the same Power for Quis patiatur saith St. Hierom c. Who can endure that they whose Office it was to attend on Tables and Widows should equal themselves to those at whose Prayers the Body and Blood of Christ is consecrated But to let this pass I say 2. This Opinion of his reflects on our Saviour and his Apostles as if they had not sufficiently provided for the future Peace of the Church and that if the Presbyters in after-Ages had not been more provident the Church would have wanted a Remedy against Schisms And if such a Remedy were thought necessary by the whole World of Presbyters then is the Office of a Bishop founded on Natural Reason for it is most true that the Peace of the Church which consists of a great number of the Clergy which are as subject to Passions as other Men cannot be secured in St. Hierom's Opinion without a Superior Power over them Cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes To which if all the rest of the Clergy do not yield Obedience there may be as many Schisms in the Church as there are Priests And thus it would follow that neither Christ nor his Apostles did provide so well for the Churches Peace as common Prudence and Natural Reason would direct 3. It being granted there was a Superiority in the Apostles it is alledged That after their Deaths the Government for a long time fell to the several Presbyters until the inconveniency of it appeared by the increase of Schisms and then it was agreed Toto orbe through the whole World to advance one Presbyter with Power over the rest But when the Succession of Bishops is apparently recorded in most of the eminent Churches immediately after the decease of the Apostles it is an incredible story to tell us that the Power of Governing the Church was in the Body of the Presbyters of which there is not the least Testimony in Antiquity for any one Church nor any for the Time Place or Persons when this Toto orbe decretum this new alteration should be made nor is it probable that all the World would agree at once to make an alteration in Church-Government so that the result is this There was a Superiority in the Apostles days which ceased for a while and then the Presbyters raised in common but that Rule or Government was found to be the occasion of many Schisms and then the Apostolical Superiority was decreed by all to be Re-established 4. St. Hierom's words do not consist with themselves for when he says these Presbyters did exalt one chosen from among themselves to a higher degree whom they named a Bishop how can that consist with what immediately follows That a Presbyter had not the Power of Ordaining Quid enim facit exceptâ Ordinatione Episcopus quod non faciat Presbiter It seems by this the ancient Presbyters did first for necessary Causes first set up Bishops and then it will sound ill if our new Presbyters should put them down unnecessarily So that the most of what hath been alledged from the Divines of the Church of England in favour of Mr. J. H's New Model depending on the Testimony of St. Hierom and that being proved to be a single and slender Opinion contrary to the Practice of all Churches and not consistent with itself I suppose the Reader will not be of Mr. H's mind to destroy the established Constitution for a new dangerous and impracticable Invention which indeed was no elder then Socinus the first Inventer of Independent Churches granting to every Congregation a Power to Elect their Church-Officers for Governing their Affairs and deciding of Controversies And by this Design I perceive Mr. J. H. is of the same Judgment with Dr. Owen as well in Church-Discipline as in Doctrine whose Treatise of The In-dwelling of the Spirit and Praying by the Spirit not without a Contempt of our Lord's Prayer Mr. J. H. in his peaceable Disquisitions and Animadversions on a Discourse writ against Dr. Owen's book of the Holy Spirit he attempts to reconcile to the Truth as now he doth the Independent Principles and Practices with the Church of England FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 2. after the word Controversie add the Less is blessed of the Greater P. 4. l. 35 for of read or
be published a Summary of Doctrine to be received by all which all may conform to in their preaching for the observance of which let all Bishops and Parish-Priests be obliged by Oath and let none be admitted to Ecclesiastical Function unless he promise to observe that consent of Doctrine inviolate Let there be also a common form of Catechism for the use of Children I also greatly approve that there be a certain Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites from which it should not be lawful for the Pastors to recede in their Function as well to provide for the simplicity and unskilfulness of some as also that thereby the consent of all the Churches may more certainly appear and lastly that the desultory levity of some men who affect Novelties may be prevented So that there ought to be an established Catechism an established Administration of the Sacraments and publick Form of Prayers Did not Dr. Taylor a learned Martyr declare of the Liturgy as it stood in Edward the Sixth's days that according to the Rules of our Christian Religion in every behalf no Christian Conscience could be offended with any thing therein contained And is it well done to fill the Consciences of the People now with Scruples against almost every part of it How these men would have demeaned themselves under the Impositions and Bishops in the days of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth I cannot divine Uniformity being as strictly enjoyned then as it is now For such as did officiate in any other manner than was prescribed by the Liturgie were for the first Offence to suffer six months Imprisonment for the second to be imprisoned during life and if any should print in defamation of it or threaten Clergy men for using of it he was to be fined 10 l. for the first Offence 20 l. for the second and for the third to forfeit all his Goods and suffer Imprisonment during life And as for the Reign of Queen Mary let the Book of Martyrs be viewed and it will appear that they who bore Testimony to the Truths of Christ and truly deserved the name of Martyrdom were such as were eminent Assertors of the established Episcopacy and Liturgie such as Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Taylor Lest I should lead my Reader into an Error while I follow the Method of these Men I thought fit to inform the Reader That the Erudition of a Christian Man was printed in the Year 1543. and the Resolution of the Questions mentioned in the Papeer by Dr. Stillingfleet in the days of King Edward the Sixth which whether they were consulted of before viz. in the days of Henry the Eighth is not material to enquire into but the Method Mr. H. and Mr. Lobb used in the Reply to the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in the Preface saying in Henry the Eighth's time Cranmer in Answer to that Question Whether Bishops or Priests were first did assert c. And that he did not vary from that Opinion the same being by him asserted in the Necessary Erudition As to the Opinion of those three Divines which are mentioned in this Chapter viz. Tindal Lambert and Barnes the first says That the Apostles ordained two Officers viz. Bishop or Overseer and Deacon or Minister and adds That Deacons crept not into Orders till the Church grew Rich. Lambert he says was of the same Opinion which he took from St. Hierome who held Bishops and Priests to be one and the same of which we shall speak hereafter This Lambert was a stranger come from Avignon and would that every Parish should have his proper Bishop and in every City there ought to be many Bishops This Mr. Barnes denies and quotes St. Paul who said I have left thee behind me to set in every City a Bishop And the Article against Mr. Barnes was That he held that one Man might not by the Law of God be a Bishop of Two or Three Cities or of a whole Country he denyed not one Bishop in a City but thought that an Apostolical Institution His Opinion was That there ought not to be such Bishops as the Cardinal that examined him was Who told Mr. Barnes That this Article toucht him And it seems evident that this Man spake against such Usurpations as the Pope and Cardinals exercised wherein he agreed to the Sentiments of all those that subscribed the necessary Erudition And now there remains little too be said of Ch. 2. for that which he says from a Statute primo Edw. 6. was brought in by a Parenthesis as not part of the intention of the Statute which was to be learnt from the Preamble viz. That the Election of Bishops should not be in the Deans and Chapters to prevent Delays and Expences but in the King So that it respects only the External Government of the Church which is still acknowledged to be in the determination of the Magistrate who is Supreme in all Causes and over all Persons And therefore it needed not that Reflection of Dr. Heylin which our Author mentioneth viz. That it did weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order Which as hath been proved from the Erudition and the Judgment of the Divines mentioned in Dr. Stillingfleet's Paper was from Christ As to Bishop Poynet the sum of what he says is this Who knows not that the Name Bishop hath been so abused that when it was spoken the People understood no other thing but a great Lord Where he seems to describe a Cardinal or Popish Bishop that went in a white Rochet with a wide shaven Crown and that carried an Oil-Box with him wherewith he useth once in Seven Years Riding about to Confirm Children Certainly he could not mean this of Diocesan Protestant Bishops he being then Bishop of Winchester and the Name of Bishop being thus abused he thought it not amiss if another word were used in its place till the abused word were restored to its right Signification and then adds O how the Papists would triumph over us if they had like proof for the Names of Pope Cardinal c. as we have for the maintenance of the Names Superintendent i. e. in his sense Bishop Minister and such-like by us used Ch. 3. He says That Aley Bishop of Exeter Pilkington of Durham Jewel of Salisbury Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury were of the same Opinion with Tindal Lambert and Barnes and the Reformers in King Edward's time and what that was hath been considered I only observe in general that all these were Diocesan Bishops and therefore probably would write nothing to destroy their own Order That which Bishop Aley says is a Quotation from St. Hierome That a Presbyter and Bishop are the same c. But saith Bishop Aley it grew by little and little that the whole charge and care should be appointed to one Bishop within his Precinct Our Author mentions another Quotation from the Bishop out of St. Hierome viz. That Bishops are greater than Priests rather by Custome than by Dispensation from
Scripture maketh mention That they were conferred by Prayer and Imposition of hands Nor can it be thought that by the mentioning the manner of ordaining Bishops and Priests to be the same that therefore the Reformers thought the Order to be the same because the Deacons were ordained in the same manner and yet it is granted that they were distinct Orders And for the distinction of the Orders of Priests and Bishops enough had been spoken before and their present practice did demonstrate what their Opinions were If any desire farther satisfaction in these things let him read the Casuists de Sacramento Ordinis where this distinction is obvious Ordo significat vel ipsam potestatem vel Ordinationem quâ potestas datur And they may find that Bellarmine and generally the Jesuits reckon Bishops and Priests to be but one Order as our Dissenters would have it and among the later Schoolmen it was made a Question An Episcopatus sit Ordo à Presbyteratu distinctus and they generally hold that they are one in Genere Sacerdotis but are distinct in Specie the Episcopal Character including that of a Priest and so they hold that Solum Sacerdotium est Ordo Sacramentum So they dispute against the Imposition of hands in Ordination of Priests and the usual form was by delivering the Patine and Chalice with Bread and Wine with these words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificia pro vivis mortuis In nomine Patris c. And they affirm That the Pope can create a Bishop or Priest onely by saying Be thou a Bishop or Priest A Deacon is ordained by delivering of the Gospels into his hands and the Subdeacon by delivery of an empty Patine and Chalice Which superstitious uses our Reformers would destroy and reduce to the Apostolical Practice One Argument more these Dissenters mention from the Necessary Erudition as good as the rest p. 3. The Order of a Bishop or Priest is one and the same whose Office is not onely to preach and administer Sacraments but moreover to exercise Discipline namely in assoyling and loosing from sin such as be truly penitent and in excommunicating the obstinately vicious where from the Community of some Offices they would argue to the equality of the Orders though nothing is more evident than that the Bishops of this Age reserved the power of Confirmation Ordination and Diocesan Jurisdiction to themselves as their Right Jure Divino as will yet further appear But no-where doth the Necessary Erudition say That the Order of a Bishop or Priest is one and the same as they sophistically infer And they may as well affirm it to be the sence of the Council of Trent as of our Reformers who use almost the same words Non solum Sacerdotibus sed de Diaconis Sacrae Literae apertam mentionem faciunt I cannot conceive what ground these Dissenters had to fix this Errour of theirs upon unless an unwary Expression of Dr. Burnet's who perhaps considering the Arch-bishop's Judgment more than the Judgments of the rest doth assert the same as the Dissenters do But if they had it from him they had also in him a correction of this Error and it was far from the ingenuity of true Protestant Divines to publish the Error and conceal the Confutation of it Thus then Dr. Burnet discovers the whole Intrigue Dr. Burnet p. 336. of the first part That both in this Writing i.e. Dr. Stillingfleet's Manuscript and in the Necessary Erudition of a Christian man Bishops and Priests are spoken of as one and the same Office. But Dr. Burnet adds In the ancient Church they knew none of those subtilties which were found out in the later Ages it was then thought enough that a Bishop was to be dedicated to his Function by a new Imposition of hands and that several Offices could not be performed without a Bishop such as Ordination Confirmation c. But they did not refine in these matters so much as to enquire whether Bishops and Priests differed in Order and Office or only in degree But after the School-men fell to examine matters of Dignity with logical and unintelligible Niceties the Canonists began to comment upon the Rules of the Ancient Church they studied to make Bishops and Priests seem very near one to another so that the difference was but small They did it with different designs The School-men having set up the grand Mystery of Transubstantiation were to exalt the Priestly Office as much as was possible for the turning of the Host into God was so great an action that they reckoned there could be no Office higher than that which qualified a man to so mighty a performance Therefore as they changed the form of Ordination from what it was anciently believed to consist in viz. Imposition of hands to a delivering of Sacred Vessels and held that a Priest had his Orders by that Rite not by the Imposition of hands So they raised their Order or Office so high as to make it equal with the Order of a Bishop But as they designed to extol the Order of Priesthood so the Canonists had as great a mind to depress the Episcopal Order they generally wrote for preferment and the way to it was to extol the Papacy Nothing could do that so effectually as to bring down the power of Bishops this only could justifie the Exemptions of the Monks and Friars the Popes setting up Legantine Courts and receiving at first Appeals and then Original Causes before them together with many other Encroachments on the Jurisdiction of Bishops all which were unlawful if the Bishops had by Divine Right Jurisdiction in their Diocesses Therefore it was necessary to lay them as low as could be and to make them think that the power they held was rather as delegates of the Apostolick See than by a Commission from Christ or his Aposties So that they looked on the declaring Episcopal Authority to be of Divine Right as a blow that would be fatal to the Court of Rome therefore they did after this at Trent use all possible endeavours to hinder any such Decision it having been then the common Stile of that Age to reckon Bishops and Priests as the same Office it is no wonder if at this time the Clergy of this Church the greatest part of them being still leavened with the old Superstition and the rest of them not having enough of spare time to examine lesser matters retain still the former Phrases in this particular This might have been sufficient to correct the forwardness of our Dissenters to comply with the Papists in this new Notion of Bishops or Priests as one Order but because they abated nothing of their confidence by this I shall mind them of that severer Reprimand of the Doctor 's for which in their behalf I give him hearty thanks for I think he shall have none from them It is in these words N. B. On this I have insisted the more that it may appear how little