triumphantly Atheism and Impiety lift up their Banners every where Let us endeavour as much as is possible to preserve some Remains of Religion amongst the People Let us assert the ancient Order and Piety that made the Christian Church so beautiful in former Ages The Apostle informs us that the time would come when men could not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears and they shall turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables The great Founder of our Religion sent his Apostles by found Doctrine to enlighten the World and they convey'd this Spiritual Authority unto others who should transmit it by an orderly Succession and as their Mission was Heavenly in its Original so their Doctrine was pure and holy in all its Tendencies They considered themselves as the Ambas adors of Jesus Christ and Delivered their Commission without any Mixture or Hypocrisy They treated the People with all Humility and Tenderness but in the mean time took great care to mortifie their Lusts and their Passions but when they grew wanton and headstrong and thought themselves too wise to be led by their Spiritual Guides and Rulers then they would have teachers of their own Men chosen by themselves such as were taught to calculate their Doctrines to popular Fancies and Humours such as would prostitute the Gospel to promote Error and Delusion and make the Kingdom of Light subservient to that of Darkness and instead of serving our blessed Saviour they became Slaves to the People by whom they were originally employed and because they were so unhappily successful as to gratifie their Lusts they were therefore voted the most edifying teachers The Primitive Ministers of Religion had their immediate Commission from Heaven accordingly they endeavoured by all means to restore the Image of God in the Souls of Men to raise their Thoughts and Designs to that Happiness and Treasure which the World cannot give which God truth promised and made sure by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead The other had their authority from Men and therefore they must needs please the People who sent them They must reconcile the Rules and Morals of the Gospel to the Wicked Practices and designs of the World they must change the strictest Maxims of the Evangel into looser Theorems and the severe Discipline of the Ancient Church unto all Licence and Luxury the true faith that works by love unto airy Notions and Mistakes Thus the People were pleas'd and the Gospel was defeated the Church is ruin'd and God dishonour'd Every Man in his own station is obliged to contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints When the Foundations of Ecclesiastical Unity are shaken loose and the Antient Constitutions trampled upon with great Insolence and Impiety then the hedge of tâ—â—e Religion is not only Invaded but Demolished and without those Sacred Vehicles it must Evaporate into Giddiness and Enthusiasm the Extravagance of these last days is boundless as it Sceptical and Christianity it self is more dangerously wounded by the Delusions of some that are Baptiz'd than by the open Blasphemies of Infidels The last may be assaulted by Reason at least in their more Lucid Intervals but the first are altogether inaccessible we must not presume to instruct them who pretend to extraordinary Illuminations their Errors are made strong by their vanity they plead a Divine Right to every New Opipinion and if we approach them in the ancient Paths of Modesty and Humility they look down upon us with Scorn and Indignation Nay they are inflexible to the plainest and most convincing arguments I have frequently with Grief and Sorrow considered the Decays of Religion and the Difficulties of our Employment We must pull down strong Holds and lofty Imaginations and grapple with the rudest Oppositions the Avenues of Mens Souls are blockaded by passion and prejudices and they are fortified in their Error not only by the Corruption of their Nature but by the artifice of Seducers their itching Ears are pleased their Lusts are gratified their Passions are made more unruly their Envy Hatred and Malice are indulg'd and they are allow'd to distinguish themselves from all others by special Titles of Division and Singularity by which alone they think to make their Calling and Election sure Yet notwithstanding that we are thus resisted by the Multitude of their Follies and Delusions we must not give over by Faintness and Despondency We must plead with them who have left the Unity of the Church by the words of Truth and Soberness and exhort others to continue in that Doctrine that was reveal'd by our Saviour taught by his Apostles and received by all Churches in the first and best Ages that the present Generation may not rise in Judgment against us for our Silence nor Posterity censure our Cowardice We must not be ashamed of the truth even when it is contradicted with all possible Violence and Fury I address this short Treatise to you with a design rather to assert the Truth than to reply to what hath been lately published by the Vindicator of the Kirk of Scotland against a certain Book Entituled Apology for the Clergy c. though I think it necessary to make some of his Mistakes a little more apparent There are certain Practices and Rituals received by the Christian Church in all Ages which are not determin'd expresly in the Holy Scriptures in so many Letters and Syllables yet by the plainest and most undeniable Consequences are agreeable to its general Rules and the Uniform belief of all Christians and they that deny those Usages or the Lawfulness of those Rituals venture upon untrodden Paths and do foolishly condemn the Wisdom of all former Ages The special Providence of God hath so watch'd over the Church that since the first Plantations of Christianity we have preserved to us some Records and Monuments of its Doctrine and Practices The Books of such as have been learn'd in every age do plainly demonstrate that the first Christians were agreed amongst themselves in the great Articles of Religion and in the general Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline and Order and by this Uniformity of Doctrine and Rituals they strengthened themselves against Infidels and Hereticks There is nothing more opposite to the spirit of true Religion than Stubborness and Petulance and when we despise those Constitutions that have been universally received amongst Christians we overthrow the Foundations of Peace and Charity and consequently we exclude our selves from the visible fellowship of Christ's Houshold and Family When we consider the Schisms and Tumults of particular Churches the confusions of so many Revolutions the shakings of so many Nations the boldness and activity of Hereticks we have reason to adore the Goodness of God that so many Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity are preserv'd and whatever is uniformly determin'd by the Wisest and the best of Christians their learn'dst Bishops and Presbyters
drives Men against Light and Conviction and darkens all their Intellectuals in defiance of common Sense and Reason A third Witness alledg'd by Blondel is Hermas I only name some few of those that are nearest to the Apostles I do not now enquire into the Authority of this Book It is most probable that it was written towards the end of the Apostolical Age and some of the Ancients of great Authority make him to be the same that is mention'd by S. Paul Rom. 16. 14. It is without all Controversie a Book of great Antiquity as appears by the Citations out of him still preserv'd in some Authentick Monuments particularly Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian and Origen There are two palpable evidences that Episcopacy was the Ecclesiastical Government that obtain'd in the Christian Church when this Book was written The first is from the second Vision of the first Book where the sending of the Encyclical Epistle in exteras civitates is insinuated to be the peculiar Priviledge of S. Clement then Bishop of Rome The other insinuation is from the second Book and 12th Mandat Paragr 2. where he reproves the preposterous Ambition of such as would thrust themselves into the highest dignities contrary to the Evangelical Methods of Humility and self-denial exaltat enim se vult primam Cathedram habere If there be no Power there can be no Abuse of it and therefore he reproves that insatiable thirst of Preferment that puts some amongst them upon Projects and Designs contrary to the command of our Saviour who taught us that he that deserv'd the Ecclesiastical Promotion was to be the Servant of all and therefore many of the Primitive Bishops fled and hid themselves upon the first Motion of their being nam'd to the Episcopal Dignity And the other Citation from Book the third Similitud 8. insinuates the very same thing that I intend viz. a Principatus then established as the fixt Government of the Church which some were too too hasty to grasp 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. Vid. Dickson in Matt. and Answer to the Irenicum by G. R. vid. Bez. in 〈◊〉 Vid. Smectim Jus divin Minister Anglican The Unbishoping Timothy and Titus Altare Damascen Durh. Dissert on the Revel v. Cotel Not. inpriorem Epist S. Clem. p. 96. in quibus fusâ— solide demâ—nstratur argumentum a confusione nominum nequaquam Jurisdictionem Authoritatem Episcoporum supra Presbyteros labefactare posse V. Doctiss Bevereg cod canon Eccles primit lib. 2 c. 11. Vid. Clariss Dodwell dissert Cypr. p. 205. Walo Mess Tertul. de Baptismo Stromat Lib. 6. Pastor Herma * Apud clariss Dodwell disertat Cyprian p. 205 â— Cotel in prieâ— Epist Clemen ad Corinth 1 Cor. 15. 7. Wâ—â—â— Mâ—â— * Aplog prosenten Hieronym Amstol 1646. Vind. St. Ignat. Adversus Hereses lib. 3. cap. 3. V. Doctiss Cav Hist liter p. 18. Blondel Apolog p. 9. Plerique Latinorum Hieronymo teste secundumpost Petrum fuisse putaverunt ut ante annum Domini 65 ad Romanae Ecclesiae clavum sedissenecesse sit Apol. pro sent Hier. p. 9. page 9. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. doctiss Bevereg cod Can. Eccles Prim. lib. 2. p. 314. 1 Cor. 3. 5. 2. Cor. 3. 6. Acts. 6. 4. Coloss 4. 7. 1 Thess 3. 2. Coloss 4. 17. Vid. etiam Bevereg ubi supra Pag. mihi 40 41. Pag. 10. Edit Jun. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ— mihi 52 53. V. Cotel Not. in Pr. S. Clemen Epist col 95. Apud Jun. Not. in Clemen p. 12. * Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. Polycarpus autâ—â—â—non solum ab Apostolis edoctus conversatus cum multis excis qui dominum nostrum viderunt sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asia in ea quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitututs Episcopus qurm nos vidimus in prima nostra aetate * Catalog â—pt Eccles Apol. p. Iâ— Vid. Test Veterum ad frontem editionis Oxon
these Considerations I say we may easily perceive that the Argument pleaded against Episcopacy founded upon such Dichotomies is not only weak but very Foolish and Extravagant Yet Blondel Salmasius and Daille Men of great Learning and Reputation imploy'd much Reading and Artifice to support their New Hypothesis by this Argument and to wrest so many places of the Fathers to promote an Opinion which was never heard of before the Days of Aerius thô it must be confess'd that Men of extraordinary Learning have been impos'd upon by the same fallacies particularly our Country-man Sir Thomas Craig in his Book de Success Reg. Angl. But if he had read the ancient Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity with that accurate Attention wherewith he perus'd the vast Volums of Civilians Canonists and Historians he had certainly been of another Mind So visible is the Confusion of Names in the New Testament that Apostle Bishop and Presbyter are sometimes mentioned without any remarkable Distinction yet so as the Government of one amongst many is particularly Demonstrated Our Saviour himself is call'd an Apostle Heb. 3.1 sometimes the Word seems to be restrain'd to the Number of Twelve and Matthias upon the Apostacy of Judas is chosen to fill up the Number of the Twelve Apostles but in the same Apostolical Writings the Name of an Apostle is bestow'd upon several others besides the Twelve as S. S. Barnabas Paul Andronicus Junias Epaphroditus and others Our Saviour is call'd a Bishop 1 Pet. 2. 25. Again the Government of the Apostles is called their Episcopacy 1 Act. 20. sometimes the Name of Bishop is attributed to such Priests as were of the first Order invested with Apostolical Power and Jurisdiction 1 Tim. chap. 3. Tit. 1. 7. these places are so understood by all the Fathers Again the Bishops mentioned 1. Philip. 1 are understood by St. Chrysostom Oecumenius Theophilact and Theodoret to be the Priests of the second Order for they concluded Epaphroditus to have been then Bishop of Philippi as may be reasonably collected from Philip. 2. 25. Our English Version follows Beza and understands it as if Epaphroditus had been a Messenger sent by the Philippians to S. Paul but Salmasius is much more ingenuous and acknowledges That the Word Apostle in the sacred Scriptures never signifies any other than legatum Dei ad homines And this is very agreeable to the Opinion of Theodoret who thought that when the Bishops were named in the Apostolic Age so as to be distinguished from subordinate Priests they were then called Apostles thô upon other occasions they were promiscuously Named without any distinction I only mention this transiently not insisting upon it My business at present is to prove that the Community of Names was so familiar in the Language of the Apostolical Age that no Man can conclude from thence a Community of Offices St. Peter calls himself a Presbyter so St. John the Apostle and the Presbytery mentioned in the first of Timothy 4. 14. was a Senate compos'd of Apostles and other Presbyters whether of the first or second Rank is not certain but that S. Paul himself was one of them is evident from the second Epist to Timothy 1. 6. In the first Timothy is exhorted not to neglect the Gift which was given him with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery In the last he is put in mind to stir up the same Gift which he received by the laying on of St. Paul's Hands And in the beginning of Christianity as S. Chrysostom Witnesseth both Bishops and Presbyters were sometimes call'd Deacons which may be justly concluded from Coloss 4. 17. and the Apostles themselves are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the first of the Acts their Apostolical Ministry to which Matthias was assumed is called their Deaconship 1 Act. 17. Now I take it for granted that if any Man pretend to infer a Community of Offices from the Community of Names which we meet with in the Holy Scriptures he must needs confound the highest Order of the Church even the Apostolical Dignity with the lowest Rank of Ecclesiastical Officers Yet this is certain that the several Offices were carefully separated in those Days thô the Humility of such as were uppermost taught them not to be very forward to distinguish themselves from their subordinate Brethren by Titles of Eminence and Jurisdiction and the Bishops in the second Century transcribed the same Copy in their Behaviour who thô they were careful to preserve the necessary Distinction between the Priests of the first and second Order yet they studied the most modest Expressions of Humility and Condescension as may be seen from the forecited Inscription of S. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians that Apostolic Martyr and Prince of the Asiatick Church I have consider'd this Argument the more carefully in that I find it over and over again in all the Writings of our Ecclesiastic Levellers as their first and last Refuge to which they flee to and yet there is not any thing more Frivolous and Trifling for the Names of the lowest Officers in the Christian Church were frequently assum'd by the highest and distinction of Offices is rather inferr'd from their Practices Peculiar Ministries and Acts of Jurisdiction than from any Names that we can fix upon Thirdly If they cannot establish their New Doctrine of Parity neither upon the express Commandment of our Saviour nor upon the Consequences they manage a confusione nominum they endeavour to support it by some Testimonies of the Primitive Fathers When the Government and Revenues of the Church were sacrilegiously invaded by Atheists and Enthusiasts under Oliver Cromwel the Learned Blondel employed all his skill to make the Ancients contradict themselves and all contemporary Records When his Book appeared the Presbyterians concluded before ever they Read it that all was Pure and Undeniable Demonstration and our Country-men think they need return no other answer to any thing that is written against them than to say that Episcopacy and all that may be said in its defence is quite Ruin'd and Destroyed by Monsieur Blondel and Salmasius And thô there are but very few of them that ever read them and that every Line of their Writings that hath the least colour of Argument was frequently Answered and Expos'd yet such is the Power of Prejudice and Partiality that they shut their Eyes against the clearest Evidences that are produc'd by their Adversaries It 's enough for them to say that Blondel hath written a Book in their Defence of 549 pages and this in their Opinion may bar all Disputations of that Nature When we bid them name the place that they think proves their New Doctrine most plausibly they refuse any such close Engagement they will tell you that Jerome was of their Opinion and that their Learned Champion Blondel has sufficiently prov'd that this antient Monk was a Presbyterian I must not transscribe the Accurate and unanswerable Dissertations of several Learned
Men who have sufficiently expos'd the Writings of Blondel and Salmasius on this Head particularly the incomparable Bishop of Chester yet I may be allowed to examine some of the most remarkable Testimonies from Antiquity that are alleg'd by those Men to support their Doctrine of Parity that the Reader may have a Sample of their Partialities and Prepossessions and if none of the first Worthies of the Christian Church appear for the New Doctrine of Parity we may safely infer that there are little hopes to defend their cause by the Suffrages of after Ages And in the next place I will particularly examine Blondel's Argument from the Authority of St. Jerome and Demonstrate that he mistakes or which is much more probable hides and misrepresents the Doctrine of that Learned Father and if St. Jerome be not his Friend he and his Associates may despair of any other First I will examine some of the most remarkable Testimonies from Antiquity and the first that is nam'd is S. Clement in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians This is the Celebrated S. Clement so Honourably mentioned by S. Paul himself Philip. 4. 3. together with some others whose Names are Written in the Book of Life who was fellow Labourer with the Apostles and Third Bishop of Rome by the Testimony of Irenaeus and probably sat in the Chair of Rome from the Year 64 until the Year 81 or 83. He wrote his first Epistle to the Corinthians to compose the scandalous Divisions and Schisms that had risen among them by the Pride and Vanity of some turbulent Brethren who valu'd themselves upon the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit to the Contempt of their ordinary Ecclesiastical Governors It is thought by some that this Epistle was written towards the end of Nero's Persecution before he was advanc'd to the See of Rome It is very observable that Blondel before he produces any Testimony from S. Clement acknowledges that by the universal consent of the Ancients this very S Clement succeeded S. Peter in the Government of the See of Rome and thô they vary as to his Order of Succession yet all of them agree as to the thing it self His first Argument for Parity is founded on S. Clement's Inscription of his Epist to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From this Inscription he concludes that the Church of Rome was then Govern'd by a Colledge of Presbyters because the whole Church of Rome wrote to the whole Church of Corinth not mentioning the Distinction of the Clergy from the Laity when the Learned Blondel Reasoned at this rate he design'd it seems to please the Independent Party who were then most Numerous and Potent in England rather than the Presbyterians For if his Argument proves any thing it proves too much viz. That the Laity hath an equal share of Jurisdiction in the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs with Bishops and Presbyters And thus he might conclude that when S. Paul wrote an Epistle together with Sosthenes Timotheus Sylvanus and all the Brethren that were with him that he had no greater Authority in the Ecclesiastical Senate than the meanest of the Laity Our Learned Country-man Junius gives a far more reasonable Account of this Ancient Simplicity of the Writings of the Apostolical Age than such Childish Reasonings and he tells us that St. Clement did not prefix his Name ut modestiae humilitatis posteris aetatibus exemplar imitandum proponeret and this was very subservient to his Design that he might Teach the Corinthians whom he exhorts to Concord and Humility by his own Example that true and undisguised Modesty which was then so visible in the Practice of the first Christians when both Clergy and Laity were of one Heart and one Mind The next attempt that Blondel makes to support his imaginary Parity in the Primitive Church is from St. Clement's dividing the Clergy into Bishops and Deacons according to the current Phraseology that prevail'd in the Apostolical Age. When they considered the Clergy only in opposition to the body of the People I have answered this already when I examined their Argument founded upon such Dichotomies But when we consider this particular place of S. Clement with regard to that Latitude and Promiscuous use of Names that was very current in those Days the Word Deacon may be understood to comprehend all those Ministers of Religion whether Presbyters in the modern Notion or Deacons who by the first Institution were obliged to attend upon Tables and then his Argument vanishes into nothing nay rather it is a strong confirmation of that which he would most willingly destroy for by Bishops and Deacons we may understand Apostles Bishops Presbyters and Attendants upon Tables for the Word Deacons in the Language of the Holy Scriptures is taken in the greatest Latitude that may be not only for such as were appointed by the Apostles particularly to the Ministry of Tables but also the Apostles themselves the highest Officers in the Christian Church are called Deacons Who then is Paul and who is Apollos but Deacons by whom they believed even as the Lord gave to every Man And again who hath made us able Deacons of the New-Testament c. And upon other occasions they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And those who were ordain'd to the special Ministry or Tables were Originally constituted that the Apostles themselves might not be diverted from the Ministry of Deaconship of the Word And Tychicus is called a faithful Deacon as also Timothy so likewise Arthippus is commanded to take heed to his Deaconship thô it be not expresly determined what room he held in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy weather he was Bishop Presbyter or Deacons nay such was the Latitude of the Word Deacon in the Apostolical Age that it was applyed promiscuously to all the three Order of the Christain Hierarchy So that if we understand St. Clement according to the current extent of the Word we may safely judge him to have meant by Bishops the Ecclesiastical Governors and by Deacons all subordinate Ministers of Religion whether such as were promoted the Priesthood or the Deacons who were confin'd to their Attendance upon Tables What advantage then does Monsieur Blondel gain to his cause for though Presbyters in the modern Notion are not perhaps the only Persons who may be understood by the Word Deacon yet they may be comprehended as well as other Ministers of a lower Rank Let it be observed also that S. Clement speaks not of the Ecclesiastical Polity such as it was brought to perfection after wards by the Apostles but rather of the first beginnings of the Christian Church immediatly after the Resurrection of our Saviour For thô all the Degrees and Subordinations of the Apostolical Government were founded upon divine Right yet they were not in one moment established in their True and Everlasting Figure but had their beginning as the Jewish Church went on from lessen steps to