many Churches without Bishops under him and of half-Presbyters how little he saith the Reader will soon see yea how much on our side 4. As for Hooker till his 7th Book came lately out we had nothing in him considerable of this subject And in that Book it self so little to the purpose as to our foresaid two Controversies as is next to nothing nor worthy a Reply In his § 2. p. 4. He attempts that which few do to give us the definition of a Bishop which is 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 Presbyters 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 And then he distinguisheth of Bishops at large or indefinite and Bishops with restraint and saith he meaneth the later And so you have what must be expected from Mr. Hooker for the information of you what Episcopacy he pleads for Where it is obvious how fraudulently through oversight or partiality I know not he dealeth For whereas he durst put no more into the definition of Episcopacy about Jurisdiction but a power of Chiefty in Government over Presbyters as well as Lay-men yet would not tell us whether Government of Lay-men under the Bishop belong to the Presbyters or not His words seem plainly to imply it what use else is there for his Chiefly and as well as Lay-men And yet twice over he would name nothing but Teaching and Sacraments which belong to the Pastor as a Pastor in general leaving it as a thing which he would neither affirm nor deny whether Pastors Governed their Flocks Yet all that Decantate Book turneth on the Hinges of this lame Definition which hath other defects which I pass by And without this we cannot know what Subject he disputeth of Whereas Saravia well noted and acknowledged three Essential parts of the Ministry in General Mr. Hooker who leaveth out one of them and yet durst not deny it should have told us whether he include it or not seeing it is the matter of most of our difference and we take him for no Pastor or Presbyter that is without the power of Government nor that to be a true Church in sensu politico that hath no other Pastor 2. And when as one part of his Adversaries deny not at least the Lawfulness of one Bishops superiority in a single Church as far as his description speaketh but only in many Churches no nor one Archbishops power over many Churches that have their own Bishops but only his power to depose all the Bishops of particular Churches and turn them all into one Diocesan Church his Definition visibly reacheth to no other sort of Bishops but such as we oppose not and so he saith nothing at all against us to any purpose through all his Book For where after he confidently tells us that the extent of his Jurisdiction alters not the Species it is but barely said and by his leave I shall fully prove the contrary anon And pag. 4. l. 7. He confesseth that de facto Many things are in the state of Bishops which the times have changed Many a Parsonage at this day is larger than some ancient Bishopricks were It 's well confest And I shall try among other things whether the Name of a Bishoprick will make a Parsonage and a Diocess to be ejusdem speciei and whether magnitude do not make a specifick difference between the Sea and a Rivulet or a glass of water or between a Ship and a Nut-shel And whereas page 6. He undertaketh to prove a Coercive Power in Bishops either he speaketh according to the common use of men or not If not he would not be understood Qui non vâ—lt intelligi debet negligi If he do then by Coercive he must mean by Outward force upon the body which is false and is proper to the Magistrate Parents or Masters and is disclaimed by all sober Protestant Divines yea by Papists as not at all belonging to the Pastoral Office Though we easily grant that Pastors may Coercere by nord and so may Presbyters sure yet no otherwise but by word For Excommunication and Degradation as far as belongs to them are but words and an after forbearing of their own acts of Communion But this is not the common use of the word Coercive as applyed to Government by way of distinction How much wiselier doth the more Learned and judicious Bishop Bilson still distinguish by the Power of the Word as differing from the Magistrates Coercive or by the Sword Yet note that page 8. § 5. l. 7. He is brought to acknowledge that All Churches by the Apostles 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 be subject to a College of Ecclesiastical persons which were in every such City appointed for that purpose These in their writings they term sometime Presbyters and sometime Bishops To take one Church out of a number for a pattern 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 to all that one Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops These persons Ecclesiastical being termed then Presbyters and Bishops both c. And page 9. he saith The outward being of a Church consisteth in the having of a Bishop Then the Brownists must carry it that our Parishes are no true Churches but parts of a Church because they have no Bishop Only a Diocesan Church hath a Bishop Therefore only a Diocesan is a true Church which anon shall be proved to be but Humane And page 12. He thus expoundeth Hierome as holding Episcopacy alterable 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 dealing of her Bishop 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 custome than any such true heavenly law can be shewed 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 to them Let it
now to his Arguments 1. Paul planted Paul onely was their Father What then Ergo Paul onely was their Bishop I deny the Consequence and may long wait for a syllable of proof Contrarily Paul onely was not their Apostle Ergo Paul onely was not their Bishop For every Apostle you say hath Episcopal Power included in the Apostolical and none of them ceased to have Apostolical Power where-ever they came though they were many together as at Jerusalem Ergo None of them ceased to have Episcopal Power The conceit of Conversion and Paternity entituling to sole Episcopacy I shall confute by it self anon 2. But Paul judged the incestuous person and speaketh of coming with the rod. And what followeth Ergo None but Paul might do the same in that Diocess I deny the Consequence Any other Apostle might do the same Where is your Proof And if all this were granted it is nothing against the Cause that we maintain And next let us inquire whether this Church had no Bishops or Presbyters but Paul As here is not a word of proof on their side so I prove the contrary 1. Because the Apostles ordained Elders or Bishops in every Church and City Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. Therefore the Church of Corinth had such 2. If they had not Presbyters or Bishops they could hold no ordinary Christian Church-Assemblies for all Gods publick Worship e. g. They could not communicate in the Lords Supper for Lay-men may not be the Ministers of it nor the ordinary Guides and Teachers of a Worshipping Church But they did hold such ordinary Assemblies communicating in the Lords Supper And to say that they had onely Pastors that were itinerant in transitu as they came one after another that way is to speak without book and against it and to make them differ from all other Churches without proof 3. 1 Cor. 14. doth plainly end that Controversie with 1 Cor. 11. when they had so many Prophets and Teachers and gifted Persons in their Assemblies that Paul is put to restrain and regulate their Publick Exercises directing them to speak but one or two and the rest to judge and this rather by the way of edifying plainness than by Tongues c. And c. 11. they had enow to be the ordinary Ministers of the Sacraments And cb 5. they had Instructions for Church-Discipline both as to the incestuous man and for all the scandalous for the time to come and are chidden for not using it before And who but the Separatists do hold that the power of the Keys for the exercise of this Discipline is in the Peoples hands Therefore most certainly they had a Clergy And if all this go not for proof against a bare Affirmation of the contrary we can prove nothing 4. And 1 Cor. 4. 15. I scarce think that Paul would have had occasion to say Though you have ten thousand instructers if they had not had qualified Persons enow to afford them one or two for Presbyters Cap. 2. proving no more of any one Apostles fixed Episcopacy he cometh to their secondary Bishops or Apostles And whereas we judge that Apostles and Evangelists and the Apostles Assistants were unfixed Ministers appropriating no Churches or Diocesses to themselves in point of Power but planting setling and confirming Churches in an itinerant way and distributing their Provinces onely arbitrarily and changeably and as the Spirit guided them at the present time of their work and that Bishops and Elders were such Pastors as these Church-gatherers fixed in a stated relation to particular Churches so that an Apostle was a Bishop eminenter but not formaliter and that a Bishop as such was no Apostle in the eminent sense but was also an itinerant Preacher limitedly because while he oversaw his Flock he was also to endeavour the conversion of others as far as his opportunity allowed him I say this being our judgment this learned Doctor supposeth Apostles as such to be Bishops and the fixed Bishops as such to be second Apostles And I so avoid contending about Names even where it is of some importance to the Matter that I will not waste my time upon it till it be necessary In § 1. he telleth us that these second Apostles were made partakers of the same Jurisdiction and Name with the first and either planted and ruled Churches or ruled such as others had planted Answ 1. We doubt not but the Apostles had indefinite itinerant Assistants and definite fixed Bishops placed by them as aforesaid But the indefinite and the definite must not be confounded 2. And were not Luke Mark Timothy and other itinerant Evangelists as such of the Clergy and such Assistants or secondary Apostles Exclude them and you can prove none but the fixed Bishops But if they were why did you before deny Evangelists Dissert 3. cap. 6. the power of the Keys and make them meer converting Preachers below Doctors and Pastors and the same with Deacons whereas Paul Ephes 4. 11. doth place them before Pastors and Teachers But avoiding the Controversie de nomine call them what you will we believe that these itinerant Assistants of the Apostles were of that One sacred Office commonly called the Priesthood or Ministry though not yet fixed and that the assigning them to particular Churches did not make them of a new Order but onely give them a new object and opportunity to exercise the Power which they had before and that Philip and other Deacons were not Evangelists meerly as Deacons which term denoteth a fixed Office in one Church but by a further Call And that you never did prove that ever the Scripture knew one Presbyter that had not the power of the Keys as Bishops have yea you confess your self the contrary All therefore that followeth in that Chapter and your Book of James the Just and Mark and others having Episcopal power is nothing against us The thing that we put you to prove is that ever the Apostles ordained such an Officer as a Presbyter that hath not Episcopal Power and Obligation too as to his Flock that is the Power of governing that Church according to God's Word And I would learn if I could whether all the Apostles which staid long at Jerusalem while James is supposed to be their Bishop were not Bishops also with him Whether they ceased to be Apostles to the People there Or whether they were Apostles and not Bishops And whether they lost any of their Power by making James Bishop And whether one Church then had not many Bishops at once And if they made James greater than themselves Whether according to your Premonition they did not give a Power or Honour which they had not which you think unanswerable in our Case Cap. 4. come in the Angels of the Churches Rev. 1 2 3. of which though the matter be little to our Cause I have said enough before why I prefer the Exposition of Ticoniui which Augustine seemeth to favour And I find nothing here to the
as we desire If any more be necessary he granteth it us § 11. where having feigned and not proved that the people of all the Province of Macedonia were said by Paul to be at Philippi he confesseth that then every City had a Bishop and none of those that we now call Presbyters And it is more this Bastard sort of Presbyters Office that we deny than the Bishops And granting this he grants us all even that then there was no such half Officers nor Bishops that had the rule of any Presbyters which he further proveth § 19 20 21. And by the way § 16 17. he giveth us two more Observations 1. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave precedency to some Churches Where I would learn whether the Holy Ghost still observed the order in converting men to begin at the highest Metropolis and descend by order to the lowest and so to the Villages Or whether our Doctor do not here contradict what he said before of the Apostles every where disposing of the Churches according to the Civil Metropolitical Order I doubt his memory here failed him 2. Philippi and Thessalonica being both in Macedonia and these Epistles being each written to all the Province we hence learn that the Epistle to the Thessalonians and that to the Philippians were written to the same men Whether each Epistle Rev. 2. 3. to the seven Churches of Asia was written to all Asia and so all the faults charged on all that are charged on any one I leave to your arbitrary belief For none of these are proved whatever proof is boasted of Cap. 11. he further gratifieth us in expounding 1 Tim. 3. in the same manner One Bishop with Deacons then serving for a whole Diocess that is for one Assembly not having such a thing as a half Presbyter subject to any Bishop Cap. 12. he is as liberal in expounding Tit. 1. By Elders in every City is meant a single Bishop that had no half Presbyter under him and whose Diocess had but one Assembly We are not so unreasonable as to quarrel with this liberality Cap. 13. And about Heb. 13. we are as much gratified in the Exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which more afterwards And Cap. 14 and 15. he saith the same of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pastors and Teachers that they both are meant of none but Bishops And that Presbyters now adays are permitted and tyed to teach the people and instruct them from the Scriptures this apparently arose hence that Bishops in ordaining Presbyters gave them that power but not to be exercised till licensed by the Bishops Letters Of this detestable Opinion worse than the Italians in the Council of Trent that would have derived the Episcopal Power from the Pope I have said somewhat before and intend more in due place The Bishops do only ministerially give them possession Christ is the only Instituter of the Office by himself and his Spirit in his Apostles Can the Bishops any more chuse to deliver this possession by Ordination than to preach the Gospel Could they have made Presbyters that had no power to teach the people Is the Bishops liberality the original of the Office How much then is Christ beholden to Bishops that when a thousand Parishes are in some one of their Diocesses they will give leave to any Presbyter to teach any of the people and that when eighteen hundred of us were silenced in one day Aug. 24. 1662. that all the rest were not served so too Cap. 16. he exerciseth the same naked affirming Authority of the words Ministers of the word Luke 1. 2. and Stewards all are but Bishops And he asketh whether ever man heard of more Stewards than one in one house or of several bearers of one Key And he foresaw that we would tell him that Gods Catholick Church is one House of God and that at least all the Apostles were Stewards and Key-Bearers in that one Church and that by his Doctrine none but one of them should be Steward of Gods Mysteries or have the Keys And therefore he saith that Though the Apostles are called Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. that is to be reckoned as pertaining to the many divided Families that is the many particular Churches distinct parts of the Universal Church which the Apostâ—â—s divided among themselves Answ Unless his etiam here be a self-contradicting cheat it will hence follow 1. That the Apostles are not Stewards of Gods Mysteries in gathering Churches but only to the Churches gathered 2. That in Baptizing and giving the Holy Ghost to such as yet entered not into a Particular Church they exâ—ercised not any of their said Stewardship or Power 3. That thay have no Power of the Keyes at all over any that are not Members of a Particular Church such as the Eunuch Act. 8. And many Merchants Embassadors Travellers and many thousands that want Pastors or opportunity or hearts yea and all Christians in the first Instant as meerly Baptized Persons seeing Baptisme entereth them only into the Universal Church and not into any particular as such 4. And that till the Apostles gathered particular Churches and distributed them they had no Stewardship nor use at least of the Keyes And what if it can never be provedthat ever the Apostles distributed the universal Church into Apostolical Provinces but only pro re nata distributed themselves in the World were they never Stewards then nor Key-bearers Verily if I believed such a distribution of the World into twelve or more Provinces by them I should question the power that altered that Constitution and set us up but four or five Patriarches And were the same Apostles no Stewards or Key-bearers out of their feigned several Provinces If we must be cilenced unless we subscribe to the Dictates of such self conceited Confident men who shall ever Preach that is not born under the same Planet with them Cap. 17. he proceedeth still to maintain our Cause that even in Justin Martyrs writings and others of that Age by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are meant the Bishops of the several Churches who had not one Presbyter under them but Deacons only and therefore had but single Congregations but did themselves alone with the Deacon perform all the publick Offices in the Church And that no equal Presbyter was placed with them offendeth us no more than that our Parish Ministers now are presented and instituted alone yea and have power to take Curates under them as their helpers Cap. 18. He proveth truly that the Names Sacerdos and Sacerdotium are usually by old Writers spoken of sole Bishops and Episcopacy By which we are the more confirmed in our Opinion that he that is not Episcopus gregis a Bishop over the Flock is not Sacerdos true Pastor but hath only a limb of the Ministerial Office being a thing of presumptuous Prelates institution Cap. 19. He surther strengtheneth us by
Tryal by the Holy Ghost Cap. 5. § 5. He now acknowledgeth that where many were at first Converted not always the first but the fittest was chosen Bishop And how prove you that he and his Flock were no Church The same he maintaineth § 11. And after from the choice usually made by suffrages and other reasons well confuteth the former conceit when he took it to be Blondels but sure he could not believe that they were Ecclesiae nondum natâ— or future Believers that chose Bishops by Suffrages But having so fully in this Chapter confuted his former as Blondel's opinion I doubt not but Blondel is in this as easily reconciled to him as he to himself and meant no more but 1. That the Apostles used not to make Bishops of the first Converts simply but to choose them out of the ancient grown and proved Christians 2. And that being so chosen not he that was first Baptized but he that was first ordained had the presidence in the Conâ—essus of their Presbyters Which the Dr. might easily have seen and spared his insulting upon the contrary supposition But let it here again be noted that § 9. he expresly and confidently asserteth all that I now desire viz. That Clemens doth speak of that time of the Churches beginning in which there were not yet many Believers and therefore without doubt neither Presbyters instituted If he means no Subject Presbyters or if he means not many in a Church but one Bishop I desire no more For then no Bishop had more Church Assemblies than one nor any half Presbyters were ordained by the Apostles For Clemens doth not tell us what the Apostles did in the beginning of their Preaching only but giveth us this as an account of all their course in settling Offices in the Churches where they came Cap. 6. He confesseth that Clemens mentioneth but two Orders Bishops and Deacons and we would have no more and § 4. is over angry with Blundel for gathering hence that he did not do as those that from the Jewish Elders or Priests or the 70 gather another order what is there in this Collection that deserveth the sharp words of that § Cap. 7. Whether Clemens well cited Isai 60. 17. we need not debate But if yet any think that the Dr. hath not fully granted us our Cause let him take these additions § 7. He well gathereth from Clemens that this form of Government founded in Bishops and Deacons in each Church being setled by Men entrusted by Christ is no less to be ascribed to Gods Command than if Christ himself had constituted Bishops and Deacons in every City Let who dare then approve of the alteration by the Introduction of another Order of Priests And § 8. He noteth also out of Clemens that the foresight of the contention that would be about Episcopacy caused this establishment of Bishops and Deacons No doubt God foreknew both that the popular sort would oppose Government and that the Monarchical Prelates would depose all the Bishops of the same Church save themselves and the Arch-Prelates would depose all the Bishops of particular Churches and set up half Priests in their stead And he doth well not to pass the following words in Clemens though hard yet plainly subverting the Doctors opinion that from this same foresight the Apostles constituted the foresaid Bishops and Deacons in every Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ac descriptas deinceps ministrorum officiorumque vices reliquerunt ut in defunctorum locum alii viri probati succedere illorum munia exequi possent as Pat. Junius translateth it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can allow no such doubt as shall make this much of the sense to be questionable 1. That upon the foresight of the Contentions about Episcopacy the Apostles made by the Spirit an established Description of the Orders and Offices which should be in the Church not only in their times but afterwards 2. And that the approved men that should hereafter be ordained should succeed in those same Orders which the Apostles had established and described even to the same Work or Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. That the Apostles thus setled or described no mungrel or half Priests but only Bishops and Deacons nor any Churches that had not each a Bishop and Deacon 4. Therefore no such half Priests should be brought in but only such as the Apostles instituted or described I can scarce speak my thoughts plainlier than by the Doctors next words § 9. It is evident that by the immediate impulse of the Spirit of God Bishops were constituted Deacons only joyned to them in every Church and so at Corinth and the rest of the Cities of Achaia And that by the command of the same Divine Prophesie or Revelation successors were assigned to them after their departure not a new order invented Christ thus consulting and providing for the Churches peace c. And § 14. he well granteth 1. That the form of Church Government was no where changed by the Apostles and so no middle order instituted by them 2. That through all their Age and when they were consummate in the middle under their Disciples the Government of every Church was in the power of the Bishops and Deacons in common But whereas § 13 c. he layeth this as the ground of his Cause 1. That it was not the Church at Corinth alone but of all Achaia that Clemens writeth to under this name 2. And that there were not many Bishops in one Church but one to each of these particular Churches I desire the Reader 1. To try impartially whether in all the Drs. Book there be one word of cogent Evidence to prove what he saith yea or to make it credible or likely 2. To consider these Reasons following for the contrary 1. As is said whether Scripture custom of speech will allow us to call all the Churches of a Region A Church in the singular Number Shew one Text for it if you can 2. Whether any ancient Ecclesiastical use of speech will allow us to say that the Churches of Achaia dwell at Corinth as Clemens speaketh p. 1. 3. Whether I have not proved from 1 Cor. 14. c. that the Church of Corinth had more Ministers or Clergy men or Pastors in it than one in Paul's time And therefore was not without so soon after 4. Whether it be credible that when it was but one or two Persons p. 62. by whom or for whose cause the Preâ—byters were ejected that it is like either this one or two were members of more particular Churches in Achaia than one or two Or that all the Churches of Achaia would so far own one or two mutineers in a particular Church as to cast out many of their Ministers for their sakes 5. Yea when Clemens whole scope intimateth that this one or two did this because they aspired after Power or Preeminence themselves Could they expect themselves to be made the Rulers of more
than one or two Churches 6. And what was the cause of this one or two like to touch the Bishops of the other Churches And what Cognisance was all Achaia like to have of the cause of one or two distant persons so as for them to rise up against their own Bishops 7. If it was not all nor many Pastors that were thus turned out as Clemens words import why should all Achaia be called seditious and blamed for it 8. Doth not the common Law of Charity and Justice forbid us to extend those words of reproof to a whole Province which cannot be proved to extend farther than to a single Church and principally toucht but one or two 9. I have before proved that Paul by the Saints at Corinth meaneth but one Church Therefore it 's like that Clemens doth so too 10. The Bishops and Deacons that Clemens speaketh of were set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum consensu totius Ecclesiae or as the Dr. will needs have it applaudente aut congratulante tota Ecclesia indeed with the good liking Pleasure or Approbation of the whole Church And shall we be perswaded that all the Cities and Countrey of Achaia were that whole Church which approved or consented to these particular Pastors that were put out Or that had Cognisance of them or acquaintance with them 11. He expresly saith pag. 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Church of Corinth for the sake of one or two moved Sedition against the Presbyters And why doth he never say it was the Church of Achaia 12. p. 63. He supposeth the Person Emulating to be a Believer of power in explaining Doctrine wise in judging of Speeches c. And would have the concern'd Person say p. 69. If the Sedition be for me and the Contention and Schisms I will remove I will be gone wither you will and will do what the People pre-determine of or command only let the Flock of Christ with the Presbyters set over them live in peace And is it like that the Flock that this Person must say so to was all Achaia 13. And p. 73. He requireth those that begun the Sedition to be obediently Subject to the Presbyters and not to their Bishop onely And is it like to be the Bishops of other Churches through all Achaia that this one or two is required to Obey and be in Subjection to I have given my Reasons to prove that these Presbyters were in the One Church of Corinth Compare his if you can find them to the contrary and Judge Impartially as you see cause Cap. 8. Hath nothing that concerneth us but the recitall of his grand Concession lest we should think that in Clemens days the great Bishop of Corinth or any in Achaia had any more Church-assemblies than one to whom he could do all the Pastoral Offices himself he thus concludeth § 9. Indeed mention is found only of Bishops with Deacons constituted in each City sometimes under the Title of Bishops sometimes of Presbyters there being no token or foot-step at all appearing of such as we now call Presbyters c. To which I wholly agree though not that there was but one Presbyter in Corinth Cap. 9. He is offended much with Blondel for reproaching Hermas and yet using his Testimony As if a Hereticks or an Infidels Testimony might not be used in point of History And § 14. he again cometh to his supposition of Bishops without Subject Presbyters as if it served his turn more than ours Cap. 10. About Pius words hath nothing that I find the cause concerned in Cap. 11. Is of little moment to us both parties have little that is cogent but velitations about dubious words Cap. 12. Is but about the sense of the word applyed to Ireneuâ— which Dr. H. taketh here and by many after to mean a Bishop and wonders that Blondel pleadeth for a parity of order from a common Name But it is not so much without reason as he maketh it For if Bishops and Presbyters were in the first times called by one Name and the highest Person in the Church then was ordinarily known by the name Presbyter and the appropriating of Bishop to one sort and Presbyter to another came afterwards in by such insensible degrees that no man can tell when it was it sounds very probable that it was the true Episcopal Power or the same Office and Order that was first commonly possessed by them to whom the name was Common And so much of Dr. Hammond's Dissertations wherein I must desire the Reader to note 1. That I meddle not with other mens Causes nor particularly with the question Whether one man in each Church had of old a guiding superiority over the rest of the Presbyters Nor yet whether the Apostles had such successors in the General care of many Churches such as Visiters or arch-Arch-Bishops but only 1. Whether every Presbyter were not Essentially a Bishop or Governour of the Flock having the power of Keys as they call it in foro interiore exteriore both for resolving Consciences and for Church-order 2. Whether every particular Church which ordinarily communicated together in the Lords Supper and had unum Altare had not one or more such Bishops 3. Whether it was not a sinful corrupting change to bring in another Species of Presbyters and so to depose all the particular Churches and Bishops and set up a Dioâ—esane Bishop inâ—â—â—is ordinis with half Churches and half-Priests under him in their stead 2. And note That as it concerned me not to speak to all that the Doctor hath said so I have carefully chosen out all that I thought pertinent and of a seeming weight as to the cause which I mannage and have past by nothing in the whole Book which I thought an understanding Reader needeth an answer to There is yet the same Authors Vindication of his Dissertations to be considered But I find nothing new in them to be answered by me nor that I am concerned for the Cause in hand any further than to give you these few Observations 1. That again p. 5. he saith That by observing the paucity of Believers in many Cities in the first Plantations which made it unnecessary that there should by the Apostles be ordained any more than a Bishop and Deacon one or more in each City and that this was accordingly done by them at the first is approved by the most undenyable ancient Records 2. That p. 7. he again well averreth that the Jewish and Gentile Congregations occasioned several Churches and Bishops in the same Cities And p. 14. 15. That Timothy was placed by Paul Bishop of the Gentiles at Ephesus and S. John and another after him Bishop of the Jews Pag. 16. He thinketh that Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus or Angel when Rev. 2. was wrote Pag. 17. From Epiphanius he reckoneth above 50 years from the Revelation of John Rev. 2. to the writing of Ignatius's Epistles By which we may Calculate the time when the
affirmamus So that it is a Bishop of one Assembly or Church which Doctor Hammond will have the question stated about 2. And such a Church or Assembly as great Cities a while had divers of and so divers Bishops 3. And this was after the Scripture times for they had divers Bishops with a divers Clergy 4. But that in Scripture times the Order of Sub-Presbyters cannot be proved instituted 5. And in his Annotations he expoundeth all the Texts of the New Testament of Bishops that mention Presbyters 6. But in his Answer to the London Ministers not daring yet to hold that they were of Humane and not of Divine Institution he holds that they were instituted in the end of St. John's days after all the Scripture was written which was about two or three years before his death and so were of Divine Institution though all the rest of the Apostles were dead Before I apply this I will subjoyn his words of more numerous Witnesses to our opinion with himself for he saith 8. Doctor Hammond of the rest Vindication against London Minsters pag. 104. And though I might truly say that for those more minute considerations or conjectures wherein this Doctor differs from some others he hath the suffrages of many of the learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knoweth of all that embrace the same Cause with him I purposely pass by such Bishops as Cranmer Jewel c. and such conformable Divines as Doctor Whitaker Fulke c. as being not high enough to be valued by those that I have now to do with As Jewel Art 4. p. 171. sheweth that every Church must have one Bishop and but one and out of Cyprian that the Fraternitas universa was to chuse him Et â—piscopus delegatur plebe praesente de universae fraternitatis suffragio Episcopatus ei Sabino deferretur And mentioneth the Rescript of Honorius the Emperor to Boniface that If two Bishops through division and contention happen to be chosen we will that neither of them be allowed as Bishop but that he only remain in the Apostolick Seat whom out of the number of the Clergy Godly discretion and the consent of the whole Brotherhood shall chuse by a new Election How big yet was the Church even then Now all this being asserted 1. It is evident that they hold that in Scripture times no Church consisted of more than one ordinary stated worshipping Assembly 2. And that every such Assembly had a Bishop For if there were no Presbyters there could be no Assembly but where a Bishop was present for the Lords days were then used for publick Worship and the people could not do that without a Minister for they had Communion in the Lords Supper every Lords day And therefore they must have a Bishop or have no such Worship And Doctor Hammond departeth from Petavius in holding that no Church had more Bishops than one So that de facto he granteth all that I desire 1. That the Churches were but so many Assemblies having each a Bishop 2. And that no Sub-Presbyters were instituted in Scripture times And by what right the change was made we shall enquire anon CHAP. V. The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity THat the particular Churches infimae speciei vel ordinis of which combined Associated Churches were constituted were no larger than is before described and had but Unum Altare I shall prove Historically from Antiquity I. And Order requireth that I begin with Clemens Romanus But let the Reader still remember that while I cite him and others oft cited heretofore by many I do it not to the same end as they who thence prove that Bishops and Presbyters were then the same but to prove the Churches to be but such single Congregations as are fore-described Ep. ad Cor. pag. 54 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Per regiones igitur urbes verbum praedicantes primitias eorum spiritu probantes Episcopos Diaconos eorum qui credituri erant constituerunt Here are these concurrent evidences to our purpose 1. In that he speaketh only of Bishops and Deacons and neither here nor elsewhere one syllable of any other Presbyters but Bishops it is apparent that in those times there were no Subject-Presbyters distinct from Bishops in being Nor could Doctor Hammond any other way answer Blondel here but by confessing and maintaining this and so expounding Clemens as speaking of Bishops only before other Presbyters were in the Church And if so then there could be none but Churches of single Assemblies then or such as one man could officiate in because there was then no more to do it 2. In that Cities and Countries are made the Seats of these Bishops for though some would make them to be mentioned only as the places where the Apostles preached the obvious plain sense of the words is connexive of preaching and constituting Bishops by preaching they made believers in Cities and Countries and over those believers they placed Bishops and Deacons which implieth it to be in the same places And whereas some would strain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie Provinces and not Country Villages it must then as distinct from Cities have meant many Cities and so have stled Bishops and Arch-Bishops intimating Subject-Presbyters under them But here is no such word or intimation Yea when the Countries are made first the Place of the Apostles preaching as they confess let any impartial man judge whether this be like to be the sense They preached in Provinces that is in the Cities of Provinces and in Cities And if there were Country Churches and Bishops seâ—ied by the Apostle's its easie to see that each particular Church-Assembly had a Bishop when even the City Churches themselves were no bigger than Petavius and others mention 3. Ad hominem Though I believe that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eorum qui credituri erant be intended only to signifie the subsequence of believing to their preaching yet waving that to them that suppose it to intend the subsequence of believing to making Bishops it must needs imply that the Churches then consisted but of few and were yet to be filled up But whether one Bishop to have many Churches is a question which must be otherwise and aliunde decided 4. The magnitude of the Churches is plainly intimated when he saith p. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Constitutos itaque ab illis vel deinceps ab aliis viris celebribus cum consensu universae Ecclesiae qui inculpate ovili Christi inservierunt c. If the Bishops were chosen by the Consent of all the Church it was no greater a Church than would and did meet to signifie their consent and not such as our Diocesses now are 5. Also the same is intimated by pag. 69. If it be for me that Contention Sedition and Schisms arise I will depart I will be gone whither you will and will do what
shall by the people be appointed only let the Sheep-fold of Christ live in peace with the Presbyters appointed over it By which words it is evident that it was such a particular Ovile or Church where the Will of the people might be declared as a matter that bore much sway But who can think that this is spoken of many Congregations where the peoples Will could not easily be signified 6. And it is farther manifest in that it was but for the sake of one or two that the Church of Corinth moved this sedition against the Presbyters called also Bishops pag. 62. Now how many Congregations that Church consisted of where the interest of one or two was either so far concerned or so powerful it is easie to conjecture set all these together and judge impartially I add though out of season that it was none of the Apostles meaning that those whom they made Bishops of such single Churches without a subject Order of Presbyters should make such an Order of subject Presbyters and make themselves the Bishops of a Diocesane Church without any Bishops under them For pag. 57. he saith And our Apostles by our Lord Jesus Christ knew that contention would arise about the name of Episcopacy and for this cause being endued with perfect fore-knowledge they appointed them aforesaid and left the Courses or Orders of After-Ministers and Offices described that other approved men might succeed in the place of the deceased and might execute their Offices So that it was the same places and the same Offices which those ordained by the Apostles had in which others must succeed them which therefore were described by the Apostles and not into others To confirm my Exposition of Clemens note that Grotius himself Epist 182. ad Bignon giveth this as a reason to prove this Epistle of Clemens to be genuine Quod nusquam meminit exortis illius Episcoporum authoritatis quae Ecclesiae consuctudine post Marci mortem Alexandriae atque eo exemplo alibi introduci coepit sed plane ut Paulus Apostolus ostendit Ecclesias communi Presbyterorum qui iidem omnes Episcopi consilio fuisse gubernatas that is Because he no where maketh mention of that excelling authority of Bishops which began to be intrduoced at Alexandria by the custom of the Church after the death of Mark and in other places by that example But he plainly sheweth as the Apostle Paul doth that the Churches were governed by the Common Council of Presbyters who were also Bishops Note also as aforesaid that Doctor Hammond in Dissert granteth as to matter of fact that Clemens speaketh but of the Bishops of single Congregations whom he also calleth Presbyters there being no other in the Church of Corinth II. My next Witness is Pius Bishop of Rome in Epist Justo Episcopo in Biblioth Patr. Tom. 3. pag. 15. mentioning only Bishops and Deacons of which Doctor Hammond making the same Concession still granteth that hitherto Bishops had but single Churches Of this more anon III. My next and greatest Witness is Ignatius in whom to my admiration the Diocesanes so much confide as that quasi pro aris focis they contend for the authority of his Epistles I am as loth to lose him as they are therefore I will not meddle in Blondel's controversie against whom they say Doctor Pierson is now writing In his Epistle to the Philadelphians he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is to every Church one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbytery and the Deacons my fellow servants I am not able to devise apter words to express my sense in He saith not this of some one Church but of all nor yet as of an accident proper to those times of the Churches minority but as of the Notes of every Churches Individuation or Haecceity as they speak The Unity of the Church is characterised by One Altar and One Bishop with the Presbytery and Deacons If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were out it would not alter the sense being plainly implied Bishop Downame's Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it signified Christ is so forced and contrary to the evidence of the Text that his own party quite forsake him in it and he needeth no confutation For who ever before dreamed that the Unity or Individuation of each particular Church consisted in having one Christ who is the common Head of all Churches One Christ to every Church and one Bishop would signifie that every Church must have one several Christ as well as one several Bishop Nor is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so used by the Ancients except when the Context sheweth that they speak by allusion of Christ Master Mede's plain and certain Exposition and Collection I gave you before the same with ours As for them that say that many Congregations might per vices come to one Altar to communicate I answer 1. Let them make Churches as big as can thus communicate and spare not though there be necessary Chappels or Oratories besides 2. But remember that every Church used to worship God publickly and to communicate at least every Lords day and that there was but One Altar to each Church and therefore but one Communicating Congregation Doctor Stillingfleet in his Schismatical Sermon is for my Exposition Object It is meant of one Species of Altars and not one Individual Answ Then it is meant also of one Species of Bishops in each Church and not of one Individual Object The practice of the Churches after sheweth that they took it not for a sin or Schism to have several Altars in a Church Answ I talk of nothing but matter of fact it was the note of One Church when those Epistles were written whether the Author was mistaken de jure or whether after Ages grew wiser or rather had fewer Bishops and more Altars for the sake of Carnal Interest I judge not The same Author Epist ad Smyrn saith Ubi utique apparet Episcopus ibi multitudo sit quemadmodum utique ubi est Christus Jesus illic Catholica Ecclesia as Usher's Lat. Trans or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnis exercitus coelestis And the Context sheweth that this multitudo or plebs is the Church which the Bishop overseeth Therefore ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia fuit and so every Church had a present Bishop So in Epist ad Magnes he bids them All unitedly or as one run together to one Temple of God as to one Altar to one Jesus Christ So that every Church had one Temple and one Altar to which as a note of their Union in Christ the whole Church must unanimously come So in Epist ad Trull he saith Et Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit Presbyteri vero sunt consessus quidam conjunctus Apostolorum coetus sine his Ecclesia Electa non est Nulla sine his Sanctorum Congregatio nulla Sanctorum Collectio Et postea Quid vero aliud Sacerdotium est vel Presbyterium quam sacer
of the first rank afore-described must govern it statedly as present by himself and not absent by others Chap. 12. The just opening and understanding of the true nature of the Pastoral Office and Church Government would end these Controversies about Prelacy Chap. 13. That there is no need of such as our Diocesâ—nes for the Unity or the Government of the particular Ministers nor for the silencing of the unworthy Chap. 14. The true original of the warrantable sort of Episcopacy in particular Churches was the notorious disparity of abilities in the Pastors And tho original of that tyrannical Prelacy into which it did degenerate was the worldly Spirit in the Pastors and people which with the World came by prosperity into the Church Quaere Whether the thing cease not when the Reason of it ceaseth PART II. Chap. 1. THe clearing of the State of the Question Chap. 2. The first Argument against the aforedescribed Diocesanes that their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church form of Gods institution and setteth up a humane form in its stead Chap. 3. That the Primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as I before described Proved by Scripture Chap. 4. The same proved by the Concessions of the most learned Defenders of Prelacy Chap. 5. The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity Chap. 6. The same further confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 7. More proof of the aforesaid Ancient Church limits from the Ancient Customs Chap. 8. That the Diocesanes cause the Error of the Separatists who avoid our Churches as false in their Constitution and would disable us to confute them Chap. 9. The second Argument from the deposition of the Primitive species of Bishops and the erecting of a humane inconsiâ—tent species in their stead A specifi k difference proved Chap. 10. Whether any form of Church Government be instituted by God as necessary or all be left to humane prudence and choice Chap. 11. Argument third from the destruction of the Order of Presbyters of divine Institution and the invention of a new Order of half Sub-presbyters in their stead Chap. 12. That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keyes in doctrine worship and discipline and no other proved by the Scriptures Chap. 13. The same confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 14. And by the Confessions of the greatest and learnedest Prelatists Chap. 15. Whether this Government belonging to the Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiastico exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae vel interiore Chap. 16. That the English Diocesane Government doth change this Office of a Presbyter of God's institution quantum in se into another of humane invention The difference opened Twenty instances of taking away the Presbyters power from them Chap. 17. That the great change of Government hitherto described the making of a new species of Churches Bishops and Presbyters and deposing the old was sinfully done and not according to the intent of the Apostles Chap. 18. Argument fourth from the impossibility of their performance of the Episcopal Office in a Diocesane Church And the certain exclusion and destruction of the perticular Church Government while one man only will undertake a work too great for many hundreds when their work is further opened in perticulars Chap 19. The same impossibility proved by experience 1. Of the ancient Church 2. Of the Foreign Churches 3. Of the Church of England 4. Of our selves Chap. 20. Objections against Parish discipline answered The need of it proved Chap. 21. The Magistrates sword 1. Is neither the strength of Church discipline 2. Nor will serve instead of it 3. Nor should be too much used to second and enforce it The mischeifs of enforcing men to Sacramental Communion opened in twenty instances Chap. 22. An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishop no King 2. Of the Rebellions and Seditions of them that have been against Bishops Chah 23. Certain brief consectaries Chap. 24. Some Testinonies of Prelatists themselves of the late state of the Church of England its Bishops and Clergy lest we be thought to wrong them in our description of them and their fruits Chap. 25. The Ordination lately exercised by the Presbyters in England when the Bishops were put down by the Parliament is valid and Re ordination not to be required jure divino as supposing it null A TREATISE OF EPISCOPACY Confuting by SCRIPTURE REASON And the CHURCHES TESTIMONY That sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by Corruption Usurpation Schismes and Persecution Meditated 1640 when the c. Oath was imposed Written 1671 and cast by Published 1680 by the Call of Mr. H. Dodwel and the Importunity of our Superiors who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity The designe of this book is not to weaken the Church of England its Government Riches Honour or Unity But to strengthen and secure it 1. By the concord of all true Protestants who can never unite in the present Impositions 2. And by the necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will in all ages keep up a succession of Nonconformists As an Account why we dare not Covenant by Oath or Subscription never to endeavour any amending alteration of the Church Government by lawful meanes as Subjects nor make our selves the justifying vouchers for all the unknown persons in the Kingdom who vowed and swore it that none of them are obliged to such lawful endeavour by their vow By RICHARD BAXTER a Catholick Christian for love concord and peace of all true Christians and obedience to all lawful commands of Rulers but made called and used as a Nonconformist London Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Cocks at the West end of Saint Pauls and Thomas Simmons at the Prince's Armes in Ludgate-street MDCLXXXI These Books following are printed for and sold by Nevil Simmons at the three Golden Cocks at the west end of St. Pauls A Christian Directory or sum of practical Theology and cases of Conscience directing Christians how to use their Knowledge and Faith how to improve all helps and meanes and to performe all duties how to overcome temptations and to escape or mortifie every sin in four parts 1. Christian Ethicks or private Duties 2. Christian Oeconomicks or Family Duties 3. Christian Ecclesiasticks or Church Duties 4. Christian Politicks or Duties to Our selves and Neighbours in Folio Catholick Theology Plain Pure Peaceable for Pacification in three Books 1. Pacifying Principles c. 2. Pacifying Praxis c. 3. Pacifying Disputations c. in Folio The Life of Faith in three Parts The first Sermon preached before his Majesty c. The Second Instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith The third directions how to live by faith or how to exercise it in all occasions in Quarto Naked Popery or the naked Falshood of a book called the Catholick naked Truth
swear that they are duties or may be done as of humane obligation by those that cannot say they are of Divine obligation 55. We hold that the first Churches that did divolve all arbitrations of differences among Christians upon the Pastors did that which brought no great present inconvenience when the People were but few and the Pastors had sufficient leisure but that which prepared for the degenerating of the Ministry and the Churches lamentable corruption And therefore that they should have foreseen this and done as St. Paul directed them and referred matters to any fit wise man among them And when they saw the mischief they should have quickly reformed it as Silvanus Bishop of Troas aforementioned did And that if there were Lay Elders in any of the ancient Churches as one passage in Origen and one in Ambrose and this of Silvanus in Socrates have made some think they were truly Lay and appointed only to such Arbitrations as these and such other Animadversions over the rest as Lay-men may do A help that I once tryed and found to be very great 56. We hold that when Constantine gave the Clergy the sole Power of Judging the Causes Civil and Criminal of all the Christians he shewed more ignorant zeal than true discretion and did let in a pestilence into the Church and that instead of that he should have only left Arbitrations to mans free choice and have set up a Christian or Righteous Magistracy to whom both Bishops and all other Christians should submit 57. We hold that when Christians so multiplyed as that they grew uncapable of Personal Communion at one Altar it was the duty of them and the Bishops to have ordered them into new Churches whcih should every one have had its proper Bishop or plenary Pastoral Office among them and not to have kept them all still in the name of one particular Church infimi ordinis when they were uncapable of the nature and end 58. We hold that it was sinfully done to make a new Office or Order of subject Presbyters that had not the Governing power of their perticular Churches neither alone nor conjunct but had only the power to Teach and Worship the Government being reserved only to the Bishop of another called a Mother Church 59. But we believe that this came not in till many hundred Years after Christ and that but by slow degrees and that after subordinate Churches and Altars were invented and set up yet the Pastors under the name of Presbyters had much of the Governing power of the Keys though with and under the Bishop of the Mother Church 60. The deposing of all the first rank or Order of Bishops which were before over each particular Church the making of a new Office of half Presbyters the making of Churches of a new species as being under a new sort of Officers the making Archbishops who should have many Churches and Bishops under them to become the Bishops of the lowest rank having none under them but above all these the making of the Pastoral work especially discipline become utterly impossible by putting that into one mans hand that cannot be done but by many or many hundred these and such like are the things that we can neither swear to nor approve 61. We hold that though the Magistrate may shape his part of the Church Government variously according to the Interest of the common good yet that the Spiritual or Pastoral part should not have been molded into the shape of the Civil Imperial Government And that so doing did give the Papacy that countenance which is the ground of its usurpation 62. For we hold that the essential constitution of the Pastoral Office and its work and the essential constitution of the Church Universal and of Individual or particular Churches are all of Divine unalterable Institution And that all Laws of Christ for such Constitution and for Administration are unalterable by man Though we hold that Circumstancials and Accidentals are alterable as being not setled by any Divine determination As e. g. how many Ministers shall be in each Church which of them shall be more regarded than the rest as being of greater wisdom how ost and when and where they shall assemble with many the like 63. We hold that as all Christians ordinarily should have personal Communion in particular Churches so those Churches and their Bishops should hold such Communion as is needful to their strength and concord and the common good 64. This Communion of Churches is to be held internally by Concord in the same Faith and Love and Religion and externally by the same profession and instrumentally 1. by Messengers and Letters and 2. by Delegates and Synods when there is need which as is said for Time Place Numbers Provinces Orders are left to humane Prudence 65. If any that divide the Country into Provinces will settle Synods accordingly and settle over them Presidents for the ordering of their proceedings and will give power to one above others to call such Synods and will call these Provinces or Nations or Empires by the name of Provincial National or Imperial Churches and the Bishops so exalted by the name of Metropolitans Primates Patriarchs c. We contend not against this as unlawful in it self though we easily see the accidental danger being taught it by long and sad experience so be it 1. that none of these be pretended to be of Divine Institution but of humane determination 2. and that they meddle with nothing but such accidentals as are left to humane prudence 3. and that they equal not their humane Association with the Christian Worshiping Churches which are of Christ's Institution 4. and that much less they do not oppress their brethren and tyrannize nor deprive the particular Pastors and Churches of their proper priviledges and work But alas when were these Rules observed by humane Churches 66. The Canons of such Synods or Councils of Bishops may be made Laws indeed by the Civil power and they are if just obligatory to the people by virtue of the Pastoral Authority of the Bishops But as to the particular Bishops they are only Agreements and no proper Laws the Major Vote of Bishops being not proper Governours of the rest and bind only by virtue of Christ's General Laws for Love and Concord 67. The Pastoral power is not at all Coactive by secular force on body or estate but only Nunciative and perswasive commanding in Christ's name as authorized by him and executed no otherwise than by a Ministerial word and by with-holding our own acts of Administration and denying our Communion to offenders Nor did the Apostles themselves pretend to any other than this power of the Word for the Keys are exercised but thus excepting what they did by Miracle And if Bishops would go no further they would work on none but Voluntiers and their usurpations might be the more easily born 67. And indeed we are fully perswaded that none but Voluntiers are â—it for the
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 This is Mr. Hooker And page 14. He confesseth that according to the Custom of England and a Council at Carthage Presbyters may impose hands in Ordination with the Bishop though not without him So that by this they have the the power of Ordination to though he have a Negative Voice in it And indeed if all Ordination must be done by one of a Superiour Order who shall Ordain Bishops or Archbishops or Patriarchs or the Pope And page 18. He saith Most certain truth it is that Churches Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen Which is it that we also affirm every City or Church having a Bishop and Presbytery of their own And whereas page 19. He saith 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 If this be so we grant you enough when we grant Parochial Bishops But no where doth he more palpably yield our Cause than page 21 22. where to Cartwright's Objection that the Bishop that Cyprian speaketh of is nothing else but such as we call Pastor or as the common name is Parsons and his Church whereof he is Bishop is neither Diocess nor Province but a Congregation which met together in one place to be taught by one man He hath no better answer to this than to tell us that If it were true it is impertinent and that it is not true because Cyprian had many Presbyters under him so as they might have every day change for performance of their duty And he never once attempteth to prove that Cyprian had more Churches yea or Assemblies than One but only that he was over the Presbyters in one Church or Assembly and as an Archbishop was over Bishops The same thing which I submit to but nothing against the things that I assert against him A Parson may have divers Curates under him and not divers Churches much loss a thousand that have no other Bishop And whereas page 33. It is objected that many things are innovated in our Discipline as imposing Ministers on the People without their consent Bishops Excommunicating alone Imprisoning c. His answer is that the Church may change her customes And on that ground alloweth the Ordination of Presbyters alone because the Church can give them power For he goeth in Church-matters as he doth in point of Civil Government on his false supposition that all Power is Originally in the whole Body saying page 37. 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 ways What is more contrary than Saravia Tract de Obedient and Hooker in their Principles of Government From hence also page 38. He inferreth the no necessity of continued Succession of Bishops in every effectual Ordination And it is very observable which he granteth for it cannot be denied The Power of Orders I may lawfully receive without the asking consent of any multitude but the power I cannot exercise upon any certain People against their wills And page 38. He cannot deny but the ancient use was for the Bishops to excommunicate with the College of his Assistant Presbyters but he taunteth Beza for thinking that this may not be changed These are the men that build upon Antiquity and the Custom of the Universal Church And page 69. when the Canons for Bishops spare course of living are objected he saith that those Canons were made when Bishops lived of the same Purse which served as well for a number of others as for them and yet all at their disposing Intimating the old Course when every Church had its Bishop and inferiour Clergy But Innovation is lawful for our Prelacy And now he that can find any thing in Hooker against the points which I defend or for that Prelacy which I oppose any more worth the answering than this that I have recited let him rejoyce in the perfection of his eye-sight And if thus much be worthy to be confuted or such as this let them do it that have nothing else to do So ridiculous is the Challenge of one that glorieth to write a Book with the same Title of Ecoles Policy who insultingly provoketh us to write a full Confutation of Hooker who saith so little to the main point in Controversie our Diocesan Form of Prelacy and writeth his whole Book in a tedious Preaching stile where you may read many leaves for so much Argumentation as one Syllogism may contain that I think I might as wisely have challenged himself to conâ—â—ue Mr. Fâ—x's Book of Martyrs or Baronius his Annals almost or at least may say as Dr. John Burges doth of Mr. Parker another sort of Parker his Book of the Cross which Dr. Ames saith was never answered that if any will reduce that gawdy Treatise into Argument it being indeed almost all made up of the fruits of Reading History Sentences c. of purpose to confute them that said the Nonconformists were no Schollars he should quickly have an Answer to it So if any will reduce all that is in Mr. Hooker's 8 Books in tedious Discourses into Syllogism which is against what I maintain I believe it will not all fill up one half or quarter of a page and it shall God-willing be soon answered In the mean time the popular Principles of his First and Eighth Book subverting all true Government I have already confuted elsewhere in my Christian Directory 5. Bishop Downame hath said much more to the main Points in the defence of his Consecration Sermon and as much as I can expect to find in any But 1. as to the mode he is so contrary to Hooker that being a very expert Logician he wasteth so much of his Book about the Forms of Arguments and Answers that he obscureth the matter by it and ensnareth those Readers who do not carefully distinguish between Matter and Words and between the force of the reason and the form of a Syllogism And he so adorneth or defileth his Style with taunts insulting scorns and contemptuous reproaches that it is more sutable to the Scold sat Billings-gate than so learned and godly a Divine and occasioneth his Adversaries to say You have here a taste of the Prelatical Spirit 2. As to the matter of his first Book I am of his mind against meer ruling Elders He and Bilson have evinced what they hold in that But as to the points in which
of the Churches of Asia had no Bishops but Parish Presbyters under these seven Bishops he should prove it and confute Dr. Hammond that is so contrary to him had he then lived Till then we take it as a contemptible incredible assertion that Asia had but seven Bishops and yet a multitude of Churches If he mean only that these seven were Archbishops his impertinency is too palbable Particularly he saith The Church of Ephesus Smyrna c. Contained a great City and the Country belonging to it c. Ans We talk of Churches under Churches and he talketh only of Cities and Countries Again I say Let him take his Diocess of Infidels Houses and Ground we know no such Churches Page 46. He saith Cenchrea was subject to the Church of Corinth and never had a Bishop of their own But not a syllable of proof It is not a Family Church which we speak of therefore he need not here have mentioned that But a Church associated for ordinary Communion in God's publick worship which cannot be celebrated without a Pastor Let him prove that Cenchrea was such a Church and yet had no Bishop In § 6. p. 49. He would prove that the Circuit of a Church was in the Intention of the Apostles or first Founders the same from the beginning befor◠the division of Churches as after Which I shall in due place disprove His reasons are 1. Because the whole Church since the Apostles days hath so understood the intention of the Apostles Ans 1. This is not proved 2. I shall anone prove the contrary that the Apostles had no intention that Churches should be defined by the limits of the place and Country nor did they themselves ever appoint any such bounds to any one Church and say so far it shall extend Nor did they ever take any but Christians in any Circuits for Members of the Church And I shall prove that all Churches were but such as I described single Churches with their Bishops at the first and that some Villages had Bishops four or five hundred years after And his own Reason that Churches followed the Civil Form proveth the mutability of their bounds seeing the Civil Forms were mutable His next Reason is because that division of Churches which was 300 or 400 Years after Christ with their Limits and Circuits were ordinarily the same which had been from the beginning as divers Councils testifie Ans Those Councils mean no more than that it had been an old or setled Custome as many Learned men have proved And if they could be proved to mean that from the Apostolical plantations the bounds of all the Diocess were set I marvel that any man could believe them But they say no such thing as were it not tedious to the Reader an examination of each particular would shew Else no new Churches and Bishops must be setled in the World but those that the Apostles converted in any Cities between or near them For the unconverted Cities in the inter-spaces were as much those Bishops Diocesses as the Villages of equal distance And then the making of new Cities would have made one a Bishop of many Cities contrary to the Canons His third Reason is that the Distribution of the Churches usually followed the division of the Common wealth Ans 1. If so as is said they must be various and mutable All the World was not divided just as the Roman Empire was And the Imperial divisions had great changes 2. I think it lost labour to dispute with him that holdeth this assimilating the Church to the Civil Form was of Divine Apostolical Institution If any can think so let him give us his proof that the Church Constitution must vary as Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical States do As Empires and free Cities do And that from the King to the Constable we must have a correspondent Officer And that the Papacy as Capital in the Roman Empire was of Gods Institution And that an Emperour King or popular State may change the Form of the Churches as oft as they may the Form of their subordinate Governments Are not these small Reasons to prove that when the Apostles planted Bishops in all single Churches they intended that those Bishops should be the sole Bishops of many hundred Churches when they should be raised in the Circuit of ground which now is called their Diocesses But more of this in due place But next he appealeth to mens consciences Whether it be not unlikely that there was but one Congregation belonging to these famous Cities towards the end of the Apostles days Of which more afterward In Chap. 4. p. 69. He argueth The Presbyteries ordained by the Apostles were appointed for Diocesses and not to Parishes Therefore the Churches endued with the power of Ecclesiastical Government were not Parishes but Diocesses Ans Our Question is Whether they were single Churches as before defined or only One Diocesan Church made up of many such single Churches 1. If by Presbyteries be meant many Presbyters a College or Consessus I deny the Consequence because every Church that had Government had not such a Presbytery But one Bishop or Pastor did serve for some of the lesser Churches and yet that one had Governing power 2. I deny the Major It was single Churches that had then many Elders set over them 3. Reader it seemeth to me no small disparagement to the Diocesan Cause that the grand Patrons of it so extreamly differ among themselves Dr. Hammond holdeth that in all the Scripture times no one Church had any Presbyters at all save only one single Bishop This Bishop Downame seemeth to hold that every Governed Church had a Presbytery And no one and every one extreamly differ Yet either of them would have censure him that had gain-sayed them His proof of the Antecedent is this They who were appointed to whole Cities and Countries to labour so far as they were able the conversion of all that belonged to God were appointed to Diocesses not to Parishes But c. Ans Is not here frustration instead of edification to the Reader for want of defining a Diocess and a Parish I thought we had talkt of a Diocesan Church and here is a Diocess described which may be a single Church or no Church at all as the Bishop pleaseth Here is not so much as any Christians much less Congregations of them mentioned as the Bishops Flock But many an Apostle Evangelist and Converting Preacher hath been set over Cities and Countries to labour mens Conversion as far as they were able before they had converted any or at least enow to make a Church and after that before they had converted more than one Assembly The Jesuits in the Indies thus laboured in several Provinces before they were Bishops of those Provinces or called them Provincial Churches But now we perceive what he meaneth by a Diocess even a space of Ground containing Inhabitants to be converted if we can I will shorten my Answer to the
them to the Bishop he saith that he may commit it to a Presbyter For it is Mixt and hath partly the External Jurisdiction which the Bishop received by his proper Episcopal Ordination and partly yea much rather or more the Internal by the Keys which they have by virtue of their Presbyterial Ordination in equality with the Presbyters The External because it is External may therefore be delegated to another even a Lay-man which is it which the Parliament of Scotland have lately declared to be in the King And doth not all this shew what Episcopacy is Even a Magistrates Office Circa Sacra vindicated by Grotius and others But saith he they cannot delegate the inward power which is properly of the Keys because this dependeth of the Sacred Presbyterial Order both in fieri in esse in conservari operari For the Presbyterial Order hath always the Keys annexed For when any is Ordained Presbyter the Keys are given him and Jurisdiction with Orders by Divine Right And § 28. p. 474. Seeing the Apostles gave the Keys equally to all Bishops and Presbyters No man can by Divine Right reserve part of the Keys to himself alone and leave another part to others Moreover in lib. 2. c. 3. § 61. p. 210. He sheweth that Clement Linus and Anacletus were all Bishops in Rome at once Lib. 2. c. 9. § 1. p. 282. He sheweth that Bishops and Presbyters are wholly equal in all Essentials which belong to the Ecclesiastical Ministries to be exercised towards the People And that even in Government the rest of the Presbyters without excepting any in every Church make one College of which the Bishop is the Head all Ordained to the same Cure and Government of Souls So this Diocess hath between a thousand and two thousand Ministers living some of them an hundred or sixscore Miles distance to make a College to the Bishop that is usually at London How the Bishop is bound to Govern with them see him § 4. And § 5. To be plainly understood he saith We Bishops therefore must all remember that All the Presbyters are our Brethren and Collegues in the Ministry not our Servants or Slaves and that by Divine Right they have no less power in feeding the people of God than we have And if we exercise any External ampler Jurisdiction over them not properly Ecclesiastical it is not of our own power but delegated from the Magistrates power as I shall prove lib. 6. and 10. Yet plainer § 8 9. p. 285. These Parish Presbyters have by Divine Right full Power in the Ministry of Christ and in these Parishes are the Ordinary Ministers but under the Bishop For the Bishop alone hath a General Ecclesiastical Government to settle Ministers in their Diocess But being applyed to the Government of their Church they have the ordinary power but Presbyterial in that Church By positive Right only Bishops are deputed to certain Seats Yet Presbyters have so this Ordinary power that they cannot by Humane Ecclâ—siastical Right reduce it into Act till applyed by the Bishop in his Diocess And c. 9. § 11. p. 286. â— 13. p. 287. He sheweth that in Vacancies or the Bishops Absence the Clergy of Presbyters have the whole Episcopal power of Government And p. 288 289. He laboureth to prove that one Church had many Bishops and that it is but Ecclesiastical Law or Custome that one Church should have but one Bishop And § 15. That if the Canons prohibited not a Bishop might make all his Parish Presbyters full Bishops as § 16. in the Ministerial Essentials towards the Faithful they are by Divine Right equals Vid. § 20. page 291. This is enough to say of Spalatensis save that all that he saith for Bishops against us is so little a part of what is said by the rest that it can require no new Answer And if this great Moderator who returned to Rome though for a miserable imprisonment and end because we are not yet near enough to Antiquity or rather being flattered into covetous and ambitious hopes be able to prove no greater a difference between Bishops and Presbyters we need not think that any other is like to do it 16. The last great Learned Sober Defender of Episcopacy and the last that I need to mention here is Doctor Hammond who in his Annotations and his Treat of the Keys and especially his Dissertations against Blondel and his Defence of them against the London Ministers hath said much in this Cause But his way is new save that he followeth Petavius in the main supposition He forsaketh almost all the Fathers and almost all the Patrons of Episcopacy of later times who have written for it in the Exposition of all the Texts of Scripture which mention the Elders and Bishops of Churches in those times supposing that they all speak of Bishops only In his Treat of the Keys he maintaineth that the power of them was given to the Apostles onely by Christ and to Bishops as their Successors by the Apostles But I take it for undeniable truth that the Bishops and Elders settled in every Church by the Apostles in their own time had this power and I need not expect a contradiction in it And how fitly those are called the Apostles Successors whom they set over the Churches in their own time even from the beginning that they settled Churches and with whom they continued in the same Churches many Months or Years as Paul in Asia I leave to others to judge But the Question is not whether Bishops have the power of the Keys but whether all Presbyters have it not also And 1. He sheweth that according to the Canons the Presbyters might do nothing in this or in other Acts of Ministration without the Bishop 2. That our English Ordainers though they say Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins you do remit it shall be remitted c. Do not give the Presbyters all the Power of binding and loosing but so much as the Bishops or the Governours are presumed to have thought sit to impart to them which he saith is 1. The declaring in the Church the absolution of penitents after the Confession 2. The absolving them by way of prayer before the Sacrament 3. And by Baptismal washing and 4. Upon Confession to the sick and in private Conference and Confession c. Which yet he saith Is by Christs Authority committed to the Presbyters 3. He saith All this will not extend to the absolving from the bond of excommunication or proportionably to such power of binding any further at most thau to confer the first power of it which if it be then given doth yet remain as the other Power of Preaching and administring the Sacraments bound and restrained from being exercised till they be further loosed by the donation of a Second Power Ans But 1. Either he was not able or not willing to tell us whether this Power be given the Presbyters or not For he avoideth it by
contrary that needeth a Reply Cap. 5. he would prove the Angels to be Archbishops which if done would not touch our Cause who meddle not with Archbishops but onely prove that the full Pastoral or Episcopal Office or power of the Keys as over the Flock should be found in every particular Church that hath unum Altaere To prove Metropolitans again he tells us how that in Provinces we find Churches mentioned in the Plural number and in Cities onely a Church singularly not perceiving how hereby he overthrows his Cause when he can never prove that in Scripture many particular Churches are called A Church Diocesane or Metropolitan as united in one Bishop as our Diooesane and Metropolitan Churches now are Nay indeed though the Society be specified by the Government yet the Name sticketh in their teeth here in England and they seldom use the Title of the Church of Canterbury and York for the whole Province and they use to say the Diocese of Lincoln London Winchester Worcester Coventry and Litchfield c. rather than the Church of Lincoln London Coventry and Litchfield c. lest the Hearers would so hardly he seduced from the proper sense of the word Church as not to understand them His Proofs of the Civil or Jewish distinction of Metropolitans § 4 5 c. let them mind that think it pertinent But § 9. we have a great word that It may be proved by many examples that after this Image the Apostles took care every where to dispose of the Churches and constituted a subordination and dependence of the lesser on the more eminent Cities in all their Plantations Answ This is to some purpose if it be made good The first Instance is Acts 14. 26. 16. 4. and 15. 2 3 22 23 30. Not a word else out of Scripture And what 's here Why Paul and Barnabas are sent to Jerusalem from Antioch to the Apostles and Elders about the Question and were brought on their way by the Church and passed thorow Phenice and Samaria Chosen men are sent to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas Judas and Silas with Letters from the Apostles Elders and Brethren even to the Brethren of the Gentiles in Antioch Syria and Cilicia And when they came to Antioch they delivered the Letters and Paul and Timothy as they went thorow the Cities delivered them the Decrees to keep that were ordained by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem Doth not the Reader wonder where is the Proof And wonder he may for me unless this be it The Apostles and Elders were at Jerusalem when they wrote this Letter and thence sent it to Antioch Syria and Cilicia Ergo They established the Bishop of Jerusalem to be the Governour and Metropolitan of Antioch Syria and Cilicia The Apostle Paul went from Antioch to other Cities and delivered them these Decrees Ergo Antioch is the governing Metropolis of those Cities I think the major Propositions are Every City from which Apostles send their Letters to other Cities and every City from which an Apostle carrieth such Letters or Decrees to other Cities is by those Apostles made the Governing Metropolis of those other Cities What dull Heads are the Puritans to question such a Proposition as this But it is not given to all Men to be wise And we ignorant Persons are left in doubt Q. 1. Whether the Universal Headship or Papacy of the Bishop of Jerusalem be not of Apostolical Institution and that more than by one Apostle even by all of them that were then at Jerusalem Q. 2. Whether the Apostles did not this as they did other parts of Church-settlement by the Spirit of God and so whether it be not jure Divino yea by a more eminent Authority than the Scriptures which were written by parts by several single Men some Apostles and some Evangelists when this is said to be done by all together Q. 3. Whether Christ's Life Death Resurrection Ascension and sending the Apostles thence into all the World and not into the Roman Empire onely do not incomparably more evidently make Jerusalem the Universal Metropolis of the Earth and so set it above Rome which is but the Metropolis of one Empire Q. 4. Whether then an Universal Head of the Church or Vicar of Christ be not jure Divino and so a Jerusalem Papacy be not essential to the true Church and Religion Q. 5. Whether then all the Emperours Bishops and Churches that did set up Rome Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople above Jerusalem were not Traytors against the Universal Sovereign of the Church and guilty of Usurpation and gross Schism Q. 6. To what parpose this Sovereignty was given to Jerusalem which was never possess'd and exercised Q. 7. Whether Peter's being at Rome could alter this Church-Constitution and one Apostle could undo what all together had done Q. 8. Whether the Apostles carried this Metropolitical Prerogative with them from place to place where-ever they came And whether it did belong to the Men or the Place And whether to the Place whence they first set out or to every place where they came or to the place where they dyed Judge what is the proof of any of these Q. 9. When they were scattered which of their Seats was the Metropolitan to the rest or were they all equal Q. 10. If the Power followed the Civil Power of the Metropolitane Rulers whether Caesar did not more in constituting the Church-Order and giving power comparatively to the Metropolitanes than Christ and his Apostles Q. 11. Whether it was not in Caesar's power to unmake all the Church Metropolitans and Bishops at his pleasure by dissolving the Priviledges and Charters of Cities Q. 12. If it please any King or be the Custom of any Kingdom as it is in many parts of America that the Kingdom have no Cities or Metropolis whether it must have any Churches Bishops or Metropolitane Q. 13. Whether when Paul wrote his Letters from Corinth to Rome he thereby made the Bishop of Corinth the Governour of the Bishop and Diocess of Rome And whether little Cenchrea was over them also because Phoebe carried the Letter And did his writing from Philippi to Corinth subject Corinth to the Bishop of Philippi And did his writing from Rome to Galatia Ephesus Philippi the Colossians and from Athens to the Thessalonians and from Laodicea and Rome to Timothy and from Nicopolis to Titus and John's writing from Patmos to the Asian Metropolitanes produce the same effect Q. 14. If Paul's carrying the Letters from Antioch to other Cities proved Antioch the Governour of the rest whether when he returned from the other to Antioch again he made not the other the Governours of Antioch I am ashamed to prosecute this Fiction any further His following Citations from the Fathers I think unworthy of an Answer till it be proved 1. That these Fathers took the Metropolitane Order as such to be of Apostolical Institution and not in complyance with the Roman Government by meer humane
alterable policy And 2. That this Opinion rose as early as he pretendeth 3. And that these Ancients were not deceived â—â—t our English Bishops rather Bilson Jewel c. who took Patriarchs and Metropolitanes as such for Creatures of Humane Original While Ignatius his being Bishop of a Church in Syria shall prove him the Bishop of all Syria and the Church of God dwelling in Syria in Antiochia shall be equivalent with the Church in Antiochia governing all Syria I shall not undertake to hinder such men from proving any thing that they would have believed His Cap. 6. of the promiscuous use of the Names of Bishop and Presbyter and Cap. 7. that prepareth the stating of the Controversie need no answer but to say that we deny not but where a single Presbyter was he had himself the power of Governing that Church but where there were many though all had the full Office severally they were bound to use it in Concord And whether one amongst them shall have a precedency or guidance of the rest we think as Dr. Stillingfleet hath proved to be a matter alterable by humane prudence according to the various condition of the Churches And if any take both such Bishops and Archbishops to be Jure Divine with Dr. Hammond it will be somewhat to his Cause but nothing to ours Cap. 8. he openeth his conceit which in time I shall shew doth yield us the whole Cause that every place of Scripture which mentioneth Bishops or Presbyters meaneth Diocesan supereminent Bishops only And first he proveth it of the Elders Bishops of Ephesus Acts 20. because the whole flock is meant of all Asia Fully proved because Irenaeus said as he thought that the Bishops were convocate from Ephesus and the nearest Cities But 1. Irenaeus saith not Bishops only but Bishops and Presbyters conjoining them as two sorts and not Bishops or Presbyters as the Doctor doth 2. The nearest Cities and all Asia we take not for words of the same importance 3. We take not your bare word for the validity of the Consequence that because the Bishops of several Cities were there therefore it is all Asia that is singularly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Flock and not each Bishops Flock respectively q. d. Each of you look to your several Flock 4. We think if you calculate the time Acts 20 and 21. and consider Paul's haste Acts 20. 16. that few impartial men will believe that Paul's Messengers that were wont to go on foot did so quickly go all over Asia and so quickly get together all the Bishops of Asia to Miletum unless they all resided at Ephesus as our English Bishops do at London and Governed their unknown people by a Lay-Chancellour 5. And Irenaeus ibid. p. 312. saith Et omnia hujusmodi per solum Lucam cognovimus we know all such things by Luke alone pretending no other Tradition And if it be in Luke it is yet to be thence proved 6. But he pleadeth our Cause too strongly by supposing that each City then had a Bishop without any subject half Presbyter and so that no such Office was yet made Cap. 9. Of Timothy's Episcopacy concerneth not our Cause Though I hope that neither he nor his Church were so bad as the Angel or Church in Rev. 2. is described And it 's easier to answer the strength of Dr. Hammond than for him to answer the Evidence brought by Prin in his Vnbishoping Timothy and Titus to shew the itinerant life and Ministry of Timothy contrary to the life of a fixed Bishop And if non-residency have such Patrons and Timothy have taught men to leave their Churches year after year and play the Pastor many hundred Miles distant it will make us dream that non-residence is a duty And if all these years Timothy's Metropolitan Church at Ephesus had no ordained Presbyter but Passengers that fell in I blame them not or wonder not at least that they lost their first love for it 's like they seldom had any Church Assemblies to Communicate and Worship God together Cap. 10. Cometh to the case of Philippi Phil. 1. 1 2. And 1. § 3. he saith It is manifest that Epaphroditus Bishop of Philippi was at Rome with Paul when he wrote this Epistle and he supposeth that there were yet no Presbyters but Bishops And so when Paul wrote to all the Saints which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons he meant to those that are not at Philippi where there was no Bishop but in other Cities of Macedonia that had every one a Prelate without ever a Presbyter under him With some this expounding may go for modest if not true Two probable Arguments I object against his improbable Expositions of this Text and that Acts 20. before mentioned 1. Where did he ever read that all the Province of Macedonia was called Philippi and the Saints said to dwell at Philippi that dwelt all over Macedonia 2. Where did he ever read in Scripture many Episcopal Churches under one Metropolitan called One Church in the singular Number as in Acts 20. 28. or One Flock either 3. Will any knowing man deny that he contradicteth not only Hierom and Theodoret but the common Exposition of the Fathers by this his odd Opinion And is it not gross partiality for the same man that can so easily cast off the judgment of almost all the Ancients at once to lay so much of the whole stress of his Diocesan and Metropolitan Cause upon the Fathers assertions yea doubtful reports and to take it for so immodest a thing in others to deny belief to them in such uncertain matters But he setteth Epiphanius his words against Aerius against them all Even that Epiphanius who ordained in the Bishop of Jerusalem's Diocess to his displeasure and that combined with that Theophilus Alexand. of whom Socrates writeth such horrid and unchristian practices to root out Chrysostom and raise a flame in the Church of Constantinople who liker a mad man than a sober Bishop came from Cyprus not only into the City but the Church where Chrysostom used to officiate to inflame his people and declame against and censure their Bishop to whom he was an inferiour and that parted with him in a wrathful Prognostick and dyed by the way home And yet even this one man saith nothing to his advantage but that the Apostles placed Bishops only with Deacons in some Churches that had not fit men to make Presbyters of which we not only grant but doubt whether ever they made any but Bishops though in great Cities there were many of them And § 8 9 10. when it seemed to serve his turn he yet further gratifieth us by granting yea maintaining that one Congregation had not two Bishops yet nothing hindreth but that in the same City there might sometimes be two distinct Assemblies converted by two Apostles perhaps of distinct dialects and rites and these governed by distinct Bishops with a divided or distinct Clergie which is almost as much
much to the same purpose p. 87. One City with the Territories adjoyning to it being ruled by one single Bishop was to be called a singular Church And therefore that which is said to be done in every Church Act. 14. 23. is said to be done in every City Tit. 1. 5. Tâ—e sum of which observation is only this that one City with the Territories adjoyning to it never makes above one Church in the Scripture Style And yet he largely proveth the contrary that there was one Church and Bishop of Jewish Christians and one of Gentiles whereas a Province or Countrey or Nations consists of many Cities and so of many Episcopal Sees or Churches The like he hath again p. 90 § 53. But whereas p. 88. â—e would Prove that a Province or Nation of many Churches may be called one Church because the Churches in all the World are so called in our Creed and in the Scripture I answer That he can never prove that many Churches are ever in Scripture called one save only the Universal Church which is but one being Headed by one Head even Christ The Universal Church as he said before of a Church compared to Persons is One Collective body as a Political Society related to Christ or constituted of Christ and all Christians And a particular Church is one as constituted of the Ministerial Pastors and People But find any Text of Scripture that calleth the Churches of a Nation or Province one Church in all the new Testament if you can In pag. 103. he giveth Reasons for his singularity in interpreting so many Texts of Scripture and sheweth that as the Fathers differ from each other as Tirinus sheweth so we may also differ from them and I know not of any Expositor that ever wrote that hath more need of this Apology than Grotius and he And I mislike not his Reasons But then how unsavoury is it for the same person to expect that we should in reverence to one expository word in Irenaeus and another in Epiphanius forsake the common sense of the Fathers where they do agree or that we must bow to every ancient Canon But I would not have him thought more singular than he is lest when I have answered him the Prelatists forsake him and say that they are still unanswered therefore I crave the Readers special observation of his words p. 104 105. I might truly say that for those minute considerations and conjectures wheren this Doctor diffâ—rs from some others who have written before him as to the manner of interpreting some few Texts he hath the Suffrages of many of the learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knows OF ALL that embrace the same cause with him Of which I only say that if he do but minutely differ from others and not at all from the most I hope my confutation of him will not be impertinent as to the rest But if he lay the very stress of his cause upon novel Expositions of almost every Text which mentioneth Bishops Presbyters Pastors and quite cross the way of almost all save Petavius that ever went before him then think whether that cause stand on so firm ground as some perswade which needeth such new foundations or ways of support at this Age in the judgement of such learned men as these Pag. 119 120 121. He proveth that Diocesane Bishops are the only Elders of the Church which James adviseth the sick to send for supposing the City Churches even of Jerusalem to be yet no bigger than that one Bishop and a Deacon who yet was not this Visiter of the sick might do all the Ministerial work Where I confess he quite outgoeth me in extenuating the Churches in S. James's time If the Church of Jerusalem had seven Deacons I will not belive him pardon the incivility that they had but one Presbyter And pardon me a greater boldness in saying if he had tryed but as much as I have done what it is to do all the Pastoral work for one Parish of 2 or 3000 Persons in publick and private he could not possibly have been of this Opinion Nor do I think it likely that when it is a singular Person that James bids send for the Elders of the Church but that it implyeth that the Church where he was had more Elders than one I confess that if it had been spoken either to Persons plurally or of Churches plurally the phrase might well have signified the single Elders of the several Churches But to say to each sick man singularly Let him send for the Elders of the Church singularly in common use of speech signifieth that there were many Elders for that man to send for in the Church And whereas he asketh whether a sick man must send for the Colledge of Presbyters I answer that a sick man may well send for the Presbyters or Ministers either one after another as there is occasion or more than one at once if need require for his Resolution If we say to a sick man in London send for the Physicians of the City and let them advise you c. it signifieth that the City hath more Physicians than one and that he may advise with one or more at once oâ— per vices as he findeth Cause and no man would speak so to him if London had but one Physician and Norwich another and York another c. And when p. 121. he supposeth the Objection that they have a mean opinion of visiting the sick because they say it is not the Bishops work which he well maketh it to be methinks this should suit with no English Ears who will quickly understand that they speak de facto of our Bishops to whom a sick man may send an hundred or fifty or twenty Miles to desire him to come presently and pray with him if his disease be a Phrensie which depriveth him of his Wits and all about him be as mad And the Bishop with us may be said to visit the sick of his Diocess as a man may be said to weed a Field that plucketh up a weed or two where he goeth or to build a City because he knockt up a Naâ—l or two in his own House Pag. 120. It is observable which he saith Indeed if it were not the Bishops work to visit the sick how could it be â—y the Bishop when other parts of his Office became his full Employment commited to the Presbyter For 1. he could not commit that to others if he first had it not in himself And 2. This was the only Reason of ordaining inferior Officers in the Church that part of the Bishops taâ—k might be performed by them Ans Either he believed that the Office of a Subject Presbyter or Order as they call it was instituted by God and setled in the Church as necessary by his Spirit and Law or not If he do then Qu. 1. Whether the work of these Presbyters after the institution be not the work of their own
5. UPon the Review finding some considerable Evidences from Councils before omitted some shall be here added 1. The Roman Clergy called a Council at Rome Bin. pag. 158. c. saith that in the Interregnum they had the charge of the Universal Church and Cyprian wrote to them as the Governors of the Church of Rome when they had been a year or two without a Bishop And their Actions were not null 2. A Carthage Council with Cyprian condemn even a dead man called Victor because by his Will he left one Faustinus a Presbyter the Guardian of his Sons and so called him off his Sacred Work to mind Secular things Did this favour of Bishop's Secular Power Magistracy or Domination 3. How came the Carthage Councils to have so many hundreds in so narrow a room or space of Land but that every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corporation or big Town had a Bishop Anno 308. at a Carthage Council the very Donatists had two hundred and seventy Bishops And at Arles two hundred Bishops heard the Donatists Cause 4. The Laodicean Council decreed Can. 46. that the Baptized should learn the Creed and on Friday repeat it to the Bishops or Presbyters which implieth that a Bishop was present with every Church And Cap. 57. It is ordained that thenceforth Bishops should not be ordained in small Villages and Hamlets but Visiters should be appointed them But such Bishops as had heretofore been there ordained should do nothing without the Conscience of the City Bishop Which implieth 1. That every big Town had a Bishop 2. And Villages before 5. Epiphanius Haer. 68. pag. 717. c. saith That Peter separated from Meletius in the same room and as Meletius went to the Mines he made new Bishops and gathered new Churches so that in several Cities there were two Bishops and Churches Which implieth that they were Congregations for Personal Communion 6. The Nicene Council cap. 8. alloweth Rural Bishops then in use whom Petavius proveth to have been true Bishops 7. Greg. Nazianz. pag. 528. c. sheweth how Churches were enlarged and changed when the strife began between Mea Tua Antiqua Nova Nobilior Ignobilior Multitudine Opulentior aut Tenuior 8. After Lucifer Calaritanus ordained Paulinus Antioch had long two Bishops half being his Flock and half cleaving to Meletius 9. Nazianzen had in the great City of Constantinople but one of the small Churches the Arians having the greater till Theodosius gave him the greater And those Hearers he was Bishop over 10. A Council at Capua ordered that both the Bishops Flocks in Antioch under Evagrius and Flavian should live together in Love and Peace 11. Many Cities tolerated Novatian Bishops and Churches among them and oft many other Dissenters Which sheweth that but part of the City were one Church 12. The Council at Carthage called the last by Binius decreed that Reconciliation of Penitents as well as Chrisme and consecrating Virgins is to be done only by the Bishops except in great necessity For how many Parishes can a Bishop do all this and all the rest of his Office And when Christians were multiplied they that desired a Bishop where was none before might have one But else aliud Altare is again forbidden to be set up 13. Another Carthage Council decreeth Can. 15. That the Bishop have but vile or cheap Houshold-stuff and a poor Table and Diet and seek Authority or Dignity by his Faith and desert of Life Can. 19. That he contend not for transitory things though provoked Can. 23. That he hear no Cause but in the presence of his Presbyters else it shall be void that is sentenced without them unless confirmed by their presence Note this being a constant work required a constant presence and it is not a selected Chapter of Presbyters that is named And must those of many hundred Parishes dwell in the City or travel thither for daily Causes of Offenders c. Can. 28 30. Bishops unjust Sentence void and Judgment against the absent 14. A Council at Agathum Can. 3. saith If Bishops wrongfully excommunicate one any other Bishop shall receive him Which implieth that the wronged person lived within reach of a Neighbour Bishop's Parish For it doth not bind him to remove his Dwelling And leave to go daily twenty or forty Miles to Church is a small kindness And I have already cited Can. 63. If any Citizens on the great Solemnities Easter the Lord's Nativity or Whitsuntide shall neglect to meet where the Bishops are seeing they are set in the Cities for Benediction and Communion let them for three Years be deprived of the Communion of the Church So that even when Churches were enlarged yet you see how great a part of them met in one place 15. Divers Canons give the Bishop a third or fourth part of all the Church Profits And if those Churches had been as big as our Dioceses it would have been too much of all Conscience 16. A Synod at Carpentoracte decreed that the Bishop of the City shall not take all the Country Parish Maintenance to himself Which implieth as the former that his Country Parish was small 17. A Council at Orleance Anno 540. decree Can. 3. about ordaining a Bishop that Qui praeponendus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur The Dioceses yet were not so large but that All met to chuse 18. So Concil Byzazen saith it must be By the Election of all 19. Another at Orleance Anno 545. saith No Citizen must celebrate Easter out of the City because they must keep the principal Festivities in the presence of the Bishop where the holy Assembly must be kept But if any have a necessity to go abroad let him ask leave of the Bishop Here is but one City Assembly and Individuals must be known to the Bishop and ask his leave to go abroad And Can. 5. saith A Bishop must be ordained in his own Church which he is to oversee Which implieth that he had but one Church and Country Chappels 20. Another Orleance Council hath the like deposing all Bishops that come not in by common consent And requiring them both in their Cities and Territories to relieve the Poor from the Church-House Let us have such Dioceses as the Bishop can do this for and we consent 21. A Synod at Paris Can. 8. says Let no Man be ordained a Bishop against the Will of the Citizens nor any but whom the Election of the People and Clerks shall seek with plenary Will None shall be put in by the Command of the Prince c. 22. King Clodoveus called a Synod at Cabilone which Can. 10. decreeth That all Ordination of Bishops be null that was otherwise made than by the Election of the Comprovincials the Clerks and the Citizens 23. The Const Trul. Can. 38. sheweth how the unhappy changes were made decreeing That whatever alteration the Imperial Power shall make on any City the Ecclesiastical Order shall follow it And so if the
other Churches I have before cited a Canon which gave leave to Presbyters to preach in the countrey villages intimating it was rare heretofore 2. Filesacus saith ibid. p. 562 563. Sed ut quod res est libere eloquar illo aevo anteriore cum Parochiae vox vulgo etiam pro Dioecesi usurpatur that is for all the Bishops Charge credo Presbyteros Parochianos dictos fuisse non aliter ac siquis Dioecesanos pronunciaret hoc est In hac Parochia seu Dioecesi ordinatos titulatos But surely whilst Presbyters rarely preached there were either Churches that had no preaching which cannot be proved or else few Assemblies that had not Bishops Obj. But then you make Lay Elders of the Presbyters Ans They were the abler sort of Christians ordained to the same Ministerial or Sacerdotal Office as all true Ministers are But few of them being Learned men and able to make long Sermons were imployed only as the Bishops assistants as elders are among the Presbyterians who if they would but ordain those Elders and let them have power over the word and Sacraments though only to exercise it under the Bishops or chief Pastors guidance when there was cause they would come nearest to the ancient use XXIII And it seemeth to me an evidence that the Churches then were usually but as narrow as I assert that the Presbyters were to abide with the Bishop and attend him in his City Church For if you suppose them able to Teach or guide a flock themselves as some were such as Augustine Macarius Ephrem Syrus Tertullian c. it is scarce credible to me that the Bishop would suffer such worthy persons to sit among his Auditors when there were many countrey congregations that needed their help For that the Church was so supplied with Preachers as that besides all these Presbyters in the Bishops Church there were enow for all the rest of the countrey Parishes as now is contrary to all the intimations of Church-History And therefore when we read of so many Presbyters with the Bishop before we read of many or scarce any elsewhere surely there were no people that needed them XXIV And yet though great Cities had many with the Bishop I may add that the paucity of Presbyters under the generality of Bishops sheweth that their Dioceses then were but like Parish Churches with their Chappels Or else Aurelius and the other Bishops in the Carthage Council needed not have been in doubt whether those Bishops that had but one or two Presbyters should have one taken from them to make a Bishop of which was yet affirmatively decreed because there may be more found fit to make Presbyters of where it 's hard to find any fit to be Bishops I will speak it in the words of the learned Bishop Bilsons Perpet Govern c. 13. p. 256. In greater Churches they had great numbers of Presbyters In smaller they had often two somewhere one and sometimes none And yet for all this defect of Presbyters the Bishops then did not refrain to impose hands without them The number of Presbyters in many places were two in a Church as Ambrose writeth on 1 Tim. 3. sometimes but one In the third Council Carthag when it was agreed that the Primate of that City might take the Presbyters of every Diocese and Ordain them Bishops for such places as desired them though the Bishop under whom the Presbyter before lived were unwilling to spare him Posthumianus a Bishop demanded what if a Bishop have but one only Presbyter must that one be taken from him Aurelius the Bishop of Carthage answered One Bishop may Ordain many Presbyters but a Presbyter fit for a Bishoprick is not easily found wherefore if a man have but one only Presbyter and fit for the room of a Bishop he ought to yield that one to be Ordained Posthumianus replied Then if another Bishop have a number of Clerks that others store should relieve him Aurelius answered Surely as you helped another Church so he that hath many Clerks shall be driven to spare you one of them to be ordained by you A Diocese such as is intimated here we do not strive against XXIV Another evidence is that when ever we read of persecution turning the Christians out of their Churches you ever find them gathered into one Congregation when they could have leisure and place to meet in and usually a Bishop with them unless he were banished imprisoned or martyred and then some Presbyter supplied the place or unless they were scattered into many little parcels And you find no talk of the persecution of multitudes of Countrey Presbyters afar off but of the Bishop with his City Presbyters and Church To which add that it was One Church still which rejected obtruded Bishops and refused to obey the Emperour who imposed them All this is manifest in Gregory Neocaesar his flight with Musonius and the state of his Church In the Case of Basil and of Lucius the obtruded Bishop at Alexandria and in the Case of Antioch before described and of Rome it self It 's tedious to cite numerous testimonies in a well known case If Alexandria was in such a case or near it I hope you will doubt of no other Churches And that with this you may see what Conventicles the Christians kept when the Emperours forbad them and how resolutely the Bishops preached when the Emperours silenced them I will recite the words of Baronius himself and in him of Dionysius Alexandr apud Euseb lib. 7. c. 10. c. 17. and Cyprian ep 5. c. in Baron ad an 57. p. 542. that those who cry out against Preaching and Conventicles when they are but strong enough to drive others out of the Temples may better understand themselves Siquando c. If at any time so vehement a persecution did arise that the Christians by the Emperours edicts were utterly excluded from the Churches and assemblies notwithstanding little regarding such things they forbore not to come together in One in holy assemblies whithersoever there was opportunity This Dionys Alexand. Bishop witnesseth writing to Germanus when he mentioneth the Edicts of Valerian forbidding the Assemblies But we by Gods assistance have not abstained from our accustomed Assemblies celebrated among our selves Yea I my self did drive on certain brethren to keep the assemblies diligently as if I had converst among them And he writeth the same also to Hierax when he was banished When we were persecuted by all and put to death we celebrated the Feast with joyful minds and any place appointed us for several sorts of sufferings as the woods the desert solitudes the tossed ships the common Innes the horrid prison did seem fit to us in which we might keep our solemn Assemblies with the greatest joy That they held their Assemblies and offered sacrifice usually when it was permitted them in the prisons Cyprian witnesseth But the Acts of the holy Martyrs do fullier signifie it especially those most faithful
Prelacy to be so made And were they Christians or no Christians that made the Diocesane Form If Christians were they orderly Christians or rebellious If orderly how happened it that they were of no Church themselves when the Apostles setled so much of Church Form and Order as I have before named If rebellious they were a dishonourable original of Diocesanes And if the Church Form be not of Divine institution then the Church it self is not For forma dat nomen esse And so the cause is given up to the Brownists by these Learned moderate men so far as that there is no Church in England of Divine institution Were it not that when in general they have said that no Church Form of Government is so Divine they again so far unsay it as to confess the Parith Churches or Congregations with their Pastors to be of Divine institution and of continued necessity All that is to be said by and for them is this That the Apostles were the makers of the English or Diocesane Form but not of that only but of the Presbyterian and Independent also and so made no one necessary but left all indifferent Or that they made one of these Forms as mutable allowing men to change it Answ But 1. I have proved what they made Let them prove that they made any other of a different sort not subordinate or supraordinate if they can 2. And let them prove the mutability of that which they made and their power to change it which they assert Till one of these is proved we are or should be in possession of that which was certainly first made I am bold to conclude this argument with the speech of a bold but a wise and holy man Joh. Chrysostome de Sacerdotio lib. 3. pag. mihi 48. cap. 15. And when some Bishops have obtained that prefecture of a Province not belonging to them and others of one FAR GREATER THAN THEIR OWN proper STRENGTH CAN BEAR THEY CERTAINLY BRING TO PASS THAT THE CHURCH OF GOD SEEMETH NOTHING TO DIFFER FROM AN EURIPUS or a confused turbulent changeling thing pag. 49. AND DO NOT THESE THINGS DESERVE GODS THUNDERBOLT A THOUSAND TIMES ARE THEY NOT WORTHY TO BE PUNISHED WITH THE FIRE OF HELL NOT THAT hell WHICH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THREATEN TO US BUT EVEN OF ONE THAT IS FAR MORE GRIEVOUS Forgive the words my Lords They are not mine but Chrysostome's or if you will not forgive the citing of them I will bear it as he did the like Only I will abate you in my prognostication or sentence that far sorer hell fire than the Scripture threameth supposing this will be sharp enough even for the most dispersing silencing persecuting Prelate and imputing those words to honest Chrysostome's vehement Oratory And I 'le tell you what went next before these words And they do not only take in the unworthy into the Priesthood but they cast out the worthy For as if they had agreed both ways to spoil the Church of God and the first cause were not enough to kindle the wrath of God they add the second or worse to the former For I judge it equally pestilent to drive out the Profitable and to take in the unprofitable which certainly they do that the flock of Christ may from no part either find consolation or be able to take breath O what would this man have said had he lived now in England CHAP. XI Argument 3. From the destruction of the order of Presbyters of Divine Institution and the Invention of a new order of Sub-half-Presbyters in their stead ARGUMENT III. THe office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost containeth an Obligation and Authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline the flocks committed to their care But the office of a Diocesane being one only Bishop over many score or hundred Congregations is destructive of that office of Presbyters which containeth an obligation and authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline or the exercise of the Church keys the flocks committed to their care Therefore the office of such a Diocesane is destructive of the office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost The Major is thus proved by the Enumeration of the Acts which contain the general office and by the proof of the General power extending to those Acts viz. 1. They that had the Authority and Obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence had the authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But the Presbyters of the Holy Ghosts institution had the authority and obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence Ergo they had authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline 2. Again The office which contained an Authority and Obligation to Teach Exhort Rebuke publickly and privately to judge of persons baptizable and to baptize them to Pray Praise God and administer the Lords Supper to the Church and to judge of them that are to receive it to watch over them privately and publickly to Excommunicate the obstinately impenitent and absolve the penitent doth contain authority and obligation to Guide that flock by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But such is the Office of Presbyters as instituted by the Holy Ghost Ergo c. Here note 1. That I am not now medling with the Questions Whether such Presbyters hold this power in subordination to any superiour Bishops nor whether there lie any appeal from them to a higher power in the Church 2. Nor am I now questioning Whether in Scripture sence Bishops and Presbyters are all one in Name or thing 3. But that which I maintain is 1. That there is no proof in Scripture that God ever instituted any order of Presbyters which had not the forementioned power of the keys 2. And that God did institute such an Order of Presbyters as had that power de nomine de re And 3. That the Diocesane Office destroyeth such and setteth up others in their stead What God instituted I will prove 1. Out of the Scripture records 2. Out of the History of the Church which long retained them in some degree CHAP. XII That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keys in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and no other proved by the Sacred Scriptures THat God instituted such Presbyters and no other I shall prove by the enumeration and perusal of all the Texts of Scripture which mention them viz. as instituted in the New Testament and now in force Act. 14. 23. When they had Ordained them Elders in every Church Compared with Tit. 1. 5. That thou shouldest Ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee 7. For a Bishop must be blameless as the steward of God And his power is described v. 11 13. Ch. 2. 1 7 15. and 3. 10. intimate it Compare this with 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 5 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be
Socrat. l. 7. c. 44. Joh. 5. 22. Gen. 3. 15. Joh. 17. 2. Mat. 28. 18 19. Eph. 1. 21 22. * The London Ministers Thanksgiving to the King is to be seen in Print As also their desire of B. Usher's Primitive Model of Government * Now 18 years this being written 9 years ago Whitgift â—aâ—avia Vid. p. 104. 110 111. 120 121. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Bilson Hooker answered as far as our cause requireth Remember also that Hooker's third Book is written to prove that no one Form is commanded in Scripture Therefore not the Prelatical How little doth this agree with Dr. Hammond ☞ And yet must I sweat never to consent to any alteration Bishop Downame Answered He fell after under the frowns of Bishop Laud himself his Book of perseverance being prohibited * Ambrose in Eph. 4. Aug. qu. in vet N. Test q. 101. Cypr. l. 3. ep 17. Concil Carth. Graec. c. 43. Carth. 2. c. 4. Conc. Arausic c. â— * The Prelates pretence for innovation All the cause is laid on Magistrates †Doth a publick Church Pastor govern but privately what meaneth he by that which can be good sence A private man may rule privately that is by Counsell Judicium publicum is the Officers judgment †In my Treat of the true way of Concord I have also disproved the Instances of Rome and Alexandria Bish Hall Petavius Bish Andrews B. Usher †Lib. 3. c. 30. de Doctrin Christian which Augustine seemeth to approve The Dispute at the Isle of Wight John Forbes Grotius ☞ Be it known to posterity that if the Prelates would have granted us but so much liberty our distracted Churches might have had Concord J. D. c. M. Ant. de Dom. Spalatensis †Yea never into one Parish of ten or twenty ☞ ☜ Dr. Hammond answered The Annotations * Quemad modum hodiâ— ab aliquâ—t seculâ—s Antioch in a sides Patr. noâ— est in ea uâ—be unâ—â— nomen habet sed in Meredin ad ripaâ—n Châ—bar in finibus Mesopotainae Jos Scaliger Animad in Euseb pag. 211. Yet I confess that he that converteth many caeteris paribus is fittest to be chosen for their Pastor on which account Greg. Nazianz. was chosen at Constantinople for the Success of his Ministry against Arianism And in my Church-History I have told you of a Council that decreed that if a Bishop neglected to turn any of his City from heresie he that converted them should have them for his flock which sheweth that there might on just cause be then more Bishops and Churches than one in a City and that they were not necessarily measured by the compass of ground but Churches might be mixt among each other as to habitation on such occasions â—â—â—â— Chrysostom de sâ—cerdotio cap. 17 p. 57 Even about so small a part of a Bishops or Pastors charge as the care of Virgins saith But if any one say that there is no need of a Bishop to meddle with such things as these Let him know that upon him will fall all the cares of Virgins duty and so all the accusation which shall be cast on Virgins And therefore it is much better if he administring the business himself he shall be void of those causes which he must susteine by others offences thus leaving that administration to live in fear of giving account or being judged for the sins which others do commit Adde also that he that performeth this office by himself transacteth all with great facility But he that is necessitated to do it by the vicarious labour of others besides that it is a great business to him to perswade all mens minds well to performe the work certainly he himself hath not so much remission of his labour by abstaining from that office as he must sustaine business and troubles from them that resist and strive against his judgment and opinion And if so great a Bishop as the Patriarks of Constantinople must not do so small a part of his work per alios alas what a life do our Diocesans live â—â—at Christ Mat. 18. in his â—â—â—l the Church â—â—anâ—th â—â—ll the congregation assembly or multitude and not only â—â— tell an absent Diâ—â—â—san Bishop when â—erâ—aps â—ne â—â—â—â—â—â— 20 4â— 6â—â—â—les to tell him see Grotius himself in his Aâ—â—t on the Text and his â—â—â—â—ort of sertullian and others See also Eâ—â—â—mus on the place And many others say the same though some would have the Church to be only the Bishop or as others the Presbytery Ruâ—herfords contrary reason is but a fallacy viz. The same Church that must be heard must be told but it is not the Congregation but the Elders that must be heard Ergo c. Ans The Church consising of the Pastor and people must be told and they have all ears that without confuson can hear at once but they cannot without confusion all speak at once therefore one must speak for all For this argument would equally prove that it is not any Presbytery or Court or many Ministers that should be told if it be but one that is to speak to the â—inner And it is not necessary that theâ— all speak to him As the chief Judge speaketh for all the Bench and the Prosecutor for all the Synod and yet the Court or Synod may be complained to so is it hear The samâ— man â—ay see with two eyes and hear with two ears and yet speak but with one tongue yet this reason once deceived me Seeing then that Christ instituted thus much of discipline in each particular Church it is clear that by his iâ—stitution every particular Church associated for presential Communion should have one or more â—â—â—tors authorized for so much discipline which is that which we plead for * Disput of Church Gover 2. That unjust excommunications bind not see the judgment of the most approved casuists in Bapt. Fragoso de Regim Reipub. p. 1. l. 1. pag. 112. Col. 2. Gregor Sayrus To. 2. l. 1. c. 17. num 2. 5. 8. c. And indeed they conclude that out of the case of scandal Magistrates Laws unjust materially that is to the Common hurt or that are against common good bind not in Conscience ut Id. Fragoso ib. p. 112. n. 234. 336. Wâ—â— citeth the consent of Silvest Tabien Bald. Bartol Hostiens Doctorum Communiter So that Mr. John Humfrey is not singular in his resolution of this Case though I gave him many cautions and limitations in the Letter part of which he hath printed in the end of his book 2 Cor. 5. 19. Act. 26. 18. Mat. 28. 20. * Hierome saith he dyed in the eighth year of Nero. aid â—oi Scaliger Anim. in Euseb Dorothaeun resutantem pag. 195. 1. Petavius 2. Bishop Downame 3. Master Mede 4. Bilson 5. Grotius 6. Bishop Jeremy Tailor 7. Doctor Hammond 8. All the Divines in the same Cause Cyprian in the Separation of Feliciss and sive Presbyters Epist 44. ed. Goul pag. 93. saith Deus unus
askt whether the King and Parliament had not power to set up a Bishop in every Corporation and to take down Deans Arch-Deacons Chancellours Officials c. and sew denied it 5. I askt my self iâ— the King and Parliament make such a change and command my Consent whether I must disobey them and forestall my obedience by a Covenant and Oath 6. I thought that what is imposed on all the Clergie to day may be imposed on the Laity next And then all Parliament men will be Sworn and Covenanted never in Parliament so much as to Consent to change any of the Church Government now established 7. I found that I must also swear That it ought so to stand which could mean no less than by a Divine Law when Mans Law may not alter it 8. I found such Heartiness Willingness required in the Swearer as required very full satisfaction in all this And that with the terrible re-nuncication of the Help of God in Christ if I do not all that I swear to 9. And I must be deprived of my Office for Benefice I had none and cast out of the ministry if I refused to take this Episcopal Covenant and Oath 10. And I knew that he that made no Conscience of deliberate Perjury had little reason to hope that he had any good Conscience true Grace or Honesty and specially if he concurred to involve all the Clergie or Nation in the guilt Upon these Considerations I set my self to a more searching study of the matter I read Gersom Bucer Didoclaue Jacob and after Parker Bains and others on one side and all that I could get on the other Downam again Bilson Hooker Saravia Andrews and many more And the result of my search was this I wondered to find so many write for and against Episcopacy without distinguishing the sorts of Episcopacy For I found reason to think one sort at least Tolerable yea desirable but that which the Oath of 1640. would have bound me to I found great reason to judge to be but what I have described it in this Book And I here give notice to the Reader that whereever he findeth me speak as against the English Diocesane Prelacy I mean it as described by Cousins and Dr. Zouch and as relating to that Oath and Canon and not in opposition to the Laws of the Land This Judgment then setled I never could see cause to change but the more I read of the Ancients Church History Counsels c. And many other Writers for Episcopacie Petavius Sancta Clara Spalatensis Dr. Hamond and many more the more was I confirmed in it to this day When Usurpation was at the highest I wrote accordingly in my book called Disputations of Church Government When the King came home I accordingly used my Endeavours as a Reconciler with the Ministers here called Presbyterians who seemed mostly of the same mind And how little an alteration of the Church Government in the Kings Declaration of Ecclesiastical Affairs did we receive with thankfulness and it would have been with a conforming joy but that we knew the leading Men that treated with us too well to hope that they had any intention to continue it but to use it they knew to what till they had done their work and got this Act of Uniformity In 1668. After I had been in the Goal and yet men called for the reasons of my Nonconformity I drew up some of my thoughts rudely And in 1671. The call being renewed I wrote this Book as now it is saving a few additional Notes But cast it by my Friends and my experience perswading me that the Bishops and their Parliament adherence could not patiently bear it Many years after some Letters past between Mr. Henry Dodwell then of Ireland and me And his last being tedious and he seeming not to intend or desire a publication of them I gave him but a short general return instead of a voluminous particular Answer especially because I had this Book written by me in which I had more than answered him and was not willing or at leasure to write over the same things again But when I had lately wrote in my Book of Concord a summary consutation of Mr. Dodwels schismatical Volumne in which he degradeth unchurcheth if not unchristeneth so many of the Protestants as having no Sacraments no Covenant right to Salvation but sinning against the Holy-Ghost and all for want of a Ministery derived by an uninterrupted succession of Episcopal Ordination from the Apostles and could not by importunity prevaile with him to answer Voetius de desperata causa Papatus or my Dispute of Ordination at last I received a Letter from him signifying his purpose upon his Friends desire to Publish his long Letter written to me out of Ireland So that I saw a necessity of Publishing my Treatise which contained more than an Answer to him And the rather because some R. Reverend Bishops and others had urged me to give an Account of the Reasons of my Non-conformity So that I had not leave to suppress this book nor be longer silent And yet I fear that they that so called for it will not easily bear it The summe of Mr. Dodwels Letter to me now in the press is to prove the possibility of right Discipline by our Diocesane Goverment as it is 1. Because Magistrates can exercise theirs by as few 2. Because the Ancients de facto did it by such Therefore it may be done To answer these two is to answer his Letter which one would think should be so easy that no Scholar should have need of help to do it 1. If any man canby an harrangue of words be brought to renounce his reason and experience so far as to believe that the Office of a Pastor may be performed to as many Parishes as the Office of a Major or Justice of Peace may and that Pastors have no more to do in watching over particular Souls instructing exhorting convincing comforting visiting worpshing Governing c than the works of a Justice of Peace amount to and that Dr. Stillingfleet e. g. shall be excused if he do no more for his Parish than Justice Rog. L'Estrange doth I undertake not to convince that man of any thing Read over the work of a Bishop as I have here discribed it from the Scripture and Dr. Hamond and compare it with a Justices work and if you can yet be deceived by Mr. Dodwel be deceived And yet I think there are in divers Parishes about us many Justices for one Pastor I am confident London Diocess hath a great number for one Bishop And either our Justices are bound besides what now they doe to labour as much to bring some to Repentance and such other work as the Pastors are bound to do or not If not it will not follow that as large a Circuit may be Governed by one Pastor as by one Justice If yea then he doth but condemne the Justices for unfaithfulness which will not prove that a
Pastor must be as bad 2. And as to his appeal to the discipline of the Ancients I leave the Reader to the deceit of this mans arguings 1. If he cannot find it fully proved in this Book that the Churches of the ancient Bishops were not so big as our greatest Parishes as to the number of Souls much less as our Diocesses 2. And if in my abstruct of Church-History of Bishops and Counsels I have not fully proved that Discipline was neglected corrupted or overthrown dy degrees as Bishops-Churches overswelled When we read such doleful complaints in History Fathers Counsels and their Canons of the corruption of the Churches is this the true use to be made of all that we must be like them and not blame them lest we open the nakedness of our Fathers 3. And if men can make themselves willingly so blind as by a story that the Fathers did such things among People and circumstances which we know not to renounce common experience that it is not now any where done nor can possibly be done If men can be so ignorant what our Parishes and Diocesses are and what a Bishop and Chancellor do and can do Let such err for I am unable to cure them any more than if they were confident that my Lord Major can Govern all the Families of London as their Masters by stewards without Family-Masters or that one Physitian or one Tutor could serve instead of many for the City Indeed they that have as low an esteem of true Discipline as Mr. D. in his Letter seems to have may easily believe that a few men may do it And those Papists that can let the Church be the sink of common uncleanness and a Nursery of Ignorance Vice and Prophaneness so they may but keep up their Wealth and Ease and Honour by crying up Order Government and Unity may accordingly believe that no more knowledge Piety or Discipline is a duty than serveth the ends of their worldly Dominion I must again give notice to the Reader that whereas the Common Objections of the greatness of Bishops Churches in the second Centurie are fetcht from the instances of Rome and Alexandria I have answered even those two in the beginning of my Breviate of Church-History to which I must refer you and not again repeat it here I know that poor ingnorant Persons must expect such a shameful Cant of old reproach as this to cheat them into the hatred of Christs Church order and Government into a love of Clergie bondage a scornful smile shall tell them Mr. Baxter would have as many Bishops as Parishes and a Pope in every Parish when men think one in a Diocess too much When every ignorant or rash Priest shall be the Master of all the Parish and you have no remedy against his Tyranny what a brave reformation will this be And such a deceitful scorn will serve to delude the ignorant and ungodly But if they truly understood the case they would see the shame of this deriding objection 1. A Pope is a Monarch or Governour of the world and a Diocesan of a multitude of Parishes And sure he usurpeth not so much who will be but the Church-guide of one A man is abler to guide one School Colledge Hospital or Family than a hundred or thousand without any true Master of a Family School Colledge c. under him 2. Why is not this foolish scorne used against these foresaid relations also Why say they not every Master maketh himself a Pope or Bishop to his own house and every School-Master to his School whereas one Master over a thousand would do better with bare Teaching Ushers that had no Government 3. Let it be remembred that we would have no Parish Pastor to have any forceing power by Fines Mulcts Imprisonments c. But only to prevaile so farr as his management of Divine authority on mens Consciences can prevail And we would not have Magistrates punish men meerly because they stand excommunicate or because they tell not the Clergy that they repent True excommunication is a heavy punishment fitted to its proper use and not to be corrupted by the force of the Sword but to operate by it self And valeat quantum valere potest He that despiseth it will not say he is enslaved by it But is this all that the Bishops desire 4. We would have no man become the Pastor of a Church without the peoples consent if not choice no more than a Physician should be forced on the sick And as the Servant that consenteth to be a Servant consenteth to his Masters Authority and he that consenteth to a Physician consenteth to be ruled by him for his health and neither take this for a slavery So he that consenteth to a Pastor consenteth to his Pastoral conduct And if he think it to his injury he may choose 5. And yet we believe that the Magistrate may constrein Atheists Infidels and such as refuse all proper Church Communion to hear Gods word Preached and make all the Parish allow the Teacher his tythes and maintenance due by Law But he may force no man to Receive the great gift of the Body and Blood of Christ or a pardon delivered and sealed by Baptism or the Eucharist and to be a member of the Church as such against his will For none but desirous consenters are capable of the gifts so that the same Minister may be the common Teacher of all the Parish and yet the Church-Pastor only of fit consenters And when Sacraments are free and no Minister constrained to deliver them against his Conscience nor any unwilling man to receive them who is by this enslaved 6. And if a Church-Pastor do displease the Church and the main body of them withdraw their consent we would not have any man continue their Pastor while they consent not but disclaim him Though in case of need the Rulers may continue him in his Benefice as the publick Preacher if the people be grosly and obstinately culpable in refusing him 7. And we would have that Parish Pastor to have no power to hinder any other Minister from giving any one the Sacrament whom he denyeth it to or that refuseth it from him Though he that for a common cause is cast out of our Church should not be received by others till he repenteth yet that holds not in all private causes between the particular Pastor and him nor in case of unjust excommunication And other Ministers must judge of their own actions whom to receive and an injuring Minister may not hinder any other nor the injured person from communicating elsewhere 8. And we would have Parish Churches be as large as personal communion doth require or allow and every Church to have divers Ministers and if one be chief or Bishop and the rest assistants and if three or four small Parishes make one such communicating Church we resist not 9. And we desire frequent meeting or Synods of neighbour Pastors and that there every single
or the Puritan convert to Apostolical Christianity written by W. H. opening their fundamental errours of unwritten tradition and their unjust description of the Puritan the Prelatical Protestant and the Papist and their differences c. To which is added an examination of Roman Tradition as it is urged as infallible c. In answer to a book called A rational discourse of Transubstantiation in Quarto A Key for Catholicks to open the Jugling of the Jesuits and satisfie all that are but truely willing to understand whether the cause of the Roman or reformed Churches be of God and to leave the readerutterly unexcusable that will after this be a Papist in Octavo A Treatise of Justifying Righteousness in two books in Octavo There are lately published of this Authors these two Books following and sold by Thomas Simmons at the Princes Armes in Ludgate-street CHurch-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils Abbreviated Including the chief part of the Government of Christian Princes and Popes and a true account of the most troubling Controversies and Heresies till the Reformation Written for the use especially of them I. Who are ignorant or misinformed of the state of the Antient Churches II. Who cannot read many and great Volumes III. Who think that the Universal Church must have one Visible Soveraign Personal or Collective Pope or General Councils IV. Who would know whether Patriarchs Diocesans and their Councils have been or must be the cure of Heresies and Schismes V. Who would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World especially the Donatists Novatians Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites c. By Richard Baxter a Hater of False History A Moral Prognostication I. What shall befal the Churches on Earth till their Concord by the Restitution of their Primitive Purity Simplicity and Charity II. How that Restitution is like to be made if ever and what shall befal them thenceforth unto the End in that Golden Age of LOVE Written by Richard Baxter when by the Kings Commission we in vain treated for Concord 1661. And now published not to instruct the Proud that scorn to learn nor to make them Wise who will not be made Wise But to Instruct the Sons of Love and Peace in their Duties and Expectations And to tell Posterity That the Things which befall them were Fore-told And that the Evil might have been prevented and Blessed Peace on Earth attained if Men had been but willing and had not shut their Eyes and hardened their Hearts against the Beams of Light and Love THE English Diocesan AND PRIESTHOOD TRYED c. CHAP. I. The Reasons of this Writing I Am not ignorant how displeasing it will be to the Prelates that I publish these Reasons of my Nonconformity to the Subscriptions and Oaths by which they would have me become an obliged Approver of their Function Nor am I ignorant what Power Wit and Will they have to express and exercise their displeasure And consequently how probable it is that I shall suffer by them for this work And I well know that peaceable subjects should not unnecessarily say any thing against that which is required by their Rulers Laws nor cherish the Peoples discontents but do all that is lawful for the common Peace And I am not of so pugnacious or self-hating a disposition as to be willing of mens displeasure especially my Superiours or to be ruined in this World and all that I may but vent my Opinion in a case wherein I have published already so much that is still unanswered as in my Disputations of Church-Government is to be seen And upon such Reasons but above all that I might not cast away my opportunity for some more useful writings nor put an end to my own labours before God put an end to them I have been silent in this Cause since our publick debates in 1661 above ten years I have lived peaceably I have endeavoured to preserve the due reputation of the publick Ministry and to perswade all others to due subjection love and quietness I have by Word and Writing opposed the Principles of such as are exasperated by their sufferings into the Dividing and Separating extream Though I knew that by so doing I was like to incur the displeasur and bâ—tter cenâ—â—â—e of the Separatists as much as I had before of the Prelates though not to suffer so much by them And I thought that the Prelates themselves who would not understand the true state of the People nor the tendency of their way by our informations and evident Reasons might yet come in time to know all by experience and so to amend what they have done amiss But now I dare be no longer silent for the Reasons given Apol. ch 1. which I will â—tay the Râ—â—der bâ—ieâ—y to sum up 1. I find that experience it self doth not Teach some men but Harden them 2. I perceive that those that are now convinced by experience and wish they had taken another course and rather have united the Ministry than silenced them are not able to undo what they have done nor to amend what is done amiss much less to retrieve all the doleful consequents but the matter is gone out of their hands and beyond their power 3. I see that while we wait the Devil's work goeth on by the silence and by the Divisions of the Ministers Popery greatly increaseth Quakers multiply Atheism and Infidelity go baâ—e faced among those that are accounted men of reputation Malice and bitter hatred of each other with common backbitings censurings and slanders instead of sweet Love and Concord do notoriously encrease Thousands are every day committing these sins to the increase of their guilt and the hastening of Gods judgments on the Land The sufferers call the Prelates persecuters and wolves in sheeps cloathings who are known by their fruits their teeth and â—laws The Prelatists still say that the Nonconformists are unreasonable discontented peevish factious unpeaceable unruly schismaticks that will rather see all confounded than they will yield to things indifferent And shall we still stand by and silently see this work go on 4. And to love and defend Truth Honesty and Innocency is to be like to God It is pity that those that Christ hath done so much to justifie and will so gloriously justifie at the last should have nothing said on their behalf by men But we are much more obliged to justifie a righteous cause than righteous men For all men have somewhat that is unjustifiable but so hath not the truth of God 5. And he that in his Baptismal Covenant is engaged against the Flesh the World and the Devil should be loath to see all their work go on and not oppose it and to see that which he taketh to be no better than deliberate Lying or Justifying sin and Perjury it self and covenanting never to obey God in lawful and necessary Church-reformation to be all called Things indifferent 6. Nature and Scripture teach us to
Bishop and his Chancellor and other Officers are over us all The Magistrates Civil Governmeut of the Church I shall not meddle with as having no exceptions against it The Sacerdotal or Spiritual Power called the Power of the Keys determineth who shall be Members of the Church and partake of its Communion and exerciseth other acts of Spiritual Discipline of which more anon This power is said to be in Archbishops and Bishops in foro ecclesiae publico vel exteriore though also in the Governed Presbyters in foro privato interiore as they may privately comfort a penitent person and declare God's promise of the pardon of his sin The Archbishops have it in eminency As also the power of confirming the Election of the Bishops of their Provinces and the power of Consecrating Bishops with two others and the power of Convocating Provincial Synods upon the Kings Prescript and of moderating in them The power of receiving Appeals and of Visiting the whole Provinces yea to receive Appeals from the lower Judges omiting the middle ones and to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in any vacant Diocess under them They have power of Dispensation in all Causes not judged contrary to Gods word wherever the Pope had power and where the Pope had not power if the King or Council permit it them They may dispense with the Eating of flesh on Fasting-days with Marrying without previous publication with divers irregularities and sometime may abolish simoniacum ambitum They may grant Commendams and Dispence with Non-residence and with the keeping of divers Churches called Benefices in several Cases and with a Sons succeeding his Father and with Lay-mens possessing the Church-maintenance called Prebends The Bishops who take place in Parliament of other Barons as the Archbishops do of Dukes are all chosen really by the King who nominateth in a Writ to the Dean and Chapter the man whom they must chuse who pro forma do chuse him never contradicting the Kings Nomination Their proper Office consisteth in the powers of Order and of Jurisdiction as they distinguish them Their power of Order is threefold 1. To Ordain Priests and Deacons 2. To Consecrate Churches and Burying places 3. To Confirm Children after Baptism when they can speak and say the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and others that were not Confirmed in their Childhood Besides that they may be Privy-Counsellors Lord-Keepers of the Great Seal Lord Treasurers Embassadours c. Their ordinary Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction extendeth 1. to the Interdiction of Divine Offices 2. to publick Admonitions and Penances 3. to suspension from the Sacrament and from ingress into the Church and 4. to Excommunication and Absolution and 5. to Anathematisms And as to Ministers 1. They may Sequester Benefices 2. They may Suspend ab officio beneficio and forbid them to Preach or Pray Or grant License to such as shall be tolerated to Preach 3. They may deprive 4. And depose Ministers by sentence verbal and degradation actually This Church Jurisdiction of Bishops is distinguished into Voluntary and Contentious The Voluntary extendeth to abundance of things granted them by Statute and by Common Law which I pass by That which they claim both by Municipal Law and Ecclesiastical is 1. The probate of the Testaments of the dead 2. The granting Administration of Goods to the next of Kin 3. Keeping the bona caduca where none claimeth the Inheritance 4. To receive Reasons of Administring and to be Judges of them 5. To confer Benefices or Institute such as others present 6. To grant Induction to the Instituted 7. To receive the Fruits of vacant Benefices 8. To allow the Vicar a fit proportion 9. To grant Letters Dimissory or Testimonial 10. To Visit their Diocess once in three years In which Triennial Visitation they usually go to one Town in a County and never see the face of the people in the many score or hundred Churches about them and thither they summon the Ministers and the Church-Wardens and Sides-men Where one Minister preacheth and then the Ministers must dine with the Bishop and in Court he or his Officer giveth a Book of Printed Articles containing a multitude of particulars which the Church-warden must swear to present by where because of the quality of them some Church-Wardens refuse and others because of the number some saying it is unlawful to undo their Ministers and Neighbours by such Presentments as for omitting a Ceremony for preaching or keeping a Fast in private c. and some saying it is impossible to keep the Oath and some saying that if they do it they shall be hated of their Neighbours Whereupon those that refuse are prosecuted to punishment And the rest take the Oath and Articles but not one of many doth present accordingly though the Canon enquires after the perjured And many that fear perjury or persecution themselves do hire some poor man to be Church-Warden in their stead that will venture upon all I must intreat the Reader to peruse some of their Books of Articles especially such as Bishop Mountagues and Bishop Wrens to see what was then enquired after Dr. Zouch de Jud. Eccless p. 37. § 1. Part. 3. saith Ad judices quod attinet statuto ordinatum quod personae conjugatae dummodo Doctores Juris Civilis fuerint qui ad officium Cancellarii Vicarii Generalis Officialis vel Commissarii à Majestate Regia Archiapiscopo Episcopo Archidiacono aut alio quocunque potestatem habente deputati sunt omnem Jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam exercere quam libet censuram sive coercitionem â—rrogare possint This Jurisdiction of Bishops is exercised either Universally by a Vicar General usually a Lay-man or qarticularly by a Commissary And when he please the Bishop may do it himself The other part of their Jurisdiction is called Contentious And here the Bishop may himself judge in some Cases but in the ordinary course of Jurisdiction a Civil Lawyer called his Chancellor is the Judge This Chancellor is and must be a Lay-man which even Bishop Goodman of Gloucester Myst Rel. Epist I have it and can produce it at this time under the Kings own Hand and Seal wherein he forbids that any Church-man or Priest in Holy Orders be a Chancellor and this was the occasion of all the corruption of the Spiritual Courts For Chancellors live only on the Fees of the Court and for them to dismiss a Cause it was to lose so much blood See further in him a Papist Bishop of a Protestant Diocess complaineth in Print that he could not get Reformed This Chancellor keepeth an Ordinary Court in the form of a Civil Court where are Advocates for Council and Proctors for pleading Certain men called Apparitors whose name is commonly a scorn among the people do from abroad the Country bring them in Accusations and Summon the persons accused besides those that by Plaintiffs are accused Here are judged Causes about Church Materials and Causes Criminal which he that
Heathen Judges And the thing shewed so little of the Christian Spirit of Love and was also of so ill consequence by scandals and dissentions that it was worthy to be reproved especially in Christians that were persecuted by those Magistrates Therefore almost all the differences of Christians were necessarily decided by Arbitration And none were thought so fit to be the Arbitrators as the Elders or Pastors of the Churches By which it came to pass that where Churches were great and the ceasing of persecution which came but as storms that passed away did restore that peace which cherished dissentions the work of the Elders in these Arbitrations was not small especially as added to their greater proper Office-work 17. At the same time many Heresies arose which occasioned Divisions in the Churches and sometimes among the Officers themselves 18. And the Ministers being though holy yet imperfect as well as other Christians the remnants of self-conceitedness and pride occasioned also the trouble of the Churches For when the Apostles themselves while Christ was with them strove who should be the Greatest and have the highest place it is no wonder if they did so afterward who had not so great a measure of Grace as they 19. Besides all this when the Apostolical Virtues ceased there were few Philosophers or Learned men that turned Christians and few that had excellent Gifts of Oratory fit to be Teachers of the Churches And the most of the Elders were good men but of inferiour parts Like the better sort of our unlearned godly Christians By which means it came to pass that some one of the Clergy in every Church when there were many having so much Knowledge and Oratory as to overtop the rest he was ordinarily more esteemed than the rest 20. By these four means conjunct it quickly came to pass that in every Church that had many Elders some one was chosen by the rest and by the people to be the chief and to have some special power of Church affairs And 1. In cases of frequent Arbitration there seemed a kind of necessity that some One be Umpire For if half go one way and half the other there can be no end 2. And in case of Heresies and different Opinions in Religion if One had not in each Church some deciding over-ruling power or Negative Voice it is no wonder if Divisions were the hardlier prevented and the Churches Unity hardly kept 3. And especially when some One was really wiser and abler than the rest it was thought but suitable to Nature that he rather ruled the juniors and weaker sort than that their Votes should rule him or rule without him 4. And when all men have too much self-love and Pride which enclineth them to desire pre-eminence and maketh them judge too high of themselves it was thought safer for all the Clergy and People to judge who among them was really the best and wisest man than to leave every man to be judge of himself and of the rest For so it was too likely that every man would think himself the wisest Therefore one was chosen as supposed by others even by the whole Church as the fittest man to have a deciding and overseeing power among the rest to avoid contention which their own strife about pre-eminence would cause 21. And there was a fifth cause which was not much less than any of the rest which was that often through the scarcity of fit persons One man was first settled over a new-gathered Church before any others could be had to joyn with him And therefore he being there first alone and that in sole power it was thought unfit that any that came after him should come in without his consent or Ordination because he was the sole Governour so that 1. because they came after him 2. and that by his Will if not Ordination it must needs follow that he would usually have the pre-eminence As it is now among us where the Rector of the Parish where there are divers Chapels chusing his Curates who are usually his Juniors he is constantly of greater power than they and ruleth them accidentally though his Office be the same as theirs 22. As by these means one Pastor got a pre-eminence of esteem and power above the rest so in a short time he got the title of Episcopus Bishop to be appropriated to himself alone leaving the name of Elders and Pastors and Priests unto the rest in common with himself For he was now become the prime Overseer of the whole Church both people and Elders 23. Our own experience sheweth us how it came to pass that the people themselves not only consented to all this but also desired and promoted it especially then when the effects of Clergy-ambition had not fully appeared to the World For even now when a great Parish can get one Learned able Pastor they say we will allow you so much but your Curates must take less And they will not endure that the young and weak Curates have either equal maintenance or equal honour or power over them as the chief Pastor of the Parish hath so that the people themselves are against an equality of power where there is not an equality of worth 24. Though we cannot prove that this fixed Episcopacy was either set up by the Apostles or countenanced by them nor yet that it was begun and in being in their days yet it could not be long after their days that it begun And if Hierome mistake not it began at Alexandria some years before the death of St. John the Apostle 25. All this while the Bishop was not supposed to be of a distinct Office or species of Ministry now called An Order but only an Overseer and chief of persons in the same Office with him being in common with the rest Episcopus plebis and extraordinarily Episcopus Cleri vel Episcoporum seu Presbyterorum As one of the Monks is made Abbot in a Monastery or as one Justice among many is of the Quorum or one Judge on the Bench is the chief Justice Or as the President in an Academick College 26. The chief thing in which a special power was given to the Bishops above their fellow Presbyters was in Ordination that none should be Ordained without them It being a matter of exceeding great consequence to the Churches what Ministers were set over them and therefore put chiefly in the power of these chosen men And the next part of their power was in having the chief disposal of all Church affairs as our Parish Pastors have now among their Curates so that nothing was to be done in the Church without and against their consent and pleasure 27. This Episcopacy did so universally obtain that I remember not to have read of any sort of Christians Orthodox or Heretical Catholick or Schismatical who ever refused it or spake against it till Aerius's time And even he spake not against it as flatly unlawful but as unnecessary as far as I can
serve to the being of a particular Church we might be of the same particular Church with men in the several parts of the World 32. Deacons are subordinate Officers or Ministers to Christs Ministers not essential to the Church but only Integral as needful to its well being in such Churches where the number and benefit of the People do require them 33. The necessity of these Individual or particular Churches is founded in the necessity of the foresaid publick worshiping of God and in the use of the mutual assistance of Christian Neighbours in the matters of salvation and in the need of the personal inspection and conduct of the Pastors over all the Flock 34. The difference between this personal Communion and the distant Communion by Letters or Delegates or meerly internal in Faith and Love is so great and notorious as must make those Societies specifically distinct which are associated for such distinct Ends. 35. Yet do we not hold that all true Churches do Assemble together in one place or that they consist of no more than can meet at once For whole Families seldom go all at once to the Assembly Therefore if one part go to day and another the next day they worship God publickly in personal Communion though not all at the same time 2. And many may be sick and many infants and many aged and the great distance of some may make a Chapel or subordinate Meeting often needful And yet 1. they may all come together in one place at several times for Church communion 2. And they may live so near that one may be capable of neighbourly converse with others and of admonishing exhorting and encouraging each other in their Christian Course 36. Where a Church is so small as to need but one Pastor Christ doth not require that they have more And One can neither be superiour or inferiour to himself 37. But it is most desirable that a Church be as numerous or great as will consist with that sort of Communion which is the end of the Society and consequently that they have many Pastors Because this tendeth to their strength and beauty and it is a joyful thing to worship God in full Assemblies 38. The work of a Bishop or Pastor of a single Church is to mention it more particularly to Teach the Church the meaning of the Scriptures especially of all the Articles of Faith and the things to be Desired in Prayer and the matters and order of Obedience to all the commands of Christ To instruct the Children in the Catechistical or Fundamental verities To Baptize to Pray in the Assembly to praise God to celebrate the Lords Supper to visit the Sick and pray for them To visit the several Families or personally instruct those ignorant ones that understand not publick Preaching as far as he hath opportunity To watch over the Conversations of the several Members and to receive informations concerning them To resolve the doubts of those that seek resolutions and to offer help to them that are so sensless as not to seek it when their need appeareth To comfort the sad and afflicted To reprove the scandalous To admonish the obstinate before all To censure and cast out the impenitent that continue to reject such admonition To absolve the penitent To take care of the Poor And to be exemplary in holiness sobriety justice and charity I pass by Marriage Burials and such other particular Offices And I meddle not here with Ordination or any thing that concerneth other Churches but only with the work of a Bishop or Pastor to the People of his proper Flock 39. The ablest Man among us for mind and body may find full and needful employment of this sort among an hundred persons especially such as our common Christians are But if he have five hundred or a thousand he hath so much to do as will constrain him to leave something undone which belongeth to his Office Therefore our Market Towns and large Country Parishes where there are ordinarily two three or four thousand in a Parish have need of many pastors to do that for which the Pastoral Office was ordained Much more our greatest City and Town Parishes that have ten thousand twenty thousand and some above thirty if not forty or fifty thousand in a Parish 40. The office of a Pastor containing the Power of the Keys as subordinate Ministerially to Christ in his Teaching Ruling and priestly work is not by man to be divided and part of it to be given to one sort and part to another though they that have the whole power may variously exercise it as there is cause But every Church must have such as have the whole power as far as concerneth the People of that Church 41. To divide the essential parts of the Sacred Office as to give one the power of Teaching only another of Worshiping only and another of Ruling only or any two of these without the third is to destroy it and change the species as much as in them lieth that do it And as no one is a man without his Animal Vital and Natural parts so no one is a true Pastor without the threefold power forementioned of Teaching Ruleing that Church by Pastoral means and Conducting them in publick Worship He may be a Pastor that is hindered from the exercise of some one of these or more but not he that hath not the Power in his Office Dividers therefore make new Church Offices and destroy the old 42. Churches headed by such a new sort of Officers specifically distinct from the old of Christ's Institution are Churches specifically differing from the Churches which Christ Instituted Because the Society is specified by the species of its Head or Governour 43. To make a new sort of Church-Heads or Rulers as their Constitutive parts is to make a new sort of Churches 44. The three forsaid Essential parts of the Pastoral Office are not to be exercised by any Lay-man nor by any man that hath not that Office Nor may the Pastors do that work per alios or delegate Lay-men or men of another Office to do it as in their stead For the Office is nothing but just Authority and Obligation to do that work And if they convey such Authority and Obligation to another they convey the Office to another And so he is no longer a Lay-man or of another Office only 45. Therefore though many Pastors of the same Office may in a great Church distribute the work among them yet none of them must do it only as the delegate of another not having himself from God the Office which containeth the power of doing it 46. But the Accidentals of the Pastoral Office may be committed to a Lay-man or one that is no Pastor As to summon Assemblies to keep Registers or the Church Books Goods Buildings with many the like And so some think that the Apostles instituting Deacons was but a communicating the Accidentals of their Office to other men Therefore if
they forsake him or refuse to use him and Excommunicateth a man when they avoid his communion and declare him unmeet for communion In all which the Church useth her own right but taketh not away another mans Then for the Canonical Enquiries after faults and impositions of Penence or delays of absolution he sheweth that both the Canons and Judgments by them being but prudential Determinations of Modes and Circumstances bound none but Consenters without the Magistrates Law except as the Law of Nature bound them to avoid offences He should add and as obedience in general is due to Church-guides of Christ's appointment And how the Magistrate may constrain the Pastors to their duty Chap. 10. He sheweth that there are two perpetual Functions in the Church Presbyters and Deacons I call them Presbyters saith he with all the Ancient Church who feed the Church with the Preaching of the Word the Sacraments and the Keys which by Divine Right are individual or inseparable Note that And § 27. He saith It is doubtful whether Pastors where no Bishops are and so are under none though over none are to be numbered with Bishops or meer Presbyters § 31. His counsel for the choice of Pastors is that as in Justinian's time none be forced on the People against their wills and yet a power reserv'd in the chief Rulers to rescind such elections as are made to the destruction of Church or Commonwealth Chap. 11. § 10. He sheweth that Bishops are not by Divine precept And § 1. That therefore the different Government of the Churches that have Bishops or that have none should be no hindrance to Unity And § 10 11. That some Cities had no Bishops and some more than one And that not only in the Apostles â—ays but after one City had several Bishops in iâ—â—tation of the jews who to every Synagogue had an Archisynagogus Page 357. He sheweth that there have been at Rome and elsewhere long vacancies of the Bishops See in which the Presbyters Governed the Church without a Bishop And saith that all the Ancients do confess that there is no act so proper to a Bishop but a Presbyter may do it except the right of Ordination Yet sheweth p. 358. that Presbyters ordained with Bishops and expoundeth the Canon thus that Presbyters should Ordain none contemning the Bishop And p. 359. He sheweth that where there is no Bishop Presbyters may Ordain as Altisiodorensis saith among the Schoolmen And questioneth again whether the Presbyters that have no Bishops over them be not rather Bishops than meer Presbyters citing Ambrose's words He that had no one above him was a Bishop what would he have said of our City and Corporation Pastors that have divers Chapels and Curates under them Or of our Presidents of Synods or such as the Pastor of the first Town that ever I was Preacher in Bridgnorth in Shropshire who had six Parishes in an exempt Jurisdiction four or five of them great ones and kept Court as ordinary like the Bishops being under none but the Archbishop And § 12. He sheweth that there was great cause for many Churches to lay by Episcopacy for a time And p. 360. he saith Certainly Christ gave the Keys to be exercised by the same men to whom he gave the power of Preaching and Baptizing That which God hath joyned let no man separate But then how should Satan have used the Churches as he hath done And he sheweth of meer ruling Elders as he had done of Bishops that they are not necessary but are lawful and that it may be proved from Scripture that they are not displeasing to God and that formerly the Laity joyned in Councils Only he puts these Cautions which I consent to 1. That they be not set up as by God's command 2. That they meddle no otherwise with the Pastoral Office or Excommunication than by way of Counsel 3. That none be chosen that are unfit 4. That they use no coactive power but what is given them by the Soveraign 5. That they know their power to be mutable as being not by Gods command but from man And Chap. 11. § 8. He delivereth his opinion of the Original of Episcopacy that it was not fetcht from the Temple pattern so much as from the Synagogues where as he said before every Synagogue had a chief Ruler 14. As for J. D. and many other lesser Writers Sir Thomas Aston c. who say but half the same with those forementioned it is not worth your time and labour to read any more Animadversions on them 15. But the great Learned M. Ant. de Dominis Spalatensis deserveth a more distinct consideration who in his very learned Books De Repub. Eccles doth copiously handle all the matter of Church-Government But let us consider what it is that he maintaineth In his lib. 5. c. 1. he maintaineth that the whole proper Ecclesiastical Power is meerly Spiritual In cap. 2. that no Power with true Prefecture Jurisdiction Coaction and Domination belongeth to the Church In c. 3. he sheweth that an improper Jurisdiction belongs to it Where he overthroweth the old Schoolmens Description of Power of Jurisdiction and sheweth also the vanity of the common distinction of Power of Order and of Jurisdiction and maintaineth 1. that Power of Jurisdiction followeth ab Ordine as Light from the Sun 2. That all the Power of the Keys which is exercised for Internal effects although about External Matters of Worship or Government belongeth directly to the Potestas Ordinis 3. That the Power of Jurisdiction as distinct from Order and reserved to the Bishops is but the power about the Ordering of External things which is used Principally and Directly for an External Effect that is Church order § 5. p. 35. 4. That it is foolish to separate power of Order from any power of Jurisdiction whatsoever that is properly Ecclesiastical it being wholly Spiritual 5. The Episcopal Jurisdiction not properly Ecclesiastical he maketh to consist in ordering Rites and Ceremonies and Circumstances and Temporals about the Church and about such Modal Determinations about particular persons and actions as are matters of humane prudence which have only a General Rule in Nature or Scripture 6. By which though he hold Episcopacy Jure Divino that it is but such things that he supposeth proper to the Bishop which the Magistrate may determine and make Laws for as Grotius and others prove at last and himself after and as Sir Roger Twisden hath Historically proved to have been used by the Kings of England Histor Def. Cap. 5. 7. That all Ecclesiastical power whatsoever is fully and perfectly conjunct with Order page 36. 8. That this plenitude of power is totally and equally in all Bishops and Presbyters lawfully Ordained and that it is a meer vanity to distinguish in such power of Order Plenitudinem potestatis a parte solicitudinis 9. That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial
might dissemble to escape Persecution themselves and greater Persecutions were near and not the Gnosticks nor Jews but Nero beheaded Paul and the Jews themselves were banished Rome 5. And that Simon Magus was indeed so famous a Fellow as to be taken for the supream God when Church Writers speak so uncertainly of his conflicts with Peter as of a doubtful story and the evidence is so obscure and the Roman Histories say so little of him He might as well have thought the Apostle would have made all that ado about James Naylor if he had been then alive 6. And that there were not many other Hereticks as well as the Gnosticks that troubled the Churches if Epiphanius knew how to name them and describe them rightly or Irenaeus before him or John in Rev. 2. and 3. before them 7. And that Simon Magus and his Heresie was a Mystery of Iniquity not revealed when Paul wrote the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 8. And that many had not then followed him and fallen away to Heresie 9. Or that by the Apostasie that must first come is meant the Apostles separation from the Jews and Moses's Law As if he had said we will first separate and that shall bring persecution on you but till we do that it is with-held 10. Or that the said separation was not done by degrees some before this and some after 11. Or that the difference between the Jews persecution of the Christians before the Apostles Apostasie and after it was indeed so great as to be the Crisis of the Antichrists Revelation 12. And that poor Simon should be the Man that sitteth in the Temple of God and opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God when as the Scripture never once nameth him after his deprecation of the Apostles curse or threatning though Nicolaitanes are named and Alexander Hymenaeus and Philetus named and other Adversaries and all the terrible things foretold which are here supposed to be done by Simon and his Doctrine What were all the Sacred Writers afraid to name him when they recited all the Evils that he must do and are supposed to make it a great part of all the Epistles and the History in Acts 15. and when he had been so sharply rebuked and humbled before Act. 8. 13. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that with-holdeth till he be taken out of the way is not meant of any person power or state but the aforesaid separation of the Apostles 14. That verse 8. that the breath of Christ's own mouth signifieth St. Peter's words that cast down Simon when he fell and hurt him and that the brightness of his coming or the appearing of his own presence is nothing but the foresaid Destruction of Jerusalem 15. And so many of the Gnosticks and Hereticks that troubled all the Churches of Asia and other Countries were got together into Jerusalem as that they might be said to be consumed and destroyed there who so long after troubled the Churches 16. And when I can believe that the Revelation is made up of such a sence and that most or much of it was fulfilled before it was revealed and written and all the rest fulfilled long ago about Constantine's days except one Parenthesis or a few Verses in the 20th Chapter And that the Resurrection and Thousand Years reign of the Martyrs is that 1000 Years from Constantine's beginning in which the Bishops had Wealth and Honour and sate on Thrones and judged the People in Courts as our Lay-Chancellors now do and that this Glory Wealth and Grandure of Prelates is the Churches Resurrection Glory and Felicity And that these happy thousand Years continued 700 Years after the rising of Mahomet and included those 8th 9th 10th and 11th Ages which Erasmus and all learned men even Bellarmine himself so dolefully bewail And that when Boys and Whores and Sorcerers and Murderers and Hereticks and Schismaticks ruled the Church they were happy that had a part in this first Resurrection to all this Glory yea that these are Holy too Rev. 20. 6. And that the second death shall have no power on them that is while they are drowning the true Churches of Christ in the Floods of all abomination and bringing in all corruption and laying the grounds of all division subduing Kings and murdering Christians by thousands till the Year 1300. Blessed and holy and happy are they because though they persecute the Godly they are free from being persecuted themselves which is the second death Yea that the Church was freed from persecution in the Ages when the poor Waldenses and Albigenses were murdered in greater numbers than ever the Heathens murdered the Christians heretofore When I can believe abundance of such things as these I will believe Dr. Hammond's first Dissertation His second Dissertation which is to vindicate the Epistles of Ignatius I little regard as not concerning me I leave it to Dr. Pierson who they say is about it to answer Dallaeus his numerous Arguments against him with Dionysius For my part I wish Dr. Pierson may prevail For there is no Witness among all the Ancients whom I more trust to at least ad hominem as a plain undoubted destroyer of our Prelacy than Ignatius who is the confidence of the Prelatical Champions I am possest with admiration as much at their glorying in Ignatius as the Patron of Diocesans who is so much against them as I am at their glorying in Rich. Hooker as a Defender of Monarchy and the Prelates Loyalty Of Ignatiuâ— I shall say more anon His third Dâ—â—â—ert about Scripture passages more concerneth us Cap. 1. which tells us of Christs Episcopacy concerneth not our Cause Cap. 2. Whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regeneration be the New Church State and the Apostles Episcopal Thrones be there meant as setled in several Provinces which cannot be proved ever to have been is little to our business Nor yet whether he will prove that it is not Prelacy but Secular Coactive power and gâ—andure that is denyed to the Apostles and that it was those that grudged at the Precedency desired for James and John which Christ intended to reprehend because it was not an injurious Secular power but a labour that was to be in the Prelates of the Church It sufficeth me that so much is here confessed And it cannot be denied For that Precedency and Power which Christ alloweth in the Rulers of the Nations is it which he denyeth to his Disciples But it is not Tyranny proud Domination and Oppression but just Secular Government which he alloweth in the Rulers of the Nations Ergo it is this and not the former which he denyeth to his Disciples And let all the Prelates here remember that the Qâ—estion Whether they be Above their Brethren by Dr. H's Confession is Whether they may take more care and pains for Mens Salvation When one of us poor Ministers were not able night and day to Catechise instruct and oversee a Congregation of
Office of half-Presbyters began to be invented according to his own Computation That pag. 21. passim his supposition of the 24 Bishops of Judaea sitting about the Throne of James Bishop of Jerusalem and his other supposition of their being so ordinarily there And of the Bishops of Provinces in other Nations being so frequently many score if not hundred Miles off their people in the Metropolitane Cities when the people had no other Priest to Officiate doth tend to an Atheistical conceit that the Ordinary use of Sacred Assemblies and Communion is no very needful thing when in the best times by the best men in whole Countreys at once they were so much forborn Pag. 26. Again you have his full and plain Assertion That there were not in the space within compass of which all the Books of the new Testament were written any Presbyters in our modern Notion of them created in the Church though soon after certainly in Ignatius time which was above 50 years after the Rev. they were Pag. 60. He supposeth that whoever should settle Churches under a Heathen King among Heathens must accordinly make the Churches gathered subordinate to one another as the Cities in which they are gathered were though Heathen subordinate to one another of which more in due place Pag. 76 77. He saith that As Congregations and Parishes are Synonimous in their Style so I yield that Believers in great Cities were not at first divided into Parishes while the number of Christians in a City was so small that they might well assemble in the same place and so needed no Partitions or Divisions But what disadvantage is this to us who affirm that one Bishop not a Colledge of Presbyters presided in that one Congregation and that the Believers in the Regions and Villages about did belong to the care of that single Bishop or City Church A Bishop and his Deacon were sufficient at the first to sow their Plantations For what is a Diocess but a Church in a City with the Suburbs and Territories or Region belonging to it And this certainly might be and remain under the Government of a single Bishop Of any Church so bounded there may be a Bishop and that whole Church shall be his Diocess and so he a Diocesan Bishop though as yet this Church be not subdivided into more several Assemblies So that you see now what a Diocess is And that you may know that we contend not about Names while they call the Bishop of one Congreation a Diocesane we say nothing against him A Diocesan in our sense is such as we live under that have made one Church of many hundred or a thousand But Reader be not abused by words when it is visible Countreys that we talk of As every Market-Town or Corporation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City in the old sense so the Diocess of Lincoln which I live in at this reckoning hath three or fourscore Diocesses in it and the Diocess of Norwich about 50 Diocesses in it c. That is such Cities with the interjacent Villages Pag. 78. He saith When they add these Angels were Congregational not Diocesan they were every of them Angels of a Church in a City having authority over the Regions adjacent and pertaining to that City and so as CHURCH and CONGREGATION ARE ALL ONE AS IN ORDINARY USE IN ALL LANGUAGES THEY ARE Thus were Congregational and Diocesan also What follows of the paucity of Believers in the greatest Cities and their meeting in one place is willingly granted by us I must desire the Reader to remember all this when we come to use it in due place And you may modestly smile to observe how by this and the foregoing words the Dr. forgetfully hath cast out all the English Diocesans While he maketh it needful that the Cities be Ecclesiastically subordinate as they are Civilly and maketh it the very definition of a Diocesan Bishop to be a Bishop of a City with the Country or Suburbs belonging to it But in England no lesser Cities ordinarily at least nor Corporation-Towns are at all Subject to the great Cities Nor are any Considerable part of the Countrey Subject to them nor do the Liberties of Cities or Corporations reach far from the Walls or Towns So that by this Rule the Bishop of London York Norwich and Bristow would have indeed large Cities with narrow liberties But the rest would have Diocesses little bigger than we could allow to conscionable Faithful Pastors But he yet addeth more p. 79. he will do more for our cause than the Presbyterians themselves who in their disputes against the Independents-say that Jerusalem had more Christians belonging to the Church than could conveniently meet in one place But saith the Dr. This is contrary to the Evidence of the Text which saith expresty v. 44. that all the Believers were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meeting in one and the same place The like may be said of the other places Act. 4. 4. and 5. 14. For certainly as yet though the number of believers increased yet they were not distributed into several Congregations Will you yet have more p. 80 81. When the London Ministers say that the Believers of one City made but one Church in the Apostles days he answereth This observation I acknowledge to have perfect truth in it and not to be confutable in any part And therefore instead of rejecting I shall imbrace it and from thence conclude that there is no manner of incongruity in assigning of one Bishop to one Church and so one Bishop in the Church of Jerusalem because it is a Church not Churches BEING FORECED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WHERE THERE WERE MORE CHURCHES THERE WERE MORE BISHOPS I am almost in doubt by this whether the Dr. were not against the English Prelacy and he and I were not of a mind especially remembring that he said nothing against my disputations of Church Government written against himself when I lived near him Observe Reader 1. That even now he confessed that a Church and Congregation is all one 2. And here he confesseth that where there were more Churches there were more Bishops and his words Because it is a Church not Churches seem to import that de jure he supposeth it is no Church without a Bishop and that there should be no fewer Bishops than Churches And then I ask 1. Where and when do all the Christians in this Diocess of above an hundred miles long Congregate who meet but in above a thousand several Temples and never know one of a thousand of the Diocess 2. Doth not this grant to the Brownists that the Parish Churches are no Churches but onely parts of the Diocesane Church 3. And then if it be proved that the Diocesane Church form is but of humane invention what Church in England will they leave us that is of divine institution This is the unhappiness of overdoing to undo all and of aspiring too high to fall down into nothing And doth he not speak
livers But men that more fear to sin against God who can cast both soul and body into Hell than to lie in prison perhaps it is such Ministers as now are silenced for not saying subscribing or swearing as they are bid or it is some Church-Wardens who fear that they should be guilty of Persecution or Perjury which in their opinion are neither of them things indifferent if they should take the Oaths with the Articles that sometimes are offered them Or perhaps it is some one for not receiving the Sacrament either when a troubled Conscience maketh them fear lest they should eat and drink damnation to themselves or from a Minister or with a Church which they think the Scripture commandeth them to avoid whether such be in the right or in the wrong no wonder if they refuse to repent though they suffer when they fear a greater suffering from God Obj But the Minister of the place though he excommunicates none may seek to bring the sinner to repentance and may satisfie the Church of the justness of the excommunication Ans 1. In the nature of the thing they go together and are the work of the same persons And therefore Tertullian assureth us that in his time Discipline was exercised in the Church-meeting when they had been worshipping God 2. Who is either so fit or so obliged to satisfie the Church of the Act as he that doth it and hath examined all the Cause A parish Minister cannot bring any unwilling person to come over to speak with him not that we would have him have a forcing power but he cannot do his own Ministerial part which is to refuse to be the Pastor of such a man as refuseth to speak with him at all or to take him for his Pastor nor to forbear himself to give him the Sacrament so that he that neither heard the examination of the Cause by the Chancellor nor perhaps can have any speech with the person or at least with the Accuser or any of the Witnesses is very unfit to justifie another mans act and to satisfie the Church that it is well done much less to exhort the offender to repent who to him perhaps if he vouchsafe to speak to him will justifie his own cause when he cannot call witnesses to convince him And to speak to that which is our common case we have few persons excommunicated that ever I saw or knew of in forty years time save only the Conscientious persons beforementioned And when the parish Minister oft taketh them for the godliest persons in his Parish and the Bishop or Chancellor excommunicates them as Impenitent schismaticks how shall such a parish Minister justifie that and satisfie the person or people of the justice of it which he himself lamenteth as a hainous sin which tendeth to the dissipation of his flock But I come nearer to enquire into this officiating per alium by which an absent Bishop is supposed to do his office in the several Parishes of his Diocese 1. That alius or Official is either a Layman or a Clergyman 2. If a Clergyman he is either one of the same Order with the Bishop or another 3. Either it is the meer accidentals of his sacred function which he committeth to another or the proper Acts of it 4. Either it is pro hac vice in some case of necessity or it is as by an ordinary stated Official 1. If it be a Layman and the work be but Accidental or Extrinsick to the sacred function I grant that he may do it But for such works we need no Bishop For what a Layman may do when he bids him he may do when the King or his Magistrates bids him This is not the thing in question But if it be a proper Pastoral Act this Layman that doth it either receiveth from the Bishop power and obligation to do it or not If not he cannot do it as his Official If he do then he is a Pastor or Bishop himself and is Ordained and so no Layman For I provoke any dissenter living to tell me wherein the sacred office or any other lieth but in a Power or Authority and an Obligation to do the proper works of that office so that undeniably here is a contradiction And if any were of opinion that pro tempore in a case of necessity a Layman might do any Ministerial sacred act as Preach Baptize Consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood excommunicate absolve c. 1. I answer if that were true if would but prove that those Acts are not proper to the sacred function in such a case of necessity as single Acts but only as ordinarily and statedly done by one separated to them 2. And therefore this would not at all concern our case which is not about extroardinary Acts in cases of necessity but about an ordinary stated course by Courts Chancellors and Officials 2. But if the Agent or Official were not a Lay Chancellor but a Clergyman if he be of the same Order with the Bishop than I grant all for it granteth me all even that every Church should have an ordinarily present Bishop But if he be supposed to be but of an inferior Order then I proceed as before either the Bishop giveth him power and obligation to do the proper work of the Bishop or not If not he is not hereby enabled to do it If yea then he hath thereby made him a Bishop For to be a Bishop is nothing else than to have Authority and Obligation to do the proper work of a Bishop But if it be but an Accidental or a common work which another may do it is not that in question nor do we need the Office of a Bishop for it Moreover either the Bishop pro hic nunc was himself obliged to do that Act which he committeth to another or not he but the other was by office obliged to do it If he himself was obliged to do it he sinned in not doing it If he were not it was not truly his act or part of his office work nor did he do it by another but that other did only his own work for which not the Bishop but he shall have the reward Obj. But doth not he that sendeth his servant to pay a debt himself in Law-sense pay it per alium what another doth as his Instrument reputatively he doth himself Ans I grant it because it is none of the debtors proper work nor is he at all obliged to it to bring the money and deliver it himself but to cause it to be delivered Therefore in sending it he doth all that he is obliged to do and when another is his instrument it is supposed that he is not obliged himself to do that which his instrument doth but only to cause the doing of it by himself or an Instrument as he please so that stil this is nothing to the case of a work that is proper to the Bishops Office Obj. But we therefore
called Of which sort were abundance of Christians towards each others Bishops in former ages and such are the Papists now towards you So that neither Papist nor Protestant that I ever knew silenced by you doth forbear upon Conscience of this your pretended authority at all And what a silencing power is that which scarce any man would be ever silenced by You cannot choose but know this to be true 2. And really should Magistrates themselves be so servile to you as to silence all Ministers by the Sword whom a Prelate judgeth to be silent while he knoweth not whether it be deservedly or not God forbid that Protestants like the Popes sheald make Kings to be their Executioners or hangmen A meer Executioner indeed is not bound to know or examine whether the sentence was just or not though in most cases to forbear if it be notoriously unjust but what a King or Magistrate doth he must do as a publick Judge and therefore must hear the cause himself and try whether he be really guilty or not and not only whether a Bishop judged him so Else Magistrates will either be involved in the bloody sin of persecution as oÌ„ft as a Prelate will but command them and so must be damned and help to damn others when Prelates please Or else it is no sin for a Magistrate to silence all the holyest Ministers of Christ to the damnation of thousands of ignorant untaught Souls so be it the Prelates do but bid him and he keep himself unacquainted with the cause And next they must obey the Counsel at Laterane sub Inoc. 3. And exterminate all subjects out of their Dominions though it be all that are there and must burn Holy-Christians to ashes because the Pope or Prelates bid them 3. I need not make also a particular application of this case to the people When they know nothing but wise and sound and holy in the Doctrine or life of their Pastors and God bids them know such as labour among them and are over them in the Lord and highly esteem them in Love for their work sake they will hardly be so debauched as to violate this command of God as oft as a Diocesan will but say I know some Heresie or Crime by your Teacher which you do not and therefore he must Preach no more and you must no more use his ministry Were I one of these people I would be bold to ask the Diocesan Sir what is the Heresie or Crime that he is guilty of If he refuse to tell me I would slight him as a Tyrant General Counsels told the people of the Heresies for which they did despose their Pastors If he told me what it was I would try it by Gods word If I were unable I would seek help If the Diocesan silenced my Teacher and ten neighbour Bishops wiser than he did tell me that it was for Truth and Duty and that the Heresie was the Bishops I would hear my Teacher and believe the other Bishops before him without taking them to be of a higher order The objections against this and what is before said shall be answered in the next Chapter You see when it is but opened how the Diocesans power vanisheth into the air CHAP. XIII That there is no need of such as our Diocesans for the Unity or the Government of the particular Ministers nor for the silencing of the unworthy IT stuck much in the minds of the Ancient Doctors and Christians that Episcopacy was necessary to avoid Schism and discord among the Ministers and the people and that it was introduced for that reason And I am so averse to singularity in Religion that I will not be he that shall gainsay it A double yea a treble Episcopacy though I cannot prove instituted of Christ yet will I not contradict because one sort I cannot disprove and the other two I take to be but a prudential humane determination of the Circomstances of one and the same sacred Ministerial office-worke 1. That which I cannot disprove as to a Divine Institution is a General Ministry over many Churches like the Scors Visiters at their Reformation who as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the durable parts of their office were by a conjunction of Scripture evidence and Divine authority of office to perswade Pasâ—ors and people to their several duties and to have a chief hand in ordaining and removing Ministers 2. That which I will not contradict antiquity in is a Bishop in every particular Church to be as the chief Presbyter like the chief Justice on the bench or one of the Quorum as our Parish Ministers now are in respect to all their Curates of the Chappels under them 3. And I would not deny but at all Ministerial Synods one man may be Moderator either pro tempore or for continuance as there is cause These two last are but Prudential circumstances as Doctor Stiling fleet hath proved And in all these I like the Discipline of the Waldenses Bâ—â—emian and Polonian Churches But no Government of the Presbyters no concord no keeping out of Heresie requireth such as our Diocesans 1. Who put down all the Bishops of the particular Churches under them 2. And pretending Spiritual Power Govern by the force of the Magistrates Sword 3. And obtrude themselves on the people and Pastors without their consent and against their wills being by multitudes taken for the enemies of the Church 4. And visibly before the world introducing so many bad Ministers and silencing so many faithful ones as in this age they have done Without them we have all these means of concord following 1. We have a clear description of the duty of Ministers and people in Gods word 2. We have Ministers to Preach up all these duties by Office 3. The people are taught by Scripture what Ministers to choose 4. We find it natural to the people to before Learned and godly Ministers though many of them be bad themselves And though it be not so with them all yet the sober part do usually perswade the rest So that in London and else where those Parishes where the people choose had usually far worthier Pastors than the rest especially than those in the Bishops presentation 5. The people are obliged by God to marke those Ministers that cause division and contention and avoid them 6. The Ministers are bound to give notice to the people of false teachers and Schismaticks and to command them to avoid them And themselves to renounce Communion with them after the first and second admonition 7. These Ministers may have correspondence by Synods to keep up concord by agreement among themselves So we have over all a Christian King and Magistracy who are the rightful Governours of the Clergy as well as of all other subjects and may constrain the negligent to their duty and restrain the Heretical Schismatical and wicked from their sin And may not all this do much to keep up Concord 2. What our Diocesans really
in one place and speak with tongues what can be more expresly spoken to shew that it is not only a part of the Church but the whole which cometh together into one place So Vers 24. If there be no Interpreter let him keep silence in the Church So Vers 34. For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints So Vers 14. Let your women keep silence in the Church for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church So Act. 11. 26. A whole year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much people Act. 14. 27. When they were come and had gathered the Church together they rehearsed all that God had done by them Act. 15. 3. And they were brought on their way by the Church which must signifie such a number as might be called the Church when part was but for the whole at least Act. 2. 1. They were all with one accord in one place which it's like was all the Church with the Apostles Vers 44. 46. And all that believed were together And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple c. Act. 4. 31 32. And the place was shaken where they were assembled together And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul Act. 5. 12. And they were all with one accord in Solomon ' s Porch and of the rest durst no man joyn himself to them If any here say that so many thousands could not be of one Assembly I have answered it before 1. I have preached as was supposed to ten thousand at once 2. Some of our Parishes that have but one Church are thirty thousand some forty thousand some fifty thousand 3. There were strangers at Jerusalem from all parts 4. The next Verse saith There came also a multitude out of the Cities round about unto Jerusalem 5. The multitude were not yet perfectly embodied and were quickly scattered Col. 4. 16. When this Epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans c. It is not to the Church for then you might have said that so it may be if the Church consisted of many Assemblies But it is in the Church which intimateth that the Church was but one Assembly And so that of Colosse answerably All these Texts and others such plainly tell us whether a Church there was one Assembly or many hundred 3. This is made yet much more evident by the Scriptures description of a Bishops work even such as the Apostles then appointed over every Church 1. They were to be the ordinary publick present teachers of all the Flock which they did oversee 1 Thess 5. 12 13. Know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and esteem them highly in love for their work sake Those then that were over every Church were present with the Church and laboured among them which they could not do in one of our Diocesses saving as a man may be said to labour among a Kingdom or the World because they labour in it Heb. 13. 8 17 24. Remember them which have the rule over you which have spoken to you the word of God Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account So that a Church was no bigger than the Bishops could speak the word of God to and could watch for their souls But I never saw the face of the Bishop of the Diocess where I live and know but very few men in his Diocess that ever did see him 2. And this care was to extend to the particular persons of the Flocks Act. 20. 20 28 31. I taught you publickly and from house to house Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to fâ—ed or rule the Church of God c. Remembor that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears 1 Pet. 1. 2. 3. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint c. that is saith Doctor Hammond The Bishops of your several Churches I exhort take care of your several Churches and govern them not as Secular Rulers by force but as Pastors do their Sheep by calling and going before them that so they may follow of their own accord See also Doctor Hammond's Annot. on Heb. 13. 7 17. 1 Thess 5. 12 13. And saith Doctor Jeremy Taylor of Repent Praef. I am sure we cannot give account of souls of which we have no notice O terrible word to the undertakers of so many hundred Churches and so many thousand or ten thousand souls which they never knew This made Ignatius à s after cited say that The Bishop must look after or take account of each person as much as Servants and Maids Object But there may be more in a Parish than a Minister can know Answ If a Parish may be too large for a Bishops work how little reason have they to make a Church and take the Pastoral Care of many hundred Parishes 2. We must judge by the ordinary common case In a Parish a Minister may know every one except it be some few strangers or retired persons or except it be a Parish or Church of too great a swelling bigness But in a Diocess of many hundred Churches it is not one of a hundred that the Bishop will ever know 3. I know by experience what may be done whatever slothful persons say I had a Parish of about three of four thousand souls A Market Town with twenty Villages and except three or four Families that refused to come to me whom yet I knew by other means I knew not only the persons but the measures of all or almost all their understandings in the Town and my assistants in the Villages knew the rest by personal conference each family coming to us by turns 4. And where a Church is too large for one there may be and must be assistant Ministers and that may be done by many which cannot be done by one alone Object So may a Bishop and his Presbyters in a Diocess Answ In a Diocess of many Churches the Presbyters only know the people and do the Ministerial Office for them except in some one or few Churches where the Bishop dwells and sometimes preacheth But in the same Church all the Ministers preach to the same persons ordinarily per vices and they all know them and all watch over them though they assist each other in particular offices for them There is much difference between a School-master and his assistants in the same School and one School-master only with several Ushers in many hundred Schools As there is between a Master Mistriss and Steward ruling the same Family and one Master with
only Church of the same Species with a Diocese If they say that it is because one man is not capable of doing the work of a Bishop for so many Countreys I Answer Per se he cannot do it for the hundredth part of a Diocese Per alios he may do it for all Europe It is but appointing some who shall appoint others who shall appoint others and so to the end of the chapter to do it There is but one Abuna in Abassia to Ordain though numerous Bishops who have not the Generative faculty which Epiphanius makes to be the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter that the one begets Fathers and the other but Sons Their Countrey was converted by an Eunuch It would be a notable dispute whether all the rest be true Bishops or not I think Yea the Prelatists must think Nay And yet Brierwood saith that Abassia after all its great diminutions is as big as Italy France Spain and Germany And doth not the Pope govern per alios yet far more and pretend to govern the whole Christian World while he sendeth one to Goa another to Mexico and Oviedo to Abassia would they but have received him Obj. But he hath other Bishops under him therefore he is not ejusdem speciei as a Diocese Answ But the Abuna hath no Ordainers under him And the Bishop hath Chancellors Deans Arch-deacons Surrogates Officials and sometimes in the days of old had Suffragans too under him Quest Was a Diocese then One Church or two And what if a Patriarch or Pope put down all Bishops under him and exercise his power only by other sorts of officers They that can demise grant let what parts they please of their own office may devise enow And seeing it would not alter the species what if it should please the King and Parliament to put down all the Bishops of England save One I hope the Bishops would not take that to be against the Canon of 1640. nor against the Oxford Oath of never endeavouring to Consent or Alter the Church Covernment if it could have been past to be taken by the Parliament Because the species is not altered And they tell us Nonconformists to draw us to Swear that they mean but the species I make no doubt but at the rates of our present Ordinations One Bishop or Abuna with Chaplains enow may Ordain Priests enow and too many of all conscience for all the Kings Dominions and may silence preachers enow and may set up Chancellors Surrogates and Arch-deacons enow to do the present work And it 's pity that the land should be troubled with so many when one would serve I confess I would either have more or fewer had I my wish And as for my Minor proposition let him that thinketh it wanteth proof when he hath considered what is beforesaid and how personal present Communion in all Gods Church-worship differeth from the Communion of associated Congregations by messengers c. think so still if he be able so egregiously to err But I must not so leave our Prelatists I know that it is the common trick of Sophisters when they cannot make good an ill cause to carry it into the dark or start a new controversie and then they are safe A Papist will wheel about into the wilderness or thickets of Church history and ask you what names you can give of your Religion in all Ages that one proposition of your Syllogism may contain much of a Horse load or a Cart load of Books and then I trow he hath done his work if women be the judges And others use to carry the question a rebus ad verba And so it is in the case in hand But it is not the name of a SPECIES that shall serve your turn We know how hard it is in Physicks to determine what it is that specifieth and much more in Morals Politicks and other Relatives But Let the Logical notion of a species lie at your mercy It shall suffice us that you may not make so great a change of the Church-orders and Government of Gods institution as to turn a thousand or hundred Churches into one and to deprive all Parishes or Churches Consociate for presential Communion of the priviledge of having a Bishop of their own to Teach Worship and Govern them presentially and per se As if all the Arch-bishops in the Ronan Empire had put down all the Bishops and called themselves the Bishops of the Churches Of which more anon CHAP. X. Whether any form of Church Government be instituted by God as necessary or all left to humane prudence Obj. BUt Doctor Stillingfleet hath invincibly proved that God hath made no one form of Church Government necessary but left the choice to humane prudence Answ I. If so Why should we all swear to this one form that we will never endeavour to alter it or as the caetera Oath never consent to the alteration of it when we know not but the King may alter it or command us to endeavour it Must there be such swearing to the perpetuating an alterable unnecessary thing II. The word Form signifieth either the essentials of Church policy or the Integrals or accidents which Christ himself hath setled Or else it signifieth only some mutable accidents or modes which God hath left to humane prudence Of the first we deny mans power to change them Of the later we grant it 1. It is undeniably of Divine institution that there be ordinary publick Assemblies for Gods solemn worship and the peoples edification 2. And that Ministers of that office which Christ hath instituted be the officiating Guides in these Assemblies 3. And that Cohabiting Christians be the ordinary stated bodies of these assemblies and not live loosely to go every day as they please from Church to Church but ordinarily when they can be setled members of some one Church To which cohabitation or vicinity is one dispositio materiae 4. And that each of these Churches have their proper fixed Pastors and should not take up with unfixed various passing Ministers unless in cases of necessary unsetledness 5. And that these setled Pastors should live among the People and watch over them personally and know them and be known of them in doctrine and ensample as to the main body of the flock 6. That these Relations and Communion be by mutual consent of the Pastors and the body of the flock 7. That these mutual Relations of Gods appointment and their own consent do constitute them a spiritual society of Divine institution 8. That this Communion must be as our Creed calleth it a Communion of Saints that is of men professing Christianity and Holiness and seeming such And must extend to a free Communication to each other for the supply of corporal necessities And to a mutual assistance of each other in holy living 9 That therefore there must be some to discern and judge whether the persons that would enter this Society and
done or Power to maintain it To make Laws and seâ— up Churches Officers and Orders this year and to take them down and set up new ones a few years after seemeth levity and mutability in man And therefore must not without cause and proof be ascribed to God And the rather because that Moses Laws had stood so long and the taking down of them was a scandal very hardly born And if the Apostles that did it should set up by the Spirit others in their stead to continue but till they died this would be more strange and increase the offence 6. There was no sufficient change of the Reason of the thing Therefore there was no sufficient reason to change the thing it self if Prelates had had Authority to do it If you say That in Scripture times there were not worthy men enow to make Subpresbyters and Bishops both of I answer It is notoriously false by what Scripture speaketh 1. Of the large pourings out of the Spirit in those times 2. Of the many Prophets Teachers Interpreters and other inspired speakers which were then in one Congregation Act. 13. 1 2. And 1 Cor. 14. Insomuch that at Corinth Paul was put to limit them in the number of speakers and the exercise of their gifts 2. And it 's known by history and the great paucity of Writers in the next age that when those miraculous gifts abated there was a greater paucity of fit Teachers proportionably to the number of Churches than before 3. And who can prove that if there had been more men the Apostles would have made a new Order of Presbyters and not only more of the same Order 2. Obj. But the Churches grew greater after than before Answ 1. Where was there three Churches in the whole world for 300 years so numerous as the Church at Jerusalem is said to have been in Scripture 2. If the Churches were more numerous why might they not have been distributed into more particular Churches 3. Or how prove you that Presbyters should not rather have been increased in the number of the same Order than a new Order invented 4. This contradicts the former objection For if that Churches were so small and few before it 's like there might have been the more gifted persons spared to have made two Orders in a Church 5. And what if in Constantine's days the Churches grew yet greater than they did in the second or third age compared to the Apostles will it follow that still more new Orders may be devised as Subpriests were 7. There are worser reasons of the change too visible And therefore it is not to be imputed to a secret unproved mental intention of the Apostles In Christs own time even the Apostles themselves strove who should be the greatest False Apostles afterward troubled Paul by striving for a superiority of reputation Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence Sect-masters rose up in the Apostles days Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Some caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned Rom. 16. 17. In Clem. Rom. time the Church of Corinth was contending about Episcopacy and superiority even Lay-men aspiring to the chair Peter seemeth to foresee what Pastors would do when he forewarneth them not to Lord it over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Victor quickly practised the contrary when he Excommunicated the Asian Bishops See Grotius his complaint of the early and ancient pride contention and tyranny of the Bishops De Imper. sum Pot. p. 360 361. Novatian with Novatus quickly shewed this spirit if they be not wronged at Rome and Carthage and so did Felicissimus and his partners against Cyprian What stirrs were there for many ages between the Cecilians and the Donatists What horrid work was there at the Concil Ephes 1. And Concil Chalcedon Concil Eph. 2. between the contending Bishops on each side The reading of the Acts would make a Christians face to blush What strife between Anthymius and Basil for a larger Diocese What work against Nazianzen to cast him out of Constantinople What sad exclamations maketh he against Synods and against these Names and Titles of preeminence and higher seats wishing the Church had never known them And yet he was angry with his friend Basil for placing him in so small a Bishoprick as Sosunis What abundance of Epistles doth Isidore Pelusiota write to Eusebius the Bishop and Sosimus and the other wicked Priests detecting and reproving their malignity drunkenness and horrid wickedness And how sharply doth he lament that a faithful Ministry is degenerate into carnal formal Tyranny and that the Bishops adorned the Temples under the name of the Church while they maligned and persecuted the Godly who are the Church indeed How lamentable a description doth Sulpit. Severus give of the whole Synods of Bishops that followed Ithacius and Idacius And in particular of Ithacius himself as a fellow that made no conscience of what he said And what did Martin think of them who avoided all their Communions to the death and would never come to any of their Synods Especially because by stirring up the Magistrate against the Priscillianists they had taught the vulgar fury to abuse and reproach any man that did but read and pray and fast and live strictly as if he were to be suspected of Priscillianism which Hooker himself complaineth of Pref. And Ambrose also did avoid them What bloody work did Cyril and his party make at Alexandria What a man was Theophilus after him What work made he against Chrysostom What a Character doth Socrates give of him What insolence and furious zeal did Epiphanius shew in the same cause in thrusting himself into the Church of Chrysostom to stir up his hearers to forsake him Hierom had a finger in the same cause His quarrels with Johan Hierosol with Ruffinus his abusive bitterness against Vigilantius c. are well known The multitudes of Canons for preserving the grandeur of Patriarchs and Metropolitanes and Prelates on one side and for keeping small Cities without Bishops ne vilescat nomen Episcopi and for restraining Pride self-exaltation enlargement of Diocese encroachment on each other on the other side do all shew the diseases that needed such a Cure or that had such a vent In a word the Bishops never ceased contending partly for their several opinions and errours and partly for preeminence and rule till they had brought it to that pass as we see it at this day between Rome and Constantinople and the most of the Christian world From all which it is most apparent that Pride and Contention were cured but in part in the Pastors of the Churches And that the remaining part was so strong and operative as maketh it too credible that there were ill causes enow for enlarging of Dioceses and getting many Churches into one mans power and setting up a new Order of half-subpresbyters And that the event of
willing minds these things are plain Church Discipline hath its effect on the Consciences of men and these things take as they come with spiritual life light and love We see in our Preaching how much all work is lost which is done proudly unskilfully and marred in the manner And true Pastoral discipline must work just as Preaching must do it being but a more particular application of the same word to persons and carses Athanasius Patriarcha Constantinop in his fifth Epistle for the residence of Bishops Bibl. Patr. T. 3. p. 159. saith of constant preaching Haec nocte dieque debent singuli Pastores gregibus suis inculcare quae tam necessaria sunt quam est respirare animanti Necessarium inquam omnia judicia testimonia Dei denunciare ita ut ab hoc est prosperitas opulentia And in his three last Epistles he counselleth the Emperor to force those Bishops to Preaching and Vigilancy that will not do it without force And indeed unjust Excommunications most hurt the Excommunicators Read Nicon's Epistle ad Euch de injusta Excommunicatione proving that an unjust Excommunication bindeth not another but falleth on the Excommunicators head But the sad truth is that it 's usual with the Prelates to confess the vanity of their own Spiritual power and to call it a leaden sword which would but be despised if it were not backt with the Magistrates sword which is the very thing they trust to But of this anon III. And lastly let it be considered objectively what work it is that every Bishop hath to do and then you shall see whether it be possible 1. As to the number of Sins in specie 2. As to the number of Sinners 1. Such sins as are in other Countries and as are condemned in Scripture are among us also 1. As to Intellectual evils we have ignorant persons who neither know what Christ or Christianity is or what a Sacrament is or what are the Essentials of Faith We have Atheists that think there is no God or say so at least we have more Infidels that deride Christ and Christianity we have impious persons who make a mock of Godliness we have Quakers and Familists and Seekers who either deny the Scripture to be Gods word or true or say Scripture Church and Ministry are lost or turn Scripture into an Allegory or that prefer the light within every man Heathens and all as sufficient without it and Enthusiasts and true Fanaticks who trust to inward Revelations and impulses instead of Gods word We have Papists we have Antinomians Libertines and more Sects which the Bishops themselves can name you and overcharge 2. And for more voluntary sins we have almost all the breaches of all the commandments We have open enemies of preaching praying sacraments family duties catechizing the Lords days holy observation Common scorners of those that fear to sin and diligently seek God We have if the Bishops could know them malignant persecutors that would force Gods servants to most odious sins that hinder Christs Ministers from doing the work to which they are devoted and from preaching to sinners the Gospel of Christ and calling them to Repent and live We have idolaters false worshippers blasphemers perjured persons common prophane swearers and cursers and liars and we have children despisers and dishonourers of their parents and servants of their masters and subjects of Princes and Rulers and whether of Bishops and Pastors let the Bishops judge Profane families husband and wife living in open enmity or wrath we have murderers fighters railers such as maliciously seek the ruine of others great and small oppressors thieves defrauders adulterers and fornicators filthy speakers gluttons drunkards such as waste their lives in gaming plays and idleness false-witnesses Simoniacal bribe-takers subverters of justice to say nothing of the notorious effects of gross uncharitableness covetousness and pride These and more than these are here 2. And for the number of sinners 1. Conjecture by the number of persons 2. And then by the commonness of the sins 1. I have before oft told you that some Dioceses have many hundred Parishes some above a thousand and in the lesser sort of these Parishes commonly there are in some 50 in most 100 or 200 families and in the greater and Market Towns there are in some of the lesser about 1000 souls in the middle sort about 2000 or 3000 or 4000 and in the bigger about 5000 or 6000 and some few 10000 And in the greatest Parishes of all in London some 20000 some 40000 some 50000 and it is said in some many thousands more 2. And for the sins 1. The Bishops themselves say that Atheism Infidelity and derision of Scripture and Religion aboundeth among such as I will not name 2. They say themselves that Rebels and Quakers and Seekers and Enthusiasts c. are so many as that they know not what to do with them 3. They say themselves that Papists so increase as that they give out their hopes to swallow up all 4. One sort which they call Schismaticks as being against their interest they really exercise their power against and find that this one sort are more than they know what to do with 5. The number that malignantly labour to make all seriousness and diligence in seeking God to become a scorned hated thing and make it to seem meer self-conceitedness and hypocrisie and to keep people from obeying God is so great as we cannot reckon them 6. The number of the grosly ignorant is lamentably great 7. Common swearers and cursers are usually met with in our ordinary converse 8. How common drunkenness is let lamenting Parents grieved wives and beggered families tell you 9. Whether fornication and adultery rarely heard of till of late comparatively be now grown common if not in fashion I leave the Prelates themselves to judge 10. To pass by all the rest Whether serious credible Repentance though not expressed by the ancient severe penances be now a common thing for these or many other sins I am content that any English man be judge that ever laboured to bring men to Repentance and knoweth what Repentance is And now by this conjecture 1. How many thousands I say not the Bishop who puts it off but the Lay-chancellor hath to stand at his bar at once if discipline were tolerably exercised 2. How many years the accusers and offenders were like to wait before a cause could be heard 3. Or how spiritually powerfully meltingly this Lay-man that never preached is like to draw all these thousands to Repentance 4. What the Sinner and the Church shall do till the year come that they can be heard 5. Whether it be possible for any such thing as true Pastoral conviction exhortation discipline to be ever exercised on them at all whilest that new sins even heinous ones are still committed and the Bishop or Chancellor or Surrogate that had a thousand or ten thousand sinners at once to speak to when he could deal but
prescribed in Scripture professed that it was always his opinion And joyned with us in our proposals for Bishop Ushers Model Dr Stillingfleet in his Irenicon hath said so much against the Jus Divinum of our Prelacy as can never be answered I have talked with many of the Bishops and Episcopal Conformists my self of these matters and I do not remember that ever I spake to one accounted a Learned man that did not confess when driven to it that the Greatness of the Diocesses and the Chancellors Government by the Church Keyes were causes of so great a lapse of discipline as is to be groaned under And can shew us no probability it possibility of restoring it while it so stands And yet they would have us subscribe and swear never to endeavour any alteration of the Church Government not excepting in our place and calling by petition or otherwise no though the King commanded us Bishop Hall in his Mod. Offer doth confess the faultiness and desires reformation and in his excellent Peace-maker would take up even with a presidencie durante vita as sufficient to reconcile us Dr. Hammond himself oft complaineth of the lapse of discipline and the clergies and peoples vices thereupon The Liturgy wisheth the godly Discipline restored but doth it not as if in our case it could not be done Abundance of their Writers lament the scandals of clergy and people which have abounded of which I shall say somewhat more anon 2. And this is yet plainlier confessed by the Actual omission of discipline We need not to dispute whether that can or be ever like to be done by our Prelacy which is no where done and never was done no not by any one man of them not excepting the very best so that if they had not come neer the Erastian opinion in their hearts and thought this use of the Keyes to consist but in bare Teaching or the rest to be of no great need it had not been possible that they should have quieted their Consciences Or at least if they did not do it by saying I cannot help it It is not long of me As Bishop Goodman layeth it on the King in the case of Chancellours and most lay it on the Church-Wardens and Ministers for presenting no more But all must confess that little is done besides the troubling of Nonconformists It is not one of a thousand in a Diocesse I am confident that ever is brought under the excercise of Church discipline that ought to be Nor one of many thousand that should be so according to the ancient Canons of the Churches If I should give no other instance than the ordinarie neglect of all Gods publick worship Preaching Prayer and Sacraments in publick Churches or any other Religious Assemblies I do not think but ten thousand persons in this Diocesse and twenty thousand if not fourty in London Diocesse are guilty that were never questioned by the Church I may therefore argue thus That which never was done by any one Bishop in England being the confessed work of their office is naturally or Morally Impossible to be done or if it have a possibility it is as bad as none when it never was once reduced into act But the true exercise of Church discipline on all or the hundredth or many hundredth person that it is due to was never done by one Bishop in England that can by any credible History be proved since the deformation or reformation Ergo. The strength of the Major is plain 1. From the Bishops own mouths who use to praise themselves as the Wisest Learn dst and best of the Clergie and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Government of the Church than all or any of the Presbyters though but under then And they would take it heynously if we question their wisdom conscience or honesty and if they are all or most so good sure it is long of the state and constitution of their places and not long of their persons that their very proper work is made but a shaddow and a dream 2. But though this be but ad homines yet really we have had very worthy and excellent persons to be Bishops what a man was Jewell Arch-bishop Grindal had Godliness enough and resolution too to make him odiâ—s and favoured Lectures and Preaching c. Enough to bring him down if Cambden Godwin or Fuller are to be believed but never could do this work of discipline upon one of hundreds or thousands under him We had an excellent Arch-Bishop-Abbot afterwards good enough to be reproached by Heylin and to suffer what I need not mention but never able to do this work What Learned Judicious worthy men were his Brother Robert Abbot and after him Davenant Bishops of Salisbury And how good a man was peaceable Bishop Hall so Usher in Ireland Moron and many more But no such thing was done by any of them what should I say now of Bishop Reignolds and Bishop Wilkins Men Learned and extraordinary honest in these times But let any man enquire whether any such thing as the discipline in question is exercised on the thousandth Criminal in their Diocese Indeed we have heard in Bishop Reignolds Diocese of a great number censured for Nonconformity And it is his praise that it was not his doing but his Chancellours though heretofore Judge Advocate in Fairefaxes or Cromwells Army And to say now that it is long of Church-Wardens Chancellours c. Is but to say that the Church is corrupted the Episcopal discipline almost quite cast out and all the remedy is to say It is long of somebody Like the Physician whose Praise was that his patients dyed according to the rules of art or the nurse whose praise was that though most of the Children perished it was long of themselves or somebody else IV. But the fullest experience which so far satisfieth me that all the books in the world cannot change me in this is my own and the rest of my Brethren in the Ministry I have lived now through Gods wonderful mercy threescore years wanting lesse than four In all this time whilst the Bishops ruled I never heard one man or woman called openly to repentance for any sin nor one ever publikely confess or lament any sin Nor one that was excommunicate in any Country where I came except the Nonconformists Nor did I hear of any but one man to my remembrance who did formal penance for Fornication I doubt not but there have been more But the number may be conjectuâ—ed by this I lived under a great number of drunken and ignorant Curates that never preached and Schoolmasters my self and many more were round about us that were never troubled with discipline or cast out I never lived where drunkards and swearers were not common but never one of them underwent the Churches discipline But those that met to fast and pray and went to hear a Sermon two miles off when they had none at home But yet this is the last
call us to seek the alteration which we are required to abjure 10. Lastly by this objection they shew themselves too ignorant of the nature of Church and discipline and Sacrament and Ministery Or else they would better know how far Volunteers are proper objects of Church discipline and have the right to the privileges and Communion of the Church II. The Magistrates Sword will not serve instead of Church discipline 1. Else Christ would not have instituted another office for it 2. Else it might serve also instead of Ministry Preaching and Sacraments 3. The nature of it tendeth not directly to convince men of Errours to lead them into truth to move them by heavenly motions and to bring them to true repentance and godlyness But this will be fuller proved under the next and is confessed by all save the Erastians III. The Magistrates Sword should not be used too forwardly or too much to second or enforce Church discipline much less to be its life and strength and inseparably twisted with it I mean 1. No unbeliever should be forced to say he is a Believer and to professe the Christian faith 2. None upon such profession should be forced to be Baptized 3. None that hath no right to Church Communion in the Sacrament should be forced to receive it 4. None that Apostatizeth from Christ should be forced falsly to professe that he is still a Christian 5. None that are at age should be forced to stay in the Church by local presence or relation as a member of it who is not willing and the practice of the Papists who force no Heathens to be Christians but afterward force Christians by fire and Sword and burn them that were Hereticks Schismaticks or Apostates is self contradicting and self condemning God having left man as much unto his own choice for continuing as for Entring into the Church And as for Obedience to Rulers Infidels may owe it to Christian Kings as well as Christians And none but Magistrates can use the Sword to punish either 6. No Magistrate should punish a Mans body meerly because he is Excommunicate and so punished already Nor should he be made a meer executioner to the Bishop without hearing trying and judging the Cause himself in order to his own execution 7. No Magistrate should force an Impenitent sinner to lie and say he doth repent that thereby he may be admitted to the Church Communion and Sacrament but it is the force of Gods word that must try his Repentance But yet I acknowledge 1. That Magistrates and Parents and Masters may force their Subjects to use those means which tend to make them Christians as to hear Preaching Conference or disputations or to read convincing books But with these two Cautions 1. That it be but when it is like or hopeful to do more good than harme 2. That it be by wise and moderate means of constreint and not hang or burn them to convert them 2. Accordingly Magistrates Parents and Masters may use the like force with their Subjects who are Christians to cause them to use the foresaid meanes of hearing and Reading and conference for the cureing of their dangerous errours or sinful lives 3. And I doubt not but Magistrates may punish men Corporally for their crime according to the nature of them and even for the same that the Church hath excommunicated them If one be excommunicated for Treason Murder Theft Swearing Prophaning the Lords day and holy things c. it followeth not that the Magistrate may not also meddle with him 4. And we doubt not but Magistrates may Restraine false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them from God to sin 5. And the Magistrate may and ought to encourage Ministers in the use of the Church Keyes and to preserve them from the violence of wicked men 7. And they may make a difference in their favours and rewards between Christians obedient to God and their Pastors and Infidels excommunicate in penitent ones and Apostates by denying honors and preferments and rewards to the worse which he giveth to the better sort of men But yet as to the Cases before denied especially the forcing men by fire sword and imprisonment to say they believe and repent and to take the Sacrament and other Church priviledges and making this the strength of Church discipline I have all this against it 1. No force should be used to the hindering and destruction of Christs ordinance of discipline and his Church Laws But such it would be in the case in hand For Christs fundamental Covenant is that the true willing penitent and believer shall be a member of his Church or those only that credibly profess to be so at age He that will may freely drink of the water of life Nemo invitus fit Christianus so that to say that any man hath right to the mystical Church priviledges but Consenters or any man hath right to the visible Church priviledges but credible Professors of consent is to contradict the very condition of the Covenant of life which is the sum of all the Gospel It s true you may compel some men to duty but you cannot compel them to be happy But to force them by perpetual Imprisonment confiscation and the sword to say that they are Christians or repent consent or are willing and so to give them absolution and Church-communion is to make Christs ordinance of none effect For true discipline is to make them penitent and willing and then to use them as such But 1 It is not credible that that person is truly penitent and willing to be a Christian or have Church-communion who will not be perswaded to consent by all that can be said by the Pastors from the word of God but yet on the rack or to prevent undoing will say I consent This is contrary to the nature of true Repentance 2. Or if it did not make this forced consent utterly incredible yet it utterly crosseth the ends of Church discipline which is to discern the voluntary penitent which force so obscureth that no man can tell whether the person be credibly penitent or not If I left a Legacy to so many that are Lovers of the Church and its Communion and my Executors should get the Magistrate to hang or Imprison or undo certain men that are accused as Enemies of the Church unless they will say we Love the Church I think my Will would be ill performed if those men had my Legacy that were forced to say so 2. No man should be forced to his own sin and distruction But he that is forced to take the Sacrament when he is unwilling and had rather be without it in likelihood is forced to his sin and destruction For even the Liturgy telleth the unworthy that they eat and drink damnation to themselves and that the Devil may enter into them as he did into Judas And who is unworthy if the unwilling are not 3. Force is not fitted to cause love and willingness therefore
Did it preserve the Kingdome of Navar to the right Lord What should I say more of this after the copious instances of H. Fowlis and after that volume of W. Prin. of the English Prelates Treasons Read it and judge 2. What people more peaceable and obedient to their superiors for instance than the Helvetian Ministers have been who yet have no such thing as Bishops 3. Dr. Pet. Moulin Junior one of your selves in his answer to Philanax Angl. hath said enough to confute most of the Calumnies against the Reformed Churches in this point 4. Who knoweth not that even in the ancient Churches and that when Episcopacy was thriving apace yea and by and among the Bishops themselves yea some that were good men and are now Sainted yet tumults seditions rebellions and contentions troubled the Churches and the Emperours and Magistrates as frequently as of later times which I mention not to abate the honour of those better Christians but 1. To shew you that all this was done under Prelacy and therefore it was not want of Prelacy or aversness to it that is to be taken for the cause 2. That these distempers were found in the best times and among the purest Churches and therefore are not to be now thought strange or taken for a mark of a bad religion I will not repeate what I said but even now of the horrid tumults and blood shed at Alexandria their cruel Murdering of Hypatia and the insurrection and sedition even of the Holy Monks and Saint Cyrils Sainting of the executed actor of violence on the Governour What work his Predecessor Saint Theophilus made against Saint Chrysostome how Epiphanius acted his part how Saint Hierome was of their party how even the Orthodox Bishops in several Synods opposed and deposed those two excellent Bishops of Constantinople Gregory Theol. and Chrysostome hath been said before Even at the Election of Chrysostome Theophilus went about by all means to discredit him and to preferr to the place one Isidore a Priest of his own Church And that you may know how Loyalty prevailed against the owning of Tyrants when they got the better you shall further hear why Theophilus set so much by this Isidore because he undertook for him a perillous piece of service saith Socrates li. 6. c. 2. viz When the Emporour Theodâ—sius waged War with Maximus the Tyrant Theophilus sent Presents directed to the Emperour with two Letters one to Theodosius and one to Maximus charging Isidorus to present him that got the better with the gift and one of the Letters Isidore being careful of his business went diligently about this feat got him to Rome and hearkeneth after the Victory But his fetch was not long ere it was found out for his Reader that accompanyed him stole away his Letters Whereupon Isidore being afraid to be taken with the manner took his heeles in all hast to Alexandria This was it that made Theophilus labour so carnestly for Isidore But all that were of the Emperours Court preferred John to the Bishopprick And afterwards when as many charged Theophilus with heynous crimes and presented to the Bishops then present libells and Articles against him some for this thing and some for that Eutropius one of the Emporours Chamber having gotten the Articles and Inditements shewed them to Theophilus bad him choose whether he would Create John Bishop or stand at the Barr and answer to the Crimes that were laid to his charge Theophilus was so afraid with this that presently he consented to the installing of John What would have been said of one of us now if we had not only complyed with a victorious Tyrant but also so jugled with presents and double Letters before hand I did my self disowne Oliver Cromwel openly to his death and yet because after twelve years possession of the Usurpers I did but Dedicate two Bookes to his Son Richard whom I never saw nor heard from only to encourage him to befriend truth and unity against Papists and Sectaries who then threatened all and this when the Royalists themselves gave out that he was Really for the restoration of the King this is made the odious Crime in me as a thing deserving greatest Infamy Do I need to recite how great Leo himself and other Roman and Italian Bishops owned the Barbarian Conquerours No wonder than if they too early took Theodoricus for their King set over them by God who was a better man than the rest and had at last a better Tittle Saith Socrates further li. 6. c. 7. When the Common-wealth of the Roman Empire was tossed with these troublesome stormes of Rebellion such as were promoted to the reverend function of Priest hood were at distraction among themselves to the great slander of Christian Religion Then was one set against the other the original of which pestilent Schism came from Egypt and the occasion was as followeth There was a question broached a little before whether God were a body made after the likeness and forme of man Or whether he were without body and void of all Corporal shape Hereof there arose sundry contertions and quarrels While some affirmed this and others that Some of the rudest and unlearned sort of Religious men thought that God was Corporeal and of the forme and figure of man But the greater part condemned them with their Heretical opinion affirming that God had no bodily substance or shape Of which opinion was Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria so that in the hearing of the whole Congregation he inveighed bitterly against the Contrary The worshippers of Egypt understanding this left their Religious houses came to Alexandria flocked about Theophilus condemned him for a wicked person and sought to bereave him of his Life Theophilus being made privy to their Conspiracy was wonderful pensive devised how he might scape their hands and save his life As soon as he came into their presence he saluted them Courteously and said thus to them When I fasten mine eyes on you methinks I see the lively face of God With these words the rash heat of the unruly Monkes was delayed and they said If that be true that thou sayest that the Countenance of God is no otherwise than ours accurse then the works of Oregen For divers of his books do impugne our opinion But if thou refuse to do this assure thy self to receive at our hands the punishment due to the impious and open Enemies of God Nay saith Theoph. I will do that which seemeth good in your eyes Thus you see what the Monks were But will you see what Theophilus was It followeth The Religious houses in Egypt were overseen of four worthy men Bretheren Dioscorus Ammonius Eusebius and Eutburmus Their great fame and excellency made Theophilus force them out of their beloved solitude and make Dioscorus a Bishop and two other to live with himself At last their Consciences were pricked perceiving that the Bishop was set upon heaping and hoarding of mony and that all their labour
so pious as to be persecuted by his Prince and he and his brethren saved by that same usurper and openly give praise to God for the great felicity of the Church which it received by that same usurper whom he so resisted Iâ— it not pity that things should be so strangely carried And that yet you may see more into this business Paulinus in vit Ambros p. 40. tells us that Maximus took just a name to himself as Cromwel the Protector did Maximus Procuratorem se reipublicae nomine praefuisse confiteretur He would rule as the Procurator of the Common-wealth Well! But this is not all the Usurpers that rose up in those daies Eugenius soon becometh more terrible than he who once was but a Schoolmaster And how doth this loyal S. Ambrose carry it when he had got of Theodosius a pardon for all that took part with Maximus even his Army except two or three yea and benefits too yet did not this holy loyal man think it sinful to write thus to the Tyrant Eugenius Epistol l. 2. p. 103. Clementissimo Imperatori Eugenio Ambrosius Episcopus Bishop Ambrose to the most Clement Emperour Eugenius And thus concludeth In his vero in quibus vos rogari decet etiam exhibere sedulitatem potestati debitam sicut scriptum est cui honorem honorem cui tributum tributum Nam cum privato detulerim corde intimo quomodo non deferrem Imperatori i. e. But in these matters where it becometh us to petition you we must also give the diligence due to power as it is written honor to whom honor tribute to whom tribute For when I honored you when you were a private man from the inwards of my heart how should I not honor you an Emperour Reader do not only judge of my two Epistles to Rich. Cromwell by these passages but even of theirs that submitted to Oliver himself and yet Judge of the inferences that are raised by our accusers Should I but recite the words of submission of Bishops to usurpers yea of Gregory the Great and such of the highest note it would be over tedious to the Reader who I doubt will think that I have been too long in this unpleasant History already 2. But this I must need add ad homines 1. That it hath been the Bishops themselves that have been the grand cause of our Church divisions and separations what advantage they have given the separatists I shewed before I am sure in the Congregation where I once was teacher and the Countrey about nothing that ever came to pass hath so inclined the people to avoid the Prelates as their own doing especially the silencing and reproaching their ancient teachers whom they knew longer and better than the Prelates did 2. That it was a Parliament of Episcopals and Erastians and not of Presbyterians who first took up Armes in England against the King 3. That the General and chief Officers of the Parliaments first Army were scarce any of them at all Presbyterians but Episcopal by profession saving some few Independants 4. That the Lord Lieutenants of the several Counties were almost all Episcopal save three Independents 5. The Major Generals of the several By-armies in the Counties were almost all Episcopal 6. The Assembly of Divines at Westminster were all save eight or nine Conformable 7. Most of the Episcopal men of my acquaintance took the Covenant that could keep their places by it or at their composition 8. I knew few of them that took not the engagement it self against King and house of Lords meerly for liberty to travail about their business when we that ran a greater hazard by refusing never took it but many were cast out of their Churches and their government in the University Colledges for refusing it These and many more such unpleasant things I have fully proved elsewhere being constrained by the false accusations of implacable men to mention that which I had far rather silence 9. And what hand the Londoners the Presbyterian Ministers and Gentlemen and people had in bringing in the King was once known and acknowledged And General Monks Colonels and Captains were so many of them Presbyterians when they cast out the Anabaptists from among them in Scotland and marcht into England and restored the King that as I knew divers of them to be such so far as I could learn from others the chief strength of them were such or so inclined 10. And though many of the Parliament were supposed Presbyterians long after who were Episcopal at the raising of the Army yet could not the late King Charles I. be rejected and judged and put to death till most of the Parliament were violently secluded and imprisoned by the Army And as soon as they were but called together again it was they in Parliament and Council of State that opened the door for the Kings restitution But while the matters of the Church of Christ and the decision of religious controversies and the liberty of Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel must be laid upon state revolutions and where Bishops that can neither accuse Christs Ministers of heresie ignorance negligence covetuousness pride nor scandalous immoralities shall run to the old methods and perswade Kings that these men are not for their profit that they are pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people that they prophecy not good of Kings but evil and that they would set up another King one Jesus and therefore are not Caesars friends these malicious projects may silence Ministers and prosper while our sins are to be punished and the peoples contempt of the Gospel and their ingratitude are to be chastised But the wicked servant that saith my Lord delayeth his coming and beateth his fellow servants and eateth and drinketh with the drunken will see that his Lord will come in a day that he looked not for him and will cut him a sunder and give him his portion with hypocrites for their dead Image of Religion will not save them there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 24. 48 49 50 51. CHAP. XXIII Four douâ—le charges I have now proved against the foredescribed Diocesane fâ—rm of Government the least of which alone is enough to prove it utterly unlawful 1. THat it overthroweth the ancient Species of Churches and setteth up another sort of Churches in their place and sets up one Church of that kind instead of many hundreds 2. That it overthroweth the ancient office of a Presbyter by taking away one part of his work viz. Government which as much belongeth to him as the rest And maketh a new office of subject Presbyters which Cod never made 3. That it overthroweth the ancient sort of fixed Episcopacy as distinct from Itinerants and Arch-bishops taking down a thousand or very many Bishops even the Bishops of particular Churches and instead of them all setting up but one over all those Churches as if all Bishops were put down and the Archbishops only take all their charges
and work upon them 4. That it maketh the Discipline or Government instituted by Christ in the very matter of it to become impossible and impracticable and so excludeth it under pretence that they are the only persons impowred for it and they set up a kind of secular Courts and Government in its stead and so are practically Erastians I shall conclude all with these Consectaries which follow what is already proved Cons. 1. Such Diocesane principles greatly strengthen the Brownists cause who deny us to have any Church or Ministry of divine institution as is before shewed And as for them that say No form of Church Government is of divine institution Ans 1. It is well that they are forced to except both the universal and the particular Churches and expound this only of Associations of Churches 2. It is well that yet they confess that the office of Pastors is of Divine institution who are made Church Governours by Christ 3. But it is scant well that yet they subscribe to the book of Ordination which asserteth the Divine right of three distinct orders if they do not believe it 4. And these also too much gratifie the Brownist who affirmeth that we have no Churches of Divine institution and thinketh that it is no fault to separate but from a Church of humane invention Cons 2. To say that no man High or Low is bound in his place and calling to endeavour a Reformation of such a Church-Government and so to justifie the neglecters and opposers of all such Reformation is to draw upon a mans self the guilt of so much pollution and of the ruin of such a multitude of souls as should make that Conscience smart and tremble which is not seared and past all feeling Cons 3. To swear or subscribe or say and declare that though millions should swear to endeavour such a reformation in their places and callings by lawful means there is no obligation lieth on any one of them from that Vow or Oath So to endeavour it is The Lord have Mercy on that Land City or Soul that is guilty of it Cons 4. All carnal interest and all carnal reason is on the Diocesanes side and all the lusts of the heart of man and consequently all the Devil can do Therefore while carnal Christians make a Religion of their lusts and interest and pride and covetousness and idleness are more predominant than the fear of God and the love of souls no wonder if the Diocesane cause prevail with such Cons 5. A truly sanctified heart knoweth the nature and worth of Grace and the nature and weight of the Pastoral Office and is devoted to God and the good of souls and contemneth the ease and pleasures of the flesh and the riches and the honours of this World and is the best argument in the World against such Diocesane Prelacy and must at least be weakened before it can subscribe never to endeavour to amend it Cons 6. No wonder if the most serious zealous practical sort of Christians are ordinarily against such Diocesanes Prelacy when it hath the described effects and that those among themselves Cons 7. No wonder if the principal work of such Diocesanes be to silence faithful preachers and persecute zealous Christians where they had espoused a cause so contrary to the interest of Godliness that all these are unreconcilable thereto Speak not of any other Prelacy Cons 8. Take but from such Prelacy the plumes which it hath stolen from Magistrates and Presbyters and it will be a naked thing and simply a name Cons 9. If Magistrates were not the Prelates Executioners or seconded them not by writs de excommunicato capiendo c. such Prelacy would give up as dead or aweary of it self Cons 10. The ill Mixtures of force and secular power corrupteth Church Discipline and depriveth it of its proper nature use and force maketh it another thing or undiscernable Cons 11. Though in cases of necessity civil Rulers may trust Church men with part of their power about religion it is far better out of necessity that they keep if wholly to themselves And let them thunder their excommunications without any power of the Sword Cons 12. Such Bishops and Arch-Bishops as overthrow not the Churches officers and discipline of Christ must be submitted to by all peaceable men though we cannot prove them as such to be of Divine institution CHAP. XXIV Some testimonies of Prelatists of the late state of the Church of England lest we be supposed partial in our description of it 1. FOr the true understanding of the late state of the Church of England the Reader may find some light in the Lord Falklands Parliament Speeches and Sir Edward Dearings and in Heylins own History of the Sabbath with Pocklingtons Sunday no Sabbath and the Bishop of Lincolnes book of the Holy Table name and things and Dr. Heylens answer to him And the same Heylins History of Arch-Bishop Laud and from Mr. Thornedicks four last bookes II. To what common scorne all serious Godliness was brought by the rabble through the abuse of the name Puritane used by the Prelatists to make odious the Nonconformists is after shewed out of Bishop Downame and Mr. Robert Bolton who is large and frequent in it III. Bishop Halls Confession of the corruptions in the Church Governours and Government in his Modest offer and Peacemaker and his disclaiming those that deny it I have cited elsewhere IV. Williams Arch-Bishop of Yorke Morton Bishop of Durham with many other Episcopal Divines of greatest name and worth did assemble in Westminister and collected a Catalogue of things needing reformation in Discipline and worship which are to be seen in print V. A Prelatical Divine in a Treat called Englands faithful Reprover and Monitor thus speaketh to his prelates and Pastor pag. 60 61. c. And now with what depth of sorrow ought we to recount your past errours partly through neglect of duty partly through abuse of power were the faithful in your trust did ye diligently instruct the ignorant severely punish the disobedient Endeavour to reclaime those that walked disorderly and contrary to the Gospel That ye were violently bent against Action and Schisme against singularity and Non-conformity all confess a few excepted who thought nothing too much yea nothing enough in this kind how opposite soever to Christian mildness prudence and Conscience But in the mean time by reason of your Connivence or Supineness in the Episcopal office Ignorance and Superstition every where misled the people and caused them to wander in darkness not knowing whither they went Profaness like a rank pernicious weed overspread the field and Vineyard of the Lord And the prophane and vicious lives of those who stood up in defence of your Government occasionally gave increase and added strength to the opposite factious party who alledged this as one main ground of their separation from the Church that those who adhered to it were for the most part