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A47742 A discourse shewing who they are that are now qualify'd to administer baptism and the Lord's-Supper wherein the cause of episcopacy is briefly treated / by the author of A discourse proving the divine institution of water-baptism. Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722. 1698 (1698) Wing L1130; ESTC R25145 50,009 107

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Episcopis atque Calcatis Pax à Presbyteris verbis fallacibus Prodicetur ibid. Antichristi jam propinquantis adventum Imitantur Ep. LXXX Successo Rescripsisse valerianum ad Senatum ut Episcopi Presbyteri Diacones in continenti animadvertantur Firmillanus Cypriano Ep. LXXV p. 225. Potestas ergo Peccatorum remittendorum Apostolis data est Episcopis qui eis Ordinatione vicaria successerunt Ep. XVI p. 36. Cyprianus Presbyteris Diaconibus Quod enim periculum metuere non debemus de offensa Domini quando aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelu nec Deci sue memores sed ne que futurum Domini Judicium neque sibi praepositum Episcopum cogitantes quod nunquam omnino sub Antecessorthus factum est cum Contumelia Contemptu Praepositi totum sibi vendicent Contumeliam Episcopatus nostri dissimulare ferre possum sed dissimulandi nunc locus non est Optatus Milevitanus Bishop of Mileve or Mela in Numidia in Africa A. D. 365. A.D. 365 In his 2d Book against Parmenian The Church has her several Members Bishops Presbyters Deacons and the Company of the Faithful You found in the Church Deacons Presbyters Bishops you have made them Lay-men acknowledge that you have Subverted Souls St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan A. D. 370. upon Eph. iv 11. Speaking of the several Orders of the Church And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and Evangelists c. Says that by the Apostles there were meant the Bishops by Prophets the Expounders of the Scriptures and by the Evangelists the Deacons But says that they all met in the Bishop for that he was the Chief Priest that is says he the Prince of the Priests and both Prophet and Evangelist to supply all the Offices of the Church for the Ministry of the Faithful And upon 1 Cor. xii 28. says that Christ Constituted the Apostles Head in the Church and that these are the Bishops And upon v. 29. are all Apostles i.e. all are not Apostles This is true says he because in the Church ther is but one Bishop And because all things are from one God the Father therefore hath He appointed that one Bishop shou'd Preside over Each Church In his Book of the Dignity of the Priesthood c. 3. he says That ther is nothing in this World to be found more Excellent than the Priests nothing more Sublime than the Bishops And speaking of what was Incumbent upon the several Orders of the Church he does plainly distinguish them For says he in the same place God does require one thing from a Bishop another from a Presbyter another from a Deacon and another from a Lay-man Optatus Milevitanus Bishop of Mileve or Mela in Numidia in Africa A. D. 365. l. 2. Contra Parmenianum Certa Membra sua habet Ecclesia Episcopos Presbyteros Diaconos turbam Fidelium Invenistis Diaconos Presbyteros Episcopos fecisiis La●cos agnoscite vos animas evertisse Quosdam dedit Apostolos A.D. 37● quosdam Prophetas c. Apostoli Episcopi sunt Prophetae Explanatores sunt Scripturum sicut Agabus Evangelist Diaconi sunt sicut fuit Philippus Nam in Episcopo omnes ordines sunt quia Princeps Sacerdos est hoc est Princeps est Sacerdotum Propheta Evangelista Caetera adimplenda offic●● Ecclesiae in Ministerio Eidelium Caput in Ecclesia Apostolos posuit Ipsi sunt Episcopi Verum est quia in Ecclesia unus Episcopus est Quia ab uno Deo Patre sunt omnia singulos Episcopos singulis Ecclesiis Prae-esse Decrevit De Dignat Sacerdot c. 3. ut ostenderemus nihil esse in hoc seculo Excellentius Sacerdotibus nihil Sublimius Episcopis reperiri Aliud est enim quod ab Episcopo requirit Deus aliud quod à Presbytero aliud quod à Deacono aliud quod à Laico St. Jerom A. D. 380. A. D. 380. In his Comment upon the Ep. to Titus When it began to be said I am of Paul I of Apollos c. and every one thought that those whom he Baptized belong'd to himself and not to Christ it was Decreed thro' The whole Earth that one Chosen from among the Presbyters shou'd be set over the rest that the Seeds of Schism might be taken away In his Epist to Evagrius From Mark the Evangelist to Heraclas and Dionysius the Bishops the Presbyters of Egypt have always chosen out one from among themselves whom having plac'd in an higher Degree than the rest they called their Bishop He that is Advanc'd is Advanc'd from less to greater The Greatness of Riches or the Humility of Poverty does not make a Bishop greater or less seeing all of them are the Successors of the Apostles That we may know the Apostolical Oeconomy to be taken from the Pattern of the Old Testament the same that Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are in the Church of Christ To Nepotianus Be subject to your Bishop or Chief-Priest and receive him as the Father of your Soul Against the Luciferians The safety of the Ch. depends upon the Dignity of the High-Priest to whom unless a sort of absolute and eminent Power be given above all ther will be as many Schisms in the Church as ther are Priests Thence it is that without the Command of the Bishop neither a Presbyter nor a Deacon have Power to Baptize And the Bishop is to impose his Hands upon those who are Baptized by Presbyters or Deacons for the Invocation of the Holy Spirit And Comforting Heliodorus a Bishop upon the Death of Nepotian his Presbyter and his Nephew he Commends Nepotian in that he Reverenc'd his Bishop He Honour'd Heliodorus in publick as his Bishop at home as his Father But among his Presbyters and Co-equals he was the first in his Vocation c. Upon the 60th of Isa He calls the future Bishops Princes of the Church Of the Ecclesiastical Writers Concerning James James after the Passion of our Lord was immediatly by the Apostles ordained Bishop of Jerusalem The like he tells of the first Bishops of other Places Epist 54. against Montanus With us the Bishops hold the Place of the Apostles St. Jerom A. D. 380. A. D. 380. In his Comment upon the Ep. to Titus Postquam unusquisque eos quos Baptizabat suos putabat esse non Christi IN TOTO ORBE Decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris Electus superponeretur Caeteris ut Schismatum semina tollerentur A Marco Evangelista ad Heraclum usq●ad Dionysium Episcopos Presbyrari Aegypti semper unum ex se Electum in Clesiori Gradu collocatum Episcopum Nominabant Qui provehitur à Minori ad Majus provehitur Potentia Divitiarum Paupertatis Humilitas sublimiorum vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit Ceterum Omnes Apostolorum Successores sunt Ut sciamus Traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento Quod Aaron Filii ejus
to the People And apply to this what I have before shewn in the words of St. Clement whose Name is written in the Book of Life That the Evangelical Priesthood is as surely fixed in the Bishops of the Church and its Succession continu'd in those Ordain'd by them as the Levitical Priesthood was confirm'd by the Budding of Aaron's Rod and to be continu'd in that Tribe III. And here let our Korahites of several sizes take a view of the Heinousness of their Schism and let them not think their Crime to be nothing because they have been taught with their Nurses Milk to have the utmost abhorrence to the very Name of a Bishop tho' they cou'd not tell why Let them rather consider seriously the misfortune of their Education which shou'd make them Strangers to all the rest of the Christian World but themselves in a Corner and to all the former Ages of Christianity They have been told that Episcopacy is Popery because the Papists have Bishops So have they Presbyters too that is Parish Priests They have the Creed likewise and the Holy Scriptures and all these must be Popish if this be a good Argument But are they willing to be undeceived Then they must know that Episcopacy has none so great an Enemy as the Papacy which wou'd Engross the whole Episcopal Power into the single See of Rome by making all other Bishops absolutly dependent upon that which only they call the Apostolical Chair And no longer since than the Council of Trent the Pope endeavor'd with all his Interest to have Episcopacy except only that of the Bishop of Rome to be declar'd not to be Jure Divino By which no other Bishops cou'd claim any other Power but what they had from Him But that Council was not so quite Degenerated as to suffer this to pass And the Jesuits and Others who Disputed there on the Pope's part us'd those same Arguments against the Divine Right of Episcopacy which from them and the Popish Canonists and Schoolmen have been lick'd up by the Presbyterians and others of our Dissenters They are the same Arguments which are us'd by Pope and Presbyter against Episcopacy When the Pope cou'd not carry his Cause against Episcopacy in the Council of Trent he took another Method and that was to set up a vast Number of Presbyterian Priests that is the Regulars whom he Exempted from the Jurisdiction of their respective Bishops and fram'd them into a Method and Discipline of their own accountable only to Superiors of his and their own contriving which is exactly the Presbyterian Model These Usurpations upon the Episcopal Authority made the Famous Archbishop of Spalato quit his great Preferments in the Church of Rome and Travel into England in the Reign of King James I. to seek for a more Primitive and Independent Episcopacy Himself in his Consilium Profectionis gives these same Reasons for it And that this shameful Depression and Prostitution of Episcopacy in the Church of Rome was the cause of his leaving her He observ'd truly that the further we search upward in Antiquity there is still more to be found of the Episcopal and less of the Papal Eminency St. Ignatius is full in every line almost of the high Authority of the Bishop next and immediately under Christ as all the other Writers in those Primitive Times But there is a profound silence in them all of that Supremacy in the Bishop of Rome which is now claim'd over all the other Bishops of the Catholick Church Which cou'd not be if it had been then known in the World This had been a short and effectual Method whereby St. Paul or St. Clement might have quieted the great Schism of the Corinthians against which they both wrote in their Epistles to them to bid them refer their Differences to the Infallible Judge of Contreversy the Supreme Pastor at Rome But not a word like this Especially considering that St. Peter was one for whom some of these Corinthians strove 1 Cor. i. 12. against those who preferred others before Him The Usurp'd Supremacy of the later Bishops of Rome over their Fellow-Bishops has been as Fatal to Episcopacy as the Rebellion of our yet later Presbyters against their Respective Bishops And indeed whoever wou'd write the true History of Presbyterianism must begin at Rome and not at Geneva So very Groundless as well as Malicious is that popular Clamour of Episcopacy having any Relation to Popery They are so utterly Irreconcilable that it is impossible they can stand together For that moment that Episcopacy were Restor'd to its Primitive Independency the Papacy that is that Supremacy which does now distinguish it must ipso facto cease But enough of this for I must not digress into various Subjects I have shewn in Answer to the Objection of the Ages of Popery in this Kingdom that all those Errors even Idolatry it self does not Un-church nor break Succession And 2dly I have Exemplifi'd this from the Parallel of the Jewish Church under the Law Then applying of this to our Case I have vindicared Episcopacy from the Imputation of Popery I will now go on to further Reasons why the Succession of our present Bishops is not hurt by that Deluge of Popery which once cover'd the face of this Land IV. The end of all Government as well in the Church as State is to preserve Peace Unity and Order and this cannot be done if the Male-administration of the Officers in the Government did Vacat their Commission without its being Re-call'd by those who gave such Commission to them For then 1st Every Man must be Judge when such a Commission is Vacated and then no Man is bound to obey longer then he pleases 2dly One may say it is Vacated another not whence perpetual Contention must arise A Man may Forfeit his Commission that is do those things which give just Cause to his Superiors to take it from him But it is not actually Vacated till it be actually Recall'd by those who have lawful Power to take it from him Otherwise their cou'd be no Peace nor Certainty in the World either in Publick or in Private affairs No Family cou'd subsist No Man enjoy an Estate No Society whatever cou'd keep together And the Church being an Outward Society as shewn in the Discourse of Water Baptism must consequently subsist by those Laws which are indispensible to every Society Sect. iii. ● 1. And tho' Idolatry does justly Forfeit the Commission of any Church in this sense that God's Promises to Her being Conditional He may justly take her Commission from her and Remove her Candlestick Now tho' her Commission be thus Forfeitable yet it still Continues and is not actually Pacated till God shall please actually to Recall it or take it away For no Commission is Void till it be so Declar'd Thus tho' the Jews did often fall into Idolatry yet as before has been said God did bear long with them and did not Un-church them tho'