard or dreamed that lay Elders or the whole multitude shoulde meddle with the keyes and Sacraments of the Church but onely the Apostles and their successours Dic Ecclesiae Praesulibus scilicet Praesidentibus Tell it the Church that is saieth Chrysostome the Rulers and Gouernors of the Church And vpon the next wordes Verely I say vnto you whatsoeuer you binde in earth shall be bound in heauen c. he writeth thus Non dixit Ecclesiae Praesuli vinculis istum constringe sed si ligaueris haec vineula indissolubilia manent Christ biddeth not the Gouernour of the Church to binde him but if thou binde him the band is in dissoluble By these words faith Ierome Christ giueth his Apostles power to let them vnderstand that mans iudgement is ratified by Gods Hee forewarneth saith Hilarie that whome the Apostles binde or loose answerably to that sentence they are bound or loosed in heauen If this persuade vs not y â— the Apostles had power without the consent of the people or Presbyterie to excommunicate and deliuer vnto Satan we cannot denie but our Sauior gaue them this power that whose sinnes they did remit shoulde be remitted and whose they did retaine should be retained yea speaking particularly to one of them he saide I will giue thee the keies of the kingdome of heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen If then the rest had equall power and like honour with Peter as Cyprian saieth they had and if Paul were nothing behind the chiefe Apostles as him selfe affirmeth he was not it is euident he had power to binde in heauen and to deliuer vnto Satan without the helpe of the Presbyterie or people of Corinth And why The power of the keys was first setled in the Apostles before it was deliuered vnto the Church and the Church receiued the keyes from the Apostles not the Apostles from the Church And therefore when Augustine sayeth If this I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen were spoken onely to Peter the Church doeth it not if this bee doone in the Church then Peter when hee receiued the keyes represented or signified the whole Church Wee must not thinke by the name of the Church hee entendeth the Lay Presbyterie or the people but hee doeth attribute this power to the Church because the Apostles and their successours the Pastours and Gouernours of the Church receiued the keyes in Peter and with Peter The keys of the kingdome of heauen we all that are Priests saieth Ambrose receiued in the blessed Apostle Peter The Apostles then had the keyes of Christs kingdome to binde and loose both in heauen and in earth and by the dignitie of their Apostleship receiued the holie Ghost to remit and retaine sinnes as well before as after
Christes resurrection without either Presbyterie or people to concurre with them O you blessed and holie men saith Hilarie speaking of the Apostles that for the desert of your faith gate the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and obtained right to binde and loose in heauen and earth I suppose then it is not much to be contradicted that the Apostles had from their master a larger commission fuller instruction higher power and greater gifts then the rest of the Doctours Pastours Prophets and Euangelist in the Church of Christ and that the Churches in their time were not gouerned by the voyces and consents of the greater part concurring with them before any thing could be done but by their precepts and rules deliuered by speach or expressed by writing which the faithfull in euery place as well Pastors as people with all readinesse obeyed And that in appointing and ordeyning Pastors and Elders as likewise in reteyning sinnes and binding offenders by deliuering them vnto Satan or reiecting them from the felowship of Saints they needed not the helpe or agreement of the people or Presbyterie but had power sufficient with imposing their handes as the Spirite directed to make Prophets and Pastors by giuing them the gifts of the holy Ghost needefull for their seuerall callings and by the same power coulde yeeld the bodies of such as sinned and repented not to be punished and afflicted by Satan or remooue them from the Communion of Christes Church and exclude them from the kingdome of heauen as their wickednes or wilfulnes deserued This superioritie they reteined whiles they liued so moderating their power that they sought rather to winne the euill disposed with lenitie then represse them with authoritie saue when the wicked might no longer be endured lest others should be iufected and vsing such meekenes and mildnes towards al that no schisme disordered the Church by their rigour nor soule perished by their default labouring more to profit many with their paines then to preferre themselues before any by their priuiledge and vtterly forgetting their owne dignitie whiles they serued and aduanced Christes glory I obserue as well their patience as their preeminence lest any man should thinke I goe about to make them Princes in the Church of Christ to commaund and punish at their pleasures and not rather faithfull Stewards and careful Shepheards to feede and guide the Church committed to their charges CHAP. IX What parts of the Apostles power and charge were to remaine in the Church after their decease and to whom they were committed IT will happely be graunted the Apostles had their prerogatiue and preeminence aboue others in the Church of Christ but that limitted to their persons and during for their liues and therfore no reason can be made from their superioritie to force the like to be receiued and established in the Church of Christ for all ages and places since their office and function are long since ceased and no like power reserued to their successours after them I doe not denie but many things in the Apostles were personall giuen them by Gods wisedome for the first spreading of the fayth and planting of the Churches amongst Jewes and Gentiles that all nations might be conuerted vnto Christ by the sight of their miracles and directed by the trueth of their doctrine yet that all their gifts ended with their liues and no part of their charge and power remained to their after-commers may neither be confessed by vs nor affirnted by any vnlesse we meane wholy to subuert the church of Christ. To be called by Christes owne mouth and sent into all nations to be furnished with the infallible assurance of his trueth and visible assistance of his spirit not onely to speake with tongues cure diseases worke miracles know secretes and vnderstand all wisedom but to giue the holy Ghost to others that they might doe the like these things I say were needfull at the first preaching of the Gospell to conuert infidels that neuer heard of Christ before to confirme the beleeuers compassed with diuers temptations and to store the whole world then presently with meete Pastours and Teachers but to maintaine the Church once setled and faith once preached there is no cause why either the immediate vocation or generall commission or mightie operation and sudden inspirations of the Apostles should alwayes endure The Scriptures once written suffice all ages for instruction the miracles then done are for euer a most euident confirmation of their doctrine the authoritie of their first calling liueth yet in their succession and time and trauell ioyned with Gods graces bring Pastours at this present to perfection yet the Apostles charge to teach baptize and administer the Lordes Supper to bind and loose sinnes in heauen and in earth to impose hands for the ordaining of Pastours and Elders these partes of the Apostolike function and charge are not decaied and cannot bee wanted in the Church of God There must either be no church or els these must remaine for without these no church can continue The Gospell must be preached the Sacraments must be frequented for which purposes some must bee taken to the publike seruice and ministerie of the Church for how shall they inuocate in whom they haue not beleeued or how shall they beleeue in him of whome they haue not heard or how shall they heare without a Preacher and how shall they preach except they bee sent without sending there can bee no preaching without preaching the word there is no ordinarie meanes for faith and without faith there is no Church Neither onely the lacke of the word and Sacraments but the prophanation and abuse of either how greatly doethit endanger the state and welfare of the whole Church of Christ yea the casting of holy things vnto dogges and of pearles before swine how dreadfull a iudgement doeth it procure as well to the consenters as presumers A little leauen so wreth the whole masse So that power to send labourers into Gods haruest and to separate prophane persons for deâ—iling the mysteries and assemblies of the faythfull must be retained and vsed in the Church of Christ vnlesse we will turne the house of God into a denne of theeues and make the Temple a cage for vncleane and hatefull birdes As the things be needfull in the Church of Christ so the persons to whom they were first committed cannot bee doubted Goe teach all Nations baptizing them sayd our Sauiour to the eleuen in mount Oliuet whenhe ascended Doe this in remembrance of mee sayd hee to the twelue that sate at supper with him After his resurrection when hee appeared to the eleuen sitting together hee sayd As my father sent me so send I you Receiue yee the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted whose sinnes yee retaine they are retained for though the Lord before his death promised the keyes of the kingdome of heauen vnto Peter and as then sayde nothing vnto the
rest yet after his rising from the dead hee gaue all his Apostles like power as Cyprian obserueth and they all receiued the keies of the kingdome of heauen as Ierome auoucheth Are the keyes of the kingdome of heauen giuen onely to Peter by Christ saieâ—h Origen neither shall any other of the blessed receiue them If this saying I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen be common also to the â—est why should not all that went before and followeth after as spoken to Peter be common to all the rest So Augustine If in Peter had not bene a mysterie of the Church the Lord would not haue said vnto him I will giue thee the keies of the kingdome of heauen The Gospell ouer the vncircumcision that is ouer the Gentiles was committed to mee saieth Paul as ouer the circumcision or Iewes was to Peter Letâ— man therefore so reckon of vs as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God The Apostles were Stewards of the word and Sacraments and had the keyes of Gods kingdome not onely to dispence them faithfully whiles they liued but in like sort to leaue them to the Church of Christ as needfull for the same vntill the ende of the worlde Neither neede I spend moe words to prooue they must remaine in the Church since that is not doubted on any side but rather examine to whome the Apostles left them and to whose charge those things were committed The worde and Sacraments are not so much questioned to whom they were bequeathed as the power of the keyes and right to impose hands to whom they are reserued To diuide the word and administer the Sacraments is the generall perpetual charge of all those that feede the flocke of Christ and are set ouer his housholde to giue them meate in season The Elders that are among you I that am also an Elder exhort saieth Peter feede you the flocke of Christ which is committed to you Take heede to your selues and to all the flocke whereof the holie Ghost hath made you ouerseers to feede the Church of Christ saith Paul to the Elders of Ephesus Goe teach baptize which our Sauiour hath ioyned may not be seuered and the seruice must endure as long as the promise which is this in so doing I am with you alway vntill the ende of the worlde not with his Apostles so long they are dead fifteene hundred yeeres before our dayes but Christ is present with those that succeede his Apostles in the same function and ministerie for euer Their Commission to doe both ceaseth not so long as his precept bindeth them and help supporteth them in both which is to the worlds end The power of the keyes and right to impose handes I meane to ordaine Ministers excommunicate sinners for so I alwaies interprete those two speeches are more controuersied then the other two by reason that diuers men haue diuers conceits of them Some fasten them to the liking of the multitude which they call the Church others commit them to the iudgement of certaine chosen persons as well of the Laitie as of the Clergie whome they name the Presbyterie some attribute them onely but equally to all Pastours and Preachers and some specially reserue them to men of the greatest gifts ripest yeeres and highest calling amongst the Clergie which of these best agreeth with the trueth of the Scriptures and vse of the primitiue Church in place conuenient will soone appeare It shall now suffice in few wordes to obserue how neere imposing handes and binding sinnes doe ioyne with the dispensation of the word and Sacraments that thereby wee may resolue whether laie men may entermeddle with these ecclesiasticall actions or no. To create ministers by imposing hands is to giue them not onely power and leaue to preach the word and dispence the Sacraments but also the grace of the holy Ghost to make them able to execute both parts of their function This can none giue but they that first receiued the same They must haue this power and grace themselues that will bestow it on others Laie men which haue it not can by no meanes giue it and consequently not impose hands which is the signe and seale of both Yea what if to giue power to preach and baptize bee more then to preach and baptize euen as lawfully to authorize an other to doe any thing is more then to doe it our selues Sacramentum baptismiest quod habet qui baptizatur Sacramentum dandi baptismi est quod habet qui ordinatur It is the Sacrament of baptisme saieth Austen that hee hath which is baptized It is the Sacrament of giuing baptisme that he hath which is ordered Yea Caluin himselfe a man of no small learning and iudgement in the Church of God confesseth it is a kind of Sacrament and in that respect not to be giuen by any but onely by Pastours Surely saieth he the Papists are very leud in that they dare adorne their sacrificing Priesthood with the title of a Sacrament As for the true function of the ministerie commended vnto vs by the mouth of Christ Libenter eo loco habeo I willingly accept it for a Sacrament for first there is a ceremonie of imposing hands taken out of the Scriptures then Paul witnesseth the same not to be superfluous and emptie but a sure signe of spirituall grace And that I put it not third in the number of Sacraments it was because it is not ordinarie nor common to all the faithfull but a speciall rite for a certaine function and therefore of imposition of hands he saieth Hoc postremo habendum est non vniuer sam multitudinem manus imposuâ—sse ministris sed solos Pastores This lastly we must learne that the whole multitude did not impose handes on their Ministers but onely the Pastours did it Then may laie men no more chalenge to impose handes then to baptize yea to preach and baptize is not so much as to giue power and grace to others openly and lawfully to doe the like in the Church of Christ and therefore if laie-men be debarred from the one they be much more excluded from the other To excommunicate is to remooue the wicked and irrepentant from the participation of the Lordes Supper least by sacrilegious presuming to violate that table the vngodly should condemne themselues and defile others Whose calling it is to deliuer the bread and cup of the Lord to the due receiuers is out of question they are for that cause named the ministers of the worde and Sacraments Nowe to whom it pertaineth to admit the woorthie to them it belongeth to reiect the vnwoorthie they that are placed by God to deliuer the mysteries to the faithfull and penitent are commanded by him to denie them to the faithlesse and impenitent The charge to deliuer the Sacraments is theirs the care not to deliuer them but where they be willed by God so
seruice of his Church or limite the Apostles on whom they should laie their handes siâ—ce not man but God made choise of those persons As for excommunication if you take it for remoouing the vnrulie from the ciuill societie of the faithfull vntill they conforme themselues to a more Christian course of life I am not altogether auerse that the whole Church where there wanteth a Christian magistrate did and should concurre in that action for thereby the sooner when all the multitude ioyne in one minde to renounce all maner of conuersing with such will the parties bee reduced to a better minde for shame and griefe to see themselues reiected and exiled from all companie and the whole Church shall declare their innocencie before men by auoiding and shunning the doers of wickednesse and encrease their zeale and loue of holinesse before God by hating and detesting vnrighteousnesse in others and by keeping themselues cleane and vnspotted from the like offences If any man that is called a brother bee a fornicatour or couetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one eate not Yet count him not as an enemie but admonish him as a brother This rule as I could wish euery Christian man did for his owne part duely obserue so I iudge it not amiffe if the whole congregation in defect of a christian magistrate ioyne with the Pastor in misliking rebuking and forsaking such disordered vsuall offenders as will neither be reclaimed nor ashamed of their lewdnesse but for deliuering or denying the Sacraments I take that to be the Pastors charge and not the peoples Yet Pastors shall do well after the example of the ancient godly fathers Cyprian and others not only to prouoke repentance in the malefactors but to tender the offence taken by the multitude so farre that as the minds of the godly are grieued by notorious impieties so they may be satisfied and contented by the earnest and vnfained sorow of the repentant before they be receiued to the Lords table Against these rules of Christian moderation circumspection I dispute not I onely enquire whether by the word of God any laie persons haue any interest to withhold or yeeld the Sacraments without the allowance and liking of the Pastour And to expresse what I thinke I finde no warrant in the Scriptures for it and the maine consent of the Catholike fathers and course of the Primitiue Church against it Some places are detorted and wrested to that effect but they must be very partiall that will be led with such weake proofes The words of our Sauiour If he heare not the Church let him be to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane which are the onely ground-worke of this opinion I haue before handled examined as far forth as needed If by those words the church of Christ were ment which no circumstance there enforceth yet the rulers gouernors of the Church are thereby intended as Chrysostome affirmeth and a soule error it is as Beza thinketh to say the whole multitude is there comprised In deed it is no new rule neither with the Scriptures nor with other writers for the chiefer and worthier part to beare the name of the whole The fathers who often attribute excommunication to the Church by no meanes endure that laie-men should vse the keies deliuered to the Apostles and their successors That right is permitted only to Priests as Ambrose saith It is the Priests band that toucheth the soule and reacheth vnto heauen as Chrysostome teacheth When they which chalenge the place of Bishops and receiued the keies of the kingdom of heauen from our Sauiour teach what they bind is bound in heauen what they loose is loosed in heauen we must acknowledge they say wel if withall they haue those things for the which it was said to Peter The gates of hell must not preuaile against him that will binde and loose for if he bee bound with the ropes of his owne sinnes in vaine doeth he offer to bind or loose saith Origen Shal it not be imputed to vs saith Cyprian with the rest of the Bishops his Colleagues if so good a souldier should die without peace and without the Communion Shall not great slacknesse or cruell hardnesse be ascribed to vs in the day of iudgement that being Pastours we neither in peace would heale the sheepe committed credited vnto vs nor arme them in the battell How doe we teach or prouoke them to shed their bloud in the confession of Christes name if wee denie them the bloud of Christ when they be entring the conflict or how doe we make them readie for the cup of martyrdome if first in the Church we admit them not by right of Communion to drinke the Lordes cup It hath pleased vs therefore the holy Ghost directing vs that vpon examination of euery mans cause such as fell in persecution should be reconciled or receiued to the Lords table and if there be any of our Colleagues which doth not thinke it good to giue peace that is the Communion to the brethren or sisters persecution approching he shal in the day of iudgement render account to the Lord of his importune censure or inhumane rigor And so againe when as in smaller faults a man may not come to the Communion except the Bishop and the Clergie first lay their hands on him in signe of reconciliation how much more should the discipline of the Lord be obserued in these most grieuous extreme sinnes Likewise Basil Confession of sinnes must necessarilie be made to them to whom the dispensatioÌ„ of the mysteries of God is committed for so they which in former times repented amongst the Saints are read to haue done It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sinnes to Iohn Baptist In the Acts they all confessed their sinnes vnto the Apostles of whom they were baptized Power to forgiue sinnes is not absolutely giuen but limited to the obedience of the penitent and agreement with him that hath the charge of the soule Apud Deum non sententia Sacerdotum sedreorum vita queritur Quomodo ergo ibi leprosum Sacrdos mundum vel immundum facit sic hic alligat velsoluit Episcopus Presbyter With God saith Ierome not the sentence of the Priest but y e life of the partie is respected As therefore in the law the Priest did make that is pronounce the Leeper cleane or vncleane so in the Gospell the Bishop and Presbyter bindeth or looseth And againe formicator adulter homicida caetera vitia per Sacerdotes de Ecclesia propelluntur The fornicator the adulterer the homicide and all other transgressours are cast out of the Church by the Priest S. Augustine Hee that willingly iudgeth himselfe least against his will he be iudged of the Lord Veniat ad Antistites per quos illi in Ecclesia claues ministrantur à Praepositis sacrorum
were all one with Doctors you haue lost one of those offices which you affirme to bee perpetuall in the Church if they were distinct from them they were superiours vnto them and so betwixt ministers of the word for such were Teachers by Saint Pauls rule you establish a difference of degrees Thus much for the worde and Sacraments the dispensing whereof no doubt was common to all Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastours and Teachers and so to Presbyters and Bishops not withstanding the moderatioÌ„ and ouersight of those things were still reserued to the Apostles as well absent as present euen when the power and charge thereof was imparted to others The discipline and gouernement of the Church I meane the power of the keies and imposing hands are two other partes of Apostolike authoritie which must remaine in the Church for euer These keyes are double the keie of knowledge annexed to the word the keie of power referred to the Sacraments Some late writers by vrging the one abolish the other howbeit I see no sufficient reason to counteruaile the Scriptures and Fathers that defend and retaine both The keie of knowledge must not bee doubted of our Sauiour in expresse wordes nameth it Woe be to you interpreters of the lawe for yee haue taken away the keie of knowledge yee entered not in your selues and those that were comming in you forbade The keie of power standeth on these words of Christ to Peter I will giue thee the keies of the kingdome of heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen And likewise to all his Apostles Whatsoeuer ye binde in earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen And after his resurrection in like maner to them all Receiue ye the holie Ghost whose sinnes soeuer yee remit they are remitted vnto them and whose sinnes yee retaine they are retained And least we should vnderstand these places of the preaching of the Gospell as some new writers doe Saint Paul hath plaine wordes that cannot be wrested to that sense Speaking of the incestuous Corinthian that was excommunicated and deliuered vnto Satan he saieth Sufficient for that man is this rebuking of many so that now contrary wise yee ought rather to forgiue him and comfort him least hee bee swallowed vp with too much sorowe To whom you forgiue any thing I also forgiue for if I forgaue ought to any I forgaue it for your sakes in the sight of Christ. As Paul deliuered this offender to Satan and shut both the Church and heauen against him so now vpon the detesting and forsaking of his sinne hee restored him to the peace of the Church communion of the Lordes table and hope of Gods kingdome from which before hee was excluded And this Paul did not by preaching the word vnto the penitent for as then hee was absent from Corinth but by forgiuing him in the sight of Christ and his Church as by his Apostolike power hee might Both these keyes the one of knowledge the other of power Ambrose mentioneth in his 66. Sermon and likewise Origen in his 25. tractate vpon Matthew adding a third keie where hee saieth Blessed are they that open the kingdome of heauen either by their word or by their good worke for liuing well and teaching rightly the word of trueth they open the kingdom of heauen before men whiles they enter themselues and prouoke others to follow The meaning of these late writers it may bee is not wholie to cast away the keie of power but onely to drawe the wordes of Christ spoken to Peter and the rest of his Apostles rather to the preaching of the Gospell then to excluding from the Sacraments and yet to the Church or Presbyterie they reserue the power of the keies that is ful authoritie to excommunicate notorious and rebellious sinners These men foresee that if the power of the keies bee giuen to the Apostles and their successours then haue laie Elders who doe not succeed in the Apostles roumes and functions nothing to doe with the Apostles keies Because this was enough to marre the Laie Preâ—â—â—terie therefore the Patrones thereof conueie the wordes of Christ to another sense and builde the ground-worke of excommunication vpon the 18. chapter of Saint Matthewes Gospell where the Church is named and not the Apostles But this deuise is both a preiudice to the Apostles and a Preamble to the laie Presbyterie which all the Catholike Fathers with one voyce contradict as I haue before at large declared Omitting the Laie Burgesses of the Church as hauing no interest in the Apostles keies it resteth in this place to bee considered to whom those keies were committed whether equallie to all Presbyters or chieflie to Pastours and Bishops The like must bee done for imposition of handes whether that also pertained indifferently to all or speciallie to Bishops Before wee make a full resolution to these questions we must search the time when Bishops first began and by whom they were first ordained and authorized In which inquisition wee will begin with the report and opinion of the auncient Fathers and so descend to the positions and assertions of such as in our age impugne and gainesay the vocation and function of Bishops Epiphanius report is this The Apostles could not suddenlie settle all things There was present need of Presbyters and Deacons for by those two the necessities of the Church might bee supplied Where there was none found woorthie of the Bishoprike the place remayned without a Bishop But where there was neede and fitte men found for the Episcopall function Bishops were ordained Euerie thing was not perfect from the beginning but in processe of time things were fitted for the furnishing of all occasions the Church in this wise receiuing the perfection of her gouernment Ambrose somewhat differing from Epiphanius saieth Apostolus Timotheum Presbyterum a se creatum Episcopum vocat quia primi Presbyteri Episcopi appellabantur vt recedente eo sequens ei succederet Sed quia coeperunt sequentes Presbyteri indigni inueniri ad primatus tenendos immutata est ratio prospiciente concilio vt non ordo sed meritum crearet Episcopum c. Paul calleth Timothie created a Presbyter by himselfe or with his owne handes a Bishop because the first Presbyters were called Bishops so as the first departing the next succeeded him But for that the Presbyters which followed beganne to bee found vnwoorthie to beare the chiefe regiment the maner was chaunged a Councill prouiding that not order but desert should make a Bishop appoynted by the iudgement of many Priestes least an vnfitte person should rashlie vsurpe the place and bee an offence to many Ieromes opinion is euident by his words which I repeated before in effect hee affirmeth thus much Before there were factions in religioÌ„ a Presbyter a
of halfe his kingdome because their Laie-elders are not suffered to sit Iudges in euery parish together with the Pastour and Teacher of the place I dispute not as yet whether euer there were any such Elders as they talke of in the Church of Christ from the preaching of our Sauiour to this present age I reserue that to a further inquirie but though there were such suffered or setled by the Apostles in the Primitiue Church yet were they no part of Christes kingdome which is proper to his person and by many degrees excelleth all other gouernments for the diuine force and grace that are eminent in the spirituall fruits and effects of his kingdom I doe not denie but God hath ordained and established on earth many kinds of externall gouernments as in spirituall causes the Minister in domesticall the master of the familie and superior to them both the Magistrate what is prescribed or exacted by any of those that God hath set ouer vs for a quiet honest and Christian course of life in this world according to his word and their charge he doeth ratifie and confirme in heauen accepting the submission and punishing the rebellion of all that disobey in each degree but neither Prince Pastour nor Parent can search or change the heart much lesse can they endue it with any heauenly grace and vertue or settle it with expertance of life to come They moderate and direct the outward actions which may bee soone dissembled further they neither see nor iudge they haue not to doe with the secrete affections of the heart with the sacred giftes of the spirite the stedfast trust of future glory these alwayes belong to the kingdom of Christ and of God which worketh all things after the connsell of his owne will vnto the praise of his glory Since then this king is set at the right hand of God in the heauens farre aboue all principalitie and power and might and dominion and euery name that is named not in this world onely but also in the world to come and all things are subiected vnder his feete he appointed head ouer all vnto the Church which is his body euen the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all and declareth daily from heauen what is the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints and exceeding greatnesse of his power toward vs which beleeue by lightening the eyes of our vnderstanding and scaling vs with the holy Spirit of promise the watchmen and leaders of his flocke though their seruice bee needfull and fruitfull in his Church and they trusted with the keyes and mysteries of the kingdom of heauen yet may they not arrogate any part of Christes honour or power as incident to their calling or function but leaue all entire and vntouched to the sonne of God whose right it is much lesse may the seuerall or Synodall assemblies proceedings or censures of the supposed Presbyterie be reckoned the halfe deale of Christes most righteous and glorious kingdom CHAP. III. The Synedricall iurisdiction which some men thinke our Sauiour in the Gospell restored and recommended to his Church AS I auouch that Christ reserued to himselfe the mightie force and heauenly grace of his spirituall kingdome so am I out of doubt he left the superuision and moderation of externall things and actions which respect the peace order and comelinesse of his Church to such as hee called to bee the guiders of his flocke and stewards of his houshold Who they were is not so wel agreed on Some men imagine Christ did reinfuse the Iewish Synedrion and thence extracted the Laie-Presbyterie that should gouerne his Church Their proofe they take cut of these wordes If thy brother trespasse against thee goe and tell him betweene thee and him alone if he heare thee thou hast gained thy brother if hee heare thee not take yet with thee one or two that by the mouth of two or three witnesses euerie word may bee confirmed And if hee will not vouch safe to heare them tell it vnto the Church if hee refuse to heare the Church let him bee to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane Hence they collect first that our Sauiour spake to the Iewes by reason hee sayd let him be to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane whom the Iewes and no people els abhorted and shunned next that he preseribed no new nor vnknowen forme of Iudiciall proceeding but referred them rather to the vsuall and accustonâ—ed maner of their Countrey then generally receiued and euery where practised amongst them which was by the Elders of euery place to determine their matters or els to transmit them vnto the Sanhedrin or councill of Ierusalem which was the highest court in that common wealth Thus fame they seeme to haue some ground to support their opinion but that our Sauiour appointed the like order to take place for euer in his Church I see neither mention of it nor reason for it in the Scriptures and assure my selfe it can neuer bee prooued For if our Sauiour meant to transferre any kind of regiment from the Church of the Iewes to his owne it is certaine he would not choose out the corruptions of time nor inuentions of men but ascend to the originall ordinance of God and thence deriue his platforme He would not follow much lesse authorize in his Church any breach of Gods lawe growen by deprauation and vsurpation of wicked men that hated and pursued both him and his trueth that were with them to transgresse the commaundement of God for the traditions of men from which he was farre but if hee purposed to deduce any forme of gouernement from the lawe to the Gospell it was the same that God by Moses erected and allowed Nowe that cannot be vrged and vsed in the Church of Christ without apparant violence to the word of God euident iniurie to the Christia magistrate as by the view thereof we shall easilie vnderstand Firâ—t therefore let vs shortly see what kindes of gouernements were authorized and established by Moses in the first erection of the common wealth and Church of Israel and consequently what coherence or resemblance there may bee betweene those Councils and Synedrions of the Iewes and the Presbyteries in euery parish which some men labour to impose on the Church of Christ in euery christian kingdom and countrey The sorts of regiments setled amongst the Iewes by Gods law were these Under Moses the chiefe magistrate by the counsell of Iethro consent of the people allowance of God were y â— knowen and wise men of euery tribe set to be rulers and captaines ouer thousands ouer hundreds ouer fifties ouer tens they iudged the people at all seasons and brought the hard matters vnto Moses iudged all small causes themselues When matters of importance grew many wearied Moses God willed him to bring seuentie men whom he knew to be Elders gouernors of the people and they should beare the burden
him secret thine hand shall be first vpon him to put him to death and then the hands of all the people And so for all enormous sinnes against God and our neighbour a concealer is a consenter and partaker of the wickednes committed It is no pietie it is no charitie to be secret to malefactors and keepe their counsell when they dishonour God or damnifie their brethren although repentance followe That may saue the soule if it be vnfained but that may not stay the iust execution of Gods or mans Lawes Agame what power haue we to remit the wrongs that are offered to others Our owne iniuries if withall they be not publike crimes against the Lawes of God and the land where wee liue wee may forgiue other mens harmes wee may neither suffer nor smoother Since then Christ speaketh of such trespasses as eche man must remit vnto his brother vpon repentance it is euident hee speaketh not of sinnes against God and our neighbours hidde from the multitude and knowen to a few but of such iniuries as he that feeleth best knoweth and may release because they touch him alone and no man else When we desire of God to be forgiuen our debts as we forgiue our debters meane we the sins against others that we be priuy to or the sins against our selues that we be parties vnto Is it silence that God requireth of vs in this prayer or patience secrecie or mercie In secret sinnes we are but witnesses in which case it is a sinne to be silent in priuate wrongs we be sufferers vnder which burden it is a vertue to be patient Lastly this exposition ouerthroweth it selfe For if thy brother trespasse against thee in that sort which they interprete that is if his sin be knowen only to thee and do not repent howe caust thou tell it the Church without proofe the church must not beleeue nor regard thy speach and proofe thou hast none One and the same person can not be both accusant deponent and at the mouth of one witnesse though his testimonie were receiued yet may no man be condemned So that if the sinne be secret to thee how can it be tolde and iustified to the Church If it may be prooued to the Church how is it secrete to thee alone Our Sauiour then had no such meaning that eche man should conceale and forgiue the sinnes that are done against God and his neighbour so long as they be not notorious and publike but knowen onely to some priuate persons hee rather enioyneth all men to remeate the same measure vnto others that God meateth vnto them and to forgiue smaller iniuries offered against them as they are forgiuen greater committed against God For that is thankes-worthie with God not to be liberall in remitting other mens wrongs nor to keepe counsell with malefactors but to pardon our brother that offendeth vs as we are pardoned when we offend our heauenly Father This is it that Christ prescribeth in this place that the Scriptures so often iterate and all the fathers with one consent subscribe vnto But charitie couereth the multitude of sinnes euen as enuie doth blaze them abroad Charitie couereth all the sinnes that are committed against our selues by forgiuing them and refraineth the obiecting and insulting at other mens sinnes after punishment or repentance and hideth all the infirmities and ouersights of our brethren which our dutie to God and our neighbour may endure but it neither betrayeth the truth with silence nor dispenseth with other mens harmes nor generally cloaketh fauoureth or dissembleth any sinne be it neuer so secret whereby the name of God is blasphemed or the state of our neighbour endangered If he heare not two admonitions tel it the Church if he heare not the Church let him be to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane What is ment by the Church whether the Church of Christ or the Churches and assemblies of the Iewes that God ordained in that common wealth to gouerne his people and determine their quarrels this breedeth some question amongst diuines howbeit the reasons are many and weightie that mooue mee to thinke the Church of Christ is not comprised in these wordes First this was a direction to the Iewes seruing them for their present state and time then had Christ no Church in Iewrie to which they might complaine for he euer preached in their Synagogues and Temple whither al that would resorted and in secret said he nothing much lesse did hee gather and assemble Churches apart from the rest of the Iewes to receiue and consider the complaintes of their brethren Next the matters of which they must complaine were such as the Church of Christ might not chalenge to heare and determine Priuat wrongs and offences betwixt man and man must be directed by lawes reformed by iudgements and consequently belong to the Magistrate the Church of Christ hath no warrant to make lawes or giue iudgement in ciuil and priuate trespasses The Lord himselfe when he was desired to make peace and ende a strife about parting an inheritance answered man who made me a Iudge or diuider ouer you What he refused as no parte of his calling the Pastours and Elders of his Church must not chalenge as annexed to their vocation The Scholler is not aboue his master as his father sent him so sent he them but not with a further or larger commission Thirdly that Church is heere spoken of which abhorred Ethnikes as vncleane persons and shunned al society with Publicanes but neither Christ nor his Church did euer so wherefore the Church of Christ is not expressed by these words Let him be to thee as an Ethnike and Publicane for they neuer refused nor declined to conuerse with either To the baptisme of Iohn came the Publicanes and were receiued of him and not willed by him to leaue their calling but to walke vprightly in it Our Sauiour accepted them to his companie and did not onely eate with them but was counted a friend to Publicanes Mathew the Apostle was chosen sitting at the receipt of custome Zacheus a chiefe Publicane was the child of Abraham and the Publicane that prayed in the Temple was iustified before the Pharisee Yeathe Lord sayth of them Publicans shal go into the kingdome of heauen before the Scribes and Elders that despised them The Publicanes then were members of Christes Church and inheritours of his kingdome and therefore by flying and forsaking the felowship of Publicanes the Church of Christ could not be described The Iewes you will say to whome Christ spake made that account of them and as they were cast out of the Iewes Synanogues so doeth Christ will disobedient and impenitent sinners to be vsed in his Church that is to be separated and excluded from the number of the faithfull What account soeuer the perfidious and presumptuous Pharisees made of them Christ and his disciples which were also Iewes had as great regarde of them
THE PERPETVAL GOVERNEMENT OF CHRISTES CHVRCH Wherein are handled The fatherly superioritie which God first established in the Patriarkes for the guiding of his Church and after continued in the Tribe of Leui and the Prophetes and lastlie confirmed in the New Testament to the Apostles and their successours As also the points in question at this day Touching the Iewish Synedrion the true kingdome of Christ the Apostles commission the Laie Presbyterie the Distinction of Bishops from Presbyters and their succession from the Apostles times and hands the calling and moderating of Prouinciall Synodes by Primates and Metropolitanes the allotting of Dioeceses and the Popular electing of such as must feed and watch the flocke And diuers other points concerning the Pastorall regiment of the house of God By THO. BILSON Warden of Winchester Colledge Perused and allowed by publike authoritie 1. Cor. 14. Came the word of God first from you or did it spread to you alone Iren lib. 3. ca. 3. We can reckon those that were ordained Bishops by the Apostles in the Churches and their successours to this present which neuer taught nor knew any such thing as these dreame Imprinted at London by the Deputies of CHRISTOPHER BARKER Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie An. Dom. 1593. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IHaue bene very vnwilling good Christian Reader to enter into these controuersies of Discipline that haue now some space troubled the Church of England I remembred the wordes of Abraham to Lot Let there I pray thee be no strife betwixt thee and me nor betwixt my men and thine for we be brethren and did thereby learne that all strife betwixt brethren was vnnaturall I could not forget the saying of our Sauiour Peace I leaue with you my peace I giue you and so collected how carefull we should be to keepe the vnitie of the spirite in the band of peace Prophane writers could tell me by concord the weakest things growe strong by discord the mightiest states are ouerthrowen and that made me loath to increase or nourish the dislikes and quarels that haue lately fallen out in this Realme betwixt the Professours and Teachers of one and the same Religion yet when I sawe the peace of Gods Church violated by the sharpnesse of some mens humours and their tongues so intemperate that they could not bee discerned from open enemies I thought as in a common danger not to sit looking till all were on fire but rather by all meanes to trie what kind of liquor would restinguish this flame Another reason leading mee to this enterprise was the discharge of my duetie to God and her Maiestie for finding that some men broched their disciplinarie deuises vnder the title of Gods eternall trueth and professed they could no more forsake the defence thereofthen of the Christian faith and others defaced and reproched the gouernement of the Church heere receiued and established as vnlawfull irreligious and Antichristian for what lees are so sower that some hedge wines wil not yeelde I was mooued in conscience not to suffer the sacred Scriptures to be so violently arrested and ouer-ruled by the summons and censures of their newe Consistories as also to cleere this state of that iniurious slander as if not knowing or neglecting the manifest voyce of Christes spirite we had entertained and preferred the dregges of Antichrists pride and tyrannie These causes of great and good regard led mee to examine the chiefe groundes of both Disciplines theirs and ours and to peruse the proofes and authorities of either parte that by comparing it might appeare which side came neerest to the synceâ—itie of the Scriptures and societie of the auncient and vncorrupte Church of Christ. The which wholie to propose by way of Preface woulde bee exceeding tedious shortely to capitulate that the Reader may knowe what to looke for will not altogether bee superfluous The maine supportes of their newe deuised Discipline are the generall equalitie of all Pastours and Teachers and the ioyning of Lay Elders with them to make vp the Presbyterie that shall gouerne the Church On this foundation they build the power of their Consistorie that must admonish and punish all offences heare and determine all doubts appease and ende all strifes that anie waie touch the state and welfare of the Church Against these false groundes I shewe the Church of God from Adam to Moses from Moses to Christ and so downeward vnder Patriarkes Prophetes and Apostles hath beene alwayes gouerned by an inequalitie and superioritie of Pastours and Teachers amongst themselues and somuch the very name and nature of gouernement do inforce for if amongst equals none may chalenge to rule the rest there must of necessitie be superiours before there can bee Gouernours It was therefore a ridiculous ouersight in our new platfourmers to settle an ecclesiasticall gouernment amongst the Pastours and Teachers of the Church and yet to banish all superioritie from them Some finding that absurditie and perceiuing confusion of force must follow where all are equall and no Gouernour endured confesse it to bee an essentiall and perpetuall part of Gods ordinance for each Presbyterie to haue a chiefe amongst them and yet least they should seeme to agnise or admit the auncient and approued maner of the Primitiue Church retained amongst vs which is to appoint a fitte man to gouerne each Dioecese they haue framed a Running regencie that shall goe round to all the Presbyters of each place by course and dure for a weeke or fome such space for the deuise is so newe that they are not yet resolued what time this changeable superioritie shall continue With this conceite they maruelouslie please themselues in so much that they pronounce this onely to be Gods institution and this ouerseer or Bishop to be Apostolike all others they reiect as humane that is as inuented and established by man against the first and authentike order of the holie Ghost Thus farre wee ioyne that to preuent dissention and auoid confusion there must needes euen by Gods ordinaunce bee a President or Ruler of euerie Presbyterie which conclusion because it is warranted by the groundes of nature reason and trueth and hath the example of the Church of God before vnder and after the Lawe to confirme it wee accept as irrefutable and laie it as the ground-worke of all that ensueth But whether this Presidentship did in the Apostles times and by their appointment goe round by course to all the Pastours and Teachers of euerie Presbyterie or were by election committed to one chosen as the fittest to supplie that place so long as hee discharged his duetie without blame that is a maine point in question betwixt vs. Into which I may not enter vntill we haue seene what the Apostolike Presbyteries were and of what persons they did consist at the first erecting of the Church Certaine late writers men otherwise learned and wise greatlie misliking in the gouernement of the Church the Romish kind of Monarchie and on the
more particularly and effectually then Pastours doe or may by their doctrine Such labyrinths they leape into when they seeke for those things in y e sacred Scriptures which were neuer intended But were the word of God in this point indifferent which for ought I yet see is very resolute against them the generall consent of alantiquitie that neuer so expounded S. Pauls words nor euer mentioned any laie Presbyters to gouern the Church is to me a strong rampire against all these new deuises I like not to raise vp that discipline from the dead which hath lien so long buried in silence which no father euer witnessed no councill euer fauoured no Church euer followed since the Apostles times till this our age I can be forward in things that be good but not so foolish as to thinke the church of Christ neuer knew what belonged to the gouernment of her selfe till now of late that the sonne of God hath bin spoiled of halfe his kingdome by his owne seruants and Citizens for these 1500. yeeres without remorse or remembrance of any man that so great wrong was offered him I can yeelde to much for quietnes sake to this I can not yeelde They must shewe mee their Lay Presbyteries in some ancient Writer or else I must plainly auouch their Consistories as they presse them to be a notorious if not a pernicious nouelty Ierome Ambrose and others are brought to depose that the first Church had her Senate and Elders without whose aduise nothing was done but how wrongfully the deuise of Lay Elders is fathered on them I haue declared in a special discourse I wil not heere repeate it onely this I say if any of them affirme that in the Primitiue or Apostolike Church Lay Presbyters did gouerne Ecclesiasticall affaires I am content to recall all that I haue written of this present matter if not it is no great praise nor good policie for them to abuse the names and wordes of so many learned Fathers to the vtter discredite of themselues and their cause in the end Since then the Church of Christ in and after the Apostles times was not gouerned by Lay Presbyters as this newe discipline pretendeth it resteth that we declare by whom both the Apostolike church and the Primitiue after that were directed ruled which I haue not failed to performe in many chapters as farre foorth as the Scriptures doe warrant and the vndoubted Stories of Christs Church do leade In the Apostles I obserue foure things needefull for the first founding and erecting of the Church though not so for the preseruing and maintening thereof and foure other points that must be perpetuall in the Church of Christ. The foure extraordinary priuiledges of the Apostolike function were Their vocation immediate from Christ not from men nor by men Their commission extending ouer all the earth not limited to anie place Their direction infallible the holie Ghost guiding them whether they wrate or spake and Their operation wonderful as wel to conuert and confirme beleeuers as to chastice and reuenge disobeyers Without these things the Church could not beginne as is easily perceiued but it may well continue without them for now God calleth labourers into his haruest by others not by himselfe Pastors take charge of those Churches that are already planted they seeke not places where to plant new Churches The Scriptures once written serue all ages for instruction of faith and the myracles then wrought witnesse the power and trueth of the Gospell vnto the worldes ende Wherefore those thinges had their necessary force and vse to lay the first foundations of the gospel before Christ was knowen but the wisedome of God will not haue his Church still depend on those miraculous meanes which serue rather to conquere incredulitie then to edifie the faithfull signes being as the Apostle saith not for such as beleeue but for such as doe not beleeue The other foure points of the Apostolike delegation which must haue their permanence and perpetuitie in the Church of Christ are the Dispencing the word Administring the sacraments Imposing of hands and Guiding the keys to shut or open the kingdome of heauen The first two by reason they be the ordinary meanes and instruments by which the spirite of God worketh ech mans saluation must be general to al Pastors and Presbyters of Christs Church the other two by which meete men are called to the ministerie of the word and obstinate persons not only repelled from the societie of the saints but also from the promise and hope of eternall life respect rather the cleansing and gouerning of Christes Church and therefore no cause they should be committed to the power of euery Presbyter as the word and sacraments are for as there can be no order but confusion in a common wealth where euery man ruleth so woulde there be no peace but a pestilent perturbation of all thinges in the Church of Christ if euery Preshyter might impose handes and vse the keyes at his pleasure How the Apostles imposed hands and deliuered vnto Satan and who ioyned with them in those actions I haue handled in places appointed for that purpose whereby we shal perceiue that though the Presbyters of eache Church had charge of the worde and Sacraments euen in the Apostles times yet might they not impose handes nor vse the keys without the Apostles or such as the Apostles departing or dying left to be their substitutes and successors in the Churches which they had planted At Samaria Philip preached and baptized and albeit he dispenced the word and sacraments yet could hee not impose handes on them but Peter and Iohn came from Ierusalem and laide their hands on them and so they receiued the holie Ghost The Churches of Lystra Iconium and Antioch were planted before yet were Paul and Barnabas at their returne forced to increase the number of Presbyters in each of those places by imposition of their handes for so the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth with al Greeke Diuines and Stories as I haue sufficiently proued and not to ordaine by election of the people as some men of late had new framed the Text. The churches of Ephesus and Creete were erected by Paul had their Presbyteries yet could they not create others but Timothie and Tite were left there to impose handes and ordaine Elders in euerie Citie as occasion required Herein who succeeded the Apostles whether all Presbyters equally or certaine chiefe and chosen men one in euerie Church and City trusted with the gouernment both of people and Presbyters I haue largely debated and made it plaine as well by the Scriptures as by other ancient Writers past all exception that from the Apostles to the first Nicene Councill and so along to this our age there haue alwayes bene selected some of greater gifts then the residue to succeede in the Apostles places to whom it belonged both to moderate the Presbyters of ech Church and to take the
Presbyteries Let them reade if they bring better I am willing to learne but I like no selfe-set assertions as if all the worlde were bound to the very breath of our mouthes or dash of our pennes without any other Text or interpreter If I haue saide ought that is not allowed by the word or not witnessed by the continuall and vniuersall practise of Christes Church I desire not to be beleeued I looke for the like measure if any man replie not to heare the coniecturall and opinatiue ghesses of some that liued in our age but such effectuall reasons and substantiall authorities as may presse the gaine-sayer and settle the consenter God make vs zealous for his not for our wils and so guide our labours that we may lessen the troubles and not ripen the dangers of Sion seeking rather how to amend then how to multiplie the rendes and breaches of Ierusalem Amen CHAP. I. The originall and domesticall Discipline of the Church before the Lawâ— CHAP. II. The Leuiticall and Nationall regiment of the Church vnder the Law CHAP. III. The personall and perpetuall kingdome of Christ after he tâ—â—â—e flâ—sh CHAP. IIII. The Synedricall Iurisdiction which some men thâ—nkâ— ouâ— Sauiour in the Gospel restored and recommended to his Church CHAP. V. The Apostolical preeminence and authoritie before and after Christes scension CHAP. VI. What Dominion and titles Christ interdicted his Apostles CHAP. VII Who ioyned with the Apostles in election of Elders and imposition of hands CHAP. VIII The Apostolike power in determining doubts of faith and deliuering vnto Satan CHAP. IX What parts of the Apostolike power and charge were to remaine in the Church after their decease and to whom they were committed CHAP. X. VVhat the Presbyterie was which the Apostles mention in their writings and whether Lay Elders were of that number or no. CHAP. XI VVhat Presbyterie the Primitiue Churches and Catholike Fathers did acknowledge and whether Lay Elders were any part thereof or no. CHAP. XII To whom the Apostles departing or dying lest the gouernement of the Church whether equally to al Presbyters or chiefly to some and how farre the conceits of late VVriters herein varie from the ancient Fathers whose wordes they pretend to followe CHAP. XIII That some chiefe euer since the Apostles times haue beene seuered from the rest of the Presbyters in euery Citie by power of ordination and right of succession whom the Fathers before vâ— did and we after their example doe call Bishops CHAP. XIIII The fatherly power and Pastourall care of Bishops ouer Presbyters and others in their Churches and Dioeceses CHAP. XV. To whom the elections of Bishops and Presbyters doth rightly belong and whether by Gods Lawe the people must elect their Pastours or no. CHAP. XVI The meetings of Bishops in Synodes and who did call and moderate those assemblies in the Primitiue Church THE PERPETVAL GOVERNEMENT OF CHRISTES CHVRCH Chap. I. The originall and domesticall Discipline of the Church before the Lawe WHat need there is of order and gouernement as in all assemblies of men that will liue together so namely and chieflie in the Church of Christ the wisedome of God hath many wayes witnessed vnto vs both by the proportion of those naturall and ciuill societies to which the Church is compared and by the perfection of that felowship which the Saints haue had amongst themselues in all ages and places euen from the foundation of the world where the true worship of God hath preuailed The first roote of all humane consort and communion I meane priuate howses hath not the Lord distinguished by diuers degrees and prerogatiues of husband parents and master aboue wife children and seruants and yet linked them all together in mutuall correspondence with dueties according The branches that thence rise as Cities Countries and kingdomes haue they not their Lawes to prescribe and Magistrates to execute things needfull for their common estate God ordaining powers and deliuering the sword for the defence of the simple and innocent and repressall of the wicked and iniurious Were wee willing or constant in that which is good Discipline were not so requisite but because the corruption of our nature is such that we are soone deceiued of our selues sooner seduced by others and soonest of all auerted and peruerted with feare and desire to settle the vnsted fastnesse of our hearts and bridle the vnrulinesse of our affections the Lord hath prouided for all societies the line of direction and rod of correction as well to guide the tractable as to represse the obstinate least disorder endured should breed confusion the forerunner of all ruine Since then the Church of Christ is the house of God the Citie of the liuing God and the kingdom of his beloued sonne shall we thinke that God is carefull for other s and carelesse for his owne or that confusion ought to be lesse doubted and feared in heauenly then in earthly thingâ— God is no where author of confusion but of peace especially in his Church in which hee commandeth all things to be decently orderly done Where no man doeth gouerne what order can bee kept where no man doeth moderate what peace can be had yea what greater dissipation can befall the Church of God then for euery man to intrude where he list and obtrude what hee will without restraint or reproofe Wherefore God hath appointed Stewards ouer his houshold watchmen and leaderâ— ouer his flocke Labourers in his haruest husbandmen in his tillage diuers administrations as well for the preseruation as edification of the Church which is the body of Christ and so farre foorth answereth the frame of mans body that as there so in the Church God hath set some to be in stead of eyes eares tongue and handes that is to be principall members for the guiding and directing of the whole which without them is maimed and vnable to prouide for the safetie and securitie of it selfe Neither may we thinke that order and discipline is needfull for the people in Gods Church and needelesse for the Pastours that were to gard the feete and leaue the head open to a more deadlie wound but rather as the more principall the part the more perilous the disease so the more disordered the Pastours the likelier the people to perish by their dissentions The house cannot stand which the builders subuert The haruest is lost where the labourers doe rather skatter then gather If the eie lacke light how darke is the body If the salt be vnsauourie where withall shall the rest he seasoned The folowers cannot goe right where the guides go astray and forces distracted bee they neuer so great are soone defeated Discord and disorder in the Pastours rent the Church in pieces where as peace and agreement in the Teachers confirme and establish the mindes of the hearers If they striue that sit at sterne the ship of Christ cannot hold a straight and safe course in the
teâ—â—ests of this world Order then and discipline the very nurse and mother of all peace and quietnesse as well in diuine as in humane societies and assemblies though it be not the life or spirite that quickneth the Church yet doeth it faâ—en and knit the members thereof as ioints and siâ—e wes doe the partes of our bodies in so much that the vnitie of the spirite is not kept as the Apostle noteth without the band of peace and where there is dissention nourished or confusion suffered no peace can be preserued or expected Hence we must not frame what kind of regiment we list for the ministers of Christes Church but rather obserue and marke what maner of externall gouernment the Lord hath best liked allowed in his Church euen from the beginning The externall regiment of Pastours and Teachers among themselues and ouer their flocks I distinguish from the internall that God hath by his spirite and truethih the hearts of the faithfull which cannot be varied and is not questioned in the Church of England That I acknowledge to he the true kingdom of Christ whereby he inwardly and effectually worketh in his Saints the faith of his trueth and feeling of his grace according to the purpose of his owne will for the prayse of his glory in which no earthly creature concurreth or ioyneth with him yet câ—â—se he hath left the sound of his word and seale of his Saâ—râ—ments as externall meanes for vs to be made partakers of his heauenly graces there must be sitpersons to teach the one and dispence the other and a power in them to admit the woorthie and remooue the vnwoorthie least holy things be defiled whiles they â—e proiected to dogs and swine Hence riseth the necessitie of externall gouernment in the Church of God which respecteth the appointing of meete men and repelling of vnmeete to be trusted with these heauenly treasures as also the good vsing and right diuiding of sopreciousie wels committed to their charge What kinde of externall gouernment God setled in his Church euen at the first beginning will soone appeare if wee consult the Scriptures FroÌ„ Adam to Iacob as the Church was contained in certaine families mentioned by Moses so was the discipline of the Church Domesticall and the gouernment Paternall God leauing the father to be teacher and ruler of his houshold and of spring and changing the children and their issues to honour with reuerence and obedience their fathers deliuering and prescribing vnto them the true worship of God agreeable to his will reuealed to their fathers The right and power the father had ouer his children and houshold before the Lawe is expressed in these wordes I know saieth God that Abraham will command his sonnes and his house after him to keepe the way of the Lord which no doubt all the Patriarkes that were faithfull euen from Adam carefullie performed and the children that were religious reuerently obeied the blessing of God passing by the fathers mouth vnto the children in reward of their submission or curse in reuenge of their rebellion So Noah blessed Sem for couering his nakednesse and by that blessing made him heire of the promise and cursed Cham for deriding the shame of his father and insulting at it So like wise Isaac and Iacob transmitted the blessing of God to their children and childrens children that were duetifull and pronounced his heauie iudgements on their children that were wicked and obstinate As the Patriarkes were Prophets to declare to their children the promises and menaces of God so were they magistrates to rule their families with fatherly coercion such as God best allowed in the first world to gouerne his Saints And for that cause did God comprehend Princes vnder the name of Parents in the Decalogâ—e of Moses and euery where in the olde Testament chiefe men and gouernours are called Fathers and to this day by Gods lawe Princes ought to haue the same care and respect of their subiects that fathers haue of their children by reason the first fountaine of princely power by Gods allowance was fatherly regiment Neither were the Patriarkes onely Princes within their tentes and dwellings but also Princes in the Church of God God alwayes reseruing the eldest and chiefest in those generations to serue him with sacrifice and thanksgiuing To which end God did consecrate the first borne of their familie as holy to himselfe to be Priests in his Church and encreased their dignitie with this princely prerogatiue that they should be Lords ouer their brethren and honoured of their mothers children as succeeding their fathers in the gouernment and Priesthood vnlesse they were repelled from that honour by Gods secrete counsels or manifest iudgements and others named by God himselfe to sustaine that charge In Isaac shall thy seed be called sayd God to Abraham when hee refused Ismael The elder shall serue the yonger said God to Rebecca when he preferred Iacob Ruben mine eldest sonne said Iacob the beginning of my strength excelling in dignitie excelling in power thou shalt not excell because thou wentest vp to thy fathers bed For otherwise this was the blessing due to the elder brother in the first world and part of his birthright as well before as after the flood which Isaac vttered to Iacob when he tooke him for his eldest sonne Be Lord ouer thy brethren and let thy mothers children honour thee Which priuiledge of the first horne God renewed and confirmed in the lawe of Moses throughout the common wealth of Israel that as they were eldest so should they be chiefest in their fathers houses except their impietie prouoked the contrary This then was the regiment of Gods Church from Adam to Sem the most ancient was alwayes the most excellent both in priesthood and ciuill gouernment in the Church of God and in his roume deceasing succeeded his eldest sonne vnlesse he were reiected from it for his wickednesse as Cain was that killed Abel And to the first Patriarkes God gaue so long life that they might witnesse his trueth by word of mouth vnto their children and childrens children that would heare and regard the will of God for this precept expressed in the law Teach them thy sonnes thy sonnes sonnes was the perpetuall charge of all fathers as well before as after the deluge and then most needfull when children had no teachers nor gouernours saue fathers as whiles the worde was yet not written but the true worship of God was deliuered by hand from the father to the sonne During which time as each father that inherited the promise was eldest so was he chiefest in directing and commanding his ofspring that beleeued of whom the Church then consisted Adam gouerned the Church 930. yeeres confirming to all posteritie the creation and fall of himselfe and all mankind with him and likewise redemption and victorie by the promised seede that should come of the woman Seth the sonne of Adam
consult the priests and take direction from them The priests the sonnes of Leui saieth God shall come foorth out of the Cities where they were placed in euery Tribe and by their word shall all strife and plague be tried Remembring alwayes that doubtfull and weightie matters were referred to the counsaile of priests and Iudges that sate in the place which the Lord did choose for the Arke to rest in If there come a matter too hard for thee either by reason of the waight or doubt thereof in iudgement betweene blood blood cause and cause plague and plague of matters in question within thy gates thou shalt arise and goe vp to the place which the Lord thy God shal choose and shalt repaire to the Priests of the Leuites and vnto the Iudge that shall be in those dayes and aske and they shall shew thee the sentence of iudgement And thou shalt doe according to that which they of the place which the Lord hath chosen shew thee and shalt obserue to do according to all they informe thee Thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee neither to the right hand nor to the left And the man that will doe presumptuously in not hearkening vnto the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to minister there or vnto the Iudge that man shall die This Councillor Senate of Elders residing at Jerusalem in Iehosaphats time who no doubt did not infringe but rather obserue the tenor of the lawe consisted of Leuites and of Priests and of the heads of the families of Israel had Amariah the high priest chiefe ouer them in all matters of the Lord and Zebediah a ruler of the house of Iudah chiefe for all the kings affaires and was a continuance of the 70. Elders which God adioyned vnto Moses to beare the burden of the people with him From these superiour inferiour degrees amongst the priests and Leuites vnder Moses happily may no necessarie consequent be drawen to force the same to bee obserued in the Church of Christ. First for that the tribe of Leui might not be vnguided without manifest confusion and was not subiected to the regiment of any other Tribe but had the same maner of gouernment by her Prince Elders Iudges and Officers ouer 1000. 100. 50. and 10. which other Tribes had in that common wealth Next the ciuill policie of the Iewes being contained and expressed in the bookes of Moses the Iudges and rulers of other Tribes were to be directed and assisted by thâ—se that were most expert and skilfull in the writings of Moses such as the priests and Leuites by their profession and function were which in Christian kingdoms is not so requisite For the Gospell doeth not expresse the maner and fourine of ciuill regiment and positiue lawes as the bookes of Moses doe but leaueth such things to the care and conscience of the Magistrate so long as their policie doeth not crosse the rules of pietie and charitie prescribed in the Gospell and therefore the Pastours and preachers of the new Testament must not chalenge to sit Iudges in those cases which the Priests and Leuites vnder Moses did and might heare and determine Thirdly this preheminence grewe vnto them according to their families by inheritance and birthright The father was chiefe of his ofspring whiles he liued and after him his eldest sonne which is no way imitable in the Church of Christ. And though sometimes the father for good respect made the yonger the chiefer as it is written of Shuri one of the line of Merari that though hee were not the eldest yet his father made him the chiefe yet the contrary was vsually obserued and the priuiledge of the first-borne might not be changed for affection without iust cause Lastly the seruices about the Sanctuarie and Sacrifices which none might doe but Leuites were of diuers sortes and therefore not without great regard were there diuers degrees established amongst them though to serue God euen in the least of them was honourable Now in the Church of Christ the word and Sacraments committed to the Pastours and Ministers haue no different seruices and so require for the discharge thereof no discrepant offices Notwithstanding for the better ordering ouerseeing and containing such in their dueties as be called to be the guiders and leaders of Gods people that they may walke worthie their vocation without reproch of life and be sound in faith without all leauen of false doctrine the wisedome of God in appointing some amongst the priests and Leuites to guide and gouerne the rest of their Tribe as well in the ceremoniall as iudiciall part of Moses lawe is not hastilie to be refused nor lightly to bee neglected For if gouernement be needfull amongst them that will liue in any societie and auoyd disorder whereof God is no way author we cannot get nor need not seeke a fitter or better paterne to follow as farre as the difference of states and persons will permit then that which God himselfe allowed and confirmed in the Church and common welth of Israel And though the certaine forme of their ecclesiasticall gouernment be neither exactly knowen in euery point nor preciselie to be vrged in the Church of Christ by reason of many dissimilitudes betwixt vs and them yet this is euident that God appointed the Church of Israel to be guided not by a generall equalitie of the priests and Leuites but by certaine superiorities among them in euery calling and that as wel in their conuersation as administration and their 70. Elders supreme Council called their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisted not of all that were and would be present but of certaine of the chiefest who for their nobilitie and authoritie were preferred aboue the rest and admitted to be of that number So that the Leuiticall discipline vnder Moses doeth cleerely confirme a diuersitie of degrees amongst Pastours and ministers in the Church to be more agreeable to the wisedome of God reuealed in his lawe then a generall equalitie or paritie CHAP. III. The personall and perpetuall kingdom of Christ after he tooke flesh THe externall regiment of the Church the Lord declined whiles he liued here and relinquished to others as a thing meeter for the sonnes of men then for the sonne of God No doubt he was euen then the chiefe corner stone elect and precious laied in Sion by God himselfe the Archpastour ouer the whole flocke and high Priest ouer the house of God the Prophets foretold the gouernment should be on his shoulders and he should order the throne of Dauid with iustice and iudgement the Apostle saieth he is and then was the head of his Church yea the head of all power and principalitie he said of himselfe to his disciples ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am the Angels of God were to worship him wheÌ„ he was brought into
the world much more the sonnes of men to bee in subiection vnder his feete but so wonderfull was his patience and humilitie at his first appearing in our flesh that a bruised reede he would not breake smoking flaxe he would not quench yea no man heard his voyce in the streetes for he came to serue and not to be serued to suffer for the world that he might saue it and not as yet to iudge the world All power then in heauen and earth belonged vnto him euen when hee was conuersant with men but he neither declared nor chalenged so much vntill he was risen from the dead and in the dayes of his flesh as he was a Prophet to teach and instruct a Priest to cleanse and sanctifie his Church so was he a king to rule and gouerne the same saue that his kingdom was not of this world and therefore he would not raigne in his Church with the presence of his bodie as a man but with the power of his spirit as the sonne of God The kingdom then and throne which he reserued to himselfe farre passeth the directing ordering of outward things in the Church which he hath left to others To the true kingdom of Christ belong the manifold wisedome might and mercies of God shewed on vs for our saluation I meane all the Power Grace and Glorie that God vouchsafeth to bestowe on his Saints in this life and keepeth in store for them vntill the next so that whatsoeuer effects of his trueth gifts of his spirit and feeling of his promise we presently possesse or hope to haue at the handes of God through Christ our Lord it proceedeth from the strength and fauour of this king By the mightinesse of his power though he sit in heauen we receiue that continuall protection helpe and deliuerance which we find in all our troubles and aduersities And so we see his arme stretched out for the repressing scattering and reuenging of our enemies whose pride and rage he doeth so guide and order that it tendeth onely to the triall of such as feare him and the confusion of their foes From the riches of his grace come all those heauenly giftes fruits and blessings of his spirite where with the Church and euery member thereof is furnished and adorned as namely the lightning of our mindes softning of our hearts quenching of our lustes the grounding vs in faith moring vs in hope and rooting vs in charitie by the loue of his trueth obedience of his will and resemblance of his vertues that hath called vs out of darknesse into his marueilous light For what haue wee that wee haue not receiued and whence commeth euery good perfect gift but from aboue euen from him of whose fulnesse we all haue receiued From the stedfastnesse of his promise are deriued that peace ioy and comfort of the holy ghost which the godly feele within them and whereby they are maintained and preserued against the day of Christ and like wise that crowne of righteousnes and glory which he will giue to all that loue his comming when he shall appeare in the cloudes to bring eternall life and blisse with him for all the children of God Till then he must raigne to subdue his enemies which now resist and to fill vp the number of his Saints which yet are wanting That iudgement which finally rendereth to all flesh according to their workes and eternally dureth without altering or ending shall be the very close and conclusion of his kingdom which he man then deliuer vp to God his father when he hath crowned his seruants with honour and immortalitie and adiudged his enemies for their cursed sinnes to perpetuall torments This is the true kingdom of Christ and in this effectuall spirituall and celestiall maner he doeth and shall gouerne his Church here on earth and euery member thereof till all his enemies be vnder his feete After that generall iudgement sinne death and hell being vtterly conquered as in himselfe long agoe so then in all his members the administration of his kingdome shall cease all his brethren being brought vnto God but the fruition shall be euerlasting euen as the ioyes thereof are exceeding aboue all that wee can speake or thinke By the maner of his gouernment it is soone vnderstood that the prcheminence of his kingdom is personall belonging wholie and onely to the sonne of God in so much that no earthly creature may claime without apparant blasphemie to be lieutenant vnder him or communicant with him in his roiall dignitie Vnsearcheable are his iudgements and his wayes vnartaineable Who knoweth the minde of the Lord or who was his counseller His hand is not shortened that it cannot helpe The foolishnesse and weaknesse of God is wiser and stronger then men And therefore he will haue neither partner nor helper The outward face of the Church where the good and bad by the word and Sacraments are gathered and mixed together may be called the kingdom of heauen and of Christ but we must take heed that we wisely distinguish euen in the word and Sacraments the mightie power of God from the outward seruice of men The Gospel which saueth is not written with inke but with the spirite of the liuing God not in tables of stone but in the fleshlie tables of the heart The seed of the word may be carefully cast by vs but it taketh no roote nor beareth fruite vnlesse the Lord prepare the ground We are ioint workemen with God in his husbandrie and yet neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is any thing but God that giueth the increase Circumcision though it were the Seale of the righteousnesse of faith yet auailed it nothing so long as it was out ward in the flesh but that is true circumcision which is in the spirite not in the letter whose praise is of God and not of men The Preacher is the sauour of death vnto death vntill God lighten and open the heart and Christ crucified euen when hee is preached is a stumbling blocke to the Iewes and foolishnesse to the Graecians except God giue repentance and obedience of faith that they may beleeue and be saued The Sacraments are dead elements in our handes and the word a deadly sound in our mouthes without the spirite that quickneth So that in them both it is no hard matter to disseuer the outward signes from the inward graces and the corporall actions performed by men from the spirituall operations effected by the holy Ghost which properly pertaine to Christes kingdom I stand some what the longer in separating the true kingdom of Christ from the externall order and discipline of the Church for that in our times some more zealous then wise and too much deuoted to their owne fansies haue promoted their Eldership and Presbyterie to the heigth of Christes scepter and make grieuous outcries as if the sonne of God were spoiled
as of the rest yea so farre was hee from allowing it in the Iewes and proposing it to his Church that by his life and doctrine as I haue shewed he openly disliked and dissuaded the contempt which the Priests and people had of the Publicanes As for Ethnikes and Gentiles though they were strangers to the common wealth of Israel when as yet they knew no God yet neuer were they persons excommunicate and since the appearing of our Sauiour in flesh through his mercy vouchsafed to be partakers of his promises the true members of his Catholike church So that this can be no rule for Christs Church to measure persons excommunicate by Gentiles and Publicanes since amongst the Iewes Publicans beleeued and entred the kingdome of God and after the reiection of that Nation the Church of Christ consisted chiefly if not wholy of Gentiles and Ethnikes This then can not be the true intent and purpose of our Sauiour in that place to authorize his Church vpon priuate quarrels betweene man and man to excommunicate if her verdict be not obeyed Where there is a Christian Magistrate the Church may not claime or presume to decide such matters by publike audience and sentence without encroching on the Princes sword and scepter whose right and charge it is to relieue the oppressed to iudge the fatherles and defend the widow to execute iudgement and iustice as wel in priuate wrongs iniuries as in publike crimes and enormities But Paul reproueth some of Corinth for going to law vnder the vniust Magistrates and not rather vnder the Saints though priuate persons Paul did not debarre the Magistrates that were Infidels of their iurisdiction nor create new Iudges for ciuil offences in the Church it was beyond his calling and commission to doe either of them but perceiuing that Christians pursued eche other for priuate quarrels before vnbeleeuers to the shame of the Church and slander of the Gospel he saith they were better suffer wrong losse in earthly things theÌ„ expose the doctrine of Christ to be derided of his their enemies And to appease their brabbles end their strifes if they were so contentious hee willeth them to choose if not the wisest yet the woorst and least esteemed in the Church to arbitrate their causes rather then to lay themselues their whole profession open to the mockes and taunts of heathen and profane Iudges To preserue peace loue in the Church the godly might then and may now mediate betweene brethren as friends and welwillers to both parties and likewise debate and conclude their cases as Arbiters chosen by consent of either side but they may not interpose themselues as Iudges authorized by Christ to excommunicate all that will not heare them in priuate griefes and ciuil suites that were to take the sword which is not giuen them and to thrust themselues by this pretence into Princes places which neither Christ prescribed nor Paul imagined nor the Church assumed And yet was here giuen vnto Paul a iust occasion to repeate and renew that order if Christ had ordained any such in his Church For the Christians trespassed one an other and Paul by no meanes permitted them to pursue their brethren at the Tribunals of Infidels What sayeth he then doeth he wil them to tel the Church and if the wrong doer heare not the Church to account him as an Ethnike and Publicane If Christ prouided this as a reoresse for priuate wrongs and offences in his Church shal we thinke the Apostle durst alter his masters order and abrogate the course that Christ layd down to pacifie contentions in his Church No doubt he would rather haue recalled them toit then auerted them froÌ„ it What doeth he now If ye haue iudgements saith he for things touching this life tell the Pastour and Presbyterie No but set vp or choose out the worst in the Church and make them Iudges of your causes and quarrels Then certainely our Sauiour neuer meant the faithfull shoulde for priuate trespasses complaine to the Pastour and Elders of euery parish and they shoulde haue power sufficient to heare and determine all such matters as were so offered vnto them and to excommunicate those that would not stand to their sentence and iudgement What then is the meaning of our Sauiours words what euer it be this it can not be to authorize the Church to intermeddle with matters pertaining to the Magistrate and to exclude them aâ— from the societie and communion of the Sacraments and Saints that obey not her resolution in ciuil and priuate trespasses Yetlest I should returne a Text without any interpretation though the sense seeme hard to hit by reason the â—â—ate of the Iewish Church is not so well knowen in our dayes as when our Sauiour spake the wordes I will not refuse to set downe what I thinke if any bring better I am ready to learn We must first conceiue that in the time of our Sauiour and a litle before his birth the Romanes had taken the Scepter and Soueraigntie from the Iewes as Iacob prophecied shoulde come to passe in the dayes of the Messias leauing them in priuate suites betweene man and man and in smaller cases of correction that kind of regiment and forme of Lawes which God by Moses ordained and excepting from their Lawes and Tribunals al strangers that were amongst them or had any thing to do with them whom the Iewes called Ethnikes and abhorred as prophane persons and like wise Publicanes that is such of the Iewes as did any seruice to the Romanes in collecting and answering the tributes taxes and toles due to the Romane Empire whome the Iewes pursued with greater dislike and despite then they did strangers for keeping companie with the heathen and seruing their turnes against their owne Nation Both these sortes of men as well Publicanes as strangers for the detestation and hatred the Iewes had of them were exempted from the Lawes and Iudgements of the Iewes and if any man had ought against them hee must conuent them before the Romane President and not in any Court of the Iewes nor before any Magistrate of the Iewish profession The like libertie was left to any Iew that woulde appeale to the Romane Gouernour or impeach and molest his brother in anie of the Roman Consistories For though the Iews in many things were left to their Countrie Lawes yet were the Romane Courts amongst them so priuiledged that who would might haue recourse thither and there recouer his right or redresse the wrong offered him In this confusion of the Iewes estate lately begunne and euery day increasing our Lorde and Master liuing directeth the people what way they shall take neither to breake the law of God which Moses gaue them nor to impugne the Romane Empire which then gouerned them In their priuate quarrelles and actions therefore hee proposeth three degrees of proceeding First the rule of charitie Next the order of Moses policie Lastly the helpe
these the Churches had commandement if they came to receiue theÌ„ that is to beleeue them trust them as men sincerely minded sent from the Apostles yea to admit them with all gladnesse and highly to esteeme of them From their mouthes as perfectly vnderstanding the Apostles doctrine doings and meaning by reason of their continuall societie with them were other Pastours of the Church to be directed and instructed Persist thou saieth Paul to Timothie in those things which thou hast learned and are committed to thee knowing of whom thou hast learned them And what things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses the same deliuer to faithfull men that they may be able to teach others And againe I haue sent vnto you Timotheus which is my beloued sonne and faithfull in the Lord who shall put you in remembrance of my wayes as I teach euery where in euery Church These were charged by Paul to require and command the Pastours and Preachers to refraine from false doctrine and to stop their mouthes or reiect them that did otherwise to ordaine Elders according to the necessitie of the places and receiue accusations against them and sharplie openly to rebuke them if they sinned and that with all authoritie These things the Apostle earnestly requireth and before Christ and his elect Angels chargeth Timothie and Tite to doe It is then euident they might so doe for how vaine and friuolous were all those protestations made by S. Paul if Timothie and Tite had onely voyces amongst the rest and nothing to doe but as the rest How farre was the Apostle ouerseene to adiure them and not the whole Presbyterie to keepe his prescriptions inuiolable if the Elders might euery houre countermaund them and ouer-rule them by number of voyces Since then they were willed and consequently warranted by the Apostles to ordaine examine rebuke and reiect Pastors Elders as iust occasion serued equal ouer equal hath no power nor preheminence It is certaine that as wel the Apostles authorizing as their disciples authorized so to do were superiors in the Church of Christ to Pastours and Elders and likewise that they might and did perfourme and execute the Apostles rules and prescriptions without expecting the consent of Pastours or Presbyteries and the Churches of Christ knew they were bound to obey and bee subiect to them in those cases guided by the Apostles mouthes or letters as well as if the Apostles had bene present and that to resist them was to resist the order which the holy Ghost had approoued in gouerning the Church CHAP. VI. What dominion and titles Christ interdicted his Apostles THe power and prerogatiue of the Apostles aboue Euangelists Prophets Pastours Doctors and all others in the Church would the sooner bee granted were it not that certaine places in holie Scripture seeme repugnant to it as where Christ forbade his Apostles all dominion ouer their brethren and the Apostles in electing to offices assembling in councell to determine of faith imposing of handes and putting the wicked out of the Church seemed not to chalenge all to themselues but to associate others with them as if the right thereof appertained so well to the Church Presbyterie as to the Apostles which particular actions cause many men to thinke that alone the Apostles could not execute these things but iointly with others It shall therefore not be amisse to consider the places In the contention amongst the disciples for superioritie wee must obserue the occasion of their strife and the affection of the striuers The occasioÌ„ was ministred by Iames and Iohn the sonnes of Zebedee who by their mother importuned Christ that in his kingdome her sonnes might be the chiefest men about him and sit the one at his right hand the other at his left These two dreamed as the rest of the Jewes and also the other Apostles did whiles they were weake vntill they were endued with the power of the holy Ghost from heauen that the Messias should restore the temporall kingdom to Israel and sit as an earthly prince in great glorie on the throne of Dauid his father and rule all nations with a rod of iron receiuing of them subtection seruice and tribute as other Princes vsed and whatsoeuer the Prophets foretold of the wonderful plentie tranquilitie excellencie of the kingdome of Christ these two not sauouring as yet the things that were Gods nor vnderstanding any thing of the spiritual kingdom of Christ applied to fit their earthly desires hoped for great promotions by seruing their master and looked to beare rule to be chiefe men about him when he came to his glory The other ten being deceiued with the same error caried with the like hope though not expressed in so ambitious maner disdained the two brethren the neerer their master drew towards his death y â— sharper grew the strife amongst them who should be greatest chiefest about him when he came to his kingdom which they supposed should be earthly This vaine expectation and contention of his disciples the Lord vtterly suppresseth at his last supper for there the strife reuiued by assuring them that his kingdom was no worldly kingdom and therefore they might not looke to be great Commanders and Rulers ouer others for so his words import Princes of the Gentils beare rule ouer them and great States exercise authoritie on them with you it shall not be so that is you shall not haue any such rule or dominion as they haue He doeth not say you shall haue no prerogatiue nor preheminence aboue others but you shall haue no such or it shall not be so with you as it is with them By this all ciuill iurisdiction power of the sword to command compell punish by losse of life liâ—â—â—e or libertie is secluded from the ministers function and reserued to the Magistrates but Christ neuer meant by those words to barre all degrees and diuersities of gifts and administrations in his Church he rather expresseth the coutrarie euen in the same place Ye are they saieth he to his Apostles which haue continued with me in my tentations and I for recompense appoint you a kingdom as my father hath appointed to me that you may eate drinke at my table in my kingdom and sit vpon thrones iudging the twelue tribes of Israel And not depriuing them of that honour which he had or would bestow on them to be chiefe in his kingdome but instructing them how to vse it without offending God or grieuing their brethren he addeth He that is greatest amongst you let him be as the least and he that is chiefest as he that serueth In which wordes the Lord noteth amanifest distinction amongst his of some greater some lesse some chiefer some lower and chargeth his Apostles to vse that greatnesse and authoritie which they had in
Whatsoeuer the Apostles did that had a most plentifull measure of Gods spirite farre aboue Pastours Prophets and Euangelists yet their followers for example Timothie and Tite were not to impose hands without the people and Presbyterie concurring with them I haue heard this often and earnestly asserted but I could neuer yet see it prooued The greatest ground of this presumption is for that the Apostles themselues did so from whose example their scholers would not rashlie depart But as we finde by better view the Apostles did not so by lots and by Prophets directed not by mens wils but by Gods spirit the Apostles choose Elders or rather by laying on their hands as the holie Ghost guided them they did furnish such as before were neither meete nor able to sustaine that charge with the gifts of the spirit fit for that calling by the voyces and liking of the people they made no Pastors nor Prophets that I read and therfore I must haue leaue to thinke that Tite and Timothie vsed rather the helpe of Prophesie to finde whom the spirit would name theÌ„ the consents or suffrages of the people for in their times the gifts of the spirite were not quenched yea the Prophets that were vnder the Apostles continued vnder them and these two gifts the reuealing of secrets and discerning of spirites which the Prophets and Euangelists had though in lesse measure then the Apostles serued chiefly to distinguish who were fit or vnfit for the seruice of Christes Church WheÌ„ Prophets failed the Church was forced to come to voices but so long as the spirite declared by the mouthes of the Prophets whom hee had chosen the consent of the people or Presbyterie might not be required The Apostle giueth rules to Timothie and Tite what maner of men must be chosen how they must be qualified before they be elected Paul doeth not teach the people whom they should elect but appointeth Timothie and Titus whom they should admit To preuent ambition and emulation in the competitors affection and dissention in the electors lots were first liked by the Apostles and retained a long time after by S. Iohn and to disappoint seducing and lying spirites then crept into the world and into the Church these rules were prescribed as a touchstone for Timothie and Titus to discern the spirit of trueth speaking sincerely from the spirit of errour flattring and admiring the persons of men for aduantage sake for as God gaue the power grace of his spirite to his Church in great abundance to illustrate the glorie enlarge the kingdome of his sonne so the deuill ceased not to intermixe whole swarmes of false and deceitfull workemen to obscure the brightnes and hinder the increase of Christes Church and therefore the Apostle setteth downe what manner of men Tite and Timothie shall lay hands on whom they shall refuse left they be partakers of their sinnes Paul could not feare lest the holy Ghost speaking by the Prophets would name men vnworthie the place Paul saw the nuÌ„ber of false Prophets already risen and euery day likely to rise and foresaw the poyson and danger of their deceits and pretences and for that cause setteth down a perpetuall canon to the Church for euer what vices must be shumed and vertues required in a Pastour and Preacher Such did the holie Ghost name whiles hee ruled the mouthes of the Prophets and such for euer should be called euen when the gift of prophesie was decayed The Primitiue Church vsed alwayes to elect her Pastors by the suffrages of the people and Cyprian saieth it is none other then a diuine tradition and Apostolike obseruation I shall haue place and time anone to speake of the custome of the Church and opinion of the fathers till then I reserue the handling of both I am now searching the Scriptures and viewing the word of God whether it can thence be prooued that Pastours and Elders were or ought to be chosen by the consent of the people and for my part I professe I finde none I see some men men zealously bent to authorize it by the will and commandement of God I dare not professe to bee sopriuie to his will without his word In the old Testament Aaron was called of God and al the Leuites according to their families were like wise assigned to their places the children succeeded in their fathers roumes the Prophets were inspired from aboue and none elected Moses Ioshua and the Iudges were appointed by God as also the Princes of the twelue Tribes The seuenty Elders were such as were knowen not chosen to be Elders and Rulers of the people and to make Captains ouer 1000. 100. and 10. Moses tooke the chiefe of euery Tribe to Saul God gaue the kingdome by lottes and after to Dauid by voyce their successours inherited or intruded I see in all these neither amongst the rest of the Gentiles which till then the spirite had deferred but he receiued no power from them to be an Apostle nor to preach vnto the Gentiles Paul saith of himselfe that he was an Apostle neither of men nor by man and that the chiefest gaue him nothing or added nothing vnto him that is neither authoritie nor instruction much lesse did these three of a meaner calling then the Apostles lay hands on him to make him an Apostle that power belonged onely to Christ. Againe he receiued his Apostleship of the Gentiles long before as he saith When it pleased God to reueale his son in me that I might preach him amongst the Gentiles I did not straightway conferre with flesh and blood but went into Arabia and after three yeeres came first to Ierusalem He had beene at Ierusalem and was presented by Barnabas to the Apostles before he came to Antioch For after the first sight of the Apostles he went from Ierusalem to Tarsus and thence Barnabas fet him as a chosen vessell to carrie the name of Christ vnto the Gentiles when he first brought him â—â— Antioch And at Antioch where he preached a whole yeere â—â—fore he receiued this imposition of hands to whome preached he but to the Grecians that is to the Gentiles Wherefore they did not impose handes on him to giue him authoritie to preach to the Gentiles he receiued that commission from Christ long before had then twelue moneths and more preached vnto the Gentiles in the very same place where they imposed hands on him To what ende then did they impose hands on Paul and Barnabas They had preached there a good time and furnished the Church with needful doctrine and meete Pastours to take charge of their soules and then the holie Ghost minding to haue them do the like in other places willed the Prophets and Teachers there to let them go for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie and the words following import as much that the Prophets and Pastours laying hands on
saieth Peter and not euerie Pastour or Deacon hath receiued the gift of Gods grace and not an office by mans choice so minister the same one to another for the benefite of each other If any man speake let him speake to comfort and edifie as the wordes of God if any man minister that is doe good not in wordes but in deeds to an other let it be according to the abilitie that God hath giuen him not according to the contributiōs he hath receiued of other men that in all things euen in all our words deeds God may be glorified S. Paul with alonger circuit of words expresseth the same sense As all the parts of our bodies haue diuers actions tending all to the vse and profite not of themselues but of others so euery man saieth hee and not onely Teachers and Elders according to the grace giuen by Gods spirite and not by mans election should be soberly content with their measure and vse to the good of others whether it were prophesie teaching and exhorting which consist in woordes or gouerning and seruing with diligence relieuing and helping with cheerefulnesse which consist in deedes for all the members of Christes bodie though they can not teache exhorte and guide yet may they serue relieue and shewe mercie and these are the giftes of Gods Spirite not so miraculous but as precious in his sight as the former and proceed from the most excellent gift of Gods spirite passing all gifts which is vnfained loue and charitie The Text may more kindly and currantly be referred to the publike offices of the Church First then you must point vs foorth seuen such offices for here are seuen diuers parres Next you must prooue that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these gifts of the spirite belong to the officers of the Church onely and not to the rest of the faithfull Thirdly we must know whether these offices must be diuided or may be combined in one person if they bee distinct no Prophet may teach or exhort no Teacher may exhort or prophesie if they may meete and agree in one subiect then are they no offices but graces and he that hath one may haue all and so are you further from your purpose then you were be fore Lastly make them euen ecclesiasticall functions if you list how then can you chalenge them or any one of them to laie persons Clergie men may not gouerne the Church You must leaue that error for your credites sake as crossing the Scriptures which maketh Pastours to be Shepeheards Watchmen Ouerseers Rulers and Guiders of the flocke and infringeth your owne positions who say that Pastours doe rule and gouerne the Church If he that ruleth must do it with diligence the Pastours by these words are appointed to bee watchfull as those that shall answere for the soules of their flocke and not the laie Elders If it be a priuate gift to whom doeth it appertaine To euery man that hath charge or familie The father with diligence is to guide his children the master his seruants the husband his wife He that hath cast away the care of his household is worse then an Infidel To feed them and not to rule them and traine them in the feare of the Lord is grossely to neglect them He that ruleth not well his owne house by S. Pauls prescription must not bee trusted with the Church of God It is therefore a speciall vertue and grace of Gods spirite to rule well the persons committed to our charge Let it be gift or office priuate or publike it maketh nothing for laie Presbyters There remaineth yet one place where Gouernours are named amongst ecclesiasticall officers and that is 1. Cor. 12. The answere is soone made if we bee not contentious Teachers are there expressed but Pastours omitted and therefore well might Gouernours be mentioned in stead of Pastours If this content you not I then denie they be all ecclesiasticall functions that are there specified Powers gifts of healing kindes of tongues what functions shall we call them in the Church of Christ They were ornaments to the Pastorall and Propheticall calling And so was gouernement To gouerne is a duetie and no gift To gouerne wiselie is a great gift of the holy Ghost more needfull for the Church then tongues healing or miracles To the gouerning of the Church belonged more then censuring of maners or examining of witnesses wisedome to preuent dangers to direct doubtful cases to discerne spirites to calme strifes many other weightie graces were requisite for the gouerning of the Church This is therefore a principall gift of the holy Ghost but not a different office from those that goe before The Apostles Prophets Teachers in the Church had they not power to doe miracles to cure the sicke to speake with tongues if these three be no diuers offices but graces and all three found in euery Apostle in many Prophetes and Teachers why should not gouernement being reckoned in the midst of them be a gift likewise of the holy Ghost bestowed on such Prophets Pastours and Teachers as pleased the spirit of trueth and grace to vouchsafe that honour To make vs vnderstand that we must not confound the functions in the Church with the gifts of the spirite much lesse mistake the one for the other let vs number the gifts of the spirite that are noted in this one Chapter and see whether the publike functions of the Church can any way be proportioned to them To one saieth S. Paul is giuen by the spirite the word of wisedome to another the word of knowledge to another faith to another the gifts of healing to another the operation of great workes to another prophesie to another discerning of spirits to another diuersities of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues Here are nine gifts of the holy Ghost numbred in the ende of this very chapter are named two more helping and gouerning that were not reckoned before To the Romanes are fiue different frō these rehearsed in all sixteene I trust there were not so many distinct offices in the Church The Apostle euen in this chapter setting downe eight degrees and dignities of spirituall gifts and placing them as it werein order cleane smitteth Pastors Deacons as being rather standing offices in the Church then miraculous gifts Many Pastours and Doctors were furnished with many of them the Apostles had them all and that in greater measure then any other which in offices could not be in gift might bee These were therefore neither vsuall nor perpetuall functions in the Church as Pastours and Deacons must bee but miraculous and extraordinarie gifts and graces during onely for a time and giuen in what measure and to what persons it best liked the holy Ghost for the ouerthrowing of Satans kingdome and gathering of the Saints together at the first planting of the Church What were Gouernours then in the Primitiue Church for my part I am not
Bishop must bee vnreprooueable as Gods Steward holding fast the faithfull worde of doctrine that hee may be able to exhorte with founde doctrine and conuince the goinesayers No Teachers no Elders by this rule For they were Gods Stewards to exhort and conuince with found doctrine before they tooke that name Elders might not be appointed in any Citie but so qualified as is heere prescribed there was no place then in Creete for your newe founde Elders And as for Lay Gouernours of the Apostolike Church to bee mentioned by Saint Paul in the 1. to the Corinthians and twelfth Chapter the ancient and learned Fathers are further from admitting any such then I am howsoeuer our late writers bee lighted on them Nazianzene expounding the wordes of Saint Paul which our men imagine concerne Lay Gouernours sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gouernements that is ouer-ruling the flesh Chrysostome maketh Helpes and Gouernements all one and saith It is a great blessing of God in matters of the Spirite to haue an helper and exhorter Ambrose saieth In the fift place is giuen the gift of vnderstanding For they bee Gouernours that with spirituall raines doe guide men Theophilact referreth it to the Deacons Helpes gouernements that is to receiue the sicke and guide and dispence the goodes of our brethren Then neither doe the Scriptures any where mention Lay Presbyters nor the Fathers expounding the places that are brought for them did euer giue so much as an inkeling of any such persons The words of Paul to Timothie be not only cleared from them by diuers sound interpretations but produced against them For they admit no Elders but such as were for their worke sake maintained at the costes of the Church and so were neuer anie Lay Presbyters The two other places name Rulers and Gouernours but expresse neyther what persons or thinges they gouerned neyther who they were that did gouerne whether Lay men or Pastours Lay men had Christian gouernements but ouer their families ouer the Church and house of God none had in the Apostles daies that wee reade saue Pastors and Teachers I meane such as did feede and watch the flocke committed to their charge And yet if wee shoulde graunt that in the Apostles time for want of a Magistrate to vpholde the discipline of the Church and punish the disorders and offences of loose brethren there were certaine graue and wise Elders ioyned with the Prophets and Pastours to admonish the vnrulie examine the guiltie and exclude infamous and scandalous persons from the common societie of Christians Is it anie consequent the like must bee vsed with vs in a Christian kingdome vnder a beleeuing Prince The Apostolike Churches were planted in populous Cities where they coulde not lacke meete men to sustaine that charge ours are dispersed in rurall Hamlets where there can bee no hope to finde so many fitte Gouernours as shall bee requisite To the first Churches came none but such as were willing and zealous without all compulsion to ours come all forces Atheistes Hypocrites and howe manie rather forced by Lawe then ledde with deuotion yea woulde God it did not often so fall out that in manie places the richer and wealthier men eyther regarde no Religion or secretely leane to the woorst Euerie Church with them had manie Prophetes Pastours and Teachers the number and neede of the people and tyme so requiring so that their Presbyteries might bee indifferently weighed without ouerbearing either side Wee haue but one in eche Parish and to exact maintenaunce for moe at the peoples handes in euerie Uillage woulde breede that sore which no playster would heale To giue that one a negatiue voyce in all thinges against the Laie Elders were to fill the whole Realme with infinite contentions and questions To giue him no voyce but as one amongest the rest is to shake the Church in sunder with euerie faction and fansie of the multitude Lastly those Churches vnder persecution had none that coulde iustly chalenge to rule the rest ours hath a lawfull Monarch professing the faith to whome by Gods Lawe the gouernement of all crimes and causes Ecclesiasticall doeth rightly belong and therefore the priuate and popular regiment of the afflicted Churches must cease since God hath blessed this realme with a publike peaceable and princely gouernement The greater and stronger power doeth alwayes determine and frustrate the lesser and weaker in the same kinde What neede we priuate men to punish vices when we haue princes to doe it What neede wee Suffrages of Lay Elders to reforme disorders and abuses in Pastors when wee haue open and knowen lawes to worke the same effect with more force and better speede In popular states and persecuted Churches some pretence may be made for that kinde of discipline In christian kingdomes I see neither neede nor vse of Lay Elders Howbeit for my part I doe not beleeue that Lay Elders were vsed in the Apostls times to gouerne the Church With imposition of hands remission of sinnes distribution of Sacraments I am right assured no iust proofe can be made they did or should intermeddle yea the ouersight of those things could not belong whiles the Apostles liued to Lay men and after their deaths the Churches planted by them and ages succeeding them neuer vsed nor acknowledged any Lay Elders Which is to me an inuincible demonstration that the Apostles left them none For would all the Churches in the worlde with one consent immediatly vpon the Apostles deaths reiect that fourme of gouerning the Church by Lay Elders which was setled and approoued by the Apostles and embrace a new and strange kinde of gouernement without precept or precedent for their so doing Howe others can perswade themselues that the whole Church of Christ felt so generally and presently to a wilfull Apostacie I knowe not for myselfe I confesse I had rather forsake the deuise and conceit of some late Writers were they in number moe then they are before I will proclaime so many Apostolike men and ancient and learned fathers to be manifest despisers of the Apostolike discipline and voluntarie supporters if not inuentors of Antichrists pride and tyrannie Wherefore if they shew me Lay Elders vniuersally receiued for gouernours in the Churches and ages next folowing the Apostles I wil agnise they came from the Apostles if there were no such after the Apostles I cannot beleeue they were in the Apostles times CHAP. XI What Presbyterie the primitiue Churches and Catholike fathers did acknowledge and whether Lay Elders were any part thereof or no. MAny men thinke and write that the first Churches and fathers after the Apostles retained and vsed Lay Elders for Gouernors and so witnes as they say obscurely Ignatius Tertullian Cyprian Augustine more cleerely Ambrose Hierome Possidonius and the Canon law and therefore I doe not well in their opinions to pretend the authoritie of Christes Church against them If all these Fathers or any of them did clearely mention or witnesse Lay Elders
should shew themselues penitent no maÌ„ hastilie giue peace to such as did not penitence yet they sacrilegious against God caried headlong with a wicked rage against the Priests of God forsaking the Church and lifting vp particidiall armes against the Church doe all they can to accomplish their intent with a diuelish malice that Gods mercy should not cure in his church such as are wounded And againe What danger is not to bee feared when some of the Presbyters neither remembring their place neither thinking there is a Bishop ouer them with the reproch and contempt of the chiefe chalengâ— the whole vnto them The disgraces of my office I can dissemble and beare as I alwayes haue But now is no time to dissemble when our brethren are deceiued by some of you which seeke to be plausible without regard of restoring them to the health of their soules What maruell if Cyprian thus besieged thus impugned and banished from his Church and charge did not onely purpose and professe to doe nothing without the full consent of the Clergie and people but persisted in that course which he sawe to bee safest for himselfe and surest against his maligners to decrease their number and defeate their expectance but whether hee were bound by Gods lawe so to doe and all others tied to the same rule that is the greatest part of this doubt If it were but a priuate moderation and prouision for his owne securitie no man is obliged by his example to doe the like If it bee a generall fourme of gouerning the Church prescribed by the holie Ghost then neither might Cyprian nor any man els swarue from that direction without transgressing the will and worde of God then all Councils both Prouinciall and Generall that assembled and concluded in the Primitiue Church without the liking and agreement of the people did wilfullie breake the commaundement of the liuing God and all Christian Princes that in former Ages by their lawes and Edicts intermedled with matters of the Church without the knowledge and consent of their subiectes presumed without warrant and offered open wrong to the kingdome of Christ yea Cyprian himselfe was the first that cassiered his owne confession and when cause so required yea sometimes without cause excluded and ouer-ruled the peoples iust desires One example may seruc for the present your owne allegations will afterward more at large euince as much Vix plebi persuadeo imo extorqueo vt tales patiantur admitti iustiâ—r factus est fraternitatis dolor ex eo quòd vnus atque alius obnitente plebe contradicente mea tamen facilitate suscepti peiores extiterunt quà m prius fuerant With much adoe perswade I the people yea rather extort from them to suffer such to bee admitted and the griefe of the brethren is the iuster for that one or two being by my facilitie receyued the people striuing agaynst it and contradicting it waxed worse then they were before Cyprian admitted some to the Church after repentaunce when the people withstoode it and gainesaied it and were iustlie grieued with his ouer much remissenesse Wherein Cyprian did not violate the duetie which hee ought to God nor tyraâ—nize in the Church with the contempt of his brethren but relented from his purpose to doe nothing without the peoples consent for reasons then moouing him or of his owne iuclination leading him to hope their amendment that were thus admitted with fauour and facilitie to the Church of God See whether your owne examples do not prooue as much The first place you alleage is this In ordinandis Clericis fraâ—res charissimi solemus vos antè consulere mores ac merita singulorum communi consilio ponderare In ordering of Clerkes most deare brethren our maner is to consult you first and to weigh the behauiour and desertes of euery one with common aduise This vse notwithstanding where iust occasion serued he ordered Clerkes without their consents and so much is expressed in the very next wordes Sed expectanda non sunt testimonia humana eumpraecedant diuina suffragia but the witnesse of men must not be expected when Gods approbation is precedent The conclusion is That where one Aurelius a youth had twise in stockes and torments professed Christ Cyprian his Colleagues that were present with him for hee was not then at Carthage had made the said Aurelius thought yong in yeeres a Reader in the Church and so much he signifieth by his letters to the Presbyters Deacons and people of Carthage not doubting but they would embrace him though they gaue no consent to his ordering Hee deserued a further degree of Clericall ordination but in the meane time it hath pleased vs hee should begin with the office of a Reader Know you therefore most beloued brethren that I and my Colleagues which were here with me haue ordered him a Reader which I know you will gladlie accept and wish many such to be ordered in our Church Cyprian was absent from his owne Church by reason of persecution then raging and without the consent either of his Clergie or people he did order Aurelius and sent him with letters to bee receiued as a Reader in the Church of Carthage The like he did for Optatus Saturus Caelerinus and Numidicus as your owne authorities doe witnesse for as by them you prooue Cyprian was woont to take the good report and testimonie of the people concerning such as should bee admitted to the Clergie and with common aduise to examine their woorthinesse so by the selfe same places I she we that Cyprian brake that custome when hee sawe time and cause require and without the consent of his people or Clergie ordered such as hee found to be meete for that calling Whereby wee collect that the consent of the people and Clergie is no essentiall point in ordering Ministers without the which they may not bee called but a very Christian and commendable course to keepe off all notorious and enormous persons from that function and the surest way to saue the Bishop from communicating with other mens sinnes whiles hee trusted not his owne iudgement or knowledge but vsed the eyes eares and consciences of the whole Church for the better view search and triall of their integritie grauitie and industrie to whome the flocke of Christ was to bee committed This which I say will appeare to bee true euen by your owne authorities Because many of the Clergie of Carthage were wanting and those fewe that remained did skant suffice for the dailie worke of the Ministerie for which cause it was requisite to haue moe Know you saieth Cyprian writing to the Presbyters and Deacons of his Church that I haue made Saturus a Reader and Optatus a Subdeacon whom a good while since by common aduise we appointed to bee next placed in the Clergie I haue then in your absence done no new thing but that which long agoe tooke a beginning with all our aduises
care together with the Clergie thereby easing themselues of infinite labour and danger yet where occasion so required they shewed what right they had to elect and name such as should gouerne the Churches When Nazianzene had resigned and relinquished the bishoprike of Constantinople to the Fathers assembled in the second generall Councill Theodosius the elder commanded the Bishops to giue him the names of such written in a paper as euery of them thought fit to bee ordained reseruing power to himselfe to choose one out of that whole number The Bishop of Antioch being the chiefest man then present put their names in writing whom hee and the rest thought fittest and in the last place set Nectarius to gratifie Diodorus Bishop of Tarsus that had commended him for his grauitie and person though otherwise vnknowen The Emperour reading the Catalogue of those that were written stood at the name of Nectarius and holding his finger there read them all ouer againe and at length choose Nectarius Euerie man marueiled and asked who this Nectarius was and of what profession and of what place And vnderstanding that hee was not yet baptized they marueiled the more at the Emperours iudgement Diodorus himselfe vnderstood not so much for had he knowen it hee duâ—st not to haue giuen his voyce to one vnbaptized to be made a Bishop The Emperour hearing that hee was not yet baptized stood in his resolution notwithstanding many Bishops laboured against it And so was Nectarius baptized and whiles he was in his christening vesture declared to be Bishop of Constantinople by the common decree of the Councill The people intermedled not with this choise the Bishops named euery man his friend whom he sought to preferre Nectarius came by chance to know whether Diodorus would any thing vnto Tarsus whither he was then trauelling who fell on the sudden in liking with him being an auncient and graue man but had no further knowledge of him and shewed him to the Bishop of Antioch praying him to remember the man when hee wrate the names for the Emperour The Bishop of Antioch derided the conceite of Diodorus by reason many woorthie men were nominated for this election and for fashions sake to please Diodorus placed Nectarius last The Prince not knowing the one nor the other fastened on his name and would not be remooued though by the Canons he could not haue bene elected and many Bishops bent themselues to alter the Emperours minde This election was made wholy by the Prince not onely without the Clergie and people but against both the Canons and the liking of the Bishops then assembled and yet the generall Councill tooke it to be their dueties to pronounce him and ordaine him Bishop of Constantinople according to the Emperours choise The Bishopâ— you see deliuered the names which Princes nowe doe not obserue The Bishops you see knew not the man for had they knowen him they could not by the Canons haue named him and had the Emperour of himselfe knowen any other to bee fit besides those named in his paper he might as well haue chosen one of them as hee did Nectarius Howbeit I doe not gainesay but Princes should be wel aduised whom they choose and assured either by their priuate experience or by the publike commendations of others that the men are likelie to liue vnspotted and doe good in the Church of Christ. For since the holy Ghost hath pronounced that such as impose handes on any Presbyters or Bishops are partakers of their sinnes if they doe not throughly examine and refuse such as they find vnfit I must confesse that if Princes will not endure to haue the persons whom they choose to be tried by such as shall ordaine them they vndertake that burden themselues which otherwise lieth on the ordainers No power on earth may frustrate or abolish the precept which the holy Ghost giueth Laâ—e hands hastilie on no man if handes be hastilie laied on that is if men apparantlie vnwoorthie be called to the gouernement of the Church of God be it people Prelate or Prince that is wittingly the cause thereof God will not so be answered The suffering of wicked men to infeâ—t or trouble the Church is euill the commanding of such to bee placed in the Church is worse I doe not speake as if Christian princes might not safely elect and name Bishops without danger or scruple onely they must remember as it is an honour in preheminence to choose those that shal guide the Church vnder them so is it aburden of conscience to prouide by the best meanes they can that no venemous nor vncle an thing so much as enter the house of God to defile it with his presence or disorder it with his negligence The ancientest lawes of our Countrey witnesse that Elections were free from force feare or intreatie of all secular powers and the kings of this Realme consented it should be so As ancient lawes of this Realme as those witnesse that the kings of England had the gift and collation of bishoprikes and other dignities of their aduourie before free election was granted And when Princes first yeelded that the Clergie should make free elections they restrained theÌ„ to these conditions that they should aske licence of the king to choose and when their election was made it was not good without the roiall assent The statute of Prouisors of benefices made at Westminster the 25. of Edward the 3. will tell you so much the wordes bee Our soueraigne Lord the King and his heires in case the Bishop of Rome doe intermeddle against the lawe shall haue and enioy for the time the Collations to the Archbishoprikes and other dignities electiue which be of his aduourie such as his progenitors had before that free election was granted sithence that the first elections were granted by the kings progenitors vpon a certaine forme and condition as to demaund licence of the king to choose and after the election to haue his roiall assent and not in other maner which condicions not kept the thing ought by reason to resort to his first nature By which it is euident the kings of England had right to conferre bishoprikes and other dignities before free elections were granted and when they graunted free elections should be made they did neuer dispossesse themselues of these two prerogatiues First that the kings licence must be asked to choose next the kings consent to make the election good yea Henry the first the Conquerors sonne sent the Pope word in great earnest that he would not lose the inuestiâ—ure of his Churches not for the losse of his kingdom and so neither Clergie nor people had euer any right in this realme to choose their bishops since the kings of this land began to endow them with lands and liuings for the ease of their people and benefit of their Church but by the kings grant and with the kings leaue consent For Gods law prescribing no
places forced the Bishops to assemble but once in the yeere so the Councill of Toledo determined for Spaine This holy generall Council decreeth that the authoritie of the former Canons standing good which command Synodes to be kept twise in the yere in respect of y e length of the way and pouertie of the Churches of Spaine the Bishops shal assemble once in the yere at the place which the Metropolitane shal appoint The 2. Council of Turon tooke the same order for France in cases of necessity It hath pleased this holy council that the Metropolitane the bishops of his Prouince shal meet twise euery yere in Synode at the place which the Metropolitan by his discretiō shal chuse or if there be an ineuitable necessitie then without all excuse of persons and occasion of pretences once in the yeere shall euery man make his repaire And if any Bishop faile so to come to the Synode let him stand excommunicate by his brethren of the same Prouince vntill a greater Synode and in the meane time let no Bishop of an other Prouince presume to communicate with him There is no Christian Realme nor Age wherein the vse of Synodes hath not bene thought needfull as well vnder beleeuing magistrates for consultation and direction as vnder Infidels for the stopping of irreligious opinions withstanding wicked enterprises and procuring the peace and holynesse of the Church as appeareth by the Councils that haue bene kept in all kingdoms and countries since the Apostles times when any matter of moment came in question which are extant to this day and likewise by the Synodes that euery Nation and Prouince did yeerely celebrate according to the rules of the great Nicene and Chalcedon Councils which can not be numbred and were not recorded Neither is the continuance of Prouinciall Synodes prescribed onely by Councils the Imperiall lawes commaund the like That all the ecclesiasticall State and sacred rules may with more diligence be obserued we require saith the Emperor euery Archbishop Patriarch Metropolitane to call vnto him once or twise euery yeere the Bishops that are vnder him in the same Prouince and throughly to examine all the causes which Bishops Clerkes or Monkes haue amongst themselues and to determine them so as what so euer is trespassed by any person against the Canons may bee reformed The lawes of Charles alleaging the Councils of Antioch and Chalcedon that the Bishops of euery Prouince with their Metropolitane should assemble in Councill twise in the yeere for the causes of the Church commaund that course to be continued and twise euery yeere Synodes to be assembled And vnlesse you giue the Pastor and Presbyters of euery parish full and free power to professe what religiō they best like to offer what wrongs they will to vse what impietie and tyrannie they themselues list without any restraint or redresse which were an heathenish if not an hellish confusiō you must where there is no christian magistrate as oftentimes in the Church of Christ there hath bene and may be none yeeld that libertie to the Church of Christ which euerie humane societie hath by the principles of nature to wit that the whole may guide each part and the greater number ouer-rule the lesser which without assembling in Synode can not be done We neuer meant to denie the authoritie or vse of lawfull Synodes we confesse they are a sure remedy against all confusion but this we dislike that you giue the power to cal Synodes from the Magistrate to the Metropolitane thereby maintaining a needelesse difference amongst Bishops and suffer none but such as you terme Bishops to haue voyces in Councils whereas euerie Pastour and Preacher hath as good right to sit there and by consent and subscription to determine as they haue What right wee yeelde to Christian Magistrates to call Synodes within their Territories shall soone appeare in the meane time you must tell vs who called Synodes in the Primitiue Church before Princes fauoured Christian Religion was it done by Magistrates who then were Infidels or by Metropolitanes And when Princes protected the truth did they moderate prouinciall Councils by their substitutes or was that charge committed to the Bishop of the chiefe and mother Church and Citie in euerie prouince you challenge to bee men of learning and reading speake of your credites who called in ancient times prouinciall Synodes or at any time who moderated them besides Metropolitanes If your Presbyteries by Gods essential and perpetual ordinance must haue a President to rule their actions for auoyding of confusion howe can Synodes be called gouerned without one to prescribe the time and place when and where the Pastours shall meete and when they are met to guide and moderate their assemblies perceiue you not that men liuing in diuers cities and countries and assembling but seldome haue more neede of some chiefe to call them together then those that liue in one place and euery day meete And if confusion and disorder in Presbyteries be pernicious to the Church is it not far more dangerous in Synodes Wherefore you must either cleane reiect Synodes and so make the Presbyters of eache parish supreme and soueraigne Iudges of all Ecclesiasticall matters or if you receiue Synodes you must withall admit some both to conuocate and moderate their meetings The Magistrate may callthem together and themselues when they are assembled may choose a director guider of their actions But when the Magistrate doeth not regard but rather afflict the Church as in times of infidelitie and heresie who shall then assemble the Pastours of any prouince to deliverate and determine matters of doubt or danger Shall error and iniurie ouerwhelme the church of God without any publike remonstrance or refusance In questions of faith cases of doubt matters of faction offers of wrong breach of all order and equitie shall eche place and Presbyterie be free to teach and doe what they please without depending on or so much as cōferring with the rest of their brethren Cal you that the discipline of Christes Church and not rather the dissolution of all peace and subuersion of all trueth in the house of God I thinke you be not so farre besides your selues that you striue for this pestilent kinde of anarchie to be brought into the worlde our age is giddie enough without this frensie to put them forward Howbeit we seeke not what newe course you can deuise after fifteene hundred yeeres to gouerne the Church but what meanes the ancient and Primitiue Church of Christ had before Princes embraced the trueth to assemble Synodes and pacifie controuersies as well touching religion as Ecclesiasticall regiment and if in the Church stories you finde any other besides Metropolicanes that called and gouerned Prouinciall Councils name the men and note the places and we yeeld you the prize Metropolitanes were first established if not deuised by the Council of Nice before that we reade nothing of any Metropolitane
43 44 65 73 87 88 92 vse the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the primate of euery Prouince Now if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition note the first and chiefe as well in order and dignitie as in time and Imperie I see no reason to refuse the name of Archbishop more then of Primate which worde the Africane Councill so often vseth If you denie that the compounds of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie an order amongst fellowes as well as a power ouer subiects to omit prophane Writers by which wee might prooue it Cicero saying Qui Archipirata dicitur nisi aequabiliter praedam dispertiat aut occidetur à socijs aut relinquetur he that is called Archpirate except he diuide the prize equally he shall be slaine or forsaken not of his men but of his fellowes What thinke you of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archangel doth it import order and dignitie amongst the Angels or power and imperie ouer them if matters in heauen be too high for vs what say you to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarch were Abraham Isaac and Iacob in that they were Patriarchs Rulers and Lords ouer the Churchor chiefe fathers in the Church The twelue Patriarchs that were begotten of Iacob wil you call them the rulers of their Fathers or chiefe fathers of the twelue tribes Dauid shall he be a Patriarch in respect of his kingdome and imperie or of his Propheticall graces and dignitie This signification no doubt the learned Fathers did follow when they suffered and vsed in the Church of God the names of Archbishop Archimandrite Archdeacon not that they made them Lords Princes ouer Bishops Monks and Deacons but rather chiefe amongst thē But did the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwaies import power and authoritie which you shall neuer prooue must that power be straitwaies so princely and peremptorie that it may not stand with a bishops calling Is there no power nor gouernement annexed to a Bishops office Christ saith they be set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ouer his familie Saint Paul calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gouernours in the Lord. That is you will say in respect of their flocke not of their fellow Pastours The Councill of Nice alloweth the Metropolitane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power and authoritie ouer his Prouince The Councill of Sardica where were 300. bishops assembled long before the Africane Councill giueth him the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ruler of the Prouince and addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we meane thereby the Bishop of the Mother Citie or Metropolitane Socrates saith the first council of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appointed Patriarkes and calleth the charge which they receiued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Patriarkdom Ignatius Nazianzen and Chrysost. who I think knew the force of their own tongue better then anie māliuing in our age be their skil neuer so great spare not to giue y ◠name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe Priest vnto bishops Nazianz. speaking to the foresaid Council of Constātinople about the choice of another in his place as Theodor. reporteth his words said seeking out a mā prais-worthy wise that is able to vndertake wel guide the number of cares heere occurrent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make him Archbish. of this place And touching Maximus Theodoret saith the same Council depriued him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Archiepiscopall dignitie Where you say that before the Councill of Chalcedon which was about the yeere of Christ 455. you neuer found any subscription in Synode of any man named Archbishop eyther mine cies be not matches or you are greatly deceiued for I find not onely that subscription in the generall Council of Ephesus before the Council of Chalcedon but the maine Council in their letters giue that title to the bishops of Rome Alexandria and Ephesus In the first session of the Councill it is saide The Synode assembling in the mother Citie of Ephesus by the decree of the most religious and Christian kings the Bishops sitting in the most sacred Church called by the name of Marie first Cyril of Alexandria supplying the place of Celestinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mostsacred and most holie Archbishop of the Church of Rome If you take this to be the Notaries fault reade the Mandate which the whole Councill gaue their Legates when they sent them to Constantinople to the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian for the enlarging of Cyrill and Memnon and likewise their petition to the two princes for the same matter We pern it you say they to their Legates to promise our communion to the Bishops of the East if they will labour with you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that our most sacred Archbishop Cyril and Memnon may be restored vnto vs. In their relation to the Emperours they giue the like title to Celestinus This holie and oecumenicall Councill say they with which sitteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most sacred Archbishop of your great Citie of Rome Celestinus And though the Prouinciall Councill of Affrica willed the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be refrained in their meetings yet this generall Councill of Ephesus vsually calleth Cyrill and Memnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe Leaders and Rulers of the holie Councill Of the Chalcedon Councill you did well to make no doubt the name of Archbishop is so often vsed in the first second third fourth fift eight tenth foureteenth and sixteenth actions not only in the subscriptiōs but euen in the deliberations decrees of that Council that with good consciēce it might not be dissembled Now if you suppose these three generall Councils of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and all the Greeke Diuines and Fathers there assembled were so voyde first of learning that they knew not the force of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition then of religion that they would robbe Christ of his proper titles to increase the pride of men against the trueth of the Scriptures I must confesse I vtterly dissent from you the speach is so hard that I cannot digest it if you yeeld them but reasonable skill in their owne tongue and moderate vnderstanding in the principles of faith I haue my desire for then not onely the function and office of Metropolitanes and Primates is as ancient and necessarie in the Church of God as the hauing and guiding of prouincial Synodes and confirmed vnto them as lawfull by the foure first generall Councils but their very names places were allowed and allotted vnto them by the full consent of the Christian world euen from the beginning and neuer since denied or doubted till this present age wherein wee liue Contention and ambition of Bishops Primates did much afflict the Primitiue Church and hinder and disturbe the best Councils the very Nicene
he had required them to remooue that euill one from themselues in not allowing consenting or fauouring so wicked a fact in their hearts Take which you will I stand indifferent howbeit by the wordes of his second Epistle it should seeme he spake not to the whole Church of Corinth but to the leaders and teachers there when he willed them to remooue that wicked one from amongst themselues For this he writeth of the very same person Sufficient for this offendor is the punishment or reproofe that proceeded from many not from all Wherfore I pray you confirme your loue towards him For this cause also did I write that I might see the proofe of you whether you would be obedient in all things So that in excommunicating the incestuous sinner Paul asked not their consents but tryed their obedience and they with all care and zeale shewed themselues ready to execute his precept At least yet the Presbyterie ioyned with the Apostle in excommunicating that malefactour and of this Presbyterie the Lay Elders were no small part so that by this precedent of the Apostolike discipline the Pastours cannot exclude any men from the Sacraments without the liking of the Lay Elders and Presbyters What the Presbyterie might doe cannot well be resolued vntill it be first agreed of what persons this Presbyterie consisted Some thinke certaine skilfull and discreete men as well of the Laitie as of the Cleargie were appointed by the common choice of the people to deliberate and determine of manners and all other matters pertaining to the regiment of the Church and that by their aduise and consent as it were by the decree of an Ecclesiasticall Senate the power of the keyes was directed and handes imposed For this assertion they shewe the witnesse both of Scriptures and Fathers so cleare as they suppose that they cannot be auoyded Some others confesse there was a kinde of Presbyterie in the Apostles times and long after in many Churches but thence they exclude all Lay persons as no partes thereof and account in that number none but such as had charge of the worde and Sacraments and ioyntly labored the conuerting of vnbeleeuers to the faith and preseruing of the Church in trueth and godlines Which of these two positions is the sounder in processe will appeare CHAP. X. What the Presbyterie was which the Apostles mention in their writings and whether any Lay Elders were of that number or no. IT is not to be doubted that in the Apostles time euery citie where the Gospell was receiued had many Prophets Pastours and Teachers not only traueling to and fro to exhort and confirme the brethren but abiding and persisting in the same place all labouring to encrease the number of the Church and continue the faithful in their profession At Ierusalem fifteene yeeres after Christes ascention were Apostles and Elders At Antioch in the Church were Prophets Teachers Barnabas Simeon Lucius Manehen and Saul besides Marke and others In Rome when Paul wrate thither were many approued Labourers and helpers in Christ whom he knew before besides such as the citie it selfe yeelded of whome hee had then no such experience and therefore passeth them ouer vnsaluted by name as men vnknowen After when hee came thither he sheweth who were his worke fellowes vnto the king dome of God to the Church of Corinth he saith Let the Prophets speake two or three and the restiudge Being â—t Miletum he sent for the Elders of Ephesus whome the holie Ghost had set to watch and feede the Church of God He writeth to the Saints at Philippi together with the Bishops and Deacons S. Iames saieth to the Iewes dispersed If any be sicke let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray ouer him nothing there were in euery Church not one but many Elders whose office it was to pray ouer the sicke relcase their sinnes and ease their infirmities This number of Teachers and Helpers in the Gospel was not superfluous but very requisite in those daies by reason they were forced to exhort and admonish as well priuatly throughout euery house as openly when the Church was assembled for feare of seducers that secretly crept into houses leading away women loden with sinnes and subuerted whole houses teaching things they ought not for filthy lucres sake and also for that they were daily to win those to Christ that yet beleeued not In which case they were to refrain no place nor slack no time to make Christ knowen to euery particular person and house that was ignorant of him And to this end they needed more aide then otherwise to guide and direct the Church at such times as the Saints mette together Neither ceased this necessitie with the Apostles it dured manie hundred yeers after them which was the cause that in euery great citie the Pastors and Bishops had many Ministers helpers ioyned with them to labour the conuersion of miscreants to strengthen and encourage the Martyrs and Confessours that suffered by thousands for the name of Christ to visite the sicke and comfort them in their extremities to cate chise the Nouices to attend the seruice and Sacraments of the Church to examine the faith and suruey the behauiour of all that repaired to the Lordes Table and to performe a number of such sacred duties which for one Pastor or Bishop alone to do in so populous cities and assemblies as they had was vtterly impossible A Presbyterie then of Prophets Pastors and Teachers the Apostles in their times had and vsed in euery Citie where they planted the Faith and setled the Church but that lay Gouernours or Elders were part of that Presbyterie concurred ioyntly with the Pastors Prophets in imposing hands exercising the power of y t keys censuring both doctrine maners I find no such thing commaÌ„ded or warranted by the Scriptures the patrons of y t Lay Presbyterie must vndertake the burden to proue their assertion The very foundation of the Lay Presbytery so strongly conceiued eagerly pursued by men in our dayes is the place of S. Paul 1. Tim. 5. The Elders that rule well are worthie of double honor chiefly they that labor in the word doctrine Hence it is resolutely inferred ergo there were some Elders that labored not in the word and docrine and those by comparison of other places are supposed to be Gouernours which office Paul nameth amongest the spirituall functions of the Church when he saieth Hee that ruleth let him do it with diligence It is a matter of nosmal weight to giue Lay men power in euery parish to impose handes and vse the keyes yea to haue the full and whole gouernement of the Church aboue and against the Pastours by number of voyces if they differ in iudgement and therefore the ground that shall beare the frame of the Lay Presbyterie had neede be sure especially when it is vrged as a
part of Christs spiritual kingdom without the which no Church can be Christes no more then it may without the trueth of his doctrine But whether the wordes of Saint Paul 1. Timoth. 5. inferre any such thing or no this is the matter wee haue now in hand Some learned and late writers do so conceiue of that place for my parte I see so many iust and good reasons against their supposall that I can not yeelde to their iudgement The first reason I haue of the weakenes of this place to vpholde the Lay Presbyterie is that many learned and ancient Fathers haue debated and sifted the force of these wordes and not one of them euer so much as surmised any such thing to be contained in this Text. Chrysostome Ierome Ambrose Theodoret Primasius Oecumenius Theophilact and diuers others haue considered and expounded these wordes and neuer dreamed of anie Lay Presbyterie to be mentioned in them If then the wordes of Saint Paul stand faire and cleere without this late deuise as in the iudgement of these learned and ancient Writers they doe What reason after fifteene hundred yeeres to entertaine a newe platforme of gouerning the Church by Lay men vpon a bare conceit that the words of Saint Paul may sound to that effect as some imagine The second reason of my dissenting is for that Saint Paul naming the Presbyterie but once in al his Epistles excludeth al Lay Elders from that Presbyterie Neglect not the grace which is in thee which was giuen thee by Prophesie with the imposition of hands of the Presbyterie This is the onely place in all the Scriptures where the Presbyterie is namely mentioned and Lay Elders are most plainely remooued hence as no parte of this Presbyterie For this Christian Presbyterie gaue imposition of haÌ„ds to ordaine Ministers but Lay-Elders had no right to impose hands to that purpose Ergo. Lay men were no part of this Presbyterie That imposition of hands to make Ministers is a kinde of Sacrament and reserued solely to Pastours if Saint Austens authoritie were not sufficient Caluins confession is very euidâ—nt which I noted before They must be Ministers of the worde and Sacraments and succeede the Apostles in their Pastorall charge and function that must ordaine others by imposing handes and giue them power and grace to dispence both the word and Sacraments This Lay Elders in the Apostles times neither did nor might do they were therefore no part of that Presbyterie which Saint Paul speaketh of in his writings Must we take the worde not for the Colledge of Elders but for the degree and office which Timothie receiued Neither so is the force of my reason auoided For choose which you wil to be the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either collectiue for the whole coÌ„panie of Elders or distributiue for the degree office of euery Elder if collectiue none could be of that Colledge that might not giue imposition of hands if distributiue none might take that function and calling on him but must receiue imposition of handes as Timothie did Then Lay men which neither did giue nor receiue impositioÌ„ of hands are barred both from the degree and from the societie of Presbyterie which was in Saint Pauls time Beza thinketh best to take it for a nowne collectiue and addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est ordinis Presbyterorum quo nomine coetus ille omnis significatur qui in verbo laborabant in ea ecclesia vbi hoc factum est The Presbyterie that is the order or company of Elders by which name the whole company is signified that laboured in the word in that Church where this was done Then the whole Eldership or company of Elders in S. Pauls time labored in the word Where now were the Lay Elders that laboured not in the worde What Presbyterie were they of Had euerie Church two Presbyteries I trust not This whole Presbyterie consisted of Pastours and Teachers An other Colledge of Lay Elders and no Pastours will neuer be found My third reason is for that the Text it selfe doth clearely refuse the sense which they inforce For as they conclude there were ergo some Elders that did not labour in the word and doctrine and yet gouerned well so the wordes are more euident that they all were worthie of double honour whether they laboured or gouerned Which by Saint Paules proofes presently following and by the consent of all old and new Writers is meant of their maintenance at the charges of the Church Honour in this place saith Chry sostome Paul calleth reuerence and allowance of thinges needefull Paul will haue the rest yeelde carnall thinges to them of whome they receiue spirituall because being occupied in teaching they can not prouide thinges needefull for themselues Good faithfull Stewards saith Ambrose ought to be thought worthie not onely of high but of earthly honour that they bee not grieued for lacke of maintenance Paul willeth maintenance to be chiefly yeelded to the Pastours that are occupied in teaching For such is the ingratitude of the world that take small care for nourishing the Ministers of the worde As the poore so the Elders seruing the whole Church are to be mainteined by the goods of the Church Paul mentioning the Church treasure presently exhorteth the Ministers of the Church to be thence maintained By the name of honour is signified al godly duty and reliefe after the vse of the Hebrewe speach Now that Lay Iudges and Censors of maners were in the Apostles time found at the expenses of the Church or by Gods Law ought to haue their maintenance at the peoples hands is a thing to me so strange and vnheard of that vntil I see it iustly proued I can not possibly beleeue it S. Paul hath laied downe this rule They that serue at the Altar should be partakers of the Altar and by Gods ordinance they that preach the Gospell must liue of the Gospell Where shall we finde the like for the Lay Iudges that laboured not in the worde They were if any such were as the sagest so euery way the sufficientest men that were amongest the people for feare of faction contempt and corruption which easily grow when the weaker and baser rule ouer the richer and better sort If the Apostle will not haue the poore widowes so long as they might otherwise be succoured or employed grieue the Church would he then put the burden of the Lay Iudges and Elders in number many in state able to relieue others on the necks of the meaner and poorer brethren there is neither cause nor commandement in the word so to charge the Churches of Christ with maintaining the Lay Senate which yet must be done before this construction can be admitted The fourth reason that holdeth me from receiuing this construction is that I find diuers and sundrie interpretations more agreeable to the Text and more answerable to S. Pauls meaning then this which is