Episcopis servire non cogantur quia scriptum est Nâ—que ut dominantes in Clero Vid. Hieronym Epist. 2. ad Nepotian where he sayes Sâ—a subjectus Pontifici tuo quasi Animae Parentem suscipe which Counsel savours very little of Fanaticism se Sacerdotes non Dominos esse noverint Honorent Clericos quasi Clericos ut ipsis à Clericâ—s quasi Episcopis honor deseratur sâ—itum est illud Oratoris Domitii Cur ego te inquit habeam ut Principem cum tu me non habeas ut Senatorem Augustin Epist. 48. Nonomnis qui parcit amicus est nec omnis qui verberat iâ—micus c. Ambros. Serm. 14. Leon. 1. Epist. 82. Greg. 1. De Cura Past. par 3. Admonendi sunt Subditi ne plus quà m expedit sint subjecti ne cum student plus quà m necesse est hominibus subjici compellantur Vitra eorum venerari Article XIV Psal. 95. 6. Mat. 18. 20. Rom. 15. 6 16 17. 1 Cor. 1. 10. 5. 8. 6. 20. 11. 2 4 7 22 34. 14. 33 40. Col. 2. 5. Tit. 1. 5. Heb. 10. 25. SEING we have so frequently mentioned the ancient Canons of the Church it being as indecent if not as dangerous for a Church to be without Canons as for a State to be without Edicts these serving not only as a Directory to the reciprocal Duties of Bishops Presbyters and People but being also Boundaries to all I wish we had some thing that looked like them and served in Lieu of them till they be imposed by Authority For the Tender of the Canonical Oath unto the Candidates of that Sacred Function doth necessarily presuppose some Canons according to which their Obedience should be squared and by which also the Injunctions of their Superiours ought to be regulated For I hope none of them are so simple as to imagine that this Oath doth imply an absolute implicit Obedience unto the Beneplacita of Ecclesiastick Governours as if Sic volo sic jubeo slat pro ratione Voluntas were the adequate Law of our Church The Angelical Dâ—ctor hath better deâ—in'd it who tells us that to speak properly Lex est Sententia praecipiens honesta c. and that it must be enacted with the general Consent of the Clergy otherwise it cannot be a binding Law to the Church and if those Qualifications be wanting though that Precept may be â—ermed An Ecclesiastical Law yet it is not truly such but Violentia Yea more than so as the Swearing of a Souldier to the Colours of his General doth not only import that he knows them from the Standard of the Common Enemy but also that this Sacramentum Militare is with a due Subordination unto him who gave that General his Commission unless any have a mind to imitate the Treachery of that famous Wolsâ—ein of whom it is reported by some that before his fatal Retreat to Fgra he took an independent Oath of the Imperial Army For the Precepts of the Superiour must not interfere with the Commands of the Supreme which if they be found to do they ought not to be obeyed And if it be concluded that this Canonical Oath in the privation of Canons is but a meer Non-ens Certainly these Fanatical Preachers are most obliged to some Bishops who have permitted them still to Officiate in this Church and yet were never so impertinent as to require from them any Subscription to this Chimerical Fiction Therefore I would humbly entreat the Reverend Fathers of our Church to meet privately amongst themselves accompanied with one or two of their respective Presbyters 〈◊〉 they judge most Judicious and knoâ— to be of unquestionable Principles and let them unanimously resolve upon an Uniformity of Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government to be practised in this Church It is certainly a matter of Lamentation that our National Church should resemble America in its first Discovery for as Peter Martyr and Ioseph Acosta report a good Horseman in one Summer's day's Travel might meet with variety of Languages Habits and Religion amongst that Barbarous People Sure I am not to speak of Confirmation which is already pressed they might easily introduce a Platform of Administrating the Blessed Sacraments of the Gospel For when one varies from the precise words of the Institution which is but too frequently done he shall hardly perswade me that he hath Consecrated those Holy Symbols or Elements as they are usually termed at that time the words of the Divine Institution being the Essential Form of a Sacrament And let not the Lord's Prayer be any more neglected in the Consecration of the Eucharist which as St. Cyprian testifies was the constant Epiphonema of that Solemn Benediction in all the Churches of Christ in his time The same is also attested by St. Hilary and St. Augustin As for the Gesture at the Holy Table I humbly suppose Standing will be found the best Expedient to introduce Uniformity into this Church not only because it staves off the serupulous Fears of an Arto-latria but also in regard we find direct Evidence for the Practice thereof in the Primitive Church I shall only produce one Private and another Publick Authority for it though many more might be adduc'd to this purpose Dionysius Alexandrinus who lived about the middle of the third Century and Wrote Anno Dom. 260. testifies in a Letter to Pope Xystus That it was the Custom of the Church in his time to stand at the Lord's Table As for the Publick Authority The 20th Canon of the Great and First General Councel at Nice is sufficient where we find Kneeling on the Lord's Day and on the day of Pentecost expresly prohibited and the practice of Standing at their Devotions explicitly enjoyn'd And that because the Lord's Day is the ordinary Christian Festival and the whole time of Pentecost which comprehends the fifty dayes betwixt Easter and Whitsunday inclusively the constant Festivity of the Church Tertullian and Epiphanius looking upon it as an Apostolical universal Tradition not to kneel all that time Whence we may infer That if some men speak Consequenter ad Principia one whereof is That this Blessed Sacrament is the most solemn part of Christian Devotion they must either grant that the Eucharist was received on those dayes in a standing Posture or that the People of God did not at all communicate at these times which were a very absurd Notion seeing they are acknowledged by all who are not wildly â—aâ—atick to be the fittest Seasons for the Participation of that great Mystery whereas that of Kneeling is but consequentially inferr'd because the Fathers usually term the Holy Eucharist The most sublime the most solemn and most useful part of Christian Devotion and that it is Tremendum adorabâ—le Mysterium though under Favour we must expound it and so the Context usually imports of internal Adoration unless we intend to joyn Issue with the Popish Idolatry As for that irreverent and lazy Posture of Sitting we
182. Art 1. stands in need of very few things being to it self sufficient Such a Person alone without needing other Assistance or Favour from abroad can both purchase and exercise all Vertues yea and liberally Dispense all kinds of Charity to others also for by Prayer alone exercised in Solitude he can employ and engage God's Omnipotence Wisdom and all the Treasures of his Riches for the supplying all the Necessities External and Internal of his Church Yea the greater Solitude there is the Soul is at the more Freedom to run speedily and lightly to the Course of Vertue For nothing doth indeed fetter her but Self-love and Propriety And when the Habits of Vertue are once acquired they are most securely possessed in Solitude from whence all Distractions and almost all Temptations are excluded There is yet another Advantage to which the Poverty of this Countrey would frequently exhibit the Occasion which is That these would be excellent Cities of Refuge for some Persons of a Noble Descent specially of the Female Sex whose prodigal Parents have wasted all their Patrimonies so that they finding too good reason to despair of a Match according to their Quality live exposed to the Contempt of the World even to their dying day For though some of them are so happy as to twist Nobility and Vertue together yet that Conjunction not being irradiated with the splendid Aspect of Plutus they become despicable in Vulgar eyes which are only dazled with the Glistering of Gold and Silver So that I heartily approve the Judgement of the Author of Claustrum Animae Necessary Reformations saith he might have repurged Monasteries as well as the Church without abolishing of them and they might have been still Houses of Religion without having any dependance upon Rome I have insisted the longer upon this Theam though it may be termed a Digression because I judged my self concerned to vindicate that most excellent kind of Life from the Imputation of Vselesness as if they were all Ignavum pecus fruges consumere nati Et Telluris inutile pondus Sure I am If the Practice of the Devout Asceticks of Nitria and of the Primitive Monks in general whereof S. Hierom Augustine Palladius Cassian and others give us an account were retrived into our Church Judicious Calvin would not have been so uncharitable as to say of them all that Velut porci saginantur in haris For if the Abuse of a thing should always take away the lawful Use thereof the most laudable Institutions of the World would fall to the ground For what therein hath not been abused But to take off the groundless Odium of the name let these Habitations be also termed Hospitals But above all Let the Governours of the Church make Conscience to educate Towardly Youths whether Descended of the Clergy or Laity whose Parents are not in bonis to entertain them at Schools yet are well principled and derived from honest Families That having a liberal and holy Education in the Bishop's Family and their Conversation being alwayes in his eye they may prove excellent Materials at last to build the House of God when being found good Proficients in Knowledge and in the School of Holy Iesus they may be called forth to that Holy Function in God's good time It being the practice of St. Augustine and divers others in the Primitive Church to have always such Seminaries about them And these even in this Age would be look'd upon as the Succedanei of the ancient Acoluthi who were the individui Comites of the Primitive Bishops and being constant Witnesses unto their holy Conversation were thereby framed through the Divine Grace to the exact imitation of that excellent Pattern This Method would be found not only a Charitable Office but also an act of great Prudence and Christian Policy in reference to all but especially the Ministers of the Gospel And would to God all Church-men were taken up with the Study of such Laudable Politicks and Piae fraudes as the Apostle phraseth them For it could not but perswade them who have any Principles of Generosity within them to a Cordial Complyance with the Government when they perceive it their great Care to do good to them and theirs Yea more than so It would excite a commendable Emulation amongst the Clergy of the same Diocese which of them should appear most Deserving in the eyes of their Ordinary and that in order to a Preference as to the Foris-familiation of their Sons when they perceive That over and above the Poverty of their Estates and Riches of their Principles these Presbyters are most Countenanced and Their Sons regarded by their Bishop in the first place who are Persons of a pious and prudent Conversation Diligent in their Studies and Faithful in the Discharge of all the Duties of their Holy Vocation I might add to the former Instances of Charity The Redemption of Christian Captives For which merciful Acts Acatius Ambrose Paulinus and many other Primitive Bishops are highly applauded As also Bequeathing the Holy Bible and other Books of Devotion gratis to poor Christians the Soul being the principal Object of Charity to our Neighbour For which the Martyr Pamphilus is Celebrated by Eusebius and Hierom. And in â—ine The furnishing of some resolute Evangelists with a Viaticum to propagate the Christian Faith among Infidels which was one of the Elogiums of St. Chrysostom For which Act of Universal Charity Demetrius of Alexandria was long before him highly applauded for sending the Learned Pantaenus to preach the Blessed Gospel unto the remotest Indians And that the Roman Propaganda may not rise up in the Great Audit against the Governours of the Reformed Church they should be no less solicitous for it We need not multiplie any more Particulars For if the half of these Instances of Charity be practised to purpose there will be few Materials reserved for the gaudy Busks of Wives the Prodigality of Sons the Vanity of Daughters and Debauchery of their Retinue For the Treasure of the Church thus S. Lawrence termed the Poor and not Works of Supererogation would exhaust all those Conduits of Luxury and nothing would remain to be bestowed on costly Furniture rich Hangings curious Coaches c. For the Primitive Bishops used not Coaches neither had they any Swords to draw upon their Coach-men not to speak of their expending more on their Horses yearly than some poor Ministers have to maintain their Families the very Possession of which as Clemens Alex. hath well observed creates Envy especially to the Clergy whose Ornaments ought to be of a more Spiritual Make and Temper Neither would they have any Temptation to re-act that Tragedy of the Ewe-Lamb in Nathan's Parable by designing to abridge any poor Minister's Stipend far less to substract that inconsiderable Pittance destinated for the Provision of Communion-Elements Least of all would they find in their hearts to give Money to an Advocate to obstruct the Reputation of a Church if ten Merks Scots be
all the Summ which is expected from a hard-hearted Patron to uphold a decayed Fabrick Yea suppose they had a legal Title to part of that Salary yet they would dispence with it as a part of their Charity unto those who may be said sedere super Chaenicem in regard of the smalness of their Intrado and greatness of their Families and None should have occasion to upbraid that Order That no publick charitable Works have been done by any of them Such as the Such as The Building and Repairing of Bridges on High-wayes though some of those already half demolished are within the Prospect of their Ordinary Residences and daily invite them to put to their helping hand Neither would any who Travel by their parish-Parish-Churches find any ground to admire that pitiful Spectacle Of Bells hanging upon Trees for want of Bell-houses as if they owned that part of Mahomet's Doctrine which Condemns Bells in Steeples or did joyn Issue with the Invectives of the Quakers against Steeple-houses And till Reason and Religion can suggest no other Imployment for that parcel of the Churches Patrimony in their hands Let them not be sollicitous to make that invidious and uncharitable scrambling for a great Estate to aggrandize a near Relation in this World who deserendo Castra nostra do as it is too frequently observed in the next Age if not in that of their Creation resemble the Viper in tearing by Scorn and Contempt the Bowels of that Parent which alone produced their Fortune and Honour It being through the just Judgement of God the unhappy Fate of that Sacred Grove to lend an handle to that Ax which lops its Reputation For the Clergy had no greater enemy nor vilisier in that Age than Caesar Borgia the perverse spurious Brat of an Ecclesiastick But for them to retain so much of their Revenue as is requisite to supply the Necessities of Nature or the Wants of Others ought neither to be the Object of Envy or Fear For he must needs be worse than a Momus or Zoilus who carps at the provision of Food and Raiment which a poor Tradesman makes to his own Family by his Lawful Calling Yet the Dignity of that Sacred Office is such that Decency requires a more ingenuous manner of living than the sordid and mean way of Plebeians in regard they are particularly commanded to practise Hospitality For which not only Spiridion was Famous but also the generality of the Prelates of the Primitive Church whether in a Celibate or Married state But as that Famous Bishop of Cyprus was far from Superfluity in his Entertainment of Strangers So should they be who are bound to know That simple Habit and Diet are most consonant to the primitive Simplicity of Christians but especially of Church-men There being no Heavenly-minded Ecclesiastick who is thorowly Mortified as to the Blandishments of the Flesh and hath absolutely resigned his Soul to God but useth even these things which are Necessary sparingly and moderately not paying Nature its Tribute without some regret grudging the little time he spends about it and therefore makes haste to get from the Table that he may return to his better Exercises And seeing in imitation of St. Augustine he comes to his Meat as to a Medicine it cannot be presumed that he will cast away much of his precious time in such unedifying Employments but rather after the Example of that Great Conquerour will drive away all curious Cooks and other Artificers of Luxury far from his Habitation And let not any imagine that this Practice of Charity which cannot but interrupt the study of these Persian Arts of Splendour and effeminate Gallantry too much in fashion in this Age shall expose that Sacred Order to Contempt in the eyes of the World Sure the contrary will fall out There being no Person of what Quality soever that hath any tiâ—cture of Christianity within him but will be apt to deferr more internal Respect unto them on that account than can be procured by all these Characters of Honour which the most bountiful Temporal Monarch is pleased to conferr upon them Yea more than so when they accost those Holy Persons in the way they will be ready to alight and beg their Blessing as was usually done to St. Basil of Cappadocia and to our Countrey-man S. Aâ—danus though his Mode of Travelling was no more honourable than that of a 〈◊〉 And that this visible Impress of the Divine Image doth extort Admiration and a reverâ—â—d Esteem from the most virulent Enemies of the Christian Religion may sufficiently appear from that Epistle of Iulian the Apostate to the High Priest of Galatia And it is very observable That the Greatest of this Land who understand the nature of true Nobility are apt to caresse some Presbyters who are of a good Descent and have the repute of Pious Charitable and Learned men and the Discretion to demean themselves handsomly in the company of their Betters as much as any Bishop of them all balking only some Titles and Places in lieu whereof they aâ—â—ord them the more internal Respect in imitation of Monsieur de Renty that excellent French Nobleman who thought it his greatest Worldly Honour to Honour the Clergy And they who are knowing Persons of the Nobility look upon it as no Disparagement to their Grandeur to put Characters of Respect and Signatures of Honour on the worthy Ambassadours of Holy Iesus Remembring Constantine the Great his Kissing the hollow of Paphnutius his Eye because he was a famous Confessor who also used to treat those of the Clergy at his own Table though in the meanest and most despicable Habit which some Reguli in this Age would think it below them to do and the high Respect which Theodosius the Great carried to St. Ambrose Not to speak of Theodosius the Younger S. Lewis of France S. Edward of England called the Confessour and St. David of Scotland with many other Great and Pious Princes and for the Female Sex Placilla the Empress and St. Margaret of Scotland are Examples instar omnium For they caressed all in Holy Orders to the Admiration of the World And though it be very commendable in any great Person as being a great Evidence of true Piety in them to put such Respect upon the Representatives of their Great Masters yet I cannot but condemn the ambitious Affectation of it in any Church-man or a solicitous Desire in any of them to be preferred to the great Officers of State For this vanity they did never learn from him who gave them their Commission if ever they were sent of God For He was meek and lowly in heart and commanded all his Disciples to learn that Document from his Example But if it be objected how then shall a Church-man vindicate himself from Contempt seeing it is their Fate to be sometimes palpably dis-respected The Blessed Gospel is indeed a Bundle of Mysteries and a Complex of innumerable Wonders viz. In the Dispensation of the Incarnation
find neither direct nor indirect Testimony for it Those Canons which command Standing every Lord's Day do consequently exclude Sitting if we look upon that Solemn Action as an Act of Devotion and Optatus hath told us Lib. 4. That the People may not sit in the Church and Tertullian gives the reason Lib. de Oratione cap. 12. That it was an Heathen Custom and therefore ought to be reprehended Let all those who plead so much for that irreverent and lazy Posture remember that they comply in their Gesture not only with these detestable Arrian Hereticks who design'd thereby to vilifie the Son of God but also with those who are worse the damnable Socinians as is evident from Socinus his Tract De Coena Domiâ—i And I wish all Sober Christians would seriously advert to this That it is not a Corporal Repast but a Spiritual Refreshment they are call'd unto when they come to that Holy Table and let the consideration of the Great King who invites them and of the unparallel'd Mystery they are to receive the Feast-Maker being the Feast it self perswade all Christians to present themselves at this Gospel-Altar with much more reverence than they are obliged to practise at an ordinary Banquet or a Penny-Bridale Yet Let not any imagine that we intend by these Lines to reflect upon some Canons of our Church Truly I had no such Design but on the contrary de regret that these Articles are fallen too much in desâ—etude But it is a Principle of Love to Uniformity that did prompt me to tender this Overture yet with all due submission to the Governours of our Church It being a most desireable thing to see all those who desire to fear God's Name blessed with one mind one heart and one way As for mine own judgment I can easily subscribe to those words of R. Mr. Baxter If it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed Pardon from Christ and his Ambassadours upon our knees Likewise a set Form of Excommunication to be used by all whether it be the Lesser call'd properly Abstentio ab Eucharistia the practice of the Primitive Church which was so copious in this matter being too much neglected in this Age or the greater Anathema with their respective Relaxations may be easily resolved upon with a form of Ecclesiastick Testiâ—icates in Conformity to the 〈◊〉 formatae of the Ancients And let all Bishops wherever they are if they be in health preach on the Anniversaries of the Nativity Passion and Resurrection of our Blessed Lord and on the Anniversary of the Descent of the holy Ghost as also on that of the Nativity and Restauration of our gracious Sovereign upon Earth And let it be recommended to all their Presbyters to do so as also to celebrate the Holy Communion on Easter and Pentâ—cost at least on every Easter-day which as hath been said already is Caput institutionis of the Christian Sabbath for though these things be not authoritatively enjoyn'd yet the Governours of the Church may easily thereby find the Pulse of their Clergy and by this Tessera Discover if there remain as yet any amongst them who are fermented with some of that foure leaven of Presbytery It were no difficult Province if I did not study Brevity to answer all the Paralogisms and most foolish Cavils of the Fanaticks against these Festivals of the Church But I shall remit them for their Doom to S. Augustine who makes it a Character of a true Son of the Church to solemnize the Festivals thereof Serm. 253. De Temp. in which number he places that of the Nativity in the Front and to Epiphanius who in his 75th Heresie tells us That Aërius was condemned as an Heretick as for other things so for opposing and condemning the Festivals of the Church But the ingenuous Reader may find the Lawfulness and Usefulness of these Festivals fully asserted by that admirable Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Policy and the no less wonderful D. Hammond in his Treatise on that Subject and in particular whosoever desires to see the Feast of the Nativity vindicated from the Imputation of Novelty let them peruse Origen lib. 8. contra Celsum and his Hom. 3. in Math. the Treatise of Cyprian on that day and the Homily of Chrysostom to the same Purpose and they will find each of them deducing it from the Practice of the first Antiquity yea that the 25th of December is the Anniversary of our Saviour's Birth in my humble judgment is notably demonstrated by Baronius in his Apparatus and the Learned Mountague in his Answer to him But most of all by M. I. Gregory Oxon of whom it may be truly said That he hath dived into the very bottom of Antiquity If these things and such as these were Universally practis'd a Liturgy might be stollen in pedetentim upon this Church And I wish we had a well-reformed one purified from the Dregs of Popery and Superstition and framed after the pattern of the most Authentick Liturgies of the Primitive Church of which the Learned G. Cassander hath collected no small variety that we may again resume the Face and Garb of a National Church which hath been too long as a Body without the Natural Ornament of Skin and Muscles or as a flat Picture not duely heightened with its Shadows a Liturgy being found by the Experience of all ancient Times as a necessary Hedge and Mound to preserve any Profession of Religion and Worship of God in a National Church from Irreverence Confusion and Contempt without which Boundary it is impossible that a tolerable Uniformity should be long retained in any great Incorporation of Christians And it 's observable That M. Calvin himself when from Frankfort he had received an odious malicious account of many Particulars in the English Liturgy as any will acknowledge who shall compare the Report then made with what he finds though he were so transported as to call them Ineptias tolerabiles yet in a more sober mood he gave positive Approbation of the same as is evident from his Epistle to the Protector of that Kingdom in these words As for Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites I very much approve that it be set or certain from which it may not be lawful for the Pastors in their Function to depart that so there may be Provision made for the Simplicity and Vnskillfulness of some and that the Consent of all the Churches among themselves may more certainly appear And Lastly also that the extravagant Levity of some who affect Novelties or at the best vent a Rhapsody of pious Non-sence may be prevented c. Whence we rationally infer that they who endeavoured the total Abolition of a Liturgy in that Church had a design to Reform or to say better Deform Geneva as well as England and to chastise Calvin's Estimation of it as well as that of the English Prelates Not to speak of that
for he must needs be a Stranger to all Church-History who is altogether unacquainted with these ensuing Instances The first is of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon a blind Bishop yet he fought not Andabatarum more but boldly told the Emperour Iulian to his Face That he was glad the Almighty had bereav'd him of his Eyes that he might not see such a vile Apostate as he was Such was the Freedom of Spirit wherewith even an Arrian Bishop was endued in Behalf of the Christian Religion But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of S. Basil a greater and much more Orthodox Bishop was so admirable in the Eyes of the Lieutenant of the Emperour Valens that this Heretical Servant told it as one of the greatest Wonders in the World unto his Arrian Master That there was no Threatening imaginable could deterr that Metropolitan of Cappadocâ—a from the Path of Truth and Vertue St. Chrysostom his Freedom of Spirit in reprehending the Vanities of the Empress Eudoxia was so great that some supposed it had too much of the Satyr in it and that his wonderful Eloquence would have run in a smoother Channel if a little Gall Vinegar and Vitreol had not sometimes troubled the Stream But he deserved from all and in a right Sence too to be term'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a kneeless Bishop he being inflexible to all the Petitions of Ignorant and Scandalous Ecclesiasticks who lived within the Priphery of his Patriarchate Neither could all the Hopes or Fears wherewith the greatest Secular Persons in the World accosted him divert that Resolute Prelate from that which he judged just and Good and a part of his Episcopal Charge Though we might subjoyn many other Examples to this Purpose yet I shall forbear for the reason above frequently express'd Yet we cannot balk in Silence the well-known Instance of that most worthy Prelate of Millan who repell'd for the space of eight Moneths that good Emperour Theodosius the Great from the Holy Eucharist that blessed Sacrament being frequently celebrated in the Western Churches at that time and that for his temerarious and cruel Sentence in the mattter of Thessalonica But whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Bishop or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Emperour were most admirable I shall not determine but shall shut up this Historical Account with that Resolute Answer which this couragious Prelate gave to Valentinian the second Emperour of the West who being instigated by his Mother an Arrian to give the Principal Church at Millan to those Hereticks did meet with this unexpected Repulse from S. Ambrose in the Porch of his Cathedral Non prodam Lupis gregem mihi commissam hic occide si lubet In which Expression his holy Boldness in Conjunction with a due Submission to superiour Powers affords new matter of Admiration Now in regard that this little Cento of History hath wasted more Paper than at first I imagin'd it should do we shall therefore add no more Authorities to this Article Article XVII Mat. 23. 6 7 8. c. Act. 21. 20. Rom. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 15. WHatever Bombast Epithets others give unto them Let all Bishops when they Converse and salute one another viva voce or by writing use no other Compellation than that of Brethren which is most consonant unto the Primitive Pattern all Christians then living as Brethren and denominating one another under that notion of Fraternity which word was much used in the Infancy of the Church and from it the Pagans also took occasion to traduce our Religion But none used it more than the Ministers of the Gospel whether Bishops or Presbyters it being as Baronius that great Annalist hath well observed the most usual Compellation of all Bishops among themselves where there was a parity of Age or no great disproportion But when any of the Order who had stepped in upon a decrepit old age called by the Latines Aetas Capularis and Silicernium did converse with one of the same Order much younger than himself he usually called him Son and vice versâ the younger termed the elder Father though none of them were so young but that fourty Winters at least had snowed upon their Heads yea very few Presbyters were Ordained in these Times of Persecution whose Pulse had not beaten twice twenty years To which if some late Criticks had well adverted they would have made Use of a better Argument to repudiate the pretended Areopagite as there want not some solid reasons to do the feat than his impertinency in calling Timothy Son at the Close of his Book Of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy though say they the said Timothy was equal to him if not his Superiour in Piety Doctrine and Authority both being Bishops of famous Churches and Ephesus where Timothy Govern'd rather a Mother-Church than Athens and that it was the General Custom of the Primitive Church for Bishops to call one another Brethren But this is a meer Fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter For in respect of Age he might have called him Son though in many other things he had been his Superiour seeing we find more than a thousand years after that time when Christian Simplicity and Humility were much rarer in the World that Ioseph Patriarch of Constantinople flatly refused the Emperour thereof whose almost desperate Affairs in that Conjuncture required as great Complyance with the Latin Church as Conscience could possibly permit to prostitute himself to the Bishop of Rome by giving him the usual Adorations of the occidental Church at that time and plainly told him that if Eugenius the 4th by whose Influence the Councel of Florence was celebrated which was first assembled at Ferrara were a man much elder than himself he would call him Father if but of equal years he would term him Brother if much younger he would style him Son without the â—east mention of his pretended Title of Holiness And this was all the Compellation and Obeysance could be obtained from that peremptory Patriarch It were also desireable That all our Bishops took Place among themselves according to their Age excepting the Metropolitan or Primate who is constant Praeses of that Sacred Colledge and who usually in the Primitive Church was eminent above the rest not only in all laudible Qualifications but also in respect of Age. For in doing so they would not only imitate the Sons of that great Patriarch Iacob but they would shew themselves humbly obsequious to many ancient Canons which appoint the Precedency of Bishops among themselves to be at least conform to the Aera of their present Dignity of which we shall give an account at the end of this Article it being a most indecent Spectacle and that which in the City of Sparta would have appear'd a very ridiculous Pageantry to see a Reverend old man treading upon the Heels of one who might have been his Grand-child and yet of that same Order with himself But whether young