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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51420	Episkopos apostolikos, or, The episcopacy of the Church of England justified to be apostolical from the authority of the antient primitive church, and from the confessions of the most famous divines of the reformed churches beyond the seas : being a full satisfaction in this cause, as well for the necessity, as for the just right thereof, as consonant to the word of God / by ... Thomas Morton ... ; before which is prefixed a preface to the reader concerning this subject, by Sir Henry Yelverton, Baronet.	Morton, Thomas, 1564-1659.	1670 (1670)	Wing M2838; ESTC R16296	103,691	240

ἘΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ ἈΠΟΣΤΟΛΙΚΟΣ OR THE EPISCOPACY OF THE Church of England Justified to be APOSTOLICAL From the Authority of the Antient Primitive Church And from the Confessions of the most Famous Divines of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas Being a Full Satisfaction in this Cause as well for the Necessity as for the Just Right thereof as consonant to the Word of God By the Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS MORTON Late Lord Bishop of Duresme Before which is Prefixed A PREFACE to the READER concerning this Subject By Sir Henry Yelverton Baronét Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the Old Paths where is the good way and walk there●n and ye shall find rest to your souls Jerem. 6.16 Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Authoritate Apostolica traditum rectissime creditur St. Augustin de Baptismo contra Donat. Can. 24. London Printed for J. Collins in Westminster-hall 1670 To the Most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of All ENGLAND and Metropolitane and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privie Council My LORD I Have often wonder'd how it comes to pass that the Sacred Order of Bishops should in this Island meet with so many unreasonable Adversaries when in all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas we are counted the only happy Nation who enjoy the Purity of Doctrine with the Primitive Government And I confess my wonder is the more increased when I consider that the Romanists look on our Church as their most dangerous Enemy because we have not only the External Glory of a Church but a continued Succession of Bishops which some amongst them are so ingenuous as not to deny and yet these men amongst us who so vehemently cry down Popery and so highly admire even the misfortunes of the Reformed Church do by a strange Antiperistasis assist their Enemies and despise their Friends It was a good Observation of that great man Archbishop Land That Caiaphas the High Priest advised the crucifying of our Saviour that the Romans might not take away their Name and Nation and yet that Counsel so Magisterially given so deeply laid and so wickedly contrived brought on them that suddain destruction they hoped to avoid And have not we My Lord found by sad Experience the inference that Great Prelate made fully true Since the Papists have not only had a great harvest amongst us but all sort of damnable Heresies have like a flood broke in upon us and Atheism hath so prevailed that if God out of his Infinite Mercy put no stop to it that Prediction of our Saviour will in our dayes be true That Faith shall scarce be found upon Earth But since the times are now come which St. Clement more than 1600 years ago foretold That there should be contention about the name of Episcopacy And since Reformation and Purity are the Pretenses though Interest or Sacriledge are the true Reasons of Separation amongst us I have in obedience to Your Graces commands put out a Book written some years since by the late Learned Bishop of Durham that all men may see the great Lights of the Reformed Church beyond the Seas are so far from approving the Practices of our Dissenters that they commend and admire our Episcopal Government and therefore I cannot but hope that either these men will return again to the bosome of their forsaken Mother the Church or have so much Ingenuity to desist from deceiving ignorant People with the great Authority of the Reformed Church And now my Lord I must humbly beg Your Pardon that I prefix Your Great Name before this Discourse But since 't is the work of a famous Bishop and in defense of that Order of which in our Church Your Grace is the worthy Primate I cannot but hope acceptance and am very much pleased I have an occasion offered me to let the World know how much I am My LORD Your most humble and very obedient Servant Hen. Yelverton From my house at Easton Manduit in Northamptonshire March 26. 1669. TO THE READER READER THere present thee with a Book written some years since by that great and Reverend Bishop Tho. Morton Lord Bishop of Duresme in the defence of that Order he bore and for which he suffered so great indignities And as it was his Honour to suffer in so good a Cause so it was his great Contentment and satisfaction when he came to the end of his long race that he kept a good Conscience though he lost all this world afforded him for it It would be very superfluous in this place to write an Encomium of this Great Prelate who is farr beyond what I can do and is already well performed by that excellent person Dr. Berwick late Dean of St. Pauls who was well acquainted with him many years and had the happiness once to be his Domestick Chaplain I only think fit to say this of him that he was an Antient Bishop and had all the qualifications fit for his Order either to Adorn or Govern a Church but above all he was eminent for his invincible Patience under so many violent Persecutions and almost necessities alwayes rejoycing in his Losses and protesting he thought himself richer with nothing and a good conscience than those were who had devoured his goodly Bishoprick And certainly he that considers the excellency of this Prelate with the rest of his Brethren who with him underwent the fiery Trial will conclude as Tertullian doth of the first Persecution of the Christians Non nisi aliquod grande bonum a Nerone damnatum Nothing but some great good could be condemned by such men I must not omit among the various Qualities of this great Man to tell thee he was 44 years a Bishop a thing so extraordinary that since the first Plantation of Christianity and consequently of Bishops in this Island which if we believe Baronius was the 58 of our Saviour but one exceeded him and he came not to these Dignities per Saltum but passed through all other inferiour Charges before he arrived at the height And one thing is considerable in his Translation to Coventry and Lichfield that King James was pleased to do it at the particular motion of that great Prelate Bishop Andrews who never was known to move the King for the Preferment of any before How excellent he was in Controversies his manifold Writings against the Papists have given the World sufficient testimony and in this he went so high that if he believed not the Pope to be Antichrist he thought him very like him And yet there was never any who more approved of the antient Customs of the Catholique Church than himself And of this I shall give you this particular instance For that Ceremony of Bowing to the Lords Table at the first entrance into the Church he did not only commend by his Practice but publickly

were not subject to Wardships their Revenues for all but stock not liable to Subsidies and their Lands maintained at the charge of the Church from all vexatious Titles and Law Suits But this is not my work at present The second thing I am to prove is That the Crown receives as much from the Dignified Clergy's Lands as it doth for so much of its own And this will appear if we consider that every Bishop at his Entrance in four years pays the full reserved Rent of his Bishoprick after that a full Tenth yearly and 't is not ordinary for any Bishop to continue in one and the same Bishoprick above seven year so that if we call the First-fruits a Fine which comes in seven year and the yearly Tenths it is a good certain Revenue to the Crown Whereas in the Crown Lands the reserved Rents are little and much of that expended in Collection The Fines seldom come to any thing and they or the greatest part of them are commonly swallowed up by them who gather them I know at his Majesties Restauration the Clergies Fines were extraordinary but though men look on their Profit with an evil Eye yet they are not willing to consider their vast expense the Repairing the almost Ruined Cathedrals Episcopal Houses Redemption of Captives Allowances to Purchasers and particular Contributions besides those great Acts of Charity and Munificence which scarce any who have died but have left a good Example to their Followers But besides this if we consider that the Priesthood under the Gospel is more honourable than that under the Law as being the Dispenser of a better Covenant and that it is Christ's own Command that they who Preach the Gospel should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should live of the reward the Gospel brings that a Messenger of such good News doth merit we will conclude the Evangelical Clergy deserves at least a proportionable Revenue to that which God was pleased to command and set apart for the Priests under the Law And truly if we examine what that was we shall find our Churches Revenue comes not near it Then certainly we have no reason to repine at what they have unless we are of the Opinion of some amongst us that to serve God is in it self not necessary and so their needs neither persons to be dedicated to serve at the Altar nor maintenance for them How great the Revenue was the Priests had under the Law we may compute if we consider that they had the Tith of every thing in kind which as Mr. Selden tells us was rather a Fifth than a Tenth that they had a great proportion out of every Sacrifice that all Free-will Offerings were theirs so that to give to God and his Priests was one and the same thing and besides all this in that little Country which I think exceeds not our four Northern Counties they had 48 Cities allotted them with their Suburbs which was to extend round about their Cities 2000 Cubits which was something more at the lowest reckoning than half a mile so that allow the City a square and half a mile over there is a square of a mile and half which makes 3 square miles and contains in it 1920 Acres so that in that little Land they had 92160 Acres which the soil being then so rich by the multitude of Inhabitants and Gods special blessing was a vast Revenue and far exceeds what our Clergy ever had And therefore any sober judicious person may judg at the Intentions of those men who in their scurrilous and seditious Pamphlets make our Clergy like Bell to devour the best of the Land They are desirous to devour it themselves and that they may be fresh Instruments to pull down more judgments upon this Nation they desire to involve us in New Sacriledges as if this Nation had not been sufficiently punished by sins of this kind unless they fill up the measure by new Additions But this being not so properly the Subject in hand I shall leave it at present and conclude this Preface when I have added what I have received from good Authority concerning two great men amongst the Dissenters of the last Age that the World may see that the Dissenters then were neither in Opinion nor Temper like unto those who now cause great Separations amongst us The first is of Mr. Tho. Cartwright the Antesignanus of that Party in his Age. Sir George Paul in the life of Archbishop Whitgift tells us that the Reason of his first discontent was that in the Exercises that were done before Queen Elizabeth at Cambridg Dr. Thomas Preston got all the Applause and a Pension from the Queen when he who was the better Scholar was not taken notice of This beg at in him Great Discontent and Anger first at the Queens Supremacy in Ecclesiasticals and afterwards at all the Orders of the Church But though he continued long in this Temper yet before his death he grew very moderate And when he came to dy which he did at Warwick at the Hospital of which Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester had made him Master he did seriously lament the unnecessary troubles he had caused in the Church by the Schism he had been the great Fomenter of and wished he was to begin his life again that he might testifie to the World the dislike he had of his former ways And in this Opinion he died The truth of which Story I have from the third hand A sober person present at his death told a friend of his a Gentleman of Warwick who assured a Clergy-man of my Neighbourhood of the Truth of it The second is Mr. John Dod a man whose Name is known to all this Nation What thing he scrupled in the Ceremonies his neerest Relations could but guess For I am informed by one of them who lived above half a year in his house with him that in all that time he never spake one word of them to him He advised a Grandchild of his to go for Ordination to the Bishop of Lincoln because he was the Bishop Students in Cambridg received Ordination from And when he asked his advise about Subscription he answered If you scruple nothing why do you question it When one of his own Children seemed to doubt kneeling at the Sacrament and asked his advice whether she should leave the Church and get some Minister to give her the Sacrament in the house in the Posture she inclined to take it in the good old man man rejected the motion with some eagerness and bid her go to her Parish Church and receive kneeling When for refusal of Subscription in the third year of King James he was deprived he refused to Preach And when by Mr. Fox I think I mistake not his Name a Minister in Teukesbury he was pressed to it by that Argument that he was a Minister not of Man but of Jesus Christ. He replied 't is true he was a Minister of Jesus Christ but by Man and

as he did have noted One of the seven Angels in the Revelations to have been the Bishop of Ephesus Lastly Fredericus Spanhemius Professor of Divinity in the same Church may well stand for another witness who after his ample commendations and that worthily of the late Primate of Ireland manifestly extolleth The Bishops and Divines of our English Church for their accurate Writings in defence of the Orthodox Religion and their dexterity in confuting Romish subtilties after professeth in the name of the Church of Geneva Their embracing our Pastors and Prelates with Christian affection praying for the prosperity of them that sit at the Helm of this Church that their Prelatical Authority may continue unto them So they and somewhat more pertinent to our Question in hand as now followeth SECT II. That the Church of Geneva disclaimed the Opinion of thinking that their Churches Government should be a pattern for other Churches THe Smectymnians our Opposites by instancing in that Church may seem in the same book Dedicated to both Houses of Parliament that the same Church of Geneva which we acknowledge to be essentially a member of the Church of Christ ought to be a Pattern of Ecclesiastical Government to all other Protestant Churches We have a contrary Certificate from Theodore Beza speaking of Bishops as the Celebrious mouth of that Church We saith he do embrace all faithful Bishops with all reverence neither do we as some falsly object against us propose our Example to any other Church to be followed So he Hitherto of the justification of our English Episcopacy by the judgment of our most Judicious Divines of the Church of Geneva We are not destitute of like Testimonies from other Protestant Churches SECT III. That also other Protestant Divines of Reformed Churches have observed the Worthiness of the Episcopal Government in England MR. Moulin whose Name is Venerable among all Orthodox Divines acknowledgeth That our English Bishops that suffered Martyrdom in the days of Queen Mary were for Zeal nothing inferior to the most excellent servants of God which Germany or France ever had which none saith he will deny if not blinded in day-light And least that worthy Divine should be thought to approve of such of our English Bishops only as then suffered Martyrdom we have furthermore his indefinite large Testimony We affirm saith he speaking as the mouth of the French Church That the Bishops of England after the Reformation were the faithful servants of God and ought not to desert their Office or title of Bishop Hierome Zanchie amongst excellent Divines in his time exhorteth Queen Elizabeth with an Imprimis and especially to extend her care and Authority to have godly and learned Bishops whereof by the blessing of God saith he you have very many and to cherish them And again he congratulateth the Episcopal Dignity of Jewel Bishop of Salisbury Praying to God for his prosperous success in his Function and of all others the Pious Bishops of England and all this in the name of his Colleages the Pastors of the Church of Heidelburgh Sarania a Belgick Doctor though a great favourer of the Order of Episcopacy yet an earnest inveigher against the Roman Hierarchy confesseth Himself to wonder often at the Wisdom of the Reformers of the Church of England as no way deviating from the antient Church of Christ And he concludeth with this Epiphonema saying I hold it a part of her happiness that she hath retained with her the Order of Bishops Mr. Moulin again that he may be the Epilogue who was the Prologue concludeth for the Church of England saying That their agreement is such that England hath been a Refuge to our persecuted Churches and correspondently the excellent servants of God in our Churches saith he Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and Zanchie have often written Letters full of respect and amity to the Prelates of England So he To these may be added the late dedicated Books to some of our Bishops of these times together with others referring their Controversies among themselves to be decided by their judgment if we thought that such instances could be of easie digestion with some Hitherto by way of Introduction in behalf of our particular English Church We are now to prosecute the justification of Episcopacy in general so farr as to make good the Title of this Treatise inscribed A FULL SATISFACTION IN THIS CAUSE as well for the Necessary use as also for the just Right thereof as consonant to the Word of God We begin to consult with gray-headed Antiquity for the manifestation hereof SECT IV. That the Episcopal Government in the Church of Christ is for Necessary Use the best according to the judgment of Primitive Antiquity GEnerally the bestness of a thing that we may so call it is best discerned by the Necessary Use whereof Antiquity hath testified by Hierome That the original reason of constituting one over the rest of Presbyters to whom all the care of the Church should belong was saith he so decreed through the whole World that Schisme might be removed Which from the continual experimental success thereof in the Church he himself held to be such As whereupon the safety of the Church did depend Tertullian yet himself no Bishop neither will not have Presbyters and Deacons to Baptize without Authority from the Bishop for the honour of the Church which being observed Peace saith he will be preserved Chrysostom illustrateth the Necessity of Episcopal Government by resembling the Bishop to the Head in respect of the Body to a Shepheard in respect of his Sheep to a Master in respect of his Scholars and to a Captain in respect of his Soldiers with whom Ambrose agreeth in the first resemblance calling likewise the Bishop The Head of the rest of the members Augustine compareth the Bishop to the Father of the Family as being Head of the House Nazianzen Ambrose Nicetas decipher him as the Eie in that Head whose Office is to look to the whole Body whence they have their names Episcopi or Bishops Basil yet higher compares the Church to the Body and the Bishop to the Soul saying That the Members of the Church by Episcopal Dignity as by one Soul are reduced to Concord and Communion Cyprian Bishop and Martyr doth more than once complain of the Contempt and Disobedience of the inferior Clergy and People against their Bishops as the Original Spring of Heresies and Schisms We have done with the Fathers whom we have found generally asserting the Necessary Use of Episcopal Government and whom i● the next place we shall find seconded by the ingenious confession of Judicious Protestants of remo●● Churches SECT V. The Protestant Divines of remo●● Churches have generally acknowledged Episcopal Government to for Necessary Use the best THe Protestant Witnesses whic● we shall here alleadg are 〈◊〉 two Classes the one Lutheram with

elect them again upon an expected Repentance Lastly to one of these Prelates Christ made a royal Promise saying Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life c. 2. v. 9. Wherein is as well implied Faithfulness in his Function as Constancy in his Christian profession especially this being written unto him even as he was President over others Which is a Faithfulness which the Spirit of God frequently mentioneth commending it in Tychicus Eph. 2.21 and in Timothy 2 Cor. 4. v. 1.2 Now let us pro●eed to shew you the Novelty SECT XXVII That the Novelty of this Opinion of a Deambulatory Prelacy evinceth the Falsity thereof HIstory hath delivered unto us the Successions of all the four Celebrious Churches Hierusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome as also from the Asian Churches in the Revelation An Instance in one will give light to all the rest As for example The Church of Alexandria wherein succeeded next to Mark the Evangelist Anianus An. Christ. 51. Sedit An. 22. After him Abilius An. 77. Sedit An. 13. Then Cerdon Sedit An. 10. and Justus An. 12. Finally there is not any Monuments more directly manifesting the continuance of the Succession of Emperours and Kings in their Royal Thrones than there hath been for the Residence of Bishops successively in their Episcopal Seats and Functions even to their dying day Sure we are therefore that Antiquity would have exploded that conceit which Tertullian abhorred to think That one should be a Bishop to day and none to morrow The general Council of Calcedon also judging the Depression of a Bishop down to the degree of a Presbyter to be no better than Sacriledg SECT XXVIII That the Foundation of the Deambulatory Opinion was altogether groundless A Belgick Doctor noted this Opinion as void Of any warrant from the word of God or example of Ecclesiastical History or yet probable reason Whereof a Zealot for the Presbyterians hath confessed namely That the Succession of one after another in the primitive times was after the Predecessor had slept in the Lord. The result of all these premisses discovering the sensless Novelty of this Opinion sheweth that it serveth for nothing better than the betraying of a lost Cause CHAP. V. Our last Consideration is whether this Apostolical Right of Episcopacy in some sense be called Divine ALthough the proof of the Right thereof to be according to the Word of God be demonstration enough of a Divine Right Yet will it not be amiss to know how far either the Judgment of Antiquity or the Consent of learned Protestant Divines have extended their Suffrages for acknowledgment thereof But yet first we are to satisfie our Opposites Objections in censuring this to be properly Popish SECT I. That the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Episcopacy is repugnant unto Popedome and Papal Usurpation NOthing hath been more common in the mouths of many adversly affected than first hearing of the Divine Right of Episcopacy not without some horrour of mind to impute Popery unto it but yet not without ignorance of the Popes Usurpation herein which is here discovered in the Margin by the earned Professor of Divinity in Geneva grappling with the greatest Champion of the Pope even that Romish Goliah Bellarmine who in his defence of Papal Right saith That the Pope of Rome is immediately from Christ and all other Bishops from him pretending this to be patronized by Antiquity citing that most antient Father Ignatius for his Opinion but he was confuted by our judicious Author Vedelius even out of the express words of Ignatius himself teaching That as Presbyters are immediately subject to Bishops so are likewise Bishops to Christ. So doth he also from Tertullian who recounteth the like Succession in the Church of Smyrna where the first Bishop was ordained by the Apostle St. John which he doth from St. Peter in the Church of Rome But sooner may the Roman Pope unbishop himself than presume to justifie from Antiquity that other Bishops in respect of their first Original are immediately derived from him as by the manifold testimonies of the Antients alleadged expresly already hath appeared and will furthermore become more undeniable when Antiquity it self shall be heard to speak by and by in the interim we may behold the Spanish Divines standing for the Divine Right of Episcopacy as being from Christ himself and therefore denied to be present in the Council of Trent except it should be so decided The Italian Bishops contrarily withstood this in the behalf of the Pope that it might be known to be derived not immediately from Christ but mediately by the Pope himself Can any doubt what the Pope would determine in this Case He in his letters prohibited that Episcopacy should be held to be absolutely from Divine Right This being the Case who can justly attribute Popery to them who in defending a Divine Right yet renounce and abhor the derivation thereof which is from the Pope SECT II. The Judgment of Antiquity concerning the Divine Right WE begin with the most antient Ignatius and for the vindication of the credit of this our Foreman It is testified by Vedelius the Genevan Professor concerning Ignatius his Epistles alleadging withal the like testimonies of Scultetus and Rivetus That seven of them are properly his and so genuine herein as that they take no exceptions in this Case Which he furthermore proveth out of Eusebius Ruffinus and Hierome and we shall not wander out of these seven And though all these be full of Sentences abundantly asserting the Divine Right of Episcopacy yet we shall content our selves with these few wherein he exhorteth The Presbyters to obey the Bishops as the Vicars of Christ And he telleth both Presbyters and People That he that contemneth his Bishop is Atheistical and Prophane and doth set at nought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Ordinance of Christ and the like as is more fully testified in the Margin Cyprian is our next Witness who tells us That the constituting of Bishops over the Church with Authority to govern all Acts therein is done by Divine Law So he With many other expressions to the same effect for which again I refer you to the Margin We pass to Origen our next Witness who saith of the publick Governours of the Churches of Christ That they are in a very eminent place because the Lord hath set them over his Family And again which we alleadg as making against Romish Popedome That Bishops have as much interest in that saying of our Saviour Whatsoever thou bindest on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. as St Peter himself Gregory Bishop of Nazianzum telleth his Flock of that City That the Law of Christ had made them subject to his Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction Athanasius That whosoever he be that contemns the Function of a Bishop contemneth Christ who ordained that Office Epiphanius