unto the tenth of Trajan wherein Ignatius in that last journey which he made for the consummation of his glorious Martyrdome at Rome wrote another Epistle unto the self-same Church of Ephesus In which he maketh mention of their then Bishop Onesimus as it appears both by Eusebius citing this out of it and by the Epistle it self yet extant In this Epistle to the Ephesians Ignatius having accknowledged that their numerous multitude was received by him in the person of their Bishop Onesimus and blessed God for granting unto them such a Bishop as he was doth afterwards put them in minde of their duty in concurring with him as he sheweth their worthy Presbytery did being so conjoyn'd as he saith with their Bishop as the strings are with the Harp and toward the end exhorteth them to obey both the Bishop and the Presbytery with an undivided minde In the same journey wrote Ignatius also an Epistle unto the Church of Smyrna another of the seven unto whom those letters are directed in S. Johns Revelation wherein he also saluteth their Bishop and Presbytery exhorting all the people to follow their Bishop as Christ Jesus did his Father and the Presbytery as the Apostles and telling them that no man ought either to administer the Sacraments or do any thing appertaining to the Church without the consent of the Bishop Who this Bishop and what that Presbytery was appeareth by another Epistle written a little after from Smyrna by Polycarpus and the Presbyters that were with him unto the Philippians And that the same Polycarpus was then also Bishop there when S. John wrote unto the Angel of the Church of Smyrna who can better inform us then Irenaeus who did not only know those worthy men who succeeded Polycarpus in his See but also was present when he himself did discourse of his conversation with S. John and of those things which he heard from those who had seen our Lord Jesus Polycarpus saith he was not only taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church which is in Smyrna whom we our selves also did see in our younger age for he continued long being very aged he most gloriously and nobly suffering Martyrdome departed this life Now being ordained Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles who had finished their course and departed out of this life before S. John the last surviver of them did write his Revelation who but he could there be meant by the Angel of the Church in Smyrna in which that he still held his Episcopal office unto the time of his Martyrdome which fell out LXXIV years afterward may sufficiently appear by this testimony which the brethren of the Church of Smyrna who were present at his suffering gave unto him He was the most admirable man in our times an Apostolical and Propheticall Doctor and Bishop of the Catholick Church which is in Smyrna Whereunto we may add the like of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who lived also in his time and in his neighbourhood affirming Polycarpus to have been both Bishop and Martyr in Smyrna So saith he in his Synodica Epistle directed unto Victor Bishop of Rome about 27 years after the Martyrdome of Polycarpus he himself being at that time 65 years of age About the very same time wherein Polycrates wrote this Epistle unto Victor did Tertullian publish his book of Prescriptions against Hereticks wherein he avoucheth against them that as the Church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John and the Church of Rome Clement ordained by Peter so the rest of the Churches also did shew what Bishops they had received by the appointment of the Apostles to traduce the Apostolical seed unto them And so before him did Irenaeus urge against them the successions of Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the charge of the Church in every place For all the Hereticks saith he are much later then those Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the Churches And we are able to number those who by the Apostles were ordained Bishops in the Churches and their Successours unto our dayes who neither taught nor knew any such thing as these men dream of For proof whereof he bringeth in the succession of the Bishops of Rome from Liuus unto whom the blessed Apostles committed that Episcopacy and Anacletus by others called Cletus and Clement who did both see the Apostles and conferred with them unto Eleutherius who when Irenaeus wrote had the charge of that Bishoprick in the twelfth place after the Apostles Concerning whom and the integrity which then continued in each other succession from the Apostles dayes Hegesippus who at the same time published his History of the Church saith thus Soter succeeded Anicetus and after him was Eleutherius Now in every succession and in every City all things so stand as the Law and the Prophets and our Lord do preach And more particularly concerning the Church of Corinth after he had spoken of the Epistle written unto them by Clement for the repressing of some factions wherewith they were at that time much troubled which gave him occasion to tell them that the Apostles of whom he himself was an hearer had perfect intelligence from our Lord Jesus Christ of the contention that should arise about the name of Episcopacy he declareth that after the appeasing of this tumult the Church of the Corinthians continued in the right way untill the dayes of Primus whom he did visite in his sayling toward Rome Which Primus had for his successour that famous Dionysius whose Epistle to the Church of the Athenians hath beene before nominated wherein he put them in minde of the first Bishop that had been placed over them even Dionysius the Areopagite S. Pauls own convert a thing whereof they could at that time have no more cause to doubt then we should have if any question were now made of the Bishops that were here in King Edward the VI. or Queen Maryes dayes I might also say in the middle of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth her self if with Baronius I would produce the Areopagites life unto the government of the Emperour Hadrian This Hegesippus living next after the first succession of the Apostles as Eusebius noteth and being himself a Christian of the race of the Hebrews was carefull to record unto posterity the state of the Church of Ierusalem in the dayes of the Apostles and the alteration that followed after their departure out of this life Where first he sheweth that Iames the brother of our Lord surnamed the Iust did governe that Church together with the Apostles yet so as Clement of Alexandria who wrote some twenty years after him further addeth that he had this preferment even before the three prime Apostles Peter and
Matthew or some other of the disciples of the Lord and the things that Aristion and John the Elder our Lords disciples did speak The two last of whom he often cited by name in the processe of the work relating the passages in this kind which he had heard from them Neither can any man be so simple as to imagine that in the language of Clemens Alexandrinus the name of a Bishop should import no more then a bare Presbyter if he consider that not the difference only betwixt Presbyters Bishops and Deacons is by him acknowledged but further also that the disposition of their three offices in his judgement doth carry with it an imitation of the Angelicall glory To say nothing of the Emperour Hadrian who hard upon the time of the fore-named Papias writing unto the Consul Servianus touching the state of things in Aegypt maketh distinct mention in his letter of the Presbyters of the Christians and of those who call themselves the Bishops of Christ. And thus having deduced Episcopacy from the Apostolicall times and declared that the Angels of the seven Churches were no other but such as in the next age after the Apostles were by the Fathers tearmed Bishops we are now further to enquire why these Churches are confined unto the number of seven in the superscription of that Apostolicall Epistle prefixed before the book of the Revelation Iohn to the seven Churches in Asia Grace be unto you and peace where S. Iohn directing his letters unto them thus indefinitly without any mention of their particular names cannot by common intendment be conceived to have understood any other thereby but such as by some degree of eminency were distinguishable from all the rest of the Churches that were in Asia and in some sort also did comprehend all the rest under them For taking Asia here in that stricter sense wherein the New Testament useth it as denoting the Lydian Asia alone of the circuit whereof I have treated elsewhere more particularly it is not to be imagined that after so long pains taken by the Apostles and their disciples in the husbanding of that part of the Lords vineyard there should be found no more but seven Churches therein especially since S. Paul that wise master-builder professeth that he had here a great door and effectuall opened unto him and S. Luke testifieth accordingly that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Iesus both Iews and Greeks so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed Which extraordinary blessing of God upon his labours moved the Apostle to make his residence in those parts for the space of three years wherein he ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears So that in all reason we are to suppose that these seven Churches comprising all the rest within them were not bare Parochiall ones or so many particular congregations but Diocesan Churches as we use to call them if not Metropoliticall rather For that in Laedicea Sardis Smyrna Ephesus and Pergamus the Roman governours held their Courts of justice to which all the Cities and Towns about had recourse for the ending of their suites is noted by Pliny And besides these which were the greatest Thyatira is also by Ptolomy expresly named a Metropolis as Philadelphia also is in the Greek Acts of the Councell of Constantinople held under Menas Which giveth us good ground to conceive that the seven Cities in which these seven Churches had their seat were all of them Metropoliticall and so had relation unto the rest of the Townes and Cities of Asia as unto daughters rising under them This Lydian Asia was separated from Caria by the river Maeander upon the banks whereof Magnesia and Trallis were seated to the Christians whereof Ignatius directed two of his epistles wherein he maketh mention of Damas Bishop of the one Church and Polybius Bishop or Ruler as Eusebius calleth him of the other whom they had sent to visit him at Smyrna adding withall in that to the Trallians his usuall admonitions Be subject to the Bishop as to the Lord and to the Presbytery as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ our hope He that doth any thing without the Bishop and the Presbyters and the Deacons such a one is defiled in conscience Fare ye well in Jesus Christ being subject to the Bishop and likewise to the Presbyters Wherein we may note that with twelve years after mention of the seven Churches made in the Apocalyps for then as hath been shewed were these epistles of Ignatius written other Episcopal cities are found in the same Lydian Asia and two such as in after times are well known to have been under the government of the Metropolitan of Ephesus But whether this subordination were as ancient as the dayes of Ignatius whose Epistles are extant unto these three Churches and Damas the then Bishop of Magnefia with Polybius of Trallis were at that time subject to One simus the Bishop of Ephesus might well be doubted but that the same Ignatius directeth one of his Epistles unto the Church which had presidency in the place of the Region of the Romans and in the body thereof doth attribute unto himself the title of the Bishop of Syria Whereby as he intimateth himself to have been not onely the Bishop of Antiock but also of the rest of the province of Syria which was under that Metropolis so doth he likewise not obscurely signifie that the Bishop of Rome had at that time a presidency over the Churches that were in the Vrbicarian Region as the Imperiall Constitutions or the Roman Province as the Acts of the first Councell of Arles call it What that Vrbicarian Region was I will not now stand to discusse whether Tuscia onely wherein Rome it selfe was situated which in the dayes of Ignatius was one entire region but afterwards divided into Tuscia Suburbicaria and Annonaeria or the territory wherein the Praefectus Vrbis did exercise his jurisdiction which was confined within the compasse of a hundred miles about the City or with that those other provinces also whereunto the authority of the Vicarius Vrbis did extend or lastly the circuit within which those 69. Bishopricks were contained that were immediatly subject to the Bishop of Rome and frequently called to his Synods the names whereof are found registred in the Records of that Church The antiquity of which number as it may in some sort receive confirmation from the Roman Synod of seventy Bishops held under Gelasius so for the distinction of the Bishops which belonged to the city of Rome from those that appertained to Italy we have a farre more ancient testimony from the Edict of the Emperour Aurelian who in the controversie that arose betwixt Paulus Samosatenus and Domnus for the house which belonged unto the Church of Antioch commanded that it should be delivered to them
as not to give it up untill they perfectly understand concerning Episcopacy it self Quid mali fecit I shall speak at this time only of the first of these three points That Episcopacy is not repugnant to the government setled in the Church for perpetuity by the Apostles Whereof I conceive this which followes as clear a demonstration as any thing of this nature is capable of That this government was received universally in the Church either in the Apostles time or presently after is so evident and unquestionable that the most learned adversaries of this government do themselves confesse it Petrus Molinaeus in his book De munere postorali purposely written in defence of the Presbyteriall government acknowledgeth That presently after the Apostles times or even in their time as Ecclesiasticall story witnesseth it was ordained That in every City one of the Presbytery should be called a Bishop who should have preheminence over his Colleagues to avoid confusion which oft times ariseth out of equality And truly this form of government all Churches every where received Theodorus Beza in his Tract De triplici Episcopatus genere confesseth in effect the same thing For having distinguished Episcopacy into three kinds Divine Humane and Satanicall and attributing to the second which he calls Humane but we maintain and conceive to be Apostolicall not only a priority of order but a superiority of power and authority over other Presbyters bounded yet by lawes and canons provided against Tyranny he clearly professeth that of this kind of Episcopacy is to be understood whatsoever we read concerning the authority of Bishops or Presidents as Justin Martyr calls them in Ignatius and other more ancient Writers Certainly from these two great defenders of the Presbytery we should never had this free acknowledgement so prejudiciall to their own pretence and so advantageous to their adversaries purpose had not the evidence of clear and undeniable truth enforced them to it It will not therefore be necessary to spend any time in confuting that uningenuous assertion of the Anonymus Authour of the Catalogue of Testimonies for the equality of Bishops and Presbyters who affirmes That their disparity began long after the Apostles times But we may safely take for granted that which these two learned Adversaries have confessed and see whether upon this foundation laid by them we may not by unanswerable reason raise this superstruction That seing Episcopall Government is confessedly so ancient and so Catholique it cannot with reason be denyed to be Apostolique For so great a change as between Presbyteriall Government and Episcopall could not possibly have prevailed all the world over in a little time Had Episcopall Government been an aberration from or a corruption of the Government left in the Churches by the Apostles it had been very strange that it should have been received in any one Church so suddainly or that it should have prevailed in all for many Ages after Variâsse debuerat error Ecclesiarum quod autem apud omnes unum est non est erratum sed traditum Had the Churches err'd they would have varied What therefore is one and the same amongst all came not sure by errour but tradition Thus Tertullian argues very probably from the consent of the Churches of his time not long after the Apostles and that in matter of opinion much more subject to unobserv'd alteration But that in the frame and substance of the necessary government of the Church a thing alwayes in use and practice there should be so suddain a change as presently after the Apostles times and so universall as received in all the Churches this is clearly impossible For what universall cause can be assigned or fained of this universall Apostasie you will not imagine that the Apostles all or any of them made any decree for this change when they were living or left order for it in any Will or Testament when they were dying This were to grant the question to wit that the Apostles being to leave the government of the Churches themselves and either seeing by experience or foreseeing by the Spirit of God the distractions and disorders which would arise from a multitude of equalls substituted Episcopall government instead of their own Generall Councells to make a Law for a generall change for many ages there was none There was no Christian Emperour no coercive power over the Church to enforce it Or if there had been any we know no force was equall to the courage of the Christians of those times Their lives were then at command for they had not then learn't to fight for Christ but their obedience to any thing against his Law was not to be commanded for they had perfectly learn't to die for him Therefore there was no power then to command this change or if there had been any it had been in vain What device then shall we study or to what fountaine shall we reduce this strange pretended alteration Can it enter into our hearts to think that all the Presbyters and other Christians then being the Apostles Schollers could be generally ignorant of the will of Christ touching the necessity of a Presbyteriall government Or dare we adventure to think them so strangely wicked all the world over as against knowledge and conscience to conspire against it Imagine the spirit of Diotrephes had entered into some or a great many of the Presbyters and possessed them with an ambitious desire of a forbidden superiority was it possible they should attempt and atchieve it once without any opposition or contradiction and besides that the contagion of this ambition should spread it self and prevail without stop or controule nay without any noyse or notice taken of it through all the Churches in the world all the watchmen in the mean time being so fast asleep and all the dogges so dumb that not so much as one should open his mouth against it But let us suppose though it be a horrible untruth that the Presbyters and people then were not so good Christians as the Presbyters are now that they were generally so negligent to retain the government of Christs Church commanded by Christ which we now are so zealous to restore yet certainly we must not forget nor deny that they were men as we are And if we look upon them but as meer naturall men yet knowing by experience how hard a thing it is even for policy arm'd with power by many attempts and contrivances and in a long time to gain upon the liberty of any one people undoubtedly we shall never entertain so wild an imagination as that among all the Christian Presbyteries in the world neither conscience of duty nor love of liberty nor aversenesse from pride and usurpation of others over them should prevail so much as with any one to oppose this pretended universall invasion of the Kingdome of Christ and the liberty of Christians When I shall see therefore all the fables in the Metamorphosis acted and prove stories when I
So he Lastly now under our Gracious Soveraigne King Charles in the time of Arch-Bishop Abbot Whose daily experience did testifie the reciprocall correspondence between him and with other Bishops and all reformed Churches beyond the Sea At what time likewise Cyrill late Greek Patriarch of Constatinople did so farre honour both him and our English Church as to professe his accordance therewith more specially then with any other And if our Bishops of later date had not been respected then surely would not the Divines about Breme in Germany have sent their controversies had among themselves onely unto certain Bishops in England as they did to have them moderated by their judgements not to speak of their dedications of some of their Books unto Bishops These last Relations nothing but the importunity of these times could have extorted from us Thus much of particular respects had in speciall to our English Episcopall Government by singular approved Divines of the reformed Protestant Churches In the next place as the thread of our method leadeth us we are to examine what they will say touching the unlawfulnesse or lawfulness thereof in generall II. THESIS That there was never any visibly constituted Church in all Christendome since the Apostles time for 1500. years and more which held Episcopacy in it self to be unlawfull WE are not ignorant that even at this time all Episcopacy and Prelacy of any one above Presbyterie is cryed down by some as unlawfull in it self notwithstanding our Opposites cannot but know what besides Epiphanius Saint Angustine recorded of one Aerius to wit that he because he could not obtain to be made a Bishop did therefore teach that there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop So he and for that cause they listed him among the erroneous Authors of that Age but he being excepted never any visible Church of Christ before him we adde nor yet any thus protested after him nor before these dayes of contradiction defended his opinion Now whether the humour of desire to rule others and the unwillingnesse to be subject unto others may not equally transport some Ecclesiasticks to oppose against Episcopacy they can best judge whom it most concernes We know beside infinite others who have acknowledged the lawfulnesse of Episcopacy some protestant Divines of remote Churches who have fully condemn'd the opinion of Aerius Three may suffice for three hundred if they be learned and judicious Authors and not interested in that which is now called Episcopall policy Master Moulin commeth on roundly I have since my infancy saith he abhorr'd the opinion of Aërius Tylenus also a Divine of the French Church as pertinently and plainly None ever before Aërius endeavoured the extirpation of Episcopacy nor yet after him any but some of Geneva What some he might meane we know not but whom he might not meane we have already shewn as Calvin Beza Sadle and Causabon who have given their ample suffrages for our English Episcopacy but only speak against the Romish Hierarchie And now for the generality of it Beza is again at hand saying If there be any as I think saith he there is not who altogether reject the Episcopall Order God forbid that any of sound brains should ever assent to their furies and besides protesteth his acknowledged observance and all reverence to all Bishops reformed Hitherto against the objected unlawfulnesse of Episcopacy in the Church of Christ. But this will not satisfie some men except furthermore the lawfulness thereof may appear in that degree which is called in respect of its right According to the Word of God It belongeth unto us to shew this by the Confession of Divines of remote Protestant Churches which we are ready to performe and more too III. THESIS That Episcopal Prelacy is acknowledged by Protestant Divines of remote Churches to be according to the Word of God and their consent therein unto Primitive Antiquity LVther may well be allowed for the fore-man amongst the Reformers of the Protestant Religion who proveth the Prelacy of Episcopacy above simple Presbyters for so he saith by Divine Right and this he doth in his Tractâ—te called his Reselution grounding his judgment upon Scripture whereof hereafter Accordingly Bucer against the Pope as Anti-Christ We see saith he by their perpetual observation of Churches and from the Apostles themselves that it seemed good to the holy Ghost that some singular one should be appointed among the Presbyters to Govern in so sacred an Order who hath for the same cause the Appellation of Bishop in Scripture Scultetus the Divine Professour at Heidelberg professing Episcopal degree to be of divine Right and professeth to prove it to be such by efficacious reasons who in the sequell of his discourse will be as good as his word with whom agreeth that admirable Schollar Isaac Casaubon the ornament of Geneva who held the same to be grounded upon the Testimonies of Scriptures These may serve for the present till we come to a larger consent All these and other the former confessions of Protestant Divines are the proper idiom and language of primitive Antiquity teaching thus Episcopacy is by the Ordination of Christ. So Ignatius and again Reverence your Bishop as Christ and the Apostles have commanded you Or thus To be a divine power the resistancè whereof is against God himself So Cyprian And thus God placed Bishops over His family So Origen And thus The Apostles were made Bishops by Christ who ordained others meaning Bishops in other places by whom the Church should be govern'd So Augustine Or thus Bishops constituted over Presbyters as the Word of God teacheh So Epiphanius And thus None can be ignorant that Bishops were instituted by Christ when he made His Apostles by whom others should be made Bishops whom we succeed and speaking of Bishops of whom Christ said he that despiseth you despiseth me So again Augustine Before we end this point we shall desire our Opposites to bethink themselves what they think may signifie the suffrages of the Fathers of the Synod of Calcedon for Antiquity one of the first four Generall and in this generality universally receiv'd throughout Christendom for amplitude consisting of six hundred and thirty Bishops and for aversenesse against the Pope of Rome that which undermin'd the very foundation of Romish Popedom which is a pretence of having been established by the divine Authority of Christ the universall Bishop of the Church and equalling another Patriarch with him and shewing that all the Primacy which the Pope of Rome had was but from humane Authority This Councell concerning Episcopacy ordain'd that To depose a Bishop down to the degree of a Presbyter is Sacriledge This so great a Harmony between the former Protestant Divines and those eminent Fathers how shall it not sound delightfull unto every docible and unpreoccupated hearer These confessions notwithstanding we have not discharg'd our
all these Apostolicall Relations concerning Episcopacy should not amount unto so much as to make up an Apostolicall Institution thereof The second objected Father is Clement whereof their successe will be no better if not much worse X. THESIS That Clement an Apostolicall Disciple to whose arbitrement both our Opposites and we offer to yeeld our selves doth patronize Episcopacy as being Apostolicall WE are earnestly called upon to hearken unto Clement talking of a prophecy of a future contention which should happen about the name of Bishop Next That there is no peece of Antiquity of more esteem then the Epistle of Clement unto the Corinthians Then That this was brought to light by a learned Gentleman Mr. Patrick Young and lastly for the matter it self That there is a common and promiscuous use of the word Presbyter and Bishop We shall answer punctually to every one viz. The Prophecy maketh for us the Epistle much more the Publisher also as much as can be desired and that Objection of the indifferency of the Words of Bishop and Presbyter is scarce worthy the mention We begin with the Prophecy The Prophecy was only that there should be in time to come a contention about the word Bishop If we should ask our Opposites when this contention was first known in times of old they would be loth to tell us knowing right well that it was first raised by one Aerius of whom Epiphanius and Austin have told us that he broke out into Schisme and because he could not obtain to be made a Bishop did therefore spurne against Episcopacy teaching saith St. Austin that there ought to be no difference between Bishops and Presbyters therefore thus they may see the Prophecy fulfilled both when and in whom if they like it But if any shall boast that it is fulfilled now by their present Opposalls against Episcopacy after that it hath had approbation with a continuall use universally in the Churches of God Then have we nothing else to reply but what the spirit of God from the pen of the holy Apostle putteth in our mouth If any be contentious saith he we have no such custome nor the Churches of God whereby the wilfully contentious maketh himself an adversary to the Churches of God and consequently no way acceptable to God himself The second point which we are to discerne is that which they call identity of names of Bishops and Presbyters they should have called it community of names especially knowing that there is no more identity in the words Presbyters and Bishops then there is between the letters of P. and B. But this was a lapse Therefore to our matter in hand We answer that meer names and words make but verball consequences to which we oppose a reall and Logicall consequence à paribus thus For of the very Apostles of Christ one instiled himself Co-presbyter another himself Presbyter a third himself Deacon who are all common names with others that were not Apostles and notwithstanding the Apostles themselves in respect of their offices and Functions were Governours over Presbyters which sheweth that the enterchangeablenesse of names cannot conclude an indifferency of degree But this â—rambe will be sodden once again when we shall be occasioned to give further satisfaction As for the present it may well be said what shall we need words when we see Acts and deeds namely concerning this Clement Not only that he maintained the distinct degrees of Episcopacy but that also he was distinctly above Presbyters a Bishop himself Yet should not our Opposites pose us in that where Vedelius a Professour of Geneva gave them if they have read him some satisfaction shewing that as soon as Clemens remained the sole Adjutour of the Apostles after Linus and Cletus the name of Bishop was given unto him and not attributed to any Presbyter or Presbyters in the Church of Rome So he Is not this to the point the distinguishing of times doth solve many doubts It is meet now at length we hear Clemens himself speak Clement immediately after his relation of the aforesaid Prophecy addeth saying concerning the Apostles for this cause they having a perfect foreknowledge constituted the aforesaid and left a description of Officers and Ministers in their course who after that they themselves should fall asleep other Godly men might succeed and execute their function So Clement Whence it is evidently collected that Bishops were the successours of the Apostles because a Role and Catalogue of Bishops is frequently had in Ecclesiasticall stories lineally deduced from the Apostles as the most of the learned Protestants of the Reformed Churches have ever confessed But if our Opposites cannot prove the like Catalogue of Presbyters of a primitive and right line of descent then are they wholy to yeeld the cause and that even by the judgment of Clement which is now ready to be furthermore confessed by the exact learning of the Publisher of Clement This Gentleman our Opposites call Learned we owe him an higher Title even one exquisitely learned he commenting upon the same Epistle of Clement now objected against Episcopacy teacheth that the right word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agreeth with the word census in Tertullian by whom it appeareth that it was a custome in Apostolicall Churches to make a Role for this word he held not unfit of the order of Bishops to bring them unto their first originall even as saith Tertullian Polycarpus was from John the Apostle in the Church of Smyrna and Clemens in the Church of Rome from Peter speaking even of this our Clemens and addeth of others and others saith he whom the Apostles constituted Bishops from whom others might deduce their traductions and offsprings what is if this be not an inexpugnable convincement of our Opposites to prove Episcopacy to be of an Apostolical Ordination Yet is not this all Clement is further represented unto us by the same learned Publisher as one register'd and enroll'd by antiquity as Bishop of Rome in the Catalogue of the same Bishops lineally descended from the Apostles whether in the first second or third rank it matters not and the doubt such as it is is solved in the Margent by our foresaid Geneva Professour And for witnesses hereunto are cited Optatus Hierome Ruffinus Eucherius and Photius set down expressely in the same Book which our Opposites have objected against us which if you would not see or seing not regard all we shall say is We are sorry for it Yet after this our retorsion of their objected Authors upon themselves we shall endeavour to give them further satisfaction from our selected and expresse suffrages of Antiquity for the truth of Apostolicall succession of Episcopacy XI THESIS That other Primitive Fathers before Hierome did unanimously testifie an Apostolical right of Episcopacy NOthing can be more manifest for the first three Ireneus Tertullian and Origen to which we add Augustine do all professe themselves ready to deduce
unequally in both whereas they should have labour'd to solve the doubt by some commodious and congruous interpretation Whether thus if by Candlestick be to understood the people then by people to conceive such of whom the Prophet spake like people like Pastour so that the irrepentant people adhering to the unpenitent Pastor may justly be involv'd in the same punishment Secondly or thus by taking the word Candlestick to signifie the Pastor himself for the Ministers of the Gospel are so called Mat. 5. 15 And that the same word should be diversly taken in the same sentence cannot be strange to him who is not a stranger to Scripture As where it is said He that shall save his life viz. Mortall shall loose his life to wit the Eternal And again 2. Cor. 5. 21. Of Christ He that knew no sin properly taken was made for us sin that is a sacrifice for sin or else not to seek further by distinguishing of the word place as here betokening mans estate and condition with relation to others in which sense might the Church of Ephesus be removed by altering the relation to that one Pastor both by not acknowledging him their Bishop and by withholding maintenance XXII THESIS That our Opposites third Exposition of the word Angel to signifie one onely Pastor in the Church of Ephesus is extremely new and naught THis mis-begotten brat namely an Exposition which before these dayes of distraction never saw print we might think should by and by vanish with its own novelty How much more for the safety thereof which we are rather to enquire after seeming to us to be very transparent For the reasons which these our Opposites might have read in Mr. Brightman viz. The City of Ephesus was more ennobled of all other by Pauls Triennial labour therein Next by the divine Epistle written unto the people there as also by that Timothy was ordained their Pastor and besides for John's laborious watring thereof for so many years together So he But how successefull were these then this was told us in the Acts of the Apostles concerning the Church of Ephesus whereof it is said so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed Act. 19. 20. Now that after Pauls long residence after Timothies Pastorship and after Saint Johns watering of that Church and so long a time and that with so admirable successe and yet here but one onely Pastor among them Is this credible What saith the Scripture The Harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few But here in the mightily great Harvest the labourers are fewer then few We ought not to be blamed for medling with such trifles in earnest but that our study hath been to weed out even the least scruples now that we are to expedite a matter of highest importance which is our proof of Episcopacy from the word of God and to that purpose from confutation of the negative part held by our Opposites we passe to the proofes and confirmations of our affirmative XXIII THESIS That by the word Angel of Ephesus to signifie a singular and individual Pastor having a Prelacy over Presbyters is proved by a large consent of Protestant Divines without exception judicious and ingenuous THe Divines which we shall produce shall be those whom our Opposites themselves cannot call Partialists in behalf of Bishops whether they be of remote Churches or as it were domestiques in our own Country Of the first kind we alleadge the last chief Pastor of the Church of Geneva Master Deodate who is to be cited out of his Book lately authoriz'd to be publish'd by Order of the House of Commons this Parliament The Text in the Revelations is Write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus His paraphrase thus That is saith he to the Pastor or Bishop under whose person ought to be understood the whole Church The Church to be implyed or understood and the Pastor or Bishop under whose person which because person can be but one according to the Etymon of the word Angel Persona quasi per se una Or as it is defin'd in Philosophy A person is an individual intellectual Nature yet so in this place as he being to acquaint all with the contents of this Epistle all were understood to be concern'd in him as all the other following witnesses will acknowledge Before him in the same Church of Geneva was Theodore Beza by Angel saith he is meant the President who was admonish'd and his Collegues with him So he Bullinger although he as others affirm that the Epistle concerneth as well People as Pastors yet doth he consent unto us that the Epistle was inscribed to one by whom the Pastors and people might be enformed As punctually and pertinently Marlorat some things saith he were to be corrected as well in the people as in the Clergy yet doth not John address himself unto the people nor yet to the Clergy but to the chief of them which is the Bishop and that not without good reason So he Of our chief Gualther held the same opinion with further evidence of these other words Unto the Angel of the Church of Smyrna write that is saith he To the Bishop thereof as Histories do manifest Gaspar Sibilius having compared the divers Expositions confess'd saying This as spoken but of one Angel pleaseth me better Piscator briefly and consonantly to the Angel that is to the Bishop and to the Church namely Bishop expressely and Church consequently because of matters of concernment to them also Paraeus doubteth not to make his explanation as generally to be observ'd in these Epistles It is the word of Christ saith he that that which is meant to the Church should be inscribed to the Bishop of the place or Church Aretius is of no lesse esteem then the former and as punctuall altogether by Angel interpreting a speciall one Minister and Disciple of John by whom the writing might be commended to the whole Church Peter Martyr used to be reckoned among the first Worthies John saith he was commanded to write to the Angels who were the Bishops of the Churches But what do we multiply remote Authors when one of their Doctors may satisfy us both for the generall and for himself All the most learned Interpreters saith Dr. Scultetus by Angels expound the Bishops of the Churches nor can it be otherwise Interpreted without violence to the Text. So he After our so long peregrination in remote Churches it is time to haste home to try what our own English Divines have judged of this matter and lest now we be too numerous we shall single out three who will be held singular in the estimation of our Opposites themselves Dr. Reynolds Although in the Church of Ephesus saith he there were sundry Elders and Pastors to guid it yet among those sundry was there one Chief whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church Apoc. 2. So
present defence and agreeth as well to Timothy as to Titus Hierome hath recorded both Timothy and Titus Bishops the one of Ephesus and the other of Creete to whom Ambrose Primasius Gregory the great do consent Luther also bringeth in Augustine into the said Chorus We hasten to our last Act. Our second ground out of Scripture to prove a Prelacy over Presbyters to be according to the word of God is Rev. c. 2. 3. In the Book of Revelation Christ by his Angel properly so called commandeth Iohn to write unto the seven Churches in Asia vers 1. Telling him mystically of seven golden candlesticks vers 13. and of seven starres vers 16. and afterwards expoundeth their meanings seven starres to signifie seven Angels of the seven Churches and seven candlesticks to betoken the seven Churches vers 20. By and by descending to particulars he directeth his several Epistles to the several seven Angels of the seven Churches beginning at the Church of Ephesus saying Write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and so of the rest These are our Texts which we are in discussing these our differences to insist upon The State of the Question We readily grant that whatsoever matter was written to these Angels concerning either themselves or others were by them to be communicated severally to the Churches and all the faithfull as they were interested therein according to that Epiphonema severally applied in every Epistle thus He that hath an â—ar to hear let him hear But the onely question is whether each of these Angels of the Churches were singular persons having a Prelacy over other Pastors and Clergy or no Our opposites say nay we yea The odds is ex Diametro We are therefore according to true method first to disprove their negative and after to evince our affirmation But in the first place be it known that our Opposites in their negatives are distracted into three Opinions One sort by the word Angel will have understood the whole Church collectively as well Laitie as Clergy Not so say the second Opinatours but by Angel is collectively meant onely the Order or Colledge of Pastours or Presbyters After these the Novelists it s neither so nor so but by Angel is meant one individual Pastour without relation to any other newly called an Independent whereas our tenet is by Angel to understand one individual Ecclesiastical person having a Prelacy above the rest XX. THESIS That our Opposites first Exposition which interpreteth the Angel to mean the whole Church and congregation is notably extravagant ALthough Walâ— Messalinus the grand Adversary to Episcopacy be very peremptory for this exposition yet will it altogether appear groundlesse But first we are to hearken unto his glosse Let is be held a firm and fixt truth saith he that by the name of Angels are not signified any that had Presidency over others but the whole congregation and Churches So he Pythagorically upon his own word as we see whereunto we may rather answer Let it be held firmly and fixtly that this glosse upon the Text is evidently confuted by the context which standeth thus cap. 1. and 20. The Angels are called Starres and the Churches Candlesticks so that he must turn Starres into Candlesticks before that he can make the Angel to signifie the whole Congregation Beside cap. 2. 1. the command to John is Write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus where if by Angel must be understood the Church then were it as much as to have been said Write unto the Church of the Church of Ephesus But we know the spirit of wisdom could not write unwisely XXI THESIS That our Opposites second Exposition of the word Angel to signifie only the Order and Colledge of Presbyters is erroneous notwithstanding the Arguments of our Opposites to the contrary The Answer to their first Argument THis indeed is the common exposition of our opposites whereunto our objectours adhere upon as they call them firme Arguments as first Our first Argument say they is drawn from the Epistle to the Church of Thyatira where after it was said to the Angell I have something against thee in the singular number cap. 2. 20. It is after added in the plural vers 24. But I say to you and to the rest But what of this This sheweth say they the word Angell to be collective to signifie a multitude of Pastours We answer if so then was Beza but dim-sighted who paraphras'd upon these words thus unto you that is saith he unto the Angell as President and unto Collegues as unto the Assembly meaning of Presbyters and to the rest that is to the whole flock So he Where we see that the Angell was as individuall and singular as either Thee or Thy And is it possible our Opposites should be ignorant what an Apostrophe is And that there is no fâ—gure of speech more familiar and usuall among men then it is As when a Lord writing to his chief Steward of matters belonging to him and other Officers under him and the whole Family Be thou circumspect in managing my affaires and afterward as well unto him as others but see that you and the rest keep at home as much as may be because of the danger of the Pestilence which now rageth on all sides Answer to the second Argument Our second Argument say they is drawn from the Phrases even in this very book of Revelations wherein it is usual to express a company under a singular person as the civil State of Rome called a Beast with ten heads which proveth that the Angell might be taken collectively Is this all Master Meade say they one better skil'd in the meaning of the Revelation then our adversary said that the word Angell is commonly if not alwayes in the Revelation taken collectively So they This saying have I diligently sought after but it fled from me But yet I shall be content to be satisfied of Mr. Meade his meaning from his other sayings more obvious unto me to shew that he hath not been rightly understood by these objectours For Collectively properly taken is a word comprehending a multitude without distinction of persons as Christ in his Lamentation said O Hierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy Children but thoâ— wouldst not where the words singular Thou and Thy do here comprehend all the Citizens of Hierusalem without distinction Had Master Meade this collective sense He sheweth the flat contrary Apoc. 9. 14. four Angells These four saith he were put for Nations which they were thought to Govern So then they did represent Nations as notwithstanding to be distinctly their four Governours Next upon Revel 14 6. I saw another Angell flying We are to call to mind saith he that which before was cap. 7. shewed that the Angells of like Visions de represent them of whom they have Government wheresoever And again upon vers 7. The flying Angell is ruler not onely of men but also of a
the two sons of Zebedee Iames and Iohn to be chosen the peculiar Bishop of Ierusalem the then mother Church of the world After the death of Iames the Just Hegesippus declareth that Symeon the sonne of Clopas or Cleophas was constituted Bishop and so continued untill the dayes of the Emperour Trajan under whom he suffered a glorious Martyrdome about the same time that Ignatius did being then an hundred and twenty years of age and by that account borne before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour Where the observation of this prime Historian is not to be passed over that untill these times the Church was called a Virgin as being not yet corrupted with the overspreading of hereticall doctrine For howsoever heresies did spring up before yet they were so kept down by the authority of the Apostles and the Disciples who had heard our Lord himselfe preach that the authors and fautors thereof were not able to get any great head being forced by the authority of such opposites to lurk in obscurity But as soone as all that generation was gathered unto their fathers and none of those were left who had the happinesse to hear the gracious words that proceeded from the Lords own mouth the Hereticks taking that advantage began to enter into a kind of combination and with open face publickly to maintain the oppositions of their science falsly so called from whence they assumed unto themselves the name of Gnosticks or men of knowledge against the preaching of that truth which by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word had been ONCE delivered unto the Saints The first beginner of which conspiracy was one Thebûthis who had at the first been bred in one of the seven sects into which the people of the Jewes were in those dayes divided but afterwards because he missed of a Bishopricke unto which he had aspired this of Jerusalem as it may seem whereunto Iustus after the death of Symeon was preferred before him could think of no readyer a way throughly to revenge himself of this disgrace than by raising up the like distractions among the Christians Which as in the effect it sheweth the malignity of that ambitious Sectary so doth it in the occasion discover withall the great esteem that in those early dayes was had of Episcopacy When Hegesippus wrote this Ecclesiasticall History the ancientest of any since the Acts of the Apostles Eleutherius as we heard before was Bishop of the Church of Rome unto whom Lucius King of the Britains as our Bede relateth sent an Epistle desiring that by his means he might be made Christian. Who presently obtained the effect of his pious request and the Britains kept the faith then received sound and undefiled in quiet peace untill the times of Dioclesian the Emperour By whose bloudy persecution the faith and discipline of our Brittish Churches was not yet so quite extinguished but that within ten years after and eleven before the first generall Councell of Nice three of our Bishops were present and subscribed unto the Councel of Arles Eborius of York Restitutus of London and Adelfius of Colchester if that be it which is called there Colonia Londinensium The first root of whose succession we must fetch beyond Eleutherius and as high as S. Peter himself if it be true that he constituted Churches here and ordained Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in them as Symeon Metaphrastes relateth out of some part of Eusebius as it seemeth that is not come unto our hands But to return unto the Angels of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn by what hath been said it is apparent that seven singular Bishops who were the constant Presidents over those Churches are pointed at under that name For other sure they could not be if all of them were cast into one mould and were of the same quality with Polycarpus the then Angel of the Church in Smyrna who without all question was such if any credit may be given herein unto those that saw him and were well acquainted with him And as Tertullian in expresse termes affirmeth him to have been placed there by S. Iohn himself in the testimony before alledged out of his Prescriptions so doth he else-where from the order of the succeeding Bishops not obscurely intimate that the rest of that number were to be referred unto the same descent We have saith he the Churches that were bred by John For although Marcion do reject his Revelation yet the order of the Bishops reckoned up unto their originall will stand for John to be their Founder Neither doth the ancient Writer of the Martyrdome of Timothy mentioned by Photius mean any other by those seven Bishops whose assistance he saith S. Iohn did use after his return from Patmos in the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians For being revoked from his exile saith he by the sentence of Nerva he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus and being assisted with the presence of SEVEN Bishops he took upon him the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians and continued preaching the word of piety untill the Empire of Trajan That he remained with the Ephesians and the rest of the brethren of Asia untill the dayes of Trajan and that during the time of his abode with them he published his Gospel is sufficiently witnessed by Ireneus That upon his return from the Iland after the death of Domitian he applyed himself to the government of the Churches of Asia is confirmed likewise both by Eusebius and by Hierom who further addeth that at the earnest intreaty of the Bishops of Asia he wrote there his Gospel And that he himselfe also being free from his banishment did ordaine Bishops in diverse Churches is clearely testified by Clement of Alexandria who lived in the next age after and delivereth it as a certain truth which he had received from those who went before him and could not be farre from the time wherein the thing it self was acted When S. John saith he Domitian the Tyrant being dead removed from the Iland of Patmos unto Ephesus by the intreaty of some he went also unto the neighbouring nations in some places constituting Bishops in others founding whole Churches Among these neighbouring Churches was that of Hierapolis which had Papias placed Bishop therein That this man was a hearer of S. John and a companion of Polycarpus is testified by his own Schollar Irenaeus and that he conversed with the disciples of the Apostles and of Christ also he himself doth thus declare in the Proëme of the five books which he intituled A declaration of the words of the Lord. If upon occasion any of the Presbyters which had accompanied the Apostles did come I diligently enquired what were the speeches which the Apostles used what Andrew or what Peter did say or what Philip or Thomas or James or John or