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
to be more evident and unquestionable than those which are alledged for the former rejected TEnthly It cannot but be granted That those passages of holy Scriptures wherein any forme of government different from the anciently received and established is pretended to be grounded had need to be very cleare and unquestionable and more evident and convictive than those whereon the former now rejected policy was raised For if only Scripture must decide this question and no other either evidence or judgment will be admitted besides it And if withall there be difference concerning the sense of the texts on either sides alledged it must needs follow that the clearer Scriptures must carry it and give light to the more obscure we are wont to say that possession is eleven points of the Law surely where that is had and hath long been held it is fit there should be a legall ejection and that ejection must bee upon better evidence of right If therefore the Church of God have beene quietly possessed of this government by Bishops for above these sixteene hundred yeares it is good reason the ejectors should show better proofe than the ancient possessours ere they be outed from their Tenures And what better proofe can there be than more cleare Scripture Shortly then if it shall bee made to appeare that the Scriptures brought for a lay-Presbytery are few doubtfull litigious full of diverse and uncertaine senses and such as many and much clearer places shall plainely show to be otherwise meant by the Holy Ghost than these new maisters apply them then it cannot be denied that the lay-Presbytery hath no true footing in the Word of God and that the old forme of Administration in an imparity of Ministers ought onely to be continued in the Church §. 18. The eleventh ground That if Christ had left this pretended order of government it would have ere this time been agreed upon what that forme is and how to be managed ELeventhly I may well take it for granted neither can it reasonably be denied that if the Order which they say Christ and his Apostles did set for the government of his Church which they call the Kingdome and Ordinance of Christ be but one and that certaine and undoubted then certainly it must and should and would have beene ere this agreed upon by the abettors of it what and which it is For it cannot without impiety be conceived or said without blasphemie that the Sonne of God should erect such a Kingdome upon earth as having lyen hid for no lesse than sixteene hundred yeares cannot yet be fully knowne and accorded upon so that the subjects may be convinced both that it is his and by what Officers and what rules it must be managed If then it shall be made to appeare that the pretenders to the desired Discipline cannot yet all this while agree upon their verdict for that kingdome of Christ which they challenge it will be manifest to every ingenuous Reader that their platformes of this their imagined kingdome are but the Chimericall devices and whimsies of mens braines and worthy to bee entertained accordingly §. 19. The twelfth ground That if this which is challenged be the kingdome of Christ then those Churches which want any essentiall part of it are mainly defective and scarce any at all entire TWelfthly It must be yeelded that if this which they call for be the Kingdome and Ordinance of Christ then it ought to be erected and maintained in all Congregations of Christians all the world over And that where any essentiall part thereof is wanting there the Kingdome of Christ is not entirely set up but is still mainly defective If therefore it shall appeare that even in most of those Churches which doe most eagerly contend for the Discipline there neither are nor ever were all those severall Offices which are upon the list of this spirituall Administration it will irrefragably follow that either those Churches doe not hold these offices necessary which having power in their hand they have not yet erected or els that there are but very few Churches if any upon earth rightly constituted and governed which to affirme since it were grossely uncharitable and highly derogatory from the just glory of Gods kingdome under the Gospell it will be consequent that the device is so lately hatched that it is not yet fledge and that there is great reason rather to distrust the plots of men than 〈◊〉 condemne the Churches of God §. 20. The thirteenth ground That true Christian policie requires not any thing absurd or impossible to be done THirteenthly I have reason to require it granted That true Christian policie requires not any thing which is either impossible or absurd to be done If therefore it shall be pretended that upon the generall grounds of Scripture this sacred Fabricke of Discipline raised by the wisedome of some holy and eminent reformers conforme to that of the first age of the Church it is meet it should be made manifest that there is some correspondence in the state of those first times with the present and of the Condition of their Churches with ours Otherwise if there be an apparent difference and disproportion betwixt them it cannot sound well that one patterne should fit both If then both the first planters and the late reformers of the Church did that which the necessity of the times would allow this is no president for the same persons if they were now living and at their full liberty and power neither can the Churches of those Cantons or Cities which challenge a kinde of freedome in a Democraticall State be meet examples for those which are already established under a setled Monarchy If therefore it shall appeare that many foule and unavoidable inconveniences and if not impossibilities yet unreasonable consequences will necessarily follow upon the obtrusion of a Presbyterian government upon a Nationall Church otherwise setled all wise Christians who are members of such Churches will apprehend great and just cause why they should refuse to submit and yeeld approbation to any such novell Ordinances §. 21. The fourteenth ground That new truths never before heard of especially in maine points carrie just cause of suspicion FOurteenthly It must be granted that Those truths in Divinity which are new and hitherto unheard of in the Church but especially in those points which are by the fautors of them held maine and essentiall carrie just causes of suspicion in their faces and are not easily to be yeelded unto And surely if according to Tertullians rule quod primum verum That the first is true then the latest is seldome so where it agrees not with the first After the teeming of so many ages it is rarely seene Liberum esse praeter contra sanctorum Patrum Doctorum sententiam in religionis doctrina innovare Alphons Var. Toletan de Stratagem Iesuit that a New and Posthumous verity is any other than spurious It was the position it seemes of
Poza the braine-sick Professour of Divinity set up by the Iesuites at Madrill That it is free for any man besides and against the judgement of the holy Fathers and Doctors to make innovations in the doctrine of religion And for his warrant of contemning all ancient Fathers and Councels in respect of his owne Opinions borrowes the words in Ecclesiasticus Concil Constantinop Act. 5. Ecclesiast 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cited by the Councell of Constantinople Beatus qui praedicat verbum inauditum Blessed is he that preaches the word never before heard of impiously and ignorantly marring the text mistaking the sense belying the Authour slandering the Councell the misprision being no lesse ridiculous than palpable For whereas the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in auditum he turnes them both into one adjective inauditum and makes the sentence as monstrous as his owne stupidity Pope Hormisda in his Epistle to the Priests and Deacons of Syria turnes it right Qui praedicat verbum in aurem obedientis He that preaches a word to the obedient farre bee it from any sober and Orthodoxe Christian to entertaine so wild and wicked a thought he hath learned that the old way is the good way Ier. 6.16 and wil walk therin accordingly and in so doing finds rest to his soule he that preacheth this word is no lesse happy than hee that obediently heares it neither shall a man finde true rest to his soule in a new and untrodden by-way If therefore it shall be made to appeare that this government by lay-Presbyters is that which the ancient and succeeding Church of God never acknowledged untill this present age I shall not need to perswade any wise and ingenuous Christian if otherwise he have not lost the free liberty of his choice that he hath just cause to suspect it for a misgrounded novelty For such it is §. 22. The fifteenth ground That to depart from the judgment and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and to betake our selves to a new invention cannot but be besides the danger vehemently scandalous c. LAstly it must upon all this necessarily follow that to depart from the judgement and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and abandon that ancient forme wherein we were and are legally and peaceably infeoffed to betake our selves to a new one never till this age heard of in the whole Christian world it cannot but be extremely scandalous and savour too much of Schisme How ill doth it become the mouth of a Christian Divine which Parker hath let fall to this purpose Quod duo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posuerit Park Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. 5. Who dareth to challenge learned Casaubon for proposing two means of deciding the moderne controversies Scriptures and Antiquity what more easie triall can possibly be projected Who but a profest Novellist can dislike it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the old and sure rule of that sacred Councell and it was Salomons charge Remove not the old land-marks Prov. ◠If therefore it shall be made to appeare that Episcopacie as it presupposeth an imparity of order and superiority of government hath been a sound stake pitched in the hedge of Gods Church ever since the Apostles times and that Parity and lay-Presbytery are but as new-sprung bryars and brambles lately woven into the new-plashed fence of the Church In a word thus if it be manifest that the government of Bishops in a meet and moderate imparity in which we assert it hath been peaceably continued in the Church ever since the Apostolicall Institution thereof and that the government of lay-Presbyters hath never beene so much as mentioned much lesse received in the Church untill this present age I shall need no farther argument to perswade all peaceable and well-minded Christians to adhere to that ancient forme of Administration which with so great authority is derived unto us from the first Founders of the Gospell and to leave the late supply of a lay-Presbyterie to those Churches who would and cannot have better The Second Part. §. 1. The termes and state of the Question setled and agreed upon THese are the grounds which if they prove as they cannot but do firm and unmoveable we can make no fear of the superstructure Let us therefore now addresse our selves to the particular points here confidenly undertaken by us and made good all those severall issues of defence which our holy cause is most willingly cast upon But before we descend to the scanning of the matter reason and order require that according to the old and sure rules of Logicians the terms be cleared and agreed upon otherwise we shall perhaps fight with shadows and beat the ayr It hath pleased the providence of GOD so to order it that as the Word it self the Church so the names of the Offices belonging to it in their severall comprehensions should be full of Senses and variety of use and acception and that in such manner that each of them runs one into other and oftentimes interchanges their Appellations A Prophet we know is a foreteller of future things an Evangelist in the naturall sence of the word is he that preaches the glad tidings of the Gospel an Apostle one of Christs twelve great Messengers to the world a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Overseer of the Church a Presbyter some grave ancient Churchman a Deacon a servant or Minister in the Church yet all these in Scripture are so promiscuously used that a Preacher is more then once termed a Prophet 1 Cor. 14. Act 1.20 2 Ep. Iohn 1 Peter 5.1 1 Tim. 4.6 an Evangelist an Apostle an Apostle a Bishop an Apostle a Presbyter a Presbyter an Apostle as Romans 6.7 a Presbyter a Bishop and lastly an Evangelist and Bishop a Deacon or Minister for all these met in Timothy alone who being Bishop of Ephesus is with one breath charged to do the work of an Evangelist and to fulfill his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ministery It could not be otherwise likely but from this community of names there would follow some confusion of apprehensions for since names were intended for distinction of things where names are the same how can the notions be distinguished But howsoever it pleased the Spirit of God in the first hatching of the Evangelicall Church to make use of these indistinct expressions yet all this while the Offices were severall known by their severall Characters and employments So as the function and work of an Apostle was one viz. To plant the Church and to ordain the Governours of it of a Bishop an other to wit To manage the Government of his designed Circuit and to ordain Presbyters and Deacons of a Presbyter another namely To assist the Bishop and to watch over his severall charge of a Deacon another besides his sacred services to order the stock of the Church and to take care of
EPISCOPACIE BY Divine Right ASSERTED BY JOS. HALL B. of Exon. IN DOMINO CONFI 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R.B. for Nathanael Butter at the Pide-Bull by S. Augustine's Gate 1640. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent Majestie our most Gracious Soveraigne Lord CHARLES By the Grace of GOD of Great Britaine France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. May it please your Majestie WHen about a year agoe I presumed to tender to your Royall hands some few short Propositions concerning Church-Government I little thought that either the publike or my own Dioecesan Occasions would have called on me for so large and speedy a pursuance of them as now I am invited unto Episcopacie since that time hath suffered in the north even to the height of patience and I have met with some affronts within my owne Iurisdiction All evils especially those of Schism◠〈◊〉 as the plâ—gâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—ing and doe much mischiefe both in their act and the spreading It was therefore time for me to bend my best indeavours both to the remedy of what had happened in mine owne Dioecesse and prevention of what future mischiefe might ensue And long I sate downe and waited for the undertaking of some abler pen but seeing such a silence in so needfull a subject as one that might not be too long wanting either to the vindication of the common cause or the safety of my owne charge I have thus boldly rushed forth into the Presse I cannot be so weakly inconsiderate as to think that I could put my finger into this fire and not be scorched I doe well know never any man toucht upon this quarrell who was not branded with the deepest censure Yet I do willingly sacrifice my self herein to God and his Truth I confesse my heart burnes within mee to see a righteous cause thus martyred through unjust prejudice and to see some honest and well-minded Christians misled into a palpable error under the pretence of zeale and piety by the meere names of two or three late Authors not more learned and godly than in this point grossely mistaken If your Majesties great Cares of State could part with so much leisure as to peruse this short but faithfull relation of the first ground and originall of this unhappie division in the Church it might please your Majestie to be informed that when Petrus Balma the last Bishop of Geneva was by his mutining Citizens frighted and driven out of his place and that Church was now left headlesse Farell and Viret two zealous Preachers there devised and set up a new platforme of Church-Government never before heard of in the Christian World Themselves would supply the Bishop and certaine Burgesses of the City should supply his assistant Clergie and both these together would make up the body of an Ecclesiasticall Senate or Consistorie This strange bird thus hatched by Farell and Viret was afterwards brooded by two more famous successours and all this within the compasse of our present age Now had this forme being at first devised only out of need for a present shift contained it selfe within the compasse of the bankes of the Lemane lake it might have beene there retained with either the connivence or pitie of the rest of the Christian world but now finding it selfe to grow in some places through the fame of the abettors into request and good successe it hath taken the boldnesse to put it selfe forth to the notice and approbation of some neighbour Churches and some there are which I blesse my selfe to see that have taken such liking to it that they have affected a voluntary conformity thereunto and being weary of that old form of Administration which hath without contradiction continued in the whole Christian Church from the times of the blessed Apostles of Christ inclusively untill this present age are not onely eager out of their credulity to erect this new frame but dare venditate it to the world after fifteene hundred yeares deep silence for the very Ordinance and Kingdome of Christ whereas if any living man can shew any one lay Presbyter that ever was in the Christian World till Farell and Viret first created him let me forfeit my reputation to shame and my life to justice This is the true ground of this wofull quarrell wherein I cannot but heartily pitie the misguidance of many well-meaning soules of your Majesties subjects which are impetuously carried away in the throng by the meere sway of names and tyrannie of an ignorant zeale not being so much as suffered to know where they are or on what ground they goe the fervent desire of whose reclamation as of the settlement of others whom the ill condition of the time might cause to stagger hath put my pen upon this envious but necessarie taske whereto also my zeale was the more stirred by an information which I received from the late meeting at Edinburgh In the eight Session whereof it is reported that one M. G. Grahame Bishop of Orkney had openly before the whole body of the Assembly renounced his Episcopall Function and craved pardon for having accepted it as if thereby he had committed some hainous offence this uncouth act of his was more than enough to inflame any dutifull son of the Church and to occasion this my ensuing most just expostulation Only I had need to crave pardon of your Majestie for the boldnesse of this interpellation that I have dared to move your Majestie to descend so low as to take view of this on my part so confidently undertaken duell Although if the Combatants be single yet the Cause is so common as that the whole Church of God claimes her interest in it But your Majesties long-knowne goodnesse incourages me to this presumption And withall I could not but have some due regard to that right and propriety which your Majestie may justly challenge in all the labours of this kinde from whose pen soever as being under God appointed the great Patron of all divine truths the great Guardian and Protector of these parts of his Church upon earth whose true ancient and Apostolicall government is here questioned and whose deserved devotions and faithfull prayers shal be continually powred out to the God of heaven for your Majesties long and happy preservation amongst which shall be duly paid the daily tribute of Your Majesties most humble Loyall and zealously devoted Subject and Servant Ios Exon. The Contents The First Part. § 1 AN expostulatorie entrance into the question Page 1 § 2 The difference of the condition of forraigne Churches and Divines from those of our Northerne neighbours Page 6 § 3 The judgement of the German Reformers concerning the retention of Episcopacie Page 10 § 4 The attestation of forraign Divines to our Episcopacie Page 14 § 5 The particularity of the difference of our freedome and the benefit of a Monarchicall reformation Page 17 § 6 The project and drift of the treatise following Page 27 § 7 The first ground or Postulate That government whose foundation
other than to snatch the reines out of the hands of a skilfull Coachman and either to lay them loose on the horses necks or to deliver them to the hands of some ignorant and unskilfull lackeyes that run along by them But of this point more elsewhere My zeal and my respects to the Churches abroad and my care and pitie of many seduced soules at home have drawne me on farther in this discourse than I meant For who can indure to see simple and well meaning Christians abused with the false colour of Conformity with other Churches when there is apparently more distance in the ground of their differences than in the places of their situation Be wise my deare Brethren and suffer not your selves to be cheated of the Truth by the mis-zealous suggestions of partiall-teachers Reserve your hearts free for the clearer light of Scripture and right reason which shall in this discourse offer to shine into your soules For you Sir fu frere confesse unlesse you can in truth deny it that you goe alone and that you have reason absolutely to quit all the hope of the Patrocination of other Churches which you might seeme to challenge from their example and practice For now that I have got you alone I shall be bold to take you to task and doe in the name of Almighty God vehemently urge and challenge you to maintaine if by any skill or pretence you may your owne act of the condemnation of Episcopacie and your penitent submission to a Presbyteriall government Wherein I doubt not but I shall convince you of an high and irreparable injury done by you to God his Ordinance and his Church § 6. The project and substance of the Treatise following FOr the full and satisfactorie performance vvhereof I shall only need to make good these tvvo maine points First That Episcopacie such as you have renounced even that vvhich implies a fixed superioritie over the rest of the Clergie and jurisdiction is not only an holy and lavvfull but a divine Institution and therefore cannot be abdicated vvithout a manifest violation of Gods Ordinance Secondly That the Presbyterian Government so constituted as you have novv submitted to it hovvever venditated under the glorious names of Christs Kingdome and Ordinance by those specious and glozing termes to bevvitch the ignorant multitude and to insnare their consciences hath no true footing either in Scripture or the practice of the Church in all ages from Christs time to the present That I may clearly evince these two maine points wherin indeed consists the life and soul of the whole cause I shall take leave to lay down certain just and necessary Postulata as the ground-workes of my ensuing proofs all which are so cleare and evident that I would fain suppose neither your selfe nor any ingenuous Christian can grudge to yeeld them But if any man will be so stiffe and close-fisted as to stick at any of them they shall be easily wrung out of his fingers by the force of Reason and manifest demonstration of Truth §. 7. The first ground or postulate That government whose foundation is laid by Christ and whose Fabrick is raised by the Apostles is of Divine Institution THe first whereof shall be this That government whose ground being laid by our Saviour himselfe vvas aftervvards raised by the hands of his Apostles cannot be denied to be of Divine Institution A Proposition so cleare that it were an injurie to goe about to prove it He cannot be a Christian who will not grant that as in Christ the Sonne of God the Deity dwelt bodily so in his servants also and agents under him the Apostles the Spirit of the same God dwelt so as all their actions were Gods by them Like as it is the same spring-water that is derived to us by the Conduit-pipes and the same Sun-beames which passe to us through our windowes Some things they did as men actions naturall civill morall these things were their own yet they even in them no doubt were assisted with an excellent measure of grace But those things which they did as Messengers from God so their names signifie these were not theirs but his that sent them An Ambassador dispatcheth his Domesticall affaires as a private man but when he treats or concludes matters of State in his Princes name his tongue is not his owne but his Masters Much more is it so in this case wherein besides the interest the agents are freed from errour The carefullest Ambassador may perhaps swerve from his message these which was one of the priviledges of the Apostles were through the guidance of Gods Spirit in the acts of their Function inerrable So then if the foundation were laid by Christ and the wals built up by his Apostles the Fabrick can be no lesse than divine §. 8. The second ground That the practice and recommendation of the Apostles is sufficient warrant for an Apostolicall Institution SEcondly It must also be granted That not onely the government which vvas directly commanded and enacted but that vvhich vvas practised and recommended by the Apostles to the Church is justly to be held for an Apostolicall Institution In eminent and authorized persons even examples are rules much more in so sacred Neither did the Spirit of God confine it selfe to vvords but expressed it selfe also in the holy actions of his inspired servants as Chrysostome therefore truly said That our Saviour did not only speak but vvork Parables So may vve say here that the Apostles did not only enact but even act lavves for his holy Church Licèt autem nullum extat praeceptum de manuum impositione c. Calv. l. 4. Instit C. 3.8.16 And this is learned Calvins determination about imposition of hands Although saith he there is no certaine precept concerning Imposition of Hands yet because vve see it vvas in perpetuall use vvith the Apostles their so accurate observation of it ought to be unto us instead of a command and therfore soone after he affirmes plainly That this Ceremony proceeded from the Holy Ghost himself And in the fore-going Chapter speaking of the distribution of Pastors to their severall charges he saith Nec humanum est inventum c. It is no humane device but the Institution of God himselfe For vve read that Paul and Barnabas ordained Presbyters in all the Churches of Lystra Antioch Iconium And that direction vvhich the great Apostle of the Gentiles gave to Timothy vvas as Calvin truly Mandati nomine in the name and nature of a command And vvhat els I beseech you vvould the rigid exacters of the over-severe and Judaicall observation of the Lords day as an Evangelicall Sabbath seem to plead for their vvarrant vvere they able to make it good any vvay but the guise and practice of the Apostles Precept certainly there is none either given or pretended Thus the bitter Tileno-mastix can say There was a double Discipline of the Apostles Docens and Vtens in the first they gave precepts to
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
onely could claime the whole world for their Dioecesse neither could they leave any heires behinde them of their Apostleship the succeeding Administrators of the severall Churches were fixed to their owne Charges having neither power to command in another mans division nor such eminence of authority as that their example should be a rule to their neighbours How then can any living man conceive it possible if there had not been an uniforme order setled by the Apostles that all the world should so suddenly meet in one forme of policie not differing so much as in the circumstances of government That which Parker thinks to speak for his advantage neque uno impetu disciplina statim mutata est Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. 8. sed gradatim paulatim that the discipline was not changed at once but by little and little as by insensible degrees makes strongly against him and irrefragably for us for here were no lingring declinations towards that government which we plead for but a present and full establishment of it in the very next succeeding hands which could not have been but by a supereminent and universall command If we doe but cast our eyes upon those Churches which now dividing themselves from the common rule of Administration affect to stand upon their own bottome do we not see our Countrimen of Amsterdam varying from those of Leiden concerning their government and in the New-English Colonie those of the Boston-leaders from the Westerne Plantation When we see drops of water spilt upon dry sand running constantly into one and the same streame we may then hope to see men and Churches not overswayed otherwise with one universall command running every where into a perfect uniformity of government especially in a matter of such nature and consequence as subordination and subjection is It was the singular and miraculous blessing of the Gospell in the hands of the first Propagators of it Psal 19.3 4. that There was no speech nor language where their voice was not heard Their line of a sudden went out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world The Sun which rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race could scarce out-goe them but as for their followers the very next to them they must be content to hold their own a much slower pace and by leisure to reach their journeyes end If therefore it shall be made to appeare that presently after the decease of the Apostles one uniforme order of Episcopall government so qualified as we have spoken was without variation or contradiction received in all the Churches of the whole Christian world it must necessarily be granted that Episcopacie is of no other than Apostolicall Constitution §. 14. The seventh ground That the ancientest histories of the Church and Writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive state than the latest Authours SEventhly I must challenge it for a Truth not capable of just denyall that the ancientest histories of the Church and Writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive State of Church-government than those of this present age A truth so cleare that a reasonable man would think it a shame to prove yet such as some bold leaders of the faction that would be thought learned too have had the face to deny Parker the late oracle of the schisme hath dared to do it in termes who speaking of the testimony of the Primitive times Park Polit. Eccles l. 2. c. â— Haecne Ecclesia illa est quae certum testimonium in causa disciplinaria praestitura nobis est Is this saith he in the high scorne and pride of his heart the Church that shall give us so sure a testimony in the cause of Discipline and every where disparaging the validity of the ancient histories preferres the present Is Eusebius mentioned who records the succession of Primitive Bishops from their first head Ibid. l. 2. c. 5. At Eusebio defuit c. But saith he Eusebius being carried away with the sway of that age wanted that golden reed which is given to the Historians of our times Apoc. 11.2 to measure the distance of times the difference of manners the inclinations of Churches and the â—rogresse and increases of the Antichristian Hierarchy c. Are any of the holy Fathers allâ—â—â—ed Alas poore men saith he they were much mistaken yet howsoever they are much beholden to him Ibid. c. 8. for saith he Non volentâ—s sed nescientes non per apostasiam aut contemptum sed per infirmitatem ignorantiam lapsi sunt Patres qui in disciplina aberrârunt The Fathers who erred in this matter of discipline did not offend out of will but out of want of knowledge not through apostasie or contempt but through infirmity and ignorance But can I now forbeare to ask who can indure to heare the braying of this proud Schismatick For the love of God deare brethren mark the spirit of these men and if you can think it a reasonable suggestion to believe that all ancient histories are false all the holy and learned Fathers of the Church ignorant and erroneous and that none ever saw or spake the truth not of doctrine onely but not of fact untill now that these men sprung up follow them and relie upon their absolute and unerring authority but if you have a minde to make use of your senses and reason and not to suffer your selves to be wilfully besotted with a blinde and absurd prejudice hate this intolerable insolence and resolve to believe that many witnesses are rather to be believed than none at all that credible judicious holy witnesses are rather to be trusted for the report of their own times than some giddy corner-creeping upstarts which come dropping in some sixteen hundred yeares after But what then will ye say to this challenge Quid autem Patres qui adversus nos c. Polit. Ecclesâ—l 2. c. 19. The Fathers saith Parker which by the favourers of Episcopacie are produced against us were for the most part Bishops so as while they speake for Episcopacie they plead for themselves Ecquis igitur eos credendos dicet Will any man therefore say they are to be believed Or will any man forbid us to appeale from them Blessed God! that any who beares the title of a Christian should have the forehead thus to argue Appeale To whom I pray To the succeeding Doctors and Fathers No they were in the same predicament to the rest of the whole Church They were governed by these leaders whither therefore can they imagine to appeale but to themselves and what proves this then but their owne case And if the Fathers may not be suffered to be our witnesses will it not become the house well that these men should now be the Fathers Iudges But the Fathers were Bishops the case was their owne true they were Bishops and it is our glory
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
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
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
I beseech the reader in the bowels of Christ to lay most seriously to heart is the most manifestly-spick-and-spannewnesse of this devised Discipline for all wise and staid Christians have learned to suspect if not to hate noveltie in those things which are pretended to be the matters of God In matter of Evidence they are old Records that will carry is As the ancient of dayes is immutable and eternall so his truths are like him not changeable by time not decayable by age who was the father of this child I professe I know not otherwise than I have specified in my premonition to the Reader I am sure Calvin disclaimes it Calv. Epist ad SadoletuÌ„ Garâ—m Ego autem Saâ— olete c. who in his Epistle to Cardinall Sadolet hath thus I for my part professe to be one of them whom you do so hostilely in veigh against for although I was called thither i. to Geneva after the Religion was setled Tametsi enim constituta sam religione ac correcta Ecclesiae forma illuc vocatus fui quia tamen quae à Farello ac Vireto gesti erant non modò suffragio meo comprobavi sed etiam quantum in me suit conservare studueÌ„ ac confirmare separatam ab illis causam habere nequoo c and the forme of the Church corrected yet because those things which were done by Farell and Viret I did not onely by my suffrage allow but what in me lay laboured to conserve and ratifie I cannot hold my cause any whit different from theirs Thus he So as he professeth onely to be the Nurse-father of that issue which was begot by a meaner Parent It is true those other were men of note too but for ought I know as much for their exuberance of zeale as for any extraordinary worth of parts Farell indeed was called Flagellum sacrificulorum the scourge of Masse-Priests and what he did for the reformation of Religion I am as apt to acknowledge and applaud as the forwardest But that he preacht somewhere in the very streets Spâ—nhem Geneva Restituta and even Quam vis renitente magistratu in Saint Peters Church was not to be brag'd of by himselfe or his friends Fâ—emente interim an mâ—ginaÌ„ te plebe Ibid. And in his violent carriage in the animating of the people to the outing of their Bishop Pet Balms though perhaps faulty enough and the introducing of this new forme of government Natus Vapineâ— noto Delphinatus oppido Idem I wish he had lived and died in his Vapincum His Coadjutor in this worke was I perceive one Antho. Frumentius vehement young man who was set up by the people to preach upon a Fishstall and no doubt equally heartned his auditors to this tumultuous way of proceeding but then when Viret came once into the file here was at the least fervour enough The spirit of that man is well seene in his Dialogue of White Divels these were the founders of that Discipline men of eminence wee must believe but farre inferiour to Calvin who came into Geneva first as a Lecturer or Preacher and then became their Pastour insomuch as Zanchy reports when Calvin preacht at S. Peters and Viret at S. Gervases concurrent Sermons a Frenchman asked why he did not come somtimes and heare Viret Zanch. Epist ad Misc Citat in Surv. Disc answered Si veniret Sanctus Paulus qui eâdem horâ concionaretur quâ Calvinus ego relicto Paulo audirem Calvinum If Saint Paul should come and preach in the same houre with Calvin I would leave Paul and heare Calvin which was spoken like a good blasphemous zelote But it is not to be wondered at in men of such spirits Calvin Farello I told you before what Calvin himselfe writes to Farell There was one at Basil who professed to attribute non minus Farello quà m Paulo Not lesse to Farell than to Saint Paul O God whither doth mad zeale hurry men It appeares then that Farell and Viret rough-hew'd this statue which Calvin after polished wee now know Consulem ac Deim and I doubt not but some doe yet live who might know the man For me although I have not age enough to have knowne the Father of this Discipline yet one of the Godfathers of it I did know who after his peregrination in Germany and Geneva undertooke for this new-borne infant at our English Font under whose Ministrie my younger yeares were spent Trouble of the English Church at Frankfort in marg The zeale of A. G. The authour of that bitter Dialogue betwixt Miles Monopodius and Bernard Blinkard one of the hottest and busiest stickers in these quarrels at Frankfort So young is this forme of government being untill that day unheard of in the Christian world in which name Peter Ramus though a man censured for affecting innovations in Logicke and Philosophie is if we may credit his old friend Carpentarius said to dislike it and to frump it by the name of Talmud Subaudicum I cannot be ignorant of the common plea of the pretenders that so farre is this forme from novelty as that it was the most ancient and first modell of Churchr-government under the Apostles Thus they say and they alone say it All they have to say more in colour of reason for it is That the twelve Apostles themselves were all equall What then If their pretended forme were bred From thence where hath it lien hid all this while till now That they can tell you too Vnder the tyranny and usurpation of Antichrist Deare Christians I hope you now believe it that the very Apostles themselves who lived to see and act the establishment of Episcopacie would betray the Church at their parting to that man of sin That all the holy Fathers and Martyrs of the Primitive Church were either through ignorance or will guilty of this sacrilegious treachery that all the eyes of the whole world were blind till this City which was once indeed dedicated to the Sun and beares it still for her emblem inlightened them and if ye can believe these strange suggesters wonder ye at them whiles I doe no lesse wonder at you But with all give me leave to put you in mind that this is a stale plea for more vnholy opinions than one The Anabaptists when they are urged with the Churches ancient practice of baptizing of infants straight pretend that this ill guise was brought in by Popery and is aparcell of the mystery of iniquity Prolaeus Fesciculo c. the New-Arrians of our times hellish hereticks when they are pressed with the distinction of three persons in the Deity and one infinite Essence straight cry out of Antichrist and clamour that this doctrine was hatched under that secret mistery of iniquity the Father of the Familists H. N. Ibid. a worse divell if possible than they in his Evangelium Regni sings the very same note Evang. Regni for his damnable plot of doctrine and
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