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
our interest or your offence however you may be applauded for the time by some ignorant and partiall abettors wiser posteritie shall blush for you and censure you too justly for some kind of Apostasie Sure I am you have done that to your selfe which if your Presbytery had done to you would have been in the Construction of the great Councell of Chalcedon Concil Chalced. of 150 Bish Can. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no other than sacriledge For me I am now breathing towards the end of my race the goale is already in mine eye young men may speake out of ambitious hopes or passionate transportations I that am now setting foot over the threshold of the house of my age what aime can I have but of the issue of my last account whereto I am ready to be summoned before the Judge of quick and dead Neither can you look as is likely to be long after me setting therefore that awfull Tribunall to which we shall shortly be presented before our eyes let us reason the case in a modest earnestnesse I should be ashamed to find lesse zeal in my self for holy Episcopacy than you think you have show'd in disclaiming it Say therefore I beseech you before God and his elect Angels say what it is besides perhaps the feare of plundering a faire temporall estate by the furious multitude say what it can be that induced you to this sinfull to this scandalous repentance shew me true grounds and take me with you How wearie should I be of this Rochet if you can shew me that Episcopacie is of any lesse than divine Institution The eminence of that calling which you have given up as too good for you will not allow you though perhaps you might to plead ignorance Win him by your powerfull arguments who is so far from being wedded to the love of this misconceived pomp that he envies the sweet peace of his inferiours Let me tell you it is your person that aggravates your crime For a sheep to stray it is no wonder but for a Shepheard yea a guide and director of Shepheards such God and the Church had made you not to wander himselfe only but to lead away his flock from the green pastures and comfortable waters of divine Truth to the drie and barren desarts of humane inventions it cannot be but as shamefull as it is dangerous both in an high degree That some poore seduced soules of your ignorant vulgar should condemne that calling which they were never suffered to looke at but with prejudicate eyes or that some of your higher-spirited Clergie out of an Ambition of this dignity and anger of the repulse should snarle at this denied honour or that some of your great ones who perhaps do no lesse love the lands than they envie and hate the preheminence of Bishops should crie downe that sacred function could be no other than might in times so conditioned be expected and by fore-expectation made the more tolerable But for a man held once worthy to be graced with the chair of Episcopacie to spurne downe that once honourable seat and to make his very Profession a sin is so shamefull an indignity as the judicious of the succeeding ages will shake their heads at and not mention without just indignation If you were guilty to your selfe of any noted personall exorbitances or of any insolencies or offensive miscariages in your ill-placed government such perhaps as have inraged your angry vulgar these had beene just matter of your humble penitence and worthy of your most submisse deprecation but to repent you of a most lawfull honourable holy divine vocation and thereby to cast mire in the faces of the blessed Apostles who received it from their God and Saviour and by the guidance of his Spirit ordained it is such an act as can scarce be expiated with floods of over-latest teares Come then I beseech you and let us in the feare of God reason sadly together not in a vaine affectation of victorie like some young Sophisters but as sober Divines in a fervent pursuit of that Truth which God and his purer Church have left and consigned to us That God who is the Father of lights and the God of truth and peace inlighten the eyes of his poor seduced people that they may see and acknowledge his Truth not suffering themselvs to be blinded with unjust prejudices and false suggestions and that they may know those things which belong to their peace §. 2. The difference of the condition of forraign Churches and Divines from those of our Northern neighbours BUt first ere we enter these lists let me advise you and your now-Maister the faction not to deceive your selves vainly with the hope of hiding your heads under the skirt of the authority of those Divines and Churches abroad which retain that form of government whereto you have submitted For know their case and yours is far enough different They plead to be by a kinde of necessitie cast upon that condition which you have willingly chosen They were not they could not be what you were and might still have beene Did any of them forsake and abjure that function of Episcopacie which he might freely have injoyed with the full liberty of professing the Reformed Religion It is true many Bishops have beene faultie in their owne persons and condemned too justly of exorbitance in managing their calling but where the calling is as it should be severed from these exceptions to the person did ever any wise man or Christian Church condemn that calling for it selfe Yea if the last Bishop of Geneva had become a Protestant aad consented in matter of Doctrine to Calvin Farret Viret have you or any man living just cause to think that the Citie would not gladly have retained his government still and thought themselves happy under such a protection would they have ejected him as an enemy whom they might have enjoyed as a Patron Would they have stood upon his Episcopacie whiles they had his concurrence in the truth of Religion No man that hath either braine or forehead will affirme it since the world knowes the quarrell was not at his dignitie but at his opposition to the intended Reformation But because this is only a suggestion of a then-future-conditionate contingencie and may perhaps meet with some stubborn contradiction heare what Calvin himselfe saith for himselfe and his Copartners Calvin de necessit Eccles Reformandae Talem si nobis hierarchiam exhibeant in qua sic emincant Epâ—scopi ut Christo subesse non recusent ut ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur c. tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear si qui erunt qui nâ—n eam rev renter summáque obedientia observant Cited also as approved by Chamier De membris Eccles Lib. 4. Cap. 1. If they would saith he bring unto us such an Hierarchie wherein the Bishops shall so rule as that they refuse not to submit themselvs
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
to CHRIST that they depend upon him as their only head c. then surely if there shall be any that shall not submit themselves to that Hierarchie reverently and with the greatest obedience that may be I confesse there is no Anathema of which they are not worthy Thus he in the treatise of the necessity of reforming the Church Do you heare your Doome from your owne Oracle Loe such and no other was that Hierarchie wherein you lately bore a part and which you have now condemned make account therefore of the merit and danger of Calvins just Anathema Interea tamen Ecclesiae authoritatem vel pastâ—rum Superintendentium quibus Ecclesiae râ—gendae provinâ—â—a mandata est sublatam nâ—lumus Fatemur ergo Episcopos sivâ— Pastores râ—vâ—renter auâ—iendos quaâ—enus pro suae functionis ratione verbum Dei docent Confess Fidei nomine Gall. Eccles Yet againe the same Authour in his Confession of Faith written in the name of all the French Churches speaking of the depraved estate of the Roman Church then in the fieri of Reforming plainly writes thus Interea tamen Yet in the meane time we would not have the Authority of the Church or of those Pastors or Superintendents to whom the charge of Governing the Church is committed taken away we confesse therefore that these Bishops or Pastors are reverently to be heard so farre forth as according to their function they teach the Word of God And yet more plainly Sanè si veri Episâ—opi essent aliquid iis in hac parte auth ritatis tribuerem non qua tum sibi postâ—lant sed quantum ad politiam Ecclesiae ritè ord nandam requiritur Calv. Instit l. 4. c. 10. Certainely saith hee speaking even of Popish Bishops if they were true Bishops I would yeeld them some authority in this Case not so much as themselves desire but so much as is required to the due ordering of the Policie or Government of the Church Lastly for it were easie to heap up this measure in an Epistle of his wherein the question is purposely discussed what is to be done if a Popish Bishop shall be converted to the reformed Religion he so determines it That it is fit such an one first renounce his Popish power of sacrificing and professe to abstaine from all the superstitions and foedities of the Romish Religion then that he must doe his utmost endeavour that all the Churches which belong to his Bishopricke may be purged from their Errours and Idolatrie and at last concludes that both his possessions and authority too should be left him By vertue whereof he must take order that the Ministers under him do duly preach Gods Word as himselfe also must doe Thus he wisely and moderately Not first of all stripping him of his Episcopall power and discharging all his Clergie of their respects and obedience to him and reducing him to the rank of the meanest Plebeian Presbyter as some hot heads would have done You heare how judicious and moderate Calvins opinion was then and had he been in your late pretended Assembly at Glasgow or this of Edinburgh what vote he would have given Had he had the casting voice your Coat had not been cast for him How happy were it for your Churches if all among you who so much honour his name would as readily submit to this his judgement Sure I am had it been so with you you had been as far from defying Episcopacie in holy professors as you are now from truth and peace § 3. The judgement of the German Reformers concerning the retaining of Episcopacie ANd that the French Reformers may not herein bee thought to goe alone take notice I beseech you what the Germane Divines of the Ausburgh-Confession have freely professed to this purpose Who taking Occasion to speake of Canonicall Ordination break forth into these words following Sed Episcopi c. But the Bishops say they do either force our Priests to disclaime and condemne this kind of Doctrine which we have here Confessed or by a certaine new and unheard of kind of Cruelty put the poore and innocent soules to death These causes are they which hinder our Priests from receiving their Bishops so as the crueltie of the Bishops is the Cause why that Canonicall Government or Policie Quam nos magnopere conservare cupiebamus which we earnestly desired to conserve is in some places now dissolved And not long after in the same Chapter Prorsus hic iterum c. And now here again we desire to testifie it to the world that we will willingly Conserve the Ecclesiasticall and Canonicall government if only the Bishops will cease to exercise Cruelty upon our Churches This our will shall excuse us before God and before all the world unto all posterity that it may not be justly imputed unto us that the Authority of Bishops is impayred amongst us when men shall heare and read that we earnestly deprecating the unjust cruelty of the Bishops could obtaine no equall measure at their hands Thus those learned Divines and Protestants of Germany wherein all the world sees the Apologist professeth for them that they greatly desired to conserve the government of Bishops that they were altogether unwillingly driven from it that it was utterly against their heart that it should have beene impaired or weakened That it was onely the personall crueltie and violence of the Romish Persecutors in a bloody opposition to the doctrine of the Gospell which was then excepted against To the same purpose is that Camer in vita Melancth which Camerarius reports concerning those two great Lights of Germany Melancthon and Luther That Philip Melancthon not only by the consent but the advice of * Who professeth also so much in the Smalcaldian Articles Art 10. Luther perswaded the Protestants of that time that if Bishops would grant free use of the true doctrine their ordinary power and administration over their severall Dioeceses should be restored unto them And the same Melancthon in an Epistle to Luther hath thus Melanct. Epist Luthero You do not believe in how great hatred I am both with the Noricians and I know not whom els for restoring to the Bishops their jurisdiction and in a most true censure in his history of the Augustan Confession Melanct. Camerario hist Confâ—s August per Chytraeum Hoc autem malè habet quosdam immoderatiores reddi jurisdictionem restitui politiam Ecclesiasticam This saith he troubles certaine immoderate men that jurisdiction is re-delivered to the Bishops Buc. de Regno Christi He that desires to see more testimonies of this kinde I refer him to the Survay of Discipl chap. 8. and their Ecclesiasticall policie restored As for Bucer he is noted and confessedly acknowledged for a favourer of Religious Episcopacie See now I beseech you how willing these first reformers were to maintaine and establish Episcopall government how desirous to restore it how troubled that they might not continue
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