Ministeriall charge we make use of these termes wherewith the greatest antiquity hath furnished us The old Canons named Apostolicall make frequent mention of it The blessed Martyr old Ignatius as in other places so especially in his Epistle to them of Smyrna which we have already cited is cleare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the Laicks be subject to the Deacons the Deacons to the Presbyters c. And before him the holy Martyr Clement B. of Rome as we have formerly alledgd A lay man is bound to Laick precepts And yet before him a◠so I for my part am confident that St. Peter whom this man succeede both in his Chaire and Martyrdome meant no other when hee charged his fellow Bishops that they should feed their flock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not domineering over their Cleargie 1 Pet. 5.3 for the word is plurall not as if it were Clero but Clericis and in the verse before it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very act of Episcopacie those that would have it taken otherwise are faine to add a word of their owne to the text reading it Gods heritage where as the Originall is meerely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfecyly to this sense Neither is there any Ataxie to bee feared in bringing in this distinction betwixt Pastors and flock It is an Eutaxie rather and such as without which nothing could ensue but confusion If these men then be spirituall and sacred persons why do they not challenge it If Laicke why are they ashamed of it If betwixt both let them give themselves that title which Bernard gives himselfe upon the occasion of his forced forbearance of his Canonical devotions Ego tanquam Chimaera quaedam mei seculi Here then ye seduced Brethren that go all upon trust for the strong beliefe of a Lay-Presbytery your credulity hath palpably abused you it is true this advantage you have that the first authors of this late device were men of great note in their times but men still and herein they show'd it too well that for their owne ends they not onely invented such a government as was never heard of in any Christian Church throughout the whole world before them but also found out some pretence of Scriptures never before to understood whereupon to father their so new and now plausible erection §. 2. No Lay-Elder ever mentioned or heard of in the world till this present age The texts of Scripture particularized to the contary ANd that you may not thinke this to be some bold unwarranted suggestion from an unadvised adversary let mee tender this faire offer to you It is an hard and long taske for a man to prove negatives let any of your most learned and confident teachers produce but the name of any one Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the Church from the times of Christ and his Apostles untill this present age I shall yeeld the cause and liue and die theirs We finde in common experience that we apprehend things according to our owne prepossession Iaundised eies seeme to see all objects yellow blood-shoten red it is no marvell if those who have mancipated their mindes to the judgements of some whom they over-admire and have lent their eies out of their owns heads wheresoever they finde mention of an Elder in the New Testament think presently of a Lay-Presbytery like that man in Erasmus who perswaded himselfe he saw a strange Dragon in the aire because his friend confidently pointed to it and seemed to wonder at his not seeing it but those who with unpartiall and unprejudiced hearts shall addresse themselves to the Booke of God and with a carefull sincerity compare the Scriptures shall finde that wheresoever the word Elder or Presbyter is in an Evangelicall sence used in the holy Epistles or the history of the Acts excep it be in some few places where eldership of age may be meant it is onely and altogether taken for the ministers of the Gospell There are if I reckon right some two and twenty places where the word is mentioned were it not too long to take them into particular examination I should gladly scan them all some we will let us begin with the last 2 Ioh. 1. 3. Ioh. 1. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius And The Elder to the elect Lady 3 Ioh. 1. What Elder is this Is it not the holy and deare Apostle St. Iohn The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder c. Feed the flock of God which is among you saith Saint Peter 1 Pet 5.1 Lo such an Elder as Saint Peter such were they whom he exhorts their title is one their worke is one I suppose no lay-Elder will take upon him this charge of feeding the flock of Christ with Saint Peter and if Beza would faine out of favour to their new erection straine the word so farre as to feeding by government yet it is so quite against the hair that Calvin himself and Chamier and Moulin and who not do every where contra-distinguish their Pastors to their ruling Elders And for the place in hand Calvin is cleare ours The flock of Christ saith he cannot be fed but with pure doctrin quae sola spirituale est pabulum Js any man sicke among you saith St. Iames Iames 5 3◠Let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oile in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick Are these Lay-Elders thinke we whom the Apostle requires to be called for who must comfort the sicke cure him by their prayers anoint him with their miraculous oyle for recovery Let me aske then were there no spirituall Pastors no Ministers among them And if there were such was it likely or fit they should stand by whiles lay-men did their spirituall services Besides were they lay-hands to which this power of miraculous cure by anointing the sicke was then committed Surely if we consult with S. Marke we shall finde them sacred persons such lips and such hands must cure the sick so then the Elders of S. John S. Peter S. James are certainly Pastors and Ministers And what other are S. Pauls For this cause saith he to Titus I left thee in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City What Elders are those The next words shall tell you Jf any be blamlesse the husband of one wife having faithfull children c. For a Bishop must be blamelesse as the steward of God Lo S. Pauls Elder here is no other than a Bishop even then as the Fathers observe every Bishop was a Presbyter And though not every Presbyter a Bishop yet every Presbyter a sacred and spirituall person such a one as is capable of holy Ordination thus might we easily passe through all these texts wherein there is any mention of Presbyters One onely place there is that might to a fore-inclined minde seeme
registred by themselves which we must believe they did or enacted For doctrine necessary for salvation we are for him but surely for evidence of fact or rituall observation this is no better than absurd rigour than unchristian incredulity Where is there expresse charge for the Lords Day Where for Paedobaptisme Where for publike Churches Where for Texts to be handled in Sermons Where for publike Prayers of the Church before and after them and many such like which yet we think deducible from those sacred authorities That is true of Hierome Hieron Tom. 6. in Agge 1. Quae absque authoritate c. Those things which men either finde or feigne as delivered by Apostolike tradition without the authority and testimonies of Scripture are smitten by the sword of Gods Spirit But what is this to us who finde this which we challenge for Apostolicall recorded in the written Word of God Or with what conscience is this alledged against us which is directly bent against the hereticall doctrines and traditions of the Marcionites either utterly without or expresly against the Scripture §. 11. The two famous Rules of Tertullian and S. Augustine to this purpose asserted I May not baulke two pregnant testimonies of the Fathers wherewith this great Anthierarchist and his Northerne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much and justly troubled as our cause is advantaged not so much because they are the sentences of ancient Fathers which they have learned to turne off at pleasure with scorne enough as for that they carry in them such clearenesse and strength of reason as will not admit of any probable contradiction The former is Tertull. conâ—r Marcion c. 4. that of Tertullian Constabit id esse ab Apostolis traditum quod apud Ecclesias Apostolorum fuerit sacrosanctum That shall clearely appeare to be delivered by the Apostles which shall have been religiously observed in the Churches of the Apostles What evasion is there of so evident a truth Vbi supra Me seemes saith Parker that Tertullian understands onely those Churches which were in the very time of the Apostles not the subsequent for he saith not Quod est but Quod fuerit and thus it may be held true But this is to mocke himselfe and those that trust him and not to answer all the Fathers testimony The question must be what in Tertullian's time should be held to have beene Apostolike and therefore he saith Constabit not Constitit now if he shall speak to Parkers sense he shall say That which was religiously kept in the Church planted by the Apostles and in their own time is to be held Apostolike what is the reader ever the wiser since it were equally hard to know what their Churches then did and what they themselves ordained to be done were it not for the continued tradition and practice descending from them to the succeeding ages so as either they must trust the Churches then present for the deduction of such truth or els nothing would be proved Apostolike Neither is there any thing more familiar with the Fathers than to terme those the Churches of the Apostles even for some hundreds of yeares after their decease wherein they after some residence had established a government for future succession which had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius speaketh as it were too easie to instance in a thousand particularities yea that it may appeare how Parker shuffles here against his owne knowledge there is a flat mention of the Churches after the time of Saint Iohn the longest liver of all that holy traine which he cals Ioannis alumnas Ecclesias Tert. l. 4. contra Marc. c. 5. So as this of Parkers is a miserable shift and not an answer The other is that famous place of Saint Augustine against the Donatists agiâ—ated by every pen Quod universa c. That which is held by the universall Church and not ordained by any Councell but hath beene alwayes retained in the Church is most truly believed to be delivered by no other than Apostolicall authority which Parker sticks not to professe the Achillaean argument of the Hierarchists Neither have they any cause to disclaime it the authority of the man is great but the power of his reason more For that which obtaineth universally must either have some force in it selfe to command acceptation or els must be imposed by some over-ruling Authority and what can that be but either of the great Princes as they are anciently called of the Church the holy Apostles or of some generall Councels as may authoritatively diffuse it through all the world If then no Councels have decreed the observation of an ordinance whence should an universall not reception onely but retention proceed saye from Apostolike hands No cause can work beyond his owne Sphere Private power cannot exceed its owne compasse Let not any adversary think to elude this testimony with the upbraiding to it the Patronage of the Popish Opinion concerning Traditions we have learned to hate their vanities and yet to maintaine our owne Truths without all feare of the patrocination of Popery We deny not some Traditions however the word for want of distinguishing is from their abuse growne into an ill name must have their place and use and in vaine should learned Chamier Fulk Whitakers Perkins Willet and other Controversers labour in the rules of discerning true Apostolicall Traditions from false and counterfeit if all were such and if those which are certainly true were not worthy of high honour and respect And what and how farre our entertainment of Traditions is and should be I referre my Reader to that sound and judicious discourse of our now most Reverend Metropolitan against his Iesuite A.C. Onwards therefore I must observe That whereas Chamier doth justly defend Cham. Panstrat de Traditionibus that the Evidence of these kind of Traditions from the universall receipt of the Church doth not breed a plerophory of assent he doth not herein touch upon us since his Opposition is only concerning points of faith Our defence is concerning matter of fact neither do we hold it needfull there should be so full a sway of assent to the testimony of the Churches practice herein as there ever ought to be to the direct sentence of the sacred Scripture Will none but a divine faith serve the turn in these Cases which Parker himselfe professes to bee farre from importing salvation Is it not enough that I doe as verily believe upon these humane proofes what was done by the Apostles for the plantation and settlement of the Church as I doe believe there was a Rome before Christ's Incarnation or that a Iulius Caesar was Emperour or Dictator there or Tully an Oratour and Consul or Cato a wise Senator or Catiline a Traytor Certainly thus much beliefe will serve for our purpose who so requires more besides the grounds of the Apostolike Ordinances recorded in Scripture thus seconded may take that counsell which boyes construe the Lapwing
to give for her nest Two things are answered hereto by Parker and his Clients The one That the rule of S. Augustine availes us nothing since that the Originall of Episcopacie is designed as from Decree by S. Hierome as from Councels by S. Ambrose but what that decree was or could be besides Apostolicall or what those Councels were hee were wise that could tell He and all his abettors I am sure cannot But of this in the Sequell The other after some mis-applied testimonies of our owne Authors who drive onely at matter of faith that hee can make instance in diverse things which were both universally and perpetually received no Councell decreeing them and yet farre from an Apostolike Ordination Sibrandus Lubbertus helpes him to his first instance borrowed from S. Augustine a fixed day for the celebration of Easter And what of that How holds his argument in this For that this or that day should be universally set and perpetually kept for that solemne Feast who that ever heard of the state of the Primitive time can affirme Since those famous quarrels and contrary pretences of their severall derivations of right from the two prime Apostles are still in every mans eye but that an Easter was agreed to be solemnly kept by the Primitive Church universally Euseb l. 5. hist c. 24. Quanquam enim in ipso die differeâ—tia erat in hoc tamen omnes Eâ—â—lâ—siae conspirâ◠unt Diem Paschatis observandum aliquem esse Ibid. Polit. Eccles those very Contentions betwixt Polycarpus and Annicetus do sufficiently declare and Parker himselfe confesseth Thus it was kept and withall decreed by no Councell yet not saith he by any Apostolicall institution How doth that appeare Nihil illi de festis c. They .i. the Apostles never delivered ought concerning Feast-dayes nor yet of Easter Why but this is the very question Parker denies it and must we take his word for proofe whereas we have the Apostles direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the feast And afterwards there is a plaine deduction of it from and through the times succeeding as is fully and excellently set forth by our incomparably-learned the late Bishop of Winchester to whose accurate discourse of this subject B. Andrewes Serm. of the Resur Ser. 13. I may well referre my reader His second instance is the Apostles Creed which our Authors justly place within the first three hundred yeares after Christ used and received by the whole Church and not enacted by any Councels yet not in respect of the forme of it delivered by the Apostles A doughty argument and fit for the great Controller of times and Antagonist of government we speak of the matter of the Creed he talkes of the forme of it we of things he of words and just so Tilenus his friend instances in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found in Ignatius But do these men suppose S. Augustine meant to send us to seek for all common expressions of language to the Apostles Let them tell us Is there any thing in the substance of that Creed which we cannot fetch from the Apostles Are not all the severall clauses as he cites them from S. Augustine per divinas Scripturas sparsae indè collectae in unum redactae scattered here and there in the Scriptures penned by the Apostles gathered up and reduced into this summe As for the syntaxe of words and sentences who of us ever said they were or needed to be fathered upon those great Legates of the Sonne of God Our Cause is no whit the poorer if we grant there were some universall termes derived by Tradition to the following ages whereof the Originall Authors are not knowne This will not come within the compasse of his quiddam vox est praetereà nihil His third instance is in the Observation of Lent for which indeed there is so great plea of Antiquity that himselfe cannot deny it to be acknowledged even by old Ignatius a man contemporary to some of the Apostles and as overcome by the evidence of all Histories grants it to be apparent that the whole Church constantly ever observed some kinde of Fast before their Easter no lesse than Theophilus Alexandrinus Polit. Eccles ubi suprà Lex abstinendi the Law of fasting in Lent hath beene alwayes observed in the Church and what need we more And yet saith Parker for all that Lent was not delivered by Apostolike authority Et in eo lapsi sunt Patres therein the Fathers are mistaken Magisterially spoken and we must believe him rather than S. Hierome who plainely tels us it is secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum according to the Tradition of the Apostles The specialties indeed of this fast admitted of old very great variety in the season in the number of dayes in the limitation subject and manner of abstinence as Socrates hath well expressed Socrat. l. 5. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a quoddam jejunium some kinde of fast I see no reason why the man that can be so liberall as to grant it alwayes observed by the universall Church should be so strait-laced as to deny it derivable from the Tradition of the holy Apostles and when he can as well prove it not Apostolike as we can prove it universall we shall give him the Bucklers To what purpose do I trace him in the rest the ancient rites of the Eucharist and of Baptisme urged out of Baronius of gestures in prayer of the observation of solemne Feasts and Embers let one word serve for all it will be an harder work for him to prove their universality and perpetuity than to disprove their originall let it be made good that the whole Church of Christ alwayes received them we shall not be niggardly in yeelding them this honour of their pedigree deducible from an Apostolicall recommendation In the meane time every not ungracious sonne of this spirituall Mother will learne to kisse the footsteps of the universall Church of Christ as knowing the deare and infallible respects betwixt him and this blessed Spouse of his as to whom he hath ingaged his everlasting presence and assistance Behold I am with you alwayes to the end of the world and will resolve to spit in the face of those seducers who go about to alienate their affections from her and to draw them into the causlesse suspicions of her chast fidelity to her Lord and Saviour To shut up this point therefore if we can show that the universall practice of the Church immediately after the Apostles and ever since hath been to governe by Bishops superiour to Presbyters in their order and jurisdiction our Cause is won §. 12. The fifth ground That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another forme of government different from that they received from the Apostles FIftly we may not entertaine so irreverent an opinion of the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church That they who
Tertullian Quod ab Apostolis non damnatur imo defenditur hoc erit judicium proprietatis That which is not condemned by the Apostles yea defended rather may well be judged for their own and then he would have found how strong this plea of Tertullian is against himselfe For where ever can he show Episcopacy condemned by the Apostle yea how clearly do we show it not allowed only but enjoyned finding therefore Episcopall imparity so countenanced by the written word we have good reason to call in all antiquity and the universall Church succeeding the Apostles as the voice of the Spouse to second her glorious husband Had there been any sensible gapp of time betwixt the dayes of the Apostles and the Ordination of Bishops in the Christian Church we might have had some reason to suspect this Institution to have been meerly humane but now since it shall appeare that this worke of erecting Episcopacy passed both under the eies and hands of those sacred Ambassadors of Christ who lived to see their Episcopall successors planted in the severall regions of the world what reason can any man pretend that this institution should be any other then Apostolicall had it been otherwise they lived to have Countermanded it How plain is that of St. Ambrose Paul saw Iames at Ierusalem because he was made Bishop of that place by the Apostles and to the same effect St. Austin contra Cresiâ—n 1. 2. St. Ierome the only Author amongst the ancients who is wont with any colour to be alleadged against the right of Episcopacy yet himself confesseth that Bishops began in Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist who died sixe yeers before St. Peter or St. Paul Thirty five yeers before St. James the Apostle Forty five yeers before Simon Cleophas who succeeded St. Iames in the Bishoprick of Ierusalem being the kinsman of our Saviour 〈◊〉 l. 3. c. 11. as Eusebius Brother to Joseph as Egesippus The same author can tell us that in the very times of the Apostles Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch indeed of Syria Sicut Smyrnaeorum ecclesia habens Policarpum ab Joanne conlocatum Tert. de praesc Policarpus of Smyrna Timothy of Ephesus Titus of Crete or Candia That Papias St. Iohns Auditor soon after was made Bishop of Hierapolis Quadratus a disciple of the Apostles Bishop of Athens after Publius his martyred predecessor And can we think these men were made Bishops without the knowledge and consent of the Apostles then living or with it without it we cannot say except we will disparage both the Apostles care and power And withall the holinesse of these their successors who were knowne to be Apostolicall men disciples of Christ Companions of the Apostles and lastly blessed Martyrs if with it we have our desire what shall I need to instance Our learned Bilson hath cleared this point beyond all contradiction In whom you may please to see out of Eusebius Egesippus Socrates Ierom Perpet goverm of the Ch. ch 13. Epiphanius others as exact a pedegree of all the holy Bishops of the Primitive Church succeeding each other in the foure Apostolicall Sees untill the time of the Nicene Councell as our Godwin or Mason can give us of our Bishops of England or a Speed or Stow of our English Kings There you shall finde from Iames the Lords brother who as Ierom himselfe expresly sate as Bishop in the Church of Ierusalem to Macarius who sate in the Nicene Councell 40. Bishops punctually named From St. Peter who governed the Church of Antioch and was succeeded by Evodius and he by Ignatius twenty seven In the See of Rome thirty seven In the See of Alexandria from Marke the Evangelist twenty three A Catalogue which cannot be questioned without too much injurious incredulity nor denied without an unreasonable boldnesse The same course was held in all other Churches neither may wee thinke these varied from the rest but rather as Prime Sees were patternes to the more obscure For the other saith Eusebius Euseb l. 3. c. 37. it is not possible by name to rehearse them all that were Pastours imployed in the first successions of the Church-government after the Apostles Neither indeed needeth it the wariest buyers by one handful judge of the whole sack and this truth is so cleer that the most judicious late Divines have not stuck to acknowledge so much as we have desired §. 9 The testimony and assent of Bucer and some famous French Divines BY the perpetuall observation of the Church even from the Apostles themselves saith Bucer we see it seemed good to the holy Ghost that among the Presbyters to whom the charge of the Church is specially committed one should have the singular Charge of the Churches and in that Charge and Care governed others for which cause the name of Bishops was attributed to these chiefe Governours of the Church Thus he in full accord with us And Chamier when he had first granted that statim post Apostolorum excessum immediately after the decease of the Apostles began the difference between a Bishop and Presbyter Cham. de membris Eccles milâ— t. l. 4. c. 1. straight as correcting himselfe addes Quid Res ipsa caepit tempore Apostolorum vel potius ab ipsis profecta est The thing it selfe began in the very time of the Apostles yea proceeded from them Thus hee although withall hee affirmes this difference not to have been Essentiall but Accidentall A distinction in this respect unproperly perhaps applied by him but otherwise Nulla est EsseÌ„tialis distinctio inter Episcopos Presbyteros respectu ministeriâ— idem enim utrisque est Apostoli tamen erant primarii a Christo ministri instituti qu bus non aliis Ecclesiae suae fundationem regimen commisit Spalat de Rep. Eccl. 1. 2. c. 3. Spalatensis justly both yelds and makes in a right and sure sense For certainly in the proper works of their ministeriall function in preaching and administring the Word and Sacraments they differ not or only differ in some accident but yet in those points which concerne Ordination and the administration of government then the difference is reall and palpable and that as we shall soon see not without a fixed Iurisdiction To the same purpose my reverend and ancient friend Moulin in one of his Epistles to the renowned Bishop of Winchester Molin Epi. ad Winton Ep. 3. Statim post c. Soon after the Apostles time saith he or rather in their owne time as the Ecclesiasticall story witnesseth It was constituted That in one Citie one Presbyter should have preeminence over his Colleagues who was called a Bishop Et hanc regiminis formam omnes ubique Ecclesiae receperunt and this form of government all Churches every where receive I do willingly take the word of these two famous professors of the French Church The one sayes Constitutum est It was constituted in the time of the Apostles the other that it proceeded from
gravity and holy Moderation as I verily suppoie our Island yeildeth none such let his person ruler let his calling be innocent and honourable It is not wealth or power that is justly taxable in a Bishop but the abuse of both and that man is weakly grounded which would be other than faithfull to his God whether in an higher or meaner Condition Forasmuch therefore as these imaginary dissimilitudes betwixt the Primitive Episcopacy and ours are vanished and ours for substance is proved to be the same with the first that ever were ordained and those first were ordained by Apostolike hands by direction and inspiration of the holy Ghost we may confidently and irrefragably conclude our Episcopacie to be of no lesse than Divine Institution §. 18. The practice of the whole Christian Church in all times and places is for this government of Bishops HOwever it pleaseth our Anti-praesulists to sleight the practice and judgement of all Churches save the Primitive Church which they also without all ground and against all reason shut up within the strait bonds of 250 yeers out of a just guiltinesse of their known opposition yet it shall be no small confirmation to us nor no lesse conviction to them that the voice as of the Primitive so of the whole subsequent Church of God upon earth to this very age is with us and for us Quod semper et ubique Alwaies and every where was the old and sure rule of Vincentius Lirinensis and who thinks this can fail him as well worthy to erre It were a long task to instance in all times and to particularize in all Churches Let this be the triall Turn over all histories search the records of all times and places if ever it can be shown that any Orthodox Church in the whole Christian world since the times of Christ and his Apostles was governed otherwise than by a Bishop superiour to his Clergy unlesse perhaps during the time of some persecution or short inter-regnum let me forfeit my part of the cause Our opposites dare not stand upon this issue and therefore when we presse and follow them upon this point they runne back fifteen hundred years and shelter themselves under the Primitive times which are most remote And why will they be thus cowardly They know all the rest are with us and against them yea they yeild it and yet would fain think themselves never the worse Antichrist Antichrist hath seized upon all the following times and corrupted their government what a meer gullery is this Do not they themselves confine Antichrist to Rome And hath not Bishop Downham diligently noted his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Boniface his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hildebrand his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times Surâ—ly had these men bestowed that time in perusing Bishop Downhams discourse concerning Antichrist Diatrib de Antichrist 〈◊〉 â—â—on Lessâ—â—â— which they have spent in confuting his worthie Sermon they had needed no other either reformation or disproof For can any indifferent man be so extreamly mad as to think all the Christian world these men only by good luck excepted is or ever was turn'd Antichrist or that that Antichrist hath set his foot every where in all assemblies of Christians and that he still keeps his footing in all Gods Church upon earth To say nothing else concerning the notorious falsity hereof what a derogation were this to the infinite wisedome providence and goodnesse of the Almighty that he should so slacken his care of his Church as that he should from the very beginning give it up wholly up to the managing of Antichrist for the space of more than fifteen hundred years without any check or contradiction to his government no not within the first Century Yea but his Mystery began to work betime True but that was the mystery or iniquity not the mystery of good order and holy government And if the latter times should be thus depraved yet can any man be so absurd as to think that those holy Bishops of the Primitive times which were all made of meeknesse and humility and patience being ever persecuted and cheerfully pouring out their blood for Christ Loco supra citato would in their very offices bolster up the pride of Anti-christ Or if they would yet can we think that the Apostles themselves who saw and erected this superiority as Chamier himself confesseth would be accessary to this advancement of Anti-christ Certainly he had need of a strong and as wicked a Credulity of a weak and as wilde a wit that can believe all this So the Semper is plainly ours and so is the ubique too All times are not more for us than all places Take a view of the whole Christian world The state of Europe is so well known that it needs no report Look abroad ye shall finde that for the Greek Church Christianography of the Greek Ch. the Patriarchate of Constantinople which in the Emperour Leo's time had 81 Metropolitans and about 38 Arch-bishopricks under his Jurisdiction hath under him still 74 Metropolitans who have divers Bishops under them As Thessalonica ten Bishops under him Corinth four Athens six c. For the Russian Church which since the Mahumetan tyranny hath subjected it self a Patriarch of their own neer home of Mosco he hath under him two Metropolitans four Arch-bishops six Bishops For the Patriarchate of Jerusalem to which have belonged the three Palestines and two other Provinces Tirius reckons also five Metropolitans and ten Bishops For the Patriarchate of Antioch which hath been accounted one of the most numerous for Christians it had as the same author reckons fifteen Provinces allotted to it and in them Metropolitans Arch-bishops and Bishops no fewer than 142. For the Armenian Christians they acknowledge obedience to the government of two Patriarks of their own the one of Armenia the greater who kept his residence of old at Sebastia the other of Armenia the lesse whose residence was formerly at Mytilene the Mother City of that Province now neer Tarsus in Cilicia Mr. Sands reports their Bishops to be 300 but Baronius 1000. For the Jacobite Christians they have a Patriarch of their own whose Patriarchall Church is neer to the City of Merdin in Mesopotamia and he hath under his government many Churches dispersed in the Cities of Mesopotamia Babylonia Syria For the Maronites whose main habitation is in Mount Lebanus containing in circuit 700 miles they have a Patriarch of their own who hath eight or nine Bishops under his Jurisdiction For the mis-named Nestorian Christians they are subject to their Patriarch of Musal or Seleucia besides others which they have had Under one whereof is said to have been 22 Bishopricks and more than six hundred Territories For the Indian Christians named from St. Thomas they have their Archbishop lately subjected to the Patriarch of Musall For the African Christians we finde that in one Province alone under one Metropolitane they have had 164 Bishops
government sadly complaining of Antichrist and that the light of life hath lien hid under the mask of Popery until this day of love and now he coms to erect his Seniores sanctae intelligentiae Elders of the holy understanding and his other rabble Beware therefore I advise you how you take up this challenge but upon better grounds disgrace not Gods Truth with the odious name of Antichristianisme honour not Antichrist with the claime and title of an holy Truth Confesse the device new and make your best of it But if any man will pretend this governmet hath beene in the world before though no footsteps remaine of it in any history or record he may as well tell me there hath beene of old a passage from the Teneriffe to the Moone though never any but a Gonzaga discovered it §. 8. A Recapitulation of the severall heads and a vehement exhortation to all Readers and first to our Northerne brethren NOw then I beseech and adjure you my deare brethren by that love you professe to beare to the Truth of God by that tender respect you beare to the peace of his Sion by your zeale to the Gospell of Christ by your maine care of your happy account one day before the Tribunall of the most righteous Iudge of the quick and dead lay every of these things seriously together and lay all to heart And if you finde that the government of Episcopacie established in the Church is the very same which upon the foundation of Christs Institution was erected by his inspired Apostles and ever since continued unto this day without interruption without alteration If you finde that not in this part of the Western Church alone into which the Church of Rome had diffused her errours but in all the Christian world farre and wide in Churches of as large extent as the Roman ever was and never in any submission to her no other forme of government was ever dreamed of from the beginning If you finde that all the Saints of God ever since the holy Martyrs and Confessors the Fathers and Doctors both of the Primitive and ensuing Church have not onely admitted but honoured and magnified this onely government as Apostolicall If all Synods and Councels that have been in the Church of God since the Apostles time have received and acknowledged none but this alone If you finde that no one man from the dayes of the Apostles till this age ever opened his mouth against it save onely one who was for this cause amongst others branded and discarded for an heretick If you finde that the ancient Episcopacie even from Mark Bishop of Alexandria Timothy Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Câ—ete were altogether in substance the same with ours in the same altitude of fixed superiority in the same latitude of spirituall jurisdiction if you finde the Laicke Presbytery an utter stranger to the Scriptures of God a thing altogether unheard of in the ancient times yea in all the following ages of the Church If you finde that Invention full of indeterminable uncertainties If you finde the practice of it necessarily obnoxious to unavoydable imperfections and to grosse absurdities and impossibilities Lastly if you finde the device so new that the first authours and abettors of it are easily traced to their very forme as those that lived in the dayes of thousands yet living If you finde all these as you cannot choose but finde them and many weighty considerations moe being so clearly laid before you I beseech you suffer not your selves to be led by the nose with an vnjust prejudice or an over-weening opinion of some persons whom you thinke you have cause to honour but without all respects to flesh and blood weigh the cause it self impartially in the ballance of Gods Sanctuary and judge of it accordingly Vpon my soul except the holy Scripture Apostolicall acts the practice of the ancient Church of God the judgement of all sacred Synods of all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church all grounds of faith reason policie may faile us we are safe and our cause victorious Why then O why will you suffer your selves to be thus impetuously carried away with the false suggestions of some mis-zealous teachers who have as I charitably judge of some of them whatsoever grounds the rest might have over run the truth in a detestation of error and have utterly lost peace in an inconsiderate chace of a fained perfection For you my Northerne brethren for such you shall be when you have done your worst if there were any foul personal faults found in any of our Church-governours as there never wanted aspersions where an extermination is intended alas why should not your wisdome charity have taught you to distinguish betwixt the calling the crime were the person vicious yet the function is holy why should God his cause be stricken because man hath offended yet to this day no offence proved Your Church hath been anciently famous for an holy and memorable Prelacie and though it did more lately fall upon the division of Dioeceses D. Henr. Spelman ex Hectore Boetio Anno 840. so as every Bishop did in every place as opportunity offered executo Episcopall offices which kinde of Administration continued in your Church till the times of Malcolme the third yet this government over the whole Clergie was no lesse acknowledged than their sanctimony after the setling of those your Episcopall Sees it is worth your note and our wonder which your Hector Boetius writes Sacer Pontificatus Sancti Andreae tanta reverentia c. The Bishoprick of St. Andrewes was with so great reverence and innocence of life from the first institution of it in a long line of Episcopall succession continued to the very time wherein we wrote this That six and thirty and more of the Bishops of that See were accounted for Saints Good Lord How are either the times altered or we There may be differences of carriage and those that are Oxthodoxe in judgement may be faulty in demeanour But I grieve and feare to speak it There is now so little danger of a Calender that no holinesse of life could excuse the best Bishop from being ejected like an evill spirit out of the bosome of that Church Deus omen c. In the name of God what is it what can it be that is thus stood upon Is it the very name of Episcopacie which like that of Tarquin in Rome is condemned to a perpetuall disuse What hath the innocent word offended Your own Church after the Reformation could well be contented to admit of Superintendents and what difference is here as Zanchius well but that good Greek is turn'd into ill Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superintendens Their power by your owne allowance and enacting is the same with your Bishops Their Dioeceses accordingly divided their residence fixed viz. The Superintendent of Orkney his Dioecesse shall be the Isles of Orkney Catnesse and Strathnever his Residence
and comfort that we have had such predecessours In vaine should we affect to be more holy and more happy than they Let them if they can produce such presidents of their parity But the case was theirs Had there been then any quarrell or Contestation against their Superiority this exception might have carried some weight but whiles there was not so much as the dreame of an opposition in the whole Christian world how could they be suspected to be partiall They wrote then according to their unanimous apprehension of the true meaning of the Scriptures and according to the certaine knowledge of the Apostolike Ordinances derived to them by the undoubted successions of their knowne predecessours Heaven may as soone fall as these evidences may faile us See then I beseech you brethren the question is whether a man may see any object better in the distance of one pace or of a furlong Whether present witnesses are more to be believed than the absent whether those which speake out of their own certaine knowledge and eye-sight or those which speake out of meere conjecture and if this judgement be not difficult I have what I would If I shall make it good that all ancient histories all testimonies of the holy Fathers of the Church of Christ are expresly for this government which we maintaine and you reject the Cause is ours §. 15. The 8th ground That those whom the ancient Church of God and all the holy Fathers of the Church have condemned for hereticall are no fit guides for us to follow in that judgment of the government for which they were so condemned EIghthly I must challenge it for an unquestionable truth that those men whom the ancient Church of God and the holy and Orthodoxe Fathers have condemned for erroneous and hereticall are not fit to be followed of us as the Authours of our opinion or practice for the government of the Church in those points for which they were censured It may fall out too oft that a man whose beliefe is sound in all other points may faile in one and proceed so farre as to second his error with contumacie The slips of the ancients are too well knowne and justly pitied but they passe as they ought for private oversights if any of them have stood out in a publike contestation as holy Cyprian did in that case of Rebaptizing the Church takes up his truth as her common stocke balkes his errour not without a commiserating censure Now if any man shall think fit to pitch upon the noted mis-opinions of the holiest authors for imitation or maintenance what can we esteeme of him but as the flye who passing by the sound parts of the skin fals upon a raw and ulcered sore And if the best Saints may not be followed in their faults how much lesse may we make choice of the examples or judgements of those who are justly branded by the whole Church for schisme or heresie What were this other than to run into the Prophets woe injustifying the wicked Esa 5.23 and taking away the righteousnesse of the righteous from them Is not hee like to make a good journey that chooses a blinde or lame guide for his way When the Spouse of Christ enquires after the place of his feeding Cant. 1.7 8. and where he maketh his flocke to rest at noone he answers her If thou know not O thou fairest among women goe thy wayes forth by the footsteps of the flocke and feed thy kids besides the shepheards tents what is his flocke but Christian soules and his shepheards but the holy and faithfull Pastors The footsteps then of this flock and the tents of these Shepheards are the best direction for any Christian soule for the search of a Saviour and of all his necessary truths To deviate from these what is it but to turne aside by the flocks of the Companions If then it shall be made to appeare that one onely branded Heretick in so many hundred yeares hath opposed the received judgement and practice of the Church concerning Episcopall government I hope no wise and sober Christian will think it safe and fit to side with him in the maintenance of his so justly exploded errour against all the Churches of the whole Christian world §. 16. The ninth ground That the accession of honourable titles and compatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling NInthly It must be yeelded that the accession of honourable titles or not incompatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling These things being meerely externall and adventitious can no more alter the nature of the calling than change of suits the body Neither is it otherwise with the calling than with the person whose it is The man is the same whether poore or rich The good Patriarch was the same in Potiphar's dungeon and on Pharaoh's bench Our Saviour was the same in Joseph's work-house and in the hill of Tabor Saint Paul was the same while he sate in the house with Aquila making of Tents that he was raigning in the Pulpit or disputing in the Schoole of Tyrannus As a wise man is no whit differently affected with the changes of these his outward conditions but looks upon them with the same face and manages them with the same temper so the judicious beholder indifferently esteemes them in another as being ready to give all due respects to them whom the King holds worthy of honour without all secret envie yet not preferring the Gold-ring before the poore mans richer graces valuing the calling according to its owne true worth not after the price or meanenesse of the abiliments wherewith it is cloathed If some garments be course yet they may serve to defend from cold others besides warmth give grace and comelinesse to the body there may be good use of both and perhaps one and the same vesture may serve for both purposes It is an old and sure rule in Philosophie That degrees do not diversifie the kinds of things The same fire that flashes in the Tow glowes in the Iuniper if one gold be finer than another both are gold if some pearles be fairer than other yet their kinde is the same neither is it otherwise in callings and professions We have knowne some Painters and in other Professions many so eminent that their skill hath raised them to the honour of Knighthood in the meane time their worke and calling is the same it was But what doe I go about to give light to so cleare a truth If therefore it shall be made to appeare that the Episcopacie of this Island is for substance the same with that of the first Institution by the Apostles howsoever there may have beene through the bounty of gracious Princes some additions made to it in outward dignity or maintenance The cause is ours §. 17. The tenth ground That those Scriptures whereon a new and different forme of government is raised had need
Christians especially in the greater Cities so multiplied that they must needs be divided into many Congregations and those Congregations must necessarily have many Presbyters and those many Presbyters in the absence of the Apostles began to emulate each other and to make parties for their own advantage then as St. Ierome truly notes began the manifest and constant distinction betwixt the Office of Bishops and Presbyters to be both known and observed For now the Apostles by the direction of the Spirit of God found it requisite a d necessary for the avoyding of schisme and disorder that some eminent persons should every where be lifted up above the rest and ordained to succeed them in the ouer-seeing and ordering both the Church and their many Presbyters under them who by an eminence were called their Bishops Or as the word signifies Supervisors and Governours So as the Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.7 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as the Offices so the names of Bishop and Deacon were of Apostolicall foundation These Bishops therefore were the men whom they furnished with their own ordinary power as Church-governors for this purpose Now the offi◠es grew fully distinct even in the Apostles daies and under their own hands although sometimes the names after the former use were confounded All the question then shortly is whether the Apostles of Christ ordained Episcopacie thus stated and thus fixedly-qualified with Imparitie and Iurisdiction For if we take a Bishop for a parochiall Pastor and a Presbyter for a Lay-elder as too many misconstrue the terms it were no lesse then madnesse to doubt of this Superioritie but we take Episcopacie in the proper and fore-defined sence and Presbyterie according to the only true and ancient meaning of the Primitive Church viz for that which we call now Priesthood the other is a meerly new and uncouth devise neither came ever within the Ken of antiquitie As for the further subdivision of this quarrell whether Episcopacy must be accounted a distinct Order or but a severall degree in the same Order there is heer no need for the present to enter into the discussion of it Especially since I observe that the wiser sort of our opposites are indifferent to both so that whichsoever you take may be granted them to be but Iuris humani And I cannot but wonder at the toughnesse of those other opposites which stand so highly upon this difference to have it meerly but a degree In the mean while never considering that those among the Pontificiall Divines which in this point are the greatest Patrons of this their fancy go all upon the ground of the Masse according to which they regulate and conforme their opinions therein First making all Ecclesiasticall power to have reference to the body of Christ Bellarm. de sacram Ord n. l. 1. c. 9. as Bellarmine fully then every Priest being able with them to make his Maker what possible power can be imagined say they to be above that The Presbyter therefore consecrating as well as the Bishop the Order in their conceit upon this ground can be but one So then these doughty Champions among us do indeed but plead for Baal whiles they would be taken for the only pullers of him down But for our selves taking order in that sense in which our Oracle of learning Bishop Andrewes Winton Epist ad Molin 1. ci es it out of the School qua potestas est ad actum specialem there can be no reason to deny Episcopacy to be a distinct order since the greatest detractors from it have granted the power of Ordination of Priests Deacons and of Imposition of hands for Confirmation to Bishops only They are Chamiers owne words Camer de Oe cumen Pontif. l. 10. c. 5. Accipere Episcopum novam potestatem Jurisdictionem non iverim inficias I cannot denie that a Bishop as such receiveth a new power and jurisdiction Moreover in the Church of England every Bishop receives a new Ordination by way of Eminence commonly called his Consecration which cannot be a void-Act I trow and must needs give more then a degree and why should that great and ancient Councell define it to be no lesse than sacriledge to put down a Bishop into the place of a Presbyter if it were only an abatement of a degree but howsoever this be yet if it shall appear that there was by Apostolicall Ordination such a fixed imparity and constant Iurisdiction amongst those who were intrusted with the teaching and governing Gods people that is of Bishops above the other Clergie as I have spoken we have what we contend for which whiles I see doubted I cannot but wonder with what eies men read St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus Surely in my understanding the Apostle speaks so home to the point that if he were now to give direction to an English Bishop how to demean himselfe in his place he could not speak more fully to the execution of this sacred Office For I demand what it is that is stood upon but these two particulars the especiall power of Ordination and power of the ruling and censuring of Presbyters and if these two be not clear in the charge of the Apostle to those two Bishops one of Crete the other of Ephesus I shall yield the cause and confesse to want my senses §. 5. The clear Testimonies of Scripture especially those out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus urged NOw because this is the main point that is stood upon and some wayward opposites are ready to except at all proofs but Scripture I shall take leave briefly to scan those pregnant Testimonies which I finde in those two Apostolicall Epistles and first Timothy is charged 1 Tim. 1.3 to charge the preachers of Ephesus that they teach no other Doctrine than was prescribed That they do not give heed to Fables and Genealogies If Timothy were an equall Presbyter with the rest those Teachers were as good as he what then had he to do to charge Teachers Or what would those Teachers care for his charge How equally apt would they be to charge him to keep within his own compasse and to meddle with his own matters It is only for Superiors to charge and inferiors to obey Secondly this charge S. Paul commits to Timothy to oversee and controll the unmeet and unseasonable doctrines of the Ephesian false teachers 1 Tim. 1.12 according to the prophecies which went before of him and that in opposing himselfe to their erroneous opinions he might war a good warfare This controlment cannot be incident into an equality In this charge therefore both given and executed however it pleased our Tileno-mastix in a scurrilous manner to jeer us upon the like occasion with a profecto erit pessimus Dominus Episcopus Paulus that S. Paul was an ill Lord Bishop I may truly say that both St. Paul and Timothy his disciple doth as truly Lord it heer in their
the Apostles themselves If it were constituted in their time and proceeded from them and were in this name received of all Churches then certainly it must be yielded to be of Apostolicall that is divine Institution More if it needed might be added and that out of Chamier's owne allegations Thus much truth is not grudged us by these ingenuous Divines All the question is of the nature and extent of this Superiority This difference there was but as that great Pancratiast others with him contend though many prerogatives were yielded to the Bishop in his place especially in the nobler Cities yet this place Cham. ubi supra was but Primatus ordinis a Primacy of order onely nulla erat hic dominatio aut jurisdictio sed sancta charitas Here was no rule no jurisdiction but all was swayed by an holy Charity Here 's the knot wher 's the wedge Why 't is here If charity did it then it doth it still for I hope Jurisdiction and charity may well stand together and Chamier had no reason to oppose things which agree so well as well in a Bishop as in a civill Magistrate for as for rule if we affect any but fatherly and moderate and such as must necessarily be required for the Conservation of peace and good order in the Church of God we doe not deprecate a Censure We know how to bear humble minds in eminence of places how to command without imperiousnesse and to comply wth out exposing our places to contempt so as those are but spightfull Frumps and malicious suggestions which are cast upon us of a tyrannicall pride and Lordly domineering over our brethren We are their Superiours in place but we hate to think they should be lowlier in mind But hereof we shall have fitter occasion in the sequel §. 10. The superiority and Iurisdiction of Bishops proved by the testimony of the first Fathers and Apostolicall men and first of Clemens AS for that Jurisdiction which we claime and those reverend and obedient respects which we expect from our Clergy if they be other than those which were both required and given in the very first times of the Gospell under the Apostles themselves and of those whom they immediatly intrusted with the government of the Church let us be hissed out from among Christians For proof of this right then whom should I rather begin with after the Apostles than an Apostolicall man a copartner and a deare familiar of the two prime Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul I mean Clemens whom St. Paul mentions honourably in his Epistle to the Philippians Philip. 4.3 by the title of one of his fellow-labourers whose names are in the booke of life One who laid St. Peter in his grave as Theodoret tells us and followed that blessed Apostle both in his See and in his Martyrdome yea one whom Clemens Alexandrinus enstyles no lesse than an Apostle of so great reputation in the Church that as Ierome tells us he was by some reputed the pen-man of the holy Epistle to the Hebrews and that learned Father findes the face of his style alike if not the same you looke now that I should produce some blowne ware out of the pack of his Recognitions or Apostolicall Constitutions but I shall deceive you And urge a Testimony from that worthy and Apostolike Author which was never yet soyled so much as with any pen either in Citation or much lesse in Contradiction of venerable and unquestionable authority It is of that noble and holy Epistle of his which he wrote to the Corinthians upon the occasion of those quarrels which were it seemes on foot in St. Paul's time and still continued Emulation and side-takings amongst and against their teachers which belike proceeded so farre as to the ejecting of their Bishop and Presbyters out of their places He gravely taxes them with this kinde of Spirituall conspiracy and advises them to keepe their own stations For which purpose having laid before them the history of Aarons rod budding and thereby the miraculous confirmation of his election he addes And our Apostles knowing by our Lord Jesus Christ the contention that would arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the name of Episcopacy and they Clem. Epist ad Corinthios 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for this very same cause having received perfect knowledge appointed the foresaid degrees and gave thereupon a designed order or list of Offices that when they should sleepe in their graves others that were well approved men might succeed in their charge or service Those therefore which were constituted by them or of other renowned men after them with the consent and good liking of the whole Church and have accordingly served unblameably in the Sheepfold of Christ with all meeknesse quietly and without all taynt of corruption and those who of a long time have carryed a good testimony from all men these we hold cannot justly or without much injury be put from their Office and service For it were no small sinne in us if we shall refuse and reject them who have holily and without reproofe undergone these Offices of Episcopacy And withall blessed are those Presbyters who having dispatched their journey by death have obtained a perfect and fruitfull dissolution For now they need not fear least any man shall out them from the place wherein they now are For we see that some ye have removed and displaced from their unblameably-managed office ye are contentious my brethren and are quarrelsome about those things which do not concerne salvation search diligently the Scriptures c. Thus Clement Did he write this trow we to the Church of Corinth or of Scotland Judge you how well it agrees but in the mean time you see these distinctions of degrees you see the quarrels arising about the very title You see that the Bishops ordained by the Apostles succeeded in their service you see they continued or ought to continue in their places during their life you see it a sin to out them except there be just cause in their misdemeanour The testimony is so clear that I well foresee you will be not a little pinched with it and desirous to give your selfe ease And which way can you doe it perhaps you will be quarrelling with the authority and antiquity of the Epistle But this yron is too hot for you to take up It hath too much warrant in the innate simplicity of it and too much testimony from the ancient Fathers of the Church for any adversary to contradict Though it could come but lately to our hands yet we know long since that it had the attestation of Iustin Martyr of Irenaeus who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Clemens Alexandrinus of Origen of Cyrill of Ierusalem of Photius who tearms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very worthy Epistle of Ierome who tearms it valde utilem a very profitable Epistle and tells us that it was of old publikely read as authenticall in Churches
reader see on what shelves of sand this late Allobrogicall device is erected shortly then let the abettors of the discipline pretended lay their heads together and agree what it is that we may trust to for Christs Ordinance and that once done let them expect our condescent till then and we shall desire no longer let them forbeare to gild their owne fancies with the glorious name of Christs Kingdome §. 6. The imperfections and defects which must needs be yeelded to follow upon the discipline pretended and the necessary inconveniences that must attend it in a kingdome otherwise setled THIS uncertainty of opinion cannot choose but produce an answerable imperfection in the practice whiles some Churches which hold themselves in a Parochiall absolutenesse necessarily furnished with all the equipage of discipline must needs finde those defective which want it so as the Genevian and French Churches and those of their correspondence which goe all by divisions of Presbyteries must needs by our late reformers be found to come short of that perfection of Christs kingdom which themselves have attained Those Churches which have no Doctors those which have no Deacons those which have no Widdowes what case are they in And how few have all these Neither is the imperfection more palpable and fatall where these ordinances are missing then is the absurdity and inconvenience of entertaining them where they are wisht to be for howsoever where some new State is to be erected especially in a popular forme or a new City to be contrived with power of making their owne Lawes there might perhaps be some possibility of complying in way of polâ—cie with some of the rules of this pretended Church-government yet certainly in a Monarchiall State fully setled and a Kingdome divided into severall Townships and Villages some whereof are small and farre distant from the rest no humane wit can comprehend how it were possible without an utter subversion to reduce it to these termes I shall take leave to instance in some particulars the strong inexpediences and difficulties whereof will arise to little lesse than either grosse absurdity or utter impossibility Can it therefore be possible in such a kingdome as our happy England is where there are thousands of small village-parishâ—s I speak according to the plots of our own laâ—est reformers for every Parish to furnish an â—cclâ—siasticall Consiâ— tory consisting of one or more Pastors a Doctor Elders Deacons perhaps there are not so many houses as offices are required And whom shall they then be Iudges of And some of these so farre remote from neighbours that they cannot participate of theirs either teaching or censure And if this were faisible what stuffe would there be Perhaps a young indiscreet giddy Pastour and for a Doctor who and where and what Iohn a Nokes and Iohn a Stiles the Elders Smug the Smith a Deacon and whom or what should these rule but themselves and their plougshares And what censures trow we would this grave Consistory inflict What decisions would they make of the doubts and controversies of their Parish What orders of government For even this Parochiall Church hath the soveraignty of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction If any of the fautors of the desired discipline dares deny thiâ— let him lookâ— to argue the case with his best friends who all are for this or nothing Else what means Cartwright to say that in such cases God powres out his gifts upon men called to these functions and makes them all new men Here are no miracles to be expected no enthâ—siasmes an honest â— hatcher will know how to hand his straw no whit better after his election than he did before and was as deeply politike before as now and equally wise and devout though perhaps he may take upon him some more state and gravity than he formerly did and what a mad world would it be that the Ecclesiasticall Lawes of such a company should be like those of the Medes and Persians irrevocable that there should be no appeale from them for as for Classes and Synods they may advise in cases of doubt but over-rule they may not And if a King should by occasion of his Court fixed in some such obscure Parish fall into the Censure even of such a Consistory or Presbytery where is he Excommunicable he is with them and what then may follow let a Buchanan speake Now were it possible that an Hockley in the hole or as Cartwright pleases to instance an Hitchin or Newington could yeeld us choice of such a worthy Senate yet whence shall the maintenance arise Surely as the host said upon occasion of a guest with too many titles we have not meat for so many it is well if a poore and painefull incumbent can but live But whence as the Disciples said should we have bread for all these And what doe you think of this lawlesse Polycoyranie That every Parish-Minister and his Eldership should be a Bishop and his Consistory yea a Pope and his Conclave of Cardinals within his owne Parish not subject to controlement not liable to a superiour Censure What doe you thinke of the power of Lay-men to binde and loose What of the equall power of votes in spirituall causes with their grave and learned Pastour What that those which are no Ministers should meddle with the Sacraments or should meddle with the Word and not with Sacraments To see a velvet cloake a gilt rapier and gingling spurres attending Gods Table To see a ruling Elder a better man than his Pastour Who knowes not Epist before Helvet Confes that it is the project of Beza and the present practice of Scotland that Noble-men or great Senatours should be Elders and perhaps at Geneva Deacons too and then how well will it become the house that great Lords should yeeld their Chaplaines to be the better men Danaeus de Eccles Disc c. 10. For as honest Daneus who knew the fashion well Longè est dissimile inferius c. The place of the Elders is utterly unlike and below the order of Pastours neither me thinks should it work any contenting peace to their great spirits to heare that upon their Consistoriall Bench their Peasantly-Tenant is as good as the best of them Artic. Genev. 7 and that if they looke awry to be so matched which T. C. suggests they disdaine not men but Christ These are but a handfull of those strange incongruities which will necessarily attend this mis-affected Discipline which certainly if they were not countervailed with other no lesse unjust contentments could never finde entertainment in any corner of the world but each man would rule and to be a King though of a mole-hill is happinesse enough Had men learned to inure their hearts to a peaceable and godly humility these quarrels had never been §. 7. The knowne newnesse of this invention and the quality of of the late authors or it BVt that which is aboue all other exceptions most undeniable and not least convictive and which