to keep the wound of Contrition bleeding they unfold the circumstances of their Transgressions and endeavour to leave nothing which may be heavy against themselves Yet do what they can they are still fearful lest herein also they do not that which they ought and might Come to Prayer their coldnesse taketh all heart and courage from them with fasting albeit their Flesh should be withered and their Blood clean dryed up would they ever the lesse object What is this to David's humiliation Wherein notwithstanding there was not any thing more than necessary In works of Charity and Alms-deed It is not all the World can perswade them they did ever reach the poor bounty of the Widdow's two Mites or by many millions of Leagues come near to the mark which Cornelius touched so farr they are off from the proud surmise of any Penitential Supererrogation in miserable wretched Wormes of the Earth Notwithstanding for as much as they wrong themselves with over-rigorous and extreme Exactions by means whereof they fall sometimes into such Perplexities as can hardly be allayed It hath therefore pleased Almighty God in tender commiseration over these imbecillities of men to ordain for their Spiritual and Ghostly comfort consecrated Persons which by Sentence of Power and Authority given from above may as it were out of his very mouth ascertain timerous and doubtful mindes in their own particular ease them of all their scrupulosities leave them settled in Peace and satisfied touching the Mercy of God towards them To use the benefit of this help for the better satisfaction in such cases is so natural that it can be forbidden no man but yet not so necessary that all men should be in case to need it They me of the two the happier therefore that can content and satisfie themselves by judging discreetly what they perform and soundly what God doth require of them For having that which is most material the substance of Penitency rightly bred touching signes and tokens thereof we may affirm that they do boldly which imagine for every offence a certain proportionable degree in the Passions and Griefs of Minde whereunto whosoever aspireth not repenteth in vain That to frustrate mens Confession and Considerations of Sinne except every Circumstance which may aggravate the same be unript and laid in the Ballance is a mercilesse extremity although it be true that as near as we can such Wounds must be searched to the very bottom Last of all to set down the like stint and to shut up the doors of Mercy against Penitents which come short thereof in the devotion of their Prayers in the continuance of their Falls in the largeness and bounty of their Almes or in the course of any other such like Duties is more than God himself hath thought meet and consequently more than mortal men should presume to do That which God doth chiefly respect in mens penitency is their Hearts The Heart is it which maketh Repentance sincere Sincerity that which findeth favour in God's sight and the favour of God that which supplyeth by Gracious acceptation whatsoever may seem defective in the faithful hearty and true Offices of his Servants Take it saith Chrysostome upon my credit Such is God's merciful inclination towards men that repentance offered with a single and sincere minde he never refuseth no not although we be come to the very top of Iniquity If there be a will and desire to return he receiveth imbraceth and omitteth nothing which may restore us to former happiness yea that which is yet above all the rest albeit we cannot in the duty of satisfying him attain what we ought and would but come farre behinde our mark he taketh neverthelesse in good worth that little which we doe be it never so mean we lose not our labour therein The least and lowest step of Repentance in Saint Chrysostome's Judgement severeth and setteth us above them that perish in their Sinne I therefore will end with Saint Augustine's Conclusion Lord in thy Booke and Volume of Life all shall be written as well the Least of thy Saints as the Chiefest Let not therefore the Unperfect fear Let them onely proceed and go forward OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK VII Their Sixth Assertion That there ought not to be in the Church Bishops indued with such Authority and Honour as ours are The Matter contained in this Seventh Book 1. THe state of Bishops although sometime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seems to please God yet by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author 2. What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong unto his office as he is a Bishop 3. In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority and in is the first thing condemned their superiority over other Ministers what kinde of superiority in Ministers it â—â— which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful 4. From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops 5. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint 6. What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had 7. After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them 8. How far the power of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of territory or local compass 9. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius 10. In what respect Episcopal Regiment is gainsaid by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day 11. Their arguments in disgrace of Regiment by Bishops as being a meer invention of man and not found in Scripture answered 12. Their arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church 13. The fore-alleadged Arguments answered 14. An answer unto those things which are objected concerning the difference between that Power which Bishops now have and that which ancient Bishops had more then other Presbyters 15. Concerning the civil Power and Authority which our Bishops have 16. The Arguments answered whereby they would prove that the Law of God and the judgement of the best in all ages condemneth the ruling superiority of our Minister over another 17. The second malicious thing wherein the state of Bishops suffereth oblaquy is their Honour 18. What good doth publickly grow from the Prelacy 19. What kinds of Honor be due unto Bishops 20. Honor in Title Place Ornament Attendance and Priviledge 21. Honor by endowment with Lands and Livings 22. That of Ecclessiastical Goods and consequently of the Lands and Livings which Bishops enjoy the propriety belongs unto God alone 23. That Ecclesiastical persons are receivers of Gods Rents and that the honour of Prelates is to be thereof his chief Receivers not without liberty from him granted of converting the same unto their own use even in large manner 24. That for their unworthiness to deprive both them and their
calling been always so eminent above the rest in the same Church And what need we to seek far for proofs that the Apostles who began this order of Regiment by Bishops did it not but by divine instinct when without such direction things of far less weight and moment they attemdted not Paul and Barnabas did not open their mouths to the Gentiles till the Spirit had said Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them The Eunuch by Philip was neither baptized nor instructed before the Angel of God was sent to give him notice that so it pleased the most High In Asia Paul and the rest were silent because the Spirit forbad them to speak When they intended to have seen Bythinia they stayed their journey the spirit not giving them leave to go Before Timothy was imployed in those Episcopal affairs of the Church about which the Apostle St. Paul used him the Holy Ghost gave special charge for his Ordination and prophetical intelligence more then once what success the same would have And shall we think that Iames was made Bishop of Ierusalem Evodius Bishop of the Church of Antioch the Angels in the Churches of Asia Bishops that Bishops every where were appointed to take away factions contentions and Schisms without some like divine instigation and direction of the Holy Ghost Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory That if any thing in the Churches Government surely the first institution of Bishops was from Heaven was even of God the Holy Ghost was the Author of it VI. A Bishops saith St. Augustine is a Presbyter's Superior but the question is now wherein that superiority did consist The Bishops pre-eminence we say therefore was twofold First he excelled in latitude of the power of Order secondly in that kind of power which belongeth unto Iurisdiction Priests in the law had authority and power to do greater things then Levites the high Priest greater then inferiour Priests might do therefore Levites were beneath Priests and Priests inferior to the High Priest by reason of the very degree of dignity and of worthiness in the nature of those functions which they did execute and not only for that the one had power to command and controul the other In like sort Presbyters having a weightier and a worthier charge then Deacons had the Deacon was in this sort the Presbyters inferior and where we say that a Bishop was likewise ever accompted a Presbyters superior even according unto his very power of Order we must of necessity declare what principal duties belonging unto that kind of power a Bishop might perform and not a Presbyter The custom of the primitive Church in consecrating holy Virgins and Widows unto the service of God and his Church is a thing not obscure but easie to be known both by that which St. Paul himself concerning them hath and by the latter consonant evidence of other mens writings Now a part of the pre-eminence which Bishops had in their power of Order was that by them onely such were consecrated Again the power of ordaining both Deacons and Presbyters the power to give the power of order unto others this also hath been always peculiar unto Bishops It hath not been heard of that inferiour presbyters were ever authorized to ordein And concerning Ordination so great force and dignity it hath that whereas Presbyters by such power as they have received for Administration of the Sacraments are able only to beget Children unto God Bishops having power to Ordain do by vertue thereof create Fathers to the people of God as Epiphanius fitly disputeth There are which hold that between a Bishop and a Presbyter touching power of Order there is no difference The reason of which conceipt is for that they see Presbyters no less then Bishops authorized to offer up the prayers of the Church to Preach the Gospel to Baptize to Administer the holy Eucharist but they considered not with all as they should that the Presbyters authority to do these things is derived from the Bishops which doth ordain him thereunto so that even in those things which are common unto both yet the power of the one is as it were a certain light borrowed from the others lamp The Apostles being Bishops at large â—deined every where Presbyters Titus and Timothy having received Episcopal power as Apostolique Embassadors or Legates the one in Greece the other in Ephesus they both did by vertue thereof likewise ordein throughout all Churches Deacons and Presbyters within the circuits allotted unto them As for Bishops by restraint their power this way incommunicable unto Presbyters which of the ancients do not acknowledge I make not Confirmation any part of that power which hath always belonged only unto Bishops because in some places the custom was that Presbyters might also confirm in the absence of a Bishop albeit for the most part none but onely Bishops were thereof the allowed Ministers Here it will be perhaps Objected that the power of Ordination it self was not every where peculiar and proper unto Bishops as may be seen by 2 Council of Carthage which sheweth their Churches Order to have been That Presbyters should together with the Bishop lay hands upon the ordained But the answer hereunto is easie For doth it hereupon follow that the power of Ordination was not principally and originally in the Bishop Our Saviour hath said unto his Apostles With me ye shall sit and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel yet we know that to him alone it belongeth to judge the World and that to him all judgement is given With us even at this day Presbyters are licensed to do as much as that Council speaketh of if any be present Yet will not any man thereby conclude that in this Church others than Bishops are allowed to ordain The association of Presbyters is no sufficient proof that the power of Ordination is in them but rather that it never was in them we may hereby understand for that no man is able to shew either Deacon or Presbyter ordained by Presbyters only and his Ordination accounted lawful in any ancient part of the Church every where examples being found both of Deacons and of Presbyters ordained by Bishops alone oftentimes neither ever in that respect thought unsufficient Touching that other chiefty which is of Jurisdiction amongst the Jews he which was highest through the worthiness of peculiar duties incident into his function in the legal service of God did bear alwaies in Ecclesiastical jurisdiction the chiefest sway As long as the glory of the Temple of God did last there were in it sundry orders of men consecrated unto the service thereof one sort of them inferior unto another in dignity and degree the Nathiners subordinate unto the Levites the Levites unto the Priests the rest of the Priests to those twenty four which were chief Priests and they all to the High Priest If any
man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of power and not in this latter of jurisdiction are not the words of the Law manifest which make Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest chief Captain of the Levites and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed Again at the commandment of Aaron and his Sons are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge belonging unto the Gersonites being inferiour Priests as Aaron and his Sons were High Priests Did not Iehoshaphat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Ierusalem Priests saith Josephus worship God continually and the eldest of the stock are governours over the rest He doth sacrifice unto God before others he hath care of the Laws judgeth controversies correcteth offenders and whosoever obeyeth him not is convict of impiety against God But unto this they answer That the reason thereof was because the High-Priest did prefigure Christ and represent to the people that chiefty of our Saviour which was to come so that Christ being now come there is no cause why such preheminence should be given unto any one Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellions spirits that they all seek to shroud themselves under it Tell the Anabaptist which holdeth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man that God himself did allow his people to make wars they have their answer round and ready Those ancient Wars were figures of the spiritual Wars of Christ. Tell the Barrowist what sway David and others the Kings of Israel did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs the same answer again serveth namely That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ. Tell the Martinist of the High-Priests great authority and jurisdiction amongst the Jews what other thing doth serve this Turn but the self-same shift By the power of the High-Priest the universal supreme Authority of our Lord Iesus Christ was shadowed The thing is true that indeed High-Priests were figures of Christ yet this was in things belonging unto their power of Order they figured Christ by entring into the holy place by offering for the sins of all the people once a year and by other the like duties But that to govern and to maintain order amongst those that were subject to them is an office figurative and abrogated by Christs coming in the Ministry that their exercise of jurisdiction was figurative yea figurative in such sort that it had no other cause of being instituted but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them this Article is such as must be confirmed if any way by miracle otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men why the High-Priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge then in being whatsoever he might be besides St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as was given to the High-Priest among the Jews and to urge the law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it St. Ierom likewise thought it an argument sufficient to ground the Authority of Bishops upon To the end saith he we may understand Apostolical traditions to have been taken from the Old Testament that which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves In the Office of a Bishop Ignatius observeth these two functions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the one such is the prehemince of a Bishop that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God committed originally unto him so that otherwise than by his Ordination and by authority received from him others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of Gods Church And touching the other part of their sacred Function wherein the power of their jurisdiction doth appear first how the Apostles themselves and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rule and jurisdiction over Presbyters no man is ignorant And had not Christian Bishops afterward the like power Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being ready by blessed martyrdom to end his life writeth unto his Presbyters the Pastors under him in this sort O◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the death of Fabian Bishop of Rome there growing some trouble about the receiving of such persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution and did now repent their fall the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof signifying That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things Much we read of extraodinary fasting usually in the Church And in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the chiefty of Bishops The custome is saith Tertullian that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast Yea it is not a matter left to our own free choice whether Bishops shall rule or no but the will of our Lord and Saviour is saith Cyprian that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops An Argument it is of the Bishops high preheminence rule and government over all the rest of the Clergy even that the Sword of persecution did strike especially always at the Bishop as at the Head the rest by reason of their lower estate being more secure as the self-same Cyprian noteth the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe when himself then Bishop was driven into exile argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them By these letters saith he I both exhort and COMMAND that ye whose presence there is not envied at nor so much beset with dangers supply my room in doing those things which the exercise of Religion doth require Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in Gods Clergy if they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law the Bishop they compare unto Aaron the High Priest if they compare the one with the Apostles the other they compare although in a lower proportion sometime to Christ and sometime to God himself evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling authority and power above other Presbyters Ignatius comparing Bishops with Deacons and with such Ministers of the word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters and had no Authority over Presbyters What is saith he the Bishop but one which hath all principality and power over all so far forth as man may have it being to his power a follower even of Gods own Christ Mr. Calvin himself
will grow in Churches even as many Schisms as there are Persons which have authority Touching Chrysostom to shew that by him there was also acknowledged a ruling superiority of Bishops over Presbyters both then usual and in no respect unlawful what need we alledge his Words and Sentences when the History of his own Episcopal actions in that very kinde is till this day extant for all men to read that will For St. Chrysostom of a Presbyter in Antioch grew to be afterwards Bishop of Constantinople and in process of time when the Emperors heavy displeasure had through the practise of a powerful faction against him effected his banishment Innocent the Bishop of Rome understanding thereof wrote his Letters unto the Clergy of that Church That no Successour ought to be chosen in Chrysostom's room Nec ejus clerum alii parere Pontisici Nor his Clergy OBEY any other Bishop than him A fond kinde of speech if so be there had been as then in Bishops no ruling superiority over Presbyters When two of Chrysostom's Presbyters had joyned themselves to the faction of his mortal enemy Theophilus Patriarch in the Church of Alexandria the same Theophilus and other Bishops which were of his Conventicle having sent those two amongst others to cite Chrysostom their lawful Bishop and to bring him into Publick judgement he taketh against this one thing special exception as being contrary to all order That those Presbyters should come as Messengers and call him to Judgment who were a part of that Clergy whereof himself was Ruler and Judge So that Bishops to have had in those times a ruling superiority over Presbyters neither could Ierom nor Chrysostom be ignorant and therefore hereupon it were superfluous that we should any longer stand VII Touching the next point How Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them It is by Zonaras somewhat plainly and at large declared that the Bishop had his Seat on high in the Church above the residue which were present that a number of Presbyters did alwayes there assist him and that in the oversight of the Poeple those Presbyters were after a sort the Bishops Coadjutors The Bishops and Presbyters who together with him governed the Church are for the most part by Ignatius joyntly mentioned In the Epistle to them of Trallis he saith of Presbyters that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Counsellors and Assistants of the Bishop and concludeth in the end He that should disobey these were a plain Atheâ—t and an irreligious Person and one that did set Christ himself and his own Ordinances at nought Which Orders making Presbyters or Priests the Bishop's Assistants doth not import that they were of equal authority with him but rather so adjoyned that they also were subject as hath been proved In the Writings of Saint Cyprian nothing is more usual than to make mention of the Colledge of Presbyters subject unto the Bishop although in handling the common affairs of the Church they assisted him But of all other places which open the antient order of Episcopal Presbyters the most clear is that Epistle of Cyprian unto Cernelius concerning certain Novatian Heretiques received again upon their conversion into the unity of the Church After that Urbanus and Sidonius Confessors had come and signified unto our Presbyters that Maximus a Consessor and Presbyter did together with them desire to return into the Church it seemed meet to hear from their own mouths and confessions that which by message they had delivered When they were come and had been called to account by the Presbyters touching those things they had committed Their answer was That they had been deceived and did request that such things as there they were charged with might be forgotten It being brought unto me what was done I took order that the Presbytery might be assembled There were also present five Bishops that upon setled advice it might be with consent of all determined what should be done about their Persons Thus farr St. Cyprian Wherein it may be peradventure demanded Whether he and other Bishops did thus proceed with advice of their Presbyters in all such Publick affairs or the Church as being thereunto bound by Ecclesiastical Canons or else that they voluntarily so did becuase they judged it in discretion as then most convenient Surely the words of Cyprian are plain that of his own accord he chose this way of proceeding Unto that saith he which Donatus and Fortunatus and Novatus and Gordius our Compresbyters have written I could by my self alone make no answer forasmuch as at the very first entrance into my Bishoprick I resolutely determined not to do any thing of mine own private judgment without your counsel and the peoples consent The reason whereof he rendreth in the same Epistle saying When by the grace of God my self shall come unto you for St. Cyprian was now in exile of things which either have been or must to done we will consider sicut honor mutous poseit as the Law of courtesie which one doth owe to another of us requireth And at this very mark doth St. Ierom evermore aim in telling Bishops that Presbyters were at the first their Equals that in some Churches for a long time no Bishop was made but only such as the Presbyters did chuse out amongst themselves and therefore no cause why the Bishop should disdain to consult with them and in weighty affairs of the Church to use their advice sometime to countenance their own Actions or to repress the boldness of proud and insolent Spirits that which Bishops had in themselves sufficient authority and power to have done notwithstanding they would not do alone but craved therein the aid and assistance of other Bishops as in the case of those Novatian Hereticks before alledged Cyprian himself did And in Cyprian we finde of others the like practise Ragatian a Bishop having been used contumelously by a Deacon of his own Church wrote thereof his complaint unto Cyprian and other Bishops In which case their answer was That although in his own cause he did of humility rather shew his grievance than himself take revenge which by the rigor of his Apostolical Office and the authority of his Chair he might have presently done without any further delay Yet if the Party should do again as before their Judgements were Fungaris circa â—um potestate honoris tui cum vel deponas vel abstineas Use on him that power which the honour of thy Place giveth thee either to depose him or exclude him from access unto holy things The Bishop for his assistance and ease had under him to guide and direct Deacons in their charge his Archdeacon so termed in respect of care over Deacons albeit himself were not Deacon but Presbyter For the guidance of Presbyters in their Function the Bishop had likewise under him one of the self-same Order with them but above them an authority one whom
a Presbyter or of a Deacon without the Bishop of that City whereunto the Chorepiscopus and his Territory also is subject The same Synod appointeth likewise that those Chorepiscopi shall be made by none but the Bishop of that City under which they are Much might hereunto be added if it were further needful to prove that the local compass of a Bishop's authority and power was never so straightly lifted as some men would have the World to imagine But to go forward degrees of these are and have been of old even amongst Bishops also themselves One sort of Bishops being Superiours unto Presbyters only another sort having preheminence also above Bishops It cometh here to be considered in what respect inequality of Bishops was thought at the first a thing expedient for the Church and what odds there hath been between them by how much the power of one hath been larger higher and greater then of another Touching the causes for which it hath been esteâ—med meet that Bishops themselves should not every way be Equals they are the same for which the wisdom both of God and Man hath evermore approved it as most requisite that where many Governours must of necessity concurr for the ordering of the same affairs of what nature soever they be one should have some kinde of sway or stroke more than all the residue For where number is there must be order or else of force there will be confusion Let there be divers Agents of whom each hath his private inducements with resolute puâ—pose to follow them as each may have unless in this case some had preheminence above the rest a Chance it were if ever any thing should be either began proceeded in or brought unto any Conclusion by them Deliberations and Counsels would seldom go forward their Meetings would alwayes be in danger to break up with jarrs and contradictions In an Army a number of Captains all of equal power without some higher to over-sway them what good would they do In all Nations where a number are to draw any one way there must be some one principal Mover Let the practise of our very Adversaries themselves herein be considereâ— Are the Presbyters able to determine of Church-affairs unless their Pastors do strike the chiefest stroke and have power above the rest Can their Pastoral Synod do any thing unless they have some President amongst them In Synods they are forced to give one Pastor preheminence and superiority above the rest But they answer That he who being a Pastor according to the Order of their Discipline is for the time some little deal mightier than his Brethren doth not continue so longer than only during the Synod Which Answer serveth not to help them out of the bryars for by their practise they confirm our Principle touching the necessity of one man's preheminence wheresoever a concurrency of many is required unto any one solemn action this Nature teacheth and this they cannot chuse but acknowledge As for the change of his Person to whom they give this preheminence if they think it expedient to make for every Synod a new Superiour there is no Law of God which bindeth them so to do neither any that telleth them that they might suffer one and the same man being made President even to continue so during life and to leave his preheminence unto his Successours after him as by the antient Order of the Church Archbishops Presidents amongst Bishops have used to do The ground therefore of their preheminence above Bishops is the necessity of often concurrency of many Bishops about the Publick affairs of the Church as consecrations of Bishops consultations of remedy of general disorders audience judicial when the actions of any Bishop should be called in question or Appeals are made from his Sentence by such as think themselves wronged These and the like affairs usually requiring that many Bishops should orderly assemble begin and conclude somewhat it hath seemed in the eyes of Reverend Antiquity a thing most requisite that the Church should not only have Bishops but even amongst Bishops some to be in Authority chiefest Unto which purpose the very state of the whole World immediately before Christianity took place doth seem by the special providence of God to have been prepared For we must know that the Countrys where the Gospel was first planted were for the most part subject to the Roman Empire The Romans use was commonly when by warr they had subdued Foreign Nations to make them Provinces that is to place over them Roman Governors such as might order them according to the Laws and Customs of Rome And to the end that all things might be the more easily and orderly done a whole Country being divided into sundry parts there was in each part some one City whereinto they about did resort for Justice Every such part was termed a Diocess Howbeit the name Diocess is sometime so generally taken that it containeth not only mo such parts of a Province but even moe Provinces also than one as the Diocess of Asia contained eight the Diocess of Africa seven Touching Diocesses according unto a stricter sense whereby they are taken for a part of a Province the words of Livy do plainly shew what Orders the Romans did observe in them For at what time they had brought the Macedonians into subjection the Roman Governor by order from the Senat of Rome gave charge that Macedonia should be divided into four Regions or Diocesses Capita Regionum ubi concilia fierent primae Sedis Amphipolim secundae Thessalonicen tertiae Pellam quartae Pelagoniam fecit Eo Concilia sua cujusque Regionis indici pecuniam conferri ibi Magistratus creari jussit This being before the dayes of the Emperors by their appointment Thessalonica was afterwards the chiefest and in it the highest Governor of Macedonia had his Seat Whereupon the other three Dioceses were in that respect inferiour unto it as Daughters unto a Mother City for not unto every Town of Justice was that Title given but was peculiar unto those Cities wherein principal Courts were kept Thus in Macedonia the Mother City was Thessalonica In Asia Ephesus in Africa Carthage For so Iustinian in his time made it The Governors Officers and Inhabitants of those Mother-Cities were termed for difference-sake Metropolites that is to say Mother-city-men than which nothing could possibly have been devised more fit to suit with the nature of that form of Spiritual Regiment under which afterwards the Church should live Wherefore if the Prophet saw cause to acknowledge unto the Lord that the light of his gracious providence did shine no where more apparently to the eye than in preparing the Land of Canaan to be a Receptacle for that Church which was of old Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it thou madest room for it and when it had taken root it filled the Land How much more ought we to
much concerning that Local Compass which was antiently set out to Bishops within the bounds and limits whereof we finde that they did accordingly exercise that Episcopal Authority and power which they had over the Church of Christ. IX The first whom we read to have bent themselves against the Superiority of Bishops were Aerius and his Followers Aerius seeking to be made a Bishop could not brook that Eustathius was thereunto preferred before him Whereas therefore he saw himself unable to rise to that greatness which his ambitious pride did affect his way of revenge was to try what Wit being sharpned with envy and malice could do in raising a new seditious opinion that the Superiority which Bishops had was a thing which they should not have that a Bishop might not ordain and that a Bishop ought not any way to be distinguished from a Presbyter For so doth St. Augustin deliver the opinion of Aerius Epiphanius not so plainly nor so directly but after a more Rhetorical sort His Speech was rather furious than convenient for man to use What is saith he a Bishop more than a Presbyter The one doth differ from the other nothing For their Order as one their Honour one one their Dignity A Bishop imposeth his hands so doth a Presbyter A Bishop baptizeth the like doth a Presbyter The Bishop is a Minister of Divine Service a Presbyter is the same The Bishop sitteth as a Iudge in a Throne even the Presbyter fitteth also A Presbyter therefore doing thus far the self-same thing which a Bishop did it was by Aerius inforced that they ought not in any thing to differ Are we to think Aerius had wrong in being judged an Heretick for holding this opinion Surely if Heresie be an error falsely fathered upon Scriptures but indeed repugnant to the truth of the Word of God and by the consent of the universal Church in the Councils or in her contrary uniform practice throughout the whole world declared to be such and the opinion of Aerius in this point be a plain error of that nature there is no remedy but Aerius so schismatically and stifly maintaining it must even stand where Epiphanius and Augustin have placed him An error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God is held by them whosoever they be that stand in defence of any Conclusion drawn erroneously out of Scripture and untruely thereon fathered The opinion of Aerius therefore being falsely collected out of Scripture must needs be acknowledged an error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God His opinion was that there ought not to be any difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter His grounds and reasons for this Opinion were Sentences of Scripture Under pretence of which Sentences whereby it seemed that Bishops and Presbyters at the first did not differ it was concluded by Aerius that the Church did ill in permitting any difference to be made The Answer which Epiphanius maketh unto some part of the proofs by Aerius alleged was not greatly studied or labored for through a contempt of so base an error for this himself did perceive and profess yieldeth he thereof expresly this reason Men that have wit do evidently see that all this is meer foolishness But how vain and ridiculous soever his opinion seemed unto wise men with it Aerius deceived many for which cause somewhat was convenient to be said against it And in that very extemporal slightness which Epiphanius there useth albeit the answer made to Aerius be in part but raw yet ought not hereby the Truth to finde any less favour than in other Causes it doth where we do not therefore judge Heresie to have the better because now and then it alledgeth that for it self which Defenders of Truth do not always so fully answer Let it therefore suffice that Aerius did bring nothing unanswerable The weak Solutions which the one doth give are to us no prejudice against the Cause as long as the others oppositions are of no greater strength and validity Did not Aerius trow you deserve to be esteemed as a new Apollos mighty and powerful in the Word which could for maintenance of his Cause bring forth so plain Divine Authorities to prove by the Apostles own Writings that Bishops ought not in any thing to differ from other Presbyters For example where it is said that Presbyters made Timothy Bishop is it not clear that a Bishop should not differ from a Presbyter by having power of Ordination Again if a Bishop might by Order be distinguished from a Presbyter would the Apostle have given as he doth unto Presbyters the Title of Bishops These were the invincible demonstrations wherewith Aerius did so fiercely assault Bishops But the Sentence of Aerius perhaps was only that the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter hath grown by the order and custom of the Church the Word of God not appointing that any such difference should be Well let Aerius then finde the favour to have his Sentence so construed yet his fault in condemning the order of the Church his not submitting himself unto that Order the Schism which he caused in the Church about it who can excuse No the truth is that these things did even necessarily ensue by force of the very opinion which he and his followers did hold His conclusion was That there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop His proofs those Scripture-sentences which make mention of Bishops and Presbyters without any such distinction or difference So that if between his Conclusion and the Proofs whereby he laboured to strengthen the same there be any shew of coherence at all we must of necessity confess that when Aerius did plead There is by the Word of God no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop his meaning was not only that the Word of God it self appointeth nor but that it enforceth on us the duty of not appointing nor allowing that any such difference should be made X. And of the self-same minde are the Enemies of Government by Bishops even at this present day They hold as Aerius did that if Christ and his Apostles were obeyed a Bishop should not be permitted to ordain that between a Presbyter and a Bishop the Word of God alloweth not any inequality or difference to be made that their Order their Authority their Power ought to be one that it is but by usurpation and corruption that the one sort are suffered to have rule of the other or to be any way superiour unto them Which opinion having now so many Defenders shall never be able while the World doth stand to finde in some believing Antiquity as much as one which hath given it countenance or born any friendly affection towards it Touching these men therefore whose desire is to have all equal three ways there are whereby they usually oppugn the received Order of the Church of Christ. First by disgracing the inequality of Pastors as a new
and meer Human invention a thing which was never drawn our of Scripture where all Pastors are found they say to have one and the same power both of Order and Jurisdiction Secondly by gathering together the differences between that power which we give to Bishops and that which was given them of old in the Church So that albeit even the antient took more than was warrantable yet so farr they swerved not as ours have done Thirdly by endeavouring to prove that the Scripture directly forbiddeth and that the judgement of the wisest the holyest the best in all Ages condemneth utterly the inequality which we allow XI That inequality of Pastors is a meer Humane invention a thing not found in the Word of God they prove thus 1. All the places of Scripture where the word Bishop is used or any other derived of that name signifie an Oversight in respect of some particular Congregation only and never in regard of Pastors committed unto his Oversight For which cause the names of Bishops and Presbyters or Pastoral Elders are used indifferently to signifie one and the self-same thing Which so indifferent and common use of these words for one and the self-same office so constantly and perpetually in all places declareth that the word Bishop in the Apostles Writing importeth not a Pastor of higher Power and Authoritie over other Pastors 2. All Pastors are called to their Office by the same means of proceeding the Scripture maketh no difference in the manner of their Tryal Election Ordination which proveth their Office and Power to be by Scripture all one 3. The Apostles were all of equal power and all Pastors do alike succeed the Apostles in their Ministery and Power the Commission and Authority whereby they succeed bring in Scripture but one and the same that was committed to the Apostles without any difference of committing to one Pastor more or to another less 4. The power of the Censures and Keyes of the Church and of Ordaining and ordering Ministers in which two points especially this Superiority is challenged is not committed to any one Pastor of the Church more than to another but the same is committed as a thing to be carried equally in the guidance of the Church Whereby it appeareth that Scripture maketh all Pastors not only in the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments but also in all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and Authority equal 5. The Council of Nice doth attribute this difference not unto any Ordination of God but to an antient Custom used in former times which judgement is also followed afterward by other Councils Concil Antioch cap. 9. 6. Upon these Premises their summary collection and conclusion is That the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven and of God Joh. I. 23. that if they be of God and from Heaven then are they set down in the Word of God that if they be not in the Word of God as by the premises it doth appear they say that our kinds of Bishops are not it followeth they are invented by the brain of men and are of the Earth and that consequently they can do no good in the Church of Christ but harm Our Answer hereunto is first that their proofs are unavailable to shew that Scripture affordeth no evidence for the inequality of Pastors Secondly That albeit the Scripture did no way insinuate the same to be God's Ordinance and the Apostles to have brought it in albeit the Church were acknowledged by all men to have been the first beginner thereof a long time after the Apostles were gone yet is not the Authority of Bishops hereby disannulled it is not hereby proved unfit or unprofitable for the Church 1. That the Word of God doth acknowledge no inequality of power amongst Pastors of the Church neither doth it appear by the signification of this word Bishop nor by the indifferent use thereof For concerning signification first it is clearly untrue that no other thing is thereby signified but only an oversight in respect of a particular Church and Congregation For I beseech you of what Parish or particular Congregation was Matthias Bishop His Office Scripture doth term Episcopal which being no other than was common unto all the Apostles of Christ forasmuch as in that number there is not any to whom the oversight of many Pastors did not belong by force and vertue of that Office it followeth that the very Word doth sometimes even in Scripture signifie oversight such as includeth charge over Pastors themselves And if we look to the use of the Word being applyed with reference unto some one Church as Ephesus Philippi and such like albeit the Guides of those Churches be interchangeably in Scripture termed sometime Bishops sometime Presbyters to signifie men having oversight and charge without relation at all unto other than the Christian Laity alone yet this doth not hinder but that Scripture may in some place have other names whereby certain of those Presbyters or Bishops are noted to have the oversight and charge of Pastors as out of all peradventure they had whom St. Iohn doth intitle Angels 2. As for those things which the Apostle hath set down concerning Tryal Election and Ordination of Pastors that he maketh no difference in the manner of their Calling this also is but a silly Argument to prove their Office and their Power equal by the Scripture The form of admitting each sort unto their Offices needed no particular Instruction There was no fear but that such matters of course would easily enough be observed The Apostle therefore toucheth those things wherein Judgement Wisdom and Conscience is required he carefully admonisheth of what quality Ecclesiastical Persons should be that their dealing might not be scandalous in the Church And forasmuch as those things are general we see that of Deacons there are delivered in a manner the self-same Precepts which are given concerning Pastors so farr as concerneth their Tryal Election and Ordination Yet who doth hereby collect that Scripture maketh Deacons and Pastors equal If notwithstanding it be yet demanded Wherefore he which teatcheth what kinde of Persons Deacons and Presbyters should be hath nothing in particular about the quality of chief Presbyters whom we call Bishops I answer briefly that there it was no fit place for any such discourse to be made inasmuch as the Apostle wrote unto Timothy and Titus who having by Commission Episcopal Authority were to exercise the same in ordaining not Bishops the Apostles themselves yet living and retaining that power in their own hands but Presbyters such as the Apostles at the first did create throughout all Churches Bishops by restraint only Iames at Ierusalem excepted were not yet in being 3. About equality amongst the Apostles there is by us no Controversie moved If in the rooms of the Apostles which were of equal Authority all Pastors do by Scripture succeed alike where shall we finde a Commission in Scripture which they speak
the most unfit to judge who bend themselves purposely against whatsoever the Church useth except it pleasie themselves to give it the grace and countenance of their favourable approbation which they willingly do not yield unto any part of Church-Policy in the forehead whereof there is not the mark of that new devised stamp But howsoever men like or dislike whether they judge things necessary or needless in the House of God a Conscience they should have touching that which they boldly affirm or deny 1. In the Primitive Church no Bishops no Pastor having power over other Pastors but all Equals every man Supreme Commander and Ruler within the Kingdom of his own Congregation or Parish The Bishops that are spoken of in the time of the Primitive Church all such as Persons or Rectors of Parishes are with in It thus it have been in the prime of the Church the question is how farr they will have that prime to extend and where the latter spring of that neâ—-supposed disorder to begin That Primitive Church wherein they hold that amongst the Fathers all which had Pastoral charge were Equal they must of necessity so farr enlarge as to contain some hundred of years because for proof hereof they alledge boldly and confidently Saint Cyprian who suffered Martyrdom about two hundred and threescore years after our blessed Lord's Incarnation A Bishop they say such as Cyprian doth speak of had only a Church or Congregation such as they Ministers and Pastors with us which are appointed unto several Towns Every Bishop in Cyprian's time was Pastor of one only Congregation assembled in one place to be taught of one man A thing impertiment although it were true For the Question is about Personal inequality amongst Governors of the Church Now to shew there was no such thing in the Church at such time as Cyprian lived what bring they forth Forsooth that Bishops had then but a small circuit of place for the exercise of their Authority Be it supposed that no one Bishop had more than one only Town to govern one only Congregation to rule Doth it by Cyprian appear that in any such Town of Congregation being under the cure and charge of someone Bishops there were not besides that one Bishop others also Ministers of the Word and Sacraments yet subject to the power of the same Bishop If this appear not how can Cyprian be alledged for a Witness that in those times there were no Bishops which did differ from other Ministers as being above them in degree of Ecclesiastical power But a gross and a palpable untruth it is That Bishops with Cyprian were as Ministers are with us in Parish-Churches and that each of them did guide some Parish without any other Pastors under him St. Cyprian's own Person may serve for a manifest disproof hereof Pomius being Deacon under Cyprian noteth that his admirable vertues caused him to be Bishop with the soonest which advancement therefore himself endeavoured for a while to avoid It seemed in his own eyes too soon for him to take the title of so great Honor in regard whereof a Bishop is tenned Pourisex Sacerdos Antistes Dei Yet such was his quality that whereas others did hardly perform that duty whereunto the Discipline of their Order togetherwith the Religion of the Oath they took at their entrance into the Office even constrained them him the Chair did not make but receive such a one as behoved that a Bishop should be But soon after followed that Prescription whereby being driven into exile and continuing in that estate for the space of some two years he ceased not by Letters to deal with his Clergy and to direct them about the Publick affairs of the Church They unto whom those Epistles were written he commonly entituleth the Presbyters and Deacons of that Church If any man doubt whether those Presbyters of Carthage were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments or no let him consider but that one only place of Cyprian where he giveth them this careful advice how to deal with circumspection in the perilous times of the Church that neither they which were for the truths sake imprisoned might want those Ghostly comforts which they ought to have nor the Church by ministring the same unto them incurr unnecessary danger and peril In which Epistle it doth expresly appear that the Presbyters of whom he speaketh did offer that is to say administer the Eucharist and that many there were of them in the Church of Carthage so as they might have every day change for performance of that duty Nor will any man of sound Judgement I think deny that Cyprian was in Authority and Power above the Clergy of that Church above those Presbyters unto whom he gave direction It is apparently therefore untrue that in Cyprian's time Ministers of the Word and Sacraments were all equal and that no one of them had either Title more excellent than the rest or Authority and Government over the rest Cyprian Bishop of Carthage was clearly Superiour unto all other Ministers there Yea Cyprian was by reason of the Dignity of his See an Archbishop and so consequently Superiour unto Bishops Bishops we say there have been alwayes even as long as the Church of Christ it self hath been The Apostles who planted it did themselves rule as Bishops over it neither could they so well have kept things in order during their own times but that Episcopal Authority was given them from above to exercise far and wice over all other Guides and Pastors of God's Church The Church indeed for a time continued without Bishops by restraint every where established in Christian Cities But shall we thereby conclude that the Church hath no use of them that without them it may stand and flourish No the cause wherefore they were so soon universally appointed was for that it plainly appeared that without them the Church could not have continued long It was by the special Providence of God no doubt so disposed that the evil whereof this did serve for remedy might first be felt and so the reverend Authority of Bishops be made by so much the more effectual when our general experience had taught men what it was for Churches to want them Good Laws are never esteemed so good not acknowledged so necessary as when precedent crimes are as seeds out of which they grow Episcopal Authority was even in a manner sanctified unto the Church of Christ by that little bitter experience which it first had of the pestilent evil of Schismes Again when this very thing was proposed as a remedy yet a more suspicions and fearful acceptance it must needs have found if the self-same provident Wisdom of Almighty God had not also given before-hand sufficient tryal thereof in the Regiment of Ierusalem a Mother-Church which having received the same order even at the first was by it most peaceably governed when other Churches without it had trouble So that by all means the necessary use of Episcopal
Ecclesiastical have been authorized to ordain both and to give them the power of Order in the name of the whole Church Such were the Apostles such was Timothy such was Titus such are Bishops Not that there is between these no difference but that they all agree in preheminence of Place above both Presbyters and Deacons whom they otherwise might not ordain Now whereas hereupon some do inferr that no Ordination can stand but only such as is made by Bishops which have had their Ordination likewise by other Bishops before them till we come to the very Apostles of Christ themselves In which respect it was demanded of Beza at Poissie By what Authority he could administer the holy Sacraments being not thereunto ordained by any other than Calvin or by such as to whom the power of Ordination did not belong according to the antient Orders and Customs of the Church sith Calvin and they who joyned with him in that action were no Bishops And Athanasius maintaineth the fact of Macarius a Presbyter which overthrew the holy Table whereat one Ischyras would have ministred the blessed Sacrament having not been consecrated thereunto by laying on of some Bishops hands according to the Ecclesiastical Canons as also Epiphanius inveigheth sharply against divers for doing the like when they had not Episcopal Ordination To this we answer That there may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow Ordination made without a Bishop The whole Church visible being the true original subject of all power it hath not ordinarily allowed any other than Bishops alone to ordain Howbeit as the ordinary course is ordinarily in all things to be observed so it may be in some cases not unnecessary that we decline from the ordinary wayes Men may be extraordinarily yet allowably two wayes admitted unto Spiritual Functions in the Church One is when God himself doth of himself raise up any whose labour be useth without requiring that men should Authorize them But then he doth ratifie their Calling by manifest signes and tokens himself from Heaven And thus even such as believed not our Saviours teaching did yet acknowledge him a lawful Teacher sent from God Thou art a Teacher sent from God otherwise none could do those things which thou dost Luther did but reasonably therefore in declaring that the Senate of Mulheuse should do well to ask of Muncer From whence he received power to teach who it was that had called him And if his answer were that God had given him his Charge then to require at his hands some evident sign thereof for men's satisfaction because so God is wont when he himself is the Author of any extraordinary Calling Another extraordinary kinde of Vocation is when the exigence of necessity doth constrain to leave the usual wayes of the Church which otherwise we would willingly keep Where the Church must needs have some ordained and neither hath nor can have possibly a Bishop to ordain in case of such necessity the ordinary Institution of God hath given oftentimes and may give place And therefore we are not simply without exception to urge a lineal descent of power from the Apostles by continued succession of Bishops in every effectual Ordination These cases of inevitable necessity excepted none may ordain but only Bishops By the imposition of their hands it is that the Church giveth power of Order both unto Presbyters and Deacons Now when that power so received is once to have any certain Subject whereon it may work and whereunto it is to be tyed here cometh in the Peoples consent and not before The power of Order I may lawfully receive without asking leave of any multitude but that power I cannot exercise upon any one certain People utterly against their wills Neither is there in the Church of England any man by order of Law possessed with Pastoral charge over any Parish but the People in effect do chuse him thereunto For albeit they chuse not by giving every man personally his particular voyce yet can they not say that they have their Pastors violently obtruded upon them in as much as their antient and original interest therein hath been by orderly means derived into the Patron who chuseth for them And if any man be desirous to know how Petrons came to have such interest we are to consider that at the first erection of Churches it seemed but reasonable in the eyes of the whole Christian World to pass that right to them and their Successors on whose soyl and at whose charge the same were founded This all men gladly and willingly did both in honor of so great Piety and for encouragement of many others unto the like who peradventure else would have been as slow to erect Churches or to endow them as we are forward both to spoyl them and to pull them down It s no true assertion therefore in such sort as the pretended Reformers mean it That all Ministers of God's Word ought to be made by consent of many that is to say by the Peoples saffrages that antient Bishops neither did nor might or dain otherwise and that ours do herein usurp a farr greater power than was or then lawfully could have been granted unto Bishops which were of old Furthermore as touching Spiritual Jurisdiction our Bishops they say do that which of all things is most intollerable and which the Antient never did Our Bishops excommunicate and release alone whereas the Censures of the Church neither ought nor were want to be administred otherwise then by consent of many Their meaning here when they speak of Many is not as before it was When they hold that Ministers should be made with consent of many they understand by Many the Multitude or Common People but in requiring that many should evermore joyn with the Bishop in the administration of Church-censures they mean by Many a few Lay-Elders chosen out of the rest of the People to that purpose This they say is ratified by antient Councils by antient Bishops this was practised And the reason hereof as Beza supposeth was Because if the power of Ecclesiastical Censures did belong unto any one there would this great inconvenience follow Ecclesiastical Regiment should be changed into mere Tyranny or else into a Civil Royalty Therefore no one either Bishop or Presbyter should or can alone exercise that Power but with his Ecclesiastical Consistâ—ry he ought to do it as may appear by the old Discipline And is it possible that one so grave and judicious should think it in earnest Tyranny for a Bishop to excommunicate whom Law and Order hath authorized so to do or be perswaded that Ecclesiastâ—cal Regiment degenerateth into Civil Regality when one is allowed to do that which hath been at any time the deed of moe Surely farr meaner-witted men than the World accounteth Mr. Reza do easily perceive that Tyranny is Power violently exercised against Order against Law and that the difference of these two Regiments Ecclesiastical and Civil
which that surcease were likely to draw after it Let the Lord Maior of London or any other unto whose Office Honor belongeth be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit force and countenance of his Office It hath not without the singular wisdom of God been provided that the ordinary outward tokens of Honor should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that beneficial vertue whereunto they are due it behoved them to be of such nature that to himself no man might over-eagerly challenge them without blushing not any man where they are due withhold them but with manifest appearance of too great malice or pride Now forasmuch as according to the Antient Orders and Customs of this Land as of the Kingdom of Israel and of all Christian Kingdoms through the World the next in degree of Honor unto the Chief Soveraign are the Chief Prelates of God's Church what the reason hereof may be it resteth next to be enquired XVIII Other reason there is not any wherefore such Honor hath been judged due saving only that publick good which the Prelates of God's Clergy are Authors of For I would know which of these things it is whereof we make any question either that the favour of God is the chiefest Pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States or that true Religion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God or that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue If these three be grented then cannot the publick benefit of Prelacy be dissembled And of the first or second of these I look not for any profest denyal The World at this will blush not to grant at the leastwise in word as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged concerning the force of Divine Grace in upholding Kingdoms Again though his mercy doth so farr strive with mens ingratitude that all kinde of Publick iniquities deserving his indignation their safety is through his gracious Providence many times neverthelesse continued to the end that amendment might if it were possible avert their Envy so that as well Common-weals as particular Persons both may and do endure much longer when they are careful as they should be to use the most effectual means of procuring His favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth Yet this point no man will stand to argue no man will openly arm himself to enter into set Disputation against the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface Decere arbitramur nostrum Imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere Ita enim plenicrem adquiri Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse existimamus si quando nos pro viribus ipsi placere studuerimus nostros subditos ad eam rem instituerimus Or against the Emperor Iustinian for that he also maketh the like Profession Per sanctissimas Ecclessias nostrum Imperium sustineri communes res elementissimi Dei gratia muniri credimus And in another place Certissimè credemus quia Sacerdotum puritas deâ—â—â—â— ad Dominum Deum Salvatorem nostrum Iesuis Christum fervor ab ipsis missa perpetua preces maltum favorem nostra Reipublica incrementum praebent Wherefore onely the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove for no man feareth now to make it a question Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion Amongst the principal Blessings wherewith God enriched Israel the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one Thou didst lead thy People like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron That which Sheep are if Pastors be wanting the same are the people of God if so be they want Governors And that which the principal Civil Governors are in comparison of Regents under them the same are the Prelates of the Church being compared with the rest of God's Clergy Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses he being their Principal Civil Governor even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally he being in the other kinde of their principal Rector although even herein subject to the Soveraign Dominion of Moses For which cause these two alone are named as the Heads and Well-springs of all As for the good which others did in service either of the Common-wealth or of the Sanctuary the chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their cue Order Bishops are now is High-Priests were then inregard of power over other Priests and in respect of subjection unto High-Priests What Priests were then the same now Presbyters are by way of their place under Bishops The ones Authority therefore being so profitable how should the others be thought unnecessary Is there any man professing Christian Religion which holdeth it not as a Maxim That the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apostolical Regiment not only for other respects but even in regard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church Preciates are herein the Apostles Successors as hath been proved Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church and yet for more perspicuities sake it shall not be pains superstuously taken if the manner how be also declared at large For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher Powers not only Ecclesiastical but Civil whom when proud men have disgraced and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of minde the usual Apologies which they make for themselves are these What more vertue in these Great ones than in others we see no such eminent good which they do above other mon. We grant indeed that the good which Higher Governors do is not so immediate and near unto every of us as many times the meane labours of others under them and this doth make it to be less esteemed But we must note that it is in this Case as in a Ship he that fitteth at the Stern is quiet he moveth not he seemeth in a manner to do little or Nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together The influence of the Heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of
up a Pillar shall be the House of God and of all that thou shall give me will I give the Tenth unto thee May a Christian man desire as great things as Iacob did at the hands of God may he desire them in as earliest manner may he promise as great thankfulness in acknowledging the goodness of God may he vow any certain kinde of publick acknowledgment before hand or though he vow it not perform it after in such sort that men may see he is perswaded how the Lord hath been his God Are these particular kindes of testifying thankfulness to God the erecting of Oratories the dedicating of Lands and Goods to maintain them forbidden any where Let any mortal man living shew but one reason wherefore in this point to follow Iacob's example should not be a thing both acceptable unto God and in the eyes of the World for ever most highly commendable Concerning Goods of this nature Goods whereof when we speak we term them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Goods that are consecrated unto God and as Tertullian speaketh Deposit a pietatis things which Piety and Devotion hath laid up as it were in the bosom of God Touching such Goods the Law Civil following mere light of Nature defineth them to be no mans because no mortal man or community of men hath right of propriety in them XXIII Persons Ecclesiastical are God's Stewards not onely for that he hath set them over his Family as the Ministers of ghostly food but even for this very cause also that they are to receive and dispose his Temporal Revenues the gifts and oblations which men bring him Of the Jews it is plain that their Tyths they offered unto the Lord and those offerings the Lord bestowed upon the Levites When the Levites gave the Tenth of their Tythes this their Gift the Law doth term the Lord's Heave-offering and appoint that the High-Priest should receive the same Of spoils taken in War that part which they were accustomed to separate unto God they brought it before the Priest of the Lord by whom it was laid up in the Tabernacle of the Congregation for a memorial of their thankfulness towards God and his goodness towards them in fighting for them against their enemies As therefore the Apostle magnifieth the honor of Melchisedec in that he being an High-Priest did receive at the hands of Abraham the Tyths which Abraham did honor God with so it argueth in the Apostles themselves great honor that at their feet the price of those Possessions was laid which men thought good to bestow on Christ. St. Paul commending the Churches which were in Macedonia for their exceeding liberality this way saith of them That he himself would bear record they had declared their forward mindes according to their power yea beyond their power and had so much exceeded his expectation of them that they seemed as it were even to give away themselves first to the Lord saith the Apostle and then by the will of God unto us To him as the owner of such gifts to us as his appointed receivers and dispensers The gift of the Church of Antioch bestowed unto the use of distressed Brethren which were in Iudea Paul and Baruabar did deliver unto the Presbyters of Ierusalem and the head of those Presbyters was Iames he therefore the Chiefest disposer thereof Amongst those Canons which are entituled Apostolical one is this We appoint that the Bishop have care of these things which belong to the Church the meaning is of Church-Goods as the Reason following sheweth For if the precious Souls of men must be committed unto him of trust much more it beloveth the charge of money to be given him that by his Authority the Presbyters and Deacons may administer all things to them that stand in need So that he which hath done them the honor to be as it were his Treasurers hath left them also authority and power to use these his Treasures both otherwise and for the maintenance even of their own Estate the lower sort of the Clergy according unto a meaner the higher after a larger proportion The use of Spiritual goods and possessions hath been a matte◠much disputed of grievous complaints there are usually made against the evil and unlawful usage of them but with no certain determination hitherto on what things and Persons with what proportion and measure they being bestowed do retain their lawful use Some men condemn it as idle superfluous and altogether vain that any part of the Treasure of God should be spent upon costly Ornaments appertaining unto his Service who being best worshipped when he is served in Spirit and truth hath not for want of pomp and magnificence rejected at any time those who with faithful hearts have adored him Whereupon the Hereticks termed Henriciani and Petrobusiani threw down Temples and Houses of Prayer erected with marvellous great charge as being in that respect not fit for Christ by us to be honored in We deny not but that they who sometime wandred as Pilgrims on earth and had no Temples but made Caves and Dens to pray in did God such honor as was most acceptable in his sight God did not reject them for their poverty and nakedness sake Their Sacraments were not abhorred for want of Vessels of Gold Howbeit let them who thus delight to plead answer me When Moses first and afterwards David exhorted the people of Israel unto matter of charge about the service of God suppose we it had been allowable in them to have thus pleaded Our Fathers in Egypt served God devoutly God war with them in all their afflictions he heard their Prayers pitied their Case and delivered them from the tyranny of their oppressors what House Tabernacle or Temple had they Such Argumentations are childish and fond God doth not refuse to be honored at all where there lacketh wealth but where abundance and store is he there requireth the Flower thereof being bestowed on him to be employed even unto the Ornament of his Service In Egypt the state of his People was servitude and therefore his Service was accordingly In the Defart they had no sooner ought of their own but a Tabernacle is required and in the Land of Canaan a Temple In the eyes of David it seemed a thing not fit a thing not decent that himself should be more richly seated than God But concerning the use of Ecclesiastical Goods bestowed this way there is not so much contention amongst us as what measure of allowance is fit for Ecclesiastical Persons to be maintained with A better rule in this case to judge things by we cannot possibly have than the◠Wisdom of God himself by considering what he thought meet for each degree of the Clergy to enjoy in time of the Law what for Levites what for Priests and what for High-Priests somewhat we shall be the more able to discern rightly what may be fit convenient and right for
â—â— 31. Jer. â—9 13. Joel 2. 12. Chrys. de repar laps lib. ad Theodor. Deposit dist 3. c. Talis Aug. in Ps. l. â— The state of Bishops although somtime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seen to please God yeâ— by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author Cyp. l. 1. ep 3. Sulpit. Severe lb. 2. Beda Eccl. hist. l. 2. c. 2. a An. 1066. b Alfredus Eborac asis Archieâ— iseopus Galieimum cognomeâ—to Northum spirantem adhue minesua caelis in peâ—ulum mitem redâ—liAâ—â— religiâ—sis in pro conservands repub tuerd que ecclesiast also sacramento asiiuxit Nub. iâ— l. â— c. â— What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong to his Office as he is a Bishop a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys. Haltar de Numa Pompili Antiq. lib. 2. Vult â—â— Pompeius esse quem tora â—re Campania maricima ora habear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quem delectus negotii summa referatur Cic. ad Attie lib. 7. Epist. 11. b Acts 20. Phil. 1. 1. And God brought them unto Adam that Adam might see or consider what name it was meet he should give unto them Gen. 2. 19. So also the name Deacon a Minister appropriated to a certain order of Ministers The name likewise of a Minister was common to divers degrees which now is peculiarly among our selves given only to Pastors and not as anciently to Deacons also In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority in it the first thing condemned the superiority over other Ministers what kind of superiority in ministers is it which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops Meminise Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praepoâ—â—os Dominus elegic Cyp. l. 3 cp 9. Rom. 2. 14 15. 1 Cor. 9.16 Joh. 22 15,1â— Gal. 2. 8. a Him Eusebius doth name the Governor of the Churches in Asia Lib 3. Hist. Eccles. cap. 16. Tertujian calleth the same Churches St. lohns Foster daughters Lib. 3. advers Marcion b Iacobus qui appe latur frarer Domini cognomento Justus pest pathonem Domini flatim ab Apostiolis Hierosolymerum Episeopus ordinatus est Hierom de script Eccles Eodem tempore Jacobum primumu fedem Episcopaslem Ecclesiae quae est Hierosolymis obtinuisse memoriae traditur Euseb. Hist. Eclces lib. 2. cap. 1. The same seemeth to be intimated Acts 15 13. and Acts 21. 18. c Acts 12. 2. d Acts 13.2 e Tit. 1. 5. f This appeareth by those subscriptions which are set after the Epistle to Titus and the second to Timothy and by Euseb. Eccles hist. lib. 3. c. 4. g Irem lib. 3. c. 3. h In Ep. ad Antioch Hiâ—ron ep 81. Cypr. ep ad plorent * Theed in 1 Tim 5. a Ipsius Apostolates nulla successio Pinitur enim legatio cum legoto nec aâ—l successores ipslus transit Srgpl. doct prin con b Act. 1. 21 22. 1 John 1. 3. c Gal. 1. 1. d Apoc. 21. 14. e Mar. 28. 19. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint Acts 20. 36,37 Acts 20.29 30. As appeareth both by his sending to call the Presbyters of Ephesus before him as far as to Milituch Acts 20. 17 which was almost fifty miles and by his leaving Timothy in his place with his Authority and iâ—sh uffions for ordaining of Ministers there 1 Tim. 5. 22. and for proportioning their maintenance verse 17.18 and for judicial hearing of accusations broughâ— against estem verse 19. and for holding them in an uniformity of Doctrine chap. 1 vers 3. Revel 2 Cypr. l. 4. Epist. 9. Hiâ—ren Ep. ad Eâ—ag Exod. 18 19. Epist. ad Jan. Ep. ad Evag. T. C. a. p li. It is to be observed that Ierom saith It was so in Alexandria sign sung that in other Churches it was not so Socrat. l. 1. c. 3. a Unto Ignatius Bishop of Anâ—â—uh Herâ— a Deacon there was made Successor Chrysostom being a Presbyter of Anfiâ—ch we chosen to succeed Nictarius in the Bishop rick of Constantinople a Bishops he meaneth by restraint for Episcopal power was always in the Church instituted by Christ himself the Apostles being in government Bishops at large as no man will deny having received from Christ himself that Episcopal Authority For which cause Cyprian hath said of them Meminisse Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praeposâ—ros Dominus elegit Diaconol aurem posla â—censum Domini in coâ—los Apostoli sibi constiruerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesia ministros Lib 3. Ep. 9. Lib. a. â—o â— Hâ—â—res 4 â— De prescrâ— p. oâ—â—â— râ— hereâ— Acts. 13. Acts. â— Acts. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 1â— What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had Aug. Ep. 19. â—d Hierom. de haeres 53. 1 Cor. 7 29. 1 Tim. 5. 9. Tettul de râ—â— viâ—g Epiph. 3. l. 10 â— haer 7. Acts. 1. â— 23. Tim. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 5. 8. A pud AEgyptum Presbyteri consir mans si â— raesens non fit Eps. copus Comq vulgo Amb. dic in 4. Ep. ad Ephes. Numb 3. 32. Numb 4.17 2 Chron. 19. 11. Joseph Atnig p. 61 â— Cypr. l. 3. ep 9. ad Rogatianum Hâ—erom Ep. â—5 Ep. ad Smyr 1 Tim. 3. 19. Against a Presbyter receive no accusation under two or three witnesses Ignat Epist. ad Antioch Apud Cypr Ep. 1. Ep. 7. Tertul advers Psychic Episcopi universae ple bi r mandare jejunia assoleni Cypr. Ep. 27. Cypr. Ep. 39. Vide Ignat. ad Magnes a Quod Aaron tilios ejus hoc Episcojum Presbyteros esse noverimns Hier. Ep. 2. of Neporiaâ—um b Ita est ut in Episcopis Hominem in Presbyteris Apostolos recognoscas Auctor opuse de ordinib Eccl. inter opera Hieron c Ignat. Ep. ad Tra. d Inslit l. 4. cap. 4. Sect. â—â— Hiere n. Epist. od Euâ—gr 85. Chrysostom lo in 1 Tim. 3. a Velut in a 1 qua sublimi specula 〈…〉 dignantur videre moâ—tales alloqui conâ—erâ—os suos in a. â— Epist. ad Gal. a Nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere Nemo audet accusare majorem propteres quasi sancti beati in praerptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peecatis Dissicilis est accusaâ—io in Episeâ—pum Si â—â—ha pâ—ecaverit non creditur si convictus suerit ron punirur in cap. 8. Ecclesiast b pessimae consuetudiâ—â— est in quiâ—usdam Ecclesâ—â— tacere Presbyteron praesentibus Episcopis non loqui quasi aâ—â— invideant aut non dignentur audice Ep. 2. ad Nepotian c Ep. 54. ad Ripâ—r d Hieron ad Nepoâ— e No Bishop may be a Lord in reference unto the Presbyters which are under him if we take that name in the worse part or Ierom here doth For a Bishop is no
rule his Prebyters not as Lords do their Slaveâ— but as Fathers do their children In vira Chrys. per Caâ—â—od Sen. Pallad in vita Chrysostom After what sort Bishopâ— together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zon in Can. Apost Cum Episcopa Presbyteri Saceâ—lat li hoâ—â—re conjeusti Ep. 28 â— g â— Compresbyteri pâ—striqâ—i nolas aâ—tide bant â—p 27. Cyp. Ep. 93 Cyp. Eâ— â—â— * â—â—â— Such as or was that â—eter whaâ—â— all Cussiator writeth the life of Chrysostom doth call the Accepresbyter of the Church of Alexandriae under Troj â—â—â—â— that time â—â—â— Psal. 14 How sirr the lower of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of Territory or luâ—â— compass I. 3â— p. de Epise ad Cler. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resides Cypr. Ep. 51. Cum jampridem per omnes provinâ—as per urbes singulas ordinari sunt Episcopi Uâ—â— Ecclesiastici ordinis non est câ—nâ—â—â—s osserâ— â—ngit â—Sierailosâ— qui est in solus Tert. exhorâ— ad castir Cypr. Ep. 2â— Heron advers Lucifer Cypr. Ep. 4â— * Cou. Antioch cap. 5. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cone Constant. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 5. cap. 8. a 1 Cor. 15. As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia the same do ye also b 2 Cor. 11. 8 Chrys. in â— ad Tiâ— â—Palialâ— inâ—â—ia Chrâ—â—â—â—â— â—Cane L Antioch caâ— 10. â— a Cic. Fam. Ep. 5. Si quid na 〈…〉 um aliquo Helleâ—â—â—â—â—io controversiae ut in illâ—m 〈◊〉 rejicias The suit which Tully maketh wâ—s this that the Party in whose behalf he wrote to the Propraetor might have his Causes put over to that Court which was held in the Diocess of Hellespont where the man did abide and not to his trouble be forced to foâ—low them at Ephesus which was the chiefest Court in thâ—t Province b Cic. ad Attic lib. 5. Ep. 12. Item 1. observ D. de officio Proconsulis Legati c Lib. 1. Tit. 27. l. 1. sect 1. 2. Sancimus ut sicut Oriens atquâ— Illyricum ita Africa praetoriana maxima potestate specialiter à nostra elementia decoretur Cujus sedem jubemus esse Carthaginem ab ea auxiliante Deo septem proâ—inciae cum suis judicious disponantur d Psal. 30. 8 9. Concil Antiochen c. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vilierius de flaâ—u primitivae Ecclâ—… Socr. l. 3. c. â— Câ—n. 28. Can. 3â— Novel 123. 22. Concil Nic. c. 6. Ejusd Con. cap. â— T. C. l. t. â—â— What no mention of him in Theophibus Bishop of Antioch none in Clemens Alexandrinus none in Ignatius noâ—â—â—â— in Iustin Martyr in Irenaeus In Tertâ—l in Oâ—igen in Cyprian in thoâ—e old Historiographers ouâ— of which Eusebius gathered his Story was it for his baseness and smalness that he could not be seen amongst the Bishops Elders and Deacons being the chief and principal of them all Can the Cedar of Lebanon be hidden amongst the Box-trees T. C. l. â— ubi supra A Metropolitan Bishop was nothing elâ—e but a Bishop of that place which is pleased the Emperor or Magistrate to make the chief of the Diocess or Shire and as for this name it makes no more difference between a Bishop and a Bishop than when I say a Minister of London and a Minister of Newington Con. Nicen. c. 6. Illui autem amnino manifestum quod siqus absque Mâ—tro politani sententia sactus flâ—â— p sâ— hune magna â—vno de lefin vit Episâ— ess noâ—n portere Can. 4. a Nâ—vel 123. can 10. b Now. 128. c. 9 c Now l. 79. 2. d Novel 123. can 22. e Novel 1. 3. a. 23. f Can. 9. Can. 16. Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 23. Can. 34. Callind in vita Chrysost. Hieron Ep. 91. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius Aug. de haen ad quod vult deu Aeriani ab Aerio quodam sunt nominari qui qinum eâ—â—er Presbyter docuisse senâ—ur quad Episcopus non potest ordioare Dicibo Episcopum a Presbytero nulla ratione debere diseerni Aug. de haer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a As in that he saith the Apostle doth name sometimes Presbyters and not Bishops â— Tim. 4. 14. sometime Bishops and not Presbyters Phil â— â— because all Churches had not both for want of able and sufficient men In such Churches therefore as had but the one the Apostle could not mention the other Which Answer is nothing to the lâ—tâ—er place above mentioned For that the Church of Philippi should have more Bishops than one and want a few able men to be Presbyters under the Regiment of one Bishop how shall we think it probable or likely b 1 Tim. 4. 14. with the Impesition of the Presbyteries hand Of which Presbytery S Paul was chief 1 Tim. 1.6 And I think no man will deny that S. Paul need more than a simple Presbyters Authority Phil. 1. 1. To all the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons For as yet in the Church of Philippi there was no one which had Authority besides Apostles but their Presbyters or Bishops were all both in Title and in Power equal In what respect Episcopal is gain-fall by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day Their Auguments in disgrace of Regiment byâ—â—heps as being a meer invention of Man and nor sound in Scripture Answered Titus 1. 5. Timothy 3. 5. Philippians â— 1. 1 Peter 5. 1. 2. T. C. l. â— p. 13. So that it appeareth that the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functurions thereof ought to be from Heaven From Heaven I say and Heavenly because although it the exceâ—red by Earthly men and Ministers are chosen also by men like unto themselves yet because it is done by the Word and Institution of God It may well be accounted to come from Heaven and from God Answer Acts 1. 22. Revel 1. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 1. 5. They of Walden Acn. Syl. hist. Boem Norsilius Defens pac Nici Thum. Wakl c. 1. l. 2. cap. 0 Calvin Coment in 1 ad id Lit. Bulhtiger Decad â— Ser. 3. Juel Defens apol par 2. c. â— â—â—t Folk Answ. to the Test. Tic. â— 5. John 1. 25. Mat. 21. 23. Lib. 1. Rom. 1. 32. Luke 1. 6. Confes. 169. Epist. 150. The Arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church Ep. 3. lb. 1. The sort-alledged Argument answered T. C. l. 1. p. â—9 â—on The Bishop which Cyprian speaketh of is nothing else but such as we call Pastor or as the common nâ—mâ— with us is Pastor and his Church whereof he is Bishop is neither Diâ—cesâ— nor Province but a Congregation which met together in one place and to he taught of one man * Etsi Frarres pro dilectione iua cupoli sunt ad conven endum visiandum Censissires boars quos illustravit jaâ—â— gloriosis initiis divina degnati ramen
regard the present State of the highest Governor placed over us if the quality and disposition of our Nobles if the Orders and Laws of our famous Universities if the Profession of the Civil or the Practice of the Common Law amongst us if the mischiefs whereinto even before our eyes so many others have faln head-long from no less plausible and fair beginnings then yours are There is in every of these Considerations most just cause to fear lest our hastiness to embrace a thing of so perilous consequence should cause Posterity to feel those evils which as yet are more easie for us to prevent then they would be for them to remedy 9. The best and safest way for you therefore my dear Brethren is To call your Deeds past to a new reckoning to re-examine the cause ye have taken in hand and to try it even point by point argument by argument with all the diligent exactness ye can to lay aside the Gall of that Bitterness wherein your mindes have hitherto ever-abounded and with meekness to search the Truth Think ye are Men deem it not impossible for you to err sift unpartially your own hearts whether it be force of Reason or vehemency of Affection which hath bred and still doth feed these Opinions in you If Truth do any where manifest it self seek not to smother it with gloâ—ing Delusion acknowledge the greatness thereof and think it your best Victory when the same doth prevail over youâ— That ye have been earnest in speaking or writing again and again the contrary way should be noblemish or discredit at all unto you Amongst so many so huge Volumes as the infinite pains of St. Augustine have brought forth what one hath gotten him greater love commendation and honor then the Book wherein he carefully collecteth his own over-sights and sincerely condemneth them Many speeches there are of Jobs whereby his Wisdom and other Vertues may appear but the glory of an ingenuous minde he hath purchased by these words onely Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth I have spoken once yet will I not therefore maintain Argument yea twice howbeit for that cause further I will not proceed Far more comfort it were for us so small is the joy we take in these strises to labor under the same yoke as men that look for the same eternal reward of their labors to be enjoyned with you in Bands of indissoluble Love and Amity to live as if our persons being many our souls were but one rather than in such dismembred sort to spend our few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting of wearisome contentions the end whereof if they have not some speedy end will be heavy even on both sides Brought already we are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzen mournfully describeth saying My minde leadeth me sith there is no other remedy to flie and to convey my self into some corner out of sight where I may scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousness whereby all parts are entred into a deadly war amongst themselves and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godliness we glory in is to finde out somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly Each others faults we observe as matter of exprobration and not of grief By these means we are grown hateful in the eyes of the Heathens themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply able we are not to deny but that we have deserved their hatred With the better sort of our own our fame and credit is clean lost The less we are to marvel if they judge vilely of us who although we did well would hardly allow thereof On our backs they also build that are leud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorn and disgrace of us all This we have gained by our mutual home-dissentions This we are worthily rewarded with which are more forward to strive then becometh men of vertuous and milde disposition But our trust in the Almighty is that with us Contentions are now at the highest flote and that the day will come for what cause of despair is there when the Passions of former Enmity being allayed we shall with ten times redoubled tokens of our unfeignedly reconciled love shew our selves each towards other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their enterview in Egypt Our comfortable expectation and most thirsty desire whereof what man soever amongst you shall any way help to satisfie as we truly hope there is no one amongst you but some way or other will The blessings of the God of Peace both in this World and in the World to come be upon him more then the Stars of the Firmament in number WHAT THINGS ARE HANDLED In the following BOOKS BOOK I. COncerning LAWS in General BOOK II. Of the use of Divine Law contained in Scripture Whether that be the onely Law which ought to serve for our Direction in all things without exception BOOK III. Of Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Polity Whether the Form thereof be in Scripture so set down that no Addition or Charge is lawful BOOK IV. Of General Exceptions taken against the Laws of our Polity as being Popish and banished out of certain Reformed Churches BOOK V. Of our Laws that concern the Publick Religious Duties of the Church and the manner of bestowing that Power of Order which enableth Men in sundry Degrees and Callings to execute the same BOOK VI. Of the Power of Iurisdiction which the Reformed Platform claimeth unto Lay-Elders with others BOOK VII Of the Power of Iurisdiction and the Honor which is annexed thereunto in Bishops BOOK VIII Of the Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion or Supream Authority which with us the highest Governor or Prince hath as well in regard of Domestical Iurisdictions as of that other Foreignly claimed by the Bishop of Rome OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK I. Concerning Laws and their several kindes in general The Matter contained in this First Book 1. THe cause of Writing this General Discourse concerning Laws 2. Of that Law which God from before the beginning hath set for himself to do all things by 3. The Law which Natural Agents observe and their necessary manner of keeping it 4. The Law which the Angels of God obey 5. The Law whereby Man is in his Actions directed to the Imitation of God 6. Mens first beginning to understand that Law 7. Of Mans Will which is the first thing that Laws of Action are made to guide 8. Of the Natural finding out of Laws by the Light of Reason to guide the Will unto that which is good 9. Of the benefit of keeping that Law which Reason teacheth 10. How Reason doth lead Men unto the making of Humane Laws whereby Politick Societies are governed and to agreement about Laws whereby the Fellowship or Communion of Independent Societies stanoeth 11. Wherefore God hath by Scripture
Bishops in that the care of Government was also committed unto them did no less perform the offices of their Episcopal Authority by governing then of their Apostolical by teaching The word ' E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressing that part of their office which did consist in Regiment proveth not I grant their chiefty in regiment over others because as then that name was common unto the function of their inferiors and not peculiar unto theirs But the History of their actions sheweth plainly enough how the thing it self which that name appropriated importeth that is to say even such spiritual chiefty as we have already defined to be properly Episcopal was in the holy Apostles of Christ. Bishops therefore they were at large But was it lawful for any of them to be a Bishop with restraint True it is their charge was indefinite yet so that in case they did all whether severally or joyntly discharge the Office of proclaiming every where the Gospel and of guiding the Church of Christ none of them casting off his part in their burthen which was laid upon them there doth appear no impediment but that they having received their common charge indefinitely might in the execution thereof notwithstanding restrain themselves or at leastwise be restrained by the after commandment of the Spirit without contradiction or repugnancy unto that charge more indefinite and general before given them especially if it seemed at any time requisite and for the greater good of the Church that they should in such sort tye themselves unto some special part of the flock of Jesus Christ guiding the same in several as Bishops For first notwithstanding our Saviours commandment unto them all to go and preach unto all Nations Yet some restraint we see there was made when by agreement between Paul and Peter moved with those effects of their labours which the providence of God brought forth the one betook himself unto the Gentiles the other unto the Jews for the exercise of that Office of every where preaching A further restraint of their Apostolical labours as yet there was also made when they divided themselves into several parts of the world Iohn for his charge taking Asia and so the residue other quarters to labour in If nevertheless it seem very hard that we should admit a restraint so particular as after that general charge received to make any Apostle notwithstanding the Bishop of some one Church what think we of the Bishop of Ierusalem Iames whose consecration unto that Mother See of the world because it was not meet that it should at any time be left void of some Apostle doth seem to have been the very cause of St. Pauls miraculous vocation to make up the number of the Twelve again for the gathering of nations abroad even as the martyrdom of the other Iames the reason why Barnabas in his stead was called Finally Apostles whether they did settle in any one certain place◠as Iames or else did otherwise as the Apostle Paul Episcopal Authority either at large or either restraint they had and exercised Their Episcopal power they sometimes gave unto others to exercise as agents only in their stead and as it were by commission from them Thus Titus and thus Timothy at the first though afterwards indued with Apostolical power of their own For in process of time the Apostles gave Episcopal Authority and that to continue always with them which had it We are able to number up them saith Irenaus who by the Apostles were made Bishops In Rome he affirmeth that the Apostles themselves made Linus the first Bishop Again of Polycarp he saith likewise that the Apostles made him Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Of Antioch they made Evodius Bishop as Ignatius witnesseth exhorting that Church to tread in his holy steps and to follow his vertuous example The Apostles therefore were the first which had such authority and all others who have it after them in orderly sort are their lawful Successors whether they succeed in any particular Church where before them some Apostle hath been seated as Simon succeeded Iames in Ierusalem or else be otherwise endued with the same kind of Bishoply power although it be not where any Apostle before hath been For to succeed them is after them to have that Episcopal kind of power which was first given to them All Bishops are saith Ierome the Apostles successors In like sort Cyprian doth term Bishops Prepositos qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt From hence it may happily seem to have grown that they whom now we call Bishops were usually termed at the first Apostles and so did carry their very names in whose rooms of spiritual authority they succeeded Such as deny Apostles to have any successors at all in the office of their Apostleship may hold that opinion without contradiction to this of ours if they well explain themselves in declaring what truly and properly Apostleship is In some things every Presbyter in some things lonely Bishops in some things neither the one nor the other are the Apostles Successors The Apostles were sent as special chosen eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ from whom immediately they received their whole Embassage and their Commission to be the principal first founders of an House of God consisting as well of Gentiles as of Jews In this there are not after them any other like unto them And yet the Apostles have now their Successors upon earth their true Successors if not in the largeness surely in the kind of that Episcopal function whereby they had power to sit as spiritual ordinary Judges both over Laity and over Clergy where Churches Christian were established V. The Apostles of our Lord did according unto those directions which were given them from above erect Churches in all such Cities as received the Word of Truth the Gospel of God All Churches by them erected received from them the same Faith the same Sacraments the same form of publick regiment The form of Regiment by them established at first was That the Laity of people should be subject unto a Colledge of Ecclesiastical persons which were in every such City appointed for that purpose These in their writings they term sometime Presbyters sometime Bishops To take one Church out of a number for a patern what the rest were the Presbyters of Ephesus as it is in the History of their departure from the Apostle Paul at Miletum are said to have wept abundantly all which speech doth shew them to have been many And by the Apostles exhortation it may appear that they had not each his several flock to feed but were in common appointed to feed that one flock the Church of Ephesus for which cause the phrase of his speech is this Attendite gregi Look all to that one flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops These persons Ecclesiastical being termed as then
ended their days did not yet live himself to see the Presbyters of Alexandria othewise then subject unto a Bishop So that we cannot with any truth so interpret his words as to mean that in the Church of Alexandria there had been Bishops indued with Superiority over Presbyters from St. Marks time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius Wherefore that St. Ierom may receive a more probable interpretation then this We answer that generally oâ— Regiment by Bishops and what term of continuance it had in the Church of Alexandria it was no part of his mind to speak but to note one onely circumstance belonging to the manner of their election which circumstance is that in Alexandria they used to chuse their Bishops altogether out of the colledge of their own Presbyters and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior order of the Clergy whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to chuse as well from abroad as at home as well inferior unto Presbyters as Presbyters when they saw occasion This custome saith he the Church of Alexandria did always keep till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise These two were the very first not chose out of their Colledge of Presbyters The drift and purpose of S. Ieroms speech doth plainly show what his meaning was for whereas some did over-extol the Office of the Deacon in the Church of Rome where Deacons being grown great through wealth challenged place above Presbyters S. Ierome to abate this insolency writing to Evagrius diminisheth by all means the Deacons estimation and lifteth up Presbyters as far as possible the truth might bear An attendant saith he upon Tables and Widows proudly to exalt himself above them at whose prayers is made the body and blood of Christ above them between whom and Bishops there was at the first for a time no difference neither in authority nor in title And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary that some one should be placed over them by which occasion the title of Bishop became proper unto that one yet was that one chosen out of the Presbyters as being the chiefest the highest the worthiest degree of the Clergie and not out of Deacons in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves and not a Deacon at any time to be their Bishop Nor let any man think that Christ hath one Church in Rome and another in the rest of the world that in Rome he alloweth Deacons to be honoured above Presbyters and otherwhere will have them to be in the next degree to the Bishop If it be deemed that abroad where Bishops are poorer the Presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour but at Rome where the Bishop hath amplerevenâ—es the Deacons whose estate is nearest for wealth may be also for estimation the next unto him We must know that a Bishop in the meanest City is no less a Bishop then he who is seated in the greatest the countenance of a rich and the meanness of a poor estate doth make no odds between Bishops and therefore if a Presbyter at Engubium be the next in degree to a Bishop surely even at Rome it ought in reason to be so likewise and not a Deacon for wealths sake only to be above who by order should be and elsewhere is underneath a Presbyter But ye will say that according to the custom of Rome a Deacon presenteth unto the Bishop him which standeth to be ordained Presbyter and upon the Deacons testimony given concerning his fitness he receiveth at the Bishops hands Oraïnation So that in Rome the Deacon having this special preheminence the Presbyter ought there to give place unto him Wherefore is the custom of one City brought against the practice of the whole World The pancity of Deacons in the Church of Rome hath gotten the credit as unto Presbyters their multitude hath been cause of contempt Howbeit even in the Church of Rome Presbyters sit and Deacons stand an Argument as strong against the superiority of Deacons as the fore-alleadged reason doth seem for it Besides whosoever is promoted must needs be raised from a lower degree to an higher wherefore either let him which is Presbyter be made a Deacon that so the Deacon may appear to be the greater or if of Deacons Presbyters be made let them know themselves to be in regard of Deacons though below in gain yet above in Office And to the end we may understand that those Apostolical Orders are taken out of the Old Testament what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple the same in the Church may â— Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves This is the very drift and substance this the true construction and sense of St. Ieroms whole discourse in that Epistle Which I have therefore endeavoured the more at large to explain because no one thing is less effectual or more usual to be alledged against the antient Authority of Bishops concerning whose Government St. Ieroms own words otherwhere are sufficient to show his opinion that this Order was not only in Alexandria so ancient but even an ancient in other Churches We have before alledged his testimony touching Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem As for Bishops in other Churches on the first of the Epistle to Titus thus he speaketh Till through instinct of the devil there grew in the Church factions and among the people it began to be profest I am of Paul I of Apollos and I of Cephas Churches were governed by the common advice of Presbyters but when every one began to reckon those whom himself had baptized his own and not Christs it was decreed IN THE WHOLE WORLD that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the seeds of schism be removed If it be so that by St. Ieroms own Confession this order was not then begun when people in the Apostles absence began to be divided into factions by their Teachers and to rehearse I am of Paul but that even at the very first appointment thereof was agreed upon and received throughout the world how shall a man be perswaded that the same Ierom thought it so ancient no-where saving in Alexandria one only Church of the whole world A sentence there is indeed of St. Ieroms which bring not throughly considered and weighed may cause his meaning so to be taken as if he judged Episcopal regiment to have been the Churches invention long after and not the Apostles own institution as namely when he admonisheth Bishops in this manner As therefore Presbyters do know that the custom of the Church makes them subject to the Bishop which is set over them so let Bishops know that custom rather then the truth of any Ordinance of the Lord maketh them
though an enemy unto Regiment by Bishops doth notwithstanding confess that in old time the Ministers which had charge to teach chose of their Company one in every City to whom they appropriated the Title of Bishop lest equality should bread dissention He addeth farther that look what duty the Roman Consuls did execute in proposing matters unto the Senate in asking their opinions in directing them by advice admonition exhortation in guiding actions by their Authority and in seeing that performed which was with common consent agreed on the like charge had the Bishop in the assembly of other Ministers Thus much Calvin being forced by the evidence of truth to grant doth yet deny the Bishops to have been so in Authority at the first as to bear rule over other Ministers Wherein what rule he doth mean I know not But if the Bishops were so farr in dignity above other Ministers as the Consuls of Rome for their year above other Senators it is as much as we require And undoubtedly if as the Consuls of Rome so the Bishops in the Church of Christ had such authority as both to direct other Ministers and to see that every of them should observe tâ—at which their common consent had agreed on how this could be done by the Bishop not bearing rule over them for mine own part I must acknowledge that my poor concept is not able to comprehend One objection there is of some force to make against that which we have hither to endeavoured to prove if they mistake it not who alledge it St. Ierom comparing other Presbyters with him unto whom the name of Bishop was tâ—en appropriate asketh What a Bishop by vertue of his place and calling may do more then a Presbyter except it be only to Ordain In like sort Chrysostome having moved a question wherefore St. Paul should give Timothy precept concerning the quality of Bishops and descend from them to Deacons omiting the Order of Presbyters between he maketh thereunto this answer What things he spake concerning Bishops the same are also meet for Presbyters whom Bishops seem not to excell in any thing but only in the power of Ordination Wherefore seeing this doth import no ruling superiority it follows that Bishops were as then no rulers over that part of the Clergy of God Whereunto we answer that both S. Ierom and S. Chrysostom had in those their speeches an eye no farther then only to that function for which Presbyters and Bishops were consecrated unto God Now we know that their Consecration had reference to nothing but only that which they did by force and vertue of the power of Order wherein fithe Bishops received their charge only by that one degree to speak of more ample then Presbyters did theirs it might be well enough said that Presbyters were that way authorized to do in a manner even as much as Bishops could do if we consider what each of them did by vertue of solemn consecration for as concerning power of regiment and jurisdiction it was a thing withal added unto Bishops for the necessary use of such certain persons and people as should be thereunto subject in those particular Churches whereof they were Bishops and belonged to them only as Bishops of such or such a Church whereas the other kind of power had relation indefinitely unto any of the whole society of Christian men on whom they should chance to exercise the same and belonged to them absolutely as they were Bishops wheresoever they live St. Ieroms conclusion thereof is that seeing in the one kind of power there is no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop Bishops should not because of their preeminence in the other too much lift up themselves above the Presbyters under them St. Chrysostom's collection that whereas the Apostle doth set down the qualities whereof regard should be had in the Consecration of Bishops there was no need to make a several discourse how Presbyters ought to be qualified when they are Ordained because there being so little difference in the functions whereunto the one and the other receive Ordination the same precepts might well serve for both at least-wise by the vertues required in the greater what should need in the less might be easily understood As for the difference of jurisdiction the truth is the Apostles yet living and themselves where they were resident exercising the jurisdiction in their own persons it was not every where established in Bishops When the Apostles prescribed those laws and when Chysostom thus spake concerning them it was not by him at all respected but his eye was the same way with Ieroms his cogitation was wâ—olly fixed on that power which by Consecration is given to Bishops more then to Presbyters and not on that which they have over Presbyters by force of their particular accessory jurisdiction Wherein if any man suppose that Ierom and Chrysostom knew no difference at all between a Presbyter and a Bishop let him weigh but one or two of their sentences The pride of insolent Bishops hath not a sharper enemy then Ierom for which cause he taketh often occasions most severely to inveigh against them sometimes for shewing disdain and contempt of the Clergy under them sometimes for not suffering themselves to be told of their faults and admonished of their duty by inferiours sometime for not admitting their Presbyters to teach if so be themselves were in presence sometimes for not voucâ—â—sasing to use any conference with them or to take any counsel of them Howbeit never doth he in such wise bend himself against their disorders as to deny their Rule and Authority over Presbyters Of Vigilantius being a Presbyter he thus writeth Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus Parochia Presbyter esse dicitur acquiescere surori ejus non virga Apostolica virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile I marvel that the holy Bishop under whom Vigilantius is said to be a Presbyter doth yield to his fury and not break that unprofitable Vessel with his Apostolick and iron rod. With this agreeth most fitly the grave advice he giveth to Nepotian Be thou subject unto thy Bishop and receive him as the Father of thy Soul This also I say that Bishops should know themselves to be Priests and not Lords that they ought to honour the Clergy as becometh the Clergy to be honoured to the end their Clergy may yield them the honour which as Bishops they ought to have That of the Orator Domitius is famous Wherefore should I esteem of thee as of a Prince when thou makest not of me that reckoning which should in reason be made of a Senator Let us know the Bishop and his Presbyters to be the same which Aaron sometimes and his Sons were Finally writing against the Hereticks which were name Luciferians The very safety of the Church saith he dependeth on the dignity of the Chief Priest to whom unless men grant an exceeding and an eminent power there
the Antients termed usually an arch-Arch-Presbyter weat this day name him Dean For most certain truth it is that Churches-Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and the course of the world hath brought For defence and maintenance of them we are most earnestly bound to strive even as the Jews were for their Temple and the High-Priest of God therein The overthrow and ruine of the one if ever the sacrilegious avarice of Atheists should prevail so farr which God of his infinite mercy forbid ought no otherwise to move us than the people of God were moved when having beheld the sack and combustion of his Sanctuary in most lamentable manner flaming before their eyes they uttered from the bottom of their grieved Spirits those voyces of doleful supplication Exsurge Domine miserearis Sion serve tui diligunt lapides ejus pulver is ejus miseret cos VIII How farr the power which Bishops had did reach what number of Persons was subject unto them at the first and how large their Territories were it is not for the question we have in hand a thing very greatly material to know For if we prove that Bishops have lawfully of old ruled over other Ministers it is enough how few soever those Ministers have been how small soever the circuit of Place which hath contained them Yet hereof somewhat to the end we may so farr forth illustrate Church-Antiquities A Law Imperial there is which sheweth that there was great care had to provide for every Christian City Biâ—hop as near as might be and that each City had some Territory belonging unto it which Territory was also under the Bishop of the same City that because it was not universally thus but in some Countrys one Bishop had subject unto him many Cities and their Territories the Law which provided for establishment of the other Orders should not prejudice those Churches wherein this contrary Custom had before prevailed Unto the Bishop of every such City not only the Presbyters of the same City but also of the Territory thereunto belonging were from the first beginning subject For we must note that when as yet there were in Cities no Parish Churches but only Colledges of Presbyters under their Bisâ—ops Regiment yet smaller Congregations and Churches there were even then abroad in which Churches there was but some one only Presbyter to perform amongst them Divine duties Towns and Villages abroad receiving the Faith of Christ from Cities whereunto they were adjacent did as Spiritual and Heavenly Colonies by their subjection honour those antient Mother Churches out of which they grew And in the Christian Cities themselves when the mighty increase of Believers made it necessary to have them divided into certain several companies and over every of those companies one only Pastor to be appointed for the Ministry of holy things between the first and the rest after it there could not be but a natural inequality even as between the Temple and Synagogues in Ierusalem The Clergy of Cities were termed Urbici to shew a difference between them and the Clergies of Townes of Villages of Castles abroad And how many soever these Parishes or Congregations were in number which did depend on any one principal City-Church unto the Bishop of that one Church they and their several sole Presbyters were all subject For if so be as some imagine every petty Congregation or Hamlet had had his own particular Bishop what sense could there be in those words of Ierom concerning Castles Villages and other places abroad which having onely Presbyters to teach them and to minister unto them the Sacraments were resorted unto by Bishops for the Administration of that wherewith their Presbyters were not licensed to meddle To note a difference of that one Church where the Bishop hath his seat and the rest which depend upon it that one hath usually been termed Cathedral according to the same sense wherein Ignatius speaking of the Church of Antioch termeth it his Throne and Cyprian making mention of Euaristâ—s who had been Bishop and was now depoâ—ed termeth him Cathedrae extâ—rrem one that was thrust besides his Chair The Church where the Bishop is set with his Colledge of Presbyters about him we call a See the Local compass of his Authority we term a Diocess Unto a Bishop within the compass of his own both See and Diocess it hath by right of his place evermore appertained to ordain Presbyters to make Deacons and with judgement to dispose of all things of weight The Apostle St. Paul had Episcopal Authority but so at large that we cannot assign unto him any one certain Diocess His positive Orders and Constitutions Churches every where did obey Yea a charge and care saith he I have even of all the Churches The walks of Titus and Timothy was limited within the bounds of a narrow Precinct As for other Bishops that which Chrysostom hath concerning them If they be evil could not poâ—â—ibly agreâ— unto them unless their Authority had reached farther than to some one only Congregation The danger being so great at it is to him that scandalizeth one Soul What shall he saith Chrisostom speaking of a Bishop what shall he deserve by whom so many Souls yea even whole Cities and Peoples Men Women and Children Citizens Peasants Inhabitants both of his own City and of other Towns subject unto it are offended A thing so unusual it was for a Bishop not to have ample Jurisdiction that Theophilus Patriark of Alexandria for making one a Bishop of a small Town is noted a proud Despiser of the commendable Orders of the Church with this censure Such Novelties Theophilus presumed every where to begin taking upon him as it had been another Moses Whereby is discovered also their Errour who think that such as in Ecclesiâ—stical Writings they finde termed Chorepiscopos were the same in the Country which the Bishop was in the City Whereas the old Chorepiscopi are they that were appointed of the Bishops to have as his Vicegerents some over-sight of those Churches abroad which were subject unto his See in which Churches they had also power to make Sub-deacons Readers and such like petty Church-Officers With which power so stâ—nted they not contenting themselves but adventuring at the length to Orâ—â—in even Deacons and Presbyters also as the Bishop himself did their presumption herein was controlled and stayed by the antient Edict of Councils For example that of Antioch It hath seemed good to the holy Synod that such in Towns and Countrys as are called Chorepiscopi do know their limits and govern the Churches under them contenting themselves with the charge thereof and with Authority to make Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and to be Leaders or Guiders of them but not to meddle with the Ordination either of
of that Church is in the Nicene Canons concerning this matter mentioned before the rest The words of their sacred Edict are these Let those customs remain in force which have been of old the customs of Egypt and Libya and Pentapolis by which customs the Bishop of Alexandria hath authority over all these the rather for that this hath also been the use of the Bishop of Rome yea the same hath been kept in Antioch and in other Provinces Now because the custom likewise had been that great honour should be done to the Bishop of Alia or Ierusalem therefore lest their Decree concerning the Primate of Antioch should any whit prejudice the dignity and honour of that See special provision is made that although it were inferior in degree not only unto Antioch the chief of the East but even unto Cesaria too yet such preheminence it should retain as belonged to a Mother-City and enjoy whatsoever special Prerogative or Priviledge it had besides Let men therefore hereby judge of what continuance this Order which upholdeth degrees of Bishops must needs have been when a General Council of three hundred and eighteen Bishops living themselves within three hundred years after Christ doth reverence the same for Antiquity's sake as a thing which had been even then of old observed in the most renowned parts of the Christian World Wherefore needless altogether are those vain and wanton demands No mention of an Archbishop in Theophilus Bishop of Antioch none in Ignatius none in Clemens of Alexandria none in Iustin Martyr Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian none in all those old Historiographers out of which Eusebius gathereth his Story none till the time of the Council of Nice three hundred and twenty years after Christ As if the mention which is thereof made in that very Council where so many Bishops acknowledge Archiepiscopal dignity even then antient were not of farr more weight and value than if every of those Fathers had written large Discourses thereof But what is it which they will blush at who dare so confidently set it down that in the Councel of Nice some Bishops being termed Metropolitans no more difference is thereby meant to have been between one Bishop and another than is shewed between one Minister and another when we say such a one is a Minister in the City of London and such a one a Minister in the Town of Newington So that to be termed a Metropolitan Bishop did in their conceit import no more preheminence above other Bishops than we mean that a Girdler hath over others of the same trade if we term him which doth inhabit some Mother-City for difference-sake a Metropolitan Girdler But the Truth is too manifest to be eluded a Bishop at that time had power in his own Diocess over all other Ministers there and a Metropolitan Bishop sundry preheminences above other Bishops one of which preheminences was in the ordination of Bishops to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief power of ordering all things done Which preheminence that Council it self doth mention as also a greater belonging unto the Patriark or Primate of Alexandria concerning whom it is there likewise said that to him did belong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority and power over all Egypt Pentapolis and Libya within which compass sundry Metropolitan Sees to have been there is no man ignorant which in those Antiquities have any knowledge Certain Prerogatives there are wherein Metropolitans excelled other Bishops certain also wherein Primates excelled other Metropolitans Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan Prerogatives are those mentioned in the old Imperial constitutions to convocate the holy Bishops under them within the compass of their own Provinces when need required their meeting together for inquisition and redress of publick disorders to grant unto Bishops under them leave and faculty of absence from their own Dioceses when it seemed necessary that they should otherwhere converse for some reasonable while to give notice unto Bishops under them of things commanded by Supream Authority to have the hearing and first determining of such Causes as any man had against a Bishop to receive the appeals of the inferiour Clergy in case they found themselves over-born by the Bishop their immediate Judge And lest haply it should be imagined that Canons Ecclesiastical we want to make the self-same thing manifest In the Council of Antioch it was thus decreed The Bishop in every Province must know that he which is Bishop in the Mother-City hath not only charge of his own Parish or Diocess but even of the whole Province also Again it hath seemed good that other Bishops without him should do nothing more than only that which concerneth each one's Parish and the places underneath it Further by the self-same Council all Councils provincial are reckoned void and frustrate unless the Bishop of the Mother-City within that Province where such Councils should be were present at them So that the want of his presence and in Canons for Church-Government want of his approbation also did disannul them Not so the want of any others Finally concerning election of Bishops the Council of Nice hath this general rule that the chief ordering of all things here is in every Province committed to the Metropolitan Touching them who amongst Metropolitan were also Primates and had of sundry united Provinces the chiefest Metropolitan See of such that Canon in the Council of Carthage was eminent whereby a Bishop is forbidden to go beyond Seas without the license of the highest Chair within the same Bishop's own Country and of such which beareth the name of Apostolical is that antient Canon likewise which chargeth the Bishops of each NATION to know him which is FIRST amongst them and to esteem of him as an HEAD and to do no extraordinary thing but with his leave The chief Primates of the Christian World were the Bishop of Rome Alexandria and Antioch To whom the Bishop of Constantinople being afterwards added Saint Chrysostom the Bishop of that See is in that respect said to have had the care and charge◠not only of the City of Constantinople sed etiam totius Thracia que sex praefecturis est divisa Asiaetolius quae ab undecim praesidebus regitur The rest of the East was under Antioch the South under Alexandria and the West under Rome Whereas therefore Iohn the Bishop of Ierusalem being noted of Heresie had written an Apology for himself unto the Bishop of Alexandria named Theophilus Saint Ierom reproveth his breach of the Order of the Church herein saying Tu qui regular quaris Ecclesiasticas Nicend Concilii canonibus uteris responde mihi Ad Alexandrinum Episcopum Palastina quid pertinet Nifallor hoc ibi deçernitur at Palaeslinae Metropolie Casarea sit totius Orientis Antiochia Aut igitur ad Caesariensem Episcopuna referre debueras aut siprocul expetendum judiciam erat Antiochiam potius litera dirigenda Thus
consisteth in the matter about which the actions of each are conversant and not in this that Civil Royalty admitteth but one Ecclesiastical Government requireth many Supreme Correctors Which Allegation were it true would prove no more than only that some certain number is necessary for the assistance of the Bishop But that a number of such as they do require is necessary how doth it prove Wherefore albeit Bishops should now do the very same which the Antients did using the Colledge of Presbyters under them as their Assistants when they administer Church-Censures yet should they still swerve utterly from that which these men so busily labour for because the Agents whom they require to assist in those Cases are a sort of Lay-Elders such as no antient Bishop ever was assisted with Shall these fruitless jarrs and janglings never cease shall we never see end of them How much happier were the World if those eager Task-masters whose eyes are so curious and sharp in discerning what should be done by many and what by few were all changed into painful doers of that which every good Christian man ought either only or chiefly to do and to be found therein doing when that great and glorious Judge of all mens both deeds and words shall appear In the mean while be it One that hath this charge or be they Many that be his Assistants let there be careful provision that Justice may be administred and in this shall our God be glorified more than by such contentious Disputes XV. Of which nature that also is wherein Bishops are over and besides all this accused to have much more excessive power than the antient in as much as unto their Ecclesiastical authority the Civil Magistrate for the better repressing of such as contemn Ecclesiastical censures hath for divers ages annexed Civil The crime of Bishops herein is divided into these two several branches the one that in Causes Ecclesiastical they strike with the sword of Secular punishments the other that Offices are granted them by vertue whereof they meddle with Civil Affairs Touching the one it reacheth no farther than only unto restraint of liberty by imprisonment which yet is not done but by the Laws of the Land and by vertue of authority derived from the Prince A thing which being allowable in Priests amongst the Jews must needs have received some strange alteration in nature since if it be now so pernicious and venomous to be coupled with a Spiritual Vocation in any man which beareth Office in the Church of Christ. Shemaia writing to the Colledge of Priests which were in Ierusalem and to Zâ—phania the principal of them told them they were appointed of God that they might be Officers in the House of the Lord for every man which raved and did make himselfe a Prophet to the end that they might by the force of this their authority put such in Prison and in the Stocks His malice is reproved for that he provoketh them to shew their power against the innocent But surely when any man justly punishable had been brought before them it could be no unjust thing for them even in such sort then to have punished As for Offices by vertue whereof Bishops have to deal in Civil Affairs we must consider that Civil Affairs are of divers kindesâ— and as they be not all fit for Ecclesiastical Persons to meddle with so neither is it necessary nor at this day haply convenient that from meddling with any such thing at all they all should without exception be secluded I will therefore set down some few causes wherein it cannot but clearly appear unto reasonable men that Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions may be lawfully united in one and the same Person First therefore in case a Christian Society be planted amongst their professed enemies or by toleration do live under some certain State whereinto they are not incorporated whom shall we judge the meetest men to have the hearing and determining of such mere civil Controversies as are every day wont to grow between man and man Such being the state of the Church of Corinth the Apostle giveth them this direction Dare any of you having business against another be judged by the unjust and not under Saints Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World If the World then shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels How much more things that appertain to this life If then ye have judgement of things pertaining to this life set up them which are least esteemed in the Church I speak it to your shame Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you us not one that can judge between his Brethren but a Brother goeth to law with a Brother and that under the Infidels Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to Law one with another Why rather suffer ye not wrong why rather sustain ye not harm In which Speech there are these degrees Better to suffer and to put up Injuries than to contend better to end contention by Arbitrement then by Judgement better by Judgement before the wisest of their own than before the simpler better before the simplest of their own than the wisest of them without So that if judgement of Secular affairs should be committed unto wise men unto men of chiefest Credit and Account amongst them when the Pastors of their Souls are such Who more fit to be also their Judges for the ending of strikes The wisest in things divine may be also in things humane the most skilful At leastwise they are by likelihood commonly more able to know right from wrong than the common un-lettered sort And what St. Augustin did hereby gather his own words do sufficiently show I call God to witness upon my Soul saith he that according to the Order which is kept in well-ordered Monasteries I could wish to have every day my hours of labouring with my hands my hours of reading and of praying rather than to endure these most tumultuous perplexities of other men's causes which I am forced to bear while I travel in Secular businesses either by judging to discuss them or to cut them off by intreaty Unto which toyles that Apostle who himself sustained them not for any thing we read hath notwithstanding â—yed us not of his own accord but being thereunto directed by that Spirit which speaks in him His own Apostleship which drew him to travel up and down suffered him not to be any where settled for this purpose wherefore the wise faithful and holy men which were seated here and there and not them which travelled up and down to preach he made Examiners of such Businesses Whereupon of him it is no where written that he had leisure to attend these things from which we cannot excuse our selves although we be simple because even such he requireth if wise men cannot be had rather than
the Council of Carthage where it was decreed That the Bishop of the Chief See should not be entituled the Exarch of Priests or the highest Priest or any other thing of like sense but onely the Bishop of the chiefest See whereby are shut out the name of Archbishop and all other such haughty titles In these Allegations it fareth as in broken reports snatched out of the Author's mouth and broached before they be half either told on the one part or on the other understood The matter which Cyprian complaineth of in Florentinus was thus Novatus misliking the easiness of Cyprian to admit men into the fellowship of Believers after they had fallen away from the bold and constant Confession of Christian Faith took thereby occasion to separate himself from the Church and being united with certain excommunicate Persons they joyned their wits together and drew out against Cyprian their lawful Bishop sundry grievous accusations the crimes such as being true had made him uncapable of that Office whereof he was six years as then possessed they went to Rome and to other places accusing him every where as guilty of those faults of which themselves had lewdly condemned him pretending that twenty five African Bishops a thing most false had heard and examined his Cause in a Solemn Assembly and that they all had given their Sentence against him holding his Election by the Canons of the Church void The same factious and seditious Persons coming also unto Florentinus who was at that time a man imprisoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ but yet a favourer of the error of Novatus their malicious accusations he over-willingly hearkned unto gave them credit concurred with them and unto Cyprian in fine wrote his Letters against Cyprian Which Letters he justly taketh in marvellous evil part and therefore severely controuleth his so great presumption in making himself a Judge of a Judge and as it were a Bishop's Bishop to receive accusations against him as one that had been his Ordinary What heigth of pride is this saith Cyprian what arrogancy of spirit what a puffing up of minde to call Guides and Priests to be examined and sifted before him So that unless we shall be cleared in your Courts and absolved by your sentence behold for these six years space neither shall the Brotherhood have had a Bishop nor the People a Guide nor the Flock a Shepherd nor the Church a Governor nor Christ a Prelate nor God a Priest This is the pride which Cyprian condemneth in Florentinus and not the title or name of Archbishop about which matter there was not at that time so much as the dream of any controversie at all between them A silly collection it is that because Cyprian reproveth Florentinus for lightness of belief and presumptuous rashness of judgement therefore he held the title of Archbishop to be a vain and a proud name Archbishops were chief amongst Bishops yet Archbishops had not over Bishops that full Authority which every Bishop had over his own particular Clergy Bishops were not subject unto their Archbishop as an Ordinary by whom at all times they were to be judged according to the manner of inferiour Pastors within the compass of each Diocess A Bishop might suspend excommunicate depose such as were of his own Clergy without any other Bishops Assistants not so an Archbishop the Bishops that were in his own Province above whom divers Prerogatives were given him howbeit no such Authority and Power as alone to be Judge over them For as a Bishop could not be ordained so neither might he be judged by any one only Bishop albeit that Bishop were his Metropolitan Wherefore Cyprian concerning the liberty and freedom which every Bishop had spake in the Council of Carthage whereat fourscore and seven Bishops were present saying It resteth that every of us declare what we think of this matter neither judging nor severing from the right of Communion any that shall think otherwise For of us there is not any which maketh himself a Bishop of Bishops or with Tyrannical fear constraineth his Collegues unto the necessity of obedience inasmuch as every Bishop according to the reach of his liberty and power hath his own free judgement and can have no more another his Iudge than himself be Iudge to another Whereby it appeareth that amongst the African Bishops none did use such Authority over any as the Bishop of Rome did afterwards claim over all forcing upon them opinions by main and absolute power Wherefore unto the Bishop of Rome the same Cyprian also writeth concerning his Opinion about Baptism These things we present unto your Conscience most dear Brother as well for common honours sake as of single and sincere love trusting that as you are truly your self Religious and Faithful so those things which agree with Religions and Faith will be acceptable unto you Howbeit we know that what some have over-drunk in they will not let go neither easily change their minde but with care of preserving whole amongst their Brethren the bond of Peace and concord retaining still to themselves certain their own Opinions wherewith they have been inuired Wherein we neither use force nor prescribe a Law unto any knowing that in the Government of the Church every Ruler hath his own voluntary free judgment and of that which he doth shall render unto the Lord himself an account As for the Council of Carthage Doth not the very first Canon thereof establish with most effectual terms all things which were before agreed on in the Council of Nice And that the Council of Nice did ratifie the preheminence of Metropolitan Bishops who is ignorant The name of an Archbishop importeth only a Bishop having chiefty of certain Prerogatives above his Brethren of the same Order Which thing since the Council of Nice doth allow it cannot be that the other of Carthage should condemn it inasmuch as this doth yield unto that a Christian unrestrained approbation The thing provided for by the Synod of Carthage can be no other therefore than only that the chiefest Metropolitan where many Archbishops were within any greater Province should not be termed by those names as to import the power of an ordinary Jurisdiction belonging in such degree and manner unto him over the rest of the Bishops and Archbishops as did belong unto every Bishop over other Pastors under him But much more absurd it is to affirm that both Cyprian and the Council of Carthage condemn even such Superiority also of Bishops themselves over Pastors their Inferiours as the words of Ignatius imply in terming the Bishop A Prince of Priests Bishops to be termed Arch-Priests in regard of their Superiority over Priests is in the Writings of the Antient Fathers a thing so usual and familiar as almost no one thing more At the Council of Nice saith Theodores three hundred and eighteen Arch-Priests were present Were it the meaning of the Council of Carthage that the Title of
otherwise was most requisite Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf By reason whereof the Church groweth burdened with silly creatures more then need whose noted baseness and insufficiency bringeth their very Order it self into contempt It may be that the fear of a Quare impedit doth cause Institutions to pass more easily then otherwise they would And to speak plainly the very truth it may be that Writs of Quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the others place Yet where Law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment to shew their judgment they are not hindred And I doubt not but that even conscienceless and wicked Patrons of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England are the more imboldened to present unto Bishops any reffuse by finding so easie acceptation thereof Somewhat they might redress this sore notwithstanding so strong impediments if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart were not in a manner contented with it Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present if that which some of your selves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath if a man do but think what it is for a Bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower and that in trust without any other obligation then his sacred Order only and that religious Integrity which hath been presumed on in him Simoniacal corruption I may not for honors sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place So often they do not I trust offend by sale as by unadvised gift of such preferments wherein that ancient Canon should specially be remembred which forbiddeth a Bishop to be led by humane affection in bestowing the things of God A fault no where so hurtful as in bestowing places of jurisdiction and in furnishing Cathedral Churches the Prebendaries and other Dignities whereof are the very true successors of those ancient Presbyters which were at the first as Counsellers unto Bishops A foul abuse it is that any one man should be loaded as some are with Livings in this kind yea some even of them who condemn utterly the granting of any two Benefices unto the same man whereas the other is in truth a matter of far greater sequel as experience would soon shew if Churches Cathedral being furnished with the residence of a competent number of vertuous grave wise and learned Divines the rest of the Prebends of every such Church were given within the Diocess unto men of worthiest desert for their better encouragement unto industry and travel unless it seem also convenient to extend the benefit of them unto the learned in Universities and men of special imployment otherwise in the affairs of the Church of God But howsoever surely with the publick good of the Church it will hardly stand that in any one person such favours be more multiplied then law permitteth in those Livings which are with Cure Touching Bishops Visitations the first institution of them was profitable to the end that the state and condition of Churches being known there might be for evils growing convenient remedies provided in due time The observation of Church Laws the correction of faults in the service of God and manners of men these are things that visitors should seek When these things are inquired of formally and but for custom sake fees and pensions being the only thing which is sought and little else done by Visitations we are not to marvel if the baseness of the end doth make the action it self loathsom The good which Bishops may do not only by these Visitations belonging ordinarily to their Office but also in respect of that power which the Founders of Colledges have given them of special trust charging even fearfully their consciences therewith the good I say which they might do by this their authority both within their own Diocess and in the well-springs themselves the Universities is plainly such as cannot chuse but add weight to their heavy accounts in that dreadful Day if they do it not In their Courts where nothing but singular integrity and Justice should prevail if palpable and gross corruptions be found by reason of Offices so often granted unto men who seek nothing but their own gain and make no account what disgrace doth grow by their unjust dealings unto them under whom they deal the evil hereof shall work more then they which procure it do perhaps imagine At the hands of a Bishop the first thing looked for is a care of the Clergy under him a care that in doing good they may have whatsoever comforts and encouragements his countenance authority and place may yield Otherwise what heard shall they have to proceed in their painful course all sorts of men besides being so ready to malign despise and every way oppress them Let them find nothing but disdain in Bishops in the enemies of present Government if that way lift to betake themselves all kind of favourable and friendly help unto which part think we it likely that men having wit courage and stomack will incline As great a fault is the want of severity when need requireth as of kindness and courtesie in Bishops But touching this what with ill usage of their powe amongst the meaner and what with disuage amongst the higher sort they are in the eyes of both sorts as Bees have lost their sting It is a long time sithence any great one hath felt or almost any one much feared the edge of that Ecclesiastical severity which sometime held Lords and Dukes in a more religious aw then now the meanest are able to be kept A Bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them are under his charge what good might he do ten thousand ways more then any man knows how to set down But the souls of men are not loved that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious This is the very root the fountain of all negligence in Church-Government Most wretched are the terms of mens estate when once they are at a point of wrechlesness so extream that thy bend not their wits any further than only to shift out the present time never regarding what shall become of their Successors after them Had our Predecessors so loosely cast off from them all care and respect to posterity a Church Christian there had noâ— been about the regiment whereof we should need at this day to strive It was the barbarous affection of Nero that the ruine of his own Imperial Seat he could have been well enough contented to see in case he might also have seen it accompanied with the fall of the whole World An affection not more intolerable then theirs
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
in dealing is tyed unto the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things then that whose King is himself their Law where the King doth guide the State and the Law the King that Common-wealth is like an Harp or Melodious Instrument the strings whereof are turned and handled all by one hand following as Laws the Rules and Canons of Musical Science Most divinely therefore Archytas maketh unto publike felicity these four steps and degrees every of which doth spring from the former as from another cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King ruling by Law the Magistrate following the Subject free and the whole Society happy Adding on the contrary side that where this order is not it cometh by transgression thereof to pass that a King groweth a Tyrant he that ruleth under him abhorreth to be guided by him or commanded the people subject unto both have freedome under neither and the whole Community is wretched In which respect I cannot chuse but commend highly their wisdom by whom the Foundations of the Common-wealth hath been laid wherein though no manner of Person or cause be unsubject unto the Kings Power yet so is the Power of the King over all and in all limited that unto all his proceedings the Law it self is a rule The Axioms of our Regal Government are these Lex facit regem The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to the Law is void Rex nibil potest nisi quod jure potest Our Kings therefore when they are to take possession of the Crown they are called unto have it pointed our before their eyes even by the very Solemnities and Rites of their Inauguration to what affairs by the same Law their Supream Power and Authority reacheth crowned we see they are enthronized and annointed the Crown a Sign of a Military Dominion the Throne of Sedentary or Judicial the Oyl of Religious and Sacred Power It is not on any side denied that Kings may have Authority in Secular affairs The Question then is What power they may lawfully have and exercise in causes of God A Prince or Magistrate or a Community saith Doctor Stapleton may have power to lay corporal punishment on them which are teachers of perverse things power to make Laws for the Peace of the Church Power to proclaim to defend and even by revenge to preserve dogmata the very Articles of Religion themselves from violation Others in affection no less devoted unto the Papacy do likewise yield that the Civil Magistrate may by his Edicts and Laws keep all Ecclesiastical Persons within the bounds of their duties and constrain them to observe the Canons of the Church to follow the rule of ancient Discipline That if Ioash was commended for his care and provision concerning so small a part of Religion as the Church-treasure it must needs be both unto Christian Kings themselves greater honour and to Christianity a larger benefit when the custody of Religion and the worship of God in general is their charge It therefore all these things mentioned be most properly the affairs of Gods Ecclesiastical causes if the actions specified be works of power and if that power be such as Kings may use of themselves without the fear of any other power superior in the same thing it followeth necessarily that Kings may have supream power not only in Civil but also in Ecclesiastical affairs and consequently that they may withstand what Bishop or Pope soever shall under the pretended claim of higher Spiritual Authority oppose themselves against their proceedings But they which have made us the former grant will never hereunto condescend what they yield that Princes may do it is with secret exception always understood If the Bishop of Rome give leave if he enterpose no prohibition wherefore somewhat it is in shew in truth nothing which they grant Our own Reformes do the very like when they make their discourse in general concerning the Authority which Magistrates may have a man would think them to be far from withdrawing any jot of that which with reason may be thought due The Prince and Civil Magistrate saith one of them hath to see the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all Matters and all Orders of the Church to be executed and duly observed and to see every Ecclesiastical Person do that office whereunto he is appointed and to punish those which fail in their office accordingly Another acknowledgeth That the Magistrate may lawfully uphold all truth by his Sword punish all persons enforce all to their duties towards God and men maintain by his Laws every point of Gods Word punish all vice in all men see into all causes visit the Ecclesiastical Estate and correct the abuses thereof Finally to look to his Subjects that under him they may lead their lives in all godliness and honesty◠A third more frankly prosesseth That in case their Church Discipline were established so little it shortneth the Arms of Soveraign Dominion in causes Ecclesiastical that Her Gracious Majesty for any thing they teach or hold to the contrary may no less then now remain still over all persons in all things Supream Governess even with that full and Royal Authority Superiority and Preheminence Supremacy and Prerogative which the Laws already established do give her and her Majesties Injunctions and the Articles of the Convocation house and other writings Apologetical of her Royal Authority and Supream Dignity do declare and explain Possidonius was wont to say of the Epicure That he thought there were no Gods but that those things which he spake concerning the Gods were only given out for fear of growing adious amongst men and therefore that in words he left gods remaining but in very deed overthrew them in so much as he gave them no kind of Action After the very self same manner when we come unto those particular effects Prerogatives of Dominion which the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Kings thereof it will appear how these men notwithstanding their large and liberal Speeches abate such parcels out of the afore alleadged grant and flourishing shew that a man comparing the one with the other may half stand in doubt lest their Opinion in very truth be against that Authority which by their Speeches they seem mightily to uphold partly for the avoiding of publike obloquie envie and hatred partly to the intent they may both in the cad by the establishment of their Discipline extinguish the force of Supream Power which Princes have and yet in the mean while by giving forth these smooth Discourses obtain that their savourers may have somewhat to alleadge for them by way of Apologie and that such words only sound towards all kind of fulness of Power But for my self I had rather construe such their contradictions in the better
them who use but that Power which Laws have given them unless men can shew that there is in those Laws some manifest iniquity or injustice Whereas therefore against the force Judicial and Imperial which Supream Authority hath it is alledged how Constantine termeth Church-Officers Over-seers of things within the Church himself of those without the Church how Augustine witnesseth that the Emperor not daring to judge of the Bishop's Cause committed it to the Bishops and was to crave paâ—â—â—on of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end to appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs how Hilary beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical Causes to whom onely Common-wealth matters belonged how Ambrose affirmeth that Palaces belong unto the Emperor Churches to the Minister That the Emperor hath the authority over the Common-walls of the City and not in holy things for which cause he never would yield to have the Causes of the Church debated in the Princes Consistories but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to answer concerning Church-matters in a Civil Court he came not We may by these testimonies drawn from Antiquity if wellst to consider them discern how requisite it is that Authority should always follow received Laws in the manner of proceeding For inasmuch as there was at the first no certain Law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrates authority should be of how farr it should reach and what order it should observe but Christian Emperors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those affairs by this means it cometh to passe that they in their practise vary and are not uniform Vertuous Emperors such as Constantine the Great was made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the Church even when it lived under Infidels Constantine of reverence to Bishops and their Spiritual Authority rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do than was willing to claim a Power not fit or decent for him to exercise The Order which hath been before he ratifieth exhorting the Bishops to look to the Church and promising that he would do the Office of a Bishop over the Common-wealth which very Constantine notwithstanding did not thereby so renounce all Authority in judging of Special Causes but that sometime he took as St. Augustine witnesseth even personal cognition of them howbeit whether as purposing to give therein judicially any Sentence I stand in doubt for if the other of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh did in such sort judge surely there was cause why he should excuse it as a thing not usually done Otherwise there is no lett but that any such great Person may hear those Causes to and fro debated and deliver in the end his own opinion of them declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is But this kinde of Sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto it is a Sentence of private perswasion and not of solemn jurisdiction albeit a King or an Emperour pronounce it Again on the contrary part when Governours infected with Heresie were possessed of the Highest Power they thought they might use it as pleased themselves to further by all means that opinion which they desired should prevail they not respecting at all what was meet presumed to command and judge all men in all Causes without either care of orderly proceeding or regard to such Laws and Customs as the Church had been wont to observe So that the one sort feared to do even that which they might and that which the other ought not they boldly presumed upon the one sort of modesty excused themselves where they scarce needed the other though doing that which was inexcusable bare it out with main power not enduring to be told by any man how farr they roved beyond their bounds So great odds was between them whom before we mentioned and such as the younger Valentinian by whom St. Ambrose being commanded to yield up one of the Churches under him unto the Arrians whereas they which were sent on his Message alledged That the Emperour did but use his own right forasmuch as all things were in his power The Answer which the holy Bishop gave them was That the Church is the House of God and that those things that are Gods are not to be yielded up and disposed of it at the Emperors will and pleasure His Palaces he might grant to whomsoever he pleaseth but Gods own Habitation not so A cause why many times Emperours do more by their absolute Authority than could very well stand with reason was the over-great importunity of wicked Hereticks who being Enemies to Peace and Quietness cannot otherwise than by violent means be supported In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled than theirs was because our Lawes have with farr more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kinde of Power All decision of things doubtful and correction of things amiss are proceeded in by order of Law what Person soever he be unto whom the administration of Judgment belongeth It is neither permitted unto Prelates nor Prince to judge and determine at their own discretion but Law hath prescribed what both shall do What Power the King hath he hath it by Law the bounds and limits of it are known the intire Community giveth general order by Law how all things publickly are to be done and the King as the Head thereof the Highest in Authority over all causeth according to the same law every particular to be framed and ordered thereby The whole Body Politick maketh Laws which Laws gave Power unto the King and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that power it so falleth out that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort There is no cause given unto any to make supplication as Hilary did that Civil Governors to whom Common-wealth-matters only belong may not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical causes If the cause be Spiritual Secular Courts do not meddle with it we need not excuse our selves with Ambrose but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civil Judge in a matter which is not Civil so that we do not mistake either the nature of the Cause or of the Court as we easily may do both without some better direction than can be by the rules of this new-found Discipline But of this most certain we are that our Laws do neither suffer a Spiritual Court to entertain those Causes which by the Law are Civil nor yet if the matter be indeed Spiritual a mere Civil Court to give Judgement of it Touching Supream Power therefore to command all men and in all manner
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
in Sir Thomas Bodlies Library in that of Doctor Andrews late Bishop of Winton in the late Lord Conwayes in the Archbishop of Canterburies and in the Bishop of Armaghs and in many others and most of these pretended to be the Authors own hand but much disagreeing being indeed altered and diminisht as Men have thought fittest to make Mr. Hookers Judgment suit with their Fancies or give authority to their corrupt designs and for proof of a part of this take these following testimonies Doctor Barnard sometime Chaplain to Doctor Usher late Lord Archbishop of Armagh hath declar'd in a late Book called Clavi Trabales Printed by Richard Hodgkinson Anno 1661. that in his search and examination of the said Bishops Manuscripts he there found the three written Books which were the supposed sixth seventh and eighth of Mr. Hookers Books of Ecclesiastical Polity and that in the said three Books now printed as Mr. Hookers there are so many Omissions that they amount to many Paragraphs and which cause many incoherencies the Omissions are by him set down at large in the said Printed Book to which I refer the Reader for the whole but think fit in this place to insert this following short part of them First as there could be in Natural Bodies no Motion of any thing unless there were some first which moved all things and continued Unmoveable even so in Politick Societies there must be some unpunishable or else no Man shall suffer punishment for sith punishments proceed always from Superiors to whom the administration of Iustice belongeth which administration must have necessarily a Fountain that deriveth it to all others and receiveth not from any because otherwise the course of Iustice should go infinitely in a Circle every Superiour having his Superiour without end which cannot be therefore a well spring it followeth there is a Supreme head of Iustice whereunto all are subject but it self in subjection to none Which kinde of Preheminency if some ought to have in a Kingdom who but the King shall have it Kings therefore or no man can have lawfull power to Iudge If Private men offend there is the Magistrate over them which Iudgeth if Magistrates they have their Prince if Princes there is Heaven a Tribunal before which they shall appear on Earth they are not accomptable to any Here says the Doctor it breaks off abruptly And I have these words also attested under the hand of Mr. Fabian Phillips a man of note for his useful Books I will make Oath if I shall be required that Doctor Sanderson the late Bishop of Lincoln did a little before his Death affirm to me he had seen a Manuscript affirmed to him to be the hand-writing of Mr. Richard Hooker in which there was no mention made of the King or Supreme Governors being accomptable to the People this I will make Oath that that good Man attested to me Fabian Phillips So that there appears to be both Omissions and Additions in the said last three printed Books and this may probably be one Reason why Doctor Sanderson the said Learned Bishop whose writings are so highly and justly valued gave a strict charge near the time of his Death or in his last Will that nothing of his that was not already Printed should be Printed after his Death It is well known how high a value our Learned King Iames put upon the Books writ by Mr. Hooker as also that our late King Charls the Martyr for the Church valued them the second of all Books testified by his commending them to the reading of his Son Charls that now is our Gratious King and you may suppose that this Charls the First was not a stranger to the pretended three Books because in a discourse with the Lord Say when the said Lord required the King to grant the truth of his Argument because it was the Judgement of Mr. Hooker quoting him in one of the three written Books the King replyed they were not allowed to be Mr Hookers Books but however he would allow them to be Mr. Hookers and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful Books if he would but consent to the Iudgment of Mr. Hooker in the other five that were the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker In this Relation concerning these three doubtful Books of Mr. Hookers my purpose was to enquire then set down what I observ'd and know which I have done not as an engaged Person but indifferently and now leave my Reader to give Sentence for their Legitimation as to himself but so as to leave others the same Liberty of believing or disbelieving them to be Mr. Hookers and 't is observable that as Mr. Hooker advis'd with Doctor Spencer in the design and manage of these Books so also and chiefly with this dear Pupil George Cranmer whose Sister was the Wife of Doctor Spencer of which this following Letter may be a Testimony and doth also give authority to some things mentioned both in this Appendix and in the Life of Mr. Hooker and is therefore added GEORGE CRANMERS LETTER UNTO Mr. RICHARD HOOKER February 1598. WHat Posterity is likely to judge of these matters concerning Church Discipline we may the better conjecture if we call to mind what our own Age within few years upon better Experience hath already judged concerning the same It may be remembred that at first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined that way The Books then written for the most part savoured of the Disciplinary Stile it sounded everywhere in Pulpits and in common phrase of mens speech the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course many which impugned the Discipline yet so impugned it not as not being the better form of Government but as not being so convenient for our State in regard of dangerous Innovations thereby like to grow one man alone there was to speak of whom let no suspition of flattery deprive of his deserved Commendation wâ—o in the defiance of the one part and courage of the other stood in the gap and gave others respite to prepare themselves to the defence which by the sudden eagerness and violence of their Adversaries had otherwise been prevented wherein God hath made good unto him his own Impress Vincit qui patitur for what contumelious indignities he hath at their hands sustained the world is witness and what reward of Honour above his Adversaries God hath bestowed upon him themselves though nothing glad thereof must needs confess Now of late years the heat of men towards the Discipline is greatly decayed their Judgements begin to sway on the other side the Learned have weighed it and found it light wise men conceive some fear left it prove not only not the best kind of Government but the very bane and destruction of all Government The cause of this Change in Mens Opinions may be drawn from the general nature of Error disguised and
devices brought in which our Fathers never knew When their grave and reverend Superiors do reckon up unto them as Augustin did to the Donatists large Catalogues of Fathers wondred at for their wisdom piety and learning amongst whom for so many Ages before us no one did ever so think of the Churches affairs as now the World doth begin to be perswaded surely by us they are not taught to take exception hereat because such Arguments are Negative Much less when the like are taken from the sacred authority of Scripture if the matter it self do bear them For in truth the question is not Whether an Argument from Scripture negatively may be good but whether it be so generally good that in all actions men may urge it The Fathers I grant do use very general and large terms even as Hiero the King did in speaking of Archimedes From henceforward whatsoever Archimedes speaketh it must be believed His meaning was not that Archimedes could simply in nothing be deceived but that he had in such fort approved his skill that he seemed worthy of credit for ever after in matters appertaining unto the science he was skilful in In speaking thus largely it is presumed that mens speeches will be taken according to the matter whereof they speak Let any man therefore that carrieth indifferency of judgement peruse the Bishops speeches and consider well of those negatives concerning Scripture which he produceth out of Irenaeus Chrysostome and Leo which three are chosen from among the residue because the sentences of the others even as one of theirs also do make for defence of negative Argments taken from humane Authority and not from divine onely They mention no more restraint in the one then in the other yet I think themselves will not hereby judge that the Fathers took both to be strong without restraint unto any special kind of matter wherein they held such Argument forcible Nor doth the Bishop either say or prove any more then that an Argument in some kinds of matter may be good although taken negatively from Scripture 7. An earnest desire to draw all things unto the determination of bare and naked Scripture hath caused here much pains to be taken in abating the estimation and credit of man Which if we labour to maintain as far as Truth and Reason will bear let not any think that we travel about a matter not greatly needful For the scope of all their pleading against mans Authority is to overthrow such Orders Laws and Constitutions in the Church as depending thereupon if they should therefore be taken away would peradventure leave neither face nor memory of Church to continue long in the world the world especially being such as now it is That which they have in this case spoken I would for brevity sake let pass but that the drist of their speech being so dangerous then words are not to be neglected Wherefore to say that simply an Argument taken from mans Authority doth hold no way neither Affirmatively nor Negatively is hard By a mans Authority we here understand the force which his word hath for the assurance of anothers mind that buildeth upon it as the Apostle somewhat did upon their report of the house of Chloe and the Samaritans in a matter of far greater moment upon the report of a simple Woman For so it is said in S. Iohns Gospel Many of the Samaritans of that City believed in him for the saying of the woman which testified He hath told me all things that ever I did The strength of mans Authority is Affirmatively such that the weightiest affairs in the world depend thereon In judgement and justice are not hereupon proceedings grounded Saith not the Law that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word shall be confirmed This the Law of God would not say if there were in a mans testimony no force at all to prove any thing And if it be admitted that in matter of Fact there is some credit to be given to the testimony of man but not in matter of opinion and judgment we see the contrary both acknowledged and universally practised also throughout the world The sentences of wise and expert men were never but highly esteemed Let the title of a mans right be called in question are we not bold to relie and build upon the judgement of such as are famous for their skill in the Laws of this Land In matter of State the weight many times of some one mans authority is thought reason sufficient even to sway over whole Nations And this is not only with the simple sort but the learneder and wiser we are the more such Arguments in some cases prevail with us The Reason why the simpler sort are moved with Authority is the conscience of their own ignorance whereby it cometh to pass that having learned men in admiration they rather fear to dislike them then know wherefore they should allow and follow their judgements Contrariwise with them that are skilful authority is much more strong and forcible because they only are able to discern how just cause there is why to some mens Authority so much should be attributed For which cause the name of Hippocrates no doubt were more effectual to perswade even such men as Galen himself then to move a silly Emperick So that the very self-same Argument in this kind which doth but induce the vulgar sort to like may constrain the wiser to yield And therefore not Orators only with the people but even the very profoundest Disputers in all faculties have hereby often with the best learned prevailed most As for Arguments taken from humane Authority and that negatively for example sake if we should think the assembling of the people of God together by the sound of a Bell the presenting of Infants at the Holy Font by such as we commonly call their Godfathers or any other the like received custom to be impious because some men of whom we think very reverently have in their Books and Writings no where mentioned or taught that such things should be in the Church this reasoning were subject unto just reproof it were but feeble weak and unsound Notwithstanding even negatively an Argument from humane Authority may be strong as namely thus The Chronicles of England mention no more then only six Kings bearing the name of Edward since the time of the last Conquest therefore it cannot be there should be more So that if the question be of the authority of a mans testimony we cannot simply avouch either that affirmatively it doth not any way hold or that it hath only force to induce the simpler sort and not to constrain men of understanding and ripe judgement to yield assent or that negatively it hath in it no strength at all For unto every of these the contrary of most plain Neither doth that which is alledged concerning the infirmity of men overthrow or disprove this Men are blinded with ignorance and error many
that goeth with it leaveth or is apt to leave in mens mindes doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do then adde either beauty or furtherance unto it On the other side these faults prevented the force and efficacy of the thing it self when it drowneth not utterly but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God is in truth most admirable and doth much edifie if not the Understanding because it teacheth not yet surely the Affection because therein it worketh much They must have hearts very dry and tough from whom the melody of Psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a minde religiously affected delighteth Be it as Rabanus Maurus observeth that at the first the Church in this exercise was more simple and plain then we are that their singing was little more then onely a melodious kinde of pronounciation that the custom which we now use was not instituted so much for their cause which are Spiritual as to the end that into grosser and heavier mindes whom bare words do not easily move the sweetness of melody might make some entrance for good things St. Basil himself acknowledging as much did not think that from such inventions the least jot of estimation and credit thereby should be derogated For saith he whereas the Holy Spirit saw that Mankinde is unto Virtue hardly drawn and that Righteousness is the less accounted of by reason of the proveness of our affections to that which delighteth it pleased the Wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure which mingled with Heavenly Mysteries causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ear to convey as it were by stealth the treasure of good things into mans minde To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of Psalms divised for us that they which are either in years but young or touching perfection of Vertue as yet not grown to ripeness might when they think they sing learn O the wise conceit of that Heavenly Teacher which both by his skill found out a way that doing those things wherein we delight we may also learn that whereby we profit 39. And if the Prophet David did think that the very meeting of men together and their accompanying one another to the House of God should make the Bond of their Love insoluble and tie them in a League of inviolable Amity Psal. 54. 14. How much more may we judge it reasonable to hope that the like effects may grow in each of the people towards other in them all towards their Pastor and in their Pastor towards every of them between whom there daily and interchangeably pass in the hearing of God himself and in the presence of his holy Angels so many heavenly Acclamations Exultations Provocations Petitions Songs of Comfort Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving in all which particulars as when the Pastor maketh their sutes and they with one voice testifie a general assent thereunto or when he joyfully beginneth and they with like alacrity follow dividing between them the sentences wherewith they strive which shall most shew his own and stir up others zeal to the glory of that God whose name they magnifie or when he proposeth unto God their necessities and they their own requests for relief in every of them or when he lifteth up his voice like a Trumpet to proclaim unto them the Laws of God they adjoyning though not as Israel did by way of generality a chearful promise All that the Lord hath commanded we will do yet that which God doth no less approve that which favoreth more of meekness that which testifieth rather a feeling knowledge of our common imbecillity unto the several Branches thereof several lowly and humble requests for Grace at the merciful Hands of God to perform the thing which is commanded or when they wish reciprocally each others ghostly happiness or when he by exhortation raiseth them up and they by protestation of their readiness declare be speaketh not in vain unto them These interlocutory forms of speech what are they else but most effectual partly testifications and partly inflammations of all Piety When and how this custom of singing by course came up in the Church it is not certainly known Socrates maketh Ignatius the Bishop of Antioch in Syria the first beginner thereof even under the Apostles themselves But against Socrates they set the authority of Theodoret who draweth the original of it from Antioch as Socrates doth howbeit ascribing the invention to others Flavian and Diodore men which constantly stood in defence of the Apostolick Faith against the Bishop of that Church Leontius a favorer of the Arians Against both Socrates and Theodoret Platina is brought as a witness to testifie that Damasus Bishop of Rome began it in his time Of the Latine Church it may be true which Platina saith And therefore the eldest of that Church which maketh any mention thereof is St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan at the same time when Damasus was of Rome Amongst the Grecians St. Basil having brought it into his Church before they of Neocaesarea used it Sabellius the Heretick and Marcellus took occasion thereat to incense the Churches against him as being an Author of new devices in the Service of God Whereupon to avoid the opinion of Novelty and Singularity he alledgeth for that which he himself did the example of the Churches of Egypt Lybia Thebes Palestina Tharabians Phoenicians Syrians Mesopotamians and in a manner all that reverenced the custom of singing Psalms together If the Syrians had it then before Basil Antioch the Mother Church of those parts must needs have used it before Basil and consequently before Damasus The question is then how long before and whether so long that Ignatius or as ancient as Ignatius may be probably thought the first Inventors Ignatius in Trajans days suffered Martyrdom And of the Churches in Pontus and Bithynia to Trajan the Emperor his own Vicegerent there affirmeth That the onely crime he knew of them was They used to meet together at a certain day and to praise Christ with Hymns as a God Secum invicem one to another amongst themselves Which for any thing we know to the contrary might be the self-same form which Philo Iudaeus expresseth declaring how the Essens were accustomed with Hymns and Psalms to honor God sometime all exalting their voices together in one and sometime one part answering another wherein as he thought they swerved not much from the pattern of Moses and Miriam Whether Ignatius did at any time hear the Angels praising God after that sort or no what matter is it If Ignatius did not yet one which must be with us of greater Authority did I saw the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah on an high Throne the Seraphims stood upon it one cryed to another saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts the whole world is full of his glory But whosoever were the Author whatsoever the Time whencesoever
of Hereticks which entred closely into such mens houses as favored their opinions whom under colour of performing with them such Religious Offices they drew from the soundness of true Religion Now that perverse Opinions through the Grace of Almighty God are extinct and gone the cause of former restraints being taken away we see no reason but that private Oratories may hence forward enjoy that liberty which to have granted them heretofore had not been safe In sum all these things alledged are nothing nor will it ever be proved while the World doth continue but that the practice of the Church in cases of extream necessity hath made for private Baptism always more then against it Yea Baptism by any man in the case of necessity was the voice of the whole World heretofore Neither is Tertullian Epiphanius Augustine or any other of the Ancient against it The boldness of such as pretending Teclaes example took openly upon them both Baptism and all other Publick Functions of Priesthood Tertullian severely controlleth saying To give Baptism is in truth the Bishops Right After him it belongeth unto Priests and Deacons but not to them without authority from him received For so the honor of the Church requireth which being kept preserveth peace Were it not in this respect the Laity might do the same all sorts might give even as all sorts receive But because Emulation is the Mother of Schisms Let it content thee which art of the order of Lay-men to do it in necessity when the state of time or place or person thereunto compelleth For then is their boldness priviledged that help when the circumstance of other mens dangers craveth it What he granteth generally to Lay-persons of the House of God the same we cannot suppose he denieth to any sort or sex contained under that name unless himself did restrain the limits of his own speech especially seeing that Tertullians rule of interpretation is elswhere Specialties are signified under that which is general because they are therein comprehended All which Tertullian doth deny is That Women may be called to bear or publickly take upon them to execute Offices of Ecclesiastical Order whereof none but men are capable As for Epiphanius he striketh on the very self-same Anvil with Tertullian And in necessity if St. Augustine alloweth as much unto Laymen as Tertullian doth his not mentioning of Women is but a slender proof that his meaning was to exclude Women Finally the Council of Carthage likewise although it make no express submission may be very well presumed willing to stoop as other Positive Ordinances do to the countermands of necessity Judge therefore what the Antients would have thought if in their days it had been heard which is published in ours that because The Substance of the Sacrament doth chiefly depend on the Institution of God which is the form and as it were the life of the Sacrament therefore first If the whole Institution be not kept it is no Sacrament and secondly If Baptism be private his Institution is broken in as much as according to the orders which he hath set for Baptism it should be done in the Congregation from whose Ordinance in this point we ought not to swerve although we know that infants should be assuredly damned without Baptism O Sir you that would spurn thus at such as in case of so dreadful extremity should lie prostrate before your feet you that would turn away your face from them at the hour of their most need you that would dam up your ears and harden your hearts as Iron against the unresistable cries of Supplicants calling upon you for mercy with terms of such invocation as that most dreadful perplexity might minister if God by miracle did open the mouths of Infants to express their supposed necessity should first imagine your self in their case and them in yours This done let their Supplications proceed out of your mouth and your answer out of theirs Would you then contentedly hear My Son the Rites and Solemnities of Baptism must be kept we may not do ill that good may come of it neither are Souls to be delivered from eternal death and condemnation by breaking Orders which Christ hath set Would you in their case your self be shaken off with these answers and not rather embrace inclosed with both your arms a sentence which now is no Gospel unto you I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice To acknowledge Christs Institution the ground of both Sacraments I suppose no Christian man will refuse For it giveth them their very Nature it appointeth the Matter whereof they consist the Form of their Administration it teacheth and it blesseth them with that Grace whereby to us they are both Pledges and Instruments of life Nevertheless seeing Christs Institution containeth besides that which maketh compleat the Essence or Nature other things that onely are parts as it were of the Furniture of Sacraments the difference between these two must unfold that which the general terms of indefinite speech would confound If the place appointed for Baptism be a part of Christ Institution it is but his Institution as Sacrifice Baptism his Institution as Mercy In this case He which requireth both Mercy and Sacrifice rejecteth his own Institution of Sacrifice where the Offering of Sacrifice would hinde Mercy from being shewed External Circumstances even in the holiest and highest actions are but the lesser things of the Law whereunto those actions themselves being compared are the greater and therefore as the greater are of such importance that they must be done so in that extremity before supposed if our account of the lesser which are not to be omitted should cause omission of that which is more to be accounted of were not this our strict obedience to Christs Institution touching Mint and Cummin a disobedience to his Institution concerning Love But sith no Institution of Christ hath so strictly tied Baptism to publick Assemblies as it hath done all men unto Baptism away with these merciless and bloody sentences let them never be found standing in the Books and Writings of a Christian man they favor not of Christ nor of his most gracious and meek Spirit but under colour of exact obedience they nourish cruelty and hardness of heart 62. To leave Private Baptism therefore and to come unto Baptism by Women which they say is no more a Sacrament then any other ordinary Washing or Bathing of a Mans Body The reason whereupon they ground their opinion herein is such as making Baptism by Women void because Women are no Ministers in the Chruch of God must needs generally annihilate the Baptism of all unto whom their conceit shall apply this exception Whether it be in regard of Sex of Quality of Insufficiency or whatsoever For if want of Calling do frustrate Baptism they that Baptize without Calling do nothing be they Women or Men. To make Women Teachers in the House of God were a gross absurdity
the Enemies invasion doth remain but over and besides namely through Prayer and Imposition of Hands becometh yet greater yet mightier in strength so far as to raign with a kinde of Imperial Dominion over the whole Band of that roming and spoiling Adversary As much is signified by Eusebius Emissenus saying The Holy Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the Waters of Baptism doth there give that fulness which sufficeth for innocenty and afterwards exhibiteth in Confirmation an Augmentation of further Grace The Fathers therefore being thus perswaded held Confirmation as an Ordinance Apostolick always profitable in Gods Church although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those External Effects which gave it countenance at the first The cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism for most commonly they went together was sometimes in the Minister which being of inferior degree might Baptize but not Confirm as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and Iohn did confirm whereas Philip had before baptized them and in theirs of whom St. Ierome hath said I deny not but the Custom of the Churches is that the Bishop should go abroad and imposing his hands pray for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on them whom Presbyters and Deacons far off in lesser Cities have already â—aptized Which ancient Custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the example or Peter and Iohn in the Eighth of the Acts before alledged The faithful in Samaria saith he had already obtained Baptism onely that which was wanting Peter and John supplied by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to the end the Holy Ghost might be poured upon them Which also is done amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to obtain by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost By this it appeareth that when the Ministers of Baptism were persons of inferior degree the Bishops did after Confirm whom such had before Baptized Sometimes they which by force of their Ecclesiastical Calling might do as well the one as the other were notwithstanding Men whom Heresie had dis-joyned from the Fellowship of true Believers Whereupon when any Man by them Baptized and Confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce their Error there grew in some Churches very hot contention about the manner of admitting such into the Bosome of the true Church as hath been declared already in the question of Rebaptization But the generally received Custom was onely to admit them with Imposition of Hands and Prayer Of which Custom while some imagined the reason to be for that Hereticks might give Remission of Sins by Baptism but not the Spirit by Imposition of Hands because themselves had not Gods Spirit and that therefore their Baptism might stand but Confirmation must be given again The imbecillity of this ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the practice of the Church herein laboring many ways to prove That Hereticks could do neither and consequently that their Baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their Chrism for the manner of those times was in Confirming to use Anointing On the other side against Luciferians which ratified onely the Baptism of Hereticks but disannulled their Confirmations and Consecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been before specified Hereticks cannot give the Holy Ghost St. Ierome proveth at large That if Baptism by Hereticks be granted available to Remission of Sins which no man receiveth without the Spirit it must needs follow that the reason taken from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason wherefore the Church should admit Converts with any new Imposition of Hands Notwithstanding because it might be objected That if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always joyn it self with true Baptism the Church which thinketh the Bishops Confirmation after others Mens Baptism needful for the obtaining of the Holy Ghost should hold an error Saint Ierome hereunto maketh answer That the cause of this observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the Holy Ghost by the Sacrament of Baptism unless a Bishop add after it the Imposition of Hands but rather a certain congruity and fitness to honor Prelacy with such pre-eminences because the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her chief Superiors to whom if some eminent Offices of Power above others should not be given there would be in the Church as many Schisms as Priests By which answer it appeareth his opinion was That the Holy Ghost is received in Baptism that Confirmation is onely a Sacramental Complement that the reason why Bishops alone did ordinarily confirm was not because the benefit grace and dignity thereof is greater then of Baptism but rather for that by the Sacrament of Baptism Men being admitted into Gods Church it was both reasonable and convenient that if he Baptize them not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their Souls belongeth yet for honors sake and in token of his Spiritual Superiority over them because to bless is an act of Authority the performance of this annexed Ceremony should be sought for at his hands Now what effect their Imposition of Hands hath either after Baptism administred by Hereticks or otherwise St. Ierome in that place hath made no mention because all men understood that in Converts it tendeth to the fruits of Repentance and craveth in behalf of the Penitent such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of God in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which hath been before shewed Finally Sometime the cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism was in the parties that received Baptism being Infants at which age they might be very well admitted to live in the Family but because to fight in the Army of God to discharge the duties of a Christian man to bring forth the fruits and to do the Works of the Holy Ghost their time of ability was not yet come so that Baptism were not deferred there could by stay of their Confirmation no harm ensue but rather good For by this means it came to pass that Children in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of true Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their mindes a good foundation was laid betimes for direction of the course of their whole lives the Seed of the Church of God was preserved sincere and sound the Prelates and Fathers of Gods Family to whom the cure of their Souls belonged saw by tryal and examination of them a part of their own heavy burthen discharged reaped comfort by beholding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years glorified him whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every one Fatherly encouragement and exhortation Whereunto Imposition of Hands and Prayer being added our Warrant for the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarks Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and Men of God have had
authority those actions that appertain to our Place and Calling can our ears admit such a speech uttered in the reverend performance of that Solemnity or can we at any time renew the memory and enter into serious cogitation thereof but with much admiration and joy Remove what these foolish words do imply and what hath the Ministry of God besides wherein to glory Whereas now forasmuch as the Holy Ghost which our Saviour in his first Ordinations gave doth no lesse concurr with Spiritual vocations throughout all ages than the Spirit which God derived from Moses to them that assisted him in his Government did descend from them to their Successors in like Authority and Place we have for the least and meanest Duties performed by vertue of Ministerial power that to dignifie grace and authorize them which no other Offices on Earth can challenge Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn give Absolution or whatsoever as Disposers of God's Mysteries ourwords judgemnts acts and deeds are not ours but the Holy Ghost's Enough If unfeigaedly and in heart we did believe it enough to banish whatsoever may justly be thought corrupt either in bestowing or in using or in esteeming the same otherwise than is meet For prophanely to bestow or loosely to use or vilely to esteem of the Holy Ghost we all in shew and profession abhor Now because the Ministerie is an Office of dignitie and honour some are doubtful whether any man may seek for it without offence or to speak more properly doubtful they are not but rather bold to accuse our Discipline in this respect as not only permitting but requiring also ambitious suits or other oblique waies or means whereby to obtain it Against this they plead that our Saviour did stay till his Father sent him and the Apostles till he them that the antient Bishops in the Church of Christ were examples and patterns of the same modesty Whereupon in the end they insert Let see therefore at the length amend that custom of repairing from all parts unto the Bishop at the day of Ordination and of seeking to obtain Orders Let the custom of bringing commendatory Letters be removed let men keep themselves at home expecting there the voyce of God and the authority of such as may call them to undertake charge Thus severely they censure and control ambition if it be ambition which they take upon them to reprehend For of that there is cause to doubt Ambition as we understand it hath been accounted a Vice which seeketh after Honours inordinately Ambitious mindes esteeming it their greatest happiness to be admired reverenced and adored above others use all means lawful and unlawful which may bring them to high rooms But as for the power of Order considered by it self and as in this case it must be considered such reputation it hath in the eye of this present World that they which affect it rather need encouragement to bear contempt than deserve blame as men that carry aspiring mindes The work whereunto this power serveth is commended and the desire thereof allowed by the Apostle for good Nevertheless because the burthen thereof is heavy and the charge great it commeth many times to pass that the mindes even of virtuous men are drawn into clean contrary affections some in humility declining that by reason of hardness which others in regard of goodness onely do with servent alacrity cover So that there is not the least degree in this service but it may be both in reverence shunned and of very devotion longed for If then the desire thereof may be holy religious and good may not the profession of that desire be so likewise We are not to think it so long good as it is dissembled and evil if once we begin to open it And allowing that it may be opened without ambition what offence I beseeth you is there in opening it there where it may be furthered and satisfied in case they to whom it appertaineth think meet In vain are those desires allowed the accomplishment whereof it is not lawful for men to seek Power therefore of Ecclesiastical order may be desired the desire thereof may be professed they which profess themselves that way inclined may endeavour to bring their desires to effect and in all this no necessity of evil Is it the bringing of testimonial Letters wherein so great obliquity consisteth What more simple more plain more harmless more agreeable with the law of common humanity than that men where they are not known use for their easier access the credit of such as can best give testimony of them Letters of any other construction our Church-discipline alloweth not and these to allow is neither to require ambitious saings not to approve any indirect or unlawful act The Prophet Esay receiving his message at the hands of God and his charge by heavenly vision heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send Who shall go for us Whereunto he recordeth his own answer Then I said Here Lord I am send me Which in effect is the Rule and Canon whereby touching this point the very order of the Church is framed The appointment of times for solemn Ordination is but the publick demand of the Church in the name of the Lord himself Whom shall I send who shall go for us The confluence of men whose inclinations are bent that way is but the answer thereunto whereby the labours of sundry being offered the Church hath freedom to take whom her Agents in such case think meet and requisite As for the example of our Saviour Christ who took not to himself this honour to be made our High Priest but received the same from him which said Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec his waiting and not attempting to execute the Office till God saw convenient time may serve in reproof of usurped honours for as much as we ought not of our own accord to assume dignities whereunto we are not called as Christ was But yet it should be withal considered that a proud usurpation without any orderly calling is one thing and another the bare declaration of willingness to obtain admittance which Willingness of minde I suppose did not want in him whose answer was to the voice of his heavenly calling Behold I am come to do thy will And had it been for him as it is for us expedient to receive his Commission signed with the hands of men to seek it might better have beseemed his humility than it doth our boldness to reprehend them of Pride and Ambition that make no worse kinde of suits than by Letters of information Himself in calling his Apostles prevented all cogitations of theirs that way to the end it might truly be said of them Ye chose not me but I of mine own voluntary motion made choice of you Which kinde of undesired nomination to Ecclesiastical Places hefell divers of the most famous amongst the antient Fathers of the Church
Councel of Nice where thirteen years being set for the Penitency of certain offenders the severity of this Degree is mitigated with special caution That in all such cases the mind of the Penitent and the manner of his Repentance is to be noted that as many as with fear and tears and meekness and the exercise of good works declared themselves to be Converts indeed and not in outward appearance only towards them the Bishop at his discretion might use more lenity If the Councel of Nice suffice not let Gratian the Founder of the Canon Law expound Cyprian who sheweth that the stine of time in Penitency is either to be abridged or enlarged as the Penitents Faith and behaviour shall give occasion I have easilier found out men Saith S. Ambrose able to keep themselves free from crimes then conformable to the rules which in Penitency they should observe S. Gregory Bishop of Nisse complaineth and enveigheth bitterly against them who in the time of their Penitency lived even as they had done alwaies before Their countenance as chearful their attire is neat their dyet as costly and their sleep as secure as ever their worldly business purposely followed to exile pensive thoughts for their minds repentance pretended but indeed nothing less express These were the inspections of life whereunto St. Cyprian alludeth as for Auricular Examinations he knew them not Were the Fathers then without use of private Confession as long as publick was in use I affirm no such thing The first and ancientest that mentioneth this Confession is Origen by whom it may seem that men being loth to present rashly themselves and their faults unto the view of the whole Church thought it best to unfold first their minds to some one special man of the Clergy which might either help them himself or referre them to an higher Court if need were Be therefore circumspect saith Origen in making choice of the party to whom thou meanest to confess thy Sin know thy Physitian before thou use him If he find thy malady such as needeth to be made publick that other may be the better by it and thy self sonner helpt his counsel must be obeyed That which moved sinners thus voluntarily to detect themselves both in private and in publick was fear to receive with other Christian men the mysteries of heavenly grace till Gods appointed Stewards and Ministers did judge them worthy It is in this respect that St. Ambrose findeth fault with certain men which sought imposition of Penance and were not willing to wait their time but would be presently admitted Communicants Such people saith he do seek by so rash and preposterous desires rather to bring the Priest into bonds then to loose themselves In this respect it is that S. Augustine hath likewise said When the wound of Sin is so wide and the disease so far gone that the medicinable body and blood of our Lord may not be touched men are by the Bishops authority to sequester themselves from the Altar till such time as they have repented and be after reconciled by the same authority Furthermore because the knowledge how to handle our own sores is no vulgar and common art but we either carry towards our selves for the most part an over-soft and gentle hand fearful of touching too near the quick or else endeavouring not to be partial we fall into timerous scrupulosities and sometime into those extream discomforts of mind from which we hardly do ever lift up our heads again men thought it the safest way to disclose their secret faults and to crave imposition of Penance from them whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath left in his Church to be Spiritual and Ghostly Physitians the Guides and Pastors of redeemed Souls whose Office doth not onely consist in generall perswasions unto amendment of life but also in the private particular cure of diseased minds Howsoever the Novatianists presume to plead against the Church saith Salvianus that every man ought to be his own Penitentiary and that it is a part of our duty to exercise but not of the Churches Authority to impose or prescribe Repentance the truth is otherwise the best and strongest of us may need in such cases direction What doth the Church in giving Penance but shew the remedies which Sin requireth or what do we in receiving the same but fulfill her precept what else but sue unto God with tears and salts that his merciful ears may be opened St. Augustines exhortation is directly to the same purpose Let every man whilst he hath time judge himself and change his life of his own accord and when this is resolved Let him from the disposers of the holy Sacraments learn in what manner be is to pacifie Gods displeasure But the greatest thing which made men forward and willing upon their knees to confess whatsoever they had committed against God and in no wise to be with-held from the same with any fear of disgrace contempt or obloquy which might ensue was their servent desire to be helped and assisted with the Prayers of Gods Saints Wherein as St. Iames doth exhort unto mutual confession alledging this onely for a reason that just mens devout prayers are of great avail with God so it hath been heretofore the use of Penitents for that intent to unburthen their minds even to private persons and to crave their Prayers Whereunto Cassianus alluding counselleth That if men possest with dulness of spirit be themselves unapt to do that which is required they should in meek affection seek health as the least by good and vertuous mens prayers unto God for them And to the same effect Gregory Bishop of Nisse Humble thy self and take unto thee such of thy brethren as are of one mind and do bear kind affection towards thee that they may together mourn and labour for thy deliverance Show me thy bitter and abundant tears that I may blend mine own with them But because of all men there is or should be none in that respect more fit for troubled and distressed minds to repair unto then Gods Ministers he proceedeth further Make the Priest as a Father partaker of thine affliction and grief be bold to impart unto him the things that are most secret he will have care both of thy safety and of thy credit Confession saith Leo is first to be offered to God and then to the Priest as to one which maketh supplication for the sins of Penitent offenders Suppose we that men would ever have been easily drawn much less of their own accord have come unto publick Confession whereby they know they should sound the trumpet of their own disgrace would they willingly have done this which naturally all men are loth to do but for the singular trust and confidence which they had in the publick prayers of Gods Church Let thy Mother the Church weep for thee saith Ambrose let her wash and bathe thy faults with
God's hands for Publick Confession the last act of Penitency was alwayes made in the form of a contrite Prayer unto God it could not be avoided but they must withall confesse what their offences were This is the opinion of their Prelate seemed from the first beginning as we may probably think to be somewhat burthensome that men whose Crimes were unknown should blaze their own Faults as it were on the Stage acquainting all the People with whatsoever they had done amisse And therefore to remedy this Inconvenience they laid the charge upon one onely Priest chosen out of such as were of best Conversation a silent and a discreet man to whom they which had offended might resort and lay open their Lives He according to the quality of every one's Transgressions appointed what they should do or suffer and left them to execute it upon themselves Can we wish a more direct and evident testimonie that the Office here spoken of was to ease voluntary Penitents from the burthen of publick Confessions and not to constrain notorious Offenders thereunto That such Offenders were not compellable to open Confessions till Novatian's time that is to say till after the dayes of Persecution under Decius the Emperour they of all men should not so peremptorily avouch which whom if Fabian Bishop of Rome who suffered Martyrdom in the first year of Decius be of any authority and credit it must inforce them to reverse their Sentence his words are so plain and clear against them For such as commit those Crimes whereof the Apostle hath said They that do them shall never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven must saith he be forced unto amendment because they slipp down to Hell if Ecclesiastical Authority stay them not Their conceit of Impossibility that one man should suffice to take the general charge of Penitency in such a Church as Constantinople hath risen from a meer erroneous supposal that the Antient manner of private Confession was like the Shrift at this day usual in the Church of Rome which tyeth all men at one certain time to make Confession whereas Confession was then neither looked for till men did offer it nor offered for the most part by any other than such as were guilty of haynous Transgressions nor to them any time appointed for that purpose Finally The drift which Sozomen had in relating the Discipline of Rome and the Form of publick Penitency there retained even till his time is not to signifie that onely publick Confession was abrogated by Nectarius but that the West or Latin Church held still one and the same Order from the very beginning and had not as the Greek first cut off publick voluntary Confession by ordaining and then private by removing Penitentiaries Wherefore to conclude It standeth I hope very plain and clear first against the one Cardinal that Nectarius did truly abrogate Confession in such sort as the Ecclesiastical History hath reported and secondly as clear against them both that it was not publick Confession onely which Nectarius did abolish The Paradox in maintenance whereof Hessels wrote purposely a Book touching this Argument to shew that Nectarius did but put the Penitentiary from his Office and not take away the Office it self is repugnant to the whole advice which Eudaemon gave of leaving the People from that time forward to their own Consciences repugnant to the Conference between Socrates and Eudamon wherein complaint is made of some inconvenience which the want of the Office would breed Finally repugnant to that which the History declareth concerning other Churches which did as Nectarius had done before them not in deposing the same man for that was impossible but in removing the same Office out of their Churches which Nectarius had banished from his For which cause Bellarmin doth well reject the opinion of Hessels howsoever it please Pamelius to admire it as a wonderful happy Invention But in sum they are all gravelled no one of them able to go smoothly away and to satisfie either others or himself with his own conceit concerning Nectarius Only in this they are stiff that Auricular Confession Nectarius did not abrogate left if so much should be acknowledged it might enforce them to grant that the Greek Church at that time held not Confession as the Latin now doth to be the part of a Sacrament instituted by our Saviour Jesus Christ which therefore the Church till the Worlds end hath no power to alter Yet seeing that as long as publick voluntary Confession of private Crimes did continue in either Church as in the one it remained not much above 200. years in the other about 400. the only acts of such Repentance were first the Offender's intimation of those Crimes to some one Presbyter for which imposition of Penance was sought Secondly the undertaking of Penance imposed by the Bishop Thirdly after the same performed and ended open Confession to God in the hearing of the whole Church Whereupon Fourthly ensued the Prayer of the Church Fifthly then the Bishop's imposition of hands and so Sixthly the Parties reconciliation or restitution to his former right in the holy Sacrament I would gladly know of them which make onely private Confession a part of their Sacrament of Penance how it could be so in those times For where the Sacrament of Penance is ministred they hold that Confession to be Sacramental which he receiveth who must absolve whereas during the fore-rehearsed manner of Penance it can no where be shewed that the Priest to whom secret information was given did reconcile or absolve any For how could he when Publick Confession was to goe before Reconciliation and Reconciliation likewise in publick thereupon to ensue â— So that if they did account any Confession Sacramental it was surely publicke which is now abolish'd in the Church of Rome and as for that which the Church of Rome doth so esteem the Ancient neither had it in such estimation nor thought it to be of so absolute necessity for the taking away of Sinne But for any thing that I could ever observe out of them although not onely in Crimes open and notorious which made men unworthy and uncapable of holy Mysteries their Discipline required first publicke Penance and then granted that which Saint Hierona mentioneth saying The Priest layeth his hand upon the Penitent and by invocation intreateth that the holy Ghost may return to him again and so after having enjoyned solemnly all the People to pray for him reconcileth to the Altar him who was delivered to Satan for the destruction of his Flesh that his Spirit might be safe in the day of the Lord. Although I say not onely in such Offences being famously known to the World but also if the same were committed secretly it was the custom of those times both that private Intimation should be given and publick Confession made thereof in which respect whereas all men did willingly the one but would as willingly have withdrawn themselves from the other
there is found no restraint of that name but only a general use whereby it reacheth unto all spiritual Governors and Overseers But to let go the name and to come to the very nature of that thing which is thereby signified in all kindes of Regiment whether Ecclesiastical or Civil as there are sundry operations publique so likewise great inequality there is in the same operations some being of principal respect and therefore not fit to be dealt in by every one to whom publique actions and those of good importance are notwithstanding well and â—itly enough committed From hence have grown those different degrees of Magistrates or publique persons even Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Amongst Ecclesiastical Persons therefore Bishops being chief ones a Bishops function must be defined by that wherein his Chiefty consisteth A Bishop is a Minister of God unto whom with permanent continuance there is given not only power of administring the Word and Sacraments which power other Presbyrers have but also a further power to ordain Ecclesiastical persons and a power of Chiefty in Government over Presbyters as well as Lay men a power to be by way of jurisdiction a Pastor even to Pastors themselves So that this Office as he is a Presbyter or Pastor consisteth in those things which are common unto him with other Pastors as in ministring the Word and Sacraments But those things incident unto his Office which do properly make him a Bishop cannot be common unto him with other Pastors Now even as Pastors so likewise Bishops being principal Pastors are either at large or else with restraint At large when the subject of their Regiment is indefinite and not tyed to any certain place Bishops with restraint are they whose Regiment over the Church is contained within some definite local compass beyond which compass their jurisdiction reacheth not Such therefore we always mean when we speak of that Regiment by Bishops which we hold a thing most lawful divine and holy in the Church of Christ. III. In our present regiment by Bishops two things there are complained of the one their great Authority and the other their great Honor. Touching the Authority of our Bishops the first thing which therein displeaseth their Adversaries is the Superiority which Bishops have over other Ministers They which cannot brook the Superiority which Bishops have do notwithstanding themselves admit that some kind of difference and inequality there may be lawfully amongst Ministers Inequality as touching gifts and graces they grant because this is so plain that no mist in the world can be cast before mens eyes so thick but that they needs must discern thorow it that one Minister of the Gospel may be more learneder holier and wiser better able to instruct more apt to rule and guide them then another Unless thus much were confest those men should lose their fame and glory whom they themselves do entitle the Lights and grand Worthies of this present age Again a priority of Order they deny not but that there may be yea such a priority as maketh one man amongst many a principal Actor in those things whereunto sundry of them must necessarily concur so that the same be admitted only during the time of such actions and no longer that is to say just so much superiority and neither more nor less may be liked of then it hath pleased them in their own kind of regiment to set down The inequality which they complain of is That one Minister of the Word and Sacraments should have a permanent superiority above another or in any sort a superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over other Ministers By us on the contrary side inequality even such inequality as unto Bishops being Ministers of the Word and Sacraments granteth a superiority permanent above Ministers yea a permanent superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over them is maintained a thing allowable lawful and good For superiority of power may be either above them or upon them in regard of whom it is termed superiority One Pastor hath superiority of power above another when either some are authorised to do things worthier then are permitted unto all some are preferred to be principal Agents the rest Agents with dependency and subordination The former of these two kinds of superiority is such as the High-Priest had above other Priests of the Law in being appointed to enter once a year the holy place which the rest of the Priests might not do The latter superiority such as Presidents have in those actions which are done by others with them they nevertheless being principal and chief therein One Pastor hath superiority of power not only above but upon another when some are subject unto others commandment and judicial controlment by vertue of publique jurisdiction Superiority in this last kinde is utterly denied to be allowable in the rest it is only denied that the lasting continuance and settled permanency thereof is lawful So that if we prove at all the lawfulness of superiority in this last kind where the same is simply denied and of permanent superiority in the rest where some kind of superiority is granted but with restraint to the term and continuance of certain actions with which the same must as they say expire and cease If we can show these two things maintainable we bear up sufficiently that which the adverse party endeavoureth to overthrow Our desire therefore is that this issue may be strictly observed and those things accordingly judged of which we are to alleadge This we boldly therefore set down as a most infallible truth That the Church of Christ is at this day lawfully and so hath been sit hence the first beginning governed by Bishops having permanent superiority and ruling power over other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments For the plainer explication whereof let us briefly declare first The birth and original of the same power whence and by what occasion it grew Secondly What manner of power antiquity doth witness Bishops to have had more then Presbyters which were no Bishops Thirdly After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches under them according to the like testimonial evidence of antiquity Fourthly How far the same Episcopal power hath usually extended unto what number of persons it hath reached what bounds and limits of place it hath had This done we may afterwards descend unto those by whom the same either hath been heretofore or is at this present hour gainsaid IV. The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were his blessed Apostles for the Office whereunto Matthias was chosen the sacred History doth term ' E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Episcopal Office Which being spoken expresly of one agreeth no less unto them all then unto him For which cause St. Cyprian speaking generally of them all doth call them Bishops They which were termed Apostles as being sent of Christ to publish his Gospel throughout the world and were named likewise
Presbyters and Bishops both were all subject unto Paul as to an higher Governor appointed of God to be over them But for as much as the Apostles could not themselves be present in all Churches and as the Apostles St. Paul foretold the Presbyters of the Ephesians that there would rise up from amongst their own selves men speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them there did grow in short time amongst the Governors of each Church those emulations strifes and contentions whereof there could be no sufficient remedy provided except according unto the order of Ierusalem already begun some one were indued with Episcopal Authority over the rest which one being resident might keep them in order and have preheminence or principality in those things wherein the equality of many agents was the cause of disorder and trouble This one President or Governour amongst the rest had his known Authority established along time before that settled difference of name and title took place whereby such alone were named Bishops And therefore in the book of S. Iohns Revelation we find that they are entituled Angels It will perhaps be answered That the Angels of those Churches were onely in every Church a Minister Sacraments But then we ask Is it probable that in every of these Churches even in Ephesus it self where wany such Ministers were long before as hath been proved there was but one such when Iohn directed his speech to the Angel of that Church If there were many surely St. Iohn in naming but only one of them an Angel did behold in that one somewhat above the rest Nor was this order peculiar unto some few Churches but the whole world universally became subject thereunto insomuch as they did not account it to be a Church which was not subject unto a Bishop It was the general received perswasion of the ancient Christian world that Ecclesia est in Episcopo the outward being of a Church consisteth in the having of a Bishop That where Colledges of Presbyters were there was at the first equality amongst them S. Ierome thinketh it a matter clear but when the rest were thus equal so that no one of them could command any other as inferior unto him they all were controlable by the Apostles who had that Episcopal authority abiding at the first in themselves which they afterwards derived unto others The cause wherefore they under themselves appointed such Bishops as were not every whereat the first is said to have been those strifes and contentions for remedy whereof whether the Apostles alone did conclude of such a regiment or else they together with the whole Church judging it a fit and a needfull policy did agree to receive it for a custom no doubt but being established by them on whom the Holy Ghost was powred in so abundant measure for the ordering of Christs Church it had either Divine appointment beforehand or Divine approbation afterwards and is in that respect to be acknowledged the Ordinance of God no less then that ancient Jewish regiment whereof though Iethro were the Deviser yet after that God had allowed it all men were subject unto it as to the Polity of God and not of Iethro That so the ancient Fathers did think of Episcopal regiment that they held this order as a thing received from the blessed Apostles themselves and authorized even from heaven we may perhaps more easily prove then obtain that they all shall grant it wâ—o see it proved St. Augustine setteth it down for a principle that whatsoever positive order the whole Church every where doth observe the same it must needs have received from the very Apostles themselves unless perhaps some general Councel were the Authors of it And he saw that the ruling superiority of Bishops was a thing universally established not by the force of any Councel for Councels do all presuppose Bishops nor can there any Councel be named so ancient either General or as much as Provincial sithence the Apostles own times but we can shew that Bishops had their Authority before it and not from it Wherefore St. Augustine knowing this could not chuse but reverence the Authority of Bishops as a thing to him apparently and most clearly apostolical But it will be perhaps objected that Regiment by Bishops was not so universal nor ancient as we pretend and that an Argument hereof may be Ieroms own Testimony who living at the very same time with St. Augustine noteth this kind of Regiment as being no where antient saving onely in Alexandria his words are these It was for a remedy of Schism that one was afterwards chosen to be placed above the rest lest every mans pulling unto himself should rend asunder the Church of Christ. For that which also may serve for an Argument or taken hereof at Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclas and Dionysius the Presbyters always chose one OF THEMSELVES whom they placed in higher degree and gave unto him the Title of Bishop Now St. Ierom they say would never have picked out that one Church from amongst so many and have noted that in it there had been Bishops from the time that St. Mark lived if so be the self same order were of like antiquity every where his words therefore must be thus scholied In the Church of Alexandria Presbyters indeed had even from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist always a Bishop to rule over them for a remedy against Divisions Factions and Schisms Not so in other Churches neither in that very Church any longer then usque ad Heraclam Dionysium till Heraclas and his Successor Dionysius were Bishops But this construction doth bereave the words construed partly of wit and partly of truth it maketh them both absurd and false For if the meaning be that Episcopal Government in that Church was then expired it must have expired with the end of some one and not of two several Bishops days unless perhaps it fell sick under Heraclas and with Dionysius gave up the Ghost Besides it is clearly untrue that the Presbyters of that Church did then cease to be under a Bishop Who doth not know that after Dionysius Maximus was Bishop of Alexandria after him Theonas after him Peter after him Achillas after him Alexander of whom Socrates in this sort writeth It fortuned on a certain time that this Alexander in the presence of the Presbyters which were under him and of the rest of the Clergy there discoursed somewhat curiously and subtilly of the holy Trinity bringing high Philosophical proofs that there is in the Trinity an Unity Whereupon Arius one of the Presbyters which were placed in that degree under Alexander opposed eagerly himself against those things which were uttered by the Bishop So that thus long Bishops continued even in the Church of Alexandria Nor did their Regiment here cease but these also had others their Successors till St. Ieroms own time who living long after Heraclas and Dionysius had
greater then the rest and that with common advice they ought to govern the Church To clear the sense of these words therefore as we have done already the former Laws which the Church from the beginning universally hath observed were some delivered by Christ himself with a charge to keep them till the worlds end as the Law of Baptizing and administring the holy Eucharist some brought in afterwards by the Apostles yet not without the special direction of the Holy Ghost as occasions did arise Of this sort are those Apostolical orders and laws whereby Deacons Widows Virgins were first appointed in the Church This answer to Saint Ierom seemeth dangerous I have qualified it as I may by addition of some words of restraint yet I satisfie not may self in my judgment it would be altered Now whereas Jerom doth term the Government of Bishops by restraint an Apostolical tradition acknowledging thereby the same to have been of the Apostles own institution it may be demanded how these two will stand together namely that the Apostles by divine instinct should be as Jerom confesseth the Authors of that regiment and yet the custome of the Church he accompted for so by Jerom it may seem to be in this place accompted the chiefest prop that upholdeth the same To this we answer That for as much as the whole body of the Church hath power to alter with general consent and upon necessary occasions even the positive law of the Apostles if there be no commandment to the contrary and it manifestly appears to her that change of times have clearly taken away the very reason of Gods first institution as by sundry examples may be most clearly proved what laws the universal Church might change and doth not if they have long continued without any alteration it seemeth that St. Jerom ascribeth the continuance of such positive laws though instituted by God himself to the judgemement of the Church For they which might abrogate a Law and do not are properly said to uphold to establish it and to give it being The Regiment therefore whereof Jerom speaketh being positive and consequently not absolutely necessary but of a changeable nature because there is no Divine voice which in express words forbiddeth it to be changed he might imagine both that it came by the Apostles by very divine appointment at the first and notwithstanding be after a sort said to stand in force rather by the custome of the Church choosing to continue in it than by the necessary constraint of any Commandment from the Word requiring perpetual continuance thereof So that St. Ieroms admonition is reasonable sensible and plain being contrived to this effect The ruling superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters in each Church is an Order descended from Christ to the Apostles who were themselves Bishops at large and from the Apostles to those whom they in their steads appointed Bishops over particular Countries and Cities and even from those antient times universally established thus many years it hath continued throughout the World for which cause Presbyters must not grudg to continue subject unto their Bishops unless they will proudly oppose themselves against that which God himself ordained by his Apostles and the whole Church of Christ approveth and judgeth most convenient On the other side Bishops albeit they may avouch with conformity of truth that their Authority had thus descended even from the very Apostles themselves yet the absolute and everlasting continuance of it they cannot say that any Commandment of the Lord doth injoyn And therefore must acknowledge that the Church hath power by universal consent upon urgent cause to take it away if thereunto she be constrained through the proud tyrannical and unreformable dealings of her Bishops whose Regiment she hath thus long delighted in because she hath found it good and requisite to be so governed Wherefore lest Bishops forget themselves as if none on earth had Authority to touch their states let them continually bear in mind that it is rather the force of custom whereby the Church having so long found it good to continue under the Regiment of her vertuous Bishops doth still uphold maintain and honour them in that respect than that any such true and heavenly Law can be showed by the evidence whereof it may of a truth appear that the Lord himself hath appointed Presbyters for ever to be under the Regiment of Bishops in what sort soever they behave themselves let this consideration be a bridle unto them let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their Presbyters but to use their authority with so much the greater humility and moderation as a Sword which the Church hath power to take from them In all this there is no leâ—â— why S. Ierom might not think the Authors of Episcopal Regiment to have been the very blessed Apostles themselves directed therein by the special mution of the Holy Ghost which the Ancients all before and besides him and himself also elsewhere being known to hold we are not without better evidence then this to think him in judgement divided both from himself and from them Another Argument that the Regiment of Churches by one Bishop over many Presbyters hath been always held Apostolical may be this We find that throughout all those Cities where the Apostles did plant Christianity the History of times hath noted succession of pastors in the seat of one not of many there being in every such Church evermore many Pastors and the first one in every rank of succession we find to have been if not some Apostle yet some Apostles Disciple By Epiphanius the Bishops of Ierusalem are reckoned down from Iames to Hilarion then Bishop Of them which boasted that they held the same things which they received of such as lived with the Apostles themselves Tertullian speaketh after this sort Let them therefore shew the beginnings of their Churches let them recite their Bishops one by one each in such sort succeeding other that the first Bishop of them have had for his Author and Predecessour some Apostle or at least some Apostolical Person who persevered with the Apostles For so Apostolical Churches are wont to bring forth the evidence of their estates So doth the Church of Smyrna having Polycarp whom Iohn did consecrate Catalogues of Bishops in a number of other Churches Bishops and succeeding one another from the very Apostles times are by Eusebius and Socrates collected whereby it appeareth so clear as nothing in the World more that under them and by their appointment this Order began which maketh many Presbyters subject unto the Regiment of some one Bishop For as in Rome while the civil ordering of the Common-wealth was joyntly and equally in the hands of two Consuls Historical Records concerning them did evermore mention them both and note which two as Collegues succeeded from time to time So there is no doubt but Ecclesiastical antiquity had done the very like had not one Pastors place and
wonder at the handy-work of Almighty God who to settle the Kingdom of his dear Son did not cast out any one People but directed in such sort the Politick Councils of them who ruled farr and wide overall that they throughout all Nations People and Countries upon Earth should unwittingly prepare the Field wherein the Vine which God did intend that is to say the Church of his dearly beloved Son was to take root For unto nothing else can we attribute it saving only unto the very incomprehensible force of Divine providence that the World was in so marvellous sit sort divided levelled and laid out before hand whose work could it be but his alone to make such provision for the direct implantation of his Church Wherefore inequality of Bishops being found a thing convenient for the Church of God in such consideration as hath been shewed when it came secondly in question which Bishops should be higher and which lower it seemed herein not to the civil Monarch only but to the most expedient that the dignity and celebrity of Mother-Cities should be respected They which dream that if Civil Authority had not given such preheminence unto one City more than another there had never grown an inequality among Bishops are deceived Superiority of one Bishop over another would be requisite in the Church although that Civil distinction were abolished other causes having made it necessary even amongst Bishops to have some in degree higher than the rest the civil dignity of place was considered only as a reason wherefore this Bishop should be preferred before that Which deliberation had been likely enough to have raised no small trouble but that such was the circumstance of place as being followed in that choyce besides the manifest conveniency thereof took away all show of Partiality prevented secret emulations and gave no man occasion to think his Person disgraced in that another was preferred before him Thus we see upon what occasion Metropolitan Bishops became Archbishops Now while the whole Christian World in a manner still continued under one Civil Government there being oftentimes within some one more large Territory divers and sundry Mother-Churches the Metropolitans whereof were Archbishops as for Order's sake it grew hereupon expedient there should be a difference also amongst them so no way seemed in those times more fit than to give preheminence unto them whose Metropolitan Sees were of special desert or dignity for which cause these as being Bishops in the chiefest Mother-Churches were termed Primates and at the length by way of excellency Patriarks For ignorant we are not how sometimes the Title of Patriark is generally given to all Metropolitan Bishops They are mightily therefore to blame which are so bold and confident as to affirm that for the space of above four hundred and thirty years after Christ all Metropolitan Bishops were in every respect equals till the second Council of Constantinople exalted certain Metropolitans above the rest True it is they were equals as touching the exercise of Spiritual power within their Dioceses when they dealt with their own flock For what is it that one of them might do within the compass of his own precinct but another within his might do the same But that there was no subordination at all of one of them unto another that when they all or sundry of them were to deal in the same Causes there was no difference of first and second in degree no distinction of higher and lower in authority acknowledged amongst them is most untrue The Great Council of Nice was after our Saviour Christ but three hundred twenty four years and in that Council certain Metropolitans are said even then to have had antient preheminence and dignity above the rest namely the Primate of Alexandria of Rome and of Antioch Threescore years after this there were Synods under the Emperour Theodosius which Synod was the first at Constantinople whereat one hundred and fifty Bishops were assembled at which Council it was decreed that the Bishop of Constantinople should not only be added unto the forme Primates but also that his Place should be second amongst them the next to the Bishop of Rome in dignity The same Decree again renewed concerning Constantinople and the reason thereof laid open in the Council of Chalcedon At the length came that second of Constantinople whereat were six hundred and thirty Bishops for a third confirmation thereof Laws Imperial there are likewise extant to the same effect Herewith the Bishop of Constantinople being over-much puffed up not only could not endure that See to be in estimation higher whereunto his own had preferment to be the next but he challenged more than ever any Christian Bishop in the World before either had or with reason could have What he challenged and was therein as then refused by the Bishop of Rome the same the Bishop of Rome in process of time obtained for himself and having gotten it by bad means hath both up-held and augmented it and upholdeth it by acts and practises much worse But Primates according to their first Institution were all in relation unto Archbishops the same by Prerogative which Archbishops were being compared unto Bishops Before the Council of Nice albeit there were both Metropolitans and Primates yet could not this be a means forcible enough to procure the peace of the Church but all things were wonderful tumultuous and troublesome by reason of one special practise common unto the Heretiques of those times which was That when they had been condemned and cast out of the Church by the Sentence of their own Bishops they contrary to the antient received Orders of the Church had a custom to wander up and down and to insinuate themselves into favour where they were not known imagining themselves to be safe enough and not to be clean cut off from the body of the Church if they could any where finde a Bishop which was content to communicate with them whereupon ensued as in that case there needs must every day quarrels and jarrs unappeasable amongst Bishops The Nicene Council for redress hereof considered the bounds of every Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions what they had been in former times and accordingly appointed unto each grand part of the Christian World some one Primate from whose Judgement no man living within his Territory might appeal unless it were to a Council General of all Bishops The drift and purport of which order was That neither any man opprest by his own particular Bishop might be destitute of a remedy through appeal unto the more indifferent Sentence of some other ordinary Judge not yet every man be lest at such liberty as before to shift himself out of their hands for whom it was most meet to have the hearing and determining of his cause The evil for remedy whereof this order was taken annoyed at that present especially the Church of Alexandria in Egypt where Arianism begun For which cause the state
it is God himself did from Heaven authorize Iohn to bear Witness of the light to prepare a way for the promised Messiah to publish the nearness of the Kingdom of God to Preach Repentance and to Baptise for by this part which was in the Function of Iohn most noted all the rest are together signified Therefore the Church of God hath no power upon new occurences to appoint to ordain an Ecclesiastical Function as Moses did upon Iethroe's advice devise a civil All things we grant which are in the Church ought to be of God But for as much as they may be two wayes accounted such one if they be of his own institution and not of ours another if they be of ours and yet with his approbation this latter way there is no impediment but that the same thing which is of men may be also justly and truly said to be of God the same thing from Heaven which is from Earth Of all good things God himself is Author and consequently an Approver of them The rule to discern when the actions of men are good when they are such as they ought to be is more ample and large than the Law which God hath set particular down in his holy Word the Scripture is but a part of that rule as hath been heretofore at large declared If therefore all things be of God which are well done and if all things be well done which are according unto the rule of well doing and if the rule of well-doing be more ample than the Scripture what necessity is there that every thing which is of God should be set down in holy Scripture true it is in things of some one kinde true it is that what we are now of necessity for ever bound to believe or observe in the special mysteries of Salvation Scripture must needs give notice of it unto the World yet true it cannot be touching all things that are of God Sufficient it is for the proof of lawfulness in any thing done if we canshew that God approved it And of his approbation the evidence is sufficient if either himself have by revelation in his word warranted it or we by some discourse of reason finde it good of it self and unrepugnant unto any of his revealed Laws and Ordinances Wherefore injurious we are unto God the Author and Giver of Human capacity Judgement and Wit when because of some things wherein he precisely forbiddeth men to use their own inventions we take occasion to dis-authorize and disgrace the works which he doth produce by the hand either of nature or of grace in them We offer contumely even unto him when we scornfully reject what we lift without any other exception than this The brain of man hath devised it Whether we look into the Church or Common-weal as well in the one as in the other both the Ordination of Officers and the very institution of their Offices may be truly derived from God and approved of him although they be not always of him in such sort as those things are which are in Scripture Doth not the Apostle term the Law of Nature even as the Evangelist doth the Law of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's own righteous Ordinance the Law of Nature then being his Law that must needs be of him which it hath directed men unto Great odds I grant there is between things devised by men although agreeable with the Law of Nature and things is Scripture set down by the finger of the Holy Ghost Howbeit the dignity of these is no hinderance but that those be also reverently accounted of in their Place Thus much they very well saw who although not living themselves under this kinde of Church Polity yet being through some experience more moderate grave and circumspect in their Judgment have given hereof their sounder and better advised Sentence That which the holy Fathers saith Zanchius have by common consent without contradiction of Scripture received for my part I neither will nor dare with good Conscience disallow And what more certain than that the ordering of Ecclesiastical Persons one in authority above another was received into the Church by the common consent of the Christian World What am I that I should take upon me to control the whole Church of Christ in that which is so well known to have been lawfully religiously and to notable purpose instituted Calvin maketh mention even of Primates that have authority above Bishops It was saith he the institution of the antient Church to the end that the Bishops might by this bond of Concord continue the faster linked amongst themselves And lest any man should think that as well he might allow the Papacy it self to prevent this he addeth Aliud est moderatum gerere honorem quà mtotum terraram orbem immenso imperio complecti These things standing as they do we may conclude that albeit the Offices which Bishops execute had been committed unto them only by the Church and that the superiority which they have over other Pastors were not first by Christ himself given to the Apostles and from them descended to others but afterwards in such consideration brought in and agreed upon as is pretended yet could not this be a just or lawful exception against it XII But they will say There was no necessity of instituting Bishops the Church might have stood well enough without them they are as those supersluous things which neither while they continue do good nor do harm when they are removed because there is not any profitable use whereunto they should serve For first in the Primitive Church their Pastors were all equal the Bishops of those dayes were the very same which Pastors of Parish Churches at this day are with us no one at commandment or controulment by any others Authority amongst them The Church therefore may stand and flourish without Bishops If they be necessary wherefore were they not sooner instituted 2. Again if any such thing were needful for the Church Christ would have set it down in Scripture as he did all kinde of Officers needful for Iewish Regiment He which prescribed unto the Iews so particularly the least thing pertinent unto their Temple would not have left so weighty Offices undetermined of in Scripture but that he knew the Church could never have any profitable use of them 3. Furthermore it is the judgement of Cyprian that equity requireth every man's cause to be heard where the fault he is charged with was committed And the reason he alledgeth is for asmuch as there they may have both Accusers and Witnesses in their cause Sith therefore every man's cause is neceiest to be handled at home by the Iudges of his own Parish to what purpose serveth their device which have appointed Bishops unto whom such causes may be brought and Archbishops to whom they may be also from thence removed XIII What things have necessary use in the Church they of all others are
Chief-Priest and such like ought not in any sort at all to be given unto any Christian Bishop what excuse should we make for so many Antient both Fathers and Synods of Fathers as have generally applyed the Title of Arch-Priest unto every Bishop's Office High time I think it is to give over the obstinate defence of this most miserable forsaken Cause in the favour whereof neither God nor amongst so many wise and vertuous men as Antiquity hath brought forth any one can be found to have hitherto directly spoken Irksome confusion must of necessity be the end whereunto all such vain an ungrounded confidence doth bring as hath nothing to bear it out but only an excessive measure of bold and peremptory words holpen by the start of a little time before they came to be examined In the Writings of the antient Fathers there is not any thing with more serious asseveration inculcated than that it is God which maketh Bishops that their Authority hath Divine allowance that the Bishop is the Priest of God that he is Judge in Christ's stead that according to God's own Law the whole Christian Fraternity standeth bound to obey him Of this there was not in the Christian World of old any doubt or controversie made it was a thing universally every where agreed upon What should move men to judge that now so unlawful and naught which then was so reverently esteemed Surely no other cause but this men were in those times times meek lowly tractable willing to live in dutiful aw and subjection unto the Pastors of their Souls Now we imagin our selves so able every man to teach and direct all others that none of us can brook it to have Superiours and for a mask to hide our Pride we pretend falsely the Law of Christ as if we did seek the execution of his will when in truth we labour for the meer satisfaction of our own against his XVII The chiefest cause of disdain and murmure against Bishops in the Church of England is that evil-affected eye wherewith the World looked upon them since the time that irreligious Prophaneness beholding the due and just advancements of Gods Clergy hath under pretence of enmity unto Ambition and Pride proceeded so farr that the contumely of old offered unto Aaron in the like quarrel may seem very moderate and quiet dealing if we compare it with the fury of our own times The ground and original of both their proceedings one and the same in Declaration of their Grievances they differ not the Complaints as well of the one as the other are Wherefore lift ye up your selves thus farr above the Congregation of the Lord It is too much which you take upon you too much Power and too much Honour Wherefore as we have shewed that there is not in their Power any thing unjust or unlawful so it resteth that in their Honour also the like be done The labour we take unto this purpose is by so much the harder in that we are forced to wraftle with the stream of obstinate Affection mightily carried by a wilful prejudice the Dominion whereof is so powerful over them in whom it reigneth that it giveth them no leave no not so much as patiently to hearken unto any speech which doth not profess to feed them in this their bitter humour Notwithstanding for as much as I am perswaded that against God they will not strive if they perceive once that in truth it is he against whom they open their mouths my hope is their own Confession will be at the length Behold we have done exceeding foolishly It was the Lord and we know it not Him in his Ministers we have despised we have in their honour impugned his But the alteration of men's hearts must be His good and gracious work whose most omnipotent power framed them Wherefore to come to our present purpose Honour is no where due saving only unto such as have in them that whereby they are sound or at the least presumed voluntarily beneficial unto them of whom they are honoured Wheresoever nature seeth the countenance of a Man it still presumeth that there is in him a minde willing to do good if need require inasmuch as by nature so it should be for which cause Men unto Men do honor even for very Humanity sake And unto whom we deny all honor we seem plainly to take from them all opinion of Human Dignity to make no account or reckoning of them to think them so utterly without vertue as if no good thing in the World could be looked for at their hands Seeing therefore it seemeth hard that we should so hardly think of any man the Precept of St. Peter is Honor all men Which duty of every men towards all doth vary according to the several degrees whereby they are more and less beneficial whom we do honor Honor the Physician saith the Wiseman The reason why because for necessities sake God created him Again Thou shalt rise up before the beary head and honor the person of the Aged The reason why because the younger sort have great benefit by their gravity experience and wisdom for which cause these things the Wiseman termeth the Crown or Diadem of the Aged Honor is due to Parents The reason why because we have our beginning from them Obey the Father that hath begotten thee the Mother that bare thee despise thou nor Honor due unto Kings and Governors The reason why because God hath set them for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Thus we see by every of these particulars that there is always some kinde of vertue beneficial wherein they excel who receive honor and that degrees of Honor are distinguished according to the value of those effects which the same beneficial Vertue doth produce Nor is Honor only an inward estimation whereby they are reverenced and well thought of in the mindes of men but Honor whereof we now speak is defined to be an External sign by which we give a sensible testification that we acknowledge the beneficial Vertue of others Sarah honored her Husband Abraham this appeareth by the Title she gave him The Brethren of Ioseph did him honor in the Land of Egypt their lowly and humble gesture sheweth it Parents will hardly perswade themselves that this intentional Honor which reacheth no farther than to the Inward conception only is the Honor which their Children owe them Touching that Honor which mystically agreeing unto Christ was yielded literally and really unto Solomon the words of the Psalmist concerning it are Unto him they shall give of the Gold of Sheba they shall pray for him continually and daily bless him Weigh these things in themselves Titles Gestures Presents other the like external signs wherein Honor doth consist and they are matters of no great moment Howbeit take them away let them cease to be required and they are not things of small importance
Ministery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Yet both then and now the higher Orders as well of the one sort as of the other have by one and the same congruity of reason their different titles of honor wherewith we since them in the phrase of ordinary speech exalted above others Thus the Heads of the twenty four Companies of Priests are in Scripture termed Arch-Priests Aaron and the Successors of Aaron being above those Arch-Priests themselves are in that respect further intituled High ang Great After what sort Antiquity hath used to stile Christian Bishops and to yield them in that kinde Honor more than were meet for inferior Pastors I may the better omit to declare both because others have sufficiently done it already and in so sleight a thing it were but a loss of time to bestow further travel The allegation of Christ's Prerogative to be named an Arch-Pastor simply in regard of his absolute Excellency over all â— is no impediment but that the like Title in an unlike signification may be granted unto others besides him to note a more limited Superiority whereof men are capable enough without derogation from his Glory than which nothing is more Soveraign To quarrel at syllables and to take so poor exceptions at the first four letters in the name of an Archbishop as if they were manifestly stollen goods whereof restitutions ought to be made to the Civil Magistrate toucheth no more the Prelates that now are than it doth the very blessed Apostle who giveth unto himself the Title of an Arch-builder As for our Saviours words alledged against the stile of Lordship and Grace we have before sufficiently opened how farr they are drawn from their natural meaning to houlster up a Cause which they nothing at all concern Bishop Theodoret entituleth most honoarable Emperors writing unto Bishops have not disdained to give them their appellations of Honor Your Holiness your Blessedness your Amplitude your Highness and the like Such as purposely have done otherwise are noted of insolent singularity and pride Honor done by giving preheminence of Place unto one sort before another is for decency order and quietness-sake so needful that both Imperial Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical have made their special provisions for it Our Saviour's invective against the vain affectation of Superiority whether in Title or in Place may not hinder these seemly differences usual in giving and taking honor either according to the one or the other Some thing there is even in the Ornaments of Honor also Otherwise idle it had been for the Wiseman speaking of Aaron to stand so much upon the circumstance of his Priestly attire and to urge it as an argument of such dignity and greatness in him An everlasting Covenant God made with Aaron and gave him the Priesthood among the people and made him blessed through his comely Ornament and cloathed him with the garment of Honor. The Robes of a Judge do not adde to his vertue the chiefest Ornaments of Kings is Justice holiness and purity of Conversation doth much more adorn a Bishop than his peculiar form of Cloathing Notwithstanding both Judges through the garments of Judicial Authority and through the Ornaments of Soveraignty Princes yea Bishops through the very attire of Bishops are made blessed that is to say marked and manifested they are to be such as God hath poured his blessing upon by advancing them above others and placing them where they may do him principal good service Thus to be called is to be blessed and therefore to be honored with the signs of such a Calling must needs be in part a blessing also for of good things even the signs are good Of Honor another part is Attendancy and therefore in the visions of the glory of God Angels are spoken of as his Attendants In setting out the honor of that mystical Queen the Prophet mentioneth the Virgin-Ladies which waited on her Amongst the tokens of Solomons honourable condition his Servants and Waiters the sacred History omitteth not This doth prove Attendants a part of Honor But this as yet doth not shew with what Attendancy Prelates are to be honored Of the High-Priests retinue amongst the Jews somewhat the Gospel it self doth intimate And albeit our Saviour came to minister and not as the Jews did imagine their Messias should to be ministred unto in this World yet attended on he was by his blessed Apostles who followed him not only as Scholars but even as Servants about him After that he had sent them as himself was sent of God in the midst of that hatred and extreme contempt which they sustained at the World's hands by Saints and Believers this part of honor was most plentifully done unto them Attendants they had provided in all places where they went which Custom of the Church was still continued in Bishops their Successors as by Ignatius it is plain to be seen And from hence no doubt those Acolyths took their beginning of whom so frequent mention is made the Bishops Attendants his Followers they were in regard of which service the name of Acolythes seemeth plainly to have been given The custom for Bishops to be attended upon by many is as Iustinian doth shew antient The affairs of Regiment wherein Prelates are imployed make it necessary that they always have many about them whom they may command although no such thing did by way of honor belong unto them Some mens judgement is that if Clerks Students and Religious Persons were moe common Serving-men and Lay-Retainers fewer than they are in Bishops Palaces the use and the honor thereof would be much more suitable than now But these things concerning the number and quality of Persons fit to attend on Prelates either for necessity or for honors sake are rather in particular discretion to be ordered than to be argued of by disputes As for the vain imagination of some who teach the original hereof to have been a preposterous imagination of Maximinus the Emperor who being addicted unto Idolatry chose of the choisest Magistrates to be Priests and to the end they might be in great estimation gave unto each of them a train of Followers And that Christian Emperors thinking the same would promote Christianity which promoted Superstition endeavoured to make their Bishops encounter and match with those Idolatrous Priests such frivolous conceits having no other ground than conceit we weigh not so much as to frame any answer unto them our declaration of the true original of antient attendancy on Bishops being sufficient Now if that which the light of sound reason doth teach to be sit have upon like inducements reasonable allowable and good approved it self in such wise as to be accepted not only of us but of Pagans and Infidels also doth conformity with them that are evil in that which is good make that thing which is good evil We have not herein followed the Heathens nor the Heathens us but both we end they one and the self-same Divine rule
If there be of the antient Fathers which say That thee is but one Head of the Church Christ and that the Minister that baptizeth cannoâ—â—e the Head of him that is baptized because Christ is the Head of the whole Church and tat Paul could not be Head of the Church which he planted because Christ is the Head of the whole Body They understand the name of Head in such sort as we grant that it is oâ— applicable to any other no not in relation to the least part of the whole Churh he which baptizeth baptizeth into Christ he which converteth converteth into Christ he which ruleth ruleth for Christ. The whole Church can have but one to be Head as Lord and Owner of all wherefore if Christ be Head in that kinde it followeth that no other besides can be so either to the whole or to any part To call and dissolve all solemn Assemblies about the Publick Affairs of the Church AMongst sundry Prerogatives of Simons Dominion over the Jews there is reckoned as not the least That no man might gather any great Assembly in the Land without him For so the manner of Jewish Regiment had alwayes been that whether the cause for which men assembled themselves in peaceable good and orderly sort were Ecclesiastical or Civil Supream Authority should assemble them David gathered all Israel together unto Ierusalem when the Ark was to be removed he assembled the Sons of Aaron and the Levites Solomon did the like at such time as the Temple was to be dedicated when the Church was to be reformed Asa in his time did the same The same upon like occasions was done afterwards by Ioash Hezekiat Iosiah and others The Consuls of Rome Polybius affirmeth to have had a kinde of Regal Authority in that they might call together the Senate and People whensoever it pleased them Seeing therefore the Affairs of the Church and Christian Religion are Publick Affairs for the ordering whereof more Solemn Assemblies sometimes are of as great importance and use as they are for Secular Affairs It seemeth no less an act of Supream Authority to call the one then the other Wherefore the Clergy in such wise gathered together is an Ecclesiastical Senate which with us as in former times the chiefest Prelate at his discretion did use to assemble so that afterwards in such considerations as have been before specified it seemed more meet to annex the said Prerogative to the Crown The plot of reformed Discipline not liking thereof so well taketh order that every former Assembly before it breaketh up should it self appoint both the time and place of their After-meeting again But because I finde not any thing on that side particularly alledged against us herein a longer disputation about so plain a cause shall not need The antient Imperial Law forbiddeth such Assemblies as the Emperor's Authority did not cause to be made Before Emperors became Christians the Church had never any General Synod their greatest Meeting consisting of Bishops and others the gravest in each Province As for the Civil Governor's Authority it suffered them only as things not regarded or not accounted of at such times as it did suffer them So that what right a Christian King hath as touching Assemblies of that kinde we are not able to judge till we come to later times when Religion had won the hearts of the highest Powers Constantine as Pighius doth grant was not only the first that ever did call any General Councel together but even the first that devised the calling of them for consultation about the businesses of God After he had once given the example his Successors a long time followed the same in so much that St. Hierom to disprove the Authority of a Synod which was pretended to be general useth this as a forcible Argument Dic quis Imperator have Synodum jusserit convocari Their Answer hereunto is no Answer which say That the Emperors did not this without conference had with the Bishops for to our purpose it is enough if the Clergy alone did it not otherwise than by the leave and appointment of their Soveraign Lords and Kings Whereas therefore it is on the contrary side alledged that Valentinian the elder being requested by Catholick Bishops to grant that there might be a Synod for the ordering of matters called in question by the Arians answered that he being one of the Laity might not meddle with such matters and thereupon willed that the Priests and Bishops to whom the care of those things belongeth should meet and consult together by themselves where they thought good We must with the Emperor's speech weigh the occasion and drift thereof Valentinian and Valens the one a Catholick the other an Arian were Emperors together Valens the Governour of the East and Valentinian of the West Empire Valentinian therefore taking his Journey from the East unto the West parts and passing for that intent through Thracia there the Bishops which held the soundnesse of Christian Belief because they knew that Valent was their professed Enemy and therefore if the other was once departed out of those quarters the Catholick Cause was like to finde very small favour moved presently Valentinian about a Councel to be assembled under the countenance of his Authority who by likelihood considering what inconvenience might grow thereby inasmuch as it could not be but a means to incense Valens the more against them refused himself to be Author of or present at any such Assembly and of this his denyal gave them a colourable reason to wit that he was although an Emperour yet a secular Person and therefore not able in matters of so great obscurity to fit as a competent Judge But if they which were Bishops and learned men did think good to consule thereof together they might Whereupon when they could not obtain that which they most desired yet that which he granted unto them they took and forthwith had a Councel Valentinian went on towards Rome they remaining in consultation till Valens which accompanied him returned back so that now there was no remedy but either to incurr a manifest contempt or else at the hands of Valens himself to seek approbation of that they had done To him therefore they became Suitors his Answer was short Either Arianism or Exile which they would whereupon their Banishment ensued Let reasonable men now therefore be Judges how much this example of Valentinian doth make against the Authority which we say that Soveraign Rulers may lawfully have as concerning Synods and Meetings Ecclesiastical Of the Authority of making Laws THere are which wonder that we should account any Statute a Law which the High Court of Parliament in England hath established about the matters of Church-Regiment the Prince and Court of Parliament having as they suppose no more lawful means to give order to the Church and Clergy in those things than they have to make Laws for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven
consequently to the Ministry of the Church and if it be by Gods Ordinance appertaining unto them how can it be translated from them to the Civil Magistrate Which Argument briefly drawn into form lyeth thus That which belongeth unto God may not be translated unto any other but whom he hath appointed to have it in his behalf But principality of Judgement in Church-matters appertaineth unto God which hath appointed the High-Priest and consequently the Ministry of the Church alone to have it in his behalf Ergo it may not from them be translated to the Civil Magistrate The first of which Propositions we grant as also in the second that branch which ascribeth unto God Principality in Church-matters But that either he did appoint none but onely the High-Priest to exercise the said Principality for him or that the Ministry of the Church may in reason from thence be concluded to have alone the same Principality by his appointment these two Points we deny utterly For concerning the High-Priest there is first no such Ordinance of God to be found Every High-Priest saith the Apostle is taken from amongst men and is ordained for men in things pertaining to God Whereupon it may well be gathered that the Priest was indeed Ordained of God to have Power in things appertaining unto God For the Apostle doth there mention the Power of offering Gifts and Sacrifices for Sin which kinde of Power was not onely given of God unto Priests but restrained unto Priests onely The power of Jurisdiction and ruling Authority this also God gave them but not them alone For it is held as all men know that others of the Laity were herein joyned by the Law with them But concerning Principality in Church-affairs for of this our Question is and of no other the Priest neither had it alone nor at all but in Spiritual or Church-affairs as hath been already shewed it was the Royal Prerogative of Kings only Again though it were so that God had appointed the High-Priest to have the said Principality of Government in those maters yet how can they who alledge this enforce thereby that consequently the Ministry of the Church and no other ought to have the same when they are so farr off from allowing so much to the Ministry of the Gospel as the Priest-hood of the Law had by God's appointment That we but collecting thereout a difference in Authority and Jurisdiction amongst the Clergy to be for the Polity of the Church not inconvenient they forthwith think to close up our mouths by answering That the Iewish High-Priest had authority above the rest onely in that they prefigured the Soveraignty of Iesus Christ As for the Ministers of the Gospel it is altogether unlawful to give them as much as the least Title any syllable whereof may sound to Principality And of the Regency which may be granted they hold others even of the Laity no less capable than the Pastors themselves How shall these things cleave together The truth is that they have some reason to think it not at all of the fittest for Kings to sit as ordinary Judges in matters of Faith and Religion An ordinary Judge must be of the quality which in a Supream Judge is not necessary Because the Person of the one is charged with that which the other Authority dischargeth without imploying personally himself therein It is an Errour to think that the King's Authority can have no force nor power in the doing of that which himself may not personally do For first impossible it is that at one and the same time the King in Person should order so many and so different affairs as by his own power every where present are wont to be ordered both in peace and warr at home and abroad Again the King in regard of his nonage or minority may be unable to perform that thing wherein years of discretion are requisite for personal action and yet his authority even then be of force For which cause we say that the King's authority dyeth not but is and worketh always alike Sundry considerations there may be effectual to with-hold the King's Person from being a doer of that which notwithstanding his Power must give force unto even in Civil affairs where nothing doth more either concern the duty or better beseem the Majesty of Kings than personally to administer Justice to their People as most famous Princes have done yet if it be in case of Felony of Treason the Learned in the Laws of this Realm do affirm that well may the King commit his Authority to another to judge between him and the Offender but the King being himself there a Party he cannot personally sit to give Judgement As therefore the Person of the King may for just considerations even where the cause is Civil be notwithstanding withdrawn from occupying the Seat of Judgment and others under his Authority be fit he unfit himself to judge so the considerations for which it were haply no convenient for Kings to sit and give Sentence in Spiritual Courts where Causes Ecclesiastical are usually debated can be no barr to that force and efficacy which their Soveraign Power hath over those very Consistories and for which we hold without any exception that all Courts are the Kings All men are not for all things sufficient and therefore Publick affairs being divided such Persons must be authorized Judges in each kinde as Common reason may presume to be most fit Which cannot of Kings and Princes ordinarily be presumed in Causes merely Ecclesiastical so that even Common sense doth rather adjudge this burthen unto other men We see it hereby a thing necessary to put a difference as well between that Ordinary Jurisdiction which belongeth unto the Clergy alone and that Commissionary wherein others are for just considerations appointed to joyn with them as also between both these Jurisdictions And a third whereby the King hath transcendent Authority and that in all Causes over both Why this may not lawfully be granted unto him there is no reason A time there was when Kings were not capable of any such Power as namely when they professed themselves open Enemies unto Christ and Christianity A time there followed when they being capable took sometimes more sometimes less to themselves as seemed best in their own eyes because no certainty touching their right was as yet determined The Bishops who alone were before accustomed to have the ordering of such Affairs saw very just cause of grief when the highest favouring Heresie withstood by the strength of Soveraign Authority Religious proceedings Whereupon they oftentimes against this unresistable power pleaded the use and custom which had been to the contrary namely that the affairs of the Church should be dealt in by the Clergy and by no other unto which purpose the sentences that then were uttered in defence of unabolished Orders and Laws against such as did of their own heads contrary thereunto are now altogether impertinently brought in opposition against
neither affected the truth of God nor the peace of the Church Mihi pro minimo â—est it doth not much move me when Mr. Travers doth say that which I trust a greater than Mr. Travers will gainsay 17. Now let all this which hitherto he hath said be granted him let it be as he would have it let my Doctrine and manner of teaching be as much disallowed by all men's Judgements as by his what is all this to his purpose He alledgeth this to be the cause why he bringeth it in The High-Commissioners charge him with an indiscretion and want of duty in that he inveighed against certain Points of Doctrine taught by me as erroneous not conâ—erring first with me nor complaining of it to them Which faults a sea of such matter as he hath hitherto waded in will never be able to scoure from him For the avoiding Schism and disturbance in the Church which must needs grow if all men might think what they list and speak openly what they think therefore by a Decree agreed upon by the Bishops and confirmed by her Majesties Authority it was ordered That erroneous Doctrine if it were taught publickly should not be publickly refuted but that notice thereof should be given into such as are by her Highness appointed to hear and to determine such Causes For breach of which Order when he is charged with lack of Duty all the faults that can be heaped upon me will make but a weak defence for him As surely his defence is not much stronger when he alledges for himself That he was in some hope his speech in proving the truth and clearing those scraples which I had in my self might cause me either to embrace sound Doctrine or suffer it to be embraced of others which if I did he should not need to complain that It was meet he should discover first what I had sown and make it manifest to be tares and then desire their Sithe to cutt it down that Conscience did binds him to doe otherwise than the foresaid Order requireth that He was unwilling to deal in that publick manner and wished a more convenient way were taken for it that He had resolved to have protested the next Sabbath day that he would some other way satisfie such as should require it and not deal more in that place Be it imagined let me not be taken as if I did compare the offenders when I do not but their Answers onely that a Libeller did make this Apology for himself I am not ignorant that if I have just matter against any man the Law is open there are Judges to hear it and Courts where it ought to be complained of I have taken another course against such or such a man yet without breach of Duty forasmuch as I am able to yield a reason of my doing I conceive some hope that a little discredit amongst men would make him ashamed of himself and that his shame would work his amendment which if it did other accusation there should not need could his answer he thought sufficient could it in the judgement of discreet men free him from all blame No more can the hope Mr. Travers conceived to reclaim me by publick speech justifie his fault against the established Order of the Church 18. His thinking it meet he should first openly discover to the People the Tares that had been sown amongst them and then require the hand of Authority to mow them down doth onely make it a Question Whether his opinion that this was meet may be a priviledge or protection against the lawful Constitution which had before determined of it as of a thing unmeet Which Question I leave for them to discusse whom it most concerneth If the Order be such that it cannot be kept without hazarding a thing so precious as a good Conscience the peril whereof could be no greater to him than it needs must be to all others whom it toucheth in like Causes then this is evident it will be an effectual motive not onely for England but also for other Reformed Churches even Geniva it self for they have the like to change or take that away which cannot but with great inconvenience be observed In the mean while the breach of it may in such consideration be pardoned which truly I wish howsoever it be yet hardly defended as long as it standeth in force uncancelled 19. Now whereas he confesseth another way had been more convenient and that he found in himself secret unwillingnesse to doe that which he did doth he not say plainly in effect that the light of his own Understanding proved the way that he took perverse and crooked Reason was so plain and pregnant against it that his Minde was alienated his Will averted to another course yet somewhat there was that so farr over-ruled that it must needs be done even against the very stream what doth it bewray Finally his purposed Protestation whereby he meant openly to make it known that he did not allow this kinde of proceeding and therefore would satisfie men otherwise and deal no more in this Place sheweth his good minde in this that he meant to stay himself from further offending but it serveth not his turn He is blamed because the thing he hath done was amisse and his Answer is That which I would have done afterwards had been well if so be I had done it 20. But as in this he standeth perswaded that he hath done nothing besides duty so he taketh it hardly that the High Commissioners should charge him with indiscretion Wherefore as if he could so wash his hands he maketh a long and a large declaration concerning the carriage of himself how he waded in matters of smaller weight and how in things of greater moment how wary he dealt how naturally he took his things rising from the Text how closely he kept himself to the Scriptures he took in hand how much pains he took to confirm the necessity of believing Iustification by Christ onely and to shew how the Church of Rome denieth that a man is saved by Faith alone without works of the Law what the Sons of Thunder would have done if they had been in his case that his Answer was very temperate without immodest or reproachful speech that when he might before all have reproved me he did not but contented himself with exhorting me before all to follow Nathan's example and revisit my Doctrine when he might have followed Saint Paul's example in reproving Peter he did not but exhorted me with Peter to endure to be withstood This Testimony of his discreet carrying himself in the handling of his matter being more agreeably framed and given him by another than by himself might make somewhat for the praise of his Person but for defence of his action unto them by whom he is thought undiscreet for not concerning privately before he spake will it serve to answer that when he spake he did it considerately He perceiveth it will not and
a Christian man Aut that the chiefest diffarence is that where they seat men for the difference of good and evil to the light of reason In such things the Apostle seâ—deth them to the School of Christ in his Word which only is able through faith to give them assurance and resolution in their doings T. C. l. 1. p. 60. John 20.21 T.C. 1. 2. p. 58. Acts. 5. Exod. 28.43 Levit. 11. 1 Cor. 6.12 Job 2. 10. Arist. Pal. 11 August Ep. 18. The First Assertion endeavoured to be proved by the use of taking Arguments Negatively from the Authority of Scripture which kinde of disputing is mual in the Fathers Aug cont liter Peril l. 3. c. 6. Tertul. de praescript advers T.C. l 2. p. 81. Augustine saith Whether it be question of Christ or whether it be question of his Church c. And lest the Answer should restrain the general saying of Augustine unto the Doctrine of the Gospel so that he would thereby save out the Discipline even Tertullian himself before he was embrued with the Heresie of Montanus giveth Testimony unto the Discipline in these world We may not give our selves c. Hierom. centra Helvid Hilar. in Psal. 131. T. C. l. r. p. 8. Let him hear what Cyprian saith The Christian Religion saith he shall finde that c Verè hee mandatum legem comptectitur Prophetas in hee verbo ownium Scripturarum volumina coarctantuo Hot natura hac ratis hac Demine verbi tui clam at authoritas hee exore two andivinus hieinvenit consummationem nem omnis Religio Prinum of hocmandatum ultimum hot it librovita censâ—â—t um indeficiencie haminibus Argella exhibes lessiemen Legat hoc unum verbum in hot mandato medietur Christiana Religio inseriet ex hoc Scripunta omulum dotle marum regelas emarisse bine naset but reveral quicquid Ecclesiastica conâ—â—â—â— disciplina in omalous irthamessis frivolum quaiquid dileetio non confirmal men confirmat Tertul. lib. de Monog T. C. l. 2. p 81. And in another place Tertullian saith That the Scripture deniest that when it noteth nor T. C. l. 2. p. 80. And that in indifferent things it is not enough that they be not against the Word but that they be according to the Word it may appear by other place where he saith That whatsoever pleaseth not the Lord displeaseth him and with hurt is received liv 2. ad uxorem Quae Domino non plarent utique effendnt utique malo se inserunt T. C. l. 2 l. 81. And to come yet neerer where he disputeth against the wearing of crown or garland which is indifferent in it self to those which objecting asked Where the Scripture saith There man might nor wear a Crown He answereth by asking where the Scripture saith that they may wear And unto them replying that it is permitted which is not forbidden He answereth that it is forbidden which is not permitted Whereby appeareth that the Argument of the Scriptures negatively holdeth nor only in the Doctrine and Ecclesiastical Discipline but even in matters arbitrary and variable by the advice of the Church Where it is not enough that they be not forbidden unless there be some Word which doth permit the use of them It is not enough that the Scripture speaketh one against them unless it speak for them And finally where it displeaseth the Lord which pleaseth him not we must of necessity have the Word of his mountain declare his pleasure Tent de 〈…〉 The first Assertion endeavoured to be confirmed by the Scriptureâ— custom of disputing from Divine authority negatively 1 Iob. a. 9. God is light and there is in him no darkness at all Hebr. 6 1â— It is impossible that God should â—e Num. 22.19 God is not as man that he should fve T. C. l 2. p. 41. It is not hard to shew that the Prophets have reasoned Negatively As when in the person of the Lord the Prophet saith Whereof I have not spoken Jer. 19.3 And which never eatred into my heart Jer. 7. 31 32. And where he condemneth them because they have not asked counsel at the mouth of the Lord Isai. 30.2 And it may be shewed that the same kinde of Argument hath been used in things which are not of the substance of Salvation or Damnation and whereof there was no Commandment to the contrary as in the former there was Levit. 18. 31. and 30 3. Deut. 17. 16. In Ioshua the Children of Israel are charged by the Prophet that they asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord when they entred into Covenant with the Gibeanites Ioshua 19. 14. And yet that Covenant was not made contrary unto any Commandment of God Moreover We read that when David had taken this counsel to build a Temple unto the Lord albeit the Lord had revealed before in his Word that there should be such a standing place where the Ark of the Covenant and the Service should have a certain abiding And albeit there was no Word of God which forbad David to build the Temple yet the Lord with commendation â—â— his good affection and zeal he had to the advancement of his glory concludeth against Davids Resolution to build the Temple with this Reason Namely That he had given no Commandment of this who should build it 1 Chron. 1â— 6. Levit. 18. 21 and 2. 3. Deut. 28. 10. 1 Chron. 17.6 Isai. 30. 1. Josh 9.14 Num. 27.21 1 Chron 17. T. C. l. 2. p. 50 Mr. Harding reproacheth the Bishop of Salisbury with this kinde of reasoning unto whom the Bishop answereth The Argument of Authority negatively is taken to be good whensoever proof is taken of Gods Word and is used not only by us but also by many of the Catholick Fathers A little after he sheweth the Reason why the Argument of Authority of the Scripture negatively is good namely for that the Word of God is perfect In another place unto M. Harding casting him in the teeth with Negative Arguments he allulgeth places out of Irenaeus Chrysostome Leâ— which reasoned Negatively of the Authority of the Scriptures The places which he alledgeth be very full and plain in generality without any such restraints as the Answeres imagined as they are there to be seen a Vest. Patere Iugurtha ac Marius sub codem Africana milnaâ—ies in iisdem castris didirâ—re quae rested in cotrariis facerent Art 1. Divis. 29. Gal. 3. Orig in Levit â—â—m 5. Matth. 25. Matth. 17. Desent par 9 ed. 15. divis Lib. 1. cap. 1. De incompâ—naâ— Deâ— â—om 3. Epist 93. c. 12. Epist. 97. 6. 30. Epist. 165. Lib 4. Eâ— 32. Their opinion concerning the force of Arguments taken from humane authority for the ordering of mens actâ—oâ— or perswasions T. C. l. 1 p. 25. When the question is of the authority of a man it heldeth not thâ—r affirmatively not negatively The Reason is because the infirmity of man can never attain to
of which appointed all to succeed in the self-same equality of power except that Commission which doth authorize to Preach and Baptise should be alledged which maketh nothing to the purpose for in such things all Pastors are still equal We must I fear me wait very long before any other will be shewed For howsoever the Apostles were Equals amongst themselves all other Pastors were not Equals with the Apostles while they lived neither are they any where appointed to be afterward each others Equals Apostles had as we know authority over all such as were no Apostles by force of which their Authority they might both command and judge It was for the singular good and benefit of those Disciples whom Christ left behinde him and of the Pastors which were afterwards chosen for the great good I say of all sorts that the Apostles were in power above them Every day brought forth somewhat wherein they saw by experience how much it stood them in stead to be under controulment of those Superiours and Higher Governours of Gods House Was it a thing so behoveful that Pastors should be subject unto Pastors in the Apostles own times and is there any commandment that this Subjection should cease with them and that the Pastors of the succeeding Ages should be all Equals No no this strange and absurd conceit of Equality amongst Pastors the Mother of Schism and of Confusion is but a dream newly brought forth and seen never in the Church before 4. Power of Censure and Ordination appeareth even by Scripture marvellous probable to have been derived from Christ to his Church without this surmised Equality in them to whom he hath committed the same For I would know Whether Timothy and Titus were commanded by Saint Paul to do any thing more than Christ hath authorized Pastors to do And to the one it is Scripture which saith Against a Presbyter receive THOU no accusation saving under two or three Witnesses Scripture which likewise hath said to the other For this very cause left I THEE in Crete that THOU shouldst redress the things that remain and shouldst ORDAIN Presbyters in every City as I appointed THEE In the former place the power of Censure is spoken of and the power of Ordination in the latter Will they say that every Pastor there was equal to Timothy and Titus in these things If they do the Apostle himself is against it who saith that of their two very Persons he had made choyse and appointed in those places them for performances of those Duties whereas if the same had belonged unto others no less than to them and not principally unto them above others it had been fit for the Apostle accordingly to have directed his Letters concerning these things in general unto them all which had equal interest in them even as it had been likewise fit to have written those Epistles in Saint Iohn's Revelation unto whole Ecclesiastical Senates rather than only unto the Angels of each Church had not some one been above the rest in Authority to order the affairs of the Church Scripture therefore doth most probably make for the inequality of Pastors even in all Ecclesiastical affairs and by very express mention as well in Censures as Ordinations 5. In the Nicene Council there are consumed certain Prerogatives and Dignities belonging unto Primates or Archbishops and of them it is said that the antient custom of the Church had been to give them such preheminence but no syllable whereby any man should conjecture that those Fathers did not honor the Superiority which Bishops had over other Pastors only upon antient custom and not as a true Apostolical heavenly and divine Ordinance 6. Now although we should leave the general received perswasion held from the first beginning that the Apostles themselves left Bishops invested with power above other Pastors although I say we should give over this opinion and imbrace that other conjecture which so many have thought good to follow and which my self did sometimes judge a great deal more probable than now I do meerly that after the Apostles were deceased Churches did agree amongst themselves for preservation of Peace and Order to make one Presbyter in each City Chief over the rest and to translate into him that power by force and vertue whereof the Apostles while they were alive did preserve and uphold order in the Church exercising Spiritual Jurisdiction partly by themselves and partly by Evangelists because they could not always every where themselves be present This order taken by the Church it self for so let us suppose that the Apostles did neither by word nor deed appoint it were notwithstanding more warrantable than that it should give place and be abrogated because the Ministry of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven There came Chief Priests and Elders unto our Saviour Christ as he was teaching in the Temple and the Question which they moved unto him was this By what Authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this Authority their Question he repelled with a Counter-demand The Baptism of John whence was it from Heaven or of Men Hereat they paused secretly disputing within themselves If we shall say from Heaven he will ask Wherefore did ye not then believe him And if we say of men We fear the People for all hold Iohn a Prophet What is it now which hereupon these men would infer That all-Functions Ecclesiastical ought in such sort to be from Heaven as the Function of Iohn was I No such matter here contained Nay doth not the contrary rather appear most plainly by that which is here set down For when our Saviour doth ask concerning the Baptism that is to say the whole Spiritual Function of Iohn whether it were from Heaven or of men he giveth clearly to understand that men give Authority unto some and some God himself from Heaven doth Authorize Nor is it said or in any sort signified that none have lawful Authority which have it not in such manner as Iohn from Heaven Again when the Priests and Elders were loth to say that Iohn had his calling from men the reason was not because they thought that so Iohn should not have had any good or lawful Calling but because they saw that by this means they should somewhat embase the Calling of Iohn whom all men knew to have been sent from God according to the manner of Prophets by a meer Celestial vocation So that out of the evidence here alledged these things we may directly conclude first that who so doth exercise any kinde of Function in the Church he cannot lawfully so do except Authority be given him Secondly that if Authority be not given him from men as the Authority of Teaching was given unto Scribes and Pharisees it must be given him from Heaven as Authority was given unto Christ Elias Iohn Baptist and the Prophets For these two only wayes there are to have Authority But a strange Conclusion